The Summit Effect

This week on The Summit Effect, we’re getting into tarot: its history, how a deck works, and how I use it personally and alongside my work in clinic to invite reflection, explore choices, and connect with intuition.

We’ll unpack the Major and Minor Arcana, the four suits, and how the imagery, question, and surrounding cards shape a reading. I’m also answering some common questions: Can tarot predict the future? Are the cards dangerous? Can you read for yourself? And does someone really have to gift you your first deck?

Plus, I share how pulling the Page of Cups brought me back to the heart of why I created The Women They Warned You About—and why I care so deeply about women remembering who they are, finding community, and standing in their power.

In this episode:
• A brief history of tarot and the Rider–Waite–Smith deck
• The Major Arcana, Minor Arcana, four suits, and court cards
• How spreads give a reading context
• How I use tarot for reflection and alongside Reiki sessions
• Why I approach readings with choice and personal agency at the centre
• How to turn a yes-or-no question into an invitation for insight
• My approach to beginning a tarot practice of your own
• The Page of Cups and the heart behind my upcoming women’s event

Summit Takeaway:
You can use tarot to explore what you’re feeling, what needs your attention, and what you want to do next. Take the reading as data, your choices are still yours.

Join us: The Women They Warned You About
An evening of reflection, connection, and remembering who you are—in support of Halton Women’s Place.

We’ll begin with a guided group ritual focused on what we’re ready to release and what we’re calling in, followed by a collective tarot reading with Tarot Lori. Your ticket includes unlimited food and drinks, with fundraising prizes throughout the evening.

Tickets: https://the-summit-collective.bloomtickets.ca/event/3452 

Mentioned in this episode:
• Big Deck Energy by Tarot Lori: https://www.tarotlori.com/
• Pamela Colman Smith video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ijj4ZBtNH7E 

Connect with Alanna:
Instagram: @alannacrawford_
The Summit Collective: www.thesummitcollective.ca

If this episode resonated with you, share it with a friend or leave a rating and review. It helps more people find The Summit Effect—and join the conversation where science meets soul.

After being welcomed into ceremony with Grandmother’s Voice at Bronte Creek, I’ve been thinking about what it means to live in relationship with the seasons. In this episode, I explore fall through Traditional Chinese Medicine and astrology—and how both can offer questions worth asking as we move from summer toward winter.

We’ll move through Libra’s call for balance, Scorpio’s deeper look inward, and Sagittarius’s invitation to choose where we go next. I also share how I’m using Venus retrograde as a mirror for self-love, worthiness, and the way we speak to ourselves.

In this episode, we discuss:

• Honouring what you’ve grown since spring
• Fall’s Metal element, and its associations with the lungs, large intestine, grief, and letting go
• The questions Libra and Scorpio season can bring into focus
• Venus retrograde, self-worth, and what you believe you deserve
• Rest, recovery, and choosing what matters as Sagittarius season leads us toward winter

Questions to consider:
What am I proud of?
What am I ready to put down?
What do I want to make room for?

If you’d like to gather with other women for a group reading and ritual with Tarot Lori, join us at The Women They Warned You About. Net ticket proceeds will support Halton Women’s Place.

Tickets: https://the-summit-collective.bloomtickets.ca/event/3452 

Grandmother's Voice:
https://grandmothersvoice.com/

Spiritdaughter Podcast:
https://spiritdaughter.com/blogs/the-spirit-daughter-podcast 

If this episode resonated, share it with someone who might need permission to slow down. You can continue the conversation with me on Instagram at @alannacrawford_. And if you enjoy The Summit Effect, a rating or review on Apple Podcasts helps more people find it.

Can you be intuitive and still make bad decisions? Do you need a daily practice to stay connected? Can you drink alcohol and still be spiritual? And are those strangely accurate tarot readings on your Instagram feed actually meant for you—or is it just the algorithm?

This week, I’m answering your questions and sharing some of my spiritual hot takes. We’re talking about energetic protection, religion and spirituality, psychedelics, purpose, Etsy witches, collective card pulls and the spiritual rules I think we need to let go of.

In this episode, we discuss:

• Why energetic protection should come from expansion rather than fear
• How intuitive people can still make bad decisions
• Whether you need a daily spiritual practice to stay connected
• The similarities and differences between religion and spirituality
• Why spiritual practices should return power to you
• My honest thoughts on psychedelics and spirituality
• Why your purpose doesn’t need to be one enormous, life-changing mission
• Why there are no perfect rules for being spiritual

If this episode made you laugh, challenged one of your beliefs or gave you permission to be a little more human, please rate and review The Summit Effect. It helps more people find the show.

Follow along on Instagram: @alannacrawford_

Why can certain full moons and eclipses leave us feeling completely exhausted?

In this episode, I explore Carolyn Myss’s concept of calling your spirit back: reclaiming the attention, time and life-force energy we continue sending toward past experiences, outdated identities and unresolved stories.

I also connect this spiritual idea to what science tells us about learned protection, predictive processing and perseverative cognition—when the body continues preparing for something that is no longer happening.

In this episode, we discuss:

• Why some astrological events may feel more significant than others
• Astrology as a mirror—not a mandate
• What it means to live from an outdated version of yourself
• Carolyn Myss’s concept of calling your spirit back
• The subtle ways we give our power to the past
• Why choice is the fundamental power of the human experience
• Why protective nervous-system responses can continue after a situation has ended
• How rumination can affect heart rate, blood pressure, cortisol and heart-rate variability

Summit takeaway:
Your energy is needed here. Your spirit is needed here. Your life is happening here.

*This podcast is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended to diagnose or treat any medical or mental-health condition. Always speak with a qualified healthcare provider about your individual needs*.

If this episode resonated with you, please rate and review The Summit Effect. It helps more people find the podcast and supports the conversations we are building here.

Follow me on Instagram: @alannacrawford_

What if the shoulder is where you feel the pain—but not necessarily where the entire problem began?

Lately, I have been seeing a pattern of shoulder and upper-arm pain in clinic without an obvious injury or clear mechanical onset. When the same presentation appears multiple times, I start looking beyond the painful structure and exploring what might be happening through all three layers: the physical body, the nervous system and the energetic or emotional body.

In this episode, we discuss:

• Why the painful structure is not always the primary driver
• How the neck, ribs, clavicle and shoulder blade affect arm movement
• Why I look beyond the physical body when someone’s pain does not match their level of mechanical dysfunction
• How nervous-system state can influence muscle tone, breathing, pain sensitivity and recovery
• The shoulders and arms as tools of protection and action
• What can happen when the body prepares to push, reach or protect—but we suppress the action
• How pain and guarding can reinforce one another
• How I decide whether someone is ready to explore the deeper layers
• The energetic relationship between the shoulders, arms and heart space
• The Heart’s connection to summer, joy and connection in Traditional Chinese Medicine
• Why working through all three layers can offer a more complete understanding of the pattern

Summit takeaway:
Sometimes the body is not holding one specific emotion. Sometimes it is holding the posture of an action it has been preparing to take.

If this episode resonated with you, please rate and review the podcast—and share it with someone who might be carrying a little too much right now.

Connect with me:
Instagram: @alannacrawford_

Dolly Parton once said, “Find out who you are and do it on purpose.” But she didn’t just say it—she built an entire life around it.

In this episode, I share the clairsentient experience she had the day before Dolly’s passing and reflect on what Dolly taught us about authenticity, purpose, generosity and creating success that makes more room for other people.

In this episode:

• Why finding yourself means refusing to cut yourself into more acceptable pieces
• How Dolly built an empire in rhinestones without diminishing her intelligence, ambition or spirituality
• Why purpose is not what you say matters to you—it’s what your life repeatedly demonstrates that you care about
• How Dolly used her success to create jobs, fund education and medical research, and support the community that raised her
• Why someone else does not have to fail for you to succeed
• Why people don’t have to understand what you’re building while you’re building it
• How to use your gifts, influence, time and success to leave the world better than you found it

This episode asks us to consider:

Because I was here—who had a better experience?

Find out who you are. Do it on purpose. Wear the rhinestones, build the business, help your people—and trust that the right people will pick up what you put into the world.

Follow me on Instagram: @alannacrawford_

If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and review The Summit Effect. It helps more people find the podcast and allows us to continue bringing meaningful conversations and incredible guests to the show.

In this episode, I’m talking about why we might not always need another mentor, course, teacher or person telling us what to do. Sometimes the thing that actually builds confidence is getting our reps in, sitting in the discomfort of not knowing, and learning to trust our own ability to figure it out.

We get into the science of self-efficacy, deliberate practice, autonomy, cognitive offloading and automation bias, and what can happen when guidance stops supporting our thinking.

In this episode:

Why my attempts to find intuitive mentors somehow always fall apart
Why mastery experiences are one of the strongest ways we build self-efficacy
Why the reps are what actually create confidence
How “desirable difficulties” and struggling through the unknown can improve learning
Why deliberate practice matters more than simply putting in the hours
The difference between a mentor who gives you answers and one who teaches you how to think
Why autonomy matters for learning, motivation and self-belief
How cognitive offloading can become a problem when we outsource the exact skills we’re trying to develop
What emerging AI research says about confidence, critical thinking and our reliance on external answers
Automation bias and what happens when we trust an external recommendation over our own judgment

Summit takeaway: Do the thing. Let yourself struggle at the thing. Refine the thing. And keep using your brain during the process.

If this episode resonated, share it with someone who might need it.

Continue the conversation on Instagram: @alannacrawford_

For all things Shanté Cofield:
@themovementmaestro on instagram
Podcasts: Maestro on the Mic and Promoting Curiosity Podcast
Website: www.themovementmaestro.com 

As women, we are so good at noticing. We notice what needs to be done, who needs support, who hasn’t had enough time for themselves, and how everyone around us is doing. But somewhere in all that noticing, we can forget that we need to be poured into too.

In this episode:

• Why our definition of fun grows up with us
• The magic of uninterrupted time with women
• Why being truly listened to feels so powerful
• Why friendship shouldn’t be something we squeeze in after everything else is done
• Why the same qualities that make women incredible can also drain us
• Wanting fun that you come home from feeling more like yourself
• Scheduling “time-ins” before you desperately need a break
• Why not everything enjoyable needs to become another wellness practice
• Why we need to stop silently rooting for women and start rooting for them out loud

Summit takeaway:

We are so good at creating connection, taking care of people, building community, and making life beautiful for everyone around us—but sometimes we forget that we’re supposed to experience the beautiful life we’re creating too.

If this episode resonated with you, send it to a woman you want to schedule a time-in with.

Continue the conversation on Instagram: @alannacrawford_

What do sports, healing, Ted Lasso, and the nervous system have in common?

More than you might think.

In this episode, I unpack a conversation that has been sitting with me for weeks—a discussion about professional sports, collective emotion, and whether something can be both deeply beautiful and deeply flawed at the same time.

We explore why humans have gathered around sport for thousands of years, why shared experiences regulate our nervous systems, and why anything powerful enough to unite us can also expose what's unresolved within us.

This isn't really an episode about sports.

It's an episode about human behaviour.

About collective healing.

About learning to think beyond black and white.

In this episode, we discuss:

• Why humans are biologically wired to seek community and shared experiences
• The history of sport as a tool for peace, grief, and social connection
• Why sports don't create emotions—they amplify what's already there
• The difference between healthy passion and dysregulated group behaviour
• What domestic violence statistics during major sporting events really tell us
• Why removing the "vessel" rarely fixes the underlying problem
• The importance of supporting organizations and communities that align with your values
• Ted Lasso's greatest lesson: staying curious instead of judgmental
• How to participate in any movement without losing yourself to the crowd

If this episode resonated with you, I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Come join the conversation over on Instagram @alannacrawford_, or share this episode with someone who loves understanding why humans behave the way we do.

If you're enjoying The Summit Effect, don't forget to follow the show, leave a rating and review, and share it with a friend. It helps more than you know.

Thank you so much for listening, and I'll see you next week.

In this episode, we unpack the feeling of losing yourself and why “How do I find myself again?” might be the wrong question. We explore neuroplasticity, how life experiences and repeated choices shape the brain, and why the woman you were at 25 isn’t someone you need to get back to. This is a conversation about identity, the choices that build who you become, and how to stop looking in the rearview mirror and start casting votes for the woman you are becoming.

In this episode:
Why women feel like they’ve lost themselves during major life transitions
Why “How do I find myself again?” might be the wrong question
Neuroplasticity and the brain’s lifelong capacity to change
How emotionally significant experiences can reshape the way we see ourselves and the world
Why life events don’t automatically change us — and why our choices matter
The difference between finding yourself and building yourself
James Clear’s idea that every action is a vote for the person you want to become
The solar plexus, identity, will, and personal power
The sacral chakra, creation, joy, and following what pulls you

Summit takeaway: “Start casting votes for the woman you are becoming.”