Host Johnny Guidry wants to help you AIM YOUR LIGHT.
This introductory episode of Refractive explains what you can expect and why this podcast should be on your regular rotation.
Topics and info: personal growth; career change; spiritual awakening; self-discovery; authenticity; intentional living; aim your light; follow your intuition; you already know, you already are; the answer is always in the stillness; meditation; spirituality; consciousness and presence; seeking your higher self.
Visit http://www.refractivecoaching.com or http://www.refractivepodcast.com for more info on living a Refractive life. The Refractive YouTube channel with more uplifting content is found here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6y-HQ1_9-xMnZyq7dhRl4A
Transcript:
Speaker 1 00:46 Hello, hello out there and welcome to refractive podcast. My name is Johnny G. I’m your host and I am delighted to walk alongside you on this journey of awakening. In this very first episode, I will just give a simple overview of what you will be able to expect from refractive. I’ll give you a just a bit of background on myself and why I’m here and why I’m doing this and uh, it’s really as simple as that. You’ll find a pretty short episode from us today with more content to come. Future content will follow one of three formats. Sometimes there will be an interview with someone who has been a source of inspiration in my life and in turn, I’d like to share that with you. Other episodes will be conversational in nature with a delightful group of friends who are all on their own individual journeys of awakening their spirit or just seeking out a life that was better than the one they had yesterday.
Speaker 1 01:44 Um, and that is the nature of the topics that you’re going to find on here. What is it that we can do to make tomorrow’s life just a little bit better than yesterday’s? There’s so many people here in Washington where I live that feel like their life is just fine, but it’s not satisfying. I felt that way. That was really the incentive for me to scratch beneath the surface and find out what’s more. I didn’t expect to have any type of spiritual development or soul growth or anything like that. I just knew that my life felt Luke warm all the time and I believed that there was an alternative out there. I just didn’t know what it was. So it happened to be through developing a relationship with my idea of a God or a higher power. That’s how I found my growth. But there are so many avenues to this and there are so many people out there who feel the way I did.
Speaker 1 02:50 And so if you’re one of those people and you’re listening to me right now and saying, Oh yeah, no, that’s it, that’s it. I feel like things are just on autopilot or lukewarm. There is a total answer out here. There is a real strategy to give you a different direction in your life and to help to connect you with passion and excitement and satisfaction. That’s what I have today. That’s what I didn’t have a couple of years back and that’s what I’d like to share with you here in DC. I am a coach. I work with people who are on paths of personal growth and development. I have a 16 year background in human resources, so I also work with career coaching. And lastly, I’m a spiritual coach. I work with people who feel disconnected from their higher power and their idea of God or source and know that there’s a stronger relationship to be had, but they don’t know where to start.
Speaker 1 03:52 I hold people’s hands as we walked through that together because there’s a very real way to establish that type of connection that, uh, is bi-directional. You feel it and you give it, both of those two things can happen. And that’s really the goal that I have as I serve my fellow humans and try to make a go of it here in this life today, I want to make sure and underlying the fact that this is not a religious podcast and there is no denomination or religious belief that is, um, central to the message. I, myself am not a Christian. I’m not a Buddhist. I’m not, uh, subscribed to any particular religion. I do attend, um, religious services because I enjoy the meditation aspect of it. I enjoy the group spiritual experience. Um, but I don’t go for religious purposes. I go, um, because I find it pleasant to sit in that environment and watch and experience the richness of a spiritual event around me.
Speaker 1 05:00 And so it does not require you to believe anything to be a part of this podcast. In fact, there are amazing paths to personal growth that are fully, fully secular and I would be honored to feature some of those topics on my podcast, some of those guests, people who subscribe to that. And if you’re one of those people, please reach out to me. My email inbox is always open to you. You can reach me@johnnyatrefractivecoaching.com. That’s Johnny with an H, J O H N N y@refractivecoaching.com. If you have topic ideas for episodes, if you have people in your life that would, uh, that you think would enjoy refractive or if you have questions, don’t hesitate to reach out. I really do welcome you to communicate with me openly. So let’s take a look at some topics and concepts that I know will be important for this podcast. These are either show topics or certainly conversational topics that will come up from time to time.
Speaker 1 06:07 We’ll talk about controlling your controllables, understanding what is truly within your control, taking responsibility and initiative to drive those things in the recovery community. Cause I am a part of the recovery community. We call that keeping your side of the street clean and that is an important part of spiritual growth and finding a satisfying life. So that is certainly a topic you’ll find here on the show. Additionally, living with intention is a key area of focus. It is impactful. It really does make a difference. Don’t take my word for it. Um, believe Oprah, believe Eckart tole lay some of the biggest spiritual thinkers out there have written volumes on the impact of living with intention. Another important topic that will come up from time to time is the concept of balance in the universe. Nowadays we feel like there’s so much negativity because it is what takes center stage on social media and on the news.
Speaker 1 07:08 However, the universe doesn’t operate in a lopsided fashion. Every time one entity engages in a behavior that disturbs the equilibrium of the universe, another entity will balance it. And that is how the universe functions. So as we have personalities who are thriving on chaos all around us, on TV and on the internet, there is an army of quiet heart based individuals who are grounding this existence in serenity. And so the concept of always finding that balance, always having faith and understanding that there’s a balance between the light and the dark, the good and the bad. The positive and the negative, the pleasant and the unpleasant between the self and the other. All of this is really central to refractive. It is a primary point in learning how to aim your light. So this, uh, this concept of balance and um, polarity will be key for us.
Speaker 1 08:19 We’ll talk about things like manifesting your new reality. That’s an important topic here. We’ll talk about learning to love what is, that doesn’t mean accepting the situation that you’re in as a permanent state. It means appreciating what is about now present moment and understanding what’s necessary to make sure that the next now, um, the now that’s coming up doesn’t have to be the same as the now today. Um, there’s a difference between accepting what is and giving up and we’ll talk a lot about that as we focus on building your, your ideal life around your values and your principles. One of my favorite topics is identifying coping mechanisms that once were essential to survival. These are the types of behaviors that might’ve saved us from suicide or other destructive behaviors in the past, but that today had become cages and barriers for us. They limit our perspective, they block our field of vision.
Speaker 1 09:20 And so realizing that a belief or a behavior or a concept that was extremely beneficial seven years ago, maybe very painful today, and finding the strength to just gently put that down and find a different direction. So that is one of my favorite topics as a coach. And it’s something that tends to resonate with a lot of people. So I hope that’s the same for you. We’ll look at exploring your intuition because there’s a whole lot that you already know. Sometimes we don’t take the time to explore what it is we know. And so we seek answers and guidance externally. But in reality, all of the guidance and the knowledge that you could ever need is inside you. And that is, it’s such a valuable perspective to understand that you have the answers you’re looking for. If you can figure out how to quiet your mind, turn within seek and allow, that really is key.
Speaker 1 10:25 That brings us to another relevant topic, a of meditation. Um, I have a few people in my life who are, uh, teachers of meditation or who have serious meditation practices and they have some amazing information that’s handy and useful. So, uh, look for some of that coming in future episodes and also identifying values. You know, we, today we all say that, Oh, one of my primary values is respect or honesty is a primary value. And yeah, I mean, I think we can all appreciate the importance of those values, but in reality, not everybody who says honesty is their primary value is a very honest person. Now in their mind, these individuals believe that honesty is a primary value, yet it doesn’t do what a value does for them, which is drive their behaviors. So it’s important to identify which of my values are truly primary and which of my values might be ideal values.
Speaker 1 11:36 They might be values that I aim for, but that aren’t actually in full swing in my life today. So through these, what, seven or eight topics that we’ve talked about, by weaving these together through different circumstances and different guests in different experiences, we are able to live life that feels good. It feels right inside. That is the source of the frustration that so many of us experience. We live a life that makes sense. On paper, we worked hard, we got a good education, we work overtime to get our kids the best that we could. We fought and struggled to make our life look appropriate. But even with all of the, of the amazing successes we’ve had in forcing our life to fit this ideal, something doesn’t feel right, something feels off. And that that is essential to waking up every day and feeling like your place in the world is sacred.
Speaker 1 13:00 Feeling like it, you truly are surrounded by gifts and that you are a gift as well. It’s a spectacular way to, to, to experience the earth. And it’s real. This is not, um, this is not imaginary fantasy. This is reality. This is a way of life. This is how people in my close circle are living right now. And, um, everybody can do it. You just have to believe you can. So that is essential for us here at refractive. That really wraps up everything I wanted to cover for today. Please visit us@refractivepodcast.com to stay up to date and subscribe to this podcast so that you don’t miss any of the topics because if you are feeling that something is stuck or that things are just Luke warm all the time for you, there’s help. And, uh, you know, I’m not gonna ask you for money. I’m not going to ask you to do anything.
Speaker 1 14:03 I just want to share with you guys what I’ve learned, um, because it’s made a difference to me. It was freely offered and given to me by people who had walked down this path. And it’s my turn to pay it forward. For those of you who are looking for more intensive work, I do work both remotely and in person as a coach. So feel free to email me@johnnyatrefractivecoaching.com if that is what you’re interested in. Otherwise, you can explore refractive podcast for links to blogs and, um, authors that have been impactful and other resources, um, because at the end of the day, all we really want here is for you to live your best life. And again, we do that through aiming our light. Thank you so much for in, have a
Speaker 4 14:51 wonderful, wonderful night.
Speaker 3 14:53 .