Becoming the Light That You Seek: Part 2 with Iena Spiritwalker

Ready to climb out of the dark night’s and into the light that you are? Join Lindsay and Iena on Live Like Eden for part two of our journey, turning suffering into light with real tools and techniques you can apply in your life.

Main Themes in Today's Show:

• Acknowledge & Look Where You Are: Start by facing your stuck self with kindness—step out as an observer, ditch self-judgment, and see the beliefs that are trapping you.
• Breathing as a First Step: Even a deep breath on your bed can shift you from autopilot to the driver’s seat, breaking the cycle of suffering with micro-moves.
• Improvement of Any Kind is Better Than Nothing: Celebrate tiny wins because stacking progress beats wallowing, no fireworks needed.
• Psychic Protection: Shield your energy from overwhelm with simple boundaries or visualization to keep the light burning bright.
• Asking & Building Relationship: Creating a back and forth with your spiritual guidance can help you move forward.

The dark night’s just the messy start—grab these tools to become the light you seek and live free from the mind’s grip. Tune in now for part two’s wisdom, with more next week!

Tune in now at www.livelikeeden.com for weekly wake-ups, grab Iena’s free Sacred Success Activation series in the show notes, or book a FREE 30-minute consult with Lindsay!

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Transcript

All right, welcome back, Iena, we're here again today. So glad to be with you and continue this awesome chat that we had last week about the dark night of the soul or the mind as we got a little deeper into it. And today we're going to go on becoming the light that you seek. So how do you transform this feeling of darkness into becoming that embodiment of light or living it a completely different way? And we'll go over today some tools and techniques that maybe both of us have used personally in our own experiences that can help people who are listening.
 Because it does boil down to you have to do something to change the situation. I think maybe you can touch on this a little bit, but I don't know about you, but when you get in the dark and you start getting a little cozy in it, you know, slightly comfortable and you almost don't even know how to move out of it, right? 

You just are clueless and you'd rather just stay in your little hole. In my blink. Yeah. And a lot of people, including myself, did not know how to come out of the feeling of stuckness. I mean, you just really don't know because you don't have the tools yet.
 So maybe you can touch on that. Like what are some ways to shift, first of all, to shift out of the idea that you can't? I love that. Okay. So, I mean, I think the first key is the I am, right? That's what's coming up for me right now. So we tend to say, I am suffering, I am stuck, I am in pain, I don't know what to do. 

And you're claiming all that stuff. And I think part of us sort of wrap that within our own identity, like what the suffering is. 

And we talked yesterday, I'm sorry, last week about how everything's temporary, right? Even suffering is temporary. And it's really important for us to remember that it's always a choice. You're suffering now, on some level, I say this with love, it's a fucking choice, okay?
 Because we do have, and Lindsay and I are going to jump into some tools and techniques to help you change that. And it metaphorically is the difference between being an autopilot and grabbing the fucking steering wheel. That's the difference. No matter how deep and shitty you feel, that's what we're going to get into. 

And it could be something as simple as just laying on your bed and doing deep breaths. If that's all you can manage to do, that's a choice. 

And that's different. That's improvement. So whether it be micro improvements or giant leaps, and when we're feeling really like down in the dumps and we're really stuck, quote unquote, sometimes that's the only way you can do it is in micro doses. And that's fine too. Something is better than nothing. How about you, Lindsay? What's your take on all this? Well, I think that you said something really powerful there. Something is better than nothing. And depending on your state, like for me, I was locked. I mean, I couldn't go out. 

I had so much energy coming in. For me, just taking a step out the front door, which is like normal for everybody. What do you mean that's hard? Just take a walk. I was just taking on so much that I told myself, well, I can't do that because it's too much. 

It's too much. And so just starting with very simple things like, well, just take a walk to the corner and back. For some people that sounds like, well, the bar is really low. But if you're in the middle of something difficult, if you set up just small little, I should say goals, I'm not really a goal person, but if you're setting up little instances in your mind or imagine, okay, I'm going to walk this far today, I'm going to breathe in, I'm going to breathe out, I'm going to feel it. 

You just start small. And it doesn't have to be this big fireworks display of, I think that's where spirituality loses everybody is you're looking for that enlightenment moment that, oh, it's going to be this magical thing. It's all going to hit me and everything's going to be amazing. 

And like you said, you have to take the steering wheel and do it. And you're hitting home because it's so true. It's so, so true. It's huge. It's not just like, I'm going to wake up and everything's going to be gone. I'm going to be fine. Yeah. I love that you said there's no fireworks that are going to happen when you achieve a goal. 

It's an inside job. Okay? It's an inside job. And I love that you said that because I often say, you know, there's no parade that's going to hop out and be like, yes, you figured out how to meditate and be present. Yes. And the confetti is going to come flying in your face.
 No, just celebrate it. Take the win. Okay. What's next? Okay. I have to keep doing this. What am I going to add to this? And then what am I going to add? And what am I going to add? And the mastery is key, right? Yeah. So making those micro steps, retaining them, adding on is huge. 

Yeah. So what's the first step? Where do we start? And this is my take on it, but you can give yours. I think the very first part to ever doing anything to make a move in any direction is to acknowledge where you currently are and what you've been believing in and what thought system you've been siding with and how you created this belief structure around whatever situation you are personally dealing with. 

So for me, it was, I can't take on this much energy. So therefore I can't do X, Y, and Z. I just made up this whole thing, even though I probably could have learned how to do it. 

I just wasn't ready. I wasn't willing at that point. So it takes to look at what's currently happening and to be honest without judging yourself. And that's, I think if you can, I use the term like the observer, if you could step out of your head and just look with a magnifying glass at your situation and what you've been believing in, if you write it all out or whatever, you know, if you're not a journal or think about it, but what are you doing to create this cyclical stuck pattern and just be kind.
 That's the key. Just be kind to yourself. Because the second you start going into self sabotage, like, oh, well you should be doing all this stuff and everybody else is doing that. It's a recipe for disaster. You know, that's my look first. 

You got to open the curtain and look honestly with an honest, you know, real authenticity, like be real with yourself. Yeah, that's true. You're not going in. You're just, it'll probably come up again if you don't give it an honest look. Yeah. Right. Yeah.
 I love that. And I'm going to piggyback on that too, because, and I do, I totally agree with being, I call it being the quantum observer of your reality, quote unquote, is sort of stepping back exactly as you said. But I want to add something to that, that I think in a lot of spiritual circles is not really addressed and that's something called toxic positivity.
 Right. And I just had a conversation with a friend recently that was, I was like, Ooh, I got to talk about that shit. 

So toxic positivity in a nutshell is when you're suffering, you're going through a lot of shit, but you're just like, you're like, I'm, I'm just so grateful to be here. I'm so grateful to be here. I'm so grateful to be here. And it's essentially, you're not dealing with your shit, right?
 You're just like, I'm grateful, I'm grateful, like feeling gratitude's awesome. And it is a way to change your vibration for sure and shift your reality. But if you don't dive into why these things are happening and what is creating this cycle in your life or this event, you're not going to get anywhere. 

Yeah. You're not going to get anywhere. So the toxic positivity in reference to observation is recognize that when you're in pain, when you're suffering, that is a key to your soul. 

Something needs to be healed here, my friend. Something needs to be healed. It's a signal to you to remind you that, Hey, this is, it's like when you have a pain in your arm, you know, you hold onto it and you go, Oh my gosh, what's going on? Did I, you know, did I, do I have a bug bite or is it, do I have a cut? 

Oh my God, I have a cut. So I need to take care of that cut because I got that signal. But when we have these signals from seemingly external forces, meaning our, um, experience, we don't recognize and understand that this is also a signal for us to pay attention, that something needs nurturing and healing here.
 Does that make sense? Lindsay? Oh, a hundred percent. It's, it's actually a positive. The signal is a positive. Yeah. I think that when you're just, and I'm not knocking affirmations, but if you just are repeating phrases without any true analysis or depth, I think it's just like, it's wishful thinking in many respects. 

Right. I mean, I can turn around and been like, I, you know, I will have everything. I feel amazing. And reality, I did not feel amazing. You know? Exactly. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And that's what I was getting as kind of being real and looking at the situation.
 Yeah. But I like the term toxic positivity. You know, they love to say toxic masculinity and all this crap, but I'm like, I like the, you can, it's not about positive or negative either, right? It's just looking at, and all these things are communication, uh, if it's from the body or if you're having emotions or whatever you're feeling is simply a clue. 

Yeah. It's like a little clue for you to uncover and to deal with, like you said. Right. 

Yeah. Yes. Go ahead. Oh, I was just totally agreeing with you and you know, it's, um, it can be challenging for us. And we touched a little bit on part one about how it, it's a tough pill to swallow sometimes to recognize that we are the creators of our experience and we are 

responsible, um, because it's, it's so much easier for us to say, you know, it's that person's fault, or this is happening to me rather than this is happening for me, which certainly, um, you know, just in the experience that you shared being, being one and being nothing all at the same time, being everyone and nothing that is, oh my gosh, that's amazing. 

But in the moment, I'm sure it just felt like something that was happening to you versus for you. 

Well, and that can go on for years. I used to think it was a curse. I'm being cursed. There's a huge, and there's a power in it too. Like anybody who's listening, who has sensitivity to energy or you feel frequency, um, it can really rock you because you do feel a level of being taken, taken over. 

And if the mind grabs a hold of that concept, uh, then it's even more, you know, you start believing it and you have, you think you have no control over, over the energy or how you experience it. But the shift is like you said, you, you have to look and be willing to say, well, if this is happening to me and it's continuing to happen to me, right? 

And that's the other thing. If it's just continuing, I'm not seeing something, I'm missing it. 

I keep missing it and it keeps happening. I, and then I realized, you know, you're given these opportunities, you know, they're not trying to kill you. They're opportunities for you to shift and say, okay, what can I learn here? I'm a student now. I don't know.
 You know, that's another thing. You start emptying all your preconceived notions that you know everything about what's happening and you really don't, you know, that realization, I don't, I don't know. And then I got, that freed me a bit because it's like, okay, well, I don't know. 

I'm willing to be taught here by something clearly greater than myself, you know, than the small mind. And that is a huge step too, is just realizing you don't really know. Emptying yourself. I don't know. I'm willing to move forward in a new way. 

And if you're a spiritual person and you're experiencing something that you can't explain, you kind of have to open that yourself up to that and be vulnerable. Like I just, I'm going to let myself be guided. And that's a huge shift in the way that you see things.
 You know, if you can allow yourself to be guided instead of trying to take the reins and control every little thing, it's amazing where you'll go, you know? Yeah. Yeah. Ironically, stepping into the flow is a way of taking control in some respect, meaning recognizing that it's kind of like, okay, so the analogy I'm getting is like kind of like being in a canoe in the Roaring Rapids and you're trying to like paddle backwards. 

And when you realize like, okay, I can control it this way. I'm just going to go with the flow and just occasionally like move myself this back and forth this way. Wow. This is much easier. So you're still, rather than like, God damn it, why can't I go the other way?
 Yeah. The resistance and the friction you create is exhausting. Right. Right. So I am dying to know, like, what did you do when you were super expansive and feeling everyone's energy? How did you learn to function with those? It almost feels like a raw nerve energetically out into the universe.
 Yeah. How did you manage to navigate that? 

Well, I didn't manage it for years. I mean, at some point you did. I did. But let me give you the before and after. So before I tried to learn and work with it, I would get, let me give you an example. I would get like these very strange, I'd be like in a crowded, let's say like Costco or something. 

Right. And it would just, I'd walk in there and how do I explain this? You know how there's the, we see a chakra system on the, you know, piece of paper or whatever. And there's all the energy centers. I would feel the internal channel like open and I can't explain it in words, but I just feel this like, and then all this energy would just go through my whole body. 

And it would set all of a sudden I'm on high alert. It would just be like overwhelming. And then what would happen is my mind would immediately be terrified. Okay. So the mind grabs a hold of fear and what happens when the brain hears fear, fight or flight kicks in. Right. So when I would go through these situations before, it was like, where's the nearest exit? I'm out of here. I'm not dealing with this today. You know? And it wasn't like, you know, it wasn't like if you looked at me, I was, I was not breathing heavy. 

I wasn't doing, it was just this very internal surreal thing and I have to get out of there. And then I would leave. And for a long time, I just didn't know what to do. Well, eventually, I think what I realized is I could say in that moment, and I had a psychotherapist mentor who I found that, you know, just by the luck of life, who became just my real strength and rock that I met with a lot and helped me see that, you know, underneath all this, I was okay. 

You know, that was a huge thing. I was actually okay. Even though your system is doing this, you're not dropping on the ground. You're not, you're okay, but you're feeling something, right? So I learned to be very good at my breathing, right? I learned to become a master of my own nervous system. 

Now, I had told you I had been into yoga for years, so breathing was not, it was something I was trained in. Yes. But I will tell you this, it never prepared me for this type of experience. It did not. I mean, I had the foreknowledge of breathing deeply, six counts, hold, you know, all these different types of breathing, but when your nervous system starts experiencing heightened frequency, it's another level of learning breath work. 

So I would just stop, observe. 

The first thing I would say was, am I okay? And I'd survey the scene. That'd be the, and I mean it. I would just look around. Yeah. I'm physically fine. So when you start feeling that ethereal realm, your first experience is you think it's in your body.
 You know, I used to think it was my body. This is in my body. What I didn't realize is I was actually stepping out in that expansive and feeling that limitless field that's there. So I was actually learning to like, we've talked before, I think about being the bridge or you got one foot here and one foot there. 

So now as I'm cruising through the store, if this is me today, I am, am I okay? I'm gripping, you know, the cart. Physical feel, what you feel with your senses. 

You're checking your senses. If the nervous system starts to get really heightened, I label it sometimes with a number like zero to 10. Okay, I'm a five. I know what 10 feels like. I need to 

get out of here. But if I'm a three or four, I'm squeezing the cart.
 I'm pulling myself into the body, breathing as there's still a part of me that's in that mystical realm. But I got comfortable with that. So eventually I learned, well, you're not in danger, okay? And so it was this fine tuning, this teeter-totter back and forth of, and then I started building like I'm flowing and I literally feel flow.
 So it's like, I'm flowing, the body's fine. If I start experience increased energy, I might run my feet in place for three seconds to get the body back down. 

I might pound my feet on the ground. You know, have you ever heard of people that when they're going into fight or flight or they're experiencing very heightened sense of people who just breathe deeply. Sometimes, at least in my own experience, I had to meet the frequency with the energy with the energy in order to grab like- Yeah, intense. 

Yes, I started running years ago just to get the energy grounded. There's so much to be calm. I'm like, when you have that much going on, you really do have to move with it. So, you know, airport lines are really awesome because in that there is, everybody's nervous about getting on the airplane and anxiety and fear is through the roof.
 People think the plane's gonna fall out of the sky. It's one of the worst places I've noticed. 

And so, I'm not kidding. If I'm standing in line and there's like thousands of people, I'll be with my family and I'll just start doing these neck rolls. I will start, you know, just getting my body grounded so that my nervous system does not fly out of there.
 And that's just me personally, if anybody who's had similar stuff, you know, you almost have to move a little bit. Yeah, I love that. It helps a lot. So what about, have you ever done psychic protection? Yes, I tried that in the beginning and I felt like, you know, like protect yourself with all these, whoops, I just lost my pen.
 Here, take mine. Yeah, I know. I had like, yes, grounding and connection to, you know, your highest self and the ground and putting roses. 

I had all kinds of people tell me different things. And at first I think I just, I was so out of control. I couldn't, even imagining couldn't help me. But now I can very much, what I do now, and this is me now, this is years later. I have learned that my body is sound.
 So I allow whatever comes in and it could be a random frequency that might be difficult. I just allow it to go in and out. I just feel like, this might sound funny, but you know, like a filter, like a vacuum filter or water filter. I feel the energy field like that. 

So I just allow it to come and I let go of it. Where years ago it would come in and I would grab it and resist it. 

And then the three cat was happening. So like you said on the last show, it's, you're like the sea. And maybe we talked after we even recorded this, but you're, you jump into the sea, you realize. I think that was after, maybe we should go ahead. You can share that.
 Yeah. We talked afterwards about, you know, you recognize that you're not this individual anymore. You're part of that sea. And when you jump into the sea or everything, the same thing applies when you feel energy. You know, you just relax into the field and that's the sea. So that's how I maneuver now. And I'm changing. I love that. You know, still. Yeah, I love that. And I'm, just because I brought up psychic protection, I'm gonna, I feel like that's something 

I need to roll with. So, because there's a lot of people who are empathic right now. 

Yeah. And I want to preface this by saying also, you know, just like Lindsey was experiencing and like I experienced, the best thing for you to do is what works for you. Yes. Okay. There is no cookie cutter fix for any of this. You need to try different things that you're called to try and whatever works best for you, stick with that. 

I will say, at least try something for at least a week. Yeah. Because new things are, you know, we got to get the hang of it. Yeah. That being said, don't compare yourself to other people and say, well, this worked for her or this worked for him and I should be experiencing XYZ. No. Yeah. Okay. So, psychic protection is a lot of us, science has proven that we're all energy. We're all constantly emitting energy and absorbing energy as Lindsay has experienced very intensely. 

Okay. So, especially for the word impact is used a lot. One who feels and senses other people's thoughts, feelings, emotions, and energy. Some people call it being sensitive. Whatever your label is for that, it's that you have an awareness of this energy and there is even a possibility of taking on people's sickness as an empath. 

And I, when I was first learning to be a healer, that was quote unquote, what I did. So, I would have a session with someone, they would have a really sore throat and feel like shit and at the end of the session, they would feel amazing, jump off the table and I had a really sore throat and I felt like shit.
 Yeah. Okay, this is not cool. 

I'm not gonna live like this. What am I doing wrong? And I realized that I was absorbing as a sponge does, absorbing the negativity with the intention of healing it, but I did not know how to like transmit that and release it. I did obviously learn how to do that and function. Yeah. But, so here's the thing in this respect, psychic protection and you can call it whatever you want, give it whatever label you want is just as important as putting an oven mitt on before you stick your hand in the oven or looking both ways before you cross the street. 

It's for your, you're creating a barrier, essentially a protective barrier. And a simple way to do this is you can look in the mirror or you can do it just with your eyes closed, whatever works best for you. 

Imagine this beautiful bubble of white light and you can ask your angels and guardians and guides to form this dome of white light around you. And you can add, no darkness may enter this force field, only love, protection, healing and messages may enter.
 And you can practice throughout the day, making that bubble bigger, making it smaller, play with it. And I challenge you also, every time you pass a reflective surface, whether this be a mirror, a window, whatever, see that beautiful ball of light around you. 

Yeah. And if you get to a spot during the day where you're kind of feeling funky again, just re-up it. Ask for that protection. And for a lot of people asking for their team of light to do it brings a lot of relief and like, okay, they know what they're doing because I don't know what I'm doing. 

You can absolutely do it, but again, use it as you like. But, and I'll give a quick story of the dome of white light or the bubble of light. I was at an event, I used to do psychic fairs all the time, like every weekend, three to four weekends a month when my kids were little.
 Oh my God. And there are thousands of people that would come through and the environment was very noisy because it was always like concrete floor and four walls and a roof and usually all metal. And those events draw in people who are suffering. It's like moths to a flame, right?
 Yeah. So thousands of people who are suffering looking for that one crystal or that one healer or that one reading that's gonna give them help, right? 

So psychic protection, you guys, I threw white sage on the ground, all over the ground. People would walk into my space and be like, crunch, crunch, crunch. And then I have my dome up and I did like, I was clearing shit, like all this stuff, right? Oh yeah.
 So in between sessions, I was taking a bathroom break and anyone who's done this before, you kind of have to get, you gotta go fast because you got somebody else waiting for you and like, you can't fuck around. So this one guy comes up to me, he was so sweet. 

I knew he meant no harm, but he was a close talker. You know, he was invading my personal space, we'll say, for those of you who are not watching on video. And he was just like, oh my God, I'm your biggest fan. And I really, you know, and I was like, okay, that's lovely, thank you, nice to meet you. 

Like literally spitting in my face as he's talking, so fucking close. So I was like, okay, so while he's talking to me and I'm gonna do this visually, I'll try to articulate it for those of you who aren't watching on YouTube. He's fully acting it out, yeah.
 I'm totally acting it out, he's my hand. So as he's talking to me, I am creating, not only do I have that bubble already, but I'm expanding it. I'm making it thicker and I'm expanding it. And as he's talking, the top half of his body starts leaning back. 

Oh, interesting. Leaning back, leaning back, and I'm still, I'm pushing the bubble farther and farther and farther. And at some point he stumbles backwards. Oh, wow. And stayed at the perimeter that I had set with my bubble. 

And I just started giggling because I was like, that shit works. So. Well, that's awesome. That's a good thing. Instead of me saying, dude, back the fuck up. Obviously he didn't have, not everyone has spatial awareness. Most people do, not everyone does.
 So instead of me disrupting his flow and his, what he wanted to convey, I was just like, we are just gonna extend this bubble. Yeah. And it was, it was fun. And it's, so you can play with it in playful ways. It doesn't have to be life or death and it, you know.
 But so there are ways to do that. And there are also ways to like scan for stuff that you picked up and clear it and all that. I mean, we could go on for hours probably about all that stuff, but. Oh, yeah. There's some basics that are so important. Does that make sense, Lindsay?
 It makes a lot of sense. 

It's like the multitasking we touched on. You know. You are, you have to multitask. You're having a conversation, but energetically you're doing something else. And I think that you 

hit home there. When you are, if you're sensitive at all, you have become a master multitasker, you know.
 Yeah. You're still manipulating the world on the surface level, but there's a whole nother communication going on beneath the form. That hits home, what you just said there. Yeah. You said also, before you told the story, you said, ask. This is something that I did not really understand early on was that I could ask for the energy to lighten up a bit.
 You know, that, yeah, you know. 

I mean, I guess I just wanted to be tortured because I was just like, no, but I could say, okay, I'm speaking to my own spirit guides or my own circle, you know, whatever terms you use. I don't really care about the term, but I need this to lighten up a little bit, you know.
 Help me, and then, you know, I think that you're developing a relationship with me in however you use it, however you see it or feel it. I, personally, it just felt like a presence to me. So I would just use it in that way. But a lot of people look at it and they have form, they have entities, spirits, they see it in a different way. 

So whatever works for you, like you said, doesn't matter. It's just building that relationship, doing it like you said, give it at least a week. 

I like that. You can't just do it once and think it doesn't work. You know, try it again. You can't go running- Tried to ride a bicycle one time, I fell on my ass. Fuck that, I'm never doing that again. Like, are you serious? Are you serious? There are certain things you get tired of falling on though. 

Maybe it's a try to do it later. You wear a helmet, you put elbow pads on. I mean, you learn. I mean, there's, and then you're like, okay, well, I noticed that I fell this way. So maybe I need to lean more of that. You gotta give it a week. I love that.
 And I love that you say, asking your team of light, asking the presence that was with you to build and building a relationship. And it's my understanding. It really is like, we all have, I call it our team of light that are here to help us. 

However, it is our responsibility to create that communication bridge, if you will. So let's say for example, when I just first start talking to my angels, guardians, gods, whatever, I create like a little thread and then they can communicate back and they send another thread.
 And it gets thicker and thicker and stronger and stronger over time. And the more often you flex, if you will, that communication bridge or system, the easier it becomes. It's like anything else that we do. It's a part of, yeah, we just have to decide to do it and practice it. Practice, practice, practice. Yeah, and it changes over time. I mean, if you get new experiences, you're implementing new techniques. They may not last forever. 

You know, one thing I used to do early on and you speak to the fact that you had children, small children, when you were going through difficulty, I was too, I had four small children and these four were only four and a half years apart between the oldest and the youngest. And for a time before I had, you know, the major blowout in the head I explained last time, I was still out. Part one, go back if you haven't seen it, part one. Blowout. I call it that because it kind of makes me laugh now, but at the time it did not. 

But as I used to do this, I used my kids as grounding tools when I would go through certain stores or large environments. So I would focus on them and ground myself. that over time left me. And so what happened over time was that all the tools that I had developed early on were not working anymore. 

And then what happened is I learned the tool of the mystical. So it was no longer something, and each served its purpose. Each thing I did helped me along the way. But then I got into this other realm where the real mastery, I wouldn't say master because I'm always refining, but you know what I'm saying? 

It's like, as you were all going through this life, you're going through a mastery program, it feels like. You either take the program and say, yes, I'll attend, or no, I'm gonna go the other way. But now it's more of a, it feels like an ethereal, mystical tool.
 So some of it's just me connecting on the mental level or the spiritual level, and I'm not doing anything in the physical anymore. Because for me, it felt like all the physical stuff just eventually went bye-bye. So I mean, I can still pound in the body. 

I can still get the body grounded, but there really is something else for me personally, and this may not be the case for other people, but I have to connect to this larger essence and feel comfortable in that in order to keep moving. And in the beginning, I just wasn't comfortable there yet. 

So it was just a learning process. Yeah, for sure. Became familiar. And that's the other thing, when the brain is not familiar with something, it sends signals. Yeah. So it's a familiarity. That's why when you said practicing over and over to rewire those neural pathway is really important, especially if you struggle. 

Yeah, for sure. There's so much science around the fact that we can rewire neural pathways, as you were just saying, Lindsay. And this is another thing we were talking about off camera, was being an autopilot, right? Yeah. So, and we can segue this into habits, but the brain is amazing at conserving energy. 

And the way that it does that by and large in our lives is literally putting you on autopilot. 

And the example I used was, let's say, have you ever driven home from work and you got home and think, oh shit, I don't even remember driving. Because you are literally an autopilot, and that's how the brain conserves energy. Unless something out of the ordinary happens, like a squirrel jumps out or the person in front of you slumps on the brakes, you are not in that present moment at all. 

And throughout life with our ingrained habits and autopilots, like getting out of bed, shuffling over to the coffee machine, turning the TV on, scrolling, those are all automatic and ingrained habits that have created a, we'll say a groove, if you will, in the brain.
 It's not an actual groove, but it's a well-worn path or a neural connection that just runs automatically. 

And when you are in the space where you're ready to change your life, you need to start shifting that. And it's a matter of, let's say, for example, you're walking in the woods and you're walking through the well-worn path. This is a representation of the habits or the autopilot, if you will. 

It's easier to walk down that walkway. However, it doesn't mean you can't cut through and take a different route. And that is what rewiring neural pathways essentially is, is it takes a little more effort and a little more time, but eventually that new pathway will be the well- worn path. 

And the previously open pathway will start to atrophy or close up, if you will. It will start getting overgrown and that is no longer the easy pathway. And this jumps back on to us saying, practice, practice, practice. It takes effort. Yes. Nobody's going to fucking save you like this. 

You are here in this earth school for a reason. You have boxes that you have checked before you've incarnated. Yes. I want to learn patience. 

So please give me a hectic life. Yes. I want to learn forgiveness. So that means I'm going to get betrayed. Yes. I want to, you know, like everything that you have, you have set out to learn, you are going to experience the opposite and in a very intense way, because the only way for you to get to the other side of it is to experience that opposite that you've decided you want to learn already. 

And if you don't get it this time, my friend, guess what? You're going to have to do this shit all over it again. Next time you incarnate. Do it now. Do it now, please. For the love of God. Do it now. It's funny. Early on when I was really in the darkness and suffering, you know, not that I was ever suicidal, but I always thought, God, it would just be so much easier if I wasn't here, you know?
 And my mom would always be like, you don't want to come back and do this again. You got to do it now. But, you know, I have that mentality. It's like, God, I have the opportunity to do this now. I don't want to do it again and do it. Yeah. No, thank you.
 No, thanks. Yeah. No, you touch on something too, when we're talking about neural pathways and we're basically setting up a new pattern, right? Or a new... Right. Yep. So for me, you know, and for anybody listening who you experience anxiety or fear, the feelings that happen physiologically, and my psychotherapist mentor helped me with this so many times, and I'm sure she was like racking her brain, like, are you going to get this or not?
 You know, it's like, it's the same physiological feeling as excitement, the adrenaline, you know, when you get excited, the body still feels similar, but the way that you interpret it is the difference. So I had to learn, instead of jumping to fear that I could get curious and excited about what this communication was, you know, showing me or trying to teach me. So that, and that took a lot of work to get out of the funk of this is a danger, something's trying to kill me. Right. Survival. Getting excited about my murderer. 

Exactly. That's kind of what, get excited and get curious about what is it? Yeah, the body is, and the body will still do the same thing, even though my mind is now seeing it from a different vantage point. Yeah, I love that you're saying it's so true.
 It's a survival mechanism in the brain. And there's, there's so many different ways that we can harness this and rephrase this, as you so beautifully put it. And it's, I was just re-listening to one of my favorite books called Solve for Happy by Mo Gaudet. 

And he's a former CFO of Google. Essentially, he experienced a very traumatic thing, no spoiler alerts here, but his mathematical brain was like, how do I solve for happy? How is everybody else so happy? I mean, he had gobs of money, but he was miserable. 

What is, what is the key? And he talks about being that observer of, we'll say thoughts, feelings, and emotions. And you can ask yourself three questions in that moment to help ground yourself in what is actually here. So for fear, for example, so the fear of feeling these feelings, right? 

Right. The first question is, is this true? Am I really in danger? Is this true? Am I okay? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Is this true? And the second thing is, is there anything I can do to change it? Yeah. Is there anything I can do to change it? And the third question is, if it's true and there's nothing I can do to change it, what can I do to make peace with it? 

Right. Which is huge because there's so many things we cannot change. I mean, there are so many things that you are going to go through that you can't change the physical of how it happens. So can you make peace? And that is just exactly where we should go next because that's what we're here to do, right? 

Discover the peace within and the calm. And that there really is more than the eyes see, you know? I think that's where- Right. Oh yeah, for sure. And, you know, going back to this being the earth school, right? And I was talking about the boxes that we've checked, right?
 So it's really hard for us to comprehend like, oh no, I did not sign up for this shit. Like, no, there's no way. I did not sign up to experience suffering. Guess what you did? 

You did. You did. And the grander scheme of things as a divine being of light, having the meat sack experience of suffering is just as equally important as having the experience of joy. Yeah. I'm not saying choose one over the other. I'm saying they all have their purpose and this is the balance that is in nature. 

Right. You know, we have life and death. We have dark and night. We have suffering and we have joy. Right. Again, none is good or bad. It just is. And when we can let go of our expectation of this should not be happening to me and embrace, you know, is this true?
 Is there anything I can do to change it? And if not, how can I make peace with it? That changes everything. And this goes back to us saying it's all a choice, right? It's all a choice. Yeah. Yeah. You may not be able to control your car accident tomorrow or, you know, what's going to happen, but you do have a choice in how you view that situation. 

Yeah. Right. Yeah. What can I do to learn from this? Yeah. When you say that you don't have a choice, so many people, especially people that are so rooted in their, everything's happening to me. When you say you have a choice, they're like, I don't have a choice.
 You know, they're, they're convinced that they don't have a choice. And it's very difficult to reach somebody that's in that mindset, you know, very sure. Yeah. It's like the switch has to go off in your own head that and it says, there's gotta be another way to do this for sure.
 You gotta go. Yeah, absolutely. Sometimes you gotta go to the depths of hell. And, you know, sometimes it's like, well, why would I deny somebody that experience to get to the bottom in order for them to move past it? You know, and so much is out there about, you know, only go to love. 

Don't look at fear. Don't do fear. And I'm like, yeah, but personally speaking, if I hadn't had that fearful time, I wouldn't have understood any of that. I would have seen what it meant or what, you know, that it could actually be useful. 

I mean, I didn't, and then it becomes, it doesn't matter what side of the spectrum of emotion you're on. That's so true. That's true. And, you know, it's all about, like you said, perspective is exactly it. How can you appreciate a full belly if you've never experienced hunger to the point of pain? 

Right, right. Yeah. You know, you may look at an apple totally different. I got an apple. And that is all about our perspective. And one more, well, one more thing. I don't know if it's one more thing, but another thing that I'd like to add in reference to habits.
 So we're talking about trying new things, you know, trying all the things. I definitely would say for a lot of people, breath work, there are so many different types of deep rhythmic breathing. If all you can do is breathe in and breathe out deeply, rhythmically for 10 minutes, do that. 

Yeah. If you can do meditation, this could be guided or on your own, whatever works best for you. Try that, please. 

And this helps you stay, you know, in a homeostasis, we'll say. And in reference to new habits. So a new habit requires three things. And I'm also going to talk about how you can supercharge them, too. So a new habit requires time, place and duration.
 So I cannot tell you how many clients I've had who say, man, I meant to meditate today and it just never happened. Yeah. Right. People say that all the time. Well, when are you meditating? I don't know. I don't have a set time. Okay. Where are you meditating? 

I don't know. Wherever I am, I don't know. Okay. So here's the difference. If I say, I'd like to meditate sometime today. Okay. How about at 9am, I'm going to sit on the living room couch and meditate for 20 minutes. Right. Now I can put that shit in my calendar.
 Yeah. You can put a little reminder on your phone. Other than something that's just floating in the ethers, like eventually maybe someday I will catch the little wispy thing that's flying through my subconscious as I'm making lunches and, you know, doing other shit that I need to do. 

Time, place and duration. Key. Go ahead, babe. 

Well, I just want to add to the time thing because it's funny to like, oh, imagine I'm going to do all these things in my head. But once you put like, if you like, I don't know about you, but I like calendars, physical day. Yeah. Yeah. Me too. I write a little old school.
 We still like to write stuff down, but that helps if you have a little to do list somewhere or you have it all so you can remind yourself to do it, especially if you're trying to break it to happen or something and start something new. Oh, for sure. And some, you know, there's some people that have it on their phone. 

They have little, little, you know, yeah. What are they called? Little reminders, like little dings. Yeah. Notification. That is the word. Sorry, brain fart. Thank you very much. Yeah. And then there's there's another tweak to that. So you can supercharge these new habits by hacking into our reward system. 

So we're very reward oriented. So those those happy feelings that we get when we really enjoy something. Right. And the problem is that reward system we get sometimes when we do things we shouldn't be doing, like scrolling on social media, we get that dopamine hit, you know, it makes us feel good. 

And that is that's what keeps us stuck to it. So we can sort of tweak that dopamine and how how and when we get it. Yeah. 

So let's say, for example, in the meditation scenario, we have a time, place and duration. We know when we're going to do it. But how do I reinforce that? How do I reward myself for meditating in the morning? Well, perhaps I really love my morning cup of coffee or tea.
 I really love it. Yeah. But I tell myself I've got to earn it. Yeah. So you cannot have your cup of coffee or tea until you meditate, then. you can have your reward. So you do, you know, and that takes practice too. And the other key is visual cues, okay? 

So this is something that will break you out of that autopilot that we talked about. So in the same scenario, let's say you're shuffling to the coffee pot. 

You already forgot that you wanted to meditate. You're in autopilot and you go to the coffee pot, but the meditation that you have is on your phone and you've left your phone on top of the coffee pot. That's your visual reminder that, oh, I need to meditate first because I forgot about that. 

So then you take your phone with the meditation on it and you go to the couch and you sit and you do your thing and then you can go get your coffee. So time, place, duration, give yourself a dopamine hit. What is that carrot on the stick? And use visual cues to remind yourself when you get slipped into autopilot. 

Those are my tips. I like it. I like that a lot. You can apply that to anything, right? Oh, absolutely. I was gonna say, you could do that with food addictions or anything that you're trying to change in your life. 

Yeah, what is it like, the human is so funny to me. We don't think. We're just constantly replaying patterns all the time. But it does, like you said, it requires you to jump into awareness. You gotta be aware of what you're doing. You're watching yourself.
 And I don't know about you, but I find watching myself as an actress on the stage of life, you know, that you can pull out and literally watch this little person do whatever it's doing, you know? Yeah. Those are great tips, Iyana, on that breaking the cycle and forming new ones. It's all about hacking that operating system, right? So it's really, no matter where you are and no matter what you're experiencing, if you can lock into working on yourself in mind, body, and spirit. 

So re-patterning, body, nourish yourself, property, make sure you're hydrated, move your body and spirit, doing the meditation, doing all the things. These three things are really going to shift things for you in such a dramatic way that you will hopefully start moving forward in the right direction. 

Well, and one thing- Keep doing it. Yeah. One thing I'd love to add there, as you mentioned when you practice something, like if you're doing a meditation over and over again, I like to think of that as your baseline. You're learning how to connect and you're having to schedule the time to do so. 

But eventually, if you get really good at it, because you're practicing all the time, then it seems that the next phase is to take your meditation into a moving meditation so that now, 

as you're doing your life and Joe Schmo is cutting you off in front of you, instead of screaming profanities at the guy, right? 

You are in your moving meditation. You're just in that constant connection. And I think that's one thing that I love to think about is it's one thing if I meditate for five minutes and then I'm a complete bitch the rest of the day. Yeah, no, that shit didn't work.
 Go back to the starting point. It's like you're on a game board. You're like, sorry, you got to go back. Start over. It's like, maybe you take your little goal setting or whatever a little step further and say, well now, what's my reward now for implementing this in my day-to-day life? 

That I'm gonna feel better. You're gonna feel better when you do that all the time. It's so true, yeah. And I think that speaks a lot to, I mean, we've had a lot of threads around nature and shamanism, just how everything's interconnected. And it's a great reminder for us too that the natural order of things is expansion. 

And so once we get to a certain level or once we get to a space, how else can you expand? The tree is constantly growing. You are constantly expanding. Don't just learn one or two things and be like, I'm good. Cause you are, that's stagnant energy. And you are always growing and always learning. 

That is your job. That is why you are here. Continue to move forward and find out, okay, how can I take the practice and move it into here? How can I do that when I'm grocery shopping? How can I do that, as you said, with road rage? Right. Yeah, one of my favorite things to do is when somebody is like flipping me off and stuff, I wave and smile at them. Oh yeah. Have a good day. Have a good day. And then it's just like, they're like, because I'm not reacting the way that they anticipated. 

And I'm not, I'm not harshing my own vibe cause you're having a bad fucking day. You know, like. You don't need to ruin my day. Yeah. I'm all daisies and flowers over here, dude. You wave that finger all you want. It's not bothering me at all. That's so funny.
 Well, I think we've touched on a lot here today that when people would just, when you get into the funk of life or something bad happens and you find you can't get out of it, there are ways to look at it, to shift your thinking, put those tools into practice, come up with your own tools. 

You do not have to, you know, maybe you read other people's things and they help you, but maybe you find they don't. And then it becomes creative hour for yourself. Like what works for you? And it's a big trial and error, you know. 

Oh, absolutely. And that, you know, that speaks to like one final thing I wanted to talk about is, you know, all these things that we're discussing, all these tools and techniques, these are investments in your betterment, but the next level really is hiring somebody who's been through it, hiring somebody who's, you know, whether it be a class or whether it be a mentor, link arms with someone else who's, who was at the space where you were before and who has gotten to the place, at least in some increment where you want to be headed. That's the next level because we can only self-teach and self-direct for so long. And when you find someone who's been there before and knows their shit, that's like your next level. 

And I think a lot of people are, you know, I would say, I don't know if hesitant is the word, but you know, there's some sort of weird thing around, I can fix it myself. 

And that's sort of like a superwoman thing that we have, you know, like I can do it myself. I don't need no one else. I got this, like. I don't need help. I don't need your help. Yeah. I don't need your help. I got this. Yeah, not really. I'm like, I don't know.
 I needed help. And it takes a lot for that stubborn mind. Courage. Yeah, it's courage. Yeah. To say, my life has taken a turn downward and I'm in trouble. It's hard to admit, especially if you're a perfectionist, you know, and you think everything's perfect. 

That's hard. Yeah. And you know, a lot of times we can get ourselves to a certain space and like, we can help improve to some level, but at some point you realize I'm at a plateau and I need, I need assistance. Right. 

I can't get beyond this space. Yeah. And that's where it takes, you know, the courage and that faith to find someone that you're really vibing with. Like, okay, let's do this. Well, I think that's a good point for you to just real quick before we end here today, Ayanna, is just share like where we can find you.
 Where's your website? What are you offering to help people? Because, you know, anybody who's listened to you, you're a ball of joy and fun. I mean, I would say that. And you sound very real. Anybody listening, this is a real conversation. This is very authentic.
 So where- I love it. Yes. I love it. Okay. Well, thank you, babes. And I'd like to hear the same from you. So, for me, my peeps, I'm offering actually a free gift. 

It's going to be in the show notes. And it's also, if you missed part one, it's in the show notes as well. And it's a three part series called the Sacred Success Activation. If you are a spiritual entrepreneur, it will help you heal what is holding you back, create your next level six figure income, price your offer to be magically aligned, aligned with the magic that you offer. Yeah. That's a little brain fart. My bad. And also like really embody that six figure entrepreneur that you're meant to be, but embody it right now. It's a $3,600 value. And I'm offering it to the listeners for free. The link is below. If you want to go deeper and work with me in person, you can also reach out to me through my website. 

That's awesome. 

Yeah, babes. And I've been doing this 27 years. So I'm super excited. Lindsay, what do you have to offer for the audience? How are you working with others? Well, I offer one-on-one sessions with people that are really down and out and struggling and don't know where to turn. 

I always like wanted to find somebody myself who had been through a lot of weird stuff. I mean, weird things you have trouble saying out loud to people and feel comfortable. So that's what I'm offering other people. You know, you're struggling, you want insight and it's really just a space to get you to feel comfortable sharing. 

Sometimes people just want to be heard. And this, when you're going through something weird, no one, everyone's looking at you like, what? You don't want to say it out loud. So I am offering one-on-one sessions. You could get on my website. 

I also have a free quiz that is basically to see where you are on your awakening path that will deliver you a personal podcast playlist for wherever you are. And I put out this weekly show just full of insights and all the wild, strange topics I love to hit, you know, just for people. Wild, strange stuff. Yes. It's for fun. I'm not asking anything. Just, I like talking about it. So. Amazing. I love that you say, you know, you can't say certain weird things and stuff. And like, when I was a kid, I spent hours and hours on the swing set waiting for my circus to come rescue me. 

And I say rescue because I knew I was different than my family of origin. 

And I didn't feel like I belonged. And it was in my child mind, the circus were the weird people. Like in my child mind, that's the only, I was like, they are going to drive by and find me and they're going to know exactly, you know, like, oh shit, you need to come with us. Like, I literally was waiting for somebody to come pick me up. That could have been bad, but yeah. And so, as adults, we need our people. We need our circus. Yeah. And we need those who have been through similar shit and can guide us through that darkness and those challenges. 

And even if you're in a space where I'm good, but I want to be better. Yeah. It's time to level up. Expansion's key. There's nothing normal here. So get over it, right? We are who we are. 

We experience what we experience. And I think both you and I see that and kind of welcome it, you know, it's embrace it. I love the weird shit. I get so excited about the weird shit. Oh my God, it's so great. Okay, my lovelies. Well, thank you so much for spending time with us today.
 We love you and appreciate you. Check out the show notes below, connect with us. We're so grateful you're here and we'll talk to you soon. Thank you so much, Iena. Bye-bye. Bye.