Embracing Intentions: Nurturing a Holistic Journey Forward

As we kick off 2025, join me, Sherisse Alexander, as I share my transformative journey from a hectic end to 2024 to a rejuvenated start to the new year. Like many, I found the past months overwhelming but took the time for a much-needed reset. Inspired by Gabby Bernstein, we'll explore the powerful shift from setting rigid goals to embracing intentions—an approach that welcomes growth without the weight of unmet resolutions. This year, my focus is on holistic health—nurturing mind, body, and spirit—and evolving this podcast into a vibrant community of inspiration and connection.

Throughout this episode, I reflect on my recent solo adventure, a trip that stirred new perspectives and opened my heart to enriching possibilities. Hear my plans to expand the podcast's reach by launching a website and publishing engaging content, aiming for deeper audience interaction with diverse guests. Together, we'll explore new perspectives, foster meaningful relationships, and build a thriving community around the podcast. Tune in as we set empowering intentions for the year ahead, strengthening our connections with ourselves and each other.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:11

Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, wherever you might be when you're listening to this. My name is Charisse Alexander, your host of your Collective. It has been a few weeks since my posted or published the last episode for your Collective and 2024, I don't know about you guys, but 2024, the last few months, I found to be ridiculously hectic with trying to get everything done and so, needless to say, when all the work was done, I completely unplugged and gave myself the gift of resetting and refreshing and getting my mind, my body and my spirit in a place for being ready for 2025. So, welcome to 2025. I hope you all had a beautiful end of year with friends and family and that you are ready for the year ahead. I wanted to use this first episode of 2025 to really begin with some gratitude, thanking you all for tuning in and listening and supporting the podcast over the last eight months roughly. I launched on April 1st of 2024. And so we're coming up on the first year of the podcast, and so, for those of you who have supported me, either by being a guest or giving me ideas or just even silently supporting me, I really appreciate it and I look forward to how the podcast continues to grow and evolve through 2025.

Speaker 1: 1:54

The second thing I was hoping to use today for was to share some intentions. You know, the last couple of episodes of 2024, I, you know, had a guest where we talked about goal setting and being mindful in terms of how we set those goals, and I did a little bit of reflection on how I feel like I did with those goals. But I thought that for 2025, I would do something slightly different. So, instead of setting goals or resolutions, I was listening to Gabby Bernstein's podcast the other day and she said something that really resonated with me and she talked about intentions. You know, there's something to be said about when we set a goal or we set a resolution and we don't necessarily follow through an accomplishment or accomplish it, and some of the negative feedback that we will tell ourselves or the stories that we allow to come up. And she talked instead about intentions and I love the word intentions because it really embodies more of an energy that we are going to approach whatever it is that we're trying to achieve. So I thought that I would, in the interest of you know, sharing because sharing is caring and I would share some of my intentions for 2025. And maybe they'll resonate with you guys my intentions for 2025. And maybe they'll resonate with you guys, but, as always, I'm always looking at how I can improve my health and my experience in this physical body from a mental and physical standpoint. So health is my number one focal point for 2025. And that includes a variety of things. As always, it's about eating better. It's about making sure that I'm active From a mental health standpoint. It's about making sure that I continue to do the things that keep me grounded, centered and focused on the things that I'm looking to call forth into my life. So that is intention number one health in mind, body and spirit. Intention number two is to continue to build this podcast, this beautiful space, the vision that I have for it in my mind and what it's meant to be for not even just myself, but mostly for the people that tune in and listen. And really the intention behind your collective and the space is to like, maybe provide a little bit of a little bit of a different way that we can approach the things that come up in life. So I want to continue to build that, you know, through eventually launching a website this year and putting some blogs out there and hopefully more engagement from the audience and a larger variety and diversity of guests. So stay tuned for that. I'm super excited about some of the ideas that I have that have come to me in terms of how I can create more value for you, the audience. The third intention, and this one's a big one relationships, Relationships. I've gone the last few years, I would say, through a phase of like serious hermiting, where I've really learned to be comfortable with being by myself and with myself and my thoughts and so on and so forth, and now I feel like I ended the way in such a beautiful way. I gave myself the gift of going on a trip, a solo trip, believe it or not, my first trip by myself, and I had a really fantastic time. And when I was telling people, you know, people were like oh, who are you going with? I'm like nobody, I'm going by myself. And they're like, oh, aren't you gonna get bored? I won't lie. There were moments and I'm like, oh, gee, what am I going to do with myself? But I knew what the trip was about. The trip was about getting to the ocean and really enjoying the sun. In a way that was like I am doing zero except, you know, observing the environment around me, enjoying, you know, the listening to the water. I got some great sunrise photos and it was just exactly what I needed. Now, on this trip, I did meet a few sisters from another misters, and it reminded me of how important community is. It reminded me how important it is to have, you know, a couple of people in your life that just really resonate with you on a soul level. And it was, and it was so funny. I love when these things happen because I literally written in my journal again okay, universe, I'm ready for more friends. And out to the beach I went and I met a lovely lady from Mexico City and I just had such a great time. So In coming home, I was like, okay, well, how can I my romantic relationships, all of these things, and and not in the way where it's like I'm putting all of my attention on that and forgetting about what I need, but more balance within it, and I'm a Libra, so I am all about balance. But how can I bring more of a social capacity into my life while honoring what it is I think that I need on a day to day basis? So that's a big one for me. And then the last one is continued spiritual growth. This journey, as I think I've shared, started for me in earnest, probably going on eight years ago, and what I mean when I say earnest is like actually actively searching out a way that I could create a relationship with God, and that has been rewarding. There aren't enough words to communicate how rewarding that it's been. So that is one relationship. So I guess it kind of ties into relationships, but I put it kind of in its own special category because it, to me, requires a different engagement in order to continue to deepen that relationship. So the question I pose to you now, now that I've written or shared these intentions with you, my plan next is to like really dive into what does that look like? What does that feel like, what does that smell like, what does it taste like, Like not just even visualizing what these intentions look like, but really embodying what these intentions feel like. So what? And that's can sometimes be a tricky thing because you know these are, we'll say and I say this in quotation marks future events. But how can I feel all of those things right now, in the here and now, in this moment, to really bring it in? So the question I leave you with is do you know what you intend to create in 2025? Have you written your list? Have you broken it down into? You know what it looks like, what it feels like, what it smells like, what it tastes like. So can you really embody the physical senses for that and what are you going to do to keep yourself accountable? I know for myself. One of the things that I like to do is I'm an avid journaler, so I will always bring it forward in my journal. I was hearing a statistic the other day that by February 1st, 80% of resolutions or goals or objectives people have fallen off of. So how can you make 2025 different for yourself? How can you keep yourself accountable? How can you bring in the things that you are looking to intend or bring into like? How can you bring in the things that you intend to bring into and can you find a little bit of surrender within that? You know, the thing about having an intention is sometimes we have to keep it in your focal point but at the same time, let go of some of the things around it, and that is a tricky balancing act. When I figure it out, I'll be sure to let you know. So I leave you with that today. Super short, super sweet. I again wish you a very, very happy new year. I thank you for the continued support. I love it and until next time, take care.