Tell Your Story with Author and Reiki Master Kanah Teagyn

Have you ever pondered the transformative power of storytelling? We had the pleasure of conversing with the phenomenal Kanah Teagyn, a children's author and Complementary Energy therapist. Her work intertwines the power of words and music, creating a universe where communication skills and character-building take center stage. Join us as we explore her passion for energy healing and sound therapy, witnessing firsthand how her words are shaping the future. We discuss the cathartic function of writing and the therapeutic effects of self-expression afforded by journaling. This episode promises a unique take on how Mentalism influences personal growth and development. So tune in, and let us embark on this enlightening journey together.

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Transcript

Speaker 1 0:20

Hi guys and welcome to Language of the Soul podcast, where life is a story. I am your host author, dominic Domingo. I failed to save after a few weeks in a row now, so I thought I'd fit that in. And before I introduce our producer extraordinaire, I want to quickly take a moment to just take stock of our launch. We launched December 1st. It was sort of a softer launch than we had hoped, but officially launched December 1st, so for us it's been about a week and a half, I think. Yeah, we're going to this will be published later, but as of this moment I think it's been about a week and a half.

Speaker 1 1:00

I'm not going to speak for Virginia, but I could not be happier with the response and that includes the hits, meaning the downloads from all over the world. And it's kind of fascinating to analyze the analytics, if that's not redundant, to analyze the stats and kind of see who all is tuning in. So very excited about the response and, frankly, the tone of the podcast. I feel like we really struck the tone that we envisioned and hopefully it's inspiring for our listeners. So thank you to everybody who's spreading the word. We really are passionate about this message, which is just the power of story to transform. And I guess that's it on the launch. So here's the part where I introduce our Renaissance woman producer extraordinaire. And this week you will tie a nail, lady Virginia Grenier.

Speaker 2 1:55

Yes, thank you. Yep, I have gnomes and well, I was going to do a u-log but I didn't. But I did do Holly. So gnomes and Holly.

Speaker 1 2:03

I think a u-log at that scale would be a little hard to identify. It's kind of obscure.

Speaker 2 2:12

Yeah, my, my politician really wanted to try, but yeah, we were kind of maybe that's going to be a little hard.

Speaker 1 2:18

So we well, I guess if it had, if it had flames, you'd get it right. Yeah, otherwise it's kind of nondescript. Just a log.

Speaker 2 2:26

Yeah, like a stick on my nail.

Speaker 1 2:28

Right, anyway, well, I've seen them, I've seen pictures of them. So good on you, mate.

Speaker 2 2:34

Yeah, we've joked about eventually maybe start having my monthly Nils show up on on our YouTube channel.

Speaker 1 2:42

Oh, hey, that's what I forgot to mention. I had wanted to thank you for that. I don't know if that was intentional, but I wanted to steer everybody to the YouTube channel and just let you know it's got a lot of supplemental content, meaning we can't always fit everything in this format. So again, try not to speak for Virginia, but I believe there are speaking engagements from both of us. We've both taught in different arenas, so you know workshops, panel discussions, even just editorials I'm biting my tongue, I don't want to say rants, but some of them, I'm sure, come off that way. You know little editorials that I post on an as needed basis, so please do tune in for extra inspiration. And actually, at the bottom of the description of this podcast, wherever you're getting your podcasts, you will see a link to the YouTube channel as a last resort of just Google Language of the Soul on YouTube and you'll find us. Is that sound about right, virginia?

Speaker 2 3:38

Yep, that's exactly right, and I haven't gotten my stuff on there, but yes, I am. I am working on some stuff, so yeah promises, promises.

Speaker 1 3:47

But yeah, now I've seen you're very inspiring to listen to, so and you're very articulate and eloquent in the written word. So yeah, please get that stuff up there, I know. Ok. So today's guests we're very excited about and in our little pre interview I was just saying there's so much we could follow up on. So, as usual, I'm sure we're going to fall in love and I'm going to say please come on for a part two or a part three and we'll see what happens here. But very multifaceted individual, just my opinion. And here's the official bio. Please feel free to correct me.

Speaker 1 4:23

Anna Connet Tegan is a newly published author of nine children's books and co-founder of Power Book Publishing under the pen name of Katie Townsend. Miss Tegan's Children's Books teach empowering skills and communication, accountability and relationships. She introduces parents, teachers and kids to the wonderful world of words by presenting her stories with challenging words and questions that encourage cognitive processing and build a character. You're preaching to the choir here. The character I won't go off yet, but you know we get to mold the future, get our hands in the clay, and I love, I love that. I'm a big fan of epigenetics, so I think we're kindred spirits on that front.

Speaker 1 5:06

The characters in Miss Tegan's books take the reader on a delightful journey of each hero's quest to find a skill or solve a problem or appreciate what is of most value to them. Now, as a side note, and this is what I mentioned in the pre interview, I happen to know you and again, if I get this wrong, let me know but I believe you are a complimentary energy therapist, a Reiki master and an NLP master practitioner, and I know energetic therapist right, there are several specialties under that, but I would love to talk about all of that if we have time. What did I get wrong, conn? I welcome, by the way, connet Tegan.

Speaker 3 5:42

Thank you so much, you, you got it all right. It's perfect yeah.

Speaker 1 5:47

Yes, but I believe under energetic healing you have other practices, like the singing bowls that I didn't mention.

Speaker 3 5:53

right, yes, there are so many facets of the energy healing work and and sound, of course, is one of them, and music has been a huge part of my life since childhood as well, so I really resonate with that. So, yeah, we could talk for hours and hours on it.

Speaker 1 6:13

That's the danger. Yes, I love it, but I guess, to sort of dip a toe in the water, maybe we could start real general and I would love to ask, with your background, really general question, in the spirit of the podcast what do you feel is the role of storytelling and culture, or in other words, what is the cultural impact of storytelling? And that's very broad. Storytelling takes so many forms right.

Books and Storytelling in Education Value

Speaker 3 6:40

Right, yeah, that is a very broad question. In my experience as a child growing up, it was stories that connected me with family and with history, and you know all of the, all of the ways and means of looking at the world and discovering things. And and of course, when I was a child we didn't have like computers and you know personal hand-held, you know technology devices that we carried around with us and had. You know books on books on audio and movies to watch, just by, you know, even while we're just walking down the street, and that kind of thing. For me, books were a very important avenue for my discovery and so I really like self, self discovery or just the world?

Speaker 3 7:41

Yes, both on both, Absolutely. I remember one of the books that had such a huge impact on me. I was probably, I'm thinking I was 12 years old and it was summertime, so no school, and I was born to death and at that time there was, like we didn't have, you know, hundreds of channels where you could pick anything, watch or anything, so there's nothing, you know, to entertain me on TV at that particular midday time. And I went, I went into a room where there was a book case and my mother had kept some old books and I don't even know where she got this book. But I pulled out this book called the Lamp Lighter by Maria Cummins and it was, you know, published clear back in the 19th century and very you know old language and that kind of thing, and so I worked my way through that book and it so deeply affected me that, as a mother, I searched that book out.

Speaker 3 8:51

I wanted my children to read it. I wanted them to know that story because it inspired me as much as it did?

Speaker 1 8:58

Yeah, I went. I actually found some bookfinders online and systematically tracked down all of my favorite children's classics from. In my case they were probably written in the 60s and I got my hands on them in the 70s, you know. But turn to the century books or a whole other story. Was this a vintage volume with like the tipped in illustrations? They just don't make them like that anymore.

Speaker 3 9:22

Right, yeah, it was, and I lost track of that particular copy of the book. But later, like I said, you know, I tracked it down and then, as so, that was kind of in my maiden stage of womanhood and then in my mother's stage of womanhood, I'm like totally steeped in mothering and telling stories to my kids to keep them entertained, to teach them moral conduct and you know, and to inspire them in the ways that I felt that I was inspired by hearing the stories from my family members you know the older generation and by reading the books that were available to me and so and so I passed that on to my children and for a time I homeschooled my older children and we had a reading time. We had a full hour of reading time.

Speaker 1 10:19

Wow, I love that you know in public school they had USSR. Do you happen to remember that acronym?

Speaker 3 10:26

No.

Speaker 1 10:27

Well, this was Burbank public here in California. It was an uninterrupted, silent, sustained reading USSR, ussr 15 minutes. And so I reread Lord of the Rings, I think for the entire three years of junior high. But 15 minutes is not enough. Come on.

Speaker 3 10:44

Yeah, really, it's true, I have in. In these past several years, I've served as a substitute teacher in several of the public schools and a charter school that are here in in my area and I, in that experience I became aware that books and language and storytelling has lost its prominent place in our public education, and it really saddens me. I had an experience where I was teaching, I was asked to specifically tutor two young boys in ninth grade who were failing in ELA, in English language arts, and so I was tutoring them and I was giving them like little exercises to do right this. You know, use this prompt and just give me a paragraph and I would give them like two days to do it and they would never get anything done.

Speaker 3 11:50

And then this mother of one of the boys called up and she was complaining to the, the special education director. You know, I don't know why you're giving my son extra work he needs to have. You need to be helping him to get caught up in his ELA rather than, you know, giving him additional work. And the director said to her no, you misunderstand, because our job is not to catch him up, our job is to teach him skills and that's what his tutor is doing, and her response was Well, I don't even know why he has to have writing for a skill anyway, so that was a really big wake up call to me that something needs to shift.

Speaker 1 12:39

Well, even cursive, you know, cursive is pretty much a thing of the past, right, right, that kind of broke my heart alone. For all the reasons. Right, I'm an educator as well. And just the motor skills aspect, right, I just quickly one study, because I got him coming straight out of public school as well. I taught college level, but Arts Center, more and more, was recruiting straight out of high school. So, and I have 22 nieces and f you, so I saw a lot of changes over the hour, italian, a lot of changes over time. And you know, the moment my students started just taking cell phone pictures of what I took the time to write on the board, right, and they're taking cell phone pictures of it or transcribing directly into their laptops.

Speaker 1 13:22

Now, in my teaching I try to hit all the different learning modes. Right, I do lecture demonstration in class exercise. What else is there? Lecture demonstration, anyway, there's one other, but you know, and then I have a lot of international students too. So repetition is the key to learning. I'll repeat something until I see everybody in the room, not, so I just feel like you know I was doing something right over the years, but I decided I'm going to check this out when they're transcribing directly in a laptop instead of actually making eye contact and connecting with me, if that makes sense, and so it confirmed. My hunch is, when I googled it, you're actually bypassing the process by which we conceptualize. Right, when you take notes, you're breaking down it, whatever the concept is, into a holistic one that you can carry forward and apply in new situations. Right when you transcribe, you're completely bypassing that process. So I'm a big fan of literally writing with your fingers, you know Uh-huh.

Speaker 3 14:24

Yeah Well, I have often shared with my students because sometimes they complain like if their iPads are out of commission or they can't get you know, or they can't get to a computer or they can't be on a keyboard. I'm just like take notes.

Speaker 1 14:43

You have that ability, you have fingers.

Speaker 3 14:46

Yes, and so I've often shared with them some statistics that I had learned from a course that I had taken years and years and years ago, and it was promoting the value of writing. So whenever we're doing an activity, especially something where we're getting information, we're learning something new, we are firing neurons in the brain, and so when we're typing, we're firing neurons about 7 to 15,000 neurons per second. That's pretty great right. But if you take a pen or pencil and a paper and physically write with your hand, it bumps it up to firing about 30,000 neurons per section per se.

Speaker 3 15:43

Then here's the real kicker when we write with pen and paper in cursive, you fire somewhere between 50 to 75,000 neurons per se. So there's a lot of activity going on in the brain when we engage in what has been lately considered like archaic and undesirable ways of taking in information.

Speaker 1 16:13

Yeah, I think it's pretty short-sighted. I want to back up and ask you this, though I was a little surprised. I understand the parents a little bit short-sightedness, but I sometimes find young kids today are actually starved for poetic simplicity, if that makes sense. The way I put it is I watched one of the Matrix movies three years. I love the first one, but everything's effects driven and incredibly sophisticated. I remember seeing one of the Matrix movies and just feeling bombarded. I was just exhausted by the time I walked out. The very next day I saw Vietnamese shadow puppetry at Bode Tree Bookstore the most minimal presentation ever and it rocked my world viscerally. So I'm refreshed when my students are starved for reading, or not just the sophisticated storytelling you see in streaming nowadays, or the incredibly effects driven cinema which always has a franchise or a toy attached, I'm pleasantly surprised they still not only have an appetite for it but are starved for it.

Speaker 3 17:22

Yeah, it's true there are many students who I felt so almost heartbroken for some of my students who had this desire to tell a story. They had these ideas in their heads and they wanted to get it out. They wanted to get it out in a really effective way, but they hadn't developed the language that allowed them to do that. In a lot of cases, that's why they were failing in their English classes and in other areas where they need to be writing. So developing that language is really important and I believe that begins at a very, very young age.

Speaker 1 18:11

Don't they say language skills peak at seven, or something like that.

Speaker 3 18:17

Yeah, it's between seven and eight that children make the transition from the theta brainwave state to the hypnotic state that's where they stay for the rest of their adult lives.

Speaker 1 18:31

Yeah, it's tragic. And then this idea of synaptic pruning came up for me as well, when I was reading not your bio, but somebody who prompts. Are you aware of that concept?

Speaker 3 18:41

No, I'm not.

Speaker 1 18:42

Well, I've been immersed in Deepak Chopra a lot, and Bruce lipped in and to me it kind of says it all.

Speaker 1 18:50

It's this idea that I believe six months after birth you have more brain cells than you will ever have and yet if you don't use it, you lose it right? And this is why we have all these campaigns sing to your child, read to your child, and especially underprivileged communities, because if you're not using those brain cells, that sort of lend themselves, or creating those neural circuits right that lend themselves to playing the violin, for example, they are snipped and that's called synaptic pruning. So you know, it's not just language, and I would say too, like the creative process in general, when you mentioned, they can't execute what they're inspired to tell, and of course Maya Angelou comes up every week in this podcast. There's nothing more excruciating than carrying an untold story inside of you. We all have a story to tell. But I just would broaden it and say in the creative process usually the frustration comes in, or the empty canvas syndrome, or the blank page syndrome, whatever you want to call it, when you don't have the technique to back up right your inspiration.

Speaker 3 19:55

Right, yeah, Well. And the other thing that I think puts this, this upcoming generation, at a disadvantage is that because from a very early age they are tuned into very fast moving short, little snips of information in commercials in you know little 15 second highlights.

Speaker 2 20:19

Right.

Speaker 3 20:19

And that kind of thing. They're so tuned to that there's. There's a lack of perseverance, you know, in in their, in their deep part of their character, you know, to be able to really push through the, the difficult part, the blank page, the writer's block or whatever. And and yet that's exactly what we need, especially in my experience, because I'm an. I'm an artist in several different forms, but in the writing area, it's like I really need to persevere in order to get past those blocks and and be able to, like, complete a story.

Speaker 1 21:04

Well, I think too, like understanding the creative process, and then there's many models of it, right, but sometimes if I have students that are really, really just juiced up about the inspiration and then the initial gut level, what you know, expression of it, but then they feel they've lost the alchemy when they start executing and there might be something that's a little more tedious, like rendering right or fleshing out a scene. If you're a writer, and I think, if you understand its value and that inspiration will transcend, even through those I call them more intellectual, less intuitive stages of the creative process, or the colder ones compared to the warmer ones, right, if you understand how that works, you just have faith and you get through it, even if it's not your favorite part. I think that's related, I hope.

Speaker 3 21:50

Yeah, yeah, definitely.

Speaker 1 21:52

But I think that in the case of writers like, yeah, if society doesn't support the very tools of your craft, we're kind of screwed. So I love that you're really reintroducing language and the value of it. How did you yourself, you know, how did this journey so far? And you, you mentioned your you got up to the point of your mothering ears, right. How did you find your voice as a writer? When did writing become your chosen craft?

Speaker 3 22:20

Well, I've written things for decades, but it's only been in the last probably two years that I've really dived into my really deep identity and desire for writing, and that is largely because now I'm in my Chrome stage. That's so funny, I was going to ask you you know, home, you know?

Speaker 1 22:50

right, right. Have you heard the term regency or the Chrome stage?

Speaker 1 22:56

I have not heard that I think it's a proprietary term, but I have a friend who may come on and her whole thing is she's just trying to change the you know the language around the Chrome stage and she calls it regency. You know, I like that. I like that. I'll turn you on to her. Yeah, she may come on, but what is? What is the Chrome stage all about? For you, it was find finding your voice as a writer, in other words, or putting it on the front burner. What does that look like for you?

Speaker 3 23:21

Yeah, because my focus now is not so steeped in the daily needs and interests of my children.

Speaker 3 23:30

Now I'm at this place where I have a lot more freedom with my time and, like I said, I spent the past seven years serving as a teacher in the public schools and I still occasionally do a little bit of substitute teaching.

Speaker 3 23:53

But now I'm really, really focused and I just took this leap of faith at knowing that this is what this is, what my next step is, this is my next, this is the other half of my life. You know, being able to, to tell my story, to tell others stories when they, when they share it with me, and and to teach others how to, how to write their stories, how to get their stories out there, which is why my friend and I started the power book publishing company this past year and in our effort to like, give people that, that skill and and and to encourage them to use this avenue for doing their discovery process, their healing process, their, their review and and and their and collecting and gathering and making sense out of their memories. There's so much to be done in that way and there are so many people that can be blessed by the individual stories that can be shared.

Speaker 1 25:04

Virginia, I want to invite you in, but I have a quick follow. Yeah, I mean seriously. I'm sure you have a million things to contribute or ask, but for me that does lead a little bit to this idea of how do you feel the act of writing serve the individual as catharsis, right? So, by extension, yes, we all, as patrons, can experience the same catharsis when we consume, right? Or the patron can also experience the a tharsis catharsis, by extension. How does it serve the writer, I would ask?

Speaker 3 25:37

in my experience. I learned this years ago in one of the many healing traditional trains that I took that the best way to assuage a child's trauma suppose they fall down, they skin their knee, they come running to you crying the best way to get them to get past that hurt and to be in a healing state is to ask them so tell me what happened and then what, and tell me more about that. So we're so in getting my child to tell their story it was actually helping them to move past the initial trauma of that impact or that hurt so that they could be actually in a healing process. I find that's true as I write my stories about whatever trauma I've had, or disappointments or heartaches or whatever. When I write it down it starts to make sense in ways that just rolling around in my head doesn't.

Speaker 1 26:48

Well, real quick too, though it's almost like in friendships, right? You don't fix it. Compassion means sitting with the passion, right? So of course, men are notorious for just trying to fix it, but sometimes you just need to listen.

Speaker 3 27:04

That's so true.

Speaker 1 27:05

There's so many implications to that right, but also, just in telling one story, that alone is not necessarily the therapy, but certainly the catharsis and the release, I think, a lot of trauma, including ancestral trauma that certain indigenous cultures might have suffered. They need the opportunity to tell those untold stories. That's where the healing begins. There's so many right, micro and macro implications of that, I think. Oh, yeah, yeah, virginia, speak please.

Speaker 2 27:35

I was going to say we don't really get into this at the beginning when we were first just kind of warming up for the show.

Speaker 2 27:43

But with my background and obviously being in clinical mental health, when you sit down and you take the time this is why a lot of therapists and counselors will talk about journaling to their patients I'll say clients we shouldn't call them patients, because what happens is, neurologically, you kind of work through the rewriting in your brain so you actually create new neural pathways into moving past what is hurtful and learning how to address it, and so it helps you kind of recover through that mental health well-being status, and so it also because so much stress fills in your body too. That's and I know, you know this because we talk about this a lot and that's what happens Physically your body starts to heal too because you start to relieve that stress, because you're. I think that's why a lot of authors and I want to say I think it was Hemingway who said you know that he would cut open his veins and bleed on the page when he wrote, and I mean that's because that's literally what you're doing.

Speaker 2 28:48

you're pouring your heart, soul and everything into what you're putting onto that paper, if you're really actively writing.

Speaker 3 28:55

Yeah yeah, very true.

Speaker 1 28:59

Yeah and Cona, you pretty much said as much I mean pretty much said as much that I don't want to put words in your mouth, but in reading again your prompts, I think you basically hinted at all of that. But I would say too that we can play, replay old narratives rather than reframe that was the word you used, I believe, in your prompt was reframing narratives, right. So that of course I. But I'll actually think. Of course creativity is an innate drive and there's a lot of speculation about why. But I think that when we are like, a lot of our therapy programs are designed because if you're not creating, you're probably destroyed, right. So you can turn that inward as self destruction or turn it outward as aggression or what have you. But if you have an outlet for your creativity, right. It just saves you from a number of pitfalls, I would think.

Speaker 3 29:58

Yeah, it does have that effect.

Speaker 2 30:00

And I want to the other thing too, that at least I have found this for myself, and even like being a mother, I find that when my children engage in their own writing or reading story, especially when there's like metaphors or analogies in there, I feel like that's a transformative tool too, because it helps them provide a framework to understand those complex issues of what's going on around them.

Speaker 1 30:24

Yeah, we learn more through the narrative realm than the didactic right. So we're wired for symbology, which means we're wired for metaphor, and storytelling is metaphor.

Speaker 3 30:37

Yeah, it's like taking all those thoughts and ideas that roll around in our heads and putting them out in front of us, like we can get now out there in front of me, you know, with the storytelling, with the, with the, with the journaling, with the writing. When it's in front of me, then I can see it more I can, I can actually make make connections with what has been, you know, confined to my thoughts and now see it applying in what I see and do and experience in the outer world. So there's so much value in it.

Speaker 1 31:16

Absolutely, and I hopefully you can speak to this as well. But this is how I hold a conversation in my own writing. I absolutely know my themes. I've said this before Virginia. Right, I may know what I'm out to illustrate.

Speaker 1 31:30

It's never didactic, I'm never trying to be down over the head, but I kind of know the good, the bad and the ugly of my thematic content. But of course there's always this unexamined cathartic function that's happening. And yes, we are. We are figuring shit out for our own lives. So everything I've ever written there inevitably comes a point where I'm like, yeah, I've got my three by five cards, but I actually don't know the outcome exactly and all of its nuances. And to me I hit a point where it feels like a lot of responsibility, writing policy for my life moving forward. But that's exactly what we're doing. And sometimes it's making you know lemonade of lemons, or sometimes it's creating a little order out of the chaos. Right, but it always, if you haven't probably engaged in the creative process, 100% of you don't transform as a result of having gone through it.

Speaker 3 32:20

Yeah, I have been so appreciative of.

Speaker 3 32:24

You mentioned Indigenous cultures and the and the heart, the, the harm that has that has been experienced with so many of our Indigenous family members and I had the privilege in, in my process of raising children, to raise four Native American children, and so I had both a contrast of you know, my, my own children that I read to and I, you know, had a lot of interaction with and I and I taught them, you know, and gave them space and encouragement to be creative and that kind of thing.

Speaker 3 33:03

And then seeing how they processed and and learned in their schooling compared to my Native children and how much at a disadvantage they were because they didn't have as much of that nurturing going on because of the situation that that they had come from. And so that gave me a really good awareness of of how valuable it is at at every single age and stage of our development, to have that connection with the stories that that tell who we are and what we're about on this planet. And and yet in in my Native children's history, like in their ancestral history, storytelling was huge. It was all about it. That's how they passed on. Everything in their culture was their story, of course, Do you mind my asking which tribes?

Speaker 3 34:08

My children are Cheyenne and let's see three quarters Cheyenne and Cherokee, and then, well, half Cheyenne and half Cheyenne. Oh, my goodness, how come I can't remember her other, her dad's tribe, anyway. So, yes, mostly Cheyenne.

Speaker 1 34:29

Well, speaking of ancestral trauma, the Cherokee right, the Cherokee carry a lot of really heavy ancestral trauma. Yeah, so let me just make sure I understand. In even drawing a comparison right between your other children and those with the Native American ancestry, were they not in touch with the traditions? Were they not afforded that connection with their?

Speaker 3 34:53

culture. They were largely disconnected from it because of their family situation, where they weren't in this particular family, their traditions were lost in the addictions and violence that was so much more prominent, and so of course.

Speaker 3 35:17

So they did not have that nurturing that was part of their earlier cultural traditions. And I actually I went to the library and checked out every single book I could find on the Cheyenne traditions and I learned to sing a Cheyenne lullaby from one of these books so that I could sing them a Cheyenne lullaby when they would, when I would tuck them in at night.

Speaker 1 35:46

Beautiful.

Speaker 3 35:48

And then, you know, and to get them to re-engage, like, we started getting involved in some Title IX groups and in the public schools and with other organizations that kept us abreast of when and where the Powwows were. I would so regalia for their, you know, for their dances and everything, and that's how I was able to like pass that onto them. But I recognized that I was a substitute teacher and I could only teach them so much. There came a point in their lives where their family members were able to come back into their lives and have a better influence, and one of the mothers was was able to like start speaking in Cheyenne to her little grandkids.

Speaker 3 36:51

that she was, you know, having at that time. So it I feel like I was, I held, I held a place, I was a placeholder, you know, for them to have some stability and and experience and support in their growing up years so that then, as adults, when they started having their children, they could, you know, seek out those parts of their culture that that I couldn't give them and that right and they could find from their, from their other family members.

Speaker 1 37:25

Beautiful. Yeah, sir, I can see is it takes a village, right, it takes. We're all interconnected. Interconnectivity is the word. But I just am kind of fascinated.

Speaker 1 37:35

Did you find the lullaby resonated, even if they weren't really in touch with their roots? Was there sort of cellular memory at work, if that makes sense? I the reason I ask is, you know, I mentioned I have a lot of international students and to me it was kind of fascinating how they, you know, you can call it their, their voice, their sense of aesthetics, their unique thumbprint. It's not style, it's voice. Right, I could look at the crit rail and that indefinable thumbprint. That is their soul, you know. And you can kind of look at the crit rail and say, oh, that person's had their heart broken, that one not yet. But their works can explode when they have nothing to lose, you know.

Speaker 1 38:15

But the fascinating thing was, even if they were trying to mimic a more Western style to land it Disney, dreamworks, pdi, pixar, the cultural stuff just came out they almost no way around it. So I just was wondering, if you like, did this lullaby resonate with them? Or even when they're I think you said the grandmother was finally speaking Cheyenne to them Did they immediately embrace it? Or was it completely foreign to them?

Speaker 3 38:41

They went through stages just like any kid does. You know, sometimes right around you know 10 to 15, they're kind of resistant and don't tell me what to do, and I'm you know, that's the best stuff that none of my friends are doing in school or anything.

Speaker 3 38:55

So they kind of resisted a little bit. But then it's when they get a little bit older that they start really craving that and they want to know more of their roots and where they come from and how to connect with that. So that's where the storytelling that their mothers and their and their grandparents were able to bring in at that point were was so valuable.

Speaker 1 39:17

Beautiful.

Speaker 2 39:17

Yeah, definitely. So I'm also curious too because, like where I live, we have the Paiutes in my general location and I actually had a sister in law even though my brother and her are now divorced that she was raised so her mother was Paiute but her father was Caucasian and so she was actually raised by her grandparents in, not on the reservation, but her father's parents, so she grew up more in the inner city and stuff and I know for her she's been spending a lot of time in her now 30s trying to reconnect with that history and I know like a lot with you know the Native Americans most of their traditions and stories orally pass down Right, have what's been your experience kind of learning about how to help your children. You know connect with that because, as you said, you know when you have family members in the same situation with with my sister in law, her mother battled alcoholism.

Speaker 3 40:27

So because she didn't get that oral storytelling of the traditions and the culture, yeah, and that's a big reason why my children were in the situation that they were, because addictions and abuse and neglect and violence has become so prominent in a lot of the tribes, the Native American tribes way of life since the Europeans arrival on the scene, and so that's my experience with my kids was like I said they had moments where they resisted it because they just wanted to fit in, and that's a stage that every child goes through.

Speaker 3 41:27

And then they have that time where they start thinking beyond their own immediate needs in the moment and they start looking towards how am I creating or contributing to my future or the future of my next generation? And that's when they really start reaching out for that connection. And when my children were at that place, they sought out their mother and it was part of the reason that she was able to change her lifestyle and get into a position where she could have a more healthy relationship with them and start passing on those traditions. And now, victoria, I'm not sure if I answered your question.

Power of Storytelling Through Reframing Narratives

Speaker 1 42:19

Well, I'm going to take that opportunity as a transition to again steering it back to the spirit of the podcast. I think young adulthood or kind of going out into the world and going to college, that is often when you reframe your narratives. You rethink not only socialization but your upbringing, your nuclear families, worldviews and values, systems and norms and mores, and you kind of find your peeps. So, as an example, I grew up with literally two African American girls at my junior high and I think four at my high school, and a dear friend whom I'm still friends with was Jamaican, but of course Afro American Studies in college was the first time she really got in touch with her roots, and so I just think that's true of all of us. We're really on fire in terms of reframing our narratives and then we hopefully come home and embrace our roots a little bit later, a few decades later. I think we kind of balance all of that. But I guess the transition here is I think you hinted at you didn't use the word epigenetics, but you seem invested in, without putting words in your mouth our potential for reframing the future or writing our own stories. How I put it for the future by recognizing you know what I mean, how fertile of a ground it is our young people. If we can change their thought forms and paradigms, or at least inspire them to rethink certain thought forms and paradigms that actually are limiting I think you did use that word right empowering or limiting then that's how we get our hands in the clay.

Speaker 1 44:00

I think there's a lot of conversations going on right now about revisionist history aspect of aspirational thinking and education. Do you have any thoughts on that? Like, how can we have more of an effect on future generations in terms of the march toward human potential, as opposed to some of the limiting beliefs like, I don't know, patriarchy, colonialism, imperialism, all the things that got us in this mess? How can we create our future through education and specifically language, since that's your emphasis? Yeah, that's my question.

Speaker 3 44:36

I realize that that is absolutely an essential part of my mission, and what I have come to, this realization is the second half of my life contribution.

Speaker 1 44:52

Was there a moment that sorry, so sorry, but was there like a lightning strike, or was it just empty nest syndrome? What really put that on the front burner for you?

Speaker 3 45:01

It's been a process. It wasn't like a sudden realization, but it has a process. The empty nest thing has definitely contributed to that, because I'm not one that can just when people would say, well, don't you want to just retire and take it easy? I'm just like what that?

Speaker 1 45:30

would not.

Speaker 3 45:31

That would not be living Absolutely.

Speaker 1 45:35

Don't let the rocking chair get you.

Speaker 3 45:37

No interest. I think, oh yes, I do have a rocking chair.

Speaker 2 45:43

I was going to say I don't have a rocking chair anywhere in my house.

Speaker 3 45:47

I used that when I was rocking babies, but not.

Speaker 1 45:53

I guess stormy weather came to mind. Right, the rocking chair will get me Right.

Speaker 3 46:02

Yeah. So this concept that we can reframe our story is so important in order for us to grow and evolve to the place where we desire to be. We are hardwired for growth. I mean, there's some people getting around it. We cannot pretend that there is any place in our lives that we can coast.

Speaker 1 46:30

It's just impossible. You said the magic words because, whether you take sort of an empirical stance right, or a more spiritual one, we are hardwired to be the best version of ourselves, right? Epigenetics wants that because it only contributes to our proliferation and our propagation. We are wired to overcome our ancestral trauma or at least be a step, a cog in that machine, right?

Speaker 3 46:52

Right, absolutely yeah, and the storytelling that we do and the writing that we do is the most consistent. I feel it's the most consistent and rooted kind of way of getting in connection with that.

Speaker 1 47:14

Well, I would say we learn more in the narrative realm than the didactic period. That's why, you know, thank God, I do say amen for militant activists. I say amen to you know what I mean those who are actually really inspired on a grassroots level to make a difference in their community, and it takes all kinds. But I would say let's not downplay the importance of story. Right, there's a million. And I know Iran is problematic and controversial. But you know, she would say, we hold up a mirror, at any given time, to society and we reflect back our morals, ethics, principles, policies, and it's crucial to our growth.

Speaker 1 47:55

The evolution of our ideas is as important as that of our biology. Yeah, or we would have been extinct a long time ago. Right, exactly, yeah. And to quote another guest, you can't bulk at this. Don Han, the producer of Lion King, said I worked with him for 11 years and he granted me an interview very, very sweet. And he said you know, it's one of the most important jobs out there. He just, it's as simple as that. Storytelling is one of the most important jobs out there right now, especially at a moment like this with so much divisiveness.

Speaker 3 48:28

Right, yeah, well, and there's a lot to be accomplished in being able to pass that appreciation on for upcoming generations.

Speaker 3 48:45

Because, you know, like you said it's, we would die out if we didn't have this desire to be better, to grow, to learn more. I mean all of our advancements in, you know, the technological world and the industrial, in the, in our relationships and our global connections, it's all inspired because of this innate desire that we have to learn and to grow, to be better than we were, but it's almost like it's getting compartmentalized in a way.

Speaker 1 49:22

And you know, maybe that is the the impetus to reintegrate and synthesize some of the ways right, the disparate ways in which we've evolved. I think the writer strike and the actor strike was a really great opportunity to look and go. What is the human touch in the creative process? How do we define the human touch in storytelling? Right, and I won't preach on AI. You can't stop the march of technology, whether you like it or not. So we're going to have to figure this shit out. But I do wonder. I mean, it leads me to a question. Actually, you know, even just again, in animation, there's a lot of talk about not AI necessarily, but you know what happened to the archival value of the physical artwork of 2D animation? It has zero currency right now. Will there be a comeback or not? And so I wonder, I'm brokenhearted when read, you know, I joke like why did I decide to become a writer when nobody reads?

Speaker 1 50:16

Like whoa, what I love the smell of a book. I love the tactility of turning the page. I love bookstores. I know why I want it to survive. Do you know what I mean If storytelling still exists in streaming format or in cinema, or all the ways that cultural ADD permits it to right survive. What about literature itself? What about books? What's the value of what? What's the value of books?

Speaker 3 50:45

Well, here's my thought on this. I, like you, I'm not going to dismiss the value of AI. I use AI for parts of my writing. I found it to be useful as a tool.

Speaker 1 51:06

Thank you.

Speaker 3 51:06

That's what it is. It's a tool. It's not the answer, it's not the creator.

Speaker 1 51:13

Right, of course.

Speaker 3 51:13

It's a tool that the creator uses, and when we get clear about that then we can recognize that all of this really is about that. Our storytelling is, in a very basic and deep way. It's the tool that we use to get us from where we are now to where we want to be tomorrow or 10 years from now. And it's the same with books and we really we cannot let go of the physical page, the turning of the leaf of the book. We can't let go of that and relegate it to something you know out of the into the past where we no longer have a connection with it.

Speaker 3 52:16

It's really important in this day and age, with our technology, to also be connected with the roots of where storytelling has come from, where it has been stored and how it has been conveyed In the physical books, from you know, pen on paper and from you know, from the actual mouth of the hero that's telling the story. We have to make that connection without losing the value of that foundation that we're coming from. If we try to erase that foundation, the technology will only take us so far. We have to make the connections with both and see the value and teach the value so that it's an ongoing thing for our upcoming generations to really connect with.

Speaker 1 53:15

Beautiful. Yeah, you mentioned the word crone. I do feel like when I catch myself, you know, I guess I'm a dinosaur.

Speaker 1 53:24

You know, when I lament the passage of something that I value, in Facebook, for example, I get comments like get off my lawn you know, or when I was a child, I, you know, walked uphill both ways to school with, you know, blocks of soap for shoes, and and I'm like, no, actually there are teachable moments where we can embrace any wisdom we've acquired while on the planet, right?

Speaker 1 53:50

And so I guess what I'm getting is I remember the first time a student said, you know, I tried to say, hey, well, you know, in terms of like your film history, I'm still playing catch up, like I still watch old film noir is just to play catch up, and I decided to film, and the answer was well, that's, that's not relevant. This word relevant is really big right now. That's not relevant. That was over five minutes ago, and so, more than ever and I call it the hubris of youth, right, you don't know what you don't know, so you don't know the legacy that got us where we are today and that you know, you might as well have a book burning at that point. So we are here to teach younger generations the value of the past, right?

Speaker 3 54:37

Well, and, and you know, like I was saying, really maintain a connection with those things that seem outdated, like I remember. I remember my grandparents telling how they were so surprised when their neighbor got an automobile.

Speaker 3 55:00

You know because that's where they came from. They, they, they lived in an age when that wasn't just a given, like today, and and and so we look back at them we think, oh, how quaint, how cute, you know a horse and buggy kind of thing. But there's, there's a lot of value in connecting with, especially in our language and in storytelling. It's so, so important that we connect with those, those old methods and the original foundation of of where this has come from, so that, so that we can pass it on.

Speaker 1 55:42

Yeah, and I think that is why the thrust of this podcast is the cultural impact of storytelling right is, its role in society is pretty specific and stakes do get heightened when you have, like I said, during these strikes, you have to creative executives saying, ah, y'all are a dime a dozen, you screenwriters, we can cobble together scripts using AI. Well, I call that content, but not redemptive storytelling with value to the collective. Right, you can and I'm sorry I've done this right before but like, if you just provide the parameters, yes, ai is a tool, it's a very helpful tool, but if you're providing the parameters and you're just throwing in a bunch of old, tired tropes that actually may be limiting and not empowering right, then what you get is sure, a script, but not a story. So to me, the human element is the inspiration that demands those parameters, and that inspiration, just my opinion, comes from the universe itself. Inspiration is what's needed in our dialectic, it's demanded by the universe. So that's a little wacky.

Speaker 3 56:49

I don't expect you to follow that but no, I totally, totally agree with that, and there is no way that AI can produce the voice of an AI.

Exploring Spirituality, Language, and Storytelling

Speaker 1 56:59

Yeah, it's not there yet, with humor, that is for sure. So they say, oh, you can program spontaneity, you can program, you know, new responses to novel stimuli. And I'm like, okay, but let's, let's agree, the humor is not there yet, so much nuance available. I can and nobody's I. There's a little metaphor here.

Speaker 1 57:21

I remember being in a department store once and there was an alarm going off. You know there's alarms, the little plastic things on the clothing. I guess somebody had tried to walk out and nobody in the department store noticed this incessant beeping. And granted, I, I'm an artist, I have heightened senses, I can't tune anything out, damn it. And I was like nobody is responding to this beeping.

Speaker 1 57:46

And so I just have developed this opinion like we have a low level hum all the time that people are just not in the habit of being aware of. So I don't know I just what the metaphor there is. But I think people are like crabs in the boiling water and they're just accepting all this vacuous content, right, without necessarily placing value on the redemptive part. And you know, the, the, the intersection of hard and commerce, is as old as time. These creative executives that are saying, yeah, we don't need you writers, they're. Short sightedness is what we're we need to combat, because the public doesn't do. I mean they? We kind of expect their tastes to be elevated. I think we got to keep fighting for this, you know right, that's not a very elitist. I do think the public is. There will be a pendulum swing, do you know what I mean? And they'll be tired of the vacuous content. That's what I hope, and there will be a re embracing of everything we're talking about.

Speaker 3 58:46

Well, my wish and desire is that we don't get to a really depraved state before we have to realize that we want the pendulum to swing back. Let's, let's, let's have some influence on swinging it a little earlier than that.

Speaker 1 59:01

Yeah, especially with climate change. Anyway, virginia, before we have to find another rock to live on, right?

Speaker 2 59:10

So I know we've been kind of focusing a little bit on education and obviously stories impact on society and stuff, but straight also, you know, affects us and how we look at spirituality and stuff, and I know that's something that you actually have written a book I'm talking about. You know some of that and and Eastern medicine and and how it can help us, you know, be better people. Can you, can you speak to that a little bit, and how language and story has influenced kind of that pathway.

Speaker 3 59:45

That is absolutely an essential part of my whole spiritual path. I grew up in a very strictly observed Christian home in the Mormon culture, and had very specific ideas and ideals taught to me. And then, as I grew older and in my process of raising children, and especially children who are of a very different background and culture, I had the opportunity to really look at what is my spiritual path. And that book that I told you about, that I discovered at 12 years old, had a really significant influence on the beginning of that discovery and that seeking for. Yeah, I get what my parents believe and I get what they are saying and I get what that culture believes and embraces. And I feel like there's also more.

Speaker 3 1:01:05

And I remember so many times being taught in my Sunday school lessons and things that in these latter days, the days of when Jesus or the Christ one, is supposed to return and rain over the earth, I remember hearing that it would be in those days that all truth would come together in one great whole.

Speaker 3 1:01:38

And I heard that many, many, many times.

Speaker 3 1:01:41

And as I discovered things in my mothering stages and raising my children, I realized that there was a lot to be gained from listening to and reading from the very ancient beliefs and practices of many different spiritual disciplines, as well as those that are, like, present today and we have we have so so much weaving and connecting with ancient wisdom and traditions and current religious or spiritual teachings, as well as what you know, as well as the opposition, like there's there's there's some people who believe that there's nothing beyond this. It's like we were born, we live, we die. That's it. I have a belief that that is not just it's, it's, it's more of it's a more extended path in my way of believing and and in my, in the connections that I've gotten from the stories that are told in the and the writings that I've immersed in with all these different spiritual aspects. It's, it's very, it's very important to have that, and I wouldn't have any ability to read anything that Lao Tzu wrote if it weren't for the writing. I would have no concept of that.

Speaker 1 1:03:35

Let me see if this makes sense. I actually made a connection in my book I'm not going to remember now Like, actually most literary criticism is rooted in litter, liturgy, right. So our understanding of parable, of metaphor, is, comes from the church, and actually education, academia and theology used to be hand in hand, you know, for very good reason it's diverged, but anyway, I think our entire understanding and if you study someone like Joseph Campbell and compared to religion, you do see the connection between, yes, campfire stories through myth, legend, folktale, right through religion. And I just think you know we've had a few guests that really wanted to throw out that baby with the bathwater. And the way I put it is, there's a good reason for the disillusionment, right, more people have left the institutionalized religion of their upbringing this generation than ever before.

Speaker 1 1:04:34

Okay, there's been a few bloodbaths, few molestations. I get the disillusionment, but you don't throw out the baby with the bathwater. So the guests I'm referring to just wanted to reject anything that wreaked of patriarchy or, you know, those things were used to oppress people. Actually, in my view, the templates we're talking about that so beautifully encapsulate the human condition, are where our interconnectivity lies. Yes, right, indigenous cultures should tell their unique stories, but I'm more and more interested in the universal and that's, I would argue, the spiritual journey that we do all share, that's encapsulated in these templates we're talking about. Does that make a little bit of sense?

Speaker 2 1:05:14

Yeah, and I wanted to add to that too. I know like it doesn't matter what your you know spiritual belief is. I mean, I feel like all spiritual narratives pretty much all emphasize the same themes as an empathy, compassion, understanding toward others.

Speaker 2 1:05:29

I mean, I know pretty much I had. I come from the same thing I come from, and well, I come from a Catholic Church of God and LDS background, was raised in the LDS church known as Mormon church. But I know, for me, over the last five years I've been on my own spiritual journey and I know it's because of those stories that I was taught in my youth that have helped me kind of explore my own beliefs and my own assumptions to things and to kind of like think more deeply about what you know, what spiritual, you know what spiritually matters to me and where my perspective kind of goes on those different concepts, yep.

Shared Principles of Empowerment and Manifestation

Speaker 1 1:06:14

And I agree that the tenets of all the major, like let's stop splitting hairs, right, the divisiveness is imaginary. If you really look at the major tenants of the major religion, we're saying the same thing, just using different terminology. To a to a point, you know. But I would argue, within Judeo Christian Western European culture. Young has a great book Christ as the symbol of the self. It is the perfect encapsulation, whether people want to admit it or not, right, we do.

Speaker 1 1:06:42

I mean, I used to think in my 20s oh, the worst thing you can do is assume we're all the same. Right, as a gay man being held to certain standards, I felt like no, no, no, we're not all the same. Actually, in my days I am so interested in our shared humanity and what interconnects us. I don't know if that makes sense, but I think storytelling is the place for that, and if you think of the story of Christ alone as a parable for the human condition, there's a lot to learn there. I think the Greek myths got it all right. I do. There's so much to glean there.

Speaker 3 1:07:17

Well, and this is something that I discovered in in my spiritual path, is that and it has been the basis for one of the courses that I teach is empowerment for teens and empowerment for parenting, and it's based on eight principles that I have discovered in my trainings and in my scriptural study, from the canonized scriptures, as well as the, the Torah and and and the Quran and you know all of these other ways that I have found. These three basic principles exist in every single one of those.

Speaker 1 1:07:59

I'm not really interested. Can you lay a couple of them out, or is that too much to dive into? For shared the shared tenets, the shared principles, the shared truth.

Speaker 3 1:08:09

Well, I can give you the list of the eight that I teach.

Speaker 1 1:08:12

I would love that, if you don't mind. I you know we could. We could pay you. I don't want to. I want to you to squander all your secrets for free.

Speaker 3 1:08:20

No, no, no, this is, this is good when I teach the course. Of course there's there's activities and there's little signage. There's a lot to it, so I can give you a synopsis with no problem. So the very first principle is thought, because everything begins from the realm of thought. And the next is perception, and how we perceive ourselves in our world has a lot to do with what we, what we do with it and how we interact in it. And and then the next is choice and accountability. That's the third principle. And when, and then closely related to that, is cause and effect, and when we recognize that every choice that's in motion, a cause and activates the effect or gives us the effect, and in in that space and that little circle of movement, then we have this incredibly important place of accountability and it's it's like the center of these principles. And in fact, I've been writing a book on point of power, healing our relationship with accountability, because accountability is where we find our empowerment.

Speaker 3 1:09:36

And yet the next. The next principle is health and healing and how all of these principles work together, and it affects our bodies and our minds, and we are. We are at the level of health and healing based on how well we practice these other principles. And then the next one is where am I? Health and healing and rhythm and harmony all of these principles have a rhythm, work together harmoniously, based on the, the principle that the universe has already for it.

Speaker 3 1:10:14

And and when we recognize how these all linked together, then we can be in that space where we truly have appreciation and we can express gratitude. And in that that's that was a principle I completely skipped over. After health and healing is abundance and gratitude and and recognizing that everything the the universe always provides abundantly.

Speaker 3 1:10:42

So if we focus on negative things, it provides negative Of course and if we focus on positive things, that provides abundantly the positive things. So that's, that's how we recognize that we really are the creators of our life and our life experiences, and how we interpret them and use those experiences in our growth and learning. And then and then there's the rhythm and harmony and how it all works together and the final principle is celebration. It is it is important that we celebrate.

Speaker 3 1:11:16

We do not. We do not completely embody any of these principles unless we are willing and able to celebrate, to recognize. Oh yes, that's that's what I did, and we celebrate our mistakes as well as our.

Speaker 1 1:11:39

It's like saying saying amen.

Speaker 3 1:11:41

Yeah, really is. Yes, that's what's missing.

Speaker 1 1:11:45

We're so. We're so conditioned to think that you know, we got to blog ourselves all the time, right that a spiritual life means one of scarcity and sacrifice, and it's like I love that that embraces humanism, you know, and celebrating our divinity.

Speaker 2 1:12:07

Yeah, well, and I was going to say to you know, with my studies, when I recently took a eight dimensions of wellness class and in that course it actually everything you're just talking about hits literally on that, about having that well rounded balance of wellness within the, within the, within our dimensions of holistic harmony. You know, from what the spiritual, mental and physical, you know aspects of our lives.

Speaker 1 1:12:33

So my take sorry to interrupt you my take from hearing that is and this is not to diminish any one school of thought or any one way of looking at my whole premise of my book is that if you understand the role of semantics and perspective and flux, there's very little that's definitive, that can be disproven, right. And so back to what we were saying about the shared tenants in that list, that those are the laws of manifestation. So people like to dismiss oh, that's new age, it's called mentalism, it was revived around the turn of the century, right? But it's all these principles that get conveniently dismissed or lumped into one section of the bookstore as new age actually are exactly what you just described the mechanics of manifestation. And so I also heard in there too, there's a book called the Kabalyan. Have you ever read that? Not cabala, but the Kabalyan.

Speaker 3 1:13:30

I have not read it.

The Power of Accountability and Storytelling

Speaker 1 1:13:32

I think it's again. Mentalism around the turn of the century was a revival of an hermetic text from air mace way back, and but I it has this whole section about the rhythm you described. It's kind of like riding out the pendulum swings. If you understand, there are energetic shifts. Right when you walk out of the like today when my coffee overflowed in my microwave and I might as well have stubbed my toe the minute I walked out the door, you can just sort of ride those out, if that makes sense. When the energetic forces are in your favor, you ride that momentum and the pendulum swings even further. So I like that. Everything's seasonal, everything's rhythmic, you know.

Speaker 3 1:14:14

Yes, there was a magical moment with about a year ago, when one of the schools that I'd been teaching in allowed me to teach these principles in a specialized class for certain students who were struggling. Here's what the really amazing thing is. Of course, I had to be very conscious about making sure that there was no religious connotation, or I had to keep it very Was this public school.

Speaker 3 1:14:51

Yes, it was, oh my God, yeah, public charter school. It hats off to you A charter school. So, yeah, they allowed me this magical moment where I taught these principles to this certain group of kids, and here's the feedback I got from their teachers and their teachers Of probably I think I had 28 kids that came at different times and they all were different ages, from sixth grade to 12th grade, and when I checked with their teachers how is this student doing? The feedback was very consistent.

Speaker 1 1:15:33

Had their grades skyrocketed.

Speaker 3 1:15:35

Not skyrocketed, but there was a dramatic improvement in their attitude and how they showed up and how they were able to complete tasks that they were given, and most of the time, teachers were giving me feedback that, wow, this is so amazing. We need you to teach this to all of our kids.

Speaker 1 1:15:58

Amazing. Well, it should right. How is it not part of public education? That's the crazy part. But accountability I love the idea that I think Eckhart Tolle says you may not have chose all your circumstances and conditions, but it's pretty helpful to act as if you did, or to I say I pray that things would come to pass just as they are. So most human suffering is the product of wishing things were other than what they are.

Speaker 3 1:16:27

Yeah.

Speaker 1 1:16:28

So accountability sounds a little, I don't know, like your mom shaking her finger at you a little bit, but I like this idea that, yeah, your choices create your, and what you put your attention on grows right yeah.

Speaker 3 1:16:42

Yeah, well, and I think they're my experience as I've worked with clients in healing process for the past 25 years and, like I said, teaching in schools and everything people have a resistance to accountability, which is why I started writing that book about our point of power, Because we have this idea that, like you were describing, it's somebody shaking their finger at you and saying you messed up, you're bad, or something like that, and that we've associated that with accountability, then the power of awareness and acceptance that accountability really is, and when we get that part of us healed, when we heal that relationship with accountability.

Speaker 1 1:17:36

Well, we need to have compassion for ourselves, right? So when you, it's not a, it's cause and effect. There's no judgment in cause and effect, right? So if you can look at your life choices and we're all just doing the best with the circumstances that we've got, right, there's an argument to be made that everything's a projection. Right, if you study quantum mechanics, it's like everything in your universe is a creation, if not a projection. So I just think accountabilities were a tap, but there's also compassion for oneself. It's a tricky balance, right. Maintaining self-love while taking responsibility, yeah, especially for the unpleasant stuff. Hey, I noticed, I think I noticed in your one of your prompts, if not your bio, you mentioned the seven spiritual laws of six. No, what was it? Yeah, wasn't it Dan Millman? I feel like you cited the seven spiritual laws of success. Now that's Deepak Chopra.

Speaker 3 1:18:34

Are you a fan of Dan Millman? That's actually Covey. Oh yeah, that's Deepak Chopra.

Speaker 1 1:18:39

Right, but it was, yeah, the natural. Anyway, I think it was Dan Millman and I thought we had a shared influence there. I'll have to find it. Okay, you didn't mention Chopra's book, the Seven Spiritual Laws of Success.

Speaker 3 1:18:56

I didn't. I don't recall mentioning that one.

Speaker 1 1:18:59

And Dan Millman doesn't ring a bell.

Speaker 3 1:19:01

Yeah, I know Dan.

Speaker 1 1:19:02

Yeah, well, it was that one where he talks about like the cat there's a sage that's a cat and he talks about like the egret standing on one leg and how we're gonna learn something from that. He talks about how, you know, a duck will just get in a fight with another duck, but they don't spend time lamenting it or carrying around chronic anxiety about it. They just shake the water droplets off and go about their day. It was drawing these spiritual lessons from nature. It was a really beautiful book.

Speaker 3 1:19:29

Yes, I totally appreciate the lessons that nature gives us.

Speaker 2 1:19:34

So we're toward the top of our show. So I know that earlier we were talking and you mentioned that you had prepared an Epser from one of your books to share with us.

Speaker 3 1:19:46

Yes, I do. It's actually from the presentation that I give to home schoolers and teachers, and so this is. This tells in my voice how important storytelling, and being the listener as well as the teller of the story, is to us. There is a vastly important purpose in telling and hearing our stories. The importance is not in how dramatic or simple they are. It makes no difference to the grand scheme of life and to humanity that our stories are concisely tucked into a nutshell or embellished to grandiose production for our audience, what matters is that we tell them.

Speaker 3 1:20:35

In telling them, we must be listeners as well. We have to listen to the presenter who came before us on the stage as well as the one who comes after us. In the hearing and the telling, we gain clarity about our experiences. The stories drill deep into our bones and saturate our cells with memory. With every story told and heard, there is a shift in our physiology and our minds. Our cells soak up our memories, recall our successes and failures and inspire us to be more More of our authentic glories in tandem with our grungies.

Speaker 3 1:21:18

Because our highs and lows walk side by side in our histories and make us who we are and affect what we do. Every time the story is told and retold, heard and remembered, we can take a step back and see a little bigger picture that replaces the original narrower view. We can see who we really are and understand the expansive possibilities of what we might become. We can witness the whole of us and in the wholeness of our witness we can love us fully, freely, fiercely, and in that place of love we are healed, woo-hoo.

Speaker 1 1:22:04

Yeah, love that. Wow, so inspiring Really beautiful yeah. It's inspiring, but it's also very loaded. The words you choose are just poetic enough to invite all the different I don't know implications of every phrase was so loaded. I hope that's good feedback. Yeah, I think it's so broad. You could apply it to so many things, but really inspirational, beautiful and tell us the title of that book.

Speaker 3 1:22:36

That's not a book. I was telling Victoria that it's part of my presentation to home schoolers and teachers.

Speaker 1 1:22:48

And yeah, it's part of inspiring people. Absolutely. They've never heard anything like that in charter schools and public schools Wow.

Speaker 2 1:22:57

They need to hear more of those. What they need to.

Speaker 1 1:22:59

Absolutely. I mean, I am surprised that my sister is a creativity expert and it's becoming more the norm in business contexts and even academia. But there needs to be more of creativity in general. But also, I don't know some of what we've been talking about today, right, the power we all contain intrinsically to manifest or create our own realities Without again it's sound coming off as a cult or a religion. That's always the trick. People are so touchy, those parents you know, right. Anyway, thank you for sharing that. Is there a book that you want our listeners to check out in terms of what we've been talking about today?

Speaker 3 1:23:46

Right now I have my little children's books. The picture books are up on Amazon and they're under my pen name, which is Katie Townsend, and also under the publishing company of Power Book Publishing, which I mentioned earlier.

Speaker 1 1:24:06

Well, next time we have you on, I would love to hear how you built a publishing company seemingly from the ground up right. I'm sure there's a learning curve there. We would love to hear about that. We have a lot of indie author listeners, I'm guessing.

Speaker 3 1:24:19

Okay, yeah, that would be wonderful. I'd love to share that.

Speaker 1 1:24:22

Okay, we'll do a part two and, virginia, those links to the books will be in the bio, is that right?

Speaker 2 1:24:27

Yes, I always add it with your bio at the bottom of the podcast description and the links will be there as well.

Speaker 3 1:24:34

Okay, wonderful.

Speaker 1 1:24:35

Thank you so much. I mean that excerpt was so inspirational. It's a great note to end this on yes, Thank you for sharing. Thank you so much.

Speaker 3 1:24:44

It has been a pleasure to meet you and visit with you.

Speaker 1 1:24:47

Thank you so much. Thanks for coming on. Take care, everyone, and to our listeners as always, remember life is story and to mix metaphors, we can get our hands in the clay, individually and collectively, we can write our own song. See you next time.