Your heart knows something your mind doesn't (with Johanna Bloom)

What if your greatest breakthroughs aren't waiting in your mind ... but in your heart?

In this deeply personal conversation, I'm welcoming back Johanna Bloom for an exploration of what happened after a Heart Healing session transformed the way Johanna relates to money, intuition, and herself.

What begins as a conversation about writing and publishing unfolds into something so much deeper.

Together, we're exploring the intelligence of the heart, subconscious healing + re-wiring, spirituality beyond certainty, animal communication, the gift economy, and why so many of us have been taught to trust our minds more than our own inner knowing.

This episode is a conversation that explores the wisdom of your heart and invites you to discover what it already knows.

In this episode, we explore:

• Why insight alone doesn't always create lasting transformation.
• The subconscious belief that kept Johanna's income capped for years.
• How Heart Healing and hypnosis helped release a pattern hidden beneath conscious awareness.
• Why the beliefs that limit us aren't always rooted in fear.
• The surprising role metaphors play in subconscious healing.
• What it feels like to experience Angelic Reiki for the very first time.
• The symbolism of the sparrow and the unexpected ways Spirit communicates.
• Growing beyond religious conditioning while honoring what was meaningful.
• Why silence creates space for deeper wisdom to emerge.
• The difference between living from the mind and living from the heart.
• What research is beginning to reveal about the heart's intelligence. :)
• How intuition becomes easier to trust when your nervous system feels safe.
• Why fun may be one of the most overlooked spiritual practices!
• Rethinking abundance through the lens of the gift economy.
• What becomes possible when we begin relating to one another through generosity instead of scarcity.
• How healing creates ripple effects that extend far beyond the original intention.

Whether you're curious about hypnosis, the subconscious mind, intuition, or simply long for a life that feels more spacious, connected, and alive, this conversation offers a loving invitation to explore a different way of knowing.

Because sometimes your heart already knows what your mind is still trying to figure out! 💗

About Johanna Bloom:
Johanna is an animal communicator and intuitive who helps humans hear the soul-level messages of their animals, both living and passed. A former horse trainer known for working with the “difficult” ones, she now bridges the unseen bond between species, offering clarity, healing, and connection across all realms. For Johanna, animal communication is a sacred remembering, and every session is a conversation with love.

Resources:

• Johanna Bloom Animal Communication
• Insightful with Ashley Mondor // The prosperity shift
• Heart Healing with Ashley
• Halo Healing (Angelic Reiki) with Ashley 
• Divine Flow Publishing
• Book // The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World
• Book // She Who Flows: Guidance for Surrendering to the Divine Feminine and Witnessing the Miracles of Self-Love
• Courtney Beck (channeler, author, and energy healer)

Disclaimer: 
This podcast is for entertainment purposes only. Please consult with your doctor, therapist, or financial advisor for medical, mental health, or financial advice.

Transcript

Ashley Mondor: [00:00:00] I am so excited because I have Johanna here today, my friend, and we're gonna do something a little bit different, but I'm so excited because it's just gonna be like friends talking about magical things. And I feel like, you know what?

That's what the world needs. So Johanna, because so many people messaged me about your podcast episode specifically, it's like really fun to bring you back and jam out in this way, so thank you for being with me. 

Johanna Bloom: Thank you. I love doing these. I get really excited for them now every time we schedule one. We're gonna flip the script today. I'm going to be interviewing Ashley about her Heart Healing sessions and about a... She was a contributing author for a book called She Who Flows, which I have read her section, and so we're gonna go through that too, and I'm gonna talk about, her story and her contribution and how it felt extremely relevant to me.

This is so fun. It's so fun. Can you tell us how you found Natalie? Because this is your second contributing author book, right? How did you find, this whole, this whole process that you're now [00:01:00] regularly a part of? I know. How casual is that? You know, it's actually really interesting. As a little girl, I loved writing.

I loved writing poetry and doing all that stuff, but I never thought I could be a writer 'cause I wasn't good enough, and so I kind of let that dream just, like, be on the back burner. And yet in my business, 'cause I've been in business now, for nine years, and I love writing. It's the thing that I feel like the clearest channel.

And I remember years ago, maybe six or seven years ago, where Natalie popped up on my Instagram, and she was doing actually a podcast with another healer that I've worked with quite often. Her name is Courtney Beck, and I love her. She's from Australia, and she channels beings like Krishna and Isis and Saint Germain.

And I remember listening and being like, "Natalie does astrology stuff." And so I was like, "What am I meant to do in the world? Like, who am I? How am I supposed to, you [00:02:00] know, share my gifts or whatever? Like, what are they? Tell me. Can you see it in the stars?" And so she had a thing called Your Cosmic Calling, I think, or some sort of astrology session where she broke down your whole natal chart, and I went into it knowing, I'm a Scorpio sun, that's all.

And then you're like, "Whoa, there's so much more, like houses and things." And so I had this session with her, and she blew my mind. She shared with me that I'm a healer who, is the embodiment of transformation, and, like, I can go to the deepest, darkest stuff with people, working with people around their subconscious mind, which I thought was so interesting because I've always been curious about neuroscience.

And then that actually was a catalyst for me to explore things that I weave into my Heart Healing sessions now. But I met Natalie through one astrology session, and then I've stayed in her orbit for years. And what's interesting about Natalie is she does or did astrology, and then she actually realized part of her purpose or her mission is [00:03:00] to be a publisher for spiritual entrepreneurs like yourself, right?

And having you bring the messages on your heart and your wisdom to people who need what you have to offer. And so I was like, "That is so amazing that you're doing that." And she was like, "Do you wanna write?" And I was like I don't think I can. Like, I don't think I'm good enough. And I sat with it and I was like, I've always wanted to write books secretly, but again, I was like, "Ooh, like who am I to do that?"

And then I had this thought when I was taking my dogs for a walk. I was like, "Girl, you can write one chapter. You're not gonna die if you, if people hate what you write, you got 32 other authors in there that they can learn from." And so it was me protecting myself, but like dipping my toe in the water.

And so this was the first book. It's called Soul Rising, and it was part of my spiritual awakening, which is like really cool 'cause I've had multiple throughout [00:04:00] my life. And then, she invited me back actually to write for this one, which is She Who Flows. Look at my little ring light there.

Hey, it's because I'm pale and it's dark in my room. And she actually just invited me to be a contributing author again for another book about purpose, and I'm sitting here like, I actually am a published author now, and people message me about the things that I write about. And so it's actually starting to open up my, my heart and like maybe I can write a whole book, you know?

And, and I say that knowing like you have written a book. You've done that process. When you were going through that, 'cause you also worked with Natalie, it's called Divine Flow Publishing, that's her company. But for you, did you always want a book or, or did you also have similar fears like I did?

I think it was slightly different for me. I was almost on the opposite end of the spectrum, where I [00:05:00] also was kind of afraid of whether I would actually make it to be a published author. But ever since I was a kid, I really wanted that. I was always writing a book. First it was, like, young adult fantasy, and then, as I got into the animal communication, it turned into just compiling my journals and making a animal communication quote book, um, which is what I published through Natalie's company.

I used, um... It's kind of a subset of the company called Book Magic, where she teaches you to self-publish. She does have options to also teach authors to help them publish. It's more n- more of an assisted process, and then she has the, compiled author contributions, like you. So props to you for taking that step and doing even just a chapter.

Um, and your chapters always stand out to me. Maybe it's because I actually know you, and so I feel the personal connection when I read it, but they're always so good. Like, just the clarity and the flow, and I, I feel like they're always so articulate without ever being excessively wordy. Like, I just never [00:06:00] get lost, you know?

I'm just, like, right there with you the whole time. 

Ashley Mondor: Thank you. Um, yeah. I read them on my Kindle. Oh my God, yes. Keep it digital. What was the question you asked me? I feel like I just totally went off the rails there. I took you to a new place? Yeah. Oh. Well, I was gonna ask you... Well, it was about the fear, if you had those coming up.

Johanna Bloom: Mm-hmm, because 

I did, but I have a very interesting response to fear that I ha- I actually learned from one of my horses, where I was learning to jump at a really high level, and my horse could sense when I got nervous, and he would run out at fences instead of going over them. And I had a few lessons where people taught me if the best thing to do when you're scared is to ride at it as fast as you can.

Like, point your horse at that jump, throw your heart over it, and commit to it 200%, and that's how to handle fear. And so I internalized that, and I learned how to [00:07:00] jump really high because when I did that and I, I had that, like, internal commitment of, like, channeling all that energy into determination, I realized, oh, I can do anything.

Like, fear doesn't have to limit me. And that's the attitude I took with the book, too. I just went gung-ho. Like, as soon as you told me about the publishing program and I realized that I had enough journals compiled to where I could actually create this book, I just was like... I spent a straight nine months just, like, cranking it out and going through the program and, and getting it out there.

So that's my response to fear. It's a trained response, and I know it's a little bit, it's a little bit different for everybody.

Ashley Mondor: I, I don't think I've ever heard anyone articulate a response like that before, at least not in my world and with my clients, 'cause usually it's like you feel the fear, and then you're like, "Ooh," and then you shrink down, and then you run away from it, and you're like, "Not for me."

But you're like, "Let's go."

Johanna Bloom: Yeah. Fear becomes almost an activator. It makes me angry. It's like, "Oh, this is not gonna [00:08:00] stop me." The more afraid I am, the harder I push. And I've actually had to learn how to moderate that. Like, sometimes fear is telling me important things that I should slow down and listen to.

So there's some moderation there. But I like that we have the, the different ends of the spectrum to represent to the listeners 'cause I think that different approaches work for different people. For some people, they can't just push through. It's something that needs to be felt and acknowledged and the baby steps, you know, like you're doing.

Like, take the... That's not a baby step, you know, writing a collaborative work, because you also have, uh, I think a few more restrictions, don't you, with, like, exactly what you're supposed to write? Yeah.

Ashley Mondor: There's, like, character max and all of that, and then you ha- you know, have to get it in by a deadline. And I'm like, "Oh, God.

Can I perform within that timeframe?" And then you actually get through the process and, you know, like anything, once you find your flow, it's like, what were all the stories? But the stories were fear, like, one of the ways that they try to stop you, and then [00:09:00] you get through it, and you're like, "Oh, yeah, I actually didn't die."

At the end of the day, every fear I've met, I never actually died. If things don't pan out the way that I want them to or the way I think they should, 'cause our brains love that certainty, you're like, "Oh, I actually learned something. Great."

Johanna Bloom: Yeah, and that's actually a good segue into some quotes that I wrote, of yours from the She Who Flows.

Uh, is it... it's a story. I wanna call it a book, but it's like a book within a book- Yeah ... from your chapter. Yeah. "I've spent most of my life controlling, forcing, and planning as much as humanly possible. I wore the title of micromanager of the universe in secret." And I relate to that so much. I feel like most people probably will in our culture where we're taught to, um, centralize the intellect and willpower and push, push, push, that kind of masculine structure for production, and I just related to that a lot, [00:10:00] micromanager of the universe.

You said, "My calendar was both my compass and my prison," and it gave me chills.

Ashley Mondor: I'm li- it's like reflecting back to that version of me, right? And you're like, "Ooh." And then you get beyond that and you're like, "I'm so proud of her for getting me here," you know? I think often people, because we're al- like the m- masculine energy, we're always trying to move forward, right?

But there's something about just taking a beat and pausing and looking back and being like, "Wow, I had to use that to survive," right? Like truly, corporate America and me, my God, not a match, but I needed it for whatever reason. And you're like, "Okay, I did it. Now how do I wanna live?" And my calendar truly, I don't know if you've ever had this, especially when you're an entrepreneur, you look at it and it's like, "Oh my God, I wanna be booked out."

And then you're booked out and you're like, "What have I done?"

Johanna Bloom: I do relate to that. I [00:11:00] actually don't like booking out more than a couple weeks. It starts to stress me out 'cause I'm like, "Well, what if I wanna take a vacation? What if something comes up?" It just feels like too much structure.

Ashley Mondor: Mm-hmm. And then you're like, "Oh yeah, I can have boundaries 'cause this is my business," right?

Johanna Bloom: It's true. And you transitioned though into, I mean, that was your starting point, and from my perspective, your work in corporate turned you into a super pro because even the work you do on social media, like if you've ever seen Ashley's social media posts, they are so professional. Like the Instagram posts, the way that you compile all of the text, and, uh, she makes posts for me when she does an interview with me, and she'll put like my photo on there, and then there's this really nice, nice text all around it, and there's somehow like an overlay of the recording that we talked about, and there's like multiple slides.

And it's like next level social media skills. And so, like the, the organizational presentation skills that you [00:12:00] developed are like, they're stunning.

Ashley Mondor: Also, thank you so much for seeing me. That's my Virgo moon. Oh my God. You know, when people say things like that and they roll their eyes, but it's legit.

Okay? It's legit. And thank you for saying that. I actually, like I love my podcast 'cause I have two. I have this one where I love amplifying other people's work and their magic in the world, specifically with people who I've personally worked with and know and connect with, because then it's not weird.

It's weird in a different way. And then I have my Insightful podcast. But what I love about this podcast is I, I pull quotes from you, and oftentimes you don't even realize what you say because you're in the flow state of it, and then I get to pull it, and I get to share it, and I get to relive the wisdom.

And I'm like, "This is just as much for me as it is for everyone else." So it's like why it's so fun, especially with you, having you on, because you say things and I'm like, "Damn. Oh, that was good. Put it in writing."

Johanna Bloom: Thank you. Well, that honors me so much, 'cause that's [00:13:00] what I'm always doing to animals. I mean, that's what my entire book is.

It's just quotes that they have said in my sessions. Um, and so to have you quoting me and, like, taking snapshots, some of them I don't even remember saying. Like, you'll go post them afterward, and I'll be like, "That sounds, like, really wise for me. I don't know." Channeled from your higher self. Yeah. Yeah.

Mm-hmm. Think so. Yeah, we'll get into that, like, flow conversational state. Mm-hmm. But I liked what you said. You transitioned the story into, you know, where you started as my calendar was my prison, and you said, "I learned that what I really need is spaciousness for my nervous system to relax, silence so I could tune into my heart, and to release my incessant need for certainty, because my soul craves surprise and mystery for the fun of it."

Just gonna let that land.

Ashley Mondor: I'm like, "I wrote that?" It's really interesting [00:14:00] because I don't know if this is like for you, but I have always believed that healing is a spiral, and you'll have something, and you'll expand beyond it, and then you'll meet it in a new way, and it's like how will you react with the wisdom you're bringing with you?

And I feel like I'm still living that out. You know? I, I probably will never be perfect at like not needing certainty 'cause I have a brain, right? And, carving out spaciousness for my nervous system, it's like I will do meditations, and I'll like get in the rhythm, and then something knocks me out of the rhythm.

And I'm like, "Do I really need to do that?" And my brain's like, "Do you really need to do that? 'Cause like that's gonna take time. You could be working on your business. You could be doing all these things." And then you're like, "Yeah, but I feel grounded. I feel clear." Do you experience that as well?

Johanna Bloom: Mm-hmm. I really related to the part about silence in that quote, about how important it is to sit in silence.

And I've read research about this, about how [00:15:00] that's how our minds work, is something happens, and then when we sit in silence, there's all this subconscious calibration going on, and that's actually where a lot of our ideas come from. So when we're constantly stimulating ourselves, we're actually limiting our brain's full ability.

So when you said that, I was thinking about how much I like to sit in silence. There are sometimes where I'll be in my home, and I'll, you know, I'll be ready to go on and watch a show or something, and my, my body is just like, "No." Like, my eyes itch, my eyes are tired, and I really just need to sit. So I liked that you said that about silence.

And it also... This quote was like a mic drop moment for me because it summarized for me what it felt like to grow up in religion, um, 'cause I grew up in a, a very strict religion. And I experienced this feeling of , it was like boredom. It was like stress, boredom. And it wasn't that I didn't have things to do, but I just felt like there is more out there.

And I remember getting frustrated. I was a good Christian when I was a [00:16:00] Christian. I like checked all the boxes. I was all in. I was like doing missionary work. I was... You know, I was committed. And it, it just didn't feel real to me. It, it felt too predictive, 'cause that's what religion gives us ultimately, right?

It's like a structure, and this is how you live your life, and if you do this, you're a good girl and you get these results. Um, and it feels safe, but it also feels, uh, to me it was just, like, overwhelmingly, numbing. I started to feel numb and, like, disconnected, and I would have these periods of, like, dissociation that really freaked me out.

And I remember one time I was reading a Harry Potter book, and I finished the book, and I was laying on my bed. I was probably, like, 16, and I just felt this overwhelming, anger that magic wasn't real. I just remember sitting there like, "This is not okay that the people in this story get to have adventures like this and I don't."

And I remember sitting there just, wishing with all my heart that magic could be real and that my life could look like [00:17:00] that. And lo and behold, wishes do come true. But I had to leave, you know, the safety and the structure and the need for certainty and embrace the mystery, just like you said there.

My soul craves surprise and mystery for the fun of it, and I had to just give in to that craving and not care what it cost me.

Ashley Mondor: I, that part at the end you just said, "and not care what it costs me," that is something that stops so many people because it's like the judgment. Am I gonna lose my job? Are people gonna outcast me?

And, like, at a unconscious level, subconsciously, belonging is a core need, and if, like, way back in the day, if you were outcasted, your survival was questionable, you know? And so now we're living in a time where you actually can be authentic and expressed out loud, and are you willing to do so? And it's also so funny because you bring up Harry Potter.

I remember being a little [00:18:00] girl, and, like, I was watching Harry Potter, and because I grew up with a mom who practiced nature magick, I was like, "This is real. This is for me." We all have gifts we can access. So it's just so funny 'cause you walk through that by having to navigate religion and being like, "What the sh-?"

And I'm like, obviously this is real, and, like- ... we're gonna learn more about this. It's kind of like soft disclosure a little bit if you think about it with that, especially, with things like, I was gonna say telekinesis. Yeah, like levitating things and spell casting and working with the elements and how even, like, the Whomping Willow is an energy with a consciousness and things like that, you know?

It's just like, oh, what a time to be alive.

Johanna Bloom: I like that, that about soft disclosure sort of expanding our minds to the concept before we can f- I mean, even if it's just, oh, this is just a story, still we're, we're expanding and we're starting to process, and it just feels less weird when you come across it later and, oh, people can [00:19:00] actually talk to plants and are having full conversations with them, and that's normal now.

Ashley Mondor: Oh, and your work, like that's normal. I just talk to animals every day. I talked to an eagle today, talk to whoever tomorrow, you know? It's just... And it's so fun because you had to be willing to really move beyond everything that you've known because religion is built, at least on these Abrahamic ones, on fear and control and manipulation, and you're like, but what if the sparrow...

you have a whole story around that which I think is profound that I want you to share, but even that, you're like, clearly there's something more beyond what we've been taught.

Johanna Bloom: Mm-hmm. I remember when, the story behind the sparrow is when I was a Christian, you're only allowed to believe what's in the Bible.

Like, that is the central manual for how to live your life, and if it's not in the Bible, we don't do it. And I was still living within that structure, but I was looking for [00:20:00] the answers that I needed. We had a pastor when I was a kid who said animals don't have souls, and it was the belief that my mom absorbed, and so it was what she told me when we lost a pet.

The dog died and she was like, "Oh yeah, she's just gone forever. We will never see or hear from her again." And I remember, like, my parents were grieving really hard too, and I think it was made even worse by the fact that we believed that she was just gone. And I remember being so angry. Every time I lost an animal, I was so angry at that idea, and I was like, "There is no way this is real."

So I was looking in the Bible, and there's a verse in Matthew that said, "God's eye is on the sparrow, and not one of them falls without His knowing." And I just... That, it was like a little flashlight. It was just enough for me to be like, "You know what? There it is. Animals have value, and, you know, they have meaning.

And even a sparrow, like this little tiny bird, is significant." And so I started identifying really hard with sparrows, and I made artwork about them, and I named my [00:21:00] truck Sparrow. And it's to the point now where I get sparrows as symbols. Ashley did a Angelic Reiki session for me where a song about sparrows, like, hijacked her playlist when she started the session, and she didn't know any of this at the time, so she told me about it in her notes and I was like, "Confirmation right there."

Like, sparrows are my bird.

Ashley Mondor: And when that happened... So for context, for my Angelic Reiki, they're called Halo Healings, and what happens is it's like you are in your own space for 30 minutes and I'm in my own space for 30 minutes. We never actually talk. And what happens is I open up this space. I have a whole protocol where I connect to the Angelic Kingdom of Light.

I'm flowing energy. But also, at the same time, I receive messages and symbols and things like that, and I have a whole angelic Reiki playlist that I play on Spotify because I learned that, you know, the angels like certain music, which is cool. And so I'm sitting there and I'm, playing my music, and all of a sudden my playlist shifts to a song not [00:22:00] on my playlist, and it w- had the word sparrow in it.

And I was like What? Why would... 'Cause I didn't even have that functionality set up to jump playlists, so I was like, well, that feels really significant. And so I send it to her, and then she shares all of that with me, and I'm like, I, I am so in awe of the way that spirit works in the most divine ways.

Because again, I didn't know about the sparrow, but you did, and it felt like confirmation and validation, not just for you, right? 'Cause, like, to a lot of people, Angelic Reiki is, like, what even is that? What are you talking about? I don't believe in that stuff. But then you have a symbol that is, so central to so much of your life, and I'm like, you can't make that up.

And then you have it even on your book. Like, I just... It's so cool.

Johanna Bloom: It is so cool, and it was validating for me too, 'cause I had... I did not doubt you, but I had never tried [00:23:00] Angelic Reiki before, and so I didn't really know what to expect. And during the session, I felt a lot of things. I got images, I got communication in channels of my own.

But then afterward to have you say that with the very first thing was sparrows, I was like... I think I cried. I was like, "This, this is it." Like, angels are real and they care about me, 'cause that was something I'd always wondered.

Ashley Mondor: And to have it be, like, the thing that I love so much is that it started in your religious conditioning.

You found the light within that, and then, like, like, on wings it carried you through. And I mean, even when you were a tattoo artist, that was pivotal, right? It was, one of your symbols and things. So it's just like everything is so beautiful, even with the hardship and the struggle and all of the ways our brain tries to control things and, and whatever shape things out of survival.

And then

you're like, and we are so held in ways we can't even fathom.

Johanna Bloom: It's true. I think that's what your work shows me. Can we talk about the Heart [00:24:00] Healing session that we did? Yes. Because I started with Angelic Reiki, and then I learned that Ashley knows how to do hypnosis, and I had done hypnosis. I did a group session with Natalie, actually.

She did, like, a little, a group session for us about meeting your higher self through hypnosis, and that was very cool and I learned some very interesting things about myself. But it also wasn't... It was kind of brief and it wasn't super, um My conscious mind was still operating to an extent because it was a group class, so I was still responsible for, like, sort of navigating my own thoughts and keeping track of them whereas in the session with you, it was more of a full surrender experience because you were guiding me personally through, like, an hour-long session and we did a sort of meditation at first where...

And Ashley has, like, the most calm, soothing voice. It's, like, so easy to just relax, and she took me through a meditation that felt very familiar to me. I always use yoga nidra as a [00:25:00] meditation on my own. I do guided meditations, and part of the practice, yoga nidra is a meditation. It's not yoga, but there are some physical exercises, like tension release, and there's one where they guide you through each different point of your body.

You sort of, you know, calibrate and recenter to your body, and you did the same exercise where it was like, "Now we're shifting your focus to your shoulder and your elbow and your wrist," and we just go through each part of the body, and that was, like, immediately soothing to me 'cause it was so familiar, and it's one of the most effective techniques I've found at getting me out of my head and back into my body I also, I, I know Ashley and so I'm very comfortable ah, with you as a guide.

And she led me through this hypnosis and then I think we went down a set of stairs, didn't we? Mm-hmm. And that was familiar too. That had happened in my, in my previous hypnosis. And after that it started to get fuzzy. I feel like I was not managing my thoughts at that point or even keeping track [00:26:00] so much of what was going on.

I was just sort of saying it out loud and interacting with her and we went so deep into my subconscious that I didn't fully remember the session afterward. I kinda had to go back through your notes and remembered things in pieces over the next few days which really showed me, like, we were in my subconscious.

Like, my conscious mind had let go and that was the experience I was looking for. I was struggling with money. I had a income cap where no matter how hard I worked, it's been the same ever since I was a tattoo artist. It's been the same for, like, seven years. I had this number that I could not go over and I even know what it's from.

It's from a past relationship where I started to make that much money and my partner got threatened and sabotaged me and ever since then that had been the cap. I, like, no matter how hard I worked I was not able to get above that number because my nervous system was convinced that something bad would happen and so I came to Ashley.

I don't think I even told you all that backstory. I just told you that, I [00:27:00] have these limits and I'm, like, banging my head against a wall trying to, trying to remove them and there's obviously something stopping me. So she took me through the whole hypnosis and what came through, it was linked to my family but it wasn't as negative as I thought.

I feel like I've done a pretty good job identifying, the truly negative beliefs that have limited me, and I think this one was sneakier because it was disguised as loyalty. It was this sort of belief that we love through struggle in my family, and we have for generations. That's how you show someone love is you, like, suffer for them and you struggle, and money is a struggle.

And there are entrepreneurs in my family who I've learned from, but the model for us that I'm obviously following in my own patterns is the money doesn't come unless there's a crisis. So there's y- it's always this state of like, "Oh, I don't know if we're gonna make it. There's this big bill [00:28:00] coming up," and then at the last minute something happens and the money comes in.

And it's very consistent, but it's also very stressful. And so that's what Ashley and I addressed in my session. It was like, why, why does there have to be this element of struggle? And there was something about the way that she was talking directly to my subconscious, I felt myself sort of just let it go.

There was this... Like, I, I would question, why do we have to struggle to, to have these things, to struggle for love or to struggle for money? And when I was in that deep subconscious state, I didn't even have to wrestle with that belief. It just came up as , "Oh, this is unnecessary. Clearly we can release this."

And it just went. Like, it w- It, I wasn't fighting against it anymore, it was just, it sort of moved through me and it was gone. Mm. And that was amazing. It was almost like we re- we removed the... You know, like, when you're trying really hard to remember a word and you almost block yourself because you're, you're [00:29:00] trying so hard?

It's like the effort that stops you. It's almost like my conscious mind was so aware of what the problem was that it wasn't able to release it until we went through the hypnosis and released it without me immediately getting triggered or creating an episode, like an emotional episode about it. It was like we were just in the flow state.

We were in hypnosis, and I wasn't having emotional reactions to things. It was... I was emotional. I cried through some of the session, but it was a different experience. I feel like my conscious mind just took a backseat and we were able to, like, actually let it go. Like, it came up and it released. Wow. And that was just amazing to me, and my life has been different ever since.

The very next month, I broke my income ceiling by over $1,000. It was, like, over $1,000 more than I'd ever made before, and that happened again the next month. And there's been things shifting in my housing situation, which I've been really frustrated with, and there's been things shifting in relationships, family [00:30:00] members reaching back out, shifts that I'd been waiting for in friendships and romantic relationships, and just all of this.

I mean, it's been a little chaotic because obviously you created a shift. Every time I'm shifting, whether you wanna call it quantum leaping or a new dimension or just aligning with a higher frequency, my tech starts to go crazy. And so, like all of a sudden, none of my chargers were working for any of my devices, and I started to have really weird website issues that some of my clients were having.

But it was inconsistent. It was like never the same thing. And every time I start to see that, I'm like, "Okay," like, "Here we go. Here we go." Past people coming back in, you know, all of these signs that there's, there's a shift happening. And so that's been... I feel like I'm still in the middle of that. I haven't come through it yet, but it's still very exciting for me because I've been through this process enough times to know that there is a new world on the other side of this shift, and you created that for me, so thank you [00:31:00] so much.

Ashley Mondor: Oh my God, I have chills when you said there's a new world. There really is, and I think... Is it okay to talk a little bit more about your session?

Johanna Bloom: Sure, yes.

Ashley Mondor: I think something that was really, really cool, there are a few things. I think about your session all the time. Actually, what's really interesting, too, is I had a friend who, she was on a plane.

She was just traveling from Bali, and she listened to that episode, and she was like, "That was an incredible episode," because I shared about it on my Insightful with Ashley Mondor podcast. I think it's called The Prosperity Shift is that episode where we go deeper. But what was so truly fascinating is that there was a point where we had called in, a certain family member, and we invited them to be filled with abundance so that you could heal your lineage, whatever was happening with that.

And then, I don't know why, but I felt called to bringing you to a different scene. And so I was asking your subconscious for a metaphor that would [00:32:00] help you let this go. And do you remember what you saw?

Johanna Bloom: Was it the hot air balloon?

Ashley Mondor: Yeah.

Johanna Bloom: Yeah. And I- I do, and I- She- It was so random for for me. Like, it...

Ashley Mondor: And when you said that, I was like, "Oh my God, this is like being served the whole cake right now as a hypnotist," 'cause I'm like, "Ooh, baby, we can work with that metaphor." You know what I'm saying? Yeah. And so we invited you and that family member on the hot air balloon, and it's like really working with your unconscious mind.

It's like, what do you wanna do? And you were like, "Oh, there are all these sandbags that represent these beliefs that's, weighing us down, whether it's loyalty through suffering, things like that." And so I asked you, "Do you feel good about letting those sandbags go?" And you were like, "Yeah." And so you and this person in the balloon started raising up, and I asked you to look over the edge.

And do you remember what you saw?

Johanna Bloom: I remember seeing ancestors and other family members, and I also remember [00:33:00] releasing sandbags like releasing sandbags, uh, so that the balloon could go higher. And when they had landed on the ground, they were just dirt. Like all of these family loyalties and identification with struggle that we had carried through generations, and it's just dirt when it's down on the ground looking small.

Ashley Mondor: It's just dirt. You you even said it that way. You're like, "It's just dirt." And I'm like, "Yeah. This is amazing." And then, um, I remember there was a part where you looked down and you saw some of their faces, and some of them were super happy for you and others were pissed. They were so mad. And I thought that was so fascinating because at an unconscious level your, your subconscious unconscious mind speaks in things like symbolism, metaphors, things like that.

And that told me that there was still a part of you that needed to hold onto that sense of struggle. And do you remember I asked you like, "Well, what is the truth of the situation, the truth of your life?" Do you remember what you said?[00:34:00]

Johanna Bloom: I do remember releasing grief. I remember realizing that I had held this as a sort of connection to my family.

It was very emotional for me to let it go. I remember I started crying a lot at that point.

Ashley Mondor: Which makes sense because, uh, crying releases the stress hormo- hormozone. The stress- ... hormone cortisol. So you're literally lightening up your being chemically, which I think is fascinating. But y- so healing- I'm hot air ballooning myself.

Yeah. You're just raising up. Okay. But the thing that was so cool was you had this epiphany, your unconscious mind had this epiphany that it's like my ancestors would want me to thrive, right? Like you are the one leading the family now. You're alive, and it's like why would they want me to struggle anymore when they had to struggle?

Because that's not what love is. We don't want our loved ones to struggle. We want better for them. And having you realize that, it's one thing to know it in your [00:35:00] conscious mind, but your unconscious mind, like if you don't touch on the root of those things, your unconscious mind is brilliant.

And so what happens is, is it's kind of like I think about a dandelion where the core root is the bulb, right? The, the core flower. And then your unconscious mind will have other beliefs for you to pay attention to that act as the seeds, right? And you're like, "Oh, it's this, it's this, it's this, it's this. I thought I got to it."

And then when you go actually to communicate and collaborate with your unconscious mind, you're like, "Oh my God. Loyalty to struggle equals love." And then you're like, "I actually don't wanna do that anymore."

Johanna Bloom: Yeah. And then actually the ability to release it, not just identify it, but release it. That was the piece I had been missing, and that was what you guided me through so skillfully.

I had done a couple of hypnosis before, and it, I mean, it's possible that it was because they were group sessions, but there is something next level about the way your [00:36:00] intuition knew what I needed and how to guide me, like personally me, through that experience. It was just really obvious that this wasn't like a script.

You weren't just guiding me through, like, "This is how to hypnotize someone." You know? It was, it was a very personal, intuition-led experience. Can you tell me how you learned how to do that?

Ashley Mondor: Oh my God, thank you. I have chills. That's so fun because candidly, if it were scripted and the same for every session, I wouldn't do it because I get bored easily.

I need to play, and I think that's why people choose me is because it's like a playful experience, but also exceptionally deep. And you're like, "What?" And I'm like, "What?" And we're like, "Yeah." You know? But I, um, uh, years ago, actually, I came across this woman who was teaching about neuro-linguistic programming, and she had this whole certification where you could get certified in EFT, which is emotional freedom techniques, which is also like tapping, right?

And, obviously neuro-linguistic programming and stuff like that, and then hypnosis. And [00:37:00] she taught hypnosis where you read from a script And I was like, "Okay." And I kept getting feedback from people. They were like, "Oh my God, your voice." And I'm like, "I don't know. I live with it. I hear myself. What?" And, and so I never really played with it, because I felt like can I actually take people deep enough, and do I wanna do this, step-by-step-by-step script every time?

I don't wanna do that. But then two years ago, I came across a woman, her name is Melissa Tiers, and she has a certification called Coaching the Unconscious Mind, and as part of that, you get integrative hypnosis. And she teaches you different ways to induce people or induction, so, like, m- uh, that was one way that I led you through that specific meditation.

There are other ones that you can play with, like staring at your hand 'cause your focus is there, right? 'Cause hypnosis actually helps you relax enough so that the critical faculty, or they call it, like, the barrier between your conscious and unconscious mind, actually can open up and you can [00:38:00] access that.

But the thing that I appreciated most is that she was like, "You can just play with this. It's not that big of a deal." And I remember being like, "I need step by step. I need it to be this way. What if I don't get it right? What if I say the wrong thing?" When I counted you down, like, you're gonna walk down a set of, 10 beautiful stairs, 10, 10, nine, eight, blah, blah, blah.

I remember being like, "Okay, 10, don't mess up the number because if I mess up the number, they're gonna come out of the trance, and then I'm gonna be a fool, and you're not gonna get what you need," right? And she was like, "Relax. They're really not paying attention, honestly. They're just relaxing." And I'm like, "Oh."

And so it's been a process of me trusting that the, the things that I hear or the visions I get in my brain really are spirit actually connecting with your team and your soul. And I think that's why it's so fun because it's like it's a co-creative dance between you and me, you know? If I were to have a script and have it be a set way, that would be [00:39:00] okay, but you have, you have brilliance in you.

You have a level of wisdom that maybe you haven't really accessed in that way before because you haven't been led to connect that way. And so I am always in awe of the truth and the wisdom that people share with me from hypnosis or hypnotic states because I'm like, "Can I have that and write about it?"

Because that metaphor, like the hot air balloon and When you were like, "It's just dirt," I was like we hold onto things and we let it weigh us down in such a way where our beliefs literally can crush us, and you're like, "You can just let it go. It's just dirt." You know? That is amazing. So thank you for asking me about that 'cause it's sexy.

Johanna Bloom: Thank you for telling us, 'cause I, I did wonder, and it makes sense that you took a mentorship from a professional. I think that, that really speaks in the work of spiritual practitioners when, when we have taken training ourselves. And I love how transformative it [00:40:00] is. We live in a world where institutionalized education is so glorified, and if you wanna get a college degree, get a college degree.

You know, there's all kinds of applications for it. But personally, I have spent a lot more time in trade school and apprenticeships and mentorships, and I have found them such a more fulfilling experience than sitting in a classroom taking notes because you have the connection with your mentor. You have this really personal feedback on, like, every area of what you're doing.

You're expanding in ways that you didn't know were possible. It's more than just brain. And your mentor is able to point out limits or see things in your behavior that you might not even realize you're doing. Like for you with the overthinking and the w- the wanting the process to be perfect, I think that's a beautiful thing.

That comes from a good place, wanting to master the process so that you can guide people. But there's always this element of releasing the perfection of it and just allowing yourself to be a human being because [00:41:00] no one is always 100% perfect.

Ashley Mondor: Yeah. I love that.

Johanna Bloom: Yeah, I, it's just, it's obvious, you know, that there's some ancient wisdom in the process that you're doing, and I think that that's really powerful when we take mentorships and we pass down this sort of...

It's the type of education that has survived underground, you know, and has not been institutionalized and has been buried, and we're reconnecting with it and re-accessing it and then, you know, creating opportunities for other people to experience it, too, and it's so amazing to me.

Ashley Mondor: Oh, and I think, I have always been of the belief that it's like I wanna learn by someone who has mastered this and/or believes that they're always a student, and it's their passion that drives them forward, and that's why they do this work.

And it reminds me, I just read the book called The Serviceberry, and it's about the gift economy versus our economy rooted [00:42:00] in programming around scarcity and lack. And- Oh, I loved your podcast episode on this. Thank you. But she shared something that it's, this is along the similar lines, where she was like, "Right now, we have it in a way where you go and you use your money, right?

And you buy the groceries or you buy this knitted hat that you need for the winter, and you're like, 'Cool. Great.' And you're like, 'I have the thing. I consume it. Great.' Or you have the hat, and you're like, 'That's a cool hat, but I also have that hat. I'll just put it away, tuck it away.'" And then she's like, "But the difference is the human connection.

If you have a friend or a family member who knitted you that hat, you're probably going to treasure it because you know the energy that went into it, the time. Like, it's this symbol of your friendship and your connection." If you go, and 'cause she talks about the service berry, which is a berry I would love to try someday, but if you go to the grocery store and you buy, or you go to a farmers market and you buy these berries, and you're talking about, "Oh my God, I'm gonna put it in a pie or whatever," and then that person [00:43:00] pulls you aside and they're like, "Can I have that pie recipe?"

All of a sudden you are sharing abundance in new ways, and it's through that human connection. And I think there's something about mentorship where when you talked about people, that person seeing what you're doing and, like, maybe challenges, obstacles, things that you could refine. You're getting their mastery, their perception through that lens.

Versus, I went and got my college degree. I have a BA in, marketing and communications. I remember not really any of it because I have no incentive to connect with the textbook, the literature that I've been told, "This is the way," right? And then you're in these places where a lot of stuff is shifting and changing.

We don't even live in a world where that education even makes sense anymore because we have things like AI and all of that. So at the end of the day- Everything, at least for me in my perspective, comes down to your heart-to-heart connection. Who we are, you know, when we are together, and knowing that both of us have [00:44:00] wisdom and things that we bring to this connection, and that's the world I wanna live in, where we're like, "Oh yeah, it's humanity.

We all matter." You know? Versus sitting down and being like, "I'm gonna get these credentials and these credits, and I'm gonna do the thing." And you're like, that's great, but does that make you feel alive? Okay, cool. You know? Or versus mentorship, like I love you, Johanna. I love you. I have loved your work for so long, and I chose you because of the way you present yourself on social media, and the wisdom you share, and the way your energy is.

We're literally friends now. We text all the time because I'm like I just wanna, like, shout you from the rooftops because I think you're just a phenomenal human being and what you do matters so much, and it's because we have a connection. I just don't know how it could get any better, you know?

Johanna Bloom: No, I love it too. I love texting you what weird dream I had last night, and you usually had one too. Then we get to explore these different things together, me teaching you animal communication, you guiding me through hypnosis and angel Reiki. And, [00:45:00] the episode that you did about the Serviceberry and the gift economy, uh, made it...

Like, it just lit me up 'cause I, I was thinking, "This is what I have been trying to do my whole life." I have entered every single situation in a gift economy mindset of like, how can we connect? How can we help each other? This is what I have to offer, what do you... How can we combine these? And to me, it was never really about the money, and so I would get so confused when people would, exploit me, like chew me up and spit me out, and then act like it was my fault for being naive.

Oh. And I'm sitting here like, I, I didn't do anything wrong. Like, just because I'm not ruthless doesn't mean... Like, just because I don't fit into this system doesn't mean you have the right to treat me that way. And it just really lit that, that up for me, and I think that shifting to a gift economy is how...

It's a difference in mindset. It's coming to a group with, what can I give, you know, how can I connect, rather than what can I [00:46:00] take? And we start seeing people as human beings to connect with rather than resources to exploit. And, you know, whoever's the most clever or the most tricky or the best at writing contracts is the one who wins.

It's a g- it's winning and competition, and I... You know, I have to take from others in order to build myself, and I think that's the mentality that is destroying the world right now. Uh, it's the, the, the competition. And so if we can turn it back into a gift economy and centralized connection, it just makes so much sense.

I listened to that episode and I was like, "Yes, this is obviously the world that we're trying to create."

Ashley Mondor: Yes. And, and I think that's why it's so cool when people are listening to these things because it's like maybe you never thought about that before, but maybe it's inspiring to you. She talks about in that book That where sh- 'cause she's a teacher, a university professor, and they have it where they have, like agriculture and things, and they have free farmers' market stands

and [00:47:00] she said that their students would grow all these crops, and then they would just share the abundance with the faculty and whoever else wants some. And she said, "And inevitably, someone took the sign, They took the whole stand." And she was saying that that will happen with people who believe they need to privatize things.

They need to own something. And then she said, "But a remarkable thing happened," because everyone valued that free farmers' market stand that I think, local Boy Scouts or something like that, they actually built multiple new free stands so that more people in the community could then share their abundance with other people just because that happened.

And so I think many people would be like, "Well, we can't have a gift economy because people are greedy or selfish." And it's like, but people who? Because people like you and I exist, and we know what's possible when we are connecting and sharing and, you know, circulating wealth and resources and things like that.

And also, this is the future. Truly, it's part of the matriarchy is the sustaining of life, [00:48:00] and we get to offer that as a new way of being. And so every time you share things like this or you connect in a new way or you share your abundance and things like that, it's like we are literally the embodiment of the future, and we're bringing it to us now.

And that is so exciting.

Johanna Bloom: It is. It's so exciting, and it's what we're here to do. It reminds me I read an article that one, a celebrity, I think Jaden Smith, is doing a new type of food truck. Have you seen this? Yeah. And You don't go buy food for yourself. When you pay for a meal, you pay for someone else, and anyone who can't afford food can go eat for free because the meal has been paid for by someone else.

And they are expanding. They are exploding, and it's, creating all these discussions around, yeah, how we handle food and resources, and this idea that you can just go... It's such a simple thing. I go, and I basically buy the food for the next person in line, and if they can't afford it, there's a community.

You know, like, we have support for this. Everyone's [00:49:00] taken care of. I really think it highlights that scarcity and competition and taking from others increases scarcity and increases lack and causes fear and all those things that drive our frequency down. Mm. So when we can reconnect to a community setting and say, "Hey, we take care of each other."

Like, we are connecting. If you don't have this to offer me this day, you know, you still have value to the community, and we're valuing non-material assets also. And I think that's just so big is seeing each other more than vending machines.

Ashley Mondor: Quote. I love that, and I think, I actually saw that in one of the top comments.

The first people were like, "Well, it must be nice to have someone fund you, like, to have a set base to be able to do that." And I'm like, This is what we want wealthy people to do. When you have the resources, you are generous. This actually should be the pinnacle of humanity, is when you have those, you share.

You should be known for how much you share while you are also whole and full and complete, you know? So [00:50:00] it's like never, "I'm withdrawing from you." It's like, "Oh, I have this. Would you love this?" And it's interesting because even by me, there's a restaurant that's, primarily vegan, and their prices are a little more, but they have this thing called a community bowl.

Anyone in the community can come get this for free, and what happens is, of course, there are some people who always need it, and they're like, okay. And I'm not mad that I'm like, "Okay, yeah, here's $2 more to go towards the community bowl that is nourishing someone who may be underfed."

And so it's just like, it's happening. You know, we have the free libraries that people put up. We have the free farmers' stands. We have these opportunities. We're creating them, and it's like you actually make an impact because you exist, because you wanna bring something forward like that.

It's... I'm just so excited to be alive.

Johanna Bloom: Yeah, that's amazing. And the shift in perspective that I just thought of when you were telling that story, it's instead of this idea that people want to [00:51:00] take and people want to exploit each other, and we all always have to be on our guard and make sure you're the one who comes out on top kind of thing, it's instead centralizing the idea that people want to give, and we want to be part of the community, and that if we can pay for it, we will.

And you can give someone resources and not fear that they're gonna become entitled or they're going to drain me because we have enough community support. We have enough abundance that we can handle these things. Mm-hmm. And that's- Yeah ... that's really powerful too. It's a different understanding of human beings.

You know, instead of seeing s- seeing ourselves as greedy at heart, we're seeing ourselves as altruistic, which I really think we are. I think we're naturally altruistic, and it's... Uh, we can become damaged and deprogrammed out of it, but I think our natural state is to want connection. Look at children that...

Look at children. Like, children can't be greedy, but

Ashley Mondor: 'cause they're a walking subconscious, so they're figuring out. Yes. And I think too, that's [00:52:00] why the school curriculum is so interesting especially, because it's like you go, you get a job, you do the thing, you try to make as much money as humanly possible so that you can work for most of your life, and then you retire and, like, maybe you get to live a little bit longer free.

And what happens is we have this pyramid, and you're like, if you make it to the top, you are the most worthy. Obviously, you should be paid the most, all that stuff, and if you have to step on people to get there, the ends justify the means. And we are going to shift out of that because really we're, we're all equal.

We're a circle, we're whole, we're complete, you know? And there is nothing, at least for me, nothing like sharing from a generous place because I love surprising people, because I love, buying coffees and meals, and I love donating to GoFundMes when I have the abundance to do so, knowing that, like, I don't need anything in return at all.

It's just that I get to help someone because I feel called to, and I genuinely believe that, most people, like you said, are altruistic because they have a heart that beats. Because they're like, "I am also [00:53:00] a human," we all have struggles and challenges, so it's like sometimes we need someone to hold our hand up the mountain for a little bit.

Sometimes we're the guide actually holding someone else's hand. We all get to play in this way. It's just remembering that I think most people are good and that we're actually changing society to mirror that fact.

Johanna Bloom: Mm-hmm. And if we believe that about ourselves, I think that will change a lot too.

I've noticed a lot of, cynicism and depression within religious communities or within even secular communities where they believe that people are greedy. And when you believe that I am bad, I am flawed, I am born a sinner, or other people are bad and they are going to be ripping me off, your mind then creates that reality and sees that in others, and it turns ruthless because you think that that's the only way to survive.

And I really liked, I think you said this in that podcast about the measure of a person's wealth is in what they give to others rather than in what they hoard. Hmm. [00:54:00] Mm-hmm.

Ashley Mondor: I think that's so much. That was, Robin Wall Kimmerer who wrote Serviceberry. And I, when I read that I was like I just feel like that's been me my whole life.

I felt like finally there was language around what I believe in and what I've been striving for. And to see, it's just, it hasn't been our time yet, but it's coming, and that ideas like that are actually being bought, like in the form of a book or whatever. I'm like, "Okay, we've got this. Humanity, we've got this."

Johanna Bloom: We do. The progress is amazing. Animals have told me that, too. Do you know what an animal said to me in a session recently about school? I have a client whose past dog was always giving us... He's so good at, like, seeing through the structure and the system, and he's guided his person out of this corporate job in the healthcare system.

And one thing that he said was that the math that they teach us in school is based on limits. It's based on you have a limited amount, how [00:55:00] do you ration it out? And that's what they teach us. It's like division, and those are all our basic math questions. You have five oranges. How do you split them between three people?

Um, and he says there is also expansive math that they are not teaching you, like the way that numbers expand and bounce off each other and multiply over time. There's a natural abundance in numbers, and it's being withheld, and instead they're teaching us budgeting and division and limits from a very young age.

And they're putting you at a desk. He also said they put you at a desk, and they teach you to give most of your day to someone else. And he said, "Imagine you weren't indoctrinated with this. Imagine you're, like, living in a tribe, and you've lived your whole life just living off of the land, and some man in a business suit comes up to you and says, 'Give me your day.'

You would laugh at them. Or comes and tells you, you, "You need to pay me to live in this hut." You would laugh at them." [00:56:00] And his advice to us was laugh them off because greed is just going to multiply. It just takes and takes and takes until there's nothing left. That's the end price of greed, so the only way out is to start laughing it off.

Ashley Mondor: God, what a quote. That's gonna be such a quote. Oh my God. I can see it already. Thank you for that. I totally agree. Yeah. Oh, my brain is like , especially the thought of, like, truly we are limitless potential. We are limitless possibility. We are infinite energy. And so we have been conditioned to believe that money and capitalism is the way.

It's the only way. It's the only way that makes sense. And so what do we see right now? We're literally living the end of capitalism in 2026. We are walking through that, and we are seeing, oh, you're telling me that you are a billionaire? A, how do you get to be a billionaire ethically? And then you're like, you have all the resources in the world and you wanna go to Mars?

You wanna build a bunker when you could actually be written in the history books as someone who solved world hunger? You don't wanna be known for [00:57:00] that? And people are like, "Yeah, what are we doing?" I mean, we've lived this way for so long and, and that's, that's what it gets you? Eh, I don't wanna do that, you know?

And, the idea of I'm not going to live for retirement because I remember in corporate, in one of my first corporate jobs, I've had two, there was a woman who worked there for 45 years, and the year of her retirement she got cancer and died. And not that she didn't love her job, she did, but I'm like, that was your whole life, 45 years of life.

And the company trying to be beautiful about it, they named a freaking meeting room after her. And I was like, she can't even get away in death. She can't even get out of these meetings. What do you mean? She spent her whole life, and now in the afterlife she's there? And I just thought like, ugh, this system is going to change, and I...

So many people are ready for it. Can you imagine if Well, now you know because you do animal communication work full time. But if you could have done that earlier, you know? If that was even a possibility of being in your [00:58:00] gifts in that way for a longer amount of time, or you getting to create whatever you wanna create, like how you will hear yourself more clearly through that process.

And also, we keep people in a state of flight, fight, fawn, freeze, nervous system dysregulation on purpose. Mm. But I think that more altruism is going to come forward the more people regulate themselves, because they're not in tunnel vision of fear. They're like, "The day is mine. Okay, what do I wanna do today?"

So I just love that you spoke to that. Thank you so much.

Johanna Bloom: Yeah. You're welcome. It made me think of something else that I noticed in your Heart Healing sessions. I noticed a shift after your session where I'm less interested in intellectual healing. I'm less interested in, like, reading about how to heal, or thinking about the things that I have left to heal, or understanding, comprehending the, the healing process.

That, to me, does not seem like the solution anymore, and I even scroll past a lot of those posts, which I didn't [00:59:00] used to do. And it's... Since your session, you centralized the heart, and you connected me with the emotions and the energy and the power of the heart. And that wasn't something that I was fully able to do before because it, it felt cheesy.

Like, just saying out loud "I'm following my heart," or, "I am healing my heart," it just sounds like if I said that, no one would take me seriously, because I was raised in such an intellectual culture that valued the brain. And I was consciously and subconsciously following that model since.

Even in my approach to healing and my approach to solving my problems, it was all brain first. And so you caused a shift for me to where now I, if I'm facing a problem, I feel into my heart and I say, "What, what does this, how does this feel to me?" You know, like, what... And even if the feeling changes, sometimes, the way I feel about a relationship initially will change over the course of a few days, and then I'm starting to make different decisions.

So it's not as predictable [01:00:00] when I go by my heart. It's not like I'm making a plan and following through. It changes a lot more. It's a lot more fluid, but it's also way more relaxing. Ever since I've gotten out of my head, I don't wanna go back there. I don't wanna go back to hyper-analyzing every element of everything I'm doing.

And you opened me up to that idea that the heart has intelligence, and it obviously thinks differently than the brain and it guides differently than the brain. But I like the way it feels um, to connect with my heart and follow the energy there instead of having to... It's also stopped me from spiraling so much and spinning out and getting stuck in my head and all of those other things that I usually had to go through just to reconnect with my heart.

Like, first I had to go through all the spiraling, and then I could start to, to feel things out. I'm starting to skip that phase. It's, it's removing the struggle from the equation, which is what we worked on in our session. Can you tell me about how... Has that been something you've always been [01:01:00] able to do?

Because for me, this is new.

Ashley Mondor: It's new for a lot of people, to be fair. I was gonna ask you, just candidly, 'cause I think people would benefit from it, but when you do start noticing that you're living in the mental body or you're spiraling, what is your process for catching it? Or, do you have something you do that makes you come back home?

Johanna Bloom: The most effective thing for me is to go outside or ride my horses or do something physical, because I can't think my way out of it. It's fun. I think fun is the antidote for that.

Ashley Mondor: Quote, oh my God. Fun is the antidote. Literally, that's what I think spirituality is. I think it's like, how can you have the most fun being authentic and, being love, period.

Mm-hmm. And so for me, I remember I had a session. Her name is Courtney Beck. I mentioned her earlier, but I was like, "What kind of work am I actually meant to be doing?" And she was like, "You are a specialist for the heart." And I was like- Mm ... " I literally cannot talk about that because it's too flighty.

It's [01:02:00] too airy-fairy. People don't understand that. They need, like, processes and frames and blah, blah, blah." And I'm like, "And you should follow your heart." And they're like, "What the hell does that even mean?" And I'm like, "I don't... I think it's different for all of us, honestly." And then how do you even market around that?

But the thing- Mm ... is, uh, I went through this trauma-informed practitioner training through the HeartMath Institute, who's done studies and scientific things on the heart's intelligence. And what is incredible is that your heart has 40,000 of its own neurons, and that your heart's electromagnetic field radiates so much farther than your brain.

It's three or four feet, if not more, where your brain is like a foot. And so they have actually done studies around intuition and how your heart picks up information from the quantum field and then relays it to your brain, and then your brain has a filtering process based on things like your beliefs.

Are you hungry? Are you tired? Are you hydrated? Do you have an identity around this? Have you had trauma around this? And so it's fascinating because I believe that where we are headed is the heart being our central [01:03:00] intelligence versus the mind, and I think it's so interesting because right now people are so in love or hate with AI, but AI is mental. But the way that you process things is in your body, not your brain, right?

So when you talk about, "I used to go in these up and downs," it's like, well, your, your brain only knows what it knows, but your heart has access to so much more that you don't even comprehend because you're not seeing the quantum field. And so when you say "I just let myself feel the emotions, and sure, it changes," and then you're like, "And what does that mean for me?"

And "What's coming up for me?" It's such a more beautiful process because I believe that your heart is the gateway to your soul and your, your higher mind. And so when you're able to actually sit with those huge emotions or the things you're afraid of or frustrated about without judging them or shaming them, repressing, repressing, repressing them, running away, all that stuff, and you actually feel it without any of that other [01:04:00] junk, you can integrate it, and then you have wisdom.

But that's a heart process is like, "I'm gonna be courageous enough to sit and feel this." And it's interesting because courage, the Latin root of that, cor, means heart. Hmm. And so it's like the courage of following your heart is following what lights you up, what makes you feel excited, right? When you're met with things that are painful, it's like, "This is for me somehow, some way, and I'm gonna feel it, and I'm not gonna run away from it because I am a whole being," 'cause your heart is whole.

And so I just, really appreciate that you let me jam on that because, when she told me that the heart, I specialize in that, I was like, "Ugh." And now I have never, ever, ever been so proud to be able to work at that level with people because when you live from your heart, everything changes.

Johanna Bloom: It's true.

I even remember in one of your first sessions, I think it was Kuda who told us that, he said, "You are the heart of the home." [01:05:00] And the way it came through was very specific, and I thought maybe I was mishearing. I was writing it like hearth maybe, but it was, "You are the heart of the home," and I didn't even know about your heart healing at that point.

And it was one of the first things that came through, and then I, I remember learning more and more about your heart healing since then. Was this like a childhood gift? Were you ever disconnected from your heart and had to find your way back? I feel like that's what happened to me.

Ashley Mondor: Oh. You know what, actually?

I have been so in tune with feelings because I grew up in a home that was chaotic and wasn't always safe. And so I had to be able to read patterns and pick up on emotions, which is why, when they talk about empathy and being an empath, I had to be that for survival. And so I wonder if maybe that's something I've just carried with me.

What I will say is that a lot of my journey has been me overriding my heart with my brain, [01:06:00] trying to analyze, rationalize pros, cons, seeing so far out into the future, where it's like, "Oh my God, is this gonna be wise?" And then I'm like freeze, and I don't make the decision, you know? So like, but what was that process for you?

Johanna Bloom: I think it was similar. I think a lot of us who end up in this type of work did experience a lot of chaos and I think that's how the awakening happens. You know, that's how we learn to embrace our shadow self, and I think we have to go through, through those experiences in order to properly guide other people through them.

But I do relate to what you're saying about picking up patterns in the house early and hypervigilance and, learning to read all those emotional subtexts because you're looking for the threat, you're looking for the next blow up. You know, you're, you're trying to keep yourself safe. You're trying to, emotionally regulate everyone else in the house.

You almost learn... You learn about everyone else before you learn about yourself. Yourself comes last. I feel like it's just in the past few years I have [01:07:00] found I can talk to animals, like, from a distance full-time. Like, this is, this is a thing I'm allowed to embrace about myself that I don't have to keep hidden.

So I think for me I, I think it was similar. I think it was my, feeling like the answers were in my brain and not having an alternative to solving things with my brain. I feel like if I had known sooner that if I just feel my feelings, like I even take like sick days for my emotions. If I just have a day where stuff is coming up, it might be recent stuff, it might be past stuff, it might be the five-year anniversary of a bad breakup, you know, whatever it is.

I'll have days where I just like I've got some feelings and I just treat it like a sick day. I just go cover myself in blankets and I watch my comfort shows. I watch The Good Place a lot. It's like my recurring comfort show. It like had a lot to do with my spiritual awakening. And I just feel my feelings and it really sucks for a day or two and then I come out the other side and I'm just fine.

And I, I don't even... [01:08:00] Sometimes I have an epiphany about something I need to, to change or I have a new idea, but a lot of the time it's like nothing has happened intellectually. All that happened was that I felt my feelings and so now they leave me alone because feelings are just indicators. They're just little lights that tell you like something's not right and all you have to do is, animals say this too, all you have to do is acknowledge them and say like, "Okay, I understand.

I hear you. I will, you know, I will feel this out and I will validate this." And then as soon as they feel validated, they go away. They just need to be heard, you know? Oh, well, and- So I don't even have to solve them. I just have to feel them and I feel like it's taken me 30 years to figure this out.

Ashley Mondor: Oh. Well, and the, um, the thing that life needs to be solved, like it's a problem to be solved has been something that I was like, oh yeah, like, uh, because something for me that I was navigating is I would have like huge bursts in my business and be like, "Oh my God, this is amazing," and then I would have it be quiet for a week or two and then [01:09:00] my brain was like, "You're gonna be living under a bridge.

No one's ever gonna buy from you again. You're never even gonna get a job." And then I was like, oh, that fear or whatever is just a messenger from myself that I have a belief because at least in what I've been trained in, emotions are tied to belief systems and so when you can actually sit with it and feel it, you can start to go "What am I believing about this situation is true?"

Or, "Why do I feel like I need to, to walk through this right now?" Or, "How is this serving me?" Usually I ask people that in, in sessions. It's like, "Well, well, I don't wanna feel that. I don't wanna be doing that." But it's serving you in some way because we don't hold on to anything we don't believe serves us, right?

But you gotta face it, you know? And when you take care of yourself in that way, I think that's so beautiful because most people don't even do that. They're like, they run away from it or like I did for years. I drank all the time because I needed to numb the stuff down. I didn't wanna face it.

And then you become sober and everything becomes clear and you're like, [01:10:00] "Oh." But then you're like, "I'm the type of person who can sit with my stuff." "I can face my shadows. Like, it's mine. I can bring that with me." And then that helps you love yourself even more deeply. And then coming back full circle to the heart, everything you've navigated, challenges, hardships, all that stuff, when you love it for what it's brought you, even if it's pain, it's wisdom.

And I've noticed that I have walked through a lot of pain, a lot of suffering, and a lot of trauma that I don't even really speak to anymore because I have taken what I needed from it. But I see people in such a profound light, like people who are reactive, people when they're like "a Karen", which I don't like when we do that to people, but it's like you're just seeing, their inner child.

There are things that have never been met in them, or they don't feel safe, or they have a program running, right? And you're able to step back and see people with more compassion and more love, and that's actually how I think we change the world is because it's your heart that speaks in compassion and love and peace and joy, you know?

[01:11:00] And so even if I disagree with your behavior, I can still love you as a human being or as a soul. And again, I think that's where we're headed and why it's so important that we even have conversations like this.

Johanna Bloom: I love that. Thank you. Well, I'm really glad. You know, I'm sorry that you went through those things, but I'm also selfishly grateful because they, they got you here and turned you into the kind of person who can mentor other people and guide us through those things.

Ashley Mondor: Mm. Thank you, Johanna. And, honestly, thank you for this today. I, I never get to do stuff like that, and so for you to be like, "I have this idea," and I'm like, "My God, that would be so fun." So thank you, and then obviously thank you for your work in the world because I love it and I love that I, selfishly, self-funly get to hear about the new beings that you're channeling and the new messages that come through you and knowing, the projects you're working on because I'm like, "Holy shit, this is amazing."

And getting to hear about your dreams and what your unconscious is processing and all of that, it's like, [01:12:00] this is why human connection and, you gotta find the courage to reach out when you want to because I, I saw Johanna's content and really was hesitant for, quite a while. And then I was like, you know what?

Book in a session because what's the worst that's gonna happen? And then it was magical, and then I kept booking it, and then I was like, "Hey friends, y'all, you should go see her," and then I'm telling people about you in my business, and I'm like, this is it. This is the ecosystem, you know? It's an ecosystem of fun and love.

Johanna Bloom: Well, and you boosted me enormously. When you gave me that first podcast interview, I had hit my first lull. Like, I had a TikTok video go viral, and I was really busy for a few months. I was, like, overwhelmed. Actually burned out. I was way too busy. And then the wave ended, and then I s- I hit the same point as you where it's like, I'm gonna be living under a bridge.

What do I do now? I can't get videos to go that viral anymore. And, that's when you found me, and then you started telling people about me, and you interviewed me, and you connected me with Natalie, and then I started writing a book. And it was just, [01:13:00] it got me through what I think was inevitable. I think I would've...

Because my model for work previously was burnout. I didn't really have, boundaries with it. It was just like work, work, work, work, work, work, work, and I, I didn't know any other structure. So I finally burned myself out, had to take a couple months and like sit back and reevaluate and set new structures and set new prices and set new limits on how many sessions I could do a day.

And in the meantime, we were doing podcasts, and I had this new connection with you, and we started exploring together, and I had your encouragement and your support through all kinds of weird stuff going on with my family relationships, because they did not like the work I was doing. So just having the support and the validation from you, it was, it was life-changing.

You, you changed my life, and you helped me track... You s- helped me stay on track with my career after that first very overwhelming, like, high-low. Oh my God. You, you helped me regulate.

Ashley Mondor: Oh, and it- that's so jarring when it happens. It's also a rite of passage 'cause you're [01:14:00] like, "Oh, God, I didn't know I had those beliefs there.

Ooh, I lack boundaries there. Oh my God, I have this fear around scarcity that I'm gonna live under a bridge." Which also, no shame to that because I actually know a few people who that has happened to and, where they are on the other side. But it also speaks to trusting the process and trusting, like, the flow of life because I met you when I needed you and when you needed me, and there was no like, "It has to be this way.

I'm gonna get this from you. You're gonna get this from me." It's this mutual bond, basically. And then we collaborate in such a way that I get, compliments about it on our podcast, you know? So it's just like when we relax and we trust the process and we go with the flow, even if our brain is like, "Don't do that, you could die," and then you're like, "Well, I haven't died yet.

It's not my time, obviously. I might as well play with life for the fun of it and then meet magical people. That sounds way better than what I have been doing." So just, like, I don't- I just geek out about you all the time, so thank you for being with me. [01:15:00] Because you could have thought I was, way off on the deep end about aliens and all those other things, and you're like, "Let's talk about it."

Johanna Bloom: Let's go. Let's go. Yeah. No, you are the most sane person I know. I see you, and I'm like, thank goodness. Like, we all need to get to this level.

Ashley Mondor: Thank you, Johanna, for being with me today. I love you so much, and I'm so grateful for this time, and so grateful for your work. And this is just the best, so thank you for holding me today and asking me questions, and so that we could dance.

Johanna Bloom: I appreciate you. Yeah. I appreciate you, too. Thank you for letting me interview you and for sharing your magic, and I hope that people get to hear it and get to experience you because it's life-changing. You, you are life-changing.

Ashley Mondor: Thank you. Bye. This was so fun. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.

Johanna Bloom: You're welcome!