Symphony of the Soul

Can you turn heartbreak into healing? Discover the remarkable journey of Claudia Castillo, author of "Symphony of the Soul," as she finds strength after the devastating loss of her son. Her story is a testament to the power of maintaining an open heart and mind, providing a beacon of hope for others seeking solace and spiritual connection with loved ones beyond the physical world.

We explore how Claudia's practices of grounding, prayer, and spiritual connection offer profound healing. From the meditative rhythm of prayer to the grounding touch of nature, Claudia shares her transformative rituals. She introduces the healing magic of the Ho'oponopono prayer. The discussion also highlights the life-changing potential of somatic techniques like tapping. Claudia's journey is a powerful reminder of the resilience of the human spirit and the transformative power of spiritual healing.

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info@asiliveandgrieve.com
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To Reach Claudia:
Email:  claudia@chateodelcorazon.com
Website:  www.chateodelcorazon.com

 
Credits: 
Music by Kevin MacLeod 

Copyright 2020, by As I Live and Grieve

The views expressed by guests are their own and their appearance on the program does not imply an endorsement of them or any entity they represent.

Transcript

Speaker 1 0:02

Welcome to as I Live and Grieve, a podcast that tells the truth about how hard this is. We're glad you joined us today. We know how hard it is to lose someone you love and how well-intentioned friends and family try so hard to comfort us. We created this podcast to provide you with comfort, knowledge and support. We are grief advocates, not professionals, not licensed therapists. We are grief advocates, not professionals, not licensed therapists.

Speaker 2 0:25

We are you. Hi, everyone, and welcome back again to another episode of as I Live in Grief. Oh, do I have a terrific guest with me today. You're going to love her. You're going to love her accent. You're going to love her words, you're going to love her eloquence. With me today is Claudia Castillo. Claudia, thanks so much for finding the time to chat with me this morning. Kathy, thank you. Thank you for inviting me, absolutely, yeah, I think the best way to have our listeners get to know you a bit is to ask you to introduce yourself to our listeners. Tell them who is Claudia. Well, claudia, Castillo.

Speaker 3 1:04

I'm the author of Symphony of the Soul, which is it's a guide, you know, to navigate loss and embrace transformation. I mean, like you or everybody, I channel deeply personal journey into this book and the purpose is supporting others. I heal myself because as you heal yourself, then you can support and heal others. So the devastation of the loss of my son eight years ago I didn't know how to survive that, but he sent me from his spirit. He sent me the tools and I understood that, as I was connecting with him, he will help me. And we are very close now. He in spirit, me here, sharing with you. So the book is about that. The book is about sharing all the insights that I learned from his art, the power of the healing in what he left. So that's well before that.

Speaker 3 2:00

Who was Claudia before all this? Claudia, before all this, she was an obsessive educator. I started learning pedagogy. Pedagogy, the science of education, which is a career I studied in Mexico, but when I moved to America, they didn't have that science, they didn't know about the pedagogia and that's the science of education, right? So I have to. They told me no, no, here, we don't have that. You go to be a teacher or you go to be a psychologist.

Speaker 3 2:28

Well then, I went to study psychology because of but things happen like that study psychology, then coaching become an obsession. When I start with a community leadership, I love and I did some TV and journaling and I did a lot of things there, but especially I was dedicated to create beautiful human beings, my children, you know right, I thought I was in control of everything and in many ways I empowered them to have so many opportunities and dedicate as a mother, a very dedicated mother. But I started studying like coaching, coaching, coaching. And when my son started challenging me with all addictions, then I continued with this spiritual journey of let me go study to be a mindful facilitator and I was afraid of my son may go to jail because he's driving drunk and he's driving with all these medicines on, and so I decided to go study to help at jails, prisoners. That's what I can tell you. Of course, in the book I explain everything in detail, but I will say Claudia, it is a mother that was absolutely obsessed with her children.

Speaker 2 3:47

Well, as most moms are, as most are actually. So, in your words, you are us, we are you, all of us who parent children and go through those things where the kids do something that we don't necessarily agree with or approve of, yet they're still our children. We still love them. Now, one of the things you mentioned was that you are still in contact with your son, your spiritual son. At what point did that happen? At what point were you aware that you had this connection?

Speaker 3 4:23

When I was asking God and I was saying, how can I stay here without looking at you, without touching your body, how can I? And I would come to his room a lot. So then it was very special because it was very early in the mornings, around 4.30 in the morning. That was a time I would be called to journal. Of course I understood that there was miracles in life and I wanted a miracle. And I said, well, if you want miracles and I expect miracles I have to work for miracles, right, how can I do that? And I thought, well, yes, discipline is the first thing, right?

Speaker 3 5:01

I was very inspired by a book I wrote. I read that it's about hell and rot and living a life of miracles, and it says nothing that happens. You have to wake up before eight. But this was not at eight, it was at 4 30 that he will wake me up. And how do I know it was? He was eight and I say it in the book it's like one day, 4 30, I say no, no, claudia, you're getting crazy. How this time is not to write. Don't go writing at this time. So could I hear in my closet the puppet that is here in the book? You know, don't you see it in the panorama? They're alive. It fall down from the closet.

Speaker 2 5:37

So you know, for me there's no coincidence, okay, so you heard the puppet fall and you realized what it was, and that, for you, was the sign. That's one of them.

Speaker 3 5:50

One of them.

Speaker 2 5:50

Okay, and the reason I'm asking this question is there are so many people out there that crave that contact, that want that contact, yet they're not getting it. Do you have any tips for them on how to? I know you, one of the first steps is you have to have an open mind that it's possible, as well as an open heart. But do you have any suggestions for people that are craving to have contact with their loved one who has died? Sure?

Speaker 3 6:22

sure, that's the book about, you know it's about. The first thing is we need or we deserve more than need. We deserve to work on developing our spirit. How does that look like? Right, okay, so the book is about that. The book is about all things. First thing, because people get obsessed with nutrition. But I say first thing is nutrition of your breath, breathing. Okay, if you tell me what is the chapter that's the most important part in the book, I will say breathing, because you know you can stay without food for three months, you can survive and you can survive without drinking water for three days, but tell me about breathing you can't.

Speaker 2 7:03

You have to breathe Exactly, you know.

Speaker 3 7:06

So the breathing is the first step. Before my son passed, I was obsessed with praying, praying, praying, praying, praying, yes, after that happened, I learned because there was two things Like when you pray, you're talking to God. When you meditate, god is talking to you. So I started to thinking I need, why deserve, that God talks to me. So I started becoming disciplined in my meditations, every day, every day. So how else you develop your spirit? Meditation, number one.

Speaker 3 7:38

But starting with the breathing, because that's what it is. You know, paying attention to your breathing is meditating. That's what it is. It's very simple, because people tend to think, oh, my god, meditation is not for me and I used to say, no, it's not for me, because we all have this mind, that it's monkey mind or I like the way they say the this doctor puppy mind. You know you have to say stay, stay, and that's what it is. It's just you stay an anchor in your breath, or in a word, or there's so many different ways. Well, for me, the simple way is with the breath. Okay, so medication for me, and I share with you all these techniques. The eight, because this book is about eight. Right, we are in this year, eight If you add the numbers and this is eight messages. My son left me eight chapters and everything is about eight, and so the book is really how to get more into your spirit, right, developing your spirit, like this morning. Every day I take a cold shower. Every morning, cold shower.

Speaker 2 8:41

Yes, cold shower. Well, that'll wake you up pretty quickly.

Speaker 3 8:45

You know, Kathy, but it brings you back to your body. So this is part of getting spiritual. Most of the time we're out of our body that's our temple and we forget to get into our body.

Speaker 2 8:57

Yeah, one of the things I think gets in the way it has for me personally, is that as we go through school, most of our lessons in school are science-based. We lose track of that spirituality, that soulfulness, that mindfulness. We lose track of that piece of ourselves because then it becomes difficult. If we're science-based, is that? I would love to think that someone like my mother could speak to me and she's been gone for, oh, I don't know 12, almost 15 years, but my science brain gets in the way because I want some kind of proof that what I sense, what I feel, what I hear, is really her and not my own mind. Does that make sense?

Speaker 3 9:47

Yes, I feel that is the journey that we have to go through to get out our mind, to get into our heart, and meditation will help that. I am all mind you know. Science, science, science, right and honestly. This book is about science. It talks everything chapter everything is about science like virtues that make you happy. Science, right and honestly. This book is about science. It talks everything chapter everything is about science Like virtues that make you happy. Science, okay, but anyhow, if you don't get out of your mind, there is no way for you to connect your heart, right, that's, the heart comes with the body, not with the mind. So, feeling your body, and an example like each time you talk, what's the name of your mother? Frances, frances. So I feel each time that you talk about Frances, she is there with you. Yeah, just in that word, in her name, she's here with us.

Speaker 2 10:34

You say that in the sense of peace. Yes, you feel her, it just filled me, it just did. Yes, you feel her. Now, as soon as you said her name, she's with you. Yet I don't think I've ever said her name.

Speaker 3 10:47

Wow, Frances, she is part of you.

Speaker 2 10:50

Interesting. Can we teach ourselves to meditate, or is it better something done by a coach, a facilitator? No, we can teach.

Speaker 3 10:59

We can teach ourselves and the book can teach you here. Okay, it's really simple. Okay, yes, you can teach yourself in a very easy way. This is the book about you know learning, first, how to realize how simple, okay, observing your breath, okay, in an easy way, and I give you a lot of different exercises to support the breath. Okay, as you start noticing your breath, I tell you this is. I will share with you, kathy.

Speaker 3 11:26

The first time I went to a psychiatrist with my son, I was an obsessed mother because I thought the psychiatrist will give him some medicine to fully save him, right? Okay, this psychiatrist, he was a yoga Kundalini teacher. The first thing he taught me he said lady, please breathe. And I was like this doctor, how absurd that he's going to charge me for telling me this. You know, my mind was completely out of it. You know, I didn't know the power that was there. So that was the beginning of me noticing somebody.

Speaker 3 12:00

Okay, that I'm not breathing well, because breath should go deep. I will explain that all in the book. You're breathing, most of the people are breathing. You know, when you're a baby, that's the way you should breathe. You know how they do. You see the stomach, how it goes up, right, the baby you're born. Yeah, that's not the natural way of breathing, but life makes us forget about breathing and we have to relearn the healthy interest of breathing. So when I work with people, I teach them different ways to feel their body and feel the breath in their body. So breathing is a key. If you learn breathing techniques, then you can go to meditation.

Speaker 2 12:41

Easy, All right. And then what comes after breathing Breathe meditate, pray.

Spiritual Connection and Healing Techniques

Speaker 3 12:47

My husband and I, after this happened our loss of our son we realized we will work together and every morning we sit in our meditation posture, we do our exercises. There's keys that we have to do every day. So we do our movements that I show also in the book, called this Movement to Open your Spine, because your spine is an expressway or where the nervous system goes, so if it's blocked you will not feel good. So I explain to you all easy exercises that you can unblock this expressway of the nervous system. So we do these and like, for example, we each have different beliefs and I'm very respectful about beliefs in people because my husband is very religious. I love to stay much more in the breathing and just pray at the end.

Speaker 3 13:41

Before I was very compulsive with rosaries and rosaries and rosaries, but now I pray a little but breathe a lot. So that makes me feel we have to find the way it works for us. Okay, for my husband it's much more. He reads the Bible and we hear together. So one day he chooses and one day I choose. So we're not like that and I get a little bit lost in the stories. But he doesn't, he gets involved and he loves it. So look at him. We have a couplehood of spiritual connection and believe me that some days I just feel my son, I have the picture of, of course, him, and sometimes he looks at me, you know, in many ways. And another way of connecting with the spirit of my son is nature. When I'm not feeling him much, I go to nature, okay, and he talks to me.

Speaker 2 14:31

Yeah, yeah, I love being out in nature. I could sit by a body of water for hours, just by myself, and just be so completely at peace. Yeah, I understand that.

Speaker 3 14:45

And Francis is there. Francis is there. Yeah, oh, you feel her. She's in that water, she's in that connection. I feel that nature holds everybody in that wisdom. Have you heard about talking to the trees?

Speaker 2 15:00

Well, I've heard of it, but tell me about it, tell me your version of it.

Speaker 3 15:05

My version is that if you ground grounding there's a chapter about grounding in the book Okay, and grounding what it does to you? It just takes away everything that doesn't belong to you, everything that is not good, everything that is inflammation, physically, you know, and spiritually, and everything that does not belong to you it goes to the earth. Of course, now it's the science that they sell you even rocks to be grounded, right, of course, if you have the beauty of living in a place where you can ground, naturally, you don't need something artificial from the ground, right, anyway, you need the rock, you need the rock. But no, you can go to the beach, you can go to the park, green. So holding a tree, people don't value it so much, but there's a therapy in that, it's a full therapy and now it is proven scientifically how a tree has all this information that will help you heal.

Speaker 3 15:58

There's documentaries I cannot mention names because I don't remember the names, but they're in the book these documentaries about how people heal just from grounding. So for me it's very important to ground, okay, yes, and how you ground also touching your doggy, that's grounding, yeah, yeah, because he's taking everything. Ground also, touching your doggy, that's grounding, yeah, yeah, because he's taking everything that is not good for you, your doggy, I love your explanation of grounding how it gets rid of everything that doesn't belong to you.

Speaker 2 16:25

I've not heard that perspective before, but I really like that, because when that happens, does that not leave you more open To the power?

Speaker 3 16:34

Yes, and this morning I was listening to this and maybe I should share. There's a oponopono. I don't know if you heard about the oponopono, no, this is a very powerful, powerful prayer technique. I share it in the book also with all the science behind it, because this comes from a psychiatrist in that worked in the psychiatric field with mental health people that were very sick and I think they were in jails and prisons and he started this prayer that is called the Ofonofono. But I think I explained the story because it comes back from something else, from another field. Remember, things come from other, from other, from other, but this doctor popularized it with a book and I find it so incredible.

Speaker 3 17:19

This is the Pono Pono, the Pono Pono prayer, which is so simple. I am sorry, please forgive me, thank you and I love you, those four, but to be explaining. You know whatever is bothering you at this time in life, or is there a person that is bothering you or you don't feel good about something? I am sorry, but you are talking to the divine. You are telling the divine that you are sorry for whatever is in your body that is making this not to understand what is happening. I am sorry for not understanding what is happening or what is bothering me. Please forgive me for not getting what is there for me and thank you for this beautiful life. I am sorry, please forgive me. Thank you and I love you. I love the person. I love the person, the spirit you are. I love your spirit. I love to be aware of life. I love nature, I love the divine. So this is too simple.

Speaker 3 18:13

I brought this to the people in the jails that I visit as a volunteer. After my son passed. I didn't know what to do to feel a little bit less depressed. I say you know, I'm sure there's people that are very depressed in the jails Because that was my most fearful. I was fearful of the jails More than dying. I was, oh sure I'm going to jail. What I'm going to do, yeah, and I went there with his partner. So I was so fearful. I went there and visited and they were absolutely magical moments that I experienced, with miracles inside of these rooms, because my son was there. I brought him with my picture and I shared the experience about my son and people will relate to him in such a way and we will do the Ho'oponopono, that Ho'oponopono, explaining, doing and feeling in the body, all these prayers, and I did also a powerful exercise tapping, tapping.

Speaker 3 19:08

I brought tapping to this volunteer work. Tapping, I explained there's points in your body, yes, it's like kind of an acupuncture that you do yourself, feeling everything in your body right, it's somatic healing. It's really works miracles in life. So people that want to know more about that, if they read the book they see the points and they can also go to youtube, and In YouTube there's tons of things. Everything is good for everything. If you, oh sure, if you will come to this room in Yale and see how these people there they have to forgive themselves. Imagine that powerful oponopono, so the oponopono, I'm telling you a million things at the same time. But that's my mind work, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 19:55

I love that op, opona, opon. It almost sounds like a Hawaiian word I don't know if it is or not but it is a very simple prayer and one that is non-denominational, one that is spiritual in that whether you believe in God, as so many of us are trained in churches when we're children, or whether you believe in a different being, it doesn't matter. That prayer works for everyone and it is simple enough to remember and is all-inclusive. It just covers everything and it talks to me. It speaks to different states of mind. When you say, you know the please forgive me, you're admitting your faults, your weaknesses, and then you know the thank you, and it just covers everything. I love that prayer. I'm going to have to do a little research on that.

Speaker 3 20:47

You find it in my book. Go to this chapter. I explain it all with the science behind, with the beginning of it. That's this Dr Heineck way. Uh-huh, Because these doctors I went.

Speaker 2 20:56

Well, then there you go, because I have your book, so I will be doing that research. So this is the time in the podcast. Unfortunately, our time goes by so fast, but that's okay, because I want to encourage our listeners to reach out to you to visit your website. So at this point in the podcast, I want to turn the microphone out to you to visit your website. So at this point in the podcast, I want to turn the microphone over to you and I want you to speak directly to our listeners and these are listeners around the world and tell them more about your book, where they can get it, tell them about your website, tell them about any services you offer, any events you might have coming up. This is your opportunity to speak directly to them without me interrupting with my thoughts and comments and questions. So the floor is yours, claudia.

Speaker 3 21:44

Thank you, kathy, so much. It is wonderful. So, this Symphony of the Soul, it's eight tools for finding joy after loss. You can buy the book in Amazon. It's in English I'm finding a way to do it in Audible because a lot of people want to listen to things but now it's in English. There's three versions.

Speaker 3 22:05

Chateo del Corazon is my website, which is C-H-E-T-E-O chateo. Chateo is the same like chatting from the heart, because for me that's been a discovery and I try to do that. Go back to my head, but come back to my heart. Chateo el corazón that come, and over there you can make appointments with me and I work restoring people's heart. That's what I do.

Speaker 3 22:30

I am a life coach, but I will say more restorative coaching and work with people that have been into all this suffering of grief and loss. You can find me there. I do workshops organized. I can go to different places. I travel, go to Mexico, spain, and I'm here opening hearts to transform the life of all of us and understand that the spiritual growth comes from inside of us, not from the outside, because I've been always in the outside and believing the outside, and now I recognize that we are all addicted in a way or another and I have to center myself and look at myself and I cannot control nobody but myself, because that was my addiction thinking that I can control the life of my son. But I love to hear from you. If you can review my book, I will really appreciate it. It will make a difference in my life, for you, kathy, and everybody that is hearing us. Thank you for exploring from my suffering to your suffering. We heal together. So that's what my experience tells me. To tell you To work on the Ho'oponopono.

Speaker 2 23:36

That sounds great Healing together. I like the sound of that, and that's really one of the intentions of this podcast. I know that I personally have healed a lot in the four years I've been doing this. With every guest, there becomes at least one item, and sometimes several, and sometimes many items that help me in my journey. I have admitted to everyone and I've declared it I'm going to grieve for the rest of my life. It's just a part of life, and grief isn't always caused by the death of someone we love. Sometimes it's loss of a relationship. It could be the loss of a job that you cared about. It could be loss of a lifestyle. It could be the loss of your own physical health as we all age, get older and all of a sudden we might have a chronic illness to deal with. Grief is ever-present in our lives and as soon as we believe that it is a part of our lives and that we need to find out how best to mold our life around it, we too can heal, and I do love the concept of healing together, healing together in a healthy way, absolutely, absolutely.

Speaker 2 24:54

Claudia's contact information, her website, et cetera, will be part of the podcast notes, so you will have no trouble finding her. If, for some reason, you just can't find it or it's easier for you, you are free to email me and I will put you in touch with her. Yes, instagram too. I have an Instagram, okay, well, we'll put any of that in the podcast notes that you offer to us. Other than that, listeners, gosh, it's been another great 30 minutes or so. I myself have grown from this exchange. I do have Claudia's book. I have skimmed parts and pieces of it. I can't wait to dig in deeper for many, many reasons, and I think if you reach out and get her book as well, you yourself will grow from it too. The title of the book to me is Glorious Symphony of the Soul. I love attending the symphony and I love the swell of the music, so that's what I'm looking as my soul heals is that swelling as things really become successful and I really grab onto them.

Speaker 2 25:58

And I know that now, just hearing Claudia talk to me today, I'm going to say my mother's name, frances more often so that I can grow from that sense of peace and maybe at some point I will hear what she's saying to me, because I know she's talking to me. I just haven't figured out how to receive those messages yet. So, listeners, take care of yourselves. Grab the book, listen again to this podcast, because listening a second time you'll catch something you missed originally. And please join me again next week with another guest, as we all continue to live and grieve. Thank you, claudia, thank you.

Speaker 1 26:39

Thank you so much for listening with us today. Do you have a topic that you'd like us to cover or do you have a question from one of our episodes? Please email us at info at asiliveandgrievecom and let us know. We hope you will find a moment to leave a review, send an email and share us know. We hope you will find a moment to leave a review, send an email and share with others. Join us next time as we continue to live and grieve together.