Searching for Sanity with Marcy Westcott

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:13):
Welcome to Inspired Living with Mark Lainhart, the Intuitive Prospector.
Every Wednesday, Mark, along with his special guests, will explore
thought provoking topics and ideas that promote creativity, self help, healing,
happiness and well being to inspire you on your spiritual journey.
Each week, Mark will discuss different paths to achieving a

(00:34):
more spiritual, balanced, happy, and healthy lifestyle. Topics will elevate
consciousness and range from metaphysics, to the human and social
experience and all things spiritual. Welcome to an inspired community
that offers support, encouragement, and new ways of thinking. Mark
is a tested, certified and professional spiritual medium, metaphysical teacher, healer,

(00:56):
and spiritual advisor with a spiritual practice based in Seattle Way, Washington.
You are the inspired and the inspiration, and.

Speaker 2 (01:08):
Good morning, good afternoon, or good evening, wherever you may
be in this beautiful planet of ours. You are the
inspired and the inspiration. So let's be inspired, Let's inspire others,
and let's inspire before we expire. Here on another inspiring
episode of Inspired Living, where every moment is an opportunity
to ignite your passion and curiosities and embrace the many

(01:28):
mysteries phenomenons, the unknown, the ordinary, and yes, the extraordinary.
I am your host, Mark Laineheart, the intuitive Prospector, here
with you yet again for what I like to call
soul adventures in an inspiring episode to explore, discuss, and
discover the many diamonds within each and every one of
us and the many hidden gems have yet to be
revealed to us and the rest of the world. I'm

(01:51):
thrilled to have you join us today as we embark
on a journey of inspiration, motivation, and of course, transformation.
Whether you're tuning in from the comfort of your home,
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(02:11):
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and make a positive impact on their respective fields and
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how small, and together, yes again, together, we can cultivate
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(02:31):
and Inspired listeners can expect engaging discussions, thought provoking questions,
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Speaker 3 (02:48):
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Speaker 3 (03:47):
So let's go prospecting together, shall we?

Speaker 2 (03:50):
So today, for the first time, we have a guest
joined in us. She is an author in a still
state meditation and mindfulness instructor. Her name is Miss Marcy Westcott,
and she talks about not only meditation and mindfulness, but
how to journey and navigate this where we seem to
find ourselves. In a little bit more about Marcy, she,

(04:11):
like I said, she's a meditation and mindfulness teacher, authors, speaker,
and retreat leader who helps people find the calm, the clarity,
and the resilience in the midst of life storms. So
if you're listening to this episode, you found the right
episode if you're in the myths of life storms and
looking for a little calm and clarity. Her journey into
mindfulness began not in a monastery, but through navigating personal crisis,

(04:32):
where she discovered mindfulness as both survival and transformative. For
more than eight years, she has guided professionals, wisdom and
spiritual seekers and everyday people to reconnect with their inner
wisdom through accessible practices that bridge science in spirit and
they do go hand in hand. Spirituality and science go
hand in hand, and I couldn't agree more. She is

(04:53):
the author Searching for Sanity, How I Overcame Crisis with
Mindfulness and How You Can Too, and the book has
been praised for making mindfulness practical and relatable, and the
creator of retreats like Soul Legacy, where participants can step
away from their daily demands to realign with what truly matters.
She's a twenty twenty three NAWBO Women Business Owner of

(05:18):
the Year finalists and she is the winner of the
NAWBO twenty twenty five Inspiring Woman of the Year Award,
So congratulations on that.

Speaker 3 (05:26):
We're happy to have her on the show today.

Speaker 2 (05:28):
And at the heart of work is her core belief
that anyone can simply sit down, close her eyes, and
in the stillness, access their true inner nature, finding presence, compassion,
and courage along the way.

Speaker 3 (05:43):
If you want to.

Speaker 2 (05:43):
Learn more about Marcy and her journey and what we're
talking about today, you can visit all of our social
media sites.

Speaker 3 (05:48):
You can also go to her main.

Speaker 2 (05:49):
Website, the still Statemeditation dot com. And with that, Marcy,
welcome to Inspired Livin. Thanks for being with us today.

Speaker 4 (05:58):
Thank you so much. Mark, it's a pleasure to be
with you.

Speaker 3 (06:02):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (06:02):
So, first and foremost, congratulations on the NAWBO Women Business
Owner of the Year finalist and Inspiring Women of the
Year work. So that's always nice to be recognized for
your work because sometimes it can be a lonely journey.
You're doing this and you know you've found the answers,
but then being recognized for your your book or your
accomplishments your journey, I think is very important because it

(06:23):
shows us that we're all on the right track and
that we are changing lives, even if we're changing one life.

Speaker 3 (06:27):
At a time, not the entire world.

Speaker 4 (06:29):
Right, So congratulations, well, thank you very much. I appreciate that.

Speaker 2 (06:34):
So tell us just you know, introduce yourself to the
Inspired listening audience around the globe. We got people tuning
in from all around the world, So give us some
insight about who you are and why you do and
maybe that storm that you went through that people can
relate to to where you started looking into the stillness
and silence, or as I like to say, just being
a human being.

Speaker 4 (06:54):
Yeah, well, thank you. You know, it was honestly, I
call it divine intervention. True believe that with every fell
in me, I I discovered meditation. I think it was
always in the works. It was something that I was
meant to, you know, self actualize. It was really a

(07:16):
process of self actualization. And I can remember as even
a young girl being, you know, questioning things that you know,
maybe the average eight or nine year old doesn't question.
And it wasn't until almost the third chapter of my
life that that self actualization actually took place. It's always

(07:40):
interesting to me how things happen on the universe's timetable,
not ours, right, It manifests on the university's time table,
you know. And so you know, one of the one
of the roles of manifestation is to plant the seed
and then get out of the way and let the
university works. And again it's not always on our timetable.

(08:03):
But I had a big corporate career, twenty year corporate
career that absolutely was everything that you would you know, expect,
being on the fast track. It was really back at
a time when the me too movement wasn't even a
blip on anybody's radar, and so I was in a

(08:26):
very toxic type of work culture. I was in the
top ten percent of performers in my industry, and I
made an incredible income, but I worked seventy hours a week.
I had one day off a week usually I didn't
get to take that. And in twenty years, I had
you know, two weeks of vacation a year, but I

(08:48):
was never able to take it back to back. And
you know, like like I said, the workplace culture was
really toxic. After about fifteen years, you know, working at
that kind of pace and that kind of ironment, my
health started to suffer. I developed high blood pressure, insomnia,
digestive issues, and at one point I was taking medication

(09:09):
for anxiety. All of that was the result of not
being able to you know, manage the stress and the
pressure in my job. And so one day, I, when
you're eighteen, I had a major medical crisis come literally
out of left field. It was, you know, absolutely just

(09:31):
something that rocked my world. And you know, we know
that attitude is a contagion, right, so when we are
experiencing a lot of disruptive emotions and that kind of
thing that's contagious to the to the folks around us.
So trying to navigate that first medical crisis was really

(09:52):
really traumatic. And it's not only was I was suffering
because of it, that so were you know, the people
around me. And so fortunately it resolved, you know, it
was kind of the best of what a bad situation
could be. But after that and after the recovery, you know,
my husband and I really realized that there was so

(10:14):
much more to life, and uh, you know, we were
really missing out. So we decided to make a major change.
We came to central Texas in the hill country where
we live, and we went from the big city and
the home and the fancy subdivision and having all the
trappings you know that go with that, and then absolutely

(10:36):
going to the complete opposite. We built a very small,
modest home right in the middle of nature, you know,
no neighbors really around us, and it was quite quite
a change of pace, so to speak, and that really
started the journey to me realizing why I was here,

(10:59):
what I was apt to do, and then putting that
into action.

Speaker 2 (11:07):
And you said the sea word the corporate world definitely
can relate to that.

Speaker 3 (11:12):
I used the F word.

Speaker 2 (11:13):
I used to work for the federal government for many
years and I just recently retired, retired this last year.
So the F word or the sea word two things
that really can jeopardize your health. And I love that
you had the awareness, because awareness is the greatest station
for change, right, Marcia, And you have the awareness to say,
you know what, I can't do this grind And you know,
if you think about it, we're the only species that

(11:34):
pays to live here. And you know, one of the
one of the quotes that's actually come into my mind
is we're having this discussion about health because without your health,
money is worthless, right. And I know the Dalai Lama
talked all the time about you know man because he
sacrifices his health in order to make money. Then he
sacrifices his money to recuperate his health, and then he's
so anxious about the future that he does not enjoy

(11:56):
the present, the result being that he does not live
in the present or the future.

Speaker 3 (12:00):
He lives as if he's.

Speaker 2 (12:02):
Never going to die, and then dies haven it never
really lived, Right, That's the Dalai Lama that reminds us.
And so you know, for the listeners out there, you know,
think about your job. Are you working in a toxic environment?
Is it having an impact on your health? Because the
word disease, if you break it down, disease, we get
disconnected from ourselves. And that's where we get into everything

(12:24):
that you just described and that you had the courage too, right.
I think it takes courage and awareness to walk away
from that high pay paycheck that we get, right.

Speaker 3 (12:35):
But at the end of the day, we don't.

Speaker 2 (12:37):
Can take anything that we work so hard to accomplish.
We don't get to take that with us, right. And
you know, I've learned about the corporate world and the
federal government. You're easily replaced within thirty days. If something happens,
you go over and make your transition to the other side.
They have your position posted within thirty days. And it's
it's just a grinder. It's a meat grinder, right, And
so I commend you for having the leadership and the
awareness and the courage to make that leap of faith

(12:59):
because that's not easy to do. And most importantly, I
love that you got back to nature. You said, where
about in Texas are you?

Speaker 4 (13:07):
We are about fifty miles north of San Antonio. We're
kind of right in the middle of San Antonio and Austin,
so we can go about fifty miles either direction and
be in a major, major metropolis. And but you know,
I've always been drawn to nature, even as a child,
and you know, it's well in nature one finds oneself,

(13:30):
right and I definitely, you know, found myself in nature
for sure.

Speaker 3 (13:37):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (13:37):
And it's interesting because even this just this last week,
I do a lot of prospecting my spiritual journey, not
just the podcast, but and I came across an article
that talked about how the bond, which researchers call the
nature connectedness has declined with this generation more than sixty percent.
Most people are not getting back out nature and not connecting,

(13:59):
not getting on walking, you know, staying in their their
house and gaming or you know why streaming whatever, you know,
streaming channel. There's multiple streaming channels now. But it was
interesting study because it says that sixty percent, uh, it
has declined by more than sixty percent. And nature, Nature
is our greatest teacher, and people forget that nature is
our first original home. Nature is the greatest engineer, the inspire,

(14:20):
the healer, you know, and so we wonder, you know, well,
I don't wonder actually know why we have so much
chaos and disease in our way, in our consciousness is
because we've really disconnected to you know, getting back to nature.
You know, the forest makes your heart gentle, you.

Speaker 3 (14:37):
Know, it's you become one with it.

Speaker 2 (14:39):
And so I'm so glad that you found your way
back to nature because that's probably been a big difference
in your health today. Right if we if we did
before and after, we're yet now on your health journey.

Speaker 4 (14:50):
Oh yeah, absolutely, you know it's something that you know,
obviously we talk about interconnectedness so much in meditation than
what that means, you know, and all we have to
do is look to quantum physics to you know, understand that.
And uh so it's something that if we can, you know,
really let go of all of the materialism, you know,

(15:13):
the expression you don't own your stuff, your stuff owns you. Uh,
and that was that was so true for me. Letting
go of all of that was really an incredible experience
of just lightening the load. And uh, you know, from
that point on, once I actually stepped onto the journey

(15:34):
of becoming a meditation teacher, everything everything changed and uh,
insights you know, really understanding why we're here, you know,
what we're meant to do, who we really are. All
of those things are really kind of the core of
my work as a teacher.

Speaker 3 (15:54):
Yeah, so let's let's jump into that.

Speaker 2 (15:56):
Let's go, let's go prospecting for some diamonds there, because
there's a lot to unpawer, you know, for some of
the some of the inspired listeners. You know, I know
some of my you know, subscribers and fans know the
journey of meditation very well, but there might be somebody
listening to this podcast for the first time or years
down the road. How would you define in your definition
as an instructor of meditation, what is the difference between

(16:17):
meditation and mindfulness? So let's start there, just so we
can kind of carve it out for the layman that's
listening to this and has no idea of what meditation
about or what is mindfulness about. What is the difference
between the two of them.

Speaker 4 (16:29):
Well, so here is the definition of meditation. And when
I graduated from my training, I made a vow to
myself that I would always take the opportunity to give
someone the definition because there, you know, there's so many
misconceptions around it. Right at its very core, meditation is
a technique or a practice that settles your nervous system

(16:52):
and trains your brain to become more focused, more engaged,
more responses and less reactive. Now, in essence, that is
what it is. It can be as secular and as
straightforward at one end of the spectrum, as it can
be esoteric, metaphysical and spiritual on the other end, and

(17:12):
it can be anything in between. You know, I feel
like one of the miracles of meditation is that it
really meets us where we are. And when I graduated
from my training, it really felt like because I had,
you know, all of this corporate business background, that I
was meant to, you know, kind of walk that secular path,

(17:33):
and that has proven to be true. But you know,
I'll come back to that in just a moment, because
I really want to make a point here now. The
definition of mindfulness is mindfulness is paying attention to what
you're doing while you're doing it, with a non judgmental attention,
and that simply means without evaluating it or analyzing it.

(17:56):
So we don't decide if we like something or we
don't like it, we want it, or we don't want it.
It's right or it's wrong. It simply is right. And
when we sit down in meditation, meditation and mindfulness merge,
they kind of marry each other. Generally, you will have
something that you're focused on in your meditation, and so
we sit down, we focus on something and we pay

(18:19):
attention to that and we do it without judgment hopefully
hopefully yeah, hopefully.

Speaker 2 (18:28):
Yeah, because that's that's a good one, right, Because who's
the one person we talk to the most in our
life ourselves, right, and we have to have mindfulness of
what kind of conversations are we having with ourselves? Are
we inspiring ourselves, are we self sabotaging ourselves, are we
judging ourselves? Or just as you know, Buddha talked about
letting it go, and you know, so that's I think
that's an important part is the inner voice and what

(18:51):
stories we tell ourselves on this journey of life.

Speaker 3 (18:54):
Right, so they breaking it down?

Speaker 4 (18:59):
Yeah, sure, that absolutely informed informed of my life early on.
You know, I was the queen of negative self talk.
I call it a bad room. I call it the
bad roommate. You know, it's it's that roommate you can't
get rid of right. It has an opinion about everything everyone,

(19:19):
especially you, and it's always weighing in. You can't get
rid of it so often, and it's at the very
least annoying and at the very worst it can be toxic.
And for me, it really became a toxicity that was
informing my life. Fortunately, meditation took bad roommate and turned

(19:42):
it into what I call inner knowing. And that inner
knowing is what your heart and your soul really have
to say in a compassionate, loving kind way, guiding you
toward where you are really meant to be. And we
can sometimes be very surprised by how that all managest.

Speaker 2 (20:06):
Yeah, and you know, for the listeners out there, I
always remind them, you know, you're going to have your
ego until you transfer into what we call death. The
ego is there for a purpose and a reason for
logic and reasoning and can you know, competition and protectiveness.
But you don't have to listen to the voice of
the ego every minute of your life. And I found
through mindfulness and meditation of my own journey, you know

(20:29):
how to become aware of the ego. I teach my
students this all the time, to think of a person, place,
or thing that you just don't like or resonate with
and name your ego. That so at times when you're
you know, for example, when I'm aware of my ego,
I name an egor like in the movie you know,
the Little You Know, Master, Master, you need to do this,
And it's like there's a place and time for ego

(20:51):
and this very difficult journey of life and the chaos
of life. But there's also times stree meditation and mindfulness
that you can address your ego and say, you know what, ego,
just step outside for a few thirty minutes, allow me
just to connect to the human being experience.

Speaker 4 (21:03):
Right.

Speaker 2 (21:03):
So it's a good way of bringing awareness to our ego.
But getting rid of the ego's that's really never gonna happen.
I remember when I started my spiritual journey marsh and
people are like, oh, you got to murder your ego.

Speaker 3 (21:13):
You got to get to read your ego.

Speaker 2 (21:15):
And I've tried for years, but it still at times
comes back, and it's there for a reason in a season,
but it doesn't need to be there every minute of
your life. And so that's a good way to identify
the ego in the human experience. And so for you
as an instructor, what do you feel that meditation, the
role of meditation, how does it play in connecting us

(21:35):
to something larger than ourselves, you know, be it.

Speaker 3 (21:38):
Spirit, source, divine heaven.

Speaker 2 (21:40):
Everybody has a different connotation or name or label for
or no belief at all.

Speaker 3 (21:44):
Right, that's part of the journey. But what role.

Speaker 2 (21:46):
Would you say meditation plays in connecting us to something
bigger than ourselves?

Speaker 4 (21:52):
And I think it once again goes really back to
when I say over and over again when I'm talking
or teaching of people is discovering who you really are,
peeling back the labor, the layers of who we really are.
And so much of what my experience with meditation, particularly

(22:13):
as not even just a teacher, but as a you know,
just a meditator, is that it has really helped me
discover that spiritual aspect of meditation, understanding how we can
savor life more. And I am a big believer in synchronicity.

(22:35):
I'm a big believer in following your intuition. That really
is what inner knowing is, you know, and as women
you men have it too, but as as women, intuition
is one of our superpowers. And if we just treat yeah, well,
if we just treat that as you know what it is.
It's it's your internal guidance system. It's there to guide

(22:58):
you to you know, take you to what you're meant
to do, uh, what you're what you're meant to be.
And if we follow that, you know, it's like the
most powerful GPS you could have in your car. But
this is inside you and when you follow your intuition,
it in my experience, it will never uh never turn
you uh turn you away. It will never you know,

(23:21):
take you to a wrong turn, so to speak. It
it's interesting to me when I listened to one of
your past episodes with Michelle Blood and this is what
this is. Yeah, this is what I really appreciate about.
How meditation has you talked about awareness made me aware

(23:43):
of so many of the things that we might not
see otherwise. You know, as we step onto the path
and we start to evolve, these synchronicities start to come up.
And when I was listening to that episode, it was
just it felt like the universe was kind of tapping
me on the shoulder because you were talking about the

(24:05):
ordinary and the extraordinary. Those are exact words that I
had and experience with the death of my grandmother at
a service. It's something I talk about and teach in
a writing class that I do, And so there was
a synchronicity there when I heard you say that you
talk about soul adventures, and the soul is something that

(24:28):
I spend a lot of time, you know, talking about
with my clients, and I lead a retreat, you know,
called Soul Legacy, and and I teach a writing class
called Soul Synchronicity, And so that that was another I
like to call it following the breadcrumbs, right, It's like

(24:49):
a path of breadcrumbs and if you if you follow them,
they're going to take you someplace extraordinary. And then you
also brought up one of my favorite posts of all time,
and I use it all the time when I'm teaching
from Laosu. You know, at the center of your being,
you have the answers, you know who you are, and
you know what you want. And so it's really peeling

(25:11):
back the layers and discovering what our true inner nature is.
And our true inner nature is peace, love, joy, compassion, gratitude,
and inclusiveness. It's really the difficulties and the challenges of
life that mask that. And you know, something like adopting
the meditation practicing really you know, learning to make that

(25:34):
part of your part of your life will uh with
will absolutely, you know, take you to all of that
what you're you know, what you're, what you're meant to do,
and what's below all of those layers.

Speaker 2 (25:47):
Yeah, as more as I like to say, prospecting for
the diamond within and the many hidden gems that are
all around us. So and you know, for the listeners
out there, everything that Marcy and I are talking about today,
it sounds easy, but it's not always an easy journey.
You know, if it was easy, everybody would be doing this.
That's the one thing that I've learned. And you know,
you talked about synchronicities, which I love Einstein and I'm

(26:07):
paraphrasing here, but he always talked about that the synchronicities
and coincidences of life are God's way of remaining anonymous,
whatever or whoever God is for you, but that bigger
picture of what happens after this journey that we call life,
the physical journey ends, what is the next step? Right,
And meditation can really unmark some of those those doors
and those questions in your higher self.

Speaker 3 (26:28):
So we're going to go to.

Speaker 2 (26:29):
Our break, but when we come back, we're going to
get into talking about the silence the doorway to spiritual
awakening with Marcy Westcott, our.

Speaker 3 (26:36):
Special guest today.

Speaker 2 (26:37):
And I hope that you stick around because we have
some real diamonds to.

Speaker 3 (26:41):
Reveal here in the next part of this episode.

Speaker 2 (26:44):
So stick around. This is Inspired Living, where you are.
The inspired and the inspiration will be back here in
two minutes.

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One planet, seven point three billion people, only one year
life offers us many opportunities and learning experiences. Are you
ready to explore and discover this beautiful planet, the life
and energy all around us, the spiritual world and what
is unseen along with your own personal soul adventure. Mark Lainhart,

(28:09):
the Intuitive Prospector, is the spiritual connection you have been
prospecting for. Internationally known as a tested and professional clairvoyant,
medium and spiritual advisor, Mark's work as a metaphysical teacher,
medical instructor, radio show host, inspirational writer, and hiking guide
are here to help you on a journey of self discovery, healing, inspiration, education,

(28:33):
and a whole lot of spiritual awesomeness. Dare to Dream,
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Eight Prospectors. Welcome back to Inspired Living.

Speaker 2 (29:52):
Carl Sagan famously stated science is not only compatible with spirituality,
it is a profound source of spirituality. And our special
guest today, Marcy Westcott, is taking us through the journey
of meditation and mindfulness. She is the author of Searching
for Sanity, How I Overcame Crisis with Mindfulness, and How

(30:13):
You Can Too. She's a meditation and and mindfulness teacher, author, speaker,
and retreat leader. If you want to learn more about
our guest today, you can go again to all of
our social media platforms and you can go to the
main website, the still statemeditation dot com. So, Marcy, welcome back.
Let's talk about this stillness because I love you know
the quotes from Roomy or Laos Sue. The more silent

(30:36):
still you become, the more you will actually start to hear.
And that took me years to identify that. But how
can silence and meditation from your perspective as a certified instructor,
how can that become a doorway to the spiritual awakening
for those that are either just starting the journey of awakening,
those that are still dormant, plugged into the matrix, or

(30:56):
those that have been on this journey like myself for
several years now.

Speaker 4 (31:00):
Yeah, you know, you brought up that quote and it
reminds me of one of that I use all the
time in my teaching, and that's silence isn't empty, it's
full of answers. And so when we sit down in
meditation and we begin to let all of the chatter,
all of the you know, the wild horses that our

(31:21):
thoughts are, Yeah, monkeys. I'm a I'm a horse person,
and so I always related to heard of wild horses
that we're trying to rein in right. But it's it's
something that you can finally begin to hear that that
little whisper of your intuition or inner knowing. And I

(31:44):
know that it has been it's been remarkable for me.
You know, it all starts to kind of come together,
It all starts to kind of meet in the center.
Just being connected to nature, listening to our inner knowing,
that inner wisdom, all of the noise from the outside
world when we when we sit down and we close

(32:06):
our eyes, the outside world takes a back seat and
we become more familiar with this internal landscape that we have.
And you know, I in my practice and actually in training,
I had had something called a peak experience. I'm sure
you're very familiar with peak experiences in your work, and

(32:29):
and that was something that was truly remarkable for me
because you know, you've heard the expression, you know, silence
can be deafening. Well, it absolutely can can go to
another level. I had a peak experience in nature on
a reserve that kind of a sanctuary, and I became

(32:52):
I was standing in front of a small lake and
it was absolutely stunning. It was like a you know,
something that just fell out of a coffee table book.
And it struck me suddenly that the silence was not
just in the absence of sound. It was a sensation

(33:13):
that I could start to feel in my body. It sounds,
I know, wild for you know, someone who maybe hasn't
had yet there is before yet. But I noticed that,
you know, I there was no sound the wind in
the trees. I could see the leaves moving, but there
wasn't any sound there. The birds weren't singing, the sun

(33:34):
was shining is the gorgeous day. And suddenly, from the
bottoms of my feet, I started to feel this vibration
and it grew stronger and stronger. It started to rise
up through me. And when it reached about you know,
I would say shoulder shoulder height, I was. I could
feel myself connected, literal, physically connected, spiritually connected to everything

(33:58):
around me, and I didn't know what had happened. I thought,
what is going on? You know? And then in talking
with my teacher about it, it was a peak experience
and people have those, you know. The more the more
connected you become to your inner knowing and to nature,
the more these experiences will will begin to exhibit themselves.

(34:21):
And you know, in my experience, it is as real
as you and I sitting here right now talking.

Speaker 3 (34:29):
Yeah. No, that's a great perspective, and thank you for
sharing that. Now. You use the word intuition a couple
of times, and I love the word. I love how
we use.

Speaker 2 (34:37):
Words in our in our modern day vocabulary. But I
you know, for the listeners out there, you paid tuition
to go invest in something, you know, whether it's a
trade school or a college school. We call that tuition,
and then you have this thing called intuition, which is
a Latin It actually comes from the Latin word in tuito,
which means contemplation, which is derived from the Latin verb

(35:00):
meaning a gaze.

Speaker 3 (35:01):
At or to look at.

Speaker 2 (35:02):
So in a sense, if you can, I always remind
my clients and my students, if you take the time
to disconnect again from societies, from social media, from the
news outlet, from all the chaos of the world. If
you take the time to disconnect and you make the
time to reconnect, that intuition of investing in yourself will
start to unlock doors the higher voice, the higher self,

(35:24):
that that event that you just described, sitting in that stillness,
in that silence, because people don't realize from a spiritual
science standpoint, we'll kind of shift a little bit into
the science aspect. When you're moving, the brain actually becomes
quite dormant. But if you can sit still, and I
go back to my childhood when you know, because I

(35:45):
was a pretty active child and my mom would say,
sit on your hand, sit still, and we found that
to be very hard to do, very disruptive. But when
we move into the stillness, the conscious brain is not
as active. It actually starts to fire on a different level,
just based on you know, illness, like the same as sleep.
When we go to sleep, the mind is more active
awake or I'm more active asleep than it is in

(36:06):
the wake.

Speaker 3 (36:06):
What we're what we're doing.

Speaker 2 (36:07):
Right now, and so you know, it's it's the word
was first intuition was first recorded, I believe in the
mid fifteenth century. But it's you know, it's a direct,
immediate knowledge to your spiritual perception. So for the listeners
out there, take that time to disconnect, so you can
make that time to reconnect through your intuition, and you'll
be surprised at some of the things that actually unfold

(36:31):
through the stillness, through the.

Speaker 3 (36:34):
Silence.

Speaker 2 (36:34):
This and maybe just not talking so much in life,
right and maybe listening more so.

Speaker 4 (36:42):
Absolutely, And I think if I could just you know,
kind of detail on that. I think that one of
the one of the gifts of meditation is how it
can help us learn to be self compassionate, to understand
that we have to be gentled with ourselves. And it's
interesting because intuition, you know, I mentioned that that voice,

(37:04):
that inner knowing is like an internal guidance system, like
a GPS in your car. Well, when we talk about
we can talk we could talk about it as a compass. Right,
Your intuition steers you to where you're supposed to be. Uh,
it's there to guide you and to help you. And
if you think about the word compass, those are the

(37:24):
six first six letters in the word compassion. So those
two things that interesting. Yeah, yeah, you know you were
talking about and you were talking about, you know, silence.
Einstein was He's Einstein is my guy, right, he was
really one of our most mindful geniuses. And he said,

(37:49):
you know, I think ninety nine times and find nothing.
I stopped thinking, swim and silence and the answer comes
to me. And that has just been through over and
over again. And for my clients.

Speaker 2 (38:03):
Yeah, and I love Einstein's story too, because he did
not come from academia.

Speaker 3 (38:07):
He actually was a patent clerk.

Speaker 2 (38:08):
He came from very humble beginnings and started to write papers,
you know, like the theory of relativity, and he started
to disrupt the status quo of you know, the elites
and the academias, and who is this guy? Who's this Einstein?
I don't know if he was from here a different timeline,
I don't know. I'm not convinced. But you know, there
are people like him. There are people like da Vinci,
there's people like Newton, there's people like Nikola Tesla. They

(38:32):
all connected to something you know that the modern day
society doesn't connect into it. And you know, some of
their theories and hypothesis have now come to pass, especially
with Einstein. Things he was predicting sixty seventy eighty years
ago is now in today's technology being confirmed through scientific method,
through mathematics.

Speaker 3 (38:51):
So he was tuning in.

Speaker 2 (38:52):
So there's a lot of information to be gleaned if
you take the time. But a lot of us don't
take the time to disconnect. We're going like you and
the corporate world, and you know, family and your career
and marriage and mortgages and children and you know, and
just it's almost like drinking from a fire hose. And
so it's really important. And again I come back to nature.
Nature is my my religion. Nature is my church. Nature

(39:14):
helps us get to that place of just taking that
nice deep breath, that nice ah moment, right and you know,
real quick on the shirts, you know, speaking with silence.
I've been working with plant medicines at a very deep
level since my retirement from the f word, the federal.

Speaker 3 (39:29):
Government, and I had a moment. I had a moment.

Speaker 2 (39:33):
Working with the plant medicines that they removed into a
during the ceremony, removed into what they called the sacred silenceness.
And Marcy, I'll tell you it was so silent, it
was deafening. That probably doesn't make sense to the listeners,
but we were sitting in the silence, in the sacred silence,
with the intention of being into an intuition, sitting in

(39:54):
the silence, and it was literally deafening. It was like
I was at this concert of just loud stillness, and
but it was absolutely like it was one of those
moments you were just describing.

Speaker 3 (40:03):
For me, It was one of those moments to be like,
oh there, how can how can silence be so definite? Well,
if you apply the right tools and the right awareness.

Speaker 4 (40:13):
Yes, and you know you brought up Sorry, I didn't
mean to step on your words. I've pologized. You know
you brought up you brought up hidden gems right. Another
another synchronicity in your in your intro that I heard
when I was listening to that podcast I do a
talk on. I call them the hidden gems of meditation. Now,

(40:36):
we know that most you know, ninety percent of people
come to meditation for three things, stress, anxiety, and sleep.
And those are three of the most important reasons you
could ever come to meditation. But there are one hundred
and thirty eight other research empirical reviewed benefits to meditation,
one of which is creativity. And that is something that

(40:59):
I am really working with. You know, at this point
in my in my teaching career, we talked about Einstein
and you know, uh, Beethoven would go for a walk,
Pablo Picasso would take a bath, Leonardo da Vinci would
just kind of go away, and Albert Einstein would stopped

(41:19):
thinking and swim in silence. Now, what all of those
creative geniuses had in common is they were relying. They
were using mindfulness to spark their creativity. And I can
tell you now, after all my years of meditating, when
I sit down, I can become wildly creative in meditation.

(41:41):
Now I know what to do with those thoughts. Right.
That's part of what we will learn when we are
becoming a meditator. And what I've come to realize is
if something that's that creative spark or that idea is
supposed to stay with me, I'll remember it outside of medication.
If not, it's probably going to show up at someone
point in time. But the whole theory around creativity is

(42:06):
really becoming fascinating with me because it is an energy
like gravity. And when you you know, there's probably a
lot of people have had the experience where you have
a great idea about something right, but you don't act
on it right away, and maybe you know, we go
by and you still haven't put that great idea into play.

(42:28):
Before you know it, months have gone by, and then
suddenly one day you see someone who has put that
idea that you had out into the world and you think, oh,
you know, why didn't I do that? Well, creativity is
just looking for a host to express itself. And so
if we don't we don't seize that and you know,

(42:52):
take that and act on it, uh, we're going to
lose it and it's going to go somewhere else and
you know, manifest in someone else. And so I think
that whole, that whole kind of that's very metaphysical, right,
sounds very esoteric, but I have experienced that over and
over again.

Speaker 3 (43:11):
Yeah, myself as well. And you know that it goes one.

Speaker 2 (43:14):
It goes back to that inner voice too, that we
were talking about earlier the show that you know, you've
got to learn to control the best you can, round
up the horses, round up the monkeys. But that inner
voice keeps people from you know, stepping off the you know,
stepping off the ledge that that that leap of faith
if you will, to have the courage to learn how
to fly. And so for listeners out there, it's a reminder,

(43:34):
what are you telling yourself? And that may be holding
you back from the dreams that are just right on
the cusp of being discovered, but you're holding yourself back
through the ego, through the self sabotage.

Speaker 3 (43:45):
So you know, anytime there's a fear based energy.

Speaker 2 (43:48):
I always remind my listeners fear is false evidence appearing real.
So you might as well face everything and rise and
see what. You know, what happens, because you're right if
it doesn't, if you don't take action, if you don't
seize the day, right carp DM If not now when,
if you don't seize on that, then the consciousness and
the knowledge will go to somebody else and you'd be like,
you know, why didn't I create Amazon? Why did I

(44:09):
create Microsoft? Why didn't I create the Internet?

Speaker 3 (44:11):
Why did you know? All these things?

Speaker 2 (44:13):
But at the end of the day, it's not about
the money, It's about the journey because these concepts that
we're talking about today.

Speaker 3 (44:20):
You know, these aren't new concepts.

Speaker 2 (44:22):
These aren't ancient philosophies and modalities that have been practiced
for centuries. And I think we've just become more distracted
with our technology and you know, things that are keeping
us away from tuning in. So again, take that time
to disconnect so you can make that time to reconnect.
So for the listeners out there, you know, how do
you in times of crisis?

Speaker 3 (44:45):
Because I came to meditation through my college.

Speaker 2 (44:47):
Actually I was actually taking a sports medicine course and visualization,
meditation and manifestation for the professional athlete had nothing to
do with what I do today. But I was also
in a period of crisis and severe grief and suffering,
which I I called today the trauma strategies that really
changed my life. But for our listeners out there, from
your perspective as an instructor, how can meditation open us

(45:08):
up to us a deeper sense of trust in life's unfolding?
Because it is the word trust. You can do and
you cannot do. As you had to remind us there
do or do not? There is no try, right, But
how can we try unfold through the meditation process of
what you know as a mindfulness and meditation teacher.

Speaker 4 (45:26):
Well, here's what happened for me. You know, after I
burned out of my career and we came to Texas
and I immersed myself in nature, it became apparent that
I was really still suffering from all of the stress
and the anxiety that I had accumulated over that twenty
year career. And one day I went to town to

(45:47):
see that's what you do when you live in a
small town, right, and you live in the country, you
go into town. So I went in again to see
a friend of mine and she said, Hey, there's a
new yoga teacher in town. Let's go were a class. Now.
The town I live in, Blanco, is a very small town.
We were about fifteen hundred people at that point in time,
and when there is a new yoga teacher in town,

(46:09):
it is breaking news. And it wasn't just you know,
it wasn't just you know, your regular yoga class. It
was Kundalini yoga, which is even more you know, esoteric, right,
And so I didn't really like yoga at the time.
I didn't really want to do it, but she really

(46:30):
wanted to go, and I wanted to support her, so
I said, okay, we'll go. We went the next night
and I meditated for the first time, and the doors
blew open for me. It was the most profound experience
I had ever had, and it felt like someone had
lifted a thousand pounds of weight off of me that
I had been carrying around for all those years. Interestingly enough,

(46:51):
and this is something that is fascinating. You know, people
are conduits for us, right. This is one of my
closest best friends. She was the conduit for me stepping
on to the path of meditation. We went to that
yoga class that night. I kept going back. I didn't
miss a single class in about three years. She went

(47:12):
a couple of times and then never went back. That
class was not for her, it was for me. She
was the conduit. And so you know, I started practicing
every day and within about eight weeks all of my
physical ailments had resolved. And you know, that was really

(47:34):
the beginning of you know, the self actualization so well.

Speaker 2 (47:41):
And I love how you said, from your perspective, from
your opinion, and that's what I tell my lay listeners
in my students all the time, is like I can
offer you my perspective and my experience, like you know,
for example, working with plant medicines, but until you actually
step up in the plate and experience it for yourself,
you could always say you can lead a human to knowledge,
but you can't make them think. There's still that free
will and choice and applies that you had to, you know,

(48:04):
and I'm glad that you found that. Kundalini. We've had
conversations on the show about Cundalini and have you know,
have guests talk about you know, the experience of cundalini
and the energy and the frequency of the vibration of
working through movement, right, the movement of the body. But
you know, when you get into meditation and the Buddha
reminds us too that this is a mental development and
you you.

Speaker 3 (48:23):
Know, use it or lose it. It's with anything.

Speaker 2 (48:24):
If you can't get into a disciplinary, dedicated program to meditate,
you're not going to go deeper into what Marcy and
I are talking about today. So it becomes a daily
meditated practice to also get into that stillness in that silence.
Would you agree with that as far as just the
discipline and the dedication to do it, Yeah, I.

Speaker 4 (48:43):
Would absolutely agree with that one hundred percent. And you
know what motivated me to write my book was in
twenty three I had a series of crises back to
back to back, three different crises, all separated power three
three and a half weeks, and had yet right, exactly right,

(49:04):
there's another you know there there are no coincidences, another synchronicity,
and one of those one of those crises was the
return of that major medical crisis that had had twenty
twenty years before this time. It was much much more
worse much more serious. And had I not had my

(49:25):
meditation practice, there's no question I probably would have had
a nervous breakdown. But it was three hundred and sixty
degrees different from the first time because I had the tools,
I had my my practice to turn to. And so
this is what really motivated me to write a book.
You know, so many people go through day to day

(49:47):
you know, life, not managing the just the normal stress
of that we all encounter when a crisis comes in
from out of left field. You know, we're completely unprepared.
So having had that experience and having had those practices
to turn to, it can absolutely change, you know everything.

(50:09):
I meditated, Uh you know, in an ambulance on the
way to the hospital, I meditated, in in an MRI machine.
I meditated as I was stilling into surgery. And you know,
I my mantra was trust, gratitude, acceptance, and compassion. And
I repeated that over and over and over again and

(50:29):
just tuned it into that. And you know, thanks to
inner knowing and thanks to the power of the practice. Uh,
it it changed everything. Uh for how how those those
experiences landed. And I think, you know, I think that
that is really the message that I won't would want to,

(50:49):
you know, leave with with your listeners is you know
we have the power inside us to heal ourselves. We can't,
we can't. Oh, we can't emphasize it. No, it's it's
a gift. And if we can just tune into that,
we can really overcome anything.

Speaker 2 (51:08):
Yeah, well said, and yeah, we're born into life and
life is going to be stressful just at its root.
Cause life is stressful and having those tools, like you said,
is very important. But you had to again through your
free will and choice, you had to show up to
the kundalinioga class. You had to start a dedicated practice
day to get better at those tools.

Speaker 3 (51:26):
Right.

Speaker 2 (51:26):
It's it's the universal law. What you know, use it
or lose it. What you put in you get out.
It's that same you know construct and you know, for
the listeners out there, you know, it's a reminder that
you do have that Marcy's talking about today. You do
have that power, So be careful for what you ask
for because you know, transformation is not always an easy pathway.
You know, I always think about the caterpillar to the

(51:47):
butterfly scenario and the spiritual practice. The caterpillar literally deliquifies
into a big sack of protein dow and what the
caterpillar calls, Oh my god, this is the end of
the world because now I'm just a goose state I
don't know. And then it mores through the cocoon into
the beautiful butterfly, which gives you a whole different perspective.
So you know, I found, you know, even just in

(52:10):
my own journey, and I've been doing this for a while.

Speaker 3 (52:11):
I've had five major.

Speaker 2 (52:12):
Surgeries since last April, and the meditation practice, in the
mindfulness practice has helped me get through some very transformative,
you know, ways of my being. But I asked for transformation,
so just it comes back to be careful for what
you ask for, and if you are asking for something,
be direct with it, be be descriptive of what you

(52:36):
want your transformation to look for. And then, of course,
patients and trust.

Speaker 4 (52:39):
I love it.

Speaker 2 (52:39):
You had the matra, especially in the back of the
ambulance when you know the stuff is hitting the fan
and you're you know, you know, you're you're saying your matra.
You know, trust is a big part. I always say
the way knows the way. But also for the listeners,
the difference about what we're talking about today. You know,
prayer is thought going out. Meditation is listening back as well.
So there's a difference between and the brain. Brain science

(53:01):
science shows us that that there is a difference between
praying for what we want but then listening back for
what we need. So, you know, I always just say
it's the path deliberation. Meditation is that central part of
the path of liberation, or some may even know it
as Nirvana. I mean, I'm from Seattle, so we know
Nirvana the group here, you know, but it's leading to
that state of that profound wisdom and that freedom from

(53:23):
suffering by cutting it off at the root, you know.
And life is just in general is just stressful without
doing anything, just.

Speaker 3 (53:29):
Being here it stressful. So you might as well use
these tools.

Speaker 2 (53:33):
So Marcy, I could talk to you for another hour.
These these episodes go by so very quick, But I
just want to ask what inspires you or who inspires you,
and what what philosophy from your perspective would you like
to leave my listeners with today.

Speaker 4 (53:51):
Well, you know, we we see you and hear quotes
about roomy all the time in meditation. Realmy is another
one of all you know, our anchors. I guess I'll
say I think I think we can sum it up,
or I can sum it up in this way. You know,
he said, we come spinning out of nothingness, scattering stars

(54:12):
like dust, and your soul knows all. So there's that
sole word that you and I love to connect with. Right.
We we can come spinning out of the out of
the universe, scattering stars like dust, and if we can
just tune into our soul, we've come home. It is home.
Home is a meditation, is sanctuary for me. And every

(54:37):
time I sit down and do my practice, I come
home to my sanctuary.

Speaker 3 (54:45):
Coming home.

Speaker 2 (54:46):
I love that, you see, I'm just taking that divine
breath after you said that just was kind of nice. Right, So, Marcy,
been a pleasure you're having you on the show today.
If you get new you can get new work or
new books.

Speaker 4 (54:59):
Again.

Speaker 2 (55:00):
Her book is searching for Sanity, How I overcame crisis
with mindfulness, and how you can too. So you want
to check out that book or any of her retreats
that she's leading, you can go to the Still Statemeditation
dot com website to get more information, or again, any
of our social media pages.

Speaker 3 (55:15):
We have all of her contact information on there as well.

Speaker 2 (55:18):
But is the Still State Meditation dot com the best
site to get ahold of it for anybody listening to
the show and wants to go forward or go do
you the prospect.

Speaker 4 (55:25):
For Definitely, Yeah, that's the easiest way.

Speaker 2 (55:30):
Perfect Well, Marcy, it's been a pleasure talking with you.
Thank you for all that you do and the light
and the inspiration and the knowledge and the wisdom that
you bring forth into our very chaotic world. It's been
a pleasure having you on the show today. Thank you
very much.

Speaker 4 (55:44):
Mark, thank you so much. It's a pleasure.

Speaker 3 (55:47):
All right.

Speaker 2 (55:48):
Inspired listeners, until our next sole adventure together, be kind,
be caring, be compassionate, and most importantly, wherever you're at
in the world, there to dream, there to explore, there
to live, discover the diamond with it.

Speaker 3 (56:01):
We'll see you next time here. Uninspiredly,

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