The Catherine Plano Podcast

Catherine Plano
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Your ultimate resource for expanding your mind and accessing more of your brain, while experiencing unparalleled ‘aha’ moments with guaranteed radical shifts to your learning and growth. Catherine’s goal is to help you become the very best version of yourself - to live an extraordinary life by reaching your fullest potential, with self-coaching strategies to boost your confidence, make better decisions, create new habits, kickstart your motivation, get extraordinary results and build lasting change for a meaningful life that you will absolutely love! Get inspired and energised with your weekly dose of new ideas and insights.

  1. Your Children Aren't Here to Be Fixed, They're Here to Wake You Up with Dr. Shefali

    1D AGO

    Your Children Aren't Here to Be Fixed, They're Here to Wake You Up with Dr. Shefali

    Your Children Aren’t Here to Be Fixed, They’re Here to Wake You Up What if every argument with your child, every slammed door, every moment of frustration has nothing to do with them and everything to do with a wound you never healed? It’s a confronting question. And for most parents, the instinct is to reject it immediately. But in this powerful conversation with Dr. Shefali, the founder of the Conscious Parenting movement, she reveals a truth that could transform not just the way you parent, but the way you understand every relationship in your life: your children are not the problem. They are the mirror. The Zombie Epidemic in Modern Parenting “Most people are so-called zombie-like, moving through life in reactivity,” Dr. Shefali explains. “Not aware that they can get into the driver’s seat and begin to mandate their reactions.” As a clinical psychologist with a doctorate from Columbia University and three New York Times bestselling books, Dr. Shefali has spent decades studying a pattern that plays out in homes across the world. Parents unconsciously project their unresolved pain, unmet needs, and unfulfilled dreams onto their children without ever realising it. And that unchecked authority goes completely unsupervised. The result? We cast our children into roles they never chose. We write the movie, direct the scenes, and expect everyone to follow the script. Then when our children resist, we label them as difficult. When they defy us, we feel rejected. But they’re not rejecting us. They’re rejecting the role we assigned them. Your Triggers Are the Gift Dr. Shefali offers a framework that flips everything on its head. Rather than assuming your reaction to your child’s behaviour is justified, start with the presumption that you have projected your own wounds onto the situation. Then prove to yourself that you haven’t. She uses the example of a child hiding a C grade from their parent. The instinct is anger, disappointment, even betrayal. But when you pause and trace that reaction to its root, you often discover an old wound around shame, unworthiness, or fear of failure that was planted decades ago during your own childhood. “The triggers are the gifts that help you turn around and look within,” she says. “They show you where you’re not yet free.” This is the essential inner work. And it doesn’t just transform parenting. It breaks the cycle of generational trauma that quietly passes from one family to the next. Social Media: The Red Flag Parents Can’t Ignore The conversation takes an urgent turn when Dr. Shefali addresses social media’s impact on young people. She doesn’t soften her words, comparing unrestricted access for children to handing them drugs or alcohol. She highlights the alarming rise in anxiety, self-harm, eating disorders, and isolation among teenagers, driven by a digital world built on comparison, perfectionism, and curated reality. She applauds Australia’s legislation restricting social media for children under 16, and urges parents to treat screen time as a red flag behaviour that demands firm, non-negotiable boundaries. Three Truths Every Parent Needs to Hear Dr. Shefali closes with three uncomfortable truths. First, your children are here to show you where you haven’t healed. Second, every moment of reactivity towards your child is a wake-up call to unresolved pain within you. And third, your child is not here to fulfil your expectations. They are here to live their own life and their own destiny. See Dr. Shefali Live in Australia, March 2026 Dr. Shefali is bringing her transformative teachings to Australia for two powerful live events. Hailed by Oprah as “revolutionary” and the “best child expert,” she is a 3-time New York Times bestselling author, clinical psychologist, and pioneer of the Conscious Parenting movement who has trained over 1,200 coaches worldwide. This event is for everyone, not just parents. Whether you’re a mother, father, leader, teacher, or simply someone seeking healing and direction, this experience will help you reconnect with your true self and break free from outdated patterns, expectations, and emotional pain. Melbourne | Palais Theatre | Wednesday, 11 March 2026 Sydney | State Theatre | Thursday, 12 March 2026 Tickets are limited. Book now at events.drshefali.com/australia Watch the full conversation on YouTube. Find Out More About Dr. Shefali Website: drshefali.com Follow on Instagram: @doctorshefali Book: The Parenting Map

    41 min
  2. When Your Identity Shatters: A Therapist's Journey Through Suffering with Dr. John W. Price

    FEB 10

    When Your Identity Shatters: A Therapist's Journey Through Suffering with Dr. John W. Price

    When Your Identity Shatters: A Therapist’s Journey Through Suffering What if the moment your entire identity falls apart isn’t a breakdown but a sacred initiation? What if the culture that taught you to pathologise your pain has stolen your capacity to transform through it? For over 28,000 hours, Dr. John W. Price has sat knee to knee with people in their most debilitating shatterings. As a Jungian psychotherapist with a doctorate in depth psychology, he doesn’t just understand suffering intellectually. He has walked through the fire himself, and it’s that lived experience that makes him one of the most compelling guides for anyone navigating identity crisis, spiritual awakening, or the terrifying process of becoming who you actually are. In this profound conversation, Dr Price reveals why tying your self-worth to your net worth creates a dangerous trap, how “sacred refusal” becomes an act of devotion, and why the moments when everything crumbles are actually the gateways to transformation our modern world has forgotten how to honour. The Man Who Lost Everything to Find His Calling Dr. Price’s path to the therapist’s chair began on stage. From age six, music was his calling. He was self-motivated, wild, rebellious, smoking in the boys’ room while dreaming of guitars and record deals. By his mid-twenties, he had signed that deal and was touring nationally, living the dream he had fantasised about since childhood. Then everything came crashing down. The birth of his son, the collapse of an unhealthy relationship, and the sudden weight of single fatherhood shattered every identity he had built. He weighed 35 pounds less from stress, found himself in court battles, and sat in a therapist’s office feeling completely lost. “I had a shattering of an identity,” he recalls. “My whole life dream was disrupted.” But in that therapist’s chair, working with a brilliant woman named Charlene who introduced him to Buddhist meditation, something shifted. Dr. Price realised he didn’t just want healing. He wanted to offer it. That moment of recognition sent him back to school, this time as a ravenous student pursuing a master’s in clinical psychology and eventually a doctorate in Jungian depth psychology. Why We Pathologise Our Own Initiations One of Dr. Price’s most powerful insights centres on how our culture has lost the capacity to recognise transformation for what it is. “Because our culture doesn’t really have an orientation to initiate us into this kind of process, we pathologise it, and we think that something is wrong,” he explains. When your identity crumbles, when the life that looked good on paper suddenly feels unbearable, when you can no longer perform the role everyone expects of you, our society tells you something is broken. But Dr. Price sees these moments differently. They are sacred shatterings, initiations that ancient cultures would have honoured with ritual and community support. The problem for so many high achievers is that they have tied their sense of self-worth entirely to their net worth, their title, their role. When that foundation shifts, they don’t just lose a job or a relationship. They lose themselves. “How do you actually trust the fall rather than resist it?” becomes the central question. Sacred Refusal and Living Mythically Drawing on wisdom from his mentor Richard Rohr and Jungian analyst James Hollis, Dr. Price introduces the concept of “sacred refusal.” This is the practice of stopping performance, of refusing to comply with systems that don’t serve your soul. “Any win for the self, or the soul, is experienced as a death by the socialised ego,” he teaches, quoting Hollis. This is why leaving family systems feels so terrifying. Why creating your own journey requires walking into the wilderness of the unknown. Why individuation always costs something. But the alternative is living according to control-based systems, whether religious, political, economic, or corporate, that keep you performing and compliant rather than transforming and free. Dr. Price’s vision is one of resurrection. Not just personal healing, but remembering that life is a sacred text, not a self-improvement plan. We are stories within a story, and transformation isn’t about getting better. It’s about experiencing life more completely and fully. Three Golden Nuggets Every Emotion Is a Teacher – Stay with what hurts long enough to hear its wisdom. Refusal Is Devotion – What you stop performing becomes sacred space. Live Mythically – See life as a sacred text, not a self-improvement plan. About Dr. John W. Price Dr. John W. Price is a licensed psychotherapist, Jungian scholar, and host of The Sacred Speaks podcast. He holds a Master’s in Clinical Psychology and a Doctorate in Jungian Psychology, and serves as President of the Board at the Jung Center of Houston. With over 28,000 clinical hours and 800,000 podcast downloads, he guides people through grief, identity collapse, and spiritual awakening. You can watch the video of the conversation on YouTube Find Out More About Dr. John W. Price Website: www.drjohnwprice.com Instagram: @thesacredspeaks YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheSacredSpeaks

    1h 7m
  3. Stop Forcing Your Life to Work - Here's Why You're Stuck with Brett Baughman

    FEB 3

    Stop Forcing Your Life to Work - Here's Why You're Stuck with Brett Baughman

    What if the reason you’re exhausted, frustrated, and stuck isn’t because you’re not working hard enough, but because you’re forcing your life instead of flowing with it? In this transformative episode, nationally recognised executive coach Brett Baughman shares 25 years of wisdom about discovering the critical difference between forcing and flowing, and why most people are unknowingly hiring the wrong version of themselves for the life they’re trying to build. The Man Who Lives His Calling Brett Baughman didn’t stumble into peak performance coaching. From a young age, he possessed an innate ability to see people for who they truly are, helping them feel seen, heard, and understood. This gift evolved into his life’s work: helping others discover their passion so they can live with purpose and make a meaningful impact. “I have so much abundance in my life that not only is it a calling, but it pours out of me,” Brett shares. “I have to, right? It’s kind of like my responsibility for giving back for the blessings I’ve had in my life.” The Flow State Formula One of Brett’s most powerful frameworks is recognising when you’re flowing versus when you’re forcing. When you’re in flow, doors open effortlessly. You wake up inspired. Good ideas come naturally. You meet the right people at the right time. Gratitude becomes your default state. Forcing looks completely different. Frustration replaces gratitude. Time feels scarce. You’re pushing against closed doors repeatedly. Your mental, physical, and spiritual wellness starts declining. “When something’s not going the way you want, stop and say, am I forcing things?” Brett advises. “You’re going to be putting too much energy into something and realise like, this is not what I should do. And you have to let go and flow. And as soon as you let go, you’ll start to get clarity and things will start to line up.” The Take Five Method: Transform Emotional Chaos Into Clarity Brett’s signature practice is “Take Five and Come Back Better.” Whether you’re arguing with your partner or spiralling in negative self-talk, this technique will change your life within days. When you notice you’re not being the person you want to be, stop and excuse yourself. Take two to three minutes and do breathwork using the 4-2-6 technique: inhale through your nose for 4 seconds, hold for 2 seconds, slowly exhale for 6 seconds. Repeat for two minutes. “If you really breathe and just slow the breathing down, you turn off that emotional thinking,” Brett explains. “The anger, the sadness, the fear, the guilt goes away. You become objective.” Once calm, ask yourself two critical questions: “How is that emotion helping me?” and “What am I supposed to learn from this experience?” These questions transform emotional reactions into growth opportunities. Are You Hiring the Right Person for the Job? Every morning, Brett wants you to ask: Am I the right person for this job I’ve assigned myself today? If you wake up in a terrible mood, lacking confidence, feeling defeated, then you’re not the person to do the job. That version of you will never produce the results you want. “It doesn’t mean don’t do the job,” Brett clarifies. “It means go get aligned first.” Because as Brett powerfully states: “As you build it, so shall it live.” There’s No Such Thing as Failure, Only Feedback Brett calls this philosophy “failing forward.” When something doesn’t work, ask what you learned and what you’ll do differently next time. This removes the fear of mistakes and replaces it with curiosity about growth. About Brett Baughman Brett Baughman is a nationally recognised executive coach, voted Top Business Coach to Work With by Apple News. With over 25 years of experience guiding high-performing executives, CEOs, and leadership teams, Brett is a trusted expert in helping people break through to their next level of success. As the creator of The Ideal You framework, Action Mastery Retreats, and the immersive Breath House Experience, Brett has helped clients launch new ventures, scale companies, and achieve outstanding financial success while becoming healthier, happier, and more fulfilled humans. Key Takeaway You are designed for flow, not force. Real transformation happens when you recognise the difference between pushing against closed doors and riding the river of your calling. Stop fighting against your own nature and start aligning with it. Coming home to yourself means releasing the belief that success requires suffering and claiming your right to live in grateful, inspired flow. Watch the Full Conversation on YouTube Find Out More About Brett Baughman Website: https://www.brettbaughman.com/ Follow on Instagram: @bybrettbaughman Follow on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brettbaughman YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/iempoweryou

    1h 3m
  4. Why You REALLY Procrastinate (It's Not Laziness, It's Emotional Protection)

    JAN 27

    Why You REALLY Procrastinate (It's Not Laziness, It's Emotional Protection)

    Have you ever stared at your to-do list, felt that familiar dread, and suddenly decided that reorganising your sock drawer was the most important task in the world? What if that delay you keep shaming yourself for isn’t laziness at all—but your mind trying to protect you from something it perceives as threatening? In this powerful episode, we shatter the myth that procrastination is a character flaw or lack of discipline. The truth is far more revealing: procrastination isn’t the enemy—it’s a messenger. It’s a mirror reflecting how we manage emotion, fear, and self-worth. While the world tells you to push harder and discipline yourself into action, something far more transformative happens when you stop fighting the delay and start understanding it. This episode reveals three transformative insights about the psychology behind procrastination and how to turn delay into self-awareness. The Comfort of Future Self-Deception: Every time you tell yourself “I’ll do it tomorrow,” your brain is playing its favourite trick. We imagine a future version of ourselves who is infinitely capable—a superhero who will have more energy, more focus, more time. Psychologists call this temporal discounting: we prioritise immediate comfort over future benefit. And here’s the trap—every time we delay, we get a tiny hit of relief. Dopamine whispers that we escaped discomfort, and that relief reinforces the habit. We don’t procrastinate to waste time. We procrastinate to avoid pain. The next time you catch yourself scrolling instead of starting, pause and ask: what am I trying not to feel? It’s rarely laziness. It’s emotional protection. The Fear Factor—Perfectionism in Disguise: Behind every chronic procrastinator, there’s usually a perfectionist hiding. We delay not because we don’t care, but because we care too much. The thought of doing something imperfectly triggers fear of judgment, rejection, and even success itself. So we wait. We polish. We overthink. Because as long as the task isn’t done, it can’t be wrong. “If I never finish, I never fail”—that’s the quiet logic of procrastination. Safety disguised as strategy. But here’s the paradox: by avoiding the discomfort of imperfection, we create the pain of paralysis. Progress doesn’t come from perfection. It comes from movement. Rewriting Your Procrastination Story: Once you understand procrastination, you can begin to rewire it. The key is not to fight it, but to get curious about it. Start small—break overwhelming goals into tiny doable steps. The brain loves completion, and even micro-successes release dopamine that fuels momentum. Reframe the task: instead of “I have to finish,” try “I’ll just begin.” Beginning is often the hardest part, and once you start, inertia works for you instead of against you. Most importantly, replace self-criticism with self-compassion. Research shows that people who forgive themselves for procrastinating are far less likely to repeat the pattern. When you remove the shame, you remove the resistance. This isn’t just an episode—it’s permission to stop shaming yourself and start listening to what your delays are trying to tell you. Procrastination is your mind saying something here feels too heavy, too uncertain, or too much. When you listen with compassion, the delay dissolves and action feels natural again. The goal isn’t to conquer procrastination. It’s to understand it. And once you understand it, you are free. You can watch the video of this episode on YouTube. Newsletter: https://catherineplano.com for transformation. Instagram: @catherineplano for inspiration.

    7 min
  5. I Share My Feelings for a Living (And Left My VP Job to Do It) with Case Kenny

    JAN 20

    I Share My Feelings for a Living (And Left My VP Job to Do It) with Case Kenny

    What if the reason you feel like a stranger to yourself isn’t that you’re lost, but because you’ve been performing for so long, you forgot what authenticity looks like? From childhood, so many of us learned that success meant following the script: get the degree, climb the ladder, earn the title, achieve the milestones. But somewhere along the way, that external validation became internal disconnection. In this powerful episode, bestselling author and mindfulness expert Case Kenny reveals the truth about modern identity: it’s not about finding yourself once and being done. It’s about constant reinvention through reflection. He explains why “just being yourself” might be the worst advice you’ve ever received, and how the traits you think make you too much are actually what attract the right people to you. This is a conversation for anyone who’s tired of feeling like one person at work and a stranger at home, for anyone questioning whether the life that looks good on paper actually feels good in reality. Because real fulfilment doesn’t come from collecting achievements. It begins the moment you become the same person inside the conference room and outside. The Man Who Walked Away Case Kenny didn’t just study personal development; he lived the crisis that demanded it. At 28, he was the Regional Vice President of Sales at an advertising agency, crushing quotas and living what looked like the professional dream. He knew exactly who he was supposed to be in the office: confident, successful, the man with all the answers. Then he’d go home. “I would go to my job and feel like one person, and then I leave and I don’t know who I am,” Case recalls. “I’m like, I don’t know who I am on a human level, or a boyfriend level, or a partner level, or a son level, or a brother level. And I was like, that’s problematic for me.” This acute disconnect sparked a radical experiment. In 2018, he launched a podcast not to build an audience, but to force himself into self-reflection. Each episode became a laboratory where he’d unpack an emotion, desire, or expectation and “beat it up with mindfulness and logic.” Eight years later, he’s left corporate life entirely and built a career around what he jokingly calls “sharing my feelings for a living.” Why “Just Be Yourself” Is Terrible Advice “I’m really not a big fan of advice that’s like, just be yourself,” Case explains, “because if you decide that when you’re 20, you should not be the same person at 25, 30, 35, 40.” The popular wisdom tells us to discover ourselves and commit to that identity. But Case argues this is a dangerous fallacy. Real wisdom doesn’t come from experience alone; it comes from reflecting on experience. Without constant reflection, we risk living according to outdated beliefs and values that no longer serve us. “We don’t get wisdom from life experience. We get wisdom from reflecting on life experience,” he says, paraphrasing John Dewey. The things that happen to you shape who you are, but it’s reflecting on those experiences that should have the final say in who you become. His background in languages (he double majored in Chinese and Arabic at Notre Dame) resurfaces in his work. Case views personal development through a linguistic lens, believing that the words we use to describe our experiences fundamentally shape our reality. Out-of-Town Confidence: The Framework That Changes Everything One of Case’s most powerful concepts is “out-of-town confidence,” a mental model that reframes how we approach relationships and life goals. Imagine you’re visiting Miami for the first time. You’d probably be more extroverted, more confident, more open to new experiences. Why? Because you’re not fixated on any single person or outcome. The focus is on the experience itself, and if you happen to meet someone amazing along the way, that’s a bonus. “Get the most out of life as possible, not in a crazy, selfish, narcissistic way, but just as the human endeavour,” Case explains. “And then you use that as the lens to say, is this person right for me?” This philosophy challenges the traditional narrative that finding “the one” is life’s ultimate mission. Instead, he argues we should extract maximum value from being human rather than outsourcing our happiness to external validators. The Liking Gap and Your Weird Wealth Research proves something counterintuitive: you’re more likable than you think you are. It’s called the “liking gap,” and it operates across cultures and languages. After interactions, we consistently underestimate how much the other person enjoyed our company. “You and I interact. I leave the conversation thinking, I don’t think she really liked me that much,” Case describes. “Overwhelmingly so, you are more likely to say, no, I liked Case. He seemed like a cool guy.” Even more powerful: the traits you consider “too much,” weird, or outside normal are actually nonconforming traits that research shows are more attractive than conventional ones. “Double down on the things that you think make you weird,” Case advises. “Your passion is a magnet for the right people and a filter for the wrong people.” Having It All Together Means Nothing When asked about “having it all together,” Case reframes the entire concept. We imagine perfection as possessing everything simultaneously: the career, partner, body, happiness, and friendships all at once. That’s fantasy. “I’ve had the career but not the partner, the partner but not the career, the career but not the money,” he explains. Reality is transitional, and the binary thinking of “everything or nothing” sets us up for perpetual disappointment. His alternative is simple: ask yourself one question as often as possible. “In this moment, with what I’m doing, with my habits, with my partner, with my diet, with my friends, with my city, do I feel like my most honest self?” Then adjust, pivot, and move accordingly. About Case Kenny Case Kenny is a bestselling author, podcast host, and creator who left his role as Regional VP of Sales in advertising to pursue full-time work in mindfulness, language, and personal development. With a background in Chinese and Arabic from the University of Notre Dame, he brings a unique linguistic lens to self-discovery. He’s been podcasting twice a week for eight years, helping people find clarity, kindness, and optimism in their lives. Key Takeaway You are not destined to remain the person you were at 20, 25, or even last year. The identity crisis you experience isn’t a problem to solve but an invitation to evolve. When you stop performing and start reflecting, when you bring out-of-town confidence to everyday life, and when you embrace the transitional nature of having it all, you become the same person inside the conference room and outside. Coming home to yourself means releasing the belief that there’s one right way to live and claiming your right to constant reinvention. Watch the full conversation on YouTube Find Out More About Case Kenny Website: https://casekenny.com Follow on Instagram: @case.kenny

    53 min
  6. The Age When Women Become Most Powerful with Marianne Williamson

    JAN 13

    The Age When Women Become Most Powerful with Marianne Williamson

    What if everything you’ve been told about aging is a lie? What if your 50s and 60s aren’t about fading into irrelevance, but about finally becoming who you were always meant to be? In this transformative episode, bestselling author and spiritual teacher Marianne Williamson dismantles the cultural narrative that treats midlife as a slow decline. Instead, she reveals it as the most powerful awakening of your life—a time when the wisdom you’ve accumulated can no longer stay silent, when you stop caring what others think, and when you finally have the courage to say what needs to be said. This is a conversation for anyone who’s been conditioned to fear aging, who’s carrying shadow figures from their past into their present, or who’s ready to claim the grandeur that only comes with lived experience. The Accidental Calling Marianne Williamson didn’t set out to become one of the most influential spiritual teachers of our time. In her 20s, she discovered A Course in Miracles and was captivated by its psychological mind training on forgiveness—dismantling a thought system based on fear and accepting one based on love instead. “At first it was just what it was doing for me,” she explains. “The career niche that I inhabit today didn’t even exist at that point.” She started with a small study group in a bookstore. Then she moved to Los Angeles, and the AIDS crisis burst onto the scene. Gay men flocked to her lectures because “in the middle of this horror, there was this then young woman talking about a God who loves you no matter what and about miracles.” One thing led to another. She published a book. Oprah Winfrey loved it. A Return to Love became a mega-bestseller, and a quote from it—”Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure”—became an anthem for seekers worldwide. But Marianne’s journey wasn’t always smooth. She ventured into politics, running for the Democratic nomination for President in both 2020 and 2024, and encountered a level of public scrutiny and mean-spiritedness she’d never faced in the spiritual world. “We all made mistakes in our 20s, but they weren’t written into the ethers of the internet to be with us forever,” she reflects, lamenting how young people today are denied the freedom to grow without permanent records of their missteps. The Shadow Figures We Carry One of the most powerful teachings Marianne shares is about forgiveness—not as a platitude, but as a practice of liberation. “A Course in Miracles says that if you bring the shadow figures of your past into the present, then you are programming the future to be just like the past,” she explains. Many of us replay painful memories, trying to forgive by reliving them. But this approach backfires. “Every time I brought it in and thought about it, it was almost like visceral, like it was reenacting what took place,” Catherine shares. Marianne’s response? Accept that it happened. Know that the love was real, the love you gave and received was eternal, and “the rest was literally a kind of shared illusion or nightmare, a kind of hallucination of consciousness, and you don’t have to carry it with you.” The ego, however, wants to keep bludgeoning you with it. What they did, what you did, what you didn’t do. But healing doesn’t come from endlessly analyzing where the wounds came from. “Knowing where you got this has done me no good,” Marianne admits. “Knowing you are this way, Marianne, and be willing not to be, and ask God’s help. That’s the miracle.” The Moment-by-Moment Practice Spiritual practice isn’t theoretical. It’s what you do when you wake up at 3 a.m. with your thoughts spiralling. It’s choosing whether to grab your phone and scroll through chaos or to ground yourself in meditation and prayer. “If you wake up in the morning and you go directly to the news, you go directly to social media, it’s like you’re saying to the chaos, come on, eat me alive, I’m open and available for that,” Marianne warns. But if you ground yourself in spiritual practice first, “it makes all the difference because it’s kind of like the yoga of consciousness. You get yourself in the correct position of alignment with the ever-unfolding thoughts of love.” The Course in Miracles teaches that there is no such thing as a neutral thought. Every thought either takes you toward greater oneness and peace or into anxiety, depression, and separation. “Every single moment is a moment of choice,” Marianne emphasises. “We either make that choice consciously or we make it unconsciously to either open the heart or to constrict.” When you constrict, you deflect the miracle. But here’s the beautiful part: “It’ll come back around again. It’ll be held in trust for you until you’re ready to receive it.” The Awakening to Power Midlife grief is real. You have to move through the loss of what you no longer have to receive what is only yours now. “I have found myself saying to younger women, you have things I don’t have anymore, but I have some things you don’t have yet,” Marianne shares. “And that’s what we’re awakening to.” At 50, she stopped caring what other people thought. But at 60? “I felt this level of power that is almost like not only do you not care what other people say, you have to. It’s like when a woman is breastfeeding, the milk has to express itself. The wisdom you have in you can’t not say it.” This isn’t about arrogance. It’s about recognising that we live in a culture where the undertow constantly whispers: you’re over the hill, you’re invisible, you’re all used up. “So we have to counter that undertow,” Marianne insists, “because it’s a new dawn for us. And the new dawn for us, we know can be of help in bringing a new dawn to the world.” When Catherine mentions people asking about retirement, Marianne’s response is instant: “I’m just getting started, honey.” The Evolutionary Moment Marianne sees humanity at a critical crossroads. “We’re living at this moment of parallel phenomenon, one world crumbling, another world struggling to be born. And we are called on to be death doulas and birth doulas.” This is not a time for the wounded bird, the ditzy female, or woundology. “It’s a time to really call ourselves and each other into the highest place.” The human race has reached a point where our collective behavioural patterns are no longer sustainable. We either take an evolutionary leap forward or face extinction. That leap begins with individual transformation. “Wake up every morning and ask, where would you have me go? What would you have me do? What would you have me say and to whom?” Marianne teaches. “Love, use me. Use my hands, use my feet.” You might be assigned to talk about personal transformation through a podcast. You might work on the environment, peace, food systems, or healing. But whatever your assignment, “everything else is ultimately meaningless.” Three Golden Nuggets for Your Journey Golden Nugget #1: Ask Who You’re Not Forgiving Identify who you haven’t forgiven and be willing to realise that the love they gave you was real, the love you gave them was real, and everything else was just a shared illusion. Put it in the hands of God and refuse to bring those shadow figures into your present. Golden Nugget #2: Be a Spiritual Athlete This is not a moment to indulge in moderate drinking, moderate drug use, or junk food. This is a moment to truly be in shape—physically, mentally, and spiritually. Your spiritual discipline and practice matter now more than ever. Golden Nugget #3: Reach Out to Someone Who Needs Help Think of someone in your life who could use support. Reach out. That simple act of extending love creates the field in which miracles occur naturally. About Marianne Williamson For more than four decades, Marianne Williamson has been a leader of spiritually progressive circles. She is the author of 16 books, four of which have been #1 New York Times bestsellers. A quote from the mega-bestseller A Return to Love, “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure…” is considered an anthem for a contemporary generation of seekers. Her other bestsellers include A Woman’s Worth, The Law of Divine Compensation, Tears to Triumph, The Gift of Change, Everyday Grace, and The Mystic Jesus: The Mind of Love. With her books and online classes, she has taught millions of people universal spiritual themes at the heart of all the great religions of the world. Williamson founded Project Angel Food, a non-profit organisation that has delivered more than 19 million meals to ill and dying homebound patients in the Los Angeles area since 1989. She has also worked throughout her career on poverty, anti-hunger, and racial reconciliation issues. In 2004, she co-founded The Peace Alliance and supported the creation of a U.S. Department of Peace. She ran for the Democratic nomination for President in both 2020 and 2024. Key Takeaway Midlife is not an ending. It’s the moment you finally have enough experience, enough failures, enough humility, and enough fire to become who you were always meant to be. The grief you move through unlocks access to a power you’ve never known. The wisdom inside you can no longer stay silent. And when you stop abandoning yourself to avoid being abandoned by others, you discover that real peace comes from alignment with love, moment by moment, choice by choice. You’re not over the hill. You’re just getting started. Watch the Full Conversation on YouTube SEE MARIANNE LIVE IN AUSTRALIA: Brisbane – February 22, 2025 Get Tickets Melbourne – February 25, 2025 Get Tickets Sydney – February 26, 2025 Get Tickets Find Out More About Marianne Williamson Website: Marianne.com S

    1h 28m
  7. EP 447: If You Felt Done With Everything in 2025, You Weren’t Breaking: Here’s What 2026 Actually Demands

    JAN 6

    EP 447: If You Felt Done With Everything in 2025, You Weren’t Breaking: Here’s What 2026 Actually Demands

    Have you ever felt like everything in your life was quietly unravelling, and you couldn’t tell if you were transforming or falling apart? What if that restlessness you felt all through 2025 wasn’t you breaking—it was you shedding what no longer fit? In this powerful episode, we explore why 2025 left so many of us feeling raw, done, and ready to walk away from versions of ourselves we’d outgrown. This wasn’t random discomfort—this was a Number 9 year combined with Snake energy, and it arrived to make you honest, not comfortable. While everyone around you was forcing momentum, you were doing something far more powerful: listening to truth you’d been avoiding. Now 2026 has begun as a Number 10 year—new identity with infinite potential—and it’s demanding something completely different from you. This episode reveals three transformative insights about what 2025 revealed and what 2026 actually demands from you now. Honour What the Shedding Revealed: The most important growth of 2025 was completely invisible. It didn’t come with applause or external validation. It came in the middle of the night when you finally admitted the truth you’d been avoiding. It came when you stopped explaining yourself to people who were never going to understand. It came when you let the friendship fade without forcing a dramatic ending. The Snake doesn’t shed loudly—it sheds in private, quietly, completely. You released jobs that drained you, beliefs that limited you, versions of yourself you’d outgrown. And you did it without fanfare, without needing validation, without turning your healing into performance. That wasn’t weakness—that was mastery. Internal work feels like nothing is happening, but it’s everything, because you cannot build a new life on a foundation you’ve outgrown. You Are Standing in Infinite Potential Right Now: Here’s what changes everything about 2026: most people see it as a Number 1 year and think “fresh starts,” but they’re missing the zero. And the zero is where the power lives. Zero represents Source, the unseen, the infinite field of possibility. This isn’t a year where you grind your way to success through willpower alone. This is a year of co-creation. The 1 is you—your vision, your clarity, your choice. The 0 is Source—the universe, the mysterious force that opens doors you didn’t even know existed. Together, they create something neither could accomplish alone. You’re not starting from scratch. You’re starting from clarity, from truth, from the solid ground of knowing who you are and what you will no longer tolerate. Stop carrying the weight of outcomes. Your job is to move, to choose, to act. The rest? That’s where the zero does its work. The Horse Demands You Run: Starting in February, everything shifts again. Horse energy arrives, and the Horse doesn’t tiptoe—the Horse runs. Where the Snake revealed truth, the Horse demands movement, courage, forward motion. Here’s the uncomfortable truth: clarity without action is just comfortable confusion. You know what you know now. 2025 gave you that gift. You see the patterns, understand the lies you believed about yourself, know what needs to change. But knowledge without embodiment is just intellectual entertainment. This year is asking you a different question—not “What do you know?” but “What will you do?” The Horse doesn’t wait for perfect conditions. It runs because running is its nature. And courage isn’t the absence of fear. Courage is moving while afraid, choosing freedom over familiarity every single day. Your assignment: identify one truth that 2025 revealed and take one action toward embodying it this week. Not next month. Not when you feel ready. This week. This isn’t just an episode—it’s an invitation to stop rehearsing your life and start living it. The shedding is done. 2025 cleared the way. 2026 is where you run. If you’re standing at the edge of your own expansion, afraid to jump, this one’s for you. You can watch the video of this episode on YouTube. Newsletter: https://catherineplano.com for transformation. Instagram: @catherineplano for inspiration.

    10 min
  8. Why You Can't Say No Without Feeling Guilty (Codependency Truth) with Lisa A. Romano

    12/16/2025

    Why You Can't Say No Without Feeling Guilty (Codependency Truth) with Lisa A. Romano

    What if the reason you can’t say no isn’t weakness, but conditioning? From childhood, so many of us were taught that love had to be earned, that being good meant staying quiet, agreeable, and available. But somewhere along the way, that survival strategy became self-betrayal. In this powerful episode, bestselling author and trauma recovery coach Lisa A. Romano reveals the truth about codependency: it’s not about needing others too much, but about forgetting who you are. She explains why guilt floods your body when you set a boundary and how healing begins the moment you realise your inner critic isn’t actually your voice—it’s an echo from your past. This is a conversation for anyone who’s tired of people-pleasing, over-giving, or shrinking themselves to keep the peace. Because real love doesn’t require you to abandon yourself. It begins the moment you come home to you. The Woman Who Broke the Cycle Lisa A. Romano didn’t just study codependency—she lived it. Growing up with parents who were adult children of alcoholics, one highly narcissistic and the other deeply codependent, Lisa carried shame throughout her entire childhood. She believed something about her made it impossible for her parents to love her. This pattern followed her into adulthood. She married a man similar to her mother, repeating the cycle of seeking approval and subjugating herself. After a severe breakdown and six therapists, she finally received the diagnosis that changed everything: codependency. The tragedy that catalysed her mission came when her brother-in-law, also an adult child of alcoholics, took his own life. In that devastating moment, Lisa realised that if he had understood codependency and childhood trauma the way she now did, he might still be alive. She pushed past her fears of what her family would think and published her first book, “The Road Back to Me,” which became an Amazon bestseller overnight. Today, as a certified life coach and leading expert in codependency and childhood trauma recovery, Lisa has helped over 5,000 students heal through her signature 12-week Breakthrough Method, blending neuroscience, trauma-informed coaching, mindfulness, and spiritual wisdom. What Codependency Actually Means “When you’re codependent, you don’t know that you’re codependent until your life becomes unmanageable,” Lisa explains. It operates completely below conscious awareness, a loop of childhood trauma disguised as personality. Codependency isn’t just people-pleasing. It’s people-pleasing from a loss of selfhood. It’s cleaning the house but needing your husband to walk in and pat you on the back. Making his favorite meal but requiring him to make a big deal about it. Watching your sister’s kids but expecting her to watch yours in return without having to ask. “With codependency, it’s an emotional enmeshment,” Lisa reveals. “I lose my sense of self and I’m emotionally reliant on someone in a very unhealthy way, and I don’t even realize it.” The dangerous part? Codependents often think they’re “the good one.” They’re the fixers, the caretakers, the ones always willing to listen. But beneath that giving is resentment, unmet expectations, and the victim mentality that comes from abandoning yourself while trying to avoid being abandoned by others. Why You Can’t Say No: The Childhood Programming The guilt you feel when setting boundaries isn’t random. It’s precisely programmed survival wiring from your first three years of life. “Your needs aren’t being served, your ego-based needs from zero to three,” Lisa explains. “You’re in a theta brainwave state, which is a hypnotic brainwave state.” During this critical period, if your narcissistic needs—the healthy developmental need to matter, to be seen, to have your feelings validated—go unmet, you don’t develop a solid ego boundary. Between ages three and five, children are supposed to be “little narcissists.” The adults around them should be managing what shows up inside them, helping them emotionally regulate, and teaching them that their feelings matter. When this doesn’t happen, children learn that they don’t have the right to feel, and therefore don’t have the right to set boundaries. “If I say no, I might get abandoned or criticised or judged or shamed or banished from the kingdom,” Lisa describes. “That’s all stored.” The brain creates a predictive model: saying no produces guilt as a way to prevent abandonment. You’re abandoning yourself to avoid outer abandonment. Operating Below the Veil “Below the veil of consciousness, we’re just operating on a loop,” Lisa says. “We’re operating on childhood trauma. These are belief systems. They’ve become habitual thoughts. It becomes part of our persona.” The subconscious mind is 500,000 to a million times stronger than the conscious mind. Most of your daily interactions are products of subconscious beliefs you’ve never questioned. You’re not living authentically—you’re recycling thoughts and patterns downloaded in childhood. “It’s hard to be yourself when you were taught that yourself was not worthy of love,” Lisa reflects. “How do you love a self that your childhood conditioned you to believe was not worthy of love?” The terror of being authentic becomes greater than the pain of being inauthentic. So you stay small, you people-please, you anticipate everyone else’s needs, and you resent them for not reading your mind. The Deep Questions That Activate Healing Lisa believes the gateway to transformation is uncomfortable self-inquiry: “How happy am I? How excited am I to get up in the morning? Do I really like my partner or do I resent them?” These are the questions we avoid by going to yoga and drinking Starbucks, she says with a laugh. We go through the motions in our relationships without examining how we’re showing up. “Do I say yes when I mean no? Do I race to solve other people’s problems with the intention for them to see me and find worthiness in me? Am I taking care of everybody else at the expense of myself? Am I secretly resentful?” These self-inquiring questions activate metacognition—the ability to observe your own thoughts and patterns from a higher state of consciousness. “There is no healing without metacognition,” Lisa emphasises. Without engaging your prefrontal lobe and neocortex, you’re stuck operating from the amygdala, hippocampus, and brainstem—pure thinking, feeling, and reacting with no space between stimulus and response. Stepping Out of Ego to Find Your True Self Lisa’s breakthrough came when she stopped identifying with her ego and recognised it as a product of her five senses and childhood downloads. “That’s my ego’s language, but that’s not my true identity,” she explains. She uses a powerful metaphor: “If I was in the middle of the ocean hanging onto a log, and the ego was that log, I’m not letting go until I see a raft. And I’m not jumping off the raft until I see a cruise ship.” Her life raft was this realisation: “These are all false beliefs. I am enough. If I had been born to a healthy mother, I wouldn’t think these thoughts.” The “I’m not enough” narrative was contingent on what happened to her, not who she actually was. “My divine essence is I’m an extension of source,” Lisa says. “Whoever and whatever created this entire cosmos created me. My inner child was always worthy, always worthy. I was just born to unhealthy dynamics.” Every flower leans toward the sun. Why should you stay in the shade? The Power of Meditation: Slowing Down the Loop When Lisa realised her negative self-talk was just reverberations of her mother’s constant criticism—not her actual thoughts—it terrified her. “Who the hell’s steering the ship?” she wondered. Her solution was meditation, sometimes for four to five hours a day. “I knew I had to empty my mind of this crazy self-talk that was so self-sabotaging and focused on what’s going to happen next.” The results were almost immediate. After 40 minutes to an hour, she could sit up and observe. If the monkey mind returned, she’d lie back down and do another session. Each time, the chatter slowed further. “Once I emptied the mind, it was like the observer within me was born. That’s metacognition. Now suddenly I’m outside of my mind observing. Now I can catch a negative thought. Now I can catch a codependent thought.” Healing Relationships Without Cutting Everyone Out One of the most common questions Lisa receives: “How do I heal without cutting people out of my life?” Her answer: surrender. “Surrender to this idea that I’m doing this deep healing work. Surrender that just because I’m doing this work doesn’t mean my partner is going to be doing this work. I surrender to their confusion about who I’m becoming.” The reality is nuanced. Some people shouldn’t stay in your life—those who are aggressive, manipulative, or actively exploiting your abandonment fears. When you try to assert yourself and they bash you for daring, that’s a sign. But other relationships can evolve. Lisa’s been with her second husband for 15 years. “He doesn’t believe in everything that I believe, and I freaking love that as a recovering codependent because I can tolerate that. I don’t need his approval. I don’t need him to agree with me.” He supports her completely even though he doesn’t fully understand her work. “That’s unconditional love,” Lisa says. “Why does that person have to change to make me happy if that person has goodwill towards me?” Expecting your partner to think exactly like you? That’s still codependency. Breaking Generational Trauma “Nature has no other recourse but to create by default unless the human being awakens,” Lisa explains. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. Y

    1h 10m
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4.8
out of 5
18 Ratings

About

Your ultimate resource for expanding your mind and accessing more of your brain, while experiencing unparalleled ‘aha’ moments with guaranteed radical shifts to your learning and growth. Catherine’s goal is to help you become the very best version of yourself - to live an extraordinary life by reaching your fullest potential, with self-coaching strategies to boost your confidence, make better decisions, create new habits, kickstart your motivation, get extraordinary results and build lasting change for a meaningful life that you will absolutely love! Get inspired and energised with your weekly dose of new ideas and insights.

Information

  • Creator
    Catherine Plano
  • Years Active
    2016 - 2026
  • Episodes
    400
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2025 All rights reserved.
  • Show Website
    The Catherine Plano Podcast

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