A conversation with one half of the music duo Dwight & Nicole. Nicole Nelson shares stories of her adventures to now.
Welcome to a place where we're thinking together and thinking deeper about who we are and what we do in this world. Welcome to the Billosophy podcast.
Nicole Nelson:Hi, nice to see you so that you're here. I mean, I can't think of the last time I've hugged anybody even it's so it's just such a weird time.
William Forchion:All right. Welcome to Billosophy 101. I am William Forchion. And today, my guest is
Nicole Nelson:I am Nicole Nelson,
William Forchion:Nicole Nelson. That voice it. I'm like butter on a July day, I just melt, your voice. Nicole Nelson, tell us who is Nicole Nelson. What do you do where you come from? Because I have a lot of answers. But I don't know of all of them. So tell me in your words, who you are and what you do?
Nicole Nelson:Well, that is a good question. Who am I? seemingly I'm always changing. So I'm actually not very good at answering that question. Sometimes I have to like, read about myself to get it that I've done things in my life. And I'm called something just going to be really esoteric right off the bat. Why not?
William Forchion:Let's go there. Because a lot of places to go right? If you you create a big universe, then we're getting more places to travel.
Nicole Nelson:Indeed, well, I'm from Brooklyn, New York. I have two wonderful parents. My mother passed away recently, but I still feel her around me all the time. She is of Trinidadian descent. And she's very mixed many races. And my father is Norwegian and Irish from Brooklyn, New York. And his parents were like first generation immigrants there. And my mom, like I said, this was born in Trinidad. So my parents are very wonderful and opposite in every way. Kind of kind of people. I mean, physically, she's like, little, small, dark person. And he's like a huge giant white person. And their personalities are very different. And so I think if I try to get to the root of who I am, it's I encompass a lot from my upbringing. And I'm an artist.
William Forchion:So you just mentioned and in the word, this is 2021. We're just kicking off the year and 2020 was 1968. all over again. Did you have any? Were there any polarities about the Norwegian and the Trinidadian ethnicities within you as you grew up? Or as you got to be an adult? Or have you ever had polarities? Or did you feel like that helped you to, to fit in? Or did it help you to stand out?
Nicole Nelson:I'm going to answer all of the above. Yes, yes, polarities, but yes, absolutely creates superpower. And which I thought was overrated. Growing up, I didn't even realize I was like, Oh, I'm here as a bridge. I get it. I'm a bridge. And I love that. Because I'm a lover I want I want people to be playing music and hanging out and laughing and feeling alive. Like I feel so alive. And I've always felt extra, like a liveliness just buzzing around in there that needs something. I need to do something with it all the time. And so I'm always creating and I feel like I have a perspective. That's really why lens because of my upbringing. And in Brooklyn, New York, like in the 80s when I was a kid there was just like, the level of eclectic was it's still Midwood. Brooklyn is still very eclectic, although the nation in the world for sure is experiencing a lot of polarization. Where where I grew up was like this little, I don't know, it was a little safe space or like an oasis, in a lot of ways, in many ways. It was unsafe, right in many other ways.
William Forchion:But you know, I moved to New York in the mid 80s. But into Manhattan, Upper West Side. And, meh, you know, the it was a theme p ark of vices, basically, all of meh, you know, you didn't go to the Bronx, you went to only certain parts of Brooklyn, parts of Queens, and every place had a pocket where you could just disappear. And yet, every one of those places where pocket was which was supposed to be unsafe. It was a neighborhood, somebody lived there and thought that that was home or that was comfortable ever so you
Nicole Nelson:And a lot of what seems to be unsafe is like the perception still today. But a lot of it was actually, you know, pretty dangerous. Like you had to really know. You know what was going on around you and know your power to be like, safe walking up and down the streets of that neighborhood as a little kid. I remember like, if to be street smart.
William Forchion:Yes, street smart was a different thing didn't mean you had to be events, being savvy, being aware of your surroundings at all time. You will. I mean, you knew when somebody walked out of a building two blocks back because you felt it? Because it did mean, it wasn't just fear, it was danger.
Nicole Nelson:Exactly. So different. I mean, fear and danger connected for sure. But I didn't feel the fear. I did sense the danger. And I think that part of my not feeling afraid was how I was raised. My mother was like, you know, with energy, she would lead, you know, and we were sometimes we would go to like Coney Island at night and be on the subway, coming back after she and my aunt would like we would find some Caribbean restaurant and be eating like roti or something, right. And we would be taking a subway home. And I remember, like, just I don't know, a lot of people were down and out in certain neighborhoods. And I remember my mother would just handle everything, she would break up fights. She was fearless. So I learned about the power of being fearless and staying in your power in, in moments that are pivotal, you know.
William Forchion:So now, stepping in that place of fearlessness. Some of what I know of... you had physical challenges growing up.
Unknown:Yeah. How
William Forchion:do you step into the world with physical challenges, and still remain or learn grow to be fearless when it would seem like with physical challenges, the world could be a fearful place, a dangerous place.
Unknown:I think again, it's perception because and also degrees of challenges, like I had a lot of illnesses. But I was still very strong and very active. I you know, it's a kickboxing. I took ballet tap. You know, gymnastics as a dancer, I was a swimmer. I was an active kid. Despite having like, some physical stuff I had, like, just, I don't know, a lot of autoimmune stuff. And I was diagnosed with arthritis when I was 11. I was like, why does everything hurt? I had like cysts and tumors in my bones and all this kind of crazy stuff.
William Forchion:That's me. That's what I was alluding to some of the stuff you were mentioned about your legs and your and the challenges you had with that. Can you talk more about that? And because what some of what I get from you is that, you know, people talk about overcoming some things. And that's not something that I would say about you, is that you overcame, what I my impression is that you learned how to thrive with Yeah,
Unknown:I think that that's a good distinction to make. Because the story of the one who overcomes can be a downtrodden story, as something that is, for me, that's important, like the way that the overarching way that I look at my life. When I was a kid, I remember, gosh, I wish I remember who said I think maybe it was Joseph Campbell, I read a read or saw an interview, and I was really young. And it was like this. There's three different kinds of stories, there's romance, there's a comedy, and there's a tragedy. And like, you know, we could all be living in any one of these things. And we don't, you know, no till the end of your life, and I just was like, No my life. Regardless of what is going to happen, it's not going to be a tragedy. I refuse. I refuse to just like, you know, I mean, I've been through a lot where I lost my brother. He was my closest, my very best and closest, and he's still I still feel him with me too. But man I was it was right before my 13th birthday, and he passed away in our house and I was doing his paper out for him and came home and I knew he was gone before we even like got close to the door. And it was just this sense of there's like all of a sudden there was like an umbilical cord between us that was ethereal, just always there. And then I just I sensed he was gone. I was like, that's all I can say to describe that. It was like somebody cut that cord. And I
William Forchion:like he's gone. And I knew it was was an illness or an injury.
Unknown:He had asthma, very, very severe asthma and he actually died from the medication. And as a medication, he was over medicated, and he had a heart attack when he was 15.
William Forchion:Wow, okay. And you were to you were two years apart.
Nicole Nelson:Yeah, we were really close, he was an angel still is. learned a lot from him, I learned a lot from losing in two. And, you know,
William Forchion:so a brother... losing a brother, I'm very close to my brother, we're... we're two years apart a little more than two years apart. So I have a brother and a sister, my sisters in the middle, we're all 15 months apart. And we are very close. We were a team growing up. And even to this day, I'm in my 50s. And I can't imagine my brother not being there. And I had, I had moments where I worried when we, when I was traveling around the world. He has been a police officer in the military and then a police officer for his adult life. And I was, I was always worried that I was going to get a phone call saying that something happened. And so I, I don't I can't even imagine how I would go forward. Without him.
Nicole Nelson:You know what, it's impossible.
William Forchion:There you go. So this is all just agreed. We're good. So, you have you have gone. I mean, he's with you, of course. And I know, you know, you say your mother's with you as well. Yeah, you have continued to live fully. That doesn't mean there have been setbacks or tidal waves or whatever that have come along the way. But you just want to get more into your how you live fully, but you have managed to live fully. If you could pass on wisdom to someone who is in the throes of that right now. They're live lost a really close loved one, someone who is a kindred spirit to them. What, is there any consolation, if there any way that you can console them or? or help them be at ease with that?
Nicole Nelson:Yeah, I think I mean, I can't say that I could help someone to be at ease, because there's times when it's just not time to be at ease. And I think if I were to give advice on how to let go, it would be well, first of all, diving into your creativity. Because those kinds of deep emotions don't have like a word language, necessarily. Sometimes they do. But quite often, they don't a lot of the time. Deep, heavy emotion works with sound, I use sound healing and even as a kid, I mean, I would sing every single day and listen to music every day. I think that music was my, my personal bridge through that period, because my parents were struggling a lot at the time. And so they were in their own, like personal health, like, separate from each other, to like, they were an individual, personal health. And so I was like, alone, through a lot of that. Seemingly, I definitely was being guided, like ferociously guided and lovingly, like, that's where I learned about ferocious love that's timeless that that transcends
William Forchion:when you say guided how he was it, were they spirit guides? Were they actually people there in your life that were guiding you? How were you being guided?
Nicole Nelson:it was not people in my life, unfortunately, and I'm sorry for any person in my life that may be hearing this, but people really didn't know how to deal with it. You know, that was very, very tragic. And, and people just kind of, I had a few close friends. My friend Maggie was a goddess. And she was she was by my side like, she was by my side. And my friend Divina was by my side and like everyone else withdrew and couldn't handle it. It was just too much. And my mother had shoes bipolar my whole life. And after my brother died, that really she like, started getting into like a schizophrenia territory, like, made up everything was her own little world and it was not good. And so it was just a really, nobody wanted to be around females. I was alone, but thankfully actually because that's where I realized I was not actually alone and not being like surrounded by spirits or anything like that. I was very, like, pragmatic. Maybe that's not the right word. I was my father's agnostic, borderline atheist science ba astronomy nerd. And I was also like an honor student nerdy violin playing like Achieving academically kind of a kid. I was like a perfectionist like achiever. And so anyway, I learned quickly that spirits and talking about spirits was not a safe thing to do in my country at that time, because people are like, Oh, you're not okay, you know. So I was afraid of being labeled crazy, but I always sensed that nature was alive. And I was not alone.
William Forchion:But that's also akin that, you know, the spirit world and even talking, understanding and feeling the energy of nature and the voices of nature is close to that whole schizophrenia thing.
Nicole Nelson:Yes, it is. And my mother, where she's when she was a kid, she's a seer. She was always a seer. She, she always knew things about where I was, and what I was doing that was literally impossible to know, like, very specific things, she would have no idea. I don't know how she knows, but she would know, everything. So she was always like one step outside of her body, or you know, what I like to think of it now. Is, there's multiple versions of us of who we are, which is why the question Who are you is a hard one for me to answer. I'm like, well, which lane Am I in? Right now? You know, and like earlier, you said, how do you move on, when you lose someone like that? You don't, that part of you, that is in relation with them goes to sleep for a while, like it's, you step out of that, and then you're in this new reality, but that's what we're doing all the time. So tremendous loss actually teaches you the hard way, but the hard ways away, of how to survive, you know, when everything that you knew, or thought that you were thought that you knew, is pulled out from underneath, right? Well, this is a long answer.
William Forchion:That's a long answers. All right. So that's the beauty of this, you know, this is my show, and you don't have to break it down into sound bites, because if it's what's necessary, it's what's necessary. There's one thing I'm going to throw this out there it did not leading anywhere, but I just want to throw out the idea of you when you mentioned your mother, one of the things that came to me is that her energy body and her physical body, at some point no longer stay tethered. Imagine how she knew where you were because her energetic body could find you anyway, she she needed to and couldn't find all the people that she needed to connect to. And when
Nicole Nelson:just by thinking of us,
William Forchion:right with the severing of your, of your brother from the seen her energy body no longer had one of its tethers or all of its tethers. And either it chased after his soul to where it was going, or so I just don't want that out. There I am. That's just a little bit lesufi there.
Nicole Nelson:I mean, that is 100% the truth. When she was a kid, she studied dance and meditation, she had asthma also. And they didn't expect her to live very long. Many times. She had her last rites, were there three times as a kid. Wow. Yeah, and my brother definitely was also that Ill like it was he was hospitalized a lot. And it was tough. And but he just such a wise little angel, my gosh, there's
William Forchion:something that goes with that as well, because there's something there both your mother and your brother, if they are that, so close to the you know, they were threading the veil. If they were that closed, and they at a certain point they have to give over to at any point in time, it could go either way. And they accept either accept or fight death.
Nicole Nelson:They both accepted it. He did too. I remember right before he died, he was like, I don't know if I'm gonna make it through this. So like, tell my girlfriend that I love her to take care of mommy and daddy. Like when I was like you do not even have an option like you cannot leave me here with these people. Like
William Forchion:I got plans and you're in 'em.
Nicole Nelson:all of them.
William Forchion:Yeah, this is I mean this I can go on for hours and hours. In this topic. I want to shift a little bit because I really, I really, really, really want to plug the vibrations you put out there in song because I happen to check out a couple of your YouTube videos and I could very easily have spent hours just listening to your take on it doesn't really have a genre because it's r&b it is rock it is it is so it is just your soul comes out in song in a way that is so amazingly Wonderful and resonant with me. I don't care if anybody else likes it. I love it.
Nicole Nelson:Exactly. Me too.
William Forchion:Tell me a little bit about that. Where does your voice come from? Where does your song come from?
Nicole Nelson:I don't know, my heart. I don't, I have no idea I always could sing. I just always had that. You know, I just, it just is there. It's my, my voice my spirit was there is is here and always was like when I was I remember being very, very young. And I was just like, I know how to do that. Like, as if I had done it a million times.
William Forchion:Just feels comfortable. Do you need to sing?
Nicole Nelson:Yes, yeah, when I don't, I feel like I need to irrigate. Like, if there's like debris that gets stuck in my field, this was how part of how I were I healed myself because the the medical systems failed me miserably. I watched them fail my family consistently outside of like, oh, broken bone, reset it, like, you know, quick surgery, something is really bad and emergency like, obviously modern medical system health care system, thank God for that. But as a as a way to actually bring my body into balance where it will heal itself outside of cutting parts out. You know what I mean? Like, that doesn't actually fix the imbalance. That's right. And so
William Forchion:it removes and creates another imbalance,
Nicole Nelson:exactly. It's taking a symptom out that is the symptom is a cause there's something going on, which is why this thing is inflamed. So just cutting out the thing that's inflamed is like, okay, now it's gonna find another avenue or not, which is even worse. Right, you know. So I watched that at an early age. And I and I knew that I was supposed to learn another way. Because, you know, asthma, turns out was not a disease to treat with steroids to the degree that my brother was treated, it's actually a set of allergies. So, like, you know, now we know that, and his passing could have been prevented along those lines. Although cosmically, it's an overarching thing. And I believe, agreed upon thing way back. But, you know, along those lines, that was a lesson for me to say, Well, how can I heal myself, I know that I'm not doing these surgeries. I'm not taking that medication, because I've seen what it can do to people. Let's find out if there's another way. And I have the internet. So it's like, oh, I'm having anxiety attacks. This thing says meditation and yoga helps. Well, let's try that. Right. I didn't have medical insurance, cuz I was like, quit my job to become an artist full time. So I was like, Well, I better learn how to take care of myself.
William Forchion:And so I mentioned that I listened to your, your music on YouTube. Please tell everyone what was that I was listening to that you don't know exactly what video was using. But you have a guess you have a go.
Nicole Nelson:I have a group. It's called Dwight and Nicole. And we used to tour all over the place. And hopefully we will again,
William Forchion:Hopefully, please you need to be out there in the world. Yes,
Nicole Nelson:I know, I do miss it. I do miss it. Although the rest has been quite nice, but unexpected, unexpected joy of stopping and having to stop. But I digress. So it's called why and Nicole, it's it's just as much Dwight's band as it is my band. And that was the joy of us deciding to do this together was kind of like do I not have to do all of this myself anymore. Like, you write a bunch of the songs, and then I'll write some of the songs and we can like kind of come together and, and I'm saying he's got a great voice. Also, Dwight used to be in a band called The Dwight Richard band in Boston. Excuse me. And I used to go see him all the time. I was like, This is the only man that's doing anything that I'm obsessed with in Boston. At the time, there was a lot of like cover bands and a lot of like, blues cover stuff. And like, he was just doing really original music and he had this really beautiful expressive voice. So I was I was just into it. And so
William Forchion:And your voices are very well matched as well to I would have to say, once again, so I don't know Dwight. So I'm not trying to push him out of the scene, but I'm talking to you and I really do appreciate what Dwight and Nicole are putting out in the world, and which is why I wanted you on my show.
Nicole Nelson:Thank you. And did you see the video "wait"?
William Forchion:Oh, I can't I wrote it down. And I totally forgot which one there were two of them. And because I went through, I trolled through a bunch of things, I think. Hallelujah, you have your version of hallelujah up there.
Nicole Nelson:Oh, nice from the voice or from the band
William Forchion:from the band. And I was like, whoo. And,(softly) was it "wait"?, Oh, God, it was it was wanting to just like I was, I was floored, I was absolutely floored. And I had to write it down to let you know that I was like, I watched this video.
Nicole Nelson:That just means that literally means everything to me, my whole life, I've just wanted to use the talents that I was born with, it feels like duty, there's like a, I have to do something with this that makes people feel better, because I was always around unwell. Like, not well Miss. And I was always like, how do I make this balance? Like just kind of craving as a sensitive, really sensitive person, I'm really like, intuitive, sensitive, you know, I feel everything. I sense everyone's everything. And it has been overwhelming at times. So I had to, like, learn how to create a space for myself where I can be well, and part of my journey was trying to make everyone else well, all the time at home. And, you know, you those of us who do that, you know, you burn yourself out
William Forchion:that can be quite overwhelming.
Nicole Nelson:Yes, it can be. So learning how to bring balance back in is,
William Forchion:is. So you have rituals that you use for healing? Do you have rituals that you use to like to bring yourself back or to stop the healing process so that you can take care of you for a moment?
Nicole Nelson:Do you have all the same ritual, it's all the same. It's all one thing. It's it's that one thing, which is a combination of intuitive for me breathwork and movements for my own body and sound. It's also light, it's also vibration via you know, lots of colorful fruits and vegetables and everything is vibration. So like when you're feeling lethargic or dark, eat a lot of bright, sparkly, things like that helps to balance that out. Like if you're, you know, when you're feeling depressed, or when you're feeling like load dense energy running in your body. And you just can't get out of it, taking in things. Looking at the world as as vibration looking at this, like this is sound and that's wonderful. That's one thing. Then you have the sound of your own voice and the words that you're speaking carry vibration, the food that we're eating carries vibration. None of this is new, you know, we've all heard these things before, but the fact of the matter is that that this is the reality that we're in. So everything else is sidestepping the bottom line, which is in order to heal all the things as much as we possibly can. We need to bring ourselves into balanced resonance within ourselves and doing that kind of healing brings a balanced state of mind it brings rational power in in any wild situation and it also teaches that our bodies to heal themselves,
William Forchion:or our podcast audience that is not seeing the video of this in front of you. You have a crystal healing bowl.
Nicole Nelson:This is pretty new for me the bow, I wanted something that would play a steady tone that I could sing around. I just felt like that was like a thing that I wanted to do. And so I bought one of these and I was like oh I love this. So this is this move movement happening in the half the time so you're hearing too This is the sound
William Forchion:That's so beautiful. So nice was so beautiful. And when you have such a soft voice, and yet you have such depth to that voice, which is something that I hear in your singing. And it's not it's just I, it's so easy to say what is not. But what it is it's such a wonderful grounding, without it being weighty. It's like the grass coming up to meet your feet as opposed to the body sending roots down to anchor. It's, there's, it's just a really wonderful earthy, deep tonal sound that just resonates.
Nicole Nelson:Ah, that's so beautiful. Well, I used to be a very loud singer, and sometimes I still am. And I feel like the being able to express all of those things. It's been the greatest joy of my life to be, I was very defiant. And I still am. When it comes to defining myself as a singer so that I can be marketable. It's been hilarious journey along those lines in my life with meeting with executives, and then being like, here the next week, he said, and I'm like, No, already has a Whitney Houston's planet, not the next one to Houston, like, we don't see eye to eye and it wouldn't be right away. It was like, let's see where this goes before anyone signs anything, maybe we're on the same page. And inevitably, we would not be on the same page. And I was like, Look, don't be mad at me, there's a long line of girls that will would kill for this opportunity. And they will be following right behind me that I hear I'm calming. So I'm just gonna step aside, you know, because that's not why I'm here to be a pop star and like things in that life is not my fault.
William Forchion:I think some people think that it's a compliment when they say, oh, you're the next or you're so and so. And really it's you know, I don't want to be the next. Anyone. I want to be the first me. No,
Nicole Nelson:of course what? That's why we're here. Clients are here, right?
William Forchion:So I do have mentors, and I do look at people and go Hmm, you have forged a path, or clear a path that looks similar to the path that I'm I'm on and from karma. Can we talk about that? For me? There's folks like Geoffrey holder, who was all over the place could not be you couldn't put a pin in him and tell him he's any one thing. He was a dancer. He was a painter. He was a singer. He was an actor. He was he did it all. And and if you ask him, he didn't do enough. Probably, you know, he's since passed. And I wish I just really wish I had met him if I wish I had just gone across the bridge to Brooklyn where he lived and just took the you know, as a young actor just said, Mr. Holder.
Nicole Nelson:That's good advice. I don't do that enough. Like reaching out to the people I reached out to like Mavis Staples. She knows how much I love her. Thank God. But there's so many that I haven't met. I met Dr. Maya Angelou and she knows how much I love her. I've met some of my great great heroes, but my have a million others.
William Forchion:Right. I mean, I had a great I was very fortunate to be hired to be a stunt double for Louis Gossett, Jr. And so we got to work together for a couple days on a film. And boy Yeah, it was a stunt double Yeah. simple stuff and he He was, he was just he was so gracious. He was so generous and caring as a person that the, you know, he stepped out of his active role. And he, he just passed on some he dropped some nuggets of wisdom upon me. At the time that I just I will hold on to dearly that of how he said about being in the business, because I told him what my background was, what's that?
Nicole Nelson:Do share
William Forchion:Well, one of the things was was being that individual, he said, I'm Louis Gossett, Jr. and he had talked about his career, and how the worst thing that happened to him was his Oscar, he won an Oscar. And now as a black actor, no one was willing to pay him what he was worth as an Oscar winner. And so he had to create he had to become, he had to become a producer in order to continue his career. And you think, Wow, you've won the, you know, the, the ultimate prize an actor aims for, and that messed up his life. Because it didn't take him as a black actor. It didn't take him where he thought it would take him. It actually took away his career, until he could take charge of what it was he was doing. And I come from I went to music went to school for musical theater, I became a clown. They did stunts, they did a lot of things. And he was one of the people that looked at me and did not flinch. Because of all the things that I did. He said, keep doing it. Don't let yourself define be defined by one thing, because if that is so then someone could just say, Oh, we keep you away from the one thing that you do. And then who are you? What are you? What do you do?
Nicole Nelson:Oh, that's a trap. I mean, the bigger the label the the stronger the shackles as far as I've my experience so far away from it. It's not good for your Instagram following numbers. But to stay,
William Forchion:oh, I know. I'm going to be the master of this thing. And that that mastery thing? Oh,
Nicole Nelson:it's a lie.
William Forchion:It is. And I also have another mentor right here and in Brattleboro, Vermont, Stephen Sterns, he was one of the founders, the founder of the New England Youth Theatre, which is a children's theatre company and training school. And he will say, and he said to me, years ago, he said,"don't be the best at anything. be the only when somebody comes on looking for what it is that you do, they'll come looking for you. Not the best, but you because you're the only one". I love that
Nicole Nelson:that's a challenge that was for me, I was such a perfectionist like high achieving, like maniac as a kid that I'm, I still struggle with that I still struggle with comparison and being like, I can be better. There's someone that's better. Well, how do I get to be that good? And like, you know, just always this upward? You know, it's just always hiking up. And like, I need to like, relax with that still to this day, right?
William Forchion:Where I mean, I've got we've gone kind of swirl around a lot of different things here. You've done some little sound healing. You've talked about your video, like some of your spirit journey, you've talked about your parents and your upbringing, we've stepped into fears and dangers. Whoa, where do we go from here? Something that I'm dealing with, especially from 2020. And what we're dealing with civil, civil, civil movements happening. Social Justice is stepping into the world of emancipation, emancipation emancipating ourselves, from our familial histories, we, you know, every one of our every generation, when they pass, they try to hold on to the baggage of their generation, and take it to their graves with them. Yet in the generation coming up behind them, Trump feels all that tension and all that baggage and takes it with him. And so I'm at a point where my great, great grandfather, my great, great, was born enslaved. That is baggage that I still hold on to. And you know, instead of thinking, Well, you know, it's that far away. I think it's that close. No, it's not far away. And so even though he was freed from slavery, there's still a there's still a shackle on each generation and knowing that it was only one generation ago now two generations ago now three generations ago. And I mean, their stories that I hear from my grandmother, who she when she started getting her dimension, Alzheimer went right back to her youth and talks about some of the racial racist things and racial problems that she dealt with that even though that was in her lifetime, she passed that story on to me. How do we if you have insight here, how do we start to emancipate ourselves so that we don't carry that baggage with us as well. And thrive in this time.
Nicole Nelson:I can speak on what I know personally from my own experience, and that is that any story can be a prison. And we, the best way to release from any label any story, any pattern, be it genetic handed down along those lines or past life, or simply going through trauma in this life, or even just being struck, by the way that you see yourself a certain way or, I mean, we have these patterns we carry, God knows how far back they go, and how deep they go. But releasing them, for me, it's been the same process as healing in from everything along those lines, which is looking at it as it's like debris in your field. It's like you're, if you ask the question, who you are, well, getting down to the basics where this structure of apparent solidity, we're not solid at all, we're just buzzing patterns. Right? We're vibrational energy. So in that is, it's like a little program running write a code is I mean, a genetic code is exactly a program running. But not to like split hairs on what it actually is. Because it's more than that, too. But it's like a program that has a life of its own. I mean, what else are we but a bundle of programs that have its own life, right? So releasing, that comes down to 100%, claiming one's own sovereignty, and clearing in a very strong and powerful way, coming into your space and inviting out that which is not yours. And yours being you in this exact moment, right here right now, where you stand right here, not what you were doing yesterday, and not what you're thinking about doing in an hour, those are all gone. And they're not real. And they're like mirages. So we can get caught up in the mirage of what was or what might be. Or we can take that same power of imagination, which is a wonderful gift and a wonderful tool, and bring it into the moment that we're in and use it to clear out and escort out and invite out all that we are choosing in this moment that we don't want to carry, and bringing in that which we are. And so it's practice. And it's a matter of doing it every day. And if you look at things as cycles, and you look at the from the macro to the micro, every single day is a cycle around the sun, your hand or the sun moving around us from our perspective, what are we looking at, we're looking at the day and then night, it's a beginning and an ending symbolically, but it's not just symbolically there's more to it, nothing is just a symbol, it's always there's always some pattern, that's a lesson. So when I look at the day, and the night every single day, I do this again, before I do anything else, declare your space, clear your space, invite in your higher aspect, invite in love invite out fear, jealousy, all the kind of lower density things we all know what they are because they we feel terrible when we think or get stuck in these other things and you feel really great. When you embrace feeling joy feeling love feeling your power. So inviting in those things and just pick your picturing it using your powers of imagination. And sound is wonderful, you know, using a bowl like this or humming it's just think of it as your the your your you've got the ocean liner, you're near the big boat. There's all these other little boats past future worries, the people down the street, the annoying neighbor, the dog won't stop barking, whatever it is, that's like being like creating little ripples around your the big boat, little ripples are not going to stop you right. So that like getting that getting that solid by it's not actually solid, it's willing to move it has to be able to move because the you're in the ocean, which is you know, metaphorically the the world around us as part of story. And so, being the big boat creates the big waves. And if you can encapsulate that wherever you go and just remember that It helps to start to release these patterns that keep coming back. If you don't address them, literally, to some extent everyday clearing the second that I start letting too many days pile up, I start carrying around stuff that I'll say something and I'm like, I don't even know why I just reacted like that. Who is? You know, you know, it's, it's a matter of the practice,
William Forchion:that's power. Is there something that you would like to say to your younger self? Just pass on information for your younger self, that will help get you to today?
Nicole Nelson:Oh, this is a great question. I, the way that I look at life is very nonlinear from a time perspective. And I do feel that one of my, to come back to a question from earlier, one of my guides, is actually myself older. And when, when, when I was going through some of the most difficult times in my life, I would go into meditation, which I encourage my younger self to do more of. I did a little bit though, and when I would do a visualization, I would see this older woman that was there, she was like seeming like 100 or older. And she would have like, long white braids, and looked like maybe she was my great grandmother or something. And she would just hold me. And like, the feeling of her holding me and like, she would rock me on this porch. And when I was a little kid, I picture this whole porch of this woman in a river. And like, years later, I was like, I think that that's that was me, like, that was me, future me, sending love and healing to the past. Because we're in this soup time is not what it appears to be. So when you do this kind of work, and you're clearing out the past, you're letting you're actually using your imagination to go into your fears or thoughts or hurts or whatever. To just clear them out and thank them for their time and invite them out. You're you're sending energy into past, you know, so this is how we are angels for each other, like you can help to your your great grandfather, your great great grandfather, to just feel somehow strong enough to get through the next day, you know, where's this coming from? God? Well, we that's the part of us that is God that travels like that. And the intention with open heart. It moves that way through space and time old me is talking to young me and that's how I know I'm on the right path.
William Forchion:So that's, it's great that you say that because years ago, I I always have felt the presence of other spirits and things. And I've seen many apparitions.
Nicole Nelson:Oh, we have to do this whole talk again, just about that.
William Forchion:I had when I was living in old farmhouse. And I kept seeing this old man and his old woman. And, and I would see them like be in the kitchen. There. They were in the living room. And one point, I don't know if it was a dream inside of a dream. But I was face to face with This old man, he came out of the darkness to me from the living room, and I was in the kitchen. And when I looked into his face, I was surprised because I had known who that the owners of the house that had lived there prior to us had died there. And they had lived there for 50 some odd years. 60 some odd years. So I always thought that the ghosts that I was seeing were them. And when I looked at the face of this apparition in front of me, I knew inherently I recognized me. I was looking into my own face, but I was old, I was very old. And the and I just got the sense like a energy transfer of information that like if you didn't speak or anything, but I could hear inside of my head that he was I'm checking on you to make sure everything is okay. And then they just went away. I don't know who the woman was. I'd never got a real clear vision but I knew there was a man and there was a woman and they were comfortable with each other in that space. But they were just checking to make sure everything was okay. Wow. Is there something that you would like to share with this podcast audience that needs to go out there now?
Nicole Nelson:Sure. I'm releasing some new music soon. We've got working on some music videos and we're doing some live. Things check out I want Instagram person my personal page is Nicole Nell song. N.I.C.O.L.E.N.E.L.S.O.N G. at Instagram or Ins agram (@nicolenelsong)at Nico e now song and then the band pa es at Dwight and Nicole ju t all spelled out. Yeah, we're gonna be doing some really coo live streaming things coming u that we're excited abo t and releasing some music. hat's about all the stuff we're talking
William Forchion:Thank you so much. Thank you. So I can't even, I'm so grateful, so filled with gratitude. Just likewise, Nicole Nelson, all thank you so much for gracing us with your vibrational presence. Thank you for being here. And I look forward to more and more conversations and I just also look forward to this hearing you sing. So this has been Billosophy 101. Remember, move forward with passion and purpose. And every morning and every night. If you have to look in the mirror, say it to yourself, know it to be true. I am enough. I am enough. Once again, this is the Billosophy 101 podcast. Tell everybody you know that we're here. And we're changing the world. One vibration at a time. Thank you very much.
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