Brenda and Deborah discuss how to identify and work with the dynamics of the relationships that we experience along our soul journey and what states of mind are the most efficient in how we invest our emotions and energy in them to help them (and us) grow.

Deborah and Brenda discuss the dynamics of repairing our relationship with those we share our life with and, more importantly, with our self. The latter requiring a skill set that asks us to be patient with our unresolved issues. Learning how to live with those questions takes us ever closer to the answers we seek, even when we cannot see them now. Trusting in that process informs a sense of faith in our soul journey, which is one of the keys to self-acceptance. When we are able repair our relationship with our self, when we accept the lessons our life has gifted us, we move closer to repairing our relationships with others. It is a circle of compassion.

The topic of 'healing' is discussed and how our culture seems to have embraced 'healing' as a more nebulous 'trending' topic as opposed to being a truly beneficial specific practice. Everyone seems to be 'healing' but what does that really mean? Brenda introduces Deborah to the possibility of embracing the more specific term and practice of Repair and Return instead. Their discussion centers around exploring how 'repair & return' can work to help those who are facing issues of trauma and other mental health issues. Becoming aware of your own innate abilities and how you can participate in your 'repair' and owning that knowledge is a fundamental principle of Repair and Return.

There is a mathematical perfection to the Universe in which we are a part. In this episode Deborah and Brenda explore Sacred Geometry and a way to decode your "numbers" to better understand and find your soul path.

Season 2 of Soul Path Sessions opens with Deborah and Brenda once again stretching their therapist muscles beyond the boundaries of traditional psychology and exploring the characteristics and possibilities that inform the Year of the Rabbit. The rabbit (兔) is the fourth in the twelve-year periodic sequence (cycle) of animals that appear in the Chinese zodiac related to the Chinese calendar. Each animal represented in the Chinese zodiac have different personality traits that are believed to influence one's life and are used to provide guidance on how people live their lives.  Many believe that the turmoil and change that the previous year (tiger) brought about will be followed by a more peaceful 12 months. However, the energy of the rabbit and what it may bring with it is worth considering in order to take advantage of the opportunities and face the challenges that could lie ahead. Deborah and Brenda share their own personal experiences about using Animal Medicine to guide them and offer extremely helpful advice on being able to interpret what the Year of the Rabbit may mean for you.

This is an encore episode from Season 1: Initiations, Invitations & Epiphanies - Part 2 of 2

This encore episode from season 1 concludes a two-part discussion about Initiations, Invitations & Epiphanies. Deborah shares her deeply personal story about her experiences with grief and loss as an initiation and that, although painful, holds the promise of hope within them if we can pay attention to the messages, synchronicities and signs that surround these events. The conversation shifts to the possibilities that the path of joy can also be a very powerful initiation into a new way of seeing ourselves and our place in the world and is able to lead us across those thresholds that grief may hold sway over. 

This is an encore episode from Season 1: Initiations, Invitations & Epiphanies - Part 1 of 2

“The Greeks believed that time had secret structure. There was the moment of Epiphany when time suddenly opened and something was revealed in luminous clarity. There was the moment of krisis when time got entangled and directions became confused and contradictory. There was also the moment of kairos; this was the propitious moment. Time opened up in kindness and promise. All the energies cohered to offer a fecund occasion of initiative, creativity, and promise. Part of the art of living wisely is to learn to recognize and attend to such profound openings in one’s life.” ~ John O'Donohue 

Initiations, invitations and epiphanies are usually life altering events that invoke some kind of revelation. In this encore episode (part 1 of 2), Deborah and Brenda share personal soul stories of their own initiations that framed and informed change in their lives. As with most of life's changes, crossing a new threshold involves chaos, risk and fear, none of which outwardly appear to be under any one's control. However, as is often the case, there lies a deeper intelligence at work. A process that one can learn to trust if they choose to be open and recognize the initiations, invitations and epiphanies that come their way. The goal of this first of two episodes is to not only affirm their own initiations, but also to encourage those who may be wanting to remember their own.

This is an encore episode from Season 1: Soul Integration

Deborah and Brenda discuss the process of integration as we get older and how we use our intentions to create the possibility of becoming someone more attuned to our own soul, someone completely different than we use to be. At a certain point, nobody cares what you become. You are now the one in charge of you! How great is that? The pressure to maintain who you were has dissolved into who you want to be, or who you truly are. It is a state of absolute freedom and being able to integrate all you are into all you do, is our best expression of soul.

This is an encore episode from Season 1: From Role To Soul

Living a more soulful life involves evaluating and re-evaluating our perspectives. It is a path we learn to walk with intention and attention. The destination is the journey itself. This week's Soul Path Sessions podcast deals with aging and going from role to soul: who we are when we are controlled by ego and who we strive to become, informed by soul, when we stay on that path. Deborah and Brenda's conversation covers a range of topics from how the ego begins to share control with the soul as we age, to how anger, grief and perspective change as we get older. The roles we embrace in life start to soften and as we embrace the influence of soul, we begin to view our choices through a more inclusive lens.

This is a special Soul Path Sessions episode. In 2020, Deborah began a poetic journey to share her experiences as a therapist and spiritual life coach during the pandemic. The result is "Shelter In Place" a book of incredibly thoughtful and vulnerable poetry. Brenda interviews Deborah about the process and the inspirations that informed her poems. 

From the book's foreward: "As a therapist and spiritual life coach I work with clients who experience anxiety and pain. This challenges me to work with my own shifting mental and emotional states. A poverty of personal experiences would deprive me of that ability to help myself and others. Some of my poems reflect deep suffering and fear that therapists generally hide from their clients. I experience my vulnerability as an unavoidable reality that helps me connect deeply with myself and others. My compassion rises from our shared humanity. I can be a therapist because of my own wounds and profound search for true healing of my mind. body and emotions.

Hiking in the forest or desert, lying on the grass, feet in a stream, walking by the sea, floating in water, warming on boulders, resting under trees, drinking in moonlight and stars has always been a path of healing. I know that if we lose ourselves in this beauty we heal. I know that deep surrender and humility allow us to connect to wisdom and love. Sharing our journey of awakening with each other provide strength, faith and community. It is in this spirit that I offer you these poems. May they provide shelter and a sense of belonging."

(Shelter In Place is available on Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/Shelter-Place-Deborah-Meints-Pierson/dp/B0B42P7G97/ref=sr_1_3?)