The Hidden Cost of Being the Strong One: Trauma, Burnout, and Recovery

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[00:00:02] Introduction

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[00:00:06] Lauren Dry: Catalyst. Connection and this podcast for me is personal. As a driven professional, I found myself an expert in all things [00:00:15] work and business, but it was at home that I really needed clarity and ease after finally finding it. One marriage breakdown and one marriage reset later, and finally discovering what really works to have connection in modern relationships using science, [00:00:30] simplicity, and soul. Our signature program Rise Into Regulation was born, that's giving so many others in modern driven relationships, back clarity, and ease for good.

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[00:00:56] Lauren Dry: Today we are blessed to welcome on the podcast.

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[00:00:59] Lauren Dry: [00:01:00] Natalie Newgent.

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[00:01:17] Lauren Dry: IFS informed past work and creative integration for first responders, veterans and caregivers. A long time peer support lead and host of the Valkyrie Heart Rekindled podcast.

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[00:01:39] Lauren Dry: I stumbled across Natalie recently and was completely blown away. Not only by her personal journey, but [00:01:45] her professional journey. There is something so powerful, not only about the lived experience of, being a firefighter, someone who literally runs toward the fire to rescue others, but [00:02:00] also the personal experience that her own journey really resonated with me

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[00:02:39] Lauren Dry: Natalie has built a new purpose, [00:02:45] both personally and professionally around supporting others to understand and have a deeper and richer relationship with their capacity and their identity. Welcome to the podcast, Natalie.

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[00:02:58] Identity and capacity in helper culture

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[00:02:59] Lauren Dry: [00:03:00] start off, first of all, because I know that there are a hundred different ways that i'm going to want to segue this podcast. And I do have, a ton of questions that I wanna ask you. But I wanna start off first of all by allowing our listeners to get to know you a little bit the way that we [00:03:15] have. And that's by asking you first and foremost, what is your personal and professional attraction and passion around the topics of capacity and identity.

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[00:03:59] Natalie Newgent: And you [00:04:00] just get drawn to all these different high adrenaline and high expectation roles of you. And you get into this position where you learn to not say no, because the expectation is that you are there for everything. As a firefighter will [00:04:15] respond to medical, fire, traffic accidents, natural emergencies, and so then everything becomes an emergency in our life.

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[00:04:50] Natalie Newgent: Had we said, Hey, I'm really tired from my shift. Maybe we should delay this trip a day, instead of just barreling through and responding to life as we're supposed to [00:05:00] show up. I wish I had learned to have separate identities, so I had my work identity and learned to shut it off to be able to integrate back into community, into the world, and as a parent and into a more softer [00:05:15] side of who I was.

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[00:05:17] Natalie Newgent: I wish I had learned to show up confident and carry the same energy in both my personal and my professional. I think it would've led to being able to stay at my career versus [00:05:30] my injury, I was already struggling before that. And having the injury just led me down another path that was undirected, no support.

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[00:05:50] Lauren Dry: Oh my goodness there's so much there around not only identity, but being forced due to life events, to [00:06:00] recalibrate and really deeply assess what is the training that we've integrated that allows us to be successful, which can involve absolutely hyper vigilance as opposed to being deeply [00:06:15] capable and have this celebrated ability to handle chaos versus, okay, am I being an actual leader and, a co-creator in my life instead of someone who's simply at the mercy [00:06:30] of every single emergency, small and large around me.

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[00:07:11] Lauren Dry: And I'd love to hear a little bit about that moment in time for you and your journey [00:07:15] around that.

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[00:07:15] Natalie Newgent: Yeah, before my, injury in September, 2023, the weight I was already carrying, for example, I was two months after breaking off a three year engagement, and I was only six months post a [00:07:30] hysterectomy from uterine cancer. So I had already a lot of stress coming into being a single mom again, having just recovered and having never stopped.

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[00:08:02] Natalie Newgent: I didn't know how to share that with my coworkers because I was afraid they would see me different. And so ultimately that weight I was carrying, I couldn't be myself and fully engage with [00:08:15] my coworkers. And so when I came off duty, I not only had all this grief and heavy load from life already then I also had no family.

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[00:08:52] Natalie Newgent: And so I carried the weight of all my past patients that didn't make it or that did make it, and their life was changed, [00:09:00] that weight, I started to feel as if it was my own failure. Like I couldn't show up for the public now as somebody to help them get through these traumatic moments in their life.

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[00:09:36] Natalie Newgent: He saw I wasn't coming to work. I was on light duty for my injury, but also I couldn't drive because of my neck injury. I [00:09:45] just had neck surgery and so I couldn't get to work and there was no accommodations made. And he showed up at my house because he noticed I wasn't working and when I opened that door, it was the day after I had a suicide [00:10:00] attempt on my own life.

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[00:10:25] Compassion as a turning point

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[00:10:52] Natalie Newgent: And he gave me hope that I wasn't alone, and he carried this quiet strength that said, I've got you. You don't have [00:11:00] to do this alone. And just by that simple message, it changed the trajectory of my life. I went through recovery, came back, started integrating back into life, and through his actions I realized that's what I wanted to pay forward [00:11:15] to other people.

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[00:11:38] The Superhero Trap: struggling to ask for help

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[00:12:16] Lauren Dry: Okay, if you have the capacity, if you are the happy one, if you are the firefighter, if you are the person who has this [00:12:30] skillset that allows others to feel safe and supported, if you are the strong one, then surely you're gonna be okay, right? Surely you have the skillset more than anyone, and I think the operative word [00:12:45] there is you, because this isn't even a weight that other people put on top of us, not consciously anyway, it's a story that's internalized for so many of us, whether it's Big T or Little T, trauma around [00:13:00] my worth and value. My ability to exist in this world as someone who has a place within it is directly interlink and correlated [00:13:15] to my ability to problem solve, my ability to show up, my ability to fix problems, and my ability to fix other people. I can help you but don't dare look at me,

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[00:13:26] Lauren Dry: and that's terrifying.

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[00:13:30] Lauren Dry: Mm-hmm. Yeah and there's such a freedom and level of compassion that you are offering the audience here, because if anyone can feel [00:13:45] like they don't know what to do, they don't know their next steps, they don't feel like they have permission to ask for help. And a firefighter, someone who literally runs into burning buildings and saves lives on a day-to-day basis, [00:14:00] can feel like they don't have the tools and the skillset, you know. How powerful that is for us who struggle on a day-to-day basis and don't have to struggle with the intensity of these [00:14:15] experiences that you have to be able to say, okay, if she feels like that this person who apparently, for some people may look like a superhero, then of course it's a natural and normal experience for me to be able [00:14:30] to say, Hey, me too, me too.

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[00:14:55] Natalie Newgent: Even in my personal life, my friends will call me to help pour concrete, help [00:15:00] build a fence. I am a Jill of all trades, but a master of none. I know a little bit of everything. But I understand how to fix in a solution. So people will call because they need that help. But what you said about the internal [00:15:15] struggle is huge.

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[00:15:16] Natalie Newgent: And when you use the word permission, it just reminded me of my recovery center I went to and on the wall it says, permission to start dreaming. And the acronym for that is PTSD. I just [00:15:30] remember reading it and not understanding what that meant. But the counselor who went up there and gave this speech on the first day said, I'm here to tell you, I'm giving you permission to start living your life, to start being [00:15:45] who you were, before the badge, before the honor, who you were meant to be when you were born.

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[00:16:10] Natalie Newgent: And until I got that permission to show up as who I am into that [00:16:15] environment, that was life changing.

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[00:16:36] Lauren Dry: Let's, for argument's sake say that there is an important job you have to do. Maybe you're responsible for a huge team. Maybe you're responsible for a huge business. Maybe you're just [00:16:45] responsible for your family, new kids. But how about we pause and simply give you permission to ask the question, what is the next move that is paralyzing you?

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[00:17:15] Lauren Dry: so with that possibility of permission around exploring what your values are, what's the next step from there? And I resonate with that so much because I've spoken about this before. If you had asked me before I [00:17:30] had begun the work and really given myself permission to ask these deep questions, what my values were, I would probably say right up the top there.

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[00:17:55] Lauren Dry: But had I ever actually asked myself, Hmm, this value that I think [00:18:00] is so important both professionally and personally, is that a sense of identity that I'm gaining in order to have a semblance of celebration and, an expectation that I [00:18:15] believe is how I should be versus what do I believe my actual values that can be harnessed in alignment with my gifts that support others and myself in a way that's sustainable [00:18:30] versus, gaining a sense of purpose and gaining a sense of validation according to how much I can give, how,I can perform, how much I can gain an identity from being the fixer versus [00:18:45] ever considering that as something that can and should be reciprocal.

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[00:18:49] Lauren Dry: Because the more I focus on other people, the less I need to focus on myself.

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[00:19:03] Lauren Dry: Mm-hmm.

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[00:19:06] Lauren Dry: Yeah. I love that.

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[00:19:20] Natalie Newgent: And then you read the job description and that's what you should be and should do. And one thing that's been huge in my recovery with that permission [00:19:30] is I get to do those things. So just the simple change of dialect that we have internally, instead of, I should do this, it's I get to, I should go to the gym three to five [00:19:45] times a week to be healthy.

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[00:19:58] Lauren Dry: Hmm.

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[00:20:12] Lauren Dry: Yeah, and I love that. And I'd love to [00:20:15] start off by asking you a little bit more about that identity question, in relation to, particularly if you ask someone, and something we touched on a little bit earlier is the identity of the helper and where that comes [00:20:30] from and where commonly the identity of the helper originates from.

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[00:20:52] Lauren Dry: and that led to a lot of my studies around human behavior analysis and, around that when I [00:21:00] chose to, have a career shift, and part of that was initiated by having kids was how do I maintain a sense of identity? And how do I create balance around what I [00:21:15] feel is a calling of sorts? How do I obtain balance around what it means to help others and be compassionate without losing myself, but also, how do I [00:21:30] create a healthy relationship with that part so that if I choose to go into a career of helping others, I'm doing it from a place of, support, kindness, compassion, first of all for my own self [00:21:45] so that I'm not burning out, where is that line and how did you explore that line, particularly with, everything that you've been through.

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[00:22:08] How childhood shapes the helper identity

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[00:22:31] Natalie Newgent: I think it starts at the beginning, what draws us to the careers in itself. I had a slew of adverse childhood experiences that allowed me to develop a personality that I could survive in chaos. And so that is what drew me [00:22:45] to my career and line of work as it is, which I recognize is not just me. That is a common occurrence in high stress fields, leadership, high functioning execs.

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[00:23:44] Natalie Newgent: [00:23:45] That became my calling into the fire department because I could use the skill that I developed to function in any chaotic environment, any emergency, I could turn that on from what I learned in my first thousand days. But my new [00:24:00] calling has been, I'm still going to utilize what I've learned in the helper part of me, however I've recognized, unless we go back and really connect with these parts of us that were developed as a child and bring some [00:24:15] compassion and understanding to those parts and why it manipulated my personality to be a certain way.

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[00:24:40] Natalie Newgent: What's your family balance? Everything started in the beginning of our childhood and it's [00:24:45] about getting curious and having an understanding of what drives us to be, because when you understand what drives us, then you can refocus and you get to reestablish where you want to be. But it takes a level of [00:25:00] awareness and outside help, there's counselors and therapists and community groups that will help you create a parallel between why you are the way you are and how it came to be. And that has been [00:25:15] what led me to my calling by dropping the curtains of who I'm supposed to be, who society wants me to be. What was I created to do? I was created to be a helper. I want to utilize that again. And just because I'm not running into fires now [00:25:30] doesn't mean I can't be of service the same way I was as a community.

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[00:25:33] Natalie Newgent: Sometimes people call 9 1 1 cause they're lonely and they just need a little bump of human interaction.

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[00:25:40] Natalie Newgent: I am able to provide that still injuries aside, I'm still a human and [00:25:45] I can connect with another human. And that's the beauty of it.

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[00:26:11] Lauren Dry: Now, on the edge of the extreme, that's, situations that [00:26:15] we mentioned earlier, you're on your personal journey where it seems like the only way out is through, this impossible situation that thank God someone was there for you to show up for, but so often being past your window of tolerance looks [00:26:30] like operating outside of your values, snapping at your kids, stonewalling your partner, maybe making business decisions that aren't in alignment with the future that you have planned.

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[00:26:57] Understanding your window of tolerance

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[00:27:17] Natalie Newgent: That's where I'm most comfortable cause I've spent the most time. That irritability that comes with being elevated and in that sympathetic range of your window of tolerance, [00:27:30] the irritation, unable to connect fully, snapping at your partner or just wanting to isolate and not be around your family is really indicator that you have too much going on and it's time to lighten the load [00:27:45] and take some time to step back and reflect.

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[00:28:10] Natalie Newgent: When I recognized all of that dropping away, it felt so good and so [00:28:15] peaceful and so foreign in my system that at first it was almost scary to relax. I

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[00:28:22] Natalie Newgent: like my guard was let down and now I was vulnerable and susceptible to whatever was going on in the environment around me. [00:28:30] And that was really scary at first.

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[00:28:41] Lauren Dry: Mm-hmm.

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[00:28:53] Natalie Newgent: And you don't recognize these symptoms are happening unless you understand what it feels like to rest and to have peace in your [00:29:00] body. So one thing that helped me was meditation. something I have avoided most of my life because I don't like the quiet and the stillness because then I have nothing to project my energy on and I have to reflect on my own baggage, [00:29:15] and that is scary.

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[00:29:17] Natalie Newgent: And meditation is a way that just strips your external world and allows you just really to connect inside without any influence and really just listen to what your body [00:29:30] needs. our body has needs to function that we don't always give because we are expected in society to produce, keep going.

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[00:29:48] Lauren Dry: Mm-hmm.

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[00:30:00] Natalie Newgent: It's more about how do I return back home after my thoughts take me away,

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[00:30:40] Lauren Dry: And then as soon as that's over, bang, straight back to the [00:30:45] operating in, brilliance in the chaos. So in the people's day-to-day life, for people who hear the word meditation and want to scream, because that's not gonna happen. Like maybe if you book me on a retreat, [00:31:00] maybe if, like I, I stopped having the merry-go-round of the kids, the work, the relationship chaos, the family dramas, the, maybe if you pause that, maybe I might sit there and say, okay, I'll book in a little meditation session.

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[00:31:37] Lauren Dry: For me, I really resonate with, micro somatic practices that help act as a bridge towards more, deeper practices, whether it's [00:31:45] journaling or meditation or, deep parts integration work and allowing myself to have that relationship with my parts. I'd love to hear your thoughts on how you would support someone who is still very much deeply in the or on the hamster wheel and in the [00:32:00] chaos, and who feels like, yeah, meditation sounds great, but even the thought of attempting it makes me wanna scream.

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[00:32:40] Natalie Newgent: And at first I had that same mentality going into yoga where I'm gonna get an A, I'm an [00:32:45] athlete, I was a college softball player. I'm going to crush this. This is easy and to be honest, it wasn't easy. I've been a bodybuilder most of my life.

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[00:33:17] Natalie Newgent: my body doesn't bend that way. that is the beauty of meditation is it's that external chaos that's going around that's affecting our internal thoughts and being able to realize and accept, okay. [00:33:30] This is just my practice and I'm going to go into this instead of my mindset was I'm gonna beat everybody else in this room.

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[00:34:00] Natalie Newgent: I will never be able to do half the poses. I've had multiple surgeries. It's not even an attainable goal if I wanted it to be. So I have to accept this is my best, and my best is enough.

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[00:34:14] How leader dysregulation affects teams

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[00:34:35] Natalie Newgent: And it's really about practice in just, I don't wanna use this expression, however, it does fit the fake it till you make it. It does fit in the [00:34:45] sense that the more you do something, the more it becomes a part of you and yoga and that meditation, being able to calm down and regulate is just, it's like a new superpower.

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[00:35:05] Lauren Dry: Mm-hmm.

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[00:35:23] Natalie Newgent: I've gone to counseling my entire life off and on. I knew I needed it because of my childhood, but I [00:35:30] never got past anything. I only was just barely keeping up with my current situation. And although I thought I was crushing it and getting an A in every mental health avenue I was taking, I wasn't doing the homework.

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[00:35:44] Natalie Newgent: taking it [00:35:45] outside of the class. So

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[00:35:47] Natalie Newgent: how Yep. Wasn't getting the reps in. So although it was beneficial once a week to do it would've been more beneficial had I done just five minutes every day. You get more of a benefit because of [00:36:00] the consistency,

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[00:36:22] Lauren Dry: And I think we're so programmed to think that if you just show up to something once a week, you know that's just gonna fix your whole life. [00:36:30] what about all the days in between? it doesn't have to be okay, I need to do a full one hour yoga class every single day. But what's a conscious somatic or meditative practice you can integrate into your life once a day?

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[00:37:03] Lauren Dry: I'd love to touch on something that I think is really important and really valuable for people who see themselves in helper positions or leadership positions. and that is someone who, if you are, if you do have a huge [00:37:15] level of responsibility for other people, whether it's, people that you are helping, your patients, whether it's your team, your fire crews, or whether it's your executive board, your staff, when the [00:37:30] leader is dysregulated, could you speak into the ripple effect that actually creates, that maybe, can help us have a little bit of a new insight around the fact that when we help our own selves, we're [00:37:45] actually not helping our own selves at all.

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[00:38:11] Natalie Newgent: But unless I'm living these morals and she's witnessing me [00:38:15] doing them every day, she's not going to buy into it. And that is the same with the fire department and that my coworkers, they didn't see the value in this self-care routine and actually setting up our personal life so that we could [00:38:30] maintain a career for 30 years because a lot

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[00:38:33] Moral injury: the trauma no one names

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[00:38:55] Natalie Newgent: So they're my leaders and who I'm looking up to for support, and [00:39:00] they're barreling through and pushing and they have no issues. So I can't have any issues. And had the leadership been to what it's coming into be now we're experiencing some cultural shifts and there's a lot more conversation around [00:39:15] mental health, which is amazing for everybody out there, including first responder careers, that it has been a taboo subject.

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[00:39:56] Natalie Newgent: So if that same leader comes in and says, Hey, [00:40:00] boy, I am having an off day. I didn't sleep last night, but hey, I'm here and let's do this together. that simple shift and the way they show up would allow one their symptoms and their system to feel better because the class is gonna be more [00:40:15] receptive and understanding of that.

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[00:40:35] Lauren Dry: And that's so important. I'd love to ask you what it would've meant for you if, when you were in that season, to have someone just show up and say something as simple as, I might be having [00:40:45] an off day today because of X, Y, Z. and just speaking into how they're supporting their own selves in a natural way.

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[00:40:56] Natalie Newgent: It would've allowed me to show up to work [00:41:00] and actually connect with my coworkers. You know, as the senior firefighters, they come in and they say, don't bring your baggage into work with you. So that in turn translates to don't even talk about what's going on in your personal life because you're a professional.

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[00:41:41] Natalie Newgent: Like I was just different from everybody else [00:41:45] cause I had all this stress, and obviously no one else did because nobody talked about it.

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[00:42:00] Natalie Newgent: And it's not about fixing or forcing, I have no expectation of my coworkers to fix me. However, just sharing in that space and being able to talk about what is actually going on in your life would've allowed my captains to maybe [00:42:15] understand what I was going through and help me lead to these resources and different therapies and stuff that would've helped in the moment.

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[00:42:23] Natalie Newgent: I, yeah, I just had I done it differently, it would be completely different, which is [00:42:30] what we all say. But I'm glad that I got the opportunity to realize being vulnerable is actually a superpower in itself.

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[00:42:53] Lauren Dry: I'm curious, something you've mentioned previously, is, the conversation around moral [00:43:00] injury. And so if you've seen firefighters carry the kind of grief that most people never talk about. How do you define moral injury? Why does it matter for [00:43:15] leaders, helpers, and high achievers too,

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[00:43:37] Lauren Dry: Witnessing them and sharing in that space with somebody affects our nervous system, even though we don't recognize or address it [00:43:45] because, well, it's not happening to me.

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[00:44:16] Natalie Newgent: And so you remove the patient from the scenario, you get them to the hospital, get them the resources they need, and then they go right back to the relationship and the situation that put them there. And then now we respond to the next [00:44:30] call That happens because inevitably patterns will continue until you disrupt the pattern.

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[00:44:54] Lauren Dry: Hmm.

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[00:45:00] Lauren Dry: Mm-hmm.

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[00:45:18] Natalie Newgent: We wanna control the situation to make ourselves feel better.

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[00:45:46] Helping vs. dissociating

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[00:46:06] Lauren Dry: I'd love to explore with you as well, how have you found that exploring [00:46:15] your own relationship with what your capacity is. And what your identity is and being brave enough to ask those deeper questions and, explore what vulnerability really is. Can you speak into, cause I [00:46:30] know that you mentioned previously you really felt like you didn't have a network, you didn't have a community.

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[00:46:46] Dropping the mask and being seen

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[00:47:17] Natalie Newgent: I have met the most incredible people with the most incredible stories of adversity and what they've overcome. And it's just so humbling to be a part of this group where we're all [00:47:30] focused on self-growth and connection and being able to actually lower the masks and feel safe enough to just be, and the more I drop my mask and I share my story, and I just allow myself to be, the greater my support circle [00:47:45] and network is because now I'm approachable.

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[00:48:17] Natalie Newgent: It's becoming my norm. However, it still feels different and it's intentional every day to show up vulnerable because I want to clam up and be like I used to.

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[00:48:35] Lauren Dry: I love that so much. And I'd love to ask you something that I like to do on the Connection podcast is, ask a question [00:48:45] from a previous podcast guest to leave for the next podcast guest. and the question that was left for one of our last guests was actually what's the most woo woo practice that you [00:49:00] do and how can you make it accessible to others who maybe aren't there yet?

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[00:49:06] Natalie Newgent: One of the most woowoo things I've done is either the Qigong or shaking. Which [00:49:15] is a nervous system reset. you recognize in the wild that herds of, wildlife, you'll see them running or in a stampede, but then afterwards when they're calm, they shake or if they've just ran away from a [00:49:30] predator and now they're safe, they actually physically shake and they shake off this cortisol in their system to reset back to baseline.

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[00:50:00] Natalie Newgent: But the more I got into it, the more relief I felt in my body. So I really stuck with it and just bought into the woo woo. I'm like, well, even if it's not working. It's allowing me to be intentional about just connecting with myself, [00:50:15] which is the purpose of any woo woo practice or any kind of mental health strategy.

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[00:50:24] Lauren Dry: Hmm.

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[00:50:42] Natalie Newgent: my daughter and I do this with the song, shake It [00:50:45] Off by Taylor Swift. we spend three minutes just dancing and I do my shaking techniques, and then we reset ourselves for the day together. We're closer because of it, and it's become less woo woo and just more of a [00:51:00] fun, fun little practice and thing that we do together.

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[00:51:42] Getting curious about your drivers

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[00:52:12] Lauren Dry: So getting curious about their [00:52:15] triggers and how can they use that moving forward.

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[00:52:41] Lauren Dry: thank you so much. And around that question now what [00:52:45] I would like to ask you is how can you get curious about what drives you in unexpected ways and use it better in the future? Use that curiosity in those awakenings better.

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[00:53:24] Natalie Newgent: So when I recognize different symptoms in my body or that feel like [00:53:30] unaligned, I start to put that together and get curious about why that is or where it's stemming from. And that is something I do probably multiple times a day just to allow the moment to sit, do a body scan for [00:53:45] sometimes as low as a minute, it doesn't take much.

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[00:54:01] Lauren Dry: Yeah, I love that. I think that's so important and so valuable, our relationship with our body and the wisdom in it.

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[00:54:12] The power of peer support

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[00:54:32] Natalie Newgent: That's when it's about stepping up and reaching out to that person. You know, you're recognizing a human being is struggling, and why not be the human being who steps up and just says, Hey, what's really going [00:54:45] on? Are you really okay? Allowing that space like the senior firefighter did for me.

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[00:54:51] Natalie Newgent: all you have to do. It can take five minutes outta your day, a 30 second text message just to let someone know that you're thinking of them. That [00:55:00] be the very reason that they continue to live that day, or the very reason that they decide to show up stronger for their family. That little bump of support can go so far, and it's free, [00:55:15] easily accessible, and anyone can do it because it's not the perfect words.

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[00:55:29] Lauren Dry: I love [00:55:30] that. That's so valuable and in relation to that as well. If you are the person that's struggling and perhaps you're not in a season where you feel like you have the capacity to ask for help, what's a small bridge that can help you get there, to make you realize that the world is connected and there are people out [00:55:45] there that, that really want to be there for you too.

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[00:56:12] Natalie Newgent: and it doesn't have to be you don't have to [00:56:15] make it a big thing. It can just be a simple, Hey, you know, I'm struggling today. You wanna get coffee, or, Hey, let's, let's get a coffee later or jump on a phone call. It can be as simple as just reaching out for that and experience and that kind of compassion and [00:56:30] return.

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[00:56:45] Lauren Dry: You can, engage in that uncomfortable space in a way that allows you to explore, that level of comfort in enough of an objective space so that you just start to [00:57:00] find your bridge back to vulnerability and support and being able to model for other people what it looks like to, put up your hand when you're struggling too.

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[00:57:16] Natalie Newgent: If, it was easy, everybody would do it. And that's the funny thing is it actually is easier than we think. It doesn't have to be a big thing. It's a simple text, a phone call, just the power of [00:57:30] I'm here for you.

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[00:57:31] Growth in discomfort

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[00:57:38] Natalie Newgent: And I encourage people just to lean into that discomfort because that's where the growth is and that's where the magic [00:57:45] happens.

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[00:57:46] Lauren Dry: Natalie, thank you so much for coming on the Connection podcast today. I know that your journey and, what you've been through and your growth and your self-compassion and the passion that you are now [00:58:00] carrying into the future, not only for yourself, but others is changing the world, and changing how we see ourselves.

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[00:58:21] Connect with Natalie and Rekindled Retreats

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[00:58:50] Natalie Newgent: And this is just an opportunity for people to jump online, jump on a zoom with community of people struggling just like them. And the idea or the concept is just to [00:59:00] struggle well, let's just open up and talk about what is happening in our lives in a space that we can be witnessed to be able to connect deeper and show up authentic.

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[00:59:34] Natalie Newgent: So 6:00 AM a simple hour of meditation and intention setting for the week. And that's just a good way to get connected in the rekindled community, hear about what's [00:59:45] coming on, what events. We do workshops, and it's just a, it's a good way to start getting connected with people experiencing similar trauma and just hopefully my ideas, it comes on as community and we leave as friends.

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[01:00:17] Lauren Dry: And to continue the conversation if anything has come up for you, if you'd like to discuss something deeper that's come up around the Connection podcast, please feel free to come hang out with us on Instagram at anytime. we would [01:00:30] love to delve a little bit into anything that's, on your heart, on your mind that's sitting with you right now.

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[01:00:35] Lauren Dry: And also, please make sure to jump across and follow Natalie as well to continue the conversation, but also make sure to like, and subscribe to the Connection [01:00:45] podcast and come along the journey with us as we learn more about what it means to have clarity and ease in any relationship. Most importantly, the relationship with ourselves.

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