The Loud Whisper Takeover
Featuring interviews with actors, stunts, dancers, filmmakers, action movie directors, athletes, Krav Maga teachers, acting coaches, and more.
Epic tales of changemakers, authentic personal stories, and top tips about the industry, the podcast is a treasure of knowledge helping storytellers of all kinds on their own journeys, and inspiring people to take action upon their own dreams.
Ever heard your inner voice getting louder and louder, urging you towards a new path? When our inner guidance starts to become so loud, we can no longer ignore it, and we MUST take action... This is often a time when life changes direction drastically. We are literally being called to take that leap of faith, make that phone call, write that script, make that film in other words, time to embrace our wildest dreams, shift gear, and grow exponentially.
Let's dive into the art of listening courageously to our inner compass. Because every one of us is destined to live a grand story and adventure while walking on planet Earth!
Headphones on, notebooks out, and buckle up!
Hosted by Cindy Claes.
The Loud Whisper Takeover
24: Artist’s New Year - Journaling and Goal Setting
We start this new year with Cindy Claes (host). Let's dive into the transformative practices of journaling, visualisation, and meditation to help you reflect on the past year and set powerful intentions for the future. These exercises are tools that can be used whenever a reset is needed, or when you are transitioning between significant life chapters.
Take a notepad and pen, and don't hesitate to push the pause button to write down important journaling tasks!
Through a mix of personal insights and actionable practices, this episode guides you in:
- Reflecting on 2024: Acknowledging achievements, lessons learned, and embracing challenges.
- Journaling for Growth: Exploring the emotional and energetic layers of your experiences.
- Meditation for Clarity: Creating space to process and envision your next steps.
- Embodiment Practices: Grounding your intentions through physical and energetic integration.
- Future-Self Letters: Writing from the perspective of your future self to manifest desired experiences.
- Gratitude Practice: Cultivating appreciation for current blessings and the opportunities yet to come.
This episode offers tools and inspiration to close one chapter and confidently step into the next.
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Welcome to the Loud Whisperer Takeover podcast. As you know by now, my name is Cindy Klaas. I'm an athletic creative. Everything I do as a creative, whether that is making film, writing a piece of theater or being an actress, there is always an athletic component somehow to it. Today, we are going to talk about journaling, visualization, meditation and embodying the energies that we want to attract in our lives. It was the end of 2024. We are starting 2025.
Speaker 1:In today's episode, I will be sharing personal exercises that I do when I end a chapter and I kind of reflect on what really happened, the energies I went through through life, things that I'm proud of, things that I could have done better, and how I want to enter a new chapter, the new things I want to be surrounded by, the new energies, the people, the tribe that I want to build. I am using these exercises of journaling, visualization, meditation and embodiment for birthdays, obviously at the end of a year and at the start of a new year, at the end of a project, at the start of a new project or any time that I feel I need a bit of a reset or I want to enjoy a moment of reflection, because how many times, as artists do we go quick, quick, quick from one success to the other, to the other project and we don't really reflect on what just happened. And we don't really reflect on what just happened. So be ready, put your seatbelt on, have a notepad with you and a pen. It's time to basically create something tangible, put into matter these things that we have in our heart, these energies and thoughts that can actually be actioned into real, beautiful, material things that we can have into our lives. Ready, let's go. There might be exercises. You are already very familiar with others that are very new. Either way, I invite you to just try it all and then see what really calls your soul in the future.
Speaker 1:Part one will be about wrapping up all what just happened the last year, all the things that you went through, patting yourself on the back, taking a moment of whoa did I really do that? And also taking a moment of you know what? There was a real life lesson for me in there, or a moment of growth, or an opportunity for me to grow and do better, but I didn't, you know, really grab that moment by the horns. But I will do it this year. So first we want to look at 2024, or the previous chapter that you just went through, a project, you know, depending on when you are listening to this episode. And then afterwards we will do all what we want to attract in the future and we want to materialize, make these thoughts somehow tangible, start to basically create from energy a little bit of matter.
Speaker 1:So what I usually do is that I go through a really deep journaling process. The journaling process to look at 2024 starts with just writing down facts, very simple facts what happened in January, what happened in February, what happened in March, what happened in, what happened in February, what happened in March, what happened in April, and so forth until December. And I just write those big life moments. Now, these big life moments could be hey, I made a film. It could be. Hey, I was casted for something. It could also be. Hey, I lost a friendship. It could also be. Hey, I actually started, you know, a new hobby. And now you know, 12 months later, I'm flipping, excelling at it, or I'm starting to excel at it because I've been putting in the hours, whatever it is. I just like put all these facts on paper. Then I start to dig deeper. I start to dig deeper All these factual things that I did right in my doing, with my doing energy, making a film, getting casted, writing a play.
Speaker 1:Then I go deeper and I'm like how did it feel? What really happened on a soul level? Was it fulfilling? Was I truly aligned in these moments with where I wanted to head, or did I just actually accept to go on tour with a production because I needed money, right? It's very different to go through a casting process, get casted and then all of a sudden be in the production of your life or being, you know like on set with a tribe of people that you truly connect with, versus, yay, I got casted and here I am making a piece of art that I don't resonate with, or where work relationships are so flippant difficult, you know. So what truly happened. I write it down. How did it truly feel? When were the moments that I was so aligned that made me feel so alive? When were the moments where I had to handle conflict and I did it so well? I really stepped into the shoes of my most powerful being, my most powerful being? When did I have to address conflict and did I lose power? Reflecting back on it now, what could I have done differently or what will I do differently in the future? What were the life lessons? How did I grow? Who did I become throughout these last 12 months?
Speaker 1:I'm also writing something about gratefulness being grateful about what happened and we will see that when we're going to write you know, when we're going to make a gratefulness journal about 2025, it will look very differently, because we're going to be grateful for all the energies that are already coming our way that we are not even aware of yet. But right now we're really focusing on the year that passed, 2024. What am I grateful for? What were the blessings in disguise? What were the moments of sadness or anger where actually, there was such a gem that I discovered about myself, about others, about life? So it's about finding forgiveness and gratefulness for everything that happened in 2024.
Speaker 1:This journaling process is very important before you start writing of where you're heading, because then you really acknowledge, really truly deeply acknowledge, on an energetic and soul level, what just happened. It's a moment where you allow yourself to pat yourself on the back, because very often, as artists, we just run from one project to the other. We have to keep busy, but it's very rare that we sit down and we are like, hmm, cheers to you and when you breathe in and you really really acknowledge all what you just went through. So take that time. So take that time, really take that time. What I would then do because I'm still wrapping up, you know, 2024, is that I would meditate on it.
Speaker 1:So, at this moment of meditation, you don't have to think, you don't have to, you know, intellectualize it. You don't have to, you know, intellectualize it. You can just give yourself the intention of processing and letting things land. So what I mean by that is you have a moment of meditation, put some music on if you want, be in total silence, just close your eyes, whether that is for five minutes, ten minutes, two hours, depending on how familiar you are already with a meditative practice, but just start it with an intention of letting everything land and processing everything that still needs to be processed, which means that whatever needs to be acknowledged, whatever needs to be celebrated you know, may that really happen in your DNA, in your soul, in your energetic field, and whatever still needs to be processed, meaning some sadness, some anger, some unresolved conflicts. May it happen during this meditation, and sometimes you don't have to intellectualize it, you just let your body and your energetic field, do it for you or your guardian angels or God or whatever you believe in, right, but you just take that moment of silence to let that happen naturally. Then, once that has happened, you can also do an embodiment exercise.
Speaker 1:What I love to do is move and dance. It is also very much inspired by the dance manifestation practice of Lizzie Butterfly. She has already come on this podcast twice and will probably come back again, so please listen to that episode or research dance manifestation from lizzie butterfly if you would like to dive deeper into her work. What I do is I just give myself an intention of letting my body experience all what I've written down and what I've meditated on in silence, so that my body can basically process and absorb all the energies that needs to be absorbed or let go of energies that need to be let go of. Maybe your embodiment practice looks different. Maybe you're dedicating a gym session to it, and that's also all right. Or maybe you're going for a run and you're giving yourself the intention before you go out for your run, that during this run, things will get either released or generated or land or processed or whatever, and you don't have to do anything else but give yourself that intention. So, literally, it's meditation in motion. We don't always have to meditate while sitting in silence and sitting still. We can also meditate while moving. For me it's dance, for you it might be something else.
Speaker 1:A couple of extra ideas on what you could be journaling on. What are the unforgettable moments of 2024? Have a minimum of three 20 things that made you smile, five things that made you grow, three breakdowns that actually eventually became a breakthrough or maybe not yet, because the breakthrough might come in 2025. When did you feel the most energized? How did your journey benefit others or how will it benefit others in the future? Because you just gathered a huge amount of skills or a huge amount of experience that is about to be shared. What broke down in 2024? But it's also equally an opportunity to build or rebuild. Why did 2024 matter? Why was it important to go through that year for you on your journey?
Speaker 1:If you zoom out, so really this exercise of journaling is about zooming out. When we zoom in, everything is so important, everything you know can be so heartbreaking or so exhilarating. But really, when we zoom out, where is the constant level of joy in all of these downs and ups of life? Again, journal about it, write about it, let your own conscious just talk. What I also suggest is don't stop writing once you've just written down one sentence. You can make a drawing, you can make bullet points, you can make full sentences, that doesn't matter but write, write, write, write, write until truly the pen takes over, until there is a part of your consciousness or unconsciousness that is actually giving you answers that you didn't even think of. So don't hesitate to really sit down for maybe even two hours, until it's not your brain and your intellect that start writing down things on paper, but it's truly a deeper level of your soul that starts to give you nudges and deeper life lessons you had not even thought of. Journal about it, meditate about it and then make sure that you embody it physically as well.
Speaker 1:Before we start talking about 2025 and how we are actually going to generate new energies, new projects, new people in our environment, I would like to share a couple of things that I went through in 2024. Just to illustrate a couple of the exercises we were talking about earlier. I would say four big events crossed my path. Last year I made a short film with over 30 people on my team, a dystopian sci-fi, which was just a phenomenal, phenomenal project. Every single department that would be working on a film was represented and I learned a hell of a lot. And in the midst of this immense success, there was also a mad conflict resolution moment that I had to address and where I had to fire someone. That was a moment for me where I had to step up as a leader, where I also had the opportunity to basically tell the universe hey, thank you for putting this difficult person on my path, because basically through this conflict and through me resolving this conflict and firing this person, I literally had a PhD in how to make film in a very stressful environment. But I learned so much in this one intense experience and I increased my understanding as a producer of who to hire, why to hire, how to hire somebody on my team and move forward as a filmmaker in this industry.
Speaker 1:I also made this podcast. I've talked about it in the earlier episodes. It was a loud whisper that told me I had to interview people. I had to make it happen. I am so happy that we are already 20 plus episodes in and more are to come. But how did I actually make it happen?
Speaker 1:Well, it's because there was a moment of true breakdown in my life. My mom got very sick. She had ALS. She had actually a bulbar onset ALS. To summarize it, it affects your ability to swallow, so which means that, bit by bit, she couldn't eat anymore, she couldn't drink anymore, she had to be fed by a PEG tube. It drives a person crazy, because when you have nothing to taste in your mouth anymore and no meal to share with people anymore, it is socially extremely distressing. It also starts to affect the muscles of your tongue, which means that she was losing her ability to speak. This is also extremely, extremely saddening and horrendous to watch a mom not being able to speak anymore, because the conversation we started having, you know, were very short because she couldn't speak anymore. When I was traveling, I couldn't call her anymore.
Speaker 1:Socially, she started to feel more and more isolated because obviously other people would talk but she couldn't really respond anymore in the way that she would normally interact in a social interaction. Her breathing started to fail, literally. Walking from the kitchen to the living room was like as if she had run a marathon, and then the rest started to happen as well, which was paralysis, so she would have been totally paralyzed. Over time, she was starting to lose the ability to use her hands, so grabbing things started to become a problem. She couldn't sign a paper anymore, but obviously that has a huge amount of consequences because from brushing your teeth to you know taking your medication to anything really grabbing a piece of paper started to become difficult, or even sending a text message on your phone. She started to lose the muscles, like the ability to move her muscles in one of her feet as well. So well, her breathing was already so impacted that we needed to use a wheelchair anyway if we wanted to go on a walk. But this started to have a larger impact in even how she could move in her own house.
Speaker 1:All this breakdown, all her body breaking down, actually happened very, very fast, and I spent months last year to take care of her full-time. At some point I became her full-time caretaker because she needed way too much help and surveillance to make sure that you know nothing would happen to her, because you could either asphyxiate and lose your ability to breathe, and that's an absolute, horrendous death, or you could actually choke and that could be on your own saliva. So even during the night there was an alarm in my room. I was in charge of my mom's well-being day and night, because obviously something could happen at night as well. And at the end she chose to leave this world and fly off with her guardian angels by euthanasia.
Speaker 1:Euthanasia has been legal in Belgium since 2002. In other countries they say the right to die with dignity. In Belgium it has been legal since 2002. There is obviously a very strict legal system that surrounds the ability to have access to euthanasia, because ALS, there is no cure for it and the only thing that we can see is your body breaking down while your mind is totally intact. So the patients are literally in a situation where you know the medical system can keep you alive for a very, very long time and with a lot of support, but at what cost? And at what social cost? At what emotional well-being cost? So my mom chose to depart by euthanasia and obviously accompanying her through that decision is not something I want to call sad, but it is something that I experienced while going through it as totally surreal.
Speaker 1:Then, once it got legally accepted and she was able to choose a date, she chose a date 12 days before the injection. She chose a date 12 days before the injection and then we were facing together the fact that, hey, we still have, or only have, 12 days together, 11, 10, 9, 8. And the countdown starts, and then at some point there are only a few hours left. I never thought I would survive, not just losing my mom but now having lost both of my parents, because there is something that happens energetically when you have none of your parents alive on earth anymore. There is also something that happens when you know there is a time and a date of your last goodbyes. In the midst of all this incredible pain, there was also an immense, immense gift from my ancestors and the universe. The last few months, having been a full-time caretaker for my mom, and especially the last few days before she left by euthanasia, it allowed me to dive deeper into forgiveness, because most people there is something in our relationships with our parents that can always do with a little bit more forgiveness. I dive deep into love Now. My relationship with my mom was a beautiful one when she left, but it's not always been like an amazing mother-daughter relationship and an easy and smooth one like in the movies. But the healing part of our relationship got extremely accelerated during these last few months and I dive deeper into love and devotion while taking care of her. I've had the opportunity to have such deep and profound conversations with my mom that I think I would have never had, and most people don't have these conversations before they say their last goodbyes. I'm incredibly grateful for these conversations that we had.
Speaker 1:This will probably be for another episode, but, for example, the podcast was born because I was looking after my mom and most of the time I was at home. So I didn't really know what to do and I thought, well, you wanted to do this podcast for a very long time. Now is the time I was at home. So I didn't really know what to do and I thought, well, you wanted to do this podcast for a very long time. Now is the time You're at home anyway, and that's how I was able to produce a huge amount of content.
Speaker 1:You know, the blessings in disguise during these moments with my mom were obviously everything. The healing and the power and the empowerment that I shared with my mom were obviously everything the healing and the power and the empowerment that I shared with my mom during those moments. But I also learned so much about life in general, about how to share these things with my friends. I knew my most of my friends and nobody really was equipped to hear what I had to say. Everybody always wants to fix a situation, but when you announce to your friends my mom is sick and there is no cure, nobody wants to hear it. Everybody wants to say but there must be something. But there is nothing Like literally. Science has its limits and there are moments where we have to accept it and also, we are not immortal. There is a time of expiration and at some point you have to surrender and be with that. I found incredible peace with my adult selves. There is an energy of me slipping into the shoes of the matriarch, because that's who I am now. I am supported by my ancestors and I am the head of the family tree.
Speaker 1:So while all of this was happening, I already journaled a lot, meditated a lot, embodied a lot. It was even more important for me to really really journal and look at what 2024 had offered me. I refused to end 2024 with sadness or tears, and these journaling, meditation and embodiment exercises are incredibly important to really dig deeper and go beyond the surface. Society often tells you that grieving must be a sad event and of course there is sadness involved, but also there is a huge amount of growth, a huge amount of expansion, and I was able to find these moments because of this journaling, meditation and embodiment practice. So I hope that you too, by wrapping up 2024, you will come to the same sort of ending of 2024 and whatever chapter you had to close for that year. So, going from there, let's start to talk about 2025. Because this is starting now.
Speaker 1:The first piece of journaling we can do is just being grateful for the things we have today to start the year with. But then what I always do as well often when I do my weekly journaling is what am I grateful for that I don't even know that is already coming to me? Grateful for that? I don't even know that is already coming to me. So maybe there are already jobs and gigs and castings and teams that want to work with you on their way. So often I also journal about thank you for all the people that I will meet today, that I don't even know of yet, but that are going to bring some sort of smiles and happiness and joy into my life today. Thank you for the good news that is coming my way. Thank you for the surprises, the happy surprises, that are coming my way. Thank you for the money that is already coming my way and into my bank account, and very often you will be surprised of how this moment of gratefulness of what's already coming to you but that you're not aware of yet, is actually sending things to you faster. Try it, let me know what happens.
Speaker 1:Then, of course, we have the journaling about our goals right, some people will call it goals. I have years where I have very specific goals and I have years where things are a bit more vague, and that's okay too. I really want to insist on that, because sometimes specificity is great, and if you have something specific in mind, put it down on paper. But maybe it's a bit more vague. Maybe there is a feeling, an energy, a relationship, a thing you can't really describe. But there are words that sort of, you know, make it a vision for you, even though nobody else understands it, and that's okay too. I've already manifested things, you know, certain years just with these vague ideas, but I could feel it, I could sense it, I could describe the energy and the colors around it. Whatever you're at right now, it's okay. Journal about it, put it in words, because just by putting even those simple words on paper. That's your first way of putting thoughts on paper and making it somehow matter Tangible.
Speaker 1:You can also journal, not just about the things you want, but also about the levels of resistance you have to it. What are you resisting currently? In other words, what are you not totally open for, not truly believing, not truly trusting? Again, write about it, let the unconscious take over, until the pen takes over and not your intellect. And then, once you have really, you know, peeled the layers of the onions of what you are resisting to bring in 2025, then start to say well, and how? I will, you know, remove this level of resistance is by and let again your unconscious talk. What excites you about 2025? Write about it.
Speaker 1:It Coming out of 2024, what is your new mantra? What is the mantra you can just repeat every single day to yourself, and it makes total sense for you to be aligned and for you to go into the right direction. What are your fears? Direction, what are your fears? Do you have any fears for 2025? Be honest with yourself. And how will you address those fears? Be honest with yourself. Put in, you know, an action plan. Or, again, maybe it's connecting with an energy, with a color, whatever, or maybe it's connecting with a very simple action.
Speaker 1:Then let's talk about the expansion. Who do I want to be in 2025? Which shoes do I want to walk in? Why will 2025 matter and how can I make 2025 matter more? What a deep question, eh. How can I make it matter and how can I make it matter even more? What a deep question, eh. How can I make it matter and how can I make it matter even more? Whether you believe in God, whether you believe in guardian angels, whether you believe in the universe, whether you believe in none of it and you just believe, you know, in the people that are around you, this question is still a powerful one. What do I request guidance or divine guidance for it's more of an intention, because you want answers to something or guidance it doesn't matter if you know that guidance come through your mentor, your auntie, god or your guardian angels and angels. But what do you need and request divine guidance for? What are you deeply trusting right now, and how can you even trust this energy more, this thing that you want in 2025 even more? What will you do with more potency and compassion and love and fun in 2025. And then the big journaling exercise. It's a really exciting one.
Speaker 1:I have used the DIS technique very often. It's basically to write a letter from the perspective of your future self, and your future self just went through or just experienced that thing that you wanted to happen. For example, let's say that you would love to buy a house. You want to, you know, attract the abundance to be able to buy a home. You would then write a letter and say, well, I just bought the house of my dreams, right? Or the apartment of my dreams. And then you write, you describe, you know, oh my God, I just, you know, signed the contract and I just received the keys. I'm about to, you know, to put the keys in the lock and I'm opening this door. And when I open this door and walk into this house, I'm not visiting the house, it is mine and the real estate agent he had a beard and he was so cute and so kind and so gentle and he was actually, you know, celebrating with me that I'm a first time buyer. Wow, you described the moment as if you had just signed this contract and you're about to enter your house.
Speaker 1:Or maybe you want to attract a partner, a romantic partner in your life, partner in your life, and you describe wow, we're sitting here in the sofa and we're so tired because we just went on a trip to Thailand together and we did so many things. It was so fun. And we just came from the airport we lost our luggages. But who cares, because we just had fun. And we're about to fall asleep on the sofa together after a beautiful, romantic two-week holiday in Thailand. And today, well, we're also celebrating the fact that we have been together for six months, twelve months, whatever, but you're just writing it from the perspective of you know, you're writing it a little bit as a film, right? You're writing it as if it had just happened and your future self just went through that experience and it's freaking amazing. You can do the same thing for a role you would love to play, right, as an actor.
Speaker 1:Um, a grant, a subsidy that you want to receive to create your choreographic work. You just received the letter. You're holding the letter in your hands and it says we have just granted you 11 000 euros to create your next piece of work and make it as real as possible. When you're writing this letter from the perspective of your future self that just experienced a moment of making your dream a reality. Right, what types of smell are there in the room, you know? How does the fabric of the clothes you're wearing feel? What are the colors of what you're wearing? What are the colors of the walls? What does the person you are with look like? What is this real estate agent like you know? Does he have a beard, blue eyes? What is this real estate agent like you know? Does he have a beard, blue eyes? This partner that you just attracted in your life, you know, like, how does you know his skin smell when you're falling asleep on the sofa with him? Right, when you are filming for this dream role? How many people are with you right now in the makeup room? What kind of relationship do you have with the director? Or you know the guys that are doing the lights? And is there somebody that is super funny? Or is there somebody in catering that you just had a joke with? So, be as detailed, as detailed as possible. You're going to see it's super fun. It really gets you into the zone and puts you energetically into the vibe of it already happened, which goes back to the gratefulness journal. Thank you. Thank you for bringing in a partner in my life that I can fall asleep with on the sofa after a two week holiday having fun in Thailand and saying, wow, we just did that because we've been together for six months and we're madly in love. Thank you, right. So write it all down in detail Again once you've done the journaling part, or before the journaling part.
Speaker 1:Spend some time truly visualizing it. The visualization is part of the journaling and the meditation. You can use it as a meditative exercise or you can use it for your journaling practice. Visualize it, see it in color Not in black and white, in color. Have the smells, have the details of your clothes and even you know your earrings, everything, the makeup, everything. See it, feel it, be it.
Speaker 1:After the meditation practice, practice again. You can either do a very active meditation because you're visualizing every detail of what you've just written down, or you just give the intention in the beginning of I'm going to sit in silence and I'm giving this dream to the universe, or god or my guardian angels or who. I've written it down and it feels good and I'm going to take a moment to sit in silence At the end of this meditation. You can also dedicate the energy of that meditation to all sentient beings. It's a Buddhist practice where you just allow everybody in this world to benefit from the energy you just generated. So if there are other people that are dreaming of a romantic partner, may they also benefit from this meditation. You dedicate it to them too. If there are other people that want to generate the abundance of becoming a first-time home owner, may they benefit from this meditation too. Or if people want to be casted in the film of their dreams as an actor, may they benefit from this meditation too. Or if people want to be casted in the film of their dreams as an actor, maybe benefit from this meditation too.
Speaker 1:And then don't forget the embodiment part. Whether you want to dance it so that you really feel it in your body, whether you want to go for a run or dedicate a gym session to it, make sure that your body fully integrates all what you've been writing about, meditating, about, visualizing, about. I'm wishing you an awesome 2025. Also, you can use all these journaling, gratefulness, meditation, visualization and embodiment practices at any moment of your path. I actually journal very often on a weekly basis or at the end of a project and the beginning of another one. Let me know how it goes. Stay tuned and I'll see you in the next episode.
