Alight

Fay Johnstone is a ‘plant whisperer’ and shamanic herbalist. Fay combines 20 years of reiki practice with herbal and shamanic training to connect us with nature for personal transformation. Following an awakening to the spirit of plants while running a flower farm in Nova Scotia, Fay wrote her first book, Plants that Speak Souls that Sing, and now offers training on reiki, plant spirit connection and shamanism online and from her home in Scotland. Fay is also the founder of Plant Spirit Reiki, a therapy which connects Reiki healing to the power of plants, as detailed in her second book, Plant Spirit Reiki. It's Fay's mission to help people find their unique way to connect with the natural world and come into alignment with their true nature.  Find her at https://fayjohnstone.com/ 

In our conversation, Fay describes how:

• In her former career she felt stressed and disconnected: “I was going through life wobbly, not very grounded or rooted in a sense of who I am and my belonging. I found my sense of belonging through this connection with nature.”  
• Moving out of the head space and into “the heart space which feels its way” was her major turning point.
• Knowing she is part of the sacred natural web reminds her we are not alone. This is “a more collaborative way of life. It’s not just about me and what I thought success meant.”
• Globally we are trying to work out the question of life pace and inner inspiration vs. conventional decisions. Fay recommends: “invite nature into your heart and it will do its own growing…we all find our own unique way that nature flows through us.” She suggests starting with local food, intuitive nature walks (she describes how), and sharing breath with plants.
• She developed Plant Spirit Reiki as a collaboration with plants. She talks about the power of bringing plants into our learning, healing or living spaces for “a healing exchange with the natural world”
• A practice for connecting with plants even during cold weather when you may be indoors: plant prayers. And how she now experiences winter with welcome, as a time for relaxation and quiet.

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Dr. Anita Sanchez, Aztecan Tribe and Mexican-American, is a board member of the Pachamama Alliance and Bioneers.  Anita inspires people to discover and trust their gifts so that they become a life-giving connection to people and to the earth.  She has trained thousands of leaders in global corporations and non-profits.  Using indigenous wisdom and modern science, Anita guides leaders in creating caring and inclusive workplaces and communities.  TedX presenter of Humanity’s Hope, Anita is an author of four books, including The Four Sacred Gifts: Indigenous Wisdom for Modern Times.   Learn more at  www.FourSacredGifts.com and receive notifications about Anita’s upcoming course on The Four Sacred Gifts.

Tune in to hear Anita discuss:

• Her childhood learning from her indigenous tradition that living beings impact one another powerfully. “We really are quite powerful, but that power isn’t a reason to beat our chests. How can we be a life-giving member in this one hoop of life?”  
• How she sees violence to one another based on race or gender, and violence to ourselves by separating head and heart, now giving way to awareness of our interconnections. “The footprint we’re putting on the Earth is the same footprint we’re putting on other people, is the same footprint we’re putting on ourselves.”  “I don’t understand it in terms that we are bad, but rather that we’ve forgotten and now we get to remember…and what is urgent is that we ALL remember…”
• A “big awakening for all of us is that we are not alone, we are not just an individual, we are part of this amazing, amazing thing called life, and home is everything, and everything in this home is sacred!” 
• “Good medicine is anyone who puts into alignment the spiritual, mental, emotional, and physical.”  
• The meanings of the Four Sacred Gifts: the power to forgive the unforgivable, the power of unity, the power of healing, and the power of hope. 
• How her trauma around the race-related murder of her father was triggered by events of 2020, and how she re-aligned to respond to the here and now to “create what is life-giving in this world.” Forgiving is not to forget, but to create something different for today.

For support in being ‘good medicine for the world,’ visit www.humansandearth.com/mentoring 

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Kerri Lake supports others in recognizing themselves as the clarity of love. Whether working with individuals or facilitating groups, she assists people to generate a way of being that honors their heart and brightens their world. Kerri has a degree in Animal Science and also collaborates with animals. Her podcast is Animals of a New Earth. Find her at www.kerrilake.com 

With her soothing voice and calm presence, Kerri shares with us:

·       Extraordinary stories of how she created healing outcomes with two dangerous horses: “I was really wanting people to see what listening, and love, and compassion, can do.” 

·       Her insights on the ‘domination approach’ that has governed human actions for millennia, and how we are shifting into a different motivation. We discuss how domination is portrayed as making us feel safe, yet we don’t in fact feel safe because dominating the planet and one another has created depletion and woundedness.

·       A 10-second practice for testing out a more heart-based, open, vulnerable way of living. A more heart-centered way may feel unfamiliar, but as we have the courage to explore it, we are “revitalizing: creating a new way of being human.”

·       Her view that “the systems that perpetuate domination are going to crumble under their own weight, because domination is not going to work: it’s not how nature is designed.” We talk about how new systems are already in place. We simply need more people waking up and “taking the chance that feeling good and healthy and worthy and abundant and nourished might actually be ok.”

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Aaron William Perry is a writer, public speaker, impact entrepreneur, consultant, and father. The author of Y on Earth: Get Smarter, Feel Better, Heal the Planet, Aaron works with the Y on Earth Community team and Impact Ambassadors to inform and inspire diverse communities through unique thriving and sustainability messages of hope, empowerment and action. He has launched and owned companies in the recycling, renewable energy, and local/organic food industries and consults to dozens of innovative organizations, companies and entrepreneurs. An experienced business and literary writer, Aaron holds an MA from the University of Colorado, and has studied Permaculture and Indigenous Wisdom throughout the Rocky Mountain region. He resides in Colorado where he is in awe of the weather, appreciative of the singing birds, and entertained by the antics of his backyard chickens. 

Find him at www.yonearth.org, where you can use the discount code HUMANSANDEARTH for a 33% discount on unlimited downloads of all ebook and audiobook resources (including children's books) at https://yonearth.org/market/

In this episode, hear Aaron discuss:

• How his lifelong nature connection merges with his business expertise to create a loving, heartfelt experience of working in the sustainability field. 
• Why caring for nature is caring for yourself. In fact, gratitude releases brain chemicals that benefit mental, emotional, and physical well-being. We actually “become stewards of our neuro-biochemistry” by interacting with nature. “When we say, ‘Get Smarter, Feel Better,’ that’s literal—it’s not a joke, it’s not a metaphor, it’s literal.”
• One of the messages of his book Y on Earth is that we can easily engage in practices that restore well-being for ourselves and the planet. Little things like washing the dishes let us connect with gratitude with water and “develop a more humble, more sanctified type of relationship.”
• Why he wrote his Soil Stewardship Handbook: to invite anyone and everyone to be aware that it’s with soil and the regeneration of soil that we get to help our communities and our ecosystems, AND stabilize our climate. A 10% increase in soil carbon world-wide is equivalent to sequestering out of the atmosphere all of the fossil carbon we’ve released since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution.” As we’re doing more gardening, permaculture, and biodynamic soil care, we collaborate with microorganisms and plants to pull carbon out of the atmosphere. “We literally have the opportunity to take atmosphere carbon levels back to pre-Industrial levels and heal our world.” 
• Suggestions of books and websites he finds inspiring…and his thoughts on why the biodynamic movement offers us one of our most wonderful sets of solutions of “medicine for the land and us” and cultivating a life of meaning, purpose, balance, joy.
• Why “envisioning may be one of the most potent superpowers we have as humans.”  
• Plus, Aaron offers a discount code for book purchases at the marvelous Chelsea Green Publishers, home of inspiring books on all things sustainability!

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Joy Baker specializes in helping her clients release trapped emotions that can result from trauma. Because most of us are not taught strong skills for processing trauma, its effects become stored in our bodies and can influence our actions, experiences, emotions, and physical health. Joy has herself been on a lengthy journey of choosing the courage to resolve trauma. She has developed a level of understanding and acceptance that allows her clients to feel supported and empowered to break through their self-imposed limitations and recognize their value. Find Joy’s work at www.courageinaction.com

Listen to Joy describe her journey of becoming a healer with close connections to the natural world. She experienced a painful childhood involving abuse, epilepsy, a speech impediment, and bullying. Going down the ‘rabbit hole of pain’ allowed her to clear past trauma and free herself, and become lovingly aware of other people and the planet. 

Hear Joy discuss:

Why healing personal and collective trauma is a requirement for us to be able to heal Earth and live on Earth in harmless ways. “As I healed, I also healed my relationship with the Earth…. Earth is the reason we are here.” 

How love of self relates to love of Earth, but if self-love is painful or confusing for you, you can work with appreciation as a foundation. For those with backgrounds of abuse or trauma, the connection between love of self and love of nature can feel confusing. Joy offers an exercise for self-appreciation that can be part of this process. 

A guided process for connecting to your own well-being and to the larger well-being of the life community on Earth, supporting both. The process addresses the anger and grief we can feel when we see nature being mistreated, and the resulting overwhelm, then helps us acknowledge these emotions so we can access our healthy power, committing to creative solutions in which we all support one another. 

Reconceptualizing ‘power’ by claiming the power of your compassion. “We can hold the Earth, ourselves, humanity in a space of healing…Whether it’s Earth, animals, plants, or an individual person, hold them in a higher frequency. That’s when healing takes place.” “The more people who start caring about themselves, having compassion for themselves, that extends to the Earth, the animals, the plant life, that starts the healing process.”

“What we focus on, we give energy to. So if you’re focusing on what’s wrong, you’re actually giving energy to the very thing you’re against. Instead, give energy to what you want to see. That’s how we can all create a healthier Earth.” 

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Riue Melvina Brown holds an MBA in business and a doctoral degree in educational leadership. She is an Angelic Shaman, Karuna Usui Holy Fire Reiki Master, Quantum Healer, Sound Healer, Spiritual Advisor, Permaculture Designer/Teacher, Licensed Massage Therapist, beekeeper, and herbalist. Her heritage is African-American and Cherokee Indian and she has studied under Native American Medicine People. She is the owner of InnerSource Wellness Center and Lemu Sacred Regenerative Urban Farm. She is as connected to the celestial realms as to the earth, and feels it is our time to express  reverence for all beings.

Find her offerings at http://innersourcewellnesscenter.com

 
Tune in to this warm conversation to hear Riue discuss:

• The purpose we all share of being inter-connected with people, plants, animals, and all life. 
• How we’re a lot bigger than the societal structures we’ve put into place. We see some of the old systems breaking down currently “because we as beings are waking up, and that’s a beautiful thing.” 
• The current ‘unwinding’ of outmoded cultural assumptions occurring now in a process some refer to as the spiritual growth experience of Ascension. 
• How she listens to her bees and plants on her permaculture homestead. “Nature has always been here to try to teach us not only who we are, but about our greater and broader connection and how we should be in community with one another.
• How as a shaman, she experiences nature as a gateway or throughway to other dimensions and realities, and facilitates healing for others as the practices connect Earth and the heavens.
• Her permaculture homestead with its bees, mushrooms, native plants, high tunnel for winter growing, community nursery, community garden with volunteer opportunities, and participation in a food hub in Wilmington, DE with other urban farms.
• Her vision of a future in which we no longer separate ourselves according to our differences: “I think this is a time of bringing back the reverence and the sacredness for everything.”

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Mindset coach and spiritual alignment expert Lana Shlafer discusses in this episode how her connection to the natural world supports her, why aligning with solutions is more empowering and effective than focusing on problems, and why ‘realism’ isn’t a good standard. 

Tune in to hear Lana’s vibrant thoughts on:

• Why we need to create a feeling of safety within ourselves in order to feel safe being optimistic about the human future on planet Earth.
• Why she recommends asking, “what about the future pains you? Now use that as a portal into changing things in your own life. It’s easy to have hope when you are already taking action and already aligning with the solutions. It’s harder to have hope when you are aligning with the problems and taking no action to resolve them.”
• How “it doesn’t cost you anything to change your pattern of thought. Think of the plastic in the ocean and how it’s suffocating the turtles…or go out to the ocean and thank it for the life it provides. It doesn’t cost me anything to choose one thought over the other. One adds more momentum and impact, it makes me value the ocean so much I will go and do the clean-ups...and the other one leaves me powerless and hopeless. And I think we each have a choice in how we approach our mindset and our life.” 
• Why realism isn’t a good standard. “Realism is taking past experience and making an assumption that it will continue…All of the most impactful people have been unrealistic because they dared to look at what is happening and then inspire themselves and everyone around them to move toward what they want to be happening. It’s ‘be the change you want to see,’ not ‘sit here and complain about the fact that things are the way they are.’ "
•  How viewing pessimism as the more intellectual stance may be self-delusion: “It’s a defense mechanism, where you think you’re smarter than hope, but it ends up costing you more than anyone else.” 
•  Why she recommends not seeing our creative, change-making efforts as counter-cultural, which is a view based in resistance to something: “no great person … created change by trying to be counter anything. They created it because they were pro something so strongly that that’s all they saw, all they did, all they focused on. That’s what creates the kind of focused flow of energy that can move mountains…If you’re spending your energy fighting, you’re not using that energy to create.”
• Why your activism needs to be “additive and life enhancing for you. If it isn’t, then for you to delude yourself by thinking this will be life-enhancing for the planet is inaccurate.”
• Her childhood in Siberia. Having grown up atheist before she developed her spirituality, the only paths she knew into comfort and grace were seeking connection with other people and seeking connection in nature, so nature has always been an important presence in her life. Lana asks, “If you’re not connected to nature, how could you be connected to yourself?” 

Find Lana at www.lanashlafer.com and her new book at www.manifestthatmiracle.com

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Kevan Ryon is a healer who connects with a 12th dimensional Lemurian collective to facilitate the healing of others. His Cerebral Palsy and his focused spiritual path have been driving forces that have allowed him to overcome many challenges and limitations.  Through the connection with his spirit guides and masters, Kevan discovered that his purpose is to help people integrate and hold a 5th dimensional consciousness by teaching them that they are their own self-healer. Kevan offers group and private healing sessions that allow others to raise their level of awareness and step into an expansive space of peace, love, and joy where they can take an active role in their healing process.

www.kevanryon.org Find his Monthly Healing Group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/231596768017842 

Tune in to this episode to hear Kevan discuss:

• How having Cerebral Palsy was the catalyst for him to discover his skill as a healer.
• The chance we have collectively now to let outmoded systems decline and create new ones that feel more aligned with how we now understand the human story on Earth. As we realize how we create the reality we experience, we become better at creating the realities we truly desire, such as healing technologies.
• Why looking for our “empowerment in the present moment is one of the biggest things that we can do right now.”
• Why he thinks it’s okay to be afraid at times as the world shifts: “you don’t have to have everything figured out.” And why it’s important to take breaks from the introvert bubble, if that’s your tendency, to connect with others and share stories and support.
• What he would say to someone who feels discouraged during this time of tumult and change. As someone who lives with the challenges of Cerebral Palsy, Kevan speaks with authority on how to see challenges as temporary, and low days as just one type of experience that can be used to take us higher in our vibration, outlook, and co-creation with life.
• How we long for authenticity because we are meant to be people without constraints.
• Why he thinks we’re making progress in becoming more holistic in our understanding of areas such as healthcare and communication with plants and animals as we energetically advance as human beings. We are consciously learning to become more synergistic with other species and respect their synergy with one another, recognizing that “Animals and plants really are our equals.” Kevan shares a story about dolphins arriving at a family ceremony. 

“As we shift our understanding of what consciousness is, we can develop a conscious relationship that can heal Earth, plants, animals, and everything.” Kevan Ryon

 “When you see environmental problems, don’t be in despair. The Earth is a strong being! It knows how to correct itself. That doesn’t mean we should keep polluting, but it means the Earth is ready for us to heal, and the Earth is ready to heal.”  Kevan Ryon

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Bayo Akomolafe (Ph.D.) is Chief Curator and Executive Director of The Emergence Network. Author, lecturer, speaker, father, and rogue planet saved by the gravitational pull of his wife Ej, Bayo hopes to inspire a diffractive network of sharing within an ethos of new responsivity – a slowing down, an ethics of entanglement, an activism of inquiry, a ‘politics of surprise’. Born into a Yoruba family, Bayo graduated summa cum laude in psychology in 2006 at Covenant University (Nigeria). Bayo conducted doctoral research into Yoruba indigenous healing systems as part of his inner struggle to regain a sense of rootedness to his community. Bayo understands he is on a shared decolonial journey with his family to live a small, intense life. He often refuses to share pictures of himself that do not include his wife, Ej, who is (everyone can assure you) the more interesting part of their entanglement. He is an ecstatic (and often exhausted, but grateful) father to Alethea Aanya and Kyah Jayden.  Learn more about his work at www.Bayoakomolafe.net 

 In this episode, Dr. Akomolafe and I discuss:

• The wisdom of slowing down in response to climate change. He shares the Yoruba and feminist insight that our response to a crisis is often part of the crisis—solutions that seem to make sense within our current understanding can reinforce the problem. Slowing down is an invitation to a different way of thinking, of noticing and appreciating nature, and of framing or re-framing what it means to be human.  

• How unschooling his children is part of his response to climate change and the cultural structures that created it. When unschooling, he meets his children not as inadequate and requiring ‘schooling’ but as philosophers in their own right, ready for dialogue and exploratory learning. 

• Post-activism and the dismantling of whiteness in conversation with indigenous perspectives and post-modernist thought. How can we transition our focus beyond colonial oppressive structures and toward a broader sense of agency for all beings? This can involve re-naturalizing ourselves via new alliances and viewpoints in which humans are not necessarily central or dominant. “We are learning that we are part of the world and maybe that is a powerful riddle.”

• Why making sanctuary feels crucial to him now. It is an invitation to inquire into the world in new ways, seeking types of power beyond whiteness and the nation-state, “trying to acknowledge a world that is animated and vital and alive as an ally in these times, in the Anthropocene.” “Maybe we need sanctuaries today. Places of unlearning mastery. We don’t know what kind of futures are in front of us, but not knowing is part of sanctuary and losing our sense of mastery, outside of the colonial project.” Bayo shares his thoughts on grief as activism, loss as an invitation to new ways of being, and hopelessness as a resource. 

• How Yoruba healers and plant medicine teach us to humbly see “the world as alive through and through, each component containing agency” and none complete on its own. This differs from the western scientific project of controlling the natural world. The more we pursue supremacy the more we discover that it is not attainable because the natural world within us and outside of us is more complex than we can conceive or dominate. Bayo advocates the work of “unlearning mastery, unlearning our domineering and dominating and control perspective” that has led us to try to control other humans and the natural world, to our detriment.

• Why “a world full of play” might be the best we can imagine for the human future on Earth. A way to freedom, authenticity, and “the liveliness of the world at large.”

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Healer and channel Jeilene Tracey is a Vibrational Geneticist who channels Earth beings, sound, and energy to balance the emotional, mental, and physical bodies.  She developed the modality Vibrational Genetics with guidance from the inner-Earth Mantis Collective and drawing on her training in molecular biology, Reiki, BodyTalk, ThetaHealing, and Shamanism.  Combining the guidance of her Mantis guide, Maree, with aspects of each of these methods, Jeilene offers a healing experience focused on the human experience of being embodied on planet Earth. Learn more at www.lightvibesnetwork.com 

In this conversation, Jeilene and Helen Claire Harmon discuss:

• How Jeilene moved from a conventional background in the sciences to working with Earth beings as a healer.
• Why connecting with Earth is part of being embodied in physical form, and how to do it daily for peace, present-moment focus, and health. “If we are to carry out our purpose here, then we must do it in continual collaboration with Earth.”
• How the Mantis beings, stewards of Earth, can teach us about supporting well-being for all life on Earth and collaborating with Earth, and how we can work with the Mantis if we wish.
• How to manage your own microbiome for overall health.
• How activism and the pursuit of justice fit with our human journey on Earth.

“Although it may seem like connecting into the Earth will not solve global problems, I think it’s a necessary place for us to start.” Jeilene Tracey

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