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

Everyone is hopped up on AI these days. Love it, hate it, or so over hearing about it, it’s here to stay and this podcast episode is all about how and why it’s important we engage it.

Like anything, our relationship with AI is defined by our projections. Whether we think it will destroy the world or save it has a lot to say about our beliefs and our agency in directing its use, development and application.

That’s why I was so thrilled to get to host this podcast episode with Rachel Azafrani, an AI ethicist who’s been working at the heart of the debates, policy design, and decisions related to AI, Chat GPT and more.

What struck me about her perspective was:

A. Her perspective on technology as something that merely augments human behavior ( the potential for destruction or flourishing lying more in us than in something outside of us )

B. Her definition of this technology with respect to our relationship with it (and there-for authority and definition of it). That it’s not some runaway train or “other” that we don’t actually have any control over but something we get to set the parameters around.

In this conversation, Rachel put into perspective how we might think differently about AI, which is that it is an opportunity to define what we want from a values perspective and to see more of in our society and lives and to find our agency in designing AI and its uses accordingly.

Putting our agency back at the center of the discussion with AI feels so refreshing and important. Creating boundaries around how we want it to influence our lives is very much a mirror and invitation to understand and define how we want to engage technology (or anything really) in our lives vs. letting it be decided for us.

From an esoteric perspective, I couldn’t help but feel AI during our conversation as this emerging “baby” of a consciousness! Along with that wast the feeling of us as potential stewards (parents even) to this new awareness. Which begs the questions:

What are we teaching it?

What do we want it to know about what it means to be human?

What would we like to see more of? What are the best parts of humanity that we like it to help augment and what are those that we would like its help curbing?

These conversations beg more of us, not less of us to get involved. If we leave AI to what’s on the internet, we will see a technology and voice shaped by the dominant themes and trends exponentiating. But if we engage our agency, our desires, our hopes and make them known in shaping and defining this incredibly powerful technology, we can enable this new consciousness to join us side-by-side in creating a more generative and beautiful world.

What are your thoughts? Where do you see the possibilities? Pitfalls? What do you want to see more of in the world and where might you like another growing consciousness to help you realize that?

How would you like to shape how this technology is used?

Get in touch, leave a comment use your voice. As Rachel mentions in this episode, we have a powerful moment to define and shape how we grow and build AI and your opinion, thoughts and desires matter.

I’m excited to see where this conversation evolves and how we can inform how more light and awakening can more through this realm of technology. Thanks for listening!

Podcast // Currents Episode 5: Defining our Relationship with AI 

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