Rich Connections – S.1 Ep. 004

Episode Highlights + Timestamps:

00:00 Introduction to Living Richly

01:21 The Impact of Oprah Winfrey

03:51 The Journey to Understanding Happiness

06:07 Breaking Free from the Cycle of Misery

08:59 Embodying Your Truth

12:23 Practical Steps to Live Richly

16:04 Overcoming Resistance and Fear

Introduction to Living Richly

[00:00] Welcome back to Rich Connections

Welcome back to Rich connections. The podcast where we rebel against conditioning root into our truth rise with intention to live richly. I’m your host Stacy Rich and today’s episode is deeply personal for me. This isn’t just a conversation. This is the essence of my mission in life. I feel, and it is the heartbeat of everything I stand for.

It actually took me a while to record this episode because it just simply meant so much to me and I wanted to not leave anything out and I overthought it, of course. So, however, I then realized that since it’s the essence of my mission, it will be continuously weaved within each episode in some capacity. Right. So I just had to press record. So today we’re talking about what it truly means to live richly. And no, I don’t mean just.

Financially, I mean emotionally, I mean relationally, I mean living in alignment with who you really are and what lights your soul up and what excites you to get up and out of bed every single morning. And no, I don’t just mean waiting for Fridays to come. Not living on autopilot, but feeling alive in your day to day. 

The Impact of Oprah Winfrey

[01:21] – The Impact of Oprah Winfrey

In this episode, I’m pulling back the curtain and sharing the real story of where this all started for me and the moment that cracked me open. But most importantly, I will share with you how you can start to integrate your truth and embody it fully. So let’s dive in.

I still remember as a kid, very vividly, it’s one of my favorite memories. I would come home around four o’clock. 

If any of that routine got off I was a few minutes late and I was not happy because that was right when the Oprah Winfrey Show started and my mom would already have it on the television. So my mom and I would watch that show together every single day. And, I just remember being so captivated by Oprah.

I didn’t know it then but Oprah was awakening something deep in me and she because she didn’t just interview people she really saw them and she didn’t judge them she led them with curiosity

She just created a safe space for people to be seen, heard, and understood, and I’ve always tried to work my way towards that. And that truly lit something up in me back then. I didn’t know what to call it back then, but I felt it. And I felt a calling and knowing, if you will, just like when Oprah was a little girl, when she was helping her grandmother hang clothes on the clothesline. She tells the story that she remembers very vividly about five years old, she was hanging clothes with her grandmother and…

She said, you’re gonna need to know how to do this when you’re an adult. And Oprah immediately had a knowing within her that I’m not actually gonna need to know how to do this. This is something I’m not gonna have to do. And that was me knowing I was to help people the way Oprah did.

I felt the pull every single time. I watched people light up when they told their story on her show. I mean, how they felt safe to share in that moment, even though they were on national television, whether it be for everyday people to celebrities.

But when they felt understood, and that was just amazing to me, and I thought, this is what healing looks like. This is what purpose looks like and feels like. This is true connection and compassion. And at the same time, I was seeing the opposite all around me.

Some of the people closest to me, unfortunately, were very deeply unhappy, stuck in cycles of judgment,  fear, and just simply survival. I didn’t have the words, but…

[03:51] The Journey to Understanding Happiness

I knew they were suffering from a misalignment of whether it be mind, of spirit, or simply of just energy. That they didn’t feel truly seen, heard, and understood, or worse, worthy of it even. That made me desperate to understand happiness. What makes people light up? What keeps them stuck? And could I help them shift?

When I was a teenager, I started reading personal development books and spiritual books. I read them obsessively. I became obsessed with the big questions in life and it hasn’t stopped since. That’s when I knew that I was living richly when I was able to help others live richly as well. Is there anything that is pulling at you, that you can think of? It’s often from when you were a child.

In some cases, we’ve suppressed it, unfortunately, and it’s something that you have to sometimes go deep within to find. But I ask you to look in your childhood and see if there’s anything right. Well, that desire never left for me. As I got older, I noticed something even more disturbing. People got used to being miserable. And you know what I’m talking about. When we become adults and have to do adult things like pay bills.

We sacrifice our joy and our energy like it’s the right thing to do,

Whether it was family, friends, coworkers, or just a stranger in the store, I noticed how normalized it was to live for the weekend. know, the script, like everybody’s like, ugh, it’s Monday, or Tuesday’s the hangover of Monday, right? And it’s the actual Monday, everybody’s finally getting started. But then there’s hump day, and then there’s Friday Eve, which is Thursday, you know? And then there’s the big celebration of it being Friday.

and then Saturday is the best day, and then Sunday suddenly you’re anxious and the countdown to Monday begins. That’s the cycle I’m talking about. Week after week after week, I felt like I was watching people live the same week 52 times a year and calling it life. And I feel like that now and it breaks my heart. But more than that, it made me curious. How does one get here? How do you break free?

Breaking Free from the Cycle of Misery

[06:07] Breaking Free from the Cycle of Misery

Because it seemed to me like they sold security to everyone and the idea of leaving was insecure. And in my 20s, I had a huge growth spurt. I was exploring who I really was and decided to try something different. I took a job at a corporate office and it was the only corporate job I’ve ever had and it will forever be my last, if I have any say in that, right?

I wanted to feel like I was stepping into adulthood, a 9 to 5. A structure seemed like the next step and I made the best of it. I brought in good energy, I showed up positive, I worked hard, but inside I was watching myself and everyone else wither. I worked in mutual funds during the 2008 crash, so not only was the job soul-numbing.

It felt like I was a part of something of people’s financials despair quite frankly and it was soul-sucking It was wild to me how accepted misery was and people knew they were unhappy But they had no plans to change it no curiosity no rebellion no stretch of the imagination to just try something different or something exciting or even believe that they could do something different and or enjoyable right and

I believe it was because security was the logic and that’s what was sold. It even got me for a while. And I thought to myself, if I don’t make a change now and take a risk, this could become my life. And around the same time, I had already started exploring creative projects. I opened a brick and mortar business with a friend. I was producing films. I was feeling really alive again.

And then on a total whim a friend at she had invited me to move to Texas to do some business with her And I jumped at the opportunity it was the light at the end of the tunnel And that was the moment I stepped away from the system for good That that’s an entire story within itself actually but The point here is that I said yes to an opportunity that I didn’t necessarily see the outcome of it just felt more enriching than staying where I was. 

I allowed myself to go with the flow and have faith in my own journey. And I ask you to consider doing the same, right? You don’t have to know the next step. You just have to take a leap. So my career path has never really been linear. I’ve worn a lot of hats. I’ve tried new things. I’ve taken risks. I’ve picked myself up again and again. I’ve had failures and I’ve had successes. But here’s what I know now.

Embodying Your Truth

[08:59] Embodying Your Truth

That was the path for me. I wouldn’t change it. I wouldn’t change anything about it except experiencing it faster if I could. All of it. The discomfort, the detours, the cubicle, the moves, the risk, the restart, all of it. Every moment helps me become the woman I am now. The coach, the mentor, the host of this podcast, the creator of How to Live a Rich Life program, and it taught me this truth…

Living richly is not about having more. It’s about feeling more alive. It’s about integrating your truth and then boldly embodying it. And what do I mean by embodying it? Well, let me just read this to you. The definition of embody is simply something to embody something means to become the living expression of it. It’s when a belief, truth or value moves from something you know in your head to something you live in your body, your energy and your actions. 

It’s the difference between saying, I’m worthy of versus walking into a room like you are worthy, knowing what boundaries are versus enforcing them with confidence. 

It’s understanding alignment versus feeling when something is or isn’t right for you and choosing accordingly. Embodiment is felt. It’s the integration of your mindset, your nervous system, your emotions and energy into your choices and your presence. It’s about making decisions that honor your values, your energy, your time, and your voice. 

It’s about doing the things that others say are too much or too risky because you know they’re right for you. In order to live richly, you want to prioritize three things, okay? So I would say your emotional wealth or health, being honest about how you feel, healing what hurts and choosing peace over people pleasing, is something I had to work so hard on myself. 

And then relational wealth or health. Surrounding yourself with people who see you, who support you and want to support you and challenge you to grow. And then my favorite, energetic wealth or health. Protecting your energy, honoring your body, creating space for alignment. It means not postponing your joy.

not waiting for a milestone to feel alive and not chasing validation or performance, but choosing richness in how you speak, how you love, how you lead. Living richly means unapologetically deciding this is who I am and this is how I want to feel, whether it affects you, anyone else or not. Right? 

How Do You Live Richly?

[12:23] Practical Steps to Live Richly

How do you live richly for real? Like steps, right? Here are a few things that helped me and that I share with my clients all the time. So I do a daily or weekly energy audit. So what does that mean? Ask yourself, what lit me up this week or today? What drained me? And then adjust. Really go through and really feel where your energy’s at. Are you feeling anxiety? Are you feeling…

Are you feeling happy, excited like and then why and then journal that and then that helps you really kind of align on a day-to-day basis or a weekly basis. 

Whatever feels right to you, but then design your days around who you want to be, not what you have to do. Start your day with intention not obligation. Obviously we have obligations through the day. I feel like I need to say that. Obviously we have obligations throughout the day, but if you’re starting your day with intention and what you actually want to start your day with, then your obligations will fall into place and you still are aligned to what you’re wanting and you can adjust and eventually it’ll be more intention than obligation. 

Start with how you want to feel, then choose your schedule accordingly basically. ⁓ meditation, affirmations, prayer, journal, whatever sets intentions of desire for you, do that. Say no to what’s no longer aligned, even if it used to be, even if it’s associations. 

Declutter that schedule from noise. If it drains you, reevaluate it. You don’t owe anyone your burnout, you get to change. You’re allowed to change, you’re allowed to evolve, and that’s how you grow richly. 

With that said, building relationships that energize you not drain you. Let go of tolerating and start curating. Reprogram your mindset around worth, you don’t have to earn rest. You don’t have to earn pleasure or expansion. Take action before you feel ready if I waited until I felt ready I’d still be in that corporate office and quite frankly, I wouldn’t be doing this podcast.

Your soul is already ready and the moment you make the decision, the universe conspires. At least take a tiny step in a direction. It’s better than nothing. Take a step towards something that feels good. Trust that your weird, your wild and amazing path is the point. There’s no one size fits all timeline. Okay? You know, one person’s journey is not yours.

Don’t compare it to yours. There’s just your truth and your expression and your truth will always make you Rich and the ways that matter most. Check in with yourself daily. Okay. Ask does this decision align with the life I say I want? And if you don’t know what you want, let’s figure that out. You don’t have to overhaul anything at once.

But one aligned choice each day compounds into a richly lived life that you will look back on and see your growth. I promise if you look a year in or a year past from that and you’re like, my gosh, I did do a lot of things that were amazing. So living fully doesn’t come without resistance, right? Whether it be from others or yourself. And you might feel guilt from wanting more.

[16:04] Overcoming Resistance and Fear

Fear of being too much, being seen, shame around, changing your mind, or people thinking you are a failure because you ended something and started something new. That’s something that I had to deal with all the time because the moment I did something and I realized it wasn’t in alignment with what I wanted, I moved on and I was not afraid of that. To me it was not a failure, it was a realignment, you know? And that’s…

That’s a real fear though that I’ve personally experienced. And to be honest, it wasn’t even mine all the time. I love change and know when things should end and it’s time for me to evolve. However, the feeling others have towards it can easily seep into your thoughts. But here’s the truth. You don’t owe anyone a watered down version of yourself. You were never meant to shrink to fit a system. And I feel like most of us do that.

And that system was never designed for your freedom. You were never meant to shrink to fit into yourself into a box that is a version of you made by someone else. See, I used to fear being seen in my full truth. What if they judged me? What if I failed? What if I disappointed people? But now I fear actually settling and not living my truth.

I fear waking up 10 years from now and realizing I dimmed my light to make others comfortable. I would be lying if I didn’t acknowledge the difficulty of this desire for my evolution that makes so many others uncomfortable and the balance between not caring and caring about your loved one’s thoughts on the change. I have lost many people along the way because of it, but you are not selfish for wanting a life that feels good.

You are not ungrateful for desiring more joy. You are worthy right now. Living richly is your birthright. And anyone who is challenged by your desire for more is their burden to bear, not yours. So if this episode resonated with you and you’re feeling nudged in your soul, that it’s time to richly.

[18:21] Invitation to Transform Your Life

I invite you to take the next step and I would be honored to work with you.

How to Live Rich Life is my signature program where we take everything I shared here and turn it into embodied practice. You’ll learn how to shift your energy, align your identity, and build a life that reflects your truth. So if this is for you…

If you’re ready to align your energy or discover your power and create a life that lights you up from the inside out, you can learn more if you apply at the link in the show notes or just head to srichlife.com.

And if this episode moved you, share it with a friend. I would greatly appreciate it.

If you don’t mind, leave a review. Tag me on your socials @RichLifeConnectionsPodcast.

This is the message that you know, I’m really passionate about. It’s just like we only have this one life and just like being so heavily into feeling it wholeheartedly, right?

So let’s spread this message because the world needs more women living richly. Can you imagine what we could all accomplish if we actually just stayed within our truth?

So until next time, Rich Rebels…Rebel, Root, and Rise intentionally so you can Live Richly. See you next time.

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