Thank you for tuning your heart's in for another episode of the Hearts Rise up podcast. I'm carol chapman your host along with my co host and Siri and Concetta antonelli. We share our own personal experiences, tips and strategies along with powerful stories and compelling insights from guest interviews. We're here to inspire and empower your conscious evolution, help you tap into your inner wisdom and rise to your heart centered higher self. Together we can rise to a higher level of consciousness, an elevated state of being and experience more love joy and freedom. Mm hmm It was Mhm. Mhm Welcome back Heart centered listeners.

It's so fantastic to be back with you again today for another episode of the Hearts Rise Up podcast. I'm carol chapman, your host for today's episode and I am so delighted to introduce my featured guests today, Megan Colleen johnson, let me share a little bit about Megan. Megan is a life coach, creative consultant space holder when I love that term and speaker who helps passionate humans rise as the leader of their own life with a focus on self trust, wholeness and sovereign Reclamation. Megan coaches humans who are ready to discover their magic, stand in their power and reclaim their dreams. Meghan is a certified life coach with beautiful You coaching Academy holds her degree in graphic design hosts, her podcast titled the Reclamation podcast and has over eight years of creative marketing experience with a roster of clients, including Stephen press field chris, the elbow wilson sporting goods and many more.

You can find her online at meg's Colleen dot com or on social media at MEg's Colleen Megan welcome to the show. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I'm so excited to be here. I know some of those that I need to create a shorter summary for myself there because that was that was a lot to share, but I'm just so excited to be here and to dive into what those pieces are, because they do hold so many different elements of my story and my experience, which I'm excited to chat about today. Well, I am thrilled to have you here and I just love your your tagline life coach and consultant for creatives, misfits and holy outsiders. And so I know that there's a a real story of a crusader in you behind that. I know you're definitely a creative because of your creative marketing background, but I love the fact that you are working with such fascinating people in the world, and I think those are just great terms, because we've all got our little quirks anyway, and I love some of the terms to that you use that we've had conversation around discovering your magic and standing in your power and reclaiming your sovereignty.

So I know that there's a story there in your background in your life journey that I would love for you to share and we can just start there and then we'll just let it morph wherever it needs to go. So go ahead and just dive right in Yeah, for sure, going back all the way to childhood because I think we all have stuff in childhood that's really when I think a lot of these initial things became a part of my life, not in a conscious way, but in a just, you know, my life had a lot of conditioning that happened. I was raised in a very, very small town in the upper peninsula of michigan in the woods and had a very rural experience growing up. I was homeschooled, which I think is a really beautiful thing. And every experience comes with its stuff. At a young age, my parents had a divorce and throughout that divorce, that was my first experience with manipulative tendencies and gaslighting and just trying to understand when there's all of these adults and all of these voices around me, who do I trust, what should I be listening to, who do I need to be so that I can be safe, who do I need to be so that I am celebrated and praised.

Who do I need to be to succeed and move forward in life just from a very young age. Then fast forwarding. We're just gonna go ahead and jump forward quite a bit here. So then, you know, in college and all of that, I studied graphic design, I started a photography business, started my own graphic design, kind of freelance business, worked for agencies just all through my life, kind of had that creative streak. But after college I started a marketing agency with a friend of mine, it was really during that time when some of those old narratives started to come back up again, even in marketing. So, I'll just use marketing as an example. We see in marketing a lot of manipulative tendencies, right? And sometimes when you work with marketers that tends to come up as well again, because it gets results. So within that business partnership, some patterns were established that were not particularly beneficial, and my old codependent habits became more prominent, ultimately resulting in me just having a lot of fatigue, struggling with cystic acne, really quieting my voice and fitting myself into a box that I was never meant to fit within.

And so ultimately, that kind of partnership unraveled, and I was left in this space needing to decide who do I want to be in this world, how do I want to show up? What does it even mean to be me? And so, through the support of a life coach that's kind of mike, what would my catalyst was to start asking myself some of these beautiful questions to start asking myself, well, how can I hand back the opinions of others, what if I don't have to listen to all of those voices and I can create my own voice. What feels good for me, what do I want now I use that term reclamation, because that's really what that process felt like for me, it was this process of reclaiming myself and getting to know myself because my entire life, I had lived with all of these external voices telling me who I should be and how I need to act. So then alongside that, another piece of that was really my spirituality as well.

So I'm kind of now we're going to shift gears a little bit to the spiritual narrative that was alongside that. So, I was also kind of going through this spiritual awakening of sorts as well. So, I was raised in a very conservative evangelical christian tradition as I was coming to this knowing of myself and this belief of myself and this recognition that not all of the voices outside of me were beneficial for me. Mhm I started to ask questions about my faith as well. They were just in congruence ease. Even when I was in some of those relationships during that marketing agency, there were just different pieces in there that I was like, wait, this doesn't make sense, what is being spoken is not that those are not the actions that I'm actually seeing, there's in congruence ease here and while I was reclaiming myself and trying to decide who I want to be in the world, I recognized it was actually outside of my integrity, to live from the fundamentalism that I had grown up with and it was a really difficult process and so that's why I love using these terms creative misfits and holy outsiders because I do deeply identify with them.

I am very creative. I feel like I will always be very creative. I think we're all creative in different ways. But then when you're reclaiming yourself, you can often feel like a misfit. You may feel like there's spaces you just don't fit anymore. You're starting to take the box off and you're like, wait, if I'm not the box, where do I go? Just that holy outsider piece, Having to hand back my faith and create a new spirituality that is beautifully nuanced. For me. It isn't a holy outsider. I am rejected from a lot of the spaces that I previously was a part of. So now it's this new it's this reclamation of my belonging, my sense of worth. And those are really big pieces. And that's a lot of where the sovereign reclamation comes in, right? It's the standing in your power, the rediscovering your magic. I had to take my power back, rediscover my magic and then be able to rise up in that utilizing my sovereignty, my autonomy and recognized that that was possible for me.

It's about liberation and freeing yourself from feeling like you had to fit into a box and that's the way that you were brought up for so long. And then you just realized that this isn't working for you. It doesn't feel like you, it's not you because it's what someone else may have wanted for you or what you thought someone else wanted for you or what you thought you wanted for yourself Because you were taught in a certain way. What was it? What was the breaking point or the defining moment that you said? I've I've had enough. I I cannot live this way any longer. Was there something that happened that you that you like to share? For sure? Yeah. Really, for me, the breaking point was when I was not sleeping and I was so fatigued and I was just working way too much every night. I couldn't sleep because the conversations were just running through my head. What am I doing wrong? How can I change this?

What what am I saying? That's making these people frustrated with me? How do I need to act different consistently? I was looking outward for that validation of myself to be okay And I was never going to please the people around me. That's right. And so that was kind of my breaking point when those cycles were just going, going, going and my body was starting to experience those symptoms of fatigue and cystic acne and just deep unrest. And that's when I reached out to my life coach and I got a chiropractor and I started to create this support team around me that supported me along the journey. And I think that that's something that's so important for folks who feel like this is something they may need to process and I'm sharing my life reclamation here, but we can reclaim small things too, even reclaiming different words can be really powerful for ourselves. Our culture uses a lot of words. We may need to reclaim them, we need to redefine them and no matter what we're reclaiming, I think it can be so beautiful to cultivate that support system, those people, especially when I was reclaiming my spirituality because that was a very polarizing topic to reclaim.

I did experience a lot of people kind of pulling away like, wait, what's Megan doing? I don't like, I'm not sure about this. And so I had to find belonging elsewhere and I was able to have that team of people. My life partner was absolutely beautiful and supporting me in that and we journeyed together through a lot of that through a lot of deep conversations and then alongside that, having my coach, having the health support of my chiropractor now, I have a reiki practitioner that I also work with and so that's just, I think a really important and just kind of a side note to this whole thing. But yeah, that was my breaking point. So how many years ago, how far back was that where it actually started to unravel and you, you started to make those shifts those changes with the support system, It was actually only three years ago, wow, so it was not that long ago, I've done so much deep healing work since then and I've pivoted my career to do this life coaching peace and to get certified as a life coach?

But the actual, I mean I suppose it's going on four years at this point, I feel like 2020 was a bit of a blur, so I almost don't remember it being there still either way, it wasn't that long ago, which is I think a beautiful thing too, is I still have that deep remembrance of those spaces and how much that that altered the course of my life. It was just really beautiful for me. Where does someone start if they are at that point, how can someone get the courage up to stand in their own power and reclaim? Take back their power? I mean, how do they start within, How do they muster the courage? Is it facing the fear? Yeah, that's a really beautiful question. I feel like I'm hearing kind of two different responses to that. The first response is in regards to actually getting the courage. I think every individual has to determine that time for themselves. That in itself is where that sovereignty, that personal power, that autonomy comes into play.

I don't think everyone here on this planet is meant to reclaim in this lifetime. I don't think that everyone has to I feel like that to me is part of the autonomy. It's part of the choice that we have? Do I want to do this or do I want to kind of ride the waves and is it safe for me or am I willing to risk my safety? And those are all questions that we have to ask so we can come to a response and a decision that's right for us. For me it was okay, I need to do this because it like it was a breaking point. It was like I cannot keep living this way. It will cause my body harm and continued harm. I need to choose again. So that was kind of my process. But I think everyone has to kind of decide that for themselves and that's part of the beauty I think of personal sovereignty and personal power. Um the second piece to that really is when you are ready, when you have decided, yes, I'm going to start making this change in my life.

I'm going to start this reclamation process, a huge part of my journey. And what I work with a lot of clients who are on the beginning of this is really just noticing your emotions, noticing how you're feeling and reconnecting to your body and allowing that to be information for your journey to say, okay, in this space, I feel angry. What is that? Trying to tell me? What are my emotions telling me here? And I think that's a piece in the wellness. Fear feelings are very popular and it's so important to connect to them. What I think is crucial with that is taking our feelings as information and not always as things that like if you're angry there are beneficial and there's un beneficial ways to express that anger, right? So finding beneficial ways to express our emotions because it is important to process them and move through them and also recognizing, okay, this is here for a reason.

What is that reason? What is it telling me? And how can I utilize that for my benefit? How can I take that? So if I am angry in this space, does that mean I need to set a boundary if I'm feeling joyful in this space, do I need to try and integrate that into my life more that that's kind of I feel like a really important foundational piece when you're reclaiming its just taking all of your emotions, noticing where you're feeling safe, noticing where you you're not. So that way, you can utilize that to create safe spaces for yourself, to create the boundaries, to create that autonomy and decision for yourself, Right? And I think even the tipping point, I mean you kind of mentioned something around your own experience of what you're feeling and experiencing in the body systemic acne. And you know, just the other things that the fatigue and whatnot that's almost like hitting critical mass where you had no choice. You know, I can't continue like this, but not everyone experiences life that way or circumstances that way.

So I think you're right, it is definitely an individual situation and decision as to if and when you'll ever be ready in this lifetime. And I think part of it is just having that inner knowing and trusting your intuition and I'm sensing you definitely trusted your intuition as to what was happening. It was a growing point. I think the interesting thing for me was that tipping point was when I asked for help, so I did not immediately trust my intuition, I actually thought I was the problem. So in the situation that I was in, I thought I was the problem and I needed to fix myself. So I reached out for help and then my coaches and my chiropractor and my people around me were able to mirror back to me, my goodness, my wholeness, my worth and say wait a second, what if you did trust yourself. So yes, intuition played a big part and my community and the people I surrounded myself with were actually the people who helped me to see that I can trust myself because again, I had been taught my whole life to trust people outside of me.

So I was trying to fix myself, so I could be what the people around me needed me to be. And instead my coaches like hold out like what are you feeling what if you trusted yourself? And in asking me some of those pivotal questions that allowed me to trust myself. So I think that was actually more of like a second or third step for me, the first tipping point was just saying I can't keep doing this, asking for help and then trusting my intuition. That's just my experience. I think everyone's a little different. Yes. And you mentioned something about, you know, asking those pivotal questions What might be one or 2 pivotal questions that you would ask a client to help them determine where they're at in the process, where they're at in the process. It's a great question. The first question that I always like to start with is what do you want? Because I think that's very telling of where a person's at and also if they can answer that question is really telling, it's a big question and a lot of what we find underneath that is I actually really want these big dreams or actually I'm making myself small, so I only want this, this and this.

You know, you can tell even when you watch someone answer that question, it tells a lot about where they are in the process and that's where I love coaching, where I can see people and some people prefer just doing phone calls and things. But I think when you can see someone answer a question like that, it can tell a lot like, oh I don't even want to answer that question because that's bad or that's wrong. Like for me growing up, we were taught that to a certain extent, the desires of our hearts are sinful. That's something I've gotten in my DMS a lot since starting this work, because you can't trust your heart, like, it's the root of all evil. So there's those narratives, there's a lot that you can learn from that one question. What do you want? Absolutely, and how someone responds to that. I love that. That's a great question. And I think that being able to visually see someone in addition to hearing them, because you only get so much of the picture when you're listening on the phone, but you can read the body language and you can map that across with the tone of voice or the crack and the voice or whatever to understand.

You know, maybe there's something more deeply rooted there. Maybe it's not ready to surface yet or be a little more gentle with it, but I would imagine that it's certainly different for each and every person. I know that there is a topic that you cover in some of your speaking engagements, which is the five phases of reclamation. Could you briefly just cover what those would be just sort of an overview for others, so that they can kind of get a sense of what's involved in it from your perspective and your experience, definitely. Yeah, so, the five phases of reclamation are really just, it's a framework that I've mapped out based on what I've noticed from my experience and from the clients I've worked with one on 1. So the very first phases, playful curiosity, playful curiosity to me, the example that I give with this is like a child playing in a puddle, right? We're going to be diving into some deep things, asking some deep, muddy messy questions. But let's do it with a little bit of playfulness and do it with a little bit of lightness and have some fun with it, you know, move our body a little bit if that's needed.

So the first one is is playful curiosity when we're asking those questions asking what do you want, noticing your feelings, noticing all that set all of that juicy goodness, right? The second phase is non judgment and awareness for this phase, it's really just holding, holding what we're finding with a lot of compassion, holding it with non judgment, noticing it, taking it as information, maybe not clinging to it quite so tightly again, that playful curiosity then moving into non judgment. Okay, what are we finding? What's the information underneath? This detaching in a healthy way from that. And then the third phase is self trust, so trusting what we find. That's really where that intuition piece comes in. So we ask the questions we noticed the answers that we're getting even if they're uncomfortable holding them with grace and compassion, trusting what we're finding, trusting what we're feeling in our bodies, trusting the information that we're recognizing and as it's coming to the surface.

So that's that 3rd phase. And then the 4th phase is integrity and congruence. Really this is the implementation phase, right? We've gotten the information, We've asked a lot of the deep, beautiful questions. We've learned to trust ourselves and we've trusted what's come up for us. And then integrity and congruence is where we start to establish a cable. Then these are my values. These are the new beliefs that I want to put in place for myself. This is how I want to see the world and how I want to show up in the world. It's time to establish a new congruent experience for myself. It's time to get all of those pieces in line. This phase is where I usually see it. It's a little bit longer. It's a little more nuanced. I see these five phases really as a cycle where we can do this within a small bit and we can also do it in a large as we're reclaiming something larger. It can be a more expanded process. But integrity incongruent can take a little bit longer depending on what you're reclaiming. And then the last phase is resilience. So resilience is just that continual rising, continually, showing up for yourself, continually.

Being that sovereign reclamation queen, that you are the sovereign being that you are. And showing up, responding, going through the process again as it's needed. So resilient. That's that quick summary of these five phases of reclamation. I love it and it's like a cycle because we're probably always cycling through things in our lives. So I love the way I'll just summarize because I took some notes here. But the playful curiosity, we should always be that way. We're continually evolving and learning and growing and experiencing new things and discovering more about ourselves and becoming more aware of certain things and then the non judgment, I mean that's a continual thing and the awareness piece so important as you're kind of moving through and evolving into this new power that you have and then the self trust, you have to continue to be resilient and believing in yourself and believing in your the integrity of what you're feeling in your body.

I love that. And then the integrity and the congruence, which is, you know, you continually, you have mentioned asking questions, you've always got to continually ask questions that will never ever ever go away. And then the resilience pieces, just continuing to recycle through that as you're doing that you're becoming your greatest and best self over time. There is no end destination, really. It's an evolving process that's a beautiful five phase process. I love that. I can imagine the outcomes that you're experiencing with your clients is just beautiful if someone wanted to start to make some changes, what would be the first thing to undergo that kind of process. I may have asked this question, but I don't know why I asked it in this way, where would they start if they wanted to actually physically start the process when they start with a life coach? So I think one of the first things to notice is if you're ready to move towards the future or if you do need to process some things in the past, so as far as creating your support team noticing, okay, does my body need some support?

Do I need to find some physical support for my body and do I need to process the past? Do I need a therapist who can maybe help me work through some of the trauma spaces that I've experienced or do I need a life coach who can help me focus on the future and establish my goals and work towards that in noticing who you resonate with, as far as creating that support team, Those are the three pieces that I would notice. Like, do I need to work through some trauma if so how can you find a trauma specialist to support you in that if you need support as your crafting those goals and cultivating the future and the life that you desire? What kind of coach will support you in that and how can you find someone that you resonate with? Does my body need support? Do I need a, like a yoga therapist? Do I need a somatic practitioner? Those are kind of, those are the three spaces that I would consider if you're ready to move forward, does that answer that question for you? It does. I think that's a great answer because it really depends on the circumstances of the individual and what they need to process through.

And also I would imagine maybe just the stage of life that they're in as well can play a huge role in that this podcast is, you know, obviously all about helping people tap into their own inner wisdom and your inner wisdom is really a direct portal to that is really, you know, your heart and really following your heart and listening to your heart and your your whole process is just so in tune with that, it really resonates with it. You're just using some different terminology, but it's it's a great terminology because it means so much to really be able to stand in your own power and feel your own power and it's not about power for the sake of powers, it's just power for the sake of being able to navigate your own life and being true to yourself in the world that we're in today, that is so divisive, you have to be either on this side or that side. And I don't think there is this side or that side. I mean we're all one and we all have a lot of the same basic human needs of community and being wanted and wanting to belong, being true to ourselves and being able to be who we are without someone judging for who we are.

So I think what you're doing is just awesome. I would love for you to share any advice that you have for others to reclaim their own power and tap into their own heart to rise to another level or another version of themselves. If there are any parting comments around that was simply I think utilizing. So I just gave that framework you can utilize, that can utilize some of the questions and the prompts. We've spoken out a number of beautiful questions as you're reconnecting to your heart, but as another just kind of additional piece to that is spending time with yourself. If you're specifically seeking to reconnect to your heart space, sitting with it, putting your hands over your heart, listening to what comes up for you noticing the sensations that your body has, even as you're just putting your hands over your heart, it can be just a beautiful practice to just start to listen to yourself. And I know for me part of my journey with reclaiming my spirituality is I do I hear a lot from myself when I'm in nature, I hear a lot from the Divine when I'm in nature.

So notice those spaces when you feel deeply connected did to yourself and do more of that. Listen in where do you feel most alive and just spend some time there and say like what are you saying to me? Just listening, spending time do you meditate? I do. Yes. Not as often as I would like but I try to meditate every day. Yes. Well I think even going out into nature is a form of meditation, just being with nature really, I mean there's so many different types of meditation but when you get right down to it, meditation is really just focusing your attention on something that reminded me when you were saying listen to yourself and placing your hand on your heart. Because when we do that, we're drawing our focus from our mind because there's so much that's going on in the mind that sometimes the heart gets drowned out and when we do this physical thing and we quiet ourselves and and even go into nature, nature can do that can help us go within and just really listen and tap in to that and doing that more and more.

Not only enables us to listen to ourselves, but also respond and more loving and kind and compassionate ways with others because you know, I mean that's what living living from your heart is all about when I think that reclaiming your own power and the reclamation process that you're doing is also helping people to live from their heart. I have one parting question before, I have to share how people can, can reach out to you is if you had a genie in the bottle and let's just say that genie is your inner genius and you had only one wish. What would that be? Oh my gosh, I definitely should have prepared for this question. I see it on your list. I should have prepared for this question. A genie in a bottle and only one wish take your time. Gosh. Honestly, I'm just curious what other people say. I don't know if I could come up with one wish. Like what comes to mind are like things like world peace or like, you know, things like that.

But I feel like that's really cliche and that's not the answer that you're looking for. But with with one wish like poverty, let's fix that or something. Or just like one wish that everyone would be able to know themselves deeply or something like that. But what other people say? That's such a hard question. Just take a few moments and put your hand on your heart, close your eyes. And what comes to mind him? What comes to mind? Do it seriously? Do it right now. Yeah. Oh my gosh, go within. Don't worry about the, the external or what anyone else would say. What do you say? Mm hmm. Yeah. It really is just that piece like that. Everyone could remember there Power. Whether or not they just like whatever they decide to do with it. Just that remembrance of what is within their power. I know I've listened to. Yeah, I know. I've listened to um the conversation on the dissenters podcast with dr Edith, what's her last name?

But she was a holocaust survivor and it was just so moving to hear her share because I think that sometimes like with privilege, it can be difficult to say things like, oh like do what's within your power, like that can be very privileged and it is utilized in some ways that are a bit un beneficial, but when she shared about it, she would even just notice, well what can I, what is one thing that I can do that's like a choice that I can make. And it was so incredible to notice how this human in like the worst of the worst situation was able to find one thing that was within her power. And of course there was so much trauma that she had to heal from and so much you know, that she had to work through, but it was those small choices that she made that helped her to come out on the other side. And I think that that's something that's so powerful for each and every one of us when we can remember what is one thing that I can do that is within my power so that I can live today from my heart, that I can live today from a place of integrity, what's one thing, and I feel like that's just that's what I would, that would be my one wish.

That is beautiful, I love that. And I think that the world would be a better place if everyone would take a moment and do that. I'm hoping that those that are listening to this podcast will, will do that at the end of this podcast. Do exactly that anything else that you would like to share before we wrap things up. Just remember you're worthy, Remember you're worthy, You're already enough. Sometimes these self development tools can feel like a lot, but remember even right now and right here, you're already worthy, You're already whole and you're already enough. That's great. Thank you so much Megan. How can people find out more about you? My website is Meg's Colleen dot com. So that's M E G S C O L L E N dot com. And then across social media, just at Meg's Colleen on my website, I do have a free meditation and a journal guide over the next few months that's going to be transitioning. I'm currently writing an e book, just about some subconscious reprogramming tools and in kind of a process that I have for that.

So that's going to be transitioning and it'll be an e book and an audio book that you download instead. But yeah, I have that on my website, there's ways to book a free consultation with me and then I hang out most on instagram. So that's how you can connect with me. Oh, terrific. Thank you for sharing that and we'll be sure to include everything in the show notes. So I just want to thank you again for joining us today. And also I want to thank all of you listeners who are here with us today and I just want to say we have a brand new community on mighty networks called Hearts rise up Community and you can go on mighty Networks to and search for that or you can go to our website, Hearts rise up dot com and you can go to the top of the menu bar and click on the button, join and that will take you to directly to the landing page for the community. So you can find out more about it and it is a free community secondly, you can go to our shop page on our website if you're interested in our signature course, our very first signature course that we launched this previous fall.

It's called the heart resonance primer course. You can take a look at that and see if it's something you would be interested in and there's other tidbits on our website as well and I just want to thank you all for being here today. This is such a fabulous session that we've had with Megan Colleen, johnson. I am so glad to have had the opportunity to interview you. Thank you so much for being here. Yes, thank you so much for having me. It's been a joy. So thank you. Alrighty. Okay, listeners, thanks for now and we'll talk with you again in a few weeks. Bye for now. We hope today's show helped to bring a bit more joy and happiness into your heart. We hope it inspired you to unleash your inner power and rise up to your best and loving heart centered, highest self. We'd be grateful if you'd leave us a review on ITunes. Those reviews are important to spreading this valuable message. We'd love for you to subscribe to our podcast and share the show with others, visit hearts rise up dot com for heart centered courses, guided meditations and are popular notes from your higher self until next time.

Keep rising up and may all that you love thrive.