In this fourth week of The Anatomy of Change series, we explore Persistent Exposure, the moment when ignored pain can no longer be silenced.

After fear, denial, and bargaining, pain eventually demands our attention. It repeats itself in our relationships, careers, friendships, or even in our bodies. What once felt like a background hum becomes so loud we can’t escapeit.

In this episode we’ll uncover:

🔎 How to recognize when pain has shifted from subconscious to conscious exposure

🚨 Why recurring patterns are signals that healing is overdue

↔️ The tug-of-war between survival mode (ignoring) and conscious presence (facing)

🤝 Practical steps for meeting persistent pain with honesty instead of resistance

If you feel like you’ve been living the same story on repeat, this conversation will help you see the gift hidden in the repetition: your life is ready for change.

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👉🏼 1:1 Coaching with Austen:

https://www.arcandanchor.life/private-coaching

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==========

This week on Ride Your Tide, we’re diving into the third stage of The Anatomy of Change: Hopeful Bargaining. After fearingchange and ignoring our pain, many of us slip into this subtle but powerful phase, telling ourselves that if we wait long enough, the pain will simply fade away.

But the truth is, bargaining with life doesn’t make our struggles vanish. Instead, it deepens the roots of resistance, keeping us stuck in illusions rather than grounded in reality.

In this episode, we’ll explore:

🔎 How to recognize when you’re bargaining instead of healing

😔 Why resistance leads to more suffering, not less

💰 The hidden costs of bargaining in relationships, work, and self-growth

🚶🏽‍♀️ Practical steps to notice the pattern and begin moving toward acceptance

If you’ve ever felt like you’ve been treading water while life passes you by, this conversation will help you see the bargaining cycle clearly, and remind you that change is possible once we stop making silent deals withexistence and start living with truth.

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👉🏼 1:1 Coaching with Austen:

https://www.arcandanchor.life/private-coaching

⛵️ The Fleet | Group Coaching & Community:

https://www.arcandanchor.life/thefleet

⚓️ Learn More About Arc & Anchor:

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🤔 Exploring Coaching? Book a Free Clarity Call:

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==========

In this second week of The Anatomy of Change, we’ll look at what happens when we silence our inner knowing and convince ourselves that avoidance will make discomfort go away.

Ignoring pain might feel like relief at first, but over time, the roots grow deeper, spilling into every area of our lives. Relationships strain, our moods suffer, and our sense of self becomes shaped around a lie rather than truth.

In this episode, we'll cover:

🤔 Why ignoring pain is a common survival strategy

😔 How avoidance quietly prolongs suffering

🪧 The signs that pain is showing up in disguised ways across your life

😌 How to start honoring your needs instead of silencing them

Ignoring pain doesn’t erase it, it only makes it louder. By turning toward it, we begin to move out of survival mode and into honest healing.

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👉🏼 1:1 Coaching with Austen:

https://www.arcandanchor.life/private-coaching

⛵️ The Fleet | Group Coaching & Community:

https://www.arcandanchor.life/thefleet

⚓️ Learn More About Arc & Anchor:

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==========

Fear is often the first barrier that keeps us from making the changes we know we need. But not all fear is the same. Sometimes it’s the anxious fear of making the wrong choice, rooted in past conditioning that taught us to doubt ourselves. Other times, it’s the quiet, almost hopeful fear of making theright choice, the one that honors our truth and leads us into theunknown.

In this week’s episode, we explore the very first of eight phases in The Anatomy of Change: the fear of change. Together, we’ll uncover how to recognize the difference between these two fears, where our self-doubt often begins, and how to start trusting the pull of your own intuition.

You’ll walk away with:

🖼️ A framework for understanding the two kinds of fear

🙋‍♀️ Questions to identify which one is showing up for you

👂🏽 Practical guidance on how to listen inward instead of outward

💪🏼 Motivation to move forward with decisions that feel honest, even if they’re scary

When it comes to making major life decisions, this phase is where we can first identify how we've been pulled down an inauthentic path up until now. It's time to step into change with courage, and above all, honesty ⚓️

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👉🏼 1:1 Coaching with Austen:

https://www.arcandanchor.life/private-coaching

⛵️ The Fleet | Group Coaching & Community:

https://www.arcandanchor.life/thefleet

⚓️ Learn More About Arc & Anchor:

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🤔 Exploring Coaching? Book a Free Clarity Call:

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🫶🏼 Support the Show:

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==========

Change is rarely easy, especially when survival mode has shaped how you see yourself and the world around you. In this opening week of The Anatomy of Change, I’m setting the stage for an eight-week journey into the phases that occur when we make life-altering choices in our lives.

As a through-line, I’ll share why I finally chose to move forward with wrist surgery after twenty years of hesitation, and how this decision parallels the very phases of change that so many of us face.

Along the way, we’ll discuss eight phases of transformation, from fear and resistance all the way to renewedembodiment, and how they may be showing up in your own life right now.

This episode will help you:

🔎 Recognize the survival patterns that make change feel unsafe

🗺️ Understand the roadmap of the eight phases of life-altering choice

👀 Begin to see where you might be on your own path

🚶🏽‍♀️ Take the first step toward a decision that honors your truth

This is the introduction to the eight-week series you can follow right here on Ride Your Tide. Let’s dive in, y'all 🌊

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👉🏼 1:1 Coaching with Austen:

https://www.arcandanchor.life/private-coaching

⛵️ The Fleet | Group Coaching & Community:

https://www.arcandanchor.life/thefleet

⚓️ Learn More About Arc & Anchor:

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🤔 Exploring Coaching? Book a Free Clarity Call:

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🫶🏼 Support the Show:

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==========

How do you know when it’s time to push forward with your commitments, and when it’s time to step back and rest? Coming out of survival mode, many of us struggle with this balance.

Survival can train us to always stay busy, always do more, always keep moving. But healing teaches us something different: that devotion and peace are not opposites, they’re partners.

In this episode, we’ll explore how to:

🔎 Identify the commitments you’re truly passionate about.

🫣 Recognize when busyness is survival mode in disguise.

😌 Give yourself permission to rest and recover (with foresight, not guilt).

I’ll also share how this lesson came into focus as I planned my time off for an upcoming procedure, and how choosing recovery over productivity gave me the clarity to honor both my work and my body.

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👉🏼 1:1 Coaching with Austen:

https://www.arcandanchor.life/private-coaching

⛵️ The Fleet | Group Coaching & Community:

https://www.arcandanchor.life/thefleet

⚓️ Learn More About Arc & Anchor:

https://www.arcandanchor.life/

🤔 Exploring Coaching? Book a Free Clarity Call:

https://arcandanchor.as.me/schedule/de3586e6

🫶🏼 Support the Show:

https://www.arcandanchor.life/donate

==========

When survival mode has been running the show, trusting yourself can feel impossible. For years, your needs, emotions, and desires may have been pushed aside, and over time, that can erode your sense of self-trust.

In this episode, we’ll explore how to recognize when stress and anxiety around decision-making are rooted in old conditioning, not in truth.

You’ll learn how to:

🔎 Identify survival-based stress reactions when making decisions

🤲🏼 Create space to hold both anxiety and affirmation at the same time

😌 Begin building trust in yourself through intentional self-talk and consistent practice.

This conversation will help you start to reclaim your voice, your choice, and your confidence, so you can step into a life that’s truly your own.

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👉🏼 1:1 Coaching with Austen:

https://www.arcandanchor.life/private-coaching

⛵️ The Fleet | Group Coaching & Community

https://www.arcandanchor.life/thefleet

⚓️ Learn More About Arc & Anchor

https://www.arcandanchor.life/

🤔 Exploring Coaching? Book a Free Clarity Call:

https://arcandanchor.as.me/schedule/de3586e6

🫶🏼 Support the Show:

https://www.arcandanchor.life/donate

==========

Coping mechanisms once kept us safe. They helped us survive experiences we weren’t equipped to face at the time. But as life moves forward, those same strategies can quietly hold us back, keeping us stuck in survival mode when we’re ready to grow.

In this episode, we explore how outdated coping mechanisms can block healing without us even realizing it.

You’ll learn:

🔎 How to recognize the hidden coping strategies that still drive your behavior

🙏🏼 Why honoring their original purpose is essential before you can let them go

3️⃣ A 3-step process to identify, thank, and replace outdated coping tools

⚓️ Practical examples of healthier replacements that support conscious living

🏋🏻‍♂️ A guided exercise to help you shift one coping mechanism this week

By the end of the episode, you’ll have an actionable strategy to explore how your survival tools got you here, but also how they may be keeping you stuck. And you’ll leave with a clear path toward replacing them with conscious practices that actually serve the life you want to build.

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👉🏼 1:1 Coaching with Austen:

https://www.arcandanchor.life/private-coaching

⛵️ The Fleet | Group Coaching & Community

https://www.arcandanchor.life/thefleet

⚓️ Learn More About Arc & Anchor:

https://www.arcandanchor.life/

🤔 Exploring Coaching? Book a Free Clarity Call

https://arcandanchor.as.me/schedule/de3586e6

🫶🏼 Support the Show:

https://www.arcandanchor.life/donate

==========

Are you quick to label a space as “toxic”? 🤔 Sometimes that instinct protects us. But other times, it’s a way of avoiding the deeper work.

In this week’s episode of Ride Your Tide, we unpack the difference between discomfort that invites growth and environments that genuinely harm us.

We'll cover:

🪞 The "mirror first, environment second" framework for discernment

🔎 How to recognize when your nervous system is reacting to past pain versus present reality

5️⃣ A practical 5-step process to test whether a space is truly unhealthy

🫣 A quick "mirror check" exercise you can use anytime you feel triggered

By the end, you'll have a clear method for telling the difference between growth edges and genuinely unhealthy environments. This way, you can leave the right spaces behind, and stop running from the ones that are there to help you grow 🌱

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👉🏼 1:1 Coaching with Austen:

https://www.arcandanchor.life/private-coaching

⛵️ The Fleet | Group Coaching & Community:

https://www.arcandanchor.life/thefleet

⚓️ Learn More About Arc & Anchor:

https://www.arcandanchor.life/

🤔 Exploring Coaching? Book a Free Clarity Call:

https://arcandanchor.as.me/schedule/de3586e6

🫶🏼 Support the Show:

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==========

When your nervous system is stuck in survival mode, lovesuffers. Instead of connection and calm, survival mode often brings reactivity, withdrawal, or shutdown... patterns that sabotage the intimacy we long for.

In this episode of Ride Your Tide, I share my own experience with how survival mode once harmed my own relationships, and how you can start recognizing it in yours.

Together, we’ll explore:

🌊 The survival patterns that quietly erode love and intimacy

🌊 How to recognize if survival mode is shaping your relationship

🌊 Why these behaviors feel protective, but actually push connection away

🌊 Practical ways to move toward regulation, presence, and true intimacy

Survival mode once kept you safe... But in love, it costs too much. It's time to move beyond fear and into connection.

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👉🏼 1: Coaching with Austen:

https://www.arcandanchor.life/application

⛵️ The Fleet | Group Coaching & Community:

https://www.arcandanchor.life/thefleet

⚓️ Learn More About Arc & Anchor:

https://www.arcandanchor.life/

🤔 Exploring Coaching? Book a Free Clarity Call:

https://arcandanchor.as.me/schedule/de3586e6

🫶🏼 Support the Show:

https://www.arcandanchor.life/donate

==========

Have you ever felt guilty for needing something? For many ofus who grew up in trauma, that guilt runs deep. We learned early on to silence our needs... To stay quiet, to shrink, to avoid being “too much.”

Over time, that silence doesn’t just protect us, it traps us. It shows up as anxiety, stress, disconnection, even depression.

In this episode of Ride Your Tide, we’re talking about the power of personal advocacy, what it means to finally stand up for yourself, even when it feels uncomfortable or unsafe. I share a personal story about how advocating for my own healing became a turning point in my life, and how that same principle can help you move from survival mode into empowerment.

🌊 What you'll learn in this episode:

🗣️ Why trauma makes it so hard to speak up for yourself
💰 The emotional and nervous system costs of silencing your needs
🧭 How personal advocacy liberates your voice
😌 Simple, practical steps to start honoring your needs right now

Your needs are not a burden. They are your compass back to yourself. And when you learn to advocate for them, you step into the life you always knew, deep down, was possible.

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👉🏼 1:1 Coaching with Austen:

https://www.arcandanchor.life/application

⛵️ The Fleet | Group Coaching & Community:

https://www.arcandanchor.life/thefleet

🫶🏼 Support the Show:

https://www.arcandanchor.life/donate

⚓️ Learn More About Arc & Anchor:

https://www.arcandanchor.life/

🤔 Exploring Coaching? Book a Free Clarity Call:

https://arcandanchor.as.me/schedule/de3586e6

==========

Inspired by a quote from Nipsey Hussle, “Don’t blend in… stay in your lane, because there’s no traffic in your lane," this episode is a deep dive into what it really means to live as yourself, not as a copy of someone else.

We’ll explore why blending in can feel safer (especially after trauma), how it keeps us stuck in survival mode, and why stepping fully into your quirks, preferences, and truth is one of the most liberating choices you can make.

I’m also sharing my personal commitment to create content that helps you live, not just scroll.

You’ll walk away with a simple exercise to help you spot where you’ve merged into someone else’s traffic, and find the on-ramps back to your own lane.

Because you’re the only one who can truly live your life.

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Learn More + Coaching with Austen

https://www.arcandanchor.life/

Join The Fleet | Group Coaching & Community Hub

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Support the Show

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==========

This episode is for the part of you that’s tired of playing by rules that were never made for your wholeness.

Whether it’s staying in a job for the benefits, ignoring a creative dream because it doesn’t feel “realistic,” or pushing aside your truth to stay safe... this is your reminder: Don’t let the system win.

We'll touch on:

🚫 Why some systems are designed to suppress your autonomy

⚓️ How to stay anchored in your values, even when it feels inconvenient

📞 What to do when your calling feels hard to follow

🚶🏻‍♂️ Why honoring your truth doesn’t have to mean burnout

You get one ride... don’t let someone else’s plan keep you from your own.

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Learn More + Coaching with Austen

https://www.arcandanchor.life/

Support the Show:

https://www.arcandanchor.life/donate

Your gift helps bring this work to life

==========

Have you ever caught yourself doing something that doesn’t feel right anymore, but you keep doing it… simply because it’s familiar?

In this episode we’re exploring what it really means when something no longer serves you, and how to consciously let go of patterns, roles, relationships, or beliefs that no longer reflect who you are.

You'll learn:

👉🏼 Why familiar doesn’t always mean aligned

👉🏼 How your nervous system may be confusing comfort with safety

👉🏼 Practical steps for consciously releasing what’s outdated

👉🏼 A simple framework for moving from awareness, to acceptance, to action

👉🏼 How to recalibrate safety as you step into new, aligned ways of being

Letting go means you’re growing... and that growth? It deserves to be honored. Listen in and remember:
You’re allowed to outgrow what once felt right.

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Learn More + Coaching with Austen

https://www.arcandanchor.life/

Support the Show:

https://www.arcandanchor.life/donate

Your gift helps bring this work to life

==========

It's easy to treat joy like something we have to earn, like it only belongs at the “end” of the healing journey. But truthfully, joy isn’t a reward… It’s a part of life that we’re worthy of receiving, right now, as we are.

In this episode, we’re exploring why joy can feel unfamiliar or even unsafe after trauma, how you can gently begin to let joy in, and how allowing yourself to experience joy supports nervous system regulation.

I’ll walk you through a simple 3-minute practice I call the Joy Scan, designed to help your body remember that it’s safe to feel good, even before everything is “figured out.”

This isn’t about bypassing your healing… it’s about expanding it. Because you don’t have to wait to feel joy. You’re worthy of it now.

In this episode:

• Why joy can feel unsafe when you’ve been stuck in survival mode
• How joy acts as a nervous system regulator
• The trap of over-processing and the myth of “earning” joy

• A step-by-step guide to the 3-minute Joy Scan practice
• Gentle reminders that joy is part of healing, too

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Learn More + Coaching with Austen:

https://www.arcandanchor.life/

Coaching, Community, Blog, Retreats & More

Support the Show:

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Your gift helps bring this work to life

==========

Ever found yourself thinking, “I thought I healed this…” when an old pattern shows up again? You’re not alone... and it doesn’t mean you’re failing.

In this episode of Ride Your Tide, I offer a reframe that’s been deeply supportive:

Patterns don’t return to punish you... They return because you’re ready.

Ready to see them. Ready to meet them with compassion. Ready to choose differently.

We’ll talk about how to recognize when a survival-based behavior is resurfacing, how to relate to it without shame, and how to respond with more awareness and self-loyalty.

If you’ve been feeling stuck or discouraged, I hope this conversation reminds you:

You are not the pattern... You’re the one noticing it. And that means something is changing.

In this episode we'll explore:

✅ How to tell when an old pattern is resurfacing

✅ Why it might be happening (and why that’s not a bad thing)

✅ What to do in the moment when you feel stuck or triggered

✅ A self-check-in and anchor phrase to bring you back to center

Because you're worthy of authorship… rather than autopilot.

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Learn More + Coaching with Austen:

https://www.arcandanchor.life/

Coaching, Community, Blog, Retreats & More

Support the Show:

https://www.arcandanchor.life/donate

Your gift helps bring this work to life

==========

In this milestone 50th episode of Ride Your Tide, we explore the quiet yet powerful process of letting go. Whether it’s a pattern, belief, version of self, or relationship you’ve outgrown, this episode is a gentle invitation to honor what’s ending, so you can step more fully into what’s next.

We talk about:

💫 Why honoring endings helps to create real, embodied new beginnings

💫 How to consciously release what no longer serves you

💫 3 soulful practices to help you bring closure with intention

💫 How to trust the unknown, even when the path ahead isn’t fully clear

GUIDED MEDITATION INCLUDED: Stay tuned at the end of the episode and you’ll be guided through a short, immersive meditation to help you release what’s ready to be laid down and reconnect with the new energy rising within you.

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Learn More + Coaching with Austen: https://www.arcandanchor.life

Your donation helps bring more guided content to life: https://www.arcandanchor.life/donate

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After the dust settles, once you finally see how trauma shaped your life, it’s not uncommon to feel both illuminated and overwhelmed. You might feel like you’re starting from scratch, unsure of what’s real, what’s you, and what’s conditioning.

In this episode, I’m sharing 5 grounding truths that have helped me rebuild after trauma… not just survive, but slowly remember who I really am. These truths are simple, but powerful reminders that can bring steadiness when everything feels uncertain.

I’ll walk you through each one, offering context, gentle guidance, and pieces of my own story in hopes that it helps you reconnect to yours. Because even if it feels like trauma stole time from you, it didn’t steal you.

If you’ve been navigating this tender phase of healing, this one’s for you. And if this episode speaks to you, feel free to share it with someone who might need the reminder too.

And if you’re looking for more support on your healing journey, head over to the Arc & Anchor platform below for more resources:

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FOR COACHING & MORE: Arc & Anchor website

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What if the fear you're feeling... isn't fear at all?

In this week’s episode, we explore a powerful moment in the self-rediscovery journey, the moment you realize you're no longer chasing who you are… because you are that person now. Embodied. Present. True. And yet, with that calmness, a familiar sensation can still linger: fear. Or is it?

Together, we’ll unpack what fear actually means in the context of personal growth. You’ll learn how to recognize when fear is simply unfamiliar honesty, your deeper truth finally surfacing. We’ll explore how to distinguish between fear rooted in old programming and the emotional tremble that comes with stepping into authenticity.

You’ll walk away with:

- A new lens for interpreting fear as a sign of alignment
- Practices for tuning into your body’s wisdom
- Confidence to honor the quiet readiness rising within you

This episode is a breath of clarity for anyone feeling that gentle inner nudge: the one that says, "I’m ready."

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FOR COACHING & MORE: www.rideyourtide.com

(Part of the Arc & Anchor platform)

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Old patterns, once recognized, can be difficult to shake. Maybe it's overthinking, shutting down, hypervigilance, or self-doubt. Whatever the behavior, even if we know it's time to let go of it, we don’t always know how.

In today’s episode we explore the tender but transformative process of loosening our grip on survival patterns that no longer serve us. We begin with awareness, but it’s curiosity and self-trust that set us free.

You’ll walk away with:

• A compassionate lens on pattern formation

• A hopeful perspective on what’s possible beyond the past

• A grounded framework for building self-trust, even when old habits still surface

  
  

I also share a personal story of breaking free from body-related self-criticism and I walk you through the ROOT Framework, a four-step process to strengthening the trust you’re building within.

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FOR COACHING & MORE: www.rideyourtide.com

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