Latest / She’s Smart / Donnie Soddu – Energy, Intuition, and Modern Healing

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Donnie Soddu – Energy, Intuition, and Modern Healing · She’s Smart

• 0:02
  Hey, everybody. Welcome to She's Smart. I'm your host, Maria Robotham.
• 0:06
  Each week, we sit down with incredible women to talk about life,
• 0:10
  work, and everything in between.
• 0:14
  Today's conversation is one I'm deeply honored to share with you.
• 0:18
  My guest is Donnie Sodu, founder of Highlight Rituals and a shamanic practitioner
• 0:23
  whose work sits at a fascinating intersection of science, intuition,
• 0:27
  healing, and intention.
• 0:28
  Through her jewelry and her practice, Donnie creates energy work you can wear,
• 0:34
  pieces infused with intention and care designed to support balance,
• 0:38
  clarity, and protection as we move through the world.
• 0:40
  What makes this conversation especially meaningful is Donnie's path to this work.
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  Before stepping into energy healing, she built a career rooted in neuropsychology,
• 0:49
  research, and the corporate world, studying perception, sensory experience,
• 0:54
  and how humans process reality.
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  Listening to her story unfold, it becomes clear that this work wasn't a sharp
• 0:59
  turn away from who she was, but rather a coming full circle into a deeper understanding of it.
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  In this episode, Donnie speaks openly and generously about a topic that isn't
• 1:10
  always easy to talk about, energy, intuition, and spiritual healing.
• 1:15
  Without asking anyone to suspend disbelief or be anything other than curious,
• 1:20
  we talk about what shamanic practice really is, how energy moves through people and objects,
• 1:26
  how intuition shows up in everyday life, and why healing doesn't have to look
• 1:30
  one particular way to be real or valid.
• 1:33
  This is a conversation about listening, listening to your body,
• 1:37
  your instincts, your history, and the parts of yourself that may be quietly asking for attention.
• 1:43
  Whether you're deeply spiritual, firmly grounded in science,
• 1:48
  or somewhere in between, Donnie offers a perspective that feels thoughtful,
• 1:52
  intelligent, and deeply human.
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  So get cozy as we connect, learn, and laugh together with this beautiful,
• 2:00
  expansive conversation with Donnie Sodu.
• 2:28
  I'm so glad this is happening because both of my kids were sick last over the
• 2:32
  weekend of Thanksgiving.
• 2:33
  I have been praying to God and the universe to just keep me healthy.
• 2:38
  I feel like you do so many things. There's a lot of hats. What's happening?
• 2:42
  There's a lot of hats. That's cool. And I've dropped hats because I can't do all the hats anymore.
• 2:47
  I know. I'm like at that point too. I'm like, okay, what am I stripping? Yeah.
• 2:52
  And that's been a very challenging.
• 2:56
  Like it's just like hard it's hard yeah because
• 2:59
  of course like usually when you're doing all these things it's there's something
• 3:02
  about them that like you're getting joy from or that
• 3:05
  you like or there's a reason why they're in your life so to have to be like
• 3:08
  i'm deprioritizing you so the we came up with this well we didn't come up with
• 3:13
  it but my sister and i both use this same phrase and it's unless it's a hell
• 3:17
  yes it's a fuck no oh and that's easy that's super easy I love that.
• 3:24
  Hell yes or F no. That's it.
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  And that's basically how I decided on all the things that stayed and all the things that went.
• 3:34
  It's got to be a hell yes. I don't have the time is so minimal now.
• 3:39
  And the kids need me more, which I love and I want to be there. And that's priority.
• 3:44
  Right. Husband, everything else. And you need space for that.
• 3:46
  So, and I found that all the things I was doing, nothing was getting all the need it needed.
• 3:52
  Right. All the attention it deserved. And then it's like, okay,
• 3:54
  well, it's done. Yeah, it's done, but it's. Didn't feel great.
• 3:57
  Yeah. So, yeah, there you go.
• 3:59
  If it's a hell yes or F no. Love that. I'm definitely going to use that.
• 4:03
  And then you walk through all your things and you're like, hmm,
• 4:06
  does this sit? Exactly. Yep.
• 4:08
  I do that with a lot of things now. It's the only way to do it.
• 4:11
  I want to talk about this journey for you into becoming a Shemanta Keeler.
• 4:16
  I had my first kid and things really started to shift.
• 4:23
  I feel that people say this quite a lot and hopefully it doesn't sound super
• 4:28
  cliche, but motherhood for me was a huge portal.
• 4:32
  Into my own spiritual journey and spiritual awakening, really started to feel
• 4:40
  this pull to get back to nature, get out of the city.
• 4:45
  And I just listened to it and let it unfold.
• 4:49
  And so I started to work with different intuitives and healers and.
• 4:57
  You know tarot readers and I just started exploring all
• 5:01
  of that I had actually like always always
• 5:04
  been a crystal person okay like I had
• 5:07
  always collected them I my I was like my mom would take me to the discovery
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  store the discovery channel store and like I'd just be in all the crystals for
• 5:17
  the whole time we were there amazing I would bring crystals to show and tell
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  like it was always like a big like part of who I was but I just thought I liked
• 5:24
  crystals and they were pretty.
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  And so I've been collecting them throughout the
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  course of this history that I'm like telling you that that
• 5:32
  was always like part of my thing I'm exploring all these things I started to
• 5:37
  collect more and get more into it and start to meditate with them and all of
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  those sorts of things and really I would say like one thing led to another I
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  started having a lot of different synchronicities And, yeah,
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  I had one of my teachers that I was seeing was sort of like,
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  I think that there's something in you.
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  Like, you are a healer. You just don't know it yet, for lack of a better phrasing.
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  And so I am giving you this invitation to, like, really explore that.
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  Consider these books. Consider meeting with these people. Consider,
• 6:12
  like, studying this tradition.
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  But it's there. I'm seeing it. I am seeing your ancestors all around.
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  Like it's a very big part of you and you are, you are just not connected to
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  it, but it's like banging down your door.
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  And I had this experience with a few other teachers who would mention like the
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  same ancestor showing up in all of the readings saying the same things.
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  And these people were not connected, these intuitives that I was seeing,
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  and I was not sharing this with them either. So it was just like...
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  Around me and in my aura and like the same message and the same invitation to
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  go deeper and really like step into this.
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  And anyone who's listening to this who is also a healer or is spiritually connected
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  in this way knows that these journeys are like so nonlinear.
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  Like you basically have to look at it like five, 10 years out and be like,
• 7:16
  oh, that's what was happening. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Now I understand why that was happening.
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  Yeah. So it's a little bit like even telling the story now, I'm like,
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  It's not super linear. It feels like this bit of this spiral dance. Right.
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  But so that was happening on the one side. I was meeting these intuitives and
• 7:34
  they were saying this to me.
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  And I was like, listen, I'm just here to get my tarot cards read.
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  I'm not trying to shift my life and like totally go.
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  I have no idea what you're even saying to me. I don't even know where to begin.
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  So what are you talking about was like my reaction.
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  I want to know, should I do this job or that job? Yeah. Are we going in the
• 7:57
  right direction? Should we move? Should we stay here?
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  The most non-spiritual thing ever, like literally for me, it was all about like
• 8:03
  my career path, all of these sessions.
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  And then the ancestors would come up and the healing. And I was just like, no, no, no, no.
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  That's not what I'm asking. That's not what I'm asking. So that was happening on the one end.
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  On the other hand, I was still having all these wanting to really be in nature,
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  connect with nature, started like getting into gardening and deepening my relationship
• 8:27
  with the crystal work and all of that.
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  And then also, probably the third thing that was happening at the same time
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  was I was starting to get very disenchanted, if you will, with the marketing work that I was doing.
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  And I was looking for a place that was that I could really fully express my
• 8:47
  creativity and be a little crazy and just...
• 8:52
  Be, I don't know, just like really connect with my artistry. Yeah.
• 8:56
  Yeah. And I think a lot of people can also relate to this.
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  Like when you are building brands or creating marketing strategies for other
• 9:05
  brands that you don't necessarily completely identify with,
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  you know, like sometimes it feels a little stifling if you're really like a
• 9:13
  creative and it's, oh, well,
• 9:15
  maybe I want to make that a little bit more delicate, but that's not what the
• 9:18
  brand is. So I want to use this color palette.
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  I want to make this world that feels like this or aligns with this aesthetic. But that's not in line.
• 9:26
  That's not on brand with what you're meant to be doing.
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  And so I was having a lot of those struggles professionally.
• 9:34
  And it wasn't like something that was seeping into like my ability to perform
• 9:40
  at work or anything like that.
• 9:41
  It was just like an internal like, I'm not, this is not aligned. It was hard to sell it.
• 9:47
  Yeah. It's hard to sell something if you don't love it.
• 9:50
  Right. And I know that feeling where you're like, that's, I don't,
• 9:55
  it's, you're digging in somewhere that isn't there trying to find it. One thousand percent.
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  And it's, but I had had this, I had grown up, oldest daughter.
• 10:04
  Single parent, home, like a lot of sacrifices had been made for me.
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  And I just was very much, I need to provide. I need to make money.
• 10:14
  I had this, you have to do this.
• 10:16
  These are your options. And so I was stuck in this place where it was like,
• 10:21
  this is not a line. I need more than this. But also I have all these like responsibilities
• 10:26
  and shoulds and all that stuff around. And so that was tough.
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  So as a response to all of that, I started working on Highlight,
• 10:36
  which is my current company.
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  It's an energy infused fine jewelry brand.
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  And so I was working on Highlight and I was mood boarding and creating jewelry
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  and sketching and just basically making this world.
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  And it was so nourishing and like in so many ways exactly what I needed.
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  And it was always combination of crystals and And like ritual tools and energetic
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  spiritual jewelry and talismans in this like modern, clean, delicate,
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  like timeless sort of way. It was always in the DNA.
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  And so it was all those things was happening at once.
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  I had to highlight that it was like my refuge. I had the nature pull and then
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  I had the healers like really inviting me to go deeper into that path.
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  And now looking at all of this together and having the hindsight,
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  what I understand is that highlight was my portal and my gateway into my shamanic healing path.
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  It was something that the universe, my ancestors, gave to me and encouraged
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  me to do because my mind at that point could understand that.
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  I was a direct-to-consumer, head of marketing, head of digital brand person. I could make.
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  A company that was a direct-to-consumer brand.
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  And at the point before I became a healer, I was like, oh, I'm just making this
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  thing that's aligned with my values. It's sustainable.
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  It's spiritual. It has crystals. It's my aesthetic.
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  I'm just making this thing. And maybe if I decide to leave my job and go do
• 12:39
  this, this will feel more aligned.
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  But it was still like quote 3d like
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  it was one layer normal job yeah yeah yeah but now
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  i'm like oh no that was like they were like
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  that was me dipping the toe yeah into
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  the water at the water's edge i needed to have a way to get into it and that
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  was that is what highlight is and so it really even now is it evolves and I
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  give it the space to evolve,
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  to reflect what it is that I am doing in my own shamanic practice and where I am focusing.
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  So anyone who has been following us all along, thank you so much.
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  It means so much to me. This like really is my sole mission.
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  But anyone who's been following along, I'm sure has seen the evolution or the
• 13:33
  things we'll go deeper into, whether it's like spell jewelry or some of the
• 13:38
  pieces that I do as offerings to the ancestors.
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  Like I very much let it just breathe and flow and evolve based on like where
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  I am deepening my ties to spirit or where I am finding a lot of inspiration
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  or just good energy. Yeah.
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  When you actually someone orders a piece, I found this fascinating because you
• 14:03
  were talking about this at the dinner. we had the other night,
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  every piece that someone purchases, you sit with and channel that person's energy into.
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  Into this piece so every piece is really for
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  the individual who's purchasing it yeah I
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  found that to be fascinating yeah so what is that process like
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  it all happens in my healing studio
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  in a way it's almost the same thing it's
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  like a mini energy session like I always say our company our brand is like where
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  energy healing meets jewelry so I am doing this in the healing studio typically
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  on the table where I might do Reiki or other types of shamanic healing.
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  I will spread everything out.
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  And first, I'm cleansing the peace. So I'll either do that with sound or I'm
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  doing it with sacred smoke.
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  Sometimes rattles. It depends on what.
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  What's needed. And I should actually take a step back and say that before all of that begins,
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  I actually open a sacred space in the healing studio so that any of the helping
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  spirits or guides that want to come through and contribute to this process and
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  the blessing and the activation of the jewelry can do that.
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  And something that's really important to, I think, just clarify is that I am really like a channel.
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  Like I'm a conduit. It is not like my energy that I'm putting into things.
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  It's that I am opening my field.
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  I am hollowing out and I am connecting with the helping spirits and source,
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  universe, however you want to think about it.
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  And that is the energy that is coming through.
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  So they're deciding and I'm holding space.
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  Is there a material that always hearkens the rattle, the rattle shook me a little bit.
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  Because you don't hear, you don't, I don't hear rattle a lot.
• 16:06
  Yeah. Like that vibration.
• 16:08
  Yeah. I hear, I do sound.
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  I get that a lot. But the rattle, where does that come from? Yeah.
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  So the rattling and the tradition that I am taught is, so there are various types of rattles.
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  You can have a rattle that's like a little lighter that maybe even sounds a
• 16:29
  little bit like a baby rattle, right? It's like a finer, lighter sound.
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  Those rattles I tend to use to seal in energy.
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  So it's a little bit more aligned to a blessing at the end to just seal it in.
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  It's all nice. Everything's all settled. We're settling, right?
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  A rattle that's a little bit more clacky, a little louder, a little bit more maybe.
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  Disturbing is not the right word, but disruptive is intended to actually disrupt
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  stagnant or heavy energy.
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  So it's used to break up this energy so that it can be cleared and released and transmuted.
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  So there are different rattles for different purposes.
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  Fascinating. part of this any type
• 17:23
  of energy healer is always learning
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  right you're always both a student and at
• 17:30
  some point if you feel called i guess you can call yourself a teacher right
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  but you're always learning and you're always learning from the helping spirits
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  and and it truly is a practice this shamanic spiritual practice in many ways and so um,
• 17:49
  To your question about how to know what to use and when, it's really about you
• 17:55
  start to develop a relationship with the helping spirits that you work with
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  a lot, your sort of main allies.
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  You also develop a relationship with these tools.
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  And you also start to just, you can tune into someone's energy or the energy
• 18:14
  of a place and you just know.
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  And you can open up to the guidance of the helping spirits. I do this a lot.
• 18:24
  Someone comes to me or I'm in a place or I'm presented with a certain question
• 18:30
  or situation and I ask, what do you see here?
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  What is the best thing for me to do here? Should I do anything?
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  Should I not? Should I remove this? Should I not? And when you know and you
• 18:45
  learn how to listen and you really hone that discernment,
• 18:49
  it's, they will say, I've had them clearly say, this is a curse,
• 18:54
  it is your choice, you are capable of clearing this, but if you don't want to,
• 18:59
  you don't feel comfortable, that's your choice.
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  I've also heard, this is not for you.
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  And so it's on me, right? I have the free will to do whatever it is that I'm going to do.
• 19:12
  But it definitely behooves me to listen. And I've learned that over time.
• 19:16
  I'm wondering if all of us could tap into this because I believe that we all can, right?
• 19:21
  Yeah. We all have outside of us bigger beings, right? Yep.
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  Whether that's God, whether that's angels, whether that's spirits,
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  your ancestors, whatever it may be.
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  Yeah. I firmly believe that there's more than just us. and
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  can we all tap into
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  that somehow for a little extra guidance yes
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  so my belief and i
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  know the belief of like many of my teachers and many of my colleagues is yes
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  i think that there are varying degrees of these of intuition and the depth of
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  that right like you might be clairvoyant which means like you're able to,
• 20:01
  you have what they call clarity of vision.
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  So you might have visions or you might be clairaudient, which means the guides
• 20:08
  might tell you and you hear it just like someone is saying these words to you, right?
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  So there's different ways that this intuition can be harnessed and experienced
• 20:19
  by you or by, let's say, any of us.
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  And you might have many of these different things, and they can maybe exist
• 20:30
  in different strengths.
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  And you might have to practice if you want to get better at your clear audience, for example.
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  So the answer is yes. Not everyone is going to be...
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  Extremely psychic yes or even
• 20:45
  open or even open right but but i
• 20:48
  find that i think one really good example or
• 20:52
  kind of situation that we can all relate to is
• 20:55
  when you have a dream about
• 20:58
  someone or you've been like thinking about someone that you
• 21:01
  like have not spoken to in seven years
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  and you're like that's super random that
• 21:07
  i'm thinking about that person and then they text you like a second
• 21:10
  later yes like that is one
• 21:13
  of those types of situations right and
• 21:16
  i think that if you can relate to that then you
• 21:20
  can start to have this understanding of what it's like to maybe be an intuitive
• 21:26
  and be into this a little bit deeper where it's like that type of thing is happening
• 21:32
  a lot and happening a bit more deeply right and someone who so i said we we
• 21:38
  all have these intuitive gifts and,
• 21:41
  to a certain degree, you can practice them and deepen them.
• 21:45
  That's fascinating. So I have a friend who we've known each other since,
• 21:49
  oh my God, like seventh grade, sixth grade, seventh grade.
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  And we've gone through life in each other's lives, different,
• 21:56
  not in each other's lives, being in separate parts of the universe or whatever, the world.
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  And both of us will have moments where we have a dream with each other in it,
• 22:06
  or there's something and you start thinking about the person, something will happen.
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  And I swear within the same day, we have both texted each other. It's crazy.
• 22:17
  It's crazy. And Caroline, if you're listening, this is about you.
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  And it will be random. Like we won't have spoken for three years.
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  And all of a sudden, I had dreams about you. I had dreams about you.
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  And I thought I should text. Well, I thought I should text.
• 22:30
  And it just happens. It's the craziest thing.
• 22:34
  But we're like, we don't question it. We're like, well, there you go.
• 22:37
  We had to reach out and say, something.
• 22:39
  When it starts to happen to a certain extent, you're just sort of like,
• 22:44
  yeah, this is my life now.
• 22:45
  In addition to the jewelry line, I also just do work just as a shamanic practitioner.
• 22:52
  So some people come to see me for just shamanic healing.
• 22:56
  And some people come to see me
• 22:58
  for shamanic mentorship or some guidance on their journeys, if you will.
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  And so one of the things that I love to teach people how to do is to connect
• 23:13
  with their own helping spirits and to journey for themselves.
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  So the things that you might come to me to do for you, I have this question.
• 23:23
  I want you to go and explore this area or explore this energy or clear this
• 23:27
  energy for me. And I can do that on your behalf. But.
• 23:31
  I also have people that want to learn how to do that for themselves.
• 23:36
  And I can also teach you how to do that for yourselves.
• 23:40
  And so I just wanted to share that. But as well as we think about the intuitive
• 23:45
  gifts that we all have and our ability to call on our own guides and ancestors
• 23:52
  and connect in that way for some day-to-day guidance in our lives.
• 23:56
  Like that is totally possible. And that's a really big part of my kind of mission here.
• 24:04
  I almost think about myself as like a forest guide, right? I'm not your guru.
• 24:09
  I'm not here to do it all for you and whatever and not, and gatekeep and not show you the way.
• 24:14
  I actually want you to, I want to show you that this exists. Yes.
• 24:19
  And that you can do it. And I want to be there for that moment of wonder where
• 24:25
  you connect the first time with your own guides. And you come out after the
• 24:29
  drumming, you're like, this is what I've seen. You're like, oh, the magic.
• 24:34
  Yes. For that, that to me is so just like one of the most special things.
• 24:40
  And I feel so honored to get to facilitate that for people where you've been living with.
• 24:46
  Within with a certain understanding of
• 24:49
  the way that the world works it is not wrong what
• 24:52
  it is just like is but then I
• 24:56
  can take you into a space where you can meet angels
• 24:59
  and maybe you meet with
• 25:02
  the fae or fairies which
• 25:05
  I know you want to talk about at some point you know and you're
• 25:09
  just like what this is
• 25:12
  totally it's just really expansive work
• 25:16
  and there's just so much that
• 25:20
  we can do for ourselves and so much that we can do for our well-being and our
• 25:26
  just like the general sense of goodness like the well-being part of this work
• 25:31
  i find that that part of it really is meaningful for me because when I,
• 25:38
  I think I've told you this story, but for all the listeners here,
• 25:41
  I get really nervous when I fly.
• 25:42
  And it gets worse and better as my hormones change, I've noticed.
• 25:46
  As I'm getting older and the hormones are changing, I've been getting more nervous
• 25:50
  to fly. Yeah. So I have angels.
• 25:52
  I know who they are. They're around me all the time. They travel with me.
• 25:56
  And they're always with me on an airplane.
• 25:59
  And I've sensed them when I'm
• 26:02
  really nervous. like it can feel their hands like my noni is one my lala,
• 26:09
  My godfather has appeared. My dad's best friend, when he was really sick in
• 26:13
  the hospital, my godfather appeared.
• 26:15
  He never comes to me. But he showed up because it was his best friend who was in the hospital.
• 26:19
  Like, that was crazy next level for me. That's a whole crazy story I could tell you about offline.
• 26:23
  But that was nuts. But anyway, I can feel my noni had really cold hands and
• 26:27
  I can feel them on me when I'm really nervous on a plane.
• 26:30
  And I find that just that alone is the most comforting feeling to know that
• 26:40
  when shit hits the fan, I'm surrounded.
• 26:43
  I'm not only surrounded by human beings in my life who are protective and care
• 26:48
  for me, but these angels that are there just to console.
• 26:55
  It's pretty outstanding.
• 26:57
  And that feeling that anyone can have that just in and of that self to have
• 27:02
  that presence is really settling.
• 27:06
  It's very settling in those crazy anxiety and panic ridden moments to have that feeling next to you.
• 27:13
  Yeah, I was telling my husband the other day, we were talking about this journey
• 27:18
  of mine and how things have shifted.
• 27:20
  And I was telling him, like, I've never felt more grounded and less anxious
• 27:26
  than when I started doing this work. It's just there's...
• 27:31
  Yeah, it's just very settling, very grounding. Very, yeah.
• 27:35
  And so that's another thing that is really important to me to at least offer and open up to people.
• 27:43
  So, Shemontic Healing, can you give us a,
• 27:47
  I don't know, the easiest, the like first course of what it is so that we can
• 27:53
  all understand it and then a little bit of how you will go about in your practice
• 27:57
  bringing that into what you do?
• 27:59
  It's a big, several big questions. Yes.
• 28:04
  I'm going for the steak here, Donnie. I will do my best. Okay.
• 28:09
  In layman's terms. Yes, in layman's terms. So I think I'll just start with,
• 28:14
  you know, a bit of a definition around shamanism and a shaman, right?
• 28:19
  I think a lot of people have at least heard the term shaman.
• 28:23
  It can be used interchangeably with a shamanic practitioner or a shamanic healer.
• 28:30
  I prefer not to call myself a shaman because it is...
• 28:36
  First of all, there are just some like traditional and cultural sort of ties to that word.
• 28:41
  And some people, if you're being extra conservative, it's the idea is that shamans
• 28:45
  come from like a very specific tribe and a very specific tradition.
• 28:50
  But also, and this is probably the thing that I consider the most,
• 28:56
  it's that a shaman is that's really a title that is conferred on to the practitioner
• 29:02
  by the community. Ah, OK.
• 29:04
  OK. It's like not, it's not that it's not kosher.
• 29:09
  You don't call yourself that. You don't call yourself that. Some people do.
• 29:13
  Yes. That's your prerogative. But me personally, I would prefer if I'm speaking
• 29:17
  in terms of what I do, I call myself a shamanic healer or a shamanic practitioner.
• 29:23
  Shamanism or the shaman or the shamanic healer is essentially a bridge between
• 29:31
  nature and And the universe and source and,
• 29:37
  let's say, humanity.
• 29:41
  So we live in two, three, multiple, all kinds of worlds, for the ease of this
• 29:48
  explanation, between two worlds.
• 29:51
  And our purpose, what we're here to do, is we're here for the benefit of the
• 29:57
  community and also for the benefit of the natural world.
• 30:02
  And we're here to restore and promote balance and harmony and reciprocity.
• 30:10
  And so a shaman can call on the nature spirits, whom they also give offerings to.
• 30:23
  They show gratitude for, they show respect for, and they can call on them to
• 30:31
  help a client or someone, a person in their community.
• 30:36
  And that's like the simplest way to think about
• 30:39
  it right and then and what they might be asking for
• 30:43
  from the helping spirits from the nature spirits
• 30:46
  is maybe it's clarity maybe it's
• 30:49
  guidance maybe it's to heal something
• 30:52
  to heal physical illness to heal emotional things to clear to To clear stagnant
• 31:03
  or heavy energy that is in the aura of a client that or to heal or remove,
• 31:10
  let's call it like an energetic imprint or an energetic intrusion that is in
• 31:17
  the client's aura that is almost like preventing their true soul essence to express itself.
• 31:25
  Because it's got this, like, foreign energy that's been put in there through
• 31:30
  another person or situation, right?
• 31:34
  That keeps causing things like repetitive patterns or blocked things like that. So...
• 31:41
  That's sort of the shaman is the intermediary for the healing,
• 31:46
  for the balancing, for the harmony between the natural world and the spirits
• 31:53
  and the community and the people that it's trying to help.
• 31:58
  Fascinating. So that's there's so many layers.
• 32:02
  Oh, I'm sure. But I think that's like an easy way to understand it.
• 32:07
  And in terms of, I think you were asking, what do I bring into like my own spiritual
• 32:15
  practice and or shamanic healing practice?
• 32:18
  And so my signature is a combination of a few things. So I'm working with crystal
• 32:25
  medicine, cave medicine, these like nature spirit allies.
• 32:31
  I also work with the fae. So those are other types of spirits.
• 32:36
  I work a lot with ancestors and I do a lot of what I call shamanic Reiki or
• 32:45
  that type of just like pure,
• 32:48
  loving source energy channeling into a person's aura for the sake of healing and balance.
• 32:56
  And so someone coming to me, typically what the sessions look like is you get
• 33:03
  there. I will ask you to share a little bit about your intention of what you're
• 33:09
  looking to get out of the session.
• 33:10
  Not because I'm trying to mine information, but just because intention is very
• 33:15
  important in this work. And there are so many things that I could see in a session
• 33:22
  if I just went in blindly.
• 33:25
  And it's important for me, especially if we're going to be doing 45 minutes
• 33:29
  or 60 minutes, to make sure that I'm focusing on the thing that the client feels like.
• 33:36
  Is really where they want to focus. And that just helps to say,
• 33:40
  okay, I want to focus on this.
• 33:43
  But typically I will also ask the helping spirits,
• 33:46
  is there something else that they feel is more important or is not even more
• 33:53
  important, but that they feel is important to be brought up,
• 33:57
  to be looked at, to be cleared.
• 33:59
  So I'm taking in the client's desire, but I'm also asking the helping spirits Yeah.
• 34:06
  If you guys were to just come into the session and look at this,
• 34:10
  like where would you want to focus and why?
• 34:14
  And nine times out of 10, the intention that the client has brought in is like level seven.
• 34:24
  And what's a better way to say this? Okay, so nine times out of ten,
• 34:27
  the intention that the client has brought in is connected to what the helping
• 34:33
  spirits are saying we need to look at.
• 34:35
  But the helping spirits are showing it to me and wanting to bring it up from
• 34:40
  a much deeper level than the client is actually able to access and is able to report.
• 34:46
  That makes total sense to me. That makes total sense.
• 34:49
  There's something deep down in there. And get it here. You get it here.
• 34:52
  But there's something down in here. That is the thing.
• 34:55
  Almost like, sometimes I think about it, sometimes I think about it like,
• 34:59
  sometimes I think about it, you know, the princess and the pea. Yes!
• 35:03
  The pea's at the bottom of those 21 mattresses or whatever it is.
• 35:07
  And it's like irritating things.
• 35:10
  It's causing an imbalance. It's like shifting your stability, but like...
• 35:16
  In some ways imperceptible or just
• 35:19
  not understood or maybe not appreciated or recognized that that thing that like
• 35:26
  maybe you thought you were totally over is still having these like rippling
• 35:33
  effects in other areas of queer life. Yeah.
• 35:39
  So that is usually that is like the interesting interplay, if you will,
• 35:45
  of the client's intention and the helping spirit.
• 35:48
  And for people who've done this type of work before, sometimes they will go
• 35:53
  to the shamanic practitioner because they know that.
• 35:56
  They're like, okay, I know that I keep wanting to align myself with unavailable
• 36:03
  people and relationships.
• 36:05
  And this doesn't feel good to me. Like, I know that it's a pattern that I should
• 36:09
  not be doing, but I'm not really sure what's underpinning that.
• 36:14
  Then you can work with the helping spheres to really say, oh,
• 36:18
  well, here's what that pattern is about.
• 36:23
  Number one, that might be some of the information that I give. Okay.
• 36:27
  Looking at it a little bit more clearly, it's This is the situation.
• 36:32
  And then I might say this situation came from this particular time,
• 36:40
  this particular moment of soul loss or power loss or a moment where you just
• 36:50
  a wound that caused some sort of like defensive behavior or some sort of learned behavior.
• 37:00
  And then I might also say, okay, here's how they're suggesting that we start to heal this.
• 37:10
  Sometimes that might be through painting or dance or some sort of creative expression.
• 37:19
  Sometimes that might be through really sitting with yourself and trying to understand,
• 37:25
  like, what is it that you actually want?
• 37:28
  What is it that actually brings you joy?
• 37:32
  Sometimes it's through, like, I've had recommendations from the Helping Spirits
• 37:36
  that are like, this person needs to connect more with their masculine energy.
• 37:43
  And they specifically need to go do more forest-based climbing and trail running.
• 37:52
  Even sometimes I'm like, wow, what?
• 37:56
  There have been times where it's, I don't even know what that thing is that
• 38:01
  you're telling me. Yeah.
• 38:03
  I don't even know. Like sometimes it'll be like,
• 38:07
  I once had a client, I don't remember the exact situation, But it was that they
• 38:13
  needed to give offerings and they needed to give offerings with a specific type
• 38:19
  of with specific materials.
• 38:22
  And so one of them was cloves, one was cinnamon.
• 38:26
  And so in order to show me this, the helping spirits were basically like.
• 38:29
  OK, here's what they need to give.
• 38:31
  And so the way that I saw it is I'm seeing the bowl and I'm seeing what's inside.
• 38:37
  And it's OK. This is the offering that they need to give. They didn't say it
• 38:41
  to me. They didn't list it out. Yeah. Yeah.
• 38:43
  And so I'm looking at it and I'm looking and I'm like, okay,
• 38:45
  that's a clove. That's cinnamon.
• 38:47
  Do, do, do. And then I get out and I'm like, I literally don't even know what
• 38:51
  a natural clove looks like. Now I do.
• 38:53
  But in the session, like in the trance or when I was connected,
• 39:00
  it's almost like I have wisdom or a practitioner might have wisdom that they can't.
• 39:07
  When they're typical like human body, they don't actually have.
• 39:12
  It's a really interesting experience when I've had another experience where I was trying to journey.
• 39:20
  Oh, this is a really interesting thing. I think you'll be really into this.
• 39:23
  So the easiest way to think about it is everything has a spirit, right?
• 39:30
  A plant has a spirit. A stone has a spirit.
• 39:33
  A place has a spirit. and sometimes
• 39:36
  when you have challenges in your life you
• 39:40
  can actually journey to the spirit of
• 39:43
  the challenge the situation like the energy of it okay right okay so i have
• 39:49
  when when i first started this work i had a lot of struggles with lack lack
• 39:54
  oriented thinking and things like that and so i once did a journey to lack.
• 40:01
  To the actual energy of lack.
• 40:05
  And I saw him in sitting in this little cabin in the woods in a leather,
• 40:12
  like almost like English style, kind of like tufted leather worn in armchair
• 40:20
  with his like knobby hands on the armchair.
• 40:24
  And I just had a conversation with him.
• 40:28
  Why is this a part of my life? what is it that you're here to teach me?
• 40:33
  What can I, like, clearly there's a lesson here for me that I need to understand
• 40:39
  and pass through in order to release this feeling and go on about my healing in my life.
• 40:45
  You can speak to these spirits and energy in that way, and you can gain a lot
• 40:51
  of insight and healing from doing this.
• 40:54
  And so one time I was having a challenge with my business.
• 40:59
  And so I said, you know what? I'm going to do a journey to the spirit of highlight.
• 41:04
  And so I do a journey to the spirit of highlight and I get to the middle of the desert.
• 41:11
  And out of the desert sand pops this little like sprig, like of grass, like a tuft of grass.
• 41:20
  And I'm like, oh, that's lemongrass.
• 41:24
  And I'm like, I don't know what lemongrass looks like, but I'm in this journey
• 41:29
  and the lemongrass tough pops up.
• 41:32
  I immediately know it's lemongrass and,
• 41:36
  The lemongrass starts to get
• 41:38
  bigger and bigger and bigger, and then it creates this circle around me.
• 41:42
  And then I ask the lemongrass, like, what is it that I'm doing that is preventing you from thriving?
• 41:48
  What is it that I need to be aware of when in terms of just making sure that
• 41:55
  you can be the best that you can be?
• 41:59
  And the lemongrass specifically said, you have to water me and you have to keep
• 42:07
  away any of the bugs that would eat me.
• 42:10
  And then you take that information and you come out of the journey and you really
• 42:14
  reflect on that, whether it's journaling, whatever you need to do to integrate that information.
• 42:18
  But I learned a lot in terms of how to take care of my business and water it
• 42:25
  and nurture it and make sure that I'm not just letting things eat away at it.
• 42:31
  And it's a crazy, crazy thing.
• 42:34
  And then another thing that you can do there is you're integrating that type
• 42:38
  of insight from the helping spirits is you can look, taking the lemongrass thing, for example,
• 42:46
  you can look at the natural habitat or how does lemongrass thrive, right?
• 42:55
  Very specific. Not just lemongrass, very specific.
• 42:59
  So you think about, okay, it needs this amount of sun. It needs this amount
• 43:05
  of water, like as if you were going to have a lemongrass plant.
• 43:09
  And you can take that information and then spiritually you can start to apply it.
• 43:14
  Right. So you're like, this is the type of environment that lemongrass thrives in.
• 43:21
  And the more I try to apply that knowledge and insight, the better this other
• 43:27
  like my business with the spirit of lemongrass can thrive.
• 43:32
  So there's so many ways, especially for people who are maybe a little bit more practically minded.
• 43:38
  There's so many ways to be able to connect with the spirit world and gain information
• 43:48
  and insight that can help so much in terms of your day to day life.
• 43:53
  I could imagine while you're also gaining information energy from the things
• 43:58
  from the things around you, you're also in your own body giving energy.
• 44:04
  So how do you clear that at the end? Yeah.
• 44:06
  So energy hygiene is like of the utmost importance, like for anyone,
• 44:12
  whether you're an energy healer or not.
• 44:13
  Yes. But so me and I know many other shamanic practitioners have a similar practice.
• 44:21
  So I actually have protective helping spirits that I merge with before I do
• 44:31
  any type of ceremony or any type of healing.
• 44:36
  I'm sure some people are like, what the hell is she talking about?
• 44:39
  But we're going to go there. But it's like an energy. You tap into an energy that protects you. Yes.
• 44:44
  So basically for me, I have one helping spirit that I've journeyed to,
• 44:50
  who I specifically went on a journey with the intention to connect with a protective
• 44:57
  spirit that wanted to help me in this work.
• 44:59
  Okay. That's another thing you can do. You can say, I specifically want a helping
• 45:04
  spirit to help me with my, the She Smart podcast.
• 45:08
  And you can get, right? So you can be very specific. So I have one that's for protection. Okay.
• 45:13
  In my as a healer and they
• 45:17
  have given me permission to merge with them so basically what that
• 45:20
  means is i'm almost like getting into
• 45:23
  their skin okay i am like putting
• 45:26
  them on and then my energy is merging with their energy and and i then have
• 45:35
  the let's say like instinctual prowess ferocity My animal is very ferocious.
• 45:45
  That comes with that helping spirit. So I'm able to, easiest way to think about
• 45:50
  it is like tap into the, their gifts and abilities.
• 45:55
  And when I am merged with this protective spirit, I'm, that's one,
• 46:02
  95% of the protection that I need to do it.
• 46:07
  And I don't really have to worry
• 46:09
  too much about anything being stuck in my aura or anything like that.
• 46:14
  If I forget to do the merge, that's not great energy hygiene for me.
• 46:21
  But that isn't really with enough training and practice is the first step that I do. Then I also...
• 46:29
  Have different nature spirits so body
• 46:32
  of bodies of water plants sacred smoke
• 46:36
  from specific nature spirits so
• 46:39
  i prefer to use like cedar and juniper oh okay rather than palo santo or something
• 46:46
  like i love palo santo but different type of yeah so i will clear my space and
• 46:53
  also clear my aura with the sacred smoke.
• 46:57
  And then I also work with like salt, like sea salt to clear like my tools.
• 47:05
  So I'll sit tools and jewelry and things in the salt because salt is very clearing.
• 47:11
  I do a lot of clearing with water. So everyone, I find that everyone has a couple
• 47:17
  different elements that they're really, really connected to.
• 47:21
  Like water is my element for clearing and everything else.
• 47:25
  Anytime I need to release something,
• 47:30
  I just go in the water and I can even think about, okay, I can go on a journey
• 47:37
  and I will go to a specific river where I'm doing cleansing, right?
• 47:41
  So that's another way to clear your energy like through.
• 47:44
  So salt water is like excellent for
• 47:48
  me so it's you find your different
• 47:52
  elements in the different format that you
• 47:55
  want to do it in but the merging with the protective ally is i think of probably
• 48:02
  the primary method of protection for an energy healer and then there's just
• 48:09
  like the standard make sure after any session.
• 48:13
  I'm clearing the space. Usually I'll do that with,
• 48:17
  sacred smoke. I'm making sure that the windows are open. So like I'm not trapping,
• 48:22
  I'm clearing stuff and we're not just like going on the floor.
• 48:25
  And then I'll ask all of my plant allies, nature spirit allies to support.
• 48:31
  So I might send some heavy energy from a client like to a river or into the
• 48:40
  earth after asking that spirit if they would accept it and transmute it.
• 48:45
  So it's a lot of having relationships with the different spirits around you.
• 48:52
  Sometimes I'm working with the spirits of the land on which my house is. Can I send you this?
• 49:00
  And they will. So with the land, my sister, hi sister, Christina's in California.
• 49:07
  She is one with, we've talked about this, she is one with the land. Yeah. It is.
• 49:14
  And we were just in Tahoe over the summer and she went around the outside of
• 49:19
  the house we were renting and did an entire like blessing to the earth while we were in the house.
• 49:29
  And it's fascinating. I love when she does it. I do the inside.
• 49:32
  We did this. We sage the house. We do all of that.
• 49:35
  But she did the outside of the house and I never thought to do the outside.
• 49:39
  Like that never came to me. That's something I knew to do the insides.
• 49:43
  She did the outsides of the house and went all the way around.
• 49:46
  And my dad, this old Italian curmudgeon. Hi, daddy.
• 49:51
  Just he is who he is. He is like, your sister's at it again, out there in the dirt.
• 49:59
  And Christina's just like talking to the earth and having the spirits be protecting
• 50:04
  us while we're there. It's all very positive. It's amazing.
• 50:06
  It's amazing. And my dad's inside just like rolling his eyes like,
• 50:09
  what is going on outside? So it's so important.
• 50:12
  It's so important. It really shifts the energy of the space.
• 50:17
  So I did it here when we moved into this house over the summer before anyone moved in.
• 50:22
  I was here by myself and I was like, this is going to get cleared.
• 50:27
  Like, before any of us live in here. So I did the inside.
• 50:31
  And then because Christina was like, you have to do the outside,
• 50:34
  I did the outside of all the spaces that we were going to be in.
• 50:39
  And it, like, this place has great energy anyway. It's just a really good,
• 50:44
  the land is so, like, they're happy here.
• 50:47
  Yeah. The land is very happy here. It made me think about that because I never thought to do it before.
• 50:51
  You can also, this is something that I think you would find interesting,
• 50:58
  but you can do a journey to connect with the spirits of the land,
• 51:03
  of your land here, or the land that you are sharing with spirits.
• 51:10
  And you can ask like
• 51:14
  are I would like to give you offerings like for
• 51:17
  creating such a harmonious place for us to
• 51:20
  be I would like to be a good steward of
• 51:23
  the land is there anything that you need and you can create even a better like
• 51:31
  more connected relationship with the land if you are working with it in that
• 51:37
  way through that lens of reciprocity.
• 51:41
  So I've done it at my house and they were straight up like water,
• 51:47
  like you're not watering things enough and it's a big problem.
• 51:51
  And I was like, oh, but I did all this like irrigation or whatever.
• 51:55
  And they were just like, no.
• 51:57
  And then there are certain.
• 52:01
  Places on the property where they wanted the offerings placed and they want
• 52:07
  them specifically in silver bowls.
• 52:09
  And then the different types of spirits have different things.
• 52:13
  So I have some that really love honey. I have some that really like the more
• 52:19
  like gnome, cave, plant, flower spirits were really asking for the water.
• 52:24
  But then some of the native spirits
• 52:27
  on the land were actually much more interested in things like tobacco.
• 52:31
  So it's not there. You're going to have like various types of spirits that are
• 52:39
  living on the land and in the house.
• 52:43
  You can connect with them and they might be looking for different things. The trees, right?
• 52:48
  Totally different things. And so spending the time to go and connect at those
• 52:53
  different levels and really asking them like, how can I also help serve you?
• 52:59
  What is the best type of blessing and offering for you really helps to shift
• 53:04
  and settle and create like a protective energy in your in your home.
• 53:10
  Oh, I'm going outside. Yeah.
• 53:13
  The wives are like, oh, she's going to be outside. There's going to be things
• 53:17
  on that. I'm doing it. I'm telling you, it's so helpful.
• 53:20
  I love that. So I have, When Donnie and I had talked about this at a dinner
• 53:23
  recently, I am Irish and I have felt this draw towards my like Celtic past,
• 53:31
  which I don't know anything about.
• 53:33
  Like I just know that my grandmother is off the boat from Ireland.
• 53:37
  My mom and I want to take a journey there at some point because she's never
• 53:41
  been. I think my sister wants to go too.
• 53:43
  But my sister's also drawn to this Celtic side of her, which is very interesting
• 53:48
  as As we've gotten older, the different parts of us that are.
• 53:51
  Coming up yeah but in particular these this fairy
• 53:54
  feeling has popped up
• 53:58
  and i've been very curious about it and i have no idea how
• 54:00
  to explore it at this point but you have
• 54:04
  these fairy spirits as well yeah very
• 54:06
  i'm very interested in this because we know about the angels and
• 54:09
  the spirits that are let's talk a minute about the fairies okay so
• 54:13
  i just want to without everyone
• 54:16
  thinking we're crazy because we're not we're not I promise
• 54:19
  you they are there and
• 54:23
  I don't talk about this a lot super
• 54:26
  openly like with everyone just because there's a
• 54:30
  reverence and respect that the fae really require they don't like to be I can
• 54:37
  understand they're a little different than the more just like angels or like
• 54:41
  crystal spirits that's why they don't creep up very often yeah And the reason for that,
• 54:47
  I won't go into a ton of history around this, but there's just a lot of just tense.
• 54:56
  Contentious history between the humans and the good folk, as I like to call them.
• 55:03
  And so there's not this just like blind trust and acceptance.
• 55:09
  And when a practitioner is working with them, it requires just a lot of reverence and respect.
• 55:19
  And there's just a way to do it. I've had
• 55:23
  situations when I first started working with them and I had no clue like how
• 55:28
  to do it or why it was even happening where I was receiving like miraculous
• 55:36
  gifts and vision and just like clarity from my work with them. And then I wasn't.
• 55:42
  Doing my end of the bargain or I wasn't upholding like what I needed to do in
• 55:47
  terms of reciprocity and offerings and things like that.
• 55:50
  And then it just like an entire arm of the way that I did healing was just like
• 55:55
  blocked. I just couldn't do it anymore.
• 55:58
  Yeah. It's one of the most, I'm not saying I've been doing this like forever
• 56:03
  and ever, but it's just like one of the more like,
• 56:06
  complicated I would say like types of spirit relationships that that one can enter into,
• 56:13
  I'm going to share some things but I'm going to be a little less open than I would
• 56:16
  otherwise about the spirit yeah I don't want them I don't want them shutting
• 56:19
  off that part of you again so let's not do that let's not do that oh I am also
• 56:25
  I think it's 18 percent Irish okay and I did not actually know this until I
• 56:31
  started to do some ancestry and genealogy,
• 56:35
  DNA testing and things like that.
• 56:37
  And I was very surprised to hear this.
• 56:41
  But as a shamanic practitioner,
• 56:44
  it actually made so much sense to me and gave me a lot of comfort because when
• 56:50
  I started to do some of this work,
• 56:52
  I kept being told that I was trying to enter spaces in the way that a Celtic
• 56:58
  practitioner would. Oh, interesting. Like just innately.
• 57:01
  Just innately. And I was like, why am I doing this? Everybody else is doing it this way.
• 57:05
  Like, why is this the way that like my like soul is trying to do this?
• 57:11
  And then I had a few teachers be like, oh, yeah, that makes total sense if you
• 57:15
  have this going on. And I was like, look at me. I don't.
• 57:20
  But I do. OK, so that was like the story of that. The very first time I started
• 57:25
  to work with the good folk, it was just spontaneous that these,
• 57:30
  someone would come in for healing and I would be maybe starting with a little bit of Reiki.
• 57:35
  I would be like putting crystals in their aura and then all of a sudden I would
• 57:39
  see all of these like things.
• 57:42
  Tiny, like, fairy-like beings, like, all over the person.
• 57:47
  And it would be like, what's happening here? And they would be doing things,
• 57:51
  like, in some cases looking like maybe they're sewing something or just different
• 57:56
  activities, but they're clearly working on my client.
• 58:00
  And at first, I was thinking,
• 58:03
  like, oh, this is so interesting that I am, like,
• 58:07
  attracting all these clients that are connected to this type of energy and it
• 58:13
  actually took me a while probably like seeing about five to ten different people
• 58:19
  and like seeing these this happen that I realized it was connected to me.
• 58:25
  I started doing just like more work with with them and so that was my how that
• 58:33
  happened and then once that happened, I started to understand, okay,
• 58:36
  I can read these books or try to just learn a little bit more about how to actually
• 58:43
  like properly go about this.
• 58:45
  I had the situation happen with the break.
• 58:48
  And then I started working with this truly incredible Celtic shaman and teacher,
• 58:56
  and she showed us the right way to connect with your ones like fairy guides or fairy spirits.
• 59:08
  And she was sharing with us that many of us, especially with British, Irish, Scottish.
• 59:15
  Heritage have some sort of fairy
• 59:19
  like ancestry and that in
• 59:22
  order to properly get into this
• 59:25
  world and connect with them it is appropriate to first connect with your fairy
• 59:33
  ancestor and then ask for that ancestor to introduce you to someone else among
• 59:40
  the good folk who is willing to be your teacher.
• 59:43
  No, you can't just roll up. You do not roll up. This is part of me, so I'm here.
• 59:47
  They're like, no, yeah, that's how we work here. No. And you also do not just
• 59:50
  roll up and say, hey, I like fairies and I'm like, this is what I'm doing. Right.
• 59:56
  Which isn't what I did. But that'd be me.
• 1:00:00
  Like, I'm feeling this. So let's dive in. Yeah. That'd be like, no. Yeah. No.
• 1:00:05
  No. I would say that I would say it's maybe not that you can't.
• 1:00:09
  I just would caution against it just because there there's
• 1:00:13
  a protocol let's say yeah and so once you
• 1:00:16
  get that introduction you can actually start to work with that teacher to learn
• 1:00:22
  whatever it is that they are willing and wanting to help you with but it's also
• 1:00:29
  very important to ask like what are the types of offerings that i am meant to give yeah.
• 1:00:35
  What are the situations in which you are wanting to help me with this?
• 1:00:41
  And just being very respectful of their time and energy.
• 1:00:46
  And there are many other rules and things, too, that have to do with that.
• 1:00:50
  But I would say of all of the different helping spirits that I work with,
• 1:00:56
  I would say that my Fae teachers have the most incredible clarity and specificity.
• 1:01:07
  It's almost like unbelievable.
• 1:01:10
  I really, really value their help and partnership. And I really,
• 1:01:15
  now that I have been educated a little bit more into the proper ways,
• 1:01:20
  really try to abide by the proper ways to do this.
• 1:01:24
  Like, when you sent me a note saying, like, that you might want to talk about
• 1:01:28
  this, I literally asked, can I talk about this?
• 1:01:31
  Because if they said no, I would not have. That's right.
• 1:01:34
  That's right. And I got the boundaries of what I could. Yeah,
• 1:01:37
  what you could and could say. Yeah.
• 1:01:38
  What has been just the most surprising part about this journey for you?
• 1:01:43
  Probably honestly just like the interconnectedness of all things and the supreme
• 1:01:51
  wisdom of the natural world.
• 1:01:54
  Just I'm constantly in awe of that,
• 1:01:58
  especially as I think about humans and how we think about things and how the
• 1:02:03
  very materialist, and I don't mean that in terms of capitalism,
• 1:02:06
  but in terms of the only things that are real are things I can touch and feel type of materialism.
• 1:02:13
  When I think about humans and like all of those sort of ways that we look at
• 1:02:18
  the world and those types of perspectives I'm just like wow we're so limited
• 1:02:22
  yes because there's just I'm in and out of this.
• 1:02:29
  Expansive I don't even know what to call it world worlds what it is realm field
• 1:02:35
  that I'm sure I've into the tiniest fraction of.
• 1:02:40
  And so I think just like the wisdom and the expansiveness of the natural world
• 1:02:51
  is something that I'm really in awe of every time I'm reflecting on this work
• 1:02:57
  and even honestly, like when I'm doing it.
• 1:03:00
  I wish that more people weren't afraid to tap into it.
• 1:03:05
  I really do. Because I think And people are like, I think even curious people
• 1:03:09
  are like, this is weird. I'm not doing this.
• 1:03:11
  This doesn't, this is so, this doesn't feel right. Yeah.
• 1:03:14
  And I wish that more people had the experience of just even sitting with someone that, just an angel.
• 1:03:20
  Yeah. Having that experience is just very special.
• 1:03:25
  Yeah. I wish more people were open to it. And I think it's, I'm happy you said
• 1:03:29
  that because I think that sometimes, especially in cultures that might be like
• 1:03:34
  a bit more religious. Mm-hmm.
• 1:03:36
  I think sometimes like angels are a really easy way into this because they're
• 1:03:44
  more just like accepted.
• 1:03:46
  They have a beautiful benevolent energy, right, that you don't really have to like worry about.
• 1:03:54
  You don't have to think you're going to get possessed or anything like that.
• 1:03:58
  The intentions are all like for your highest good and highest healing.
• 1:04:03
  And so I think that would be a good place to start for a lot of people who are
• 1:04:08
  wanting to connect with a guide or connect with a spirit is setting the intention
• 1:04:14
  to maybe do some of this angelic work.
• 1:04:16
  There's certainly you have to learn how to do it. It's not rocket science,
• 1:04:20
  right? You just need to know the steps.
• 1:04:22
  And you could go to someone like me or many, many other practitioners to do
• 1:04:27
  what I what we call like an upper world journey.
• 1:04:31
  The upper world is where you have the beings of the angels and ascended masters.
• 1:04:36
  And it's this beautiful, very high vibration type of space. And you can go there
• 1:04:45
  in a journey and really connect with that energy.
• 1:04:48
  And so that would be, I think, a great place to start for those people who maybe
• 1:04:54
  are a little nervous about it, But who also feel very connected to saints and angels.
• 1:05:01
  And that would be a great place to start. There are also people like myself
• 1:05:05
  where I was raised Christian and I do still consider myself Christian.
• 1:05:09
  Like one of my kids is baptized.
• 1:05:12
  When I started doing this work.
• 1:05:15
  I actually found it a little bit more difficult to connect with the energy of
• 1:05:18
  the upper world and the angels.
• 1:05:21
  Like my natural inclination, and we all, as we get into this work,
• 1:05:26
  have a natural inclination to different parts of the energy system, right?
• 1:05:32
  Mine was really to the lower world, which is not hell, but is the dirt, the land.
• 1:05:40
  Yes, which is the land and the crystals and the caves and that part,
• 1:05:45
  the earthy nature part, right?
• 1:05:48
  And you can still connect with those spirits.
• 1:05:52
  They're just different.
• 1:05:54
  But in both the upper world and the lower world, the spirits are benevolent.
• 1:06:00
  Like they're there to help us and we can live in harmony and reciprocity with them.
• 1:06:05
  It's the middle world, which is ordinary reality, which is where we live now,
• 1:06:09
  and then the ghosts and all the other things that can happen in the middle world
• 1:06:14
  where things can get a little dicey.
• 1:06:16
  Yes. So I would say if you're a person getting started on this journey,
• 1:06:20
  I would just not go about, okay, I'm going to try to like...
• 1:06:23
  Slip into what the other side of my house looks like, like right beyond the
• 1:06:28
  veil, because you would be in the middle world.
• 1:06:30
  You don't know what's beyond the veil. Yes. And there are things there that
• 1:06:34
  we can call them like trickster spirits, right?
• 1:06:37
  Like they will tell you what you want to hear and you think they're one thing, but they're not. Right.
• 1:06:41
  And so not until you're ready to be doing that. I will tell you,
• 1:06:46
  though, I can sense those middle spirits in the house.
• 1:06:49
  It's crazy. We talked about this at the plant about going into the plantation
• 1:06:54
  and the respect when you walk into those sacred spaces like you can't just walk in there.
• 1:07:01
  I'll tell you a story about my father-in-law's property.
• 1:07:05
  He has a farm in Sardinia. Okay.
• 1:07:10
  And we love to spend time there. It's beautiful.
• 1:07:14
  It's one of my favorite places. And I made the very, very bad mistake one year
• 1:07:21
  of going and not really addressing the land,
• 1:07:28
  not really declaring my intentions, and then doing a lot of pretty dark,
• 1:07:35
  heavy energy clearing, curse clearing, that type of thing.
• 1:07:40
  On the land. And I got supremely haunted.
• 1:07:47
  It was bad. It was like probably one of the only times that I sat in a journey, terrified,
• 1:07:59
  crying, like asking my guys and basically telling them like,
• 1:08:04
  guys, if this is something that I'm going to have to deal with a lot,
• 1:08:07
  I'm not sure I can do this. I'm not sure I have the constitution to do this.
• 1:08:10
  I'm not trying to scare people away from this, but the respect and
• 1:08:15
  the permission and the expression of intentions and just like the reverence
• 1:08:21
  is just super important because this world is same as this world that we live
• 1:08:26
  in now with war and starvation and greed and poverty.
• 1:08:30
  The energy world is also not all like love and light.
• 1:08:36
  And I think a lot of people forget that or just have luckily not necessarily
• 1:08:42
  experienced the super dark parts of it.
• 1:08:47
  But it can get really scary.
• 1:08:50
  And if you don't have the right guides or the right teachers,
• 1:08:54
  like whatever, it can just get a little like harrowing.
• 1:08:57
  And so I had this one situation where my guides were there and I had been working
• 1:09:03
  with them, but I feel like it was a lesson because I wasn't acting appropriately.
• 1:09:10
  At one point, they were like, we would never let you be harmed,
• 1:09:16
  but you need to understand discernment and respect and the proper way of going about these things.
• 1:09:26
  And so it was almost like in the situation that this was happening,
• 1:09:29
  this was almost over a two-week period where I was like being...
• 1:09:35
  Woken up by ghosts and like
• 1:09:38
  angry like it was very very intense and
• 1:09:41
  it followed me from Italy to my house no they traveled with
• 1:09:45
  you it was like oh my gosh it was
• 1:09:48
  pretty intense and this was
• 1:09:50
  like over a two-week period and every time it
• 1:09:53
  would get almost unbearable I would
• 1:09:57
  get like a download and they would be like the answer's
• 1:10:00
  in the juniper tree and then so
• 1:10:03
  it would be stuff like that and when I actually finally got around to doing
• 1:10:07
  what they said and I got my juniper and I got my like juniper bundle I went
• 1:10:13
  around I did the juniper sacred smoke everywhere and I have a juniper that's
• 1:10:18
  right outside of my house as well and I did blessings to her and I never saw them again,
• 1:10:23
  so it was like they weren't gonna let me like really really get into it but
• 1:10:30
  it was like you need to learn if you're going to be doing this work, this is a lesson.
• 1:10:34
  Yeah. Okay. That's crazy. So this next time that I went to the property, I got there.
• 1:10:44
  First day I'm there, I immediately march myself down to this river that goes through the property.
• 1:10:52
  I sit down. I say, here I am. I'm here again.
• 1:10:56
  Here are my intentions. I would
• 1:10:58
  love to connect. I would love to give some offerings. What should I give?
• 1:11:02
  And it was so funny. Like the spirit of the river was like, yeah, we know you're here.
• 1:11:09
  It was just a really fun. Of course we know you're here. Like kind of thing.
• 1:11:12
  But this time it was very like, OK, guys, like.
• 1:11:16
  I would like to do some work here. Is it okay if I do work here?
• 1:11:20
  And I got all my rules and we were totally fine and we had a beautiful, beautiful time.
• 1:11:26
  But it's very important to connect in that way.
• 1:11:32
  And had I not known what was going on, I would just be like waking up with nightmares
• 1:11:36
  every day, like sick every day, like wondering what was going on.
• 1:11:40
  The purpose here is to encourage people to connect with the spirit world and
• 1:11:46
  to develop their own spiritual practice, whatever that looks like.
• 1:11:49
  That is fundamentally something that I am like here to preach, encourage people to do.
• 1:11:55
  So I think the point of this, it's just be respectful and also just build your discernment.
• 1:12:05
  Like we know the types of things. Don't bring out the Ouija board, guys.
• 1:12:09
  Do not. Don't do not do that. Do not.
• 1:12:12
  That is something I feel like I've done it as a kid. Oh, yeah.
• 1:12:16
  Maybe one. We totally did it as kids. But now it's like people are like, oh, do you want?
• 1:12:20
  And I'm just like, I'm leaving the property if you bring that. That thing is not okay.
• 1:12:26
  That is bad juju right there. We do not bring out the Ouija board.
• 1:12:30
  The world has disappeared from this room. This has been incredible.
• 1:12:35
  Yeah, this is so nice. We could talk for hours and hours and hours.
• 1:12:38
  We haven't even talked about like mermaids. No, we haven't gone into the water spirits at all.
• 1:12:44
  All right, we have to come back. Actually, we should do a summer session.
• 1:12:47
  That would be really fun. And talk about all the summer solstice.
• 1:12:49
  We didn't even get into the winter solstice.
• 1:12:51
  We have so many things. We need a whole series. We could even do like a crystal one.
• 1:12:56
  That would be amazing. We have a whole series now, guys. We have a whole series.
• 1:12:59
  We're coming up with it right now.
• 1:13:00
  Send your questions. Send your questions. Oh, we can do questions ahead of time.
• 1:13:04
  Oh, okay. I'm feeling this. This is good. At the end, I always ask three questions.
• 1:13:09
  The first question is, is there anything that's on your bucket list,
• 1:13:13
  something that you want to do with your family, with yourself?
• 1:13:16
  Oh, I really love to travel with my family.
• 1:13:21
  So taking them somewhere, Hawaii or like New Zealand, I'm very connected to those places.
• 1:13:29
  I think that would be amazing to do as a family when the kids are old enough
• 1:13:34
  to like really enjoy it and have their own experiences too beyond just what
• 1:13:38
  we're doing as our core family unit.
• 1:13:41
  The other question is, is there something you've changed your mind about recently?
• 1:13:44
  Probably about like my own role as a...
• 1:13:51
  Mother and a wife and like my role in the home.
• 1:13:56
  Okay. I don't think I was ever like a girl boss, but I definitely had an attitude
• 1:14:03
  where it was like, maybe I could hire someone to take care of these domestic things for me.
• 1:14:10
  And I'm just focusing on my work and whatever.
• 1:14:14
  And lately, I've really started to change my mind and just shift my thinking
• 1:14:20
  around that and just wanting to be doing more of that myself just because,
• 1:14:28
  I don't know, I would just like to put that type of loving energy and intention
• 1:14:32
  into my home, whether it's in terms of making the spaces feel more cozy and
• 1:14:37
  nesting or just like spending a little bit more like intentional time with the kids.
• 1:14:42
  Or just I feel like husbands, like, sadly are, like, always last on the list of getting support.
• 1:14:49
  Or so just, like, spending a bit more time with him and just,
• 1:14:55
  like, carving out that time and protecting it.
• 1:14:59
  And so it's not really, like, changing my mind on a specific idea or thing per se.
• 1:15:04
  But that has definitely been, like, a shift in my, like, perspective and desire lately. Oh, I love that.
• 1:15:12
  Yeah. Those date nights are very important. Yeah.
• 1:15:15
  You got to nurture that. Yeah. Yeah. We make a point of it because that relationship has to.
• 1:15:21
  Has to stay strong. Well, it has to not always stay strong. It has to be nurtured. Yes.
• 1:15:24
  There has to be as we get older, our kids get older.
• 1:15:27
  There are more things we deal with that we didn't when they were younger.
• 1:15:31
  And if you're a good team and a good unit, it's much easier to traverse those.
• 1:15:36
  Yeah. Because we both parent differently. Yeah.
• 1:15:38
  And both of our parenting styles work in different scenarios.
• 1:15:42
  And we need each other for that. Totally. And that's important to have that.
• 1:15:46
  Totally. I love that. Yeah. The last question is, is there one piece of advice
• 1:15:49
  you would give your younger self?
• 1:15:52
  Ooh. Yes. I think it would be like trust your intuition.
• 1:15:58
  I did so many things because I was like, oh, I know what my gut is telling me
• 1:16:05
  to do, what my intuition is telling me to do. I know the right answer.
• 1:16:08
  But this is what so-and-so is telling me I should do.
• 1:16:13
  And I valued that more than my own intuition. I trusted that more than my own
• 1:16:19
  intuition. And I feel like I took so many detours that were helpful lessons.
• 1:16:24
  I'm sure some sort of soul lesson that I needed to learn.
• 1:16:27
  But I feel like I got to the same place. It just took me a longer time to get
• 1:16:32
  there because I didn't have that trust of my own intuition.
• 1:16:37
  And so that would be my, that would be what I would say. I had a younger self.
• 1:16:41
  Wow. This has been incredible.
• 1:16:44
  I hope everyone's learned a lot because I've learned so much today.
• 1:16:47
  Thank you for being here. Thank you. This was so nice. It's really so meaningful.
• 1:16:51
  Thank you for allowing me to share.
• 1:16:54
  We're coming back, guys. We have more sessions on this one. This one's not ending yet.
• 1:17:01
  Thank you so much for joining me today on She's Smart. New episodes drop every Thursday.
• 1:17:06
  Don't forget to subscribe and share. Stay cozy.