Show notes –
Join Shannon & Christine for a chat about Spiritual Wellness with special guest, Tracy Reese.
This week’s resources and references:
Ruth King – Meditating with Race
Mindful of Race: Transforming Racism from the Inside out
Send your Sheroes nominations (subject “My Shearo”) to MyShearo@shealoglo.com
Stillpoint: A Self-Care Playbook for caregivers to Find Ease, and Time to Breathe, and Reclaim Joy
You can also find Tracy on Meetup at:
https://www.meetup.com/The-Canvas-Club-Meetup-Group/
& Instragram – https://www.instagram.com/hearthues/
Tracy Reese – Heart Hues LLC – https://hearthuesllc.com/
Show Transcript –
NOTE: While it’s not perfect, we offer this transcription by Otter.ai for those who are hearing impaired or who don’t find listening to a podcast enjoyable or possible.
Christine Gautreaux 0:08
Let’s do this.
Shannon M. 0:08
Okay ladies, welcome to our podcast. I am Shannon Mitchell, a black female, millennial entrepreneur, the founder of shallow glow, a handmade shea butter company. I am a champion for your self care, business care and intentional wellness.
Christine Gautreaux 0:25
And I am Christine Gautreaux, a white social justice advocate, an international speaker, coach and published author who helps you upgrade yourself in community care.
Shannon M. 0:35
Yes. And together, we are women connected in wisdom, a podcast grounded in the eight dimensions of wellness. Welcome, welcome to our show,
Christine Gautreaux 0:44
right where we get together every week and have really cool intentional conversations about how to be wise in business relationships and wellness. And plus, we just get to chat with some amazing people in the world. That’s right. We did two pre interviews today, y’all that were rockin. And it just is so much fun, how amazing women are in the world, and the work that they’re doing in the world. And our guest today is uh, one of our beloved regular guests on our show. I love that we can say that now. And y’all will recognize her and her wisdom as we bring her up in a little bit. But what are we talking about today, Shannon?
Shannon M. 1:31
Yes, today, our dimension of wellness is spiritual wellness. And for our definition, I’m gonna go ahead and start out with both. spiritual wellness allows us to be in tune with our spiritual selves. This realm of wellness let us find meaning and life events and define our individual purpose. They can be defined to various factors, including religious faith, values, ethics and morals. Regardless of whether you believe in a particular religious faith, there is always something to be learned about how you see yourself in the world.
Christine Gautreaux 2:08
I love that. And we have our friends, Glenda Walker, who gave us a shout out this is Y’all are so cute dancing queens, but I love she’s listening to wellness cuz she is part of my spiritual community. Back in Texas. I went to a community called the fellowship of comparative religions, and we met at a women’s retreat. So I love that connection. And she is an amazing singer and artist and creative and incredibly amazing being. So thanks for listening. Glenda.
Shannon M. 2:46
Hey, Glenda, welcome to the show.
Christine Gautreaux 2:51
I love it when we talk about spiritual wellness, you know, it’s one of the dimensions of the eight dimensions of wellness. But to me, it’s one of the key stones. It’s one of the ones that if I start my day with it, and start my week with it, everything else flows better.
Shannon M. 3:14
Absolutely, absolutely. I think of it like an anchor. I like keystones because I go back and forth between if there’s that one dimension over another if they’re all equal, you know, but definitely spiritual is something that if I don’t have it at the beginning of my day, it goes differently. The patient’s is mad as long as you know. Let’s say getting attitude easier over something that’s not important because I didn’t give myself what I needed at the beginning of the day, that connection. So yeah, I would definitely agree with you on the spiritual oneness.
Christine Gautreaux 3:51
I hate we, Sheila and I talked about it in the Stillpoint book we talked about when you talk about self care, that it’s multiple dimensions of ourselves, just like we talked about on the podcast, like there’s the physical, there’s the mental, there’s the emotional, there’s a spiritual, right, that all those different dimensions. I was just, um, I was gonna read a little bit if you’ll indulge me because I was I was looking at this today and I was like, oh, it’s always so good to go back and refresh sometimes, right? We’re talking about the spiritual and the elements of self care. In the spiritual dimension. Attention is focused on the deep inner self. The intention is for healing and for making hold. When we are coming from a place of balance centeredness, we experience our connection to all that has gone before to fellow travelers who share our journey, and to those who will follow after. Our attitude once we involve the spiritual dimension is one of wonder, curiosity, appreciation and gratitude. These qualities of being in tune with what’s happening sprang from the experience of life as a gift. We no longer live in hurry up time, but slow down to tune into subtle levels. I think about that when I think about meditation and prayer, and like, I love to start my day greeting with son in the labyrinth, all transparency that hadn’t happened in the last couple of weeks because of travel. And I’m a little out of a lot of balance with that. But I think about that slowing down, and that connection to spirit to God to whatever you want to name it. But that I know, for me personally, when I start with that, I am a better human being in all my work.
Shannon M. 5:48
Absolutely. And I was thinking about how I would say, you know, stop and smell the roses. And it seems simple, it seems cliche, but when was the last time that you stopped and smelled so flowers? And I also thought maybe it’s not smelling flowers for certain people, maybe it’s putting your feet in the grass, maybe it’s for me and shallow glow, you know, look at the trees and look at the birds know that you’re taking care of. So I remember, no matter what’s going on that day, if the Burton seeing I can give a little gratitude, you know, for all the breaths that I take in the my heart beating still.
Christine Gautreaux 6:24
Right? Yeah, like that. Please. I love that you say that about gratitude? Because to me that is a part of spiritual wellness. Yeah, is given those gratitudes and nice shout outs.
Shannon M. 6:35
Absolutely. I mean, for me, spiritual wellness is a lot to do with the personal relationship, right? We the the definition talks about
the meaning of the life experience, and what else did it say specifically, and grants balance. So for me with the relationship, it’s more about
everything that’s taken care of that I don’t have to worry about like Life can be so frustrating things happen. It could be tragic, sometimes. A lot of times I think in literary terms, is this a comedy or tragedy? Well, it’s a little bit of both sometimes, depending on what you’re looking at, and I can be on the same day, you know, so, again, we were talking to our guests before the call about getting it out of your head. So journaling, before I talk about all this stuff that happened and for example, the day my bumper was on the on the speed bump, and I was supposed to take my mom to chemo. Like, that’s the day where if I would have done my gratitude, okay, 10 things I’m grateful for. I can’t believe I walk outside and my bumper was on the speed bump. It helps put things in perspective. You know, it really does.
Christine Gautreaux 7:48
So that is part of your practice, right that you do in gratitudes every day.
Shannon M. 7:54
Yeah. And sometimes just like you, it gets off balance. And that’s now we’re starting the key, you know, okay, are the test. If Why am I not doing this for myself, I see that I’m getting more and more stressed out, things are starting to lean a little to the left. Let’s pull it back. And it seems like you don’t need it. It’s just smelling the flower. It’s not important. Okay.
Christine Gautreaux 8:13
It’s important. It is some roses in my recent trip to Asheville. It was delightful. And my yard right now is on fire with beautiful flowers. So that was Yeah, well, should we bring up our friend and our guests and controlling the conversation?
Shannon M. 8:33
Right? Yes.
Christine Gautreaux 8:35
I y’all know we have read our guests today is our friend, Tracy Reese, and I’m gonna give you a short bio of her. But she’s awesome. That’s the shortest one right? But Ceres is a certified life and mental health coach, an artist and a ministry leader. And she has combined 17 years of journey with several 100 Women towards emotional wellness. Her work is future focused, value based mission driven, with emphasis on identifying or exercising inherent gifts as a way to thrive through transitions into new triumphs. So I want to bring strike Tracy up here and continue this discussion, because she is one of our wise women friends.
Tracy Reese 9:24
Thank you. Thank you. It’s a pleasure to be with you ladies today.
Christine Gautreaux 9:30
Thanks for coming back and chatting with us.
Tracy Reese 9:32
I love it. I love it. We’re in right now.
Christine Gautreaux 9:36
Right?
Tracy Reese 9:39
No, we’re here wisdom connected, women’s connected and wisdom for sure. Especially on the topic of spiritual wellness. I’m Christine when you call me I was like, you know I walk by faith. It’s not always evident just because I’m you know, we talk about being spiritual beings, but we’re trying him So I think we’re talking about our spiritual, mental and physical. So it’s not always evident that, you know, I’m exhibiting a measure of faith in me when I’m faced with certain challenges. But really it is, the core of me is my cross is my guy is my faith. So everything I pray flows from that place. And you all talked about that being a little out of balance. But when I think about spiritual wellness, it is not just the prayer and meditation and the reading of My Word, and communicating with God through prayer. But it is the other things as well, the other dimensions as well that are integrated. So I think is important as you were talking about smelling the flowers and things of that nature. That’s not necessarily directly correlated with a practice of faith, or spirituality or religion, but it is what helps us get back to balance and reconnect with the Creator. So I think we have to really consider we have to really consider how integrated the dimensions are, so to speak. And
Shannon M. 11:22
I love that you were very specific about that. Because had you not said that it might have been taken lightly. I guess, the smell and the flowers and the being outside, I understand what you mean about this. We also have to be specific all the way down to what spirituality actually. But yes, for me, that is what I think about when I think about my faith on the outside is being able to trust to take a second that hey, look, God takes care, this is how that stuff gets done. So they didn’t do anything, you not gonna do anything about it either, because he has control. Right. And I think that gives me and that’s, that’s what keeps me again, anchored and stable when the other things get off balance. For sure, absolutely agree with you.
Christine Gautreaux 12:14
You talking about gratitude, both of y’all talking about gratitude. Last year, my flowers were part of what just gave me such joy in life, as we’re stuck in our houses, right? My dad is a, he is an organic farmer in Texas. And flowers are part of his love language. So he sent me like 100 gladiolas, last year, is a lot, right. But it’s such a joy to our family because we couldn’t be together. They were in Texas, and we were here. And it was like a manifestation of love and faith and all of those when those flowers bloomed, and they’re coming back this year, my first Gladiola bloom today on Instagram, I’ll share it with our listeners do. But you know, it is such, you know, is a miracle. To me. It’s a miracle every time a flower blooms. It’s like, so it is part of our faith and our spiritual wellness is what gives us like, like, what, what gives us? So, Tracy, you and I were having a conversation recently that I was like, come on and talk about this cuz we were talking about spiritual bypass. And we were talking about how often when there’s real issues like mental health, or physical health, or things that are also dimensions of wellness, that often we’re taught to spiritually bypass it, and just pray about it or, and then not to take the practical steps are the incremental steps that we need to help solve the problem. So let’s let’s talk a little bit about that. Because you and I were having a really good conversation about that.
Tracy Reese 14:07
Yes, absolutely. I think what I’ve come to know as I’m journey through spiritual practice, and in my faith is that there were promises. I’m a Christian. So I go to the Word of God, the Bible, and there were promises in the Bible that I wasn’t seeing manifest in my life. And I couldn’t understand why is it that I’ve chosen this faith to believe these things, but I don’t see the manifestation of what has been promised to me as a child of God. And I so I’m, I don’t believe that God is a liar. So I had to start looking at me and what I was or was not going to position myself for the manifestation of those things. And if I’m talking about say, for example, physical wellness, if I am and I use the example I’m not diabetic, But I’ll just use this as an example, if I’m a diabetic, and I’m praying to God for healing, which is one of the things that, you know, my faith believes in. I’m, if I’m praying for healing, but I’m not seeing that manifest in my life. But I’m eating cakes, and cookies and pies, and I’m saying, Well, I want to see healing my life, but I’ve not changed my eating habits, then I’m not aligning myself on the manifestation of miracle of healing in my life. So it is not just me praying to be healed, but me doing the practical, natural things that support the manifestation of that thing in my life, I can’t just pray for a thing, and then not do the practical things that’s necessary. And something I’m familiar with is, um, you know, in the realm of mental health, like, there are things that are contributors to our mental state, that that are neurological that are physical, that need to be addressed, and that we can’t just pray the depression away. You know, faith helps us to have a hope and a belief for their the improvement of things in our lives. But I just have to understand that, you know, if I’m not seeing certain things show up in my life, I have got to examine what I am and am not doing to support the manifestation of those things. Yes, I believe in absolute miracle. But I also understand that a lot of things do require us to consider if I’m a triune being and there’s my body and spirit, I can’t just address things in a spiritual sense and not think about the physical, or the mental things that need to be addressed to be well. And sometimes those things not well, can cause you to waver in your faith and your spiritual growth. So I’ve seen that happen in my life.
Christine Gautreaux 17:01
Right? If you go back to for the flowers, right? They need the sunshine, they need the water, they need the good soil they need. They need to be planted. They need that bold plan. That’s right. Right now, sometimes I was at my dad’s farm a couple of weeks ago, and he had this gorgeous Poppy. And I know my dad, he said like poppies are not as like, where they come from. Like, I don’t know, I guess a bird pooped it out. So like sometimes by bird poop.
Tracy Reese 17:35
Yeah, it happens because of her.
Christine Gautreaux 17:40
Which is a whole nother rant for we talk about but I wanted to pull up Diane’s comment. She said, I think flowers are a miracle to really almost everything in life can be considered a miracle.
Shannon M. 17:52
Opinion. Yeah,
Tracy Reese 17:54
absolutely. Yeah.
Shannon M. 17:56
And I love what you said, Tracy, you know, one of your biggest fans, I love how you articulate things, which is why you’re here, right? But one thing I love about my relationship with God is that He lets us choose, right. And as women, I think that’s such a big thing, because everybody wants to tell me what I said. And you didn’t let me finish my sentence. So like, you’re not even thinking about my choice, because you don’t even care about my choice of words. So you know, we’re not even going to get there. So I love that. But let us choose. So in your actions, are you reinforcing the things that you want? And that you’re praying for, like you said, and that’s why I love how things overlap. You know, so that you can have the discipline in different areas to be practical. And I love how you said that I can just pray and that do the practical things. So as a young woman, that’s what I’ve been looking at, okay, in each of the eight dimensions, how do I need to get set up financially? These are the accounts I should have for my business. These are the personal accounts I should have, environmentally, I’m a pause, I’m going to watch the wind, let the leaves low, you know, socially, I’m going to make sure I’m there every Monday with my manifestation Monday because we meant that this podcast and here we are in a third season, you know, and do it do it like that. And then the rest of the stuff that I can’t control you know, people being sentenced for bullets that Miss I just got to give that to God because that’s heavy. And I wouldn’t, I wouldn’t even that person if it was just up to me, I live this way. Again, because I walk in faith and I believe in all those things, you know, relying on each other to work in your favor.
Tracy Reese 19:39
Yeah, absolutely. I love that Shannon that you know it is about and again, I say it’s the cross for me, it’s my core, my fave must be or show up. Excuse me, my spirituality. But a big part of that is how does it show up? And then how does it show up in other areas of my life? You know, and that’s why I said, I wasn’t seeing the manifestation of those things. So if, if, if you know, I am to steward what God gave me financially, then that means I have to do something there are, you know, there are our ands and buts that are required was to pay attention to and that not overlooked when it comes to our spiritual well being, you know, and how it impacts the other areas of our lives.
Christine Gautreaux 20:32
I agree with you, Tracy, for our listeners that aren’t watching live, we lost Shannon, but hopefully she’ll be back with us in just a second. And, um, you know, I think about that I think about the gifts that were given, whether it is in friendships, or relationships or inherent gifts that we are born with, and are nurtured within us. I am in the in the struggles, right, so we have struggles, which a lot of folks have been struggling the last two years it’s been it’s been a big one. Um, what do you do when you’re struggling Tracy? Like what? Set your reset your spiritual wellness,
Tracy Reese 21:22
and this is this is a thing, you know, I, my line of work is around emotional wellness and cultivating authenticity. And I am I have been a ministry leader. So it is about, you know, doing these things with a measure with a measure of faith and a woven into them. But I you know, I can’t leave, I can’t really be effective in doing the work I do as far as my business is concerned. If I don’t reset, not that I don’t struggle? I absolutely do. And I think I’ve struggled more. Because of the work that I do. You know, I feel more intensely and I’m feel more obligated to process through those things in a way that’s healthy so that I can support other people do the same thing. So yes, I struggle I struggle quite a bit. But what I do to reset is what I’ve done now is I’ve had to stop stillness is huge for me. I think that we live in a world that is very, very busy. Our culture here in this country, is to get it done quicker, faster, go harder. And that has been counterproductive to my spiritual being and what I need when I’m struggling, when I’m struggling, I need to sit like when you run a race, when you get tired, you have to stop running at some run, you know, and that is physically you start running emotionally, you stop running, mentally, you start running and use gets filled, and sit with the things you have to sit with turn over the things you need to turn over. I think a lot of times the show, because because that practice is not consistent in my life. When I when I find that I am struggling the most it is because I have not taken the time to sit still to go through the introspection that’s needed. And to invite God into that, like I, one of the reasons why I have my faith is so I don’t have to go through this alone. I know that if there is no particular person sitting next to me, I have a God who created me for a intimate relationship with him. That’s why I believe I was created first and foremost was to engage in intimacy with my Creator. So I go back to that when I’m struggling. You know, it’s when I get far from that I struggle the most.
I love the way.
Christine Gautreaux 23:57
Welcome back. Tech happens. We were just having the conversation about the you know, the last two years has been a little rough on folks. And what do you do to reset and spiritual wellness? So I’d love for you to give our listeners what do you do to reset spiritual wellness? Tracy was talking about stillness?
Shannon M. 24:19
Yes. Yes, I would absolutely say that, you know, specifically again, for the check, we actually have it right here. devotion and pray is the first to and sometimes I don’t feel like I can pray out loud. Sometimes I don’t feel like I can pray you know, but I know that where it should be is at the top of everything. So if I see again that I’m there, now I’m taking the other thing so I have checks and balances in the systems. And then I do genuinely try to do those every day. You know, do my devotion. And remember Verity was talking about promises. Well, what are God’s promises? I love what? Shout out to pass Andrew, I believe you pronounce his last name guerrier from Trinity Chapel is now set in springs church in powder springs. He told us in high school he was like, as you’re like, rich kids that never read the will. And I said, if I was rich, I would definitely read the you know. And that’s, that’s how we are, you know. So again, that’s the promise that shallow glow is based on is the trees and the birds are taken care of. And if you don’t know those things, it make sense by the darkness can seem like he’s trying to envelop you. And that’s why I reset every day, I’m going to make sure I charge my phone because being on the phone and live streaming and whatever it takes to the next enterprise, I know that takes juice from my phone. And I need it tomorrow. So I needed to be fully charged. So I kind of honestly, think about it like my phone in my car, I don’t want my daughter to be down to low on my phone or my technology. And I don’t want my guests to be down too far. Because now that means I’m not taking care of my stuff. And I tried to think about it the same way. She used HR, and a little bit higher than you need to just in case stuff gets bumped because it’s been interesting. Right? Loading, praying and, and writing it out to reading those gratitudes and then writing what’s going on was stressing me out or how I feel about stuff.
Tracy Reese 26:27
Well, I was just gonna say that’s huge. That’s why the stillness is important. It’s the intentionality to sit and do those very things to pray and meditate to write it out to express gratitude. Like, what are you doing that if you don’t have an intentionality and set time aside to exercise some of those other spiritual disciplines?
Christine Gautreaux 26:56
We didn’t I mentioned earlier the fellowship of comparative religion and one of my teachers, Glenda Taylor, who does one in all wisdom, calm, and one of the things I do is, is the connection piece, I’ve been a part of this group for over 20 years, with women who and it’s it’s very interesting, because it’s women’s retreats, right. And I always talk about how it pretty much saved my sanity, raising a young family go into grad school doing all that, because once to twice a year, I would go to the retreats, I would go to the woods, we would pray, we would be together, we would be connected, I would sleep, we always laugh about it in our springs at the retreat center, because a lot of people get there and they can’t sleep. But my story about the retreat center is I can sleep because I was getting away from the babies because I started going when my babies were young. And I was for two days. And so I always sleep great there. But I think about that about the connection, because we made the commitment to ourselves that we pray for each other, either at dawn, or at noon, or at sunset. And so and there’s a there’s a hundreds of us, right? So we always know that somebody is is praying for us and sending good wishes our way, either at dawn noon or sunset. That’s why I always like to greet the sun. Because I’m like, oh, you know, I’m and, and being able to have that connection. To and you know, we whether folks call it God, whether they call it the universe, the Divine Feminine however they call it, I know different beliefs have different ways they relate. But that that power and that presence that is that is with us that I think it’s it’s really important that that stillness I relate with you a lot on that Tracy, and you know, I’m not very good at that.
Tracy Reese 28:55
What it is, and that thing that’s was one of the disciplines that I give the most attention to, because it’s not the one that comes easiest, you know, we can say praying, praying without ceasing could be me in my car driving me in my car going somewhere, I can be standing in line. And that is something that’s a part of my practice, but I can do that anywhere at any time. I don’t necessarily have to be mean, obviously, there is are times where I’m sitting still to do that. But I can do that in tandem with all of the other things I do. Um, but meditation is stillness. Those are things that really don’t come natural and innate to us. Not in our culture. It doesn’t so it’s it’s one of the things that I’ve had to be intentional about. And I feel like once I started doing that some of the other things started to click better for me. And again, we’re talking about other dimensions of wellness. Stillness isn’t just a spiritual thing. It is helpful for our mental, emotional, I mean, you can get real creative with it. Answer like you can get real creative once you’ve had time to sell yourself. It can get you out of a lot of ruts. And I think for me is it’s not it per se, there’s just not a natural home most of us at all. So, yeah,
Christine Gautreaux 30:18
I don’t know if y’all know, I don’t know if I mentioned it on our Monday group, but I have been doing Ruth kings meditating with race, it’s been a year long program, that, that she really is doing racial justice work with it, and really talking about stillness. And thinking about, like, sitting with the feelings in our bodies, and when, right and, and using stillness and connection in with within ourselves, but also also within group development, that spiritual aspect of connection. And so I think you’re right, like it’s not a natural, like, it’s a skill that you can build on and learn. And I’m a kinesthetic learner. So it took me really figuring out like, I need to stretch, or I need to walk, or I need to do something physical, before I sit down to listen to pray or meditate. Because otherwise my brain is just like, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick. Yeah. Yeah.
Tracy Reese 31:26
Yeah. And I mean, so me, it’s not always just about is, it’s not just about like, the meditation piece, it is about, like, having an opportunity to, for me, it just means I’m not working. So if we refer to like a seven, so the stillness isn’t always just, um, sitting still somewhere and not trying to think about something. But it is. Yeah, it is not just about me, saying, I’m gonna sit here, and I’m just gonna, you know, I think the stillness is about kind of what you all are talking about earlier. It’s if I’m walking through my yard and looking at flowers, and just kind of calming myself, it is looking for the things that give you like, we talked about that earlier. And I think just taking a more holistic approach to what does that really mean? I think a lot of people get stuck on Well, I can’t just this What am I. But I mean, say for example, you sit still at your job every day, you’re sedentary stillness, where you may not be sitting still, somewhere, because you do that every day, you may have to do something with your hands that help you to calm, which is really what it’s about, for me is getting to a calm state,
Christine Gautreaux 32:47
like a paint process party. Yeah.
Tracy Reese 32:51
Like? Yeah, it is about that. Well, it, it kind of mimics a paint party, which is what most people can associate it with. But it’s a lot more than that. It is, I call it painting process or process and paint because we have conversations around emotional wellness, and oftentimes tied to our spirituality. That helps us to in a fun way, decompress, you have community there, there’s opportunities to share some of the things that have challenged you in your own time where you’re unable to process through, but you have community to do that with you start to see other people in the space, sharing similar things, sharing similar challenges. So you find out that you’re not alone, you find out that you’re no not ice, you don’t have to be isolated, you can get to a place of calm and stillness through the process of work communication, but secondly, creation. So we take those conversations we have, and they’re prompted conversations on a specific topic around emotional wellness. And then we we walk through that and then we end up on the canvas. So the paintings that we paint are reflection of one, the artistic process parallels a lot with life. So that there’s that correlation, but then also the theme of the painting helps to helps you know the the patron actually go through the process of saying how this applies, you know, what we’ve talked about applies and transition that onto the canvas. So the painting itself is also a reflection, literally, of what we’ve talked about what we’ve processed through and they walk away with the painting. That is a reminder of, you know, you can process through these things. You can decompress, you can get to a place of call, you can get to a better state through the process of communication and creation. is a process of handcart. In short, it’s short. I love it. Actually, I mean, I like group coaching. I like one on one coaching. But it is great to see, predominantly women come into the space and having trepidation have some sense of, I’m not sure I want to want to talk about these vulnerable things out loud to a lot of creative. So there’s a lot of angst, sometimes that comes into that space. But before it’s all said and done. I mean, we’ve got two and a half, three hours, you see a total transformation that quickly just by, you know, other women opening up and sharing me sharing my journey, and then being able to process through that in a creative way.
Christine Gautreaux 35:53
Right? Our friend, Sheila, Kate Collins, and my co author always says, We must make art out of what happens to us. Yes. And, you know, a lot of work with the art of grieving, which I think ties in to the spiritual and it ties in to, you know, that, that it’s a piece of our whole selves. And that this this last year, two years really now is we got a lot of process, right? Especially merge, and things are starting to shift and transition, like, keep what do we want to leave behind? What do we want to do? Like I know you, the three of us have had some good conversations about this is, how are we reemerging? And what does that look like with all our eight dimensions of wellness?
Tracy Reese 36:46
Yeah, and it’s important to, to really give that consideration I don’t, I don’t think you can come out of an experience like this the same way you went out of it. And hopefully you come out of it better, you know, as a part of what we taught you introduced me is going through those trying transitions and coming out feeling triumphant, not defeated. There’s a lot going on, but there is a way to live your life. Well. It doesn’t mean that that’s absolute trouble. It doesn’t mean that we don’t face challenges, but it is getting the appropriate tools in our toolbox and, and applying those things when necessary. Hearing from those things, and then knowing what to release and relinquish, Shanna, you mentioned it earlier, I got to do the things I need to do. And then I know the rest I give to God like God, I know he’s in control. So for me, it is really coming to understand that and I mean, I’ve had I have traumas, my, in my, in my history. I’ve worked with women who have experienced trauma. And this is another reason why you have to sometimes do practical things to even grow spiritually. Because those traumatic things shaped how I view myself, which is a part of what we mean, when you talk about the definition of spirituality is that the inner self is how do I see myself as regard to how I move about in the world. So trauma can change the way you see yourself, the way you see the world and the way you see God, the way you exercise spirituality and faith. So if you’re not doing the work to heal that, it you know, it’s like, oh, well, we’ll pray and God will help me. But sometimes you can’t even get to that place because you’ve got things that prohibit you from seeing from either having faith from even experiencing relationship with source with God, or like you said, however you term it, but I think it’s hugely important to remember though, those things when we’re talking about wellness, particularly spiritual loans.
Shannon M. 38:56
Yeah. And there’s two things that I want to make sure we hit on. today talking about spiritual wellness what you just said, Tracy, because I know I keep saying this, but I love it, it was so good. And something that I didn’t think about adding to the list of spiritual things that I do is letting go stuff, you know, actually write a list and burn it. And I feel like that’s why okay, you have a list of excuses why it won’t work, throw it away, okay, write it out, and then put it in the trash can, you know, and that helps me also made a list of lies that I believed about my life, you know, so you guys will find the story out when I when we start writing these books and stuff, you know, but part of my when connected wisdom is not knowing my mom for 12 years. And so a lot of times we usually talk about men missing their father, but not nor my mom, my biological mother. That’s a nursing piece too. So you know. So a lot of that believed was that I wouldn’t have the right amount about female influence to know how to carry myself. But when I look back at it, it was actually the opposite. I think I had more female influence than maybe most young women would from different people and was able to see inside different houses and different relationships and different people’s experiences, because they were open, knowing that I didn’t have my mom. And so in this really, again, the opposite I had more than I may have, if she would have been here. And that way, I felt so set free able to change again, like you said, how I thought for myself, and I want to talk about that piece. And then I wanted to talk about purpose, right? That’s also in the spiritual definition. Finally, his words are absolutely right. Finally, I feel like I can say, I believe I am living in my purpose kind of being women, and wisdom, making shea butter and helping people. I love going in different people’s houses, and they’re using the shea butter to take care of themselves. My heart is so happy seeing that. So I know that because I know what things irritated me. I know what things I felt like, weren’t gonna be able to stay for the rest of my life. And that’s because I follow that that still small voice and the different things that I use as guardrails to make sure that I stay on the right path. We’re going to say,
Christine Gautreaux 41:26
Glenda, say she was on a zoom call with some spiritual artists friends, right before she saw we were on I love synchronicity and how that happens, right? And she said, anyway, we were talking about getting back to normal and what that was to us in the world, and we hear a lot about the new normal, knew or not like it, she was laughing about that. Because what is normal, right? I thought cartoon. Normal is the setting on the dryer.
Tracy Reese 41:56
Yeah. normality of life, I mean, we were unique beings, we all have our own experiences. And I get there’s there are constructs, which we kind of conduct ourselves with them. But I don’t I don’t live in I, my plan is not to live in normality. I just, that’s a part of my spirit. Like, I know, I, I’m uniquely created. I’m not, not the thought of living a comfortable life, a normal life. That that escaped me a long time ago. So I’m not looking for the world to give me cues about normality.
Shannon M. 42:41
I think that’s very important. Right? As I was getting older, that was part of what I realized making these lists the list of the way that I thought about thing and lists of things that I should let go, I’ve realized some of this stuff, I didn’t even decide for myself, I took this out of somebody else’s book, what are what are the rules that you follow? And who gave you those rules? That is what helps keep me centered because I realized that I needed to rearrange some stuff. I would say one thing I would pray I would do all this stuff, but my actions weren’t lining up with the same list of priorities. And that’s when everything else and other images was a wire.
Christine Gautreaux 43:23
I love that Shannon’s we, this Tuesday actually in Sheila and I self radical self and community care class we were talking about the second skill of self care that we talked about and Stillpoint and it be about surrendering and letting go that you know often times and we were talking about the myth of psyche and archetypes and how you know Psyche was given task by her mother in law and one of them was to gather the fleece from the bully rams and you know, she could have just gone on their head in and gotten hurt or or just you know, being told to do by force right try to do it by force or try to do it like whoo and but she surrendered and let go and waited till they went to sleep and then went and collected it off the bushes and got a better result than if she would have gone forward. So I think about that all being tied in with what we’re talking about. Like that surrendering not and I know sometimes as a feminist when I hear the word surrender, and then it’s like no
so you know, sitting with the act of surrendering to me sometimes just being in stillness and listening is is a gift right? Yeah.
Shannon M. 44:52
Yes, like when I think about it, the the you I feel like I’ve really started to learn a deeper level of the surrender lesson was the same year as discipline. So like, surrender and discipline together. And we’re taught that there negative things, but it’s so freeing, why am I holding the weight of stuff that’s not for me that is heavy, let it go. Let it let it go. And I just let it go in the air. Because then it’s kind of like hovering over a hand and we like to grab it and try to control it again. So I started thinking about it like literally letting it go and putting at God’s feet or giving it to his hand or her hand again, whatever. You know, I love
Christine Gautreaux 45:40
when you talk about writing it down and burning it and releasing it and do really doing some ceremony around it, you know, to have intentionality around how we do that. And I love y’all there so I was just thinking about, I was thinking about spiritual wellness, I was thinking about ceremony or ritual. Cuz you know, every different faith and religion has different ones that they do. And I think really, what it comes down to is the intentionality of taking the time to put time and effort and, and I think about that when I think about our wisdom and action, you know, what is our wisdom and action around spiritual wellness this week?
Tracy Reese 46:36
For me, I think I’m taking a page, this surrender thing as surrendering the outcomes. I think that is huge. Yeah, so I’m trying to make some some decisions around some things. And a lot of times you can get just caught up in trying to make the right choice. And, you know, one of my favorite scriptures is all things work together for the good of those who love them Award and a called according to His purpose. So there is a measure of knowing that I can, I can surrender. And these decisions that I have to make, I have to make them but I can make them trusting that the outcome no matter what is going to be okay. I’m going to be okay. So I think that’s, that’s my practice. This this week is let go to outcome. So when it comes to render some renders over there, so yeah,
Christine Gautreaux 47:38
you say in that trophy, right before I got on here, I was bawling because I one of my spiritual groups, community, hidden monastery, which I can put a link to folks if they want to check it out. It’s an artistic spiritual group I belong to. And they had posted a link to the America’s Got Talent, one of the Golden buzzers, and she was singing a song about, it’s okay. I’ll put the link in the show notes. Because y’all it’s powerful. And it was talking about this young woman’s journey and walk with cancer. And she said, You don’t have to wait until things are okay to be happy. You can be happy, have wellness, in the midst of hard stuff. And it was really powerful, was really powerful. And use the arts just like you do to process right to process big things. Shannon, what’s your wisdom and action this week? Keeping
Shannon M. 48:47
my plan and doing the devotion in the morning making sure that the Bible then thinking about it and praying over where I see myself going and the plans that we have.
Christine Gautreaux 49:03
Love it. Well my wisdom in action this week is I’m getting back to my morning routine. Hopefully the weather will help cooperate and being outside to greet the sun and do my prayers and meditation and I like being outside and doing that connection just not with myself but with the natural world also and and I’m gonna up my gratitude list. You inspire me my friend. Usually I do three to five. I’m all like Shannon’s over there doing 10
Shannon M. 49:37
is too high in a voice it is it all this stuff that happens every day. You can fine tune things. So it was
Christine Gautreaux 49:45
right in front of me. So two out of the 10 are already done my friends. Tracy we love being in conversation with you. Um, Glenda gave us an amen to that. Damon was four, but we’ll take it. JC thank you so much for being with us.
Tracy Reese 50:09
Always. Yes. Thank you for
Christine Gautreaux 50:11
listening. Yeah, we will talk to you soon my friend back in the green room. Oh, that it’s not competition. It’s a goal. Yes. Thank you for calling me that on that. Glenda. You know, I was raised by a white football coach in Texas, that competition gene is strong in me, I have to always, I have to always look at that. Because you know, that’s a piece of white dominant culture. And boy, I can flip into that in a heartbeat like eight today, Shannon? My Tracy, what do you say? I said, I’m only gonna do it today. I’m not try to kick into the competition gene.
Shannon M. 50:57
Right now, you know, I’m competitive too. They just don’t know. It’s a competition. That’s why BP
Christine Gautreaux 51:04
Oh, this is what Glenda was given us an amen on happiness during the midst of sadness and trouble that they
Shannon M. 51:11
like, yeah, and I love that. And when I think about spiritual wellness, and how I would describe it to people, you know, I try to be mindful of getting too specific, and people feeling like I’m trying to shove the Bible down their throat, because we could be honest, that they’re even on my college campus, I said, See, this is the only example I would have had, I went like this, like, this is you can’t spew hate at people if it’s supposed to be about love, you know, and I love that we’re talking about it. I love that Tracy said coming out of transitions, trying to fit both of those all of those together.
Christine Gautreaux 51:49
Right? And, and talking about the stillness, it’s always a good reminder to me, and that stillness doesn’t have to be sitting still. It can be a walking meditation, it can be smelling the flowers, but it’s that intentionality. And, to me, I think sometimes Shannon is also the allowing, you know, the allowing of the space to feel it.
Shannon M. 52:13
I think I think if we were to get very specific about it is about the allowing of the feelings to come the details of the situation that come and then for you not to try to jump in answer the question, you know, let the situation fall and see what happens. When we were on vacation. We did a podcast and there was a gas shortage. I’m not in Georgia, I’m not worried about Georgia, I have yet to have a problem getting gas. I so I never needed to have the conversation. You know, like things just fall together when we don’t try to make it happen a certain type of way. But the happiness in the midst of it is because
Christine Gautreaux 52:49
also noticing those synchronicities, like you say with gratitude, like noticing you were in another state when that happened, what a gratitude. That was right. And noticing. Um, I like to do that with the gratitudes too, about noticing the things that are working, because there’s always going to be things that work and there’s always going things that don’t work and where we put our intention, you know, there’s a Native American proverb about which Wolf are you going to feed? You know, are you going to feed the wolf? That is anger and hate and divisiveness? Are you going to feed the wolf that is love and faith and spirituality? Which one are you feeding today? Because we have both of them live within us?
Shannon M. 53:32
Right? And you can’t feed both of them equally. So that’s not an answer. You have to choose which one is going to be dominant.
Christine Gautreaux 53:40
Yeah. So yeah, it’s, it’s amazing. Well, I am so grateful for this conversation today. And before we sneak out of here, I have to tell you, I know, we want to thank our sponsor, but I want to give a personal testimonial because, um, I am getting back in the pool. It’s that time of year, right? And so get back in the pool. And I was like, I was drying off. I was like, What is this dry patch? You know how chlorine does that to your skin sometimes, or at least it does sound like there’s this funky dry patch on my on my elbow. And then I immediately I was like, Oh, I gotta put some shallow glue on that. And within a day it’s almost completely gone. So I just wanted to tell tell you, thank you for making such an awesome product that I love and it smells delicious. Because the current one I have is mango and I am excited. Is it a secret about the new flavor that you’re coming out with?
Shannon M. 54:43
It is a secret they have to follow me but what’s not a secret? So if you want to know the secret when I learned out you have to follow Shayla glow on both Instagram and Facebook okay. If you’re interested in being part of the the longer sales and the tips and tricks There are ways to use it. Just like Christine said, make sure that you join the glow club. That’s the email subscription on the website shallow glow calm. But what’s not a secret now for you ladies, for our women connected in wisdom, you will get 5% off your order. I’m going to UPS tomorrow. Okay, so use the gold Yes, wise five, and I will know that you are wise and so you get 5% off, okay. And that way you ladies can enjoy shallow glow. See what Christina is talking about? And we can be working on our physical wellness and financial Wait,
Christine Gautreaux 55:37
is that what it looks like? Why is five is that the coupon? Oh my gosh, that is so exciting. Thank you for that. So I got some people I gotta order some farm. Father’s Day is coming up y’all.
Shannon M. 55:50
So it’s coming up.
Christine Gautreaux 55:52
It’s a good time to do it. All right, my friend as always, this feels like it went by so very short, but I am grateful for our conversations and for for being in community and connection and in Yeah, I love this.
Shannon M. 56:08
And be well be wise. And the whole touches us here again next Wednesday. Bye. Bye. Bye, Glenda
Unknown Speaker 56:21
thanks for listening. This has been the women connected and wisdom podcast on-air live on Wednesdays at 5 pm. Eastern via Facebook and YouTube. Be sure to like, share and subscribe be part of the conversation and get connected at women connected in wisdom.com.
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