April 25, 2024 • 42 mins
In this episode of the Deeply Well Podcast, host Devi Brown shares her recent experiences and joys. She discusses her upcoming appearance at the Black Effect Podcast Festival in Atlanta and expresses her excitement to connect with listeners. Devi reflects on the impact of recent podcast episodes and highlights the importance of finding joy in everyday moments. She shares personal experiences, such as attending concerts, visiting museums, and spending quality time with her son. Devi also discusses her journey in motherhood and the importance of slowing down and being present with her child.
Previous Episodes:
Beyond Diversity and Inclusion with Denise Hamilton
Walking with Grief with Sah D'Simone
Choosing Wisdom Over Influence with Manoj Dias
Finding Enlightenment with Shaka Senghor
Connect: @DeviBrown
Learn More: DeviBrown.com
Recommendations
The Love Land Foundation – Rachel Cargle
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:27):
Take a deep breath in through your nose. Hold it
now release slowly again, deep in helle hold release, repeating
(01:02):
internally to yourself as you connect to my voice. I
am deeply, deeply well. I I am deeply well. I
(01:23):
am deeply wow. I'm Debbie Brown and this is the
Deeply Well Podcast. Welcome to Deeply Well, a soft place
(01:44):
to land, a podcast for those that are curious and
creative and ready to expand in higher consciousness and self care.
I'm Debbie Brown. This is where we heal, this is
where we become. Welcome back to the show. So as
I have just set everything up actually in my office
to record this episode, I'm getting ready to head out
(02:07):
to the Black Effect Podcast Festival, and I'm so looking
forward to it. It's going down in Atlanta, of course,
the twenty seventh of April, and I think depending on
when you hear this episode, there are still some tickets left.
It looks amazing. It's happening at Pullman Yards and I
had a chance to spend a lot of time in
(02:28):
Pullman Yards. Actually a couple of years ago. I was
teaching wellness to Ote, which is this incredible organization for
star basketball players before they joined the league, and we
did some really cool stuff in Atlanta a few years ago.
So I'm excited to get back out there. Anytime I
get to Atlanta, I get to head out there, it
is such a treat and some of my besties are
(02:50):
out there, so I'm gonna have a great time. And
I will be at the podcast Festival and I will
be doing a live podcast recording of Deeply Well, and
I'm really excited to share my two special guests with
you and really take a bite out of this conversation
that we'll be having there. So if you listen to
the show, if you are going to be there in Atlanta,
(03:11):
and shout out. We just gave out some tickets actually
on the Instagram, So if you're going to be in Atlanta,
please if you see me, stop me. I would love
to just spend time with everyone that connects to the
show and talk and catch up and you know, hear
what you're resonating with and hear how your work has
been going. You know, my show is a companion for
(03:34):
the work you are doing on yourself and your own
spirit and your own soul. So and that is such
a privilege for me. So I would love to hear
from you a person if you head to the podcast festival.
Black Effect Network is just wow. My brother Charlemagne, to
say he blows me away would be such an understatement.
(03:56):
He has been such a dear, close friend of mine
for almost twenty years, which was insane to say. And
he just is always not just growing the empire, which
I think is so obvious and so special and so powerful,
but I've never met someone in this industry that goes
(04:17):
out of their way to recognize, to help, to uplift,
to expand all the people around him every single chance
he gets. And I've had the chance to be able
to witness him consistently for twenty years, and at every
(04:37):
juncture of the journey, even the juncture of him that was,
you know, saying things that were a bit more wild,
at every juncture of the way, when it came to
his heart, when it came to the way that he
shows up for people, when it came to his vision
and his commitment to people to doing good, it just
(04:59):
it's never waver It's who he's always been and it's
what he does so well. So it's just so special
to be a part of this network and to see
it grow and to head to the second annual Podcast Festival.
It's massive, It's massive. Nobody does podcasting like Charlemagne and
the Black Effect Network, so such a privilege to be here.
(05:20):
Is so happy to be here and again cannot wait
to head to Atlanta. All Right, this episode, I want
to check in about Joy in real time, and also
at the end of the episode, I'm going to have
a chance to answer some of the questions that came
through on my Instagram from just a few weeks ago.
First thing I want to call out before I dive
into the joy of the moment is I want to
(05:41):
shout out some of the recent episodes we've done, because
I've had a chance to get quite a bit of
feedback coming through and gotten some emails and gotten some
dms and some comments, and it is it's I am
just loving the way that some of these conversations are
resonating with those who have shared their hearts and their
(06:05):
reflections on it. We've had a chance to go really
deep in the last few months. We had some amazing
episodes like Shaka singor that episode Oh my God, just
so so powerful, and I'm I'm just so in awe
(06:26):
of his pathway to enlightenment and his pathway to healing
and the way he moves through the world. Now, so
if you haven't caught up on that episode, highly recommend it.
Shaka singor also Minage Diis. Oh wow, that episode. I mean,
especially for those that are in the wellness industry, wellness
(06:47):
industry adjacent, or are finding their way to the wellness
industry as a business. I just felt like that episode
took it to places I have been wanting to go
with someone else. So I'm so glad we just got
to kind of dive into that. And you know, everyone
is different, and we all have different philosophies, we surely
(07:07):
all have different motivations. But I'm just a believer it's
okay to be counterculture, you know. It's I remember I
have this professor in college. I was taking I believe
it was pas African American Cinema and he pulled up
one of my favorite movies ever, which is Malcolm X
(07:30):
Spike Lee Denzel, and I remember I can't remember what
it was, but he had some kind of criticism for it,
and I was just so offended. And he said to me,
you know, Debbie, a sign of really valuing something is
the ability to criticize it everything. There should be space
to criticize absolutely everything, and you know that's part of
(07:51):
what creation is. That's part of loving something. You know,
it's holding a mirror to it. So I love how
that episode went down. If you haven't checked it out yet,
please do. And I also check out my dear friend
Minage on the open app leading meditation and if you're
in person, heading to Venice to pop into a class. Also,
the episode that we did a few weeks ago was
(08:13):
Saudi Simone, whose new book is out Spiritually Wee an
incredible teacher of spiritual work and an incredible master of
somatics saw and I went so deep about grief and
some of the things that I was reading back just
I'm just so grateful that episode on grief found whoever
(08:36):
it did in whatever line timing that it did. Grief
is hard. Grief is hard, and it's a guaranteed experience
that everyone will face, and some face much more often
than others. And finding ways to be with that feeling,
(08:58):
to be with that sensation, and finding ways to transmute
that experience in your body and in the world, it's
just some of the most honorable dignified, graceful work you
will ever do. I've said something pretty consistently to people
in my life over the years, which is, you know,
I'm really the kind of person who I say this
(09:22):
really gratefully. When things happen, I'll just take off running
to the darkness. I'll run straight into whatever it is
that's present. And I'm grateful for that ability and what
has been very often painful practice and being able to
kind of work that muscle, because by running to your
(09:46):
own darkness you have the opportunity to free yourself so quickly,
and the courage that you build in yourself for having
done it, you'll wear like a cloak for their of
your life. So I don't know who that message is for,
but whoever resonates, So check out that episode Saudi Simone.
(10:08):
And then most recently, we have my girlfriend Denise Hamilton On,
author of the new book Indivisible and an absolutely brilliant, brilliant,
brilliant woman, so honored to call her friend, and her
work is just special and it's different, and she has
her fingers on the pulse in a way that is
(10:33):
so evolutionary for so many industries. So I highly recommend
everybody go and check that episode out, all right, I
want to. I want to check in something that I
am definitely committing to doing a lot more as we
get ready to kind of sunset this season and gear
(10:53):
up for next season, and really as I'm in the
throes of completing my second book, which I cannot wait
to get into your hands, And if you want to
sign up for the newsletter so that you can get
all the information on some of the activations I'll be
doing with the book and the pre orders when that
gets going, you can have to my website, Debbie Brown
(11:15):
dot com and if you just click in the top
tab ord says book, you can sign up right there,
And so we have some information going out. They're really
excited to share that work with everyone. And something I've
just committed to is now that I feel a little
more rooted in my creations and creativities, and I think
I've really found the right flow for my work and
(11:36):
my teaching and my business, and now that I officially
have a little boy who's graduating from kindergarten, oh my god,
turning six, I'm really committed to sharing more depth of
my processes and the ways that I kind of moved
through the world on a daily basis. I know that's
(11:58):
the piece, especially on the journey, that's just so important
to find because we don't want to walk around these
like gaping wounds that are constantly oozing and also healing,
you know, we don't want to be always tending to
the wounds. It's we got to get out there and
we got to practice, and very often we've got to
practice our joy, and we got to practice our new
(12:21):
ways of communicating, our new styles of holding energy, our
new ability to stretch, our capacity for discomfort in the moment,
and a lot of that is found in the small, tiny, tenny, tenny,
daily rituals of our lives. It's found in the small moments.
It's found in the small breath that goes into our crevices.
(12:42):
And so it is really important sometimes to talk about
the subtle nuance of the day and how one navigates it.
So I'm committed to doing more of that. And what
I wanted to share is some joy in real time.
So if you have been connecting with the pod in
some of my work since maybe twenty nineteen, I something
(13:05):
I started doing and went so hard with and taught
a bunch about in the pandemic is this concept that
evolved in my life of what I call tiny joy
for those that are on the tiktoks and all the
things you might have heard, another term that pretty much
encapsulates very very similar ways and technique of a glimmer,
(13:28):
which is the opposite of a trigger. I love how
that was shared, the way that I experience it, and
the way that I grew it in my body. I
referred to it as tiny joy, where I was finding
moments throughout the day and my life that were more
ordinary and small to find ways to connect to and
(13:49):
really savor and find joy in. And it's really radically
changed my life. It's changed everything about my life, changed
the way I relate to myself, to other people, to purpose,
to validation. When you can find ways to fuel yourself
even in the most minute moments, like in the most
(14:11):
micro microways, you really become such a force within yourself.
You become this really kind of beautifully polished I don't
know where I'm going to go with this. I'm trying
to think you become this creature that's entirely different, and
(14:38):
you really connect to this ability to transmute grief and
pain in bigger ways and in faster ways, and you
find this ability within yourself to really cultivate a deep,
deep sense of authenticity, a deep, deep compassion for yourself,
(15:00):
for the world around you, and also to really amplify
the access you have to pleasure in your life. And
something I share here quite often is, you know life
is going to be hard. It is. Life is going
to be challenging. It is. Life is going to twist
(15:25):
the plot over and over and over again in so
many different ways. And you know, not to say that
some of those ways aren't also for your highest good,
but it's a lot. Being alive is a lot, and
depending on your lived experience, and then also caring forward
(15:46):
to all the things that unfold in this place we live,
this earth, it's just guaranteed that we're always going to
be feeling the full spectrum of human emotion while we're here,
and so connecting to joy, but most especially connecting to
it in the subtle ways and the ordinary ways, in
(16:09):
the easy, free ways, not just these grandiose, grand ways,
these declarative ways, you can really become not just unstoppable,
but absolutely delighted by your life. So in the pandemic,
I used to One of the things I used to
do is just go look at flowers. I started growing
(16:33):
my garden in the pandemic, and it's very modest and
now it's glorious. But I would go stare at flowers
and make myself smile. I would stare at the sun.
I would feel the warmth of the sun on my cheek.
I would close my eyes in the sun and I
would notice the glow of orange behind my eyelids, and
(16:57):
all of it became so big for me and so magnificent.
It allowed me to find joy and stability in all
the moments, in all the moments, in every moment, and
(17:18):
it really just enhanced the feeling of romance in every
sector of my life. The connection to beauty, the gratitude
for God, gratitude for nature, the gratitude for the divine
design and all of the universe and inside of me.
(17:39):
So ways that I have really been expanding in that is,
you know, first, now that we're out of the pandemic,
I can be back in these streets, I can be outside.
And so this year, a commitment I made to myself,
because I've been kind of going like crazy for the
(18:00):
last few years, was to really find more time to
socialize and more time to do fun things and really
make it a priority. I can get so wrapped up
in my work, in my purpose work, and just so
completely wrapped up in my delicious, yummy child that I'm
(18:23):
just happy to be in those parts of my life.
But then I got to look up and say, no,
I want to see my people. I want to have
some more new experiences. So that was my commitment since January.
So I want to share some of the things that
I've done and some of the beauty in it. And
if you have any of these stories of your own
in the last couple of months, I would love to
(18:44):
hear them shared. And hopefully if you hadn't had haven't
had a chance to do this, then maybe something will
pop out to you. Okay. So one of the first
things that I did in the recent past was I
had this credible opportunity to work with this organization called
(19:05):
Leading Women Defined for the second time. And Leading Women
Defined is this foundation that was founded by the great
Deborah Lee, who used to run all of b ET
of course, and just revolutionized the way our culture moves
in the world and revolutionized oh my gosh, so so
(19:27):
many things within music, within TV, within Black culture, within
world culture, within you know, so many ways that we
have been able to show up in the world, and
this event is pristine. It is just one of the
most special things I've ever been to, and I think
(19:48):
in this kind of culture, especially over the last decade
of you know, women's brunches and you know sometimes what
can very much feel like formative sisterhood community. I came
here to this incredible event which went over the course
of about four days and was filled with really fascinating
(20:10):
lectures and talks and music and activities and insanely delicious
food and so much special stuff. I witnessed something there
that was so deeply authentic that it just struck me
in the core of my heart. The way these amazing
(20:32):
women from all over the world, who were all leaders
of various industries, the way they really love each other
and really show up for each other. It just took
my breath away, and it really kind of not just
was it inspiring, but it just gave me deep hope
(20:54):
for what long tenured friendships can be and how you
can navigate and be at the top of your game
but still be a soul led leader and have compassion
in your heart and real genuine sisterhood that walks with
you through time. Really special and shout out to my
dear friend talitha walk in so I had the chance
to catch up with their deeply. Well, that was one
(21:24):
thing that I loved and was really inspired by another thing,
and I shared this on an episode. A couple of
months ago, I had gone up with one of my
best friends to San Francisco for like a quick day
and a half trip, and I had the chance to
see Andre three Thousand's New Blue Sun Live. I went
to two shows actually of it in San fran Well,
(21:47):
I had a chance to go to the one of
the final nights of the La show, which was at
this incredible exhibit called Luna Luna. I'm sure some of
you have heard of this, but it was you know,
there was all of this carnival, all of these carnival
rides and carnival equipment back in the eighties that someone
(22:08):
had gathered the artistic greats of the time, so Basquiat,
Keith Haring. I'm sorry I'm forgetting some of the names
right now, but a lot of people, and I believe
Andy Warhol too, and they all designed a different piece
of the carnival, and apparently at some point it never
(22:31):
really got shown or used, and it ended up in
some kind of a container storage facility for over thirty
years and it's in like perfect pristine condition. And apparently
Drake and some other people found it the sword is
getting out of control and set up this kind of
tour that it's going to be doing. But they started
(22:51):
in La with this incredible art installation in downtown La,
this huge warehouse, rooms and rooms and all of this
carnival equipment that was blessed with art by some of
the greats, and it was so fresh and untouched and
so it add an energy to it. It was special.
(23:11):
It was so activating to my inner child, and it
was so it was God the joy, I mean walking
through that place. And not only was it like the
fun of this kind of carnival spirit, but you also
feel the energy of some greats in their creation and
(23:32):
their artistry. And then you have the Goat. You have
Andre three thousand and this just monumental body of work
that he's created with New Blue Sun, and he's performing
it intuitively in front of this room and with a
live band and shoutout Carlos Nino. It was mind blowing.
(23:56):
It was a mindbnder. It was a mindbnder. So I
did that, and I did that with a group of friends,
and Yeah, that fed my inner child so beautifully. Another
thing that I did that really inspired me in the
last maybe two months was the amazing, amazingly brilliant, beautiful
(24:21):
anointed Rachel Cargel had an event in la and it
was for her foundation, the Loveland Foundation. It was such
a beautiful luncheon and I got to learn so much
about this work that she has been building in the
world for mental health, and it was so inspiring and
(24:48):
so impressive, and the things that the access to free
therapy and not just like a session, but it's a
real change that she's giving people a community that needs
it and deserves it, and they don't have to quantify
their pain, right, you don't have to write in with
(25:09):
these tragic stories. You just apply and in that process,
you're not just given one free therapy session with a therapist.
Because something Rachel shared at this luncheon and her team,
who's magnificent, they shared that someone would need twelve consecutive
(25:32):
therapy sessions to really be able to have the shifts
and especially the shifts in their choice making and the
way they relate to the things that they've experienced. To
really see that change and to have, you know, a
sizable amount of relief from suffering. She's supplying people with
(25:52):
twelve free therapy sessions, and she's created this community of therapists,
and she is also getting therapy for the therapists and
the psychologists that are doing the work. And it's just
like it's done with such an incredible amount of integrity
and I'm just blown away. So if you feel led,
(26:13):
if you feel called, please take a moment to look
up Rachel Cargo's Loveland Foundation and if you feel so led,
and if therapy has meant something to you or another
service and mental health and you're able, consider paying it
forward and helping someone else have the opportunity to have
meaningful change in their life. It's really special what she's doing.
(26:35):
I also, I'm now looking at I'm like, oh, she
get a lot of joy. So one of my best
friends had a big birthday and had a trip plan
to go to Vegas and she invited me and got
me a ticket to the Mariah Carey opening night at
Park MGM. So Park MGM in Las Vegas. That's the
(26:57):
same place that ushered it his residency where Lady Gaga
has done her residency, Madonna as well, and now the
Great Mariah Carey is doing a multiple part residency there.
I believe it's going in the spring and then she's
going to stop and restart it in the summer. But
(27:18):
it was the entire emancipation of Mimi album, Oh my God.
And it was the tour itself is called the Celebration
of Mimi, and she spent the first hour going over
like all the classics, and then the second hour and
(27:40):
a half. It was the entire emancipation of Mimi album,
which for me came out when I was in I
think I was a freshman in college, and the way
I used to play that album in my green Forest
Green mazdas six two six, Oh my God. I was
(28:04):
really When it comes to Mariah, something that was really
striking to me is I think so many of us.
I mean, obviously, she is a living legend. I mean,
let's just hold that for a second. She's a living
legend with a once in a lifetime voice. I feel
like she's been so much a part of my life
(28:24):
and even so much a part of pop culture that
the legendary nature of her songwriting and her singing and
her presence kind of gets overshadowed. Like it's almost like
you take this miraculous thing as something that you know,
(28:45):
you're just used to having in your life, and so
being able to go to that show. And we started
off by having dinner at this amazing restaurant in Vegas
called Best Friends, which is Chef roy Choi's latest restaurant,
and it's in the park MGM. They also have it Italy.
It was I had a time listen, listen, I hate Feticini,
(29:05):
Like on my way to the plane. It was great.
But we have this great dinner at this at his
restaurant that styled as a bodega and it plays nothing
but early aughts music. And then we went to the
Mariah Carey show and I was just brought to tears
so many times by the healing power of her voice
and just how rare and exquisite her gifts and talents
(29:29):
are and how much of a master she is. And
obviously that goes without saying, right, but I'm just in
awe of it, Like just the mastery of her understanding
of music, her creation. You know, Mariah Carey writes all
her songs and at minimum co writes them. She produces
(29:51):
the majority of her records, especially the majority of her
Number ones, which she has an entire album dedicated to.
So it's just I think sometimes when you're so great
and when you look so shiny, people don't see how
much work you put into what you do because you're
(30:13):
just seen as a natural or seen as having it easily.
But she is magnificent. She is just magnificent. She is
her work ethic is out of this world. And the
ways that she hears music and writes to it and
produces it, and like, make no mistake, she created like
(30:37):
an entire culture of music just because of her remixes
in the nineties, Like she was really the first to
successfully merge like real singing and hip hop. You know,
she was creating all these different categories. Like first she
was like American contemporary music, then are and be she's
(31:00):
classically trained. Like it's just it's too much epic, epic life.
And when I think about someone like Mariah, you know,
she had her memoir come out a few years ago,
and it's so heavy. She's gone through so much, and
again it's almost like she has this cloak of invisibility
because she's so talented and beautiful that it's just like, yeah, you'll,
(31:25):
you know, you'll get past that. But she's been through
some incredibly traumatic experiences. In no way can I diagnose her,
but some of the things that I read it would
just lead you to to assume that the person who
had been through all of those things probably has CPTSD
(31:48):
and PTSD and so to still create it such a
magnificent level while also having had some of the deep
rooted core that she had in her childhood. I just
have immense respect for her and gratitude for her transmuting
that pain into beauty. Go see that show if you
(32:12):
get a chance. Ugh ah me and me, I love
you all right. Another thing that the final thing I
think I'll share, well, I might have one more final
and a half is I announced this on social media.
And for those that in the past few years have
seen the Women who Heal retreat happen at the Omega
(32:36):
Institute for Holistic Studies in ryan Beck, New York. The
amazing Queen of Flu and I my dear sister, have
had this retreat going for a couple of years there.
It's been really special, that place that I love so much,
that it's been such an honor to bring so many
women to I was asked to join the board of directors,
(32:57):
and I'm so proud to share that I going the
board of the Omega Institute and that I'm so excited
about what we're building right now. I'm working on some
of twenty twenty four a little bit, but mostly twenty
twenty five, and I'm just so excited to share more
of that with you. And if you get a chance
(33:17):
and you're just in a place of seeking or in
a place of looking to do your refinements at your pace,
you have a certain amount of self knowledge and self awareness.
Omega is just really really potent with wisdom and healing,
(33:38):
and it's a special place to visit. It sits on
two hundred and fifty acres in upstate New York. They
teach hundreds of courses there every year when they're in season,
and it's a place that you can go for incredibly
equitable pricing and stay for a weekend retreat which is
like three days, or a week retreat which there five.
(34:00):
There's three meals there. You have a comfortable bed, a
cabin and the grounds, and you can go there to learn,
to grow, to heal, to release, to study, to be
in spiritual study, which is just such a yummy, yummy,
yummy flow to be in. So I'm really proud of
that and really excited to continue to share all the
(34:23):
evolution of that and some of the great works that
we're going to be continuing to pour out into the world.
My final joy, and this is really a tiny, big
joy for me, is my son is graduating kindergarten and
he had his spring break. This year in kindergarten has
been really special. I'm so proud of him. God with
(34:45):
a kid, God, what a kid. I am so lucky
and so blessed to be his mother. It's unreal. Sometimes
the kindergarten, for lot of reasons, was kind of challenging.
There were just a lot of in this moment, I'll
say things that happened, and I hope I get a
(35:08):
chance to talk to them a bit more. But there
was a lot that happened that changed the flow. And
you know, I think as a parent, when you're getting
ready to get your kid more into the world and
into school, you know, you just want it all to
be right, You want it all to go smoothly, You
want it all to be safe and special. And you
(35:30):
know in life, life is crazy. So many of us
had our babies in the pandemic or you know, those
those early years were all the effects of all the things. AnyWho,
I've been gearing up to have him in his step
up ceremony which is coming, and thinking about summer, and
I've really just been relishing the time I have with
(35:52):
him as he's rounding the base from five to turning six,
and just like the sweetness of it, with the full
understanding of how fast it's all going in real time
and how different he is every day. So something I
was noticing. He had his spring break recently, and so
(36:15):
I did a staycation for it, and I just we
went to I live in the LA area, and we
went to every museum in LA So every day we
went to a different museum, and we went to the
La Zoo. It was every day I'd find like an
attraction and a lot of ways in attraction from my
own childhood, which was kind of cool to see things
through his eyes. And then a few of the new
(36:37):
museums that have opened in La and it was just
special riding through the city with my boy and seeing art.
And one of the places that we went is the
Broad Museum, which is in downtown LA and they have
this amazing Kusama exhibit, and my son and I are
both obsessed with Yayoi Kusama. It was special. And as
(37:01):
we left, it was just such a shiny day. He
was so happy, and I looked down at his face
and our faces were like really close together, like our
noses almost touching, and I just started to see all
these little emerging freckles on that face, like the little
cheeks and the little bridge of his nose had all
these little, teeny tiny, little sweet bronze freckles, and it
(37:25):
was just yummy. It was just special to see and
getting a peek at you know, who he's becoming and
who he's becoming physically, and what will he look like
and who will he be? And I'm just a mama
safer in all the moments as we slowly make our
(37:46):
way to summer. All right, those are my joys in
real time and some of my tiny joys. And I
hope you'll check out some of those recent episodes. And
actually that final thing answered one of the questions that
I was gonna read at the end of the episode.
So I got a question from on Instagram from at
(38:09):
MJ Campbell, and her question or statement is would love
to hear more about your current journey with motherhood. So
that was part of my answer, and I'll also just
say my journey in motherhood right now is really being
still and present enough to let his inner guidance guide us.
(38:30):
So I've really been in practice with not trying to
fill all the space with talking and with doing and
with asking questions and you know, all the things that
I come up with in parent mode or you know,
the things that I think are important for childhood, and
I'm really trying to sink us back into a more natural,
(38:51):
slower pace of life that isn't so charged and stimulated.
Something I've already shared is that, for one, like, we
don't have any TVs in the bedrooms and we don't
really watch TV in my house. And I also got
a landline phone so that I don't have to be
present with my cell phone, so we will just hear
a random ring. And then I put some clocks up
(39:13):
in the house, so I also don't have to be
present with my phone and so just slowing time down
a little bit has been really special and just being
really connected to each other, whether that's through cuddling or
eye contact or just you know, kind of being present,
(39:34):
you know, in the same space doing things. I've just
tried to be really really grounded and rooted and create
more space for his spontaneity to come forward and his
you know, his internal compass, his creativity, his thoughts, the
you know, the things that come to him naturally. And
it's just been teaching me so much about the way
(39:56):
that he thinks and the way that he sees the world.
And it's been really cool, and it's just made me
really proud. It's been so special to kind of sink
into a little more slowness and a little more boredom
with him. Our new favorite thing to do before it's
like lights out. His bedtime is about seven seven thirty.
(40:17):
He got to get all the hours of sleep, baby,
We got to nourish that brain, give that body the
rest it deserves. But it's still pretty light out, and
so like we'll just go sit right before bed outside
on the patio and sit in the quiet and listen
to wind chimes and listen to the sounds of birds
kind of ending their day, and we've both just fallen
(40:40):
in love with that moment. So it's been really sweet.
He's always like, mom, come on, let's go sit. Let's
go sit in our spot's time. Then we just like
close our eyes and listen to the sounds and let
ourselves get grounded and let that nervous system get regulated
and then climb into that bed. So that is my
journey in this moment. There's also you know, challenging days,
(41:04):
because that's what all of this is. But it's been
really inventive. I feel it's been very creative lately with
my little ones, so very grateful for that. All Right,
I am headed out to Atlanta to the Black Effect
Podcast Festival. Cannot wait again to see everyone that joins us,
(41:25):
and we'll be back next week now, Mistay stay Stay.
The content presented on Deeply Well serves solely for educational
and informational purposes. It should not be considered a replacement
for personalized medical or mental health guidance and does not
constitute a provider patient relationship. As always, it is advisable
(41:48):
to consult with your healthcare provider or health team for
any specific concerns or questions that you may have. Connect
with me on social at Debbie Brown. That's Twitter, Instagram,
or you can go to my website Debbie Brown dot com.
And if you're listening to the show on Apple Podcasts,
don't forget. Please rate, review, and subscribe and send this
(42:11):
episode to a friend. Deeply Well is a production of
iHeartRadio and The Black Effect Network. It's produced by Jacques Thomas,
Samantha Timmins, and me Debbie Brown. The Beautiful Soundbath You
heard That's by Jarrelen Glass from Crystal Cadence. For more
podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app or wherever you
(42:32):
listen to your favorite shows.
Take a deep breath in through your nose. Hold it
now release slowly again, deep in helle hold release, repeating
(01:02):
internally to yourself as you connect to my voice. I
am deeply, deeply well. I I am deeply well. I
(01:23):
am deeply wow. I'm Debbie Brown and this is the
Deeply Well Podcast. Welcome to Deeply Well, a soft place
(01:44):
to land, a podcast for those that are curious and
creative and ready to expand in higher consciousness and self care.
I'm Debbie Brown. This is where we heal, this is
where we become. Welcome back to the show. So as
I have just set everything up actually in my office
to record this episode, I'm getting ready to head out
(02:07):
to the Black Effect Podcast Festival, and I'm so looking
forward to it. It's going down in Atlanta, of course,
the twenty seventh of April, and I think depending on
when you hear this episode, there are still some tickets left.
It looks amazing. It's happening at Pullman Yards and I
had a chance to spend a lot of time in
(02:28):
Pullman Yards. Actually a couple of years ago. I was
teaching wellness to Ote, which is this incredible organization for
star basketball players before they joined the league, and we
did some really cool stuff in Atlanta a few years ago.
So I'm excited to get back out there. Anytime I
get to Atlanta, I get to head out there, it
is such a treat and some of my besties are
(02:50):
out there, so I'm gonna have a great time. And
I will be at the podcast Festival and I will
be doing a live podcast recording of Deeply Well, and
I'm really excited to share my two special guests with
you and really take a bite out of this conversation
that we'll be having there. So if you listen to
the show, if you are going to be there in Atlanta,
(03:11):
and shout out. We just gave out some tickets actually
on the Instagram, So if you're going to be in Atlanta,
please if you see me, stop me. I would love
to just spend time with everyone that connects to the
show and talk and catch up and you know, hear
what you're resonating with and hear how your work has
been going. You know, my show is a companion for
(03:34):
the work you are doing on yourself and your own
spirit and your own soul. So and that is such
a privilege for me. So I would love to hear
from you a person if you head to the podcast festival.
Black Effect Network is just wow. My brother Charlemagne, to
say he blows me away would be such an understatement.
(03:56):
He has been such a dear, close friend of mine
for almost twenty years, which was insane to say. And
he just is always not just growing the empire, which
I think is so obvious and so special and so powerful,
but I've never met someone in this industry that goes
(04:17):
out of their way to recognize, to help, to uplift,
to expand all the people around him every single chance
he gets. And I've had the chance to be able
to witness him consistently for twenty years, and at every
(04:37):
juncture of the journey, even the juncture of him that was,
you know, saying things that were a bit more wild,
at every juncture of the way, when it came to
his heart, when it came to the way that he
shows up for people, when it came to his vision
and his commitment to people to doing good, it just
(04:59):
it's never waver It's who he's always been and it's
what he does so well. So it's just so special
to be a part of this network and to see
it grow and to head to the second annual Podcast Festival.
It's massive, It's massive. Nobody does podcasting like Charlemagne and
the Black Effect Network, so such a privilege to be here.
(05:20):
Is so happy to be here and again cannot wait
to head to Atlanta. All Right, this episode, I want
to check in about Joy in real time, and also
at the end of the episode, I'm going to have
a chance to answer some of the questions that came
through on my Instagram from just a few weeks ago.
First thing I want to call out before I dive
into the joy of the moment is I want to
(05:41):
shout out some of the recent episodes we've done, because
I've had a chance to get quite a bit of
feedback coming through and gotten some emails and gotten some
dms and some comments, and it is it's I am
just loving the way that some of these conversations are
resonating with those who have shared their hearts and their
(06:05):
reflections on it. We've had a chance to go really
deep in the last few months. We had some amazing
episodes like Shaka singor that episode Oh my God, just
so so powerful, and I'm I'm just so in awe
(06:26):
of his pathway to enlightenment and his pathway to healing
and the way he moves through the world. Now, so
if you haven't caught up on that episode, highly recommend it.
Shaka singor also Minage Diis. Oh wow, that episode. I mean,
especially for those that are in the wellness industry, wellness
(06:47):
industry adjacent, or are finding their way to the wellness
industry as a business. I just felt like that episode
took it to places I have been wanting to go
with someone else. So I'm so glad we just got
to kind of dive into that. And you know, everyone
is different, and we all have different philosophies, we surely
(07:07):
all have different motivations. But I'm just a believer it's
okay to be counterculture, you know. It's I remember I
have this professor in college. I was taking I believe
it was pas African American Cinema and he pulled up
one of my favorite movies ever, which is Malcolm X
(07:30):
Spike Lee Denzel, and I remember I can't remember what
it was, but he had some kind of criticism for it,
and I was just so offended. And he said to me,
you know, Debbie, a sign of really valuing something is
the ability to criticize it everything. There should be space
to criticize absolutely everything, and you know that's part of
(07:51):
what creation is. That's part of loving something. You know,
it's holding a mirror to it. So I love how
that episode went down. If you haven't checked it out yet,
please do. And I also check out my dear friend
Minage on the open app leading meditation and if you're
in person, heading to Venice to pop into a class. Also,
the episode that we did a few weeks ago was
(08:13):
Saudi Simone, whose new book is out Spiritually Wee an
incredible teacher of spiritual work and an incredible master of
somatics saw and I went so deep about grief and
some of the things that I was reading back just
I'm just so grateful that episode on grief found whoever
(08:36):
it did in whatever line timing that it did. Grief
is hard. Grief is hard, and it's a guaranteed experience
that everyone will face, and some face much more often
than others. And finding ways to be with that feeling,
(08:58):
to be with that sensation, and finding ways to transmute
that experience in your body and in the world, it's
just some of the most honorable dignified, graceful work you
will ever do. I've said something pretty consistently to people
in my life over the years, which is, you know,
I'm really the kind of person who I say this
(09:22):
really gratefully. When things happen, I'll just take off running
to the darkness. I'll run straight into whatever it is
that's present. And I'm grateful for that ability and what
has been very often painful practice and being able to
kind of work that muscle, because by running to your
(09:46):
own darkness you have the opportunity to free yourself so quickly,
and the courage that you build in yourself for having
done it, you'll wear like a cloak for their of
your life. So I don't know who that message is for,
but whoever resonates, So check out that episode Saudi Simone.
(10:08):
And then most recently, we have my girlfriend Denise Hamilton On,
author of the new book Indivisible and an absolutely brilliant, brilliant,
brilliant woman, so honored to call her friend, and her
work is just special and it's different, and she has
her fingers on the pulse in a way that is
(10:33):
so evolutionary for so many industries. So I highly recommend
everybody go and check that episode out, all right, I
want to. I want to check in something that I
am definitely committing to doing a lot more as we
get ready to kind of sunset this season and gear
(10:53):
up for next season, and really as I'm in the
throes of completing my second book, which I cannot wait
to get into your hands, And if you want to
sign up for the newsletter so that you can get
all the information on some of the activations I'll be
doing with the book and the pre orders when that
gets going, you can have to my website, Debbie Brown
(11:15):
dot com and if you just click in the top
tab ord says book, you can sign up right there,
And so we have some information going out. They're really
excited to share that work with everyone. And something I've
just committed to is now that I feel a little
more rooted in my creations and creativities, and I think
I've really found the right flow for my work and
(11:36):
my teaching and my business, and now that I officially
have a little boy who's graduating from kindergarten, oh my god,
turning six, I'm really committed to sharing more depth of
my processes and the ways that I kind of moved
through the world on a daily basis. I know that's
(11:58):
the piece, especially on the journey, that's just so important
to find because we don't want to walk around these
like gaping wounds that are constantly oozing and also healing,
you know, we don't want to be always tending to
the wounds. It's we got to get out there and
we got to practice, and very often we've got to
practice our joy, and we got to practice our new
(12:21):
ways of communicating, our new styles of holding energy, our
new ability to stretch, our capacity for discomfort in the moment,
and a lot of that is found in the small, tiny, tenny, tenny,
daily rituals of our lives. It's found in the small moments.
It's found in the small breath that goes into our crevices.
(12:42):
And so it is really important sometimes to talk about
the subtle nuance of the day and how one navigates it.
So I'm committed to doing more of that. And what
I wanted to share is some joy in real time.
So if you have been connecting with the pod in
some of my work since maybe twenty nineteen, I something
(13:05):
I started doing and went so hard with and taught
a bunch about in the pandemic is this concept that
evolved in my life of what I call tiny joy
for those that are on the tiktoks and all the
things you might have heard, another term that pretty much
encapsulates very very similar ways and technique of a glimmer,
(13:28):
which is the opposite of a trigger. I love how
that was shared, the way that I experience it, and
the way that I grew it in my body. I
referred to it as tiny joy, where I was finding
moments throughout the day and my life that were more
ordinary and small to find ways to connect to and
(13:49):
really savor and find joy in. And it's really radically
changed my life. It's changed everything about my life, changed
the way I relate to myself, to other people, to purpose,
to validation. When you can find ways to fuel yourself
even in the most minute moments, like in the most
(14:11):
micro microways, you really become such a force within yourself.
You become this really kind of beautifully polished I don't
know where I'm going to go with this. I'm trying
to think you become this creature that's entirely different, and
(14:38):
you really connect to this ability to transmute grief and
pain in bigger ways and in faster ways, and you
find this ability within yourself to really cultivate a deep,
deep sense of authenticity, a deep, deep compassion for yourself,
(15:00):
for the world around you, and also to really amplify
the access you have to pleasure in your life. And
something I share here quite often is, you know life
is going to be hard. It is. Life is going
to be challenging. It is. Life is going to twist
(15:25):
the plot over and over and over again in so
many different ways. And you know, not to say that
some of those ways aren't also for your highest good,
but it's a lot. Being alive is a lot, and
depending on your lived experience, and then also caring forward
(15:46):
to all the things that unfold in this place we live,
this earth, it's just guaranteed that we're always going to
be feeling the full spectrum of human emotion while we're here,
and so connecting to joy, but most especially connecting to
it in the subtle ways and the ordinary ways, in
(16:09):
the easy, free ways, not just these grandiose, grand ways,
these declarative ways, you can really become not just unstoppable,
but absolutely delighted by your life. So in the pandemic,
I used to One of the things I used to
do is just go look at flowers. I started growing
(16:33):
my garden in the pandemic, and it's very modest and
now it's glorious. But I would go stare at flowers
and make myself smile. I would stare at the sun.
I would feel the warmth of the sun on my cheek.
I would close my eyes in the sun and I
would notice the glow of orange behind my eyelids, and
(16:57):
all of it became so big for me and so magnificent.
It allowed me to find joy and stability in all
the moments, in all the moments, in every moment, and
(17:18):
it really just enhanced the feeling of romance in every
sector of my life. The connection to beauty, the gratitude
for God, gratitude for nature, the gratitude for the divine
design and all of the universe and inside of me.
(17:39):
So ways that I have really been expanding in that is,
you know, first, now that we're out of the pandemic,
I can be back in these streets, I can be outside.
And so this year, a commitment I made to myself,
because I've been kind of going like crazy for the
(18:00):
last few years, was to really find more time to
socialize and more time to do fun things and really
make it a priority. I can get so wrapped up
in my work, in my purpose work, and just so
completely wrapped up in my delicious, yummy child that I'm
(18:23):
just happy to be in those parts of my life.
But then I got to look up and say, no,
I want to see my people. I want to have
some more new experiences. So that was my commitment since January.
So I want to share some of the things that
I've done and some of the beauty in it. And
if you have any of these stories of your own
in the last couple of months, I would love to
(18:44):
hear them shared. And hopefully if you hadn't had haven't
had a chance to do this, then maybe something will
pop out to you. Okay. So one of the first
things that I did in the recent past was I
had this credible opportunity to work with this organization called
(19:05):
Leading Women Defined for the second time. And Leading Women
Defined is this foundation that was founded by the great
Deborah Lee, who used to run all of b ET
of course, and just revolutionized the way our culture moves
in the world and revolutionized oh my gosh, so so
(19:27):
many things within music, within TV, within Black culture, within
world culture, within you know, so many ways that we
have been able to show up in the world, and
this event is pristine. It is just one of the
most special things I've ever been to, and I think
(19:48):
in this kind of culture, especially over the last decade
of you know, women's brunches and you know sometimes what
can very much feel like formative sisterhood community. I came
here to this incredible event which went over the course
of about four days and was filled with really fascinating
(20:10):
lectures and talks and music and activities and insanely delicious
food and so much special stuff. I witnessed something there
that was so deeply authentic that it just struck me
in the core of my heart. The way these amazing
(20:32):
women from all over the world, who were all leaders
of various industries, the way they really love each other
and really show up for each other. It just took
my breath away, and it really kind of not just
was it inspiring, but it just gave me deep hope
(20:54):
for what long tenured friendships can be and how you
can navigate and be at the top of your game
but still be a soul led leader and have compassion
in your heart and real genuine sisterhood that walks with
you through time. Really special and shout out to my
dear friend talitha walk in so I had the chance
to catch up with their deeply. Well, that was one
(21:24):
thing that I loved and was really inspired by another thing,
and I shared this on an episode. A couple of
months ago, I had gone up with one of my
best friends to San Francisco for like a quick day
and a half trip, and I had the chance to
see Andre three Thousand's New Blue Sun Live. I went
to two shows actually of it in San fran Well,
(21:47):
I had a chance to go to the one of
the final nights of the La show, which was at
this incredible exhibit called Luna Luna. I'm sure some of
you have heard of this, but it was you know,
there was all of this carnival, all of these carnival
rides and carnival equipment back in the eighties that someone
(22:08):
had gathered the artistic greats of the time, so Basquiat,
Keith Haring. I'm sorry I'm forgetting some of the names
right now, but a lot of people, and I believe
Andy Warhol too, and they all designed a different piece
of the carnival, and apparently at some point it never
(22:31):
really got shown or used, and it ended up in
some kind of a container storage facility for over thirty
years and it's in like perfect pristine condition. And apparently
Drake and some other people found it the sword is
getting out of control and set up this kind of
tour that it's going to be doing. But they started
(22:51):
in La with this incredible art installation in downtown La,
this huge warehouse, rooms and rooms and all of this
carnival equipment that was blessed with art by some of
the greats, and it was so fresh and untouched and
so it add an energy to it. It was special.
(23:11):
It was so activating to my inner child, and it
was so it was God the joy, I mean walking
through that place. And not only was it like the
fun of this kind of carnival spirit, but you also
feel the energy of some greats in their creation and
(23:32):
their artistry. And then you have the Goat. You have
Andre three thousand and this just monumental body of work
that he's created with New Blue Sun, and he's performing
it intuitively in front of this room and with a
live band and shoutout Carlos Nino. It was mind blowing.
(23:56):
It was a mindbnder. It was a mindbnder. So I
did that, and I did that with a group of friends,
and Yeah, that fed my inner child so beautifully. Another
thing that I did that really inspired me in the
last maybe two months was the amazing, amazingly brilliant, beautiful
(24:21):
anointed Rachel Cargel had an event in la and it
was for her foundation, the Loveland Foundation. It was such
a beautiful luncheon and I got to learn so much
about this work that she has been building in the
world for mental health, and it was so inspiring and
(24:48):
so impressive, and the things that the access to free
therapy and not just like a session, but it's a
real change that she's giving people a community that needs
it and deserves it, and they don't have to quantify
their pain, right, you don't have to write in with
(25:09):
these tragic stories. You just apply and in that process,
you're not just given one free therapy session with a therapist.
Because something Rachel shared at this luncheon and her team,
who's magnificent, they shared that someone would need twelve consecutive
(25:32):
therapy sessions to really be able to have the shifts
and especially the shifts in their choice making and the
way they relate to the things that they've experienced. To
really see that change and to have, you know, a
sizable amount of relief from suffering. She's supplying people with
(25:52):
twelve free therapy sessions, and she's created this community of therapists,
and she is also getting therapy for the therapists and
the psychologists that are doing the work. And it's just
like it's done with such an incredible amount of integrity
and I'm just blown away. So if you feel led,
(26:13):
if you feel called, please take a moment to look
up Rachel Cargo's Loveland Foundation and if you feel so led,
and if therapy has meant something to you or another
service and mental health and you're able, consider paying it
forward and helping someone else have the opportunity to have
meaningful change in their life. It's really special what she's doing.
(26:35):
I also, I'm now looking at I'm like, oh, she
get a lot of joy. So one of my best
friends had a big birthday and had a trip plan
to go to Vegas and she invited me and got
me a ticket to the Mariah Carey opening night at
Park MGM. So Park MGM in Las Vegas. That's the
(26:57):
same place that ushered it his residency where Lady Gaga
has done her residency, Madonna as well, and now the
Great Mariah Carey is doing a multiple part residency there.
I believe it's going in the spring and then she's
going to stop and restart it in the summer. But
(27:18):
it was the entire emancipation of Mimi album, Oh my God.
And it was the tour itself is called the Celebration
of Mimi, and she spent the first hour going over
like all the classics, and then the second hour and
(27:40):
a half. It was the entire emancipation of Mimi album,
which for me came out when I was in I
think I was a freshman in college, and the way
I used to play that album in my green Forest
Green mazdas six two six, Oh my God. I was
(28:04):
really When it comes to Mariah, something that was really
striking to me is I think so many of us.
I mean, obviously, she is a living legend. I mean,
let's just hold that for a second. She's a living
legend with a once in a lifetime voice. I feel
like she's been so much a part of my life
(28:24):
and even so much a part of pop culture that
the legendary nature of her songwriting and her singing and
her presence kind of gets overshadowed. Like it's almost like
you take this miraculous thing as something that you know,
(28:45):
you're just used to having in your life, and so
being able to go to that show. And we started
off by having dinner at this amazing restaurant in Vegas
called Best Friends, which is Chef roy Choi's latest restaurant,
and it's in the park MGM. They also have it Italy.
It was I had a time listen, listen, I hate Feticini,
(29:05):
Like on my way to the plane. It was great.
But we have this great dinner at this at his
restaurant that styled as a bodega and it plays nothing
but early aughts music. And then we went to the
Mariah Carey show and I was just brought to tears
so many times by the healing power of her voice
and just how rare and exquisite her gifts and talents
(29:29):
are and how much of a master she is. And
obviously that goes without saying, right, but I'm just in
awe of it, Like just the mastery of her understanding
of music, her creation. You know, Mariah Carey writes all
her songs and at minimum co writes them. She produces
(29:51):
the majority of her records, especially the majority of her
Number ones, which she has an entire album dedicated to.
So it's just I think sometimes when you're so great
and when you look so shiny, people don't see how
much work you put into what you do because you're
(30:13):
just seen as a natural or seen as having it easily.
But she is magnificent. She is just magnificent. She is
her work ethic is out of this world. And the
ways that she hears music and writes to it and
produces it, and like, make no mistake, she created like
(30:37):
an entire culture of music just because of her remixes
in the nineties, Like she was really the first to
successfully merge like real singing and hip hop. You know,
she was creating all these different categories. Like first she
was like American contemporary music, then are and be she's
(31:00):
classically trained. Like it's just it's too much epic, epic life.
And when I think about someone like Mariah, you know,
she had her memoir come out a few years ago,
and it's so heavy. She's gone through so much, and
again it's almost like she has this cloak of invisibility
because she's so talented and beautiful that it's just like, yeah, you'll,
(31:25):
you know, you'll get past that. But she's been through
some incredibly traumatic experiences. In no way can I diagnose her,
but some of the things that I read it would
just lead you to to assume that the person who
had been through all of those things probably has CPTSD
(31:48):
and PTSD and so to still create it such a
magnificent level while also having had some of the deep
rooted core that she had in her childhood. I just
have immense respect for her and gratitude for her transmuting
that pain into beauty. Go see that show if you
(32:12):
get a chance. Ugh ah me and me, I love
you all right. Another thing that the final thing I
think I'll share, well, I might have one more final
and a half is I announced this on social media.
And for those that in the past few years have
seen the Women who Heal retreat happen at the Omega
(32:36):
Institute for Holistic Studies in ryan Beck, New York. The
amazing Queen of Flu and I my dear sister, have
had this retreat going for a couple of years there.
It's been really special, that place that I love so much,
that it's been such an honor to bring so many
women to I was asked to join the board of directors,
(32:57):
and I'm so proud to share that I going the
board of the Omega Institute and that I'm so excited
about what we're building right now. I'm working on some
of twenty twenty four a little bit, but mostly twenty
twenty five, and I'm just so excited to share more
of that with you. And if you get a chance
(33:17):
and you're just in a place of seeking or in
a place of looking to do your refinements at your pace,
you have a certain amount of self knowledge and self awareness.
Omega is just really really potent with wisdom and healing,
(33:38):
and it's a special place to visit. It sits on
two hundred and fifty acres in upstate New York. They
teach hundreds of courses there every year when they're in season,
and it's a place that you can go for incredibly
equitable pricing and stay for a weekend retreat which is
like three days, or a week retreat which there five.
(34:00):
There's three meals there. You have a comfortable bed, a
cabin and the grounds, and you can go there to learn,
to grow, to heal, to release, to study, to be
in spiritual study, which is just such a yummy, yummy,
yummy flow to be in. So I'm really proud of
that and really excited to continue to share all the
(34:23):
evolution of that and some of the great works that
we're going to be continuing to pour out into the world.
My final joy, and this is really a tiny, big
joy for me, is my son is graduating kindergarten and
he had his spring break. This year in kindergarten has
been really special. I'm so proud of him. God with
(34:45):
a kid, God, what a kid. I am so lucky
and so blessed to be his mother. It's unreal. Sometimes
the kindergarten, for lot of reasons, was kind of challenging.
There were just a lot of in this moment, I'll
say things that happened, and I hope I get a
(35:08):
chance to talk to them a bit more. But there
was a lot that happened that changed the flow. And
you know, I think as a parent, when you're getting
ready to get your kid more into the world and
into school, you know, you just want it all to
be right, You want it all to go smoothly, You
want it all to be safe and special. And you
(35:30):
know in life, life is crazy. So many of us
had our babies in the pandemic or you know, those
those early years were all the effects of all the things. AnyWho,
I've been gearing up to have him in his step
up ceremony which is coming, and thinking about summer, and
I've really just been relishing the time I have with
(35:52):
him as he's rounding the base from five to turning six,
and just like the sweetness of it, with the full
understanding of how fast it's all going in real time
and how different he is every day. So something I
was noticing. He had his spring break recently, and so
(36:15):
I did a staycation for it, and I just we
went to I live in the LA area, and we
went to every museum in LA So every day we
went to a different museum, and we went to the
La Zoo. It was every day I'd find like an
attraction and a lot of ways in attraction from my
own childhood, which was kind of cool to see things
through his eyes. And then a few of the new
(36:37):
museums that have opened in La and it was just
special riding through the city with my boy and seeing art.
And one of the places that we went is the
Broad Museum, which is in downtown LA and they have
this amazing Kusama exhibit, and my son and I are
both obsessed with Yayoi Kusama. It was special. And as
(37:01):
we left, it was just such a shiny day. He
was so happy, and I looked down at his face
and our faces were like really close together, like our
noses almost touching, and I just started to see all
these little emerging freckles on that face, like the little
cheeks and the little bridge of his nose had all
these little, teeny tiny, little sweet bronze freckles, and it
(37:25):
was just yummy. It was just special to see and
getting a peek at you know, who he's becoming and
who he's becoming physically, and what will he look like
and who will he be? And I'm just a mama
safer in all the moments as we slowly make our
(37:46):
way to summer. All right, those are my joys in
real time and some of my tiny joys. And I
hope you'll check out some of those recent episodes. And
actually that final thing answered one of the questions that
I was gonna read at the end of the episode.
So I got a question from on Instagram from at
(38:09):
MJ Campbell, and her question or statement is would love
to hear more about your current journey with motherhood. So
that was part of my answer, and I'll also just
say my journey in motherhood right now is really being
still and present enough to let his inner guidance guide us.
(38:30):
So I've really been in practice with not trying to
fill all the space with talking and with doing and
with asking questions and you know, all the things that
I come up with in parent mode or you know,
the things that I think are important for childhood, and
I'm really trying to sink us back into a more natural,
(38:51):
slower pace of life that isn't so charged and stimulated.
Something I've already shared is that, for one, like, we
don't have any TVs in the bedrooms and we don't
really watch TV in my house. And I also got
a landline phone so that I don't have to be
present with my cell phone, so we will just hear
a random ring. And then I put some clocks up
(39:13):
in the house, so I also don't have to be
present with my phone and so just slowing time down
a little bit has been really special and just being
really connected to each other, whether that's through cuddling or
eye contact or just you know, kind of being present,
(39:34):
you know, in the same space doing things. I've just
tried to be really really grounded and rooted and create
more space for his spontaneity to come forward and his
you know, his internal compass, his creativity, his thoughts, the
you know, the things that come to him naturally. And
it's just been teaching me so much about the way
(39:56):
that he thinks and the way that he sees the world.
And it's been really cool, and it's just made me
really proud. It's been so special to kind of sink
into a little more slowness and a little more boredom
with him. Our new favorite thing to do before it's
like lights out. His bedtime is about seven seven thirty.
(40:17):
He got to get all the hours of sleep, baby,
We got to nourish that brain, give that body the
rest it deserves. But it's still pretty light out, and
so like we'll just go sit right before bed outside
on the patio and sit in the quiet and listen
to wind chimes and listen to the sounds of birds
kind of ending their day, and we've both just fallen
(40:40):
in love with that moment. So it's been really sweet.
He's always like, mom, come on, let's go sit. Let's
go sit in our spot's time. Then we just like
close our eyes and listen to the sounds and let
ourselves get grounded and let that nervous system get regulated
and then climb into that bed. So that is my
journey in this moment. There's also you know, challenging days,
(41:04):
because that's what all of this is. But it's been
really inventive. I feel it's been very creative lately with
my little ones, so very grateful for that. All Right,
I am headed out to Atlanta to the Black Effect
Podcast Festival. Cannot wait again to see everyone that joins us,
(41:25):
and we'll be back next week now, Mistay stay Stay.
The content presented on Deeply Well serves solely for educational
and informational purposes. It should not be considered a replacement
for personalized medical or mental health guidance and does not
constitute a provider patient relationship. As always, it is advisable
(41:48):
to consult with your healthcare provider or health team for
any specific concerns or questions that you may have. Connect
with me on social at Debbie Brown. That's Twitter, Instagram,
or you can go to my website Debbie Brown dot com.
And if you're listening to the show on Apple Podcasts,
don't forget. Please rate, review, and subscribe and send this
(42:11):
episode to a friend. Deeply Well is a production of
iHeartRadio and The Black Effect Network. It's produced by Jacques Thomas,
Samantha Timmins, and me Debbie Brown. The Beautiful Soundbath You
heard That's by Jarrelen Glass from Crystal Cadence. For more
podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app or wherever you
(42:32):
listen to your favorite shows.
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