Many of us here in the U.S. were shocked and disappointed by the results of yesterday’s Presidential election. It seems as though hatred has won the battle against love. But Gia and Karen present a new mindset to adopt as we look at this event to help us rise above it and make the best of what feels like a very bad situation. They talk about the positive outcomes that arise from starting over again after a destructive experience and why we must remember to keep loving and not descend into fear or hatred.
In this episode Karen shares Something Positive: the story of Israeli and Palestinian women marching together for peace! They stated, “We cannot count on men to create peace. We have to do it ourselves.” Read the story here.
Gia and Karen discuss the term “nasty woman”, which was used against Hillary Clinton in a recent presidential debate, but has been embraced by women across the country. The word nasty derives from a Dutch word that means “dirty, like a bird’s nest.” This is reminiscent of the Divine Feminine energy, which is wild, creative, nurturing and even “dirty.”
This “nasty” comment represents the fact that the Shadow side of humanity is being exposed and is no longer tolerated. Abuse of women and children is being brought to light and abusers are being punished. The comment is helping to galvanize women and bring them together to champion for their rights.
Karen reflects on being rejected for being feminine during her medical training and having to hide her feminine qualities. Early feminism seemed to be masculine in presentation and power-seeking. But the Divine Feminine is totally different and is now finally arising.
Feminine medicine is heart-based with love, compassion, relationship, and deep listening utilized as aspects of healing. Now slowly some doctors of both genders are adopting a more heart-based approach to medicine.
Women need to become empowered in a feminine way such as uniting, building bridges, embracing others, caring, and drumming, singing and dancing together as the women in Israel did on their peace march. Feminine power expresses itself through vulnerability (see Podcast #17for a further discussion on this.)
Let’s embrace all the negative terms used to describe women and own them as signs of our power! We can help men embrace their own feminine essence through relationship, emotion, unconditional love.
In this episode Gia begins by sharing Something Positive: a program in an elementary school in Baltimore that teaches children breath work and meditation instead of sending them to detention. They send a misbehaving child to a “Mindful Moment” room for reflection and some calming meditation. This program has yielded very positive results for the school – well done!
Next Gia and Karen talk about how to regain trust after you’ve been betrayed by another person or by life itself. It’s important to learn some recovery skills so that betrayals don’t cause us to spiral down into victimhood or fear. The conversation includes:
betrayal is a normal part of life – everyone is just human, trying to do the best they can
ultimately our trust should be in ourselves and our own Divinity rather than in people or things outside of ourselves
if we truly trust ourselves and our higher power then we don’t need anyone else in our lives to be totally trustworthy
betrayal can cause us to contract in fear and make ourselves small for self-protection if we don’t learn how to cope with it
even if we’ve healed the past we have to be open to betrayal happening again – have equanimity and compassion for others who are just being human
be able to take the Galaxy view and recognize that life has no guarantees and offers us many different opportunities to learn our lessons
betrayal is one of the biggest lessons we each must learn – so accept from the outset that life is going to bring this experience
we can allow others to be who they are when we place our trust within – we don’t require others to be perfect for us
we can become bitter if we expect our God to always prevent “bad” things from happening to us – this is a misunderstanding of what life is all about
Tips for regaining trust:
turn to prayer and meditation when you feel hurt or betrayed
accept your feelings rather than judging them
trace your own life journey and recognize all of the unexpected things that have happened, both surprises and disappointments; look for patterns in the ups and downs and recognize how life is teaching you certain lessons
consider that your current betrayals may be pointing you toward old wounds that still need to be healed
focus on loving yourself even more, especially when you feel fear
know that you have the power to take care of yourself and to make the highest choices for yourself
Remember: It’s Just Life! with all its crazy ups and downs – the more your emotions rise to the surface the faster you are growing and evolving! Be a Spirit Warrior and a Change Pioneer – join our community and help us forge new territory in life!
As always we love you and send you tons of joy! Thanks for sharing this journey with us! Leave us your comments and go to iTunes to post reviews for this podcast. See you next time!
In this episode Gia and Karen talk about some personal experiences with healing their old wounds by taking a new perspective.
Something Positive is a story from Australia of two Aboriginal men who were dining at a restaurant and overheard two older women at a nearby table making racist comments about Aboriginals. Rather than getting angry the two men sent a pot of tea to the women as a gift with a note stating that it was from them. They responded to hatred with kindness, which is what the world needs right now!
Gia shares a personal story about rising above feeling hurt and abandoned by the behavior of another person. She learned how to love and celebrate who she is instead of taking the experience personally.
The discussion includes these points:
Neuroscience shows that negative memories are stored 10X more strongly than positive memories because the brain is wired to pay attention to potential threats
Neural pathways become stronger each time an old negative emory is revisited or re-enacted
Break the pattern of old negative behaviors by creating a new reality to reset the belief system
Our difficult relationships are gifts that point out our wounds and give us the opportunity to heal them
A powerful healing practice for relationships: write letters to and from the other person (without sending them) to access higher wisdom and create a new perspective
Our wounds are areas that are hidden from our self-love so they need to be exposed to enable us to love ourselves more fully
No one else has the power to make you happy! That is your responsibility. You create all the positive feelings in your life along with all the negative.
Recover from victimhood by recognizing that you are responsible for everything you feel – both positive and negative – and this will attract better partners for you
What you heal in present time is healed through all time so do your healing work now and don’t worry about going back to the past
Sometimes opportunities to heal our hidden wounds come to us through Grace
The stories we have told ourselves over the years are likely not even accurate or true – we cannot know what other people feel or they are thinking
View everything as an opportunity to heal – when other people bring pain they are just pointing our wounds so we can love ourselves more!
Share your stories and comments with us! We are sending you endless love for your journey. Go to iTunes and leave reviews for us – it will help spread the word to other people about It’s Just Life!
Today Gia shares her current personal situation in which life is “on pause” due to her roommate’s hospitalization after a bike accident. This unexpected event is the stimulus for a great conversation about the opportunities available when life’s tragic occurrences force us to take time out from our day-to-day busy schedules. The discussion includes:
why times of crisis are opportunities for transformation
reminders that we are not really in control over most of life – we are passengers, not the drivers of our “life vehicles”
how hospitals are sacred spaces
the process of healing from a conscious perspective: mind vs soul
the importance of being still and waiting to see what’s next
Take-home messages:
respond to every crisis with love, not fear
see the blessing in “the pause”
embrace whatever happens in your life
As always, we are here to share with you our own personal journeys through life’s ups and downs so that you will know that you are not alone and YOU ARE LOVED!
Take good care of yourself, spread love wherever you go, and remember that It’s Just Life!
In this episode Gia and Karen discuss an article about grief we recently read that was titled “Everything Doesn’t Happen for a Reason” by Tim Lawrence. We dissect the article and find plenty of statements to disagree with, to validate, and to further explain. The conversation covers these interesting points:
What “everything happens for a reason” means and doesn’t mean
Suffering is not a requirement for growth but can be a catalyst
Grief is a process and may look different to us at different stages in the process
We have to hold both perspectives: (1) Suffering is terrible AND (2) it is possible to grow and transform as a result of our suffering
Deep love makes us vulnerable to suffering and loss and can break our hearts open
How finding meaning in our suffering helps us carry the pain
Self-compassion is necessary to get through time of suffering
Why saying nothing can be the best thing to do during times of grief
We know that grief is an individual process, unique to each person who experiences it. But it is also a universal experience–something we all share as part of life here on Planet Earth. We hope you find comfort and peace in knowing that we feel the pain of life, too, right along with you. Send us your comments! We are sending you our love!!
Today Gia and Karen talk about how to find abundance on our spiritual journeys while we are also struggling to make a living in the everyday world. They discuss:
Trusting the abundance of the Universe, even when you can’t see it
How intuition can come to us through our struggles
What does success mean on the spiritual path
Why we shouldn’t compare ourselves to others
Trust is key to the journey – we have to let go of our expectations
Love your own path and be happy for others who are own their own unique journeys as well
We can co-create love, wholeness and abundance for our world as a whole
Loss and brokenness can reveal our path and purpose
Gratitude is the key to abundance
From Sarah Avant Stover: “the 4 G’s” for journaling
Gratitude
Good
Glitches
Goals
We are most grateful for YOU our podcast audience! Thanks for sharing the journey with us and remember that we are right there with you in the crazy ups and downs of life!
It's Just Life! 