Transcript
Speaker: And yet we're functionally frozen and we can't do it. that kind of compounds the suffering. Because our biology is telling you you've got to deal with it, but you really you can't. too much and it's not something you can solve by running away from it.
Speaker: Right. so We have all of these different things coming at us. um to deal with it and so there part of the gift in all of this. it gets back to The gift and why life gives us challenges Kendra is to realize that We can't control the world. We can't even control if we're grieving altogether or what we're thinking, what we're feeling, what happens to us.
Speaker: Like a saint. Oh no. you can't control everything Welcome to Grief, Gratitude and the Gray in Between podcast. I'm your host, Kendra Rinaldi.
Speaker: This is a space to explore the full spectrum of grief. and the kind that comes with death. to the kind that shows up in life's many transitions.
Speaker: Through stories and conversations, we remind each other that we're not alone. Your journey matters. And here, we're figuring it out together. Let's dive right in.
Speaker: to today's episode.
Speaker: Hi, everyone. Welcome back. Quick note before we start. This episode with Chris Papadopoulos was recorded in March. while he was in Colombia. And we mentioned a few cities that were recently affected by the earthquake on August 10th. 2026. Colombia is my native country and I am sending so much love to everyone there right now.
Speaker: And if... you are able to donate to any relief efforts, please do so. And another way of supporting Colombia is by supporting Colombian businesses or even visiting one day as well since tourism.
Speaker: is a big deal. there as well. Thank you again for listening. Let's jump in. Welcome. Today I'm chatting with Christopher Papadopoulos. He is an educator, a writer, and a spiritual guide.
Speaker: whose life has been shaped by a deep commitment to understanding peace. from the inside out. I look forward to this conversation and just as.
Speaker: kind of side note here for you listeners, I actually... No, Chris From. ah Being my. high school teacher. Welcome back in the day. Yeah. Sup! If I refer to you at any point as Mr. Papadopoulos and the audience will know why.
Speaker: But we haven't seen each other, I think, since I graduated from high school. It's been so long. It's shocking. and uh Okay. But because of social media, sometimes you feel, oh, yeah, we're in touch and we've seen each other. and they No, I haven't seen you in over 30 years. Isn't that scary? i'm i'm outing I'm outing how old I am, not how old you are. no No, no, no, no, no. You actually, as I like see you and even just the fact of.
Speaker: When we graduate and people, sometimes people get so confused, they like what you're still friends with your high school teachers. My kids, for example, they're like. what I'm like, yes, you don't understand the school we went to. Just had a completely.
Speaker: different feeling. It was a smaller you. You're from Canada. You went to Colombia. And I want to talk about that. But it was this. aspect of community. And really, you were probably just freshly graduated even from...
Speaker: teaching So can you share about that, your upbringing in Canada and choosing then to go? Live in South America. in a Spanish -speaking country. Share with us about that. Sure, Kendra, sure. and at as you perhaps remember it in an era when that it just There was no social media, you know. nobody very few people in the world were even using computers or small numbers of so there was Just some basic. emailing that people were doing to to stay connected. so Nobody knew anything about.
Speaker: you know south america prime where i'm from other than what you see on like TV shows. Maybe, it you know, some pictures and magazines. There's just no. quickly you know pick up some information and and learn everything.
Speaker: about a place like you can do now. When I graduated from... We're called Junior College. Everyone wanted to go to the same. college all of all my friends and i thought i wanted to to go somewhere different but still within the products When. ah I graduated from that. Everyone's, okay, we want to go to like McGill University or Concordia University.
Speaker: and continue and i i want to do something different so i went to a university a few hours away in Kingston, Ontario called Queen's University. When I got there, I went for a degree in... history and education.
Speaker: And. ah Again, we graduated and all my friends are like, let's go to Toronto or whatever, make some money. teaching whatever you're not gonna make big bucks but you know you can it pays well in some of the big cities And again, I was like, no, I want to do something different.
Speaker: And it just so happens that my university, that university. in that era was the only one in Canada. that invited uh sort of this international touring group of directors the school directors that were going to come on pick up some new teachers cheap I suppose.
Speaker: But also, you know, very uh you know good with their english speaking skills because i know that But Bolivar. the school that I taught at and you were at really, really valued that. i thought I saw just some a presentation on the Bolivar. It's like three walls and a garden.
Speaker: unbelievably beautiful. you know campus and i said i've got to go there And I just so happened to. just nailed the interview and I was just over the moon. So it was just always a desire. this I don't want to do what everyone else does.
Speaker: Not to be contrarian, it just didn't feel like me. But I'd always thought, well... the so -called the postcard right i mean know People even use postcards anymore. but but also the beauty of the country, the lushness, the birds, just everything was just, this is what the postcard to me. matched my eye. that this is where I want to go.
Speaker: I didn't speak Spanish. It's very exciting. Um, But... uh it just Wonderful. And so no regrets. and And now I am speaking to you from Colombia, from the city of Cali.
Speaker: because I come back every year in the winter now. That's the love affair that I have with you know your home. It's like it's something that just started as something you were going to do straight out of college for a few years that then you discovered that this is just the place that.
Speaker: Your heart. kind of calls back right and that you go back every or so when you want to escape the the ah You're still in Ontario when you're back to Canada? Yeah, i go back to Montreal because I was raised in Montreal. But yeah, the university town was just in the province over.
Speaker: So I spent most of my years still in in Montreal. or'm doing traveling around here or there if i have some kind of uh teaching to do. But my winters, those North, well, you were where you are, I don't know if which state you're in now, but the winters are pretty cold.
Speaker: Okay, Texas, you're doing well because you know yeah but I know you you, I think you. from, I recall, you know, a little bit about some of the Northern winters in Northern America. Yes. Yeah. I lived in Massachusetts as well. as and So there you go. So, and I love winter, but winter doesn't really love me anymore. So. far so i I come back here, but you know, it's so funny, Kendra, is that what it was is and we'll get into it. i yeah and i wonder because teaching just three years. you know Some of the teachers there, they just spend their whole lives there.
Speaker: But again, after your three. some of the other school teachers at the Bolivar here in Cali, Colombia. Well, Chris, you know, we're all thinking of settling down here. What do you think? and that yet I know I want to do something. Look at that.
Speaker: So I went back to Canada, but at that time it wasn't. Well, I got actually involved in politics for a few years and actually ran in the in the federal elections, the national elections in 1993. After teaching politics and history and economics and stuff with you guys, and social studies, I actually ran.
Speaker: in a political campaign for a few years. and then it was this experience of I want to do something. I'm still looking. what we would call some kind of a spiritual seeker or or what's the whole purpose of life type of thing And that actually began with with you guys and in Colombia.
Speaker: but i think continued but it was actually Facebook. 2007 i got on there and the very first people of course don acoheor is so welcoming to colombian people that the the first people on facebook hi mr paparopoulos come on down again come back so they welcomed me back in 2007 15 years later i hadn't visited colombia in 15 years after i left And almost every year since then, I come in the winters and I...
Speaker: I have clients and students here and I do evening talks and I i do workshops and I and just. enjoy the weather enjoy the people so it's just it's strange but i i'll share something with your you and your audience.
Speaker: that I only said to myself or to someone. for the first time this year, even though everyone knows I love Colombia. I call it my second home. A certain phrase came out of my mouth this year when someone asked me, tell me what like the great love of your life or great loves of your life that's like just Hit me and I said it.
Speaker: Columbia is one of the great loves. of my life. And even though everyone knows i I love Columbia, I never said those words and it just hit me personally. Wow. and it's very humbling and it just made I guess my experience here being more more appreciative and more special. So.
Speaker: Oh, I love that. and It's so funny because now that I have not lived in Colombia for 30 years, every time I go back. Perfect. Vacation. I end up and I went to that region where you usually go in the in the mountains of. the coffee region and stuff. and I literally was like in this little chiva. that's not No, the Jeep. The Jeep that they take you to. The Willys Jeep. The little Willys Jeep to go see these, the tallest. ah palm trees that are And. Valle del Cocora.
Speaker: I'm in the car and I'm talking to this this i a foreigner. I think she was European. And I'm like, well, I'm from here, but I live. But every time I come here, I just fall in love with my country. And I'm like literally like in tears. of overwhelm, of the beauty and just like this.
Speaker: lushness that I did not see, I think, when I lived there. And a lot of times that it takes sometimes that distance from being. in a place to then removing yourself to coming back in and connecting with who you are Now,
Speaker: Right. And you see things completely differently. So with this journey of finding. this yourself per se. And you've written a book, which is, you know, you are peace and.
Speaker: It's been some. over 10 years that you released it. Right. over 10 years. And you released it. And you. have then entered into this path of self -discovery, self -awareness. You had dabbled in politics and then all of a sudden you're like, wait, no, let's do a different turn.
Speaker: Take us into that turn. You would like 1993. You're like, OK, I'm going to change the world. Let me run for Congress. What changed? Exactly. And that's a perfect description. It was. actually during My final year in Columbia.
Speaker: With your class, but more with the grade above you, we got involved a lot more with like interested in like letter writing campaigns for for, you know. for human rights, we we're interested in. looking at women's rights, at at at developing world issues. that at animal rights, all kinds of injustices in the world. We're very big on that. and We got to a point after. doing some really interesting work. of well sir what do we do next you know we've done everything and they just hit me i and that last year
Speaker: you know i lived up in las nieves so it's up high up in the andes mountains beautiful Beautiful. I had this wonderful little white Adobe house with windows with wooden shutters. And at night it's just this mystical experience. and i just I wouldn't say it was necessarily a classic meditation, but I felt like I was just...
Speaker: in communion with something sacred and it was just telling me that you We've got to start. with what's inside. You've got to focus on what's inside if you want answers to changing the world. I was always an idealist.
Speaker: To this day, to me, it's Bill. kind of ridiculous and maybe a little obscene that we actually have to pay for bread. and Anybody. I mean, I understand it. extra services and unique things, you know.
Speaker: ah people, commerce, there's exchanges and it makes sense that we all use these things to make life more convenient. but in terms of the very basics for survival that we all need we all need you know education love health we need a roof we need food the basic things that never made sense to me that forces on people. including many people in the world that don't have that.
Speaker: so in my heart i was always just a bit of a utopian about this and that's what got me involved in politics i wanted it to make the world a better place but after a few years, you know. Yeah. You start. your idealism gets chipped away by the what they call pragmatism and I call just compromising your values. So it's like, I can't do it. i need so even I wanted to to walk my walk after teaching politics and social studies to you guys.
Speaker: and to get involved. So it was a great experience. You know, I was... It was what you what you call Congress and the states we call running for Parliament. in Canada. And it was an interesting experience to do, you know, radio and TV interviews, interesting to talk to large groups of people and politically campaign.
Speaker: but already I could see and feel that. people like me who had to be uh that were well -meaning and had very idealistic hearts and then other people that just They're hard and political operatives and it's just really, really hard.
Speaker: ah And you you see that what I saw, that was not. That's just not going to be the path for me the way I want to change the world. There has to be another way. And that's when... that final year in Colombia than coming back.
Speaker: after and then a few years of getting involved in politics and running for it for parliament I started. Getting in touch again, Kendra, with what... fascinated me before my academic years. In my adolescent years, I was interested in things like UFOs and the mysteries of Egypt and ghosts.
Speaker: And... I had these decks of tarot cards or cards. So I was into all of this is stuff that. Like. Okay. The mysteries, are these things true? Are they real, right? and I wasn't sure.
Speaker: So. that side of me, that exploring for what we can't see and maybe perceive with our senses, but then maybe there's something more. what other people we would call a spiritual search a search for god a search for something inside And I got involved.
Speaker: Right. after the politics. So probably just around my 28th birthday. So we have found it's a really cool story and it's a's a true story. I don't share it much anymore because Now that I Teach more about.
Speaker: living in the present moment. consciousness, body awareness to connect with it and to heal. our emotional pain body, for example. I don't get into the kind of the... more metaphysical new way side of what got kind of got me here so i'll share with you in your audience but that is I, you know, can just... Staring at this television set in the house that I've lived in for many years.
Speaker: for one reason or another i just started noticing that above it this is my dad's personal library And he had some really cool books from the 60s and 70s. And in one of these books, I was reading and kind of a metaphysical book.
Speaker: You mentioned this thing called the cosmic forces exercise. Whatever. basically it's a very simple exercise and i would go out into the forest in the middle of the night And you just kind of stand there and you kind of call in cosmic forces, which again, if people who are are're very religious, you're hearing that and it sounds kind of scary.
Speaker: But I was very courageous. Or they could switch it to be angels if they want. I think it everything can apply to any of us. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Of course. I'm always the first to use it. I have actually a lot of, you know, very traditional conservative.
Speaker: religious. students and clients but because we meet at a different level so like we don't get involved but but we can always connect in some shape yeah so connect so you go into the forest And so basically I'm filling.
Speaker: the energy in the palms of the hand, which I guess the Hindu have talked about these chakras. The child, the energy. vortices in the body that we also have in the palms of our hands. My hands were just buzzing.
Speaker: And what I would do is like to this day, I still do whenever I do something. I don't go into so like a sitting classic meditation. I like to lie down. they usually don't recommend lying down because people fall asleep but i was always good at it so I would take that energy back home and just work with it. And I kind of noticed that.
Speaker: It has its own intelligence. It's like... kind of working with me. And so. Here's the big moment. After playing with this for a few months, It was just after my 28th birthday.
Speaker: I had left Columbia about two years previous to that, so around my 20th birthday, I wanted to give myself a little gift, so I went to this psychic fair in Montreal. Okay. about a week after my birthday. But I thought, okay, if I want to get a really good reading. Maybe I really amp up on this so -called cosmic forces, chakra, angelic energy, whatever you want to call it.
Speaker: to maybe it give maybe give me better reading. And what happened was... As soon as I sat down, this psychic said to me, literally. The very first thing. I'm swimming in your energy sir. So it was working. So what was interesting was. The reading was good, but it wasn't like, you know.
Speaker: life -changing itself, or interesting personal reading. What happened after the reading? I went back home. went to bed. Set up, you know. L sitting.
Speaker: with my my back and against the headrest. I can still hear my brothers. watching the hockey game. in the rec room. oh Over there. and they'd still talk And I still to them, but I was kind of talking like, yeah, I'm okay. Oh, really good. Okay. you know I didn't want them to come in the room because over a period of two hours.
Speaker: to Being. entered my body. ah kid you not. The very first one. It felt, and the thing is, Hollywood making, you know, is there's...
Speaker: would would put scary music to you know all overlaid over this. thing It was beautiful. It was peaceful. the opposite of scary. And so again, I'm just like everyone else, you know, you can really freak out over something like this, but no, it was a wonderful experience.
Speaker: It sounded like there was like this mass. super imposing over my face. It was really cool. I later found out that was kind of like my... Guardian Angel. Some people call him spirit guides, guardian angel.
Speaker: and would present. him herself as kind of more indigenous, like an indigenous wise person. for a number of years then presented him herself with a very very tall kind of Buddhist type of monk or nun.
Speaker: For the first hour that was happening, what I didn't know, Kendra, was what was... purpose of that. was to help refine my energy. to receive Another higher frequency being, which that you can call...
Speaker: your higher self, your soul self. Because when that then when the first one kind of just kind of left. The next one came in the next experience and it was like this perfect fit. It was the highest vibration. You can't even imagine. It was so... peaceful and beautiful. It was a perfect fit.
Speaker: And it even showed me. I was able to look down at my body for a moment and it was showing as female, which is which is very unusual. Because I could... you know you can see close your eyes you can feel you open your eyes you can see still I was not hallucinating. I was not tripping. I don't take drugs. i was very very lucid i could still say some words to my brothers in the other room But over that period of ah of an hour. this so much it came through as a much more feminine
Speaker: energetic force energy i was gonna say the energy yeah because we all have that duality and sometimes you take So the soft bit. This softness, this softness, this gentleness, which you are, you've always had this very gentle.
Speaker: way and how you approach. You're very frank and open as well, like of how you direct, but still with very gentleness of how you approach. things so Okay. So you're seeing this and your higher self in this feminine energy.
Speaker: kind of superimposing itself over me. and then produce this. Rolligans for an hour. It was the most. It was a communion. And I was just... getting downloads of information but it's not when you hear that you think okay it's just coming into your head like Quick wait no!
Speaker: into the energy field of the body. that would When in in due time, in months or years later, it will kind of rise up into the awareness of your mind. and be there for you. So it doesn't come in like a direct.
Speaker: a key download into your head. It's in the energy field of your body and you may not even. be aware of what's there for a long time until the right moment for you to access to unzip the file, I guess we'd say in modern parlance, right?
Speaker: to make use of it but i knew it was a comm community that was receiving information and and now i understand basically i'm being shown that this is. You can call it, again, some people call it your inner teacher, your inner guru, your higher self, your soul self, your truly monadic, angelic force. There's so many words for this.
Speaker: But. I just now know I've been accompanied. in some way or another by this force since then. so So for that final hour that it stayed with me in communion, it was a wonderful feeling. I was still completely alert.
Speaker: and just amazed by what was happening and then just gently, softly. just parted ways. And once that happened. It was literally, well, I'm not going to swear, but it was like. What the? was that unbelievable, incredible.
Speaker: I have to know what this is. And at that point, it's like everything else that you would typically think about what you want to do with your life, you know, family, kids, career, whatever, which is all wonderful. Uh, Secondary.
Speaker: I became a really serious. spiritual seeker. It's like, what is this? i want I want more of this. I want to know what this was. And so I... Yes, yeah. And all this started from...
Speaker: From you seeing a book on your dad's. shelf. that you picked up. and then kind of connecting to that. The fact that your dad had this, so your parents, had they ah had they also been?
Speaker: seeker type of individuals that then they would. if your dad had these type of books there, that it... would be something that you'd have accessible? No, my mom, no. Although my mom has always been, she always.
Speaker: Hands. uncontrolled but you know some kind of psychic energy she's always a little bit of Maybe a lot of parents, there's someone in the family that always is able to be a bit of a seer, I think. My mom had that, but it was never controlled or... or or she's already aware of it but i was aware of it when she just like blurt something out and so okay that's probably yeah it probably will happen next week or something she's usually write a book to a space So. so maybe maybe i got a bit of the gift from mom in that sense my dad interested in all kinds of subjects.
Speaker: philosophy, psychology. poetry, physics, mathematics. self -taught and brilliant man. with a lovely heart. But I guess just growing up at that time. It's gross. he can literally read five six seven books at a time just that he would And he just had a small little group of these books.
Speaker: from these. spiritual teachers and people these really interesting books that would come out uh in the 60s and 70s some of kaji's really just catching silly names like super brain or mega brain how to improve your But other ones like were like books from a great teacher called Gurdjieff.
Speaker: I know another one from between Houston. So a few different things that... And one of them had this againer exercise in it. that I just sense and I use I don't use that particular exercise but I now teach body awareness and how to connect with this, what we call the inner energy body. which is like our bridge between.
Speaker: This. lovely physical realm. yeah um another realm, higher dimensional realm, a spiritual realm, whatever you want to call it. uh what physicists would call you know the quantum field so again there's there there are there are words that are comfortable for everyone how to describe this thing but for me i just call yeah a higher dimension or a spiritual a sacred dimension.
Speaker: I love that your dad had all these different. books And I think that that is so important to. have an inquisitive mind And be able to. tap into different.
Speaker: belief systems, read different things that may not apply to you because not only may you end up uncovering something that you had within yourself. But if anything, it's going to let you know.
Speaker: how others interact and who who others are when you're in relationship with others. In this world, we don't live by ourselves. So understanding. different belief systems.
Speaker: is important because it helps us connect with other. human beings as well while we're... Here, right? No, absolutely. and it's It's trying to find that common and ground with people. And it's hard with words. I mean, this is what I do for a living. the how beliefs and words can be a wonderful tool but they also act as an impediment 2.
Speaker: A deeper cultivation of our... inner life, a deeper self -awareness. so ironically you could have i I think I mentioned it in my book. they know fact Someone asked me, you know, Chris, do you believe in God? And I asked them, do you believe in your hand? And they said, well, no, why do I have to believe in my hand? It's here. is well the same thing with God. or the sacred, or the quantum field, whatever you want to call it, or pure consciousness.
Speaker: um And ironically, your belief in something. which again is fine, but... We all just believe something. we are compulsively reintroducing it into our sense of self as a self -referential thinking that we do And...
Speaker: That. Activity of constantly thinking because we make a me out of our Thoughts? Blocks are deeper awareness. of our expanded nature. And when we don't have that sense of art.
Speaker: See a deeper self. It's not to reject Physical world. But it's like we live at the surface of reality, compressed, pressured, and that creates a lot of suffering for us because we're not in touch with something deeper within us.
Speaker: ah And when we are in touch with something deeper within us, we begin to feel a bit more of a spaciousness. And so when problems arise, well, if you feel like you're pretty spacious being.
Speaker: In some sense. pen percentage -wise, that... situation is not as big and affecting you as much. Whereas when you're very controlled, I'm a small separate self. There's just me against the world. And me and my thoughts, me and my feelings, we actually biologically contract to protect ourselves. even when we're grieving or we're hurt.
Speaker: And then something else is introduced that bothers you. just Comparative wise, comparison wise, that feels pretty big in a very small sense of self. So. ah on this. journey of self -awareness what do we call it turning within to experience a deeper realm.
Speaker: We can also call this. more space consciousness instead of Object consciousness. To me, emotions are objects or forms. Thoughts are also forms. people everything are just forms this is the form -based physical world?
Speaker: Lovely we live here. but when you lose sense and perception of The fact, for example, right now in the room I'm in and the room you're in and the room that everyone else is in that's listening to this and watching this.
Speaker: If you can kind of just... so Soften your gaze for a second. and readjust your focus. and your focus Yep. Just notice the empty space between you and the screen that you're looking at.
Speaker: And now look around the room you're in for a second and notice that the vast majority of the room you're in is empty space. And we completely ignore it because the mind is designed to focus on form.
Speaker: thoughts, emotions, objects. situations, events. And it's designed to filter out the fact that the majority of our lives... is empty space. But in that empty space, it's full.
Speaker: something beautiful, sacred, peaceful. conscious, intelligent. Healing.
Speaker: what we all need. and so we can just start with the empty space in the room we're in. And we begin to start feeling that. spaciousness within us as well. and that takes the pressure off so much of our suffering is physical, emotional, and psychological pressure.
Speaker: Again, if you're beginning to feel spaciousness within. Start noticing it around you. It just reduces the pressure in your life a lot. How can we apply that? within grief.
Speaker: So grief, you're so it was grief also then. One of these. emotions because you Talk about. with peace, peace is within and in those aspects. And that's really what we're trying to do is kind of return to that. And from that, all other emotions. Come from peace, right?
Speaker: So, How would we... Fair. for any of it because since the Podcast is for you. usually with the aspect of grief. How would we translate the empty space and the awareness of ah our emotions?
Speaker: without negating them per se, right? honoring them. Yes. But not like not putting them. out there too. I don't know. Out in the, how do you call it? Out in the.
Speaker: yeah In the fields, you know, like for re... Putting them out there just because they're well, they're not real. Let me put them out there. No, like honoring them. But at the same time, knowing that they are not the everything. So. How would we apply what you're mentioning with our grief?
Speaker: Yeah, this is great and I guess First is... to become aware that
Speaker: Intrinsic to grief, there's also love there. Love and peace are like brother and sister in some ways. They're just different. labors of the same One. All that is pure consciousness being God, the sacredness, whatever we want to call it.
Speaker: Um, and there there wouldn't be any grief if there was no love right obviously if we didn't So. There is. The cultivating of love awareness, the cultivating of peace awareness as well is important.
Speaker: When? We can feel. begin to cultivate this. perception of space awareness. spacious Awareness, being very present in the here now can help us. Quiet the mind. Because if we kind of quiet the mind, it doesn't have to be shut down completely, so to speak, but if it's really much more quiet. and calm the thinking a bit. enter the present moment, the here and now a little bit more.
Speaker: Quiet Mind is not... registering and reacting and labeling and drawing conclusions and categorizing. forms. Bots, objects, people. So. we naturally with a quieter mind become more aware.
Speaker: of the space which in all of our thoughts and all of our perceptions are happening. There is a spacious intelligent Say goodnesses. awareness, sacred awareness that allows for the emergence of the universe itself.
Speaker: emergence of every thought if you've had any thoughts during this ah interaction, you and listeners. You can even become aware that maybe you had a particular thought or a question a moment ago.
Speaker: Where is it now? to the same place. that it arose from. Peace. spaciousness, there's no faintness or formlessness. So we can just become aware. I learned to step behind into the spaciousness and become observers. of our body observers.
Speaker: of our emotions and thoughts. with as little judgment and reactivity activity for moment for some moments as possible. when we can kind of thinking and inhabit that spaciousness.
Speaker: it's easier to actually be friendly and welcoming with the grief because it doesn't take up our entire being with this. red alert emergency signal i have to do something about it which is I'll talk about the biology of all this.
Speaker: So again, Quieting the mind. is one of the first steps to talk about living in the now being more present really important. to begin to perceive. around you and within you. I felt spaciousness that again. allows you not just...
Speaker: bypass the grief or push it away. or I'm love, I'm light, I'm not grief, you know? And again, it's a lovely attempt, but it's not going to work for very long. It's going to come back again. So, Because we do, and I'm sure you know.
Speaker: even as well as I do it with your experience with the shows. that we have to sit with the grief as well but if we can sit with the grief really sit with it and feel it safely. sit with our grief it's a beautiful thing we need to experience those emotions but in a safer way because often it's a red alert mode because whether it's just anxiety or other kinds of emotions, but including grief.
Speaker: Our biology, which goes back hardwired for how many thousands of years or millions of years? was designed for imminent events in the jungle hundreds of thousands of years ago and was not designed for the fact that you're safe in your bed in the middle of the night, but somehow you're grieving or you're anxious.
Speaker: But your biology is telling you I'm in danger. There's an animal in the jungle that's going to come and eat me now. Eat me and my family. And so we get these mixed signals. So we were biologically hardwired for the any type of negatives.
Speaker: Thought or emotion? or heavy emotion is red alert, red alert. It's my whole world. Grief is my whole world. Depression, anger, fear is my entire world. because your biology is saying you have to deal with this now.
Speaker: and yet we we're functionally frozen and we can't do it. that kind of compounds your suffering. Because our biology is telling you you've got to deal with it, but you really you can't. too much and it's not something you can solve by running away from it.
Speaker: all right so We have all of these different things coming at us. um to deal with it and so there part of the gift in all of this. it gets back to The gift in why life gives us challenges, Kendra, is to realize that We can't control the world. We can't even control if we're grieving altogether or what we're thinking, what we're feeling, what happens to us.
Speaker: Like a saint. Oh no. you can't control everything So... trying to help us. go within to find control. ironically, by what we can call letting go of control. just That surrender into that beautiful peaceful sacred spaciousness can help us kind of let go.
Speaker: And. Yeah. that there's the opportunity. to begin to just sit with grief for the time we need it. and notice that the more presence we give it, kind of a loving presence. It begins also.
Speaker: to dissipate because Whatever type of the energy it is. but the strong negative energy, for example, it is. An emotion, an emotion is energy under pressure. And your presence, your spaciousness, your presence is like...
Speaker: Just giving it love, giving it presence, letting it be there. Let yourself be sad or if you have to. Let yourself grieve. You're still giving it space to be but your your spacious presence your spacious loving presence is in itself slowly dissolving that which is under pressure because space and pressure can't exist in the same place for too long.
Speaker: Things that are under pressure. You give them some spaciousness in it. around it. gradually begins to dissipate. So it it becomes this kind of... being deeply present. can really help dissipate our grief. And also, but again, ironically, not run away from it.
Speaker: feel safe enough to sit with it for the time that we need to. Well. As you're describing this, I'm thinking even to the... That moment in which you felt the two different energies come in. to prepare you to then receive your higher self. I'm even thinking of that with our emotions.
Speaker: I feel like. when we label them. As if our emotions are either good or bad or negative. or Right there, there's a judgment. So the moment there's a judgment to that emotion, it's as if we're... so Post 2.
Speaker: then feel a certain way because this. emotion came through because of whatever we've associated with that. word We're back to even the words. And by the way, I remember very clearly one of the things that you said in our class. in our in I think, was I in 10th grade or 11th? Which grade did you teach? werent I think you, I taught 10, 11. I thought later you were in 10 at that time because you were with Leslie, right? So I think you were. being No, I was, no, I was a year younger than Leslie.
Speaker: i'm ninety i yeah I'm class 94. She's class of 93. That's right. She was 11. You were 10. You're in grade 10. So I was in 10th grade. And you were talking about, sorry, this is going to be a side. thing, but I noticed that even just some language, this has to do with language and just with that.
Speaker: theme. the The way that we put a feminine or masculine to things and you're saying it, you were saying this thing in in in class, you're like, every religion makes God be this masculine figure. And I remember and I was like, I don't. He's like, even yours, Kendra. And I remember you even looking. like I remember. I'm like.
Speaker: no it's just the language there's not a masculine it's just that because words can get so you know, we we tie everything to words. So even the word of grief or the word of sadness or the word. We put so much weight to the word or how we describe it, right?
Speaker: but really is just... An emotion just like... happiness or being proud. It's just another emotion. And when we just see it as that. Back to when you were kind of...
Speaker: Seeing yourself in this energy. You just become so detached. from that that you're not consumed in it because it's coming in from, again, back to that love and peace within you.
Speaker: that it's enveloping your that emotion. in a way that it feels safe for you to feel it. Right. Like it's like this kind of. cut cuddling of comfort and because even just like when you received these Presence is there where you were. You were in that space of.
Speaker: receiving and the loving. If you had been in a different space, it would have felt different. Right. orderly Totally. That's right. I guess in that case, again, it was. It almost felt like that may have just been.
Speaker: the plan for for my life at that time for those that believe in something like a reincarnation, for example, that we hear more than once. I just felt like that was the time for that. But it was what was installed was that sense of spacious safety and sacredness. so And I had that experience. A couple of times, another major, I'll go to.
Speaker: Too much necessarily. I don't want to take up all of our time on that, but. I had... that Everything is God experience in the Alps of Germany after being a spiritual, you know, new age. spiritual seeking a kid for a number of years how it just bliss chasing, chasing these unbelievable energetic experiences, you what they call kundalini experiences in the body. ah experience other types of working with healing energies.
Speaker: I wanted to... have this amazing experience in the Alps of Germany. in the year 2000. And I actually ended up fasting for many, many days. It was like 33 days of fasting, including seven days with no food or water, which is medically impossible.
Speaker: But during those days in the German Alps, I was doing this. i was a few times a day just feeling these wonderful comfortable energetic hands going up and down my body like i really felt supported but are one of the days Maybe the fifth day of no food or water. like day 16 for me i think personally if No food.
Speaker: I felt weak, and I went back to my my hotel room. It was just like 12 of us in this... this can be chalet on the Austrian border in the German Alps. if we had the whole place to ourselves to do this you know Living on. energetic light retreat.
Speaker: And. I felt quite weak. I made down I closed my eyes and literally at that point I felt like I was cradled in universal mother arms it's like and when you have that and you feel so safe it and doesn't have to be that can just be just a very subtle soft peaceful spaciousness, but that was very palpable.
Speaker: It gives you... a lot of confidence, a lot of support. I actually at that moment, I opened my eyes. and Everything was gone. I look at the doorknob, my body, the book, everything is.
Speaker: God. It's i almost like telepathically everything's talking to you. Again, whatever. God is. where we were With a thin barb, a thin shank, that's more important. It doesn't matter if it's a beard or sandals or not. But it was just this set ah an unbelievably holy moment. And at that point, I decided, okay, I want to stop being this spiritual seeker, as cool as it was. I went to so -called. arrive.
Speaker: And that's when I follow found Eckhart Tolle's book, The Power of Now. And when I got back home, I just started doing. following some of the guidance and combining it with some of my own technique. that's one in 2003 i had that moment of waking up in the morning and It was that defensive.
Speaker: the peace that passeth all understanding from the Bible. this transcendent peace which cannot be described was just moved to the front of my experience and i went walked upstairs and told my mom i'm not searching anymore and since 2003 i've been what they call a spiritual awakening, which is since then I don't even though I love the I still have this very silly enthusiastic. avatar personality called Chris, but it's a costume that I put on. and put off all day which we all need to do
Speaker: If we can begin to see our identity, the me and my story character, this is my life, my beliefs, my history, my my wants, my needs. as more of a... as a video game avatar or skin i guess as the younger people these days.
Speaker: ah you um but In Fortnite. Yeah, those Fortnite games. Your skin, right? They call it skin, yeah. Yeah, that's right. yeah so I've got teenagers, I know. Yeah, exactly. so if you can call it So this personality that I have, I love using it to interact with the world.
Speaker: But it doesn't feel like me. I don't feel like Chris. And that's not with not even one ounce of rejection of Chris. I i am not Chris. just said Chris is this this wonderful avatar that I use. But I feel like this.
Speaker: sacred, peaceful... vibrantly alive stillness that's what that feels like the core of what i am and that's what maybe is associated with a so -called spiritual awakening or shift in consciousness so that you still make use of the the miraculous tool called thinking and this wonderful personality avatar, just this costume.
Speaker: But you... Put it on it, put it off all day so you don't suffer so much because you're just using it to interact. You're not using it to identify with. You're not using it to keep you with the servant, which is designed for the larger. mostly the surface of reality.
Speaker: and inhibit the experience of depth. Although in my workshops, I do go. work with the body so people can go through the body to experience beyond the body with a greater sense of their own sacred vastness.
Speaker: You know, as you're saying this, I'm thinking of the part of identity because something that. a lot of us when we're grieving and different aspects of our grief. One of the things that shifts the most is the element of identity. When there is a grief in that aspect of what was to then.
Speaker: is I even talk about it with becoming a mother. I was was grieving that transition because now I'm no longer that. Silly free spirited. girl that can just.
Speaker: hop on a plane and go wherever she wants. Now I got. Two children have got to be. responsible for I can't just go out dancing every night I did not that I did in my 20s I did that night I did that in my teens that I didn't do that in my 20s anymore As much. but That part of identity, which is this vessel like yours that we walk around with that we end up.
Speaker: So much. hovering over the identity as a daughter, mother. of these titles that we are and how we interact. How can...
Speaker: The part of. really concentrating on that. of the higher self of our who we are. do you feel can aid us in the process as we're grieving a shift in our identities if by chance We no longer have our parent. So wait, am I not a daughter anymore because I don't have a mother?
Speaker: Am I not a... Right. Am I not a mother anymore because my child died? Am I not a wife you know anymore because my husband died? these titles or things. How?
Speaker: Ken. the real trueness of who we are and focusing on that. Aid in our. grief process. Calm.
Speaker: What helps us? When we... inhabit the present moment with our awareness more fully.
Speaker: We... are we become sort of gradually more and more. detached consciously non -attached. There's no rejection of it.
Speaker: Because we begin to feel. in a greater sense. excel and that it's intelligent. It's always been there, we feel. that there's this abiding presence that is here to support us.
Speaker: It's something that we've never been disconnected from, but weve we become realize that we are. a very expanded being It's just that... by playing this role. out. The little me.
Speaker: largely because we compulsively think because we make an identity out of it. but We don't stop. We don't know how to stop. thinking. And we'll be speaking to feel that, oh, okay, I'm just...
Speaker: I'm more than this. I am. more than just this little i can feel energetically feel in the body that i am more than just this. me and my story personality.
Speaker: That abiding in... present moment. Really, really. out. helps us. What happens is...
Speaker: In grief. as in any crisis. We experience loss. One of the things we are experiencing is. loss of identity or something he identified with. You can grieve because you've lost your house.
Speaker: Human beings, because we make a me out of. forms. primarily beneath my story character in the head. the voice in the head that becomes the BS. We also tend to make a me out of all of our possessions, all of our beliefs, all of our hopes.
Speaker: So all of our, up so we make it, we it just. compulsively we make a habit of anything that we identify as part of my tribe, part of my belief system. My church is part of my family. know um um my my work.
Speaker: My work life is part of my identity because it's part of who I am and what I believe. So all of these different things, the objects, the possessions, my my pets, my family, everything, my plants, it could be anything, my neighborhood, my city.
Speaker: All of these are forms. This is object consciousness, everything happening at that. the surface level of of existence. It is just the nature of the mind. to want to know, okay, what is mine and what is somebody else's? We want to make that.
Speaker: what What is here and what is over there? So it's just something we naturally do when the mind is in. It's thinking mode. It's always comparing, contrasting. try to identify who Who and what is part of your tribe, so to speak?
Speaker: and who and what is not part of your tribe. It's just something that we we naturally do. when the mind is engaged when we can quiet the mind through cultivating. present moment awareness. all of a sudden it's like someone just removed. the virtual reality goggles oh wow okay there's a lot more to it i can't really see it the way and perceive it the way I do with my eyes and ears, but there's something there and it's palpable and you feel it.
Speaker: and it does create a spaciousness for you. so you feel like it's easier to... realize okay I am much more than my might my objects. and And often life or my family members or my career or or whatever mother, daughter, father, whatever identity we have.
Speaker: Life often gives us these challenges to teach us that, that you are not these identities. and in fact you you're look you're not even the same body what if they every seven to ten years all of your cells change your beliefs you have now aren't they what they were 20 years ago so you've already know how to experience change But what life will do is offer us crises, present crises.
Speaker: to to make us realize okay you are not these things all of these things will pass all physical forms are temporary but If you begin to notice that, you start noticing it from a part of you that is eternal.
Speaker: we can say and if when you begin to feel that and you can take comfort and reassurance in that okay there's something that feels permanent, eternal, but it's not just not it's not form, it's ah energetic, but it's something you can... perceive within you.
Speaker: all of a sudden you notice that just like thoughts, your identities can come and go just as easily and that you're okay. And... the crisis process, the grieving process. ironically helps us with the lesson that we are much more than we think we are.
Speaker: Also, When you're in the present moment, you're not focused so much on. Fix - I'm a mother. you know I'm a survivor. Ah. i am i am i am this uh occupation i am a teacher you know i'm i'm a i'm a fireman I'm a believer in this religion. We turned everything into nouns.
Speaker: It is much more rigid. and trying to create this. illusion of permanence because We at some level sense our impermanence and so we use our language and our rules. to manufacture this false sense.
Speaker: but sort of comforting sense of continuity. So I am this. When in truth, All we're ever doing is we're relating to each other in the moment. So it's like, I am really mothering. So even if you're no longer a mother, you can always still be mothering, fathering.
Speaker: So relate instead of... the you know honey let's talk about the relationship it's like this big third thing in the room that scares everyone No, we're just relating as opposed to relationships. So don't turn it into a verb.
Speaker: And the present moment helps us with that. Whatever role you're playing in the moment, do it. so you're never fixed to an identity but you never completely lose it um No matter what. no matter what it is that you love in some way in the moment you can Relate.
Speaker: So not relationship. or a fixed label but you are we are relating and all of a sudden we can softly put that down and then we are just potential for everything again and maybe we softly play another role and we put down that that disguise that costume. And then we gently put another roll without getting too fixed. to it when we feel that softer.
Speaker: Take care. consciousness or presence within or that spirit within We begin to feel that more eternal aspect of us. We feel. less afraid about letting go of these. temporary identities that we try to turn into something permanent when they're not.
Speaker: Boom. As you're saying that, I'm thinking of the times we got to experience being on stage together, even when I was in eighth grade, yeah eighth grade, we did West Side Story at school and you as a teacher were. part of it too.
Speaker: So. ah So for there, for example. That role was a role. You left it on. It was on the stage. You're interacting. You're interacting with the other people on stage as your character.
Speaker: And when you get off, you're you. in the same way here, right? We are interacting with these. Okay. That makes. for me in that. with my theater mind. That makes.
Speaker: so much sense in that way. Yeah, we get so attached to these labels. I always say, I'm not, I know I'm not these. I know I'm not these labels. And it's these labels that end up trapping us and end up sometimes Yeah, trapping us and making us think. I'm like, the moment I'm not that, it's as if I'm not something. but It isn't. It's just...
Speaker: So. to label. it It's a label. or and so And my idea here is, again, it's amazing how I end up teaching the neuroscience and biology of these things that I never planned to. I'm not an expert, but... Um,
Speaker: there is safety. And. Um, knowing what our role is. I spend my so much of my life teaching. you are not who you think you are you are not this just exclusively this surface personality this surface character there's more to you You're not a a completely separate individual. We are all connected. I ended up teaching these things.
Speaker: but even biologically speaking what we do is when we're not busy working with our hands or active we go into kind of just this I'll use a buffering mode because they call it the default mode network. it's kind of like the this the neuroscience way of describing what i would call the the egoic condition of ah compulsively.
Speaker: the The addiction of thought will that we compulsively identify with, we can't stop thinking. It kind of blocks our awareness of something more subtle. but we're supposed to by design biologically. to kind of just when we're just kind of daydreaming or just or into creative mode or just to We're not busy.
Speaker: navigating what's happening i know currently. fixing things writing things driving walking whatever we're doing we go into what's called default mode network and We go. deeply into what's called self -referential thinking.
Speaker: we go into We emphasize episodic memory. We emphasize theory of mind and social cognition. Meaning that... We kind of step back from the things we were doing in the tribe, so to speak, or with our family or whoever, you know.
Speaker: Uh, our colleagues are. And we try to put what we've just done and what we're going to do. into... context okay this is who i am this this is why this is we rationalize this is why i did that um Oh, I did this first. Then I'm going to do this. Then I'm going to do that. I'm going to let everyone know this is who I am. This is my LinkedIn. This is. My verbal length of my resume.
Speaker: We're always justifying and rationalizing. We're always... thinking about what we've just done. We're also thinking about why someone else did something else. of Only very few species on the planet have theory of mind. The capacity...
Speaker: to put ourselves in the ah and the position of another what are they what are they thinking about me right now I want to know. ah you know What are they thinking about the world? Why do we want to put our lives in this past, present, future.
Speaker: Story. And why do we want to know what they are thinking? This is all part of the so -called default mode network. Why do we do this? One of the main reasons is we want to be as predictable. and as possible. if you are predictable. Everyone knows you're a known quantity.
Speaker: You're safe. and therefore i can probably allow you to continue to be in my tribe or or I accept you into my so -called tribe. This is old hardware programming. Why we want to know what they're thinking, because we want to know, do they like me? Do they approve of me? Am I safe around this person?
Speaker: So. legibility, be able to read. other people being able to read you. or you were able being able to read others. for the purposes of predictability and safety when it gets back down to...
Speaker: biological aspect of it. is a huge part. of why we do these things and and yet this a lot of the spiritual path is you kind of quiet that and let go of that and and and detach from it but it's part of what we Dude. The reason it keeps functioning too much. Because we need the default mode network, but it's too much. We make it a costume of personality out of it. We can call it ego if you want.
Speaker: Um... is precisely because Uh... We haven't. trained ourselves to concentrate. Thanks. focus the mind on. doing anything else like like concentration or meditation or contemplation practices.
Speaker: Everyone else around us is doing that. and this compulsive thinking that we do. And we were not really designed to. constantly do it. two lots, like there's a certain point that's good. but even science shows that if you end up into like a negative form of rumination Lost in your yourself. anxiety much Yeah.
Speaker: yeah And we do it. uh because this compulsive thinker that affects all of humanity. Which is dysfunctional. maybe almost we can say a little crazy if you want but strong ah mental mental illness even the healthiest of us The body feels unsafe. and which propels us back into the survival travel brain.
Speaker: at where it emphasizes this, okay. Everyone in my tribe has to know me. So I know we're more than just. tribal beings, you know? with but This actual. Too much rumination.
Speaker: Compulsive thinking, over -identification with the self. makes us dysfunctional. and and we So, okay, alert, there's a problem. I'm not functioning. optimally. let's retreat back to the survival brain there's potentially an imminent threat which then just reinforces the whole biological or neuroscience emphasis of these things that we do.
Speaker: and de -emphasizes the part of us that is. kind of aware that we are sort of subtly connected. va gri connected to each other. our loving collaborative caring sharing empathetic side our healed side.
Speaker: All that gets suppressed on a daily basis. to these survival things unintentionally and unconsciously. i I love that you mentioned empathetic because that's the part I was going to ask.
Speaker: Because as you're saying, as we're observing others and we're like, what are they thinking of us? But a lot of times our interactions is more. How are they feeling and putting ourselves into somebody else's?
Speaker: but that So that when the empathetic side shows up, that's more. from our higher being. And when the judgmental side shows up, Then it's from our. From our. For some reason.
Speaker: Yeah, that let's say it to understand it, it's a nice clean way to and to make a distinction. The whole universe is contrast and distinction by definition. it's The only way we can exist or learn is there's opposites. and so we sometimes we clear black and white contrasts and distinctions in any on any any subject or issue to clearly delineate okay this is this is ah that is that However, in reality there's some gray you know
Speaker: areas there in the way in terms of it's also practical for some people that just have had a lot of abuse or trauma. that they can be empathetic in one way but and a lot of it and they're not aware of it is simply because it's also survival. mechanism for them to be it's so empathetic, you know? It's part of their identities. I'm a very caring person.
Speaker: but they're not aware that a good chocolate is simply be because they had to be really good. at reading others and reading themselves to protect themselves. Ironically, But for a clean ah description, like I make the description between the survival travel brain that we have on one side.
Speaker: and our loving, nurturing, empathetic collaborative side on the other side. And. I have like ah on my. Instagram and YouTube and and take care. One of them is like, you know, why the world is so... In 37 seconds. And I get it. I get into this, but basically.
Speaker: Because of this egoic condition, the compulsive thinker, constantly ruminating, constantly thinking, Um, makes us dysfunctional. We retreat to our survival tribal brain. we retreat to the this was biological primitive tribal programming And...
Speaker: We actually also... Start to favor. favor. Rigid hierarchies? Domination? Submissiveness. deception, aggression, expediency It's extreme in -group versus out -group behavior. So we all that we're dealing with here are symptoms and we're actually...
Speaker: According to not just what's happening, like grief at a personal level. but grief collectively, the suffering or how they're we're experiencing. At a human level, all of it stems from this. Over -identification with the default mode network is the ultimate identification with the skin, the the costume that we wear.
Speaker: that actually she makes us dysfunctional and we begin to literally see the world. Oh, maybe there is an imminent threat. Because in an imminent threat, Pat Kendra, Domination and aggression are unbelievable survival strategies. Deception. camouflage, but in the form of human beings lying to ourselves and deceiving others.
Speaker: Um, It's a wonderful survival. strategy. right so even submissions being the follower but of ah a blind follower of a leader can be an important survival strategy, as can extreme in -group versus out -group.
Speaker: ah judgments about others, but it's these personalities. Great for surviving an imminent threat. really not so good for producing a healthy society. We suppress our loving collaborative sharing sites so much.
Speaker: So like what's happened over the years is i'm not just I don't just work with individuals who want to. work on softening their attachment to their personality and experience a spiritual awakening or just experience more love and more peace in their lives.
Speaker: But I also work with people that are suffering and grieving because the world is in so much pain. The world is so mad. And they wonder, why is the world this way? and they And we do, we blame, we blame our keys and isms. We blame, well, it's sexism, it's racism, it's capitalism, it's totalitarianism, it's patriarchy, it's oligarchy.
Speaker: Even those things are all symptoms. So I've been trying to get to the root cause. of personal and global suffering. I like it. so good no it's so good yeah that's in the in because a lot of times in we end up focusing so much outwardly. of what's going on out there.
Speaker: And. Like you said, even for yourself and your own journey, you're like, oh, I'm going to then do this to fix. But really, we have the power. of creating change. If we work even within, we will have. in effect.
Speaker: on the global. ah way and how everything interacts. i I did a little mini. solo episode on that. At one point, it was like we are part of it. of the ecosystem of humanity so us shifting how we feel and our taking care of our own nervous system, everything.
Speaker: can have an effect on everything else. You wanted me to make sure that I reminded you regarding today we're recording. It's March 4th. And you wanted me to remind you of the date because...
Speaker: ah Well, actually, by the way, I didn't say happy birthday. Your birthday was yesterday as we're speaking. March 3rd. OK, thank you so much. So then March 4th and in terms of the. Moving and walking. Yeah, because i well March 4th is a date. but it's also a phrase to march forth marching forth moving ahead, moving onward.
Speaker: for because obviously a lot of this um our discussion does relate to grief. And one of the. the things we need to do. Again, it's practical and it can be really difficult.
Speaker: um to help us. you know move on from grief you know we don't want to Move on too quickly. just When we're ready, everyone it's in their own time. But there is there is. ah a moment for everyone and it'll be easier to know that moment If we're feeling...
Speaker: a little bit stronger. ah physically, for example. Literally marching forward, march forth.
Speaker: The human body is designed to move. We. Most of us. culturally as a species have associated comfort with. Sedentary living. We sit down.
Speaker: You know, we lie down in bed, we sit down in the chair. Then from our chair, we go to our chair with wheels. to get to our office chair. uh and then then over to the the lunch chair or for taking a flight well you're taking the taxi the chair with wheels to the flying chair.
Speaker: And we when we're... in the functional freeze or we're grieving we're suffering we don't really want to move sometimes I can't move and it's totally okay if you can't. But the reminder is.
Speaker: That. Biologically, we were designed to move so if you can just get up and even just putter around a bit with no purpose. physically move the body if you can do exercise great but if you don't like doing anything former Formal, just move the body.
Speaker: Science now knows not only just by moving the body we produce. dopamine, serotonin, endorphins. What's it called? certain kind of cannabinoids too so you don't even have to so -called get high, you know you the body will produce these things.
Speaker: Alright. Muscle contraction. produces what they call myokines. So in other words, the muscles in the body and the contracting muscles. is part of the endocrine system now they're discovering producing hormones.
Speaker: So and these myokines produce what they call the happy hormone, that the happiness molecule. So. I know sometimes it is so difficult just to move the body for a purpose, to go to just walk over to the store and pick up some milk or just for no reason at all.
Speaker: Move the body, contract the muscles. you're producing some of the happiness and molecules that we all need to help us. for however long at the grieving takes. March 4th, everyone. March 4th. Yeah, move, move, move your body. Move your agree through. And for some, like for myself, like I don't like to say like moving on from the grief because we just move.
Speaker: forward with it. It's just, you're carrying a different. when we're moving forward. It's going to feel different in our body. And it won't be as heavy. So. with With that, as we're wrapping up, I want to...
Speaker: first. ask you, how do people get a hold of you? So you're an author. You do these workshops. Do you do them online, in person? Share more about this and how people can connect with what you do.
Speaker: Right, great. so um You can see some of the things I do on URPs on Instagram with the letter U and an A -R -E -P. So I'll send that to you. so I couldn't get the Y -O -U.
Speaker: on on on Instagram, but on TikTok, I got it. so it's Y -O -U like the name of the book you have there. You are peace. So both of you are peace on Instagram and TikTok, but on Instagram is with the letter U.
Speaker: And it's Chris Papadopoulos on YouTube. And I think it's that Chris piece. Chris, peace now. Chris Peace Now, like peace in the present moment. Chris Peace Now on one. work. um And I'm...
Speaker: thinking possibly of even just leaving. If anyone wants to contact me directly, I can even leave my WhatsApp. i've been working a lot more with just one -on -one video and audio calls and whatsapp and people are happy with it So I'd be happy to leave my WhatsApp with you, Kendra, and people can contact me directly because I do do individual sessions.
Speaker: And I also do some workshops on I can. through WhatsApp too, if anyone has. a little group i can arrange workshops with them online. And then... look in your city or stay in touch with me and i can let you know if i'm ever coming to your city and i do do some and retreat and workshop. Wow.
Speaker: That's perfect. And the end if you go on Instagram and then DM you or whatever, and then at that point, pass your your WhatsApp, that probably works. And I know like WhatsApp is really common in our country, in Colombia, like that's like how we communicate. true But yeah, and so it's... Fabulous.
Speaker: Now, I always like to, and and we could continue this conversation for a long time because I still want to know more about this. But I want to make sure that you get to share anything that I might have not. asked through the interview if you'd like to share with the audience as be.
Speaker: Finish off. Actually, yes, because we were as your podcast talks about grief and gratitude. And to me, Underlying both of those experiences is love.
Speaker: I... The name of my book is URP. So basically what I'm teaching is that the room you're in is literally saturated with this. piece that passeth all understanding, but we just block awareness from it.
Speaker: The same thing with love. it To me, they are just like two different faces. two different facets on a diamond from the one shining light. and that the world or the universe is like this this diamond and depending on how the light refracts to it can come as wisdom. or creativity.
Speaker: or joy or love or peace but it's the same one wonderful energy But for our practical purposes, sometimes we want to know what it it is and and feel more peace or feel more love.
Speaker: And when it comes to gratitude, you'll notice because i do a lot of this will work on individual and group basis Again back into the body trying to get people to feel their bodies because you can only feel your body now so you can't feel this on Friday. You can't feel this 10 minutes ago. what this point of contact right now is your contact with the present moment.
Speaker: This just feeling your your body without judgment, without reactivity. to do it safely because some people are very you know uncomfortable entering their bodies so you take your time and when you can safely just Feel your body?
Speaker: Enter the present moment. This quiets the mind you begin to experience. ah you can experience a deeper intelligence, you can experience maybe a subtle peace or a subtle love. that Always.
Speaker: here. gratitude Like love. like other. opens physically opens the heart area, the chest area. So this is very practical.
Speaker: And you can actually practice it with a neutral image. You can use a negative image, but I don't want to traumatize anyone. But in some of my workshops, I'll use a negative image, a neutral image, and a loving image. You're not comfortable with a negative image. You can use a neutral image like of a wall or a chair, something you have no attachment to, whatever. whatever And then...
Speaker: Have a loving image. It could be of someone or something. you Absolutely love. and there's no fear like oh my god i'm afraid of losing that person no it's an absolutely unconditional flowering open love.
Speaker: And it's... Go back and forth between the neutral image you have in your head. and a loving image. with your attention mostly in your body how it makes your body feel maybe Bye. tingle in your body a feeling of expansiveness but in particular because this is one of the primary portals for the experience of our collective oneness which what love ultimately is the felt sense of the felt recognition of our collective oneness.
Speaker: you can feel it most easily in what's also called so -called heart area You literally feel the chest expanding and opening and closing like the pupils of the eye to light. the hardest opening and closing all day.
Speaker: I am not this, I am this I don't like this. I like this. More of this, less of that. Yes, no. And so when you can learn to kind of just safely have the heart area open more.
Speaker: Often. you are reproducing the same powerful effect that gratitude does, or just loving your neighbor, loving the world, loving yourself does. If I have some clients. They hate the world. They hate their neighbor, and they hate themselves. They say, oh, Chris, I can't love it. Help me. what You want me to open my heart, and I can't feel it.
Speaker: Well, you can at least... Make it mechanical. If you can't love your neighbor, love yourself or love the world. you know, Maybe a loving image in your head for someone or something. I think we just love your bone. Love this lovely vehicle for all the challenges that it has.
Speaker: you can at least mechanically, technically just learn. open the heart area and you will still receive great benefits because This energy of love, of gratitude, it's not just energy, it's intelligence. You can actually have a relationship with love itself.
Speaker: I have a relationship not with a person or a thing. It's the universal intelligence of love it itself. And this energy of love is integrative. which means All of the problems in our life.
Speaker: Fragment us physically, emotionally, and psychologically. And now... is the counterweight It is the integrative energy that... You. when we fragment too much emotionally, psychologically.
Speaker: beautiful beautiful way to end thank you again this was christopher papadopoulos Chris, thank you. We're opening up. Your heart chakra here to us and in gratitude.
Speaker: I am grateful to you. as well for being here. Lovely to see you, Candice. Thank you so much.
Speaker: Thank you again so much for choosing to listen today. I hope that you can take away a few nuggets from today's episode that can bring you comfort.
Speaker: in your times of grief. If so, it would mean so much to me if you would rate and comment on this episode. And if you feel inspired in some way to share it with someone.
Speaker: who may need to hear this, please do so. Also, If you or someone you know has a story of grief and gratitude that should be shared so that others can be inspired as well. please reach out to me.
Speaker: And thanks once again for tuning in to Grief, Gratitude, and the Gray in Between podcast. Have a beautiful day.
