The Pathway To Your Results
This podcast has been helping individuals remember what they truly were capable of before they forgot. Host Derick "DG" Grant dives deep into spirituality, metaphyics, and other topics to help listeners regain power of their minds. Remember, Life is Mental.
The Pathway To Your Results
Defying Gravity: Embracing Your True Self
We explore the powerful metaphor of "Defying Gravity" from Wicked as an anthem for spiritual awakening and authentic self-expression. This episode reveals how embracing your unique qualities and healing your inner child allows you to transcend limitations and fully step into your power.
• Elphaba as a symbol of our shadow self—the parts deemed "too much" or "not enough" by society
• The awakening moment when you realize you can't continue living by others' rules
• Why trusting your instincts is essential for personal transformation
• The temptation to conform and how society tries to keep you "grounded"
• Integration of your wounded parts as the key to defying gravity in your life
• The Western sky as a symbol of transformation, endings, and rebirth
• How owning who you are without seeking permission leads to true freedom
• The journey of reclaiming your inner child who just wanted to be seen
Keep going on your journey of self-discovery and remember: what society labels as "wicked" may actually be where your greatest power lies.
Once you see what you actually are, that you're an infinite, limitless being, you'll see that nothing exists outside of you. I'm your host, derek Grant, and this is the Pathway to your Results. Podcast Bro, wife Carly. She always tells me. I always say she speaks to me, the universe speaks through her, god speaks through her and comes to me.
Speaker 1:She kept telling me for months you need to watch Wicked, you need to see the movie Wicked, you need to go see it. You need to go see Ariana Grande and Cynthia Rivo and Rivo whatever however you pronounce your name. She was like you need to see it. She went and saw it twice in a week. She's like you need to see it. I'm like I'm just not the type to sit down and watch a movie for two hours and 40 minutes. That's just not me, let alone a musical. I don't really want to. I told her I was like I don't really want to watch it. Well, anyway, we go back, we go to visit my parents for spring break and we're sitting there driving in the car and you know we listen to the Wicked soundtrack. I know every track. You drive for 10 and a half hours there and back and you listen to Wicked. You're going to know the words, right?
Speaker 1:So there's a song that came up called Defying Gravity, right, and this is the I actually. I think it was the Oscars or maybe the Emmys, I don't know, one of these award shows. Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo performed it and I was watching it because my wife was watching. I was watching like, damn this girl. She's out here hitting these bars. She's out here hitting these bars, she's hitting notes, she is singing. I'm feeling chills go all through. I said, man, this song is. This was months ago, right, but this song was called Defying Gravity and I told you in the last episode how, when I went back home, I was able to see that I was a black sheep. I was able to see, like, how different I am and really owning that, and this is really the first time in my life where I'm fully stepping into another part of myself and owning this part to myself. So I wanted to break down the song Defying Gravity and if you have not listened to it, please stop this podcast and go and listen to the song Defying Gravity. It will change your life. Listen to the song and then listen to this podcast. Or you can listen to this podcast and then go listen to the song, but at some point you need to listen to it because this song is the anthem of awakening. This song is a spiritual initiation.
Speaker 1:I'm telling you, this character, elphaba right, this is the one who was green. Right, the wicked witch who was green. And then you had the other one who was Galinda. She was who, ariana Grande, the one who was pink. That's the one right this song defying gravity.
Speaker 1:And in the last episode I kept talking about being unlimited. See, that was a little segue. I'm working on my show business. But when you start to realize that this story was a perfect metaphor for the spiritual and energetic process of becoming who we truly are and owning who we are, you start to see that this whole story of Wicked and the Wizard of Oz, it was so profound. I might do a two-part series on this, I don't know.
Speaker 1:But Elphaba is this character who's green, and I'm not going to ruin it just in case you haven't seen it, but I'm going to keep it on the surface just so you can understand. But anyway, she's green and she's not like anybody else and all the kids make fun of her. Growing up, she's teased and she's made fun of, and her family, her father, because he disowned her, basically because it wasn't his biological child. But she was different. She was green, she wasn't like anybody else. And I said how many times has this happened in our life, that we're not like our family, we're not like our coworkers, we're not like our spouse, we're not like anyone else? And then we get taught to basically disown that part of ourself. This is our shadow self, the dark side that we suppress. This is what Elphaba represented.
Speaker 1:So she starts singing the song at the last scene and she's going through this whole journey in the movie or the screenwriter play Broadway, of trying to be like everybody else. And then, finally, she owns who she is and she says something. And she's talking to Glinda and Glinda's telling her like why don't you just conform? Why don't you just be like everybody else? And she says I can't just conform. Why don't you just be like everybody else? And she says I can't, I can't do this, I won't do it anymore. She says something has changed within me, something is not the same. I'm through playing the rules of someone else's game. I'm saying this to you right now Stop trying to be like everybody else, those who say something about your life. They're operating from a state of awareness that you shouldn't even be taking their opinion or perspective of you into account. Think about how wild this is. I'm going to listen to what somebody else has to say about my life. Mother, you don't know what my life is. You don't experience life through my lens. Why am I going to listen to you?
Speaker 1:So she starts to go through this awakening, through this movie, where she gets tired of being like everybody else. She starts, she stops, like feeling like I have to be like everybody else and she has these powers. Everybody's like suppressing her. Everybody's saying you're different, you're weird, you're wicked, all of these things she says in the song. She says it's too late now. It's too late for second guessing, it's too late for me to go back to sleep. And this is for all my people out here who are going through this awakening. This is for all my people who know that they're different and they see that they're different and they don't look at things the same way, and maybe their immediate family or anybody else.
Speaker 1:Society says what is wrong with you? Why are you doing this? It's too late now. It is too late for you to turn back around. It's too late for you to go to sleep. Your butt's already awake now and everybody who else is asleep is trying to say why are you waking up? What are you doing? So this represents our unconscious living, running on autopilot. She's like I'm not going to run on autopilot anymore. For so long I have been conforming to what you all want. I have been trying to do what you all want to do and it ain't working. I'm done.
Speaker 1:And she says it's time to trust my instincts. It's time for me to close my eyes and take a leap. You hear what I'm saying right now? Do you hear the life that I'm speaking over you right now? It's time for you to start trusting you. It's time for you to start trusting that I know what's best for me and, while I may not get it all right, I'm going to take this leap. I'm going to take this leap of faith and follow the path that I feel as though my soul, my birth vision, my calling has been bestowed upon me. This is why we call it instinct. Instinct is not called extinct. Extinct is on the outside. Instinct comes from within, so this is the moment that she surrendered is on the outside. Instinct comes from within, so this is the moment that she surrendered. She trusted in the unseen. She took the spiritual leap into the unknown. She aligned with her intuition instead of logic, instead of the masses, instead of what the collective thinks. She chose faith over fear and Galinda society, the collective paradigm.
Speaker 1:The old earth Says I hope you're happy now. I hope you're happy now. I won't sing it because y'all will leave and get off this podcast, but I ain't gonna sing it. She says I hope you're happy. I hope you're happy now. And Elphaba looks at her and says I hope you're happy now. I hope you're happy now. And Elphaba looks at her and says I hope you're happy now. I hope you're happy. See, this is the thing when you start to step into who you are, you ain't going to look down on nobody anymore. You ain't going to do it. You're going to look at them and say I hope you're happy. I hope you enjoy this life that you're living right now. I hope you like the box that you have put yourself in. But I got to go.
Speaker 1:And the chorus starts singing and says it's time to defy gravity. She said I think I'm going to try defying gravity. She says you can't pull me down now. This is the activation. See, gravity holds us down. You see what I'm saying? Gravity was the metaphor for everything that keeps you small the limiting beliefs, the societal conditioning, the inherited trauma, the fear of failure, the rejection, the abandonment. This was what gravity was. This is why I'm telling you, every time that you go back and heal, you will start to defy gravity. So Elphaba basically starts to reject it. She says I'm not doing this, I'm not doing this anymore. She's not flying yet by any means, but she's at least willing to try. Good God, almighty, y'all ain't trying to hear nothing.
Speaker 1:I'm saying you may not get it right the first time, but at least try, at least be willing to try to be who you are, because your soul deep down inside is saying I know I'm more than this. I know I'm more than this box that the world has put me in. I know I'm more than what these scouts may say that I'm capable of. I know that I'm more than what the coaches may say that I am. I know that I'm more than what my parents, maybe their limited perspective of what I could be. I know that I'm more than that. So I think I'm going to try and defy gravity now. And Galinda said you can still be with the wizard. You can still be with the wizard.
Speaker 1:See, the wizard was what was going to grant all of your deepest wishes, your deepest desires. The wizard represented the collective Society makes you think if you play small, you'll get everything that you want. That's a mother lie. Elphaba said I am through. Hear me when I say this, let this get in your spirit. She said I am through accepting limits because someone else says they're so. I am tired of being put in a box and living in a box because someone else says that I should See. This is where the temptation will start to come in. I know, I went through this myself. I went through this myself.
Speaker 1:When you start to go through this awakening, you start to question who you are. You start to question why do I do this? And then society is going to try to get you, it's going to tempt you to try to conform, to get you to follow back into, fall back into the safe path, start seeking validation again, start seeking success in the external world. So the wizard symbolizes false power, the false power, the manipulation, the external validation, staying plugged up to the matrix. So, elphaba, by this point, this last scene, she's stepping into who she actually is. She said some things I just can't change meaning. I'm not going to change society, I'm not going to change these paradigms outside of me. But if I don't try this, if I don't try, I will never know what I was capable of Meaning. If you don't step out and be who you know you are, you don't want to get to the end of this life and be like damn. I wish I would have tried. I wish I would have stepped into this energy of radical self-belief, the fear of failure. Yeah, it's going to be there, oh my gosh. But I just have this desire to be so much more. If I don't at least try, how will I know? And then she steps out.
Speaker 1:Right, this last scene. All the guards from Oz are coming to get her and she hasn't flown yet. She can't fly. And she was trying to learn the spells of how to levitate. She was learning, trying to learn the spells. See, levitation represented the energy of me being able to defy gravity. And when I start to levitate, that means those limiting beliefs, those external paradigms can't hold me down anymore. So she was trying to understand the code, she was trying to understand the process. She was trying to understand what is the program, how do I start to defy gravity? And she finally did it. She took this leap and they were coming. She jumped.
Speaker 1:The reason why I'm saying this is because sometimes life is going to come at you and it will force you to make the leap. You may have wanted to make the leap, but you didn't have the courage. But then these guards, society, is going to say you're going to have to leap now. Maybe you lose your job. This happened to me back in 2014. I got a call from the Harlem Globe Trials on May 14, 2014 and said you, charles, on May 14, 2014, said you are no longer needed here at this company. I knew I wanted to walk away. I didn't want to do it anymore because I wanted to be home with my family. I want to be home with my kids. But I didn't have the courage yet to jump out and step out on faith. I didn't have the code to be able to defy gravity. So life said here, we're going to help you defy gravity, jump.
Speaker 1:So this is when she made this energetic breakthrough and she says this I'm getting chills. I'm not going to sing it, but I'm telling you got to go listen to this song. She says so, if you care to find me, look to the Western sky. Good God, almighty. If you knew what the West represented energetically, spiritually, it was the declaration of sovereignty. The West, and spiritual symbolism, often represents transformation, slash ending, slash rebirth. This is where the sun sets. It's the death of the old self. You hear what I'm saying? So if we're going to really defy gravity, there's going to have to be a part of us that's going to have to die. So this is the point where Elphaba embraced her new identity, even if it's misunderstood, even if it's not accepted, even if they continue to call her names, even if they say that she's not enough, even if they say that she's wicked. They said she's wicked, kill her. She said look to the Western sky, mother, meaning this is the new me. You might as well go ahead and say goodbye to the old me, because you ain't going to see her anymore.
Speaker 1:And she says, as someone has told me lately, everyone deserves the chance to fly. This is the birthright of your soul. You hear what I'm saying? The birthright of your soul is freedom of its expansion, its transcendence. This is the birthright of your soul. So do not let this society, this world, think that your freedom had to be fought for. Do not let this society think that your freedom had to be acquired or bought. It was your birthright. No human soul deserves to be enslaved. No human soul deserves to be put in a container deserves to be enslaved. No human soul deserves to be put in a container. So the metaphor, the analogy of her flying was the soul's return to wholeness, good God, almighty. So in order to fly, you're going to have to integrate all of yourself, including the shadow, including the part of you that suppressed the wounds, even the part of you that did not feel like it was good enough. It's going to have to embrace it. You look at the last verse of that song and she says I'm defying gravity and you won't bring me down. You ain't going to bring me down. This is integration Meaning. She ain't asking for permission no more. When you start to claim who you are and you own who you are, you're going to start to see I don't need nobody's permission anymore. You ain't going to tell me how to do this and how to do that.
Speaker 1:So we went to the WNBA draft and it was business casual. It was business casual. You got to wear a suit jacket. You got to wear a suit. I said look, I hear that, but I'm not wearing that. I don't want to wear that. That isn't who I am. I'm going to own who I am.
Speaker 1:I was walking in my Elphaba energy and I was the only one and the only male in there who didn't have a suit jacket on. Now, don't get me wrong. I was dressed to impress. I was dressed to that moment. It wasn't what you did, it wasn't what you wore, it was how you did it. It was how you did it. Did you own who you were? Did you own what you were doing? And that, my friends, is what beauty is. So I didn't have to wear a suit jacket to fit in like everybody else I could wear. I don't even know what it was called, but it was a nice coat. I got it from Nordstrom Rack. It was on sale, but it was nice and I had my Life is Mental hoodie on and I put it on the outside. It looked like I was on a J Crew hat if you ask me, but don't ask me but I owned it. I stopped trying to be like everybody else. You see what I'm saying.
Speaker 1:So when we start to look at it, elphaba was representing this own self, the part of us that was quote unquote too much or too emotional, or too spiritual or too intense. You think too deep, you only want to have deep conversations or you're not enough. When you start to reclaim this part of you, when you embrace this dark side and stop seeking to be liked and stop seeking to be understood and stop seeking to be accepted or validated by society, this is when you start to defy gravity. So this movie was, on a deeper spiritual level, to try and get everyone to step into this rite of passage, Every light worker, every spiritual warrior that's on its path, this journey of self-realization. So hear me when I say this we all got an Elphaba inside of us and there was a point in this movie. Y'all stay with me, stay with me, stay with me, stay with me. If you've seen this movie, if you've seen this movie, you know what I'm talking about. If you haven't seen it, just go Google it on YouTube, go search on YouTube.
Speaker 1:The last scene defying gravity. Before she learned how to fly, she jumped off of the building and she was free falling. She was free falling, she was free falling and she couldn't fly. Yet she took the leap of faith that she didn't know how to defy gravity. She didn't know how. This is what's going to happen in your life. You're going to take this leap and you won't know how you will learn while you're falling and she's falling, she's falling.
Speaker 1:She's looking in this building that's right in front of her, in the glass, and she sees the reflection. She doesn't see the reflection of her falling right now. What does she see? She sees the reflection of her as a little girl, the reflection of her as a little girl. And while she's falling, she starts hearing all of these, all the kids making fun of her and people calling her wicked and calling her a freak, and all these things. She's falling, she looks in the glass and she sees her as a little girl, the one who endured the trauma, the one who endured the abandonment, the one who endured the rejection, the one who endured the lack of societal acceptance. And she looks at this little girl and this little girl good God, almighty, stay with me this little girl and this reflection reaches out her hand to Elphaba.
Speaker 1:Little Elfie reaches out her hand to the adult. This, my friends, is what every version of us from the past is doing, that little girl inside of you, that little boy inside of you who just wanted to be whole, who just wanted to be enough, who just wanted to be seen. It is reaching out its hand to you saying come and get me. Come and get me, please, please, please, please, come and get me, please. I'm waiting for you. I'm waiting for you. It seems like I'm gone. You may have grown up physically, but I'm still here. Please come and get me. And it reached out its hand. And when it reached out its hand, she reached out its hand, her hand. And when she reached out her hand, what happened? That mother broomstick came right in her hand and she defied gravity and flew Meaning.
Speaker 1:When you go back and own the parts of yourself who was traumatized, who was teased, who was made fun of, who was told that it was fat, who had the eating disorder, who said it wasn't good enough, who said it was ugly, who said it was whatever that version of you, when you go back and you grab that and give it what it needs, what happens? That at that moment is when you defy gravity. Y'all ain't trying to hear nothing that I'm saying right now. So the reason why she was deemed wicked was because she was different. She was emotional, she was in touch with herself, she was powerful and, unlike anybody else in Oz, she went back and got that little girl, which is why she was so powerful. And this is why, my friends, why she was so powerful, and this is why, my friends, everybody was so afraid of her.
Speaker 1:So, please know, when you step into your power and you step into who you are, please know, please know, please know you were going to start to defy gravity, and gravity was the only thing that held you down, and gravity holds down everybody else. They're limiting beliefs, their inner child wounds, the lack of acceptance. When you start to heal that, please believe that you won't be deemed different, because everybody else will be stuck on the ground and your butt's going to be flying up in the air. But this is the path to wholeness, my friends. So Elphaba was just the voice inside of all of us that knew we were destined for more, we were meant for more, that we weren't here to live a small, controlled, suppressed, contained life.
Speaker 1:She represented the sacred rebellion inside of us, the subconscious rising to the surface, saying you ain't going to define me anymore. I'm not living by y'all's rules. I'm reclaiming my power and I'm here to tell you this. Now, I'm here to tell you this when you embrace your inner Elphaba, when you become wicked, this is when you'll fly, this is when you'll defy gravity and you'll start to see how much this world needed those who could fly.
Speaker 1:So go and find her. Go and find him, embrace him, care for him. I can't wait. I can't wait to see you fly and defy gravity. As always, I'm on this journey with you. So the fact that we get to share space and time, it's a privilege and an honor. It's a privilege and an honor. Go and defy gravity. Go find that suppressed emotional pain, the unspoken grief, the heartache, the part of you that struggles to express how you feel, the part of you that struggles saying I love you dad, or the part of you that struggles saying I love you dad or I love you mom, or telling your kids that I love you, the part of you that has been being suppressed. I'm telling you it's going to be. It is going to be a journey, just like it was for Elphaba, but you see that wicked was really where your power was, so keep going, was really where your power was, so keep going and, as always, I wish you nothing but the best on the pathway to your results. You.