EP.373: Why I Haven't Recorded in 3 Weeks (And Why That's Actually Perfect)

Speaker A: Foreign. Welcome to the Make More Money as a Dietitian podcast. I am your host, Christine Diane Thompson, and this podcast is for dietitians who are ready to stop apologizing for wanting more. More money, more freedom, and a career that actually honors everything that you bring to the table. This is where we ditch the guilt and start building something big. If that resonates with you, let's go ahead and get started with today's episode. Hey there, my friends. Welcome to episode 373 of the Make More Money As a Dietitian podcast. It is so great to have you back here. If you're a dietitian, you may be getting yourself ready for Fancy that's coming up. I believe this weekend I will not be there, but I will be there in spirit, wishing everyone a wonderful time. I don't think I've been to fancy since 2016, when I was, um, one of the featured dietitians of the year that year. And they did a whole, um, montage of several of our day in the life type of things on video at the opening ceremony and all the things. And it was a wonderful, wonderful time. So I am wishing, uh, all of you who are going to fancy such a great time in Nashville. It is truly a beautiful city. And, yeah, I want to hear all about it. If you're connected to me on the socials, you probably know that I'm not really posting much on socials, but you can always DM me and let me know how everything went at Fency 2025. But today I want to talk to you about something, uh, really important, because I have not recorded a podcast in the past few weeks. I believe it's been almost three weeks, and I think I missed two episodes. But this week would have been the third episode if I had not recorded. And something prompted me to really sit down with you and have a conversation about why I haven't recorded in several weeks and why that is actually so perfect now. If you're anything like me, your first thought when someone kind of like just ghosts or disappears for a few weeks, your first thought is probably something of a version of, are they okay? Uh, did they give up? Is the business failing? What is happening? And I want to start by saying that I'm more than okay and I haven't given up. And what's been happening in these past several weeks, um, has really been the most aligned that I've been in years, if not decades. So I want to also say that I almost didn't record this podcast episode as a matter of Fact, right before, um, I hit the record button, I started tearing up, and I had to have a moment of just really releasing whatever, um, is in me. I have no idea why I started crying, but I have really been going through quite a few things. Um, nothing significantly, um, traumatizing or anything like that, but it's just been a season of processing a lot of things and a lot of emotions. Um, but like I said, I almost didn't record this episode because there's a part of me that wanted to just show up like nothing happened, drop some valuable content and keep it moving and pretend that the gap didn't exist. But that's not how I do things. Okay? And if you've been listening to this podcast for any amount of time, you know that I am committed to showing you the real, real. Okay, the real journey, and not just the highlight reel. So today, I'm going to be sharing with you what's actually been going on. And more importantly, I want to give you permission to honor your own season, even when they don't look consistent to the outside world. All right, so what is the truth about what's been happening? Okay. On the surface, you could say that I've been too busy or dealing with life stuff. Okay? And sure, that is partially true. There's been a lot of life stuff happening. But that's not really what this is about. Okay. What's actually been happening is that I've been in a season of deep, deep integration. Reinvention, if you want to call it that. And I really want to unpack what that even means, because I think we throw these words around without really explaining them. M. And I want to say that integration actually happens after transformation. Okay? Like, if you have this transforming moment, you have to actually take the time to integrate all of things. And I can say for the past year or two, even, um, I've been walking through some of the most profound transformations of my life. For example, I've been getting crystal clear about my marriage and what's no longer aligned. I have been returning to my prayer closet practice after M. It's been maybe 18 months of feeling disconnected from that practice. Not disconnected from God, but disconnected from the practice, which is really profound, actually. I've also been receiving divine guidance about the future of my business and my career. And I've been coming home to parts of myself that I have kept hidden for years. And through all of this, this is what I can say I've learned. You cannot be in constant creation mode, my friends, while you're integrating major shifts in your life. So I, uh, want you to think about it like this. If you plant seeds in a garden, you don't just stand over them every day and demand that they grow right. You water them, you give them sunlight, and you do all of the other things that the plant moms do. I'm not a plant mom. Okay. But then you just wait and you trust that beneath the surface, something is happening, even though you can't really see it yet. Let me take a sip of coffee because I hear my frog coming out now. That is what this period of time has been for me. I've been in the soil and letting the seeds of all of this work, work take root. So what have I actually been doing, you may be thinking. Instead of recording podcasts and posting on social and writing emails every week, I've been sitting in my prayer closet every morning around 6:30am um, with my candles lit, my journal open, um, my little bold speaker playing worship music and just having conversations with God that I haven't had in a really, really long time. I've also been designing, um, a spring equinox retreat that has been trying to come through me since 2020. Before the, um, pandemic hit at the top of the year, I had planned on launching an in person retreat and it didn't happen. So I pivoted like everyone else did at that time. We had virtual retreats integrated into my group program called Embody Academy at that time, and that was highly successful and we moved forward. But I have always wanted to have more in person retreats. I had my first in person retreat in Costa rica, January of 2024, which was last year, and that was wonderful. I consider that to be highly successful. The dietitians who attended, there were 12 of them. They had a wonderful time, took away a lot of good gems for themselves personally and professionally, and it was amazing. So I've been designing a spring equinox retreat for spring of 2026 during this time. And I've been processing 15 years of marriage and getting clear about what actually is going to come next for us. I've been baking bread, my friends. I've been making candles, y'. All. I've been, uh, canning preserves. Okay? I'm over here doing the Martha Stewart thing, okay? I have been doing all the things, all the things in a sense of reconnecting with the creative parts of myself that have nothing to do with business and content creation. And I've been living instead of just documenting my life for business purposes. And honestly, this has been some of the Most important work that I've done in a very long time for myself. So I want to talk to you about the seasons of business that not too many people are talking about, if anyone is actually talking about. Okay? First, let's talk about the hustle culture. Lie. All right? We all know that hustle culture, excuse me, is just a hot mess express. We live in a business culture that glorifies constant output. Post every day, show up consistently, never let them forget about you. And if you take a break, you better have a really good reason, and it better involve a, uh, beach and a cocktail, because the only acceptable break is. Is a vacation. But there are seasons in business that require you to stop creating externally so that you can create internally. Okay? Now, I'm not talking about burnout, okay? I'm talking about giving up. Uh, I'm talking about. Or I should say, I'm not talking about giving up. Excuse me, but I'm talking about the sacred pause. I call it a sacred pause that actually happens when your soul, your spirit, needs to catch up with everything else. So there, in my opinion, there are two seasons in business that we actually pretend don't exist. Okay? We pretend that they don't exist, but they do. One of them is a little more, um, common. And we know about it, but we still don't really think about it as a season. And that is the creation season. This is the season that we all recognize and we celebrate. This is when you're recording podcast episodes, if you have a podcast. This is when you're launching your programs. You're showing up on social, you're writing your content, and you're engaging with your audience. You're building, you're creating, you're producing all the things. And this season feels really productive, especially for us dietitians. You know, we have to be doing things, and we don't, uh, we don't feel like we're, you know, doing anything if we're not doing all the things right. We have been trained to be hyper productive, okay? Because when you're productive, it feels like you're, quote, air quotes, uh, doing the work. It's visible, it's measurable, right? It gets all the accolades. And don't get me wrong, this season is actually important. This is how you serve people. This is how you build a business. But then, my friends, there's the integration season, okay? This is the other season that we rarely talk about, the one that I've been in for some time now, okay? This is when you process what you've learned. Has anyone Processed what they've learned recently, or you're just going through the motions. Because if you are the type A perfectionist that most of us are, we can sometimes glaze over the things that we've learned, okay? So that we can get on with the. Get on. So that we can move on to the next thing, right? But integration requires that you process what you've learned and you let your nervous system catch up with your growth. You integrate new identities and new beliefs. You rest and you restore. Hello? Okay. You listen more than you speak. And that is why these conversations with God in my prayer closet are so important to me. Okay? And you receive instead of constantly giving. This. My friends, this season doesn't look productive from the outside, okay? But it's where the real magic happens. This is where you become the person capable of holding the next level that you've been waiting for or you've been asking for. This integration season is where your spirit whispers the next chapter while your ego finally gets quiet enough to hear it. All right? I want you to know this truth that I'm about to share with you. You cannot skip this season. Um. Now, you can try if you want to. Lord knows I have tried. I wanted to push through this integration season, force myself to keep creating. I told myself, consistency is key, girl. Keep it going. Even when my spirit was begging for a pause. And you know what happened? Burnout. Because you can't skip this season. What happens when you try is that you create content that feels really flat, not only to you, but for the people who are receiving it. You show up, but you're really not there. Okay? And you perform instead of connecting with people. And worse, you end up recreating the same patterns you're trying to evolve beyond because you never gave yourself space to actually become the new version of yourself. So I want to share with you my own pattern recognition. And I'm sharing this because I know so many people will be able to relate to this deeply. I know I'm not the only one. Okay? I have a pattern of holding on to things way longer than I should. And not because they're working and not because they're right, but because letting go feels like admitting defeat. Letting go means facing uncertainty. And uncertainty, my friends, is my kryptonite, okay? And I want to share with you that I have actually done this in so many areas of my life. Relationships that I've stayed in for years past their expiration day. Because what if I'm making a mistake? Okay? Or business strategies that I kept forcing long after they stopped serving me. Because what if the next thing doesn't work either? Okay. Identities that I have clung to even when they became too small. Because who am I without this identity? That was a big one for me. And then there are chapters that I have refused to close because I couldn't see the next chapter clearly enough. Yet I have been so afraid, my friends, of the unknown, that I've stayed in the wrong for far longer than I should have. And you know that staying or that saying, excuse me, better the devil you know than the devil you don't know. That has been my entire operating system for so many years. Because I have learned that I'll stay in something that's actively draining me and suffocating me and dimming my light. As long as. As it feels familiar. As long as I know what to expect. As long as I don't have to face the terrifying possibility that I might choose the wrong next thing. So these last several weeks of me not recording and really these past several years has been me practicing, uh, something that I've never really been good at, and that's letting go without knowing exactly what comes next. I've been practicing trusting that closing one door doesn't mean I'll be locked out forever. And I've also been releasing instead of gripping tight when things stop flowing, because I'm learning that sometimes the most important work is releasing your grip on what's no longer yours to carry. So I'm going to get transparent and vulnerable here and share with you what I've been processing in the silence. The first thing has been my marriage. Clarity. And if you've been with me for any long time, length of time, who, if you've known me for years, like some of these dietitians that are listening to this podcast, some of you are seasoned dietitians like myself, and you've heard me talk about my marriage. You even maybe witnessed me writing this blog post many moons ago. I want to say it was 2015 or 2016, and I wrote this blog post about leaving, about walking away. And I didn't. From 2015 till now, I'm still here. And that is nothing bad, okay? But I will say this. One of the biggest things that I have been processing all of this time has been my marriage. Okay? But I want you to know that we cannot compartmentalize our lives and expect our careers to thrive. For years, I've been trying to hold on and build a business while navigating a personal life that wasn't fully aligned. And I would keep those two Things separate. For the most part. I, uh, show up here on the podcast and coaching my clients, talking about money, mindset, and business strategy, while at home, I was managing dynamics that were draining my energy and dimming my light. Okay? And I will say that that pretending was costing me everything. So in the past several weeks, I've been getting honest about what is really true. And I've been sitting with the reality that things just aren't aligned with the woman that I am becoming, okay? And instead of running from that or forcing a decision out of panic, I've been integrating it. Okay? I'm not running from the truth, but I'm also not forcing a decision out of, you know, some sort of crazy impulse. I've just been integrating things. I've been asking myself, what does the woman who honors herself completely actually do with this information? And the answer isn't always immediate action, my friends. Sometimes the answer is stay present. Build your foundation. Trust the timing, Prepare wisely instead of reacting desperately. Because here's what a series of events in 2009, when my mother passed away suddenly taught me. When you leave from a place of desperation, instead of preparation, you end up recreating the same patterns in a, ah, different package. I did that back then, okay? So that, that's one thing that I've been processing and integrating for a very long time. The other thing is my business identity, okay? For the last few years, you all know that I've been calling myself the Money mindset dietitian since 2019. And I have been showing up as a business coach for dietitian, uh, dietitians and nutrition professionals. I can't even talk. I think my mouth is dry. Thank you, menopause. So I have been showing up as a business coach and a mindset coach for dietitians and nutrition professionals. And that's not wrong. It has served a purpose, and I loved every minute of it because it's helped a lot of people. But I have to admit that it's not fully true for me anymore, because the woman who actually come to me and work with me, they're not really coming for business strategy. Or at least they think they are coming for business strategy, but that's really not the problem, okay? They are coming to me because they're tired of playing small. They are tired of hiding their natural, um, gifts and talents, and they're tired of building businesses that look successful on the outside but feel empty on the inside. And they're coming for something much deeper than business strategy, okay? And so in these weeks and months, I have been getting honest about what I actually want to do. Okay. So I'm not even fully clear about it, so I'm not going to say that here on the podcast just yet. Um, but I have really been processing this, truly. And then there is the God connection. And to me, it is really one of the most important things that I've been processing, which is my relationship with God. I don't know if I have shared on the podcast before about my prayer closet practice. I don't think that I have, but I will share today that I used to wake up every morning at 6:30, light my candles, put on worship music and have these really deep conversations with God through journaling. And then I stopped because life got overwhelming. My business started doing all the things it was thriving, and then it wasn't thriving. And I. Then my marriage became even more draining and my, um, my sons, my two oldest sons started really having issues, adulting. It has just been a journey. And slowly I just stopped showing up to that sacred space in my closet. And it wasn't because I didn't want to, um, and it wasn't because I didn't believe anymore, but it was because when you're operating in survival mode, my friends, you don't have the bandwidth for anything that isn't immediately urgent. But I've learned the reason everything felt so hard at that time is because I was trying to do it without God. So these past several weeks where I haven't recorded a podcast episode, I've been back in that prayer closet every morning around 6:30. Candles, uh, lit, music, playing, journal, open. Just me and God and everything I've been trying to figure out through my own will. God has been whispering the answers in about, who, 30 to 45 minutes every morning. Okay. And I'm not saying that you have to spend 30 to 45 minutes with God. God will give you what he needs to give you when an even shorter amount of time. But I find that that time, there are times when I don't even want to stop at, uh, 30 to 45 minutes. But I know I have to get ready and get on with my life and do the things I need to do for the day. But I could stay in that closet, uh, for hours probably. So I will say that the clarity about my marriage came through the prayer closet. The vision for my retreat came through the prayer closet. Um, understanding of what I'm really meant to be doing, it is coming through the prayer closet. And the peace that I feel about closing certain chapters came through in the prayer Closet. And I will also share that that connection isn't separate from my business. I feel like it is a part of my business. It is my business strategy. It's my life strategy. And I had to step back from performing and being consistent to actually remember that. That. That is a very important and essential part of my business and my life. So, um, to wrap this up a little bit, I want to give you permission, okay? I want to give you permission to know that you don't know. You don't owe anyone constant output, okay? Whether you are a business owner, a creative someone building something new, or just a human trying to navigate this wild world that we're in, you don't owe anyone constant output. You don't have to post every day. You don't have to show up when you're integrating. You don't have to perform consistently when your spirit needs space and peace. You don't have to create content about your breakdown while you're still in the breakdown. You're allowed to have seasons, my friend, where you tend to your own inner world because you need to do that. Okay? The people who are meant to be in your world will still be there when you come back. In fact, they'll probably appreciate the realness of your rhythm more than the performance of your consistency. All, uh, right. So there's a difference that I want to highlight here. And there's a difference between rest and giving up. Okay? There's a, uh, difference between honoring a season of integration and just giving up when things get hard. Because rest is strategic and giving up is reactive. All right? Integration is purposeful, and avoidance is just something we do out of fear. So here's how you can tell the difference. Because rest feels like a deep exhale. Your body is actually able to relax. Clarity is coming through. Your energy may be slowly returning. If you felt really tired and overwhelmed and you trust that you're exactly where you need to be now. Giving up feels like collapse. It feels like defeat. It feels like you're running away from something, and what happens? We just give up. We're making decisions from panic, and we're telling ourselves stories about how nothing ever works. So I want you to know that I wasn't giving up in these last three weeks. I was resting. I was integrating. I was becoming. And that is a huge difference. And I want to give you permission to do that, especially as we are entering into the last quarter of the year. This fall and winter season is definitely a season of rest. So integration, what it actually requires, if you are in a season of integration right now. Here's what I have learned personally. It requires spaciousness because you cannot integrate new identities, new beliefs and ways of being while your calendar is packed, my friends. You need white space. You need unscheduled time. You need mornings where you're not immediately checking your phone. You need spaciousness. You also need solitude because integration happens in the quiet. It happens when you're alone with yourself and your thoughts, your God, your journal. It doesn't happen in the noise of everyone else's opinions. You also need trust, because you have to trust that just because you can't see the growth doesn't mean it isn't happening. You have to trust that the seeds you have planted are taking root even when there's no visible proof yet. And lastly, you need compassion. You have to be so gentle with yourself during the season. The world will tell you that you're being lazy or you're being inconsistent, or you're losing momentum and you have to hold on and you have to say no. I am doing the most important work of my life and it just happens to be invisible. So let's talk about what is actually next for me. Okay? So you may be thinking, what in the heck is next for Christine? So what is next is the spring equinox retreat. Okay. I am, uh, hosting a spring equinox retreat in March of 2026 here in Chicago. And it's a three day experience for women who are ready to just trust themselves completely and create the lives that they actually want for themselves. And here's what's really wild about that. I almost gave up on this retreat a couple of weeks ago because I just wasn't certain if anyone was going to be interested in signing up. And ah, my old pattern kind of kicked in. See, nothing works. Why should I bother? But then I realized that, you know, I was doing the exact thing I help my clients stop doing, and that is giving up before something has time to work. So I'm holding the vision, I'm trusting the timing, and I'm inviting women who are ready to step into their next chapter. So if that resonates with you, the link to that will be in the show notes. Right now it is, um, only being offered to my alumni coaching clients. But I will be opening it up to everyone very soon. Okay, Next is the business evolution. So the second thing that is in the process of evolving is how I show up in my business. And I honestly don't exactly know what that looks like yet. And I'm finally okay with not knowing. It took me a minute to be okay with not knowing. And I know some of y' all can relate to this. When we don't know all the things we. It's a little uncomfortable. But what I do know is this. I am done hiding my gifts and my talents, my spiritual gifts and talents, in order to seem professional. And I'm done pretending that my business is separate from my relationship with God. I'm done coaching on business when what I know my clients really need is the permission to trust themselves completely in all areas of their lives. So you may see me showing up differently in the future. I'll be more integrated, more authentic, more whole, just more me. And if that resonates with you, stay tuned. If it doesn't, that's okay, too. Not everyone is meant to be on this journey with me, and that is fine. And the podcast future. As for the podcast, I'm committed to it, but I'm also committed to only showing up when I actually have something to say. And that's not because, um, I won't have anything to say, but I just want to be on a more different rhythm. And maybe I will have a more, um, consistent rhythm going forward, but because I feel like I'm still in this season of integration, and there's still a little bit of uncertainty around certain things, um, I'm just going to commit right now to showing up when I have something really important to share with you that I think would be helpful to you. I don't want to make this podcast all about me, of course, but today's episode, I felt, was really important for me to share what's going on with me, because I know that there are so many of you out there that could benefit from this conversation. All right, my friends, so here is what I want to say as we wrap up today. If you've been feeling guilty about your own gaps, whether it's in your business, your creative, um, practices, your consistency, whatever, I want to offer you this. What if the gap isn't a problem? What if it's a portal? What if the silence is making room for something that you couldn't have heard in the noise? What if, my friends, the pause is actually preparing you for the next level you've been asking for? And finally, what if you're not falling behind? You're actually integrating forward? I want you to give yourself permission to honor your seasons. Seasons of creation, integration. And, uh, that really is the rhythm. Okay? Creation, integration. Creation, integration. And the more you trust it, the more sustainable your entire life becomes. M. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you my friends, so much for being here. Thank you for giving me the grace and the space to share all of the things with you today. Thank you for trusting that when I show up, it's because I actually have something really important to say. I love you. I see you and I'm so grateful that we're on this journey together. I want you also to know that your business and your life can absolutely be exactly what you want it to be and your seasons are sacred. I'll see you in the next episode, whenever that will be. Have a great rest of your week and the weekend ahead, my friends. And bye for now. Hey there my friend. If something in today's episode hit different, I'd love that for you. This week, I invite you to take one action that feels a little scary, yet honors your work. And for more resources and ways to work together, head on over to ManapuraCenter. CO. Remember, you're not asking for too much, my friend. You've just been settling for too little. Hm. It.