Today we're exploring yoga, motherhood, spirituality, and self-healing with Lauren Leduc. Her new book, Embody Your Inner Goddess, is on connecting with the sacred feminine within to co-create a thriving life.
🫶Get Lauren's book here🫶
❤️🔥Become a Founding Member of the Raising Wild Hearts Membership here ❤️🔥
If you feel inspired please consider sharing this episode with a friend, writing a 5⭐️ review or becoming a Raising Wild Hearts Member here!
Today we're exploring yoga, motherhood, spirituality, and self-healing with Lauren Leduc. Her new book, Embody Your Inner Goddess, is on connecting with the sacred feminine within to co-create a thriving life.
🫶Get Lauren's book here🫶
❤️🔥Become a Founding Member of the Raising Wild Hearts Membership here ❤️🔥
If you feel inspired please consider sharing this episode with a friend, writing a 5⭐️ review or becoming a Raising Wild Hearts Member here!
we do not own our children. I think they choose us in a way that I think that's how it is most of the time, and kind of the same prayer I always say is just let me be the parent she needs. That's like. That's my main goal in parenting, and it's probably not always going to align right, but like I'm going to do my best to do that, to get out of my own way, to let go of, you know, programming that I grew up with not that it was all bad, but to do things in a new way like that requires a deep level of self healing.
Speaker 3:Welcome, revolutionary Mama, to the Raising Wild Hearts podcast. I'm Ryan Watkin, educator, mom of three, revel at heart and passionate soul, on a mission to empower and inspire you. Here we'll explore psychology, spirituality, parenthood and the intersection where they all come together. We'll discover how challenges can be fertile soil for growth and that even in the messy middle of motherhood, we can find magic in the mundane. Join me on my own personal journey as I talk to experts and share resources on education creativity, self care, family, culture and more.
Speaker 2:I believe we can change the world by starting at home, in our own minds and hearts, and that when we do, we'll be passing down the most important legacy there is, um which is fine, you know and so it is.
Speaker 3:But, um, I've been really excited to talk to this person. Her name is Lauren Laduke, because she wrote a book called embody your inner goddess a guided journey to radical wholeness. And how amazing does that sound? And I've got a preorder copy of her book in my email and I'm getting ready to dig in. We talk a lot about the book, um, towards the mid to the end of the episode, and it sounds really juicy, really amazing. Um, and also we talk a ton about spirituality and you know, I know that I probably don't have to put this disclaimer in here, but if you feel you know called to use the word God, then you feel called to use that word. If you feel called to use the word spirituality or creator or define divine intelligence or universe or whatever it may be, you know, insert your word here. Lauren talks about her journey and really her spiritual truth and how she came home to find her higher self. She calls it her big S self, not to be confused with big ass self, all right, um, so, yeah, I asked her um how that journey came about. So she talks a bit about that.
Speaker 3:We talk about her book. We talk about motherhood a bit. She's got a two year old, I think she's about to be three, um, and it was really sweet because as we were doing the interview, her baby I guess toddler, her toddler was nursing and it was just so sweet and I complimented her on what a badass she is for being able to just like flow with this whole motherhood thing, like while doing a podcast, like you guys, she made it look absolutely effortless. I was like, oh my God, if my children were here asking me for a snack, I'd be like blowing a gasket, like. And I talked a lot about needing to compartmentalize my creative life with my mothering life and it's always been that way and it's something that, like you know, through the season, I'm kind of unpacking and exploring and it just goes to show you that there's not one right way for everybody. Like you know, there are working moms, there are stay at home working moms, there are entrepreneur moms, there are mompreneurs, there's, you know, just the dedicated mom who wants to be a stay at home mom and honestly, actually, yeah, I think I've been all of these versions of that role or that person at you know, different points in my mothering journey, and so it's really kind of interesting and for me, what feels really aligned. What feels really good is having my own dedicated space to do that, and I honor and just witness and see the, the presence and the. You know the grace in which mothers are doing both simultaneously, and I'm in awe of that really. I really am, because it's not something that's my strength, so I love when I see a strength than someone else that I don't have. I love pointing that out and, you know, showering that person with praise. So, yeah, so I do that.
Speaker 3:In the episode we talk about sacred feminine a little bit. We could have probably talked for three more hours, which is how it goes, you know, with every guest. But we talk about embodiment quite a bit like the way to embodiment, the way to actually so the way to finding your higher self is through embodiment. Funny enough, because it's not this like high up in the clouds, you know, up in the sky, like God that we may have envisioned it's. You know where's that whisper of God in our own hearts. It's like coming really closer back to home, same with like changing the world by starting at home, like this is what I'm talking about when we can heal our own minds, our own hearts, our own bodies, be able to witness ourselves like through the good, the bad and the ugly, like that, to me, is healing and I don't know what's more divine than that passing down healthy whole relationships and a healthy whole way of living and being in this world. So, yeah, this conversation was super inspirational.
Speaker 3:Check Lauren's book out, as this is airing. You can preorder it. It's about to launch If you listen to this, after December 1st, you can get it now on anywhere you get your books. So, yeah, enjoy this conversation. I will talk to you guys soon.
Speaker 3:One more thing before we get into it the membership is open. I am going to put a date at some point on it where it will close, but I am putting the lighthouse up there for the you know, the women who want to be founding members, and it's $10 a month. If you're a founding member, it will always be $10 a month. We're going to do a monthly women's circle. We're going to do a monthly lunch and learn, and I'm really, really excited to see some of you in there. It's really strongly something that I think will be such a compliment to this podcast, because, while I love having these conversations and talking to our guests and passing these along to you and having you kind of be a fly on the wall, I'd love to have some interaction in a community of, you know, women and mothers who are dedicated to their healing, who are dedicated to their spiritual growth, who are dedicated to their personal growth, and I think that's really important for us to be in community together. So, yes, hop in there.
Speaker 3:Raisingwildheartsbusbrowcom. Click on subscribe. You'll see all the details there. Super simple. Yeah, let's dive into the interview. Hi, lauren, welcome to the Raising Wildhearts podcast.
Speaker 1:Hi Ryan, I'm so happy to be here.
Speaker 3:I'm so excited you're here. This conversation's been a long time coming. We've had this book for a while.
Speaker 1:Oh really, yeah, we've probably had it like a couple months now.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's like I'm like there's been a lot of lead up, I've been like oh, you know, when you book something two months out, it's like oh, wow, you know, there's like a little bit of a wait, so the anticipation is just like super exciting. And your book is yeah, and your book is about to launch fairly soon, which is super exciting, so excited to talk about that. And really I think the place that I want to kick it off, like let's just go into what is spirituality for you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's funny. On my podcast this is the first question we ask everybody, so it's funny to have it like turned around on me. Yeah, to me, spirituality is an individual journey of realizing your own divinity, essentially, and that can look and feel and express differently, and every single person. So for me, sometimes it's when I'm in a quiet space and I feel a sense of peace, and sometimes it's when I'm watching my daughter grow and sometimes it's amongst pure chaos. For me it's been a huge journey to really like I don't want to say define, but to maybe let go of defining whatever spirit or source or the divine is and instead to just allow it to be something I experience and feel. So that's kind of a long answer. I certainly didn't plan it out and I feel like it would be different every single time that you ask me, but I do experience it a little bit differently every day, I think yeah.
Speaker 3:So what I'm hearing you say is this like really strong connection to self amidst everything going on externally, and not just self, but the divine, the God, the Creator, within. Yeah, Absolutely.
Speaker 1:I'm a yogi and a yoga teacher and when we talk about self we talk about it in a couple different ways. My students laugh at me because I say like the big S self and the little S self. But it sounds like big ass self. But the little self is the one who identifies with all the different roles in their life and who is in their ego sometimes and who has anxieties and memories and all the human things. Nothing wrong with the little S self. And the biggest self is that divine self. It's that which never changes. It's that which is observing all of the changes that are happening in our lives and to me it's just made of pure love.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so would you touch on your journey from little S self like back to remembering big S?
Speaker 1:self. Sure, it's not super linear. I feel like it's a little bit all over the place. But I'll start early.
Speaker 1:When I was a kid I live in the Midwest in the US and it's the Bible Belt and I grew up in like evangelical Christianity and so I was given a specific way to connect with God or source, and that's all I knew. But I would feel it and I would feel moved at times in church and when thinking about about divinity. But that started to shift and change as I got older. Personally for me, I started to see a lot of hypocrisy that you know I couldn't see when I was little because I didn't really understand how things were working. I just knew the story I was told and I started doing a lot of questioning and that wasn't really met in a really positive way. So at the same time I was questioning, I was feeling like I couldn't be loved for who I was, because suddenly who I was was somebody who, like, had this huge curious thirst for knowledge and experience and to know, like, how the world works and what do I believe. Actually, with a few other factors, I fell into a pretty difficult eating disorder at age 17 and I went from this good girl, this very high, achieving, artistic, academic person, to just kind of crashing and burning like full existential crisis, and that really started my journey to like understanding who I was. So it took, you know, things to really crumble and a lot of really difficult times to put me on this path where I don't know it was like, after everything kind of crumbled, I was like, well, I'm left with nothing, so let's just see what happens.
Speaker 1:When I was in the hospital at age 17, my parents thankfully put me in an inpatient program. I was introduced to yoga for the first time and it felt so good. I hadn't really moved my body in a while and I was a competitive dancer so I needed to move. But also it was dark and it was quiet and I just had space to breathe and kind of be with my own thoughts. It wasn't this like intense therapy or groups or the other things that we were doing all day, and it felt so good and I had this whisper of intuition that it would somehow be a part of my life, which it wasn't really for a while, but it was the start of something new, so that I learned a lot about myself in therapy. I learned about like affirmations which I thought were like terrible when I was 17, like how cringy, but like, became a huge part of my life later on.
Speaker 3:Right, like saying this, you feel like you're lying to yourself yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1:Which is so funny because now, like every chapter in my book is named after an affirmation and I'm like all about them. I used them for my birth, like everything. So, yeah, things really have changed. But I went on like, let's say, a 10 year journey of a lot of failing and fun at the same time and self-discovery. I would practice yoga when I could. I picked up Reiki along the way.
Speaker 1:I dropped out of college a few times Like I was kind of a mess and just figuring things out, and a little bit later on, in my late 20s, I had moved kind of all around. I moved back home. I suddenly had support that I hadn't had in a while. I really took my healing seriously and started taking my yoga practice really seriously and things just started to really click into place from there in feeling whole, in feeling happy, in like figuring out what I believe, who I am and I did yoga teacher training a couple of years after that and from there, like my career just really has put me in this direction where I'm constantly learning and growing and challenged and where I feel like I'm in my purpose. So it's been quite a journey.
Speaker 1:I'd say like, yeah, the eating disorder. Early 20s psychedelics put me in touch with like the big S self, just taking me out of my normal frame of reference. I didn't do them mindfully, but at the time it was probably something that was good for my healing. And then Reiki, yoga and like everything that's just expanded and grown from there and I still like hold fairly dearly yoga philosophy. I don't think I follow it like 100%, but it is all about the personal path to. I don't wanna say ascension, but just knowing, like knowing who you are and being present. So I don't know. I guess that fully answers your question. Yeah, condensing a longer story, I suppose.
Speaker 3:Of course. I find it interesting and this resonates with me as well that it sounds like part of that journey back to your soul, back to your highest self, or big S self, capital S so had to do with going into and feeling into your body, and I don't think that's a coincidence. I think maybe that's probably a through line for everybody. We're taught at a young age to dissociate, we're taught to strive for the external, we're taught to be good girls you know, speaking from a female perspective and a lot of that really puts us out of our own body and we're a lot up in our minds but we're not really like grounded into the earth, into our presence, into our body. You know, feeling what's a yes, feeling what's a no, like as simple as that.
Speaker 3:If everybody learned that at seven years old, I could argue that the world might be a kind of a different place, right? So I think this is like a really big thing to put a pin in. Is that like it starts in your own body, in your own experience? And how ironic that we're looking for something that's like big and you know, traditionally like represented with this, like man in the clouds, and it's actually like bring it back, sister, like all the way back to your own body, and I just, I love that that was part of your journey. What yoga means, you know? Uniting with oneself. Is that what you have found it to mean throughout your years of practicing?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean it means. It has a lot of definitions, you know through the spiritual texts. For me, it is about this union. It means to yoke, like that's the actual definition of the word. So it's like yoking mind, body and spirit through this disciplined practice. It's also about letting. It's about not associating who you truly are with everything that changes. So, yes, being in the body is important, but I'm like, okay, but I'm not this body. This is like my vehicle for this lifetime. Associating with the mind is important, but at the same time, it's like I'm not my thoughts, I just have thoughts Same with like emotions, like they're important to feel and embrace, but it's also important to know like they change. Therefore they're not me. So, yeah, yoga to me is just about being like in the seat of the soul, while also having a lot of compassion for our humaneness, lots of compassion.
Speaker 1:I mean an overabundance of compassion.
Speaker 3:Like the human thing is not. It's not an easy racket Like it's really not.
Speaker 3:Like we're being put through challenges consistently and so funny I was telling my husband last night I just started teaching a heart-centered, creative leadership class for girls ages six through nine ish. And I'm like, oh my gosh, so aligned and it is and it feels so good. And various circumstances have happened, like you know, to say, like I'm going to throw a little adversity in there just to see if this is what you really want. Like, oh yeah, you're feeling aligned, sister, Like how about some adversity, how about some challenges, to see if you know you can stay the course and go through with what you say you want to do and go through with what feels really good for you. And so I find that to just be. You know, one of the themes of this podcast is like growth in the you know, in the challenge, growth through the challenge.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I absolutely agree with that. I have a chapter in the book about being strong and strength and you have to have resistance to build strength. It's it's needed Like yeah, I just got back from the gym a little while ago and that's like the whole concept behind building muscle. Like you have to go to failure, you have to like keep increasing the resistance, and that is how you become strong. And I think that's important for parenting too, in allowing our kids to fall and to fail and to like also build the resilience that comes with that. So I think it's important to um, yeah, learn how to navigate that racefully. That's one of the reasons I love like the yoga practice. So much is you get to. You get to practice that in a really safe space on the mat. Like how hard do I push, when do I pull back, when do I rest? Like these are all things that we practice there so that when we get into our regular life, we can still have that autonomy.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I love that and I was so I grew up going to a Montessori preschool. Like when I was a toddler, I went to a Montessori school and it's child led and you, when you do your lessons, you pull out your own little mat and it's like your little bubble that you do your lessons on. And so I feel similar when I go to yoga class and I can be on my mat and for the first two years I started my very devotional yoga practice. I mostly couldn't practice without crying, like the emotional releases were just like it was. Every time I'm like what is going on, but it was the first time I was like truly in my body and nobody tried to fix it, nobody tried to change it. Nobody said you're okay, honey, it'll be okay, nothing. It was me on my mat with my feelings in my body, and that was a pivotal moment for me. I can be in my little bubble, in my little space and nobody's needing to change or fix anything, and I think this is a practice that helps us in life.
Speaker 3:Off the yoga mat, you know my child is doing whatever, tantruming or wanting something that they may not have at this time, or whatever it is, then we have that ability to stay firm in our experience and let them stay firm in their experience. We are not here to make life easy for our kids, like that's not our role. I believe it's not, you know. I believe our whole role is just helping them individually into their own sovereign beings. And sure, we're here to guide them and they feel like they're ours, but they're not ours, you know, we're just here to give the assist.
Speaker 1:So yeah, absolutely. I think like we do not own our children, I think they choose us in a way that I think that's how it is most of the time, and kind of the same prayer I always say is just let me be the parent she needs. That's like that's my main goal and parenting and it's probably not always going to align right, but like I'm going to do my best to do that, to get out of my own way, to let go of, you know, programming that I grew up with not that it was all bad but to do things in a new way, like that requires a deep level of self healing. Yeah, yeah, I'm just asking me for an orange right now, so I'm going to peel one while I'm talking to you.
Speaker 1:All good, this is my life.
Speaker 3:Yep, I hear you. Oh my gosh, I totally get it. When is she to? Right now? Yes, she's to.
Speaker 1:Okay, when was she born? She was born in November of 2020.
Speaker 3:Oh, okay.
Speaker 1:She was born a month early. So if you do the math, we conceived her in March of 2020. Yes, of course you did. Yeah, I don't think I need to tell anyone what was going on at that time in the world. So yeah, speaking of like building strength, just the whole pregnancy and birth and then becoming a mom, like that's built my strength so much and that wouldn't come without the resistance, but I feel like you know I'm navigating things as gracefully as possible. Yeah, and you know they're meltdowns on my part every once in a while.
Speaker 3:Of course. Again, that's where we learn to like. It's an opportunity for us to give ourselves some compassion, like you said, absolutely. And may I just say like how graceful you just like you know, executed this whole orange peeling business, because I find my children are around, I like I don't know what it is, but we, I like, if somebody asked me for something right now, I would be like yeah, I would get like totally kind of like thrown off my game and you're just like you're flowing and this is like you're embodying your inner goddess, is that? What it's all about Like that.
Speaker 3:I mean, really I don't know.
Speaker 1:I feel like every kid is really different, you know, so who knows? But also like because of when she was born she is very, very used to this Like I've been doing zoom calls since she was in my womb and I consciously have changed my business and my personal focus quite a bit since she was born, not only out of necessity because of the pandemic, but because my values changed. Like I have been an entrepreneur for a long time and I could work all day, every day, if I wanted to, and oftentimes I would put myself into into that situation due to passion, maybe due to poor boundaries at times. But I really had to reprioritize everything when she came and I think it's really important and maybe we can talk about this a little bit. But like really tuning into our kids' souls, not only when they're Earthside but beforehand. And I think again, every kid's different. So you might have a deep connection with one pre-birth and not as much with another, I don't know, but for me, like she asked to come through, she was like knocking on my door.
Speaker 1:For a while I didn't even want to be a mom. For a while I wanted to focus on my career and when she it was like a little whisper in my ear or a little fly or something that just kept coming and eventually I had to listen to it and I thought I had my life like set up perfectly. I'm like, okay, I've delegated tasks out, I have more space in my schedule, blah, blah, blah. Okay, we can see where the pandemic comes and everything changes. But it was an opportunity, with this reprioritization that comes with kids, to change things around.
Speaker 1:So one of the intuitions that I had, even before conceiving her, is that I wanted to do a home birth. That wasn't something I really thought I could do or knew if I wanted to do, you know, and that was an incredible experience. I also was like I run a home school Not something I ever thought that I'd want to do. So, yeah, things have shifted. I work from home a lot and we everything's really integrated, like I'm working and she's playing and she's just kind of been brought up really used to this entrepreneurial life. My husband it has a restaurant too, so it's just a little bit different lifestyle probably from some other people, but it's working okay for us, I think. So thank you for seeing me.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I love it, I appreciate it, because that's not one of the things I do with Grace is like balancing the like, my passion and my children. For some reason, I've always felt like, when they're around, they like maybe it's because I want to be so like devotedly present for them, I don't know it's something where I feel like I can't like multi-task. When they and it just like sometimes I'm triggered by them, so I'm just like I get off of my flow, it like kind of knocks me off a little bit. And actually, in 2020, I've got three kiddos now, but in 2020, my older two they were like in preschool and I was like kind of doing my thing, working from home, full time, and their school is closed, and I was like, well, I guess we're doing this thing, which led into me staying home, putting all of my business plans, all of my creative plans on the back burner, but I did create another human during that time. That was like the biggest creative act you can do. Yes, right, so, but yeah, I just was like, well, god, universe, like, this is what we're doing, and that led to the homeschooling piece.
Speaker 3:But I always really admire, you know, people like you who are like, yeah, we intend on home educating and like that's the plan from the get go. I always think that's really great. I feel like I kind of got thrown into it and I may not have even explored that option had I not had that opportunity for everything to stop, for the, you know, the childcare to end and me to go. Oh, actually, this is possible. So, you know, we have an arrangement where, like we, they're, they go, do classes and whatever, and so I still feel like I have that creative time where I don't have to feel like I'm being pulled, like them creative passions, them created, because I felt like I was kind of getting pulled. I'm curious, all of this to say I'm really curious on your take on balance as a woman, as a mom, like, do you buy into the balancing act or are you like balance doesn't exist?
Speaker 1:I don't think it like fully. No, okay, and I'll. I'll follow up, though, to say that it does in a way, just not in the way I think we typically think about it. I relate it to yoga, because I relate everything to yoga. But think about, like, when you're in a balancing pose right in a class, like your foot wiggles around, you're not a statue, you might fall out of it, but then you come back in, like, to me, that's what balancing is. It's not about, like, things being perfectly stable all the time, because everything's always changing. So it's like how do you deal with this?
Speaker 1:And then another kind of concept I look at, and it's yogic in a way too, but it also has to do with, like, the way our brains work, and you know, it's also the masculine and feminine. To me, there's structure and there's flow, right, and we need to have both of these in our life. When we veer too far towards structure, it becomes rigidity. When we veer too far toward flow, it becomes chaos. So what we're looking to do is kind of find that middle ground. But if you're like floating down a river right like there's, you have to like pay attention, you have to navigate your boat Like you don't want to crash to one side or the other, you want to find that middle ground. So I think that for me, balance is more like that, where I'm like holding these polarities in a way, and sometimes I need to utilize more of one than the other to bring things back into a state that feels expansive and open and safe. Yeah, does that make sense?
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, yeah, I love that way of looking at it. I've been exploring it as like a like, even looked it up the other day. I'm like is balance a divine law? Like, is that because it feels like there's some sort of like law in the universe, like you mentioned, the polarities there's, there is a middle ground, I guess. It's just not all the time in all things, but like I don't know, eventually maybe it does all work itself out, but it feels like balance isn't a thing when you're a busy mom and you're like doing all the things, like, but you know, are we letting ourselves get caught up in chaos? Are we creating this story in our mind, this emotional addiction that we've been so used to forever, or is it really hard? You know, and both you know, like there's always these, you know these questions.
Speaker 1:So yeah, I think so and I think a lot of like, a lot of women and probably people in general, but conscious women to have this like inner critic. That's always with them too. So it's like, even if things are perfect, there's this voice inside that's like but you could be doing this or you could be doing that. So there's definitely a certain level of surrender that has to come Of. Like I love, like the glass, like the ball, dropping the ball and knowledges to have, like some balls you do have to keep in the air and some are okay to drop sometimes. And I think, like along the same lines, we can have really great balance in some areas and then maybe not so much in other areas because we have big, beautiful, complicated lives.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's right, Big, beautiful and complicated for sure. So let's talk about, let's talk about accessing intuition. So I want to start with like a very silly example, because I'm just practicing my intuition muscle, you know, as of the last, let's say, handful of years, and when I go to yoga, I'm like huh, do I need my sports bra or do I need my like loose bra? And like it, instantly I just go to one. I'm like this is the one I need today and wouldn't you know like I just I'm like always making the right call. I'm like this is a very small but relevant example of trusting what's in me. And I think it's relevant because it helps me, or whoever build up this muscle, this like trust muscle, to believe what we're telling ourselves.
Speaker 3:It's like that whole thing of like, oh, I knew I shouldn't have taken that road or I knew I shouldn't have did it up. Our intuition is constantly talking to us, it we know a lot of the time what we need to do or should do. I don't like that word necessarily, but it's. Is it slowing down enough to listen? Is it quieting down enough to listen? What do you think?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'll talk about this on two different levels, because I think our bodies are so smart you're talking about the body at the beginning and when we are truly connected with our body, we get somatic sensations that really give us a lot of information, right? So it might take a lot of body healing to get to a more intuitive place. That might mean trauma healing, because trauma separates mind and body, it dissociates us from our body. It might mean figuring out how to lower your stress levels. You know, take care of your basic needs, like sleep, better stuff, like that. But the body really like, if you ask the body a question and feel into it, you'll receive sensations. So it's like can you, can you feel and receive the sensations, or are you too removed from that? So that's one example. And to me, like the bodily sensations I don't want to say they're not intuition, but I see them as like instinct. They're part of our animal selves and animals are very like instinctive or intuitive. They don't have human minds. You know that separate them and they're not wondering like what is the right diet for me, like they just know right, their bodies are the same. It's just there's some work to do to get there.
Speaker 1:I think, for most of us, and for good reason. You mentioned a lot of them earlier and that's why in my book, we go through the chakras and we start with the root, and the root is all about, like the body. It's all about your safety, your health, your connection to the earth. It's all that kind of quote, unquote, basic stuff that a lot of us have lost touch with. Now I'll go into, like how I see the intuition, and the intuition is kind of it's your soul, in my opinion, and I see it as existing, like in the third eye area, because I look at everything in these like different zones of the energy body, and that we're talking less about your senses and more about your clear senses. So clear senses are more subtle than our regular five senses that we know of right, we might not be in touch with them or trusting of them, like you said, because of all the other stuff going through our minds all the time. That's why yoga is so great. It helps us, like, kind of like if you shake up a snow globe, letting the snow fall to the bottom right, like it can take time for that to happen. What you're left with is more of this conversation with your soul, right.
Speaker 1:So if you are in the position to hear it, you can experience it in different ways. They're called the clear senses. So you might see it same way, like if you close your eyes and visualize an apple. You can think of seeing the apple. You might hear something. Same way that, like if you close your eyes and imagine the sound of a crunch of an apple, just like that you might feel it. So that's like an actual, like feeling in the body. So you think, feel, think about like swallowing and tasting an apple, for instance. That's that's a good way to maybe think about that and you might just know that's called clear cognizance and that's almost like you received a download or something like that.
Speaker 1:So everyone's different, everyone has different strengths in different areas, for sure. But I think all of us kind of experience all of them just at different ratios and levels. So I think kind of figuring out how you perceive your intuition is really important and then play with with trusting it. I know for me I've had, like like my daughter for an, for instance. I feel like I believe in like spirit babies, for her to come as a spirit baby and keep like tapping my shoulder and whispering in my ear. Was I like hearing it in the background? Yeah, but I was kind of pushing it away, but when I started really listening it helped me, you know, know that it was the time to bring her in and and that it was what I wanted, etc.
Speaker 1:But yeah, it's so it's. It's hard to be in touch with that when we have so much else going on, whether it's anxieties, whether it's stress. Maybe it's like programming of what you've been through, what you've been told your life should look like. There are so many things, but there are consequences to not listening to your intuition. So I think it's really important to be in touch with this side of oneself, and I think it's something that everyone is absolutely capable of, and some people are a little bit more sensitive than others. I think it's just the way they were made, but I do think everyone has this ability. Yeah.
Speaker 3:So I mean there's so many places I want to go, but thank you for breaking those four. It was four down right. I think I'm clear, I know I know I'm clear, sentient and clear, cognizant. Those are my two dominating ones that I resonate with and I love that you spoke to. It can be hard if you're dealing with stress, healing, trauma, you know, just Living, I guess, kind of on autopilot. Maybe we could call it right without having this like conscious, you know, root into the ground, like it, without really just being conscious and aware, self-aware, I guess. So, for someone who's like, well, everybody has intuition, okay, but I don't hear mine or feel mine or visualize mine, where would you start? You mentioned reiki. You mentioned, like somatic healing, a little bit yoga. So I mean, are those your go-tos? And like therapy, like what else?
Speaker 1:I think it just depends like what works for each person, which is, I know, not a super clear answer, but I think some sort of Some sort of practice to connect with the body is really important, whether that's yoga or dancing or Sports or you know whatever it might be, so that you can like feel your body in space. Massage is also so really wonderful. I would also say, some sort of meditation practice is really important. I think a lot of people might need like a reframe on what meditation can be. I think we think of it as, like you know, sitting cross-legged and on a mountain.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, and the Himalayas, yeah being perfectly still, perfectly quiet and as busy moms, it's like okay, and when is that supposed to happen?
Speaker 3:Never, never. My kids are my spiritual spiritual practice. I'm just gonna throw it out there, like my mothering is my spiritual practice Not that I don't meditate or do visualizations in journal and do the baths and the yoga, like I do all the things too but if we can like flip our mindset to Having it be a practice, a spiritual practice where we show up fully present, no matter what the waves you know bring, because it's always gonna bring something, depending on the day as your kids grow, and it's ever changing and you're watching these beings grow and change before your eyes. So if you look at it as a, as a calling in a spiritual practice, that's the way I like to frame it. It doesn't mean it's easy, you know. It doesn't mean it's like simple, but it's a reframe that is really helps me a ton.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love that and I think so just kind of diving into like what meditation even means. There are different phases of it. In yoga, we go from, like sense withdrawal, which is not always Something that's practical, you know, in our day-to-day lives, although it's nice to have the times where you can, like sit and close your eyes and, you know, let things go, we concentrate on something and then it's like we become one with that thing, right? So really it's about being very present. So if you're parenting, it's about being extremely present with your kids, like you were saying, you you Prefer to do and I totally respect having that separation, because it's not an always an easy thing to do. It's about being present with what you're eating. It's about being present with your interaction with your partner at work.
Speaker 1:I Think time and nature and like being fully present with that is very important and that's certainly something that we can, on a daily basis, incorporate into our lives with our children. So it's gonna look different ways. I like, I like all those things. I personally like a real active breath practice too, and we have a routine where She'll play while I like do my exercise or whatever, and then afterwards she'll say mommy, is it time for breathing and I'll say yes, and she knows that she gets to nurse while while I'm Doing like my 10 minutes of breath work and for me it's definitely really sweet I'll add to that, like, doing these things and parenting is really, it's so much harder, it's so much harder. I used to have like hours in my day to devote to like what did I do before?
Speaker 3:Yeah, right it's, it's crazy right.
Speaker 1:But like I've always had the intuition or the feeling that it's really important that she sees me do these things. Yeah, yep, I Love that and I feel like, yeah, it's gonna be harder. Today we got to go to the YMCA and I got to work out while she played with her kids, and that was great. Yeah, but you know, to see me work for 20 minutes on my computer to have Conversations with adults like yeah, I feel I feel for some reason, for her especially, it's an important thing.
Speaker 3:So yeah, I think we model you know, If we can model following our passions, I, I mean, I think that's a big one for our girls and our sons too. I have a, I have a boy, I have two girls. The girls hold a very special place in my heart because I always thought that I was a boy mom and I just was like, oh you, but I got what I needed and that is healing the feminine Within me, for sure. And then my feminine relationships too, with you know just my lineage. The feminine relationships have been, I guess, maybe toxic in a in a way, you know, they've been not the healthiest expression of the feminine. So I needed two daughters to Show me the way, because you know they there are best teachers, I think. So they really showed me how to heal that within me and then how to Model that for them, like by following my passion. So, yeah, I think that's a great thing To model that for them, like by following my passion, so yeah.
Speaker 3:So I want to talk about your book embodying your inner goddess a guided journey to radical wholeness. Will you tell us a little bit about it? It's about to come out soon. It's on pre-order, as you're listening to this, and you can get it on December 1st. So if you're listening past that, it's ready to go. But you said it's a spiritual self-help book and a feminist Manifesto designed to activate you, to shed your conditioning, embrace your inner divinity and show up vulnerably and unapologetically in the world. So, like Mike, dropped to that. But can you expand a little bit about you know the inspiration and writing it and who it's for and what it's all about?
Speaker 1:Yeah for sure. Um, the inspiration is Like I was talking about with the intuition. This came as like a download in a way. I was just pushing my daughter and in her stroller and we're outside and like suddenly this Structure for the book came through, like I've wanted to write a book for a long time. I definitely did not think I would do that while I had a one-year-old and my husband was like recovering from knee surgery and I was still trying to bring my yoga studio back from the pandemic. Like you know, not the best, not the best timing, right. It was like I love this idea, I've got it. I've got to just figure out a way to do it. So, yes, it's meant to do all the things you were talking about and, honestly, in a really practical way, like we were talking about, I have, you know, shorter amount of time to dedicate to, to my spiritual practice and to myself these days, so it's important that it's really potent. So it's structured as a seven week journey.
Speaker 1:Could you sit and read it all? Yeah, that's not how I designed it, though. I designed it in little snippets, so every day there's a reading and there are stories from my life or Kind of downloads that have come through and they're tied a lot into yoga philosophy. After each reading there are journaling, questions or reflections, and then after that there are Embodiment practices, so some way to bring this information into action, into the body. So that's kind of how it's structured. And we also go through the chakra system. So chakras are these energy centers in the body that hold information about All the different aspects of ourselves, from most animal to most spiritual and absolutely everything in between.
Speaker 1:Like the first week. We really focus on the root, like I was talking about, with the body and nature. We even talk about, like trauma and, yeah, reconnection in her child, finances, all those things in the roots. You go up to the sacral, which is the next week, and what we hold in that area is like Sensuality and pleasure and joy and sisterhood and and flow. We go up and up and up till we get to the crown, which is connection with source. So we kind of dive right into the hard stuff, I think, and then get to play a lot along the way. So we do this for a couple reasons. One is to realize our wholeness.
Speaker 1:I think looking at this system Is a way to connect with all these different intricacies of who we are. What did we say earlier? We have these like big, messy, complicated lives and that's who we are like in a nutshell very messy, complicated people. And I would say like it's not a book about improving oneself, it's all about loving oneself. Most women and femmes that I know struggle a lot more with that. Then they need self-improvement if that makes sense. It's more about like how do I see how amazing I am, like the same way that you see your kids or you see somebody you really love. So that's one aspect of it and and another aspect I talk about a lot is this like Deconditioning, so the self-love really comes with.
Speaker 1:Like rewriting our own internal programs and we learn who we are through culture, through society, through religion, through our parents, through our ancestors, through media, like there are so many Different voices out there telling us who we are, who we should be, how we do it, how we should do it, how we should look, how we should act, how we should parent, how we should be women.
Speaker 1:It's very exhausting, right? So a lot of like looking at your chakras and looking at your own life through. This book is about like peeling that back and figuring out like who, who am I really? What do I care about? What do I love? What are things about me that maybe I haven't liked, but like are my strengths actually? And Every day is different, so it's hard to like put it in a nutshell like that, but I do call it a feminist manifesto for that reason. I wrote this before the Barbie movie came out, but like it's kind of like the monologue in the bar Barbie movie of like how difficult it can be to be a woman and and like then it's like okay, but now what? How do we celebrate that? And while this won't fix like all of the Systems and structures that are in place that make it so freaking hard for us, sometimes, it does give us Help and tools on an individual level, which I do think will, you know, make a difference in the collective over time as well. Or so, that's it.
Speaker 1:And then Just a little bit on. Like the feminine. I know you talked about it earlier, but we all have these polarities of masculine and feminine within us. It's not about like just being in our feminine or men Just being in the masculine. It's not like that. They're just opposing qualities, and the feminine qualities are ones that traditionally aren't as celebrated in our culture.
Speaker 1:So, being more emotional, being more in a flow state, paying, paying attention to like, how do we align ourselves with nature? Like, like you can align your energy with the moon, which might align with your menstrual cycle, for instance. It's like, how do I, how do I use my anger in a way that's really Full of service and sacred? How do I get more in touch with my intuition? And like? Is intellect important? Yes, but like, intuition is just as, if not more, important. So, anyway, we have these qualities inside of us. So I do focus more on the feminine qualities so that we can be more fully expressed, so that we can be more whole. I absolutely think men should be more in touch with these qualities as well, which might heal some of their masculine. Now I feel like I'm just ranting about my book.
Speaker 3:Which is amazing. It sounds epic. And here's what came up for me. It sounds like and I have a copy in my email box, thank you so much and I glanced at it and it's beautiful and I love the structure of it and it seems like for me I'm like a keep a book on your desktop, kind of a girl, like on your nightstand, kind of a girl and then I open it up and like what do I need to hear today? Like you know, like I'm like Eckhart Tolle, tell me what I need to hear. Like you know, and this seems like a really good book to like, if you're having issues, like speaking your truth, like you know, go to the throat shop, chakra section and so like a really good reference manual for maybe where you're having struggles or maybe where everything's going really well. Like that's a novel thing, like what am I kicking ass at right now? How can I just, like you know, I can't think of another expression other than toot my own horn but like how can I, you know, have my own back, whatever, and like really celebrate what's going well right now? So this seems like the perfect book to do that. So I'm really excited for people to buy it and read it and reference it and share it with their friends. It's going to be so great.
Speaker 3:I really believe, obviously, in the ripple effect and, like you said, each of us changing individually will influence the collective, like when we see, you know, war and famine and all these like big, scary concepts outside of ourselves.
Speaker 3:We need to address. That is like that is also within, you know, our war with ourselves and our self worth or, you know, whatever it may be. So, once we're able to address that within and I believe that does go, you know, with some sort of spiritual practice, regardless of what that is for you. It could be motherhood, it could be yoga, it could be all of the above, everything we talked about, and I do believe that's, you know, ultimately what will change the world. So, yeah, thank you for doing this work. As we start to wrap up, I'm going to ask you the few questions that I ask everybody at the end, and the first one, which I've added in recently, is if you could teach a class at an elementary school, what would you teach to the kids right now? What do you think school age kids need to be learning right now?
Speaker 1:Ooh, there's so many things I think they need to be learning. Yeah, oh gosh, I love all of the yoga in schools right now, certainly like some sort of blend of movement and emotional intelligence, for sure, something like that. But I have to throw in like, maybe, maybe, outdoor yoga, where we're connecting to nature.
Speaker 3:Love it. That's amazing. What's bringing you joy today?
Speaker 1:You know, my daughter had like a step toward independence today and that's bringing me a lot of joy. A lot of the reason I've structured our lives how they are is because she has been like way more attached than I was like prepared for or expecting. That's why I've had to learn really like how to do everything with her and today we went to the YMCA and she's actually like played with toys and totally fine while I worked out. So it was a huge deal to have that step toward independence for today. So so much joy in that and in conversations like this and getting to do what I love to do and share this message.
Speaker 3:Yeah, what, if anything, are you reading right now?
Speaker 1:It's funny as my books coming out, I'm actually reading my own book every day, which I feel that's great. I love it, which is funny, but I think I've read probably like 20 novels about witches this year. That's what I've been really into Awesome.
Speaker 3:I love it. Is there a good one Like? Is there one that you would recommend above the?
Speaker 1:others, I don't know about one above the others. I've like just plowed through them because it's been like my nighttime thing. There's one I really like called the Witches of New York. That was one of the first ones I read. Yeah, I can't think of the author right now, but it was. It was good. Some of them I don't even like know the names of them, just because I've pulled them up on my Kindle, right.
Speaker 3:Have you read Pope Joan? I've not. Oh OK, it's a good one, it's really interesting. She wasn't like I'm probably not going to do like due diligence of summarizing it, but it's a good one. She's a very powerful woman and she's like considered kind of like a. I guess she would be considered a witch in that time and she was growing up in the religious era. Anyway, she pretended to be a man and ended up being Pope and really interesting. Yeah, anyway, it was a good one.
Speaker 1:I have to read it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, I think I think you would like it. There's like a little bit of violence in it. You know, because it's in this like super I can't remember what year it is. I'm not like a fact girl, I'm a, I'm a visionary and like a feeler, I'm like it was some year like a long time ago, so yeah, it was good. And then the last question is who or what have you learned the most from?
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh, I feel like there's so many things you know. One of that feeling like like oh my God, if I pick something, I'm leaving something else.
Speaker 3:Just one thing right now, you reserve the right to change your mind.
Speaker 1:Yeah, god, I would say. I'd say yoga honestly yeah, Awesome. And it's full form. You know, not just the poses, but the full practice spectrum, or the practice. It's about how to live your life. I learned so much from that. Right.
Speaker 3:Thank you so much for your book and the work you're doing in the world, and your wisdom, your intuition. Thank you for sharing it with all of us. I really appreciate it. And before we go, where can we find your book?
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, first of all, thank you, and I love the work you're doing in the world and just just props to you for that. And you can find my book, I think, wherever books are sold and you know. You can go to the big guys or you can go through your smaller shops and if they don't have it in stock, you can just order it online. I know people do it that way. Also, there's the ebook version and you can find like everything at my website, which is laurenledukecom, and on my Instagram, which is I am Lauren Laduke. Perfect.
Speaker 3:All right, I'll put that in the show notes so everybody can click it and follow you and subscribe and get your book. I'm really excited. Thank you again for being here.
Speaker 1:Yeah, thank you so much, it was so much fun. Yeah, yeah.