The Spiritual Cost of Always Being Productive

Why is it so hard to stop working, put down the to-do list, and simply enjoy your life?

In this episode of The Unity Code, Nicole explores the spiritual cost of constant productivity and the deeper energetic patterns that keep so many of us trapped in cycles of work, responsibility, performance, and survival.

She shares her own struggle with play, including the realization that she has spent much of her life treating productivity as valuable and play as wasteful. From inherited family patterns and ancestral survival energy to decades in corporate America, this episode looks at how work ethic can become an identity—and how that identity may quietly lower your vibration, limit joy, and disconnect you from the experience your soul came here to have.

Nicole also reframes play as something much bigger than childlike fun. Play can be anything that raises your vibration, expands your world, sparks creativity, and helps you feel more alive. It does not have to look like anyone else’s version of joy.

This conversation explores ancestral healing, the law of vibration, the law of attraction, spiritual awakening, visibility, vulnerability, and why trying something new may be one of the most powerful ways to reconnect with your soul.

Your life is not just a list of responsibilities to complete. You came here to experience it.

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Nicole is an evidential medium and former corporate executive who blends data, systems, and spirit communication after her son began seeing the dead. She’s obsessed with exposing the hidden patterns and frequencies keeping you stuck, and recoding them so you can finally live the life your soul designed for you. She offers private readings, mentorship, and classes in mediumship, spiritual growth, and soul-aligned business. 

Click here to learn more & connect with Nicole: http://links.mediumnicole.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 1:13

Hello, everyone. Welcome back to the Unity Code podcast. I almost said empower your soul. Um, wow. That's that was a trip for a half a second there. Bring them together, the old and the new. There's got to be a reason why I just hesitated on that. I'm not gonna stop and re-record it because there's a reason and there's probably something that's gonna come up in this recording today. But um, I want to talk about actually, my spirit team wants to talk about the importance of play. Uh, and they wanted me to record this last week and I just fucking struggled with it. And the and the reason why I struggled with it is because I don't personally believe I am inherently a playful person based on my own expectations or definition of it. I um, even as a little kid, I did not really like to play. I am, I try to be more fun, uh, but generally I take the spiritual stuff pretty seriously. And pretty much my team 24-7 is telling me to lighten up and have fun. Um and even as a mom, I put the play on the husband

Why Play Feels So Hard

SPEAKER_00 2:23

and I take the most emotional brunt and support of the tears and the angst and the homework. And like I do a lot of the more, I'm gonna say like serious stuff. Not that my husband doesn't do some of the serious stuff, but when it comes to interpersonal relationships, ooh, okay. Um, I tend to focus more on the serious stuff. Like I just I don't know. That's just how I am, that's how I've always been. And so it's really interesting to me how Spirit wants me to talk about the importance of play because inherently, cognitively, I know how important play is to our vibration, to our journey here. And like inherently, I understand the why behind it. Because play is a higher vibration frequency. Um, play is the idea that you can still have fun in this high fun vibration, not taking things too seriously, and still doing all of the work that you need to do. And when you are in play mode, you will typically leave behind the to-dos, the work, right? Like I think most of us separate out work and play, or at least I tend to. And so when you're playing, you are inherently not focusing on the work. And so you are leaving the work behind, you're leaving the to-do list behind, you are leaving behind the must-dos, the things that keep you maybe at a at a lower vibration. And then when you are moving into play mode, you are essentially shutting off the channel of work and you're turning on the channel of play, which is inherently is much higher. It's much more aligned to like your sacral, your fun, your creativity. Um, and also you are tapping into like this joy, this enlightened

Play As A Higher Vibration

SPEAKER_00 4:14

state that brings people into a higher vibrational mode. And when you are in a higher vibration, you tend to connect better to spirit, to your soul, to um the lightness that exists in the spirit world and in the physical world. Because if you are a higher vibration, as we are aware, when you choose play, you choose a higher vibration. That's a law of vibration. And when you are a higher vibration, the law of attraction kicks in, and the law of attraction will bring you, will allow you to attract more things at that vibrational level. Like attracts light, like attracts like, and then you're able to pull in more higher vibrational things as well. So when you have the importance of play, when you are living in a very high vibrational, playful state, you are more likely to call in and experience more joy, more play across every aspect of your life. Because again, the law of attraction states that like attracts like in terms of vibrational levels. So inherently, I know this, I know the importance of play. Um, but also I love this because I'm actually creating an ancestral healing class for my students. And there's this realization, or at least this ancestral, probably, probably within my family line, but also probably within me and my past lives as well, that I have to separate out work and play. And starting 20 years in corporate America does not help that, right? Because you have literal eight to four every day where you are working, you are not playing, you are not having fun. And then you come home and you can either play or you can do all the chores and cook the dinner and do all the, you know, cleaning and laundry and stuff. So, like inherently for me, my life has been 24-7 of work and zero percent play. And I realize this has always been my trend. I mean, it's always been my family trend. My mom was one of seven, right? My my dad was one of three, but he lived with um his parents got divorced young, right? And so, like, so for me, and definitely my family line as I'm going through this ancestral healing, I'm like, bring me the stuff that I need to know from my ancestral healing just so like I test it on me

Ancestral Work Ethic And Survival

SPEAKER_00 6:26

before I go and teach the class. And they showed me the family line of everybody always working so hard all the time because they were very unprivileged. They were poor, they moved and immigrated from Europe, almost all of them, um, before World War I, right around the time right before World War I got really, really bad. And so inherently, my family across every single side, including my husband's side, which kind of cracks me up, um, all immigrated in the late 1800s, early 1900s, and they all had to like stand up and create a life here. Um, they had to, you know, start from scratch. They had to start companies, they had to work really hard to get what they had. Um, and then with the big families, obviously had to work even more to support a large family. And so for me and my lineage, the work ethic has always been really strong and essential to survival. And here in this human experience, like who isn't hyper-fixed on survival and making sure the bills are paid and making sure that there's, you know, the lights are on, that we have water and electricity, and making sure that we have food on the table and all of these things. And so we tend to prioritize the bottom of Maslow's hierarchy of needs for survival and safety. Pretty, pretty normal, right? But what happens when you are focused on those to-dos, the bottom of the hierarchy is that again, like attracts like. And so, as you're thinking about everything that I just said about play, when you're in this playful state and you're high vibration, you're going to attract more of those experiences. Likewise, if you are in the low vibration of always working, always doing, always performing, always being productive, always taking care of chores, you are going to attract more things in that vibration. This is the curse of all of the lineages that have come before us if they are working class. Because they don't know any better. They stay in that vibration their whole life and they continue to attract more to-dos to their list. They continue to attract more ways that they can make themselves financially stable, right? And they're choosing and opting in for things that are comfortable at that vibration level because that is what they know. And so if you are somebody, God, this is such a fucking call out for me, everybody. If you are somebody that focuses more on the work and the to-dos and the productivity and does not take time to do things that are quote unquote play for you, assess, just take a moment, just like reflect now or pause me or after the podcast episode to think about all of the different things that you do on a daily basis. Just do a quick little stock about how you spend your day. Do you always try to do things within the vibration of productivity and work and busyness? Or are you somebody who realizes and knows, God, you're better than me, that you need to take time out of your day for higher vibrational activities to balance you, to help you realize that life is bigger than your to-do list. Now, I'm not saying like nope, I'm not going there yet. I'll do it in a minute. Um, are you somebody who's finding joy in the moments or choosing things? Because I think my hardest part is the definition of play. And I think that's why I struggled last week with this, because the definition of play for me has always been um, I've always felt, I'm gonna say this vulnerably. I'm not gonna make fun of me because it it is my truth. I have always felt wise beyond my years. I've always felt different, and I've always felt like I don't have time for play. And play always felt like honestly, beneath me. Like I have things I need to, I know my soul had can't come here to be to get shit done. And inherently, even as a little kid, I knew that. And so I never ever ever wasted my time with play. In college, what are supposed to be the prime formative fun years of your life? I worked a full-time job while going to college. I would get up, worked at Starbucks. God, I can make a mean frapuccino. I fucking hate making those though. Um, I would wake up and open the store at 5 a.m., work till 8, go to school, leave school, come back and close the store. Like I worked a full-time job at Starbucks, made great money. 10 out of 10 recommend that, but I'm sure it's not the same culture anymore. Um while going to college, so that I would not come out of college with debt or very little debt comparatively. It worked my ass off. Right. Even when I was in corporate America, I was always having side hustles. I had a photography business for a while, right? Like ding. Um, I purposely went out of my way to fill any sort of free time with extra productive activities. I would be lying if I told you I'm different today. I'm not. It's the same. This is a pattern that I know I have. Because I would rather be working and making progress than going and having fun, and spirit is like, stop it. Stop it. Which is why they want me to record this podcast episode. I told you this one's a little bit of a slap on my wrist. And so for me, the definition of play always seemed very childlike, always seemed very wasteful, but they are asking me to reframe the word play for myself and for all of you. Because play is moving away from the have-to's, which is something that we have to do as physical beings, right? We have to do the laundry, we have to go grocery shopping. Um, we have to, whether that means you get it delivered or not, great, right? But you have to live the physical experience. And having a body requires some have-to's that need to get done every single day, like showering, right? Putting on deodorant, right? Um, having kids and like having to make sure that their projects get done, their school, right? This is all part of the process. And so they're not talking about those because those are inherently things that we have to do here in this physical world, but they're saying, how are you spending the time outside of the have-to's? And are you spending it in ways that bring your vibration up to the max vibration possible? Play does not have to have this very youthful definition. Play does not mean, and like, I'm just not that person. So I can say this. Um, I am not somebody that's gonna

Redefining Play For Your Life

SPEAKER_00 13:55

go to the amusement park and like ride the rides with my kids, like maybe the little ones, the roller coasters. Fuck no, I'm not that person, right? I am not the person who's gonna um have the kids come off the bus on their last day of school and squirt them with squirt guns. Like, I'm just I'm not that person. I I kind of wish I was. I'm not. I'm not that person. I am not the kind of person that goes and practices soccer with my kids, but I'll fucking go coach them. There's a difference in there, isn't it? It's a big difference in there because I am not sitting there having fun teaching, having the moment, but I will take the time in the same exact sport to go and teach an entire team and allow them to be successful and allow them to move ahead. If that's not the definition of me, I don't know what is. But I always think of this idea of play in the definition of how everybody else would do play. Is that yeah, no, that's right. Because I see other parents that like go and like go swimming or go tubing with their kids. Um, I see other pink and like I'm not knocking on me. I'm just I'm stating what I think is true. Um, but I see other parents that like go and do mountain biking with their kids, right? I see other parents that will go and like teach them surfing, um, that will go and you know, build sand castles. Everything is beach themed. I obviously I need to get to the beach. Um, that will go on bike rides, you know, down the cape where I was a couple weekends ago. And my husband wanted to go on the long bike rides with the kids. And I was like, I'll be at the coffee shop, I'll meet you later. Because it's not that's not my definition of like fun. That's not my definition of play, I guess. And so, like, I have to reprogram my brain into changing the definition of play for me as something that brings me into a higher vibrational state. Because if you told me part of my play could be reading books about these metaphysical topics, fucking great. If you told me that part of my play is doing a meditation and having my team teach me something, I would do that all day, every day, because that is a higher vibrational activity and I fucking love it, right? If you told me the definition of play is going to a local crystal store and meeting people and talking about crystals and talking about what I do with them, fucking great. And do you start hearing how this is like a point for me, and then I'll keep going. All of the things I'm saying are things that I love to do, which naturally lines up with my job and what I love to do. And so this idea of separating work and play doesn't always need to happen. You can have fun in the work and play in the work while still doing the work. And I will tell you, when I had these conversations with my clients, I think I'll be able to approach it a little bit differently now because of how I'm talking about it right now on the podcast. But there's there's this idea of uh again, this stigma, especially for women. I don't know what it is, probably even more so for men. It's I think it's for everybody, all adults, um, this idea of like joy and passion and choosing things that you like. Like we have been like programmed to sacrifice our time, our energy, ourselves for the greater good of everybody else. And a lot of times when I tell the clients, like just choose something fun, just choose something that lights you up, just choose joy. Like nine out of ten of them are like deer in the headlights when I say that. They're like, I don't know how to do that. I don't know what that is, I don't even know what I like anymore. That's okay. Try something. That's okay. Try something and see if you like it and see if it's something you want to do again, or see if you try it and you fucking hate it. I tried white white water rafting once, fucking hated it. I will never do it again. I'm like,

Try New Things Without Perfection

SPEAKER_00 18:32

sure, I'll give this a go. Didn't even go down hard raft, I went down like class three, which was not bad. Hated it, tried it, not for me, right? That's what I'm talking about. Give something a try. You won't die, I promise. But if it's something that you like, do it again, right? And with this idea of play, this can get into a little bit of trauma, dare I say, about being visible, uh visible, invulnerable. Those are the two words that were trying to come out at the same time. Viserable. That's gonna it's the it's a word, it's not a word, but it is now. Are you are you struggling with with uh viserable trauma, uh being vulnerable and visible at the same time? Because a lot of people, a lot of women, a lot of my clients, I'm like honing it in for you. When I tell them to go out and do something, a lot of them are like, okay, I'll read a book. So they're not being out there and they're not being visible and they're not being vulnerable. They're choosing something that that allows them to again feel safe, which is fine for a little while. But I guess I'm gonna push you all to really just remember that we come here in this physical experience to fucking experience it, to do things, to see things, to feel things, to play with things, to try new things, to feel the wind in our hair, right? To feel the water on our body. Like we we come here to have an experience. And please choose something that makes you a little bit uncomfortable. That's not going to impact the vibration that you bring to it generally, but do something that feels a little bit uncomfortable. You will be rewarded for it. And so, like, if you're somebody that I was listening to this and like, oh, I need to inside, I need to put more play. You're right, Nicole. I need to do more play, I need to choose more things that bring me into a higher vibrational state. I fucking love my smut books. I'm just gonna read those. Like, kudos to you. Why don't you also go to a book club about the smut books? Right? Yeah, sure. Why don't you write your own fan fiction and create your own smut books? Do something a little bit uncomfortable, right? Why don't you talk about the books that you like with other people? Do something a little uncomfortable, like push it outside the envelope a little bit. See if you can make yourself feel safe while also doing something that you love. That's okay. Live a little. Just live a little. That is kind of what spirit is kind of asking everyone to do is just continue to choose things that light you up and expand your experiences at the same time. That is spirit's definition of play. High vibration vulnerability. Do you feel that on your shoulders? I feel that on my shoulders too. That means that either I'm uncomfortable with that or you're uncomfortable with it. But let me ask them, what does that mean if we move through that resistance, that discomfort? You get to see the world from a whole different angle. You will find the magic that you think you've lost. You will be reminded why you decided to incarnate here. And I'm saying this as I can hear a hawk outside my window. So this is a really, really important message for all of you because the hawk is my spirit animal. Really, really important. Expand your idea of what is possible, what is joy for you, what is play for you, and find time in your day to experience it. This life is not just about the work, the to-dos, the lists, it's not about just spending all of your time just taking care of your human self and sacrificing your time and energy. I'm going to use that word, even though it's a little sensitive, sacrificing your time and energy for other people that you may love, which is totally fine. But where in your day can you uphold your own energetic frequencies, boundaries, love for life that your soul is aching for? That you ached

High Vibration Vulnerability And Magic

SPEAKER_00 23:20

for before you came here. Whatever little ping is popping up right now, because I know there's a ping popping up for some of you right now about something that you want to do, something that you haven't done, maybe it's on your bucket list and it's been waiting a while. Even if it's something that's like, I've been waiting to go to the shop, but no one will come with me, go by yourself. There's a reason. Choose something today that scares you a little bit, but also seems like something that could be really exciting and fun for you. What's it gonna be? I'm gonna take this advice and I'm gonna stop recording podcast episodes today so that I can do that for myself. I am sending all of you so much love, so much gratitude, and I'm also inviting you to go play today. There's no time like the present.