When things break in our lives and we are pushed to the edge of our strength, there is a presence greater than us that meets us there if we are open to it. We may be in the fire but we are not alone if we have God. This isn't about religion, this is about a relationship with a loving father that knows every tear we shed in secret. Nothing can come between the love God has for each and every one of us. This love is unconditional and restorative--it changes things. When we are caught up in illness, depression, suicidality, loneliness, addiction, grief, we can call out to Him and feel that though circumstances may not change, WE change. This is the work of faith.

I had to experience the end of my strength to realize that I could be held and guided toward peace even in the middle of an earth-shattering loss. I didn't have to do things alone. You don't have to do it all alone. There is a hope and a future worth living when we surrender ourselves to a loving God. Ironically, a life abiding in God is a life where we discover we are stronger in Him.

When we undergo transitions in our life, the feelings that arise can be very intense. There is often no escaping the overwhelming sense of uncertainty. This sensation can be so pervasive that it impacts our way of seeing ourselves, the people around us, and even the society we are living in. We are in a fog that is hard to put into words. While we know something is brewing in the near horizon, there is also nothing in our current physical reality that defends this. What then follows is moving through the daily motions while wrestling with worry and fear.

This episode is meant to be an embrace to all of you experiencing these emotional currents. I am currently where you find yourself and I know it's incredibly hard. I have found something that has aided me in walking this unknown journey, however. Tune in to listen to this episode to find out how you can begin to walk your current path with more trust and freedom. It is possible!

This episode is my gift to all of you for continuing to seek this podcast despite my time away. Tune in to hear about the life lessons I have gathered on purpose, relationships, death, faith, failure, and many more. There isn't a specific topic for today's episode but I think that what came from this was quite special. I think that you will leave feeling hopeful and inspired, ready to take on life wherever it is that you find yourself in this moment.

I missed this space. The truth is that there has been a significant change in my life recently. I lost my mom to cancer. I am still in emotional shock and overwhelm, but I have also been blessed by God with the capacity to take a step back and admire the immense love you can still find in the middle of suffering. This episode is raw and unedited, much like the arrival of illness and then death usually is. But I urge you to tune in and give it a listen. I think that you can find something good to hold onto even if it's just a shift in perspective.

We can talk about healing unhealthy attachment patterns, tending to uncomfortable emotions, addressing traumatic experiences, and sifting through our limiting beliefs, but encapsulating all of these actions is the concept of SELF-BANDONMENT. You can understand how this concept plays in your life and almost automatically, the wheels start turning of how you can start addressing everything else. This is because at the root of the behaviors we adopt to cope with our difficult life stories is how we either abandon or come home to ourselves. Once you do the latter, your life will completely shift course. This path births all that your inner self authentically desires.

Join me as we talk about how self-abandonment often becomes a learned behavior, how we go about bypassing our needs in ways that deceive us and those around us, breaking down the other side of self-abandonment, and a life-changing practice for beginning to come home to yourself today.

The following are resources mentioned in the episode:

• My book on Amazon: https://a.co/d/cvVIqo8.
• My articles on Medium: https://medium.com/@andrea.medina.author
• The book mentioned is titled "Becoming the One": https://a.co/d/bhDDbly
• Past podcast episodes you can refer to and learn how to tune in to yourself: https://open.spotify.com/episode/66PRa8VkML6t0vmmZxc7mO?si=b2662482d0b6433e https://open.spotify.com/episode/0A5U95Se9e2LhDf0N9PzBx?si=3eb037cf9c7040e6

"What is joy without sorrow." The truth is that we are living an experience that is not meant to have one without the other. Yet, so many of us are actively running away from our pain. This won't be the episode that shames anyone for seeking safety from that which is uncomfortable. I get why we do this and there are actually many factors that lead us to act in this way, some outside of our immediate awareness. So, what we will discuss in this episode is how we can gain awareness of our patterns, shift these, and discover a lasting fulfillment that makes us the creators of our reality.

The following are talking points that will guide this conversation:

• Breaking down the collective fascination with chasing happiness through milestone moments.
• How most people go about fulfilling this chase and what is actually created in turn.
• Dissecting why we are resistant to feeling heartache and how we can view the root of our resistance with compassion.
• Why should we try to feel it all as opposed to shutting out the perceived negative. What benefits does this have for us? What's on the other side?
• How do we feel it all? What are the steps to take?
• How, if everyone collectively did this, our world would become a better place.
• How you can begin to do this work right after hearing this episode with this one powerful practice.

At the heart of this episode is my reason for beginning The Empowered by Darkness Podcast. I wanted to show people how life shouldn't have to be a continuous pursuit but it could actually be a life of deep feeling and surrender to all that is. I hope that this message will inspire you to go within and to witness the force behind feeling your hurt.

Welcome back to the podcast! I was on a hiatus due to a family emergency, but I'm excited to be here with a NEW episode and NEW season to usher in the new year. Let's talk about being seen and how we can take the things we learn with us throughout 2024.

In this episode, we'll discuss what it means to be seen, how we can go about it championing vulnerability, some practical advice about finding daily mindful practices, the liberation of accepting our evolving nature, the value of finding a creative outlet to help us stay connected to our core truth, and how we can start sharing our story in a less daunting way.

I know that this episode will set the right tone for the months ahead. My greatest desire is that you will leave it empowered to break free of the reservations and to start daring greatly in how you show up.

We often hear that being single is a time for investing in our hobbies and building our professional lives. We also hear that it’s a time for actively preparing ourselves to be in a relationship. This episode strays away from these messages to bring up a much more hidden meaning to singlehood: it is a time for taking a magnifying glass to our current experience of love and our perception of it. When we are alone, we are simply being given an opportunity to purify our intentions for love from everything that was never love to begin with. Singlehood is a time for shedding the layers of our persona that were never ours: the trauma response we inherited, the fear of abandonment, the crippling insecurity, the belief that we can only have what we grew up seeing. When we take the time to address these layers, our self-trust grows. Naturally, our perception of love shifts, too. It becomes lighter and we start to view a potential romantic partner for who they really are, as opposed to who we want them to be in order to avoid suffering. Tune in to find out how we can do this work, and listen until the end to hear what I believe is the most important product of singlehood for both the individual and the relationship they will one day have.

Link to podcast episode mentioned:

https://open.spotify.com/episode/2aw59y4oiMmPRhQfgnCMWL?si=b5da03def58d44ce