Show notes –
Shannon & Christine were joined by Carolyn Renee for a conversation about Intellectual Wisdom. Carolyn Renee is the Executive Director of the Arts Xchange in East Point, GA & also the founder of Women Helping Others Achieve.
Website: www.whoahealing.org
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I am Shannon Mitchell, a black millennial business owner, the founder of ShealoGlo, an all-natural handmade shea butter company. I am a champion for your self-care, business care & intentional wellness
and
I am Christine Gautreaux, a white social justice advocate, an international speaker, coach & published author who helps you upgrade your self & community care.
Together we are Women Connected in Wisdom a Podcast grounded in the 8 dimensions of wellness
Join us and special guests for weekly intentional conversations about how to be wise in business, relationships & wellness.
Connect with us on FB, Instagram & YouTube for our live shows on Wednesdays at 5 pm ET & head over to Mighty Networks and join our community at https://women-connected-in-wisdom.mn.co/
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. And today we are going we are going to be talking about intellectual wellness.
Christine Gautreaux 0:50
You know, Shannon, every week, in some weeks, it’s you and me. And then often we invite special guests that where we have intentional conversations about how to be wise and business relationships and wellness. Yeah, I know I say this every time but I am so excited about our guests. I can’t wait our listeners to our guests today.
Shannon M. 1:14
Yes. And no, it doesn’t get old. It really doesn’t.
Christine Gautreaux 1:18
I’m just so grateful that we are connected to so many wise women. I just feel so blessed. Yes. So tell us about intellectual wellness. Wait, before we do that, let’s ground Yes, yes. And just take a deep breath
you know, a couple of weeks ago on our podcast we had Troy and CO Rahim on Bebo love talking about breathe in and breathe out. So let’s just do a breathe in and breathe out with a big old deep sigh This week’s
Shannon M. 2:00
big Yes. And what people love is is breathe in love, breathe out love, right, not just the air. But the love is very important to
Christine Gautreaux 2:11
all right. What sustains us and gets us through on weeks like this
Shannon M. 2:15
the only thing that tethers the sanity to the foundation.
Christine Gautreaux 2:23
We’ll talk about the
Shannon M. 2:26
actual wellness. Yes. And it’s so interesting, right? Because first, we usually think about intellectual intellectual wellness like IQ, how smart is this person, right? But according to the University of Illinois, intellectual wellness actually refers to the act of participation in Scholastic, cultural and community activities. It is important to gain and maintain intellectual wellness, because it expands knowledge and skills in order to live a stimulating and successful life. In order to improve intellectual wellness, it is important to value creativity, curiosity, in lifelong learning. And that has been so revolutionary in my life realizing that hey, even after you graduate college, you now you can pick your own classes, you have to keep learning just because you didn’t get a master’s degree in psychology. Oh, guess what, you still have continued education? You know, when they didn’t tell me that? Yeah. So it’s been great. What do you think about when you hear intellectual wellness?
Christine Gautreaux 3:26
And well, I think about my friend, Carolyn Rene, that we’re gonna bring on in just a few minutes. But cuz I think about when it says the value of creativity, curiosity and lifelong learning. I’m a reader. Right. And when I was when you and I were prepping for the show, some of the questions we came across that asked like, Are you engaged in the process of intellectual wellness? Right? You know, one of the questions was, Are you open to new ideas? Oh, anybody that knows me? Like, especially if you got a new idea, we can jump on it and do it. Right. Do you seek personal growth by learning new skills? Yes, check that box. Right. To our guests to do you search for learning opportunities in stimulating mental activities. Yeah, like, when I when I’m asking these questions, I’m like, doesn’t everybody like? And then do you look for ways to use creativity to that one?
Shannon M. 4:32
Yes. Whoa,
Christine Gautreaux 4:35
I think this may be well, I don’t know. You know, I love all the eight dimensions of wellness. They’re
Shannon M. 4:40
really hard to pick.
Christine Gautreaux 4:42
This one I’m pretty jazzed about is I’ve never thought about it this way before. Exactly. And I think about like intellectual wellness and I think about emotional intelligence and I think about how they gather a tivity and and really what I think Think Shannon is using our whole self,
Shannon M. 5:03
right? Being dimensionally Well, right. Right.
Christine Gautreaux 5:09
Can I tell you about our guest? Of course, are you like, I’m so ready. I’m so excited to have this conversation. So we, I can’t tell you yet because I just got a message. She’s not quite ready to come on. So I was paying attention of all the behind the scenes tech stuff that happened. Right. So let’s chat a little bit more about
Shannon M. 5:38
intellectual wellness.
Christine Gautreaux 5:39
Yeah, about those questions. I know you, I know you to be somebody that is always seeking personal growth by learning new skills. Thank you the entire time I’ve known you. Yeah. You are my friend that if I’m like, What’s the latest on new business? What’s the latest on financial wellness like, Wow, I like what she’s been reading.
Shannon M. 6:08
Compliment me so highly.
Christine Gautreaux 6:12
Right now? Oh, so
Shannon M. 6:14
you know, a great question. So let me get my fingers out. Okay, so we’ve talked about 168 hours, I still haven’t finished that. Okay. So that’s about time management, which is very important, not only to sanity working at home, but also to wealth building, because time and money are directly tied to each other. Right. We talked about emotional wellness, that’s the audio book I listened to. It was an hour long audio book. So I was trying to time myself, I was out working. And I said, You know what, I’m gonna listen to an audio book. And that was great to learn about that. I’m listening to Robert Kiyosaki keys. Which book Am I listening to? Oh, give me a second, because this one is really good. This is about not not the Cashflow Quadrant, I read that that Rich Dad Poor Dad. But oh, I can’t remember right now. But it’s really good. To all of them, right? So those are three that I’m reading right now. And actually, the fourth one that I’ll mention is TSP, traffic sales and profit by Lamar Tyler. This group has been instrumental in my confidence in business, which we talked about, right? You talked about up to date, because I’m plugged in to tsp in Atlanta. So if you guys, you know, want to be plugged in to a bigger community who’s active, actively pouring into the intellectual wellness of entrepreneurs in the Atlanta area. TSP is where I get the juice. Yes, that’s where I found my esthetician.
Christine Gautreaux 7:41
The show notes. Yes. Or LinkedIn to that group in the show notes.
Shannon M. 7:45
Yes. And Robert Kiyosaki his books since I forgot it. And it’s been, even though that his teaching is stretched my mind so much, which is what intellectual wellness is, right? One main person I think about is Robert Kiyosaki. But his, each book is different. And it gives more information. And I really appreciate the fact that he’s not selling books that have the same stuff. And you know, so like he said, I think when I hear these questions, are you open to new ideas? Do you seek personal growth? And how you said it affects relationships that reminds me of communication, which all of us struggle with, right? Everybody’s like, Oh, I forgot to call you back. I’m sorry, I forgot to call you back. Christine. Actually, you called me and I forgot to call you back. Right? We’re bad at communication is hilarious. But we can be open to new ideas, you know, this person is not the last person and continue to grow, learn new information and get new skills under our belt and continue to get better each day will affect every area of your wellness. Because if you’re not open to new ideas, it doesn’t matter if you’re talking about physically doing yoga, or running or financially, and you’re tracking your expenses and your revenue. Like we talked about on our first clip house room, our chat room that we had this past Wednesday. Or Monday, it was Monday actually, excuse me Monday from 1230 to 130.
Christine Gautreaux 9:11
Give a shout out for this white middle aged white woman being on clubhouse.
Shannon M. 9:16
Christine, Christine have a profile I should have checked before right
Christine Gautreaux 9:19
now. My friend. Thanks for remembering Shay Mitchell. Right. Carolyn raise other two like It’s wild. All right. I have to tell you about my friend Carolyn Renee. Yes. I’m so excited. And like with other folks that I’m friends with, I’m going to read the official bio, so I don’t blow it because you know, otherwise I just say she’s awesome.
Shannon M. 9:46
But we need to know the details.
Christine Gautreaux 9:48
Let me read you some official stuff, right. Okay. Renee serves as the executive director for the southeast community cultural center, which we know is the arts exchange. It’s a 37 year old black lead art and justice nonprofit in Atlanta, Georgia. She is a teaching and performing artist, an organizer and Wellness Consultant. She is also an expert in the field of nonprofit development. For two decades, she’s worked closely with artists, healers and nonprofits to develop programs and services that impact positive change. This included but not limited to organization, organizing anti racism workshops, healing workshops, learning exchanges, retreats and showcases. As a teaching artist for the last decade, Carolyn Renee has taught playwriting with synchronicity theaters playmaking for girls program. playmaking for girls empowers the voices of women and girls who are refugees in foster care in detention centers. Through playmaking. In 2015. Carolyn Rene received funding for her second play the mother daughter dialogues. In 2020, she launched the power of play up limit upliftment portals on Zoom, we call them pop ups I’ve been I’ve been privileged to be a part of those with her an initiative to empower the world with online platforms through interplay, an art based system used to bring peace, ease and power to the human body. As a certified Interplay leader, and Interplay Lee interplays, liaison to black and brown leaders, Carolyn, Renee works with other leaders to address issues of racism, and to curate black and brown spaces that help unpack and release the traumas unique to black and brown bodies, honoring the fullness of all her gifts, because she has a lot of them. Yes, brings in family traditions in the healing arts by integrating them with her art based practices. She uses Carolyn Renee as her first and last name. And she is also the founder of women helping others achieve. So I want to welcome to the podcast, my dear friend and call Carolyn Renee. Yay.
Carolyn Renee 12:10
Hey, how are y’all doing today? Carolyn? How are you? I’m grateful to be here with you all enjoying your chat amongst each other while I was in the green room? Yes. Thank
Shannon M. 12:24
you so much.
Christine Gautreaux 12:26
I’m sorry. It’s not like a like invert person green room because we would have had some dark chocolate with sea salt in there for you and normies. But you know, virtual just doesn’t provide the same green room experience.
Carolyn Renee 12:41
It’s all good. I’m doing wrong today. Anyway, so I got me around browning.
Shannon M. 12:47
Good. Good job.
Carolyn Renee 12:49
Yeah.
Christine Gautreaux 12:50
Well, you heard us talking about about intellectual wellness. And I thought you were the perfect guest to have on for this topic. Carolyn Renee will be good. When I think about your active participation in Scholastic, cultural and community activities. You do all those? Like tell us what you’ve been up to lately?
Carolyn Renee 13:19
Oh, am J? Can I know seriously, I’m working on a, you know, got certified in Hatha Yoga back in 2019. And my teacher and mentor, Dr. Akula Gray, who is the founder of an organization called life of peace education and wellness Institute. And you know, we’ve been working together for over 10 years. And she wanted me to teach, you know, she likes to bring you out, right, everything you got. I’m gonna wring it out at you. So she knew I had gotten a yoga certification. So Carolyn, I want you to teach my students yoga. She certifies naturopaths. And so she has some students that are on a two year track with her. And so they’re being empowered and detox therapy, Reiki, everything. So anyway, she said, I want you to build in the yoga component, and she wants to focus to be commanded yoga. Okay, so that’s what I’ve been up to. I’ve been immersed in a committed yoga class so that I can build on the knowledge that I’ve had my first class to the students, so I gave them all the Hatha Yoga business. And so now, this class is coming up in March is all about Kemetic yoga, and so we know who the foremost is in the world and I had the fortune of getting an email that he’s teaching starting January 9, and I’m like, Okay, I want to pro row seat. Yeah, so that’s what I have been up to.
Christine Gautreaux 15:01
Oh, would you say? Always?
Carolyn Renee 15:06
Always Learning? Sorry. No, it’s all good. So only learning is a lifelong lifelong
Shannon M. 15:20
I’m sorry, man. Sounds good. I can’t even hear Do you hear me coming out really careless? Or do I sound distorted?
Carolyn Renee 15:31
You sound good right now. But there was a moment. So but we’re good.
Shannon M. 15:36
Okay. Okay, I still hear a little bit of feedback, but we’ll keep going. So I wanted to ask you about your work with mothers and daughters, with interplay and how you feel like that ties into intellectual wellness, and then learning more things that they didn’t know before they started.
Carolyn Renee 15:55
Okay. Thank you for that question. So, you know, real thing with the mothers and daughters work has been more an initiative of my own. And it really began before I became an official certified Interplay leader. I, my own daughter, who is now 27, and will be 28, in a couple of weeks on March 17, had gotten herself into some trouble in the earlier 20s, right before 25, and, you know, I remember us driving down the street and talking about her situation. And we both made this agreement, well, maybe we should use, you know, we both artists, so you know, maybe we should use our art to address this for other mothers and daughters. And so this idea came forth for the mother daughter dialogues, which was loosely based on her story, where she had, you know, gotten herself into the stripping industry. And she is a professional dancer, not a stripper. But she is a professional dancers. She’s been dancing since she was three years old. But she had gone to Clark Atlanta on scholarship, you know, and I often laugh about it now, because I remember when she graduated from high school, she had to clinking metals, right. So she had all these awards, just top of the class, then went over to Clark Atlanta and got caught up in me started off really well. But then I don’t know what this thing. You know, she wanted to get in that industry. And so long story short, it led to a felony, which got ultimately a sponge. But you know, she learned great lessons. She went back, got a degree and is now doing taxes and pursuing her accounting profession. Something she’s interested in, and she dances but she wants to help artists with their finances. But anyway, she became the catalysts for a mother daughter dialogue. So what we did is convene community circles with mothers and daughters. And we started with my mother, who lives in St. Croix. And so she came up to Atlanta. And I started with my two daughters, and a host of other mothers and daughters. At a restaurant in West Dan called Tassili spa reality, and she has a upstairs healing room, then, so that’s where the mother daughter dialogues were born.
Shannon M. 18:43
I love Thank you very much.
Carolyn Renee 18:47
Oh, you’re welcome. Thank you for letting me share, of course.
Christine Gautreaux 18:55
I think that when I think about your body of work, Carolyn, Renee, I, sometimes I hesitate to even know where to jump in, because it’s so awesome. Between your play your playmaking your playwright, the work you do with Interplay now. And in the arts exchange, like you, you use both sides of your brain, right? You you do the art and the creativity, and you do the administration and the finding grant funding in holding it all together and holding it down and owning your own business. And you know, we talk about wellness. And I know this a little bit because I’m your friend, but what are some of your wellness practices? Because you got like you’re holding down a lot. So what are some of your best practices?
Carolyn Renee 19:53
I can honestly tell you, one of my teachers Her name is Queen a fool But, and she is the author of a book called sacred woman. And in the second woman book, she has these nine gateways, and is simply a brilliant piece of work that she’s created. Now she’s, you know, she’s she’s always been global, she’s been global for a long, long time. She’s been at this work for about since the 70s. And so I use sacred woman. And again, I reference my teacher, Dr. Akula. Gray, who also works with we work together Akula and I, we’ve created a system called sacred goddess temple. So in both systems, there are just so many gems to help you with your care. And WellCare, as we like to call it, but so there’s a sacred bat, you know. And so in every gateway, you’re focused on a particular goddess, and it is a chromatic based system. So it’s like, no wonder that I’m, you know, learning kinetic yoga. So they are goddesses, they’re committed goddesses, and Quina, foo has just tapped into the energy of each one of those, right? So from your food, to your sacred beauty, to your, your, so it’s what you eat is what you put inside your body. So your internal care, right, so you know, not just the outside, but, you know, I won’t detail the inside cleanliness. You know, there’s things that we do to help us be well on the inside out. So that’s really how I keep it together. And I have to tell you, that Kemetic yoga, it has been, it has opened my mind and in ways you couldn’t have even told me so I really was all I was already very indebted to my teacher. And now for her to lead me to Liz indirectly, because I’m taking it so that I can honor her school. And really make sure the students get what they need. And in the process, you know, it has just been the greatest gift.
Christine Gautreaux 22:20
I would love to hear a little more about that Carolyn today, because I’ve practiced hatha yoga for years, my little 15 minute, me and Ronnie II in the morning, you know, I guess you could call it practice, it’s 15 minutes. But well, how what’s the difference between those two practices?
Carolyn Renee 22:37
Well, I would say tremendous difference. And so I would encourage your listeners, and if this is also visual to you know, do their own research, but chromatic yoga, proceeded hatha yoga. And so it’s, you know, African civilization has informed everything we do today. And just like today, in the 20th century, in the 19th century, all in the 18th century, you know, where brown people have contributed to most things that we take advantage of from the traffic light, everything, you know, and most times, unfortunately, have been ripped off. And so the same thing is unfortunately true when you look at the yoga so I would say, the system itself, so it’s very different from the Hatha Yoga, no knock on Ronnie, because I think I got one of his videos from when I was studying, not the yoga. But the Kemetic yoga system is really about aligning our energy with the gods and goddesses of, of Egypt, you know, and there are pyramids. And there are hieroglyphics written on the wall, the system, the system is there, you know, is undisputable. And so, that’s what I have to say that I love about it. So when you think about the energy of God or a goddess, you know, when you think about energy of gods and goddesses, you know, and of course, we’ve been taught, you know, blasphemy, you know, you couldn’t, you know, but we’re great. And so that is the difference. So this morning before I left home, you know, every morning and I felt it, I did it last night, when I got back home, and I was just sharing with another practitioner, I got to get in and in the morning because I noticed like my energy has been off the charts today. From you know, taking that time in the morning to ground my energy. Yeah,
Shannon M. 24:59
absolutely. And I know you said your daughter has been working on getting her accounting and different certification, right? I love that she’s in the finance industry and helping people with her finances, because that’s so important. But when I think about pay yourself first, I think about time and money at the same time, just like we said at the beginning of the podcast, right? And I definitely feel a difference in working out and being grounded different ways in the morning.
Christine Gautreaux 25:28
Like paying your energy first. Yes, yes. And thank you for that clarification, Carolyn, Renee, I had never heard of Kemetic yoga until you started taking this class and talking about it. And so thank you, and we will put a link to it in our show notes for our listeners, if y’all want to check it out and do some research on it. And I love that. So I think we may have just gotten a secret Shannon, to how he does all the things. Right?
Shannon M. 26:03
Yeah. And I love what she said about being connected to because especially as a Christian, right, you do want to be careful with the things that you follow and believe in and were taught certain things like you said, but me being confident in the body that I’m in does not mean that I’m saying God is not a god, you know, those two things are not mutually exclusive. And especially here in the United States, I think that that’s not always the conversation that’s had. So I definitely appreciate the perspective.
Christine Gautreaux 26:35
Now, I read this in your bio, but I also have some living experience with it, because I have been privileged to be one of your collaborators in this work. But Carolyn, and I would love for you to talk a little bit about your anti racism work using somatic body practices and inner bliss, and your work at Arts exchange. And like, I know you as a fierce community organizer, and somebody that makes a difference in the world. So I’d love for you to talk about that a little bit with our listeners.
Carolyn Renee 27:10
Sure. Thank you so much, Christine, you know, in the work, you know, just like how did I even get into anti racism work, I knew I was working as an arts administrator in Mississippi at the Mississippi Arts Commission. And it was kind of interesting, like, as soon as I got that job, I was over a Artspace Community Development Department who had a grant for $10,000. From alternate routes, in Little did I know, I’d be, you know, catapulted into running that organization, maybe four years after working in that department. But it was really through that grant that we had with alternate routes, an organization that was committed to undoing racism as they were calling it back in the day. So I believe my immersion in the anti racism work, really start to take root no pun intended, or maybe pun intended. It began to take root in alternate routes, but I was interested, I think I started to wake up, you know, because I was married and living in Mississippi. And I just started learning more like I learned about the Southern Poverty Law Center, and they had written this book, and I think I still have that book at home. And it’s got all these, it’s like, these stories about all of these black men have been lynched, right. And so I even wrote an initiative a couple, sometime ago, of another play I want to do to address some of that, but that’s neither here nor there. But I just think that it just started to come alive in me, you know, living in Mississippi, and then as a teaching artists in Mississippi, not only working for the Arts Commission, I would go on my off days to the delta. And, you know, so I got to see oppression firsthand, right? And I was first called the N word in Mississippi. You know, on one of my visits, I was raised up north. So every summer we go to Mississippi, and I was called the N word when I was a little girl. So these things just kind of stuck with me. And so fast forward to our work in interplay. I think it’s just something I care about. And so, you know, in the interplay, we did a project about a couple years ago with the Kandla Park by ratio History Project. And Edith Kelman and I are just friends from routes. You know, when I was running routes, we became friends, but it was just like, hey, how you doing? I see each other in the community. And then I knew about her by racial history project and that’s it. To her, we were in passing and so we should collaborate. And she’s like, Yeah, we should like BAM Sankofa communities were born, was born out of just, you know, us passing and then we had tea with Jennifer and then you and then we all started to just built together because gentrification was a thing. And so that project lent itself to us bringing Interplay into the community. And so that’s just kind of how it’s continued to unfold, you know, just Okay, where’s the issue? Okay, how can we apply Interplay to bring some some light in love to it more than anything?
Shannon M. 30:43
And I love that answer. And I know that you said, the book that you read was neither here nor there, and not in a minimalizing type of way at all. I know, that’s not how you meant it. But I would say it actually is very central to exactly what we’re talking about, right? A lot of times, these dimensions of wellness can end up talking or sounding like physical wellness, you guys are just talking about dancing? Well, no, we’re really talking about learning new things and how to stay open and staying grounded so that you can stay open during the day to, you know, the different situations and opportunities like you say that come your way. And for Black History Month, one of our women in our manifestation, Monday’s mastermind, Tracy challenged us to be fearless for February, right. And fearless is actually one of my words for this year. But I took on her challenge. And I read this book that my boyfriend’s granddad gave us when we went to Atlantic City for Christmas. And it completely changed my life. And we’ve been talking about it on a Minute Manifestation Monday’s call. But lynching directly affects how black people approach wellness. I mean, all of it affects how we approach wellness. But when we’re talking about interplay, Christina has invited me for it, it’s the third year and I have yet to go, you know, and not because, excuse me, I’m avoiding it or anything like that. But even as somebody who has worked out and has been in band and cheerleading, and done physical activities, I knew that when I heard about it, it was something that we didn’t always have access to, or didn’t always use time to go and be intentional about you know, so that’s why I love your story. And how you’ve had the opportunity to be your intellect and with your creativity, because a lot of times we’re either a not told not to do that. Or we’re told that they’re opposites. And we forget that the creativity can make the intellect even higher, because it’s your curiosity and the creativity of the way you see things coming together. That makes the picture so beautiful. And for us to really be able to be dimensionally Well, you know, to be able to help our daughters from one place to another and support her through that is a feat.
Christine Gautreaux 33:02
Carolyn Renee, talk about the points of connection within her play and the work you’re doing with the bipoc community there because I think that really addresses what Shannon just spoke to about, about interplay and wellness and birthright practices.
Carolyn Renee 33:24
Cool. Yeah. Thank you so much, Christine. So I think, I think are born into my fourth year as interplays, co liaison to people of color, or brown and black people. And we really started that as just a way to bring brown and black bodies together to play and when George Floyd was murdered, and we had all that, you know, time to be in our homes that just call to us in a huge way. And then there was this artist can’t remember his name, the young man who sang the song I just want to live, you know, so I can’t remember his name. But anyways, that song was just touching all of us so deeply in the moment was touching us so deeply. And so yes to the points of connection, that’s the fourth Wednesday of every month, and yeah, today’s the fourth Wednesday, and it happened today at 12. So we do different time zones, because inner players are all over the world. And they can interface with this points of connection isn’t our power, right? The points of connection, but it started four years ago, and it’s purely play and win after the murders of George Floyd and Rihanna Taylor and Maude Aubrey, you know, we were just everybody was suffering and so we created another place is called a sacred space holding. And that is on the first Monday in the third Monday. So it’s something that we started. Because of that, you know, it’s like people needed a place a sacred space holding place. And so that’s what we do, we come together as so it’s two different things, the points of connection for Wednesday, for bipoc is where we come together and just play for an hour. And then the sacred space holding on Mondays. And the first and third Mondays is where people can come together and just have space held for them. You know, we still have a theme that we might play with like last week, it was on the third Monday, and it was the Monday after Valentine’s Day. So we were playing with the energy of the heart chakra. So we were playing with emerald green, and you know, the some other things related to the heart, right. But ultimately, a place where people could come in, hold each other and be held.
Shannon M. 36:04
I love that. And I did not know that emerald was related to the heart. That’s my birthstone My birthday is May 17. So when you said your daughter’s is March 17, I say let’s go 17 babies were different. You know?
Christine Gautreaux 36:20
Y’all are go getters for sure.
Shannon M. 36:23
Yes. But it’s I think it’s so important. You know, I can’t downplay even without having gone to an interplay class yet. How important I feel like it is I love playing like a little kid. I’m very serious. And you got to get your work done first, you know, but in order to really live to the fullest be dimensionally well, like, relax. It’s not that serious. You know what I mean? Like, we got to let this stuff go. But it is that serious because Brianna was sleep. That’s crazy. You know, I mean, like, I look like Brianna, you telling me you’re not gonna call somebody like, Shannon was nice, but oh, well, like, but when we talk about lynching, right? If we said anything, I might be lynched if I say anything, so the fact that we can just talk about it on social media is a huge step. You know what I mean, and still be out here on a podcast with women the next day. So when I run four times a week, I run for you in mind, you know, what I mean? When I’m out here, doing my business is because of stuff like this is crazy, you know, but it’s about us taking care of ourselves, and being connected with the people who are going to help. And historically that has been women. And here we are connected in wisdom, you know, grounded, and in the eight dimensions of wellness, because we’re going to live phenomenally, and so phenomenally, and so, I appreciate you, women, helping me create history, because that’s crazy. And I can’t even say it won’t happen to me, because I go to sleep every night. And you try to keep your blood sugar down, you try to keep your blood pressure down, you know, and laugh and just play and be able to live life and, and think about hobbies and what you’re going to do in five years and investments that’s a long way away, you know, and so that’s why it’s so important for us to have these conversations. It seems simple, but it’s not easy to do this stuff with everything that lives, you know, brings brings to the table so we got to be connected. And play a little bit.
Christine Gautreaux 38:23
Carolyn, and I I am so grateful you joined us today, and I know you are you live one of the most full lives, I always get annoyed when people tell me I’m too busy. So I’m not gonna say you live a busy life. I’m gonna say you live one of the most full and engaging lives of the people that I know. And I am just so grateful that you took time to be with us today. And we will we what we’ve started doing, Carolyn, and I haven’t even told you this yet is we started on Mondays having a conversation on clubhouse to follow up from our podcast. So if people our listeners want to be on and have the conversation with us, so Monday we will be in a clubhouse room and talking about intellectual wellness. And so if you I know you are like working your tail off, but if you can join us we would love to have you in the clubhouse room with us and continue this conversation.
Carolyn Renee 39:24
Well, I appreciate that in by do let me know I do have a spa day on Monday with my daughter. So that’s important. That is very important. So not not the daughter I told you about this is known unknown and I are going to the spa on Monday. Yeah,
Shannon M. 39:41
thank you so much for coming onto our podcast.
Carolyn Renee 39:44
Oh, thank you, Shannon. And thank you, Christine. Yes, very much. So appreciate it. And I put something in the chat box to Christine because I think if my mathematics was adding up correctly that this could be the Shannon that makes the mango shake
Shannon M. 40:00
Barbara, yes. Okay,
Carolyn Renee 40:02
I need some more Christina to get in touch with me send me your invoice. I’ll send you the place where to ship it to.
Shannon M. 40:09
Okay
Carolyn Renee 40:12
Yes, thank you so much.
Shannon M. 40:14
You’re so welcome. Look at it. And this is why you’re my shaver. Oh Christine, you see what I’m talking about?
Christine Gautreaux 40:25
About would not find like know her. Like of course you need to know Carolyn Renee we got to be connected. Right? Talking about Shea row tell folks what that is when our sponsor Shayla glow talk about that.
Shannon M. 40:43
Yes. So Shea rose are I put together that word hero and shea butter right but it’s the person in your community, your Carolyn Renee that’s helping you do different situations. A normal person, right a normal woman that does uncommon things in the community in the way that she gives her community the way that she takes care of herself. And you know that without her your life would not be the same. You know, I think that we know at least one woman in our life. When we look back on how it would have gone have they not been there. And a lot of times because women take care of everybody else. We’re sick. People don’t ask us if we’re okay. Did you drink some water? How do you sleep? Did you eat something before you cook for the next 16 people and then eat whatever is cold at the bottom of the whatever you cook it you know we got to take care of ourselves. So Shayla glow my handmade shea butter company. We were going to honor the Shea rose while they’re here, right. And I give a care package that is tailored to each person, once a quarter and once every three months. And we’re going to honor our lady so if you know somebody that you love and adore that is changed her life. Email Cheryl nomination to Shiloh glow@gmail.com. And we will put her in the consideration to get one we have the first announcement coming up. I’m not going to tell you ladies right now you got to stay tuned. Okay. But if you know somebody that you want to take care of and send a self care package, nominate them. And they will be in the consideration.
Christine Gautreaux 42:11
And we’ll put that info in the show notes also. Yes, we put that in the show notes. Yes, of course. Well, this has just been an awesome conversation. Shannon, what did you pull out of what Carolyn Renee said? Or what we’ve talked about so far on intellectual wellness? Was there anything that really stood out to you today that you want to chew on a little bit this week?
Shannon M. 42:37
What I want to chew on my wisdom in action, right is the sacred woman, but then she was talking about and then nine gateways. You know, again, I want to be intentional about my faith. Of course, with everything going on. Again, that’s helped me keep my sanity. But I think as a black woman, I was realizing that I didn’t even look myself in the mirror all the way, Christine before before quarantine slowed all of us down. I didn’t I couldn’t tell you what my ears look like. Do you know what your belly button looks like right now? You know what I mean? Do you know what your pinky toe looks like? I didn’t know what beak so we have to spend more time with ourselves. So I love baths. She said something about a bath. You know, and if I can do this Sacred Path. Right? Right. Let me find out about that. And so I just want to be intentional in every way. You know, I don’t think there’s anything. Let’s just be transparent, right? I don’t think there’s anything demonic with me being mindful of my mind being open in my voice being heard in my heart being open and me being connected to my body. You know, that just sounds like being dimensionally well. And I’ll pray about it. And me and God will continue on with our relationship, you know, but sacred woman, I definitely want to look more into that.
Christine Gautreaux 43:51
Well, you know, if it’s a book, it got your attention and your books out a bookshelf this weekend, I was doing some decluttering I’m taking this new program called shine on and it’s really about decluttering and clearing clutter from your energy and your house and your and you know, so even before that the class started. I I was you know, it’s kind of cleaning. It’s like, like you clean before the made times not that I made. But you know, that whole concept of the company comes Yeah, so I was cleaning before the class started about decluttering because I felt like it was one layer. And books are always the hardest. Like, I just like, Oh, but I did get I did put a few in the donate pile and I was proud of what I was like, okay. But yeah, that the whole, like open to new ideas and they’re in the learning and are we open to it? We can always say no, thank you, right? We can research something and we can say no, that doesn’t align with me. Well, you open to it. Yes, I think the part of the intellectual wellness is not saying, you know, my way is the only way.
Shannon M. 45:10
Right. And so go ahead. I’m sorry. Go ahead.
Christine Gautreaux 45:14
Well, I was just thinking about even when we talk about this about the anti racism, right? Because we live in the United States in a white dominant culture. It’s very easy, especially for white people to say my ways, the only way. And that’s what’s gotten us into some white supremacy and some really bad stuff this year. I was nervous, but I’m trying not. You know, it’s I think the thing about opening ourselves to new ideas, new cultures, people, backgrounds that don’t look like us, or aren’t our same ages, or may not have the same religious beliefs as we do. I love that. That’s a part of wellness.
Shannon M. 45:55
Absolutely. And it’s so interesting, right? Like, I’ve always been an honor student, but as soon as somebody said, Hey, you should start a business, I shut it down immediately. And I was like, whoa, I’m usually open to new ideas. Why did I say no to myself so quick. And I realized that, and I realized that I was wrong to think that way, you know, and then I hear I am with my own business, and we’re doing all this great stuff, you know, because I changed my mind. But it also reminds me of how I instead of a bucket list, I love to do things for the first time. You know, so my thing, Christine, and it was interesting seeing the picture of these people climbing the wall at the capital, because the things I say no to and they just clearly said, Yes, I should say yes to myself more often, because I’m only limiting myself, right. But it’s just it’s completely different. But to stay sane.
Christine Gautreaux 46:44
I’ll be real about that. If people look like you had been climbing the capital has been completely different outcome.
Shannon M. 46:51
Breanna was sleep, we can’t even sleep. We’re not we, yeah, no, we’re not protecting ourselves. When we’re pregnant with warning shots, I can’t carry Skittles down the road, I can’t run an exercise and do cardio, you know what I mean? So I just bind all of that stuff. And instead, I have to be aware of the environment that I’m in, but then operate somewhere else. And so instead of bringing about this person in their corner of their, you know, rocking chair, wherever they are in their house, comfortable, let me live my life. So instead of, again, a bucket list and thinking about death, which is what happens when, after slavery and being controlled to whole communities repeatedly lynched is hard not to think about that. I flip it, and we’re going to do stuff for the first time. So I went on a motorcycle, you know, it’s a black Bike Week, I went zip lining, I go skydiving, and I try things for the first time. And then if you try it quicker, and you realize you don’t like it, then you just save the eight years that you would have thought about it and took five minutes and said a definite no and moved on. And that’s what’s been so liberating for me for, you know, focusing on intellectual one is, it’s not just your IQ, I’m really smart. That’s great. You know, you can work on that you can read some books, have somebody read them to you, but they can’t make you open to eating better so that your your physical wellness is better, and your emotional wellness is better. And then overall, your whole life is changed,
Christine Gautreaux 48:13
and how it all comes together. Right?
Shannon M. 48:15
Exactly.
Christine Gautreaux 48:16
I love that last question about do you look for ways to use creativity? I’m gonna hell yes. On that one. I’m getting better. At No, I see you as creative, my friend when I like you, when I look at even your product line, and like, that’s your art. Right? That is your art. And everybody’s art looks different. But that I see that creativity in you. And, and so yeah, I just, I’m going to be my wisdom and action this week. Like, I’m going to be thinking about this. And so, you know, what do I want to do about intellectual wellness, and this week? And what does that mean? You know, I’m new class through Tufts University. So I feel like I’m doing good there on the Scholastic right, great. Yeah. And then yeah, so we’d love ladies and our listeners, if you will tag us if you are doing some wellness this week, any of the eight dimensions of wellness really, but if you’re also doing some intellectual wellness this week, tag us on wisdom and action. So if you hear this podcast and you’re thinking, oh, yeah, do that. Join us. Join us in this movement of wellness and taking care of ourselves and each other.
Shannon M. 49:40
Yes, yes. I love it. And again, it’s really a daily reminder when we hear these stories, I wish that you could prevent it. Right, but you can’t. And so what we’re doing well, we haven’t done that yet. Okay, so what what what I focus on instead is adding more to each day, taking a second to be intense. about what I put on my body, what I’m learning how I handle situations. And I look forward to the stories of the with wisdom and action in you ladies and gentlemen doing the same. We will see you next Wednesday here live at five. And don’t forget, be well be wise
Christine Gautreaux 50:17
and the whole board my friend See you soon
Unknown Speaker 50:26
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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