I am so excited to be here today with Rachael Jayne Groover and talk about the search that I’ve personally been on many times, the search for unshakable inner peace. 

So many entrepreneurs start a business and hope to reach that sense of deep peace in our lives… but then life happens and things come our way and our peace gradually slips away. This has been a huge part of my entrepreneurial journey, and I know it’s also been a huge journey for so many here in The Daring Femprenuer community as well – so I’m excited to share this conversation with you! 

First, let me introduce Rachael Jayne Groover. She is one of my favorite people, and is a dear mentor, colleague, and friend who's been in my life for over a decade. Now, she’s launching her new book, Unshakable Inner Peace, and she’s sharing a free ebook copy with you at this link. If you don't yet know Rachel Jayne, she's amazing at what she does, and I know that you're going to love her presence and wisdom.

Today, we’re talking about: 

• How to unwind the critical and comparing mind so you experience more confidence and relaxation as you build your business
• Identifying and understanding the traps that mature spiritual entrepreneurs fall into that keep inner peace at bay
• How to significantly reduce the fear of other people’s judgment so you’re free to create in the way you want

More about Rachael Jayne Groover

Rachael Jayne Groover is the co-founder and CEO of The Awakened School®, which offers transformational experiences for those seeking inner peace and outer purpose. Her work is for those committed to their personal and spiritual awakening, who want to be part of an elevated conversation on human potential and making a positive difference through doing work they love.

She is the creator of Art of Feminine Presence®. Over 13,000 women have gone through this training over the last 13 years.

As a sought-after speaker and trainer on mindfulness, leadership, and conscious entrepreneurship, she also works with business owners and teams who want to create an energy of love, potential, and connection at their events or workplace.

Rachael Jayne and Datta’s home is in the hills outside Loveland, Colorado. They live with their corgi companion Maya, and Sophie, their faithful rottweiler. Close by is their retreat center, Casa Sagrada.

What inspired you to write this new book?

Rachael Jayne starts her story by reflecting on her past when she started The Art of Feminine Presence, and how she herself struggled to accept her femininity and find the balance between masculine and feminine. This journey opened something deeper within her. 

In 2018 as she was writing her list of new year’s resolutions that she thought she “should” write down, a voice came to her and made her realize that what she actually wants and needs is to reach enlightenment in this lifetime, which made her feel both excited and scared for what was to come and how people would react to this revelation!

In May of that same year as she started writing her book, she heard another voice say that this book was going to answer one of the biggest questions of her lifetime – not knowing what that meant initially, it eventually became very clear that the question was, “is it possible for me to reach enlightenment in this lifetime?” 

After much initial hesitation and questioning, she worked through so many misunderstandings and ego traps as she learned to let go and accept. 

The process of writing her book actually coached her through this healing process as she was going through it. She started the book with so many fears of speaking out and judgment, and after finishing the book in 2-3 days, her mind and body went completely silent. This was a different experience than she’s ever had, and she felt that these lessons really stuck with her this time, the unshakable inner peace had finally set in. 

Even though she’d read all the self help books and knew all the information, it wasn’t until she had these experiences herself that she knew what it was like, and figured out what she didn’t know. 

How do we get to this place of unshakable inner peace? 

There are so many things that stand in our way each day, so I wanted to ask Rachel Jayne about what we can do in those times where we fall into the comparison trap or fall prey to the lies our mind is telling us. 

Rachael Jayne recommends first focusing on the mindset plane – such as noticing the comparison that’s happening, and stepping in to remind yourself that you’re running your own race, stopping those thoughts in their tracks. It’s not the fact that these thoughts are happening that’s the problem, it’s when you internalize and identify with them that it becomes a problem. So, she practices noticing these thoughts, and then telling herself an upgraded version, like, “just because that person looks all nice and shiny on the outside, that might not be what’s going on behind the scenes.” 

Everyone struggles with their own things, the world is a messy place, and once we realize that we can more clearly see that we are running our own race, which allows for the peace to drop in. 

Beyond that is the somatic, or body, experience. When she found herself comparing her accomplishments to others, she felt a squeeze in her heart and gut of, “why is that not me” that would happen immediately in those situations. It was this feeling that made her realize that it was an automatic response, she had no control over this reaction. The ego, which is the body and mind, has been trained to not be open and receptive to positivity. 

When she found herself very angry or triggered, she discovered that what she needed was somatic practices that went beyond just making her feel good in the moment. Rather than trying to just comfort ourselves during these triggered moments, we need to find a way to calm ourselves in a way that is lasting beyond the now. 

One of the traps she kept realizing herself falling into was two impulses competing with each other – one that wants to become a better version of self with an upgraded mindset, more capacity to love, more compassion, more strength, etc. – and the other that there is no true self. 

The improvement mechanism (the first impulse) that we believe will help us reach enlightenment, is not actually how it happens. It is full allowing and accepting and moving into the next phase of your life knowing that you are not yourself, and being okay with that. 

When you reach this place of unshakable inner peace, do you no longer fall into these traps, or do you still experience them but have a different relationship with them? 

Rachael Jayne notes that her body-mind doesn’t experience these traps anymore. She learned to relax her system enough that it wouldn’t knee-jerk into those old patterns. 

After writing this book, over the next year she found herself working through these last bits of connection and stuck-ness, yet she stayed committed to the process of unwinding and receiving. 

She highlights that spirituality is an unwinding process, instead of a finding process. 

There is a bridge from “I’m creating my life” to “I am life,” which is “I am receiving my life.” As she found herself unwinding and receiving, there was nothing left for these feelings of comparison and not-enoughness to grab onto anymore. 

She suggests that for most people, it’s going to feel that you have a very sincere intention to find unshakable inner peace, your journey is going to lead to a place where the ego is dying and the universe is testing you, and if you can stay in the fire long enough and be open to reception at the same time, then you will make it out on the other side. 

Rachael Jayne also speaks about triggers, and our response to them.

Most people try to calm themselves down in those moments, when in reality what needs to happen is they need to fully allow the trigger to express itself in them so it can work itself through and unwind, making it less likely to trigger you again in the future. 

When we’re in business, we talk a lot about having confidence and making an impact. If we dissolve the self, who is having confidence and making an impact, and does it even matter?

Rachael Jayne states that the ego never actually goes away. When you have a strong, healthy ego you tend to have a stronger sense of self, which can express itself as healthy boundaries, confidence, better communication, etc., which makes the spiritual awakening process easier. 

Even though she found herself reaching that state of a healthy ego, she still found herself worrying about the future, about money, feeling anxiety and depression, and dealing with the entrepreneurial mind. It wasn’t until she let go of her connection with her ego and self that she was able to clearly see the multidimensional layers of who she is, which allowed her to feel more peace and confidence. 

The confidence she has found through this process is less about how you feel about yourself in regards to other people, and instead is all about knowing that you are divine perfection streaming through you itself. You cannot not be divine perfection – that knowing is the definition of confidence. 

How do we free ourselves from other peoples’ judgment? 

I know that so many people fear going live on social media or sending an email or putting ourselves out there, so I needed to ask Rachael Jayne about how to address that. 

She mentions that there are three dimensions we need to address – mental, somatic, and spiritual. When you work on all three at the same time with something that’s become a big trigger, that is when you create an unshakable change. Addressing just one at a time allows space for the triggers to come back into our minds, bodies, and spirits. 

Something we need to understand, as entrepreneurs who are putting ourselves out there, is that people are always judging us. This doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re judging us in a good or bad way, just that they see us and have a perception of who we are. So, once we accept that judgment is going to come no matter what, we’re able to free ourselves from the fear of judgment and just relax, because we can’t do anything to change it! 

What are the common traps spiritual entrepreneurs fall into? 

First, Rachael Jayne recounts the trap of thinking that if we just improve our minds, then we'll eventually reach that enlightened state of unshakable inner peace. Another trap is trying to calm the nervous system down once we start to feel the terror of the ego bubbling up. There’s also a trap of thinking that if we just get good at creating our lives then we could reach inner peace. 

When you witness your thoughts, you witness things moving, and you can witness it as an observation rather than identifying with it as part of yourself. 

Tell us about your upcoming gala! 

Rachael Jayne is hosting a free, 2-hour virtual event where she’ll read excerpts from the book and share more about her story. You can reserve your place in the free event here.