Blooming Wand

Cultivating the Essential: A Journey Through the Lens of Human Needs

• Emily O'Neal • Season 3 • Episode 11

Share episode

Send us a text

What truly matters in your life? The answer to this question likely goes far deeper than you might initially think. In this illuminating episode, Emily O'Neal delves into the concept of understanding what's essential—not just as a practical exercise in prioritization, but as a profound journey toward authentic living and intuitive connection.

Drawing from both Western psychological frameworks and indigenous wisdom traditions, Emily explores how our understanding of essential needs has evolved beyond basic survival requirements. She thoughtfully contrasts Maslow's hierarchical approach with the Blackfoot Nation's circular perspective on well-being, offering listeners a more holistic understanding of what it means to identify your true essentials.

With remarkable clarity, Emily distinguishes between what is truly essential and what merely feels urgent in our hyper-connected world. "Essential is not urgent," she reminds us, highlighting how social media and constant connectivity often create false emergencies that distract us from our authentic needs. She also explores how essential needs evolve throughout different life phases, encouraging listeners to embrace this fluidity rather than seeking rigid answers.

The episode offers thoughtful journal prompts designed to help you identify what remains when everything non-essential is stripped away—revealing the core values and needs that form your authentic self. Emily's personal reflections on her own journey from survival-focused thinking to a more intentional approach to essentials brings warmth and relatability to these deep concepts.

Ready to transform your relationship with what truly matters? Download the free Essential Self worksheet mentioned in this episode and join Emily on this journey of self-discovery. By honoring what's essential, you'll cultivate a life of purpose and authenticity that ripples outward to touch everyone around you.

https://www.bloomingwand.com
https://www.youtube.com/@bloomingwand_emilyoneal

Speaker 1:

Welcome to Blooming Wand, your home for grounded spiritual content. I'm Emily O'Neill, evidential psychic medium, intuitive healer and coach, and I want to say full moon blessings and welcome to the first of a three-part monthly series sharing the top three themes that I consistently see emerging in my readings, in my mentoring sessions and in five years of Full and New Moon Tarot Insights. If you've been with me for the past five years, you know that on each Full and New Moon, I typically pull some tarot or oracle cards and curate some spiritual and self-care messages based off those cards that we've pulled. And in honor of this three-part series and Blooming One's five-year anniversary, I went through all of that content and I went through all of my notes and I reflected on all of the sessions that I've had with clients and I did find that there were similar things that came up all the time and I would say that there's probably four, the fourth being walking with grief and tending to our grief, and that's definitely going to end up with its own episode newsletter content. I'm not really sure what I'm going to do with that yet, but I will admit that that is also a big thing that comes up, especially working as a medium and helping people to just feel that connection with their departed loved ones. But the the other three things that I really talk to clients about a lot and it comes up so consistently that I wanted to do this three-part series are understanding what's essential, boundaries and limiting beliefs, and in the tarot these things are reflected in the archetypes and they come up pretty consistently, as I've been mentioning. So this episode is all going to be about understanding your essential needs. So, like, let's dive into that. I've got some notes here. I just want to make sure it's you know, understanding what's essential is not something that is really a new topic.

Speaker 1:

Martha Beck has written a book and a lot of other people have too. Her book, I think, is called Finding your North Star, but for me it's not something that I ever did in my life, and it wasn't until I kind of dove into mentoring and coaching and did some studying and took some classes and stuff like that that I started to realize that people were always talking about, well, what are your intentions? Or sometimes using the word goals and things like that, and I just thought, well, this that doesn't really resonate with me. What did resonate with me was realizing that in my life. I have some essential values, some essential needs and that, in understanding that, that gave me a way to kind of align myself to those needs and that doing so was completely okay and that I could put my needs a lot of times before other people's needs which sounds weird for me to even say, and might sound weird to you too. But yeah, we kind of need to take care of ourselves if we want to show up in community and take care of other people, and that's what this episode is really all about is what does it mean when we're talking about what is essential? So what if the key to a fulfilling life isn't found in acquiring more, but in understanding what truly matters and listen?

Speaker 1:

In our fast-paced world of endless choices and distractions, the ability to identify what is essential is both helpful and extremely transformative. And within the practice of becoming clear on what's essential, a guiding light emerges, helping us recognize the elements that align with our deepest values and aspirations. This allows our authentic selves to bloom naturally and in alignment with our inner North Star. Simply put, when we seek clarity in what truly matters, an opportunity to move with our intuition emerges. So for me, when I know what's essential to me, I am actually listening to my intuition. It often whispers to me where I need to place my attention, or maybe indicating to me what some of my needs and values are, and when I am listening to that, my relationship to my intuition deepens even more.

Speaker 1:

And in the tarot we have the star, which really is about renewal and rejuvenation, but also about if you look at the traditional Smith weight tarot deck, you'll see a figure kneeling, pouring water into a pool. But also they're really connected to the water, and for me, water is intuition, it's life giving, and I think that connecting to our essentials can be as basic as connecting to the vitality that water brings food and we know that within sort of understanding what's essential, basic needs are really a part of that. The other thing that I feel is interesting about the tarot I might be going off a little bit of a tangent here, but I think it's all going to connect in the end is that the hermit, to me, has always been really about finding what's essential. It's, yes, about turning inward and yes, maybe about spending some time alone, you know, aka hermit alone time, right, but you'll notice in the traditional Smith weight deck that the hermit's carrying this lantern and in the lantern is a star and how, when we do turn inward and we do understand ourselves that actually that turning inward connects us to our inner light, so that we can sort of let that light illuminate our path. So just sort of connecting this to some symbolic imagery, I thought that might be fun or helpful.

Speaker 1:

But sort of back to what? Essentia? Essentia E-S-N-E-N-E-S-S-E-N-T-I-A meaning being or essence, and it refers to the fundamental nature of something. So here is something that was tricky for me. Essential is absolutely necessary. It's what you can't do without while remaining true to yourself. Essential is core to your being. It's what reflects your deepest values, purpose and your authentic self. Essential is foundational, meaning that it's what everything else in your life is built upon. Essential is irreducible, and this was really helpful to me. It's like it's what remains when everything that's not essential is stripped away. You can't not have it. That just wouldn't work for you.

Speaker 1:

Now, essential is not urgent, and this was a tricky one for me for the longest time to understand, because it's like a lot of times things feel really urgent and they feel really essential, but when we take a step back and give ourselves some maybe breathing room from that intensity, we realize like, hmm, that kind of that issue either took care of itself or it doesn't seem as urgent anymore. So I always tell people, pay attention. When something feels like really, really urgent, it might be urgent. I'm not saying that it isn't, but I think in a lot of cases maybe it isn't as urgent as we think it is. So essential is not urgent. Many, but not all, urgent things are not essential distractions. So essential is not popular, so it's not what others consider essential, because what others consider essential may not align with your authentic needs.

Speaker 1:

And I think one of the things about the internet and social media and having access to so much information is a couple things. It makes things become popular. And social media and having access to so much information is a couple things. It makes things become popular. It makes things feel urgent. And sometimes that we blend with that and it's really not coming from our authentic self. It's coming from being kind of receiving certain messages through media all of the time and hearing repetitive things or targeted ads, things like that, and then we think, oh, I need that thing or oh, this is really urgent. I better. You know.

Speaker 1:

One of the things that comes to my mind right now is I felt like a strong sense of urgency around getting a weighted vest, because I'm a middle aged woman and I walk and stuff and everybody's like if you're middle aged and perimenopause, you need to get this weighted vest. And I was like, oh my gosh, I'm not going to be healthy if I don't have this weighted vest. And then I realized like, maybe so, maybe not. A lot of women have gone through this phase in life without walking with a weighted vest and I lift heavy weights and that's probably good enough. But the internet found out that I was in perimenopause and middle-aged and so I've been getting a ton of ads about like weighted vests, vitamins I need to be taking, and it made me feel like kind of worried for my health when I didn't have that worry anymore and created a sense of urgency about my wellbeing that had I not been receiving those inputs from ads and things like that, I probably wouldn't have had so kind of. Keep that those types of things in mind.

Speaker 1:

We do consume a lot of content on the internet. I'm creating content for the internet right now, but I'm hoping that it's a lot more intentional than some of the other things that are put out there but that can really affect our perception of what is essential. So just a little heads up on that, because it's something that I've definitely experienced Essential is not comfortable, so sometimes what's essential requires growth and change and I can tell you that this is huge. It comes up with clients all the time. When we begin to dive into what's essential, a lot of times some things that are uncomfortable come up and we realize that we've been placing our attention on needs and wants and desires that maybe aren't aligned with our authentic self or our essential self, and then we have to do some reevaluating and obviously learning and growth and change is oftentimes accompanied with a period of discomfort, and I do feel like that struggle is a creative struggle, it's a learning struggle and that it's part of self-development, and struggle or discomfort isn't necessarily a bad thing.

Speaker 1:

Essential is also not static. Your essential needs and values are going to evolve as you do. What was essential to me as a younger person was very different than what's essential to me now. I'm sure that's the case for you. It's a process of kind of refining and redefining what's essential at different periods in our lives, and that's completely normal. Often we learn something is essential when it's removed, when we don't have it anymore, and this is because the absence of something essential changes who you are or compromises your ability to thrive authentically. Essentials are non-negotiables that support not just your survival but your capacity to grow, contribute and find meaning in life.

Speaker 1:

Now, to build a foundation for fulfillment, we must first understand the architecture of human motivation. And that does bring me to Abraham Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, which was first proposed in 1943 and continually refined through decades of research, and it offers us some powerful framework, a powerful framework for understanding what drives us as human beings. However, it's important to recognize that this is just one perspective among many wisdom traditions. Now, before diving into the commonly discussed Maslow framework, aka, aka Maslow's hierarchy of needs, I want to just acknowledge that it has its roots, what its roots are and what its limitations are. So, when Maslow visited the Siksika Nation or the Blackfoot Nation in 1938, he witnessed a worldview that was rooted in balance, community and sacred reciprocity, and what he observed inspired his famous hierarchy. But, as indigenous educators point out, he did fundamentally misunderstand parts of their teachings, and I feel like I want to give a shout out to an Instagram page that I follow and I really find quite useful. And they're called at sacred relatives and they're on Instagram, so just at sacred relatives, and they really illuminated this important perspective for me and much of the information that I am speaking to when it comes to the Blackfoot perspective and how Maslow's hierarchy of needs were rooted from his observations of those peoples and their cultures. It came from seeing a post on their Instagram page and it really got my wheels turning and got me to do some digging a little bit deeper on the topic and it was super duper helpful. So I want to give them credit for that and do have a look if you can Now.

Speaker 1:

In the Blackfoot tradition, well-being is not a ladder but a circle. So you begin life with gifts and you're expected to develop them not for a ladder but a circle. So you begin life with gifts and you're expected to develop them not for personal gain but for your people. And so the Blackfoot model emphasizes self-actualization actually as the base layer. So you start with inherent gifts and potential. And it also emphasizes community and cultural perpetuity, so individual well-being is inseparable from collective flourishing. It also speaks to sacred reciprocity. So what you receive, you give back to maintain balance. So there's a reciprocity, a giving and receiving that occurs. It also highlights circular rather than a hierarchical sense of like what we need or what's essential. So all aspects of well-being are interconnected in a web and simultaneous. So we often see Maslow's hierarchy presented as a hierarchy, as like this ladder, but the Blackfoot perspective is saying no, everything's interconnected in a web. There's not like a this before that, it's nonlinear. So this indigenous perspective offers profound wisdom about what's truly essential, by recognizing the gifts we come into the world with and the importance of developing them in service to something that's much larger than ourselves.

Speaker 1:

Now I will take some time to go over Maslow's Western framework, because it's probably the framework that we're all most familiar with. I know when I was thinking about what's essential, this was the very first thing that came into my mind, and it came to my mind because of my psychology 101 class in college, where I was first introduced to this idea, and I won't lie, I really thought of it as like a ladder, like one thing can't come before the other. I didn't think of it as circular, I didn't think of it as a web, and something about that didn't quite sit well with me, and it's taken all these years to understand why that is, and this is why I feel like it's important to share all of this with you. So, within Maslow's Western Frame framework, there's five levels of essential needs. The first are psychological needs, which is the foundation of existence. Before we can focus on higher aspirations, our basic survival needs must be met. This includes not just food, water and shelter, but, in our modern context, quality nutrition, restorative sleep and physical wellness. Understanding what your body truly needs, rather than what advertising tells you it wants, is the first step in identifying what's essential. Now, again, this is Maslow's kind of framework, which has evolved over time, and I'm just sharing it, in contrast with the Blackfoot perspective, to give you some things to contemplate on your journey of what's essential. I'm not saying that you have to go about it this way.

Speaker 1:

The second sort of category of needs is safety and security, so creating stability in a complex world. Once our basic needs are met, we seek stability and predictability. Now, I would argue, even if our basic needs are not met, we seek these things, and this is where you'll see where maybe viewing essential needs as a circle, a web of interconnectedness rather than a ladder, will be helpful. But again, this is how the Maslow framework works. So this includes physical safety, emotional security, financial stability and health security. In our contemporary context, this also encompasses digital security, environmental safety and psychological safety in our workplaces and communities. For many, climate anxiety and social instability have redefined what safety means, and I think that this is a great opportunity to pose a question to you what does true security mean to you in today's world and this is different for everybody, and that's the other thing is everybody's going to view these things very differently, and that's actually pretty cool and that's totally fine.

Speaker 1:

The third sort of bucket of needs are love and belonging, so authentic connection in a digital age. So we are fundamentally social beings, but our need for meaningful relationship has evolved. This includes not just personal relationships, but belonging to communities that share our values, whether that's environmental activism, social justice, creative expression or professional purpose. Essential relationships are deep, authentic and aligned with who we truly are, both online and offline. Quality and authenticity over quantity is a real guiding principle.

Speaker 1:

I don't know about you, but for me during the pandemic, my whole life changed and obviously I spent more time at home and I have forged some amazing connections with people I have never met in person. The online communities that I was able to engage with were really a lifeline for me during that time. I'm eternally grateful for them, and I do find myself still nurturing those while at the same time, in this current time, I am connecting with more people in person. But I don't think that one is necessarily better than the other. They each have their place and their purpose, and so I just kind of point that out, because there was a time where connecting online was just very different. It wasn't as common or as easily done as it is today, but I do still agree with that. The quality and authenticity over quantity is a guiding principle. Doesn't matter how many connections you have if all of those connections are not very meaningful or fulfilling to you.

Speaker 1:

The fourth bucket is esteem and recognition, so we have to redefine success and achievement in a way that works for us. This level encompasses both self-respect and recognition from others, but contemporary values have expanded on what achievement means, and I think we need to think about that. For many, especially younger generations, true esteem comes from making a positive impact, living according to personal values and contributing to something larger than oneself. Recognition might come from peers in social movements, creative communities or purpose-driven work, rather than traditional hierarchical structures. So one of the things I would invite you to consider is what accomplishments genuinely matter to you and align with your values, and I'll say that when I worked within hierarchical structures and climbed the corporate ladder, I did find myself feeling less and less fulfilled.

Speaker 1:

And what did fulfill me, particularly when I worked in health care, was that I was providing a service to the community. Yes, it was in. I worked in the IT and IS field, but if the systems weren't up, that affected patient care, and so I was really more motivated by making sure that patients could count on the systems that were in place to create a good experience in terms of engaging with their doctors or providers or being able to message them from home and get responses back. That felt meaningful to me is making sure people got good quality health care, more than when I got paid, more than whatever my position was within the organization in which I worked. So and I feel like it's because it aligned with something that's essential to me, which is one of my core values, is I like to be of service. I feel so fulfilled and connected to others when I am in service to community or I look at my actions in the broader web of human experience rather than just like I'm doing it to get a paycheck, if that makes sense.

Speaker 1:

Now the fifth bucket is self-actualization, so purpose-driven fulfillment. At the highest level of Maslow's hierarchy, we seek to fulfill our unique potential, but this is increasingly including how our personal growth contributes to collective well-being. I don't think I'm the only person that's noticed that. That's important. Modern self-actualization often involves environmental stewardship, social responsibility and using our talents to address global challenges. Social responsibility and using our talents to address global challenges. Now we've kind of had this idea about the Blackfoot tradition and how Maslow actually came up with his hierarchy of needs from visiting those peoples and observing them and, um, you know, we'll never really know what that was like for him or how he came up with the hierarchy exactly. But you have two ways of looking at this and you can blend them together. And that's sort of where I want to take this conversation next, which is approaching this in a new way and understanding that needs are not linear. So, unlike the hierarchy originally proposed by Maslow, I think many of us are finding that human needs are fluid and interconnected.

Speaker 1:

You might pursue multiple levels simultaneously or find that certain needs become more important during different life phases. The key is recognizing which needs are most essential for you right now. What's essential varies significantly between individuals, cultures and generations. In more collective societies, belonging and community needs might take precedence over individual achievement. Similarly, different generations bring unique perspectives. So, looking at sort of the Gen Z and millennial priorities and all side note, I just found out that I'm an elder millennial, so I'm really on that cusp and I thought that I don't know why. I found that interesting but it made me laugh. But you know, labeling generations hold that gently. Just know that different generations did have different priorities based off the time in which they lived. But I bet if we took a real close look we would find some common threads. But here are some general ideas of the way that Gen Z and millennials might prioritize things.

Speaker 1:

The first is environmental responsibility as a fundamental need for psychological wellbeing. Purpose-driven work that aligns with personal values, not just financial security. Digital wellness and authentic connection in an increasingly virtual world. Mental health awareness as an essential rather than an optional thing. Social justice and equity as core to personal fulfillment. Now, adding on to that, modern psychologists have expanded the original Maslow hierarchy to include lots of different things Cognitive needs, the drive to understand, explore and learn. Aesthetic needs, the appreciation of beauty, balance and creativity. Transcendence needs, helping others achieve their potential and connecting to something greater than ourselves. Environmental stewardship. The need to live in harmony with our planet and ensure a sustainable future. Digital balance. The need for authentic human connection while navigating technology mindfully. Purposeful impact. The need for one's work and life to contribute meaningfully to society. Collective well-being. The understanding that individual fulfillment is interconnected with community and global health. Adaptability and resilience. The need to develop skills for thriving in a rapidly changing world. When I look at the amount of change that I've seen in my 44 years, I am just in awe of it.

Speaker 1:

I was talking to someone about this the other day, about all of the things that I've witnessed, the things that I would label as wonderful and the things that I would label as really hard to endure and everything in between. And to give you some context, I was a kid that delivered the newspaper at 11 years old. There aren't any newspaper kids anymore. The newspaper is provided digitally and when I had my paper out I was 11 and had to collect money and do all this stuff. And, by the way, that paper out really did connect me to my neighborhood and my community. But that's kind of a thing of the bygone era. We were also in this conversation joking about pay phones. We used to carry around quarters so we could call our parents to pick us up when we were done at the movie theater. Obviously we have cell phones for that now Landlines just having a landline in your house. We didn't have the internet. I didn't really experience the internet till later in high school, in the late 90s. We had to learn cursive and hand wrote a lot of our papers and had to use a card catalog system to find books in the library.

Speaker 1:

So this is just kind of pointing out that all of us, no matter what age you are or what generation you're from, have lived through massive amounts of change. Change is something that we can all expect. It's always upon us, and using these tools about understanding what's essential for you is going to help you stay connected to your authentic self and your needs and knowing that when you were younger, your needs were different and now, when you're at the stage of life that you're in now, they've probably changed and it's important to sort of tap into that. So integrating these wisdom, traditions or these ideas and again, I've given you two and there's probably a ton more to help you walk on your essential path or follow your essential journey. So both the Blackfoot circular model and Maslow's hierarchical framework offer valuable insights into what's essential for human flourishing.

Speaker 1:

The key is finding how these perspectives can inform your unique journey of intuitive blooming. Integrating these different perspectives on human needs is going to help you prioritize with purpose. So when you understand both what essential means and which level of needs you're currently focused on, you can make decisions that truly support your well-being. You begin to distinguish between what's urgent or appealing and what's genuinely necessary for your authentic growth and intuitive blooming. So the second thing that integrating these perspectives can help you with is releasing unproductive attachments. So understanding what's essential helps you to identify the difference between what you think you need and what you actually need. So many of us carry attachments to things, relationships or goals that seemed important at one point but don't align with our essential needs, maybe in this moment. So these ideas or these frameworks can help you lovingly release what no longer serves your core, being creating space for what wants to bloom.

Speaker 1:

Another thing that this practice can help you with is welcoming clarity and peace through values alignment, when your actions align with both your essential needs and your contemporary or current values, whether that's environmental responsibility, social justice, purposeful work, you experience less internal conflict, and who doesn't want that? A lot of time, we experience internal conflict because we're not really paying attention to our essential self and we're stepping outside of that. And then we have this part of us that's like no, this is, this is your need, and then this perceived need or this perceived action, and then there's kind of this internal conflict that emerges and, by the way, there are a ton of tarot cards for internal conflict. So that comes up a lot and I do think at times, the anecdote to internal conflict is paying attention, because sometimes we can feel two different emotions at once. But the second might be that we're not honoring our essential self. When we do, decisions become clearer because you have a framework that honors both your personal well-being and your contribution to collective flourishing, and this alignment allows your authentic self to bloom with confidence. Lastly, it cultivates holistic fulfillment. So, unlike superficial pleasures that fade quickly, fulfillment based on meeting your essential needs while contributing to something larger than yourself creates lasting satisfaction and meaning. This might include pursuing work that aligns with your values, building relationships that support both personal growth and social change, or developing lifestyle practices that honor both your well-being and, maybe, environmental sustainability. When you live this way, your life becomes a natural expression of who you're meant to be, or who you really are.

Speaker 1:

Now you know I'm not going to talk about all of this stuff and not give you journal prompts, so just maybe mark where this is in the recording or if you're listening on the podcast or on the YouTube so you can come back to it if you need to grab your journal. But I really thought about this and these are the things that I asked myself and these are things that, through the work I do with clients, have come up or that clients have asked themselves, and I'm so glad for my note taking skills. I'm always journaling and writing things down and I've really been able to refer back to those notes for this episode, which I hope you're enjoying. So, for your journey forward, here are some questions for reflection. So, as you consider what's essential in your life, ask yourself what gifts did you come into this world with? Following the Blackfoot perspective, what inherent talents or qualities feel like a part of your essential nature? Number two how can your gifts serve something larger than yourself? How might developing your potential contribute to your community, in the environment or collective well-being. And I will say that those who do the good work of tending to themselves in terms of, you know, not being self-centered, but in learning about themselves, knowing themselves, questioning their beliefs, applying critical thinking to their life experience, that does have a ripple effect, a big time ripple effect, big time ripple effect. So don't think that doing this work doesn't matter if you're doing it in solitude, because who you are in your essence does matter and it does ripple out.

Speaker 1:

Number three do I view my growth as linear or circular? Am I trying to climb towards fulfillment or can I embrace a more balanced, interconnected approach to my well-being? Number four what are my true essentials versus my perceived needs? What do I think I need that might actually be wants, habits or social expectations. Number five which level of needs demands my attention right now? Are there foundational needs I've been neglecting while pursuing maybe higher level goals or goals elsewhere in that circle of what's essential?

Speaker 1:

Now, sometimes that's where that sense of urgency comes in. We feel like there's things we really need to be paying attention to. But when we back off and take maybe that bird's eye view, we realize like, oh my gosh, I've been working so hard in my job but I haven't been drinking water when I need to drink water, or feeding myself or exercising, because I'm just work, work, work all the time, you know. Do I need to take a step back and tend to my physical, spiritual, whatever needs? Those are important too, right? What would remain? Here's your sixth one what would remain if I stripped away everything that was non-essential? And this can just be a thought experiment or a journal exercise. So what is so core to your being that removing it would fundamentally change who you are Like? You just would be like. I can't imagine, you know, not tending to this need or value.

Speaker 1:

Number seven how can I distinguish between urgent and essential, what feels pressing in my life right now and how much of it actually aligns with my deepest values and needs? The other thing I want to say about urgent and essential is we feel things are urgent but a lot of times we're future tripping or thinking ahead in time about a scenario that may or may not occur, and planning and putting a lot of energy into that. And you know there's nothing wrong with planning. But your future self can tend to future needs if that makes sense. Your now self should be tending to now needs and that's been a mindset that's been really helpful to me. Because I am a future tripper, I will plan and plan and plan and think about all the things that could happen and have a contingency plan, and I spend a lot of time doing that and then I'm not paying attention to what's right in front of me, and I don't think I'm the only one that does that. I think it's a really common thing, especially for those of us that are hypervigilant. Shout out to my hypervigilant folks If you know, you know.

Speaker 1:

But moving on, number eight in terms of our reflection prompts how do my values align with contemporary challenges? How might my essential needs include responding to climate change, social justice or other global issues that matter to me? Number nine what does purposeful impact look like in my life? How can your work, relationships and daily choices contribute to both personal fulfillment and collective well-being? Number 10, how can I balance digital connection with authentic relationship? What does genuine belonging look like in our interconnected but often fragmented world? And here's your last prompt what legacy do I want to create? How do my essential needs connect to the kind of world I want to help create for future generations? Now remember that honoring what's essential is not a destination but a continuous process of intuitive blooming. As you grow and change, so too will your understanding of what matters most, and the goal isn't to achieve perfect clarity once and for all, but to cultivate an ongoing relationship with your essential self, allowing your authentic nature to unfold naturally, while also letting your intuition guide you. Essential self can be interchanged with authentic self, however you want to approach that Now.

Speaker 1:

Contemplating what's essential in my life has been incredibly valuable to my journey, and the most surprising thing about this work is that I can now see how my essentials have shifted over time, how fluid they are and how, even in times where well, let me just say that there was a long period in my life where my main focus was to survive, on survival, on making enough money to make ends meet, and that was a really valuable time in my life, because having clear needs food, water, shelter, right Electricity gave me clear focus, and that clear focus really helped me to channel my energy Like I really did need to provide those things for myself at a young age. And as I've gotten older and my foundations have grown stronger, I can see how my essentials have changed. Now, sometimes the Emily from the past who really did or was focused on survival for whatever reason, wants to come forward into the now moment, which is probably the reason for some of my future tripping and thinking about all the things I need to plan for, comes into my practice today, and I have to just realize that my situations have changed, my essentials have changed, and move from that space. While still thanking the past Emily for teaching me all the things that she has that have brought me into how I move through the world today, I definitely don't want to push that urge to focus on survival or future trip aside. I need to acknowledge that that's part of my experience. But I also need to remember that I'm cultivating what's essential to me today, not what was yesterday and not what might be down the road. What's essential to me today, not what was yesterday and not what might be down the road. And so my hope for you is that you embrace the process of discovering what's essential to you with an open heart and a clear mind, knowing that by honoring what's essential you cultivate a life of purpose, of joy and authenticity. Your journey of self-discovery becomes not just personal transformation and I've mentioned this earlier but it's a gift to everyone else whose life you touch.

Speaker 1:

And I do have a blessing that you can use. If you get my newsletter, this will be included in the newsletter for reference. If you're not signed up for the newsletter, go to bloomingwandcom and you can sign up there. Don't forget to like and subscribe to the podcast on your favorite streaming service or to my YouTube channel. Then you'll get all these goodies when they come out. But for now, I leave you with this blessing, and it's a blessing to honor what is essential. May you embrace the journey of self-discovery, seeking clarity in what truly matters. May you trust your intuition to guide you in recognizing the essential elements that align with your deepest values and aspirations. May you release attachments to distractions and welcome the clarity and peace that comes from prioritizing what brings genuine fulfillment to your life. May you embrace this process with an open heart and a clear mind, knowing that by honoring what is essential, you cultivate a life of purpose, joy and authenticity, and so it is joy and authenticity, and so it is.

Speaker 1:

On another note, I did create a worksheet. I love a good worksheet. This is sort of born from crafting this episode for you, but also to give you a tangible tool where you can do some of this exploration. I'm working on this worksheet right now and I'm finding it to be super helpful, and you can find this worksheet at bloomingwancom Click, explore and go to the freebies page or my shop. You can download it for free there. It will be available till the end of October.

Speaker 1:

So, with this three part series going from August to October, I'm going to leave that content up for free for anybody that wants to use it and then I'll probably take it down at some point so that I can put other things up there. But do download the essential self worksheet. It's going to prompt you in a really practical, tangible way to help you discover what's essential to you. I crafted it and created it just for you so that you can use this episode to guide that, but then also have something that will really be supportive and create some practical action in your day-to-day life. So, if things aren't just words or discussion, that it actually becomes something that can support you on your journey. This worksheet can be used whenever you find yourself in transition, when you're feeling disconnected from your authentic self or you're simply wanting to realign with what truly matters.

Speaker 1:

I also want to let you know that there was a variety of sources and reading that I used to craft this episode and there is a bibliography on my website, on the blog. So, bloomingwandcom, click the blog. You're going to go to the cultivating what's essential in your life blog post and then you can. If you're curious about some of the things I read and resources that I pulled from, you'll find them there. In addition to that, if you're a newsletter reader, I've posted a link to it in the newsletter. So all the goodies are all there, ready for you, all there, ready for you, crafted by me from a place of deep love and wanting to support you all and know that I'm doing this work with you. So you know what I like to say take good care of yourselves, get those journals out and I'll see you soon.