September 17, 2024 • 29 mins
Welcome back to episode five of the Naked Soul podcast! Today we are going to be touching on a subject that we've gotten a few questions about, which is really what is God when we are referring to God in some of these episodes.
Shawna shares her personal journey of understanding the term 'God,' recounting how she initially struggled with it due to a lack of exposure and understanding of the concept in childhood. She talks about her transformative experiences with meditation, spiritual books, specific healing practices and the profound impact of her brother's passing, which led her to form a personal relationship with God.
Laurie joins the conversation, sharing her perspective on God from her Roman Catholic upbringing to exploring other belief systems like Hinduism and Buddhism. She discusses how her understanding evolved to see God not as a judgmental figure but as an all-encompassing energy of love and intelligence.
The episode also explores concepts such as co-creation, manifestation, and the idea that we all possess divine intelligence within us. Both hosts share practical ways to start exploring a relationship with God, whether through Abraham Hicks' teachings, co-creative practices, or spiritual practices, which they describe.
We hope you enjoy!
Shawna & Laurie
Join us for weekly LIVE classes in the Naked Soul Collective membership:
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Learn more about Shawna & her offerings: www.shawnathibodeau.com
Instagram: @shawnathibodeau
Learn more about Laurie & her offerings: www.laurieoakesmediumship.com
Instagram: @laurieoakesmediumship
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Welcome to the Naked Soul podcast where we dissolve the barriers between spirituality and the human experience. Here we embrace the full spectrum of your journey, celebrating the highs and the lows, the glimmers and the triggers. Our mission is to dive deep into the candid conversations that everyone thinks about but few talk about, breaking the silence and removing the stigma around the complexities of being human. Whether you're on a healing journey, an entrepreneurial path or anywhere in between. If you're ready to shatter the notions of spirituality being all love and light and embrace radical honesty and acceptance of your soul's journey here, let's strip away the layers and let's get naked.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
Welcome to the Naked Soul podcast where we dissolve the barriers between spirituality
and the human experience.
Here we embrace the full spectrum of your journey, celebrating the highs and
the lows, the glimmers and the triggers.
Our mission is to dive deep into the candid conversations that everyone thinks
about but few talk about, breaking the silence and removing the stigma around
(00:23):
the complexities of being human.
Whether you're on a healing journey, an entrepreneurial path or anywhere in between.
If you're ready to shatter the notions of spirituality being all love and light
and embrace radical honesty and acceptance of your soul's journey here,
let's strip away the layers and let's get naked.
Hello and welcome back to episode five of the Naked Soul podcast.
(00:47):
Today we are going to be touching on a subject that we've gotten a few questions
about, which is really what is God when we are referring to God in some of these episodes.
So Sean is going to share a little story with us and let's get into it.
Yeah. So like you said, I got the comment last week as to some people were struggling
(01:11):
a little bit when they hear the term God.
And some people referred it as to like, you lost me there. I don't know what that means.
And I really resonated when people said this, because I completely remember,
when this was the case for me. For sure.
And it was back when I first got into my spiritual journey. So I started with
(01:32):
meditation, but then I started to read a lot of spiritual books.
So I was reading Wayne Dyer, I was reading Marianne Williamson.
At one point, I got A Course in Miracles text. and in
so many of these books they use the term God
and I remember when I first was reading
these books I literally had to skip over that
(01:53):
word because I was like I couldn't even say it like in my head because I was
like I don't know what that means I don't have any like solid belief systems
around this I didn't grow up with religion at all so to me that word just had.
Zero context. It's so interesting as somebody who was raised like Roman Catholic that it almost,
(02:20):
not to say doesn't matter, but whether you were raised in churches and reformed
religion or not, we all have some form of negative connotation around the word God.
Yeah. And I knew when I would read the word, what I knew I didn't believe in
was because I would pick up a few things from religion growing up, right?
(02:40):
And what I knew I didn't believe in or couldn't wrap my head around was I don't
believe that it's a person in the sky.
And I know this isn't what religions believe, but I didn't believe it was a
person in the sky basically saying like, you can do this, you can't do this,
and kind of just dictating the universe type thing.
(03:01):
I knew that wasn't what I I believed in. And I didn't have any other experience
at that point that felt like there was a power of some sort that existed that
I could relate to that woman, basically.
And then this shifted over time. So basically how it shifted for me,
it really shifted when my brother passed away.
(03:24):
It started to shift prior to that because I experienced
quite a bit of healing healing from meditation and
starting to do inner work and even through reading books
I started to experience healing and it felt
very calming very loving and the words I could relate to at that time were things
like source spirit even a little bit divine intelligence but again I was like
(03:50):
I don't really know what that means but the two words I would say I was using
the most and kind of interchange,
like when I would read God, I'd just sub in source. Yeah. Yeah.
Those were the two words I was using the most with myself. And then it really
shifted after my brother passed away.
And I explained back in episode one, where I naturally started to pray and I
(04:11):
didn't even know what praying was.
And I just started saying like, please send me healing and thank you for healing.
And then what happened after that was
so many experiences happened where
it felt like healing was just being sent to me yeah and it it really happened
in a way where it was like the volume had been turned up it almost felt like
(04:35):
when I started communicating to spirit source God that.
Things started to happen back. So it's almost like prayers being answered.
And it was such a difference between when I wasn't actively communicating versus when I was.
(04:56):
And so many things happened in the, I want to say it's been six years now since that happened.
And so much has happened in these six years where I feel like I've had a actively
communicating relationship with God, like showing up to this relationship.
And it just feels like so much has happened in such an amplified way.
(05:21):
And I experienced such healing from sending out those prayers and what I got
in return that I remember thinking one day,
the term spirit source almost didn't feel like it gave my experience like the justice.
It's funny you say that because it's actually like a little analogy that I use
(05:44):
with people is it's just what we were taught that God is, and that's not what God is.
And so if somebody met you tomorrow and you're like, hi, my name's Shauna.
And they were like, oh, I went to elementary school with a Shauna and she was
a a really big bully. Right.
So I'm not going to call you Shauna. I'm going to call you Sky.
(06:07):
Yeah, totally. You'd kind of be like, but that's not my name.
Like, I'm not the one who hurt you. That was somebody else.
Yes. And I think what's great is I do feel like God meets you exactly where you are.
Like if you are needing to use the term spirit, source, divine intelligence,
(06:28):
angels, guides, whatever.
And I believe all of these things exist and you can use those terms, right?
But I feel like it doesn't matter what term you're actually using. 100%. Yeah.
So what is God to you? Yeah.
So I get so fascinated by looking at all the different belief systems that are
(06:50):
out there because they're so interconnected, really.
And so whether you come from a more traditional religious background where we're
using the terminology God.
Or it's a little bit more like new age spiritual and we're saying the universe,
divine consciousness, or it's quantum physics and you're calling it the field.
(07:13):
Yeah what all of these have in common
is that there is a higher form of energy
and consciousness out there that is either
answering our prayers or giving us back what we are putting out or just kind
of becoming a mirror of what we believe inside of us and so what i have come
(07:37):
to believe because I was very triggered by the term God as well,
being raised Roman Catholic and really having this focus on it's right or wrong,
you're good or bad, you need to ask for forgiveness.
And that part never really resonated with me.
The belief that God could be mad at you or judge you or condemn you or create
(08:01):
you to be this way and then get mad at you for it. Or accept some people and not accept others.
Yeah. Yeah. It never made sense to me.
And so I really turned away from the term God and the Catholic faith.
And in grade nine was when I was actually in world religions.
And I started exploring Hinduism and Buddhist.
(08:23):
And a lot of those beliefs really resonated with me a lot more.
But I still felt like there was something missing to it.
And truthfully, I believe that every religion holds a piece of truth. Right. Absolutely.
And we need to look at all of it and kind of take what resonates with us and
(08:45):
what feels right to us and leave the rest.
Yeah. But for me, the term God is not synonymous with religion or like you said,
a man who's sitting up in this chair in the sky judging us.
God is an energy. Yeah. And God is a soul, just like you and I are souls,
who once was sitting in this very seat that we were, immature, struggling,
(09:11):
bootstrapping life, just learning the hard lessons, until that consciousness
grew to a point of actually being able to create and multiply and guide other souls.
So we all are God consciousness.
Yeah. Really. and the purpose of forming some type of relationship with again
(09:36):
whether you call it god the universe the divine spirit doesn't matter.
It's just really trusting that there's something out there that is more intelligent
than us. Right. There's a divine intelligence.
There's a divine intelligence. There is this source of information and this
all-knowing power outside of this physical body that we can actually tap into
(10:00):
because we come from it. Yeah. And we are it.
We are it. Yeah. It's our birthright to actually be able to connect and receive
this knowledge and guidance that can help us.
And so when we use the phrase like love and light and light workers and any
of these light terms, the word light actually came from not like the sun in
(10:25):
the sky and brightness. It came from the word knowledge.
So when we say that souls are all love and light, they're actually all love and knowledge.
Right. right and God is all-knowing and we
are all-knowing like we've talked about though we
come into this physical body and we forget yeah I've
really like I look at my journey now and just see the progression and I think
(10:48):
it's so beautiful because say back in my 20s again I had to like skip over the
word and I was like don't know what that means had no relationship to God spirit right?
Then when I moved into starting to explore a relationship to God's spirit source
and starting to co-create with,
(11:09):
it became that relationship where I almost still pictured it as an energy outside of myself.
And I was co-creating with this energy basically.
And then the last two-ish years, I've come into like, oh, I am God. Yes.
(11:29):
And I had this very profound, and you know that I've been exploring and studying
non-dualism for the last few years and trying to.
Understand and grasp the concept of no self. Yeah. But wait,
we're like, we're a self. What do you mean?
And I had this extremely profound meditation at the beginning of this year,
where I was resting in beingness.
(11:53):
And between the thoughts, so between the thoughts that we have,
what are we in between the thoughts, and I was resting in that space of beingness.
And I was just kind of exploring like what
is this this is beingness this is the
I am right and what came up what bubbled up was this is like God you're resting
(12:18):
as God looking out yeah I remember it being so profound that I was just like
but wait I'm like but if if God is residing within me
what's residing in like say lori and
then it was like oh well obviously god is residing
in her too and looking out through the lori lens
yeah and i remember it was such this felt experience because everything i had
(12:42):
explored up until then was reading and trying to really understand non-dualism
and then i had this very profound like feeling of like oh this is like i am
god But then in our human selves,
we're wearing so many lenses where we can't, that truth is almost veiled,
(13:04):
you know, and we are, we have this personality kind of overlapped.
It's like layers, basically.
Well, the personality actually comes from the ego. Right. So we think we are our traumas. Yeah.
We think we are our experiences. experiences we think we are the messages that
we were taught like you need to work harder to be loved yeah you need to earn
(13:29):
all of these things and none of that is actually the truth of your soul,
And it creates this perception that, oh, well, somebody who has more must be
more deserving, must be more loved than God than I am.
And really, none of that is true.
(13:50):
They've just kind of tapped into this inherent power that a lot of us don't believe exists.
Yeah, exactly. Exactly. And it's become very,
like where I'm sitting right now in teachings and beliefs is that we are all
(14:10):
coming home to the truth of the
I am and that we are not exactly what you said. We are not the stories.
We are not even like the emotions happening, right? We're not our thoughts. We're not the body.
It feels like it so strongly, right? But all of that is conditioned.
Yeah. And we're coming home to the truth of the I am and the qualities of the
(14:35):
I am exactly what we were talking about
at the beginning are this divine intelligence, love, all knowingness.
And that is our truth. truth and it's
the life and the breath that is breathed into us like
I always think it's amazing to think about the fact that we don't have to do
anything to make a heartbeat we don't have to be conscious of blinking or breathing
(15:01):
or your hair and nails growing or digesting your food like it It just happens.
Yeah. And so if all of that could just be happening without you having to try
or put in any effort. Yes.
What else could happen? Yeah. Yeah.
(15:22):
And some of the funniest stories, because I'll just relate it to business for
a second, is we get into that ego mind and we think, I need to be sitting in front of the computer.
I need to be working more. I need to be doing. and
that's again that belief that like I am Lori
and I am this mind and I have to figure
(15:42):
it out and I need to make it work and I need to make this happen
yeah yeah and that's always the moments where it's not happening and then when
I recognize that and I'm like oh like here's Lori trying to run the show again
because if I'm being honest anybody who does this work does it because they're being guided to do it.
(16:03):
It's not actually for the validation. The human mind might want the validation.
The ego mind might, right?
But when I remember, okay, it's not Lori's job to run the show.
This business, whatever you want to call it, exists solely because it was like
this divine spark that was breathed into me that I need to do this work.
(16:26):
And I let go of it, I could be, you know, going out for a walk with the dogs,
or just doing absolutely nothing that you would think is productive to a business.
And that's when the sales come in. Yeah. And that's when people book. Yeah.
And I've seen it so often, because I'm human and about once a month,
(16:48):
I forget this truth. Absolutely. Yeah.
And every time I come back to remembering and to trusting, it starts flowing again. Yeah, exactly.
And I would say, because I think some people would, I could see some people
arguing that and being like, what do you mean we don't need to do anything?
Like if I didn't do anything, things wouldn't really happen or things could
(17:12):
go not the way that we want them to, right?
But what I also want to remind people is that, okay, there's this place of like
deep surrender, say in the middle, right? Right.
But so often we're actually operating from our wounds and from fear.
So people think that like they're surrendering, but it's so many people are
(17:34):
operating from fear and control and trying to figure it out.
And that that's the vibration of the ego. Yeah. Well, I teach a course called Surrender. Right.
And and we talk about how a lot of people say that they're going to surrender,
but like with a timeline or an ulterior motive.
And so they're like I'm gonna surrender so I can
(17:55):
get this yeah well you're not actually surrendering exactly
because you're trying to manipulate the outcome yeah and so true surrender is
just trusting that like the tide is going to take me where it's going to take
me and wherever I end up is where I'm meant to be I'm not trying to force an
outcome I'm not trying to control it or predict it.
(18:17):
I'm literally just saying, God, give me what I need.
And in the, in the least guilty in the most loving way possible,
I actually, you know, kind of talk about my,
fiance who I'm marrying in three days, which is crazy.
And his kids like this because Lori, the human, never thought that she would
(18:38):
pick out a partner who has children, never thought that she would be a stepmom.
These aren't things that I was like, this is what I want and I'm going to seek it out.
And when I just surrendered to the fact that I'm going to meet my partner,
I trust that God is going to bring the right person into my life,
and I'm going to be happy.
(19:00):
And it's so much more than I ever would have chosen for myself or even thought that I could handle.
And that was all divinely guided by God. I don't think I've shared the story on the podcast yet,
but I had actually received guidance, divine guidance prior to meeting him that my partner was
(19:23):
going to have children and it was like
six months before I met him and I was like nope nope nope
just gonna say were you resistant to that I was resistant to
it until I finally looked back at all the other times that I was resistant to
the guidance and recognized how much it always worked out in my favor but I
(19:43):
was like you know what if if this is the guidance then I trust that I'm going to be happy.
Maybe he does have kids. Maybe he doesn't have kids at the end of the day.
It doesn't really matter. It turns out he did. Right.
But I was willing to just surrender that and not become attached to it.
And so I actually didn't know that Nick had kids. We met like online dating
(20:06):
and it wasn't in his profile.
It was something that he felt more comfortable disclosing in
person and so it just I wasn't
actively looking online for somebody
who has kids because this is a message yeah and so I just think that that's
like a really powerful story too about how you really can't prevent what's meant
(20:29):
for you yeah absolutely yeah what would you say Say your relationship to God is. Yeah.
It's grown so much over the years.
Because like I said, when I first started using God in place of...
Because I was using universe for a lot of years.
I felt a little bit like I was faking it.
(20:52):
When you first started using the term God? Yeah. But as I started to...
Kind of be tested and surrendering like I talked
about like receiving this guidance maybe not liking it praying for healing being
given it in a way that I maybe didn't expect like you talk about the more that
(21:13):
this happened and I started to gain this like physical third dimensional proof that wow,
God is really providing for me.
It became just this very unconditional, loving relationship with no judgment, ultimate forgiveness.
(21:35):
I don't even believe that we can make mistakes.
I think that God is so powerful and all-knowing that you're not confusing him.
When I say him, like God is not a guy
I'm just I choose a singular term right
but God is the feminine and the masculine and
all encapsulating but it's not like this God
(21:56):
energy is up there being like oh Shauna made a
mistake like God knows every decision you're
gonna make yeah and so as I
started to realize that like I'm always forgiven
yeah every you know quote unquote
wrong path that I go down just leads
me to a better place I really just started to feel like wow this energy has
(22:22):
my back 24 7 and is always working for me and I like to say that it doesn't
necessarily mean everything goes how the ego mind wants it to go.
Yeah, because I think there's a lot of confusion around there as to when hard
things happen in people's lives, they get confused and they say,
(22:43):
well, why would God choose this for me?
And I mean, to get me to the place to meet my partner that I'm with now,
I had to get evicted from my house like two weeks after my mom passed away.
And so I was really in this pit. in that moment of like, F you, God, what the hell?
(23:04):
Why are you doing this to me? I've been through enough.
And that was another moment of having to surrender and say, okay,
well, if God has a better place for me, that I'm just going to trust it.
And that's when I found Amy and moved in, in her place and her and her husband and kids became family.
(23:25):
It's through her that I got connected to you, to this whole community.
And where I was living then was literally a kilometer down the road from where
I moved in with my partner.
Yeah. So it really can feel like,
God is taking something away from you. But I always say that redirection is God's protection.
(23:49):
Yes. And it goes back to episode two that we are here for soul growth.
Yeah. So that doesn't mean that everything goes rose colored glasses like how
we want it to and how the ego mind wants it to.
Yeah. It's that overcoming negativity and saying like, okay,
this all looks really negative.
I'm going to feel the feels, but I'm also going to trust.
(24:12):
That I'm being planted right now. And this is just a period of growth.
And then to close, if listeners don't have a relationship to God's spirit source,
where would you recommend them to start exploring that relationship?
(24:35):
And I'll also give my thoughts on that?
Honestly, I think for me, Abraham Hicks and listening to Abraham Hicks was really helpful.
Yeah. And I truly feel that once you start listening to Abraham Hicks,
you just, everybody else that can kind of help you build on that relationship
with a higher power in God starts to fall into your place.
(24:59):
I've had a lot of clients listen to Abraham Hicks and be like,
wow, because she really kind of makes light
of it you laugh and it
takes away this notion that like god is serious and judgmental but also there's
no pressure to build the relationship with that name if ever yeah because it
(25:23):
might just naturally shift for you one day like it did for you and i Exactly.
Yeah. And I actually still keep it quite private that the term I resonate with
most is God, because I know that it has such a just perceived in different ways.
And I can feel that slowly shifting, like I feel myself slowly talking about it more and more.
(25:43):
But it just, it can all come at its natural pace.
100%. Yeah. And like you said, we don't ever have to use that term if we don't want to.
It's funny you said Abraham Hicks, because when I, so the story I shared back
in episode one, when I got into manifestation, it was at a retreat where someone
was like, you need to look into manifestation, right?
(26:06):
And so I had a six hour drive home and I started to listen to all those podcasts
and so much of it was Abraham Hicks.
So that's interesting that you mentioned that.
And that's actually the place that I would recommend people start as well,
where it really shifted for me was starting to practice co-creation,
(26:27):
which is most known as manifestation.
But when I started to use my own attention and energy in a specific way and
then see it get reflected back to me and see things shifting within my life.
Yeah, that was when I was like, whoa, there's a divine intelligence out here. Yeah.
(26:49):
That we can like create a relationship.
Yeah. And there's something bigger going. And it becomes that kind of natural
progression of manifestation to co-creation to surrendering.
Exactly. I find. Yes. And I love it. Yeah.
There's no finish line. There's no right or wrong. There's no race.
(27:10):
It's just finding what feels good to you right now. And I always encourage people
to just kind of push their edges of beliefs and what feels comfortable for them to explore.
And once something is, you know, working for you and you got the hang of it,
you're riding the bike, it's like, okay, now can you take it on the highway?
(27:33):
The way yes yeah that's been my exact
experience too and if if other people don't
want to explore say co-creation or manifestation another practice
that people could explore is what's called
sourcing and I learned it from Rebecca Campbell she's an author and when I was
really in darkness and grief I started to visualize loving healing energy it's
(27:58):
called sourcing right so coming from source So if source is this infinite loving energy,
I started to visualize this energy coming into my body and just healing me.
And I experienced so much healing after that.
So that's another way that you can explore developing this relationship with
(28:19):
source and exploring like, if I do start to visualize this energy coming into me and healing me,
how could this actually start to shift things? Yeah, it's so beautiful.
Yeah. I think at the end of the day, we all just want to feel like we're not
on this planet and journey alone.
And starting anywhere that feels good can really help you alleviate suffering. Yeah, absolutely.
(28:44):
Awesome. Thank you, everyone, for joining us on this deeper dive conversation about what is God.
And we will see you in our next episode. Bye. Thank you.
Music.
Welcome to the Naked Soul podcast where we dissolve the barriers between spirituality
and the human experience.
Here we embrace the full spectrum of your journey, celebrating the highs and
the lows, the glimmers and the triggers.
Our mission is to dive deep into the candid conversations that everyone thinks
about but few talk about, breaking the silence and removing the stigma around
(00:23):
the complexities of being human.
Whether you're on a healing journey, an entrepreneurial path or anywhere in between.
If you're ready to shatter the notions of spirituality being all love and light
and embrace radical honesty and acceptance of your soul's journey here,
let's strip away the layers and let's get naked.
Hello and welcome back to episode five of the Naked Soul podcast.
(00:47):
Today we are going to be touching on a subject that we've gotten a few questions
about, which is really what is God when we are referring to God in some of these episodes.
So Sean is going to share a little story with us and let's get into it.
Yeah. So like you said, I got the comment last week as to some people were struggling
(01:11):
a little bit when they hear the term God.
And some people referred it as to like, you lost me there. I don't know what that means.
And I really resonated when people said this, because I completely remember,
when this was the case for me. For sure.
And it was back when I first got into my spiritual journey. So I started with
(01:32):
meditation, but then I started to read a lot of spiritual books.
So I was reading Wayne Dyer, I was reading Marianne Williamson.
At one point, I got A Course in Miracles text. and in
so many of these books they use the term God
and I remember when I first was reading
these books I literally had to skip over that
(01:53):
word because I was like I couldn't even say it like in my head because I was
like I don't know what that means I don't have any like solid belief systems
around this I didn't grow up with religion at all so to me that word just had.
Zero context. It's so interesting as somebody who was raised like Roman Catholic that it almost,
(02:20):
not to say doesn't matter, but whether you were raised in churches and reformed
religion or not, we all have some form of negative connotation around the word God.
Yeah. And I knew when I would read the word, what I knew I didn't believe in
was because I would pick up a few things from religion growing up, right?
(02:40):
And what I knew I didn't believe in or couldn't wrap my head around was I don't
believe that it's a person in the sky.
And I know this isn't what religions believe, but I didn't believe it was a
person in the sky basically saying like, you can do this, you can't do this,
and kind of just dictating the universe type thing.
(03:01):
I knew that wasn't what I I believed in. And I didn't have any other experience
at that point that felt like there was a power of some sort that existed that
I could relate to that woman, basically.
And then this shifted over time. So basically how it shifted for me,
it really shifted when my brother passed away.
(03:24):
It started to shift prior to that because I experienced
quite a bit of healing healing from meditation and
starting to do inner work and even through reading books
I started to experience healing and it felt
very calming very loving and the words I could relate to at that time were things
like source spirit even a little bit divine intelligence but again I was like
(03:50):
I don't really know what that means but the two words I would say I was using
the most and kind of interchange,
like when I would read God, I'd just sub in source. Yeah. Yeah.
Those were the two words I was using the most with myself. And then it really
shifted after my brother passed away.
And I explained back in episode one, where I naturally started to pray and I
(04:11):
didn't even know what praying was.
And I just started saying like, please send me healing and thank you for healing.
And then what happened after that was
so many experiences happened where
it felt like healing was just being sent to me yeah and it it really happened
in a way where it was like the volume had been turned up it almost felt like
(04:35):
when I started communicating to spirit source God that.
Things started to happen back. So it's almost like prayers being answered.
And it was such a difference between when I wasn't actively communicating versus when I was.
(04:56):
And so many things happened in the, I want to say it's been six years now since that happened.
And so much has happened in these six years where I feel like I've had a actively
communicating relationship with God, like showing up to this relationship.
And it just feels like so much has happened in such an amplified way.
(05:21):
And I experienced such healing from sending out those prayers and what I got
in return that I remember thinking one day,
the term spirit source almost didn't feel like it gave my experience like the justice.
It's funny you say that because it's actually like a little analogy that I use
(05:44):
with people is it's just what we were taught that God is, and that's not what God is.
And so if somebody met you tomorrow and you're like, hi, my name's Shauna.
And they were like, oh, I went to elementary school with a Shauna and she was
a a really big bully. Right.
So I'm not going to call you Shauna. I'm going to call you Sky.
(06:07):
Yeah, totally. You'd kind of be like, but that's not my name.
Like, I'm not the one who hurt you. That was somebody else.
Yes. And I think what's great is I do feel like God meets you exactly where you are.
Like if you are needing to use the term spirit, source, divine intelligence,
(06:28):
angels, guides, whatever.
And I believe all of these things exist and you can use those terms, right?
But I feel like it doesn't matter what term you're actually using. 100%. Yeah.
So what is God to you? Yeah.
So I get so fascinated by looking at all the different belief systems that are
(06:50):
out there because they're so interconnected, really.
And so whether you come from a more traditional religious background where we're
using the terminology God.
Or it's a little bit more like new age spiritual and we're saying the universe,
divine consciousness, or it's quantum physics and you're calling it the field.
(07:13):
Yeah what all of these have in common
is that there is a higher form of energy
and consciousness out there that is either
answering our prayers or giving us back what we are putting out or just kind
of becoming a mirror of what we believe inside of us and so what i have come
(07:37):
to believe because I was very triggered by the term God as well,
being raised Roman Catholic and really having this focus on it's right or wrong,
you're good or bad, you need to ask for forgiveness.
And that part never really resonated with me.
The belief that God could be mad at you or judge you or condemn you or create
(08:01):
you to be this way and then get mad at you for it. Or accept some people and not accept others.
Yeah. Yeah. It never made sense to me.
And so I really turned away from the term God and the Catholic faith.
And in grade nine was when I was actually in world religions.
And I started exploring Hinduism and Buddhist.
(08:23):
And a lot of those beliefs really resonated with me a lot more.
But I still felt like there was something missing to it.
And truthfully, I believe that every religion holds a piece of truth. Right. Absolutely.
And we need to look at all of it and kind of take what resonates with us and
(08:45):
what feels right to us and leave the rest.
Yeah. But for me, the term God is not synonymous with religion or like you said,
a man who's sitting up in this chair in the sky judging us.
God is an energy. Yeah. And God is a soul, just like you and I are souls,
who once was sitting in this very seat that we were, immature, struggling,
(09:11):
bootstrapping life, just learning the hard lessons, until that consciousness
grew to a point of actually being able to create and multiply and guide other souls.
So we all are God consciousness.
Yeah. Really. and the purpose of forming some type of relationship with again
(09:36):
whether you call it god the universe the divine spirit doesn't matter.
It's just really trusting that there's something out there that is more intelligent
than us. Right. There's a divine intelligence.
There's a divine intelligence. There is this source of information and this
all-knowing power outside of this physical body that we can actually tap into
(10:00):
because we come from it. Yeah. And we are it.
We are it. Yeah. It's our birthright to actually be able to connect and receive
this knowledge and guidance that can help us.
And so when we use the phrase like love and light and light workers and any
of these light terms, the word light actually came from not like the sun in
(10:25):
the sky and brightness. It came from the word knowledge.
So when we say that souls are all love and light, they're actually all love and knowledge.
Right. right and God is all-knowing and we
are all-knowing like we've talked about though we
come into this physical body and we forget yeah I've
really like I look at my journey now and just see the progression and I think
(10:48):
it's so beautiful because say back in my 20s again I had to like skip over the
word and I was like don't know what that means had no relationship to God spirit right?
Then when I moved into starting to explore a relationship to God's spirit source
and starting to co-create with,
(11:09):
it became that relationship where I almost still pictured it as an energy outside of myself.
And I was co-creating with this energy basically.
And then the last two-ish years, I've come into like, oh, I am God. Yes.
(11:29):
And I had this very profound, and you know that I've been exploring and studying
non-dualism for the last few years and trying to.
Understand and grasp the concept of no self. Yeah. But wait,
we're like, we're a self. What do you mean?
And I had this extremely profound meditation at the beginning of this year,
where I was resting in beingness.
(11:53):
And between the thoughts, so between the thoughts that we have,
what are we in between the thoughts, and I was resting in that space of beingness.
And I was just kind of exploring like what
is this this is beingness this is the
I am right and what came up what bubbled up was this is like God you're resting
(12:18):
as God looking out yeah I remember it being so profound that I was just like
but wait I'm like but if if God is residing within me
what's residing in like say lori and
then it was like oh well obviously god is residing
in her too and looking out through the lori lens
yeah and i remember it was such this felt experience because everything i had
(12:42):
explored up until then was reading and trying to really understand non-dualism
and then i had this very profound like feeling of like oh this is like i am
god But then in our human selves,
we're wearing so many lenses where we can't, that truth is almost veiled,
(13:04):
you know, and we are, we have this personality kind of overlapped.
It's like layers, basically.
Well, the personality actually comes from the ego. Right. So we think we are our traumas. Yeah.
We think we are our experiences. experiences we think we are the messages that
we were taught like you need to work harder to be loved yeah you need to earn
(13:29):
all of these things and none of that is actually the truth of your soul,
And it creates this perception that, oh, well, somebody who has more must be
more deserving, must be more loved than God than I am.
And really, none of that is true.
(13:50):
They've just kind of tapped into this inherent power that a lot of us don't believe exists.
Yeah, exactly. Exactly. And it's become very,
like where I'm sitting right now in teachings and beliefs is that we are all
(14:10):
coming home to the truth of the
I am and that we are not exactly what you said. We are not the stories.
We are not even like the emotions happening, right? We're not our thoughts. We're not the body.
It feels like it so strongly, right? But all of that is conditioned.
Yeah. And we're coming home to the truth of the I am and the qualities of the
(14:35):
I am exactly what we were talking about
at the beginning are this divine intelligence, love, all knowingness.
And that is our truth. truth and it's
the life and the breath that is breathed into us like
I always think it's amazing to think about the fact that we don't have to do
anything to make a heartbeat we don't have to be conscious of blinking or breathing
(15:01):
or your hair and nails growing or digesting your food like it It just happens.
Yeah. And so if all of that could just be happening without you having to try
or put in any effort. Yes.
What else could happen? Yeah. Yeah.
(15:22):
And some of the funniest stories, because I'll just relate it to business for
a second, is we get into that ego mind and we think, I need to be sitting in front of the computer.
I need to be working more. I need to be doing. and
that's again that belief that like I am Lori
and I am this mind and I have to figure
(15:42):
it out and I need to make it work and I need to make this happen
yeah yeah and that's always the moments where it's not happening and then when
I recognize that and I'm like oh like here's Lori trying to run the show again
because if I'm being honest anybody who does this work does it because they're being guided to do it.
(16:03):
It's not actually for the validation. The human mind might want the validation.
The ego mind might, right?
But when I remember, okay, it's not Lori's job to run the show.
This business, whatever you want to call it, exists solely because it was like
this divine spark that was breathed into me that I need to do this work.
(16:26):
And I let go of it, I could be, you know, going out for a walk with the dogs,
or just doing absolutely nothing that you would think is productive to a business.
And that's when the sales come in. Yeah. And that's when people book. Yeah.
And I've seen it so often, because I'm human and about once a month,
(16:48):
I forget this truth. Absolutely. Yeah.
And every time I come back to remembering and to trusting, it starts flowing again. Yeah, exactly.
And I would say, because I think some people would, I could see some people
arguing that and being like, what do you mean we don't need to do anything?
Like if I didn't do anything, things wouldn't really happen or things could
(17:12):
go not the way that we want them to, right?
But what I also want to remind people is that, okay, there's this place of like
deep surrender, say in the middle, right? Right.
But so often we're actually operating from our wounds and from fear.
So people think that like they're surrendering, but it's so many people are
(17:34):
operating from fear and control and trying to figure it out.
And that that's the vibration of the ego. Yeah. Well, I teach a course called Surrender. Right.
And and we talk about how a lot of people say that they're going to surrender,
but like with a timeline or an ulterior motive.
And so they're like I'm gonna surrender so I can
(17:55):
get this yeah well you're not actually surrendering exactly
because you're trying to manipulate the outcome yeah and so true surrender is
just trusting that like the tide is going to take me where it's going to take
me and wherever I end up is where I'm meant to be I'm not trying to force an
outcome I'm not trying to control it or predict it.
(18:17):
I'm literally just saying, God, give me what I need.
And in the, in the least guilty in the most loving way possible,
I actually, you know, kind of talk about my,
fiance who I'm marrying in three days, which is crazy.
And his kids like this because Lori, the human, never thought that she would
(18:38):
pick out a partner who has children, never thought that she would be a stepmom.
These aren't things that I was like, this is what I want and I'm going to seek it out.
And when I just surrendered to the fact that I'm going to meet my partner,
I trust that God is going to bring the right person into my life,
and I'm going to be happy.
(19:00):
And it's so much more than I ever would have chosen for myself or even thought that I could handle.
And that was all divinely guided by God. I don't think I've shared the story on the podcast yet,
but I had actually received guidance, divine guidance prior to meeting him that my partner was
(19:23):
going to have children and it was like
six months before I met him and I was like nope nope nope
just gonna say were you resistant to that I was resistant to
it until I finally looked back at all the other times that I was resistant to
the guidance and recognized how much it always worked out in my favor but I
(19:43):
was like you know what if if this is the guidance then I trust that I'm going to be happy.
Maybe he does have kids. Maybe he doesn't have kids at the end of the day.
It doesn't really matter. It turns out he did. Right.
But I was willing to just surrender that and not become attached to it.
And so I actually didn't know that Nick had kids. We met like online dating
(20:06):
and it wasn't in his profile.
It was something that he felt more comfortable disclosing in
person and so it just I wasn't
actively looking online for somebody
who has kids because this is a message yeah and so I just think that that's
like a really powerful story too about how you really can't prevent what's meant
(20:29):
for you yeah absolutely yeah what would you say Say your relationship to God is. Yeah.
It's grown so much over the years.
Because like I said, when I first started using God in place of...
Because I was using universe for a lot of years.
I felt a little bit like I was faking it.
(20:52):
When you first started using the term God? Yeah. But as I started to...
Kind of be tested and surrendering like I talked
about like receiving this guidance maybe not liking it praying for healing being
given it in a way that I maybe didn't expect like you talk about the more that
(21:13):
this happened and I started to gain this like physical third dimensional proof that wow,
God is really providing for me.
It became just this very unconditional, loving relationship with no judgment, ultimate forgiveness.
(21:35):
I don't even believe that we can make mistakes.
I think that God is so powerful and all-knowing that you're not confusing him.
When I say him, like God is not a guy
I'm just I choose a singular term right
but God is the feminine and the masculine and
all encapsulating but it's not like this God
(21:56):
energy is up there being like oh Shauna made a
mistake like God knows every decision you're
gonna make yeah and so as I
started to realize that like I'm always forgiven
yeah every you know quote unquote
wrong path that I go down just leads
me to a better place I really just started to feel like wow this energy has
(22:22):
my back 24 7 and is always working for me and I like to say that it doesn't
necessarily mean everything goes how the ego mind wants it to go.
Yeah, because I think there's a lot of confusion around there as to when hard
things happen in people's lives, they get confused and they say,
(22:43):
well, why would God choose this for me?
And I mean, to get me to the place to meet my partner that I'm with now,
I had to get evicted from my house like two weeks after my mom passed away.
And so I was really in this pit. in that moment of like, F you, God, what the hell?
(23:04):
Why are you doing this to me? I've been through enough.
And that was another moment of having to surrender and say, okay,
well, if God has a better place for me, that I'm just going to trust it.
And that's when I found Amy and moved in, in her place and her and her husband and kids became family.
(23:25):
It's through her that I got connected to you, to this whole community.
And where I was living then was literally a kilometer down the road from where
I moved in with my partner.
Yeah. So it really can feel like,
God is taking something away from you. But I always say that redirection is God's protection.
(23:49):
Yes. And it goes back to episode two that we are here for soul growth.
Yeah. So that doesn't mean that everything goes rose colored glasses like how
we want it to and how the ego mind wants it to.
Yeah. It's that overcoming negativity and saying like, okay,
this all looks really negative.
I'm going to feel the feels, but I'm also going to trust.
(24:12):
That I'm being planted right now. And this is just a period of growth.
And then to close, if listeners don't have a relationship to God's spirit source,
where would you recommend them to start exploring that relationship?
(24:35):
And I'll also give my thoughts on that?
Honestly, I think for me, Abraham Hicks and listening to Abraham Hicks was really helpful.
Yeah. And I truly feel that once you start listening to Abraham Hicks,
you just, everybody else that can kind of help you build on that relationship
with a higher power in God starts to fall into your place.
(24:59):
I've had a lot of clients listen to Abraham Hicks and be like,
wow, because she really kind of makes light
of it you laugh and it
takes away this notion that like god is serious and judgmental but also there's
no pressure to build the relationship with that name if ever yeah because it
(25:23):
might just naturally shift for you one day like it did for you and i Exactly.
Yeah. And I actually still keep it quite private that the term I resonate with
most is God, because I know that it has such a just perceived in different ways.
And I can feel that slowly shifting, like I feel myself slowly talking about it more and more.
(25:43):
But it just, it can all come at its natural pace.
100%. Yeah. And like you said, we don't ever have to use that term if we don't want to.
It's funny you said Abraham Hicks, because when I, so the story I shared back
in episode one, when I got into manifestation, it was at a retreat where someone
was like, you need to look into manifestation, right?
(26:06):
And so I had a six hour drive home and I started to listen to all those podcasts
and so much of it was Abraham Hicks.
So that's interesting that you mentioned that.
And that's actually the place that I would recommend people start as well,
where it really shifted for me was starting to practice co-creation,
(26:27):
which is most known as manifestation.
But when I started to use my own attention and energy in a specific way and
then see it get reflected back to me and see things shifting within my life.
Yeah, that was when I was like, whoa, there's a divine intelligence out here. Yeah.
(26:49):
That we can like create a relationship.
Yeah. And there's something bigger going. And it becomes that kind of natural
progression of manifestation to co-creation to surrendering.
Exactly. I find. Yes. And I love it. Yeah.
There's no finish line. There's no right or wrong. There's no race.
(27:10):
It's just finding what feels good to you right now. And I always encourage people
to just kind of push their edges of beliefs and what feels comfortable for them to explore.
And once something is, you know, working for you and you got the hang of it,
you're riding the bike, it's like, okay, now can you take it on the highway?
(27:33):
The way yes yeah that's been my exact
experience too and if if other people don't
want to explore say co-creation or manifestation another practice
that people could explore is what's called
sourcing and I learned it from Rebecca Campbell she's an author and when I was
really in darkness and grief I started to visualize loving healing energy it's
(27:58):
called sourcing right so coming from source So if source is this infinite loving energy,
I started to visualize this energy coming into my body and just healing me.
And I experienced so much healing after that.
So that's another way that you can explore developing this relationship with
(28:19):
source and exploring like, if I do start to visualize this energy coming into me and healing me,
how could this actually start to shift things? Yeah, it's so beautiful.
Yeah. I think at the end of the day, we all just want to feel like we're not
on this planet and journey alone.
And starting anywhere that feels good can really help you alleviate suffering. Yeah, absolutely.
(28:44):
Awesome. Thank you, everyone, for joining us on this deeper dive conversation about what is God.
And we will see you in our next episode. Bye. Thank you.
Music.
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