Wisdom Rising

The Psychology and Spirituality of Your Higher Self

• Christine Renee, Isabel Wells, and Shantel Ochoa • Season 2 • Episode 7

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Unlock the limitless potential within you by connecting with your intuition and higher self. What if you could navigate life with clarity and confidence, free from the shackles of fear and anxiety? Through personal stories and spiritual practices, we explore who really sits on the "throne" of your subconscious and why it's crucial to let your higher self reign

The episode emphasizes the importance of connecting with your higher self and intuition for making empowered life decisions. We explore self-awareness, emotional triggers, and the role of self-love in fostering this connection, encouraging you to engage with your higher self through practical exercises and community support.

We cover:

  • The dual nature of the higher self: spiritual and psychological aspects
  • The "throne" of the subconscious: who makes your decisions
  • The importance of self-awareness in spiritual growth
  • Recognizing emotional triggers and their role in decision-making
  • The role of self-love in fostering intuition
  • Practical exercises for tuning into your intuition
  • Calling in the seven directions for spiritual alignment
  • Recognizing internal archetypes and wounded inner children
  • Mindfulness in decision-making: which version of yourself is leading
  • Meditation and sensory methods to align with your higher self
  • Divine timing and aligning choices with your soul's expression
  • And more!

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Moon Rising Shamanic Institute Links:
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Book a session with Isabel: https://calendly.com/into-the-deep/schedule

Book a FREE 15 minute connect call with Izzy: https://calendly.com/moonrisinginstitute/connect

Book a session with Christine: https://calendly.com/christinerenee/90-minutes-intensive

Book a FREE 10 minute connect call with Christine: https://calendly.com/christinerenee/10-minute-connect-call-srpt

Speaker 1:

It's time to remember your divine purpose and limitless potential. Welcome to Wisdom Rising, the official podcast of Moon Rising Shamanic Institute. Join shamanic Reiki practitioners Christine Rene, isabel Wells and Chantel Ochoa as we guide you on a journey of radical self-discovery and spiritual guidance. Each week, we'll dance through the realms of shamanism, mysticism, energy, healing and personal development to illuminate your path to true healing and self-sourced wisdom Through weekly inspired conversations and interviews with leading spiritual and shamanic practitioners. We are here to help you acknowledge, reconcile and balance your energy so that you can awaken to the whispers of wisdom rising from within. Welcome, welcome back to another amazing conversation.

Speaker 1:

I'm here with Christine Renee and we're going to be diving into connecting to your intuition and how you can really step into your higher self, step into that aspect of you that knows who you are, beyond your limits, the limits that we place on ourselves, and so we're going to be diving into both of these, and I'm so excited to share this topic and really dive in, because this is something that I think I would say probably 70% of people who join our Moon Rising Shamanic Mystics Facebook group. We have a question where we ask people where are you at on your spiritual journey? What are you working on most right now? And probably 70 to 80% of people say something about I want to connect with my intuition or I want to know more about my higher self. I want to know who my higher self is and how to connect with them, and so we're really going to dive into both of those topics today, and I know Christine is so excited to kick us off with our conversation today. So, christine, where do you want to start?

Speaker 2:

Oh, I know where I want to start. I know exactly where I want to start. I would love to start this conversation to understand, like the why, why awaken your intuition? Why are we really honing in on this and higher self? Are we really honing in on this and higher self? And it's this idea that when our higher self is helping us in our human life, make decisions and pulling us in the in our highest self direction, life is so much easier. And I recently had a healing session and it was with someone who was a mixed modality practitioner. So, yeah, she was a Reiki master. She was also a master teacher, nlp coach, she was. She is a breath work practitioner, and I came into her office and we were doing some coaching to begin with, and the whole idea was okay.

Speaker 2:

Christine, if your subconscious had a throne on it, who's sitting in that chair? Who's sitting in your throne's chair? Is it your higher self, your queen, christine? Or is it someone else right now? Who is in charge? Who is reigning their kingdom from from which? From which you know internal personality, right Like from which? Is this your smaller self? Is this your fear for self? Is this your prideful self? Is this your impatient self. Is this your anxious self? Like who's who's running the show? And it was such a dynamic question and I had been working through a lot of these pieces of this internal struggle of like this part of me wants this and this part of me wants this, and I'm having this internal argument all the time and and it was just like timeout pause Do either of those people who are arguing within you are they your higher self? Are they your higher self? And the answer was like no. Are they your higher self? Are they your higher self? And the answer was like no.

Speaker 2:

Queen Christine has had to take a backseat and she's like well, there you go. There's the problem. We need to get her back in control, and I think that's why I wanted to do this conversation so bad. It's like when your higher self is reigning your internal kingdom and you're in your king, like if you're a man, are you in your king. If you're a woman, are you in your queen, and that's just like one way to look at it. That's just one archetype, like it can be anything that feels good to you, but it's like that point of view of are you stepping into your full power and majesty, and and clarity of like this is my life and I get to freaking, decide how it rolls out because I'm the freaking queen, like it's that source of power that we're looking for, and how do we go about making life's choices? Are we letting her reign or are we letting some other version of ourself take the wheel with their anxiety, with their doubt, with their lack, with their? Whatever it is coming to the forefront?

Speaker 1:

And this is what I love about higher self work is when we're looking at it this way. So when for Moon Rising Shamanic Institute, when we're with our students it's 11, 11, my time as I'm saying this when we're with our students and we engage in a shamanic practice whether that's a journey or a class or chakra spinning or whatever it is when we're holding space for our courses, we always take a moment to call in the direction. So there are seven directions in traditional shamanic teachings. You have East, southwest, north, but you also have above, or the upper world, where your spirit guide, your guardian angels, your loving ancestors are all in this upper realm. Then you have below, and this is where mother nature, your power animals, the mythical creatures, nature spirits all of these are from below. And then you have this middle realm, which is essentially the spiritual reflection of this 3D reality, and so in this space you can have middle world guides, but this is also where we meet our inner child, from a shamanic perspective, but also our higher self. And when we call in the directions, we're really taking a moment to acknowledge the power and healing that each direction has to offer.

Speaker 1:

And when we call in our higher self, one of my favorite ways of calling in that higher self is to say it's the one who knows who we are when we release our limitations. The fullest expression of our potential and this is, I think, a really fantastic place to start this conversation is really honing in on who is our higher self, because that term gets thrown around a lot and I think a lot of people end up feeling like, well, that's great, but who is my higher self? And so what I love about this idea of whether you're looking at it as who's on the throne right now, or you're looking at it as what would the healed version of myself choose in this moment, or what would the version of me that didn't have any limitations or didn't have anxiety, or didn't have limiting beliefs, or however you want to phrase it in your head. It's that you that is the boundless expression of your own potential, of your own spirit. It's that part of you where your soul is able to come through and express itself in the most healed, aligned version. And so, when we look at it that way, what I love about this is it gives us permission to have those heavier feelings right. We're allowed to be anxious, we're allowed to be sad, we're allowed to have triggers, we're allowed to have all of those experiences because it's part of what it means to be human, but we don't have to make our choices from that place, and I think this is really, for me, where being able to tune into the higher self becomes a really powerful practice in just daily life.

Speaker 1:

So, for example, last week January is a pretty rough month for me. My nervous system has a lot of memory of things that have happened in my past, and January tends to be a month where I'm a little more sensitive to triggers. My nervous system is a little more open to having panic attacks and things like this. And so last week was a pretty rough week for me, and it started out with this pretty big trigger. And from the outside right, this is how triggers work. It didn't seem like much.

Speaker 1:

I had to set a boundary at one of my other jobs and I could feel myself starting to be triggered, feel myself starting to be like well, who am I to set that boundary? Who am I to speak up for myself? Who am I to share my truth? Who am I to say that, well, no, I can't get that done because I need time for my self-care. Why do I deserve something?

Speaker 1:

I could feel that spiral that I think everybody has, and what I could have done is I could have let it carry me away. I could have fallen into that pattern and started going no, you know what, I'm not worthy to have time for myself. I'm not worthy to set this boundary. That's absolutely not okay. I should apologize. I should extend that olive branch and try and make up for it.

Speaker 1:

But what I did in that moment was say, okay, I recognize that this is an inner child part of myself that is wounded, it's being triggered, it's being poked at, but it's not the only part of myself. And so can I take a moment to take a few deep breaths so that I can respond instead of react. And in that moment, shifting to, is there a different way that I could see this? Is there a different part of myself that isn't wounded, that isn't being poked at? Right now, who can have that higher quote, unquote perspective of what's going on? And I was able to kind of shift over into that energy, into that mindfulness of this wounded part isn't all of me, it's part of me. But what I can choose to do in this moment is go in and heal it, go in and help it. Go in and have a conversation with that part of myself so that healing is happening, rather than perpetuating the cycle by letting that thought pattern run away with me.

Speaker 1:

And so your higher self-work can take on a myriad of different appearances, but what it really is is your ability to take a step back and recognize that you are not your wounds, you are not your triggers, you are not these choices that you make. You are the one who gets to make those choices. You are the one who gets to observe all of it and say how do I want to respond? And when we can take back that power is essentially what it is. Our higher self is the version of us who has not given away any of our power. We have not given away any ounce of our self-worth or our power to anyone or anything else. That is our true higher self. And so when we can say I know that I have this power, I might not feel connected to it right now. When I'm triggered, I might not be sitting here thinking, yes, I am worthy to set this boundary, but I know that that part of myself exists. And when we can do that, this is what I love about this work is, I think so often people think that healing means you never get triggered.

Speaker 1:

Healing means that you're never going to be anxious, that you're never sad, that you never get frustrated with somebody. We think that you know especially for, let's say, people with PTSD, this was a big story that my mind had is that if you're healed, you never have any of those things come up again, like healing means you're done. Essentially is the story that we have, and it's it's not. Healing is our ability to respond to a trigger rather than react, and so I love this idea of who's playing on the throne of your subconscious mind, because, to me, true healing is when those triggers can come up. Those subconscious storylines can come up, those thought patterns, those flashbacks, whatever it are. They can come up, but they're no longer the loudest voice in your head. You can recognize that they are one of many. Right, you have that wounded part of yourself and it's okay that that's there.

Speaker 1:

Working with your higher self doesn't mean that you suddenly have to be perfect or you suddenly have to be free from triggers or whatever it is that your mind is saying.

Speaker 1:

Working with your higher self means that you have this ability to understand that that voice in your head is just one of the many and you have the ability to tune into a different energy, to tune into a different consciousness, so that when the trigger comes up, when the flashback comes up, when the anger comes up, whatever it is for you, you can then say yes, but it's not the only voice, it's not the strongest voice, and you're able to take a step back, to take those three deep breaths and to tune in with yourself.

Speaker 1:

And I think that is the beauty of higher self-work, is it really? It's not about never being triggered, it's not about being perfect, it's not about being quote unquote healed Cause that's. You know, that's kind of a myth, but what it is is that when those things come up, you're no, you're no longer overtaken by them, you're not swallowed whole. You're able to step back and be like that's not the only way that this has to happen, that's not the only outcome, that's not the only way of seeing the situation. So can I bring in my higher self, or my intuition, to be able to help me see more clearly what I can't see in this moment?

Speaker 2:

And I think that self-awareness is huge and I think that needs to be cultivated. It's not something that necessarily is automatic of recognizing, okay, who is sitting on that internal throne Like, who's making the decisions right now? Who's which archetype is showing up for me? Which inner child is wounded that's showing up for me right now? Like, just having that self-awareness of going, my nervous system is off. Why, like, even if we just started there going, I have a lot more anxiety in my life right now. I wonder what that's about. Who is making these choices? Because it's not the grandest version of me, the grandest version of me, my higher self, because it's not the grandest version of me, the grandest version of me, my higher self, my queen Christine, whatever it is, wouldn't be making decisions that would lead to anxiety.

Speaker 2:

Right Like, that higher self is going to set you up to feel in a place of calm and peace and this knowingness that the universe has your back, like everything is going to work out when the higher self is sitting on the throne at least 51% of the time. I think that's a really like. Can we allow our higher self to be in the throne room and really be reigning from that position at least 50, 51% of the time. More than half of the time it is totally okay to be like I want to go, allow my inner child this space to play and experience and, yeah, maybe even be triggered so that we can work through those things, but she's not in the seat a hundred percent of the time. You know, like I think we need to have that level of self-awareness to recognize when we're dysregulated, to recognize when we are off. And when I say off, it's like I'm off the throne, that higher self is off that seat, that internal seat of power and wisdom and connection with the divine. And from that, knowing that I'm off, how do I then resource and I'm saying resource as like a hyphenated word, meaning how can I learn to reconnect to source by taking these action steps to allow her to come back, to allow that higher self to come back into the throne room and take her seat, her proper place, and so that resourcing is going.

Speaker 2:

What sources do I have in my life that will help me remember hyphenate the word? What sources do I have in my life that will help me remember hyphenate the word, remember who I am? So I'm resourcing to source with the divine. So I'm looking at the sources, what tools in my toolbox do I have that I want to pull forward to help me come into my highest self and truth?

Speaker 2:

And what do I need to do in that process to help me remember the truth of who I am, the grandest version of who I am, because oftentimes we forget that we have a grandest version of who we are who doesn't have any limiting beliefs, who doesn't have anxiety, who doesn't like are tripping over themselves all the time, because they just know they have this knowingness, they have a faith that all is well and all is going to be well and all is happening in perfect divine timing and so let's not stress about it, right?

Speaker 2:

And so there's that balance of recognizing that emotional nervous system dysregulation and going. What are my next steps? And I think that that we need to pause. This is why it's so beautiful If you can have some type of daily Reiki practice or daily meditation practice or something to kind of just tune into ourselves, to recognize where we are. Who is leading today, who is making the choices today? And it's okay to be like. Today is a day for fun and play, and this is who I want to present as Knowing that I'm still like letting that other version of me, that different archetype of me, sit in the throne, but she's still holding the hand of the higher self, and the higher self is ready to come back into her proper position at any moment if she needs to.

Speaker 1:

And this is what I love about this work is that when we look at it this way of who's making the choices today, suddenly we open up this completely different way of working with the higher self than I think I see represented anywhere else, of this idea that there's kind of two perspectives to the higher self. Right, you can take it as this really spiritual, energetic experience where there is this energy, this manifestation of your soul, of your true self that you can embody, that you could step into right, and it can be this really spiritual experience where you connect to them in a meditation or in a journey or what have you. And there's this other way of seeing the higher self, where we look at it more from that psychological point of view of we all know that we have the power of choice, that we can choose how we respond or how we react, and we know that we have the parts of ourselves that are wounded and hurting and we have the parts of ourselves that are aligned and connected and balanced and flowing and whatever words you use to understand that. And we know that we can choose, if we cultivate that self-awareness, which one of those versions of ourselves is the one making those decisions. And so this is where, again, like Christine was saying, that self-awareness comes in, because we want to be able to know ourselves in and out, because both of these versions and all of the expressions between right the one who is triggered and upset and the one who is aligned and powerful and making their decisions there's a wide range of experiences and versions of ourselves between those two bookends. But until we know ourselves, until we have that ability to sit with ourselves and really witness, who am I?

Speaker 1:

What do I feel like when I am aligned, when my energy is flowing, when I feel connected to nature or spirit or God, universe, self source, whatever you like to call it? How do I feel when I am aligned and in flow versus how do I feel when I'm out of alignment? How do I feel when I'm triggered? How do I feel when these emotions come up? How do I feel when my nervous system is out of balance? Are I making choices from a place that's not my best and highest self? Because once we have that awareness, it becomes really easy to almost have this little litmus test when we make choices of was that in keeping with that highest version of myself, whether we're looking at it from that energetic perspective. Did the energy I was putting forward in this situation match with the energy of my higher self? Or we're looking at it from a psychological standpoint? Was that choice a choice that that version of myself who exists beyond this wound or beyond this limiting belief would have made we have suddenly this little litmus test of? Was that in alignment with the person that I want to be? Is another way of looking at this.

Speaker 1:

And what I think is so beautiful about that question is it brings us back to this understanding that our higher self is that manifestation of our capital, t, true self, right, our soul self, our spirit self, whatever you want to call that, that manifestation of who we were quote unquote meant to be. And I don't mean that in like a destiny seeking kind of way, I mean that in a if you were the fullest expression of your potential, like we said earlier, who would you be? And when we think of it that way, we all know that we have this soul centered part of ourselves, right, we have our mind, the thinker, the problem solver, the one who likes to have all the questions and the thoughts and all the things. But we also know that we have this deeper part of ourselves. Whether you call it soul, whether you call it intuition, whether you call it something else, we have that deeper part of ourselves and it is from that place that we are constantly being called towards our healing, towards our highest potential, towards choosing the choices that are aligned with the divine, because it is that piece of the divine within us is what's calling us forward. And when we think of the higher self in this way, of our highest, fullest potential, it suddenly becomes so clear that our intuition, or our soul, is connected to our higher self.

Speaker 1:

Our higher self is this idea, if you will, this energy, this manifestation of everything that our soul could be when we embody into this physical person characteristic suit. It's that expression of who we could be, but it is led always by our soul, or, in other words, it is led always by our connection to the divine, by our connection to spirit. And so we inherently know when we are connected to our higher self and when we're not simply based on something as simple as how we feel right. We know when we're triggered and we react when we lash out at somebody or we slam the door or whatever it is that we do. We have that moment of that wasn't my best moment, right? That's a phrase that I think all of us have said at some point. That wasn't my best moment, or that decision that was a mistake. We know, and so we can come back into this knowing of.

Speaker 1:

I have not only this higher self, energy, this psychological construct. However you're choosing to look at it, I have this version of myself that is healed and whole and knows their power and knows their worth and is choosing to stay in that, and I have this version of me that's willing to give that power away. Which one do I want to step into? And when we look at it that way, we understand that our soul, our intuition, that spirit, true part of ourselves, is always going to be calling us towards stepping into the higher self, because it is that expression of the divine in us. It is that expression of who we were meant to be.

Speaker 1:

I said in class a few days ago that we are a manifestation of our soul. Said in class a few days ago that we are a manifestation of our soul, and what I mean by that is that our soul is constantly expressing itself through us. Right, we are this expression of divine, of consciousness, of whatever you want to call it, coming to earth to experience life. And we have this internal test of am I being aligned with the choices that my soul would make, that spirit would make, that divine would make?

Speaker 1:

Recognizing that our higher self is just an extension of that, it's just the version of our human self that knows how to live in alignment with our soul is another way of saying it. And so suddenly we have this opportunity to realize that these two things that seem so disconnected, right, our higher self and our intuition are essentially just different ways of talking about the same thing, that inner truth, that inner essence of who you are, with a capital A of looking at. Are you connected to the divine? Are you making the choices that you would make if you truly knew, if you came back into connection with the knowing, that you would make if you truly knew, if you came back into connection with the knowing that you are just divine embodied? Is this choice a choice you would make if you truly believed that you were the divine embodied? And I love that question.

Speaker 2:

Well, and I think it goes to like also, similar questions might be what would love do? Like if I was the embodiment of love or if I am the embodiment of this expansive universal? I think that's another really great way to think of it. Like are you in a state of contraction or expansion I know I bring this up often of like, recognizing. Am I making choices from a place of fear? Or making place of choices from expansion, from growth, from a state of an excited yes, right, and giving yourself some grace in this too. Like every once in a while sometimes it feels like the divine comes in and throws a veil over my eyes and wants me to have a life experience so that I learn something deeper. Right, and so giving yourself grace, like if you're like yeah, I totally fucked up last week, or whatever it was that what happened of giving yourself this grace that it's always coming back into alignment. Like giving yourself permission that knowing that if, even though it feels like you're stuck in this pattern, that the willingness to always try and attempt to come back into a place of alignment, a place where your higher self is making the choices, like it's a process. It's a process to recognize, and I think this is why I love working with the archetypes I love working with. Okay, what would my higher self do? What would be the grandest version decision I could make today? How can I, whatever it is, and recognize what am I doing to cultivate those types of questions and giving myself space to do that, cultivate those types of questions and giving myself space to do that, and that is where really we need time. So, if you are running through a nine to five, running your kids around making dinners and meals and like are exhausted by the day and just want to zone out from the TV, that's a very typical American lifestyle, right? And what we're saying is like is that what your grandest version wants to do? And all around?

Speaker 2:

For me, in my life, in my experience, my higher self hated all of that. It hated the nine to five. It hated running my kids around. It hated rushing making dinners. It hated all of that. It wanted to slow down that. It wanted to slow down and because I'm having this intentional morning practice, like I used to be so dysregulated before I'd go to work Even if my work was my Reiki practice because I was rush, rush, rush. Get the kids out of the door, make sure their lunches are perfect, do all of the things, and there was not a space to breathe. It was just full on anxiety, mom mode and it sucked the life out of me. I was so exhausted all of the time and all at what, like over the years, it's been nothing more than a mindset check of okay, in the morning I'm going to play my morning playlist.

Speaker 2:

My morning playlist is full of music around gratitude and having the best day ever and it's just super, super positive. And I sing and dance my way through the mornings. Why? Because I know my higher self enjoys that and if I allowed my inner freaked out, anxious mom to show up, it's going to be a really stressful morning. So I'm going to dance my way through my mornings and go and if I have any extra spare time, it's like how can I take a moment of peace?

Speaker 2:

What does that look like for me? Like sometimes it's looking out the window and watching the snowfall and watching the deers cuddled up in the negative degree weather, like they did this morning, and going. You know, I'm going to enjoy this moment and be grateful for it. Like I'm going to slow down enough to be grateful to see what is going on outside my window and that's enough. It's enough to kind of help pull me back into center. And so it's recognizing when I'm off center and it's recognizing when you're in it. You know, and I think that's, I think that's big, that self-awareness piece is big, and giving yourself grace again and again and again and again and again, when you find yourself out of balance, when you find yourself out of alignment, when you find yourself off your, you know your, your path and going, you know what.

Speaker 2:

Maybe the universe brought me on a detour for a reason. Maybe I needed to remember who I am this way, so I can remember how fucking powerful I actually am. Right, like there's this piece of it going. What if you just can't fuck it up? What if the attempt is, I'm always going to come back to center, but along those diversions I'm going to learn lessons. And if so, if I fall off the path, I'm going to witness myself, recognize myself, take the time to sit with it and see what's going on and then bring myself back. So it's like, how do you want to live your life? Do you want to live your life in a, in the flow? And and it can be easier, and I just so have such a personal connection to remembering when life was rush, rush, rush to how my life is now, and I reflected the other day. I'm like, wow, five years ago I was not able to do this.

Speaker 2:

Like, I am now able to run my community's carpool every morning and get my kids out the door by 7.55 without freaking out and without being stressed, and having made a beautiful homemade breakfast that's so important to me, right Like, and I'm not getting any less sleep. I'm not waking up at 5 am, I'm not even waking up at 6 am. I rarely roll out of bed before 6. Because I don't like mornings, right Like, I want them to be easy, I want them to be fun, I want them to be playful, I want everyone to be fed and I want it to go nicely. And so, like, my mornings are really good. Reflection if I'm in alignment or not. Because if I'm stressed when I'm walking out the door with three kids to carpool them all to school, I know I'm out of alignment. But if I can do that with a sense of fun, play and ease, I'm in it. Right. And so it's just like what are these really mundane things in your life and can you say I can have fun at this. This can be easy for me.

Speaker 2:

I'm not allowing that internal dialogue of repeated thoughts and and like. I think that's where so many of us get caught up with going like. I'm thinking about that again. I'm really struggling with this thought process process again, like, what is that? Like? Why are, why is our subconscious going in circles and circles and repeated thought patterns? And can we put a pin in it and go wait, stop, I'm doing it again.

Speaker 2:

I need to make a new choice. I need to thought, catch my thoughts and stop talking bad about myself or replaying that scenario that happened the other day, of when I didn't show up in my higher self or whatever it was, because there's a part of you that like wants to slow down, to figure out this lesson of why this is happening, so that you can come back in again Right. Like in my world, like it is, it's all about lessons and learnings and healings. Like and I'm not ashamed of that I feel like I can have the best version of me, the most expanded version of me, the most playful version of me, if I know my life's work, and not be not be upset about that, not be like, ashamed of that, like, my life is freaking amazing.

Speaker 2:

The students that I help are amazing. I have the privilege too. I'm honored so that, like all of these things, so I'm not going to feel bad that I need, I want to meditate in the morning or I want to do this practice, like if this allows me to be in my higher self and to trust the divine and to be a co collaborator, a co-conscious co-creatrix, if you will, into your life. Yeah, yes, please and thank you, yes, please and thank you. So where are you at, like, how is your self-awareness, your self-observation, are you giving yourself time for that and do you have tools to help yourself, resource like, source up with divine, and what does that look like for you? I think that those are some really key questions to ask ourselves so that we can know if we're living our life from our fullest potential or if we're living life in fear.

Speaker 1:

And you know, I love that last point of are we living life in our highest potential? Are we living like in fear? Because our higher self, our intuition, exists in the present. It doesn't exist in the future, it doesn't exist in the past, but those are the two places that our mind exists, and I want you to notice this for a minute. Notice everything that you've been thinking about this morning, right, everything that you can think of. So I know that today for myself, I thought about everything that you've been thinking about this morning, right, everything that you can think of. So I know that today for myself, I've thought about everything that I need to get done at work. I've thought about if I've had enough, if I got all of the groceries that I needed to yesterday. I've thought about what I need to pack for the trip that's coming up at the end of this week for me, and I have also thought about an experience that I had yesterday with my family. Those have been the main things that my mind has been thinking about this morning, and noticing how not a single one of those had anything to do with this present moment, with what was right in front of me. And so take a moment to really think about.

Speaker 1:

What has your mind been chewing on today? What has it been cycling about? What are those thought patterns that Christine was saying, that your brain has gotten caught into, and what timeline do they exist in? Are they past, present or future? And begin to notice how your mind is always going to be thinking about either the past or the future, and I love to explain this to my students by talking about how our mind is kind of like an Excel spreadsheet. You can put in all of the data into those cells and you can use the sum or the average formula to pop out a new number, or you can use the tool to predict the next number, right? But that prediction is just based on the data that you've already put in. It can't just spontaneously come up with something completely new. It's always built on what happened in the past, and this is how our minds work.

Speaker 1:

Our minds are just data storage centers and they're constantly looking at and siphoning through everything that's happened in the past to try and then spit those into the future so that we can feel more prepared, so that we can feel more in control, so that we can avoid making the mistakes that we made in the past. Right, that's essentially all our mind is ever doing. But what happens is that when we start to forget that our mind is just a tool, that our mind is just that Excel spreadsheet and we start to give it weight and we start to let it make our decisions, and we start to think that it's what should be running our lives, that's when we get anxiety and that's when we get fear. Right, because we're thinking about what could happen in the future or what already happened in the past that could have gone differently, that we could have done better, in that we wish hadn't happened. Whatever it is, our mind is stuck in this polarity of what did happen and what could happen next, constantly trying to figure out how can I do it better next time, how can I keep myself safe next time, how can I do this better? And again, that's where all of our shoulds come in, right. So we live in a society that is completely built on those shoulds, coulds and woulds of what you should have done, what you could have done better. If you had only done it this way, then maybe it would have turned out differently, right? We even think about something as simple as going to the grocery store right, is feeding into our minds tool of trying to figure out what's going to happen next. What do we want for dinner tomorrow? What do we want for lunch three days from now? What are our kids going to be hungry for in a week? And can we plan all of that ahead of time so that we're prepared in the week to come right? But that's pushing us farther into our minds. It's pushing us farther into what's happening next instead of what's happening now.

Speaker 1:

Then noticing how, in the in-between there, when your mind is stuck in the past and the future, your intuition, your higher self, is only ever focused on what's happening now. And sometimes you make choices now to influence what happens next. Right, but it's always about what decision do you make now? What feels aligned now? What are you feeling called to do now, in this present moment? And this is why your intuition and your higher self exist outside of fear.

Speaker 1:

You'll notice that your intuition, your higher self, is never afraid, is never anxious, never has doubt why? Because it exists in the present. It has let go of the need to figure out what went wrong in the past so that we can predict the future. It knows that everything important, everything valuable is happening right now, right here in front of us. And so when we can take those moments to think about what is right in front of me, what is happening now, whether that's something like you know the 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 technique, where you look for five things, you can see four things, you can hear three things, you can touch, tuning into your senses, or it's something as simple as what am I not seeing right now? Right, because our brain gets so good at filtering out stimulus so that we can stay tuned in to what our mind thinks is important, aka the past or the future.

Speaker 1:

So if we take a moment to take three deep breaths, shift back into a little bit of that parasympathetic nervous system and think about what is it that I'm not seeing right now, suddenly what I like to call the present of the present moment reveals itself. And this is really similar to what Christine was saying of what lesson is the universe flowing me to in this moment? What am I learning from this detour? It's the same thing of understanding that something in this present moment is happening of value. You would not be experiencing this moment. Your soul, your higher self, your intuition wouldn't have led you to this moment, as mundane as it may seem. Right, I'm not talking about the big, huge firework moments although those count too but even something as simple as when you make your cup of coffee in the morning, you would not be experiencing that moment if there wasn't value in it, if there wasn't something of worth in it for you and for your experience.

Speaker 1:

So can you take a moment and ask yourself what is the present of the present moment, what is in this now moment that I'm meant to be experiencing, and when we can do that? Suddenly we've let the mind die down and we've stepped back into the present, and sometimes we have to coax our mind a little bit to get it to let us to do that, because we are so used to living life from our minds, we're so used to making our decisions from this Excel spreadsheet tool that it's really hard to drop in because, again, it's just trying to keep us safe. It's just trying to keep us going, and so sometimes we have to pretend like our mind is a little bit of a toddler and coax it through of. You know what? I get it. I get that you're keeping me safe. I understand why you're stressed. I understand why you're making the decisions that you're making because you think it's what you should be doing.

Speaker 1:

But what if? Right, not saying we're going to make this decision, not saying we have to make this decision. But what if there was a different way? What if you got to choose what was right and wrong? What if there wasn't a should and you could do anything that you wanted to do? What if you got to call the shots? What would happen? And when we frame it that way, when we step into this positive what-if state, it lets our mind relax a little bit because suddenly you know it's still a little bit in control, right? It gets to have a say in what decision you're going to make. So it feels like it can stretch its wings a little bit and let you be safe.

Speaker 1:

Within the context of exploring, what choice would I make If you were making the decisions? If you let go of the shoulds, if you let go of a, this is what my morning should look like. Or this is how working a nine to five should look, or this is the steps that my life should take to be a good life. If you let go of all of that, what decision would you make right now? It might be the same decision, but at least if you pause and ask yourself, then it gets to be your decision and not a decision that's driven by everyone else's perceptions of what you should do.

Speaker 1:

And so, once again, this is where this is another tool for figuring out are you in your higher self, your intuitive state, or are you in that mind-driven state of? Are the frameworks, are the rules that you're using to make your current decisions? Are they yours or are they someone else's? Are you doing it because it's what you should be doing? Are you doing it because it's what everybody does in this situation? Are you feeling this way, acting this way, thinking this way, whatever? Because that's what's expected of you? And if the answer is, well, I'm expecting it of myself. Who taught you those expectations? Where did you get those expectations from? Are they truly coming from yourself?

Speaker 1:

Because here's the thing your intuition, your higher self, has no expectations of you. It has possibilities for you, it has potential for you, it has alignment for you if you choose to step into it, but it doesn't have expectations. Your intuition, your higher self, there's no shoulds there. There's again just what is happening right now, and where is the value in it, where is the worth in it. And so when we can step back and we can ask ourselves, why am I about to make the choice I'm about to make? Is it because I should on any level? Then that's my mind talking. And can I take a moment to step back and say, if there weren't any shoulds? Like, yes, mind, I know you're doing such a good job keeping me safe, you're doing such a good job trying to help me make the right decision, but what if there weren't any shoulds? What decision would I make?

Speaker 1:

Because the thing is, we all know and I think that's something that I love about this work so much is it is so simple. That doesn't mean it's easy, but it is that simple because we are made of this. We are made of our higher self, we are made of our intuition. And if we give that voice a chance to speak, if we take that time to take three deep breaths, to drop back into the present, where we know our higher self and our intuition exist, and we let them speak, they're going to right. If you sit down right now and think to yourself what do I want to be doing right now? What choice would I make? You instantly know. But what happens is that thought comes up we all have it, that little voice, that gut feeling, your intuition, whatever you want to call it. We all have that.

Speaker 1:

And then our mind steps back in with its Excel spreadsheet and its checklist of saying, well, you can't do that because this or that wouldn't align with your expectations for the day, so we need to cut that out, or so-and-so is expecting you to do this. You have to do that instead. And suddenly we had this glimmer of our higher self, the one who exists beyond our limitations, aka the one who exists beyond the Excel sheet of our mind. And we chose the Excel sheet instead. And that's okay. We're allowed to make that choice. We're allowed to have those moments where we go, ah shit, you know what, that was a mind choice.

Speaker 1:

That's okay, because what we're doing every time we come back into awareness of that, every time we come back into this idea of that that was my mind, whether we're able to notice it before and say you know what I'm going to ask myself what decision I would make and we can step away before we've made the mind choice, or we catch it after and we're like you know what? I didn't see it then, but that wasn't my higher self, that wasn't what my intuition was calling me to. Every time we take that moment to notice, to step into that self-awareness, what we're doing is we are retraining our mind to be in resonance with our soul, to be in resonance with our higher self, our intuition. We're putting data into the spreadsheet that says, hey, when I listen to my intuition, into the spreadsheet that says, hey, when I listen to my intuition, when I step into my higher self, magic happens. And when I don't listen to my intuition, when I don't listen to my higher self, then things don't feel good. Right, my day didn't go the way I thought it would, or I feel bad at the end of it, or I'm constantly living in stress, and I don't want that.

Speaker 1:

And the more you can step into that awareness, the more your brain, your mind, this tool that you have, is going to be able to start leading you towards eventually. Hey, what if we made the higher self decision instead? What if we made the intuitive decision instead? And you get to bring your mind on board. But this is where, like Christine was saying, that gentleness, that compassion with yourself comes in of knowing that it gets to be a process. And isn't that amazing that we aren't stuck in this war with our minds. It's not always going to feel like this strong tug of war because we get to embark on the process of retuning our mind, of bringing our mind back into alignment with our intuition.

Speaker 1:

And so, whether that's taking your three deep breaths and coming back into the present, whether that's taking a moment to ask that question of you, know what decision would I make? Whether it's using the tools that Christine was talking about, whatever it is for you, when we take that moment to come back into the present, knowing that that's where our intuition and our higher self is, and we let ourselves be open to the answer of what would my higher self do, what would my intuition do? It gets to be that simple because as soon as you ask yourself that, as soon as you give yourself space for your true self to speak instead of just your mind, that knowing is going to fall into your awareness. The hard part is choosing to go along with it. The hard part is actually making the choice to say I know what I need to do. Can I let myself do it? Because that's where the mind is going to say that's scary, that's the unknown, but when we can come back into that connection, with every time we make that choice, every time we choose to be in alignment with our higher self or let our intuition call the shots, we're retuning our mind and we're retuning our mind and we're retuning our mind, and it's okay if it feels uncomfortable because, if we think about it, your intuition has one frequency, your mind has another. When you choose your intuition's frequency, it's going to clash a little bit with the frequency of your mind, and that's okay.

Speaker 1:

That's the discomfort that we feel when we have that mental tension, when we're sitting there going, oh my gosh, I shouldn't have made that decision, or whatever it is. The amount of mental discomfort that we have is directly proportionate to the difference in how your mind sees the situation and how your soul sees the situation. So, with Christine, we're going to take her for an example, with her morning routine where she was feeling really stressed and she was feeling like well, I have to do it this way. I have to get the kids out the door, I have to get them food, I have to get ready for my workday, I have to, I have to, I have to, aka I should.

Speaker 1:

That's the mind's view of what should be happening, and that stress that she was feeling, that distress of being in that situation, was her soul trying to say hey, that's not how I see this, that's not how I feel aligned to this, there's a different way.

Speaker 1:

And so when we start to notice that and we start to see that distress, that stress, that anxiety, that discomfort, that tension, whatever it is for you, when we make a decision or when we step into a situation, as this is just a sign that my mind is seeing this differently than my soul.

Speaker 1:

And can I give myself that moment to take those deep breaths, to come back into connection, to the present moment and see what does my soul have to say, and then make the decision when you have all of the information, when you have your mind's point of view and your higher self or your intuition's point of view, and then you make the decision.

Speaker 1:

That's a decision that was truly yours, that was fueled by yourself, with a capital S that was in your power, in your worth, in your awareness. No matter which you choose to go with, no matter if you choose the mind's choice or the soul's choice, it was at least your choice and in that you're claiming back your power, you're retuning your mind, you're coming back into the present and even if you go with the mind's choice, you're still stepping into your higher self because you've reclaimed your power to say this is my choice. And it's that cycle of doing it over and over and over again that suddenly you begin to realize this is all just coming together, it's all falling into place because I am my higher self, I am my intuition, I get to make the choices that express that in this lifetime.

Speaker 2:

Well, and I think what I love about this is that our higher self is going to choose self-love every time, right. And so if we're making decisions and staying in situations, or staying in the pattern, or making decisions again and again, and if you slow down and ask yourself if I loved myself a hundred percent, a hundred percent completely, I'm in love with myself Would I continue on this path? Would I continue making this decision? And if the answer is like no, no, I wouldn't then you need to be making another choice. And so I had a friend recently tell me how her boyfriend was calling her names and I'm like would your and my mind? I'm like would her higher self stay? Her higher self loves her a hundred percent completely and wouldn't tolerate emotional abuse, right. And so it's like how can we remember our value, our worth, our self-dignity, our, our self-love? And that's how we return to center too. Like we can, we can put our foot down and be like no, I'm no longer available for this, and I think that's a huge phrase. I use all the time I am available for this. Where I'm not available for this and I think that's a huge phrase I use all the time I am available for this. Where I'm not available for this. I'm not available to be in a relationship that includes X, y and Z. I'm not available to have that as part of my reality. But I am available for X, this, these beautiful parts, and like, let let those be your boundaries, right. And so part of the having boundaries is our higher self saying yes to self-love. So how can we love ourself completely? That's how we know when the higher self is really in the decision-making chair is because she's going to choose love. She's going to choose love of self. She's going to love you so much that she would never want to have you in a position where you're being less than period period, solid period there. And so it's. It's really recognizing like your own self-worth, your own self-love.

Speaker 2:

And then, when you find yourself like, wow, I've given my power away, I've been making poor choices, I've been making poor choices, I've been doing this, the way we come back into alignment is choosing self-love. And what does your self-love path look like? What fills your cup up? What says yes to your higher self being on that throne? What does she want, right? And so it can be a choice of radical self-love and you fill up your cup, and so then it's so much easier to say no, I'm not available to that thing. That stresses me out because I'm going to do this instead. That feels good to me and let it be that.

Speaker 2:

And like, how am I feeding myself in my world? What friendships do I have? What media do I expose myself? What do I listen to on the podcast? What books on tape do I engage with? What movies do I have? What media do I expose myself? What do I listen to on the podcast? What books on tape do I engage with? What movies do I watch?

Speaker 2:

How is it helping me come into my power and claiming my sovereignty Because it always comes back to our personal power and our sovereignty of am I in the decision-making spot that's going to say yes to the fullest version of who I am and let that be okay. Let like recognize the discomfort of like okay, boundaries are scary because when I've set them in the past, my subconscious does X, y and Z and freaks out. But you deserve better, you deserve better, you deserve better. You deserve to have a magical fucking life. You do, you do and your higher self knows exactly what you need to do to have a completely magical life. So don't let someone steal your magic, like, don't give your power away. And I say that to myself just as much as I say it to everyone else, because we need the reminder right. And it's okay to fall out of alignment and come back again and again, and again, and again and again, because that's part of being human. So we are human and balanced with our higher self. Or when our higher self is in alignment, then we, our intuition, is on point. The intuition tells us what next step to take and all we have to do is know that our life is of divine and of service and wait for the call to have the next divine action step in front of us.

Speaker 2:

Like I've been. I got back into town maybe a week ago a little bit longer than that and I've been like, okay, my brain is like, quote, unquote. I should put something on the calendar for this month for Bozeman. I should set up another goddess play date with for my community, I should teach a class in town or whatever it is. And it was like you know, no, I haven't heard the call from my higher self to do something yet. Like, I know it's percolating, I know it's in the background.

Speaker 2:

I'm giving myself the time to land back in Bozeman and get on my feet and then I'm waiting. I'm waiting in this magical space of self-love and self-care, so I am pouring it in. I want to take time numerous times a day to say yes to self-love and I'm going to wait for the divine to speak to my higher self, through my higher self, for next action steps. And that is the basis for the magical life. It's not hurry up and do X, y and Z. That's the mind it is. I'm going to wait patiently. I'm going to lean back into this knowingness that the universe has me taken care of. It has got the money figured out, it's got the way figured out, it's got the pieces in place. The divine timing is happening and I am in this. I can be in a waiting pattern of wait for that divine inspiration.

Speaker 2:

And so yesterday, part of my divine inspiration was like share about your self-care path, about what you're doing for self-love. Like share that go online every day, do a little video, do something to share what you are doing, to help resource your connection, to display what's in your toolbox. Because even if that's all my divine inspiration is for right now, what a beautiful tool it is for all of our audience to go. If she can do it, I can do it too. There's toolbox full of magical things to help us come back into our alignment and and it's okay, it's okay.

Speaker 2:

And so, even if you took whether it is five minutes, I think there's a lot of people out there that thinks that their practice needs to be a full hour thing. And what if it was five minutes of Reiki before bed? And what if it was five minutes of dance movement? And what if it was five minutes here and that's all. It was 15 minutes total, but you it's broken up so that you can find the, the place and space to remember who you ultimately are, which is your soul, which is your higher self, and in that space the intuition is going to show up.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely. And so, knowing in this conversation that this is, as always, an invitation to take what we've talked about and bring it into your own life, of when we boil it down, can you take a moment to take some deep breaths, to come back into the present, this now moment, and ask yourself who's making the decisions? Who do I want to be making the decisions? And if I allowed my higher self and my intuition to speak up, what decision would they make? What decision would come forward in this present moment from that highest space of myself, for my highest good? And then can you allow yourself to take action on that inspiration, whatever it is?

Speaker 1:

So we would love to know, after listening to this podcast, after trying this, after taking a moment to make the choice from your higher self, from your intuitive space, what happened, how did your day unfold, how did it feel to make that choice and how did you breathe through any discomfort as you were experiencing that dissonance of retuning your mind, of coming back into the present? We would love to know all of this over in our Moon Rising Shamanic Mystics Facebook group. We would love for you to send us a message about it so we can connect and hear how is this experience for you? How are you integrating it into your daily life? What were your top takeaways? So be sure to join us over in our Facebook group, If you haven't already. Send us a message, send us an email, hop on a connect call with us. We are here to support you and we are so grateful that you tuned in today.

Speaker 2:

And know that if you are wanting to cultivate this practice for your life, if you are wanting to cultivate this practice for your life, if you are wanting to learn what toolbox tools in your toolbox can be cultivated so that you can find your resourcing method to come into a space of sourcing with the divine and allowing your higher self to come through, we call these activating actions inside our soul rising program and we have so many of them. It's like a buffet table of here. We're going to introduce you to all of these different tools and techniques to help you come into your alignment, because we want you to be so freaking aligned that every day is a good day, every day feels good. And as we do this deeper dive into the shadow work, we want to make sure you have all of these tools to help you resource and come into your fullest alignment as you do your self-healing work. So our soul rising program now is starting February 3rd. We have extended on that timeline so that you can feel the call If this is the right program to you. It is our four month. Four month like signature program, but it is like your, your way to step into your healing path, your healing light, your self-sourced wisdom.

Speaker 2:

It is not about making cookie cutters of us myself, isabella or Chantel. We don't want cookie cutter versions of us. We want you to be the fullest version of you. We want you to be saying yes to you and your higher self so that you can find that space of alignment, so that you can be the grandest version of you, who you are, and be the co-creatrix with the divine. Because we believe in that and we know that it works and we know we can see the profound changes in our students and we want to walk with you on that path. So thank you so much for tuning in, to listening, to getting curious and to contemplating. Do you feel the call for our soul rising program? We would love to have you there to support you, to witness you and to walk with you on that healing journey.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely, and so, until then, thank you for listening, thank you for shining your light, thank you for being open to seeing things from your intuition and your higher self's perspective, whether your intuition calls you towards working with us in the course or just joining us in our Facebook group. We are so excited that you are here, that you are part of the community, and we hope that until next time, may you awaken to the whispers of wisdom rising from within. Thanks for tuning in to today's show. The Wisdom Rising podcast is sponsored by Moon Rising Shamanic Institute. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to subscribe to the show on your favorite podcasting app and be the first to know when we release a new episode. You can find us on Instagram, facebook, youtube and TikTok at Moon Rising Institute, or visit our website, moonrisinginstitutecom to learn more about our mission and find future opportunities to connect with our community of shamanic mystics. Once again, thank you for sharing space with us today, and until next time, may you awaken to the whispers of wisdom rising from within.