In this episode of Currents, I offer some beautiful experiences people have shared in sessions where I’ve channeled the energy of money, share a bit more about my personal journey with the energy of money including the origins of my vision with it and some context for what I mean when I say “money is a mirror for our relationship with love.”

"A gentle touch of care on someone's back. A warm meal or a coat. The potential to ask for something and for someone to give it," these everyday acts of care reflect the true essence of what money represents—an energy of exchange, support, and love. By shifting our perspective, we can begin to see money not as a symbol of lack, but as an opportunity to grow our capacity for love, generosity, and mutual care.

Why and how is this a spiritual path?

Working with money is a beautiful journey and maybe one of the most challenging out there (You may or may not have heard the teaching that “it’s easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich man to enter the gates of heaven”). This is because it digs deep into our beliefs around our identity, sense of safety and self: about who we need to be for money to come into our lives, who we are if we have it, and what it means to let it go.

That’s what makes it such a potent part of the tantric path to engage. You see, I am not one of those manifestation gurus who’s promising you’ll become a millionaire  if you align your energies (although you might). The reason working with money is profound is because it offers a path to liberation:

“Working with money is not about getting more money... the beauty of working with money is the opportunity to see a part of ourselves that we didn’t know was there.”

When you bring the light of awareness to these parts to create healing, there are real-world effects, so doing the healing work with this frequency might mean overcoming the fear of/being better able to invest your money. It might mean overcoming beliefs to receive or ask for money for your nonprofit or work. It might mean you envision a whole new kind of currency or way of living that doesn’t even need it anymore. Or maybe you just become happy with giving and receiving whatever comes with deep gratitude for the opportunity to experience both …. just like love.

No matter what the external expression, what matters (the point) is a right and loving relationship with money and with love itself that affords more love, freedom, beauty, and wonder in our lives and in the world around us.

So take a listen. I hope it serves you in shifting your relationship with money so that it can lead to a more abundant, loving, and resourced life for all beings everywhere. ✨

Currents: Episode 15 // The Energy of Money as a Spiritual Path

About my guest, Janine Dennis // Chief Innovations Officer at Talent Think Innovations, LLC, Author of "The Absurdity of Doing You: Rebel Elegance for the Evolving Soul"

Janine is a humble, deeply thoughtful, and potent human being who’s traversed this journey as a leader in the worlds of business to becoming an author and a practitioner to whom others look for spiritual guidance and support.

We got to talking one day about how challenging that process can be, and yet how important it is that leaders today (whether leaders in business, education, politics, or family) feel able to live the multiplicity of their wholeness and what it means to “step out” — if you will — of spiritual hiding.

I feel grateful to be fully out of the closet and able to connect with and support leaders on the deep foundational level of their energetic being, but how would people find me if they didn’t know I was here for it? How would others know it’s ok to admit they do breathwork, or journey work, or energy work if others hadn’t openly shared or created spaces for it at conferences, retreats or other gatherings? Is there space for spirituality in the world of leadership? Why does it have to be a secret? And what if we acknowledged the potential for leadership to be guided from realms unseen supported by the additional gifts of reason and logic?

We explore all these themes in this episode and I’m so grateful to Janine for her grounded, caring, and empathetic reflections and perspectives. Perspectives that, no doubt, come from her work helping myriad business teams understand each other more deeply. Perspectives that come from her capacity to hold deep caring space for clients on their healing path. And perspectives that invite us to consider what “stepping out” might look like for us, how we might share our gifts while meeting others where they’re at, and how and why it matters now.

I hope you’ll take a listen and that it offers you something. Much gratitude to Janine for sharing time and perspective with me. I can’t wait to have you back to explore more!

xo

Rei

Currents: Episode 14 // Janine Dennis on Stepping Out as a Spiritual Business Leader

What does spirituality have to do with the taste of an apple? With the kiss of a lover? Or with how your business is structured?

In this episode of “Currents” I break down an idea that I’ve been holding for a while. The idea of the need for “Descension” of spirituality into our bodies, into our businesses, and into our physically manifest world.

This includes an embrace of the physical as a pathway to the divine. A pathway that values the felt experience as much as the destination of our pursuits and cultivations.

It’s been said before that everything is in this moment. That begs the question: What is happening in this moment? What am I feeling? Sensing? Thinking? Touching? What is this moment actually comprised of? And how much of it am I actually participating in?

This piece is in response to a lot of talk about the idea of “The Ascension”, that we are somehow transcending the world of the physical through a massive collective process of awakening.

While this might be true, I argue that this is only half of the picture - and a primarily masculine one. The feminine/feminist side of the coin suggests that we will only achieve this collective awakening through the body, through being a living embodiment of our divinity through the businesses we create, the relationships we cultivate, and the earth we tend to.

I hope you enjoy this episode and that it gives you something nourishing to chew on. 

I look forward to more conversations on the topic ahead, but this idea is at the crux of so much of my exploration of how it is that divinity can live through our works in the world. Because what we need is not to escape to something “better” but to find, bring, and live the beauty here.

With love ✨

Rei 

Currents Episode 13 // Descension: A Feminist Approach to Embodied Spirituality

In this episode of Currents, I sit down with my friend, technologist, and spiritual philosopher at heart, Miko Matsumura. Now, Miko is fascinating and rare in his capacity to bridge models for understanding from across socio-cultural, spiritual, and even business and technological paradigms. His ability to weave awareness across domains is what makes him such a potent force for transformative approaches to everything from investment to governance.

Miko is a deep thinker, driven by a devotional pursuit of understanding, acting from, and being in union with the non-dual and loving nature of reality. Our conversations always light up so many parts of my heart and brain because Miko has this uncanny ability to articulate the workings of our world through spiritual stories, oh-so-human aphorisms, and mind-expanding perspectives that hyperlink everything from the Bhagavad Gita and Japanese Animism to bicycles and the forefront of technology.

What does the Bhagavad Gita have to do with crypto? What does the natural world have to do with hackers? Only a conversation with Miko could paint this unique picture of the natural laws of the universe and how they might inform our more tactical work as leaders across business and social impact.

I'm sure you'll appreciate Miko's brilliant philosophical mind and its metaphors as much as I do, and I hope this episode gives you an inspiring perspective on how spirituality can express itself in everything from your personal exploration of lineage to how your dharma might express itself through your alignment with your true nature as a business leader, family member, or friend.





Currents: Episode 12 // Miko Matsumura on Spiritual Technology & the "Nature" of Dharma

I’ve known Jamie for a long time from our work in the worlds of social innovation and media. Since then, we’ve each had our own spiritual awakenings and have been co-exploring everything from intuitive knowing to, (interestingly) financial systems!

In this episode of Currents, we connect with Jamie’s Essence in a conversation off the back of an Essential Self Energy Session. From my experience, Jamie’s core energy radiates illuminative awareness and openness and you’ll hear that in this episode as he shares his life experiences and how he’s navigated how to bring this awareness to areas of constriction to allow for more easeful flow and manifestation in his life and the lives of others. What’s more, he shares a bit about how this energy comes to life through everything from building AI to new financial structures.

Tune into this short audio session to meet Jamie and how he connects with and shares his essence and the lessons in it that may be helpful for you. 🙏

Currents: Episode 11 // Essence w/ Jamie Lund

What does it feel like to be a luscious red flower in bloom? What is it to revel in the joy and delight of the power of women from around the world - especially from South West Asia and North Africa? What is it to put into poetry and words, the experience of Black and Indigenous women finding their expression and to be a part of their empowerment?

Hanae Bezad is a poet, novelist, and essayist. She is the author of Nomadic eyes, Sporadic heart, a self-published collection of poetry about the experience of travel, diaspora, love, loss, motherhood and femininity.

We did an essential self session just before recording and you can feel Hanae’s energy as she shares how she expresses this energy through everything from dance and the creation of festivals for impact to innovation and authoring Being Other [https://thedreamworkcollective.store/products/beingother], which takes you on a journey of her own lived experience as a woman, an Arab, a Muslim, and an African as it intertwines with tales of other inspirational women.

Her work does not shy away from the intensity of the world. And yet through the radiance of her energy through her writing, she shines a light on how racism, misogyny, and deep-rooted power dynamics can be confronted and transformed into a foundation for unshakable dignity, self-worth, and self-love.

You can feel her essence oozing through this episode so I hope you’ll tune in and receive just a bit of the gift that Hanae is to the world.

Currents: Episode 10 // Essence w/ Hanae Bezad

I'm excited to start sharing the interviews with some incredible and inspired humans sharing their essential selves in the coming weeks ahead. Why do this? We learn through transmission and I want everyone to get to feel and receive the gifts of the incredible people I’ve been blessed to interview because:

 1. Their essence is beautiful and magical and has its own gifts to teach - about everything from the energy of wealth, to the essence of freedom and joy.
 2. Each of the people I’ve interviewed has done an incredible amount of their own work to understand, embrace, and liberate, their essence, and in experiencing that, we learn how we might do this for ourselves.

My first interview is with dear friend and collaborator, Muki Izora. A researcher, musician, technologist and so much more, Muki is ultimately a joy-bringer at his core.

In this episode, he shares how Joy and Freedom are the essence of who he is. What’s more, he talks about how this essence expresses itself across life, work, and play across everything from complex systems to science, music, and beyond.

How does working with data and technology bring joy? How can solving global problems bring liberation? One listen to Muki’s laugh and you can catch that infectious and inspiring energy of liberated passion. But here’s a hint: this kind of freedom comes from finding something bigger than yourself that you can give to ❤️.

Take a listen and let us know what you think in the comments!

With love, 

Rei & Muki

Currents: Episode 9 // Essence w/ Muki Izora 

Everything has an essence.

Different flowers have different essences. The moon has a different essential quality than the sun. A soft breeze has a different essential quality than a crashing wave. Their essence is beautiful and magical and has its own gifts to teach - about everything from the energy of wealth, to the essence of freedom and joy.

When we connect with each other as our essential selves, there is something magical that happens. Some know it as alchemy. But the parts of me that resonate with you make you sing. And the parts of you that I lack inform me.

I understand essence in terms of energy. And I understand someone’s essence when I can understand their energy.

You know your energy. If I asked you to put a sound, or a color to your essential self, you could. I’ve done it many times - with adults, and teens. We know who we are.

In this episode, I share a bit about how it is that I experience my essence and the essential energy of those I work with. It's the start of a series of sessions and conversations with inspired humans as a way of sharing the inspired energy and gifts of others in this community. 

So tune in and start to get curious about the essence of you. Because when we live that, we make this world that much more whole and gorgeous. 

Substack link to the full article on your essential self here

https://reioflight.substack.com/p/the-inspiring-power-of-your-essential

Currents: Episode 8 // Essential Self 

It’s easy to think of ourselves as individuals. We go about our day thinking about what “I’m” going to do. About what “I’m” going to eat or what “I” think.

But what if you understood that you’re actually not just an individual — distinct, tidily separate, and siloed from the rest of the world? What if you understood yourself as a collective — an ecosystem within an ecosystem within a context and constellation far bigger than just you?

Our existence is inextricably connected with and interdependent upon all kinds of ecosystems: from our micro-biome to the environment we live in, to the plants, animals, and beings thousands of miles away who are a part of the air we breathe, the water we drink and the food that sustains us. From a spiritual perspective, we hear all the time that “We are all connected. We are all one.”

But what if we actually understood ourselves that way? What would it mean for how we create change? How we understand ourselves as the planet we are here to care for? How we design our businesses? How we connect with each other across spacial, personal, and ecological divides?

These are some of the inspiration, reflections, and questions sparked in this episode of Currents with Innovation Architect, Author, Keynote Speaker, and friend, Neil Redding of “The Ecosystem Paradigm.” Neil has been working at the intersection of experience design, technology, and systems for decades now, so it was fun and fascinating to dive into this new way of looking at the world and what it means for how we think about business, what we create, and our place in it.

In it, we talk about everything from how higher consciousness leads to more holistic innovation, to how convergence of AR & the built environment could mean deeper human connection, to how psychedelics or spiritual practice could help business become less siloed and transform the climate movement as we know it by helping us understand that caring for the planet means caring for ourselves.

This is a jam-packed episode so take a listen and let me know what you feel.

 * What is the benefit of ecosystem awareness for creating a more just and beautiful world?
 * How might we make the shift from "Ego" to "Eco" — in our personal consciousness? Collectively? What practices/processes have been helpful for you in making this leap and what might support others?
 * What are the implications/opportunities for business leaders and how might we invite them to the table?

Chime in. I’d love to hear your thoughts. We are, after all, in this together. 💛✨

Currents: Podcast #7 The Ecosystem Paradigm

Frustration has been one of my greatest teachers in life and I’m focusing this whole month on the topic. Why? Because there’s a lot of fire in the air! Whether it’s the summer heat, social justice roll-backs, or just personal stuckness, we can all use a little help engaging the parts of us that feel furious about not getting what we want for ourselves, our families, or our communities. Because there’s a lot of energy in frustration! But what do we want to put that energy toward? And why is all that energy there to begin with? How do we let our feelings fuel more meaningful and fulfilling actions and awareness?

In this episode, I share some of my experience working with the energy of frustration and how and why I actually see frustration as a powerful tool, indicator, and information for loving and enlivening transformation and wholeness. Really curious about how the hell that could be? Listen on dear friend. Or read the transcript below - but this one kinda had me giggling even as I re-listened to it :).

I hope you enjoy it and leave a comment. I’d love to hear your thoughts and how the practices come to life to support a more beautiful life for you and all those you love.

xo

Rei

Currents Episode 6: Frustration as a Portal to Joy and Love

Rei Chou (@reichou) · Zencastr

Rei Chou (@reichou)

Currents is podcast series all about how the energy of inspiration and aliveness finds its way into all areas of our life. From work and systems, to love and relationship, this is an exploration of what it means to embody the energy of the Divine. In it, I talk to leaders, experts, practitioners and friends about where energy is alive in themselves and the world and how we might invite it to flow more freely: inside and out. 

Rei of Light : Currents