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Gain refreshing insights on clothing, food, college, and more with the most amazing young woman I know, Carly Schultz, my daughter. Join me in conversations with Carly, the first of a series. Honor yourself, celebrate your strength, empower your transformation with your Yin-care®. This is the Yin-care® podcast, and I’m your host, Margaret Jacobson, The Mother Rising.

All right. Welcome everyone. I am Margaret Jacobson, the Mother Rising and your host here at the Yin-care® podcast. And I’m so excited to have this guest on today. And I think we’re going to be very lucky to have her on semi regularly fingers crossed. And I’m just going to start out and say that I will always love this guest more than all of you because it’s my daughter.

And this episode is Conversations with Carly. Welcome Carly. So excited to have you with us today. You like that introduction? I love you more. See, we always have a competition when we hang up the phone. It’s like, I love you more. I love you more. And then we sort of hang up on each other, which seems like it’s not nice, but it’s kind of fun, right?

Yeah, it’s fun. Oh my gosh. Okay. So let me tell people a little bit more about you. So we can start there. Carly is a junior, is in her junior year. studying interior and apparel design at the University of Wyoming. And she blends creativity, research, and functionality to create sustainable, timeless designs inspired by nature.

Uh, her work prioritizes emotional and physical well being as well as practicality. And with an interest in natural fibers and dyes, Carly crafts unique, earthy apparel while her insight into cultural shifts informs her approach to both interiors and fashion. And outside of design she enjoys getting outside, working at a thrift store, cooking and singing.

Yay. So why don’t we just start by, you want to just tell us a little bit about that, about what you’ve been doing over your break and how, if you’re ready to get back to classes. Yeah. I mean, I think, well, I’ve been, I’ve been working full time over my break at the thrift store, which is fun, but not super creative.

So I am definitely ready to get back, where the necessity of creativity is a bit more, necessary, right? Right. Like, you’re given you’re given instructions to yeah, it’s kind of a deadline. Yeah, exactly. But you’re so good. Like, that is something that like, really inspires me about you is that, like, even over your break, you’re like.

I feel like I need this thing or whatever in my life. I’m going to, because that’s actually a really good way that you sort of Yin-care®. So tell us like, even over your break, like, what, what were some of the things that like, you’re like, Oh, I really need to blah, blah, blah. Well, I definitely think that there is like, I, when I’m on breaks and I’m not in school and I’m, I know I don’t need to be creating all the time.

I, I think it’s important that I do take a break from it. Because if I were to start a big project on my own, I probably either wouldn’t get done with it by the time school started or would be burnt out by the time school started. So, some of the things that I have been doing have been things that are much different from what I would normally do in school.

So, I’ve been listening to a lot of books. And, I just got some snowshoes, so I’m gonna start some snowshoeing, outside of, you know, I think getting outside is definitely a big one that that makes me feel a lot better. There’s, there’s nothing like doing creative things though. I will say there’s definitely some piece that’s missing when I’m not doing that, but I know that it’s important for me to take breaks, but it is hard because it’s just, it’s really, really great when I am creating things.

So when I’m not, it, it feels like. I just feel a little bit more down about things. I need to be creating. It’s, it’s just something that I need to be doing. So it’s a good reminder, you know, that you’ve always been like that. I have to say like, you know, you used to wake up. I mean, you’ve heard me say this many times, like every morning you’d wake up.

And the first thing you do was like art, you had to start with your artwork. It was. You know, and you were just so great. You just sit there and like coloring and singing like there was, you were voicing and like getting your juices flowing. It was like, and then of course you had the badass outfits that was like, oh yeah.

Oh yeah. What is she even wearing? How did you put those things together? Yeah. I, yeah, yeah, I definitely, oh, yeah, I went to Tai Chi yesterday, which I think was also fun. I think a lot of like, you’ve never done that before, right? No, I had never done that before. It was good. And I’m going to go back next week.

So hopefully some of these things. I can carry on during school, too. Just to have a little bit more balance between school and life and actually that’s something else I was like, thinking we, we would, you know, touch on is you really had some big epiphanies starting at the beginning of the year, but then even continuing on into this break where.

You were adjusting your schedule, like in over break. It was more like you adjusted your work schedule going into this next semester. But at the beginning of the year, you were looking at, really adjusting your school schedule so that you were taking fewer credits and such. Can you just share with everybody how you came to realize that was really important for you in your life?

Because a lot of students don’t have that. I think, well, I definitely had like, a catalyst that was that I, I met with Luma and we, can we just do a little, little mini segue like Luma? We’re talking Luma Lore. Also known as Oracle Pegasus and the author of we will share. Oh God. Almost knocked my tea over.

Starfire Wisdom, because she’s gonna, we’re not going to have her on right away, but we are doing a Starfire Wisdom reading that will be coming up. So anyway, go ahead. You met with Luma. Yeah. And, we did a cord cutting ceremony for, my last relationship. At the time I had just come back from Italy, and I’d done a little study abroad in Italy, and I just, I wasn’t, it was feeling really difficult.

To take care of myself, which I later found that when you love yourself, it’s really easy to take care of yourself, but it was like when we had that cord cutting ceremony, a few days afterwards, I was just feeling like so much more myself than I had ever felt. And what Luma said was when we met after that was like a tiny piece of your soul dropped into you and you’ve, you’re like, energy is going crazy right now. Like just a small piece more than what you had before. And you can tell everything’s just so much more vibrant. And so that was like, I think the catalyst for a lot of changes that I made.

But with that, I found I need to, I need to take care of myself, you know, because.

Well, I want to, of course, but also I have so many things that I want to do that to be able to do all of those things, I need, I need to take care of myself. And so this has to come first, like wherever I go, it has to come first, whatever I do. And so from there, I was like, okay, I need to, feed myself. I, I have like, I have to eat every two hours and it’s something that I’ve been working on figuring out what the best way to deal with that is and how to do that in the best scheduled manner. And it’s always been pretty difficult, especially like in high school. And then my first few years of college, definitely just learning to feed myself enough was always really difficult.

And when I do, I feel great. And when I don’t, I feel really terrible. So. I was like, okay, how do I make it so that I can always feed myself, no matter what is going on. And so let’s share that. You’re, you’re, you’re not living in the dorms at this point. You’re, you, you started out the year living with other people, but you’re, you’re now on your own, but you’ve been, you had a whole year, your sophomore year to sort of build up a lot of cooking skills. So you, you’re actually a pretty good cook, but carry on. But even, even if you’re a good cook, it’s hard to be able to make the time to do that. Doesn’t matter how good of a cook you are. I know. I know everyone struggles with that unless you have a schedule. So I was like, okay, I need to take less credits this year.

I just, I have to, because I have to be able to support my body. So that I can succeed in my classes and learn stuff and take them on and then do other things, you know. Like this whole, all of these great things are going to happen if I can just take care of myself was basically what I was like, yeah, just the conclusion that I came to.

So I decided I was only going to take, four classes per semester instead of five. And I also found this job at the thrift store that I really liked. And I wanted to stick with that job. And so I was working part time 20 hours last semester. And in addition to taking these four classes, which was still a lot, but I learned how to schedule also when I make my food, like I make my food on the weekend and I do meal prep and I do it all for the entire week, which is a lot of cooking, but then I don’t have to do it during the week. All I do is just heat up food and it’s, it works really well. So even now, like I I’m still doing that over my break, just because it brings me the sense of calm to know that there’s just food that’s always ready in the fridge, no matter what it’s food in the fridge.

So yeah, that was kind of the reason why I slowed down and I’m actually like, I, I told you, before, but I’m doing 15 hours of work this semester to slow it even more down. And so just because it was still busy with everything going on last semester, I still felt like there was a whirlwind. So I’m gonna try this out and see how that feels.

And, um. Yeah, that’s kind of how the scheduling works. That’s awesome. I, it’s been such a journey for you and so much fun and it sometimes like, you know, challenging and hard as a mom watching the struggles that you had in the dorm, dealing with dorm food and the, the, whatever you call it, the cafeteria or the, what they call it.

Just the dining hall, I guess, or whatever. Yeah. And then, you know, you, you have a lot of food sensitivities that you that you deal with too. And so you just figured out ways to navigate a lot of that. And then you’re also, you are not one to go eat out, you know? So this was also, yeah, it is. It also sa, it saves you money too.

Like you’re conscious that like, it’s not just that you’re not eating out, but you’re also seeing how wasteful it is when people do. So talk about that for, I mean, when you, when you eat as much as me to go out to eat for a full day would cost me at least $60. That’s an insane amount of money. You know, I eat every two hours.

That’s like five, six meals a day, right? You know, that’s probably more than 16 hours. So yeah, it’s a lot. And then just getting, I mean, of course I like to go out to eat when I like to plan to go out to eat. And there, but there are only so many restaurants that I can eat at just because. I follow the YAO diet, the, the gluten dairy, egg free.

And then I also, there are certain things that I just know don’t feel very good to eat for me too. But I mean, I figured it out just fine, but like what, like, cause that’s interesting. You figured some things out on your own, you know, you had like a basic structure to work with and then you’ve noticed things that don’t feel right sometimes, you know, it’s hard.

It’s hard to say what exactly. I, when I’m walking around the grocery store, I just kind of know what, what to pick. I couldn’t tell you what exactly, like, I just kind of lean towards things. And I mean, I, I definitely, I think when I’m planning meal, I mean, I definitely don’t eat beans ever. And I tried, like, sometimes I’ll try things out and be like, Oh, I’m going to try this out.

Peanut butter. Not a good thing. I know I want to like peanut butter so much and it always doesn’t like me very well. Yeah. And I took like a really big break from it because I was putting it in sometimes and I just wasn’t really noticing any changes, but then I just, it was mostly my smoothies. And so I, I started just doing, sunflower butter.

And then one day I was like, I’m going to buy peanut butter instead. And I tried it and it was like, nope, that’s not good. I also tried goat milk kefir, and that was not good either. So no dairy. Oh my gosh. I’m sure there are other things, but I honestly, like, it’s hard for me to say just because I just tend to stick to things that I know.

Yeah, most of the time are good. Occasionally, I try something new and I’m just like, oh, that doesn’t feel good. I’m not gonna totally do that next time. Yeah. Okay. Well, let’s talk about, okay, last year. There’s a couple interesting things about last year. In, since we’re talking about food, we’ll start with the kitchen space.

And it will lead into the design of the place that you ended up living, which I think is sort of, you know, it was like a very karmic, like arrival at this place that you had to live at when you’re in a design program. I learned a lot. Let’s talk about like the structure and just the, the housemates you were with in the, as a, as a mom when I came there and you were struggling, like, how am I going to cook all my food?

And there was an electrical problem and the thing kept going out and I go there and there’s food. Everybody else’s food is taking up all the room because all their food is in boxes because they don’t know how to cook. Like, that was crazy realization to me that the student populations generally are just buying things that are frozen or in boxes and the kitchens are not even made for housing those kinds of foods and yet you’re just trying to buy

regular normal food and cook, and you can’t even store everything. I will say, yeah, one, one thing I’d like to preface with this, I, when I grow grocery shopping, I buy like once a week, I buy the amount of food that you would probably buy for about two people. Right. So, so I, I do have more food, but yeah, even in the last house that I was living in, it was like the people that I was living with, they would cook, but then they would forget about their food.

And go out to eat, and so then their food was still taking up space in the fridge and not getting eaten. So, the way that I do it, it’s like everything gets eaten, maybe like one meal goes to waste. Which is pretty good considering there’s a lot of meals in there. If I like it, which most of the time I do.

But, yeah, the last place, or I guess, the place that you’re talking about with the small kitchen. That I lived in last year was definitely, it was interesting to see how everyone ate and cooked for themselves, but I think it was more surprising for you than it was for me, just because I’d seen people eating such crap in the dorm rooms, you know, that it was, and I was the dining hall food was just so terrible on my stomach.

Like I never, I had such a low appetite when I was living in the dorms, but it was just so hard because I never wanted to eat the food. It didn’t feel good, you know, and it was hard stay eating what I knew would make me feel good because oftentimes there just wasn’t that option. Right. So, yeah, I hadn’t figured it out yet last year with my previous roommate housemates.

Like it was, there was time for me to be doing my cooking, but I still didn’t have the time management yet to be able to work around other people like that. I would totally be able to work around other people, even though I’m not living with anyone right now, because like the place that I was living before, I would just do all of my cooking on Saturday and say, I’m going to be in the kitchen all of Saturday.

And they’d go to the football game. I had the kitchen myself, you know. So now, it works out really well because I understand how to plan things out and actually stick to my schedules, which I think was a big change, but I mean, definitely learning how to cook to was also something that you helped me with a lot.

And I think also something that when I worked in a kitchen in Lander, I learned a lot about cooking there because they would teach me things all the time. And that was super helpful. There are a lot of things that I’m like, I’m so glad that I can do this so easily because I remember when I first started and I was getting paid, I wasn’t good at it, you know, like now I can do it.

I don’t get paid and I’m great at that. That’s so cool. That’s awesome. Okay. So talk about the, design of the, of the place you were living though, ’cause that feeds into what you’re studying a little bit. Yeah, so at the time I was, I was learning, about codes. So I had a class where we were talking about, ADA codes and then also codes for apartments, for houses, commercial codes in interiors.

So codes being laws that are in place so that people can live in a place safely. And so this place had the weirdest design of the house. It’s a really old house, I think it was built in 1940. And so it had a really tiny kitchen and I was living in the basement there. So, and the breakers didn’t have there wasn’t enough electricity to go around a whole home for four people living there.

And so the breakers would always flip if I had my air fryer on upstairs at the same time as my heater was on in my room. And I needed my heater on because the heating in the house oftentimes just wouldn’t work. Well, yeah, and you’re like, she’s like thin and burns everything off. Like you don’t have any fat to like cushion any type of heat or cold.

And when I’m not eating enough, I get colder. So it’s, it was a combination for disaster, but it was fun for me to just be like, okay, this is not up to code. This is not up to code either. I didn’t really care enough at the time. I think if I had happened to be living there now, I I probably just would have moved out.

Like if I, if I moved in there and lived there for half a month, I would be like, this isn’t gonna work, you know, well, there were other circumstances that you are committed to. You can share about like. Who you’re you know, you had kind of a special housemate that you were with. Yeah. Yeah, I Yeah, and I understand like that.

I get that but I was living with a man with Down Syndrome in this house and his Dad was the landlord of the house. So it’s definitely an interesting dynamic to have that I think mostly because it was assumed that it was a social house. A lot of the time you can move into a house and have roommates and not really talk to them much.

Here it was like, you’re expected to be hanging out with someone, which I think is a little strange to have, but it also worked out good in certain areas for sure. But for me, it was just difficult to draw the line between my own personal life and my time with this person. For sure. And so, and there, there were, there were other factors about it that just made it difficult to live with these people.

There’s more to the situation that I, that I won’t go into, but you lived in the basement and you, I mean, you created your personal space in your room. What did you call it? It was like your own other dimension. The other dimension. Yes. You’re going into your other dimension. And people would walk in and they’d be like, wow, this is like, I’m like, it doesn’t look like the rest of the house.

Does it? Cause the rest of the house, like when you walk down in the basement, there’s like unfinished ceilings, the entire, the entire bathroom. It doesn’t have like any trim around it. It’s just, you can see the bolts in the wall, like, and there’s no ceiling. So you can see all the pipes above the bathroom and there were gosh, so many things, but anyway, when you walk into my room was a nice, lovely place. Yeah, that was fun. It was a very cozy room, without an egress window. But I know, but you kind of created a space that would support what you needed for the year. You were like, okay, I’m here. I’m in it.

I need to have a functional space that also supported you mentally and emotionally and spiritually, right? Yeah, totally. I definitely, that’s one thing that, that I just, I love about design is that it’s, it’s so focused around practicality and functionality. And I think that’s like, when I was first space planning the room and moving things around, I was like, okay, this would work well here.

And this would work well here, but then you have to kind of live in it and see if it does work well, and then, okay, I’m going to move this now and I need something here and it doesn’t it’s not my walls worked totally empty. I never put any paintings up on my walls. They were just white, and the room was great, and I loved it that way.

It never felt, like, empty or anything. It felt, actually, very cozy, even though the walls were just bright white my bedsheets were grey, and all of my furniture was grey and white. And it felt cozy. It would be raining outside and I would just, you know, be hanging out at my desk doing homework and it felt great.

That’s so cool. I love it. And then we, you were struggling, I can’t remember if it was before you got the electrical fixed or not, but you were struggling in the morning to get your breakfast. So we kind of put something downstairs, like created like a mini kitchenette so that you, like, there was this very strange space that went from the stairs that came down and then into the. Like, I think it was supposed to be a living room for the basement, but it, it wasn’t set up that way. I don’t know how you would live anything in that space. It was like the, the, like where we set up my breakfast. Yeah, I know. It just seems weird.

Yeah. Anyway, I mean, yeah, I think. I don’t know, but I think that’s what it was meant for originally. Right. Right. I don’t know. They had. Yeah, we had set up that that breakfast area. And it was helpful to have things that I could just grab and pop in the toaster oven. But because you had not adjusted, you hadn’t adjusted your schedule yet either so you’re, you were in a pretty intense academic schedule. Yeah, I will say, I think that what helped me so much with my time management was having a job because when this was, I was living there and I didn’t, I didn’t have a job until the summer, and then I started working at that restaurant.

But I didn’t have anywhere I like had to be that I was getting paid to be at, even if it’s just 20 hours a week it makes a big difference. It’s like, okay, I have to be here. I have to be up at this time and I have to go to bed at this time. And now I just, I don’t miss any classes unless I’m sick or I feel like I’m going to get sick.

And then I just, you know. We, let’s say that, say that again. Or if I feel like I’m going to get sick, people like, if you feel like you’re going to get sick, chill out and just take your day. Like that’s the body is telling you to not do anything and to go inward and figure that out and recover. Like that’s the message.

So thumbs up, Carl. Yeah, it took me a while to learn. Well, Daniel hasn’t really learned that very well. I think a lot of people certainly haven’t, but I, it, it, it helps a lot because then I don’t stay sick for very long at all. I just can rest it out for two days instead of being sick for five. You’re also good, I mean, because Daniel, who is Carly’s non biological dad, uh, he and my husband, he does Chinese medicine as I’ve, I think I’ve said, probably on this podcast before, but in case I haven’t, you know, the, the overriding company of Yin-care® is YAO Company and then YAO Clinic where Daniel practices.

And so he’s really great about making sure we all have our stock of herbs for the most part. So you’re good at knowing what you have to take and to self care around that to try to prevent or at least ameliorate like symptoms, right? Yeah, I think the biggest thing that I started doing that Daniel recommended and then also some of my other things that I do was I take, like, I feel like I’m starting to get sick.

I usually like one thing that Daniel had recommended was to soak your feet in really hot a hot footbath. Mm hmm That was something that I did and until you’re like sweating, you know. Right, and I noticed like it made a really big difference to me feeling better when I felt like I was about to get sick because I also just I get cold pretty quickly as we mentioned before so that makes a big difference like having something just kickstart my body to like circulate blood again and right and move everything around. And and it’s not a full bath. He’s very clear. Don’t take a full. Yeah, so that you’re not cold afterwards and what which I think I have less issues with now because I don’t have hair probably wouldn’t be very cool after a full body hot shower, but that is true the foot bath helps. That’s cool. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Now I get to talk fashion. All right.

Okay. So yeah, let’s start with what brought you to fashion and interior design? I well, what’s funny is that in high school, I actually, we were supposed to come up with three careers of choice that we would like to go in, or like good possibilities for it in like a personal finance class.

And, I was like, I have no idea what I want to do. I like, so I came up with three and I can’t remember what the other two were, but one of them was a fashion designer. Which is, yeah, it’s weird because I only, the only reason why I initially was like, yeah, I don’t know about that one when I had put it down.

Was because I was like, well, doesn’t everyone want to be a fashion designer? I really thought that. I was like, like, of course, everyone wants to be a fashion designer. You know? Well, anyway, so in, in when I, the reason why I came to the University of Wyoming was because they would be able to help me find what I wanted to do.

Because when I went into college, I didn’t know what I wanted to do. And so I met with. Actually, that’s really good to share, because you were in your, in your junior in the 2nd, half of your junior year, when you started here in Lander, Wyoming. And kind of into the slight into the beginning, you weren’t even sure you wanted to go to the university and you had a teacher that was like come on, come on, come on. Yeah. You should maybe consider it. You’d be so good. Like what happened for you around that? And well, I, I wanted to go, I wanted to go to school, but I didn’t want to go if it wasn’t what I was supposed to do. I was hesitant to go because at the time, my only reason for going is that I wanted to.

And I felt like that wasn’t a good enough reason. And so I thought, well, maybe if I don’t want to, if I don’t know what I want to do, maybe it’s a good idea if I like, look for other options outside of school, and explore my other options, because I knew that a lot of people found what they wanted to do outside of school.

So I’m like, is school really a good place for me to find what I want to do, you know? So eventually I found out they have this program for undeclared students that it was, it’s called Exploratory Studies. And so, and that’s what your major is essentially. It’s not undeclared, it’s Exploratory Studies.

And so that’s really just what I did was I got an advisor who specialized in helping people find what they wanted to do. And that was exactly what I needed, you know. It was perfect. I’m like, okay, of course I should go here. So, when I was talking to him, I told him basically at the beginning, I was like, here’s the deal if I and I was serious.

I was like, really serious with him. If I find what I want to do, and it doesn’t require a degree here and that won’t help me. I’m leaving. So. All you need to do is help me find what I want to do. I told him, I’m like, I’m not here for a degree. I remember he was like, he was so excited because he’s like, finally somebody I actually get to use all my skills to help them find what they want to do.

And finally something that’s not here just for a degree or like to get money, you know? And so he was excited. And so it worked out really well. Cause he just put me in. I literally went through all of the classes that were offered at the school and I gave him a list that sounded interesting and he was like, no one’s ever done this before.

I learned like you just so because he could take all of those and just, just get their the prerequisite classes that would, that I could just drop into and learn stuff about them before getting into those. And so a lot of the classes that I put on that list I’m now taking, but he he dropped me in a bunch of different classes that I tried out and some of them I liked, some of them I didn’t like.

But the one that I really liked was, I took an applied design class with the head interior design professor, and she was talking about it’s very like broad subjects. We hadn’t gotten into anything specific. So it’s just design as a whole. She was talking about things that designs that are well designed and designs that are bad design.

And she’s was asking us for examples of both. And she’s like, designs that are bad designs, you’ll know, because they’ll really, they’ll really annoy you. They’ll bug you and, and, they’re ones that are good and are great that you won’t even know are there. And so she was like, now give me examples above.

And so I was like, it was something that I’d never thought about before, but I was like, so, so excited to think about. Because I was like, there are so many things that annoy me.

So I started raising my hand and I was saying all these things. I was like, this just, I just, I hate this so much. And she was like, yeah, and so when it bugged me that much, I was like, it bugs me so much that I got to go do it better than them. Right. Did it make you think how would I do it?

How would I, how would I create that? In some ways, but I think, I think the, the most exciting part for me was like, something actually annoys me this much. I’ve never experienced being so passionate about something that I know so, so little about and I need to know more. At the time I didn’t even know how to fix those problems.

It was just identifying them being like, okay, I, this is so then after that I was like, okay, this is what I got to do design somewhere. And so after I took that class, I, I declared my major in two concentrations and apparel and interior design.

That’s awesome. Like my reason for doing it. Yeah. But how did you decide in apparel too? Cause didn’t you have some class that. Yeah, I think it wasn’t a lot of the stuff that, that was talked about in that design class wasn’t just interior design. And I remember thinking of things in apparel that really annoyed me too.

There were two things that I remember thinking about was like in the dining hall, there was a staircase that was placed so poorly that it bugged me so much. And that was what I raised my hand about. And then there was a jacket that I still have that I said, I love this jacket. It has like, it does all of these great things for me.

And so well that I don’t notice it, you know, until I think about it. And so that was, those were my, my two flip sides. One thing that annoyed me a lot. And one thing that like, really, really, I just loved. And so, yeah, those, they were both interior and apparel designs. That’s awesome. That’s so cool. So, okay.

So what is your philosophy of fashion and how does it relate to Yin-care®? Yeah. So. I have a lot of different beliefs within my philosophy. So I’ll start with like, dressing as a form of Yin-care®. And I think I really learned this one when I shaved my head. I, when I shaved my head, I started like understanding how it felt to be in my body and to have people see parts of me that normally they wouldn’t see.

So people can see my whole head now, you know. And by the way, you can’t see this, but Carly has, I mean, she has red hair. When it’s long, it’s this long, gorgeous locks of red hair. So it was, but you’re, you know, your own hair, you’re like, Oh, whatever. The rest of us are like, no, we want to, we don’t want to, yeah, I, it looks good long too.

It’s good every way. But I, yeah, I, I had, I shaved my head really just because I wanted to. But it also, it happened right at the same time as when I, met with Luma like I was talking about earlier. So that was when it happened and I did it and I just started to become more aware of my body and how it affected me to have people see parts of me that weren’t normally seen.

So when people can see your whole head and you wear a shirt that also shows a lot of skin, I was noticing that I just, I felt very vulnerable to so many people, that could see all of me, which doesn’t have to be a bad thing, but can certainly be uncomfortable in the wrong situation. And I started to realize like what effect my dress, the way that I dress has on myself.

And mostly with like how we choose to cover our body. And I think one like massive misconception with a lot of people today is that to have like good style, you need to show off your whole body to be confident in your body. You have to show off your whole body, which in and of itself doesn’t make any sense to me.

I, I don’t, I don’t see how I have to show off anything to be confident. I feel very confident in my body when I don’t show anything off. I feel protected and safe and there’s, there’s nothing wrong with me. And I’m not compensating by undressing. And I think a lot of that is definitely publicized by the same, you know, people who are, are publicizing like needing to be a sexual person, right? Coming off as a sexual person. Of course, we’re like, we’re all sexual people.

That’s great. But, but having to show other people that that’s very vulnerable. Yeah. And I think that’s something that a lot of women feel uncomfortable with and feel like they have to, show parts of them off, in order to be considered sexual. Yeah. And sexy. And it’s like, no, actually I can keep that all to myself.

It’s so funny that you’re talking about empowering today. I mean, this shirt comes down, but you know, we are in Wyoming and it’s cold here. And I just was like, I feel like I want to wear a shirt underneath this, you know? And I was like, well, it doesn’t look as nice because I’m not showing skin.

And I was like, it looks just as nice. Yeah. It doesn’t matter. Yeah. Anyway, it’s just interesting that you shared that because I, I normally wouldn’t even wear this shirt today, but it did cross my mind. That’s funny. Yeah. I definitely, actually, that’s one thing that I noticed a lot is that I don’t like wearing any when, when my head is shaved, I don’t like wearing anything that shows my collarbones.

It feels like you can see all of me and it comes like here and it’s, like, I just, it makes me feel uncomfortable. I, I’ll try things on at the thrift store and they’ll have a cut that goes here and I just, it just doesn’t feel good. And, and it’s not, so much at all. It’s not at all that I care what other people think about me, but that them thinking and being able to see.

It does affect me, you know. I, I’m, I’m affected by their energy and the way that I present my own energy. Right? And so when I dress like this,

I feel comfortable and I feel like I’m intentionally setting a boundary between me and you. And this is for me. This is not for anyone else. Yeah. Unless, I decide that it is, you know? Right. And that’s awesome when it does happen. But it’s powerful to be able to just have that boundary.

And it is, it is, it’s a physical boundary. Yeah, that’s so cool. That’s, really great. Okay. So another thing, I mean, and this kind of leads into your experience at the thrift store as well, but you really have come into appreciating natural fibers. And having those be the things that are nearest to your body or everything that you’re wearing, I think, so share, share with everybody, your kind of journey around that.

Yeah, well, one thing that once I, now that I’ve gotten more in depth with the research, it’s very obvious and everyone should be aware that wearing synthetic fibers is not good for you. Not good for it. I mean, synthetic fibers are like polyester, nylon, elastane, you name it. They’re all made from plastic.

And so we found out with using. plastic as Tupperware or, it’s, it’s not, or like, or plastic wrap there. There’s so many studies out there about how that negatively affects your health because it’s going into your body. Well, having plastic wrapped around you during the day, of course, is also going to have a negative impact because your skin is alive, too.

So it’s not good for you and it’s not good for your reproductive health, especially. So that was one of the biggest things that when I started doing research on fibers, different kinds of fibers and the difference between natural fibers and synthetic fibers, it was like, oh, this is really real, and I’m not the only one who has found that out. Everyone knows that, and it’s surprising that, not everyone knows that because it’s like in people who are invested in clothing and mm-hmm . And their health are people who have found this out and are like, they, they’re just like, don’t, stop wearing these clothes.

It’s not, it’s don’t do it like it’s making me think like, because. Right now in the headlines, the FDA has put red dye number something or other, let’s see, Eddie, actually. Number 3, I think they’re removing that, or they’re telling the industry that they can’t use that any longer because of the carcinogenic effects and where it came from and blah, blah, blah, blah.

So, and it’s taken them, they were supposed to remove it from foods like they removed it from I think the cosmetic industry forever ago, but not from the foods. It’s crazy. So I’m just curious about, like the regulations on what we’re. There aren’t, there aren’t really no regulations. I mean, well, I mean, not that I’m willing to support regulations, you know, me, I’m like, we should all know, but, but, but it is, it’s weird that, that even.

Even these health organizations are not making warnings about it, you know, like, like the food system is more regulated than the fashion system. And part of that’s because fashion moves so quickly and polyester was just introduced in the 80s or 90s, but it wasn’t before that. What was before the seventies?

There might have been in the seventies. Yeah, the polyester suits in the seventies. There’s definitely some, some . The polyester in the seventies. Seventies, because polyester was the first, synthetic fiber that they made. Right. So from there they moved on into acrylic and, elastin and nylon too.

That was one of the first. Okay. Yeah, so it was recently introduced into clothing, but like a lot of vintage clothes that we get in the thrift shop are like 100 percent wool, or, you know, it’s like, it’s cool like you can find those things pretty easily because they’re vintage, so they are and yeah, so that’s one reason for that.

Yes, it’s because they were introduced recently, I guess, but it also is probably because there’s a lack of laws on fashion because fashion moves so quickly that it’s hard to regulate anything right on a government level like that. It’s it can’t, but by the time they do put a law on it, it’s just outdated. But and and I know that that’s sort of been the way that the industry has been built around as far as profitability.

But yeah. There is a way to kind of envision a future where we’re looking at the longevity of how our clothing supports us as individuals. And, that should sustain us for longer periods than just a quick fashion trend. Right? Yeah. Yeah. What I think is so cool about natural fibers is that I’ve started to notice as I wear my clothes longer because I’m just I’m starting to become conscious of how many clothes I need and how many clothes I need over certain periods of time. Which is a lot less than what we are told. We don’t need many clothes and we don’t need to be getting new clothes all the time.

Not that long ago, people would have one outfit that they wore and mended for their whole life. That was all they got. It’s so interesting because that goes hand in hand with, I was thinking so much about I don’t know, right when we started the talking today about the interview I had with Katherine Niven, from Katherine’s Sewing Channel. And one of the things is that she really brings creativity into her life and it’s such a powerful vehicle for her.

But the second piece was that, you know, she really looks at historical clothing and historical hair care. And the same thing goes with hair care historically, like that they, people didn’t wash their hair every day or, you know. I mean, it was, and washing clothes too is the same. Yeah. I mean, just think about all the things that like, the time you spend on certain things that decrease, like your life becomes more simple in a sense, right?

It’s nice. It’s nice. . It definitely changed how many clothes I have to wash, just because, I’m like, this isn’t, even dirty. Right. Like, I would have washed this before because I wore it, but it’s not like it did anything. And clothes, especially natural fibers, like washing them so much sometimes has a negative effect on the fibers and can break them down faster and then they don’t last as long and so that’s one thing you have to be aware of. But the real, like, one of the cool things that I’ve been noticing about, I wear my clothes so much without washing them as much, I notice how they wear because I wear the same ones almost every day and it’s really fun to watch how natural fibers wear.

They, wear just so much better. Linen gets softer the more that you use it. And, tajmir, it pills, a lot of the time, it’s the kind of pills that you can just carefully pull off, or even just rub back into place. Wow. And when you have polyester pilling, it’s a lot. It’s, it’s so much ugly to watch happen and yeah. That’s kind of nasty.

That’d be like. And it the more you wear it the like grosser it gets and it even gets sometimes like, and I think a lot of synthetic fibers are finished with an electrostatic. Like it basically it’s a finish that, that decreases the electrostatic of the, the blanket or the shirt so that it doesn’t give you that electrostatic.

I hate, I just, I really hate that feeling. And the more that I wear my polyester, the more that I notice. That it just it’s like that Sherpa, you know, the Sherpa blankets, right? I just, I can’t stay in the feel of it unless I’m wearing something under it because it, it has that it’s catches on hangnails and snags itself in the fake Sherpa blankets.

Yes, the fake Sherpa. I’m like, wait a second. But we like Sherpa like, yes, no, not, not, sorry. Not the real . Okay. We, this is a good segue. Most people refer to as Shepa to show she’s in her, she’s in a Sherpa. She’s in her Sherpa, aren’t you Jocko say hi to Carly . Hi Jocko. That kind of Sherpa blanket is what you’re talking about.

Okay. All right. But, it doesn’t wear well. And by the way, I feel bad that she’s in that Sherpa blanket, but she chose that. She likes it. So she’ll be okay. I need a natural fiber blanket for Jocko. That’s okay. And by the way, also, I will be having on here Zoe Daly from Eriu. Who makes the beautiful sweaters and scarves and blankets from the Irish wool.

And so she will add more to this type of conversation. So it may be after you get to watch that one, you might have questions for her and we’ll see, you know, there could be conversation there too. Yeah. So cool. Okay. Let’s see. We’ve been on for a while, but let me see. We’ve got a few more. Okay. Why is it?

Okay. Let’s go. This is good. Why is because because Katherine Niven mentioned this to why creativity was so important to her. Why is creativity do you feel so important to women? Yeah. I think that as women with wombs that creates, it’s really important to have a creative outlet that allows you to also create, whether it’s art, whether it’s, I mean, you can be creative through whatever you want to do cooking, or even just making your bed there like there’s creativity that can be found in a lot of different things. Or even your job if even if it’s like you just work at McDonald’s, there’s creativity to be found or even the mother mothering to or, you know, yeah, yeah, definitely so much creativity and how you work with your children, right?

Yeah, but I think that’s a good point because I that’s also the reason why I take care of myself to be able to be creative is that my creative self is my child. And when I feed her, she gets to be creative. And so that when I pack a lunch for school and she gets to go to school and create, then she’s got food for her while she’s creating.

So that’s why it’s so important for women, especially. It’s, it is, it’s mothering and it is, it’s allowing yourself to have a time for creativity and feeding that and mothering that so that you can have that blossom. I come home and I had this big project that I was working on in one of my classes.

I finished it and I had to stay up late to finish it. And so I went to bed and I just, I was super proud of the project. The next morning I had to present it to a bunch of people that might tell me what they thought about it. And so before they got to do that, I actually woke up and I was like, I’m going to take a bath and I just sat in my bath and I just sat and I was like you’re so amazing. You did something so amazing and this was great. This was awesome. You rock, and telling myself like all of these great things and just basking in like having created something that I loved so much because a lot of times it’s like, there’s a possibility for somebody to give you feedback that sometimes, especially when you’re in school just probably might not be helpful when you created something that you love. Right? And having so much of yourself in it when you do something that you love. And I hadn’t done that before. I hadn’t consciously been like, I need to tell you that I love you before anybody else gets the chance to say anything, right? You know, that’s so smart. That’s really, I’m going to use that tool. Good one. Carly. It was, nice. That’s really cool because I mean, a lot of times when, when we’re in that creative process, I always like to liken it to when a woman is giving birth.

She wants it dark and quiet and I forget there’s like, a handful of things that are kind of incubators for when you’re trying to give birth. You just, it’s a very introspective, very vulnerable place that you’re busy doing your creative work and you don’t always want to tell, you don’t want spectators.

That’s the other thing. When you’re busy creating, you don’t want spectators. And so even after you’ve had the baby, it’s so intrusive to people when people come in and say, okay, well now, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, about what your baby needs and what your baby this, and you need this and you need that.

And it’s like, how about you just chill the, uh, you know, what out because I actually know what I need and what I want. And so taking that time to really we’re kind of. We’re in the in between of dealing with a society that can support creativity and a society that is a jealous place of other people’s things where we kind of hit them down, you know, beat them down about it or critique it.

And I’m not saying there’s a certain time and place for looking at things constructively, absolutely. And of course you’re in school that is supposed to be a constructive environment, but I’m just to give this piece to other people who are maybe not in that environment and are building their business or are, you know, doing different things where they are very vulnerable. You know, it’s, I think that that technique of really taking time to just love on what you did and what you’ve done and what you’re doing and hold that so strong so that you’re kind of invincible. You were just saying, wearing the clothing, putting on the clothing that you need to do, that you feel like you’re protected, you know?

Because as women, it’s, we’re so susceptible to what other people think of us, and we’re sensitive to that because we’re in touch with vibrations that a lot of other people and men just aren’t super in touch with and can be, but. They’re just not, they’re just not, it’s, it’s not, uh, we, we feel those things like, yeah, like you said, we’re just more sensitive to them and they’re just not hyper aware to pay attention to them all the time.

Yeah. Yeah. So having that barrier between you and the rest of the world, it doesn’t have to be a barrier so much as it’s just, it’s like armor and intentional armor that allows you to get close to people that you want to get close to and block energy that just won’t serve you. Right. It’s just not necessary.

I don’t, I, yeah, it’s not, it’s not necessary for me to attract somebody by just using my looks. Right. I just am not interested in that, you know. Yeah, no, and it’s it. And I like, we were saying with the, having a time and place to critique too, I think being able to have this barrier between you and your creation and what other people have to say about it, just making sure that you take care of you and your creation before it sees the outside world. Yeah. So intentional. And so how did that go for you when you went into the classroom where other people saw it and everything? What? Yeah. Not like then? It was great. Nobody had anything bad to say about it. And, I mean, my professor always has something that, can be worked on that she writes in the notes at least.

And I can’t remember exactly what it was for that project, but, there wasn’t anything bad that happened. It was just like, I’m going to make this space so that you have this, because I had poured so much of myself into that project. It was like a semester, half a semester long project.

And I had worked so hard on it. And so, had I gone in there without having nurtured myself. Right. It could have been a recipe for a disaster, you know? Yeah, totally. Yeah, no, I love it. Yeah, and just having a way to thank myself so that it wasn’t like, I was like, I don’t even, like, when I was done doing that, I don’t even need to have anyone say anything good about this.

They could hate it and I would still love it. Because it was me and it was like, I love me so much. You don’t have to.

Exactly, exactly. I love it. No, there was so much Yin-care® in this. And, let me just look at our questions cause there were just a couple more that we were going to go through. How has your, well, we sort of covered how your relationship with clothes and fashion has changed. How has your actual fashion changed from high school to now?

Yeah, I wore a lot of, more revealing clothes in high school. Just, I mean, everyone was. Right. You know, it was like, I remember in middle school, I don’t think, I don’t know if you ever noticed it, but, it was like, all of the girls were always trying to dress to get around the dress code.

It was always your goal when you were dressing to wear the least amount of clothes without getting dress coded. I forgot there was even a dress code, but yeah, now that you’re. And it was like, I’m going to wear this and like the like on the edge, but it was also like, I don’t know.

It was weird. It was weird. It’s there’s just this like, so much like, this young women are sexualized so much. Hard for the young boys. I remember Daniel saying like, I think that at one point they were saying that you couldn’t wear yoga pants, that the girls couldn’t wear yoga pants. And Daniel was like, I think that’s a great idea because that is way too hard for young men to be around.

He’s like, when young, young boys in middle school are just, they can’t deal with seeing all of that, all of that figure of a, of a young girl, like it’s too much, you know. And it’s. It’s too much when you’re in that in between state as a woman, as a young woman, of like, I’m growing into a woman, to make yourself so vulnerable.

Yeah, good point. It’s just weird. Okay, what would you recommend? This is really good because so if any moms or young, young daughters, or, you know, whatever are are watching this. And they’re struggling with this. What would, what questions should a mom have the, what, what should a young girl or young girl budding into a young woman ask herself about how her clothing is making her feel and to give her a clear idea as to if an outfit is a yes or a no for her?

Hmm. I think, it’s hard because, I think it, it really starts.

It’s so hard because so many people today will say I love my body and then proceed to show it all off, you know? Right, right. That’s true. One way of doing it, but I just don’t see how you can truly love yourself and be able to show yourself to so many people like that and not feel depleted afterwards. Right?

Oh, my gosh. I was literally just naked in front of a crowd. That’s a saying, but it’s true. Daniel, watched, like, the other night he’s, I, he came to bed and I was like, so what’d you watch? And he’s like, there was literally a fashion show where they were taped. They were just taping people’s bodies like that.

They had it all blanked out. That’s all they were wearing was this tape, fashion tape. He’s like, how is that even fashion? That’s weird. I will say, though, there are some cool fashion shows where they don’t wear many clothes, much cover, and yet it’s very beautifully and tastefully done. Like art of a naked woman, you know?

Yeah. Like traditional paintings of naked women. Well, definitely. It’s beautiful, and it’s not sexualized. Right. And it’s not using, it’s not like most of the things that women wear right now, a lot of young women will see advertised to them as like, made from fast fashion brands like Sheen, where the clothes are very tight fitting and they’re made from synthetic fibers.

And, they’re tiny, and they don’t cover much and they’re very obviously cheaply made. And it’s like, how are you loving yourself while wearing that? Right. And I can see then there are other good question right there. How are you loving yourself? Even if the choice is to wear something that’s scantily, you know, whatever.

If they can answer that and if they’re continually drawn back to that. Right. That’s a good question to keep asking yourself. Right. That’s true. And then I think one of the other questions probably would be like, at the end of the day, how do I feel in my body? Right. Because that’s something that I noticed more so after I wear the clothes.

I just felt like, kind of icky. Like, depleted. And just like, so yeah, I think those are good ones for sure. And I also, and I think you could even do an experiment where they could wear something that’s more revealing one day and then compare it, wear something that’s not so revealing and then compare how do you feel at the end of the day?

Yes. If you feel like you love yourself equally in these same outfits. Right. Ideally, definitely. Or close. I did that. I did, I did do that. There was one day where I wore a very revealing outfit to work. And, after I wore it, I was like, okay I’m getting rid of this. And I did, I consigned it to the thrift store.

I was like, yeah, that didn’t feel good. I’m not doing that again. Yeah. I’ve told you how I am just, and I got a lot of compliments on that outfit, by the way. The one where I showed everything. I got a whole lot of compliments, and I was like, yeah, that didn’t make me feel good. Anyway. That’s the thing though.

That’s the test. If you. If you get lots of compliments, but still at the end of the day, you don’t feel good in the outfit, then it has to go. It has to go because we don’t care about what everybody else is, you know, thinking about it. What’s the most important is how we feel about ourselves and that we’re bringing that vibrational frequency of love continually back into ourselves, right?

Yes. Yeah. That’s the Yin-care®. That’s a great way to end this actually. Yes. I love it. Do you have anything else that you want to add? I want to put up, I’m going to actually, so people can, contact you. I put these things up. So we’ve got your website there, and your email address in case people have questions for you or just want to check out your work.

It’s carlyschultz.my.canva.site/. And that is, right now you’re building that, but it’s got like your portfolio. Yeah. My latest designs. I’m still putting some things up there. Yeah. And your picture, cause we want your picture up there. It’s up there. It is. Did you get it up? I did. Okay. Cool.

Yay. Good. Right on. Yeah. So building that, and then we would love to have you back here. Let’s just ask everybody if you could, of course. Let’s just say, if you really love this, which I know most of you are going to love this because it was our Conversations with Carly. Can you please give us a thumbs up, or you know, the like, share it with other people.

These are just such important topics for moms, daughters and young adults. Everybody, like of all ages, because we’re building a new way of living and there was so much that we covered in here I think it’s just really going to be such an important conversation.

You are one of my favorite people in the whole world. One of my besties. And I’m just so grateful that you could share all of your stories here on the Yin-care® Podcast. Let’s see. What else did I want to say? Yeah. If you have comments or questions, be sure to write those down below, whether you’re seeing this on YouTube or Rumble, or if you happen to see a little excerpt on one of the other social media channels. Just go ahead and leave a comment with any questions, or you can go to yincare.com and you can fill out the contact form. And if you have anything that you want us to focus on next time, you can just make your suggestions and we will do that. Just a couple of reminders that, if you sign up for the Womb Empowerments on the yincare.com website, you will definitely stay in the loop of everything that’s happening on the Yin-care® Podcast, products that we’re selling or announcing.

We have some, a couple of courses coming up. Actually, Carly, I don’t even know if I told you, but, we’ve got the, maybe I mentioned it. I’m going to be doing the Going Gluten Free workshop. And yeah, and it’s going to be super fun. And Carly kind of knows because I make things fun, but it’s not just for people who are going gluten free.

So you can just keep your feelers out there. It’s for anyone that’s can either considering going gluten free or maybe you’ve already gluten free and you just want to have a refresher or have some other ideas or more information. Or anyone that’s making any other dietary changes at this time of year, it’s the beginning of, it’s January, 2025.

Oftentimes people are obviously making a lot of changes in their diet and their lifestyles. And this really is, kind of a one on one on how to go grocery shopping as well and how to read labels, and also being mindful of the fact that a lot of companies change the ingredients and you have to be hyper aware of that.

So we cover a lot of things like that. And then the social aspects, as Carly knows. We’ve worked a lot on that too, like how do you go out with your friends and still stay on your diet? Or how do you go to a party and still have nurtured yourself beforehand or afterwards and still just maintain the social aspect without it being an imposition on everybody else.

Well, I can’t have that because I’m gluten free, or I can’t have that because I’m dairy free, or whatever. Right. That kind of. Yeah. Wouldn’t you say that kind of. I’ll pass on the beer, right on the beer, because, you know, it’s a gluten beer, but maybe you brought, but you are good, you’ve figured out ways to deal with those kind of situations as well.

Yeah. Anyway, it’s going to be a free class. So there’s no reason why you shouldn’t sign up for it because I just want to get it recorded. It was an older class that I had done and I want to get a new recording of it. It’s going to be super fun. You should definitely sign up for that when it’s coming out, but go to yincare.com, sign up for the Womb Empowerments and you will definitely stay in the loop of all those things. So, there’s other courses coming up, but I’ll mention those later. But anyway, all right, folks. That is a wrap. Please remember to honor yourself, celebrate your strength, empower your transformation.

We got some Yin-care® up in here, people. All right. Thank you, Carly. It was so great having you on. Yeah.