Awakened Conscious Conversations
Healing the world one episode at a time by offering realistic solutions to the journey of life. Both self hosted ( By The Gentle Yoga Warrior) and guest episodes.
Many of our guests have overcome significant obstacles and transformed their lives.
Rich with deep talks and solo endeavours, often offering tips on living a more conscious life.
Many episodes include a bonus optional meditation!
Awakened Conscious Conversations
Use Halloween To Heal: Honouring Ancestors, Emotions, and Our Energy
When the Halloween nights draw in, we look for light—on our porches, in our memories, and in the people who raised us or perhaps didn't. This conversation steps into Samhain, the Celtic end of summer and midpoint between equinox and solstice. Bonfires, pumpkins and daily moments of gratitude for our ancestors.
The heart of the episode is emotional validation—how to listen without agreeing, how to reflect feelings with simple, caring language, and how to reduce defensiveness so real dialogue can happen. You’ll hear practical phrases you can use today, guidance for pausing before you react, and a reminder that different backgrounds shape what feels heavy or light.
To anchor it all, we guide a gentle autumn meditation: a safe, misty forest, a pumpkin‑lit path, a clear well where gratitude rises.
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We are a couple of days from what is wildly known as Halloween, which is only a few days away. However, the Celts for over 2,000 years had called it Semein, because Semein means end of summer and it is basically the halfway point between the autumn equinox and the winter solstice. And traditionally, with like bonfires, it was a time to honour our ancestors, and it was said to be a time when the veils were very thin between our world and that world of our ancestors, etc. And hence why we burn bonfires, and probably why the pumpkins, because they're having a light like that is there to help ward off evil spirits, etc. But it's a real magical time to go within and honour our ancestors. We used to celebrate Guy Fox, which is the 5th of November, which is quite close to Halloween or something. It used to be all about the 5th of November, but now in my lifetime, like I said, it's changed. So as we come up to this run-up between Halloween and the winter solstice, I invite you to find five minutes on of each day to just sit down and thank your ancestors, all those that came before us. And of course, the world has become even more, it's got become even more kind of compressed and dystorpian in my lifetime. I have really noticed how strange the world has become, and this formal like way of trying to steer clear of any politics, but worldwide, of how we have been given this addiction of a smartphone, and how there is so it's such a gift in so many ways because it's so much information at our fingertips, and yet what is the right information? And it's become a lot harder to kind of trust in great big institutions that like we used to, and instead the world has a lot of bad going on in it, and we could just sit here and talk about that for ages, and of course, there is so much bad in the world, but I invite you to lift your vibration, lift the vibrations of those around you by trying to see the good in the world, the good in the people, the good that there is, and which is not always an easy task, but of course, misery sells stories, and grief sells stories, and it's not to have blinkers to what's going on in the world. I'm not saying that, but I'm saying, can you put this time to remember your ancestors and also find ways to lift your vibration, see the goodness in people, see the goodness in yourself, see the silver lining and things, and try and focus on what is good in the world because then that's gonna help lift our vibration. As I'm getting older, I'm learning to try and see the good parts of people, not to say that you should tolerate bad things, and if someone's a really bad energy vampire, then you know you've got to put your boundaries up, and it's not about letting people walk all over you, but it is about trying to see the goodness in all. I feel maybe you disagree, maybe you agree. It's not when I share my words, it's not so that you have to agree or disagree, it's kind of done from a way so you can have critical thinking. I also wanted to put into today's show about emotional validation. Maybe there's times where you didn't feel that your emotions were validated. When your emotions are not validated, you could have shared something with loved ones, friends, even a work colleague where you were kind of being vulnerable in a sense that you were saying how you were feeling, and when people don't listen and say, Oh, things like you're overreacting, or what is it, grow backbone, or kind of you're too sensitive, all things like that, that is immediately like a sweeping cut across what you are trying to share, but the other person does not necessarily have to agree with you, right? And they might see things from a different point of view, but whether you're validating someone else or you're being validated, you the best thing that you can do is to listen. So if you feel like you're you're just saying, Oh, I just feel a bit upset by this, instead of someone saying, Oh, don't be so stupid, get over it, they could say something like, Oh, I understand that you feel you must feel upset about this. I bet that doesn't feel so good to you, does it? etc. So it doesn't mean that you have to, it's not that you have to agree with what the person's saying, but the best things you can do is to really kind of listen and just pay attention to how what they're saying and show empathy, and like as a share, try and reflect back to them so you can say, Oh, that must sound disappointing, as an example, if someone feels upset because they didn't get a job, or and you can say things like oh, I've got a feeling that you might be feeling a bit upset, or you might be feeling a bit anxious, or something like oh, you must be feeling or I've got a feeling you must be feeling frustrated. You could say things like, Oh, it's really I I completely understand that you're upset, and things like oh this must feel quite a big thing to you, and then let them talk it through, say to them that must feel hurtful. It's okay, let them know it's okay to be upset, and you can see why they feel that way, so it's not so that they can wallow in it, and also it's not so that they blame you or a situation, you might completely disagree with them on this situation, but the the one thing I feel with people is that they're not heard so that their emotions aren't validated, and if you're trying to share with someone and they're just cutting you down, just say to them, Oh, can you please listen to what I'm saying? And my so my feelings make sense. I think half the time we're trying to defend ourselves so we kind of don't listen to the other person of how they may need their feelings validated, and it's all about having a pause, and then maybe the person, if you're directly talking to the person, they can then share and you can validate their feelings, and you can always agree to disagree, but I think a lot of the time is a misunderstanding and communications, and and and also you think about what backgrounds we all come from, we've all had different childhoods, so we've all got different things that may one thing might feel completely stressful to someone else and completely easy to someone else, and it's a coming from a place where we don't judge and we're a little bit kinder to each other. So as we come into this wonderful time of Sameen, the halfway point between the autumn equinox and winter solstice, it's a time to honor our ancestors, it's a time to let go of stuff that no longer serves us, it's a time to kind of build our protection in the sense that we maybe we do a pumpkin, maybe we kind of sit and be, and it's a time for conscious conversations, and the best way to have a conscious conversation in this period, in my opinion, is to validate each other's feelings. So, just to recap, it's not about blaming each other, it's not about one person being right, the other person being wrong, it's about listening, understanding, validating the person's feeling, letting them know they understand, and just listening for a bit, and then if you want to share your side, then you can go about sharing it afterwards, agreeing to disagree, but understanding that we're all different and where our feelings come from. So, I hope this was of help to you today. It was my honour to share this with you, and I'm going to give you a nice autumn meditation. Top tips for the meditation is either sit nice and cross-legged on the floor with a nice straight back, always nice to sit on a block or a cushion, or that's not available for you. You sit in a chair with the back nice and straight. The important thing is you're not slouching. And if you're doing something that requires legal concentration, all you need to do is just pause this and you can reconvene the meditation at a time that is good for you. If you're doing the meditation, that's fatiguing. So as you close your eyes in this mystical, misty Samian time, can you be open to being in the moment? Your eyes are closed, and you imagine that you are in a safe but mystical, maybe slightly eerie woods. It is a main and the moon isn't high, so there's just a lent gentle bit of light. You see lots of deers in the distance, and your path is lit by pumpkins. And as you walk along this beautiful path, the misty slightly eerie, but safer and beautiful night sky forest. You see a badger in the distance, such a misunderstood creature. You hear the rustles of mice and all of the little creatures that come out, nocturnal creatures that like to eat at night, as they nervously look around, waiting for a moment to move to the next place. But you are focused on this path, and you walk along this path, you are protected by the light of these wonderful pumpkins, and as you gingerly make your steps, the ground has a slightly crunching sound as you walk along this beautiful path, and as you come to the end of the path, there is a beautiful well, but this well is kind of lit up with pumpkins, so you can see the bottom of it, and there's a light in the bottom too, and this is beautiful crystal clear water. I invite you, dear meditator, to look into the water and from your heart just utter some words that if you could say to any of your ancestors to thank them for the wondrous thing that they did for you in this life, then to share it and to send gratitude, love, light, and healing. Whatever it is, and just sit there for a moment, allowing their love to come up from the well and cascade around you, wrapping a warming, comforting hug, knowing that no matter what, whatever life puts your way, you have the skills to tap into their energy, their healing love, and their light, and to show your immense gratitude to them. So I send to you, dear one, love and light, healing and change as you slowly now come back into the room saying goodbye to the well, come back into the moment, come back into the now.
