Taking a Break, Shifting Direction, and Coming Back to What Matters

I know I haven't been writing in a little bit. I've been taking a break from the blog and the podcast, and honestly, I needed it.

But I want to fill you in on what's been happening, what's coming, and where I'm headed. Because there's a lot brewing, and I'm genuinely excited about it.

The Podcast Is Coming Back, With a New Direction

I plan on starting the podcast back up at the end of November into December, and I'm moving in a little bit of a different direction.

I'll still be covering self-care, but I'm also shifting into something that feels really important right now: people living their lives differently.

Not according to typical societal norms. Not according to what anyone else thinks they should do. Just doing things that are more aligned with themselves, and not caring how society judges them. Just knowing what's right for them and doing it.

I want to interview people living this way. For lack of a better word, people who are living outside of the matrix.

Maybe you've gone from living in a very toxic way, maybe a toxic corporate environment, and you've moved into living more authentically. Or maybe you've always lived this way and have been doing it successfully for a long time, or your entire life.

I just think this would be extremely interesting, and I also think it's something people are looking for.

Why This Matters So Much Right Now

I keep hearing people say over and over again how unhappy they are. They feel like slaves. They're just working, working, working, and they can't pay for anything. They can't survive. They can't buy food. And they're asking themselves the big questions.

At all ages.

This used to be kind of a midlife thing, where someone would hit midlife and ask, "What am I doing?" But now people of all ages, even the youngest of the young, are asking: What the heck are we doing? Why are we working like slaves our whole life to retire when we don't even have any life left?

And then trying to raise the retirement age? That's ridiculous.

I think people are finally trying to step out of this model that doesn't work for any humans. It's just not natural for us to live this way, so disconnected from ourselves, so disconnected from each other, and so disconnected from nature. All the things that really keep us alive and thriving.

People are starting to step out of this and live their lives differently.

I think some of the most interesting people are doing this too. So I'm very excited about starting to interview people.

If you know anyone like this, please reach out and send me a message. I'm definitely looking for guests.

Trying to redirect to myself can be really hard because a lot of people know the podcast and what I've been doing for years now. I keep getting more of the same, which is great, I love the guests that come to me, but I do want to shift a little bit and move into something new and, I think, needed and very interesting for people.

So that's what I've been working on.

Shifting Into Art and Selective Mentoring

I've also shifted away from doing a lot of coaching to just doing very select mentoring.

And I've been doing art, shifting myself into that as almost like a retirement career. I still create and record meditations, which is one of my favorite things to do. It feels very creative and artistic to me. Trying to shift into that has been very enjoyable, but also challenging at times.

If you're interested in following me and my art, you can go to @TaliaSunday on Instagram, or you could just go to my website, tinastinson.com, because I post all my art there.

Life on the Road and the Family Farm

Right now, I'm traveling. I've traveled from North Carolina, where I live now, up to my family farm property, I just call it my dad's property, where we farm garlic, me and my son.

And that's been challenging this year because I'm in North Carolina. So doing that has been very challenging, and I definitely have to figure out some solutions to farming while not present. Very difficult. But garlic is a very easy crop, so we're here this week.

October is when you plant the garlic, and then you harvest it the following year in July, at least that's what we do up north here.

I love coming up here this time of year because it's fall. It's peak. The leaves are colorful. It's beautiful. It's not too cold yet. It's a beautiful, relaxing time to come. Many, many beautiful things to paint up here, and so I've been having fun with that.

Having my kids visit me up here is really nice, and my son is driving home with me, so that's going to be a lot of fun. We're gonna celebrate my birthday, which is October 24th.

What's Coming on the Podcast

I still have two interviews that I did that I need to post on the podcast.

One of those interviews is with one of the cofounders of Rhythmia, which is a plant medicine retreat and healing center, just a beautiful, gorgeous spot. I interviewed him about what he's doing over there in Costa Rica. I do believe they have some plans to expand at some point, but he invited me to come down and check it out.

So I'm gonna be checking that out in February. I'm very excited. I've always wanted to go to Costa Rica, never been there before. So I'm going to check things out, and I'm going to also do a solo podcast on my experience there. I'll definitely be writing in the blog about it. I'm going to write in like a diary-type style as I go every day while I'm there, and I'll let you know what I experience.

I'm very excited about that.

And then I have another interview with Michael Wood, who is an author of a new book. That's also gonna be coming out soon as well. Look for that between now and November. I'll be releasing those two episodes at some point, and then I'll be moving into possibly the new model of the podcast.

Look for it, I'll be sprucing it up a bit, changing the art and description and all that kind of stuff. But it's still gonna have the same name: Soul Aligned Life (that used to be Soul Aligned Self-Care). I've slowly shifted it to Soul Aligned Life, and you'll see some of those changes. I'll be sharing them as I go along.

Syncing Yourself with Nature

I also wanna talk about syncing yourself more to nature.

I feel like there's never been a time in history, that we know of, where we've been so disconnected from nature. And I just feel like we are part of the whole system on this planet. I feel like everybody is sick because of it. Not only us, but also Mother Nature, because we are a part of that system.

We're so disconnected.

When I come up to Summit, which is where I am, in the western foothills of the Catskill Mountains in upstate New York, I feel so relaxed and so in tune with nature. It's such a beautiful reset.

I spend time in nature in North Carolina, not as much because I'm in the city, but I still have a lot of access to nature, which is really nice.

I just want to point out that the more you pay attention to nature, the more you can be in sync with it. And I think that is our natural state.

Slowing Down as the Seasons Change

As we move into fall, autumn, whatever you call it, we begin to slow down. We kind of thirst for cozier things and times of connection and slowing down. Maybe not everybody, but I think a lot of people do. I think a lot of people are really feeling strongly about this now because the climate of the world is so intense, and it's so shocking to your nervous system.

But I wanna remind everybody: you have control over your nervous system.

You have control over what you let in. And I'm guilty of this, letting too much of the outside world in. But we have control over that, and you can take it back.

You can control what you see on social media. You can control not being on social media at all. You can control the people around you. You can set boundaries to protect your energy. You can add more joy to your life. More rest.

If you don't have time, some people may be working two or three jobs, I would say control how you spend the time that you do have. Don't spend it on, well, you might be exhausted, and the easiest thing to do is scroll on social media because it's mindless. But so is closing your eyes and listening to a guided meditation or Yoga Nidra.

And for some reason, I have trouble doing this as well. But when I do, when I consciously make the choice to maybe take a bath, maybe do some Yin yoga, and then listen to a Yoga Nidra, I have the best goddamn sleep of my life. And it takes very small efforts to do this.

We do have control over our energy. They can't take that from you. Nobody can take that from you.

Going Inward and Asking the Hard Questions

As we move into this time of year, I would take some time to go inside of yourself and slow down a little bit. Ask yourself: How do I wanna experience my life?

How can you slow down, even if you have to work three jobs, or you're taking care of a parent and kids at the same time? If you have a schedule that has burdened you with so much stress, anxiety, and overwhelm, how can you experience more of the latter?

These are the things that I've taught myself over the years so that I don't experience burnout again, which I did in a very severe way when I was 39, by having a stroke.

So it's been really important to me to try to control this. Even though I struggle with it constantly. I feel like the maintenance, the maintenance to control and alleviate my stress and anxiety, seems like it doesn't happen naturally for me. And I think a lot of people feel that way. I'm not sure if that will ever change.

But one of the things I know is how I can help myself and keep myself healthy and help myself feel better. And if I don't, for some reason, if I am experiencing more stress, more anxiety, figuring out a way to do that, because I know how important that is.

Fall and Winter as a Time of Renewal

Fall moving into winter is a reminder to sync yourself with nature, because nature slows down as well.

The trees lose their leaves. They go dormant. They sleep. They rest. It's a time of rest. It's a time of renewal. And it's a time to go inward and figure out, you know, ask yourself questions. What do I need? What am I looking for? What direction am I going in?

It's just such a beautiful time to go inward.

On my birthday every year, which is coming up next week, I always do my yearly planning. That's like my New Year. I do a New Year thing in the spring too, because I don't believe New Year is in January. Sorry. I think January is when we should be resting the most.

So I just go over everything in my life. My relationships. My fun. My work. My business. My hobbies. My vacation. Like, what direction am I going in? What's changed over the past year? Has anything worked out? What's not working out? Do I need to shift?

I just ask myself all the questions, and I do that on my birthday. And then I do it again in March when things start waking up again.

Syncing with the Seasons and the Moon

I want to encourage you to sync yourself with nature, whether that be the seasons, the moon, or both. Because especially as women, our bodies definitely work with the moon. If you can sync yourself with the seasons and the moon, you can really sync with your natural state, the way you're supposed to live your life. And it kind of amplifies everything that you're doing. It makes everything easier and better.

Even if you don't cycle anymore, if you're in menopause, you can still sync yourself with the moon, and it's beautiful when you do that.

I move out of it sometimes. I forget about it. And then I always go back to it because it just works.

What I'm Looking Forward To

I'm looking forward to this season as things slow down and get cozier. You just wanna wear cozy clothes, make lots of soup, spend time with friends, read lots of books, do crafts. These are the things that I'm looking forward to.

So this blog is really a message to remind people to reconnect with nature. Reconnect with yourself. Allow yourself to go inward and protect your energy.

And if you need help with that, I still do mentoring. I don't really call it coaching anymore, I call it more mentoring. I only take on usually two clients at a time, but I don't work with women for long periods of time. Most women need a reset when they work with me. I have a few clients that I've had for years, but if anyone's interested in that, if you need help, I'm definitely here for that.

But you have everything you need inside of you right now. If you slow down long enough and allow yourself to hear the answers come to you, you'll know exactly what to do for yourself.

New Meditation: Connecting with Nature

I'm releasing a meditation next week on connecting with nature. It's gonna be under 10 minutes.

If you want to listen to my meditations, you can go to tinastinson.com and there is a link to my Patreon where you can listen commercial-free. But if you want to check it out first for free, I am on YouTube, also on the website, and you can go there and listen to any of my meditations for free.

If you love it and you hate the interruptions of the commercials, and you want to support me creating these meditations, and it also supports the podcast creation, you can go to the Patreon. I think it's like $5.55 a month, but Patreon charges you an extra charge, so it's a little bit more than that. But it's very inexpensive. You can go there and check that out.

My Art Journey

If you're interested in art and you're interested in my art journey, once again, follow me at @TalliaSunday.

And if you wanna collaborate with me on anything, meditations, art, I also have an information page for a retreat on my website.

My website is kind of under construction. Most of the parts are working. The art page is under construction because I'm currently linking some of my art prints to an outside company that does the printing. They do absolutely gorgeous prints. I'm linking it to them to make the process easier for myself and others, where they order off there, and it automatically prints and sends it to you. The printer uses beautiful cold-press paper, which is what I use for watercolor, and it's just absolutely gorgeous.

So if someone can't invest in an original painting, they can get a print of it, and it looks very realistic. It's beautiful.

Anyway, I'm in the process of setting that up, and I'm not sure if it's working correctly right now. So if you have trouble and you wanna purchase a print, just reach out to me by emailing me.

Retreats: Summer Camp for Women

Also on the website is a page because I want to start doing retreats.

What I would love to do is summer on the shores of North Carolina, fall in upstate New York in the Catskills. I might also go to Asheville in the fall in North Carolina, either/or, it just depends on the situation.

If you're interested in the retreat, check out the retreat page. It's going to be a creative retreat, a relaxing retreat, a fun retreat. Think of it as summer camp for women, just having fun, creating, relaxing, laying back, creating connections, and healing the nervous system.

That's what it's about. Regulate your nervous system, make friends, have fun, and create some art. Even if you're not creative, this is not about becoming an artist. This is just about having fun.

So if you're interested in that type of retreat, definitely fill out an interest form, because I'm just trying to see if I have enough people interested to actually have the retreat. If that makes sense to you, I would love to have you.

I am going to try to keep the cost down, but I'm not sure if I'm going to hire an outside company to assist or if I'm just gonna do it all myself. Usually, if you hire an outside company, that jacks the costs up a little bit. So I'm gonna try not to do that and see if I could organize it myself, which means it might not be as fancy as if I hire a company.

So let me know your preference if that's something you want to collaborate with me on. Meaning, you have a suggestion, or maybe you're a yoga instructor in Catskill, New York, or Asheville, or on the shores of North Carolina somewhere, and you wanna collaborate with me on this retreat, feel free to reach out.

I am open to suggestions on ways that I could make this happen and make it as affordable as possible for people.

So there is a place on my website where you can reach out to me. Even if you just want to chat or drop me a message about one of my meditations, I would love to hear from you as well. There's a place to do that on my website.

Check out my new website. That's what I'm trying to get you to do, lol.

Until Next Time

Definitely check out my new meditation about connecting with nature.

If this blog post has resonated with you, keep an eye out for the podcast starting up again in November/December, most likely December. People think I'm crazy starting in December because it's the holidays, but I don't traditionally celebrate Christmas the way most people do. I do it in a very relaxed fashion, so I don't get stressed out at the holidays, and I'm not excessively busy during the holidays either.

I'll definitely write a post about how I celebrate the holidays when that time comes.

And probably my next blog post, I wanna talk about adapting new hobbies and joy into your life, because a lot of us don't have time for that. So how can we start trying new things? I'll share with you some of the new hobbies I'm gonna be starting this winter, just to help myself go inward and connect with myself.

OK guys, until next week, or until next time, I should say, because I'm kind of taking some time off, like I said, until the end of November/December. But I like to pop on here every once in a while and just give you updates, so you'll see me back again in full force weekly soon.

Love you guys. I love the space. I love the community. I love my Patreon. I love my podcast. And I love all of you.

Talk soon.

Xo, T