Figuring Sh!t Out
For those seeking purpose, healing, and direction for navigating life’s grey areas - Figuring Sh!t Out is a haven for those on their path of self-discovery & inner-awakening. The podcast is a guide to help you enjoy and surrender to the unfolding process of discovering yourself. On FSO, we create a pathway to embrace the process of navigating uncertainty in a world of flux. Hosted by Vanessa Fontana in her New York City bedroom, FSO was born in the throws of a deeply personal coming of age and self-discovery journey and serves as a lighthouse for others who are le...
126. Your Ideas are BLESSINGS: The Divine Unraveling Inside of the Creative Process
This episode is being posted live from a jungle in Costa Rica two days after hosting my first retreat. 15 women expressing their most true selves, accessing their inner child, creating art from the depths of their hearts - all because I had an idea for a podcast almost three years ago and decided to act on it.
If that's not evidence that your ideas are blessings that must be honored, respected, and listened to - I don't know what is.
In this episode, we talk about the divine workings inside of the creative process...
125. Everything You Want Is On the Other Side of Your Creativity
Creativity & self-expression is how you heal.
This episode is about excavating your creativity - using your life and experiences as a devoted practice to the creative process and your art as an offering and symbol of your resilience.
And on the other side - a powerful, potent, peaceful you emerges.
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LEAVE A COMMENT & let me know WHAT this episode provoked in you, what questions you have (bc tbh I may also be having them), what you want to hear next, and how Figuring Sh!t...
124. The Gift of Enduring
Who told us that we were not supposed to hurt - when to feel is our greatest gift?
Who told us that we could have ease - without a little grit?
This episode takes you on a journey discussing The Purification Process of the Dark Night of the Soul & the GIFT of enduring the transformation within it.
(Spoiler: You Can Do Hard Things & in fact, you were made to.)
After all, the darkest hour is right before dawn.
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123. The Veil is Dropping: God is Real
Honest admittance: I'm a little scared to publish this episode.
But what would Figuring Sh!t Out be if it wasn't a testament to overcoming fear, time and time again, by getting as deeply honest as possible and sharing truths from this raw and reflective place?
This is Figuring Sh!t Out - in real time.
This episode is an existential conversation about God, Existence, and using our critical thinking and discernment when approaching spirituality. (From a girl who has not, up until recently, used a lot of discernment when approaching spirituality.)
<...122. Stop Sleeping On Yourself + Wake UPPP To Your Potential!!
There's your potential - and then there's the power that you DECIDE to have to embody it.
And it is a decision.
One you must make every day.
This episode is a short tough-love transmission reminding you of your limitlessness, your inevitability, the power of your deepest truth when it is aligned in the actions of your highest path, and serves as a first-step to what you know you're ready to move towards.
Let this be your reminder: you cannot change what you do not accept.
& Let this be...
121. Befriending Uncertainty inside of This Great Cosmic Unfolding we call LIFE
here are my fieldnotes from learning to fall in love with uncertainty again and again and again instead of resist and fear it:
the point of life is not to figure sh!t out - and sometimes we have to get so lost in the figuring sh!t out that we have a great big wake up call that reminds us of that wherever you go, there you arelife is continuing education. we are here to learn. to have fun. to enjoy. to explore. to LIVE. you don't find your purpose looking for your purpose, you find it...120. Meeting the Inner Elder: The Gift of Aging
A conversation about girlhood and growing older, embracing the vessel and the life of the body, and embodying the wisdom of life through the preciousness of it's fragility.
With my dearest friend, Phia.
May this episode allow you to see life through the eyes of your inner elder.
Listen to Phia's music.
Follow Phia
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THANK YOU for listening!! If you love FSO & this episode, leave a comment!! Tell me what resonated, share what you want to hear next
119. You Were Meant to Love and You Were Made to Feel
to remain tender is a gift.
this episode is an exploration of everything i've learned about love.
put simply:
"we have all known the bliss of sunshine hitting our skin on a cold day, and we have all belly laughed until our breaths disappeared, and we have all come home chewed up by the world and sunken deep into a familiar withering, and we are all either healing from something or learning how to hold it, running from something or learning how to return - because we have all loved and we have...
118. Actually, Life is Beautiful and You DO Have Time.
If the devil can't get to you, he will make you rush.
"We think our limits live in the dreams we don’t chase, in the tasks we put off, in the emotions that we avoid - but they’re most alive in all of the small ways we deny our right to enjoy life.
In the ferocious hurry between movements, in the relentless devotion to our False God of Control that promises certainty we never actually find.
We yearn for love, but refuse to let life touch us.
Even when it’s...
You’re Allowed to Want This: A Full Breakdown of the March Costa Rica Retreat (5 Days Left!)
I recorded this for the woman whose thought about joining this retreat but told herself it wasn't possible. This episode a full, honest walkthrough of why this retreat exists, what it's grounded in, who it's for, and what we will be creating in the jungle together.
There are five days left to join us and a few spots still open.
BOOKING CLOSES ON 1/31. RETREAT IS MARCH 22-27TH.
Booking Page (Use Code FSO200 for $200 Off)Book a Call with Me to Talk it Through: https://calendly.com/fontanavg63/costa-rica-retreat-info-sessionReach out over IG with any...117. And Suddenly, Your Dreams Start Chasing YOU
"I learned how to reach for my dreams with a shaky hand. And time and time again, I’ve seen that once they are in my palms - it makes no difference if I really believe they should be there or not. Because here they are. In my hands. I cannot drop them. I have claimed them. They are a gift and yet - they have always been mine."
- an excerpt from my most recent essay "Dreams" (which I read to you in this episode
116. Every Part of You Deserves to be Loved: Letting The Shadows Free
We won’t ever say it aloud - but most of us hold an ideal of perfection inside of our self-development routines.
And after spending enough time nipping and tucking away pieces of ourselves that we don't like in an effort to curate the most acceptable, palatable, "perfect" version of us - what many of us will find is this:
We are only as whole as we are able to accept the parts of us that don’t make us feel like it.
We are only as healed as we are able to hold...
115. You Contain Multitudes
"We are mosaics. Pieces of light, love, history, stars. Glued together with magic and music and words." - Anna Kritzen
There’s a quiet grief that lives inside a lot of people.
Because we’ve learned how to contain ourselves.
Creativity was once somewhere we all went to feel alive, and became something we use to prove who we are.
We learn to identify with a medium, a label, an aesthetic, a version of ourselves to be understood, admired, approved of. And without realizing it - these identities shrink us.
This...
114. The Great, Grand Lock-In
This episode is not what you think it is.
It is not a hustle-forward, all-gas-no-breaks charge to a new year.
But it is also not a total rejection of the new year.
It is a subtle and soft invitation into moving forward with reflection, ritual, and intention.
Through redefining and examining our relationship with "locking in," or what we turn out focus towards, we can refine our communion with newness in a way that feels true to us.
This episode offers a three-phase process to entering - might we eve...
113. Let The Soft Animal of Your Body Love What it Loves
"Allow shame to find no home in your posture, in your dances, in your aura, in your lovemaking sounds, in your dreaming spaces, in your every single desire," - India Ame'ye
This episode is an exploration of releasing shame, guilt, and fear from our bodies and rekindling our inner magic.
Through poetry, storytelling, and recommended practices of somatic wisdom and inner reflection, this episode of creates conversation around what it means to let the soft animal of your body love what it love and wants what it wants.
Most saliently, it asks a...
112. You Are Allowed to Hibernate, Too: Learning how to Rest In a World That Never Stops
Growing wiser into the ancient knowledge of our spirit and the animalistic nature of our humanity demands the realization that many things our society looks at as luxuries are actually necessities.
One of them: rest.
As a society, we have a complicated relationship with rest. An anxious-avoidant one where we long for it, but don't want to get too comfortable in it. We crave it, yet we fear leaning into it.
In this Winter Solstice episode, we lean into a discussion about restoring balance in our natural rhythms and cycles through embracing rest a...
111. A Pathway to Alignment
a reminder that it's as easy as a deep breath
and seeing that it has always been okay.
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If you love FSO & this episode, leave a comment!! Tell me what resonated, share what you want to hear next
110. Your Gift Was Never Meant to Look Like Theirs
This episode is about remembering that your purpose was never meant to look like anyone else’s - and releasing the comparison that’s been convincing you you’re behind.
I believe that we all have a gift. I believe that we all have a purpose. I believe that it is buried within the places we don’t want to look. It is entangled in the masterpieces of destruction, it is the diamond in the roughest moments of life, it is forged in the fire of standing tall as you face yourself - no longer running away.
But...
109. I Quit my 9-5 One Year Ago to Pursue a "Creative Life." Here's the Truth.
Saying yes to yourself is an unraveling process of becoming closer and closer to the gift of uncertainty and confronting the fear that holds you hostage in order to receive it.
In this episode, I share reflections of my journey in the last year saying the biggest, boldest yes I ever have: leaving my 9-5 last year to pursue a creative life.
This episode was recorded from an adobe home in Santa Fe, New Mexico gifted by Two Casitas (explore their homes here!!). I found myself here to meet Julia Cameron, author of the Artist's...
108. The Good Idea Fairy, Synchronicity, & Following the Breadcrumbs
you can’t create a life you love while starving the part of you that was born to create it.
chapter three of The Perfectionist Diaries is an ode to the Good Idea Fairy - this childlike, intuitive, enchanted part of you that I created to represent the little voice that drops breadcrumbs, whispers nudges, and hands you ideas that could change your entire life (if you'd just listen!!)
this episode is about repairing that relationship:
letting your creativity breathe again,
acting without needing certainty,
learning the sacred art of...
107. Fire, Flow, & Imperfect Creation: Make it Exist, THEN Make it Good. (The Perfectionist Diaries, Chapter Two)
Creation requires both the fire and the flow.
In Chapter Two of The Perfectionist Diaries, we explore the cosmic dance between masculine and feminine energy: the part of you that initiates, and the part of you that softens and refines.
This episode is a gentle excavation of the shadows beneath perfectionism: the fear of being perceived, the fear of shining too brightly, the ways we reject our own wholeness.
In this episode, you’ll learn how to start before you feel ready, hold yourself through imperfection, and create from your deepest truth.
...
106. Do it Scared - The Perfectionist Diaries, Chapter One [REUPLOAD]
Courage is not the absence of fear but the willingness to act despite it.
Waiting until you're fearless will keep you stuck in perfectionism forever.
And fear cannot live in a moving body.
So,
Move.
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The Perfectionist Diaries is a mini-series on Figuring Sh!t Out about breaking free from habitual perfectionism and learning to create through fear.
This first chapter explores divine timing, creative resistance, and why waiting to feel “ready” is the biggest trap of all.
On this episode, we cover:
Th...106. Do it Scared - The Perfectionist Diaries, Chapter One
Courage is not the absence of fear but the willingness to act despite it.
Waiting until you're fearless will keep you stuck in perfectionism forever.
And fear cannot live in a moving body.
So,
Move.
-
The Perfectionist Diaries is a mini-series on Figuring Sh!t Out about breaking free from habitual perfectionism and learning to create through fear.
This first chapter explores divine timing, creative resistance, and why waiting to feel “ready” is the biggest trap of all.
On this episode, we cover:
105. Don't Hope - DECIDE: Awakening your Inner Power with Choice
Decision is the bridge between your current reality and your highest potential. It is the pathway from survival to creation, from fear to embodiment, and from wishing to CHOOSING.
Because maybe you're not stuck - maybe you're just.. undecided.
And maybe, without realizing it, your lack of decision has already become one: the choice to stay disconnected, half-alive, half-in.
This episode is a wake-up call.
A reclamation of your creative power through the art of choosing.
We explore how fear, numbness, and ambivalence keep us suspended between worlds, and how...
104. The Seriousness of Being UNSERIOUS: Why Joy is Imperative, Not Naive.
I don't know about you - but cynicism has never brought me more life. Judgement towards myself or others has never given me more purpose. Feeding resistance and resentment has never watered the seeds of my growth.
Contrary to popular belief - joy is not naive. It is imperative. And this radical, yet simple decision to take the unserious seriously is what enables us to let go a little deeper into the necessary whimsy of life that makes it worth living.
This week, we explore why learning to feel, experience, and hold a state of...
103. The Safety to be SEEN: Finding Your People When You're Finding Yourself
This week, we explore the tender space between solitude and connection, moving deeper into the theme of unapologetic self-expression (especially for those of us who learned to hide in self-protection.)
For those of us who have long identified as "introverts," I ask you a very important question: are you ACTUALLY an introvert? Or do you just have social anxiety and are you scared to be seen?
On today's episode, we explore the spectrum of introversion / extroversion as it relates to the safety to be seen and explore the truth behind these labels, social anxiety, and...
102. Unapologetic, Unconditional Beingness: Take up Space! Resist the Urge to Shrink! Be!! You!!
Many of us have come to know our true selves and what alignment feels like to *some* extend, but how do you ~stay~ aligned, even when life isn't? Even when your environment.. isn't?
This episode is all about staying rooted in love, alignment, and authenticity - no matter what’s happening around you. We explore the continuum of contrast, the wound of rejection, and the habit of people-pleasing that pulls us out of ourselves and keep us small - especially when faced with people who project, misunderstand, or drain our energy..
Because here’s the trut...
101. A Guide to "Quantum Leaping", Collapsing Timelines, & Heart Coherence
On this episode, we’re breaking down the real mechanics of manifestation and demystifying the heavily marketed *woo-woo* behind it.
(....Coming from a girl who loves and firmly embraces the woo-woo.)
Spirituality and science are finally beginning to speak the same language, and on this episode, we’re translating both.
This is a deep-dive into the inner physics of creation: how emotion shapes matter, how the heart bends time, and how the future already lives inside of you.
We dive into the fundamental power within all of us to access emotional alche...
100. You are Inevitable
Season 4 opens with an invitation: to break subconscious contracts, to honor the duality of being and becoming, and to claim the inevitability of who you already are, embracing the fullness of your dreams with bravery and commitment.
This episode walks you through the arc of survival, fear, and limitation - into freedom, expression, and truth. It maps the narrative arc of survival into self-expression, exploring the psychology of subconscious contracts and the practice of choosing your own inevitability over fear.
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99. A Reminder to Live While You're Alive
gentle reminders for when you're overthinking, overwhelmed, and over-doing it.
the art of let oneself be (without guilt) is a love letter to the magic that appears when you let go and it is done with the intention of:
taking the BEING very seriously and the DOING very unseriously.
this is the last episode of season three and the last page of the road less traveled chapter.
so much more to come.
see you very soon for episode 100.
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WATCH THE VIDEO EPISODE HERE
<...98. If You're Trying, You're Trying Too Hard. Start Being.
every day is dress rehearsal for the life you want to live and the person you want to be.
if you're trying, you're trying too hard.
let this episode remind you of the truth of who you are -
stop trying.
start being.
let go of the story & start LIVING your truth.
and start now.
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WATCH THE VIDEO EPISODE HERE
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97. Your Hardest Moments Hold the Highest Truths
"What aspects of myself do I wish to experience now in the face of this calamity? What aspects of being do I choose to call forth? For all life exists as a tool of your own creation, and all of its events merely present themselves as opposites for you to decide to be who ou are. There are no victims. Only creators" - Neil Walsch, Conversations with God
Thought-Daughtering my way through every major challenge and transition in my life and remembering:
Everything is an opportunity to deepen your most high truth - especially, your b...
96. Divine Redirection: Facing Tower Moments with Faith
life is happening FOR you, not to you.
your access to freedom is right here and now - in the chance and opportunity to trust when your faith is shaken.
on this week's episode, i give you background into how this mindset is keeping me steady and strong after finding out i may have to leave my home of three years on a week's notice (stay tuned to find out what happens next week! figuring sh!t out in real time! haha! it's so not funny! but i have to laugh! because what else! is...
95. Who Are You When You're Not Scrolling?
This episode is an ode to reclaiming your creativity and individuality after being flooded and energetically dulled from phone addiction, a noisy world of aesthetics and trends, and overstimulation.
In it, I give you a six-step ritual to reclaim spaciousness inside of your own head, to hear your own voice, and to unravel the subtle signal of yourself beneath all of the noise.
In a world that demands so much of our attention, where every desire is boxed into a trend or an aesthetic to curate onto a Pinterest board, where we are drowned by...
94. Art as a Prayer: A Conversation on Authenticity, Creative Expression, and God ft. Etai Atula
What if your expression: your voice, your vision, your rebellion was the most direct line to the divine? What if Art was your prayer?
In this conversation with my dear friend Etai, we explore the thin veil between art and spirituality and the daily devotion of creativity and leading life with an open heart.
We discuss in depth - The Artist's Way, fear, rejection, finding the right audience, living with an open heart, and returning to wholeness through expression.
Etai has built an online community of over 400,000 who use his yoga videos to...
93. Life is More Than a To-Do List. Where is your Joy?
We become so busy "getting our lives together" that we forget that we've achieved some of our childhood dreams.
Let this episode allow you to remember.
You are right on time. This episode is an ode to LIVING and restoring your inner vision.
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Book 15 if you want to talk with me about the retreat or the RLT Program (a few spots left for this next round + scholarships!)
Instagram DM's are open rn!! @figuringshiiitout
Insight Timer 40 Days of Transformation with Da...
92. It's Okay to Not Know What's Next. Let it Emerge.
no one relates to art that has all the answers -
your power comes from all of the things you do not know, but have the courage to try and understand.
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If you
91. Yoga Teacher Training in Bali: A Comprehensive 101 Guide to Navigating a Soul-Led Journey
6 months ago, I got off the hamster wheel, quit my corporate job, & traveled to Bali for Yoga Teacher Training.
I went through the highs and lows of choosing a yoga teacher training, learned the hard lessons of first-time solo transatlantic travel, and lived to tell the tale.
In this episode, I share about everything I gathered in my journey to Bali, how I chose a Yoga Teacher Training, what YTT was like, and what I learned from doing yoga in the jungle of Ubud for 3 weeks.
We cover the questions you should ask...
90. Diaries of A Corporate Drop-Out: Leaving Behind Everything for Yoga in Bali [VIDEO]
my reflections on the journey to the other side of the world seen through the eyes of my through journal entries.
watch the video, told in visuals and story here: https://youtu.be/9R2bAm2ds_4
for this week, here is my heart.
NEXT WEEK, there is an episode all about the actual logistics of YTT and I give you my comprehensive guide to navigating choosing a yoga teacher training and going to Bali.
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89. Staying Calm in Chaos & Grounded in a World of Flux
Walk with me through six truths to remember and come home to when life feels impossibly heavy.
From the murky edges of uncertainty to the quiet wisdom of who we choose to surround ourselves with, this episode is a gentle guide for the tender, relentless act of becoming.
In this episode, I speak to the ache of transitions and the courage of leaning into what’s alive: movement as medicine, community as a balm, the exquisite alchemy of falling apart and piecing ourselves back together, and deepening into the beautiful, magical, unknowing, unfurling process of Fi...