Have you ever sensed there's more to life than meets the eye, a deeper consciousness awaiting your discovery? My latest conversation with the Susan Burrell, an author and podcast host dedicated to the pursuit of enlightenment, unpacks this notion in ways that promise to elevate your spirit and broaden your perspective.
Imagine the power you might hold within, a power so profound it could mend emotional disturbances. In sharing my own story of awakening to innate healing abilities, I illuminate the transformative potential that self-awareness brings to our lives. Susan and I dissect the pillars of self-discovery, constructing a sanctuary of integrity and love upon which one can stand amidst life's tempests. We delve into the evolution of leadership, witnessing a global shift from rigid hierarchies to a more harmonious and circular approach, a testament to our growing recognition of the interconnected tapestry of human existence.
As we stand at the precipice of a new epoch, let Susan's journey inspire you to embrace the vibrant mosaic of change that is emerging from the old societal norms. Her narrative is one of rebirth through tribulation, a beacon for women navigating the tumultuous waters of personal transformation. This episode is your invitation to the roundtable of the new era, where heart-centered guidance and inclusivity are the heralds of progress. Join us on this enlightening exploration, and step into the unknown with the courage of a seeker and the heart of a warrior.
Have you ever sensed there's more to life than meets the eye, a deeper consciousness awaiting your discovery? My latest conversation with the Susan Burrell, an author and podcast host dedicated to the pursuit of enlightenment, unpacks this notion in ways that promise to elevate your spirit and broaden your perspective.
Imagine the power you might hold within, a power so profound it could mend emotional disturbances. In sharing my own story of awakening to innate healing abilities, I illuminate the transformative potential that self-awareness brings to our lives. Susan and I dissect the pillars of self-discovery, constructing a sanctuary of integrity and love upon which one can stand amidst life's tempests. We delve into the evolution of leadership, witnessing a global shift from rigid hierarchies to a more harmonious and circular approach, a testament to our growing recognition of the interconnected tapestry of human existence.
As we stand at the precipice of a new epoch, let Susan's journey inspire you to embrace the vibrant mosaic of change that is emerging from the old societal norms. Her narrative is one of rebirth through tribulation, a beacon for women navigating the tumultuous waters of personal transformation. This episode is your invitation to the roundtable of the new era, where heart-centered guidance and inclusivity are the heralds of progress. Join us on this enlightening exploration, and step into the unknown with the courage of a seeker and the heart of a warrior.
Welcome everyone. Today we have Susan Burrell. She is the author of Live your Empowered Life a 30-day journey book, and a host of the Thought-Provoking Podcast Empowering Chats with Susan Burrell. A feisty Scorpio and former actress, she has worked as a guide in the crossroads of life for over 25 years, supporting women in their inner growth toward finding their true empowerment. Welcome, susan, thanks for having me today. Yes, I'm so glad to have you on and also to have a fellow Scorpio, which I don't can't say I've had yet. So that's always exciting.
Susan Burrell:
I think I'm going to be juicy, absolutely.
Megan Mary:
So one of my first questions that everyone knows, I ask everyone is what does enlightenment mean to you?
Susan Burrell:
Oh well, to me, enlightenment is an ongoing process. So there's, there's, like I was going to say, there's no end game. There's, there probably wasn't even a beginning that we're aware of anymore, because I think it's enlightenment through many lifetimes and therefore continues into where we go after this lifetime, which is probably more lifetimes. So that's what I think it is just an ongoing process of reconnecting to source, which I consider spirit, higher self, whatever. Reconnecting to source and really expanding consciousness, that's, that's enlightenment to me.
Megan Mary:
Yes, and I agree with you it's a journey, it's not a destination, and I also agree that it's a connection, connection with your higher self, with source, the universe, whatever people let term people like to use for that. And one of the ways that I found my way to that was through meditation, which I know that you supply. You guided meditations. That's one of the modalities that you use in your work, so talk a little bit about how you use that as a access point.
Susan Burrell:
So I've been meditating for several decades now, you know, but it's not a. It's not a TM meditation. It's not a, it's a I make up. I make up my own meditation. How's that? I just take time to drop in, and whatever comes in is where I sit and contemplate or heal or explore.
Susan Burrell:
And so when I'm working with clients or myself, when I got, when I, you know, feel like I got stuck, stuff going on, you know garbage I will often make myself sit down and investigate within what is it, what? What's blocking me? What do I need to open to? What do I need to discard? What do I need to forgive myself for? And so when I'm working with clients, oftentimes the well, you know, sometimes we all do. We people like to come into your office and run their story. Hey, I'm that person too.
Susan Burrell:
But what happens is when I'm listening to a client, I listen on multiple levels and I find often a guided meditation can take them into the trigger point or the release point that they're seeking, but they don't know how to get there. So we I often use makeup guided meditations. They have a client who comes to me monthly so that she tells me a few things that are going on. I listen and then I create and record a Meditation for her so she can listen to it every day. That was something she wanted, which she claims is it's nice to have my voice in her head. I don't know if I want my voice in some in my head, but you know she likes my voice in her head, so, hey, I I love that.
Megan Mary:
I think customized meditation is an incredible idea and I've actually listened to several of yours that, along with the other Techniques that I saw that you work with the emotional freedom technique and journaling I love. I love journaling, especially because, of course, being a dream worker, I highly encourage people to keep a dream journal. Yeah, and that's when you keep a dream journal and you write down your dreams, many times you're also reflexively, t here's a, there's a process that happens when you're writing that down, that even though you're just recording it, you're also processing at the same time, and I love writing as a healing technique and journaling as a reflective technique.
Susan Burrell:
Well, I find that when I was um as a student, I always need to take notes and I and when I for my show, if I'm I'm reading an author's book, I'm writing in the margins, I'm underlining, I'm taking notes all the time because it is how my subconscious uploads information and it's it's much better than just reading and thinking it's going in for me. So I guess that's a tech tactile, tactile learning thing.
Megan Mary:
I am a hundred percent that way. I have to highlight and underline, and I was such a huge note taker that I would actually Take all the notes and then rewrite my notes. I did that too.
Susan Burrell:
Oh my god, megan, I did that too, so I would have the cliff-note kind of version of my yes.
Megan Mary:
And and so they would be nice and neat. And in rewriting them they got all that information, even went in even further, right.
Susan Burrell:
Yeah.
Megan Mary:
Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's how interesting. Yes, so I'm gonna take you back a little bit because I want to share with the listeners. Have you shared with them what brought you to do the work that you're doing today? Was there a pivotal moment in your life where everything changed, or what happened that led you to do this unique work to help others?
Susan Burrell:
Wow, I got chills. As you're asking me, my, my circuitry is just lighting up Interesting. So I I was really kind of spiritually questing from the age of 17, because I was pursuing acting but I wasn't feeling fulfilled, and so I I began reading metaphysical books. I started talking to people of different philosophies and as opposed to religions, because I want, I knew there was more than what we were being told. For Fed, that's my opinion, megan.
Susan Burrell:
I'm sorry, I completely agree. No, I knew there was more and it wasn't being said, and so I started reading all sorts of things. But then I also found myself seeing working with a medicine woman for journaling and and meditating and and, and that's, I think, where the guided meditations really helped me Her guided meditations and I found I was very Facil at creating guided meditations. But so so wasn't necessarily a pivot point at that point in my life. I just I just came in as a seeker or or actually a wisdom keeper and Didn't really know that right at a young age I didn't really know that because there was other stuff where I had been shut down as a child in terms of my Intuitive abilities, let me just put it that way. So but so I got into, I Did a four-year accredited masters program in consciousness where I studied Gnosticism, I studied quantum physics, psychology, jungian psychology, world religions and all sorts of stuff and, and it really Opened me up even further with within my personal Meditation and listening abilities. But then the biggest opening and Self-acceptance came when I went into divorce after 28 years and as I was starting the divorce process Completely heart-shattered, I recognized that I didn't love myself, I didn't know myself. I didn't have confidence. I, you know, I didn't respect myself. Now, some of that was taught me, as opposed to that's who I am. So then there was this big healing journey. And as I was doing my inner healing, journaling, guided medit, self guided meditations for myself, things like that, seeing all sorts of other healers, I I recognized that my intuition, my ability to hear on multiple levels, just like Kizillion eyes, do you know? And all of a sudden I was like, oh, this and oh, I remember now, this is who I was when I was three years old. Oh, that's why. That's why they didn't want me saying those things, because it was Uncomfortable for the people around me. And, yeah, I can often read people just by standing next to them, you know, I know there's lots of people that do this kind of stuff, but for me, allowing myself to do that, I was like, oh, this is kind of fun. And then I realized I could do healing with my hands, you know.
Susan Burrell:
And my mom was in the hospital a few years ago with a broken hip and they had just given, given her way too much Narco, I think it's what it's called. It was like she was banana cakes. Dad called and said you got to come because I Can't be here. I this is not my wife so I drove like eight hours with my husband to get there and I walked in the room. My dad wasn't there and she saw me and I said, mama is okay if I do some healing on you? And she said yes, and so I can't literally kind of felt into her brain where all that it was like scrambled eggs from that narcotic they gave her in the hospital. Because I saw it, I just gently started pulling that out of the brain system. It took about ten minutes with her breathing and I you know I always ask individuals for their assistance Aka agreement. So once I got enough of it out and cleared the room of it, I said mom, how are you feeling? And it was, there was my mom, you know. She was more lucid than she'd been in weeks and she's like I, I'm good, I feel okay, so.
Susan Burrell:
So that was the kind of stuff that showed up while I was healing through divorce and I don't share that kind of stuff with people, you know, because I'm still a little Touched from my childhood, you know a little.
Susan Burrell:
So I guess that was the bigger turning point for me, coming home to me for Susan, finally knowing Susan and and that's an ongoing process too, right I I still daily have to journal or have a good cry.
Susan Burrell:
Make sure I have box of Kleenex with me, because there's there's a lot of grief that has been surfacing. I think and I'm talking about this, megan, because I think it's true for everybody but when you suppress yourself, right, when you are told to suppress yourself and maybe it's happened for for eons, right that the actual soul has been suppressed, but when you, when you come to, when you come into awareness that that's what was happening and and you participated in that suppression, there's huge amounts of grief for me at least, that just overwhelm, they come out of nowhere and and, conversely, when the grief clears, empathetic, compassionate piece of me or anybody, becomes even more aware and and vulnerable to you know, vulnerable to others that don't, that can see your light now, really see your light, and don't necessarily understand it or want it around and and things like that. So then it becomes like a well, now I understand the whole thing about the razor's edge, walking the razor's edge, you know so.
Megan Mary:
Mm-hmm. So that's a very powerful story and I love that. I love how you found your healing abilities in helping your mother and then really stepped into your calling and what you would consider a metaphor for living an empowered life, because I know that's the name of your book and, very well, the course that you help people on is to activate their empowerment.
Susan Burrell:
Yeah, so I got chills as you're bringing this up. Yeah, so what I recognized is because I had been disempowered during a 28 year marriage and really actually most of my life that there were other women. That's why I work mostly with women, because women seem to be at the effect of parents, husbands, bosses, teachers who want to or don't even realize. It's kind of a socialization that men and women have gone through, that men get the power and the women have to be unempowered. So I find that working with people that come, I have several clients that have gone through divorce and haven't healed, or going through divorce, contemplating divorce, and they have literally not a leg to stand on, meaning they don't have a foundation for themselves inside, within them, they don't love themselves, they don't respect themselves, all that stuff, and so what we do is attempt to not attempt, but we build a new foundation for them, not built on the rubble of their past and what they were told, but who are they now? But we come up with four pillars to put the foundation on and their values. What do they value and like?
Susan Burrell:
For me, integrity is one of my core pillars To be in integrity with myself and therefore I am with others. Truth is another one, love is another one. Freedom those are my pillars, and then you can add on or move them around as your growth pattern changes and emerges. To me, that's part of what empowerment is is finding the values that you are seeking, that you think others are going to bring to you, right? Who's gonna love us? How much are they gonna love us? When are they gonna? So to bring those things, to bring the remembrance that you are the source of your being, because the source of your being is within you and all the answers to all the problems reside within each of us already, and there's no one outside of you that you need to seek to tell you what to do. So it's basically empowerment is taking responsibility for yourself. That's part of it.
Megan Mary:
And also recognizing that eternal self, that I call it the true self, but it's the constant one. It's a presence and it's not defined by the other physical identities or entrapments that we want to attach to it as part of 3D living. It's so much beyond that. It's the our eternal self through time and space.
Susan Burrell:
Yes, yes, humanity on the planet. I think, because if you recognize that you're part of this larger eternal consciousness, then I don't see it just makes sense to me. I wanna be my best, I wanna be exactly what I was created to be and I co-created me right In that eternal consciousness. I think if everybody recognized that then we would begin to see that we are all one.
Megan Mary:
So and I love what you were saying in our initial conversation about the change that's happening on the planet right now, with people realizing, coming to the calling that they have as light leaders and the new leadership system that is coming into place, where you described it as more of a circle rather than a hierarchy that we are all starting to co-create together, instead of trying to cut each other down and step on each other to get to the top.
Susan Burrell:
Yeah, so that's my mission, purpose is to activate light leaders, leaders who lead from the center of their being, and that's part of the circle. But because we've moved from hierarchy top dog and top on the pile, that kind of thing we have moved from that in consciousness is just up to human society to catch up with that. Us against them. Because when an old structure begins to crumble, everybody wants to fix it right. They wanna run around and fix it to keep it from falling down, but it's already in rubbles in so many ways and the circle, the new way that we are being guided into, has yet to be developed. But I've been seeing it as collaboration, cooperation and co-creating and that means everybody gets a place on a circle like King Arthur's Roundtable, right, except that connection and say, on whatever the topic of discussion is. And it seems like in businesses, the individuals that are working for a business or a company, the ones that have been hired, if they get to have a say and they're respected and heard, whether or not the company uses whatever the suggestion is, those employees will be more efficient because they've been seen and heard, because I think basically we all want to be seen and heard and that to me is when you sit on a circle, you get to see everybody you know, as opposed to sitting in rows where you can't see behind you and you can only see a little bit in front of you or to the sides. If you sit on a circle mentally, then everybody seen and everybody's heard, and it helps with cooperation, because we're gonna need a lot of that as we build out this new paradigm.
Susan Burrell:
And I want to say one more thing, Megan. This is we're coming from the divine masculine that was kind of in charge of humanity for several centuries and became very antiquated or stuck in its ways, and we're moving to the divine feminine. Moms are known to have that voice, that mom voice I'm gonna count to three. The divine feminine has really been sweeping the planet clean over the last decade probably longer of this antiquated thought form, and so that's, I think, also why we're seeing so many. All the rainbow people are showing up, have come in now right over the have been born here Because they're here also to guide us into that new paradigm, because we're all just that unique emanation of Spirit and everybody gets to have a say. That's what.
Megan Mary:
I think, and when we step into that space where we're aligning with our true self, it's an I don't know space. It's a scary thing to do because it's not defined. It doesn't go by any of the previous Ledgers that say, okay, accreditation, or Stepping stones or stamps of approval. There's this whole new paradigm for it that we haven't quite worked out, that we don't really know how to embody this new calling as light leaders and what that looks like and how the provisions for that happen. Also, because we are then not following the, the shoulds, right, we're following the heart and hoping. Well, I feel like I have to do this, but I don't even know why and I don't even know if I can, in Still existing on this physical plane where there's all of these other forces, such as monetary forces or judgmental forces, that are making it such Existential challenge.
Susan Burrell:
Yeah, I'll give you a way to put that, megan. So light leaders are people that lead from their heart, like you said, and in my experience, when I come it up against something that feels other than me judgment coming from someone else, I also have to look within myself and see where am I judging that person? Where am I judging myself? So there's universal laws that assist us in that. If we are aware of of these different laws the external, when you read the news or whatever the external world looks to some people frightening and and I'm one I go in and out of that. I'll just own it. I go in and out of that, which is why I don't read the newspaper.
Susan Burrell:
I try not to, because I know and Understand that the only way to get through this is to be a high vibration of love, and so my work, and it's the work of anybody who chooses to be self-responsible, is an inner work of Aligning, sometimes moment by moment, to a higher frequency of love.
Susan Burrell:
That then can shine light into darkness, can lead in a nonlinear manner, because the linear manner is dysfunctional now, leading from a place that and and I got to tell you this doesn't make sense to people that are still in that binary mind. You know a plus B equals C and I don't know what you're talking about. But if you can lead from a vertical sense, not a horizontal sense, but a vertical sense, where you are listening To your inner guidance, that's within your heart, not your head, everybody. It doesn't go through your head, but it goes into the heart and that's your ancient wisdom, that's your connection to all the different Masters of the universe, if you will, or and all the different stages and your previous learnings in the other lifetimes that you've had and that informs us. That is how we can lead Humanity into a better yet to be.
Megan Mary:
B sounds really woo-woo but I'm on board with that. Obviously I was called to do this and it wasn't my career, it wasn't even what I was trying to put my creative energy into at the time and it really just had a mind of its own and was really like, don't worry about any of that and don't worry about all of the reasons that it's not going to work. Just do it, it's going to work. You know, here I am.
Susan Burrell:
it's like okay, all right, and and that's you stepping into the Wait we were talking about a few minutes ago. The unknown right, it's uncharted territory. It is unknown, it doesn't mean it's non-existent. You, we, just don't do it yet. And that is what the eternal consciousness really is. It's we, as embodied beings, have got to have the courage to step into the unknown and trust more than we ever have in our lives. Oh, my gosh. And you won't believe.
Megan Mary:
Well, maybe you will, but last night I had a dream where I was riding my bike and I was looking for a street to turn down and I decided to wait and turn down a street that was coming up. I turned down the street and I looked up at the street sign and the street sign said unknown. I can't make this up.
Susan Burrell:
No, you can't, I love it.
Megan Mary:
Yeah, you can't make this up, and I got another zinger for you, so I was listening to your meditation. Now I went on Insight Timer and you have a ton, a ton on there, so I had to just pick one and of course I was divinely guided to the one called how Can I Serve?
Susan Burrell:
Oh gosh, ooh, I just got an energy hit.
Megan Mary:
Wow, and wait, it gets better. And so I listened to the whole thing and at the end you talked about the affirmations. Well, you said these affirmations and they were this I know who I am, love, I know what I am light, I know how I serve in love and light. Well, if you've ever gotten an email from me which I know you have and everyone else out there that has that is how I sign my email, and I didn't think that I didn't decide on that when I started in this path. That was chosen for me. I wrote it and it came out of the ether, and so when you said that I'm like, yeah, this is why I picked this one, I just, I mean, it was like a match.
Susan Burrell:
Well, and for your listeners to be to let you know where I pulled that from I've, it's a channel. His name is Paul Selig. He's written several books, once called the Book of Mastery and the beings he channels. That's part of what they want us to know. I know who I am, I know what I am, I know how I serve. So that's how I added that in.
Megan Mary:
Wow, yes, so that was such a huge synchronicity. I was excited to share that today.
Susan Burrell:
Yes, thank you.
Megan Mary:
Brilliant, so let's let the listeners know how they can find you if they would like to be empowered and discover your gifts that you have to offer for other women.
Susan Burrell:
They can find out everything about me on Susan Burrell B-U-R-R-E-L-L dot com and you can find out about my book Live an Empowered Life, a 30 day journey book that actually has journal prompts and videos that interact with my website and affirmations that I wrote and worked while I was going through divorce and there's a whole bunch of other stuff to kind of clear your garbage the garbage out of your head, the story you may be running, and give you a clean slate to investigate your life purpose. Also, my an insight timer link and you can click on that and go right to all of my guided meditations on insight timer and then my podcasts are on there.
Megan Mary:
Awesome. Well, I will definitely put those links in the show notes as well, so that everyone can check them out, and thank you so much for being here today, susan. It was fabulous to talk with you.
Susan Burrell:
Oh, it was lovely. It was lovely to talk with you. Thank you for having me. I so appreciate it.