Show notes –
Join Shannon and Christine as they chat about Environmental Wellness with their special guest Shannon Willow.
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Resources From Today’s Show:
Al Gore Climate Reality Project
https://www.ecosoulcare.com/services
Become a Certified Wildlife Habitat
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16979104/
Check out Busi Peters (guest on Episode 43) B.E.A.H. Sexual healing grief ritual this Saturday (4/23) and Sunday (4/24)
Ways to connect with today’s guest Shannon Willow:
Artist and personal eco-coach, Shannon Willow, is assisting people in reconnecting with nature. She works closely with clients to customize sustainability practices to green hearts and homes.
Shannon Willow’s Facebook Page
Shannon is offering Women Connected in Wisdom Listeners 10% off any of her services, let her know that you heard in on our show!
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 Shiloh 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 and international speaker, coach and published author who helps you upgrade yourself and 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
And we like to get together every week and have intentional conversations about how to be well in life in business. And we have incredible expert guests come on and help us figure out how do we do this? Yes,
Shannon M. 0:59
yes. And to go ahead and give us the definition, we actually are working on new definitions. We told you ladies that so if you’re listening, live with us on Facebook comment and let us know how this resonates with you. The definition that we’re using today for environmental wellness, which is our topic is that environmental wellness is supporting your good health by occupying pleasant stimulating environments that enhance well being it promotes interaction with nature, and also creates enjoyable environments, both in and out of your workplace. This includes knowing the type of environments you thrive in, and having an attentional relationships with these places, including the Earth.
Christine Gautreaux 1:41
Too long, but I like it. Yeah,
Shannon M. 1:43
I like it to like it. Well, I
Christine Gautreaux 1:45
can’t wait to have our guests get up on the stage. So I think we should go ahead and say who she is and what she does and what we’re up to today, right? Yes. All right. So artists in personal eco coach Shannon Willow is assisting people in reconnecting with nature. She works closely with clients to customize sustainable practices to green hearts and homes. I want to welcome my friend Shannon Willow to the women connected and wisdom stay today.
Shannon M. 2:20
Shannon,
Shannon Willow 2:22
so happy to be here. Thank you for having me.
Christine Gautreaux 2:26
So one of the things I noticed in your short bio, is it doesn’t tell folks that you are also a phenomenal artist. Like behind you is your artwork. That turtle, I can’t remember the first time we met Shannon Willow, but it was around art. And I fell in love with your style of art because you’re also a word girl. So all most of your art has words in it. So will you tell us like with the turtle behind you what those words are?
Shannon Willow 2:58
Sure. The says, look, the deer your flow is the ocean flow, moon and tide align. And this piece came after I went through dear Al Gore’s Climate Leadership Training Program when he was in Atlanta and 2018. And it had profound effects on my whole business as a as a model. And so I started painting and giving voice to the voiceless and pairing his science slides with my art. So I could speak more into how connected we are to nature and all everything from our sacred soil under our feet all the way up to the mighty powers of our great oceans. And, you know, I mean, I’m, I’m a big lover of nature, and I’m in love with nature. And I would love to encourage more people to take the time to really tune in and simplify their life in that way and at least take a little portion of their day to be to be, you know, to be like the snail to pay attention to the animal teachers that we have all around us. So yeah, so this this piece is called flow. So how can we be in the flow with Mother Earth and Mama Gaia, in our daily lives rather than often swimming upstream?
Christine Gautreaux 4:20
Hmm, I love it. I love it. Have you been to the Georgia Aquarium lately?
Shannon Willow 4:27
Ah, it’s been it’s been a little while. But I had mentioned to you about that APA climate action now. And three of the letters I wrote today were to the Georgia Aquarium to take action on education of our climate crisis. So there’s lots of little things we can all do. And I think that the education piece is the main piece that’s missing from this, this these changemakers that need to just come forward and and you know learn I’m always hungry for learning. So I’m going gobbling it up all day and the things that I can share with others just to move into the direction of, you know, moving away from overwhelm to clarity.
Christine Gautreaux 5:09
And right, I want to talk more about that in just a second moving from overwhelmed to clarity. But I do want to say I was impressed. I had not been to the aquarium in years, and my niece was in town, like I mentioned. So we she wanted to go back, she remembered it from being young. And they had some really good education pieces, and really about the damage we’re doing to our oceans. And what are some changes we can make. And I, it was impactful. And also, they also the turtle behind you, because they moved. They moved the turtle from where he was, or she was, I’m not sure. If it was male or female, I didn’t read that sign. But they moved him into the big tank with the whales. And he is just grow. He’s twice the size of when I saw him years ago. And I’m pretty sure it’s the same turtle. So it was fabulous to see like it just happy on the call. Right? So talk about and Shannon, I want to give you a chance to talk I’ve just been tu tu tu tu, but I want to this overwhelm to action. Because Can you give us some stats, Shannon will like a route really? Where are we, with with the earth right now, I know, it’s not something that most people want to talk about an environment.
Shannon Willow 6:36
That’s what eco soul care is all about, like normalizing these conversations, making it okay to understand that we’ve created a lot of destruction and a lot of deforestation and desertification across the globe. But we can take inspired action now to make little changes. And the idea that, you know, we can’t do everything. But if we can take little baby steps, you know, and we can change, you know, they say it takes 30 days to create a habit, right? So it takes consciousness to create these new habits in our life. But, you know, our powers and our dollar and our voices. And so if we can just normalize these conversations surrounding, we can all have impact we all have have been part of the problem, right? And we will, we will sort of always be until a lot of things change in a big way. But we can also be part of the solution. And that starts with the self and you know, when no one’s looking and being in that integrity of just like doing doing your thing shopping differently, you know, planning a little garden. I mean, there’s so many things. I mean, I could talk about this for more than 45 minutes more like 45 years know that things that we can actually do and it’s it is a matter of you know, compassionate action for the earth when no one’s looking.
Shannon M. 7:52
So when you when we we were talking about it before you came on stage, Shana Willow about fiber, right. And I had Google Fiber in one of my all departments, how does? Let’s say that, that specifically, where is the internet in general that we should think about affect the environment? How can we be active on that side?
Shannon Willow 8:11
Well, for me, personally, my my wheelhouse, and what I’m enveloped by is more of the five elements, rather than the internet isn’t something that I can speak into on a very educated level. I know for me personally, that I did some traveling in Italy. And it was 3g there. And I came back to the 5g reality of the United States and I was literally ill for a month. Now I know there’s a lot of words around, you know what the truth is, but I can only listen to what my body tells me. And so I think the more that people can unplug, and like Christine was forced to unplug and go, go hug the grandfather tree out there in the wilderness. And I bet you came back feeling so much more balanced and in harmony with with yourself. And that’s what nature does is it gives us a place to, you know, have respite and understand how important it is to have the balance in our lives. And so, I honestly cannot speak into you know that but I can tell you as an activist, when I talked to Comcast, or one of the internet providers or even for our, our, our bills, our electricity bills and such, for that matter, I speak into the fact that you know, these things should be the ones that are being subsidized for communities to be able to say what’s even for everybody, you know, and if there’s more more just playing field for people that need the internet, and, you know, have to I mean, we saw during, during the COVID. Right, so yeah, there’s so much that can be spoken into in that but I’m definitely not an expert at maths. Yeah. Well, you
Christine Gautreaux 9:49
know what I think when we talk about it in that question, both Shannon’s is using it for the power of good using it so Shannon, well, you mentioned it but will you say more about out actions. And like, before you came on, we were talking about you had done probably 15 actions in five minutes or 10 minutes today. So speak a little more about that. Because I know for myself, when I feel helpless, or when I feel overwhelmed, one of the things I do as an activist is I take action. And I reach out to my representatives or to different companies. So will you tell us how you do that specifically, around environmental wellness,
Shannon Willow 10:29
and then so there’s an app called, it’s a free app on your phone that you can download called climate action now. And I learned about it through Climate Reality Reality Project. And basically, it’s letters that are already written to our legislators that speaks into whatever laws being presented. And you know, you can actually fill out like, what mine says is, I’m a small business owner, grieving the loss of our natural world. That’s how all my letters start. And the letters are already made for you. And it’s an app that teaches you so much, and it gives you a way to reach out to your legislators really easy. And you also what happens is you plant trees as you do the actions, they reward you with trees. Now, this Eden, reforestation product project, I believe, is located in Asia. And I’ve already planted nine trees with my actions, but which already offsets my carbon footprint for my car, because it takes five trees. So I’m told it takes five trees to offset your carbon footprint of driving your car for a year. So you know, I think people feel so overwhelmed that like, and they’re stopped in their tracks, because they don’t know where to start. But it can really start with something as simple as, you know, knowing who you bank with, and are they invested in the pipeline activity and such. And, you know, divesting from those companies and taking the power of your fuel dollars, and, you know, showing that those show those companies that this is not acceptable anymore, this is not the way forward. So we have a, we have a responsibility to sustain this planet for 1000s of years to come. And we basically have about six, seven years, to turn on our heels and do everything differently. And, you know, I know that part overwhelms people. So it’s like an app this walking, you know,
Christine Gautreaux 12:22
why wait? You just dropped a number that some people listening may not have heard before? Six to seven years? Or what’s the your because that’s the conversation that most people don’t have, if they’re not in this field, or they’re not paying attention? Because you know, when we talk about environmental wellness for our definition, like it’s talking about, I mean, we don’t it’s talking about having an environment that supports us. And so will you speak, if we don’t make changes? What does the research what does science say will happen in six to seven years?
Shannon Willow 12:58
Well, we have to move to net zero by 2050, at the latest 2030 is a better number, and that’s right around the corner, right? So, you know, you think about everyone’s still driving gas powered cars, and so forth. I mean, it’s so much I mean, even me talking the breath coming out of my lungs, it overwhelms me, because I wish I had more, you know, action, you know, inspired actions that people could take, but you know, I think riding a bike as much as you can, you know, combining your trips, and one in one trip driving as little as you can, but also, you know, figuring out ways to offset that carbon footprint, and work towards climate neutrality in your own life. And, you know, there’s a lot of little changes you can make to work towards that, that will offset, you know, because, you know, we all drive a car, we all we all, you know, maybe we own a home. And, you know, like, for me, I live alone, so my carbon footprints bigger, you know, and it’s even more profound, and I have to even take more action to offset my carbon footprint. So, you know, there’s all sorts of resources. Sierra Club, Georgia chapter is very well informed, they’re doing a lot to fight these efforts, you know, at the systemic level, you know, which is where it has to happen, you know, big actions need to happen very quickly. And us as the voters, we can use our voice to say, we’ve got to do this together. We can do this together. Let’s do it.
Christine Gautreaux 14:25
Right, right, because I know we still we skirted around it a little bit like but we’re already starting to see effects of what is happening on our planet. When you think about the amount of storms we have had in the last couple of years, like how many places are flooded, how many places we’re having more frequent tornadoes, we’re having more extreme weathers and like you talked about I’m and I’m gonna get this word it comes out of my mouth weird but desertification say more about that Shannon Willow and like what that means for for us. So basically,
Shannon Willow 15:13
if you’re the Netflix, there’s a wonderful documentary called kiss the ground. And a lot of people believe in have the belief and I can see it in my own yard is that the soil is our Savior. So if we can start with compassionate action under our feet, and we understand that regenerative agricultural practices, and it that that can be a tricky conversation, and it’s in of itself, but the idea that the bugs are working for us all day long, and what are we doing to protect the bugs and so no till practices, so what’s happened is these big ads have come in and they just tilled the ground up. And then because of we’ve destroyed the soil, the soil is basically needs the chemicals to produce the food. And oftentimes, the chemicals are put on the food right at the end of production. And so, you know, new new ways to take care of our Earth, and, you know, you know, cows, it’s a thing you know, right. So, if we use cows in a way to, you know, only eat in a certain area and allow the grasses and the things to root down into the soil, give the bugs, the food, the worms are working for us, all this and so these these practices that can be changed. And you’ll see that and that’s where I encourage people, you know, know, your local farmers if you eat meat, which I do, and I try to limit it, and, you know, know, your farmers, you know, spend a little bit of extra money on the people that are taking care of not only our soil, but also the animal welfare, you know, because I believe we’re all sentient beings, even the bugs that are going to annoy, annoy, are annoying in our lives, right? And so they all have purpose.
Christine Gautreaux 16:55
So speaking of that, when I was at your event, which was fabulous, by the way, so one of the things you do that I want to share with our listeners is you do the I don’t want to call them mini retreats, because many feels like it minimizes them. And they’re really not like their half day retreats. And one of the things you brought up at the one I attended was the purpose of nats Would you share that story? Because I have some some bugs I own and I like bugs, but some bugs? I’m like, holy cow, what is your purpose? Will you just leave me alone? So will you share with this, our listeners especially I think will be fascinated by the purpose of some nets?
Shannon Willow 17:38
Sure, sure. So I’d love to go to the Botanical Gardens, because I’m such a flower plant, you know, kind of junky, I guess, um, when I was there in one of the greenhouses, I you know, they have this beautiful cacao tree and right now the cows are start, you know, making their giant pods. And they’re, they’re just a beautiful experience to take it with your senses. But there’s the little sign right there that reads who pollinates are cacao, the maps? And who knew like because everybody’s like this at the picnic, right? Like, ah, the map these things, what are they and to think that they bring us cacao. Amazing, right. And that’s also play a role in that. But, you know, I’m just always thirsty for learning more, because it’s these conversations, it’s these conversations that make you see things that maybe annoyed you before that you learn to like, have a little bit of a relationship with and so step by step as we fall back in love with Mother Earth, you know, we’ll do better as we have that emotional connection and that build that relationship right in our own in our own yards, and even in our own homes, you know, and so,
Christine Gautreaux 18:48
I love that Shannon Willow. So co Armstrong is listening today. Thank you, Cecile and says it’s all connected and we all have purpose. That is so true. Cecile was one of our guests. And I was it season two, like long time ago, I think it was episode. Awesome. Thank you. Yeah. It is all connected and and what you said about falling in love with the earth and and ways to because that’s how I grew up. Like I mean, you know, dating myself a little you know, we grew up before the internet, we grew up before computers, we grew up when like, you were like, go outside and stay outside until the sun goes down. And so I’ve always had that connection to the earth. And it’s where I go back to personally when I’m out of balance and and I need to recenter and ground which is pretty much every day. So
Shannon M. 19:47
for me when we talk about wellness, that’s what I think about with environmental wellness, right the place that creates that was the the part of the definition that we use today. Let’s go back to it. The stimulating environments right Isn’t simulating environments that enhance well being is the recentering. So when you talk about the four elements, and I would love for you to go deeper into it, Shannon, what do you think about and how we can help maintain our wellness environmentally focused on those for?
Shannon Willow 20:17
Sure, sure. Well, you know, we were talking about the soil and Mother Earth, as you know, what sort of holds us on our balance and our biodiversity. And so the idea with eco soul care is really wild your hearts and reweld your yards, and be in this place of allowing the earth to do because Mother Earth has the divinity to understand, you know, the way to do it, if we just allow it as humans and like, here at my home studio, I have. I’m a certified wildlife habitat. And that’s really easy to do, which just means that you offer a space of maybe you have a little pilot of sticks and debris in the back. And, you know, you let some of the wildflowers go, especially in the spring, you know, the bees and the pollinators need that early food. And you know, one of the things that I could speak into is, you know, wild edibles. And the idea that, you know, we consider these things weeds, but they’re actually medicine, it’s old, sacred medicine, you know, it is traditional medicine, these weeds that grow in our yard. I mean, in the 1800s, they were actually pulling up grass, to plant dandelions because dandelions can clean our liver. And so you see people making like dandelion, Mead and such. And so I love to see this, I love to see people reaching towards those old tools that we used to use that kept peoples and their bodies healthy, and their families healthy. And, you know, I mean, I could, I could certainly speak into this sacred water life, you know, this is one of the tools that I use in ritual to teach people about, we are water, we’re like, more than 70% water. And so how we treat our water is a reflection of our own of our own selves. And you know, that we can put little prayers in here, little whispers, you know, and be reminded of this can not only raise our own consciousness, but even when I’m in the shower, I pray right into that water. And, you know, I use prayer loosely as a term, you know, because I know that can trigger people. But the idea that I believe water has memory, it has spirit, and you know, we can change the molecular structure that was proven. And Dr. Emoto has three years of lifetime work of studying frozen water under the microscope, how the molecular structure, as you speak into the water, I love you. changes, changes the water. So when you speak into it, and then you drink it. What a gift, you know, to even have this.
Christine Gautreaux 22:42
I love it. Oh, go Shannon.
Shannon M. 22:45
And I’m glad you brought up the dandelions because I know we talked about them when we were doing our first meeting. And I wanted to talk about that, you know, it’s so interesting how, let’s say, a cookie cutter life, what it’s supposed to be and the timeline that people say it’s supposed to be for women to remain connected in wisdom, right? I think it will look a certain way, how are we supposed to drag dress how we’re supposed to act, what things we’re supposed to use for certain things. And while I was just on vacation was watching more TV than usual. And it’s interesting, because every ailment or something that might be going on, which might be a cause of aging, and might be a result of aging, and might be a result of doing a lot of the things that we do, but the solution is a prescription, you know, why is it not instead drink more water get more sleep and Apple or you know, putting your feet in the in the soil getting reconnected to the things that really center us instead of adding more chemicals and all this stuff. So I love going back to maybe it’s not going to look perfectly like a perfect green square like we want it to but it’s more useful the way that it happens naturally.
Shannon Willow 23:51
Indeed, and, and back to that allowing, you know, because really, it is about the allowing, because, you know, we have got to stop spraying chemicals and using poison it goes right into our water and, you know, water. Unhealthy water creates a lot of fast aging and cancer. And I mean, the list is long we could go on and on. But, you know, as far as the animal kingdom we as we as women, you know, and it’s there’s only three of us in the animal kingdom that actually go into menopause, all the animals naturally in nature, you know, pass away after they’re done giving birth, but it’s it’s women and whales and dolphins that carry on that wisdom and to the end give the wisdom to the offspring. So aging, it’s a gift to be able to age and also age gracefully of course, but you know, to be able to have these wisdom conversations and pass the wisdom on to the younger folks, and help everybody understand that you know, we are integral parts of this relationship with mother earth and Mama Gaia. She knows what to do. So let’s just allow her do her work, you know, and she is working for us the bug nation that tree nation breeds for us. But yet we’re so quick to cut these branches off and cut this down and throw this in the garbage like it’s garbage and it’s not garbage that will regenerate our soil right there just allowing those sticks to break down allowing the leaves to get the bugs covered in the winter allowing the the humans to build up I mean, the word human comes from humus mycelium, we are the mycelium. I mean, we are that interconnected. Woven, you know, it all starts there right under our feet. So I mean it when you come at it with curiosity, and in a in a relationship of gratitude and appreciation for the allowing part. Your world changes big time. And I mean, that’s, that’s what we need more people to green their hearts and go wild in their yards and just let nature do her work. Because you know, you know, she has our mother and she has mothering us all day. But how are what are we doing the mother her, you know?
Christine Gautreaux 26:03
Right? Well, and that rewilding aspect I love we, we have done that in our yard, and we use clover in a big portion of our yard. So in the spring, the pollinators are just thrilled. And then we let the dandelions go to seed. And I’m sure I have one neighbor that’s probably not thrilled about that, because like his yard is the exact opposite. But we have this really cool ecosystem that was not even really intentional in our yard. It was it was hat. Well, it I did a part of it intentionally, but it was really cool how it worked out. When we moved in, I had two friends gift us with butterfly bushes. And so we planted butterfly bushes. And then I realized that the back of our yard, we have passion vines. And so what happens is the butterflies come in lay eggs on the passion vines, they eat all the passion vines and more butterflies are born. And then they go to those butterfly bushes. It’s just beautiful. Like we have butterflies almost all season, because we have the plants that they need to eat. And then the hummingbirds when they’re flying by will stop and eat. Because we’ve planted hummingbirds and butterfly bushes, things that they’ll eat like and really intention to that. And I have to tell you, Shannon Willow after your retreat, two things happened. It was such a good reset for me to be on the ground and talking about fire and water and all the things that I love because I usually do that and women’s retreats, but that had stopped for the pandemic. So this was my first like, who kind of getting back to that. And then the second thing that happened is I started looking up all the plants from our discussion that we could plant to discourage mosquitoes from being in our yard instead of using chemicals, right? So things that surprised me like catnip, the scourge sounds like well that I like to stack things our listeners know if they’ve heard any shows of ours at all. I like things that stack and have multipurpose so it’s like ooh, cat nip for my kitties, and discouraging mosquitoes. And then marigolds, which are gorgeous. So Marigold, I grew up on a small farm, and we use Marigold, we would plant them around our tomatoes to keep the cutworms away from the tomatoes. That’s what we used them for my whole life growing up. So they also discouraged mosquitoes. So I was like, there’s just it was fun. What you sparked in me your work on that day was to go investigate more, and to see okay, what are the plants like citronella? That’s the like that’s in the natural bugs. Right? Right. So yeah, planting citronella plants and I’m sure you know more of them. But I just it was fun and fascinating to start doing that research and think what things have multipurpose that we can literally plant in our yards that are beautiful, and they’re good for us.
Shannon Willow 29:08
Well, you spoke into the passion vine and the Gulf fritillary butterflies, which are the ones that eat that, you know are wonderful to have around but also passion vine is a plant medicine. So it’s medicine for the Gulf fritillaries, but it’s also medicine for the human if you take the vine, the leaf and the flower, you can make tinctures for pain and your nervous system. So you know, we’re so quick to discard things and be annoyed by the maintenance of it but I would encourage people to you know, become more curious like you have Christine and and drop into the being enveloped by the elements and how the fire and the air can work together and create this beautiful atmosphere. I mean, in the release and rekindle workshop. It was just wonderful to see how all the women responded to the elements and that they are our power tools, you know, and, and sitting around the holy fire, given offerings and having creating experience together, you know, of sharing and connection. I just, it’s just a wonderful place to be and recreate community in that way, you know.
Shannon M. 30:18
And that’s what I wanted to talk to you more about to Shannon Willow as fire. I know, we spoke in depth a little bit more about the other elements, can you go more in depth on the fire side of how we can use it to our betterment?
Shannon Willow 30:32
Yeah, well, I mean, fire is used in the natural world to, you know, get rid of undergrowth and create healthier environments. But for me, personally, I use it in a spiritual way for releasing. And so you know, because we can only hold so much as a vessel, right? On many, many levels, but on the spirit level, you know, being able to use the fire as a releasing tool. So I call it the holy fire and I give up what I need to, you know, what’s no longer serving me on an emotional level or a spirit level and burn it away. And, you know, we believe that the smoke is carries the prayers to create or, and it’s a way to release and replenish yourself, and make space for the new things to come. So, yeah, that’s definitely one of my spirit tools. And that’s one of the thing that eco soul care speaks into is, is using that as a tool to, you know, clear yourself clear energy. And
Christine Gautreaux 31:28
would you tell our listeners a little bit about eco sol, sol care, and like some of the services you provide,
Shannon Willow 31:35
I would love to. So eco Sol care is my brand new business. And I’m a muralist, and I’ve been a painter forever. And the reason I’ve always painted about our natural world is, you know, to be able to speak with people about our environment, and, you know, give voice to the voiceless. And so with eco soul care, the idea is to help people fall back in love with Mother Earth, you know, and do home and heart interventions in your life, where you’re creating more to met with the living planet. Like, if you just look at our natural world, it’s such a reflection of us. And we’re definitely out of balance and out of harmony with that. And so, the idea with eco soul care is to help people take those steps moving from, you know, intimidation, and overwhelm to like, clarity and accessibility into low waste living ideas, but also, like, take it another step further, and you know, have that emotional connection with Mother Earth and create a new relationship with mother earth, because we’re so programmed to be busy, busy, busy, and do doo doo, and how long is our to do list? And what did we get done, and, you know, so I encourage people, Hey, be the snail for a minute, like, stop right here, you know, be like the snail. And pay close attention, the birds will tell us a lot, you know, and be like the eagle, you know, step outside of yourself and work more on the relationship with community and how you can serve your community in a selfless way. And so that’s my idea with eco soul care is to help people understand that, you know, you can be the owl and take the sustainability stronghold or you can be the hummingbird and you can be more in the sweetness of life because you know, the hummingbird has relationship where it can be flapping its wings, right? 100,000 miles an hour, right, but it can still be still right there in middle air. So, you know, the idea of plugging into these sweeter things of life. And so what I do is basic eco coaching on, you know, not only moving towards low waist, no waist living, but also moving in the direction of taking the time to connect with our elements and connect with our natural world. And reweld your own heart and yard and start there, you know, and take baby steps towards a sustainable sustainable lifestyle and learning eco hacks and being being really attuned to, if we had this curiosity as our, our front runner in our lifestyle with our Mother Earth and and we’ll learn a little bit more about her and how she’s serving us. And, you know, it’s going to take all of us so I’m working on building a conscious army of eco connected warriors that want to do the work in a peaceful way and just reweld your heart and rewild your yard and be in a place of knowing that you’re part of the solution. And that we got this, but we have to work together we have to work as community in this relationship with our with our living planet.
Christine Gautreaux 34:33
Right. And I know that as women, first of all, doing it together, being connected is the way to do it. We don’t have to do it by ourselves, and also that we often face impossible odds and we triumph. So I love this work that you’re doing in the world and that you give people practical, compassionate actions that they can take every day and like it. It sounds like It’s, I don’t want this to sound bad, but it feels like a really like a really good hand holding on a tough project, right? That you’re like, hey, let me come along and support you and help you on this, and, and get a clear action plan for for how you can make a difference. And your household can make a difference. Is that right? Did I get it?
Shannon Willow 35:23
Yes, yes. And it goes a little bit deeper than that. And you experienced that in my release in rekindle day retreat, which was, you know, using our vibrations and using our, our, you know, I, I’m an international performer, as a musician too, and, you know, understanding the power of music and our own frequency and our vibrations, and so, it goes a deeper level than just how are we consuming? It goes into, you know, what are we consuming? What are we dieting, as far as, like, what we intake, you know, on the TV, or whatever people do to, you know, pass their time when we could actually be out, you know, working for our planet, and maybe that just means even planting a little garden in your yard or little wildflower patch. But the idea is to go a little bit deeper and, and create that love feeling with Mother Earth sort of that, you know, sacred reciprocity, you know, because we’re taking, taking taking, so what are we giving, let’s give a little bit more, and you actually feel better, you feel a lot healthier, as you’re, you know, getting the toxic things out of your home, but also, supporting social responsible companies, you know, my Eco list is all B corpse that, you know, give back to the planet there, they have to be, you know, offsetting their carbon footprint as part of their business model. And, you know, it’s just, we can all do better. And I have faith that we will do better and eco self care is here to serve, whoever wants to take on this. This life hack. So
Christine Gautreaux 36:54
thank you so much, Shannon Willow. I was I’m gonna put it in the show notes. I’m gonna see if I can find it. They were just having this conversation on LinkedIn about is social responsibility and investing. And and that you’re right, just what you’re saying. Like As consumers, we can make a difference by saying, Hey, this is where we’re putting our dollars, this is what we’re doing. And this is not this is a mainstream conversation. Now y’all like this is not something on the fringes, this is something we need to be having and need to be talking about. And I’m so grateful for your work and in what you’re doing. Shannon, I’m paying attention to time. So yes, last questions before we, we put the Shannon will back in the green room.
Shannon M. 37:41
I do have one more question. And usually Shannon, will this one, I say no, I asked all my questions, or I’m okay. But no, I do have one more question. Because I do something when I come back from whether it’s vacation or pouring out a lot, right? It’s a time in my schedule, when I make sure that I’m pouring even more into the self care. So when you say that you went from an environment with 3g to it came and you came back to this environment with 5g and you notice how you felt different? What did you do to balance yourself again?
Shannon Willow 38:15
Well, slept, ate well, you know, and it’s always good to have some intermittent fasting and fasting to allow the body to do what it needs to do. So we’re not always digesting food, you know, drink, drink, good water, healthy water, you know, bottled water is not is not the best choice for the planet for yourself. Generally a municipal water source, that’s very little regulation involved in that. So yeah, I mean, taking care of yourself and putting your body on the earth when you hurt. I mean, she knows how to take, you know, the magnetic energy in the earth is one of the forces of nature. And, and also the beauty way is another force of nature, you know, and so being able to create that sort of, like, heart brain coherence, you know, with our, with what we’re doing on a daily basis, but I would say in general, it would be wonderful to help people learn to slow down. And that’s what ECOSOC cares about normalizing these conversations about it’s okay to take care of you, and do what your body needs today. And the to do list will be there tomorrow, right? So
Shannon M. 39:25
hello. Yeah, absolutely. I had to start cutting my stuff off at a certain time. If I’m not done, I won’t get done today. And the world will not burn down if I do it tomorrow. So it’ll have to be okay. So, and we talk about it every week of wisdom and action based on the dimension of wellness that we’re talking about. So clearly, we’re talking about environmental wellness for you next week. Shannon Willow, what is your wisdom and action that one of them that you’re going to be working on?
Shannon Willow 39:54
Well, with eco soul care, just recently launching, I’ll be reaching out out to people who may need my services. But I’m always I’m always every day, it’s not just next week, it’s like, this morning, I spent a lot of time in the garden, you know, so I’m always in the garden. I like to start the day with appreciation and appreciation list for Mother Earth a gratitude list. Thank you, even for the simple things, you know, and so I’ll be taking care of my strawberries and getting more of my pollinating flowers, you know, taken care of, I’m starting to remove the leaves finally. And so, just loving loving Pachamama in a good way and being in reciprocity with her because she gives so much to me. And she’s like my muse, so I want to take care of her in a good way. And then what I’ll be doing is just having more of these conversations to normalize this conversation of we are in a crisis, we are in a emergency, like your house on fire. So what are we gonna do about it? You know, and we can work together to make little changes, little changes have great impact.
Christine Gautreaux 41:05
So I would say hashtag little changes, hashtag. No hashtags, step by step. Oh, I like that. One. Um, my, my wisdom and action after this conversation would be hashtag, go outside. And really just encouraging folks go outside, take your shoes off, put your feet on the ground, like I listeners know, I love to start the day in my labyrinth and greet in the sun. I was out there this morning. This and just singing to the trees and to the birds and, and listening, like looking for those Little violets looking for those little gifts of nature that just who for me, self care, community care? It’s it’s all of it. So what about you, Shannon?
Shannon M. 41:57
Yes, for me, I say, hashtag going back to glass. I have to. Okay, so hashtag going back to glass. We talked about it? Yes. So step by step reminds me of your incremental steps to Christine that we talked about. I said, I don’t know why Christine likes that. But going back to glass, because it definitely helps with the breakdown of things. You know, that’s what I think about where my trash goes, how I can be responsible with it, and how long it’s gonna take to break down after I use it. So love doing that for the company. And I will say, I also come at it with curiosity. I loved it when you said that Shannon Willow. And that’s one of my goals that I’ve given myself for my occupational wellness as I stepped back into this management position at pappadeaux is okay, there’s a lot of things that you know, that’s why they brought you back, right? What about keeping an open mind to the new systems and the new pieces of information so you can address it in a new way? And come at it with curiosity? I like that.
Christine Gautreaux 42:59
eautiful such a good conversation, y’all. Thank you, Shannon willing for food. Look, my tongue stopped working. We’re after 45 minutes. Thank you, Shannon Willow, for being a part of a show for the work you do in the world for being connected to us. And we will post all your information and how people can find you on our show notes. So your listeners reach out, like reach out, check out Shannon willows work. We’ll put a link to her art page too. Because let me tell you, it is stunning. So reach out and buy some art to because y’all know supporting our local artists and activists is a is a good thing. So thank you, Shannon.
Shannon Willow 43:46
Love your mother earth.
Christine Gautreaux 43:48
Right? Hashtag love. Your mother is such a fun conversation, you know? Yes. Or thing is Friday, but it should be it should be every day. Right? You know,
Shannon M. 44:03
there’s my best friend’s birthday. So I’ve been thinking about it for a long time. But you know that environmental wellness was one of the categories. I was like, what isn’t? When I heard the eight dimensions for the first time I knew that I would need some, some guidance and being wise in this category. And since then, we’ve talked about water being saved in places that are growing food, you know, different ways to think about regional food. We’re talking about loving mother earth. We’ve talked about walks in the wild wildlife, what was it? What was that season one? We were talking about wildlife? What was it? Do you remember? I think it started with the two W’s but
Christine Gautreaux 44:43
thinking about oh, yes, forest bathing. And also I think about Dr. Melissa bird who has the mermaids garden out was one of our guests and we’re and yeah They can Hydrofarm. And I mean, I’m sure everything has a good and a bad, right? So we have to research it. And we have to look and we have to see what lines up with our values. But there is so much good info out there and experts like Shannon Willow who can point you in the right direction of how do we care for Mother Earth? How do we do this? And how do we fall in love with her again, right, and it’d be a healthy relationship, not an abusive relationship. So that’s powerful. Well, my friend, we are almost out of time what’s happening over to Shiloh glow that we need to know about.
Shannon M. 45:36
Oh, so we have officially started the pre order list. So last week, we were talking about being out of the product. That’s a beautiful thing we’ve been working with scared to redesign everything. And now we’re going back to glass, which is the hashtag wisdom and action for this week, right. So if you are interested, and you know that you need a travel Glow Kit for your dry skin as it gets hotter, and you don’t want to worry about it through TSA. If you know that you need a lot, you don’t want to run out and you have a family that’s going to steal it because they will steal it. Go ahead and sign up for the home Glow Kit reach out. And I honestly think that I’m gonna like print something as a warning because it will get stolen. So I think it’s a cute joke, but that’ll warn people because you might need to, instead of just one for yourself because you will be missing yours. But that’s what we’re working on. So if you’re interested again, reach out Instagram, Shayla glow.com I will reach back out and make sure that we get you taken care of when we restart next week.
Christine Gautreaux 46:34
You know, I’m so grateful for you and Shayla glow supporting this show. I also it just hit me because I wanted our friend, Lucy Peters to come on today. And I wanted to give a shout out to her and I will put it out on all our social media. And I will put it out on our show notes. But she her event is coming up this week. Her visa, I think it’s be a sexual healing and it’s about healing ourselves as women. And it’s about because April is sexual survivors of sexual survivors. Month Awareness Month. Okay, I’m probably saying that the wrong way sexual assault survivor. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, and it’s Earth Month, like, April is a big month and it’s like Poetry Month. There’s so many things that happened in April. But she has a really in person event that is happening in Houston this weekend. That’s going to bring all this together with some performance art and women who had been working on this project for nine months and Boosie was what episode was she?
Shannon M. 47:45
She was episode ahead at earlier. Let’s see. Was it 16?
Christine Gautreaux 47:51
Less I want to say it’s been a while. Yeah, she was episode where she I wrote it down to what season it was. We’ll put it in the show notes, folks, Episode 43. In November Gong Rayas Boosey Peters, she’s the founder of Woo. So it’s an organization that supports women. So we’ll put that in there and, and just given a shout out to all our women who are connected, we appreciate you listening. Jump on our social media. Give us a shout out if you have been a listener if you are have been one of our guests. Let us know what you’re up to. Because let’s stay connected. And let’s share the awesome work that we’re doing together. So yes, the stories and the resources. Right. We don’t have to do it by ourselves. No.
Shannon M. 48:42
And in the meantime, hope you ladies have a great week. We will see you back here for this season’s recap next week Live at Five and don’t forget, be well be wise and the whole season
Unknown Speaker 49:03
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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