Episode 85: Tuning In - A Guide to Divine Communication

What if the divine was never far away, just waiting for you to notice? In this episode, we talk about how to read signs and synchronicities in daily life, and what it actually means to build a real relationship with your guides and higher self.

We break down prayer, meditation and yoga as sacred technologies. And not seeing prayer or connection as a begging request sent into the void, but as a way of tuning yourself into alignment. From there we dig into one of the most confusing questions in spirituality: when a thought arrives, is it truly yours, or is it received from somewhere else? That leads us into the akashic field, including the , surprisingly common experience of choosing your baby's name seemingly out of nowhere.

We also talk through some animal signs and what they really mean — butterflies, robins, owls snakes, and feathers.

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You can check out our respective websites and social media here:

Becky:

www.instagram.com/therosealmanac

www.therosealmanac.com

Laura:

www.soulsanctuarystudios.com

www.lauraclaytonwellness.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 1:02

So welcome back to the podcast today. And we are going to be exploring the topic of communication, or perhaps connection might be a better word for this, but with the divine through our signs and synchronicities, through also like the mind and the thoughts. So there's a lot to dive into. And I I think just I want to start with saying how we've been taught around spirituality and God that this sense of the divine, and you know, there's definitely this reference of the sky god, you know, in so much of religion is out there, up and out there, and that we're these like mortal human beings in here. And for me, I guess what I've discovered on my journey is the whole project of living a spiritual life, whatever that means for you, whether that is having like spiritual beliefs, a spiritual practice, or just living within a way where you're more open, it is about closing that gap, about the gap between the sky god or the divine and what's within you. And like this communication isn't something you necessarily need to initiate, it's already there, it's been there the whole time. But you become conscious of it and you start to notice, and really the practice then becomes like learning to read and interpret that, whether that is like on your yoga mat, whether that is when you're out for a walk and you you sort of relate to something and you think, oh, like that's a sign. You know, this thread runs through everything, and it's kind of proof to me that God is not separate from us, but it's more like this continuous field of intelligence that we are part of rather than separate from. So I don't believe in coincidences, I would definitely call them synchronicities, and it was Carl Jung who defined this term of synchronicity to describe meaningful coincidence, and he defines that as events that are connected not by cause and effect but by meaning. So it's that thing you think of someone, and then you know, the next time you look at your phone, they've messaged you, or you know, or they've called you, or I don't know, you're there's something on your mind, but then you dream about it. Or yeah, it can be like the numbers that you see that are kind of there when you're trying to make a decision, and it's just like that guidance of, yep, I'm on the right path. And I'm sure there are sceptical people out there, like I'm always optimistic and live my life that way. But I think skeptical people, and probably my husband would fall into this category, would say like that's just pattern matching, that our bright brains are wired to find significance, and so that's what we do. But to me, it's just deeper than that, really. It's like the inner world and the outer world get closer together, so any veil that exists is much thinner to have that connection. And then, you know, if everything that exists around us is one single field of intelligence, then it's like a thought that you have and an event happening, like you know, the thing with you think of the person and then they phone you, they aren't two separate things, they're not two different categories that line up, they're just two expressions of the same energy moving through at the same moment. So, in my view, signs aren't like about the divine trying to interrupt your day to send you a message, like we're not that special. They're just things that are always available, and it's the paying attention that is the practice because we're just tapping into that divine sort of field of intelligence. So, yeah, that would be kind of my initial thoughts on it, and I know one of the reasons that we're recording this today is because we've been talking like off the podcast a bit about signs, haven't we, Laura? And you know, you've been sending me pictures of pelicans. So, yeah, what what are your thoughts on all this? Where are you at with signs synchronicity?

SPEAKER_00 6:05

Well, yeah, I think I mean how you summarise that, Beck, is so helpful. Like talking about this as a sense of connection, I think, is like something that I've just got really clear on recently. And obviously, yoga means connection, right? It means to yoke, to connect. And obviously, since doing lots of my nervous system healing, you know, our last episode was on healing, and basically we were saying there that like it's through connection that we heal, you know, we feel to heal. And I and when we talk now about like communicating with the divine, it's again that understanding that like it's within us, it's when we connect deeply within ourselves that we sort of get access to that clarity and that direction from our heart, and that you know, yoga is all about that sense of like oneness, isn't it? That like this material illusion, the maya, are just kind of like ways that we're expressing energy in this world, whether it's an animal form, plant, plant form, human form. But at the end of the day, we are all consciousness, and so it's about trying to still the chitter chatter of the mind of Riti, what they call in yoga, to be able to connect deeply and feel that inner wisdom, guidance, intuition, consciousness that we all have inside of us. So exactly right, like it's closing that gap between this sort of big god in the sky that we think is telling us what to do and realizing that actually connecting deeply within ourselves is how we find the guidance, right? And I think that is something yes, it's something that I've been wanting to get more connected with. And I think I was in fight and flight for so long running the studio. Ironically, even though it was a yoga studio, like the actual distress of the business put me in survival for a really long time, and I didn't feel like really that I had the capacity, or I was in like what I now know as like ventral vagal, like social, creative, curious, like I couldn't be in that state because I was in survival, and having let the studio go and just like taking that massive weight, like financially, you know, responsibility, all of the load that comes with that, just created so much more space for me to get curious and enjoy everything about yoga again and connection to self and my own healing journey. And yeah, I just wanted to become more connected and felt like a real pull to like I want to receive like more guidance, and what does that look like? We've been having some funny conversations because obviously you're very much like in that realm, and I love like all the work you're doing around that, and I felt quite far away from it, and I wanted to like learn more. And obviously, astrology's been a huge like gateway for me in that, but like there's more, and I always feel like you're like you know, always finding the next thing in your journey, and I'm sort of just in awe, like at the sidelines, like wow, like teach me that, and and we had some conversations on our teacher training. So obviously, we have to draw the line somewhere on TT and like what stops being a 200-hour training and and starts becoming you know, just this endless like giving of information. So we did sort of draw the line at like spirit guides, you know, but in the breaks, I will then yeah, pester you for like, right? So if I wanted to like get guidance from my spirit guides, like what would I do back? And you were like, Well, you know, you've got to ask. And I was like, okay, yeah, I mean, that seems obvious, but I was just still a bit like, how? I don't like it's not obvious because I wasn't asking, and then when you said it, I was like, Yeah, I still don't really know what to do. So I went for a walk around, especially in the gardens, which I often say, like, they hold so many mixed emotions for me, that garden, because like I started my business there, and it's been a journey, right? Over the past like nearly decade. And like I remember being in COVID and it being like completely frozen and frosted over and seeing the frozen cobwebs and being really, really pregnant, and then like having my first baby in the pram pushing around there, and you know, then having him running around there and like that garden seeing me through like all my phases in life, feel really connected to it, but it does have a sadness now because obviously the studio's closed, so it feels really mixed being there. And I went and sat on the bench that I so often do off like overlooking the lake, and I was like, okay, and obviously, I a big thing I was asking where should I live? Like, should I travel? Is the UK the place for me? I'm watching these like Canadian geese sweep in. I'm like, is it Canada? Is that the sign? Like I was being so literal, and I just didn't get it. I was like, Oh, I don't know what I'm doing here, and like came back and I was like, I just I don't really get it. And you were like, look, you do need to be clearer, like be really clear about the question and be really clear about what you want to see as the answer. And I was like, Oh, yeah, okay, yeah, that was I left it way too open. So when I got back home to Devon, I it's always for me, it's always nature. Like I run round the lake in the morning. It's a nature reserve, actually. And it's like I just feel so blessed to live here because I can literally run out my front door and like go round the corner and down a hill, and I'm just on the most like stunning river, like estuary to the ocean, and there's incredible wildlife around there. And for some reason, heron popped into my mind, it was a heron, and I was like, okay, show me a heron if, and like asked it the question that I was asking, and lo and behold, it wasn't right then, it was like five, ten minutes later. I ran around the corner and there was a massive heron. I mean, I know they're massive anyway, but it was like it felt kind of undeniable, and I was like, wow, okay. I mean, herons do live in rivers, but like that was a pretty big one, and so I was like, okay, a heron feels like it might be my sign, and and was like researching what does that mean, and it was about timing and precision and when to act and when not to act and patience, and I was like, gosh, this all feels really fitting for like what I was asking. Then we went to go and view a house, it was so funny. And I was standing next to the for sale sign, I looked across the road, and there was a heron on the top of the roof, like opposite the house I was looking at. It was actually a statue, but you can imagine I like cracked up laughing, and I'd already told Adam the story, so he was like eye-rolling, like, oh my god, what is this? And I was driving home the other day, and a heron flew across the road, and I was like, I mean, that doesn't happen. Herons don't fly across roads, like they live, you know. So there's been this theme of herons, and it's really funny because it was only after I like asked like what for guidance that then I started seeing them. And obviously, there is, I mean, there's there is psychology behind that, and I don't want to kill it, but it's that thing that like we see what we are looking for, right? We then the psychologists listening will be like, Yeah, yeah, well, you're looking for it, so you're seeing it. Maybe, but for me, it felt it had significance, and I think that's what's important, right? So that's been happening. I had a really funny thing where my sister came to stay at our house, and her husband is really not like if we're calling this stuff woo-woo, he's really not woo-woo at all in the way I don't know, he's like rugby player, thinks it's all a bit ridiculous and just kind of laughs along. Anyway, everybody was changing bedrooms because you know how it is with toddlers, everyone moves into mummy's bed and the bed's free, and then daddy's moved into that bed and like just chaos. So that was happening. So James, Uncle James, went and slept in the boys' room, and Theo started crying, so I went and grabbed him and put into my bed. And he said to my sister, it was like a week later because he was like, I've been a bit like embarrassed to say it because it feels absolutely mental. But when Laura came and collected Theo from the bed, there was a white dove on Theo's bed, and it was like glowing, and he said, like, he rubbed his eyes like five times to be like, What on earth is going on? And yeah, like he could just see a white glowing dove on his bed. And so I asked Adam, and Theo's middle name is Percy, and Adam's granddad was Percy, and he just Adam had just scattered his ashes the weekend before, and and Percy used to look after doves, and we really felt like he was being looked after, you know. And all of this happened since I was like, I just want to feel more connected and I want to like welcome the guidance in. So it's been yeah, it's been interesting for me to to really lean into that side of things, and I mean I felt so much more connected back to like spirit shelveshi through astrology first. That was my like, oh my god, this stuff is real, and that obviously started by Lenny telling me about his past life. I couldn't deny that, so I was like, wow, there's something bigger at play here because I think I'd lost faith, and that and it sounds absolutely mental to say that. I've probably said it before, but like when I felt unexpectedly pregnant with Lenny on the coil, not knowing astrology, when that happened to me, I was like, How could this happen? Because I have I had always really trusted in the divine, even at a very young age. Like I read The Secret, and it had come true. Everything that I wanted in my life had come true, and I just I firmly believed if I visualize it and I believe it will happen, and it had every part of it. And so I had this vision and I knew where I was going, and then suddenly I was pregnant, and I was like, no, like this that's gonna ruin everything. And now that I understand astrology, like that's what reconnected me with that faith that everything is happening for us, but it didn't feel like it at the time, and then with the studio going wrong, yeah, like it's interesting, it's a journey, isn't it, of losing faith and reconnecting with faith. And I think like one of the things actually I was talking about with you this morning, Beck, is even one of the Hindu gods, you know, Ganesha, which is very tightly connected to yoga, he is sometimes known as the remover of obstacles, but also sometimes puts obstacles in our path if it's for our greater good, and that is now how I see those things. I see those things like they were absolutely for the greater good, but at the time it's easy to lose faith and connection, right? So, yeah, I've been on my own little personal journey with uh connection to spirit and signs, and yeah, so we thought we'd talk about it a little bit today in case anybody else was curious, and maybe we'll dive into a bit more around the like like what are potential signs and how how does it work, right?

SPEAKER_01 16:50

Mm-hmm. Yeah, I think it is as soon as you welcome the relationship, I think it's almost like your that sort of synchronicity, that connection, like really wants to remind you. So I don't know how how that works really, but I think you there's definitely like that influx of signs and things like that when you first like really start surrendering, I suppose, because it is a surrendering, it is a kind of well people say don't they let go to let God like you have to just be open to that, and I think then you start to build a relationship the same way you build a relationship with a human or with your yoga practice or whatever it is, you know, it's that consistent maintenance of being in communion with the desired divine so that you can test I say test, like that's quite a logical way of saying it, but it I think you do go through that process of like testing what you're thinking or asking for about with what actually happens, and then I think you do learn to tell the difference between guidance and wishful thinking, or even like if it's if you've got a fear but it's like you're dressing it up as something else because that's what you want to believe. I think you I think you start to gain that inner wisdom, and I think it's one of the fastest ways to actually build your discernment in all parts of your life, actually. Because if you can discern those things that are quieter and more about synchronicity, it becomes much easier to discern on the things that are like right in your face as well, which I think still a lot of people struggle with. So, yeah, I know we've talked about discernment before, but I feel like it's a it's a practice, it's a practice, it's a spiritual practice, discernment, you know, because it's discernment that makes us live our most connected and truest path, and if we're not doing that, then we end up living someone else's life. So it's discernment between your yes and your no that you know that join you back with your path. So yeah, and then I think you know, if like signs and synchronicities are the incoming messages, we could look at it that way, you know, we're connected to spirit, we're receiving those messages. Then I think things like yoga and meditation and prayer are the opposite of that, they are like the our technology, our body is a technology to kind of convey a message outwards. So I used to think prayer was about like you know, hands together, you pray to God about maybe, and it was always from a prayer place of fear. I remember praying so much around like my cat was really sick, I was much younger, and like just praying to God, who I didn't really believe in, that you know, that this cat would be alright. So it's like has these connotations for asking a deity or a god in the sky for a favour rather than actually prayer is well, it's like a tuning fork, really. And I would say meditation and yoga are the same things, you're cultivating your vessel, your mind. We know much about yoga is cultivation of and refinement of the mind, is a is a method for converting attention and intention into a shift that we can see then in the field around us, or maybe it's an internal shift. So, you know, when we're praying, the words that we use, the postures, maybe the mantras, or you know, hymns that we're singing, they're a mechanism to raise our vibration, and yoga does the same thing. And of course, you know, different traditions have different ways of doing this, you know, whether it's like using your mala, your rosary, you know, they're the same technology, you're repeating a mantra that is your tuning fork, you know, and they share they share the same thing in terms of like the rhythm and using your voice, you know, voice, the throat chakra is so much about bringing what's within you out into the world and move us from a place of fear and tune us into that frequency of yeah, I would just call it the field. So it's like seeing those things, and I don't think people do see yoga that way, but in a way it's the same thing, it is a devotional practice to yourself, you know, you're not like phoning God up and and saying, Please help me, you're trying to bring your desires and your internal what's whatever's within you into resonance with the outside. And and then when the difference between the inside and the outside is you know less, then you then you're in this space of truth. Because truth is the highest vibration of all authenticity, truth. So yeah, I think it's interesting that different cultures have these practices, whether it is prayer, like I say, yoga, asana, meditation, they're all trying to really do the same thing at a spiritual level. And of course, there'll be all the science as well. And You know, science and spirituality are not two separate things. Really, they're the same thing viewed through different lenses. The more that I study, the more I think I realise that.

SPEAKER_00 23:14

Yeah, I totally agree with you. I think you're right. I mean, all those practices that we're doing are for me in my mind is like it's just clearing the pathway to connect and to connect to receive, to receive guidance or to hear guidance, however, you that's already within you, however, you want to see that or feel that. But it's it's what I love about yoga is the frameworks, you know, being a Capricorn D lover framework, and it does, it offers us literally eight limbs, like the pathways of yoga, it gives us the eight steps, like it gives us the layers of the body, it gives us the like one to five all the time of like how to do stuff. And it's like, you know, if we're talking about clearing our own pathway for connection, there's there's a process that goes in that because if we are in physical pain, often that can be a real distraction from like doing this like more subtle work because we're just stuck in the gross body. Like, I know if I've got a trapped nerve or a sore shoulder or carpal tunnel, like I'm not thinking about my heron, I'm just like pass me the ibuprofen, right? Like you can't connect with those higher chakras when you're just in survival. That's the physical body, which you know, yoga literally works on, obviously, through the asana first with what we call anamaya kosha, yes, the layer made of food. And then it literally gives us the framework to go, okay, and once you're more connected with that, you'll move inwards to the more subtle layers, pranaya kosha, energetic sheaf or the energetic layer, manamaya kosha, the mind layer, like and literally gives you the practices as to how to clear those pathways or to rebalance them so that we are, yeah, the pathways are clear, we're able to connect, we're able to receive. And so, yeah, I think yoga gives us the eight limbs as to how to practice yoga to clear the pathways physically, emotionally, energetically. It spells it out in terms of the layers of the body and and how to do that. Even like if you look at the om symbol, it literally explains this process. So you've got in the symbol, you've got the Vaishvana, which is the lower loop, if you like, which is the A, it's waking state. Then you've got the U, which is the Taiasa, which is the dream state, you've got the M, which is the Shashupti, and that is all about like the unconscious, and then you've got the Maya, the illusion, the little line, and then the infinite is the dot. And it's it literally says the same thing. It says we cycle through wakefulness and sleep, and we have to see through the illusion to connect to the infinite, and that is you know the universal sign, and actually, the shape of Ganesha represents the shape of the on for the same reason because it is about clearing the obstacles to connection, and that's really what we're trying to realize is that this divine is within us, the guidance, we are all part of the same energy, it's the obstacles in the path which stop us from receiving or feeling the guidance. And yoga is literally a technology, like you say, of clearing that path. And of course, people come just to stretch their hamstrings like lovely because they want to get rid of their back injury, yeah, because they don't want to be in pain, and when they're not in pain anymore, then they might be able to come on this next step in the journey, you know. Or if it's not a physical pain, it's why I love the nervous system work because I wasn't in physical pain. Luckily, I you know, I really look after my physical body, but I wasn't looking after my nervous system, if I'm really honest. I was push, push, pushing myself because self-worth connected to achievement or not feeling safe enough to be still in my learned, like body memory. And like I was saying to you on the weekend, in some ways I feel nervous system work is it kind of has to come before the spiritual work. Because, like, I certainly couldn't have received or even been in the headspace to be interested in this sort of thing when I was just in survival. So I feel like that's another layer that just needs to be cleared and regulated before we can really lean into this work and really fully embody it and feel safe enough to be creative and curious and all of those things. And you spoke about like discernment, which is is part of that process, isn't it? I think like once you're in ventral vague, once you feel safe and creative, you've kind of then got to decide like what is right for me and what is not for me, and that can be hard because sometimes the shiny opportunities, you know, they can be attractive, but if they're if they're not aligned with you and your truth, then it's about what you're saying yes to and what you're not, and that that is discernment. In in yoga, they call that your the buddhi is the inner wisdom, it's the intelligence or the discernment, it is higher wisdom, it is that voice of consciousness, and the whole purpose of meditation, like you're talking about, or prayer, is about quieting the mind, the chitta chatter, the vritti, so that we can hear the buddhi, so that we can hear the inner wisdom that we all have, we all know the answers already. You know, if we kind of just roll our eyes at ourselves all the time and go, I mean, I knew it, I just couldn't do it. And that's this discernment piece. And again, yoga offers these amazing layers, it says the manas is the everyday thinking mind, it receives information through the senses, analyses, compares, worries, chatters, fear. It can be fear-based, right? And kara is the ego, the sense of I, which identifies with our roles and achievements and opinions. You know, what does this mean about me? And we're really trying to dissolve that bit of the ego because of course it's never about us. And buddhi is the quiet, discerning wisdom that sees through it all, and it just simply knows. And that that is what connects us to Purusha, which is the pure awareness, which we've spoken about, you know. So it's funny, isn't it? Like you you look at like we're all very into the sort of the Christianity and the religion side of it. I'm now looking at the science side of it, yoga has its framework, it all comes down to connection, it all comes down to the divine is already within us, and if we can cultivate the space and the focus, then we can hear the voice that is already there, right?

SPEAKER_01 29:41

Hmm, for sure. And I think you can start to discern with your thoughts because one of the things that people often say is, yeah, but like, how do I know what is like my thought, what is spirit or my guides, like you know, because it isn't all well, some for some people it is like maybe they hear it as a separate voice if they've developed, you know, clear audience or something like that. And in a way, what I always think is it doesn't matter really, because it's a bit of a false binary to think like, is this thought mine that has arrived in my mind in meditation when I was trying to get the answer, or I'm in prayer, or I'm whatever, you know, is that my thought, or is it like some higher, you know, some higher guide? At the end of the day, if you believe the divine is within you, it's all the same energy, actually. Like it's a false binary. So I don't believe like any thought that we have is purely our thought in the way that people generally think about it. It arrives through you, like you were saying, it's filtered by your nervous system as well, your history, everything that's gone on in life, also your vocabulary, and this is where I think studying and reading scripture, you know, that's one of the sort of limbs of yoga, isn't it? To to study is important because it expands your vocabulary so that you are able to interpret things in a different way. So nothing is, you know, yes, it it could be our guides, but I tend to believe our guides are just different aspects of us anyway. But it's like you are the antenna and also the receiver at the same time. You know, something is moving, energy is moving, you can call it God, you can call it intelligence, you can call it the Akashic field, but it takes on the shape of you as it moves through you. This is why no one's thoughts are ever the same, you know. I mean two people can receive the same transmission about something, and their thoughts and what they take away will be entirely different, right? And I think, you know, you were talking about Purusha and sort of these different layers, and then they're almost like the sort of truer our own frequency becomes. I think you know, if we work on that, we work on the vessel, our body and our mind, and like the cultivation of this, like this tuning fork, then we're more likely to be able to sort of tune our antenna and also you know what we send out into the world, we're more able to receive through that. So then what we hear is, you know, like a higher intelligence, and that you know, and this is how people develop sort of the siddic qualities. And I think the Akashic field is an interesting concept. Some people might have heard of this, like people who read the Akashic records. The Akashic field comes from the Sanskrit word, so it was something that is very connected with yoga. Akasha means ether, as we know as well with Sanskrit, it's difficult to translate into English in that way because it's a vibration, but it does show up in many traditions across the world of like this this divine intelligence that holds the memory of everything that has happened, is happening, and could happen as well. And this is like it, I think it can be encoded in objects, but it's like it's just the empty space. Some I think in science this is probably what dark matter is, but it hasn't been explored. And when we think about the field in that way, the idea that our thoughts are not manufactured from nothing inside our head, they're accessed, they're pulled down from dark matter from the field that already contains the seed of the idea. In the same way, you could think about it as like a TV doesn't hold like the Netflix series that you're watching is tuning into that, you know, a frequency and it's just broadcasting it, and we are like we're like the TV. And I think when I think about the Akashic Field and you know, this idea of connection, this divine connection with all that is, I think naming our children is a really good example to use because we think as parents we're choosing our child's name. And of course, like at one level, we are absolutely doing that. Like, I like that name, I don't like that name. You know, we we go through this process of refining the name in some cases, in other cases, we just know what that name is, and you know, that was my experience with my first daughter. That my my husband knew what her name was going to be before, probably well, where when I very first met him, he said, if we have a daughter, she's gonna be called Hannah, and like that was it. I knew there was no debate on it, and then I suppose you've got to think, I believe our children choose us as parents to have an experience because there are soul connections, all of that stuff. So, you know, and if you believe that, I think any mother who has a child will feel that like soul connection. It's like deeper than just loving something, right? It's a it's a deep soul connection, a a sense that you chose them and the gratitude that you have and that of them choosing you. Well, it's kind of the the same thing with the name, like why would you why would you think like it's coming from within you, it's coming from the field. And yes, like it might show up in a name book, or it might you might get a message, you might see a name on I don't know, like on the cover of a book as an author, and be like, I really like that name. But then if we're coming back to this idea of like true everything is connection, and we're just tuning into that, then it's being transmitted to us. So it's said that we choose our own name because letters and words hold a vibration, and our name contains access to our soul mission in that way, and that we could probably for each person, maybe there could be like two, three, four names that would embody your mission, and so yeah, and I think people will have also heard about I don't know, like you have your baby and you look at it and you think you've chosen a name and then it's not the name for that baby, as well. Or there are instances like where, and this happens in families sometimes, where there's like we must call the the child, I don't know, it happened to my dad. There was a disagreement between my granddad and my nan about what to call my dad, and so they called him Keith, but his middle name was William, and everyone just calls him Bill, like that's his name. So I think you know, in nicknames and and things like that, or like old names that then sort of come around, yeah. I think they're sort of part of our contract as well. Like maybe you're meant to experience in a formal sense this being your name, but then in another sense you're having the experience of having this nickname or shortened name, and it's like bringing you different access in a way to the different parts of your soul mission. That's how I've made sense of my name because I've really like toyed with in some settings I'm Rebecca, and then in other settings I'm Becky, and we're like, what does that mean? And I think you know, both can be true, and both give me yeah, like they're different vibrations and sort of therefore different connections to the different parts of me. So yeah, I think letters and words are also like this creative technology again, and but at a bigger cosmic scale. Yeah, anyway, I've gone off on a massive tangent, but there we go.

SPEAKER_00 38:40

That's a brilliant tangent. I've written down some points to yeah, to like share off the back of what you said. It's making me laugh because obviously you can't like Laura doesn't really have a nickname, except I mean, no one from my school will be listening, but when I was at school, my maiden name is Butcher, and I was just Butch. That was always I would that was me. Everyone, like if I go to the pub now, I go to Surrey and I get off a drink, they're like, I'll walk in, they'll be like, Butch, how are you? Like it like that's my nickname at home, and that just makes me laugh so much when you think about like what people actually choose to call you because that's your frequency or whatever. I mean, it's probably quite true that you can imagine having a surname Butcher. If I wore big earrings, it was like our Pat Butcher, brilliant. Um, I was kind of sad to let that go, and I didn't love the surname butcher, like there were no boy butchers in our family, so like that was it when my sister and I took our husband's name. Like that was quite an end of an era, and it's interesting a feeling when you think about taking your husband's name, how yeah, becoming part of that family and that being represented in your journey, which is a spiritual journey, right? It's another stage in life. But something that you spoke about, we talked about language and you talk about the importance of language, and something recently actually I did a presentation on emotional literacy, and you might like this deck, I'm not sure I've I've told you this one. So there's an Aboriginal tribe and they don't have the name for an aeroplane. So every time they see an aeroplane fly over, they go, Oh, there's a bird. And because they don't have the name for it, their understanding of what it is is like night and day different. And I always use that as an example of how important emotional literacy is, because if somebody is not aware of the different words available to them, they might just come in and go, Oh, I'm so tired. And they they genuinely believe that they're tired. And the truth is they're angry, they're tired of something. And if we can work with truth and get to like, okay, actually, I'm angry, then I can make change. But if I just go to bed early and don't change anything, like chances are I'm just gonna stay angry and it's gonna manifest somewhere. And the actual word addiction, addiction, means absence of words. So it's the idea that if we can't label how we feel, we aren't able to talk about it. And if we aren't able to talk about it, we aren't able to process it, and so we remain in pain. And so addiction is essentially a painkiller, it's trying to yes, you know, reach for something to self-soothe because we can't talk about it because we don't have the words. So emotional literacy is really important, and having the words it gives us the ability to understand, and like yoga talks about this, you know, when we look at and that's why some people think, oh, the Sanskrit terms are so confusing. I'm like, they're amazing. Like, if you can get over the barrier of the I can't do language limiting belief, like they're so accurate. I mean, when we look at the klasias, right, the poisons of the mind, it's represented by the tree, the trunk of the tree of suffering, and remember, like yoga is basically a pathway of liberation from suffering, right? Which is connection to self. So you've got the klass, which are the poisons, and the trunk of the tree of suffering is a vidya. It's lack of knowledge, and that's what we're talking about. If we don't have this information and we don't have the words to describe it, we can't get anywhere with it, we cannot bring it into light. So they say, like, you can cut down the trunk of the tree through self-study, Svadishaya, which we're talking about, like studying self and studying the scriptures is one of the limbs of yoga. And when what breeds off of vidya, so ignorance if you don't have the information, like one of the first ones is a smita, which is ego. It's the more I make the world about me, the more stressful it becomes. That word changed my life. Having access to that word, like I I should put that on a poster on my laptop. Because anytime I'm getting stressed, I look at a smita and go, it isn't about you. It keeps my ego in check, and ego is the root of suffering. Ego is what makes us anxious, ego is what makes us depressed. Because ego goes, I'm scared because what if I'm not loved? And then I can't do the presentation or I can't go out in public, or it's fear-based, it's based on the ego.

SPEAKER_01 42:54

And it's separateness, right? It's separateness from self, and and there's a lack of trust there in this sense of connection. So when we're othering and eyeing all the time, yeah, like we're not connected to the field in that way.

SPEAKER_00 43:10

Exactly right. So like these words are so important, these frameworks are so important to educate us to be able to see, to be able to see our blind spots. You know, that's what it does, it brings our blind spots into light. And I think what's interesting, you know, you talk about thought and how does thought come into mind, and like there's from a psychology perspective, you know, you they talk about like RAS, RAS, which is reticular activating systems, which is basically that we have like a network of neurons in the brain that act like a filter. So when we like choose to see something, we're gonna see it more, sure. But you've got to ask, like, where's the want for the seeing coming from? Yeah. Right. So even the kind of the psychology is going, okay, that's a name for a thing, or you look at Bader Meinhof phenomenon. So that is like the feeling that something suddenly appears everywhere, kind of the same thing. It's like if Ras is the like airport security guard deciding which people are allowed through the gate, the Bader Meinhof phenomenon is like what happens after the guards kind of said, like, you need to look for people wearing the yellow jackets. Like it's kind of the same thing, they work together, but it doesn't explain the want for the thought in the first place. So even if you kind of go, oh no, this is what's happening psychologically, it's like, but there's a desire in there, and I and you talk about desire so so beautifully around like we must listen to our desires because that that is our guidance, and it comes back to that discernment piece of like knowing what desires are for growth and what desires are maybe coming from fear or from ego, or so I think there's there's education is a massive part of it. There's knowledge and there's discernment that come in, and and they say eventually, like in yoga, they talk about. Experiencing like the cities or gaining the cities, which are like cities is described as basically having like spiritual power or like mystical power and a bit like clairvoyance and things like that. But even Patanjali like warns about the cities because he says, like, the minute you get like excited about having like special powers, the minute you think that you're special, you've like completely missed the point because yoga is all about connection. And as soon as you think that you're more special than somebody else, like you've disconnected. So it's interesting how even if these things like these gifts, if we're born with them, if we cultivate them, because we're doing this episode on like yeah, almost like cultivating connection with the divine, just being really careful that we don't get tripped up around and like, and because I do, I'm more special, because then you've you've really missed the point, right?

SPEAKER_01 45:56

Totally, yeah. I mean, you can I've seen it. I think probably everyone on a spiritual path has probably experienced it. I have a great friend, and she's a psychic medium, and her Cidic gifts are like insane, like off the chart. She's amazing. She is Casey Spirit on Instagram if you if you don't follow her already. And like she did a live show recently in Sydney, and she had like 200 people in the audience, and she's receiving messages from loved ones that have passed over for people in the audience, and what she's able to, the detail that she's able to get is amazing, but it's really coming from a place of service for her, of like wanting to serve people who don't have that connection that is as strong as hers, like it's a gift that she's had since childhood, and she does a lot of things to keep her ego in check. Not and I say that you know, she doesn't come across as someone with ego in any way, but I do feel that is partly because of the kind of care that she takes. You know, she goes to India a lot, and you know, she does sever, she does service for uh while she's in India, and then also when she's home as well, there are things that she does, and like she doesn't talk about them, she it's not like she uses it as like I'm doing all this, you know, this service that is just her practice to I guess be humble, and yeah, and I think that's so so important when we're on a spiritual journey or in any way becoming any kind of teacher, you know, whether that is a yoga teacher, the moment that you're elevating yourself above other people instead of seeing yourself as sitting alongside them and like sharing what what you know so that they can have a you know have a different experience in their reality, yeah. Like I think that's when we run into trouble. And I've had teachers that are definitely pedestal themselves, whether that is in yoga or you know, some of the other the other kind of modalities that I've learned. And yeah, it's it's not a place that I you know I can see it now when I'm seeking out knowledge or information or a course or whatever it might be, and I won't go to those teachers. So yeah, it's so so important.

SPEAKER_00 48:41

It is, and I think it's it's quite dangerous in a way because what the sort of guru image attracts is like those seeking like guidance, and often they come from a place of vulnerability, yeah. And you get this quite toxic enmeshment of the guru wanting the people who you know seeking their approval, and then you get those who are lost who are looking for a teacher, and when they are vulnerable, that's when people can get taken advantage of. So I think it's it's not great, and it's also potentially dangerous. But I think this is where again the chakras and yoga is so great in the way that you know it's that classic, isn't it? We can only you know source so high as our roots go deep, and it's about trying to stay really grounded in all of these practices, staying really human, you know, because we talk about like receiving guidance and like raising our frequency to be able to do that. I remember one of our lovely teacher trainer graduates in the last group was she was an energy worker, right? And she would see like auras and colours and things like that. And she was explaining like the way that she uses it as like the metaphor, so like of a fan. So if a fan moves really quickly, you can't see the blades, and that's kind of like when we're working with some of this like higher frequency work, is you cannot see it because it's a very high frequency, and when we do these practices to raise our frequency through the chakras and all the things that affect chakras, like yeah, atana, poses, breath work, meditation, etc., we're raising our frequency, and when we get to the a higher level of frequency, not better, just higher frequency, we are more able to connect and receive, right? But at the same time, like we have to keep the root chakra, the base, like grounded, otherwise we're going to experience disease because it's too, it's it's not it's not grounded enough, right? I think you've you've noticed that, didn't you? Say something like that recently, Beck.

SPEAKER_01 50:37

Yeah, like you know, we're in a human body, we're having a human experience, aren't we? And yes, like I do think the human experience is about remembering who you are and what really matters and all of that stuff, but yeah, like and the root cat root chakra is our connection to the earth. So I literally can't stand it when I see you know stuff on Instagram or wherever about like people going to these workshops for like four hours where they're gonna do a kundalini awakening on your body. I just think are so irresponsible, you know, like and for the teacher to think they are equipped enough to do that, like you know, shamans back in the day, uh where whatever culture that might be in, and like we don't have a good word for shaman in our culture in Britain, but like they would have done that as a last resort of like these peak experiences of like kundalini awakening on people or like going to drink ayahuasca or whatever, it would have been like you know, there's no alternative here. Like we had this is and it's like your electric shock kind of therapy, but it's like so normalized, and even some types types of breath work as well. I know some really good breath work facilitators, and I'm not sort of saying to people don't do breath work, but I think go to spaces where the where you know there's more than one facilitator where the space is held because you know the breath is our bridge between being alive and being fully in, you know, the other realm. It is not something to be like done lightly, it is it is deep work. So I think yeah, I think learning about responsibility when you're a teacher is really important and you see it in the teachers with a very big ego, they're not often responsible teachers. So, anyway, we thought a nice way to round off the podcast would be to think about like different signs that you could look out if you're starting to cultivate or deepen this relationship with the field, with the divine, whatever you want to call it, and looking out for symbols. And animals, of course, are like an amazing way to have that connection. And one thing I would say about this, like, we're gonna give you some ideas about what those animals and what those symbols might mean, but really it's what it means to you, you know, what you're what you feel inside, and yeah, like your life experience is gonna be different to ours. So, yeah, I think to start with, one of the first ones that I would always talk about is butterflies, like it is just butterflies are a beautiful symbol to show up because there's all that stuff around transformation with a butterfly, you know, the caterpillar, the chrysalis, the butterfly. And I find butterflies often show up for people, like maybe when they're going through a transition, whether that is grief after someone passing, something like that, a breakup, a major life change, and that the butterfly is like this confirmation that the the discomfort that they're feeling is actually a metamorphosis. So people do talk about butterflies appearing at meaningful moments when someone has passed over. So it's like one of the common sort of visitation signs. So that could be like a lit literal butterflies. And I know one of my friends, she her dad passed away, and I remember her saying, like it was the middle of winter, and this butterfly appeared like from like a crack in a window, and it was like really affirming for her. So butterflies will be my first one. What about you? What where what have you got?

SPEAKER_00 54:57

For me, robins are a really important one. Well, my dad's a robin, I always say that. And I remember like I remember when I was living in Worcester in a rented cottage, actually, and I was I just really missed him, and I was washing the dishes, and I remember I was just really crying, being like, What do I do? And a robin flew in the house, and I was like, Whoa, it really like took me back because I already knew, like I felt like I knew he was a robin, and like to have it fly in the house, but yeah, there's always like again, we can we can brush this off, can't we? But I come down in the morning and like there's always a robin in my garden, and I always say morning, and my my boys know that that's grandpa Ray, you know. So robins for loved ones for me are a really big one. I know deers can often also represent like loved ones who have passed, and also a warning sometimes. If I see a deer when I'm driving, I'll really slow down, like not only because sometimes there's another one and I don't want them to go through the windscreen, but like, yeah, for me that's like a like someone looking out for me to be like, just be careful. Yeah, butterflies, I love that one, Beck. And owls, I think owls are beautiful, feminine wisdom. For me, like when I hear an owl, I'm always like, oh, it's like that. It's a reminder of like the feminine wisdom, like trust yourself, you know. What about other ones? What else do you do? Do you what about do you think about like light codes and orbs? What about that sort of thing in photos?

SPEAKER_01 56:24

Yeah, I always think they're fascinating, aren't they? It's because you don't always notice them in the moment, but they will show up on you know on your photo. And I think this is just like evidence that we can't capture everything with our human eye. So yeah, I often think like they're higher frequencies of energy and and things like that, or maybe like ag guides, or yeah, or it could be like the energy. Often I I had orbs show up in um photos. Where had I been? Oh, it was I think it was Glastonbury Abbey, and you think, oh, like, you know, that land probably held so many di like different people and yeah, and like through the church and stuff, like very connected to yeah, whatever day it is they were invoking and working with. So yeah, I think they can be interesting. Feathers as well, like they're probably one of the most supported signs, aren't they? And I love that we can often find them indoors, outdoors, like in all different kinds of places, and I often ask for feathers actually, as yeah, ways of confirming something that I'm thinking, usually. Some people think they're like tied to the angels or again loved ones that have passed over checking in, and the colours of the feather and the bird of the feather, you know, can be relevant as well. So, yeah, feathers are a good one. Snakes as well, and we don't have many snakes in the UK. So if you see one here, it's quite rare. I have seen like one or two through my lifetime, and I think they are probably like the most contradictory meaning, like they could mean different things to different people. Again, there's this sense of renewal and transformation, you know, the shedding of the skin, but also, you know, a snake's venom is poisonous, but but it's said, like, you know, when you have an injection to like inoculation and things like that, it is a small amount of the thing that you're you know, you're trying to be protected against, and I think snakes can often be the sign of like you know, you need to take the wisdom of of that snake, and it feels hard because it's a snake, you know. There are also like the shadow meanings of temptation kind of associated with the Garden of Eden and things like that, danger, deception. But to me, I think snakes are a lot about honesty. Like, what are you what are you maybe not being truthful with yourself about and needing that that medicine of truth, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 59:23

That's a good one. A book, again, that I read in my twenties was Laura Lynn Jackson, and it's just called Signs. Yeah, and it's so beautiful because it's just sort of stories that you couldn't make up but you also can't deny, and that was yeah, I found that really, really helpful. It's beautiful, yeah, quite simple as well. Another really good one is Many Lives, Many Masters, and that's all about past lives, and again, just like oh so it's just amazing how it all connects together. So I think they're really good. Would you say anything about dreams, Beck? Would you say that we get guidance in dreams, or do you think that's more subconscious?

SPEAKER_01 1:00:01

Yeah, I think we do get guidance in dreams. I think we get a lot of visitations in dreams as well from loved ones. So if you dream about someone that's passed over, you know, it is a connection with their energy. We're sort of taught to dismiss it, aren't we? And like, oh, it's just a dream. But yeah, I often wonder, like, you know, we think our human experience is the real experience, but what what if our dreams were like you know, just a deeper version of that? So I think there are contracts that exist in dreams, like for you to be able to dream about that person, like there must be an energetic agreement for that to happen. So, yeah, so I think definitely messages in dreams.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:50

So if somebody's listening to this and they're going, Okay, right, I feel in a place where I can start to welcome more signs where I want to receive more like guidance from my guides, my spirit guides in in my life. What would be your like best advice, Beck?

SPEAKER_01 1:01:06

I think start to cultivate a relationship with the divine. One of the great ways of doing that is having an altar, because that is to entice the divine, and women have been making making altars forever, like on windowsills, on you know, mantelpieces, like they're all really ways of making the home beautiful and making the energy feel good, which is like about enticing the divine. So things like that, and then as I said to you, really, like I think it's being very specific. Your guides or your higher self, whatever terminology you want to use, cannot help you without your permission, like that's a divine law of the universe, you know. So I think asking and being specific about what you're asking and the sign that you want to see, and then allowing time, because we do live in a 3D like a 3D world where it takes stuff, time for the stuff to arrange itself to give us the sign sometimes. Sometimes you can be blown away and like the pieces have lined up and you get that sign in the moment. So I think, yeah, asking, asking definitely is the first step, and then just being open to to what you see around you and trying to look at the world in an open-minded way. Like, how would you look at the world if you knew it was always communicating with you? It's just a different lens that I think it can happen really fast, actually, and then you switch it on and it's there, and you can't, in a way, you can't turn it off after that.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:49

Yeah, I feel like that. I was just thinking about this morning when I was running. I wake up super early and I was like running at like yeah, it was like quarter past five, and it's so beautiful that time in the morning. God, it's just like heaven. And when I look around and I'm like, it feels absolutely mad that like I feel like plants and flowers are just decoration. Like, I mean, how beautiful is it that we can just run around and like these things grow from the ground with flowers just to be colourful and pretty? I mean, how beautiful! And then you literally have birds singing in the trees just to give you a little song as you're out and about. I mean, what is there not to love? And when you start like seeing and like living through that lens, it's just you can't not be grateful and you can't not be in awe of like you know the planet that we live in, really.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:36

Yeah, it is an incredible experience to be here as a human, but hard as well. Yes.