Latest / Mindful You / Nurturing Minds and Hearts: From Yoga's Calm To Global Wellness Education's Embrace With Linda Orsini
Transcript
- 0:00Alan Carroll: Hi, everybody. Welcome back to the mindful U
- 0:05podcast. My name is Alan Carroll and I am your host as we journey
- 0:12together down the pathway of mindfulness. And today it's my
- 0:22pleasure to introduce you to Linda Orsini. Linda has been a
- 0:28teacher for 30 years. She is dedicated to personal
- 0:34transformation, specializing in mindfulness, self compassion,
- 0:39meditation, yoga, Reiki, energy, sound, healing, hypnotherapy.
- 0:47She's the founder of the global wellness education, and has her
- 0:51own podcast called a call for love. She talks about the stress
- 0:59that she experienced the burnout that she experienced. And she
- 1:05discovered that the tools of mindfulness were much better
- 1:09than any Western medicine that could be taken to reduce
- 1:14anxiety. And so she became a believer and mindfulness. And so
- 1:20she's dedicated her life to bringing mindfulness to others
- 1:23and to heal others. So I am excited. And I'm welcome to
- 1:27introduce to you, Linda or Seanie. Please welcome Linda.
- 1:32Thank you. Linda, welcome to the mindful you podcast, I'm excited
- 1:40to have an opportunity to talk with you. And I'd like to start
- 1:44by having you share with our audience, a little bit about
- 1:48your your journey, your personal journey, your your background,
- 1:53and what were the like, critical milestones that accelerated you
- 1:58down that personal growth path, and then the contributions that
- 2:02you use in the world to heal and help other people.
- 2:07Linda Orsini: Sure, Alan, it's so great to be here. Thank you.
- 2:11I am the youngest of 11 children. And so I am quite
- 2:15resilient. And when my doctor had proposed that I take anti
- 2:20anxiety medicine, because it was just too my life was just too
- 2:27stressful for me, I was really had high anxiety, Soul fatigue,
- 2:32I was a school teacher, I had gotten divorced. And life was
- 2:36very big, very emotional. And my anxiety was through the roof.
- 2:41And I didn't want to take anxiety medication, because in
- 2:45all honesty, I was dating. And the side effects were, you know,
- 2:50gaining weight, low libido, and there was other one and it just
- 2:53like, that's not going to work. So my neighbor invited me to go
- 2:58to yoga class. And I went, and I was like, Oh, I had a little bit
- 3:03of break from suffering. And so I thought, well, let's, let's
- 3:09try this. Let's try this. If it doesn't work, we visit the
- 3:12doctor and see if I can maybe think about some kind of
- 3:17medicine. And I kept on going and I kept on feeling better.
- 3:22And I kept on loving it. And, and so then it just snowballed,
- 3:26because and now I bring in the peace again of the youngest
- 3:29child, because I really learned resilience. And I am the type of
- 3:34the person that really gets in there fast. And self advocates
- 3:40and self improves anyway I can. So I just took it upon myself to
- 3:47heal myself, I guess you could say. And yoga allowed me to get
- 3:54to meditation and mindfulness, because it was too far of a jump
- 3:59from over anxiety and stress. So fatigue, all the way to
- 4:04mindfulness and meditation. So yoga was the bridge.
- 4:10Alan Carroll: Well, that's that. Yep, I agree. In my own
- 4:14experience. Linda, I read a book in my late teens by Bob a
- 4:19rhombus is called D here now. It was the classic back in the 60s
- 4:25and 70s. And the book was divided into three parts. And
- 4:29the part I the part I liked the most was the section on yoga.
- 4:34And that got me down to this moving the body and stillness
- 4:38and getting myself relaxed and and here we are 50 years down
- 4:44the 50 years later. mindfulness and meditation are part of the
- 4:51the game part of the mindfulness game, because I imagine you
- 4:54realize that they follow each other as you begin to steal that
- 5:00anxiety, you began to look at well, what other ways? Can I
- 5:06steal the anxiety that I'm feeling? And so mindfulness and
- 5:11meditation is certainly one of them. I also wanted to ask you
- 5:16about some of the things that I read in your biography. And one
- 5:21of them was the the global wellness education. You're a
- 5:25founder of that. And I wanted you to sort of share with the
- 5:28audience what what that is because you put some energy into
- 5:31that, and I'd like to hear what it's about.
- 5:34Unknown: Well, thank you for recognizing that because yes, it
- 5:37has been a journey. I was a school teacher for over 30 years
- 5:41for an elementary school, from JK to grade eight in various
- 5:45roles. And I knew that once I started on the wellness journey,
- 5:52it was like such a burning desire in me to expand this
- 5:57further. So at my first eligibility date, which happened
- 6:02to be in Canada, I was close to 54, because I started teaching
- 6:05very young, I retired, and I didn't retire, I shifted, and I
- 6:11began global wellness education, I felt like it spoke to all the
- 6:17elements, it was global, which I am, and education, who I am, and
- 6:23wellness, which I always advocate for. So I began with
- 6:28global wellness education, and I thought I would just come into
- 6:32wellness because I'm trained. I'm a Reiki Master sound healer
- 6:36trained in hypnotherapy. I have so many tools under my belt. But
- 6:41I wasn't quite sure the business piece because as a school
- 6:45teacher, that's not something that we really learned. But
- 6:49nevertheless, through global wellness education, I am
- 6:52expanding and growing it every day, especially with my podcast
- 6:57now a call for love.
- 7:01Alan Carroll: And if I was interested in the global
- 7:04wellness education, how would you give me like a purpose
- 7:07statement or a mission statement for what that organization is
- 7:11about?
- 7:12Unknown: That's a great question. I really believe that
- 7:15global wellness education it permeates every continent, every
- 7:22being every age group. And so this is a global mission, that
- 7:30we live healthier in our mind bodies and spirits, because when
- 7:35we do, we can be of greater Stuarts to the earth and to
- 7:40others. So all love becomes comes from self love. And unless
- 7:44we can hold space for all our pains, and our low tears and all
- 7:48our joys, then we cannot be of service to others.
- 7:54Alan Carroll: That's beautiful. That's very, very beautiful.
- 7:57That leads into the concept you you mentioned earlier, was the
- 8:05concept of there are two types of love. And the way you
- 8:10described it, if I remember there's a one type, which we'll
- 8:14call love. And we'll call that the highest, the highest level
- 8:19of consciousness. And there I like what you said. And then the
- 8:22second type is not like against love, or the bottom love or the
- 8:26ugly part. It's just a I think you use the word, a lower
- 8:32vibration. That's that's a sweet way accurate, and accurate way
- 8:38of talking about a continuum. I mean, I believe and you believe
- 8:43that it's it's all one love. And so let's go into a a definition
- 8:50of you're talking about love. Can you define because a lot of
- 8:56people have a lot of different definitions about love. And I
- 8:59especially hope I'm hope I hope that that word space is involved
- 9:07in your understanding of giving space as part of love. And I
- 9:11don't know, but I'm keeping I'm keeping my fingers crossed,
- 9:13because that's certainly where I'm at with it.
- 9:16Unknown: Well, I'll give you a little teaser, you're right. But
- 9:20the thing with it is that we really complicate our life. We
- 9:26really, really complicated and life is complicated. But if you
- 9:31can just know where you are standing through awareness which
- 9:37comes to space, you cannot know where you're standing unless you
- 9:40stop to really find space and stillness. So then you decide,
- 9:47are you in a place of love, love as you said is the continuum.
- 9:51Love is the highest vibration, love and joy, highest highest
- 9:54vibration? What else is there if there's not love? And then the
- 9:58lowest by abrasion is shame, and all the ones above it. So here
- 10:05you have the spectrum. And we through awareness, through
- 10:10intention. And through action, we can decide where we are
- 10:16standing. Are we standing in a place of love the highest
- 10:20vibration, our highest self? Or are we anxious, envious,
- 10:26jealous, frustrated, depressed, all those lower vibrations,
- 10:34where are you standing. So if you're in a lower vibration,
- 10:37which is under the title of fear, then you can practice
- 10:44mind, body and spirit skills in order to raise your vibration.
- 10:51So that you can step in love, through self compassion, through
- 10:56stillness, through space, through meditation, through all
- 11:00those modalities that enable you as the vehicle to raise you up.
- 11:05And then from there, you live more intentionally you can be of
- 11:09greater service to those who you care about, too. We're stewards
- 11:13of this earth, when you are vibrating and living from a
- 11:17place of love, then you are really living from loving
- 11:21kindness, and from loving kindness, Everything blossoms.
- 11:28Alan Carroll: You certainly are very sweet and the way you
- 11:30verbalize that, that space of consciousness. There is a a
- 11:38vibration. And when you talked about specific, could you give
- 11:43some specific exercises or practices, someone who's on the
- 11:49lower end of that scale of love, and they want it? What can I do
- 11:54now? That would support me and accelerating my my growth down
- 12:01that mindfulness level 10 Love?
- 12:06Unknown: Okay, well, I do have some specific examples, I could
- 12:10say, very easy one, let's take as a parent, right? You know,
- 12:15you've been working all day and you come home and your children
- 12:19are or child is really wanting your attention, kind of crabby,
- 12:25kind of tired, right? And you can get frustrated, right?
- 12:31Frustrated, because you're tired, etc. And then you have to
- 12:38stop. What is really happening here, you create a little space.
- 12:44And then when you create a little space, you know, that
- 12:47your child may be had missed you, it could even be your
- 12:50partner, who you haven't given enough time to that day. And
- 12:55what they're really trying to say is they miss you. And so
- 12:59through your frustration, if you create this time in the space,
- 13:04you can look at it from a new awareness with a different
- 13:09intention. Instead of me getting frustrated, short tempered, or
- 13:15defensive. Those are the lower vibrations, I can step into
- 13:20love, I can stop what I'm doing for a minute. And I can sit with
- 13:25them. And everyone wants to be seen, valued and heard. And if
- 13:30we can offer that first ourselves, because we have to
- 13:34see what's going on within ourselves. And then we can offer
- 13:37that to others, then not only do we shift our reality, but we
- 13:42shift the vibration around us.
- 13:49Alan Carroll: That's beautiful. That's beautiful. You you are
- 13:53you're when you say you have to be able to stop. Well that What
- 13:58do you mean by that? And then you have to be able to see
- 14:02what's going on. When you stop. Well stop implies that you're
- 14:08moving somewhere. So how do you wake up in the in the, in the
- 14:14chaos of what's going on with your children? And what's going
- 14:17on with the world right now? What do you mean by stop? I
- 14:20don't Yeah. So how do you stop in order to create the space in
- 14:25order to observe and then so you no longer react? You now are
- 14:29able to respond and keep your body still and relaxed and
- 14:32dealing with the situation? How do you how do you how do you?
- 14:37How do you wake up? How do you wake up in order to stop?
- 14:43Unknown: I love that you asked this question because no one's
- 14:47really asked me this question and I love it. I am a meditation
- 14:53guide. I'm a course creator, I host retreats but I always say
- 14:58it's a practice. We have to teach ourselves how to do this.
- 15:04We are reactive human beings. We react all the time. But through
- 15:11safe space through meditation and through mindfulness, right,
- 15:16we train our mind to stop and notice. And it's through the
- 15:21training through mindfulness and meditation, that we acquire the
- 15:27skills to practice it in crisis's, but we cannot practice
- 15:31it in crisis, when we haven't practiced it in a safe place.
- 15:38Alan Carroll: Absolutely, my experience too, that you are,
- 15:43when you're in the battle is not the time to be thinking about
- 15:47how to prepare, you should have been preparing step by step, day
- 15:53by day, practice every day, something to create stillness.
- 15:59So it becomes, at first it's an effort. And then it's done. It's
- 16:04downhill skiing. It's like you want to you want to have that
- 16:08stillness feeling. And what I noticed for myself and I, and I
- 16:12bet you do too, that the agitation, the clouds, the
- 16:18storminess, that's happening in the moment, begin to settle
- 16:24down, you can begin to breathe. I bet when you're on that level
- 16:31one and two, you don't even aware of breathing. And I bet as
- 16:36you move towards that eight, nine and 10, the relaxation of
- 16:40the physical body, the tension in the physical body becomes
- 16:45more observable. And then I bet you can tell me if you can, if I
- 16:50can observe the physical tension that what can I do?
- 16:53Unknown: Well, when you notice it in your body, and you feel it
- 16:56in your body, then it then it becomes a somatic experience.
- 17:00You can say, Oh, I feel this in my body. We always feel it in
- 17:06our body first, and then we can you know that it's the monkey
- 17:10mind, it's the mind, we say to our mind, you know what, first
- 17:14of all, is probably an illusion, that we're really thinking, and
- 17:19we are not our thoughts. And so we pull back the reins, we pull
- 17:23back the reins, we have been exercising our mind like we
- 17:28would our biceps, in order to pause to, to become aware, to
- 17:35embody the emotion to think with a little bit more space and
- 17:39rational. And then therefore we can make an action make an
- 17:46intention to create an action where it's
- 17:50Alan Carroll: out of love. Yes, yes.
- 17:54Unknown: But that's practice. And that's intention.
- 17:58Alan Carroll: The intention is it you have a choice. In my the
- 18:05way I look at it, you have a choice between defending my ego
- 18:08point of view, which are attack thoughts, or I can let the voice
- 18:13of God speak through me. And if the voice of God was going to
- 18:17speak through me, the voice of God would be saying loving kind
- 18:20things. But my ego says I'm not God. Well, yeah, now maybe
- 18:24there's a little bit a god this in you, and you start to
- 18:28practice, looking for the cup half full, practice loving
- 18:33kindness, as you have to say with compassion. And that that's
- 18:37exactly what you know, from my reality, what the Buddhism talks
- 18:42about the vehicle to the Buddha talks about love and compassion.
- 18:46But what does that mean? Well, that that comes with that, that
- 18:51space, you're talking about that space of, I call it the the
- 18:55witness, or the observer of the movie, you're sitting in the
- 19:00you're standing in the movie theater with some popcorn,
- 19:02watching the clouds watching the movie go by on the screen, and
- 19:06you're enjoying it, but you're not taking it personally. But
- 19:09most people are the movie because they can't create the
- 19:13space between the chair and the screen. They are if there's no
- 19:16space, then you are the thought. But if you can create a space
- 19:20then oh, I'm, I'm having a thought right now about that.
- 19:23But I don't need to act on it. I can say wait a minute, nothing
- 19:30personal. Take a breath. And then look at how I can proceed
- 19:35with kindness. And I bet that is what what you've discovered on
- 19:39your journey too, because it sounds like you and I are
- 19:42connected here. Really, you are. You're throwing the ball with
- 19:46me. I'm throwing it back to you and you're catching it and I'm
- 19:49catching it because we've walked the path. You have covered
- 19:55universal things not not personal but universal things
- 19:58about space. Ace breathing. It's all of relaxation. And we
- 20:07haven't even talked about surrender forgiveness yet. Maybe
- 20:10the next time we do a podcast, we'll talk about surrender and
- 20:14forgiveness, because those are, those are two ingredients that
- 20:17seem to come with that, that journey from that egoic.
- 20:21Defending thing to, to not. Well, Linda, although our time
- 20:26has been short, it's been full of golden nuggets that you're
- 20:31sharing with our audience. And I bet there's people in the
- 20:35audience who are saying, Wow, Linda sounds like a pretty cool
- 20:37person. How can I how can I connect with Linda, what, where
- 20:41can I go? And in the show notes, we'll have your your all the
- 20:47links and things like that. And but this right now, if people
- 20:52wanted to connect with you, Linda, how would they go about
- 20:54doing that?
- 20:56Unknown: Well, you can reach out to me on global wellness
- 20:59education.com and on social media platforms that are called
- 21:03for love. And from there I host courses retreats,
- 21:08transformational life coach, and I'm really here to support
- 21:13people on their individual journey with self compassion, my
- 21:17main route is unless we can love ourselves with self compassion,
- 21:22that spills over to empathy for others. And then as you said
- 21:25that forgiveness becomes a little bit more possible. So
- 21:29that's just a little teaser for next talk.
- 21:32Alan Carroll: Wonderful. Well, I hear the ringing in my ears. So
- 21:36thank you very much, Linda for being a guest on the potter
- 21:40Palooza and the mindful you podcast, I enjoyed very much
- 21:44having the opportunity to talk with you. And I look forward to
- 21:47having another conversation with you in the future. Thank you
- 21:50very much. All right, bye bye for now.
- 21:59Okay, so I'm going to, I'm going to leave the I'm going to leave
- 22:04the meeting. Okay. And how did it go?
- 22:07Unknown: I loved it. I felt like both were just so in sync. Yes.
- 22:11tossing the ball. I mean, I, our mission, our, our DIS ideology
- 22:16are so similar. So bad.
- 22:19Alan Carroll: Yep, I agree. I agree it was because the way we
- 22:25were talking is from experience. Hmm, and not from a book. And so
- 22:33it's so the depth of the words have more power. When it comes
- 22:38from experience rather than Well, I'd read a book about it.
- 22:42Because I can see when because the observer and the witness,
- 22:45that's a that's a big, big thing. When you when you get
- 22:50that witnessed observer space stuff, you're now flying a lot
- 22:57rather than crawling along the ground. And unfortunately, most
- 23:00people, what do you mean by space and observing and witness
- 23:05and well, you start to meditate you, you start to create space
- 23:09between the thoughts that you think. And in my work, what I do
- 23:13with training professional speakers, what we do is we train
- 23:16them to create space between the sounds that they speak. And
- 23:24every time you create the space while you're speaking, you
- 23:27create a little bit of stillness. And boy, stillness is
- 23:33the the entry into that vastness of mindfulness. So you can be
- 23:36mindful while you're speaking. We call it mindful, spacious
- 23:39speaking. All right, well enjoy the power palooza. And I will
- 23:43reach out to you to reschedule because I want to talk to you
- 23:46more.
- 23:47Unknown: Sure, that'd be great. Thank you so much. It was such a
- 23:50pleasure meeting you.
- 23:52Alan Carroll: You too. It was a pleasure knowing that there's
- 23:54other people on the planet like you makes me happiest