Mal Duane Coach

Stepping over my fear to go where my heart is calling me


Wow! It’s been a rollercoaster ride we are all going through in these unprecedented times and it can feel really scary. Fear is okay as long as it doesn’t become the foundation from which you operate.

I’ve been following all the recommendations we have been given to eliminate potential exposure to Coronavirus including social distancing, extra household cleaning, sanitizing and continuous hand washing. I’ve added wearing a mask when I go outside.  At first, these things may seem like an inconvenience. Please play by the rules. Your well being and those you love, depend on it.

I’m still committed to my next chapter and fear is not going to hold me back from moving to California.

My home will be going on the market soon so I can move. It’s been delayed by a month already. This is not an easy time to coordinate such a huge move, but my heart is telling me it’s where I belong. Nothing is going to stop me.

I have a lot ahead of me which requires my full attention. I anticipate there may be a few speed bumps along the way. Navigating the logistics is not going to be easy. Also, my heart is telling me that people are preoccupied with staying safe and juggling unforeseen life changes due to all of the disruption from the Covid-19 Pandemic. Let’s face it, life as we knew it is gone.

Therefore, this will be my last blog post & podcast until late Fall when I am settled in my new home. I can’t effectively produce this show and move across the country at the same time. I pray that by then we all may have this insidious threat behind us.

Your support means the world to me. I love bringing you informative shows and topics from varied guests that can help you on your journey.

I’m eager to get this move done so I can open up a new Fall season of Awakening Divine Wildness from sunny California.

Please jump on to Facebook and connect and follow my journey west.

My profile page is >>> https://www.facebook.com/mal.duane

My business coaching page is >>> https://www.facebook.com/malduanecoach/

Oprah, I’m coming…

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Meet Margaret Ann Lembo, Renowned Crystal and Aromatherapy Specialist


Do You Need Some Extra Goodies in Your Spiritual Toolbox?

I don’t know about you but I’m feeling energetically overwhelmed by all the press and social media that is creating so much fear in all of us. I question if some of this is politically motivated?

We do have a serious outbreak of a new virus, however, becoming gripped by fear isn’t going to help you or those around you.

How do you stay centered, maintain balance and relative positivity in the whirlwind of negative energy and being housebound?

My meditation practice is my foundation for balance when I’m caught in the throes of unmetabolized fear. However, I’m using some other tools to strengthen my resolve and help my immune system.

I’ve been doing daily applications of doTerra OnGuard oil as well as an immunity blend, I got at a holistic market. I’m also utilizing red jasper and black tourmaline for grounding my energy as well as amethyst and smokey quartz for protection. I put them out in the sun or under a full moon to charge them up again.

Most importantly, I am limiting my online time and TV time, so I don’t become buried underneath all the negative energy being projected at us.

Some suggestions for you on steps you can utilize to stabilize your emotions right now:

  • Make No Judgements: Most people including the government are doing the best they can.
  • Challenges are a form of spiritual direction. Is this virus a huge wakeup call for the planet?
  • Make conscious choices-do what will help you and those you love.
  • Surrender to what you cannot change! Resistance only delays getting on the other side.
  • Now might be the perfect time for you to dabble in some crystals and oils. Having a few goodies in your toolbox couldn’t do any harm.

This week’s I have the most perfect guest on Awakening Divine Wildness, Margaret Ann Lembo to help you clear your energy and care for yourself.

I think of her as the Queen of Crystals. She has written eight bestselling books on the topic, including my favorite Chakra Awakening: Transform Your Reality Using Crystals, Color, and Aromatherapy.
You may want to order this book ASAP. Margaret Ann has some great ideas on how to get started and what to look for in picking crystals.

Sending you blessings and healthy vibes!

 

Listen to the Awakening Divine Wildness podcast by clicking the play button on the audio player below.

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Read the Full Transcript

Mal Duane Interviews Margaret Ann Lembo, Crystal, Aromatherapy and Angels Communication Expert

Mal: Well, it’s not every week that I get to interview an expert, but I got to tell you, this week’s guest, whew, man does she know a lot. I am so happy to introduce you to Margaret Ann Lembo. [00:28] She’s the owner of the Crystal Garden in Florida, the Conscious Living Store and Center, which is located in Palm Beach, in the Southeast section of Florida, and she opened that store in 1988. For over 30 years, she’s led workshops and classes around the country and Canada. Margaret Ann is a highly renowned expert for her dedication to helping people focus on mindfulness and positive thought. She’s written eight books, five affirmation Oracle decks and nine spoken audio programs, you can visit her on her website margaretannlembo.com. She’s the creator of a line of award-winning aroma, energetic sprays, including smudges spray, which I love. I bought the Palo Santo, I love it. And the seven chakra sprays. She’s an author, a spiritual entrepreneur, a practitioner, and an aromatherapist. And her store is the crystalgarden.com, we can go in and shop online. I’ve ordered lots of crystals from this lady and they are wonderful. Margaret Ann, thank you girl, you are so busy and I so appreciate you taking time to get on the show.

Margaret Ann Lembo: Well, I appreciate you having me on the show. It’s an honor and a privilege, thank you.

Mal: Well, I have to be honest, you have written one of my favorite books and I use it as like a reference Bible. I love it so much, I picked it up and already shipped it to California. So I know it would be their safe and sound with my reference books. And that book is ‘Chakra Awakening: Transform your reality using crystals, color, aromatherapy, and the power of positive thinking.’ And ladies, if you don’t have a copy of this, you’ve got to go get it. It has everything in it that you would want to know.

Margaret Ann Lembo: Wow! Thank you. That’s awfully nice of you. Let’s see, I have a demo deck, I should say demo copyright here, since 2011.

Mal: Wonderful.

Margaret Ann Lembo: So I’m happy. This is my first book.

Mal: Well, you’ve got, I know more books coming this year, another Oracle deck. I don’t know how you have time to do all this. And that book for someone like myself who loves Chakra work, it’s like a Bible. I mean, it just had so much content in it. I was like over the moon reading it.

Margaret Ann Lembo: Wow.

Mal: So I need to know how did you get started on this path of crystals and oils and angels and positive thinking. I mean, it’s vast what you do.

Margaret Ann Lembo: [03:18] Well, I love to tell this story and I was blessed as a young girl to have this information shared with me as really young. I would say six to eight years old was the beginning of the power of positive thought teachings. My family, in general, are all positive thinkers. They’re happy people and so that’s a very good thing. But I also had a mentor in my life and introduced me to the world of the magic of believing through a book called ‘The Magic of Believing’ by Claude Bristol. Plus, he also introduced me to the idea of metaphysics. So, that started at a very young age and even earlier than that, I was introduced to the angelic realm. Because I grew up with angels, I would believe that my own brother was an angel because he had passed away before I was born. And so for me, I was related to an angel and plus I was brought up in Catholicism and so it was very normal to make room on your chair, to let your guardian angel sit on your side and be with you all the time. And so, as life moved on, life changed and I still kept all those belief systems. I continue to use the power of positive thought. Even when I was a mortgage banker, I would share the information with my own staff members.

[04:53] And then the crystal part, I can share quickly which is about 1985, around there, I had some, I was still a mortgage banker then, I had some friends of mine that were going to start getting rocks in Arkansas. And they asked me if I wanted to be a silent partner. Well, if you know anything about me, there’s nothing silent about Margaret and, right? And so I was blessed to start a, you know, be part of this very small business. And we started getting rocks from Arkansas going on crystal trips and such, started almost like, you know, remember Tupperware parties where you’d go to people’s homes with the goods? We did it that way in people’s living rooms. Isn’t that wild?

Mal: Love it. Why don’t people do it now? I would go to a crystal party in a heartbeat.

Margaret Ann Lembo: It’s actually a fun idea, it really is. And then it evolved, you know, like the stock market crashed in 1987 and I was in senior management and banking at that time. And so I had to recreate myself at that point. I didn’t know, you know, I had to do something other than be a banker. I could have gone back into the industry, but it would have taken a long time. So, I opened my store, The Crystal Garden. In the meantime, I’m sitting here in my angel room at The Crystal Garden and from that it just continued to evolve and this is what I’m meant to be, I’m supposed to be doing this.

Mal: So, you started with angels and then you got into the crystals and then you incorporated oils into all of this.

Margaret Ann Lembo: [06:33] Yeah. I forgot to mention the oil part. Yes. So when I was a mortgage banker, there was a little kiosk in the center, you know, like a mall in the Buyin Boca, and that company is still around, they still exist. But I learned from them early on, that was early eighties. And I started purchasing essential oils and reading and getting familiar. And then I started carrying essential oils at my store. And you know, you get to know essential oils, kind of like I got to know plants. I have a very strong affinity for gardening which is also why the name of my store is The Crystal Garden named after, in a way, the secret garden, which is the gardening of your soul, you know. And so, as time went on, I got to know my essential oils. I trained with a naturopathic physician to be certified as an enrollment therapist. And I started, you know, getting divinely inspired with our blends, some onto, my first blend really was a euphoria, I think it was? No, it was Aunty M’s Anti Disinfecting Oil, which I made for a friends of mine who couldn’t kick a respiratory challenge. And so I put together, I concocted something and that one I did based on, you know, aromatherapy knowledge. But future blends, I really just got so lucky. And angels, I feel like it’s the angels who knows, but I the angelic realm or the guides of the aromatherapy world, give me ideas on what blends to create. And I retain, write it down right away. I’d go into my office, put them together and before you know it, I have such a very large, pretty large line of aromatherapy products that are sold worldwide now.

Mal: Wonderful. So how did you connect the chakras to the crystals with the oils, with color and everything to create this incredible book and the work that you do and the workshops that you do and for the audience? Margaret’s on Facebook, she’s got a book club that goes live every week. She’s got crystal shows going on, all kinds of activities. I’m always in and out watching, I love it. How did you connect all of that and put it all together to do the teachings you do?

Margaret Ann Lembo: [09:07] You know, as I was writing ‘Chakra Awakening’, more and more information was being revealed to me and it became clear that a gemstone has the vibration. It has a color first, it has a color that’s associated with the chakra system. So let’s say a gemstone, here’s an easy one, so amethyst or even rose quartz, any of the quartz family. So they have a color associated and that color has a meaning because  I also worked with color therapy while I was a banker too. We used to draw, I used to teach that to my staff too back then because color has a vibration. So if you understand the vibration of colors and relation to the chakras as well, then it makes sense then what gemstone matches. So if you’d working with the color purple, then amethyst, pink rose quartz, and you don’t always have to know the rock, but more the vibration of the color and potentially the information about the chakra.

So if you were saying a amethyst, which has to do with intuition and higher knowledge and connecting with the divine, then you got some information, right? Yep, the third eye center, the crown center, you know, and then there’s also the idea of that it’s very good. Amethyst is great for transforming and transmuting challenges. And so that also vibrates similar to Saint Germaine and the violent flame and so that has to do with alchemy. And so then you keep going and then you say, “Okay, well what essential oil blends might work for helping to shift people’s consciousness?” And then from there create a formula that would help. And I do have a Saint Germaine spray. I have, you know, things that I actually created sprays because of the realization that have gemstone tinctures inside of them as well.

Mal: Amazing. I mean, I was just so impressed

Margaret Ann Lembo: Aww.

Mal: By the amount of information in that book, I was like, how did this lady connect all of this? And the way you teach it in the book and lay it out, it’s so organized and `, and so informative.

Margaret Ann Lembo: Thank you.

Mal: So for someone starting out, who’s pretty clueless about chakras, oils, crystals, how would you get them started? What would be the best way to get started?

Margaret Ann Lembo: Well, if you are talking about like if you wanted to start like a collection of stones, or are you just talking…?

Mal: Collections and some oils and maybe doing some energy work for themselves and just understanding. How would you get them started in that process? There’s got to be a beginner point for everyone.

Margaret Ann Lembo: [12:00] There is, you know, like I find a lot of value in meditation and people go, “Oh, meditation, I can’t meditate.” You know, a lot of people have that reaction and so that’s why I offer the meditations often on Facebook. But even to be quiet and contemplative, that’s a start, you know, it’s just to just to stop, let everything get integrated into your consciousness because so much happens in one given day. Then if you want, I recommend maybe just one stone for each chakra, that’s a nice way to start. You know, you could get up, let’s say a red jasper at the root chakra or a black tourmaline, you could do, so that’s red energy. And then your orange, you could get the at the naval or sacred chakra cornelian. A solar plexus, you could get a citrine, which is a yellow quartz. At the heart center, green, [Inaudible 12:56] or pink tourmaline because that’s a green or pink vibration. The throat center turquoise, like the color behind me and the shirt I’m wearing, so even a turquoise stone or a turquoise colored stone. And at the third eye, maybe a lapis lazuli or an amethyst that I already mentioned. And that the crown center, you could use clear quartz. And clear quartz, if you wanted to get just one rock, maybe just get a clear quartz because that carries the full spectrum of light as well, so that’s battery beneficial to do it that way.

Mal: On the clear quartz, there’s different shapes for quartz and there’s a single pointed end, double pointed end, so it does that make a huge difference for someone starting out what they pick?

Margaret Ann Lembo: [13:45] I don’t think so. I think they can just get a quartz point or if they find a cluster, but it could be a good start r just a crystal point is fine. And they could, you can find them very inexpensively too. You don’t have to spend a lot of money, and that does carry the full spectrum of light, and they’re very easily programmable with love and wellbeing, you know? That’s why if you want programming something, I would suggest love and wellbeing.

Mal: So now, you’ve brought up another topic, how do you program a stone?

Margaret Ann Lembo: [14:16] Well you know, I was fortunate enough to meet with Marcel Vogel many years ago, who was, have you heard of him?

Mal: Oh yes.

Margaret Ann Lembo: Senior research scientist with IBM for many years, and he’s well known for a liquid crystal display and phosphorus and paint and so much more, so much more. But to go on, he’s the one that brought to my awareness that one of the easiest ways to clear and program your crystals is with your breath and your intention. So if you form an intention of clearing and hold the gemstone on the inhalation, you form the intent and then when you exhale forcefully through your nose, you can like pulse breath is what he calls it, pulse the real breath and  insert that energy and tend that energy into the gemstone, which it’s very important for me to bring up the intention. [15:16] Because people are like, “well, how does this crystal work? Why does the crystal do this?” Its like, “No, the crystal is not some magical creature.” I mean, it’s a lovely thing, it’s a beautiful thing, I love gemstones, obviously. But it’s our intention that’s really creating our reality. And then it’s the gemstone that is helping us to stay mindful and put our attention on what we do want, not what we don’t want. And that’s the key to almost anything is to be able to imagine and visualize our reality as we want it to be.

Mal: And can we use crystals and oils to help with that manifestation process? Because everything is law of attraction and so can you use the stones and oils for that process?

Margaret Ann Lembo: [16:08] Yes, and I’ve written multiple books. The pile is right next to me right here, but so if you wanted to look it up, you could go to like ‘The Essential Guide to Aroma Therapy and Vibrational Healing’, which is another title of mine. And or even ‘The Essential Guide to Crystals, Minerals, and Stones’. I’m not sure if I put the aroma therapy in that one, but there is always a list of matching gemstones available in almost all of my books to help you, ‘Gemstones and Aroma Therapy’, use them in conjunction with each other. So you’re using your olfactory senses as well as your visual, the sight, as well as your mind. The intention may be adding the emotion that goes with it to imagine and therefore create your reality. It is all those things combined together keep you focused on what it is that you’re trying to create. Because if you don’t stay focused on what you want and you’re using up all your energy on all these other things, then no, it’s not going to happen.

Mal: Do you recommend like a daily practice of maybe working with oils and crystals as a part of somebody’s spiritual practice? I mean, I’ve been meditating for 30 years, it’s really the foundation of my morning and my spiritual practice, and I’m not 100% disciplined. There are days where  I don’t get to it, but most of the time I do because it just puts me in the right place.

Margaret Ann Lembo: Right.

Mal: Yeah. It’s just so soothing and I get so much clarity and wisdom when I meditate. I get downloads of information that’s just so helpful. I have crystals all around me and oils. I’m always using rollers. I love several of your sprays that I have. So what would be a good way to incorporate some stones and some oils into, say a morning practice?

Margaret Ann Lembo: [18:10] Okay. So let’s say you have a collection of stones or just a few, but if you want and you have an essential oil or two or spray. So you just, like you mentioned, it sounds like you’re doing exactly what I’m going to recommend, which is, you know, you can establish an intention, “Okay, I’m going to pause. I’m going to get contemplative. I’m going to meditate for a few moments here.” Even five to 10 minutes is as amazingly productive for a refocusing and bringing balance into our lives, you know. Sometimes people can consider, “Oh, I have to sit in meditation for 20 minutes, half an hour, an hour.”  Well, if you can do that, and if you have the time and blast, well do it. But maybe five or 10 minutes is all that’s available to you or anybody who’s watching this. So take that few moments,  I would probably grab like my smudge and spray and give myself a little one, two.

Mal: And you use that for like clearing your space, a smudge and spray?

Margaret Ann Lembo: [19:11] To clear your space.

Mal: A lot of people don’t know what smudging is but it’s to clear your space. Yep.

Margaret Ann Lembo: But like this way, you’re not having to burn anything. You could do this in a hotel room.

Mal: Yes.

Margaret Ann Lembo: But the idea behind that is, is that so now you’ve incorporated the olfactory senses and you take an action to clear the energy. I’m clearing away what is no longer for my highest good and this particular spray is to replace that energy with love and wellbeing because there’s Holy water in there too. And so, and then from there, you know, taking some deep breaths following, I find it extremely effective as you probably well know, it’s just start by observing the breath, the inhalation and the exhalation. And just keep focusing on observing your body, breathing in and breathing out. And that helps tremendously to shift your energy. Now, I’d probably, because of the way I do things, I would probably use like one of my decks of cards and pull a card for the day.

Mal: Yup. I’m glad you mentioned your cards because you’ve got several decks and I wanted to talk about those as well.

Margaret Ann Lembo: Yeah, [20:18] So, let’s say here, I just pulled the soda light, so maybe life hasn’t been that great,  I’m just making this up and so the one side of the card shows the gemstone, so that will help me, give me something to focus on. I can put it in front of me and lean it there. And while I’m doing meditation and when I opened my eyes, I could look at that and it’s like, “No, all is well.” And I can read the affirmation. I sail through life on calm, nurturing waters. I’m at peace with myself and the world around me. So even establishing a statement, you can even take this and bring it with you for the day. Or if you have soda light, put it in your pocket, put it in your bra, you know, put it in your pillow case when you’re going to sleep at night. Right? And then the other side. Because all my decks are two sided, I figure more information is better. And so the other side is intention; release, anger, increase harmony, reduce inflammation, improve inner knowing and calm. And you can breathe on each one of these and focus on each one of these and increase mental clarity and emotional balance. So with these statements, you can just pause and think about each one of these and how that relates to your life. And usually when you pull a card, at least from my decks, I’m sure it happens with everybody stacks, I believe, it’s just so right on in the moment.

It’s like, you know, so I’ve been having some physical inflammation lately and so this applies to me, you know. And even though I’m doing an interview in this moment, it’s still applies to what I need right now in my life. Not so much, thank goodness I’m not angry.

Mal: That Jack deck of cards, so you have the crystal and the affirmation on one side. And it sounds like you have all the things that that crystal can do, the benefits of working with that crystal on the other side.

Margaret Ann Lembo: Essentially, yes. A short version of that because it goes in much greater detail and ‘The Essential Guide to Crystals, Minerals, and Stones but its ‘The Crystal Intention Oracle’. But I have others that are based on angels and jump and archangels and masters, mystics and saints and animals.

Mal: How did you learn about, say, animals and the mystics and the saint? How did you pull all this in?

Margaret Ann Lembo: [22:35] Okay, so I’ll answer the mystics and saints first. So, I grew up Catholic, so I…

Mal: I did too.

Margaret Ann Lembo: Did you?

Mal: I didn’t get that knowledge curl, I’m going to be right up front.

Margaret Ann Lembo: [22:47] Well, you know, I don’t have it memorized, I look things up, you know, and I love Google. But I had a lot of experiences of sitting in church on many days where I contemplate the picture is on the walls and the stations of the cross and the murals in my particular church was fantastic, they were beautiful. And I remember they even had a mural of Saint Margaret that I’m named after, because of her affinity with the sacred heart. She started the devotion to the sacred heart. So it shows her having an apparition of Jesus, the Christ, you know, it’s just beautiful. So it impacted me in a very spiritual way. Some people didn’t have a great Catholic experience, I was blessed that I did, you know, thank you very much. And so the bits and pieces of the different saints, I captured during the days that I was growing up. I had 12 years of Catholic school, so that’s a long time in Catholic school.

[24:01] And then the animal part, now that was because when I got into creating the crystal garden, I was so interested in and still am in native American spirituality. And I did a lot of studying and I enjoy immensely the medicine cards by Jamie Sams and the sacred path cards by her. And even, so blessed to have met Ted Andrews, and I don’t know if you noticed, but I dedicated my first book to Ted.

Mal: Well, I have a little book about animal totems.

Margaret Ann Lembo: Yes.

Mal: The pocket guide.

Margaret Ann Lembo: The pocket guide. Yes. And so over the years, but he came here in person to The Crystal Garden, and I also met with him right before I was getting my book published and he introduced me to my first publisher, Llewellyn Worldwide. So anyway, he taught me a lot about animals through his books, animals speak, animal wise, and so then I realized everything has and I always say this, when I teach a class, I almost always bring it up during interviews like this, “Everything is energy. Everything has a vibration.” And if everything has energy and everything has a vibration, then there’s going to be matching vibrations. So pick a card, any card. Dolphin, perfect, we’ll pick this one. So dolphin, blue side, it looks like the ocean. You know, sometimes it looks like, let’s do another one just for the fun of it. Stromatolite that’s pretty wild, right? I see that gemstone, earthworm.

Mal: Ooh. Almost the same color.

Margaret Ann Lembo: And also that stromatolite, it does look like there are earthworm is creating, you know, pathways, right? But those also has to do about unearthing, and there’s some ancient fossils included within stromatalite which helps us to go underground into our subconscious to understanding ourselves, co there’s always a correlation in that regard. Until, you know, when I wrote my book, ‘The Essential Guide, Your Crystals, Minerals, and Stones’, I didn’t want to copy what other authors had written about crystals. So I stopped reading a long time ago, other people’s work, because I don’t want to accidentally plagiarize something, you know, I want it to be coming through me. But I did research on a geology, from a geological level, it’s like, well, if this has calcium in it, then this could potentially be beneficial for the bone structure of the human being. Or, you know, or if this has a combination of all these different minerals, then I’d look up with the minerals were good for, and then see how that gemstone relates to the chakra system physically, mentally, spiritually, and emotionally. It’s just makes sense, it takes a little research, I mean, I did research things. It’s not like I just, everything didn’t just, I wasn’t blessed to have all the things downloaded, especially with the animals. The animals took a lot of research and while right before we connected, I was actually sitting here reading my own book going, “wow, I wrote this so fast, I don’t remember of some of the stuff that I wrote.

Mal: I think you have more products; books, store, cards, oils out there than anybody else I think I’ve ever interviewed. It’s just massive and you’re…

Margaret Ann Lembo: Oh really?

Mal: Wonderful and to do business with you is a sheer pleasure.

Margaret Ann Lembo: Oh good, thank you.

Mal: I’m ordering my crystals, I had some special ones I wanted after reading your book and made a little list and I ordered them. And I got the Palo Santo spray and it was, oh it’s heavenly.

Margaret Ann Lembo: That is good stuff that Palo Santo, it’s really high quality.

Mal: You can’t burn something sometimes where you are.

Margaret Ann Lembo: Yeah.

Mal: You’re on the move, you’re traveling. You don’t want to be burning something in a hotel or somebody’s house, so that’s spray I love, it;s just, oh, it’s wonderful.

Margaret Ann Lembo: Good.

Mal: Margaret, you have, Margaret and excuse me, you have a lovely free offer on your website for the audience. Why don’t you tell them about it?

Margaret Ann Lembo: [28:20] Well, you know, I’ve been contemplating which of my meditation CDs do I want to gift everyone. And I think the one that is going to be applicable is the color of meditation; Align your chakras. And so it’s my very first CD that I created, and it’s an MP3 format, so that you can just download it right into your computer or your phone. And what it is, is about 20 minutes worth of meditation to balance and align your chakras using the colors of the rainbow. And it’s very helpful. A lot of people have gotten great benefit from it.

Mal: Wonderful. I am so happy that we finally got to do this because you were busy then caught up with some things and so this is just been a sheer joy to have you on today.

Margaret Ann Lembo: Well, thank you.

Mal: I can’t thank you enough.

Margaret Ann Lembo: Thank you so much.

Mal: And I look forward to, was it week days that you’re normally on with your book club? Is it Mondays?

Margaret Ann Lembo: Every, yes. Lately I’ve been doing it every other Monday, so at 12 noon Eastern time. We’re doing the meditation. So when you moved to California, that’s 9:00 AM right? With the time change. And then I do a gemstone Oracle, that’s what I’ve been doing, which is so much fun at 1:00PM  Eastern time where I do use all five decks and pull the cards.

Mal: I know, I’ve watched that a couple of times. It’s been terrific.

Margaret Ann Lembo: Good.

Mal: Thank you again, Margaret Ann, I have thoroughly enjoyed this, and you’re just such a talented, talented woman.

Margaret Ann Lembo: Well, you’re very complimentary. Thank you so much.

Mal: Thank you. Bye

Margaret Ann Lembo: Bye. .

NOTES

[00:28] Introduction of the Guest Speaker Margaret Ann Lembo

[03:18] Margaret spoke about how she started on the path of crystals, angels, oils and positive thinking. First she spoke about the angels, being a Catholic and growing up with the teachings of Catholism. And secondly her mentor who introduced her to the book, ‘The Magic of Believing.’

[04:53] Margaret spoke about her experiences with crystals and positive thinking. She was asked by a group of friends to be a silent partner in a business in Arkansas where they would collect trips and she was invited to go on a crystal trip with them. From there she became interested in crystals and their meanings.

[06:33] Margaret also spoke about how her interested was peaks in oils and being divinely inspired with their blends. She researched and became familiar with their blends even creating her own. She incorporated all 3 together with the chakras and mediating and what it all means.

[09:07] Margaret spoke about how she connects the crystals, with the oils and she mentioned that as she was writing ‘Chakra Awakening’, more and more information was being revealed to her and it became clear that a gemstone has the vibration. It has a color first, it has a color that’s associated with the chakra system.

[12:00] Margaret spoke about how you would get someone started in the process. She stated that first you have to find value in meditation. And then depending on your mood, there would be a stone that is integrated into your consciousness because so much happens in one given day. Then she recommends maybe just one stone for each chakra. For example, a red jasper at the root chakra or a black tourmaline, that’s red energy.

[13:45] Margaret explains that a crystal point doesn’t really matter, as long as it’s programmable with love and wellbeing.

[14:16] Margaret explains how the crystals are programmed. It was Marcel Vogel who brought the awareness and the easiest way to program a gem/crystals. This can be done by forming an intention of clearing and hold the gemstone on the inhalation, you form the intent and then when you exhale forcefully through your nose, you can like pulse breath is what he calls it, pulse the real breathe and insert that energy and tend that energy into the gemstone.

[15:16]  Margaret explains that it’s our intention that’s really creates our reality and then it’s the gemstone that is helping us to stay mindful and put our attention on what we do want, not what we don’t want. And that’s the key to almost anything is to be able to imagine and visualize our reality as we want it to be.

[16:08] Margaret uses the stones and oils for that intent process by making reference to a few of her books like ‘The Essential Guide to Aroma Therapy and Vibrational Healing’ list matching gemstones are used in conjunction with aroma therapy. She mentions olfactory senses as well as your visual, the sight, as well as your mind by adding the emotion that goes with it to imagine and therefore create your reality.

[18:10] Margaret explains how to incorporate oils and crystal in your morning practice or meditation.

[09:11] Margaret further plains the incorporation by mentioning smudging as a way of clearing the air around you instead of burning incense and other fragrances that may cause attention or may not be allowed in external environment such as hotel rooms or family dwellings.

[20:18] Margaret speaks about her many deck of cards

[22:35] Margaret explains how she incorporated the mystics, saint and animals in the chakra system.

[22:47] Margaret highlights how the saints and mystic are incorporated by researching and through experiences of sitting in church on many days where she would contemplate the picture is on the walls and the stations of the cross and the murals in my particular church was fantastic, they were beautiful.

[24:01] She continued to by explaining the animal part and her interest in native American spirituality. And I did a lot of studying and I enjoy immensely the medicine cards by Jamie Sams and the sacred path cards by her. She continued to say that the animals took a lot of research but she had to do it a she wanted to know so much more.

[28:20] Margaret invited every one of her free offer on her website

[29:15] Margaret informed the listeners of her date and time of her book club and her oracle and meditation.

Meet Linda Ugelow, Host of the TV Show Woman Inspired


When I was a kid, I didn’t have a shy bone in my body. I used to go to my Grandparents Hickey’s house, play the piano with my grandpa and sing “When Irish Eyes Are Smiling”.  I would also pretend to tap dance wearing my Mary Jane patent leather shoes. Sometimes the neighbors would come to see me.  The thought of making a mistake or looking foolish never entered my mind.

Do you think I could do that today? Hell no! I’m so much more conscious of making an ass of myself.

Truth be told, I’d love to recapture that free spirit and not care about what others think.

I was also a real ham and never feared standing up in class or getting on stage until…you guessed it, someone pointed, snickered and laughed at me. All of a sudden, I was gripped with insecurity and feeling completely self-conscious.

The fear of public speaking can be a huge stumbling block and is at the top of the fear list for most people. They are terrified of being rejected or looking foolish. The fear is so pervasive that many people I’ve spoken to about it have allowed huge opportunities to pass them by because they couldn’t speak up.

Honestly, I get so nervous every time I have to get up and speak live. Funny thing, I’m completely at home behind a camera. It feels so different for me than live eyes watching every move I make.

This week’s guest on Awakening Divine Wildness is Linda Ugelow. Linda is a real crackerjack at public speaking. She runs sought after teaching programs that show women how to release the fear and reclaim their voice. Linda knows how to recapture confidence when speaking publicly. She shares some of her favorite strategies to overcome fear with us.

I know you will love our conversation!

 

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Mal Duane Interviews Linda Ugelow, Producer of the TV Show Women Inspired

Mal: I am thrilled about this week’s topic because it’s something that’s so many women suffer from, and I’m one of them. I’ve got to be honest, people say, “Oh, Mal, you know, you record videos and you do workshops and you do listing presentations in people’s houses. You mean to tell me that you get scared when you get up on a stage to speak?” Yup, I do. I mean, you know that expression, don’t let them see you sweat? Well, honestly, I sweat. So that’s why I’m thrilled to have Linda Ugelow with me today.
[00:38] She’s an expert on public speaking and the roots of why we get so scared when we have to get up and use our voice. She’s helped hundreds of newly and seasoned professionals drop their stress and anxiety to feel comfortable and confident in front of a crowd and the camera. She’s a sought after coach for overcoming your fear of speaking and imposter syndrome. An international speaker herself, she has presented at the Positive Psychology Conference in France and recently emcee at the TEDx to Debrecen in Hungary. Linda is also an accomplished musician and dancer having performed in more than 500 shows around the world. She produces and hosts the TV, show Women Inspired and is the author of the upcoming book, ‘Delight in the Limelight’, which will be out in 2021. She also offers regular retreats for women, helping them to build confidence in their public speaking and we’ll get into more of that. I am so excited, girl, to see you and how are you today?
Linda Ugelow: I’m really happy to be on Mal. This is great.
Mal: Well, I’ve been interviewed by you and you’re masterful at being a host and interviewing people. I was completely relaxed with you and I love shooting video and things like that but, you know, very honest, if I have to get up on a stage, wow, everything changes very quickly. So let’s get into maybe some of those fears, some of those insecurities that we have as women about getting up and using our voice.
Linda Ugelow: Yeah. [02:32] The first thing I want to respond to, with what you just said, is that we’re all speakers, we speak from morning to night, but the thing is we’re comfortable in some situations and not others. And it’s different for every single person. So you described how you are really comfortable on video and you are, you are so poised and elegant and fluent and yet you feel very differently when you get up on stage. There are people who feel just the opposite. They can speak in front of a crowd, but put them in front of a camera and they freak out. And then there are people who want to do neither or like both of them but then if they’re in a networking circle and it’s their turn to speak, that’s when they feel terrified. So everybody has their own unique pattern. [03:21] And where it comes from are the experiences and the messages we have absorbed and experienced in our lives that gave us the sense that it wasn’t safe to be seen and or heard. And it could be any number of things, for each of us, it’s different.
Mal: Do you think that those fears, those insecurities start when we’re very small and it’s something we continue to carry with us?
Linda Ugelow: I think in most cases, that’s true. [03:59] You know, children, when we come into the world, we were not afraid to be seen and heard. In fact, we thrive on it and depend on it. You know, you picture the infant or the toddler who gets up for the first time and everyone’s delighted and laughing and clapping, she looks around and it just feels delight to be the center of attention. Or, you know, the four or five year old at the playground saying, “look at me, look at me, look at me, and look at me.” You know, constantly asking for that attention and then 10, 15 years later, afraid to stand in front of a group and speak for two minutes without breaking into a sweat. So in many cases, something has happened between that time of free self-expression and feeling okay to be you and then the eroding away as we learn to fit in, get along and follow the rules and be a good girl, and plus all the experiences or messages we might’ve gotten in our family at school or just in our culture.
Mal: I know for me, I was ridiculed as a kid.
Linda Ugelow: Yeah.
Mal: I was made fun of and so that started to create the insecurity in me that I was like, “Oh no, I better not raise my hand. I better not get up and speak.” And then it became more of a fear of rejection and that they don’t like me, so, I don’t want to get up and speak, they don’t like me, which always created in my own mind.
Linda Ugelow: Yeah.
Mal: And so you can see, that’s such a beautiful example and you’re so self-aware. So thank you for sharing that. [05:52] So you can see how being ridiculed would make it feel unsafe to express yourself or feeling that you’re not liked, so you don’t fit in, which most if not, you know, many and most, probably teenagers go through that because that’s part of the developmental stage of wanting to fit in. And most of us feel like we don’t. I even heard, I have a friend who teaches at Harvard and she said that they have a question for newly incoming freshmen, “How many of you feel like you are the odd person out and you really don’t belong here and it’s just kind of a fluke?” And half the people raise their hands. And those are people going to Harvard, who got into Harvard. I mean, we have an impression or a projection of what people going to Harvard must be like or feel like, but no, they’re not immune to this either.
Mal: Wow. So are there certain practices, steps we can take that will help us build confidence with getting up and speaking publicly?
Linda Ugelow: [06:55] Yes. Well, I believe that fear is not something to be pushed through or ignored. It’s actually a message. And it’s a message of these deeper things. So whether or not you had an experience of being ridiculed or bullied or you were ignored by your parents or you’re hovered over by your parents or you were pushed to perform, or you had, you know, some kind of experience in school, those experiences are needing to be looked at and honored, so that they can be healed and put away. Because the fear is really our body telling us that it remembers something that we should pay attention to. It’s like that’s what fear is. [07:45] Fear is saying you’re not safe. And so if you’re feeling fear that means that something’s getting triggered from a past experience, which in many cases is very protected, it’s protective. So by ignoring it, you’re kind of telling your body, “I don’t care. I’m not going to listen to you.” And what ends up happening is people, they say, “I just need more courage. I need to step outside my comfort zone. I’ve got to push through this and ignore it and don’t let it hold me back or keep me from living my life.” And what happens is that for some people, they may eventually get over it because they gain more evidence that in fact it is safe. But for many people, they end up carrying their fear with them. They get better at presenting, they get better at performing but inside they suffer. Kind of like you are expressing, cause you’ve learned to be very poised and express yourself so beautifully but inside you may be having a different kind of experience. [08:54] So, the tip that I have, it’s not a tip, it’s actually I lead people through a four step process, which I call the four Rs. The letter R of releasing fear and that Review, Resolve, Repattern and Restore.
Mal: Can you give us a little brief description of each?
Linda Ugelow: Yes. [09:15] So review is looking at the things that we’re talking about. It’s what I called, kind of like decluttering the psychic closet. It’s all the feelings and experiences that we have that maybe we haven’t looked at for a while, or we think, “Oh, that’s from long ago, and that doesn’t count anymore. I was a child, or I was younger.” And so it’s these experiences that we had, but it’s also messages. So for instance, how many of us have been taught, don’t stand out or don’t talk back to your elders or don’t question authority or if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say it at all or children should be seen and not heard. Any of these messages that we get, we may think or we may not have even thought about them since we heard them. And so they become embedded in our understanding of the world. And if you have a message like this, it’s going to hit up against your desire to do just the opposite, to stand out, to take up people’s time and attention and to trust that what you have to say is of importance.
Even though all your life you are taught in school that you had to get somebody’s approval and grade in order to know that you were okay. So that though, so it’s the experiences, it’s the messages and it’s also our inner thoughts because our inner dialogue which I believe, the negative inner dialogue that we have, I believe emanates from these other two things, from the messages and the experiences. And when you review these and take care of them, a lot of those inner thoughts will shift, but some of them are kind of hardwired and then they take a little more attention. But we’ll hold onto that until later because that that comes into the last R. So that’s the review is like, let’s have a look at what were the rules that you followed by? Where did you feel diminished or put down or rejected or unseen? What are the things that you were told? You’ve got to like dig around for the treasures. I love what something Luis Hay once said, which was if you want to clean the house, he got to see the dirt.
Mal: Absolutely. I was just going to say that.
Linda Ugelow: Right, oh my gosh.
Mal: I was going to say, “If you want to clean something, you got to find the dirt.”
Linda Ugelow: I love that.
Mal: It’s the same thing with us. We’ve got to find what our weaknesses are, our challenges, and our fears, acknowledge them and work with them. You’re absolutely spot on. You can’t dismiss this stuff.
Linda Ugelow: Yeah.
Mal: It has to be worked with and embraced. It’s all part of you. So awesome. Step two.
Linda Ugelow: [12:02] Step two is to resolve what you find there. So it’s not enough to know that you were terrified by Sister Mary in Catholic school and you couldn’t think of what seven times eight was when she was knocking her ruler against her hand, threateningly. You have to find a way to kind of like close the book on it, in a conscious way. And there are lots of different modalities out there that you can use. I have my favorites that I like to use, but basically what you want is to find a way to acknowledge, first of all, that it happened, acknowledge the feelings that you had. Maybe even from your standpoint now, envision what might’ve happened in the best of circumstances, but clearly weren’t available to you at the time. Finding a way of seeing what may have been going on in the other person’s shoes. So expanding your sense of self compassionate to others. And then thinking about what it is that you need, you would need to let go, so that your body trusts that this is no longer a big story for you anymore. So there’s going to be some forgiveness and release involved, maybe cutting the cords. But you want to get to a place where your body trusts that it’s safe, now. That those things are no longer like active volcanoes ready to erupt.
Mal: I love that. Yeah.
Linda Ugelow: So that’s step number two.
Mal: Great.
Linda Ugelow: [13:46] So step three, if you want to get into it, is repattern. When you want to replace out your old ways of responding and reacting with new ways. So one of the things that I like to ask people at my talks or at the retreats that I do, is what is the desired feeling that you want as a speaker? And if you get into it well, like, “Mal, what are some of the things you would like to feel?”
Mal: I like to feel that I’m making a difference. That I’m bringing something that touches the women that I work with deeply, that they’re getting value insight. They’re getting woken up a little bit, getting a little bit of a shakeup.
Linda Ugelow: Yeah.
Mal: And feeling inspired that, “Oh, if she can do that, then I can do it too. If she’s gone through that and look how she’s living today, maybe I can do that too.” So it’s about leaving them inspired, inspired to take action, inspired to make changes in their lives.
Linda Ugelow: Yeah. That’s beautiful. That’s beautiful. And you know what? You can do that without feeling comfortable yourself. I’m sure you do that already, even if you’re on stage. And what I would like to challenge you to think about is what do you want for yourself? How do you want to feel for you? How do you want to feel ideally up on stage?
Mal: That’s a good question because I think more about what I’m delivering. I guess I want to leave knowing that I was a presence of love, unconditional love for those that I was speaking with.
Linda Ugelow: That’s beautiful. I love that. So one of the, when you tell me about a presence. So presence is something obviously that one can practice. [15:59] I once read a book called ‘The Perfect Wrong Note’ and the biggest takeaway I had from it was that there’s nothing too small to practice. So if you want to practice, if you want to be a presence of love, you practice being a presence of love. And when you practice that, you will find that your body will become relaxed and open and you’ll shift into a place of openheartedness.
Mal: Beautiful.
Linda Ugelow: And then you can take that feeling of openheartedness and expand that out to include the whole audience, the whole bringing your energy to fill the whole room. So that’s, that’s beautiful and thank you for that example. So things that other people may bring up is, I want to feel relaxed or I want to feel confident or I want to feel playful. I want to feel like I’m fully myself, you know, expressive or I want to feel like I bring my humorful part out, which I would do with my kids. So each of these you can practice. And what that does is it re patterns your way of expressing yourself. And you can practice these things in your imagination, through mental rehearsal. Just kind of what we just did was a kind of mental imagination, right? And you can do the same thing with a sense of playfulness or relaxation in your body or calm and centeredness or a feeling of clarity. You just imagine that quality inside yourself and you can also practice that quality in your day. So for instance, you can get out of your car and walk to the grocery store with a sense of ease and elegance or playful and jauntiness. Do you hear what I do? Or you can have a conversation on the phone with a friend of yours and if you have a list, let’s say on a piece of paper and you say, “Hmm, today I want to practice loving presence. So as I speak to my friend, I’m going to be in this place of loving presence. I’m going to feel it in my body and I’m going to allow that energy to come out of me.” I have a feeling Mal that you do this all the time because that’s what I see in you, is loving presence.
Mal: Oh, thank you. Thank you.
Linda Ugelow: You’re welcome.
Mal: I love the idea, you say, practice this. It’s funny, when I know I’m going to have a difficult conversation with somebody, I rehearse it. In other words, I write it out what my intention is, what I want to communicate in that conversation, I make notes and then I go over it a few times. So that when I go into a situation where I’m having an important conversation or a difficult one, I’ve got something going on in my head that kind of guides me because I’ve rehearsed it, because I’ve practice it a little bit, have an idea of what I want to communicate rather than just going in cold. I think practice is very important when we’re speaking.
Linda Ugelow: I totally agree and I love that example and it’s not just in your head that you’re doing it, you’re doing it in your whole body.
Mal: Yes.
Linda Ugelow: [19:31] You are creating that neural pathway that has already have like a groove and it, so that when you go to speak, it’s already, it’s already part of you. It’s already, it’s not brand new.
Mal: Right.
Linda Ugelow: And I think that’s the importance of mental rehearsal as well. It does the same kind of thing. And you know, it’s interesting because this is the same place where I first began using this technique was in difficult conversations. And I would, you could name that or rename that as a high stake conversation. And speaking from a stage or speaking on a video is a high stake conversation, really. It’s one where you are asking people to give you their attention for a period of time.
Mal: No, no, that’s true.
Linda Ugelow: Right.
Mal: You mentioned that you have some favorite modalities that you like to use. Would you share one of them?
Linda Ugelow: Yeah, I’d be happy to. [20:37] So mental rehearsal is one. I sometimes call it creative visualization or which is very akin to hypnosis or self-hypnosis. Another one I use is EFT, emotional freedom technique.
Mal: Oh, wonderful.
Linda Ugelow: And I’ve been playing around with my own kind of version of it. I’ve been calling it emotional freedom journey because I feel like I teach people a script, a way of using a script in order to bring themselves through a process of healing these particular experiences that keep them from feeling safe, being seen.
Mal: I like that. I like that. The other thing I use too is, and I will and it’s probably similar to what you’re talking about with the visualization. Sometimes I will just get very quiet, do like a meditation, get myself in that just very calm, emptied, so that, you know, the monkey mind isn’t going. A quiet, meditative state before doing something that requires an important conversation, is just to ease into it from a place of peace and calm and being centered really, really helps me. If I try to get into an important conversation and I’ve got a thousand things going on and there’s, you know, millions of ideas racing through my head, I can’t converse.
Linda Ugelow: Because you’re not present.
Mal: Right.
Linda Ugelow: And so you put yourself into a state of place of presence.  I agree with you. [22:26] I think that finding and having a way to prepare yourself before speaking is really important. I call them pre-speaking rituals. And there are a whole number of things that you can do to shift you in the kind of state that you would like to be in. Some people, I used to actually, before I discovered this process, I used to like do a lot of vigorous exercise because I had so many jitters in my body. I just needed a place to put them out. But then afterward I needed to center myself to bring myself to, as you say, that place of clarity and focus and there’s a chakra meditation that I like to do now in order to bring myself, I feel like I bring all my capacities together in doing that. It’s fun. I mean, you can choose and play with all kinds of pre-speaking rituals to get you to the place you want. You might see, oh, I know what I was thinking of like Tony Robbins, they have a shot of him backstage before he goes on and he does this twirl and just kind of like in the vortex and his energy and he comes up with his energy. And so it depends like what you’re trying to bring to that experience. Like if you want to bring a lot of dynamism and energy, then you’re going to want to put that in your body. You need to embody, that’s where the neuropathway comes in. [23:56] You need to embody the energy that you want to bring.
Mal: Love it. You have a very generous offer from your website, for the listeners, would you tell us about it?
Linda Ugelow: [24:06] It is a guided visualization for speaking confidence. So just kind of along the lines that we’re speaking about. It guides you into relaxing your body and from that place of deep relaxation, envisioning how you want to feel and seeing yourself on the stage the way you ideally would like to see yourself. And so again, it’s a way of patterning in that experience so that when you were there, you’re already, it’s already been rehearsed in your body. And what I love about this is knowing that Olympic athletes use this technique and peak performers use this technique. It’s very, very effective and I’ve had people who have come back and who haven’t even worked with me, but by just using that guided visualization and listening to it several times before a talk had huge success in staying calm and focused and feeling like they performed at the best of their ability.
Mal: Wonderful. How can people get a hold of you, Linda, the audience? What’s the best way to reach you?
Linda Ugelow: I would suggest, you can go to download that guided visualization at lindayugelow.com/speakingconfidence. But if you just go to my website, lindaugelow.com you’ll find the same download right there on my homepage.
Mal: Wonderful. And I will put your domain address, everything in the show notes, so they’ll, there’ll be a link there for them.
Linda Ugelow: Thank you so much.
Mal: Oh, it’s a pleasure to see you today and connect with you. Wonderful and I’m really looking forward to your book.
Linda Ugelow: I am too.
Mal: Delight in the limelight.
Linda Ugelow: Yeah.
Mal: I’ve seen the cover, so I’m definitely looking forward to seeing the book released.
Linda Ugelow: Thanks so much Mal.
Mal: A wonderful, thank you.

SHOWNOTES
[00:33] Mal’s introduction of Linda Ueglow
[02:32] Linda highlights that even though we speak 24/7s we are still uncomfortable when speaking. Each individual is different and shares different fears. She talks about the different fears that exist and we all have our fears when speaking be it in front of a video, on stage, networking circles.
[03:21] Linda states that our insecurities come from past experiences in our lives.
[03:59] Linda agrees with Mal that insecurities start at a small age. She stated that individual experience, family messages, and culture affects why we have fear.
[05:52] Linda states that being ridicule while growing up can make it unsafe to express your fears and insecurities.
[06:55] Linda believes that there are steps and practices that can help to build confidence. Fear must not be ignored but be looked at, honored and put away.
[07:45] Linda states that fear is something that is triggered by the past.
[08:54] There is a 4 step process that Linda uses and it’s called the four Rs. The R is for Releasing the Fear by Review, Resolve, Repattern and Restore.
[09:15] Step 1 is Review, this is to look at those past experiences that may have caused fear while growing up.
[12:02] Step 2 – Resolve. What did you find while looking at those past experiences? Think about what was happening then, even with the other person. In doing so you will expand your sense of self-compassion to others.
[13:46] Step 3 – Repattern. Replacing old ways of responding and reacting with new ways. Linda stated that she read a book called ‘The Perfect Wrong Note’ and she highlighted that there is nothing too small to practice. Practicing repatterns your way of expressing yourself.
[19:31] Step 4 – Restore. Linda talks about creating a neural pathway when you release what you are going through by rehearsal or practicing.
[20:37] Modalities that Linda uses are Mental rehearsal or creative visualization which is similar to hypnosis or self-hypnosis. She also uses EFT – Emotional Freedom Technique and her personal one EFJ – Emotional Freedom Journey.
[22:26] Linda talks about finding ways to prepare yourself before speaking is very important. She talks about Pre-speaking Rituals.
[23:56] She concludes by saying that we should embody the energy that we want to bring in.
[24:06] Linda has a special offer on her website, it’s a Guided Visualization for Speaking Confidence. This can be downloaded from lindaugelo.com/speakingconfidence.

Meet Rev. Dr. Sandy Range, Therapeutic Coach, Shaman and Medicine Woman


Do you ever wake up wondering who you really are or what is your life purpose?

Honestly, I have many times over the years which has inspired my spiritual path and nudged me to take a deeper look within.

Much of my life was controlled by external events, material things and other people’s opinions of me. Then I woke up to the fact that none of these things defined who I really was or my purpose.

The last thirty years of study have been an arduous task to understand how we all have a divine birthright. Each one of us is created in the likeness of Jesus or the Divine Mother Sophia. It doesn’t matter what religion you believe; you are all from the same source.

This past weekend at The Rhys Thomas Institute where I go to school was the heart chakra weekend. I had no idea what to expect. Over three days I watched a roomful of people uncover parts of themselves that had been buried for years. Student’s hearts broke wide open, shining love on one another.

I personally experienced a sobbing, shaking transformation myself.

I realized I isolate from the world behind a spiritual mask. That people must prove to me that they are trustworthy first.  It’s part of my defense behavior for being a “charismatic leader” profile. I always feel I am better doing it alone.

Since I have been a child, I’ve thought I can do it alone. Only allowing a select few to get close to me.

However, my soul’s purpose is to be a light, an illuminator for women and share the wisdom I have learned from profound life challenges.  So, I need to be vulnerable, more trusting and more of my authentic self.

This week’s guest on the Awakening Divine Wildness Podcast is Rev. Dr. Sandy Range. Dr. Sandy helps us learn how to uncover our true selves. She shares how each of us has an angel on one shoulder and a devil on the other. Who do you listen to? Surprisingly, most of us are driven by our thoughts and not our hearts.

In this powerful conversation, Dr. Sandy will show you how to get back on the path to living from your higher self.

So Dear One…

BE Love, BE LIGHT and most importantly BE YOU.

 

Listen to the Awakening Divine Wildness podcast by clicking the play button on the audio player below.

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Mal: Well, I am very, very honored to have today’s guest because I’ve met her personally and I don’t often get to do that with many of these women that appear on this show because they’re from all over the globe. But I went to the most magical woman’s retreat and this divine soul, was a sponsor of that retreat. And it was a day I will not forget. [00:33] Our guest today is Reverend Dr. Sandy Range. She’s a therapeutic coach, a spiritual counselor and advisor, a hypnotherapist, a Shaman, a medicine woman, a wellness practitioner, group facilitator, author and public speaker, and she’s magical. Dr. Reverend Sandy has over 22 years in clinical practice, 55 years of spiritual training and practice, and over 30 years in human services.
After managing her own private practice, which she has now retired from, she was for five years, a full service mental health, spiritual wellness and personal spiritual, professional development organization. She holds a BA degree in human services planning and management and a master’s in mental health counseling. Reverend Dr. Sandy whole certifications as a trauma specialist, clinical hypnotherapy – wow, I’m having trouble today – hypnotherapist, past life regression hypnotherapist and neuro linguistic programming coach and practitioner. She’s a facilitator of groups and workshops that promote awakened intent, inner growth, holistic wellness, higher consciousness, and the evolution of mind, emotions, and spirit.
And we’re going to talk about this wonderful book today, but I want to read a beautiful quote from the book to kind of get our conversation going. [02:20] “When a deep heartfelt forgiveness is realized and it must be realized, a great burden is lifted from us.
“We experience true freedom. What happens next? The light is already within us. It’s in our consciousness, our minds and our hearts. Once the burden of our transgressions is lifted and released, and as long as we choose life and light for our lives, looking upward from within. We engage the light of enlightenment.”
And Reverend Sandy, I am honored today to have you and to have this conversation today.
Reverend Dr. Sandy Range: Well, thank you very much for having me. I too am very honored by you, to be interviewed by you and I’m very grateful for it. Thank you.
Mal: The title of this, “You’ve Lost Your Mind Now Find Your Soul. I understand that because I’ve spent 30 years getting out of my head and my negative thinking and my self-condemnation. And it’s in that process, I’ve been able to uncover who I really am. And that helped me get sober and get into recovery, once I realized my thinking was the cause of my own suffering. So tell us a little bit about your understanding and your process of losing your mind and finding your soul.
Reverend Dr. Sandy Range: [04:02] Yes. Well, that title came to me actually, and I was like, you know, you really do have to kind of get out of your head in order to find that place inside you that white inside you. And you know, it was strange because I said, “okay, I have to look this up and make sure I’m not, you know, misquoting somebody or taking plagiarizing someone.” And there was a gentleman, I can’t remember his name right now off the top of my head, but he was an environmentalist and he loved being in the woods in the forest, and he wrote journals, his own journals. They will never publish, nothing ever happened with them, there were no copyrights. But he said, “Into the forest I go to lose my mind and find my soul”, and I was like, “Oh my gosh, he’s like reading my mind,” you know, because way before me.
However, to lose your mind in, and I think he also was touching on this because he was an environmentalist, you know. And I’m a tree person. I love the words, I love going in there and yes, I do lose my mind every single time I go to the woods. [05:07] But losing your mind is, well, first of all, we have to understand that we’re not just a brain mind. We’re not this big gray Delco battery up here inside our skulls. We’re more than that, we’re more than the brain mind. We have a consciousness that is not housed in the brain mind, okay? It is part of our soul self, our spirit self. So when we think about losing your mind, brain mind is attached to ego. And I like to think of it as the devil and angel sitting on your shoulder, okay? And the little angel on your shoulder is your soul mind, your soul consciousness and the devil on your shoulder is the ego mind, the brain mind.
[05:50] And it is the ego consciousness, ego mind that gets offended, that gets angry, that gets POed, you know. That you know, doesn’t like anything as judgmental, if that’s the one, that’s the mind that takes offense at everything and wants things its own way. Wants total control over everything in your environment and yourself and it should not ever be in control.
Now we need the ego. People think, ”Oh, I’m going to do enlightenment and I’m going to meditate and I have to get rid of my ego.” You cannot get rid of your ego. It is a necessary part of our humanity. Ego serves a purpose of protecting us. It keeps us from walking out and crossing the street in front of a convoy of Mack trucks. It keeps us from walking off the edge of a cliff. It keeps us safe, it protects the body. That’s where we need ego.
[06:49] But from birth to adulthood, nobody is teaching us how to control and reign in ego when it starts veering off into other areas of our lives. Nobody knew that, nobody tells us that. So unless you’re born in a monastery or you know, somewhere in the Himalayas or some deeply spiritual place where they can train you, yeah. But for the rest of us, we don’t get that training. So ego ends up taking over. And it gets offended and it gets hurt and it gets mad and angry and defensive and frustrated and all those negative, what’s considered negative emotions. [07:29] So, in order for us to find our soul, we have to really step out of the mind, the ego mind, lose it completely. Okay? Just let it do its job to protect us. That’s all it needs to do. And then we can find our soul.
Mal: I love the way you call it the angel mind, the devil mind. I named my ego, I wrote about this in my first book and I named my ego, Louise. Louise had a very different voice then the angel mind.  Louise had a voice that kept telling me, “What do you think you are? You’re not good enough. What do you think you’re trying to do?” And it was so condemning. But I realized I couldn’t get rid of it because it was part of me. So I had to work with Louise and I had to be able to, when that voice came up, say, “you know what, I’m not listening to this right now. Nope! Nope! I’m not going there. I’m not buying into that conversation.” And I would, you know, I have little triggers that I would use to stop that negative chatter in my head. Over the years now, that doesn’t flare up as much as it used to. Thank goodness, but that’s what ran my life. It was the tail wagging the dog. It was the way that you describe…
Reverend Dr. Sandy Range: what the other one’s life.
Mal: I mean, really it is what gets us out of control, except we need it because it does keep us from harm it. It does keep us from stepping off the curb in front of a bus. So what are some practices that you like to teach Reverend Sandy, that help people to get away from that chatter, from that, from that ego mind?
Reverend Dr. Sandy Range: Yes. [09:15] First and foremost, mindfulness, sitting in the silence, meditation, that is a necessity. We have to be able to turn inside, go within, and just sit in silence because that’s where we get the insights, the inspirations, the intuitions, all of the knowledge that’s available to us from a divine source, you know? And by that I don’t mean it in a “woo woo” kind of way. [09:51] I mean it in a cosmologically balanced universe that we live in, this cosmology of – what’s the word I want to use? A cosmology of being in balance with nature, being in balance with self, being in balance with the divine intelligence or the universal intelligence, we might want to use that word. Where when we’re within, we can hear those messages, you know. People sit in prayer and they’re talking all the time in prayer. You know, they talk, they’re speaking, they asking for help, they’re asking for, you know, favors and they’re asking for to get us out of trouble and make sure that my loved one is safe and well, we’re always asking. But when we sit in the silence in meditation, in mindfulness, helps you get to meditation, that’s when we start receiving the answers. That’s when we start getting the information. If we’re always chatting, you’re not going to get it.
Mal: You know, young people today, I think really have a huge challenge ahead of them because they are constantly on their phones.
Reverend Dr. Sandy Range: Yeah.
Mal: They’re tweeting, they’re texting, they’re messaging, and it’s nonstop. I don’t think the younger generation today, the millennials know what silence is. They don’t know what to do in silence. To me, my favorite part of the day, is silence.
Reverend Dr. Sandy Range: Yes.
Mal: I cherish it. I could spend three hours in the morning with complete quiet, doing a little spiritual reading, some meditation, some journaling, and some prayer. I love it. It is the best part of my day. Young people today don’t know what that is.
Reverend Dr. Sandy Range: Yeah.
Mal: They are hooked on technology and constant mental stimulation. I don’t know what we’re going to do with them.
Reverend Dr. Sandy Range: Well, we have to find a way to wake them up yup.
Mal: Yup.
Reverend Dr. Sandy Range: And I’m not so sure, maybe a lot of them do. Yes, absolutely. They’re into technology and being on their phones and looking down, walking out in front of that bus, looking down on their phones, their devices, you know. And that’s, again, is really the ego. The ego says, “I’m in control. I do what I want. I’m going to rule this person, you know, this is my domain.” And it’s not its domain, but we have allowed it, we have given it. [12:36] It’s like giving an abuser the power to control us. And yes, sometimes we don’t know initially what’s happening, you know. Initially, if you’re being abused or you’re in an abusive relationship, we don’t really know what’s happening in the beginning. But then we stayed in it so long and that’s as it goes with those devices and looking down and giving that ego the control over us and power. When we stay in it for so long, we kind of don’t recognize until it’s too late and now we’re stuck. Now we’re in this relationship, whether it’s with ego or whether it’s with a human abuser. That we have to understand, okay, what do I do now? How do I get out of this? [13:21] Hopefully. And eventually they do look up. But someone or something needs to be there for them to see, “okay, yes, there is a way up. Yes, I can get out of this stuff with my ego. I can move forward. I can, yes, I can still have my technology.” We’re using it right now. It’s a beautiful thing, if it’s used within its limits, its boundaries and not possessing us.
Mal: Yeah.
Reverend Dr. Sandy Range: So, yes.
Mal: I look around restaurants, look at people when they’re out to dinner. Everybody’s looking at their phone. I can’t stand that! If I go out to dinner with friends, I don’t want them looking at their phone. So I’m there, let’s engage, let’s communicate with one another.
Reverend Dr. Sandy Range: Yes.
Mal: Put the damn phone down. Now you do these magical retreats, and I know you have more of them coming up this year. But I mean, I spent a glorious day with you, the way you put your heart and soul into that day and we dabbled in several different practices. Not only meditation but just talking about so many juicy, beautiful things. What are, this is going to be a tough question, what is yours, because you have so many gifts, you’re a Shaman and medicine woman. What are some of your favorite practices that you like to teach women?
Reverend Dr. Sandy Range: [14:55] Wow. Well, I don’t know if there’s any one specific or particular practice. I try to give them enough of a toolkit where they can pick and choose or use them in combination or whatever to assist them. You know, I think maybe meditation and mindfulness, absolutely, number one.
Mal: Yep.
Reverend Dr. Sandy Range: You cannot move forward in your spiritual life without it, so that’s absolutely number one. And you know, it depends on what the person needs or seeking for themselves as well. You know, their spiritual coaching and counseling, there’s, you know, actually hypnotherapy. There’s past life regressions where, okay, so what is keeping you stuck in this life? Okay? Or what is keeping you from moving forward in the work that you want to do, your spiritual work? And we can go back into the past and see what your soul did in another life that you may be paying for in this life. Karma! That’s really simple.
Mal: Which brings up a fascinating point. I don’t think people really understand what the soul is all about. I think most of us, if we were raised in a religion, I was raised Catholic, so my concept of soul, you know, really all based on the religion of Catholicism and that is not my concept today. I understand that my soul chose, my parents chose when I would come here and also chose the lessons that I need to learn while I’m here so that I don’t keep repeating. And boy, that has been an education. So tell us a little bit about the soul and how people can work with it and understand it.
Reverend Dr. Sandy Range: [16:48] Okay. Again, everything boils down to going within, going inside, who’s sitting in the silence, listening to your own soul. That angel mind on your shoulder is the soul speaking to you. But it whispers, it’s soft, it’s you know, it’s very gentle. It’s not that breath, brash, you know abrasive ego that says, “Oh, I’m going to take over. Just don’t listen to that thing over there on the other shoulder, you listen to me, only me.”  Make lots of noise. The soul says, “Okay, I’m really here and I’m talking to you, but you need to quiet down so you can hear me.” And so this is why we go into the silence, you know, it’s why we go into the silence.
[17:33] The soul, I just briefly, you mentioned about going into a past life regression to see what the soul may have done and karma and all of that good stuff. Now there’s good karma, there’s bad karma, you know, and it’s not really bad. It’s what we have chosen to experience for our soul growth in each lifetime. And yes, when we get here, we have that veil of forgetfulness. We don’t remember that we chose this. And so it may take us until we’re 40, 50, 60, 70, 90 years old before we’d say, “Ah, I get it now. I get it now. Now, I’m remembering. I know why I was here, why I came here, you know?” So hopefully, the more we evolve each time, it doesn’t take us that long.
Sometimes there are spiritual teachers that can help you to recall why you were here, or help you to look at the lessons that have their challenges. I call them challenges that have presented themselves in your lifetime. And due to those challenges, what were the lessons that we needed to learn from those challenges, you know? [18:48] And so each time we get the lesson, each time we understand it, you know, we can elevate, we can move forward. Now we can understand it and we can also not like it and argue about it and be, you know, angry about it, “well, it didn’t have to happen to me,” blah, blah, blah. But then when we do that, that’s ego again, trying to knock soul out of the way. Okay. So we can’t be angry over the challenge that presents itself. And when we do that, again, we revert right back again to square one. So we use mindfulness again. That’s where we want to be mindful all the time and it’s a 24/7 and even when we’re sleeping. Really, our consciousness, our soul, when we’re doing our thing, we need to be mindful of the fact that, okay, what actions, what behaviors, what thoughts am I emulating that are going to cause more discomfort, more challenges to the present themselves to me?
Mal: And I love that you say challenges because lots of times women interpret painful experiences. It’s like, what did I do to deserve this? Why me? They become a victim to their pain and in fact, it’s about a lesson. I always say that there is wisdom in the wound. It is up for us to find it.
Reverend Dr. Sandy Range: Yes. Yes.
Mal: What is then, in your lifetime so far is one of your biggest soul lessons?
Reverend Dr. Sandy Range: Oh boy. [Cross talking 20:21 – 20: 20:24]. Lots and lots and lots.
Mal: Yep.
Reverend Dr. Sandy Range: Oh gosh. I don’t, I couldn’t, I don’t even think I can narrow it down. I can think of a recent one in the last few years and that had to do with some spinal surgery that I had. And before the spinal surgery, I was suffering from a sciatica, and the sciatica became so severe that I could barely walk. I couldn’t sit, I couldn’t stand, I couldn’t lay down. I couldn’t, it was just painful.
Mal: Like nothing worked.
Reverend Dr. Sandy Range: Nothing worked at all. And it took nine months for me to figure out, “okay, leave the doctors that you’re talking to because they’re not helping you and go somewhere else.”  I ended up, it took another year, I would say, two years with sciatica, really, really bad, painfully. And decided to have the surgery, spoke with this wonderful surgeon. Well, that’s another story.  And then after the surgery and I was like, ” Why did this happen? Why?”  I was losing my business, I couldn’t work. I couldn’t, you know, pay the bills, all this stuff was going on. So it wasn’t just the sciatica of the physical pain, it was affecting the rest of my life. It was affecting my work life, my home life, my friendships. I couldn’t do anything.
So I said, “Okay, I have to really stop and see and try to understand what it was that caused this, what was the lesson in it for me?” And after a lot of work, a lot, a lot, a lot of work, I understood that, the spine really supports the entire body, right? Your spinal column, it holds you up, right? It keeps you good, you can move left, you can move right. The spine is doing all the work, right? And the more research that I did,  I understood that and where mine was in the lower  spine, the L-4, L-5 area, which sits probably around the sacral chakra and the kind of just sitting just about at your waist, so just above. So, the energy of the lower spine, when it’s in pain, any kind of back pain, okay. Our back is our support. I wasn’t getting support from anywhere, from anyone. And I started realizing this, I’m like, okay. So I had all these plans. I was trying to open up a retreat center and everything was falling apart.
And I’m like, “why is it falling? Maybe it’s not meant to be.” And I started doubting myself, but when I found out was that ego, again, also played a part in it. Okay. So, not having the supports in place, not having, you know, human support, financial support, any kinds of supports towards this goal that I was working toward of expanding my practice and actually building a retreat center. And when I realized, I said, “You know what? I really didn’t have any support.” And I was really concerned about it. I was really struggling trying to get this to work and then, and being forceful, being forceful about it. [23:49] So, that’s ego, again. Being forceful in controlling and I have to do this and force gets us nothing, nothing but pain, nothing but pain. So, when I came to realize that, I was like, “Ah, ah. This is, you almost really lost everything because you were trying, and you were so in it.” It doesn’t mean I had to change the goal. It just means I had to change how I was trying to get there.
Mal: Yeah.
Reverend Dr. Sandy Range: And whether I had a support system or not, you know, I had to still change my tactic, change how I was working through things and the support system that I wasn’t working with that I had the whole time, the spirit, the soul. You know, it was the divine kingdom with working with me and I was like, “Oh, they’re not there. I got to do things from down here on the earth level.” And when I realized that, things started changing, you know, things really started changing.
Mal: It’s interesting how we’re taught to set goals and then we’re taught to go out and to work and to push to try to make those goals happen and that’s not always the best strategy. We have to have some faith.
Reverend Dr. Sandy Range: That’s right.
Mal: That the universe is working with us. We need to know that what we want is in alignment with who we are with our soul.
Reverend Dr. Sandy Range: Yeah.
Male: If it’s not, it’s not going to happen. But we don’t look at these things in a deeper, more meaningful way. We just look at the goal and say, “Oh yeah, that’s what I’m going to do in business and I’m going to go out and do it.” It’s like pushing a boulder up a hill and when that weight becomes so overwhelming and it’s ready to just fall back on us, I think is one, it’s an eye opener like, “you know what? This isn’t working. This isn’t the way this is meant to be. We’re not put here to struggle and beat ourselves up and you know, put ourselves up against such incredibly painful experiences that we don’t need.” That’s not what we’re here for. We’re here to have good lives and experience joy and abundance, but we have to trust that we’re deserving.
Reverend Dr. Sandy Range: Yes.
Mal: The universe has got our back and then take mindful, spirit led, heart inspired action.
Reverend Dr. Sandy Range: Absolutely.
Mal: Yeah. Yeah. Tell us when’s your next retreat? Because I want, anybody can go to one of your retreats. It’s got to go. I’ve got my gold dust. I’ve got my feathers, girl. I mean, I came out of there with so many beautiful little gifts and meditations. I mean, it was wonderful. T
Reverend Dr. Sandy Range: Oh, thank you. I’m glad you can [Inaudible 26:38]. I don’t have a date yet, but I’m planning two retreats and an online class. One of the retreats I’ll be doing with one of our, wisdom fire elders. And that is going to be on ceremony. How ceremony should be a part of every aspect of your life and how to perform ceremony, how to be in ceremony with everything that you do. So that’s going to be one retreat coming up.  [27:12] The other online class though I’m going to be doing is ancestral connections. So teaching us how to, and we’ve lost that skill, we’ve lost that connection. And our ancestors, I would say are probably our great grandparents and you and I were kind of, we’re there.
We’re readily in the same realm. But our grandparents and great grandparents always connected with their ancestors. And we have lost that maybe, maybe a little older, maybe a little further back. But we have lost that connection. And we don’t even think of even the generations younger than us that come after us, they have no clue. They look at old people and say, “Eek, they’re old. They don’t need to be here.” You know, they just want to get rid of the old folks. But the old folks and which I like to call the elders because they’ve earned, you’ve earned that title as an elder. This is where all of the healing can take place.
Now we don’t, when we do work in with the ancestors, we do not want to contact the recently diseased. Because there’s still just the way they left here, they took all of that with them, all of this baggage. So they’re still working on healing themselves. They have to do their thing to be able to be healed. So we reached back to very, very distant, far distant ancestors who are healed in whole already, okay. So we call out to those healed and holed, loving and kind ancestors. And those are the ones we want to work with because once we connect with them and we don’t want to start asking them to stop right away, either. We do would want somebody, you meet someone for the first time, right? And whether they’re a relative or not, and they’re like, “Hey, can you do this for me? Hey, can you take me here? Can you do that? Can you do the other?” Like, who are you? I just met you. So we still want to have that respect and honor our ancestors and get to know them. Say, I’m your relative. I’m your descendant. I want to know who you are. I also want to know who you were when you on the planet.
Mal: I love it, I love it.
Reverend Dr. Sandy Range: And connect with them and find it. There’s such rich cultural histories and stories, you know. And if we think about our ancestors going back 10 generations, we have like 1024 ancestors and only 10 generations. So if we go back 50, 100 generations, imagine how many relatives we have. This is why I say we are all connected. Every last one of us on this planet, we are connected somehow, ancestrally.
Mal: And I know that we don’t have time today for it but you have fascinating stories in your own lineage of samples of that. I mean, it was just wonderful. I want the audience to be able to reach out to you personally. You have a very generous offer on your website about a complimentary consultation, chat, whatever. And your website is intentionalself.com.
Reverend Dr. Sandy Range: Yes.
Mal: And so anything that they should know about this consul. I mean, I just think that is so wonderful that people can get in touch with you and get a little flavor of the kind of work that you do, anything special that you’d like them to know.
Reverend Dr. Sandy Range: [30:44] You can call, you can email, you can visit the website, you can actually sign up on the website. So you can get, I have a newsletter that comes out monthly. This shows all the programs and things that we have to offer. And a little icon, my intentional blogging but intentional self, not international. A lot of people make that mistake and they never get to me. So intentionalself.com, solutions@intentionalself.com is the email address.
Mal: Wonderful.
Reverend Dr. Sandy Range: And you can reach me through them.
Mal: Perfect. And I’ll put those in the show notes as well.
Reverend Dr. Sandy Range: Right.
Mal: So that they’re there. Oh, Reverend Sandy, this has been so much fun. It’s so good to see you. Really, you touched me the day we met and I said, I’ve got to bring this woman on because you’re just such a gift, you are.
Reverend Dr. Sandy Range:   Thank you very much and I appreciate you too, Mel, very much.
Mal: Thank you so much and I hope to see you soon.
Reverend Dr. Sandy Range: Yes, that would be wonderful.
Mal: Thank you again.
Reverend Dr. Sandy Range: Okay. Thank you and many blessings.
Mal: You too

Interview Timing Notes
[00:33] Mal’s introduction of the guest, Reverend Dr. Sandy Range
[02:20] Reading an excerpt from Reverend Sandy’s book, “You’ve Lost Your Mind Now Find Your Soul”
[04:02] Reverend Sandy explaining the title of the book.
[05:07] Reverend Sandy talked about the brain-mind, understanding it and ego. The ego is being compared to the angel and devil sitting on both sides of your shoulder.
[05:50] Reverend Sandy talked about the ego-mind and why we need it
[06:49] She emphasized that we have to learn to control ego
[07:29] Reverend Sandy stated that to find our soul, we have to step out of ego-mind.
[09:15] Practices that Reverend Sandy uses to control ego-mind, such as mindfulness, sitting in silence, meditations.
[09:51] She talked about the cosmological balance in the universe, being balance with the divine intelligence and universal intelligence.
[12:11] She talked about young people and their stimulation by technology
[12:36] Comparing how technology controls us like an abuser with power over us.
[13:21] Hope that they look up from the controlled ego.
[14:55] Reverend Sandy talked about practices that you teach women. There is no one practice but meditation and mindfulness is the very first one. Other include spiritual coaching, hypnotherapy and past life regression.
[16:48] Reverend Sandy talks about the soul and how people understand it and listening to the angel on the shoulder.
[17:33] Reverend Sandy talks about the soul, regression and karma.
[18:50] Reverend Sandy says that when we get the lesion, we are to learn from it, elevate, move forward and understand it.
[20:39] Reverend Sandy talked about one example of her biggest soul lesson and that is while she was experiencing severe back pain. She thought she had no support from no one, nothing worked. She donated and questioned why this was happening to her.
[23:08] Reverend Sandy realized that ego played a part in doubting herself.
[23:49] Reverend Sandy emphasized that ego was in control and making you want to be forceful but realizing that force gets us nowhere.
[24:25] Reverend Sandy decided to change her tactic and working with what she had the whole time – The Spirit, The Soul.
[26:38] Reverend Sandy is planning two retreats and an online class.
[27:12] Reverend Sandy’s online class will be Ancestral Connections.
[30:44] Reverend Sandy giving her contact information and website details

Meet Laura Joseph, Spiritual Medium, Trauma Specialist and Healer


I’m wishing you a happy belated Valentine’s Day. I was traveling last week in CA, touring potential communities for a new home. Honestly, I’m a little in sticker shock. My extensive Real Estate background didn’t prepare me for this. California is unimaginably expensive. I guess I am going to pay dearly for great weather. 

Thing is, I really want to live there. So, I’m going to have to hold the vision and not let unfounded fear derail me.

I celebrated Valentine’s with my granddaughter in LA, who was dressed in pink of course and wore her angel wings. She told me she was a flower fairy. We were outside waving her magic wand at the full moon making wishes.

Oh my god, be still my heart. Her free spirit and exuberant imagination are powerful examples of the self-confidence she has as a young girl. She has been raised in a healthy, loving environment and encouraged to express her creativity in a multitude of ways.

There is a flip side to this. One that is becoming more common. I’m referencing the young girls that have had their innocence, their free spirit ripped from them and have been silenced by the atrocities of domestic abuse. They have witnessed their mother’s being abused or have been victims themselves. It’s really a big problem that doesn’t get talked about enough.

Sometimes a conventional medical approach is just another bandaid over a gaping wound.

If you have been following me for a while you know by now, I am always looking for alternative ways to heal. I am a huge believer in holistic remedies. I’ve also witnessed firsthand what can happen to these young girls and their mothers when they are processed through our legal and medical systems. They can be lost in the shuffle of paperwork and end up being victims again.

This week’s conversation on Awakening Divine Wildness is a much-needed one. My guest, Laura Joseph is a super knowledgeable expert on dealing with and healing trauma. She learned the hard way, by being a victim of domestic abuse and rape herself. She knows the pain of C-PTSD personally and the poisonous grip it holds on your life.

Laura uses a spiritually based integrative holistic and health program through her “Healing Trauma Through Spirit” for women.

Trust me, this show is an eye-opener, revealing ways for women to reclaim their power from the shadows of abuse and trauma.

If I could wave a magic wand, I would want all women to live loving, prosperous lives that are free from abuse and trauma. A life where a woman wakes up every day and know she’s valued. A day where she can wear her wings.

We can do this…working together and supporting one another. Women are the future!

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Mal: I am excited today because I get to talk to someone I know personally. Many of my guests are from around the globe, but this lady, I know, I’ve been nose to nose and toes to toes with her. And I even did one of her magical full day retreats and I came out feeling so uplifted and so whole and connected to my heart at the end of the day with Laura Joseph. She’s magical and I’m thrilled to have her on today. But Laura’s journey has not come without challenge. When she was trying to heal that broken feeling that she had within herself for so many decades after suffering abuse, including domestic violence and rape, resulting in complex CPTSD. Laura delved into traditional American health care system, hoping she could returned to her unbroken self. She wasn’t getting better and band-aids were increasingly applied to her mental, emotional, and physical symptoms that began to spiral out of control.

[00:01:21] Laura began to heal herself when she began looking into the spiritual aspects of her issues that the healthcare system couldn’t figure out. She systematically implemented a spiritually based holistic approach to her healing, which saved her life in ways to defy a logic. Since then, Laura’s been a sought after spoke person. Laura has experience as a trauma specialist, a domestic abuse advocate, college educator, end of life transition specialist with over health advocacy and college educator with over 15 years’ experience working in the healthcare system. She’s a healer, an educator, a natural born intuitive, a manifested physician and a trauma survivor, a health advocate, a mentor, an artist, a writer, and an overall spiritual bad-ass and I can attest that. She is sought after for speaking all over and she has a fabulous website that is called ‘Healing with Spirit’ and her business is Healing with Spirit in Hingham, MA. Laura, I am over the moon girl that you’re with me today on 1212 this is like a super high energy day. And look what I’ve got, the cosmic queen of resolving trauma from abuse. How are you dear?

Laura Joseph: I’m doing good. These energies are sure shit kicker, that’s all I know because it’s really in trauma, it’s interesting I was chuckling over the fact that we picked this day. And I did a live video this morning on 1212 and how much trauma peace is developed in the whole 1212 full moon, on a 1212 AM, you know. Today, three years and I’m going, “holy shit, this is like major, [Inaudible 03: 28 – 03:29] like the generational, it’s the personal, it’s the karmic. It’s all surfacing all at the same time.”

Mal: Powerful, powerful energies. I love it. I love moving energy and I have many rituals I use for new moons and full moons. And I had all my crystals laid out last night, had the singing bowl going and I had them all in the moonlight. It was wonderful. Came down with the morning and they were all like sparkling in charge.

Laura Joseph: [00:03:59] Well that’s good because sometimes, I’m a Pisces, this is actually a Pisces number as well. So,   I’m so sensitive that I didn’t sleep until after one, two o’clock in the morning. And then I had a hard time getting up this morning and I was like, “Oh my gosh.” You know, but I guess this is where I bless my junk because as I like to say is “you’ve got to learn to bless that and learn to go and master the flow, not the outcome,” you know. And you kind of chuckle at these little hiccups that we get, you know.

Mal: Wonderful. So I am just so taken back by your transparency, your vulnerability in sharing that you personally went through decades of violence and trauma. So give the listeners just a little history. I don’t want to, you know, drag the suffering of, but just a recap of kind of what has inspired you to step up and do what you do today?

Laura Joseph: [00:05:06] Well, growing up, I didn’t know what a normal household was like. I grew up in an abusive household and I have no resentment towards either one of my parents. They, I think at that time did the best that they thought they could. But it also didn’t make it easy for me to go to my parents for the subsequent events that had happened, where I was actually even molested as a child by some neighborhood kids that we just thought things were just normal, you know because I didn’t know what normal looked like.  I was sexually abducted at 12, in a town that was deemed to be safe, even though nothing happened, “so-called happened.”  I was still groped. I still blamed myself and didn’t talk to anybody about it because you know, “Hey, go help me find my puppy” and next thing you know am behind this abandoned building and told to pull my pants down. To being raped at 15, losing my virginity through rape. To being sexually abducted, ruffyed at 22 and my best friend had to pull me out of a car of four strange men and figure out how to drive a stick shift in the middle of Philadelphia, in the hills. So all by herself.

[00:06:16] So, and then I met my ex-husband and got married at 26 and then the rest is history of “Oh, this systemic abuse” that I didn’t realize existed in our, even in our system, you know. That, you know, in the family courts and how 58,000 children are illegally trafficked by way of family courts. You’ve seen a lot in the media this year, what’s going on at the border, but nobody talks about 58,000 children being legally trafficked by way of family courts to abuser and rapists every year.

Mal: It’s awful and you see in the news, several times a year locally for me, children who have died in foster care. And that breaks my heart because that could have been prevented.

Laura Joseph: Yeah. [00:07:05] This is like, you know, I spent 10 years researching and advocating for families in Massachusetts and the punishment or I should say the reward I got for doing so, I actually had 20 families against one judge. My mission was to remove him from the bench. And I grew up in an environment that the truth always prevails, right? That you tell the truth and you know, it always wins, right?  You can’t, you know, abuser can’t get away with things. And so I thought that that was on my side. And I ended up at Framingham State Penitentiary to be silenced.  That was the system’s way of silencing me on advocating for these 20 families, which compromise over 80 children, and protective mothers against one judge who was knowingly giving custody and visitation to rapist and documented abusers.

Mal: Well, oh my god. What? So many women get violated the way that you have, even in childhood, their teens and yet they seem to minimize what happened to them. They are afraid to step up and really say what happened. Why do you think that is Laura?

Laura Joseph: [00:08:34] I think its multi-fold, one, I know in my situation it was retaliation. Not only retaliation from your abuser but actually retaliation from the system that says on one level, “we’re going to protect you,” but really what they’re doing is the system is a colonized system. Let’s get real. We think as women we have rights. I didn’t realize how many rights because I had just grown up very independent that I’m able to a man in every way until I faced the system that is very white man dominated. And it’s not to say white men are evil, but this is the system that we’ve created.

[00:09:11] So women are, don’t have the power that we think we do when it comes to law, legislation, when it comes to being believed. Because when we have a colonized mind-set, you know, it is conquer and enslave. That’s the mentality of a colonizer’s mind-set. And until we as a society can wake up and realize that’s the society we have been bred into, we can’t change that. I had somebody asked me recently, “why do we normalize violence and all these things?” I said, “Because we’re colonized.” We don’t realize we’ve normalized it. It’s so in our veins. We don’t even realize that what we’re thinking and what we’re believing is wrong, you know. And women blame women. You can see her coming out of a bar with her clothes, rip, bloody, bruised and beaten. And the first thing might be, “what did you do to deserve this?” Instead of, “who did this to you?” Right?

Mal: Yeah.

Laura Joseph:   And I’ve seen people that claim to be healers and spiritual leaders, even in churches that call out and say, “Women lie about rape.” And I just go, “Oh my god, do you realize what you’re doing? Do you actually realize….” Because, I know my advocacy years, how many girls, I didn’t know how bad this was when I was doing advocacy of how prevalent ruffying girls on college campuses are. That it’s the gateway drug, not the gateway drug, but it’s the gateway to keep yourself from getting prosecuted. And that girls wake up on college campuses normalizing saying “as long as they don’t remember, it’s okay.” There’s something wrong with this when we start normalizing this behavior, this violation that we don’t realize later on may end up as fibroids, endometriosis, uterine cancer, you know, breast cancer, all these things that we know are linked to abuse and sexual violence. Just because you say you don’t remember, doesn’t mean your body doesn’t remember.

Mal: And you hold that trauma and what happens is, it changes the cellular structure.

Laura Joseph: Yes, it does.

Mal: But you always say if you can heal trauma, you can heal anything.

Laura Joseph: [00:11:39] That is a firm belief. That’s been my mission. I mean, when I first left my marriage in 2005, they gave me a cocktail of a lot of medications, of all kinds of things. I had all kinds of mental health as well as physical symptoms from a haemorrhagic uterine bleeding, too severe PTSD, Insomnia, Anxiety, Panic to chronic, left side pain. I had a lot of these, I would choke just on water. It was insane, the subtleties of what my body was responding. And when I started realizing the cocktail wasn’t making me better, but making me worse, that’s what led me into, “okay, there’s got to be something else.” And I grew up in the healthcare field and it’s in a field filled with holistic doctors to boot. So I already had one foot in there a little bit, but when I started really going into the spiritual path and all of a sudden my body was kicking medications to the curb, I’m going and I was actually getting better, I was like, “okay, what’s wrong with this picture?” Because why not go to a therapists, or a doctor and a pill’s going to fix you or therapy is going to fix you. And I’m finding “no, that didn’t help me.” That actually made me feel more broken, okay? So it doesn’t mean that in some cases, for other people that might be what they need. And I never persuade somebody to not seek those things, you know. What I say is when you’ve tried that and nothing is working, then you got to look at another component.

[00:13:21] And with my Japanese teachers, I really got to understand that trauma seeds itself, not just what we think, like, “Oh, in the mind”, you know, or in “the physical body.” Well, no, but they’re also, they are separate bodies. There’s the mental body, the physical body, the emotional body, and the spiritual body. Where was the trauma seated? Yeah, it was grabbed by the throat and thrown up against the wall. Is it seeding in me physically, mentally, emotionally, or spiritually or combination? And how was that manifesting?

Mal:  How do you, how do you decipher that?

Laura Joseph: [00:13:54] Listening to the body.  So I teach people how to listen to their, see our bodies are designed to heal themselves. We have been, again, from a colonized culture, we have been conditioned to turn our power over to a pill, to a corporation, to a doctor, to a politician, to an advocate, right? And what I do is I say, “Let me help you become your own superhero,” okay. Because when you can do that and help your own body know how to heal itself, just by learning how to reconnect and re-educate yourself on what does that look like. And I like, this week I had clients that said to me, “Geez, I didn’t realize how far I’ve come. My mother said this to me today. I had somebody came up to me and said this to me today that so, you know, when you had this conflict last year, this is how you reacted?” And they were very frustrated with how their mother was behaving, they couldn’t handle. And I said, “But watch, you live together. What you’re doing it’s going to rub off, right? So they said, “the law,” they were saying, “look at this battery, you created how healthy it is.” And I go, “are you paying attention to how your parents responding? Because you were saying that you didn’t know how to get through to them at all.” And to be mindful of how you’re letting things go and you’re going, “but how did I do that?” Then I go, “because you created this innate system within yourself and my goal is help create that.” We all create that differently. Because what does that look like for that individual person? That’s where it gets maybe a little complex. It’s a little time consuming because everybody has a different way of communicating and what that looks like for them.

Mal: Do you have certain modalities that you really favour or recommend for women to heal trauma?

Laura Joseph: [00:15:46] I am a big ad from everything that I’ve done.  I’ve done everything from massage to acupuncture, Tai Chi. I think it’s, what works for you. For what has worked for me isn’t just Reiki, because I got to be careful with that because I can see Reiki as equally as harmful with the wrong practitioner who’s unskilled and untrained, but Jikiden Reiki. I couldn’t understand how different it was when I was doing more Western Reiki. I had so many other things I had to add to what I was doing to make sure that what they were releasing was in a safe environment. And when I started learning Jikiden Reiki, which is the direct teachings out of Japan that are non-colonized, non-westernized, as it was done in Japan, before it came to the West. And I was like going, I was just looking at the results and I’m going, ‘holy shit.”  It was like night and day. And then I started experimenting it with people, with wound care and getting people’s wounds that weren’t closing for three months. All of a sudden one or two sessions, closed. So, now I’m on a mission, obviously using myself as the poster board because if I’m not walking it, then how do I expect somebody else to do it? It’s not as easy, it depends on what’s, there’s so much involved as in the rituals of Jikiden Reiki that’s hard to do in a podcast.

Mal: Can you maybe in a very simple way, what’s the difference between the Reiki that you’re using and the Western Reiki that we’re all kind of familiar with? Is there some ingredient or something that you can kind of pinpoint for us to understand?

Laura Joseph: [00:17:43] I think, you know, from my experience and coming from both worlds, I always knew there was something missing in the westernized Reiki, I didn’t know what. Because if it cured every known illness and disease, why wasn’t I seeing this in a medical environment? So I felt like there was something, again, I come from a very intuitive, background. So like something in me just didn’t sound right, I didn’t know why. And to be honest with you, just the word Jikiden, I was drawn to, I didn’t know why. And then when I learned that the word Jikiden translated into English means direct teaching. I was like, “Oh, okay.” So what I want to say like between Western Reiki and Jikiden Reiki, Western Reiki, some people say, “All they talk about is shock horizon, ore horizon, crystals” and “Oh, let me talk to your dead uncle.” None of that is Reiki. Let’s just get that clear, okay. And I’m hoping I’m not offending anybody, but this is how we’ve westernized it. It doesn’t mean that what they’re doing is wrong because I did it, I taught it. I didn’t understand either. And it doesn’t mean that it doesn’t have a value. When I went to the direct teachings, it was really all about removing toxicity and restoring wholeness. It’s about ego destruction. 

Mal: Ego destruction.

Laura Joseph: Yes.

Mal: Yes.

Laura Joseph: [00:19:10] Reiki, it’s about, “Hey, put your hands on everybody and let’s make magic. I’m a healer. I’m going to fix you, but I’m not going to do my work.” Something simple, like the Go Chi with, I had my first little pending talking about the go Chi, which are five simple sentences and in English, it’s something as simple as learning in English, minimizes the importance of saying in Japanese [inaudible 19:34] is “Just for today, do not [Inaudible 19:36], do not worry, be grateful. Do your duties fully, be kind to others? And in Japanese it’s Okoru-n., Sinpai suna, Kansha shite Goo hage me. Hito ni shinsetsu ni. So when you say it, it does a resonance because of a frequency and vibration, these are the subtleties that can make magic. And I have a pending book on this. I couldn’t believe I wrote a book on five sentences [inaudible 19:59] healing trauma and chronic illness and it made me realize like why the victims stay victims?

[Inaudible 20:08] is conditioned to believe that we’re victim, right? The power of the mind-set. Who’s going to believe me, you know? Or I just got a cowboy it up and just move. I got to keep moving because I’m told I don’t, you know, me grieving over this or need crying or having an emotional breakdown over what happened to me. I shouldn’t be entitled to that. [00:20:30] So we are entitled. I teach my clients, that you have to honour that wound. You have to honour that pain.

Mal: Yes.

Laura Joseph: [00:21:00] The magic to become whole again isn’t avoiding the shadows. Actually having the courage to go into the shadows and to know about the triggers, I call them triggers. Triggers are nothing more than a clue to the treasure on the treasure map. And we can switch our mind-set to see them as close to the treasure and not as, “oh my God, why am I feeling this? Oh my God, I’m going to have a breakdown. Oh my God, I didn’t want this, he did this again.” No, get out of that. I want my mind-set to tell my brain to “shut the fuck up. Am already done with those games. They are not going to mess with me anymore. What happened to me, happened to me?” But my brain, I do not want my brain to kind of bring me back and constantly re-traumatize me. So it’s clean, those new neurosynopsis, there’s new neuropathways and belief systems. So, all these angles and all this kind of came down to learning Jikiden Reiki.

Because when you go into the ego destruction, you see all these things very clearly. [Inaudible 21:44] has a shifted, since learning that because there’s so many piles of Jikiden Reiki that can’t necessarily be shared, that’s not taught in Westernised Reiki because it’s a cultural difference. That’s like a mental thing. I know so many wonderful Reiki practitioners in the West that don’t even say it’s Japanese anymore. It doesn’t mean that what they’re doing is wrong or that what they’re doing doesn’t have value. I want to be clear on that. We’re talking about trauma, it’s everything. It’s everything and it takes experience. It takes knowing when to put your hands on one, when to not put your hands on, when to hold space. Okay? When to help somebody just practice the breathing and you know and to know that they’re in a safe environment, right? So this is where I’m not putting myself first, I’m putting them first. But in order to put them first, I have to deal with my own junk. If cant’ deal with my own junk, then how can I be effective for them?

Mal: Right. I’ve always said to women, “you need to feel the pain in order to heal it.” There’s no way to circumvent that because it’s going to come back. It’s going to bite you in the tail, harder the second time around.

Laura Joseph: Yes.

Mal: You deal with it and feel it and process it. Allow yourself that, you owe it to yourself. If you’ve been through something horrific and you’ve been traumatized to feel the pain so that you know that once you’re there that you can, there are modalities, there are ways to heal it. But if you deny it, you’re not going to get to the healing.

Laura Joseph: [00:23:30] That’s exactly right. I mean, almost every person I have seen with either terminal cancer, cancer, autoimmune disorders, mental health issues from anxiety, PTSD,  suicidal ideations to, you know, all kinds of things, have all been linked to [inaudible 23:49]. We have an epidemic of unresolved trauma in this country. And recently, a lot of the opiate epidemic is also a way of numbing traumatic events. So, you know, and it’s not just personal events, by the way, let’s just be clear, some of the trauma that’s surfacing right now isn’t even our own. It’s generational…

Mal: It’s selective and generational, yeah.

Laura Joseph: [00:24:16] Selective and generational is surfacing really hard right now. So for those of us who have been spiritually bypassing even our own traumas are especially feeling the weight of this, tremendously. And then there’s the old saying, “when you surrender to what is, it no longer has power.” There’s a paradox of that. Like, people don’t realize that when you surrender, you actually have more power. Well we don’t see it as that. We see it as turning more power over. But yet, the women that I see, they get re-victimized because I [inaudible 24:43] spoken in the [Inaudible 24:45] community on sexual predators that have been infiltrating our communities. And the one thing I see with these women that make them targets, is that they are looking for the knight in shining armour. They’re looking for that guy that’s going to rescue them. That’s going to, “Oh my God, I’m so exhausted. I’m so broken.” I’ve been there. I get it but you don’t want somebody to do it for you because when you have somebody that’s going to do it for you, under the guise of, “let me be charitable”, under the guise of “I want to be your knight, let me help you,” right? That is an invitation of “I’m taking your power away and you don’t even know it.”

Mal: Yes. And it’s control.

Laura Joseph:   By the time you cop on, that’s when the abuse starts. Every single woman that I’ve helped in these situations, it’s been that scenario over and over. Okay. One of them ended up being sexually trafficked by their partner.  And she was worried about her whole losing custody and everything. And this is what happens. [00:25:50] And like we have to become whole. We can’t [inaudible 25:52] this is what they do. They beat us now so much that we get so exhausted, we feel so broken, all we want is somebody to help us, you know. And I’ve been there and I would never want anybody, I would never want anybody to live through some of the things that I went through. You know, I mean, I was borderline homeless, you know. I went from living in a beautiful home, mid six figure income, BMW, two acres of land, indoor ground pool,  whole works to [Inaudible 26:19] a month I was living on. Now, and having everything stripped away from me, including my children that I haven’t seen in over 10 years, you know?

Mal: Because of the system,

Laura Joseph: Hmm?

Mal: Because the system,

Laura Joseph: [00:26:35] Because of the system. Yes. I was punished, with my own children. They used my children to punish me for advocating for the other families. And I had

Mal:   You had a voice that threaten the shit out of them, you got it?

Laura Joseph: I know. You know, I knew I was onto something because I think it was 2006 maybe or 2007, I can’t remember. [00:27:03] I was actually contacted by a 2020 reporter, and I forget how they got my information, but I knew I had to been on to something if they were contacting me saying, “Why? And at the time I only had 11 cases and they go, “why 11?” Or “why only 11?” And sometimes, you don’t always have the answers for those things, right? What it said to me was the fact that they’re contacted me on 11 cases with one judge and they don’t really give a rat’s rear end about my case, is telling me that I was on to something. I didn’t know what, I didn’t know what at the time.

[00:27:42] And it’s the collective [Inaudible 27:43], the collective corruption and the colonization that affects society and it’s so infectious that we don’t even know, and this is the last year that I’m seeing, in order to heal trauma, we have to decolonize. Because this is the piece that I see that people, they go, “why can’t I just get over this? Why can’t I just do this?” Because the belief systems that they have are coming from a colonized mind-set. It’s that parameter that women are less than, nobody’s going to believe you that you deserved it, right, while you were complicit in it, you asked for it, right? All these things are coming from a colonized mind-set. It’s not from well, “I’m a woman and I’m a human being and I didn’t deserve to be abused, raped or beaten. Thank you very much.”

Mal:   Laura, you have got resources on your website for our listeners.

Laura Joseph: Yes.

Mal: Tell them where they can find you, your web address, how they can get in touch with you because I know there are a lot of people out there that need this kind of help, healing and you know, with trauma.

Laura Joseph: [00:28:56] So I do a lot of events too.  I speak at a lot of conferences, structures, organizations.  So sometimes there’s a posted on my event page and the many of them are free. And  I also have a blog on my website with links to like my YouTube videos and everything else, including one that is called “Today I bless my junk”, which is like a four part series, which is like, “look, yes, I was raped, I was abused as a child0”. I can sit there and go be [inaudible 29:27 – 29:28] for the rest of my life. Or I can sit there and say, “You know what, because of what happened to me, I’m more empathetic. Because of what happened to me, it has made me who I am today. Because of what happened to me, I am the loud mouth and spiritual bad-ass, I am, right?” More of a woman’s champion than I was then because my look at my mind-set then, I was raised as a boy, not a woman. So all these things, so I do have a series called “Today I Bless my Junk.” It’s a four part series in a blog section.

Mal: I love it.

Laura Joseph: [00:30:01] It is www.laurahealingwithspirit.

Mal: Wonderful. Thank you my friend. It’s always a joy to see you.

Laura Joseph: You too.

Mal: I’m going to be seeing you on the solstice, honey.

Laura Joseph: Yay. I know I can’t wait. Another powerful day. Talk about some shit kickers. Time, like has a 2020 by the way, for the 2020 and the next women’s retreat on January 12th, we’re going to [Inaudible 30:26] numerology for 2020.

Mal: Oh, awesome.

Laura Joseph: So for those of us with trauma, it’s a big deal to get the stuff rolling now, to set up the legwork, the platform for 2020 on how to take our power back. It’s a very self-empowering year for those of us with trauma. If you’ve already started the work now,

Mal: Awesome. Bless you, my friend.

Laura Joseph:   Thank you.

Mal: Great to be with you.

Laura Joseph: You too.

 NOTES

[00:01:21] Laura began healing herself using spiritual means because the health care system could not come up with a cure.

[00:03:59] Laura rules under the Pisces sign

[00:05:06] Laura’s history of the path she has chosen, being abused, raped, abducted and rufied.

[00:06:16] Spoke about her ex-husband and being married at age 26.

[00:07:05] Spent 10 years researching and advocating for families, resulting in the removal of a corrupt judge.

[00:08:34] Laura explained by girls/women are afraid to come forward, but she implores them to retaliate.

[00:09:11] Laura speaks about the power that women don’t think they have and it’s bad when they start to normalize and accept the abusive behavior.

[00:11:39] Laura believes that if she can heal from trauma, you can heal from anything.

[00:13:21] Laura speaks about her Japanese teachings, having separate bodies; mental, physical, emotional and spiritual.

[00:13:54] Laura teaches people how to listen to their bodies to heal themselves.

[00:15:46] Laura recommends certain modalities such as Jikiden Reiki.

[00:17:43] Laura explains the difference between Western Reiki and Jikiden Reiki.

[00:20:30] Laura teaches to honor the wound, honor the pain.

[00:21:00] Laura explains that the magic to becoming whole is to go into the shadows and know the triggers.

[00:23:30] Laura agrees that you have to accept your situation to get healing.

[00:24:16] Laura speaks about selective and generational trauma.

[00:26:35] Because Laura is an advocate and because if the system she is punished by not being able to see her children.

[00:27:03] Laura is contacted by a 2020 Reporter about her 11 cases.

[00:28:56] Laura’s work, seminars, conferences, etc.

[00:30:01] Laura’s website www.laurahealingwithspirit.