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The Next Perfect Step
Candid conversations about spirituality, how to navigate in the world, channeled messages, guided meditations, book reviews and other topics. We invite comments and questions as we look to connect with a community of similar interests.
The Next Perfect Step
Spiritual Awakening Through Life's Darkest Moments
Dr. Susanna Calvert takes us on a profound journey from academic achievement to spiritual awakening, revealing how her darkest moments became catalysts for transformation. After spending 26 years in higher education and achieving everything society told her would bring happiness, she found herself deeply unfulfilled. The turning point came with her husband's cancer diagnosis, which sparked an unexpected spiritual awakening in someone who had been a lifelong atheist.
With raw honesty, Susanna shares how she navigated grief, loss, and radical life changes to discover her authentic purpose and unexpected spiritual gifts. This conversation explores the "arrival fallacy" that keeps so many of us trapped in perpetual dissatisfaction - the belief that happiness awaits us after we achieve just one more goal. Instead, Susanna offers a more profound path to fulfillment through presence, inner work, and reclaiming our power from external circumstances.
Drawing from both Eastern philosophical traditions and modern psychological understanding, Susanna explains how rock bottom experiences can become powerful invitations for growth. Her work through two nonprofits - The Foundation of Family and Community Healing and Sanctuary of Earth - now helps others develop essential life skills and spiritual understanding that our educational systems often neglect.
Whether you're facing your own dark night of the soul or simply feeling the disconnect between external success and inner fulfillment, this conversation offers practical wisdom for creating stillness, addressing limiting beliefs, and discovering the whispers of guidance that can lead you through challenging times. Susanna's journey reminds us that our deepest wounds often contain the seeds of our greatest gifts to the world.
Contact & Media
Email: Susanna@HealingEdu.org
Phone: 804-223-5255
Website: HealingEdu.org | SanctuaryOfEarth.org | SusannaCalvert.com
Location: Based in Virginia | Available for virtual and in-person interviews
Hello everyone and welcome to the next perfect step. We're all possibilities lying conversation. I'm your co host, lori Mullen.
Speaker 2:I'm your co host, kim McStay.
Speaker 3:And I'm your co host, lori Tremblay. We have another wonderful guest with us today, dr Susanna Calvert, phd, mapp, and she's coming with us from Virginia. Susanna is a spiritual educator, intuitive healer and a founder of two nonprofits the Foundation of Family and Community Healing and Sanctuary of Earth. After a 26-year career in higher education, santa now dedicates her life to helping people move from confusion, disconnection and overwhelm into healing, clarity and authentic purpose. Susanna has a large body of work that she's done, and we'd just like to welcome you to the show and to hear more about you and your journey.
Speaker 4:Well, thank you so much. I'm delighted to be given the opportunity to have this conversation with you all and for anyone else who happens to listen, in Great Good.
Speaker 3:So could you tell us a little bit more about your work and what you do, and maybe how you started in your work? I know we had a nice conversation earlier and I've really enjoyed getting to know you.
Speaker 4:So OK, well, I'll start from the beginning, but I'll keep it broad. So I guess the fastest way to talk about it is just that I'd followed the Chinese American dream for the first half of my life before realizing that after I got everything Ido list, I realized that I was miserable, and simply checking one more box off unfortunately did not flip it 180 degrees, and so pretty much gave up my tenure at the university. And I was lucky enough to be able to explore what really lit me up, because I realized that in order to be happy, maybe I should follow my heart instead of my head. Following my head made my resume look good. I look good on paper, but that was pretty much it, and so I soon realized that I had a passion for leadership, professional and personal development. So, after teaching pharmaceutical sciences for all this time, I went back to school and got a degree in the science of wellbeing, a bunch of coaching, credentials, and I found my dream job at the University of Georgia, supporting faculty success and wellbeing. And so I went there and it was really beautiful.
Speaker 4:I had remarried and 18 months into it, after coming back from my sister's funeral, we learned of my husband's stage four cancer, and I had been an atheist pretty much my whole life and in that moment I had a spiritual awakening. And it was a pretty intense period trying to bring healing to my husband, who eventually passed away seven months later. And around that time I received divine inspiration to step into my soul's purpose my spiritual mission, if you will, soul's purpose my spiritual mission, if you will and I was guided to give up my dream job and move back to Richmond, virginia, where I spent most of my career and put my life savings into starting the Foundation for Family and Community Healing. And this organization was to address a need I saw in the community about 10 years earlier. When I saw my kids going through school, I noticed in their classmates and in the parents and caregivers in the community that these folks were crying out for help. They were engaged in risk-taking behaviors, and I knew what it was because, as a daughter of two refugees from communist China, I didn't have the words for to describe it Like. I wasn't necessarily calling it trauma, but I had developed. I spent decades developing practices in my self-care and resilience, like how to bounce back better after challenge again and again. And so I'd done a pretty intensive self-study and my best friend is a clinical psychologist, so she never did therapy on me, but she always helped me to understand the concepts and apply them in my life. And so in the foundation, we are bringing to life these things that I consider life, life skills that every human on earth ought to be able to know and do in terms of our relationship with everything and everybody, most importantly starting with ourselves. So our relationship with ourselves, our relationship with other humans, relationship with earth, and our relationship with the divine, the loving force that connects us all. So that's what the foundation does, and we have a learning platform that spans this range of relationships with everything and everybody, on one end, on the side of fragility, all the way through flourishing and points in between, and it's for youth and adults. And so my dream and my vision is that this be made available to everyone in the world so that we can fill the gap that our schools and workplaces have left in terms of our ability to be successful members of humanity and earth. So that's the vision and mission for the Foundation for Family and Community Healing.
Speaker 4:During all of this time, when I had my spiritual awakening, my gifts came pouring in crazy fast and it was, I'm sure you know have a good idea of what that's like if you haven't experienced it directly. But I went from being an atheist to understanding that I have clear gifts. I'm psychic, I'm an energy worker. I've been channeling the energy medicine of an ancestor, an ancient Asian ancestor, who told me I could call her grandmother. I call it Yin, I do tarot readings and, yeah, I'm also a soul guide, like you guys are, so bringing my own style to it, I can channel people's guidance and the energy medicine brings is more of an open container than Reiki and can bring in the elements of nature and the cosmos and deceased loved ones sometimes, and the elementals, so pretty much anything and everybody might come in for the benefit of healing, and I consider myself just a container for it. So, based on this and just the fact that I've been an educator my whole life, and my belief that we are already entering a spiritual renaissance where more and more of us will want to awaken to our unique relationship with the divine, whether we want to do it through one of the great religions or outside of it or just find our own path, like I have that having an organization that offers skill development again, but also community and teachings from faith practices around the world. Eventually, that's the goal to support this spiritual renaissance. So those are the two organizations to support this spiritual renaissance. So those are the two organizations. And to me it's all about the skills, the perspective and skills we need to move into the future, to new earth, for the healing that we all need and I feel deserve, especially future generations who didn't create any of this mess.
Speaker 4:And I guess just one final thing is that, as part of that, I've been leaning more and more into my I guess my ancestry. I told you about the grandmother who shares her energy medicine with me. I call it Yin and I've discovered that my philosophy is very Taoist. So to me I see the world as Yin and Yang, and where there's balance or imbalance, and where there's integration versus separation. To me it's just a really beautiful framework for how to move into this healing. It's just not about right or wrong, that's just a construct. And so my I think my and my indigenous roots, even though I was born and raised in the US, are coming through through to me energetically as an offering to the world right now.
Speaker 3:that's amazing, susanna. That's just especially what you're doing with the community and children that need those skills, like you were talking about, that you're using all your gifts to assist those who need, because we don't teach those skills in school and we all need that skill set. So thank you for what you're doing. It just sounds so exciting that this could be useful, like you said, worldwide and be so helpful and available to people.
Speaker 4:So thank you for that.
Speaker 4:I feel so privileged to be able to be of service in this way that builds upon everything I've ever done in my life and putting it together in ways that I, the old Susanna, who was pretty smart, you know, I, you know I was a professor, but not necessarily very wise and imaginative, but not at this level.
Speaker 4:So, and letting spirit show the way and to reveal what we are able to be and accomplish and envision at a soul level, which to me is just so exciting, so much easier than thinking my brain had to figure everything out. I'm pretty convinced my brain not only cannot figure things out, but just tends to get me into more trouble more often than not. So it's such a privilege to be of service in this way right now, and especially with beautiful souls like yourself. I mean, what's really clear is what we're moving into, who we're becoming. We absolutely cannot do this alone, and so we have to do it together. We have to share and support each other, and when we put our offerings together it becomes one big, beautiful, comprehensive, holistic, complete starting point yes, I agree, we definitely need to come together absolutely.
Speaker 1:And in your story, just like our last guest, it's this exploration where we think happiness is going to come by checking these boxes and I think where we, we can all relate to that. You know, we think we, if we accomplish this, it's going to make us happy, if we do this it's going to make us happy, if we do this it's going to make us happy, and we keep checking these boxes and happiness isn't coming, um, or it's fleeting. And I think it's really important and I think a lot of people can relate that, um, when we find our happiness and we live from that, that's when our true happiness comes, and it's not what we're doing or checking these boxes or living up to even an expectation we put on ourselves, like if I can accomplish this, if I can succeed in this, then I'll be happy. No, when you live from your own, real true happiness is when it comes.
Speaker 4:That's right.
Speaker 4:That's right, there's actually a science. There's science around this. It's called the arrival fallacy. I'll be happy when basically sums it up. And then the other part you talked about. There's a thing called the hedonic treadmill, that we acquire something, something luxurious or, you know, hedonistic, we think it'll make us happy and it works for a little while, just like you said. After a while that fades off and then the next thing has to be better, and so this is the treadmill, and it gets bigger and bigger and eventually we go. God, I'm still not happy, you know, and hopefully at some point we go, we have an aha moment, but I'm not sure if people do, I think. I think people start to turn towards numbing and blaming and anger and depression, like you know, if, if we don't necessarily find our way out of it, yeah, I definitely agree, and I can see that more and more.
Speaker 1:I mean you can see the anger in the world right now. More and more, I mean you can see the anger in the world right now, and I think it is come to a head of always looking outside of ourselves to find something to fulfill us, or to find that happiness, or if we can make everybody think the way I think, I'll be happy. You know, and that's right. Yeah, so we really do need to come together instead of fighting one another constantly, and I just completely agree with that.
Speaker 4:Yeah, one of the most important teachings of our generation it's really of every generation is about finding your truth, finding your answers, finding your healing within, and that all of this crisis, that sometimes we have to hit rock bottom in order to be willing to break open our resistance to what is or who it you know, or or who we are, and um, um and and and um. So this, so these rock bottom moments, can be absolutely transformational. And to me, this is the upside of the modern era of everything going nuts is that hopefully, more of more of us will crack open and re-examine the beliefs that, the beliefs and habits that got us where we, where we are and there. And I feel like this is really just humanity's path, like I've had to do that multiple times myself, and I I'd like to say that, after you know, four decades, four decades or so of recognizing this pattern myself that I'm, you know, I don't go to rock bottom, I think it's still possible.
Speaker 4:I don't tend to go there as often or for as long, but but this is all described in in the hero's journey, joseph Campbell's hero's journey, which basically is basically according to we're, we're looking to the external world for, like here's the problems, and you know, there's the bad guy or bad gal or bad situation and we see the problems as all external and and oftentimes the Shiro I call them Shiro realizes that that framework is not working and that the solution actually lies within us, is not working and that the solution actually lies within us. And so when they discover what their blind spot, or the belief that's keeping them small, or the fear that's keeping them small, the anger that's keeping them small, that's when the real transformation can happen. When we heal that fear, belief where we heal that belief about other being bad or I'm bad, whatever that belief is, and when we do that, we can recover this piece of ourselves that has been keeping us small, and then we can become bigger and more whole, Because it's usually like a part of our childhood, our inner child, that had to adopt this belief and behavior out of self-protection. And so when we recover our inner child, then we can prevail over the situation and return with the gift our healing, our wholeness, a bigger version of ourselves. And if we understand that this is an invitation that happens over and over again, then we can become bigger and bigger and more self-transcended. Or we could get stuck in the numbing and the denial and the blame and the repression.
Speaker 4:You know medications, drugs, alcohol. You know addictions. You know fighting despair, whatever it is. So my hope is that people will. The rock bottom will be bad enough that they will crack open, crack open and their, their, their more beautiful, divine selves can be seen and experienced.
Speaker 3:That's.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I like what you're saying. Oh, go ahead, laurie. No, please go ahead. I had a question because you were talking about transformation and hitting rock bottom and I'm curious, you know, because you talked about being an atheist and how that changed and shifted for you and you became more spiritual. Was there a specific? I know you've been through a lot of grief and had to, you know, overcome some of that, but was there like a specific incident or you know time period during this grief that that created that for you?
Speaker 4:Well, it was literally I had come back from my sister's funeral on a Monday and then two days later, my husband, I was on a call and he texts me. I just got back from my MRI or my CAT scan and I have lesions everywhere and like, literally, in that moment I was like, oh my God, I mean something. In that moment, kim, I knew like my life is over, my life is over and I thought the only way to get through this is to lean into post-traumatic growth, which is this idea that you don't have to go into PTSD per se. There is beautiful growth that's also possible from trauma.
Speaker 4:Okay, so I said I have to lean into post-traumatic growth and spirit, and the only reason why I even could say the word spirit is because my now late husband and his daughter used to talk about spirit all the time, and so I just listen, you know, and I take it in, and I just knew, oh my God, this is way bigger than me. I'm going to bring the heavens down to help him heal. So I just like became a woman obsessed and so, yeah, I pretty much just devoted myself to my spiritual study and growth and his care and just doing my job. Well enough that I didn't ruin that as well. So that's all I did. We had just moved to Athens 18 months prior, and so I didn't have a lot of local, I didn't have obligations in the community, so I was just able to do this.
Speaker 2:Thank you, yeah, that's. That's a rock bottom to awakening, for sure.
Speaker 4:Well, you know it was actually the beginning of the slide, kim, because you know it was. He actually had a miraculous recovery. He was given two to three months to live and he went seven. So at around month five we were like, oh my God, we have a new lease on life and we thought we were out of the woods. But then he had a setback and then it went downhill.
Speaker 4:And so I would say about the time he passed away was the beginning of rock bottom, because after he passed, like things just got worse Cause you know I worse because you know, um, I mean, you know these things have various impacts on families and relationships, and so just experiencing the fallout of the fallout or the fallout like that, took probably a year and a half to unfold. Um, you know that included me quitting my job and moving back to Richmond and starting a nonprofit. So so, yeah, like the deep, the darkest part was probably a year and a half, and then, you know, I've been sort of working my way out ever since. I mean, I finally feel like I'm at the part where you, you experience this beautiful rush of well, campbell describes it as if you're having supernatural health and doors are flying open and to me I described it as an atheist back then as if you're flying on the wings of destiny. So I mean, I've been able to see it for a number of years, but it's starting to feel like this is happening, like these little tiny doors are flying open, or these great big doors are like creaking open ever so slowly, you know, one millimeter at a time. It's that kind of feeling now, and so I feel like I'm finally moving out of it.
Speaker 4:Kind of feeling now, and so I feel like I'm I'm finally moving out of it. But it was a real lifesaver to me because I had already worked through this in my previous dark night of the soul I mentioned to you earlier. Um and so for me, like it was always the hope, like I know what to do here. I know if I just move through this phase, there's this beautiful other thing on the other side, and so it really just kept me going and just having the strength of spirit and wisdom, even though I was not very wise with spirit. Whether I am now is still questionable, but I'm better. Yeah, I mean, we make mistakes, right, but um, yeah, like that was just just totally kept me afloat and gave, gave me hope every day and comfort.
Speaker 2:And helping all of the people you're helping must be inspiring for that journey too, I would think.
Speaker 4:Yes, yes it is. I mean it's gratifying and you know I've been fortunate that there's been so many people who have been supportive and affirming and yeah, I feel like how much I've poured into it, not only time and money, because you know I have been spending my retirement for better or for worse. So I have been spending my retirement for better or for worse. The impact is not yet where I'd like it to be, but I also can see that the potential is infinite. So I'm just trusting in divine timing and manner and that huge impact. I can also see the path ahead for that, and it may or may not happen, but at least I can see the path ahead for that. You know, and it may or may not happen, but at least I could see.
Speaker 3:I can see the path forward. So that's huge progress. What advice would you give people that are maybe experiencing rock bottom or in this dark cave that they can't see out of what would you, what would you tell them? What kind of things can they do to kind of raise themselves up?
Speaker 4:Yeah well, so it's not an easy process. I think the first piece of advice I would give is to be present. Be present. Piece of advice I would give is to be present. Be present Because we can just make it worse by having regret about the past or worrying about the future. Being present can remove all of that but also, more importantly, create stillness within, and I mean you all know about this. Stillness within, and I mean you all know about this. Like, when you have stillness within is then when you can start listening deeply. Right, because it's the whispers in the darkness that will lead you through it, not the chatter in the brain the chatter in the brain got us there but it's the whispers in our heart, the whispers in our soul, the whispers in our body, because our bodies also know what to do. And when we really listen and trust is when we can start to stabilize in the rock bottom and start to find the pathway out. I feel like there's not too many teachings around this, but there are, and I've actually created a course on the rock bottom.
Speaker 4:It's really all about dealing with the shadow. It's called Embracing the Shadow and it helps us address those beliefs and cognitive biases and errors like arrival, fallacy, polarity thinking, confirmation, bias, like that kind of stuff, to start also working through them cognitively. So, like the belief, oh, I'll be happy when, like for us to notice that's a cognitive bias and error and to say, well, I am happy now too. You know I'm gonna like that, but how am I happy right now, like, how is happiness available to me? So, just being able to like, notice what we're thinking and to challenge it and create more spaciousness in that belief, knowing that, while you might be happy when that happens, but maybe that's only a grain of truth, not the truth, and maybe the bigger truth is, I have happiness now, I have access to happiness now, and so on. And so, by keep redirecting our belief to something that is around our personal agency, um, you know where we have control, um, and, and that is of service and is realistic, um is where we can start rewiring our, our brains. But, um, I think, I think you know there's many other things. I mean, of course, therapy and exercise and sleep, nutrition, like all those things being with loved ones, your support animals. I like to have a toolkit for, like, when you're crashing or spinning out, like, what do you do that is nourishing, like nature, is such a huge resource for people if that feels in alignment Music, movement, exercise, dance, whatever little doses of joy.
Speaker 4:But to me, if we don't address those beliefs, those deeper beliefs, we keep having the same emotional and behavioral habits which keep re-traumatized. We just maintain the trauma. So we have to kind of work through the trauma. There's also deeper modalities. I mean yoga, sound bath, breath work. I mean anything to get us in our body, like breath work, yoga against dance. You know I'm a fan of sacred medicines, but not as a pharmaceutical alternative. I mean we still have to do the inner work in my point of view. But I mean like I'd never wish rock bottom on anybody and I also celebrate the opportunities that it presents to people. And I hope people also know that there's so many people like like you all here who can help, help, guide, guide, guide us through.
Speaker 3:We wanted to have a space for that, for conversations and people that could feel safe and get some insights like such as you've shared with us so beautifully today. So that's that's. Our goal is to just create that kind of community space here for for people that can listen and learn learn about themselves.
Speaker 4:Well, and thank you for doing it so beautifully. I mean, I know how much work it is to make this happen, and the commitment of the three of you to to make this available to everyone is really um so beautiful, and I I am grateful to you on behalf of me and so many others absolutely, and I think it's really important what you said, um, I used to have a um program called breaking barriers and it sounds very similar, um, that most of the time we're creating misery in our own head.
Speaker 1:It's the I'm supposed think this, this is supposed to mean this, I'm supposed to do this, it's that supposed to right, and that we're creating it in our own heads. And if we can take a few minutes, like you said, with the breath, work or to be still or to be in the present moment, that we can realize that we're creating our own misery, and how can we stop and say that's not what I want? You know, what I really want is happiness. What I really want to be is happy, and so what baby step can I take right now, in this moment, to go in that direction? So I think your program, you know, is extremely helpful and needed right now, and I think it's really important for us to realize that a lot of the times we think that something outside of ourselves is creating all of this misery, when really that it's our own belief system and our own and our continual, just subconscious thoughts, like just we've been playing over for so long that we don't know another voice that is really living within us.
Speaker 4:You just said that so perfectly, lori, and I couldn't agree with you more. And to me it's like we are absolutely giving away our power, our peace and our power. And you know, thank you for helping everybody see that we can reclaim our power, our, our power to be happy and peaceful, um, and feeling whole and safe Like that's only within us. Nothing out there can make us feel that way. We have to decide to ourselves and, you know, work through the process, through, you know, by uncover process, by uncovering our subconscious beliefs about it. So, yeah, there's very few lessons on earth right now. More important than that, I feel for the misery that's everywhere. Thank you for saying it so perfectly.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I really agree with that.
Speaker 2:And what I do find working with clients is that you know, even when you shift your belief system and you start to recognize and become aware of how you're reacting and acting in life.
Speaker 2:But what I'm starting to discover is that one of the roadblocks with that is that the allowance of you know because it's uncomfortable. You know, when you, when you start to feed your own soul, that becomes uncomfortable because our old belief systems tell us that that's selfish or that's you know, not. Thoughtful systems tell us that that's selfish or that's you know, not thoughtful. So that ability to receive the self-love that we're discovering, or the wanting to be generous to the world in an expansive way as opposed to in a directive way, I think it's really hard for people to make that shift from switching their belief systems to accepting their new belief systems. So now you're being received differently from people, but are you second guessing that, like you know, are they just you know, doing it for this reason or that reason, or are you able to really open, allow and receive? And you know, I think that that's a huge struggle for people.
Speaker 4:Yeah, because it's sort of in our head, right Like, I know I'm healthier, I know I should go exercise more, but, you know, knowledge is not powerful enough in many cases. Yes, but in the Western world, knowledge is power, knowledge is power. You know, we have the whole internet, plus AI, at our fingertips. And are we any happier, you know? So this is where rock bottom comes in. Or, or great talent, thank goodness we have rock bottom, you know, um, but when, when the status quo is more uncomfortable than change, then people will make change, yeah, and?
Speaker 4:And then it is so easy for us to rationalize and to be in denial and to deflect, like I don't have to work on myself if I'm focusing on how Kim needs to. You know, kim, you need to blah, blah, blah, blah, right. When I'm doing that, I don't have to focus on my own need to blah, blah, blah, right. So what does it distract ourselves? Distract ourselves If I over care for Lori. Oh, lori, do you need anything? You just look tired. Do you want me to help you with this, that and the other? Like again, I don't. You know, if I'm so needed and important over here I don't have to worry about.
Speaker 4:You know my own path and my own anxiety, my own despair, um or or, feeding our numbness, needing our numbness. And it is hard because, oh my gosh, you know, our deepest fears are deepest fears for a reason they feel like they could be annihilating to us, like we could die, like our hot buttons. In the moment it feels like we could die, we could be obliterated. Right, that's how our physical reaction is, our emotional reaction, but of course, it's not true most of the time. And so if we want to go there, it's terrifying, who would do that willingly? So, but yeah, that's why we have rock bottom. Unfortunately, we're all going there, unfortunately we're all going there.
Speaker 1:I completely agree with you, kim, and I think that some of it is the because I know there's steps to this and I have trouble with allowance sometimes too, and I completely can relate to everything you just said, and we live in a society where and I went through this in my own work I did the work, so therefore, I should be at the end of it, it should be healed, I should know this, I should be able to do this and it just should be done, and we don't appreciate that we've taken 40, 20, 60, however, many years of doing the same thing and doing it the same way, and it's not going to be instant, like there are steps to it.
Speaker 1:But you have to make the first steps and I can. It is completely uncomfortable to become somebody new, but it it, it's not the instance, not like, oh, I got the tool or oh, there's, you know, this first step, and then I'm just supposed to not be uncomfortable and allow it and be this new person, and we really need to embrace the whole process, right? But I'm completely a person who, like you, said I was, I want it all now. I don't want to wait, right, we're used to everything in our world being instantly there, having the answers instantly. You can Google it and you've got the answer right. I mean so yeah.
Speaker 2:Well, and I just, you know, I'm like a lot of the people that I work with. You know they know exactly what they're feeling, but it's the trust, the trust in accepting that and opening up and being available to live it is like you know, I'm just noticing that that's a real block for a lot of people. So you know that, you know, I think the work that we're all doing is helping to diminish that block for people. I really do.
Speaker 4:And in defense of all of us we have. This is what we've been taught, right, like, don't trust your feelings, don't trust your gut, don't you? You know, but just knowledge is power. Be knowledgeable, you know, do things and um, and all of that's important. Yes, like, all of that's important.
Speaker 4:I'm not saying we shouldn't do things and think things through. I mean that's and that is young and the more feminine yin, the more receptive, receptive and emotional and intuitive. And you know, messy, creative things are like, oh, that's terrible, that's messy, that's not good, that's not logical, like we are taught to reject that and so, and it's not that we should just flip over to that, you know, 180 degrees, even though I, I think I tried, um, it's more about the integration and balance, like we need it's both. And why do we feel like it has to be either or and? And I also didn't mean to make this sound like oh, you can only only when you hit rock bottom do you know?
Speaker 4:So I don't mean to say that either. It's just that sometimes that is what is somebody's introduction to doing the inner work and, in reality, anytime something feels challenging, that is the invitation to go in there and get your sandpaper and see what's sticking out, what's poking you on the inside. You know and and work through it. So this growth is always available and I'm hoping, as I am more noticing discomfort as an invitation to do that work, that the rock bottom thing is less likely to happen. But who knows, I will. I'll keep you all informed.
Speaker 3:So these are some of the things that you talk about in your course. I'm sure isn't that right, like coping tools is your foundation?
Speaker 4:yeah, yeah, I mean the foundation has this whole spectrum. It's really, to me, is very much a resilience. Uh, it's so much about resilience and flourishing through relationship with self and everything else. Like I mean again, because, like, your power is within. So if you give your power to your environment, then you know you're not doing so well, as Lori said. And so, yes, like I have a course on the Shiro's journey.
Speaker 4:So, about that inner work and then embracing the shadow is okay. Well, what do you do when you hit rock bottom? Or what do you do if, like, you're just feeling challenged and stuck? You don't have to hit rock bottom to do the work. It's just the biggest motivator, potentially. So, yes, there's coursework there.
Speaker 4:And then for people who and one of our new courses is, it's about to be released called um, uncovering your authentic purpose. Because once you start clearing away these fear, beliefs and stuff, you start to sense yourself in a different way, like, oh, this used to be really important, pleasing everybody and being perfect. Well, what if that's not part of my life? Who am I then without that? Like what? What does my heart want to do? Like that's what I was asking myself, right, Such a privilege, a first world privilege to be able to say what does my heart want to do here?
Speaker 4:And so when we start to clear, we can clear this out, we can be more clear within, and our deeper sense of purpose, our most natural and authentic gifts can be revealed and put together for the solution that the world needs right now. Like the solution doesn't need another. You know a second, this, that or the other? You know Bill Gates or whatever? Um the. The world needs us in our wholeness, each of us in our unique wholeness. Um yeah, and sanctuary of earth. When you go, you go deeper, you. We have these classes on intuition and dealing with these more spiritual things. I also have a personal practice, so if people want a one-on-one, they can also seek me out for that seek me out for that.
Speaker 2:So what are you doing with your one-on-ones Like do you, do you do intuitive work with that? Do you use tarot and things like that as well? All of the above?
Speaker 4:So I pretty much so. I used to think the height of successful, of a professional accomplishment, was being the expert, of a professional accomplishment was being the expert. And I went from that to being the coach, where I'm just being curious, and now my, my aspiration is to be a blank container and conduit for the divine. So I would just sit with somebody and and ask what their intention is and for this time together, and often spirit will want to deliver a message, either through one of the clairsenses. Sometimes people want to talk to the spirit guides and I'll just be the translator. Sometimes, when there's a lot of constriction in their energy, I do energy work and the guides would just tell me and I would offer that to the clients and I'll often end with a tarot reading which just I don't know. Like spirit and the energies just are able to explain things and offer insights. That is way above my pay grade like part of the magnitude. So I just let them do the work and I just try to keep myself out of it. Sometimes spirit will say, oh, tell them this story, you know this story about, or teach them what you know attachment style means, or you know. So sometimes they'll, they'll encourage me to do a little teaching or tell a story, but, um, basically I just come in and let the energies direct the intention of the client and the energies um direct this, direct the offering.
Speaker 4:And, like I mentioned, like sometimes when I do the yin energy medicine, like pretty much anything or anybody might come in. Um, like, I had a client who said I have this attachment with my deceased dad. He just doesn't get out of my energy, and so it's like sure, you know, my guys were like yes, you can work on that. So I start working on her and I'm like hold on, I need to work on your dad here.
Speaker 4:So I started doing energy medicine on the dad and and once, and sometimes the planets or celestial bodies will come in, and once moon like just boom, appeared in the room and is like got this, and I was like okay, and I literally just like sat there and I was like you know, waiting for instruction, and so it's, it's just really amazing. I mean, it's just such I feel like I have front row seat to the best show in the universe, you know. So it's an honor for me to work with people, because I don't get to experience that as much unless it's with somebody you know, so like my own, is amazing, but it's even richer when I'm you know somebody else is bringing this beautiful part of the universe into the interaction that I've not been, I've not had access to in that way.
Speaker 3:So it's yummy, very yummy, and you and I had a conversation to schedule the podcast, so we had like an introductory conversation on Zoom and I had the honor and privilege of receiving a reading from you and it was just amazing. I still can remember some of the core points that went deep inside. So thank you for that. That was just incredible and I appreciated it so much.
Speaker 4:Oh, thank you for the feedback, dear. I mean it's always my joy to do the work with someone who's okay. So just a little phrase is wanting to come in who's really in it, heart and soul and and for the sincere benefit of everybody and everything, and to be of service in her highest way, um, and with the greatest integrity and love. So that just came through as a little affirmation for you, lori, that that, yes, it's something so sincere and earnest and committed, like it is, is truly a gift to be in energy, in relationship, in collaboration, whatever, in the container with Thank you, I'll agree to that.
Speaker 3:We love her.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes.
Speaker 3:It's an honor, but can we find out more about you and your work?
Speaker 4:Well, thank you for that question. So the foundation you can find our learning platform on the social, emotional, psychological skill development from fragility through flourishing at healingeduorg, and if you're looking for classes on spiritual development, you can go to sanctuary of earth dot org. We have, you know, usually one or two classes available at a given time. It's we're still very, very new. If you can go to Susanna Calvert dot com to learn about me and book a session, or you can email me at Susannaacalvert at gmailcom. I'd love to hear from any of you anybody listening, and especially you three, if you care to follow up in the future on anything.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, and we will put all the links down below in the comments so they're easy to find and you don't have to remember all the different ones. So it'll be easy to link with Susanna.
Speaker 4:Thank you so much. I just so appreciate your offering your beautiful gift to everybody and for the opportunity to share your community with me for a few minutes.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. We very much appreciate you being on and if you have liked this episode as much as we have, please like share and subscribe. And until next time, how is your intuition leading you to the next perfect step?