Please note, this is an automated transcript so it is not 100% accurate.

Guy (00:11):
Beautiful. We’re recording Josie. Welcome to the podcast.

Josie (00:14):
Hello. It’s good to be here.

Guy (00:16):
I ask everyone on the show, if a complete stranger sat next to you at an intimate dinner party and they asked you what you did for a living, what would you say?

Josie (00:27):
I awaken hearts.

Guy (00:30):
Huh? Amazing. What would be the response to that? Do you, do you think as humanity, we are closer to connect, reconnect into our heart.

Josie (00:41):
I think the world is calling for us to awaken to our hearts. I think the mind has been in charge for way too long and the world now needs a new paradigm if we are going to survive. And I see this so much disconnection in the world and that doesn’t happen here in the head. It happens here in the heart. So yeah, I get interesting reactions. <laugh>

Guy (01:12):
Totally, it’s kind of, you know, I, that was the last I wasn’t expecting that answer at all. And it’s the perfect intro because as a man and a, a guy from Wales that used to play rugby and drink beer and the thought of awakening, the heart was just ridiculous to me, honestly, like going back, I see my old self 20 years ago. Like what does that even mean? I remember somebody saying to me, you know, close your eyes and imagine a flower opening in your, and it’s like, forget about it. You know, I run a mile <laugh> yeah. You know, so how, and I never understood that it, that, that it was a real thing. It wasn’t just a metaphorical thing. How would you explain it to somebody? What it means?

Josie (01:55):
I, I don’t even try. I just say, Hey, if you’re curious and you are willing and open to experience what it means, give me a call.

Guy (02:07):
Amazing.

Josie (02:08):
There’s no point. I found guy trying to explain it to someone who’s not open to the idea. Um, and the purpose of it, people either get it or they don’t mm-hmm <affirmative> sometimes they get it and they’re not ready. That’s a different thing altogether, but generally, if people are intrigued, they’re, they’re absolutely, uh, willing to dip their feet right. In

Guy (02:29):
Beautiful. Was your heart always open or did it have to be opened?

Josie (02:37):
I think. Okay. So I’m gonna get really personal, really straight away please. Um, I was born with trauma. Okay. And my heart was intentionally, uh, protected from the moment I was born to prevent attachment, uh, to prevent hurt and rejection, which really was exacerbated by the fact that I wouldn’t allow love in. And even growing up whenever mom or someone tried to cuddle me, I would, my body would just brace and cringe. And for years and years, I couldn’t understand what it was about and where it came from because I knew it forever. And it wasn’t wasn’t until I was learning neuroscience. I did master’s studies in neuroscience that the lecturer was a psychotherapist. And he said to, and I was getting like straight 90 in the 90th percentile for everything. And I loved it. I was just taking it all in and really understanding how the brain works and how we need to understand the neuroscience within our systems so that we have greater command over it, rather than being commanded by these internal systems.

Josie (04:01):
And the lecturer said to me, Josie, from everything you’ve studied so far, is there still a question that you have that we haven’t been able to answer and help you with? I said, actually there is. And he said, what is there? And I told him, I said, I have this pattern of bracing and not allowing love fully in. And I’d really love to get a handle on that. And he took me through a process. It was kind of like past life regression, but not was timeline therapy and took me to pre-birth. So I was fetus and hearing a conversation between my parents and making a decision before I was born to shut it out, to shut anyone out, to not allow anyone to get close to me because of what I heard. And he said, did that conversation actually happen? Because I repeated it word for word in Italian, and I don’t speak fluent Italian anymore.

Josie (05:03):
I understand it, but I don’t speak it necessarily. And I said, yes, it did. He said, how do you know? I said, cuz I heard it. And he was like completely blown away. And so was I, and it was several months later that I actually had the courage and opportunity to ask my mother, if that conversation actually occurred. And I was able to witness in the moment how I personally go from sad to mad and shut down when I get challenged by something like this. And I looked at mum and she said, how could you possibly know that? And I said, cuz I heard it. And she was just, she knows I’m weird anyway, but this completely blew, blew that out of the water. And she said, um, don’t you think for one second that your father and I didn’t love you. I said, actually it’s not about that. I said, have you noticed mom that every time you try to hug me, I cringe and she started crying. She said, you’ve done that all your life. I said, yeah. I said, I don’t like it anymore than you do, but I now understand why I do it and I don’t need to anymore. I can hear it right now in this conversation with you.

Josie (06:23):
Wow. And that was it. That was like the floodgates opened up and I started feeling things and I cried a lot <laugh> and then I’ve had several, uh, other opportunities to really burst my heart open usually through tragedy and loss, um, and grief. But then through that, that cracking, if you like the breaking, there was this massive expansion.

Guy (06:49):
That’s incredible. Thank you for sharing share. And, and I’m thinking of everyone listening today because we all have traits and I guess there’s a personality, but then we have behaviors that are just bubbling away under the surface. And, and like you said, and there’s these deep seated ways of being these feelings that we just can’t put a finger to it. And I always say it’s like, when I realized I was like pulling a splinter out of my soul, it was like something so deep that I, I couldn’t even put words until it happened. And then it was like, I get it now I get it. But until you get there, so I’m fascinated, especially with your experience, you know, like you said, you have a you’ve studied neuroscience is what is that leading to is that lead or lending to the fact that every moment is shaping who we are being under the conscious mind or does are the body remembering holding onto

Josie (07:49):
Well, there’s so many ways to answer that question. I think it’s the unconscious brain mm-hmm <affirmative> that has patterns embedded from repetition and habits and, and experiences that we’ve directly had and also traumatic experiences that get embedded at a cellular level. So we don’t just remember traumatic experience. You’ll find that your body relives a traumatic experience when you simply remember it. So it’s not just remembered by the brain. The body actually starts to engage and remembers the sensations connected to that traumatic experience just by thinking about the memory. And so for me, it’s a multifaceted answer. And so when people come to me generally for executive coaching, they never in a million years think that we’re going to be having very deeply trans formally ative conversations about previous events and traumas that they’ve experienced in their lives that are shaping how they show up in the world.

Josie (08:55):
It is professionally or personally, particularly in the heart space. When they’re most feeling vulnerable, we often will ask ourselves the questions. Why do I do that? Why does this keep happening to me? But we don’t actually answer it. And that’s what I help people actually uncover, not just the why, but to understand that the version of you that created that protective program is not the version of you that exists today. Therefore, that program is a previous, uh, version that is no longer valid or useful or good for you. So how do you remove that version or upgrade to a new, well, you need to come to it with a different level of consciousness.

Guy (09:47):
Hmm. A different level of awareness, isn’t it? Yeah. On your journey then what led you to look into the neurosciences? Cause I believe, you know, you even mentioned when you emailed, you’ve had your own challenges in life and you spoke about cancer as well, which I’m interested to get into, uh, in a moment, what led you to want to dive deeper into this work?

Josie (10:11):
Well, first of all, the fact that I was, I, I live in a world where I’m encouraging people to transform their thinking and their behaviors and what I was always curious about before that when I had a corporate world, um, I was the head of learning and development for a large blue chip organization. And what puzzled me is that we would spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on really good quality development programs. People would come back to work and do what they always did before. So there was this innate resistance to change, even though it was good for you. And so I got curious about what is it that blocks people’s potential for change in transformation? Then there was also my inquiry around, I was diagnosed with cancer in 19 one and I was given six months to live. Oh wow. Now nothing could ever have prepared me for that experience.

Josie (11:14):
I was super fit, never drank, never smoked, no one in my family had ever had cancer. And in those days, if you heard the word cancer, there was an automatic assumption that you were going to die. Whereas today we have a lot more, um, options in terms of treatments and, and healing modalities available to us. But back then, we really didn’t have much at all. So at 24, I didn’t know enough about it. I didn’t know very much about it at all. When the doctor uttered the words, I kind of had some cognitive appreciation for it, but I didn’t fully understand what it meant. And so he was puzzled by my naive response. I was like, oh yeah. <laugh>. And he was like, do you understand what I’ve just said? I said, yeah. He said, do you know what malignant means? I said, yeah. And he said, well, now that we’ve removed only part of the cancer, we actually need to go in and remove your whole thyroid because it will be spreading right now.

Josie (12:17):
They had no clue that it was going to be malignant cancer. They’d made an assumption that it was a cyst and it was going to be harmless. So we didn’t bother with a biopsy. Hmm. So we did a, another surgery the next day. And what I’ve learned from all of that, like I flat lined, I had the near death experiences and that was amazingly profound is that I’ve been around people with cancer a lot. I do a lot of, um, pro bono work for cancer and leukemia patients. And that’s my give back because I know what it feels like to be in those shoes. I know that the fear that people live with, I know how to transform the fear. I know how to support the families. I know the conversations to have, I know the conversations not to have. And so it’s all about supporting and serving this community.

Josie (13:10):
But I was always curious about why did I survive people with lesser cancers were dying around me? Like, why did I survive? And I had this survivor’s guilt that occurred, you know, and in the middle of my neuroscience studies studying the brain, I had my own brain tumor. So that was the second surgery that I had. So you can see there’s actually a, a scar across my head. Mm-hmm <affirmative> that goes all the way to the round, to the back of my head, where they lifted and took out a tumor from the front of my brain. So here I was studying the brain and having brain surgery to remove another, uh, tumor. And it was like, um, and after that surgery, I couldn’t walk or talk properly for six months. And the neurosurgeon looked me in the face and said, you Josie, you will probably not walk or talk properly again.

Josie (14:08):
And it was probably a good thing that I couldn’t talk because if I had uttered out loud, what I was saying inside, it would not have been pleasant and that’s not me. Right. But I had learned enough in my studies to understand the potential that we have in here utilizing the theory of neuroplasticity. So every day I, I was so willful the first month, I was just angry because, and frustrated because my body wouldn’t respond to instructions that I could hear. Right. But then after that, I just dropped out of resistance and I surrendered. And that’s when I learned what mindfulness was really all about. And I started rehearsing every day. I started rehearsing and imagining my body, responding to the cues and imagining my speech being repaired. And six months later, I walked into his office with very small heels on and perfectly articulating. And he just looked at me and said, what have you done? And I rattled off a whole lot of things, including, you know, Reiki and shamanism and all these things. And he just went, whatever it is, keep doing it. <laugh>. So that’s a long winded way of saying, this is why I studied it because I wanted to understand not just how to apply it in my own life, but to be able to talk with authority that it’s not just theory here. We have a very significant healing potential if we only knew how to use it, but we’re not told how to do it. We’re not taught how to do it because other people won’t be making a lot of money if we could actually heal ourselves.

Guy (15:59):
Wow. I did. <laugh> I didn’t expect that. That’s it there’s so much to unpack there that you’ve said already, you’ve sparked about six questions in me, as you were talking, I was like, oh, I, I really wanna jump in there. I wanna jump in there and I wanna jump in there, but I, of course I, you know, keep the space. So I’m gonna rewind all the way back if that’s okay, cuz you just very off the cuff said, oh I flatlined and I’d knee death experience. And then I went on, you know, and it was like, that doesn’t happen every day. Um, what was that experience like? And, and how much did that support you moving forward when you have an experience like that?

Josie (16:40):
Well, in those days I was very much a Roman Catholic and you know, spirituality wasn’t on the lens. It was Catholicism, you know, religion. So when I had this out of body near death experience, it was literally being in intensive care, losing a lot of blood, being in a coma and then my heart just completely stopping. And then I became aware that an aspect of me was up on the ceiling, looking down at my physical body. So I had awareness and consciousness of me, an aspect of me being here and also, and my physical self being here at the same time. And there was no emotion. It was blissful. Actually it was serenity, actually it was beautiful and it was white. So I could witness everything was going on physically without any reaction at all. And I was just happily floating there, watching what’s going on. And then this really big, booming male voice came in from the left side and said, it’s not your time yet. And then I was back in my body. And then the next day, the same thing happened again,

Guy (18:04):
When that was happening. When you were out, were you aware of what was going on? And the, the, the, I guess the stress your body was under, like as an observer, not actually feeling it, please, like she was blessed.

Josie (18:16):
Yes. So I, as an observer, I was absolutely aware of what was going on, but there was no trying to process anything. There was, there was just this pure observation, no storytelling, no narrative, no emotions. Mm-hmm, <affirmative> just pure observation. And it’s, it really was blissful guy. Wow. And that coming out of that, it was like, how do I tell people this, without them thinking I’m a loony or, you know, it must have been the drugs. It was real. It was very real. And I think the reason these experiences have occurred for me is because I’ve then gone on to study scientifically to support these experiences and to support my journey in and out of them so that I can support and assist others.

Guy (19:11):
Yeah. Amazing. How much do you think an experience like that shapes who you become moving forward? And I only ask you because I’ve had similar experiences, not I’ve not flatlined. Okay. Uh, you know, or nothing, but I’ve had experiences where I go, wow. How do I explain that to someone else? That, that, that must be my belief system is completely bought into the fact there’s more to it that meets the eye and there’s aspects of ourselves that are larger than the body and beyond that. But then what it did for me was start to erode fear and I guess the controlling and that there is something greater working with us and supporting us. So I’m curious to know what that, an experience like that started to happen to you cuz at the end of the day you were just diagnosed saying you got six months to live.

Josie (20:08):
It was massive. So for me, everything was up for negotiation now because nothing could explain what I’d just experienced. So when I came out of, um, the hospital, my family were aware that I was different. Um, I could, while I was in a coma and unconscious for seven days, wow. Only my direct family members were allowed to visit me. So there was my mum and dad, my uncle, my brother, my sister. And I can tell you where they were seating in the room. I can tell you where they were seated. And I can tell you what the conversations were. And I was completely out of it.

Josie (20:50):
And you know, these moments of conscious recall where I can remember my best friend Sharon, I opened my eyes temporarily and I saw her juggling and she used to love juggling. And I used to love watching her juggle. And I remember looking at her saying, what are you doing? And she said, I’m juggling. And I said, why? And she said, because you asked me to, and then I was unconscious again. <laugh> so there’s moments of that, that I remember actually engaging. But most of the time I was actually totally unconscious, but I remember the conversations are, and I can tell you where I was seated, even though my eyes were closed and I was kind of not in that room.

Guy (21:31):
Yeah. Amazing. How did you manage to stay, I guess, on your true path from that point forward? Cause a lot of people, you know, I, I mean I’ve never been diagnosed with cancer, so I don’t know how I would respond, but like you say, the fear of God can go into you. It’d be very easy to, um, not do the steps and actions you took to, you know, work with it and overcome it.

Josie (22:01):
So I was not fearful of God. I was angry with God because the God that I was brought up to believe in wouldn’t have had me experience what I was experiencing. Like what did I do to deserve that? So I asked all these really big questions and I, this is the, the birth of the seeker in me. This is when I came off the path of religion and stepped onto the path of spirituality. So I went back to what I knew. I actually met with the Archbishop and started asking him very big, direct questions about this God that I’ve been brought up to know. And he was instructing me with all these rules. And I said, whose rules are they? And he said, well, they’re God’s rules. And I said, I don’t think so. I think they’re the church’s rules because the God I know of would welcome me into his home no matter what.

Josie (22:57):
And so all of a sudden it was like, not only did I ask the big questions I was on a quest to answer them. And the only person that was gonna answer them was me. And so everything I had believed in before was up for negotiation. And so this was when I became that, that seeker in my life and my true spiritual path began because life is never the same. Once you have awakenings of this kind. So do I have a fear of death now? Absolutely not. I’ve been there. I touched it for a little while twice, and it’s nothing to be scared of at all. The suffering occurs on this side. There’s no suffering on that side at all. So I actually have helped a number of people slide into that next phase, um, with peace, without fear. And that is such a gift to be able to do that for them and also for their families to allow them to go.

Guy (23:58):
Yeah, incredible. What, uh, I’m just trying to think how to frame this question because there’s normally an event in our life. So there’s pre-event post event and clearly from our conversation, the cancer was a big chapter in your life that has put you on a different trajectory to, um, like you say, embark has been the seeker that switched you from seeking into spirituality as opposed to religion. What do you, and, and I’m thinking cuz the cancer happened. What do you think if you took the two Josie’s before and after, you know, what do you think were the defining things that have allowed you then to, to, to move on living healthy and putting this information to the world now that you do to, to prior to that?

Josie (24:54):
So I think the answer to that’s pretty simple. We are born into a physical body and our primary responsibility is to take Supreme care of that physical body. It’s our vehicle for this life. I had no real, I, I had some care for it, but I took it for granted actually. And whenever my body tried to communicate to me around things that I desperately needed to learn, I would shut it down. So I honestly believe that a lot of the diseases and sicknesses and illnesses that we, um, experience are a consequence of Unheed wounds. And it’s our body’s desperate attempt to get our attention and say, can you wake the hell up? And can you learn this lesson swiftly so we can heal. So for me, the first cancer was in my thyroid. So my throat was all about expression being the eldest daughter of a large Italian family.

Josie (25:54):
My voice was often suppressed. My middle name was duty and obligation. So it was all about pleasing and appeasing, you know, to seek the approval, um, of those people that I really loved, you know, but what I felt often was this tightness in my throat and not having the courage to speak my truth. And so what happens, all of that tension gets blocked up and suppressed in that area that I most needed to learn about, which was owning my voice and my truth. How do you do that? Let’s create some awareness and really sees her attention so she can no longer ignore me. So my body was screaming at me for a long time. Wow. And then the second one with this, I mean, there was many other things, but the, the major one was the, the brain tumor. And that was literally about get out of your head, stop overthinking and over processing with your mind and start feeling with your heart. Yeah. And so that’s, that’s pretty clear. And now I’ve got a fairly significant, um, issue around, um, primary Mia, which is my whole autonomic nervous system has just been fried and that’s from years and years of putting myself last caring about everybody else and not looking after my nervous system. And so now I’m really in that Supreme self care stage of life where it’s number one priority and it’s not too late. Um, and it’s my calling now to live it and teach it.

Guy (27:39):
Hmm. The cuz you mentioned right at the start, the awakening of the heart. And do you feel that that is the primary, uh, aspect gateway in then to being able to listen to those signals, to be able to start to work with those and bring awareness to that because most people certainly I’ve seen and come to our work are in their heads. They’re SC energy is completely everywhere, completely scattered. And they’re always looking for an external something to, I, I dunno if it’s just, that’s just the way we conditioned to then fix a symptom as opposed to actually believing that it’s possible to go inward and actually reconnect a deeper aspect of ourselves to then give the body permission to, like you say, tap into its capabilities. That it’s quite incredible.

Josie (28:48):
The body is constantly talking to us, but it’s a language that we cannot understand with our mind with our brain because that’s not the language of the body. The only way the body has to communicate with us is through sensation. And some of those sensations, there’s two, two ex there’s two experiences that we have. You go into a room and you either feel expanded. It feels really good or you’ll feel contraction does something doesn’t feel right now. If you try to make sense of that and say, why do I feel like that? You’re start, you go off track. You’ve just got to acknowledge. I’m feeling expanded. This feels good. Let’s do more of that. I feel contracted or something’s not right. Let’s honor that. Right. That’s it you’re either expanded or you contract. And when you contract your body’s trying to tell you something you don’t contract. If everything’s cool, if everything’s good, if it’s right, there’s no contraction.

Guy (29:50):
Hmm.

Josie (29:51):
So it’s very subtle. It’s a subtle language, but it’s a language that’s quite profound when you really start to understand and work with it. It should. Should I go for that job? Well, how do you feel? Is it expansive when you think about it or does it have you contract? That’s all you need to ask. Don’t get into analytics. It’s pretty simple. Really?

Guy (30:14):
Yeah. Yeah.

Josie (30:15):
Is release this relationship. Good for me, the fact that you are even asking that question, you’re close to the answer, right. But tune into the body and the body’s gonna go, this feels awesome. Or the body’s gonna go. I’m not sure that already is giving you the answer.

Guy (30:34):
Why do you think then in this day and age, we are still, especially if I’m, I’m talking of the broader systems and it is changing, but there, there really seems to be, there’s a there’s we treat the body like it’s this physical machine that parts break down and we had to cut them out or replace them or take something to support that. But we don’t honor those very other things that you’ve just spoken about.

Josie (31:05):
How controversial can I get here guys

Guy (31:08):
As is just I’m sure everyone listening is, um, with this <laugh>

Josie (31:15):
There are, there are major systems and players out there that do not want us to discover our potentials, our true potentials that are beyond physical form. So even in our schools, it gets indoctrinated. Like I remember the day my children were learning about, uh, GMOs and they came home, honestly, believing how wonderful GMO technology is and how we get bigger, better fruit and vegetables with no seeds and this and that. And I went, aha, no flavor. And how real is that? When you start messing around with the DNA of food, I said, now we’re doing it with humans. You know, like, seriously, this is not natural. So when we think about when, when I go and sit in nature and I have my bare feet on the grass and I just look at nature in its raw form, that’s how we are meant to live. We don’t mess with conditions. We learn to live where we’re planted, right. We’re messing with the very fabric of our systems and we’re putting these into our body. Do we have any idea what this genetically modified substance is doing to our system, trying to digest and gain nourishment from fake nourishment? Like really?

Josie (32:50):
So, I mean, that’s, that’s a very base, um, answer, but if, you know, you look at the way, um, our doctors are trained mm-hmm <affirmative> they get one lecture in the first year of medicine on nutrition, really? And then my daughter was studying science at a university and I was looking at the syllabus and there was nothing about, there was a subject missing. And I, then I think it was, I’m just trying to remember what it was. It was a biochemistry. And I said, where is that? And she said, oh, they don’t, they don’t offer it. And I said, why not? And she said, I don’t know. And I said, well, if a doctor prescribes one medicine to fix one thing, it could create something else over here. So shouldn’t they understand the interplay of this or this, which then affects this. Oh no, no. What happens is you get prescribed this to fix this. Now we’ve got another issue. I’ll prescribe something else to fix that. And oh, now we’ve got another issue. Let me give you another script to fix that. Like there’s none of this, you know, integrated medicine approach, which we get through our natural therapies, which are now not being supported through our insurances. So, you know, there’s some, some, some very dark players out there that were up against.

Guy (34:17):
Yeah. I, I get, I just get so frustrated because it it’s, I was only saying this to someone. Yes. I can’t remember. It feels like the world’s greater secret that shouldn’t be a secret and it should be our birthright to, to know this and, and be able to work with this on a daily basis and be taught this

Josie (34:37):
Well there’s people that are waking up. Mm. And I think those numbers are, are growing beautifully. You also have your naysayers and you know, you’re gonna be in community with people that support your ideals. And they’ll, there’ll also be people in community that don’t support your ideals. I mean, our approach to COVID has been classic. You know, I’m the only person in my whole family. That’s not vaccinated. And I cried the day that my children came home and told me they got vaccinated. I was on the floor and they said, mom, we knew you were gonna get upset, but not this upset. And I said, I have to respect your decisions. You own your body and your lives, and it’s your path and your journey, you know? And, um, you know, I just lost a beloved uncle, uh, two weeks ago. And I was not allowed to see him in hospital because I was not vaccinated.

Josie (35:30):
Like I have to live with the consequence of my decisions. And whilst my family was getting that I should have been vaccinated, I should have been able to, you know, put my stupid ideals to a side and go and see him. Mm-hmm <affirmative> I knew that it would be going against my own value system. And yes, I would’ve loved to have held my, my uncle in my arms one more time and to hear his voice and, and, and to kiss his forward, you know, I didn’t get to do that. And that’s something I have to live with, you know? And there’s all of these challenges around us all the time where we are being tested to stand strong. And I think it’s, it’s just going to get worse, to be honest in the future, but then our numbers are growing. So I say to the listeners out there is don’t be discouraged, you know, hold true to what you believe is your truth. And don’t negotiate that for anyone cuz that’s what you are here to shine that light for others to see it as well. Yeah. But it’s not easy.

Guy (36:38):
No, it’s not easy. Absolutely. But thank you for sharing all that. I really appreciate it. What, what would you say then? Or, I mean, this could be a twofold question cuz obviously you work with a lot of people and, and I’m always curious and I always think of the listener as well that are like probably absolutely engaged with every word that you’re saying right now. Um, what are the most common things people come to see you for, but then how do we start or what do you do with people to help them start to awaken their heart? Even if it’s something somebody could take away today and go, I’m gonna try that for a week. You know,

Josie (37:18):
So a lot of people come with self focused goals. So I want to be a CEO or I want my relationship to be as good as the, the, the first year when I met my partner or I wanna have Bulletproof confidence, whatever it is, it always starts off with those kinds of goals. But then as we start to peel off the layers and start the, the journey inward to get to discover who you really are, what you stand for, what your non-negotiables are and are you actually living upright and in alignment with your values and your true self, that people start to take an honest look in the mirror. And sometimes they like what they see. And sometimes they don’t and they haven’t for a long time, but they’ve avoided that. But it’s, this work is done in its supremely safe space because the kinds of conversation I have with people are conversations they don’t have with anybody else on the planet.

Josie (38:22):
And so that trust has to be paramount. Um, and that sense of safety has to be paramount as they explore these deeper layers of themselves that they’ve never inquired about before. And as they discover these beautiful gems within, they start to realize that’s actually not what I want. You know, what I thought I wanted is not actually what I wanted. This is actually what I wanted. And I knew it all along as a child, I had an idea of it until adults came in and interfered with my thinking process. And now I’m reclaiming that sense of me that’s been lost and buried for so long and the joy starts to come out, you know, and the smiles start to come out and the heart starts to open, you know, and the person starts to flourish in a way that I always threaten that. I wish I’d taken a photo the very first time I meet someone for their first conversation and a photo at the end of the journey or the journey with me, because just you can feel the energy field completely shift. They actually look different. It’s it’s incredible. That’s I mean, enlightenment, you know, you are in light when you bring it out and it’s, you know, this is where the light bearer comes from.

Guy (39:45):
Hmm.

Josie (39:46):
And you touch your own light.

Guy (39:49):
Absolutely. What would you say to someone then that, cuz you mentioned earlier in the podcast about some people are aware, but maybe not ready to dive in and why, why do you think it, it takes us sometimes a lifetime. Like it took, took me a while of, of pain and knocking around before I, I was ready to dive in and now I look back and think, oh, I should have done that sooner. You know, but you

Josie (40:19):
Weren’t ready. You had to like there’s divine order and divine timing and it doesn’t work off your timing. I should have would’ve could have none. None of that’s helpful. You just, you just weren’t ready. But when you’re ready, you know, you get to a toleration point where the pain of not changing becomes greater than the, your perception of the pain of changing. You know, I remember the hardest decision I’ve ever made was leaving the marriage of, um, the father of my children because I was brought up to, you know, keep family together at all costs. You know, that’s the most paramount value that I hold, but it got to a point where my sense of self was hanging on a thread. You know, my sense of self respect was hanging on a thread and I knew that I needed to leave before it snapped. And that was the hardest decision I’ve ever made. And it still is to this day, but I know it was the right decision for me and ultimately for my children. Hmm.

Guy (41:29):
When you go through something like that. Um, because I, I, my hardest decision so far in my life was actually selling my company and, and stepping into this line of work because I was completely recognized for one thing. Um, and then I, it was almost like, can I, could I go any further across the spectrum <laugh> and dive in somewhere else and give up everything I knew and held onto and actually was identified with. Um, so it told me a lot, you know, and I, and I was gonna ask you a decision like that. What, what does that teach you? You know, about yourself when you reflect back now, cuz I know there’ll be a lot of people listening to this are probably are there right now. You know,

Josie (42:15):
From, for me what I hear it’s about you following your bliss, you know, not following the path that, that you think again with your brain is going to generate money and, and you know, status and popularity and likes and whatever else versus following the calling of your heart, which is an entirely other calling. And it’s one of service. It’s one of service. It’s one of humanity and that’s where we are being called to rise right now. And somehow our needs get met. Somehow people come when they’re meant to come, somehow life actually just feels good and it’s not so hard and it’s not driven through the head anymore. It’s driven through the heart and it’s lived out through the heart and it’s it’s experienced through the heart.

Guy (43:07):
Mm absolutely. I think that’s the key word. Isn’t it. Once you experience it and live with experience in it, that’s the true embodiment of the work, isn’t it. And the, the, the lessons come from that, I ask, um, certain questions on the show and uh, one of them is, is what does your morning routine look like?

Josie (43:35):
Very first thing I do, I open my eyes. I say, thank you. It’s gratitude straight away. I walk to my kitchen window, uh, which faces the east where the sun comes up and I always put my face to the sun and I say, thank you good morning. And it just expands my whole energy field. That’s how I start my day. And then obviously I have my, my quiet time, my meditation time. And then I do a little bit of a local nature walk, learn a bit of journaling.

Guy (44:08):
Yeah. But do you do that daily? The, the meditation nature and journaling?

Josie (44:13):
Yes. Yeah. That’s just the way I roll.

Guy (44:16):
Yeah. No. Beautiful. Yeah. Um, and do you find journaling helpful of you must do if you do it daily, like

Josie (44:23):
What? Yeah. And it doesn’t have to be very long guys. Sudden people think, you know, journaling, I don’t do that too hard. Like keeping a diary. It can be as simple as picking up a pen and just saying, I don’t know what to write today. And then even just writing those words, then all of a sudden, a thought appears, and you start following that train of thought and you start hearing yourself, you start recognizing voices, patterns, yearnings things that you’re not consciously attuning to, they just appear on your page.

Guy (44:58):
So it’s another practice to help bring awareness to the self. Would that be a fair way of seeing it? Yeah. Beautiful. Um, I have there been any books that have impacted your life in any particular way that you would go? I would definitely recommend that one.

Josie (45:20):
There are a number of books. Um, and there’s also the one book that I will mention is by Michael singer called the untethered soul beautiful book. Um, if you look up the work of a, a gentleman by the name of Bruno grooming, G R O E N I N G, he pioneered a practice of using very simple meditation with classical music, for healing, different ailments, whether they were mentally mental, emotional, physical, even spiritual. And these practices are pretty quick and they profoundly work. And there’s a lot of, um, it’s called, um, friends of, of BNO Gring, there’s groups, circles all around the world. They’re free to join very generous communities. And they’re all about heart centered healing and a recent neuroscientist who has picked up the flavor of that work is Dr. Joe dispenser mm-hmm <affirmative>. So he also does very, very similar work and he brings a lot of the rigorous science to the fore to, you know, combat the naysayers. And there’s a lot of phenomenal healings that occur as a consequence of practicing these meditation practices.

Guy (46:53):
Amazing, amazing. They they’ll all be in the show notes for everyone anyway, if they wanna drop into that. And, uh, last question is, is with everything we’ve covered today on the show, is there anything you’d like to leave the listeners to ponder on

Josie (47:10):
Trust your heart? You know, trust your heart, follow your heart. If it feels good, go for it. If it, if something’s not quite right, it’s because it’s not right, that’s all you need to know. Trust yourself.

Guy (47:25):
Beautiful. And where can people go, Josie, if they wanna find out more connect, reach out to you, you do your work. Where, where can we send that? We

Josie (47:35):
Got my website, joie Thompson joie, J O S I E T H O N S O n.com. Um, and I’ve also got a podcast called you can shine, uh, where I share stories of recovery. Yeah. Everyday people experiencing extraordinary healings.

Guy (47:53):
Amazing, fantastic Josie, thank you so much for coming on the show today. That was incredible. And for everyone listening, all the links are blowing the show notes. So dive in and, and please reach out as well. So thank you for all that you doing and putting out the world. I could have listened to you all day, Josie. That was incredible.

Josie (48:10):
Thanks guy. Appreciate the opportunity. Thank you.