Explicit AF

Just to reiterate: this is one sweary motherfucker of a podcast. So if you listen to it around kids… they will defo learn some new vocabulary from Aunty Leonie. MWHAHAHAHA. ENJOYYYYY!

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In this episode I mention:

• Lessons Every Goddess Must Know
• My Shining Year Workbooks
• Inspiring movies
• Transformation Soup – SARK

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HONESTLY HOW GOOD IS LIFE.
THE END.

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P.S. Transcript belooooow!

Leonie: (00:01)
Treasures. Look at us. Number four who would have thought? I didn’t know we would get this far baby, but we’re here. So today for a little something different. I thought I would share with you [dun dun DUUUN] 50 ways to feel like a goddess again. And I’m reading it to you from a book that I wrote a few years ago called Lessons Every Goddess Must Know. But because I can’t help myself, I’m going to addendum the fuck out of it and talk shit as it reminds me to talk shit. So here we go. 50 ways to feel like a goddess again. Let’s make a list and come back to it every time we need to remember it. Mmkay? It doesn’t take long to remember just what luscious, shining goddesses we are. Number one, take a meditation nap. What’s a meditation nap you ask? Well I’m glad you asked.

Leonie: (01:01)
So I always find it really hard to like do meditation cause it’s just like so fucking stressful because you’re like okay I have to do this. Like, and try and stop my brain from like thinking in all directions and who God knows what. Um, and it feels like the opposite of being soft and receptive. And I know that says like so much about my personality and, and I don’t give a fuck. It’s just how I’m built. So what works for me instead is to lay down so I don’t get all sore and wondering if I’m doing the right posture and all that kind of shit. Um, and instead I just lay down and it could be on a bed or um, if you have an outdoor lounger, um, I like to do it on there as well. I also like to get a picnic blanket and take a pillow and blankets outside.

Leonie: (01:55)
I just fucking laid down on the grass. It’s glorious. It’s perfect. Like do it in a park during your backyard, whatever. And you can listen to a guided meditation if you want. Or you could listen to some inspiring motherfucking audiobook or an incredible podcast like this. Nah, just kidding. And just listen and receive. And if you fall asleep, that’s great. And if you meditate a little bit also great. Who gives a fuck? You’re resting. And that’s the most important thing. Number 2! Have a green smoothie, greens are good for the soul and our moods. So my favorite way of making a green smoothie is a banana, a handful of frozen berries. And um, and then I just put a handful of spinach leaves in there like baby spinach leaves and then churn that motherfucker up and it tastes pretty damn good. Um, if it’s not sweet enough for you, like it took me a while, but like I started putting like a little bit of honey at the start and then after a while you kind of get used to it.

Leonie: (03:00)
Oh, I should say like you should probably put some water in that because otherwise this is going to be like chunky bits. Um, sometimes I put like milk or soy milk in there, whatever the fuck you like. That for me is a good blend. I, my very first smoothie I tried was like some fucking recipe I found online that included kale, a whole lemon and like shit, tons of spinach and celery and it was so fucking horrific that I would have preferred to have died 20 years early than ever have another green smoothie again. So if that’s the kind of like green smoothie drink you are like “please God never again!” My kind of smoothie is probably better for you. Okay. Like you would probably like actually enjoy it and not want to die immediately. Right. Number three, reach out to five people and tell them how much you love them and are grateful to them.

Leonie: (03:55)
Also for pro tip points, I recommend doing this to any teachers or mentors from your childhood. I actually have done this to every teacher that was ever fucking nice to me or that made a positive impact to my life and they love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love hearing from past students. It makes their day, it makes their life, it makes a year. So it’s a beautiful thing. I had an amazing teacher in year four called Mr. Davis. I fucking love Mr. Davis. Uh, and he played guitar and he was so kind and genuinely lovely. And for me, coming from kind of a rough farming family for me, I think looking back, it was the first experience of being around a man who was gentle and lovely and interested in me as a person and he took so much interest in my writing and like really encouraged me and he got everyone to like write journals and stuff and to illustrate them.

Leonie: (05:03)
And he was just always overjoyed when I showed him mine. And I remember at one point there must have been something going on at home or I, I don’t know what was happening, but I know I was emotional and I just, didn’t want to write in my journal anymore. And he came over to me and he knelt down and he said, “Leonie, what’s happening? I’m missing seeing your journal entries… Are you okay? Like, I’m right here.” And honestly, I get tears in my eyes when I think about it. So, and he was also like super musical and I fucking loved that. Um, and he tried to teach me guitar. I can still play, well, very badly thanks to Mr. Davis. That part didn’t take off, but the rest of my creativity did. Anyway, it took me years to find him again online. Like I would try, um, to, to find him over the years and then discovered he actually, I thought his name was Guy Davis (G U Y), but instead his real name is, it’s Swedish I think.

Leonie: (06:03)
It’s, it’s pronounced similar to Guy but it’s not. And it’s C A I U S um, anyway, I found him, I tracked it down like the motherfucking internet mole that I am and found out that he’s the headmaster of, uh, another school now. And I sent him a letter and a package with my books in it and I told him how much he meant to me and how deeply grateful I was for him being a teacher. And he emailed me that day, um, and said that he cried and then he showed his wife who was a teacher and she cried and he totally remembered me. 25 years on it said, “of course you are an artist. And a writer. That’s exactly who I knew you would be because you were always so happy. You were just such a joyful creative kid and I’m so happy that you’ve continued that way.”

Leonie: (06:56)
Honestly, was fucking one of the best things that I’ve done in a decade. So highly, highly recommend reaching out to people and tell them how grateful you are to them. It changes their life and it changes yours too. Okay. Number 4. At some point here, guys like this, this list is not numbered I’m only going off the top of my head like I am not going to know what fucking number we’re up to, but you guys could count along with me. I don’t fucking care. Uh, okay. Number 4; go for a drive to a place you haven’t been before, even if it’s just a road, a park, a shop, or a river, let your spirit see new things and just go for a drive into places you haven’t been. I always think our spirit feels so happy when it sees new things that it hasn’t seen before and it’s inspiring as well.

Leonie: (07:37)
I love going on road trips, even small road trips for an hour. I just love being able to see you land that I haven’t seen before and it just reminds me of like the outside world because we can get so stuck in our heads. Okay. Number five, switch off your computer for the day and remember joys which are screen free, have regular screen free sabbaticals every single week. Uh, you might’ve heard in the last podcast, I have taken off all social media apps from my phone and I feel fucking fantastic for it. I highly recommend it. Number six, write a list of things to do this life list, a bucket list if you will. If you’ve got the My Shining Year Goals Workbooks, um, fill it out and your a hundred things to do in 2020 or even just fill out like at the back of the book as well.

Leonie: (08:28)
What you want to do in your lifetime. Like think big dreams, big goals and then you’ll start seeing them manifest and create into reality. Number seven, maybe seven probably, create something just for you. Like at the moment I shared last episode, I am writing, a romantic novella because I’ve wanted to for years and it makes zero sense and I don’t fucking care. I just needed to create something for me. I also have an art journal circle and if you Google Leonie Dawson art journal circle, you’ll find my big blog post about it, about how I created it. It’s like a traveling art journal that goes around to a whole bunch of my creative friends and everyone’s like, everyone has one and has it sent out and so you get a new one every two weeks and you get to see what everyone else is creating and their style and it’s so God damn inspiring. Number 8; write a love letter to you, to the goddess inside you, to that beautiful human that you are. I think, I mean I’ve been with my husband for 19 years now, but the great love story of my life has been the love story that I have with me.

Leonie: (09:43)
The love story of being my own best friend, of having my own back and saying to myself every single day, Oh Leonie I love you so, so much. I’m so glad I’m you. I’m so glad I get to spend time with you. I get to spend all of eternity with you. We are going to have so much fun and we do. And I don’t know why the fuck on earth, this kind of language isn’t normal and that everyone doesn’t say it. Well actually I do know the reasons for it. The reasons for it is two things. The patriarchy and capitalism is all there to make us feel like shit and to second guess ourselves so that we buy most shit that we don’t need and ruin the planet. Uh, and to acquiesce to the male figures in our lives. Cause guess who usually don’t have like self image problems?

Leonie: (10:32)
Dah, dah, dah, dah. Most men. Of course, there’s lots of men that do have mental health and all that kind of stuff. But toxic masculinity, um, is harmful. The patriarchy is harmful. So fuck it all and just love yourself deeply and truly because that’s what we were born to do. Number nine. Sure. Let’s go number 9. Give away or donate things that you own. And don’t like, go replacing it with shit that you don’t need, like [laughs] we need less stuff and also just like pass things on mindfully to people who actually need them and would tend to them. So for example, I um, decided last year to start going through all of the books that I’ve ever, that I have accrued because I have billions of them that I haven’t read. Like I was just stockpiling like a motherfucker.

Leonie: (11:30)
I know everyone’s like coronavirus like I’ll stockpile toilet paper. It’s like I’ve been preparing for coronavirus all along cause I stockpile the fuck out of books. You feel me? You feel me? Course you feel me, you guys are book whores just like me. Um, anyway, last year I started actually reading them and that was amazing. So I read like 400 books last year or so. Um, and then I found new homes for them. So I sold some, I gave them to, I gave different ones to friends, whenever we would have our monthly spa dates, which I do with my friends. I haven’t had one in ages. I need to book another one. Um, then I would take a box of books and people can, you know, get what they want out of it. Donated to our school, donated to local charity shops that really needed books, all that kind of stuff.

Leonie: (12:20)
So just mindful, I’m all for mindful consumption and mindful recycling of stuff as well. Watch inspiring movies. So if you Google Leonie Dawson inspiring movies, there’s a collection of my favorite inspiring movies. If you want to do, if you want to do action or you could just do as I do and watch ridiculous, 1980s comedies or silly romantic comedies or kids’ movies, like whatever, whatever makes you feel groovy. Do it. My go to movie is You’ve Got Mail. Even though I find it problematic now, I’m still into it mostly because it’s got books in it. Alright. Stand outside when it’s sunrise or sunset, just to witness like the birth and the end of a day. It really is a miracle and happens every fucking day and we forget to see it all the time. Number something; create a dream board. If you haven’t done a dream board before or maybe you haven’t done one in a while, right?

Leonie: (13:24)
Like I haven’t done one in a while, I should like book that onto my list. All you need to do is get like a piece of cardboard or a large piece of paper and get some old magazines and cut out of those magazines any pictures of things that you want to bring into your life, whether it’s an actual thing or it’s just a feeling and then put it somewhere that you can see it regularly. I have one I can see right now that I made. It’s probably about five years old now. Um, it’s not hanging up. It’s just in my art studio. And honestly having that on my table when I worked during that phase, my life was just so, so deeply powerful and really helped remember what I was here for and what I wanted to create.

Leonie: (14:12)
All right. Dream up, organize and host a gathering of goddesses. That reminds me I need to get on with my next gathering of goddesses. One, I have regular spa dates where we go to a spa that lets you use their spa and their pool and their sauna and you get a massage treatment as well. And we get to have it for the whole day or however long we want and everyone brings food and we talk shit all day. And it’s amazing. Another thing that I’m thinking of doing, I need to book in, is me and a couple of nights like my creative mates, we’re going to go hire an Airbnb and just make art for a night and just talk shit, which will be so much fun. And I also regularly, uh, well once a year or so, I like to have a hotel room to myself. Amazing.

Leonie: (15:02)
I mean, that’s not a gathering of goddesses, but it’s the gathering of one goddess and that is you [laughs]. All right. Make a raw dessert. If you have not tried raw desserts, highly recommended because you get all the joy of dessert, but it’s fucking healthy for you as well. So you can make amazing like pecan pies and chocolate truffles and Google raw desserts. You’ll find some scrumptious ones. Find a place that you can have a campfire. You don’t have to camp out all night. Just stay for the best bits of fire, gazing and marshmallow burning. I have been waiting for months to be able to do this. We even bought a fire pit, um, to be able to use it. And then the fire season happened and even though we’re out of, um, fire season now, thank fuck because we’ve had enough rain, it’s starting to get cooler anyway.

Leonie: (15:58)
My husband and I are just waiting until it’s actually fucking cold. Um, before we have a fire because, and we’re going to safeguard that shit out of that because if we have to have another fucking fire season, like last year, like this last year, I don’t know. I don’t know. Anyway, I’ll never look at fires the same again. Okay. Mark in your calendar an LBW. What’s an LBW? So my husband invented these lazy bastard weekends or lazy bitch weekends. Whatever you feel like doing, it’s a weekend where you have total permission to do as little as possible in pajamas, then nap. It’s much more healing and restorative watch movies. Just hang out, read books, talk shit, don’t do mother fucking nothing. Be the least level of productive productive that you can be. Ask your mom to tell you your birth story. That can be really huge and that can be really powerful.

Leonie: (16:52)
Or tell your kids their birth story. I, my youngest just had her sixth birthday and we read a book on the night before her birthday and we’ve read, we’ve read it on birthday Eve since I’ve started having kids. It’s called on the day you were born, which is just beautiful. And then it very naturally goes into me telling them about their birth story. At some point they’re probably going to have enough of hearing about, but I don’t fucking care. Uh, next one, whenever I am in need of healing, I read the author Sark, S A, R K, her book Transformation Soup. She has so many incredible books. Now if you fucking love me, let me tell you, SARK is so much better. S A R K is an acronym. Susan Ariel Rainbow Kennedy, S A R K is what she writes under though. Um, there is just so much good and revolutionary shit and I honestly, deeply believe that she is like the founder, the mother, the priestess of so much of the women’s self help movement now and I owe who I am now because I was blessed to find a SARK book when I was 18. Get a reading by someone that you know already or who comes recommended. Oracle card readings can always help me get back on track again and just remind myself who I am.

Leonie: (18:15)
Go swimming even if swimming just means sitting in the spa at your local health club. Because that totally counts as well. Drink more water. Chances are that you are dehydrated. I drink a lot of water every day. I drink between two or three liters of water a day and I am always telling everybody else around me to drink their fucking water as well. I am your friendly water police. Another tip. just for today, just stop complaining, just stop complaining and start seeing what is good and start saying what is good instead. If you’ve got crystals, now’s a good time to get them a good cleansing with water and salt, if they’re not soluble kind of crystals, and then pop them in sunlight or Moonlight, it can be so beautiful to connect with them. Again. Also, I want to say this in a very 2020 way.

Leonie: (19:10)
If you are going to purchase crystals in the future, make sure that they are sustainably sourced or secondhand because um, it’s really important that we think about mining as well. Like, like yes, that’s all. Next one. Decide to forgive someone. It doesn’t mean that you have to do, you don’t have to go back into relationship with them. It just means to decide to not keep on squeezing that anger muscle inside you and go, you know what, they were trying the best they could. I was trying the best that we could and we, I hurt. They hurt me or I hurt them or we both hurt each other. That sucked. And I need to forgive that situation and carry on with grace in my heart. See if you can find music that you were obsessed by as a kid or a teen. I remember that when I was a kid.

Leonie: (20:08)
We, knew all of the words to the lion King. I was also really in love with Rick Price, Ace of Bass and Joshua Kadison. Listen to them again, find them on Spotify and sing along, it can be so much fun. Make a pile of your favorite healing books and just lie in amongst them. You don’t have to read them. Just like absorb their love by osmosis. Thank someone from your past who was special to you. I was talking before about, um, you know, reaching out to a teacher that you are grateful for. Is there a friend or somebody that you can from your past that you can reach out and say thank you. Thank you for that whole experience of our relationship. Make space in your life for magic to enter by doing some divine decluttering and, of course, conscious consumption like, don’t buy more shit.

Leonie: (21:05)
Just tend to your crap mindfully. Go on a retreat, one that’s run by you or a group one. They can be so life changing. Organize a breakfast date with your favorite person. I always love getting corncakes with maple syrup. If you’ve ever tried that, you know the kind of magic I’m talking about. And if you haven’t, try and find a place that does it. Decide on a new hobby to play with that you haven’t tried before. Horse-riding, scrapbooking, disco, bowling, knitting, ice skating, creative writing. The possibilities really are endless. Cuddle a puppy or a meow meow, and if you don’t have one, see if you can borrow a friend’s just for a hug. Tell you what. So we live near Noosa river and I like to go for walks along Noosa river. And the best part about Noosa river probably apart from the fact it’s next to the river, just beautiful.

Leonie: (21:58)
I just love the energy there. I love that everyone takes their dogs for walks there. It’s so precious. And um, I love that I get to see fucking doggies and it’s just a festival. It’s like a parade of fucking dogs along there except, except for one fucking dog that I cannot stand walking behind. It’s a massive poodle that has not been snipped. And he’s like very, very fluffy and very, very woolly and very totally probably be over a metre high. And the issue is, is that obviously they use him for breeding because he has the most massive set of balls and they look like permed balls because his hair’s all curly and like I can just see it in my face and as he’s walking they just like roll back and forth and they’re like fucking hypnotic.

Leonie: (22:53)
And so whenever we like accidentally walk up behind giant poodle balls, um, we, like have to take another direction. So there you go. I just wanted to give you that lovely imagery of poodle balls. I’m so glad that we got here in the end because like 50 ways to feel like a goddess again, you were not thinking I was going to have a conversation that led to poodle balls and yet we did it. And I just feel like that’s a real accomplishment. People are very proud of us. All right, next marry yourself and you’re like, “huh?”, Yes, you absolutely can marry yourself. And I’ve married myself and it’s the fucking best. So before I married Chris, I was, I was still with Chris, but um, I was in a sacred women’s circle. And one of the traditions in that circle is that everybody marries themselves if they feel called to it.

Leonie: (23:44)
And why you marry yourself is because you choose and you say out loud to love and honor yourself above all else. Because here’s the thing, like why the fuck are we so willing to like say that to someone else but not say it to ourselves like the person that we literally spend all our time with the person that we are trapped with for eternity. Like why don’t we choose to make that a beautiful and loving relationship. And here’s the thing, being married to yourself makes you a better lover. It makes you a better mama, it makes you a better wife. It all the kinds of ways, but most of all, it just makes you a happy human. So I highly recommend it. You don’t have to. I had a big ceremony. It was beautiful. Oh, I’ve got the photos from it. It was about 24, maybe 23 and you don’t have to do a full ceremony, but I fucking did and it was brilliant. Um, hands-down better than my actual wedding because my actual wedding involved extended family and we all know how fucking shit that gets [laughs.

Leonie: (24:52)
And like my, my husband would not be upset to hear that. My husband absolutely agrees. Like, yeah, our wedding was fucking hell. Like add in, like my divorcing parents who were like just at the start of the separation at that point and it was just like, Oh, sweet Jesus, what the actual fuck is happening here. Hashtag awkward. Anyway, I married myself. It was brilliant. Highly recommended. You don’t have to dress up. Just say it in a mirror. Say I choose to love and honor you every single day of my life because you’re my boo. You’re my soul mate. I’m with you forever babes. Right? I should hurry up because I do need to go and pick up my kids from school. Create an altar or a space that feels supportive, uplifting, and inspiring. A collection of all the lovely things that you want to remind yourself off. Create a gift basket for your best friend.

Leonie: (25:40)
It doesn’t have to be like hugely like crazy expensive. Just her favourite things that would remind her to tend to her own beautiful self. Take 100 deep breaths. This is kind of like my lazy way of meditating as well, apart from the whole meditation nap experience, which is brilliant. Um, but 100 deep breaths, just count them in and out. That’s kind of my basic ass method of doing meditation. Go have a book picnic outside and get distracted by the clouds. Make your bedroom into a sanctuary. Give yourself a superhero name for the day. Like I can be queen Megatron. I can bounce with the power of a thousand Pogo sticks and a hundred Tiggers. I 100% can. I’m great at this. I am a superhero. Take yourself on an artist date for lunch. Let someone else decide what book you should read next. Paint an angel and put it beside your bed.

Leonie: (26:41)
Sleep in the Moonlight. Either keep your curtains open or sleep outside or if you can’t do either; step outside for a moment before going to bed just to say good night to grandmother moon. Take a media break. Create before you consume. Write on a piece of paper what you’re willing to let go of and burn it. Burn that motherfucker to the ground. Write letters. The kind that needs stamps, apply stickers by the boatload and embrace your inner pen-palling 11 year old self. Play dress ups. Make one new friend for the day. Who cares whether it’s online or offline, but connection is good. And if you want some homework, I highly recommend getting a piece of paper or writing in your art journal, a list of your own favourite ways to heal and get sparkly again. Just remember feeling like a goddess again is only a moment or two away. We just have to turn our attention inwards and reconnect with that beautiful shining soul inside us. You got this.