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January 22, 2025 16 mins

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This episode emphasizes the importance of love and faith in overcoming challenges, particularly during health crises. Nikki Walton shares her experiences of rising early to meditate and pray, highlighting how these practices cultivate inner peace and community.

• Importance of faith during health challenges 
• Morning rituals for mental clarity 
• Love as both a feeling and a conscious choice 
• The practice of asking, “Is love here too?” 
• Community impact through shared spiritual practices 
• Encouragement to embrace stillness and mindfulness 
• Health as wealth and emotional resilience 
• Building connections through love and shared experiences 

Thank you for listening! For those exploring the intersection of faith and wellness, consider reaching out to learn more about our life coaching offerings.




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Episode Transcript

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Bettina M Brown (00:04):
Hello and welcome to In the Rising a
health and wellness podcast forthose going through and those
supporting those going throughcancer.
My name is Bettina Brown andI'm board certified in physical
therapy, wound care andlymphedema, and you know, for me
cancer is very personal.
It's affected my friends, myimmediate and my not so

(00:24):
immediate family, and thereforeI created this podcast and
fitafterbreastcancercom toaddress the multiple dimensions
of our lives during and afterrecovery.
Hey there, my name is Bettinaand I am really happy to talk

(00:46):
today with Nikki Walton.
I know I say that a lot, butevery conversation is a new
experience, and so I'm reallyeager, happy and also honored to
share this with you.
My guest today is Nikki Walton,who's a best-selling author,
naacp Image Award-nominatedauthor and also a licensed

(01:07):
psychotherapist.
She has curlynickicom and maybeyou know her from there, so she
has been the number one naturalhair beauty blogger in the
world and has reached millionsand millions of women across at
least 30 countries.
So she has a beautiful, uniquestory to her life.

(01:29):
But today we take a pause andwe slow down and talk about
faith.
For a lot of us going through amajor event of life, we really
cling to our faith, and for usthat are in the best times of
our life.
Maybe we need a reminder tostick with that.
My podcast is about goingthrough major health crises, of

(01:52):
which cancer is one, and I havewitnessed the importance of
faith to so many people thatit's not something I can turn
away from and not talk about.
I have in front of me, you know.

(02:12):
Wake up to love meditations tostart your day.
First of all, congratulationson this book.
Thank you so much.
We don't really appreciate howmuch work, effort, soul, love,
sweat, tears all of that goesinto writing a book.
It's not a small thing at all.

Nikki Walton (02:32):
Right?
No, you're absolutely right.
It's daunting and it can bevery scary, especially when
you're just getting started.
It seems impossible when you'rejust getting started.

Bettina M Brown (02:40):
So congratulations, and that's a
lot of determination and gritstarted.
So congratulations, and that'sa lot of determination and grit
and there's a lot of love justin it, because to do this over
and over, to go through that, towrite this and wake up to love,
and a lot of times what I'venoticed is we listen to people
differently when we know theirstory of why they're doing this

(03:01):
and we can I mean, we can alwayshave a long conversation, but
what is really like your, why?
What was the reasoning?
Your get up to continue to dothis journey and have your own
podcast and make the differencethat you are.

Nikki Walton (03:14):
You know, I, during COVID, found myself
stressed because I couldn't justget out and be alone, and so I
was constantly being called bymy kids.
You know, my parents call andso it's like mommy, mommy, nikki
, nikki.
And then emails curly Nikki, weneed this, we need that so much
.
And so I made a consciousdecision to start waking up

(03:35):
before the sun, about four,maybe four, 35 o'clock in the
morning, and I'm not a morningperson, but I had to become one
to stay sane.
And I'd get up and it felt sogood to not have to be anything
for anyone and just be.
And I do my spiritual practice,I do my chanting, my praying,
and after just three months ofthat sitting in the stillness,

(03:56):
sitting as the stillness, theidea came up and you listening
at home, and maybe you too,bettina, there's something on
your heart, in your heart, thatyou have to start, and all of a
sudden, someone that goes fromjust being really like a writer
or a blogger is like I have tostart a podcast and it has to be
every morning, it has to befirst thing in the morning, and

(04:18):
since 2021, I've been doing GoodMornings with Curly Nikki, and
it's every single day about 10minutes of a meditation to help
the listener find this peace,find this love.
But after so many years of doingthis, there's just too many
episodes, especially for someonecoming to this new like when it
gets introduced to a familymember or friend.

(04:39):
They see 1500 episodes, becausesome days I do double episodes.
They're like where do you begin?
And so my book Wake Up to Loveis the best 52 practices, 52
different doorways to get intothis love, or 52 ways up the
same mountain to love.
And I just want people to havean anchor, to recognize that

(05:03):
there is something here thatthey are constantly overlooking
and replacing with snacks andscrolling and new relationships
and excessive thinking.
And as soon as you slow down or, right now, sit up, go from
hunched over like we usually are, sit up into this presence,

(05:25):
into the silence, you startusing your body like an antenna
for God, for the divine, andyou'll be able to hear what's
next for you, what you'resupposed to be doing in this
moment.

Bettina M Brown (05:36):
Thank you for sharing that and I heard it on
your podcast.
I hear it now.
You have a voice that is sloweddown, that is calm, like it.
It's not.
It's not a meditation, thatsomeone is trying to be relaxed
in, like you.
You embody it completely and Iyes it.
It comes through.

(05:58):
It comes through.
And I wanted to start with withsome definitions, and one is
love, and the big thing is alove of feeling.
Or is love a choice, or what isyour?

Nikki Walton (06:11):
idea about it.
Love is the filling, and itgets distorted and then we call
it many other things.
But it is life, it is what allof this is.
I think it was Daniel Penchikthat says we call it stuff, you
know, chair, microphone,computer, these bodies.
It's love appearing as thesethings, and so it's universal.

(06:33):
It's everywhere appearing asthese things, and so it's
universal.
It's everywhere, and we don'tslow down enough to recognize
that we are that and rethink.
We're these bodies only.
But as soon as you stop, youfeel that this body is made of
that and it's made of that, andso that is my definition of love
.
It is who and what we are.
It's beyond race and weight and, like what this is does not get

(06:56):
old.
What this is, you can't see ina mirror, you can't see with a
naked eye, but you canexperience it very easily.

Bettina M Brown (07:02):
We can experience it, and it's
something that we long toexperience as well.

Nikki Walton (07:08):
Exactly, and you said too, it's a choice that you
make in the moment to remainaware of what appears to be
happening or to not judge byappearances, like we're taught
in the Bible, and to feel what'salso here.
And so I often point mylisteners to that question that
you can ask yourself in anymoment, especially in the

(07:29):
overwhelming moments, to say islove here too?
And it's a listening.
I ask the question and I say islove here too?
And then I just listen, not foran answer that says yes or no,
but the listening is the answer,and the love rushes into that
gap, into that silence, andthat's it.
Yes, love is here too, inaddition to what appears to be

(07:52):
like the anger or thefrustration or the fatigue.
And if you could just feel ateeny bit of that love, things
begin to change inside of youbut outside as well.

Bettina M Brown (08:03):
And that's where waking up to love is, and
I think what you just said youmade a conscious decision to
wake up before the sun comes,and wake up can be physically.
Wake up can actually mean tocome out of the darkness, as in
you're going on habit and you'renot awake, and for a lot of my
listeners we go so we're so busywith life, and then you get a

(08:26):
diagnosis, you get, or someoneyou love gets, a diet.
That is the wake-up call.
Absolutely.
What do you describe waking upto love Like?
What does that mean to you whenyou say that?

Nikki Walton (08:39):
Every moment, every seeming moment, it's a
little bit different as far aswhat.
It is that grace that comes inthat wakes me up, and even
sometimes bad news or a textthat doesn't generate loving
feelings, you know, can wake youup.
You begin to use every singlething life throws at you as

(09:00):
something to trigger you backinto this love, back into waking
up.
I am very big on physicalpostures and not like strenuous,
like yoga postures.
I'm saying like right now, foldyour hands in front of you in
prayer pose and just bow, gentlybow, and it's like you're
bowing into God, into grace,into love, into the silence.

(09:24):
When you're like that, thenegative thoughts slow down.
They may even come to acomplete standstill.
When you're using your bodylike an antenna for the divine
bowing into God, you can noticethat your body feels peace and
then, even when you sit back upand your hands are now resting
in your lap, that peace is stillthere.

(09:45):
It's like you're still bowedinside, you're still humbled
inside, you're still aware ofthat sweetness inside, and
that's all you ever have to do.
It's all you ever have to be,and it's just a matter of
letting everything, good or bad,turn you back around to this.

Bettina M Brown (10:03):
You're anchored in.
Exactly, you're anchored in.
You do these podcasts, youwrite these books.
You're also a businesswoman.
You're a podcaster.

Nikki Walton (10:14):
So many things.
It's a lot.

Bettina M Brown (10:15):
It is a lot, but you know what, when you love
it, you love it and it comesacross.
My podcast is in the rising.
What do you see yourself stillrising up to, or rising up to
support others with?

Nikki Walton (10:31):
The podcast feels like my life's work.
It feels very important.
However, as of November 11th ofthis year, I began waking up
even earlier.
Now I get up at four and I do alive stream where I pray the
rosary with my audience.
And you do not have to beCatholic to pray the rosary, we
just pray the Our Father and theHail Mary, and we do it 150

(10:54):
times and we do 15 Our Fathers,and it's a very powerful
practice because you'rereplacing your thoughts, the
usual thinking, the usualworries, with what seems to be
just words, but it's guiding youinto a deeper feeling of that
presence.
And so we're basically prayinglove.
We're practicing love for about45 minutes every morning and

(11:18):
right now that feels even moreexciting to me than the podcast,
because I'm doing it withothers, real time, and there's
about 60 of us waking up at thattime, and there's some that are
in central I'm in the Easterntime zone there's some in
central, some out in California.
They're not even, they haven'teven gone to bed yet.
They're still up, you know.
So if you're for some reasonnot asleep or you're up early

(11:38):
and you want to pray with us andwith them chanting, you know
you can use this service as youwish, but it feels very divine
and I'm very blessed to be ableto do it, even though I'm very

(11:59):
tired, because it's been nowsince November 11th since I've
been doing that and I don't evenknow what today's date is.
But it's a very powerfulpractice to pray and to chant
and to practice this love withothers, and so I'm just going to
continue listening, just like Ihope you listening at home will
continue to listen, of course,to this podcast and to mine as
well, but also to the silence,because your answers, your

(12:23):
project, whatever you're risingup to, you'll hear it.
You'll begin to take stepstowards it, even when the steps
sound outrageous and you're likeI could never do that, you can
and you will, because it won'tbe you.
It's God working through you,the Christ love working using
your hands, using your feet,using your voice.
I never have words.
I never know what I'm going tosay.
I just have trust in the loveto speak, and it always speaks.

Bettina M Brown (12:49):
Well, we have trust in love and then we begin
to behave in that way and it'sfun to actually be with other
people.
That is the gratitude, that isthe peace and that is the
community that people aresometimes are longing for in the
scrolls, in the sex, in the newrelationships, absolutely.
But this is always going tolead to positive.

(13:09):
It always will.
You know, thank you so much foranchoring us in together during
this podcast conversation andfor all that you do for the
world, because that is a light,that is a love and that has such
resounding positiveconsequences.
So I just want to thank you forall of that you're doing.

Nikki Walton (13:31):
Thank you, and thank you for all that you're
doing and for the service thatyou're providing, being a light
for others in times of justneeding to migrate and navigate
through, and we all are inpositions where we need someone
to lean on, to have someone toshine a light in the darkness,
and you are doing that every dayand it is very much appreciated

(13:52):
.

Bettina M Brown (13:53):
What really came across to me listening to
Nikki talk, and then alsolistening again as I was
creating the podcast episode isthe calmness and the peace that
Nikki has, and I don't feel thatis something you have just
because you have been blessedwith calmness and peace.

(14:13):
It's something you work for andyou work towards, and it's
something that a lot of us couldcontinue to incorporate in our
lives, regardless of theexternal circumstances.
I've read somewhere that yourhappiness can come and go based
off the external things, butthat internal joy and peace with
your life it's either there orit's not, and nothing external

(14:36):
can make that.
So, whatever our place is inlife, whether it's our friend or
it's not, and nothing externalcan make that.
So, whatever our place is inlife, whether it's our friend or
us going through a major eventor really looking at and
evaluating our health, health iswealth and health is really
what brings us to life and feellife.
What is it that we can stillfind that joy in and that
connection?
And if faith is something thatyou find important, find that

(14:57):
joy in and that connection, andif faith is something that you
find important to you or you'renew on your journey, I welcome
you to the resources below.
If faith is something you'refamiliar with and you'd like to
continue that on with yourjourney, what do you move
forward to?
How are we going to move withthe next steps?
How do I navigate onwards?
How are we going to move withthe next steps?
How do I navigate onwards?

(15:19):
I invite you to look at my lifecoaching experience and
offerings of Rising Within LifeCoaching, the Crossing Between
Faith and Wellness.
I've seen it so often make abig difference for that person,
whether it brought about healingor brought about healing and
peace.
Either way, there is no lose atall.

(15:41):
So until next time, let's keepbuilding one another up.
Thank you.
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