Channel Your Inner Glow
Exploring Over Coffee | Episode 5
Ready to kindle your inner glow? In this cozy episode of Exploring Over Coffee, Alexis shares three steps to connect with your inner glow. Support your glow with lifestyle tips, a guided visualization, and mind map journaling.
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Here's What You'll Explore
Ways to connect with your authentic self
Reflection prompts to envision your growth
Lifestyle tips to support your glow up goals
A mind mapping exercise for manifestation
Episode Chapters
(00:00) Hello Friends
(01:22) Guided Visualization
(05:43) Steps for Channeling Your Inner Glow
(06:30) Reflect on Your Inner Self Self
(11:23) Envision Your Growth
(13:00) Manifest Lifestyle Changes
(15:34) Mind Map Activity
(16:43) Weekly Boost
(23:35) Wrap Up Wishes
Resources We Explored
Check out the articles I shared in this episode.
14 Easy Things to Manifest and How to Manifest Them
The Best Way to Create a Vision for the Life You Want
Explore the Bookshelf
All the books we talked about.
Support independent bookstores by purchasing using my Bookshop.com affiliate links below. I also earn a commission that fuels future episodes of the podcast.
The Secret by Rhonda Byrne
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
The Giver by Lois Lowry
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Hello, friends! Welcome to Exploring Over Coffee. If you're new here, I'm Alexis Renae. Thank you so much for joining me for a cozy conversation to refuel your spirit and inspire your soul.
This is your sign to glow up from the inside out this season. Join me in this uplifting conversation where I delve into how to illuminate your inner glow, get inspired by the warm radiance of candlelight, discover steps to channel your inner glow, and gain energizing inspo to brighten your week.
As always, brew a relaxing beverage to enjoy today's chat. I'm sipping a spiced ginger tea. So, get your headphones, get nice and cozy, and let's explore how to kindle our inner glow.
The fall season is filled to the brim with poetic metaphors, so many opportunities for creative reflection. Just like lighting a candle during the fall season, we have the power to spark our inner glow with reflection and music, visualization, and intention. We can map out pathways for personal growth.
Close your eyes and take a few deep, calming breaths. Inhale deeply through your nose, feeling the air fill your lungs, and exhale slowly through your mouth, releasing any tension in your body. Imagine yourself in a serene, cozy space.
You're surrounded by the soft, flickering, amber glow of candles. These candles represent the potential within you to illuminate your life.
Each one is special, embodying different aspects of who you are. Look down in front of you; there's a candle that's not lit yet. This candle is part of your inner glow that's waiting to be ignited. Reach out, take it into your hands, and light it. As the flame comes to life, flickering and dancing, connect with it as the spark of potential within you.
Feel the warmth and light. Emanating from this candle, cherish it. The flame represents part of your unique essence, your true self, your aspirations, dreams, purpose, and passions. What makes you special? Now take a moment to reflect on what your inner glow means to you. What aspects of your true, authentic self do you want to kindle and let shine?
Imagine each of these qualities as additional candles as you go through the room, lighting every candle, each vision for yourself. One by one, the room is painted in the gentle radiance of your authentic glow. Feel the warmth and brightness growing, enveloping you in a comforting embrace.
As you continue lighting these candles, visualize your dreams, goals, and desires. Let each flame symbolize part of your journey, guiding you toward self-discovery and personal growth. Take a step back and observe this beautiful display of light, representing your unique potential. Each one of your dreams, each one of the aspects that are special to you.
You have the power in your own hands to kindle your inner glow, to let it shine brightly and illuminate your world by taking the time to explore your essence. You have used your energy to brighten your life.
Take a few more deep breaths, absorbing the symbolism of these candles, and reflect on the wisdom of Maya Angelou.
She once said, “Nothing can dim the light that shines from within.” Reflect on what this quote means for your life. What that means for what's uniquely you, what's inside of you, what shines within you, the light that you can bring to this world to brighten your lived experiences and those of the people around you.
When you're ready, gently open up your eyes and bring this newfound illumination into your reality. Thank you so much for imagining and reflecting with me. Let's use this visualization exercise and Maya Angelo's wisdom to guide the next part of our conversation.
For today's adventure guidebook activity, we're going to be walking through three steps for channeling your inner glow. The first step is reflecting on your authentic self. The second step is envisioning your growth. Lastly, the third step is manifesting this growth through intentional lifestyle changes. So very similarly to what we imagined, what we work through in this visualization exercise, we're going to apply that spirit, that belief, and that determination to this process to ignite our dreams and visions for ourselves and a pathway to follow through, uh, to glow up in a way that's true to our authentic selves.
Step one: Really take time to reflect on who you are and how you see yourself. Pull back the layers of outside expectations and influences and really sit with your inner self. For me, it's always been about connecting with my inner child.
That really grounds me. Over the years, I've realized many of the colors, uh, symbols, interests, and dreams that I fell in love with as a kid have stayed with me. Life gets busier as we get older, so it's easy to forget the roots of where we started. Life also provides experiences that help shape our authentic selves. Dig into your past to uncover central experiences that have shaped your identity.
I encourage you to create a mood board to represent your self image. Like one of those trendy social media aesthetics. What I'd love to do today is really build one based around who we are. Each of us has our own unique aesthetic, our own unique essence. Let's lean into that. And let's grow closer with our authentic selves. Now, this mood board could be created with paper, digital tools, or even just using your imagination.
What elements would you include on your mood board that are central to who you are? Think of the colors, symbols, interests, and dreams that are central to your essence. Other things that you can consider are your style, passions, beliefs, values, past experiences, mantras, mission, and goals.
Some of the different colors that are really central to me. I've always really loved the color orange, and it's really interesting. I was a graphic design minor in college. We always dug really far into color meaning and color theory.
So if you look up online what different color meanings are, what traits and values are associated with each color, you realize that it's very intentional: the use of color in marketing, in design. So for the color orange, it's a youthful color. It's energetic. It's creativity. It's innovation.
It's very playful. So if you're familiar with Nickelodeon, their color is orange. Another color that I'm really connected to is purple, and some associations with that color are compassion, creativity, imagination, royalty, wisdom, fantasy; it's a very uplifting and inspiring color.
Yellow is another color that I love. It's all about communication, optimism, creativity. Again, uh, it's a very enthusiastic and joyful color, right? Knowing more about what these colors can represent, , it helps you learn more about who you are.
What colors are in your room? What colors do you wear frequently in your wardrobe? Um, what color is your phone case? What color is your phone background? The colors that you're drawn to repeatedly, they're special to you for a reason.
Every time I learn more about these different colors. It teaches me more about how I see myself, taking time to analyze things that you're drawn to. Something as simple as a color can help you paint a clearer picture of who you are, your essence, your passion, your purpose, your goals.
A symbol that I have been drawn to a lot in my life has been a butterfly. It's a symbol of transformation, the awkward growing pains that it goes through transforming from a caterpillar into its true form. The butterfly is a symbol of adventure, of exploration. And it's so interesting; I always return to this symbol. I went to the store, and I found this really pretty butterfly necklace, and I was wearing it almost nonstop this whole summer, and I've realized that this has been a symbol that I've always connected really strongly with. In my childhood bedroom, there were butterflies all over my room. My fan was covered in butterfly drawings. Butterflies were painted onto my wall. I look at pictures of myself when I'm little, and I'm wearing a giant butterfly necklace or have a butterfly on my jeans.
Just describing myself on, on something as simple as, like, a social media platform, like Instagram, like trying to figure out, like when I, when I communicate who I am to people.
It's a beautiful journey that reflecting on your inner self can bring to your life.
So yes, think for you, what are symbols that you've constantly been drawn to throughout your life, and take time to look up the meaning of those symbols. And yeah, everything comes together to represent who we are and our dreams for, um, where we want to be in life.
Step two in channeling our inner glow is envisioning your growth. Visualize the dreams you have for your life just like you did when you were a kid. Dream big and bold. Don't hold yourself back with all the little details.
The Lifehack article, " The Best Way to Create a Vision for the Life You Want," by Royale Scuderi offers a great roadmap for this process. She explains the importance of having a life vision, reflection prompts for getting started, and a planning strategy that works backwards from your dream life to where you are now.
For envisioning your dream life, Scuderi encourages us to look several years or even decades into the future. So here are some of the dream life reflection prompts that she shares.
How do you feel about yourself? What does your ideal day look like? How are you dressed? What's your state of mind? Does your best life make you smile and make your heart sing?
She says, "Give yourself permission to revisit this vision every day. Even if only for a few minutes, keep your vision alive and at the front of your mind.” I appreciate how she combines visualization with goal setting to plan out a life path that can speak to your inner self. Visit this article through the link in my podcast episode description to gain more insight from Scuderi about crafting your life vision.
Step 3. Manifesting growth through intentional lifestyle changes. This step is all about aligning your way of life. With your vision for your future, create a plan for your personal growth that could be journaling out your SMART goals using Scuderi's approach for planning backwards based on your dream mind mapping, which we'll discuss that practice in a moment or another action planning method that works for you make changes to your lifestyle based on your plan of action and desired growth.
These intentions will differ from person to person because we're all working toward different dreams. Make sure to consult with professionals, learn continuously, and build a support system. And then, once you work through your action planning approach, add manifestation practices to your daily life to maintain your vision for your dream life.
I found this article from BetterHelp, “Stuck on Things to Manifest, Here are 14 Ideas to Get You Started” by Madeline Miles. She shares great foundational information about what manifestation is and its principles, how to practice it, and a variety of inspo for positive lifestyle changes.
Miles says that to manifest something means to think about it often and with focus until you receive it. She says, "The greatest benefit of manifestation is that it makes your actions intentional. You consciously consider what you want to achieve and direct your actions accordingly."
Here are the steps for manifesting that Madeline Miles lists in her article. One, think of something you want. Two, visualize it in detail, being as specific as possible, as though you already have it. Three, ask the universe for it. Four, say or write positive affirmations in the present tense, or look for images that capture what you're trying to manifest. And then five, let go and trust the process.
She references the 2006 best-selling book by Rhonda Burns, The Secret. I definitely recommend checking out that book, this article, and other resources related to manifestation and the Law of Attraction.
This week's reflective writing exercise is mind mapping for manifestation. A mind map is a diagram with a central idea in the center and a spider web of connected topics, thoughts, ideas, and inspiration framed around it.
You've probably created one of these for school. Mind mapping allows for creativity, exploration, and making connections between different aspects of your dreams and personal growth.
What I want you to do for this exercise is jot down your inner glow. In the center, put a circle around it, and then for each aspiration, reflection, or action step related to your inner glow, draw a line, put a circle around it, and then detail all of those different thoughts. By going through this process, you'll have a guide; you'll have a map for embracing your unique radiance.
It's our time to shine. I'm cheering you on as you work through these steps in your adventure guidebook to channel your inner glow and embrace it throughout your life.
Now it's time for our weekly boost. Let's energize our weeks with exciting upcoming holidays and an energizing self-care session. For this week's self-care activity, indulge in an energizing yoga session. There are plenty of great yoga flows available for free online. I highly recommend checking out YouTube channels like Yoga with Adriene and Yoga with Cassandra.
I love those. I do those at least a couple of times every week, or you could also explore yoga creators on Instagram for really quick energizing flows, poses, and ideas. There are also great infographics and resources that you can find on Pinterest as well.
You could also use this weekly boost session as an opportunity to explore in person yoga activities and classes. See what studios are around you and check out if there are any special outdoor yoga sessions happening nearby. Now let's add a spark to your week with these fun, loving holidays and observances. Happy Mean Girls Day. That's right. Today is October 3rd. So if you're a fan of Mean Girls, you know that this date is specifically referenced in this beloved book, movie, and musical. I'm wearing pink today in honor of Mean Girls Day. I hope you are too, and definitely check out the movie, uh, and watch it for the millionth time like me. Maybe listen to songs from the musical, or, you know what would be fun? I know that in the movie they have a burn book, but it would be really nice to create a scrapbook of positivity, to celebrate yourself and your friends and loved ones. That would be a really fun way to mark this holiday, in the spirit of togetherness, personal growth, everything related to Mean Girls.
October 5th is Be Nice Day, and it's Do Something Nice Day.
Get your wheels turning. Start brainstorming ideas for a way that you can show someone that you care, to express gratitude and love and support for someone special in your life. Do something for a neighbor, for someone in your community. Maybe something for a teacher in your life, just to just say thank you.
To tell them that you're thinking of them.
The following day is World Smile Day, and it's National Inner Beauty Day. So this is again a great week to start appreciating your inner essence. What makes you special? What makes you unique? And be kind and gentle to yourself.
Maybe have a writing session where you write a letter to yourself, just as a check-in to say where you are, what you appreciate about yourself, just be joyful, just be grateful for who you are as a unique person. Take time to reflect on all the special things that make you, you and, and, and the beauty within that.
National Frappe Day is on the 7th. So yeah, get out and enjoy a sweet treat this week.
October is Emotional Wellness Month.
This is a great time to begin thinking through your emotional wellness needs and where you'd like to grow, what you would like to grow into, uh, to be able to better connect with yourself and celebrate yourself.
This week, October 1st to the 7th, is National Banned Books Week. Support these stories, stories that deserve to be told, stories that deserve to be shared, not silenced. Learn more about Banned Books Week online and ways that you can support literature in your community. Here are some banned books to get you started this week. The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas, Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo, The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky, and The Giver by Lois Lowry. Check them out from your local library or anywhere that you're able to access these vital pieces of literature
These books have each impacted me so much growing up. I cannot imagine not being able to connect with literature like this on this level. There are so many stories that have impacted my essence, impacted how I see the world, have poured into my purpose and passion, and, uh, it's important for all of us, for all people.
To be able to learn and grow and share these stories because they deserve to be told; they deserve to be shared.
October is also Museums and Galleries Month. Visit your local museum. See what new galleries are coming out this month in your area. I live close to Washington, D. C., so there is no limit to the number of free and low cost museums that are worth a visit. Definitely recommend the Planet Word Museum. This museum is all about exploring language, and words, and literature in an interactive space and interactive environments. They have a karaoke room. There is an entire area dedicated to advertising and speeches, and a little nook for exploring the power of poetry. It is a really great museum to visit and definitely great for kids, but also for all ages to learn more about the power of words.
If you are a fan of art, modern art, definitely check out the second floor of the Smithsonian American Art Museum. It has been closed for construction for a long time and it just reopened, so definitely check that out.
Also, a museum exhibit that is on my list is the National Museum of African American History and Culture's Afrofuturism exhibit. This one's been on my list for a little while now, and I am so excited to stop by and visit because they have artifacts related to Afrofuturism across decades of, of black culture, including Chadwick Boseman's suit from Black Panther.
So as a Howard grad, I'm definitely excited to stop by and check this out this month, especially since, uh, Howard Homecoming is coming up in a couple of weeks.
If you're planning a trip to the D.C. area, definitely add these different museums to your schedule. If not, check out their online collections. The Smithsonian has plenty of online resources, and Planet Word is not a part of the Smithsonian, but they also have a lot of, uh, resources online so that you can.
Engage with their different exhibits and collections. Hopefully these ideas spark inspiration, excitement, and passion for your week ahead.
And that's a wrap on today's Coffee Chat. We've talked all about how to illuminate your inner glow. Remember that igniting your inner glow is a journey uniquely yours. Embrace your authenticity, visualize your dreams, and let intentional lifestyle changes light your path.
Thank you so much for joining me in this cozy exploration. I'm Alexis Renne, and this has been Exploring Over Coffee. If you enjoyed today's chat and are looking for some seasonal lifestyle inspiration for the season, relax with episode one of Exploring Over Coffee about romanticizing your fall lifestyle.
I'm wishing you a warm and wonderful week ahead. And until next time, remember to make life an adventure.
Production Info
Exploring Over Coffee is created and produced by Alexis Renae.
Follow Exploring Over Coffee on Instagram.
This episode was originally released in October 2023.
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