Stop Suffering and Come Back to Peace with Maria Felipe

Welcome to another brilliant episode of "Wild + (Finally F**king) Free": Stop Suffering and Come Back to Peace with Maria Felipe. Inspired, lively, and fun, Maria Felipe's real-world approach to living based on A Course in Miracles will guide you toward a life released from fear and doubt, and filled with joy and power. In nine crystal-clear chapters, Maria shows you how to banish the "cuckoo voice of the ego" and connect with your internal teacher, accessing unlimited love and strength. Her stories, shared from her own life and from her students' experiences, demonstrate that with a willing attitude and an open heart, true happiness isn't just possible - it's inevitable!

Maria offers a refreshing and practical approach to living that transcends fear and doubt, leading listeners towards a life filled with boundless joy and empowerment.

Maria guides us on a path to silence the disruptive "cuckoo voice of the ego" and embrace their internal teacher, accessing a wellspring of love and strength that knows no bounds. With her signature blend of warmth, humour, and real-world wisdom, Maria empowers you to release suffering and reclaim your inherent peace. Let Maria's guidance lead you to a life of authenticity, fulfilment, and unshakeable joy, where the echoes of doubt are replaced by the resounding certainty of love.

Find Maria online at https://mariafelipe.org/  

And her 9 week ACIM program here (https://mariafelipe.teachable.com/p/acim-9week-program).

→ Use Maria’s special KPKreative community discount code: HAPPY50 to receive 50% off your registration fee

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Transcript

Kylie: Hello, everybody. Welcome to another edition of the podcast. I'm very excited today. We have so much in common already to be introducing you to the beautiful Maria Felipe. Hello, maria. How are you?

Maria: I'm doing good. Thanks, Kylie, for having me. I am, I'm all about collaboration and I'm really happy to be here.

Maria: Cheers. Yeah, I know. 

Kylie: How weird is this? People that are watching the video, we have matching Yeti cups and we are on opposite sides of the planet. I just took a sip of mine. Maria picked hers up and I'm having the same color and 

Maria: everything. I'm like, what? It's a sign. This is going to be awesome. The universe is already saying yes. You 

Kylie: are like people now, Maria, for my audience, if they don't already know about your beautiful self, can you tell us a little bit about what you do in the world? And then we're going to dive into so many different things in this interview. 

Maria: Very cool. Amazing. In the world, I appear to be, I appear to be in this world.

Maria: I am, I [00:01:00] do some out of speaking. I'm going to, I'm a course of teacher and also the author of the book live. You're happy. My passion. My passion is to help people stop suffering and come back to peace, to be uncompromising and to get it done. The time has come. So that's my passion. So everything I do, it's always aligned to that.

Kylie: My goodness. So many possible titles in the very first sentences that you say, Maria. Thank you very 

Maria: much. 

Kylie: I love that. Stop suffering and come back to peace. We're going to come back to that, but I want to start at the beginning because we have just discovered that most of my audience would not know this.

Kylie: Actually. I don't even think anyone would when I was younger. In about grade eight, I had my best friend, Sharon used to come over most weekends and we would stay up and watch world wrestling foundation with Hulk Hogan in it. And we were a little bit obsessed. And then in your bio, I discover that you were one of the [00:02:00] first announcers.

Maria: Can you tell us how the hell did you end up doing that? That's such a funny story. I think, life is interesting. I call that my other life, like my other life before I started doing this. That's a really that job. I got it on a whim because I was actually one of the most depressed states in my life.

Maria: That's the crazy part of that story. I was not in a good space. I was in my early twenties trying to find my way like, Oh my God, I have to be an adult. I have to be responsible. What am I going to do with my life? What's my life purpose? And my head was going cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs, as I like to say and I was Kylie.

Maria: I was at a loss. And I went up to the audition at the time. I was already modeling and acting and already doing TV hosting, but I was in a really hard time in my life. And they were doing this hosting position for world wrestling entertainment. Now it's called, and I was one, they wanted me to be the one that hosts the show.

Maria: I would interview the guys next to the ring live and such. [00:03:00] So I went into the interview terrified mind you, because I am in a depressed state of mind. So I come in and I don't know what happened. They went away. I just did what I did. I came out and out of 500 girls. I got that job. Yeah, I got that job.

Maria: That's why it's not a hundred percent true that you have to be in a good state of mind to get something because I was in a good state of mind. I think there was something there that attracted that sometimes regardless. You're going to have to go through something because you need to go through it as a soul.

Maria: So you know, that's why when something's for you guys, it's for you. It doesn't matter. You don't have to be kumbaya and happy and doing meditations and mantras all day long to book something or get something because if it's for you, you're going to get it. Even if you're depressed. Yeah. 

Kylie: Yeah. Yeah.

Kylie: Yeah. I saw, I believe that I, I. I have had so many times in my life where I've caught myself really striving and telling myself that something has to happen at a particular time or in a [00:04:00] particular way or whatever. And the older I get, the more I really have settled into that belief that if it's for me, it will come to me.

Kylie: And if it's not for me, it's not going to be one of the things that works out. And that is just the way it is. And adding to the suffering and coming back to your language, the story in your head about it's not matching my expectation or whatever is actually self imposed suffering. There's nothing wrong in the universe.

Kylie: The universe is doing its thing like, 

Kylie: and yeah, I really love 

Kylie: that. I love that. I'm interested. So you're a speaker now and you were always. Acting and on stage 

Kylie: for you what attracted 

Kylie: you to, cause you obviously have this message inside of you that you want to get out. Do you think that the message was what drove you towards the acting and the performing in the first place, 

Kylie: but it took a while for the message.

Kylie: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Kylie. I feel that all of that was preparing me for this. Yes, because [00:05:00] I feel so comfortable on camera. I feel so comfortable speaking because of my television background, like I get up on stage and I feel like it's home, but it's because that's also what I did for 20 years of my life before I became a teacher or, speaker.

Kylie: In this realm. So absolutely. I feel that it, I, that was the point. I feel like that was the purpose to do that for so many years. And then also, I think what it also taught me was the reason I'm enjoying this phase of my life. I'm enjoying it so much because I don't make it matter as much Kylie with my acting career I made it matter so much and it took so much of my piece It defined me that when I was called to be a teacher of God which we can get into later when I was called to Do this Yes.

Kylie: I was like, I'm going to make this fun and I'm not going to make this matter. And I'm going to do my YouTube channel and I'm going to do this and I'm going to do that. And I ended up getting a book deal and everything, but I did everything in such joy. And I think that's why I've been successful and that's why I enjoy it so much is [00:06:00] because I don't let it define me because I did that already with my acting career.

Kylie: And I said, I don't want to do that again because it's, I was suffering too much making it matter so much. So that's why even when I got my book deal. I, when I was rejected by Hay House, which we could get into, I didn't care because I was like, I don't even want to be an author. I don't even want to do this.

Kylie: Like I'm an actor and a TV host. So this is just what's in my windshield at the moment. Yeah. I love it. I love it. 

Kylie: Oh, so much of what you're saying. I want to pull because. Again, you said the word suffering. It's like you created the suffering in that stage of your life when you were making it mean so much.

Kylie: And by making it mean so much, do you mean if I didn't get the job, it impacted your, the way that you felt about yourself? Tell us a little bit. 

Maria: Yeah. Yeah. When I say that a lot, actually, I always tell my clients and my people, please don't make it matter too much or be careful what you make it mean or make it define your life.

Maria: [00:07:00] So that's what I felt. I felt that my, my car I, my career defined me so much that I didn't want this part of my life to do that and make it mean like when you make it meaning, it's this is so important. That this is everything in front of everything. And then you're not happy because it's that's what completes you.

Maria: So when I said, I'm going to let this go, and if I'm going to step into this realm of being a speaker and author, then I'm not going to, I'm not going to give a shit. Like I don't care. It's I'm not going to care about it. Yeah. Doing it 

Kylie: from joy and in a place where it doesn't matter so much makes it actually much more magnetic anyway, because you're doing it with an expectation or an attachment 

Maria: or a.

Maria: Yeah. And it's not. And again, I don't want to think that I don't care. But I'm trying to say yeah I don't care. It's not what defines me because I've recognized that what defines me, I say what defines me as God, because I'm okay with that [00:08:00] word, but you can, take it away and call it Juanito, Pepito, whatever you want.

Maria: And I say to myself God defines me. And that's it. Because my whole back life was like, My work defined me, my relationship defined me, money defined me. So when I came into this, I was like this, I'm not going to let allow this to define me. This is going to be something fun of where I get to share truth and see where it goes.

Maria: And it's been good times since then, 

Kylie: yeah. So good. You're actually reminding me of the times where I've allowed like a career to my daughters are 18 and 19, and both of them have now moved out. And so that I think it's really discombobulating. And I just, I think the latest one I've gone through with that is my daughter's 18 and 19 and both of them have now moved out.

Kylie: And so that. Identity shift, like I didn't actually see that I was going to be one of those mothers that really struggled with that. [00:09:00] Like I've always, raised very strong, very independent young women and, fully expect that they'll, go fly out in the world, but it's still really, there was actually a lot of grief for me around that.

Kylie: I was like, Oh, 

Maria: okay. That was a, it 

Kylie: was a huge thing, but I think I did now looking back with the, a couple of years of hindsight can actually see. That yeah, being a good mother was something that mattered too much to me. And, we're not saying like you were saying, I care deeply about mothering well and being present and, being a beautiful support for my kids.

Kylie: But I feel like I I've put this expectation on myself that it had to be done perfectly, which of course is no such thing. And then when you're when they move on and you don't get that day to day opportunity to prove that even that, see, my language is saying how much I was attached to it, but yeah.

Maria: Yeah. What you're saying makes 

Kylie: sense. I'm interested when you said that you were depressed before. Is the depression and how you were feeling, 

Maria: [00:10:00] how you ended up teaching course of miracles. Like, how did, what was that? They are connected. I didn't end up teaching it, but I did end up finding it because I was such in a hole.

Maria: I I was reading Marianne Williamson's book, return to love. And she talks about the course of miracles consistently and I was like, what blue book is this? And what is this woman talking about? And I ended up. Going to a workshop on the course of miracles. And I would go, it was in the nineties and I would go on to make it my path for since then.

Maria: And it's been over 25 years now. So that tells you everything. So yeah, it connected me and then I wouldn't go on to formally teach it till 11 years later. So yeah, amazing. It's changed my life. So 

Kylie: when you said before you use the beautiful phrase, I love stop suffering, come back to peace. How much has course of miracles been instrumental in you being able to do that and therefore teaching others how to do [00:11:00] that?

Maria: The course of miracles is a powerful channel book. And it talks about the cause and effect. So the cause is within the mind and the effect is outside and everything has to do with your beliefs and the power of your beliefs. and also with the help of your inner wisdom, the Course in Miracles calls it the Holy Spirit you can lower the chatter of the Holy, the ego and come back to the voice of the Holy Spirit.

Maria: So for me, the Course in Miracles has been essential because it's teaching me that I am not a victim of my circumstances. . What it's teaching me is that the problem is inside me and the problem is not outside. So every time that you read it or you do the workbook lessons, and again, it's a little bit difficult book to read because it's written like the Bible.

Maria: Very poetic, very, I tried to read like 

Kylie: easily 10 times in my life, and it's interesting that we are talking about it now because it's come into my awareness a few times in the [00:12:00] last few weeks, and I'm like, okay, maybe it's actually time. Now, because I found it really hard going, like I'd get it and then I'd be like, ah, too much, too heavy 

Maria: to, I don't know.

Maria: It is. It is. And I think when I got the offer to write my book, the reason, and it's called live your happy, but it's actually based on the course of miracles. So I recommend it to you, Kylie, if you want to get into the course, cause I simplify it. I make it so simple. I share stories. I share the terms, I share the terms, like everything is so simplified for you that I think you will love it before you get into reading it again, because then you come in with a perspective on understanding its language and also what it's teaching.

Maria: So I highly recommend it. But going back to, I think I was talking about, what was it we were talking about? I just had a brain fart. 

Kylie: No I interrupted you and now my brain will not tell me. No, I interrupted 

Maria: myself, I think. Anyways. [00:13:00] Anyways. My brain. Yeah. So the part of the suffering that I got it.

Maria: So one of the biggest teachings aside from the cause and effect. is that you have two voices in your mind. You have love and fear. And love is the Holy Spirit, higher self, whatever word resonates with you. I always tell people to use the word that they want. It doesn't matter. What it matters is if the message touches you, and if it's helpful for you.

Maria: And then the other voice is the voice of fear, which is the voice of ego. The course is saying the good news is the course is saying that the ego is not real, that the ego is an illusion. That's the good news. Yes, I know it's an illusion and only love is real. And now all else is an illusion. And this is a world of duality.

Maria: And guess what? We're not even here. This is a dream. 

Kylie: That's where my brain went. 

Maria: And I put the book down because it's so radical, but one of the most powerful teachings kindly of the course is forgiveness. Now, [00:14:00] forgiveness is not the forgiveness that you've learned in the world. Like I forgive you because you've done something or I forgive you because I'm the better person.

Maria: It's more forgiveness is actually looking at that. It hasn't really occurred now. I know. I know this guys he is too intense. So basically forgiveness is. Remembering only the love you gave and the only the love was that was given to you is real because again the course says only love is real so inform it appears that someone might have attacked you inform it appears that they've disrespected you inform it feels You know, you see it, you perceive it, it looks real, just like I look real to you now.

Maria: But the course is saying, okay, everything's only love. So whatever's not of love, isn't really real because that person is not in their right mind. They've gone cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs and you also go cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs and everybody's gone cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs. So [00:15:00] we all go more cuckoo than others.

Maria: It seems like in this world, but it's all the same shit, fear is fear, right? And it comes in different ways for different people 

Kylie: and it turns up in different ways, 

Maria: but it's still fear. Yeah. It's fear. So when you're able to look at the person and forgive them, what you're doing basically is reducing, is taking away the judgment.

Maria: So if you don't judge it. If you see it neutral, if you see it with love, then it's not that it didn't happen in form, but it's that you have questioned it because you have let go of the judgment and now you perceive it differently. Now you see with true vision, you're not seeing from the egoic mind of judgment.

Maria: You're seeing that, Oh my God, that person has forgot who they are. That is a call for love. That is a call for love. Instead of it's an attack. And I have to defend myself. Oh my God. I'm getting goosebumps. 

Kylie: As am I, because I just had a conversation about exactly [00:16:00] this with the guests that actually came out.

Kylie: It's Wednesday here. So yesterday, Tuesday, the 20th of February. I was talking with, excuse me, Dr. Jane Foster, who is an emotional resilience coach. And she was talking about, she does a lot of work in education and she was actually saying that in her schools where she's introduced her teachings and her different way of seeing things, they do exactly that.

Kylie: So if a bully does, without the label, but just say a person who would be formally called a bully, 

Kylie: Excuse me. When they do whatever it is that they do, the response from the individual that's on the other end of that is, are you okay? So it's exactly what you're saying. It's 

Maria: Oh, I love that.

Maria: That is powerful. Yes. That's exactly what I'm saying. 

Kylie: Totally different energy. And it's, and then you've dissolved your need to attack or feel defended or make it mean something about [00:17:00] you or whatever. And it becomes, Hey, you're not in your right mind, like talking your more, the language that you're using.

Kylie: You're not in your right mind. This is actually not reality. How can I help you come back to love? And I'm like, my God, that is just a transformative way of looking at things, isn't it? 

Maria: All of a sudden. Yeah. 

Kylie: that we've been taught we should be suffering from aren't a cause of 

Maria: suffering. Yeah. It's very radical because it's, because we believe that the problem is out there, but the problem is the way that you're thinking and believing about it.

Maria: So if I have a flat tire, I can look at it two different ways. I can, the flat tire happened and I can perceive it of. Oh my God, the flat tire happened. I'm filled with wonder. How am I going to figure this out? This is a moment for me to just hang out and wait and see. No judgment. Or I can look at it with judgment and be like, oh [00:18:00] man, the tire and then this, and I have to get to work.

Maria: And so that is a very simple example of how we have, Kylie, the power to choose how we're going to experience our life. And we have the power to choose if we want to suffer or not. Now, life is hard, Kylie. It appears, I always say it appears, because I don't want to make it too real. It appears that this world is a clusterfuck.

Maria: And I can say that because I think your podcast has the F for the thing. Oh, yeah. Swearing is 

Kylie: actually required as a guest on this 

Maria: podcast. So yes, actually it's funny because when I was writing the book, the first chapter, I think I wrote that I wrote, I don't know if you guys have got the memo, but this world is a clusterfuck.

Maria: And my editor said, Marie, I think we're going to leave it out for this book. Cause this is your first book. I think we're going to leave it out, but we should have left it [00:19:00] in. I'm saying it to be facetious and be funny, but the truth is this world appears to be hard and it appears that we have really, we have problems.

Maria: We have, all kinds of problems. I don't want to make anybody feel like, Oh my God, everything's perfect. Okay. Cause life is hard. I've had hard things. I've had an ectopic pregnancy in my life. My father committed suicide when I was three months old and I'm sure you have your stories, Kylie and anybody that's listening right now, I'm sure has their stories.

Maria: So I'm not dumbing that down because that is. Yeah. Real stuff that happens now. With that being said, what I know again, I'm getting goosebumps. What I know is that when you practice and when you start to gain your power, we start to understand where your suffering is coming from. Life is very different and you can have your water turned off.

Maria: You can have your light turned off. You can have one set in the bank and you can be free because it's a power that heals within you. That's the thing. And you're so powerful that if you get your mind in check. [00:20:00] You're free. And I don't care who you are. I don't care how old you are. I don't care what you look like.

Maria: I don't care what you've done in your past. You can have a different life. If you start to question your thoughts and really see what is really real here. That makes sense. Yeah. Yeah, it 

Kylie: totally does. I used to teach a course many years ago called destination delicious, and it was about mindset. I love that.

Kylie: Master. Yeah. Me too. I'm thinking about bringing it back. 

Maria: But anyway, delicious. Yeah. 

Kylie: Yeah. Yeah. It was because my first book was about creating a delicious life, which is all about this mindset, mastery stuff. And I used to say self mastery is the only true path to freedom. And really, that's what you're saying.

Kylie: If you understand that you have total control over the frame of reference that you see things and therefore their impact on you. Then you have this I've always felt like it's like that deep there's big super yachts and they've got those massively big, deep keels into the ocean. And so it's it doesn't matter what the [00:21:00] ocean is actually doing.

Kylie: The keel of having that self mastery and being able to understand that the fear is not real and love is what you need to come home to again and again. And I would imagine, I don't know, I want to ask you also like, How often do you find yourself still listening to fear and then having to go, Oh, hang on, here I go again.

Kylie: But yeah, I, I. All 

Maria: the time. All the time. Kylie, it doesn't stop. Yeah. Yeah. But does it what I'm finding, I'm kidding. I'm kidding. It happens a lot less than I used to, but I'm not saying it's it's, it comes up every day. I can feel the fear. I can make something real or matter as I like to say, make it real, make it matter.

Maria: Real, real makes means that I make it like so important. When I say real. That's what I mean. So I make it so real. The mo, the great thing about it is what you said is how often do you find yourself catching yourself? Yeah. All the time [00:22:00] too. So that is the most important part because I don't go so deep into the rabbit hole.

Maria: I don't go so deep into the suffering because I know better. I know better. I get the joke. I get the joke. There I go again. So I'm like everybody else, I have this Google brain that sometimes, I call her, I like to be funny with it. And you guys could be funny with it too.

Maria: You could see what your ego self sounds like, or is given a name. Like I call her Maria La Loca, which is Maria, the crazy one. And every time I leave Maria goes loca, I know I realized her. And I'm like, Oh my God, there she goes again. And I just Maria. 

Kylie: So I used to when I was teaching mindset and this is years ago, I used to call my lizard brain, Brian.

Kylie: So Brian is boring. And he goes out down the same old tracks all the time, the well worn, bloody blahs. And I'm like, Brian, just go and 

Maria: sit in that bean bag over there. I've got this. It's okay. Take the pressure 

Kylie: off. But [00:23:00] yeah, it's so funny now. Cause I've actually got two Brian's in my life that are.

Kylie: Quite close to our family. And so I feel like I can't use that name anymore because I feel like I've been dissing Brian for such a long time. We're not dissing, come on, Brian. Okay. 

Maria: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But that's such a fun way. It's it's not getting, it's not making a matter so much.

Maria: It's good taking it away. It's power by making it more fun, there's some, I call them grievances, but for me, it's like, there's some problems. that appear bigger than others. And I'm sure you're listeners and I'm sure you could relate. So for those big problems, sometimes I need to do more work.

Maria: During the day, I'm very vigilant and I'm aware. So if I start to feel, and that's the gauge versus the emotion, if I start to feel like, Let's say I feel like my husband's my problem. I'll be like oh, so I'll feel it. And then I'll laugh because I get the joke. I'm like, oh, my God, I'm thinking again that he's my problem.

Maria: Seriously, like Maria, come on, you're over that stage. And [00:24:00] then I'll laugh at it. And I'll come back to my true nature. And I'll literally See my see it dissolved in front of me. It's really powerful, but that takes work that takes practice, But for there's some big ones that really get me sometimes like I had one recently, but this one was more also It's hard when it's hormonal and it's hard when it's physical because then it feels even more real So now it's not just your head fucking with you.

Maria: Now. It's your body. So it's two things that are going crazy So I didn't know I felt go ahead Connie. I'm sorry. What? I, 

Kylie: I really want to hear because this show, a lot of my listeners are in their midlife transition. And when I interviewed functional medicine hormone specialist, the other night Giulietta Durante, I can get it right now, 

Maria: but I couldn't get it.

Maria: But she was actually 

Kylie: talking about how we need to understand that the hormone shift and particularly when progesterone drops really can impact. Our [00:25:00] internal landscape as far as emotion, and therefore our ability to deal with stresses and whatever. And I have definitely found that I did all this kind of mindset work.

Kylie: I've been doing that for a long time and felt like I was pretty. Pretty good at catching myself and then 

Maria: perimenopause just bitch slapped 

Kylie: me and my ability to do that just, I don't know, all of a sudden it felt like it, it vanished. It's, it is coming back. But I do think that you make a good point that sometimes it is hormonal and there's physical stuff.

Kylie: So anyway, continue. And it's, 

Maria: And, no, I appreciate you saying that. 'cause I was, it was where I was getting at too. It's. The suffering because the suffering that is double because now it's not just the mind emotional, now it's also the body. And then you're like, what's going on here? But a few, it's happened to me twice.

Maria: I've had two episodes already of this. Of just what kind of you're describing. I'm 46 now, or 47. I can't even remember my age. . Oh, welcome, welcome. [00:26:00] Maria. 1976. I think it's 46, 47. I'm horrible with my age. I don't even know. It doesn't exist for me. But anyways, , so sometimes I'm thinking is it menopause, is it not, this and that, but regardless I was feeling a little bit off and It was it was different.

Maria: It was different. But what I did for those times that it's hard or it's hormonal or it's something that is could be even devastating. I could because that's how it felt. Yes. What I did is I gave myself grace. And then I allowed myself to be that like, I didn't judge it. I was like, I'm a hot mess or I can't handle life right now.

Maria: And there's nothing wrong here. Taking away again, the judgment. I think that's the whole point. This whole thing is about right. Letting go of that judgment and just allowing myself to be and not judging it. Something's wrong. Oh my God, I shouldn't be feeling this way. Oh, why do I feel this way?

Maria: Oh my God, I should go to the doctor, which is fine too. I can go to the doctor, right? It's good to check things out, but I [00:27:00] didn't make it. I didn't judge it. And I think that really helped me now. Did I feel good right away? No, I would be lying to you. But I could say that it lasted like maybe a day instead of it lasting weeks because I, it dissipated because I wasn't giving it the energy.

Maria: I wasn't making it wrong. And also something that's really important for stopping suffering, coming back to peace, which I think that's going to be the title of this podcast. I've written it on the sheet for the podcast.

Maria: The acceptance of what is in the moment. So if that's how I feel, then that's the way I'm supposed to feel. And then if I want it to be any other way than what it is, I suffer, I lose. So I'm very careful of wanting things to be different than what they are. And when I have acceptance of what it is, I feel the peace.

Maria: Yeah. So that's another thing you have to look at, especially your listeners, if you want to have, you don't want, you want the money in [00:28:00] your bank account to be different or you want your partner to be different or you don't want your job to be the way that it is. That's war. That's war against yourself, that's pain, because if I say, and I'm holding up a pen, everybody's not watching this, but if I say that, if I say this pen, I don't want it to be a pen.

Maria: Seriously, I'm going to suffer because it's a freaking pen, right? It's important to accept things exactly for the way they are, and it doesn't mean you become complacent. It doesn't mean you don't do anything, but at least you have a clear mind. You come back to your sanity, your right mind, right?

Maria: The mind of love from there, you can make decisions from there. You can get on with life, with the whole, with a whole different perspective. I 

Kylie: love everything you're saying. I many years ago, like I'm a scientist by original training. And when I decided that I didn't want to be in the field of forensic science and being surrounded by the worst things that people can do to each other, like literally, I realized how bad it was for my view of the world.

Kylie: [00:29:00] My worldview became very clouded with that type of interaction anyway, I'd made the decision to shift into something else. And I was figuring, I was trying to figure out which way I was going to go. And I'm like a smorgasbord of life. Like I've had many different careers and many, like I like to snack on things and see what tastes good.

Kylie: And I feel like I'm one of those people that I need to actually. Do something and experiment with it to have the feeling of whether it's right for me or not. Anyway, one of the things I did in that period of my life is I decided to, because I was a, as a forensic scientist, but also respiratory and sleep scientist.

Kylie: So I've worked, I worked in the hospital system that I'm not sure if it's the same in the States, but particularly here, we split our bodies into all these different specialties and there's all these different specialists, but no one talks to one another. We're not talking about lifestyle. We're not talking about spirituality.

Kylie: We're not talking about. Any of this stuff and no, no mindset, no, nothing. And I just knew that it wasn't [00:30:00] what I wanted to be part of. Anyway, long story short, I went to study traditional Chinese medicine and oriental psychology. And part of that, I started doing yoga every day. And for someone who had not been in their body too much due to trauma in childhood, it was confronting to say the least.

Kylie: And one of the best things that I still think about very regularly is that the teacher that I was under, who was a master in all of the traditional Chinese medicine ways, and a very wise man said to me, stress by definition is the difference between your expectations and reality. 

Maria: Yes. And I was just like, huh.

Maria: That I think is the 

Kylie: very first time that I realized exactly what we're talking about that a lot of my suffering, all of it was internally driven because I was thinking I should be in a different space or earning different amount of money or whatever, like fill in the blank here. So I love that [00:31:00] we having these conversations where people can have.

Kylie: The opportunity to understand that they have ultimate power in their lives, because really what this is what we're talking about, because then nothing external, it might buffer you around. Going back to the example, the ocean might get really stormy and it might be bloody hard to sail.

Kylie: The other thing that I want to come to too, when you said that you gave yourself grace, I feel, I talk a lot about what I feel the growth and evolution opportunity is that perimenopause offers us. And what you're talking about is exactly what I mean by that. I feel like It's a rite of passage and by definition, just like any huge shift in our lives, like into motherhood or through puberty or whatever, there's going to be times when it feels a bit uncomfortable and accepting that and giving yourself grace.

Kylie: And also I think for us. Perimenopausal [00:32:00] people, potentially taking things off your plate, allowing yourself just to feel the way you are and just go, you know what, I'm not coping with life today and that's okay. And rather than adding the story to it. So I'm really good. And 

Maria: that actually feels so good.

Maria: Like you just said that and I'm already like, ah, yes. Yeah. And, 

Kylie: And just not battling with what is I'm not sleeping well at the moment. And I used to make that mean so much about what I could do in the day and bloody, I'm going to be so tired. And all the drama was me. And I'm like, you know what?

Kylie: I am going to just trust that I'm going to have enough sleep to do what I need to do and everything else will have to wait. And that's okay. That's actually one of my biggest lessons because the younger me has always pushed, because I've always had so much energy. And it's Hey, guess what?

Kylie: You're being invited to a new way of relating to yourself. And that is actually in perfect. Cause I don't think there's anyone in their wise woman years. It's pushing through. There probably is, I think the wise woman is. I think she's smarter than that, [00:33:00] or I'd like to think she is 

Maria: anyway.

Maria: I want to talk 

Kylie: about your book, Maria. So you were talking about when you got your book deal. And so was it not even on your kind of list of I'd 

Maria: Yeah. No, it wasn't. It wasn't on my radar. I was already speaking at the time when I got my book deal and I actually created at the time the CDs were popular, so I created like a CD with my most powerful talks to actually get away from writing a book because people would ask me for something to sign.

Maria: I'll be like, here's my CD. Yes. Powerful talks. They're amazing. It's just like reading a book, but not, so I did that for a while and then yes. It came in a really incredible way. I actually posted on Facebook a post. While I was drinking Pinot Noir, so I was a little bit tipsy. I would say, yeah, some sort of bust, some sort of bust.

Maria: And I posted a great quote or I actually wrote excerpt and it was, it's put excerpt from my book. That's good. That's a whole nother story. But I [00:34:00] wrote there something really powerful about. Getting over the sense of having a man completely complete me, sorry, complete me or fill me. And it was a powerful thing that I wrote.

Maria: And at the end I put excerpt from my book. And then the next day D Patrick Miller, which actually at the time was publishing books. One of them, one of his big books, and you guys can look it up is a really popular course of miracles book called this disappearance of the universe by Gary Renard.

Maria: It's an incredible book. And it's huge. And it's a huge book. It's a great book to read. Kylie, if you want to get into the course also, it's a great read the disappearance of the universe. You should actually have him on the show. He's incredible. Gary. So when he reached out to me, and of course I know this person because we're all in the same community.

Maria: He sent me an email that said, Maria, I saw your post on Facebook and I saw that you're writing a book and I want to know more about the book. And I was like, what is he talking about? Like I completely forgot Kylie and I went to the post and I saw it [00:35:00] and I said, Oh my God, I was drunk.

Maria: I was drunk. Oh my God. I love you. I'm Pinot Noir. I'm Pinot Noir. So I felt so bad. And I told him, I told, I didn't even respond to him, but then he emailed me. So I really couldn't get out of this. To make a long story short, we talked on the phone and I said, Patrick, listen, I'm a speaker and everything, but I'm not a writer.

Maria: I feel like in school, I struggled so much with dyslexia. I don't feel like I'm capable. It's just writing so many words. It's just not, it's not my thing. I feel like I'm better at speaking. And he said Maria, I know. And I said, and the truth is that I don't have a book, noir talking.

Maria: And he says, Oh my God, Maria, you're not going to believe this, but I live in Napa and I live in Pinot Noir. I don't know what Avenue streeters. Like the Yeti thing that happened to us, right? It's like Everything is connected. So to make a long story short, he convinced me and we ended up wanting to sell this book to Hay House.

Maria: Unfortunately, Hay House at the end, when we finished the book proposal they didn't want the book, which I [00:36:00] was super excited about just because I didn't want to write it in the first place. And he had told me, he said, Maria, you're the first rejected happy writer I've ever experienced in my life.

Maria: Like you're okay with, huh? 

Kylie: No, sorry. It's not odd that your response, but it's odd that Hay House. Anyway, that's beside the point. Continue on. Oh, Hay House. Yeah. 

Maria: I think, I don't know. I'm not sure. I don't even think they read it. I probably got just tossed around there. I have no idea. To make a long story short, the New World Library, which is another house.

Maria: It's incredible house published the book, which they also published the power of now by Eckhart Tolle. So that was a biggie for me cause I just love that book. So yeah, so that's how live your happy was born. I took my time with it. I had so much fun with it. I was single at the time. I didn't have kids.

Maria: I didn't have a husband. I think that's why I was also single because spirit made room for that whole book to, for me to birth that book. I didn't make it matter. I didn't make it real. Patrick and I were back and forth with it. And it was a labor of love and it's such [00:37:00] a beautiful book. Not just because I wrote it, but I hear so many people say it's changed their lives and it's because it comes from true testimony.

Maria: It comes from how I've got over stuff. It's how my clients get over stuff. It has practical things and very layman's terms. It's, say cuckoo and caca and this and that and make it fun. Accessible because for people like I 

Kylie: am, used to academic reading. It's not that I can't read complicated things, but when I tried to read course in miracles, I think it was just not the right time.

Kylie: And I 

Maria: had actually starting to be, it looks like it's starting to be 

Kylie: exactly. Yes. I'm going to go and order your book as soon as we've stopped. But I love that. It sounds like you're making it accessible because for a lot of people, even looking at the size of a course in miracles is like, there's no way I'm reading that.

Kylie: Like it's just, yeah. 

Maria: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And then when you read it you actually want to read the course cause you're like, Oh my God this is amazing. And also another thing I say in my book, which is super, I think it's like one of my best parts of the book. It's actually in the [00:38:00] forward part towards the end, not the forward the introduction of it towards the end, right when you're about to start the book, I tell you, this book will make you happy.

Maria: And I think that's so honest, because, and I, and that's the way I love to teach. I want people to understand that my book can make them happy, nothing can make them happy, because actually the whole point of the book is to remind you that you have everything and lack nothing already. My book is there to remind you that you are that happiness, that it's inside you.

Maria: So if I, if, so if I say, oh, this book is going to make you happy. That's not the truth because it could never do that because that's already your divine state. That's who you are in truth. Can it give you tips? Can it help you? Can it help you feel and remind you and activate that? Absolutely. But I can't give you something you already have.

Maria: So that's one of my favorite parts of the book is that I say that because ironically enough, I want to sell books and it says live your happiness. I'm telling you, double negative or something. You're 

Kylie: reminding me, I used [00:39:00] to, again, destination delicious. One of the things I used to say is by virtue of the simple fact you were born, you deserve a delicious life and you have everything inside of you.

Kylie: So I really, I love that because I'm, going back to my original training, like I'm a cell biologist and When someone used to be in front of me, when I used to mindset coach, and they would have these stories about not being worthy or being broken or somehow whatever the story was, I'd be like, do you understand the miracle that is actually you and your body, the way that you were born, the way that you were created, like every single bit about you.

Kylie: Is miraculous, like all of the processes and I know you know, this is me geeking out, but every single process that's happening in your body, just naturally, you're not doing them all. The little buffering of what's happening and all the metabolic processes and the endocrine system, it's magical. So you cannot do say or be anything that will convince me that you are anything less than a miracle

Kylie: So [00:40:00] I think 

Maria: that like honey, that's beautiful. It deletes all the 

Kylie: other stuff that we've learned. I really want to ask, what do you think Maria, who was just about to try out for the announcing, the WWF in those days, announcing gig? Would have said 

Maria: when she read the book, Oh my God, I've never had that question.

Maria: I said, I don't even know why I'm starting almost to cry. Cause I don't even, I think the emotions are already coming. I don't know 

Kylie: why. See, this is where I just listen. Cause my curiosity always ask questions that 

Maria: people don't expect. But what is it that who would imagine you 

Kylie: then has picked up this book, this magical thing that you've created.

Maria: Oh my God, I would, if, yeah, if I would have picked it up in that time, which that's such a great question. I got such a great question. Oh my God, I would have opened it up and it would it would be so powerful [00:41:00] to be able to have those tools at that time to, to just really understand the way my mind thinks and the way that the ego tricks are, the could have, I would have, I should have, I wish I would have known it better and known how to change that narrative.

Maria: Because at that time I was living like the world defined me and this book teaches you not to get away from that, and also I would feel like I didn't need someone outside to complete me, which was what I did for a decade. I looked for men outside of me to complete me to, I used to actually.

Maria: Try to convince people to love me. And that comes back and that goes back to daddy issues, cause my dad committed suicide and that's something really powerful that I get into in the book of where I write my dad, a letter from a different perspective and that he had never abandoned me. And actually left me left this earth for me because he wanted me to shine and grow the way that I was destined to be and his personality and his he [00:42:00] was so You know into a lot of destruction and destructive thinking that it would have hindered me So that I also share in the book I get very deep and personal in that way It's not even a memoir at all, but I shared little powerful stories just to help with the teachings It's 

Kylie: amazing.

Kylie: Oh, amazing. I know what I'm doing next people. Now I want to, there's so many other things I want to talk to you about, but I really want to tell our audience that you actually have a course coming up very soon, which is based on the book. Can you tell us about that? Because it's the very first time you're launching 

Maria: this, isn't it?

Maria: Yes. It's the, it's actually the first time I'm launching it this year. This program has been around for a while, but there's only once a year I launch it like this of where I do it with everyone and you get to do the program. And then I'm also on WhatsApp and we get to mingle, intermingle and exchange ideas, which is really cool because Kylie, I feel that sometimes people buy programs and then they stay in their inbox.

Maria: And I always, I have a 

Kylie: gravy out of programs in my [00:43:00] Dropbox that 

Maria: every so often. About once a year, I was going to do 

Kylie: that, wasn't I? And probably half of the sites aren't even, 

Maria: anyway. Yeah, no, it's true. And for that reason, that's why I decided to launch it like this of where we pick dates and people are running the program at the same time.

Maria: That means they're watching all the modules. And then we also WhatsApp. So we're all held accountable. Because the whole reason I created the program was with so much love and so much dedication that, yeah, it's great that I have the income, but I want for you to also do the program. That's why I created it.

Maria: No, it's starting to do it. Yeah, of course. And I said, you know what, I'm going to do this again this year. So we're launching it. Again next week. So it would be around like late February right now when we're talking. 

Kylie: And you'll be in launch by the time people are listening to this episode live. So if 

Maria: you're listening right now, it's.

Maria: It's [00:44:00] called the ACA. It's actually originally, it was originally called the live your happy nine week program, but now we're launching it as the ACIM nine week program because it is based on the course of miracles. And I wanted it to be directly to people that are interested in learning more about the course.

Maria: And it's nine weeks nine videos that are so much fun. They're pre taped and Kylie, this program. I only hear from people have taken and hundreds of people have taken it is that, Oh my God, like I've been suffering for 20 years. I've been suffering for 30 years, or I've been going through this with my father, or I've been suffering from abuse.

Maria: And I read your book and I have freedom. It's not like they're a hundred percent healed, but they have a different perception of it. And it's not. They're not suffering like they used to. And that's why I love the program so much because it simplifies the terms of A Course in Miracles that you can digest it.

Maria: And then you can actually put it in your life. And the titles are funny. The first chapter is you're not bad and [00:45:00] you're not going to hell. That's the first chapter. Is there any?

Maria: I want there to be a Geppetto Peppetto chapter. God 

Kylie: aka 

Maria: Geppetto Peppetto. I love that. I love that. Do you know 

Kylie: what I have to say to you, because anyone that's listening that's like me has come across A Course in Miracles and tried to digest it and hasn't for whatever reason. I love that the way that you're teaching this, Is accessible, but it's also fun because 

Maria: I feel like there's too much.

Kylie: You've got to do the work and by definition, that feels hard. And it feels like it's just something else I have to deal with or whatever. If you're in that kind of. Very fear attached state where everything feels hard and it's all stressful and life has been done to you and all of that. The fact that even just talking to you, like it's lighthearted, it's joyful, [00:46:00] it's very impactful, but you're doing it in a way that allows people to feel like I can have transformation, but it doesn't have to be this awful, horrible, dark thing that I have to go through.

Kylie: Because I think if anyone and all of my podcast community will know my story for a very long time, I was very attached to the impacts of having a parent that battled with addiction and a lot of childhood trauma. And I had a story of myself, which was basically I am the victim of that and blah, blah, blah.

Kylie: And that colored my entire life and what I could. and the support that I could offer myself and the grace that I gave myself coming back to your words. And I went through many decades of thinking that to heal myself, I had to open this Pandora's box of emotions, and I would never be able to deal with it.

Kylie: And the gift of perimenopause for me is that I have completely. Disproven that. But [00:47:00] again, the work that I've done around this sort of stuff is, has been through a much lighter lens than I believed it had to be back then. Like when, when I thought about going to therapy, I'm air quoting, that always felt really heavy and too hard.

Kylie: Whereas people like you make it accessible and doable and. Can show us that actually when you understand that it's your thinking, that is where the floor is, or your perception or your frame of reality. Yeah, I don't know, even just understanding that does that not just make everyone just feel like they can drop their shoulders and relax 

Maria: a little bit.

Maria: Yeah. I don't know how it feels 

Kylie: for you because you ooze that, but yeah, I just, I love that there's teachers like you that are making it light and joyful and still doing the work. So yeah, that's exciting. We will link to Maria's course down below in our show notes. If you are watching the video, the show notes are underneath here, but also I'll [00:48:00] 

Maria: also share a promo code for your audience to get 50 percent off.

Maria: 50 percent off, 50 

Kylie: percent crazy. She's gone crazy. for your 

Maria: generosity. Yeah, because I'm launching it at 50 percent on Monday, but since it's going to air later, I'll go ahead and you guys can have it. You know when this airs? Yeah. 

Kylie: Yep. Thank you so much. You have been a joy. My goodness. I love you. Hey, you too.

Maria: This was so much fun. It was i'll. I will cheers you 

Kylie: with our matching Yetis . Hey, you have a wonderful day from the future in Australia, . 

Maria: Yes, you too sweetheart. How? How's the future looking before you leave me? How's it looking? The future is looking. Do you know what? 

Kylie: We have had so much hot weather in our summer, like I live in a place that it is very hot in the summer and just the last couple of nights we've had the little whisper of the coolness of autumn.

Kylie: And so out my window, I'm looking at the [00:49:00] most perfect deep blue autumn sky. So yeah, the future is looking pretty bloody good from over 

Maria: here. I'm so excited. I have something to look forward to. Thank you so 

Kylie: much. Have a beautiful day or evening actually for you. 

Maria: Yes. Thank you so much for having me. It's been a joy to talk to your community and sending everyone much love.

Maria: And I, from my heart, I hope that you have golden nuggets here that you found helpful because that's the whole point of why we do what we do. You're going to 

Kylie: have to come back for part two because I didn't get through half of my questions for you. I love 

Maria: it. I love it. Thank you so much. Bye bye. Bye.