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Entries in Inspirational Mentor Interviews (70)

Friday
Dec172021

Interview with Mark Anthony



World-renowned psychic medium and Oxford educated attorney Mark Anthony bridges the divide between faith and science in this fascinating afterlife exploration taking you on a journey from the cosmic to subatomic, into the human Soul itself.

Combining physics, neuroscience and riveting true stories this book invites readers to create a new version of normal that recognizes and trusts their intuition and impressions of the unseen.

  • Reveals how our “electromagnetic soul” is pure eternal energy which never dies.
  • Takes Spirit encounters, near-death experience (NDEs), and deathbed visions out of the shadows of superstition and into the light of 21st Century science.
  • Teaches you Anthony’s Technique to Recognize contact with spirits, Accept it as real, Feel it without fear.
  • Provides hope for victims of grief, homicide, suicide, PTSD and survivor’s guilt.
  • Illuminates how contact with spirits is a powerful instrument of healing and love.

Check out the video interview here: pinned post at top of FB page

YouTube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pz6NOflNpoA 

Friday
Jul032020

Interview with Robin Easton

Over the years, I have had the joy of knowing Robin Easton. We connect on a variety of platforms and resonate with unique journeys.  During this period of planetary shifts and changes in perception, I feel intuitively guided to interview her. 

As a nature photographer, long-distance hiker, animal communicator, author of Naked in Eden- My Adventure & Awakening in the Australian Rainforest, she guides others to see the world differently, to trust intuition and strengthen conections with the natural world.  Thanks Robin, for reconnecting, for opening up and inviting us to feel the way into heart-warming shifts in our own lives.

Pleasure.

1.   If you were to present yourself using three words, which would you choose?  

“Emotion, Soul, and Nature”

These terms reveal mystery, awareness and depth of character. Please expand...

Emotion: 

I am deeply, fearlessly emotional, both by nature and conscious choice. I love exploring raw, honest emotions, no matter what they are. Many years ago, around the age of twenty-six, through personal experience and my own soul journey, I discovered that instead of resisting my feelings, instead of trying to control them, judge them, shift them, manage them, or bypass them with my mind, I could use my emotions as Living Vehicles, highly Intelligent Vehicles that had a direct connection to The Great Mystery. I knew, that given the chance, these Emotional Vehicles would carry me Home. The inherent energy of emotions is to return to truth, resolution, peace, and love. 

It sounds like regardless of what the mind tells us, feelings are vibrations that actually weave the story of our life ...

I realized that I could safely let go and flow with this Emotional River. I could embrace this ancient intelligence, these living emotions loaded with eons of Cosmic Code. If I allowed my emotions to live and breathe, they would effortlessly carry me Home, back to my most profound origins, my most honest and empowered self. My soul would effortlessly heal. 

Many people relate to the idea of the human experience being a healing journey.

I also realized that no emotions are judged by Compassionate Life. Judgment is a human condition. However, in the pristine presence of Life itself, nothing is seen as “good or bad” or “right or wrong.” In the absence of a lifetime of judgment, there was only with The Great Mystery. No evil would befall me for exploring emotions that my cultural had shunned, banned, or told me were bad emotions. I would not destroy the Great Fabric of Life by viscerally expressing and exploring my rage, hate, despair, shame, horror or any other emotion that my culture had told me were ‘bad’ or ‘negative.’ Living wild, as I was in the Australian rainforest, far from my culture, my ancient soul had room to remember a Life Force so vast that it would encompass and embrace all that I felt, all ‘wrong doings’, all darkness, all deviations and emotions, and it would do so with the utmost tender love.

Funny synchronicity- I also ventured 18,000 km from my birthplace, to Australia. This shook me up, introduced me to the "emotional river" and led me to wake up to a whole new way of being. 

In flowing with this Great River of Emotion, I would not only burst open confining, old prisons, but I would fully awaken to Life. I would always have emotions, but I would no longer fear feeling my emotions. There is a magnificent distinction there. I would no longer need to manage or control my emotions, or other people’s emotions, or the world around me…so as not to feel. I could freely feel all that arose. In doing so, I was set free, birthed into the Vast Cosmos. 

Love that you highlight from the moment we connect with the universal in our own story, we relate to something far bigger than ourselves.

With this deep understanding, it no longer mattered to me which emotion arose: rage, joy, grief, fear, love, despair, shame, or curiosity; I embraced all without judgment, and with wide open, curious heart…just as the Great Mystery embraces me. I no longer chose to manage or control my emotions. I simply walked into a place of solitude--at the time it was the Australian rainforest where I was living--and I reclaimed my birthright of emotions, all emotions. Nothing was silenced. I simply let speak the emotions that sought voice. I embraced each emotion as an already wise teacher. I let my emotions overcome me, tracking and observing them as they flowed through all the ages of my existence. I became wailing grief, fiery rage, trembling fear, and always euphoric love, empathy, and compassion. As I befriended my stunningly alive emotions, I befriended myself. It was, and still is, a singularly intimate experience between me and Life. 

What a beautiful way of describing how you shifted from focusing on words to tuning into the language of emotions and the wisdom felt in silence.

Once I committed to allowing my emotions, I became these emotions, let them speak their truth. Often generations of supressed emotion passed through me, cleansing all those who came before me and all those yet to come. 

As I allowed the dam to burst, I observed what unfolded. I didn’t need to analyse my emotions. They told me what they wanted me to know, and what they needed, why they were angry, sad, ashamed, terrified, despaired, joyous, or in love. I saw them as highly-intelligent, Living Entities that knew where they needed to go to reach resolution and fulfillment. 

The emotions you describe as 'highly-intelligent living entities" take shape in my mind's eye as geometry. I sense everything as vibration and frequency and this takes shape in sacred geometry paintings.

I set only one boundary in this emotional ‘allowing process’ or soul journey; I would not physically or emotionally harm another life in any way. I would take full responsibility for everything I felt.   

I feel that much of my American culture lives with animotophobia; fear of emotions, any emotions. We live in a type of institutionalized deadness or numbness, lacking the inherent vigour of Life itself. Our culture fosters and supports this state of numb unconsciousness and amnesia. Legal and illegal numbing agents are as readily available as blades of grass on a green lawn. Even our psychology, our medicine, allopathic and alternative, as well as our religions and alternative spirituality, our schools and higher education systems teach us to control, reign-in and shut down our emotions. This emotional starvation and eventual shutdown usually start at a very young age. With time, it is seen as perfectly normal and rarely questioned. 

Animotophobia is familliar in practice even if many peopel are unfamilliar with the word.

 Could well be. However, the soul never experiences this shut-down as normal. Emotions are kin to our souls; they will not be denied. They have a will and life force all their own. When we do not acknowledge our emotions and honor this brilliant life force within us, when we deprive our emotions of witness and healthy, natural expression, they invariably slip out sideways, desperately straining for resolution in whatever way they can. In this frantic, often out of control push for resolve, our emotions then can cause chaos, suffering, and destruction…possibly, desperately trying to get us to feel. Emotions want to be seen and honoured, for they are the Soul of us. 

That is so true! Breathwork is one tool that reveals the nature of blocked emotions people often do not even know they have.  It helps me remember so much, including how to let go, be fearless, open to experiencing everything. Truth exists to be uncovered directly.  Surrender is a timeless teacher.

I live in a culture with few places to sit, explore, and feel our emotions. I do not mean to just sit and talk about emotions, but to actually have a visceral, animated experience, one with sound, energy, movement, tears, wailing, released rage, or laughter, one that can appear messy, confused, raw and seeking, a living experience where we momentarily lose ourselves to Intelligent Emotion. Given the chance, children emote as naturally as rain. They cry, wail, scream, rage and laugh, sometimes all at once. I feel that at some point we all need to be able to experience our emotions without tidiness, judgment, context, or correction.

So, would you say that emotions teach us about emotions? 

If allowed, emotions can shatter long-held emotional dams, dams that we have unconsciously grown weary of constantly reinforcing and plugging repeated emotional leaks. If allowed, this Emotional River will crash through our seemingly safe deadness to finally set free Life’s inherent flow. Once the river flows, the entire landscape of our being is reshaped, our world view forever altered. We heal the Soul of us, and the Soul of the world. 

We feel what feel and our bodies know what we need to feel. To allow emotions is one of the most stunningly beautiful experiences we can give ourselves or witness in another. We enter Sacred Ground. When claimed and honestly allowed in ourselves, without harming ourselves or others, emotions are a gift of the purest, most honest Life. We are recharged, uplifted and healed. Emotion is a sign that we are fully alive, that we are flowing with Life.

Indeed. What I hear and feel you saying is we exist to be conscious, to feel fully alive and to guide as many as possible to experience this. Would love to hear you expand on the word  "Soul".

Soul: 

For me, Soul is the deepest part of who I am, and will always be. The Eternal. It is where I landed many years ago when I headed straight into all my emotions of grief, fear, despair, anger, joy, and love. It is why emotions are so important to me. Since my Emotional Soul Journey, I have lived completely from a place of Soul. It now is all I know. I was so utterly reshaped by Emotion that I cannot clearly remember a ‘me’ before my Emotional Soul Journey. 

Over the years, I’ve been told numerous times that I relate to others totally on a Soul level, as opposed to a more surface level. Through this feedback from others, I was able to see the truth of how I relate to those around me.  

I am extremely empathic, so I feel and hear the soul feelings of every soul that comes my way, whether that is in person (face-to-face), on the phone, or through their written word. It doesn’t really matter which way, as I still hear their soul talking to me. Not necessarily what they are thinking, but deep down, what their soul is clearly reaching out to say, or how their soul needs to connect, to be heard, the truths, yearnings, pains and joys that the ‘mind’ denies or reasons-away. 

On a soul level, wordless exchanges are carried out in mere seconds, with lightning speed, and are always profoundly moving and completely honest. I tend to not think of people as humans, but as souls because that is what I foremost see and feel. It is how I experience other species, as well, which allows me to easily communicate with many wild species. 

I love both the Light and the Shadow of Soul, especially the stunningly beautiful ‘Dark Night of the Soul’, a place filled with stunning Light. I have experienced Soul as something that will not be denied, much like Emotion. It lives wild and free, a powerful, Sovereign Entity. It is highly emotional and will not be tamed. Like a mighty river, we can either flow with it or spend our lives struggling to contain it. When denied, both Emotion and Soul will ultimately find a way to express themselves. However, it might not be in a way that we appreciate or would choose. But then, they are trying to get our attention, trying to get our help in setting them free.

There are many humans who move through the world using psychology or even 'enlightenment' to rob the soul of its beautifully organic expression, its grieving, raging, wailing, indignant, confused, unsure, frightened, raw humanity. We humans often forget that the path to enlightenment is rarely via a by-pass. Although, the thought of avoiding the deep, dark pit that yaws open before us, can be enticing. 

While we may cling to our emotional by-pass, often the only way to the Light is through the deepest, darkest shadows…where eventually the Light shines more brightly than we ever imagined. Soul and deep, abiding enlightenment, spirituality, creativity, passion, music, art, writing, dance, and radiant Light are often found through honestly, fully allowing our messy humanity. And, ultimately it is beautiful and magnificent.

I consciously choose to let Soul live and breathe. I love that Soul does not care about tidy emotions or keeping up appearances. Eons old, it is direct, honest and irrefutable, a timeless truth. In my book, Naked in Eden, I write: “Soul is an experiential learner with little use for concept and reason.” When Soul is honoured and allowed to live and breathe in its own powerful way, under its own directive, it is a clear, healing force. When we live with Soul, we know who and what we are.

And what does"Nature" feel like?

Nature: 

Many of us humans think of the brain as the remarkable organ that lives in the skull, but I tend to see the whole of Nature as my brain. Nature would include the entire cosmos, the ‘All of What Is’. 

When we are not plugged into Nature, we are much like a lamp sitting on a table trying to glow. Although the lamp has a bulb in it, and the lamp thinks the bulb is its source of light and energy, its brain), if the lamp cord is not plugged into an outlet, its Power Source, the lamp cannot glow. 

Without deep connection and merging with Nature, we humans are much like an unplugged lamp. We might still look human and even look beautiful, but we are not plugged into our Source. We are not glowing. Left unplugged, we wonder why we don’t feel light and energized, or why we feel depressed, lethargic, unfulfilled, hopeless, lost, angry and alone. 

Left unplugged, we often experience mediocre intelligence, little creative impulse, and even less desire to explore our own lives or Life in general. We tend to operate far below our true Nature, our inherent Gift of Life. 

As a human-collective, when we walk around unplugged from our Source, often in a state of amnesia, we exist within the confines of a very small, illusory reality. We act independently of the rest of life on Earth, independently of the rest of our ‘Self’ (Nature). We walk around thinking that the reality we live is the ‘all of us’, the ‘all of everything’, a reality where we hold dominion over all other life, both animate and inanimate. 

In truth, we can never exist separate from Nature, not even in death. Separation is a physical impossibility for we too are Nature. However, we can and do exist in ‘separation thinking’, which has far reaching ramifications on ourselves and all life around us, including air, water, and soil.

As a species, when we plug into our right place, along with all the rest of Nature, the inevitable outcome is a ‘re-membering’. We become a member, again. We plug into our greater brain and infinite intelligence…Nature. We discover more peace, heightened creativity, reassuring sense of connection and belonging, and an endless supply of love and a vital intelligence that is capable of guiding us throughout our lives and beyond. We begin to empathize with other species as we understand their lives, needs, and gifts, as we understand that they are part of us. In this dawning we recover our empathy toward all life. This Intelligent Love flows through all things, is all things.

Ultimately our intelligence does not come from books, schools, teachers, or gurus. Intelligence is who we are. Just as the tree knows to grow toward light, its Source, we also are hardwired to grow toward, and with, our Source.

Although, I have 'called in' and communed with many species in the wild, such as beavers, mule deer, rabbits, crows, and more, every single time I do it, the awe of it never diminishes. I never feed or touch my wild Friends; we simply spend time near each other to commune. The wild ones are always safest left wild. During this merging of souls, I hear their thoughts and feel their feelings, and more thrilling is that I feel them feeling me. We often exchange breath to leave imprinted memory through scent. I always go away filled with stunning intelligence and wisdom, directly downloaded from my wild friends. 

The intelligence that we can tap into and be part of is breathtaking. I have often thought that I am only a 'body' and all of Nature is my brain. Without conscious connection to Nature, which in truth is the rest-of-myself, I am like a body walking around without a brain. Since my intelligence and creativity is Nature, without it I am less than mediocre.

If we allow it, Nature has a beautifully humbling effect on us. We realize that we have more to learn from other species than we ever imagined. We tap into the most piercing intelligence going. To sit and witness Nature is to see intelligence unfolding before our eyes. Everywhere we turn Intelligence is happening; from the unfolding petals of a rose; to the heliotropism of sunflowers as they follow the sun east to west; to the green leaves that turn sunlight into chlorophyll; to the cawing blue jays warning their tribe of intruders; to the morphing of billowing white clouds; to the stunning fuchsia rays of an evening sunset. The world around us implores our awakening, eager to commune, teach, love, and reveal itself…as yourself. 

When we forget that we are connected to all life around us, we suffer a grievous loss to our beautiful humanity. Our grace and dignity fall by the roadside. Without awareness of our Extended Self, we lack empathy for each other and all other life forms. We often feel little or no connection to the natural world that we are inseparably part of, and no compassionate connection to ourselves. We become the deadliest species on the planet. An absence of empathy usually leads to fear-based actions: greed, abusive power, decimation, unconscionable cruelty, and blind quest for the almighty dollar. 

Right now, on planet Earth, our collective absence of empathy is epidemic. This absence of empathy allows us to kill, destroy, and decimate on a mass scale so vast that we have brought about the world’s sixth great extinction. It is the only mass extinction in planetary history that has been caused by one species…humans. Because we live in separation-thinking, and yet cannot physically be separate from Earth, we destroy the source of our life. Hence, we destroy ourselves.

Resonate your alternative love-based view of the fearful idea of pandemic.

Yet, when we consciously merge with Nature, our Extended Self, we are rich beyond comprehension. We understand that the very Life we now love…is quite literally our own. We are not separate from anything. When we merge with and empathize with all Life, nurturing is born. We hunger to protect that which we so dearly love. We humbly know that we cannot live without it.

Likewise, children raised in relationship with nature, and adults who reclaim their relationship with Nature, are far more likely to develop empathy for all life. They usually have deep values, caring natures, awareness of the world they live in, and clear, strong values and conscience. We naturally protect what we desperately love.

If it feels right, please share a relevant excerpt from your book...

~ Excerpt: Naked in Eden – Robin Easton 

“Your love decomposes all that is not me. You leave me with wild prehistoric eyes. In our mating I forget myself and separation vanishes as if it has never been. I’ve fallen desperately in love with Earth. If we do not desperately love a thing, we cannot care for it.” 

When we spend time with Nature, with our senses fully captivated, we forget ourselves and expand our souls into tree, rock, lizard, water, fresh air, hawk, and all things. Merged with Nature, we start to see how truly vast we are. We begin to experience our Extended Self. As we become the snail, the crow, the deer, the rabbit, and the snake, our own intelligence expands as we take on all that these other life forms teach us. We become as vast as the Cosmos. We come to know the Soul of Existence. 

To understand with our whole being that everything is infused with, and of, Intelligent Love, is to realize that all things are connected. We are never alone. Everything around us is aware of us, curiously observing us, feeling our intentions, and merging with our souls, awaiting to welcome us Home. It is humbling to know that all life around us, even the rock, has been aware of us all along. This awareness gives birth to deep abiding love. We feel safe and held. We unequivocally know our humble place amidst all the rest of life. We realize how little we know, how much we have missed, how much there is to learn and become, and how infinite Life’s possibilities.

In 2010, you shared the extraordinary book, Naked in Eden: My Adventures & Awakening in the Australian Rainforest.  In 2020, the second edition of this book was released.  Please share highlights of what has happened during the gap in editions. Why revise & re-release?

I wanted more liberties with my book than my publisher afforded me. Many book contracts (especially those with large publishers) can limit what an author can do with their own book: like recording and selling an audio book (which I want to do); like limiting how much of the book can be shared or used (such as how many paragraphs from the book can be used in promotion, or shared on a social media network such as Facebook, or on the author’s website, etc); like having to ask permission from the publisher every time I wanted to use any quotes from my own book; like the publisher owning the rights to my two future books before they are even finished (which was a bit like someone owning my soul). Some people might like this situation. I did not. I also felt very uncomfortable with the price that my publishers set for the book, especially the Kindle format. The Kindle was almost as highly priced as the hardcover book. In the book cover design, I had little say, so the resulting cover did not express who I feel I am. I have since redesigned the cover. 

Blessedly I got back all of the rights to “Naked in Eden”, and all future books. I now have my own production company, Robin Easton Productions, LLC., and I publish all works under my own label. It is glorious! 

What a beautiful example of listening to your heart, reclaiming that power you gave away and taking responsibility for next phase of your writing journey. The climate of publishing is indeed changing. We each have the choice to listen closer to ourselves, our feelings and do what feel right to us at each stage of the journey.

What brings you from Australia to New Mexico?

I grew up in Maine, USA and blessedly ended up in Australia running wild and free in one of Earth’s oldest rainforests, which saved my life. After several years in Australia--with much of that time spent living off the grid--the forest told me that it was time for me to leave. I knew I could choose to stay, but I was continually being told that I had other things which I had to do. I felt a strong, alluring pull toward something new, although at the time, I had no idea what that ‘something new’ would be. However, I had learned to trust my heart and soul…and the rainforest. So, I left. 

What is your greatest lesson or insight? 

I wouldn’t call it a lesson, but rather an experience of awakening. In my second book I am writing about dying to myself, a death and rebirth. At age twenty-six, I realized that all that I had experienced, all that I 'thought' was me was not me, not even close. It was all a lie, or other people's pain, other people's beliefs, other people's violence, manipulations and control. 

I finally decided to stop running and to turn and face all this ‘distortion’, to head straight into the fear, horror, violence, hate, deviation from both my culture and from personal experiences that occurred in my life. Once fully embraced, wailed and raged over in the rainforest (where I was living), no matter how horrific, no matter how brutal, it all started to fall away as if vaporized. It lost its hold on me. 

At the journeys deepest end, I thought I would find a beautiful new Robin, but I came face to face with the Great Nothingness...and I did not run. This was the first, real, honest, feeling (lacking all deviation) that I had ever felt. I embraced it with tender love....as mine. 

For almost two months I wander naked, both physically and spiritually, through the rainforest. I did not speak with one human soul that whole two months. As I wandered, torrential rain cried with me and cleaned all residue. 

Finally, one day sitting by a tiny creek, I said to Life, "I do not mind this Vast Nothingness. I cherish it, but am I to always be alone here?" A clear voice spoke, "You are not alone, Robin. You never were. I live here in this Vast Emptiness. You are me. This, dear one, is who you are. Now that you are empty, there is room for me to enter."

With an infinite sigh of love, The Great Mystery breathed Life into my emptiness. I fell to my knees on the forest floor and wept. From that day to this...I know who I am.

I have never been the same since. I live in love, breath in love. I wail, weep, and rage in love. I am alive…with Love. All around me, every single soul, rock, tree, blade of grass bathes me in Love. I fall into love, over and over again. Who could resist such intimate tenderness? Not I. I throw back my head in ecstasy…and sigh. 

When we no longer cling to the tiny, illusory, isolated self, when we ‘merge with’ and have no self at all, we become All Things, as vast as the Untouched Infinite. Merged with all Life, we know how it feels. Empathy is born. We no longer want to harm, only to love. 

We extend into the infinite stars and beyond. Our 'mind' is not contained in a tiny skull. We ‘think’ with our entire Being, all of Existence. Our mind is The Great Cosmic Brain, as it always has been…and will be. We think, feel, and love with wildly beating hearts, with passion unleashed. In this Vast Emptiness, we come Home.

Please share your perspective on ongoing world events? 

Something I learned, many years ago in the Australian rainforest, is that Life is always trying to heal itself…on every level. Since we are Life itself, we are automatically included in this healing process, whether we like it or not…and often we do not like it one bit because we don’t recognize the healing for what it is. We tend to perceive it as the bane of our lives, ‘everything is falling apart’, another uncontrollable disruption, a curse, a plot out to get us, or an unthinkable disruption.

Love your reminder that order and disorder exist simultaneously. It is like a choice to sense and experience integration.

In Life’s wisdom and desire to constantly heal and balance itself, we are very blessed. We are not offered only one chance to heal, or one chance to understand ourselves and the Life around us, or one chance to change the course of our lives; we are offered infinite opportunities to grow, heal, and become conscious. This gift of healing and awakening may not always come in a form we want or when we want, but it does come. Every moment is a new opportunity to reach out and connect with Life, to reframe our world view, and to awaken more vastly to life. 

Well, more and more people are certainly prompted to step back, question information given, self-reflect and re-evaluate priorities. People are changing jobs, habits, moving geographically, healing and it feels like energetic shifts on the planet and universe are reflecting this.

Although we might not recognize it as such, Life is infinitely compassionate and continually offers us an opportunity to awaken. When we resist and choose not to see the proffered gift, when we choose not to grow or awaken from the events of our lives, Life does not stop there and say, “Well you blew that opportunity. I tried to get you to awaken and you shut down and clung to your unconsciousness. Well, that’s it for you.”  

No. Life has all the patience and determination in the world. It will circle around yet again and again, creating events that attempt to bring us to our humble knees. Life desperately wants us to awaken. It sets up situations in an attempt to dismantle our rigid defences, and shatter our numb deadness, exposing us to Life, to our Greater Self. We usually do not see these gifts as opportunities. We tend to see them as unfair disasters, setbacks, mistakes, and we are the poor victim placed in the middle of the swirling chaos.  

As hard as it might be to understand, these challenges and disasters of our lives are here to help us awaken. Right now, on the planet, we are being called to awaken in a very big way. Yet, as a collective we have ignored the Call of Awakening. We live in deep somnolence, dead to ourselves and the world around us. We surround ourselves with as many ‘sleeping pills’ as we can. We cling to our amnesia and fortify its maintenance, as we resist awakening. Yes, there are, and have always been, those who walk among us, beautiful, rare souls who implore us to rise up into consciousness, to open our hearts and minds and see that “we are the ones we are waiting for.”  

We humans cannot live on this planet in a state of unconsciousness. Life knows this, and deep inside we know this. Currently, in our chosen state of unconsciousness we are killing everything around us, including each other. We create violence which weaves its way into every facet of our cultures. 

Of course, we lament the presence of this current pandemic. We dislike having to be aware. We grieve the loss of our beloved dead ones, and often fear for our own lives. We hate the isolation. We are restless, and many don’t know how to be still, to be silent, to simply be with themselves. We panic when we can no longer ‘go, go, go’…run. Many don’t like being forced to stop. We don’t like to ‘feel things’…anything. We are uncomfortable with the weirdness of it all, the not knowing when it will ‘pass’. We want to control it or pretend it is not happening. We feel stunned, angry, indignant, and want it to all go away so that we can go back to our ‘normal’, safe lives. We greatly dislike having to be this aware. We don’t want to think about masks and protecting ourselves in the grocery store, being aware of how physically close we are to others, or who we can and cannot be around, what information is true and what is not, and what about our kids and the grandparents. We don’t like this pressure to be so aware. Awareness initially takes effort, especially when we have been living in unconsciousness. Yet, if we want to stay alive---not only live through a pandemic, but stay alive as species on planet Earth---we now need to awaken.

We are not asked to live in terror or even fear, although we must honor these feelings, as they are a natural part of being human. However, we are being asked to live in a constant state of awareness…not alertness...but Awareness. As hard as it may be to comprehend, constant awareness is our natural state of being, our innate state of being. This piercing awareness is who we are. We have just forgotten. Now is the time to remember.

I pray that collectively we do not miss the gift this covid-virus brings, as painful as it is, as much tragedy and grief as it brings, and has brought. I nonetheless feel that this virus is here to help bring about a global shift into awareness because at this point on the planet, it is going to require a massive global shift to save the inherently beautiful human species from extinction. We can no longer respond to ourselves, each other, and the planet from a state of unconsciousness that only leads to fear, greed, chaos, violence, and destruction. Now is the time to align our consciousness with that of Planet Earth. The alarm has gone off, the long sleep is over, and now we awaken. Lean into and flow with the magnitude of this planetary shift and life will carry us forward. 

It sounds like you are increasingly aware of different ways of viewing the pandemic and everything in perception...

In light of this awareness, my heart, soul, and tears cry with the thousands of people who have lost their loved ones during this covid-pandemic. These souls know awareness, and will never be able to forget it. Please, rise to awareness and move safely and respectfully through the world so that there are no more losses. Rise to the awakening call, and live your life with awareness, integrity, and respect for yourself, others, and the planet. Do not waste the life you have now, no matter how limited you might feel it to be, no matter how afraid you are, no matter how weird the times. Live your life in honor of the lives lost, in honor of the Life that still lives, in honor of all Life on planet Earth. Live as fully as you can in every moment because it is what you were born to do. 

If someone asked you to describe death and your experience with it, what would you respond? 

For me, there is no death. There is only Life flowing into Life. We do not have to physically die to be merged with The Great Mystery, we can die before we die. It’s who we already are, but we fear letting go, relinquishing control, when right at our doorstep the whole world beckons us to let go and merge with our Greater Self. 

very excited that you share a workshop recording: Things Eating Things- Reconciling Death in Nature

I am one who lost all illusion, died to self, crumbled to dust--never again to pick up my illusory self. What I thought was me, was not. I grieved my own death, and found my Soul in the Great Darkness. It was there in the deepest silence that I heard the sweetest voice. It was there in the darkest dark that I saw the brightest light. It was there in the Vast Emptiness that I found ‘god’. 

Merged with All, we are never alone and we never die. 

Resonate completely.  Love a relevant quote by Nisagardatta Maharaj: For me, the moment of death will be a moment of jubulation, not of fear. I cried when I was born and will die laughing. 

Breathwork is one path which reinforces the same revelation on a conscious level. It is freeing!

Some people describe 'kundalini awakening.' Can you comment on this? 

Since I choose to not read spiritual books or most books, I don’t know what Kundalini Awakening means. I tend to prefer to learn through firsthand experience, observation, intuition, and feeling. When I do this, I am immutably altered for all time. 

Like cloud watching, people do tend to use different ways to describe different ways of seeing and feeling the experience of energy flow.  Words are less important than the experinece itself.

If you could share some advice with our readers, what would that be?

I rarely choose to give advice. I am not even sure what that might look like. However, I do love to share my own personal experiences and feelings--as I’ve done here--and let others derive from it what they might want or need in this moment, if anything. We all are so different and unique; I prefer to witness the uniqueness of each soul, rather than crowd sacred space with an agenda. I love to listen to other people’s stories, feelings, and experiences, with no intention but to see yet another aspect of myself, another aspect of Life itself. I now know that every life I meet has something astounding to teach, something incredible to share. 

Please share anything else you feel the urge to share. What is your greatest wish? 

Although, I might use the word, “wish” in passing conversation, I don’t usually think in terms of ‘wishes’. Not that people can’t have truly beautiful wishes, they do. Wishes can sometimes give people hope in the way that having a dream might give hope. However, I tend to think in terms of, “How can I help?” What can I do here, in this moment, this day, this situation or event? What is needed? How can I help ease the suffering of humans, other species, or the planet? Or, likewise, how can I foster love, balance, or harmony?” 

How can people get in touch with you? Contact details, upcoming events: 

People can reach me through my website. They can also follow my Facebook page, subscribe to my Robin Easton Newsletter and Blog and sign up to be notified about updates.

Thank you again Robin, for your candidness and the energy of this conversation. You invite each of us to listen more attentively to what we all know and feel in the heart.

Monday
Aug122019

Interview with Ian Morris

As part of meditation, people are often surprised to discover the power and effectiveness of sound healing.  During my spiritual journey, tuning into specific frequencies has triggered major shifts. 

In this light, I am pleased to share an interview with Ian Morris,sound alchemist, founder and in-house creator of all music offered through Listening to Smile. Imagine that during the last four years, he has created a new album every month.   May the powerful inspiration keep flowing!

Pleasure to share this ancient wisdom.

Please offer a glimpse of your story...

I have over 20 years’ experience as a musician and have studied and worked in the performing arts field all of my life. I was raised around music and some say I was born with a natural gift of creativity. What lead me down this path of sound healing and frequency was my own personal struggles and journey through chronic illness and the anxiety and depression that came from being so sick. I explored sound and frequency using pure tones and then began creating music with these tones and other sacred frequencies to help facilitate my own healing. The results I experienced were astonishing beyond anything I could ever imagine. My family and friends noticed the miraculous change in my health and this led them to inquire more about what I was doing different. They wanted to experience this too.....and thus, Listening to Smile was born.

Its incredible to recognize that facing challenges is often the key to building the inner strength necessary to accept and express our innate gifts. How did this creative work take shape for you?

I began working with small groups in my community and studied how frequency affects many different ailments, illness, and dis-ease of both mind and body. I even built a sound/frequency table so that the body could be completely immersed in the vibration of the tones and frequencies.

No wonder people are finding specific sound frequencies complement other types of emotional release work. Breathwork, aromatherapy and sounds, all help us to let go of what we outgrow and align energetically with what matters. What sort of feedback do you receive?

I took feedback and input from doctors, psychologists, and holistic practitioners to streamline and solidify my services. My goal was to create a customizable experience. As the programs began to develop the clients were shocked and elated by the results. This work grew into the live sound healing events called “Sonic Meditations.” As more and more people wanted to experience his frequency music the program expanded into an international community.

"Sonic Meditations"...I love the vibration of this! How has this affected lives of people you know and yourself?

I have seen first-hand how frequency music changes lives, not only in the hundreds of people from all over the world that I have worked with, but also in my very own life with dyslexia and illness.  Listening to Smile frequency music is transformational. The possibilities are endless for how Listening to Smile music can transform your life and heal your body, mind, and spirit.

Share some key milestones...

Some key milestones or pivotal moments were when I realized that in the first 6 months in to doing Listening to Smile full time, how powerful to work with the frequencies everyday.  Sometimes I would work with them 8-10 hours a day.  This provided me with huge release work and healing.  It is one of the reasons why I am so passionate about this work today.  I know it works and that the results last.  Another milestone was two years ago when Listening to Smile went international, into Australia, Ireland, and Canada.  Earlier this year we expanded even more into Belgium, Scotland, and Mexico.  This is significant for us because we can see how our work is beneficial to different cultures and demographics on a larger scale.  

Sound itself, without interference is endless flow. Listening to Smile echoes and awakening the infinite nature of true self. Now, which of your 5 familiar senses is most dominant? 

I would say my hearing is definitely most dominate. 

Whan did you grow aware of this?

From a very early age, my mother and father bathed me in music.  Everything from Miles Davis, John Coltrane, to Bob Dylan and the Beatles.  I grew up with a appreciation to music.  Later in life when I took up instruments, I already had a foundation from being exposed to so much amazing music early in life.  The crossover was very easy to becoming a musician.  I believe musicians listen to music differently. 

Its true that music touches us emotionally in ways words alone do not. How would you say musicians hear music differently?

It relates to the sensitivity of the ear.  We hear more acutely, what many people do not pick up on. The next step for me was becoming a sound engineer. I was involved in the mixing and mastering of my music.  I learned to separate the instruments in the recordings and to look for any imperfections and look for any creative ways to portray a certain feeling or message.   After 20+ years of doing this, I think my hearing has just become more sensitive than the average listener.   

What is your intention in doing this? What kinds of benefits do you see or envision?

Our intention with Listening to Smile is to bring education and awareness of frequency as a modality of healing to people all around the world.  We facilitate this through our healing music and affiliate programs.  Our affiliates interact with thousands of people each month through meditations and sound healing.   Using our frequency minded music, we have seen recovery from several illness and conditions some example are pancreatic cancer, autism, severe anxiety, and depression.  I myself was dealing with an autoimmune issue along with chronic illness and found powerful results with breath work, sound healing, and meditation.  In 2012, I was 312 lbs and in a year I lost over 110 lbs by utilizing breath work, sound healing, and meditation.  This again is why I can be so passionate about what I do.  Through my own experiences I know this works.  

How do you imagine this complements breath work and neural therapy that focus on emotional trauma release?

Frequency is the great disrupter.  It has this amazing ability to block out fear and anxiety by simply blocking our past stories by creating a space where we are sitting in the eye of the storm in the mind.  When sound healing is applied with intention setting and declarative statements, there are amazing breakthroughs with release work and healing that can lead to reprogramming the mind.  This in turn can give positive tools to effectively deal with pain and trauma in a completely different way.  

Has listening to Smile music ever triggered  past life recall or other spiritual experiences?

Yes!  There have been moments during sessions where I have seen myself in ancient settings (Egypt and Atlantis) working with sound tables and devices.  Doing what I do now is almost second nature and feels very familiar to me and always has. 

Please share examples of where music has positively affected the health and well- being. (link to sample would be helpful)

  390.6Hz - It was given to me during one of my meditations.  It so strongly came through to me that I had to work with it immediately.  I started using tone generators with headphones and then transitioned it into my own songs.  The benefits were immediately noticeable, where it completely cleared out the cobwebs of my mind and my body had a huge release.  It set up an emotional vibration that it would be impossible for fear, anxiety. or worry to be present.  Here is a link to one of our most purchased and licensed tracks in our catalog,  "Belief Code 21."  This frequency is beneficial for stress relief and relaxation.  

How do you see Humanity (past, present, future)?

I have always considered myself a time traveler.  I definitely have a strong connection to different periods and times.  I pull from these different periods and times for my influence in the work that I do now.  I am mindfully-connected to the past, present, and future simultaneously.  

What a wonderful reminder that on some level, time travel occurs between the ears and the imagination. Listening to silence and then, mindful music enables us to tune into this. Why do you feel more people are not aware ofthe benefits of sound healing?

To be honest, I think it's because people think it's too easy.  They believe it can't possibly be that simple to just use headphones and listen to frequency. We have been raised in a society where the answer have always come from a pill or prescription.  What we are seeing take place right now is the crumbling of this empire.  I believe people are kind of in a discombobulated state.  I think that we just have to do our best with helping people to be curious and trust themselves and their intuition.  

Oh yes! Many people in the West are certainly conditioned to make complicated what is simple.

Are you familiar with the documentary film, Heal? If so, what are your impressions? 

I am indeed familiar with the documentary film, Heal.  It is absolutely amazing!  Joe Dispenza and Medical Medium are in that film and they are some of my favorite speakers.  

Agree whole-heartedly. It is a timely piece of work that invites the public to recognize the value of alternative approaches to healing abd how they can complement other forms of healing and self-healing.

Have you heard of the sound healer? (If not, highly recommend  this film).

Yes, however I have not seen it.  I will definitely check it out upon your recommendation. 


What insight or advice would you like to offer?

Through my own personal experience and the work that I have been doing with Listening to Smile over the last 5 years, I believe stress is the first place that we have to target for true healing.  I absolutely believe that sound healing has something to offer every person on this planet.  From the time of our conception until the time of our birth we become acclimated with this reality with sound and vibration in our mothers womb.  This is one of the most natural and powerful ways that we can co-create the healing in ourselves with Spirit. 

Share anything else you would like to add.

Every month Listening to Smile produces frequency minded music in the themes of the 
astrological energy.  Our goal is to further align our themes and CD frequencies to the direction and greatest needs of the collective consciousness by working in tandem with monthly astrological events and universal energies.  In turn, our monthly Sonic Meditations for 2019 will be created with frequency selections with the potential to best assist in integrating the current cosmic conditions and maximizing the divine flow for growth and evolution set forth by the markers of our greater cosmos.  

Please let us know where people can contact you, share event details, links, etc.

Website: https://listeningtosmile.com

How to Get Music: https://listeningtosmile.com/get-music/

Interviews/Podcasts with Ian: https://listeningtosmile.com/interviews-and-podcasts/  

Email: ian@listeningtosmile.com

Phone: 802-489-6183

Thanks again Ian, for sharing a glimpse into your sound healing journey and inviting the wider public to savour a taste of this directly.  After all, the truth can only be felt. Each of us exists to find this out for ourselves.

Tuesday
Aug062019

Interview with Adrienne Strong

While recently experiencing the Open Day activities at the local Chenrizig Institute, I had the pleasure of meeting Adrienne Strong.  She hosted an introductory workshop about Buteyko Breathing and co-runs the Windhorse Heath Clinic with her partner.  It is an honor to connect with her again here and to engage in a more in-depth interview.  Thanks Adrienne!

Thank you for the interest and opportunity to be involved in your work.

Please share a peak experience in your life. 

I have been a Buddhist for many years and an asthmatic since birth. 

How do these peak experiences shape you?

I suppose learning to meditate was a way to calm my otherwise anxious and busy mind, and the Buddhist philosophy made sense of an otherwise chaotic and speedy world.

Many people seek to quiet the mind and often turn to meditation from different traditions. Any other reasons why specific meditation practices resonate?  

Buddhism also came to me to blend with my artistic bent.  It made my otherwise "fruitless" degree in Visual Arts, more useful.  I have been able to sculpt many decorations and statues for the Enlightenment Garden and the Gompa at Chenrezig Institute.

Visiting these gardens allows one to feel their uplifting energy. Such projects remind us that our initial expectations for training do not always envision ways we nurture unseen talents and allow them to blossom. Garden design ability is a gift.  Other than being in nature, how do you come to focus on health and the breath?

Many years ago, in the early 1990s, post-degree, I was living in Melbourne. I heard vicariously about this Buteyko Breathing method...

Funny, is it not? What seem like coincidences at certain stages of life later turn out to feel like synchonicities that are planting a seed to grow.

Yes! Anyway, I heard this method was greatly helping people with asthma, anxiety and sleep disorders.  At the time I was studying a post grad masters in Film & TV, and living on a very small stipend to get by.  

What sparked your curiosity about Buteyko breathing?

Whilst Buteyko was getting a lot of attention and amazing results, there was little information around what it was, and to do a course was over $1000, way out of my financial reach as a struggling University student. I sort of focused on other things, out of necessity.

Sounds like you wanted to know more, but the timing was not right. What was the turning point?

Skip 20 years forward, and I was living on asthma medications.  I couldn’t sleep without having a Ventolin inhaler at arms-reach.  I would be at the chemist at least every month to replenish my supply.   My heart was starting to regularly palpitate and cause even more anxiety than just the inability to draw breath.

Clearly, you were faced with huge health challenges. It is said we do not truly value the breath until we struggle to breathe. How did Buteyko re-enter your life? 

My wonderful health practitioner partner had bought me an on-line course in Buteyko for Christmas 2016, and was kind enough to do the course with me.  It was an on-line Zoom course with a well-known Sydney naturopath and Buteyko teacher, Mim Biem at a cost greatly reduced to original Buteyko classes of the 90’s. Four weeks later, upon completion of the course, I was astounded in the results I was experiencing.  

Please be more specific.

Well, I hadn’t used my Ventolin at all since two weeks into beginning the course as my breathing was so much better.  Yet, more importantly, my anxiety was improving, my constipation was suddenly manageable and by doing breath hold exercises, I had so much energy!  It was the beginning of a new me.  

A friend of mine has also healed her asthma and depression from consistent breathwork. Its inspiring to connect with people who know first-hand the power of the breath to reconnect them to well-being. How would you now describe the impact of Buteyko breathing for you?

As months went by, I kept doing the exercises and kept improving.  Buteyko is like peeling back an onion of sorts.  It is said that for every year of Buteyko breathing, you are undoing the results of 10 years of dysfunctional breathing.

Wow! Shifting from the perception of dysfunctional breathing to normalized breathing...that is huge with far-reaching implications! What guided you to teach Buteyko breathing?

In October that year, Mim was holding a teachers training course in Sydney.  The event was led by well- known author and Buteyko practitioner, Patrick McKeown.  

Love the Ted Talk by Patrick McKeown who is also known for the Oxygen Advantage. 

Indeed. My partner Carey, being an ayurvedic natural therapist, was so impressed by this Buteyko modality, had decided to attend.  I ummm’d and aaaah’d about attending the training with him, having such a wonderful improvement in my own asthma & overall health.  

What prompted you to hesitate?

As an artist & disability support worker, I couldn’t initially see how this would fit into my working life.  Glad I followed my intuition. I can honestly say, enrolling in that training was the second most wonderful thing I have done, next to the course with Mim.  Not only did it encourage me to improve and continue with my own Buteyko practice, but gave me ability to spread these valuable techniques to help others help themselves.

Who are your other inspirations?

Given my focus on Buteyko breathing, the founder of this technique is a big inspiration. Professor Konstantin Pavlov Buteyko was born in the Ukraine and originally studied engineering at Kiev Polytechnic Institute.

What prompted Buteyko to investigate breathing?

After a brief enrolment in Russia’s armed forces during World War II, Buteyko ended up studying “the most complicated piece of machinery of all”, the human body, at The First Medical Institute in Moscow.  In Buteyko’s third year of study, he was given a practical assignment in his clinical therapy group, monitoring the breathing of diseased & dying patients. He soon realised that the unwell patients he was observing were hyperventilating.  As the diseases would progress, and their inevitable demise would get closer, their breathing became faster and deeper.  At first he wasn’t certain as to whether the illness was causing the hyperventilation or the opposite, but one way he decided he could find out was to work on reducing the quantity and speed of breath.

Okay- slow the breathing down, slow the the onset of death. In ancient India, the belief exists that duration of life (mortality) is based on a finite number of breaths. What is less often known is the duration and nature of these breaths.

 What is unique about Buteyko's approach?

 Buteyko first began experimenting on himself and realised that when he calmed and lessoned his own breath, he could ease his headaches & greatly reduce his own high blood pressure. Also he would ask healthy subjects to take big breaths and breathe rapidly for a period of time, and found that they would become nauseous and dizzy, then develop wheezing and coughing from the subsequent asphyxiation, until eventually the subjects would feint. 

So many people believe that if we struggle to breathe, then breathing faster is the answer.  As a former asthmatic, you know breathing faster does not harness more much-needed oxygen. What did Buteyko discover about hyperventilation?  

After an enormous amount of study, observation and trials, Buteyko was convinced that reducing hyperventilation was causing sick people to recover from their illness.  He began developing a series of exercises which people could use to reduce and calm their breath. Using breath hold and relaxation exercises, ultimately uses neuroplasticity to recalibrate the respiratory centre in the brain. Automating this new way of breathing, less in volume, but diaphragmatically, greatly increases oxygenation to tissues, muscles, organs and cells and is what is now commonly known as “Buteyko”.

Who do you feel can benefit from Buteyko Breathing?

Buteyko is a beautiful fit for anyone who meditates or practices mindfulness, as it naturally brings you quickly to states of calmness and wellbeing.  It was a missing piece from the puzzle of good health for me, which has not only nourished my meditation practice but made so many previously undoable activities possible.  A good test for my Buteyko came when we booked ourselves into a meditation retreat in the mountains of Colorado a couple of years ago.  

If you could share an epiphany, what would it be?

Buteyko breathing has changed my life for the better, enables me to do things now that I once thought were not possible. For example, I had visited Nepal after finishing University in the early 90’s and I loved it, it felt like I had "come home".   I wanted to see the country, so I made my way to Pokhara which is at the base of the Annapurna circuit and the beginning of many of Nepals most famous treks.  I felt like an elephant had sat on my chest and I had to return back down to polluted old Kathmandu so that I could draw breath.  I thought i was never going to be able to trek in the mountains or visit anywhere at altitude.  But after learning Buteyko, we attended the retreat in Crestone, Colorado at an elevation of 2,415 m, approximately 625m higher than Pokhara, without so much as a wheeze. I feel like a new person!

 What enables you to feel most alive?

My partner and I try to teach 4 Buteyko group courses per year, and together we can train up to 10 people at a time this way.  We are also happy to train people one to one or smaller groups in person, or via Zoom online.  Buteyko breathing impacts all of the bodies systems, including the cardiovascular, digestive and autonomic nervous system, and the science behind it is very interesting.  It has a huge impact on sleep issues including sleep apnoea, improves sports performance, reduces inflammation and reduces lactic acid build up after exercise.  Symptoms of asthma and anxiety just melt away using Buteyko, and it gives us powerful tools to use in both acute and chronic situations.  I am incredibly passionate about sharing this wonderful, simple, yet powerful breathing method with anyone who wants to learn.  

Please let people know where they can contact you, details of upcoming events, website, ect.

Our next group training will be in the Eudlo Community Hall and it’s in 3 parts, on September 7, 14 & 21 from 9:30~11:30 am.

Information and bookings are on the website www.windhorsehealth.com or you can email us windhorsebuteyko@gmail.com, or give us a call;) Adrienne: 0401 038573  Carey: 0401 822961

Thanks Adrienne. Please also let us know when you and your aprtner will be offering a Buteyko course suitable for children. 

Keep a watch on our website for upcoming events.

Appreciate very much your willingness to share your insight and personal motivation to get involved in this Buteyko method for stabilizing the breath. It is gaining wider visibility as more people share their inspirational stories of empowerment and triumph.

Thursday
Jul182019

Interview with Trent Banyan

While recently attending an Esoteric Accupuncture event facilitated by Alison Clarke-Daly, I had the pleasure of meeting Trent Banyan.  Feeling his uplifting vibes and hearing about the range of natural therapies he offers, including a unique approach to rehabilitation, prompts me to interview him.  Thanks Trent for sharing these insights.

Thanks for the opportunity! As we say, "peace and chi!"

Who is Trent Banyan? What led you to where you are today?

There have been many key life experiences that have supported my growth, but the one that stands was in 2010. I was in a month-long meditation centre in Guatemala. I would meditate daily, perform yoga and learn esoteric studies. Daily, I touched the surface of spiritual practices of numerology, lucid dreaming and astral travelling, the hindu chakra system, sacred geometry and the Kabbalah. It was actually here that I found my calling to be a healer and later, to find this place planted the seed that started my yoga journey.

What you highlight is a concentrated experience of life-changing spiritual awakening. We often hear of people learning one modality and later complementing it with others. It really strikes me as exciting that you invited it all in as you did and continue to do.

Please identify 2 key experiences that shifted your life focus. 

Since graduating from university, I have been working primarily in a private rehabilitation setting. To support people struggling with mental health and addiction concerns, I offer acupuncture, yoga therapy and mindfulness trails. This experience has brought to light how supportive I can be in a number of ways.

Using natural therapies as part of an approach to rehab feels very valuable. Kudos for taking the intiative.  A former yoga teacher of mine became a yoga instructor in an Australian women's prison.  Her very presence and this peaceful practice completely shifted the energy and morale of participants.  You demonstrate we each have the power to share our gifts in ways that invite others to see and experience the world differently.

The second experience that shifted my focus was having a child. Easily the birth of my daughter is the closest I thing I have felt to source. The whole room when she came into this world was a divine portal. Being a father shifted my focus to stepping up as a provider, protector and to be the best partner and father to my wife and child. It put everything in perspective and my family its strength is one of my main focuses in my life.

Can definitely relate to how parenthood changes lives. I had my children later in life when we were ready for each other. Being around children blesses us in so many ways.  Theya re teachers in their own right for all those who are willing to be open to this.  

What would you describe was your Dark night of the Soul?

Short version would have been my experience meeting Ayuahuscua.  This was my dark night of the soul. I felt there was no return back to what I felt was normal. Throughout the experience I was fighting it and trying to break my way through the discomfort and ability to be in control. I was spiralling deeper into darkness and I sat with fear. Fear I would not be able to come out of it and won’t be able to see my daughter again. At times I was having full dissociation of my body and space I was in. The medicine was strong and I was burning up. I stripped fully naked and had continual feelings of paranoia. I remember even saying goodbye to my wife and daughter. The hardest thing I’ve ever had to do. The support of a dear brother’s words of ‘sovereignty’ and ‘surrender’ came through. These words acted as a mantra and supported the ability to fully surrender. I broke through not by fighting but by surrendering and feeling sovereign in my being. I felt invincible and that I could create anything I put my attention to. It was a long night where I went into the abyss and came out the other side with a death of a part of my ego and a new sense of awareness that will live on inside of me.

The intimacy of this sharing is very touching.  You may be familliar with ethnobotanist Terence McKenna.  He blatently says that "Ayahuasca loves to take prideful people and rub their nose in it. I mean it can make you beg for mercy like nothing..."  He reminds us "to approach it humbly," as it sounds like you did th best you could. 

 Share some of your most difficult choices. Any resulting shifts in priorities?

The most difficult choice was to opt to not stay in construction and take up an opportunity that was financially-driven. It was at that point I reflected if this was the path I wanted to pursue and see myself in a career for the rest of my life doing. I saw clairvoyants, palm readers and sat in meditation with this decision. Finally, I came to the conclusion I was to take a redundancy instead and travel around the world for the year. A few weeks in I found the meditation centre in Guatemala and my life’s trajectory was then completely changed for ever.

Wow! From rugged construction worker to trusting clairvoyants and your true self. Love the message that what suits us in one moment can alienate us in another. When willing to listen to the heart, big shifts tend to happen.

Share your greatest joy(s). In which ways do they take shape in your life?

My greatest joy is going on adventures and spending quality time with my wife and daughter. We have a day each week called adventure day and we get out of the house, into nature and explore.

Making the most of every moment with those we care about is an endearing message. 

Tell us, what is High on Chi? Why this 'umbrella phrase' of your endeavours?

High on Chi was created for people to learn to get in touch with the infinite potential and power of chi (energy), that they have available to them. Many people are chi deficient and this is caused through living a lifestyle out of balance and that is too yang in nature. High on Chi uses the 8 Pillars of Chi Flow as a blueprint to identify areas of one’s life where they are wasting/leaking their chi and how they can improve it. When you are high on chi you are in the flow of life, you feel incredible and your beliefs, perceptions and mental state feels more balanced. The yin and the yang of the body is in more balanced and you feel like you are able to achieve what you desire. It’s the highest of highs and the purest.

And how does this relate to emotions?

There is no side effects or emotions such as shame or guilt. You are simply tapping into ancient traditions of living to promote good health and longevity. There are a growing number of people relying on drugs and extrinsic rewards to feel good and receive a short-lived high. Rather than using chi practices and cultivation techniques such as breath, diet, exercise, chi cycle living, connection to nature, meditation, sleep hygiene, acupuncture and having a sense of purpose and meaning.  All these pillars when improved upon will cultivate and dramatically improve one’s chi levels. Thus, supporting a life that is full of abundance, balance and a feeling of being high on life.

Many people reach for abundance, balance and natural highs.  Sounds like you respond to the call.  What led to working with rehab clients? 

I was fortunate that a student in my yoga class was working for Noosa Confidential a leading private rehabilitation centre and informed me that there was a conflict of interest as the regular acupuncturist knew a client personally who was coming into the program. I went and did a few acupuncture and yoga therapy sessions and before not to long 75% of my business was working for Noosa Confidential contracting. Its been nearly 4 years since and I have provided support for 100s of people struggling with mental health, addiction and other concerns.

What do you love most? What do they teach you?

What I love most is observing the change in someone who has hit rock bottom or even on the brink of suicide and then to witness the journey and growth. They inspire me and also remind me of my own journey and how far I have come. I also become reminded from time to time of my core values and principles by which I live. One lesion I am constantly reminded of is how many clients I see have an abundance of money and material things and yet suffering from depression for example. A reminder of the old age saying money doesn’t buy happiness. I still feel I learn just as much from my clients as they do me. Sometimes I get triggered and it’s an opportunity to observe what that is, so I can do some work on myself that’s perhaps unresolved. 

How did you develop and integrate such a diverse skillset in this rehab setting? 

It was working in a rehabilitation centre that acknowledged my versatility and allowed me to provide a range of services to their clients. From yoga therapy private sessions, acupuncture and mindfulness trails, I was able to see a wide range of clients with various concerns and build my experience.

Now, that is trust in action! You know the saying, the more we trust the universe, the more the universe gives us new reasons to trust...

Who inspires you as your mentors? What wisdom do they impart that you take to heart?

My mentors are my wife and my close brothers that are in my life. I have been with my wife for nearly 16 years and we got together while I was a heavy pot smoker and drug taker and with a lack of purpose. She has been such a solid support for my continual growth and I owe her lots of credit to helping me become the man I am today.

Not everyone has the courage and strength to support a partner through addiction.  We hear about celebrities like Nicole Kidman who supported Keith Urban during rehab but we never really know the extent of Keith Urban's addiction. Regardless of the news, the support of those closest to us as we go through hardship matters.  Love of others helps to heal us but ultimately loving ourselves is the key to everything.

I have a group of men I regularly meet up with and we meet for sunrise, climb a mountain, connect over a brew and have good yarns. These men are an incredible source of inspiration for me. We help keep each other accountable and there is a huge amount of trust between us. They are all innovators and system changers doing incredible things out there to help all of humanity.

Bonding is so powerful for men and women.  We hear about men;s Circles and Sisters Circles like that run by Julie Cardillo that create a supportive healing space for growth.

Describe your 5 core values and how your bigger life vision is evolving to nurture this.

My 5 core values are ;

1.            I value being a respected trustworthy man in my community

2.            I value being the best father I can possibly be for my daughter

3.            I value having a well-balanced lifestyle between self-care, family, fun, friends and work

4.            I value travelling and exploring different places and cultures

5.            I value time spent in nature and sitting around a fire with close friends and family

I value these core values as well as many other I have so much that when I don’t give one attention for a while, I can feel my yin/yang harmony out of balance. Touching on all these values regularly maintains my self-worth and belief I have as well as stay connected to have a sense of purpose and meaning in my life.

That definitely invites us all to reflect on our own values and whether we are consistently living or truth, walking our talk, being in harmony with thought, word and action which Gandhi describes as the key to happiness.

If you could leave some advice for people, what would it be?

Go and challenge yourself. Ask for help and support when you need it and take full responsibility for your life. Be the master of your own destiny, don’t wait or rely on others.

Taking full responsibility for our live choices and consequences is indeed life changing. 

How can people contact you? Upcoming events? How can people work with you?

w. www.highonchi.com.au

e. trent@highonchi.com.au

p. 0429044187

Facebook: HIGH ON CHI -  https://www.facebook.com/highonchi.com.au/?ref=bookmarks

I have my own clinic called High on Chi in Noosaville on the Sunshine Coast and available for 1 on 1 sessions on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays.

I have a bunch of events and workshops coming up. I will be back in Bali next month, this time to facilitate 3 events at The Pyramids of Chi in Ubud where I will also be providing some 1 on 1 private sessions in the Pyramids.

Monthly there is the Community Acupuncture and Sound Bath events held on the Sunshine Coast and in Brisbane monthly. For more info and book, see website or contact me directly.

Thanks again Trent for being so open.  Imagine what life would be like when people feel more open to choose to live based on love rather than be driven by fear. We are shifting in that direction.  Our own lives are our message.