Spiritual Alchemy: Exploring Ancient Wisdom and Modern Science with Holly Copeland

Discover the transformative journey of a conservation scientist turned mindfulness maestro! 

Holly Copeland, the visionary behind HeartMind Alchemy, joins us to reveal her transformative journey from hard science to the softer, yet equally profound, world of neuromeditation. She brings to light the pivotal moments that steered her towards a more authentic path, sharing invaluable insights into living from our inner compass and unveiling the essential nature of our being. With Holly, we venture into the often overlooked realm of the subject, as opposed to objects of reality, which promises a captivating exploration of personal authenticity.

We then traverse into the therapeutic world of meditation. Picture the power of meditative practices that allow you to tune into your inner experiences and perceive your connection with the world outside. Visualize a life where your presence is not merely defined by fleeting thoughts and feelings but deeply rooted in self-discovery and introspection. 

Holly immerses us into her personal experience, revealing how meditation rewired her brain and paved the way for inner peace. Further, we shed light on our offerings that amalgamate breath work, sound healing, and meditation, providing a holistic approach to the journey of self-discovery. 

Listen in, as we conclude with advice for those embarking on this transformative journey, highlighting the necessity of introspection, comfort with discomfort, and gratitude for the wisdom and openness shared.  

Holly’s website: https://www.heartmindalchemy.com. 

Chapters

• 0:47 Transformation and Spiritual Insights in Career
• 15:18 The Power of Meditation and Self-Discovery
• 24:24 The Power of Self-Discovery and Transformation

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:48

Hello everyone, Welcome to our Spiritual Spotlight series. Today I am joined by Holly Erin Copeland. She is the founder and owner of HeartMind Alchemy. She's a human potential coach, meditation teacher, rakey master and a sound healing practitioner. Holly, thank you so much for coming on Spiritual Spotlight Series. I'm so happy you're here. Thanks, Rachel, I'm just delighted to be here. So your journey from a conservation scientist to a certified human potential coach and neuromeditation teacher is truly fascinating. Let's dive into your experiences and insights. So here's our first question. So your transformation from a conservation scientist to a certified human potential coach and neuromeditation teacher, like I said, is quite remarkable. Can you maybe share some pivotal moments or realizations that led you to make this profound shift in your career in life?

Speaker 2: 1:42

Yeah, sure. Well, it started with me being a person who'd always been really interested in nature. I was that kind of kid playing out in the backyard underneath the scrubby brush and stuff and finding tadpoles in the local park and just spent a lot of time outdoors. So I fell in love with nature and the earth and I was the kind of exuberant eight year old who wanted to save the whales and all the things right. I really just felt very passionately about and in awe and thralled with the planet and all the creatures and everything. And that led me down a path of becoming landing my dream job when I was in my mid 20s with the nature conservancy as a scientist and working with them. I was actually a mapping specialist, so I worked with them to map the earth and I spent, so I had this beautiful career doing that.

Speaker 2: 2:44

And there came a point in my mid 40s where I'd been in this career for almost 20 years and I was feeling like this Groundhog Day kept happening, where I kept waking up, feeling actually quite sad about the state of the earth and feeling like there was never enough. There would never be enough time, money or resources, and while I'd always felt like I'm just doing my part and that's good enough. Like it suddenly didn't feel good enough anymore. It felt like what's this all for? Because there's just a cascade of environmental problems that keep coming and I just felt like a sense of hopelessness and despair about the sea, and a lot of people share that sense of grief I mean understandably. So there's a lot. For example, I mean the factory farms was one of the things that just tormented me, thinking about the millions and millions of animals that die in factory farms every day, and that despair and grief catalyzed, kind of sent me into a not only like well, really, who am I and what's this all about? And I'd actually been on the spiritual path ever since I was.

Speaker 2: 4:00

So let me back up a little bit. So also, when I was a teenager, I was into Shirley MacLean and out on a limb and had my first channeling when I was 14. And so my mom was into metaphysics and crystals and so I was exposed to that when I was 14. And so I'd been on the spiritual path. But the two were kind of separate, moving side by side, me sort of in a spiritual path, reading about those books but at the same time living a life as an ecologist trying to save the world and suddenly that kind of existential crisis about the Senate sent me back over to actually a deeper spiritual path. And what does that really mean? How do I do that?

Speaker 2: 4:49

And I'd been one of those people who, while I'd been on a spiritual path, had never really meditated deeply or been able to do it, because I felt like I don't know if I'm doing it right and it just so I would say things like oh, being out in nature is my meditation and that kind of thing. But I really came to feel like I needed to go within and make some finally confront this mess of what felt like a mind like spaghetti I'm doing this with my fingers because it felt like a spaghetti in my head and to reconcile that. And that's what I did in early 2019. I kind of set off to rewire my brain. I literally wrote the top of my journal my rewire, my brain project.

Speaker 1: 5:37

I love that. How was I kidding? I love that. So, living from our own energy PS and finding flow. So finding flow, calm and happiness are aspirations many seek. Can you explain what it means to live from your inner compass and how can individuals connect with it to navigate their lives more authentically?

Speaker 2: 5:57

Yeah, perfect. So that's a perfect setup for the next part of the story. So, as I doved into meditation and I had some beautiful teachers that worked with me to do guided meditations and teach me about that, what they showed me as I studied and I studied some Tibetan practices of Zodian and Mahamudra more deeply was actually to come into a different relationship with who I am, to understand that I'm not any of the things, but I'm actually. We are all of us, what is aware of everything that's happening and that that essential presence of our being that's here when everything else is changing. So, if we start to shift the perspective and the focus from the objects of reality to the subject, to what is?

Speaker 2: 6:52

What is it knowing, the knowing of being and one of the teachers I've studied with a lot is Rupert Spira, who's brilliant about this coming back to the knowing that that knowing is actually essentially open and clear and free, and that our natural mind, our natural mind, is open and free and clear. And so to find flow is to actually to find and know that our essential being is open and free and clear as the first step, the ground of being. And so I'm sure it's a spiritual seeker, you know this well what I'm describing. But, having read a lot of books, what I came to realize is actually that scientific mind kept tripping me up, because I kept going into the conceptual mind to try to solve the problem. But you can't find the answer there, right?

Speaker 1: 7:48

You have to get out today.

Speaker 2: 7:50

Right, you know, but it can't be as simple as just like dropping out of the mind and the fog of the mind into the heart space. You know, one of the little practice exercises I do with people is just like come out, you know, let your awareness drop down from the you know from behind your eyes into your heart and look at the world through the eyes of your heart. No, it's a completely different experience.

Speaker 1: 8:16

But what you just shared is so profound, like and I don't think a lot of people realize how profound it is to be in your heart and to view the world from the lens of your heart. I just even that's. It's a. It sounds like a simple practice, but it's so transformational for so many people.

Speaker 2: 8:37

I love that, I completely agree, and you know, and those of us who are scientists, and I think one of the things is that the Western world and the Western education system completely trains us to believe that the gathering of knowledge, knowing you know how many facts we can collect in our heads and how many things we can quote, unquote, know is some measure of success. And what I learned is that it means nothing. It actually has nothing to do with your well-being and happiness. You can gather all the facts in the world and it has no bearing on whether you will be happy.

Speaker 1: 9:15

So so true, so true.

Speaker 2: 9:18

Why do we keep gathering facts Right?

Speaker 1: 9:22

Like Google. Ok yeah.

Speaker 2: 9:27

So it's like we have to actually like. Like. For me, what happened was I realized like I had. This is a collection of insights, and one of them was like there's, you know. This is why the Buddhists say emptiness is form and form is emptiness. They're, you know, the natural mind is empty. There is no solution in the gathering of facts. They're just thoughts, they're just ideas. It's so true.

Speaker 1: 9:55

It's so true. So your work combines ancient wisdom with modern science. What do you find most exciting about merging these two worlds, and how does it contribute to what you call luminous awareness? Great question. So I really like that luminous awareness.

Speaker 2: 10:14

Yeah, that's Adelaide. The Buddhists use it. There's a number of Buddhist teachers and another teacher, whose last name I'm not thinking of, who use it. I love it too, because it really conjures up this idea that actually, this awake, alive awareness that we are is luminous, it's filled with light, right, what we are are, we're light beings, right. I love to merge.

Speaker 2: 10:40

To get back to your question, so in the work that I've done, one thing I've discovered is that these ancient practices, they're really ancient sciences. Buddhism is the science of the mind. That's what it is, and there's so much deep wisdom there to be understood and studied. And then I have found I'm a geek and a tech nerd at heart and I have found that, like I discovered the Muse headband which monitors your brainwaves while you meditate and which is freaking, mind-blowing. And so you know, one of the first things that I the story I'll tell now that I did on my journey to rewire my brain was understand brainwaves. So understand, okay.

Speaker 2: 11:35

There's alpha, which is this open awareness state, you know. There's theta, the dream state. There's beta, that thinking brainwave state, and one of the ahas I had was like, oh, I'm constantly in beta, I'm constantly thinking I don't know how to get out of beta. But once I knew and understood that I could get out of beta and somebody showed me how, and the Muse headband guides you out of beta into alpha then it felt like meditation was less of a black box, because before then it felt like, well, how do I even know if I'm doing it right? I don't even know what that feels like.

Speaker 2: 12:14

And so I think that modern tools that's one example, some others that I love, like I love the Huso, which is a, which is a you put on a headset and some wristbands and it plays vibrations that are super healing. You know, another one I love is the Apollo, which is a wristband developed by a PTSD scientist at University of Pennsylvania, and you wear it and it's like those vibrations. We're vibrational beings and so it reminds your body how to be at rest, and one of my clients just raves about this device, who was in a lot of anxiety. So I think there's a lot of ways that modern science can assist us to back into the ancient truths of vibration and frequency as the essential of all that's in form in the world.

Speaker 1: 13:17

Absolutely, it's so true, and I also feel having a science background helps to, you know, explain to your clients kind of, what is the scientific backing of what is that I'm looking for you to achieve Like, I appreciate being a nurse in that aspect that I can kind of blend it in, so it is very interesting.

Speaker 2: 13:41

Yeah, yeah, and what it means to you know, like scientific research isn't everything and there's a lot of ways that scientific research is constricted. You know, and you know, for example, like I work as a biofield tuning practitioner, so I bring tuning forks into people's fields and support their bodies to heal. There's new research on the biofield, the Oryc field, and I find you know, and so they're doing research. Well, how do these tuning forks actually affect? You know the field.

Speaker 2: 14:14

And so I mean, I think, as people get the data behind it, it feels, you know, it gives it a level of credibility it does. That, you know, is very comforting to a lot of people and, you know, and because we also like, want to be doing the things that have some validation behind them and some replicability behind them, right, it's very true, because we don't want to just say like, okay, this crystal works, well, why?

Speaker 1: 14:41

Well, because like that's no us, we're not going to know, it's not going to work with us. So let me ask you this, because I know that you do meditation. So meditation and turning inward are often seen as essential practices for well-being. Can you maybe elaborate on why these practices are critical to happiness and how they can lead to an awakened mind?

Speaker 2: 15:04

Yeah, that's such a beautiful, deep, deep question. So One, I don't want to make it too complicated because I love simplicity, so let's just go with a simple. In our day-to-day experience of being a human, as we move around the world, our focus is generally on everything that's you know, on all of our sense organs, right On the site, on what we hear, right, what we feel, and so we, in a way, we're always turned outwards to all of these things and we're reacting to things as they come towards us. So we're in this space of like, see, react, feel, react, hear, react. And what meditation does is create space where we're not where we're, where we can, you know, close our eyes, ideally, and start to just tune in to what's my felt experience right now, and can I be with it without responding or reacting. Can I actually cultivate just more of a first of a I'm not just going to constantly respond and then can I actually feel, and here's the most important part for me can I see that there's this relationship going on of subject, me experiencing the world, and can I now focus more on the subject, on this presence, this essence that I am, and start to see the nature of it relative to everything else, I am not coming and going.

Speaker 2: 16:52

So the reason that we, like, say I'm not my thoughts, is because thoughts come and they go. Have you ever had the same thought twice? Right, right, like, no, like not. I mean, we may have replicant of thoughts, but the same it's a new thought each time, right, it's a new experience, and so it's starting to understand. It's basically a vehicle to understand who you really are, because I think that most of us think, if I ask you who are you, I think most people think they're a collection of thoughts and feelings, which I did ask my family that once years ago and I kind of got that stunned silence. Well, what do you mean? Who am I? But, like, how incredible is it that we haven't taken time? Or why is it that the most important question that a person can ask themselves isn't something we actually ever talk about in conventional life, like we're talking about how great this meal is or what you're doing in school or whatever, but like, who are we really Like?

Speaker 2: 17:57

I'm fascinated by the fact that people don't sit and talk about that, because that's to me the most important.

Speaker 1: 18:04

It's very true. Like I mean, I'm thinking about my own family, like we. I'm probably the only person that meditates and is spiritual, and nothing against anyone else. They pray, which I also feel is you know a very spiritual experience as well, but they don't talk about who am I as a being, you know, that's. It's more like how am I externally? You know, I'm a mom, I'm this, no, I'm, I'm a divine being from the spark of consciousness, exactly, yeah, yeah, yes, that Exactly. But that's a good point, because I this is probably the first time it's come up when 11 months like this question, like what you just said, like that's so true. I'm going to ask this more. It's just.

Speaker 2: 18:47

I just find that fascinating. Like it's so true, there couldn't be a more important thing for a human being to know about themselves Absolutely so. Meditation is the tried and true ancient practice to understand at a personal, not a conceptual level, and this is a really important distinction. It's not to have a conversation conceptually. I mean, I love what you said about I'm a divine spark being and that I essentially think that that's true, but it isn't actually the idea. That is what we are. We're that which is knowing the all, so we can't even. I think Rupert Spira said the truest answer to what you are is silence.

Speaker 1: 19:42

That's very deep.

Speaker 2: 19:47

So we are not concepts, we are, I am, and so there is really no other way to yeah, the tried and true way to know that is to go within and to meditate Although I honestly think, you know, it doesn't have to be a long, 30 minute hour long meditation Like we can do it right now in this conversation, to just pause, feel what's here. That doesn't come and go. Feel what's here when we don't reference past and we don't reference the future. We just feel what's here now, you know. No, it's beautiful.

Speaker 1: 20:51

It just makes me feel like I'm within my body, I'm within my heart and just that energy feeling for me. I love it.

Speaker 2: 20:59

Totally right. It brings us right back into yeah, like oh, oh man, your whole body, like I don't know about you, but my body kind of weighs exactly yeah it's like huh, but I'm alert.

Speaker 1: 21:13

So it's interesting and I love. I will have to say that this interview, even the energy of it, is very calming and it just feels very present. It's very interesting. It's a very interesting energy field that is coming in.

Speaker 2: 21:29

I love it, yeah, when we together drop into the space of true presence, of what we are, not as a conversate, not as a thing we described, but we actually access it together. Then it shifts the energy entirely, but to your point, it's like it's palpable. The listeners will feel this Because it's real.

Speaker 1: 21:56

Yeah, absolutely so. Let me ask you this so your offerings include workshops, talks and retreats covering various topics. Could you maybe tell us more about these events and some of the impact they've had on some of your clients?

Speaker 2: 22:10

Yeah, thank you. So most of the work I've done so far, I do, I do. I'm in the San Francisco Bay Area and I lead breath work deep transformational breath work in the Bay Area so you can look me up, you know, if you're in the Bay Area of California, but otherwise most of the work that I do is online. And, yeah, and I do, I guide master classes. That combines breath work. So the steep transformational breath work, sound healing, tuning forks and then meditative guidance, like we've been pointing to, and I've done a tiny taste of today.

Speaker 2: 22:49

Yeah and wow, it would be the transformations. It's hard to put into words. I mean people. There's so many people shift. I mean they really. You know people who have been carried a lot of pain. A lot of clients that I work with are people who've carried a lot of trauma and pain for their whole lives and through these practices and this work together and it's like I will help people release that those patterns, vibrationally, energetically, and you know the result is they're so much happier and more joyful, more free. You know it's, yeah, it's like it's amazing.

Speaker 2: 23:40

And you know, the reason that I gifted from being a scientist to the work that I do now is because I came to see that the greatest gift I could give the world and to help the environment I cared so much about was it's not actually it's the people, it's not really the environment. You know it's the people that need to shift and they need help. People need help to come into this, knowing to find their true nature. That's what will save the world, you know. In that sense. So I reoriented that it wasn't about protecting nature, but it was about helping people. Help. You know nature, yeah.

Speaker 1: 24:23

I just find that so beautiful. So for our last question and your journey of transformation and self discovery, do you maybe have one piece of advice that you can offer to our listeners that may be just starting on this journey of self discovery?

Speaker 2: 24:38

Yeah, thank you. Yeah, what I feel guided to say is that to know that the pain that you feel for the world is the pointer into your freedom, you have to. You know, it's the signpost, it's the billboard saying come here, go within, feel. You know, because if we can, you know and the techniques I do and many other teachers working in somatic inquiry and different techniques if you can go in and let yourself feel and go into whatever feels uncomfortable, to learn to be with the discomfort, that's where the goodness, that's where the love, that's where the freedom and all that you seek is actually right, where whatever causes you the greatest pain.

Speaker 1: 25:47

That is beautiful. I want to thank you so much for coming on the spiritual spotlight series. This has been an amazing discussion and I appreciate you opening up to us. No, you're so welcome Rachel.

Speaker 2: 25:59

I'm absolutely grateful for the invitation to be here and be with your listeners. And, yeah, thank you so much for all the work that you do in the world. I greatly appreciate it.