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

Petra:
Feelings are a great gateway to the answers and to the soul. Something has to most often be very loud for us to stop and stop paying attention to what is my body trying to tell me? What is my soul trying to tell me? Why are those things happening in my life? Why keep on having certain problems? How does it relate to me?

Because everything starts from us. She took mom’s sadness and suppressed it and placed it in her body in her lower back. So she was carrying that mom’s sadness throughout her whole life until it finally exploded when she was 40, which was the right moment to heal it.

Guy:
Guy here. My beautiful guest today is Petra Brzovic. And of course, if you’ve been following my podcast for a long time, you might be familiar or know that I co-facilitate the Living Flow retreats along with Petra Brzovic and of course Matt Omo. And, uh, it was very passionate. It was wonderful to bring Petra Brzovic back onto the podcast and really unpack her journey a lot more and how she applies it in her life.

And I feel the essence of this conversation today is how do we move from victimhood? To empowerment and that’s such a, when we’re in that victim hood, it can be very challenging of course. And we, we’ve all been there, we’ve all wearing scars in our back per se. And this conversation unfolded beautifully and it was really wonderful to be able to share with you guys Petra’s wisdom from there today.

And we even dive into the role of the soul and the soul’s journey as well. Really interested to hear what your thoughts are if you’re watching this on YouTube, but also. Where you are in the world. Let’s continue to connect, and if you enjoy it, of course, please hit the subscribe like button and share it with a loved one or friend if this would be impactful or beneficial for you.

If you want to come and work with myself and Petra and Matt in person with live flow, we do run and  hold and facilitate retreats all around the world. We’re in release this, we have a retreat in Europe in November in Croatia. We’ll be in split in a beautiful resort there doing this work. We are also gonna be in Bali as I’m recording this, but that is sold out.

We will be in Australia as well in 2025 in Northern New South Wales. So there’ll be links blow if you wanna come and join us at any stage. Yeah, enjoy this podcast. It’s awesome. Much love from me and uh, I’ll see you soon.

Petra welcome back to the podcast my lovely

Petra:
Great to be back.

Guy:
it is It’s been a long time coming. We’ve been trying to fit this in for a while and I really felt I wanted to bring you back on the show and reintroduce you to people and the amazing things that you do that we do together as living flow and See what comes out of this almost like dinner table conversation really even though it’s very early where I am and very late where you are As we record So, to invite everyone into our dinner table conversation, as it always feels like, you know, we’re all sitting around just having a conversation around these things.

Um, if a stranger was sitting next to you and asked you what you did for a living that you’d never met before, how would you reply?

Petra:
You know, it’s still the hardest question I can get. Like, literally, when somebody asks me that, I’m like, Oh, wow, how could I distill this into words and, like, into human language? Um, What would you say? How would you introduce me to people? I mean, you’ve been working with me for years now.

Guy: Are you throwing it on me? How would I say it? Yeah, that’s because we do say at the one day, one day events, actually, but it depends on where the person’s at, if they’re open to spirituality, and they’re open to looking at this work. Normally, I introduce you as, um, as a therapist that’s worked with thousands of people with trauma.

But then when you start to unpack the trauma and how open you are to spirituality, then it’s looking at how do we unpack that trauma and actually how is it a fact in our present life. So that’s where I normally start. And I always say, Plus a whole host of other things that you’ve been studying along the way.

But to simplify it, I say that, and then I say we work together at retreats where we, we get to dive in along with all those things. Would that be an accurate assumption?

Petra:
That’s some, yeah, it’s along the way how I introduce myself actually. First I say I’m a therapist, you know, and then I can see how far I can go. Um, And when they say, Oh, wow. Yeah. So what kind of therapist? And then I say, well, every kind of therapist, because I work with every part of human being, right.

With, with body, with mind, with subconscious mind, with soul. So, um, again, just like you, I’m just, gauging how much information that person can receive. And then if we can go all the way in, then we go all the way in,

Guy:
Yeah, absolutely.

Petra:
I start just like you. Yeah.

Guy:
Absolutely. No, it’s beautiful. And we’re in a space today where we can, we can go all the way and we can talk about all these things. You know, everyone that dives in the podcast, I’d imagine, um, is clearly on the path and exploring more. And I’d imagine that’s where people are at when they come and see you.

Would that be the case?

Petra:
Well, people who come and see me, they’re really, they already know about me or they heard, you know, um, many people came, um, by word of mouth or, you know, somebody recommended them to work with me. They read something about me and, um, I’m lucky that people who come to see me already trust me, um, despite the fact that maybe I’m seeing them for the first time.

And I’m, I’m really blessed by that. So every time, if I work one on one or if I have people at the retreats, most of them Feel like they know me. Um, and that makes it much easier because in a way you have to be courageous to, uh, to work with me and, uh, I’m aware of that and, you know, before, when I started doing this work, of course, it would take much more energy and, um, in time to, to get people to trust, uh, me and the work that I do.

But today they just trust me because. somehow they know that they’re in good hands and they can go all the way with me.

Guy:
Yeah. It’s certainly a big component, isn’t it? It’s really starting to allowing to feel safe and trust for them to create that space where we can go there and really start to um, allow what wants to present itself. I think that’s half the battle, isn’t it? Really, even the, the

Petra:
fundamental. Yeah.

Guy:
everything. Yeah. So, so a question for you, then you mentioned about, and I’m thinking for the listeners and all of us together, you know, you mentioned about, it could be the mind, it could be the body, the subconscious, the soul. How do you start to look at the body and what do you look for when working with people, what presents itself? Because I really want to get into the topic of the soul as well.

Petra:
of course. Um, you know, as, as I told you, I’m just finishing writing a book and I, I dedicated like, A big part of the last part of the book to the work that we do together. And I was trying to explain the process, how I work with people when we work with larger groups of people and how I know what I have to do.

It’s, it’s beyond my conscious mind. You know, I just have to trust whatever is coming, uh, the next thing I have to do. I have to say whether it’s or lay, lay my hands, um, on a certain part of the body, I don’t think anymore, you know, um, when I was starting doing this work, you know, 15, 20 years ago, I was trying to understand. But now I just know, and I just follow that in a knowing or whatever, uh, from whatever the information is coming. So the, the amount of information I receive, um, is, it’s such a huge. Package of information coming in such a small time. Um, that it’s impossible for my conscious mind to catch up with it. You know, I just, I don’t know in that moment.

I’m not, I don’t think I just go there and do whatever I feel I have to do. And I mean, you’ve been witnessing me, um, working with people. So, you know, how fast it can go. Without conscious to understand why we go there.

Guy:
Yeah, so let’s unpack that then let’s start to dig in what you normally find with people like, because when we in, when the body’s in physical pain or there are challenges in our lives Um, that could be reoccurring events that we’re not aware of that, that keep presenting themselves. And, and quite often we have to be smacked around in the face quite, quite a few times through life before we start looking inward, as opposed to looking outward.

We’re constantly looking outward, trying to fix. This person needs to change. I need to take this prescription. I need to do these things, you know, which all have validation. I’m not saying that, but, but ultimately it keeps driving us. to a point where we have to really start to look and dive in and see what’s under the hood per se.

And that’s where, you know, this work really starts to come into play. When we’re unpacking that, let’s, let’s start to, how do you look at the body? How do you look at the soul? How do you look at that relationship in terms of what is being presented to ourselves and our lives and how they actually start to connect?

Petra:
Well, you know, I pay quite a lot of, um, attention to what they say, the words they use, uh, pay attention to feelings. To hidden beliefs that I can detect beyond, uh, the words they, they say, and I also observe the body or they tell me, you know, I have, I don’t know, problems with digestion or I have cancer or I have this or that.

And then. Yeah. Somehow I put it all together. And, um, I would say feelings are a great gateway to, uh, the answers and to the soul, you know, because I trust that body is the messenger of the soul. It’s a catalyst for the messages of the soul and body always speaks to us. And we’re just not ready to listen, or we don’t know how to listen because we’re so disconnected from the body.

Um, And if we start paying attention to feelings and if we allow ourselves to feel the feelings and go into the feeling instead of avoiding the feeling or trying to suppress it, which most of people do because it’s uncomfortable, it’s painful, then actually the magic happens. It’s very important that we all allow ourselves to feel the feelings and then those feelings will reveal what, what needs to be healed.

Guy:
Absolutely. So how do you view the soul?

Petra:
As us, you know, um, we are all souls, if you ask me, and we chose these bodies to have certain experience in this life. And, you know, the more I do this work, I find it, the more I find it, um, fascinating how actually the soul is learning through the experiences of the body and of the person in this life, you know, because. We have the soul mind and then the human mind. And, um, when they merge and when they start functioning in this life and have certain experiences, which, you know, quite often we all have some kind of challenging experiences and traumas and stuff, but they all serve as a gift to us to unlock the next lesson that we are here to learn and to find wisdom that we seek. So I see all of us as souls on eternal journey. And you know, this time we have here together, it’s just part of the journey. And, um, instead of running away from it, I truly believe we have to embrace it and see it as a gift because life is a gift and it’s short, you know, we all think that we have so much more time than we actually do.

So one of the things I really make sure I do is really cherish every day. And this time we have an earth and make most of it.

Guy:
Yeah. Well, the one thing I find interesting with this work and that, and I’ve been through it as well, is that when we’re in a place of wanting to change, but like you say, our body’s in pain, there could be, you know, a lot of trauma that’s occurred in our lives and it’s it’s challenging to see beyond the pain, it’s challenging to see beyond our circumstances in any given moment.

We, uh, our language, everything we’re using almost is reinforcing our problems as opposed to, to leaning into solutions, which I completely understand that, you know, I know what it’s like to be in pain with back pain and that, and you get frustrated, you get wound up. You’re just like, I just, why can’t all this mess go away?

Why me? And we can fall into these victims and, and then it’s easy to fall in. Well, my trauma is much worse than your trauma. I’m entitled to feel.

Petra:
understand how I feel.

Guy:
That’s right. Nobody understands how I feel. and I really feel for people when you’re in that position, but at the same time, it doesn’t serve us to stay there.

Ourselves and the people, our loved ones around us. But it’s shifting and being open to the very concepts and things we’re starting to dive into today What do you find from your experiences has been the catalyst for people? For change to to really step into that new world of pain. Yeah

Petra:
Some kind of pain. You know, either it’s physical pain, uh, emotional pain, or just life becomes so messy that we just Start to finally admit to ourselves that, yeah, we have to change something. And I am the only one who can change that. I have to take responsibility for what’s happening in my life or this pain or discomfort or illness is so present, um, that I have to stop.

And finally, stop paying attention to what my body’s trying to tell me. So it is unfortunately for most of us, really big discomfort or pain, uh, whether it’s, you know, sadness or grief, um, or anxiety, depression or physical illness, something has to most often be very loud for us to to start, stop and start paying attention to, okay, what is my body trying to tell me?

What is my soul trying to tell me? Why are those things happening in my life? Why keep on having certain problems? How does it relate to me? Because everything starts from us. And, uh, when we finally. Start admitting that we are the ones who have the power to change our lives or the situation within us Then everything else starts to change But it’s not easy, you know for a majority of people and of course I was one of them And I’m sure you were one of them as well it’s so much easier to go through life blaming, you know life and other people and how Unlucky we are because this is happening to us and you know, the way we were, uh, brought up or whatever was happening in our lives.

We use it as a crutch. We use it as an excuse for whatever’s not working in our lives instead of finally growing up and saying, okay, but let’s see what I can do.

Guy:
Okay, are you able to give me an example of someone that has experienced it because like One thing i’ve realized very quickly and and see is that it’s never what we think it is So the circumstances the pain, you know when we’re in that blame Mentality or whatever. It might be like we say we we’re constantly giving our energy away We’re constantly giving our power away and we’re not taking it back and using that to move through what needs to be addressed, right?

and You know We always think it’s this, this and this, but when we actually get beyond that, it’s never that. And like you say, is there a lesson for us to learn on what the soul has been presenting with ourselves? Are you able to give us, whether it be all in your own life or people that you’ve worked with, an example of how that co relates? Because it’s such a broad spectrum for people to wrap their head around.

Petra:
What’s coming to my mind is, um, a session I had recently, uh, which I believe many can relate to. And that’s, um, you know, a person who was struggling with Just feeling overwhelmed with everybody wanting something from her, whether at work or family. It’s like, nobody respects my boundaries. I keep on giving, it’s never enough.

I’m tired. Nobody sees me. Nobody asks me how I’m feeling. Um, and luckily she finally realized, okay, I have to, you know, seek help and see why is this happening to me? And basically the underlying reason for that was When she was young, um, her parents divorced and her father was absent. Her mother got sick and from very young age, she started taking care of her mother and her younger siblings. So she took the role of the carer while she wasn’t, um, formed as a parent. You know, grown up mature person who could care for other people. And she just took that into her adult life, you know, feeling overwhelmed and undervalued, but also feeling this, uh, huge urge to save other people, to help other people, you know, subconsciously, even though she knew that she should set boundaries. She couldn’t because she felt responsible for other people finally realizing that she’s not responsible and that she, the only person she’s responsible is her younger self. The one that was overburdened, um, years ago and herself today, then everything starts to shift. And then she can give back that responsibility to other people.

Understanding that. I believe that’s one thing that’s, uh, could be very important for others to, to hear maybe for the first time, or maybe just refresh, uh, the memory is the difference between care and carry, because one thing is to care about somebody and walk along them and. Tell them that we believe in them.

And the other thing is to carry their stuff because we, we, and we see it every day, if you see it, you know, mothers who do, I don’t know, homeworks in front of their kids or, uh, instead of their kids or doing chores at a home instead of other people at home, um, doing things at work instead of somebody. People tend to do it unconsciously, but actually, and they very often think that, um, They’re being good people. They’re showing their love by that. But what they’re actually doing is that subconsciously telling that person, you are not good enough. Let me do it. You don’t know how to do it. That’s why I’m going to do it instead of you.

And. What that creates is this very unhealthy relationship of one person feeling overburdened and the other person being, feeling not good enough constantly. And especially when it happens with, um, parents and children, those kids. go into their life feeling inadequate, you know? So that was one of the examples.

Um, but also it comes to, you know, physical, physical illnesses really always, uh, lead me in awe the  underlying reason of any disease or any pain, how it’s related to something that happened to us, whether in this life or, um, before we were born, um, whether we took it from our parents or our ancestors, or we brought it from other lifetime. That really amazes me.

Guy:
Yeah.

Petra:
it blows my mind.

Guy:
It blows my mind too, because when you start wrapping your head around this stuff, it’s like a rabbit hole that never stops, ultimately. So, do you feel then, like, like, thank you for sharing that, that’s I think everyone listening to that can so relate, so relate, right? Like we’ve all been there. And do you feel, and let’s say you use that example of, you know, over responsibility to everyone around you unconsciously, because, you know, we, we’ve, the body felt that experience at a young age where we couldn’t process it.

And then it’s, it’s manifesting out in adult lifetime, you know, you know, adult, but we just haven’t. being able to connect the dots. And even if we do connect the dots, it doesn’t mean that that feeling is going to go away. We still have to go in and unpack it, which is, I think, a trap we fall into that the mind’s got to solve all this for me.

And now I, now I know that’s great. It’s like, well, no, but so when it, when it comes to the soul, then do you feel that we are choosing these, I guess, paths within our lives. to have these lessons and it’s a touchy topic because I had a conversation with Robin Lansong the other day and her Story, I can’t wait to get this live.

Actually Petra was I was crying tears were coming down on the podcast and and Anyway, check her out. It was amazing. She got abducted as a child. She got taken to Africa. She was abused. She died. She came back to life. The carer then died. It was something I can’t, I can’t even believe somebody comes through that much trauma and come out the other side.

And I asked her the same question. You know, and she said, if you asked me 20 years ago, guy, I would have hit you. You know, I was so angry kind of thing. But now, I don’t know. She’s moved through it. She sees it from a very different vantage point. Of course. Yeah.

Petra:
now she can see that actually she as a soul chose to have that experience for whatever reason that was. Um, but when you’re in the midst of it, it’s very hard to, to understand that, you know? Um, it takes a lot of wisdom and strength and courage to, um, own the experience you’re going through and to learn why you’re going through the experience because it’s so easy, um, for us humans to fall into the trap of victimhood and, uh, just feeling sorry for ourself and blaming others. But there is a still a silver lining in every experience and we just need to be willing to see it. And I’m not saying that it’s easy because when you’re in the midst of trauma, when you’re in the midst of something that’s very hard for you, it’s It’s really, really, I mean, I can say it from my personal experience. It’s so hard to see the silver lining, but you know, for me, the older I get when I’m experiencing something challenging, I know that there is a silver lining and I do my best to open to it and to, to receive it and to, to see the silver lining because I know when I finally see it, then the lesson will be finished and then this experience will be finished, you know, so, um,

Guy:
Sorry, I didn’t mean to cut you off. I thought you finished. At what point in your life, because, you know, you’ve shared certain challenges. I’m sure you’re happy to share them now.

Petra:
of course

Guy:
At

Petra:
may be crying at the podcast. I’m ready for anything.

Guy:
But at what point in your life did you go from your own victimhood to the penny starting to drop and realize there’s, there’s more to this that, that, you know, I really started to connect to your soul aspects of yourself and, and start to run with this work. Like what were the catalysts from the pain? Like, can you walk us through that journey a little bit?

Petra:
I would say, I mean, there were many moments actually, um, when I starting putting the dots together was like really putting dots together. I would say when I was recovering from, um, postnatal depression when I had my first son. And when I, when I was trying to get help and I was given drugs and I was feeling that, um, I’m, I don’t want to go that way. And I need to find somebody who can help me process everything and to understand why I’m feeling this way and what’s happening with my life. My life was a total mess. Um,

Guy:
How messy?

Petra:
extremely messy. You know, the, yeah. What happened previous to postnatal depression is I was in a very unhealthy abusive relationship that I just couldn’t get out of. Um, it took me years. To, to get out of that relationship. And you know, when, when somebody is seeing someone who is being abused from the outside, they think, Oh, why don’t she wait?

Why doesn’t she leave him? You know, she’s so crazy for staying with him. But when you in that position, you lose every sense of yourself and you lose any sense of self worth. And you just get caught, you just get trapped in that and you don’t see, you don’t see the exit because that other person makes you believe. That you are unworthy, that you are incapable and that you are guilty for everything bad that’s happening in your life and for everything that’s happening in his life, in this case. Um, and I was, I was pregnant and, um, During the pregnancy, I found out that, um, my ex partner was cheating on me and he, um, he left me at one point and then he came back, um, said that he, he has changed that he’s staying since I was pregnant and my self esteem was very low and all I wanted to have is a healthy family, um, under any cost. That was the belief that I had to change under any cost. was very unhealthy belief for me to have, uh, and since my parents were, uh, divorced and I was, uh, lacking my father’s love, I was hoping that my children will have, um, the whole family under any cost, but that cost was, uh, Too high. And, um, anyway, before I gave birth, he, he left me again. And so he, he left, he brought me to the hospital and I went into labor knowing that he’s with somebody else. And that labor got, um, got complicated. I had C section and they accidentally cut my, uh, vena cava, my main vein, and I lost blood and I literally basically died on the table. And I remember waking up, um, in, I see you like feeling like my whole body was just, my, my body was literally cut in half because they moved all my organs trying to soothe that vein and I was in horrible pain. And I remember questioning, am I really going back into this body and into this life? You know, it was just, it was physically and emotionally. So painful that I was really debating, should I go back? And, um, as you can see, I made a decision to come back. There was a strong sense of, yeah,

Guy:
Do you, do you remember that point? Do you remember that point? Like, was it, was it a feeling?

Petra:
it was very blurry to me because I was in and out of my body and in and out of state, but when I was working on healing, um, myself and when my, my teacher and my mentor, Paul, who I think you had him on

Guy:
Paul, Paul LaRonde.

Petra:
all around, um, when he took me, basically he was using me as a demo in one of the classes years ago and for hypnotherapy or regression therapy. And he was, He was trying to regress me, but doing that regression, um, therapy, he was trying to take me through, I started feeling enormous pain in my chest and it was like horrible pain, like here. And we just couldn’t bypass that. You know, he tried to deepen me, but my, my pain was so strong. And I said, Paul, I cannot breathe.

It’s like somebody’s stabbing me here. And you know, his, his first thought was, okay. That might, might be, you know, some past life memory coming through the body. Maybe she’s being stabbed somewhere. Let’s explore that. But actually it took me back to, um, the, the, to the hospital, to the operational room where I was having C section and that pain I was feeling, I was feeling during that, um, surgery, because as they cut my, my weigh in. You know, you have this screen in front of your head, so you’re not seeing, you cannot see what they’re doing behind the screen. And I remember saying to the anesthesiologist who was standing next to me, I said, you know, I really cannot breathe. I feel I have this horrible pain in my chest. And, um, and I said, you know, my mom had, um, embolia is in English word as well. It’s like, um, like a thromb in your lungs. I

Guy:
Okay.

Petra:
And I said, just so you know, you know, that might be happening with me as well. And she said, no, no, um, everything is out of control. Um, but basically it wasn’t, they were just trying to keep me calm. And behind that screen, there was a massacre because they had to take all my organs out to, to find where they, what the cut was.

And, um, that actually, um, I don’t know how to say it in English, but basically the nerves that are going from diaphragm up here, they were reflecting the pain from the belly because I was, um, I was numb from, uh, from, you know, mid back down. So that pain brought me to the trauma that I had to see, uh, in that moment.

And I was observing myself. You know, from out of the body and looking down and seeing what actually is happening and it’s a mess. Um, and questioning, you know, okay, should I go back or not? Um, and then I remember waking up in, um, an intensive unit and just being in enormous pain. And I remember asking nurses to give me Any painkillers they could and I said they’re giving me morphine.

There is nothing more They can give me and I just have to endure this pain. And then I remember questioning I I was feeling that it’s impossible to come back to that body that the pain is horrible to, uh, to be back into the body, but I decided to come back. But that brought, um, yeah, a lot of physical pain, a lot of emotional pain.

Um, it was very hard for me to connect with my son. Uh, it was very hard to connect with me. I was grieving. I lost my partner, lost this, Idea of having a family overnight. Um, I became a single mom. Um, everybody around me, you know, their husbands were coming and, uh, they were happy and I was, I was alone. And, um, plus I was cut in half and I was very young. I was 24, you know, I, I was just, it was a very, very hard period of my life. And eventually. Um, yeah, I developed postnatal depression and that was my, uh, one of my big turning points. Uh, when I decided to seek help instead of, uh, taking antidepressants and other drugs that we wanted to give me. And then I realized I have to studying. And, uh, seek for the lessons and see, okay, what’s happening. Why is all this happening to me?

And, uh, how is it related to my upbringing and to my father and to abuses that I endured as a child and everything else, and then things started to fall into its place, but it wasn’t easy. It was a very hard journey. Um, but basically that all had to happen because I wouldn’t be here today. You know, I. It wouldn’t push me into this direction.

Something had to really change, um, the trajectory of my life to push me into this direction, to be able to help people today, because, you know, I was studying economics.

Guy:
You’re pretty stubborn on times, Petra. You’re pretty stubborn on times.

Petra:
I am stubborn. I know, you know that as well. I know. Yeah.

Guy:
Wow. Okay. So can I, I want to, um, this is, you opened a few loops in there for me and

Petra:
and I didn’t cry

Guy:
No, that’s beautiful. There’s parts of the story I didn’t know, didn’t know. Let’s see get you crying by the end of the podcast. Um, so Just tying it back in then what I find fascinating A question that came into my mind was that when you were on the table with paul auronde When he was taking you back many years later And you go through that experience and paul’s a legend, by the way I encourage you to check out the podcast i’ve done with him I gotta get him back on actually But um First of all, it blows my mind that the body keeps the score like that, like we see it all the time, that, that you’re starting to go into the pain because that pain, that trauma hadn’t been able to process and release, right?

So the body’s holding that and you’re reoccurring the pain and having to go in with it for it to then start to release. Why, why does it happen then? Is it because the body is only now finally feeling ready to release that pain in that moment? Like, is

Petra:
I was ready. You know, I was ready. I really believe that our body and our soul are so wise that they send us information in layers and that, um, when we are ready and when we are, you know, You know, on all levels, mentally, physically, emotionally ready to process something, it will be shown to us. Um, and definitely my body felt that it’s the right moment to bring it up to the table. Um, I mean, I started my healing journey years before that, but for some reason, that was the moment when I had to heal that. And then we. We working on my relationship with my, not just my father and men in my life, but also with my mother and with my grandmother because of the things and beliefs I inherited from them.

I, I remember now that, um, they were involved in that session as well. So it was just another very important layer of my healing journey.

Guy:
Okay.

Petra:
Uh, but it’s, it’s amazing. I just remembered if If you want, I can share one more, um, example, which is not mine, but it just blows my mind. Um, I had, um, very dear, uh, client, uh, I think we were working together a year ago. She had back pain, but she became paralyzed, um, did I tell you that story? I’m not sure if I told you this story. She became paralyzed. Uh, she couldn’t walk and she, I’ll just try to make it as short as possible. She, um, asked me to, to help her to, you know, to heal basically and to see what’s What’s, what’s going on and what’s happening, what does her body need to heal and why is all this happening?

Um, in her lower back, because she was young, she was like only 40 and she got paralyzed. Um, and when I took her into, into hypnosis, um, I, I regressed her. I told her, okay, now when I count from three to one, you will be in hypnosis. In the origin of the back pain of the problem with your back. And out of all places, she ended up in her mother’s womb. So we are there, she’s a baby, she’s in her mother’s womb. And, um, she’s feeling enormous amount of sadness that’s coming from her mom. And then we start unpacking that. And, um, what we realized is that her mom was pregnant before her and she lost a child, a baby when in seventh month of pregnancy. And mom didn’t grieve that.

So she suppressed that pain and sadness and she fell pregnant with. This lady, um, and that the baby and the soul was so, um, immersed in the, in mom’s sadness and she wanted to help mom. So she took mom’s sadness and suppressed it and placed it in her body, in her lower back. So she was carrying that mom’s sadness throughout her whole life until it finally explode exploded when she was 40, which was the right moment, uh, to heal it. So today she’s walking, running, and she can do anything. So she’s like. Totally healthy, but it just, still now when I, when I, um, tell that story, it amazes me how body was storing that, uh, information from not just from early childhood, but from before, um, she was born. And again, how, you know, see, we were talking about taking responsibility for other people.

So how she took her mother’s sadness because she, out of love for her, her mom, she wanted to help her. Um, so yeah, souls also do that sometimes, you know, quite often because, you know, people think that we as humans are imperfect and that souls are perfect, but actually we as souls are also on our journey and we are here in school.

We are learning and yeah, we. Mess up things as souls as well. And then we learn how to, how to make things right. You know? So that was the experience for her soul. That was important. How to take somebody else’s pain, carry it, and then release it. So,

Guy:
Wow.

Petra:
yeah, it’s very interesting.

Guy:
It’s constantly fascinating. And you’re never going to get there from the mind like that lady, no matter how much she thought about

Petra:
I mean, no

Guy:
know, like I’m, I’m a huge, you know, advocate of addressing the physical body as well. You know, like the way I eat, the way I sleep, the way I address my lifestyle and do things.

Cause it, I love this body and I want to ensure that I’m given. It the best possible chance to experience the best possible life, you know, I have a lot going on I have two young kids. I have, you know up and down the coast doing events and workshops and everything and so forth So i’m a huge fan like i’m like you have to look after the physical stuff But no matter what you do, there’s no way you can address something like that for just from the physical this is this is what blows my mind and and Unless we’re open to exploring these modalities and and um, experiences and I’m being inquisitive to it.

It’s like we’re always going to feel like we’re, we’re, we’re tumbling. And it’s, yeah, it’s just something that, um, yeah, it still amazes me to this day, every time we witness it. So with you on your journey, taking it back then, um, When did you start to open up to the idea of the energy energy body the chakras And related to in your life and the relationship I mean, we don’t have to go into detail, but i’m interested to hear that part of it as well

Petra:
Well, I mean, I would say that pretty early in my life, I was very intuitive as a child and I was just suppressed by the environment I was living in. Um, but I knew there was more and I was fascinated by energies and, um, and souls actually. I knew there was something there, uh, and it was revealed to me later. Um, but then I, while I was studying economics, I was also studying many different modalities, healing modalities. So through those modalities, I, I got into touch with energy work and, um, and the world beyond senses. Um, one of the first things I, I studied was aromatherapy and actually essential oils opened a doorway for me to the world beyond senses and to holistic healing because they really, um, you know, help heal emotional, mental, physical, and emotional. And, um, physical body, uh, not just, you know, when you apply the oil, you’re not only treating the physical body, but also it affects all other, um, subtle bodies. Um, but then I got to, we got into, um, Reiki, then I got into a yoga teacher training and then it just continued, you know, piling one onto the other.

And my, my knowledge just, um, continued to grow. So I would say that’s how it began. I

Guy:
Yeah, and then what was the biggest aha moment because I want to tie it in as well because how The chakras can be then related to the energy Individual pain or elements or emotions, you know, like through that. I mean, we don’t have to go through all the seven chakras or anything, but it’s still something I find fascinating because For me personally, I was, I heavily gravitated to them on my own meditation practices.

I didn’t understand. I didn’t understand so much. I think this is just my male brain though. It’s like half the time when I’m feeling an emotion, I can’t put words to it. So I just feel it and carry on as opposed to having to like vomit, like vocalize everything that’s going on. I just kind of feel it and go, Oh, that’s, that sucks.

And then, and then just carry on. But um, but for whatever reason, the relationship between those chakras and releasing energy that was stuck and, and emotions and feelings. I have no, I have no idea where, and I had a huge release recently at a most recent retreat. It’s literally taken me about two weeks for that to finally,

Petra:
You also threw up,

Guy:
down. Yeah. I threw up as well from the third energy center. and it’s like, you know, But every time I work with them and go through them, there’s like you say, these layers that continue to shed just very solely and subtly. And the, I can even, as I talk, I can feel the energy just coming out of my hands. Like, you know, it’s, it blows my mind.

And I, I, I, One of my passions is to get everyone excited about these things because once you start to feel it and experience it and if you’re willing to allow those emotions to start to clear and move and actually allow that energy to flow, it’s life changing. It really is life changing and your experience of the world is life changing, you know? Yeah. Um, so,

Petra:
you want to ask me something

Guy:
yeah, so, like, how, just, tie it in briefly to how people could be feeling elements of pain or something and I’ve actually Because it’s something practical you can start to do. You can start to become aware of a center. You can start to feel into what’s there. You can journal to it. I know you, you know, you, you dive in extensively with the work and your courses about how we can start to unpack those things. But I think it’s a very valid place to, to, to bring up for people on their journey of

Petra:
huge. I mean, how many hours do we have?

Guy:
absolutely.

Petra:
for start, if we would only just start to feel and listen to our body, you know, because most of us, Especially because, okay, let’s say this way. First of all, we tend to dissociate from the pain in our body because that’s just a survival strategy. You know, we move away from what’s painful. Um, second of all, when we experienced certain kind of trauma, we could also, and that happens very often, stay dissociated because our energy bodies just shook out of the body. Physical body. And it’s like we’re kind of not fully out of the body, but some people are, or maybe they haven’t been embodied from the beginning if there was a traumatic birth or something. Um, but also because of the way we live today in this modern world, and there is, we are bombarded by so many Such a huge amount of information, you know, and then social media and internet and everything is too fast and we are trying to just get hold of everything by using our brains and our minds. And we are in our heads and we’ve, we live disconnected from our body. So for starts, if we would all just go back into a body and just feel, okay, how, how I’m feeling and just. Do the body scan and just notice, okay, where am I calling tension in my body? What is my body trying to tell me? What, what, what does my body need? And also, are there any parts of my body where I cannot connect with, um, you know, because when we dissociate, there are certain parts of our body that we just don’t feel like they belong to us.

So just by bringing our awareness into our body, we can start learning so much. And then we can go even deeper and start understanding, okay, The energy centers. Okay. So the first energy center, what could it be related to? Okay. On physical level, lower back, hips, legs, bones, teeth, um, on subtle levels, financial insecurity, safety, feeling the right to live, feeling the right to be here, family. prosperity or whatever. And then we start unwrapping that, you know, and then we have guilt and pleasure in second energy center. And then we have, um, the sense of power and through the fantasy center and then love, how much do we love ourselves? How are our relationships? Um, are we struggling to have healthy relationships if yes, but how is my relationship with me?

Because if I love myself, I truly love myself. I will create loving relationships around me. Um, and then speaking up for ourselves. Um, you know, I just had a client who had, um, uh, throat cancer a few weeks ago. And unfortunately she wasn’t allowed to speak since she was a child, but she didn’t give her permit herself permission to speak even when she was older. So, you know, her body started at this point to scream and shout, uh, because of all the energy that was suppressed here for so long and so on and so on. I mean, it’s, it’s, it’s an endless journey and it’s a beautiful journey. And we can learn so much by simply taking time off to be with ourselves. Because all the answers lie within.

Guy:
Absolutely. No, thank you. It’s just something I wanted to bring to people’s awareness as well. And I realize I’m running out of time as well. I got to go back onto dad duty in a minute, as we come

Petra:
Okay.

Guy:
as we come towards the end of the

Petra:
We need to do this more often guy, because we have so many topics to

Guy:
I know I feel like, yeah, I’m enjoying it. I’m enjoying it a lot. Um, wrapping this up then

Petra:
with everything we’ve covered today, What would you like to leave the listeners to ponder on? I would just encourage everyone to seek for ways how to love themselves more and to be brave to go back home within. Um, because there’s really nothing to be afraid of. If you have somebody who can hold a space for you and safely guide you through whatever you have to go through, it’s a life transforming journey.

And, um, I mean, You see it along, along me when we do retreats together. I mean, people heal in front of our eyes simply by being in that space that we hold for them in the safe space. And, um, I believe there is so much pain in the world and that the healing of the world starts from each one of us. You know, if we dive within and if we. Give ourselves a gift of healing that in that way we heal actually our families, our communities and, and, the world. So I will really encourage everyone to seek help, um, and start working on themselves instead of running away from themselves, because it’s so worthy. Because that pain lives within whether we want to look at it or look into it or not, and it is governing our lives.

Guy:
Absolutely.

Petra:
So be brave,

Guy:
yeah, be brave. And what, what I love about, um, our retreats is that it brings people together from all walks of life, from all over the world. And everyone’s got their shit. Everyone’s, we’ve all got our shit, right? We’ve all got our

Petra:
And it’s human.

Guy:
And it’s human. Exactly. And when you Um, and I think it’s really important that we bring 30, 40, 50, 60 people together that are actually all ready to be brave, that are already stepping into a space that, that one to go on the self exploration journey, it amplifies it in a way you can’t even imagine.

And that’s what excites me so much is that when you start to see these pockets of communities come together and people come together, lovingly supporting each other. And seeing the, seeing the individual for who they truly are, not for the facade that we put out there in the world, or who we’re pretending to be, or that we’re actually seen, heard, held, loved by each and every one of us in there.

There’s nothing like it. And once we start to rewire ourselves to that experience, we can then take that into our worlds, our families, our communities, and we now have a reference point and understanding of what is possible. I like But that’s how we’re gonna, that’s how the world’s gonna change. But

Petra:
yeah, It’s a ripple effect,

Guy:
yeah, one person at

Petra:
starts, which starts by us.

Guy:
Yeah.

Petra:
I mean, I have so many ideas. I would love to, uh, unpack with you guys. We need to do it more often, really.

Guy:
We will, we will. This can work. I like getting up at 5am ready to record a podcast. It’s good before the world starts. Um, yeah. When’s your book gonna be ready?

Petra:
Um, should be published in May in Croatian and then we’ll see about other, um, languages. So yeah, just finishing the last bits. Right now.

Guy:
how exciting. You got a title for it?

Petra:
I believe it would be, it will be, um, the gift of trauma and the soul’s journey of healing. Something like that. Something along those lines. Gift of trauma is, I’ve been calling the book Gift of Trauma, so probably it will stay that way because trauma is a gift.

Guy:
Incredible Petra. Well, look, thank you so much for coming on the podcast. We’ll the next time I’ll see you in person Uh, we’ll be in bali We’re going to be in bali running our retreat at the end of april. Um We’re going to be in croatia as well in november split Yeah,

Petra:
Contract is signed. Deposit has been paid today, Guy Lawrence, which means you’re coming.

Guy:
I’m coming. I’ll be booking my flights. So yeah, wherever you are in the world, listening to this, come and join us. Truly. It’ll be, it’ll be magical. It’ll be magical. Um, yeah, there’ll be links below this podcast. If you want to find out more Petra. Thank you. Let’s do this more often. I love having you back on the

Petra:
Yes, please.

Guy:
been a while. It’s been a while. It’s been a while. Thank you. My lovely

Petra:
Thank you for having me.

Guy:
much love.

Petra:
Much love.