Episode 87: December 2022 Celebrations & Stretches

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Transcript

 I don't know what universe was trying to teach me there, probably law of attraction because of course I had strong feelings about not wanting to do it, which we are in a universe of attraction and not repulsion, right? So not wanting to do something doesn't matter. The not cancels out, and that strength of emotion draws the experience right to you.

So it's definitely a very good lesson in law of attraction. And I use it as evidence that money wants to come to me, right? That there are so many different ways that money can come to me, and it didn't happen this time, but I still remain open and receptive.

Hey, hey, welcome back to the show. I'm super excited for today's episode and before I dive in, I have to say I'm blown away that listeners like you have downloaded this podcast more than 10,000 times, unbelievable as a way to give back and provide insane value for free. I'd like to invite you to take my Money Wounds quiz.

In just six questions, you'll get insights into your relationship with money that will feel so accurate, and then you get access to my free masterclass on how to heal your money wounds. Just go to moneywoundsquiz.com to start.

Hello and welcome back to the show. This is my first show that I am recording in the new year. So happy New year everyone.

Kids are back in school. Hallelujah!That is such a gift to parents everywhere. You know that Christmas song that's like Mom and dad can hardly wait for school to start again. Damn, if that ain't the truth. So I am here to share, celebrations and stretches from December, and I've got some fun ones. The first one on my list was something that I had been kind of hemming and hawing about over Thanksgiving, but if I wanna back up even further when we went to Mexico City in April, we went to some of the ancient pyramids there. And for whatever reason, that planted the seed for me about going to Egypt. And I really, for the very first time, started feeling pulled and drawn to Egypt. Obviously, it's a little harder to get to Egypt than it is to get to Mexico, and so I just kind of let the desire be planted right with the universe.

And then I actually knew someone who said that she was going to be planning an Egypt retreat for 2023. So I'd kind of had the idea that maybe I would do hers, but then she reached out to me, to kind of let me know details right around the Thanksgiving timeline and 30% more than what she had originally told me, which already seemed maybe a bit of a stretch for what I would wanna do. And the timeline was really different than what I was expecting, and so it just didn't feel right. Then someone else I knew was gonna be helping facilitate a retreat in Egypt, and same deal where it was like by the time they announced it, you basically had two months to get everything all paid for and make your travel arrangements and go.

And while it's possible for me, I wanted to have more months to be excited about it and looking into it and anticipating it, and also just like let the family know that it was happening. So I was wrestling with those two options and ultimately decided against both in November. But I kept feeling pulled to look like there's something else, and I found just through man scouring the internet, I found a YouTube video promoting a Goddess retreat in Egypt in 2023, and immediately felt like, yes, this is the one for me.

I applied and sent a $300 deposit with the application on the spot, even though I did not know the facilitator at all. And then her team reached out to me to book a potential call and basically the retreat was full with the question mark around adding like one more spot. And so, as you might be guessing with me sharing this, of course I was that spot and I just knew, like I knew I was supposed to be on that tour.

I really connected with the woman who is leading it, and I tuned into some of her meditations on YouTube and just the whole thing was really beautiful and how it unfolded. So I am celebrating that in December, I booked and paid in full to spend eight days in Egypt in 2023, and I upgraded to having a private room, all the five star accommodations because one thing I've learned about myself is that I really do love the sisterhood and being around other people and being very social and having that downtime and having that place that I can go to, retreat and be by myself is really important as well. So super, super excited about that. And I will tell you, many of you know that I'm hosting two retreats in 2023, 1 in April in Port of Aorta, Mexico and one in October in the Great Smokey Mountains. I prioritize in-person over everything. Like when you look at what I tend to invest in and where I spend most of my time and money in terms of like professional development, it's in-person stuff, and that's not just because I like to travel or whatever.

It's because I really find the potent transformation happens. When we're there in person and in a few days or in a week, like whatever you sign up for, you can just get so much more, in my opinion, out of the container, out of the experience. You make memories that last a lifetime in a way that just doesn't happen the same when you're just signing up for an online program.

I am doing more in-person stuff in all of my containers, and I really invite you to prioritize that in your own life as well. I get it having kids having other familial responsibilities, like it's not the easiest thing in the world, but I think it's important to just have those conversations with your spouse about why it's important to you and why it actually benefits the family if it's something that you're really feeling drawn to.

And I'm so lucky because Jeff is just ultra-supportive. So the other exciting thing that happened in December was, Disney Cruise. It was the first one our family's ever taken. We did five-night Caribbean cruise, so we flew to Miami and then set sail from Miami to Grand Cayman Island and Disney's Castaway Key Island and The Bahamas before coming back.

So that was really exciting and celebratory. It was also on my list of stretches because we ended up getting bad weather. It was cold in Miami and I was like, okay, well this is just Miami. We're gonna be sailing south. It's gonna be better. But that whole bomb cyclone weather system that was dumping a bunch of snow on the United States and messing with everyone's travel plans.

It definitely met us on our cruise, and unfortunately, that looked like rough seas. It looked like a lot of wind and a lot of rain, not what you imagine. And so even like up on the pool deck, it was cold and rainy. They had this really cool water slide that goes around the whole ship, and it was closed a lot of the time because of high wind.

I'm prone to seasickness, so I was battling that a bit because the water was pretty rough and choppy and this, the boat was definitely swaying back and forth. So overall it was really good and it was on my list of celebrations because we absolutely loved the experience and the amount of activity there was.

The kids club, the meals, having someone clean our room twice a day. The way the ship was decorated, all the characters, the live music, like it really was done so beautifully, but it was not without its challenges. And I think especially around the holidays, one thing I've noticed is that the holidays are ripe for bringing up our disappointment wounds.

Our inner child is very present in those moments, and especially when we've booked the trips, like I kind of researched this and booked it. I had in my head the way it was going to go. So I already had an expectation and built into that were things that like I never would've anticipated going wrong. That never even crossed my mind that we might have bad weather the whole time.

And in looking up the weather trends in that area, after the fact, we had an 80% chance of it being sunny. So unfortunately, we really did get the raw end of the stick with the weather. But it was so bad that we didn't even get to get off the boat in Grand Cayman, which was one of our two stops. And I had booked this dolphin experience for the family, did the top of the line, all of us doing it.

The VIP photo package, it was $700 for us to swim with the dolphins and with Faye, they were gonna do the thing where like one dolphin goes under each foot and like lift you up and like, so it almost looks like your water skiing. In my head I was like, oh, she's the perfect age for this. This is gonna be such a beautiful core memory for her and never once crossed my mind that it could not happen, that they wouldn't let us off the boat because the weather was so bad. And unfortunately, the people providing the dolphin experience didn't wanna give us a refund either because their policy is that too bad. We would've been here, we would've done it.

So the fact that you're not here is not our fault. I definitely had to walk myself through some disappointment, some resetting of expectations, and really focusing on what I did like about the experience and what was going well in order to make it a good trip. It was not just an effortless vacation.

Some other stretches in December. Faye joined the youth basketball league in our area, and this was our first year doing it. And so I went with her to this like opening day ceremonies kind of a thing. And they were giving away a lot of just like basketball memorabilia, like basketball cards or side jersey and things like that.

I'm sitting on the bleachers in this gym that's full. All the kids are down on the floor and then all the parents are in the bleachers and the place is packed. You know, we're talking like thousands of people. And I'm just chatting with a friend of mine and they start reading the rules about this thing and I'm not paying any attention. And next thing I know, Faye's name is getting called and I needed to go join her out on the basketball floor. So I'm going out there going like, what is this? And it turns out that this is a chance at winning $10,000, but you have to take a half-court shop and either the kid does it or the parent does it.

So of course Fay is like, mom, mom, you do it. You do it. You know that's gonna give us better chances of winning. So I don't know how much you know about basketball, but even if you're professional, it's hard to hit a half-court shot and so they do it because the odds are so low that the odds of them having to pay out 10 grand is very unlikely.

I have never wanted to crawl into a hole as much as in this experience like Lord Almighty, why did my husband not take my daughter to the opening ceremonies, which he would have? We were just talking about dividing and conquering, and he ended up staying home with jj. And Faye and I went to this thing, but it was very much a stretch for me.

So in front of thousands of people, I got to attempt a half-court shot. I did not make it. However, I am proud of myself that it was a formidable attempt, like it did not look awful. It went high enough. It went far enough, but it was too far to the right. So I don't know what universe was trying to teach me there, probably law of attraction because of course I had strong feelings about not wanting to do it, which we are in a universe of attraction and not repulsion, right?

So not wanting to do something doesn't matter. The not cancels out, and that strength of emotion draws the experience right to you. So it's definitely a very good lesson in law of attraction. And I use it as evidence that money wants to come to me, right? That there are so many different ways that money can come to me, and it didn't happen this time, but I still remain open and receptive.

Now, speaking of money wanting to come to me, but being sort of close, but no cigar. One of the other stretches of December is that we had an Airbnb guest booked for the time that we were gone. And it was gonna be like $5,600 or something like that. So it was almost gonna pay for the cruise. Well, the guy canceled.

I had our cancellation policy set up where basically he owed nothing for canceling. So that's on me. And I changed our policy and then as the date approached, someone else reached out and potentially wanted to book it for even a few more days. So it was gonna be like eight grand. But they were a local family who had been displaced because of some water damage.

And so they were trying to make sure that their insurance would pay for them to be in the house over the time and blah, blah, blah, blah. And it didn't end up happening. So I was definitely holding the duality of like hoping that the booking would go through being very open and receptive to receiving $8,000 while we were gone, but then also it not happening and like having to let that be okay as well.

Just trusting that like I've opened these money channels, right? Like I've done my part and how much flows through and when it flows through really is not my responsibility. It's not under my control. And just releasing that part and surrendering, but also not making it mean anything about me or about my relationship with money.

So I am very proud of myself in the way that I was able to navigate it and how I truly felt about it was very different than the way I would've acted even probably six months or a year ago, and certainly two or five years ago. So it was a sign of growth, and if I'm being honest, there's still a part of me that's like, dang, but that money would've been really nice.

So that was another stretch of December. Let's just stay on the stretch wagon for a minute here. The whole family also got a stomach bug except for me, so we had a few days of just a lot of vomiting, a lot of stomach pain, a lot of moaning and groaning around the house, and those moments are never fun. I will say, thankfully, that my kids are at an age where they understand that they need to throw up in the bowl or in the toilet, and we had very few things to clean up, so I was grateful for that, even in the midst of the illness, and I was super grateful that I didn't get really sick so that I was able to care for the whole family.

Another stretch in December was re-imagining my Mastermind for 2023. I just felt a lot of uncertainty and lack of clarity around how to do it and what to do with it, and really caring so much for the women that were in there, and also wanting to inject some fresh energy and some restructuring of the container for the new year.

When we're in the midst of those things, it can be really hard to sort it all out and understand how much of your decisions you're making from sovereignty versus attachment to the clients versus attachment to the revenue. And now I can say on the other side of it, I that I'm so proud of the way that I navigated it, and I'm so excited about what was co-created and what came through, which is my fruition council.

So super happy with how that stretch turned out. Back to celebrations, we crossed the million dollars for the year in cash collected for elevate. I crossed $200,000 in cash collected for the year in my coaching business. So both of those super exciting milestones. I also had set the intention of having all my Christmas shopping done early this year.

I really wanted to get it all done before the month of December so that in December I could just focus on being very present for the holidays and all the exciting, like one-off events that come up. I didn't fully hit my goal, but I did have most of the shopping done very early and really appreciated that experience.

So I'm taking it as a celebration. I'm patting myself on the back for it and just celebrating volunteering in phase classroom and going to see JJ'S holiday performance and Faye's holiday performance. Going to multiple Christmas parties with friends and walking the Christmas lights in this amazing area near where we live, where all these houses put up just insane lights, and it's so magical to walk that neighborhood with the kids and with our friends.

And so, just really sinking into the magic of the season. I'm also celebrating, I got Jeff a really cool Christmas gift this year. I had a custom song written for him and I did a Christmas theme song just because he loves Christmas music. Like he's the kind of person who will turn it on even before Thanksgiving.

And so, it's always fun to add some new Christmas songs to the mix because I get sick of the same old thing much more quickly than he does. But he also is just a very like sentimental person. And so to have a song written about us and our Christmases over the years and to be able to give that to him and surprise him with it, and then hearing like my kids ask for it and learning the words and just enjoying it throughout the holiday season was really sweet.

So that was my December in a nutshell. We also, I should say, had a very beautiful Christmas at our house on December 30th, so, We for the most part, didn't open any presents before we left on the cruise. We waited until we got back, and then we got to have like a really fun and magical Christmas morning on December 30th and having kids that are seven and four, like it really is such a sweet time of year where they were just talking to each other about, I wonder what Santa will bring me.

They're trying to feel the presence and guess what they are. And it's so magical. It's so special to be a part of it as a parent. And it just brings you back to that sort of like idyllic time in your own childhood, if you had that and if you didn't, like what a gift, right, that you get to give it to your kids and sort of rewrite the family history around those experiences.

That was super fun for us and then we rang in New Year's Eve by having some friends over and just making delicious food and being with people that we care about. We toasted to the new year at 8:00 PM Pacific Time, so it was like a happy Puerto Rican new year because we're four hours away from the Puerto Rican time zone.

So I laugh about that, but that's kind of par for the course for us. We don't like to stay up super late and with the kids and everything else. It was kind of the perfect chill, low-key New Year's. And of course, I had already done a visioning workshop earlier in December, both for myself and for my clients, so I felt very clear on what I was gonna be calling in, and I love doing it earlier in December so that there's never a feeling of Oh, I gotta get it done now that it's January. It's like December gets to be this month of one foot in gratitude for what is and kind of closing out of a year and one foot in desire with dreaming into and visioning what's coming in 2023. So my sincere wish is that you had incredible holidays.

And that we get to have a fantastic 2023 together. So thank you so much for listening. It seriously is such an honor to be so connected with each of you through this show, and I will talk to you soon. You guys are the best. Thank you so much for listening today. When you subscribe, review and share this show.

It's an important and free way to show your support. I'd also love to stay connected on Instagram. You can follow me at Em Makes Money. And if you're curious about working together, head to emilywilcox.com to explore. Until next time, I'm sending you all the magic money vibes.