Karen and I can’t tell you the number of times the word and concept of embodiment has come up in conversation over the last several months. So many times, that we looked at each other and said – embodiment is THE concept for 2023. And then synchronistically we met Maureen Pelton! She is the co-Founder of ShiftIt Institute, a behavioral scientist and a pioneer in the field of, you guessed it…EMBODIMENT. She is also a mystic, spiritual activator, wife, mother, intuitive, integrative psychotherapist, executive coach, teacher, and energy worker with over 35 years of professional experience.
Maureen has dedicated her life to shifting the consciousness of humanity and institutions. She is a highly sought after consultant among entrepreneurs, tech leaders, and people on the path of awakening. As a paradigm shifter, Maureen has led and developed courses, programs and retreats for universities, healthcare systems, and corporations.
She is also an operating partner at Bridge Builders Collaborative which helps to fund companies creating mind-training, mental health, and consciousness solutions through technology.
We're also talking about spiritual bypassing, toxic positivity and living multi-dimensionally.
It's a conversation your soul needs to hear!
To find out more about working with Maureen and the ShiftIt Institute visit www.shiftit.com.
You can also find embodiment meditations from Maureen on insighttimer.com/mysticbridge.
Visit theseekingcenter.com for more from Robyn + Karen, plus mega inspo -- and the best wellness + spiritual practitioners, products and experiences on the planet!
You can also follow Seeking Center on Instagram @theseekingcenter.
Karen and I can’t tell you the number of times the word and concept of embodiment has come up in conversation over the last several months. So many times, that we looked at each other and said – embodiment is THE concept for 2023. And then synchronistically we met Maureen Pelton! She is the co-Founder of ShiftIt Institute, a behavioral scientist and a pioneer in the field of, you guessed it…EMBODIMENT. She is also a mystic, spiritual activator, wife, mother, intuitive, integrative psychotherapist, executive coach, teacher, and energy worker with over 35 years of professional experience.
Maureen has dedicated her life to shifting the consciousness of humanity and institutions. She is a highly sought after consultant among entrepreneurs, tech leaders, and people on the path of awakening. As a paradigm shifter, Maureen has led and developed courses, programs and retreats for universities, healthcare systems, and corporations.
She is also an operating partner at Bridge Builders Collaborative which helps to fund companies creating mind-training, mental health, and consciousness solutions through technology.
We're also talking about spiritual bypassing, toxic positivity and living multi-dimensionally.
It's a conversation your soul needs to hear!
To find out more about working with Maureen and the ShiftIt Institute visit www.shiftit.com.
You can also find embodiment meditations from Maureen on insighttimer.com/mysticbridge.
Visit theseekingcenter.com for more from Robyn + Karen, plus mega inspo -- and the best wellness + spiritual practitioners, products and experiences on the planet!
You can also follow Seeking Center on Instagram @theseekingcenter.
Robyn: [00:00:00] I'm Robyn Miller Brecker,
Karen: and I'm Karen Loenser. Welcome to seeking center. The podcast,
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Robyn: Karen, and I can't tell you the number of times the word and concept of embodiment has come up in conversation over the last several months. So many times that we looked at each other and said, embodiment Is the concept for 2023. And then synchronistically. We met [00:01:00] Maureen Pelton.
She is the co-founder of Shift It Institute, a behavioral scientist and a pioneer in the field of, you guessed it, embodiment. She is also a mystic, spiritual activator wife, mother, intuitive, integrative psychotherapist, executive coach, teacher, and energy worker. With over 35 years of professional experience, Maureen has dedicated her life to shifting the consciousness of humanity and institutions. She is a highly sought after consultant among entrepreneurs, tech leaders, and people on the path of awakening. As a paradigm shifter, Maureen has led and developed courses, programs and retreats for universities, healthcare systems and corporations.
she is also an operating partner at Bridge Builders Collaborative, which helps to fund companies creating mind training, mental health and consciousness solutions through technology. There is so much to discuss. Let's get going. Hi, Maureen.
Maureen: Hi, Maureen. Hi. That is
Robyn: quite the intro,
Karen: What goes through your mind when we [00:02:00] go through all of that experience? In terms of looking at your life and what you've accomplished.
Maureen: What goes through my mind is how odd I am in some ways but. In today's world, cuz as you said, I've been at this for over 35 years, I'm becoming more normal
And I think about my mom used to say to me, oh, you just go to the beat of a different drummer. And that's the truth. I have since I can remember so listening to that it is a lot. But it is how my life, as I would say, meandered, I live in synchronicity and synergy and it's what's emerged and unfolded.
. we're
Robyn: excited to dive into that more, but let's start with embodiment.
Maureen: It's interesting in listening to the introduction, you're right, I am hearing that term myself so much more these last year or two. Although I've been deeply involved in it for a very long time, and I don't know that there is an easy definition of it [00:03:00] out there.
Where I come from, it's very deep and expansive in terms how to describe what embodiment is. So if I could be so bold as to explain what it means to me and to others I'm not alone in this.
and I'll try to do it as simply as possible, but as we know today, we are energy, like quantum physics, quantum mechanics, many different fields of science are really starting to understand and validate that we are energy. And we have a physical form, which is our body, which is energy at a, let's just say a denser state,
And then we have our spirit, or our essence, or our soul, which is in the body, And so hopefully , it's in the body. . , so the human experience as I see it, is we are energetic beings in physical form, having a human experience, and we are vibrations. We really are vibrating and we are engaging in the world through our vibration.
So [00:04:00] we send out energy and we receive energy. And so for me, embodiment is really bringing our true nature, our essence, our sound, our vibration into the body. the challenge with that is from the moment of conception, we are being entrained, we are being conditioned, and we are absorbing in our body.
Carl Jung said, when our mind can't handle, our body absorbs. And so we are absorbing into our body. Beliefs, narratives, wounds, trauma, intergenerational trauma. All of this is in our body and. Bessel VanDerKolk, maybe you've heard of him, wrote a fabulous book called The Body Keeps the Score. He's a trauma expert.
So you know what we're really starting to understand? After spending a long time studying the brain, and there's still a lot to study, we're starting to understand that the body actually is really significant. And so it's moving beyond the brain and into the body. And I want to remind [00:05:00] listeners that the brain's job is to collect data, sort data, analyze data, and disseminate data.
Now that data doesn't mean it's true. It doesn't. It is just what we hear, maybe see what's being shown to us and it's our job. To discern it, to analyze it, and to decide if it's a correct for us. And the way to do that is by being in our bodies, because our bodies, through our senses, through our feelings, through our movement, they tell us what is correct for us, what is true for us.
But so many of us are what I call, living above the neck. And we're just focused on that data and we're overthinking it. And we're not really experiencing our true nature, our intrinsic wholeness, our intuition, our wisdom, because that's in our bodies. And I just read an article the other day about I think it was in quantum mechanics, about how they're discovering the heart.
And the brain and how they communicate and the [00:06:00] impulses. And we already know there are more impulses coming from the heart to the brain than the brain to the heart. But they're starting to see it more in the quantum field. So this piece about embodiment is really about being fully in our bodies and aware and alive, and not in our heads, not thinking, but actually being.
And that's why we talk about presence. And so presence is that present moment awareness. When we're in our body and we're sensing, we're feeling, we're touching, all of our senses are alive, and we are experiencing the world around us. We're not thinking the world around us. There's thought based knowledge and experience-based awareness.
So to me is embodiment. But the work of becoming embodiment is another story that we can talk about. , I think that actually leads us to the next
Karen: question, how do we live that?
Maureen: So embodiment is messy work of evolving consciousness. Embodiment means that we need [00:07:00] to what I would call, have our personal sovereignty, be sovereign in our bodies.
And in order to do that, we have to clean out the wounds, the beliefs, the narratives, the triggers, the baggage that we're holding in our body. We actually have to clean that out, and that's messy, hard work of getting in the body and feeling, sensing, knowing, and moving through it. , the body is actually our precious vehicle.
we're oriented more towards controlling it and thinking it's supposed to be a certain way, when really it's this precious vehicle that we move through that allows us to impact this world. Our brilliance impact this world through our bodies. But I've said this to my children if you are in physical form, I don't know of any person on the planet, the 8 billion of us in physical form that doesn't have some form of limitation, whether it's physical, emotional, mental, energetic, or some combination. Nobody in physical form is perfect. That's part of the human [00:08:00] experience. . So moving through those limitations, moving through those restrictions is part of the embodiment process. But to do that, we have to love our bodies. We have to accept our bodies, we have to understand, even if it's a limitation, we can still work with it and we can still move through it.
And for a lot of people that's hard. That's why they stay above the neck. They don't want to be challenged by the limitations in the body or the beliefs or the conditioning or the stories. So it's messy work. That's the thing that people have to understand. It's worth it. It's beautiful, but it's messy work.
And don't you think a lot
Karen: of people forget about. The body part of the mind, body, spirit, right? Yeah. So often we're so condition we reach so hard to be spiritually, energetic, balanced, all of that. And yet we forget that connection of the brain and the body. And if we don't, in a way intervene, we're just letting all that messaging process without really trying to understand what, the [00:09:00] physicality of the imprint that it's leaving on us, that it's trying to tell us. It's trying to give us those messages of what we need to work on.
Maureen: Exactly. Yeah. And I think I have a couple really good examples of that. I've worked with, people they're adults, but they've come from pretty toxic childhoods, And I don't mean like abuse, I just mean lots of toxic behavior. And they didn't know any better and they tolerate it, and then they become adults and this has happened to several people.
They're in relationship and the relationships are toxic because they don't know any different. and they start having physical issues like nausea when they're with the person or actually throwing up when they're with the person or back pain, and they stop and they start to realize, wait a minute, this only happens when I'm in this toxic environment.
My body is actually trying to warn me. And if I stop tolerating toxic behavior and I start setting healthy boundaries with inappropriate behavior and maybe not have these people in my life, my physical health gets better. I don't have nausea or throw up or [00:10:00] whatever. That's one example. So our body does try to tell us, and another example is, and it's probably happened to all of you, , you're in a really good mood.
Everything feels good. You have lunch with a friend or a colleague or even a family member who's really depressed. And then after the lunch you go back to your day and you're like low energy. And you're like, why? what? And then you realize, oh, I just absorbed, I didn't stay in my joy. I just met them in their depression and I absorbed that.
And how do I shift back cuz it's not actually mine. Is another really good example. And myself personally have had limits with my body. Like I wanted to have a child and I had all of these miscarriages and I really had a challenge. I finally was able to have one child, miraculously.
But I had to really look at my attachment to having my child. I had to look at my control over wanting to have a ch all of this stuff had to come up for me to finally get to a place of, oh, I'm not in [00:11:00] charge here. I may or may not be able to have a child and I have to let go. And if it happens.
And miraculously it did. I could go on and on about examples. The body really has a lot of wisdom , and it provides us with a lot of opportunity to really grow and evolve and increase our consciousness. And
Robyn: I wanna say to that example that you gave, which I agree, I think most people can relate to in terms of that you start your day and you're in this high vibration feeling good.
And then you go and whether it's a meeting or a lunch with someone who isn't at that same level and they're maybe spending a lot of the time complaining or, you down and if if most people recognize that it's that discrepancy of energy or that you picked up that and you can also, make a point to get rid of it.
there are different practices, but you can then restore your [00:12:00] own high level again but just the acknowledgement and that awareness, and maybe next time you recognize it more quickly ,
Maureen: yeah, but I would also add, cuz of the example I used, the person was just depressed. They were just down.
Yeah. When you really become embodied. When you sit in that meeting or that lunch and they are in that space, you immediately know. and you can consciously, cuz you, you feel it in your body. You can consciously keep your vibratory rate high, still engage with them. They're not bad or wrong, they're just having a hard time.
Yeah. You can engage with them and actually their energy might start to raise during the lunch. Because you're present and you're holding that space. But I also wanna point out that, cuz I used depression as an example, but I also wanna point out toxic positivity, like this is really important.
you could meet someone who's, what I would say, probably spiritual bypassing and we can talk about that. But they have this toxic [00:13:00] positivity and you're talking to them and you are listening to their words and you can see their bubbly, toxic positivity. But in your body it is. Not resonating. There is discordance.
You're like, this is not real. they might be kidding themselves. They might have some facade, but in my body, I know this is not actually in resonance and that can be very toxic. I don't do well in those situations. I have to remove myself because it physically and energetically that actually resonates
Robyn: big time with me.
On our podcast, I don't know that we've ever talked about spiritual bypass, can you define that
Maureen: For people? Yeah. Yes, can. So spiritual bypassing is basically not doing the messy work of embodiment, spiritual bypassing is having the information, having some experiences, having the knowledge, maybe even having the words.
And you are just love and light. Love and light. Positive. And you're [00:14:00] not actually addressing the wounds, the suffering, the pain and transcending it. You're keeping it stuff down. And not always, but oftentimes there's toxic positivity because, If you're not able to meet yourself in those places, it's hard to have empathy for others or compassion for others who are in those places.
And so that's where it becomes toxic positivity, , like someone recently said to me and she's early in her path, but she's oh everything's perfect in the end. I'm like, tell the, to the people in Ukraine
I'm not so sure about that. So I think that toxic positivity, that spiritual bypassing is also a way to try and normalize things that are really painful, because if you're not equipped to deal with your own pain, . It's really hard when there's so much pain in the world to know how to deal with that.
So you just try and rationalize it and say it's all, perfect. In the end. No it's not .
Karen: Especially if you're an empath and if you don't even know you are, those people who just like really feel everything and I include myself in this, where you always wanna kind of swoop [00:15:00] in and fix it or make people feel better and you forget sometimes how much energetically that can take out of you.
Maureen: And I think you bring up a good point I hadn't even thought about, which is the empaths, the empaths more than anyone else on this planet need to be in their body because they're picking up stuff all the time. And so the more you can be in your body and trust what you know, the more choice you have to take care of yourself. And you can, I learned this from the Dalai Lama. Empathy.
Unfortunately, we actually take on, we can absorb the other's emotions, whereas compassion, which is loving kindness, being sent to the person is very different. So we can have empathy fatigue if we're taking on other people's stuff. , but using compassion, which is to send them loving kindness, is actually energizing.
It doesn't drain us. There is no such thing as compassion fatigue, although people use that word sometimes. I can sit with someone or meet someone and know they're suffering and [00:16:00] just send them loving kindness and compassion and acknowledge and say, what do you need? But I do not feel, nor do I behave in a way where I think I need to take that on or fix it.
But most empaths are entrained to think , oh, I need to do something. And that's part of the embodiment. It's actually it's not mine, it's theirs. I can tell them I'm here. I can ask them for what they need. I can acknowledge where they're at, but it's not mine. that's
Robyn: I love thinking of compassion in that way,
I actually hadn't thought of it. in regards to empathy that way , so thank you. and I'm really taking in the way that you've explained embodiment, because it it is resonating with me differently than , I had thought about it.
And what's a practice that someone could start incorporating into their daily lives to start becoming more embodied,
Maureen: more aware? The simplest is breath. we just overlook this. Humans are unconscious breathers.
Our whale and dolphin mammal friends are conscious breathers. They have to [00:17:00] swim to the surface to breathe, then they go back down, then they consciously go back up. We don't have that. We don't even think about our breath. And so really the first practice, and it is the foundation of yoga and mindfulness and meditation and all of that, is simply to be aware of our breath.
Simply be aware of our breath. Simply be aware that we're breathing. Are we breathing into our chest? Are we breathing into our belly? Is it long? Is it short? How does it feel in my body to breathe? Am I holding my breath when I'm stressed and I'm driving in traffic? just to set the intention to be aware of your breath, to notice your breath, to pay attention to your breath.
We start to come more fully into our body and there are so many breath practices out there, and they're all wonderful. And so even. Starting by saying, when I go to bed at night, I'm going to lay on my pillow, turn off the lights, and just breathe consciously for five minutes. And one very easy breath is to breathe in through the nose and out through the [00:18:00] mouth and simply have the exhale be twice as long as the inhale.
So if you inhale for four, exhale for eight. What we know about that breath is it activates the vagal nerve, which then activates the parasympathetic nervous system, which is our rest and relax. So just doing that for five minutes, you have to focus on your breath. You have to focus on counting your breath, and your body starts to relax.
It could help you sleep better when you get up in the morning when you're drinking your coffee, or you're in the shower or whatever you do. Just spend those five minutes focusing on your breath. Paying attention to your breath. Your breath starts directing you more deeply into your body and you start to realize, I'm chest breathing.
That's a stress breath. I need to bring that breath down into my belly. I need to bring that breath expansively into the back of my ribs. That practice in and of itself really starts to help you understand, oh, I do have a body . I do, and it needs breath to be alive. So that's really [00:19:00] important.
I think the other thing I would recommend is, . Simply being aware as you move throughout the day how your body's doing. There are those people who move really fast and crash into things, and there are those other people who move really slow and are very deliberate. I'm not saying any of that is right or wrong, but if you just start paying attention to how you move through your day, again, you'll start to remember you have a body and that it moves and it needs your attention.
And I notice when I have a busier day and I'm running around. . I'm not paying as much a attention to my body. I'm really more in my head, oh my gosh, I gotta do this, I gotta do that, I gotta do this. And my poor body is I need to sit on the couch for a minute and breathe . And so to remember that.
And the other big thing is our physical form is part of nature, part of the earth. And so there's a lot more science today that supports this. But just being out in nature, just walking around in nature really helps us remember we have a body and it's connected to the [00:20:00] earth and to animals. And that feeling of flow and connection can be really helpful.
So those are really simple things we can do every day to help us start to realize, oh, I have a body. It's not just my brain, it's not just my thinking. I actually have this form that is moving throughout my day. So it sounds so funny even
Karen: saying it out loud, doesn't it? That we Yes, like we can be really conscious of the fact like, oh, I've gotta work out today, or I've got to make sure I eat something healthy.
But this whole idea of this body being this really intelligent vessel of emotions and guidance for us all the time. for, people who are listening now, you do a really great meditation on Insight, timer on Flow, which I really love. And it does do just that which you encourage people to go out and look at a river or imagine a river and be the river.
And I love. Visual because it does connect you to earth, but it also connects you to Earth in a way that brings you back to [00:21:00] this organic flow of the way nature has intended, the way nature has intended. It's just so
Maureen: important. It is.
And I wanna remind the listeners that nature is slow to medium and humans. tend to go fast, but our true nature is slow to medium because we're of this earth. So even getting into the rhythm with nature of being slow to medium does help us become more synchronistic and in the flow and easier to manifest than when we're going really fast.
And I know that's hard for some people. It was hard for me years ago when I was slowing down. there's an excitement to the fast .
Robyn: to your point of that, we are meant to be more slow to medium like nature yet over however many, this last century, the last several, we've only been speeding
Maureen: up,
Robyn: because of technology and. , different types of innovations. they get us further and further away from our true nature unless we become more aware. And then start to [00:22:00] embody
Maureen: What
Robyn: what we really are at our very core. Yes.
Karen: , I think something that Robin and I have been talking a lot about coming out of pandemic and the opportunities that it gave us to slow down. We couldn't go out and do many of the things that we wanted to do and all of the lessons that come with that, and now as we've made a little bit more of an introduction of embodiment, moving into 2023 what's your thought on that connectivity going into this new year and this new energy shift?
Maureen: I think we have some choices to make, right?
Do we remember that? I know people don't like to hear this, but do we remember that , we are powerless in the big picture. If Covid taught us nothing, it's that like we are powerless and our personal power comes from. The choices we make each and every moment. So we do have personal power, it's about our choices that we make, but Covid really showed us we're powerless.
This came and Wow. Moving forward as it has been happening of, coming back out of [00:23:00] Covid kind of, and into the world, can we be more aware and thoughtful and choiceful, if that's such a word. And really appreciate that. Our personal power comes from making our choices and to be seeing things from a kind of a place of greater in terms of who we are and what we want and our impact in the world, and how we best wanna live our lives, and do we wanna get back into that rat race and, just keep, cruising along.
Or, as some of these younger people are showing us, they don't want that. Can we actually evolve more consciously and with more awareness to take care of our planet, to take care of ourselves, to take care of each other, and to have the experiences and really have that energetic exchange versus the material.
for me there's a lot we've been doing. Around biofield science and subtle energy and can we start to think of ourselves as energetic beings [00:24:00] engaging in this human experience with each other and make it about that connection? that's one of the things I'm seeing as an investor in the mindfulness and mental wellbeing space for 10 years, is that people really want connection.
This was, I saw this before covid, but people are, because of mental wellbeing and mindfulness and meditation, we've learned some to connect more deeply to ourselves. And since we've found that now we wanna connect more deeply to others and to the planet. And will we choose that, will we choose to really elevate human connection or will we just go back to the Running around and transactional engagements.
That's what I see and that's what I see in this field that we invest in too.
Robyn: from all the conversations that Karen and I have been having over these last few years, the way you just put that makes so much sense in terms of it becomes a choice.
And I think from what we gather, and I think the people that, from an energetic [00:25:00] perspective, we end up being attracted to and vice versa. We're choosing that connection and using that 2020 timeframe, using that which was forced upon all of us
As this reset.
And then for everyone who maybe wasn't aware, to your point what you brought up about younger people, especially . , who maybe either had a taste of what
Maureen: was or didn't at all, ,
Robyn: maybe they just graduated college and they were just getting it. And so they started that whole journey in a different way and see that there's a different way to connect and live your life. , there's we were talking about how 2022, it seemed a theme was around this balance because things were starting to get back to, in quotes, normal in the case of you could be around, more people.
Again, you could start traveling again, but How do you resolve that after coming out of such a different feeling from, 2020 and 2021? I'm with you. What, what will happen? [00:26:00] our hope is that it is for more connection and that , we never go back to what was Which it was more material and superficial. ,
Karen: honestly. . Well, And I think one of the things that we know too, and Bridge Builders knows this better than any, is that technology is actually can be your friend in some of these situations, Where technology can be utilized to create community in a way that maybe it couldn't have before.
It's allowing people to connect globally, even so they don't have to get on a plane, they don't have to be in the same building or neighborhood with other like-minded thinkers, which is a beautiful thing, And being able to even personalize those journeys or what you're looking for in ways that you really can connect and dig deeper just in, conversations like these, or around Zoom calls or however.
And so there has been some shining lights that have actually come out. Of Covid in that sense to really build on more. we were talking about how after New Year's, January 1st, we were inundated with emails by all these new communities and practitioners who wanna get out there and really help others or help create [00:27:00] communities of teaching and learning.
And it's really incredible. And that was not there two years ago. It, wasn't So it seems that there are opportunities now more than ever to go into 2023, with a different understanding, but actually able to capitalize on this technology,
Maureen: And I think also part of the pause we had with Covid, at least this is what I'm seeing, is people coming back out are not gonna tolerate as much. Bull crap.
And that, the need to set boundaries with inappropriate or toxic behavior is, I see it. People are understanding that more deeply. And I think again, the younger kids get this, they are just get it, they're a different generation. Just being able to ask for what we need and not tolerate.
Things that are inappropriate or toxic is really gonna be important part of deep connection. that is one of the things I'm hopeful of. And you mentioned Insight Timer. They did a boundaries challenge a free Boundaries Challenge, 10 day challenge. And [00:28:00] I don't know, they had don't remember exactly, but probably close to a hundred thousand people sign up to do it.
Maybe more because people really want to connect in a more authentic way and they want to know how to do that. and take care of themselves. Boundaries are just about saying, this doesn't work for me, or, I'm not gonna tolerate this behavior. It doesn't mean the other person's bad or wrong, it just means I'm not gonna put up with this.
I'm not gonna work 80 hours a week for nothing. Like whatever it might be. And really set these boundaries so that we start to reorient in a different way. It's not gonna be so transactional and materialistic. We'll see, but that's my hope is that connection, we keep moving in that direction.
Robyn: Yeah. And I think even talking, I honestly, that's a whole other
Maureen: conversation around Yeah. Boundaries. However,
Robyn: I will say for those listening, even concepts, like boundaries, the fact that we're talking about these. .
Maureen: to me, that is
Robyn: already and that over a hundred thousand people [00:29:00] were wanting to understand how to apply that in their own lives.
That's huge. That shows so much hope. And boundaries
Maureen: aren't even a super spiritual
Robyn: term, , No, however, that concept can change your life. I know it changed mine and, I happened to work for Oprah at the time and was around a lot of thought leaders that were influential in teaching me some of these concepts that I wouldn't have known otherwise, and so if we can normalize that which is part of the work that you do with Bridge Builders and investing in a company like Insight Timer and working with them that is shifting consciousness. Yes. And speaking of, can we just talk about your journey because
Maureen: how
Robyn: did you get here?
From the
Maureen: mystical to the social sciences to now? The best way I can describe it is from when I can remember very young, I felt this connection to something greater than myself. I think I came in just knowing the spiritual connection.
, I was just talking to someone about this I didn't get the power over dynamic. I'm more of a shared power. There's [00:30:00] enough for everyone. There's something greater than us. We're all part of something bigger. And so when I was 21, I had a spontaneous mystical experience and I didn't know what it was and it changed my life.
So instead of going to law school, I decided to go to graduate school and study the social sciences because I was looking for context. So I spent my twenties studying all kinds of different modalities and philosophies and religions and practices. And, this was 38 years ago I was doing yoga, which was.
Very new here in the west, meditating studied the course of miracles and just all kinds of stuff. I just couldn't get enough because I wanted context. And then, and then in my thirties I started traveling around the world with a group doing energy work in different places on the planet and really I guess owning my gifts.
but it wasn't until stanzoff grof who was a leading researcher in [00:31:00] psychedelics in the, I dunno, fifties or sixties, who's, he also started holotropic breath work. He's the one who helped me to understand what I had then, and I still have, was a spontaneous mystical experience. And so my passion really is about the integration of moving from duality.
Black, white wrong, good, bad, the patriarchal system into paradox, which is both and it's Not either or, it's both. And and then on into dynamic stillness where we live in synchronicity and synergy and we're embodied as, energetic beings in physical form.
So I've had, the opportunity throughout my career of going deep into. energetic practices and all kinds of different modalities, but also science and the worker with his holiness, the Dali Lama around contemplative practice and the science with that. So it's been very deep and very expansive.
But mostly my guidance has been around this embodiment piece. [00:32:00] We're all a unique signature of vibration and we're here to impact the planet and each other. But in order to do that, we have to come through our bodies. We have to connect from the heart. We have to share that energy and receive that energy.
And so I live multi-dimensionally. It is strange. I'll say that. And I support a lot of people and early on it was people and organizations. Now it's companies and the collective. But in this evolution of consciousness of moving beyond the transactional and the material and the dualistic nature into a much more expansive.
Karen: And when you say you live multi-dimensionally, do you mean you are channeling more of a higher level consciousness and doing your best to bring it down to this earthly experience, is that what you mean?
Maureen: Yeah. For whatever reason, I can see I'm clairvoyant, I'm Claire Audient. I'm Claire Cognizant. I have all of the different abilities, so when I [00:33:00] am engaging, I can, when I say multi-dimensionally, I see the physical person and I see their personality and I can listen to what they're saying, but I also see the energy and I see the beings around them.
Or people have transitioned. I hear. what's not being said? The challenge is when people present, most people, they have a persona. They're showing the world. I do see that, but I also see the real person, which they don't always want me to see. I'm gonna be honest, . But many people do because they want support and connecting with their authentic self.
And then I also just get things of what's happening, in the collective. And when I say multidimensional, it just means I'm not just in this, 3D world. I'm also, my clients and students will dream about me cuz I'm working with them on the astral. Or I might be able, lucid dreaming
there's so many different things. It's [00:34:00] hard to describe. it is just like turning the different frequencies on the radio and I'm accessing different frequencies.
Robyn: I think that's a great visual and I to me it's like you're working at different layers of energy, like to as we started out talking about we are energy, our bodies are energy and outside, there's all other layers of energy around us that are part of who we are. you are able to tap into them,
Maureen: and I think that's the thing is that one of my early teachers in my early twenties said to me, your capacity is quite extraordinary because. You have the structure to bring it through. And I think other people have access to all this, but they don't have any context or structure to bring it through.
So they have weird things happen, but they don't necessarily know how to orient them. So I actually do bring it through and through my body and into my body and one of the things I do, and I've met a few other people like this, is when I'm really working energetically, I belch quite a [00:35:00] bit because I am moving energy, their energy, the energy around us, and it's how my body transmits the energy.
It's like the structure, and this is the embodiment piece. we have to have a fluid structure to bring this through. And I have to say my daughter, her gifts are beyond me. I watched her as, she, was just mind blowing. but I really worked hard with her to teach her how to have the structure so that she could use these gifts and be able to work with them.
And not a lot of people have parents like that, but because I was there and able she was able to stay connected to them and she's in business, but she uses them in her work, in her business. I think it's really about that embodiment piece. How do we.
Stay sane because I also know a few people in my life who have these abilities who ended up in a psych ward for a little while and then got out and got the help and are, gifted people because we don't know what to do with it. And even Stanoff, Grof talks about it. he talks about psychotic [00:36:00] breaks can simply be spiritual emergencies.
So we have to reorient towards all of this. But it's a fascinating way to live. And there's a curse to it too, because I'm not always popular cuz people can't hide. And also I do see dark stuff. you don't get to choose there is dark energy and there is harmful stuff and I have to sometimes engage with that.
That's not fun. But I have the capacity and I do it.
Karen: do you think that there's. More and more people now based on where we're going into 2023, who have the capacity to learn or to enhance the skillsets that they already have. do you see that more and
Maureen: more? Yeah. And what's interesting about that is I tried to teach, I did teach for 15 years way back.
I stopped teaching. I think I 2007, but I tried to teach, but people were not ready. They were not ready. I do think they're ready today. I do think, everyone's gifts are different, but I do think we have the capacity and I [00:37:00] think it's more acceptable. And I think there's more opportunities.
And I actually wouldn't call it teaching. I used to say this, I'm not actually teaching or I'm helping you remember I think there's more out there to help people remember and to get in tune with it and to start playing with it and to start working with it. And, you've heard me say this cuz I talked to you guys.
I don't believe in the term healer. Nobody heals anyone else. That's old paradigm. We heal ourselves. But there are those of us who are there to facilitate hold space, witness. But you really heal yourself. The same thing with this. If you wanna have access to your gifts and your capacity for multi-dimensional living, , then you have to be This is the embodiment piece. You have to clean out the vessel and get in your body. And the more you clean out the vessel and can raise your vibratory rate and access these different levels and bring them through, I really think that's what the human experience is supposed to be. That's just my personal opinion.
People can disagree with me on that. .
Robyn: We agree. Which is why , I know we're [00:38:00] talking to you. And why I feel like there's no coincidence why we've all been connected. Karen and I we are, we're embodying more and more , we're trying to understand and utilize our gifts and clear the vessel out so that we can continue to evolve our own gifts and spirit.
In this lifetime. And also hope to help others awaken to their gifts. Yeah. Yeah. And facilitate healing for themselves. That is definitely,
Maureen: of why we're
Robyn: here. I wanted to ask you for those who may wonder what is a spontaneous, mystical experience, and I'm sure it's different for every person, but I'm wondering if people may wonder, have they ever, I would imagine
Maureen: you would know if you've had one, but
Robyn: what does that
Maureen: mean? so for me it was kind like, I've had several of them.
They're like initiations where you it's a combination of going deep, deep in, but expansive where you're in the oneness or in the bigger picture, and you get. . Things visually, you hear things, it's like a teaching in some ways a download.
And [00:39:00] what I've since learned is that you can reach some of these states using breath work, tropic breath work in particular, but some people use psychedelics or plant medicine to reach these states. I just don't need those things. I can get there on my own for whatever reason. But I do think most people can access this through breath or like I said, plant medicines and psychedelics and what it is.
it isn't meant for you to keep having 'em and having them like some trip. It's really meant to get a download, to get information to get a shift so that you can bring it back in your body and start engaging in the world differently. Like I said my, after my first one, I was like, no, I'm not going to law school.
I know what I need to be doing and I need to go down this path. And my very first spontaneous, mystical, sp experience was actually with the great mother, not the earth mother, the great mother of all, and it, she's not female. She just said to me, I have to come in this way [00:40:00] because we've made God a man and that we're out of balance.
And it's really about moving into that dynamic stillness of the unfolding, the emerging, the synchronicity, the synergy, the. , what we consider more female traits of allowing and unfolding and being, and out of this, heavy duty power over masculine, because that's what we call it, doing and achieving and driving and being like, that isn't, that's not where we can be as a much more in the synchronistic flow.
So I've spent my life since then trying to communicate this integration and integrating it myself and marrying a man who's integrated so that we're integrated in our partnership and kind of being different that level of being and consciousness can be seen. I'm not gonna lecture about it.
I'm more being it so people can go, oh, I want that, or That's interesting, or that's a different way of being. And [00:41:00] shifting out of that duality again, back into the paradox and the dynamic stillness, dynamic stillness is it, for me, it is so dynamic, but it is so still and if you've been there, it's like bliss and we can actually live there.
Karen: do you think that is the reason why more and more people are interested in the psychedelics and the plant medicines now? Yes. They're both ready and they're both willing to have those experiences.
Maureen: Yes. and because they're more open to it and they're more willing, and they know on some deep level and they want to heal themselves or they want to.
Have the experience. I don't mean the psychedelic experience, the human experience of being fully here and aware and present and really enjoying this life regardless of what we're doing. I think more people want that. I think people are more aware that, I don't wanna just trudge through my life.
Robyn: When you mentioned how you worked with your daughter and how you [00:42:00] introduced this to her
Maureen: and ,
Robyn: cause you, you did see these abilities
Maureen: and so forth,
Robyn: being a parent myself and also having a child who's an empath and picking up energy.
Would you ever consider helping other parents how to talk to, or maybe there are questions or support that we can have to raise children that are much more embodied,
Maureen: Yes. I have worked with a lot of parents and way back, I would even do classes with parents, and I definitely have worked with parents and kids. And what I would say to parents is the thing that you could really do that's best if you're really wanting to make space for your child in this way is to do your own work.
And keep doing your own work because I didn't have her till I was 31. So I'd been doing my work for a good 10, 11 years and I already was in a different state of consciousness around even having a child, let alone how I was going to raise the child. But I just kept doing my work cuz so much of parenting, as we put our expectations on our [00:43:00] child, we project onto the child, we want the child to fit in.
My daughter was very different. She was wise beyond her years and she was an empath But I just let her be that. But then I had to teach her how to set boundaries. I had to teach her that she wasn't responsible for other kids suffering. She would, do things.
And I'd have to say for example, she energetically healed my mother's depression when she was five in a room with all of us in there. And everyone saw her do it. And I had to say to her later, you can't do that in public. You have to do that privately, . And she's five, so she's huh.
But then also teaching them boundaries and teaching them to be their unique self. And she does see things very differently and make space for her not to, you know what? . It happens a lot with parents, is we talk our children out of their experiences. Yeah. Which disconnects them from their body, where I would say to her, oh yeah, , I can understand how you would feel that way. I see that even if I didn't. But [00:44:00] that was her experience. That keeps them connected. That's the most, I was not raised that way, so I was very disconnected that's why I had the spontaneous mystical experience.
It's hello, remember ? Because I was not raised that way. And I was made wrong and talked outta my experiences and, told I was whatever. So I think that's important more than anything. And didn't try to find other parents who have, you can talk to. , they get it and have their own children that are empaths or have these abilities cuz they have them.
I think these children being born today are much more connected to themselves than my generation. . I
Robyn: totally agree. Yeah, it's been my experience so far, And I love the different ways that you've just given, you validated some things for me personally, and I'm hoping a lot of other people have gained a different way of thinking and holding space for their own
Maureen: children.
Yeah. .
Robyn: And how are you working with people these days? We know that there's Bridge Builders and do you work mostly with companies and [00:45:00] organizations or do you do one-on-ones? How does that work?
Maureen: I do with Bridge Builders, I work we're a collective of 13 partners who invest in these companies.
And I work with the partners and I work with the companies and the founders and CEOs. And I love that because we are really trying to impact consciousness. But then I also do some individual coaching and, again, work with people who are either entrepreneurs or executives who are wanting to show up differently and, change the consciousness in that space.
Or with people who are just wanting to be more embodied and engage more in their life. it's more coaching, although I have therapeutic skills, I teach them practices and I teach them how to work with energy and I do that one-on-one. I don't teach classes anymore because I just don't have time.
And then my other little piece that I do is I'm very much an activist because this is the piece that's really important and I hope we see in the future, is that when you do [00:46:00] your own work for as long as I have been doing mine, you reach a point, which I did, I don't know, 15 years ago at least, where you realize, oh my gosh, I'm a privileged white woman.
I have to use my voice for those that are underrepresented. And I have to really, say what is and call out what is and support those who are trying to make a difference. And I'm talking around misogyny, racism this , all of it. So I do that too, and I think that's really important.
Like we have to change the system and I do my part in that. .
Karen: That's
Maureen: a lot, Maureen. Yes. It's my children. My children are grown . They're on their own. It's just me and my husband. . I have time . That is important
Robyn: and that will change culture and that most consciousness and
Maureen: that and
Karen: especially if you're coming from it from that energetic right place.
It's not pushing against as much as you are just trying to infuse it with the right kind of energy. And that's as we know what everything is. [00:47:00] Yes. Sometimes it just takes a perspective like yours to really see it that way and come in at it from a different perspective, which I believed is gonna be the thing that shifts it.
Maureen: Yeah. We cannot, Einstein, we cannot solve the problem at the same level of awareness that created it. So it's really coming at it from a place of, so much of our suffering actually does come from the system. So if we start alleviating our suffering, we're not gonna tolerate the system
And then the system will change. So coming at it, I think we're starting to see some of those . Yes.
Robyn: There needs to be much more, but at least you can
Maureen: start to see things, starting to
Robyn: break
Maureen: apart. . Yeah.
Karen: And as we lean into more of this energetically connected community of people who do feel and believe a lot of these same things, and it's not one person against the world.
, it all starts with us and then creating this collective community where we can all help each other and support each other and bring that collective energy together.
And that's where
Maureen: the power is, right? It. .
Robyn: I feel like what's happened now as opposed to when you first had your first [00:48:00] major experience there are more places to , find community and support so that you don't think you're crazy , and, you had to have been
Maureen: so strong
Robyn: In your soul to know, okay, this happened and now I really am pivoting my life, but that's because I'm supposed to.
You had that kind of, Confidence and even now, this whole conversation and talking about embodiment, understanding what that really means. And now
Maureen: let's start to take action, all of us , and be in
Robyn: this body and start to change and shift consciousness
Maureen: together.
Yeah. Exactly. And I wanna just encourage listeners, it really is about remembering. It's not like you have to learn something new, although there, there are some things you can learn, That enhance. But it really is about remembering your true nature and your connection to all that is, and the earth and each other.
And really remembering that whatever your gifts are, to bring them forward, to [00:49:00] express them in the world. And like me, I don't know if I was confident back then, I just knew that I looked around from a very young age and was like, Uhuh, nah, like, am I an alien? What am I doing here?
This isn't working for me. And so I feel like I didn't have any other choice except to keep following my own intrinsic wisdom. Which, at times I was like, I am I crazy. I had healthy skepticism for sure. , but I just stayed in that curious inquiry and I kept getting signs that I was on the right path.
And that's really all you can do.
Karen: And it's like you said in the beginning when you started your journey, it was like you were voraciously looking for more, you were looking at Yeah. That there was, because they were resonating with you. And where we're so passionate about that because we talk about this stuff all day long, every day because there's so much, there's so many different modalities out there, so much ancient wisdom that's been lost.
that everybody has a different interest in all of that. Things are [00:50:00] gonna resonate with people differently. But now, more than ever, there's a time when we can make all these conversations available to anybody, anywhere, and that's gonna really help.
Maureen: Absolutely. People won't feel so alone. and that's the thing to remember I'm a paradigm disruptor. So moving outta the old paradigm, the thing to remember is not everything works for everybody. And that your way is your way and you'll stumble. I will say, as an intuitive I am not a hundred percent, and I would say if anyone ever tells you they're a hundred percent run like heck, because nobody is.
So it's like I fumble around. I'm still learning. I laugh with my colleagues and say when we don't have any more work to do, we're dead So I stress this so much with my clients and with all the students I taught play
don't take yourself or anything too serious. Just play. , we're supposed to be childlike in this. Find what works for you. . And don't think just because it works for someone else, it'll work for you. There's different, yes. . It's all different. Just what
Robyn: you said, in terms of even how you [00:51:00] had and can still have these spontaneous, mystical experiences where you don't need anything, you can get there on your own.
Other people need breath work. They need plan. Yes. It's what you drawn to and if you're embodied to a degree, you trust that knowing, Yes. , there's a pull to whatever that is, to get you wherever that you're intending to go. And I'm so grateful that you brought up the remembering that is honestly what Karen and I started seeking Center part of our tagline was to reconnect you to who you really are. Yeah. So
We spend this lifetime remembering And then we move
Maureen: on to whatever next form we're going to be in.
Robyn: So thank you for underscoring that. And thank you for sharing your wisdom today I think helping inspire people to look at their bodies differently, get
Maureen: out of that neck up and really
Robyn: be in this body, on this planet, and then hopefully let's help change the course going forward while we're
Maureen: here. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you for having me. It's so fun to talk about. Oh my
Robyn: goodness. We
Maureen: really could talk to you all . I know. We can [00:52:00] keep talking .
. To
Robyn: find out more about working with Maureen and the shifted institute, visit shift it S H I F T I t.com. You can find embodiment meditations for Maureen on insight mysticbridge, thank you.