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Spill The TEA
If you missed your initiation into womanhood, you’re not alone. Truth tellers spill the tea about the misguided trappings of what it means to be a woman. Listen in as they tackle the myths and realities of being a daughter, sister, mother, wife, and friend. Find a sense of community and inspiration with these podcast creatives. You are bound to recognize yourself in their collective experiences.
Spill The TEA
Journey Into Wellness: Heather Caroccio's Spiritual Transformation
Have you ever wondered how spirituality can transform your life and even your career? Meet Heather Caroccio , a health coach and author who enjoys getting new messages out to people via podcast and blog. She shares her riveting journey, recounting how a vivid dream led to the creation of a unique preschool that weaves mindfulness into early childhood education. Heather's story is a testament to the power of creativity, courage, and conviction.
Our enlightening chat with Heather touches on the fascinating concept of money as energy. She takes us through her experience, underlining the importance of investing in ourselves and our personal growth. In a world where distinguishing between our intuition and our ego can be challenging, Heather shares some practical tips that could be game-changers. Also, tune in for a raw and honest conversation about anxiety as Heather opens up about her early struggles with the condition, her experience with postpartum depression, and how spirituality helped her find equilibrium.
But that's not all. Heather's incredible journey didn't stop at creating a preschool. She took a leap into health coaching and even started her own podcast- Wellness Matters! In a world that often encourages us to overthink and hesitate, Heather is a refreshing reminder of the power of taking a leap of faith, quieting the ego, and trusting your intuition. So, are you ready to join us on this inspiring journey of change, courage, and spiritual exploration? Grab a cup of tea- we saved a seat for you.
Learn more about Heather here.
Grab a warm drink and join us- we saved a seat for you. Don't forget to stay updated with Spill the TEA by following us on Facebook at Women Gathering and Growing with TEA or on Instagram at Grow with TEA.
Alright, everyone, welcome back to Spill the Tea. I am excited about today's podcast and excited to see a couple of my friends. We got to go away this weekend together, which was super fun and got us talking about today and this podcast and our special guest, who I am going to turn it over to Mary to introduce and we'll dive right in. Thanks, Carrie.
Speaker 3:So we have tonight a special guest, heather Carraccio, and we're all meeting her for the first time tonight. I just said it feels like a first date, so there's some nerves going on on my end. Anyway, I came across Heather because my co-worker, kate, emailed me and said or she texted me and said my son's preschool teacher has a podcast and she's written a book and I think she would be good for your retreat, and so that piqued my interest. And she went on to say that her son absolutely loves preschool and it's got to be because of his teacher. She must be magical, and I thought I couldn't think of a better endorsement than from a four-year-old boy that I'm about to dive into meeting a magical person.
Speaker 2:Hopefully I can deliver.
Speaker 3:Then I took a deep dive into Heather's podcast and as soon as I saw the lineup of episodes I thought oh yeah, she's one of us. And then I binged your podcast that whole weekend because I like to do chores. And okay, correction, I don't like to do chores. But when I do chores I like to listen to podcasts.
Speaker 2:That's what I do, too, when I'm going on a walk or something. That's when I can really fit it in is walk or cleaning.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's exactly it. That's exactly it. Just the kinds of people that you have on your podcast that look like our lineup for our retreat.
Speaker 2:So I'm sorry. Thank you so much for the introduction and I was just about to say I was just talking to one of my good friends about the retreat and hopefully she's able to come with me. I was just looking at it again today. It looks like such a blast and totally right up my alley. And I've already asked so many of my other like-minded friends and for whatever reason, it just hasn't been able to line up with like, oh, I'm going to California or I'm going here, I'm going there. So I'm really hoping that my one girlfriend can come. If not, I can come by myself, but I'm just, I'm really looking forward to it. So it's like right down the road for me. It couldn't get any easier.
Speaker 3:No, we're spoon feeding you.
Speaker 2:Yes, I know and like, for whatever reason, this year has been the year of travel for me.
Speaker 2:I've just been kind of going all over the place, but I did, like I told you I would just got home on Friday from the Omega Institute in Reimbeck, new York, and, holy cow, I was there for six days and you know, the first day for the travel day, but the whole entire time was just being deeply immersed in like education, like educating myself, but also spirituality and a lot, of, a lot of inner work and getting to know myself, even on a deeper level. So I came back home on Friday and I was like number one. I opened a box of cheez-its because all I had was for a week, which I don't mind, but like every once in a while I need some chips in my life and but then it took me like a day and a half to kind of process coming back to my life again, because this class that I took was crazy. It was out there, it was like crazy the things that we were like covering and discussing. So, yeah, now I'm back and I'm here with you guys and I'm excited.
Speaker 4:And so yeah, Heather, tell me where the Omega Institute is. I want to learn more.
Speaker 2:So the okay, I did a podcast. Do you guys know the shift network? You heard the shift network.
Speaker 4:Okay.
Speaker 2:I'm writing it down. Yeah, it's a great. It's a great website and I just got the boost one. So I know you guys are supposed to hear that there's tons of different teachers that teach different. You know modalities or their niche or whatever, and so I've gone on there and this one particular time I went on there I saw this woman named Tina Zion and she teaches how to become your own medical intuitive, but also like a medical intuitive for others. And as soon as I saw that I knew I had to reach out to this woman. So she is the one that taught the class in Reimbeck.
Speaker 2:So Reimbeck is like right near the cat skills and I think it's really like an up and coming small little town at this point, like lots of people know about it. I didn't know about it, but anyway, when I met with Tina for my podcast, I also scheduled a session with her to do like a mentoring session, because she doesn't do the medical intuitive readings anymore because her spiritual team told her now it's time to teach. So I just absolutely love this one. She's like I think she's around 80 years old, no joke but has more energy than most adults I know and she's a who and she pulls out all the these way far back comments and quotes that just have me in stitches. But anyway, I was doing a mentor session with her and she said, you know, I'm going to be like in your backyard and I was like what are you talking about? She goes, I'm going to be in Reimbeck in July, and so this was like months before that I go. Where is Reimbeck?
Speaker 2:She's like seriously like I felt like I felt like I don't know what that is, I don't know where, I don't know what the mega institute is, I don't know what any of this means.
Speaker 2:So I get off and I Google it and I see that she is teaching the class and she also. You can go on her website and I believe you can get the class via zoom, you know, in modules, whatever, but, holy cow, there is such a difference because I feel like since 2020, most of my classes are online and I haven't really had a chance to do in person really deep diving with the, with the teacher, and it was just the most amazing experience because not only was I learning from her, but I was learning from the 32 other people in the in the room. You know they all, every one of them were. They were either in the medical field, like a nurse or doctor, and tons of intuitives. You know, like there was a couple mediums in there, some that had their own wellness centers, and so when Tina would get up on a topic, all these people would just be chiming in with similar stories and examples and so, being in person once again, it was just so nice to have that feeling of community, you know.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it makes a difference, doesn't it? It's so much different, the energy and we call it people, and it's hard to people, after not for so long, like being just in the same room.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh, I couldn't agree more and I think because I felt so at ease being in there, because I knew that these were people that were on the same wavelength as me, you know. I mean, I didn't worry about feeling judged or, you know, think that maybe a topic is too woo or two out there. You know like we were just there, you know having conversations and but literally by the time we left we were all crying because we didn't want to leave each other. That's like it was like, yeah, it was two and a half hours of instruction in the morning, then you break for lunch and then another two and a half hours in the afternoon. They break for dinner. So it felt like you're either learning or eating. But then when we went to eat, we would all eat together and we just like extend the topics and it. I just I know you wouldn't have that if you're doing it online, so it was just like such a great experience.
Speaker 2:I'm actually going back in September to listen to. Do you guys know Rebecca Campbell? She lives in the UK. No, I kind of came into the spiritual world through her Oracle cards to believe. Believe it or not, I don't know what you're talking about. Oh my God, they're the most beautiful like. We almost look like tranquil kind of cards. So she just put out her fourth deck, which is all on the element of water. But when I found her I had received a Reiki session from a woman in California. Now, this is my first attempt at any of this stuff. I'm like she's going to do what from how far away. I was like there's no way. How do you do distance Reiki? And now I'm a Reiki master. But anyway, I received this session and it was the most mind blowing like experience that I had. And at the end of it she drew four cards from one of her Oracle decks and those pictures, like I just started doing a deep dive.
Speaker 2:Who's Rebecca Campbell? What are these cards? What do they all mean? I wanted to know the meanings of them, all you know. And then I realized she's an author and she has either three books I think she's writing her fourth book too. She's very busy and has two babies, but she's been, I think. Yeah, she's probably around like 40, like, but anyway she's. Yeah, I've been pretty busy. Well, she's coming to Ryan Beck in September to speak with another author. Did you guys read that book? It's called Dying to Be Me or something like that. I think it was called. No, that was another like big kind of a big list.
Speaker 2:Well, to be honest with you, I haven't actually read that book, so, but this is my like, I am. I am a dork and I do. I read, like all the time, is like one of my huge passions in life. But anyway, she's going to be there with Rebecca. So I was like this woman pretty much put me on the spiritual map in 2020. Granted, it was during lockdown. I had nothing else to do, nothing else to do, right, um, that's, it was like a blessing. I came out of all that, a completely different, you know, person, like morally I'm pretty much the same person, but like I just opened myself up so much deeper and that's when I wrote my book was like I was missing the spiritual piece of my triangle, you know. And so, yeah, it was Rebecca. I can't wait to go back in September.
Speaker 2:And also, do you guys have you had to have heard this book? It's by Brian Weiss, I think. He wrote many lives, many masters. You guys heard of that book. Okay, get that one on audible, get that one on auto. It's wild. He was.
Speaker 2:I think his book came out maybe like 20 years ago, when people were not talking so openly about this stuff and he was a hypnotherapist and long story short. His book is all about how he went from basically regressing people in their everyday like their current life, and then eventually like regressing them into past lives that like they were like speaking different languages. It was. It's crazy and this he was as sciencey as you could get. He'd never in a million years wanted to be a spiritual person and all of this. And he couldn't deny every single time he was regressing this one woman where she would take him like crazy places, and so he ended up writing this book and then he wrote another one after that. Anyway, this guy is pretty huge and he just went to Omega and the people he attracted it was probably very overwhelming, but it would have been cool to listen to that too. So now you know about Ryan Beck and Omega and you're gonna wanna go.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes we were just in the cat's house. In all sorts of notes.
Speaker 4:Yeah, this weekend.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh, for real, yeah, I will like at home on Friday, but they do it's all. I literally felt like I was at summer camp, like an adult summer camp, and on some respects it was wonderful, and other times I was like, oh my gosh, really like I'm at camp. You know, like I don't know, like you know it's you really gotta be into the like. I actually went with my mother and we stayed in our own cabin and but there's dorms and so, yeah, you gotta be into the sharing the bathroom vibe if you're gonna stay in certain places. But yeah, it was super fun and interesting.
Speaker 1:Wow, my goodness, I am just I am, since you mentioned being a preschool teacher, I am just envisioning the little lights in your classroom and how lucky they must be.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh, you know what's wild is that? I think that that's why I okay. So I used to teach kindergarten and then I got pregnant with my son. After I got married and I moved back home. I was living in Oswego, where my husband is, and then in that first year of being home kind of like Tracy, like you were saying in your book I kind of went through. Well, I was postpartum, for sure, and I got worse with my second. But besides that I felt like wow, I went from being on like hiring committees and teaching and having meetings with people to changing diapers all day.
Speaker 2:And I love children, I love small children, you know. And that first year I was just like, is this what I'm supposed to be doing? You know, I can't imagine somebody else watching my child right now, but at the same time like, can I stare at these four walls for one more day? And I had my daughter soon after that. That was a nice surprise, and so I originally I thought, okay, when Cameron and my son is a little bit older, maybe I'll go back and I'll teach in the district where I moved to.
Speaker 2:Well, then I got pregnant with my daughter and that kind of put the kibosh on that. So it was so crazy, you guys, when you guys know, like how, when you start to follow your intuition, doors just start magically popping open. I had a okay. So I was going to an architect that my husband, I couldn't afford at the time and we wanted to really do a master bedroom, bathroom suite kind of thing, and so we had plans drawn up and we were going to go through with this. And I had a dream that I was teaching preschool from my house and it was so real. I remember the lesson plans. I remember how it felt. I remember how empowering it felt that I didn't have to basically have you know, specific guidelines or people telling me exactly what I needed to teach. You know, and I told my husband I was like any chance you want to scratch the master bedroom idea and I can build a preschool, and I have to this day. I have no idea why he agreed to it. I mean it's a pan out.
Speaker 2:But if the roles were reversed, I'd tell him all the time I'm like I don't think I would have said I would have wound my big bathroom, you know. So, anyway, I started as I like sat on it for a little while and like, yeah, maybe I shouldn't. Well, I ended up my son was going to a three year old program at a school nearby and I kind of befriended two women that I would wait in line for picking up my kid and they would say things like this preschool near us is closing. And then it seemed like the next time I was going, well, this preschool is closing, I can't believe it. And then the mom was like, you know, there's two kindergarten teachers in our district that need babysitting right now. So anyway, I was putting formulaing this whole plan. I was like, okay, I'm going to go scoop up any furniture from these preschools ahead closed and I started refurbishing them. I took on the kindergarten teachers to kids because I was not working now. Now I was like, okay, these kindergarten teachers, if they like me, maybe they will send kids to me, you know, like kindergarten, younger age kids. And now I've drawn up the plans to make this preschool, everything's in motion.
Speaker 2:Now was I crapping my pants the entire time. Absolutely, I kept like hearing what if I build it and they don't come, you know? But something inside of me just kept saying go with it, you know. So I have two little ones running around while I'm sanding cabinets and trying to get everything into the preschool and then I ended up starting my own preschool. I advertised one time that first year in the Penny Saver I never had to ever send Snack on Wood because it was like word of mouth.
Speaker 2:And back to what you were saying, carrie I feel like the difference for, like my preschool, is that I incorporate a lot of spiritual stuff in there, like not like over the top, but I have sound bowls in there and you know I have a buffalo drum and I let them play it and we do a lot of deep breathing exercises and start to realize that our emotions, our message, is kind of talking to us and what does that mean? And so, yeah, it's like I kind of have been able to weave the two together because I've always been into the body and the mind, so I was always doing that. Anyways, we're very like we would move around a lot, but again, I've only kind of incorporated the spiritual piece for the last four years, but every time I learned something new, I somehow water it down for them, you know. And so it's been such a great way to integrate both my worlds really.
Speaker 1:And think about it like you were saying that was like your missing piece, right yeah, and you're giving it to them at that young, young age. That is just so incredible. I'm so excited for you and for those little kids.
Speaker 2:Thank you, I know I do. I think about that all the time, especially because I've been in the education system now for like I don't know 20 years now, when I was teaching in public school. But I just feel like what an advantage kids would have all around the globe, and some places they do incorporate this. But to I was reading okay, here's another book. I didn't finish it, though. I like had to put it down and I got into another one. It was think like a monk, I think it's called.
Speaker 4:Okay.
Speaker 2:I forget what his name is, but he's a huge like. He's probably like at the best podcast out there. I can't even remember his name right now, I'm drawing a blank, but anyway, he literally became a monk after college and he was like in monk school for three years and he lived that life for three years and so this book is all about the teachings that he learned. And like literally day one he walks in and he sees his 10 year old boy teaching all these like five year old kids, the teaching of the day. And so the guy walks up to him. He's like well, what do you teach them? And he's like well, what did you learn in kindergarten? The 10 year old says this, and Jay Shetty is his name. Jay says well, I learned the ABCs, you know, and numbers. And he goes oh no, all we are working on, and I don't remember the length of it. He goes all we are working on is how to breathe and I had, isn't that so powerful?
Speaker 3:Beautiful.
Speaker 2:Because you know, I see kids all the time, especially in my preschool, and their siblings and all that, and I just see how anxious they are living in this world today. And if they were taught in preschool, kindergarten, what it's like to do deep breathing exercises to calm your nervous system, can you even imagine where we would be? But yeah, apparently it's way more important to you. Know, learn how to multiply by the time you're seven.
Speaker 4:So, yeah.
Speaker 1:Oh gosh, that could be a whole rabbit hole for me.
Speaker 2:Oh, I know, I know, me too, me too Definitely yeah. So yeah, okay. If anybody else wants to chime in, go ahead. I've done nothing but be motor mouth oh that's why we invited you.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it is.
Speaker 3:You're on the main stage. Thank you, oh man.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so Mary sent us the episode. I'm sorry I don't remember what your guest's name was.
Speaker 2:Oh, no worries yeah.
Speaker 1:But it was about abundance and I listened to it today.
Speaker 1:So I went for a hike this morning and then it started to rain and I thought, well, I got her under the grocery store. So I started listening to your podcast and I just went and it was around abundance instead of money and that's kind of a mind shift. I had a while ago, yeah, after kind of a weird money manifesting fiasco. Yeah, yeah, and I just loved everything you had to say. And Mary said you guys need to listen to it. There's something for each of you. And as I was listening to it I was like, oh, I think Tracy would like this, oh, jen might like this and this might resonate with Joe, like I could. Just there were tidbits from each of it that was so nice.
Speaker 2:First of all, mel is magical. I just love her Somehow. Oh, you know what? I found her on Instagram through a different woman that I did a podcast with and I knew in that moment I had to do a podcast with her and we've done like three together now because her energy is just like no other. I get weird downloads sometimes where I'll be doing something and then I'm like that's my next podcast. So I remember specifically I was in the house and I was thinking about somebody who was having money problems and I was like this has to stop.
Speaker 2:Like when I think like my mission is to try to empower people again, especially women. But just, I feel like there are in so many different ways throughout our lives. We are kind of made to be small and we can. None of us really know how powerful we are. And my gosh, after my class in Reimbach, like if Tina did not reiterate that a billion times, my gosh, but she would cry, she'd be like you guys need to realize that you are so powerful. So when we talk about manifestation or we talk about intuition, we talk about setting goals like you can do all of them and more you know. But it's changing the mindset of I'm not like that. That person is over there, they're really powerful, but not me, like I'm just Joe Schmoe, you know, and kind of erasing that whole thought process of why me I'm not good enough, kind of thing. And so I kind of went through like an abundance thing as well, like I thought I'm doing all these things, but am I blocking my own abundance? Like I just was kind of going back and forth with that, and then so I did that podcast with Mel, which was super empowering.
Speaker 2:And then I came across this woman her name is Victoria Washington and she does like whole empowerment courses on embodiment, and so I did like a free little one nighter thing. But I walked away feeling so much more empowered because her theory was so different than anything I heard of. Like she actually went bankrupt after starting her own business and then had her coming to Jesus moment, like what is wrong with me? Actually, there was like some ancestral stuff, because I know that family members had gone bankrupt, and so it was a story that she was telling herself it's just a matter of time. And that's what we do. We kind of set these rules.
Speaker 2:And what I loved about her though it had nothing to do with changing mindset. She said I want you to feel it in your body and she has you do like these different movement exercises, that you are like cutting cords and like flantling around and doing all these things. So you are embodying. And the thing that I took away the most, that resonated the most with me, is okay, money is neutral. We make it look bad and sound bad and whatever, but it's just energy. We're exchanging energy. But aside from that, we should all be saying money should be lucky to be in a relationship with me, like you get to be with me, like that's how we should be embodying it, not just like, oh, I'll take whatever scraps I can get, like. After she said that, I was like, yes, that is what we should all be saying.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, there's so many theories on the abundance thing, but yeah, what excites me now, knowing that you're a teacher, is that I have always thought, kind of in that scarcity mindset thing, that it go for me. Maybe it's just for me, I don't know that it's for everyone, but I bet everybody can be like, oh yeah, when I think about when we're little and how creative we can be. To me it's about being able to stay in that mindset of being able to create you know, without being afraid. Like yes, create a.
Speaker 2:I just saw a quote today. I don't remember what it was, but it was basically I don't want money, to have gobs of money, I want freedom, and that's what money provides. If you are making, you are bringing in enough. Then you have the freedom to be creative and live the life that you want and not feel like we're a slave to. You know the system, kind of thing. And yeah, it's just unveiling all these different ways of looking at it and it changes everything, you know. But it's like about freedom. And why does that guy down the road get to feel the freedom? And I don't? No, I want it too, you know.
Speaker 4:So yeah, I also listened to this afternoon to your podcast, to that episode. I'd listened to a couple other ones and have been holding off on that one because I thought I wanted to freshen my mind for this kind of feedback. When you said that to view money as energy, for me that was a real aha moment. So I think that I've always given it power that it doesn't. It creates power where it doesn't belong on an object. So when you said start to view it as energy, I was just like that's right, that is so right and where you're putting your money and then also the value of the service that you provide.
Speaker 4:So most of us here work out well. All of us work with the public providing service in some way. So that to me also was so validating your time is valuable and you should be compensated for your time. So Mel's story about providing rakey for free and getting free, which looks like oh, I know so many human service workers that get themselves so sick.
Speaker 2:Oh yes, oh yes, I wanted to share too.
Speaker 1:And this is kind of just like the universe speaking to me when I was listening to your podcast.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:It was really fun. I have taken rakey one, so you know there's three sessions.
Speaker 2:Yes, yeah.
Speaker 1:So I've been wanting to take the second one and I just know I said I told the person that I'm getting it from who is Belinda, who will be at our retreat, and I wanted that I was gonna sign up for her second class. And then I went away with the girls this weekend. I wasn't sure that I was gonna be able to swing it and I said I don't know, I don't think I'm gonna be able to make it. But while we were on that trip I bought this beautiful rakey book and I'm excited to dive into it, and the paying for the course really is an energy exchange. Oh, yeah. So she asked me to do something else for her. That is a better fit for me than cash. Yeah, so we were exchanging in a way that when she said it I was like, oh, this just resonates so much better with my heart and my energy. I would love to do that for her. It means so much more to me, it lets me be creative and it feels better than handing her cash.
Speaker 2:Right, absolutely Well, that's the thing. Yeah, if both sides are agreeing on what the currency is gonna be, then yeah, that's perfect and it's an energy exchange. And another thing that I had to kind of get past with taking courses and whatnot, I just at first I would say, oh, I don't have the time or I don't have the money, I shouldn't be taking this course, you know whatever. And then I got like this download, like I'm just like integrating this for myself. This is like not just a I'm not buying a sweater, like I'm upgrading my whole self. You know what I mean. So it's not like it's gonna be something that's gonna go out of style someday. You're always gonna be, you know, bigger and better after investing in yourself, you know. So that is another way to look at it, like I deserve to keep working on my knowledge, you know, because there's so much out there.
Speaker 1:And so what she offered me was not only the opportunity to expand my knowledge with her, but to expand my knowledge with what she's asking me to do, and I was just like I just love this so much, you know it's like a win-win for me and it's a win-win for her.
Speaker 2:Yes, absolutely, that's so awesome. So you'll be taking Reiki too then?
Speaker 1:Yes, tomorrow, oh my, gosh, how fun, I'm excited.
Speaker 4:Tell me what it means when you get a download.
Speaker 2:Oh, okay. So I think maybe I read it somewhere, but it just resonated with me. I didn't coin it by any means. I almost wanna say, like Rebecca, like in the beginning I started to realize that my hits of intuition just pop in out of nowhere. Like so, I have, like that, claire Sentian, I think, what's the Claire knowing, the Claire knowing? Well, there's Claire Boyant where you can see, there's Claire Audient, where you can hear. I just have like a, I think that comes in first and that's my download. Like I could be doing something and then all of a sudden something pops in my head that I wasn't thinking about or anything, or maybe it's an answer to a question I had been mulling over and I have now been able to say, holy cow, that's what I'm looking for. You know what I mean. Like I've been able to distinguish between the download and say, like my ego saying, no, don't do that. You know what I mean. So, yeah, a download, I'd say, is just like a quick little sentence.
Speaker 1:You give pause and notice too right, like in the past. You may have just been like oh, yeah, but now you're like oh, oh is right, I don't even wanna write that down. Yes, I can come back to it.
Speaker 2:Oh, and I do too, like I've had so many readings where they're like, wow, you get a lot of intuitive hits. Make sure you carry around a pad of paper and I always have my phone near me so I can put it in my notebook if I don't have a notepad.
Speaker 1:But I said I think you're my spirit animal.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't know, I just need I gotta have options right, because, yeah, I'm not the most organized, I'll forget my notepad. But I also realized how much my dreams speak to me. So with my preschool I had this dream and I just knew it was right. And I had this is a wild dream I had. So I was pregnant with my son and I was probably like seven months pregnant and at the time I was like a huge scrapbooker because I loved to be creative and I was making my own calendars to put on my refrigerator. And I had gone to bed that night and I woke up and I remembered my dreams so clearly. I saw this calendar, the one that I have downstairs on my refrigerator. It said July 24th and it was circled in red. And I woke up and I go oh my gosh, that's when I'm gonna have Cameron. But his due date wasn't it. His due date was 8808, which I thought was really cool. So it was supposed to be August 8th and it was just wild.
Speaker 2:My parents came up on the 23rd not thinking anything about the circle in my dream or anything. I had gone downstairs and circled it in real life Cause I was like that's when Cameron's coming and my husband was like, yeah, okay. So I, my parents, came up because we were in the process of moving on top of having a baby and so they're helping me transplant my plants. So we were doing that kind of stuff. And I told my mom about my dream and she's totally into this stuff and she's like, wow, wouldn't it be so cool, cause they're spending the night, otherwise they're two hours away. She was like wouldn't it be so cool to happen? I'm like it is gonna happen.
Speaker 2:I saw it. So, anyway, we go out to dinner. And then I went to bed that night my dad thought I was full baloney and I said, all right, good night, guys. I'll see you at 2am, you know, cause we're gonna go have Cameron and I go to sleep. I wake up around 1 30 with contractions and we got on the road and I had Cameron the next day. Well, that day when I woke up, yeah, so I had him on the 24th.
Speaker 1:So tomorrow, today, tomorrow.
Speaker 4:Today, today is his birthday. Today is his birthday, yes.
Speaker 3:Yes, what are you talking about today?
Speaker 2:Yeah, today is his birthday and he's 15 and he just he's away for the first time ever to a camp where he spends the night, and so he actually I really was super excited about this. They took away all their cell phones, so they had to they have to rely on communication. And we had contacted the person who's running the camp and were like, is there any way we could talk to him on his birthday? And so he called this morning. I'm like at 12, 25, you were born and their angel numbers like one, two, three, and I said you were at 12 35. But I was like we can say one, two, three, four even. And I was like that's how magical you are camp. So yeah, he was born at 12 35 today, 15 years ago.
Speaker 4:Isn't that?
Speaker 2:wild. I actually had escaped my mind that it's his birthday today while I was telling this story.
Speaker 1:I was like wait a. That's today. I'm sorry to get on this podcast with us. Our kid must be upstairs waiting for candy.
Speaker 2:No, I know he actually comes home tomorrow, so we're going to take him out to dinner and do all the cake and all that, whatever. What do you get home? But yeah, so it was about then. At first I was like that was crazy, that I saw that in my dream, but that could have been a fluke. But then it would happen more and more. And the more I started paying attention and keeping a dream journal, the more I realized wow, there's something to dreams as well.
Speaker 4:First, certain people. Mary and I both have bizarre dreams, like really weird.
Speaker 3:What do you have? I have really strange dreams and I did listen to the podcast where you talked about downloads. I don't remember and I thought maybe I shouldn't dismiss these crazy dreams that I have. There might be messages inside, but I don't know. Yeah, I still need to collect the code.
Speaker 4:You dreamt that there was an elf with a little ladder coming out of your TV.
Speaker 3:What could that? Mean, I think it could be a great movie, even if it's a message, and I had to go look at the television to check it out.
Speaker 1:Storyline for a kid's movie. Oh yeah, just say it yeah. You can write a book or screenplay, a movie or who?
Speaker 3:knows Well, I guess elf on a shelf is already taken, but elf on a ladder? I have a knife. Elf on a ladder. Elf on a ladder.
Speaker 1:Like it comes alive and comes out of the TV and climbs down a little ladder into your little log cabin home. Oh my God.
Speaker 2:You're so horrible to me.
Speaker 4:It does. Does it look like a chubby movie? No, curious, got a painting to make for your house.
Speaker 2:You know what I do, though A lot of times I'll say like I'll wake up from something and I'll say what's the spiritual meaning of an elf in a dream? And then I'll get like whatever it is, and sometimes it actually rings true. You know what I mean. So like if there's certain animals. Yeah, it doesn't necessarily always mean that. That's what it means, you know, but you'll know if it feels right, you know.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I'm writing down dream journal. So this afternoon I finished up your book, the Missing Piece, and took my own downloads from it, and so I created a chart for myself out of the three triangles that you have, mine, body, spirit. I thought of them as a three-legged stool when one isn't stable and complete, you tip so in the book you talk about homeostasis and balance.
Speaker 3:So, anyway, I took a more pragmatic approach to it, like homework, and I have a column for mine body and spirit Because, like you and your description or in the journey that you're on, spirit was something that you were lacking. That third piece to that was your missing piece, and so I have a lot of asterisks in my column for spirit because I thought I need to do a little more research and learning from that, and so I just added dream journal to spirit, my spirit column.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah. Well, you know what's crazy is I love that analogy of the stool because here I was thinking all these years that I was like killing it at life, being balanced because I was always working out and I was always being careful of not all the time, but I pretty much am a pretty healthy eater, you know. So I felt like, and I was always reading and learning and doing all these things, so I felt like I was working on the mind and I was working on the body. Since I was a teenager I've always been passionate about it, and so here I was thinking I was a balanced person. But you know, what was always following me around like dread was my anxiety.
Speaker 2:I have had anxiety from a child. Childhood, like age seven is when I can really date back my anxiety, and when I say anxiety I mean chronic anxiety that I learned how to navigate. A lot of times it was fuel to get me to the next thing. I thought that it was normal, like I thought having a pit in your stomach every single day over whether or not you got your laundry done was just how everyone is. And then you know, as you get older, it's like shit. That is not balance. You know, like I am not feeling good. I should not be feeling so anxious all the time, you know. And then when I started to incorporate the spiritual side of everything and really connecting, then that third leg of the stool came and my anxiety. The only time I get anxiety now is when it's warranted, like oh, I'm going on somebody else's podcast, don't say something crazy, you know what I mean. Like I had anxiety for that and that makes sense. But before I had it all day, every day, and it didn't make sense. I like I had done all the work, I went to school, I had my husband, I had my two kids and I've been raising them and I've been doing what is you're supposed to right. But the anxiety was worse than ever and to the point where I was messing up with my digestive tract and all that. So I kind of was going into the spiritual side in little glimpses in my 30s. But it wasn't until my late 30s that I really started to put it all together.
Speaker 2:I had when I had my daughter. My postpartum was way worse. My parents went through a really bad separation. My mom was pretty much living at my house like just heartbroken right. And I got a new, brand new baby. I wasn't sleeping at all and I had my toddler and I just knew something had to give. I started doing talk therapy for the first time. I was working out to getting out of the house so I could move my body, but I still wasn't quite hitting the mark. And then one day I was on YouTube it must have been and I came across this woman who I still follow to this day. She's called Boho Beautiful she's. At the time she was probably like 10 years younger than me and just like in a different place, but for some reason I clung to her.
Speaker 2:When you're in like a depression or whatever, and if something seems to be working right, it's like you can have my car, my first born, you can have my bank account, anything you want, because you're making me feel better. But it was then I was 29 years old that I meditated for the first time and I was doing yoga and that's what kind of quieted my nervous system enough to start to feel like me again, and but I kind of let it go away. Then I started my preschool and I got so consumed with all that which was great, with my creative side, but I also my anxiety was revved up again, and then I then COVID hit and I had to close my preschool, and then that's when I had this massive holy cow. This is like there's so much more. You know, there is such a greater part of who we all are. We don't have to work so damn hard and feel like this. We can actually feel calm and at peace, and that was just wild to me.
Speaker 2:It was such a revelation. I just. I still think back to that and think, wow, all those years I just lived in my third, that third leg of the stool wasn't there. I was not balanced, you know. So I love that analogy. I'm going to use it from now on, because actually it makes more sense than a triangle, you know. So I love that. Thank you for saying that.
Speaker 4:Oh, you're welcome. So, heather, after my youngest, my youngest biological son, I have six, but my youngest biological son, so I had three. Did you have six children? I gave birth to three. I have six all together. So my youngest I had when I was 23. So I had 19, 21, and 23.
Speaker 4:So, every other year and I kind of had postpartum with my middle child but after my youngest. It was terrible and I just so resonated with what you said in terms of grabbing onto somebody. Marie Osmond, of all people you know, she wrote a book about postpartum depression while I was having it and it was so horrible. But there's a description in the book about you know, like people just don't understand. It's like you're interacting with the world but you're standing behind this veil, yeah, yeah, and it was, oh so Marie Osmond, kind of like she was the person I clung to. Yeah, she was doing like a book tour on TV at the time.
Speaker 2:Oh, it came out the perfect time for you then.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was like pre-social media because he is 22, so yeah, but it's crazy that especially then, there wasn't a lot of talk about postpartum. I don't know, and probably still isn't enough. You know, when I so I was, I started talk therapy and this woman when I say she brought me back, like helped to bring me back to life, that's what I mean. It took almost a full year and I remember that Christmas that year where I was about like six months into it and I sent her the longest like Christmas card, like thank you so much, please don't ever leave me. Like I need you in my life. And you know the best way I could describe how I was feeling, like you said this veil, I felt like I lost the sense of color, like everything's gray, you know, there was no vibrancy, there was no energy, it was just wild and yeah, I wanted to say, trace, it's interesting to me that you, like that was a pivotal moment for you, that that was the book.
Speaker 1:You know she had what you you felt like you were experiencing, and then you knew that she wrote a book and you believed that that was possible. And look what you did. Yeah, oh, thank you, it says right.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah, thanks. Maybe somebody will be dancing with the stars there you go, no, make it happen. Nobody wants to see that.
Speaker 2:I love that you were, I was going to say to Tracee, I love that you reference Oprah so many times. So I just loved Oprah, even when I was like young, young, and I remember I got dropped off for college the first time and I was a mess. My parents left me and I had to go back up to this tiny little room with a stranger I didn't know, I knew nobody. I'm crying all the way up there. I get up there. I have the tiniest little TV in there that I brought from home with a VHS tape built into it. I thought I was cool and I turned on the TV and it was Oprah and my tears went away and I was like talk to me, oprah, like she was like my guru at the time. You know, I'm like tell me all the wise things that I need to know. So, yeah, you referenced her all in your book.
Speaker 4:Yes.
Speaker 2:Oprah, I get it.
Speaker 1:I think about being a kid who, so I wrote a bus home and I got home about 3.30 every day and my parents both worked and didn't get home usually till about five, like Oprah was my babysitter.
Speaker 2:Yeah, love me, but what a great babysitter to show us that there's different ways to handle life. You know, it's either watch Oprah or watch doctor. What was the other one? Gary Springer, maybe Gary Springer yes, you're either an Oprah or a Gary Springer.
Speaker 3:Not gonna lie, that's like a plasma quiz.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:It could be a quiz.
Speaker 1:That makes me think I'm just gonna share this. I dated this guy once who loved Gary Springer and I remember thinking, oh, this is totally a sign you are not for me. Like I'd walk into my house, he'd be watching Gary Springer and I'd be like you really find this enjoyable.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I mean not gonna lie every once in a while you have to turn it on and be like, wow, my shit, I gotta put together you know, I've got a lot of clothes, but it's just a five minute glance.
Speaker 4:It's not a religious watcher.
Speaker 2:No, no, no, it's back to Oprah.
Speaker 4:My dad would go back and forth to UCM. His kidney doctor was up there, so we spent a lot of time in waiting rooms there and the jail used the same facility for their doctors, so all the jail people would go to UCMC. So I don't know what it was, but my dad ended up on like the same rotation as the prison bus to come get their kidney stuff checked out. But it seems like every time we went up there and sat in the little tiny waiting room it was with three inmates and we always watched Springer and they would get all into it.
Speaker 1:They'd be like Jerry, jerry, oh, my gosh.
Speaker 2:I think he just died recently.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he did, jerry did. Nobody is gonna know their baby daddy anymore.
Speaker 2:No one, no one. I feel like Dr Phil might touch on it a little bit, but not with Jerry.
Speaker 4:No.
Speaker 1:I think he still does it right.
Speaker 4:With Mori still around, okay.
Speaker 2:Oh, is he really?
Speaker 1:No.
Speaker 3:Well, tracy, one of our classmates, was at Springer.
Speaker 4:What? Oh yeah, he was a security guard, right.
Speaker 3:Yeah, oh was he. Oh, he worked on Springer.
Speaker 4:Yes, yeah, okay, he wasn't a baby daddy, he was a security guard.
Speaker 3:Okay, I thought he was on an episode two and they like made up the story.
Speaker 4:No, I'm gonna have to ask Okay, well, like, sometimes it's like is this even real?
Speaker 2:Could this really be happening? I bet you. They do make up a lot of it.
Speaker 4:Yeah, they have to.
Speaker 2:I love it.
Speaker 4:Like the whole time you're sitting there waiting to go. You know what I mean.
Speaker 2:Well, and who wants to be the one that's like, yeah, I'm the baby daddy of these three, like? Who wants to go on and say that I feel like, yeah, you know what I mean. Who wants to do that Some people will do anything for their 15 minutes of fame? That's true.
Speaker 4:That's true, not for me, though. No, that's not worth it.
Speaker 3:No, no, no. This podcast is enough, that's enough. Yeah, I bear enough of my personal life on it.
Speaker 2:I hear that. I hear that Sometimes I'll get done doing a podcast and I'll come downstairs. I'm like, yeah, so I talked about all three of you guys today. Meaning my two kids and my husband are like what did you say? And I'm like it just kind of happened and it was a great example, so thanks.
Speaker 1:So I'm curious how did you get started with podcasting?
Speaker 2:So in 2020, everything shut down and I was like I had that Reiki session and I don't know Like it was like such divine timing. I guess I was on Pinterest one of my favorite apps of all time because I love all the ideas and I saw an advertisement for the school down in New York City called IIN. It's the integrative jeez now I can't remember of what it's called Neutrino integrative and it's some type of I don't know online school down in New York City and it was. The caption was how to become a health coach and all my life if I had not gone into teaching. I wanted to do something to help people feel better and it was just like such a calling or a longing that I always had and I was like, well, the world's coming to an end, so I might as well try this one. I can't do anything with teaching right now.
Speaker 2:So because at the time, everything was shut down and no one knew what was happening. So to keep my brain from like what's the world coming to, I joined this class down in New York City via Zoom and I took the accelerated class. It's a year long program, but I did it in six months and basically it's I was doing two modules a week, but it was so amazing because it really just opened up so many doors for me in terms of like we were learning about the importance of taking care of our soil to Ayurveda and empowering yourself and not killing yourself with like, oh, I ate a cupcake, so I'm bad, you know. Like it was more like learning how to intuitively eat and all these. There was like 75 different guru people that would come in and lecture, okay, so like Deepak Chopra was the guy who ended up closing it, but it was people like that, like just big named people, and halfway through they really start to push you on starting your own website, because if you're going to be a health coach, you're going to need a website, you're going to want to start getting clients. So I reluctantly started a website through the help of one of my friends and I was like I can't put this out there. No, it's so scary. I ended up like calming myself down by saying no, one's going to go to it, so who cares? Right? So probably not the best self talk, but that's how I got myself through it, and so I started this website just putting out content and I still do. I put out a podcast or a blog every week for free and anyone's welcome to it. And so, no, I started doing blogs.
Speaker 2:And then, farther through the course, do you guys know she's like such a huge, she has her own podcast. Why can't I not think of her name? She wrote the book Spirit. You Know, the Universe has your Back. Why can't I think Gabby Bernstein? Gabby Bernstein, yeah, so she was on there and this one talk she was giving, she's like yeah, I started out doing blogging and then I realized why am I writing?
Speaker 2:I just rather talk. And I was like, yes, I don't want to write that much, I would talk. So it was after that, listening to her, that I went. I literally went out the next day with my husband. We went to the music store in Henrietta and I got my mic and I got a pair of headphones and like a small little system set, whatever. No, I had no idea what I was doing. I still don't know what I'm doing. So I record and then now I know how to edit it, but and I put it out there and hope, like when I put it out there, I'm like shoving it out into the universe with my fingers crossed, hoping that it goes out there and it somehow does, and so, yeah, that's how I started my podcast, was just not overthinking it and just again just doing it, you know.
Speaker 4:So that's the hardest part is just doing it. I was just telling Mary the other day that I had a conversation with someone who I paid to have the conversation with. In the bottom line was she's like just do it. Yeah, okay, you're right, thank you.
Speaker 2:You have to like battle with this. Who's going to listen? Who's going to like me? Why me? You know what I mean. So that's the ego talking because it wants to keep us safe and small. You know, if you're not going outside your little box, then you're going to be safe, because you know the ego is there to actually help us all.
Speaker 2:Well, from evolution time, you know, way back Once upon a time, when we had to like go out and kill for food, whatever. So it was like trying to keep us safe. And now we've evolved to here and we don't really need to have maybe so much safety going on. But it's in our genes, you know. We just are constantly like well, why me? Why should I be doing this? Every, you know, tony Robbins does it. Why should I? You know, and but then, but then you get the little intuitive hit, the little download that says very, very quietly, you can do it and if you can listen and hear those words, that should overpower all the negative stuff, all the things that are trying to keep you small. It's trying to find and listen to that tiny little intuitive voice, you know.
Speaker 3:But from that abundance podcast. That's the message I got specifically was the right people will find us. Yeah.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And I feel like that's what you're doing with you know, throwing just throwing out the podcast to the universe. That's what we're doing with our podcast and our, our retreat is that the right people will find us in the ones that have, you know, negative comments. Don't believe in what we're doing. They'll just fall away.
Speaker 2:They'll fall away. That's exactly what it is, and like how I was saying when I started my preschool, before I was starting it, like I, these women, were like, oh my gosh, this preschool is closing and then this one's closing. Like all in Geneseo, the town I live in, like there was no more preschool other than the one that I was standing in for my son. And then, you know, I was like hearing all these different people that were like, oh, there's a need for it now and now you can have all this furniture. It was just crazy how one door would open and then another and another, and I got to meet so many different people to help get it going. You know, I mean because I obviously couldn't do it all by myself, you know.
Speaker 2:So it's also about like getting help and receiving help, and I have the goosebumps now because that's for me to know, because I don't always do that. I never want to bother anyone, you know. But at the same time, it's like you can, it's okay to get help, you know so. But yeah, they do the doors open and you just have to trust, and that's what Gabby Bernstein in all of her books. She's like the universe has your back if you can trust that what is to come is what is meant to be, you know, and the right people will find you, then that is kind of what unfolds. As long as you're willing to trust it, you know, and to look for the signs, you know, like you saw the Cardinal on the on the branch right after you had this big epiphany that's a sign, you know, and kind of just looking out for that and not just being so busy in our crazy world. Now Wrap us up, karen.
Speaker 1:All right, do you want to tell us how to make tea?
Speaker 4:I love, love, love what Mary said tonight about her stool. So, mary, will you remind us the three things that are on the stool? I'm sorry, I'm just being juvenile. You tell me about your stool, mary.
Speaker 3:Oh, so so you knew I was calling to sign up for a colonoscopy, right?
Speaker 1:I didn't know, get back from a trip.
Speaker 3:I put it in my calendar. You are going to have a healthy stool.
Speaker 2:I just know it.
Speaker 4:Balance. We want you to have a balanced stool. There you go.
Speaker 3:Yes, I hope it will be a balanced stool. So, using the book that Heather wrote, the missing piece I wrote down. I have three columns on a sheet of paper and with the heading on each of the columns mind, body and spirit and just jotted down the things that I'm doing now that fit into that column and the ones that I read about that I need to do some more research on, because it sparked my interest when you described it in your book. So that is how to make tea. I love that.
Speaker 4:Go get the book too, guys.
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