Welcome to my first newsletter!

Hi friend,

Welcome to the very first What’s in a Name? newsletter. I’m really glad you’re here.

Here’s the simple idea behind the podcast and behind this note. Most of us carry a name we didn’t choose, and most of us have never looked into what it actually means. When you do, something shifts. You discover a little more of yourself, and you start seeing the people around you a little differently too. That’s the whole point. Belonging, understanding, and a deeper layer of you that has been there the entire time.

Every week I’ll send you an email. A new episode, what stuck with me, and a question worth sitting with.

THIS WEEKS NAME: MISTY

Misty is an identity transformation coach in Texas who studies handwriting analysis, graphology, and letterology. So cool, right?! Misty and I have similar interests, just in a slightly different tone. We were introduced by a mutual friend, and about ten minutes into our first call I knew I had found someone who thinks about names as much as I do. Possibly more.

Three things you’ll take away:

1. Your name has an origin story, and it’s almost never the one you’d guess. I asked Misty how her parents landed on her name. The answer involves her grandmother, a Clint Eastwood movie Misty refuses to watch to this day, and a brand of cigarettes. She tells it far better than I can.
2. Changing your last name can change a lot more than your paperwork. This is the part I haven’t stopped thinking about. Misty was the kid teachers described as wonderful, with the gift to gab. Then she got married, took a new last name, and over the course of a year that part of her quietly went missing. Extrovert to introvert, with no explanation and no words for it. What happened when she took her maiden name back is the heart of this episode.
3. If you keep setting goals and not keeping them, the problem may not be discipline. Misty’s answer is that you have to get your identity in alignment first, and then the decisions follow. She uses the chocolate cake sitting in your fridge to explain it, and it’s the kind of simple that sticks.

There’s also a moment near the end where we talk about why names change in Scripture, Abram to Abraham and Sarai to Sarah, and Misty’s take on it gave me chills! I’m not going to spoil that one here.

Listen to the full conversation in the links below.

Thank you for being a part of this wonderful and curious community. It means more to me than you know.

Warmest Regards,

Jayma (aka "Paradigm Shifter")

P.S. Misty wrote a book called You Can Heal Your Life with Handwriting. The link is in the episode description.