Giving Up The Good For The Great With Anna Cantwell

To me,

Miracles are just one of the beautiful,

Natural phenomenon that we get to experience.

And really,

You can experience the tiniest thing.

It might seem really insignificant,

But for you it feels huge.

That's a miracle.

One of my clients,

She just messaged me right before and she was telling me about this moment that she had with this incredible monarch butterfly.

And just having a moment to breathe and witness this beautiful butterfly flying right up to her.

It seems like this teeny thing for her,

For someone who has been so trapped in anxiety and fear that that moment is so precious and that's a miracle.

Welcome to the Nenette Appeared podcast.

I'm your host,

Chelsea Benzl,

Business coach for spiritual online entrepreneurs.

In this podcast,

You're going to hear stories of badass women just like you taking big leaps of faith and the net appearing.

Enjoy.

All right.

Hello everyone.

I'm here with Anna Cantwell.

She is a soul coach and mindful living expert.

I'm so happy to have you on Anna.

I'm just loving your vibe and your positivity.

Oh my gosh.

Thank you so much Chelsea for having me.

I am just thrilled to be here and I hope everyone can already tell how much we're beaming and we've been talking for like three minutes before jumping on.

So I'm really excited.

Yeah.

I know we were totally just like hanging out and getting to know each other,

But we didn't actually even touch on your story of like leaping.

I know a little bit about it from just connecting with you prior to this podcast.

But what I want to say about that before we even dive in,

Before we even share any of that,

It's just such a testament to your energy and your like the vibe that we choose to vibrate at play such a big role in the experience that we have in the physical reality that we see in front of us.

And I'm like,

I have no surprise that you have manifested such amazing miracles in your life for yourself and for your clients.

And it's like,

It's really important,

I think,

To showcase that and maybe to preface that to say you don't always need to be in this high vibe state,

But when you have tools and you have practices and you have support to bring yourself back into that,

Back home to yourself,

That's where the magic is.

Absolutely.

I couldn't agree more.

And that's been,

It's just been so much of my journey has been discovering that,

Sharing that and knowing that,

You know,

One of my favorite phrases ever is that the cork floats,

Our vibration naturally is high.

There's nothing,

We don't,

It's not like this spinning top that we have to like keep up or this,

Like you've ever played that game with like a balloon when you're a kid and you're like trying to keep the balloon up,

Like our vibration isn't that.

Who we are naturally,

Who we are at our core,

At our center is this high vibration being.

We all have off days.

We all have funks.

And it's to me,

Our center,

Our core is that high vibe,

Miracle,

Magic,

Soulful feeling.

I love that reminder because sometimes it feels like we need to,

Sometimes it feels like there are blocks to that,

But it's remembering that those are blocks blocking our natural state.

It's not that the natural state or that the high vibe or that the good feeling state is something we need to work to achieve.

It's the other way around.

It's like removing the obstacles,

Removing the blocks and like shifting back into your natural state.

Yes.

I love that.

It's the work.

Think about how much work we did to maybe lower our vibration,

Right?

By thinking repetitive thoughts or by going back to patterns that we know didn't serve us or like we were talking about before,

Staying in that ego space,

Resisting the ego,

Fighting against it.

All of that is inhibiting us from just allowing the goodness that is here right now to flow through us.

Yeah.

And just to give some insight into that conversation that we did have offline before this was about like the ego mind and that voice that keeps us safe and small and stuck.

And it's like that fear mind that keeps us from taking the big leaps,

From taking risks,

From doing things that yeah,

Like we can all admit doing new things,

Doing things that are outside of your norm.

It's terrifying.

But that voice is there to keep you safe.

Like it's a tool,

It's an ally in some cases.

Like your ego mind that has that voice is designed to keep,

It's designed for survival.

And so it's not a matter of like completely shutting it out and turning off that voice and killing the ego.

But it's about,

You know,

Almost befriending it and saying,

Okay,

I hear you.

I acknowledge you.

Thank you.

But we're not playing that game anymore.

I love it.

Yeah.

To me,

The ultimate challenge is not like slay the ego or your ego death,

But love the ego.

Thank it for what it did,

Which is in a lot of cases,

Yeah,

It does.

It can keep us really safe.

It allows us to survive.

It's just not attuned to the frequency of thriving,

Of going big,

Of what major miracles happening.

Let's talk about miracles.

You said earlier today,

You just like,

You've been in that vibe.

I'm feeling your vibe.

I'm picking up on it.

That whole just like thriving and attracting miracles.

Tell me about like some recent miracles that you've experienced either with yourself or your clients.

Oh my gosh.

It's this is so I like cannot even contain my smile from talking about this because I'm so excited.

To me,

Miracles are just one of the beautiful natural phenomenon that we get to experience.

And really you can experience the tiniest thing.

It might seem really insignificant,

But for you,

It feels huge.

That's a miracle.

My one of my clients,

She just messaged me right before and she was telling me about this moment that she had with this incredible Monarch butterfly and just having a moment to breathe and witness this beautiful butterfly playing right up to her.

It seems like this teeny thing for her,

For someone who has been so trapped in anxiety and fear that that moment is so precious and that's a miracle.

Just as much as my other client who shared with me on a call today that her struggle with Hashimoto's disease is thyroid condition that leaves you and so much exhaustion.

Your adrenals are shot like fatigue all the time that in a matter of months of us working together and not even really with the direct intention to focus on this,

That she just went to the doctor.

It's completely gone completely.

All her,

Her thyroid levels evened out,

Her cholesterol evened out,

Everything,

Every marker.

It's like she never even had it.

Wow.

That just goes to show,

I love that perspective and that contrast between something that seemingly like that's massive.

It's like,

I don't know all the details and the ins and outs,

But that sounds like borderline medical miracle perhaps.

And then as simple as a butterfly.

And it just,

It reminds me of this quote who I have no idea who,

Where this quote came from.

I remember hearing it years and years ago that you either,

Oh,

And now I'm going to butcher it.

You either see everything as a miracle or you see nothing as a miracle,

But that's exactly it.

I had a conversation with someone not too long ago.

He said,

I believe in fate,

But I don't know about miracles.

And it's like,

Well,

Like where do you draw the line?

Like what is,

What do you define as a miracle?

I think the fact that we are alive,

The fact that I exist,

That you exist,

We all exist in these human bodies.

We breathe air that turns into like,

We eat food that turns into fuel and it just,

None of it really makes sense.

We take it for granted.

And so we stop seeing it as anything,

You know,

It just is how it is.

But it's that perspective and that shift back into like,

Holy shit,

This is all actually quite phenomenal.

And even the smallest thing,

If you start to see it as a miracle and you start to shift your perspective and have that gratitude about every little thing that happens,

Not only do you feel better and like live a more magical experience,

But I believe that's how we attract even more things that are quite fantastic and out of the norm because we're like almost looking for it and expecting it.

Yeah,

Absolutely.

It's so,

To me,

There's such a part of it that is very almost logical.

I'm sure you've heard the reticular activating system as a part of our brain that it filters out the things that we focus on.

So during a day we might see a million things.

You might see a million different kinds of cars or people and have all these different interactions.

Well,

That's a lot for your brain to process.

So it has to have a system of filtration so that the things that you focus on,

It starts to notice,

Oh,

Let me focus more on this.

And it's the phenomenon that you probably have this,

Someone who's your friend,

They get this kind of car,

Right?

They get a specific kind of car in this color.

The example that I always use is a red Honda Civic.

And I was telling someone this example one time and I said,

You know,

Like when you notice a car,

A red Honda Civic,

Let's say,

And you start seeing red Honda Civics everywhere.

Well,

Are people getting more red Honda Civics or you're just noticing them?

Doesn't really matter,

Right?

But you've attuned yourself.

And then at the end of the conversation,

He said,

By the way,

Did you know that I just got a red Honda Civic?

It was just too funny.

I so know that phenomenon,

Though,

And it's so it's such a good example with cars.

This always happens to me.

And you start thinking about a car,

It's on your radar,

And then you see it everywhere.

And that's exactly it.

It's like,

It doesn't matter the reason.

It doesn't matter if maybe there was a surge in purchases of the red Honda Civic.

It doesn't matter.

The fact is,

You're attracting it because you're seeing it,

You're attuned to it.

Hmm,

So it goes well for manifesting a car,

But also like whatever you want.

It's the same principle.

It's the same law.

And that's what I love about the laws of the universe.

Like as you start to dive into the law of attraction is a common one,

Of course,

That we,

You know,

Is becoming more mainstream,

But they are like,

You know,

Universal laws exist,

No matter what the topic is,

No matter what the context is.

So if you can notice that sort of phenomenon happening with a car,

You can say,

Okay,

Well,

What else do I want to see more of?

It's a really fun game to play.

And you start to see like,

Oh my gosh,

Even before I knew about the law of attraction and all in these other universal laws that they still applied to me and I was still manifesting.

I was just for a long time because I was a big chronic worrier and I had anxiety.

I was manifesting things that I didn't want to happen.

I was bringing in,

You know,

Physical pain or challenges that allowed me to grow beyond that.

Right.

That pushed me enough to say,

No,

No,

I'm done with that bullshit and I'm moving on to something so much greater.

I love that you said that,

That it's like we attract what we focus on.

You either attract more of it or you attract so much because your soul knows that like,

It's time to rise above and move past this and heal from this or learn the lesson.

And so in that sense,

It kind of takes the pressure off that it's like,

You don't have to fight with your mindset.

You don't like everything is happening for a reason.

You don't have to fight to get there.

You don't have to struggle to fix yourself.

A lot of times it's just trusting that like this dark,

Difficult time I'm going through right now,

I can't see it right now and I don't even need to try to see the silver lining.

I just know from past experience that anytime I've struggled,

Anytime there's been a big question mark over my life,

Like what is going to happen?

It all works itself out and usually so much better than we could ever have imagined.

And that's the fun part of it.

I think if people really thought,

Man,

How many times have my plans gone not the way I wanted to and it worked out so much better than the thing that I imagined.

And I laugh at the things that I,

Even when I first started to learn about the law of attraction that I was desiring to manifest because I did not understand what that all entails.

And I think we're so sure on what we want.

I'm so sure I want this promotion or I'm so sure I want this kind of partner.

And the universe is like,

Okay,

If you really think so,

But if you only knew what was in store,

You would not even like look twice at that man or for this job or whatever it might be.

That makes me want to ask about like,

So your previous days prior to being a soul coach and mindful living expert and living this life of fully doing your soul's work.

Like I feel that from hearing your talk and seeing you in your vibe.

And I can only imagine where you were a few years back,

Where did you feel like you had a path wind out for you?

And that was like,

Okay,

This is it.

This is what I'm doing.

And this is the right thing.

What was that experience like for you?

Oh my God.

I think you,

Whether you want to admit it or not,

You know,

Deep down,

If you are living in alignment with your best self,

With your brightest self,

Or if you are playing it safe and playing small.

And I was a school teacher.

I was teaching high school English.

I was getting my masters.

I was doing definitely something that I felt like there was passion behind.

I have always loved teaching and it's cool because this is still so much of what I do.

It's funny that the skill sets are very much the same.

And at this job,

I was so depleted.

I was so drained.

I was in a master's program and teaching school full time.

So I had no creative outlets.

I had pretty much zero social life.

And I kind of the only thing that I had time for ever was a couple of times a week,

I would go to yoga class.

And that was like my super sacred hour to like try to get back to homeostasis,

To try to get out of all of the stress and fear and worry and like,

Is this kid going to be okay?

And are this kid going to graduate?

And how am I going to teach this lesson tomorrow?

And what do I need to turn in?

And just like the nonstop chatter.

And I really love to tell people,

I was just a shell of what you see now.

I had no kind of the glow,

The luminescence,

The just vitality and energy that I have now.

I feel like I was at like 8% of me now.

And the seed was there,

Of course.

I have always been leaning optimistic.

I've always felt connected to spirit.

There's a thread that runs through,

But so much of society,

What society told me,

Parents,

Mentors,

It's like,

You should just be a teacher.

Be a teacher.

Do this for 30 years.

You'll retire.

Blah,

Blah,

Blah.

And I,

Oh my God.

I shudder.

I shudder.

And someone brought it forth to me today.

And don't get me wrong.

My heart,

My whole heart goes out to any teacher in the classroom right now.

Cause like,

Bless you.

Oh my God.

Bless you a million times over.

Cause that is some of the hardest work.

And I just thought like,

What would that be like now in this time?

Like it would not ever be like what I,

What I had imagined.

And one of the things that so encourages me that I know I did the right thing.

I followed my soul's purpose.

One of my sweet former students,

She just launched her own small business.

She sells these gorgeous earrings.

She's like doing the thing.

And I'm so proud of her.

And she wrote me a little note and said,

Ms.

Cantwell,

The thing that I remember so much that I needed so badly from you were your inspirational talks,

Your motivation and your advice.

Like not shit about like commas or essays.

Like none of that stuff matters.

Right?

It was those conversations that I was still at that time basically being a coach.

Right?

Like I was doing the thing.

I was practicing the skills just in a completely different context.

And I'm so infinitely grateful and blessed that I had that time in the classroom to really see what do I desire?

And my main desire was freedom.

I was like,

I need freedom to make my own schedule,

Plan my days how I want to wear what the fuck I want to wear and really live into the fullness of my purpose of my highest contribution.

And asking myself that,

I was like,

Is this my highest contribution?

No.

And it wasn't.

So I had to make the choice and say,

We need to go big.

There was that,

The ego mind was like,

Stay in Houston,

Save up more money,

Just work a few more years at this.

And I'm like,

I look back and like a few more years?

No.

And how so many people and no judgment.

Because once again,

We all have the ego.

We all need to keep ourselves safe to some degree and it protects us in certain ways.

And I just shudder to think how differently my life would look,

How differently my body would feel,

How my soul would feel,

All the people that I wouldn't have gotten to work with had I made that decision and stayed.

Scary.

And I guess too,

It's like,

Yeah,

No judgment on anyone who's doing either work that doesn't feed their soul.

It's like,

Okay,

That will all,

I trust that if you're here listening to this podcast and you're looking and seeking out this type of content,

There's probably something already moving in you that's sending you in that path.

But if someone were listening that they're like,

Well,

I am a teacher,

But I feel it could still be your soul's work to do something that isn't like to go be an entrepreneur or start a business or whatever.

And I think there's magic in like giving yourself permission,

Complete freedom to say fuck it to whatever anyone else has to say about it,

You know,

And like take what,

What you feel lit up about.

And it's kind of like,

So that student that said that that's what was the most inspiring to you,

That it was that inspiration that you were there to give it's because that's your truth and that's your soul's gift to the world.

Right?

So you,

We all have that in us and it's like feeling into what feels good to do,

What feels good to share,

What feels good to like create a life around.

And sometimes maybe that is like,

It's right in front of you and you already have it and it's fairly within reach and that's amazing.

And sometimes it's like,

What I want to do is absolutely terrifying.

It means I need to quit my job,

Quit my relationship and leave my town and like fly across the country,

Whatever it entails,

You know,

Because you have that desire,

Like that desire is guidance enough.

But then on top of that,

We have like the non-physical guidance as well.

And that's sort of the net that I like to talk about.

It's like,

There's so many pieces of this net.

It's all intertwined with like divine guidance,

Your own inner wisdom,

The action you take to create the net,

But all these pieces fit together to completely support you.

I love that.

I know.

I'm like,

Ooh,

Feeling it.

It's so beautiful.

And I love what you said,

Which is,

And to anyone listening to this,

Only,

You know,

If you heard me talking,

We're like,

Holy crap,

I am that inspirational person and coaching.

Like I don't even know what the fuck it means to be a coach,

But I would love to do that.

And yes,

Like,

Please let that resonate.

And if it's so funny,

My partner,

He does music and he does video editing and he's like,

Right now he's editing these videos of this guy who's like a cat YouTuber.

Like you can literally do anything.

You make it up.

Like only you can know,

Like if you want to make YouTube videos about cats for the rest of your life,

You can do it.

I used to always joke that like in LA you can make a living,

Like painting dog portraits.

Like it doesn't matter what the thing is.

It just matters that you are so crystal,

Crystal clear and your desire and why you want to do it.

And,

And then it's just a matter of going for it.

It's just a matter of taking that step or taking that quantum leap off to just do it,

To just really give it your all,

Even if it's not your like all day,

Every day.

Right?

And just being in that trust and coming back to that trust that this is all not only okay,

This is all divinely guided and perfect.

And it's like,

If I feel called to do this and it lights me up,

Even if it is something like cat YouTube or painting dog portraits,

It's like,

Get out of the mind that tells you that that's unrealistic or that you can't have that or do that and be successful and fulfilled at it.

That's a lie.

Totally.

It's the lies channel.

And I feel like we like turn up the volume on the lies channel and like the truth channels over here at like volume two.

And it's like,

It's just a matter of like,

Okay,

Let's like turn down the lies a little bit.

Let's just turn them down.

Let them get real quiet and real small.

Like they are.

I want to keep you small.

Let's just like bump up the truth a little bit and let's just like hear it a little bit louder.

Like sometimes that's even turning up the volume on like this literal podcast on this podcast right now.

Like if this is speaking to you and I don't want to speak for you,

But I feel this,

That all of this conversation,

It's just coming through.

It's just flowing,

Right?

It's flowing through both of us.

So let that speak.

Let the truth resonate the things that are just like bouncing around in your mind.

Know that you can start to discern these are lies and that is truth and the truth will always bring me higher.

It will always,

You know,

Uplift the people around me,

Right?

It'll bring me closer to love and further from fear.

And that's a good benchmark for whether something is true for you or is resonating with you or is a direction you want to head.

It will always feel better.

We'll always feel more expansive.

And if something you're doing is more,

Maybe it's more in line with what you've been told you should do or what you've convinced yourself you should do.

If that feels constricting and tight and small,

That's your sign right there.

Like that's the inner guidance.

Like does it,

If you feel into it,

Does it pull you towards it or does it like,

Do you want to like pull away and want nothing to do with it?

And what you said too,

Oh,

There's just so much magic here and I want to get back to your story,

But just what you said too about like stuff just coming through.

I feel like if you surround yourself more with content from people who are tapped into source,

Who are playing a bigger game at life,

But from a soul aligned perspective,

Their stuff isn't just coming from their mind and what they think they should talk about or write about or whatever.

It's like,

If there's that channel,

If they are that channel,

That's some like fire wisdom coming through.

I think we feel that.

I think that's why we resonate with certain people,

But it is,

It's like surround yourself with that.

If it feels expansive for you,

It feels good.

Remind yourself to choose,

Like maybe every day you listen to something inspirational like this or you have a coach and you like tune into their stuff or whatever it might be,

But like have that in your field if it helps.

Yeah,

I love thinking about that perspective as,

You know,

I'm sure most of us have heard you're the sum of the five people you spend the most time with.

Well,

That applies to the content and media that you consume too.

Right?

So if you think about who's your top five,

Who's the page that you check every day and that actually makes you feel uplifted because I,

You know,

A lot of things that I used to watch like when I was so depleted,

When I was just not living in alignment with who I really am,

I think about the things that I was watching and the pages I was scrolling through and it was not bringing me joy.

It was not feeding me.

It was maybe numbing a pain or it was just allowing me to kind of zone out and check out,

Which is not always a bad thing,

But it,

What it was definitely not doing,

It was not serving my highest self.

It was not the people or the ideas or the feeling remotely of what I wanted to surround myself with.

So that's a great,

It's a really great place to start.

Like one audio book,

Podcast,

You know,

YouTube video,

Whatever it is.

I've been loving watching Gaia like episodes on Gaia.

So much fun.

There's so much good content there from so many light workers and healers and people who are really connected.

So let yourself just soak it up,

Like have it playing.

You don't even have to listen to it.

You can just like have it going and get into the feel of it.

Just be in that frequency.

Yeah.

I love that.

So let's go back to like,

So you were teaching English,

You were living in Houston,

Living in Houston,

Texas.

Yes.

And so what was the catalyst and the,

Like,

What shifted for you when you were like,

Okay,

This isn't for me anymore.

What did that whole process look like?

Oh my gosh.

It was just a few kind of step by step realizations that I could,

I could easily continue this route and I could have some measure of stability,

Which like the joke that stability is right now.

Like not even a thing.

I could have some stability and I just,

It was so uninspiring to me.

And then I also had a time I was,

I was dating this guy and he was a,

He was a big step up for me,

For any of my babes out there who have been in some toxic relationships.

This partner was the guy that reminded me that they're decent guys.

Like there are just like some nice dudes out there.

And that was like a crucial stepping stone for me.

And he,

At the time he was in this horrible job and it felt like,

Oh my God,

All we do is sit here and complain about our jobs.

Like that is the just worst vibe to be in.

Not a great place to be in.

What are we doing?

And one day he just quit and he said,

I'm done with this.

I found this other job.

I'm moving to Seattle and we took this road trip.

I helped him move out to Seattle and we stopped,

Made a very pivotal stop in LA along the way.

And I reconnected with an old friend.

We went to see his brother's place.

They lived there and I just felt like,

Oh my God,

This is my home.

This is where I have to live.

I must live here.

And it was such a strong calling and it's so funny how it all just works out.

When I came back from that trip,

I was in the middle of a yoga challenge that I had done a bunch of these different yoga challenges and we would have these really inspirational meetings of like,

You know,

75,

A hundred people where you're sharing your goals and your wins as you go through this challenge.

And I remember I had done a bunch of these challenges and I had never stood up and shared something and I'm like,

I'm trembling.

My whole body is trembling.

And it's that little truth voice,

Which is like,

Stand up,

Just say it,

Stand up.

Come on,

You can do it.

So I stand up,

I started talking and I just say out loud,

I'm moving to LA and everyone looks around me like,

What?

You're moving to LA?

Like all my friends are like,

Okay,

This is news to us.

I'm like,

It's news to me too.

And it just totally came through.

And once I said it,

Honest to God,

There was no turning back.

That was like me climbing up to take the leap.

And I was like,

I'm at the top of the platform.

I'm moving to LA.

And from there it was like more than a couple of leaps where I realized this is what I have to do.

And in the subsequent weeks,

A gal at my school,

She taught yoga to kids.

She linked me up with the people who would then become my yoga teachers,

Who would become my coaches for years,

Coaching me and coaching and mentoring me and just pouring so much wisdom and truth and guidance into me.

And it was that summer.

I finished my master's degree.

I took my yoga teacher training.

And the day after my yoga teacher training,

I packed up my car and I took off.

I took off to go to LA.

And that was crazy.

That was three years ago,

Like almost to the day.

Oh my goodness.

That's so,

Woo.

Congratulations.

I don't know if that's the,

I guess,

Yeah,

Congratulations on taking the leap.

Yeah,

Thank you.

That's just such a big celebration.

Because it's like,

It goes to show the time is going to pass regardless,

Right?

Those three years would have passed regardless of if you took that leap.

Totally.

And it's not like,

I don't know.

I think sometimes when we have big dreams and we have like,

One day my life will feel like this.

We just kind of like in the back of our minds hope we're going to just wake up one day and be like,

Magically there.

But it does,

It takes like doing crazy things that don't feel or don't think,

You don't think are smart moves to get there.

I'm like,

You're telling me.

I had,

I remember I had an interview in LA for,

At a school.

And I,

You,

It's like,

Okay,

I'm moving somewhere.

I don't have a job yet.

This was obviously before I actually got on the road.

And I flew myself out there for this interview.

Like I paid for my flight to this interview.

And they tell me at the end of the interview,

It went so well,

We'd love to have you.

And we only have middle school teaching positions available.

And I had applied for a high school position and I was like,

I can't do this.

This seems crazy to say no to this job offer.

It's in the part of town I love.

It's like,

Blah,

Like list goes on.

Right.

It's like more money than I was making.

It's all these things.

And I was like,

This does not feel right.

And I just said no on the spot and walked away.

It's like,

Crazy.

It seems crazy.

It seems crazy if your,

Your,

Um,

Not baseline,

But your go to,

To make decisions is in your mind.

If your go to is your soul and you have that trust that that is the most important thing,

Then it's not crazy anymore.

But it's only crazy because so many people live up here in their minds,

Not down in their hearts and in their body and their soul.

So like,

I get it and I like half heartedly say these are crazy things because obviously this is like the thing I'm the most passionate about is doing these things that are like on paper.

Yeah.

Like what,

Why would you say no to that?

But you have that guidance,

That inner compass that's like,

This might be good,

But giving up the good for the great.

That's been such a theme lately.

It's come up on the podcast in a couple of previous interviews as well that it's like,

You got to give up what seems like it's,

It's good.

And it's almost like we said earlier,

It's that idea that we have for what we want,

But the universe has such bigger plans for us.

Yes.

Oh,

I love it.

When you were talking about this,

Like inner compass,

It's like soul logical.

Like it's logical to the soul.

Does that make sense?

Like this is a word,

A new word I love so logical my soul.

It was totally logical to my soul.

No,

That's a clear no.

And like this discerning what's the yes,

Like holy moly.

Yes.

And that becomes so sacred and then everything else becomes a no and it's,

It makes it really simple.

Honestly.

It's making decisions a lot easier when you have that compass that's calibrated to your super soul.

Yes.

And you're like,

No.

So what did that look like for you after you said no to that job?

Oh my God,

I,

This is,

I love telling this part of a story.

I took the train,

The Pacific coast liner down to see my sister.

My sister lived in San Diego and I'm feeling kind of upset after this and I'm sitting on the train and I'm just looking out the window at the ocean and I'm reading my book and this guy comes to sit across from me and he's also reading a book and we just started talking and I'm like,

What book are you reading?

I love your face.

I know this is going I think.

And he's like,

What book are you reading?

And I'm like,

Blah,

Blah,

Blah.

And I'm just like,

Well,

I just applied for this job in LA and he said,

No,

I feel crazy.

Blah,

Blah,

Blah.

So I'm just like telling him my whole life.

And he's like,

You're looking for a job in LA.

And I said,

Yeah.

He said,

Well,

My mom,

She does this work and she's looking for someone to hire.

She edits dissertations.

And like,

Once again,

This was not like the thing I was looking for,

But this was a very important stepping stone for me.

So basically from sitting across this guy on the train,

I got a job that I could start before I moved out to LA that was remote,

That was way more hourly than I was making.

And all I got to do was read these super cool dissertations on like education and positive psychology.

That's all this stuff about hope makes a better leader.

Right.

People who are optimistic,

Make more money,

Better decisions,

Have happier employees,

Like all this really dope information that I'm just getting paid to like read and edit.

Once again,

Could have never in a million years like sought out that job and applied for it.

Right.

That would have never made any sense.

And the only way that this could come through was just this beautiful synchronicity,

Doing what I love to do,

Sitting on the train,

Reading my book,

Connecting with people.

And that was such a crucial step.

Like I said,

For me to move out to LA already having that job to just,

You know,

Float because that's part of the net too.

Because you need to have a little bit of that net to say,

Okay,

You know,

There's something that's keeping me going here while I've got this,

The bigger thing in the works.

I love that.

Not gonna lie.

I thought you were going to tell the story of how you met your partner.

Super cute meeting on the train.

That's still amazing.

That's so funny.

We can talk about that too.

It's very interesting.

It's also super coincidental.

And I'm still finding out things about how I met my current partner that I had no idea like how perfectly it lined up.

It's really crazy.

And that's very recent too.

That was like in the last couple months.

I love that.

And it's that it's,

It builds on what you just said too about like the hope makes a better leader.

Optimistic people have more cool shit in their lives.

Like it's no surprise.

But it's me,

It's like when you're tapping to that flow and you're like aligned,

You have the synchronicities.

The synchronicities,

Synchronicity is just another word for miracle,

I think like we were talking about earlier.

And it's because you're tapped in and you're almost like expecting the cool shit to happen to meet someone who offers you a job on a train that you wouldn't have met had you taken,

You know,

Like it just perfectly was orchestrated.

It's hilarious.

I remember thinking,

I've never taken the train before.

I don't know where to sit.

Am I even sitting in the right seat?

Do I have a seat?

And just being like,

I guess I'll sit here.

And not overthinking it,

Just feeling through it.

And I love what you said about synchronicities are totally miracles.

I'm like,

By that standard,

I experienced just daily near constant miracles.

And guess what?

Life is just more fun that way.

We get this shot.

We might as well have fun with it.

Right?

And experience the magic.

Yeah,

Absolutely.

So you met this guy.

You had this job then,

Which was kind of like,

It sounds like your bridge job to get you to starting your own business.

And then that just kind of,

How has that been for you?

It's just like unfolded.

Oh my God,

Everything unfolded.

So I started teaching a bunch of yoga because I was thinking like,

I want to teach yoga and meditation.

And I helped lead this training for school teachers.

So I was still figuring out what I wanted to do.

And that was so special.

That was one of those things that,

One of those steps along the way that I almost forget happened because of just where I am now.

But so important.

I held this yoga teacher training for school teachers to implement these techniques.

And that was so meaningful and so powerful and still is a part of the work that I do.

And as I gained confidence in teaching yoga and worked more with more and more people and took my meditation training and got coached,

Big asterisk there,

Received literally from the day I moved out to LA,

Not a week went by where I didn't have some kind of coaching call,

Whether it was my mentor,

Whether it was business coaching,

Some kind of coaching to growth because if you want to grow,

You get coached.

And if you want to coach,

You get coached.

Also that.

It just developed.

I found this really nice space where I felt that I could work one on one with folks and integrate the aspects of yoga,

Of me healing my own chronic pain,

Essential oils,

Plant medicine of all that kind of body stuff.

And then the meditation,

The mind stuff,

All of the self study that I was learning with these coaching techniques,

The soul stuff,

The spiritual,

So much coming from my spirit guides,

From my animal guides,

From just divine downloads that led to my business,

My flourishing soul coaching business where I get to wake up on any given day and just meditate as long as I want,

Have a leisurely breakfast,

See a client,

Get coached,

Do a podcast interview,

Sit by the pool,

Cook dinner with my partner.

That's my day today.

I'm just describing my day.

And it is totally the dream day that I set out.

And there's always so many little turns along the way,

Of course.

That's the refinement.

And that's the beauty that I love to harp on of going step by step.

When you go step by step,

You get the opportunity to create as you go.

Also to pivot when you're like,

Actually,

I kind of got to this thing I thought that I wanted and I don't really want it.

So I'm going to shift course.

And then to really just let yourself be intuitive as you move through this process of what we do all day,

Every day,

Which is create.

We just create,

It unfolds.

We create more,

It unfolds.

We learn,

We hone our desires,

Those unfold.

And we expand,

It unfolds.

So it's been,

Wow,

It's been such a fun journey and it feels like such a blessing to wake up every single day and think,

Oh my God,

I created this.

But not just me,

Of course.

So many helpers along the way.

And then of course the universe,

Just clearing the path for the incredible love,

Abundance,

Purpose,

Fun that just is my day to day.

And so for anyone listening,

Who's like,

Wow,

It just seems so far off like X or Y dream life,

Dream day,

Dream job,

Dream partner.

You can have it all if you decide to.

You can.

You can have every level of fulfillment and joy that you desire.

In fact,

It is your birthright to have that,

To enjoy that and to keep creating.

And if we could get it just like snap of our fingers every time,

We'd all get real bored real quickly.

So savor the process where you're at in the unfolding and allow,

Allow it.

I think that's such an important piece is that if we did just snap our fingers and all of us got what we wanted or what we consciously want so quickly,

It's like,

Okay,

What we didn't,

That's not what we came here to have this human experience for.

And sometimes the thing that we consciously want our unconscious mind,

Which is so much more powerful,

Wants something that's maybe a little bit richer of an experience,

Which maybe involves like really intense stress or some crazy shit happening or stuff that you consciously would never admit to wanting.

But your soul,

Your subconscious on whatever level wanted to have that experience and came to have that experience.

And then there's the whole concept of karma.

Like some of us came here to live out some heavy stuff to,

You know,

I won't get into past lives and whatever,

Because I'm sure I could go down that entire different tension.

But there is just so much to our rich human experience.

Yeah,

But it is about allowing it.

It's not about fighting against it.

It's not like,

Let's use money as an example.

If you're super stressed about money,

You know,

Instead of like,

Oh my God,

I'm so bad with money.

I hate this about myself.

Like what's going on?

It's like,

Okay,

Maybe my soul just wanted this experience of like needing to prove myself needing to or not needing,

But desiring to live out this like uncertainty.

How am I going to pay the bills?

How am I going to whatever.

And it's like when you can start to find the nuance in that of like,

Actually,

This is just another layer of my human experience.

It's not good or bad.

It's just what I get to experience right now.

It's kind of like,

Takes the pressure off trying to fix it.

And it allows you to kind of integrate into that fullness of your being so that then you can be like,

Okay,

This is what I'm experiencing now.

But I do still desire the million dollars.

I do still desire to live a wealthy life and drive a nice car and live in a nice house.

And I can have that.

And then doing the work to clear all this shit that we tell ourselves that we can't because that's such a big process of it to not just like,

I can have what I want,

But it's not here yet.

It's like,

There's still some work to do in some layers to uncover.

I find that's where like surrounding myself with people who have done that work and have overcome their own blocks and limiting beliefs and also having support in your corner,

Like having a coach who sees your individual stuff and can reflect it back to you is priceless.

It's been the biggest catalyst for my growth.

A million percent.

It's invaluable.

And it's this,

This is a really strong theme in my life right now is the idea that everything that we're manifesting is already here.

Right?

And it's,

It's,

It's right here.

We just have to open our perception to it.

And this,

The,

One of the huge benefits of having a coach is like you said,

That mirror for the thing that's just like right in front of you,

It's like staring you in the face,

But it's right under your nose.

So you don't even realize.

And I just had this beautiful Akashic Records reading and my guides and the Akashic Records were just laughing at me saying,

Anna,

You're so intuitive.

You're so perceptive.

Sometimes you just miss the thing that's right in front of your face.

And I think we all kind of do that.

We're like,

Where it's like when you're like,

Where's the money?

Right?

And you look and you realize there's this thing that you don't use that you can like sell or I here's,

This is a great example.

This laptop that I'm on,

I was like,

I need a new laptop manifesting a new laptop.

Like,

Yes,

Please.

And my partner is like,

Hey,

I have this like a couple years old laptop that I just don't ever use.

Do you want it?

I was like,

Yes,

Please.

It already existed.

It was already there.

Right.

And any kind of resistance,

I remember experiencing some resistance being like,

This doesn't feel like a thing I'm going to go on and buy.

This feels like a thing that's going to just come to me.

I was like,

Where is it?

And then it's just like,

There you go.

It's right here.

Yeah.

I love what you were saying about like what you want.

It already exists,

Whether that's the clients you want to sign or the money that you want in your bank account,

It's out there.

You know,

Like whether it's a laptop that you want to manifest,

It's there for you.

You just haven't opened your,

Like you said,

Your perception to see it.

Right.

Totally.

And my favorite recent example of this,

Other than the laptop,

Gosh,

It's been like,

Everything's been popping up,

Especially lately.

$15,

000.

I was manifesting $15,

000.

I was like,

Okay,

$15,

000 by this day.

It's like the day before I'm on the call with my business coach.

I'm talking with the other gals in this mastermind.

We're just getting so freaking excited about everything that's to come.

The podcasts,

The new clients,

The opportunities,

The other coaches and thought leaders that we're going to get to commune with on our journey.

And I'm so in this especially high vibe state and I just go to my email and this one email has like a little twinkle and I click on it and it's been,

You know,

It's like your approach improves.

And I'm like,

What are you talking about?

Like,

What is this?

And it's like,

Oh,

$15,

000 from the government.

Super,

Super low interest loan,

Like deposited in the bank account in two days.

Just like that.

Just like that.

And the email was already there.

It had been there in my inbox for like a week.

I just had like glossed over it for whatever reason and my perception just opened up enough to be able to receive just the instant download of $15,

000.

Try it out sometime.

It's pretty fun.

I might do that when we get off this call.

Yeah,

It is.

It's so true.

It's like we can't even see the thing or like our subconscious that isn't ready to have that experience doesn't allow us to like look at that email to open the mailbox to see maybe there's a check in the mail or there's an idea you didn't even know was,

You know,

Just waiting to come to you.

And there's all of this inspiration that is available to us if we open up to it.

Totally.

I think about that one all the time with clients.

Like there's a client who's been lurking on your page who's just in your orbit and he or she's just waiting for you to make the offer to sell the thing to share the mastermind or to the product or whatever it may be.

Yeah,

It's already there.

We just need to open to it.

I love it's such a fun mantra.

It's already here.

Just yeah,

Whatever the thing is,

It's already here,

Right?

It really helps to I'm all about living from the end and thinking from that experience and that like who you will be,

Who you living now as if you already are the person you will be as your future self.

And that helps to think like there's nothing you need to fix or create or demand from the universe.

It's like it's here.

Like it's right around the corner.

It's the client that's been following you for three years on your Instagram that is right there.

So you just have to shift your energy field to become a match to it.

A hundred percent.

It's that feeling of just knowing like you said,

It's right around the corner.

Imagine that the other end of your manifestation is manifesting you right now,

Right?

That client is manifesting you or that soulmate is manifesting you and they're doing what they need to do to get ready to be the person who is with finally with their soulmate or their soulmate client or their soulmate,

You know,

Job offer,

Whatever it might be.

Yeah.

Mm.

I love it.

Thank you so much for sharing your story and just sharing your light with us.

It's such an inspiration to be around someone who's walking the walking the walk or walking the talk or you're living the life.

You know,

It's easy to talk about this stuff and it's easy to understand it.

Like before you fully get to the point of embodying it,

It's,

You know,

It starts to make sense and then you start to live it and breathe it.

And then eventually I believe we feel called to teach this and to share it with others as well.

And it's so nice to see these examples of how,

You know,

You've gotten into this state,

You've taken the leaps,

You've co-created the net with the universe and now look at you and you're shining so bright and you're such a beacon.

It's an honor to share your light with everyone here listening and thank you for taking that leap and for playing this bigger game in this world.

I received that.

Thank you,

Chelsea.

Thank you for having me on.

It's been a blast.

Like everyone can tell just how much fun this is and that life gets to be this way.

Life gets to be fun when we meet it with our whole selves.

When we do walk the talk,

When we get aligned,

When we're believing the thoughts and when we're saying the things that are in alignment and when we're taking the inspired and aligned actions that feel a little bit scary or you're kind of like,

Oh,

Is this it?

And then you just go for it.

It's the best feeling.

Yeah.

Living.

It feels like really,

Really living.

How we were truly meant to at our fullest.

Yes.

Yes.

I love it.

Thank you so much again,

Anna.

It has been a blast and an honor to share your story before we go.

So we'll put your links to your social media and everything in the show notes.

But just quickly,

Where can people go to find you?

Absolutely.

My website is Anna Cantwell dot com.

A N N A Cantwell dot com.

My Insta is I am Anna Cantwell.

It's all pretty easy.

Those are the places where you'll see me most often.

And I would absolutely love to connect with you all.

I'd love to hear what resonated,

What leaps you're taking,

What things you've been manifesting or how you're just living your best damn life.

I love it.

Yeah.

Oh,

So good.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Thanks so much for listening.

If you enjoyed this episode,

Please subscribe to the podcast.

We'll be releasing a new episode each week,

So I'll catch you again on the next one.