26. An Evolution - It's Time to Get Real About Conditioning

I didn’t expect to release another episode before the end of the year, but sometimes clarity arrives when we least expect it. This episode was recorded in one of those moments — after yoga, sitting in my car, via voice note — when something just clicked.

In this episode, I’m sharing an honest reflection on the evolution of The Becoming You Project and where my heart — and this work — are leading as we move into 2026.

We explore the art of becoming as an ongoing, cyclical process: peeling back layers of conditioning, stress, and inherited patterns to reconnect with the most authentic core of who we are. Becoming isn’t a destination — it’s a choice we make again and again, especially in moments of tension, discomfort, or overwhelm.

I also talk openly about:

• How chronic stress and unprocessed emotion pull us back into conditioning
• Why nervous system regulation is foundational for any real transformation
• The harm of toxic positivity and spiritual bypassing
• How unhealed systems keep us numb, compliant, and disconnected from self-trust
• Why naming conditioning isn’t negative — it’s liberating

This episode introduces a clearer direction for the podcast moving forward, rooted in two essential themes: conditioning and consciousness.

If this episode spoke to you, it would mean the world if you took a moment to leave a review or share it with a friend who needs it. And make sure you hit follow so you never miss an episode of Conditioning to Consciousness.

You can connect with me on Instagram @jesscallahan_, join my Substack community at conditioningtoconsciousness.substack.com, or explore more of my work at jesscallahan.com.

My Back in the Body Nervous System Healing course is now available! Find it here.

Thanks for listening — I’m so grateful you’re here.

Transcript

Speaker: 0:02

Hey guys, welcome back. I'm dropping a bonus episode today. I honestly didn't expect to be posting any more episodes this year, but you know how it goes. Sometimes we just have things that need to be said. So um so here we are. I don't know about you guys, but I get most of my like downloads and insights in moments that I'm like least expecting it. You know, if I'm if I'm like doing the work and clearing, clearing my mind and creating space for new thoughts and intuitive nudges to come through. I get clarity in moments, and it's just like okay, like this is it. And so I've had this like thought swirling around the back of my head for a while, and I was at yoga, and um I just like I had one of those moments where I just had a knowing and like just about where the Becoming You project is going and where my heart is really taking me and taking it. And so after yoga class, I just like sat in my car and sent myself a bunch of audio notes, just like with all of my thoughts, and I'm posting them as is. So this is a podcast about an evolution. It's a podcast about where the Becoming You project is going and what to expect in 2026. So keep an eye out. Um, in early 2026, you'll there'll be some um some newness around. So just stay tuned and um happy holidays.

Speaker 1: 1:40

I've suspected this day was coming for a long time, really. I mean, maybe even since I first launched the Becoming You project. I love I love the idea of this process of becoming you. It's like it's an unfolding, and it's this it's this process of just like peeling the layers back piece by piece by piece, until you get at like the core of who you are, like the very essence of your soul. And that's really like that is the art of becoming, and it's not something you do once, and it's not something that has like, it's not a journey with an endpoint, it's something that we have to recommit to over and over and over again. It's you know, it's in the moments that we choose ourselves and it's in the moments that we feel that inner tension and we choose to go inwards instead of around it, you know, bypassing it out of like some preconceived fear or you know, conditioning response, reaction, like whatever it is, there's so many times that we we go around it instead of through it. And the process of becoming is the process of choosing to go through it time and time again. And like, you know, we're we're exposed to this like conditioning nonstop, really. Like, I think that when we get stressed and when we let our guard down and forget to release the stress, we start to let it like build up in our system again. Um, you know, we're more susceptible at that time to layering back on the conditioning, you know, starting to um decrease our self-awareness, decrease our awareness of what's going on around us. We, you know, we we lose our depth at that time, we lose our empathy and our compassion, and we let situations and you know, experiences and things going on around us, we let them go. We we turn in the other direction because we're like, um, you know, we're we're living by stress. And so again, it's that recommitment to going inward and to feeling the tension and figuring out where it's coming from and and what do we allow to accumulate that needs to be released? And how do we, you know, peel back all of those layers to get to who we are? It's like those, you know, those nesting dolls. I think that the art of becoming is a lot like the nesting dolls, where um like the nesting dolls, but also like imagine that the outermost nesting doll is like black and white. And as you, you know, open up the nesting dolls to get smaller and smaller and smaller, each nesting doll becomes a little bit more colorful, if that makes sense. So like the first one's black and white, and then we move to like gray, and then there starts to be like shades of blues and greens, and then we add more subtle color, and eventually the tiniest little nesting doll is like in technicolor, like it's bold and it's bright and it's so unique and it's so you. And that's like the art of becoming is like getting back to that, like that tiniest little like core nesting doll that is just wild colors and you know, full unique expression of you. But like as we allow stress to like run our lives, and as we forget, you know, we we lose touch with like the practices that we have in place, the practices of releasing the stress, journaling through the emotions or um resolving situations that we've been sort of like letting fester unresolved when we forget to use our energetic like shielding and our energetic using like energetic boundaries to make sure that we're not absorbing the energy of the world around us, right? There's a difference between like witnessing it, feeling empathy and compassion and the drive and like activism to do something for it, but also there's a difference with like letting that consume you and swallow you and bring you down. You know, I call it like this vortex. We just get like pulled into this vortex when we feel too much, but also when we don't like hold our energetic boundaries strong enough because you can feel it, you can want to make change without being consumed by it, you know, and that's I think that's true for so many different aspects of our lives. But um anyway, so that's how I see the art of becoming. That's that's how I see the Becoming You project. But it's also it's really just sort of like this esoteric concept that's it can be really hard to grasp, and I think it can be overdone. I think that there's a lot of like harm in the industry done by people who aren't healed, like unhealed people trying to heal others. And I think, you know, I'm I don't claim to to be a healer by any means. I think that healing is a something that we tap into ourselves. And I think that the the people who have the best ability to guide others towards their own path of healing recognize that it's just like a channel that people can tap into. And, you know, it's not like I don't know, healing doesn't like come from any individual, but in this industry, there are so many people that consider themselves, you know, healers, or they consider themselves um these like guides, intuitives, like people that are guiding you through this process, but at the same time, they are not living in regulation or they don't have the tools to stay regulated themselves. They have not done all of the inner work themselves, and there's this whole other layer of like toxic positivity, you know, where um where we sort of slap this like sticker on it that says good vibes only. And I think that's actually really damaging. Um actually had two instances like that come up recently. One was uh, well, it was literally a sticker on a um on a water bottle at the gym and it said good vibes only. And it brought up this like situation that I had observed the other day at I was like, I think I was at the grocery store checkout. And in the moment, that situation I was like, ooh, but but the sticker is what made me sort of like revisit it in my mind. So we're checking out, and there's like this teenager, and he's the he's the cashier, and there's a woman who's probably like 40 something, and she's checking out. It's um, you know, she's it's a busy season, right, of life for all of us. And she answers, he says, he says, How's your day? And she says, It's okay. And he says, just okay, it has to be good. And I was like, Oh, you know, I was like cringing. I'm like, Oh, why does that feel so like icky? And you know, what I realized is that it's not him, right? Like it's what he's he's learning. He's just a kid, he doesn't know any different, and yeah, at some point we all have to start taking responsibility for the things that we are, you know, learning ourselves and absorbing. And but but he's so young and he's growing up in a world where there is so much conditioning that tells us that we have to bypass our own needs for the comfort of someone else. So, like being honest is something that we need to sacrifice in order to like help somebody else feel better about themselves so that they so we're like creating this environment otherwise that holds space for like negativity, I guess, is sort of is sort of the thought. And but like I don't know. I the sooner that we realize that it's okay, it like that that all of our realities can be different, and it's better to just witness someone as they are than to ask them to bypass their themselves, um, you know, in order to make us more comfortable so that we don't have to sit in this like awkward space of uh-oh, this person's day is not good. Like, um, I just I don't know. It's that it just ties into that whole like, you know, hustle culture, toxic productivity. Like we just go, go, go. We put a, you know, we slap a smile on it, we tell everyone we're great, we're you know, we're still just moving, we're busy, but we're fine and everything is good, but really like below the surface, we're frozen, we are numb, we are bypassing our own self-trust and our needs and our knowings, and we are people pleased again. We're conforming, we are all conforming into being the same. Because if we can all just make sure that we tow the line, you know, we we're just like towing that line between like I don't want to offend anyone, and if I express myself genuinely, they might not disagree with me, and then they're gonna hate me because then we're just you know, we're not gonna be friends anymore, and it's gonna this, this, this, and that, right? Because we do not know how to hold space for other people's like truths to be like their truth, right? Like, if it doesn't match our reality, how could it possibly be true? Um anyway, okay, so a bit of a tangent there, but I'm making a couple of points here. So the Becoming You project is deeply meaningful to me, but at the same time, I think that it's easy to confuse it with other messaging that happens in the industry, um, where we do sort of like we bypass the depth needed to do the real work. And so I'm really excited about where we're going in 2026. So I've had the opportunity over the last few weeks to have these really amazing conversations with people who are doing really deep work. They are pouring themselves into the work that they're sharing with the world, and they're doing it on their terms, they're doing it in a way that's like this is what works for my energy, but also this is the deep healing that I've done. This is the work of my life. This is, you know, this is something that like has changed my life, and I'm genuinely vulnerably passing that healing forward. And so many of these conversations have come down to two concepts conditioning and consciousness. And I think that I've been telling this line where I'm like I light up when I talk about conditioning because I think that it's something we need to more of us need to be aware of. It's something that when you spot the conditioning, you never see the world the same again, but you also break free from these like invisible chains that have been holding you back for so long. And it's so important to have these conversations, but at the same time, there's so many people that aren't ready for those conversations, can't hold space for the conversations. They hear words like patriarchy and they're like, ah, it's negative, it's negative, like I don't wanna, I can't go there. But like it's not negative, it's reality, it's the world we're living in. Patriarchy doesn't mean we have to be angry at men. It doesn't mean men versus women. It's spotting the systems that tell us that you're a boy and you're a girl, and there's no, it's not a spectrum. Gender is a spectrum, right? It is like we'll talk about that more another day. But anyway, the rules that tell us that we have to be this or that. And if we are this, then this is the map we have to follow. Like if you're a man, you may not show any emotion. And if you're a woman and you show emotion, you are hysterical. You're overdoing it, you're blowing it out of proportion. You know, it's like, and and those are the things then that keep us small, that keep us contained, that keep us from expressing ourselves. And when we're not genuinely expressing ourselves, we're not living our truth, we're lying to ourselves, we're creating inner dissonance that's causing so many different things like anxiety, depression, um, total lack of self-trust, which can cripple us in our businesses and in our families. Um, we're creating general generational patterns that we're passing down. And so it's not just our problem, it's it's our entire future lineage, unless we take the time to break the cycles now. So we're gonna talk about conditioning. It's just, it's, it's so important. But we're also going to talk about consciousness and elevated consciousness specifically. Um, you know, last year I had the opportunity, or I guess depending on when I post this, it's like I'm recording it right at the end of the year. So it could go either way. But in 2025, so this year, as I'm speaking, um, I had the opportunity to go back to school and to start this program that has just been changing my life. And it's a transpersonal psychology program. So basically, where spirit meets psychology, and my focus is in consciousness. And it truly has changed my life. And one of the ideas that I just keep coming back to is it's like based in like systems theory, and it's this idea that a small, like a minority of people that are coherent, that are, you know, rooted in a belief can change the world around them. And so this theory is that, and it's not my theory, but it's one that I I really like, it just like sits with me deeply. But it is that if one percent of people can elevate their consciousness, one percent, one percent start to live in that higher frequency, one percent of people start to heal themselves, start to do the deep work, and then allow that ripple effect to like shift the world around them, just one percent, it elevates the entire baseline of humanity, really, like of our culture. And and if we can just keep doing that increment by increment, like little by little, the world starts to change. I think collective consciousness is a huge part of that. I think that it's this world that we're just tapping into. And I think the more that we understand it in a way that's like easy to digest, easy to understand, how we are so interconnected and how that interconnectedness like can change us and just help us see the humanity in each other. Like this the idea that we're disconnected is one of the like biggest disservices that you know has ever been like it's this like idea that it's just like it's been a disservice to our entire like like world, really, I guess, for centuries. And um, you know, and I I also don't know that that's something that has been like a long-held belief, right? I I when you look back at ancient cultures, you start to realize that like I think that they had a much better understanding of consciousness and the universe than we do now. So, like, how do we get from there to here? And specifically, like, how did we get to this place that we are just so fucked? Like, we are just frozen and numb, and the world is cruel. And you know, you there's these things happening in the world, and you're like, surely this is the point that things are gonna change. Surely this is rock bottom, and then rock bottom keeps just getting like lower and lower and lower. And so, what do we do to get out of it? Like, I I don't claim to have the answer, but the work that we'll do here through that work, I I will offer an option, which is focused on this idea of self-healing, elevating consciousness, and the impact that that has when we individually do our work, the impact that it has on the world around us. And so, yeah, we're gonna we're gonna dive into all of that. Okay, and so I see it as this like five-part process, and each of the episodes will tie back in some way to one of these parts. So, nervous system regulation, you cannot shift, you can't transform, you can't bring your visions to life if you're living in a place of dysregulation. When stress is running your body, when stress is ruling your life, um, you you can't you can't like see long-term change. And on top of that, when stress is ruling your life, I mean, probably there's a lot of other toxic shit happening to you. So um, you know, that you look in you'll look into like um autoimmune disease, and um there's like implications with your heart, and we can talk about all of that, but I'm not gonna get into it now. But um, okay, so regulate your nervous system, decondition the mind. So spotting how these systems are showing up in your life, where you have outsourced your own control, and you're basically like making your choices and living your life through this like invisible rule book that none of us chose, but it's here and it's you know still dominating most of what we do. Reconnecting with intuition. Intuition is our body's guidance system. It's you know, it's how we can source our own knowing. We make easier decisions, better decisions. Um, when we're connected with our intuition, but intuition is also the gateway to collective consciousness. So strengthen that in you know, that intuitive connection, self-discovery. Like the more we can learn about ourselves, the more, you know, the personality tests are all here for a reason. Uh, natal chart astrology, human design, like all of those things offer a map inward. And the more you know about yourself, the more you can make these aligned choices. And then the last one is embodiment and integration. And I see this really as like these, it's like creating balance where you're releasing the stuff that's stuck. So you're releasing stuck emotion and stress and resolving those situations and holding those energetic boundaries, but then you're also creating space for what's new to come in. So um, you know, through meditation, mindfulness, just still moments where when you have That reconnection with intuition, and when you know the things that you're really starting to like ponder, you have those like those aha moments, those downloads, those intuitive hits where you're like, This is right, this is wrong, and you really can follow that like breadcrumb path to like purpose and self-healing and and shifting you know the world around you, tapping into collective consciousness. And so um, you know, through it, like it is all connected, it's all connected. So while we'll talk about nervous system regulation being foundational so that you can, you know, work in this space of like tapping into elevated consciousness. We'll also talk about like psychic experiences, precognition, and how like mediumship, um, and and how each of us has an intuitive gift, how we can build those gifts out. Um, all of it, all of it is so connected. And so that's what we're gonna focus on. That's that is where we're going in 2026. So the Becoming You project has been very, very near and dear to my heart for the last six months. And I'm just I'm really, really excited to see where where we go in 2026.