Curiosity Junkie

From my heart to yours, thank you so much for supporting the Curiosity Junkie Podcast.

For those of you who don't know the why behind the creation of the Curiosity Junkie Podcast, let me share a little insight. The podcast was created based on a quote I read a few years ago, from Thich Nhat Hahn, "The opposite of what you know is also true." This quote expanded my thinking and the way I looked at the world, and it made me curious about what I didn't know.

Join me for lots of fun and informative conversations with some pretty amazing guests in 2021. New this year, events and classes being offered via Facebook, so take a moment to drop a like and follow the Curiosity Junkie Podcast page.

I can't do this without the love and support of all of you. So if you're enjoying the podcast and the Facebook Community and the Instagram Community, show the donate button some love and help support the podcast.

Thanks so much,
Cassie

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Have you ever wondered what it's like to take a psychedelic trip on mushrooms? Michelle Janikian is all about sharing her passion for the healing potential of psychedelic plants and the legalization and de-stgmatization of all drugs. 

Michelle is a journalist and the author of Your Psilocybin Mushroom Companion, the down-to-earth guide that details everything you need to know about taking magic mushrooms safely and mindfully. Michelle studied writing and psychology before traveling extensively and settling in Southern Mexico. 

We talked about the safe ways to experience mushrooms and what you can do to ensure you have an enjoyable trip.  If you are planning to have a Mushroom experience there are several things you will want to consider before jumping in.

Check out the conversation with Michelle Janikian for more information and insights on Psilocybin Mushrooms and the healing potential of psychedelic plants.

Connect with Michelle Janikian
Instagram @michelle.janikian
Purchase "Your Psilocybin Mushroom Compaion" here or request a copy at indiebound.org
Michelle did ask each of us to support a locally own bookstore if at all possible.

Connect with Cassie Burton
Curiosity Junkie on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube

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Creating a meditation practice can seem overwhelming when you can't even sit still for more than a couple of minutes. Tracy Brady talks about taking 30 seconds to connect with and be there for ourselves.

Once you decide to start a meditation practice, Tracy recommends asking yourself these questions:

1. Why?
2. What do I want from this?
3. What is my goal?

After answering those questions, see if you can be present for yourself for 30 seconds, in silence. Allowing whatever thoughts, or sound or awarenesses come to you, to come and go. Just be there without abandoning yourself for a little bit.

Because, who's going to be there, if not us?

Connect with Tracy Brady
Instagram

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What makes some people want to explore the unknown? For Kristi Duarte it was traveling at a young age and seeing that basically we are all the same. She learned that at our core, most humans live in and come from a place of love. Which made her question why there was so much hate in the world.

Her passion for traveling the world and understanding different cultures and people, inspired her to write a book of “What If”. Like, what if the disciples of Jesus had been the ones to spread a message of Love and inclusion and acceptance? What a beautiful world it would be.

Kristi also discovered at a young age a deep connection to the spirit world and her intuition. She would see fireworks no one else could see. She could feel a spirit next to her, breathing as she would fall asleep at night, it was comforting and never scary. Today she is not only an Author,  she is also a Reiki Healer who has helped many to release emotional blockages.

Join us for a fun and informative conversation about world travel, spirituality and healing.

Connect with Kristi Duarte 

To purchase the Holy Conspiracy 

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What is anxiety and how can we learn to cope with it? Anxiety is a bit like fear, It’s kind of fear’s twin. And actually, the root comes from a Latin word which means choking, which makes perfect sense when you think about it.

Anxiety usually involves something that is not true, something we are preparing for, something that doesn’t exist yet. We generally worry about the future. We know we can’t predict the future, we know that something bad “may” happen. And we know that we “may not” be able to prevent it. And so, that sense of powerlessness and just the humanness of it creates a sense of separation. We don’t like to feel separated from the group.

When these thoughts become a problem, is when we start taking actions based on those untrue threats that we see in the future, that may or may not happen. We do have the ability to create scenarios for ourselves to put us in either a very anxious state or in a very peaceful state.

One of the first ways you can do this is to ground yourself by bringing your mind into alignment with where your body is in this space, in this moment. Start by asking yourself, Where am I? Begin to feel the space between your feet and the floor, which requires some focus and the brain can only focus on one thing at a time. 

Next, use this focus practice: use any 1 (one) of your senses. (Sight, smell, taste, touch, hear) Then name 3 things you can (insert one of the 5 senses).

Once you have put yourself in a position where the amygdala can relax, then you can ask the prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain that is capable of making logical decisions, to become engaged. And that is when we can start to say okay, and we can begin telling the body it is safe. You can tell the body that whatever it is scared of is not actually happening in this moment. You can tell the body it can relax and it can breathe.

When we leave this present moment we abandon ourselves and we need ourselves to be present, for ourselves in order to heal. We have to trust that we will always be there for ourselves. Something you can do to comfort yourself is place your hand on your heart, lower abdomen or even your forehead, whatever feels the most comfortable. What that tells the body is, it’s okay, I’m here for you, I hear you calling, what is it you are feeling.

When you stop and allow this feeling to be, you can investigate what is going on. Do you need a drink of water? Are you moving too fast? Are you doing too many things at once and causing yourself stress? Do you need to sit down for a few minutes? Are you resisting what you’re doing right now? Do you have to do it right now?

When you question what you're feeling, you can come to a quick conclusion about the thought you were having before you started to feel the anxiety.

Try these simple steps when you begin to feel anxious.

1. Become aware- identify you are having anxious feelings or feelings of fear.
2. Ground yourself - bring your attention back to the here and now. Think about the space between your feet and the floor.
3. Now ask yourself to use one of your 5 senses to name three things you can…
4. Begin to comfort yourself and tell yourself you are okay, you are safe.
5. Then start to ask questions to understand what you are feeling. Do you need water? Do you need to slow down? Do you need to sit down?

Connect with Tracy Brady and on Instagram
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Meditation is not about fighting against your mind, it’s about developing an understanding about it. So the struggle that you feel isn’t stopping you from meditating, it's actually your teacher. So, be curious and ask why can’t I sit still? Why is it so difficult? What is so difficult about doing nothing?

MIDL Meditation stands for Mindfulness In Daily Life. The MIDL could be pronounced “middle” and the Buddha mentions the middle way or path in his first talk. So MIDL meditation seeks to find that middle path, that middle balance. 

The difference with MIDL Meditation is the understanding that seated meditation is just training for daily life. We sit down and use different exercises so we can learn skills. Skills like being able to self-observe, or being able to soften and relax our relationship towards things. Skills like the ability to sit and still the mind and be comfortable with nothing, to be comfortable with no stimulation at all. Once you develop these skills you can use them in the “Real Meditation”, which is being with friends and family, being in the workplace, being in Covid, or when things in life are out of our control.

When meditating for anxiety the most common mistake that is made, is the development of concentration. Using concentration for anxiety doesn’t work in the long run. Because the product of concentration is depression. So if you try to sit and meditate your mind will go everywhere, because the mind is scared.

There are two parts of the mind. The surface level which is where we interact and the more ancient part which is the survival part of the mind. The mind's job is to sort all of our experiences into 2 categories, is it safe or is it dangerous. And this all happens automatically and the mind uses past memory to interpret this. 

Once we re-teach our body how to breathe, the experience of anxiety goes away. You can find this breathing technique on the MIDL Meditation website, under MIDL Meditation for Anxiety.

When dealing with anxiety it is important to be gentle with ourselves. And understand, what we’re dealing with is out of our control. What we’re dealing with is habit, our mind is habitual, our body is very habitual. The heart beats, the lungs breathe, and the mind thinks. The mind won’t stop thinking because we tell it to stop thinking. The mind is scared, so you have to help it feel safe. You have to tell the mind it is safe. 

As we treat our mind and heart with a gentleness and respect (the way we would a scared child), the mind will gradually calm down and find safety, find quiet. And the thinking, which comes out of fear, also settles down and stops. You can never be too kind or too gentle with yourself. The struggle and frustration are the survival part of the mind being scared. They’re not you. It is the part of the mind trying to protect you.

So if we can understand that it is just fear in the mind, hold it gently, allow it to be there, teach it safety, it will come to an end and then stop.

Connect with Stephen Procter on the MIDL Meditation Website  or by email
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Most of us experience some type of stress or anxiety on any given day. And because of that, most of us would like to learn how to manage our stress levels and our anxiety levels. 

Jonathan Adams is here to help us understand the healing power of sound therapy. What is sound therapy and how can it help with stress and anxiety? Well it has a lot to do with our brain waves. 
Understanding Our Brain Waves:

1. Beta - which is our normal waking state
2. Alpha and Theta - rest and digest, which are more meditative
3. Delta - which is a deep sleep state

In fact, these states also reflect a different part of our nervous system. High Beta we are stressed, we have intrusive thoughts. The lower Beta is our normal problem solving state, which we are in most of the day. As a result, when we are in Alpha and Theta, our nervous system starts to move to the parasympathetic state. Which is our rest and digest state. It’s also a time of releasing stress, we’re in a time of safety. a time we can get into a meditative state.

In the lower Theta we can cross over from our intellectual thinking mind and into our more subconscious mind, some call this the waking dream state. Lower Theta is where we are crossing over to the subconscious. Delta is where we get into a deep sleep state.  Gamma is the more rarely occurring  state above Beta, which is associated with mystical experiences. Gamma, which transcends the stress of high Beta and gets into what some people call “super consciousness” where the mind opens up to a larger view of reality.

Most importantly, how does that help us with anxiety? Well, with sound therapy the subtle rhythms of the frequencies help our brain waves to move from those higher states like Beta and down into the meditation states of Alpha and Theta. Which occurs through the process called entrainment, which is essentially synchronization. Our minds have a natural tendency to latch onto those frequencies and follow them down into those meditative states. In fact, when we hear those gentle rhythms our minds just automatically begin to relax.

Join Jonathan Adams and myself on the Curiosity Junkie Podcast to learn more about Sound Therapy and how it can help with Anxiety.
Connect with Jonathan Adams/Sonic Yogi: Website, Soundcloud, Tedx Talk
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Self-Acceptance is when we put the work into knowing, understanding and owning and accepting who we are. All parts of ourselves that we rejected or denied. The parts we are ashamed of, or criticize, or feel are unworthy or not good enough or inadequate, unacceptable or bad. These are messages we get from our family and society. Once we understand and own these parts we can begin unpeeling the layers to get to our true self, who we really are.

We Can Begin by:

• Creating awareness for what you are rejecting, denying, ashamed of, or feelings of being not good enough or unworthy.
• Then ask yourself why do I feel this way and where did I learn to feel this way? 
• Pay attention to what is coming up, and begin to explore your stories and self-talk.

Then you can begin to look at your conditioning. What parts of myself did I learn to hide? What parts of myself am I ashamed of? What was I criticized for, praised for, allowed and not allowed to do.

Our inner child collects and stores so much of us, it stores our experiences, memories, needs, emotions. When our inner child is/was wounded it stores the unresolved emotions, the unmet needs which then creates triggers. Take the time to get to know your inner child, to find out what they need.  Sitting with and learning what your inner child needs to feel loved and safe is powerful and not complicated. 

Annie Gospodin reminds us that we are not alone in our Self-Acceptance journey.  Annie  openly shares her life experiences and journey to Unconditional Self-Acceptance.

Connect with Annie Gospodin:
Annie Gospodin Website
The Inner Calling Podcast

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Have you ever thought about writing a book? How about a children's book? Todays guest is an Award-Winning Author, Story Teller and Neuroeducation Activist, who writes fairy tales filled with adventure.

Author Marc Clark shares how he got started writing and encourages others to follow their passion for writing. Marc never considered himself a writer and actually began by keeping a journal... gibberish journals. 

His mission is to let each and every reader know they have the power to create their own futures and he’ll be there to help in any way he can.

Best Children's Book, London Book Festival - The Princess & The Parakeet

Connect With Marc Clark The Fables Kingdom

Instagram  @authormarcclark
Facebook Author Marc Clark

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I love podcasting with Buzzsprout!  Your show can be online and listed in all the major podcast directories within minutes of finishing your recording. So, What are you waiting for? Click this link to get started and let Buzzsprout know we sent you, gets you a $20 Amazon gift card when you sign up for a paid plan, and helps support our show.

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Imagine turning 25 on the 25th, your "Golden Year", a year of great things happening. Now imagine finding out you have cancer that same year. Joy Soto’s story is an example of how sometimes the best things come from the worst moments of our lives. 

Joy Soto found out she had cancer when she was 25 years old. Do you want to know what she did about it? She decided to film a documentary about her cancer journey, that's right a documentary. Why not, she was already in film school. She also decided that her cancer story was going to have a happy ending, a positive outcome.  And that is exactly what happened!

Joy Soto is positive, resilient and has the most amazing smile and energy. I was honored to have her on the podcast to share her cancer survivor story and so much more. She’s been a Tedx Speaker, Dolphin Trainer, Cancer Survivor and Documentary Filmmaker. Joy Soto has won several awards for her Documentary, Just One Year - A Story Of Triumph Over Cancer. 

Today she continues to be a strong role model for her daughters, those battling cancer and those being told they can't do what they want to do. 

Join us as we talk about strength, vulnerability, having a positive outlook in difficult times and going after what you want no matter what.

Connect with Joy Soto 

Joy Soto Website
LinkedIn @JoySoto
Joy Soto's Documentary, Just One Year - A Story Of Triumph Over Cancer
Joy Soto's Tedx Talk

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