The following is a transcript of Episode 2 from the Your Body, Mind, and Spirit podcast released on July 4, 2026. Some portions of this transcript have been edited for clarity.

Linda Harkcom

Today’s guest is Valerie Pedigo. Valerie knows how easy it is to keep choosing what’s familiar over what’s true. She spent years building a successful life while wrestling with the growing realization that it no longer reflected who she truly was.

That experience became the foundation of her work as a guide, speaker, entrepreneur, and founder of Renewed Spirit Adventures. Through coaching and retreats, she helps people create the space to reconnect with themselves and make choices that feel deeply aligned with the life they want to live.

Hi, Valerie. Welcome. I am so happy to have you here. You do so many exciting things, and I can’t wait to share all that information with our viewers and listeners.

Since you and I are both coaches who work with women, we know the importance of women taking care of themselves. And I think we both know that the biggest misconception out there is that taking care of yourself is selfish. And I think a lot of that came from, like, you know, the, the martyr generation where the women were raised to do it all, work, take care of the kids, bring them the bacon, cook it up in the pan. Like the old commercial used to say. And, you know, it never talked about taking care of yourself as well. Right. And that’s so important, because if you don’t take care of yourself, you can’t take care of anybody else, really.

And, you know, I know that we both have had experiences, kind of a-ha, come-to-Jesus moments, whatever you want to call them, that made us realize that it was important to care for ourselves. And we want to share that with others. Can you tell me a little bit about what your experience was and what brought you into the work that you’re doing?

Valerie Pedigo

Yeah, absolutely. Thank you so much, Linda. I hear exactly what you’re saying, what you’re talking about: our societal expectations and pressures that come from a patriarchal society. I mean, we could deep dive on all of that. I think I can talk about that for a long time. But really, the idea that rest and doing things for ourselves, myself, that was not even in the consideration set. Right?

Linda Harkcom

Right.

Valerie Pedigo

When, in my experience, they were things that I wanted. Everything that I had were things that I wanted. Experiences that I wanted, where I wanted to be, where I wanted to go, the career that I had, but there was also this deeply, deeply ingrained message that if I sat down for a few minutes, I was lazy. And I think that there’s a lot of people that can relate to that, right? So it becomes so ingrained in us from our childhood experiences in lots of different ways.

Linda Harkcom

Yes.

Valerie Pedigo

And I’ll share a little bit kind of how mine came to be, how my perfectionism came to be and how my high-achieving, high-performing validation for love, all of that came to be. But It is so deeply ingrained in us that we don’t even notice. And what we end up doing is ignoring the signals that our body is sending to us, or we excuse it away by saying, this is what I’m supposed to do. She can do it all, so why can’t I?

Linda Harkcom

Yes.

Valerie Pedigo

Caring for myself, I couldn’t. I wouldn’t dare spend time on me when my kids need something, when my partner needs something, when my parents need something, when my pets need something.

Linda Harkcom

Absolutely.

Valerie Pedigo

And so I think the interesting thing for us is we want to rest. We want to do things for ourselves and take care of ourselves, but it becomes so deeply ingrained that we are second and everybody else is first, that it becomes the way that we live our lives.

Linda Harkcom

Yes.

Valerie Pedigo

And then we have guilt and shame that gets associated with taking some time. And so what ends up happening is the self-care hacks, right? The let’s go to the spa for a day let’s, let’s take a walk once. Let’s sign up for the gym. Right. And all those things are beautiful things, and they are a part of it. But if we are not getting to the deeper patterning, it is going to continue to run in the background.

Valerie Pedigo

And so my story: when I was very young, I knew exactly who I was. I knew exactly what I wanted. Everything was so clear for me before I could even articulate it. I wanted to travel the world; I wanted to speak different languages, and those are from different experiences that I had, things that I worked for, things that I won when I was in high school and college, and having a family that supported those things and encouraged those dreams. There was also the other side of it: as I grew from childhood to my teenage years, there was this constant movement of the goalpost. And okay, you can do this. Why don’t you add one more club? You only got an A. Why didn’t you get an A plus? Right. You were selected for the captain of the team, but you didn’t make the first team all-stars. Why not? You know, and it was this, it was definitely messages that were coming from around me, but it resonated so deeply with me that I began to develop my entire personality and my entire identity around performance. And there were so many great things out of that. Out of that, I learned my work ethic. I learned what I was good at. I learned that I love being together with people and leading teams. And I learned so much from it. But in the messaging was that I was getting was that you have to be more than you are in order to be loved. And I think it’s very, very, very common, you know, with a lot of women; we kind of have a couple of different- we’re all so complex, right?

Linda Harkcom

Oh, yeah. Right.

Valerie Pedigo

But we also know that a lot of these deep core issues that we have kind of, filter and  present to us as adults in certain ways. And it’s like, either you’re the high performing perfectionist, or you are the one who’s caretaking for everyone. And you, you can’t use your voice. You’re being suppressed all the time. And sometimes it’s a combination of all of those things. So, you know,  I have had such a beautiful life, a beautiful career. I have four children. I’ve created the life that I’ve wanted now post-burnout. Okay. Everything before now always looked so perfect on the outside, but what happened was I knew inside that I was living the life of someone else. Cause I was continuing to perform. So it’s that I am so grateful and so thankful for all the experiences that I have and all the people that I have in my life.

And I also knew that something was wrong and I was ignoring it for far too long. And that, that end is something that I did not allow. It was black or white. You should be grateful. Shut up about it. That little back pain that you have, that fact that you’re only sleeping four or five hours a day, just get over it. Move on. Come on. We’ve got things to do, right? Look at all that you have. Suck it up, girl. And that was my internal language for years and years. And it drove me.

But the funny thing is, Linda, is I didn’t really need that negative. I’m already internally driven. And so it was like, you have this internal drive, and you’re beating yourself up all the time.

Linda Harkcom

Right. Yes.

Valerie Pedigo

And so how I started in this work, and there’s a couple of points that I’ll visit about self-care and women, because I know that’s something really important to both to both of us. But why I’m here now is… my body said we’re done with you we’re done with the overriding. It’s time for you to pause. It’s time for you to investigate more, and I will tell you I fought, I even fought that hard, but there came a day a few years ago, a time where I decided to get help.

Linda Harkcom

Good for you. Mm-hmm.

Valerie Pedigo

Where I understood that this is too much. I mean, it was, it was going from driven and strong to really high, a lot of resentment, a lot of frustration, the feeling that I wasn’t who I actually am, this disconnection, even though the choices that I were making were my own. And as I mentioned at the beginning, and I said that for a reason, I always knew who I was when I was younger. I, and it’s something that you find out when you look back. Oh my gosh, I was so clear about what I liked and what I wanted, and I was like 13 years old. I just remember all these situations. And then what happens is we enter in, right? All these layers of different things start to add as we have life experiences and we can get disconnected from who that person is.

Linda Harkcom

Right. Right. Yeah.

Valerie Pedigo

And that’s what happened to me. So it’s, it’s not that, like it was rock bottom, but the journey there that built up to that, there were good things, and there were not-so-good things, right? All the, all of that can exist. And so my body was finally like, we’re done with you. We’re going to shut you down because it’s time for you to pause. It’s time for you to dig into this and to investigate this more. And so I got help. I decided to take a leave of absence from work, which was very difficult. So I was an executive in financial services, and I took that time, you know, in the beginning I was like, I’m going to be the best healed person ever. Right. And so I did all, all everything.

Linda Harkcom

That’s such a type A thing to do.

Valerie Pedigo

 I’m type A in some things and then not.

Linda Harkcom

Sorry, but yeah, I get it. I get it.

Valerie Pedigo

But yeah, no, that’s it was like I didn’t say that aloud, but that’s my behavior. I’m like, I’m signing up for every podcast, every book because I’m doing this.

Linda Harkcom

No, I get it

Valerie Pedigo

And I love myself for that because I was I was committed after not committing, after putting it off for so long. And listen, you know, the four months that I took from my work, it was an amazing time, but it didn’t fix everything.

Linda Harkcom

Right, right.

Valerie Pedigo

First of all, we are not broken, so we don’t need to be fixed. Right. But it allowed me the pause to get the healthcare that I needed, take the time that I needed to reconnect and re-engage with myself and with my loved ones and with my friends.

So it was a 20-year career. And so after that time, after that leave of absence, since I came back, I went back to work and, you know, I just- everything was so clear to me: I wasn’t in, I wasn’t I didn’t belong in the situations that I was in. And so in October of 2024, I left that 20-year career and decided that I wanted to dedicate my life to helping other women who are going through these same things. 

Linda Harkcom

That’s great.

Valerie Pedigo

And it is the beautiful things that I learned throughout my process and also the gaps. The things that were missing, the things that I wish that I had. And so I’ve been creating those now.

Linda Harkcom

Right. That’s wonderful.

Valerie Pedigo

And that’s how Renewed Spirit Adventures was born. It was out of my own experience and about my witnessing of all the beautiful women around me going through these same things.

Linda Harkcom

And cause there are just so many women that are going through it and, you know, they don’t talk about it or, you know, are even willing to get the help. And, I think that has a lot to do with our vulnerability and, you know, our concerns about what society is going to think if we do. And I think social media adds even more to that because, you know, we’re putting ourselves out there on social media and there’s a perception of who we are and what we are, and we want to maintain that. Right? But admitting that we need help and then taking the time to get it. Well, you know it takes a little bit of courage. It takes the ability to be vulnerable to say, Hey, I need help.

And, you know, what I really hope is, because I’ve hit that rock bottom as well, and one of the things I hope we can accomplish here today for the people listening is to encourage them not to wait until they hit rock bottom to get help to, to help heal themselves. And your life can be so much better, so much richer if you take the time for yourself to heal.

Valerie Pedigo

Yeah, I totally agree. Yeah.

Linda Harkcom

So, talk about some of the things that you do that help women to heal. And then I want to kind of segue then into the retreats that you offer and the benefits of those, because those, I think, are just so incredible. And I think that’d be really a wonderful thing for our listeners to hear about and even possibly experience on their own. So, you know, talk about some of the things you do, especially you had said about filling in the gaps where, you know, there weren’t things 

(available) that you personally needed at the time. So talk about a a little bit about that.

Valerie Pedigo

Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. There are so many people doing this work, and it’s important to honor everyone who is trying to support other people. I just think that’s important to say because there are a couple of things that you mentioned. I think social media is not the devil, right? Social media is a way that we can connect, a way that we can learn. But what I see right now is there’s a lot of TikTok psychology going on. So not only is it what you see, and someone’s life looks perfect, right? And so we compare ourselves to that. But then what you also see is, I don’t need to go to the psychiatrist because I learned on TikTok that I have ADHD.

Linda Harkcom

Right. yeah.

Valerie Pedigo

And one of the things that’s really important is that we can use those educational things as the start of our curiosity. But getting help and support from a trusted professional is always gonna be more sustainable. So, here are a couple of things that I found were missing in my journey. It’s not because they didn’t exist at all. It’s that I have done all of the work, all the studying, leveraged my entire network to understand what is it that we actually need. 

So the first thing was integration. And that is the most important thing. And what integration means is that we take what we learn, we take the insights that we have, and we’re able to actually work it in, into our day-to-day life. And so you see, there’s a lot of different events happening right now. I’ll use something that I love so much: sound. Okay. So you can go to a sound bath, and a sound bath is an amazing, amazing experience for many people. Right. And it is scientifically proven that sound helps integrate things in the body. Right. Just think about when you listen to your favorite song. You start dancing, right? It moves you.

Linda Harkcom

Right. Right.

Valerie Pedigo

What I found was missing is what happens after that sound bath? When things come up for me, I had visions, I have feelings, I was crying, and I don’t know why. Something was moving. Something was shaking. I don’t know what to do with it. So that was really cool. And I’ll probably do another one of those things again, or maybe I won’t, because it scared me a little bit because I wasn’t sure what I was feeling. And you can insert anything. You can insert a chiropractor’s appointment. You can insert a spa day, a retreat, anything, a psychiatrist appointment. Like you can insert any one of those things in there. What’s missing is what happens after.

And so for me, it was really important to have that as a part of our work at Renewed Spirit Adventures. So when you come on retreat with us, we open, and we get deep into what the actual core messaging or wound that you can call it, what’s actually driving how those things that have happened to you throughout your life are presenting in you as an adult. Okay?Doesn’t sound so fun, but we make it fun. Okay. It’s hard. It sucks, but it’s fun. 

Linda Harkcom

Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Valerie Pedigo

But here’s the thing. We help you open because this is your journey. We help you open, but we will never leave you alone. You will never be left alone to figure it out. So when someone comes on retreat with us, and we’ll transition into that conversation; that’s one of the things that we do. So we have an online community. We do workshops. We do classes and experiences. We do just all kinds of things. One-on-one coaching, small group coaching. Retreats is one arm of our business. These experiences we do are either half-day, full-day, local, weekend, local, regional, and then we do international. 

So, for example, Linda, this year we have our next Costa Rica retreat we just announced last month. It’s in November. And so we will be taking a group of women to Costa Rica, a small group. What happens in that, so let’s say you decide, I wanna go on retreat. As soon as you book, you hear from us. I do a call, one-on-one, to make sure that you are completely comfortable with everything.

Linda Harkcom

That’s nice.

Valerie Pedigo

The travel arrangements, the schedule, knowing what to bring. And when we stay connected until we get to the retreat. And then in retreat, of course, we have a beautiful curated experience. We can go into that. But then what I’m talking about with integration is once you land back home, first of all, in this retreat, you’re going to have a plan, 30-day plan to help you sustain whatever you learn about yourself on retreat. But then we stay with you. So when things come up, right?

Linda Harkcom

That’s great. Mm-hmm.

Valerie Pedigo

When you’re like, okay, two steps forward, but then I had to talk to my sister yesterday, and it triggered me. You’re gonna have resources so that you can handle it differently. Because what I’ve been finding is, and the impetus for all of this, as I mentioned, is we have these beautiful experiences and then we go right back into our lives with the same marital problem, the same problem at our job, the same wounds from our mother, all those things, right? And those don’t go away. The idea is that we’re gonna be able to better navigate. And so what our sisters, that’s what we call it, the women who work with us in Renewed Spirit Adventures, they are seeing lasting progress. They are seeing true changes in their lives. Some of them wanted to and needed to blow up their lives, but most of them, it was, how do I handle these things on a day-to-day basis? So I can get closer and closer to spending my time on the things that matter to me, my freedom, my family, my passion, my community, right? Whatever it is, it’s individual for all of us, but that’s the really, really important thing is integration.

And then having, I think you mentioned it: every time I get in a circle with women, we immediately start crying. Why? Because somebody says something that we’ve been feeling, but we have not said. And that’s the power of community. You can take the steps.

Linda Harkcom

Yeah, the combined power of community is so important.

Valerie Pedigo

Yes. It’s, it’s actually clinically proven that women heal. And I don’t like to use the word heal. Okay. But we’re just going to use it for lack of better word that women heal in community because when we are together, scientifically, our bio-resilience helps each other. And so when we get into a circle and one person says, I can’t do it anymore. And then another one says, neither can I Let’s talk about it. Right? And it just, it’s the most beautiful thing.

And I always, when I’m leading the circles, I lead by example. I’m an open book. I share my life’s experiences because it’s important that we get real. We talk about these things. The whole society part of it’s taboo to say that you need rest; you’re weak. You know, we’re supposed to be soft and strong. We’re supposed to have it all together, but then not to figure it out because if we have to figure out, then we’re too masculine. It’s just all this crap that we hear.

Linda Harkcom

Right.

Valerie Pedigo

And when we get into a circle with women, and I am leading by example, saying this is what’s happening. And then another woman jumps in and then another woman jumps in, so many times it’s been like I came here guarded, but I opened up because I realized that I’m not alone. I’m not alone.

Linda Harkcom

Right. Right. And that’s, it’s so important.

Valerie Pedigo

And that type of circle. Yep. It’s so important, but it’s important to find the one that fits you because there are a lot of circles going on.

Linda Harkcom

Right. Yeah. I think that’s right. Yeah. And everything, not everything, is a perfect fit for everybody. And that’s, that’s one of the things that there are a lot of different things out there, and everybody needs to find what fits them and their needs the best.

Valerie Pedigo

That’s right. Yep. But that’s another thing that happens is we’re afraid of trying because we are not in an experimentation society. So what happens is, instead of going to the thing because I’m curious about it, an event, right, whatever it is, because I’m curious about it, I say, well, no, because then, and then I start to get into this future oriented thing of, well, but it looks like they meet once a week and I, there’s no way I could do that. And so we get so far ahead of ourselves, and what we end up doing is, is nothing, right? When our human nature, and I’m not talking about the societal crap that we have to deal with our human nature is curiosity. And so I’m going to go, and I’m going to try lots of different things to see what I like. And then what I like, I’m gonna fit it into my world. But we discourage that as a culture. That’s a world culture, but it’s very, very, it’s definitely an American culture thing. Oh, you did that and you’re not gonna you’re not going to follow through with it? What a loser. Or really, you went to that? My church says that that’s not right. Right? So we get all these messages, and it discourages us from experimenting.

Linda Harkcom

Right.

Valerie Pedigo

We need to make connections. It’s okay to experiment. It’s okay.

Linda Harkcom

And I think there’s another layer to that as well, as I think, you know, women often will not feel that they are worth the time or the money or the energy to even try for themselves, to even try, you know, think, oh, that sounds interesting. Oh, I might do that. But then they just don’t follow through. And, I think a lot of it has to do with, you know, they don’t feel that they deserve the opportunity to try.

Valerie Pedigo

Yes. Yep. yeah. It’s such a great point. So going to use that example. That moment from, ooh, right? Notice we both use it just in referencing some hypothetical situation, right? We both use that visceral, like, ooh, because that’s what our body does. Oh, that sounds interesting. I’d like to try that. So from that moment to the moment where I decide that I’m not going to go, that in between is what I work with. And it’s in all different kinds of situations, but that’s what we do. That’s what’s special about Renewed Spirit Adventures. That moment from, oh, that’s interesting too. No, I just couldn’t go. The kids have a game, right? Or whatever the responsibility that we have is, it’s that bridge. What are the messages that are coming to us? It may not be physically, it may not be literal, the literal words. Like there’s a lot of women that don’t say, I don’t deserve this. I very rarely hear that. It is an ingrained belief. And then the opposite happens where we say, nope, I’m setting boundaries and I’m going to do this. And we do it with anger and resentment because it’s like we’re going against what’s expected. And the idea is you deserve everything simply because you exist. If something is interesting to you, and you want to do it, you should do it. Okay? And I say that with privilege, and I say that we’re talking in a very vague context, but the idea is getting underneath that change in curiosity to, I’m not gonna go, or curiosity in, gosh darn it, I’m going, because I am so sick of it becoming a reaction. Now, when you end up there, that’s fine. I had to use a lot of that kind of negative self-talk for myself to get myself to go to some of these things. But then after a while, you start to see what’s in the middle there. Why are, where are these messages coming from?

And a lot of times, I mean, there are so many things, and this is not a diagnosis, but what happens is like I’ve talked about with perfectionism, right?

Linda Harkcom

The guilt. Right.

Valerie Pedigo

Or understanding that if the kids need this, or if my spouse needs this, or if work needs this, then I just can’t, I can’t do it. All of them are forms of not-enoughness, right? Like you mentioned, and I just don’t think it’s not always like nobody- not very many people are out there saying I’m not enough, but everything is pointing to that.

Linda Harkcom

Right. Right. Yeah, I totally agree.

Valerie Pedigo

Yeah. And you can see, I get fired up about it because, like, this is, this is why I’m doing what I’m doing because I am so passionate about this. And, and like I said, we’re talking about a lifetime of patterns, right? There’s no hack that we can do to change it overnight.

Linda Harkcom

Oh, yeah, absolutely. Right. Right. I mean, as you know, one of the things I do is I’m an Emotion Code practitioner. And so much of the way we act or react to things, the negative patterns and beliefs that we get stuck in, you know, are based upon emotions that were stacked and stacked and stacked and stacked one on top of the other. And so many of them start when we’re just an infant.

Valerie Pedigo

Yep right.

Linda Harkcom

And, it builds, and it builds, and it builds, and it builds. And, and so, yeah, it’s, it’s not going to happen overnight because you might have a lot. I work on myself every day, and I’m working on the, “I’m not enough.” I had 298 trapped emotions on I’m not enough. And when I told my kids, they were like, yeah, that tracks. Yeah. But you know, like you said, I don’t walk around going, I’m not enough. Oh, no, no. But we have that, we have that in ourselves, and it’s not because of any one thing. For me, it’s 298 things, you know, that have happened throughout my life. It’s stack, stack, stack. And sometimes it’s one instance, but it will have multiple trapped emotions that, you know, you hit all at the same time, so it’s not going to be an overnight thing.

Valerie Pedigo

We have, yeah.

Linda Harkcom

And you need to be able to take the time and do the work. And I love the fact that people can go to your retreats and do the work, but then that work continues on past that weekend or week or whatever type of retreat you’re offering. I really do love that.

Valerie Pedigo

Yeah, thank you. It is so important.

Linda Harkcom

So talk to me a little bit about the Costa Rica retreat coming up and what some of the things that your participants will be doing there.

Valerie Pedigo

Yeah, absolutely. First of all, let’s start with why Costa Rica. So Costa Rica is a very common place to go on retreats, but that’s not why I select Costa Rica. I actually lived there, and I’ve had a love affair with Costa Rica since I was 13 years old.

Linda Harkcom

That’s awesome.

Valerie Pedigo

Yeah. It is a beautiful place for so many reasons. The energy there. There’s so many practical reasons, and then there’s so many spiritual and deeper meaning reasons, and they all combine. But I will tell you that when you step foot in Costa Rica, and if you know anyone who’s been there, right, or been there yourself, you, you sense it. There’s this magic. There’s people there, of course, living their everyday life, right? I live my everyday life there. I go to the grocery store. I, have to pay bills, you know, but there’s also this kind of layer of happiness and this layer of enoughness. And then you’ve got the world’s, one of the world’s most biodiverse ecosystems. There’s like, don’t quote me on this, but there’s like 14, I think known bio like ecosystems in Costa Rica. I know it’s between eight and 14, but it’s a lot for a little tiny postage stamp of a country.

Linda Harkcom

Oh, wow. Yeah.

Valerie Pedigo

You can be in the jungle, the mountains, the beach, and the city all in one day.

Linda Harkcom

Wow.

Valerie Pedigo

And then all the things in between it. So the biodiversity, the flora, the fauna, everything is just amazing. That’s why Costa Rica.

Linda Harkcom

Oh, and it’s a blue zone, right?

Valerie Pedigo

And I have, yeah, there’s blue zones within. So in Nosara, Costa Rica, and there’s a peninsula. So Costa Rica looks like a little hand. Oh, that’s opposite. Okay, it looks like this. There’s a blue zone right here. And it’s one of the few blue zones in the world and a blue zone, just for everyone, is when the population of centurions or people who lived over a hundred years old, is higher per capita than any other place in the world. There’s one there. There’s one in Japan, in Italy. So it’s amazing. And I could talk about that for a long time, too, because the Blue Zones- just the research that has come to light about why people are living over 100 years, there’s genetics involved quite clearly, but a lot of it is lifestyle.And the lifestyle, yeah, the lifestyle is movement.

Linda Harkcom

Oh, absolutely. Right.

Valerie Pedigo

We are not meant to be sedentary. We are not meant to work for 65 years and then do nothing like our government tells us we’re supposed to do, right? Our life is not meant to be isolated. We are meant to eat clean and eat light, right? Move every day. Be connected with our neighbors. And for us, we’re at such an advantage because our neighbors it doesn’t necessarily mean the person living next door to me in my house. My neighbors are now all around the world because of how quickly we can contact each other, right? The idea is we need to be in community.

Linda Harkcom

Right. That’s very true.

Valerie Pedigo

Yeah, so sorry, a little tangent there, but I am fascinated by the beauty of life and the celebration that has been happening over the last several years around these kinds of communities.

Linda Harkcom

No, no, that’s great.

Valerie Pedigo

So we’re gonna be in the South Pacific. What happens is when you join us on retreat, you’ll fly from your, your city. And so here in Pittsburgh, right? There’s a lot of people coming from Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh to San Jose, Costa Rica. We stay the night in San Jose. I do that with all my retreats because we’ve got about a four- or five-hour drive to get to the retreat center, and you’ve just traveled. And so I want to, when we curate these things, it’s all about the woman getting that permission for herself, right? And it’s not permission from us, it’s just the idea of it’s okay to rest. And so that first night, there’s no big agenda. You come in. The last one I was at, we had women who were like, I’m going to go to the pool. I’ve never gone to the pool in the middle of the day unless I’m on vacation. You know, like just these kind of things that happen. We have dinner together. I’ll do some Spanish and some cultural lessons about the country. But it’s really light. And then in the next morning we leave, and we take the journey, and we stop along the way. And this is why I know that the retreats that we do are so unique because you’re going to be with someone who actually has been a part of the culture for 32 years. It’s not like I just found Costa Rica and I could still take people there if I just found it, right?

Linda Harkcom

Right.

Valerie Pedigo

It’s not like I just found Costa Rica. It’s that I understand a lot about the culture and have relationships and connections. So we take this beautiful journey; we end up passing through.

Linda Harkcom

Right. Yes, I really want you to talk about the special connection you have with the indigenous group. Because I think that’s just so cool.

Valerie Pedigo

Oh, sure. Yeah. yeah I’m so glad that you’re excited about that. It is really unique. So when we’re on the retreat site, every day we have movement. And no amount of detail that I give together on this podcast in this conversation with Linda is going to do it justice. Okay. Because everything is curated. You have time on your own to let things integrate. You have time with the group to have honest conversations. I do workshops every couple of days, but a lot of it is we learn inside about ourselves, and then we give ourselves space.

We’re going to go to the beach. The reason why I chose this location this time is because I felt really moved by the whale’s tail beach. It’s called Bahia Bayena, and it means the whale bay. The actual beach looks like a whale’s tail. Okay. So when the tide is low, you can actually walk all the way out onto the sandbar and into what feels like the middle of the ocean. So if you’re at all curious, just type in whale’s tail Costa Rica and you’ll see the pictures, the aerial pictures of it. The cool thing for me, and the miraculous part for me, is not only did nature form it that way, but then also the actual whales from Nova Scotia migrate down throughout the year. And then the whales from South America, different families of whales from South America, migrate up, and they mate there, they play there, they bond there. So we’ve got a whale’s tail beach with whales.

Linda Harkcom

Wow, that’s so cool.

Valerie Pedigo

And it’s like, just thinking about the miracle that is, it helps us understand how miraculous we are, right? Part of this journey, it’s not all like crying all the time, right? It’s also about wonder and awe and expansion.

Because what happens a lot of times when we have these wounds, and they last for so long because they’re so deeply ingrained, we start to feel that every single decision in our life is life or death because we are living in survival mode in some form or fashion because of our nervous system and because of the anxiety and all the messaging that we’re getting. And when we understand that there are no higher stakes than living the life that we deserve to live and that we want to live, things change. Okay.

So, for example, me not showing up for the PTO meeting that I go to and getting into fight or flight because I’m worried about what the other people there will say about me and why I’m not there.

Linda Harkcom

Right.

Valerie Pedigo

When we step back, our body still feels that, but when we step back, we can actually see that the stakes are lower on that than we think. It helps us move out of survival mode. And so I hope I’m explaining that correctly, like so that it resonates. But that was the biggest change for me. Because you can say, oh, you’ve got to take care of yourself. Okay. I know that logically, but my body’s not letting me do it. Or you should cut off this friend who causes you (stress).

Linda Harkcom

Right. Right. And your subconscious isn’t letting you do it.

Valerie Pedigo

Right. It’s like, if we could do those things, you know, automatically we would already be doing them. But that’s a part of the expansion, and we’re gonna spend time together. We’re gonna play. We’re gonna experience things that, for many of us, it’s been a long time since we’ve done. And then we’re going to understand the entire cacao process. We’re going to go to a chocolate farm, a locally owned chocolate farm. We’re going to meet the family there. We’re going to be able to see the whole thing and where and why chocolate and cacao is so important, especially in Latin American life. 

And then what you mentioned, Linda, is that connecting with indigenous people is very, very important to me in my life, just personally. And so in Costa Rica, there are at least eight tribes of indigenous people. And the the amazing thing about these tribes is that, you know, there was horrendous things that happened to them, if we think about the Spanish conquest, but they were able to, and the one that I’m talking about in particular called the Baruca, they were able to fight off the Spanish by scaring them and making them believe that they were devils by using masks that that they made. Okay. And that is just a, a five-second snippet of a beautifully enriched culture, but we’re going to go, we’re going to go to the Baruka village. It is not something that anybody can go to. We need to have permission. We need to have an invitation. And so building these connections in my life is important to me because that’s one of my core values, but then being able to share that with the women who come with us. So we’re gonna spend the day there. We’re gonna learn how they make the masks.

Linda Harkcom

That’s awesome.

Valerie Pedigo

We’re gonna learn more about the history of what happened to them and where they are now, and the things that they struggle with and the joys that they have. We’re going to eat lunch together, homemade, prepared by the beautiful people there. And we’re also going to learn about textiles because 95% of all of the adults in that community are artisans. So they either make masks or they dye fabric, and they make textiles, make them into purses and all different kinds of things. So we’re going to be there with them all day.

Linda Harkcom

That’s awesome. And you had mentioned when we initially spoke about them that they were also women-led, correct?

Valerie Pedigo

Yeah, a lot of the tribes, I shouldn’t say a lot. Many tribes are matriarchal in this world that have maintained and protected that. In this culture, in the Baruca culture, there were four women who started the museum to start to put together the artifacts and the things that to preserve the culture and so they were the clear leaders and so yeah there’s a lot of it’s not characterized directly as a matriarchy like the Brevi people who are across the country they are absolutely a matriarchy and this this tribe is definitely women-led

Linda Harkcom

Okay. That’s awesome.

Valerie Pedigo

Yeah, so we do all of that. We have the hard work, but we’re doing the hard work in paradise, right? We’re doing it in a container. And I want to share: I partner; my collaborations go in lots of different ways. I love to partner with people, especially people who do things differently than I do or have different approaches. And so I am co-leading this retreat with Allie Green. She is a somatic movement practitioner, and she’s a licensed therapist. Both of us are trauma-informed. And so when we talk about being in a safe place to be able to be vulnerable, like you mentioned, Linda, this is the place we create that container. She and I have done things together, and the feedback that we get is just, I have women that say, To be honest, I wasn’t sure what this was all about, right? Learning about self-love or whatever, one of the things that we’ve done, some of the themes that we’ve done, but I felt immediately safe, okay? And so that’s our goal. We’re your guides. And I’m just so happy to be partnering together with her.  Her studio is in Wexford.

Linda Harkcom

That’s awesome. Right, right.

Valerie Pedigo

Yeah, and then I’m based in Beaver County. I live here part of the year and then in Costa Rica the other part of the year. But this is a trauma-informed, certified, licensed, professional container. It is not; I’m going to go, and I’m going to be left on my own, right? So that’s the difference as well. And I say this humbly, but I’m just very confident that the whole experience and everything that we do at Renewed Spirit Adventures is unique.

Linda Harkcom

Well, it’s also a very small group, intimate group, and you do that purposefully. And talk a little bit about that as well, please.

Valerie Pedigo

Yeah. Our, on average, our retreats and experiences are between eight to 12 women max. To me, that’s important because sometimes big groups are amazing. Like there’s going to be, I’m going to be doing a summit, and there’s going to be tons of people there. Right. But they serve different purposes. When we’re talking about a transformational retreat or experience, it’s just so important to me that the number of people in total is small. The number of women is small so that each woman can get the custom experience that they need. And I just, it’s been important to me. You know, as I was building out what I wanted for this and thinking about, like, scaling and how we’re going to continue to grow as a company, I got that number for the number of sisters per retreat is not going to change. It’s just, it’s about custom. You know, that’s, it’s a long explanation for everybody gets the attention that they need.

Linda Harkcom

Right. And you also mentioned to me when we were speaking that the price for the event is all-inclusive. So the women don’t need money for anything once they pay for the trip, unless they want to buy some souvenirs or something like that.

Valerie Pedigo

Yeah.

Linda Harkcom

Their meals are included. Their experiences are included. If they want to get a massage, they could get a massage. There’s just all kinds of things available to them that they just don’t have to worry about once it’s paid for. And even women who aren’t used to traveling, aren’t used to traveling out of the country, especially, you give them some guidance with that, even though the, the airline portion isn’t part of the cost of the retreat, you still give the support in helping women get there and what they need as far as information, emotional support, all of that.

Valerie Pedigo

Exactly. Yep.

Linda Harkcom

And I think that’s really awesome as well. We’re going to be wrapping things up. So how about you let our listeners know how they can get more information about the retreat and, if they want to register, get more information or just learn more about working with you and what you do.

Valerie Pedigo

Yeah. Well, thank you, Linda, first of all, for the conversation. I really enjoyed it. I’m so glad that we met. And yeah, what you’re saying about the retreats is it’s the reason why I’ve decided to do the retreats that way is because we, as women, do not need more and more and more decisions to make.

Linda Harkcom

Yeah, me too.

Valerie Pedigo

We are constantly taking on the emotional labor and weight of making decisions.

Linda Harkcom

Right.

Valerie Pedigo

And so when you’re with us, You’re making decisions about your health and your insight. You’re not making decisions about dinner. You’re not making decisions about what, how I’m going to get to one place to another. Everything is included. And yes, it’s all supported. We are with you. 

So the best way is to go to our website. It’s renewedspiritedventures.com. And from there, you can see… the retreat in Costa Rica. It’s called the life that fits because we are going to be building in that eight days the life that fits and how to start that.

Okay. Follow us on social media. Our social media is Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn right now. I will be doing YouTube soon, but on our on our social media it’s at renewedspiritedventures so it’s always renewedspiritedventures one word or one you know all together and there you can get education about burnout, about identity issues, transitioning life transitions, all those things so make sure that you follow us on there

So renewedspiritedventures.com, check that out. And then there’s a button there to subscribe to our newsletter so you can hear from us or do fill out a Let’s Connect. And that Let’s Connect form comes directly to me. And we’ll set up some time to talk.

Linda Harkcom

Okay, great. That’s great. And for my listeners, I just want to remind them that for any of my  healing circles, I have a weight loss healing circle, a monthly one that’s going to be starting actually tomorrow, which we’re recording this on July 7th, but it’s going to be held the second Wednesday of every month, starting this month. And, I had done some healing circles this winter, with weight loss. And one of the things I found, like you, women need that constant support. And that’s why I’ve just kind of transitioned this into a monthly thing that am offering. I’m so excited about it because so many of the women that participated in the winter, they had, you know, really helped them, but they needed that more, more support. And this is just going to be, women with like-minded challenges getting together. We’re going to be using Emotional Freedom Technique to change those negative patterns, beliefs, habits. And you can find all that information, as well as information on individual sessions with me, on my website, yourjourneytoabetteryou.com.

Thank you again, Valerie. I really appreciate you coming on to let our listeners know about, you know, what you do and the ability for women and the options that are out there to help care for themselves.

Valerie Pedigo

Yes. Yes. Thank you.

Linda Harkcom

Because that is just so important.

Well, thank you all. And I look forward to our next podcast, which will be released in a couple of weeks. So just click that subscribe button and listen, whether you’re on Spotify or YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts.

Thanks so much. Bye-bye.