The Art of Living

In today’s episode, Claudia and Kenda welcome relationship and dating coach Giovanna Capozza to talk about all things love and relationships. Giovanna is the founder of Love-well Coaching and soon to be the author of Love Well: Confessions of a Lovesick Woman. Through her relationship coaching, Giovanna helps people to connect and discover how to truly empower themselves within their relationships and ultimately provide the skillset to take their relationships to the place they want them to be. Through their discussion, our hosts and guest delve deep into what causes some of the struggles we face in relationships, including childhood wounds, trauma bonds,  and the developmental impacts of caregiver relationships. And of course, it wouldn’t be true to form if they didn’t discuss some strategies for overcoming and rising above these challenges to enter into fulfilling and happy relationships. As you listen to today’s episode, consider if there are any relationship patterns that you experience/have experienced? Can you draw any connections to your experiences during childhood that might have made an impact? This can often be a challenging task for many of us as it requires a willingness to open up to your own feelings and trauma, but luckily we’ve got an expert here to guide you through!Giovanna’s journey into becoming a master of relationships started before she herself even knew. Having grown up as the youngest of four daughters in a household with conflict, anger and a general sentiment of unhappiness modelled in the marital relationship, she often longed for the opposite when it came to her own love life. Through her imperfect and long journey, she began to discover and uncover more about what she truly wanted in a relationship as well as more about who she was as an individual. Key patterns began to arise, leading her to explore more about healing herself and her inner child first and, by extension, gain the knowledge to be able to do the same for others. During this episode, you will be coached through some of the introductory concepts of relationship coaching, connection and contentedness in life. So find some safe emotional space for YOU and your inner child and give this episode a listen. If you’d like to learn more about Giovanna, you can check out her website.

Today we are catching up with Claudia and Kenda to connect over discussions of spiritual, emotional and mental growth. With all the fast-paced, day-to-day changes we all go through, sometimes the best thing to do is sit down, take a deep breath and reconnect. Whether that's with yourself, a friend, a mentor or anyone else, you want to make an active and intentional part of your circle. In today's episode, they chat about what they are going through and the growth moments that give our lives purpose. As podcast hosts, it is incredibly easy to get swept up in all of the inspirational stories and amazing guest stars that are featured on The Art of Living podcast, but at the same time opening some space for the stories that go untold and allowing you (our audience!) to peek behind the curtain into some of the more personal and challenging hurdles is just another way to connect. During their conversation, Claudia shares her struggles with healing physically while working on a spiritual and emotional level as well as some of the ways she's been able to not only cope but thrive! We also hear from Kenda on the subject of physical fitness and learning to overcome fears, doubts and anxieties as well as being open to new knowledge and possibilities. She shares her very personal journey with learning to enjoy physical fitness and all the elements of it in a brand new way. As you listen to today's episode ask yourself if there is anyone in your life that you want to check in with but haven't?  Is it possible that person is you? As Claudia and Kenda share their own stories think about your progress in your own life and some of the areas that you might not be appreciating how far you've come. Listening to this episode you will learn even more about our lovely podcast hosts personal journeys as well as some excellent strategies for facing those challenges that creep up in everyday life.  If you find yourself looking for that connection and ready to explore the physical, spiritual and emotional journeys we take with ourselves then this jam-packed episode is for you!

“Acknowledging and appreciating what your life has to offer at this moment in time is 100% free.” In this episode, Claudia and Kenda are joined by a Business Success Coach, internationally renowned speaker and the Founder & Creator of the Wealthy Minimalist, Stacy Hartmann. Stacy is currently preparing for the launch of her book, “Metaconscious Entrepreneur” and joined our discussion today to take us through how we can transform our own relationships with money, expand on the possibilities it can bring and create a new mindset experience what we truly want in life.During their chat, Stacy gives some incredible insider insight into the fears, reservations and other blocks that prevent our ability to escape the “money tornado.” Having worked with impoverished and struggling families during her time as a juvenile probation officer, she has begun to realize that the things she valued as high priority were not truly what life was about! By acknowledging that she was truly missing out on a whole other side of life that money can’t buy, Stacy was able to begin her journey towards enlightenment and a shift in perspective that led her to where she is today. As you tune in, try reflecting on how you prioritize your own life. Is making money and climbing the corporate ladder what you spend all your thought energy on at the expense of other things? Do you find your stress continuing to grow from your thoughts or conversations about money? If your answer is yes, then make sure to stick around and hear some of Stacy’s best tips and strategies for moving past limiting mindsets and into a more fulfilled life. Spoiler: The answer isn’t just about having MORE money! It’s about opening our hearts to our true values and aligning our choices with that and, from there, allowing money to flow into our lives. Listening to this episode, you will learn how to create for yourself a more fulfilled life beyond the constraints of your finances and how to amplify life’s magic using your money in a way that is aligned and purposeful. By appreciating the abundance we have and choosing to amplify what already exists for us, we can all truly learn to appreciate what life has to offer. If you can’t get enough of Stacy’s money wisdom, make sure you keep an eye out for Stacy’s upcoming book release early next year. And if you’d like to learn more about her and the amazing financial wisdom she holds, visit https://www.wealthyminimalist.com/   

Have you ever felt like you were falling apart on the inside? In this episode, Claudia and Kenda are joined by guest Laura Fenamore, author of the book, Skinny, Fat, Perfect: Love who you see in the mirror on a self-love mission. In this conversation, they talk spirituality, changing your own story and finding the power to forgive, so prepare to have your heartstrings seriously tugged and your mind blown.Laura is a self-love superstar, coach, author and creator of the OnePinky global community. She specializes in helping people all over the world fall in love with themselves, their bodies and develop healthy and meaningful relationships with themselves again or for the very first time. From decades of struggle with self-esteem as well as addiction, abuse and a heavily troubled home life, Laura found herself at a crossroads between a grim ending and a new beginning. Her decision to find her own path to walk forward into a life of true and deep connection to spirit and body took her life in a whole new direction. And with that difficult journey came immense healing as well as a new insight into her purpose. To help others take that same journey of forgiveness and to no longer let their story define them.As you tune in, seek to relax and consider how you can allow that forgiveness into your own situation. Laura treats us to an amazing grounding exercise to start us off so take a deep breath and open your heart to the love this episode is bringing your way.  Listening to this episode you will learn what forgiveness truly looks like and how we can truly start to forgive those in our life who have caused us pain, and most importantly learn to forgive ourselves. By removing our victim mindset and starting to understand what true forgiveness is, we can gift ourselves the ultimate freedom and the ability to pursue growth.If you want to learn more about Laura you can check out her website or purchase her book at Amazon

Leaves are starting to fall, which means that nature is clearing the way for new possibilities, and we decided to follow suit in this episode.Claudia and Kenda were inspired this week by the realm of new possibilities. The realm of possibilities is something we often disregard when reflecting on our own experiences. How many things in your life have you chosen not to pursue because you thought they weren’t possible? 1? 2? Maybe too many to count? By closing our thoughts to possibilities, we don’t even allow our minds, bodies, and souls the chance to pursue what we truly desire. Claudia walks (well, actually runs) us through her firsthand experience of how subconsciously she was blocking new possibilities for herself and gives us insights into what YOU can do to stop limiting your own potential and possibilities in YOUR life.  This episode illustrates the tools and strategies Kenda and Claudia use in their own lives to shift their perceptions and open a new realm of possibilities. By moving from the subconscious to active thoughts and decisions, we can shift our own ideas of what is truly possible.  They also discuss some of the key forces holding us back from pursuing our own new possibilities, such as:Our perception of our situationOur own self-worthWhat is truly motivating our decisionsOur denial of true opportunity As you’re tuning in to this episode, ask yourself:What areas in my life have I closed myself off to new possibilities? Bonus Question: Do I know why I have chosen to do this? In this episode, you will learn how to develop your own insight into your life’s true possibilities and understand what thoughts, actions and feelings are holding you back. So don’t deny yourself the possibility of learning even more about the true art of living. Get cozy and listen in! 

“Healing doesn’t mean the damage never existed. It means the damage no longer controls our lives.” – Akshay Dubey.  What if you gain the courage to face whatever you may be running from in your life? In today’s episode, we go on a journey of emotions and healing. We are joined by renowned author of “Mess to Majestic” and licensed mental health counsellor Laura McCarthy.Laura is passionate about inspiring others towards their own healing journey and opened up with us during this episode about her healing from addiction and how she is changing the stigma about mental health and addiction.   Laura shares her story of the last 36 years and how recovery doesn’t just happen overnight.  This episode helps us understand what trauma is, types of trauma and covers the truth about addiction.While you’re listening in, watch for the key connections Claudia, Kenda, and Laura draw to their own lives. You will learn how you can evaluate your own experiences and learn from them in a way that allows you to grow rather than be limited by your own trauma experiences. In this episode, you will learn how to discover, assess, and understand your trauma and how by acknowledging that trauma, you can go from feeling like a mess to majestic! To connect with Laura, visit her website www.lauramccarthyauthor.com

Have you ever told yourself that everything is okay…when it really wasn’t? Today’s episode is all about pushing the limit of what we want to acknowledge in our lives and being able to break past the cultural norms of hyper positivity to live a more fulfilled life. After all, how can we ask other people to push themselves to embrace challenges if we don’t do the same? Today our co-host Claudia gets REAL with some rapid-fire questions and answers. The vulnerability and connection are off the charts as they dig deep into the idea of spiritual bypass and how it’s impacting our ability to move forward in our career, relationships and, on a bigger level, our life! Spiritual bypass is best described as just that, a bypass of our feelings and the chance to validate them.By avoiding what is going on within, we do ourselves the disservice of not acknowledging our true state of being. During this episode, Claudia and Kenda answer some of the burning questions about this topic:What is a spiritual bypass?What is the problem with saying “everything is okay” all the time?How does understanding spiritual bypass help us feel more aligned?And we can’t leave you without some serious lessons learned, so Claudia shares some of her best examples of how she worked through understanding and growing when she recognized a spiritual bypass. In this episode, you will learn how to understand and acknowledge spiritual bypass in your life and, furthermore, how to grow and evolve past it.So don’t bypass this episode! Listen in to get your crash course in embracing all the feels and reaping all the benefits.

Have you wondered how you can live a stress-free life? In this episode, Claudia and Kenda and guest Randal Johnson take a deep dive into what it really means to live a stress-free life beyond the “fortune cookie advice.”  Randal has an MBA in Finance and is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Philosophy of Religion.  He specializes in Stress Elimination. For him, this is not a theory. A high-pressure financial career created overwhelming stress and led Randal to a drug and gambling addiction. After hitting multiple bottoms, he desperately searched for answers. Through his journey, Randal learned to “turn off the burner,” the core source of his stress, as opposed to working through simple, non-permanent stress management fixes to truly understand the root of his stress and focus on removing it from his life at the very core.Randal Johnson is the author of the “Seven Secrets to a Stress-Free Life” and treated us to some of his best analogies, pieces of wisdom and, of course, his seven secrets:1. Take total responsibility for everything in your life2. Create a “gap.”3. Identify needs that are really just wants4. Give up being right5. Realize we don’t know anything for certain 6. Create a new story with positive speculation  7. The secret of secrets! During their incredibly open and honest discussion, they talk about growth, training your mind, and struggles. They help us to comprehend what true happiness is.You will learn how to get to the bottom of what causes us stress in our lives and how we can work towards not just the elimination of stress altogether but the pursuit of a whole, complete and satisfying life. In this episode, you will discover a simple formula for stress elimination that you can apply to every part of your life to help you ditch stress for good.  Listen in to their conversation to hear Randal’s hilarious and inspiring stories that helped him craft his seven secrets. So, if you’re in need of some serious stress strategies, this episode is for you! Learn more about the 7 secrets in Randal's book and visit his website

Are you your worst enemy?In this conversation, Kenda and Claudia start discussing how we put rocks on our path that stop us from our heart callings and why we become our worst enemies.  As you listen to this episode, you will learn how to start listening more to your heart and discover how unconsciously we self-sabotage through fears, beliefs, and expectations and why it’s so hard to get out of our comfort zones. You will get some tips on how you can stop self-sabotaging to follow your heart’s calling.

They say that “the wound is where the light gets in.” In this vulnerable episode, Claudia guides Kenda to understand and unpack some of the emotional baggage she had carried around for the last decade.Tune into this episode for an appreciation of what it means to bring light to our wounds, as Claudia lovingly guides Kenda through the discomfort of old emotional pain to uncover the truth behind it so that she can heal.By listening to this coaching/healing episode, you will come to understand why our suffering helps us grow and how we can have compassion for our past so that we can heal, transform and truly move on. Are you finding yourself attached to old ideas or patterns? Are you ready to leave the past behind?  As you listen to this episode, you will get inspired and begin to see the value in doing the inner work to heal and acknowledging your fears so that you can move beyond them. 

Join Claudia and Kenda as they welcome a special guest Leslie Davis. She is the author of You can’t eat love: how learning to love yourself can change your relationship with food.In this inspiring interview, Leslie explains how she embarked on a weight loss journey and ended up discovering herself in the process. Leslie walks Claudia and Kenda through the life-changing insights she gained in the process of improving her health - including unmasking traumas that had been influencing her relationships with food and learning to “speak up” and communicate her feelings instead of stuffing them down with food. Leslie has come a long way and is finding herself embracing challenges she would never have dreamed possible from her past perspective. Give this episode a listen and allow yourself to be uplifted by one woman’s personal story of transformation,  empowerment and love!You can check Leslie's book on Amazon and connect with her at youcanteatlove.com

The Art of Living podcast was created to capture the energy and essence of Kenda and Claudia's deep and thoughtful conversations while walking or hiking together.In honour of that, in this episode, Kenda asks Claudia a surprise question, and then simply they let the energy flow. The question that stimulates today’s insightful conversation is “how do I move on?” and “should I move on, or it’s there more to be learned?”Through their conversation, they remind us to forgive ourselves for past behaviours because we were doing the best we could with what we knew at that moment. We were acting out of our level of consciousness at that time. Claudia also gives insights into how she intentionally feels and observes emotions instead of running from and distracting herself from them. This is a mental exercise, strengthened over time and, as Kenda points out, life will provide us with plenty of opportunities to practice. 

Did you know that each of us has a human design type?Human design expert, Carolina Wikstrom joins Kenda and Claudia to discuss what human design is and how you can apply your design to your life.In this episode, you will learn how this method can help you understand yourself better. It can bring more light to your characteristics, how you relate to others, how you learn, how you can be more efficient at work, and more!Carolina describes the characteristics of the five Human Design types:ManifestorGeneratorManifestor GeneratorProjectorReflectorAs Carolina shares her insights into each human design type, you will get the tools to optimize your innate characteristics in your life.Are you curious to know your human design chart?Carolina recommends www.myhumandesign.com, or you can visit Carolina herself on Instagram, where she shares further insights and tools related to human design and information about her new program, Align With Human Design. 

How often do you find yourself neglecting your own needs to satisfy another’s?  It sounds harsh, but it’s something we can all easily fall into when we are unaware. In this episode, Claudia and Kenda discuss the concept of self-abandonment, that is, quite simply, putting another first and ourselves second, or even last.  They talk about the risks of abandoning ourselves and the importance of establishing healthy agreements, known as boundaries, to have intentional and loving relationships with ourselves and others.Each share an example from their own lives of how they have established boundaries, and examples of occasions when they failed to do so and what they learned from it. In this episode,  you will gain insights into what your own boundaries could look like and obtain the tools to get to know yourself and your needs and how to communicate those healthy agreements to others clearly. Join us for an inspiring episode that will leave you feeling curious about where you can bring more presence, love and agreement into the essential relationships in your life!  

Today on the Art of Living podcast, Kenda and Claudia are excited to welcome intuitive psychic energy healer, medium, and reiki practitioner, Suraya Sophia. In this conversational-style episode, Suraya demonstrates the meaning of "the healer must first heal thyself,"; exposing her own journey of healing and overcoming a strict traditional family lifestyle, finally permitting herself to embrace who she has always been, a healer for others.Listen in and learn answers to questions like "what is reiki?" and "who is a medium?"The ladies discuss various topics from energy and life after death to the experiences of past lives and how they may be impacting the experience of your life today. Suraya explains what it means to be the co-creator of your life, the importance of setting intentions for your life, as well as giving up control and trusting that "if it is for your highest best self, it's going to happen in ways you never even fathomed."Connect with Suraya Sophia Instagram and her website

There is a reason we are called human-BEINGS, not human-DOINGS.In this episode, Kenda and Claudia explore the difference between becoming, being and doing. Through their conversation, you will learn that you have been misguided by popular culture and the condition of our society, telling us that we must always be in the pursuit to “become” whole. Their conversation exposes the ways in which the ego may be influencing your idea of who you are, causing you to believe there is something you need to do or obtain in order to reach fulfillment. This is a tricky game the ego plays to keep us in the illusion of duality and keep us safe - telling us that we’re not quite good enough, and if we just do this one extra little thing, we are going to be better, happier, human beings. We might even reach “fulfillment.” Of course, we never get there when we follow our ego. Fulfilment happens when we align to our souls and follow our hearts.  You will also gain insights to free yourself from this collective belief that we are “not quite there” and obtain the tools to connecting and trusting who you are. You will have practices that will allow you to exercise “being” at any time, anywhere, and at any moment. 

 In this episode, Kenda and Claudia interview life coach, mentor, and award-winning poet, Lee Purcell about his transformational experience with plant medicine. In this conversation, you will learn what ayahuasca is and how it can illuminate and promote healing to those aspects of ourselves that require it.  You will discover how ayahuasca exposed Lee to learn that fear is an illusion created by the body to stop oneself from having new experiences and prevent us from progressing in life. Also, you will learn how the medicine taught him that it is not about eliminating our fears; it is about illuminating them.Lee reminded us that as we begin to discover our own inner beauty, it becomes easier to allow others to see us as we are. That willingness to look at the parts of ourselves that we are most afraid of is a demonstration of self-love. As you tune in, you will obtain tools to stop self-judgment and start the practice of self-love. You will begin to see your own light and discover the essence of who you are.As you listen, you will hear an extract of one of Lee’s poems, one he wrote while working through his own self-judgements and self-love.Connect with Lee on youTube @ leepurcellmindset and  Instagram officialleepurcell

Would a Lamborghini make you happy? Most people would scream YES! Today, Kenda and Claudia will challenge you to question how long that external happiness will truly last. In this episode, they examine five major collective limiting beliefs ingrained in our society and how they rob us from experiencing a wonderful life. As you listen to their conversation, you are empowered to move beyond these beliefs and start living as you choose, not as you have been programmed.These collective limiting beliefs are:You need to work hard for the life that you wantHappiness, fulfillment, and peace is found outside of ourselvesMore is better.We will be free when we have lots of moneyWe are just a body. Separate.Throughout this conversation, you will learn to identify how the game of the ego robs us of the joy that is possible if we simply focus on the moment instead of working and living for an uncertain future. Confronting the conditioned belief that more is always better, you will be presented with examples of those who have experienced great loss and suffering yet emerged into happiness and freedom.Obtain the tools to free yourself from a state of emotional reactivity, no longer conceding to the ego and instead of recognizing it as a valuable part of individuality.As you listen to their definition of freedom and practice it in your life, you will start experiencing all that life has to offer unconditionally and be calm in the middle of the storm, and you will know true freedom!

Time doesn’t heal, inner work and taking responsibility heal.Are you someone who has struggled with relationships in the past? Caught yourself jumping from relationship to relationship? Do you ignore red flags when starting new relationships, or perhaps even close yourself off from new relationships altogether? Professional coach, Mike Fanelli, joins Kenda and Claudia to teach us the importance of identifying and taking responsibility for the conditioning that controls our lives and how it impacts our relationships.In this insightful conversation, you will understand the significance of rediscovering our wholeness and experience a romantic relationship feeling complete. You will learn how to use our values as the first step of reembrace and reconnect with our wholeness. And, you will obtain the tools to respond to your triggers, opposed to reacting to them. In this episode, Mike reminds us that self-love is the perpetual watering of our own grass.---Check Mike's FREE 5-day course to help you stop attracting the same type of partner over and over and manifest the loving relationship of your dreams.Link to The UN-Relationship Blueprint 5-day CourseYou can connect with Mike atInstagramWebsite

In one of their most powerful episodes yet, Kenda and Claudia expose gratitude for what it really is, an extension of love. In just 30 minutes, you will learn the first steps to creating the space for gratitude in your daily life, a seemingly simple concept yet can be a difficult practice for many. Gain insights into how embodying grateful living gives you different perspectives and allows you to experience a greater enjoyment of life. Obtain tools, like the "Stop, Look, Go" practice, to break the habit of negativity and find moments of appreciation everywhere (even while doing the dishes or being cut off in traffic). Kenda and Claudia both share examples of significant shifts toward gratitude in their own lives that, when you listen, are sure to challenge perspectives and leave you feeling grateful that you took this time to listen today. You can also check this website for more resources from Brother David https://gratefulness.org/practice/practice-space/