Embracing Summer Joy: Manifestations, Body Positivity, and Parenting

Rachael, we're live.

Okay, that is so nice.

Get you a drink and your coffee.

Well, so good to see you.

Oh, no.

I kind of feel like I haven't actually seen you in real life in a minute.

We've talked and FaceTimed and done some things, but we haven't actually been able to touch each other.

We just grabbed hands.

I know.

Or anybody that was curious.

You and your 17 necklaces.

It's actually all one necklace, thanks to free people.

Well, it's two necklaces.

It's my two to two necklace that you got me.

Yes, which I now have too, because Graham got one.

Yes, I love it so much.

And then this menagerie of necklaces that's all combined into one.

I don't even know how many.

I love free people, but I have the evil eye of protection on there, and a little sun moon action, and a little choker action.

It's great.

No, it's super great.

Evie got one that was matching, but she got her snagged on something, and it broke badly.

Does free people make stuff for kids?

Or she just got the same necklace as you?

No, she just got the same one.

Yeah, they do not cater to the children's.

That's good, to be honest.

All right, well, I feel like the last few times we've forgotten to do our intro, and we really...

Just the one?

Well, no, okay, we did it at the end.

It's not just the one time.

The one time we've completely forgot.

And then we remembered once at the end.

So, hi, Krystyn.

Welcome to Two Mystic Mamas.

We are so glad you're here.

Oh, man.

We love this podcast so much.

So much.

And we're gonna talk today about summer, all things summer, and summer manifestations, summer vision boards, summer, all things summer.

And I think before we kick off into some of those things, I think it would be a cool exercise if we just kind of on the fly re or go back and think about some of the things that we have manifested for this podcast that are now coming to fruition.

Because I saw this quote the other day that said, you are where you wanted to be a year ago, and you will be where you are now is helping to plant the seeds for where you're going to be a year from now.

And I was like, okay.

And I think when I look back where I was a year ago, I was in a, I really had started to see the signs from the universe that change needed to happen in my professional career, and where I was heading professionally and directionally, and I was still at that, no, no, no.

You know, I was just of that, I'd get big signs and then I'd be like, I think that was some for somebody else.

I don't think that was for me.

And just kind of subduing it, because big life changes can be scary.

And sometimes it just takes that repetitive universal.

We're coming for you.

Yeah, the universe is gonna continue to remind you one way or the other.

Yes, yes.

So I think, you know, just looking back in the last six months of what we have put forth, we, you know, when we started this, we had no idea what anything, right?

We didn't have a name.

All we knew is we wanted to do a podcast, but we had...

Right.

We just...

That was it.

We have so much fun together.

Why are we not sharing this fun?

Right, because we would have conversations where I would be, we'd be in the throes of it, and I'd be like, God, somebody needs to hear this.

Somebody needs to absorb this because it's so helpful.

I just, it's one of those, we have one of those relationships where there's so much feeling involved when we have conversations, and we genuinely put forth energy with each other that is helpful.

And it can be hard at times to hear, because, well, sometimes hearing, it's not criticism, but when you're like, well, I don't know, you're just kind of giving the truth, but the way we deliver it for each other is in such a compassionate, real way that, you know, because we've both walked through really tough life events where it's, you know, we analyze what is our purpose on earth?

What are we doing here?

Raising children, oh my God, it can be so difficult and challenging and-

What do you mean?

It's just a piece of cake.

Yeah, but yeah, I just feel-

It's a poison cake.

We love our children.

They're psychos.

We love them so much.

There are moments throughout the day where I'm like, so glad to be a mom.

And then I'm like, what the fuck did we do?

I would like to remind you at this junction here, that earlier, actually yesterday, we had a conversation on the phone about how you told Jeffrey you wanted another baby.

That was last week.

And I was just reminiscing about being pregnant.

If you're listening and you are, I was a happy pregnant mama, okay?

Liza, I'm sorry, Liza.

No.

No, you were, but I still call bullshit.

No, I-

Anybody that enjoys being fucking pregnant.

No, I did.

If you are with me in this camp, come on over to Camp Krystyn, because everybody who says they enjoy being pregnant is fucking bonkers.

Nope.

Including my dear friend, Rachael.

Nope.

I think it's so funny because it goes one way or the other, right?

Like you have women, you never meet women that were like, I mean, it was okay.

You either have women that were like, I fucking hated it.

Everything about it hurt my body.

I hate, I just didn't enjoy it.

And then you have people like me that were like, I really loved it.

I mean, you reach a point where you're pregnant and where you're like, okay, I'm done being pregnant now.

Let's go.

But I loved being pregnant.

I loved carrying babies.

I didn't, you know, I didn't say I didn't have any issues because I had gestational diabetes and I'd have to go see a chiropractor on the reg because, you know, it does take a toll on your body physically.

But I love everything about being pregnant.

I love that for you.

I did not have the same experience.

I'm trying to convince you, even though Evie's 11, and I'm like, just change your view on what happened.

You did love it.

No.

I'm not gaslighting you.

I mean, I will say this.

I love my daughter so much.

And every bit of pregnancy crap that I went through was well worth it.

And when I was pregnant, I will say it is the first time in my life that I ever looked at my body and was feeding and nourishing it for the sake of feeding and nourishing it because I was carrying a human and not because I thought that I had to eat this or eat that or be doing this or be doing that or be doing that and looking at my body with disdain, which I had done prior.

So really, I would say it's one of the first times I've ever actually loved my body.

I think that's a beautiful message, too, because pregnancy also does change our bodies in so many ways.

I remember getting pregnant.

And I really struggle with my weight since I was young.

And I remember thinking to myself, man, I've done so much damage, there's no way this pregnancy's gonna make it worse.

What's done is done.

Also lies and bullshit.

It could get worse.

That core strength is a real...

Oh, mine is completely fucking shot.

I still need to have surgery at some point to repair.

Think we can get a BOGO?

We'll just invite him on the podcast.

Hey, we'll do a documentary about...

I actually, it's so funny you said that because this morning when I was leaving, dropping Isla off at school, I was thinking, because sometimes when we're talking about body image and accepting our bodies, I have gotten, I've worked really hard for listeners out there who are just tuning in.

If you don't know what I physically look like, I am short, I'm 5'3.

I'm probably like right around 180 with the kids when I was fully pregnant.

I went just over 200, you know, and when you look at what society says you should be, blah, blah, blah, my BMI was off the charts and all this other bullshit.

But I've always just looked at my body and I stand in the mirror and I'm like, I love you, I love your body.

My, I was all belly, so like my, I have what they call tiger stripes, you know, all, I stretch marks all over my, my belly.

And because of how I carried my babies, I had, whatchamacallit, I had, not discovered, created.

I, what is the word I'm looking for?

What the fuck?

I don't know, but this reminds me of a video I'll show you about hobby horsing.

Oh my God, don't fuck, how does that remind you?

And she's like, she's, I like women.

No, that video is crazy.

I know exactly what the video is about.

My name's Eva?

Yeah, okey dokey.

I developed, that's the word, that's the word.

That's the word I was looking for.

I developed distastis racti, which is basically just a separation of your abdominal muscles.

I just, you know, I had it with Emmy just a little bit, my first, and then with Graham, every pregnancy made it worse, right?

And so I also have a hernia, which at some point I'm gonna need to get fixed.

And so because of that, like my stomach like distends out, and, you know, sometimes different clothes aren't super flattering, like just tight clothing around my belly area, A doesn't feel flattering.

And then I have the issue of when I look in the mirror, it's your body should not look like that.

And it's still like, I'm, you know, I'm human.

And I look at my body and I'm like, but you created three humans, and that is an incredible feat in and of itself.

And at some point you may, you may not get this corrected medically.

I think I should get it corrected.

I think it would, I think it will cause more issues down the line if I don't, but I always wanted to get the mommy makeover when I did it.

And then there's, and for me, there's no shame in that.

I'm like, I don't fucking care.

If I go in to have some plastic surgery to fix a medical issue that needs corrected, and at the same time do a tummy tuck, okay.

I mean, again, I may or may not get it done because it's not covered by insurance.

The surgery is for the diastasis, but not the other thing.

But anyways, I don't know how we got on this tangent, why I went down this path.

But I think just when you look at your body after pregnancy and what it does, there's so much beauty in it.

And part of me doesn't want, that's where I was going with this, part of me doesn't want to have that surgery because I don't want to lose looking at my body and remembering what it did.

That's such a big part of who I am and how it has shaped me as a woman and as a mother and just loving our fucking bodies.

Right.

I mean, I, as a photographer and a predominantly women's portraiture and boudoir photographer, see this all the time.

Right?

And when I started, now I feel like we could do a whole, I think we should do a whole episode on body positivity image and body neutrality, which is something I'd like to talk about, but down the road.

But I was really concerned when I started as a boudoir photographer that I was going to compare myself.

Oh, sure.

And then it was going to have a negative effect on my own body image.

And it surprisingly was the complete opposite because every single woman that stepped in front of my camera, regardless of what their body looked like, if they carried weight, they didn't carry weight, they were fit, whatever, they all had the same fucking thoughts.

Yeah.

Every single one of us.

Yeah.

Yep.

Yep.

So, you know.

We're so connected in that regard, right?

I think though that the problem or what I would like to address maybe with this podcast is the cruelty has to stop.

We all have the same thoughts, but it's that projection of how we communicate that, right?

Because it's that comparison where it's judgment and it's just disgusting.

And that's where, no, that has to stop.

Right.

It's judgment of our own bodies and judgment of other women's bodies.

And I think this actually lends itself really well to what we're talking about today.

A, in manifestation, right?

Because what we think becomes reality.

Yes.

And our thoughts.

Right.

And also with summer here now, is there's so many people, it's how many times have you seen, you know, get a summer body, all of the things you're supposed to be doing, right?

All that noise.

And it's not that there's not merit in being healthy, right?

That's not it.

Totally.

100%.

Yes.

I want to be healthy.

You know, I want to feel fit and be able to run and play and do all of the things, right?

Krystyn.

I don't want to freak you out, but I need to get that B.

Oh, motherfucker.

Okay.

Well, I know we're still recording, but Krystyn stepped out because she is highly, highly allergic to bees, and there was a fucking yellow jacket.

I typically don't like to squash those types of bees because then they give off a pheromone that then attracts other ones.

So I just trap them and I let them die slowly.

So while Krystyn's not here, I'm just going to take this opportunity to give a little shout out to Krystyn because what she has done in her industry for her professional life that has also bled so well into her personal life is being such an amazing advocate for women.

And I just want to applaud her and send her so much love because if you're listening and you are struggling with your body image and what that looks like, and you are not alone, there's so many women out there that are struggling with this, and you're so important and you are so beautiful and you have so much to offer.

And we are so unique in every single way, including our shape and our size and our eyes and our color of our hair and all of the things, the color of our skin.

Like, we are all unique, amazing humans, and we've been put on this planet for a very specific purpose.

So I just want to love on you.

You know, naturally, I'm loving on you virtually because you're not here, but I'm giving you a big squeeze.

I'm giving...

I'm gonna give Krystyn a big squeeze.

We always squeeze each other, but I just...

You really should check out her work, her boudoir work, her photography work.

I've had boudoir pictures done, and there is something...

When you take off your clothes and you put something on or you are just completely nude, there's just something very freeing, that's the word.

Freeing about just like putting it all out there and not having any inhibitions and just owning your body, owning the soul that resides in that body.

And what that feels like is...

It's incredible.

It's a safe space when you have these photos taken.

And it...

I just...

Ugh, I encourage anybody out there, if you've been on the fence about doing a boudoir shot, A, do them for yourself, don't do them for others.

I mean, do them for others too.

But just love on yourself and...

Did you just let another one in?

One moment, I have to go do another B.

There's a little surprise on the podcast for you.

Thank you for saving my life.

Yes.

We were talking about all the summer body, bikini body stuff, right?

Yeah.

Before we left off.

And if that kind of stuff is on your vision board, cool.

More power to you if those are your goals.

But just make sure that we're clearing out old energy.

Like if those goals don't really align with how you feel about yourself.

Sorry.

We're just laughing because I almost knocked over a cup of coffee.

It was a big slosh, too.

That was, yeah.

We weren't laughing at...

We weren't laughing at you and your goals.

Yeah, no.

Just FYI.

Well, I think we need to take a step back, though, and talk about some revision boards, because that's one of our things that...

One of our ideas that we really feel is such a fun fucking activity, and there's so much truth behind how that sets up you manifesting what it is that you want to see happen in your life.

I have been listening to Super Attractor by Gabrielle Bernstein.

Have you ever read it?

No, but I am familiar with her.

Well, she is...

What I'm reading right now is all about joy, right?

And how we manifest through joy.

And she weighs her success on how much fun she has.

And I was like, oh man, that's so fucking brilliant.

And if we can do that on our summer vision boards, oh my God, what can we do on a daily basis, weekly basis, monthly basis, to have fun?

Just fucking have fun.

I think there's so much truth behind that.

And the power of laughing.

When you laugh and you release the hormones and the pheromones, the dopamine.

But I think that just makes everything so much more memorable and easy.

You know, I feel very much like what you just said.

I have to read this book now because that has me so intrigued because I've been really trying to dissipate high tense situations with the kids where like emotions are running kind of like high and like they might be yelling at each other or I might be yelling at them or whatever.

And then like making a joke and trying to break that.

And everyone starts giggling and laughing and it just, it just raises that vibration.

So it's not, and it was so aggressive.

I know you could, you could try it.

Oh my God.

Did you see when you posted these?

No.

Look at the timestamp at the bottom.

Hold on.

So we have ideas on our Trello board of different podcast topics.

Oh, shit.

Ha ha.

See, that was a Beetlejuice hunk.

I know.

You can't get away from it.

You can't.

To your point, though, getting your vision board going is...

This is a really great time to not only set your intentions for the next six months, but it's also a really good exercise in how can we keep our energies aligned with the intentions that we want on a daily basis.

When we start thinking about not just our goals, but every single day, how do I keep my energy aligned with my intention that I want to set for the summer?

If you're going to weigh your success by the joy, the amount of joy that you have, then how are you creating joy and raising that vibration and creating that energy every single day?

And I think that's what should be on your vision board, not necessarily just the big goals.

For sure.

I think when you do a vision board, for me, this is a personal take on it.

You put things on there that you want to manifest in your future, whether your future is next week, next month, next year, whatever that case may be, but also the environment in which you want to live, which includes the emotions that you want to reside in your space.

And I would say joy is one of those.

Happiness, peace, calm, just a sense of belonging, a sense of adding to this earth in the most beautiful ways, kindness, you know, it was interesting because when I first did vision boards back in my early 20s, it was all about the car and the house and the ring and the dude and the baby and all these things that society kind of deemed that we should have, right?

Which some of the shit was legit.

I did want it.

But, you know, on the vision board that I've done over here, which I'll lift it up for you, it is 100% more centered around how I want to feel.

What do I want my daily life to feel like?

Which has just really come to be where I'm like, oh my God, that's what I did on that vision board.

It wasn't a bunch of materialistic shit.

It was, how do I want my daily life to feel?

Which I think is huge.

The sooner you realize that how you feel and how you operate your environment, that will just create all the other material things to happen.

Right.

Lead with what you want, energy-wise.

What is happening with my voice?

You coughed it out.

Apparently.

I would say too, that's an exercise in letting go of control of the end goal.

We obviously, when we're manifesting things for the podcast, or we're manifesting things for our personal lives, we do have end goals, even if that is the way we want to feel.

Right?

Absolutely.

And not just the material things or needing to find sponsors or anything like that.

But if we're focusing on the daily and the now and what you're manifesting with your thoughts and your energy in this moment.

Right?

If I'm sitting here and I was going to be thinking all sorts of negative thoughts towards myself, Krystyn, I can't believe you coughed.

You know, if you go down those roads, then you're going to create more negative energy.

That's going to...

Like you in the yellow jacket, you wouldn't want to kill the one because it releases pheromones so the rest of them know they're dead and they fucking come for you.

And I was like, all right, well, fine, fuck it.

Let's go.

I will kill you.

I'm not afraid.

I ain't afraid.

You're like Kevin McAllister on Home Alone.

I'm not afraid anymore.

Yeah, but not Kevin McAllister, not Macaulay Culkin and My Girl.

His ass was afraid.

And he died.

God, it always comes back to fucking My Girl.

Oh, man.

Yeah, God, man, vision boards for me are so fun.

They're such a fun activity.

If you want to have, if you're new to vision boards, I mean, shit, there's Pinterest.

That is a fucking vision board.

As a search engine, you can get your girlfriend together or get couples together or whatever it is.

And old magazines, you know, you can go to the Goodwill, buy a bunch of kids' books.

And there's so many things out there that you can use to make a vision board and be creative about it.

I mean, you can get things outside of, you know, out in nature.

You can print stuff off the internet.

It can be important.

We can share some of our vision boards that we feel comfortable with.

Totally.

In our Instagram page review.

You can do a virtual vision board, again, Pinterest.

It allows that creative side of you, you know, to come out.

And when you really start to allow yourself to think about what you want in that creative way, you will be shocked at what messages come through.

We sit down and do a family of vision boards.

Like, we each get a poster board, and we each make one.

Evie and I found it really great.

It was, I think it was two years ago, the Free People summer catalog came, which we just talked about how much we love free people.

And it was all about the elements, earth, air, fire, water.

And there was so much, I mean, I basically vision board most of that catalog, because they were in these dreamy locations shooting, and they had really great quotes that, you know, were coincided with the elements.

Yeah, it was super cool.

I love that.

Oh, the elements.

There's so much power in that too.

Yeah, we have one coming for you guys on the elements.

We do.

Yeah.

Stay tuned for that.

Yep.

I follow this coach, and he's a coach for like parents and teens, mostly.

And he, I want to say he's in this maybe early to mid 20s.

And he's got such profound advice for his age.

I believe his Instagram is coaching with Will, if you are.

And a lot of his stuff really transcends for younger children too, because I think of a lot of it is about building confidence in our kids.

So if you are a parent and you have any bit of trepidation about what this summer is going to look like for you because you have your kids home, and you're worried about any of all the things, right?

We worry about keeping them busy.

We worry about, you know...

There's art.

Interactions and...

Letting them be bored though.

Our kids in this society, they need a dose in imagination.

Right.

Well, he is really good because he's talking about...

A lot of it is modeling, right?

And he did a challenge, I think it was last November, and it was actually for the parents, and it was amazing to me how many people commented, is this for us or for them?

Like, why would I need to be doing this?

Well...

Because we all lose sight of our fucking inner child.

Exactly.

And the biggest thing is when you change your words, you change your mindset, right?

And I know we can get in this habit ourselves, and we're so very con...

con of this.

When you are speaking, it's I get to, right?

Model that you get to do.

I get to pay a bill, or I get to do this, I get to clean the house.

Not I have to do this.

Because then everything becomes fucking boring.

And a chore.

Right.

Right.

Because life is all about the things that, you know, have to get done.

But I firmly believe in that, too.

Like, when the home gets overwhelming for me, too, in different regards, usually with clutter or tasks, I just try to be...

I try to take a step back and just say, okay, I'm so grateful for X.

I'm so grateful for, you know, like we have the basement that is still, you know, the basement that is still not done, right?

And I can really get in my head about, why has this taken so long?

Why haven't you made this a priority?

But, you know, at the end of the day, we've chosen to do other things, you know, make memories and work on other projects.

And when I look at the basement, when I go through there sometimes, I am constantly like, this is gonna be such a cool space.

I'm so excited about what this project holds.

It's gonna be great when we do get to the work, you know, and not putting that pressure.

You know, take that pressure fucking off your shoulders, you know, and just, you know, model.

I think that is so good.

Model for your children how you want your children to behave.

Don't dictate to them.

Don't tell them what they have to do.

Show them.

Show them.

Yep, 100%.

Yeah.

I guarantee if you're showing them and you're showing up in the way that you want them to show up, you're going to have a much better summer.

And when you start acting like a kid again, oh, man.

That's all they want.

Well, and it will bring something out in you that I guarantee has been dormant.

And you'll be like, what is this feeling?

It'll be wild.

Yeah.

I mean, we're very silly in our family.

Yes.

You know, the three of us really get down with the silliness on a daily basis.

You do.

And I truly think that's part of why we're so close.

We have a really close family.

We all communicate with each other really well.

And I would attribute most of that to the amount of joy that we have every single day.

And you have to make it, because all of life's problems are still there.

You still have, you know, shit that happens to your house, and, you know, all the things, bills to pay.

Yeah, a bill you forgot about.

We got a certified letter.

Oh, no.

Yeah, it was great.

I went, ooh, we got something fun in the mail.

And I looked at it, and I was like, fuck, that's not great.

And I like opened it, and I was like, what?

What?

And so apparently for two years, this is two years ago, so going back four years, we were not paying our garbage pickup monthly, quarterly bill, unbeknownst to us.

I did not know about this, right?

And so I remember two years ago, I was like, oh, okay.

And so we set it up, so it automatically debits, no big deal, fine, fine, fine.

Well, apparently it also never covered the debt that we didn't take care of.

So long story short, I was like, oh, this is a fun $973 surprise that we, I did not know, right?

So anyways, we got it sorted.

Jeff called, you know, got on a payment plan to make it right or whatever.

But it's in those moments where I was, that could have just took me right down, right?

Because finances just, oof.

We have started calling them, so Charlie and I set up non-negotiable meeting times to talk about money.

Now, we have gone through like lots of different ways of doing this because I'm very much a planner.

Money talks stress my husband out greatly.

And that's probably like really the only place that we like kind of butt heads.

It can be a place where a lot of people butt heads.

So we found an app that we use to chat back and forth and have dialogue.

So when we have something we need to discuss about a bill, we put it in the chat of that app.

And then we can go look at it whenever we feel like we can go look at it.

Like we're in a good place, you know, we're not in the middle of a work thing.

And then you get a text message that says, Oh, we have a $937 garbage bill.

They're going to put a lien on our house.

Right.

We got fun mail.

Fun mail.

It's fun time.

So we use the app, but in the words that we use too.

So I will send a Google Calendar invite to our meetings.

And they're called wealth building meetings.

And when we pay a bill like that, if you have something that comes out that you're like, Oh, fuck, I forgot about this or whatever we call those accomplishments.

Yeah, it really makes a difference.

And I also do a reading now at the beginning of each meeting.

No, that's so good.

And so I'll pull a card or if I feel drawn to pull two or three, and that sets the intention for our meeting.

I think this is what we need to be focused on.

I think, too, the other thing, if you're speaking about bringing in and setting intentions and doing a card pool, for me, too, there are specific archangels that do have different qualities and bring forth different things.

And there are quite a few that are all about abundance and wealth.

And so you can bring them down.

Like that you're recording me, that you're speaking.

They love to be part of...

They love to be a part of helping us.

And, you know, when you just call upon them, invoke them, boom, they're there, they're present, and they are going to do everything in their power to help you also walk in that fine, amazing, divine path that you have laid out in front of you.

So you're not alone.

Call on your spirit guides, call on your angels, call on Mother Nature, call on all of the, you know, positive spirits.

And do that vision board, right?

Set your goals so that, you know, we've kind of tangent into the financial aspect here a little bit.

So, you know, get to work, like, doing your vision board and really not just writing down what your goals are, but like how you want to get there and how you want to feel when you're getting there.

Because how you feel is going to manifest more and more.

Feelings create decisions.

They 100% influence how we decide.

So, yeah, it's all interconnected.

It's such a fun activity.

It's just, you got to get out and do it.

So, the goal, I'm going to just give you guys a challenge between now and the next time that you listen to this podcast.

Set something up on your calendar for yourself to do this, whether, you know, you're going to do it for yourself individually, but whether you do it with a group of friends or you just do it, you know, individually, do it.

Do not not do it.

So, I'm challenging you right now.

Do it.

Do it, do it, do it.

Well, do it now.

That makes me think of that song.

But that's a sex song.

Lick it good, just like you should.

Do you know that song?

Don't listen to that song while you're doing it.

Put on good music that, you know, you get the creative juices flowing.

I don't know, Rachael.

We have talked about doing an in-person Mystic Mamas...

Oh, yeah, we got to do it.

We got to do it...

That's our challenge.

That's our challenge, is to get that together and out to you guys, put it on the books.

And I think that we could incorporate a vision boarding session into that, maybe.

Mm-hmm.

A mini vision board.

Right, like a mini one.

Yeah.

Eight and a half by 11.

Teeny tiny.

Right.

Thank you guys for joining us, and thank you for loving on us and virtually sending your energy.

We are doing the same for you, and we are so grateful that you are on this journey with us.

We love you so damn much.

We'll see you later.

Bye.