I'm Reverend Ali Bierman.
Welcome to the Let's Get Metaphysical Show, Connecting Heart and Mind.
We take you beyond your five senses, melding the invisible forces, driving your life in each moment.
If you're looking for your next step on the path into the unseen, you are in the right place at the right time.
Let's get started.
Every day in life, you have lots and lots of choices to make.
And some choices, they're more difficult to make than other choices.
So how do you know when to make a move and how to accomplish that move?
And that's what we've been focusing on recently.
I'm Reverend Ali Bierman, and I'm really grateful that you're joining us for Let's Get Metaphysical, Connecting Heart and Mind.
And today's guest Kelley Raleigh has been with us before, and she's definitely somebody who makes lots of choices.
And in fact, I'm going to let her tell you about who she is these days.
Hi, Ali.
Well, thank you for having me.
I'm excited to be back again, and we always have interesting conversations.
So I'm just, I'm willing to just see where it goes today.
Yeah, so do you want me to tell you my three things?
Yes, please.
I feel like there's kind of a lot that people don't know about me, and I'm kind of okay with it.
Well, whatever you're okay with sharing.
Yeah, because I like having a bit of a mystery.
I grew up in Indiana, and everybody knows that.
I wanted to be a dancer when I was younger and in high school, and I moved to New York City to study, and didn't really study that long, didn't really go deep into it, but I actually wanted to be a dancer, and so I started on that journey when I was 19 till I was about early 20s, and then let that go.
And then what else?
Oh, a little fun thing.
I do like sharing this one because I think it's fun.
A very long time ago, there was a music video called Summertime Sadness from Lana Del Rey.
It's one of the most popular music videos kind of ever.
And my friends were in it and directing it, and I was just there helping to produce it.
And I am actually the body double for Lana as she falls off the cliff.
It's like in the first 30 seconds or so of the video.
So if you go to the music video, I don't need to plug it because I think everyone in the mom has already seen it.
But if you go to it, I am the girl in the white dress with the long red hair and I'm falling off the cliff.
So that was me.
That's cool.
So if you're okay with sharing the link, we'll put it in the show notes.
So I'm very aware that you're into a lot of things.
I like to know very interesting people.
How do you know which path to choose at any given time and how to go on a different path?
How long to stay there before you go someplace else?
That is a loaded question for sure.
So I am a manifesting generator in human design.
I'm not a practitioner in human design.
This is what we do in our retreats, and my co-facilitator does this piece, but I'm a manifesting generator.
And so for me, I need to feel it.
I need to...
There's also other components that are in that.
I need to be a heck yes, and then I also need to kind of sit with it for a minute, or a heck no, and then still sit with it.
It's kind of this for me, and not everybody operates this way, but for me, it needs to be like a pull towards it, if you will, like almost this visceral pull towards something, and then I feel the excitement, and then I can visualize it, and then it's like, yeah, this is gonna happen.
When I get scared about something, or nervous, or like maybe I shouldn't, I need to really sit with that for a minute and see is that my intuition, because if that was the initial like, no, we shouldn't, it will kind of dissipate, because I will kind of like, start rationalizing, actually, I can do this, and this is a risk that I'm willing to take, et cetera.
But I will say, I have been blessed my entire female life as never putting myself in a really dangerous situation, because I always knew I'm not going in there, I'm not going with that person, I'm not doing that.
So when I know immediately that it is a no, and it is like, I almost feel like I'm stopped, in a way, if that makes sense.
So. That makes sense.
And it's interesting that everybody I've been interviewing on this particular slant on life, we all feel it, whether it's intuition, whether it's spirit talking to us, but that's the feeling I know for me, I feel it in my heart.
And you referred to the thoughts, but that's not where you started.
It starts kind of in my sacral, like in my gut.
And it's almost like, you can't really see my hands, but it's almost like either a pull or there's a block, if that makes sense.
So what is your favorite direction right now?
Being a mom, I love it so much.
He's almost eight, he's like a month from being eight.
And I've worked around kids my entire professional career, like since college.
And this was never my favorite age range, like seven to like 11 or 12.
I just was like, I don't get them.
I get the little kids, I get the teenagers.
This group, I don't get.
And so I've always had a great close relationship with my son and he's almost eight and he's just really cool.
And I enjoy him and he's fun and he's interesting.
So that's kind of my favorite thing to do right now.
However, I need to make money.
So my favorite thing to do is my retreats, really.
They're called Back to You and they're three days in Topanga, California.
Maybe one day soon, we will expand to an international location, but they're really nourishing and relaxing and filled with space and loveliness and nourishment.
So that's my favorite thing to do professionally.
How did you come to create the retreat and what makes up the retreat?
So a lot of people do retreats and actually each one's unique.
I'm actually finding some are so the same.
Like they're just kind of doing the same thing over and over.
It's a yoga retreat and it's some meals and, you know, and I just was so uninspired by all of that.
And not that yoga's bad, yoga's fine, but I just feel like I always like giving people, I like hosting events.
I like having people in my home.
I like having dinner parties.
I like gathering people.
And so I've always done a version of this in my professional career.
And I thought, I want to give something that's unique to people, that they've never experienced, and that is truly nourishing from a biological perspective in all the ways.
And I have a good friend, her name is Sophie Fletcher, and she has a PhD.
I'm not even going to tell you what her thesis is, but it's about touch.
She is a somatic experiencing therapist.
She does the human design.
She's incredibly talented at what she does.
And we are just, we're very symbiotic with how we work together.
And I kind of just went to her one day and I was like, I feel like this could be fun if we did this.
She was like, I feel like it could be too.
And it was like a half a day of like, because I do this with my clients, she does this with her clients, let's just merge it.
So it wasn't even a lot of, so I have a lot of experience putting together seminars and retreats and leadership programs.
So it was just a matter of like, how do you take people through it?
And you take people through it by like digging in deep, looking at everything, and then letting people fly at the end.
So there is a process and we just kind of plugged in what we just normally do.
And it's in nature.
It's on four acres in Topanga, California.
Everything's beautiful.
The sun, the trees, we do Chinese meridian exercises in the morning under a big oak tree.
And we let people sleep in.
We go to bed early.
We have nourishing homemade cooked food all day by a chef.
People learn their human design.
They do neurooptimal.
We do group coaching.
We do breath work.
And it's just this lovely small group.
And yeah, I just was like, I wanna offer this to people.
And I feel like there's so many benefits.
So we've done four, and our fifth one will be in September.
I feel your energy.
And it's like, I usually feel energy when I'm with somebody, but yours is coming like a wave.
I've never had it come that way before.
And it feels like a peaceful wave that I'm imagining encompasses everybody there during the retreat.
I mean, I like to think, and so people kind of have that experience.
It's not a boot camp.
There's no vomiting and crying.
And it's like, actually, there's a lot of laughter.
There's some crying, but there's a lot of laughter.
There's a lot of joy.
There's a lot of just space, and people really appreciate that because most people do not have that in their lives.
And so it's a treat even for me and Sophie to do it.
And yeah, people really, really enjoy it.
That's really cool.
Because I think if people smiled more, well, first of all, it changes your entire body, mind, spirit, and there isn't enough of that.
So I've, oh, many, many years ago, decades ago, I decided that, because a lot of bad things happened in my life that were tough to come through, but I was always smiling and looking for the other end.
But it's the smiling, and it just became a habit.
And when it's a habit, you're just walking around, and people who maybe they weren't smiling as you approached them, all of a sudden they smile, and you feel like you made a connection.
And it's also interesting to note, one day I thought, well, I'm going for a walk on a trail, and I'm gonna count for 10 people and see how many people look at me and smile back.
The six people who looked at me all smiled.
The other four didn't even make eye contact.
I get that too.
And I try not to be frustrated with the people that won't look at me.
I'm like, you're walking right by me.
You can't smile.
Try not to judge that.
It's funny that you're bringing that up because I've really been talking lately on like my Instagram reels or in emails about human connection.
And I, obviously, it's so important.
Obviously, love and gratitude are the highest frequencies.
Obviously, being in proximity with people and feeling their heart, we can do that.
Hugs, you know, bring about oxytocin.
Hugs can like just change our day.
And so many people are on their phones.
So many people now are doing Zoom meetings versus meeting in person.
And it's great if you're out of town.
I think that's amazing.
I don't want to meet over a phone or a computer if you live 10 minutes from me.
You know what I mean?
Like, I want to be in the joy and the laughter and the touching and the handholding.
And it's been an interesting journey because people say they want to connect.
And people say that, you know, I hear people, you know, I just, I want a connection.
I want a boyfriend.
I want a girlfriend.
I want whatever.
But then most people aren't getting out of their own way to do it.
And so I just feel like I want to keep talking about it more.
That's so interesting.
I lived in Idaho for 10 years, and it was such a loving community everywhere.
Whenever we had business meetings, Chamber of Commerce, anything, everybody was hugging.
And I come back East and it's like, people don't even touch.
And it doesn't feel right.
Well, I will say this.
So when I met my late husband, I wasn't a big hugger.
I wasn't very affectionate.
I didn't even like romance, like none of that, because there was a big part of me that was closed off for various reasons.
And since I have been in a spiritual community, in and around people that like value community, et cetera, and laughing and sharing and joy, I have changed.
And so I do understand that it's almost like you have to kind of like get past a wall.
Like most people have so many walls up, you have to get past a wall to then be willing to like give someone a hello hug.
I mean, we're not in France where everybody kisses, right?
Like on the two cheeks.
And so most people don't want to do it.
They want it, but they're not willing to do it.
They're scared of it, but they want it.
And yeah, it's been fascinating, even in like my dating experience, and it is a wild world out there.
I grew up in a family where we loved each other, but we didn't exactly say, I love you.
And there wasn't touching.
I mean, if I was hurt or sick, I get cared for, but there just wasn't touching back then.
And I don't know what caused me to change because I'm definitely completely the other way.
What's cool then is I attract people who are very huggy.
And even if they're people, they're all over the country.
So I can't actually touch them directly, but I can feel like if they don't show up on a Zoom, I feel like part of me is missing.
Yeah, they're part of my family, and I'm grateful that we are able to connect this way.
And I want to just make the point for those of you out there, struggling, that's optional.
And if you go down to the link and contact me, I'll talk to you in five minutes.
I'll show you how you can end the struggle.
So getting back to today, and as a parent and a grandparent, I always, well, I lived my life with my kids.
They were performers, so I was with them nonstop.
And it's very interesting, and it's very interesting being back on the East Coast, just a whole different life from what we had in Idaho.
So you live in California.
Now, California has a range of types of people.
So where you live, what kind of environment is it?
Well, I'm in Los Angeles, but the reason I'm still here is because I have found a really amazing community, and it's not the Hollywood scene.
It's not, I mean, it's all around.
You can't escape it.
It's LA.
However, I've been homeschooling and unschooling my child since he was two.
So we are in nature.
We are at the beach.
We are in forests and hiking, and we're in nature.
And then we're around people that really do value community, and it's not about what can we get from each other and what can we do for each other.
It's not, actually, we all show up for each other, but it's a very different vibe than the Hollywood scene.
So I just kind of maneuvered out of that and found my crew, and I have really amazing people around me.
I mean, I'm assuming they think I'm amazing too, because I'm still in their lives.
And most people have been in my lives for decades.
And so that's why we're still here.
So when I say I'm in Los Angeles, it's not what people think.
And when you go down to Orange County and San Diego, it's definitely a little bit more of a Midwest vibe, a little bit.
And like maybe East California, but Los Angeles and like San Francisco, it's definitely a big city.
So you have to just kind of know how to navigate it.
I'm very grateful to you for sharing it, because since I moved up here and I'm in the Northeast, I never thought I'd live in the Northeast.
I've been struggling to find my people, and all my friends keep saying, you'll find them, you'll find them.
You just gotta keep looking.
Just might not be as many as you would like.
It might be a smaller group, you know?
Well, I'd like more than one person.
I hear you, yeah, same.
So what would you like to share with our listeners?
How to find you or something that you're wanting them them to know?
Well, actually, I wanna piggyback on what you said, like, you know, suffering is a choice, like chaos is a choice.
All of these things are a choice.
And I don't say this because I'm above it all.
I say this because I tell myself this as well.
And when I feel myself getting stressed out or spinning out, I'm reminding myself that it's a choice.
And, you know, I didn't choose to have my husband unexpectedly die.
So I did choose, however, how I was going to live, and I was going to continue being intentional.
And I continued seeking out support.
And what that looked like for me was continuing to do neurooptimal sessions, continuing to do my own coaching work on myself.
And there are days where I could be doing it more, you know, but life happens.
And I have a center point that I come back to, and which is why we started expanding into the retreats.
And so I work one-to-one with people normally throughout the year.
We do neurooptimal sessions, which is a neurofeedback system that biologically lets your brain and nervous system choose how it wants to regulate itself instead of putting other things into it and having it stimulate your body and telling it what it needs, because that's how you can get side effects from things.
And so I do what I call Ignite Your Life coaching, and it's how do we use and really tap into our intuition to really create the life that we want.
So it's a combination of using neurooptimal and coaching, and I can do that remote with people because I can send them the system and they can rent it.
And then, like I said, I've got the retreats, and we do them right now twice a year, and hopefully we'll be doing them more.
But there are three days, and you can find all of this information at thekindbrain.com, thekindbrain.com, and I'm sure you'll have it in the show notes.
And that's where you'll see my story.
You will see testimonials of what I do and what people have gotten and all the options with working with me.
I like to do live events.
It's very cool.
I'm obviously a whole lot older than you, but our paths are so much the same, but my path wasn't having quite the clarity when I was your age.
So I'm glad I am right.
Because what I've noticed is wisdom really does come with age.
Things that used to bother you, they stop bothering you, which is very much marked for me with my friends who were well into their 80s, who sometimes I'd actually have to not be around them, even if it was for a couple of years, because they were so intense into all the negative stuff in the family.
They're not like that anymore.
So the world's changing, the energies in the world are changing.
Thank you for your contributions to making that happen.
And definitely the links will be in the show notes for clarity.
Now, remember that you can join our Facebook group.
You can ask a question, and you can also make a new friend, and I put extras in there that you'll be able to see every week.
And if you go to our website, you will find the show website.
You will find both the audio and the video for all of our shows.
When you check the link from Audible that's in the show notes, you can go ahead and get a 30-day trial, including an audiobook download of your choice.
And there's so much there.
It takes 30 days, because what’s pon Audible isn't any place else.
And I appreciate you're joining the community, and when you do, you're supporting the show, and we get to spend a live video call every month.
On the topic of stepping in a new direction, if you haven't yet, download the gift that I had made for you, Step in a New Direction, and it's a very quick read-through, and it just might get you nudged to actually take a step and make a life change, because it's not going to happen by itself.
InJoy!
That's capital I-N, capital J-O-Y.
Every moment, because nothing, nothing, nothing in your life happens outside of you.
It all happens within.
And I will see you here next time.
Thanks for tuning in to Let's Get Metaphysical Show.
Be sure to click the chat mark and follow us so you don't miss a single episode.
While you're at it, I appreciate you leaving a rating or a view, and be sure to share it with two friends.
Tune in every Monday for more exciting insights and wisdom on life beyond your five senses.
Until next time, take a small step in a new direction and start now!
