Ep 119 Reiki for Authenticity in Highly Sensitive People with Lynn Salmon-Easter

Conversation with Lynn Salmon-Easter about how she uses experiences as a Reiki master and an empath to support highly sensitive persons on their path to find their truest and most authentic self.

Topics of Discussion:
-What is energy and energy work?
-What are the talents and traits of a highly sensitive person?
-What does the practice of Reiki look like in session?

Lynn is a highly sensitive, empathic and intuitive individual working as a Reiki Master in Minneapolis, MN and serving the surrounding areas. She assists others on their own unique path of self-discovery and self-care. Lynn is passionate about offering in-person and distance Reiki + Healing Touch sessions as well as classes to support individuals (especially highly sensitive persons and empaths) so they can navigate the world with more grace and ease. She is here to spread LOVE!!

SUPPORT SERIES FOR EMPATHS + HIGHLY SENSITIVE PERSONS (in-person)
This series is created from a heartfelt space and with love for those of us that identify as (or are curious about what it truly means to be) a highly sensitive person and/or an empath. Our time together during this series is intended to empower, enlighten and affirm. We will meet MONTHLY for 2 hrs Oct 2023-March 2024 select Sundays, 6-8pm central time to live love and learn together!! This group is limited to 10 participants to foster an intimate experience.

Learn more about this series with the link below:
https://www.fullcircleoflove.com/copy-of-support-series-for-empaths-1

Schedule a complimentary call with questions:
https://app.squarespacescheduling.com/schedule.php?owner=26689490&appointmentType=35182758

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Transcript

Ep 119 - Lynn Salmon-Easter

[00:00:00] Cynthia: You are listening to the Well Connected Twin Cities podcast. I'm your host, Cynthia Shockley, and I'm here to learn alongside you through meaningful conversations with health and wellness practitioners. This is your time to experience some mindset shifts, learn practical tips, and get excited about what is possible.

[00:00:22] We want you to own the power of choice in your personal well being journey. Let's discover what's possible right here in our Twin Cities community.

[00:00:33] Hello and welcome to the Well Connected Twin Cities podcast. I'm your host Cynthia Shockley and today I'm speaking with Lynn Salmon Easter. Lynn is a highly sensitive, empathetic, and intuitive individual working as a Reiki master in Minneapolis and serving the surrounding areas.

[00:00:52] She assists others in their own unique path of self discovery and self care. Lynn is passionate about offering in person and distance Reiki and healing touch sessions, as well as classes to support individuals, especially highly sensitive persons and empaths, so they can navigate the world with more grace and ease.

[00:01:12] She is here to spread love. And here we are with Lynn Salmon Easter. How are you today, Lynn? 

[00:01:21] Lynn: Wonderful, Cynthia. How are you? Thank you for having me. 

[00:01:24] Cynthia: Yes, I'm so glad that we can connect and just learn more about the wonderful work that you're doing. I know we got to chat a little bit before we hit record, but for anyone out there who just wants to get to know you and what's going on for you, I love asking first about a rose and a thorn in your life.

[00:01:48] What's something that you're celebrating, something you're excited about, and then also something that might be challenging that you can Just share with us here today. 

[00:01:58] Lynn: Thank you, Cynthia. Thanks for that. Great question. I think this podcast that we're recording is taking place at a time that is perfect for this question and that the work of being an energy worker is something that came into my life through my father's death, which happened in the early part of November.

[00:02:19] But. The body remembers, the body keeps score and my dad's decline was happening through the tail end of August and September and October pretty intensely and so just about this time of the year, each year, I'm reminded to check in with my body and to get some extra self care to remind my body that everything's okay, that it's safe and so I guess my rose is that I get to do this amazing work that I'm in really intensely and incredibly passionate about and I feel like it's my calling.

[00:02:53] I feel like it's my life purpose. I had no idea I was going to become an energy worker, but it, I feel the most aligned to doing this work than I ever have in my life. So the thorn, I guess I would say is that, my father I had to die for me to come into this work, but I really don't have any hard feelings about it.

[00:03:17] I see my father's death as a gift to me, and this is one way that I continue to live out his legacy because my father had this incredible gift of being able to help people to be their best person. And I do feel like that is one of the focuses in my own personal business. And so This work is very much heartfelt for me and living my dad's legacy day in and day out.

[00:03:49] Cynthia: That's so beautiful. I'm thank you. Yeah. And to be able to share that gift and help others find their own authentic self is just like you said, it is a gift and I'm curious in your story. How did you come into energy work? Because I know you had a different life before and then So I'm curious to hear a little more about that transition for you and how you did end up in this space.

[00:04:20] Lynn: Yeah, absolutely. So Yeah, I mean for about three decades 28 years. I worked in advertising and I was always very curious about alternative medicine, and I was always investigating things, even when I was working in design, but in, 2017, when my dad was declining, I basically remembered it was this subconscious bubble went up in my brain oh, yeah.

[00:04:50] Like an acupuncturist 10 years ago told me that Reiki might benefit me because it's something that I can do for self care. And so when my dad was declining, I basically went and took a training with somebody that I knew that allowed me to come into their Reiki One training. And My body was so happy and we were working on each other at the end and people were saying, your body is so happy.

[00:05:16] I'm like, yeah. And, I'd had some glimpses. I had been doing some meditation retreats and I had been experiencing qigong and my body loved it. And I thought, wow, this is. Tapping into something that my body really needs and it was the energy, but I really wasn't able to verbalize that or I just, so when I met Reiki, it met me and it just was a match.

[00:05:43] And I decided to sign up for sure for Level two, and I actually had to postpone that due to my father's death. And so I, I didn't end up taking level two or my master training until after my father's death. But by the time I completed level two. I was for sure having these, this information or callings, I was being called into becoming a practitioner and I didn't really know what to do with that information.

[00:06:12] I was having these sensations of this information or kind of somebody talking to me inside of me like, oh, you've done this before. I'm like. Yeah, but not in this lifetime, not in this body, and so basically I went through a period of mentorship. I went and sought out energy work to support myself after my dad's death and that practitioner began to mentor me.

[00:06:33] I said I think I'm being called into becoming a practitioner, and I have no idea how to do that. And so she asked me to do trades with her. And we started doing trades and I think that's how it was born. I think maybe if I can tell the gooey part of the story, the reality is that I feel like there was a transfer of.

[00:06:56] Energy to me with my dad's death that we sat vigil for eight days in my home that I was raised in and that my dad lived in for 45 years and I at that point had taken Reiki one and was doing Reiki on myself every single night and I couldn't deny the fact that every night that I'd go to bed. And my dad got closer to his death and my hands were getting hotter and that there was some sort of transfer happening at that time that seemed to be taking place.

[00:07:28] And then, that story continues, as I said, that I felt as I went on in my training called into becoming a practitioner and I was pretty ripe to be leaving my design work. I really wanted to be doing something different and I just took a deep breath and took the plunge and decided.

[00:07:44] I have to do this. I don't have anything to lose. I can always go back into design work if I want to, but I need to pursue this. And I have zero regrets. It's been an amazing unfolding. So 

[00:07:58] Cynthia: yes, it's I feel like rare for people to regret following their heart and following their intuition.

[00:08:05] And so I'm so glad it can be terrifying. It is right. It is terrifying. And yet here you are, you did the brave thing. You followed that calling. And, I know Reiki has a lot of research at this point, building and backing that it works. I remember I got to study this in my graduate.

[00:08:26] program and just, someone putting a hand on someone's shoulder versus a Reiki practitioner putting a hand on someone's shoulder and the actual differences and cortisol levels and adrenaline and just actual changes happening in a controlled environment. So for you as a Reiki practitioner, I'm curious, how would you describe energy to someone who might not really understand it?

[00:08:51] Lynn: Yeah. One of my passions and missions Of being an energy worker is really to normalize energy and energy is something that we all have. I believe that energy is a life force and that we all, we have this life force. It may just be that we are closed to it or shut down from it because we've been conditioned to not pay attention to it.

[00:09:19] To me, energy sometimes somewhat falls into that arena like intuition. If it's something we tune into, we can develop that and we can sense that more deeply. Energy is something that is everywhere and it's all around us. And quite honestly, everything is energy. And so things are interacting all the time, whether we're aware of it or not.

[00:09:43] And as individuals, if we begin to have that awareness of how energy overlaps or interacts, we can see how it impacts us in profound ways or, and that can be challenging or it can also be joyous and it definitely Impacts individuals. Some of us are more a little bit more sensitive to the world around us.

[00:10:06] And for those of us that are more sensitive energy really does impact and has a direct implication into how our how calm our nervous system is, whether we're in that sympathetic or parasympathetic. And so any everything kind of integrates and connects. Energy is a huge part of that connection in the world in terms of how we navigate and move through the world.

[00:10:34] Cynthia: And I know a part of that interaction is, you know how it does impact our nervous light system, like you said, right? The parasympathetic versus sympathetic, and you got to experience that firsthand while you were. in a state of grief and pain to be able to do Reiki on yourself and give yourself some of that soothing.

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[00:12:55] Cynthia: What do you do as a Reiki practitioner then not only for yourself, but for your clients, how would you describe what you are doing as that person, that, that conduit? 

[00:13:08] Lynn: Yeah. Yeah. I work with a variety of clients and individuals. I think I'm most passionate about working with individuals that are considered highly sensitive and maybe some of these individuals don't actually know that they're highly sensitive, but the term highly sensitive person was coined by Elaine Aaron in the eighties and individuals that are highly sensitive actually are wired differently and have a nervous system and a brain that are wired towards they're wired with.

[00:13:41] Picking up on more subtlety in our environment, then, and it's 15 to 20% of the population. We're about 1 in 5 and, in terms of population and 1 thing I want to share that I really love sharing is that, many highly sensitive individuals can often. Or just sensitive souls in general can carry some shame and guilt just from conditioning and ask, telling us to repress our feelings because things are a bit bigger for us.

[00:14:13] Emotions are bigger. We have, we just sense things more, things can be louder or noisier, but the reality is that we're also part of the safety valve of the society that, we're the individuals who foresee things coming and we're the prophets, we're the healers, we're the meditators, we're the artists, so we have our fingers and our energy on the pulse of life, but oftentimes people don't Transcribed Witness us or hear us.

[00:14:42] They can be scared by us. That's a little bit of a diversion. But, those of us that are sensitive or understand this, that maybe you're like, hey, that sounds like me. Let me just say a couple things that, some descriptions that often can show up in terms of, being highly sensitive that You can sense other people's emotions.

[00:15:08] You might frequently feel like you need to step away from noisy or intense situations. You often are a deep thinker or a deep feeler. Highly conscientious. Many of us are highly perfectionistic. We're very hard on ourselves. We frequently can feel emotionally exhausted, but we don't really know why.

[00:15:32] We can feel frequently overwhelmed and we don't know why. So these are the challenges, but there's always that kind of that rose and thorn on the flip side. We have when we. Are living our best selves and living out of our gifts, then we are highly creative or highly insightful.

[00:15:49] We're strongly intuitive or deep feelers were great problem solvers were great mediators were really great at supporting and holding space for other individuals and we appreciate beauty and small wonders. But when we're not at our best and we're in a deficit, we're not able to live in that space.

[00:16:07] Where we're able to give those gifts to the world. And so as an energy worker, whether somebody is highly sensitive or not coming to me, really what I'm doing in the most basic sense is helping them to find restorative rest and relaxation. And I'm doing that through energy work by helping to calm their energy, slow their energy and bring them into a rest and digest.

[00:16:35] space in their body. So one will leave feeling calmer. When individuals who are highly sensitive come and see me, then we might be working at a bit of a deeper and a more profound level. These individuals really see benefit from energy work in particular, because many of us that are sensitive end up in maybe a chronic time or space of being depleted, and that creates a porousness about our energy and will begin to take on others energy or other stories or even the collective energies and collective stories, and we hold that in the fabric of our energy.

[00:17:16] field. And so I'm working with individuals literally to as their body allows. I'm a conduit.

[00:17:24] So when highly sensitive or, sensitive individuals come and see me, we will begin to work at a little bit deeper of a level. And Sensitive individuals really benefit from energy work and Reiki on multiple levels. So it helps them to calm down. It helps their nervous system calm down, but also many individuals that are highly sensitive or sensitive soul individuals, I call them.

[00:17:52] Sometimes many of us end up in this space where we've been chronically depleted for maybe multiple years, maybe even decades, honestly. And what happens when we're. At the bottom of the barrel. For ourselves in terms of care or our own life force energy is that we become porous and that creates a situation where we're taking on other people's energy, we're taking on collective energy, and we begin wearing other people's energy.

[00:18:27] And what that does is it creates confusion for us. And it masks in a way it's masking our own authenticity. So we no longer feel truly like ourselves. And so as an energy worker, what I'm doing is. Helping individuals to calm down to find restorative rest, 

[00:18:51] and I'm helping them to begin in their own, in their body's own timing, begin to remove the layers of energy that aren't serving them, and to begin to Move those out of their energy field so that they can be moving towards their most authentic self. And so I would say almost everybody who comes to see me for their first session leaves feeling, I feel so much lighter.

[00:19:20] So we're helping to Alleviate them from things that they've been holding or have in their energy field that they've been carrying around sometimes for years. Sometimes it was just from last week, but what this does is it helps to lighten the load and the burden and helping that individual to come over time.

[00:19:39] Sometimes individuals have to come for multiple sessions, but we're working to help that individual come into their authentic energy. So we're always grounding. In the session. So one's always going to leave feeling grounded, but lighter. And as we begin to let go of other people's stories and energies, that's not our own.

[00:19:59] We begin to have clarity. We begin to have agency again about what we really want our life to be like, instead of living out of the beliefs or stories of other individuals. And so many times I'll see individuals come to me that have done a lot of work in therapy, talk therapy, which is great, but energy work, especially for those individuals who feel energy deeply.

[00:20:24] So more sensitive individuals that the energy work comes right alongside that and helps to continue that shift in terms of their energy field so that they can actually truly let go of the stories completely and bring that full circle. 

[00:20:42] Cynthia: Yeah. So something that's coming up for me is just that permission, right?

[00:20:50] So it's a space of permission to let go of, like you said, the stories, but at a more energetic level. I'm curious when you're in a Reiki session, are you also talking and coaxing stories out or is it purely like a silent experience? Like I'm curious how you do your sessions. 

[00:21:11] Lynn: So glad you're asking.

[00:21:13] So currently at this time I run 75 minute sessions and I spend. The first 15 minutes and the last 15 minutes talking with the individual. So we'll talk. And if it's a new client, sometimes we talk more. I've actually found that sometimes the talking, it brings things to the surface. And then as the practitioner, I'm able to clear those energies so easily.

[00:21:37] So I take time to check in with people to find out what is it that they want to focus on today. And also maybe some of their deeper stories. Sometimes they just start talking and things start coming out. And then I put people on a table and I set the scene. To really have a sanctuary of silence. I really want people to deeply restore and most clients I set the stage.

[00:21:58] So they go into this space between wake and sleep and they go in and out. So I have a warm table. If that's appealing, I have a knee bolster. I have an eye pillow and I. Personally don't choose to talk unless I really need to. I always allow that space for the client to speak up if something comes up or if they have questions.

[00:22:18] I only speak if I really need to, if it's going to impact the session or if that's going to help, if it's going to be an impediment for me moving forward, but most of the time I'm just really helping promote a deep restorative space. We have few spaces in this world where we can go and not be expected to do anything and not expected to be on and thinking, I really want that ego to take a back seat because the ego is terrific and wants to keep us safe, but sometimes it's holding on to things that are not helpful for us.

[00:22:50] So I feel like it's really important to have that ego. Take a back seat. And the way to do that is just to create that sanctuary of silence. And a lot of what I'm doing as well in the space is a practitioner is just honoring and witnessing energetically what's coming up and what's coming through.

[00:23:07] And what we speak and what we feel and our actions in our life are energetic. And so certainly that translates into the work that I'm doing and I'm witnessing and honoring that. And I'm listening very deeply during the session. So the body and the spirit. The soul can message during the session.

[00:23:25] And I take note of that internally. And at the end of the session, we take another 10 to 15 minutes and we talk about anything to the client experience. If they have questions about anything, I report in Hey, this is what happened. This is what I witnessed. This is what I heard your body saying, sometimes chakras speak very clearly.

[00:23:45] Like I want this. And that can really help individuals move forward in their life in terms of What's transpiring or what's coming. I'm certainly not. I'm in no way if fortune teller but there certainly is premonition energy that comes through of, things that people are working towards and naming that and talking them through those things.

[00:24:08] And so in this way, it can be very helpful in witnessing individuals. Yeah, and then, I do really enjoy oracle cards. I use them as an art and a support, and I often have people draw an oracle card that I really call as a, your love fortune. My business name is called Full Circle of Love as a Just as a nod to my father.

[00:24:30] And I let people take those cards home with them because it's very much a compass. It's almost always spot on for the energy that's come up in the session and people I enjoy the cards very much. They're like art pieces. And it's just a way for somebody to leave the room and to have a reminder when they come back out into the outside world of Hey, this is what I'm working on.

[00:24:51] This is what I'm pointing towards. A little compass they can take with them. 

[00:24:55] Cynthia: I love that. Yeah. Beautiful. Hearing how you work with highly sensitive people or people in general and what a delicious treat it sounds to work with you. I'm curious, how if people listening are interested in learning more, connecting with you, working with you.

[00:25:20] I know we're going to have links in the show notes, but do you mind speaking to that? And just giving a little bit more information. 

[00:25:27] Lynn: Sure. Sure. So I'm currently working out of the space of yes yoga, which is located on first Avenue and 26th street.

[00:25:34] There's wellness rooms there. So individuals can. They could choose to work with me by going to the Yes Yoga website and finding me under the wellness tab. But also my website is www. fullcircleoflove. com. Another really easy, probably the most direct way to find me is to type my name, which is Lynn and then Salmon, which is like salmon.

[00:26:01] So S A L M O N hyphen Easter. And if you just Google that, my business Google profile will come up. And then you can find my website, click through to that. So there's multiple ways that you can find me. Thank you for asking. 

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[00:27:01] Cynthia: Yeah. And I know you have a program coming up that specifically is for highly sensitive people.

[00:27:11] Do you mind sharing more about that? 

[00:27:13] Lynn: Sure. I developed a program, a series program. I was asked by clients actually To develop this, when I came into this work as an energy worker, I did not know what my focus would be and I was originally at with a clinic called the Wellness Minneapolis, which shuttered it's brick and mortar last summer and but I miss it and I love it.

[00:27:36] I loved being at Wellness Minneapolis, but So when I was there, I learned about being a highly sensitive person myself, just through Jesse Haas, who was one of the co founders of that space. And that was a huge aha for me. So this is new for me as well, coming into this space of learning more about what it means to be highly sensitive.

[00:27:57] And it was such a big game changer. It was one of those things where I took a quiz. And I answered every single question. In fact, I didn't want to answer the question, the last question true. Cause it meant that I was going to answer all the questions true. And I was like, Whoa. And I remember texting my mom immediately you'll never believe this.

[00:28:14] Because what happened is like everything in my life started to fall into place and make sense. I was like, this is huge. I need to learn more about this. I began finding clients who were highly sensitive and beginning to help them. And so I took on this challenge that a client requested and said I said, who am I to run this series?

[00:28:34] And she said, who are you not? And I run this series now and I love it. It was a great way for me to also go deeper into it. And so this series is a six month commitment. I just added a new module of self compassion tools and practices, which is absolutely essential and really needed And so it used to be five months and I've expanded it to six months now and so it's a small cohort of individuals like 10 individuals that journey together through six months of supporting each other and there is content we just we talk about what it means to be highly sensitive and.

[00:29:08] What it means to be an empath. Sometimes individuals, feel energy even more intensely and they feel it as their own energy, which is somewhat what we're talking about. So we talk about, why is change hard. We talk about family of origin. We talk about being highly sensitive in the workplace, We talk about all of the different facets and how it hooks into being highly sensitive and the group is very tailored.

[00:29:30] I tailor it and facilitate it towards the individuals that show up for the particular group, but we journey together through each month. Just two hours each month. I space it out that way. So it's not too overwhelming because as sensitive individuals, we just can't do too much at one time and that space of a month.

[00:29:51] So we meet for two hours and then you have space allows you to integrate and take the things that we've learned and to really begin to apply it in your life. And I have a lot of resources I send in emails along with the content so that. The series meets people wherever they are on their journey. Some people are just starting to learn about it.

[00:30:11] Some people have been knowing that they're sensitive for decades and they want to go deeper and then they have that opportunity, but it's really intended to be a space of empowerment, a space to be affirmed, a space to be witnessed and heard, and it's. A space to show up with like minded and like hearted individuals, because as the 15 to 20% that we are, we many times feel very isolated and alone and estranged.

[00:30:41] We don't feel like we fit in. Many clients tell me I've never felt like I fit in. And so this is. A space that often I'm trying to make the most nurturing space possible to help people feel witnessed and seen and to normalize being highly sensitive because when we begin to live out of our best selves, then we're giving our gifts to the world, rather than being shut down when we're depleted.

[00:31:07] And we just don't simply have enough energy to give our best gifts to the world. And my deepest desire as a practitioner is to help each. And every, sensitive person that wants to come and work with me for them to be giving their gifts to the world because we really need. Individuals and especially sensitive individuals because many of them have brilliant ideas and want to do amazing things, but we need them shining their light.

[00:31:34] We need them being their best selves and giving their gifts to the world rather than just like slogging through the doldrum of society. Yeah, it was a long answer. 

[00:31:47] Cynthia: It's a great answer and it brings me back to what you said earlier about the shame that can be held for those who are highly sensitive because instead of leaning into their gifts and seeing it as a gift, it's, oh gosh, I don't fit in.

[00:32:05] Oh gosh, I'm too much for the world. That's right. 

[00:32:08] Lynn: Feeling broken. Many people say they feel broken and it's Oh gosh, no, it's just that we just have to learn that we need to do life a little bit differently and we need a lot more space. And I think just naming that for individuals, they begin to own that and to begin to be able to ask.

[00:32:26] That was one of the biggest things that shifted for me is that I was able to begin to verbalize. Why things were happening the way they were for me, and then I was able to actually start asking for what I needed and my loved ones were willing to give that to me. That's not always the case for everybody, but it does happen more often than not, because once we were able to verbalize it, people do want to help us.

[00:32:49] Our family does want to help us, but I didn't even know what to ask for before. I just was trying to keep up with everything. 

[00:32:57] Cynthia: Yeah. So it's learning the language of what you need, the energetic boundaries, the self care, the self compassion. Absolutely. That's it. I love that. I love, and I think there's a magic and group healing and being in a community and feeling really seen in that space.

[00:33:17] Lynn: So there's power. It's very potent in that way because we're brainstorming together, right? We're supporting each other. And in many ways, we're problem solving and problem we're supporting each other to be our best selves. 

[00:33:31] Cynthia: I wonder whether it's something you offer one on one or in your group series.

[00:33:38] Is there a certain tool that is simple enough that maybe listeners would be able to do from their home right now, even just to manage their energy and calm their nervous system. If right now is not the time to reach out to get that one on one care. 

[00:33:57] Lynn: Yeah, I think one of the things that I learned about in when I began teaching classes is something called hands on heart practice, which I learned from Courtney Carver, who is an author and also a minimalist blogger, and I reached out to her and asked her if I could share this out in my classes and she said, Oh, absolutely.

[00:34:16] So this is a practice that she teaches on her website, hands on heart, and the practices is. It's very simple. Part of the practice of being Human in general, and then also being a sensitive human, is that we just need more quietude, oftentimes, and space, and a little bit more time to compost and decompress than we often give ourselves.

[00:34:44] And so I'm a big proponent of silence. And I think that silence can come to individuals in many different forms. Some people really like to spend time in nature. But one of the practices that I teach is for simply, for people to put their hands on their heart. And if that feels scary, because boy that would have felt really scary to me.

[00:35:04] In previous decades, you could put your hands on your lap or even one hand on your belly and on your lap or one hand on your heart or your belly, whatever feels the safest to you. Because definitely we know from a somatic experience trauma lives in the body and we don't want to be triggering that.

[00:35:21] We want to feel safe. And then we just take a deep breath, three deep breaths, and just let it all out, so sighing out,

[00:35:31] and then we would previously have set a timer for just five minutes, so this exercise is just five minutes, and then we just Follow our breathing, and I know I'm going to talk through this, but you could be doing this in silence, or you could try it with some calming music. And you can really do this anywhere.

[00:35:52] Closing your eyes can help. And just breathing and feeling the warmth of your hand on your body, wherever it's resting. You do this exercise for five minutes.

[00:36:04] And then there is an extra kind of add on to this practice after you've done this for a while and you become more comfortable with the silence going inward. You can deepen your practice and you can be asking yourself these three questions. What matters most today? What matters most today?

[00:36:29] How do I really want to spend my time?

[00:36:32] How do I really want to spend my time?

[00:36:35] What do I need to do to take really good care of myself and the people I love today? What do I need to do to take really good care of myself and the people I love today? So one could work with just one of those questions or you could be asking those questions together and just know there's no right way to do this and that you just listen deeply for the answers and it may be The answers don't come right away and that's okay too, but it is really important and it's really essential that we're tuning in and really deeply listening to our hearts and the asks of our soul because that's what's going to guide us to our truest and most authentic self.

[00:37:33] So just taking that time, that is how we begin to feel. Most whole and it is how we deeply take care of ourselves and it is how we begin to deeply discern Between what's ours and what belongs to somebody else so that we can appropriately know What we need to deal with what we need to address and what we can let go of

[00:38:00] and then at the end we can just sometimes I rub my Pads across my fingertips and I wingle my fingers and toes or I might Nod my head or lift my shoulders and just gently bringing the body back into this time and space and place And then when it feels right just gently fluttering your eyes open

[00:38:28] Cynthia: I'm surprised that I even got a little emotional with the question.

[00:38:32] What do you really need? Yeah, it's not just What do you need to get done? What's on your checklist? But what do you really need and to sit in that silence is the only time when that truth has an opportunity to rise up and speak to you. 

[00:38:51] Lynn: Yeah, listening to the whispers of your soul and your heart.

[00:38:53] It's, I'm a big proponent of that. It takes us far, but society is noisy. So we have to find that time and that place and that space. 

[00:39:05] Cynthia: Definitely. Ugh. Lynn, I am so grateful that we were able to have you on this episode and I'm curious if there was one takeaway that you hope listeners walk away from this conversation with, what would you hope it would be?

[00:39:25] Lynn: I hope that individuals start living from their heart and they start living from their authentic selves. And to shine their truest light, that is them, that is you, I guess I would say. And I'm going to take a moment, if it's okay, to read a poem by Rebecca Campbell. One of the books that I really adore is a book called Light is the New Black.

[00:39:55] It was my North Star for starting my business. It's a, it's a memoir, but it's also a spiritual cheerleader sort of book. And she has a poem called You Copyright. And so this would be my hope for anyone. So you copyright by Rebecca Campbell, you are like no other in this town, city, country, continent, planet, solar system, galaxy, universe, multiverse, and far beyond.

[00:40:22] Way beyond through all the dimensions of space and time there is never has been and never will be anyone quite like you Not even close your hair color your upbringing your highs and lows Your accent your nature and all the lessons you've learned along the way your body size your skin color and all the learnings From the lies that your soul has swum through before, you are a glorious tapestry that is being woven with every new breath, evolving with every thought and every act and every moment in the entire existence of all humans there ever were and ever will be, none come close to possessing the same combination of the amazingness That you have right now.

[00:41:10] You are the gift, you are the light. It's your you that lights up the world. Be like no other, be you. 

[00:41:19] Cynthia: Amazing. Thank you so much, Lynn, for reading that to us. It's a beautiful way to end this episode and this time together. Just so grateful. I hope That anyone listening who wants to learn more checks out, check out the show notes and just continue to learn together.

[00:41:42] This is what we're here for, right? 

[00:41:44] Lynn: Absolutely. Thank you so much.

[00:41:47] Cynthia: Thank you so much for listening to the Well Connected Twin Cities podcast. Did you learn something new? Did you feel that spark of hope and excitement for what is possible? Because so much is possible. Tell us about it in a review on Apple podcast. Not only would we absolutely love hearing from you, but these reviews help our ratings and help other curious minds like you find this resource.

[00:42:12] We are always better together. Thank you again and see you next time.