Catherine's Journey From Self-Doubt to Joyful Empowerment

Catherine from Willow Healing joins us in a heartfelt episode to share her transformative journey from doubt to self-empowerment. Catherine's story is a beacon of hope for anyone grappling with self-sabotage and self-doubt, as she reveals the pivotal moments that led her to reassess significant relationships and partnerships. Her insights on finding one's voice and embracing self-worth are particularly inspiring for mothers seeking fulfillment in their lives. Listen in as Catherine discusses overcoming personal challenges, navigating toxic environments, and ultimately crafting a joyful, enriching life rooted in empowerment.

Imagine beginning your day with a morning routine that fuels your body, mind, and soul. This episode uncovers the profound impact of starting each day with gratitude, meditation, and mindful movement. For entrepreneurs balancing a 9-to-5 while pursuing their passions, this routine is a game-changer, providing the energy needed to tackle daily demands. Discover how a commitment to self-care and gratitude can transform your perspective, helping you lead a more intentional and satisfying life. Join us as we explore the simple yet powerful practices that can redefine your approach to each day, enabling you to recognize and celebrate your daily victories.

TLDR:

Catherine shares her inspiring journey from self-doubt and burnout to empowerment and joy, emphasizing the importance of gratitude and self-worth. Listeners gain insights on overcoming life’s challenges and creating a fulfilling life.
• Catherine’s background and her transition into intuitive healing
• The role of self-sabotage in shaping her experiences
• Insights on personal growth through difficult relationships
• The impact of burnout on her well-being and business
• Practical strategies for integrating gratitude into daily routines
• The significance of self-care and prioritizing personal passions
• Catherine's offer of free meditation resources for listeners

Keep in touch with Catherine:  

Download Catherine's free app: www.willowhealnig.org 

Get 1-month free access to meditations with Code OvercomeYourself

Access free gifts: Instagram: @willowhea

Chapters

• 0:02 Empowerment and Self-Worth Journey
• 9:36 Morning Self-Care Routine and Gratitude

Transcript

Nicole Tuxbury: 0:02

Hello and welcome back to the next episode of Overcome Yourself, the podcast. As you know, my name is Nicole and I'm so excited to be here today across the world. I'm in Miami, she's near Sydney, australia. We've got Catherine. Welcome, catherine, and please take it away and tell us a little bit about yourself and what you do in Australia.

Catherine Crestani: 0:24

Yeah, beautiful, thank you. So in Australia, yeah, beautiful. Thank you so much for having me, nicole. So, as Nicole said, my name is Catherine, my little business is called Willow Healing and I'm an intuitive healer, a leadership coach, an author and a speaker, and my big passion is empowering people, and this has come through my own journey of learning how to empower myself in all aspects of my life. And my true passion, which is keeps evolving, is helping mothers to find their voice and business in their life so that they can actually create a life that they want and they love, and they just want to jump out of bed and start every day.

Nicole Tuxbury: 1:01

That makes such a difference, right Like, versus dragging yourself through every day. That makes such a difference, right Like, versus dragging yourself through every day. That was one of my goals. I was like I, if I'm going to live, I'm going to live and I want it to be fun and I want it to be happy, I want it to be exciting. I don't want to be dragging myself through every day just to make it through, just for a job, drug, sex and rock and roll like that can't be, that can't be it, that can't be like the epitome of life, right? I wrote that in my book. So so, yeah, so tell me a little bit more.

Catherine Crestani: 1:32

Yeah. So I guess my journey has been evolving over oh gosh many years, probably at least the last two decades. So I've always been a quite a high achiever. You know, I always wanted to do the best in school, but then I would always self-sabotage myself. So I would study and study and study, and I have quite a good memory, you know so. But I would get to the final year of school and go into those final exams and everything I had studied kind of blanked out completely. And it wasn't that I hadn't done the work, it wasn't that I hadn't put the effort in, and it wasn't that I hadn't done the work, it wasn't that I hadn't put the effort in, it was that that little voice inside me was saying you're not enough, you can't do this, you know. And all the doubt would creep in. And I still remember this particular exam. So in Australia we have trial exams before our big final one, at least in Sydney anyway.

Catherine Crestani: 2:21

And there was a certain paper that was renowned for being incredibly hard and I did like the top maths we could do in. This paper was in front of me and I just saw it and absolutely shut down. And I remember the moment and my teacher said to me he goes, how did what happened? He goes. You got the hard questions and you didn't get any of the easy ones right. He goes. What happened in there? I was like I don't know, he goes. What happened in there? I was like I don't know, I don't know, I just I don't know.

Catherine Crestani: 2:48

You know, and this kind of shadowed me throughout life, you know, and it kept getting you know more and more prominent, to the point where you know, even in my marriage I was in my first marriage I was at this point where I didn't even know myself anymore because I'd given away so much of myself that I wasn't good enough or I wasn't worthy, just as I was, to the point that there was nothing left of me. And it took one friend just saying to me I don't know who you are anymore for me to go. Oh, I don't know who I am anymore either. And that started like it was a catalyst and it started me actually reflecting on actually, no, maybe we're not thriving in this relationship together, because I am a believer that you know you either grow together or you grow apart, and that's okay. That's just part of being human and that's part of life, and if you grow apart, it's about being, you know, doing so in such a way that you just wish each other happiness and accept that maybe together you weren't, weren't meant to be.

Catherine Crestani: 3:47

And then, once, then I had my personal life sorted and I was so happy in myself. I managed to attract my husband now, accidentally, was not looking for another relationship. I was really excited to be single for a while, you know, because I got married quite young and you know. And then all of a sudden, oh, this part of my life is amazing and everyone's like, wow, you were just in this happy love bubble. It's like, yeah, we are, we're genuinely in this happy bubble, you know. And then we started building our life together and then that made me realize how unhappy I was in my work life. So at that point I had my own business, but also I was in a business partnership and it was quite toxic, the business partnership. And it was only once I realized and started taking value in myself and empower myself that I could say, all right, this isn't right, I need to actually now, you know, move away from that. And and I say that was my second divorce. So I went through a marriage divorce and then I went through a business partner divorce and then, from there I had my own company, which grew and it grew and it grew.

Catherine Crestani: 4:51

But unfortunately, nicole, I'd made the culture dependent on me. Everything came back to me. I was the center, I was the answer for everything, I was IT, I was the person checking reports, I was, everything was about me and I was working seven days a week. I was waking it was almost 24 hours because even I would go to bed and wake up in the middle of the night and go oh my gosh, I have to send this email, this email, this email. And I started sending the emails on a delay send because writing the list wasn't enough anymore and I had adrenal fatigue. I had chronic you know stress, I had burnout, I had panic attacks. I can't tell you how many times I felt like I couldn't breathe. You know, I had anxiety. I had all these things because I created this culture that wasn't serving me.

Catherine Crestani: 5:36

And it was only when I started my spiritual journey and unpacking my spiritual gifts and my spiritual mentor said you need to sit down and write a list of everything you like doing in your company and everything you don't, and the list of what I liked when I was truly honest with myself was maybe four or five things, and the list of what I didn't was everything else. And I went, oh you know, this needs to change. Like this isn't right. So then, you know, I made this process of selling and all of a sudden I had this space to be me and find myself again. But subconsciously, because I still had that worth and that doubt issue, I decided to push all that wealth away and I still to this day. I'm not sure what happened to it all, and it's not like we're big spenders or anything like that, but it's just how the universe works, right? If you don't think you're worthy of it and deserving of receiving it, then it gets pushed away. And all of a sudden, we went from I'm like, oh great, I can have some time off, I can actually breathe, and we went back to living from week to week and I was like, how did this happen, you know? And it was then that I started to work through my wealth story and my worth story.

Catherine Crestani: 6:48

More than the wealth, it was my worth and learning that I am enough.

Catherine Crestani: 6:52

And you know, something I do with my clients is, you know, we actually look and write down all the things that we do to contribute to others, and especially as a mom. We forget that our value comes from actually being the mom. You know, like washing and doing laundry, and you know cooking and doing the school runs and all these amazing things. We forget that has value. This because we're not getting paid for it doesn't mean that it doesn't have value. And when you realize that and if you, I often say, if you don't look after yourself, what's going to happen to the rest of your family? If you can't get out of bed in the morning because you're so unwell, because you've neglected your health, you've neglected yourself what's going to happen to your family? And that really puts things in perspective. You know it's only once we step back and go yeah, you know, that's kind of what happens. Then you can go all right, this isn't working, I need to build a life that's for me, and then everyone else gets that overflow once my cup is full.

Nicole Tuxbury: 7:56

Yeah, yes, yes, yes, yes. Talk about overcoming yourself, talking about being able to have hard talks with yourself, right, and sometimes it's hard to have honest talks, like you have to sit down with yourself and you have to be really, really honest and be like no mask, no, like no expectation, like what is it that you want? Like get away from everybody, clear it out. But that is so important. And I want you to talk to me a little bit about gratitude. Has gratitude played a part in this journey for you?

Catherine Crestani: 8:28

So much so. So you know, even when I didn't understand what was happening, the most powerful thing I heard was thank you for the good.

Catherine Crestani: 8:37

I cannot see and just saying that you know, because, especially when you're in those low moments and I fully understand anyone listening how those low moments can feel and how they just you know, I've been on a ball in the floor rocking and crying because you know I had a whole heap of staff leave and the you know, in the industry I'm in or was in, it was really hard to find staff. So you know, for me that was like oh my goodness. You know I'm trying to work less and all of a sudden I've got a bigger workload again and just rocking and being in that point where, you know, because the vibration and the energy that we're in actually moves it up, and then your, your brain goes oh, actually we don't have to put as much focus on that now. We can actually shift that and we can be that change now.

Catherine Crestani: 9:36

And every morning I wake up and I have a daily practice, so I wake up an hour before my family, so I'm up at like this morning it was 4 30, but normally it's around 5 am and I make it 505 because I'm a number person. So I'm up at like this morning it was 4.30, but normally it's around5 AM and I make it 5.05 cause I'm a number person. So I get up at 5.05 and everyone's like, yep, I get that and I will spend that first hour on me. And when my coach originally told me to do that, I said you're crazy. You know I need my sleep. But now I have so much energy it's not that anymore. It's like I wanna get up and I wanna honor myself. So I do.

Catherine Crestani: 10:11

And you can just start by doing one thing for yourself. Just pick one thing. So for me, I started with a gratitude practice, right, and it was like right, I wake up in the morning and I think of five things I'm grateful for. And if you're really struggling, it can be as simple as I'm grateful I have a bed to sleep in. I'm grateful I'm alive. I'm grateful I have air to breathe. I'm grateful I've got water, I've got food. It can be that simple and that can change your whole perspective and outlook for the rest of the day. You know, um? And then the next week you've got that gratitude practice. Then you can add something else for yourself. It might be meditation, it might be a bit of movement, it might be making a cup of tea or a coffee and actually drinking it while it's warm, you know. So it might be as simple as that.

Nicole Tuxbury: 10:56

You know, and even if it's just sitting somewhere and doing nothing, because maybe you don't get a chance to do that during the day, and so you want to sit down and you want to watch some trashy tv, do it. If that's what, if that's what inspires you, why not right?

Catherine Crestani: 11:10

I absolutely love that Exactly. And if you start your day with that, then you've got the gas to then get yourself through the rest of the day. And because you've started by doing something you love and by you honoring yourself and anyone who's trying to start their own business, I often tell them, you know, especially if they've got a nine to five and they what they tend to do is they'll start their day with their nine to five and then they'll get home and have no energy left to do what they actually love and are passionate about. You need to flip that. You need to start your day doing something for your business, for you, and then that's going to make the mundane and the fuel and give you the fuel to get through the rest of the day. Whether it's parenting, whether it's doing a job you don't want to be in, whether it's trying to create something, whatever it might be doing, something you love is going to fuel you to get through the rest of that.

Nicole Tuxbury: 12:03

And you're doing that right now, like you're leading by example, because it's morning time for you, right, even though it's nighttime for me.

Catherine Crestani: 12:09

Yeah. So I'll give you an example of my morning. This morning and I'm not bragging, this is just I got up, so I was up there. Um, yeah, I was up at quarter to five. I had a podcast interview at 5 30, so before that I was doing, I did um meditation.

Catherine Crestani: 12:26

I like a quick meditation, so I check in every day with God and ask how I can serve. So that's how I set my tone for the day, which I found is really powerful and keeps me connected and feeling into my inner wisdom. And then I did my gratitude practice and then I do some movement. I try and do a bit of yoga every day to keep my body moving. I do pushups against the wall, which is really, really powerful. If anyone's wondering, it says I can't do pushups, just use a wall. It's great and you know. And then I would go do the things I always put off, so my Instagram reel and then connecting with people like meaningful connections, and then there I was off. So I've done my third podcast for today and it's only 10 to 9 in the morning here. So you know it's just yeah.

Catherine Crestani: 13:12

And then the rest of the day I'm going to spend with my child, because we homeschool, and then with my son, because we're doing a few things today, and then this evening will be coaching for me. So you know, my day is actually structured around building relationships and creating that life that I wanted and how I want it to look like, rather than what other people dictate it should look like.

Nicole Tuxbury: 13:35

Yes, I had to have a talk with myself the other day about that and really I was like, well, you need to work more. And then I stopped and I was like, says who Like work what you're working, make the best of it. But like nobody, there's no need for you to work more, like you clearly don't want to, because if you did want to, you would have done it already. So, you know, like working more hours, um, and it's funny how we beat ourselves up about that because, like, I'm always doing something if it's not like a work thing, if you know a podcast episode, working on some copy, doing something on social media we're doing stuff around the house, you know, right, like you said, like we're doing laundry or we're cleaning the floor or we're giving you know, dogs baths and we're washing the you know the stuff theys and we're washing the you know the stuff they threw up on and cleaning the windows and running to the grocery store, and then we don't give ourselves credit for those things, right, and so I think that's that's so powerful. And, you know, gratitude helps us, helps us see that Something that you mentioned being grateful for the air that's something I talked about in a podcast earlier today we were recording.

Nicole Tuxbury: 14:35

If you can't find anything to be grateful for, be grateful for the fact that the oxygen has the exact, right percentages of what you need just to be able to breathe. Because I remember being at a point where I couldn't even be grateful to be alive because it didn't fit in my head, it didn't make sense to me. I was like this is not something to be grateful for, and that's sad, but that was where I was right, and so I had to learn how to find things that I was like well, at least I can breathe. Well, at least, like you said, like it, you know my back hurts, but at least I can feel it. At least I have a a fighting chance to make something, um, make something good out of this right and to overcome this. So, um, I love that, um, so I would love to know know if you have a free gift for the audience, like please definitely tell us about that and let us know how we can stay in touch with you, catherine.

Catherine Crestani: 15:25

Yeah, definitely Thanks, nicole. So I just want to add too when you were saying about the gratitude, I had a mentor and she said that she hated going to work but her boss treated her quite poorly, so she had to find gratitude in that. So her gratitude was like I'm grateful her shoes match her outfit and I'm grateful she's nice to her child, you know, and things like that. So you can find, you know, and be humorous about it. That humor can lift you up and get you out of that as well, and having that joy and that laughter it very, very powerful. So, um, thank you for for sharing your experience too, where you know it's just yeah, um, so how to get in contact with me? So I've got a website which will take you to my app. If you want to download it. You don't have to download it, but it it's just has a lot more features. So it's willowhealingorg, so o-r-g and um.

Catherine Crestani: 16:17

On there you can find there's a free community. There's lots of free gifts as well, and the gift I'm leaving to your listeners is a month of subscription where you can actually listen to our meditations and activations for free. So if you're looking for a guided meditation and I try and keep them short. Some are longer, but there's also short ones as well. Because I'm a mom, I get it. I listen to everything on double time, so I fully understand, you know what's that?

Catherine Crestani: 16:42

like you can also follow me on Instagram. So it's Willow Healing and then SH at the end of it, and every Monday morning I do a live all Sydney time where you can tune in and I do a free Oracle reading where it just gives the energy for the week and if you like it, you can get a free Oracle reading as well, where you can tune in and I do a free oracle reading where it just gives the energy for the week and, if you like it, you can get a free oracle reading as well, so you can interact that way. And you can also find me on substack, so willowhealingsubstackcom awesome.

Nicole Tuxbury: 17:08

All those links will be available down in the show notes.

Catherine Crestani: 17:11

Yes, and yeah, and we'll give you that discount code as well in the show notes, and Nicole will make it available for you too, just because I have to set it up and make sure it works first, because I'm human.

Nicole Tuxbury: 17:22

Absolutely. Oh my gosh. Thank you so much, Catherine. So if you were going to sign off and leave us with a few words of wisdom, what would they be?

Catherine Crestani: 17:34

I would say to trust yourself and that you can be the change you want to be in the world and your life can look exactly how you want it to be. You just have to believe yeah, I love that.

Nicole Tuxbury: 17:45

Oh my gosh. Thank you so much, catherine. This has just been absolutely amazing um and um. We will see you online. So thanks for joining us and we'll see you next time on overcome yourself the podcast thanks, nicole, thank you.