Latest / Have you met you? / Ep. 27: Soul Remembrance, Embodied Leadership & Trusting the Unseen with Chelsea Rose Cotton
Transcript
- sasha: Today on the podcast, we have Chelsea Rose Cotton. She is a three-five generator with sacral authority. And she is one of the juiciest, most in-depth human beings and magical human beings that I know in this world. So, Chelsea, tell me what you do in the world. Chelsea Rose Cotton: Mm, well, first I'm just I'm so grateful to be on this podcast with you, Sasha, and to get to just like actually re like be in the reverence of your energy and in all that you bring to the world, which has just been such a gift in my life. So I just feel so honored to be on your podcast here today. Yeah. Yeah. And I'd have forgot question you actually already asked me. sasha: Kind of you Chelsea Rose Cotton: 'Cause I just feel so excited. sasha: so I would just love to hear more about what do you do in the world? How can people, you know, know you? Chelsea Rose Cotton: Yes, well, I am a soul guide, a leadership leadership alchemist, a feral visionary. These are all some different words that I've ⁓ stumbled upon and discovered that I feel like they speak to some of the truth of who I am and what I do in the world. ⁓ but I I in its most simplest form, I help people remember the truth of their own soul. sasha: Mm. Chelsea Rose Cotton: And help people to guide them back to the remembrance of their soul and their soul and their body. We live in a world that so often denies this sacred vessel as a really powerful ⁓ technology. And so often, really, we live also in a culture that ⁓ asks us to be really intellectual, to have to prove that everything has to make sense. ⁓ and although the mind is such a powerful and beautiful thing, my experience of how we ⁓ work with it in our culture, in Western culture, ⁓ doesn't actually allow the truth of our wholeness. And we really deny so much wisdom, so much access to ⁓ remembrance and the sacred and magic when we come back fully into the body. sasha: I love that. And so on your journey of I feel like a lot of people end up teaching what they have integrated into their lives. So I would love to hear more about just your background and how did you start remembering your own soul? Chelsea Rose Cotton: Mm-hmm. Yeah, thank you for that question. Well, one, I was always a kid who deeply believed in magic, who felt and sensed the unseen, that had a relationship with things that weren't explicitly what we would say, like in this reality. ⁓ and so I was so lucky enough and privileged enough that my teacher showed up at my door when we were thir when I was 13 years old. ⁓ I my family had moved to Ashland, Oregon, and I was sitting in our living room reading a book, and all of a sudden these two huge dogs ran into our house, and their names were Amigo and Spirit. And I walked them out of our door, and there, standing at the end of our driveway, was this woman who, as soon as I saw her, I just had a felt sense of like, I need to know this woman. And she ended up being a shamanic healer from the Andean mystic past. And so I apprenticed with her for 17 years, working with wisdom keepers and elders in Peru and Ecuador and Mexico, really being initiated particularly into some of the traditions of the Qiro tribe. ⁓ and was initiated into certain, yeah, traditions and ceremonies that honestly felt more real and made way more sense to me than this reality did. And the destruction, the chaos, the pain of what it is to be human felt really, really hard for me for a really long time. I walked in this world in a like a desire to like actually really be home. I wanted to go home because this place didn't feel like home. But the unseen. Earth-based rituals, some of these more indigenous practices of deeper connection and understanding that it's like not just the scene reality that we live inside of and building a relationship with those things. ⁓ one honestly saved my life. because I really I didn't want to be here. This world felt way too hard. But be learning how to walk in this world and these other realities ⁓ gave me a sense of hope, gave me a sense of belonging, gave me a sense of like I'm not crazy. sasha: Ha ha. Chelsea Rose Cotton: yeah, so I just feel so grateful. And then from there, after 17 years of apprenticing with her, I ended up working in a women's social change organization and doing leadership development, founding a couple different programs ⁓ that really are about leaders and particularly women, not all women, but ⁓ the restoration of the feminine being an essential part of what I feel like is missing in. in our world right now, and that is an essential ingredient to some of what we're seeing on the planet. sasha: ⁓ yeah, absolutely. Before we go there though, I wanna ask a little bit more. You ⁓ you mentioned the Andean Mystic Path. Can you what is that about? I've never even heard of that. Chelsea Rose Cotton: Yeah. So just I just want to name as soon as you asked that question, I don't know if you could see it on your end, but the lights just like flickered over here. magic. This is the thing. I have a teacher, you know, that used to say it just takes a quarter turn towards magic where everything changes. And that's been my experience in life. Like we can we can choose to just see what is just right in front of us, or we can see through the eyes of our own awe and wonder. sasha: Ha ha ha. Chelsea Rose Cotton: And from that, everything changes. And that's when I believe magic can occur. Flickering lights, Andean mystic path. So the Andes are, I mean, there's many different traditions and ceremonies and different tribes that are in the Andes. And so I would say that's an umbrella term for multiple traditions, but that all exist inside of that particular geographic location. And and the the mystical path being one of the sacred. And that and I I I think in actually any tradition, any religion, any place we can really start to find where the mystical line of something that might be different than some of the dogma or other things that we may be taught inside of any of these religions or traditions. sasha: ⁓ interesting. Okay. And so what do you mean specifically by that? By the mystical path versus like the dogmatic path? Chelsea Rose Cotton: Well, in my experience, is one of dogma is rigid, one of dogma is of right and wrong. One of dogma is of like this there is only one way. sasha: Ugh, vomit dot com, I can't. No. Chelsea Rose Cotton: And I would say the mystical allows for the mystery. It allows for wisdom beyond what we even know or what we think, even inside of what we've been taught in these traditions or ceremonies. And being able to listen and follow, I would say, from a different place than just again, the one of like, this is how it goes, this is how it is. And this is how you have to live by it. sasha: How do you feel? So I would say that the majority of the world wants the rigidness. They want to know what's next. They want to control the next step. So a lot of dog dogmatic dogma is very much accepted and like please stay here. So when you are actually moving onto the path of mysticism and the magical mystic path, like how do you how do you honor where people were taught to be in dogma in the You know, in this rigidness and then honoring that like, hey, there's so much more. There's such a bigger world than you can actually see. So what is your process in guiding people in that direction? Chelsea Rose Cotton: Yeah. Well, one, I want to say that every single person is unique. And so there is not, I do not have a formula. I don't not have a step one through three, this is how you get to your soul. I don't think that's explicitly how it works. Although sometimes that's nice to have. There's nothing wrong with that. And my experience of what it is to be human and what it is to live a life of soul is that there's a deep listening process that is. Takes us into places and directions that when we when we're willing to listen goes way beyond anything we ever could have imagined. And I would actually almost push back a little bit and say, I actually don't know if that's what people really want. I think it's what they think they want. We think we want control. We think we want to know all the things, it's which is why we go from the mind. It's why it's hard to let go of control. It's why like sasha: Mm-hmm. Chelsea Rose Cotton: We grasp onto the things that we know and that are familiar, even the things that are toxic or unhealthy in our lives. We grasp onto because it's familiar. And we I think there is a place and we live in a culture that actually supports that. Like, hey, do this and you will succeed. Do this and you might make more money. Do this and you can then have. And I think we've been bought and sold a pretty major lie inside of that. sasha: Well, if we look at our healthcare system. ⁓ Chelsea Rose Cotton: It's ⁓ if we look at any of our systems, any of our systems, and I wanna acknowledge that it's really scary to be in the mystery. It is really scary to choose to move towards something that doesn't make sense when the rest of the world tells you that you're crazy, that that doesn't serve you. And yet I will say that I, you know, I I am so again so grateful. I've been I've had a relationship with my soul since I was 13 years old. And to listen to her has been one of the greatest gifts of my life, to know her, to honor her, and to see where she's brought me, which also hasn't been comfortable. That's the thing. I will say this: my life has not explicitly been one of just like success and deep comfort. I've chosen to walk a path that has led me into like deep grief, into the darkness, into facing my shadow, into facing the places I've caused harm or family has caused harm, or my ancestry has caused harm. And I think that a lot of people it's scary and it can feel like death sometimes. It can literally feel like, am I gonna die? And yet, my experience continues to be that the more I'm willing to go into that darkness, the more I'm willing to face the things that feel scary inside of myself and/or even in the world, I have so much more capacity to now hold it all. And I have so much more freedom. I feel so free in my life in this moment. And and after you know, over 20 years of doing this kind of work. The sense of freedom and my ability to also sit with the pain is different. ⁓ it's less suffering, it's still painful. And I think that's the other thing in terms of healing work is we think, ⁓ once we do the healing, we'll feel better. In my experience, which doesn't have to be right, but in my experience, healing work actually just allows us to be more and more human and to grow the capacity to hold the many different ranges of emotions that we get to experience, both from joy. sasha: Yeah. Chelsea Rose Cotton: To intense grief and pain. sasha: Yeah. And I think there's something important to say too. It's like we can hold both at the same exact time. And it's like I feel like sometimes I just want to be like I'm just happy right now. I I just want to hold be happy when it's like actually there's so much grief, there's so much guilt, so much shame also involved in the full spectrum of this very moment that I'm in. So I I I it just feels like there's like a dogma thing to that as well where it's like I have to know how I feel and then I can present that to the world. And I feel like that's where we're doing ourselves a disservice. Chelsea Rose Cotton: Which is still this need to prove, it's still a need to explain, it's still a need to like have an ⁓ understanding, which understanding helps. I wanna like acknowledge. Understanding brings awareness, it's powerful. But I think what we're also seeing actually in a lot of communities, in spiritual communities or healing communities, is intellectual knowing is not enough. It's a beautiful thing, but it's not actually the major thing that creates huge transformation in our lives. ⁓ and so I you know, you asked how does one do this. I didn't even really answer. I went down a whole rabbit hole of some of that. Which, you know, at least for me and my work, there's a blend of some of these shamanic practices that I've been initiated inside of soul retrieval, power animal retrieval, journeying, learn learning how to access these other ways of knowing, but also explicitly deeply going into the body. So we s we hold sasha: Ha ha Chelsea Rose Cotton: Trauma and joy and wounds and memory inside of our body. So a lot of my work is supporting people to go actually down to the core, even if that's ancestral, because sometimes what we're carrying is not ours. It feels like ours. It's been woven into us, but it's actually goes even deeper in my experience than that. So there's a place of also like going to the core origin of where does this live? So we get to start to actually shift it both inside of the body and then through practice. sasha: Mm. Chelsea Rose Cotton: And behavior. sasha: And so the most the the deepest transformations are through the embodiment of understanding your soul, who you are, and your ancestral line and healing. Chelsea Rose Cotton: But I I would say that that you that could be one of the pieces for sure. Like one thing I definitely stay away from is any any saying like this is the way. sasha: Ha ha Chelsea Rose Cotton: I just don't actually hold that. It's been my it's there's been a huge piece of my way that has really worked for me, which is why I also do all kinds of different energy tools and working with also ⁓ essential oils and herbs and because our body, our bodies want are all different and need different things. We all learn differently, we ⁓ see, sense, know differently. So, you know. And I do think there is a huge piece of when we start to tap into our soul and we live a life of soul and do that deeper work of kind of dismantling and working through all the stuff that has been laid upon us via family, culture, our own wounding, whatever that might look like, to start to come to the truth of our own wholeness. And there's a lot of different ways to do that. So I deeply believe that soul work. Is really vital and important. I also deeply believe that being in nature and remembering the truth of our connection to nature is vital. So again, it might look different for each person, but I think that that is an essential ingredient. Like soul and nature, if anyone did anything and those like committed to those two things in their own way, I would be like, okay, we're we're we're on it, we're on a path. We're on a good path. sasha: Mm. Yeah. We're we're on the room. So I would love to hear more about what does it mean to connect to the soul and why is it important for myself to understand my own soul in the world? Chelsea Rose Cotton: Beautiful question. Well, for me, so I mean one thing I would actually just invite us even in this moment, anyone who's listening, I always love to place my hand on my heart and just take like a deep breath in. And let it go. And even with that breath, letting ourselves start to slow down. Because the soul moves at a different pace than this wild world that asks us to go 365 days a year under fluorescent lighting. Soul moves at a different pace. So even just the invitation of starting to slow down, which I know for us many of us can be really hard. So that's okay too. Just holding and trusting that. But as you can letting yourself start to slow down so we can listen at a different level. And there's many cultures that believe that at the back of our heart is the throne of the soul, is the seat of soul and the window to the divine. So taking a moment to just check in with your heart soul space. And inviting your soul, welcoming your soul. Our souls want to be in relationship with us. But it's about us being willing to slow down and actually listen that allows for that relationship to build. Just notice and welcome your soul here today. It's a part of you that is beyond time and space, that can't be broken, that carries the wisdom of lifetimes. It is of your purest essence. And as you welcome this part in, even just asking, like, how do you want me to listen to you? What is it that you want me to know right now? And then trust what comes even if it doesn't make sense. Because that's the thing. This is where our mind so often gets in the way of the magic that is always available to us. We go right into, well, I must be making it up. Or that doesn't make sense. Or no, that can't be it. In some form. And so the act of actually listening and trusting that voice, just like any relationship, it will grow stronger. So taking one more deep breath in, giving gratitude to your soul. opening your eyes if you did have your eyes closed and on heart. And I'm cu I mean, how did that feel to you? When and how does it feel when you connect with your soul? sasha: She is just so sweet. She's always so sweet. It was really interesting though, because there's like this sweetness. And then also when I feel my physical body, I'm like, ⁓ I've had too much caffeine today. My heart is like pounding, but why? That's weird. Like I feel like mentally, I'm like, I'm chill. And then I'm like feeling my heart. I'm like, it's pounding. There's a lot of caffeine happening. And then when you ask how do you want to connect with her, my left hand it's like automatic writing. I do a lot of automatic writing. Chelsea Rose Cotton: Mm. Mm-hmm. sasha: just I I could feel like the vibrations like the hand, like the left hand specific. I was like and then she was like, you need to play more because you're tired. Chelsea Rose Cotton: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Hehehe What you got in those like three minutes? sasha: It's so important. Well, and I wanna come back to to the idea that we we get to choose to build that relationship with our soul. And so I would love to hear more about how someone who's like just starting on their journey of building that relationship with their soul, what are some practices, you know, rooted in ancient rituals or nature rituals or just sitting in silence, whatever it is ⁓ that they can use in their day to day just to even if it's five minutes a day, two minutes a day to Chelsea Rose Cotton: Yeah. Well, one thing I want to remind us again, also, I've I feel like we live in a culture that really complicates things. We like to make it so hard on ourselves and think like, ⁓ my God, I have to do this whole ritual and all of this big stuff, which big ritual and those big things are beautiful. Please do them. And I wanna name we it doesn't have to be so hard. It can seriously be pausing for a moment, taking a deep breath in, placing your hand on your heart and going, I wanna listen to you. sasha: Mm. Chelsea Rose Cotton: And may even if you don't hear anything for a while, like, okay, even though I don't hear you yet, I still want to listen to you. sasha: And it might not even be hearing, right? Chelsea Rose Cotton: And it might not be hearing. Yes. Thank for speaking to that. We c some people might see it, some people might just sense, some people might just know. ⁓ we all have different ways. And you know, I think this is where sometimes too we can com compare ourselves. Like some people have these visuals that are so detailed, and it's like, ⁓ my God, you know? And then some of us we literally get one word. And neither one is better or worse than the other. It is all just a different way of sensing and knowing the wisdom that's coming through. So so one is just like trusting your own and not compare yourself as much as possible inside of that. And then two, yeah, simple, like wake up in the morning and just close your eyes for a moment and you know. Have a conversation. For you, you spoke about writing. For some people, it's like, ⁓ they they do it via writing. So discovering what really works for you, but keeping it really simple. And then also I will say again, and I will always come back to this, is go out in nature. Go put your feet, bare feet on Mama Earth, let yourself like feel her. And it's a lot easier when we're in nature for these places for us to ⁓ come back into right relationship with ourselves. The natural world just has our body actually do that without us having to effort at all. sasha: And that is science fact too, if you don't believe in the unseen. Chelsea Rose Cotton: Science. Yes. Well, and what's so cool right now is there's so much science actually that is starting to back and show how all of these indigenous technologies are real. sasha: I am I'm actually really obsessed with this and I think so much is about to really shift moving forward because of this reason. I want to talk about being in right relationship with yourself. I am I've known Chelsea for what a year, year and a half, year-ish now. And when I first came into your work, I didn't, I'm like, I don't know what that means. So for someone who is just hearing this language, what does it mean? Chelsea Rose Cotton: Year and a half, yeah. Yeah. Well, I feel like this work is about, and I've already spoken a little bit to it, but is about true liberation. It's about freedom. It's about coming into right relationship with our soul, with mama earth, with ourselves, with dismantling like these stories that we've been told about what it is to be woman, what it what it means to also even just be human, what success looks like. Like we have, we live inside of constructs that we've been told are the only thing or that are the most real thing. And I think through doing deeper work, whether that's shadow work, grief work, dream work, ⁓ human design, we start to discover these other places that actually that that doesn't explicitly have to fit into, that there are other ways of being that actually serve us more. And so even if, you know, and I've been told for a long time. Chelsea, I don't get what you say. And there was a, there was a way, you know, there was a time where I really, it was like really hard for me. I felt really lonely. I mean, imagine, even though now I can look back and be like, ⁓ my God, I had a teacher that came at 13 years old. At that time, I was a 13-year-old girl trying to like just go to high school, and I was like travel, you know, doing shamanic work. sasha: That's crazy actually. Chelsea Rose Cotton: It felt really, I mean, it saved my life, but it also felt incredibly isolating. It felt like I was on a journey that most people really, even adults, didn't understand. ⁓ so I have less reaction to what does it mean? And more of a like, yeah, I don't know either. There's a piece of like, there's an actually part of part of it is like, can we be in the mystery? Can we be in imagination? Can we be in possibility? Because sasha: Mm-hmm. Chelsea Rose Cotton: I don't know also. sasha: I think that this comes back to your the the trust aspect of this too, like trusting yourself and trusting that what you know in the moment right now is exactly what you need to know. Right. And that can be the mystery, that could be the magic. Like what if our knowing, our unique knowing is the magic? Right. Chelsea Rose Cotton: Yeah. Well and I think our unique knowing is the magic. And then when we start to actually have and a clear filter inside of that, one thing I also want to say is that in so many communities it's like, well, if if if you listen to your body, that's just trust your body. sasha: ⁓ Chelsea Rose Cotton: There's some nuance here. Our body has wisdom. Our body also carries traumas and wounds that it filters through. So part of this work, in my opinion, too, is learning how to discern, I am feeling the rage. And is that rage because it's actually something to like move out onto someone else? Or is it because there's a deeper thing that's asking for me to be be with and move, but not to explicitly make someone else wrong inside of it? sasha: Mm-hmm. Chelsea Rose Cotton: Does you know, and so the more work we are willing to do, the more we become a clearer field so that I can be like, ⁓ that's my little girl. That's my little wounded one right now who wants to like rage. And she deserves to rage. And I can also like have my adult self be like, okay. And in this moment, that one sentence did not need a whole explosion of rage, even though it I felt it and I get to honor it. So I think there's something that's really important about embodiment work that's not just explicitly like trust your body. It's start to learn how to listen to your body so you can trust it and know what is being activated in the moment to then get to work with it. sasha: And is learning how to listen to your body around just asking it questions. Chelsea Rose Cotton: I think there's multiple, like for me, the some of the main questions I often ask is like, well, one, just honoring, okay, like I'm feeling really anxious in this moment. I deeply trust that anything that we feel has wisdom for us, even the things that feel really uncomfortable. So often, again, slowing down enough to then ask, like, okay, why are you here? Because you came for a reason. Why are you here? And then from that, it's like, what do need? And most of the time. The what what do you need is not the thing I think it is. Even also, why are you here? So often when we feel uncomfortable feelings, the why are you here is actually because I want to protect you or I want to love you or I want to be closer to you or I want to whatever. It's not to actually hurt us most of the time. Not all the time, but most of the time that's been my experience. And like the what do you need also is like we can go into like, well, I have to like you know, leave my whole life, I have to throw everything away and start anew. And sometimes that's true. Sometimes Yeah, sometimes that's true. And then sometimes it's literally like, you just need a hug. Can you give yourself a hug in this moment and like breathe that in and acknowledge what's occurring right now? sasha: Been there done that. Chelsea Rose Cotton: And from there everything then changes. sasha: Yeah, there's it seems like there's like this this like deep presence and awareness that you need to have for yourself. Cause as soon as I I don't know why, but when you're like, maybe you just need a hug. And I was just like, My anxiety. I was just like, My anxiety always needs a hug. But what is that? Yeah. And then you can go into a deeper questioning from there. Chelsea Rose Cotton: Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah. sasha: ⁓ I really want to get into you talk a lot about trusting the unseen. So tell me how your work really relates to and you know educates pe well, educates, I don't know, shows people a way of really trusting the unseen. Chelsea Rose Cotton: Yeah, well, first, I mean, to me, the unseen is, I mean, really, it's actually everything. ⁓ it's it's even the things that we see and see with our naked eye, they're still the unseen inside of it because everything is energy. Again, backed by science. This is not me. Just everything, even ⁓ it's yes, that is science. Everything that we come into contact with, even this chair, is. sasha: Bye bye, bye. Just fine. Chelsea Rose Cotton: Energy. And so our ability to start to be in tune, be in relationship with all the many energies around us, which I'm not then saying like go and open yourself up to all the energies. That's not what I'm talking about. There takes great discernment in living like this and learning what works for your body and what you need to do to like protect, not from armored protection, but from protection so that not all energies do get. get in. But the unseen really being like, ⁓ there's all kinds of energies and things occurring that we may not see with the naked eye, but that we are in relationship with all the time. And starting to learn the language of that, which it is a language. The language of dreams is a kind of language. The language of astrology is a kind of language. The language of I mean human design, you know? And so these are all just to me, different ⁓ languages that we can start to remember. sasha: So someone who is starting to trust the unseen, how I cause with the dream dream dictionary or the the dreaming language of dreams, I know you like dreams and then you like write stuff down and then you create your own dictionary. So your dream language is very unique to you. So how would you translate that to someone who is building their trusting the unseen in their in their lives and ⁓ careers and their businesses? Chelsea Rose Cotton: It yeah, I mean I think it would really depends again on each person and what they're working because each of us has our own trust issues. And they they come with us into the unseen. So we get to actually start to, you know, learn what what is it about it, what don't we trust, why don't we trust it? Again, some of these like deeper reflective questions for ourselves. sasha: Ha ha ha. Chelsea Rose Cotton: And then what are how do we want to start to build trust? I mean, one s really simple practice that I often bring to my clients is like, what would trust do? Like actually just ask that question in this moment. Like pause. If you notice that you're in distrust, whether that's in a relationship or whatever is occurring, is like what pausing for a moment, taking a deep breath in. What would trust do right now? And then act on that. ⁓ trust would say the vulnerable thing. Okay. I'm gonna take deep breath in and courageously say the vulnerable thing. What would trust do? Okay, ⁓ trust would actually jump up and play because they would know that you don't have to sit here and do all this work to actually get it done. So we're yeah. And so like starting to listen, I mean the how trust gets built, again, just like any relationship, is the willingness to listen and then act on those pieces. sasha: We're learning that Chelsea Rose Cotton: If we listen and then override, is that very trusting? If we tell ourselves we're going to do something and then don't do it, we're actually not, we're building distrust inside of ourselves. Cause then we start to know, ⁓ well, I don't really follow through, even on my own pieces. Which isn't about also. And then there's the place of not making ourselves wrong in that. Again, we're human. So having grace. Having compassion while also like, okay, how do I actually start to really build trust in these ways? And every person might, you could ask, what in the unseen am I wanting to trust more? Is it my ancestors? Is it my dreams? Is it my own intuition? Is it, and one thing I would say is that any act all these are just access points that can then start to open and build up. any of then and support any of these things in your life as a whole. sasha: Yeah, 100%. I want to bring it back to human design for a second. So Chelsea, I will ask Chelsea a question and then she's like, well, it could be this way, it could be this way, it could be this way, it could be this way. What do you think it is? This is Chelsea's line three of experimentation. So she the reason you are so good at what you do is because you've lived the experiment. You are in the experience all the time and you understand that there isn't just one way. And I love that you are also offering as much as I I can see that being really frustrating for people, especially when they're like, I want black or white, black or white, yes or no. And you're like, well, we could look at it from this angle, this angle, this angle, this angle. And I'm gonna ask you a question to questions to get you to answer your own question. And this is gonna bring me to the beauty way, which Chelsea is the co-founder with Lauren. And I remember being so activated at the beauty way because I'm like, I just want to know the answer. Chelsea Rose Cotton: Yeah. sasha: And this goes back into not trusting my own intuition there, but I wanted you to tell me it because I felt like if you told me it, then that is the correct answer because you were leading it. So what are your hat hat am I the only one to have expressed that type of Chelsea Rose Cotton: No, people hate when I say, what do you think? What do you feel? ⁓ Yeah, well, and so again, we live in a culture that has taught us to outsource our power, has taught us to outsource that there are people who know better than myself. And so even that is a dismantling of it, which is why you hear me say over and over again, Well, what do you feel? What do you think? Because I deeply trust. sasha: What is this phenomenon for you? Chelsea Rose Cotton: that you do have the answer. I deep yes, you do. We all do. Now sometimes we need a little help. We need a little support. That's really real. We need someone to sub, you know, help us down or guide us along the way. But I think that's one of the biggest pieces of my work and what even you're helping me rebuild my website right now and which is awesome and exciting. And ⁓ even in getting sasha: And we we usually do. We d I mean we do. Chelsea Rose Cotton: My experience of reaching out to clients and past clients and getting testimonials, I was really struck by the theme of almost every single person speaking to you directed me back to myself. And I was the one who like came home. Like, yes, I'm there standing next to you, but it is not because and I have gifts. I have way powerful, amazing, beautiful gifts. sasha: Such a witch. Such a witch. Chelsea Rose Cotton: And my work is all about, and so do you. You really have the answer. You know that you know it deep in your bones. And the more we can start to remember that, the more we stop outsourcing our power, which means that's when systems also change. Because the more we outsource our power, the more we have to get in line and be told how to access that. But when we start to actually know that it lives within us. And start acting on that, that's when s systemic change can actually start to occur. sasha: Mm. Yeah, and that's so powerful. One last thing I want to talk about, ⁓ or from a human design perspective is so Chelsea's core gift is gate fifty one, which is the gate of shock. So it doesn't surprise me that your clients are telling you that you are bringing them back home because it's all about moving people out of complacency and back into themselves, like shocking them back into the hearts of themselves. And that's very true for you. Chelsea Rose Cotton: Which which has partly been also it's well, you know, at times in my life feeling really isolated and hard. I have a lot of and you it with the fifth line, which I'm learning, and that was one of the biggest lessons, honestly, in terms of learning about my own human design a bit, was this fifth line of like that people either see me, the projection of savior or like demon, right? Like sasha: Yeah. People just think that you have the answers to their questions. And so when you are constantly being like, Well, what do you think? They're gonna be they're like, I know you have the answer. Why won't you give it to me? Like this like, I'm asking you because I don't have the answer, Chelsea. Right? It's like that little that like ego play. Chelsea Rose Cotton: Uh-huh. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And it's created and sometimes then there's been power dynamics and power things because people really either love me or they really don't like me. And there was a long time where I think I that was really hard for me. And now I can hold it as like, you don't like me. Okay. sasha: Well, and I feel like if people who don't like you end up loving you after the work is after they clear their their shit. Yeah. Chelsea Rose Cotton: Yes, yes. sasha: ⁓ I really want to get into dream work. I think that you have such a radical perspective on dreaming. So I would love to talk a little bit more about yeah, how how are you bringing dream work into the work that you do in the world? Chelsea Rose Cotton: Yeah, I love dream work. I feel like dreaming, I actually think in terms of like where we're at in the world right now, dreaming is a radical act of revolution that is really necessary for us to remember how our dreams are working through us. and so a couple things that I'll just share in terms of that. Just like anything in my work, it's all about embodiment and embracing the whole. So, in terms of working with me and doing dream work with me, it is not an intellectual experience. We aren't going in and analyzing, we aren't reading things that are telling us what that means. We are actually remembering the language of our own dreams and embracing the felt sense of how that shows up inside of our life and inside of our dreams. And when I'm talking about dreaming, I wanna name two for those of you who feel like, ⁓ I don't dream or I don't remember or it's only mundane or you know, it's all just like I'm naked in front of, you know, my boss or something like that. But like the scary, you know, the ones that are anxiety producing. Even if we don't remember, we are still dreaming and have access to the potency of our dreams. And my experience is when we start to embrace them, even in simple ways, they start talking to us differently. Also, even for those of you who have dreams that are really scary or terrifying or like you don't like dreaming, I want to also acknowledge and honor that. There's many in indigenous cultures, and specifically from what I know, the Tsutsujo, who deeply believe that our dream world is just as real as our waking world. And that actually, unless we are awake in both, we are not living our full and whole lives. And that dreaming is a portal to soul retrieval, to time travel, to clearing ancestral wounding. and so for me, I deeply believe, and you know, one of my favorite stories, I'll just speak actually about Jesse Littlede. Jessie Littled is a Wampanoag woman ⁓ from the Wampanoag tribe. And it was believed in ⁓ the lineage that they had lost their ⁓ language, and ⁓ it was believed that it would come back in seven generations. And so Jessie Littledoe started having dreams and started hearing a language. And thankfully, she was aware enough to trust herself that, and I don't know the full story of how this happened, but she ended up partnering with MIT and they rebuilt the Wampanoag tribe language and then taught it to the tribe itself. And in the And in the teaching of the of the remembrance of their native tongue, alcoholism went down, drug abuse went down, sexual violence ⁓ and just physical violence went down, other traditions and ceremonies started to be remembered. Like it changed the landscape of the Wampanoag ⁓ community. And I deeply believe that we all actually that. Many of us might be carrying a dream that is going to change the culture in which we live in. But we have to be willing to trust it. Same thing, Harriet Tubman. How she knew which houses were safe and where it would be okay to go to sanctuary was through her dreams. Talk about being able to trust when your life is on the line. And people's lives are on the line right now. sasha: Mm. Chelsea Rose Cotton: And so our ability to not push aside that which is out like what is ours to have the sacred responsibility for and to trust our dreams and move towards them because they have wisdom, I think is is going to be is is an essential part again of like the revolution that is taking place on the planet right now. sasha: Mm-hmm. Yeah. I I think at the Beauty Way retreat you asked, Have you ever had a dream that changed you changed your life? What is the dream that changed yours? Chelsea Rose Cotton: A really good question. ⁓ I'm pausing, not because there isn't, I have actually many. I'm actually pausing of like the one that came up feels really vulnerable to share. it's and it's actually, and it feels like I meant to share it. ⁓ it is a little, it's it's an intense one, so I'll just give a little bit of an offering to that for those who are listening. It's a dream that I didn't follow, that I'm curious if I had followed, what would be different? And that was so ⁓ my dad passed away almost five years ago. In October, it will be five years. And the dream that I didn't listen to that I wish I had was it was during COVID. And the man that I ha was dating at the time and who actually like right before had broken my heart. That we were gonna be together and he he did not feel like I was his person. And so I was absolutely heartbroken. And but we were talking about getting together, and it was during COVID, and I had a dream that he was sick. And I knew that we were gonna see him, and my dad was gonna be present. And it wasn't that he I dreamed that he had COVID. I just dreamt that he was sick and ⁓ I woke up that morning knowing that we were gonna see each other in the afternoon. And I reached out being like, Are you sick? I had this weird dream and I don't know if you should come. And he was like, I'm I'm feeling okay. And instead of listening to my dream, I trusted that. And he had COVID and my dad died two weeks later. Gave us all COVID. And so it is a dream that I sit with that, and who knows? We don't this is where we don't know all of it. But I'm also really aware of if I had listened to my dream, even if it didn't make sense, would my dad still be alive today? Yeah. And so from that too, it's like not just the dreams that can change our life in a good way. Is what are the dreams that are showing us things that we're not listening to that could actually again change our experience of crisis, change our experience of and my dad may have passed away anyway. This is where it's like, but I learned a major lesson for myself, which was when I rus I receive information and wisdom. And I do I know that through my dreams. And every time I override that, there's sometimes it's a really small consequence and sometimes it's a really big one. sasha: Mm. Wow, that is so powerful. Thank you for sharing that. That one got me. It's massive. Chelsea Rose Cotton: Yeah, it's a big one. It's a big one. I'm surprised I'm not crying in this moment. sasha: You're holding space for me. So as far so that is like just such ⁓ my god, that is just like such a powerful, a powerful story. Is did you double down on DreamWork after this event? Chelsea Rose Cotton: I doubled down on dream work after. And for the most part, like even when things don't make sense and my intuition feels like, well, why why wouldn't you go to that or why shouldn't you do that? I I listen every time. And sometimes it's really clear, like, ⁓ whew, that happened. Thank God I didn't go. And then sometimes nothing happens and it's like, who knows? But it's and maybe, and this is the thing is. sasha: Maybe if you were there it would have happened. Chelsea Rose Cotton: Even this need that it had like to prove rather than just trust and trust that that is enough. ⁓ this even with intuition, we so want to be right. Like if we say something to someone and it doesn't land, we then get hard on ourselves. And one one thing even side of that that I want to share is sometimes we know something before they're gonna know it. I don't know how many times I've had someone come to me years later and go, I did not get what you said in that moment. But three years later, this occurred and I remembered your words. So it's not our job to know why. We want to. That's our mind. It's our job to trust and follow and act on that in my in my experience. Now, there's also still discernment, I want to say, especially with intuition, is sometimes we know something or feel something we're not meant to share it. And so there's also a discernment of this doesn't mean just because we know things, we go out into the world and share everything. there's there's a level of discernment because not everyone's ready for that or asking for that. And people's own soul's ⁓ consent or their own energy consent or whatever is really important. sasha: Yeah, I actually think when I was in my early twenties going to the bars, I was like I think I was channeling but didn't know that's what was happening. And there's so many times I had offended people by knowing stuff about them that they didn't even know themselves. And I think because of all of that like negative backlash, it actually shut down parts of my soul, parts of my gifting for a really long time. And I still actually don't think I even maybe I do have maybe I should give myself for credit, but I I still feel like I've I'm I'm rebuilding that that knowing again. Chelsea Rose Cotton: Yeah. And I really want to thank you so much for sharing that. Cause that's even the trust building part is for many of us, we had, whether that's as a child or something else, we had certain gifts or skills that either people put us down for or that also made us maybe afraid. And so we then decided, like, I don't want to see that, I don't want to know that. I and so like cut it off. and learning how to again build the scaffolding inside of ourselves to be able to hold the gifts. that are meant for us, that are ours. ⁓ and so, you know, learning, rebuilding to trust your own channel, and that it's also safe to do so. And I think that's the other thing I actually want to speak to. Most of us have experienced where it's really unsafe in this life and or if you do have a past life and believe in past life burning at the stake or any of these things where particularly as women, we've brought our gifts and we've been burned for it in some sasha: ⁓ yeah. Chelsea Rose Cotton: way or another. ⁓ And so building enough safety inside of ourselves, I think that's one of the other things too in our world. We want everyone else to make it safe enough for us. And my experience actually is it's the other way around. We have to make it safe enough inside of our own bodies, our own beings to hold and then discern when and where in what rooms we bring that out in. sasha: Yeah, yeah. Chelsea Rose Cotton: But it's not actually someone else's job to create safety for us. Which is can mm-hmm, which can be a little, you know, that can be a little provocative. sasha: Yep. In sourcing. ⁓ definitely. I feel like discernment is one of the most powerful gifts that you can have. And I think when you walk into a room and you hold just there's a presence people who hold discernment walk into rooms with. And you're like, What is that? Like you're not gonna shape shift for me. You're gonna be exactly who you are and you're gonna show me exactly like what you need to say in the moment that you say it, but that's it. It's it's really fascinating. Chelsea Rose Cotton: Mm-hmm. Okay. sasha: ⁓ I wanted to share one dream that I had that goes into that gift that I feel like shut down. I had this dream where I had this little girl show me, hey, I can show you what how you really feel again. How you can really feel again. It's going to be really intense. And I walk through this portal with her, and I'm on the other side, and there's this man on the ground. He had just died. And she's like, touch him. And so I touch him, and then I felt his entire all of his pain, every single Chelsea Rose Cotton: Hmm. sasha: moment of his life and the murder itself. And I said, no, thank you. Take me back. And I knew in that moment I had again, it felt like I'd again been like, ⁓ you're not ready for to receive your full gifting yet. And I was like, damn it. But it it was cre like I woke up and remember my entire like my entire body, like physical body was like felt everything that he'd ever felt in his entire life. Chelsea Rose Cotton: Mm. Mm. Mm-hmm. Wow. sasha: Yeah, so I but that's like the last dream I've had that was like really it felt so profound and also like, damn it, why was I so scared still? You know? Chelsea Rose Cotton: Well, one thing I want to say in that is like, this is where we can be hard on ourselves. Like, damn it, I did it again. And I, you know, there's a place for that in some ways, but I also am just like, my question would be like, what what do you need to trust this gift or skill? And or what is it that you are really afraid of and getting actually really clear on what are you afraid of? sasha: Yeah. Yeah. I mean I think it's ⁓ I don't want to do it alone. And I think that's why she was there showing me. Right. And essentially it's like she's like, I am here. You are okay. You are safe. And I was like, I'm not safe, I'm not safe. And I ran right out. Right. Chelsea Rose Cotton: Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm. I you know, you can go back in. Which we can talk about that if you want, but we can you can go back in and you can do it differently. sasha: Yeah. Do I set the intention before I go to bed? Chelsea Rose Cotton: Well, it could be either, ⁓ yes, you could actually specifically ask for her to show up again and like, hey, show me these pieces in my dreamscape, but you also don't have to do it in dreams. Like you could actually just set an intention and do a little ritual for yourself and close your eyes and welcome her back in and imagine yourself standing there once again over this man and let yourself actually do a cosmic redo. sasha: What wow. Okay, so Chelsea also teaches Dream Club, the dream. You wanna talk a little bit more about that? Chelsea Rose Cotton: Well, the Dream Club so ⁓ is an eight-week course where we really do like deep dive into how do we embrace our dreams and what that looks like and how we do collective dreaming so that more and more of us because what we dream is in service to others as well, even the mundane ones. I don't know how many times listening to someone's dream, it's like, ⁓ great, that part of me or this, or you know, it's like it's all still like the human soulscape. So ⁓ it's an eight week course and then after that any type of dream work if people work with me then can do a monthly monthly dream club where we gather and it's not as much content in terms of learning, it's more just gathering and community doing community and doing like dream tending together. sasha: Yeah, and I plan on doing the next cohort. So I'm really excited to like dive into those, just the rituals of it all. So we're gonna start wrapping up. I have my final question that I ask every guest. Are you ready? If someone were to really know you, what would they need to know about you? Chelsea Rose Cotton: Yeah. I'm ready. If someone were to really know me they would need to know. I mean what the first response actually that comes is that I love so deeply. Like I fall in love with you really quickly. And I have the expansion to hold that in a really real and deep way. And inside of that, like the image that I got was of Mama Earth. Like, nature is my people, trees are my people. If I could just lay on the moss and like become a rock and just like into her, that's that's what I would do. And if you really knew me, you'd know I'd want to be a rock covered in moss. ⁓ Ha ha ha sasha: if you're listening to this podcast you get to meet Chelsea in person 'cause she is actually a dream. how can people connect with you? How can people work with you in the world? Chelsea Rose Cotton: How? ⁓ so you can work with me either one-on-one through coaching. And I say coaching with a very large umbrella term of that, because it's really deep soul-guided and bodied rewilding work, but one-on-one ⁓ can do personal retreats. So actually, hire me to do half day or full day or multiple day retreats. I do also corporate work and going into corporations and sp but corporate that's really ready to like. do it differently, that wants to be connected and creating policy and ⁓ governance and structure that's that mirrors nature and heart-centered and soul-led and these these different and like intuition just as important as other data. ⁓ And then of course the garden, which is this whole larger vision and legacy that's not just mine, that is being held by multiple women. But there's different programs inside of that, like the Dream Course, there's also an intuitive facilitation course, and ⁓ and then the Beauty Way, which is a full initiation. and sasha: When I went to the Beauty Way, they said it was a retreat. And then I changed my name. It's it is a big initiation. It's one of the most beautiful things I've ever experienced. And if you guys get to be, you know, a part of any work with Chelsea and Lauren, like your life will shift. It will change and it will become a lot better than it is right now. Chelsea Rose Cotton: Yeah. ⁓ Hmm. sasha: out of ten. Okay, well thank you so much for being on the podcast today. Is there anything else that you wanted to say before we hopped up? Chelsea Rose Cotton: I'm just so grateful and I love you and thank you, thank you, thank you. sasha: You're so well.