Navigating the Spiritual Revolution: What's Real, What's Not + How to Trust Yourself (Dr. Amy Robbins) - Episode 196

We’re in the middle of a spiritual revolution.

More and more of us are waking up, questioning old systems, and feeling this pull to connect to something deeper. But let’s be real: that awakening? It’s not always easy—and it’s definitely not always clear.

With so much spiritual noise out there—from TikTok trends and “instant manifestation” promises to endless gurus and wellness products—how do you know what’s real? How do you tell the difference between truth and trend? And most importantly… how do you trust yourself on your spiritual path?

That’s exactly what we’re talking about today with the incredible Dr. Amy Robbins—clinical psychologist, spiritual teacher, and host of "Life, Death and The Space Between."

Amy has a gift for blending science and spirituality in a way that feels grounded, empowering, and totally real. 

Together, we’re getting into practical spirituality, exploring: 

• What it means to truly listen to your intuition
• How to spot spiritual red flags
• The connection between psychological and spiritual self-trust
• How to set healthy boundaries in both your life and your spiritual practice
• Ways to navigate the “spiritual clutter” with clarity and confidence
• Why the most important tool on your journey might just be your own inner compass

If you’ve ever thought: “Am I just making this up?”—this episode is for you.

MORE FROM THIS EPISODE
Listen to "Life, Death, and The Space Between" wherever you get your podcasts.

Find out more about working with dramyrobbins.com
"Into the Magic Shop: A Neurosurgeon’s Quest to Discover the Mysteries of the Brain and the Secrets of the Heart" by Dr. James Doty 

Visit seekingcentercommunity.com for more with Robyn + Karen and many of the guides on Seeking Center: The Podcast. You'll get access to live weekly sessions, intuitive guidance, daily inspiration, and a space to share your journey with like-minded people who just get it.

Visit seekingcentercommunity.com for more with Robyn + Karen and many of the guides on Seeking Center: The Podcast. You'll get access to live weekly sessions, intuitive guidance, daily inspiration, and a space to share your journey with like-minded people who just get it.

You can also follow Seeking Center on Instagram @theseekingcenter.

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction
• 2:07 Navigating the Spiritual Revolution: What's Real, What's Not + How to Trust Yourself

Transcript

Robyn: [00:00:00] I'm Robyn Miller Brecker and I'm Karen Loenser. Welcome to Seeking Center, the podcast. Join us each week as we have the conversations and we, through the spiritual and holistic clutter for you, we'll boil it down to what you need to know now, we're all about total wellness, which to us needs building a healthy life.

Karen: On a physical, mental, and spiritual level, we'll talk to the trailblazers who'll introduce you to the practices, products, and experiences that may be just what you need to hear about to transform your life. If you're listening to this, it's no accident. Think of this as your seeking center and your place to seek your center.

Robyn: And for the best wellness and spiritual practitioners, experts, products, experiences, and inspo, visit theseekingcenter. com. We're in the middle of a spiritual revolution. More and more of us are waking up questioning old systems and feeling this pull to connect to something deeper. But let's be real. That awakening, it's not always easy, and it's [00:01:00] definitely not always clear with so much spiritual noise out there. From TikTok trends and instant manifestation promises to endless gurus and wellness products, how do you know what's real?

How do you tell the difference between truth and trend? And most importantly, how do you trust yourself on your spiritual path? That's exactly what we're talking about today with the incredible Dr. Amy Robbins, clinical psychologist, spiritual teacher, host of life, death in the space between, and our soul.

Sister Amy has a gift for blending science and spirituality in a way that feels grounded in empowering and totally real. Together we're getting into practical spirituality, what it means to truly listen to your intuition, how to spot spiritual red flags, and why the most important tool on your journey.

Might just be your own inner compass. If you've ever thought, am I just making this up? This episode is for you. Let's dive in. Hi, Amy. Hi Karen. Hi, Robyn. Hi Amy. Hi, [00:02:00] ladies. Oh, this is such a needed conversation. 

Karen: It is. even in preparing for it, we had to figure out a way to cut down all of the questions that we have it's something that I've really been feeling a lot of.

Lately, especially around the spiritual clutter aspect. It seems every time I open up Instagram, there's another spiritual guru practice modality, and I almost don't wanna look anymore because I feel that sense of almost anxiety when I see all that's out there.

Amy: Yeah. So I think that. Like so many things, it's like the pendulum swings one way and then it has to swing back and it really does feel like the spiritual gates opened, which is amazing. But it's really hard to distinguish what is genuine, real, and what is just charlatans. There's so many people out there hanging a shingle, calling themselves mediums, shamans, astrologists, numerologists, whatever it is.

Any of these sort of . New age [00:03:00] modalities that you really have to use a lot of discretion in figuring out. And you both together with the Seeking Center, do a great job of filtering through so much of that noise because you vet so many of these new age practitioners. To make sure that they do have the utmost integrity, authenticity, and that they are really. Good and well-versed at their practice, which I think is, something that I care deeply about. And I think it's so important if we want people to engage with these treatment modalities, that they're doing it in a way that's responsible and that's furthering their healing, not harming them.

Exactly. 

Robyn: And then the other thing I know we will get to is also. What I find in people being able to trust themselves. We are doing what we can to vet trusted practitioners, as you just said. And then I think you as a person need to be able to trust your own inner compass and [00:04:00] your own knowing, first of all, of what feels real, but then also.

 Being able to trust what you're feeling and seeing. So that's a whole other part of the conversation we may get to today. It might be part two but I do wanna bring that up.

' Because people don't always trust what they feel and see. 

Amy: Which takes time. Again, , how I think of all of this is always psychological, spiritual. Like I'm always looking through both lenses and I think when people don't trust themselves psychologically, they're not gonna trust themselves spiritually.

Just like when people can't set good boundaries psychologically, they're gonna not be able to set good boundaries spiritually. I think these two always go hand in hand. They're not separate. We've separated them, but they are very much one and the same. And so much of this gets conditioned out of us. When we're young. And now it's like we need to find our way back to it. 

Robyn: So what are you seeing from that perspective that you have in terms of the way people are approaching [00:05:00] spirituality?

And I'm talking about people that may come into your practice or people that are listening to your podcast since you're hearing from your. Listeners and viewers what are you seeing? 

Karen: And Amy, as you're explaining that too, I would love to also know how are

people defining even what? Spirituality. Oh, that's 

Robyn: good. 

Amy: So How people define spirituality. Obviously everyone has their own definition and really. I think it is coming back to oneself, like really coming back to knowing yourself deeply and knowing that there is a deeper meaning, a deeper connection, a sense of oneness, a sense of expansiveness that any of us can access at any time.

 Lisa Miller says this, Dr. Lisa Miller, who wrote The Awakened Child, the Awakened Brain, she does research out of Columbia University Teachers College. She teaches on spirituality. She speaks on spirituality. She says, spirituality is not something that we have to seek out. It's there for us already.

It is [00:06:00] innate, and that's when I said earlier, it's something that we find our way back to. That's the problem with gurus and all these people who say, I'm gonna teach you spirituality. No I can show you your way back to yourself again, psychological, spiritual, there is no difference. I'm not gonna teach you anything.

I'm gonna help you through all these different tools. Everything that you all talk about on the show are all tools to help people find themselves. To be honest and truthful with themselves, to listen to that inner voice, to connect with something bigger than themselves. To find meaning, to find purpose, to be able to tap into the essence of their soul, the qualities that their soul is here to express in this lifetime, so that their soul can continue to grow.

That, to me, is what it means to be a spiritual being. It's not, I had a medium experience and connected to my dead loved one. That is one. Potential. Yes. One potential [00:07:00] experience when you have a spiritual connection. 

Robyn: But 

Amy: that isn't the soul experience. Thank 

Robyn: you for saying that. I think the more we can talk about that and the more we can talk about the fact that nobody besides yourself can tell you really about who you are.

You know who you are, and there are. People and resources and tools that can help you better connect, as you said to who you are. But if anyone starts telling you exactly who you are or what to do in a way that feels, you can feel it, you definitely, you can feel it in a way that doesn't feel genuine or feels super bossy.

You gotta run away. Literally.

Karen: And Amy I love what you're reminding all of us of is that, this quest that we feel like we have to be on for spirituality it's not a to-do list. It's not a thing that we have [00:08:00] to learn so much. It is really that coming back to ourselves and we can just go outside on a beautiful walk on a gorgeous day and drink in the earth's beauty and feel spiritual. It's not like we have to learn how to meditate or how to do yoga or doing all the things. They help and they can open us up in new ways. But at its essence, at its core, we can overcomplicate it, can't we?

Amy: Absolutely. And it's not like my day to day looks that different. I still what is it Before spiritual awakening, wake up, do laundry after a spiritual awakening, wake up, do laundry, I probably misquoted that, but it's something like that. what is different is how you show up in the world and how you engage with life.

I think that is, for me, what has been the most transformative. It doesn't mean that I don't still feel deeply sad. It doesn't mean that I don't feel deeply anxious at times. It means that I am completely aware and in relationship to that in a way that doesn't [00:09:00] overwhelm me and that allows me to be in that space, acknowledge it, and let it move through however long that takes.

Yeah. And that's just what it's, 

Robyn: And I was gonna say, going back to what you said about that, it's not. Just about having that experience with a medium. That, to me, and Karen and I have talked about this a ton, which is that's a gateway. Yes. It's a source of healing.

It can help heal loss, or help you heal, It doesn't just heal it, but it gives you comfort. That some people know they need and others don't even realize. that they need it. And then it gives you that opportunity to understand that there's more to everything, right?

That there is this energy, there is this ability that we all live on after we. Pass on. And so it gives you that belief, but then it should make you hopefully more curious if [00:10:00] that's your first experience with this. And so I was just having this conversation with people because I think so many who are maybe newer to understanding what spirituality is, believe that's what spirituality is.

And the more you understand and the more you have experiences, whether that's with a medium or with meditation or in nature, Karen, as you were just saying, 

Amy: or prayer or prayer, right? 

Robyn: The more you understand, it's so much larger than that and it really has to do with you, it all comes back to you, and these experiences just can help you better come back to you and why you're here.

Amy: I always say probably for me, my two most profound spiritual experiences, one was at my son's bar mitzvah and my daughter's bat mitzvah, standing on the bema. It was dark, it was Havdalah service, which is an afternoon service. My whole family was up there and [00:11:00] looking at my child.

Then the other standing and looking out at all my family and friends when we were saying the Havdalah prayers and everything and feeling this just completely open heart, like everything felt open and I felt flooded with love. I could even cry just repeating it like it was, the only thing in that moment that I could feel was like pure.

Unadulterated, unfiltered, unconditional love. And then the second moment that I always remember is being in Michigan it was a blizzard and I went outside and I felt like I could hear the snow falling. It was so peaceful and so quiet, and I remember it so vividly. 

Karen: And I've 

Amy: had a lot of experiences with visitations from loved ones and intuitive hits and psychedelic experiences and this breath work experience that I was just telling you both about this weekend and those two experiences for me stand out [00:12:00] as the potentially most spiritually connected experiences I've ever had.

Karen: And they're simple. They're just it wasn't the modality that you had to learn, it was just like literally Really? Yes. Living in that moment, in that present 

Amy: moment. Yeah. And that's what spirituality helps you do, is it brings you into presence in a way that is difficult to get. In this crazy world and especially when there's so much like you ask so much getting thrown at us, do this, do that, practice this, practice that.

Pull these cards, read your astrological chart. Again, all of these are potential portals to a deeper knowing and deeper understanding of yourself. And that is right now what we need more than anything because we are so disconnected. 

Karen: so well that's a good segue to this next question that we wanted to ask you, which as we see in Instagram and the media, everywhere, people are waking up spiritually. There is a thirst and a hunger for that information and for learning. And yet I feel there's also that disconnection, that feeling of overwhelm, a feeling [00:13:00] lost. How do you explain that and what are you seeing in, in your experience with people that you work with?

Amy: So I think that what we're talking about is like continued growth. I don't see it as knowing enough.

I see it as an opportunity to just continue growing and learning and until you're dead and we could argue beyond, we are always in that mindset. I think once we get to a place where we're like, oh, I've got this. One, you'll get a curve ball thrown at you that will show you, you absolutely do not, but two, that's where we really do stop learning and growing.

And I think that this is a lifelong journey. And if we think oh, I'm just gonna do X, Y, and Z and then I'm gonna have arrived, that's actually probably the beginning. Like the A spiritual awakening. Or these profound spiritually transformative experiences that people discuss that they think of that I had Robyn, that you had, Karen, that you had so near death experiences have had.

That's like the beginning of the journey. Exactly, yes. Everything that comes after, it's that. That's right. Integration. It's that living life and it's knowing that you [00:14:00] will still feel all the human feelings. This isn't an attempt to escape the human feelings. 

Robyn: Exactly. That's very important, honestly. 

Amy: Yes, because so many people think, oh if I'm spiritual, then I shouldn't feel X, Y, and Z.

It's actually the opposite. If you are spiritual, you should feel all of those things more intensely. You're just better able to cope with your feelings because you believe, you trust, you know that there is something more, something bigger, something greater. That is. Out there either guiding you even if you don't believe that there are reasons that what is being presented to you, even if they are the worst thing that you could possibly imagine.

They're there to help you grow and no one wants, horrible things to happen to them. I don't, it's hard when we talk soul contracts to think that someone would have contracted sometimes for the life that they have in front of them, even though I do think we do. But if we can engage with life in that way as more of a [00:15:00] dance of like, how is this here to show me, to teach me, to help me grow?

And even in those times of overwhelm, you can allow yourself to feel overwhelmed and also trust. 

Robyn: Yeah, I think one of the best examples that we may have even talked about on the show is Viktor Frankl's book, man's Search for Meaning, because , he's was in the Holocaust and yet he was able to find meaning even in that and endure and survive.

And when we talk about that kind of. 

Amy: Strength. 

Robyn: Strength. 

Amy: Resilience. 

Robyn: When we talk about that resilience and listen, we know that people are enduring so many different tragedies, let's say in the world at the moment. , But it is about feeling yourself through.

 Even in these horrific situations. There is a reason we're feeling these things and I know that's an extreme example, but even on a daily basis There are disappointments that come your way.

It's [00:16:00] how do you feel through it and know that there is a bigger meaning to all of it. So we talk about spiritual bypassing. We can't just. Spiritually bypass it away.

but we can feel through it and know that there's a bigger meaning to these experiences because , we're a soul, we came to be a human to feel. And that is important to feel these different emotions, but as you said, move through them. 

Amy: Yeah. And sometimes they don't just move through in a day. 

Karen: Yeah. And sometimes , they are lasting remembrances. But I always love to say, being able to look back at the things that you have been able to weather and move through. They're like the little pearls of on your necklace of life.

 they're wisdom that you learn that shows that you can be resilient. It shows that you can still, show up. With hope, even an expectation of what your life can be. And whatever you've learned from those experiences, you can give back to other people.

But it's always having to move through it first, as you said, [00:17:00] Robyns like you have to be able to do that. What are some of the biggest misconceptions or spiritual expectations that people come to you with Amy, that maybe are holding them back too and really fully experiencing their life. 

Amy: Spiritually, people think when we talk about like guides or intuition, that they're gonna hear this like loud voice screaming at them. And sometimes you do hear it and it feels different, but other times it doesn't. And so I think that's a big misconception is that, suddenly you're gonna have a spirit guide screaming at you.

And again, sometimes people do hear a voice and they're like, oh, that is definitely not in my mind, that is clearly external to me. But other times it's much more subtle and can show up in much more subtle ways. And this is why presence is so important, is because if you're not present, you're gonna miss the subtle ways in which it shows up.

I think the other thing is what I talked about a little earlier, which is that spirituality is something like you need to buy. [00:18:00] And, 

Robyn: oh my God, let's please talk about that. Yes. That where people are selling you, you have to do this course, right? Or you have to buy this product. 

Amy: Yeah. And that, that is some way gonna suddenly make you spiritual. It's no. It might be a great course to take to start you on the path of opening you up in some way. But again, spirituality is innate. you don't need to buy something to make you more spiritual.

 You need to find your way back to yourself. Yes. To the essence of who you are, to your soul and express that here in this lifetime. And then. Everything else just starts to fall into place when you're true to yourself. One of my tenants I always say is I really feel like I can tell when someone has, you can usually trace back if someone has some sort of anxiety disorder, depression when they stopped listening to themselves.

Not always, but often. When they [00:19:00] stopped trusting that own inner voice, that own inner knowing, when they made the decision that they knew was not a great decision to make, that led them down a path that they got so far down, they felt like they couldn't turn back. And if you go back to that decision point, you can see how what was someone at some point really being true to themselves.

And this is sadly what life does to us, right? we choose a career. We didn't wanna choose, but everybody told us this was the right path for us to go down, or we choose a life partner or we, turn right instead of left. Whatever it is, we've all had those decisions in our lives.

I was lucky enough that mine was 22, and I had basically a complete. Breakdown because I was so misaligned and I knew I could continue down one path, but it was not going to feel good, and it was not gonna be easy. Or I could step off the runaway train, which was a hard thing for my ego.

And switch gears. And I think that when [00:20:00] we look back and people's lives, we can see where those choice points. Happen. And I think that's where our soul becomes misaligned. And then we are making decisions from a place of ego or from what other people tell us. And when we can find our way back there again, that's when we can find our way back to our own spiritual selves.

Robyn: On that note, like people going back and thinking about those choices, sometimes those are in childhood where you trusted somebody. And they let you down. 

Robyn: Like it's those points too that start to lead. There're the little things that add up to maybe then when you're 22 and thinking, wait, what am I doing?

Like it's all those points and that's where somebody may be able to help you, whether that's a psychologist or an energy healing practitioner. Can sometimes help you. That's where it's useful to get the help, it's not an automatic, dial of turning on the [00:21:00] spirituality.

Does that make sense? Yeah. That's where those are a person or modality, maybe a tool, and then it's going within that tool to find the trusted. Practitioner or resource for yourself, that's the best way to use what I know we're all always talking about and the people we're introducing you to.

Amy: Yeah, I think you're absolutely right and I think that's a really good point. And I always say, when we're young, right? Like you, mentioned like maybe someone you did trust took that trust away from you, or taught you not to trust yourself or believe in yourself, Because we're vulnerable and we trust those around us to keep us safe and protect us.

 But I think even the smallest things, you know

when kids are little and they say something like, are you sad, mommy or daddy?

Why are you sad? And we look at them, we say, I'm not sad. fine. Everything's fine. Why do you think, why would those tiny moments chip away at someone's ability to trust their intuition? A 

Robyn: thousand percent 

Amy: Because people inherently know [00:22:00] again, that's not something you need to teach a child is how to read emotions.

They know they can feel it. They're feeling beings. I'm so 

Robyn: glad you're saying that because I think. In that situation, as parents, you think you're protecting your child, but and of course there's times and places where you have to dull something a little bit so that it's not as hard for a child to understand.

But telling your child that you're sad is okay. It allows them to know, they can be sad too, and it allows 

Amy: them to know that they can trust. Their knowing and their reading of themselves. 

Robyn: that's huge and I'm sure that's why people end up in your office later life.

Karen: And I think a lot of us have been taught by our own parents ahead of us to do that. That's how we learn from our parents and we tend to bring that to our own teaching. everything you're saying is like really resonating with me in the sense that so many people I feel get to.

A certain point in their life too, maybe before they show up in your office. Something goes wrong. There's a [00:23:00] break up, breakdown, whatever it is. What do you say to those people who show up there and they're like, they literally feel they can't get back to that, that source of themselves.

If they're really lost and they're like, I feel like I've just come down this road so long, I just don't even know. How to get back there. I don't even know how to find that essence of who I am. It's been so many years since I even can remember that person because there's so many layers of me.

That is my job, my, marriage, my own self-esteem. how do you even begin to get back on that path? 

Amy: First I always try to understand one when someone says I feel like I've done everything. I wanna understand what that means because. You could feel like you've done a million things in your own mind, but what have you actually really done to dig in?

And then I always like to give people hope. I can hold that because I've seen it. And I know that other people might not be able to, 'cause they don't do what I do, so they don't see someone that comes [00:24:00] in literally in a disastrous. And I've seen some. Sure. Sad, horrible, abusive, terrible relationships.

Horrible, tragic loss, like abuse. You name it. I've seen it over the course of almost. I've been practicing almost 20 years, personally. And then my five years of training before that and I was in community mental health, so I saw some pretty, basically it's a step down from like an inpatient unit because you get, whoever can't afford care comes into community mental health because we can subsidize care. So I've seen, such an array of mental health issues. I've seen people get better, so I know that they can, and I know the human spirit, so sometimes I say to people, once we've established a relationship, I say, I know it's really difficult for you to understand that you one day won't feel this way, but I can hold that for you right now.

I can hold the fact that I know you will feel better at some point, and it might [00:25:00] take us a while to get there. And. Sometimes it takes years and years, but I've seen it, I can tell you hundreds of stories of people who've transformed their lives through our work together and more through their work.

I don't myself. That's right. You're a 

Robyn: facilitator, right? 

Amy: Yes. I always say I am a guide. And it's funny when people then say to me they have the little voice of Amy and we now call it WWAD or WWAS, what would Amy do or what would Amy say? Like they have now internalized that experience of me, but that also becomes that experience of their own higher selves in some way.

Yeah, they're attributing it's me. I don't think it's me, Amy. I think it's me. Encouraging them to trust their inner voice, to trust the soul of who they are, to know what they should do in certain situations. And again, it doesn't mean that sometimes you don't still do the thing you know you're not supposed to do.

But that you know it's there and that you can tap into it at any time. 

Karen: That's so helpful because I think. There's often there's [00:26:00] times I think we've all felt those times when we felt so overwhelmed. It's hard to know how to get back to that feeling. I always love to think about myself.

I have a 4-year-old grand baby now, and I always say to Robyn. we should all be four year olds because there is, the joy that they have is so pure. They, and they are so present, and they don't even have expectation really, of anything. And yet the happiness, the bubbliness the juicy curiosity that they have is what I try to remember is really my essence too, and when I can get back to those moments. Of just like you were saying earlier about the family, about standing there together and just drinking and that joy that is spiritual, like it is not. Something learned, it is, as you've been saying, so innate, and you just have to call it back, and remember it again.

So it takes some the pressure off of feeling like you do have to do the work, It's no, just go back in time when you can remember that feeling, what that feels like, and that is your inner soul and spirit. 

Amy: and what you [00:27:00] said is exactly true is that those four year olds those three year olds, they're, all spirit.

They're 

Robyn: I held a baby this weekend, like a four month old baby and just her looking around, yes. And like bright-eyed and smiling. It was hope, right? all I could think of is, thank you. Thank you for being, thank you for showing me the light. Thank you for showing me what it looks like to look around and wonder, and remind me what wonder looks like.

And to your point, Karen, that pure joy, like even though she's not even talking obviously or anything yet, just her being, and that in itself I felt like. What a miracle. And and it gave me hope in general and hope for her. that's what it represents to me.

And that, just com completely pure essence of love and joy and wonder. 

Amy: And I think Karen to maybe answer the other side of your question that you were talking about in relation to every day kind of your own [00:28:00] overwhelm, but I think certainly the overwhelm of the state of the world.

Robyn: That was gonna be my next question. I'm so glad you're bringing this up. Yes. 

Amy: Is that you can only do so much. And I think that what you can do. Each of us does have the power to help one person to make one person's day better, to reach out to a friend, go for a walk, to pick up a piece of trash, and all of those Things seem small, but if every single person did that, it would not be small. 

Karen: Yeah, it would 

Amy: be massive. That's when you have a sense in spirituality of this interconnectedness. What I do impacts what you do and what you do impacts what I do. And you can say oh yeah, but people are so this and people are so that people are so angry and the world is so hateful and we're so divided and yes, that's all accurate.

 If you are in a place of like real fear and you're [00:29:00] gripping so tightly, but if you put on the glasses of looking for where the world is beautiful, you will see those things just as much as you see the other things, because on a day-to-day basis. Most people just wanna get up in the morning, maybe have a good workout, take a deep breath, eat some good food, make sure their kids are safe and healthy, and their partners and loved ones are safe and healthy and that they're safe and healthy and they wanna go to work and come home and kick their shoes off and watch a good show on TV and go to sleep at night.

And so we all really do want those same things. And when we get so caught up in all that's going on in the world. It is overwhelming and scary. And this isn't to bury your head in the sand and say oh, I'm not gonna look at that. But also, what are you gonna do about that? Because , if you're gonna look at it, you better be ready to do something about it.

Even if that's something feels small, because that is the oneness that people talk about is like my ripple in the ocean affects the [00:30:00] entire ocean. 

Robyn: I think that is tremendous because I think what we are seeing in the world. More than ever because we can, because of our devices and because of that kind of connectedness.

You're seeing such polarization and you're seeing the extremes of everything. And everybody. But to your point, when it comes down to it, we're just souls, we're more alike than we are different. a thousand percent.

And so if you can do the little things and looking at each other as souls, as people, not putting all of these other adjectives to somebody then you are doing something good in the world. And to your point, then you can see the good in the world. Rather than seeing. All of the, disruption there.

We can acknowledge it, 

Amy: we should acknowledge it. 

Robyn: But on a day-to-day basis, I personally, see [00:31:00] more good than not. 

Karen: And I think too, it's very quick to assume that when you see somebody who doesn't look like you or who lives in a different part of the world, that they're different.

it's different from me I even have noticed since moving down here to Texas from New Jersey that just going out this weekend with some women that I've met here we could not be more different, but we're different from socioeconomic backgrounds, education, all of it. And yet I felt like this weekend.

 If I was sick tomorrow, those women would show up for me in a heartbeat and they would help take care of my family and cut my lawn or, my point is that, it's so easy quick to assume things that just aren't true and that we are all spirits and souls here, and even though we've been brought up believing different things, we have so much more in common than we realize.

Amy: And the same thing to love and be loved. 

Robyn: That's right. And I think the more you can lean into that rather than, I think within social media or on television is just fear [00:32:00] over and over. Because fear is powerful 

So is love. So if you can lean into the power of love.

Amongst all of us and what we really all come from in what we all believe is we come from love. If you can lean into that, then it will make every day and it will make the vibration of our world better. It does have a ripple effect to your point. I think that is huge. 

Amy: And I was sharing, I'd referenced this earlier, but I was sharing before with you both about the sound bath that I did this weekend and how.

One of the messages that came through really profoundly was it was like I was being beaten over the head with keep opening your heart to love. Do not close your heart You need to continue to open your heart to love as much as you can because that is the only thing that's gonna shift this consciousness and it is shifting, but.

It has to be love. It has to be love. It has to be love. Kept coming back as messages and messages in all [00:33:00] different ways. I was hearing it. I was feeling it. I was seeing it. It was like the heart was opening. It was all the message was about just love.

Karen: I feel like we're all being called in that way in some shape or form. to go back to even where we were from the very beginning of this yearning for the spirituality in our lives. we feel it somehow within ourselves, no matter how we've been brought up, That there's something more we wanna give to the world, that there's an understanding that we really wanna have about ourselves that we've just never really been able to have the luxury of, it feels like in past generations because it's always been about survival, but now it feels that everybody in some shape or form or being called to that understanding within themselves and wanting to make the world a better place.

Genuinely, I think. At the heart of everyone there is that desire to have a planet that we can all be proud of, safe in not be living in fear. And I believe it's possible. I think all of the things that we talk about all the time, it [00:34:00] does start with ourselves. Amy, as you said, it starts within our own self and understanding.

But, if we can all just get there, it would make everything 

Robyn: I wanted to just touch on some myths. That I think we're bombarded with on an ongoing basis. And are there a few that we can all touch on that can help people pay more attention to their own inner compass and also into that frequency of love?

So what are some of the woo rules that you see floating around that don't hold up and that people. Need to have a better radar around. 

Amy: I think some of them we've touched on, which is one that you have to seek out something spiritual to be spiritual. You could sit in your backyard or in park today and that's all you need really.

And just bring yourself into presence. Breath is that too. I think that you're gonna have [00:35:00] some sort of. massive awakening and suddenly everything's gonna look different. I think that's a big one. I think that like I said earlier, spiritual awakening can come on pretty quickly.

You can just have experience that kind of blows the doors open but then you can feel really raw and exposed. And so I think you can also slowly awaken to. Opening up and deepening your relationship with your spirit, right? Like spirituality is your relationship with your spirit.

And thinking that any one of these tools is going to be the panacea exactly. Even with psychedelics, right? Which people are, we've talked about this before in the show. think they're amazing. I think they have incredible power to open people up. But you have to integrate after.

You don't just have this experience if everything's changed and you're not re-grounded and integrating, there's potential real scary things that can happen. And so to think [00:36:00] that you're gonna just have this experience in the entire world is going to look different. Even people who've had near death experiences where they come back and they're like, holy cow.

Everything means something different now. I don't see the world as I once did. They still need help making sense of all of that and integrating that experience because how they Previously saw things and how they now do Karen, it's not surprising. You were trying to read the thing over my shoulder, which is a sign that I have that says, what screws us up most in life is the picture in our head of how it's supposed to be.

 If you have a near death experience and before that you were one thing, and after that the world looks totally different. Like, what are you gonna do about that? How are you gonna make sense of that? So you really need someone who can help you integrate these experiences and help you break it apart and learn from it.

And grow from it. And heal from it. 

Robyn: And I think the key is help you and not. Make you feel like they are the only ones that can [00:37:00] help you. That there is only one guru to follow. You are the guru. That is really important for you to. Understand there is nobody who is gonna know better than you, but there are people who can certainly guide you.

But if anybody tells you they're the only ones, and that you have to pay them a certain amount of money every month. Forever, however long or that you need to be isolated in some way. Run away. 

Amy: Yes, 

Karen: please. Because even understanding your astrology or tarot, all those things, they do not replace.

You're intuitive knowing what that information is or isn't for you. And I think the other thing I hear about, I think we've all heard so much about is this whole idea of manifestation. And I think that one's one that's really starting to bug me now because makes it, again, feel like these spiritual tools are be all, end all way of getting something and I think we're missing the point [00:38:00] if we think that manifestation is about.

Getting to a certain STA state or having certain things or relationships in our lives, it's not really what that's about. It's the idea of visualizing what you would love to have in your life is great as a compass and a north star, which to work towards those goals.

But this idea that spirituality and emanation go hand in hand, I think can be. Really confusing and misdirectional for people. 

Amy: And I think of it all as being in alignment. Things start to happen in people's lives that are seen as good. That are maybe a healthy relationship, financial abundance, a job that you love.

Children, partner, whatever it is, right? They happen. More successfully when we are In alignment. That's right. When we are being true and honest with ourselves 

Robyn: And that manifesting doesn't mean that you have to be positive 24 7. 

I think that's a big myth. To your point, it is about an alignment and [00:39:00] sometimes that alignment means I'm sad.

Sometimes it means I'm mad. Like it can be all the things Allowing yourself to feel and move through it. 

Amy: I love James Doty's work because he looks at the neuroscience of it. Is the book, the Magic Shop and the Magic I Love.

It's one of 

Robyn: my favorite books. You have it over my shoulder. It's one of my go-to books. 

Karen: Yeah, me 

Amy: too. And sadly he just passed away. 

Karen: Oh no. Oh, I didn't. I knew he was ill. Yeah. that, that book is fantastic. 

Robyn: Big recommendation. We'll have that in our show notes. It's a really remarkable book.

, His 

Amy: story is remarkable because he literally talks about how he was able to make all of this happen. 

Karen: Yes. 

Amy: To the point where he was buying a private island and then he lost everything because he lost, and this is what I always say about manifestation. It's not about what you want to have, it's about how you wanna feel.

Correct. And you have to get really clear on how you wanna feel. Feeling rich is not a feeling. Feeling Fulfilled is so And how that might show up might look very [00:40:00] different. 

Robyn: it took me a long time to understand that. I'll be honest. It took me, I would say, into my late thirties, early forties to understand and I'm 50 now, but to understand what fulfillment means over these other things, I thought I wanted to be honest.

Karen: Yeah. It's very much about being present, like you're fulfilled in the moment and the whole manifestation. Idea is always about the future, right? Like when I manifest this, I'll be happy. That's right, 

Robyn: Karen. 

Karen: Achieve that. I'll be happy. And you're losing where you are in the moment.

And it's about going back to being that 4-year-old in a way of what's really juicy about right now? What if it's not juicy. what am I supposed to be learning here? What is this teaching me? What is this opportunity I have to really learn something that will help me get to where I wanna go?

And that's something I'm always reminding myself up to, because I think we're all like that. We're all like, oh, if only I had this job or this. Amount of money I could be [00:41:00] happy and not worry about anything anymore. And then you lose the moment. You lose where you are. 

Amy: And I think we also think that there's a timeframe on it.

We don't know. And Robyn and Karen, we can all talk about this, you've had a vision for Seeking Center. We talked about this six, years ago, right? Yes. And I had a vision for what I wanted to do, and it's taken a really long time to get clarity on that.

That's right. A really long, much longer than I would've hoped for and wanted, we've been working on both of us our processes have really paralleled each other in terms of where we're going and.

Every time I think I have clarity and then I get more clarity and then I get more clarity. But what I've never lost is the vision of what I wanna create and how I wanna feel when I get there. And I feel and I know you guys do too, like each time I'm like getting closer and closer to it. And what I have liked it to have been five years ago or.

Four years ago, Yes. And yes, but I also trust that it [00:42:00] is going to happen when it's supposed to happen, 

Robyn: and it's happening, I'd say to you, 

Amy: yes, it is happening. but it's only now that I feel like oh, a thousand percent, this is probably what it's supposed to be.

that might change. 

Robyn: Yeah. And exactly. That might change, and that's okay. it's trusting. That there's divine timing in all because we all believe the universe has our back. that to me not a myth. The universe has your back and so whether things as you perceive them are good or bad, they really are all happening to guide you.

And if you can have that kind of awareness. And 

Karen: I would also say too, back to the whole spiritual clutter thing that we talked about at the very beginning, there are a lot of people out there that are manifesting and are claiming to be that leader of spirituality in their own right or that practice or modality.

But I think what we are learning is that. Authenticity is built one day at a [00:43:00] time and one experience at a time. And really living it and doing the work is part of, I think, what we're all learning about. And that's not manifested overnight. That's one conversation, one experience, one challenge at a time.

And I think that comes across as an authentic, real. Experience and so taking the time, walking the walk, going the distance. All the things I think are so important. Robyn and I say all the time, I think if we had manifested what we had envisioned. When we first started seeking Center, it could've potentially put us up on a path that we couldn't have sustained.

Whereas what we've done is we've built, it's every little piece of the foundation we have built with our own hands one day at a time. We haven't rushed it, and I think that's gonna give it its longevity. 

Amy: And you both know what it takes to build something 'cause you've built things before.

Robyn: That's right. And having authenticity be the [00:44:00] foundation right. Is the key. Yeah. 

Karen: Yeah. We're not claiming we know it all, but we love to learn and we love to meet people who can teach us more. . And 

Robyn: then share it. 

Amy: And 

Robyn: we have just, scratched the surface here. we hope that everybody listening is walking away with a better understanding of how to navigate. The world at the moment. And their lives. And what we want to do in our next conversation is really dig into intuition as your superpower and trusting that, and then making spiritual practical for yourself.

Thank you, Amy, for being with us today. 

Amy: I love talking with you.

It

Karen: always so much wisdom. 

Robyn: So much wisdom, and you help make more sense of this world and living, this life, and 

Karen: keeping it real. I think it's important for all of us to remember that none of us know all the answers and and we're gonna have those days where we don't know at all. But having these conversations, I think help all of us. 

Robyn: Exactly. And if you're listening and you have questions. Email [00:45:00] us. Yes, you can find us or DM us. We will answer them the next time we speak or try to, I should say,

Amy: yes. We'll definitely try. And what I have the beauty of is that I. I get to peek behind the curtains of people's lives. So I'm not just speaking from the experience of Amy. I'm speaking from the experience of seeing 

Robyn: you really are 

Amy: seeing all of this. 

Robyn: That's right. So visit dr amy robbins.com to find out more about her latest offerings and listen to life, death, and the space between wherever you listen to your podcasts. Thank you. 

Karen: Thanks, Amy. Thanks Amy.