You Stop Repeating The Loop When You Finally Go Inside: Interview with Tracy Makarenko

You can feel it when someone’s work is truly safe. That’s why I wanted you to meet Tracy Makarenko, international best-selling author and Reiki master teacher whose message is simple and steady: peace is closer than you think. We talk about what happens when you’ve spent years caring, leading, and holding everything together, and then realize the old ways of coping are no longer working. Not because you’re broken, but because your body is done surviving. 

Tracy and I explore trauma-informed spirituality without bypassing the nervous system. We get into how trauma and chronic stress can disconnect your energetic body from your physical body, why intuition gets quieter when you’re stuck in old loops, and how energy healing, somatic awareness, and spiritual psychology can help you unwind what your mind can’t talk itself out of. We also name a struggle so many high-capacity women share: answering “What do you want?” with a blank stare, then learning how to hear your real answer again. 

You’ll also get a guided grounding meditation you can return to anytime you feel anxious, scattered, or overwhelmed. From there, we talk energetic boundaries for empaths, the difference between healthy boundaries and emotional walls, and why integration after Reiki, breathwork, and deep healing matters more than people realize. We close with ways to connect with Tracy’s books and upcoming offerings, plus a reminder that you’re not meant to do this alone. 

If you felt something shift, subscribe, share this with a friend who needs steadier ground, and leave a review so more women can find this kind of support.

Tracy Makarenko
Holistic Healthcare Practitioner & Certified Life Coach
www.tracymakarenko.com

https://www.instagram.com/awakeningwholeness/

https://www.tracymakarenko.com/healing-books-podcasts-resources

Transcript

Welcome And Season Two Intentions

SPEAKER_01 0:03

Hello. Welcome to season two of the Sacred Soul Sisters podcast. Oh my goodness, we are in 2026 and I have never been more ready for this year. Oh my gosh, the year of the fire horse. Well, welcome before we get too far ahead. Welcome to the Sacred Soul Sisters Podcast, a sacred space created for awesome souls who have spent years caring, giving, leading, and holding it all together, and are now feeling the quiet call to return to themselves. However, that call may be just getting a little louder this year. I'm Justina. I'm a Reiki master teacher, healer, nurse for over 20 years, transformational speaker, retreat leader, uh workshop leader, and this podcast is an invitation to you to allow your inner soul to slow down, soften, receive, and remember who you are beneath those roles and responsibilities and expectations that you've been carrying, but also to ignite the fire within you, to remind you how awesome you are. I'm so happy you're here. So here we talk about real healing, not the bypassing kind, but the kind that meets you exactly where you are. We explore energy, spirituality, emotional release, nervous system regulation, divine support, and what it truly means to live in alignment with your soul while navigating this crazy real life, right? So you'll hear heartfelt conversations, intuitive teachings, gentle practices, and soul-led interviews. They're all designed to help you clear energetic blocks, reconnect with your inner wisdom, and reclaim your vitality without guilt or burnout. Right? Like we are done. We are done messing around. I am so fired up about this year of 2026, and I cannot wait to hang with you this year. So thank you so much for being here. This is the place where you don't have to have it all figured out, but it is the place where your strength is remembered, your light is reawakened. And if this resonates with you, I would love for you to follow the show. Please leave a review. It helps the message reach so many more individuals that need it at this time. You can also visit my website at angelrekejourney.com, scroll to the bottom, sign up for the newsletter to receive soulful updates, upcoming offers, gentle reminders that you are never alone in this path. Come connect with me on Instagram at Angel Reiki Journey and join the conversation. Or you can find me on LinkedIn where I share reflections, teachings, and ways to bring this work into your life and leadership. You are never meant to leave this alone. You belong here. And I'm so glad you are here. So take a breath and welcome to the Sacred Soul Sisters podcast. Disclaimer, you should always check in with your physician, your psychiatrist, your counselor, or anyone else assisting in your care prior to deciding that you would like to take any of the recommendations, the suggestions, and our thoughts on any of the subjects that we discuss in the podcast. Thank you so much.

Tracy’s Path From Outside In

SPEAKER_01 3:22

Hello. Welcome back to the Sacred Soul Sisters podcast. This is a space where we remember who we are, where we have the courageous conversations, where we soften, we awake, and we come home to ourselves. Today's guest is a woman who truly embodies the phrase, peace is closer than you think. I am so honored to welcome Tracy Makarenko, international best-selling author, certified holistic life coach, Usui and Karuna Reiki master teacher, and a guide for embodied awakening. With over two decades of experience supporting personal transformation, Tracy Bridges Energy Medicine, Somatic Awareness, and Spiritual Psychology in a way that feels grounded, trauma-aware, and deeply safe. She is the author of Moving from the Outside In and the co-author of the international bestseller I Am, a Brilliant Woman. Her work supports women in restoring their energy, regulating their nervous systems, healing emotional and energetic patterns, and returning to the wholeness that has always lived within them. Tracy, welcome to the Sacred Soul Sisters. I'm so happy you're here.

SPEAKER_02 4:32

Thank you, Justine. I'm so thrilled to be here.

SPEAKER_01 4:35

Oh my goodness. I got the opportunity to meet Tracy through um Jessica Swag. We uh enrolled in a program of hers and met. And right off the bat, I just wanted to hug her neck off. Um, she's incredible, her energy, and you'll feel it. Whether you're listening to audio or watching uh the video, you'll be able to feel her energy. It's so welcoming and so safe and sacred. So uh, Tracy, I would love to begin at the beginning. So when you reflect on your own journey, when do you first realize? Did you first realize that healing wasn't going to happen on the outside of you, but within you?

SPEAKER_02 5:19

Oh, good question. Um, I don't think we know that it's not going to happen on the outside of us until we go inside. You think you're healing stuff all the time. Uh, but it's when you drop into that space in your body, in your heart. I think it was during my meditation practice when I started, uh, I think it was 2000, I started doing a daily meditation practice, and that really opens something else up for me. The like the quietness that you don't know exists inside. You have moments of them, of course. Right. But yeah, when you start practicing something different, wow, it just gets quiet.

SPEAKER_01 6:05

You know, there was a part in your book, which um the moving from the outside in. I don't know if everybody can see this. This is yeah, such a great book. Um, where you talk about that you had evolved, I'm trying to think, evolved uh into a different person. You said I adapted so often that perhaps the bigger problem was that I no longer knew who I was. Can you take us into that season of your life? What does that mean exactly?

Adapting Until You Forget Yourself

SPEAKER_02 6:36

Wow. Well, I think a lot of us do that. We try to fit in. You try and fit in wherever we are. And I move so much as a child. I think my natural personality was there until somewhere around grade five or grade six when the girls started getting mean, and then you tried to fit in, you know, wearing the hip clothes and getting your hair done in a certain way, and uh, you know, the whole puberty thing with the boys liking you. Um, I think you get lost in yourself there, but for me, even after high school, I I had lost myself so much that when I started moving, those habits continued. You know, I moved from northern Canada um to southern Canada and then to the States and then to Brazil. And every time it was a different culture, it was a different group of people you wanted to be friends with. And I adapted myself and buried so many other things that had gone on and didn't deal with it. And I didn't grow up in a household where you dealt with stuff, it went under the carpet, you know, and then you just continued on the conversation. So was an unraveling of all of those layers and not even realizing how many layers and how lost I was.

SPEAKER_01 8:04

Wow. Yeah, I think there's a lot of us that can relate to the, you know, well, I'm just gonna stuff it down, you know, and and move on. I'll deal with it later. I'll deal with it, you know. Um, and then sometimes we never get to the point where we deal with it, so to speak. Uh but you know, so you also talk about something in your book where you felt like there was a point where the healing didn't necessarily happen in the physical realm, it happened on a cellular and soul level.

Asking "What Do You Want"

SPEAKER_01 8:37

Like for somebody that's listening who feels like they're still in survival mode, like they're just like you know, continuing to stuff stuff away just to do everyday tasks. What does it look like to stop surviving and start listening? Like, where do you go to listen?

SPEAKER_02 8:56

Oh okay, not just doing one, but I mean, usually you come to your wit's end. For me, it was an emotional and a mental breakdown. You know, usually we get to that place where we just can't live like this anymore. Sometimes people think it's the divorce that's gonna help, or it's the changing the job that's gonna help, or you know, getting rid of this or that. But it's an inside job. So yeah, we can do that, but if we take all that stuff with us into the next relationship, into the next job, into the next whatever it is, it's not gonna work. You're just gonna keep doing these looping repeats, you know, it's like that hamster wheel thing. Um, you have to start being honest with yourself. You have to finally say, I can't live like this, and then ask the question, how do I want to live? What do I want my life to look like? Like, why am I here? What is my purpose? And when you start asking those questions, the universe just starts unraveling all that for you. It, you know, it's like a ball of messed up wool, and it just the tangles just start coming apart and it's messy for sure.

SPEAKER_01 10:13

Right, but God, you feel so good, like you just feel so good, right? It's you know, it's um it's interesting because I think of moments where I've been through that that realm as well of going through everything and being in survival mode and just doing all the tasks that you have to do in the 3D world, you know, to get from point A to point B. And um and sometimes we do that to the nth degree and we work so much that we don't have to go internal, right? Like that we get enough avoidance that we don't have to go there. But I agree with you. I think there definitely does come a point where you're just like, all right, enough is enough. Like, I can't do this anymore. I just don't know what else to do. The other part though, you know, you mentioned about what do you want? And I had uh in a meditation, I was well, I started the meditation not so great. This was several years ago, and I was crouchy and fussy, which I still get grouchy and fussy to be clear, uh, sometimes. But I was just griping about all these different areas of my life. And in the meditation, Spirit said, Well, what do you want? And I thought what was really crazy to me is I didn't know the answer to that question. Yeah, have you ever ran across that?

SPEAKER_02 11:38

Absolutely. Okay, we do it daily. Like, what do you want to eat today? I don't know what I want to eat today. Like, I mean, it happens in the smallest little points too. So, I mean, that bigger question, what do you want? Well, that's why I got into this work to help people unravel all the stuff in their body that's clogging the light from entering, and you know, decided oh, I need to be a certified coach because then I can really help people direct their lives into more of what they want. And most people have no idea what they want, or they want the thing they've always thought they wanted, but they don't want it anymore, or they want something their friend has or a parent told them like that that true connection to the heart, it doesn't come naturally. It's it's like you gotta go, you gotta go there, you gotta go deep, you gotta do some work. You have, yeah, it's it's a whole it's a whole process. It's not just one question.

SPEAKER_01 12:37

Yeah, it's just starts with a question. Absolutely. It was just so interesting to me because I felt like, well, of course I know what I want, but I still couldn't answer that question, you know. And I was like, crap, I really don't know what I want. You know, so I really had to spend some time like really legit, what do I want? You know, kind of thing. So um, yeah, it's it's crazy. But once we do figure out like what we want, like like you said, I feel like the ball of wool does definitely start to these amazing things start to happen, and your body, your physical body starts to feel different as well, is what I've came across.

SPEAKER_02 13:19

Um, I love your intuition gets better, yeah. Once you're in alignment with what you want, that intuition really starts like dropping things in and makes life easier. You're in that flow. A hundred percent what we forget is the thing that we wanted here might not be the thing that we want here, and so we get stuck with that thing, thinking, okay, well, this is what I wanted, so this is what I gotta keep doing. But we evolve, you know, evolution is just part of nature, and so remembering that that thing can change and transform, and you can want something different or allow something different to come to you is really important, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:06

That whole allowing thing, uh, for the Virgos in the room. Um that's a little bit of a challenge, but it is so beneficial uh to allow. And it's so calming, also in a way, that it's not always about you um running the show. While I think I used to pride myself on that uh in a way really stepping into allowing has really shifted my perspective on that and taken off some of the pressure, you know.

Trauma-Informed Spirituality In The Body

SPEAKER_01 14:49

Um, so I love that your work is grounded and trauma aware. Sometimes spirituality can unintentionally bypass the nervous system. Sometimes, you know, they talk about um, I've had people come to me and say, Oh, you're all spiritual woo-woo. I mean, I guess you just like walk on clouds 24-7, and uh, and I'm like, oh uh boy, that would be really cool. Uh, that is not how this works. Uh so can you share what trauma-informed spirituality means to you? What do we have to feel in our body in order to go to those places? And how can energy medicine help that?

SPEAKER_02 15:32

Oh, you're hitting me with some hard ones today. Okay, so my gift is feeling. So I'm very much an empath. Excuse me. Yeah, interesting.

SPEAKER_03 15:46

We hear you.

SPEAKER_02 15:47

Yeah, yeah. It's like you want me to answer this question or not? Um, so I always knew I was. I didn't always know. You don't know who you are because you are who you are. So knowing when my aunt asked me, where's grandma? We were only several years apart. Um, and I'd say she's at the grocery store, she's at the post office, and she's like, Oh, but she told you she was going. And I was like, Well, no, she's I can just feel that's where she is. And my aunt would get so mad, it's like, how would you know that? And I'm thinking, how do you not know this? And I was probably six, seven, eight, nine years old. Um, but you know, society tells you that that this is wrong, you know, you gotta kind of hide some of this stuff, and and there is this whole thing that somewhere around eight, we all have some type of trauma that happens in our body, and we release some of that connection we had with source when we were born, and things move on. And then I believe we have our karmic connections that we have to sort out, so things happen to us, we have different traumas, different experiences, all this stuff gets settled in our body, and then at some point, usually in our 30s, we need something different. And if you've never grown up with support in your household, you're not sure what that looks like. But I feel and the clients I've seen they start noticing things and they don't know what it is. My gift is being able to put my hand on a person and figure out what that is. So I don't go straight in, I like take like this route and I find the thing, and then it's like, whoa, do you feel that? And it usually starts with a physical something. So there's usually been some type of accident or ailment of some sort, and that's how I get the client to tap into what's going on in their body because that that they can connect to. It's like, oh yeah, I remember falling on my bike, and I remember, you know, like my neck didn't turn very well after that, and you know, and so I tap in and you know, we get the neck all unwound. Well, and then as that happens, the emotions come up, and we feel part of why they fell off the bike. You know, it was like they were being chased and they were scared, or they're trying to, you know, uh be free and were, you know, no hands, and you know, then didn't feel safe, or you know, it triggers something else in their life, and so then it takes it deeper to the emotional stuff, and then when that happens, I can unwind anything in their body because they're just at this place where that freedom just comes in and they feel the joy underneath all the grief or sadness or fear or shame, and they they want more, and the body just starts unwinding really fast, and it takes it out, it takes it out completely, and you you don't ever have to do that looping again with the thing that's triggering you, you don't have that memory again where you're like trying to push it away or forget about it, you don't have the problem with thinking about the person who caused the issue anymore because you don't have an issue anymore with whatever that was, right?

SPEAKER_01 19:44

When you say you put your hand on someone, that doesn't have to be in person. No, I just want to say that for our listeners that you do distant healing and and in person, correct? Yeah, and you're in Canada, and uh Tracy's incredible. I have had the wonderful opportunity to have a session with her, and it was quite a breakthrough. It was uh I'm gonna get emotional about it. It was beautiful, and I am forever grateful for that. She has a true gift uh to be able to do that and the ability to, you know, I think that's one of the most sacred things in um when I look for a healer, um, because I always suggest even if you're in the healing business, um, you still need to take care of you, right? Like you still need to get a healing yourself sometimes. And one of the biggest things I look for is someone that truly embodies that uh sense of safety and just really um embracing all of you. And it doesn't matter, you know, who you are, where you come from, what kind of childhood you had. There's just no judgment there. You know that they're truly in alignment with what they're doing. So I suggest that anybody looking for a healer look for those things as well. I do find people sometimes that will tell me, um, because one of the ways that helps me connect the most is uh meditation and to help me get like grounded and all of that. However, there's lots of times people come to me and they're like, no, I've tried, like I don't want to sit in the air with um, you know, and I'm like, okay, you don't have to sit in the air, first of all. Second of all, you don't even have to sit like that. Um but uh there's some people really almost um develop like an angst

Boundaries That Stay Soft

SPEAKER_01 21:52

against it. They're like, I just can't do it, period. I just can't do it. But you have a way to kind of like it's ground control. Something like on your website that kind of talks a little bit about making this a little easier. Can you talk about that? What that is?

SPEAKER_02 22:09

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So when you're doing this work, you need to get out of your own head. Um, you can't be thinking about, you know, what you're making for supper, if the dishwasher got unloaded, and oh yeah, I have to remember to go Saturday to buy my kids' shoes. You know, you have to stay focused on the person you're with. And in the beginning, I had a lot of my own stuff. Like I've been through loads of trauma. You read the book, you're like, you'll hear all about it. But um I you end up having clients that mirror you. So if you're having issues with, and I'm just gonna say like lungs or your brain or your eyes, you're gonna have a whole bunch of clients that have the same thing. And that went on for probably a good 10-12 years, but you need to be able to decipher between it being their stuff and your own stuff, and so over time and teaching Reiki, I realized I need I my body needed to find this thing, and um there's two parts to this. So part of it is I learned how to really connect uh through a meditation coach, and I still do that meditation and I teach that, and I can take you guys through it. It's very quick and very easy. But the other part is it's about boundaries, and because I was in the beginning able to feel everyone's stuff, like walking through a grocery store and I'd start bawling while I'm looking at a tomato or you know, uh wherever it was, the bank, and you could feel like the anxiety of someone going to see if they had money in the bank. You know, I mean yeah, I don't need to feel everybody's stuff. So I've also developed this whole thing around boundaries, and I teach uh a retreat around healing boundaries, and then we do some goddess work and stuff as well. Actually, I have one coming up in May.

SPEAKER_01 24:19

But what are the dates for that?

SPEAKER_02 24:22

Just real quick while we're on it, yeah. May 29th through 31st on Vancouver Island.

SPEAKER_01 24:27

Awesome. Okay, and we'll get the more events she has coming up towards the end, but I wanted to shout out that. Go ahead.

SPEAKER_02 24:33

But but yeah, there's um just a really quick ground, and I'm gonna put this out there first. Some people aren't ready to meditate, like they need somebody else to help them do their work first. Not everyone can step in and do their own work at any level. Like sometimes your nervous system is so wound, it's really hard to manage anything. But I haven't found anyone yet, and maybe I'll get some feedback from this that hasn't been able to drop into this meditation and feel the peace. Wonderful.

SPEAKER_03 25:10

Can we do that?

SPEAKER_02 25:11

Yes, we can. Okay, yeah. All right, okay.

Guided Grounding Meditation Practice

SPEAKER_02 25:14

So you want to driving, pull over. Yes, please or listen to this after you pull over. So closing your eyes. And you know, we put our hands face up if we want to connect more with spirit, face down if we feel we need to be more grounded. So if you have like a wound nervous system, place your hands down just so you can be more grounded. If you want to connect more with spirit, you can place your hands up. That's all that that's about. Feet should be flat on the floor because you need to be connected to the earth. If your feet don't reach the floor, like me, because I'm a little short. You know, you put a pillow between your feet and the floor. If you're sitting on the floor, maybe sit on a cushion just to raise your bum a bit so your legs don't go numb. You don't want anything to kind of distract you from the process of meditation. So closing your eyes, taking a big breath in and a breath out, and just feel yourself kind of relaxing into the chair or wherever you're sitting. And I want you to see like a solid beam or feel feel if you don't see. In the middle of your back, the solid beam starts, and the solid beam is gonna grow down through your base chakra, through the chair, through the floor, hopefully not through your car, but if that's where you are, through through the through the car, and it's going to go through all the layers of the earth. So you're just gonna see this beam, solid beam, rod pull growing down, down, down, down, down through all the layers of the earth. And it's headed towards the red ball in the center of the earth. And it's just gonna keep going down, down, down, down, down, down, down till it gets there. Once it gets there, it's gonna embed itself into that red ball in the center of the earth. And you might feel a little bit of a tug, you might feel nothing at all, and that's fine, but just know it's there. And if you're having a hard time really connecting it with it, do whatever you have to. My sister like took multiple plugs and she plugged it into all different spots down there, put a weight on the bottom. Some people are very, very open, and it's harder to stay grounded. So do whatever you can to get yourself really embedded into that center of the earth, and then that's gonna stay there, and you're just gonna follow all the way up this rod, this pole, all the way up through all the different layers of the earth, through the crest and back up through whatever you're sitting on, and into the middle of your back. Where the that beam, where that rod is, there's going to be a beam of light that now grows up through your crown chakra. It's gonna go up through the roof of wherever you're at, and it's gonna go up, up, up to infinity. Now you can't go to infinity, but you can go through all the layers of the universe. You might see different colors: pinks, blues, yellow, silver, gold. And you're gonna go up as far as you can, and then you're just gonna let that beam keep going. I just want you to hold at that spot for a minute. You might feel a tug or a pull, your back might be a bit more straight, and then you're gonna follow that beam of light all the way back into your body. So you're coming down through all those layers again, through the roof, and then back into your body, and just stop at your heart center. And I ask you, do you feel the peace inside of you?

SPEAKER_03 28:48

Hmm.

SPEAKER_02 28:50

You might feel like you're a little bit of a pendulum occasionally because you're connected to father sky and mother earth now. So you might feel like you've been off alignment. You could be pulling to the right or the left, forward or back. The first time I did this, I was pulled back into a 45-degree angle for about 20 minutes.

unknown 29:14

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 29:15

And then just back up. I mean, it felt like that. I never opened my eyes to see if that was the truth, if because our physical body and our energetic body aren't always in alignment. And what meditation does is it brings us back together, and so you might even feel like you're wobbling in a circle when you do this, and just sit there until you feel like you go a thing and you disconnect. And you can do this for 10 minutes, 20 minutes, and then usually I say a little prayer of thanks, and then slowly open your eyes and come out, wiggling your fingers, taking a deep breath. That's even my voice has changed, even though I meditated earlier today.

SPEAKER_01 30:02

Yeah, me too. I'm just like, all right, I'll see you later, Tracy. I'm gonna go rest in a hammock somewhere. Wow, that was beautiful. I love that, and really anybody can do that just by following, you know, the your words. I like that you also said, you know, you can if you need to plug stuff in down there, if you need to put a weight on it, like whatever it is that you feel like you need to do to give more um security to that. That's really great.

SPEAKER_02 30:36

Because part of the reason our nervous system gets wound up or it feels fried, or is when we have a trauma, we leave our body. So our crown chakra, which is typically four feet off our body, it can be it can be 150 feet, it can be 350 feet, it can be like wide open because we're trying to get out of the space that caused us pain and anxiety and fear or shame or whatever it was, and we leave our body, and so our nervous system has no nothing to connect to again. That physical body and that energetic body are so disconnected that how can they not vibrate because they can't get in alignment, and the closer they get, the more calmer they feel. So it's about closing that down, so you know, getting more grounded. It's just like uh you know, just balancing something from like this. Uh I don't sliding ruler, is what I always think, and I don't even think I know what a sliding ruler is, but you know, it's like if this is here, then this is gonna go this way, and if this go this way, so yeah.

SPEAKER_01 31:50

Wow. Um, thank you. Just to try and make it simple, yeah, for sure. And that's the best part about this is that it's not all just a one size fits all, right? Like you can make it your own any which way you go to do this stuff. And and the more you do it, I feel like the more you start to feel comfortable with doing making it your own, right? You know, um, in your book, and I don't know if you say this word

Emotional Walls Versus True Boundaries

SPEAKER_01 32:23

exactly. I feel like you probably do, but you know, you speak about energetic boundaries in such a grounded way, basically talking about like, you know, didn't seem like you had as many to start with, and then kind of grew in that way. Is there a difference between emotional walls and true energetic boundaries? And can women protect their energy without hardening their hearts? Like I um, just an example of this. I had uh notice with spirituality lets you do lots of self-reflection, I feel like. Um and that's not always what I want to do, to be clear. But there was a time in my life that after going through different traumas and things, I basically shut down my heart chakra. And uh and I didn't do it in a very that didn't project in a very nice way a lot of times. It would be like this, like, yeah, hi, bye, whatever. I don't care, I don't care, whatever, everything's fine, whatever. Uh which um I clearly hardened my heart. So I guess again, if there's a difference between emotional walls and energetic boundaries, and if there is, what's a way we can do that without being abrasive, I would say, without going to the extreme.

SPEAKER_02 33:51

Well, first we got to recognize what's going on. I mean, I'll just use you as an example. So I mean, you're walking around with what people call a chip on your shoulder, right? That's probably how they see you for years, and you're thinking, what are they talking about? Because you just feel like like you, you know, there's this wall around you. Like if you close your eyes, you might even see a wall around you, or you might see your, you know, your heart space as a big solid black blob, or who knows? Like, there's a lot of visuals for how you help people break through some of this stuff. Um, but that was there for protection. And so for you, you just you feel okay because like no one can come near you. There was a I was attacked from behind when I was 11 years old. Well, I was trying to protect my sister and my um cousin. And uh I was so badly whiplashed, my brain stem got jammed all the way up into my head. It would cause like another layer of a concussion from something I already had, uh, dislocated my elbow. But I didn't know any of this until I was in my 40s and did a healing. But because of that, no one could walk up behind me for I would say, oh, probably 30 feet. I knew everyone around me. So after that, it wasn't so much that I built a wall, but I I had a protective layer. And so I could be in the other side of the room. If if my back was turned, I could feel someone walking into my space immediately, like 30 feet away or whatever it was. Um, and it was interesting because I didn't, I I knew this, but I didn't know this.

SPEAKER_01 35:45

Right, right. Right.

SPEAKER_02 35:47

So I was in a breath workshop. Um, and my my instructor, he had me sitting in a chair in front of everyone, and he'd been working on people. And he came around from behind me, and I guess as he got closer to me, I just started doing this bending forward.

SPEAKER_00 36:09

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 36:10

And and then when he came up and he put his hands on my shoulders, then I sat up and I was like, I could feel like the vibration in my body. My awareness came because he showed it to everybody else. He's like, watch this, and then he did it again. And I bent forward because he was coming from behind me, and I was clueless. He's like, I was like, What? And they're like, Oh, wow! And I'm like, Oh wow, what? So we have these patterns in our body we don't even recognize until we recognize them. Wow, so it took a long time for me to heal my heart chakra, which the back of our body is free will, the front is our emotional, but the back is the free will. So the free will to love, the free will to you know what, you know, all the heart stuff. Um, but the power center as well. So the solar plexus, my my solar plexus, I had zero power when I turned my back, and that boy smashed me across the back with a rake. So um, yeah, you don't heal those things overnight, but it starts with an awareness.

SPEAKER_01 37:27

Hello, friends. I wanted to jump on real quick and tell you about the Reiki master course that is coming April 17th, April 18th, and April 19th. That is in person from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. That is the Friday, Saturday, Sunday in Highland at the Balance Wellness Studio. I am so excited for this, you guys. If you are ready for some serious healing, some serious activations, this is for you. The prerequisites are you have to be certified level one and certified level two Usui Holy Fire, uh, or at least one of those versions uh in order to sign up for the Reiki Master course. And uh you will go on my website on angelrekyjourney.com, you'll scroll down to services, you'll find the Sui Holy Fire Reiki Master course. Click on that, it will just show April 17th. Uh, that's just how the site is set up. So you'll just click on that and um and register for that. If you need to do a payment plan or anything, please reach out to me via email and we can set something up. It would just have to be paid prior to the class. And then registration actually stops on April 6th. So if uh you have not registered by April 6th, I absolutely cannot add you in. Uh, there's a lot of different moving parts that had go into this. So uh yeah, I'm so excited, you guys. This is gonna be amazing. Also, make sure you sign up for the newsletter uh and watch me on Instagram because there is some cool workshops coming up that I would love for you to be a part of. And there will be some retreats, uh, some different things going on too. So all kinds of exciting things. The year of the fire horse is going crazy. Buckle up. Okay, everyone. I love you so much and have an awesome rest of your day. And let's get back to the episode. So, like a way to look at that, like how how can we have energetic boundaries without um oh yes, okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 39:43

So, so this was my protection mode. We all have some type of protection mode, and then we realize we are protecting ourselves, but what we don't realize at the time, and that's why it's so hard to let go, because we're just you know, ego is trying to protect us, our the self, my 11-year-old that got attacked, she's trying to protect me. Um, you know, there's all these bits and pieces of us, they we call them maybe soul parts or essences or uh just different fragments of ourselves. But when we start healing, the pieces that are broken, and it it wasn't just like one thing, there's like so many layers in me that got attacked that day. Um, trust, huge, didn't trust people for a long time, never stood in the middle of a room, always with my back against the wall. You know, all these little things as they started healing along with the emotional stuff, then you realize once it's healed, you don't. What are you healing from? There's nothing there, nothing can attack you, nothing can hurt you. Your heart can be wide open, and it can be wide open because this is your light. Your heart is your light. And so people who have a less vibration or are dealing with their own stuff, they're not going to be wanting to be around you. And this is why we talk about, you know, as your frequency rises, everything changes. People you hang out with change, the where you work changes, um, you change, you know, every and people, some people come with you and some people don't, but you don't need to protect yourself because you're with another group of people you're mirroring with that are exactly the same as you are. So you don't need to protect yourself from what you used to protect yourself from.

SPEAKER_01 41:38

And then do you feel like you almost automatically develop some type of boundaries where you're not taking everyone's stuff on anytime you walk through a room? Like it almost naturally happens after a while, the more healing you do on the inside. You know what I mean? Like, do you feel like your empath self? Um, because I don't feel like I pick up on everybody's stuff anymore, right? But I feel like that was something I struggled with. So how do you think that part changes? Like is it just a natural consequence, so to speak?

SPEAKER_02 42:18

To yeah, I I think because now the things that I'm working on is is leveling up my business, doing more workshops, doing all this other stuff. And so who am I attracting into my life, just Dina? All the same type of people. So I mean, I've as you heal one thing, something shifts. Now, the people that don't heal that thing, it's usually because they're either comfortable in the space they're in, or they're they're scared of what it looks like on the other side. Yes, and and you meet people who have the fear of, well, I don't want to lose that person as a friend. And then they turn around and they complain about that friend all the time, right? So, you know, that that inconsistency is when you're kind of on the verge of you want to heal, but you don't. And there's so many inconsistencies when you're kind of in that level. I remember thinking one thing, oh I I I can't remember what it was, but it was you know, something about a progressive thought that I thought, oh, this is this is wonderful, and then something coming out of my mouth with that was completely contradictory, the opposite of what I was thinking, because that was still a limited belief from my parent. But I hadn't cleared that part. I'd cleared the the mental part out of my head, but the habit of some seeing something or someone talking to me, it was still coming out of my mouth. It's like When you stop gossiping, it's like I don't want to gossip about people anymore. And then all of a sudden someone starts saying something, and you're like, oh, geez, you know? And then it's like, okay, yeah, no, I'm not, I'm not doing that. Does that make sense?

SPEAKER_01 44:15

Yeah, it does. Uh, I I'm trying to think, I feel like you know, there's so many subtle shifts that take place uh in a positive way, but I think sometimes you're not aware of it until you run into that situation. You know what I mean? Like, and then you're like, oh, I really don't really do that anymore. Or, you know, oh, I don't really resonate with that song anymore. Like that was my identity before, but it's not really now. Or, you know, there's all these interesting pieces. My kids will say sometimes, and um, we'll be walking through the grocery store or the department store or whatever, and there'll be someone coming down the aisle towards us, and once in a while they'll stop, look at me, and turn around and walk the other way. And the first time that ever happened, I was like, Well, forget you. My ego jumped in, you know, and then I kind of talked with spirit about it, and they're like, not everybody's looking to to have that kind of light shined on them. Not and I'm not saying that like in an ego way, like I'm so much light, but in a but sometimes but it's a vibration aren't ready.

SPEAKER_02 45:36

Yeah, you're gonna, you're you're hanging out with the people you're vibrating with, you know. It takes a like a special person, and and I mean, as healers, we hang out with people who vibrate very low all the time because that's our work. But our work is to tap into that lower vibration and help them heal and bring them up to the next level, you know, like move out some of the darkness and bring in, but these are people that have also found us because they like our light, they want to be a part of our light, right? And that they're you know, you know, that there's other people who will turn around because, like, yeah, I'm not ready for that. Ego's going, nope, not doing that. I'm keeping you here. You're eating this type of food still, you are not eating this type of food, you are like not exercising, you're going to be watching this television show that's unhealthy for you because I am comfortable. And meanwhile, you're having this fight in your head going, I'm just I don't want to do this anymore.

SPEAKER_01 46:33

But you some people just can't get out of the loop until you're conscious of that, like they don't even know why they had to turn around and go the other way. Like they're like, that was odd, but whatever, you know. So now my kids will kind of laugh about it. They're like, Oh, there we go again, mom. You know, like and same sense, other people gravitate, right? Yeah so you end up gravitating with somebody, you know, y'all are in the pickle aisle, and all of a sudden you're both like, Oh, how you do? Oh, well, that's a nice blow. Oh, I needed to hear that so bad today. You know, like there's all these beautiful things that take place too.

Falling In Love With Yourself

SPEAKER_02 47:14

Yeah, the magic of healing.

SPEAKER_01 47:16

Oh, it's so beautiful. I have coosebumps everywhere. So in your book, you share vulnerably about letting go of shame, guilt, fear, and eventually falling in love with yourself. There's a line that's so powerful. Then it happened. I fell in love with myself. And I feel like so often, and even as healers, like we're, you know, we're still human for the most part, you know, and uh so we still have moments where we deal with things. We don't just get done dealing with any uh any type of emotion or anything once you become a healer, that's not how this works. But I feel like we have a better toolbox to adjust to it. So when you felt that moment of falling in love with yourself, what did that feel like? And did you know that you didn't love yourself? Because I hear some people say, like, I didn't realize it until I started to love me again that I didn't.

SPEAKER_02 48:22

No, I was pretty conscious I didn't love myself.

SPEAKER_01 48:26

Amen. Me too. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 48:29

Yeah, that wasn't a question at all. I mean, I hadn't become a healer yet when I fell in love with myself, but I had just started doing a lot of healing. So I'd done some really serious healing. Uh 2001, two. This was end of three. So it was probably three three solid years of mostly breath work, is what I did most of my healing with with Dan Brule. And um I was in the kitchen, I was cutting cucumbers for a salad. It was right around uh it was winter, so maybe like early December. And I'd been spending a lot of time in my mind contemplating, spending a lot of hours meditating. Um, didn't know if my marriage was over or not because I was just like so miserable and so sad, and it had been a complete time of unraveling, like one layer and another, and and it just all of a sudden there was just this wash of like love that just came over me. And it wasn't because I looked at a child, it wasn't, you know, because I bought you know that new pair of shoes, you know, it was just like just this wash of love that came over me. And I was like, wow, I really love myself. All this, I wouldn't say all the stories, but a lot of the stories had stopped going through my head, you know, the like, oh my god, you should be so embarrassed that you said that, and you know, re-rewinding the conversations you have with people, or the things you did as a child, or the things your parents did to you, or you know, all of all that stuff had just like gotten quiet, and I just had this beautiful moment. Now, I will also say that was 2003. There's been times when I've gone through another chunk of healing and I'm not feeling so in love with myself. Like these falling in love with yourself is something that happens over and over and over again, but it happens at another level, just like any amount of healing. You can be like heal your heart and think, oh God, I've healed my heart. Well, honey, like three years from now, you might be healing another part of your heart. So don't think you're done. You're gonna find this other layer that you get to open up and go because I mean, we're we're complex, complicated energies that have had many, many lives, and you know, we're here to learn stuff, we're not here just for a good time. I mean, we can do that too, but there's there's other work that needs to be done while we're here.

SPEAKER_01 51:16

So absolutely, absolutely, yeah. Without a doubt, with all of the healing that I've done as well, while it has not been pretty in a lot of circumstances, the other side of it is a beauty I had no idea existed. So I do urge people to make that decision to go inward. And and there's people around this world everywhere that can help you do that. You know, whether you get in touch with Tracy, whether you get in touch with me, there's there's so many people, you don't have to do it alone. Uh, you are trained in several healing modalities and are a Reiki master teacher, and uh you're incredible. I might have mentioned that. But how do you feel like um when you have a client come to you that doesn't, you know, sometimes I have people come to me and they're like, I don't really know what I want. I'm just supposed to get in contact with you. How what makes you decide uh energy work versus coaching versus somatic integration? Or is it all incorporated in one? Um question, sorry.

SPEAKER_02 52:36

Yeah, no, no, no, it's it's a question I always get like what do I do? And um, so a lot of times having a conversation is easy. You have the conversation and you figure it out. It's like okay, yeah. And intuitively, it's like ah, I think maybe we start with a healing treatment first. And it's like you said, I can do them in my office, I do them long distance all the time, um, anywhere in the world. And sometimes the ones that are long distance are seem almost more powerful than the ones that are because the body's out of the way and you just get to do whatever you need to do. I do have a mastermind class coming up in May. It's an eight-week program, and it is like my coaching program, it happens every week, so there's it's like you're you're processing constantly for eight weeks as you go through this healing. Um, and I find that one is almost like doing the intense intuitive healing work only because you're also in a group, so there's more power when you're in a group, um, and and you have the people you get to talk with.

SPEAKER_01 53:50

Yes, it's beautiful.

SPEAKER_02 53:51

Community is it's just it's a lovely space to go through a healing. Um, because we, you know, the reason I have so many modalities is because in the beginning I just wanted to do as much as I could for my clients. It's like, oh yeah, cranial sacral therapy, yeah. I'm taking that. Oh, visceral work with the organs, yeah. Oh, I have a reflexology, but I don't need to do that now. I can get my hands right on the organs. Same way that oh yes, your manipulation, I can get my fingers right on the nerves and do oh, I can get my hands right in the brain, yeah. And I can like do that, and then yes, I just you know, oh shimato killing. Well, I've been doing so many past lives and ancestral stuff lately. Uh oh, I'm gonna go take my certification for that, and yeah, yeah, yes, yes, most of Virgo, so you know, amen, sister. Perfect.

SPEAKER_01 54:46

That's right. That's why we're amazing together. Virgos for you now. Uh it's it's incredible. I love you so much. I got to meet Tracy in person and Nashville, and oh, I miss her so much. I won't I want to just reach through here and and hug her neck. Um I know so great for you.

Integration After Healing Work

SPEAKER_01 55:08

I uh I want to touch just a little bit about the importance of integration. I've had um some people come to me and and different teachers do things different ways. And I uh don't feel comfortable in like teaching someone Ricky one to master level within one weekend. Uh I feel like it personally that it doesn't give enough time for integration, especially if they're very new to energy healing, uh, and have never done a meditation to begin with. Because just taking those classes is a healing experience in itself. And I feel like giving yourself and your body time to integrate is really important. What are your thoughts on that?

SPEAKER_02 56:05

Oh, I absolutely agree. And I'm not one of those healers that's like, I need to see you every single week for the next like four months. Right. I very much after every session, it's like okay. And they're like, Yeah, I'm going hard. I booked me in for next week. Or they're like, uh, I'm not sure where I'm at. I'm like, yeah, no, I think I think maybe we give you two weeks, and then you know, if that doesn't work in two weeks, then we can change the appointment. Or um, it's interesting you talk about Reiki one, two, and three though, because I was invited to teach levels one, two, and three over a three-day weekend. And I said to them, We no, you you can't teach levels one, two, and master level three days. That's that's crazy. And they're like, Well, we'll find someone else. And I'm like, No, you won't. If anyone's gonna teach that in three days, it's gonna be me. Like, I I did not want to leave that up to anyone else to just not have the scruples to realize what would be going on in these people's bodies. Wow. So um, I I did do it, and I was a huge support system for like a group of 26 people ongoing is still, and this is 2017. I did that class. Um and it it was a lot, but there was um there was open communication for integration, which is super important. Because even after one session, I remember having a breath session, and a piece of my 17-year-old self came back, and I got my car and I didn't know how to drive because she was 17 and she's like, Oh, look at my traffic. And you're like, Okay, calm down. You're only a small part of us, we're just gonna drive, you know. So it's like these conversations you have with the piece that's being integrated and the piece that's already in your body. Um, and if you're a healer, you get that, but if you're just the regular person, you need to be educated on how integration takes place. You know, going home, you might not be able to handle the noise in the house anymore. So, you know, you're gonna maybe have to put boundaries around turning that TV off at a certain time during the day, or you know, maybe you can't eat meat anymore because it's like, oh god, you know, or you can only eat green vegetables and you just can't get enough of them. Yeah, you like integration.

SPEAKER_01 58:51

Yes, yeah, and you and quite frankly, sometimes people's physical bodies can't do it, like it's just too much in a short amount of time. You know, they I've had some um people just from a a Reiki session have go into chills or shaking, or and I'm so grateful that I'm there with them when it happens to be able to bring them back and to be able to calm their body and and all of that. But if you and to teach them the tools, but if you don't discuss that or or you are in a session and it's not relayed to you the importance of integration and the importance of giving your your body grace and your emotional body grace during this process, uh I would reach back out to your practitioner or you know, talk to one of us or whatever. But really um it's a it's a big deal. It's not just um, you know, I I've had some people mention Reiki as a fake massage and and I'm like, oh that's not you B for a rude awakening if that's what you think you're getting. But uh anyway, there there can be many different pieces to it. So I I just really stress that integration is important. Feeling safe in a safe place is important. I always tell my students too that like, so I usually teach one and two together, but I do that over three days and or two days, and uh I highly recommend to them. Hey, like don't I wouldn't suggest going to a party immediately after uh you leave class to be up till 3 a.m. and come back to see me at eight. That might not work out well for you or your body, you know, that kind of thing. So um I do feel like it is really important. And I'm glad that you were there to teach them the importance of the integration for sure.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:03

Well, and I I don't know if you do it, but I send out an email three days before and tell them to um start detoxifying their body, so of any um like sugars or uh even the environment, you know, staying hydrated environment. Yeah, um, no smoking, no alcohol, no caffeine, because the higher their frequency is, the easier that they are to take that attunement. So if all this stuff is going on in their body, it's just gonna make things worse after they get the attunement because that attunement raises your frequency significantly. If you want to go through healing, like start taking your Reiki because I mean it'll it'll trigger an elevation of frequency right then and there. And then my clients have 21 days where they still have to stay eating certain foods and you know trying to meditate every day, do self-healings every day. Um and you do sometimes you get sick, sometimes healing looks like you have the flu. But what you find, or an earache or a headache, or right 100%, but the next time you get sick, it's not for as long of a duration, you know. And this is how you know you're healing and you're not getting sicker, is usually these things get less and less frequent.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:28

At least that's what I found, any oh, for sure. I have too, for sure.

Books, Events, And Final Invitation

SPEAKER_01 1:02:34

Um, so you know, your message uh talks about peace is closer than you think. And if you could speak directly to a woman listening right now who feels overwhelmed, disconnected, exhausted. Um what is is one uh takeaway you could give them today to just uh reassure them?

SPEAKER_02 1:02:58

Well, they're not alone. They need to know they're not alone.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:02

Amen.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:02

Like we're we're all here. We all like if they're listening, they already aren't alone because we're here with them. I hope they know that. You know, and so they're on the they're on the right path already. Um, you know, whether they walk into a bookstore and like pull a book off, and I always do that. If you know you pull two books off a shelf and you can put this one back and you can't put this one back and you don't even know what it's about, apparently you need this book, you know, and life is like that with people. Um, if there's a person comes into your life and you feel you need to connect with them, connect with them because you know that's that's that gut instinct, part of that intuition, part of you know, the drops from above, just telling you where to go and what to do. Um and do that, do the do the meditation if you can every day, because really aligning yourself with you know, father sky, mother earth, like that that'll help clear things up and it'll help bring your physical and emotional body back together. And when that happens, that you know, that's when the healing starts happening, the magic starts happening. It's just it's a beautiful, beautiful process. It really is. And I don't I don't know why people have to do drugs when there's like these other things you can do. Like, I've had the most amazing experiences in my body through healing that I I like I I don't know if anyone else has had those experiences when they've been on drugs, maybe, but like I didn't have to do that, so yes, like amen, right?

SPEAKER_01 1:04:41

So, yes, I often end up, you know, sometimes I don't even have the words to describe what I witness, you know, as far as how to describe a color, how to describe a frequency, like sometimes there is just not enough in the human language to put across, but I imagine I don't know, it's some wild trip. Like if you're looking for a ride, exactly this this is a beautiful ride. Yeah, um, can you let the listeners know how and where they can get your books?

SPEAKER_02 1:05:21

Oh, yeah. So um, moving from the outside in is on Amazon, this one here. Um Trace MacRenco. And then the one that I co-authored, I believe it's still on Amazon as well. And so there's 10 of us that wrote little stories to help um help inspire women in women's shelters, and all the money goes back to women's shelters. So uh Karen Clanson, she did up four volumes. They all became international bestsellers, and so I have one chapter in this book. Beautiful, and uh it's called what is it called? But uh hidden treasures is my oh I love that and that's also on Amazon and of course you can find me uh at TracyMakrango.com on my website and all my info is there.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:20

Okay, and what do you have coming up right now?

SPEAKER_02 1:06:24

Oh gosh, I feel like I'd have coming up in the Yeah, so I have a free master class coming up. Um so I'd remember April 22nd. Uh just starting to send out information about that. But if you're in my newsletter, you will get information automatically for that that uh masterclass that's coming up. And it's it's gonna be really cool. It's about raising your frequency and it's all about you know moving out um the blocks, the traumas, the issues, and how that, you know, how that happens. And then I have an eight-week mastermind class that starts the first Wednesday in May, and then the retreat at the end of the of May. It's a two and a half day retreat around healing boundaries, and that is May 29th to 31st.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:14

Awesome. And are any of these events available online as well? Or oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:18

So just the retreat is live in Nanaimo on Vancouver Island, everything else is uh Zoom. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:26

Awesome. So anybody all over the world can join and spend some time with Tracy.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:32

Oh my goodness. I love you so much.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:34

Thank you, Justina. I love you too.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:37

This has been such a grounded and powerful conversation. I love how your work reminds us that awakening isn't about becoming someone new, it's about remembering who we've always been. Sisters, if something stirred in your heart today, that's your inner wisdom responding. Healing isn't about fixing yourself, it's about restoring yourself and coming home. So if you love this episode, please share it with another sacred soul sister who needs this reminder that peace is closer than she thinks. And Tracy, like she said, you can follow her website. Uh you have Instagram as well, right? And are you on LinkedIn?

SPEAKER_02 1:08:17

Awakening wholeness. Thank you for reminding me. Yeah. So on Instagram and Facebook, I'm Awakening Wholeness, LinkedIn, Awakening Wholeness.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:26

Perfect. Perfect. Please go and follow her there and her newsletter uh on her website. You can sign up to be on that so you can get her latest events going on. So thank you so much, Tracy, for being here. Thank you for your honesty. Thank you for embodying fully what you teach. And to every woman listening, you're not broken. You are becoming and you are returning to you. Until next time, keep shining your sacred light. I love you all. Bye-bye. Hi, before you go, hey, I just want to say thank you again. I'm so grateful you're here. Thank you for sharing this space with me today. And I hope that you can feel the sense of community. Every time you listen to one of these episodes, you're in community with not only me, but everybody else that's listening to. And in that beautiful frequency that's created, we get to have our hearts infused with the love and peace and the hope that we have for each other. So thank you so much for that. So as you move back into your day, I invite you to take a moment, just soften your shoulders, breathe into your heart, and notice what shifted for you in this conversation.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:42

How do you feel? I hope amazing.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:45

And if this episode resonated, please follow the Sacred Soul Sisters podcast. Take a minute to leave a review. Your words help this healing ripple reach other beautiful souls who are quietly longing for support, remembrance, and community. And stay connected. You can visit my website, angelreikijourney.com. You can book an Angel Reiki session there. You can see some of the other events that we have going on. And if you scroll to the bottom, sign up for the newsletter where I share soulful reflections, upcoming offers, and gentle invitations to reconnect with yourself. You can also find me on Instagram at Angel Reikijourney. For inspiration, connect with me on LinkedIn. I'm over there too. And remember, you don't have to have it all figured out. You don't have to carry all this alone. You are deeply supported, you are divinely guided, and you are worthy of ease and joy and magnetizing moments in your life. And I'm so excited for that.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:44

Until we meet again, take care of your beautiful heart and know that it's okay to choose yourself. It's okay to offer self love to yourself.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:54

And it's okay to receive the love and abundance this universe wants to give you. So I will see you next week. Take care. Bye bye.