Speaker 1: 0:01

The Journey Talks Podcast, your favorite podcast to reconnect with gratitude and inspiration, hosted by Jorge Gonzales. Hello and welcome to Journey Talks Podcast, your favorite podcast to reconnect with gratitude and inspiration. My name is Jorge Sallego Gonzales and I am your host. I am convinced that behind every gratitude, there is a powerful story waiting to be told, and through this podcast, I want to create a space where we can share these stories and inspire one another. As humans, we all shared one thing in common, and that is the experience of being alive. We are all together on this journey we call life, and along the way we meet people and go through situations that leave a footprint and us. Some have a very short stay, while others hang in there for a little longer. Who are the people or situations in our lives that have opened doors for transformation and helped us become the person we are today? Through this podcast, I will be interviewing guests with stories of gratitude. My hope is that our willingness to reconnect with these stories will help us celebrate and share our humanity and give us an opportunity to reconnect with the unconditional love that we all have access from within.

Speaker 1: 1:27

Our guest today is an incredible human being. In my opinion, she embodies the definition of a gentle spirit. She has a beautiful heart. She is one of those people that radiates peace. Her presence puts anyone at ease and her soothing words open the path for healing in our hearts and in our minds. She is an author, a philosopher and a spiritual mentor. She is also a life coach. Through her gifts, she has helped many people to find their inner voice and fulfillment. We met about five years ago and over the years we have been able to share a great friendship. She loves conversations, books, nature and, overall things. A delicious, warm, cough up coffee All the way from Miami. Please join me in welcoming the one and only Nicole Bloom. Nicole, welcome to Journey Talk Podcast. Thank you for being with us. How are you?

Speaker 2: 2:23

Hello, I'm so happy to be here. I'm wonderful. How are you?

Speaker 1: 2:28

I'm so excited, I'm great. I'm great, I'm very happy that we're doing this together and that finally, everything aligned and our schedules aligned and we can spend some time together. This is great. I have tried to sing your praises and I have tried to tell people a little bit about you, but can you tell us a little bit more about who you are, what you do and what's been up with you lately?

Speaker 2: 2:52

Absolutely so. I just wrote my first book on poetic philosophy inspired by nature. I am a philosopher at heart, a natural born philosopher. It has always been in my heart and in my mind to make sense of who we are and what we do in this life, and that has led to mentoring, to coaching, to guiding others to the path of fulfillment and the path of spirit and the path of purpose. It's always come very naturally to me and I just have this natural ability to see and hear and feel others in a way that's very deep, very intuitive, and it's just a catalyst for change, for healing, change, for positive change, for growth. And so that's what I've dedicated my life to is to giving. It's to giving that which I feel, that which I see and that which I hear. That helps people see, hear and feel themselves as well.

Speaker 1: 3:55

Wonderful, wonderful. This is great. Thank you so much. So I would love to have an opportunity. I feel, and I think that you have a wonderful journey. Your journey is beautiful and you have plenty of stories of gratitude, and I would love to ask you, if you don't mind, if we can dive right into it what is the value of gratitude in your life?

Speaker 2: 4:22

Thank you Absolutely. The value of gratitude in my life is gold. Gratitude is gold of the spirit. There is nothing worth more than gratitude. So that's how I view it and how I feel it and how I express it.

Speaker 1: 4:47

And can you expand a little more about what gold means to you? I mean, do you mean it in a way that it's valuable, that it's precious? On what? Why gold?

Speaker 2: 4:58

So gold, because I feel that that is what holds the highest value in physical form to the human mind so if you were to use a metaphor, we would be able to see the value of something that our heart can feel.

Speaker 2: 5:18

And so when you are grateful, when you experience gratitude, you're connecting that bridge of the heart and the mind, and so this bridge can take you to paradise. If you were to have all the gold in the world, all the gratitude in the world, you can feel any paradise within you. You can create a beautiful life and that's just infinitely blooming. That's always something to be grateful for. It's a very soul rich life when you're able to feel gratitude every single day. You're rich with love, you're rich with gratitude, you're rich with all the things that mean the most in life, which is everything that we work for.

Speaker 1: 6:10

Okay, and so one of the things that I feel like you have is a gift for words, not only when you speak, but also when you write. The way I met you was through poems, through your writing, and I remember I had you as a guest with my students and you were so great with the kids. You even brought your typewriter to write a poem and the kids improvised. You were teaching the kids the different skills and how to improvise and whatnot. You definitely have a gift for words, and I can see and I hope that this conversation will show people that this is one of your strongest assets, right how you can use your words to paint images and that depict sometimes our state of mind, our emotions, what we carry inside of us, and so I look forward to it. So let's continue. What? Let me ask you this, nicole? What are you grateful for? When you think about gratitude, what comes to your mind?

Speaker 2: 7:17

The first thing that comes to my mind is a word, and the word is everything. And when I start breaking down everything, it is first and foremost, the gift of life to be alive at all, to be here and I think of okay, well, I'm grateful to be here because of love. Love is the second, everything that comes with gratitude being able to love life, being able to love people around you, being able to love yourself. So I'm grateful to be alive because it's an opportunity to love and it's an opportunity to feel what the human spirit is capable of feeling. And it's an emotional experience, it's an emotional journey, and so I'm grateful for every little thing.

Speaker 2: 8:12

And it used to be a mantra, it used to be something that I would start my day with, but I've kind of become the gratitude rather than forcing myself to sit down and think about it. I've written it so much, I thought of it so much that it's become a feeling, and it's become such a deep-seated belief of mine the belief of gratitude and the power of gratitude that if I'm in a daydream or I don't have my focus on anything specific, I catch myself telling myself how grateful I am for that present moment or how grateful I am for the person in front of me or the cup of coffee in front of me. So it almost becomes a way of life and you find that when you're grateful, you're more in the present moment and you just feel life around you more deeply.

Speaker 1: 9:02

Hmm, yeah, you know it's interesting. You again, your words are a gift for you, and so you. I think it's fascinating the way that you are describing how gratitude has become something that encompasses your whole being. Um, you know, I wonder, I wonder how. I mean, definitely this is something that is easy for you, but you, you, you mentioned something just a second ago that the thought becomes an emotion, like a feeling, and and can you, can you talk a little bit more about it?

Speaker 1: 9:42

Because this whole concept of this whole concept of you allowing every single experience to be filtered through that mindset, I think it's very intentional. And the truth is, if I speak from my own experience, I recognize that I have to be very mindful to, to, to put that into practice. Yes, I also love gratitude and all of that, but, but I recognize that there are moments in which my mind gets the best out of me. Certain narratives kick in and then and I have to turn down the volume of those stories right, In order to allow the gratitude to, to, to, to bring it, to bring the gratitude in. So tell us a little bit more about that process for you.

Speaker 2: 10:30

Absolutely so. I believe that anything we feel with emotional intensity, rewires and reconditions are nervous system and our belief systems. So we must take the time to not only think it and write it and say it, but to feel it and to really give it intensity, really give it extreme focus so that it's as powerful as your worries and your fears, but then more powerful because we think of all these other things instinctually very powerfully. But our intuition, our intuitive nature, we don't do very powerfully. It's very subtle, it's always trying to speak to us, it's always trying to have as much space as our instinct.

Speaker 2: 11:20

So by at first I started like anybody else, writing it. What am I grateful for? Writing it in morning journals, writing it in the evening, talking to myself about it. And one day I remember that I felt my ego was being a little bit strong, was feeling ungrateful. And because I was aware of that, because I caught myself being ungrateful, I told myself the rest of the day I'm going to be only grateful for everything around me and every single thing that happens to me.

Speaker 2: 11:54

And at the end of that day I had felt so good and I had looked at everything and because I was upset with myself, I was able to be grateful with emotional intensity. I wanted to overpower the negativity, had the will, the strong, strong will to want to overpower any negativity that I had felt. And now that and it's sometimes it's in the car. So when I am out in the world telling myself what I'm grateful for, when I pass by that tree, again I remember. And when I pass by that house, I remember, and when I see that person, I remember. And so all of a sudden there's all these reminders, because I'm taking it out of my journal and into the world. I'm taking it out of my mind and into my heart and that's where it sticks.

Speaker 1: 12:43

Wow, incredible. Thank you so much. You know you're actually, in my opinion, I think you are tap your ex unpacking a process that people can call it whatever, right, people can call it in different ways. I feel comfortable calling it spirituality, other people call it, you know, they understand their psyche or psychology, they apply psychology to themselves.

Speaker 1: 13:10

But that, that inner process that you're talking about to me a hands into self awareness, you know, and how we recognize the things that are happening to us and and and and the fact that we can do that, that we are not powerless about those things, right.

Speaker 1: 13:30

That that when things do show up, whether it's a trigger let's say you talk about being in the car you know I, I recognize that I, I can, I can have my rote rage moments, right, and so when that, when somebody cuts me off or whatever that I'm trigger, I'm like, okay, here's my ego showing up.

Speaker 1: 13:48

You know, having that self talk to like, again, tune down the volume of all of unnecessary or unhealthy thinking patterns that we know they're going to only lead us to places of anger, sadness, feelings that are very low vibration, right, I mean whatever that is and look like for you. I think that having that self awareness is something critical, and I keep hearing that in what you're saying, right, I keep hearing this connection to your intuition, like you say earlier. You know, and I love when you said that is very subtle, but it's always there. And so I wonder can you think of someone or remember a situation that you went through and now, looking back, you realize that you know yourself better because of it? And I guess I'm going back to this whole idea of self awareness, right, and so is there anything that you can share with us about that?

Speaker 2: 14:57

Absolutely so. A great example is. I'm going to use it as a more general example, but because it's happened to me multiple times and it took multiple times of happening in my life, usually in transitions of life, so a way that I was able to differentiate between my regular voice and my inner voice and life happening and me finding myself awareness. You know, in the midst it always would happen in transitional period where, if it was with a job that was no longer serving me, if it was with friendships that were no longer serving me, a relationship, whatever it may be, what brought me to myself awareness was actually getting to the point where I couldn't carry anything else and I just let go of the world completely and took a day for myself. That's when I would hear myself and see myself and feel myself, when I let go and I stopped trying to move everything outside me.

Speaker 1: 16:13

Wow, and can you, can you tell us a little bit about what letting go looks like for you?

Speaker 2: 16:19

Letting go looks like a few things and it's happened differently every time, so to speak, to the people who can relate to it, letting go is crying. Letting go is saying no to parties and to events where I don't have any more emotional fuel.

Speaker 1: 16:40

That's letting go, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2: 16:42

Crying it out, saying no, walking away from a job that is no good for you and it just takes. It doesn't just take your time, it takes a little bit of your spirit every single time. So, letting go of the things that were hurting me and letting go of the image that I thought that I had to have of myself not anyone of me when I would let go of my own image of me, oh, yes, that's when I would progress.

Speaker 1: 17:11

Wow Again, wow, nicole, thank you so much. That was that's a punchline, my friend, the ideas that you had of yourself. Yeah, because we, I have learned over the years that until I recognized the inner inner, the wound in me, when I, when I can see what's behind the wound, I can, then I can meet that with, hopefully, self care, self love, and and instead of fighting against it, I try my best to lean in and say what's here, what are you trying to tell me? But those are. I mean, let's be honest, that's that's hard. I mean, these are things, these are practices, these are skills.

Speaker 1: 18:07

That takes time and these are skills, in my opinion, that not everybody's equipped with. That, you know, like, this is what? Perhaps finding a good therapist, finding a good life coach, maybe your spiritual practices, whatever that is, help you to notice those things, to see when they show up and, more importantly, perhaps having the ability, right of the know-how, of whether it's crying, taking a day off, turning yourself away from a party or from a job that is not serving you, I mean that's pretty powerful, nicole, thank you for sharing. Would you, would you say that? How? How were you able to to tap into that. What were the things that help you get to that place where you are right now?

Speaker 2: 18:59

It was definitely self-awareness. And what would happen in all those transitions, when I said no, when I left the job, when I cried it out, the only thing that it ever hurt and silenced was my ego. And when I would silence my ego, I would hear my spirit. I would hear the inner voice, because it was diminished when I did opposite of what I had to do and what I thought I had to say and be. It would kill my ego every single time. And so, because my ego would be at surrender, I would hear that little subtle voice, and so that voice got louder and louder and louder and it and that voice, that experience is self-awareness, it's self-awareness. So my self-awareness would get stronger and stronger and stronger every time I would defy my ego but honor my spirit.

Speaker 1: 20:04

Would you mind saying that again? We we had. We ran into some connection issues.

Speaker 2: 20:09

Oh yeah, so it was a process of self-awareness, because every time I would defy my ego, I would honor my spirit, and it was almost as if, you know, ego is a lot of expectations. So when I would let go of my own expectations, I'd grab on to my character, my true character, a little more. So that, to me, is what led me here to this level of gratitude right, right.

Speaker 1: 20:42

So Let me ask you this, because my experience has been that when I meet my ego, with my own ego energy, nothing happens, because I am, I am trying to defeat it with the same energy, right, so I Am going at it with with, let's say so, in my case I. I, I'm someone. I recognize that I need it and sometimes and many times, I need people's validation, right. And so I've learned over the years that needing that comes from a place of insecurity, comes from from my thought and idea that I am not good enough, right. And so when the ego shows up because something inside of me has been triggered, right, and the ego says, here, I am right, I, if I try to fight it or to defeat it with no, I'm strong enough, I'm not gonna let this thing do it to me, many times it doesn't work. May, it might work for a little bit, but However, if I say, oh, here you are again, I Know that when you show up in this way, chances are that it's coming from this particular thing, because, again, self-awareness, and knowing your history and knowing your, your strength and your areas of growth, I can see when that situation is actually just pointing out to the fact that a part of me, that actually I'm just recognizing my sensibility right, and that's a man.

Speaker 1: 22:24

Sometimes that's really hard to recognize, but when I lean in and I recognize, oh, there, here, this, here it is and this is showing up, but it's because I somehow, whatever the circumstances are, or is it it? Trigger this thought, right, and so instead of saying, oh, you're not gonna get the best of me, I'm saying, oh, I try to meet it with compassion, and that sometimes makes it a lot easier For that energy to settle in to, to, to, to slow down, to, like, calm down, and so the waters Become still again and I can see clear, I can hear better, I can, I can listen to my, to my soul, to my, to my intuition, to my, to my heart. Have you, have you experienced something similar? What does that look like for you?

Speaker 2: 23:19

So something that you said is very big, which is where you said sometimes we do things to seek validation, and we know that that's the ego. So we sometimes believe that Everybody has the answers and the image of us, but really nobody can tell you your path but you. When you receive advice from someone, you should have their similar path at heart, because what happens is, if we do not learn how to let the self-awareness to hear ourselves truly and wholeheartedly, the person you take advice from is the person you become, and so that's why only we, only we, by stepping back and saying so I'm not here to To receive, I'm here to express, I'm not here to receive, I'm here to give. And so a way that helps you to Maneuver around your ego is to first stop and feel what your body is feeling. Is there any tension? Is there resistance? Is there something toward what you have to do? And if you feel too much resistance and too much tension, that, even in body language, is your spirit trying to talk to, not always in thoughts.

Speaker 2: 24:44

So we feel that, then a part of the process for me is also asking myself Before I do things, being aware of how my body feels, not just what my ego is telling me I'm gonna get out of it. My experience is completely changed when I change perspectives of what am I gonna receive by going here, by doing this, to what's the intention and what am I gonna give? What can I give to this person, what can I give to this place? What can I give? What's the connection, rather than what's the status and what's the game? That's always ego. So ego always has a message for us. A lot of people think it's your enemy, but it's actually your ally. If you go into a place expecting to receive, you are assuming in yourself that you lack that what you're expecting to gain. But when you have something in your heart and in your mind, you go to give it, not to receive it. So if we realize we already hold, we have all that which we seek and we're here to give. The more you give, the more you have.

Speaker 1: 25:52

Wonderful, wonderful, and that's all right.

Speaker 2: 25:55

That's the way that I changed my mind and experiences.

Speaker 1: 25:58

Yeah, that's great, I love it. I love it. So let me ask you this, because I have a bunch of questions for you. I have a bunch of questions for you, so Would you mind, can you is there? Can you recall perhaps a situation or somebody, somebody? The question here is what has Open doors for transformation in your heart and in your mind? And and and who are these people? Maybe a someone, maybe was a situation, and again, what? How are you different now because of it?

Speaker 2: 26:38

I love that question. I love that question. So that is it gonna be a two-part answer. Perfect, the first part answer. Okay, the first part answer our books, books, have completely changed my life.

Speaker 2: 26:56

The best way to understand someone's mind is to read their book. The best way to know their heart is to look at the art that they have and and look at what they find beautiful. So we are able to learn from each other and connect with each other in the power of reading and the power of learning, because the more you learn, the more you become Right. We are part of evolution and the spirit has an evolution. The same way that the physical body does, so does the mind and so does the heart. So learning and reading, for example, jim Rohn Reading, tony Robbins books reading Brené Brown reading you know anyone that had to do yes, and Deepak Chopra.

Speaker 2: 27:46

So anything that was mind, body and spirit, anything which is that which I am, so Anything that I felt I wanted to become, that's what I would read. The person that I that I had was inspiring me, the person that had similar values and similar interests, that's who I would read. I wouldn't look at anything else other than who they were. The second part is that helped me with these changes was my husband. Unconditional support, unconditional support and I'll tell you why. Because when you're learning, you're evolving and when you're evolving you're changing, and the right partners and it give you that space and that love to change and get to know you over and over and over, can we? That support is very important.

Speaker 1: 28:40

Let's stay. Let's stay right there for a little longer, because I think this is fascinating. I love the two-part answer let's, let's, let's go to the first. So I, I, I wholeheartedly agree with you the whole concept of reading, because when you read, you expand your mind, you expand your consciousness, you, you allow yourself to go through this process. I think there's a process of, in the same way that your neurons make new connections when you learn something new, that's happening in your mind and your brain, but there's something that happens in your body and the way you feel about life. Right, that's?

Speaker 1: 29:29

I guess the question is this, or maybe the comment, at least for me, that has been an ongoing journey. This, I mean the fact that I like, I love reading and I love, I love theology, I love spirituality, I love the arts. So when I dive into, let's say, other or their spirituality is different from the way that I grew up, and I give myself permission to entertain those thoughts and allow that awareness or that way of thinking to perhaps sit with me. That is a process of growth and expansion and at times you have to, like you said earlier, I actually believe it allows you to peel off things that no longer serve you, thoughts or belief systems that they serve for a particular time, but you, when you confront them with new ideas and new thoughts, you realize that you have to. You have a choice. You either stay stuck with what you believe in because, I mean, I don't wanna be disrespectful to any of our listeners, but sometimes the fear of what's unknown, the initial reaction is to hold on tight to what you have because it gives you this idea of a safe harbor right If it gives you comfort. But the truth is that when you open up to entertain those new thoughts, even though it might be uncomfortable, you're gaining something new. You're gaining something that you did not know before because, literally, it was not in your brain. I mean, you didn't have any notion of that way of thinking.

Speaker 1: 31:17

But these I mean chances are that these are ways of thinking that liberate your mindset in order to entertain new possibilities and to look at yourself in a new light, and I think that's so powerful. And then, if you connect that with what you're talking about you having a partner that can walk along with you, that it's willing to leave that space and honor that space for your growth, which, let's be honest, I mean in my experience that doesn't necessarily. It looks, it's not pretty all the time right. And so when you have this relationship or a safe space right, because not everybody has a partner in life but when you have this safe space that you can go through that process of growth, that is so powerful.

Speaker 1: 32:08

I resonate so much with what you mentioned because the truth is that my wife, my partner, she has been one of the most powerful spiritual companions that I've ever had and thanks to that space that we create for each other, we both can grow. And I'm gonna amuse your metaphor because I think it's so powerful we bloom, you know, we bloom like a flower. I'll never forget when you shared with me that this was that. This is the image that you wanted to play with.

Speaker 1: 32:44

And I was like, yes, blooming, blooming. You know, when you think about, when you think about at least Ignahan and a lot of Zen spirituality. They talk about the load of flower and how, the beauty of this flower blooming in the midst of what? In the midst of all the junk and the water that gets and can get messy, yet out of all of that, all of a sudden, this beautiful flower blooms and I think it's beautiful. Thank you for sharing, thank you. I hope that it's still serving you because I think it's a beautiful, beautiful image. Let's continue to move on. What are some of the fears that you feel that you have been able to overcome and that now, looking back you for lack of a better word you are grateful for confronting that fear?

Speaker 2: 33:42

Ooh. So I think one of the top fears that I had was worthiness, and we talk about self-worth a lot these days, which is very good so, but for myself, I used to believe that worthiness was something that other people gave you, or that a job gave you or a title gave you.

Speaker 2: 34:08

I used to think that worthiness was something outside of you. But I realized in my life that worthiness was something that I already had, because I never settled. And so, because of not settling, when you look back at your weakest moments, they actually turn out to be your strongest, because you don't settle for that which reflects you and something you said earlier, going back to that, about when you're letting go of certain things, it's almost like you're shedding your ego and you're shedding your fears, and we shed things spiritually so that we continue to grow more and more and more into that flower, and it's a process of blooming over and over and over again. The world blooms over and over and over again. It's an infinite process, and so every time I made a hard decision, I would bloom.

Speaker 2: 35:08

Every time I felt like I was in the dirt, I would bloom Always because I was after my worthiness. But it was because of my worthiness that I would walk away and I would let go. But I didn't see it that way. I thought someone of worthiness had to come up to me and tell me you're worthy, that's. I thought it was an external process. It's an internal process.

Speaker 1: 35:32

Right? Well, it goes back to this whole conversation of the relationship that you have with yourself, don't you think?

Speaker 2: 35:43

The hardest conversations that you will ever have are with yourself.

Speaker 1: 35:47

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 35:48

And they're the ones that we run away from the most.

Speaker 1: 35:52

Wow, do you feel like? Do you feel that? Ok, who are the people, who are the guides, the angels, the unexpected friends that have arrived to your journey? Again, this is Journey Talks podcast, so it's all about the journey of life, right? Who are those guides, who are those people that are on it? So I've always said that we meet God. I mean, I love when God shows up in unexpected places, ok, and so, again, that's the way I describe the universe and whatnot. But when I'm confronted with this unexpected glimpse of grace, of light, of love, of forgiveness, of all these beautiful, powerful feelings not even feelings, experiences that allows you to really be free and to let go, that's just magical. So, again, who are those guys, who are those angels, who are those unexpected people or situations that have arrived to your life that allow you to once again have a result of gratitude in your life?

Speaker 2: 37:14

So I would say that it's been equally important and equally significant. Having read and learned from the people through their books.

Speaker 2: 37:28

That's equally as important but, also surrounding myself physically with people like-minded and like-hearted like myself, and what happened was there's a process in friendships, you know relationships and connection is the number one reason that we're here. So they're very important and most of the fears and the pleasures and desires and the experiences that we have are with each other. They're the biggest experiences we have and the most powerful. So the more that I found myself, the more I became myself, and that naturally weeded out people that were not like me, that were not like-minded or like-hearted, and then I would just experiment with being who I was with people that I would meet and, sure enough, people saw themselves in me and I saw myself in them because I was being authentic to myself.

Speaker 2: 38:25

So what helped me most importantly, besides reading and the people you know in coffee shops and bookstores? I was looking to be myself in places that I loved. That's where I would find myself, places I love to be. That's my community. So I started meeting people in bookstores and in coffee shops and even strangers around, being myself wherever I could be.

Speaker 2: 38:50

And what led to the process of being surrounded by the people in my life who have really helped? They can talk about spirit, they could talk about the mind, they could talk about their vulnerabilities, they could celebrate themselves with me. They don't have to be afraid. It is a brave and courageous and full-hearted friendship and relationships that I've built, and I've also realized that those people that are in my community right now. I want to say I have a five, a solid five of my community, which is enough for me to give and to experience, but also enough for me to grow and do my own. You know inner workings as well. It wasn't until it was not until after reading, after I was given all these opportunities and possibilities of who I could be. That's when I started the process of, for the first time ever in my life, meditating. In meditating for the first time, I was able to see my reflection and by seeing my reflection I was able to find it out in the world.

Speaker 1: 39:58

Can we just stop right there?

Speaker 2: 39:59

So by seeing my reflection, I could find it.

Speaker 1: 40:04

Wow, because you talk about meditation, and can we just talk a little bit about it for a second? What does meditation looks like? For you and how that helps you, because that's I mean woof. You want to know yourself. Try to meditate. You want to know how your brain works and how repetitive and how your self negative self talk shows up. Try to meditate, right. So let's unpack that process for me if you don't mind.

Speaker 2: 40:33

Absolutely so. It started my process of meditation. I always thought that I have a lot of energy and I love to be very agile and I'm always moving around. I'm very flexible with my routines and with my day, and I got to the process of trying to weep, like wean, off of fears and insecurities and rewire my thoughts, and so to do that, I started taking time alone to absorb, to reflect and to practice.

Speaker 2: 41:08

And the way that I practiced was intense visualization, or what some people would call also manifestation. I was visualizing. I was visualizing the way that I think and the way that I feel and the way that I move and the people that I meet and what I bring to the world. And I kept visualizing over and over and over as long as I could. And I remember that I ran into someone who was spiritual and we were talking over this in this event. That was a dinner, and I said, yeah, I've really enjoyed. I found out so much about myself and really felt adept in me that I've never received before or heard by these deep visualizations. And they tell me. They said you know, you're meditating, right, I am. I had no idea. I thought, oh, I thought meditating was only with a bell and only in a room with 30 people, and only I did not know. You can be meditating while you're looking at a painting. You can be meditating with music. You could be meditating jogging. Meditating is the way that you become silent.

Speaker 1: 42:16

Is the way that that? Can you say it again?

Speaker 2: 42:18

That meditation is the way that you become silent. Some people's minds are silent when they jog and they hear the pavement, their feet on the pavement. Some people's meditation is in the car, when they hear the wheels turning and you just get into the zone and you don't even realize you get there. So for myself, it was directing and channeling all my thoughts and all my energy into one picture. That's the way that I'm able to stop my mind from going, Cause I'm very poetic and I'm very philosophical, so if I'm around I'm constantly inspired and I'm constantly playing with life. But it wasn't until I was able to visualize, manifest, direct all my energy and my mind to one specific vision or focus. Then I would tune out the rest of the world.

Speaker 1: 43:14

Thank you so much for sharing and for unpacking this process for you. You never know how other people are going to connect and I think this great that you mentioned I mean the way you describe meditation is is I think it's very healthy. You know, I feel comfortable with the whole idea of you know, sitting down in silence and wherever I'm at, you know, but you, you also recommend I mean you, you mentioned how meditation can just be playing an instrument, going for a jog, you know, like anything that helps you get, I mean, be in silence and silent, your, your, your mind. And let's be honest, if you, if you ask a Zen, buddhist or whatnot, they're not going to say that you're trying to silence your mind. But these are that's, these are the words and the vocabulary that we use to try to to express what the process of Decluttering your mind looks like or understanding how you can be in the present moment. It's interesting.

Speaker 1: 44:22

There's a spiritual leader that I pay attention to for a while now. His name is Ramdas and I love how he recognizes the wisdom of all different traditions and that's what speaks to me, right, because I grew up Christian and I studied theology and all of that. But when he used this motto and he says just be here now. And there's so many things that takes us away from the present moment and I feel like I mean, I feel the connection to what you said about anything that allows you to really silent all the unnecessary voices and just be present. How can you be here now? So I think that's great. Thank you so much for sharing. Let's see. Maybe two more questions. I think you have tapped on this a little bit, but I love to hear more about it. Perhaps you can talk about how this is what this is look like in terms of relationships with you, or what does this look like for you on an individual way? But the question is how have you accessed self-love in moments of need and what practices help you access this self-love?

Speaker 2: 45:43

Okay, I like that. So I realized that we always treat people as we are. So I look at my self-compassion and I treat myself in times of need the same way that I would treat someone else. What would I do if my husband were in need? If my friend were in need? That's my love language. Flowers, a favorite movie, my favorite food. Those are things that are small comforts that remind me in moments where I feel that, maybe a sense of failure or disappointment, because ego is still real. But what I've learned to do is to smother myself with love and give myself a good reason to celebrate life. I'd make it a celebration the same way that I do a success when I'm not feeling myself, when I'm feeling inadequate, I remind myself that I am and what I would do when I feel adequate, I go do the same things.

Speaker 1: 46:52

That's really nice, thank you.

Speaker 2: 46:54

It sounds a little silly. No, no, no, no, no, no, not at all.

Speaker 1: 46:59

I hope that whoever is listening can hear like an affirmation. They can hear this voice saying do what you got to do. Do you for a moment you have permission. Allow yourself to be you and give yourself the permission to receive that love. Thank you so much. Let me ask you this, so I know that perhaps the most recent thing with you it's the release of your book. You just finished a book. It's human bloom. Can you share with us perhaps a quote that it's being ringing truth for you lately and something that has really spoken to you out of this process of the discipline of writing and trying to extract something from yourself? One thing that you learn when you go to seminary there's this class called exegesis, and basically the concept of exegesis is to pull out what's in there, and so is there anything from this book that you would like to exegete right, that you would like to pull out and share with us because it speaks truth to you?

Speaker 2: 48:21

Absolutely. There is one that's very near and dear to my heart. The book is a graceful collective of experiences, wisdom and poetry, and so at the end of every chapter is a poem, and one of them that rings very true to my life right now. But just a very deep seated truth for me is this poem and quote All we have is all that we may carry. We cannot carry our clothes or cars, only our scars and hearts. How we heal and how we love is all we have.

Speaker 1: 49:07

Wow, what does this mean to you?

Speaker 2: 49:13

It means to me that the only thing that's real in life is who we are and what we feel. Nothing that we cannot carry matters. What we feel matters. How we make other people feel matters. Nothing else is just to play with and have fun with and to be in expression of you. Not a label of you or status of you, but everything is just in expression. You know, buildings and movies and art it all comes from expression. It comes from what's in our mind and in our heart. Without expression, we wouldn't see what's in the minds and hearts of everybody else. So every time I look at a beautiful painting or I look at a really cool car or I look at these beautiful flowers or anything, I say, wow, that was inside of someone's spirit and how beautiful it is to see it in front of me, to see someone's mind and heart in front of me Wow.

Speaker 1: 50:16

Yes, yes.

Speaker 2: 50:19

It all goes. It comes from us and back to us.

Speaker 1: 50:22

Wow, that's beautiful Foot for thought right there. Wow, thank you so much. Yes, all right, so I'm closing. I'm trying to do this. This was an idea from a mentor, and what I'm trying to do at the end of every episode is to ask our guest who do they think should be or could be a future guest here on Journey Talks podcast, and so I'm going to throw that question to you, and I would love to hear what you have to say about it who could be a future guest here at Journey Talks podcast?

Speaker 2: 50:58

Thank you. So a future guest would be one of those people that I had mentioned. Came into my life as I was weeding out, you know, people of the past and people who were not my reflection, and when I started planting the seeds of like flowers in my life. Her name is Vanessa. She is the owner of Ombutik in South Miami, and the reason that she comes to mind is because I have never met someone who is so heartfelt in what they do and not just what they do, who is around them, the way that this person shines love and light on her whole team, on every single person who walks in and out of that door. She is about the human experience. She is about heart. She is about how can we go through life together. There are no titles within her job. It's all love, it's all support. I truly believe that she is the epitome of leadership and she is the epitome of inspiring growth. I think she'd be wonderful to hear her out.

Speaker 1: 52:17

Well, you know what I think. Let's see if we can book that together. Maybe you can have me connect with her and meet her and maybe we can have her as a guest in the future. Thank you so much, nicole. Blessings to you and all of your endeavors, to you and your family. This has been another episode of Journey Talks Podcast. Thank you for listening and see you next time.