Potency Potion 1 - Fuel

Allow me to brag on myself for just a moment.

This year has been one of my most potent ever.

I’ve accomplished things and grown in ways

that I’m honestly impressed with.

I fervently believe that this is something you can do, too.

Over the next few episodes, I’ll be sharing a recipe

you can mix up to make your own potency potion,

and increase the power and impact of

everything you’re putting out into the world.

Subscribe! Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Pandora | Spotify | Stitcher | TuneIn

Mentioned:

My website, nataliekmiller.com, where you can sign up to get notified when the Time Witchery planner makes its debut.

Gretchen Rubin, bestselling author, and creator of The Happiness Project

Make Magic:

Fuel for the mind, body, and heart

is the broth that your potency potion is built on.

Treat yourself, delight yourself.

Receive and prioritize what fills you up

and see what happens.

Transcript: Potency Potion 1 - Fuel

Natalie Miller: Welcome to Mind Witchery. I’m your host, Natalie Miller, and I’m so glad you’re here. 

Hi. Welcome. I'm [laugh] so excited. I'm just really excited to be talking about what I'm talking about today, because this is really hard-won wisdom for me, and I'm delighted to share it and to tell you about it. 

And, so, today's episode is part one of at least three parts. I'm definitely claiming three parts right now. Who knows? It might be four, but at least three parts that is all about generating potency. 

"Potent" is a word that I love, the idea of potency, of a very concentrated kind of power that brings about results. That is what I have been aiming for for the past couple of years. Potency, I want to be potent. I want my work to be potent. I want my contributions to be potent. I want them to be brimming with power, with manifesting energy, with meaningful energy. 

I came to the word "potent" a couple of years ago, and it really resonated for me as like, yes, that's what I want. And as I've set out to be that and to do that, I have really discovered, at least for myself, some of the key components of cultivating potency in my doings and being here on Earth, and I'm really excited to share these with you. 

So, here at the end of the year, at the end of 2022, I'm dedicating Mind Witchery to this kind of potency potion, I'm calling it, because, you know, I just can't resist all of the magic language. But I want you to imagine that this is something that you can brew up in your life. Like, you can create this potency potion, and then you can apply it wherever you want to apply it. 

You can apply it to your health. You can apply it to relationships. You can apply it to your work, to your art. It's a potency potion, and it's here to help you bring about what it is that you want to bring about. And speaking of that, everybody, can I just tell you what I've been able to do this year?

OK. It's a little hard for me because, you know, we're conditioned very strongly not to boast. But I don't know. Here I am, telling you I've discovered a potency potion, so I sort of want to give you some evidence. So, my friends, this year, I've recorded a podcast episode every single week, and I've written a Sunday Letter every single week.

This year, I've led two retreats, one of them, the hugest retreat I've ever even conceived of, and both were incredibly successful. This year, I created a brand new group program and all of the infrastructure that goes along with that. I'm going to put an asterisk here, and tell you I did not do that alone. I did that with support. We'll actually be talking about that today. 

In fact, none of what I've pointed to so far have I done completely alone. Like, this podcast wouldn't exist without the help of K.O. Myers, my podcast producer and partner, and all the work stuff I'm telling you about, it wouldn't happen without the help of Sam, my incredible co-creatrix. 

But let's get back to the list. [laugh] So, I created Cauldron, my group coaching program, and all the stuff that goes along with that. I also finally created a planner, Time Witchery, and all the stuff that goes along with that. I was also able to say yes to all kinds of opportunities to travel and speak, to travel and give workshops, to guest coach in various people's programs.

There were a dozen of these opportunities in all, and I was able to say yes to all of the ones that felt really exciting and aligned. During this time, I also started a regular Pilates practice, and I did the incredibly hard work—I know you all know this work—of finding healthcare practitioners that could really help me.

Like, listen [laugh], that was like its own job. So, this meant that weekly and sometimes twice a week, I was doing physical therapy, having massages, having acupuncture, etc. I went on my own creative retreats this year, two of them, which were so incredibly helpful, and were another long-held dream of mine. 

I also, this year, kept learning and studying. So, I did coaching to enhance my intuitive abilities. I am quite clairsentient and claircognizant, meaning that I can feel and know things. This is [laugh] part of what makes me, I think, a really powerful coach, and so I did mentoring to enhance that capacity, and then I also took a training to help me work with clients and my own energetics.

So, in addition to all of this, I was also in a romantic partnership, and I was invested in really like nurturing that. And I was also mothering two amazing teenage girls, and so spending really good quality time with them, and so that included things like vacations and family nights and all of that goodness. 

So, my love, I say all of this because, when I look back at this year, I am astounded by how much I was able to do, and how relatively easefully—now, not easily [laugh], like, many things were not easy, especially the things that really expanded me and asked me to expand. No, those were actually pretty challenging—but easefully, meaning that, even as there were challenges, I was able in a day-to-day way to go with the flow.

So, I did all of those things this year without pushing, without stressing. Now, was there stress? Of course. I live on planet Earth. Of course, there's stress. But I was, this year more than any other year, able to like sink into a very deep self-trust, and to make sure that when I was in manifestation mode, I was there super, super potent. 

So, what that looks like is not working an eight-hour day. It's working a 1.5-hour day but with such focus, such alignment, such integrity that that 1.5 hours of manifesting were incredibly potent, like, full of power and intention and magic. So, that my love, is what I want to talk to you about, like, how I have learned over lots of time to create this potency. 

So, today, Episode 1 is the first ingredient in this potency potion. P.S. thank you for coming along with me with these little metaphors. I just can't help myself. OK. So, potency potion [laugh] ingredient number one is fuel. 

One of the things I'm most excited about in Time Witchery in the new planner that I've created, which is—"planner" is not like the quite right word for it. It's almost an anti-planner. It is—when I think of a plan, I think of, like, you're kind of looking into the future, and the whole point of Time Witchery is that you are actually incredibly present to today, and to your body, and to your desires, and to your context, and your feelings. Yeah? 

But one of the things I'm most excited about in Time Witchery is that it does not only ask you what you need or want to do today. There's a whole section every single day in the daily page of Time Witchery that asks you about fuel. OK, that's what you want to do. How are you paying for that? With what are you fueling that?

So, Time Witchery is my own daily ritual. It is the way that I begin my days, and so this year, this incredibly potent year is the first year that I made a whole section of my own planner to ask myself, "How are you paying for this? What is the fuel you are receiving today?" 

So, this inspiration was built on a very long ago realization that I had, partially thanks to the work of Gretchen Rubin that insisted to me that in order to ask more from myself, I must give more to myself. This is obvious, I think [laugh], when we really sit with it. It's like, well, yeah, of course, if I'm going to ask more from myself, I've got to give more to myself. 

But it is so deeply countercultural. Like, we are conditioned to give and give, and work and work, and we're told, "You will earn your receiving at the end of all the work." Do you see what I mean? It's like the work comes first, and then the receiving comes. That's how much of our capitalist logic works, right? 

First, you do the work, and then you get the payment. And for years, I tried to kind of use that logic to get things done, right? It'd be like, OK, write this copy, write this newsletter, and then after you write it, you can go and get a coffee. Or, all right, just finish cleaning your room, and after you clean your room, then you can watch a television show. 

But this is totally arbitrary and, in my own experience, it doesn't fucking work. I am and, I bet if you are listening to this podcast, you also are never really running on a full tank. It is very difficult to in our capitalistic society that is not very interested in caring for human beings. It is very interested instead in maintaining the systems and, many times, the corporations that the human doings serve. 

Add onto that whatever systemic oppressions you have to deal with on a daily basis, like the challenges to your inherent worthiness as a human being, and, of course, the more systemic oppression you face, the more exhausting that is. Add onto that that in our culture, we do not account—and I mean that very literally—we do not account for domestic labor, caregiving labor, the labor it takes to run a household, the labor it takes to care emotionally and physically for one another. In many ways, we either do not count that as labor at all, meaning that it is un uncompensated, it's unpaid, it's unrecognized, or if we do compensate it, we do so at a very low rate. Yeah? 

So, for all these reasons and more, we tend to be under-fueled as we move through this modern life. Yeah? So, the very first thing to focus on—and, listen, it's scary. I do it really well, and even yesterday [laugh], even yesterday, I was sort of hoping that I would be feeling ready to work on a couple of last creations for the year. I really wanted to do it yesterday. 

I had a big open day, but I was just so tired, like psycho-emotionally tired, creatively spent, that I knew if I tried, it would ultimately just be frustrating. And I knew that what I needed to do was read my novel, and play with my twinkly lights, with my plants, and do a little knitting, and cuddle with my sweetheart, and spend quality time with my girls. Those were all the things I needed to do before I would be able to do that creative work that I wanted to do. 

And yesterday, I had to be with, work through all kinds of anxiety around that, because we are so strongly conditioned that the work comes first, and it must come first, and that if you are resting or if you are enjoying yourself and your life, you are wasting precious time. Like, I don't intellectually believe that, but the conditioning is so strong that it still affects me. Yeah?

So, this first ingredient—fuel—this is the broth. It is the base of this potency potion, the fuel. Like, everything else in the potency potion depends on and soaks in and absorbs the fuel, and so the higher quality your fuel, the more potent your potency potion. 

All right. So, what is fuel anyway? Like, what counts? So, the first thing to tell you here is that it is highly individual. What charges you up may or may not be what charges me up. What you love may or may not be what I love. So, for me, alone time is very, very, very vital. That is very replenishing and refueling.

But it could be that for you, hanging out with somebody or even like going out with a group of people—OK, I can't imagine this, but I know it is the case for others [laugh]—that that would be really replenishing. So, let's first acknowledge that fuel is really different for different people. 

One way that you can begin to explore and expand your ideas of fuel is to think of it as what fills you up. What replenishes you? What gives you pleasure? What gives you inspiration? What gives you hope? What feels good? All of that is fuel. 

Fuel also works on all of these different levels or with all of these different facets of ourselves, right? So, there might be fuel for body. So, for me, a massage is fuel for my body. A bath is fuel for my body. Cuddling, snuggling is often fuel for my body, although if I'm not in the mood for it, then it doesn't feel replenishing and good. So, I have to be careful on that front.

So, you can think of what feels good? What nurtures? What enhances my energy? And this'll take some titration, right? So, for the summer I was trying to go for these brisk walks. And what I found was, in the end, a brisk walk was not so replenishing for my body. Like, it felt nice for my spirit, for my mind, but for my body, the briskness was just too much. 

I had a lot of chronic pain this summer, and the briskness of a walk was—it was an expenditure. So, I started taking more leisurely walks and shorter walks, and that actually still felt good for my mind and spirit but was not so depleting for my body.

Careful with the shoulds here. [laugh] It's like, oh, a five-mile run. That should fuel me up. It's like, no, honey, probably a five-mile run is actually a net energy expenditure. I mean, listen, again, it depends on you. But fuel is really that which leaves you with more energy. 

So, fuel for your body of course will also be food and drink and, again, not so in the shoulds of it but of like what is deeply nourishing to me, and what is pleasurable to me? What is giving me energy? 

For me, fuel can also come in my surroundings. So, every time I use my super fluffy faux fur throw [laugh], it gives me a little bit of fuel. It gives me a little bit of a charge because it's just so delightful. It feels so good to use this pretty, soft blanket. 

So, on the body front, pleasure is really, really, really important. Like, what feels good to you? And, again, this is countercultural because culturally, we're supposed to only fuel our bodies with the highest octane approved fuels. And it's like, no, pleasure is enormously helpful in enhancing your potency because it brings you alive to the present moment. It brings you alive to your life. And when you are alive to the present moment and alive to your life, that is where you have the most power. 

OK. So, let's talk about fuel from a more, like, mental or emotional standpoint. For me, novels like reading really good books, that is fuel. Listening to inspiring podcasts or taking classes, I love to learn, so that feels like fuel. It gives me inspiration. It gives me ideas. It's stimulating. It leaves me again with more energy. 

Now, if it's a should like, oh, I really should read this book, then I find I don't get as much energy from those situations. Oh, I have to take this class or this certification, like if it's a have to or a should, it's not going to be as potency promoting, in my experience.

So, fuel for your body, fuel for your mind, fuel for your heart and soul. Who are the beings? And these could be fur balls. These could be feathered friends. These could be humans. Who are the beings with whom you find more, like, more energy, more pleasure, more hope, more possibility, more laughter?

I have to say [laugh] a fueling thing for me is watching animal videos. [laugh] I just love them. I love to watch, like, adorable dogs. Like, clever people making videos of adorable pets is just enormously fueling for me. And I have daughters who love these also, and so we all share these, like, Reels and TikToks with one another, and that generates so much delight. Yeah? 

And, so, is that like profound? Am I telling you, oh, I've found the most inspiring loving-kindness meditation. Like, listen, nothing against a loving-kindness meditation. But, really, I get as much hope for and delight in and gratitude for humanity in a really adorable pet video on the TikTok or, for that matter, in a really great episode of television. That's fuel for me to watch a really good show, and then maybe to like read an article about it or have a conversation about it. Like, that's fuel.

Music for many of us is fuel. So, what feeds your soul? What awakens you to a new or deeper understanding of this human existence? All of that is fuel. 

Now, notice, please, that I keep talking about kind of like a net positive, a net gain, an overall awakening, and a coming present. Yeah? Because a great show, an episode or two of a great show can be that and, at the same time—and maybe you've found yourself here. I have found myself here often—a whole binge of a show, like, if I watch five episodes of even a wonderful show, I find myself less and less present. Like, I find this kind of numbing starts to happen. 

And honestly, like, numbing, that is how so many of us are just getting through this overburdened human life right now. It may start off as a fueling, mmm, a super yummy muffin. And then because we are so tired, and we are so starved for pleasure, it then might become eight muffins, right? 

We go from a few minutes of TikTok to a few hours of TikTok, and we're not really present for it anymore. And, but, very honestly, we don't almost even have the energy to stop ourselves. So, really ensuring that our sources of fuel are diverse is super helpful, right? 

If we're only ever counting on our television programs to be our fuel source, like, that will become numbing because here I am, I need more fuel, but I've only identified my stories as the place that I get that fuel. Whereas when I'm like, OK, fuel sources for this evening include my TV show, and also my knitting project, and also a lovely bath, and also a bath oil I'm excited to use, and also the novel that I'm reading or the cookbook that I'm perusing, and also my linen sheets, and also a request for a foot rub from my partner, and also maybe some sexy time, and also and also and also, yeah? 

So, diverse fuel sources, I think, are more ultimately replenishing as it kind of helps me to avoid that completely passive numb place. OK. So, ingredient number one of your potency potion: fuel.

What delights you, body, mind, heart, soul, socially, mentally, spiritually? Fuel, it is the foundational ingredient of the potency potion. It is the broth in which everything else soaks. And the more fuel, the more pleasure, the more replenishment, the more inspiration you have in your potency potion. It's like the difference between like a bone broth and a scented water. [laugh] It's like the more truly delightful and pleasurable your fuel sources, the more potency you will have. 

Again, this is deeply countercultural. It is uncomfortable even for me. It is still uncomfortable to sometimes go, ooh, I just—I don't have it in me to do the thing I wanted to do today. I know what I need is pleasure and rest and receiving and replenishing and fuel.

Whew. It's challenging, and this is my challenge to you. Try it, and see what happens. Just try it, and see what happens. Treat yourself. Delight yourself. Receive. Prioritize what fills you up, and see what happens. See.

I truly believe how much easier it is to make a decision. See how much easier it is to create something. See for yourself how much you can do, and with how much power and integrity, and how alive you can be when you are well fueled. 

I am here to tell you from years of experience that there is a net gain for everyone when you are well fueled. This year was in many ways my most courageous, most productive year, and it also was the year in which I opened to receive the most. I opened up to fuel. I prioritized fuel. 

I put it on my list every day. OK. What am I doing to fuel myself today? That's why it is built in to the daily page in Time Witchery. It is vital and vitalizing. It will bring you life, and it will help you make the most of your precious life. 

All right, my love, so that is ingredient one in the potency potion. It is fuel. Ooh, I hope you are inspired, and [laugh] the more you fuel yourself, the easier it is to work against that cultural conditioning. 

So, if you need to, I hope you will listen to this again for a little inspiration to help you charge up, especially in a season that asks a lot of us. Yeah? All right. Thank you so much for listening. Ingredient number two in the potency potion I'm talking about next week. 

I say, go do something right now to support yourself, to replenish yourself, to delight in this life, and then see what happens. OK. Again, thanks for listening. Bye for now.

Thank you for listening to this episode of Mind Witchery. To catch all the magic I’m offering, please subscribe to the show, or if you want a little bit of weekly witchiness in your inbox, sign up for my Sunday Letter at mindwitchery.com. If today’s episode made you think of a friend or loved one, your sister, your neighbor, please tell them about it. We need more magic-makers in this troubled world. 

Like all good things, this podcast is co-created by stellar people. Our music is by fabulous DJ, artist, and producer, Shammy Dee. Our gorgeous art is by the sorcerers at New Moon Creative. Mind Witchery is produced in conjunction with Particulate Media, K.O. Myers, executive producer. And I am Natalie Miller. Till next time. 

End of recording