Authentic

The next 3 episodes are a mini meditation series with a theme to consider, a mini med to drop into and a next best step to take.  

In this episode, I invite you to explore a question that I keep coming back to. Just how simple can you make it be? 

How simple can you make your work, your relationships, your communication, your decisions and the way you move through life? Because sometimes we make things so bloody complicated when they really do not need to be.

We overthink. We create problems. We get ca...

In this episode, Steve and I get into a conversation about success, faith, control and what happens when you start questioning the things you once thought mattered so much. Of course, we also cover why Steve hated me for a few hours after getting a flat tyre while coming to film my free community qi gong, and our upcoming trek to Annapurna Base Camp in Nepal, which we have done a grand total of fuck all training for.

We get into my very much non bestselling book, Authentic, and why I recently decided to publicly own the...

“So what now?” What now if you are no longer chasing the dream like your life depends on it? What now if ambition is no longer in the driver’s seat? What now if the old jet fuel that once made you move, prove, push and make shit happen just is not there in the same way anymore?

I still want a beautiful life. I still want wonderful opportunities. I still want to do great work. I still want to create, contribute, serve, build and be met by the things that are meant for me. But I no lon...

Steve and I speak about what it looks like to support each other in relationship when life gets hard. When emotions are high, capacity is low, and the relationship has to either become a place of safety or another layer of stress. 

We talk about how easy it is for both people to fall into their usual ego responses. For me, that can look like withdrawing, going inward, feeling alone and shutting people out. For Steve, it can look like wanting to fix, solve and move into action. And while both responses make sense, together they can c...

Being in your body is not just about feeling grounded, calm, sexy, peaceful, connected or alive. That is part of it. But being in the body also means being willing to feel what you have spent years trying to outrun. 

The tight chest. 

The grief. 
The anger. 
The ache. 
The old fear. 
The truth that has been waiting for you to stop long enough to hear it.

So many of us say we want to be embodied, but what we often mean is that we want to feel the good p...

I asked Steve how he feels about turning 50 this year, and we ended up speaking about something much deeper than age.

Years ago, when Steve first came to see me as a client at 39, he told me he felt like his best years were behind him. He thought the good years had already happened. That the window had passed. That life from there was maybe going to be more of the same, or a slow decline into responsibility, routine and getting through.

And then the last decade became the best decade of his life.

How simple can you make it be?

How simple can you make dating, love, work, life, communication and the next honest step in front of you? Because so often, we make things far more complicated than they need to be. We overthink what we already know. We delay the conversation we know we need to have. We turn a clear no into a maybe because we do not want to disappoint someone, and we turn a clear yes into a whole strategy because we are scared to want what we want.

This episode is about...

Meet my qi gong teacher, Peter Caughey from Forest Rock Qigong.

Peter is the founder of Forest Rock Qigong, a master teacher in Qigong and Taiji, and a Doctor of Traditional Chinese Medicine with more than 30 years of teaching and clinical experience. (Forest Rock Qigong)

Together, we speak about the impact qi gong has on us mentally, emotionally, physically and spiritually, as a practice that brings us back into the body, back into presence, and back into a more honest relationship with ourselves.

We talk about how qi gong supports the mind to...

In this episode, I speak to the moment where the old fuel stops working.

The part of life where you realise you are not lazy, you have not lost your fire, and you are not broken. Maybe the thing that used to drive you simply does not work anymore. The proving, the pressure, the pleasing, the performing, the fear of falling behind, the need to be good, successful, impressive, chosen or enough.

That fuel may have taken you far. It may have made you disciplined. It may have helped you survive seasons you never should...

In this episode, I speak into the grief that can come with becoming more honest, more awake and more yourself.

The heaviness you feel is not a sign that you are going the wrong way. Sometimes it is the ache of leaving behind a version of you that once had to exist. The version who stayed quiet. The version who kept the peace. The version who made herself smaller so other people could stay comfortable. The version who said yes because no felt dangerous.

And while you may not want to go back, it can...

In this episode, Steve and I speak about what it means to love each other more deeply 10 years in.

The love after, “I have seen so many versions of you and I still choose you” kind of way.

We talk about how our love has grown, changed and deepened over the years, and why we believe that has come down to communication, the willingness to keep growing together and continuing to have fun. 

Because 10 years in, you are not the same people you were at the beginning. Life changes you. Work changes you. Famil...

In this episode, I’m speaking into the difference between what the head wants and what the heart knows. The head can want a lot of things. It can want the impressive thing, the safe thing, the thing that looks good from the outside. The thing that keeps us approved of, chosen, respected, admired or protected.

It can want the next achievement, the next goal, the next version of success, the next thing we think will finally make us feel enough. But sometimes, the question we need to ask is, do I actually want this? Or do I...

What are you pretending not to know? It is a confronting question because, most of the time, we do know.

We know when something no longer feels right. We know when we are outgrowing a relationship, a role, a version of ourselves or the way we have been living. We know when we need to speak, leave, begin, rest, change direction or finally tell ourselves the truth.

But knowing asks something of us.

It asks us to act. It asks us to risk disappointing people. It asks us to let go of what...

Support the show

In this episode, I spoke about a daily prayer that has become an anchor for me.

“Guide me to where I’m destined to be. To the people I’m meant to meet. To the ground that calls my name. To the chances that are mine to take. To the life that’s mine to live.”

It is simple, but it is not passive.

This prayer is not about sitting back and waiting for life to happen. It is about learning to trust the timing of what is meant for us, while staying awake enou...

If you want to laugh, this one is pure light. Steve and I talk about what we used to do at the start of our relationship to prevent the other from hearing our farts. I know, I know, it's crass, but every relationship goes through this phase and we thought we'd have a giggle and talk about the things we did. Very relatable.

Website: www.katjohn.com.au
LSKD code: KAT-LSKD

Support the show

In this episode, I talk about something I've been reflecting on lately: the difference between a pure intention and all the fear we layer on top of it.

I've noticed that the deepest truths in my life rarely arrive with fanfare. They don't shout. They don't come with a ten-step plan or every answer neatly wrapped up. They usually arrive quietly, as a simple knowing. It might be the feeling that it's time to leave a job, start a business, have a difficult conversation, tell someone you love them, or admit that you don't anymore. The intention...

In this episode, I talk about something I’ve been sitting with in my own life and business lately: can you let go of the exact how?

Because when we have a desire, an idea, a next step, or a sense that something is shifting, the mind wants to know exactly how it’s going to happen. How will it work? How will the money come? How will people find it? How will it all unfold? And if we can’t see the full path, we often start doubting and overthinking.

I share how I’ve been...

In this episode, I'm sharing a reflection on Wu Wei, a Taoist principle often translated as "effortless action" or "action without force," and why this ancient wisdom has landed so deeply for me in this current season of life.

For years, my business moved with a rhythm I had come to trust. Coaching spots filled, programs attracted people with ease, and opportunities seemed to flow naturally. But this year has looked very different. For the first time in a long time, coaching enquiries have slowed right down, and a program that has comfortably filled for years now...

Steve and I share the process we both come back to whenever we find ourselves stuck. Whether it's our health, our relationship, our business, money, or life in general, we've found that getting unstuck isn't usually about finding the perfect answer. It's about being willing to face the truth.

The first thing we do is face reality. Not the reality we wish we were living, but the one we're actually in. We look honestly at what's hurting, what's frustrating us, what's not working, and where we might be contributing to our own stuckness. It's not always comfortable...

In this episode, I talk about the pressure we put on new ideas.

The pressure for them to work, to succeed, to make money, to prove themselves.

And how quickly something that begins as a spark, an idea, an intuitive nudge, can become weighed down by expectations.

Lately, I've been noticing this in myself, particularly as I'm navigating changes in my business and exploring what feels like the next chapter. Before I've even taken a full step forward, I can feel my mind wanting answers.

Will this work?
Will people...

Steve and I talk about a phrase we come back to often:

This too shall pass.

Not as a way to dismiss what we're feeling or to bypass the hard stuff. But as a reminder that life is always moving, changing, shifting, and unfolding.

We speak about how so much of our suffering comes from fighting reality. Arguing with what's happening. Wishing it were different. Complaining about it, resisting it, trying to control it. And how exhausting that can be.

We share what helps us move from resistance into...

The goal is not to be 100% authentic all the time.

That’s unattainable. If you think that’s the goal, you’ll spend your life feeling like you’re failing every time you people-please, shut down, react, perform, avoid conflict, seek approval, or slip back into old patterns.

That’s not failure. That’s being human.

I share about how authenticity isn’t a final destination where you suddenly become fully healed, fully self-expressed, fully “you” all the time. It’s noticing. It’s awareness. It’s catching yourself in the moments where you’re not being true to...

In this episode, Steve and I talk about something I think a lot of couples quietly go through: when the load of life becomes so heavy that it starts impacting the relationship.

Not because love is gone or because anyone’s doing something terribly wrong.
But because one person is overloaded, stretched thin, carrying too much and the relationship starts feeling the weight of it too.

I share honestly about missing Steve recently, even while living in the same house. Missing the connection, the fun, the softness, the smooshiness of us. And how easy it...

In this episode, I speak about the pressure I used to put on myself to heal quicker, grow quicker, feel better quicker, and become “better” faster. I genuinely believed that if I was doing the work on myself, then surely I should be further along by now.

That mindset created so much suffering. I was constantly living with this quiet pressure in the background of my life, telling myself to hurry up, get there already, figure it out, fix it, improve. I struggled to let life unfold because I was too busy trying to force myself into the...

I recorded this in a moment where nothing big was happening.

Clouds moving. Rain on the window. Wind through the trees. The dogs snoring. And me, just sitting there, actually in it.

We say we want peace, we say we want to feel better but we’re often anywhere but here. In our heads, in the next thing, in our phones, in the past, in the future.

And then we wonder why we feel disconnected, or lonely, or unfulfilled, or empty, or feel list.

This episode is that reminder. That you fi...

We find myself in the simple things. In movement, nature, laughter, in doing what we love.

We lose ourselves in the noise of the mind, the pressure to be more, do more, become more and  feel disconnected from ourselves.

But the truth is we’re not lost and it doesn’t take much to come back.

This episode is a  reminder that you don’t need to go searching for yourself.

You’re already here. Sometimes you just need to come back to what’s simple.

IN PERSON EXPERIENCES...