what does it mean to be in alignment?

In this episode, I give a summary of the past few episodes to guide a conversation about alignment and what does it mean to be in alignment. I also give a book review of “The Alchemist” by Paulo Coelho.

Transcript

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Hey, how y'all doing? This is Brianna, and this is the Divine Intervention Podcast where I try my best to make space and then learn how to take up that space. I'm here today, and the theme for this episode is alignment. And to give y'all like an idea of how I'm gonna structure it, I'm basically gonna give y'all a quick little summary of the past couple of audio episodes I recorded. Wrap all that together in a bowl and then talk about alignment, and then I'm gonna connect the book The Alchemist to it because I was introduced to this book. Y'all, I'm not good with time. Me and time, we don't get along. I can't remember. Um I'm not good at remembering years, I just know that things happen. I was introduced to this book by a friend um who was very important to me. And when they first mentioned it, I was getting annoyed because it's like they will quote the book, but they would never give me context about the book. So I would just be like, you can't just keep repeating like personal legend and like all of these words and then not give me the context. So I'm nosy, I don't like to be in conversations and not know what's going on, so I'll go and do like my own personal research so that I can have context so that I can keep up, anyways. This book is gonna get tied into it today. So if you're looking for a good read, this is a really good read. And yeah, I'm gonna just dive into the episode today. So my last time doing like a video with my face and uploading it was my episode How Can They Know You If You're Hiding? And I think it's funny because I recorded that episode in Little Rock before I moved, and now I like have moved, so there's that, and bouncing off of that episode, I talked a lot about how I really struggled with navigating spaces because I felt like I felt unseen, but at the same time, it's like how can people get to know you if you're not allowing yourself to be seen? Um, and I think for me that's like a perfect segue into this idea of like alignment and what that looks like because for a long time I give me a minute, I didn't need a fidget for a long time, y'all. I really struggled with the art of like being seen. I'm the type of person that I like to be behind the scenes, I like to write because I can put my writing out there, even with my poetry. I prefer to write it over speaking it. I mean like y'all can just read it over the paper. You ain't gotta see my face for that. Um, so yeah, bouncing off of that episode, after that, I kind of got into navigating imposter syndrome and self-esteem. And I talked a little bit about my relationship with imposter syndrome, and I think the best way that I can give a mini summary of that episode is you know how when you got an iPhone and you ain't got no storage, right? So you keep taking pictures even though you know you don't have storage, and you know that your pictures are not uploading because this was back when Apple would let you still take pictures even though you didn't have storage. Now they don't even let you take pictures anymore. They they should really fix that, anyways. That's neither here nor there. Um, but you keep snapping photos, you keep snapping photos. So let's say you take a picture today. When you finally do get storage, your phone is not gonna download that current picture first, it's gonna download the two months worth of content that it didn't get a chance to save. Like your phone is gonna play catch up because you're backed up because you ain't got no storage. That's how I felt like I was navigating through a lot of situations. It felt like I was struggling because I didn't have the capacity, the storage to process a lot of things. So it's like I was I was running like a hamster on a wheel. And these past few months, I feel like I've actually finally had the time to process the the the the years of backed up storage to get me to the current moment. That's the best way that I can describe even navigating a conversation of imposter syndrome because oftentimes I would feel like I think that I'm properly equipped for the task. I know I'm properly equipped for the task, but my mind would be so stuck in previous things, and like just a whole bunch of stuff that I hadn't really worked through and I hadn't processed, and I didn't really understand that it was it was hard for me to even wrap my mind around the current present because in my head I was still that little girl in the Mississippi Delta. I hadn't even made it to I woke up one day and I was like, you're 23 years old, you don't live in Mississippi anymore, and like you're not you are who you were, but you're like you grown now. That was like a whole realization for me. Um, and I think in the conversation of imposter syndrome, for me, a lot of times it's like I would have to catch myself up to where my feet were planted and catch my mind up and my emotions up to where my body physically was. So I talked about a little bit of that in that episode, and then after that I talk about growing pains, new pathways, like what does what does it look like when you're in a new space, you're in a new place, and you have to adapt while still remaining like yourself. From that episode, I bounced into my episode just breathe, where I talked about my bladder issues that I struggled with in undergrad, my senior year, because like I said, my body was backed up, I didn't have any storage emotionally, uh mentally. And I'm really passionate about mental health because I always tell people either you sit down your body or your body gonna sit you down. There are so many things that people are quick to shrug off mental health not realizing that it's gonna start showing up in other areas of your body, and that's why when you go to the doctor, they can't really give you an answer that, but also America's healthcare system that's neither here nor there, anyways. They can't give you a real answer because sometimes what's going on is like rooted in your nervous system, like it's it's it's mental, like it's something that you are not processing that your body is screaming to you that you need to process. And in the episode, I talked a lot about how when I was experiencing those issues, I wasn't even processing the issue itself, like I wasn't processing that like Brie, your body is screaming for help. I was more so ashamed because I was like, girl, you is 22, like it's way too early to be having these kind of problems, like this is actually like what is going on, and life is like it's better now. Like, I'm good, y'all. I'm I'm okay. But I would even go to doctors and I would just be like, What's wrong with me? And they would be like, We don't see nothing wrong, like everything looked like it's functioning fine to me. Like, and I think for me, I the thing I had to sit the the longest with was the shame that I felt, and it was like you weren't even processing that your body was backed up, you were more so just feeling ashamed about your body expressing itself and letting you know that there was something wrong. Um, and I find myself now trying to be more mindful, I guess, being more mindful of like my breathing and my body and and not being so tense all the time because I would walk around, I would walk around like a balled-up fist. Like it's like I was always prepared for a blow that I was never even told was ever gonna happen, and that's how I was that's how I was navigating life. I wasn't I wasn't breathing. Even my even the way that I took breaths was in fight or flight mode. And I feel like once I realized that my relationship with my body changed, my sleep got better, everything just felt I felt more present. Um, so that's that episode, and then moving on a little bit more because I've talked, I done yapped a little bit, y'all. What does it mean to be authentically me? I talk about what does it look like to be authentically yourself while also adapting to a new environment and that and adapting to what feels like a new version of yourself. I think on social media we see people talk a lot about how like when they hit a certain age, like whatever, whatever. I'm only 23, but I think that lately I've been in a space where I do feel like I'm kind of a uh I'm not gonna say a different person. I'm still Brianna, I'm just Brianna in a different flavor. You know how cranberry got like all the different variations of like crayon grape, crayon, you know, all that good stuff. That's what I feel like. I feel like cranberry. I I think I'm going through my different, my one of my different variations right now. And uh I guess in the episode I talk a lot about what does it mean to me to stay true to myself, even when I do feel like I'm going through certain changes. Um in my next episode I talk about loving all you, which is very straightforward. Love yourself, um, and really love yourself, not just go get your toes done and then make uh don't just do aesthetic self-care, like actual self-care, like making space for yourself, difficult conversations with yourself, like what does that look like for you, and then figuring out what does your relationship with yourself look like. I've always been the type of person that I I care deeply about my relationship with myself, and I feel like it's because for a long time I didn't really feel like I had the space to to take up space because everybody else has so much going on that I often felt like I had to pick up what they had going on, and I didn't really create space for myself, and it's oh my gosh, making space for yourself when when you hadn't done it before is a very hard thing to do, especially when as a black woman, you're taught that you're supposed to care about everybody else, or you're taught that you're supposed to pick up like everybody else's yeah, so I talk about that in that episode, um, and don't be afraid to fly. I talk about embracing your emotions in bag lady, you gonna hurt your back. I talk about learning how to let things go, and in the weight of words, I talk about the power and how you talk to yourself. So that's a good way to to to catch us up to streamline us into this episode and this segment of Alignment. And I wanted to give a summary because I felt like in everything I discussed, I'm really big on life as a pathway, and it kind of leads you to where you're supposed to go. Everything that you've been through, everything you've experienced, all of your reflections are leading you to a point. You might not know the point that you're going to, but you're always on a path and you're always guided. And I felt like that's why alignment was such a good title for this particular episode, because lately I've been in a space where I feel like everything is just coming together, and it's coming together in a way that I would have never imagined. Like I would have never thought that I would be where I am now in the moments that I'm here, but I'm very grateful that I am, and I think that when you dream of like what you want your life to look like, you typically don't think about your 20s because like your 20s is like your trial and error period, it's it's when you're figuring things out, and honestly, it's one of those spaces where it's really hard because it's kind of like you're on a quest, but you don't really know your destination. Because even people that think they know their destination God wrote that, man. Like, I the only way I know how to say it is like, even when you think you know your destination, do you really know your destination? Like, you're kind of just crossing your fingers and hope that what and hoping that what you want is what's gonna happen. Um, but that doesn't necessarily mean that like that's what was written for you. Um I think I'm in a space of realizing that I could have never written the story of like what's happening in my life. Like I I would have never thought to to write certain things down, but I'm very grateful that they're happening. And I've just been in this space and place where things happen and I can't do anything but smile because I'm like, of course that will happen. Like I would have never written for that to happen, but I'm glad that it went the way that it did, and I'm saying all of that to say that even in the past episodes, because I feel like they've been some have been easier for me than others. Of course, the episode just breathed, where I talk about struggling with bladder was way harder than the episode of Loving on Yourself, or different struggles for different folks. Some things are a little harder than others, but I've been in a space lately of realizing that like all of it was for a reason, and I think that takes me perfectly into the video. Y'all, I am back to y'all. This is all in the same video, so y'all probably like girl, outfit change, you ain't got a no head wrap no more, but this is the same video, so whatever. I wanted to uh well, backstory. My phone kept acting up, right? And my microphone kept acting up, right? So I got through the first couple of pieces of my summaries of the past few episodes, but I didn't get into the book review and the book analysis part, so I'm gonna do that today, aka for y'all in this same video. Um, so yeah, I'm gonna really just get into it. The Alchemist is a book that was introduced to me by a friend, a very dear friend to my heart. And when they first introduced it to me, they just kept saying, like, when you want something, the whole universe conspires to make it happen. Like they would just repeat that that quote out of the book, but they wouldn't really give context. And I think it's because the alchemist, in and of itself, is a book that is very hard to summarize and put into context for other people. It's one of those things where you just have to read it. And I feel like this my second time reading it was this month. I read it all in like the course of like three days, which it put me back into when I was like a little girl in middle school and I could power through like two, three, four books in the course of a week. Um, but I also feel like the second go around, I've started reading books more than once to see if I can like catch things I didn't catch the first time. Because I think the first time you read, and somebody said this to me uh recently, she was like, the first time you read, you're trying to see how the story ends. But the second time you know how the story ends, so now you're paying attention to the details. And as somebody who sees themselves as like an aspiring writer and writing is genuinely my passion, and it's really, really what I want to do, especially storytelling. The way that this book is put together, I felt like there was no better book to do than this one, mainly because I went through all of those past episodes because in explaining what each episode was about, I wanted the topic of this particular space to be alignment. And I think the alchemist, in and of itself, is all about alignment, it's all about following your path, figuring out what is your purpose, what is your truth, and then being bold enough and trusting yourself enough to genuinely think that you can reach the thing that your heart also desires. And that's like the whole context behind this book. And I guess I can give y'all like a mini summary, and then I'll go into the pieces of the book that I like the most. And yes, y'all, the book is falling apart. I ordered it off Drift Books because I love I love the used book so I can see other people's markings in it and see like what they thought was good, but also just because I feel like when a book is all banged up, the book has a story, and it's a story in a story about a story, and it just I love that, anyways. So the alchemist. The alchemist is about this young boy, he's a shepherd. He wanted his whole life to be a shepherd because he felt like shepherds live a life, like they can go from city to city, they see all the beautiful things about life, they travel, they have their freedom. He dreamed of being a shepherd, right? So off the rib in this book, you're being introduced to somebody that already feels like they have reached the thing that they genuinely wanted to do. And then he goes to sleep, wakes up one day, and he's like, I had a dream about some treasure, right? And he ignores the dream, of course, because that's what most people do when they dream. They ignore them, they think that, oh, well, it's just a dream, it doesn't mean anything. Like, just because my heart is telling me to go somewhere and do something, it doesn't necessarily mean that's what I'm supposed to do. And so he goes, he's like, okay, whatever. I think something else happens. And he's like, okay, fine, I'll check out the dream. He goes to someone to get like a reading. She basically tells him what she tells him. I'm trying not to get too deep into the details of the book. So if you want to read it, I'm not spoiling it for you. You basically heard like two different people's opinions of this dream that's telling him about some treasure. So he's skeptical. But throughout all of it, he get he comes to the conclusion that you know what, I'm gonna search for my treasure. So now you have this person that thinks that, you know, they've already accomplished a thing in life that they wanted to do, and they're content in a sense. Um, are there other things that he wanted? Yes, but it was more so like a woman that he thought was pretty or like things of that nature. And so he goes on his journey, in so many words, of looking for his treasure. It takes him to a lot of different places. He meets a lot of different people. Every single person pours into him. They give him some form, some variation of a lesson that he doesn't realize he's getting, but they also show him the different versions of people and how they act when they're either on the way to their dreams or they have deferred their own dreams. So you have your people that they know their heart's desire, they know what they want out of life, but they actively choose to just not do it. For whatever reason, um, some people feel like their dream, it's better to dream about a dream than actually try to make it happen. Some people are afraid of failure, some people are afraid to listen to their heart. Some people get comfortable and they convince themselves that, well, I don't want to lose everything that I gained. So instead of going after the thing that my heart is telling me it truly desires, I'm just gonna sit here on my stuff that I think that I have gained, even though my heart is telling me that I'm not truly satisfied with where I am. And so this book basically goes through just different types of how people process going to find their purpose. Because I think even in the boy going to find the treasure, to me, it just symbolized being on the journey of finding your purpose, and he was very steadfast and he was learning through the journey itself. I think one piece I really liked about the book is that he actually met someone else that okay, so the whole book is the alchemist, right? Boom. He meets somebody that's going to see the alchemist. The alchemist is somebody who is known for um transforming things. Like they can transform, I think, lead to gold, but an alchemist is also somebody that's known for transforming their pain and their life lessons into growth and opportunity and ambition. And they're they're known for taking in what the world has given them and using that to like guide them on their path. And so he meets this young man who is basically like, Yeah, I want to be an alchemist. I spent my whole life studying to be an alchemist. I'm on my way to go see the alchemist. The boy who is a shepherd, he's on a Journey, but in his head, he doesn't see himself as an alchemist. He's just like, Well, I'm just on a journey to go get some treasure. Like, I don't, I don't know whether this is this alchemist stuff you're talking about, but I'm on my way to go see, you know, about some treasure. If I see the alchemist on the way there, though, I'm gonna direct him to you since I know you're looking for him. And I think that that piece to me was funny because I think it tied back to I guess somewhat of my conversation about imposter syndrome. And I say that because in that episode, I talked a lot about how I never necessarily saw myself as an imposter. I think that I was more so focusing so much on my previous identity and how I existed in a space that I wasn't paying attention to the transformation of what was happening to me over time. So I wasn't seeing how I grew into this grown lady who's done like ABCD. I was still seeing myself as this little girl from Mississippi Delta, like this, this, that, and the third. I wasn't seeing myself as accomplished. I wasn't I wasn't seeing myself in present time. I guess that's the best way to say it. And I think that's ironic because the boy to me, he was not seeing himself in present time. Even when he was talking to people, he was just like, oh yeah, like I was a shepherd. And then he was like, at one point, he was like a glass, he was like a uh a crystal shop. He sold crystals and glasses, and he was just like, Yeah, like I sell crystals. But it he wasn't seeing that he himself was becoming like an alchemist. Like he wasn't he wasn't paying attention to that because he was on the journey and he wasn't really paying attention to the the the end goal or the destination, but also up until he met this person, he didn't even have the words to know that that's what he was. Like he was just like, Oh, I'm just following omens and I'm listening to the the heart of the world, like the soul of the world, and I'm just I'm on my path, like I'm on my journey, you know. Yeah, and then I think trying to think of another episode that I thought was was lovely. I loved there was there was actually a point in the book where the young boy meets the alchemist, right? And he's talking to him, and he's like, How did the conversation start? He was just like, Why do I have to listen to my heart? Because the alchemist told him, listen to your heart. Like your heart will never lead you wrong, your heart lets you know how you feel. And I found that to be when I reread it, it really hit me because I took it as listen to your emotions, listen to your intuition, and listen to what yourself is telling you. And in this particular part of the book, I feel like what I love the most about it, and I'll give like a summary of the conversation, and then I'll pull a couple quotes, is that the boy talked to the alchemist, right? And the alchemist is like, wherever your heart is at, that's where you'll find your treasure. So the boy is talking to his, he's talking to his heart, and he's like, Well, my heart is mad. It feels like it has dreams and is getting emotional because there are other things that there are other things that I desire that's not the journey that I'm on. And the alchemist basically tells him, like, well, first of all, the boy goes on to basically tell him, like, my heart is a traitor, my heart is telling me that I shouldn't go after my journey, like I shouldn't go after my treasure. And the alchemist tells him, naturally, if you're pursuing your dream, your heart is afraid that it'll lose everything that it gained. And then the boy is like, Well, if the heart, if my heart is gonna be on that type of time, why am I even listening to my heart? And the alchemist is like, because you'll never be able to keep your heart quiet. He says, even if you pretend not to have heard what it tells you, it'll always be there inside you, repeating to you what you're thinking about life in the world. So at that point, the boy is like, So you telling me I should listen to my heart, even if my heart is telling me things that is like treasonous or it goes against what I'm doing. And the man basically tells him that for one, you'll never let never escape your heart, you'll never escape how you feel, you will never escape those emotions or even fear itself. Like you'll never particularly escape that. But he was basically telling the boy if you have a relationship with your heart and you can listen to your heart, you'll always know what it desires. And if you always know what it desires, then it can't commit treason against you if you if you know it. Like you don't have to fear an unanticipated blow if you already know what it desires. And the boy basically keeps talking and talking to his heart, and he goes back to the alchemist and he tells him, My heart is afraid, like my heart is afraid that it'll have to suffer. And the alchemist tells him, Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself, and that no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dreams. Because every second of the search is a second encounter with God and with eternity. And this quote in and of itself, I really, I really loved because I think that it leaned into that you'll never escape fear and you'll never escape your emotions or your heart's desires, or especially if the thing that your heart desires is for you to just go back to what you perceive to already have. It's a lot easier to stick to what you know versus going off and doing something that you've never done before. It's like you, it's it's it's unmarked territory to you. Like you've never you've never been out there. And when you don't know what something looks like and you don't know what it'll entail, and you don't know what life will look like. For a lot of people, it's very hard to go out on a limb on this just belief that things will work out the way that they're supposed to. And I mainly chose this book, and I'm trying to be picky with how I talk about it because I feel like it's a really good book, and I don't want to ruin it for anybody that that desires to read it. So I'm gonna just pick around and pull certain things that way. If you desire to desire to read it, you actually can. Another quote I thought was interesting was the alchemist and the boy were on a journey with each other, and the alchemist was basically finna pay someone, and he gave him a lump sum of of gold, of money, and the man told him, like, this pavement goes well beyond what I've done to you. And the alchemist repeated back, don't say that again. Life might be listening and give you less the next time. I thought that that was very powerful because of just the power of words, and how the alchemist was like, if somebody is giving you something out of what they perceived your value to be, don't respond back and just be like, Oh, well, it's really not even worth this much. If the person was willing to give you what they were willing to give you, then you are worth that much, and what you did was worth that much, and I think that really speaks to just so many things to me. I I really marked that part of the book up a lot because it made me think about how many things I've done. Where when I first started doing work and I first started receiving money in exchange for like my services, it took a minute, and it will take I'm not gonna say it will take, hopefully, for other people, you learn it a lot quicker than I did. It took some time for me to learn the value of my work and what you deserve in exchange for what you're giving because you are worth it, like you are valuable. And I just found that line to be interesting because life might be listening and give you less next time. So being open, because I think all of that goes back to karma and giving and receiving and knowing that whatever you put back, whatever you put out, you'll always get back. So it's like, what are you putting out? But then also knowing how to receive. I feel like even for me, it took it took a long time for me to learn how to receive things. I didn't know how to receive, I knew how to do, I knew how to give, I knew how to like scramble and try to like figure things out, but I didn't know how to receive and how to accept things. Um, especially when it came down to like when I first started getting like money that reflected back the work that I was doing. It took time for me to like settle into that and be open to that and be welcome to that. I also think that I love this quote too, and it's actually something I say a lot now. This, I believe it's the alchemist that said this. He said, Remember what I told you, the world is only the visible aspect of God. And that what alchemy does is to bring spiritual perfection into contact with the material plane. Y'all really do love this book. I feel like the second read, I just was seeing some of everything, and I guess for me, I can give a tidbit of my personal I I personally believe that everything is spiritual, and I think that the physical is just what we see, it's like the tangible manifestation of like the spiritual. So I genuinely believe that everything is spiritual, which is why I also really love this book because in a lot of things it just it really ties into alignment and what it looks like when you're truly trusting and believing that you are where you're supposed to be, when you're supposed to be there, and also believing, and the reason why I wanted to tie the past episodes from navigating imposter syndrome, so figuring out like and seeing yourself for who you actually are. I think that's a really big piece of it. Um, then going into just breathing, like allowing yourself to be in the present because you can't you can't see the signs and you can't hear what you need to hear if you're not in tune. Like if you're not if you're not here for real and you're not listening and you're not tuned in, and your mind is in other places, and you're not breathing, and being present and paying attention to the things in front of you, it's really easy to me to miss what they talk about in the book omens, things that are telling you or directing you, or giving you advice on what to do next, or where to go next, or what may be best for you. And I think that goes back to, and I'm really trying to remember these episodes off the top of my head because for some odd reason I left my iPad downstairs. So we're gonna try to work with my memory, y'all. So please bear with me. I think that goes back into the weight of words and how you talk to yourself and what you say. I think that goes back to the quote that I just pulled about, you know, life might be listening. So watch what you say, watch what you do. You never know what words you're speaking over yourself, or you never know if there's a blessing that's on the way, and you might say something that speaks against it. Like you, you you really just never know. So, you know, be mindful, watch what you speak into existence because words are a lot more powerful that you than you think they are, and they shape your perception and they shape how you view things. Trying to think of the next thing. I love when he said follow your heart, because to me that tied into like let yourself like don't be afraid to fly, trust your emotions, trust yourself. Um, I think that even that goes into like learning how to trust your intuition and learning how to pay attention to your body when it's speaking to you, pay attention to yourself when you're noticing things, and acknowledging like where your head is at, making space for yourself and giving time to yourself based off of what you need. Because even with the boy in the book, after a while of listening to his heart, his heart eventually sat down somewhere. Like it was just like, you know what, bro? I'm finna be real with you. I don't want to suffer. Like, I'm scared. We're doing something we have never done before. I've never been out here. You got us all the way out here in the desert. The girl that we like, we met her back there, and we leaving the woman that we just told we in love with to go pursue something. Like his heart, we're just like, bro, it's a lot going on. You say you know what you're doing, and I believe that you know what you're doing, but what if we lose everything that we've gained? Searching for something that we don't even know was there. And I think that's like the definition of like alignment and and being on a journey and being on a path, and genuinely trusting that you are where you're supposed to be when you're supposed to be there, but not only that, that your journey will be worth the destination. That by the time you make it to wherever you're gonna make it to, because I guess that's how I look at life in general, it's just a journey. You don't know where you're gonna end up at. I'll speak for myself. I feel like as a person, I've leaned more into accepting that there are a lot of things that I just don't know and learning how to be okay with that. Learning how to be comfortable in the fact that I talk to people and I'm like, no, I don't know what profession I want to do. It's a lot of them out here, and y'all only told me about like five of them. And then y'all just told me, well, those are the ones that's gonna make you money. So, yes, I need more time to figure it out because personally I feel like I wasn't given a good enough list, so I can know everything that I can actually do in life. Um, but not even just that. There's so many things that you can create, like I have nothing but time, space, and opportunity. And I really like this book because it speaks to personal journeys, just your your relationship with the world around you. I think another thing I really loved is that the whole book ties in everything, like it ties in. Let me pause here so I can check to make sure it's still recording. Something be mad if it's not. Um, so proud of my camera, y'all is still recording. Okay, boom one back. Y'all, I'm so proud of my camera. It's actually doing right today. But the thing that I like the most about this book is that it also ties into the interconnectedness of everything and how the omens that the boy was listening to were birds in the sky, stones on the ground. And the book, in and of itself, connects to this idea that the whole universe is all tied together. Like, if there is something that your heart desires and there is a purpose that you are meant to reach, everything is literally working in your favor to help you reach that thing. It's about are you paying attention to the signs? Are you listening to your heart? Are you listening to your emotions? Are you learning along the way? I think the piece that I loved about the fact that the young boy met somebody else who wanted to see the alchemist was the alchemist actually got a sign from like the universe, God, whatever you want to call it. It was basically like, look, alchemist, somebody finna come see about you. And the alchemist was like, Okay, like you're telling me that I'm gonna be sent to an apprentice. Cool, cool, cool. So the alchemist runs into the the shepherd, the boy that was a shepherd, right? And he's just like, Yeah, what's up, like you, my apprentice. The boy who was a shepherd, like I said a couple of minutes ago, he isn't in tune to who he is for real. In his head, he's just like, Oh, I'm not an alchemist. Like, I'm just somebody that's on a journey. And the man is the alchemist, is like, I'm the alchemist. I I I think I know who you are. It very much gave, like, I guess the way I like to think about things now is God know your address. Nothing will ever be delivered to the wrong address. The alchemist very much was giving, boy, I know who I'm talking to. Like, they told me that I'm gonna be sent to the Prentice. And the boy is just like, Well, I think you're talking about my friend, because my friend wants to be an alchemist. And the alchemist is just like, no, you the both of y'all have the ability to do it, but the person who is ready right now is you because you can only learn. I think this is another thing I love about the book. The alchemist was like, baby, the only way that you can learn the lesson of life is to do life. The young man that the boy met was all into books. So, like, he read books about alchemy, he read novels about all of these things, but the alchemist was just like, look, he has potential, he can do it, but he has to get his head out of the books, like he has to get his his body into life. He is trying to read his way into something, and the young man actually admitted at one point he was like, I've been reading these books for the past two years, and I haven't practiced because I'm scared that I'm gonna mess it up. So the alchemist was like, Yeah, he's not ready yet. Like, he hasn't he hasn't jumped into the ring yet, like he still hasn't trusted himself enough for him to really truly start his journey. And I think it really speaks to that fear you have somebody that they done read all the books. The when the young boy first met the young man that was into the books about alchemy, it was funny. I love that, I love that little tidbit of a chapter because they actually swapped places for a little bit. So the young man that was a shepherd, he started reading books. And then the young man who was reading books about alchemy, he started trying to pay attention to signs. And after a while, the young boy was just like, bro, these books is not hitting on nothing. Like, he was like, How are you even learning anything? And then the guy that was used to reading the books was like, the desert is just boring, like I'm not seeing anything, I don't understand like what you're talking about, and I think that really spoke to how they were in two completely different parts of their journeys, and they tried to swap places, but both of them did the groundwork for different things. One person started off reading books to gain an idea, while the other one started by just stumbling into the journey itself, like the journey almost chose him, he didn't really choose the journey versus the other young man. He chose the journey, but he was so focused on the reading and the studying and the getting it right part that he wasn't realizing that the only way for you to learn is just for you to do, and the learning part just comes after, like you just have to trust the process and you have to trust yourself. So this book to me it's lovely. I I really deeply enjoy reading it a second time. I'll probably read it a third, but I'll probably wait a couple of years. Well, not a couple, I'll probably wait a year and read it again. But I think what I enjoy most about it is it talked about journeys and using your lessons to like help you along the way. It talked about what does it mean to like be not only in alignment, but the trust. Like throughout the whole book, this boy was trusting that a treasure was there that he didn't even know existed. Like he was just this boy was on a full-blown journey over something he he never saw. Like he was just traveling and was traveling far too. Like, this isn't like now where you can just get a plane ticket, or you can just like no, like my boy was on like a full-blown journey. Like, he was like, Okay, boom, let me sell my sheep. Then he had an identity crisis. He was like, I done sold my sheep, I'm a shepherd. What I'm gonna do without some sheep, and I that was my favorite part of the first half of the book because that's so real. Like, when you're going through a journey of walking into where you're about to go, it is so hard to let go of who you have known yourself to be. And I think that it took him time to adjust. How do I even? Say this, but it's crazy because even though he was adjusting, he still saw himself as a shepherd. So I think even throughout the whole course of the book, it was his ability that for a minute he was like, I'm a shepherd. Why would I get rid of my sheep? I don't know who I am without sheep. But it's like then he paused and he was like, Hold up, like, I'm gonna enter a new journey. I'm gonna enter a new path. So I was a shepherd. I can take everything I learned from being a shepherd, and then that will be what I use to like help me move forward. And it was nice to see even his thinking process. The book has a lot of you seeing the boys' behind-the-scenes thoughts, like you're kind of going through the journey of his thoughts with him, so you can see how he's processing things and how he's like, That's weird. Like, why would this happen twice? Or why would this happen three times? Or and from the beginning of the book to the middle to the end, you could see his relationship with his journey change. You could see how at one point he would be like, Oh, that's just weird. But as you creep to the middle of the book, he would be like, Oh, that's an omen, like that's a sign. Like the universe, God, whoever you want to call it, he was just like, I'm being talked to, and I need to listen because of something that they're trying to tell me. And yeah, I think I'll end this somewhat of a summary thing with this line because this to me is very I I really like this line, but it's a lot of lines that I like, y'all. I done marked this book all the way up. But the alchemist said what you still need to know is this before a dream is realized, the soul of the world tests everything that was learned along the way. It does this not because it is evil, but so we can, in addition to realizing our dreams, master the lessons we've learned as we move toward that dream. That's the point at which most people give up. It's the point at which, as we say in the language of the desert, one dies of thirst just before the palm trees have appeared on the horizon. And with that line, I underline the master the lessons we've learned as we move towards the dream. Because at this point, the alchemist explained to the boy that in the beginning it's gonna be easy because you have beginners. Look, things are gonna start to fall into place, it's gonna seem like okay, like this is the journey that I'm supposed to be on. He was basically letting the boy know that as you come closer to where you're supposed to go, where you're meant to be, the very thing that you started your whole journey for, life is gonna start doing it um bone you, and it's not because life doesn't want you to realize your dream or self-actualize, it's because all of the lessons that you were learning along the way, life is trying to make sure that you actually grasp it and you learn something from it, that you were actually paying attention, and that in the work that you're doing, like once I give you this thing, once I give you the thing that you've been actively working towards, I like to think of it as are you gonna know what to do with it, and are you gonna know how to handle it? And I think that shows up in my personal life in the sense of there are certain things that I sit on and I pray for, and I ax and I sit with myself, and I'd be like, you know, if you were to get that today, would you even really know what to do with it? And I think that even with the young boy in the book, if you were just to give him his treasure at the beginning of the book, he wouldn't know what to do with the treasure because he hadn't been through the whole journey of learning, like all of it, like even the simple fact of like him becoming an alchemist and him not even realizing that he was on the journey to become an alchemist. I think that that also speaks to life and how you can be on a journey, and in your head, you think you're getting one thing, and you're getting a completely other in his head. He just thought he was getting treasure. Meanwhile, the alchemist is over here like, yo, you're gonna be my apprentice, like you, you're an alchemist, and you're gaining so much more than you even thought you were gonna gain from when you started. And so, yeah, I think that this is a lovely book. I love reading it. I think that I think it's a really dope read. I marked up a bunch of pages that I felt like were really good pages, were really good messages. Um, so yeah, I think that this is definitely something that you should add to your reading log if you have not. Thank you for joining me today. And if you listen this far, I guess the only words I would really have to say is a lot of things is about just trusting and genuinely believing that the things that you desire will come to pass for you. But I also think that something that I also learned from the book is at the beginning of the book, the the the young boy is actually he thinks that he's in love with the woman, and it turns out that he throughout the book he ends up meeting a woman that he's actually in love with, and I think that that speaks to how sometimes you can think you know what you want, or you can think you have an idea of what you want, and just being open to receive because you never really know what your journey is gonna show you. So believing that trusting that you're where you're supposed to be when you're supposed to be there, what is genuinely meant for you will always find you, and that literally everything, everything is working in your favor, even when things seem like it's going bad, even when things seem like why would that happen? Like that does not make sense. That I have conversations with people often, and I try to like explain to them when they're just like everything, like it didn't go, it didn't go the way that it was supposed to go, and it's like it went the way that it was supposed to go, it just didn't go the way that you thought that it was supposed to go, but it went the way that it was supposed to go for everything else that's coming after it to happen, and even in the book, at one point the boy got beat up, like he got beat up bad, and it was just but it was funny. Well, it wasn't funny, somebody getting beat up ain't funny. It was just funny because if he would have never got beat up, a whole nother part of the book would have never happened. So it's like a lot of times it seems like, well, why would this happen? This wasn't in my plans, your life isn't about your plans. Like for some people, they'll tell you it's God's plan, it's the universe's plan, it's the plan that was written per this book in the soul of the world to happen. Like it's it's it's all working in your favor, whether you realize it is or not. So even if you feel like, well, this didn't go the way I wanted it to go, or I'm not where I want to be, or this isn't what I want it to look like, it looks the way it's supposed to look, it's going the way it's supposed to go. It's just a matter of you trusting that you are on your way to where you're where you're meant to be. You're gonna get to where your heart desires, you're gonna get to the purpose that you're aspiring towards. It's a matter of can you withstand the journey to get you there? And that's why, yeah, I just I recommend this book, especially if you're somebody that's really struggling with the the part of well, why is this happening? Why is that happening? Because I felt like there were definitely time periods where I would allow myself to get like weighed down, questioning things or wondering like why didn't this go this way or why didn't this go that way? And I think right now I'm just in a stage of my life of watching, and I'm just like, oh well, without a doubt, I would rather have everything that has happened happen if it means that I can get to where I am, or there's so many things that I thought I wanted that I look back and I'm like, I'm so thankful that did not happen. Like, if that happened, I would have never been able to do any of this other stuff. Or if I had gotten this, I probably wouldn't have gotten these other things. And so really just learning how to be grateful for the way that things turn out, even when they don't go the way that you think they're supposed to go, because re and this was actually my saying for all of like the end of 2025 was rejection was redirection, and that was mainly because, and I'm gonna go on another tangent, it was mainly because I was fresh out of college and I was applying to jobs. Your girl was getting rejected left and right, like it was it was a different, like nothing humbles you more than the job search. Job searching humbles you. I was getting rejected left and right, and it got to a point to where I genuinely just had to have faith. I was just like, Bree, maybe you're getting rejected because you're getting set up for like something better. Like you're you're you're you know, you have to genuinely trust that God wouldn't have led you this far to just drop you right here. Like that doesn't that doesn't sound like no, that's that's not your story, that's not the way this is finna go. So we're not even finna accept that version of no, we're not even accepting that. Something is gonna come up, even if it's not where you thought you was gonna be, what you thought you was gonna do, it's what you needed. And I think that especially for me, it's crazy to me whenever I see everything fall in line because I'm like, man, like I would have never thought to have lined that up that way, but like, God, you really ate that, and I love that, so yeah, thank y'all for joining me, and I'll see y'all in the next one.