Mastering Self-Leadership Through The Conscious Habit Framework With Amy Woodall

 

Achievement is often fueled by a powerful, sometimes destructive, force: the ego. Amy Woodall, expert in mindset and founder of Conscious Habit, knows this firsthand, admitting that she was “determined” to prove people wrong after becoming a mom at a young age. But, as she reveals, chasing success as a means to earn worthiness is a daily mess that will always leave you “damn hungry.” In this candid conversation, Amy shares her journey from a self-professed “horrible manager” to an internationally-sought expert, explaining why the next evolution of work is not just about mind and body, but about interjecting the soul. Discover the simple, five-part Conscious Habit framework that leaders can use to slow their thinking, detach from ego-driven stories, and cure burnout by connecting to the truest part of themselves.

Show Notes: 

• 00:33 – Amy’s Background And Founding Conscious Habit
• 02:36 – The Role Of Ego In Becoming An Entrepreneur
• 08:22 – Ego Making A Daily Mess And Chasing Worthiness
• 11:58 – I Am Not My Thoughts; Creating Separation
• 16:10 – Detaching Ego Stories For Self-Leadership In Organizations
• 21:33 – The Five-Part Conscious Habit Framework
• 27:09 – Interjecting The Soul: The Next Evolution Of Work And Curing Burnout
• 37:27 – Daily Conscious Habit: Unconditional Love And Breathwork

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Mastering Self-Leadership Through The Conscious Habit Framework With Amy Woodall

Everybody, welcome back to another episode. I am so excited to be in the seat. I haven’t had a show in a couple of minutes just through the summer. All that good stuff. We’re back at it. This guest that I have, you’re going to be blown away by her. She is spectacular and has a great mind. A beautiful spirit and weight about her. Let me just read a little bit about it and then I’m going to jump right in with my first question for Amy Woodall.

Amy’s Background And Founding Conscious Habit

Amy is an expert in mindset and behavior, who knows humans, how they think, where they get stuck and how to move them forward. She’s a Founder of Conscious Habit and the host of the top ranked Conscious Habit Show. Amy and her team travel the globe helping solve problems from the inside out. After all, the route of results begins within. Amy, thank you so much and welcome to the show.

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Amy, you’ve got an impressive life history and interesting bio. I read these things all the time,  so do you. You hear them all the time and it’s like maybe you even become immune to it at a certain point. It’s like, “Somebody’s reading my introduction again. I’m not even paying attention.” The question I’ve got to ask you has nothing to do with that. This is perfect. What’s one thing that’s not a part of your introduction or your bio that you would love for people to know about you at the start of our conversation?

It’s Interesting to reflect on why I did not go to college. I’ll give you a little history of Amy. A classic middle child. Rebellious and nobody’s going to tell me what to do. I dare you to tell me what to do. I was a little bit of a wild child in high school. I gave my parents every gray hair that they ever had. I dated the bad boy and there was a sense of responsibility that hit me halfway through my senior year. I know if I go to school, I’m going to piss this away.

There was also this other sense of me that’s like, “I’m ready to get my life started. Let’s go.” At nineteen, I became a manager of a retail store. I was managing a staff of eight or nine people and I was a horrible manager. I was not good at it. I didn’t even know how to lead myself at nineteen, but I had a decent salary. I bought a house at twenty and then became a mom at 21. I didn’t have kids in my future. I was going to move to New York.

The Role Of Ego In Becoming An Entrepreneur

I was going to be a buyer. I was going to work in the fashion industry. I had my life all planned and became a mom at a young age. I was determined from there not to become what people believed of me like, “You know Amy. She’s that troubled middle child.” That stubbornness kicked in at the right time and I knew, “I’m going to prove them wrong. I’m going to do this mom thing the best that I can.” Soon after, I became an entrepreneur. I had my first son at 21 and the second son at 23. I started my first business at 24. I have been an entrepreneur in different ways ever since.

The thing that people don’t know about you is that you’re stubborn?

They probably could be like, “Duh”

People who know Amy would like, “That’s nothing new here.”

Surprise. Surprise.

This is not revelatory but for the audience, anyway. That’s not a part of your bio. “I’m stubborn. I’m tenacious.” There’s an element of what we might call stubborn or obstinate or even somebody is driven by proving other people are wrong or proving that we’re right. That is a through line for successful entrepreneurs, at least and even successful leaders, frankly. I don’t think it’s a good thing but that’s a thing.

It is a thing. I’m grateful that I had ego at the right time. Now, in my older years, I’m working to learn how to put ego in a different driver seat. It served me.

Say more about that.

It served me until it didn’t. We teach a lot about ego and conscious habits. It’s a part of our framework that we teach. It’s helping people understand when their ego gets hooked and their ego gets pushed. There’s lots of different versions of ego. Ego is not just like, “I’m right.” Ego is not like my version, which is, dig their heels in and go getter. That’s one version of ego. Ego can also be the people pleaser or the perfectionist. Ega can be the person who changes who they are in front of any person in front of them as a means to be accepted. Ego shows up in different ways for all of us.

Ego shows up in different ways for all of us. It’s there to protect us—until it starts to make a me. Share on X

It’s there to protect us until it makes a mess. What I’ve learned in my own journey, which is what I now become passionate about helping other people operate beyond. I think it’s Mary Ann Williamson who has shared this quote, “Undergoes guide, we searched but we do not find.” If ego is driving, we often believe that our happiness or satisfaction or fulfillment will exist on the other side of something.

I did that for a long time on the other side of, “When I make six figures, I’m going to prove I was a statistic. I’m going to prove that I didn’t need that college education to be successful.” Guess what? I hit it. I felt elated for 5.2 seconds before I kicked that damn can down the road and was chasing it again. I kept doing that over and over again. I was meeting other people who were doing the same thing. I started to see, “This is ego. Undergo we seek but we do not find.”

I want to know how ego has made a mess. When you said that early, I found myself stuck in that spot where I’m going, “What’s an example?” Everybody has an example. Anybody reading this, maybe you’re curious to learn what she’s about to say and give her time to think about how she wants to approach that. Think the same thing for yourself. If ego has ever made a mess in your life, what does that look like? Amy, to you, while everybody else is going through that process.

I want to just iterate. I don’t think it’s all bad because there’s plenty of great things that ego has gotten me. Here’s the way that I look at ego. It’s a bit more from a spiritual perspective than it is a therapeutic perspective. It’s a bit more aligned with Michael Singer and Eckhart Tolle than it is yang-yin principles, necessarily.

I know that when I have not had a good relationship with my highest best self, the part of me that knows it doesn’t have to prove. That part of me when I was born on this planet. I don’t know about you, Adam, but when I came out of the womb, I’m pretty sure I wasn’t looking at the cradle next to me saying, “I wish I had dark hair like them. I wanted brown eyes. I weigh how much? I got a big butt.” I had no qualms about myself.

I’m pretty sure that when I kick the bucket someday whenever it’s my time, the people who love me the most will remember what’s true about me. Not how much money I made or how often I was in the gym. They’re not going to remember any of that crap. They’re going to remember what was true about me. Which is this connection to a higher, more consistent place within myself. That version of me knows I have nothing to prove but that I can for fun. That’s why I’m here to create. I’m here to build a business or help people.

The way I equate it for myself and also coach other people too is like, what are we making the icing and what are we making the cake for? My ego’s version is high achievement. It feels like I have to achieve in order to be good and worthy. I’ve stuck with me every second of every day for my entire life. I cannot escape my own being. Terrifying.

Ego Making A Daily Mess And Chasing Worthiness

If I can build a good relationship with this constant home within myself, then all of that achievement gets to be the icing. If it’s the cake, I’m still damn hungry. I’m likely making some outside source responsible for that. The mess that’s been made has been mistaken that I would earn some worthiness or fulfillment in some future events or box checked outside of myself.

That’s a mess that happens. I’ll just say, for me, that was a daily mess. For the most part because it’s such a driver for driving toward achievement or pushing yourself beyond what is sometimes reasonable limits thinking that it’s okay or it’ll be okay. In the end, the end itself justifies the means. That whole end justifies the means. Philosophy, which I do think it’s not a law. As you say, it’s not something we’re born with. I don’t think it’s something that’s naturally a part of us but it’s a way that we survive in the world.

How we develop that story around, what it takes to survive, what it takes to cope, or any of those things does go back to places much earlier in our lives and all that program. You mentioned a couple of books. The one that you said it, I’m thinking, “I’m due for a reread.” I don’t know how many of you guys have books out there that you read every once in a while and over and over again. Those are good books and very useful.

Michael Singer’s, The Untethered Soul and I know he’s got other books. I forget the name of another book of his that was pretty cool, too. The Untethered Soul literally rocked my world. There’s a few moments like that. You meant you mentioned Marianne Williamson, her book is A Return to Love. It’s amazing stuff, but that Michael Singer book is phenomenal. Does that book work well? I’m putting you on the spot here.

I know this like four chapters in a row and I’m trying to think of it as my big 12, 13, 14, 15, or something like that. He’s describing the thorn in the pause and how we build our lives around these injuries that we’ve got, these little thorns or not so little thorns in our pause. We create a construct to make sure we never touch the thorn. Nobody ever touches that thorn in. What were you thinking of when you mentioned him earlier? Was there something in particular?

I listened to that book for the first time in 2017. There was a moment. I remember driving down the interstate where there was an instant perception shift. I recognize in that moment based on his insights of, “Have you ever noticed when you’re not talking? There’s a little voice within that is talking and this concept of this inner narrator.” I remember this perception shift where prior to that I had believed that I am just a witnesser of life. I am just watching life unfold around me.

That’s informing me what’s happening next. That instant shift was like, I recognized that life was happening from the inside out. That my eyes saw what my brain believed to be true. My experience in the world was a matter of my inner hardwiring, my inner belief system, how often I listen to that voice. Even believing I was that voice. That’s the thing that book taught me so deeply and inspired a lot of the work I get to do now and for myself, too.

I Am Not My Thoughts; Creating Separation

By the way, I am one of my greatest students. Half of my clients joke. I’m like, “You know this is my therapy, right?” That taught me like, I am not my thoughts and yet I have allowed my identity to be connected to this mind that thinks erratically and how much unnecessary suffering comes. It’s because we believe these stories that are created in the mind. It put me on a path of learning how to create separation between my thinking and the thinker creating a habit of greater consciousness.

I don’t know if I’ve ever thought of it exactly this way. That’s what’s great about conversation and when you get to connect with somebody. Especially somebody you have never connected with before. You and I are doing this for the first time. There’s this tension between who we are and what we think. It’s odd but there’s a part that is weird to be thinking, “I am not my thoughts.” “Huh? What?” “I don’t have to trust my thoughts,” and go, “What?” A lot of our audience and a lot of the people that I speak with and work well with are business people. I’m mostly focused on leadership in that regard.

Again, our company isn’t leading with an algorithm. We’re not leading AI. We’re leading people. We’re helping people to lead other people and that’s still the way it is. I know for sure that’s not changing anytime soon and certainly not in our lifetimes. That’s not a bold prediction, I don’t think. For you to say to a leader, “What’s the most important thing for a leader to be able to do?” I would say to trust yourself.

You cannot lead anybody. If you’re in your own brain going, “Should we go left? Should we go right? Which way?” Any road will take you there. No. You have to trust yourself, but at the same moment to say, “You have to be able to trust yourself,” and to also say, “I don’t trust my thoughts all the time because my thoughts aren’t trustworthy. They can lead me astray.” They can go, “They’re not even who I am a lot of the time.” In fact, most of the time, they’re probably not who I am in actuality. Is that what you were getting at?

It is. This work started. I listened to The Untethered Soul in 2017. At the time, I was a performance improvement coach in an organization. I would be hired by leaders to come in and help them up level their sales teams and their service teams. My specialty was in client success. A lot of what we would deal with was not just teaching them these tools on how to become better in their roles, grow their sales, or retain their clients. I’m sure you’ve seen this, Adam. That sales and service hate each other with all their heart and soul in every country and every industry. There’s always finger pointing.

They have different purposes and different missions.

They do. I remember I was standing in a conference room at a hotel in the middle of Amsterdam coaching a room of applications Engineers from a big transmission company here in the US. When I asked this German man of sales over promise on their behalf, I realized that the F-word translated flawlessly in all languages. It was well loved by everyone. Also, sales and service have this frustration. This love-hate relationship. Along this path, I was on my own journey of learning how I navigate this thing called me that I’m stuck with every second of every day. No matter if life feels good, or bad, I’m the one constant.

I began teaching this in organizations. We see the root of the result or the root of the problem begins in the mind of the person. Challenges are going to show up in organizations, but the story that we then layer on top of it is based on this 95% of our unconscious hardwiring. It’s for us to be able to take a step back and do some self-leadership first.

Detaching Ego Stories For Self-Leadership In Organizations

There are a lot of problems that begin to be amplified that purely started in the mind and do not exist in reality. For leaders, it is if you’re getting mad, frustrated or you have this need to control, you’re ready to send the skating email, have the meeting, etc. There is some internal connection of, “What am I believing to be true? Is this fully true?” It’s being able to collect the evidence and help us detach some of that ego story. Ego gets hooked when it’s threatened. That might amplify problems and challenges in your organization.

That just tracks so well in my experience. It’s what you’re talking about. In fact, it’s probably the hardest thing for somebody who’s accomplished to intentionally and effectively slow their thinking. Slow their reaction to their own thinking. That is like, “We got to get crap done.” There’s things that have to happen.

In the book that I wrote, which is called Change Proof. It’s about navigating change. It came out right as the pandemic was winding down. There’s a part of it that’s a method for dealing with what you just described. That’s what we call the PAC or the Pause, Ask and Choose. That pause piece is tough. Your book I believe is Conscious Habit and your show is Conscious Habit.

The book, it’ll happen at some point in time, Adam, but I feel like you said that for a reason as another reminder from the universe.

No kidding. I didn’t realize I was doing that. The Universe just threw me. The best and I think better than that. This show, which is called Change Proof based on that book, was for the first 150 or so episodes called the Conscious Pivot, which was the first book I wrote called Pivot. You and I are related, let’s say. That whole idea of how it is that we pivot our thinking and what that looks like from moment to moment. Somebody once said that the only work we have to do is to get this moment. You let that sit for a second. Simmer or as my daughter says, “Marinate in that.”

With everything going on in your life, every heart, hard thing, frustrating thing, or whatever it is, and all the good stuff too. If all you ever had to think about, not dare not worry about, was to get this moment right. Talk about chunking something down to its simplest and usable form. At the moment, would you hit send on that crazy email response? Would you stare at somebody with that passive aggressive look in your eyes? Where are you unloading on somebody or whatever?

All the ways in which we are cruel, mean and unlike whatever we believe our essence is. I don’t have a problem and saying my essence is spirit. For somebody else, maybe that’s not how they view themselves. Whatever you think your essence is, is that really you or was that just thought that said, “I need to set this person straight?” Maybe, “I’m pissed off for a variety of reasons that have nothing to do with this situation but this is about all I can take. I’m done. I am finished.”

You go, “Is that the only option you’ve got at that moment?” You worked in space. These workplaces now are more toxic than they’ve ever been in. That is an overused word. I’ll say people are not being cared for or looked after. That is why they are doing so poorly in that space. That is not a made-up story. That’s a hyperbole. Every statistic you could pay attention to and ought to is telling us that’s the case. I know the work you do is so important. I want to know more about the future book that is based on these conversations that you have. Describe for us what a conscious habit is and why that is so important to you that you would make it a part of your life’s work.

I whittled down. I started teaching this in organizations under a different company and clients would come to me and be like, “We can’t find this. Where is this information you’ve been sending? It’s not online. It’s not an alerting system.” I’m like, “It doesn’t exist there. This is something I’ve just brought to the table.” I felt like as good as training was, I personally felt like we’re putting Band-Aids on things and until we can help people see where the root of the challenge begins.

I had a client challenge me and said, “What are you going to call this thing? Are you going to do something with it?” I didn’t have a methodology at that point in time. I sat down and said, “What’s my own practice here?” When I am out of alignment and I’m in a spot where I’m making the world responsible for my happiness or whatever experience it is. When I’m making the world responsible for that, what is my go-to to bring myself back to a more conscious state?

The Five-Part Conscious Habit Framework

The pieces are simple. Number one is awareness. It’s just, where am I now? What am I thinking? What am I believing to be true? What’s happening within me? It’s so fascinating that our challenges reveal such a great opportunity for us to explore what we believe to be true. Adam, you and I could have a conversation and you might say something that pushes a button within me. I might want to make you the jerk because that’s what we do when Karpman’s drama triangle pops up.

The reality is, that existed far before you showed up. You happened to be the gift that exposed it for me. Awareness allows us to create, stop and pause, to your point, of what you teach people and take a look at what’s happening. We can’t change anything we don’t acknowledge. Awareness is the first piece. The next is ownership. I am so passionate about the other book that I have in mind. It’s called How To Own Your Sh*t Without Losing It.

We can’t change anything we don’t acknowledge. Awareness comes first, then ownership. Share on X

What a great title. You need to literally lock that down. Provide that URL and you need to solidify that content and IP.

The ownership piece is teaching people, “What do I control here?” I control how I think, feel and respond. I cannot control how the world thinks, feels and responds. I can hold it accountable. I can influence it, but I cannot control it. To take radical ownership over what’s happening within me now and who I want to be. We have this ownership component that we teach. We also teach regulations. I am a Certified Meditation teacher.

I have a separate company I own called High Vibe Tribe Retreat. We take a group of women. We’re getting ready to go to Costa Rica. We spend seven days doing yoga, meditation, breath work, visualization and transformational work. I’m passionate about the power of teaching people how to meditate in a way that works for them. We teach presents, which is, if your nervous system is dysregulated. Your thinking is dysregulated. How do we know when our nervous system is in a stress response? We often go to our mind for information.

I lovingly say that our mind is a little bitch. It’s only job is to find whatever evidence we’ve told it to find. If I’ve told mine, “I’m not stressed.” My mind will go, “You’re right, you’re not stressed.” Meanwhile, my body is going, “Hello. Have you asked me because I’m the one who has this information?” We teach this concept of presence. Where is my thinking? Is my body regulated? How am I showing up for other people?

We dig into ego. We help people understand their ego’s persona. When it’s leading versus not and how to put it in service of what they do. In the last piece, we teach people how to interject love. My belief system is that is the truest part of us. It’s this loving aspect. How do I interject love as a leader? Accountability is love. Listening is love. Challenging is love. Those are the main components of what we teach.

Feedback can be loved if the root of it is love. If you’re wanting a poor person and help them then your feedback is rooted in love. If what you want to do is belittle them or put them in their place or whatever your other motives are, then the root is something else. It might be fear or probably just fear but it comes out as hate or something else. That’s fear in disguise. You wonder why people don’t want feedback from you.

Probably why you get crappy feedback yourself and you go, “That’s how that works.” It’s so fascinating. Amy, I feel like I could talk to you forever and for hours. I want to know a little bit about how it is that you are seeing the world of work. Your work seems to be taking you in some other directions, leading women’s retreats and coaching but what’s your take on them?

The people that you are working with in those scenarios, I’m sure what they’re telling you when they’re talking about themselves is, “I’m frustrated here or I’m in pain there.” Sometimes the story around that is, the crappy boss that they’ve got or the frustration in not being able to achieve something that they want. Any thoughts on what is broken in the collective culture of the workplace? Again, I’ve asked you a lot of big questions, so I appreciate you being able to just lasso some part of that.

We do work in workplaces. We work with leadership teams and are like, “Do you know all when each other’s egos get hooked? What does that look like?” Most of our coaching is done with CEOs a lot of times CEOs. As we know, that adage is lonely at the top. They need to save a place to dump all of their crap and not be judged for it but with a business acumen backing that can help them untangle their own part. Also, put some tactical stuff to that, too.

What I’ve seen is even though we say we’re rowing in the same direction, we’ve got a pretty mission, vision and values thrown up on the wall that a lot of us are serving our personal ego over the greater good. We don’t always know it or recognize it because we’re talking the right language. We’re pointing at the right thing. Our hearts and our behavioral alignment is not always growing in the same direction.

Interjecting The Soul: The Next Evolution Of Work And Curing Burnout

This is my first time being a human that I remember, Adam. Probably for you, too. For many of us, the thing that I’m seeing in the workplace is, for a long time, we have this belief system of like, “You get a paycheck. Be happy and show up.” We started to shift. Many companies may believe things like, “We do want our people to be happy here.” They’re connecting more to mindset and there’s some shifts that are happening. This next evolution of work is going to be learning how to interject the soul and what that means.

When our soul is missing from our work, we will be burned out. Burn out is not a byproduct of a to-do list. It’s a detachment from this deeper connection with the truest parts of ourselves. I hope that that is the next wave. We’ve got the mind and body. We started with the body. Show up and do the work. We’re starting to interject the mind and give a damn about how people feel in the workplace. How they think about their work and giving feedback surveys. We got to get the spirit involved for us to continue to evolve the work that we’re doing as well.

Burnout is not a byproduct of a to-do list. It’s a disconnection from the deeper parts of ourselves. Share on X

I was watching an interview with Spike Lee and he was talking about his new movie. Which is a cool movie, by the way. He was talking about part of the work he’s doing. He’s teaching a film class at NYU. He’s a professor, in addition to these other things he’s up to, which is quite amazing. He’s one of those people that has tremendous amounts of energy to give and seemingly no off switch. Which is great, I suppose, at times.

He was talking about what he speaks to his students about. Often, he’s putting in the work. He’s saying there’s an opportunity to put in the work, but you also have to understand. I’m paraphrasing now, “If you make hard work of it, you won’t enjoy it. You won’t be able to stay in the course.” He had lots of times in his career where he was going no place. It took a long time to get some place and then even when you get some place, as we all know, you get lost again.

This is life. This is what happened. You’re always getting lost but you got to find yourself again and keep going. That’s the good thing about age and probably the only good thing. It’s that, you gain this wisdom. You do because life teaches you. Unless you’re completely oblivious, which I don’t think most people are, then life teaches you. You do have something to look back and go, “That’s interesting. That makes sense.”

He was coming from that place saying, “You got to work your tail off to succeed. If you don’t enjoy it, what will be the point?” It’s somebody else’s quote other than Spike Lee’s. It’s like, if you’re so intense about success that you are in fact so wrapped up in that space that you will miss it even in the pursuit of that success. You will invariably miss what you think is the definition of success because you’re so intense about getting there.

Again, it’s one of those little fun things that you can try to balance on a pin. It’s how to be wanting something but, at the same time, also allowing for it to be. Do not be attached to it at the same time you’re wanting it. For him to say, “You’ve got to work but you go to enjoy it. If you do truly enjoy it, then it’s not work.” It’s that concept.

What you just said strikes me is very similar to that. When you said, “When our soul is missing from our work.” That’s collective. That’s a problem. That’s something we get to have some control over at least from the standpoint of our own work in the world. We get to decide whether or not our soul is present. We can feel the soul of our own work. That is not a definitional thing, I don’t think. We have to explore that for ourselves and figure it out.

I was a lawyer for many years. I wrote a book called Pivot because I needed to get out of my head some of the things that I was going through as I was consciously choosing to get out of a profession that had been good to me from a lot of different angles. I was destroying my soul. It’s as you said, if what you sold isn’t in it, then where are you? Jesus was probably the one that gets credited with saying you lose the whole world. You can gain the world but lose it because you’ve lost your soul in the process. We can’t do that. I feel like that’s a crisis of the corporate world. In many ways, it lost its soul.

Back to the ownership or owning our crap, there is a big portion of that, that is ours to own. It’s also on companies to be conscious about that, or like how do we help humans flourish here? How do we provide this opportunity? On the individual level, we do have to constantly remind ourselves, especially in the US. We are achieving very high. Move, go and push. All of us have that reflected back to us when we travel anywhere else outside of the US.

They’re like, “We’re on island time. Laid back.” They can tell the American within us because we’re impatient like, “Come on. I’ve got somewhere to be.” We have to remind ourselves that we are human beings. Not human doings. That relationship with the being is such an important and special connective relationship that is different for all of us. When we’re connected to it, we can also tap into the wisdom. With age, we get perspective. Wisdom is when we can sit quietly with our experiences and hear the whispers of truth that comes through.

Wisdom whispers. The ego yells. It’s building this beautiful relationship within yourself. The other thing we’re faced with, Adam, is we’ve got these devices that constantly keep us distracted from being with us. The discomfort of standing in line and not looking busy. It’s like, “I am a very important person. I have an email to Jack.” The discomfort of being is a huge part of what we’ve got to learn how to strip away and lean into. By the way, I went on a three-day silent meditation retreat. There were no phones. No talking for three days. I haven’t shut up about it since I got back.

All the words were pent up.

All the words. The greatest teacher is like, “I could not think of the last time.” I’ve been an avid meditator for ten years. I meditate often or twice a day. I could not think of the last time that I allowed myself to fully meet boredom and see what was on the other side. I had to do that.

You’re just killing me here. This is historical. I mean killing in the best way. For our audience and for you, Amy, it sounds like you’ve read this book. If you haven’t, then you’re going to freaking love this. John Mark Comer wrote a book called The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry. It’s a great title like the title of your future books. It’s tracking some of the things you said, including what you said about boredom.

This is not a warning but a caveat for people that might go out and buy this book, too. I hope you’ll be checking out my books, if you haven’t already. Thank you for that. If you go get this book, know for sure that it’s a spiritual approach to this issue of hurry. I think that a person who is agnostic or is an Atheist would have no issue in getting something valuable out of this book. That’s what I would say. If you do go get it, you start it and you do go, “He’s talking about this thing. That strikes religion or strikes of whatever.” Deal with it for a moment and get 50 pages in.

That’s one of the things we lay out in our books. It’s this challenge around people starting something and then not finishing it. Get 50 pages in and see if you can stop reading this book. It’s got a lot in it. Speaking of a lot. Amy, you’ve taken us down some beautiful paths. I’m feeling like this is part one because his conversations are not super long and we’re at the end here. I’m going to ask you one last question but I do want to invite you back.

I love that and I would love to have you on our show. This consciousness thing takes a village. We’re all doing our own part and how we’re called to raise consciousness through our own stories and ways that are impactful in businesses and other areas. It truly takes a collective. I would love to have you on Conscious Habit as well.

I would love that. We define a conscious habit as a ritual because a habit is like you brush your teeth with whatever hand you brush your teeth with and you don’t think about it. That’s a habit. A conscious habit is something different. I’m intuiting that that’s at least some part of what you get at in your discussions. I’d love to. That would be amazing. Maybe you’ve answered this already but if so, I got to follow up. Is there one thing that you do, one conscious habit that you have every single day that contributes, that gives back to you? What would we refer to as resilience like a resilience bank account? The key to resilience is to deposit more than you withdraw. What do you deposit into your resilience bank account in the way of a habit each day?

Daily Conscious Habit: Unconditional Love And Breathwork

I love practice. It’s filling for me in many ways. It is starting off my day as part of my meditation where I am filling every cell of my body up with this unconditional love. Giving myself what I might expect the world to give me then I practice. It’s like a loving kindness practice. I often practiced in Buddhist traditions. I practice sending that love to whoever I’m going to connect with for that day.

If I’m speaking, I do something similar. I’m traveling all the time speaking somewhere. I might send it to an audience I haven’t even met yet. I will send to you. You and I have not met yet of how I can pour love into the energy of love into everywhere I’m going to show up. I feel like the hardest part has been done then. I can walk around knowing that I’m bringing the right energy into my day. It helps me fill up that tank and spread that good in the world, too.

Beautiful, Amy. I do have a part B. I didn’t expect that was what you’re going to say. I thought you were going to say meditation. I’m going to follow the thread here and ask you. For the people that either haven’t done it or been able to keep doing it or haven’t done it well. Is there one simple practice for meditation that you could say, “Here’s a beginner way for you to start?”

Yes. I have to first say please know meditation is not clearing your mind. Many people feel like they’re failed meditators because they’re like, “I can’t stop thinking.” It’s like yes. The goal is not to stop thinking. This isn’t Zen Buddhism. The goal is to notice your thoughts. A very simple practice of being still in the body and inviting a little more stillness into the mind is go to your breath.

It’s our life force. The first thing we do when we are born is to inhale. The last thing we do when we say sayonara is exhale. Slowing your breathing down. Breathing in for a count of four and out for a count of eight. Slowly make sure that your inhale is starting in the belly first. Taking a nice deep breath and not just the shallow chest sends a signal to our nervous system that we are safe.

I love that. Again, I’m looking forward to part two of this. I know our folks have loved it already. I’ll say to our audience as well, we’d love to hear from you. If you’ve got comments, feedback or questions, you can go to AdamMarkel.com/Podcast and leave those there. This is an ask. It’s a request. Again, we all have lots going on. If you can make a minute to rate this show, whether it’s on Spotify or Apple. Wherever it is that you’re consuming this and whatever platform. You can give us a five-star rating, if you feel that way. That would be great.

Also, share with any friends and family members that might benefit from what Amy has shared or this conversation as a whole. That would be amazing. Amy, thank you so much for being a part of being a guest and just for the connection, the amazing conversation we’ve had. Thank you so much.

Thank you and thank you for the good work you do in the world, Adam.

Folks, out there. One last thing as I say goodbye. If you want to get into that a little more about what Amy was saying, how do you perpetuate love and kindness? What does that look like? There’s a book called Soul Over Matter. That’s another book you can check out. We gave a lot of book recommendations. With that, I will say ciao for now.

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Just know, as promised, that if you’re still reading that you love that conversation with Amy because she is a beautiful soul. How cool that we ended up getting there in our discussion? Getting to the soul. How often is it that you get into a conversation with somebody? You listen to someone else’s conversation, are you able to get to that place in a natural way, in an unpretentious or unplanned way, uncalculated? That’s the universe and the mystery of it all unfolding right there because that was certainly uncanned and unplanned and just beautiful.

What she said about the ego and where it is that the ego can make a mess in our lives and how it is that we can get a beat on that and be able to override at times when we’re conscious. That mess that we create with our egos was magnificent. Ultimately, her way of looking at things through consciousness, through conscious habits and how we can cultivate those things intentionally for ourselves as a super tool to move forward in our lives and to be able to use it for good in the world.

Be a tool for good in the world. Again, it’s just magnificent. I was leaning in so heavily to the references that she was sharing with us. The books and the work of Michael Singer and others and thinking about where we are in our world, where we are in the business world and in our roles. As leaders, whether we’re leading teams or other people, our own self-leadership, the leadership in our families and among our community. There’s no question that we need to be more focused on cultivating our souls.

The collective soul of the organizations that were part of and the communities that were a part of. I’ll just say, if this is an episode that resonated with you, please share it with a friend, a family member, a colleague or somebody that would benefit from learning how Amy was communicating. The way she was communicating, and what she was communicating. The overall feeling of it is a feel good episode and feel good conversation. It’s one that is all so packed with things that you can do next.

Where do I go from here? What’s my next step? There were books mentioned and other references, including getting after more of what Amy’s talking about by going to her show, the Conscious Habit. With all that, I want to thank you again for being a part of our community and for all the ways that you show us love by showing up and we do this to create a relationship with you. Even though we may never meet you or see you or even hear from you. If we do hear from you, that’s amazing. I look forward to that with your comments, questions, thoughts, your anything. It’s well met here. Thank you so much for being with us and always. With that, I will say ciao for now.

 

Important Links

• Amy Woodall
•  Amy Woodall on LinkedIn
• Conscious Habit
• Conscious Habit Podcast
• The Untethered Soul
• A Return to Love
• Change Proof
• Pivot
• High Vibe Tribe Retreat
• The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry
• Soul Over Matter

 

About Amy Woodall

Amy Woodall is an expert in mindset and behavior who knows humans…how they think, where they get stuck, and how to move them forward. She’s the founder of Conscious Habit and host of the top-ranked Conscious Habit Podcast. Amy and her team travel the globe helping solve problems from the inside-out. After-all, the root of result begins within.