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Join me on a transformative journey as we navigate the rich landscapes of spiritual development. With each step, we confront the challenges that shape our soul's quest for meaning. Our latest episode takes this intricate expedition and lays it before you, offering a map through the stages of spiritual growth, from the fresh sprout of discovery to the rooted wisdom of the sage. Joined by insights from a recent heart-to-heart with Alex, we weave personal anecdotes with universal truths, providing you with the companion you need for your own spiritual trek and changing how you see the 'trials and tribulations' in your life.
For more information about Rev. Rachel Harrison and Recover Your Soul- visit the website www.recoveryoursoul.net use the code TRYASESSION for 40% off your first Spiritual Coaching session when you book on the website. Visit the website for all events and groups to get involved in Soul Recovery and the community.
Soul Recovery Support Group on Zoom -The 1st Monday of the Month, 6PM Mountain Time. This is a drop in support group where we can come together to explore, connect and support each other on our Soul Recovery journey. Visit the website to register and receive the meeting invite. Free to attend and donations appreciated.
This podcast is for educational purposes only and is not allied or representative of any organizations or religions, but is based on the opinions and experience of Rev. Rachel Harrison. The host claims no responsibility to any person or entity for any liability, loss, or damage caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly as a result of the use, application, or interpretation of the information presented herein. Take what you need and leave the rest.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Rev Rachel Harrison (00:00):
If you've ever felt like life is just one
test after another, onedifficulty after another.
It can be incrediblyoverwhelming, but once you start
your spiritual journey, whatyou recognize is that it is
actually part of yourdevelopment, that we're learning
tools and principles and soulrecovery on this spiritual
(00:20):
journey that allow us to bepresent in anything that's
happening from a new way ofbeing, that we can walk along
this spiritual journey, thispath of awakening and understand
that there is actuallysomething to the trials and
tribulations that will benefitus in the end if we're able to
(00:42):
see it from this new perspective.
Today's episode is about thestages of spiritual development
and then how to allow yourselfto be in the difficulty of life
what feels like the tests from amore empowered way, a way of
strength, learning and curiosity.
Enjoy the episode.
(01:03):
Welcome to the Recover yourSoul podcast a spiritual path to
a happy and healthy life.
My name is Reverend RachelHarrison.
I started Recover your Soulafter having profound changes in
my life from my recovery ofalcoholism, codependency and
control addiction.
I was guided to share the toolsand principles of spirituality
(01:26):
and soul recovery to help otherstransform their lives as mine
was transformed.
For us to overcome externalcircumstances, we need to turn
the attention to ourselves,focusing on our inner change and
healing.
Positive results in our liveswill follow.
Welcome to Recover your Soul.
(01:47):
I'm Rev Rachel and I thank youvery, very much for choosing to
spend your time with me here onthis podcast today.
I want to just say thank you toeverybody who comes week after
week and, if you're new to theSoul Recovery Community, welcome
to this incredible journey ofself-exploration and healing.
I know that maybe you walkedthrough the doors, through
(02:09):
Al-Anon or codependence, maybeyou have an addiction or you
know somebody who's an addict.
Maybe you just found this bysome beautiful, miraculous event
.
But here you are, walkingthrough the door, thinking that
you want to change the outsideworld, and really what you're
about to learn is how to findinner peace, how to use
spiritual practices and tools tobe okay when the world around
(02:33):
you doesn't feel okay.
And it's really a profoundpractice to learn how to
regulate yourself, to learn howto use the tools and principles
of soul recovery andspirituality to be able to
handle life.
Life is not easy.
We are here as this communityand I hope that you come to our
(02:54):
support group.
That's once a month.
That is amazing that we all gettogether on Zoom and support
each other in a mini workshopkind of style, and also just
knowing that this podcast ishere to support you along your
journey.
And maybe you're on theFacebook group and you're
connecting and posting andgetting some sort of inspiration
each week.
(03:14):
To me, this is community andwhen I'm speaking, I want you to
know that I'm speaking to you.
I hope that you hear mereaching out to you wherever you
are, offering you inspiration,strength and hope, and I hope
that you hear me reaching out toyou wherever you are offering
you inspiration, strength andhope and this knowing that you
are doing this work to findyourself that if I can do it,
you can do it.
My life is so transformed thatthese principles I just want to
(03:39):
share with everybody.
So for today's episode, what Iwanted to come into was going
into some reflection aroundAlex's visit.
If you listened to last week'spodcast, it was my interview
with him and how he's doing andI just loved that conversation
with him and coming back tospiritual principles around us,
(04:02):
being able to see the world inhealthier ways, understanding
the spiritual journey andstepping into this process of
our own healing.
So I'm going to use Alex'svisit as a reflection for that.
But it's really this process aninitiation, maybe you could
call it where we're movingthrough our spiritual journey
(04:26):
and how do we take the steps notonly the nine steps of soul
recovery, but these internalsteps with ourself to be able to
handle the complexity of life.
I'm going to kick off my talkby talking about the stages of
spiritual development, because Ithink it's really important for
us to understand that whereveryou are is exactly where you're
(04:47):
supposed to be, and that this isnot about trying to reach some
pinnacle somewhere where you'rebetter than everybody else or
you have it all figured out.
It's about you learning how tobe in the complexity of life and
how to feel the connection witha higher power so that you can
(05:08):
handle anything, so that you canbe in the midst of anything.
So part of understanding thejourney is what is the map, what
are the spots on the map that Imight be looking to try to get
to?
And knowing that in any journeythat it is a windy road, it
isn't about just going from oneplace to the next, and it's
(05:28):
about enjoying each step,noticing where it takes you,
noticing how you get from oneplace to the other and sometimes
you go back, sometimes it's allof it, sometimes it's
remembering and being present inall of it, and that you are
just here to begin to see itfrom a different perspective.
Stage one in the spiritualdevelopment is innocence.
(05:50):
And if you think about when youwere first born and that birth
of a baby and how they justdon't know yet, and if you see
little toddlers, how they'rejust so excited about life and
they think everything ismarvelous and they wear their
emotions on their sleeve andthey're angry or they're happy
(06:10):
or they want something orthey're joyous it's everything
and they believe that anythingcan happen.
They haven't learned yet how tobe held down by the world.
And then they start to besocialized and of course we have
to be socialized and so on somelevel we end up moving into the
(06:31):
second stage, which is our egotransformation, our really
attaching to this part of ourbrain that is teaching us how to
survive, and it has a lot offear involved.
And we're in this place wherewe realize that we're at the
mercy of the world around us,that we have to fit in, and
(06:51):
maybe that just unbridledexuberance that we had as
toddlers starts to melt away alittle bit as we move into.
How do I fit into the world andwhat do I do to be rewarded?
And that's part of survival,that we need to do that to
develop our personality.
And we begin to develop thatpersonality for the better and
(07:13):
sometimes for the unhealthy, andthat's okay.
Part of soul recovery is aroundus learning how to accept
ourselves, to accept the shadow,to accept the light, to stop
judging anything as having beenbad or good and just seeing it
as part of the experience, partof the journey, part of the
(07:33):
transformation that we're hereto learn and grow and expand.
And of course we needed to setinto an ego.
Of course we did, and that whenyou move into the next phase,
which is power, you realize thatyou need to become somebody,
that you might need to controlthings, that you might want to
(07:56):
have a career, that you have apurpose.
We have to develop ourpersonality and become someone.
And this is that part of ourlife where we're creating who we
want to be and how we want itto be around us.
And this is where most of uslive in adulthood and
adolescence as well.
(08:16):
But this is where most of us get, where we realize we have some
dominion over the world aroundus and we crave to try to figure
it out.
We want power to figure it outand a lot of people stay here.
Truth is, a lot of people stayhere and never leave this
section because this is the 3Dworld.
(08:39):
This is the place where you goto work.
You have your relationshipswith people.
You see how you want it to turnout.
You work hard to make thathappen.
It happens.
This is life.
Now you have a choice.
You have a choice in this placewhere you start to realize do I
want more?
(08:59):
Is this making me happy?
What is this?
You start to realize that yourconnection to the world feels
very if you do this, then I'llbe happy Very result and
transaction oriented, that youstart to question if there's a
deeper meaning.
(09:19):
And what is that deeper meaning?
This next step of transformationis a powerful place because it
begins to open us up to evenmore potential, more possibility
, and then we have giving.
The next stage is that openingup to this concept that there's
more, that we can help others,that we can be altruistic.
(09:46):
There's giving and receiving.
We start to realize that wecould be part of a bigger
picture.
Now the giving as a codependent, as I was, is interesting
because we can get caught up inthis place where the giving
becomes who we are and itactually becomes an attachment
(10:06):
to who we are.
And then you have anotherchoice.
Am I going to give to getsomething from people which
means approval, it means actualthings to give to receive
something because you want thereto be some sort of transaction
in it?
You start realizing thatactually the giving can become
(10:30):
ego-driven instead ofspiritually driven, that it has
a cost to it, and this isanother place for a choice.
Am I going to be a giver out ofa bigger spiritual
consciousness or am I going touse this as a transaction?
(10:50):
If you're ready for soulrecovery, as a spiritual coach I
can support your healing tohelp make real changes that will
bring you a life of peace,happiness, connection and
abundance.
You can also work in smallergroups by taking a deep dive in
a Zoom workshop or with me inperson at a retreat or an event.
Join others on the SoulRecovery Path, once a month for
(11:11):
the free Zoom support group ordaily on the private Facebook
page.
Visit the websiterecoveryoursoulnet to book
coaching sessions with me orfind all the information you
need about soul recovery datesthat are coming up and how to
register for those groups andworkshops.
To support the podcast and thecommunity, check the links in
the show notes to make a smallmonthly donation or a one-time
(11:34):
donation of your choice.
That will make a huge impact tosupport this community and the
soul recovery mission.
Together we can do the workthat will recover your soul.
And then you move to the seeker,and the seeker is realizing
(11:55):
that there's a deeper meaning.
You start creating a spiritualpractice, you start listening to
podcasts, you start readingbooks, you start soaking in
information and you startdisseminating all of the beliefs
and the patterns and theprinciples that were taught to
you in your socialization and inyour way of being told who to
(12:19):
be when you were younger.
You start looking at adifferent way of being.
This is a powerful place to bebecause the seeker lets go of
there being only one way.
The seeker starts to questionwhether there's other ways to
see, other ways to participate,other ways to be in it, and not
from that stage that you're inyour ego power stage, but in
(12:43):
something bigger and greaterstill.
This is where you start to openup to spirituality and you
begin to really understand thejourney and be curious about the
journey and stop trying so hardto get somewhere and you start
being present in the moment.
And then it says the sixth stageis the sage, where you open up
(13:07):
to your awakening, you become awitness of the actions and you
realize that you're just aplayer in this larger role of
life and that you actually arecreating your own script for
your play and you start to seethe world differently, you start
to participate in itdifferently.
(13:28):
And then this is another placewhere there's choice.
You've come to this place whereyou can choose to live by ego
or to live to be in spirit.
And maybe it's a place whereyou realize that the way is kind
of windy, that you bounce backand forth between these two ways
of being I know that's been myexperience and you're opening up
(13:52):
.
Are you ready to die of yourold, to actually live these
principles, to actually be inthe way of spirituality?
And then the seventh stage isspirit.
(14:14):
It is being in completeconnection to something greater
still and living truly from theprinciples of spirituality and
soul recovery.
And it's an incredible onenesswith everything.
As you know, with my spiritualjourney, I do a lot of reading
and listening, and I recentlylistened to Alberto Villaldo's
(14:35):
book, the Illumination Process,which was something that I
wanted to have more of him afterI had read his book, the Four
Insights, that I read while Iwas in Indonesia, and he's a
shaman and he worked with peoplein South America and has these
incredible books on spirituality.
What I wanted to talk about inthis particular podcast comes
(15:00):
from something that he talkedabout in the Illumination
Process book and I wanted to getthrough those stages of
spirituality because it givesthe story of kind of how you are
on the map in your spiritualjourney, and he was talking
about how, within each of ourprocesses of life, either on the
(15:21):
spiritual journey or even morein the stages of life moving,
say, from adolescence to youngadult or from young adult to
mature adult or mature adult tothe next phase you know that we
have these actual developmentphases in our humanness and if
you don't allow yourself toinitiate and move and flow
(15:46):
carefully with intention fromone to the next phase in your
life, we can be attached to whatwe thought that that previous
stage was going to give us andit provides an enormous amount
of suffering as we age and getolder.
Here I'm 54 years old.
I will never look like or feellike I did when I was 20.
But if I'm constantlyregretting my life now because
(16:11):
I'm stuck in not being a young,beautiful girl anymore with that
body that I had when I was 20,I'm going to miss out on what
the next stage is.
And by being in that, I'm alsostuck in that spiritual stage of
fear and ego that you have tobe willing to go through this
(16:32):
process, to move through each ofthese stages spiritually and
physically in our lives, to beable to open spiritually, to get
to that seventh stage of being,of spirit, or even just the
stage before of being a sage.
He was talking about how there'sfour stages of illumination in
(16:53):
the initiation to illumination,the awakening, the great
departure, the tasks and thenthe illumination.
And when I was listening tothis, what really inspired me
that I wanted to talk about isin soul recovery.
We've been talking about theawakening.
We've been talking about thisawareness that all of a sudden
we come through the door Maybeyou heard this podcast because
(17:16):
you searched Al-Anon orcodependence or addiction or
something and then you thinkthat you're walking through for
that and then you come in.
Like I said in the beginning ofthe podcast and you go wow,
this is actually about me.
That's an awakening, that's achange in how you are seeing,
it's a change in perception,it's the realization that you
(17:38):
are in charge of how you chooseto be in the world.
But then you have to move intothe great departure, which means
that you have to be willing todo these changes within yourself
.
You have to be willing to makebig changes in how you process
what happened in your lifebefore, how you are going to
choose to show up today.
(17:59):
You might need to really lookat how you're participating in
your family, how you participatein a job where you are in your
mental thought process, howyou're taking care of your body.
You start to look at how youcan improve yourself in.
The great departure includes thebeing the seeker, looking at
(18:22):
what are you watching, what doyou listen to, what kinds of
words are you using, whatthoughts do you have?
You're departing from how youused to be, how you used to show
up, how you used to be attachedto your image or who you think
you are in the world.
And then you come to the nextstage, which is the tasks and
(18:45):
the tests.
Now this is here.
We are this far into thepodcast, and this is the piece I
really wanted to talk about,which is when I first heard this
, I thought what do you mean?
There's tests after you havethis awakening.
You have this awakening, andshouldn't it just be easier then
?
And this is where I really hadan epiphany around this
(19:10):
continued journey that I'mhaving with the people in my
life, in my spiritualdevelopment is, if I continue to
see the relationships in mylife as difficult and I continue
to bump up against them as if Iwant them to be different, I'm
coming back to the beginning.
It's like I'm bringing myselfback to a place where I need to
(19:35):
be in the great departure again.
I need to remember that I wantto be awake.
I need to remember that I needto let go of what I want to
control.
I have to let go of control.
But when we're in the tasks,when we're in the testing phase
of it, we begin to see that thisis actually where the rubber
(19:57):
hits the road.
This is actually where thehealing truly takes place, to
allow us to integrate these newways of being, these new beliefs
, this new phase of our life,this new development and to
actually be able to live it, tobe it, to have the true, true
(20:18):
changes that are happeningwithin us.
So, going into Alex's visit acouple weekends ago that you
heard his lovely podcast lastweek he and his girlfriend
showed up for a 420 concert,which happened to be in Denver.
So they're getting to spendtime with family, so that was
enjoyable, but the whole reasonthat they came was because they
(20:39):
wanted to come to a concert thatcelebrates pot right, that's
around 420.
And I had the same situationthat I had the last time Bodhi
came, that I talked about, whichI am doing this work, people,
friends, I'm doing this work sohard and I still get hit every
(21:02):
single time with expectation.
I still get hit with thismoment where I realize that in
my mind I'm creating how Ienvision it being, even though I
was totally relaxed and eventhough I just said this is his
trip and they're staying in ourhouse.
If we get to see them, thenthat would be great, but if we
(21:23):
can't see them, that will befine, I'll just be open.
And what I realized is I openedmy schedule and then I just
waited, and then I just waitedfor my turn, and in that turn of
waiting, I found expectation,and it caught me by surprise
(21:45):
because I didn't think that Iwas doing that.
I thought I was reallyconsciously not doing that, and
so when I heard Alberto talkingabout this concept of the tasks,
it made me realize that this isthe part of all the stories the
hero's journey stories, all themythology, all of the things
(22:06):
that we love in terms of moviesand good books where there's
hardship that happens.
That is there to show you yourstrength and the hardship can be
really hard and in some casesit doesn't even have to be that
hard.
It just is emotionally hittingus in a way where we go, ah wow,
(22:28):
there it is, there's the test,there's the task.
Can you say that your son'sgoing to come into town and you
are going to be grateful if youget any time, but truly not have
any expectations of what youthink it's going to look like,
how much time you think you'regoing to have, what you think
that you're going to do?
(22:48):
But I watched myself not haveexpectations of him so much, but
expectations of me and how Iwanted the house set up, how I
wanted to have activities readyif they wanted to do activities.
I watched myself jump intothose old patterns of pleasing
(23:09):
my son and making him happy andI was so grateful to have the
chance to see it because I'mstill working on it.
And if we don't have thesetests, then we can't actually
move into the illumination, wecan't move into being
spiritually awake, because wewon't have actually done the
(23:33):
work that it takes to practicethese principles in all of our
affairs.
And they had a fabulous weekendand we actually had a fabulous
weekend together.
But in the middle of it, justlike when Bodhi came, I caught
myself having all these emotionsthat weren't about them.
(23:55):
It was about me.
It was about me and how I showup for myself and what my
relationships are in my head, ofhow I see it, of how I'm
putting it out there, of what Iwould like it to look like.
And while it's all happening,it's actually happening just
fine.
It's good, people are happy,we're enjoying dinners, we're
(24:21):
enjoying conversation, we'refinding things to do.
We were arguing a little bitabout what to watch on
television, because I won'twatch violence, but we found
something to watch on TVtogether and then including
asking if he would do a podcastand him saying, yeah, if it
works out time-wise.
We'll see if it does, and mejust letting it go and me just
(24:50):
letting it go.
But when I looked at thisconcept of how resistant we are
to having difficulty in ourlives, having any feelings that
feel crunchy or any feelingsthat are pushing our buttons,
and we switch it and we look atit as being one of the stages of
illumination switch it and welook at it as being one of the
stages of illumination.
You have this opportunity tocompletely change how you show
up in it, and it has helped mein the last couple of weeks in
(25:11):
terms of dealing with Rich thatwe've had all these projects
happening at the house toremodel the bathroom and then
get them done before Alex cameinto town which, by the way, he
was still hooking up the showerhead and the sink on the day
that he was supposed to arriveand I found myself having to do
(25:32):
some spiritual work and do theserenity prayer and remind
myself to just let it go and itwill be whatever it will be.
But our house is kind of turnedupside down right now and when
I think about it as part of myspiritual process, that this is
a stage of initiation is to bein this test.
(25:54):
Instead of wanting it all to beperfect, I realized that it's a
gift to be able to be in it andthis process of coming back to
soul recovery, of looking at itfrom the eyes of love, the eyes
of expansion, the eyes of spirit, letting go of control,
(26:15):
realizing you're powerless overeverything outside of yourself
and being present with what is,and coming back to this moment
right here.
How am I in this moment righthere?
Am I okay?
Right here, right now?
And the answer is almost alwaysyes.
In this moment, in my body, I'mokay.
It might feel overwhelming andout of control outside of myself
(26:40):
, but I'm actually okay and Iget to choose how I'm going to
interact with that.
And I take a deep breath and Icome back to my center and I
come back to right now andsomething beautiful happens.
I realized that was the test,that was the part of me that's
(27:00):
learning how to change the way Ifeel and interact with each of
these situations and it isliterally changing your brain
structure.
It is literally changing howyour neurons work for the better
.
This is the illuminationprocess, this is the healing
process, this is the movingtowards the sage and the spirit
(27:22):
process.
This is leaving the ego andfear behind.
It took this little moment ofhearing somebody say you get
this spiritual juiciness andthen you move into the tests To
remind me to love my human life,to not get so caught up in
(27:46):
wanting to be a spiritual beingthat I forget to enjoy being
human.
It's a choice that we can makeabout whether we're going to
resist it and be pissed orwhether we're going to open to
it and be curious and askourselves how we attend to
(28:06):
ourselves.
What is our piece in it?
How can we see it differently?
Where can we draw boundariesthat are healthy?
How can I make sure that I'mokay here, not expecting anybody
else to be different, but forme to look at myself, and
sometimes it means that you haveto make difficult choices.
Sometimes it means you have towalk away from things, but
(28:29):
you're always choosing yourself,your expansion, your healing.
And in the end, as always, whenmy kids leave, my heart just is
full and I loved the interviewthat I had with Alex in the
podcast because he was being him.
(28:49):
They had smoked a big jointbefore they came into the studio
and I watched him as a man, asexactly who he is being okay and
his life does not look likewhat I thought that it was going
to look like when I decided tohave kids, but it's his life and
you know what he's doing justfine, and sometimes that means
(29:13):
that there's a little bit oftrial and tribulation, but isn't
life like that?
But if we see it as part of theillumination process instead of
as hardship, it will be andfeel and be experienced
differently.
So, as I do that for myself,I'm going to be reminded that
they need to go through theirinitiations, to move through
(29:35):
each segment of their life, toallow themselves to build their
personalities, to be in thosespaces, and that spiritual
growth will happen for them whenthey're ready.
It will look like what it'sgoing to look like for them and
I'm going to continue to work onwhat it looks like for me
because that's the only place Ihave control anyway.
(29:56):
So I'm going to empower myselfto have my own experience.
So I'm going to empower myselfto have my own experience and
through that I'm going to bepresent in every scenario in my
life, from this place ofexpansion and curiosity and
wholeness and connection to myhigher power.
And, as always, if you want helpwith this, you can either work
(30:17):
with me directly in one-on-onecoaching, and I now have the new
work, the steps on your ownprogram, being rolled out on the
website for only $97.
You can do a module.
The first step is out and readyto go.
I want to support you on yoursoul recovery journey so that
you, too, can be moving along inthis initiation of who you are,
(30:39):
to be your fullest expressionof self.
You were brought here onpurpose.
You were brought here to beyour true, happy self, with
gifts that are uniquely yours.
I want to be here to supportyou in whatever way I can to see
it as the way you choose, tosee it out of love, out of
(31:01):
compassion, and to show up inyour best self, the one that is
just uniquely you, and to let goof all the stickiness that's
underneath and to be able to bein this process of spiritual
growth and to see the trials andtribulations from a new
perspective.
(31:22):
Until next time, namaste, thankyou for listening to the
Recover your Soul podcast and ifyou loved what you heard here,
every Friday we have a bonusepisode and you can access this
by becoming a subscriber throughApple podcasts for only $3.99 a
(31:42):
month, or become a Patreonmember and on this platform you
can choose $5, $15, or $25 amonth to show what you want to
support the show with.
On both of these subscriberplatforms is an entire catalog
of back episodes intended toinspire and support you on your
soul recovery journey.
(32:02):
I really want to inviteeverybody to attend the free
once a month, every first Mondayof the month, support group.
This is on zoom.
Everyone is welcome to attendand by giving a like or a review
and sharing this with yourfriends and family really helps
us to share the soul recoverymessage with even more people.
We are on social media.
(32:23):
We are on all the platforms.
I am on TikTok.
You can listen to GuidedMeditations by Rev Rachel
Harrison on Insight Timer.
Thank you for supporting theshow.
Thank you for being part of thecommunity.
To find out more about soulrecovery and everything that's
being offered, visit the websitewwwrecoveryoursoulnet.
Together, we can do the workthat will recover your soul.
If you've ever felt like life is just one
test after another, onedifficulty after another.
It can be incrediblyoverwhelming, but once you start
your spiritual journey, whatyou recognize is that it is
actually part of yourdevelopment, that we're learning
tools and principles and soulrecovery on this spiritual
(00:20):
journey that allow us to bepresent in anything that's
happening from a new way ofbeing, that we can walk along
this spiritual journey, thispath of awakening and understand
that there is actuallysomething to the trials and
tribulations that will benefitus in the end if we're able to
(00:42):
see it from this new perspective.
Today's episode is about thestages of spiritual development
and then how to allow yourselfto be in the difficulty of life
what feels like the tests from amore empowered way, a way of
strength, learning and curiosity.
Enjoy the episode.
(01:03):
Welcome to the Recover yourSoul podcast a spiritual path to
a happy and healthy life.
My name is Reverend RachelHarrison.
I started Recover your Soulafter having profound changes in
my life from my recovery ofalcoholism, codependency and
control addiction.
I was guided to share the toolsand principles of spirituality
(01:26):
and soul recovery to help otherstransform their lives as mine
was transformed.
For us to overcome externalcircumstances, we need to turn
the attention to ourselves,focusing on our inner change and
healing.
Positive results in our liveswill follow.
Welcome to Recover your Soul.
(01:47):
I'm Rev Rachel and I thank youvery, very much for choosing to
spend your time with me here onthis podcast today.
I want to just say thank you toeverybody who comes week after
week and, if you're new to theSoul Recovery Community, welcome
to this incredible journey ofself-exploration and healing.
I know that maybe you walkedthrough the doors, through
(02:09):
Al-Anon or codependence, maybeyou have an addiction or you
know somebody who's an addict.
Maybe you just found this bysome beautiful, miraculous event
.
But here you are, walkingthrough the door, thinking that
you want to change the outsideworld, and really what you're
about to learn is how to findinner peace, how to use
spiritual practices and tools tobe okay when the world around
(02:33):
you doesn't feel okay.
And it's really a profoundpractice to learn how to
regulate yourself, to learn howto use the tools and principles
of soul recovery andspirituality to be able to
handle life.
Life is not easy.
We are here as this communityand I hope that you come to our
(02:54):
support group.
That's once a month.
That is amazing that we all gettogether on Zoom and support
each other in a mini workshopkind of style, and also just
knowing that this podcast ishere to support you along your
journey.
And maybe you're on theFacebook group and you're
connecting and posting andgetting some sort of inspiration
each week.
(03:14):
To me, this is community andwhen I'm speaking, I want you to
know that I'm speaking to you.
I hope that you hear mereaching out to you wherever you
are, offering you inspiration,strength and hope, and I hope
that you hear me reaching out toyou wherever you are offering
you inspiration, strength andhope and this knowing that you
are doing this work to findyourself that if I can do it,
you can do it.
My life is so transformed thatthese principles I just want to
(03:39):
share with everybody.
So for today's episode, what Iwanted to come into was going
into some reflection aroundAlex's visit.
If you listened to last week'spodcast, it was my interview
with him and how he's doing andI just loved that conversation
with him and coming back tospiritual principles around us,
(04:02):
being able to see the world inhealthier ways, understanding
the spiritual journey andstepping into this process of
our own healing.
So I'm going to use Alex'svisit as a reflection for that.
But it's really this process aninitiation, maybe you could
call it where we're movingthrough our spiritual journey
(04:26):
and how do we take the steps notonly the nine steps of soul
recovery, but these internalsteps with ourself to be able to
handle the complexity of life.
I'm going to kick off my talkby talking about the stages of
spiritual development, because Ithink it's really important for
us to understand that whereveryou are is exactly where you're
(04:47):
supposed to be, and that this isnot about trying to reach some
pinnacle somewhere where you'rebetter than everybody else or
you have it all figured out.
It's about you learning how tobe in the complexity of life and
how to feel the connection witha higher power so that you can
(05:08):
handle anything, so that you canbe in the midst of anything.
So part of understanding thejourney is what is the map, what
are the spots on the map that Imight be looking to try to get
to?
And knowing that in any journeythat it is a windy road, it
isn't about just going from oneplace to the next, and it's
(05:28):
about enjoying each step,noticing where it takes you,
noticing how you get from oneplace to the other and sometimes
you go back, sometimes it's allof it, sometimes it's
remembering and being present inall of it, and that you are
just here to begin to see itfrom a different perspective.
Stage one in the spiritualdevelopment is innocence.
(05:50):
And if you think about when youwere first born and that birth
of a baby and how they justdon't know yet, and if you see
little toddlers, how they'rejust so excited about life and
they think everything ismarvelous and they wear their
emotions on their sleeve andthey're angry or they're happy
(06:10):
or they want something orthey're joyous it's everything
and they believe that anythingcan happen.
They haven't learned yet how tobe held down by the world.
And then they start to besocialized and of course we have
to be socialized and so on somelevel we end up moving into the
(06:31):
second stage, which is our egotransformation, our really
attaching to this part of ourbrain that is teaching us how to
survive, and it has a lot offear involved.
And we're in this place wherewe realize that we're at the
mercy of the world around us,that we have to fit in, and
(06:51):
maybe that just unbridledexuberance that we had as
toddlers starts to melt away alittle bit as we move into.
How do I fit into the world andwhat do I do to be rewarded?
And that's part of survival,that we need to do that to
develop our personality.
And we begin to develop thatpersonality for the better and
(07:13):
sometimes for the unhealthy, andthat's okay.
Part of soul recovery is aroundus learning how to accept
ourselves, to accept the shadow,to accept the light, to stop
judging anything as having beenbad or good and just seeing it
as part of the experience, partof the journey, part of the
(07:33):
transformation that we're hereto learn and grow and expand.
And of course we needed to setinto an ego.
Of course we did, and that whenyou move into the next phase,
which is power, you realize thatyou need to become somebody,
that you might need to controlthings, that you might want to
(07:56):
have a career, that you have apurpose.
We have to develop ourpersonality and become someone.
And this is that part of ourlife where we're creating who we
want to be and how we want itto be around us.
And this is where most of uslive in adulthood and
adolescence as well.
(08:16):
But this is where most of us get, where we realize we have some
dominion over the world aroundus and we crave to try to figure
it out.
We want power to figure it outand a lot of people stay here.
Truth is, a lot of people stayhere and never leave this
section because this is the 3Dworld.
(08:39):
This is the place where you goto work.
You have your relationshipswith people.
You see how you want it to turnout.
You work hard to make thathappen.
It happens.
This is life.
Now you have a choice.
You have a choice in this placewhere you start to realize do I
want more?
(08:59):
Is this making me happy?
What is this?
You start to realize that yourconnection to the world feels
very if you do this, then I'llbe happy Very result and
transaction oriented, that youstart to question if there's a
deeper meaning.
(09:19):
And what is that deeper meaning?
This next step of transformationis a powerful place because it
begins to open us up to evenmore potential, more possibility
, and then we have giving.
The next stage is that openingup to this concept that there's
more, that we can help others,that we can be altruistic.
(09:46):
There's giving and receiving.
We start to realize that wecould be part of a bigger
picture.
Now the giving as a codependent, as I was, is interesting
because we can get caught up inthis place where the giving
becomes who we are and itactually becomes an attachment
(10:06):
to who we are.
And then you have anotherchoice.
Am I going to give to getsomething from people which
means approval, it means actualthings to give to receive
something because you want thereto be some sort of transaction
in it?
You start realizing thatactually the giving can become
(10:30):
ego-driven instead ofspiritually driven, that it has
a cost to it, and this isanother place for a choice.
Am I going to be a giver out ofa bigger spiritual
consciousness or am I going touse this as a transaction?
(10:50):
If you're ready for soulrecovery, as a spiritual coach I
can support your healing tohelp make real changes that will
bring you a life of peace,happiness, connection and
abundance.
You can also work in smallergroups by taking a deep dive in
a Zoom workshop or with me inperson at a retreat or an event.
Join others on the SoulRecovery Path, once a month for
(11:11):
the free Zoom support group ordaily on the private Facebook
page.
Visit the websiterecoveryoursoulnet to book
coaching sessions with me orfind all the information you
need about soul recovery datesthat are coming up and how to
register for those groups andworkshops.
To support the podcast and thecommunity, check the links in
the show notes to make a smallmonthly donation or a one-time
(11:34):
donation of your choice.
That will make a huge impact tosupport this community and the
soul recovery mission.
Together we can do the workthat will recover your soul.
And then you move to the seeker,and the seeker is realizing
(11:55):
that there's a deeper meaning.
You start creating a spiritualpractice, you start listening to
podcasts, you start readingbooks, you start soaking in
information and you startdisseminating all of the beliefs
and the patterns and theprinciples that were taught to
you in your socialization and inyour way of being told who to
(12:19):
be when you were younger.
You start looking at adifferent way of being.
This is a powerful place to bebecause the seeker lets go of
there being only one way.
The seeker starts to questionwhether there's other ways to
see, other ways to participate,other ways to be in it, and not
from that stage that you're inyour ego power stage, but in
(12:43):
something bigger and greaterstill.
This is where you start to openup to spirituality and you
begin to really understand thejourney and be curious about the
journey and stop trying so hardto get somewhere and you start
being present in the moment.
And then it says the sixth stageis the sage, where you open up
(13:07):
to your awakening, you become awitness of the actions and you
realize that you're just aplayer in this larger role of
life and that you actually arecreating your own script for
your play and you start to seethe world differently, you start
to participate in itdifferently.
(13:28):
And then this is another placewhere there's choice.
You've come to this place whereyou can choose to live by ego
or to live to be in spirit.
And maybe it's a place whereyou realize that the way is kind
of windy, that you bounce backand forth between these two ways
of being I know that's been myexperience and you're opening up
(13:52):
.
Are you ready to die of yourold, to actually live these
principles, to actually be inthe way of spirituality?
And then the seventh stage isspirit.
(14:14):
It is being in completeconnection to something greater
still and living truly from theprinciples of spirituality and
soul recovery.
And it's an incredible onenesswith everything.
As you know, with my spiritualjourney, I do a lot of reading
and listening, and I recentlylistened to Alberto Villaldo's
(14:35):
book, the Illumination Process,which was something that I
wanted to have more of him afterI had read his book, the Four
Insights, that I read while Iwas in Indonesia, and he's a
shaman and he worked with peoplein South America and has these
incredible books on spirituality.
What I wanted to talk about inthis particular podcast comes
(15:00):
from something that he talkedabout in the Illumination
Process book and I wanted to getthrough those stages of
spirituality because it givesthe story of kind of how you are
on the map in your spiritualjourney, and he was talking
about how, within each of ourprocesses of life, either on the
(15:21):
spiritual journey or even morein the stages of life moving,
say, from adolescence to youngadult or from young adult to
mature adult or mature adult tothe next phase you know that we
have these actual developmentphases in our humanness and if
you don't allow yourself toinitiate and move and flow
(15:46):
carefully with intention fromone to the next phase in your
life, we can be attached to whatwe thought that that previous
stage was going to give us andit provides an enormous amount
of suffering as we age and getolder.
Here I'm 54 years old.
I will never look like or feellike I did when I was 20.
But if I'm constantlyregretting my life now because
(16:11):
I'm stuck in not being a young,beautiful girl anymore with that
body that I had when I was 20,I'm going to miss out on what
the next stage is.
And by being in that, I'm alsostuck in that spiritual stage of
fear and ego that you have tobe willing to go through this
(16:32):
process, to move through each ofthese stages spiritually and
physically in our lives, to beable to open spiritually, to get
to that seventh stage of being,of spirit, or even just the
stage before of being a sage.
He was talking about how there'sfour stages of illumination in
(16:53):
the initiation to illumination,the awakening, the great
departure, the tasks and thenthe illumination.
And when I was listening tothis, what really inspired me
that I wanted to talk about isin soul recovery.
We've been talking about theawakening.
We've been talking about thisawareness that all of a sudden
we come through the door Maybeyou heard this podcast because
(17:16):
you searched Al-Anon orcodependence or addiction or
something and then you thinkthat you're walking through for
that and then you come in.
Like I said in the beginning ofthe podcast and you go wow,
this is actually about me.
That's an awakening, that's achange in how you are seeing,
it's a change in perception,it's the realization that you
(17:38):
are in charge of how you chooseto be in the world.
But then you have to move intothe great departure, which means
that you have to be willing todo these changes within yourself
.
You have to be willing to makebig changes in how you process
what happened in your lifebefore, how you are going to
choose to show up today.
(17:59):
You might need to really lookat how you're participating in
your family, how you participatein a job where you are in your
mental thought process, howyou're taking care of your body.
You start to look at how youcan improve yourself in.
The great departure includes thebeing the seeker, looking at
(18:22):
what are you watching, what doyou listen to, what kinds of
words are you using, whatthoughts do you have?
You're departing from how youused to be, how you used to show
up, how you used to be attachedto your image or who you think
you are in the world.
And then you come to the nextstage, which is the tasks and
(18:45):
the tests.
Now this is here.
We are this far into thepodcast, and this is the piece I
really wanted to talk about,which is when I first heard this
, I thought what do you mean?
There's tests after you havethis awakening.
You have this awakening, andshouldn't it just be easier then
?
And this is where I really hadan epiphany around this
(19:10):
continued journey that I'mhaving with the people in my
life, in my spiritualdevelopment is, if I continue to
see the relationships in mylife as difficult and I continue
to bump up against them as if Iwant them to be different, I'm
coming back to the beginning.
It's like I'm bringing myselfback to a place where I need to
(19:35):
be in the great departure again.
I need to remember that I wantto be awake.
I need to remember that I needto let go of what I want to
control.
I have to let go of control.
But when we're in the tasks,when we're in the testing phase
of it, we begin to see that thisis actually where the rubber
(19:57):
hits the road.
This is actually where thehealing truly takes place, to
allow us to integrate these newways of being, these new beliefs
, this new phase of our life,this new development and to
actually be able to live it, tobe it, to have the true, true
(20:18):
changes that are happeningwithin us.
So, going into Alex's visit acouple weekends ago that you
heard his lovely podcast lastweek he and his girlfriend
showed up for a 420 concert,which happened to be in Denver.
So they're getting to spendtime with family, so that was
enjoyable, but the whole reasonthat they came was because they
(20:39):
wanted to come to a concert thatcelebrates pot right, that's
around 420.
And I had the same situationthat I had the last time Bodhi
came, that I talked about, whichI am doing this work, people,
friends, I'm doing this work sohard and I still get hit every
(21:02):
single time with expectation.
I still get hit with thismoment where I realize that in
my mind I'm creating how Ienvision it being, even though I
was totally relaxed and eventhough I just said this is his
trip and they're staying in ourhouse.
If we get to see them, thenthat would be great, but if we
(21:23):
can't see them, that will befine, I'll just be open.
And what I realized is I openedmy schedule and then I just
waited, and then I just waitedfor my turn, and in that turn of
waiting, I found expectation,and it caught me by surprise
(21:45):
because I didn't think that Iwas doing that.
I thought I was reallyconsciously not doing that, and
so when I heard Alberto talkingabout this concept of the tasks,
it made me realize that this isthe part of all the stories the
hero's journey stories, all themythology, all of the things
(22:06):
that we love in terms of moviesand good books where there's
hardship that happens.
That is there to show you yourstrength and the hardship can be
really hard and in some casesit doesn't even have to be that
hard.
It just is emotionally hittingus in a way where we go, ah wow,
(22:28):
there it is, there's the test,there's the task.
Can you say that your son'sgoing to come into town and you
are going to be grateful if youget any time, but truly not have
any expectations of what youthink it's going to look like,
how much time you think you'regoing to have, what you think
that you're going to do?
(22:48):
But I watched myself not haveexpectations of him so much, but
expectations of me and how Iwanted the house set up, how I
wanted to have activities readyif they wanted to do activities.
I watched myself jump intothose old patterns of pleasing
(23:09):
my son and making him happy andI was so grateful to have the
chance to see it because I'mstill working on it.
And if we don't have thesetests, then we can't actually
move into the illumination, wecan't move into being
spiritually awake, because wewon't have actually done the
(23:33):
work that it takes to practicethese principles in all of our
affairs.
And they had a fabulous weekendand we actually had a fabulous
weekend together.
But in the middle of it, justlike when Bodhi came, I caught
myself having all these emotionsthat weren't about them.
(23:55):
It was about me.
It was about me and how I showup for myself and what my
relationships are in my head, ofhow I see it, of how I'm
putting it out there, of what Iwould like it to look like.
And while it's all happening,it's actually happening just
fine.
It's good, people are happy,we're enjoying dinners, we're
(24:21):
enjoying conversation, we'refinding things to do.
We were arguing a little bitabout what to watch on
television, because I won'twatch violence, but we found
something to watch on TVtogether and then including
asking if he would do a podcastand him saying, yeah, if it
works out time-wise.
We'll see if it does, and mejust letting it go and me just
(24:50):
letting it go.
But when I looked at thisconcept of how resistant we are
to having difficulty in ourlives, having any feelings that
feel crunchy or any feelingsthat are pushing our buttons,
and we switch it and we look atit as being one of the stages of
illumination switch it and welook at it as being one of the
stages of illumination.
You have this opportunity tocompletely change how you show
up in it, and it has helped mein the last couple of weeks in
(25:11):
terms of dealing with Rich thatwe've had all these projects
happening at the house toremodel the bathroom and then
get them done before Alex cameinto town which, by the way, he
was still hooking up the showerhead and the sink on the day
that he was supposed to arriveand I found myself having to do
(25:32):
some spiritual work and do theserenity prayer and remind
myself to just let it go and itwill be whatever it will be.
But our house is kind of turnedupside down right now and when
I think about it as part of myspiritual process, that this is
a stage of initiation is to bein this test.
(25:54):
Instead of wanting it all to beperfect, I realized that it's a
gift to be able to be in it andthis process of coming back to
soul recovery, of looking at itfrom the eyes of love, the eyes
of expansion, the eyes of spirit, letting go of control,
(26:15):
realizing you're powerless overeverything outside of yourself
and being present with what is,and coming back to this moment
right here.
How am I in this moment righthere?
Am I okay?
Right here, right now?
And the answer is almost alwaysyes.
In this moment, in my body, I'mokay.
It might feel overwhelming andout of control outside of myself
(26:40):
, but I'm actually okay and Iget to choose how I'm going to
interact with that.
And I take a deep breath and Icome back to my center and I
come back to right now andsomething beautiful happens.
I realized that was the test,that was the part of me that's
(27:00):
learning how to change the way Ifeel and interact with each of
these situations and it isliterally changing your brain
structure.
It is literally changing howyour neurons work for the better
.
This is the illuminationprocess, this is the healing
process, this is the movingtowards the sage and the spirit
(27:22):
process.
This is leaving the ego andfear behind.
It took this little moment ofhearing somebody say you get
this spiritual juiciness andthen you move into the tests To
remind me to love my human life,to not get so caught up in
(27:46):
wanting to be a spiritual beingthat I forget to enjoy being
human.
It's a choice that we can makeabout whether we're going to
resist it and be pissed orwhether we're going to open to
it and be curious and askourselves how we attend to
(28:06):
ourselves.
What is our piece in it?
How can we see it differently?
Where can we draw boundariesthat are healthy?
How can I make sure that I'mokay here, not expecting anybody
else to be different, but forme to look at myself, and
sometimes it means that you haveto make difficult choices.
Sometimes it means you have towalk away from things, but
(28:29):
you're always choosing yourself,your expansion, your healing.
And in the end, as always, whenmy kids leave, my heart just is
full and I loved the interviewthat I had with Alex in the
podcast because he was being him.
(28:49):
They had smoked a big jointbefore they came into the studio
and I watched him as a man, asexactly who he is being okay and
his life does not look likewhat I thought that it was going
to look like when I decided tohave kids, but it's his life and
you know what he's doing justfine, and sometimes that means
(29:13):
that there's a little bit oftrial and tribulation, but isn't
life like that?
But if we see it as part of theillumination process instead of
as hardship, it will be andfeel and be experienced
differently.
So, as I do that for myself,I'm going to be reminded that
they need to go through theirinitiations, to move through
(29:35):
each segment of their life, toallow themselves to build their
personalities, to be in thosespaces, and that spiritual
growth will happen for them whenthey're ready.
It will look like what it'sgoing to look like for them and
I'm going to continue to work onwhat it looks like for me
because that's the only place Ihave control anyway.
(29:56):
So I'm going to empower myselfto have my own experience.
So I'm going to empower myselfto have my own experience and
through that I'm going to bepresent in every scenario in my
life, from this place ofexpansion and curiosity and
wholeness and connection to myhigher power.
And, as always, if you want helpwith this, you can either work
(30:17):
with me directly in one-on-onecoaching, and I now have the new
work, the steps on your ownprogram, being rolled out on the
website for only $97.
You can do a module.
The first step is out and readyto go.
I want to support you on yoursoul recovery journey so that
you, too, can be moving along inthis initiation of who you are,
(30:39):
to be your fullest expressionof self.
You were brought here onpurpose.
You were brought here to beyour true, happy self, with
gifts that are uniquely yours.
I want to be here to supportyou in whatever way I can to see
it as the way you choose, tosee it out of love, out of
(31:01):
compassion, and to show up inyour best self, the one that is
just uniquely you, and to let goof all the stickiness that's
underneath and to be able to bein this process of spiritual
growth and to see the trials andtribulations from a new
perspective.
(31:22):
Until next time, namaste, thankyou for listening to the
Recover your Soul podcast and ifyou loved what you heard here,
every Friday we have a bonusepisode and you can access this
by becoming a subscriber throughApple podcasts for only $3.99 a
(31:42):
month, or become a Patreonmember and on this platform you
can choose $5, $15, or $25 amonth to show what you want to
support the show with.
On both of these subscriberplatforms is an entire catalog
of back episodes intended toinspire and support you on your
soul recovery journey.
(32:02):
I really want to inviteeverybody to attend the free
once a month, every first Mondayof the month, support group.
This is on zoom.
Everyone is welcome to attendand by giving a like or a review
and sharing this with yourfriends and family really helps
us to share the soul recoverymessage with even more people.
We are on social media.
(32:23):
We are on all the platforms.
I am on TikTok.
You can listen to GuidedMeditations by Rev Rachel
Harrison on Insight Timer.
Thank you for supporting theshow.
Thank you for being part of thecommunity.
To find out more about soulrecovery and everything that's
being offered, visit the websitewwwrecoveryoursoulnet.
Together, we can do the workthat will recover your soul.
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