Welcome to the ADHD Women's Wellbeing Podcast.
Speaker AI'm Kate Moore Youssef, and I'm a wellbeing and lifestyle coach, EFT practitioner, mum to four kids and passionate about helping more women to understand and accept their amazing ADHD brains.
Speaker AAfter speaking to many women just like me and probably you, I know there is a need for more health and lifestyle support for women newly diagnosed with adhd.
Speaker AIn these conversations, you'll learn from insightful guests, hear new findings, and discover powerful perspectives and lifestyle tools to enable you to live your most fulfilled, calm, and purposeful life wherever you are on your ADHD journey.
Speaker AHere's today's episode.
Speaker AWelcome back to another episode of the ADHD Women's Wellbeing Podcast.
Speaker AAnd I get super, super excited when I invite people on whose books I've read, whose podcasts I've listened to, who I've followed and have really, really helped me.
Speaker AAnd today is one of those days.
Speaker AI'm trying not to be a crazy fangirl.
Speaker ABut today I have Kathy Heller.
Speaker ANow, Kathy, if you don't know who she is, she is a dynamic, transformational coach.
Speaker AShe's a spiritual guide, a meditation teacher, and an inspirational speaker dedicated to helping so many people find more ease, joy and fulfillment in their lives.
Speaker AAnd she is the host of the Abundant Ever after podcast and the author of the empowering book, Don't Keep youp Day, how to turn your passion into your career.
Speaker AAnd also this brand new book which I've just read called Abundant Ever After Tools for creating a life of prosperity and Ease.
Speaker AIt was a brilliant, brilliant book and came just at the right time.
Speaker AI was just telling Kathy that I probably read it in about five days and it landed in my nerves, nervous system and in my body so deeply.
Speaker AAnd so I'm very, very grateful.
Speaker AAnd I just can't wait to bring you here for you to share your wisdom that you share and your incredible podcast.
Speaker AAnd hopefully all the listeners will glean a little bit of the insights that you've.
Speaker AYou've so beautifully given in all, all the episodes and all the books.
Speaker ASo thank you so much, Kathy, for being here.
Speaker BOh, my gosh.
Speaker BWell, everything you just said was so beautiful, but it's the way you said it.
Speaker BYou have really, really beautiful energy and I'm delighted to hang out with you.
Speaker AI can say truthfully that everything you say deeply connects from, like, somewhere very deep inside.
Speaker AAnd I know from a spiritual perspective, we're very much aligned.
Speaker AWe both follow Kabbalah, and it's something I've talked about on the podcast before.
Speaker AAnd if you are interested, I had David Guillam on the podcast.
Speaker AHe was fantastic.
Speaker ABut everything you talk about from a spiritual perspective connect with the practical world as well.
Speaker ASo I guess I wanted to start a little bit with the person that might be listening to this podcast who was feeling burnt out, exhausted by life.
Speaker AThey are trying so hard and they are trying to make life work for them.
Speaker AAnd they've probably been kicked down quite a few times.
Speaker AAnd then they will have discovered that they are actually neurodivergence, that after all these years of trying and trying, trying, that actually it's been been adhd.
Speaker AThat's been a really hard and heavy thing that they've been carrying without, without knowing how does someone who has struggled and felt like life is just difficult.
Speaker AThat's just how life should be.
Speaker AHow do we connect back to that kind of ease and that calm and that abundance when it feels really, really hard to grasp?
Speaker AAnd it's a big question.
Speaker BIt's a beautiful question.
Speaker BAnd first of all, I just want to start with the neurodivergent ADHD piece, as you kind of named it.
Speaker BMy mom had, has adhd and she also found out as an adult that she was on the autism spectrum, which she didn't know, but she did know she didn't, if that makes any sense.
Speaker BAnd what I think is really powerful in the journey that we're all on is to come to really know thyself.
Speaker BAnd so often what makes life, quote, unquote hard is that we are trying to fit in, to be something we're not, when we're not actually designed to be what we're not.
Speaker BAnd so I know for my mom, for instance, she was teaching me and then eventually I was there to kind of be her guide, right?
Speaker BLike we did that for each other and in so many ways.
Speaker BA friend of mine said, I think anyone who's written a book wrote it first for their mother, right?
Speaker BAs it's like there's a soul contract, right?
Speaker BSo I've really had a face to face look at this.
Speaker BAnd in one respect, you can see where my mom definitely struggled, right, to have so much happening inside of her mind, inside of her even nervous system, right.
Speaker BAs a result of what she was coded with.
Speaker BAnd at the same time, she has unbelievable gifts, right?
Speaker BWhich is not a surprise.
Speaker BYou know, those things usually go together.
Speaker BSo she's an incredible performer.
Speaker BShe was most talented in her senior yearbook.
Speaker BShe got that superlative.
Speaker BShe is a natural when it comes to playing piano, singing Doing imitations, coloring outside the lines.
Speaker BSo much of what I feel like is my superpower is because my mother prioritized my creativity over my achievement.
Speaker BAnd so it gave me tremendous space to play.
Speaker BAnd as a kid, I was always encouraged to paint, make collages, skip school if I wanted to.
Speaker BLike, life was about expression rather than trying to fit into some rubric.
Speaker BAnd also, she's so, so sensitive, and she's so easily spun.
Speaker BAnd so it's only as an adult, it's very, very recent that she came to appreciate that as opposed to making herself wrong for all the things that she is in her essence, she started to understand, instead of me adapting to the world, what are the practices that I can do that honor what is inside of me?
Speaker BAnd the world doesn't necessarily remind us to do that.
Speaker BRight?
Speaker BAnd it's really one size fits all.
Speaker BThey actually have said.
Speaker BAnd this is not me making a diagnosis.
Speaker BI'm just quoting that children in school are more likely to have a diagnosis of ADHD than when you take them out of school.
Speaker BAnd again, some people, they'll have the diagnosis either way.
Speaker BBut what I'm saying is that's so telling because it shows that just putting a child into a system and saying, this is the system, not everybody's system is going to function at all in that.
Speaker BAnd so I think later, it's only recently that my mom has understood that she has a superpower, which is to constantly be able to come up with a creative thought, and her mind will take her into galaxies that other people maybe necessarily wouldn't.
Speaker BAnd she can empathize and emote.
Speaker BAnd also because of that, she needs to regulate herself.
Speaker BShe needs to have time where she is paying homage to all of that.
Speaker BAnd no one taught her that growing up.
Speaker BAnd so what she felt was otherness.
Speaker BShe felt stupid.
Speaker BShe felt wrong and crazy that she had all of this going on.
Speaker BAnd now she spends a lot of time gardening.
Speaker BAnd she's amazing at it, right?
Speaker BAnd she knows that she needs to take news breaks sometimes, and she does some meditation, and she's finally like.
Speaker BShe's like, I must be a late bloomer, because now I'm actually finding that I have this gift, right?
Speaker BThat's number one as far as the overarching right for everyone who's listening, no matter what your relationship with neurodivergence is.
Speaker BI do subscribe to the idea that for all of us, life is not meant to be a struggle.
Speaker BNow, why does it feel like a struggle is because our soul has a blueprint it has divine instructions.
Speaker BAnd it is literally, as my rabbi says, we're each a masterpiece, a piece of the master.
Speaker BWe are someone because we're some of the one.
Speaker BAnd we come into this world having seen the whole movie.
Speaker BGod showed us the entire assignment of the path, and we volunteered for this mission.
Speaker BWe knew what the gift would be.
Speaker BWe knew what the path would be.
Speaker BAnd we came to the world on assignment and fully, fully willing to go through this journey for our soul.
Speaker BCorrection.
Speaker BOkay.
Speaker BAnd for the betterment of the collective.
Speaker BWhen we are born, there is a essence.
Speaker BThere is a peace.
Speaker BThere is a sense of, well, being, just being who we are.
Speaker BAnd very quickly, the world starts to get so loud around us that we start to take on identities that have us striving for things that our essence doesn't even want.
Speaker BAnd that's when things start to feel really hard.
Speaker BWe start to have this sense that in order for us to be whole, we have to achieve things, or we have to measure up to things, or we need a big pile of things.
Speaker BAnd at the end of the day, what we're really seeking is to have inner peace.
Speaker BAnd we don't realize that that's inside.
Speaker BIt's the Dorothy, click your heels.
Speaker BYou have it already.
Speaker BSo what I mean is, anything that we would be finding hard is something we're trying to externalize.
Speaker BAt the end of the day, the thing that feels the most fulfilling is the understanding that literally, this is not metaphorical, literally our heart.
Speaker BThe heart that we each have is an electromagnetic device.
Speaker BIt is literally electromagnetic.
Speaker BAnd when we are centered inside our being, as opposed to outsourcing and externalizing what we're grasping for.
Speaker BBut when we are centered within, the heart literally opens up and feels coherent.
Speaker BWe feel like we are.
Speaker BThere's an equanimity.
Speaker BThere's a beingness that comes through.
Speaker BThere's an aliveness that comes through.
Speaker BAnd then it literally, and I keep saying literally because I want people to know, this is science.
Speaker BIt gives everyone around us a biological update just by being in our presence.
Speaker BThat's how powerful that electromagnetic energy comes off of us.
Speaker BIn fact, it'll change the plants in your house.
Speaker BIt'll affect everything that you're around.
Speaker BYou become like a wifi router for everything that you interact with.
Speaker BYou love it into life.
Speaker BThat's how powerful we are in our integrity.
Speaker BSo what's the struggle?
Speaker BThe struggle is somewhere along the way, believing that in order for us to be whole, there's a million things we have to achieve.
Speaker BThe approval, the wealth, the piles of things.
Speaker BAnd that feels like a struggle.
Speaker BAnd here's what's extra cool.
Speaker BThe way that manifestation works is that when we are in this receptive mode, when we are in connection with our truth, right?
Speaker BAnd we're walking with that wholeness and we're no longer needing something outside of us to make us feel at peace, we're projecting peace.
Speaker BWe are peace.
Speaker BWe are right?
Speaker BWhat happens is we become such a laser that we change the 3D dimensions around us.
Speaker BAnd then we do manifest the most divine, exquisite reality because we get back literally the resonance of the same frequency that we project.
Speaker BSo when human beings start to develop their own capacity to manipulate their own energy, to conjure it up, to call it into motion, to find the power within, right?
Speaker BTo become spiritually aligned within themselves.
Speaker BYou make quantum leaps in your life because everything around you wants to be around you.
Speaker BAnd you start to become so powerful just being in your presence.
Speaker BOther people will have good ideas just being with you, right?
Speaker BBecause you become a portal.
Speaker BIt's an energy that opens up abundance of all kinds.
Speaker BThe abundance of love, the abundance of creativity.
Speaker BIt opens it up for yourself and for anyone around you.
Speaker BThat's how powerful a human being is when they're tapped in and turned on.
Speaker BAnd there is nothing that feels more abundant.
Speaker BThere's no amount of money that you could be given that feels as abundant as it feels to be fully in a flow state with yourself, to be fully in synchronicity with the world, to be having mystical experiences and.
Speaker BAnd divine little connections, little winks from the universe.
Speaker BThat is actually what we're all after.
Speaker BAnd that is actually easy because it's already been set in motion.
Speaker BIt's knowing that you're always at the right place at the right time.
Speaker BAnd that the question isn't what do I need to do, but who do I need to be?
Speaker BAnd when we tap into the energy and we tap into what's within ourselves, we.
Speaker BWe become the vessel by which all the shefa, all the abundance that's already here, that God already put here in front of you in escrow, you just start receiving.
Speaker BYou become a vehicle for those miracles.
Speaker BIf that makes sense.
Speaker AIt makes beautiful and perfect sense.
Speaker AAnd I love hearing it back from you in.
Speaker AIn that way.
Speaker AAnd I'm going to just start going back to what you were saying about your mum, because your mum is in this community.
Speaker ALike this is, I hear from amazing women all the time, similar to your mum, maybe a bit younger, maybe a bit older, I don't know how old she is.
Speaker ABut I hear from women this, in their 70s, you know, late 70s, telling me that they have finally realized, and they're living very similar to your mum in the sense that they are finally understanding themselves, finally understand their energy, what makes them tick, what makes them happy, and doing these things that they've been told for decades that aren't on right, you know, like, try again, do something different, push, push against that door.
Speaker AAnd everything that I do is to hope that more women don't have to get to their 70s, find this alignment, find this truth, find this connection, this authenticity, so they can start working with themselves, with this energy and with this connection, this love.
Speaker ABecause what you described, then we can.
Speaker AI was just thinking in my head, like all the different times, you know, when that happens.
Speaker AAnd then I've just been going through a bit of a thing in my life where I have been pushing against things which I don't think have been right for me and my nervous system and have created a huge amount of stress and pressure.
Speaker AAnd it's just made me think like that was because I was being sucked into this story of this is how it needs to be.
Speaker AWell, if you're in this, this kind of line of work or in this, this space where you should be doing it like that, and there was my soul saying, you don't like that?
Speaker AThat's not good for you.
Speaker BExactly.
Speaker BYou know, in Hebrew, the word is ratzon, which means desire.
Speaker BAnd it's really interesting to talk about it because there's two schools of thought.
Speaker BAnd one school of thought is that you should have a very specific, clear sense of what you want in order to manifest.
Speaker BAnd the other set school of thought is you shouldn't desire anything because desire is the essence of suffering.
Speaker BWell, Judaism says something different, which is that desire, having ratzon, having desire when you wake up every morning is life force.
Speaker BYou should have desire.
Speaker BHowever, to get to what you were just saying, how often is the thing that plays constantly in our mind that we desire not actually what we want?
Speaker BMeaning to say, the holy desire that we are embedded with is a divine assignment, and that's what's worth pursuing versus what the world has told you is your desire.
Speaker BSo very often there is a sense of urgency that I need to make more money, or I need this book to be a bestseller, or I need.
Speaker BIt's like, is that your desire?
Speaker BIs that your soul's desire?
Speaker BMaybe or maybe not.
Speaker BAnd often what is the soul's desire is this quiet whisper, and it has nothing to do with what your ego needs for approval, and it has to do with what feels deeply rewarding for your soul.
Speaker BAnd sometimes that real desire is to build a garden.
Speaker BSometimes that real desire is to have a slow morning.
Speaker BSometimes that real desire is to write a book, but just to write the book.
Speaker BWhat happens with it is none of your business.
Speaker BSo the hard to go back to the question before is when we take on a desire that's not ours.
Speaker BWhen we understand that as a soul, we don't answer to people, we only answer to God, then we can name what is the desire and let everything else go.
Speaker BWhat's amazing is when we do that, we get led to the most amazing fulfillment because we're not in it for some external desire that somebody gave to us that we're holding like a.
Speaker BYou know, it feels like a sack of bricks on your back.
Speaker BAnd so often when I meet people, they realize they have their ladder on a wall of desire that's never been theirs.
Speaker BThey don't necessarily want a $10 million business.
Speaker BThey don't necessarily want this constant frenetic nervous system.
Speaker BWhat they want is something that's different than success.
Speaker BIt's significance.
Speaker BThey want to feel significant.
Speaker BThey want to make an impact.
Speaker BThey want to have a deep understanding of their own character and their own inner world and an inner monologue.
Speaker BThey want to have a meeting with the divine every day.
Speaker BThey want to feel like their life is potent and rich.
Speaker BSo much of what people come to me for and tell me is their desire within 10 minutes, I unpack that and realize that's what their parents wanted for them.
Speaker BThat's what their uncle said.
Speaker BThat's what their teacher said.
Speaker BAnd then the most wild thing is that so often when people follow their actual desire, they find the significance, and then success follows the significance.
Speaker BThey weren't even looking for it when I started my podcast.
Speaker BI started it in my closet.
Speaker BAnd I had been a songwriter and my quote unquote desire my whole life was to grow up and be famous and be a singer like Carole King, Sheryl Crow, whatever.
Speaker BAnd I got a record deal and it felt hard, but I did it.
Speaker BAnd I didn't like the environments I was in late at night in these studios.
Speaker BAnd then I got dropped from Interscope, and then I got signed to Atlantic Records, and I was, like, crunchy.
Speaker BIt was, like, hard to be in it, but I was doing it.
Speaker BAnd this is that.
Speaker BEventually I got dropped again.
Speaker BAnd then it's a long story, but I wound up writing music for television shows that you'd hear me singing in Pretty Little Liars or Younger Switched at Birth or Target commercials.
Speaker BAnd I made a few hundred thousand dollars a year writing music for TV and.
Speaker BAnd film and ads and theme songs for 10 years.
Speaker BAnd then one day, I just had this whisper, this nudge of, like, you should start a podcast.
Speaker BAnd it didn't make any sense on paper.
Speaker BCause I didn't have an email list.
Speaker BI didn't have an Instagram account.
Speaker BI had no social media.
Speaker BAnd it wasn't about that.
Speaker BIt just felt like, you know, I've learned all this Kabbalah and this Jewish wisdom.
Speaker BI studied meditation.
Speaker BAnd I'm just a girl, and I'm just a mom, and I'm a regular person, and.
Speaker BBut I feel like it's really deep, beautiful stuff, and it feels very unique to me, and I want to share it.
Speaker BAnd so I sat in my closet and put my laptop on my shoe rack and just spoke into this laptop without a microphone.
Speaker BAnd the reward was doing it.
Speaker BJust doing it was the reward.
Speaker BI just wanted to kind of share these ideas.
Speaker BI had three daughters.
Speaker BI still do.
Speaker BMy youngest was three weeks old.
Speaker BI felt like, maybe this will be like, life lessons.
Speaker BThey'll go back and listen one day, you know, like.
Speaker BAnyway, so overnight, it became a huge success, and it made, you know, I had a million downloads then 50 million downloads.
Speaker BThe podcast started making millions of dollars that I never expected.
Speaker BAnd I wrote two books.
Speaker BAnd what's interesting is the whisper that I had when I was a kid was, use your voice.
Speaker BAnd I wound up using my voice, but not.
Speaker BNot for the sake of being seen.
Speaker BBecause when I was little, having two parents that were struggling with their own mental health and got divorced and all of this, I think I felt invisible.
Speaker BAnd I also knew I was supposed to use my voice, but I needed to be seen.
Speaker BAnd when I started the podcast, it wasn't about, look at me.
Speaker BIt was about, how can my voice lead you back to your voice?
Speaker BAnd it wasn't about being seen on stage.
Speaker BI was actually not even seen.
Speaker BAnd it wound up being the thing that was actually where I was meant to be of service.
Speaker BAnd so that was ultimately the most fulfilling thing, because it was no longer about my addiction to something outside of myself that I needed.
Speaker BIt was actually a way to use my gift for somebody else's benefit.
Speaker BAnd millions of people have come to me and said, your podcast.
Speaker BIt just made me feel like myself again.
Speaker BYour podcast gave me the courage to do this or that or remember that there is a God and that I had a bad relationship with the divine, because I was taught it in a way that made me feel so far away.
Speaker BAnd now I feel so close to God, and thank you for that.
Speaker BAnd I didn't go into it thinking there would be a external reward.
Speaker BSo I think it's interesting.
Speaker BWhat is the desire?
Speaker BAnd when we get quiet, it shouldn't feel like urgency or pressure, and that's how, you know it's your actual soul's desire.
Speaker ASo many of us have those little nudges and those whispers, but we.
Speaker AWe dismiss them or we don't get still enough, or we don't get quiet enough, or we don't give ourselves the opportunity, or we just.
Speaker AWe just dismiss it going, that's ridiculous.
Speaker ALike, how.
Speaker AHow's that going to happen?
Speaker AAnd we go into the how.
Speaker AAnd I had a similar experience with the podcast as well, with my.
Speaker AThis is three years now of the podcast.
Speaker A2.8 million downloads.
Speaker AAnd in a million years, I never thought that I would still be doing this after, like, my first little.
Speaker AExactly the same as you in my closet in the middle of lockdown, telling my kids, four kids, go, go away, go away.
Speaker AI'm just recording a podcast.
Speaker AAnd it.
Speaker AThere was lots of, you know, duffer episodes and things like that, but it's still something that I come back to every single day, every single week, because it's.
Speaker AIt's effortless for me.
Speaker AI love doing this.
Speaker AI.
Speaker AAnd it's.
Speaker AIt feeds so many of my desires, even though I don't know where it was going to go.
Speaker ABut I guess my question to you is, it's that it's the belief systems that we have to break down, isn't it?
Speaker ABecause I think I've worked so much on my belief systems and my development that I was curious enough to do that, whereas I know there's a lot of people going, well, that's crazy.
Speaker AI'm not going to start a music career or start a podcast or write a book or make big change, because how's that going to make me money?
Speaker AOr who am I to do that?
Speaker AOr that's crazy.
Speaker AAnd I think.
Speaker AWould you say that the belief systems, the trust in yourself is probably where we all.
Speaker AWe all need to kind of like, peel back.
Speaker AWe need to go back to.
Speaker BI think it's very common, what you just said.
Speaker BI think the most common thing I hear is the worry around, how am I going to figure this out?
Speaker BOr am I really even good at this?
Speaker BLike, can I do this?
Speaker BYeah, right.
Speaker BSo what's really wild is that the most impressive people in the world are not the people with the greatest skills, and they're not the people with the most money, and they're not the people with whatever.
Speaker BIt's arbitrary.
Speaker BWhat makes a person most impressive is how loving they are.
Speaker BThe most impressive person in a room is the most loving.
Speaker BThe wisest person in the room is the most loving.
Speaker BAnd I say that because, you know, my grandmother didn't go to school past the fifth grade and came through a horrible, you know, second world War and all of this.
Speaker BShe had tremendous wisdom and compassion, and she made a giant impact.
Speaker BAnd wherever we would go, she would really impress upon people something they would, you know, just remember her.
Speaker BAnd she was so loving and wise and compassionate and deep.
Speaker BRight?
Speaker BAnd so when we remember that.
Speaker BThat what is most valuable about us, we actually have to the max.
Speaker BLike, what is most valuable about an individual is not your resources, but the resources within you.
Speaker BYour passion, your conviction, your passion, your vulnerability.
Speaker BThen that actually becomes the leading.
Speaker BThe leading tool that you have.
Speaker BNumber one when it comes to opening any doors, right?
Speaker BIt's having the capacity to be in a space and be curious.
Speaker BLike, why am I here?
Speaker BI don't know.
Speaker BBut I'm going to be here with my whole heart.
Speaker BAnd then what will come out of whatever the project is will be bigger than what you thought, because it's bigger than us.
Speaker BAnd that's what I'm saying.
Speaker BWhen we show up with our full.
Speaker BOkay, so you have a little whisper, you want to start an ice cream store.
Speaker BYou have a little whisper, you want to write a book.
Speaker BBut if you surrender, like, how it needs to look, and you just show up for the assignment, which is, I'm gonna trust myself, so I'm therefore gonna allow myself to create, even if it feels mediocre.
Speaker BI'm gonna be vulnerable and present and honest, and something interesting will come back as a breadcrumb.
Speaker BI'll be led to this other thing.
Speaker BI'll be led over here, this person, and I will have a conversation, and I won't have an agenda, but because I will be there with my whole heart and being present and having compassion, there'll be a whisper.
Speaker BThere'll be a clue that will lead me to the next thing.
Speaker BTo the next thing.
Speaker BTo the next thing.
Speaker BRight.
Speaker BI wasn't the best songwriter, but it's the energy, right?
Speaker BAnd so other songwriters who I would co write with would say, you make me better in these rooms just because you're so fun to be with and you're so present and you're such a good listener.
Speaker BAnd it just makes the songs come to life, actually.
Speaker BRight.
Speaker BAnd I used to think, oh, my God, they run circles around me with their talent.
Speaker BRight.
Speaker BAnd my voice is fine, but it's not the best voice, but it's very honest.
Speaker BAnd so when I sing, it feels like I'm talking right to you.
Speaker BRight.
Speaker BAnd that's.
Speaker BBob Dylan is not known for having the best vocals.
Speaker BHe's known for being so connected to what he's saying.
Speaker BAnd so I'm just saying that's number one.
Speaker BAnd number two, Is that the how is the fun part?
Speaker BIt's not our job.
Speaker BThat's God's job.
Speaker BAnd what's so awesome is that it's so much cooler and more synchronistic than you could ever think.
Speaker BAnd it's not on you to figure it out.
Speaker BIt's on you to say, okay, God, I hear this whisper.
Speaker BYou're telling me to start a podcast, so I'm just going to, like, throw it all out there and go for it.
Speaker BAnd I'm going to let go of the how.
Speaker BAnd I know that by the end of the day, every day, you're going to send me a wink or a whisper that's going to lead me to the next clue.
Speaker BTo the next clue, to the next clue.
Speaker BAnd I think you know this story.
Speaker BI told it before I put it in the book.
Speaker BBut when I started my podcast, I went to this conference called Podcast Movement, and everybody was there trying to network.
Speaker BAnd I said to my friend, I didn't bring business cards, so I feel uncomfortable in this networking event.
Speaker BAnd she said, well, if you stay in this networking event, you might meet somebody from Apple Podcasts.
Speaker BAnd this was seven, eight years ago.
Speaker BShe said, apple Podcasts can feature you.
Speaker BIt would change your career.
Speaker BI said, you know what?
Speaker BThis feels a little bit stressful.
Speaker BSo I'm going to leave, and I'll come back in an hour when the conference begins.
Speaker BAnd I left, and I went to another hotel, ordered an iced tea, sat down, and I was just at peace again.
Speaker BAnd this man comes in, and he sits down next to me, and he's reading the newspaper, and he realizes he and I have the same badge from the other conference.
Speaker BAnd he said, were you at the podcast conference?
Speaker BAnd I said, yes.
Speaker BAnd he tells me he's from the Midwest.
Speaker BI told him, my husband's from the Midwest.
Speaker BWe have a lovely conversation.
Speaker BAnd he stands up and hands me his card.
Speaker BAnd he said, listen, I'm the head of Apple Podcasts, and I really like you, and if you want you can meet me at my offices.
Speaker BI'd love to have breakfast with you.
Speaker BSo I was floored, right?
Speaker BBecause I literally left the networking event and then I walked right into him alone, sitting next to me, just the two of us.
Speaker BHow does that happen?
Speaker BBecause when you're not worried about trying to grasp for the how and you become whole, you just find your well being.
Speaker BIt'll meet you.
Speaker BThat's how powerful the universe is.
Speaker BBut here's even something more crazy on the card.
Speaker BWhen he gave me the card, his address was directly across from my daughter's school.
Speaker BAnd I said, oh, I go to that address every day and I always notice that there's a building with valet parking, but there's no sign on the building.
Speaker BSo I used to wonder, what, what is that?
Speaker BAnd he said, it's Apple.
Speaker BI said, that's where Apple is.
Speaker BHe goes, yeah, I know your daughter's school.
Speaker BI can see it through the window of my office.
Speaker BSo he said, when are you going to be there next?
Speaker BI said, tomorrow morning.
Speaker BHe said, great, come have breakfast with me tomorrow.
Speaker BThat's how immediate it is.
Speaker BIt's beyond the beyond the beyond.
Speaker BWhen I got married, what was fascinating is I rented an apartment.
Speaker BAnd the day I went to look at that apartment, the landlord and I were walking down the stairs of this building and this woman walked over to me, she was in her 70s, and she said, are you going to rent that front unit?
Speaker BAnd I said, I'm considering it.
Speaker BI never met this woman in my life.
Speaker BShe said, well, you should rent it.
Speaker BBecause every year that becomes open.
Speaker BBecause every year a woman moves in there and she gets engaged and moves out.
Speaker BSo there's something in that unit.
Speaker BI'm promising you, if you move in there, you're going to get married.
Speaker BI promise.
Speaker BIt has good energy.
Speaker BSo I said, okay.
Speaker BI was 25 at the time.
Speaker BI moved into that apartment and I got engaged.
Speaker BAnd the man that I got engaged to is the son of that woman.
Speaker AOh, wow.
Speaker BAnd she had no actual thought in her life that that would happen.
Speaker BIn fact, it was very difficult for her.
Speaker BShe had been a widow since the 80s.
Speaker BHe was basically her rock.
Speaker BIt was so fascinating, the soul correction of all of that, because she said that to me.
Speaker BAnd little did she know that that would ever happen to her own son, who she had a really hard time letting go.
Speaker BAnd then it was a very difficult road for the three of us.
Speaker BSo I didn't see that ad when I was looking for the apartment, right?
Speaker BIt didn't say, and it comes With a husband.
Speaker BI wasn't looking for him.
Speaker BWhat I'm saying is the path we're on when we just trust, when we let go, we walk right into the mystical.
Speaker BAnd it is so much cooler and so much bigger than anything you could pencil out and try to figure out.
Speaker BSo it's not your job.
Speaker BRight.
Speaker BAnd you don't have to plan it.
Speaker BYour job is to continue to mine for the gold inside of you, which is, what's my next move?
Speaker BAnd having a breakfast with God every morning and asking, where would you have me go?
Speaker BWhat would you have me remember?
Speaker BAnd he'll do the rest.
Speaker AYeah, I think so many women, especially, need reminding of this because we want to control everything.
Speaker AWe want to have our hands gripping on the steering wheel, and we're like, white knuckling through, and we just, like, we'll just do this.
Speaker AWe'll just try harder.
Speaker AWe'll just change that.
Speaker AAnd if that person just did this and we're.
Speaker AWe're all exhausted and we're all burnt out, we get this understanding and this realization that we have got adhd, which has made life harder.
Speaker AAnd what you're saying now is an invitation.
Speaker AIt's like a permission slip for women to finally be like, you know what?
Speaker AI don't have to do it all.
Speaker AIt's not up to me to have to micromanage absolutely everything and to be able to just lean in to what they enjoy, where they feel aligned, where they want to go.
Speaker AThose whispers.
Speaker AAnd I talk so much about this in a lot of my coaching and my workshops and everything.
Speaker AIt's like, we've been so conditioned to be in this firefighting mode, and now it's like, okay, you can put down the hose, and it's okay.
Speaker ALike, you don't have to save everything and everyone.
Speaker AYou don't have to control the outcome.
Speaker AAnd it feels very freeing and also very scary.
Speaker BWhat I will also say is that I think for women who have adhd, or just people in general, creativity is a must.
Speaker BIt's a must.
Speaker BAnd in general, I see people suffering because they don't let themselves play, play or create.
Speaker BAnd I look at the school system, and I just shudder thinking how devoid it is of what it really should be focused on, which is kids getting to build things and ask good questions and make things messy.
Speaker BAnd I say this specifically to women who are diagnosed with ADHD or whatever it is, because we now know if you don't create, if just for its own sake, if you're not arranging flowers or gardening in the Backyard or writing poetry or journaling or learning choreography or whatever suits you creatively.
Speaker BIf you're, if you're not doing anything creatively, you need a vehicle to channel that creativity.
Speaker BAnd if you don't have it, it will turn into sadness and pain and depression and grief.
Speaker BIt needs a place to go.
Speaker BAnd so I would recommend.
Speaker BThere's a great book that I didn't write by Julia Cameron called the Artist's Way.
Speaker BWhether you've done it once, do it again.
Speaker BIf you've never done it, do it.
Speaker BIt's a 12 week journey of creative recovery.
Speaker BAnd it's not because you're Van Gogh.
Speaker BIt doesn't matter if you're talented.
Speaker BIt doesn't matter.
Speaker BNot the point.
Speaker BIt just forces you to go on a artist date.
Speaker BIt forces you to journal, it forces you to take pictures, it forces you to play and create, which is just so important.
Speaker BIt's essential for every human because our greatest joy is emulating God.
Speaker BAnd God is the ultimate creator.
Speaker BAnd so when we're not creating something, it feels without us realizing it, there's a depression because we are that talented.
Speaker BPolar bears are beautiful, but they don't create.
Speaker BOwls are gorgeous, but they don't create.
Speaker BWhat does that mean?
Speaker BThey just do what they do instinctively.
Speaker BThere's a code inside of them.
Speaker BThey don't have free will to not do the code right.
Speaker BThey're going to be just like every other owl, and it's perfect and it's beautiful because they create an ecosystem that makes everything make sense.
Speaker BBut human beings have free will and creativity.
Speaker BGod gave us that.
Speaker BSo we have the ability to turn something from nothing into something, a thought into a thing.
Speaker BWalt Disney, Jim Henson, Picasso, like that lives inside of every human and it comes through in a different way.
Speaker BAnd if you're not expressing it, you'll look high and low.
Speaker BYou'll try to make money, you'll try to achieve it won't even do it.
Speaker BWhat you need is a place where you can just be creating.
Speaker BAnd whether you're gardening and you just find the rewarding ness of that pulling your own tomatoes every night, or you're painting, you're painting because you want to just learn to paint, great.
Speaker BBut what happens is if we're not gifted, quote unquote, if someone never told us that we're a genius at playing piano or whatever it is, we just leave creativity completely to the side.
Speaker BNo, that's ridiculous.
Speaker BHave you ever been to a preschool and seen a child that's not creative?
Speaker BEvery child is creative.
Speaker BAlong the Way people get ridiculed because people can be rejecting.
Speaker BAnd then people stop creating because they don't want to make something that's not going to get an A plus.
Speaker BSo they don't make anything.
Speaker BBut everything is designed to be creative.
Speaker BCreating a business makes you creative.
Speaker BComing up with something to post and write on Instagram is creative.
Speaker BSetting two friends up on a date is creative.
Speaker BThere's a million ways to create and to be in the world.
Speaker BCreating something and utilizing that part of yourself.
Speaker BIf you are a human being, you need to be doing that.
Speaker BAnd when you're in creative mode, you won't be anxious because you can't be creative and anxious at the same time.
Speaker BAnd so I just find that in my work, a lot of what I do.
Speaker BIt's funny, the path that I took, because as a songwriter, I was a creative person.
Speaker BThat's what I did for my whole life, for a living, everything for 10 years straight.
Speaker BAnd I was a creative growing up.
Speaker BI did theater and dance and piano and voice lessons.
Speaker BI was always doing creative things.
Speaker BAnd I find that in the spiritual work I do.
Speaker BAnd I teach Kabbalah and I teach meditation and Jewish wisdom.
Speaker BBut I'm often telling people things that allow them to start getting messy and creating.
Speaker BAnd I think that's a big part of Jewish mysticism is be like the creator, create something.
Speaker BCome up with a.
Speaker BA legal pad of ideas every day, even if you don't use them just to start flexing the muscle of here's ideas that were are coming out of me.
Speaker BAnd maybe it's an idea you'll give to someone else, maybe it's an idea for someone else that you'll meet.
Speaker BIt doesn't matter.
Speaker BIt'll give you the sense of taking this extra bandwidth and channeling it so it doesn't make you feel pent up.
Speaker AIf that makes sense, 100%.
Speaker AIt's a stagnation and we keep that flow going.
Speaker AAnd I was just reading the book that Martha Beck wrote about.
Speaker BYeah, she does the same thing.
Speaker AYeah, it's.
Speaker AEverything that you're saying is incredible.
Speaker AIt's kind of like coming back to what we already know.
Speaker AAnd it's a reminder and it's like a deep, deep invitation for so many women who you describe who are feeling pent up and feeling anxious and feeling like they're frazzled and they have tried all the physical stuff.
Speaker AAnd then what you're saying now is that we can just let go.
Speaker ABut I just want to say, first of all, thank you for sharing your wisdom.
Speaker AI've kept as quiet and as silent as I can just to let you talk with the time that we've got.
Speaker ABut if people would love to hear more from you, Kathy, where, where can they head to?
Speaker AWhere's the best place?
Speaker BThank you so much.
Speaker BFirst of all, you're lovely.
Speaker BSo lovely.
Speaker BPeople can find me on Instagram at Kathy Heller.
Speaker BKathy's with a C.
Speaker BMy book is sold wherever you want to buy a book.
Speaker BAnd if you go to katheller.com book there's a few goodies like a free meditation you can listen to, which people have said is really helpful.
Speaker BAnd I have a podcast which is also free and a cool tool.
Speaker BI think we've done a thousand episodes and yeah, I would love to have you on to share your insight and story.
Speaker BSo we'll set that up.
Speaker BAnd yeah, I really appreciate you.
Speaker BThank you.
Speaker AWell, thank you and I hope that we can do that.
Speaker AThat would be amazing.
Speaker AThanks, Kathy.
Speaker BThank you so much.
Speaker AIf today's episode has been helpful for you and you're looking for even further support, my brand new book, the ADHD Women's well Being Toolkit, is now available to order from anywhere you get your books from.
Speaker AI really hope this book is to going, going to be the ultimate resource for anyone who loves this podcast and wants a deeper dive into all these kinds of conversations.
Speaker AIf you head to my website, adhdwomenswellbeing.co.uk, you'll find all the information on the book there, which is going to be out on the 17th of July.
Speaker AThank you so much.