The Sword & The Pivot Queen

Another Episode steams today!

This interview was really something great to listen to for me. I was shocked really, because I didn't know I could have so many parallels with someone I'd never met before.

In today's new episode: The Sword & The Pivot Queen, we interviewed Health Coach Jenna, a long time friend of Sam's, and asked her some questions about how the trajectory of her life has changed over the years. Often requiring a Pivot! Jenna shares her story with us to help us understand that even the best laid plans, don't always come out the way we imagine them- and how perfectly okay that is.

If you haven't listened yet, stop reading here and press play! The rest of this post will be spoilers for the episode!

Jenna is a certified Personal Trainer, Integrative Nutrition Health Coach, and is certified in Change Psychology- the science of transformation- and believes in a Whole Health Coaching approach- taking a look at the whole big picture- from your environment to relationships, mindset, movement and nutrition. Jenna runs her own coaching business using this model to help them live their best lives.

But that's not at all where she stops. Jenna has some big plans to further expand her background in Wellness and is pursuing Sports Massage Therapy later this year to just add more magic and badassery onto her long list of awesomeness.

Jenna is a mom to two youngsters, and admits that the Mom life is a bit chaotic, but so full of love. As a fellow mom, I totally get that hearing "mom, " 890243987 times a day can be a challenge all on it's own!

In her spare time Jenna trains Jiu Jitsu, MMA, and admitted to getting her butt handed to her on the mat just earlier that day of the interview. Love a woman who can hit the mat hard and be humbled and still come back swinging! She loves mobility work, all things healthy, and has a hearty love for chocolate chip cookies. Jenna firmly believes in finding that balance between work and play and making sure you enjoy yourself where you can.

Sam and Jenna had a lot of nostalgia to share between them in this episode, they've been friends since 2nd Grade! With some fun flashbacks and a stroll down memory lane, you can totally tell these two friends have been thick as thieves for a really long time. We touched on some fandoms and long time celeb crushes and how that's changed over the years too. From who did you love most from Buffy, to what Hogwarts house she is, Jenna and Sam have so many memories to share between them, and it was really cool getting to be witness to what they shared.

Fresh take: Jenna loves fresh whole food ingredients for her meals! I couldn't wait to pick her brains about it honestly because HELLO, Recipe Developer here, I love me some fresh whole food ingredients! Check out her IG @coachingjenna for some examples!

To further the things that make me love Jenna, she's a Hufflepuff too. The ENTIRE PODCAST TEAM is Hufflepuffs! Birds of a feather...

It was so interesting to me that we are all Hufflepuffs, and interesting further to me when Jenna shared her patronus with us: a Nightjar.

Mostly because Jenna has studied the science and psychology behind change- and with what I know of change- this really made so much sense. A nightjar patronus is given to a person who finds comfort in adversity, a person who is faced with hardship and instead of being dragged down by it- is empowered by it.

Since Jenna has spent so much of her life transforming, pivoting, and shifting her perspective so that she can continue to grow and feel empowered in her life- it was a beautiful full circle moment to learn that the Nightjar is her patronus.

While I was listening to Jenna describe herself and her life to us in her interview, we came to ACOTAR and the Maasverse- what is her favorite? I knew without a shadow of a doubt before she even answered- that Crescent City and Bryce were her favorites. I just knew. Jenna has a very Bryce and Danika vibe- Ride or Die, Down for anything and everything, as long as it's done with your favorite person by your side. It's about living life to the fullest extent you can, and maximizing the good times.

While also being a Nesta girly through and through.

Jenna further detailed in her interview that she spent a good chunk of her earlier adulthood living life like Bryce- having a great time as a bartender and experimenting with that lifestyle. But she wasn't happy there. It wasn't how she wanted her life to present itself to her or anyone else. She wanted to be a better version of herself- and so her journey began.

She started just looking at her life and all the pieces of it in her hands, what she wasn't satisfied with and what she wanted to do to change it. Slowly, Jenna started gathering certifications to herself that would help her change her own life, and better enable and help others do the same.

How familiar?! Listening to Jenna tell this story of herself, of where she started and where she landed now, and how she isn't even done yet- it's been a wonderful reminder for me of how far I've come myself, and what more I still want from my own life.

One of the big quotes that I pulled from the interview with jenna is this: "We don't always have to be the same person all the time"

Different things, events, goings on in your head, reactions and emotional responses will all dictate to us who we should be in that moment- and that is perfectly normal and healthy.

And while Jenna was definitely talking about Cycle Syncing when she spoke about this, I feel like it's a wake up call we all need to be aware of. We are not going to be the same person, the same version of ourselves every single day. And so the expectation that we have of ourselves being that same person every day, is not only unrealistic but it's really toxic and damaging to your psyche. We need to work on accepting ourselves exactly where we are and who we are on that day without the expectation of us being some version we were yesterday or a week ago or a month ago or years ago. It's not going to happen. life isn't linear, progress isn't linear either, and so expecting our trajectory through our lives to be such is only holding us back. If all we can do is be 1% better than yesterday, that's ACCEPTABLE and still considered progress!

There's so much more to say on this episode, from Celebrity Comparisons to flashbacks down memory lane, and hearing Jenna tell us about her life and her mindset and how she reprograms herself each day to accept what she has to give. And I think that's the biggest lesson that I took away from this interview: that I should be more accepting of who I am each day and what I am able to offer each day on an individual basis- not how many days in a row I can be the same person, but how many days in a row I can be authentically myself and accepting of that, loving of that.

I'm so glad that we got to listen to Jenna's story and how she lives her life to the fullest, and I hope that you loved it too!