The Hemp Del Soul Podcast
Are you ready to dive into the fascinating world of CBD? Look no further than this incredible podcast about CBD! Hosted by Marilisa Lawless of Hemp Del Soul, this podcast is your ultimate source of education, information, and inspiration when it comes to all things CBD. From the latest research findings to personal experiences, this show covers it all. Whether you're a newbie or a seasoned CBD user, this podcast will provide you with valuable insights and tips to make the most out of your hemp journey. Get ready to learn, grow, and connect with like-minded individuals who are passionate about the incredible benefits that CBD has to offer. This podcast is here to help people like you discover the power of CBD and unlock its full potential. So grab your headphones and get ready for an enlightening audio adventure!
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The Hemp Del Soul Podcast
EP #17: Pivoting Through Life's Changes
When the ground shifts beneath your feet, how do you find your balance? In this deeply personal episode, Marilisa shares her journey through an unexpected, major life transition: the sudden loss of her business location after 35 years in the same space. What began with a simple text message from her landlord evolved into a profound lesson about embracing change and finding new beginnings.
The conversation takes us through the raw emotional landscape of major transitions - from the initial shock and grief to acceptance and visioning a new future. Marilisa opens up about dismantling decades of memories, the tears shed in private moments, and the celebration held to honor the space that had been home to countless healing sessions and personal milestones.
Beyond just telling her story, this episode offers practical wisdom for anyone facing significant change. We explore how growth requires moving from comfortable-familiar territory into uncomfortable-unfamiliar spaces, the power of visualization in creating new beginnings, and specific coping strategies that helped Marilisa navigate her transition. Jeremy poses a fascinating question: "Could this disruption be exactly what needed to happen as part of a grand design?"
Whether you're facing a career shift, relationship change, identity transformation, or any major life pivot, this conversation provides both comfort and actionable insights. The most powerful takeaway? Change is where growth happens - and sometimes the universe has to push us when we're not ready to jump on our own. Listen now and discover how to transform life's unexpected transitions into opportunities for renewal and expansion.
Explore our wide range of organic products here: https://www.hempdelsoul.com/ or email us at HempDelSoul@gmail.com
Welcome to the Hemp Del Sol podcast. All health, no high. Here's your host, Mary Lisa Lawless.
Speaker 2:Change is the only constant, and yet it always seems to catch us off guard. So today we're talking a little bit about life transitions, how we cope, how we grow and what it really takes to move forward when the ground shifts beneath us. Welcome everyone to the Hemp Del Sol podcast. I am your co-host of the most, jeremy Wolf, sitting here with the hostess, with the mostest, marilisa Lawless Marilisa. It has been an interesting year thus far, has it not?
Speaker 3:Yes, absolutely Quite fascinating.
Speaker 2:Yes, it has Lots of life happening? Yes, you wanted to talk about change today because you've been going through some interesting transitions in your own life. Why don't you start off by talking about what's been going on in your life and then we'll kind of roll into how this is applicable across the board in all our lives?
Speaker 3:Right. So part the word that pops into my head at this moment is pivot. One of the things that many of us have to do throughout the course of our lifetime is learn how to pivot, and that pivot requires change. It indicates that things are changing, that we're making a change of direction. So when the new year started, I even remember the podcast I did with my friend Andy and we were talking about all these services we're offering and all this new and wonderful stuff that was happening.
Speaker 3:And January we had, like we were on our road to really physical center that I had been dreaming of, and then pivot. I have been dreaming up and then pivot. So we spent money on the exterior of the place that we rent and I mean, and it really it looked beautiful. I started to interview people to create more, to have more employees and to expand. And as we were doing that, I got a text message from my landlord who said I need to meet with you and I was like, Hmm, so when he came in, it was the first week in February and he said I want to let you know, before it goes public, that I have sold I'm selling the building to the town of Davie and I was like, and he's like, yeah, and back up a second how long had you been in that office, that location for?
Speaker 3:Almost 35 years.
Speaker 2:Only 35 years.
Speaker 3:It's the only location we've ever known and we were committed to staying in that space so that clients, customers, clients, could always find us. They knew where we were. We were a main staple in downtown Davie. We've been there for that long. Everybody knew where we were, knew who we were, knew where we were, knew who we were. We were part of the cultural corridor compact for mental health services. We were the first CBD store that was a legitimate CBD store and crystal sales and we had all these things going on and getting awards and getting recognized and being super active and everything and expanding.
Speaker 3:And all of a sudden my landlord comes in a few days into February and says I've sold the building to the town of Davie and I'm giving you 90 days notice, okay. And so he gave us a letter, and you know he gave me a letter, an official notice, like the second week in February after it was made public, because he had given me the notice the day before it was going to become public, didn't give me the notice that this had been negotiation, been going on for a year, which would have been nice. But I understand, you know politics, business and all that and all the stuff that goes on behind closed doors. So it was like, ooh, okay, that's a hard pivot. I've never even had to look for another space Because even when we expanded, we expanded within that space. We went in 1991 from, you know, we had one bay To 1994, we had two bays. To 2012, we had three bays and in 2015, 14, the building was sold to this new landlord. However, they knew we wanted another bay on either side of us to continue our expansion. And, as a side note, people have said to me me well, you've been there so long, why didn't you buy a building? And my accountant had said to me why didn't you buy a building? Not to you said just let the landlord deal with the issues they're running and all that. So, moving forward, here we are in 2025.
Speaker 3:And we had to begin the process of looking for a space to rent or buy, thought we would buy a place, and then, when we started to find places that we thought we would buy prices are a bit out of our league at this moment and then we started looking at rentals, and rentals that were in a lot worse, lot worse shape than the place that we're in, were already twice as expensive as what we were paying and any place that was a decent place that we wanted to move into was four times what we were paying, because our space was over 1,500 square feet. We had multiple rooms, multiple spaces, we had activities going on all the time. We utilized the entire space. So it's been a lot of learning lessons and it got to the point where by April, we realized we were not going to be able to go anywhere else.
Speaker 3:By March we were sort of thinking, okay, we might have to move home, I might have to move into my garage which is where I am in my garage and that we might have to do that. And that's where we sit at this moment, because we needed, after we had to actually grieve. We had a party there to do a celebration of life for our space. We had people coming and going the whole day. There was so many things happening that we had an event, we had music, we had food, we had raffles, we had pictures, we had all kinds of stuff going on, so it was a fun day.
Speaker 2:And let me just say please accept my apologies. I am sorry I missed the event. I was immobile for several days after having thrown my back out, so please don't hold it against me. I really wanted to be there to celebrate the send off. Shift the perspective for a second here. This is all about dealing with change and, ultimately, growth that comes off the heels of change. Could it just be the case that this that happened to you was exactly what needed to happen to you, that this is part of the grand design? Right? This is the stepping stone. Right? You're going to. You're going to fast forward five, 10 years from now and you're going to. It's going to be one of those things where you look back at this and you're like thank you, landlord, for selling the business. I was comfortable there, whatever I couldn't. The space was wonderful, but I couldn't get to where I was supposed to be at. Is it just possible that that's the case?
Speaker 3:Not only possible. I believe that that's actually the reality of what's happening. I knew in the back of my head eventually this day would come, because eventually my landlord would die and his estate would sell the building. I knew that eventually this was going to happen. And are you ever actually ready? It's like being ready for a death or being ready for a sickness, or being ready for a massive change like this. I wasn't. I wasn't even thinking about it. I had already shifted into expansion mode.
Speaker 3:And so when we found that out and my sister and I had to start thinking about, oh shit, where do we go? What are we doing? You know, and we our mutual friend Leilani is a realtor, so she helped with starting to find places and she did a lot of research and rentals and sales and so and she's still, she's still in the back in the background, looking and keeping, and and then we realized, okay, being in my garage is actually a good idea for now, and that we needed to regroup, we need to recenter, we need to actually create this vision of where we want to go. So I've started like trying to manifest a building, and it's going to be a collaborative effort. It won't just be me trying to run everything. I am inviting collaboration.
Speaker 3:So when I started seeing things, I haven't gone out to look it's not time to go look yet but I started seeing a green metal roof and a freestanding building with trees all around it, and I saw pedestal, you know, like the concrete brick pedestals that a building sits on to raise it up a little bit higher.
Speaker 3:I saw that, figured that couldn't be part of what I'm seeing. Just this week I woke up oh, it was yesterday morning. I woke up with this, having this really vivid dream of this grand opening of the crystal store, of all the different rooms where the different therapies are taking place, where my sister and I are still able to be therapists in the back, and and just having this grand opening. And what I then saw was a walk, steps up into this building and the handicap walkway that goes, like that, into the building. And so I saw the front of the building now in my dream and I'm like, oh, in order for it to have steps, maybe that pedestal, those concrete brick pedestals that they're on, are actually part of the new building that I'm trying to envision.
Speaker 3:You get really detailed with this visualization.
Speaker 2:I like it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and other people that are in like the energy world have said you really need to be able to see what you want. And my mom, who's on the other side, who passed away in 2011, has come through a friend of mine who's a medium and said stop telling people to look for places for you when it is time. It will present itself to you. All right, all right, so I'll stop to look for places for you when it is time, it will present itself to you. I'm like, all right, all right, so I'll stop. So now I'm actually starting to dream it a little bit more vividly. It was, it was really interesting, because I woke up saying what was? What was that? So that just happened this week.
Speaker 3:So we've only been in this space. We've been transitioning the whole month of May. So May has been mucho changes. You know really about all of this, and I'm grateful that I had this space in my home to be able to store stuff, so we don't have to have storage units. Grateful that I have people to donate stuff to and donated a bunch of stuff, you know. Grateful for being able to sit back and take a look at what it is that's happening around me. It's it has been a very, very transitional month, um, and not necessarily in a bad way, just change, and change can be quite uncomfortable and push a little bit. And yet I know that what you just said about could this be like just pushed me into making a change. Making a change, and you know me saying I don't want to go yet. I don't want to go yet, but pushing and saying, no, boom, you're why.
Speaker 2:Why is it so difficult? This is this is the question, and I think this is this is part of it's just part of how, how the universe is it like? We all we know that when life throws us challenges, the best thing we can do is lean into it and keep a positive attitude and just believe that this is happening for a reason and that there's no silver lining. But we all tend to get frazzled and deer in the headlights and we get worried and we get concerned. What do you think most people get wrong about starting over, whether whether it's a new job, a relationship or even even your identity, right?
Speaker 3:so two things two things I see with it. Most people get really angry about it and the anger then gets in the way of being able to transition into that space and fear and letting fear run the show. And you know, you have the opportunity, with fear as an acronym, to forget everything and run, which is what many people do. Let me be an ostrich in the sand and hide and pretend this isn't happening, or face everything and recover. Face everything, and I get to. If I face it, I can move forward.
Speaker 3:So, as soon as I knew I had events planned for right then um, orange blossom and there was a few other things going on. But then I knew that the second week, you know the week after all these events finished, that we were going to hit the ground running and move forward, because it wasn't an option to stay put. And I even tried to rent the building back from the town, but they're tearing the building down. And then they were saying that they would have to rent it to me at current rates, which is it's still a rundown, broke down building that we made into a home space that we worked in, you know, but it was still a rundown, broke down building, you know, it was just familiar. So, with all change, the only reason or the only way that people change is to be willing to move out of that comfort zone of familiar into I tell people, it's this four levels. You know you move from familiar and comfortable when things get uncomfortable. If they're uncomfortable enough, you'll move into that place of unfamiliar. As you get into this place where it starts to become more familiar so that it gets comfortable, in order to keep growing you have to be willing to pay attention to the things that start to make you feel uncomfortable again, because, again, the more uncomfortable something gets, the more willing I am to move into the unfamiliar. And, as I'm in the unfamiliar, it's just this constant state of growth of moving from uncomfortable, unfamiliar to comfortable, familiar, then uncomfortable, unfamiliar, and and it just goes on and on and on, and that's part of how we pivot, that's part of how we grow and change and create different circles and create different ways of seeing the world. So part of what we've seen is that I want a building. I want you know that we're my sister and I are are trying to create a space where we can do all of our pre-pharmaceutical treatments is how I describe it. So still being able to be the therapist, that we are getting our message out to a broader audience, because that's part of what the podcast is about Letting them know that we do all of these things that are alternative healing practices, and that there's things in between treatment and pharmaceuticals, that there's a whole lot that goes on in the middle and try new things.
Speaker 3:You know it was like the podcast with Brian doing the microdose to mine. Yes, microdosing is something that's used for post-traumatic stress. The ayahuasca, that's something that again used for post-traumatic stress and healing traumas. That's one modality. That's something else we do. We have, you know, maurice Israel's a medium and he's moving into medical mediumship, which is going to help with some of the people in their body trauma and trying to heal that. He did that years ago but he's being called to go back into that. He still does mediumship, medical mediumship.
Speaker 3:Yeah, medical mediumship, where it is about healing modalities, healing the body energetically and calling in all of these healing resources from the universe.
Speaker 2:I'm summoning healing entity. It is, oh my goodness.
Speaker 3:He did a session with me. It was so interesting, so that's the whole other thing. I'll bring him on one of these days.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I gotta get him on the on the podcast.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so doing so, I mean all these other things that are out there. So I want a center where I can have this collaborative engagement with a lot of people in the community and that people are welcoming this. So that's where I'm at.
Speaker 2:But it was a huge pivot. Sites are aligned to some degree in terms of this idea of having this center right, this place where it offers all of these modalities.
Speaker 3:You hear that I don't.
Speaker 2:I'm hearing voices in my head now. So for me you know me I'm more into the whole plant medicine the ayahuasca, the mushrooms, the you know I like the breath work, the meditation stuff, which you're into as well, absolutely. But all of the things that we're doing, they're all, they all embody the same space, which is kind of like the antithesis to traditional Western medicine. Right Putting a bandaid. You know you have a problem, just take this pill, it'll fix it. It'll fix it. Really, what that's doing is just numbing you to the actual problems. As you're explaining the center that you're having and you're visualizing it.
Speaker 2:I've been also thinking about trying to open a retreat center or something, and I don't really have a discrete vision. I have a vision of what I want to do, but it's not materialized yet. I'm getting closer and it's, it's, it's. I'm getting closer and closer and as we talk about this, I see like emerging together of this into like one centralized hub for all of this together and like pulling all of our resources, like Brian up in Orlando with what he's doing and then you with what you're doing and me down here and just pulling other people in and just creating like a conglomerate and a real place that you can go to access all these things in in one location, because I don't think they really have that. They have specific areas that deal with uh, you can go on an ayahuasca retreat and do this or that. I I've not really seen like one major center that handles all of this stuff this stuff no, and part of it is is like what?
Speaker 3:um, casadega or sedona, these are all considered vortexes that do all of these healing modalities, but again, it's just like you go there or you, or you go there or you go there, and I would truly like to create a center that's one stop. You can come in here and you can look at our schedule, and our schedule is we have an ayahuasca service is going to happen, and then this day, we have, you know, a medical medium that does this. We have a tarot card readers and Oracle readers that do different types of healing things and Oracle readers that do different types of healing things. We have somebody who talks with the crystals and and that's a whole other thing.
Speaker 2:that was just super weird.
Speaker 3:Yes, yes, andy is a crystal whisperer. It is bizarre. It's super bizarre, but it's super cool. I? I mean, she helped me identify a crystal that I had no idea what it was. The person who gave it to me didn't know where it came from. He got it at a garage sale and, um, she gave me some identifying things that the crystal told her and I was able to, from those clues, to find the crystal.
Speaker 3:It just so weird and that's why I've been sold ever since, ever since that happened, because I was like this was like a crystal from China, from this particular region, and it's this and it did this and it's that. And I actually found the crystal based on those things she told me. I was like, okay, and oh you, you and margie were in the store with me one time when we weren't standing anywhere near a crystal and it threw itself off the shelf and we all looked around like what was that? You remember that? Yep, and so I had her and somebody else who also is my bookkeeper. She says, oh, that crystal did not like being there. It wants to be over here.
Speaker 2:I'm like, okay, they have a mind of their own man.
Speaker 3:Apparently, it was very, very interesting and I don't disbelieve. I don't know that I understand it or can do it myself, but I don't disbelieve that they're saying these things and that they're having these conversations Only because I've seen it happen in front of my own eyes. Yet it's like it does no harm. You know, it might sound a little crazy, might be a little crazy, but it does no harm and hopefully it helps. And at the end of the day, no matter where we change or however the pivot takes us, we just want to maintain that Hippocratic oath of do no harm, which is what most doctors well, all doctors are supposed to take that oath.
Speaker 3:But, us as trauma therapists I mean, that's what we specialized in do no harm and looking at the efficacy of all of the different healing modalities. Our minds are so powerful. We use so little of our mind. It really is about how do you want to heal, what does healing look like for you? What do you need to heal from? You know there's so many different aspects to change and so many levels.
Speaker 3:Yeah, my, my, my quote. The thing that I say to people is they're like oh, change, change, change. You know they make these comments and I'm like change is the only thing that you don't have. You know, you know. And if, what I say, if change was easy, everybody would do it, because, realistically, if you want to change something, you just do it. And yet, even in therapy, I know that people are not, they're not as interested in jumping into it to try and make the change, Because we, as humans, are pain avoidant to it to try and make the change, because we, as humans are pain avoidant.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it sounds all good and well, like you just do it, you make the change. But what happens is the thing that's crazy. Difficult about changing is that we're all programs right, we're running on patterns, and many of these programs we're running on are so deeply ingrained in our mind that it's not a matter of just all of a sudden saying I'm going to do something. You have to, like build a new operating system. You have to rewire your brain and reprogram your mind to do the things necessary to actually change. And that comes with a lot of discomfort, a lot of work, often a lot of suffering hopefully voluntary suffering. It's not easy. So what is that crazy noise? Geez.
Speaker 3:I don't hear it on my end. Hold on.
Speaker 2:I'm hearing all sorts of echoes. It just went away. So how do when you get hit with it right, because this is the really a really hard part about dealing with uncomfortable situations, especially bad news or whatever, like whatever situation, whatever life presents itself with that can be riveting to you. When you get hit with that, how do you deal with that, like getting news, for instance, learning about your place being shut down or the land. When you got that news, what, what did you do? How did you react to that? What, what tools did you use in that moment to get past that wave of emotions? Because clearly, you hear the news and it's like a visceral reaction and comes up with this uncomfortable feeling of like, oh my God, what am I going to do? The sooner you could diffuse that, the sooner you could start working towards a resolution and not let it consume you. So what are some tricks and tools that you use in situations like that that you could share with others?
Speaker 3:For me. How I handle things is. I mean, it's sort of a form of dissociation. I just sort of step back and I don't react. Initially I will offer congratulations to the person who is presenting this news, because this is something good for them. I take a minute, I don't say anything and the next day is usually when it'll happen, where I'm like oh, this is a lot. And through this whole process I was angry, but very briefly. I get angry more about knowing that it's been a process for a while and that I had no clue, that it completely caught me off guard that it was coming right then and there. But other than that, the anger passed really quickly because I get more into the logic about it. You know what makes sense. When I had a moment, I cried, I spoke with friends Reaching out to friends is really important and I have my ride or die. I have my ride or die. You know, I have these two women in my life that I've been.
Speaker 3:You know we've been on the same plane in the therapy world and every you know raising kids and therapy, and all that for over 30 years. And if they see me being a little too logical, they will stop me, make me take a few deep breaths, which is what I do with clients. Come on, come back into your body, take a few deep breaths. How do you really feel? So over the course of those three months that this was happening, I cried. I sat in my car. So the hardest part for me was taking photographs of my family off the wall in the back office. I took. I had pictures of my son. He's 37. He was four years old. In some of the you know, in a picture that I had of him and my brother, in a picture that I had of him and my brother, my kids, my grandkids, the photocopy of hands on the copier machine, little messages. My daughter wrote a message and taped it behind something that I didn't see and it said don't forget the love Bittersweet.
Speaker 3:I got into my car that evening. I had my salesperson. She was like are you OK? She said, do you want a hug? And so I let her. You know, I hugged her and I get into my car and I sobbed, I sobbed, I sobbed. It was just. I have had that space for an entire lifetime.
Speaker 3:So I went through all of what you would call the phases of grief. I was angry, I was this isn't really happening. Can I bargain, can I negotiate to stay longer? Sadness, just the sadness. That was overwhelming sometimes. You know the acceptance, just you know, move into this place. You know this is the business. This is not a thing. It wasn't a personal thing, it was this is a business, even though my business is very personal. I moved into that space. So, yeah, there was, there was a lot of emotions and it really is about just take three deep breaths and ground. I did a lot of walking in my backyard in the grass, barefoot. I spent a lot of time outside just hanging out with my trees, looking at the water, listening to the birds. That was another piece.
Speaker 2:And the crystals. Don't forget the crystals.
Speaker 3:I sat in the crystal room in the office. I would just sit in the corner where the main part of the store. When nobody was there, I would just sit in the corner and just breathe. Nobody was there, I would just sit in the corner and just breathe. So I've done all of these different things to be able to move through the emotional space and then you just come back to business. All right, let's get this done.
Speaker 3:And we had our party. We did and we called it a celebration of life. And we had old clients that have been have been through these doors for over 30 years, that have come in and out because they've always known where we were, and a lot of people. There were some people that came that didn't think they were going to come, but they were really glad that they came and it was an opportunity to say goodbye. We had even a book. You know like a book that you would have at like a funeral to write a message and know like a book that you would have at like a funeral to write a message. And we had people writing messages. You'll have to write a message even if you weren't there. We have the book and our sweet goodbye.
Speaker 2:Bitter sweet goodbye.
Speaker 3:Absolutely.
Speaker 2:On to new beginnings, Marilisa.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, you know, I think that's a perfect place to leave it. So unless yeah, let's just leave it at that. Everyone thanks so much for listening to this conversation on navigating life transitions. If this resonated with you, or you with you, or you know somebody that's going through it right now, share this with someone and always remember change is hard, but it is also where growth happens, and and.
Speaker 3:And it is where growth happens.
Speaker 2:And Did I say but yeah, I'm working on reprogramming, eliminating the buts, installing the ands.
Speaker 3:And.
Speaker 2:And All right, Very cool Marilisa. Always a pleasure, milady.
Speaker 3:Jeremy, the same.
Speaker 2:All right. Everyone Take care out there, stay positive, stay happy, stay healthy. Remember we only have this one life to live, so let's live it to the fullest. Everyone take care Bye.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to the Hemp Del Sol podcast. Explore our wide range of organic products at hempdelsolcom. That's H-E-M-P-D-E-L-S-O-U-Lcom or contact 954-854-1039.
