Latest / Deeply Well with Devi Brown / Living Ritual with Tracee Stanley

Transcript

Living Ritual with Tracee Stanley · Deeply Well with Devi Brown

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Welcome to Deeply Well. This show is a soft place
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: to land on your journey, a space where we explore
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: what it truly means to live well from the inside out.
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: Not perfectly, but honestly, this is Deeply Well. Welcome back
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: to Deeply Well. I'm Devi Brown. Today's guest on the
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: show is Tracy Stanley, author, spiritual teacher, and longtime practitioner
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: whose work invites us to explore what becomes possible when
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: we bring greater intention, rest, ritual, and devotion into our
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: everyday lives. Tracy is the author of the bestselling books,
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: Radiant Rest and The Luminous Self, and her newest book,
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: Living Ritual, infused every day with purpose and spirit, explores
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: how we can transform the seemingly ordinary moments of our lives.
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: into opportunities for deeper connection and meaning. For more than
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: 30 years, Tracy has studied Srivijaya Tantra and the teachings
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: of the Himalayan masters. And today she shares the wisdom
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: of yoga nidra, meditation, self-inquiry, nature as a teacher, ancestor reverence,
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: and the power found within liminal spaces. Through her work
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: in her community, Empowered Life Circle, Tracy reminds us that
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: our spiritual lives don't have to exist separately from our
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: everyday lives and that the practice can be woven into
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: how we rest, how we listen, how we move through
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: transitions and how we meet ourselves each day. So today
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: we are exploring what it means to live ritual. the
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: wisdom available to us through rest and stillness, and how
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: we can create lives that feel more connected, purposeful, and sacred.
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the show, Tracy.
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: Thank you, Debbie. Thank you so much. It's an honor
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: to be here with you.
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much. You know what I was thinking
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: when I received your beautiful book?
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: Oh, man.
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: As someone who really, I think, was saved in so
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: many ways by bringing devotional romance and ritual and slow,
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: steady practice into my life, it was really special reading
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: your book and realizing how more than ever, this is
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: the medicine of our time. This is what allows us
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: not just to keep going but to still feel alive
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: inside of ourselves and inside of our lives so one
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: I mean just thank you for sharing this work in
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: this beautiful way with all of us and I think
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: too I mean talk to me about your road to
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: bringing this to life.
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: Well thank you for your reflection first of all um
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: And the road to bringing it to life, I feel
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: like whenever I'm incubating, creating, musing on what's next, I
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: try to listen for what's happening in the world and
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: try to project forward to where I see things going,
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: where antidotes might be needed. And when I was musing
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: on this, um, It was, you know, mid kind of 2023.
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: And I had just had a book that was released.
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: And at the same time, I started to notice more isolation,
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: more loneliness, more distraction.
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: And that started to increase within the year. And I
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: started to think about what were the tools that I've
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: been taught? What are the tools that I have? used
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: in my own life that helped me to harness my
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: attention back to myself and my energy back to myself
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: because I felt like that distraction was also causing depletion
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: and a different kind of depletion. And yes, I've written
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: a lot about rest, but what I started to notice
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: was that students that were new to the practices of
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: rest and new to the practices of Yoga Nidra seemed
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: to actually have a harder time dropping in than let's
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: say pre-pandemic.
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: And so I started to think about some of the
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: practices that I had been given and how they were
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: all really rituals, how the practice of deep breaths and
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: yoga nidra is really based on the ritual of consecrating
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: the body as a divine temple. And I felt like, oh,
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: this is the thing that we've lost. we've lost this
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: remembrance that we are a temple, that life is a ritual,
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: that our actions and our thoughts and our words are
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: actually offerings to our life. And when we are distracted
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: and that distraction has become pretty much almost a permanent, um.
• 5:19
  Speaker 3: State of being. Yeah. My God.
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: That it doesn't allow a lot of space and it
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: doesn't allow us to observe the transitions that happen, not
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: only in the everyday, but in our lives as a
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: season or a cycle of nature.
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: And ritual is really a way to be able to
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: start to remember that.
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: So, I mean, just so, so, so, so gorgeously said it's, Yeah.
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: I don't even know if all the words like exist
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: right now to describe, I think the way all of
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: these layers and this nuance to the human experience are
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: really kind of bubbling to the surface. You know, I
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: think in some ways that the greater collective is connecting
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: to it. Like I want an analog life. Let's go
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: back to the nineties. Like there's this, you know, this
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: feeling of wanting to be without that constant hum of
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: distraction that can, it just doesn't leave. It surrounds us,
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: you know, almost like humidity hugging us. And the interior
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: world that we create is the cure. It is the anecdote.
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: You know, I'm curious as someone who has been in
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: such deep practice with themselves and with their work for
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: over the last three decades. What are you noticing that
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: even in this moment, you're still learning about yourself and
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: bringing to life?
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: Well, I think what I'm noticing is actually part of
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: what's in contrast to the noticing of the distraction. that
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: in some way it's bringing me deeper because I'm listening.
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: I feel like the algorithm has a frequency and that
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: frequency does not contain truth. It does not contain wisdom
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: and it does not contain love.
• 7:29
  Speaker 3: And that nature.
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: Contains all of those things. Stillness, slowness contains all of
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: those things. And what I find is that those are
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: the things that I want to embody, that I want
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: my life to be about. And so I think that
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: it's pulled a deeper focus, a deeper commitment, a deeper
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: devotion to what it is that I feel is real
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: and what it is that I want to have in
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: the forefront.
• 8:02
  Speaker 3: Of my own life.
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: And it's not to say that I don't get distracted
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: because I certainly do. But each distraction, I try to
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: use it as a way to reset, a way to remember.
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: Yeah, thank you. For someone listening right now, you know,
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: that may be yearning to taste that, you know, I
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: find that Before you have it, it's hard to really
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: conceptualize what this shift is and what it really opens
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: and brings into your experience of being alive. For someone
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: looking to really start the path of listening for the
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: first time, observing for the first time, slowing for the
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: first time, what's.
• 9:01
  Speaker 3: A way to begin?
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: Hmm. I think a way to begin, first of all,
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: is to remember a moment of awe in your own life.
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: I feel like that's something that most of us can
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: connect to. That moment that you saw the double rainbow
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: or you felt the wind from a raven's wings flapping
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: or you saw the baby's first smile or laugh. There's
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: a moment of presence. that is available. And it is
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: what makes, I think it is what makes all possible.
• 9:45
  Speaker 2: And those are the moments that are the portals for
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: us to be inspired to say, I want more of
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: that in my life. I want more of that noticing.
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: I want more of that feeling. And then we have
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: to remember that we can actually create those moments ourselves.
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: We don't need to wait for the double rainbow. What
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: we can do is we can create our own transitions,
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: our own thresholds. And sometimes it's as simple as just
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: closing your eyes for a few moments and feeling what
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: the breath feels like in the body and noticing that
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: there is always a space between the inhale and there's
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: always a space between the exhale and the next inhale.
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: And most of the time we're instructed to just notice
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: the breath as it flows in and out. But if
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: we actually begin to notice the pause in between and
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: allow ourselves to settle and I dare say surrender into
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: that space in between, it becomes a portal to so
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: much wisdom and so much knowing.
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: That was just so gorgeous.
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Wow.
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: What a way to describe that. glimpse of your soul, that,
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: that way to be deeply, deeply in and aligned. Um, I, I, I,
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: I'm really savoring what you said because as a meditator
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: and meditator teaching, um, meditation teacher, it's, that is just
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: one of the most special gifts being able to share
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: a path into that door, that portal. Um, and once,
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: once you get it just one time, you can get
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: back there anytime. It, it changes absolutely everything. And even
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: just a second, it's just more than enough. Um, And
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: that's one of the most special things I think about
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: having a practice and letting yourself surrender to the discomforts
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: and everything, the irritations of a practice, all of it.
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: It's getting that glimpse changes all of it. It changes
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: everything forever.
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Thank you for also just naming the glimpse. Because
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: sometimes we feel as though, oh, I don't have enough
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: time to sit or I don't have enough time to learn.
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: And the thing is, is that we already know. And
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: the moment that you touch that place, it keeps calling
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: you back.
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: It keeps calling.
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: Anybody who's... Who's on the journey of meditation remembers the
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: moment that they felt that glimpse or they saw that glimpse.
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: And that's the thing that keeps them coming back.
• 13:16
  Speaker 3: To their cushion.
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: And it's the same with ritual because meditation is really
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: a ritual as well.
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: And I think, you know, that's one of. the really
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: special parts. Cause I think when someone is looking to
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: start a practice, I think for all of us, it's,
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: it's so big, it's so different. It's so, um, many
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: little steps. And at first it can feel like a checklist,
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: you know, but when you can develop that glimpse for
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: one thing, it becomes so incredibly easy to improve. apply
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: it to everything to all the things to make every
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: little moment and ritual and so many you beautifully describe
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: and give in the book but to make every single
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: one of those moments like really spiritual fuel or spiritual
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: release for yourself um.
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: Yeah it's um i you know what an example of
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: that would be is that there's a practice in the
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: book that's called the blessing pour over And it's this
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: idea that with every morning coffee or with every morning
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: tea that you can make that into a ritual just
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: by bringing your presence and intention. So taking a couple
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: of moments while the water is boiling to just watch
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: your breath and be in meditation. And so that could
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: be about two minutes. And then the moment that the
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: coffee or the tea is ready, when you pour into
• 14:52
  Speaker 2: your own bowl or your own cup, pouring yourself a
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: blessing or a prayer or repeating an affirmation and doing
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: the same for someone else you might be serving. And
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: eventually what I've heard from students who have practiced this
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: is that eventually it starts to lead to, oh, there's
• 15:12
  Speaker 2: prayers now happening when I'm preparing my meal. There's prayers
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: now happening when I'm serving my family. And now everything
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: in the kitchen is, suddenly becomes an act of blessing,
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: an act of presence, an act of prayer. And this
• 15:28
  Speaker 2: is how the householder then begins to weave this practice
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: of ritual throughout the day. You start to become attuned
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: to all of these moments and transitions, whether it's, you know,
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: serving that morning pour over, or it's sitting in line
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: waiting for school pickup. You start to realize like, oh,
• 15:52
  Speaker 2: I've got about eight minutes before I get to the
• 15:55
  Speaker 2: head of the line. What am I going to do
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: with this eight minutes? Am I going to scroll or
• 16:01
  Speaker 2: am I going to sing or am I going to
• 16:04
  Speaker 2: pray or am I going to meditate? What am I
• 16:07
  Speaker 2: going to do with this time? How am I going
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: to be present?
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: Yes.
• 16:13
  Speaker 3: Yes.
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: Living prayer. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, God, you just poured
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: so much. It's so good. And it's so real. Opening
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: to this kind of devotional way of being, it changes everything.
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: It changes everything. It opens, opens, opens so much. possibility
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: and potential in every single second. And just the spiritual
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: fortification that it gives you, the protection that it gives you.
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: I love how you describe... I mean, I can't say enough.
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: I don't want to keep saying, oh my gosh, yes,
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: I do that and me too. But the power of
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: it is so special. And I hope everyone listening really
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: gets that because I know sometimes, especially starting with little
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: rituals like this, as you're building kind of the tolerance
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: for the repetition, for the practice, it feels weird. It
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: feels disjointed. You may not always think you have the
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: language or, you know, it may not be used to
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: how you're, um, it may not be how you are
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: used to interacting with your life or with yourself. but
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: taking the time to practice it, especially knowing that no
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: one is watching and no one's giving out a grade
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: for it, it clicks in very, very, very swiftly and
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: becomes something that does feel natural and then that changes
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: your flow and your rhythm with absolutely everything.
• 18:02
  Speaker 3: Yes, absolutely.
• 18:04
  Speaker 2: And I think that the key is that at least
• 18:09
  Speaker 2: the way that I'm presenting these rituals and living ritual
• 18:14
  Speaker 2: is really that you get to be the one to
• 18:18
  Speaker 2: create the ritual. You get to be the one to
• 18:23
  Speaker 2: listen deeply, to look around your space. So there is
• 18:28
  Speaker 2: no such thing as getting it wrong.
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 18:31
  Speaker 3: You know, yeah.
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: Can you share with me maybe some of your, as
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: you look back over time, some of the rituals that
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: specifically brought you back to you in moments that you
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: really needed it or ones that you found you just
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: intuitively created in a moment of need and how it
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: met that?
• 19:07
  Speaker 3: Beautiful.
• 19:09
  Speaker 2: Yes, I would think that I'd like to share what
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: happened after my father passed away. And, you know, I
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: have a very steady meditation practice. And the day after
• 19:29
  Speaker 2: he passed, I was in meditation. And he came to
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: me as a star, a brilliant star of light. And
• 19:41
  Speaker 2: it was undeniable. That it was him. And I was like, wow.
• 19:49
  Speaker 3: We do really. go back to light.
• 19:53
  Speaker 2: And some other things happened that also continue to confirm that.
• 19:59
  Speaker 2: And what I started to do, because eventually that light
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: started to fade, is to lay under the stars.
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: Hmm.
• 20:11
  Speaker 2: And as I laid under the stars, I would look
• 20:13
  Speaker 2: for him. And I would offer my prayers and my remembrances.
• 20:20
  Speaker 2: And then eventually, it became more of the ancestors that
• 20:26
  Speaker 2: I would feel and sense in the starlight. And that
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: became something that I did often, as well as on
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: the anniversary of his death. And that was not a
• 20:43
  Speaker 2: ritual that anyone told me to go and do. That
• 20:46
  Speaker 2: was something that came up and bubbled its way into
• 20:52
  Speaker 2: my consciousness. I'll give you another example. And I write
• 20:58
  Speaker 2: about this example in The Luminous Self. So when I
• 21:03
  Speaker 2: was younger, I was in, I think it was seventh
• 21:08
  Speaker 2: or eighth grade. And a couple of girls on the
• 21:11
  Speaker 2: bus decided to jump me and smash eggs in my hair.
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: Oh, my God.
• 21:18
  Speaker 2: And they smashed these eggs in my hair. And it
• 21:22
  Speaker 2: was because they didn't like how my hair was styled.
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: Right?
• 21:26
  Speaker 3: And so I had to walk through.
• 21:29
  Speaker 2: And I was going to this school that had like
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: a half a mile between the East Wing and the
• 21:35
  Speaker 2: West Wing. And where the bus dropped me off, I
• 21:38
  Speaker 2: had to walk. all through the hallways and through the
• 21:43
  Speaker 2: center place where everyone would hang out before homeroom. And
• 21:47
  Speaker 2: I remember getting off of the bus and saying to myself,
• 21:53
  Speaker 2: I am covered with eggs. There's nothing I can do.
• 21:56
  Speaker 2: I can go to the bathroom and I can wipe
• 21:58
  Speaker 2: some of it off, but I have to get to
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: my homeroom class in time. And so I just decided
• 22:05
  Speaker 2: that I was going to be Cleopatra. And that I
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: was going to walk like Cleopatra and I was going
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: to walk with a gown through the halls until I
• 22:16
  Speaker 2: could get to a place where I could really clean
• 22:18
  Speaker 2: myself up.
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: Wow.
• 22:20
  Speaker 2: And it was a very traumatic experience for two reasons.
• 22:25
  Speaker 3: One, because of the eggs.
• 22:27
  Speaker 2: Two, because what I did was I put this facade
• 22:31
  Speaker 2: of Cleopatra on that it took me years to realize
• 22:35
  Speaker 2: was still intact.
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: Mm-hmm.
• 22:38
  Speaker 2: So I wasn't allowing people to see the real me.
• 22:42
  Speaker 2: I had a mask that was on and that mask
• 22:45
  Speaker 2: changed over years, right? But at some point I did
• 22:51
  Speaker 2: some practices around this and I said, oh, I need
• 22:55
  Speaker 2: to do a ritual in order to kind of break this.
• 23:00
  Speaker 2: We could call it a spell. We could call it
• 23:02
  Speaker 2: a samskara. We could call it a trauma. I need
• 23:05
  Speaker 2: to regain my power. And the first thing that came
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: to my mind when I said to myself, I need
• 23:15
  Speaker 2: to regain my power, was that you have to break
• 23:18
  Speaker 2: that egg over.
• 23:19
  Speaker 3: Your own head.
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: And so I waited for my husband to go on
• 23:25
  Speaker 2: a business trip and know that I would have like
• 23:30
  Speaker 2: three days kind of unbothered by anyone and nobody asking
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: me what I'm doing. And I performed my own ritual
• 23:42
  Speaker 2: of breaking this egg over my head, taking back my power,
• 23:47
  Speaker 2: naming who I was, what I was, what I wanted
• 23:51
  Speaker 2: from life, and releasing this trauma, this experience of really
• 23:59
  Speaker 2: shame and using a mask, so to speak, to cover
• 24:04
  Speaker 2: the shame. Yeah.
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: Right?
• 24:06
  Speaker 3: Right. And it was extremely powerful. And the moment I
• 24:10
  Speaker 3: broke that egg over my head, it was over. It
• 24:15
  Speaker 3: was over.
• 24:16
  Speaker 2: I wouldn't be sitting here with you right now having
• 24:20
  Speaker 2: this conversation about my third book if I had not
• 24:24
  Speaker 2: done that ritual.
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: Thank you for sharing that.
• 24:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 24:38
  Speaker 3: So powerful. So powerful.
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: Our ability, my God. I'm like, we can do this
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: with everything, everyone. We can do this with everything. And
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: I think what I'm finding so special about this conversation is.
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: When we're using words that have become so popular, like
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: manifest or even spell work or affirmation or all of
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: these words that we're using sometimes for, and excuse me,
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: this does sound like judgment, but just my observation, what
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: we use for ultimately frivolous things in relation to like
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: our greater soul journey. But you can use this to
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: heal bigger things, like to really get to the root
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: of the root and not just look to acquire other
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: mass for the work that's undone. You can put that
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: level of intention and manifestation in creating moments like Tracy
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: just described to us to break real generational cycles in
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: your life and patterns and shame and harm and completely
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: reorganize your body, your heart, your brain around an entirely
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: different way of being.
• 26:29
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 26:30
  Speaker 2: And, you know, thousands of years ago, there were sages
• 26:35
  Speaker 2: and scholars who wrote about how to do this. They
• 26:39
  Speaker 2: wrote about these practices and the stains of the mind
• 26:44
  Speaker 2: and the imprints that happen and how we kind of
• 26:48
  Speaker 2: double down on those imprints. And when those imprints happen
• 26:52
  Speaker 2: to us, and we can think about that as a mask, right,
• 26:56
  Speaker 2: that something happens. And it becomes a coloring. And if
• 27:01
  Speaker 2: the coloring becomes concretized, it becomes our personality. And then
• 27:07
  Speaker 2: we begin to believe that we are the personality. And
• 27:13
  Speaker 2: we forget about the true light inside of us. We
• 27:16
  Speaker 2: forget about the little girl who got on the bus,
• 27:20
  Speaker 2: who was joyous and happy. And then after that experience,
• 27:24
  Speaker 2: felt like they needed to be invisible in order to
• 27:27
  Speaker 2: be safe.
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 27:30
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 27:31
  Speaker 3: So we we have tools.
• 27:34
  Speaker 2: And I love that you use the word frivolous because
• 27:37
  Speaker 2: I think that a lot of times in this contemporary
• 27:42
  Speaker 2: kind of wellness culture, they do become frivolous. Yeah.
• 27:47
  Speaker 3: And these things have power. Yes. If you know how.
• 27:51
  Speaker 2: How to use them, they have a lot of power
• 27:55
  Speaker 2: and we have to be careful with that power. We
• 27:58
  Speaker 2: can't be distracted. We have to be present.
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: We have to be present with it now more than ever.
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: My God, this moment, this moment, this moment. Tracy, I
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: would love to ask for someone listening that is ready
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: to kind of invoke the sacred or begin to feel
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: a bigger connection in their lives that hasn't yet started.
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: How can one invite the sacred into their lives?
• 28:29
  Speaker 2: Hmm. By creating a pause, deciding that you have to
• 28:36
  Speaker 2: honor the pause, the sacred is in every moment, right?
• 28:40
  Speaker 2: So it's not like we have to go looking for her,
• 28:45
  Speaker 2: but we feel like we have to go looking for
• 28:46
  Speaker 2: her because we're too busy.
• 28:49
  Speaker 3: We're too busy.
• 28:51
  Speaker 2: So making time and taking, um, Three minutes, first of all,
• 29:00
  Speaker 2: three minutes to just sit in silence, to let that
• 29:06
  Speaker 2: silence offer you some words, some thoughts in your heart,
• 29:15
  Speaker 2: but making time to invite the sacred in, making time
• 29:21
  Speaker 2: to observe the sacred is the most important thing. It's
• 29:25
  Speaker 2: not anything complicated.
• 29:27
  Speaker 3: That we have to do. We just have to slow down.
• 29:30
  Speaker 3: We have to pause. We have to notice.
• 29:32
  Speaker 2: We have to listen. We have to allow ourselves to feel.
• 29:36
  Speaker 2: And being in nature, if you're someone who's close to
• 29:43
  Speaker 2: nature or likes to be with nature, being in a
• 29:48
  Speaker 2: reciprocal relationship with nature, because a lot of times that's
• 29:52
  Speaker 2: something somebody wants to feel better, right? And they say, oh,
• 29:57
  Speaker 2: I'm going to go to the beach or I'm going
• 29:58
  Speaker 2: to take a walk or I'm going to go on
• 30:00
  Speaker 2: this beautiful hike that I love so I can feel better.
• 30:03
  Speaker 2: You're calling in the sacred right there. But part of
• 30:08
  Speaker 2: the issue is that when we're in this relationship with
• 30:11
  Speaker 2: the sacred, with nature, we're also in an extractive relationship
• 30:18
  Speaker 2: because we want to be in that relationship so that
• 30:21
  Speaker 2: we can feel better. But we don't often offer anything back.
• 30:28
  Speaker 2: And so offering back our gratitude, offering back our love,
• 30:34
  Speaker 2: our appreciation of prayer, a physical offering of flowers or
• 30:42
  Speaker 2: food or something that has value to you, to leave
• 30:47
  Speaker 2: an offering, that lets the sacred know that you're now
• 30:53
  Speaker 2: asking for a deeper relationship. And you can receive the
• 30:59
  Speaker 2: blessings of those relationships, again, by continuing to pause and
• 31:04
  Speaker 2: making an offering. An offering in the way of just
• 31:09
  Speaker 2: your own appreciation, your own gratitude for the beautiful hike
• 31:13
  Speaker 2: that you have or the beautiful beach that you have
• 31:16
  Speaker 2: at your disposal.
• 31:19
  Speaker 3: That's it.
• 31:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 31:21
  Speaker 3: Nothing more.
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: Thank you. I think I will let that serve actually
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: as the soul work for this episode. I usually at
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: the end of every episode ask our guests to share
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: soul work, something that can be used as integration for
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: everything that everyone just heard. And it feels like that
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: is the perfect way to integrate this episode together. Can
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: I hold that there? Can I make that?
• 31:56
  Speaker 3: Please, yes.
• 31:58
  Speaker 2: If we can do that a couple of times a week,
• 32:01
  Speaker 2: you will see changes in your life.
• 32:04
  Speaker 3: I promise you that.
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 32:07
  Speaker 2: Wow.
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: Wow. There is a lot of deep, true power in
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: the words spoken in this episode. And I hope everyone
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: listening will take a chance to really just try that.
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: Just practice. Just give it an opportunity and don't judge it.
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: And then try again the next day and then see
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: how it can slowly build and open and your own
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: comfort level with doing some of the things that have
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: been expressed in this episode and that are in this book.
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: Everything connected to Tracy. Her past books, this current one,
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: is linked in the notes of wherever you are listening
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: to this episode. So on YouTube and on Apple, Spotify,
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: all the places. You can scroll down and link. Her
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: latest book, Living Ritual, infused each day with purpose and spirit,
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: is available everywhere now. Definitely add this to cart. Move
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: slowly with it. And just see what starts to arise
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: and take form in your life and unfold so beautifully. Tracy,
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: thank you so much for joining us on Deeply Well.
• 33:26
  Speaker 2: Thank you for having me, Debbie. So honored to be here.
• 33:29
  Speaker 2: Thank you.
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: Thank you. We'll be back next week, everyone. Namaste.
• 33:33
  Speaker 2: Namaste.
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: The content presented on Deeply Well serves solely for educational
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: and informational purposes. It should not be considered a replacement
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: for personalized medical or mental health guidance and does not
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: constitute a provider-patient relationship. As always, it is advisable to
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: consult with your healthcare provider or health team for any
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: specific concerns or questions that you may have. Connect with
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: me on social, at Debbie Brown. That's Twitter and Instagram.
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: Or you can go to my website, debbiebrown.com. And if
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: you're listening to this show on Apple Podcasts, don't forget,
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: please rate, review, and subscribe. And send this episode to
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: a friend. Deeply Well is a production of iHeartRadio and
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: the Black Effect Network. It's produced by Jacquees Thomas, Samantha Timmons,
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: and me, Debbie Brown. The beautiful sound bath you heard?
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: That's by Gerilyn Glass from Crystal Cadence. For more podcasts
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app or wherever you listen
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: to your favorite shows.