Okay, did you have any other questions before we get started? I don’t think so. Okay, perfect. Well, I will give it a second. Hi, and welcome to today’s episode of grounding journey. I am so excited to have my guest and Margaret here with us. And and Margaret is actually a friend of a friend who I’ve seen a little bit about, and was super excited that she had time to come meet with us. So I’m going to give you her formal introduction because it sounds really cool. Spearheading the five d awakening joining ranks with Abraham Hicks, Matt Fraser and Bosher hammer it’s gifts of channeling awakening, awakened in 2015 with involuntary sorry, the kitten is in the way of the screen with involuntary movements, which evolved into allowing spirit spirit to speak directly through her mouth. In hindsight, it is clear that and Margaret was being prepared for this gift when she founded a spiritual community and Yoga Studio in New York City in 2001. It was at the center, where she spent 18 years leading teaching and developing programs designed to rewire the brain and energetic chakra system by integrating practical spirituality and archetype, full wisdom through their philanthropic work on five continents and 50 US cities. And Margaret and her husband, Anthony have shared their method of powerful optimization. I’ll got there. It’s hard to read some of these words, when you feel pressured, that everybody’s listening, thank you followers and listeners pain and trauma to raise the vibration of the human journey. I love that even though I completely stumbled over it. Margaret, thank you so much for being here. And now that I have read your official bio, I would love to hear a little bit more about who you are, who your friends know you as
well, thank you so much for having me on this podcast. It’s so great to connect with you. And even just the short conversation we had before we started this. So enriching. So your listeners are very blessed to have you conducting these interviews. So thank you for having me. Who do my friends say I am? Oh my gosh, that is very candid, I would say they think I am the first thing that comes to mind is nuts. Because like so, so much of my friendships and my lifelong friendships and the ones that are relatively new. I mean, I have a friend who’s 44 years in the friendship making because we’ve literally known each other since we came into this world, our mothers were friends. So when they’re pregnant. So my friends, I think that they they think I’m very like a crazy, resourceful, generous, and I say crazy. I say nuts because I’ve always been somebody who stands outside of the box steps outside the box of what is comfortable. What is more mainstream, it’s not was never really an intention of mine. But somebody who had known me for about 35 years, because she’s known me since I was a child. She was one of my mentors. She said to me one day, she said, You’re just a rebel. And I said, I’m not a rebel. Like what are you talking about? I’m not a rebel, because in my mind rebel was like, break the rules like misbehave, and like breakups, you know, just be unruly and my behavior and I thought, well, I’ve tried my best to actually be a good human being and, and to bring, like a neutralizing energy, common denominator presence, to wherever I am to adapt and to, you know, allow people to be comfortable my presence in the night. And she’s like, yes, and the rebel, the rebellious is very strong. And when she said that, I guess it was about eight years ago, when she told me that I thought, wow, you know, I didn’t really ever consider myself to be that way. But I think in the day and age, any, any one of us that has the courage to say, I don’t know if that’s true for me, let me see if it resonates. That’s an act of rebellion. And for my entire life I felt very very connected to I’ll say God, you say source whatever you feel comfortable interpreting that concept as, but I’ve always felt very strong connection to God. I’ve always felt an immediate connection. And so when the channeling began awakening about six years ago, it really wasn’t too big of a surprise, even though my logical brain thought it immensely. So I think so I always kind of felt like you know, I don’t you might tell me to do one thing, but it doesn’t. That doesn’t My intuition is screaming against that. So I think the crazy is just being being somebody who’s always been okay marching to the beat of our own drum and do doing things that seeming are seemingly very risky. Having a brick and mortar in New York City, having it be a healing center. I mean, it’s not a great way to make a ton of cash you know, it’s definitely move me up the corporate ladder being an entrepreneur, but I’ve never had a I’ve never had a corporate job my entire life. So I think that’s that’s kind of nutty to a lot of people. But my friends are my friends because our hearts match not because we do the same thing in life, you know, so not and, and I’m just there for them as well if they ever need me. And I’m a very loyal friend to I know, Zia. Our mutual friend is also a Leo, and that’s something that we share in common is I am a Leo, you’re a Leo too.
I am. Ah, okay. You’ll,
you’ll get this on the first day, July 23. So I’m a casper on cancer.
How will you? August? Well,
okay, actually, I have a few friends on August 12, as well, it’s a very good day. Yeah. But Leo’s are tend to be very loyal. So that’s been one of my faults in life as a friend being really loyal. Yeah. But that loyalty in the shadow aspect of that has been a great teacher of mine brought a lot of pain, but a lot of teaching with that. So that’s what I think of me.
I love everything you said. And do you agree that part of that Leo, I was like, Uh huh. Uh huh. That’s me, too. I should have raised my hand every time you said something that I agreed with. Because there is much to that, of just not being a rebel in the sense of James Dean rebel, but being in a rebel of I listened, and I see what resonates with myself instead of what I’m told to do. And so I think that’s a good kind of rebel of
grass. You mentioned James Dean rebel with out a cause? There’s a few, right.
Yes, I love that. I love that. Well, so you mentioned that you had your brick and mortar in New York City. And in your bio, we talked about that you started it in 2001. And so I’ve got a little sense of what kind of your journey has been like, but I would love to hear a little bit more about that journey. Where were you in 2001, spiritually? Because I know that in that 18 years, there’s been a lot of growth and a lot of development. You didn’t start no one, knowing all about everything had to come to that place. And there was a moment you said, I want to learn more. So tell me where you started. Does that make sense?
Yes, it absolutely makes sense. It’s a little daunting of a question, but I’ll nutshell it as much as I can. Because I mean, each one of us goes through such a journey in our lifetime. And it’s just I think that that’s one of the coolest things of our life is the transformative, transformative opportunity for Alka maizing Our experiences in life so
2001, I was living in New York City, and I took my teacher training in January 2001, Reiki started studying a lot about nutrition diet. I am originally from Colorado and moved to New York City upon graduation from college and my final year of college, about a mile from where I grew up was the Columbine High School massacre. So it happened in April on April 20 1999. Right before I graduated, and then moved to New York City, and then I experienced, you know, 911, living there as well. And so that really made a huge impact on me, because all my life, even in high school, and I’ll step back to high school just a little bit because I’ve always been this annoying child for my parents who was like, why, why? Why I want to know everything. I want to know everything I want to understand it. And so I’ve always been that I was I’m the youngest of three and my sister’s nine years older. I have an older brother who’s five years old or so. I am the baby of the family. And I always would ask questions of why I wanted to understand how things worked. And I think part of that is because my mom is a mathematician, my father is an engineer. And then also my father also taught at Villanova too. So both teachers, and because of that, I feel like the analytical aspect of my brain. The left side was not allowed to slouch. I mean, I was literally a child. You come home with less than an A in math, you’ll be grounded because they’re here. So great. So I don’t know maybe one year one semester I probably came up with a minus but I don’t know. But I was not allowed to be bad and that left side part of my brain and although I gravitated as a musician to The right side and understanding like expression and feeling through the arts and artistic expression. But why I bring that up is I think that that foundation of having parents like I do, and the way that they raised me, and they didn’t always answer my questions, they were annoyed by a lot of them. But I was also very strictly Catholic, too. So it within the confines of that dynamic, and that certain conviction and methodology or theology, I should say, it provided a foundation for me that felt really solid, and yet it wasn’t complete. So, with the left brain and having that foundation, and then having all of this yearning in my heart for answers, helped me understand the chakras in a way that’s very practical. In high school, I’ll say I would go to Mass every weekend, because I had to as a Catholic family, we had to attend Mass every Saturday night or Sunday. And then I’d also was a bit of a spiritual nerd and went and attended another service every weekend as a high schooler. So that was a little, you know, nerdy, I admit, in high school, you know, when my friends are doing whatever, I’m going to an additional church because I was fascinated by religion. So when I experienced this in college with with the Columbine shooting, and then I experienced 911, in New York City, I was living like a mile away from each so it was happened, both happened like in my backyard, and I felt in that time period, a great desire in my heart, really was implanted and nurtured more so to kind of solve the riddle of the human journey, as arrogant as that sounds. But I was looking at the world and even struggles that I had my own family, and in my own my own heart, my mind, my emotional body. Like why are we struggling so much? Why are we failing so greatly at being human. And I just felt like that desire to bring healed healing to the world really stirred in my heart. And so I, you know, started the yoga journey in 2001, in New York, and then began teaching out of a little tiny studio with five students, and then grew that to like, you know, classes, seven days a week workshops out of places, I was renting, like a, you know, and then I opened my own brick and mortar, you know, in 2009, right after a week after my husband and I graduated from an interfaith seminary and were ordained as interfaith ministers. So that kind of gives you like a whole kind of overview of how, how, why it started. But I really didn’t start teaching yoga, because I, I was so excited about yoga, I was just fascinated about understanding more about the chakras and why we operate the way that we do, and trying to figure out formulas back to that left brain formulas to help us more effectively navigate the human journey.
I love that. And I appreciate that. You came from a very Catholic background. So I have a question on that what you said, when you went to an additional service or math, were you going to another Catholic church, or were you going to another denomination,
I would go it was always to another denomination. So I could learn other different other faiths, other practices, other congregations that were, you know, believe different things and had culturally and, you know, in their own in their own foundational principles of their religion, you know, I wanted to learn and be exposed to a lot of difference, which is no surprise, I ended up in Queens, which is the most culturally diverse community in the entire world. And that’s where I had my my center, because it was just the ultimate melting pot according to the census. So people from all over the world, all different religions, all cultural backgrounds, finding a nucleus focused on community and inclusive community through the chakra system as a foundation was the basis for establishing our brick and mortar there and having that community for 18 years.
Well, and I love that you, you know, because one of the things that I have come across and just to give you a little bit about my background, some of the followers haven’t heard it before. My dad was a Jesuit brother, who at 27, left the Jesuit hood, became a volunteer firefighter met my mother. He was Southern Baptists, and 11 years younger than him. And here they are celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary next year. I was. Yeah, I have a very interesting religious background. And I remember in middle school, you know, we used to go to Sunday, Monday. We went to catechism every week, we went to the church that was right by my grandparents, all that kind of stuff. So I was raised that way. And then in sixth grade, my parents allowed me to change churches and set because the church we went to was 30 minutes across town. You know, it was an ordeal to go 30 minutes across town back then.
There was a neighborhood Methodist Church, and my parents allowed my brother and I to join that church so that we could be a part of their youth group and really be active in it. And I remember through middle school, my parents supporting me and exploring, learning more. And I think that that’s where my curiosity for spiritual illness came from. One of my most favorite spiritual moments, I think about was standing in India, and hearing caught a prayer. And just standing there and watching all these Muslims filing into the church in the middle of the day, and sorry, not Church, the end of the mosque in the middle of the day, and hearing it and watching their devout faith. And that’s one of my favorite things when my husband and I travel. Because we do so much traveling, we always find the oldest church in town. And you set the oldest, you know, whatever, I use church, because I was raised Catholic, but honoring that it’s church, synagogue, you know, mosque, whatever.
Yeah, I agree. I would agree.
And I think it’s having that curiosity of spirituality. And so I appreciate that we get to have that moment of we were both raised very Catholic, because I do hear sometimes when you talk about spirituality, or you talk about yoga, a dear friend of mine, one time when I told her I was doing the chakra program that I was working on, she said, Why do you believe in that stuff and still believe in God. And so it’s nice to be able to talk about that for a moment. I think it’s the curiosity, it’s having faith in. There is a higher power, there is a universe there is the cosmos, there is God I like to call him God, because that’s what I grew up calling him, you know, and God is a her God is a force to me. But I do use God. And I do use him just because that’s where it came from. So I really appreciate knowing where you are now that you came from such a similar background, my parents were not good at math. So
lucky. I never had an A in math, oh, my goodness, oh, my goodness, well, you would have been grounded in my home. I have to say, you know, with what you just mentioned, I think it’s a beautiful practice to go find the oldest church, wherever you are. I think that’s beautiful. It’s a beautiful way for us to connect with what really was a source of community through history, because churches, and I think that’s what we’re seeing now, is that people are not feeling as resonant with specific, a specific religion or a specific church. And people are very quick to leave, because they don’t, they feel that something is more in opposition of what they believe. And there’s a there we see this also in social media land in regular media land, like an intolerance for other people being different from us. Yes. And when I meet a lot of Catholics, the joke always goes around, oh, you’re recovering Catholic too? Well, I think that that’s a hilarious joke. I also think it’s something that doesn’t serve us as well as it could, if we, we respect the foundation of that background, and also honor those who feel very much connected to the Catholic faith or whatever faith that they are connected to in the world, however they are connected, the more we can respect and allow people to be connected to God and the way that they’re connected to that’s actually going to give us more of a direct connection to God ourselves. And so when your friend which is you know, asking about the chakra system, like how can you believe in God and believe in that stuff? It’s a very common fear amongst people who do not understand what you usually fear what you don’t understand, once you understand and I think that that was really at the root of my questioning, like my curiosity, it wasn’t just because, gosh, I was such a brilliant child. You know? I think that scared me I wanted to figure it out. Because I knew that there was there wasn’t anything to be afraid of. If I could understand I think that that was inherent and and just as my parents being teachers I think that also influenced me greatly with that. So the chakra system it it really connects to me in a very practical way to allow us to connect to our own bodies, our our creative bodies, I believe our miraculous brains are gift of life are bestow stowing of free will to create our lives as we choose, and to honor this gift of life in the best way possible. And one of my favorite sayings is, you know, a little science pulls man away from God, a lot of science brings them right back. And I would say that that’s the case with the chakra system because the chakra system is very rooted in science and vibrational frequency, we understand and when I first saw the chakra system, like in rainbow color, I was like, Oh, that’s really cute. Because I have a really skeptical side, it’s like a little cynical too, sometimes where I’m like, I’m not really here to jump through rainbows with you, I want to understand the practical ways that we can coexist in a more healthy way and be productive and proactive at raising the vibration of our experience of being human. But you know, all that stuff is good and feeling good, too. But I looked at the chakra systems like, oh, isn’t that cute? They are, you know, their colors of the rainbow, not understanding that that’s rooted in frequency that’s rooted in vibration, just like the color spectrum from our elementary school days. ROY G BIV, you know, you read has the lowest frequency, Violet has the highest frequency. And all of that it kind of is the the entry point for any skeptic or someone who’s afraid of it, interfering with your connection to God. From the outside, it’s like, what’s that it feels a little too mystical or new age, also New Age has, has a light and a dark, right people who are in this new awakening, of finding their connection to God finding their connection to purpose in one another, and the planet, you can take that you can manipulate into a very sick, manipulative, more shadowy, according to, you know, more demonic those who connect with that word, but more of like the shadowy, darker aspects of our existence. Anything can be twisted into that yoga can be a religion and be twisted into a really negative source of pain, and not just physical pain, but elitist on to the students. So I think it’s just a lack of understanding that somebody would draw that conclusion.
Absolutely. And I, I think it’s really great that we can do this series right now, for people who have heard of it, who want to know a little bit more about it, and break that barrier for people. Because for me, my deeper exploration over the years, has not just connected me with their meaning, but it’s really connected me with my own divine inside of me, because having been raised in organized religion, God’s up here, he’s the higher power, he controls everything. And I’m just a subject. And so for me really learning all of the elements that are my energy, and my force within me, has given me that connection to the divine above and the divine within. And I think that’s a really beautiful part of the journey.
Oh, yeah, beautifully said to beautifully said, I remember there was a time when not in my in my high school years that I was joining, you know, Bible studies and that kind of thing as well and studying certain spiritual texts. And the thing that kept coming up for me that I think was one of the the initial sources or root tap roots of my spiritual journey was the inconsistencies. That hypocrisy is the things that didn’t add up logically, where I thought, you know, if I was created by God, and for this entire world was created by God, and all is God, and all is good. How do we reconcile cutting this aspect off? How do How did the little sneaky devil kind of get out of hell, or get out of heaven? Create hell, and like, it never made sense to me and I not to denounce evil in the world, or shadow or pan or all this injustice. And I mean, that is a part of our human existence. But for me, I couldn’t understand how it added up. I didn’t understand the inconsistencies. And when I asked about them, the most common response was, you just have to have faith and you just in kind of like going over that bridge, and at the time, I really got frustrated by that, because I was like, that’s not an answer.
Because, you know, just that, I don’t know.
I know. And, I mean, we could have a whole podcast, you know, you know, episode on faith and feature your cute puppy dog too, and that, but you know, this is named faith. I don’t know if your listeners know
that some don’t. She likes barking appearances in several episodes. So the
power of faith is extraordinary and not to underestimate that not to invalidate that at all, but there for me with a logical brain i i and everybody who’s a skeptic and asking questions, you ask questions because you want to connect more you want to understand more we ask questions in our intimate relationships when we want to know more about the other person. But in order to ask questions, we have to also feel a more of a security in who we are, that we’re safe enough to ask those questions. And if we’re not consistently building our own familiarity and the deepening of our intimacy with ourselves, then we’re not going to have the courage to ask questions of some authoritative figures, we’re not going to question because oh, they just know and I’m just too stupid, or subservient, even understand what how that might be. And there’s a certain level of respect that also we project, for good reason onto people have devoted their lives to a particular area of study. Yet, if we invalidate our own inner knowing, and the ability to navigate, they’re very human interpretation of whatever that is, then we’re going to create false idols, we’re going to face create false gods in the world, which I think is why the teaching about false idols is so important right now. Because we can make a false idol of a have a paycheck of a company, of a religious figure of a doctor, of a friend of a, you know, even anything, we can really raise onto that pedestal. And when we do that, we let ourselves off the hook. Mm hmm. We don’t embody the accountability, that we have to be fully responsible for how we’re interpreting the world. We’re not responsible for the circumstances, always circumstances happen. We can only control them so much. But we really let ourselves off the hook, I think in a very enabling in a negatively enabling way, so that we cannot access our full capacity to create.
Hmm. Yes. I think that he said a lot. So I feel like I need to pause for a moment to respond, because I’m still absorbing it all in. Especially the part that you said about the false idols. I think that’s very powerful when you break it down to you. Because when you said that I immediately thought of like football players are rock stars. And when you say, friends and people near us, that’s a whole nother level of, oh, yeah, we do that, don’t we? And so finding that empowerment of not having those false idols, that’s definitely something I’m going to think about for the next few days after we finish this recording.
I think that we’re all going through that collectively, right now. And that I’m writing I have, we’re going to talk about books later. But the book, I’m writing two books right now, one book is almost complete. But the second book I’m talking about has to do with our with with all the chakras and understanding why they’re practically applicable to anyone of any faith of any culture of any background, that they are practical integration of the human lessons that we need to learn in order to grow closer to our purpose to God to one another and to ourselves. And the third chakra develops between the ages of eight and 12 years old. And the developmental ages and the chakras and everything, like anything on this planet have interpretations that vary from teacher to teacher. For me, I’ve always taught that it develops between eight and 12 years old, it’s the third chakra, the solar plexus. It is the color yellow associated with that. And the themes around that if you think about eight to 12 years old, you can go gaming enough to go back.
I thought, I don’t want to think about that.
You couldn’t You couldn’t pay me enough to go back there no way. What an awkward time of transition. Not only are our physical bodies, but just the dynamics of identity. And that’s what we see in eight to 12 year olds, we see a shift oh my gosh, my little niece has just turned nine and she just entered the third chakra more development of identity. And when kids leave that, like seven, eight precious, like curiosity, and oh, you know, just playfulness and inner child is front and center. And then they get into that next stage, which we all have to go through. We can’t avoid it for our kids, right? So don’t even try it. But it’s like when you go into that next level. It’s like, ooh, something gets lost and something gets put on and the masks that we put on during that time that are either projected onto us, by our parents, by our colleagues. by our students, classmates or friends, what we expect from what we see around us, maybe we start dressing up like one of our favorite singers, or we wear black eyeliner, because we love that kind of music or it’s the time in our lives that we start having clicks that we don’t we, we get labeled as the jock or the nerd, like the labels really start during that time. And in the book that I’m writing, it’s focusing around our collective shifting from the solar plexus identity, and hierarchical structures of identity, to the heart center to where we’re coming more so into connection with our heart connection in the heart chakra, which relates to, you know, both it’s where the chakras meet and that masculine feminine dynamic of of I could go off on a lot of tangents, but I’ll just say that, but the third chakra is what the major dysfunctions that we see collectively, right now are related to that. They’re related to our dysfunctional relationship to pain, power, and purpose. And all of that gets wrapped into identity. If you think about pain, our dysfunctional relationship in that third chakra is avoiding pain. avoiding pain means avoiding ostracization, like being ostracized, being ousted from the group from the collective, and the idolatry that we were talking about projecting a view of, of an identity on to someone as knowing more than you as dominating, you know, the world in a certain way, whether it’s with fame, with money, with control with influence, whatever it is. So our dysfunctional relationship of relating to our identity, will disrupt our complete experience of the world. If we’re putting a lid on our ability to comprehend, we’re putting a lid on our experience of the world. If we put a lid on pain, and try and neutralize being or limit pain, and stay in our pleasure comfort zone, we’re going to miss the insane teacher, that pain is like the most incredible teacher that pain is to help us purify. And that’s the Fire Center, right? The fire is the element of the third chakra. Fire is that transformative element. It doesn’t feel good, but it’s what purifies it with transforms. So I know I could go off on a few more tangents, but I’ll stop there.
Well, it’s funny, because I just solar plexus is the one that has me really challenged right now. And it, it was interesting, because I haven’t really thought back about it being a 12 year old. But for me solar plexus of where I’m struggling is shining, my star, being comfortable talking, being comfortable being seen. And as you and I talked about before we started recording, in my full time gig, I’m so much happier being the girl behind the scenes. And so as you were talking, I was kind of reflecting back about where I was from eight to 12, and what was going on in my life, and everything that I’m trying to. And I’m not saying I had a traumatic childhood, you know, I not saying that. But the choices I made about who I was, are all playing out now of trying to rebuild them. And they all come back from eight to 12. And that’s really interesting. Because I just, you know, I’ve been studying them for so many years. And every time you have another conversation with somebody, you learned something else about that one that you didn’t see about yourself before. So thank you for that little tidbit of yeah, that’s, that’s right. That’s why all that stuff coming up for me now. So it’s interesting.
Yeah, absolutely. That’s awesome that you can put that together because that’s why chakras are so amazing. They’re just a puzzle to figure out to solve. It’s not am I going to be okay, it’s understanding our fine tuning our own unique tuning. So that we can fully play as a virtual so in our own lives, rather than, Oh, gosh, I’m broken, or, you know, you brought up like, you know, you didn’t have a traumatic childhood. Anybody who comes into this world goes through trauma goes through massive trauma and the worst trauma and just coming into this world and being born more than any trauma that anyone ever experiences in their life that is the most traumatic of coming into this world. And no, we’re not talking about the Root Chakra today, for us as an exclusive focus, but they all interweave obviously. And when you come into this world and leaving the interconnectedness, the absolute physical connectedness to the mother, and coming into a world of separateness, while still kind of feeling that world of oneness That is the beautiful dichotomy that exists in the chakra system. It gives you the tools to figure out why you are the way you are. And so you know, you’re not going to deal with that. Well, you know, one of my favorite metaphors, if you’ll indulge me, I’ll share this metaphor with you. I think it’s something I teach in my chakra workshop and my coaching. It’s something that appeals to me as a musician, because I’m a classical pianist, I have a couple albums, original music, and I’m singer. And so music and frequency is so, so cool. And so so many good metaphors there. So the metaphor here for understanding this is a simple question of if you are a piano Why are you trying to be a violin? So no two pianos in this entire world, something that blows my mind is no two pianos in this entire world. Tuna like, I’m not talking about digital, I’m talking about acoustic pianos. Right? So not not to tuna, like, and you ask any piano tuner, you know, when he’s coming in, or she’s coming into tune the piano. That is the case, there’s always a mystery to be solved. And I feel like they’re like piano tuners could also write like their own book like Zen and the Art of piano tuning. Because you have you have this incredible mystery to figure out when you come into this world is who are you? Who am I? I identity, all of that. Ego is wrapped up in this third chakra time, which is why it is so profound, and our understanding this human experience, you got ancient teachers, ancient philosophers, ancient spiritual masters, talking all about this, who am I? What’s my purpose? What’s my reason for being here? What happens after this? What came before this? And when we look at, you know, am I piano or am I a violin stop being stopped trying to be someone else, if you’re a piano, that’s first step, second step is know your own tuning, if no two pianos tuner, like, what’s your tuning, stop trying to be like that piano be you understand, and this is where the chakras come in. So if you know that, that’s always the note that you play on your piano, and it kind of pops out a little bit more like a piano tuner, designs it so you can tune down that string a little bit, or maybe go sharp or flat, you know, naturally, you understand your tuning. And then you can tune yourself, you know, the things to do the self care practices, the understanding of your chakra system, the mantras, you need to keep repeating, or the meditations or the prayers, the increment incantations that you need to do in order for you to feel in alignment. Nobody can tell you what that feels like, only you can find that out. So once you know you’re tuning, then you start learning those practices, those scales on the piano, the framework, the structures that help you understand and refine that tuning. And then eventually you get to that place where you begin to play music and express and that’s I feel, what the chakra system provides is this opportunity to solve the riddle of who you are. Always be in the inquiry, but your own tuning. And then how do you want to express yourself? How do you want to create in this world? How do you want to co create with God with others with the unknown?
Well, and I, I love the piano versus violin, I totally write that down. And I’m gonna use that as a quote that I really think in talking about, how do you tune yourself? How do you tune versus somebody else? Because I know, and I’m sure you’re the same. I’ve read so many books, I’ve listened to so many lectures, I’ve listened to so many different things, about spirituality, about crystals, about the chakras about all this stuff that you’re diving into. And one of the things I want to add in when you’re figuring out what kind of piano you are and habit tunes is, read it all explore it all and find out what resonates with you that you’ve read. Because there are some books are some people that you’re like, yeah, that’s that’s not my gig. That’s not who I am. But there’s other stuff that you will just Yes, yes, yes. And then there’s other that you’ll pick little bits and pieces out of and that’s because those people who you are reading from learning from exploring with, I figured out how to tune their piano. And that’s one of the important things is as you’re reading through and I think that goes back to the false idols, part of what you said, as you’re exploring your Spirituality and discovering that it’s really easy to pick up false idols in your spirituality of Oh, I love this person, they wrote this book, I’m gonna read every book they wrote. And that’s what I solely believe. So it’s really in that honoring how to tune your own piano and finding all the bits and pieces. There’s a poem that I found it in like ninth grade, and it’s called happiness. And it’s happiness is a crystal ball that’s been broken and shattered. And you find all the pieces along the way to put the ball back together. And I think that’s just a really neat way of, that’s what we’re doing here. That’s what we’re doing through this journey is finding all the pieces to put us back together so that we’re that shiny ball, not that we’re broken, like, but finding all those little pieces that are breadcrumbs along the way. Mm hmm.
Well, the sentiment is beautiful. It’s understanding that we already have everything that we need. If we stop trying to be something else. Yeah. And in order to be accepted, we throw a wrench into the third chakra, and start being other things then what resonates with us what is authentic for us, we step away from truth. And that leads to a very dysfunctional fifth chakra, and how we’re creating our lives and taking our responsibility fully in our own hands. And when we don’t do that, it’s like we’re dry. I use for a lot of my clients, I use this analogy of driving a bus, like you need to be behind the wheel, that bus, you can have all the experts or all the archetypes within you on that bus with you all aspects of who you are, or other influences. But if you’re letting anything, any aspect of yourself like any archetype, like a hero, or the victim, or the the student, or the teacher, any sort of archetype or the damsel, drive the bus rather than just influencing you in the very helpful ways that anything can influence you. If you’re not driving, you’re in trouble. The you are off path. If you’re letting anything drive that can you co create with life. Yes, I’m not saying that you can control everything in life. But if you’re putting behind the wheel, someone else, you are forfeiting your unique perception, your unique wisdom, your unique offering to the world. And that is one of the most challenging things I know it you mentioned, you’re just going through the teacher training certification for yoga, whenever I certify a yoga teachers, one of the main things that I focus on is you can never be in someone else’s shoes, and no one could be in yours. Never. Yeah, and and that is the curse. And the blessing of our separateness is that we want people to get us we want to get other people and we do connect intimately through our deepening our conversation through getting outside our comfort zones through growth. And yet, we will always be separate, we will never fully be connected in this human experience. And if God if everything that God created is good, and this is the dynamic we’re having, why are we running from pain towards pleasure? Why are we demonizing the villains of the world or the villainous energy, rather than just watching our lives unfold like a good superhero movie, or video game? Like, look, this is my challenge to overcome to be the hero in my story, I need to step up and be that not wait for another Savior to come in and swipe in and save the day. You know, and but how can I step into that? And no superhero is perfect, right? A superhero connected also to what what the Achilles heel it is, is within that superhero we always have an aspect that we’re, we’re working with that is is like that Achilles heel that weakness, you know, like Superman’s kryptonite. And yet, if Superman didn’t step into his, his costume, his which is just another mask or an archetype of zero, and allow that energy to come through him and call that God or call that higher power or that calling, then he would never have been Superman. And I mean, I can’t share that story without saying I was sharing the story about when I was, gosh, I think it was in 2002, maybe 2002 2003. I went to one of the old Yoga Journal conferences in New York City when they are first starting. And Christopher Reeve spoke, you know, original Superman. Yeah. And it was both it was, you know, he was completely paralyzed. and could only speak and blink his eyes. But with every breath he took, it had to be intentional. He would breathe and then be able to say only a few words. So the words that he said, were so specific and so poignant. And this is a guy who used to be the supreme essence of a man. Yes. And and to have gone through that journey in his soul moving through that villainous experience of being paralyzed. I mean, that’s just what life’s about. And the sooner we embrace the villain in the in the difficult aspects of our journey, then we’re going to be able to really shine.
Yes, I remember when I was younger, dealing with my first mother in law, and she was a handful. And I, I was in my crystal, my first time I was doing crystal training, or crystal, crystal healing training. And I made some comment, and I said she was controlled by the devil, because I was young and naive and had no idea and was being completely overrun by my mother in law. And my crystal healing teacher said, nobody’s controlled by the devil. She is the darkness here to teach you light. Hmm. And that was really powerful. So when you say the villain, and using that, that’s it. It evolutionized my relationship with her because I didn’t let her ruffle me anymore. So thinking of that, when you come across those things, it is the darkness to teach you light.
Yes, so beautifully put and, and when we think about the bullies of this world, or or the villains of this world and those two archetypes to understand what it means to truly have compassion, we have to understand the chakras. In order to be able to pull a villainess or a bullying energy and attack it on somebody else or, you know, inflict it on somebody else. We need to pull that through ourselves. Like in order to love truly and authentically, we need to allow that energy of love to move through that current moving through our bodies through our energetic field in order to share that love. So if you think about a bully, you know the bully, we always say the bully was bullied. Yes, the bully, you’re the bully was bullied. So there can be compassion understanding there. But also those villains in our lives were like, Why can’t they just be this or that? We can’t change them. We don’t know what it’s like to be in their shoes, get humble about it. Because the second you’re humble about it, you say, Well, I have no idea what it’s like. And it could be your sibling. It could be your child, your parents, somebody that you feel your partner that you know really well. But really, you don’t you don’t We don’t know what it’s like to be in each other’s shoes. What we can do in order to have compassion with these villains in our lives is to remember that they’re having to channel that energy through them. And that’s their, their own worst enemy. You never treat yourself worse, or you never treat anyone else worse than you treat yourself. Absolutely. And so we can remember that they’re in that pain, the compassion is so much easier and more accessible.
.
But we still get trapped by the pattern in our brains that we’ve said this over and over to ourselves is our unworthiness I’m not enough. Yes, I’m not enough I’m not enough and until we recognize that that pattern or that mantra or that belief system is actually a huge source of of motivation in our lives, then we can utilize until we do that we’re going to perpetually be under the false belief that that is who we are versus that’s a motivating force. So we all have this I’m not enough well, how do you stop being not enough bro you develop you this life. And and so oftentimes when people are moving to their spiritual journey will get stopped by that and because they they adopted in their third chakra as another their label, rather than just a false belief that started somewhere along the line to figure out the world around you, for example, like a two year old in a bookstore, you know, is shopping with his mom, his mom turns the corner to go pay for her book, he looks up and he goes, like, he’s just starts crying and screaming, because he has no idea where she is what happened, her starts getting this whole experience of it. And in that moment, needs to figure out the world around him. So he might have in his mind, the thought, or just the feeling the sensation, because we’re not saying, Oh, this is the way it is, at two years old, we don’t really think that way. But we have the experience in that moment of I’m alone. Mm hmm. And that roots in our brain, it’s very scientific, the more you study the brain, I’m a huge brain nerd. But the more you sell your brain, you understand how it works. And then you can you can utilize it, the more you understand your patterns, your chakra is your belief system, your emotions, then you can utilize those to live a life of your choosing, rather than feeling like a pinball in a pinball machine. So that little kid at two years old, says I’m alone, and then believes that, and then perhaps begins to live patterns and manifest patterns through his life to either prove or disprove that, through his relationships through his job, there was lifestyle, etc. So we don’t know that those roots that start when we’re very young, regardless of how wonderful or traumatic the childhood was, we all are wired in that way. And unless we know that tuning and can go, you don’t have to go relive everything. No, I’m not saying that. But to understand, okay, what happened? And then what belief did I create about myself in the world, in face of that?
Well, and so two things, I’ve really, really appreciate how much you talk about the fact that you’ve got a very logical brain, and that you’re very mentally centered, as well as spiritual because so often, we think, Oh, I can’t be logical, I’m spiritual, or they’re, you’re one or the other. And it’s very obvious that you can be both. So for people who are struggling with that, I think it’s really nice to see that it’s not an either or.
I agree, I agree. And I don’t think I agreed with that. When I first was churches, like in high school and understanding, like, I just thought, Man, the only way I’m going to be able to be spiritual or religious is to lose my left brain and just have faith.
You have given me so much that I’m like reflecting. And just these notes that I’ve made listening to you. As I said earlier on in the episode, you know, every time you deep dive into a conversation with somebody new about a chakra, or about your spirituality, you hear something you’ve never heard before. And it triggers that conversation within yourself by having these conversations. And so I’m super grateful for the conversations with you today.
Oh, likewise, well, that’s our gift for one another is that we say Namaste, stay in yoga class, not just to be like namaste day, and that’s how we close like, that’s the cadence, right? But you know, it’s recognizing the teacher would not only within yourself, but in every single thing, every single thing in the world. And that includes those people that you don’t want to say now mistakes. Or those circumstances that you’re like, that’s not okay, you know, like the teachers honoring the teacher within everyone. So that’s one of the coolest gifts that we have in our separateness is that we’re always learning, we wouldn’t know who we were, if we were on an island by ourselves, we wouldn’t have to have some sort of reflection of who we are to know who we are. So that’s the gift that we have for one another, each one of us.
And it’s a beautiful gift. It’s an amazing gift that we’re able to receive and give to everybody we come across from and it’s kind of where you said, I think, actually, you said this before we started recording while you’re talking. And you said, we lay our wisdom at the pedestal of another seat. And I thought that was so beautiful, because that’s what we’re, you know, part of the beauty of the journey is being able to do that for each other.
Hmm, definitely. And we get in trouble when we try and shove it down each other’s throats.
I’ll add that in parentheses. Well, I am so grateful for your time today. And I’m so excited about the bonus episode we’re going to talk about because you are releasing a book about the time this episode is going to release. So and I’ve had a sneak peek of the book, I haven’t gotten to see the book because it’s not completely finished. But we’re definitely going to talk about that in the bonus episode. And your book is a collaboration of many people who have worked on this book together. And it’s like, book workbook devotional like it’s so amazing. So I want to give everybody just enough of a teaser, that they’re going to check out the bonus episode after this. But Mr. And I’m so grateful for your time. And one of the things that we talked about before we started recording is all that you have planned for the first quarter of 2022, with your new membership site and the journey you went through and creating that. So give us another teaser about what’s coming. Because I want to make sure that all the listeners are definite and following on and on you.
Thank you for the opportunity to share that. As a teacher, I’ve been teaching for about 20 years, I’m not the teacher you come to if you just want a quick pill to solve all your problems, because I don’t believe that that works. I believe they’re gimmicky. You know, just do this and your whole life will change. Like I don’t I don’t believe that I believe that. In conversations we can transform and our role will never be the same after that. But in order to see lasting results in our lives, we have to look at the patterns that are already in place and then be diligent at reworking our synapses and the way that they’re firing in our brains so that we can have a different reality. Because in in very simple terms, what you think over and over again becomes your belief system. And then that belief system shapes your reality, your interpretation of life and the circumstances. That’s why no two of us have the same reality. So this membership site comes from the 18 years we spent developing programs, workshops, classes, training programs, events, special events, in our yoga studio in New York City, and taking all of that online to be a source of regularity and inspirational and fun and diligent source so that you can use it to have lasting results in your vibrational alignment. Our website is raise the vibration.com raise the vibration dot com. And we focus on the very tangible results of you know, everything being vibration, your thoughts, what you eat, your everything that the people that you interact with, and this membership. So it has the classes on there. It has workshops that has events and has trainings. And what’s cool about the classes and why they’re different is my husband and I in 2017 to 2019, Anthea and I went on a 50 city tour around the country. We’ve also taught on five different continents like we taught all around the world. And so we filmed yoga classes, meditations, physical training classes, different folk have different group dynamics everywhere we’ve gone in the great national parks all around our country, and in different countries of the world. He mentioned India, that was one of my favorites. Yeah, and and so this, what this raise the vibration weekly member, or this membership that we’re creating to be launched this spring provides is a resource for you to plug in to get healthy recipes popping up for you once a week, a healthy mocktail that you can use like in exchange for alcohol. So you can also add the spirit if you want to do that. Some days that you know, you want to do that, that’s fine. But understanding like what we put into our bodies is so essential when it comes to our frequency. And if our frequency if the measurable frequency in our body dips below, I think it’s like 60 hertz, that that’s when we become subjected to illness disease. And in the time that we live in right now, if we’re not understanding that our personal vibration has everything to do with our health, and that practical application, our thought, a thought frequency of fear is so much lower than a thought frequency of hope or love or connection or intimacy. So understanding vibration through this website through all the different ways that we plug you with information or resources or classes or community can be at regular source to raise your vibration.
Well, and I love that that is your your company has raised the vibration, because that’s definitely what you bring to the table and helping support people in raising their vibration and the education behind how to do that. So if they’re feeling lost or struggling, your website I checked it out before we got on the call a couple days ago and your website has so many resources on it. And so much to offer that I definitely invite our listeners to check it out, raise the vibration calm. And they can also find you on Facebook and Instagram. Where do you hang out?
Yes, I do have Instagram raised dot the dot vibration is the handle res dot that that vibration. I’m on Facebook as well, you can find me there under raise vibration. And I have a YouTube channel where I gave I give talks every single week. It’s called sacred Sunday. It’s usually like a 1015 minute talk on a specific subject matter. So you can find that on our YouTube channel, raise the vibration.
Well, thank you so much for your time. And I know that people are really gonna want to check you out because you have such an amazing energy and so much knowledge to share. And they were pedestal at the feet of the pedestal so it’s not being shoved down their throats.
Thank you so much. Thank you.
Yeah, so thanks for being here. And I really look forward to having the conversation about your new book and the bonus episode.
Me too. It’s gonna be good.
Yes, thank you. Okay, so we talked for an hour and eight minutes. Like, I’m gonna have to split this into two opposites or something. Keep going. And I felt like I could go on for another 30 minutes. But that was
yeah, there’s so much to cover, you know, it’s like you can only scratch the surface of anything.
Yeah, well, and we’ll have to do something once you kind of launched the membership site. And I would love to have you back and kind of talk about that and do some more sharing, because I definitely feel that we’re on such like minds that I would love to share that more. And help you kind of get that out there. Green. Yeah. So I’m going to take a screenshot really fast of the two of us smiling like we’re talking. Oh, but Oh, I know you ain’t great, but sometimes I do it and people are like, I want to post something about that. We just had a great conversation about the chakras and stuff. So feel smile for a second. Okay, perfect. And then do you have any questions before we started on the bonus officer?
I don’t think so. Okay,
are you good on time since we’re kind of at our time limit? Yeah,
I actually I gave myself some wiggle room. For my next client give me one sec. I’m just double check. Yes, I’m fine. I’m fine. Just this other bits. Okay, good. Didn’t get any calls either.
Not gonna integrate. My son came through. He texted me. I was like, are we going riding today? I’m like, No, he just came through ready to go out on this ride.
Oh, what do you ride horses?
No, just, we live near the Greenway. So he and honestly he rides a couple miles like 1012 miles every day. And I’ve been trying to get out there with them. And I keep having this year. Where are you? Where do you live it
in? I Carolina. Oh, how beautiful.
Yeah, so we our neighborhood. It’s like a mile to the Greenway and the greenways like, I don’t know. 2030 miles long. So Oh, where have you been in North Carolina?
Oof. Gotcha. It was a long time ago. I well. Not necessarily on my first my the album. My first album tour was in 2003. And we were in oh, gosh,
we Ross mountains coast where were you what area we were.
Wilmington is in South Carolina or whether it’s North Carolina, Wilmington. I played the rhinoceros club Wilmington. So is it still there? Yeah. Yeah. And then, you know, when we toured through that area in 2009 18 I can’t remember
if it was raining like me out a lot of places.
Oh, I love it, though. So so so beautiful. It is
we love it here because we’re right in the middle of the state. So you’ve got two hours to the mountains and three hours to the coast. Perfect, but I still have stuff growing in my garden right now.
So that’s amazing. That’s amazing. Yeah.
I love right where we are so and it’s we’re in a town called Greensboro because it’s really great.
I know. I know, Greensboro. Yeah, yeah, it’s beautiful.
Yeah, that’s where I was born and raised. We actually live in the city next to it, but nobody knows that city. So we’re in Greensboro.
Nice. Nice. Yeah.
Okay. Um, what is the name of your book?
raise the vibration, a weekly guide. Okay.
Don’t think I saw that sounds like let me make sure I knew that. And how is it written? Is it? I mean, I know that it’s 52.
contributions. Yeah, it was kind of the tagline that we’re kind of putting at the bottom is with contributions from 52. Authors.
Okay. I assumed that meant it was 52 weeks, but I went in to make sure. Yeah, exactly. Is there anything I should know, before I start talking about it? Other than what I’ve kind of looked at?
Ah, no, I think we could probably discover that in the conversation. Yeah, I think that would just be natural. Yeah, I don’t think I don’t think anything special about
it. Well, we will pause for a second and then we’ll get started. Hi, and welcome back to the bonus episode of granting journey. I have my friend here and Margaret. And we are actually going to kind of break from the norm and talk about a book that you are releasing soon. raise the vibration, a weekly guide. And I as I mentioned in the main episode, I’ve had a little sneak peek at one of the sections. And so in our main episode, in case you haven’t listened to that, we dig into the chakras from our both of our spiritual basis of where we started to how we use the chakras to really discover our own inner workings. And that’s what all of your work is really around is using the chakras using yoga using spirituality. So this book, I’m super excited, as I said, I’ve seen a chapter. It’s part story. It’s part workbook, it’s part guide. And I and you have 52 contributing editors. So I thought there’s yeah, there’s excuse me, not editors. Thankfully, not all editors. That would be a nightmare if you had people giving you their opinion on something for sure. So share a little bit more with us about the book and what inspired you to create this book.
Sure. Thanks so much for letting me just share this with your listeners. Because this book was not planned. I’ve been working on another book for a long time and I thought that that would be out first. But when the lockdowns happened in March of 2020, something whispered in my ear, I’ll just say get them to focus on their resiliency. As a teacher, I’ve heard that voice many, many times of say this or that, and I know that I’m not responsible for what I say, because it’s way more brilliant than I could have come up with. From, I believe God, I believe that God speaks through each of us. And we’re allowing that to happen. And so it was one of those channeling moments where if I heard get them to focus on the resiliency, because as a teacher, and you know, in a minister, like I always look for ways I can help or be of service that’s just in my nature. And when things started happening, and people started really freaking out, because it was a lot to freak out about, I immediately thought, what can I do? And that was my answer. And I thought, well, how can I do that, and then it just popped into my brain as it as this chakra, of the seven chakra happens, where things drop in, versus ideas, then we visualize it with our sixth chakra of how we see it. And then we begin to manifest it through the others. So it can become a reality. The idea was get people to write their stories, get people to write stories of when they overcame something difficult. So that they could connect with their own strength, their own resiliency, and know that they’re going to get through what we were facing as a world.
Well, and I’m such a big believer in the stories, I want to know people’s stories, because that is how you connect to them. And so the chapter I read was by Kristin Westbrook. And I will tell you reading that story, I so connected with it of
one, she did an amazing job in connecting with me and sharing authentically with me, that I was almost in tears like watery eyes, reading it and experiencing it for her. And knowing, as you said that she had that resilience, she kept that spirit alive. And just being able to think, okay, there are other people who have the resilience, who are keeping the spirit alive, who aren’t letting it. I mean, it weighs us all down at some point. And you have to give into that, but not letting it. You stay there. You know, you’ve got to feel it, but not staying there. And so it was just so beautiful to read, what she’s been through and see that she’s offering something now of wisdom.
Yes, well, the story is, and we talked about this a little bit, the end of the last episode of the main episode, which is we’re all teachers for one another. And we’re fascinated, I think this is why we’re so deeply connected to people’s stories and storytelling is has been something through the ages since indigenous times as a way to share wisdom and knowledge. You know, the women’s circle that I have once a month, I call it like the collective journal, because of all the wisdom comes, all the women come together with their wisdom and their experiences and support each other in that way. So this book, you know, you’ve got 52 Different authors sharing their stories of resiliency is something that they had to overcome. And I said, you know, focus on something that you want to tell the reader what you wish you would have known when you’re going through it, so that if they’re facing something similar, you’re giving them the tools that you learned placing them at their feet, obviously, but you know, and then they can pick that up and see if that actually can help them. And what happened, I was crazy. I made a list of all these people that I just admired so much and started reaching out. And almost every single one of them unbelievably said yes to the project and just said hey, can you write 1000 words story of something that you’ve been through? That was tough, and you overcame it and share the wisdom of what brought you through that what you learned, and in hindsight, what you could share with somebody who’s in that same sort of position, and There ended up being obviously no coincidence 52 authors. And I thought, huh, this is kind of how my thick brain works sometimes. And you know, I talk about the small signs, and then the times you’re slapped across the face like wait, yeah. And I was like, Oh, 52 authors, 52 weeks of the year. Oh, and then I thought, you know, this book is kind of like a Chicken Soup for the Soul sort of storytelling, but I wanted it to be more than that. I wanted it to be, you know, turn it back to the reader so that you’re not reading these stories out of entertainment or escape or feeling somebody else’s through an empathic reading, but you’re using the story in a way that changes your life for the better. And I thought in order to make that effective as a teacher, you know, as a coach, I thought, how can we have Have it be a guide so that every chapter of those 52 weeks is five pages long, you’ve got the story. And then you’ve got all of these journaling prompts, and little exercises that you can choose to do or you don’t choose to do, it’s not like, you’re going to get a failing grade if you don’t complete everything. But it’s the opportunity to integrate what you’re inspired by through that story, and have a journaling prompt that applies it to your own life and different exercises that strengthen that muscle or that theme of that week,
when one of the things you put in the dedication is that it’s a gift, not another way for you to beat yourself up because you don’t complete it.
Right? Right. How many times do we start things that are really good for us, and we don’t finish them. And then we use that incomplete to further solidify a belief of our unworthiness. So in in the introduction, I’m very clear on how to use the book. And one of the first things I say is don’t use this as another way to beat yourself up, you might do it every single week, religiously, every single exercise, and you might get so much out of it and nerd out on it. For you nerds out there, you fellow nerds, you get what I mean by that. And then those of you who are like, Hmm, maybe I’ll jump into a here or there, you don’t have to do it in sequential order, i i compartmentalize the 52 stories into four compartments, or four categories of 13 stories each. And those four compartments are the seasons of the year, you don’t have to do the summer one in summer, it could be a summary energy or blossoming like energy that you’re feeling in the dead of winter, you want to go to a summer story. And you go to that story, you read it and you do the processing that week, or you come back and revisit the exercises four weeks from now. So there’s a lot of flexibility and how you use the book that you could come back to it or go completely out of order for you creative types out there who want to do it your own way. I respect that.
And that’s what I talked to all about in the main episode is that solar plexus and doing it, how it resonates for you, so that it’s your path and your journey instead of how it’s supposed to do so I love that it’s not dated, it’s not week one, week two, it’s just kind of free flowing. And, and it’s got beautiful illustrations, I love quotes in it and the illustrations and little things. I can’t wait till I get my copy one of the first on your list. And so we don’t have an exact release date for it yet, but it should be released around the time that this podcast is so January, February, and they can find out more about it at raise the vibration calm.
Yeah, exactly. Exactly.
Well tell me just a little bit about what was it like working with 52 contributing authors and bringing that together? Because you know, one of my biggest things of grinding journey is creating that community of like minds, and you did that you connected, like, I don’t know, 52 people that I could ask for their interesting stories. I’m sure that I know. But that’s a lot to really, to create that collaborative. So what was that like for you?
One of the biggest blessings in my life of having the brick and mortar in New York City really was the relationships that came out of that. And I love people, I love connecting with people. And I am so blessed to have so many extraordinary people in my life. Sometimes I don’t talk to them for every, every other year or something, who knows. But I really was blessed with a lot of relationships through that studio. And I mean, Anthony and I are kinda like the mom, paw of that community, that spiritual community there. And that was one of the greatest riches and assets that we got out of that. And so finding these people, it was very simple, very easy, and I just had to ask them to do it. Getting the stories in and the deadlines and all of that. I mean, it’s a little like herding cats, of course, whenever you’re working in a creative way because everybody needs time to tell their story and needs time to kind of process things and, and also 52 authors that we have a lot of different dimensions to each chapter that I think the reader is going to find really fascinating from an inspirational quote that’s related to the story and then even a miracle quote that’s related to documenting documenting your daily miracles and, and the name of the story and the bios in the picture. So collecting all of that information And then formulating the weekly guide around that particular stories theme each week was a lot of work, I won’t
shy away from that a lot.
But the work aside, it was the best possible at work, because I’m reading. And this is what the reader is going to get one cent one of the most intimate aspects of that person’s life. And I have, I have extraordinary people in my life, who know the power of transparency, who aren’t afraid of sharing things from their life. Because they know that and being transparent being authentic, the reader is going to get something out of it and have their heart be touched if they’re open to that. So it was so inspiring reading all of these stories. I mean, I’ve got a stories from the one you read about cancer to suicide attempts to start starting businesses to sexual abuse. I mean, we cover the gamut. So it’s not we don’t shy away from the real depth that is possible, and looking at the things that really shake us to our core as human beings. And I just, I’m so humbled that these 51 other authors, I’m one of the authors, obviously, but 51 people in my life entrusted me with the beauty of their heart and the transparency of their soul.
That is beautiful. That is absolutely powerful and empowering. Really?
Yeah, I think that’s, that’s the goal. And the thing that I was so shocked by the whole experience was when authors would come back and say, Thank you for asking me to write this. This was so healing. And I didn’t expect that I was like, Okay, guys, who wants to kind of jump into this crazy game? You know, that’s why I said, my friends kind of think I’m crazy, because I’m always coming up with crazy ideas like this. And they’re like, Yeah, let’s do it. And I didn’t expect that them writing the story, even though that that was the initial reason why it popped in, like, get him to focus on the resiliency. I thought get the book ready, so you can help others focus on but I didn’t really realize that every person writing their story would feel such healing through the process in some way.
And so many people find reading it will find healing in the process
that I do, too. And one of the aspects to the book is at the end, you have the option to write your own story, the space to write your own story at the end, which I do encourage all the readers, anyone who gets the book to do that, at least started give it a shot.
Wow, that’s beautiful. Well, I know that people are really going to want to check that out. And like I said, I’m definitely signing up for presale as soon as you have that available because it’s getting beautiful.
Thank you so much.
Yeah, well, thank you so much for spending time with our listeners for sharing. And thank you for bringing this book into the world because it’s such a project that’s going to be needed and something that’s going to be so supportive, I can only think of a couple people I’m going to give it to so thank you.
It’s gonna make a great gift. It’s gonna make a great gift for sure. Well, thank you for having me. It’s been so fun connecting with you today.
Yeah, thank you for your time and I look forward to us connecting again soon and I would love to hear from our audience if they have any feedback. We’ll have all the links to everything available on grounding journey.com so that they can if they’re driving right now and don’t have time to write down the episode then your contact info they can definitely find it on the grounding Journey podcast you can see faith walking around she’s making Oh, parents or she’s freshers Hi Fi and then I thank you so much for your time and as I said people can find you at raise the vibration calm or we’ll have all your Instagram, Facebook and links at grounding journey.com
Thank you again.
Yeah, thanks for being here I always feel weird about like starting and like thanks. Thanks how many
I know. But you do it very well, you you do you conduct the interviews very well and hold the Space beautifully. Just so you know, like, here. I’m glad you’re doing this. It feels like a good from what you shared like feeling like you’re getting out from being behind the camera so to speak into out in front and I think that it’s good. It’s very good for you personally to do that and you’re good at it. So trust yourself with you. Thank
you so much. I appreciate that. Well, I always say that granny Jenny used to be my playground and it was kind of my passion project when I started because when I started my yoga teacher training I really like part of it was I want to community I was looking for that because I’ve worked at home since 2015. So I am we live in a small neighborhood on a dead end street at the back of the neighborhood. I mean, everybody on our street has lived here since the neighborhood was built. And their houses are like 3035 years old. So like, we’re the only ones with kids still at home on the street. Oh, wow. So I feel it was funny. When you said something about that you had that through the brick and mortar. I was like, oh, that’s why I don’t have anymore because I’ve worked from home for so long. And and that was one of the things I really started when I went to my yoga teacher training was to, to make those connections and then I realized they were all just a bunch of clicks and I didn’t like it. So having the podcast is really it was my playground to connect with people who were like mines and and really needed spirits. And I took a hiatus over the summer and brought it back in August or September, with the pure intention that it was my it was no longer my playground, but it was my way to be in service to others. And it feels like it’s shifted a lot since then. eautiful
Yeah, thank you. Awesome. Well, I it’s gonna help so many people, whoever listens for sure. How long have you had the podcast?
I started in July of 2020. Okay. And then I took just I went to Peru in May of 2021. And I injured myself. We did this six day trek. That was a crazy track. And we went to it was two hours south of was it laris? Treska. No, it’s Ciocca ke Raul. Oh, okay. Okay. Do you know that one?
I don’t know that one.
So, you know, everybody knows Machu Picchu is the last home of the Incas. Ciocca. Ki Raul is the last home. So it’s a two and a half day trek in. And then most people go in and come back out. But we went in and over. Okay, we did hiked up to 13,000 passes that we crossed over and it the trail that we did, it was obvious that nobody other than locals had done it in 18 months, because like we were bushwhacking? It was crazy. And I will say I was like, Yeah, let’s do this. Yeah, I’m five, two and a female and I did it with eight men who are six footer bigger. Not when I thought I five there I find it was um, there was a lot that I learned. It was a lot. It took me six months to process it. Yeah. Because I you know, I went like for this spiritual healing and it was like it took me probably two months to say it was a worthwhile experience. Yeah. Wow. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. So I took a all of that meaning I was so deep that my podcast wasn’t fun anymore. It was a job. Right? And so I took the summer off, did the deep work inside and came back with this whole like, oh, that’s what that six months was for.
Amazing. Amazing. Sorry. Oh, no, no, don’t apologize. No. Peru is present. For us.
Yeah. I definitely was expecting a different healing. And I got exactly what I needed. But because it wasn’t what I expected. It was a lot more work a lot more painful. Yeah. And it’s been a lot of reflection. And I’m still looking back on it and like, oh, oh, yeah. So that’s been beautiful. Yeah.
Did you go with a company? A tour company?
Um, well, we did have a guide and we had two chefs. And then two because check a key route is a trail because that you can actually have horses on. Okay, so we had to horsemen because they carried all of the cookery all of
our tents and camps. Yeah, that stuff. Yeah, we did have when I say eight men, there were five of them that we hired. And then my husband, my son, and one of our dearest friends.
Okay. Oh, that’s great. Yeah, that
in itself was a different like, I never realized, five to me. Let’s go in and not to get into the whole men women debate, but there are six feet, our sons like 20 Somethings. So he’s just and all the men that we were with from there had the lung capacity, the stamina, like that’s what they do, you know? Yeah. So it was an interesting part of the journey of learning, trust and surrender and that I didn’t have to wear armor that I could not be the strong one. That was the biggest part for me was not being the strong one. So
that takes a lot of courage.
Sometimes, like you said, you get smacked across the face. That’s when you were talking about that. I’m like, because when I started our business, it was my business. It grew. My husband quit his job and came to work for us. Our son graduates work for us. So I’m used to being materia puller, you know? Yeah. So it was a it was a journey.
That’s awesome. What a great memory with your family, though. What a beautiful time.
Yeah, I’m very blessed that he’s 20 something and we really liked him.
And clearly, he really likes you if he wants to hang out.
Yeah, it’s nice. Well, thank you, again, so much for your time. I don’t want to take any more of your time out. But I’m just so grateful that you’ve offered me so much. And the reason I wanted to get everything recorded now is because we’re going to be offline in December. So I’ll reach out to you the second week of January, once everybody’s kind of settled back in for the new year. And we’re going to the publish date, tentative and kind of check with you on the book or if you have the book date before then shoot me a message. Okay. I will like coordinate.
Yeah, I will. I’ll probably know in a month when more likely that date would be.
Yeah. Yeah. Well, I’m excited to support you and really, you know, read the book for you on our Avenue t. So
thank you so much. Yeah. And we’ll put our heads together with the, with the cross marketing too. So yeah, well, we’ll do that in January. So yeah, okay, perfect. Okay, well, of course. That’s everything you do. And let’s keep in touch, of course. Yeah.
Thank you. I’ll be sending you love and light for your journey right now.
Oh, thank you. I appreciate that.
Bye