Raising Wild Hearts
An inspirational show focused on growth from challenge and ideas to take the path less traveled. Ryann Watkin interviews experts and shares resources on education, creativity, nature, spirituality, mental health, relationships, self care, and more. Ryann is a passionate speaker, mom, wife, and educator who asks questions that provoke self-awareness, meaning, and purpose. Psychology, spirituality, family— and where they all intersect— is the heartbeat of Raising Wild Hearts.
Raising Wild Hearts
The Journey From Self-Doubt to Self-Love with Emma Rowena Hansen
Today we're talking about motherhood's transformative power with guest Emma Rowena Hansen. Emma is the author of You.Me. And All That We Are: Unveiling Your Life's Beauty and Magic, a musician, and an intuitive healer. We'll learn from Emma's story how to tap into our embodiment, emotions and how to let go of what no longer serves our highest good.
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tuning in and listening to what makes you feel good so that you can get to know yourself. And when you start doing that, you start honoring yourself and you start loving yourself and you start grounding yourself in you.
Speaker 2:Welcome, revolutionary Mama, to the Raising Wild Hearts podcast. I'm Ryan Watkin, educator, mom of three, rebel at heart and passionate soul on a mission to empower and inspire you.
Speaker 2: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. 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 healing, and so it is. Hello friends, welcome back to the Raising Wild Hearts podcast. So happy you're here and I'm so happy to be sharing another amazing interview with you. Today I am joined by Emma Rowena Hansen. Emma is a musician. She's a performer, an intuitive reader, healer, meditation guide and emerging social entrepreneur. She's helping people find peace, purpose and healing in their lives. She was born in the UK, grew up in Norway and has also lived in Cuba and the United States. She is bilingual and bicultural and she says her heritage made her never feel quite at home in one place. She always felt more a part of the greater world and the years abroad helped her to connect to her energy and colors Every once in a while I have a conversation on this podcast that just feels so deep, like the depth of it is just very profound, and this was one of those conversations.
Speaker 2:Emma and I felt super connected. It was just a super love-filled conversation. I know you guys will hear that that we talk about a ton, including motherhood. Emma has a 17 year old son. We talk about fear, we talk about self-loathing, we talk about anger, honesty. We talk about Emma's upcoming book called you, me and All that we Are. She described the book as a heartfelt letter to her son. She described the book as a heartfelt letter to her son. And we talk about parenting philosophy. We talk about what Emma sees in the future for our children and what our children need the most right now. And it was just a beautiful conversation. So let's dive into today's conversation with Emma Rowena Hansen. Hi, emma, welcome to the Raising Wild Hearts podcast.
Speaker 1:Hi and thank you for having me. I'm so excited to talk to you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm so excited you're here. I love well, I love books and I know you've written a book and I love talking about motherhood, I love spirituality, and so I know that you're very intertwined in all of these methods, and the place that I want to start is kind of the darkness and the challenge, and you say that over a decade ago you were ridden with fear, among other things.
Speaker 1:But I'm curious what were you scared of? I was scared of everything, basically, but I think I was actually really scared of life, of being me, of not being good enough. So everything I did, everything I lived, was from a place of fear and of trying to be something or do something that I wasn't sure really what was, because I wasn't it, I thought. So that was basically my fear, and it came from insecurity as a childhood. As a child in my childhood, it came from a confusion as to what I was supposed to be and do, and it developed into stage fright. As I played the piano because I'm a pianist, amongst other things, and socially as well, as I say in the book, I was afraid of everything. I didn't function socially. I thought this is all my thoughts, of course, because I think people around me and who knew me wouldn't recognize this as much but my stage fright was pronounced in me and it caused problems as I performed sometimes and then relating to other people, relationships, intimacy, you name it really yeah yeah, I resonate with that deeply.
Speaker 2:I've done multiple layers of self-discovery work and self-development. At this point, spiritual development and fear is the one thing for me that's sticky it, it, you know, and it's um for me, really deeply rooted, like infancy, and so I find myself navigating through and allowing myself to be scared and feel that sensation and know that nothing is going to happen can be grounding for me in the moment when I start to feel myself get to that very it's like a flighty place for me, like I feel like I'm just like shooting right out of my body, like into the universe, you know. So for me that grounding really helps. So I'm curious for you, like what was that step like to feel that fear and to overcome it? Cause it's not something you just brush under the rug it's not something you just brush under the rug.
Speaker 1:No, and I still find it from time to time. I'm still I still, it still disturbs me from time to time, but what happened to me was, yes, it was a spiritual journey. It was a journey of, of exploring all that I am, so the greater part of me, as well as my humanness, but going into discovering my intuition, my clairvoyancy, my ability to, to connect to the divine, to the higher picture, to help other people, to read other people in readings I do energy readings um, it helped me to come closer and closer to my heart, to my center, and the grounding is part of it, of course, because when we're here, no matter how spiritual or how high we are, we're here on the earth and if we don't ground ourselves, we tend to want to fly away and we can sometimes lose sight of ourselves and lose our perspectives, and that's quite terrifying. And I think a lot of anxiety comes from that in people. And I will talk more about my son later as well, but he had a period of intense anxiety due to his father having a severe illness and he could not find himself and his head was, you know, because he couldn't ground himself. We tried everything until he suddenly decided himself okay, this is it. So he had a very, very instant solution, but for me it took quite a long time because it was a long journey of exploration and of discovery.
Speaker 1:And it was interesting because last night I was sleeping in this house that I'm helping a friend to renovate and everything's unusual and new and a bit smelly and not ready, and I could feel my fear and working to use all the techniques that I've learned and to remember the love that we are, the heart, the essence, the core that we are when breathe. Breathing is a big thing. So all these things I've learned through my process that brought me back into a place of calm. And then, of course, music I'm a musician as well, and music helps brought me back into a place of calm. And then, of course, music. I'm a musician as well, and music helps when you manage to go in and listen to the music and be present in it and not, as I did as a performer before.
Speaker 1:I used to go on stage with fear, thinking that I had to prove something, so I wasn't present in the music and so it was all about everybody's eye on me and trying to show them that I actually did have value. You know, that's where the fear comes from, I think, for a lot of people, a lot of teenagers as well my son is 17. It comes from what is my value, I think. And when I started to make my own music and focus and simply listen to the tones and let them guide me and really listen to other people's music and just absorb it, that's when the music came forward and the fear could let go. So it's also.
Speaker 1:There are many, many things that I can share about this. But shifting the perspective and finding, like you know, if somebody told you, look at that cup or whatever, and then you shift your focus and look intently on that one, you know how to do that and that's actually a technique you can use for this as well. Okay, I'm frightened of that, but if I shift my focus to what's good like I did last night what's beautiful, what's loving my son, for instance, your children then you can also manage to let go of the fear that is unnecessary and irrational.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's fascinating and really helpful, and one of the things you said that really stuck out was when you what I'm hearing you say is that when you were scared on stage in particular, you were thinking about all of the people watching you and what their perception of you might be. You were seeking validation from them. Show me how good I am, show me how beautiful I am, show me how talented I am. And when you shifted that focus into your own mind and heart, nobody needed to show you.
Speaker 1:It was already right here right, exactly, and that's when you also and that comes more easily with the practice of actually coming closer to yourself, to your heart, and starting to listen to yourself. And I work a lot I'm doing some workshops now on listening and tuning in and listening to what makes you feel good so that you can get to know yourself, what makes you feel good so that you can get to know yourself. And when you start doing that, you start honoring yourself and you start loving yourself and you start grounding yourself in you and not in everybody else's perception. And there's one more thing and I mentioned this also in the book is that everybody else is struggling with their stuff. Now, I thought I was the only one who didn't have the coats, but everybody has some perception of their own incapacity to fit in or whatever you know. So we're all a little bit in the mud, if you like, until we manage to come home and trust ourselves.
Speaker 1:And as a parent, that has been extremely valuable as well. I know you talk a lot about parenting, and this is important for your audience as well. My son also helped me. Having my son and watching him grow, he has taught me to be a parent, of course, which is actually what our children do. They teach us as much as we teach them. If we just allow that and trust it, and it's a beautiful exchange. We don't have to think that we are taking something from them by allowing them to show us the way a little bit. I think we give them authority, give them strength if we do that and not just tell them what they should do from our perspective. But that's sorry a little side. I have so much to say about these things.
Speaker 1:Yeah, bring it on, it's great um, but uh, watching myself, having him come into my life and and watching him and the love and the connection and watching what he was struggling with, and then starting to work on myself at the same time. I started my spiritual journey about the same time that I had him, a little bit after, and discovering that the more I grounded myself, the more relaxed he was. But also, if I listened to him, I could communicate better and I could help him better and I could also help myself better. So it's an exchange of listening and of being present, and that helped my fear as well to understand that. Just being present with him, yeah, listening to him and being daring to not try to be a good parent, but just be with him, yeah. And it's the same as with the music the moment I'm with the music, the fear dissolves. You know, the moment I'm with my heart, I can breathe and relax. But you can use techniques for this as well, of course. Yeah, you can't do it in a Right.
Speaker 2:I think it's counter-cultural right now because we are being pulled in so many different ways our attention, you know, with social media and with consumerism and marketing and all the things that we're being told inadvertently to look at and pay attention to and spend money and time on, and so I think the natural instinct is not presence it is like that spinning mind, that spinning wheel presence.
Speaker 2:It is like that spinning mind, that spinning wheel.
Speaker 2:And for mothers in particular, because most of us here right now in this conversation are mothers I think there's so much pressure to do it all, be it, all say the right things, buy the right things.
Speaker 2:There's so much, there's an overabundance of external stimuli and when we can consciously kind of maybe not eliminate it but at least tune it out for a little bit or just give some space in between us, and that that's when we're able, I noticed, to really come inside. And you know, maybe you can speak on this a little bit You've been doing it a little longer than me, about a decade longer than me. My oldest is nine and a half-ish and you know it's been a practice, I mean, and I still fail some days, I still mess up some days, and so many days. It's just coming back and back and back and back to that presence and that center of me to show up for them. So talk to us a little bit about, like the bumps along the way and how you've managed to train yourself and train your mind and heart to come back to your own center.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and for sure there have been bumps, many bumps. I've also been through a divorce that was quite traumatic for both us the parents and my son and I have not been able to handle my emotions perfectly all the time vis-a-vis my son either, but of course and he's, he's, it's. It's a stumbling journey, but I think again, the self-love that's one of the things that I've learned is to trust that he will be okay even though I make mistakes, and he is stronger than my mistakes. His path is stronger than my mistakes, his path is stronger than my mistakes. That actually just came to me now, because I was going to talk about self-love and trust and forgive yourself and try not to be perfect, but actually that just came. Wow, the children have a power in them. They want it's like a plant or a tree. They want to grow, they want to move, and the mistakes come and they have bumps along the way and sometimes the mistakes are very big. So maybe they need some help at some point.
Speaker 1:And, as I said, my son developed an anxiety, which started with the divorce, and then, about five years later, his father suffered a severe stroke and I found him and my son heard the whole drama. He was in his bed sleeping in that we were visiting his father and helping him and he had every other day this anxiety. He couldn't breathe, he couldn't think, he was attacking himself and trying to what do you do, how could I be a perfect parent, for that? I couldn't breathe. He couldn't think he was attacking himself and trying to what do you do, how could I be a perfect parent for that? I couldn't. And in the end I told him we tried everything, as I mentioned, we tried a psychology psychologist. We tried breathing, we tried techniques that I wanted to try to show him. And in the end I told him you know what? I can't take it away from you. I cannot remove it for you. You say your head is taking over. You have to find a way to let your head let go.
Speaker 1:And that moment he stopped. He decided now this I know this is not for everyone, this is for him and he has. He has this ability in him to make that decision. And he told me afterwards it was through and through. It's like when a smoker tries to stop smoking. It won't happen until it's decided completely through and through. It was for him, the anxiety. He wasn't going to let it run him anymore. I had to step back because I had no more to offer. But I told him that. I told him I was there and I think that's very, maybe the biggest lesson that I have learned through the years now and through these traumas that we've been through together, because I he and I are very, very close and especially after his father illness, I had him 100 percent um with me and had to sort of try and both help his father and him and myself. Very, very educating experience. Not something I would want for anybody, but it has taught us a few things and it has.
Speaker 1:And one of the things that I found was that when I fail, when I'm not able to handle my stress, for instance, and it comes out in anger, the one thing I've managed to learn to do is to say you know, I know I am stressed, I know that I'm not handling this well, I apologize and always apologized. I've always apologized to him. That's been very important to me. When I've stepped over, that doesn't mean I can keep doing it and then apologize, but it means you know, I know I've stepped over now. This was not your fault, this was my doing, my emotions. So the other thing would be to be honest about my emotions, that they're mine, that I own my own mistakes, um.
Speaker 1:And rather than try and pretend that I'm perfect and pretend that you know, um, this is okay, I've told him I I'm not dealing with it very well now.
Speaker 1:Um, I know this shouldn't be taken out on you and I will try my best to find another way to handle stress, for instance.
Speaker 1:And so I've decided to learn on that, to learn to work on that part, on the stress, because I tend to get a little bit angry when I'm stressed and I don't want to do that to anybody, not even my, you know it doesn't do me any good either. That to anybody, not even my, you know it doesn't do me any good either. So it's been like a reflection, like a mirror. I notice when I step over something, step over the line with him, and and that gives me a very, very clear message of what I can work on, not what I have to work on, because then you start getting strict and and judging yourself. You want to forgive yourself as well, but it gives you an opportunity to grow and that, my friends, I will say is a beautiful opportunity, because it is so valuable and every step you take towards trying to heal or learn or come closer to yourself it works. It brings you good stuff.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:It helps you with your children.
Speaker 2:Right, what I'm hearing you say is that there's growth in that challenge and you know, that's like the good news and the bad news is that it's an opportunity for us to take a look at something that we we may have brushed under the rug years and years ago, you know.
Speaker 2:And so all those little moments and I love how you brought up honesty, being honest with yourself, being honest with your son of like, hey, I'm a human, I'm struggling here and from a fellow person who gets angry when she's stressed, I understand that and sometimes I feel like one of those like wind up toys and so, like you, just like wind it to a certain level and it is like, ah, like that, you know it's, it can feel like that, um, the overwhelm of it. And for me, I noticed that, um, there's like a deep grief or sadness underneath and it feels safer a lot of times to feel the anger and I don't know why. I don't know why it feels safer to go there. But, yeah, so I'm trying to show my kids that too. Like, wow, mom is really overwhelmed, I'm really frustrated. I have to step away for a second because I just want to shout. You know, exactly, exactly.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and allowing yourself to step away and maybe shout out into the forest or in a pillow or whatever, and do it. My son witnessed me throwing my vacuum cleaner in the floor once. He was a little bit taken aback, to say the least. It was quite. I was very nervous, but the whole situation was frustrating to me. It wasn't just the vacuum cleaner, it was a whole situation. I was in, obviously, and I talked to him afterwards about it and I apologized, but then we made it into a little bit of a joke as well. You know, oh my God, the time I threw the vacuum cleaner.
Speaker 1:Oh my goodness, anger is a very survival instinct, I think. So understanding that this is natural to us when we feel threatened or when we feel and when you're stressed, that's a fear. What are you afraid of? You're afraid of getting late. You're afraid somebody's going to scold you. You're afraid you late. You're afraid somebody's going to scold you. You're afraid, you know, of not managing things and everybody tells you you have to be perfect and you're not afraid of not being perfect because then you won't be valuable. All these things become stress. So, again, if you can manage to somehow look at the other side and say, okay, if I'm late, the world doesn't end, or who's perfect as a mother? And actually I saw a program I'm in France at the moment doing some work here and I saw a program about a parent discussing parenthood, being a perfect parent, and I think she was from the UK, a woman who lived in France, and she was talking to French peers, her mothers, and they said well, in France we understand that we can't be perfect. Now, I don't know if this works for everybody, but there's a little bit of you can be your best. That's it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I never read a book about parenting. I don't know why. It just didn't. I appeal to me, I didn't want to, somehow, uh, a lot of people did. The one thing I did read about was was sleep, because he didn't sleep the first year, uh, but that didn't work very well. What that book wasn't very good, um, and I decided somehow to wing it, and that sounds maybe a little flippant, but it's also about trusting yourself and trusting your common sense, but maybe most of all, trusting the relationship. I know I only have one son. I have two stepdaughters. They were quite old when I stepped into their lives, or nine and 17. So I've had to sort of relate to them and learn to get to know them as almost adults as well. But I've only had one son. I know that every child is different and you sort of have to maybe give space for everyone and that's harder.
Speaker 2:I know my brother has two boys and they're very different and it's challenging to find out. How can you give space to both in each their own way, without you know? It's a challenge. We don't know it won't be perfect, but again, they're stronger than our mistakes. Yeah, I love that it feels impossible some days to give them each the space. I've got three kids.
Speaker 2:They're two, seven and nine and they all are vastly different and it's really interesting to witness their unfolding and to just like watch them growing into just these amazing beings and I would love to take credit for it. I mean, I think you know some of it's me, but, like you said, their path is so strong. They've come here with such a sense of purpose and very often I say to them, my older two right now, like thank you for choosing me, thank you for, you know, choosing me like out of all the imperfect humans in this world.
Speaker 2:like you chose me and here we are doing this thing, and it's so messy, like it's so brutal in so many ways and it's so just blissful and amazing. And that paradox of parenting is one of the things that, just you know, comforts me the most, you know, like we can't feel that joy without feeling that agony, too, of witnessing someone's life. You know, life isn't easy. It's not meant to be easy.
Speaker 1:So yeah, no, and it's to me also I've worked a lot with that lately is this discovery of life being an exploration?
Speaker 1:So, if you imagine yourself and this is the spiritual part if you imagine yourself a soul whose who's chosen to come here but you're more than just the body, of course, because your vibration, your energy, all that but you've come here to experience, to explore, that means also experiencing the dense energies, the density, the, the obstacles, and then experiencing the breaking through the obstacles, and all with a place.
Speaker 1:And if we can manage to come to that place of love in our hearts, which I believe is what we are in essence yeah, it's a very big part of my book that, by the way um, that remembering who we are, that we are love and all everything else is energy. And if we can manage sometimes to come to that perspective, step a little bit back and sort of okay, I'm exploring this, oh, it's awful, it's painful, it's frightening. If I imagine it's an exploration, that I'm on a journey and a mission here, then you manage. Maybe you can step away from it a little bit and see what's going on and see the mechanisms and not make yourself so responsible for all your, all the mess.
Speaker 2:Yeah, agreed, the universe is just so vast and if you think about it, we're just like this little pinprick in, like this, just, you know, wildly massive and ever expanding cosmos, and that always gives me comfort of like, oh, my challenges are just like. You know they're, they're real and they're dense, like you mentioned. And two, they're I don't want to say meaningless because they're not, they have meaning, you know. I don't want to say meaningless because they're not, they have meaning. You know, the human experience does have meaning, but it's not as heavy as they can feel. You know, most often they're not. It doesn't have to be. Yeah, so I want to.
Speaker 2:I want to talk about your book, you, me and all that we are. First, I want to talk about self-loathing a little bit. I think for me right now, this was something that sparked my interest too, because I have a tendency to go there. I have a tendency to go. You loser. You could do so much better and you're not, and these are all your faults. So much better and you're not, and these are all your faults. And it's weird because this like self-discovery path, you're like owning all your garbage and like owning all your stuff. That's imperfect and sometimes it's like God. You know I'm just awful, so I have a tendency to see that, instead of you know the the wonderful qualities that I possess too Right. And so let's talk about how self-loathing led you to discover yourself, to eventually write this book, and how you got through that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's a little bit the same track as the fear track. It sort of developed at the same, through the same process, I think my self-loathing. I was so angry with myself and I was so full of disgust with myself and I attacked myself, sometimes the people who were close to me. They were frightened to see the power of my attack on myself. Um, where does that come from? It comes from, I think, um a detachment from who you are. So again, uh, who are we? Uh, and you say we're little pinpoints sorry, pinpoints in the universe, but we are actually as vast. We are huge souls, expansive souls, and we are the essence of love, I believe, which is to some people call it God, some people source the universe, but love is, I believe, the essence of all that we are. Now, when we start to attack ourselves, we've lost sight of that completely and some people live in that all the time and they end up lashing out at other people, sometimes violently, sometimes they create wars. You know, it's a powerful anti-force of love, if you like, if you look at the big perspective, but individually as well, and I think that also affects our bodies, our illnesses. All this, um, the same journey of exploring, of opening up to my ability to see the energies, work with the energy, see myself, listen to myself, uh, help other people through energy work. Um, seeing, I mean working with the beautiful energies out there, the guides, the angels, all this that has the light with them still, because they're free of this physical density that we have chosen to manifest through.
Speaker 1:I think I think I have a parable. It's, or the anecdote is like the silk scarf, I call it. If you imagine, you have this beautiful big silk scarf and you're afraid you're going to lose it. So, with the wind grabbing it, so you sort of tie a loose knot to be able to hold it carefully, gently in your hand and you can still see the scarf moving. That's your body to me, and this moving scarf is your soul.
Speaker 1:But then we get afraid of the wind and we start tightening. We get afraid of not being able to hold ourselves here properly or care for ourselves. We tighten the knot, we put all these tensions in our bodies in order to somehow have control, and I think that's the detachment starts when we start to, and it starts early, depending on your childhood, of course, if you have parents who allow you as a child, to express yourself to love, to flow, to be hugged, to giggle, to cry out. If you like to cry out, if you like crawl around, play, then I think it takes longer before that knot tightens. But if you have trauma very early, it'll tighten from fear and you lose yourself, you lose your heart, you lose your sense of being beautiful. In essence, when you start loosening I call it loosening the knot when you start listening to what matters to you, mm, hmm.
Speaker 1:But sometimes we escape through. Whether it's substances or whether it's hours on a Netflix series or whatever it is, that's fine. But I'm talking about the really, really good things. What excites you, what makes you feel afloat or joyful, or content, or like you can breathe easily. A lot of us lose sight of that early on because we're told how to behave. And I think when you start to look for those things what cup of tea do you like, or coffee, or what food brings you a certain sensation? What music, what film do you like? Not else you that sort of thing when you start listening to that, you start coming closer to yourself, to that self-love, to that flow in you which is your essence, and that's when you can start letting go of the self-loathing, you don't need it anymore. And also, of course, more practically, you can observe it when it happens like, ah, I'm doing it again, and there was this one of these coaches.
Speaker 1:I've followed quite a few coaches as well as doing my own, following actual courses in Norway and where I live in spirituality and healing. Christy Marie Sheldon is a coach online and she talked. She said something that I never forgot. Sheldon is a coach online and she talked. She said something that I never forgot. She said your soul loves you so much that when you are telling it or your intention is to heal and to rise and to have a better life, it will say, oh great, I'll show you all the things that are blocking you. So you get it all in your face. So sometimes like, why is all this coming now? Ah, okay, because I'm not done with it. It's still a pattern, it's still blocking me from having that flow. And then there are many ways, of course, of of dealing with them. One of them is finding the good things. Another one is breathing yoga, seeking help. I always say if you can't do it yourself, ask for help please, because we're here to help each other.
Speaker 2:Right. So your book, you, me and all that we are. It's described as a heartfelt letter to your son. What was the catalyst for the book and what do you want him to take away with him from this book?
Speaker 1:And the catalyst was I think I've always sort of felt that I was going to write something, write a book, and I didn't know what. And then, through this journey with his father's illness actually started a little before that, but I decided I wanted to share my experiences, the things I'd learned, and only after the father's illness I realized that I was actually aiming it at him, at my son and his peers, the young people out there. Now this is a book to my son, if he wants to read it, when he wants to read it. I can't push it on him and he probably knows a lot of this better than I do anyway. I mean, he's a different generation, knows a lot of this better than I do anyway, I mean, he's a different generation, but it's my. What I want him to take away from it is the possibility, the option to seek the guidance from the one person who has been so close to him for his childhood, like me. We've been very, very close. He knows, he knows my, my work, he knows what this is about to certain extent and he was very open, very intuitive as a child. He experienced some heavy things, so he stopped it a little bit in when he seeks when he wants to open up. I want him to be able to go to that book and find maybe some answers there, if my answers are his. So it's a possibility for him. It's a gift.
Speaker 1:It's also a testimony of how I moved with him as my guide, in a way, showing how important he has been for the journey, showing how important he has been for the journey. So it's a love story, love letter to him saying thank you. It's also so. It has actually sort of two angles. One is directly aimed at him with stories, but it has value for other people. But then there's also more apart, or sections that are more out to the audience, which would maybe be also valuable for parents. A lot more. It's an interchange between the two perspectives. He has been my guiding light in so many ways. He's a very, very strong soul and I want him to be able to discover that if he loses his sight of it and if you start searching, but also if he wants to experience and explore more than he wants to. Right now he's not. He's not ready to grasp everything that I talked about yet. Right, he wants to do it his own way.
Speaker 2:And what a beautiful testament to you know, having it be an option, not, uh, putting this like dogma in front of him saying you must follow me, I know the way.
Speaker 1:Let me show you yeah, it's just, it's.
Speaker 2:I think that at a certain point, not that long ago, like that's what we thought by we I mean culture, that's what we thought parenting was supposed to be like let me show you how to be spiritual. Let me show you what religion to follow. Let me show you the rules of making a good life for yourself. Let me tell you what your morals should be and what you should value. And now I think we're shifting to what rings true for you. Like what? What sets your soul on fire because you're here to do your work? And perhaps they should cross paths right, as I would imagine they would Anyone who's seeking, like, a loving path, a loving spiritual path. They're going to cross paths. So what a beautiful testament to that. I'm curious because you said you want you mentioned that you want this for your son, but all children, you know his peers too. What do you think a healed world looks like for our kids? Like what do you envision for today's children?
Speaker 1:I have, in a way, seen it. I had a meditation and it was just so clear where we, where we shine, where we dare to understand the light that we bring to this world and be that light for each other, but also for ourselves, to include ourselves. That's also, I think, the main healing part is that whenever we do something for others, a lot of people do beautiful things for others but they forget themselves. If you forget yourself, you're forgetting one part of the whole world. You're also part of the world and I think the what I see is an interchange. It's, it's an acceptance of the possibility of creating, of playing, of exploring, of expressing yourself to the fullest, whoever you are, in whichever way, works for you, and trusting yourself and working together, finding your place in the puzzle, working together, finding each, your place in the puzzle, because it's a beautiful puzzle and every person, every soul, has its unique place in the puzzle and we try to fit into the wrong place because somebody tells us to, and it feels very, very tense. The moment you start to fall into the right color or the right expression that is yours, I think we will find the balance. I think we will start to interact with more respect for each other with more joy, and we will also be kinder to ourselves because we know who we are.
Speaker 1:And in the book I also talk about, it's not been published yet. It's going to be published now, in a couple of weeks time. I haven my in the book I also talk about. It's not been published yet. It's going to be published now, in a couple of weeks time.
Speaker 2:Um, I haven't got the exact date yet actually, but that's so exciting when we link it up in the show notes, because as this airs, it'll be out there already so hop in the link down below and you can grab a copy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah, thank you. So it's one of the things that I sorry I lost my track here I talk about I give them tools that I put tools and exercises that people can try. But I also talk about exactly what you said how you have to listen to what works for you. Nobody knows the whole answer, because we're human. We can't know the whole answer. We can only see our perspective and everybody who has had a big revelation, I know it. I have to share this to the world Fantastic, beautiful. But it doesn't have to be your whole truth, but some of it can resonate, and every bit that resonates with you is part of your personal puzzle to put yourself together into the piece that we're, or to the expression or to the color that works in a whole. And I also say that includes, of course, what I'm sharing in my book. It's take it if it works for you, receive it if it works for you, because we are unique and we're all here to fit our own pieces. And when we start to do that, that's when I think we find balance For sure. And when we do that, all the shadows and that's the image I saw. It was in a, not a regression, regression, but it would call a post postgression in a future life. That I did, um, it was exciting. I never done it before, um, and I saw that all the shadows, meaning all the conflicts and the fears and the anger that has been sort of riding our world and it's so prevalent now because the media is also very, it makes it very, it sort of brings it in our face, all of us. It had started to fade and I started to to soften. There were only a few patches left that were softening now because there are enough people out there seeking to connect to the love, yeah, and seeking to heal, and we, there are a lot of people doing that now and at one point there are going to be so many of us that it becomes natural. The energy takes over, right, and so what I that's what I was going to say when I lost my track was the. The there is. I speak of it in the book.
Speaker 1:There's a project that came to me, actually that disrupted my writing a little bit and it caused me to pause the writing, because I had a vision of creating a space for the children and the young people, to gather and work with them in helping them to discover their worth, their expression through art and music and collaboration and play and animal and nature. And I've actually decided it's going to be based here in France, which is one of the reasons I'm here. It's still in the making, it's still in the in the sort of planning process. But creating spaces like that to honor the young generation and let them find that power that is so strong in them and let them actually express that and and work with the parents to help them to support that growth. Of course that would be sort of my. I'm very passionate about creating this because it would be my little contribution to the whole involvement. I hope, yeah, I love I think we will find it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think so too. I love your vision and that's beautiful and it gives me tremendous hope that you're seeing those, you know, those dense energies fade away, because it can feel sometimes impossible some days, you know, and so one of my beloved spiritual teachers describes it as like the Titanic just started to turn, like it's turning and there's there's still lots of work to do, but it's like it's started that different course, but it's like it's started that different course. And so I love that, that visual, and I love that you just are so tapped in to that like loving just beauty, that that is possible for all of us, like it is possible and it's, yeah, it's beautiful to see that. So, like on a practical level, I love that you're opening a space. That's amazing. It's something that I think about frequently too. You know, now much of my time is just like mothering my own kids, but like I want to mother all the kids too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but that's part of the. I mean, every time you do that with love and every time you find a space in yourself that is good and you accept yourself for what you're doing, that's part of that movement. Yeah, Every little gift of love to yourself and to your child, every time you embrace the child, it's part of the movement. That's right. That's what's so exciting. We shouldn't underestimate what we do in our everyday life and in our relationship with children and with our own children.
Speaker 2:Right. That's why I mean please. That's why I say we can change the world by starting at home, and when I say that, that's exactly what I mean. Every time we choose love, every time we choose to rise above the fear, every time we choose to respect ourselves and to see through the illusion that we're not good enough, pretty enough, smart enough, all the enough. Enough enough that we grew up kind of consuming, you know, and so I'm really excited to hear more about your space. We're going to start to wrap up in a few minutes, but before I ask you the questions that I ask everybody at the end, I want to know. But before I ask you the questions that I ask everybody at the end, I want to know, like, from a practical standpoint, what do you think kids need the most right now? So you talked about guiding the parents to help honor the younger generation. Like, what do they need? What is it that they're needing to come out of this? Like old way of education and this old paradigm of how we let kids be in their life?
Speaker 1:Well, you mentioned education. That's one big thing that I don't think it's a discussion we won't start education um, change it to to to focus on and help them find their uniqueness and their value and what they should, can nourish so that they can blossom and flourish who they are. But starting for what we can do as parents, for instance, listen, listen to them. And then the other one heal yourself. And I think almost heal yourself is number one. Whenever you start healing yourself and honoring yourself and coming closer to yourself, your child senses this, they know this and they see and they learn that this is possible for them too.
Speaker 1:And the other thing is that when the listening is the curiosity who are you? Who are you really? What is this funny expression? Curiosity, who are you? Who are you really? What is this funny expression? Why are you reacting like that, being a little bit curious about the child, not so afraid of not saying or doing the right thing, but curious about who are you? Yeah, what's your expression? Wow, you probably know your expression without even thinking about it. You know your three children, what their differences are, and then exploring that even well, what's what? A what a fantastic way of doing it and try to sort of be curious and I call curiosity your superpower. It goes for your own life, but also absolutely as a parent. I find when I'm curious about what my son is actually thinking or trying to tell me, I find that I listen differently and we get closer.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I love that. I love that. And it's not something that's happening in a traditional educational setting. No teachers are being very curious about a student's ideas or you know their passions or what's making them tick. There's a very prescribed and set regimen of things that need to get done and need to get you know the boxes that need to get checked off.
Speaker 1:So yeah, Right.
Speaker 2:Just from a practical level, it's just nearly impossible. Okay, so let's see we've got a few minutes left. Um one more question before we go into the questions. I want to know how do we find more which? That I mean, this is coming full circle, because this conversation has been much about this anyway but how do we find more beauty and magic within?
Speaker 1:Yeah, we talked about it all the time, in a way listening, finding what makes you feel good. But I have discovered I actually got myself on this quest recently where I decided to find something beautiful around me, in my surroundings, or find something of beauty every day. I started posting it because it helped me sort of to focus on it. But what happens then? When you look for something of beauty, you shift your whole perspective and you come in contact with that feeling of feeling good. Yeah, that's when you start also connecting to the, the appreciation of what's beauty, beautiful in yourself.
Speaker 1:I think so, when you can reflect the beauty in your surroundings, whether it's in nature, sometimes I mean even in I was in an industrial area, all these buildings, and I found a colour that was beautiful in a little square on the building or something you know there's always something or a structure or a or a cloud, and when you do that, you start recognizing that it's possible to focus and to recognize the beauty and you will start to resonate with it in yourself. I find that's my experience, but that's what I see also with with people that I work with. When they start acknowledging beauty around them, they can also acknowledge it in them, in themselves.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so where will we be able to find your book and how can we find you follow?
Speaker 1:you and learn more about the work you're doing every um and um. My website is emma rowenano, norway, and that's where all my work is, and then the launch date will be there as well, uh, and you'll be able to to sign up and get um a free chapter soon amazing, yeah all right, so we'll link that all down below.
Speaker 2:Of course, facebook and youtube and all that, but that's on my website, all the social media. Okay, sounds good, and so the last questions I have for you are what's bringing you joy today?
Speaker 1:Today this conversation, I must say, fantastic. I really enjoyed that. And also today I've had a lot of joy in helping a friend to renovate a house and I made the room that will be my room in that house. It was beautiful.
Speaker 2:Lovely. What, if anything, are you reading right now?
Speaker 1:I'm not actually, because I also have been recording a lot of audiobooks. I haven't read very much for pleasure myself lately, but the last book I was reading was a Norwegian book about resting a very, very powerful tool to heal and to come closer to yourself, to rest in any way. So that was a very inspiring book.
Speaker 2:I love that More rest more rest for everybody all around all around, all right. And then the last question I have for you is who or what has taught you the most? My son beautiful doubt about it yeah, thank you so much for the work you're doing in the world and your beautiful book and we're so excited to check that out. And thank you for showing up today with this just palpable inspiration and wisdom. I appreciate you.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much, and likewise thank you for doing this. It's so beautiful work.