Big announcement today! I'm taking a hiatus from the podcast for an indefinite period of time, and in this episode I'm sharing what the the discernment process looked like. I'd love to continue the journey with you on Instagram or through my Light Notes newsletter. Thank you so much for listening. 

*** To learn more about the April 15 workshop on your way of inner knowing, sign up for my Light Notes email list here. ***

Calling all the folks in the room who don't know how they'd name their light or have been in a long period of discernment about it! Today's episode of Bear the Light with Leanne Shawler is especially for you.

Leanne is a member of the Light House community who struggled for a long time to know how she'd name her light in the world. In fact, the first time we talked about her coming on the show, she hadn't yet gotten to a point of naming it and was willing to come on the show anyway for a conversation about that difficulty of naming her light, specifically. (Kudos to her for having been willing to do that!)

But then, in January, she gained some unexpected clarity through several avenues: a virtual retreat day I hosted in the Light House, an in-person retreat stay she did at a monastery that same week, a meditation offered by the writer Anna Lovind, and a labyrinth walk she took while at the retreat house.

Leanne is now able to name that she is an artist who gifts her art.

This episode offers a great peek into the kinds of questions we might ask ourselves when we're on the search to name our light, the things we might instinctively know is or is not it, and what it's like to finally be able to name it.

Connect with Leanne on her website and on Instagram at @leanneshawler.

Connect with Christianne on Instagram at @christiannesquires or by subscribing to the Light Notes email list.

And consider applying to be a guest on the show! Fill out the guest application form here.

It's a real treat to bring you today's episode of Bear the Light for three reasons. First, it's an interview with our first male guest! I'm grateful to Andrew Moman of Twin Rose Farm for being willing to step into those inaugural shoes.

Second, Andrew was referred to the show by his sister, Anne Brock, who was interviewed on episode 2 of the show. Thank you, Anne!

And third, Andrew is a fresh-cut-flower farmer local to the Nashville area whose entire life is life powered and sustained by the earth and by community, and I cannot imagine a more fitting time to be talking to someone whose life is sustained outdoors and with other people during a time when our freedom to experience both of those things is seriously curtailed.

We recorded this episode before the coronavirus hit us in the States, and I've added some notes in the intro of the episode, thanks to an update Andrew gave me, about how their business is responding and faring during this time.

I was quite touched by this conversation, both because of what it demonstrates of the beauty and trust of living interdependently and of what we can learn from those who are willing to dive in with both feet and learn as they go.

Connect with Andrew and Twin Rose Farm on their website and on Instagram at @twinrosefarm.

Connect with Christianne on Instagram at @christiannesquires or by subscribing to the Light Notes email list.

And consider applying to be a guest on the show! Fill out the guest application form here.

Click here to learn about the live weekly examen being offered on March 30 and April 6.

Alexandra Cuncev is someone I am so happy to introduce you to today on the podcast. As I share in the intro piece I recorded for the episode, I have a hunch you'll fall a little bit in love with Alex after hearing her speak for even just a few moments. She's humble, thoughtful, caring, and remarkable.

Alex is the founder of the #mybeautifulstories hashtag on IG, a project she started one year ago with virtually no real IG experience and which has grown to more than 13,000 posts in just one year. This path also led her to start the My Beautiful Stories podcast, which she hosts with her husband, Pawel, to extend the joy of storytelling and finding the magic in the mundane.

On this episode, we talk about:

* Alex's experience of living through the Romanian Revolution in 1989 and how that made her care about the everyday moments in everyday life

* What her narrative PhD research on homelessness and storytelling taught her about the value of the anecdotal moments in our lives

* How our stories are like threads in our lives, linking every moment from one to the next and keeping us awake to life if we pay attention to them (not so unlike Scheherazade and her 1,001 tales!)

* What having the courage to move forward with the seed of an idea has taught her and brought into her life, often unexpectedly

* How stories are gifts we can give to and receive from one another, and how they grow in meaning the more we nurture them with love

Connect with Alex on her website and on Instagram at @storisse.

Connect with Christianne on Instagram at @christiannesquires or by subscribing to the Light Notes email list.

And consider applying to be a guest on the show! Fill out the guest application form here.

I couldn't help but decide to record a special episode of the podcast for us this week, inviting us to hold the question, "What does it look like to bear light in the midst of the coronavirus?"

I mean, is bearing the light a luxury, meant for when times are calm? How do we think about this when our inner and outer resources have been significantly taxed?

Isn't Maslow's hierarchy of needs a thing?

These questions asked me to wrestle. Because really, if this is the work of *my* life—inviting you to bear your light in the world in your own particular way—then does this work matter when the world is quarantined and no one knows where this is going or how it will end?

What do we do with our light in the face of a pandemic? Is this a question worth asking? And if it is, how do we even begin to answer it?

That's what today's special episode of the Bear the Light podcast invites you to consider. I ask lots of questions. I approximate some answers. The rest are yours to hold.

I hope you'll share with us what you notice is true for you in response to the questions I offer you! Visit this episode's post on my Instagram account at @christiannesquires to share your thoughts with the rest of us, or feel free to reach out to me via DM or email to share what this episode helps you consider.

Subscribe to the Light Notes email list.

And consider applying to be a guest on the show! Fill out the guest application form here.

I felt positively giddy going into the interview recording for this week's episode of Bear the Light—and then I felt even more lit up afterward! Sian Peters is a beautiful soul with a calming yet vibrant energy who is here to tell us about living in alignment with the moon cycles as a way of bearing light.

Sian (pronounced "Sean" for those of us here in the States) and I discuss:

* The difference between the solar calendar and the lunar calendar

* How living by the solar calendar (that's our usual January to December calendar) works against the rest of nature and how we've lived for thousands of years

* The two main anchor points of the moon cycle—the new moon and full moon—and how you can align your monthly rhythms, rituals, and intentions with both

* How the female hormonal cycle reflects this reality too

* The truth behind the idiom "It must be a full moon!"

* How your personal way of being and personality impact the way you experience the cycles and seasons as they ebb and flow

I love the way Sian talks about the moon. I'm pretty sure you will too.

Connect with Sian on her website and on Instagram at @sianpeters.me.

Connect with Christianne on Instagram at @christiannesquires or by subscribing to the Light Notes email list.

And consider applying to be a guest on the show! Fill out the guest application form here.

On the podcast today, I'm talking to Bailey Brawner, a senior pastor in the United Methodist Church who is all about the boundary-breaking spirit she sees in the person of Jesus, particularly when it comes to creating spiritual spaces for people who've been hurt by the church.

Bailey has a particular heart for those in the LGBTQIA+ community, with which she also identifies.

In this episode, we talk about:

* How she noticed her call to become a pastor, especially when she wasn't looking for it, and what it was like for people to diminish her call because she was a woman

* How she came to identify as queer and how that's impacted and informed her ministry ever since

* How she is helping her congregation think through what it means to help people feel fully included once they walk through the doors of the church

* The difference location can make to pastors serving the LGBTQIA+ community or identifying as part of that community themselves

* Resources she'd recommend to those wanting to explore the intersection of faith and sexual identity for the first time

* Her concerns about the church's slowness to catch up to conversations happening outside the church

* Her heart for people to experience God outside the four walls of church and outside a one-hour church service on Sunday

Connect with Bailey on her website and on Instagram at @baileynbrawner.

Connect with Christianne on Instagram at @christiannesquires or by subscribing to the Light Notes email list.

And consider applying to be a guest on the show! Fill out the guest application form here.

Today on the Bear the Light podcast, we're taking a deep dive into the magic that is childhood and how accessing childlike joy can bring greater happiness, health, and contentedness to our adult lives.
 
Tiffany Hoehne is a speaker, educator, and emotion coach who helps people access the joy of childhood while still attending to their lives as adults. In Tiffany's mind, the two aren't mutually exclusive but are meant to be integrated more intentionally for increased joy and health.
 
In this episode, we discuss:
 
* Why we tend to put childhood on a shelf when we become adults but lose out when we do
 
* The connection between thoughts, emotions, actions, and results
 
* What to do when accessing your childhood is the absolute last thing you want to do
 
* How judgment too often keeps us from doing things that are in our best interest
 
* A definition of light that includes love, knowledge, enlightenment, and awareness (this part of the conversation blew my mind!)
 
* How life is meant to be experienced in a ratio of 50/50—50 percent negative and 50 percent positive—but most of live with a ratio of 70/30, with an emphasis on the negative
 
* The role our imagination can play in our healing—and how much imagination plays into our lives already, whether we intend for that or not
 
* The emotional hacks within reach that can help us manufacture greater joy and happiness in our lives
 
One of my favorite quotes from this episode is where Tiffany said, "Nobody wants to stay as a 6-year-old, but I don’t want to stay as a 40-year-old who doesn’t have any of that 6-year-old left, either. There’s no joy left there. For me, I feel like I’m every age I’ve ever been." Isn't that beautiful?!
 
Connect with Tiffany on Instagram at @redlicoricelife.

Connect with Christianne on Instagram at @christiannesquires or by subscribing to the Light Notes email list.

And consider applying to be a guest on the show! Fill out the guest application form here.

On the Bear the Light podcast today, we get to meet Mary Lunnen, a life coach living in Cornwall, UK, whose primary work is to help women reconnect with their inner wisdom and step into their gentle power in the world.

On this episode, we discuss:

* How a serious health diagnosis in 1994 became the wake-up call that led Mary to take a new life path

* The first thing she said to her doctor after receiving her diagnosis, which was the gateway to that new path for her life

* The magic that happens in the gaps when we allow ourselves to notice and receive them

* Where her deep conviction that we all have inner wisdom came from

* The gentle wave of light-bearing work that flows among and through so many of us in the world

Mary also offers two impromptu demonstrations of the tools she uses in her life-coaching practice on the episode! And there's a synchronistic moment where three episodes of the show seem to talk to one another.

Connect with Mary on her website and on her Facebook page. You can also request to join either of her private Facebook groups, Dare to Blossom into Joy and The Powerful Voice of the Quiet Ones.

Connect with Christianne on Instagram at @christiannesquires or by subscribing to the Light Notes email list.

And consider applying to be a guest on the show! Fill out the guest application form here.

I know many of you will love this week's episode of the Bear the Light podcast because I'm interviewing certified labyrinth facilitator Sadelle Wiltshire, and we spend the whole episode talking about labyrinths!

Labyrinths have come up several times on previous episodes, which tells me this show seems to attract people who appreciate a good contemplative walk. I was excited to have Sadelle on the show to talk in a more in-depth way about this practice so many of you appreciate.

In this episode, we talk about:

* The history of this ancient archetypal image and tool

* How a labyrinth walk can be a great form of meditation, especially for those who have a harder time sitting in silence and stillness

* Common misconceptions about labyrinths, particularly related to the pace at which you're supposed to walk them and whether you're supposed to walk them alone

* How labyrinths can be used as powerful peacemaking tools and a way of bringing people together

* The connection between walking a labyrinth and going on pilgrimage

* Some of the differences you can expect from walking a labyrinth versus using a finger labyrinth

Sadelle mentions several resources on this episode, and the links for those can be found here:

* The Jail Labyrinth Project

* Videos about the 3Rs and 4Rs of walking a labyrinth

* A 7-day mini-course via email about walking labyrinths

Connect with Sadelle on her website and on Instagram at @sadiavt.

Connect with Christianne on Instagram at @christiannesquires or by subscribing to the Light Notes email list.

And consider applying to be a guest on the show! Fill out the guest application form here.