What do mantras have to do with meditation, healing, and getting in touch with the divine within you? In this solo episode of Write Your Path, I’m sharing why I love singing mantras, how they fit into the practice of Bhakti Yoga (the path of devotion), and why they’ve become such powerful medicine for me. I talk about the monkey mind, the meaning behind chanting to deities like Ganesha and Lakshmi, and how these practices can help us connect with the parts of ourselves that are already wise, abundant, and capable of moving through our own obstacles.

I’m also taking you behind the scenes of a creative adventure I never quite expected I’d take: recording my own album of mantras, Kirtan in Kasa. I’m not a professional singer—and I had plenty of nerves about putting my voice out into the world—but after a little help from a friend, an unexpected recording studio discovery, and a whole lot of trust in the process, I went for it. Sometimes you just need a little devotion and creative courage in order to make something beautiful before you know exactly where it will lead.

Resources & sites mentioned in this episode:

• Learn more about the Hare Krishnas, formally known as the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) here

• “My Sweet Lord,” the song by George Harrison (not The Beatles) that includes the Maha Mantra

• Estudios Noviembre, where I recorded my album of mantras, Kirtan in Kasa

• The episode of the podcast where I chat with my friend—and producer on my album—Maca, “Why Perfectionism is Killing Your Creativity”

• The episode of the podcast where I talk about my classic avoidant tendencies, “How Attachment Styles Apply to More than Just Romantic Relationships”

Let's be real: building a business, pursuing a creative project, or carving out a life that looks different from the traditional 9-to-5 isn't all sunshine and rainbows. Sometimes you put your whole heart into something and it doesn't work out the way you hoped. You try new things, spin your wheels, and start wondering when all that effort is going to pay off. And when you're a solopreneur, those disappointments can feel especially lonely.

In this week’s solo episode, I'm sharing honestly about being in one of those seasons myself and offering a little encouragement if you're feeling disheartened, deflated, or frustrated with where things are with your business or creative project right now. I share how it's okay to feel what you're feeling—you don't have to pretend entrepreneurship is wonderful all the time—and how reconnecting with the practices that ground you can help shift your perspective. Just remember to give yourself grace, reconnect with what supports you, and take the next small step. If you're feeling this way, too, let's connect; we don't have to navigate it alone.

Resources & sites mentioned in this episode:

• DM me on Instagram @lollyspin
  

On today’s solo episode, I dive into the four attachment styles we hear about in the context of romantic relationships—as well as the four wealth archetypes—how they overlap, and how they apply to our relationships with ourselves, our businesses, our creative projects, and more.

I share how I became aware of my own propensity for avoidance when it came to my money, and how I then noticed that avoidance rear its ugly head with other important things in my life. I found this especially surprising because in my relationship with others I’m anything but avoidant; I’m incredibly direct and want to have the difficult conversation as soon as possible. I leave listeners with an invitation to look at which attachment styles are showing up in their relationships with others as well as with themselves.

Resources & sites mentioned in this episode:

• The Four Attachment Styles

• An article about the Money Archetypes

• A quiz to learn more about your money personality

It’s time to stop trying to think your way through everything and start listening to your body. Inga Driksne is a Latvian creative who has built a life around movement, photography, curated experiences, and the art of slowing down. After years of moving between London, Berlin, and a nomadic life, she eventually landed in Mexico City, where she found herself exploring a deeper relationship with her body, spirituality, grief, and creativity.

In this conversation, we explore somatic movement, what it actually means to listen to the “language of the body,” why awareness is only the first half of changing a pattern, and how to create a life that gives you enough space to actually hear yourself. We talk about anger, grief, trauma, creativity, play, and the idea that healing doesn't necessarily happen when we're sitting in the pain, but can happen when we make our way back to joy, movement, rest, and presence.

Resources & sites mentioned in this episode:

• Welcoming Grief, the grief community Inga created

• Death Café, an agenda-free gathering for talking openly about death

• Dance the Medicine, the facilitation training Inga is undertaking, which combines dance, somatic practices, embodiment, facilitation, and community

• The IFS, or Internal Family Systems, Institute

• GITA Studio, a yoga, breathwork, and movement studio in CDMX where Inga leads events

• Milena May, an experienced Somatic Therapist and Functional Practitioner and Inga’s teacher

• The podcast episode about my Vipassana experience

• Connect with Inga on Instagram

• Check out Inga's photography work here

In this episode, I’m talking with my longtime friend Amelia Chiarenza about the many lives we get to live. Amelia went from Division I rowing coach to a corporate aerospace defense career with Boeing. But after losing her mother, best friend, and father within 16 months—followed by being laid off from her job—Amelia made a hard pivot: She moved back to her childhood house, committed to finishing the book she’d been writing, and began building an entirely new creative and entrepreneurial life around her story.

We talk about her work as a death doula and energy kinesiologist, including themes of grief, reinvention, and learning to recognize when a chapter is coming to an end—even when everything looks successful on the outside. Amelia takes us deep into the process of writing and publishing her memoir, Recovered, Alive, including the vulnerability of putting your story into the world and the freedom of creative exploration. If you’re carrying a story you know you’re meant to share, this conversation is an invitation to listen for what’s asking to emerge next.

Resources & sites mentioned in this episode:

• Rebecca Auman and her podcast, Voices in the River

• Find Amelia on her website, Instagram and LinkedIn

• Check out her book, Recovered, Alive and her podcast Cultivate Being

What if the biggest thing standing between you and the life you want isn’t a lack of time, money, knowledge, or opportunity—but you? In this episode, I make a commitment to myself: I am no longer my biggest blocker. I talk about the limiting beliefs, fear, self-doubt, procrastination, and resistance that keeps us from doing the things we already know we need to do, and why becoming the person who can actually hold what we say we want requires us to start changing our daily habits now.

I also share my work with a business coach and a soul mentor, simplifying my business around my Book Doula + Writing Coach work, and getting brutally honest about where I’ve been getting in my own way. I outline the simple daily habits I’m committing to and why I’m giving myself more grace. But the real shift comes from thinking about these habits not as things we have to do, but as acts of devotion to ourselves; what if taking a walk, journaling, singing, meditating, or doing the thing you’ve been avoiding could become a living, breathing act of self-devotion?

Resources & sites mentioned in this episode:

• Check out my coach Claire Seller’s work here

• Ready to Write Your Book? Grab your *Finish the Effing Book* call here

• Start building your freelance writing business inside The 6-Fig Freelance Writer self-paced digital course

• Check out Ailish’s Instagram here, and listen to my episode where I break down our first call here

• The episode where I talk extensively about my experience sitting Vipassana

• Listen to some of my early mantras here!

Today’s episode features my longtime friend & serial entrepreneur Neil Goldsmith. Back in 2016, Neil quit his 9-to-5, moved to Thailand, and built a successful e-commerce business selling Viking-inspired products. Since then, he’s traveled the world and turned a single horn mug into a 35-product business. We talk about the wild, messy, and often unexpected path of watching a business grow, decline, and evolve over its first 10 years, and then figuring out what comes next.

Neil opens up about the emotional attachment entrepreneurs can develop to their businesses, the challenge of becoming a slave to it, the missed opportunity to sell his company, and his efforts to build systems, teams, and AI-powered tools that give him his freedom back. He also shares the story behind his new SaaS company, Replenly, a failed venture into the kava industry, and why some of his biggest “failures” became some of his best adventures.

Resources & sites mentioned in this episode:

• The episode where I talk about the concept of freedom can be found here, and where I talk about productivity can be found here.

• Check out Norse Tradesman’s website, Instagram, and Etsy shop

• Learn more about Neil’s new SaaS product, Replenly

• Find Neil on Instagram and LinkedIn