Latest / The Pausecast / Ep. 75 Mind over Medicine with Lissa Rankin MD

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Ep. 75 Mind over Medicine with Lissa Rankin MD · The Pausecast

0:04
Hi, I'm Rachel O'Meara. I'm the host of the podcast.
0:08
I'm also the author of pause harnessing, the life-changing
0:12
power of giving yourself a break, as well as a private
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coach for men and women who are struggling with, how to get out
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of overwhelm and reclaim their lives.
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The pause cast is dedicated to helping individuals learn the
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tools and Be more self aware that we can all be more capable
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of to live our best life, to reach our potential.
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Whether this is your first time listening or you're a regular, I
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invite you to download my free gift to you which is a blueprint
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called the three keys to stay out of overwhelm and Thrive.
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The blueprint is available at my website, www.hiwayfx.com get it
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today so you can start to implement these tools that we
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can all learn And that's what the paws cast is all about.
1:09
Hi, I'm Rachel O'Meara. Author of pause, harnessing the
1:12
life changing power of giving yourself a break.
1:15
I'm excited that you're here today and joining me on the paws
1:18
cast where I interview thought leaders in the world of raising
1:23
our Consciousness, emotional intelligence and helping us
1:27
really reach our potential for more information, you can go to
1:30
my website, Rachel, O'Meara.com, and download my free guide book.
1:34
How to turn earn out into thriving at work.
1:40
Well, welcome everyone in. This is Rachel, your host and
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I'm here with the latest episode of the podcast with dr.
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Lissa Rankin. Hi Lisa, how are you?
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Hi Rachel. I'm good.
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Thanks for having me. Yeah, it's great for you and I
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to be together again. I love this forum and I know I'm
2:01
going to kick it over to you to host a pause here.
2:05
But before that, I wanted to give a little bit of an intro,
2:08
so our listeners Know Who You Are.
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I think the most exciting thing is, I've known you for a few
2:14
years. Now we were introduced through
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our dear mutual friend, Mark Thornton and you were in pause
2:20
the book and you were one of the case studies, where you had your
2:24
perfect storm and we're sharing about all of these different
2:28
things that were challenges in your life.
2:30
And yet you found this time of Grace and creating intentional
2:34
shift in Behavior. So, I think that's one of the
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nicest, coolest things that I'm I'm bringing in from your end
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for today and you've been a Google, a few times.
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I know I've hosted you to talk about a couple of your books.
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I think Mind Over medicine was the one that I remember the most
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and then, since then, I know you've written a slew of other
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books, including the most recent a daily, the daily flame.
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But the Furyk here has been in there.
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The anatomy of a calling and overall, I am super excited too.
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Share that you've had such a transformational Arc of your
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life and career and I think that to me is just a testament to, we
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never know who are who we can become and from your end.
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You know, you started out in medicine, you are practicing
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OB/GYN, you weren't you been an artist.
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You still are an artist you leave workshops and Retreats.
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So it's just a pleasure to have you here.
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And I'm really excited to talk more about the The daily flame,
3:41
but I think we can get into a really meaty conversation about
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all kinds of good stuff. So thank you for being here.
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And would you be so kind of lead us in a pause?
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I'll Alyssa Rankin. Sure.
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Okay, wherever you are. If you could just take a moment,
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And come into the center of yourself.
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However, you do that through your breath through just
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noticing your body through feeling your heart.
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Just allow yourself to feel both the Stillness in yourself.
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And also, whatever is moving. Going, maybe there's a motions
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that are coming up or thoughts that are moving.
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Going and just expand to include both the Stillness and the
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energetic movement. Aunt.
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Aunt. And since we're going to be
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talking about your inner pilot light day, just allow yourself
5:02
to be in a place of inquiry and curiosity while you're locating
5:07
this Center of yourself. cough and just maybe invite at aspect
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of your being going to make itself known to you.
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However, it wants to right now. Now this in our pilot light that
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Mark nepo describes, as each person is born with an
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unencumbered spot-free of expectation and regret free of
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ambition and embarrassment, free of fear and worry, an umbilical
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spot of Grace where we were each first touched by God. and just
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take a pause for a moment to see if there's anything that this
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Essence, this Divine spark of being Being that animates you
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that is your life force. Just pause to receive any
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feedback guidance. Reassurance just unconditional,
6:14
love, whatever is needed right now.
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Let's just take a moment in silence so that you can be
6:20
receptive. Give to what your inner pilot,
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light wants to express to you right now.
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Now. And then I'm going to just read
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you one of the 365. Love Letters From The Daily
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flame book. This is Love Letter, 102.
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I just asked the book to bring what wanted to be here right
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now. Now.
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Now, dear still one in the midst of chaos, their lives quietly.
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In this quiet place, there is a hole in a giant redwood tree.
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That is just your size. Eyes.
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If you feel like it you can crawl inside and snuggle right
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up inside the womb of the tree and feel the arms of the Redwood
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giving you a great big tree hug. Ugh.
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When you do this, the world around, you grows still and you
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can feel yourself grounding down into the brown roots of Mama
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Earth, sucking up the Green Earth Energy, like you're
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drinking kale cucumber juice through a straw.
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Raw as this Earth. Choose Sills here, Inner Space
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and bathes all of your cells, guess what?
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I light up the further, you ground, the higher you can
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Ascend the deeper your roots, the more my ignition switch
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fires up. Not near any redwood trees
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today. Close your eyes and let me be
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your redwood. Tree hugs all around your inner
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pilot Lee, Right. And just taking one last deep
8:37
breath, and feeling gratitude inside of your heart space for
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this beloved, that is here inside of you always, you are
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the one you've been waiting for. Or and when you feel ready, just
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go ahead and open your eyes. Eyes.
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That was fantastic. Thank you, Alyssa.
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And I'm going to remember number 102, I think.
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I'm your book. What?
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A when an appropriate message that was my Enterprise.
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Yeah, well, what I love about the book and these messages is
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you even asking us in the beginning, to check in, what
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does your inner pilot light ask for right now?
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And to That's such a important and critical question.
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If I am pausing and it's easy to read, is easy to pass, right
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over it or not, think of that. So just that, deliberate
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question, I think is really helpful.
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And sure enough, what needed to show up and merge.
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So thank you. Yeah, thank you.
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And I know with, with the inner peace, inner flame, I remember
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the daily flame. I remember getting getting these
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messages from you. When I first learned about you,
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An email and I would love to hear a little bit about the book
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and tell us how it came about. And how did these letters really
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enter your life and make them make their way on these on these
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Pages? Now, if we're all of us.
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Sorry, well, it's kind of a mystery story because I didn't
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even know, I had an inner pilot light.
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I mean, I grew up my spiritual education was a very kind of
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fundamentalist Christian orientation.
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In my family, I grew up in a family full of missionaries and
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my father was the black sheep who went to medical school.
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So there I wasn't really exposed to the esoteric branches of
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Christianity, where the contemplative practices and the
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sort of direct access to the soul are are certainly part of
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mystical Christianity, but that was not part of my education.
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So for me, God was like God in the sky, which was like, you
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know, a grand poobah. Great father.
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With really no no access to the the divine feminine, the
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embodied Divinity, that is part of what I think of when I think
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of the inner pilot light. But when I was, when I was 35
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years old in 2005 pregnant with my daughter, working as a
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full-time OB-GYN, and a conventional practice and
11:25
suicidally depressed. From what I now know is called
11:29
moral injury, the term that's in, It's forward, return War
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veterans who are essentially violating their own Integrity in
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the name of doing what they're supposed to do and following
11:40
orders. And I was experiencing that a
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really profound level and as so often happens when when one is
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having a Dark Night of the soul, I found myself on the floor of
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the bathroom you know in the beginning of my third trimester
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just wanting to get swallowed up by the Earth and some giant
12:00
earthquake and And I heard this voice that said, sweetheart,
12:04
you're going to have to quit your job.
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Bob and it was so loving and so calm and so clear and
12:12
compassionate. But what it was saying,
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absolutely terrified. Me and my mind didn't really
12:19
like this guidance and I didn't know who it was or what it was,
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but I have since come to call that my inner pilot light, which
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in the book I describe it here. I'll just read you one
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paragraph. Yeah.
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A small spark of theater. Flame of cosmic Consciousness,
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splits off like a glowing Ember of a universal bonfire.
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This unique spark ignites as the organizing intelligence that
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creates your organs. Divides, your cells and
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develops, you perfectly into a precious being decorated with
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thoughts, preferences gifts, talents emotions, and
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eccentricities the inner pilot. Light begins in every baby is
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the untainted radiant buoyant light of god goddess, but often
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gets filmed over. Over by trauma conditioning.
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And the illusion of separation from the Eternal Flame from
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which this unique spark arises. Although your inner pilot light
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may go grow dim as life's inevitable challenges threatened
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to Snuff out the full Brilliance of this luminous fire rest
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assured that your inner pilot light, never burns out.
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Even when you die, the spark returns to the Eternal Flame.
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Adding the Brilliance of this unique, fractal of light to that
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which creates all life. And so I started as a practice
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as a whole story of what happened after my inner pilot,
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light told me to quit my job which I did do two years later
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and I wrote a whole book called the anatomy of a calling.
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The kind of explains how I went from being sort of the
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conventional medical doctor to living the unexpected life that
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I'm living. Now, that I never would have
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believed was possible, and I certainly never would have
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intentionally signed up for back when I first heard that Voice.
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But I started at during that time and II took a two-year,
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pause that I know you wrote about in your book after I quit
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my job and I didn't really have any idea what the future would
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hold. But part of my practice during
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that pause was, I would wake up. I'm a writer, I've been a writer
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my whole life. So writing is like a really easy
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point of connection for me, it's something I can do without
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thinking it's sort of bypasses my cognitive mind and so I would
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sit down with my computer and I would just ask Ask my inner
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pilot light, just like we did in the meditation.
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What do you want me to know today?
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Something would come through and I started sharing some of the
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things that were coming through for me, which were always kind
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of shocking to me, that it felt feels different than what your
14:53
mind kind of thinks up. There would be these things that
14:56
would kind of drop in and they were, like I said, sort of
15:00
startling and sometimes Scary and their truth because there
15:06
were so many things in my life at the time that I was really in
15:09
denial about. And I wasn't fully prepared to
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hear the kinds of things like sorts of truths that were coming
15:17
through but you know the truth while frightening also has a
15:22
feeling of kind of relief like oh my God that's true.
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It's this book was published by sounds true, it sounds true and
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even if it's scary there's a sort of like feel your whole
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nervous system kind of relax of like oh that's what's hurting
15:38
now. I and so I started sharing some
15:41
of these with a few friends and they were like oh my God, how
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did you know exactly what I needed to hear today?
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And I was like whoa wait this is what I needed to hear today and
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I realized from this these sharings that what was coming
15:56
through. For me seem to be tapped into
15:59
some sort of universal truth, that was helpful for other.
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As well. So I never intended to make this
16:07
public. But I just sort of started.
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This kind of private just a little private side project.
16:13
I I didn't even tell anybody it's still if you go to the
16:15
Daily flame, it doesn't say who writes it.
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So it was kind of like my secret in the closet spiritual
16:22
teaching, share publicly. And so, I've been publishing the
16:27
daily flame as a free daily email since 2009 and anybody
16:32
who's listening that wants to be on that.
16:33
Free list. It's at inner pilot, like.com.
16:36
And so I was just kind of Doing that as my daily practice and
16:42
then I started kind of expanding it to what does, what is the
16:47
collective need to hear today and we get emails all the time.
16:50
It's so sweet to go right back to the Daily flame.
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Dear inner pilot. Like how did you know that this
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is exactly what I needed to hear today.
16:56
So it's like I said, it's been kind of the side project and I
17:01
sort of joke that this book is My Accidental book deal because
17:04
I was doing an audio program. With Tammy, Simon the founder of
17:07
sounds true for a call You're in a pilot light and I just made a
17:12
sort of casual note to Tammy over lunch, that I had spent the
17:17
past year. Caregiving my mother, while she
17:19
was dying. And I spent a lot of time sort
17:22
of lying next to her in the bed while she was sleeping.
17:25
And and so as kind of a practice to self-soothe because the
17:31
practice of sort of opening to these daily Flames, can be very
17:35
ecstatic for me, very connecting and beautiful.
17:38
And so, I started just writing The new 365 new daily flames of
17:43
going to kind of, give it away of gift.
17:45
For Valentine's Day to my readers and and Tammy was like,
17:50
well can I read them? And next thing I know I was kind
17:52
of getting my accidental book deal.
17:55
So it's it's feels a bit scary for me because this is the most
17:58
kind of overt spiritual teaching that I've put out and I don't
18:03
identify in any way would being some Guru and I definitely don't
18:06
want the projections that come with that.
18:08
Because certainly like If there's anything that I teach in
18:12
the realm of spirituality, it's trust your own inner pilot
18:15
light, don't don't listen to mine.
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No, yeah, I love that. And and it's such a interesting
18:24
story that twist because one of the main things I'm hearing out
18:28
of what you're sharing is, well, one is we all have an inner
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pilot light and it's about tapping into it to know what it
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should be, what? It's telling you.
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Otherwise you may not know and then like having it guide you
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and And I just I love that you shared these all with us in the
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book that kind of you know maybe it is for us to hear even if
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it's the right day and you can pick one or let it pick it for
18:51
you. If you turn to the page I'm a
18:52
big fan of that. Howdy I have a question around
18:57
how to help others. Like if I'm if I were not maybe
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I'm feeling out of alignment as an example and it might just be
19:04
a day, right? Like today I just feels like I'm
19:05
off on the wrong foot. How do I turn into my inner
19:08
pilot? Like what would pilo I would
19:10
like, what would you suggest that is important because I
19:13
think that is a really critical step that we may think we're
19:17
tuning in, but like, how do you really know?
19:20
And I'm wondering if you have any insight on that, but it
19:25
sounds like you're asking kind of two different questions,
19:27
which is sort of What kinds of practices might might help
19:33
connect to that energy or develop that intimacy with this
19:37
inner beloved. And then how Do you discern,
19:42
whether that's your inner pilot light or some other part of you,
19:45
that's sort of masquerading as guidance, maybe has its own
19:49
agenda and is really just trying to get you to do what?
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What it wants you to do. Yeah.
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And and those are those are such important questions.
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I mean every esoteric branch of every religion teaches practices
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intended to do exactly that. So obviously I can't boil down
20:09
the practices of One of the world's spiritual Traditions
20:12
into a quick Pat answer. I can really only speak for
20:15
myself. I actually my, my new husband is
20:20
not used to orienting towards life this way.
20:23
He's used to making decisions in the world based on his
20:26
intelligent, analytical mind and the culture really promotes
20:30
that, right? So most people, if they're
20:34
trying to orient towards making decisions or solving problems or
20:38
how do I get what I want and avoid?
20:40
But I don't want then usually they're using the the intellect.
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This is what the culture really values.
20:46
And so he's spent a year now watching the operate in a far
20:49
different way than he operates. And he was like, wow, what are
20:52
you doing? What's actually happening here
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and and it's funny because again I've been writing these daily
20:57
Flames for 10 years but I've never actually tried to break it
21:00
down and explain it to somebody else because it hasn't been
21:02
relevant. And now all the sudden people
21:05
are asking me this question and so my husband and asked if I
21:08
would be willing to like kind of break.
21:10
Down for him. Like tell me exactly what you're
21:13
doing. And he's a music producer with a
21:16
recording studio. So he said I'll record it and
21:18
we'll make it a program for other people that are like,
21:20
neither kind of Clueless and aren't even sure.
21:23
They have an inner pilot light and how in the world do I know
21:25
if I'm communicating with it. So we actually did put together
21:28
a program called connect to your inner pilot light, that's like
21:31
30 practices of what I actually use for myself.
21:35
And it's sliding scale is really meant to be available to like
21:38
anybody who needs it. Regardless of finances.
21:41
And so the longer answer to that is actually in that program.
21:46
But I can say that for myself, like I had a lot of playful
21:52
tools. I actually my own guidance often
21:56
will come from the external world, so I know a lot of people
21:59
who feel like they're really tuned into whatever they call
22:02
their inner pilot light and they may, they may tune into it, in
22:06
meditation, they find it in silence.
22:10
For me, for whatever reason, like, I play with the external
22:14
World things, come to me and synchronicities and mysterious
22:18
people that show up saying I have a message for you.
22:20
They, they show up in, you know, animals that cross my path at a
22:24
certain times and billboards and signs and music that has a clue
22:29
for me and dreams that I wake up.
22:31
You know, I can ask a question, I wake up in the morning and I'm
22:34
getting the answer to a question.
22:36
It's almost it feels like I'm on a treasure hunt, which I think
22:39
one of these These people who can just ask any binary question
22:43
to his inner pilot light, he calls it, the organizing
22:45
intelligence and get a, yes, no question.
22:47
He's learned how to interpret the answer in his body, which is
22:51
one of the practices that I teach that one's harder for me
22:55
and so he found it. So surprising that I would be
22:58
able to get this guidance like in other sort of more playful
23:01
ways. And at one point, he said, why
23:03
do you think you do it that way? Why not just go inside?
23:07
I'd and so I asked my in a pilot light.
23:10
Why is my guidance show up that way?
23:12
And the answer I got was because you liked it that way and I
23:15
laughed because I do like it that was like way more fun than
23:19
for me than sitting meditation. Like I'm very my spirituality is
23:23
very feminine. So for example I go to five of
23:27
them stamps called sweat your prayers or open floor every
23:31
Sunday morning for me. Ecstatic dance is a beautiful
23:34
portal and things will just drop in cuz I'm So certainly for some
23:40
people sitting meditation is a phenomenal way to start to
23:45
connect to that inner guidance, but there's lots of other kind
23:47
of playful ways and I really encourage people to find the way
23:51
that works best for them. I'm, I'm really jealous of
23:54
people who are very somatic. Some people, for example, I've
23:58
had to because of my medical education, 12 years of having to
24:03
suppress my physical body in order to accomplish The
24:06
Impossible. Physical tasks of sleep,
24:09
deprivation food, deprivation, not being able to pee when I
24:12
needed to pee like retracting for 12 hours in these horrible
24:16
positions. And so I really became kind of
24:18
disembodied, what's which was a huge loss, because I was a in a
24:22
dance company when I was young, so it's very in my body and very
24:25
in my feminine Essence, when I was young and I really, really
24:29
got beaten out of me in 12 years of medical education isn't.
24:34
So it's harder for me to access that but I know people that I
24:37
have not had that traumatized and or who have done a lot of
24:41
embodiment work to clear the traumas that they may have had
24:44
in their in their somatic world and they can they literally
24:49
develop like a very clear? Yes or no, they can ask their
24:54
body, should I go left? Or should I go right?
24:59
And they'll they learned to interpret somatic Sensations, as
25:04
this way is aligned with Divine will.
25:06
And this way, Is not. Not.
25:09
And so for some people, it's that simple.
25:11
One of my friends who is very somatic that way well like
25:17
literally look at a menu and just go through every menu item
25:20
this this is no no no no. And then this lights up.
25:23
Yes. This is what my body wants for
25:25
lunch today. Yeah.
25:29
She's feeling what the body wants.
25:32
And so, because it's harder for me to access that direct somatic
25:36
connection, I actually use applied, Kinesiology or muscle
25:40
testing a lot where I'll have somebody else, you know, press
25:43
on my arm. There's a I could go off on a
25:45
whole tangent about muscle testing and why it's not
25:48
evidence based and how it can be misinterpreted and how to use
25:53
it, right? And the I do, do all of that in
25:54
the connect to your, in a pilot light program.
25:56
But I actually do use Muscle testing a lot.
25:59
For asking my inner pilot light to use my body to help me know
26:04
something as simple as which book should I read next?
26:06
A whole bunch of different books and have my daughter test me.
26:10
That's great for me to go on this vacation or this vacation
26:13
like simple things. This, you know, if I'm looking
26:16
at the menu because I'm not as tuned in as my friend, then
26:20
somebody can muscle test me which thing on the on the menu
26:22
does my body want. So there are lots of different
26:26
ways and I think it's really helpful for people to access Us
26:29
what works for you for me? Because I'm a writer.
26:33
I can always on tap, sit down and say in a private light.
26:36
What do you need me to know right now?
26:39
Now, but yep. And then the the second part of
26:43
the question about discernment, how do you know if you're in a
26:45
pilot light? Well, first of all, I would say
26:48
anybody who tells you they are 100% certain that they have the
26:51
direct access to God and that they know for sure.
26:54
It's their inner pilot light and not some other part masquerading
26:57
as their inner pilot light, don't trust them.
27:01
Them because I don't believe anybody knows for sure, but I
27:04
believe we can get a confirmation.
27:07
We can use multiple practices and start to feel a sense of I'm
27:11
being guided this way or there's a, the Quakers use the term, a
27:15
leading. I have a leading And there are
27:18
lots of different conformation practices that I use.
27:21
I also use other people. If I have a leading towards
27:25
something I have people that I really trust in my inner circle
27:28
that I will run it by them to run it by there.
27:31
And our pilot lights. Does that feel true to them
27:33
does? It might I have a blind spot
27:35
here. Might I be blending with a part
27:38
that has an agenda, that's really trying to get its own way
27:43
and rather than, you know, aligning with this sort of Of
27:47
mysterious force of the universe.
27:50
That's kind of carrying me in the flow of it but I have in the
27:53
book and this one is in Love Letter.
27:57
One of the three I have a list of discernment questions that I
28:01
ask because and no single discernment question is kind of
28:05
accurate in and of itself. Like for example one of them is,
28:09
does it make sense? And I would say 80% of the
28:11
things that my inner pilot light kills me to do not make sense,
28:14
right? But it's always a queue for me.
28:17
It doesn't make sense slow down. If it completely violates all
28:20
common sense, which it did to quit my job, violate it all
28:25
common sense. But I do want to slow down
28:28
because, you know, sometimes we can get very ungrounded and
28:32
irrational and emotional and follow intuition at the expense
28:37
of Common Sense and wind up in kind of a really super messy
28:41
place and, you know, some of my, some of the ways that I have
28:45
gotten to this point in my life. I've been super messy so I don't
28:51
I'm certainly not saying we should violate the intellect or
28:54
the rational mind but that question in and of itself is
28:57
useful to ask, but not, it's not so low.
29:00
So I'm just going to read the questions, if that's all right.
29:03
Yeah, sounds great, baby. Those of you who are listening,
29:05
maybe you have a leading toward something, you kind of feel like
29:08
you've been guided towards something, but you're not sure.
29:12
So take just a moment to sort of ask your inner pilot light to
29:15
bring into conscious awareness. Enos something that, That maybe
29:20
you're, you think you're being guided towards, but you're
29:23
having a hard time Discerning. Is that really my inner pilot
29:26
light? Guiding me, or maybe, is it one
29:29
of my wounded Parts? Sort of masquerading, as
29:33
guidance, trying to get its needs met?
29:38
So, here are the questions. Is it kind?
29:44
And does it feel like Shackles on or shackles off?
29:48
Off. Is there a liveness here?
29:53
Ear does it nourish or deplete me?
29:56
Me. Does it feel natural efficient
29:59
easeful, peaceful and graceful? Oil.
30:03
Does it make sense? Since does it exhaust me or fill
30:07
me with Dread? Ed, will it hurt anyone?
30:12
One would love do this. This, how does this feel in my
30:16
body? Di am I feeling pressured or
30:20
rushing? She is it coercive or
30:23
controlling? Going.
30:26
Is it ethical and aligned with my core values?
30:30
Use. Well, this cultivates a
30:31
Stillness and me. Me and the last one is kind of
30:36
an access point holding Paradox. What's true?
30:39
And not true about that. That.
30:43
So, for example, it may be somebody who's listening to this
30:46
is thinking they need to take a pause.
30:49
The feeling guided rights are not thinking, they're feeling
30:51
guided towards taking a pause and if you go through those
30:56
questions, then you can get a sense for how does it actually
31:00
feel in your body? D.
31:02
Does it feel like Shackles on or shackles off?
31:05
Right? Are you pressuring yourself
31:06
because you think you should take a pause?
31:11
Cause and is it, you know what's true or not?
31:14
True about that? What's true about the need to
31:15
take a pause and maybe what's true about needing not to take a
31:19
pause like money? Any.
31:23
So that was help me. I also want to say that if
31:27
people are thinking, if they're confused about whether they're
31:30
getting guidance from a true Source or not that which gives
31:34
us guidance is in my experience, responsive, in other words, if
31:39
you're doubting it, there's no problem with that.
31:41
It's totally fine to doubt your guidance.
31:43
The guidance doesn't care, it's neutral.
31:46
So you can say I'm not clear or I'm doubting this.
31:50
I need another sign. I need more.
31:52
A nation, please send more guidance.
31:55
And in my experience, it always comes.
31:58
It may not come in your timing, it will come in Divine timing
32:00
but it always comes and there will come a point where you feel
32:04
clear enough. Like I said, I don't ever feel
32:07
certain but I feel clear enough. But that was a long answer two
32:13
questions really. It's a really fundamental like
32:16
it's kind of at the core of this teaching.
32:18
Yeah. And II love the extrapolation of
32:23
what you shared because it it isn't a simple answer and I feel
32:26
like a lot of us whether we are really cognitive and keyed in
32:30
there or otherwise we weren't we're always looking for the
32:35
quick fix or the simple answer and I think it's just a
32:38
testament. What you shared is is like it's
32:41
not about that. It's about what is working for
32:43
you and what are you, where you and that?
32:46
And where are you listening and wanting to go deeper and all of
32:50
that? I think just speaks to alignment
32:54
and and like it takes a little bit of listening like you said
32:57
and and asking so to me like what I'm when I'm picking up is,
33:03
it's not about just like sitting there and waiting for something
33:07
to come to me. It's literally conscious and
33:09
Tech and intentional. And what do I really want?
33:12
And maybe those questions are. So few of those that I asked, I
33:15
love those questions and that you shared those because they do
33:19
make me go deeper, they helped me do and feel things
33:23
differently than maybe my autopilot.
33:26
We're not the inner pilot, but the auto parts.
33:29
Whoa, to have me. No, are just be 10 that I'm, you
33:33
know, cruising through on my cruise control.
33:35
And, and then I like bypassed my inner pilot light.
33:40
So I think all of That is really valid and important and and then
33:44
on the topic of those somatic. So you know, I'm right with you.
33:48
By the way, you know, I am a cognitive person and I think a
33:52
lot of people in our world of whether it's like the medical
33:55
professions like you were in or business world and corporate
33:59
worlds. It's like we live by that.
34:01
That's where I've been training. That's all I really knew.
34:04
And I think as a kid there was plenty things that I was also
34:07
really more in touch with my body and then somehow along the
34:10
way things. Kind of got beaten out of me.
34:12
Whether it was like my parents, divorcing and wanting to just
34:16
hide in a corner or who knows what, but it's something that
34:20
I've been relearning and tuning back in and it's and it's so
34:25
important. But I think we like for me a big
34:27
reminder is that I have a body below my neck that I can access
34:32
but it takes that consciousness of like asking questions and
34:36
just feeling and it might be asking.
34:38
Even like the one you mentioned which is you know, what is my
34:40
Body want to do right now are holding a book or looking at a
34:43
piece of paper and the menu and just like deciding like visually
34:47
it what would that feel like to eat a fish versus you know
34:50
vegetable plate and and it's like a whole nother databank,
34:54
right? It opens up a whole other
34:56
essence of what it is and I think that's what I want to
34:59
stress. Is that pausing and intentional
35:02
shift in behavior is can be like a depth a new depth to learn
35:06
whether it's body bodily information that our heads are
35:11
Our brains get us through everything most of the time but
35:13
man there's so much more to access and you mentioned
35:17
feminine leadership and we can all access that and I think like
35:21
that is a main key to so much more data that is literally left
35:25
on the table because I either I'm cruising on my autopilot
35:29
site. That's an inner pilot or I just
35:31
maybe am not aware of it and and it just takes a little bit of
35:35
tweaking to say those questions to myself or ask a quick.
35:39
Simple question, what would it bring me into Ooh, alignment
35:41
today. What does my body want to wear?
35:43
Like, that is cool shit. And like I said, it's in, it's
35:48
for me, it's like a bunny fall. It's a playful interaction with
35:53
Consciousness is like playing with Consciousness and like I
35:57
said, different people have different access points that are
36:00
easier for them. So one of my friends, for
36:01
example is just very much in her head during the day, but at
36:07
night, she has these wild dreams and she's gotten so.
36:11
And dream analysis, she started like using her intellect to
36:14
study dream analysis. And so, when she does her kind
36:18
of, she wakes up in the middle of the night and like takes
36:20
notes and has a whole dream journal and then she spends time
36:23
in the morning as part of her, practice to receive the messages
36:27
from the dream. So it's like her unconscious is
36:30
only able to really access her when her conscious mind is like
36:34
offline when she's sleeping. I relate.
36:36
Oh my gosh. Yeah, so to me that way but it's
36:39
great. It's totally working for Her and
36:41
she's found this to be super practical for her.
36:44
So that's not going to work for everybody.
36:46
And I don't think there's any one way for any one person, but
36:50
we can sort of playfully, you know, we can engage with playing
36:54
with what are the different access points.
36:56
One of my friends, I was just, I just had lunch with her this
36:59
weekend trial is Sofia is an artist who teaches healing and
37:04
energy work through ART. And so, for her, it's like, if
37:08
she's trying to access her inner pilot light, she will literally
37:11
Sit down with like pens or crayons or markers or Paints in
37:15
both hands you'll use both hands and just be like what is my in a
37:17
pilot light? Want me to know right now and
37:19
we'll paint it and then she has a way of interpreting what comes
37:23
out as kind of an oracle, so it can be very individualized.
37:28
And so I encourage people to like explore what way feels
37:32
playful and fun and not like work.
37:35
Like for me, sitting meditation is the opposite of didn't of
37:40
what works. For me, because like I said,
37:42
it's very much, a sacred masculine practice and my nature
37:46
is very bhakti. It's very devotional is very
37:48
feminine and so I'm much more likely to get a guidance
37:52
dropping in when I'm dancing. Then when I'm sitting in an
37:56
uncomfortable position that reminds me of how uncomfortable
37:58
I was in surgery. So it's but that's just me.
38:03
Like I said I have lots of people that can literally just
38:05
say inner pilot light, what do you want me to know and sit down
38:07
on their pillow and Get a complete download.
38:12
Yeah, I Concur and I think that's a big message that I
38:17
share a win in this world of pause, is that it is what it is
38:20
about, what works for you, and so you don't need to meditate.
38:24
Like you can if that will serve you but by by all means, it can
38:28
be play. It can be self-awareness in a
38:31
way that allows you to name a primary feeling or going for a
38:35
walk and noticing nature and getting back into your sensory
38:39
perception, and all of those things.
38:40
So I think what you're sharing is really relevant towards
38:45
knowing what works for you and that is in essence, what
38:48
self-awareness is like, how do you know what works for you?
38:50
What you got to actually look into it and you little conscious
38:54
about it and and I know that that is so important because
38:58
it's about alignment. If you're going to meditate you
39:00
hate it, then it's not probably going to work for you, and it's
39:03
right. And I think people right now are
39:04
like, oh, but it's supposed to be this thing and I'll feel
39:06
better and it's like, no, no, that's not it.
39:08
It's about what works for you and if it's Once then go dance,
39:12
like go Windu, what brings you Joy and that will be in
39:15
alignment as well. Sure.
39:18
But then the process that I started with, during the
39:20
meditation, when the book picked, which one that wanted me
39:23
to read, that practice is one of the practices that I teach in
39:27
the connect. Your inner pilot light program
39:29
as well and I use it all the time.
39:31
It's basic. You know we in that little
39:33
meditation we kind of went inside the redwood tree right
39:36
and then we used the redwood tree as sort of a A portal and I
39:42
often will go and ask the ocean. For example, I live right by the
39:45
ocean, so, and I also live right by Muir Woods, so I can go to
39:49
the redwood trees in person, I will literally go to a tree or I
39:53
will go to the ocean or a go sit next to a river sit by a
39:56
waterfall and I will ask the ocean.
39:59
What is my, you know, what do you want me to know?
40:02
And it's like I'll interpret it as an oracle.
40:07
It's like you know how some meditation Have you sort of
40:11
focus your attention on a candle flame?
40:13
For example, as always in Focus attention or intention for me,
40:18
nature is so much more effective than emptiness or even a candle
40:23
flame. It's like the ocean just tells
40:25
me and it feels so intimate, and so ecstatic.
40:30
Like I said, it leaves me in such odds like somehow, I came
40:33
to the ocean, feeling confused, not knowing which way to go and
40:37
then the ocean resolved, my confusion Fusion as best we can
40:42
resolve. And again, then I can ask the
40:43
questions. I don't just necessarily take
40:46
the oceans guidance, as you know, gospel truth, but it does
40:52
create very often a sense of feeling of truth of oh I've just
40:58
tapped into something true, that was previously beyond my
41:02
conscious awareness. Yeah, and it, and what you
41:06
reminded me of is, it's, it's great to get out in nature and I
41:10
think, Nature pauses in general are such a good refresher and
41:13
even if it's your walk around the block at lunch and I know I
41:16
live in the city I'm in San Francisco.
41:18
I didn't get to Nature this weekend but I took a run and I
41:21
can look at the trees as I go by and like, allow myself to
41:25
connect in those ways. And I think that's that's just a
41:28
powerful reminder that it is what we choose around us to, to
41:32
be part of and connect with. And so whether it's the ocean or
41:36
a tree or, you know, just thought it thinking about what
41:40
can I bring you more and then like your discernment and
41:43
questioning is is a, is really powerful.
41:45
So I think all of those are really, really good tips.
41:49
And I know we're coming towards the end of our time here but
41:52
really quickly. I love you to answer.
41:54
You know, what are you do yourself to pause?
41:57
I think you've mentioned this a few times but just where we're
42:00
how well I mean. Yeah.
42:02
How do you spend the time? You know, you need for that
42:06
renewal and what a summer the favorite ways you like in terms
42:09
of that plus, Maybe your own emergence.
42:12
Knowing there's new things coming for you.
42:14
How do you like to pause and that way?
42:18
Well, I have in my calendar, if you look at my, my Google
42:21
Calendar, one day a week, that's a weekday is labeled on my
42:25
calendar as Lissa's succulent space day.
42:28
My assistant like, especially if I happen to be teaching a
42:33
workshop on a weekend or something.
42:35
There's always a weekday that's just blank and that blankness
42:40
This is an invitation for me to sort of tune in to what's needed
42:44
here. So I sort of have, pause
42:46
built-in, unless I'm teaching a workshop or something on the
42:50
weekend. I don't schedule weekends
42:52
either. So, I don't actually work that
42:54
much. I'm it makes me so much more
42:57
focused and productive when I am working.
42:59
So, I, I used to work, you know, these crazy hours, 72 hour, call
43:04
shifts as an OB/GYN and such and somehow I'm far more productive
43:08
working far, less hours but Part of that is, for example, I will
43:12
spend like three hours on the mount on Mount Tamalpais, which
43:15
I can walk to from my front yard without getting into a car.
43:19
And I'll spend, like, I just go and I just wonder, like, it's
43:22
completely not goal-oriented, I'm not going to get exercise.
43:26
I'm not going to get my heart rate up.
43:28
I'm not going to reach a destination.
43:31
I'm literally just wandering. And in the wandering that kind
43:36
of pausing is really nourishing to me and a lot of my greatest.
43:40
Just sort of, downloads kind of come from there.
43:44
Like the, the fundamental framework of Mind Over medicine
43:48
and my first two, TED Talks was based on an image that dropped
43:51
in like a movies like a slideshow.
43:54
While I was wandering on the mountain in a point of trying to
44:00
reverse engineer, what I was doing with my patients, that was
44:05
leading to these radical remissions kind of
44:07
quote-unquote. Spontaneous, remissions from
44:11
Terrible diseases. And I I didn't know what I was
44:13
doing. I I'd it was happening but I
44:15
didn't have a cognitive framework for it or a way to
44:19
teach it and I had quit practicing medicine in 2010
44:22
official formally. Like I was no longer seeing
44:25
patients anymore. And people were asking, how do I
44:27
find a doctor, like you? And I didn't know, I didn't know
44:31
anybody who was doing what I was doing, but I had made the
44:33
inquiry of in a pilot light. Show me how to teach this and it
44:38
literally just dropped in during one of those.
44:40
Those kinds of pauses and I always build in regular pauses
44:45
as well like Monger pauses. So I'm about to turn 50 on April
44:49
24th and so the week before my birthday, I'm going for get 10
44:56
day trip with my husband to Hot Springs and Oregon.
45:00
So we're going on a like, natural Hot Springs tour of all
45:03
those hot springs that you have to hike to like, you know, you
45:06
really have to earn your right to get get naked in the hot.
45:10
Yeah, sitting next to the river and for whatever reason Hot
45:14
Springs are beautiful portal. Point from you.
45:16
So time at esalen time it will burn Hot Springs time it or hot
45:20
springs. These are kind of our local
45:22
local access points to that. There's something about being in
45:26
hot water and just being in silence and being in nature.
45:29
That's extremely nourishing to my nervous system.
45:33
And one, my nervous system is relaxed than my mind.
45:36
My parts, quiet down, they settle down, they just kind of
45:40
make Or space and then I get more direct access to my inner
45:43
pilot light to receive whatever is wanted whether it's something
45:47
that's that I need to become aware of because it's a need of
45:49
healing or sort of the next step in my business or an epiphany
45:55
that will help me resolve a conflict that I'm having with a
45:58
loved one. Things just kind of come to me
46:01
when I'm in that sort of pause. Mmm.
46:04
And your sounds like you're doing a great job of it.
46:07
So so well done. And yeah, I know.
46:11
Where I'm where my head is going right now, is just knowing that
46:15
book Mind Over medicine is such a great book.
46:17
I'm going to put it in the show notes as well because it's just
46:20
so powerful to think about how my mind can shift my own healing
46:25
and my body and the, the relationship between the two.
46:28
And it's, it's such a wonderful piece off.
46:30
I'd like to thank you again for that book and and are connected.
46:34
Yeah, well connected to this as well because the, the sort of
46:37
Wellness model that I teach in Mind, Over medicine, the
46:39
foundation. It's Stone of this model is your
46:42
inner pilot light, so it's basically, is there any
46:44
treatment decision for your body needs to be filtered through
46:48
your inner pilot light and also essentially, you know what if
46:51
your inner pirate light is using your body to get your attention
46:56
to give you a message that's intended to wake you up, it's
46:59
intended to protect you. It's here to try to show you,
47:03
maybe what's in a blind spot for you or where you're living out
47:07
of alignment with your no pilot. Like so, Fundamentally
47:11
connected, the teachings of Mind, Over medicine, and what's
47:14
in the daily flame. Yeah.
47:16
Like all of the books that I put out are basically at their core,
47:20
what they share is the importance of having that
47:24
connection so that we can make aligned decisions in our lives,
47:28
whether it's related to your calling in the anatomy, of a
47:30
calling, or how to how to come into right relationship with
47:35
uncertainty in the fear care, or how to heal the body or make
47:39
your body right for miracles in mind.
47:40
Over medicine, it's so all related.
47:42
So I think you're so spot-on in that and tell us where we can
47:47
find more info. I know you mentioned a few
47:48
times, but where can people go to learn more and get all this
47:53
juicy information? Well, thanks.
47:55
But the things that are specifically oriented towards
47:57
the inner pilot light are all at inner pilot light.com, where you
48:00
can sign up for the free daily Flame or the links to the book
48:05
or the connect to your in a pilot program or the sounds true
48:08
program that I did was Tammy Simon.
48:11
All of that is that in a private life.com and then everything
48:13
else is at least a rank and dot-coms.
48:15
My name is sa ra n Ki n and that has links to all my TED talks
48:20
and my other books and my blog. So there's a whole different
48:23
newsletter list there for people that want to become kept
48:27
up-to-date, for example, on what I'm what I'm blogging about
48:30
before. As part of the 7 year research
48:32
for my sacred medicine book where I've been working with
48:35
shamans and Peru, and Qi, Gong Masters in China and energy,
48:38
healers, and biofield, scientists and stuff.
48:40
Duff spiritual healers and gurus in the US and around the world.
48:45
It's still in progress. Then that's also it's still in
48:47
progress. So yeah, I'm I'm publishing as I
48:49
go sort of for my readers on my blog but yeah.
48:53
Okay, that's all that bright. Then the daily flame.
48:55
I would say. Like I said, yeah, this in many
48:57
projects happening. Yeah.
49:00
Great. Well listen, thank you so much
49:02
for all of your sharing and your inner pilot light wisdom and
49:07
guidance today. I thank you so much.
49:10
And it was a joy to have you on the show.
49:13
Thank you. Thanks for listening today.
49:21
I'm Rachel O'Meara, the author of pause, harnessing the life
49:24
changing power of giving yourself a break now that you've
49:28
had a chance to listen to the podcast.
49:31
I want to invite you to continue the conversation and join the
49:35
private Facebook group. Be the pause, you can search for
49:39
it on Facebook or go to facebook.com slash groups /b the
49:43
pause. It's also in the podcast notes
49:46
for this episode also, So if you are struggling with overwhelm or
49:51
being stressed out at work and you're not really sure what to
49:54
do next. I invite you to download the
49:56
free guide book for the three keys to turn overwhelm into
50:03
thriving at work. This is on my website, Rachel,
50:05
O'Meara.com and you can download it there today, see you soon.
50:24
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