Lunar Living with Kirsty Gallagher

In the final episode of this season, I was over the moon to chat with the fabulous Kirsty Gallagher, about moon, astrology and goddess wisdom.
 Kirsty tells us about how she discovered lunar living through yoga and gives us lots of useful facts and tips.
 
 Join us for a fabulous insight into lunar living, you'll be glad you did!
 Love Liz x
 
 You can find all details about Kirsty on her website:  www.kirstygallagher.com

Instagram: @kirsty_gallagher_

Facebook:  KirstyGallagher

You can contact me in the usual way:
 email:  spirituallyspeaking222@gmail.com
 Instagram:  spirituallyspeakingwithliz
 
 Visit my website for all things spiritual  
 www.karmaripon.co.uk

Transcript

Liz Hill: 0:08

Hi, this is Liz and welcome to my podcast, Spiritually Speaking with Liz. I've got another amazing guest for you today, but before we start, just a reminder to like and subscribe to the YouTube channel. Click the little notification bell and on your podcast app in the top right hand corner, if you just go up there and there's a little follow, and then that'll notify you of any. will give you little alerts of any uploads that I put on those. Okay. So without further ado, here we go. I'm joined today by the fabulous Kirsty Gallagher. Kirsty is a Sunday Times bestselling author, moon mentor, soul alignment, and spiritual coach. She's a yoga teacher, meditation teacher, and she's been a guest on lots of TV and radio, uh, this morning, being one of them. So each week. She does what I love and it's the cosmic weather report she calls it and she basically gets a lineup of the planets You'll have to go and look up yourself, but I just find it amazing particularly this week Everybody I know is it's aligned with more so than ever. I think it's a powerful week But anyway, I've got so much more I could do as an intro, but I'm not going to we're Kirsty Thank you so much for joining me. Oh, thank you for having me Oh, my absolute pleasure. Kirsty was just saying that she's just back from a travel, so a little bit jet lagged and all over the place.

Kirsty Gallagher: 1:35

But I'm here. Well, part of me is here, the other part, I mean, it's about six hours behind me somewhere, but we're

Liz Hill: 1:41

all good. How did you, how did this all start for you? How did you get into the lunar living, the astrology, the crystals?

Kirsty Gallagher: 1:53

Oh, I mean, I suppose to really answer that we'd have to go quite far back. So I've, I've always been for as long as I can remember from being little, I guess, just what you call different. I've, I've, I've, I'm a questioner. I want to know why I've always been. Interested in what's it all about. I'm not really a natural rule follower. I'm like, but why, why, why, why? And then my great auntie, I wish my great, great auntie when I was younger, she did tea leaves and tarot cards and was psychic. And I adored my auntie Mabel. So we lived in Lancashire, they lived in Yorkshire. So we'd go and visit them every now and then. And she'd get like, she'd do the tea leaves for me and her tarot cards would come out. And I just, I just adored her. She was everything, you know, and I believe it was her that gave me my first Parker's Astrology book. It could have been my mom. One of them gifted me a Parker's Astrology book when I was, I don't know, about 12. And around the same time I got my first crystal, which was a tiger's eye, my birthstone. And I suppose then you, You kind of then merge into going through school and rebel a little bit and teenage years and all those kind of things, but that the, the interest or the, the knowing that there was something more to life had always been there. And it really became apparent to me when I first started work of little things like. I couldn't understand why nine to five. I was like, well, why not an eight to four or an 11 to six? Like I just, I don't get it. There's got to be more to life than this. And so I guess then I started to explore again. And so I became a crystal healer like 22 years ago before it was like a fashionable thing for everyone to do. And. I became a regressional therapist and I did Reiki and I, um, did a lot of work with angels and ascended masters and archangels and spirit guides and just done this really wild exploration of trying to find the answers. What's it all about? What's it all about? And I, I understand now I'm a Scorpio rising, so I, I want to know the mysteries. I want to go deep into life. I don't want surface level anything. I need depth. Um, And then it wasn't until I really found yoga that yoga gave me an answer to every question. So what I loved about yoga was the philosophy around it, that anything that I needed to know, I could look to the texts around yoga and find answers and find a very deep, um, yoga for me is a way of life. It's not just something we do on a yoga mat. It truly is a way of life. And I almost knew, and it sounds really cliched, I know, but I almost knew from my first yoga class that that was it. That's what I wanted to do. Loved Reiki, loved crystals, loved it all, but it wasn't the thing. It didn't grab me. It was that first yoga class. I was like, I want to share this feeling with as many people as I can. It was, it was, it was just, it almost changed my life. That first yoga class and that feeling of connection and presence and being connected to the something more that I suppose I've been searching for. So I knew I wanted to go to India to do my teacher training. I knew I didn't want to train with like a Western teacher, trained with a Western teacher. I wanted to go to, to the real like blood and bones of yoga, of where it really came from. And it was then when I was in India doing my teacher training that I really then discovered the lunar work, um, because it's traditional not to practice yoga on full and new moon days. And so everyone would hang out in like coffee shops and things, and I would notice I'm a real people watcher, I love observing people, and I'd notice that people's energy would change on moon days, people would just be different. And not only that, but then people would have similar themes coming up, so everyone would have. Relationship issues or everyone would be having more anxiety or everyone would be having more sleepless nights. And it got me so hooked. I was like, okay, moon, like, what have you got to tell me? And so I'd just spend time on moon days, really connecting into that lunar energy and adding the astrology in and sharing that, I guess, and sharing what I felt and what I was experiencing. And it just grew and grew and grew and grew from there to what you see before you today, really. That's

Liz Hill: 6:12

incredible. So with the astrology side, was that almost like self taught? Was that just thirst for knowledge that you were just wanting to

Kirsty Gallagher: 6:19

know more and more? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I've done, I have done a number of different courses over the years, but one of the things I speak about this with astrology all the time is that astrology is, it's very important when it comes to astrology to find an astrology that kind of speaks your language. Because although there are, um, I don't know what word to use, I don't like the word rules. Although there are things like a conjunction is the conjunction and the conjunction is two planets meeting. The interpretation of that is, is, and the language that gets, and it's almost like a story. Astrology is a story that we get to weave that helps us to make sense of the current times that we're living in. And so then it's very, it's interpreted by each individual astrology then as to what their own interpretation and feeling is and what flavor they give all of that. And I just, again, astrology, finding out my star sign, I remember just meant an awful lot to me. It was, it was very important. And then finding out my moon sign changed everything for me. And When I learned my own birth chart, it really gave me permission to be who I was. So all of a sudden I was like, Oh, so that's why I do that thing. And it's not that there's anything wrong with me. It's because my Mercury's in Virgo. And so I know tongue in cheek, we all like to blame the moon for things and tongue in cheek. We can blame our birth chart in some ways, but it just. On a serious note, it just gave me this permission slip to be like, Oh, so that's who I am. That's what makes me, me. And it was really

Liz Hill: 7:48

profound. Yeah. You know, and with your, in your book. There's um, because I've always known I'm moon in Taurus. I've always known that, but I'm not, I will follow people like yourselves, but I don't know a great deal about astrology. Hence why I pick people out like you're saying that tell you the story that make it personal to you. You can understand what they're saying. You know, you'll say the fancy words, the trines and the conjunctions or whatever. Yeah. Don't really know what they are and what they mean, but You don't need to. No, that's it. You, you sort of, um, bring that to life. But in your book, when you're saying about what the moon in Taurus is, that like you've just said with your chart, I was like, that's why. And it just, it was more, it hit me more than it ever has before. And I've had charts done before. Um, And they've been okay. They've been quite generic. The ones that blew me away is India. I've got a love affair with India, so I go quite a lot. And I've had, have you had the Vedic yeah. So they, you know, where they mark the, on your palm. And that was quite. Yeah, incredible. Even down to, um, he was saying about the time and he was saying like I was born at 5 to 11 in the morning and he said, are you sure it was 1055 and not, let me just try what 1056 I was like, really, does that make a difference? And the thing that got me was, he said, um, if it was 1055, you've got a scar on your leg, right? Which on, he told me which leg, which I have, coral cut, he told me, um, that I just had a dental problem, which I had, I'd just been to the dentist like a week or so before, and I can't remember what the other thing was now, it's so long ago, but I was just like, how on earth can that come from?

Kirsty Gallagher: 9:48

Exactly. Vedic astrology is beautiful. It really is. It's a lot more predictive than Western astrology. Um, but yeah, and that's it. When you get your chart done by someone that has that kind of information or can give, just even give you some clarity around certain things or. If you're going through big planetary oppositions at the moment or something, it just helps for me to navigate the tougher times a little bit more easily. I

Liz Hill: 10:14

think it's, I think it's often being given a bit of a bad rap because of your, like in the newspapers, your daily star sign, you're like, well, how can that affect everybody? Because it is a, just a generic, but like you say, when you bring it all, bring it all to life for somebody, it really is quite astounding. Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. How it can affect

Kirsty Gallagher: 10:37

you. It is. And our ancestors lived by the skies, you know, until astronomy and astrology got split, there used to be one modality and one thing studied together. And when we look at how Our ancestors would use the skies and help the, and use that to help them to even determine when to do certain things is incredible. And I do feel it's a certain magic, the same as a connection with nature that we've really lost. And the more we can come back to that, even the, just the moon, you know, the moon is. Well, nearly always there in the skies, it's something we can look up to. It's something tangible. It's something real where we can go and gaze at that full moon in the sky and say, you know, please help me. Please guide me. Please show me. It just brings us back into a rhythm and a connection with this world that we're part of. I say this often, and it's not a wee thing, but we are made of stardust. That is like scientific fact. It's not just a wee thing that I'm throwing out there. And so, we're made of stars that are billions and billions of years old. And when we can gaze up at that night sky, I believe there's a remembrance of that's where we came from. I think that when we gaze up at that. In Peru, where I just was on the Inca trail then, because there's no light pollution, there's no electricity whatsoever, we all stood out one night and looked at the stars, and it's incredible, because especially if you've never been anywhere without light pollution before, and we see stars, but you don't see stars until you go somewhere with no light pollution. And all of us stood there in total awe, just looking at the sky of like, wow. And I do feel that it stirs something in us, a remembering of we are part of something greater. We're part of those stars in the sky. And the more we can reestablish a connection with the world around us, the more magical life gets.

Liz Hill: 12:27

Totally. Totally. And it's like, I loved in, in your book where you were writing it, was it 2018? 2019, and it was a lunar eclipse. Yeah. And you'd gone, you were pacing the streets, weren't you? Well, you tell the stories better. I was.

Kirsty Gallagher: 12:41

I was, I was living in central London at the time, which I, looking back now I've moved out of London kind of puzzles me because you couldn't see the moon this clearly. You had to go searching for her and it was a lunar eclipse and I was determined to see this lunar eclipse. I was like, I am the lunar lady and I paced the streets and obviously there's a lot of high rise buildings and things in London. Got all a bit disoriented. I was like, it's the moon where I think she is. I even got one of those apps on my phone, trying to track in the sky. Where's the moon? Where's the moon? Where's the moon? Could not find the moon, like couldn't. So in the end, I was like, do you know what Kirst just go home being the zone at the time of the lunar eclipse, like being your own meditation, the moon's always there, whether you can see her or not, it's all going to be okay. And I literally got to the top of my road and there the moon was going through the lunar eclipse. It was, and it was just, and I wrote this in the book, it was such a reminder to me of coming home to yourself, that we can metaphorically search outside of ourselves and pace the streets outside of ourselves. And we're looking, looking, looking for something outside of ourselves. But when we just come back home, when we just, and it was literally for me, come back home and there is everything that you need. It was just such a good reminder of life to stop kind of searching outside and instead just to, to keep coming home.

Liz Hill: 14:08

Yeah. It really was. Absolutely. I love that. And like you were saying, and, and this is a common thread through every podcast that I do, is that it's that people's, um, disconnect from nature. There's, so, I mean, like centuries ago there was like, farmers Almanac wasn't there, that they, they would plant by the moon. Yep. Um, and. Even that stuff. And there are books now. And if somebody's, you know, if somebody says, Oh, I'm planting by the moon cycles, like, Oh, like it's something, you know, really weird or woo woo. And it's, it is, it's just where we came from. Totally. Which is one of your first, your first book, wasn't it? About the connection to nature, the connections, the seasons. Yeah. And, and it is important. So going back to the moon, what advice can you give to somebody then? So somebody who hasn't got your book yet, but they will after they've listened to this. But what advice can you give to somebody who's saying, okay, I'm, I'm drawn to the moon. I don't know what she does for me, how to work with her. How can they begin? So,

Kirsty Gallagher: 15:12

like you maybe already gathered, I like to keep everything really simple. I don't like to overcomplicate things. And I honestly believe that that's when we don't do the work, when things become too complicated. And what you often find with astrology or moon work is that people get really caught up in this thing of like, I have to know it all before I can start. I have to know everything about astrology before I can start. I've got to know everything about the moon. The moon's got eight phases. The moon moves through each sign of the Zodiac in two and a half days. So the whole Zodiac in a month. So if you start trying to think I'm going to work with every phase and the moon in every sign, you've, you've lost before you've started. Because we've got busy lives and responsibilities and commitments and families. And as soon as we put that added pressure on ourselves, we're not going to meet that. We're going to feel like we failed and it doesn't work and we're going to stop doing it. So start really simple. In a, in a real nutshell, the new moon is the beginning of a new lunar cycle. This is where we get to set intentions, make wishes, and then work with the moon through a whole entire cycle, 28, 29 and a half days. And so first of all, just begin by checking in. I normally take people back a step to what's called the dark moon, which is a couple of days before the new moon. Because the dark moon is the lowest energetic and emotional part of the lunar cycle. So I say to many people is if you don't really know if you believe in the lunar work, start to notice that time that seems to come back around again over and over where your boss really irritates you or your partner does things that annoy you, or you really find that you don't like your job or everything gets on your last nerve. And I almost guarantee you that's going to be the dark moon. Because the dark moon shows us what we don't want. It takes us into our depths, into what we're trying to avoid, or hide from, or deny, or suppress. And it really shows us what we don't want. In order that then when the new moon comes around, the moon's like, Okay, so what do you want? So start to check in around that time when a little bit of discontent creeps in. Because emotions are just always there to signpost us of where we're out of alignment in our life. So whenever we feel emotional about something, it's just a, it's a little check in of like, Oh, okay, why is this? Why is this getting to me? What's this making me feel? So if we can start to check in with where we're out of alignment, when the new moon comes around, we might go, okay, do you know what? I'd actually really like a new job because I don't feel like. I'm really valued in the job I'm doing. It's not really using my skill set. It's not really what I enjoy doing anymore. It did for a little while. Okay. I'm going to set an intention now that I want a new job. Now, what people also need to remember is that the moon's wonderful, which is not necessarily miracle worker. So to expect to perhaps get a whole new job in one lunar cycle, again, we've got to, I speak about this a lot, but we try to Amazon prime our lives now because we're so used to next day on everything. That we want to do one moon circle and we've manifested a new life. We want to do one meditation and we've solved all our problems. We want to do one yoga class and we can do a handstand. And again, we've lost that art of growth and patience. Like again, if a flower went from seed to full flower in one day, we'd be like, Ooh, part of the joy is watching that little seed come up through the earth. And that first little sprout of something. And that first little part where the flower starts to, that's where all of the. The beauty and the joy is in the journey. And so what we need to do then is check in on the new moon. I want to create a new job. Okay. So what we'd first of all need to do is get very clear on what kind of job does it need to be and what do I want to do? We then spend the next two weeks as the moon waxes, doing everything we can do to take us towards that intention. And so it might be initially that you. Create a new CV where you write down all of your skillset. It might be that you really spend time getting clear on what it is that you're good at and what you want to do. It might be that you start to tell people that you're looking for a new role. It might be that you register with a couple of different recruitment agencies. So in that two weeks, we do everything that we can do to try and put our dream out there with the growing light of the moon. We allow ourselves to grow, be seen, shine, just like the moon is. The full moon then comes around two weeks later and the full moon illuminates our life as it is. And so what the full moon will show us is where we've got in our own way. Because 99 percent of the time when we get very honest with ourselves, the only thing in our way is us. And so what you might do when you're checking at the new moon is go, Oh, yeah, That person did tell me about that job in their company and I didn't apply for it because I didn't think I'd really be good enough for it or I didn't think I was qualified enough for it. So I didn't do it. And well, then I didn't put those things on my CV because I thought it might sound like I was being braggy. So I didn't. So we just start to see where. where we've got in our own way, where we didn't say yes to the opportunities that presented themselves, or we didn't trust in the signs and the synchronicities that perhaps got shown to us. And so then we use the waning moon to release and let go of what stands in the way. So that might be that we need to work a little bit more. on self belief and trusting in ourselves and celebrating ourselves and championing ourselves and praising ourselves and realizing what we are really good at and letting go of the doubts and the fears and the worries that then start to creep in about, Oh, new job. Are you sure about that? You probably won't be good at it. Better to stay where you are. That little voice that follows us around. We start to let go of some of those limiting beliefs until then we come back around to that dark moon again, the new moon again. And then we continue to repeat the cycle over and over and over again. And so for me, the, the working with the moon is just a beautiful way to take back conscious control over our own lives. Because normally. We go from January to December and we go, Oh my God, it's Christmasing. I mean, what is it now? Five weeks, six weeks. Yes. Christmas again in five weeks and nothing's happened this year because we never made it happen. We never sat down with ourselves and said, am I going in the direction I want to go? And if not, why not? We let life happen to us rather than us taking this, being an active participant in our own lives. Yeah, so true. So when we can work with the moon and we can sit down and go, Okay. I actually don't want that in my life. And then we take responsibility for it. Well, then I can change it. I don't need to wait for something outside of me. I mean, you could wait for something outside of you to happen, but then you're waiting a really long time and you're giving, you're like, this is my life. You do what you want with it. So then we get to take back that conscious control of just sitting and checking. And sometimes that's difficult because we've got to look at where we get in our own way, where we doubt ourselves, where we outsource validation and approval, where we get scared, what our deepest, darkest fears are. And that takes courage and bravery to look at. But as soon as you can do that, you take that full responsibility for your own life. And then you get to actually make changes. And that's when it becomes really powerful. It's

Liz Hill: 22:13

all encompassing really, isn't it? When you think you've got the shadow work, you work with affirmations. So tell us also, you're quite an advocate of rituals and meditation. So you do, um, upload many to your website, which people, I'll put all the links in the, uh, at the end. Um, so can you tell us a little bit about rituals? So what might somebody do? Maybe dark moon, new moon. Yeah.

Kirsty Gallagher: 22:38

So I mean, for me, we have so many routines in life, but very few rituals. And again, we've lost that devotional aspect to life and to ourselves. And I say this to people all the time, that if you can't give five minutes a day to yourself, there's a real problem, like a real problem. If you cannot dedicate, because I. Almost guarantee that if any one of your friends called you and was like, I need you, you would find five minutes to give to that friend. Absolutely. And a lot of that comes from, we perhaps don't value ourselves enough, love ourselves enough, don't think that we're worthy of our love, care, and attention. And so as soon as we can start to devote to something daily, something greater, that's when again, life takes on new meaning because anything done in ritual, we invite in the magic, we invite in the devotion, we invite in God, goddess, source, universe, whatever name you want to give to the, to the cosmic intelligence. We start to reveal life. We start to make life important again, and we start to make ourselves important. And so I feel like everybody, to me, should have. Just a five minute ritual a day. And again, I want to be realistic on this, that there is absolutely no point. You're listening to this podcast and going, right. Okay. So from tomorrow, I'm going to journal for 15 minutes. I'm going to meditate for 20 minutes. I'm going to do half an hour of yoga. I'm going to do 10 minutes of affirmations. Cause like with the lunar work, you're not going to stick to that. You're going to fail. You're going to feel like you failed and you're going to write all this off as being rubbish. So get realistic. Okay. How much time can I give in a day? Could anyone can get out five minutes before their kids? Like you can lock yourself in the bathroom for five minutes and pretend you're brushing your teeth. So be realistic. Five minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes. I don't normally tend to do even about 15 minutes on a normal daily ritual. Cause again, sometimes it gets too long. I've got stuff to do and then I can't commit to it. So just find, find some time for you. Even if in the beginning you start with the new and full moon, so sit down with yourself on a new moon or the days before a new moon and just write a list of what's annoying you, what's annoying you, what's irritating you, what are you unhappy about in your life, what doesn't feel like it's working, where do you feel stuck? Because stage one is just being honest. When we, when we sugarcoat it, well yeah I'm fine, yeah I'm fine, everything's great, nothing can change while you're lying to yourself and everybody else around you. So stage one, just get honest. Okay. What is, what is really bothering me? And it might just be one of those days, you know, but if that same thing continues to come up over and over again, it's worth looking at. Okay. So I know this is bothering me. I know that my commute of an hour really bugs me. All right. What do I want? Maybe I want a job where I can have a shorter commute. Brilliant. So then we start to sit then and just make a couple of intentions for what we want for the lunar cycle. Now, it's really important when you first start out that you don't attempt to overhaul your entire life in one lunacycle. Because if you write a list and go, I want a new relationship, a new house, a new job, it's not going to happen. And again, you're going to feel like you failed and it's not worked. And this is why when people even first start to work with angels or manifesting, you ask for a car parking space. Like we've probably all done that, haven't we? I've asked for a car parking space. And because there's no emotional attachment really to that car parking space, that's why nine times, nine times out of 10, it happens. Cause we're like, Ooh, got the car parking space. And this is where we start to build up a belief in ourselves that I manifested that I did that. I asked for that. I created that. I did that. So when you're first starting, don't work with any more than three to five intentions maximum. Cause if you put 17 on your list, you can't do them all. Two or three of them small, like little things that, you know, can be achieved that, you know, it's going to take a little bit of work, but it can be achieved. And then I always normally work with one bigger intention that's more seasonal. So I might work with it all spring, all summer, all autumn or winter. And then once you start to realize how you do have a control over your life and you start to make things happen, It's like a muscle. If you want to build a bicep, you've got to work the bicep. The more you start to build that trust muscle of, Oh my God, I wrote that down that I wanted it. And then I made it happen. And it really did happen. The more than we start to be able to have that belief in ourselves, the moon, the universe, and the more than we can start to ask for those bigger things and trust that they're coming. The full moon, then it's important just to sit and get really honest and go, where did I get in my own way? Where did I say yes when I meant no and no when I meant yes? And where did I not say yes to that invite because I thought that no one had liked me or no one had talked to me for when or that I wouldn't be qualified enough? Or the, where did I shrink? Where did I hide? Where did I talk myself out of doing the thing that my gut feeling wanted to do? Because my logic brain went, oh, but we need this in like a spreadsheet before we can go ahead and do it. Get honest about those things and then start to work on how can we let go of some of these things and inviting more self trust, self belief, self confidence, self love, self worth. Because that's a lot of what it all boils down to, Isabel. The more you believe in yourself and love yourself and care for yourself, the more you're going to want to make these changes in your life.

Liz Hill: 28:01

Yeah. And this, that's the key thing, time people don't, people never say, you know, I want to do this. I want to do that. And like you say, the right, the 17 point list, then they go into complete overwhelm and then nothing happens because it doesn't work because I tried it for an hour and nothing happens. And it, yeah, it is. I like the Amazon prime analogy. It is so true. Everybody's wanting everything now, now, now. Yeah. And, and like you say, it's, it's. And if you did get everything now, you wouldn't be able to cope with it anyway. You'd also lose

Kirsty Gallagher: 28:35

it because part of the journey, part of the spiritual journey is growing into the version of you that can hold what it is that you say that you want. And so again, a relationship is a good example that most people say that, Oh my God, I want this like twin flame soulmate relationship. And then the relationship comes in and they can't hold being loved in that way because they don't love themselves in that way. And you can only allow someone to love you as much as you love yourself. And so if you don't. Fully love and believe in yourself. If you do get what you want, you'll go. It's like the people that win the lottery and then lose it within weeks because they don't know how to hold that amount of wealth and abundance. I honestly believe that the universe keeps. Allowing you or opening more steps on your journey, the more you grow into the version of you that can hold more and hold more and hold more and hold more. And so we, we also need to see life as it's not an A to B and we're done. And when we are done, we go back home, you know, it's a constant, it's a spiral. It's like nature, everything's cyclical. And you probably get asked this a lot as well. And I do have like, Oh, how am I going through this lesson again? I've already done this lesson. And it's like, but you're going to keep going through the same lesson. And I describe it as here's the rock bottom. You'll hit the rock bottom and then you'll keep going around it, but you'll never quite hit the bottom again. Never quite hit the bottom again. And that's how you realize you're growing. Because when something happens that six months ago would have put you in bed for a week. Now you're like. Oh, wow. It's still, still hurts a little bit, but I'm okay. You know, that's how we know we're

Liz Hill: 30:08

growing. Yeah. And that is so rewarding, isn't it? I was in a situation last week where normally I would have reacted where something happened and I was like, count to three, deep breaths. Let it go. And he's like, you know, when he came out, it's like, you know, I did that. I did exactly that. You see how far you've come from other words, the, the reacting and the banging together. And yeah, yeah, it is rewarding, but it is, again, you have to put the work in.

Kirsty Gallagher: 30:40

Totally. And you've got to get honest and you've got to get vulnerable and you've got to face your shadows and you've got to stop blaming anything outside of you because the whole time it's their fault. You've got to wait for them to change before your life can change. And even that's tough, taking the responsibility of, well, what was my part to play in this? But as soon as I take my part to play in it. I then take back the power to make the changes I need to in my life. I'm not waiting for anything outside of me anymore. And again, relationships, a good analogy of this, that we can all sit there and go, Oh, they did this and they treated me like that. And it's like the only question you ever really need to ask is why did you stay? Why did you stay? And then we start to get that look in because I was scared to leave. I was scared. There was nobody else out there for me, except, and then we start to get deeper into the stories that will always keep you stuck. Whether it's moving to a new job or a new relationship or a new country or a new house. We've got to be brave enough to face our own stories. And that's challenging because it's much easier to almost be the victim and make everybody else's

Liz Hill: 31:47

fault. Yeah, of course, of course. And it's, it's, I can't remember the author of the book off the top of my head, but it's wherever you go, there you are. There you are. And it is because you're just taking the same baggage everywhere each time, you know, until you learn to sort through it. And it's not the nicest of things, particularly,

Kirsty Gallagher: 32:07

but it also is when you get to the other side and then you realize even like your own shadows, when you can love own and accept every part of you, it doesn't really matter whether anybody else does like nothing can ever. Touch you in the same way again, you know, it's, it's a magical journey. Tough. That's why not everybody does it, you know? Well worth

Liz Hill: 32:30

it. Yeah. And you can understand, you know, some people it's like Whoof and I'm out, but you, you know, it's, if you, if you want to do it, you have to commit. That's always absolutely always my thing. So what's Kirsty's Day-to-day? So, like you said, you normally do about 15 minutes, but what are your, your non-negotiable? Day to day things, practices that you do for

Kirsty Gallagher: 32:54

you. Um, I always have a daily check in, just a check in with where am I? How are we? How are we doing in there? Because again, it can be so easy to just spend all of our focus out there. So there's always normally a check in of in here. Um, Some kind of movement is always non negotiable for me and yes, I adore yoga, but I love weight training as well. That's one of my, I love feeling that power and strength. Equally, I love somatic movement. I love rolling around on the living room floor. I love shaking. So again, it depends on where I am and what I'm going through. Um, I do love to journal. I love to just being a writer. I love to get everything down and out and then some kind of meditation. Yeah, it's, it's really important for me. And it's, it's very strange because I get asked this all the time or tell me your ritual. And I'm always really caught. I know. I think I always sound really like, um, not telling you, but I'm just always very cautious again of like people create your own, like. I've been speaking all about this a lot, even in the spiritual world lately, that there's too many people telling you that they've got the answer to everything and you've got the answer to everything. So anyone outside of you that tells you I've got this five step ritual that's going to change your life, I'm just like, be a bit cautious, you know, just find your own thing because what works for me might not work for you. And then you might do it and feel like it hasn't worked and therefore you're not good enough because Kirstie Gallagher told you this ritual and it didn't. So. I think it's super important to find what works for you. And then the main thing is to just commit to that. On the days you wake up and you go, Oh, I'm too tired today. Oh, I'm too hungry. Oh, I'll do it later. Oh, it's too cold. That's the ego mind. That's the only part you need to overcome is the part of it that's going to tell you not to, because that ego knows what you're about to do is going to change your life. like that. Um, so it's about just finding what works for you and doing it daily.

Liz Hill: 35:04

Yeah, this is a thing. It could just be a walk to work, a walk of the dog, like say sitting and journaling, sitting and watching your breath, sitting and looking out of the window at a tree. It doesn't, it, I think there's a lot of people get very much that you have to sit on a mat, cross legged, uncomfortably, you can't move, you can't do anything, and you just have to stay there for X amount of time, which for some people that works. And there's, you know, there's benefits from, you know, like Vipassana and things, there are benefits from that, but you, there's too much of a struggle going off if your ego doesn't want to do it. You have, there's a coaxing, isn't there? You've got to get to that, to that point where you, where you can do that. Exactly. Yeah. I find there's a lot of spiritual elitism and like you say, the five, you know, I can fix you in five steps. I, I, but people buy into that because they want that speed, don't they? They want that, they want to be fixed now without really going into the depths of what is actually, what is actually going on. And I just think, I'm sure it's Wayne Dyer. I can hear it in his voice and he said, you are your own guru, G U R U. And I love that, you know, exactly that. If you say it took me quite a while to get into journaling and you know, I'll be truthful to let it flow. I didn't realize it was channeling for a long time, but now I do. And it's not my go to. I am, I do like to sit and meditate and I am, I do like a few shamanic things or, um, but I think once you get in that flow of journaling, it can be very enlightening. And it's, you know, yeah, you can really sort of bring a lot of things to the surface that maybe you didn't want to, or you weren't, um, You weren't wanting to, you know, if that makes sense, you know, like the shadow things can, can pop up through that. Do you have, so for somebody like me who would say, maybe want to journal more, do you have, now I know you've got a lunar, journal, haven't you? Yes. Yeah. Do you have like a few journal prompts that you could give to somebody? So at different phases of the moon. So, I mean, you've sort of said what would cover a few things, but just a, a generic, um, prompts, what would you think? Yeah, so,

Kirsty Gallagher: 37:35

well, around the dark moon is just a, well, what do I feel most emotional about? That's where your emotions are. On the new moon, I would journal more around what is it that you want. Or what would your ideal life look like, like an ideal life journaling around? If you could have anything you wanted right now, what would that be? And then write that out and then start to work backwards and go, okay. So in order to get it, cause that's what, that's what normally happens. Most people don't start. So. Take that back. What do I need to be doing now to ensure I can be living that life in a year? But most people don't want to wait the year, but then in a year's time, they're still where they were. So they could have put the work in for the year and been somewhere different. You know, it's like a false economy in a way, isn't it? But what do I need to be doing now? And I do this. Around a lot of the seasonal work that I do. So, you know, as we come to even the winter solstice, which is going to come in December on the winter solstice, it'd be looking forward to when I stand on that threshold at the summer solstice in six months time, who do I want to be then? So almost like a future self kind of exercise. And so what do I need to be doing now? To ensure that in six months time, I can be where I want to be. And then just a couple of little things you can do over that following lunar cycle. You know, I can start to be a bit more brave. I can start to ask what it is that I need more. I can start to use my voice more, whatever that, whatever that might be. And then on a full moon, it's more around that honesty of where did I get in my own way? What is it I need to release and let go

Liz Hill: 39:07

of? I like fire ceremonies for that. I have to say, I think it's quite writing something down. It's cathartic. Absolutely. Very

Kirsty Gallagher: 39:16

cathartic. Absolutely.

Liz Hill: 39:17

Yeah. I love that solstice, uh, what you're saying for the solstice, because, you know, only a few weeks later we're into the new year and everybody starts with the new year's resolutions. But like you say, so that, so they write it down, leave it. And then that's it. All everybody joins a gym. Well, not everybody, but people join a gym and they, they go for like, 7, 8 days, 9 days, 10 days and it's been proven, hasn't it, that gym memberships boom in January. By February, March, they're on the way back down again because people are not committing to it. They're not following through.

Kirsty Gallagher: 39:56

But it's like that with everything. I mean, I've got to say, I think one of the most silly things that we do is Create the new year around January. So I live by the astrological year. The spring equinox is my new year on the 21st of March, because it's virtually impossible to create what you want, or even visualize what you want when it's cold and dark and wet outside, everything in nature is still hibernating in the sleep underneath the ground. We are literally pushing against our own natural impulses when we try to do that. So. To try to run out there into the world when the earth is still frozen, we're going to slip and we're going to fall. So, ease your way into the year, go look at, like, look at nature. What is nature doing? She's not awake having a party. And I'm not saying don't enjoy yourself over Christmas, but there has to be a balance. Because at the time of year when everything around us is retreating inwards, we try and push ourselves outwards. And I honestly believe that's why so many people end up frazzled, exhausted. emotional upset, anxious over that time of year, if we could just look at what nature's doing. So go slowly into the year, don't make it a big thing. And by the time then that the spring equinox comes around, you only have to look outside your window. And you're like, you know, that day we smell the first smell of spring air and you're like, Oh, and even in the smell. Everything about you is excited and awake and ready for what's to come. So we start to smell the spring air. We start to see the first little shoots come up from beneath the earth. That's when we're ready to move into something new. That's when we're ready to start the gym and to set the intentions and to begin to grow with nature all around us. So I honestly think that they really did a good number on us when they were like, I know let's make the new year in January because no one will be able to achieve anything that way. Um, so scrap the new year, new me and work with the spring equinox, work with nature. That's, that's my biggest piece of advice to give everyone.

Liz Hill: 41:55

I love that. I've never, I don't know why, but I've never even thought about that, but it makes so much sense. And, and it's like the new year, it's like that set up to fail. You know, I mean, January the 1st, it's that set up to fail because you say you're held in that hibernation, quiet, dark time where there isn't that energy. And like you say, when you, as soon as you start seeing those sprouts, the buds on the trees, it's just like, Oh, yeah, for me, I'm alive. Yeah, I'm alive. I can breathe again. What's your favorite season?

Kirsty Gallagher: 42:31

Whichever one I'm in, I mean, I adore autumn. I adore, I adore. I think for me, autumn is one of the seasons where we actually see the advice nature's given us. Like, I would spend hours when I lived in London, in Hyde Park, and I would stand and I would watch the leaves fall from the trees, and I would watch the... ease with which I did that. Like the trees didn't cling. Oh my God, but there might not be another leaf. And what if I let this leaf go? And oh my God, I need to keep this leaf. And it's my favorite leaf. And I really, nature just like, just goes. And I'd be fascinated. And even watching the tree, you wouldn't know which one was going to come next. And even to watch the little journey down, nature just, Reminds me of the beauty in letting go. So I think autumn is a season where we see it, the most present arounds of what nature's asking of us. I also do love like deepest, darkest winter. I love seeing nature completely naked and vulnerable and bare. And what we fail to understand about winter is we look and we go like, Oh, everything's dead. Beneath the surface of the earth, everything is gathering nutrients and nourishments and sustenance and growing strong roots ready to rise again, come spring. You know, all of that state, and that's what we need to be doing for ourselves. The more we can go inwards and we can gather our nourishments and our nutrients and our sustenance and what we need, and we can take time to pause and go in. As you think of a tree in winter, just the stillness and the presence, the more we can do that. The more we're going to grow

Liz Hill: 44:08

in spring. It's, yeah, that makes so much sense. It really does make so much sense and yeah, it is, we're so lucky. I lived in southern Spain for 10 years and that was, it was summer all the time. Yes. I am a summer girl, I like the sun. Me too. So, 320 days of sunshine was like, Oh, yeah, this is nice. But I have to say it did get, you had a winter sort of, you know, we lived up in the mountains, so you could get snow, um, not so much, but you would, and twice a year you'd get rain and boof, would it be rain, heavy rain. But there wasn't really that change because it's almond trees and olive trees. So you haven't got these big trees. And when I used to come home to visit family, I always used to make sure I came in May. So the bluebells. Yeah. Just, I always remember flying in, just the green of, of Britain as you're flying over is just so beautiful. Yeah. Compared to the, the brown, because it was a desert area where we were, which had its own beauty. Don't get me wrong. Of course. But that, that seasonal, um, those changes weren't there. Yeah, and it does

Kirsty Gallagher: 45:20

affect you. Absolutely.

Liz Hill: 45:23

Yeah, it really does affect you because you, you feel like you've, you're missing something. Absolutely. You can't put your finger on it, but something is, something is missing. There's, you know, there's a part of you is, which is missing, which is quite fascinating really, isn't it? Yeah. But I suppose growing up in that, you wouldn't necessarily know those changes like we do. Exactly. Yeah. That we can go through those changes. Oh Kirsty, it's been wonderful. Thank you so much for joining. Pleasure. Really enjoyed it. So Kirsty's got a very comprehensive website full of, um, links to meditations got lots of free resources as well. She's got some fabulous books out. So there's a crystal ball. And then there's the Lunar Living, which you've got to get that one. It's a fabulous book. Um, she's got a YouTube channel and Instagram's the main one I tend to follow you on, I think. Yeah. Because I do love those, um, cosmic reports. I think they're fantastic. So subscribe to her on all of those. So you're, you're Kirsty Gallagher, aren't you, on all of them? Yes, that's right. Again, I'll, I'll pop the links below. Um, so you can check her out and see. What I'm going on about what wisdom that she's got to share with you. It's, it's so worth it. I can't recommend enough. So Kirsty, thank you again for joining me. It's been an absolute pleasure. I know how busy you are and it's been wonderful. Thank you guys. Oh, my pleasure guys. Thank you so much for joining me. So this is the end of season three. It's a little bit short, but as we're heading into Christmas, I can't balance time. But I will be back next year and I've got some more fabulous guests in the pipeline. I let you know what's coming. So again, thank you so much. And I'll see you soon. Bye.