Today’s episode ends the series on Mystical Intimacy, where I have the pleasure of conversing with a small group of participants about the last chapter of my book, a chapter on love.

Their vulnerable sharing, keen inquiry, thoughts and feelings truly move me. I feel so blessed for the experience and honoured to share it with you, the listener.

The conversation centres on our needs, what needs are, their validity and how to honour their intrinsic value. 

We explore how we externalize our need for love and simultaneously abandon ourselves – how we live outside of ourselves and how cultivating self-compassion and understanding allows us to receive the care we need.

Ultimately, we uncover how acknowledging our needs fills our inner well to overflowing and supports us in being powerfully magnetic and alive in the world.

There is a special channeled message celebrating our human nature through all the ups and downs, expressions and experiences. Spirit is in awe of the courage it takes to feel, and they want us all to know that the more we feel, the freer we are.

Many people hold an overarching sense of responsibility towards measuring up to the idealized self, based on what they do, what they achieve and who they’re supposed to be. 

We play many roles defined by our conditioned upbringing and society consumed by this pressure to be the providers, the successful, the ultimate picture of worthiness. Where is there space for love, acceptance, and self-soothing?

Today’s episode centres on the last chapter of my book about love. I explore how being unconditional doesn’t mean turning the other cheek, as the saying goes. It doesn’t mean that we must be selflessly tolerant. 

Love begins with the self, reminding me of a wellspring – a hole drilled into the ground to access the aquifer – the underground layer of water-bearing permeable rock. The aquifer needs to be replenished by rain to fill the well. Nature is continuously resourced in time.

Human beings are no different. We need time to rest and relax to heal and be replenished. We need time, if only a moment, to pause, to slow down and remember to breathe. We need time to tune in to become aware of our natural boundaries – to know when to limit the over-consumption of our inner well. 

This second-to-last episode of my podcast series on Mystical Intimacy is devoted to the gift of love and how it endeavours to remind us that we are sacred and compels us to trust in life because that is what we need to be whole, body and soul, and to thrive.

Today, my guest is Matthew Jaworski. You may recognize his voice from episode 17 of my podcast where he was part of a group conversation on the importance of the ego and our longing.

Matthew is from Michigan in the US, the son of a long linage of military veterans. In his early adult-like, he joined the Navy and soon came to realize that he was out of place in that environment and out of his personal integrity.

Like many people, Matthew followed in the footsteps of his family, their beliefs and values. After leaving the military life, he found steady work and went about living his life in a way that he thought would gain him approval and security, but instead, he found little meaning.

I asked him to join me for today’s episode on spiritual commitment because I recognize how devotion is playing a big role in his healing and awakening. I’ve witnessed his growth in the Mystic Heart Circle and in private sessions and have come to deeply appreciate his willingness to unravel the conditioned perceptions he’s had of himself and of life on his journey of uncovering his true sense of self and purpose.

In today’s episode, I share passages from chapter-11 of Mystical Intimacy, a chapter about spiritual commitment that explores how you can take charge of your life while simultaneously yielding to the guidance found in everything. 

I also talk about aligning yourself with the fruition of your longing by positioning yourself within reach of infinite possibilities.

Spiritual commitment is about honouring what sustains you, not what drives you. The mind is strategic in planning and securing your life while your soul, on the other hand, is focused on supporting your life. The two are needed to balance the whole self, to fine-tune your soul-embodiment.

In my experience, spiritual devotion is a long-term commitment that requires constant rededication of our spiritual integrity. I liken this to musicians who have to retune their instruments regularly, and so do we have to retune our own instruments: our body and mind, our focus and intent, and our willingness to be guided. 

Masiandia says that spiritual commitment is the willingness to return to harmony. It’s about accepting and honouring reality and simultaneously changing reality with the presence of our devotion. 

It’s a dance between the simultaneously co-existing paradox between our longing to connect and our resistance – our drive to survive. At the centre point of this paradox exists deep spiritual devotion and belonging.

Today, my guest is Bettina Roth, an embodied leadership coach, conscious movement facilitator, community builder and public speaker. Through her work, she aims to bring people together in heart-centered and embodied ways. 

She describes the goal of her work as helping people return to a sense of belonging and connection — to their bodies, to themselves, to each other, and to our ecosystem. 

I met Bettina on the dance floor at my first 5-rhythm workshop. It was a full-day event that I found profoundly nourishing. Bettina was the facilitator with whom I felt instantly safe and whom I found so inspiring. 

There is something about her grace, confidence and her wisdom that I was compelled to for the topic of renewal, a deepening exploration of ch-10 of my book. 

Our conversation takes us through the natural cycles of embodiment, release and rebirth, and the role of fire as an element of renewal in our lives, which Bettina refers to as our life-force energy.

Renewal centers on redefining reality. What if the belief you hold about reality doesn’t serve you?

“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.”
– Albert Einstein

Our perception of reality can be so binary that it ensnares us in evaluating life through the lens of right and wrong. We then become defended against the bad that we perceive and seek only to be good and expect good from others. But what defines goodness? Our intrinsic sense of value or conditioned beliefs? 

Some people are programmed to believe that their dreams, heart desires and needs are too much or require too high a sacrifice. For instance, some don't want to be vulnerable enough for love, as they've learned early in life to hide their feelings from others and from themselves. 

Many of my clients first come to me with the judgment that there is something wrong with them, and if they’re not critical towards themselves then they project judgments onto others - their spouse, manager, parent, child, friend. They perceive reality through the lens of good and bad, evaluating rather than feeling their way through life. 

How can our sense of value, purpose, self-expression and vitality be resourced if our emotions are trapped in judgment?  How can we retrieve fragmented parts of us, the wounded child, guilt and shame, when our feelings are buried? 

Listen to this episode to unlock the power of compassion needed for healing, renewal and fulfillment. Come explore the richness of human emotion and being the vessel for divinity.

In today’s episode, my guest Catherine Whelan Costen and I explore how to deepen into the art of seeing and sensing more, especially when it comes to grief - the art of letting go into love.

Catherine is a podcaster and author. Her new e-book: Permission to Breathe, a memoir, captures the essence of core beliefs, how they define us and how they are the driving force behind the decisions we make and the quality of our life experiences. 

I am especially moved by Catherine’s spiritual awakening following her son’s fatal accident. She had a mystical experience where she saw him leave his body into the light of his spiritual consciousness and has since felt his presence, guidance and love. She believes in our eternal beingness and trusts that life is so much more than it seems.

Listen to the episode to be moved into a deeper awareness of the cycle of life, death and renewal, and ultimately see the beauty and wisdom within grief, and receive its gift - its blessings

In today’s episode, my guest Michael Stone, a shamanic practitioner, radio host, and spiritual mentor, is adamant about taking the doing out of letting go. I love how Michael refers to letting go as a way of making peace with the parts of ourselves that we see as neurosis, as well as the facets of others that we resist.

Letting go is less about what we’re trying to get rid of or trying to get unstuck. It’s more about letting in and letting be, which awakens awareness and returns us to our original wholeness. 

The significance of making space for the fragmented aspects of our human experience through embodied experience is not lost on Michael. He’s a strong advocate for integrating our lost parts by getting into the body with care and respect for the intelligence of our conditioned responses. Instead of fighting up against our supposed maladjustment, we’re invited to see their value

Rather than pressure ourselves and others to change or try to be what we’re not, letting go is a surrendered state that allows us to be present to what wants to be experienced, seen, heard, felt and healed.