Latest / Spiritual AF! / EP #80 - From Corporate Finance to Earth Witch with Laura Yates

Transcript

EP #80 - From Corporate Finance to Earth Witch with Laura Yates · Spiritual AF!

• 0:03
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome to Back Yourself.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_01: This is a special five-part series from Spiritual as Fuck.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_01: So that's five people, five short conversations, and five very different stories about trusting yourself and taking the leap.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_01: Now, today I'm talking to Laura Yates, who's the founder of The Hummingbird Life?
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_01: Laura went from corporate finance to becoming a spiritual mentor and earth witch.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_01: And she's now making another huge life move from Singapore to the UK.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_01: So the big question: how on earth did you go from working in corporate finance to becoming an earth witch?
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_01: And what is an earth witch for anyone listening?
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_01: Because I don't think we've mentioned that term before.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: Oh my gosh, where do I start?
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: So I'll definitely say it's in my blood.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: And my gran and my mum are very, very spiritual and very intuitive.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: So is my sister.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: But gran definitely was an earth witch.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: So it's always been there, but I ignored the call for a very long time and wanted to try and fit into a box.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: Um until eventually that box just became too tight and not, I to be honest, just so uncomfortable that I wasn't happy with myself and my mental health took a turn, and the universe gave me a big slap in the face and said, it's time to step into your own power and to embrace who you really are.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: So to be but it took a lot of mental health uh challenges and a lot of universal slaps or kick in the butt where I actually just claimed it and and proudly so.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_01: And you know what?
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_01: We've done so many interviews with different guests that go through this exact thing that something's presented to them that you just can't ignore.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_01: So eventually it gets so uncomfortable you have to act and go down that spiritual path.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_01: So, what was that like pivotal moment, or was there that particular experience that was like, I'm okay, I've got to listen to this?
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: I I had a few, but I think the the biggest one was uh early 2019.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: I'd already left corporate four years earlier, so I was already doing this, but I was actually I was still relying on alcohol as a crutch for my um social awkwardness and anxiety.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: And in a bad way, I ended up driving drunk on a rural road, thank goodness.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: But I had a really awful car accident.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and in that moment, well, the very next day I realized I could have killed someone if I'd been on a public road.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: And why was I still alive?
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: And for me, that was the biggest thing.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, I my mental health wasn't in a good state at that time, and I was like, why on earth?
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: Why didn't I go?
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I wish I had.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: And it was that it was like, okay, Laura, you need to actually pull your finger out your ass and actually trust that the universe is calling you to do greater things, but it was a real lesson and also in self-compassion and self-love before being able to properly hold space for other people.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I can't imagine that that is so hard.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm just thinking about being in that situation.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_01: And what were the steps that you took after having that huge awakening and that realization?
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_01: And yeah, how did life look?
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_01: And what were those steps that you took to claiming I am an earth witch?
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: So oh, so I think it I think we're never ending with it.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: We're always on a path.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: And I think there definitely are steps I took, but I'm always taking further steps.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like this is if if we weren't learning more or doing further inner work, we wouldn't be need to be here anymore if we didn't have to.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but I definitely think over that time, thank goodness I have a very loving and supportive husband who who loves the cray cray in me, which is awesome.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: But he's just as insane.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: All right, um, and he actually just said he was like Laura, something has to change.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, Well, would you support me in this?
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: That so I asked, I took a whole year sabbatical.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't work.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: I um I did a lot then of inner work, um, really deepening my spiritual practice and understanding my mental health, so deepening my spiritual practice in terms of learning the science behind mindfulness meditation, so that I could almost explain the woo to the skeptics.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I went on a two-month journey through India, which was always, I'd been to India before, but this was I needed a proper pilgrimage.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: And that for me was probably one of my biggest steps was two months alone, um, meeting people, but really delving deeply into learning.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: I went, I attended the Dalai Lama's teachings.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_00: I spent, which was just, yeah, that's a whole nother conversation on its own, but one of the most profound experiences I've had, and some really a lot of time hiking in the Himalayas and some really deep pivotal moments.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: Um, someone always says, India, what you're searching for, you're not gonna find elsewhere except in you, but India might bring it out of you, and it definitely did, I think.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_00: That's definitely part of it.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that along with um discovering cacao a couple of years before that, cacao, the ceremonial cacao and the sacredness of cacao was my biggest reintroduction or remembering into the depths of our womb and the depths of how we are nature and nature is us and how connected we are to the earth.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: And she helped me develop this beautiful relationship in understanding how plants are our allies and that all plants are medicine and and developing a deep, deep relationship with the wisdom of nature.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: Were that I just felt so supported, so supported by nature in general.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so those were probably the biggest steps, but to be honest, I've also gone to specific places in the world that have really reignited, I'd say reignited the remembering for me.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: India is one of them, Peru is another.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: I was under apprenticeship for a year with a um beautiful teacher in Peru.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and the UK, Glastonbastonbury was super activating, has been I've been on a number of pilgrimage on my own.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_00: These are all for me a lot of pilgrimage on my own to sacred places has helped for me to reclaim who I really am and who I have been in past lives.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_01: And what do you help people with now?
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_01: What does I'm gonna call it a we shouldn't call it a job because it's not a job, is it, when you're working in in this type of a field.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_01: But if someone was to come to you, why would they come to you and what do you help them with?
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: I think, yeah, it's being of service, I guess.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: It's um I like to say that I help people to remember what they already know and to, and I don't empower them, I help them to find their own way of empowering themselves and remembering their inner, I sometimes call it an inner joy spark and inner that deep, deep remembering of sovereignty that is it is within them.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: And the way I do that is through our connection to nature.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_00: I believe that we are just completely disconnected in this day and age, in this world.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: And I believe in my own personal experience and in the teachings I've had over lineages is that we need to reconnect in three ways.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: One is connecting back to ourselves, the one is connecting back to an aligned community, and the other is to nature.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: And the way I then do help people to reconnect back in those three ways is through dance, in mostly outdoors.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_00: For me, I think connecting back to ourselves and really dance is one of the best medicines.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so movement, um, dancing in nature, the medicine of cacao and other plants, um, herbal magic, the retreats I hold is always about like where are we going to say, not just a retreat where we can hang out by the pool, but a retreat that is actually steeped in honoring land, honoring cultures that have come before us.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_00: For me, this is really, really important as we can all jump on the bandwagon of the most this is a funky new trend, but how do we honor all of the people that have held on to this wisdom for so long?
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_00: Um, indigenous wisdom of nature, and also though, remembering that we have had this in us all along.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: So, yeah, big witchy circles, lots of dancing around the fire, lots of movement, lots of potions.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_01: I'm excited.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: I do it all, I do it all.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: And it's all about, I guess I have different offerings that will speak.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_00: Some would, I mean, they still do for some, but they're a bit more mainstream.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: And then others where where I really if we can, especially where I do have men coming in, but for me, I think there's a real power in women coming together in circle and remembering remembering the deep wisdom and the power that we have in our wombs.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, absolutely.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_01: And for anyone listening that's interested in finding out more, head to the show notes now because we'll add loads of information on where you can find Laura and some beautiful offers that she's uh putting forward.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_01: Now I've got one final really important question for this back yourself week.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_01: Because I feel like you are someone that has definitely backed yourself.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_01: What a journey! What does backing yourself mean to you now?
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_01: How does that look?
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like I've in hindsight I backed myself, but in a blissfully ignorant way.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_00: Not even and going, oh yeah, actually I have.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: Still remains as when we are so when we have experienced something for ourselves that we know works, that have we have in a way healed ourselves, and that we know in ourselves, in our heart, that it works, then the only way we can share that with the world is from our hearts.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_00: And if we're sharing from here, well, I I think that's where our confidence slips.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_00: If we're sharing from theory, but if we are sharing from genuine embodied experience, you can't knock back yourself because, like, you are the scientific proof that's that something works, that you have been able to heal.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that that it's it's gotta be heart-led.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_00: Gotta be heart led.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I could not agree with you more.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_01: And I think the whole journey that we go on as women, especially, is getting to the point where we truly trust ourselves and we trust the journey that we're on so we can take that leap of faith and just back ourselves.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_01: And so, yeah, what a great example of that you are.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_01: Congratulations.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_00: I still sometimes get the imposter syndrome, I won't lie, but that's what we all do.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: And that's also having self-compassion, right?
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_00: And being okay with that.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, absolutely.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_00: Being okay with all parts of ourselves, the shadow and the light.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, very true.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you so much for being here, Laura.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_01: It's been an absolute pleasure for you to be on this series this week.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_01: And for anyone listening, yes, head to the show notes.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_01: Definitely click follow.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_01: We've got five stories this week, and they're all just as interesting as Laura's as well.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_01: And until tomorrow, please stay curious.