Alison: We love our theme.

Jean: Yeah, we love that theme song. We love it. What is it called?

Alison: Chipper chaps.

Jean: Chaps.

Alison: Which is us. Yeah.

Jean: That is true.

Alison: We are chipper chaps, and I love when it’s playing. And you do that moving…side to side Move. Right?

Jean: I also snap my fingers.

Alison: Yeah, you’re in it. Da da ba da ba da. Okay. Oh, wait, is this on? I got to put my automatic level control on. Okay, Excellent. Who are we talking to today?

Jean: We have the amazing Jennifer Hough.

Alison: And you know her as, like, a friend, right?

Jean: I do. I met her, I’m going to say, like over ten years ago. Wow. We met in Arkansas and I knew right away she was someone that was exceptionally fabulous.

Alison: Do you remember it? Was it like a retreat?

Jean: We went on a retreat. She was one of the guest speakers. And yeah, we were in Arkansas. We were digging for crystals.

Alison: I remember that You brought back crystals for us.

Jean: I did, Yes, I remember that retreat.

Alison: Oh, that’s great, right? Oh, that’s excellent. But you have you have a piece of paper you’re holding.

Jean: Yeah. Because I want to share with our listeners, this is what Jennifer wrote in one of her email blasts that she offers. Okay, she writes, “Sometimes we become myopic about life, focusing on problems with laser like precision. The other day, inspiration hit and I decided to go for a walk with the intention of reminding myself that the miraculous abounds. This is what life gave me back as evidence. Absolutely stunning. Just thought I’d share. What evidence have you had of the miraculous lately? What are you being vigilant for?”

Alison: I love that.

Jean: What are you being vigilant for? Because whatever you seek, you’ll find.

Alison: That’s right. Well, let’s listen to her and then we’ll come back and talk more. Great. You did a great job.

Alison: Okay, here we go.

Jean: Let’s jump in. Jennifer, I want to talk to you just quickly about what the word awakening means to you, because we’re hearing that more and more and I know the name of your company is Wide Awakening, but what does the word awakening really mean to you?

Jennifer: You know what’s really funny is lately I’ve been head first into definitions like, what does that mean? So for me, what Awakening means and to our body of work, is this idea that, you know, most people are running around surviving their life. They’ve got their blinders on. They’re sort of funneled in there… How do I make my next buck? How do I make sure that my rent is paid? How do I make sure my mortgage is paid? The kids, the this, the that? I mean, we’re we’ve been so busy in a lot of first world countries. Very, very busy. So for me, awakening means, somewhat like the movie…did you guys see the movie Tomorrowland?

Alison: Yes.

Jennifer: Yeah, I love– oh my gosh… I love that movie so much. So Tomorrowland is this movie… That’s there’s a part of it that I had a dream of once, I actually had a dream before the movie came out. And what I saw was, I saw these people poking their heads above, in this case clouds in the movie it’s a field, and they poke their heads up and they see each other as if they’ve been down in the forest up until that point. And then all of a sudden they see the reality of what’s really going on and how powerful they are and that they can make change, and that it’s possible to have fulfillment and meaning and do something that actually matters.

Jennifer: And in that movie, when I saw that, I bawled… I still bawl everytime I see it… it’s near the end of the frigging movie. I had to wait all that time. So anyways,for me, what awakening is, is that coming from the fog of survival mode where you’re go, go — do do, you’re living according to what society says you should, must and have to do in order to get by. But awakening is when you, when one, when I, when we, actually come above the fray and notice that above the clouds there’s actually sunshine and you start to understand your superpowers, you start to understand that you don’t have to go from survival and Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. You don’t have to go from survival and work your way up. You could actually go from survival, just to jump to this place where you understand that you can be this agent of of making a difference in the world, no matter what your financial, love life, anything status is. And when we realize we can be actualized no matter what, um, for me, that’s really awakening and it just takes a shift in operating systems. It doesn’t take 20 years of being in a cave with a guru. Yeah. So, yeah, to me, that’s what awakening is.

Alison: Yeah, that’s beautiful. I mean, I think what you’re saying is so interesting because I think people feel mired in and oppressed.

Jennifer:   Yeah.

Alison: And and that my eldest kid says, I think part of the problem in the world is that people don’t feel taken care of by each other.

Jennifer: Yeah,

Alison: I think you’re right that if we could just elevate the thought a little. So how would you, what do you say to someone that feels like, Oh, easy for you to say. I have a 9 to 5 job I don’t like. How do I pop my head up out of the field? How do I do that? Like, is there a step?

Jennifer: It’s a great question, Alison. I think it’s different. Every single person has a different approach to that, you know. So I think for different people, because of what they’ve been through in the past, um, there’s a bridge. So my mastery is around building bridges to have that experience, right? So for each person, um, they have a different past. Something happened to them from their father or their mother or in school or something hard, you know, is some experience they had at work or at school. And and so there are bridges that need to be built. And for me, it’s not like a one size fits all. It really is about building a bridge from where they’ve been and where they’ve been operating to try to stay safe. For me, like, there are three basic ways that people are doing that keep them in the mire of survival, that density. One is they’re trying to stay safe. And from a recurring illusion that the past is going to happen again. Right? So they put the past in the future and then they act like it might happen again. And then they’re vigilant for where that might happen again instead of actually being vigilant for thriving or being fulfilled. Their blinders are only to make sure that that thing, that thing or those things don’t happen again. The next thing is they’re trying to stay in control because whenever we have volatility, we’re like trying to stay in control so that that volatility doesn’t happen again. But what that takes you, us, all away from when we’re trying to prevent that volatility by staying in control… Which I don’t know about you, but I’ve never had that issue.

Jean: Oh, no.

Jennifer: Much?

Jean: Here’s my calendar.

Jennifer: Right, exactly.

Jennifer: No Control going here. (laughing) 

Jennifer: Exactly. So, so the funny thing is the laws of physics say that through every contrast that we’ve ever had, Life is actually responding equally and oppositely with opportunity and openings and blessings. I mean, that’s the way physics works. It’s not some woo woo concept. It’s actually a scientific concept. And so since that’s just a scientific fact. When we stay focused on everything that we need to protect against by staying in control , again, our vigilance our experiences to look for ways that things are going to go out of control. The problem is that takes our vigilance away for from those blessings and from the miracles and from what life is providing us based on the laws of physics, which is all of these things that get created every time we go through contrast. And the third thing that we do is it’s like protection. So then we don these personality traits. Again, don’t know what I’m talking about because I’ve never done this, (haha) but we don these personality traits, right? And for me, it might have been like being a know it all. Like I remember you know, in my 20s especially just brutal and then being fiercely independent… Which that’s like a disease in North America, it’s like this fierce that I could do it all myself.  Which is why I love that the two of you have this podcast. It just makes me happy. So  there’s this fierce independent, I call it independence disease, and it’s another way of manifesting that third, that third way of being and all of those ways of being, all of those ways of being are not very productive when it comes to being able to flourish, have a fulfilling life, or have meaning in your life, i.e. being in the process of awakening. Right?

Alison: Yeah. That just hit home.

Jennifer: Yeah. Well, we all do it, right?

Jean: So, so true. And so, Jennifer, in your book, “Unstuck”, you talk about the magic zone?

Jennifer: Mm hmm.

Jean: How do you describe the magic zone?

Jennifer: It’s the miracle zone, actually.  I just want you to know, it is also the magic zone. (laughing) It doesn’t really matter. They both start with M. So, so that zone is a place where if you can imagine everything…… Hmm. Let me use an analogy. So usually when I would go to the airport, it, you know, it’s like and I go to a lot of airports. I was in Albany this time that I remember. So and this is in the book, actually. Jean So I’m in Albany. I’m like about to get on a plane and I’m so frustrated because stuff isn’t working for me and I’m just having to work so hard and I’m hopping on a plane. And then what happens is I get this little voice while I’m riding in the cab and a little voice says, Listen, this is what we want you to do. And I’m like, First of all, who is we? But this is what we want you to do. Just give this a shot. No matter what happens, don’t judge it and be vigilant. Like actually put your radar on for the miraculous. And they said and this little feeling was no matter what. Okay, I’m game. Whatever. Okay, let’s do it. So get into the little tiny, teeny, tiny Albany airport and ( Oh, and my dog is visiting me because there’s a thunderstorm, )So we’re getting the little teeny, tiny Albany airport.

Speaker1: And what happens is the first thing that happens is, I notice that I’m in row 20 something, which A- is not good. Then I’m in the middle seat and I’m five foot ten, which B – is even worse. And I don’t know why I didn’t do my seats because I always do my seats and I’m going to Dallas, so it’s not a short flight, and I’m thinking, Oh my God, okay. And I notice myself judging and they’re like okay, nope, that the instruction was no judgment. So I didn’t say anything. I go up to the counter, This is after this really nice guy in a really expensive suit, just left the counter. And I go up and I say, Are there any first class seats? And she goes, No, that man over there just got the last one. And I look over at him and he’s there and I stick my tongue out at him and he, he laughs his butt off. Right? And then I go back and I go, Well, you know, I’m thinking in my head, so far this is going swimmingly, right? So then going on the plane on the left hand side, there’s this lady with an empty seat, first class who has a doggy on her on her lap. And I thought, oh my God, I love to fly with a dog on my lap. And then I notice at least I noticed that the whole rest of the plane was full.

Jennifer: So and I had a carry on. And while the flight attendant wasn’t looking, I put the bag up in first class and I went, okay, well, there’s that. That was good. So I go to sit down in my little freaking seat. There’s another good looking guy on my left. He’s on the window seat. And he’s, he’s just, you know, and all of a sudden, they’re they’re making the announcement and I make sure he’s sitting down, put all the stuff away, blah, blah. And the guy came comes back to my row and I thought he was going to come and talk to me. No, he talks to the good looking guy with the other suit. So the two suits are talking and the suit guy says to him, listen, we won’t be able to get done what we need to get done. So clearly, they are lawyers, right? And he looks at me and he goes, Oh, it’s you. And he said, Weren’t you the one that wanted a first class seat? And I said, Yeah. And he said, you know what? I can’t sit in my first class seat that I just got because I have to do work with this guy. So what I was intending to do is who’s ever sitting next to him can have my first class seat.

Jean: Love that.

Jennifer: Oh, no, no, no. It gets way better than that. So then I get up, he sits down and, you know, whatever, and I go and sit and I get the seat next to the lady with the dog, and the dog jumps on my lap and I fly with the dog the entire time for the first time I’ve ever had a dog on my lap on a flight. Not only that, but my expertise at the time was around migraines. The woman had the dog because her anxiety caused her to have migraines on the plane. I gave her my expertise and showed her how to not have migraines on the plane and showed her the laws of epigenetics and the laws of physics.  I got her doing the exercises and she thought it was a total miracle. She says, I’m going to a conference. This is the punch line. I’m going to a conference about migraines in Dallas, and they need another speaker. It’s $10,000. Do you want to speak at the conference? And I’m like, okay, this is under the category of you can’t make this stuff up. Right?  So I say this all because that’s what’s available. That’s the level of flow that’s available in people’s lives. And scientifically, like from that incident, it was probably the beginning of an evolution of all the work that we did, because I wanted to understand the science of how that happened, right? So for me, this is like but for myself, right, right. But then I realized, like, everyone could do it. Everyone could do what happened there. Like that could just be the way you are.

Speaker1: So the miracle zone is THAT…that’s the miracle zone, is like where the “or better” (I call them or betters) just kind of come to you, right? Like it’s you don’t know what you wanted until it actually comes.  It transcends the idea of intention and manifesting things like, like law of attraction because you are the attraction, so everything is coming to you. But when you let go of the idea that you have to be the one with the mental intention, understanding that your entire beingness is an intention, that beingness trumps the very confined, history based mental intention. So when you actually let go of needing to manifest what you envision and you just live in the land of vigilance for the Or better, you hear me use the word vigilance a lot because literally that’s how people live. They live looking out for what’s what’s going to hurt them,  what you need to be in control. Imagine that you could just actually Be vigilant in an entirely different way about your life and that that’s the way it starts to show up now. It takes some embodiment. It takes some practice. It takes some experience. I mean, we teach huge courses on it.  This is the thing, that’s the miracle zone.. That’s it. But those miracles really are destined to become our normals, right? Like like my my goal is to get the idea of miracles out of our head. That it’s not miraculous. It’s actually the way we’re supposed to live.  We’re just so indoctrinated.

Jean:  Right. It’s like that quote from Einstein. I think it’s Albert Einstein that says either everything’s a miracle or it’s not, right? So you’re just like living in that zone, that paradigm that you talk about, Right? I notice for myself, some days I’ll wake up and I’ll start a little on a low vibe. I’ll think, what’s wrong? what do I have to take care of, my mother? Whatever is on my mind and I quickly notice what I’m thinking of and I go… Nope, nope, change it, change it up. And then I’ll just say something simple like, Show me how great this day can be. Or, you know, I’ll just notice that I’ll be thinking of heavier problems, not huge problems, and then intentionally handing  it over and allowing…hmmm…God to operate through me more.

Jennifer: Yeah,  yes, yes.  So one of the things that is coming to mind right now in the conversation is one of the things I needed. Oh, geez. that was a that was thunder and lightning. Oh, wow. Oh, wow. Yeah, that was. Isn’t that crazy? Clearly, we’re on to something here.

Alison: Um, where do you live?

Jennifer: I live in the mountains of North Carolina.

Alison: Oh, wow. That’s great. We have relatives in Asheville, so I wonder if they’re…

Speaker1: I live in Asheville.

Alison: You do?

Jennifer: Yeah.

Alison: Think we’re going to Asheville in a couple of months?

Speaker1: Oh, my God. Come on over.

Alison: Don’t say it because I will.

Jennifer: No it’s happening. No, it’s done. It’s done. We’ll take you to our favorite restaurant. So it is done. So. So where were we? We were on. Yeah. So when all that stuff happens. Right, Right.

Jean: And then you wake up feeling heavy and kind of, Oh, I got to worry about that person.

Jennifer: So there are two approaches.  I’m very focused on the long term changing your entire way of operating, such that when you feel something that feels down or low or hard or yucky. Or maybe you feel a bit powerless about it. That the instant you go there (and when I say the instant, you know, maybe within a few minutes), your understanding of the law of physics has you be able to almost turn around to  (this is going to seem like pie in the sky)… But imagine that when, you know, my favorite words is embodiment, when you actually embody that operating system, you understand the laws of physics so deeply, that you understand the instant there’s contrast or a low feeling, there’s already solutions. A solutions and a, and a whole new day, you know, with with the resources of consciousness having orchestrated themselves to make the equal and opposite most expansive solution bridge and new reality available. So it’s already there in the field. You know, we’re only made of. We’re less than 1% physical, so we’re, we’re 99.39% not physical. So in that not physical universe, in the, in metaphysics in the field already exists, knowing the laws of physics, this  reality that, you know, we can’t see yet because we’re at a frequency that isn’t where those solutions are.

Jennifer: But imagine being able to automatically just be so adept at knowing that that already exists, that your need to analyze and focus on that which appears to be wrong (Not that you don’t do anything about it, you do do something about it,) but the energy with which you do something about it is with the already knowing that you’re on the path of building the bridge to the evolution of that situation. It takes a little bit of work to get there. So that’s the long term goal. The long term goal is a state of embodiment where literally none of that gets you, if you can imagine that None of that gets you. Imagine how much more quickly you get to that place where you just catch up, catch up to what’s waiting for you. If nothing took you out, imagine how much more quickly you’d come to the solutions, right? So, however, one of the tools, it’s a little thing seemingly, but it’s a big thing, is to start an evidence journal, an evidence journal. It’s not a gratitude journal. It’s an evidence journal. It’s an evidence journal.

Jennifer: Thank you, Natalie Ledwell. It’s an evidence journal for, how things have actually worked out. It could be not something that happened today. It could be you just remember something from ten years ago and was like, Oh yeah, I can’t believe I was looking for a car and then didn’t have any mone and all of a sudden my mom said, I’m giving up my car and she just gave it to me and you know what I mean? So and you start and every day you put like 5 or 6 things that are evidence of or betters happening, because the first thing the mind needs is, it needs to know that that’s the way everything can happen. But the ego has a little yakety yak fest to keep your attention away from collecting evidence about that, because otherwise it has nothing to protect you from. It has no job left, so all of these ways of being want to have life, including the ego, it doesn’t want to stop living. So if you started to just get excited every time something, you’re not even excited, just like having a knowing that that’s leading, that’s your next evolution. That contrasty thing launched your next evolution. Then, jeez, you know, like, yay.

Alison: I think it’s interesting that in the cab to the Albany airport, that little voice that you heard, the wee voice said not to judge.

Jennifer: Yeah, right.

Alison: And that’s, I think like for me becomes like, like a key thing… That if I, I think I used to be like, oh, this is good. This is bad. Yeah, this hurts, This doesn’t. This has got to be better. This really sucks. You know, I think that’s where I was always ping pong. And I think the minute, like you remember at the end of May with one of my kids, there was this uncertainty as to what was going to happen. And no one wanted one thing to happen. And I was talking to Jean and we just were like, let’s just put it down. Whatever happens, happens. Don’t make plans either way, let it go. And that’s so different than I live, but then it all it all worked out like

Jennifer: Of course it did

Jennifer: Right! Laws of physics,  that what you put your attention, I mean literally you’re going—  okay I want to show you something. Allison you just like nailed a certain concept that I love.  So we do  this program, we call it embodiment. It’s actually it’s so embodiment of thriving is different than surviving better. It’s certainly different than surviving. Okay. So what’s the distinction? I love this distinction. And I remember when I first got it because I was surviving better and I’m like, Nope, nope. Something else is available where like, there’s just a default flow and I don’t have to keep using tools. I don’t have to keep telling myself to let go. Right, Right. Okay. So watch. What’s a good subject where people can really survive? What’s a subject where people survive or you guys survive Sometime.

Do you mean like a job?

Speaker1: Any subject, any subject at all could be a job. Okay, so.

Speaker2: Bills.

Jennifer: Paying the bills. Great. So paying the bills. So survival is you always have just enough to pay the bills, right? That’s obvious. That’s survival. Okay. Surviving better is like you have a budget and you know you’re always going to have enough to pay the bills and maybe have a little bit more. So you can go to the movies and go out to dinner and maybe have a vacation once a year. Right. Okay. But those are both versions. I always think of them like a spiral. Like if you’re on the survival spiral, whether it’s survival or surviving better, if you’re on that spiral, if you’re surviving, you’re probably in the middle of the spiral. You’re not quite at the end yet. And so what happens is you feel a little bit better, but you’re still in the same operating system, right? Right. Nothing wrong with that. Don’t think there’s anything wrong. Like, yay for surviving better I say yay, Right? Right. However, imagine that the thriving operating system is on an entirely different spiral. Imagine that you jump spirals like that way of operating like there is so much like someone starts paying your bills for free or, or, or literally, um, uh, your state or your country decides that solar power is free for everyone. So now, based on your solar panels, you don’t have to pay anything for your for your for your electric bill. You know what I mean? Like you’re actually giving back, you know, or whatever

Jennifer: and the rebates pay for your entire solar power. So in the thriving operating system, those are your magnetics, your magnetic shift. The what you attract shifts, like what comes to you shifts, so that the conversation about trying to manage. So think about what you were sharing. Allison This idea of like, just let it go. Like just let it go. That is amazing. That is definitely thriving better like even that, you know, to let it go. Hello. Right. But imagine that in the thriving operating system over here, which it’s just it can be embodied by anyone, what happens is you don’t even need to remind yourself of letting go because it’s you understand, you’re left in your right brain. Have had such a deep conversation about the laws of physics that your entire physiology understands the way it works, that you really wouldn’t spend more than three minutes holding on to anything anyways. And the effort required to, even though it sounds like there’s not a lot of effort in letting go, imagine that your entire beingness state is one that lets go and you wouldn’t have to have the intellectual conversation to tell yourself to do it. You get what I’m saying, right? So it’s it’s like a spectrum on which we can live. That is such a fun game to play with oneself on all all subjects that matter to us.

Speaker1: Right? Could be paying bills, but it could be love, like it could be relationships or it could be like, we’re all over 40. Barely Right? It could be about like, literally aging. You know, there’s the survival version of aging, which is, you know, I got to make sure I can make it up the stairs when I’m 60, you know? Right. Then there is  the surviving better, which is you have lots of tools and you go to massage, you get chiropractic, which is all good. And I do all of that stuff. But, you know, and then there’s the thriving version of it is. I’m figuring out how to buy a hyperbaric chamber to get oxygen. You know what I mean? It’s like you kind of like J.Lo the thing, and you don’t have to have. You really don’t have to have tons of money. If I told you how I’m doing it, you’d be like, Oh, God, you don’t even have to have money to do that. And no, you don’t. But in the thriving operating system, you start to have like, you know, you start to realize all the epigenetic things that you could do that are absolutely free. That have you step out of,  step off that spiral such that, you know,… I just watched this great movie. I wish I could remember the name. It’s another movie. It’s a documentary. Um.

Alison:  it’ll come.

Jennifer: Yeah. Yeah, it’ll come. So anyways, but what happened in this movie is like, there’s this 68 year old guy, and he is Killing it and he’s doing pull ups. He’s ripped. And I thought to myself, we can all I mean, he’s not, he really isn’t special. He doesn’t have special DNA. Right. You know, it’s like that ballerina we’ve all seen on YouTube. Who? What is she, like, 90 something. Something?

Alison: Yeah. Yeah.

Jennifer:  Spectacular.

Jean: You know, when you speak, Jennifer, you’re just so ripping open the the glass ceiling. Yeah. And I’ve always loved that about you.

Jennifer: Oh, thanks.

Jean: Yeah. True. You cannot leave your presence without feeling a glow and invincible and beautiful and enlightened. You’re really amazing. Can you share with our listeners what you do in the morning?

Jennifer: Oh, yeah, sure. Um.

Jean: besides brushing your teeth? what do you do?

Jennifer:  So the first thing I do, and it depends on if the dog’s in bed or not. So if the dog’s in bed, I snuggle with them. Let’s even go before first thing in the morning. Let’s go to last thing before you go to bed. Okay. So whatever frequency you’re at before you go to bed is the frequency you’re going to wake up to in the morning. So now, even though while you’re sleeping, most of it is released just from the act of sleeping because your consciousness goes away. So you’re not in the world when you come back, it’s going to pick up where it left off. So before you go to bed, you know, you hear I mean, this is that’s when I do my evidence journal. It’s like the orbetters, just really collecting evidence. And if I can’t find anything because I had such a crappy day or perceptively crappy day, of course they’re all happening for us, not to us. I just look for another day. Where? Or I look for when I was little or I look for, you know, a great hike that I did a week ago or whatever it is. So it’s putting yourself in the place where the frequency that you leave is the frequency that you return to. So then in the morning, what I do because you know how it goes, you can wake up and

Jennifer: you know, I woke up the other day just, you know, a dear friend of mine just passed away, and I was like, Oh. You know that, like, I haven’t even seen him in a long time. You know, that that sucks, you know? And that’s where I woke up. And I thought, well, maybe I had a dream about him or he talked to me in my dreams or something. I don’t know. But when I woke up, I And the dog was beside me, I gave him a little snuggle. And then I thought to myself, okay. I acknowledge that I missed my friend Garth. And then I thought, okay. So what is it today? Who is it that I’m meeting? Where am I going and what am I doing? This is my favorite thing to do. So get on my cell phone and text my best friend slash general manager of the Wide Awakening, Jeannie, as if the day is already over. What I’m grateful for. Now that has happened and then what I write at the end of my.  So can I give you an example? Yeah.

Jennifer: I’m going to text you guys. Okay. So, dear Jean and Alison, I am so grateful that I’ve had a great conversation today on a podcast that I’m doing and that the conversation is like that. I feel really in love with who I’m talking to and that there’s like this great exchange. I am so grateful that my husband has moved through something that he’s been working on and that he can see possibility and, um. And that I’m really I can feel myself being proud of him. And I’m really grateful for oddly enough, I’m grateful that all of my plants got watered by the clouds today. And then I got some great exercise in that. My body feels really strong. And last thing that I got a surprise new client that I got someone that I wasn’t even expecting. And I just love having new clients that I’m not expecting. It’s just, like surprised and delighted, period. And then at the end of the text, I would write or better. Oh, and then I would say, Love you guys. Big hugs, Jen. That’s how I finished my text to Jeannie. So, yeah, so. And so what it is, is that most of my attention is on the orbiter because my day is already done energetically. This is at least my day.

Alison: Oh, yeah, Yeah.

Jennifer: Right.

Alison: And I think it’s so funny that you say your psyche picks up where you left because I always clean my house before I go to bed because I wake up to it. So why aren’t I cleaning my mind?

Jennifer: Oh, that’s a brilliant way of putting it. Exactly, Alison. Exactly. Exactly. Exactly true.

Alison: I never really made I never made that connection.

Jennifer: Though. Makes sense now, right?

Alison: Spotless.

Speaker1: Yeah. Yeah.

Alison: My consciousness.

Jennifer: Well, so what we like even right now, we have this whole online community. We have the whole community doing this exercise. I mean, it is what Jeannie and I have noticed since we’ve been doing it is ,  I have this sneaking suspicion like you two are going to do it with each other,   So anyways, what’s been happening in the community is just everyone is sharing how much more fluid everything is getting. It’s such a like, what does it take two minutes to type that? Nothing. It takes nothing. But imagine how Like I’m such a productivity and efficiency queen. I don’t know about you guys, but I have that in me. I don’t know if it’s my mom being a teacher or something, but efficiency and productivity are like huge for me, so. What that’s meant for me is that I’m looking to already activate my day such that the energy I’m living into I don’t have to be Consciously orchestrating my day… I’ve already talked to consciousness about the way my day is going, so it’s at least going to be that. So now I’m vigilant for the orbetters like we talked about at the beginning of the interview, right?

Alison: So can I just clarify something? So Jean and I, before we got on, we were talking about something coming up this weekend that I’m not sure is going to happen. Is it going to happen? Right. I try to work hard and manipulate it so it does or doesn’t happen. What can I safeguard? All the things you brought up early on? Yeah, the protection. The control, right. Yeah. Yeah. And so what you’re saying instead, you’re offering an opportunity for me to see it in a way where I can say to myself and the universe, Hey, this is working out. This is. This is the weekends.

Jennifer: Good. Allison, can I interrupt you?  Okay so this is embodiment 101. Okay, So. So watch.  What there is to do.. So I am not saying positive. That is not what we’re doing. That is like, kicking it old school. We’re not positive thinking! Okay. Okay. So what we are doing.  So just breathe for a second with me, because if you can really get this, it’s freaking life changing. And it’s such it’s a little thing. It’s like a teeny little hiccup thing that anyone can do. But it’s a good beginning. Okay, so watch, watch, watch. So imagine that in the laws of physics many different future trajectories exist. Our lives can go many different ways based on the current now, and there are certain trajectories that are more likely based on the history that you’ve lived. Also that history that you’ve lived has given you some notion of what’s possible and the future trajectories which actually exist in the 99.99% of all of existence,  they exist there in the field. What you ask yourself is what’s the best case scenario that my brain can line up with that already exists? The difference is we’re not imagining it and positive thinking it. We’re literally acknowledging that the imaginings that we’re having about the future potentials actually already exist, or you wouldn’t be able to imagine them. Right? Imagination about the future is you catching up with a future trajectory that is already in the field. You get it. So if you’re imagining something now, it’s your awareness of the way you’re saying it, like you’re saying it like a positive thinking affirmation kind of thing, or a vision board. And I’m saying, No, if you can come up with it, it already exists. So you’re actually activating something in the now that already exists metaphysically, and by you activating that, you’re actually giving energy to something that already exists, which is really powerful because you’re you’re giving more attention to what already exists in the field, that’s a future possibility. That’s so much better than what you’re worried about, right?

Alison: So like, it’s like when I look at a map, right, those roads exist. I’m not saying I wish I could fly over a map. Oh, wouldn’t that be … So it’s just me choosing the road. What exit am I getting off?

Jennifer: Well, but remember, at the end of your vision, you’re going to do or better, which means You can’t even attach to that road because there might be a twisty, windy, awesome road that’s so much more fun where you’re going to get out and feed the deer and you’re going to your heart’s going to be so full, it’s going to change your frequency. Then all these miracles happen when you get to the destination because you’ve done work on You get what I’m saying. Yeah.

Jean: So that’s the best part.

Alison: Exciting. It gave me goosebumps.

Jennifer: There you go. And so, but wait, but wait, there’s more. There’s this one little piece I want to add. So most people, what they do is they go, Oh my God, I’m totally going to do that. You know, I’m totally going to do it. It sounds like the best idea ever. I’m going to do it every time I have some big thing that I’m doing and I’m like, You could do it all the time. But, most people do it because they’re like, and this is going to fix my sucky life. Like it’s going to fix that sucky thing that I’m afraid of happening, or it’s going to fix that scary outcome that I’m trying to stay safe from or protect or control or all those things that I just talked about, right? And instead of trying to fix or protect our control, we’re not going to stay on the same spiral. We’re going to jump spirals over here. And because you can put your attention on whatever you want. So, I mean, you put your attention on all the crappy things that could happen and you try to fix it and and live your life or you take your attention and just put it on the future potentials and and live your life and but you’re not fixing this, you’re just leaping into a different way of being. And there are so many examples and exercises and experiences to take people on, to show them, you know, show us how we can embody that. But this is just a simple like just such a simple exercise. Just think that you’re just on a different spiral. This is what thriving. Means this is this is what people that thrive do. So I’m not trying to fix this. I’m just going to do what thriving people do. Right?

Jean: It’s a huge shift in. In thinking.

Jennifer: It is. And it takes practice. And that’s why you need your evidence journal because you’ll forget to do it pretty much all of the time. But then those few times where you remember to do it, you have your evidence journal and what did my, um, my marketing person said today? Um. You know,  if you’re doing it , (I mean, we do whole workshops called Embodyment about this.) but but if you’re just like, like you’re this is a long game. Put it this way. It’s the long game, right? Like  you’re, you’re either you’re just going to survive better the rest of your life or, Hey, let’s embody the long game, right? Yeah.

Alison: So very exciting.

Jean: You are.

Alison: so wonderful.

Alison: Very exciting person. It’s great!

Jean:  So, Jennifer, you offer so, so many really powerful, beautiful classes on your website, Right? And are you doing anything right now that you want the viewers to listen to or are you just kind of enjoying the summer or just go to the website and see what’s what?

Jennifer: Well, probably this stuff that we do three times a year, that’s the stuff… It’s funny when you say I’m an exciting person, truly, I’m like the shyest person alive, really. I mean, I was hugely shy.

Jean: Because we went on a retreat, you and I together. Yeah, Arkansas. And I would not put Shy as an adjective.

Jennifer: Isn’t it weird?

Jean:  Exciting. Empowering.

Jennifer: It’s so weird. Do you know what? You said something at the beginning of the interview. You said that something at the beginning of our conversation. That life is living us. God is dreaming us like we had, like we’re actually being lived by something. And when I started to know what I was being lived by, it’s as though, I just became bigger than the personality that wanted to protect and feel safe and all of those things. That’s what I would say. And so. And so yeah, I would say that. So it’s just that I absolutely love this. And so the, the evolution of this work is called the Embodiment workshop that we’re doing. We do it three times a year and there’s, always one coming up in a February and a June and in a September. And so the embodiment workshop is all about how to jump spirals on every subject. And to be a consummate expert, like just completely embodied that way in other words have your cells be at a place where living that way is just your default and it’s not even hard. So it’s just fun to teach. It’s yeah, that’s my, that’s the passion of my team right now and myself is just bringing people on the experiences to be able to poke their heads above the clouds, right? Like actually see that there’s another way of living. And even if all that happens is the door opens, you can’t go backwards after that. When you see the possibility, you can’t go backwards. So that’s what we’re teaching, Jean, that we weren’t teaching when you and I were hanging out. So. But that’s it. Yeah.

Alison: Thank you so much.

Jennifer: Yeah.

Jean: Great conversation. Jennifer, thank you for saying yes. And to Opening our eyes wider.

Alison: And our door.

Jean: And our door. And our body.

Speaker3: Thank you so much.

Jennifer: I can’t wait to be in your neck of the woods. I can give you both a big hug.

Alison: Oh, I would love that.

Jean: Love that. Yes.

Alison: And if I come to Asheville?

Jennifer: Oh, it’s happening, girl.

Jennifer: Thank you for having me. And thanks for putting all the good vibes out into the world, because I know that was your intention, to give people hope and that there was possibility. So just thanks for listening to The Call of Spirit and so happy to be here. Truly.

Alison: Have an or better day!

Jennifer: You too. Bye, guys. Bye, you guys.

Alison: I really enjoyed her.

Jean: Yeah,

Alison: I love her energy.

Jean: Her energy, her insight and what she’s giving us  is a whole new paradigm to really not feel like we’re just moving through life like it’s a minefield. And really, she uses the word embodiment, and she uses the word …uh.. it’s the phrase I should say, that she uses the phrase this or this or the better. Something better that… Right? And that’s that’s so important.

Alison: I love that morning call idea.  Where it’s already done. Like here’s here’s what my day is going to look like or better.

Speaker2: Right? This is or something better.

Alison: Yeah, I love that question.  What are you being vigilant about? What do you think you’re being vigilant about?

Jean: I do really try to look for acts of kindness. I do notice that and I make note of it. I notice I really try to be mindful of my thoughts, when I start thinking either fear thoughts or thoughts of lack, I do catch myself and I say, No, I do not want to create this right, Right. Turn it around.

Alison: And I think last night I was at Vons and I was on line and let this guy go ahead of me. And he was so flabbergasted that I let him go ahead. And we started talking. And the woman behind me and he goes, look at how simple this was. Kindness is so simple. Yeah. And I thought, that’s true, right? It’s easier to be kind than it is to be crabby, right?  It’s like so true. Well, I loved her. Thank you for contacting her. I loved her.

Jean: And she showed up big, right away. One of her other things she she loves to impress on people is going direct, like cut,  the BS and just deal with with with your experience. And don’t let it hold you back.

Alison: Right. Like a frog on a lily pad, Don’t sink.

Jean: Yes.

Alison: Keep going. Don’t sink. Keep hopping. Well, thanks for listening.

Jean: Have a great day. Bye bye.

Jean Trebek: She wouldn’t mind.

Alison Martin: No, we were just saying that maybe for this next introduction, we should be eating while we tell you who we spoke to.

Jean Trebek: Because we had the great joy and it was a joy, a real joy to to talk with Carla Hall.

Alison Martin: Carla Hall.

Jean Trebek: Love saying her name.

Alison Martin: I know. And I love her. I love her. I love her.Okay. Carla Hall has just she’s a, I don’t know, a culinary influence. Right. But more than that, she’s like a huge, wonderful, curious personality. When I’ve seen her on so many shows, you know, Top Chef, The Chew, a lot of shows where she’s hosting and she just loves people.

Jean Trebek: And she has such a generous heart because she says, yes, I feel, to a lot of life experiences, you know, she just she exudes like, what’s that French phrase.

Alison Martin: Joie de vie.

Jean Trebek: Joie de vie. She’s just that and she’s just beautiful inside and out.

Alison Martin: And we I loved speaking to her not so much about because she’s done so many things.

Jean Trebek: We tried not to talk to her so much about her food so much. But her but really her heart.

Jean Trebek: Because she has done she’s been an actress, a model, an accountant, an animator. Right? She’s written cookbooks. Right? Right. She’s been a host, a TV personality. She I don’t I don’t even know. We thought we were going to tune in and she would be like, you know, on a loom or something, knitting, doing something amazing. You know, she’s just great.

Jean Trebek: And you know what? She has her own cookware line right now. Oh, right, right, right, right.

Alison Martin: Which I can’t wait.

Jean Trebek: I actually ordered something. Did something for you, too.

Oh, thank you. I love Jeannie. All right, so here’s Carla Hall.

Jean Trebek: So awesome yesterday.What a what a great person you are all around you just.

Alison Martin: And we’ve watched so much of your interviews and stuff and you’re just so funny.

Carla Hall: Well, I’m present. And honestly, my friends are like, I can’t believe you said that. I’m like.Don’t even know what I’m going to say. And every time I say something like, That was so ten minutes ago, and I’m on to the next thing. I don’t hold it. I’m like, No, that was so like 30 minutes ago. So here we go right now.

Alison Martin: So you guys, you two know each other from Helen Keller International?

Jean Trebek: Yeah, we do.

Alison Martin: And you’re both on the board.

Carla Hall: Yes. Right, right.

Alison Martin: So do you see each other on Zoom or do you see each other in person?

Carla Hall: Well, haven’t even been to an in-person meeting for a while because I’m totally out of New York. And so the last few times I’ve been online. Have you been in person, Jean?

Alison Martin: I have been in person. I saw your great beautiful face there just a couple of weeks ago. Yeah, I go to New York fairly often because my mom lives there and my son lives in New York. My sister’s there. So on this particular trip, I got to go to the board meeting and I looked up and I was like… Carla!

Carla Hall: I was in a box.

Alison Martin: Carla, what? What interested you about the Helen Keller International? I’m just curious.

Speaker4: So at this point in my career, well, I moved when I went up to New York to do “The Chew”. I left a lot of my foundation work and nonprofits that I was working with in D.C. So I was like, Well, gosh, what am I going to do with all this time? I have, you know, that was in the beginning of “The Chew”, not realizing that the time would be gone.I was doing another foundation while I was doing the Pajama program, but then I realized I was getting hit by so many organizations. And I’m like, wait a minute, I have to figure out what my checklist is to say yes to an organization. And I said, okay, kids, Yes. Something with with work done in Africa, I’m like, I wear glasses. So glasses, you know, like eyesight. And I was going through this list. And then someone from Helen Keller? No, it was actually. It was…. This is menopausal….. It the president. Kathy. Kathy? Oh, my God. It’s real. I’m like, I don’t even remember my mother’s name sometime. And I call her mama. So this is where we are. So just like, I’m like, what? Um, so Kathy reached out to ask me for to dinner, and I was like I said, sure. And I went to a child site facility first because she said they did all this work. And I loved it. And I was there telling the kids, okay, no, not those glasses. Those really aren’t good on you. What about these? These? I said, what about this? And I felt it was a moment that I could relate. And because my glasses are face art and I said, this is going to be a part of who you are. So you may as well pick something that’s cool and nice and something that you like. And so that was really my first intro to Helen Keller. And then I went on to go out to dinner with Kathy, and then and then I went to Vietnam with them and then all the whole thing. And I just I love that organization.

Alison Martin: Yeah, they’re just it’s just so amazing.You know, the thing about you that I think is so wonderful is how you are just you. Not just, but totally you.

Carla Hall: Yeah.

Alison Martin: There’s no agenda. It looks like. It looks like you got no hidden thing…

Carla Hall: You know, it’s so funny that you say that because I tell people I don’t I don’t really like people. I think my superpower is that I genuinely like people. I don’t pretend to like people. I really like people. And I’m interested in people. Even when I see homeless people, that’s not the right term. Now it’s unhoused. When I see unhoused people on the street and they’re like, you know, you know, may I have some money? And I look at them in the eye and I said, Oh, no, thank you, because no thank you. Do I want to participate at this time? But I see you as a person. I will always see you as a person, but I don’t want to participate in the exchange. But my gift to them in that moment is to see them and I will see every single person, no matter who you are or where you are, you know?

Jean Trebek: Yeah, yeah. I love that. That’s so important, you know? And I think every time we see someone, we just actually open them up and we open ourselves up.

Carla Hall: Mhm. Yes. Yes. Even when you’re kind of scared. Um, it’s funny, I, you know, I can be out in the world and I’m a borderline introvert/extrovert, and people would probably assume that I’m an extrovert, but I still have that, you know, that shy person who has to sort of recharge at home. Um, but I went to a class reunion at Howard University and it was with my girlfriend was in a sorority. I didn’t pledge a sorority. So I was in with all of these other girls and I felt myself shut down. And I was like, What? I mean, I was like, oh, my God. I felt that same person who was in college. Like, that person jumped on me so quickly and I had to just talk myself off the ledge. I’m like, What is going on? I wanted to leave the room. I felt like I didn’t belong there. And I and this was like after”The Chew”, I was in “The Chew” at the time. But in that moment I was just like, Oh my God, I feel like I just want to, like, go concave and through the floorboards. How that moment, like, took me right back in an instant to college.

Alison Martin: So what did you do?

Carla Hall: Oh, I’d say I talked myself out of it. I’m like, okay, through it. You can talk to somebody. Like  meet them where you are. And I feel like I think I remember saying to one of the girls, I said, Oh my God, I feel so awkward right now. I feel I feel like I did at 17. You know, and it was just to be honest in the moment with my feelings. And that got me through because I didn’t have to pretend like I was anything but what I was in the moment, you know?

Jean Trebek: Yeah. I think that’s so true. I mean, you look at someone like yourself, very well-spoken, out in the public eye, and then to go, You know what? Wow. I felt really awkward there. Yeah. And it happens to all of us… that part of us…. Alison and I were just talking about it. How some days you feel like you’re on your game and some days you’re just like, I don’t even have a game. I don’t want a game.

Carla Hall: Right.

Jean Trebek:  I just want a TV Tuner.

Carla Hall: Right! You know, a bouncy ball. My claim right now is bouncy ball. Okay. That’s all I got. That’s all I got right now. I can do a bouncy ball. But then there are times when, you know, I’ll have an interview and somebody will say, You’re really good at what you do. And I’m like, Yes, I am.

Alison Martin: Yeah.

Carla Hall: I am.

Alison Martin: Yeah.

Carla Hall: And I’m going to tell you the fact that I can say I am shows where I am in this moment and I feel very confident and I know what I know. And this that you’re talking about. I know, you know. And so there’s that side of me, too. And I’m so proud of her. And I’m so proud that she will show up and speak her truth and say, yes, I don’t play coy. Again, I don’t have an agenda. If I’m feeling awkward, I will tell you, if I’m feeling really high on my game and you ask about it, I will tell you it’s how I’m feeling in the moment. And I think that sense of being vulnerable and sort of sharing with people that moment, I think that’s why I connect with people, because I’m going to tell you exactly how I feel in the moment, even if it’s awkward and weird.

Alison Martin: Because we’ve all been there. But I think it’s interesting when you said, Oh, and I was even on “The Chew” when I went to this reunion, and even though, like you think, well, of course you’re on “The Chew”, but then is there a little bit of like like you think people are expecting you to be on or something like you have any of that?

Carla Hall: 100%! Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. I think people think that they will see me on television and they think that I’m that way all the time, like on and like this and sassy and laughing and joking. But when I’m tired, I am very much inside of myself and sometimes I have to travel tired and, um, and so I remember getting on social media and somebody had said, Oh, I met you in person and I knew something was off, but you just weren’t the same person that you are, you know, on television. And I wrote back and said, I’m a person. I have my highs and lows and I was tired. And but I said, if you had come up to me, I would have told you that. So you, you know, you also made it. I mean, yes, I was tired, but you put a lot of yeast into it that, you know, I mean, if people come up to me. How are you feeling? Oh, my God, girl, I am so tired. I really am tired. And I also remember one time when I was on “The Chew” and I had to go, I was in New York and it must have been on a Saturday or Sunday whenever they have the street fairs. And I was exhausted. I mean, but I had to go. Maybe I went out to grab something to eat and I was so tired. And I remember thinking, I said, I don’t I don’t even have the energy to smile. And I was like, but I have to smile because I’m out. And people expect me to smile. And I remember just going through this, you know, like this, this twitch in my mouth. And I was like, Oh my God, I feel like I have to smile. Like, no, you don’t have to smile. And I have this this dialogue and I don’t know what I look like to whoever, whomever was looking at me. But I feel like I was kind of like, you know, like. Like this twitch, you know, like smile. No, no, smile. Yeah, but it was so crazy. But I felt like I had to live up to this thing. And then eventually, when I finally got used to this, I guess being on “The Chew” and having people come up to me said, That is not sustainable. So being what people expect me to be is not sustainable. I can only be who I am. Right? And that helped me not only in life, it helped me on television, it helped me in interviews. It you’re going to get the person I am right now if you want it, the person yesterday, then you should have called yesterday because this person right here is going to be the person you get.

Jean Trebek: I love that.

Alison Martin: And I think all of us have that, like, you know. Mothers, office workers, anything. There are these expectations that women feel. I can only speak from being a 65 year old woman. You know that there are these expectations that we feel that, oh, I’ve got to be this now… And maybe we can put that down. You know, I think that’s important for our listeners to hear because I think sometimes we get caught in that, you know?

Carla Hall: I think so and I think so I’ll be 60 next year and I’m so excited about it. I can’t tell you how excited I am. I mean, I’m going to celebrate every woman who turns 60 next year, the entire year. If you were born in…64

Jean Trebek: That’s my same birth year.

Carla Hall: Wait, are you 64? Stop it.

Jean Trebek: Yes 64 is my Birthday year.

Carla Hall: Your birth. Your birth year is 1964.

Jean Trebek: Yeah.

Carla Hall: Oh, my God. I’m adding you to the list. I am making a list. I am making a list of people. Michelle Obama, Kamala Harris. Vanessa Williams. Yardley Smith. Sherry Yard. Now Jane Trebek. Oh, I’m seriously. I’m making a list of all the women who are turning 60. And and there are all these people that we don’t know who are turning 60. And the idea is to celebrate this new station that we are still lively enough to create a new chapter, to have a new adventure, to really step into our wisdom and not step into a place that others think that we are and and whatever. If you want to celebrate your wrinkles, you celebrate your wrinkles, your gray hair, whatever it is. But you get to choose. That’s am I the entire year of 2024. That’s what I’m doing.

Jean Trebek: I love that. You know, I too, have no. Maybe not as like, yay 60, but just like, hey, 60 is fine, 60 is cool. You know, I had more – UGH – when I was turning 40. And now, you know what? Every woman that I love, that’s late. 50s. 60s. 70s. 80s. They are my rock stars. And so we’ll sail into that year together.

Carla Hall: Yes. So happy.

Alison Martin: I’m curious, though, like you were shy as a child? And did you have any of this out there or were you really just that child that was like in the sitting down in the back?

Carla Hall: Yes. I was super, super shy. I mean, I was really shy. I had a lot of boisterous friends. And I had what I felt like a shield of friends around me because I would be behind them. And they’re like, we’re coming through. And I’m like, I’m coming with them. So I’m like, I’m here, too. And I played basketball. I was terrible. But because I was tall, they were like, okay, you get to play. But no, you get to be on the team, but we’re only going to put you in if we’re 50 points ahead and there’s 60 seconds left, so you don’t mess it up. I mean, so that was, you know, I was that person. But then I saw my first play at 12 on Broadway. It was Bubbling Brown Sugar.

Alison Martin: Yes, I saw that on Broadway. It changed my life.

Carla Hall: Yes. I mean, that song, “Nobody” and I don’t remember the words. All I remember is he’s like, Who wants to die? Na na na, Nobody. And who wants to do this? Nobody. Oh, my gosh. My mother was probably regretting the day that she took me to that play because she was like, Carla, clean up your room. But I’m like, who wants to clean up their room? Nobody! If you ask about the room, the trash, I mean, I did that for a month. My sister wanted to pull my hair out. And so my mother said, okay, we’re going to put this girl into theater. And so I feel like theater saved me. Theater saved me from feeling like this. I mean, that play like instantly opened my eyes and I was like, Wow, look at these characters. They are amazing. And the singing and the dancing and just this outward expression of themselves. And so when I did theater, I mean, there was no turning back. And then people were calling me weird. I thought it was a compliment. I’m like, Oh my God, thank you so much. I appreciate it. Did you just call me weird? I love it so much.

Alison Martin: Weird award.

Carla Hall: Right. Got the weird award. Yeah. So I think theater saved me. And then so I did theater from 12 to 17. And I thought that I was going to go on to a conservatory. Boston was the only one I wanted to go to because that’s the one that my acting teacher, Ruth Sweet, talked about. And her her oldest daughter went there and a couple of my friends went there. I was like, That’s the only school for me. And then they were going to defer my admissions. Later on I heard that they were deferring the admissions and hoping that actors would have more life. And so, you know, life experiences and go to undergrad and then go to, you know, get your graduate degree. And so but I saw it as a rejection. So I felt like theater saved me. Then it rejected me. So I turned completely away from it and then did accounting. I’m like, What? Who does that? But like the accounting teacher.

Alison Martin: We were laughing because it was like, wait a minute. She discovered a new species at the ocean depths. She’s a brain surgeon. She’s an accountant. She’s a model. She wanted to be animate. She’s on Top Chef. Else has she done? She’ll be in an operating room while we’re talking

Carla Hall: Doogie Howser. I know, right? I mean, and the funny thing is, I think when I look back at my life and I remember having this conversation with Michael Simon, so we were we were on the set of “The Chew”, and he said, Carla, you have done so many things up to this point, so you are probably not afraid of doing lots of different things. Whereas like, for instance, he had done out of high school, it was food, he did food, whereas I did a lot of other things. So, you know, Madonna Girl, you don’t have anything on me. I can recreate myself. Okay. Okay, girl? We go do this again. Um, so that’s what was. I think I saw that as a plus and an asset, whereas my mother saw it as Girl, can you settle down on one thing? You know what I mean? Because it worried her that she had paid for this education and then I got my accounting degree and then I went on to get my to pass the CPA exam, and that’s hanging up in our house. And so, you know, she would look at this. She’s like, why aren’t you doing this? I’m like, Child, I don’t like that. I hate it. I only did it for you. I finished it, I checked the box and now I’m on to, you know, to find my happiness. I didn’t want to be 40 and hate my job. That was my biggest thing. So 40 was a marker for me. And so when I was on “Top Chef”, it was, um, I was 42? I was 44 when I did Top Chef. And I think a lot of people forget that someone came up to me the other day and said, I’ve seen you from the beginning on Top Chef. I’m like, Well, I was 44. That if that’s the beginning, well, where’s the end? So, you know, um, but yeah.

Jean Trebek: Nice. So. Okay. Carla. I know that you talk a lot about love in your Cooking with Love and all of that. Can you talk a little bit about your spirituality?

Carla Hall: For me, it’s everything. I mean, so I had a really bad breakup when I was 30, 31 or so. It was it was it felt like two of my friends had died because my really good friend started dating the guy that I thought I was dating. But you hear me? That I thought I was dating. Apparently I wasn’t… But, I felt like two of my friends had sort of instantly, like, died at once, and the pain was physical, and my cousin gave me Marianne Williamson’s A Return to Love. And I read that book and my cousin said, In a year you will know why this happened. And I remember thinking like in a year’s time, I remember seeing them. At this point, they’re engaged. Before that year, though, I had seen them and they were at a light and they were walking. I was at a light. They were walking across the street and I kind of want to hit the gas. But I grew out of that, you know, I did I kind of want to run them over. But after that point of moving through that, I got to the point where I could actually go to their engagement party and be happy for them. And I was so happy for myself that I could celebrate them because I wasn’t holding myself in that place. And it was because I had gone through this…I’d been going to a church that was all about spirituality versus religion. I grew up Presbyterian and then Catholic, and then it was really about my personal relationship with a higher being. And and really feeling like- I am in control of my life with a higher being and looking at everything like there’s no mistakes in the universe and understanding this, this relationship and everything is a lesson in everything. And every person I see is an opportunity for me to get better. And even when I was wanting to find a mate – I remember writing down on a list and saying, These are the things that I want in my mate, but I have to be those things first before I attract this person. So for me, it was always it wasn’t putting a lot on another person. It was really looking at myself first. And that all came from spirituality. So every single thing that I do is about this path that I’m supposed to lead in this life at this time, and the older I get, the more certain I am of this path and what I’m supposed to do. And it’s almost a relief because things that I think that would maybe trip other people up or other people say, girl, oh my God, did that happened to you? I’m like, Yeah, that person brought me that lesson. And I’m saying it kind of cavalier like, but, but I remember like even on The Chew and you know, I talk about there were a lot of tough and hard lessons that, again, were physical. And I will check in and I will say spiritually, if you say something to me and I will check in, I’m like, well, how do I feel about that? And if it goes to my solar plexus and I feel like literally feel it in my body, it’s for me if I check in and I don’t feel anything, I’m like, Yep, no, that’s not mine. That must be yours. No, I’m not taking that on. And so being that way in my life because I have spent the last, um, gosh, 30 years on this path, I own and take responsibility for everything that happens to me, you know? And that means if I take responsibility for the negative things, I can take responsibility for the positive things, you know? And so I choose to be positive. And so that’s pretty much my spirituality in the nutshell.

Jean Trebek: Oh. I love that. Yeah. I’m a Student of a Course in Miracles,and we read the book. That’s how Alison and I met

Carla Hall: Oh, right. Mean, I love it because there are two. It’s like every emotion comes from love or hate. Every single one. And so when you look at it, you’re like, love? Or is it fear? No fear. Right. Love and fear. And when you look at it like that, it’s just one or the other side just two.

Jean Trebek: But owning it all, like you said, you’re the creator. I am not a victim of the world I see. And when you can turn it back like that, that’s that growth that. Okay, we might not like it. And it feels awful to grow sometimes. But, you know, we are meant to bloom here and to shine our light. And so I didn’t know that about you.

Alison Martin: That’s amazing. Who who do you think in your life right now feeds you emotionally?

Carla Hall: Um, I think my husband, and I have a lot of good friends around me. I have a lot of good girl friends. I want people around me who will tell me when I stink. I don’t need a lot of yes people around me. I want them to check me and say, Carla, girl, you know, that was wrong. But my husband in particularly, um, so we got married. I was, I got married for the first time at 42. And my husband, um, you know, worked in politics and he was working in at the FDA. And so he, you know, he was a lawyer by education. And in 2018, he quit his job to do meditation and yoga.

Alison Martin: Wow.

Carla Hall: It’s like I mean, and that was right before the pandemic. I was like…. Universe. Come on. What? You know what I’m saying? Because he was in the department that was doing the vaccines and you know how stressful that would be in our household. And instead it was like meditations a little ding, ding, ding, sound bathing. And I was like, oh my gosh. So I look at my life and I’m like, wow. It’s like the universe was was fitting us, getting us ready to meet each other. And when we met, it was… So on our rings, it’s parallel lives connect because we had been living close to each other for eight years. But he was married before and I was busy working. We both went to the same university, didn’t know each other at the time, had some of the same people in our lives, but they were separate. And then when we met, we found all of these things out. We discovered all of these things, and I was like, that. That’s that’s God, that’s the universe, you know? And, and so looking at things like that makes me patient for things to come through because I know that they will come through when I’ve done the work or everything is already set. And it’s just because you don’t see it doesn’t mean that things aren’t happening. And working out the way that they should work, you know, because everything that you force and then you get the thing like I forced, I forced a couple of things in my life and I’m like, Oh, yeah, okay. I forced that because it didn’t work out. But something I still learn something.

Alison Martin: It’s so true because we can’t really see the whole, you know, the universe or God’s whole view, you know, and something can be happening over here and it works its way to you. It really, it really it really, really does. Um, do you find that, um, you know, as, as an actor myself, sometimes I feel like that imposter syndrome, you know? And as I’ve gotten older, I realize, I’m really just me, you know, I’m really. This is it. This is the bottom line. And my friend said to me the other day, Oh, I feel so invisible because I’m older. And I said, Be louder. You know what I mean? Like, do you? Right. Have you found that to that as we get older, it’s like, just be it.

Carla Hall: Oh, 100%. And that’s part of wanting to celebrate this, this 60th year. Um, so I also think that we have to change the narrative for ourselves. You know, as women, we need to change the narrative because when people will say, you don’t look 60, I don’t care. I don’t care if I look, I don’t know what the number is, but it doesn’t matter. I shouldn’t be looking at another age that is younger than what I am. Okay? I look, I’m not mean, I look good for what my age. I do. Okay? But that is not the point. The point is to feel good in this body and feel good about the wisdom that I’ve accumulated over the years. And if you ask me if I want youth or wisdom, I will choose wisdom all day long, right?

Alison Martin: Yeah, that’s right. What do you do in the morning? Like, what’s your morning ritual?

Carla Hall: So my morning ritual. Okay. It used to be hula hooping and then swishing coconut oil. Okay, don’t do that anymore.

Alison Martin: But joking, though, right?

Carla Hall: No, no, no. I was. I would swish coconut. But the oil pulling, you know, which I do occasionally because when I’m eating a lot of dairy so I do the oil pulling and then to help my gut I would swish. I mean, I would hula hoop while I was swishing. And then because that would like stimulate, you know, your abdomen.

Alison Martin: What is the swishing do?

Carla Hall: So the oil pulling pulls out toxins in your mouth. Like if you wake up sometimes when you have had a lot of dairy or things that your body is like, Girl, don’t eat that, why are you eating that? And it feels kind of sticky and you take in coconut oil because there’s micro microbial and then if you switch from 5 to 20 minutes and then it gets very thin and then you spit it out and not not in the drain, then it takes all of that stickiness is pulling all of those impurities out of your cheeks and your teeth. It helps whiten your teeth as well.

Alison Martin: Wow.

Carla Hall: It’s Ayurvedic.

Alison Martin: I love coconut. Right? We love coconut!

Carla Hall: Have you done it? You’re shaking your head, Jean. Have you done it before?

Jean Trebek: Yes, I have done it. I heard of it from, I think, Gwyneth Paltrow. But yes, but putting the oil in it pulls out bacteria and everything because the mouth just, it all goes down into the stomach and the gut. But it’s a big, big thing. And it was, I don’t want to say it was like a fad, but it was very popular, um, a while ago. But, but like Carla said, it’s Ayurvedic.

Carla Hall: So I was seeing a woman on my for my facials, an Ayurvedic place to get facials and I can’t even remember the name. And in her book, there are all of these things that are thousands of years old. I mean, I think that we will adopt them and say, hey, this is a fad, but it came from somewhere, you know? Um, and it really helped me. Also, if you have sinus issues, you can find that it’s draining all of these like the act of swishing is working these muscles to help drain a lot of the mucus and sinuses, your sinuses and everything.

Alison Martin: What do you do now?

Carla Hall: Okay, so now when I get up, I will to myself I lay there and I think about my day. Gratitude is a big part of my day and just grateful for. For every little thing, for, you know, being able to wake up, smell, my sense of taste every time I eat something delicious. I’m so grateful for my sense of taste just and my sense of smell. And then I do a mantra, um, that I’ve been doing for years. And then I would like to say that I work out, but I think about working out. But I also heard that if you think about it, it’s just it’s better than nothing. So. So sometimes it’s a thought. So that’s the thought. And I love so, so, yeah. And then, you know, I get up, I have my oatmeal and things like that, and then I sort of start the day. What I love is that my, my days aren’t the same, so I don’t go to a regular job every day. And so it’s a blessing and a curse. It’s a curse because I think I work well with routine. I’m very good with routines and, you know, so when I don’t have a regular schedule, it’s up to me to sort of force myself into the things that I need to do because I’m a big procrastinator. But then I found out that I procrastinate because either I’m doing something that I’m not good at doing or I don’t want to do it. And so and then I took a test about that. I love like these psychological tests, the Kolbe Test. Have you heard of it?

Alison Martin: Yes. Yes.

Carla Hall: Oh, my God. That changed my life.

Alison Martin: I haven’t done it, but my friend just did it.

Carla Hall: Okay Kolbe and Enneagram completely changed my life. I am an armchair psychologist. Come and talk to me. I’m the auntie. I will tell you any and everything that I know nothing about. But I will be very convincing because I’m so passionate about it.

Alison Martin: I’m going to I’m going to do it.

Carla Hall: Because I’ve found out that through Kolbe, there are lots of other things that one, I’m not good with the blank page, so I need to react to something. So if somebody wanted me to write something, I will procrastinate because it’s just the blank page, right? Um, but if I tell somebody, Hey, you want me to write a speech, I need you to give me notes first and then I can write it right? Um, also, I’m a quick start. If you give me an idea, I think about, I’m like, Yeah, I want to do that. My husband is the exact opposite. If I am a one on quick start, he’s a nine. And so what I realized he would say, I would say, hey, let’s, let’s do blah, blah, blah. I don’t know. Let’s, let’s go out and and and trim the trees. He’s like, I don’t know. Let’s think about it. Let’s and then, you know, then it’s gone – The energy of trimming the trees is gone. And he didn’t want to do it. And now I don’t have time to do it. But I realized that we we have a meeting of the minds and now I don’t allow him to talk me out of it in the moment because he’s always going to talk me out of it because he overthinks things. But I’m like, Oh, I want to do it now. And I, I just tell myself to do it. And just knowing that about myself. So I’m not frustrated with him in talking me out, but that is how he is, you know what I mean? And so and just learning about ourselves. We’ve been married for 17 years and there are some things that I’m learning. I’m like, Oh, that is so cool. Like discovering these little bits of each other throughout our marriage because I learned something about myself, and then I learn a little more about him. And so we aren’t the same people who got married 17 years ago, but we allow each other to grow and to discover ourselves and each other.

Jean Trebek: That’s so beautiful that that you recognize that with your husband. And we mean you. How long are you and Dan married?

Alison Martin: 30 years now. And it’s it’s that same thing where we’re like opposites and the same it’s a very good mix.

Jean Trebek: Alex and I were 30 years and total opposites but yeah I think you just sort of honor and respect that. And you’re so new to each other all the time that you’re like… oh!

Carla Hall: Exactly. It’s, it’s exciting. I mean, there are times where you’re like, insert eyeroll, but if, if somebody says to me that their their relationship is is always great and always I’m like, somebody’s not being honest.

Jean Trebek: Yeah, I agree.

Carla Hall: Somebody is not telling the truth and somebody is not satisfied because it is not possible. I truly believe that relationships are the way that the universe gets us to grow the most. And so because we are tied to this person whom we love and we can’t get out easily because they’re going to reflect the things that we need to, they’re like the, the messenger of our lessons. And, so I’m like, Oh, here comes another lesson. Yeah.

Alison Martin: Yes.

Carla Hall: One time he said to me, he goes, I forgot what he was saying. He said, You’re always doing blah, blah, blah. And he was right. And I said to him, So? He goes, What?

Jean Trebek: This friend of mine would say, Oh, here’s another AFGO, which meant another fine growth opportunity. Or he would say, Fucking growth opportunity. Exactly right.

Alison Martin: Do you cook at home?

Carla Hall: I do. Matthew cooks the most. He cooks them. I used to tell people I cook at the office. Why should I cook at home? Right? Um, Matthew cooks the cooks the most at home. But ever since it’s probably the last four years, I started cooking more just because I was on kind of a high protein because I was working out. And so I needed to control what I was eating. And also I eat out so much on the road that I just when I get home, I just want something plain and simple without a lot of stuff, you know? Right. Um, but yeah, but I love food. But he cooks the most at home.

Alison Martin: That’s so interesting. Yeah. Yeah. This has been so wonderful.

Carla Hall: Yeah.

Jean Trebek: It’s such a treat to meet you. I was really forward to it. You’re so full of wisdom and beauty inside and out.

Alison Martin: I would just like to come over.

Carla Hall: Oh. Do you want to make biscuits? That’s my thing.

Alison Martin: You’re so much fun.

Jean Trebek: Yeah, you’re just awesome. Thank you.

Carla Hall: Yeah. Thank you all. I thank you for your interest. Thank you for inviting me. And we have to make biscuits sometimes.

Alison Martin: I would love that. Are you kidding? Yes. And we’ll let you know when this comes out and have the most wonderful summer.

Carla Hall: Thank you so much. Same to you all. Thanks. Bye bye. Bye.

Jean Trebek: Talk to her all day.

Alison Martin: I know. I want to go over and visit her right now.

Jean Trebek: I think we need to be bring her into our best friend group.

Alison Martin: I know. And I love that. I want to go to that party with all those people she mentioned turning 60.

Jean Trebek: Yeah, well, I’ll be there. I know.

Alison Martin: I know. I’m way past that point. I just thought that her effervescence. She was interested in us and interested. Interesting. I just. I want to emulate that. I want to be curious about people. I want to be positive about what I’m doing, and I want to be present, which is what I really like, that she just was like, you know, some days I’m tired and I get to show up tired.

Jean Trebek: Right. You know, I think she just makes being a human being really wonderful, like all parts of it. Yeah. I left that interview the rest of the afternoon and I felt really on a high.

Alison Martin: Yeah, me too. Me, too. So thank you so much, Carla. And thank you guys for listening. It’s just it’s been such a pleasure. And we can’t wait to introduce you and talk with more people.

Jean Trebek: Absolutely. Take care.

Alison Martin: Have a great day.

Please Note: While we’re happy to provide the below transcript for those that’d prefer to read than listen, listening to this episode will provide the best experience. The text transcript alone may not capture exactly what our interviewee intended to say.

Jean: All right.

Alison: There we are. Yeah, we did it. Okay. Your voice is very good.

Jean: Oh, I don’t. I don’t love my voice.

Alison: Really?

Alison: It’s very peaceful.

Jean: I know, everyone says that. I feel like I’m lulling people to sleep.

Alison: Okay, Wake up, we have to wake up. Come on, Energy. You do you.   All right, so now we’re talking to someone today who you actually have known for a long time.

Jean: William Linville. Love this man.

Alison: Tell me.

Jean: Yeah. So I’ve known William…  I’ve known I met William probably back in 2012, 2013, and I heard him on another podcast, if you will. And I just thought what he had to say was… It just moved me and I felt it was the truth for me. And he has really been a huge champion in my life. He’s really helped me overcome a lot of fear and I love him.

Alison: Oh, that’s beautiful.

Jean: And I love his wife.

Alison: Oh, that’s excellent. I love that. So I was not as familiar with William. I had I had heard of him through you, but he is fascinating to me. Yeah, I think he really is right. So let’s listen and then we’ll we’ll come back and talk.

Jean: Great.

William: Hello, everyone. How’s it going?

Alison: Hi. Hi.

William: How are you doing, Miss Allison?

Alison: Hello, William.

William:  Are you having a blast?

Alison: Yeah.

William: Awesome. Awesome, awesome.

Alison: I am. It’s so good to meet you in person, because I’ve heard so much about you for so many years.

William: Oh, well, thank you. Thank you. And likewise. And you too.  What are you ladies been up to?

Jean: Well, I’m getting over Covid, William.

William: Oh, really? Well, that sounds like fun. You’re having a good long time.

Jean: Just a lot of alone time and getting caught up on things that you know, I maybe pushed aside for a while, but now my closets are super clean, and I’ve caught up on calling everyone that I’ve ever known and…hahah

William: Counting the cracks in the in the fingernails and toenails.  haha

Alison: Exactly.

William: Counting the pours  in the body, you know, all the fun stuff. Yeah. Yeah. Or you feel better now?

Jean: I am. I’m feeling much better. Much better. And this is such a treat to have you with us, because I know, you know, you and I have known each other for– I was thinking about this William, for probably over ten years.

William: Yeah. Yeah, it’s been a while. It’s been great… On one hand, it seems like eternity, On the other, it’s like a blink of an eye. Yeah.

Jean: It really has.  And Allison has heard me many times speak about you, William, And so now we get to introduce you to our listeners from Inside Wink World. And um Allison, do you have anything to say?

Alison: I’m just so happy to meet you. And you’re one of the more interesting humans I’ve ever heard about or read about.

William: Oh, well, thank you. Thank you. It’s been quite the interesting journey.

Alison: I bet. I bet. And how did you two meet?

William: Well, Jean came out to our place in Vegas where we were living, and we did a an interview. That’s how we met in the physical. But how did we meet Jean, was it a referral, right?

Jean: Yeah, I think. William, You were on a show,not Beyond the Ordinary, but a, you know, a show where they interview spiritual healers or, you know, just people that are helping humanity awaken. And you are on a show, and I just thought your interview was amazing and something that that we can start off with– William, if you wouldn’t mind, You talk a lot about your vibratory levels.

William: Yes.

Jean: And you talk a lot about marrying your lower and higher vibratory levels. Can you say why that’s so important now more than ever?

William: Like right now. haha

Jean: Like, in this time of of planet Earth, I mean, I guess it’s always been important, but, um. Do you sense that we are bringing in and allowing more of our God self to emanate through us?

William: Absolutely. And what’s going on is there’s so much going on, especially internally and then externally. So internally, you know, it’s kind of a dance. I call it a  Divine romance. Romance with you and the whole universe as a whole. So what happens is like ,there’s all this unveiling moment going on within you. So you look at this, we can call it– To me, it’s all dimensional, but for the sake of understanding, what the linear context You know, we call it incarnational realms. So, times and spaces that you’ve had many different experiences and as a soul. So you’ve been the queen of France, you’ve been kings, you’ve been coal miners, you’ve been natives, you’ve lived in the jungles, you’ve lived on the islands. You’ve lived in the Midwest, far west, far East, um, all over the planet. You as creator have picked up a form being that of humanity or human. Hu being ancient frequency and tone of creator through the mammalian species which is expanding and embodying and expanding through creator man. That’s not meant as a gender. It’s meant as creator through the mammalian species. Hence his hue man– hue, being the ancient frequencies and tones originally of creator from first separation to now, really, except the paradigm shifted, which means dear ones have, through the evolutionary cycle of things, became denser and denser as you go through.– You know, the Times of Aquarius, You go through the Dark Ages, you go through the freezing and the ice ages on  imam, which would call it more like the absence of you.

William: So when you started identifying that and perceiving that you were no more than a mind and a body on a planet. Now what’s happened is humanity got stuck from the solar plexus down. The solar plexus is your levels of carnality. So it’s where you go into fear. You go into sink or swim, fight and flight. You go into survival. It’s the instinctual levels of surviving. It could be surviving the physical flesh, like when you would be hightailing it away from dinosaurs or danger or running away from the cliff rather than running off the cliff, you know, being chased, by more villagers are coming after you or whatever it may be from standing out. And that has created, you know, from the Crusades to the hunting down the witches, warlocks on and on. Now, what’s happening is all of those incarnational states, which once again I call dimensional, that’s how you’re able to take a breath, go through past incarnational clearings, is that you’re bringing that stuff up. You’re asking it to unveil itself. The things that are still affecting you now in this body, on this planet, in this life. I call it phobias, anxieties, like recently, like every dear one and their brothers, dogs, chickens and cats have had anxiety attacks. It’s coming up in waves. And what that is, it’s all those fight and flight responses. Kicking up  to the influx of you as your higher levels, which is still you open and as creator vibrating and waking up within its incarnation, but as higher vibratory levels that are coming up as you but then as coming up through the soul level, it’s coming through the emotional calibration latiswork, through the sub psyche, all the way through the psyche and the soul level journeyers are waking up as well

William: even going beyond the Trinity State as spirit and soul in form. So it’s like the lights are coming on, but all these hidden away, call it secrets, call it hidden away… Um, I call it misperceptions of yourself, misunderstandings of yourself, misperceptions that you made all these decisions just like you as creator said, let there be light. And there was light. Well, you said, let there be danger. Let there be fear. And this is unsafe. This is safe. I love everyone except my family or  everyone’s wonderful , they’re all creator except my mother in law, I know she’s demonic. haha

William:  So from here, you know, all this stuff is rising up before you to look at it right in the eyes, to say enough. To look at it and I’ll call it resolve it, come to terms with it, to where it just no longer holds, nor has that power over you. And didn’t we get into the old paradigm stuff, you know, like, what is fear?  What is darkness? It’s interesting.

William: They’re both, as far as I’m concerned, major umbrella phrases…that doesn’t really say anything except to me, it says the absence of You.  So you’re going into these areas within your cells, your atoms, your molecules, sub molecules to the human genome through the master cell, the DNA, the RNA through each and every charkra level vortex, from the crown, the third eye, front mental and back, through the throat from the lower back heart front, middle and back. It’s starting to merge down through the solar plexus front, middle and back through the creator chakra level vortex, front, middle and back, all the way thru your root chuckled Vortex, and you’re reopening them… But you’re not there to try to relive anything. You’re there to see it for what it is. Ideally, I would have you find the benefit because it’s got you to where you’re at now, which is- that’s where, that’s part of the healing up process.. Is when you can actually look at it now, not rehashing the same judgment, not rehashing the same issue that –yep there’s my dad. Yep. Still hate him. Okay. And it’s more like, it’s now– where I walk dear ones through is- understanding where the dear one was coming from, understanding him, waking up to, you know, honestly, I don’t care who it is, what it is, or even the extreme. It truly was not personal about you as a personal being. Does that better clarify that, Jean?

Jean: Yeah.  That’s so great,because that is exactly how you’ve helped me over many years, is actually showing me someone’s intention so that I wouldn’t take it personally…I think that is one of the things you really helped me with, William was to differentiate between what was mine and what was someone else’s stuff. So thank you, thank you for that.

Alison: Could you explain just a little bit– I saw on your website, you just said it just now… Fear is the absence of You. And am I am I correct in understanding that to mean the absence of the baggage that I’m carrying or these personal judgments? Is that the You that it’s the absence of?

William: No, that’s all the stuff that is not you.. You know, like when you look in the mirror and it’s a fun game to play with yourself, but it’s also– you know, I always look for the truth serum in everything. Show me the truth. Not what I want to think. Not what I want to hear. Not what I think others want to hear or think. Show me the truth. So when you stand in front of the mirror, like a physical mirror, you know– In massage school, when I was going to massage school to learn about anatomy, learning about how my own body works, you know, much less facilitating. One of the exercises was to sit in front of the mirror totally naked, like up on the vanity. Or you can be just with a whole body mirror or whatever, you know, sit there totally naked, do your best for a moment just to become more clear to where you can just sit there. Ideally, you’re going to hear it first– All the criticisms. Secondly, that over there is definitely picking up on gravity. And over there,.. Yeah, A couple of months from now with those who, you know, who needs a mammogram, you know?  And all of that stuff– and where I was wondering what I was hitting when I was walking… Oh, it’s my buttocks, you know, so where we get past all the criticizes. Yep, shouldn’t have had that donut,  you know that’s just all the conscious mind thoughts.

Jean: Mhm.

William: So for a minute we just take another breath. We let that go, because it will pass…. I gotta get the hair done, and then all that stuff’s gonna pass. (thoughts like) The ears are too high. They’re too low. They’re too big. Too small.  And it’s like, Yeah, I knew there was something about taxi cabs with these ears— we just let all that stuff pass now. Then we just still sit there. We still stare. We don’t get a book. We don’t try to become preoccupied. We really just be right there. The criticizers gonna pass, that’s all of 20% of the mind, the conscious mind and all the emotions that like, it’s like all that harshness starts to come up and you start to realize and feel, or I’d say more so than feel experience the emotions starting to die off with it. And then, it’ll be quiet for a few moments. Maybe three. Maybe five. It’s different for everyone. But then, you’re going to start having these memories now. Memories are an interesting thing because many perceive it linearly. Like yesterday, the day before, when I was three years old, when I was in the womb… Blah, blah, blah. Well, in reality, it’s not about way back when, linearly. It’s still dimensionally, still going on. The way you always know, is that you sit there, you watch. If it was not dimensional, you would not be able to still experience the energy around it. Because right now, when I say, all right Allison– let’s you and I just go back to relive dinner last night. And what’s the first glimpse? And as you go to the first glimps, how much is your mouth salivating and how is your body responding?

Alison: I’m hungry. I’m hungry for more pasta.

Speaker3: Yeah, exactly. And now, if you look at that for a minute, you really follow that to its source, you’ll be given, you’ll be shown from yourself, the first time you when you first had pasta and then when you first decided you liked it. And the interesting thing is, it’s really not about the pasta. It was about the ambience going on when you first had pasta.

Alison: Well, it makes me say, I wanted to say– being with my grandmother.

William: That’s exactly what I was about to bring up, that connection that made the pasta so wonderful. Okay. Now that’s dimensional. That’s not Grandma 20 years ago. Okay. That’s why you’re able to still feel her presence around one of the billions of reasons, but including that her presence is around you. But from here, it you go beyond that for a moment, as you’re sitting in front of the mirror, then you start looking, hearing, experiencing all these conversations. To me, I call it like– Doors that are still open that have never really fully been closed nor resolved. Doesn’t mean they’re all derogatory. It just means it’s just different parts of yourself (And this is where I do call it at times soul fragmentations), depending on it’s areas of yourself that got fragmented, scattered. It’s a lot like PTSD or dear ones are still stuck in that moment where the soul’s been fragmented. So, it’s like constantly running and running and repeat. Haven’t been able to yet, at that moment be able to welcome back of the the rest of themselves to where they’re at now. Now, you go beyond that in front of the mirror and you start listening to all these dialogues and then you start to become, you start to recognize… eventually, that you’re no longer that little child. You’re the third person here. You’re observing what’s going on. You’re watching. To now we can take that part of you, pick them up, embrace them, and now welcome them back to you cleared and purified.

William: Or, we can welcome forth the ascended host, the angelic, the arc-angelic realms. Whatever presents for you at that moment to take them by the hand and walk them home. Because that’s also when we get into, you know, the different emotional age of decisions where all the decisions you made in that circumstance, how that circumstance is still affecting you, even though your body is older,  you made all these judgments about how the world works, about your value, about what you deserve, what you don’t deserve, about whatever, however– worthy, not worthy, lovable, not lovable because of x, y, z. So where now, we get to look at it clearer as a third person. Now we have the brilliant opportunity to undecide what those decisions that were made to either re-decide or just undecided. (acknowledge to yourself) You know what? Ijust don’t require any more stuff in my cellar, being that of the sub-psych, because it just doesn’t benefit me anymore. And now, depending on the extremes, you can walk out of the back of your shoes, step into the back, of it’s a perpetrator or whatever, and then looking through at their eyes back at you and what you’re going to find.. You do a scan, where you can really see how they really felt about you. You’ll find more often than not they were jealous. They were envious. They wanted what you had.

William: They wanted their purity back. They wanted their innocence back. They saw that you had it, and they they were just so enraged and they wanted it back. And they’re really crying inside. They’re sobbing inside and they’re acting out in all these different ways. But it’s more out of fear, tournament, not even about you. And you can go through their emotional age capacity when they decided those same decisions, they weren’t lovable and everyone’s against them.  Which will also have you eventually, you know, understand them further to where now– What’s been fear, what’s been hatred, resentment, terror that’s been running your life ..now transcends into compassion. And you’re also assisting them to heal up to current age. And then you step back, in the back of your shoes with now that clarity to where that’s no longer keeping you held hostage anymore. And I’m not saying for a minute that we’re going to sit here and try to justify rationalize that their behavior was okay. Right. It wasn’t okay.  But for resolution, maybe that situation made you more independent. Maybe it had pushed you to become more powerful. It pushed you into waking up sooner, quicker. It pushed you to know to put your foot down,to say no more. And it accelerated your journey into waking up to who you really are– But rather than continuing the hamster wheel of “Leave it to Beaver” and “The Brady Bunch” and pretending.

Alison: Right.  Can I ask ask another another question about the idea of souls, and the idea of if we are all that is then then how are we also individuated souls? Like you had said that there were so many experiences that we’ve had. Is that me as an individual soul or is that like there’s this huge energy soul and I’m dipped in and mixed up with that? Does that make is that does that make sense as a question to you?

William: Yeah, it does. So getting back to first separation. You as Source decided to split itself off. It goes beyond that.wWhen you decided to create the heavens and the earth and all the planets, you decided to create something that you could create to where you could expand upon yourself as creator as a whole.. which once again is genderless. Now, you decided, okay, you created the mountains, the lands, the oceanic realms, the plant kingdom, mineral kingdom, and, you know, the animal kingdom, plant, kingdom, on and on and on. And at first, you would split yourself off, you would experience what it was like to step into the form of a gazelle or a deer. You would hop around. You would you would really just experience hopping around, procreating, mating, and you would experience eating consumption. You would actually, for the first time ever, experience what it was like to animate through a form. And lo and behold, you know, one thing led to another until you decided, okay, now let’s expand upon this now, but let’s create a form of our own that would make it more unique and really a more personable journey, not just through a kingdom. So you created what’s now called humanity– Hu, the ancient sound of Crater, through a mammalian form, you created a form that has senses, that can has corpuscles that touch. That is the only one in the universe that has the the mind came later on, but has the ability to process free will on and on and on.

William: So you created the divine masculine and the divine feminine with the ability to procreate. Not to get preoccupied by, but being the ability to create a civilization that would continue and continue and continue to express, express love and continue to expand upon itself. Then, you kept noticing as creator, that the forms kept walking off cliffs, the forms kept becoming breakfast, lunch and dinner for the dinosaurs, creatures of the planet, on and on. There was not this thing called intellectual consciousness, like divine intellect, common sense. And you can see globally that’s been very rare these days. haha.. So now it’s coming back online. The divine intellect. So and now where, Okay, if I pick my body and if I walk over the edge of this cliff, I can now analyze that…if I take one more step, chances are my body is going to fall and, you know, bond with the planet. Now, this is where we’re playing with your intellect. This is well beyond fear. Then when this all came about, then you decided to create a thing called a soul. A soul that would be a record keeper. It’s kind of like a hard drive for yourself. That would dictate, take notes, record every experience you ever experience in a body on a planet. So, you took those experiences into the soul and you also took your divine intellect, you took your heart, but at that time, the heart wasn’t really a bid deal because you just were like, you just were love.

William: So it wasn’t come back to your heart, it wasn’t don’t get hijacked by the mind, blah, blah, blah. And then, you started more and more listening to the intellect and letting the intellect, you know, the whole metaphor of the Adam and the Eve, the Cain and the Abel.. On and on and on… you know, all those metaphors about, you know, the woman eating the apple, playing with the snake and blah, blah, blah and of course, you know, it’s kind of obvious, it always comes back anti-female. (haha) Now from here, you go into Cain and Abel, you know, the linebacker and the wide receiver or whatever, and, you know, then we have creator going against creator, which is where dear ones started buying into that the intellect was who they were, rather than who they were that HAD an intellect. So the soul took all this data, all this information, and before you knew it, the Akashic records were created. So now, you became denser and denser and denser, heavier and heavier and heavier to where you started… It wasn’t a fall from grace and all those fairy tales, but every time you would go against yourself, become more and more identified with the intellect that now, we call the ego…the ego that was created, created emotion– emotion is simple–it’s energy that’s bound up. So when you create a specific identity or a judgment, it’s like throwing a rock in a flowing river to where eventually that river gets dammed and the energy that’s that water that was moving now becomes emotion. So emotion is the absolute result from judgment. Now all of those, doesn’t matter what the judgement is (positive or negative).. It’s judgment. It’s just you as creator commanded there be light. You as creator commanded that your neighbors, you know, is a jackass. So the same thing. It’s just where are we going to put the command. Now  you’re saying that with great force at times, you’re teaching your children, don’t run into street! Oh, my God! And you come out yelling and screaming, which, of course, no secret your kids going to freezing get ran over by the bus because they’re freaking out because you’re screaming, and now we have a real issue on our hands. But then there’s that angst and then your kid makes a decision… I’m bad, I’m terrible, I made a mistake, I’m not smart, I’m not bright. And just I deserve to bond with the Goodyears or Michelin, depending on what they’re using these days. hahahaha–And ..there’s something wrong with me, and on and on and on, which only makes it denser and denser and denser.

William: So eventually you started forgetting more of who You are, became more identified with the judgments, now, which are called the ego, which is a total false identity because it’s still not you. And then with all the energy behind it, I’ve never heard of anyone having a love breakdown and I got to go to see the shrink. You know, it’s always an emotional breakdown, right? And the shrink would know what to do if you had a love breakdown, Right. Because you love too much. What? You know, there’s books about women who love too much. I don’t think there was any about the males. You see, once again, the women are screwed. hahaha…. So from here, you know, what is that? What is it to mean, to love too much? There’s many get confused between love and emotion, infatuation and I’m attracted to you because blah, blah, blah. Now we get back to carnality and that’s why there’s such a market for perfumes, etc..  It’s activating the olfactory nerve and putting off a different sensory neuron in the brain that says all of a sudden I’m attracted to you, but it’s really the scent. So it’s just interesting. There’s like all these different, like rabbit holes of understanding yourself. It’s not complicated.  It’s so simple, but sometimes it’s not complicated, but it is very, uh, interesting when you’re starting to wake up and arise to understand yourself. It’s kind of like my favorite color is purple or the pasta.

William: You know, why do I enjoy what I enjoy? Is it me that enjoys it, or am I trying to recreate the memory? Now, this isn’t to overcomplicate things, it’s more about understanding yourself so you can become all of yourself. Now, to finish your question, the answer to your question is that, dear ones, that’s when they started waking up to eventually… That, okay, now we start to come forth, whether it be Francis or Sananda, Yeshua, Ben Joseph, the Krishna, Paramahansa Yogananda, whether it be the Buddha and all these different areas where dear ones started waking up to becoming a Trinity spirit, soul in form… which is still, I mean, awesome, great job, great achievement, but it still holds you in the karmic latticework. So I maybe spirit that’s animating this body, but I still have a soul, I still have a mind. So now I got to make up with this thing called karma for all the other dear ones that I screwed dimensionally or Incarnationally now that they’re going to come, they’re going to run me over or whatever, and I’m going to lay there going the opposite extreme and saying, Well, I’m sure I must have deserved it. You know, it’s like, seriously? When they back up five times and say it was an accident?

William: So you woke up to you.. You being the consciousness in the body that goes beyond the soul and the mind and the spirit, which is you as creator now clearing out the Akashic records, not in that same cyclical cycle. Vows, contracts, agreements, all of these things that basically it’s just different words that says I’m wearing different shackles, but now at least I’m aware of them now. Now you’re waking up to them and waking up to you as creator and letting all the rest of the stuff die off, which goes back to the ozone layers and all that other stuff, which is technically the astral planes of consciousness dying off because these other entities, energy, softwares are being walked home and assisted home that have still been lingering around, lost in the astral planes.. which in religion they call it purgatory, blah, blah, blah, but this is where we’re taking them beyond that, to make a full transition back into their source consciousness, whether they pick up a body or not, that’s up to them now,  it’s not because they weren’t able to make a full transition Home.. This soul level is dying off, dissolving, reaching a clear slate to where now you have You as your higher levels, you with your entourage your Angelic, Archangelica host realms emminating through form but also surrounded with what I call your true family.

Jean: Wow! You know, William, you say all of this and it’s so fascinating to me and inspiring…and I think this is a great time to link into the class, the class that you’re offering in September…about waking up, shedding these shackles and… Can you talk about your class that’s coming up?

William: Yeah, yeah. It’s a wonderful class. It goes on for three months and one part is clearing out, purifying, divinitizing, opening and accelerating. And the other part is like re-steering, re journeying of who you are and a lot of activations, amplifications and then a lot of coming to terms with what’s working for you, what’s not working for you and being able to clear the decks within yourself…. physical, mental, emotional. We’re playing with you on all levels, not just your physical body, not just your emotional levels–I mean we’re playWng with relationships. We’re playing with finances, we’re playing with, why does the same thing keep occurring? Breaking down dissolving patterns, bringing clarity and also disillusionment to them and going for, you know, bringing you as creator and beginning to remember, but also beginning to re embody within and through yourself of and as creator, expressing through (the body). And even more than that, it’s shifting from experiencing emotion to now feeling you. And then, like we talked about earlier, about the vibratory levels and frequencies in megahertz of Light. It’s a speed in which the cells are vibrating in the body, the cells, the molecules, the atoms, sub atoms, and it’s assisting those to speed up and also dissolving the crustationous that’s been holding them at a very much lower frequency vibratory level and then clearing out the cause, core and the effect, all the identifications, all the stuff that has you live your life like you’re in a cave, like in a tunnel vision mode, and where you start to regain You, you start to take your power back.

William: You also start to wake up and arise in so many different ways where you start now, recognizing, opening up, becoming more receptive, not like you’re constantly dutiful working for something, including like surviving in a body on a planet because you’re never put here to survive…you’re here to live and express, animate, radiate and open up, and then playing also with optimum health and well-being body mind and you, and then the integration of the rest of you and the connection with you, your entourage, which I call your real family, the Angelic, Archangelica and the host realms, and where you’re able to start going more and more direct, even receiving, expressing and receiving, having dialogues and connections with, you know, those dear ones in your entourage that  have always been there. But now you’re starting to reach a point where you’re able to dance together, flow together, and live more in your natural birthright rather than what you’ve been told, what you’ve been taught all the day to day — wash, rinse, repeat levels, into more of why you’re here in the first place and to where there’s no end of what, when, where and how you can experience, express and also receive love in every way.. whether it be an intimate, loving relationship with the heart, whether it be finances, abundance of money, whether it be homes, vehicles, whatever that calls to you, not about sex, power, greed, but about the enjoyment of why you’re here in a body on a planet to live, to enjoy, thrive, receive, express, and becoming lighter and lighter, not just barely getting by each month. I mean, that’s all taught too–you witness, you see it all around, you see the high end and you see the low end, and then you’re in the middle trying to escape, not being in the gutter like the dear one over there , that I know is deemed mental health issues… chances are they’re just loaded with entities, which are from discarnates that have not made a full transition and whatever else they’re running through and running from that, but then all of your vows, contracts, agreements you’ve made, you’re still playing out by default about money is the root of all evil, on and on and on. So we have all these things that you’re looking at, you’re still trying to resolve, wake up to, go beyond rather than just living your life in this tiny little cocoon. Because you know, what happens when you’re physically standing at the top of the planet.. right there in you, the silhouette of light in which you are, where you’re here, not to experience the freezing cold and pulling in, going into lockdown, shut down from the North Pole. But where you’re there to emanate and as you emanate, you’re emanating, but as you’re emanating, you’re also in a state of receptivity, not pushing away.  You’re not there to prove, you’re there to enjoy, where you can actually see the snowflakes, where your body is not flipping out… The solar plexus as it was created, it goes underneath the rib cage, when the fight and flight response kicks in to protect all your vital organs. But where that’s no longer your master nor your go to, regardless of whatever’s going on outside. And what happens when this becomes now a place to where you’re able to feel you, not the experience of emotion, you know, that’s all based in this judgment… but it’s not just about judgments, it’s about how low can you go and how many ways, shapes and forms can you block yourself and allow yourself to be blocked. You know, when it’s not even about you. And yeah, there’s parts that is about you and your own personal, I’ll call it issues, or let’s just call it misperceptions because it’s just stuff you’ve misperceived and taken in to be true about yourself. Like you came home from school, your mom had a migraine, yelled at you, and you took in all this stuff, having no clue she had a migraine. You know, migraine. Your grain, our grain. HAHAH..And from there, you know, you took it, made it all this other stuff that it’s not. And so what is the divine feminine anyways, besides the next Barbie movie? hahah –Just like, what am I doing? Why again?

Alison:  You cracked me up, William.

William: It’s all having a blast, isn’t it?

Jean: It is. And, yeah… I feel like when I’m with you, William, all the layers of erroneous beliefs and concepts that I have packed on…umm…  you help melt away all the debris so that your true light can shine.

William: Absolutely… And the real you, minus all the emotional complications..

Alison: For me,  I feel a little bit like I’m standing under a very fun waterfall.

William: Oh, awesome, Awesome.

Alison: That’s how I feel when you’re talking. I feel like, Wow, Just let it, just be in this waterfall of William. You’re a very exciting person.

William: Oh, thank you, sweetheart. And both of you as well. And so ask yourself this question, I mean, everyone knows what you’ve experienced. You’ve experienced what you’ve experienced. You’ve gone here, you’ve gone there. And now from here, you know and you ask yourself, okay, from all of my experiences, from experiencing it–the pain, the torment, some things that were happy, then they were sad, and all these roller coasters. Now you know all that for yourself and thru yourself. Now you know of all the old, so you ask yourself, do I just want to maintain that comfort zone of –pain is bad, comfort is good, the point of life is to be undisturbed ,and just maintain that little tiny merry go round. Or, am I ready to start happening? Am I ready for to start living? Not surviving? Because all that other stuff is all been based in, he said, she said, we said, they said, and you know, all the survival mechanisms from your solar plexus down. What about your natural birthright? You know what it’s like to survive. What is it like to live?

Alison: And if I say yes, I am ready to live, William… What would my next step be?

William: Your next step would be from the rest of yourself, your higher levels and I say your higher levels, and I  want to be clear on that… Higher, does not mean out there on the other side of Uranus somewhere… Okay. More my anus either, you know. hahahaha

Alison: Thank goodness.

William: Yeah, I’m telling you, that’s some places men are not meant to go. haha..  So from here, it’s where you will start to go through and start to feel different changes within yourself. You’ll start to be presented within yourself– stuff, memories, thoughts, experiences coming up and leaving. There’s even times that you’ll have different sorts of dreams, but clarifying dreams, because what you’re doing, when I’m playing with your higher levels, it’s parts of you, still You,  I do not want to make a mistake about that, that are vibrating at a much higher vibrancy, but the body has been so sluggish and the intellect and then the emotional states have been so preoccupied with surviving, getting by making this work, that work or not work, and so preoccupied from the solar plexus down that, that you forgot about the rest of you… that was just mean, this isn’t, I have to get to a certain state to achieve and whatever… Every time you leave the planet, you’re giving your rungs of honor. You’re always celebrated… that’s always going to be. And now it’s about the fast track, accelerating and allowing for your true life to start happening, and for you to start happening. Not all of this wash, rinse, repeat and fears, phobias, anxieties, overwhelming burdens and holding your breath and waiting for the next cataclysm to occur.  Like you’re letting life happen to you rather than.

Alison: Rather than through you.

William: Yeah, and for you. Right. You know, when I say, all right, thy will, not my will to the rest of myself. What that really means is, you know what? I know what the mind’s bought into. And that’s not exactly working. Like, you know, the afternoon in Disneyland with the big giant rodent and all that. hahaha– So I’m thinking, okay, there’s got to be something better. Yeah. Something beyond what my mind can comprehend, because my mind can only base things on the future and the past, when it comes to the manifestational world. So it’s taking the past, projecting into the future and calling that normal. Now, what happens when you go beyond the mental emotional levels and you start welcoming in the rest of the whole universe your creator consciousness, now I want to know what I want… Show me, what’s not possible because, let’s get that out of our our vocabulary, but what’s probable and available?  Possible, it’s like, you know, let’s all go to the island, do some ayahuasca, cross our fingers, hope for the best. Right. Anyone can make it from the fire and not fall in , hahaha..

William: But from here, it’s where we go beyond all that into, Hey, show me what’s probable and available. I’m ready.

Jean: I love that. That just feels so… ready for life! Not hiding from life, not, you know, really stepping into your power and create creation. William, can you leave us with, like a prayer that or a statement that you say in the morning? Um, because you taught me this.

William: Yeah.

William: And I think our viewers would love to hear a surrender prayer, like bringing on your entourage and your higher Self. Yeah.

William: So, before I go to bed at night, I do make it a point to say, I bless this day and it is done. Because, absolutely break energy, so I’m not, my body’s not processing all night the prior day. And then, in the morning I start off with, all right family (divine family), all right entourage, you know, take command, I welcome you in Big guns to take command, speak through me, steer me and journey me, and fully incarnate within me. Now I Welcome in all the gifts the universe has to offer this day and bring it on, let’s go. And there’s times where, like before I’ll do an event, a one on one, and before I start work, I’ll go into saying the prayer of Francis, which is not about Catholicism. It was about his heart. Which goes, Lord, make me an instrument of your peace or higher levels, make me an instrument of your peace– where there is hatred only help me sow love. Where there is doubt, faith where there is darkness, light where there is despair, hope where there is injury, pardon. And where there is sadness, help me emanate joy. O Divine Master Grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console. To be understood as to understand. To be loved, as to love. For it is in giving that I receive, and it is in pardoning that I am pardoned, and it is in dying that I am born to eternal life. Now, if we pertain all of that to our self, the dying means  not the physical. It means the dying off of the ego. It’s a prayer of surrender, which is, it’s an invocation to the opening of your heart. So when I give my bride, my angel, a kiss in the morning, when I greet her…It’s not about well, let me tell you about my dreams. You know, it’s more about, you know, who we are. How are you? She feels that love. She knows she matters. She feels that acknowledgment. It’s not, you know, it’s not being common courtesy. It’s not fluffy. It’s not, I’m supposed to. It’s because, You really matter, And what you feel matters to me. What you share matters to me. When I get on the phone, you know ,to do my one on ones for the day, it’s that, Yeah you really matter, what you share, what you’re experiencing, what you have to say really matters. It’s not, okay I’m going through this and that and that and that.. You matter because you are creator expressing through carnate. What you’re running through, what you’re struggling with, what no matter if things are being stripped away because you’re going through a purification that matters, and where it is, you know, it’s kind of interesting because it’s like eventually, the crown chakra level vortex goes all the way down, marrying, dissolving all the other chakra level vortexes all the way through the heart, absorbs the heart and the heart, and all the lower chakra level vortexes get absorbed through the heart. And then what happens is that your crown goes all the way through the heart. The heart is right there, goes all the way down through the bottom of your feet. And right now, I would say it’s at the approximation of about 89ft in diameter because you are becoming the vortex of love that you are. It’s not about going to Sedona and wherever you go to a vortex, as you are that vortex that you’re seeking.  Is’nt that awesome? It’s so much fun.

Alison: It is.  But I have one last question. I want to know what brings you the most joy pie, cake or ice cream?

William: Definitely cake. Yeah.

Alison: All right.

William: Yellow cake, chocolate icing.

Alison: Oh, there you go.

Alison: Me too, man.

Alison: Me, too. William.

William: Thank you for not peeing in the waterfall..haha

Alison: No, no, no, not at all. I felt pretty good. I got it all going on.

Jean: William, you are the most brilliant vortex in my orbit, in my life. And I love you. And I love Mary. And thank you for all your goodness.

William: So you too both. And my angel sends love as well. And we sure love you both. This has been finally great to finally get to meet you.

Alison: Yes. And you are just the biggest pleasure. I would really thank you so much. I really feel so light and I’ve enjoyed it so much. Thank you so much, William.

William: Oh, and you too.

William: This has been an honor and look forward to doing it again some time and we’ll be here all week.

Alison: Okay, good. We’ll talk to you in a couple of days.  haha

William: Love you both.

William: Have fun. Bye. Love you. Oh, you know what?

William: I’ve been. I’ve been practicing my inside wink today.

Alison: Oh, let’s see. I’m feeling it.

William: I’m winking inside.

Alison: I feel it. It’s good.

William: I love you both. Have a lot. A lot of fun. Okay.

Alison: Bye. Thank you.

Jean: He has so much to offer. I could talk to him all afternoon.

Alison: He some of what he was saying was so thick to me, like there was so much going on with what he was saying. I liked the things about the the soul, sort of as a record keeper. I thought that was really beautiful. And I do have instances where I remember something so vividly. I do feel like it is happening right now, like and it brings emotion to me. Does it? Yeah. You know. Right. And go ahead.

Jean: No, no, I agree. I like the I liked how he shared what his practices are in the before he goes to bed. He says he breaks energy with the day.. You know, so he can really, so the soul the consciousness can really clear out and that you wake up like with a clearer clean slate. And and I also love that he says The prayer of Saint Francis, that’s one of my favorite as well. It’s beautiful. Yeah.

Alison: I think I need to break the day more, break the energy of the day.

Jean: I think a lot of us do because most of us have so much technical equipment around us. When we go to bed, we have our cell phones, we have our TV, we have our laptop. Right. And I think it’s really important that we kind of calm that stuff down and all the thoughts and…

Alison: Even just my own personal energy. Right, Right.

Jean: Like l everything that people that we’ve met. Another way of breaking energy, I was told, is, you know, to take a shower at night, get into water.

Alison: Then I want to wake up, though.

Jean: Do you? Yeah.

Alison: And the sad thing is, I sometimes listen or watch TV to fall asleep and I watch like, those reality shows. So it’s like, yeah, like I have a lot to break now. I have a lot to break.

Jean: Set yourself free.

Alison: That’s right. Break those chains. Well, I enjoyed him so much.

Jean: Yeah, he has. He has a great website. He has a wonderful class coming up starting in a few days. So treat yourself. It’s it’s his work is so unique and it’s life changing and very empowering because he guides you to live from your  true God Self.

Alison: I’m not going to even say anything else. No. Okay. You did. You killed it. Mic drop.

Jean: And scene.

Alison: That’s right.

Alison Martin: Wee wee! Okay, go ahead.Hi.

Jean Trebek: Hi. Here we are in our little studio.

Alison Martin: That’s right. Which is really just like a corner in my little back house.

Brad Koepenick: Well, today we have the amazing Brad Koepenick. That’s right.

Alison Martin: I’ve known Brad for a bunch of years. He’s a real force here in the San Fernando Valley of California. I met him because he was doing an animation camp years ago when I also knew his wife, Carol Koepenick. She was a wonderful teacher at the elementary school near me, Carpenter Elementary, and my kids went there and loved it. And Brad is like the Pied Piper. He can get anyone to sort of like jump on board, right? He’s infectious to be with in a in a very joyful way.

Jean Trebek: You cannot be sad if you’re in Brad’s company.

Alison Martin: That’s right. That’s exactly right.

Jean Trebek: And he has a whole wonderful new platform that brings together donors and influencers and charitable organizations. And it’s called Spark Rise. And it’s amazing. And that’s just coming out.

Alison Martin: And he helped start a Valley International Prep High School out in out in Chatsworth. Would that be Chatsworth, right? Where where the Hope of the Valley is?

Jean Trebek: Northridge.

Alison Martin: Northridge, right. Exactly. Sorry. Chatsworth was the old campus. And then he also works with Val Kilmer and does Cinema Twain. Mainly we talked with Brad about his heart…

Jean Trebek: Right. He shares a lot of just beautiful things that he is and that he has to embrace about himself.  And I love him.

Alison Martin: Me, too. He’s very sweet. So here he is, Brad Koepenick.

Brad Koepenick: All my beautiful friends.

Alison Martin: Hi, Brad.

Jean Trebek: I’ve got Brad on the brain because I’ve watched so many Brad things.

Brad Koepenick: Well, here’s the thing. Here’s the thing. I don’t care what we talk about. I really can’t even tell you the timing on this. The fact that you said today in particular is really weird. And by the way, do you believe in… I already know you do… synchronicity?

Alison Martin: Yes, of course.

Brad Koepenick: Love, magic, God, synchronicity, spirituality, cosmic leanings.

Alison Martin: Yes.

Brad Koepenick: Good. We have now won. We’ve won awards from four different chambers.

Alison Martin: Really?

Brad Koepenick: Yeah. Originally, the Steve Allen Award came from the United Chambers. That was for Ian – Spark Regional Award. We did a thing with West Valley Warner Center, but via Northridge Chamber, gave Michael the principal of the year and then a Chatsworth Porter Ranch gave Chuck the Unforgettable Educator Award this year.

Jean Trebek: Wow.

Brad Koepenick: So I’m a person who truly believes, and I really do, that my community is real. Yeah, I’m having a blast. I’m living my best life right now. I must have bumped into… And I’m not exaggerating 20 students last night and current students really… Because they sit in a canopy at the Northridge Mall but I’ll tell you one thing. It’s magical there.

Alison Martin: That’s amazing.

Brad Koepenick: That’s my life now.

Alison Martin: Now Spark Rise brings together donors, brands, influencers through social media.

Brad Koepenick: Spark Rise is a premier digital platform that – I call it Disneyland for activists. But we were a little ahead of the trend, and we have solutions for brands and nonprofit celebrities and activists, and we found ways to support them, that quite frankly, increase brands bottom lines. And so we’ve been doing it in various stages in various ways. We spoke in 30 states now and we spoke about Spark Rise at the United Nations. We spoke at Google headquarters. We did radio like Steve Jones from the Sex Pistols. We talked about Spark Horizon Close. We were part of stories of social impact for Capital One cafe. So it’s something that’s been going on, but it’s go time! The pandemic proved an interesting opportunity, so I merged the companies with really significant brand, uh, brand ambassadors, philanthropists and a tech company out of Seattle. So I have an extraordinary team, great governance and structure. And as you know, Brad needs governance and structure.

Alison Martin: Well, we want to talk about all your projects, but we want to talk more about you and how you are. You said at one point you are the guy with the most energy in the room.

Brad Koepenick: Okay. So I make a joke and I say, I’m BrAD. Why do I say this? Because I was a literal poster child for AD at one point. They made a film called Autistic Kids With Cameras. It was about my work with students on the spectrum. This was in 2006. The last thing I wanted ever. That particular year, my mother was passing away and there were a lot of things going on and I was working 14 hours a day, seven days a week, teaching. The last thing I wanted was a camera following me. But I was with actors for autism. On Saturdays, I taught students on the spectrum animation, filmmaking, storytelling, theater, improvisation. These are the things that, as a young man, this is what saved my life. I’ve been thinking as of late, my parents had a place down on Balboa Peninsula. My dad was a working man. He worked up here at Rockwell Atomics International. I don’t think he never took a day off. But when my dad got home, he put on a tool belt. He had a beer, we had dinner, and then he would go to some property that his uncles helped him buy. But at one point it turned into he bought a duplex at Balboa Island. The only reason I’m at Balboa Peninsula. Why am I telling you this? I spent the bulk of my time alone making films. And I was, you know, nine, ten, eleven when my science teacher told me that we had were having a science fair in sixth grade, I simply wrote the song Pollution and had it in a film. You did not do that in those days. This was not part of the approved curriculum.I didn’t know any better.

Brad Koepenick: And I bring up Balboa because those were the days when I took my speedboat out and would just head out. Yeah. I had a Boston whaler and that meant I get to go out as far as I could till I scared myself and dream. And I saw whales and I saw crazy stuff. I got to live in that world where actually theatre and animation and filmmaking gave me a storytelling pathway that I use now. So. I don’t apologize for my energy because, quite frankly, it’s a superpower. Yeah. And it’s what saved me as a teacher because I didn’t care if you paced in the back of the room. I had a circle outside the door. If you needed to take a few seconds or a few minutes or even the hour to get yourself together. I’m extremely compassionate about all of us, if you if don’t mind me saying so, that are somewhere on the spectrum and it enabled my teaching. So this energy and it is a lot of energy – served me really well as a young actor. I found my way to Chatsworth High School where I met my very best of friends and they all went on to storied careers in the industry and I still work with all of them. I’ll tell you this.

Brad Koepenick: What I said for 30 years, teaching was the ability to create, nurture and maintain meaningful lifelong relationships. It’s the single skill that will propel you in the 21st century…And here’s what I love about that’s conflict resolution. That’s forgiveness. Those are listening skills. These are persuasive speaking techniques. That’s precision listening, active listening, listening for entertainment. I always said as an actor, you find the character in the other actor’s eyes. You find your character, that means you’re connecting. So my teaching led to a rather obscene amount of beautiful relationships. I was afforded the opportunity to not only teach one class in a school, I was at 150 schools, right? This is not an overexaggeration. I was just a guy at the Country School… Jean’s child was was there. She didn’t know me then, but I was right there. I remember standing next to you a thousand times, and the gentleman at this very progressive school allowed me to do what nobody was doing then, which was animation with young people. I, I, I lucked into animation early on. I found a camera when my son was going to be born and I ran over to Bullocks to buy a camera to film the birth. What do you know? There was a little button that said Anim. I was like, Does that mean animation? The guy goes, I don’t even know what you’re talking about. I said, If that means that that camera takes a frame a second, you can push a button and it goes like that and if it’s got some options. He goes, Nobody’s ever asked this. I said, I’m asking. So sure enough, it had a quarter frame. Half frame, one second frame. I said, I’ll take five of them. Wow. My wife said, What are you doing? We can’t afford five cameras. And I said, This would be amazing. So I started an animation program at the Country School that grew into after-school programs that… name a private school because I was at every one of them in Studio City, Sherman Oaks, Woodland Hills, all the way through Calabasas and Agoura, all the way to Malibu. And then the thing just grew and grew and grew. We became Celluloid Heroes movie camp that’s named, of course, after my favorite band of all time. That’s The Kinks. Uh huh. I was obsessed with The Kinks, but it started as after-school programs, and it turned into camps. Once it turned into camps, we exploded. So my partners, John and Greg Kenseth, and I would do this in firehouses and temples, and we just did it wherever students wanted it, and we did it nonstop. So we would have 30, 40, 50 kids in a camp once a week, but then we’d be down in Newport, we’d be in Orange County, we’d be in LA, we’d be in Agoura, we’d be over at NoHo.

Brad Koepenick: My home was Lankershim and Magnolia over the what used to be Pitfire Pizza. Oh, yeah. And my buddy, who I had founded the Whitefire Theatre with, we were a founding theater company there and did some plays there that became movies. And it’s really fun because honestly and this is true, the movies and plays that we did, they sort of echoed Tennessee Williams, echoed Mark Twain and echoed Sam Shepard. And now I’ve literally made movies about Mark Twain. I’m making one about Tennessee Williams. And Sam Shepard is my favorite playwright. And so I’m living it all now. It’s manifested. It’s manifested because I’m the luckiest man in the world. I have 10,000 foot soldiers that are media literate. They’re creatives. They’re loving. They know all my faults. These are my students, right? And now they say, Hey, coach, I want to make a movie. Well, okay, I’m making one. This weekend, I started acting again after 25 years and I’m producing with my students. They’re tech geniuses. They’re innovators. And they invite me in. And I say, no, I don’t have time. I don’t have time because I was teaching. And now I’m like, Yes, that’s right. That’s right. The answer is yes. Right?

Alison Martin: Tell me tell me a little bit about your idea of forgiveness. So you said that forgiveness is an important human skill. Why?

Brad Koepenick: I loved when I taught because I taught communications and that gave me the opportunity to break a million rules. You know, you’ve got that personality. I’m, like, follow me. Let’s go. I was wild. But when it. I’m really working with underserved kids in a meaningful way. You’re talking about family situations. And when you’re in the trenches every day, that can overwhelm you. So, my students, I really devised our own curriculum. Based on creating a sacred space where we could communicate, including me… my most personal fears. Obstacles, maybe. Life story. And finding a way that was appropriate without doing that thing where you cross into psychology. I never did that. I had a psychologist the best in the world, by the way. I had her right here. So we had a safe, sacred space where we would discuss things openly. Tears flowed. It was incredible. And I watched students from incredibly difficult situations confront, express themselves and use that sacred space to come to a place of healing.

Brad Koepenick: Over the years, I learned to come to a place of healing because I’d done so many community circles with my students and so many activities and exercises where I can’t ask you to do something if I’m not going to model it, right? So, teaching media literacy led to conflict resolution that’s negotiate, compromise, compromise, avoid, delay. Surrender. Get help. That I would I would go through those. I’d say we’re going to have a big year this year. We’re going to learn a million things. But honestly, I want to speak to you about the fact that all I really care about, is that you understand that there’s help. If it’s not me, it’s someone in the lobby. If it’s not someone in the lobby, it’s a parent who’s standing over there. It’s not a parent, it’s over in that person’s office over there and there’s a therapist over there. But the ability to take care of yourself. Practice self care. And then eventually, which has changed my life, mindfulness and meditation on a daily basis. Um, will lead to having the kinds of skills, forgiveness that will provide you with a better life for yourself.

Alison Martin: That’s beautiful. I agree.

Jean Trebek: So, Brad, what do you think mindfulness is? What is it about mindfulness? Because you hear that a lot.

Brad Koepenick: Okay, so I’m running around. We called it the Willy Wonka tour. Alison was there. We’re in an old brick building. I have two months to open a school. So I’m giving the Willy Wonka tour. By the way, it was magical. And it was the Willy Wonka tour because I know how to build teams. And in that case, we had one of those extraordinarily cool teams where it was like, I believed every word I was saying. I’ve never actually had to sell anything I don’t believe in. But in this case, it was like, we’re going to be speech and debate champions. Why? We had the national speech and debate champion- the best teacher in the in the country. Oh, by the way, every kid’s going to go to college of their choice. Why? Anne’s the best at what she does. She’s a partner and she will get you into the college of your choice. That is what she does. Oh, don’t talk to me about our parent body. I happen to have one of the strongest leaders I’ve met in 30 years, and she doesn’t even know I know her. My wife dealt with her. So that’s Alison. But my point was, I’m running around giving this tour, and at the very, very end, I would say… This is a school of mindfulness and meditation, and the parents would look at me. I was a little bit talking out of my- You know what? Because, yes, I knew of the David Lynch Foundation they provide in public schools around the country. And my friends were with the David Lynch Foundation. Yes, I knew of the Mindup Foundation because Goldie Hawn is awesome. And she gave Mind Up to my teachers. So I knew we had people that were going to bring us meditation and mindfulness and they knew what they were doing, so we did it. But the real beauty was one night when a couple moved in. I’d wanted to bring some people in from up north, from Silicon Valley, San Francisco, etcetera. This couple walks in and I gave them a Willy Wonka tour and he says, Shut the door. And he says, You need to know based on what you just did, I’m going to sell my home and move to Los Angeles with my two daughters. By the way, we teach mindfulness and meditation around the world. And I said Thursday night, 7 p.m., four nights later, I walked into the space. A man with AD who had to lie his whole life right during theater exercise.

Jean Trebek: And how was it?

Brad Koepenick: Oh, it was great. I’m relaxed. No, no, no. He whispered something in my ear that night. A mantra. And it changed my entire life. Wow. And he and his beautiful wife not only left their daughters in our school, by the way, they’re incredibly special. And they just graduated university and are doing social impact work and business at a level that I’ll never understand. But he came in with the students for four years, and we had a mindfulness and meditation class that was not a joke. So the woman that we had teaching Natalie was just really, really good at it. I took my first sound bath in that class and now I go to the creative visions in Malibu and do it over the beach. So I learned my meditation practice. With my students and in some cases, some of my students even taught me to go deeper and deeper and deeper. And that’s real. It changed my life. And everywhere you look around the globe and I know you know this because you interviewed global leaders and thought leaders, it is the conversation we’re way past. Is it good for you? Do you need it? It is the conversation in leadership and especially in the tech world and startup world.

Alison Martin: Brad, what’s the first thing you do in the morning?

Brad Koepenick: Meditate. I have a practice where I, uh. Well, I’ll just…I’ll get specific. But I’ll tell you this. There are certain things I say out loud. I’m a gratitude list guy. I’m a big gratitude list. I say mine out loud because I’m a kinesthetic learner. So I like to move and I like to do things. So I sometimes, as I’m driving in the morning, scream mine out. I’m grateful for Jean. I’m grateful for Alison, I’m grateful for Val. I’m grateful. And I just go down my investors, my advisors, my best friend, of course, my wife is at the top, right? My wife’s at the top. Um, uh, 40, 40 years together. Um, and she learned to meditate. It’s been really important, especially during those extremely trying times. The last several years, my morning practice is a practice of writing. I write. I speak my gratitude list. I attend programs, seminars, and other such things that promote wellness. And it’s funny. I used to ramp up. I’d listen to Radiohead Muse I’m a rock n roll guy, but put it on loud. Get to work so that everyone can follow you to the next blah blah. Nuh-uh. 8 a.m.. Get in the car and I wind DOWN. Yeah. And get to a place of quiet head. Quiet mind. And usually it’s going to be Stevie Wonder, right? Little Cat Stevens thrown in with some few musical theater songs and been big on Godspell lately. And I wind down. So my morning used to start ramping up. Not a healthy way to live. Now it starts all the way winding down so that I can be as loving and kind and shut the you know what up for the day, right? So thoughtful, honest, intelligent, necessary, kind to think methodology. Do I need to say this? Does it need to be said by me? Does it need to be said now? When I’m in, when I’m dealing with someone in business now, I really do pause. I didn’t understand pause until I learned to meditate. And now it becomes a daily strategy for every single conversation that I have.

Alison Martin: Oh, that’s… it’s great.

Jean Trebek: It is great. And you’re so right. Brad, about meditation. It’s not whether it’s good or bad for you. We know science knows that it is important. And I know myself when I do take time to sit with myself, you know, meditation gets all these weird connotations and the idea of “no thought” – And that’s not it. But when it’s like plugging into something deeper, more than just those quick shooting star thoughts. You know, it just grounds you. With a lot of beautiful energy that you have, so am I hearing you that that meditation helps ground you?

Brad Koepenick: I would say it’s the number one practice in my life right now that has led to transformational change in my family, myself, my professional career and my life. And like you said, when I now get to connect with young people who we’ve been through this together and we all have a shared language about something like meditation, it leads to really meaningful and deep and profound productive experiences and projects that I don’t think would have otherwise come from somewhere else. And those now take the form of films  and sometimes short films and TV shows and tech companies and processes that I just don’t think would have come from anywhere else. I was lucky enough. I’ve been writing lately.

Brad Koepenick: In 2004 and I got to teach with some pretty profound people like Mikhail Baryshnikov and Edward Albee. But the man that was there that transformed my life was Paul Sills and Paul, his mother was Viola Spolin, and Viola Spolin brought theater games to communities. Then eventually those theater games became improvisation. She wrote improvisation for the theater. Her son Paul took those same theatre games in the 60s. He applied them to professional actors and he started Second City. Paul is one of the more profound directors in American theater, where he was very much a mentor to me in his life.

Brad Koepenick: I got to do story theater with him and what do you know? I’m there teaching this thing for kids, but Paul is right there, so I’m in his workshop and I bring it up because, well, one, you’d be playing a game. You know? We’ve all done theater games in theater class, whatever, our whole lives. But with Paul, he would just play the game. Right? Right. Just play the game. And I’m like, What? So, I got led into Spolin. Next thing I know, I’m working with my idols. Only people I’ve read about in books were once a week without talking about anything else – we simply did Spolin games. Viola Spolin called that process meditation in motion. Wow. And one time I got to go to Paul’s barn with 30 teachers from around the world science, math, English of all grade levels. And all we did in a magical barn in a blue circle was take our shoes off in the morning, say not it, not it, not it, and play games. And then at the end of the day, we would reflect on where they fit into our curriculums and how we might use these games in this process.

Brad Koepenick: And I only bring that up because that was the closest I’d ever come to true meditation. I didn’t realize it, but in the process of one of those games one time we played this game called Transformation and I literally opened my eyes at the end and people were staring at me. I was lost. I was somewhere else. I was in a pure state of bliss and joy and play. I only bring that up because I’m not so sure that if that didn’t save my life through certain years because I was doing the grind thing, I was doing the whole thing, the whole unhealthy thing. And then, when I found meditation, I start to reflect on, Wow, really? The universe has been throwing this at you in various ways and you just weren’t listening, right? So now I listen to that still voice. I try to build upon it. I try to surround myself with people, which is why you’re so important to me. You’re so important to me because, when you bump into people in life, when they’re dropped into your life and you didn’t take the time to see them. It can be. Well, let’s go in the other direction when you do, take the time to see them…When you are still enough to be opposite somebody and they take the time to see you. It can be positively and utterly a game changer. Yeah. And you two are that for me. And when you invited me to write for you, it was an opportunity for me because I’m already amassing these people around the world for Spark Rise. But it was like, This is incredible. It’s like you two sort of just got me and I was just able to go to meet so-and-so and you’re like, Yeah. And it was really joyous. It was nothing but positivity, nothing but beautiful people in the same space. And at our first high school graduation, I did give a speech on taking the time to see each other, and I gave that speech because I’ve noticed so much in my life that people don’t take the time to see each other. I wrote a curriculum on Crash when the film came out, but I do believe that we crash into each other so that we can feel something. I do believe that if you take the time every day that the miracles flow, they’re everywhere. And yet I can’t tell you how many times I’ve witnessed somebody right here in front of somebody and it’s like, wow, they didn’t even see, you know?

Alison Martin: Yes.

Brad Koepenick: We lost a beautiful man who took over from my communications class at a school this year, but he was simply flowing through as a substitute at the time. And I was running around and ,as soon as I walked by him, I felt his energy and I stopped and I said, Can I talk to you for a second? Who are you? And he said, Why do you ask? And I said, Who are you? And he told me and I was looking for somebody to be my replacement. For my communications teaching, which, by the way, that’s all I knew, right? Well, he tells me my name is so-and-so and I was the director of communications and marketing for Universal for 20 something years. And he lists out this ridiculous resume. And I said, What do you want? And he said, Well, I’d love to teach because you love teaching, don’t you? And I said, By the way, where have you taught? And he said, USC. Wow. And I said, Would you like to start teaching here next week? And he said, yes. And that’s the kind of “Right”.There are these right in our midst every single day. They’re the most beautiful human beings. And just like things going on and we blow right past and don’t want to blow right past anymore.

Jean Trebek: I love that you say that, Brad. I’ve read so many books of, I guess the afterlife or what happens metaphysically, and the one question so beyond there being no judgment when you look back. But the question apparently that this one person said that was asked when they had a near-death experience was – how present were you to your own life? And I remember reading that and it took my breath away. And I remember going on a five day silent meditation retreat. And at first it was awful. It was so-

Brad Koepenick: Very hard.

Jean Trebek: You could not read. You really had to be with your own – with yourself. And I remember thinking to myself -this is the first time that I’ve really tasted oatmeal because in the morning, you know, you’re so quick. You stand in front of the refrigerator, you’re multitasking. And I just thought, you know, slowing down is a beautiful thing. And it’s hard when, like you said, I have a lot of energy. And I was always told as a little girl, can you please come and sit? Can you please go sit? Go watch TV. Go. You know, calm down. Calm down. And, um. And it’s a beautiful thing when you take take the time to be present.

Alison Martin: And see someone.

Jean Trebek: And see someone.

Brad Koepenick: I was an actor in my 20s and 30s, like I said, and actually worked, which was odd, but I never enjoyed it. I was never present for myself. I never truly locked in, but I worked. It was my whole thing. I wasn’t there. I believe a Strasberg said at one point there is no acting until 50. I’ll take it I’m 62, but I’ll take it. And say that because I mentored young actors and professionals my whole life. But now I can be present and model that for them and say, you know, you might want to consider because what I’ve found now in meditation is just an enormous amount of joy in being still on stage, an enormous amount of joy. I was in high school and I was very, very, very adept at physical comedy because my body flew in different directions and I was doing a play called Scapino. And this is a play where you literally – you swing from ropes. I would have doctors come up to me afterwards. And they were right, by the way. They would say, I need to speak with you. Meaning? Are you okay? Yeah. And I don’t think you are. And they were right. And. It’s really fun when you start to get into, wow, I can only take care of me, right? I have the option now of whether I want to be slow or tap into that energy.

Brad Koepenick: Because that energy is not bad. I want to get away from that whole methodology where you’re saying to everyone, you’ve got to slow down all the way. Don’t throw out the baby with the bathwater for a second here. It’s my superpower. I love people. I stand in a canopy on Wednesday nights in a crowded community space because I love community. I’m an extrovert. This is okay. You know this is okay. So go find yourself an introvert to be your partner. Go find. Go find the dot, the cross, the people to take care of the stuff that you’re not getting handled and you be you. Right. And that’s why it took me a long time – 62. This company (Spark Rise) is not a company. It’s a movement. And it embodies literally everything about things that I love. A little entertainment, a little bit of media, philanthropy, technology, nonprofit. It’s just a lot of fun. And now I get to be me. I don’t have to apologize for being me. Right.

Alison Martin: I said to Jean, the thing about Brad is when you leave him, you feel like you can do anything. And so what would you say to someone who might feel stuck or in a job that they don’t love or retired and not sure what to do? How do they regain that inspiration or passion?

Brad Koepenick: I found music again. I had simply hung it up. I didn’t touch the piano. And then, what do you know? We start that high school and this is a true story. Student named Noah. You know him? He comes up to me one day. We’re a few weeks into school and he goes, Brad, will you play a song with me Friday night? And I’m like, running around. I’m like, What? What? What song? And he goes, Sunday afternoon by The Kinks. I had to stop for a second. It just happened to be a song that I played with my old band in my 20s. And again, those young people, just by watching them find music for the first time and do it. I completely am reconnected with music theatre. I never was a visual artist and my wife just gave me an art lesson and you know, I painted. So I worked in an art gallery. Val Kilmer and I built an art gallery – Helmel – and it was for Val’s art. And that’s where I’ve been housed. But then what do you know? That high school moved over and they built a building and there’s a big two story house and they street art painted it.

Brad Koepenick: It’s psychedelic. And I was like, This is my new home. I can be present on that second floor twice a week for a couple hours and be of service to this entity. But I’m telling you that because that whole excitement about finding visual art for the first time, finding poetry for the first time, finding writing again, I’m a writer. I never said that for 45 years. And I’m a writer. I write screenplays and I write plays and I write children’s plays and I write songs and I write articles. But I never said it out loud. So am I good. Who cares? Don’t care. Is it fun? I never knew that I was going to be able to have this whole authentic presence. It came from watching younger people find their skills for the first time and then just transmitting it back. So my suggestion is we only got today. What are we talking about? What do you want? You want to start a company? Go give it a shot. What’s the first thing that happens? Nothing. I mean, you know. Oh, no, your painting’s not good. Are you kidding? You know, that’s that song. What? What? Who cares, right?

Alison Martin: It’s the idea of play.

Brad Koepenick: And so I’ve spent the last six years with my soul brother, Val Kilmer. But Val, here’s what happened. We reconnect. He’s doing Mark Twain. He invites my high school students a decade ago to shoot him. Who does that, by the way? Nobody does that. My 15 year old filmmakers went down there. They weren’t even in a film academy, and they filmed him while one of the greatest actors in the history of cinema, while he got to find Mark Twain. I bring this up for a reason. I walked in the night to his first workshop performance, thinking this is going to be a nightmare. What am I going to say to Val Kilmer? Oh, that was really good. You know, what are you going to say? It’s going to be a twain wreck, as he says, within two minutes of him- he was fully at play! He’d never been funnier. And Val Kilmer is the funniest man I’ve ever met. Yeah. And I bring it up because it reinvigorated. We were just talking about Paul Sills and playing Viola Spolin. But this is an actor who people wrote off. At the top of his game. Because why? He’s fully at play. He’s embracing. He’s embracing. The physical comic, the humorist. And the very best of his talents. Right. And he’s doing it in the last stage of his career he had at that moment, I turned to him and I said, I’m going to spend the rest of my life putting this performance in front of as many students that I can all over the world. The end. And my beauty of my time with Val, because we were pretty much 14 hours a day, seven days a week, we traveled the country because of his condition. And I think most people know. But he had throat cancer several years ago, but the ramifications left him with… so I was his voice with him. And we get each other, let’s just say that. And I only bring this up because we would drive through San Antonio and I’d go for hours without talking.

Brad Koepenick: But he he calls it prayer because that’s his practice, right? I call it prayer meditation. Silence. But being silent together for so long over such a prolonged amount of time in such a meaningful activity as bringing Mark Twain to different cities and then blow out and visit a high school. Or we’d visit a college. It taught me a different way to move. So I credit. Credit, Val. Val, someone who I met at age 14 who was this big. This big. And he’s still that big to me. I credit him for bringing creativity and a little bit of self esteem… and he brought it back for me. I’m an actor and a writer and a producer again, because I got to spend time with somebody who just doesn’t question that.

Alison Martin: Right.

Brad Koepenick: He just goes for it. For better or worse, whether he loses everything or not, he’s going to go all the way to the sun. And that’s something that’s very meaningful and profound to be around because the two of us – we completed a whole together. Yeah. So my answer to you about somebody who should do this. Should I do that? Hey, guess what I just learned from this guy who is going through some pretty hard stuff. He rolls big, he rolls hard. And what I learned is it’s a lot of fun. So what do you care? Go for it. Go for it. Just say yes. I’m a “yes and” guy.

Alison Martin: Yes and – that’s right.

Jean Trebek: The power of yes and.

Brad Koepenick: But I also because I’ve been thinking a lot about it, I’ve been thinking like, you know, you get in this sort of world of leadership and blah, blah, blah. Yes. And but “no” is a complete answer.

Alison Martin: That’s right.

Jean Trebek: That’s true as well. Yes.

Brad Koepenick: And so drawing boundaries and things like that to part of, again, communications class. And these are things that I’m now learning for real as a man in 62, you know, all skills that, of course, you roll right into your professional life.

Alison Martin: Right. Brad, before we wrap up, I just want to ask, what would you like to tell a listener that’s important to you right now? Is it Spark Rise? Is it Cinema Twain?  What would you like us to leave with?

Brad Koepenick: In a couple months – There’s a premier digital platform that’s actually been years in the making. There’s a placeholder right there and it’s a place for you to be able to help. And you don’t have to give money and you don’t take your credit card out. You simply take an action and you get part of the thing. You get to be part of the things you care about with. By the way, the people that you love, those are your your favorite artists and your favorite filmmakers and comedians and musicians. And what do you know? You’re all taking this action, but you’re raising tons of money for the things that you love most theatre, arts, education and the environment and mental health and vets. And we can all do it together now because guess what? That’s where everything’s going. Yeah, it’s been going that way for a while. So I say, let’s do it. So go to Sparkrise.com in a couple of months. Don’t go there now it’s a placeholder site.

Brad Koepenick: And let me just say one thing about Cinema Twain – we built Val Metaverse. I still laugh, but we did it. Um, it’s called Camp Kilmer. Camp Kilmer. If you have a chance to see Val Kilmer’s performance as Mark Twain, if you like the Val documentary on Amazon Prime, if you like that little sliver in Top Gun 2. And man did I learn a lot on that one. Um, if you like that sliver, you must see this performance because it’s very rare in life that you’re treated to a performance … and it is Mark Twain, after all… where somebody so fully and joyously inhabits someone else and does such in a way that the questions. You’re left with a hundred questions. So try to check Cinema Twain out. Right now it only lives in Camp Kilmer, and it’s not even there yet. Okay. I’d still like to screen it for you, though, so come over to my house.

Alison Martin: I would love that. Yeah, we would love that. You’re just such an amazing person to me, Brad. And I love you to bits. Maybe when Spark Rise is out, we can do this again.

Brad Koepenick: Well, you two mean the world to me. I don’t know again why we come into each other’s lives like this. But you. We did something profound, and I’m real proud of that. But it’s it’s even more fun now to grow together.

Jean Trebek: Yeah, it is.

Alison Martin: Yes.

Brad Koepenick: We’re all in different places together, and it’s really fun to go, okay, what are we going to do next?

Alison Martin: Right.

Brad Koepenick: That’s right. And so I’m real grateful that you had me here today. Thank you.

Alison Martin: Have a great day. We’ll be thinking. We’ll be thinking about you all day. Sending you good Mojo!

Jean Trebek: Shine on.

Alison Martin: Love you, Brad. Say hi to Carol. Bye. See you later. Bye bye.

Alison Martin: He’s so great, isn’t he?

Jean Trebek: Love, Brad. Yes. Yeah.

Alison Martin: And I love that he, first of all, has done so many things in his life. When you read about Brad and you hear his other interviews and I love that this time he just really focused on what his soul is telling him and just about people being seen and heard and about being vulnerable.

Jean Trebek: He’s very deep and I think he has so much wisdom. I really enjoyed how he shared that he feels that his high energy is his superpower and that by, you know, he’s learned to meditate to kind of take all of that energy and and just solidify it and then it works for him rather than against him.

Alison Martin: And I love that he’s so inspired by kids. He is such an advocate for children and teens and young people. He really he goes out of his way to involve them and influence them in a really positive way.

Jean Trebek: Yeah, he’s a mensch.

Alison Martin: He’s a mensch. He’s a mensch-y guy.

Jean Trebek: He is.

Alison Martin: So, Brad, go Brad, go! Thank you for listening. And if you see something for Spark Rise, please go to it. Spark Rise is really amazing. Look it up. Google it because it’s it’s going to be great.

Jean Trebek: It is. It’s going to help any charity organization. That’s right. Just expand their donorship.

Alison Martin: Exactly. All right. Hey, bye. We’ll see you next time. Bye bye.

Alison : I have no memory anymore. Right now, I don’t know whether my head is jammed with files. Are you, Jean? I think you look like Jean. I don’t remember anything. Okay. I do know that we’re going to do an interview, right?

Jean: Yes. This is with Angela Montano. And I actually reached out to her because, I saw something in my inbox and it was all about prayer. And as a spiritual practitioner, that really piqued my interest. So I opened it up and I saw that this woman, Angela, offers an hour of prayer on the air with Angela Montano, and it’s absolutely gorgeous. She uses the power of prayer to help shift consciousness. People just sign up and you can type in or speak to her directly and tell her what your challenge is and she prays for you. Her prayers are not the typical type of prayer, which most of us think. Well, I’ll speak for myself, that I grew up in thinking prayer was more like a beseeching request, but this is a like a quantum, very expansive prayer. And it’s beautiful.  What do you think?

Alison : Well, I felt like for me, prayer has changed so much, like when, you know, raised by Catholicism and having going to church and a Catholic school. It felt like it was like the Our Father, the Hail Mary, more like something outside of myself could help me. And then we learned, when I was at the church with you, Jean, a more positive, reaffirming type of prayer. And what I love about Angela is she’s accepting of it all. She accepts all prayer as a way of helping yourself, helping others and connecting with our True Consciousness or True Being, right?

Jean: Angela has a beautiful website and she talks about “rethink prayer.” So many of us, including myself have been schooled in in affirmative prayer, and I forget that when I’m in a challenging situation, I can stop and pray. And whether it’s just, oh, help me God or Universe… please figure this out for me, whatever that is. You know, it’s really tapping into a power that is greater than ourselves, beyond the little thinking mind that is constantly analyzing and trying to figure it out on its own will.

Alison : And what I love too is Angela’s voice. She’s like –  okay, so just sit back, listen, and really like, just let it wash over you –  because She’s amazing.

Jean: She is such a delight.

Alison : It is such a treat because I want to just say that I think that what you Angela, bring to the table is a renewed passion and a new awareness around prayer.

Angela: Thank you.

Jean: I love that. And, just a little side note, I went to North Hollywood Church of Religious Science, and I’ve taken a few classes, also at the Agape Church with Dr. Michael Beckwith. So I know that’s where you studied, yes?

Angela: Yes, that’s right.

Alison : That’s beautiful.. And you’re a practitioner?

Angela: I am a practitioner,licensed through Agape, licensed through the Centers of Spiritual Living. But really what I do with prayer for me has gone beyond the affirmative prayer method, which is beautiful and wonderful and a revelation. And I’m so grateful I was trained in it. And there’s just so many portals to enter into prayer.  I’m just so grateful to be available to prayer and entering into it in so many ways. Like, if you’re terribly depressed, to pray affirmatively is very, very hard. There has to be another way.

Alison : Could you explain that a little bit more? So you said you go beyond affirmative prayer, right? So for the listeners, can you just give a little snippet of what affirmative prayer is and then how you’ve moved sort of beyond that?

Angela: Right. Okay.

Jean: And one little thing, start with a prayer of supplication then a prayer of affirmation.

Angela: I’m going to start with affirmative prayer. Then speak to what you’re saying, Jean, and then go on to the beyond. So what’s amazing and revelation like a revelation about affirmative prayer for those who’ve studied it and know it, it’s got a technique to it. So many people I work with who have even grown up in religion so often I hear no one really ever taught me how to pray. You know, it’s like, bow your head and guess we’re doing it, you know, and we don’t really know what we’re doing. And so one of my big things I really want people to know is prayer has existed for centuries before the first religion was ever formed. So a lot of times we think like, Prayer is a product of religion. You know, prayer comes out of religion. That’s not true. And I’m not against any religion at all. And in truth, religion has contributed greatly to prayer. And yet prayer is this instinct to reach beyond whatever current mindset you’re in, out of which suffering is occurring. And I really do believe that is an instinct. Like we have the instinct to breathe, the instinct to eat, the instinct to sleep. Prayer is a spiritual instinct that I think we’ve lost contact with in a in a felt sense. And so I hope in my work with Rethink Prayer, I’m helping people rethink prayer to then enter into some kind of intimate, authentic experience of that reaching beyond. And even when I say reaching beyond, it sounds like I’m meaning like reaching beyond out there.

Angela: Where is God out there? I don’t mean that, I mean the Beyond…that is… I don’t know what kind of direction to tell you? I could say the beyond that is within? But within where? Do I mean behind my belly button, in my spine, like where is the within? So within our consciousness,you know, a metaphysical perspective is where we are a consciousness appearing as a body, like our body is within our consciousness. You know, that’s really extraordinary to think that. So when we talk about reaching beyond, I just mean beyond the limited way I’m thinking about something that is making me think there’s no way out, something will never get better from here, right? So what’s so beautiful about affirmative prayer is it solves a problem for a lot of people where they don’t feel connected to any kind of higher power, whether we call that higher power the existence of a kind of divine grace, whether we call that higher power God, spirit, love, beauty. How do I connect to it? So in affirmative prayer, there’s actually a technique. When I learned it, there were five steps. Now they actually have a six steps. But how I learned it is you just begin with God is. So God is, means Love is. Peace is and joy is. So you would use these verities of God. We would think of the qualities of God being love, peace, joy, forgiveness, compassion, prosperity and plentitude.

Angela: And so you just begin, no matter what with, God is these qualities of God, these qualities of Love exist. And then you do something that’s very radical in step two, which is I am one with this Presence of God. So I may not feel joyful at all. So I’m saying joy is and I am the Presence of joy. So I don’t have any contact maybe in this moment with joy, but I’m declaring it in prayer. And then step three is realization, where you realize not only is God, God is and I am one with this Presence, number three is whatever is concerning me… whatever it is, it can’t pay my rent, boyfriend broke up with me, I don’t know where my child is, we’ve gotten a really frightening diagnosis in my family that you then realize this presence is in the midst of whatever concerns you. At the center and circumference of this thing, that’s scaring you. So you bring your awareness to infinite possibility related to something that maybe has you quaking in fear. And then from there you say thank you. You release the prayer and you let go. So what’s so amazing about affirmative prayer and just catch that word affirmative. I am affirming that I am one with this greater, higher power than I am currently aware of. And I’ve seen amazing things happen for people through affirmative prayer. Now, prayer of supplication, I love that prayer too. When I originally learned, affirmative prayer, affirmative prayer was considered to be like for more conscious people, you know, like we’ve evolved beyond needing help, you know, because we know God isn’t outside of us.

Angela: We’re one with God. So, you know, we’re not begging and beseeching. That’s praying amiss. But I don’t believe that. I actually believe help is a beautiful prayer. And I believe it’s a prayer of high self esteem, because if anybody can just say help, they’re declaring they’re worthy of help. And even Michael Beckwith, who you mentioned, Jean, he told a story once about he was, I think in Costa Rica, he was swimming and he got pulled out by a tidal wave, like no, I don’t know, by a riptide, you know, And he was trying to swim back, He was getting super tired and he was really beginning to doubt he was going to make it back, And he even began to think. I didn’t think I would go this way, but this could really be it for me. And he said spontaneously, with no thought, something deep, deep, deep down within him moved through him, and it was just the word, “help.” And he said right after that, this huge wave came and pushed him into the shore. So, I mean, I love help. It’s one of my favorite prayers. And I probably do it every day. You know, I think of we need a toolbox of prayer perspectives and modalities. Because there’s just not one way to pray. Just like you don’t get dressed in the exact same thing every single day. I practically do. But I mean, normally you know, you might, you know, different seasons, different clothes. It’s kind of different seasons, different portals into I like to call it the prayer field. I didn’t coin that term, I heard that from Reverend Coco Stewart, who is also of Agape. And I was part of the pastoral care ministry there for about ten years. And it’s just like delivering things to the prayer field. It’s like delivering. Where we would be very constricted in our perspective to a possibility greater than we can imagine. You know, Emily Dickinson says dwell in possibility. I think that’s another great word for higher powers is just possibility.

Alison : And when you say your prayer has moved beyond that, could you give us an idea of what that might look like?

Angela: And maybe I’m not being perfectly accurate in saying beyond, it includes that and more. So when when I think of other ways that I pray, that I think is very good…. I did create a kind of prayer method called the vulnerability prayer. And it just starts with like, you know, I need and everything I think I need, I want everything I think I want. And then I offer all these needs and wants to the deep reality of peace that we all are and let go. And I feel very cleansed by that prayer. I mean, vulnerability is a strength, not a weakness. And sometimes I’ve taught affirmative prayer for decades, and a lot of times students like, am I doing it right? Am I doing it right? It’s almost like you’ve got to be so convicted and declaring God is, I am and right in the midst of this, God is. And sometimes, you know, it’s like, well, I can’t be vulnerable. And so I love the vulnerability prayer. Um popular, oh I don’t know how many years ago, maybe 7 or 8 years ago it became I think pretty well known, his Hawaiian method of prayer – Ho’oponopono,  Are you aware of that one?

Alison : Yes. Yes.

Angela: So that is an interesting method of prayer. And I’ve seen many people, you know, do different versions of that. I don’t know if you would like me to speak about that.

Alison : Sure.

Jean: Yeah.

Angela: Well, Ho’oponopono is this prayer that the story goes… That this man worked in a psychiatric ward where there were psychiatric patients who were criminals and they were imprisoned and instead of meeting with them, he sat with their files, and he did a prayer where he said, “I’m sorry, please forgive me, thank you, and I love you.” And so, when he’s saying I’m sorry, that’s a deep, mystical perspective on prayer. He’s saying, I’m sorry that whatever happened to you has happened to you. He’s taking even responsibility for what happened to them. Like somehow on my watch, this is happening. He’s saying I’m sorry for my perspective of you and society’s perspective of you. We’ve perceived you as other, as bad, as criminal. So it’s a deep Compassion in I’m sorry. And then the please forgive me, it’s offering all that one must go through in being so utterly misunderstood to end up with a mental illness and a record, you know, like like how many moments were missed for that person? So it’s like, please forgive me. Please forgive our world. You know, please forgive everyone…When I’m saying please forgive me, please forgive every teacher, every parent, you know, every one that may have held you that that didn’t… So I’m sorry. Please forgive me. And then thank you. Is the assumption that the gratitude is filling the space. And then I love you is the healing infusion of love. And as the story goes, there was that ward people got well and moved on to better situations in their life.

Alison : That’s gives me chills.

Angela: Yeah, I actually do that one practically every night. And what I often say I’m sorry to, at this point in my life, is just I say I’m sorry to the day, because I know every day is utterly miraculous. Like I bit into a blue actually a BlackBerry earlier. And it’s like, how do I describe that alone was amazing. And yet, how many moments do I miss? You know, when am I critical and damning something rather than blessing it? You know, when am I not seeing what’s really being offered to me in the day? How much love and joy and peace and prosperity am I missing? Because I’m caught in a loop in the divided mind where I’m going to name this good, this bad.  You know, the outside of my house needs to be repainted right now. So now that’s bad, you know? And then, you know, I’ll go in and what else needs to be improved? Or so I, of course, do my best to live in praise and I fail every day. So I love that prayer because I like to ask the day for forgiveness, like all the things I missed. I don’t know. It cleanses me.

Alison : I love that. Yeah. Yeah.

Angela: I told my girlfriend I did that. She goes, Oh, Angela, I think you’re like a martyr. But I don’t feel that way about it. I feel, you know.

Jean: It suits you and thank you for sharing that, because those of us that are on a, I mean we’re all on a spiritual path, but those of us that it looks more obvious, Um you know, when we say we’re sorry and we’re consciously really choosing our words in that moment, it doesn’t mean… We know our intention behind saying it.  I love what you said, Angela about the moments we miss, because if we can really hold on to the perception that everything is a miracle…who is it? Albert Einstein that said everything’s a miracle or not?

Angela:  I don’t know who said that. I think he might. I don’t know. I want to say Walt Whitman. Everything is a miracle or nothing is.

Jean: But it wasn’t me…haha

Angela: Do not quote me. Do not quote me.

Jean: The other thing I wanted to bring up and thank you, you’ve already given our listeners so much beauty from what you just said, on your Monday Rethink Prayer, I love when you say, “I am more interested in love.” You know, you say that sometimes to whomever you’re holding space for and praying. Can you just talk about that? Like how or what advice or what tips can you help all of us that are listening to you be more interested in love? Because that is so healing.

Angela: You know being interested in love, Is being interested in ourselves. It’s being interested in our own true nature. And there is love and there’s the experience of fear. And in a way, every moment is a choice between love or fear. The Course in Miracles teaches us love or judgment, but judgment and fear are you simultaneously in that or use synonymous synonymously in that text.  And so fear, if we think of it as an acronym- false evidence appearing real. So. I don’t know why I mentioned the thing about, you know, and I know it’s a very superficial could not be more superficial example, but my house needs to be painted on the outside, right? So I look at it and there’s a place where the paint is chipping. And when I’m critical of it, it’s because with that chip, I’m moving into fear. So anytime we’re feeling we need to rank, we’re in fear. Any time we think we, you know, any kind of survival mentality is fear based. You know, we’ve got to get higher, we’ve got to get better. Even self esteem is like, we’ve got to get high self esteem. And how do we get high self esteem? Well, I’ll compare myself to other people. I think I’m doing better than them. I’m not doing as well as those like we’re trying to rank ourselves. That is fear and it grips most of us. I think unless we’re completely in a communion with our own true nature, most of us are susceptible to this feeling of less than, you know, worried about our survival.

Angela: How are we measuring up? So when I say I’m more interested in love, I really am more interested in love. But for me, I have to turn back to love because fear grabs me right? The minute I’m critical of a house that’s keeping me warm, keeping me safe… I mean, who cares that the paint is chipping, You know? I will get it painted at some point or something else done. But I, In my deepest authenticity, I really love my house and I’m more interested in loving it, in praising it, in appreciating it and being grateful for it than in being critical. So when I say on my podcast Prayer on the Air, I’m more interested in love, I’m saying that to myself and all of us like, can we together as a prayer collective be more interested in love? Now what’s so interesting to me is loving feels so much more natural. Fearing does not feel natural. It feels like something’s off. You know, it feels like a pretty, you know, common habit. I’m used to this, but it doesn’t feel natural. I sometimes say it’s like kind of like wearing shoes that are too small and you’re like, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, But you keep wearing them.  You stand in love..you ground in love. And it’s like, oh, these are the most comfortable shoes. Like we’re all equipped to be loving and to love what is. And prayer is always about bringing whatever is, into alignment with that broader, you know, energy within us and in the world of love.

Alison : You know, it’s interesting. I was reading or listening about you and it sounded like in your maybe it was high school years, you had a lot of things happen. And it made me think, I wonder whether that sort of fear or trauma helps crack open this desire for awakening? Do you know … And do you think that, You know, because you can’t really turn on the news without that, do you think, what do you think,  that’s indicative of something going on with humanity? Or it’s just those two things sometimes rub up against each other for me. Do you know?

Angela: Yes, I do. So, number one, I suspect that is what happened to me. You know, in high school, I broke a bone in my neck and was close to being paralyzed as a gymnast. My boyfriend and friend were killed in a car accident right after going to the mall to get my Christmas present. And something happened to a family member, that was quite devastating. And it all happened within a three week period. And I was almost in the car with my boyfriend and friend, and it was Just very interesting that I was not. And after that, I moved into a very deep grief before then, you know, I kind of was just. You know, I was definitely, you know, on track to do everything I could to please my mother and be a good girl and all that stuff. But I hadn’t experienced anything like this. And I had a moment. I couldn’t participate in gym class. And I was walking around the track and I was watching people laugh and play, and I couldn’t even locate a smile anymore. I couldn’t even Imagine one. And I just saw a tunnel and it was like I was dropping deeper and deeper in it. But as I was walking, it began to appear to me almost like physically, and in this physical thing I saw, I realized I could put my hands like in the tunnel and my feet and I could stop myself. And so and then I looked up and I saw this light and I began physically, this is all happening in an image. I’m just walking around the track in reality. But I started to inch toward this light and I had lots and I have had through my life many mystical experiences, supernatural experiences since then. And I think that, you know, began my journey. I mean, of course, like everyone’s journey, it went many, many different ways. And so I have a what I suspect, what I sense is happening on the planet today in this time of such equal disequilibrium, you know, is that the heart of humanity is opening and I think of the World Wide Web and like what’s allowing us to communicate, the way we are right now, as being the awakening of the global mind, if you will. Like you and I could pretty much learn anything. We’ve got information because of the web like it used to be information was power because it was rare to have the information. Now nothing about information is rare. What’s rare now? What humanity needs now is of the heart. And when I say of the heart, I mean of God is compassion.

Angela: Compassion is the rare healing elixir and currency we’re opening to. And trauma and compassion are very interestingly, interestingly linked. And so I feel like we’re going through trauma after trauma after trauma collectively, and it is breaking our hearts. It is breaking our hearts. And we want to numb ourselves. We want to not watch the news. We want to just we’ll all be in my corner of the world where everything’s okay. Or if we’re in a corner of a world where not everything’s okay, maybe we’re just trying to cope. I think what I want to do and I want to allow prayer to help me and I think all of us is might our hearts break open? Might our hearts break open. And when you let when I let when we let our hearts break open, we’re willing to lose. We’re willing to lose. And everything about our culture, especially in America, is win. Don’t lose. Yeah. So it feels so counterintuitive. And it’s it’s not. It’s it’s actually the opposite of that survival. Fear based in fear based instinct to rank, rank, rank, rise, rise. Rise up the ladder. We have to be willing to lose and in loss, as the Buddhists say, there is gain. But we are not trained for this. We got to feel our way into this prayerfully.

Alison : All right. That’s beautiful. Because so many times, um, it’s interesting because we have a lot of friends who’ve studied a Course in Miracles or are very, very spiritual, religious bent. And then lately, I know so many people that are atheists. And I think it’s so interesting that you talk on your website and also other talks about prayer for atheists, because I you know, I have one very, very, very good friend that does not believe in God, will not say it. And he got very sick and he could not believe all the love he got. And I said. That’s God. He was like, nope, you know? And I’m wondering, could you address that a little bit? Because people don’t talk about that. Yeah.

Angela: I’m so curious about that. Like when people say I don’t believe in God, I really wonder what they’re not believing in. And are they not just believing in the concept of God? The construct of God? You know, some male figure or something outside of us that could save us but doesn’t.  So many people today, you know, 1 in 5 Americans call themselves spiritual, but not religious. And in their sense of reality, they’ve been able to expand and mature their sense of God to include not simply a being, but a state of being. A state of being. You know, what I love about the 12 step program is there’s such an open mindedness, they just call it higher power if you’re in a 12 step program and you can work with your own imagination, whatever helps you relax into that kind of possibility. It doesn’t have to be a being. Now, what’s so interesting about atheists and prayer, there’s a bit written, not a lot, but I’ve read through a number of conversations of atheists who are completely at peace and feel very good about their intellectual decision and clarity about not being a believer in God. And yet they report, I keep wanting to pray. Why am I desiring to pray if I don’t believe in God? And is it just something, a habit in the reptilian part of my brain that won’t let go? What is it? And I love this one blog I read by an atheist named JD Mauer, and it’s entitled, Why As an Atheist, I pray?  And his feeling is, in terms of human potential, it’s reported that we may use 10% of our brain, right? There’s a lot more human potential that we have yet to access. And for him that’s considered like the higher power. And so how do we get at that? How do we get at that? And he experiences prayer as a method to access greater potential in solving his problems. So I might call that greater potentiality… Love, God, and he calls it, you know, Human potential that prayer allows him to access.

Alison : Hm. That’s interesting. Yeah.

Jean: Especially how semantics the words get all twisted. And you know, if you say the name Jesus, people just some people really love it and some people just turn their head, you know. And, I think we’re coming to a point where we have to drop so much of the language, which which is a form of separation and just really feel into each other’s— where is that person coming from? Like okay, maybe they don’t use the same words as I do, but I’m not going to try to make my point here. Try to get them to use my language, you know? Um, I think going back to what you said, Angela, that being compassion, whether whatever your beliefs are in.  My my husband used to say, Jeannie,  I’m not religious, I’m not spiritual. And I’d say, okay, well, sometimes it’s like if a tree said, okay, I’m not nature, right? You know?

Angela: Yes.

Jean: I said, I’m not going to arm wrestle you here. You know, Um, I said, You are A loving, loving human being. You are super kind. You are super generous. You think of others. You’re compassionate.  Yeah. Guess I am.

Angela: Boy, you’re so right, you know? Words seem to get in the way. And in this time of polarity and tribalism, you know, we’re not traversing to others very well. Polarity means I can’t even imagine how you think what you think. Like, not only do I not agree, like, I can’t even imagine it, right?  So this tribalism, this resistance to traverse to other, like what do you mean by the word God? What are you talking about? When I think of the word God, for me in my heart, it is that which is too vast to be named.

Alison : Yeah.

Angela: You know, it’s synonymous for me with mystery. And somehow, I’m able to have an intimacy and a relationship with mystery and intimacy. You know, and I don’t know why and how someone else is another way. But those words, they do seem to get in the way. But I love what you also are saying about compassion, because perhaps as our hearts continue to break open, we will reach for one another. We will Be curious enough to listen to one another. We might just feel so alone and isolated. We’ll finally want to hear from another.  What do you mean? What are you talking about?

Alison : That’s so, so, so true.  Do you have every day or maybe not a spiritual practice that you follow that maybe you could tell our listeners on us about?

Angela: Yes, I have. I have such a long spiritual practice. I mean, it’s just gotten added on to through the years and don’t do 100% of it every single day. But I meditate and I have time I spend in prayer. I do yoga. I journal. I probably do everything you all do, you know, and you know, I do really like to say to people, you know, the practice of prayer. I’ve been interviewed and they say even that term feels radical to me. Prayer practice, like we know a yoga is a, you know, can be a practice meditation practice, you know, prayer as a practice. So when I bow my head in prayer, I do like to bow my head. I think of the head bowing like is all my stinking thinking, all my analytical everything, you know, all my fear based things, all my arrogance. And, you know, I like to bow it. And when I bow it, I think of bowing it to my heart. I’m not talking about the physical organ of my heart, but I, I allow that to symbolize the, the greater expression of, of the divine. And just that will even feel good. And sometimes I do Silent prayer. Because I do feel at this point, for me, the prayers pray me and I go in and out of a lot of different modalities. I pray for a number of people and a number of things. It’s kind of strange to be a professional prayer, you know, so I’ve got like, you know, I’m in it to win it for a lot of people. And when I say that, I mean I’m in it to really hold the space of possibility for a number of people. So, you know, I pray several times a day and probably hours a day.

Alison : And it’s interesting when for a long time I was raised very Catholic and I’ve had so many changes in where I where my heart lies now. But it was interesting because when I was young, I thought if we said a prayer for someone named Bob, right now, I asked can you do one for me? I didn’t realize that by doing it for Bob, you are doing it for me. So I think it’s beautiful that you are saying that you’re holding because then I feel like you’re praying for me and mine and Jean. And that you are actually praying for everyone, because I believe that there’s no separation between myself and the people you’re praying for… But I used to like I used to try to glom on. Yes. You know.

Angela: Yes. Yes. And that’s okay, too. But that’s a that’s an advanced state of consciousness to realize your oneness with, Bob. And to know that as Bob is being prayed for, you are being prayed for. I actually in my podcast, I do a lot of reminding of that, like, and remember, as we pray for so and so feel how that is for you, feel how that is for a loved one.

Alison : And that all the healing that you’re creating there, you are creating healing for what we were talking before about the trauma.  That everyone seems to be involved in. I think we’re all involved in it. Yes.  Thank you.

Angela: You’re so welcome. Thank you.

Alison : Thank you very, very much.

Jean: Angela, before we sign off, can we can we do a little prayer together?

Angela: Yes, of course. And what would you like me to pray about for?

Jean: I think just just well-being for humanity and compassion.

Angela: Yeah. Okay.

Angela: Yeah. So we begin right now with just a few breaths where we’re willing to be still and quiet. You know, one mystic said that God is the breath within the breath. So as we breathe, might we consider that God, the vastness that is too great to be named,  The mystery that is only and always love. Could it be? Closer to me than the breath I even breathe within the breath? Could it be that with me, that with you, this Intelligence, this Love that knows no fear? Might I have? Might you have? Might we have a capacity to drop the fear, the worry, the anxiety. And the terror, the anguish, the despair and enter into the possibility of peace, of love, of joy, of lightness. Might the solution to the constriction of trauma might it be right here, right now with you? With me? With us? And might we let go? Might we let go? Might we let go? Maybe we could let go of one one trillionth of a percentage of our resistance. Any time we let go we’re opening to the divine that is right here with us. And from this willingness to let go, and if we’re not willing to let go, maybe we were willing to be willing. Just any openness to let go of our perspective that, “Oh, things are going to get worse. I don’t see how they’re going to get any better. Where are we going to go from here? Nobody’s solving the problems that need to be solved.” Can we go from that to any time we enter into compassion, we’re entering into a vibrational frequency of solution.

Angela: So might we open to compassion? And I do mean the compassion of each and every one of us. My compassion plus your compassion. Expands compassion for all of us. And even though there’s only one compassion, as each of us opens the door to our own portal of compassion, we’re setting the stage, we’re creating an environment where others will find it easier and easier. And what is compassion? Compassion is heart connection. Compassion is non-judgment. Compassion is forgiving. Compassion is understanding for not understanding. And I claim something magnificent is happening right here and right now as we join together in a welcoming of compassion. I accept that the power of prayer is upon us and there is no geographical limitation to prayer, that this prayer is everywhere on this earth, in all the waters of the oceans, in the air, in each and every heart of our beloved human family. And I truly open to something magnificent has happened as we have held this space for the dawning of global heart opening, the dawning of increased and expanded compassion. I let it be trusting the living word of Truth, of God, of Love spoken through And as me, I deliver it, to an unfailing, responsive, loving, friendly universe. Uni-verse one song. And in this release and in this let go, I allow And let it be. I allow and let it be. May we allow and let this compassion be and let it flourish. So be it. And so it is. Amen.

Jean: Amen

Alison : Amen

Alison : Thank you. And I love that you said might and may. That is a real gift. Thank you so, so much. I could listen to you all day.

Angela: Oh,  I would love. I could just and chit chat. I’m a my favorite thing to do is chit chat. You know, talk and just talk. So thank you. It’s such a pleasure.

Alison : Thank you for spending this time with us.

Jean: Yes, Thank you for you, what a gift.

Alison :  Yes. Thank you very much. So nice! Have a great day.

Angela: You too.

Alison : Bye bye.

Alison : I so enjoyed her, Jean. That’s how I’m going to talk from now on. What do you think? Does it suit me?

Jean: Not really. You know?  Her voice is stunning and her heart soothing.

Alison : And maybe you’re right. Maybe it’s just her heart is so open.

Jean: Yeah, I think, you know, she has done so much inner work, and the proof is in the pudding and that she shares this with others. And I think that’s what it’s about also, is that once we accept the gift of love for ourselves, then, you know, we turn around and extend that love to others. And love is not like this little, push over doormat. It is a force that is exquisite.

Alison : And I loved when she says might, the might in her prayer, which leaves up an opportunity and also like might, might the answer be here might I allow this because then you’re at a point of choice, like positive choice and might doesn’t feel like you have to, you know, it just feels like it’s an allowance. It’s an allowance and a willingness and it’s so gentle.

Jean: I love it. Yeah, that is why I tune into her Mondays, you know, it’s a beautiful platform. It’s so generous of her to to offer this. And, you know, whether you have a challenge in your life or whether, you know, the your pond is kind of calm. Just listening to her is a gift to yourself.

Alison : Might might we be ending?

Jean: We might.

Alison : Do you feel complete?

Jean: I do.

Alison : All right. We’re saying goodbye. Thank you so much for listening. Take care. Okay. Bye.