Have you ever come back from a vacation, a retreat, or a big life experience and expected yourself to immediately return to full speed, only to find that your body, your energy, and your focus had other plans? If you’ve ever labeled that gap as weakness, laziness, or failure, this episode is going to reframe everything.
In this solo episode, Lisa Carpenter shares what happened when she returned home after spending the entire month of February in Tulum, and why even she, after years of doing this work, was met with unrealistic expectations of herself on the other side of a massive expansion.
Lisa’s Story: The Gym That Humbled Her
Lisa went to Tulum for a month that included her Peer Mastermind retreat, time with women running multiple six and seven-figure businesses, several days of personal downtime, and six days leading her own intimate client retreat. It was expansive, transformational, and deeply powerful. And then she came home.
On her first Saturday back, she went to the gym ready to crush a leg day. She did one exercise and her body stopped her cold. The energy wasn’t there. The capacity wasn’t there. And for someone who has been doing personal development work long enough to know better, she still found herself frustrated by the gap between who she was in Tulum and what she could actually produce at home in Vancouver in February.
This is the contraction after the expansion. And it’s not a sign that something went wrong. It’s actually a sign that something went very right.
The month in Tulum changed Lisa at a biological, energetic, and identity level. Sunshine, ocean, different cultures, ceremonies with local healers, a temazcal sweat lodge, deep connection, and the kind of clarity that only comes when everything familiar falls away. You don’t come back from that the same person. But your life, your responsibilities, your weather, and your to-do list are all waiting exactly where you left them. That gap between who you’ve become and what your environment is reflecting back at you is where so many high achievers quietly fall apart, because they call it failure instead of integration.
What we talk about in this episode:
- Why your body won’t let you just pick up where you left off, and why that’s actually good news. After significant growth, expansion, or transformation, your nervous system needs time to recalibrate. Sleeping ten hours, needing naps, and feeling foggy isn’t regression. It’s your system doing exactly what it’s supposed to do.
- The law of polarity: why every expansion is followed by a contraction. You don’t get to keep expanding without contracting. Just like the inhale requires the exhale, growth requires integration. The more you try to override the contraction, the longer it takes and the higher the cost.
- What high achievers do instead of integrating (and why it backfires). Pushing harder through the contraction, trying to prove you’ve integrated everything, going back into taking care of everyone else to avoid slowing down. These are the patterns that keep successful, driven people running on fumes long after the retreat glow fades.
- How travel and new environments shift your nervous system at a biological level. When your backdrop is the ocean and your mornings start with a sunrise instead of a screen, something fundamental changes. The sound of water calms the nervous system. Different cultures shift perspective. The problem isn’t getting that feeling. It’s learning how to integrate it when you come home.
- What it actually looks like to stabilize after growth, not accelerate. After big life events, whether it’s a retreat, a job change, an illness, a loss, or a major win, your job is not to get back to normal faster. It’s to slow down, be with what changed, and let it take root.
- The proving energy that lives underneath the drive to perform. Even in the temazcal, sitting in the hottest spot because “you’re the leader and can’t be the one who looks scared,” there’s a pattern worth naming. The belief that strength means not needing support is one of the most expensive things ambitious people carry.
- Why your vacations might not actually be restful, and what that’s costing you. If you come back from time off more exhausted than when you left, or if you spend the whole trip mentally at work, your nervous system never got the break it needed. That gap has a cost that shows up in your health, your relationships, and your capacity to lead.
- The integration framework: journaling, talking to a coach, slowing down, and giving yourself grace without judgment. These aren’t soft suggestions. For high achievers who have been rewarded for pushing through, they’re genuinely the harder path.
- The Camino de Santiago retreat this September as an example of the kind of experience that strips away your hustle identity and shows you who you are when everything familiar falls away. Details at lisacarpenter.ca/camino.
This episode is for you if you’ve ever:
- Come back from a vacation feeling like you needed a vacation from your vacation, because you never actually stopped
- Expected yourself to perform at full capacity within days of a major life event and felt frustrated when you couldn’t
- Pushed through exhaustion instead of resting because slowing down felt like falling behind
- Labeled your need for rest as laziness, weakness, or a lack of discipline
- Felt more alive and clear during a retreat, a trip, or a big experience, then quietly crumbled when you got home and had to face everything waiting for you
- Called contraction failure instead of recognizing it as a normal, necessary part of growth
- Been the strong one, the leader, the person everyone counts on, and found yourself performing strength even when your body was asking you to receive support
- Come back from time off and immediately tried to prove you hadn’t lost any ground
- Wondered why the breakthroughs never seem to stick once you’re back in real life
- Known you needed to slow down but kept going anyway because there was too much to do and too many people depending on you
Why the Contraction Isn’t the Problem
The high achievers Lisa works with are incredibly good at pushing through. They’ve been rewarded for it their whole lives. But what nobody talks about after the breakthrough, the retreat, the speaking event, or the massive win is that the nervous system needs to recalibrate before it can expand again. Skipping that step doesn’t make you stronger. It just means the cost shows up somewhere else, usually in your health, your relationships, or that quiet, persistent feeling that something is off even when everything looks fine on the outside.
The integration is where the growth actually lives. The awareness happens in the room, in the ceremony, in the experience. The embodiment of it happens at home, in the ordinary moments, in the gym on a Saturday morning when your body says not today and you actually listen.
Ready to Stop Calling Contraction Failure?
If this episode landed for you, it’s because some part of you recognized the pattern. You know how to perform. You know how to push. What you’re still learning is how to integrate, how to receive, how to let growth actually take root instead of immediately moving on to the next thing.
Start there. The Integration Guide is the companion resource for this episode, and it gives you a five-step framework for what to actually do right now, plus five coaching questions worth sitting with as you let this expansion take root. It’s practical, honest, and designed for people who are done white-knuckling their way through the contraction.
Grab The Integration Guide free at: lisacarpenter.ca/bonus
If what came up in this episode is pointing to something bigger, a pattern of overriding, overperforming, and never quite feeling settled in the success you’ve built, that’s exactly what the Congruency Audit is for. In 15 minutes, we look at the gap between the life you’ve built on the outside and what you’re actually experiencing on the inside. We identify the patterns keeping you in overdrive, what’s underneath them, and what it’s going to take to create success that feels as good on the inside as it looks on the outside.
Book your free Congruency Audit: lisacarpenter.ca/audit
And if something in this episode stirred a bigger question about what it would mean to step fully out of your environment, to move your body, be in nature, and do this kind of integration work alongside other driven people asking the same questions, the Camino de Santiago retreat this September is a six-day coaching experience with intentional integration time built in.
Learn more at: lisacarpenter.ca/camino
This isn’t about optimizing the version of yourself you built to survive. It’s about creating congruence so the life you’ve built doesn’t just look good, it finally feels right.
00:00:06:29 - 00:00:33:12
Lisa
You built success that looks damn good on the outside, but inside it's costing you your health, your relationships, your energy. And no matter how much you do, it never feels like enough. Welcome to Congruent. I'm Lisa Carpenter, the coach. High performers call when they can afford to burn it all down, but they can't keep living like this either.
00:00:33:14 - 00:00:58:24
Lisa
Here we rip off the mask of success and expose what's real. The patterns that you keep running, the price that you've paid, and how to build success that fuels you instead of empties you. Real success is agency. It's powerful self leadership to run your life instead of being run by it. To let your drive and your well-being finally work together.
00:00:58:27 - 00:01:08:23
Lisa
Because the real win is success. That actually feels good.
00:01:08:25 - 00:01:34:11
Lisa
Well. Hey, hey, and welcome back to a new episode of kangaroo. And I'm your host, Lisa Carpenter. And this is the first time that I've been back at my desk in over a month, because I am just returning after spending and the whole month of February in Tulum. And this was a really powerful, opportunity for me. And I was there for a whole host of reasons, which I'll, I'll share as we, we go.
00:01:34:11 - 00:02:04:15
Lisa
But what this episode is really about is the integration that happens after the expansion. Because, you know, I walked back into my life knowing that so many things had shifted for me and knowing that I was going to experience a contraction. Because as much as we want to believe that we can just hold this expansive space, the reality is that, there has to be polarity in our lives.
00:02:04:15 - 00:02:21:27
Lisa
So if we expand, we are also going to contract. And, you know, the first place that I noticed this was when I got back into the gym on, where did I go? I got home on a Thursday night and I thought, you know what? The best way to reset my, circadian rhythm and get my habits on track is I'm going to go to the gym.
00:02:21:27 - 00:02:38:14
Lisa
Now, I didn't expect a lot from myself at the gym, but I got myself to the gym, and I had an all right workout. But then on Friday, I thought, okay, we're going to do a leg day, Lisa, and we're just going to like, we're going to go in there. You've had a solid sleep. You know, you've been back in life.
00:02:38:14 - 00:02:58:00
Lisa
You saw your clients and, oh no, sorry. This was on Saturday. So I saw clients on Friday, which I don't normally do. I don't normally come back from a big trip like this and see clients, but because of my travel schedule, this is just the way it had to roll this time. So it was Saturday morning. Then I'm like, I'm going to get up, I'm going to go crush a leg workout.
00:02:58:07 - 00:03:19:11
Lisa
I'm going to be so in the pocket. And let me tell you, I did the first exercise and I was like, whoa, this is not going to go the way I want it to go. Because, you know, my body just wasn't there, my energy wasn't there. And I realized like, oh, I'm not. I'm still in that period of contraction.
00:03:19:11 - 00:03:44:22
Lisa
I'm still in that period of integrating what happened during that month. So I'm sharing this because it seems like something that I, you know, I've been doing this long enough that I should know, and I still am met with these unrealistic expectations that live in my head, that I should just be able to pick up where I left off, that, you know, everything should go back to as it was.
00:03:44:24 - 00:04:10:16
Lisa
And, we don't talk enough about and we don't give enough space and time to the integration that takes after the breakthroughs, after the retreats, after being in big rooms with big people doing big things. So that's where I wanted to start today. So for me to bloom was man, I feel like I was gone forever. And then I was feel.
00:04:10:16 - 00:04:35:12
Lisa
I feel like it went by in the blink of an eye. I mean, I was again there for my pure mastermind retreat. So I'm in a room with women doing multiple six and multiple seven figures, in their business. These are legit business owners, and I'm so honored and grateful to be at the table. But I'm at the table because I'm also a legitimate business owner running a sizable coaching practice.
00:04:35:12 - 00:05:02:05
Lisa
I've worked I've worked really hard over the years. And, you know, I have reached a certain level of success and authority within, you know, my, my expertise. And it's really, really, really cool to be in this room with these women who are just like, everybody is there because they want to become a better version of themselves. So they're either looking for, you know, business support or personal support.
00:05:02:05 - 00:05:27:16
Lisa
Everybody comes to the table with something different. But ultimately, we all get to decide, this is not a very structured business mastermind. It really is. We're all here as human beings sharing our experience of the past year. So what was powerful for me this year about being in this room is behind the scenes. We're working on a really powerful framework, something I'm very, very proud of.
00:05:27:16 - 00:05:48:13
Lisa
I'm very excited to bring this to life. I'm very excited for everybody who's listening to experience it, but it's not ready yet. And one of the things that I've learned about myself is that if I let too many people in on things that are still that I'm in the process of birthing, it can actually throw me off my game.
00:05:48:13 - 00:06:05:24
Lisa
I can start to question if I'm doing the right thing. So as much as I am internally referenced and I don't really need people to tell me what to do, I can go do it. I can also be incredibly externally reference, which means that I can take on other people's opinions, sometimes too much. And I'm aware of this.
00:06:05:24 - 00:06:25:05
Lisa
It's not a good or a bad thing. It's just something that, you know, you may want to look at in your own life. Are you do you find you are really swayed by other people's opinions? So because I'm feeling really proud of this project and I know exactly what I want to do, and I've got a, you know, I've got my own team of coaches supporting me with this.
00:06:25:08 - 00:06:44:06
Lisa
I made the decision to not share my framework in that room. And for me, that felt really edgy to sit at that table. And when I was asked what I needed for support, I and what I'm working on, I said I'd love to share, but I'm not going to. I'm not going to because I'm in the process of giving birth to this new thing.
00:06:44:08 - 00:07:02:24
Lisa
And and I don't need everybody's. I don't need everybody's heads and hands between my legs. If you've if you've been a mom, you will understand that metaphor. I think my first son, when I gave birth, I was like, wow, I had no idea that there were going to be ten doctors down there looking at my lady bits.
00:07:02:26 - 00:07:21:04
Lisa
So this feels very much the same. Like, I just don't want too many hands or eyeballs on what's going on as I as I birth this. But what I did say is that once it comes to life, what I. What I'm going to need more than anything is everybody support it in helping me get it out into the world and get it shared.
00:07:21:04 - 00:07:46:03
Lisa
And that is really what I'm looking for. So I love you all and I don't want to share. And that part of me who you know wants to belong, I think we all have this. It felt really edgy for me to say, oh my God, you guys are all basically what I'm saying is like, I've got this, this table of wisdom and knowledge, and yet I'm saying I don't want any of your wisdom and knowledge right now.
00:07:46:05 - 00:08:12:09
Lisa
And that felt very edgy for me as somebody who can put other people's opinions ahead of my own, that felt very, very edgy. So to be in the discomfort of not performing, of staying true to who I am and what I needed was a really, really powerful for me. And noticing the parts of me that can still want to get into improving energy, of wanting to have everything just so.
00:08:12:11 - 00:08:39:14
Lisa
Because if I share it too early, then what might they think? And it this wasn't a case of that. It's not what will they think? It was legitimately just not wanting too many cooks in the kitchen, so to speak. But just noticing the parts of me, and I'm going to be talking about this in this framework that comes out that can still get into proving that, still believes that I have to do or say certain things or be a certain way in order to fit in or belong.
00:08:39:19 - 00:09:08:02
Lisa
And nothing could be further from the truth. So, you know, from there I went on to then I had a couple of days downtime with a girlfriend, which I really enjoyed spending some time with her. And we eat good food and just you know, enjoyed the beach. But then I immediately went into hosting my own six day retreat with five phenomenal women who had flown in from all around the globe to experience the beauty of Tulum.
00:09:08:05 - 00:09:27:20
Lisa
And so it was like one of my clients asked me, you know, how do you integrate all these different experiences? Because obviously, being in a Tulum for a month, I had a lot of different experiences and I said, well, I don't really integrate between because to me, the entire month is is one big growth and learning process for me.
00:09:27:22 - 00:09:57:04
Lisa
So anyways, so I popped into leading this retreat and many of these women had already been at my retreat in Whistler. I knew this was going to be a completely different retreat, and it was going to require me to hold space in a different way. And, it was amazing. We did. I mean, I can't even get into all the beautiful things that happened there, from the amazing food we ate to the beautiful ceremonies that we participated in from, you know, local healers and, and guides.
00:09:57:06 - 00:10:23:06
Lisa
And, it was really it was really expansive, not just for the ladies on the retreat, but also for me leading it. So, even down to where I had sat in the Thomas Carlyle. So the Temescal is a basically a sweat lodge used in Mayan times, and they were used to help prepare women for birth. And because they're hard, it's it's hard.
00:10:23:09 - 00:10:43:10
Lisa
It's very hot. And last year when I went and I did the terms Cal, I opted to sit near the door because it gets so hot in there and it's also so dark. And I was nervous. And this year, because I was leading my own ladies, it was kind of like I was constantly put in these positions of wild discomfort.
00:10:43:10 - 00:10:58:15
Lisa
But because I was a leader, it was kind of like, well, this you got to kind of got to take one for the team. Like, you can't be the scaredy cat sitting by the door. If somebody else is nervous about doing this, they need to sit in that place and you're going to you're going to stand in your leadership and you're going to be fine.
00:10:58:15 - 00:11:21:07
Lisa
So it was like I just had to do the thing that I had to do. So I end up sitting in one of the hottest spots in the temp scale, which was, I mean, a learning process in itself around, you know, the part of me that's like you need to be strong versus the part of me that is actually learning my strength is in asking to beings to be supported.
00:11:21:10 - 00:11:44:16
Lisa
And, so there were lots of lessons within the, within that experience. So I'm witnessing my clients around me, having their own experience while also having my own experience. And I ended up, you know, I ended up lying down and thinking, you know, listening to the voices in my head that were telling me, like, you should be able to sit up like you're the leader here.
00:11:44:16 - 00:12:10:13
Lisa
You should be strong, Lisa, while at the same time recognizing the voice. It's like, but this is what this journey has been about this entire month is are you willing to receive support? And sometimes that support is in, for me, in this particular metaphor, it was like, we're allowing the Earth to hold me right lying down inside this dark room and letting the earth hold me.
00:12:10:15 - 00:12:39:03
Lisa
And it was really, really powerful. And seeing how powerful my clients were and debriefing their experiences afterwards. And, you know, we all got to swim in the ocean afterwards. It really is like a rebirthing process. Very, very magical. So it was just it was a really that those days with those women were really I mean, I can't even put words to what that was experience, what that experience was like.
00:12:39:03 - 00:13:01:28
Lisa
So all I'm going to say is, if you ever have an opportunity to go on retreat with me, which I really only take, these intimate retreats are reserved only for people who are working with me in coaching. They will be the the people who get the opportunity to travel with me in these intimate type of settings. The next time I do something like, you're going to want to say yes.
00:13:02:01 - 00:13:26:12
Lisa
I don't think that any of these women could put a price tag on the transformation that they had spending this time in, in Mexico. It was really, really magical. So all of this is what I'm trying to say is that expansion is very intoxicating. Transformation makes you feel alive. It feels clear. It feels powerful. Every day. There were lessons and insights and.
00:13:26:12 - 00:13:51:18
Lisa
And it's just so magical. But then this is when the contraction comes in. Because when we come home, we have to contract. And that doesn't mean we have to stay in the contraction. But after we grow, our nervous systems need to recalibrate. So I went from a month away where the only person I needed to take care of was myself.
00:13:51:18 - 00:14:10:27
Lisa
I didn't even have to cook or clean because I was always staying in hotels or in spaces where we had staff there to support us. I got to get up in the morning, drink my coffee, sit down, open up my laptop and luxuriate in my work. I didn't have anybody that needed me for anything. So even my clients, they don't need me.
00:14:11:03 - 00:14:34:14
Lisa
They're grown women. So, you know, it's a different level of responsibility. But here we are in this, you know, I'm traveling. I'm having these new experiences are sunlight, there's ocean, everything is new. And that literally shifts your state. And that's what I want you to understand about travel. And and giving yourself these experiences is they shift your your state.
00:14:34:16 - 00:14:59:16
Lisa
But then coming back like I came back to Vancouver. It's still winter here. So granted, it's not freezing, but, you know, I plucked myself off of, you know, bikinis and sunshine into trucks or beanies, as we call them in, in the US two weeks here in Canada. And, you know, long pants, long sleeves, lots of layers to stay warm that impacts your biology.
00:14:59:19 - 00:15:24:26
Lisa
Okay. Plus I switch time zones. So when we come back from these experiences, you don't come back the same. I did not come back the same. Just like after 2023, 2024 and most of 2025. When I sat down at my desk and was like, okay, Lisa, let's get back into business, I was like, wait a minute, I'm not the same person and I can't expect to run my business the same way I used to.
00:15:24:29 - 00:15:44:21
Lisa
This time I came back is not the same person, but my life looks the same. Everything on the outside looks the same. Yeah, I feel fundamentally different on the inside. My family dynamics are still there. If you listen to my episode a couple weeks ago on Don't Pass the Kleenex, I shared, you know, kind of what we're navigating with my 14 year old.
00:15:44:23 - 00:16:10:11
Lisa
The responsibilities are here. I'm like, oh yeah, I need to like groceries. I need to handle stuff. So although my partner primarily runs the house when I'm back home, I have responsibilities here. And, you know, everything was waiting for me for work. I, you know, it's tax season. My accountant needs my all my personal tax information. And I'm leaving again in another couple weeks.
00:16:10:11 - 00:16:28:18
Lisa
So I only have a couple weeks before I'm back on the road again. So there's a lot of things that are going on behind the scenes. So our body contracts, our bodies need to contract, our energies need to contract before they can expand again. It's like the inhale. We need to have an exhale. That's just how it goes.
00:16:28:18 - 00:16:48:21
Lisa
So the gym humbled me. And the gym was such a huge reminder that it's not that I have regressed in the gym, it's that I'm integrating. Right when I sat down at my desk to record this. And let me tell you, it's only a three hour time difference. So it's not. I've experienced bad jetlag. This is not jetlag.
00:16:48:21 - 00:17:12:26
Lisa
This is an energetic, recalibration. I have been sleeping for ten hours. I have been napping all day. A three hour time jump never does that to me. So that shows me just how much my energetic system is, like, whoa, what is happening here, Lisa? And it's my job to give myself grace and space while I integrate it.
00:17:12:26 - 00:17:35:03
Lisa
And I also reached out to all my clients and let them know this too. Like, if you're experiencing this, this is normal because we often don't talk about this. We talk about the expansiveness about of retreats, but then we don't talk about what's going to happen on the other side of these, massive, life events. So this is the law of polarity expansion and contraction or partners.
00:17:35:05 - 00:17:54:25
Lisa
And you don't get to do one without the other. So, you know, as much as we love it, we love it. I love expansion, I always know prepare yourself for the contraction. And the more that I can allow for the contraction and don't stay there, right. Like we don't just hold our breath forever. We have to breathe. We have to breathe in.
00:17:54:27 - 00:18:28:03
Lisa
We have to breathe out the same thing is true. So the awareness at the retreat is the easy part, like creating that awareness. But the embodiment of what that expansion was happens at home. And that's really where the growth, where the growth lies. So. What I want you to pay attention to, if you've had an expansive, thing happen in your life and this can look like anything, it can look like you know, the other side of a speaking event.
00:18:28:03 - 00:18:48:10
Lisa
We just we just finished the Olympics, which I watched nothing of except for clips on Instagram. You know, for, for many athletes, when they, after they're finished performing, they've had their event. There is a massive contraction, especially when you've been spending years of your life to get to the podium, to get to the Olympics. There's a there's contraction on the other side.
00:18:48:10 - 00:19:07:01
Lisa
I know for me, even going up on stage doing fitness, there's contraction on the other side. And typically what we want to do when we come back in is we want to override it. So it might look like for the type of men and women that I work with sitting down at your desk and just being like, I'm just going to push harder through this.
00:19:07:01 - 00:19:31:28
Lisa
I'm just this is fine. I don't need any downtime. I'm just going to work harder. I'm just going to push through. Everything's going to be fine. Or it might be wanting to, like, prove that you have integrated everything, even though you haven't. It might be wanting to make sure that your integration is perfect. And how would you even know if you're integrating perfectly?
00:19:32:00 - 00:20:08:11
Lisa
It that's a that's a hard one to measure. And for some people, they want to just avoid it altogether by going back into patterns of taking care of everybody else. But the real work here is slower. So after big growth, your job is not to accelerate, it's actually to stabilize. It's to integrate what you've learned, to slow yourself down and just be with the energy of everything, whether that's, you know, journaling, talking to a friend, talking to your coach, talking to your therapist, talking to your partner, but finding that moment of like, okay, how do I just be with the contraction of this?
00:20:08:14 - 00:20:30:24
Lisa
How do I integrate now? What is change with me versus how am I going to be in my regular everyday life? So for me, you know, that part of me that always wants to be self-sufficient and, you know, breathe fire, which is funny because I'm like in the Thomas column, like I breathe in fire, I breathe out fire.
00:20:30:24 - 00:20:51:16
Lisa
And I was like, whoa, when are you going to let that story die? So, like, we don't need to be fire breathing anymore. We have we have let that go. So the laying down and being supported moment. So let me tell you, when I was having multiple naps this this weekend, uncomfortable for me, but allowing myself to just slow down.
00:20:51:19 - 00:21:18:14
Lisa
So, you know, for many of my clients, a lot of the integration work really is in the slowing down, allowing themselves to be supported, not pushing harder or trying to prove anything. It's not about getting back into lockstep or having judgment of yourself. It's just it's allowing yourself the time and space to really recognize that you're different.
00:21:18:16 - 00:21:39:14
Lisa
And that's a great thing. But it might not look different yet. So, you know, I've talked a little bit about what travel does for the for your nervous system. You know, a different a different, environment can really change how you see the world. So most of us spend many hours a day in front of a screen, whether it's our phone or computers.
00:21:39:16 - 00:22:04:07
Lisa
And when you are traveling, your nervous system gets a break from that. You know, to wake up every morning and watch the sunrise, to go out and, and, you know, spend an hour walking on the beach, you know, to even when I was on screens, my backdrop was the beach, which was amazing. So it really does change your nervous system and it really calm things down.
00:22:04:07 - 00:22:34:15
Lisa
I mean, it's proven that water and the sound of the ocean literally is coming to our bodies. And when we shift our environment, our perspective shift, right? When you sit and watch the sun rise, every single day changes how you see the world when you, interact with different cultures, it changes how you see the world. So, so many people right now feel like the world is one giant dumpster fire, and there are many horrible things going on.
00:22:34:17 - 00:23:03:22
Lisa
But man, when you just sit in connection and community with other people, you realize how much good there is in the world. And it really is a matter of where are you holding your attention? What are you giving your energy to? You know, we did a beautiful four direction ceremony where we really celebrated the earth and all the elements, and it's such an ancient practice, and we've gotten so far away from that as humans where, you know, we live in such busy gogo lives.
00:23:03:24 - 00:23:27:03
Lisa
So that perspective of like, what is really important here? What do I want to be grounded into? And to bloom just kind of strips away those kind of hustle identities. I mean, these people work so hard and, you know, there was a man down on the beach every single day. I'd ride his bike into work so that he could, pick up the seaweed.
00:23:27:03 - 00:23:58:14
Lisa
Because Tulum and most of the Caribbean has a massive seaweed problem. These days due to whatever reason. And he's just down there every day doing his job and loving his life. And it's so simple. And we, many of us have such complicated and busy lives here where we're missing the things that are really important. And I would watch him, you know, raking up all the seaweed, and he would still pause and watch the sunrise, and he would still take out his phone and take pictures.
00:23:58:22 - 00:24:24:03
Lisa
And this is probably a person who's seen the sunrise more times than I can count, because every morning he's there, it he still stops to take in the beauty of that. And I mean it. Just walk outside your door. Most people have their head down in their phone. They're not even paying attention to the beautiful things around them, or they're too busy taking pictures of things, and they're not even really like looking at things through their own eyes.
00:24:24:03 - 00:24:49:18
Lisa
So anyways, we see things and we see ourselves differently when we're outside of our normal environment. And that's a good thing because we get to bring that version of ourselves home and that's the integration. So, this is why experiences are so important to me and in my business, why I'm going to continue to offer different ways for people to go on retreat and have this type of experience.
00:24:49:18 - 00:25:15:22
Lisa
So if you've listened to some previous episode, you'll know that we have a I believe it's six days. We're going to be walking the Camino. So if you're interested in learning more about that, just go to Lisa Carpenter, ECA forward slash Camino. We do still have a few spaces available. I'd love to host you. It is going to be a very different experience as well because every day we're walking and then at night we'll be sitting down and dining together and talking about our day and our experiences.
00:25:15:25 - 00:25:45:11
Lisa
We're going to do it over and over and over again, and we're going to be spending the day just moving our bodies and being in nature, whatever nature brings. And we're we're hoping that the weather will be will be good, but we expect we will get whatever we need from it, because that's the way the Camino works. So, you know, these experience are really about who you get to meet within yourself when everything familiar in your life falls away.
00:25:45:14 - 00:26:13:21
Lisa
So that is what I have for you this week. I'm back. I'm integrating. It's colder than I'd like. The responsibilities are here. But I'm definitely not the same on the other side of this experience in the best way possible. And it's going to take me some time to really reflect on, everything that I stepped into, including the commitment to greater visibility and greater impact.
00:26:13:23 - 00:26:50:18
Lisa
You know, one of the final things I'll share with you is I really thought about how many, times during this retreat, I was put in a position of like, well, I just have to do the hard thing because I need to take one for the team, so to speak, and really realizing, man, what would change in my business and in my work if I really, really made the people that I'm here to reach the priority, what things would I do that I've been avoiding doing if I really made it about them, and less about my own fears and my own insecurities, how would I show up in the world?
00:26:50:25 - 00:27:23:08
Lisa
Because, listen, I sat in the hottest spot in the Temescal. I sat in a boat where I got drenched. I might as well have been being dragged behind the boat. I was so wet. It was quite funny. But that's, you know, that's where I'm at. So I'm going to give myself the next couple of weeks to really, you know, obviously still need to show up and do my work and see my clients, but I'm going to give myself a lot of grace and ease as I, integrate everything that's happened and just let it take root in me.
00:27:23:11 - 00:27:51:02
Lisa
Everything, go into the gym with lower expectations. I'm not going to be able to pick up where I left off. And the reality is, is I've only got a couple of weeks before I'm traveling again and I want my body to feel well. So consider this as your as you're listening to this episode is how often you expect yourself to just pick up where you left off, whether it's on the other side of a vacation or an illness or something massive that's happened in your life.
00:27:51:02 - 00:28:19:23
Lisa
It could be death. It could be, job opportunity that you took. It could be I mean, it could be a million things where we're constantly faced with things in our lives that are changing us on the regular and consider also, if maybe you're looking at this contraction and calling it failure instead of seeing it for what it is, it's like, oh, this is normal for me to feel this way doesn't mean I've done anything wrong.
00:28:19:25 - 00:28:42:17
Lisa
It just I'm supposed to contract after I've expanded. This is normal. This is this is the law of polarity. And that this is integration and the integration time is the needed time. So that is what I've got for you this week. As always, we've put together a bonus to go with this episode. So make sure you download that and check it out.
00:28:42:17 - 00:28:59:04
Lisa
It will help you integrate if you've come off of an event, or if there's something that has gone on in your life that you felt like you really haven't given yourself time to process and integrate, you're going to want to make sure that you, grab that download. And if this episode served you, please, by all means share.
00:28:59:07 - 00:29:23:25
Lisa
I'd love it if you shared. This is how my work reaches a wider audience. I cannot do it on my own. This is my lesson. I cannot do it on my own. I need the help of listeners like you who are willing to share this episode. Or maybe it was another episode that resonated with you, but what a beautiful gift you could give to me in just making it.
00:29:23:27 - 00:29:43:12
Lisa
You know, making it, a priority to share one episode a month. That would be massive. And I would be so deeply grateful for your help and your support, because I know there's so much wisdom within these episodes. And now with the the downloads to support your growth, we really want to get this in the hands of so many more people.
00:29:43:12 - 00:30:05:22
Lisa
So thank you for being here on this episode. Thanks for hearing my, condensed recap of To Bloom. If this is something that you're interested in doing, by all means just reach out to me. All my contact information will be below. Not only do I do these intimate group retreats for my clients, but I also do private, bespoke 1 to 1 retreats at various places around the world.
00:30:05:22 - 00:30:24:22
Lisa
And of course, then we have the Camino coming up this September, so lots of opportunities for you to get out of your own environment and expand. And I will be there with you on the other side when you contract, so that you can integrate that expansion and truly change your life. So thank you for listening and I will catch you on the next episode.
00:30:24:25 - 00:30:45:14
Lisa
And as always, we've put together a bonus download to go with this episode. It's called the Integration Guide, and it's exactly what it sounds like a practical, honest resource to help you actually work through the contraction. Instead of overwriting it, you'll find a framework for what to do right now, and some questions we're sitting with as you let this expansion take root.
00:30:45:22 - 00:30:52:06
Lisa
So grab it now at lisacarpenter.ca/bonus and I'll catch you on the next episode.
