Greg Voisen
Welcome back to Inside personal growth. This is Greg voisen, the host of inside personal growth. And today, joining us from North Carolina is Kayla Logue, l, o, G, U, E, Hawaii said that right. Hopefully, if I didn't screw it up. And the book is always squeezing lemons. And you know, I think that our listeners and you can get this book on Amazon. You also can go to her website, which is k, a, y, l, a, l, o, G, U, e.com, there, you can learn more about her the book speaking work with her resources. It's quite a robust website, so I'd recommend that you guys go there. Kayla, Good day to you. Thanks for finally getting on the show and spending some time with my listeners to talk about your wonderful journey. Well, painful in many points, but also that's how people learn, right?

Kayla Logue
Yes, exactly. Thank you for having me. I'm super excited for this. Well,

Greg Voisen
good, and I'm super excited to have you, so I'm going to tell people a little bit about you. Kayla. She graduated from University of Southern South Carolina, sorry, with a BA in communication, and she earned a magna cum laude Honors. Congratulations on that during her time there, her colleagues and she founded and hosted the university broadcast. What was that all about? Was that a podcast?

Kayla Logue
It was actually the full news. So it was university news station. I went to school for broadcasting and journalism, and we my coworker and I, or colleague, at the point we started it there. Well,

Greg Voisen
congratulations for that. And her passion for writing ignited during her college years when she preserved journalism, contributing essays to university publications, and she went on as the president of the communications club. They She then moved to Alexandria, Virginia, and took on a role of director of communications and HR for a small government consulting firm. Amidst all these challenges, in 220 2020 marked the start of covid pandemic and the end of her marriage, she's going to be speaking about with us that today, she recently founded a nonprofit called move into words. And you can learn more about her at the website. And it's very easy to get to that website. We'll put a link into the blog itself. But Kayla, I think everybody's interested in finding about always squeezing lemons or making lemonade. And you know, it is interesting when we go through these traumas in life, what we learn and what we take out of it based on our perspective. So the title kind of suggests being resilient, right, and making the best of tough situations. You start the book off right away with the situation, with the divorce and kind of the pain. Can you tell us about the meaning behind the title and really how it resonates with your life journey? Because we said before we came on here that writing this book was very cathartic.

Kayla Logue
Yeah, no, exactly. And I mean kind of, as you already mentioned, when it comes down to, you know, the lemon metaphor, you know, squeeze lemons of life. We're all very familiar with it. But I think the really important part of the title is always, because life is always going to throw you challenges. Growth is never ending, and it's up to us to always be squeezing the lemons of life. And you know, when challenges come our way, it's up to us to respond, and that's it. We just have control over how we respond to that. And you know, hurt, heartbreak, mistakes, failure, no matter how high you are, there's going to be lows. And I think that's really important. So when it comes down to the always part, it's it is the, pretty much the underlying meaning resilience. And you know, through the book, the entire journey is definitely a journey of healing, you know, self awareness, learning, you know, screwing up to figuring it out. And for me, the mentality I've been able to kind of take away, not only from those experiences that I very vulnerably write in the book and are pretty applicable for anybody that reads it and trying to overcome their own journey is the mentality of confidence and faith in myself, and definitely, again, the resilience part, you know, life, it will always throw you women. There will always be challenges. And it's, it really is just up to us to take em off, take em head on.

Greg Voisen
So we're, this is an awful lot question, but you know, you're an exceptionally attractive, beautiful woman. And you know, throughout your life, I'm sure all your friends said that too, and I've always heard this said that you know people that are actually prettier can actually have a lot more challenges. So here you attracted a really nice young man, married him into your life. And frequently we know that, you know, maybe sometimes that's the driving factor behind men, huh, yeah. And it seemed like this, what you call picture perfect life. You know, you were, you were explaining in the book, you know, what that was like, what was the most challenging aspect of making that decision, and how did you find the strength to follow through? Because you had to walk away what seemed from what seemed like this picture perfect life. I see people peer in other people's windows and they think, oh, boy, you know they're those people are just drinking perfect you know, they got the nice car, the nice house, the beautiful wife, the beautiful husband. They're playing tennis, or doing whatever, and they're like, it isn't so good. So explain what was going on with you.

Kayla Logue
Yeah. I mean, I think what I really realized is I was so focused on chasing an illusion of perfection, right? Which is kind of why I call it the picture perfect life. I was focusing on what I felt like I should be doing, or what I had to do, kind of society, standards of, you know, going to school, getting a job, marrying and having kids. And I'm by no means saying any of that's wrong, but I was only prioritizing the next step. I wasn't really asking myself, well, what do I want? You know, who, who do I want to be and where? What does that even look like? And so that's where I really kind of found myself coasting and complacent and just stuck. And so when I found myself kind of at that point, there was a reflection, and I kind of write about that transition of understanding how stuck I felt in this picture perfect life and smiling for the camera on the outside. So it was the facade. But I was miserable. You know? I was not happy my relationship. I felt capped out in my job. I tried to write goals down, and I had none. And that's not how I operate. I'm a very goal oriented, strong minded go getter. And I was just like, What am I doing?

Greg Voisen
So how did you get out of this deep depression? Because usually what happens is emotionally, physically and spiritually, we're kind of off track, right? Oh yeah, right. Well, we've actually run off the tracks, and there are times in everyone's life out there right now they're totally relating to you like it. It doesn't have to be a relationship. It can be money, it can be, you know, a relative. It can be all kinds of things that are interfering. What actually gave you the strength to go through with making the decision you needed to to get your life back on track, or let's just call it back to your alignment with your values. Because, look, you had a certain set of values as a young lady coming into this and you had to compromise those somewhere along the line, and they were not in alignment with who Kayla was,

Kayla Logue
absolutely and I think all of that combined, it just became too heavy of a weight to carry, and I knew I don't want to carry that weight anymore. So at that point, it was either I have to make a decision to do something about it, or I stay stuck here carrying this weight that I no longer want to have this burden of and when you know, again, as you said, it can be any situation for me, I knew I needed to relieve my relationship. I knew I needed to figure out what I really wanted for myself. I knew I needed to form a much stronger relationship with myself to even get to that point. So for me, I had to completely start over. I mean, I, you know, I left with $900 that the divorce is a little messy, and I just started over. I had no direction. I was in the middle of covid, and all I really had was faith in myself that I would figure it out. And, you know, even at the lowest point, I think that's something that we should everybody should take away, is no matter where you're at, if you take full control of your life, you are always a pilot of your own life, and you should never fear changing directions, because a better destination is never overrated. And I write that at the end of the first chapter, which, you know is kind of what I just threw up the new system my whole life. It started over. Just started the clean slate. And you know, when you when you do have that faith in yourself, that underlying faith, and you don't have to have an exact, clear path, but you have to get started. You know, you have to know that where you're at is not where you want to be, and start making moves. Well,

Greg Voisen
those are words of wisdom, for certain, and it was learned as a result of, you know, I think the Buddhists say there is pain and then there's suffering, but the suffering is your choice, absolutely, right? And so how long we live with that suffering is really our own choices. Now, granted, we're all going to have pain, whatever that pain was, in your case, separation and getting out of a marriage, but the suffering that comes afterwards is something that you have a choice to decide how long that is and where you are. And one of the things you did is you mentioning how journaling played this significant role, and in cases, you know, I'm looking through this with the the dates, and you know, you're, you're kind of like, almost like your journal. And journaling is very cathartic, and it's played a significant role in your healing. And I think many people either started and stopped journey journaling, because you'll ask people, it's like, oh, yeah, I started it now. I don't do it anymore. I'm trying to do it digitally, or, you know, whatever. I think the old handwritten way is probably still the best way. But how do you have an advice for anybody right now is kind of hesitant to start a practice of journaling to actually make it be cathartic for them. What would you tell them? Yeah,

Kayla Logue
I mean, you know, I get it. I used to think journaling was a really stupid idea, truly. I thought it was, there's no way, you know, a 25 year old with a long overdue diary that was going to be helpful at all. And my sister, she was the one that really, you know, was adamant about me trying to do it. And I think I really realized after I did, I was just scared to write down all my thoughts. I didn't want to be honest with how I really was feeling. I didn't want to put that on the paper, you know, I kept i It's actually in my book too. I I talk about how I just always outran my thoughts. I had the, you know, athlete mentality. I played sports all my life, and I was just like, you know, suck it up. Rub some dirt on it. And that's not how emotional trauma or, you know, real emotions and feelings work like you have to process them in order to build upon them and grow your self awareness. And when I started journaling, it, it really has been life changing, which is why it's, in my book, it's why we have a whole nonprofit, you know, with that kind of as a basis. But for people that are just starting, I always say, like, anything, start simple. You know, you don't have to sit down. It doesn't have to you don't have to be an author to journal. Doesn't have to make any sense. You just need to write down what you're thinking. You know, it could be one sentence a day. It's better than nothing. I always say, you know, an easy gratitude practice. Write down three things you're grateful for. It takes literally two minutes, you know. And the other thing too, I always say, it's really important for people that are like, Well, I never really got too much other journaling. Much out of journaling. Like, are you being honest with what you're writing down? Are you trying to are you trying to sugarcoat it? Because if you do that, then, yeah, you're not gonna get anything out of it. So I always say, be vulnerable with the pages. Just word vomit, write it down, you know. So I think starting simple and being honest with yourself are two really important things for people that really want to start journaling, or maybe have fallen off the train at the train at the practice.

Greg Voisen
So, Kayla, what were you running from to?

Kayla Logue
What was I running from? Like, in my mind,

Greg Voisen
what were you running from and what were you running to? You know, I

Kayla Logue
never had ask me the question that way. So I think I was honestly out running myself or trying to outrun myself, in the sense of, I didn't really want to process my thoughts. I didn't, I wasn't really ready to forgive myself for, you know, compromising myself in ways that I know I hold myself to a higher standard. And like, I was running physically a ton in the summer of 2020, I mean, just non stop. And that was, you know, and that was, you know, and I was kind of going through my lowest point, and I would say that was the biggest thing I, you know, I hadn't forgiven myself. I was really confused. I was really lost. And I was definitely running towards wanting to find out who I was, you know, really wanting to have that strong relationship with myself. And, you know, trying to find had that level of self awareness and journaling was the gap that bridged that for me, it truly was writing it down and really again, being honest, but also self forgiveness, you know, forgiving myself for the years that I compromised knowing that I shouldn't have, you know, forgiving myself for hurting people that you know in my own feelings and thoughts at The time, I just pushed aside and kept going. So, yeah, I think that's, that's a huge part of her healing journey as well.

Greg Voisen
Well, look, you said you're an athlete and you ran. And I remember the times when I went through marital challenges, I would run, and I always was like the cathartic element of the time to actually be out in the air, be open, to be free with your thoughts, to let them run wild and then let them go past very quickly, seem to have a huge effect. And I think that's true for a lot of people. You know, you get the endorphin release, you get the oxytocins. You get the kind of things you need that you maybe not getting from other things in life, right? And I know that now, when you left this long term relationship, everybody knows that's can be incredibly difficult, especially when there's a sense of obligation to others, right? It's like, okay, I committed to this marriage. Okay, now I'm going to end this marriage, and who am I going to hurt along the way? Who's going to get hurt in the process? The reality is, you are being hurt as much as anybody, right? So how did you work through the feelings of the guilt and or the fear or both of judgment during this period, because you had to be judging yourself about making the decision right. Like, oh no, who's going to hurt? You know, his family, my family, everybody who knows us, everything, right? It's like a house of cards,

Kayla Logue
absolutely and I mean, honestly, I mean, it definitely was, and a lot of that had to do with, you know, letting go of family, friends, relationships that you knew you wouldn't have anymore, you know, that you had for a long time. And honestly, I didn't cope with it great all the time. I write about that in my book. You know, there were times where I drank excessively, I had company with the wrong people, so for a minute, I don't think I handled it well. You know, I was kind of just trying to cope, and not great ways. And I think the biggest thing that helped me, and I write about even the support system, was I realized that the people that you know wouldn't judge me or even like myself, that like loved and cared about me no matter what decision I made, they're there to support me, and the only time I'm going to disappoint them is if I'm disappointing myself. And that, for me, kind of that clarity of, you know, people are going to judge you, people are going to say things. People are going to, you know, try to bring you down. The end of the day, the people that love you and truly care about you, they're always going to be there. And when it comes down to, like your your own decisions, too. I mean, you can't compromise yourself for somebody else, you know, just just because you feel like you should, you never should. You know you have to be selfish before you can be selfless, because it's really the most selfless thing you can do. And when I really kind of put that together, I mean, it took a while, but when I was able to accept that, you know, I really, I've really checked my behavior. I really, you know, changed who I spent my time with, and definitely the healing process got a lot easier.

Greg Voisen
Well, one of the things that usually is the case, and sometimes, when we first go into a marriage or relationship, we don't really realize it, but we have this level of expectation that the other person's going to make us happy, and never, in any case is that, ever the case that we should enter any relationship, thinking that it's that person's obligation to make me happy. We've got to be happy ourselves as a result of whatever it is, and so no one, usually, hardly ever. Now I'm not saying you can't have a great loving relationship, and someone can be great to you, but your happiness is an inside job. It's your own job. And you mentioned this resume of overcoming obstacles in the book. What are some of the key skills or mindsets that you developed from the experiences that kind of continue to guide you today. You know, you went through this experiences, you grew through it, you came out the other side, a better person for it. And you certainly took something from that, right? And I guess my question is, what did you take from it that the listeners out there today could learn from what you took from the pain,

Kayla Logue
you know, I think at the end of the day, and kind of going back to how you said, you know, we choose to suffer, right? It's we feel pain, but we choose to suffer. It's really all about being present. And I know we hear it all the time, but hearing it and feeling it on the level that you're able and capable of doing is very different. You know, a lot of times we don't choose to be present. We're so caught up in what's next, or, you know, where we're not at, or, you know, comparing ourselves to somebody else's progress, rather than recognizing we are here. We are healthy. We have a lot to be thankful for and not and giving ourselves credit. And, you know, I learned, but a lot of the times too, even, like with fear and, you know, anxiety, it's all things out of our control. So when you're present, you focus on what is in your control. And so it's just like, really the power of the mind. And for me, you know, I prioritize things for myself on a health level, daily, you know, I work out. I take time for journaling, I keep my space. I prioritize saying no to the things that I don't want to do anymore, which was a huge thing for me. And the company I keep is really important, you know, I don't I spend my I spend my time with people that I know have the right energy, that were on the same page. I i no longer compromise myself so but in order, until I was able to be present and really, you know, find who I was, what I really wanted at that was almost impossible, you know, so hearing being present and truly being present are very different, but that was one major thing for me. Well,

Greg Voisen
I get that you're extremely mindful, and you're very focused, and I think that you know, as you went through this with the fear, right? Making the decision was fearful, you had to be shaking in your shoes, right? Usually, most people are. But there's, it's very discomfortable. You know, you're like in discomfort, and they say you don't grow unless there's some discomfort. What did you how did you take those opportunities, and what would you tell the listeners right now, in a shift in mindset that really helped you kind of get through it. What advice might you give them to say, hey, look, I know there's pain. You don't have to accept the suffering, but the reality is, you do have to have a shift in mindset, because in in this world of psychology, and I have a master's degree in spiritual psychology, there's really usually only two emotions, love and fear. And if you stop loving yourself, right, it's very hard to love someone else 100%

Kayla Logue
it's always impossible. I don't think

Greg Voisen
you can right? And so what you were telling me is you went through this period of not really loving yourself. What advice would you give somebody today to get out of that and then also to eliminate and or reduce the amount of fear they're dealing with, to make a decision that to either end something or change something or do something different in their life?

Kayla Logue
Well, fear really is anxiety of the future, right? It's a lot of the times situations that we make up in our mind that don't ever happen or aren't going to happen. It's, it's that negative narrative of like, well, what if this goes wrong? What if I fail here? What if this doesn't happen? And these are all things that are hypothetical, right? A lot of the times when we're scared, we don't think of the opposite. We don't think of, what if it works out, you know? What if this goes the right way, what? What's next? And when that narrative alone for me is I say, and I think during, during the time, like as I reflect back. I don't really know if I I know how it came about, but I just knew I didn't have an option. I knew I was either going to stay stuck and not make a difference, or I was going to figure it out. And I think just that, that understanding of I was no longer going to suffer in the situation, I was like, I was done dealing with being stuck or not feeling free and figuring it out that it was enough pain to choose the counter and whatever that looked like I chose, I was like, I will figure this out. The opposite. What if it's not what if it fails? Because if it fails, then I'll figure out the solution. On the other side, there's always a silver lining. And you know, when, if you're hitting rock bottom, you've just got to keep crawling up, you know? And I think in terms of the practicalness of it is your taste,

Greg Voisen
so your glass was half full, not half empty. So the other thing is, and I'm sure you've heard this, you said something about fear. And I, I want to just repeat for many of the listeners, I'm sure they've heard this. You know, the acronym for fear is false expectations appearing real, you basically said that. But I always think sometimes that acronym that somebody just remembers false expectation appearing real is really a great way to look at fear. And fear frequently controls our life. It starts to consume us. It starts to be every element. It then leads to anxiety and depression and all these other things that we have in our life. And one of the most significant realizations for you was understanding that you were in control of your responses. You write about that in the book, even when life feels out of control, which I'm sure it did in so many cases, how is the insight that insight about control changed your approach to any challenges that you might come up against now in life,

Kayla Logue
you know, I think it just makes it a little more simple in the sense of, I Don't think of things that are outside of my control. I don't, you know, have anxiety about other situations that no matter how I respond, are going to pan out anyway. You know, I can only deal with what's in front of me, and it simplifies it. It simplifies and prioritizes it. I'm like, Okay, here's rather than me being scared or freaked out about this, and that there's 1000 things that I could be over here. I'm dialed in. I'm like, Okay, what is the next step? What do I need to do? How can I handle this? So it's all focused on what I need to do, and the outside noise obstacles are going to pan out the way they are, and I just have to be able to be, you know, pretty much on defense, figuring it out, but at the same time, when you're focused on what's in your control, you're always on offense. And I think that's also what's really important. You know, it just makes makes your mind a lot less chaotic. Because I definitely used to not be that way, but when I realized, like, you can be the cause problem and solution for everything in Your Life, Your World, Your narrative changes. And I think that's something if everybody could adopt and really truly understand what that mindset means, and take real control of their lives, a lot of the world would be a lot different.

Greg Voisen
You know. Well, it sounds to me, you know, like in the after reading actually, you were very driven person, right? So in other words, you know, and have these goals, you're an athlete. You go in these situations, and, you know, usually people like that. They want to be in control. And when they lose control, it's like, it's a it's a train wreck, you know, it's like a yard sale. Skate a yard sale. When you go down the mountain on your skis, right? They call it a sale, right? Yeah. So, so one of your most the what you wrote about in the book was really this importance of support networks. And I think support networks are, you know, that's why you have the nonprofit, that's why you're helping women, that's why you're doing what you're doing. How has your family and your friends played a role? And how do you build and nurture these kind of relationships, especially during the challenging times that you know like you've been through, right? It's like, okay, it's okay to sever this now I can just sever this with everybody. I could just say, Okay, I'm going to make a whole new community of support for me. Or you can be you can practice loving kindness and go back to all those relationships and attempt to hold on to the relationships where there was compassion and understanding. I mean, whether it was his family or people in your family or people that you knew, or people you guys hung out together with, who kind of made up the tribe, all of that changes. But the the reality is it doesn't fundamentally have to change that drastically. What did you get out of that? Well,

Kayla Logue
definitely, obviously, my close friends and family were backbone through the whole situation, so I'm very blessed and fortunate to have that. But one thing I write in my book that I think is a really important perspective, whether it's an intimate relationship, friendship, partnership, is Relationships are hard work, but they shouldn't be hard and they shouldn't feel like work, meaning that, you know, when you have somebody because, I mean, when you have somebody that cares about you and you care about somebody else, it's one of those things where it's it shouldn't be that hard to reach out or stay connected, or, you know, offer a helping hand, and work is exhausting, you know. I mean, we all I love my job. I love what I do. I love what I mean. I put myself in this position, but, but the world is already a hard enough place, right? Like we already have to work hard to do what we want to do. Relationships shouldn't be like work, you know? They should feel easy. They should flow. And I think for me, that's been a really fundamental thing that's allowed me to know what relationships I want to keep in my life, and ones that should be there because it's easy, it's fluid, it's not, you know, oh my gosh, this is, I don't really want to talk to this person, or I don't want to do this. And a lot of times that comes down to your values and morals. If you don't value the same thing, you don't have the same morals, probably shouldn't be hanging out. And that's the one thing I think that hold a lot of people back, is you grow and you change. And some people don't grow and change with you, and that's okay. But I mean, over the past couple of years even, I mean, I have, you know, multiple relationships that don't get me wrong, there's, there's no bad blood, but I don't choose to hang out with them anymore. We're just on different pages and wish them nothing but the best, but they're going to hold me back. You know, we don't, we don't do the same things on daily basis. We don't believe the same things. We don't want the same things and and that's okay, but it really is important your environment, no matter who it is, that you surround yourself with those people that, again, don't make your relationships feel hard or like work.

Greg Voisen
No, you get to choose that. And you know you say. And on that note, getting comfortable and being uncomfortable is a major theme in the book, what strategies have helped you to embrace this mindset or shift in mindset, and how can others start to make peace with this discomfort?

Kayla Logue
Kind of as you said, I mean, nothing great ever happens in your comfort zone, and I do find that a lot of people don't want to even try to get to that point, though, to try to feel that greatness, like we don't like being uncomfortable. And I think the simplest way to to really, at least dab your toe in it and keep, keep trying to be more uncomfortable with situations to get where you want is realizing it's temporary. You know, discomfort is not it's not going to always be that way. But in order to make strides forward to, you know, have rewards or some sort of fulfillment, you have to get uncomfortable. You know, I always like to use the analogy of the cold plunge, which I do often. I have one at our house, and, you know, it's three minutes every morning. Soon as I wake up and do I want to plunge my body and 43 degree like tub of water at five in the morning. No, I don't want to do that, right? It's challenging, but it's temporary. And after I get out

Greg Voisen
for your circulation system, though,

Kayla Logue
there's so many benefits, and you feel awesome, so the reward of those temporary three minutes is absolutely worth it. And it's the same thing with anything. I mean, I've never once talked to somebody that's successful. That's successful and has ever accomplished anything great that didn't have to go through pain or hardships or, you know, try something they didn't want to, or do something they didn't want to. It's just a part of growing. And

Greg Voisen
even you do have a somatic breathing practice as well. Are you involved in are you

Kayla Logue
I need to get better? I waiting in terms of my breathing practice?

Greg Voisen
Well, I think it, what is it? The guy renham, what's the guy who does the cold pledges? The author, anyway, he's the one who, kind of guy from, he's the guy from the Netherlands, or wherever that started, kind of the whole thing and, and my point was is, you know, whether it's a sauna or it's a cold plunge, or it's where it's breathing, somatic breathing, which is a big thing. Now, all of those do one thing. They I don't want to say this this way. How do I say they jolt the system. They reboot the system, and they bring you a tremendous amount of endorphin releases as result, which makes you feel better the rest of the day, no matter what you do so it whether it's breathing, whether it's yoga, whether it's meditation, whether it's cold plunges, all of those are good for you now share one of the most surprising discoveries about yourself that came from your journey and how it may have reshaped or shaped your approach to how you preview life.

Kayla Logue
So I kind of touched on this a little bit earlier, but I think the biggest thing I really realized was I was always putting others before myself. So I definitely would compromise myself, or I would serve others needs before my own, or even if I really knew what my own were, I was just kind of going through society's checklist. Why did

Greg Voisen
you do that? Because I still do that, and I, you know what happens to me? Sometimes, Kayla, I get really angry. Yeah, no, it's I get pissed off at myself, because it's always me doing something else for someone else. And the reality is, it's like, oh, where about the time for me

Kayla Logue
saying no, saying No, and it's and it's so it's so much easier said than done, because I've always been, I literally write about I was always a yes woman and not be wrong. There's still times where I find myself doing things from like, what am I doing? Why am I doing exactly? And I keep checking myself. So don't worry, I'm not perfect.

Greg Voisen
You know what it is. It's because you know how to do it. You know frequently, sometimes, whether it's a spouse or it's a co worker or whatever it might be, or a friend, and they say, Oh, can you help me with this? You don't just say, No, you go ahead and do whatever it is, because they're asking your advice or your help to be able to right? So, but even, as you said,

Kayla Logue
you like, you get angry, right? So I

Greg Voisen
do kind of actually get angry at myself and talking

Kayla Logue
kind of the other thing, I guess, in terms of, like, full circling, that is being selfish before you can be selfless, because it is the most selfless thing you can do, which is kind of what I touched on, and when I say that is, in order for you to be the best version of yourself or others, you gotta do it for yourself first. So if you're angry because you're helping somebody else, you're clearly not giving yourself the right time, right and so for me, it was like a big full circle, and I would say that's the biggest thing that I've now prioritized. It's helped me a lot through all of my journey.

Greg Voisen
Well, look, you've had an incredible journey, and you're quite successful on the real estate business, and you also have this nonprofit that you're working on. Tell our listeners why you opened up the nonprofit and started it, what is its purpose? How can they learn more, and what is your ultimate give back meaning, like, oh, yeah, I did this. Did you do this for Kayla? Or did you do this to, like, give back some of yourself, or have others find themselves as a result of joining the nonprofit?

Kayla Logue
Yeah? So, I mean, I'll even touch on, kind of the ending part of why I did this, you know, and then build off top of it. But even when I wrote my book, I remember going to a workshop, and everyone's like, you know, they're running their business or their brands, and I'm like, I just know I have a book I need to write that I know can help other people, you know. So the very beginning of everything I'm doing and have done is just been because I know my story, my experiences and who I am as a person can definitely help others. And I just never want to see anybody stuck or lost the way I was, you know, I and I've experienced feeling that way and truly coming out on the other side. And don't get me wrong, I'm still growing, learning, healing, but from where I was four years ago and where I am now, and what I've experienced through that process and how I've overcome it. I know I can help so many people in that sense, and move into words. You know, bridge is what the one practical tool for me that I found was truly life changing, which was journaling. And so it's the fundamental of the movement into words, right? So move into words. So we have a workout for the body and then a workshop for the mind. So right now, we've done quarterly events where we host, you know, we mostly for young professionals, and we do a workout, whether it's boxing, hit, yoga, walking. And then we provide journals. We show practical tools. We talk about journaling as something that you know only, not only there that you do it, but on a daily basis. And we also bring motivational speakers, so we have, like, a topic of the day. Really just allows people to network. But we have a big vision for the way we're going to expand. We want it to be in multiple cities. We have a lot of other programs and plans that we want to build out. But we just launched our first kind of fundraising operation, which is called Operation 1 million journals. So of course, the mission being to put 1 million journals in the hands of 1 million young professionals. All

Greg Voisen
you have to do, Kayla is go to a journaling company and joint venture with them, and,

Kayla Logue
oh, trust me, we're already thinking about all these things, but it's really I,

Greg Voisen
as you say this and you're telling me what you're doing. You know, people coming together, people journaling together, people moving together, their bodies, right? This is all part of this. Yes, I'm reflecting back on and you may not know these folks because you're kind of young, but many of my listeners, well, I had the honor of sitting in the living room with George Leonard, and George Leonard and Michael Murphy founded estelon. So it's here in Big Sur, California, just right up the road here. And they actually started a thing called ITP, integrative, transformative practice. And ITP was a combination anybody could do it, but when you left the room, it was like, Oh my gosh. What happened? Because it was a meditation, it was Tai Chi, it was yoga, and it was combined into one practice. And when people left the room, they were like, Oh my God. What happened to me? It's like they had a Satori experience, like a one with everything, right? And I see that what you want to do is help either, yeah, is it all women, or is it women and men? Or is it who can come to this? Is it mainly women?

Kayla Logue
I actually, we have a pretty big mix. It's almost, I mean, probably 6040 when it comes down to 60% women, 40% men. For the past couple events that we've had, it's mostly young, it's mostly young professionals. So really, you know, age range anywhere from like 18 to 40 is kind of what we've been seeing. You know, it's, of course, opportunities for networking and community as well, and bringing like minded growth, minded individuals into one place, right? People that want to be better for themselves, people

Greg Voisen
one are you teaching a course around journaling.

Kayla Logue
I'm working on my own personal course around it. Okay, yes,

Greg Voisen
to come for all of our listeners, look for that course. It's going to come because, look journaling, there's so many people that do kind of like journaling events and I and I really think that it's incredibly cathartic, along with meditation, mindfulness, practice, yoga, you know, your cold plunges. All of that is, is it's in that line. And I just want to wish you tremendous success with the charity and the work that you're doing outreach. You said a million people. Is that right? That's

Kayla Logue
what operation, 1 million journals. 1

Greg Voisen
million, 1 million journals. So, yeah, I will help you get there, because I will drive a lot of people over to you. Please do that amazing. And then our last question here, if there were three takeaways that people would get from we always squeezing lemons. What would you want those nuggets to be, and how would you like people to utilize those nuggets in their life?

Kayla Logue
So I mentioned the first one being when you realize you can be the calmest problem and solution for everything in your life. Your role changes. So it's really kind of that mindset shift of you are in control. You're in the driver's seat. You know, you make the choices, whether they lead to consequences or rewards, and at the end of the day, it's only up to you to continue to make the decisions to keep pushing forward. But when you you stop blaming or you stop, you know, playing the victim role, your life changes, you know, and I mean not saying that you even have to be playing the victim role to be in that situation, but maybe you're just stuck, and that's where I was, and you need that little kick, right? Well, you have the choice. You can make the decision to move on or do something different. So that would be the first one. The next one I would say, I think it's really important, is success is subjective, and we get to define it individually. And when I say that, what I you know, my version of success, your version of success, anybody's version of success, might mean something different, but we're so used to seeing what we feel like we need to succeed for you know, we're we need to make millions of dollars, we need to be doing this. We need to be doing that. But that might not be motivators for people you know. So defining what success means to you, individual, individually, is really important, and that will help you, you know, really identify what your values, your morals are, what you're doing. And maybe, if you feel unfulfilled, you're probably trying to chase a version of success that isn't yours. And so when you can really kind of dial that back in, I think that's super, super important. And you know, the last one, really, I think, is just have faith in yourself. You know self doubt is is a killer, and you know your own mental narrative could be your greatest asset or your Achilles heel. And when you have faith in yourself when you know you will overcome anything, no matter what it is, it's it's pretty powerful, what you'll be able to accomplish.

Greg Voisen
Well, those are three great takeaways, and for my listeners to repeat, the first one was, basically, you're 100% responsible for yourself. No one else is all the excuses you make in life. That's all about who you are, not anyone else. Two, two, basically is how you define success in life, right? I get that, right. So it's all up to you defining third one and the third one again, have faith in yourself. Have faith. So if you walked away from this podcast and you took those three things and you put it into your life, along with a journal, you'd be key. You'd be right on,

Kayla Logue
yeah, for sure, get yourself a journal, start writing you down.

Greg Voisen
So Kayla, Namaste to you. Thank you for being on inside personal growth and spending some time with our listeners who are definitely into this, and I'm sure that this conversation is going to resonate with all of them. Blessings here on your journey with the nonprofit and the work that you're doing to help people see how this very easy, simple thing, once you break through and you're able to start to write about yourself and be truthful, actually can be a wide opening. One suggestion I'd make is, when I was getting my master's degree in spiritual psychology, we did a similar thing around writing journals, but basically what the instructor said was, now, this wasn't the whole time, but it was much of it, whatever you wrote, wadded up and put it in the fireplace, like you're getting rid of it. So literally, not keep it in the journal to reread it. You've already written it, it already came out, throw it away and put it in fireplace. Now I'm not saying that's for everybody, but I will say actually, when you're in a tough relationship and you're going through something, that the pain associated with that and the release of putting that into the fire pit was really, really quite comforting. So, yeah, I could totally see that. Yeah, exactly. Very comforting. Well, thanks so much for being on the show. Have a wonderful rest of your evening and enjoy and we'll stay in touch.

Kayla Logue
Yeah, thank you so much. It was great.