Angie Goen Coaching

Your Brain Is a Lazy Sledder

Wed, 16 Sep 2026 11:38:25 -0700

Imagine standing at the top of a snowy hill with your sled. Below you is a track you've gone down many times before. The snow has become compacted and slick from all those trips, and once you place your sled in the groove, it's easy to pick up speed and let the track carry you.

Our brains are a little like that.

The more often we think a certain thought, respond in a familiar way, perform a repeated behavior, or move through the world according to a particular belief, the more familiar that pathway becomes. Our brains are remarkably efficient, and they love efficiency. Why struggle through fresh snow when there's already a perfectly good track waiting for you?

So we take the track.

Often, we don't even realize we're doing it.

This can be useful. Not every familiar pathway needs to be questioned or replaced. Familiarity and automaticity are part of what allow us to move through life without exhausting ourselves with constant decision-making.

But sometimes the track we're on isn't taking us somewhere we want to go.

Maybe it's overthinking. Maybe it's overeating, overdrinking, overshopping, or another behavior that's become increasingly automatic. Maybe it's an old pattern in a relationship, a familiar story about yourself, or a...Read More

Shapeshifting Into a Tree

Thu, 10 Sep 2026 14:16:05 -0700

Recently, I offered a Shamanic Reiki absentee healing for a piece of land belonging to a dear friend. Several of the trees on her property had been damaged by tornadoes, storms, and high winds, and she was understandably heartbroken. She loves these trees deeply, and when I offered to hold a healing container for them, she enthusiastically said yes.

During the Shamanic Reiki healing journey I performed, something happened that I didn’t expect.

I shapeshifted into a tree.

Not in the sense of just imagining or pretending. I became a tree.

It began as a tingling along the right side of my lower jaw and chin, almost like moss or vines creeping upward. The sensation moved across my face in little effervescent bubbles until it reached my hairline. Then I felt myself being pulled upward by a powerful column of wind, as though my leaf-hair had become completely vertical inside a vortex. My neck stretched upward.

There was no fear, no pain, no worry, and no preference. There really wasn't even a story.

There was just sensation.

And then came the message:

🌳 "Trees are trees. Do not place your humanness upon them." 🌳

Paradox

Mon, 31 Aug 2026 11:39:59 -0700

The mind says
this or that.

Choose.

It has been doing this
for as long as we can remember,
drawing lines,
creating edges,
making one thing
different from another.

And yet...

the closer we come
to what is true,
the more those lines begin to blur.

This
and that.

Both.

Not because one perspective
is right and the other is wrong,
but because both can be held
within something larger.

This is where we shapeshift.

Sometimes the Most Optimal Thing to Do is to Stop Optimizing

Tue, 25 Aug 2026 14:05:36 -0700

Three hours.

That was all we had.

My son was at a friend’s house, my husband and I were both free, and neither of us had anywhere we needed to be. A rare and beautiful little pocket of time alone together!

So, naturally, my brain got busy figuring out how to make the most of it.

We had a whole list of possibilities. We could go for a walk. We could watch a movie. We could run an errand. We could build LEGOs.

But once my mind got involved, three hours stopped feeling like three hours of freedom and started looking like a puzzle to solve.

The walk seemed like a particularly good option. The place we wanted to walk was close to where we needed to pick up our son, so surely we could time it just right. We could finish the walk, get in the car, and head straight to pick him up. No extra driving. No wasted time. Maximum efficiency.

It sounded completely logical.

Except the time we were spending trying to optimize our three hours was eating into the three hours we actually had! 😅

At some point, we realized what we were doing and laughed. As a wise friend of mine likes to say, we were trying to create a map with the mind instead of following the...Read More

Can You Tell the Difference Between Ego and Intuition?

Wed, 19 Aug 2026 12:17:09 -0700

How can I tell the difference between my ego and my intuition?

How do I know whether that voice in my head is fear or wisdom? Is this my intuition, or am I just telling myself what I want to hear? Is this a gut feeling, or is my mind trying to protect me?

They’re valid questions.

And I don’t think they have one answer.

I think the answer changes depending on where you’re looking from.

When I discuss nonduality, I often use a map with three perspectives, like a set of nesting dolls. The smallest doll is the Human or 3D perspective. The next is the Metaphysical perspective, which contains the human perspective. And the largest is the Nondual perspective, which contains both.

It’s simply a way of looking at the same experience through different lenses.

So let’s look at discernment through each one, while remembering not to mistake the map for the territory...

The Human Perspective: How Do I...Read More

Maybe I Don't Need More Patience

Tue, 04 Aug 2026 12:42:31 -0700

This piece is from my newsletter, "The Essential Pause," but I thought I'd share it with a wider audience. Enjoy (or not!)...
I'm just over it.
That is the most honest way I can describe how I've been feeling this week.
My son has been experiencing some major disruptions to his sleep, which means my sleep has been disrupted, too. After several nights of poor sleep, I found myself watching a very familiar story appear: I don’t have enough patience.
And honestly? It felt true.
When I'm woken up in the middle of the night, the reaction that rises in me can be intense. But the more I've paid attention, the more I've wondered if this is actually a lack of patience or if it's just what happens when my basic needs aren't being met.
Maybe patience isn't something we simply have or lose.
Maybe it's a temporary state influenced by our nervous system, our level of exhaustion, and our capacity in that moment.
This feels especially relevant for caregivers. Whether you're caring for children, a sick loved one, pets, or anyone who depends on you, there are seasons where the needs of others can slowly move your own needs to the bottom of...Read More

What Is Reiki, Really?

Thu, 30 Jul 2026 13:33:53 -0700

If you'd asked me what I thought about Reiki in my twenties, I probably would've rolled my eyes.
I was seeing a psychotherapist who also happened to be a Reiki Master, and she suggested we try a Reiki session. I agreed because I trusted her, not because I believed in it. Honestly, I thought it all sounded pretty ridiculous.
Then something happened that I couldn't explain...
As she held her hands above my body without touching me, I felt powerful spikes of static electricity, and the hair on my body stood on end. My skeptical mind immediately started searching for a logical explanation.
What fascinated me wasn't that I had this experience. It was that I had it despite not believing in Reiki at all. I wasn't expecting anything to happen. In fact, I was silently making fun of the whole thing in my head!
That experience didn't convince me of anything overnight. But it did make me curious enough to stop dismissing Reiki and start asking better questions.
So, if you're skeptical, I get it. My intention isn't to convince you to believe anything. Ever. It's simply to explain what Reiki is, where it came from, and why even many scientifically minded people have become curious about what...Read More

The Long Way Back To Trust

Tue, 21 Jul 2026 14:22:26 -0700

I learned very early how to become someone people wanted to be around.
I don't remember a moment when I consciously decided to do this. It happened gradually, through all the subtle ways a child learns what feels safe and what feels dangerous. Looking back now, I can see that my sensitivity, which was such a natural part of who I was, became something I used not to connect with the world, but to navigate it.
I’ve always been sensitive. Even as a child, I had a deep empathy for others and a tendency to find meaning and relationship in the natural world. I noticed things. I felt things. I was drawn to the unseen ways that everything seemed connected.
But because of the circumstances in which I grew up, that sensitivity became tangled up with my need to belong. My young mind interpreted feeling deeply and perceiving differently as something that could threaten my place with others. Somewhere along the way, I learned that expressing certain parts of myself could lead to rejection or abandonment.
And for a child who depends on others for safety and care, the absence of a felt sense of belonging can feel like a threat to survival.
So I adapted.
I became a chameleon.
Read More

Remembering Light

Wed, 15 Jul 2026 13:08:48 -0700

Some days,
this body feels like
a stitched up sack of skin,
a bag of water
somehow holding together.
It aches.
It hungers.
It forgets.
It can feel like I'm trapped
inside this fragile container,
this skin and water and breath,
trying to remember
why I came here at all.
Then one evening,
lying still in my bed,
with nothing to accomplish
and nowhere to go,
the seams could no longer hold.
Behind closed eyes,
there was only
white.
A brilliance so complete
it blew my edges away.
As if the membrane
holding meat and water
into a human shape
had gloriously...Read More

Building Awareness

Wed, 08 Jul 2026 12:27:52 -0700

When I was growing up, I didn't like LEGO very much.
My brothers built cars, spaceships, and other creations. I usually just built rudimentary houses. More importantly, I grew up believing that I simply wasn't wired for things like construction, puzzles, or spatial reasoning. It became one of those stories I told myself often enough that it felt unequivocally true.
So as an adult, I definitely avoided puzzles or anything that required spatial skills to assemble. Blech. Not my thing. And I had lots of evidence to support that.
Recently, LEGO started releasing botanical collections and art sets.
The first one that caught my attention was a Beatles portrait. I bought one, then another, until I'd built all four. Since then I've worked through botanical sets and larger art pieces, discovering something I never expected.
LEGO became a surprisingly effective way to question my old narrative and observe my own mind.
Here are some of the things I've noticed.
1. Presence isn't optional.
Building a LEGO set requires my full attention.
I can't listen to a podcast or audiobook while I build. Even deep conversations can pull me away from what I'm doing. If my attention wanders, I almost always have to stop and double...Read More