Health Harmony & Happiness with Cathy

#86: In Search of Balance - Embracing Our Humanity and the Divine Within (w/ Melissa Harris)

• Melissa Harris • Season 3 • Episode 86

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Have you ever pondered about the intriguing paradox of human existence; how we simultaneously encapsulate both the physicality of being human and the spirituality of divinity? Join me, along with  Melissa Harris, as we dive into this topic. We invite you to discover the rhythms of humanity - the collective earthly experience, our personal day-to-day trials and tribulations, and the emotional and cognitive phenomena that make us who we are. Equally, we'll delve into the essence of divinity and how our spiritual connectedness is woven into our being and echoes in the world around us.

We discuss the limitations of black-and-white thinking and the importance of embracing curiosity to find a deeper connection with the divine within ourselves. Melissa and I touch on the significance of balancing faith and openness, forgiveness, and the idea that all world religions share a common message of love and harmony.

In today's episode we'll cover:
1.  That we are a living paradox - one in which we can be fully human and fully divine at the same time, and how our awareness of this leads to wholeness.

2.  That everything in our experience is sacred and is part of our connection with {mystery, Universe, God}.

3.  That the more we can release our grasp on certainty of belief and surrender to something beyond the limits of our minds, the deeper we can connect with the {mystery, Universe, God}.

Grab the full show notes and resources for this episode at https://www.cairnyogawellness.com/podcast86. 
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Resources:
Check out Melissa's Book Pre-sale Here - Use REGISTRATION code UNITY (all caps) for a discount on any package

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Other Resources:
Join me for a weekly virtual breathwork session - all sessions recorded, and you have access to all previously recorded sessions - Breathe to Flow Breathwork Class.

With Fall being right around the corner, it's time to celebrate our rhythms again - Harvest Moon Celebration of Rhythms Yoga + Releasing Gathering.

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More Episodes Like This One:
#28: Spiritual Connectedness with Melissa Harris
#57: Spiritual Does NOT Equal

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Speaker 1:

Can we live a life without seeing things in black and white? How does this make us whole or healthier or happier? In today's episode, we'll talk about how we actually live in this paradox, one in which we can be fully human and fully divine at the same time, and our awareness of this leads to our wholeness. Music, welcome to Help Harmony and Happiness with Kathy. I'm your host, kathy Stricker. I'm a state patrol wife, mama to three lively kiddos, a yoga teacher, certified NLP coach and an energetic rhythms expert. As an energetic rhythms coach, I help action taking women use their bodies' rhythms and the moons cycle to optimize productivity and avoid burnout, without letting their desire to remain in control alter their focus, and this podcast is all about doing just that, and perhaps a bit more, so that you can create your own path to health, harmony and happiness. So come along with me, and may this episode serve as a nudge to discover tools that could help you on your path towards more intentional living. Enjoy the show, music. Hey, friends, welcome to episode 86. Thank you so much for being here. I am truly grateful that you are here listening to this show and I hope that you're getting stuff out of these episodes If you haven't shared this podcast with someone else. This is your nudge to maybe just find your favorite episode. It might be this one after you, listen to it today and share it with someone else. Let them know what you've been listening to and let them in on the fun as well. On with the show. Today we are welcoming my good friend, melissa Harris.

Speaker 1:

As a young adult, melissa studied psychology in order to understand humanity. Eventually, this study turned into the world's religions, with a recognition that in every culture, religious tradition and spiritual wisdom have shaped our evolution. She found a home in the mystical origins of the world's teaching and a new way of comprehending what is sacred. She sees our humanity and our holiness as one and the same and believes the way to live fully is through an unwavering embrace of both aspects of ourselves.

Speaker 1:

I interviewed Melissa back on episode 28 of the podcast and we talked about the spiritual connectedness. During that time, I believe, she was writing her thesis for her masters and she was getting a masters in divinity, and since then she's taking that thesis and turning it into a book. So she's going to talk to us a little bit about that today and we're also going to talk about this paradox that we live in how our humanity and our divinity are connected, and yet they are the same. Welcome, melissa. I'm so glad that you're here today. Thank you for taking time out of your day and let's chat about divinity and humanity and all of it.

Speaker 2:

All right. Oh, thank you for having me, kathy. I really, really appreciate this. I went back and listened to our previous podcast and remembered how much I enjoyed it, and I'm really glad to be back.

Speaker 1:

Awesome, me too. It is such a good episode. I haven't listened to that episode. It's episode 28.

Speaker 1:

Check it out after you're done listening to this episode and let us know what you think we are talking today about.

Speaker 1:

Living in a world where maybe things aren't so black and white, where, when we can find our humanity and our divinity and see them as one instead of separate, we can live in harmony, right, right? So before we get started, let's do a little rundown of some definitions, just so that we're all clear. We don't want this episode to be something that you zone out, that you check out, or that you think that is really deep stuff, too much way over my head. We want to invite you into this conversation so that you have a better understanding and so that you can maybe just shift perspective or perception a little bit in life and start to connect these concepts and ideas with not only yourself, but also with the people that you interact with and how you show up in this world. So, that being said, melissa, let's talk about humanity first, because that's even a word that, yes, we are all humans. We don't use the word humanity that often in everyday language, so tell us what your take on it is.

Speaker 2:

Well we don't. You're right, and I think it's something that we maybe take for granted. So I think of humanity as two different things. I think humanity as the collective of all of us and how we're living and existing on this earth as humans, the whole of humanity Within ourselves. I think of humanity as the thing that I would say we take for granted. It's our body and our minds and our perceptions of how we exist. So our humanity is our day-to-day living in this body. It's the pains that we feel and the thoughts that we think and the emotions that we experience. I think of all of those as our individual humanity.

Speaker 1:

So it's how we live our lives, who we are, our presence and how we're showing up in this world.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah, okay, and that's a little bit needs to be paired with the divinity aspect, so if it's okay, I'll go to that definition.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely.

Speaker 2:

Yep. So I've studied a lot of the world's religions, and so some of them have us as humans, as separate from what you might call God. Some people call God, some people call the universe. We all have different definitions. Other teachings will tell us that, let's say, we meditate enough and make a connection to that thing that is higher than us or bigger than us, that we need to transcend our humanity, we need to get out of our bodies, we need to get away from our minds and empty them and clear them in order to be connected to the divine. To me, the divinity isn't that separate shing either. It isn't an outside thing. It is all within us, within this humanity. It's not just ethereal or esoteric, it's in ourselves and in our tissues and in our blood and in our breath especially. I think you and I have talked about that before. Yeah, I feel like when I'm breathing, I'm breathing God, the Holy Spirit, divinity.

Speaker 1:

Right, and I just picture this light within me.

Speaker 1:

I don't know when this thought first happened for me or this belief, but I feel like for a very long time this is how I've believed that God is within me and it's that light within me.

Speaker 1:

So when I'm teaching kids especially, this is where I feel like it always comes up is that it's easy for them to imagine this light inside of them, right, that light inside of us is the divinity. So I love that, because this is something that I feel like I've struggled with for a long time, because often in the mystical world or in the spiritual world I guess, not just religious world, but spiritual world, so any other spiritual disciplines you are exactly right. That is the thing that it seems people are seeking is how do you get to this enlightened place? How do we get to this other place where we are so blissful and enlightened? That that's where we are, but it kind of sounds like what you're saying is it's all within us already, right, like we have to look inward, we have to acknowledge our human existence here and also realize that that divinity, that spiritual presence, is within us as well. Exactly.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I think that's it. There's no need to like transcend or get outside of ourselves to find our divinity or to find God or to find spirit. We almost can think in and find it just as easily, sometimes more easily, that if you can see or feel or sense that light within you, that's your divinity Right there, like in this existence, right there where we are, in this body that we're moving or these thoughts that we're having or these emotions, even when they're uncomfortable.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and that's flowing, that's being in flow. You know, yeah, that is the, and sometimes it takes those other spiritual practices. It takes yoga, it takes breath work, it takes meditation, it takes journaling, it takes all the other things in order to find that stillness within ourselves so that we can connect with that energy, that light energy within us, which is our divinity. And once we are connected, wow, like there's not much you can't do, because when you're living in that state of flow, when you are going with the current instead of paddling against it, life is so much easier. Right, you're right right.

Speaker 2:

And those practices you know all of them give us this experience. During the practice, you know, sometimes it's frustrating if you're meditating and you can't settle your mind. It gets frustrating. But sometimes you get that flow, you get that moment of which does feel like and can be pure bliss. But the point of the practices isn't for that moment, it's great in that moment. But the point of the practice is that we're practicing so that we can be present all the other times of the day, like it's not practice. So then, when I'm having a struggle with work or I'm having an argument with someone, I can still be present in that moment and I don't kind of check out and go to a specific or an extreme emotion. I can stay there and breathe, which is something that usually works for me, like take a breath and go okay, wait a minute, what am I feeling here? What's going on? Why am I reacting this way? You know, all of those practices help us be present, and present is such a kind of overused word, in the spiritual world especially.

Speaker 2:

But it's the truth, it's the thing that keeps us yeah, keeps us going, keeps us in that flow, I think.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, and it's a practice. That is the beautiful thing. It is practice. We're not gonna nail it every time, we're not gonna be able to find that space of calm and stillness every time we're triggered, every time we have something that's agitating our nervous system. But we keep practicing because it is that connection and the more we do it, the easier it is to access.

Speaker 2:

Yes, yeah, exactly, I think that's you know. The other thing that I notice about it is that it comes in waves for me, like depending on what's going on in my life. Sometimes I feel like, you know, it's all kind of flowing along and it's all going pretty good, and then something might happen. It might be a loss, it might be something that just sets us what we feel like is sets us back, and then we're doing this practice, but it's not looking out in the real world like that really easy breezy flow.

Speaker 2:

We have to just come back to the practice, and we'll come back to that, but it always goes in waves. I think you know we want to see the full trajectory of moving along the spiritual path, but to me, I remember reading once that it's a dance, and sometimes it's a two steps forward, one step back dance. The steps backwards are just as important, and so that's when the practice really comes into play is almost like steps backwards.

Speaker 1:

You got to it's part of the dance, but you got to practice. I like to think of it as that upward spiral. Right, we're going around the mountain and, even though we may revisit the same issue, we can look down and see where we've been with that issue. We can look and see oh yeah, you know what. I've done this before I can make it through it and I'm going to keep moving forward, even though it feels like I'm moving backwards or even though I've hit some more rocks or some bumps in the trail.

Speaker 2:

So yeah, progress never goes away, even when I feel like you stepped backwards, it's not just gone from you, it's just that your experience is feeling a different place in a different way right now, and but you still have that experience within you and to move forward from.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, and I think that's something that sometimes people get in their own way about if they've done something, if they've tried and then regressed, tried and then regressed, tried and regressed, and they're at this point in life where they are considering trying again, but they know that they've regressed or I don't really want to say failed, because it's learning, right we?

Speaker 2:

fail forward.

Speaker 1:

But they've gone out of the habit of doing something. To be able to start again means exactly what you just said. You're starting again with all that other experience under your belt, with all those other times of doing it, and but this time you've also come farther on your journey. You know a little bit more. You're ready to step forward in a different way.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and I think too I'm thinking about you and I. We've known each other for about 10 years now and we've both evolved through our practices, Like and I'm sure before we knew each other, we were already evolving through our practices. There are things that worked for us at certain seasons in our lives and then maybe they stopped working for a little bit and you try again. Maybe it's time to move to a different practice, Like that practice was a starting board, a starting place that got you to a certain level, and now it's time for a new practice. And that doesn't mean that practice wasn't beneficial or didn't give you exactly what it needed. Even if it doesn't work anymore today. Right, the thing you needed to get you to whatever practice you're evolving to today.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so beautiful, so beautiful. Yes, we totally went off of humanity and divinity, but that's okay. That's okay, let's bring it back.

Speaker 2:

Like, I think that's it, though I think that's all part of it the practices that we do bring our humanity and our divinity together, a perception of our humanity and our divinity together. I think that's for those of us that are spiritual seekers. I think that's why we do it. I don't know, I may be speaking for other people there and I shouldn't be, but I feel like I think you're right.

Speaker 1:

I feel like.

Speaker 2:

That's why we seek out those things that bring us to presence and bring us to that sense of the divine within us.

Speaker 1:

Everybody wants ease in life right. Everybody wants flow, everybody wants life to be easier. The way to do that is to connect with yourself, with the divinity within yourself, right To know yourself and to know that, even though we will have problems and we will have struggles in this life because that's guaranteed. We can still tap into this bigger energy, but we don't have to seek outside of us. We can seek inside. We can connect with that energy inside of us and also it's outside of us and around us.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, exactly, and I think sometimes in our humanity, when it's painful, we want to escape pain and we think that means escaping our humanity.

Speaker 2:

Our brains will do that because our brains have to separate this pain from this bliss. Well, divinity doesn't always mean bliss. We love it when it's there. But divinity means this connection that's always there, even when we might have some pain or some suffering or some sadness or some grief or whatever might be going on. That doesn't mean the divinity isn't within us. It means our brains are going. Well, those can't match, so I must be separated from it. And our brains kind of trick us that way because they like to divide things into compartments and perceive things in certain ways that make the most sense.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, and I like to think of it, I like to bring it back to that analogy of being in flow. There's going to be rapids, right yeah, where there's going to be rocks that you have to navigate around, but you are in control. You get to decide how you move through the rapids, how you move through the rocks, how you navigate around them, because you have that connection and I think, too, you can't like separate yourself from it. You have to go through it, yeah.

Speaker 2:

I think the rocks and the rapids is a great analogy because it also kind of talks to our lack of patience. So some rocks you just can't move Like they're too big, they're too heavy, they're going to be an obstruction in your way. Well, what can move? Rocks? Water. But it takes a long time it's like for us to be like water to have that flow. You got to be patient and you just got to keep doing it. And, man, I have a pain in my back. I wanted to go away today or tomorrow. You know what? I got to let that go. I'm going to do everything I can to take care of myself physically, my humanity, but I'm also recognizing like this is a season, this is something that I have to let flow and eventually wear away that obstruction so that I'm flowing more freely.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, accept it, allow it, even though it might be uncomfortable surrender to it Exactly. Exactly, yeah. And all of those experiences, all of those struggles, all of those challenges that we face in our human existence, with all part of our connection with this divinity, right yeah, all things are interconnected.

Speaker 2:

All things are interconnected. Yeah, that's the thing that I came to a while back was I kept trying to find something, a teaching, a practice, a faith, a religion, something out there in order to, like, fully understand myself. And there are some incredible practices and teachings out there and I've learned from a bunch of them, but what I really kind of the aha moment I had was, well, it all has to be in here within me, like, no matter what tool I use to learn it, it's coming back to this thing within me, this divinity within me, that is absorbed in my humanity, absorbed in this physical experience, absorbed in these thoughts and these emotions. This spirituality, this connection is in all of that.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it's in all of that and it's in all of us. Each action we take triggers something else, and we've talked about that before how anything that happens here happens now essentially is influencing something somewhere else in this world. The fact that we are meeting here today means that whatever else is happening in the world, wherever else we are, energy is pulled away from, or whomever else we are calling in to listen to this podcast episode. The energy is there. We're just allowing it to come forward, right, but we are all created with this divinity within each of us, whether you say we're all created as children of God, whether you say we're all created as spiritual beings, it's all an equal playing field energetically, right, like we were all put here, equal energetically, seen as children of God, children of the universe, stewards of our bodies, of being here on this earth. We were created out of the same stuff, right, and we have a choice then as to how we use our body, how we use the body that we were placed in. But it's essentially all energy and connection, right.

Speaker 2:

Right and I think one of the things we don't think we forget, but we just don't pay attention to part of this presence thing again, is that our energy and this connection is all interactive with everyone else's. So when we talk about this energetic playing field, this level playing field, we have it. However, in our world, in our culture and in our society, those things shift for different people, so it doesn't mean that everybody's on an equal playing field in our society and means energetically we're on that equal playing field.

Speaker 2:

And so definitely I'm glad you picked up on it. I lost my train of thought.

Speaker 1:

But you're exactly right. Like we're all given different circumstances, we all have the capability, though, to tap into this divine power within us.

Speaker 2:

I do use the word mystery a lot just because it's the thing that can't be explained. Like we tried our brains again try to put definitions on things. To me, I love what science is doing now. When you look at quantum physics and things like that, it's starting to define and it's starting to measure things we never thought could be measured by science or looked at by science, and it's really cool that I'm air quoting, proving some things that faith paths have thought all along. However, I also have this little like tug in my heart that I love the mystery. Like I love that there's something that's bigger than us and beyond our comprehension. It's not beyond us, but it's beyond what our brains can comprehend. It's this thing where our connection has to be something different than thinking, Whether that's within our hearts, whatever that's you want to call it a soul, your spirit Like there's something so incredible. Our human brains, which are magnificent, still can't grasp it. To me, that mystery is great.

Speaker 1:

And I don't think that we're ever supposed to grasp, do you?

Speaker 2:

That's what I think. Yeah, I think that as a human, we have this experience for a reason and that when we come into it, many of us want to learn and know and understand as much as we can, but there's a point where it's bigger than us because of the way our thinking is and our. You know, a lot of people talk about ego and it's such a big, broad concept to get into, but our ego is the thing that identifies us as separate from someone else and it gets labeled as evil in some ways. But it's necessary and it's actually really cool if you don't let it like wrap you up and control you in it. You know, it's why you and I can have this conversation right now. It's why we can share these thoughts and line them up or misalign them, or you know in any way about it. It's the thing that we get to experience. It's the thing that lets us experience our humanity really. Yeah.

Speaker 1:

It's the thing that propels us forward. If we didn't have the ego, we would be like blobs of not doing anything right. Like only receiving all the time.

Speaker 2:

We don't want that.

Speaker 1:

We want to be able to have the balance between the taking action and the receiving, and being in that harmony of the give and take, yeah, yeah. That's that balance. So the more that we can release our grasp on this certainty of belief and surrender to something beyond the limits of our minds, the deeper we can connect with this mystery right, this spiritual being yeah, that's how I think of it, because I think I get myself into thinking black and white, especially when I'm stressed.

Speaker 2:

I'll go straight to oh my God, this is exactly how this is going to go, and it's going to be so much trouble or so much hassle or whatever my mind does with that. If I can stop and take a breath and think okay, now is that really true? Or am I just reaching to this solid thought in order to grasp something that I feel like I can hold on to? What if I release that a little bit, let go of that a little bit and let myself come to center, as if it's on a continuum, because we can go to those grasping black and white thoughts on either the black or white end, but if we can release those and let go of them a little bit and come to the center, things don't feel so to me anyway.

Speaker 2:

Cut off and divided and harsh. They feel like, oh, there's more available in the universe, there's more potential for the way this circumstance or situation could go than I can imagine, because what I'm imagining is just one either horrible, awful thing or one perfect thing that maybe isn't even attainable. I think, if we can release some of that. Actually, this could get into a conversation that would go way too far, but I think that's what's happening in our culture and our society today is there's some kind of security in holding on to a sure, certain thought, even if that means we're disconnecting from part of ourselves or other people or an entirely other part of humanity.

Speaker 1:

I think if we can release some of that a little bit, Just add a drop of compassion, a drop of like an intuition at it through a different lens.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah, looking at it through a different lens, I think, yeah, the black and white thinking is easy to hold on to, but really doesn't serve us. Yeah.

Speaker 1:

So how do you help someone see that? How do you? You know, like what is the? That's the hard thing, because you're right, I think like that's in our society right now is a very strong thing that's happening.

Speaker 2:

I think, well, I don't have the answer to that.

Speaker 1:

Let me say that first, right, right, I don't know if any of us do, but right, right.

Speaker 2:

Because I don't even. You know it's a hard thing for me within myself. You know I can see myself when I get pulled one way or another. I think the key is probably curiosity. Curiosity and certainty have to be on opposite ends of the spectrum, like you can't be certain and be curious, and if you're curious you're allowing for something else to be valid or true or possible. And so I have a friend who says to me sometimes well, I just had a curiosity, what would you think of this? Especially when I'm kind of wound around something.

Speaker 2:

She'll ask me that question and it's like it's that pause moment that I need. That's like, oh, okay, I'm doing the black and white thing here right now. It doesn't always work, you know, it depends on how entrenched I am in that thought, but I think curiosity is the thing that brings us to that center place where we go. Okay, if I'm fully certain of something, I'm not open, I'm not open to a flow for certain, for certain, for sure. I'm not open to a flow. I've decided something and I'm rigidly holding it there. And if I'm doing that, like I've disconnected something, I've disconnected some potential or alternatives and probably disconnected other people with that.

Speaker 1:

Right, and it's when we are holding like that and when we are stuck in that black and white, we are acting out of fear instead of trust and instead of love and curiosity.

Speaker 1:

I lump those two together. I have a worksheet that I do, that I created to use with some clients and like one of the questions is am I acting out of fear, doubt and control, or am I acting out of trust, love and curiosity? And like that's the question to ask yourself when you start to get wound up about something, really, because it's one that will honestly set you back and say, okay, oh, I am acting out of fear, mistrust and doubt instead of love, compassion, trust, curiosity and, seeing it with those eyes, curiosity is definitely key to growth. I mean, yeah, it has to be, but when we get stuck in that place of like, oh, I can't do that, I've never done that before we are not giving yourself a chance to even consider anything else. So just adding that little bit of curiosity can change your world completely, and it's the same thing with looking at how we interpret our humanity and divinity. So, just because we're having this conversation, somebody out there might be thinking no way, no, how it is.

Speaker 2:

God is up here, I am down here.

Speaker 1:

This is how it is yeah, and maybe if you could invite just a little bit of curiosity and see that this conversation could be a little bit different, that you could interpret our conversation a little bit differently, that perhaps we are one in the same, who knows where the world will go right.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that's the fascinating part to me, that I don't think for a long, long time I wouldn't say never but I don't think humanity collectively, all of us together, have really allowed ourselves to be that curious. I feel like for centuries and I'm talking centuries before Christianity then was created, I think for centuries there has been this movement towards a solid, certain thing which sounds like a really secure thing. However, it kind of has eliminated this whole potential of what we could be. That might be going a little bit.

Speaker 2:

What do you mean by that? I think that if we stand in a solid, certain faith, it's kind of like the same thing you were saying earlier that you're a Christian and that is the faith that you walk in. But you also understand that there are also all these other ways of seeing our spirituality, of seeing what God is, of seeing what the universe is. To me, whenever we have a conversation, I see you as I kind of see that light shining in you because you've opened up to those things. That's a perception, because you have your faith and you're strong in it, and there's no question about that. However, you also are open and curious about these other ways of learning, ways of knowing.

Speaker 2:

I spoke at a funeral last week and one of the things I said was that this woman had this beautiful expansive mind. Like she has this incredible heart as well. But she has this beautiful expansive mind in that she stands in her faith and she wants to know God in a million different ways. Like she had that curiosity where she would learn any kind of teaching. Because how can that do anything but grow you forward in your divinity, in your connection? That's within you?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, exactly, and kind of like what I said also earlier, is that these positive things and when things are used to deepen your whether it's your knowledge or your connection with God or spirit or universe, or however you define it and it's being used for good and being used to propel you forward in this world for the purpose of love and connection and doing unto others as you would want done to you, how can it not be divinely led or divinely driven yeah Right or fully connected?

Speaker 1:

So many of the world's religions have this same message, right, it's the harmony message, it's love, and it is treating others how you want to be treated. And so when we do that, it's just demonstrating that, yeah, this is really, this is, this is mind-bending. But when we do that, it's demonstrating that you're also treating yourself that way. When you treat someone else with that love and compassion, that kindness, in a sense, you're treating yourself that way too, because it's all energy and we are all that same energy that was placed here on this earth. So we are a mirror for everybody else, and how we treat someone else, in a sense, we are also treating ourselves that same way.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I think about that, when I think about forgiveness. And I haven't been a person who could hold grudges. And you know, when you get to that place where you figure out if I'm not having a conversation with that person that I'm angry with or have been hurt by or whatever, and I'm sitting here sleeping, I'm the one who's in pain, like that lack of forgiveness on my part. And we hear this all the time forgiveness is for you, not for the other person. But it's really true, like that connection, that way that I have cut off and held on that person and held on to this anger is me cutting off the flow, it's me hurting me, you know. And so I think the more we do, the more practices we do that allow us to let that flow through us. I think that's the thing that gives us more freedom.

Speaker 1:

I agree, I agree, and it heals the energy that is harmed, even if you don't know that you hurt someone.

Speaker 1:

So I did this practice this morning with the kids in yoga that like they had to think of someone who they maybe needed to forgive or that they thought needed to forgive them.

Speaker 1:

But we first kind of stayed on that someone that they thought they needed to forgive and just I just asked them to take the first person that comes to mind and if they questioned why they needed to forgive that person, if they kind of thought, yeah, but why did that person come to mind? I don't have any reason to forgive them. I kind of encourage them that like there's probably something there that you do need to forgive them for but you've forgotten about. Allow yourself the space to just forgive and to heal that energy, because we don't even know sometimes that we need to forgive someone, because little things happen and we just hold them in different ways and we forget about them. But really our unconscious and that energy inside of us knows that there's a rupture in the energy and so by forgiving, by allowing and extending that healing of that energy field, I think it can be pretty powerful, you know what, and I just thought of this too.

Speaker 2:

This might be an out there thing to think about that. But I also wonder if maybe that person they thought of you need to be forgiven from that person. Maybe you harmed someone and didn't know that you did, and so it's actually there, the forgiveness of something you did that you're not remembering. And so why wouldn't it work both ways? Exactly? No, even if you're not Exactly.

Speaker 1:

Exactly. Ok, we're going to start to wrap this up. So, ok, we have a couple last questions that I generally ask guests, and first question being tell us how all of this that we have talked about cultivates a greater health, harmony and happiness in your life.

Speaker 2:

OK. So when I think of, when I think of all we talked about today and health, harmony and happiness, to me it all revolves around the harmony piece. I think that being in tune, being in harmony, being letting those energies flow, I think that's the thing that keeps us physically healthy, keeps us mentally healthy, keeps us emotionally healthy and spiritually connected and healthy. And I don't know of a way to be happy unless I'm in harmony, If I'm out of sync, happiness is not going to be there. It doesn't matter what circumstances are happening in my life. So to me it all revolves around that harmony piece. Yeah, I love it.

Speaker 1:

That's beautiful, that's beautiful. Thank you for sharing that. And then, what's one thing you're doing right now to invite more intention into your life?

Speaker 2:

So there are two. One of them has been a practice I've used for years, and it's just a pause and a breath. So, whatever is going right now, I feel like I'm going a million different directions at once, I'm multitasking all over the place and sometimes my head feels like it's spinning. So when I'm getting wrapped up in that, I just have to stop and take a breath and go. What one thing can I do next? And it's just that pause that sets my intention to not float all over the place and to actually do one thing at a time.

Speaker 2:

The other thing I've been doing has just been in the last handful of days. I experienced a loss recently and I keep wanting to hear and listen for that person in my life, and so I've been looking at the sky. I'm not saying I'm looking at heaven, I'm not saying I'm looking anywhere, but at the sky and seeing the clouds and trying to just set my intention to know that I am connected to everything and that means I am still. She is still connected to me, she is still with me, and I think it has helped me not only with the grief that I'm going through. It has helped me remember that connection that's always there because we give in times that are hard and you forget it. So that has helped me recently. Just remember and be intentional about staying in that connection.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and it's just another way of inviting that pause in and yeah, being open to the receiving being open to listening for connection.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

That's beautiful. Okay, Melissa, you've got a book coming out and tell us a little bit about that.

Speaker 2:

So the title of the book is when Our Humanity Meets Our Divinity, which is why we talked about those concepts today, and it really came from the idea of a paradox. So a paradox is two things that are seemingly fit together, and I think a lot of times that's how we look at humanity and divinity, our humanists and our holiness. To me, they are two things that should perfectly together, but you have to be willing to not look at the black and white, you have to be willing to speak, those things being true at the same time that we are wholly human and we're wholly divine, and so this book is kind of about being able to walk a path with that kind of awareness and that kind of presence.

Speaker 1:

I love it. I love it. I'm interviewing someone later today about manifestation and yeah, like I'm just curious about it and that's the thing you know. And I feel like I do it. But I'm curious about how all that intertwines with our being divine beings as well, right Like we are human and divine, and that's kind of a very cool connection. So this book, your book we kind of started talking about in the previous episode that we did.

Speaker 2:

It's just another idea at that time.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So here it is going to be a book that you are birthing and that's beautiful. So when does the book come out? The book will come out in spring of 2024. So right now, just around the corner, it's going to come, so fast.

Speaker 2:

I know I know there's so many things to do between now and then, but I will start my third round of edits in just a couple of weeks, so that will be the one that really firms it up and makes it hopefully as easy to read as possible. But I have my presale going on right now and so I think you have the link. If people want to go, take a look at some packages that I have, I'm inviting you into kind of the author community where you get some previews and maybe having some people. I'm hoping to have people help me like design the cover and do stuff like that.

Speaker 2:

Awesome. And then just get little tidbits and drawings and fun, more fun things going on in the months Awesome.

Speaker 1:

So I will drop the link to the book to the presale in the show notes, and you also have a code that I will put in the show notes where you can get a discount on any of the packages that you have. Now Melissa outlined some of the purchase packages or the purchase options the other day on Instagram and she's got some really cool stuff going on with them, like a buy one, donate one. So there's some pretty cool options, so I want to encourage you to check that out. Where can people find you on social media?

Speaker 2:

So the places I most active are Instagram and my handle. There is just. It's Kaliqi Harris, I think you'll have that. It's K-A-L-I-K-I-H-A-R-R-I-S. You'll see a lot on that. And then the other places on my author page on Facebook and it's Melissa Rose Harris, author, and you'll have the link to that as well. That's where I'm posting any videos, any posts, any updates on what's going on. Those two pages are the easiest places to find me and see keep the most up to date information.

Speaker 1:

Awesome. Is there anything else you want to share with listeners before we sign off?

Speaker 2:

No, I just, I hope you'll stay curious. I hope this conversation has made you want to step away from the black and white a little bit and really open your mind. I love it. Thank you, Kaliqi.

Speaker 1:

Thank you so much, yeah, thanks for being here, melissa.

Speaker 2:

This has been so fun.

Speaker 1:

Be sure that you check out the description of this podcast episode and take a look at the show notes to get all of Melissa's contact information and to start following her on social media. She is a brilliant writer and has so much love and passion in all that she does and in bringing forth this idea of our divinity and humanity and how we can be so much more intentional in life. I do hope that you will check her out and support her. We hopefully have a couple other conversations coming with her, because she and I have some great ideas for the podcast and things to talk about. Look forward to that. In the meantime, I'm Kathy Stricker and you've been listening to Health, harmony and Happiness. With Kathy Cheers to cultivating your own version of health, harmony and happiness in your life.