Dr. Vanessa Calderón: Welcome to The Authentic Path. I'm your host, Dr. Vanessa Calderon, Harvard-trained physician and healer. I integrate science and ancestral wisdom to support you in creating the success you desire in all areas of your life.
speaker-1: Hello, hello, dear friend, dear listener. Welcome back to Inner Peace and Power. gonna be ⁓ one the most powerful episodes you've ever listened to, ⁓ and telling you, it's gonna be true. That is my guest today ⁓ is Dr. Calderón. ⁓ she's actually on pod before, but two years ago, she's grown so much, I've grown so much. All of you listeners have so much too that it's worth revisiting at a deeper level.
Dr. Vanessa Calderón: Hey friends, today we're continuing the conversation with Dr. Rashmi Schramm for a deep conversation on consciousness, spirituality, and it means to be in relationship with something greater than ourselves in this modern world. I'm so glad you're here. Let's get started. Hey friends, last week you heard me sit with Dr. Rashmi Schramm. And today we're going to flip the script. Today, Dr. Rashmi Schramm is actually interviewing me.
speaker-1: So that's why I'm so excited for this.
Dr. Vanessa Calderón: We're going deeper into my own experiences, beliefs, my journey, my ⁓ upbringing, we're going to explore the intersection of science, spirituality, ancestral wisdom, and what it means to essentially walk an authentic path while living in this modern world.
speaker-0: Thank you so much, sweet friend. Happy to be here.
speaker-1: Yeah. there anything you want to kind of give us an update on in the last couple of years? What's been going on for you?
speaker-0: An update. Ooh, that's exciting. ⁓ what has been going on? the word that comes to mind is expansion, ⁓ expansion in a way that is so whole and so grounded and feels so ⁓ authentic in alignment with just who ⁓ I like who I was here to be. and just a really maybe just returning home. I think that that's what it is. I think
Dr. Vanessa Calderón: So take a deep breath, settle in, and let's continue our conversation.
speaker-0: The more we come home to ourselves and the more we expand, the more things open up for us. And so over these last two years, as I have allowed myself to flow with guidance from, ⁓ know, I I say source or divine, but whatever people call it, higher consciousness, ⁓ whatever you call it, God, the more I've allowed myself to be in ⁓ communication a right relationship with source, ⁓ the more I've opened up and the more I've allowed I've been allowed to flow and It's been a beautiful experience.
speaker-1: Beautiful. I've watched that as well. You know, you becoming more and more of that. I a friend who says who calls it the hollow bone of being to be the conduit for some of that divine work so that you can kind of continuously let of who you are not so that you continue to come home to yourself. It's beautiful. So I'd love to just into that, into the deep end of that, if that's okay with you. Right. So ⁓ divinity, source, whatever that is. And you know, people may have different words, God, whatever that is. And we're we're not trying to say one way is right or wrong, it involves, at least for you and me, some ⁓ level of non of we can't logic ourselves out of it, right? Like it it is a it's sort of a mystical unfolding. ⁓ wonder you talk about ⁓ what that and feels like from your perspective.
speaker-0: Yeah, absolutely. And I'll just say, you know, for and thousands and thousands of years, every civilization that has walked this planet has walked it in hand with something bigger than us, connected to a universal source or a universal consciousness, knowing that we ⁓ are we not walking this planet alone. We are not these soul individuals siloed off. And it's even just me or my family unit. It's Everyone together in relationship with nature, with the plants, with the animals, with the moon, with the stars, with the cosmos. In fact, if we look back to ancient civilizations, Egyptian civilizations, before those civilizations, and you see the ⁓ that they were able to create and their connection to something so much bigger than them. So when talk about this now, a lot of people say it sounds new aged, and I think that's so funny because. It is one of the it it is such a gift that we were given from ancestors from before and from people that have walked this planet for thousands and thousands and thousands of years. So not anything new. It's really just a returning back to what it that we know to be true. And honestly, for when I think about all of this, it doesn't feel new aged. It doesn't a lot of people use the word woo. None of that. For me, it's just like, Well, it's just what it is, you know? as background, I grew up in a home with a dad who was a mystic, who is a mystic, ⁓ and brilliant, man. And we'd have some great conversations ⁓ when was very young kid, like philosophical conversations as a young kid. And the way I the world was always tilted towards something so much bigger. When I would look up at the stars when I was like six or seven years old, I ⁓ knew that I was connecting to something so much bigger than me. ⁓ course, ⁓ know, you walk this planet culturally the way we have been conditioned with our social programming. ⁓ a lot of those connections or th or those ways of being or those knowing sort of turn off for us. And better or for worse, they turn off. And, don't I look at everything as a gift, even the fact that e even my own sort of becoming. I look at everything as a gift. So the fact that everything turned off for me, maybe it had to turn off so that I could become who I became, you know, 'cause one big thing that I did, you know, I grew up in a house with ⁓ with indigenous healers and using certain things that we use in Mexico or Central America to heal, that I thought as I got older, ⁓ know, you become a teenager, you push against a lot of those types of things. And I became a physician. ⁓ And ⁓ I became a physician because healing is in my bones, healing is in my blood. And I became a physician because I thought that that's the way to heal. And it's fascinating because I would try to disprove so often the things that my grandparents would tell me or the things that my uncles and aunts would tell me. when ⁓ had this huge like coming home to myself and understanding and understanding the deep wisdom that lies in a lot of these medicines, it so like. It it's just so hilarious to laugh and to say, ⁓ my gosh, it's so funny that I used to think I was pushing against that so much and it can't be true. ⁓ it's impossible, you know, and there's no science behind that. on journey, ⁓ one of other things that I've learned is science is just catching up to a lot of the things that we have known to be true for thousands of years. ⁓ If you about, for example, something that Rashmi, you do so well, which is meditative practice. In all of the different respects. practice is something that's been practiced for centuries. ⁓ we just started studying it in Western medicine in like the 70s. And now everyone's like, ⁓ yeah, there's something about there's something about that. Of course, there's something about that. It's the same thing with the whole field of positive psychology, studying intention or gratitude or things that we just know that exist. And in fact, they've created the whole field of quantum physics. Because we started, we started seeing with our eyes or feeling, understanding things that physics itself couldn't make sense of. And so ⁓ in, think it was in the 60s when we're like, ⁓ hold on a second, maybe there's something else. And there was a whole field of physics created, quantum physics. And so if we say, example, I consider myself a skeptic, and I actually think ⁓ skepticism is really, healthy. And I'm gonna bring this in the conversation now because There's a difference between a skeptic and a someone who's cynical. skeptic is ⁓ minded and curious and looking. Yes. Someone who's just practicing cynicism, they're just gonna say no to anything. They're just gonna be completely closed off. ⁓ for you that are if if you're listening, if you're a skeptic, be a skeptic. But skepticism means be open. Right.
speaker-1: Absolutely. wholeheartedly agree. And I resonate with so much of that. And my guess is the people listening ⁓ probably resonating to so much of that as well. If we allow some of that ancestral wisdom, regardless of where your ancestors sort originated from, there is wisdom there to be had. I mean, we often talk about generational trauma. Okay, yes, ⁓ and also generational wisdom. There's ancestral wisdom. And it's a yes and. And if are we willing to accept both? And if not. ⁓ we're just going to be walled off anyway. And that's not even living that full life, that wholehearted life that we're looking to live. And when were talking about that, I think I've had such a similar kind of pattern in my own life. I grew in India with a very mystical grandmother who I lived with. And some of some the things that she was able to pass down to me it was so interesting because the British colonization. ⁓ My parents had been socialized to actually only accept Western medicine, is so interesting because they hadn't quite, you know, that whole generation, they literally burned down Ayurvedic clinics down to the ground. They had really tried bury yoga and meditative practices and Ayurvedic practices for years. But the is, ⁓ it had been going thousands of years, for five thousand plus years, and you cannot eradicate something. ⁓ that powerful in 50, 60, 70 years. And so of course it's back into the lexicon. It's back in the culture. And when was a young physician, ⁓ and I pretty immediately as as an like this is such an incomplete system. I think I understood that all through medical school, but I didn't quite connect to it. It's the same for you. But I didn't understand like incomplete it really was. It's not that, you know, the way that we practice traditional allopathic medicine is bad, not at all. If you or I needed a surgery, we would 100% go to get that surgery. a yes and like how el what else is here? Like what emotional, psychological, like what spiritual healing needs to take place in addition to this thing. And I would go off to study different Ayurvedic practices, like I think my parents were really worried. they'd be like, What? And which is so interesting, right? Like because they had been, ⁓ they were that I was really leaving this very traditional system. And I I some of those words that you used, right? Right off the bat, which is like woo or new age. I mean, those are all colonized words. Those are those are colonized words, and we don't have to use that same language anymore.
speaker-0: Well, you said so things, but one thing I really want to name is ⁓ we have we all agree science. It's agreed that there's a thing as epigenetics. I'm here for epigenetics, right? Like, so we agree that epigenetics exist. means the way your gene certain genes turn on and turn off. So we agree that you can have trauma that's passed down generationally through your epigenetics. So if that's true, why can't your wisdom also be passed down? You know, it's like it's so funny, it's the it's It's two sides of the same coin. And it's really the concept of, you know, the universal law of duality. there's that's passed down, what's on the other side of that? ⁓ Wisdom, beauty. so ⁓ one of things I I love to do, and I ⁓ so for something that's really supported me on my own journey is going back and healing so much of that trauma that lived through me, generational trauma, ancestral trauma. And it's been such a beautiful gift. And it's something that I offer the people I work with because know that on the other side of healing that is connecting to all of the wisdom that's on the other side, all the joy and the gifts and the wisdom. And for so many people, and this is especially true for anyone that's ever lived in a marginalized like if ever been considered marginalized in any community you've lived in, a woman, a of color, whatever, you know, like ⁓ experiencing or feeling living into joy. can feel very foreign, can feel g you can might feel guilty if you experience that, all of those types of things. And when you heal a lot of the things that are in the way on the other side, it just makes all of that possible. That's where the light lives.
speaker-1: Yeah. Isn't that beautiful? the ⁓ way in which we get to accept both ⁓ ⁓ and wholly. Like that how we can move through. ⁓ And we are like, you know, if it's true that hurt people hurt people, then healed people are helping other people heal.
speaker-0: Yeah, a hundred percent. Sometimes those things that we say seem so simple, but if you really listen to that, it's so profound. It's so profound. There's always going to be something on the other side. Yes.
speaker-1: Yes, absolutely, absolutely. allowing things because what you talked about, at least at the beginning parts of this, some of this had an of surrender into it. Like we can't have a a timeline that that ⁓ you we can have intentions, we have affirmations, we work these things, we visualize, and when we put a timeline on it, that's not how the universe works.
speaker-0: let's go there. I think the concept of surrender, ⁓ more and more we talk about it, the more and more we normalize it. And the more and more people hear it over and over again, I hope the more people are open to practicing it. So the here's thing I think about. So surrender, the way I think about it is being really open. Being open and trusting that there's a benevolent energy working around you that's in your favor. And that can be really, really challenging for people if you've had lived trauma or inherited trauma, you look at the world, and the world is just on fire sometimes. And if you are a conscious being, it's tough to experience that and say, how could there possibly be a benevolent force? And tell you just from my own journey. Before medicine, I was an I was an activist. So I did social justice activism work. And There was always a part of me that had this sense of self-righteousness, like, ⁓ I gotta take down the bad guy, or it's me against them. And was a pattern that I had to work through ⁓ ⁓ this lifetime. And thank you, ⁓ for this pattern. And I experienced on the other side is, isn't that so funny that I thought, how self-important am I that I'm the person that needs to take down all these systems of oppression? ⁓ And systems oppression exist. It's true. And The more you try to fight it, the more you're creating that duality, you know, the more you're like us against them. And I have come to learn that that doesn't actually solve the bigger problem. The bigger problem can only be solved through love, you know? So as soon as you can just zoom out just a little bit and if I can even just zoom up above me, watching myself fight against the patriarchy or fight against, you know, white supremacy or fight against all these things and be like, wow, look at this. I'm just stuck in this plane fighting. What if I just rise above a little bit with love and compassion and look down and say, my gosh, I can see why you're so scared. Both both sides. I can see why you're so afraid. I can see why you're holding on. It's okay. It's okay. You're safe. It's okay. And how I envision this benevolent energy. There are things happening on this planet that I can't explain. I don't understand. I can't explain. They're tragic. All of those things are true. And I'm a human. I have a limbic system. I feel emotions. And so. they're sad and they they sometimes there's grief. I have ⁓ have had to process and move through so much grief. And senses I will likely continue to do that as I live this world and expand. And so I guess say all that because through all of this, I have never once believed that I wasn't fully guided and supported. Through all of that. And I think it helped that I a mother who I think I I think my mom was an angel on this when she was on this earth. I think she probably she was definitely some sort of light being. She wa she had one of the most compassionate, biggest hearts I've ever experienced ever. She was just incredible. of course not perfect, because when we're in human form, we can't be. but she just expected things to out. That's just way she ⁓ rolled through the world. And the woman experienced some trauma, let tell you. She like She like fleeing a l a ton of like poverty and all so much stuff. And for her to still just navigate the world with this just deep belief in her body that or in her soul and her essence that things are just always going to work out, what I inherited. That's what I learned. and I actually think I probably would have been born with that, but you never know, nature, nurture. And so, but it did make it easier to have an example in front of me all the time that things were always working out. And so because of that, throughout everything that I've experienced, what surrender has allowed me to do, the concept of being open and trusting that there's some that there's some energetic benevolent force working in my favor, it's allowed me to release attachment to so much. here's the thing I think about when we are in communication, I'm jumping around a little bit here, but when we're in communication to divine, because you also set timelines and we ask for something. quote unquote manifest. I think when people talk about manifestation a lot, they think about only the physical, manifest money or cars or whatever. yes, it's possible. Manifest the physical if you want it. And that's think that we lose sight of so much more. about manifest joy? What about unconditional love? What about ecstasy? What about bliss? What about passion? What about friendship, connection? There's so much that we can actually experience when we're in right relationship with divine or higher consciousness. But the about a timeline is this. So you said, but then we put a timeline, but that's not how the universe works. And yes, because what a timeline actually is, is what I've come to understand is a timeline is to what is. Because when you set a timeline, it's like, okay, when I get there, then this will happen. And what is happening is Resisting the present moment. When we can say, hey, this is my desire, divine. This is what I desire. I don't know how I'm gonna get there. And ⁓ I am a little nervous, I'm a little but I'm super excited and I give it all to you. Like I all of it. I'm just open to it happening. Show me. Show me how to do it. Show me how it happened it whenever. Like I'm not in a rush because being in a rush is resisting what is. And what what you know, Carl Jung y used to say, what you resist will persist. And so why we get to release the concept of a timeline. And if you are someone that really struggles with that, just ask yourself, ⁓ feeling are you looking for? Because what you're chasing is an emotion.
speaker-1: Always. Always. Yeah. And sometimes if we can just even embody that emotion, magnetically attract that thing to us. ⁓
speaker-0: That's that's the way it works. That's how know this sounds sounds this stuff sounds so simple. And because I've I've heard this stuff forever. Like I grew, you know, my dad was also an entrepreneur. So we would drive in the car listening to like old school Zigziglar, like, you know, all and the law of attraction and money, yeah, all this stuff. and there's something my Body, like in my essence, that grasped the concept that there knew that there was truth for it. Didn't I fully get it? Like I didn't, I wasn't actually thinking about it. I just felt it and it felt true. fast forward to that we get into adulthood, and everybody talks about the law of attraction and money, ⁓ all these things. And think the truth is that it's really simple. It really is that simple. This it's as simple as Rosh May just said it. Like you feel what you want to feel. That feeling is an energy, it's energy, right? It's we've measured feelings on functional MRIs. We see EEGs, we see what's happening at electron electron with the electricity in our bodies. So we know it's electricity. And we want is the frequency of that electricity what we want it, what what we want to meet. And so ⁓ this morning I was actually sitting with in my meditation the concept of receiving. I said, Okay, divine, I'm open and I know I've been resistant to it. You know, and so I'm open to it. So show me how. And immediately it was like, ⁓ it's gratitude. It's like, it's the frequency of gratitude. And I was like, that's so simple. ⁓ Obviously, it's the frequency of gratitude. That's so simple. And and really is. So and gratitude is one of like it's why people talk about gratitude practices. And been literature, scientific papers proven ⁓ practicing gratitude makes you feel better. Okay, why does it make you feel better? ⁓ dopamine, serotonin, all these things. Yes, yes, yes. And what else? And you're raising your frequency to abundance and to gratitude. Like that's magical. If you can, and so all day today, what I've been doing, I've been walking around being like, thank you for this clean air. ⁓ thank you for this warm cup of tea. ⁓ my gosh, thank you for my beautiful friend Rashmi sitting across from me all day. I've just been sitting in gratitude. And of course I feel amazing because gratitude makes you feel good. But then you pull in what it is you want.
speaker-1: That's so beautiful. Thank you for sharing that. brings to mind a story because you talked about the acceptance of what's there, right? resistance is ⁓ it looks like I want because this isn't good enough for me, or I don't feel good enough, right? And ⁓ you and I, we have the honor of helping people heal. And just this weekend I had, I was able to ⁓ in a meditation retreat with a few women. And one of them, mean, i and you're right, sounds so simple, but it is so profound. And one of the things that had been grappling with is the violence that has been going on in the Middle East. And of course we're all feeling that, right? we are all beings with open hearts. And so she had ⁓ really been struggling with, you know, the schoolgirls that died in Iran, the god, you know, the kids that are dying in in Gaza right now, like these things that are very, very real and very, very true. And in meditative sort of journey, she was trying to with that. And what came to her very clearly, so clearly, was that is not under your control. You can do you can do something else here. Here's and it was shown to her. She was already volunteering. She was tutoring, you know, these group of five kids locally. She was, she had mentees, she has like she has people that she's already working with. And it was to her very clearly, like, this is this is where, this is your part of the world right now. ⁓ You focus your here. And I know it simple, but it it helped her such an immense degree, gave her so much relief. Like she can do this much. Like she can donate to this, this and this, yes. And she has no over what's happening there, right? Like just like you and I have no control over it. And at the same time, what what where is our f sphere of influence and look can we focus on that? Can we shine ⁓ our light beautifully and and and generously in that area? And that's kind of what you're talking about is ⁓ you raise your vibration, you your future to you, ⁓ and you create impact. Where you can create impact, not where you cannot create impact.
speaker-0: That's yeah, it's so true. this another great practice of surrender, by the way. I think whenever we are noticing things that are creating ⁓ grief or sadness our bodies. Okay, before I go there, let me just name something. I ⁓ have come understand we are all part of a higher consciousness. So we are sharing energy energy consciously. Everyone in the world, right? so if you have the privilege to live in a place that's safe. If you have a pr the the privilege to live in a place where you have a roof over your head always and food and water and all of those and your children are safe and they're what you know, all of those things. If you're healthy, if you have that privilege to have the right genetics to be healthy, if your children are healthy, that allows you to do ⁓ to raise universal consciousness. How? By just being grateful for what you have. And now you have the luxury to sit quietly and bring in peace. My gosh, thank you. I I receive peace. I receive love. Thank you. I receive these blessings. time you ⁓ that actively, you are raising universal consciousness. You are, you are, in effect, doing your part to raise consciousness of the world. Your of being, I've been sitting with this concept of unconditional love a lot, because boy, has that that's been coming up for me over and over and over again. and how way to ⁓ and Pass forward unconditional love is to be, just be it. Just be unconditional love and people will feel it. And that's all you need to do. You don't need to go teach them or tell them to love themselves, just like be it for yourself. Just be it, be it, be it. it's the same thing with all of the grief, everything happening in the world. So if you have the luxury to be in a place where you're not experiencing that, don't I don't I'm not saying ignore it. I'm not saying avoid it. I'm not saying pretend it doesn't exist. Don't gaslight yourself. What I'm saying is be so grateful for what you have, because in doing that, you are doing so much to raise the consciousness of the world. 100% ⁓ you, and they've done studies to show how, you 10 monks ⁓ meditating, what that does to the consciousness around them and to the environment around them. And they've so this is proven in science, also what I'm sharing here. And the more you do it, the more you do it in community, the bigger it gets and the more magnified it gets. ⁓ And tell you man especially these last couple of years it has felt like the world has been on fire listen i'm first generation latina in this country and everything happening with immigration like holy smokes like there's just so much and i i don't want to hold that in my body and so i surrender it so i say to divine i'll say okay divine this feels really heavy and ⁓ i and i just have so much grief and i just to give this to you I give this to you because I trust in the law karma. Whether I see it, I know that things will write themselves because they always will. And I don't have to be personally responsible for it. I don't have to see it. I don't have to, and I personally stopped look making that on my feed because I used to be so interested in what's gonna happen next and what law is gonna get passed. And like, hold on a second. Why am I bringing that energy in? The energy I want to create is of love, of healing, of compassion. Not because the world's not on fire, but because the world is on fire. That is the energy I want to bring in for myself and for the people around me.
speaker-1: Yeah, it's powerful it's I think sometimes we can go the other way where we build a wall against it and we insulate ourselves from it. And also not very healthy for us. And so this way you know, like acknowledging that darkness, but but not living in it, but just acknowledging it will help us lean more into that light and that gratitude and then shine our own light so that we help the ones that we're meant to help. Because if we are depleted, we can't even help the people that we're meant to help.
speaker-0: Mm. A hundred percent. A hundred percent. Yeah. And the more and more you do that, the more you become an open vessel. Yeah. Magic happens.
speaker-1: That's when magic happens yeah, again, I think ⁓ the more we to ⁓ move through us, more does move through us. ⁓
speaker-0: Yeah. I have a wise teacher who was a psychotherapist for twenty something years and then became ⁓ and as a hobby, she was what is that word? I can't remember, but she would go and study all these societies, like old ancient societies. She would just do that as a hobby. And then she really into it and started researching it and publishing papers and books on And then she's got super into astrology, and just you know, there goes her her arc into connection to something higher. And one of the things she says is, astrologically, we are born with something called a birth chart. And I you know you're super familiar with this, Raj. ⁓ For those are not, it's it's at the time of the day ⁓ that you're where you're physically located, all of those types of things, nobody else will have an identical birth chart as you. You, your birth chart is is unique. And so the question is if my birth chart is that unique, then ⁓ then what does it mean? And the picture it tells you, it's not predictive by any means, but it's essentially tells the story of the journey your soul's a lot your soul's meant to have. what's beautiful about it is the more and more you surrender and you allow things to happen, the more your life will start flowing in this beautiful direction. And all of a sudden it's like, ⁓ that's so interesting. Astrologically that's what was supposed to happen. And look, it did. That's hilarious. It's because you're in flow. That's flow. Flow state, you know, we've I did a lot of research on flow state because a a very long time ago I published a podcast on it. And when was reading about it, it was so fascinating because everything was about productivity. It was about ⁓
speaker-1: It it either has to be super pleasurable or productive. And if we're doing anything other than that, then you've lost the game.
speaker-0: Totally. Like no one's gonna want to research something if it's not gonna give me a good, you know, like productive outcome. so all of the literature was on how can we become more productive? And they were ⁓ musicians that would get into this flow state. And I was like, isn't that interesting? Because music music, ⁓ it's such a connection to divine, ⁓ the heart, to to this higher level of consciousness, to like the the fifth, what I call the fifth dimension. and that's that's of a portal. Into that. And so when those folks, when they're measuring their brain waves and they they're quote unquote flow state, what's actually happening is they're not all of a sudden more productive. They are now super tapped in to something higher than them. now they are flowing with energy, like the h like what you said, hollow bone. I I sometimes say an energetic conduit as to a sponge. And I don't want to be a sponge. I don't want things sticking to me. I want things flowing through me. And so I think about that with flow state, but the more you surrender. The more you're opened up, the more you allow yourself to clear the things that are not serving you. Cause the when say clear, I mean if there's something you haven't examined yet, maybe you experienced some ⁓ as kid, something and you're still experiencing these weird things that frustrate you or annoy you. Those are called triggers. So ⁓ triggers signs us that maybe there's something I gotta release. And the more we let go of that stuff, what that is is stuck energy. And then when we don't have that stuck energy, now we can become energetic conduits. Now energy can move through us and now we can flow with the universe. And it is the bomb. It is so fun. It's it's incredible. It really does feel sometimes. look around and I'm like, ⁓ this really happening? Like, is this really my like can I just ask for something and then I get it? And the answer is yes, because we we are of pure desire with integrity. And you ask with pure desire with integrity, you tap into something so much greater and you create this beautiful relationship of flow. powerful and it's so fun.
speaker-1: Yeah, it is fun. It is fun. And ultimately, like I think the more of those, like, how is this my life right now? Cause I've had so many of those moments in the last like several weeks, I would say. Like, how is this my life right now? This is like my ⁓ wildest dreams. I could have said that 20 years ago, but you know, like these ways of being and these ways of of I suppose non-traditional, but I don't even know what traditional is. Like I don't even know why I would call it that, right? Like being able to follow my own individual footprint without it having a on it. again, I think that's a decolonized way of thinking about it.
speaker-0: Hmm. Yeah, that's really important what you're saying about decolonized. It's very, very important that we choose for ourselves what feels intentional opposed to just accept what has been told to us because depending on where you live in the world, it's being written through a lens of colonization. And we so much beauty and magic and wisdom when we don't question that. And I'll tell you, if you are experiencing any results in your life right now that you're not happy with, anything, a relationship, weight, anything, it's probably just a belief. It's just one little thing that we've got to shift in the way you're thinking about something let something in and really questioning like, is this really the way it has to be? The answer is probably no. Nothing has to be a specific way if you don't want it to be that way.
speaker-1: Yeah. And that does sound wild. So we'll let that settle in. And we and this is this has been such such a beautiful conversation. I don't even know how the time has gone by, though time, of course, is man-made, but still we have to honor it because we we we follow timelines here. Vanessa, has such a deep honor for me to spend this time with you. I know this was a very powerful episode for folks to listen to. And to you, dear listener, make sure that you're sharing it with five or six or seven of your best friends. any anything that I should have asked you or anything that we should have talked about before I let you go.
speaker-0: No, but I do want to just put a plug-in for for you actually, for the folks that are listening. know, if you are interested in being more open, more connected, if you are interested in tapping into something bigger, higher than than you, if you're curious, if you're open to that, I I think Rashmi is an incredible teacher. You know, she's ⁓ so wise and so much love and the way you hold space for people. And I've worked with Rajmi personally and I've seen her work with groups and in her retreats and her one-on-ones. And I like by the way, she's not asking me to say this and she didn't pay me to say this, but I'm just sharing this because know there's so much we what we try to do on our own. And we are not meant to walk this walk this path, walk this world on our own. We are meant to be in community. We are meant to be held. We are meant to be witnessed. We are meant to supported. And I just So if you're interested in doing that, I'd say, man, look for Rashmi's programs and work with her. She's incredible.
speaker-1: Gosh, I received that I'm so grateful for that, Vanessa. And I'm gonna put links how people can find you, is what was gonna say on there because I would completely all of those things. I've watched you help other people in really ⁓ beautifully magical ways that we're trying to put words for things that don't really have words. And so If what you heard from Vanessa is is is something that resonates with you, find her. It's gonna be easy for you to find her. I'm gonna put all her links in the show notes. And ultimately think all of it comes together w like it that Ram Das quote ⁓ is coming up me, you know, we're all just walking other home.
speaker-0: Yes. And home is magical. ⁓ I can't wait for you all to get there if you're not there. And by the way, everyone's home. gotta get all the other stuff out of the way, right? Like we're all we're all there. That's so fun. ⁓
speaker-1: That's it. gratitude to you, Vanessa. ⁓ am just so grateful to to all the things to to be able to watch you and witness you and ⁓ spend this time with you. Thank you so much.
speaker-0: Yeah, thank you, friend.
speaker-1: Hello, hello, dear friend, dear listener. Welcome back to Inner Peace and Power. gonna be ⁓ one the most powerful episodes you've ever listened to, ⁓ and telling you, it's gonna be true. That is my guest today ⁓ is Dr. Calderón. ⁓ she's actually on pod before, but two years ago, she's grown so much, I've grown so much. All of you listeners have so much too that it's worth revisiting at a deeper level.
Dr. Vanessa Calderón: Hey friends, today we're continuing the conversation with Dr. Rashmi Schramm for a deep conversation on consciousness, spirituality, and it means to be in relationship with something greater than ourselves in this modern world. I'm so glad you're here. Let's get started. Hey friends, last week you heard me sit with Dr. Rashmi Schramm. And today we're going to flip the script. Today, Dr. Rashmi Schramm is actually interviewing me.
speaker-1: So that's why I'm so excited for this.
Dr. Vanessa Calderón: We're going deeper into my own experiences, beliefs, my journey, my ⁓ upbringing, we're going to explore the intersection of science, spirituality, ancestral wisdom, and what it means to essentially walk an authentic path while living in this modern world.
speaker-0: Thank you so much, sweet friend. Happy to be here.
speaker-1: Yeah. there anything you want to kind of give us an update on in the last couple of years? What's been going on for you?
speaker-0: An update. Ooh, that's exciting. ⁓ what has been going on? the word that comes to mind is expansion, ⁓ expansion in a way that is so whole and so grounded and feels so ⁓ authentic in alignment with just who ⁓ I like who I was here to be. and just a really maybe just returning home. I think that that's what it is. I think
Dr. Vanessa Calderón: So take a deep breath, settle in, and let's continue our conversation.
speaker-0: The more we come home to ourselves and the more we expand, the more things open up for us. And so over these last two years, as I have allowed myself to flow with guidance from, ⁓ know, I I say source or divine, but whatever people call it, higher consciousness, ⁓ whatever you call it, God, the more I've allowed myself to be in ⁓ communication a right relationship with source, ⁓ the more I've opened up and the more I've allowed I've been allowed to flow and It's been a beautiful experience.
speaker-1: Beautiful. I've watched that as well. You know, you becoming more and more of that. I a friend who says who calls it the hollow bone of being to be the conduit for some of that divine work so that you can kind of continuously let of who you are not so that you continue to come home to yourself. It's beautiful. So I'd love to just into that, into the deep end of that, if that's okay with you. Right. So ⁓ divinity, source, whatever that is. And you know, people may have different words, God, whatever that is. And we're we're not trying to say one way is right or wrong, it involves, at least for you and me, some ⁓ level of non of we can't logic ourselves out of it, right? Like it it is a it's sort of a mystical unfolding. ⁓ wonder you talk about ⁓ what that and feels like from your perspective.
speaker-0: Yeah, absolutely. And I'll just say, you know, for and thousands and thousands of years, every civilization that has walked this planet has walked it in hand with something bigger than us, connected to a universal source or a universal consciousness, knowing that we ⁓ are we not walking this planet alone. We are not these soul individuals siloed off. And it's even just me or my family unit. It's Everyone together in relationship with nature, with the plants, with the animals, with the moon, with the stars, with the cosmos. In fact, if we look back to ancient civilizations, Egyptian civilizations, before those civilizations, and you see the ⁓ that they were able to create and their connection to something so much bigger than them. So when talk about this now, a lot of people say it sounds new aged, and I think that's so funny because. It is one of the it it is such a gift that we were given from ancestors from before and from people that have walked this planet for thousands and thousands and thousands of years. So not anything new. It's really just a returning back to what it that we know to be true. And honestly, for when I think about all of this, it doesn't feel new aged. It doesn't a lot of people use the word woo. None of that. For me, it's just like, Well, it's just what it is, you know? as background, I grew up in a home with a dad who was a mystic, who is a mystic, ⁓ and brilliant, man. And we'd have some great conversations ⁓ when was very young kid, like philosophical conversations as a young kid. And the way I the world was always tilted towards something so much bigger. When I would look up at the stars when I was like six or seven years old, I ⁓ knew that I was connecting to something so much bigger than me. ⁓ course, ⁓ know, you walk this planet culturally the way we have been conditioned with our social programming. ⁓ a lot of those connections or th or those ways of being or those knowing sort of turn off for us. And better or for worse, they turn off. And, don't I look at everything as a gift, even the fact that e even my own sort of becoming. I look at everything as a gift. So the fact that everything turned off for me, maybe it had to turn off so that I could become who I became, you know, 'cause one big thing that I did, you know, I grew up in a house with ⁓ with indigenous healers and using certain things that we use in Mexico or Central America to heal, that I thought as I got older, ⁓ know, you become a teenager, you push against a lot of those types of things. And I became a physician. ⁓ And ⁓ I became a physician because healing is in my bones, healing is in my blood. And I became a physician because I thought that that's the way to heal. And it's fascinating because I would try to disprove so often the things that my grandparents would tell me or the things that my uncles and aunts would tell me. when ⁓ had this huge like coming home to myself and understanding and understanding the deep wisdom that lies in a lot of these medicines, it so like. It it's just so hilarious to laugh and to say, ⁓ my gosh, it's so funny that I used to think I was pushing against that so much and it can't be true. ⁓ it's impossible, you know, and there's no science behind that. on journey, ⁓ one of other things that I've learned is science is just catching up to a lot of the things that we have known to be true for thousands of years. ⁓ If you about, for example, something that Rashmi, you do so well, which is meditative practice. In all of the different respects. practice is something that's been practiced for centuries. ⁓ we just started studying it in Western medicine in like the 70s. And now everyone's like, ⁓ yeah, there's something about there's something about that. Of course, there's something about that. It's the same thing with the whole field of positive psychology, studying intention or gratitude or things that we just know that exist. And in fact, they've created the whole field of quantum physics. Because we started, we started seeing with our eyes or feeling, understanding things that physics itself couldn't make sense of. And so ⁓ in, think it was in the 60s when we're like, ⁓ hold on a second, maybe there's something else. And there was a whole field of physics created, quantum physics. And so if we say, example, I consider myself a skeptic, and I actually think ⁓ skepticism is really, healthy. And I'm gonna bring this in the conversation now because There's a difference between a skeptic and a someone who's cynical. skeptic is ⁓ minded and curious and looking. Yes. Someone who's just practicing cynicism, they're just gonna say no to anything. They're just gonna be completely closed off. ⁓ for you that are if if you're listening, if you're a skeptic, be a skeptic. But skepticism means be open. Right.
speaker-1: Absolutely. wholeheartedly agree. And I resonate with so much of that. And my guess is the people listening ⁓ probably resonating to so much of that as well. If we allow some of that ancestral wisdom, regardless of where your ancestors sort originated from, there is wisdom there to be had. I mean, we often talk about generational trauma. Okay, yes, ⁓ and also generational wisdom. There's ancestral wisdom. And it's a yes and. And if are we willing to accept both? And if not. ⁓ we're just going to be walled off anyway. And that's not even living that full life, that wholehearted life that we're looking to live. And when were talking about that, I think I've had such a similar kind of pattern in my own life. I grew in India with a very mystical grandmother who I lived with. And some of some the things that she was able to pass down to me it was so interesting because the British colonization. ⁓ My parents had been socialized to actually only accept Western medicine, is so interesting because they hadn't quite, you know, that whole generation, they literally burned down Ayurvedic clinics down to the ground. They had really tried bury yoga and meditative practices and Ayurvedic practices for years. But the is, ⁓ it had been going thousands of years, for five thousand plus years, and you cannot eradicate something. ⁓ that powerful in 50, 60, 70 years. And so of course it's back into the lexicon. It's back in the culture. And when was a young physician, ⁓ and I pretty immediately as as an like this is such an incomplete system. I think I understood that all through medical school, but I didn't quite connect to it. It's the same for you. But I didn't understand like incomplete it really was. It's not that, you know, the way that we practice traditional allopathic medicine is bad, not at all. If you or I needed a surgery, we would 100% go to get that surgery. a yes and like how el what else is here? Like what emotional, psychological, like what spiritual healing needs to take place in addition to this thing. And I would go off to study different Ayurvedic practices, like I think my parents were really worried. they'd be like, What? And which is so interesting, right? Like because they had been, ⁓ they were that I was really leaving this very traditional system. And I I some of those words that you used, right? Right off the bat, which is like woo or new age. I mean, those are all colonized words. Those are those are colonized words, and we don't have to use that same language anymore.
speaker-0: Well, you said so things, but one thing I really want to name is ⁓ we have we all agree science. It's agreed that there's a thing as epigenetics. I'm here for epigenetics, right? Like, so we agree that epigenetics exist. means the way your gene certain genes turn on and turn off. So we agree that you can have trauma that's passed down generationally through your epigenetics. So if that's true, why can't your wisdom also be passed down? You know, it's like it's so funny, it's the it's It's two sides of the same coin. And it's really the concept of, you know, the universal law of duality. there's that's passed down, what's on the other side of that? ⁓ Wisdom, beauty. so ⁓ one of things I I love to do, and I ⁓ so for something that's really supported me on my own journey is going back and healing so much of that trauma that lived through me, generational trauma, ancestral trauma. And it's been such a beautiful gift. And it's something that I offer the people I work with because know that on the other side of healing that is connecting to all of the wisdom that's on the other side, all the joy and the gifts and the wisdom. And for so many people, and this is especially true for anyone that's ever lived in a marginalized like if ever been considered marginalized in any community you've lived in, a woman, a of color, whatever, you know, like ⁓ experiencing or feeling living into joy. can feel very foreign, can feel g you can might feel guilty if you experience that, all of those types of things. And when you heal a lot of the things that are in the way on the other side, it just makes all of that possible. That's where the light lives.
speaker-1: Yeah. Isn't that beautiful? the ⁓ way in which we get to accept both ⁓ ⁓ and wholly. Like that how we can move through. ⁓ And we are like, you know, if it's true that hurt people hurt people, then healed people are helping other people heal.
speaker-0: Yeah, a hundred percent. Sometimes those things that we say seem so simple, but if you really listen to that, it's so profound. It's so profound. There's always going to be something on the other side. Yes.
speaker-1: Yes, absolutely, absolutely. allowing things because what you talked about, at least at the beginning parts of this, some of this had an of surrender into it. Like we can't have a a timeline that that ⁓ you we can have intentions, we have affirmations, we work these things, we visualize, and when we put a timeline on it, that's not how the universe works.
speaker-0: let's go there. I think the concept of surrender, ⁓ more and more we talk about it, the more and more we normalize it. And the more and more people hear it over and over again, I hope the more people are open to practicing it. So the here's thing I think about. So surrender, the way I think about it is being really open. Being open and trusting that there's a benevolent energy working around you that's in your favor. And that can be really, really challenging for people if you've had lived trauma or inherited trauma, you look at the world, and the world is just on fire sometimes. And if you are a conscious being, it's tough to experience that and say, how could there possibly be a benevolent force? And tell you just from my own journey. Before medicine, I was an I was an activist. So I did social justice activism work. And There was always a part of me that had this sense of self-righteousness, like, ⁓ I gotta take down the bad guy, or it's me against them. And was a pattern that I had to work through ⁓ ⁓ this lifetime. And thank you, ⁓ for this pattern. And I experienced on the other side is, isn't that so funny that I thought, how self-important am I that I'm the person that needs to take down all these systems of oppression? ⁓ And systems oppression exist. It's true. And The more you try to fight it, the more you're creating that duality, you know, the more you're like us against them. And I have come to learn that that doesn't actually solve the bigger problem. The bigger problem can only be solved through love, you know? So as soon as you can just zoom out just a little bit and if I can even just zoom up above me, watching myself fight against the patriarchy or fight against, you know, white supremacy or fight against all these things and be like, wow, look at this. I'm just stuck in this plane fighting. What if I just rise above a little bit with love and compassion and look down and say, my gosh, I can see why you're so scared. Both both sides. I can see why you're so afraid. I can see why you're holding on. It's okay. It's okay. You're safe. It's okay. And how I envision this benevolent energy. There are things happening on this planet that I can't explain. I don't understand. I can't explain. They're tragic. All of those things are true. And I'm a human. I have a limbic system. I feel emotions. And so. they're sad and they they sometimes there's grief. I have ⁓ have had to process and move through so much grief. And senses I will likely continue to do that as I live this world and expand. And so I guess say all that because through all of this, I have never once believed that I wasn't fully guided and supported. Through all of that. And I think it helped that I a mother who I think I I think my mom was an angel on this when she was on this earth. I think she probably she was definitely some sort of light being. She wa she had one of the most compassionate, biggest hearts I've ever experienced ever. She was just incredible. of course not perfect, because when we're in human form, we can't be. but she just expected things to out. That's just way she ⁓ rolled through the world. And the woman experienced some trauma, let tell you. She like She like fleeing a l a ton of like poverty and all so much stuff. And for her to still just navigate the world with this just deep belief in her body that or in her soul and her essence that things are just always going to work out, what I inherited. That's what I learned. and I actually think I probably would have been born with that, but you never know, nature, nurture. And so, but it did make it easier to have an example in front of me all the time that things were always working out. And so because of that, throughout everything that I've experienced, what surrender has allowed me to do, the concept of being open and trusting that there's some that there's some energetic benevolent force working in my favor, it's allowed me to release attachment to so much. here's the thing I think about when we are in communication, I'm jumping around a little bit here, but when we're in communication to divine, because you also set timelines and we ask for something. quote unquote manifest. I think when people talk about manifestation a lot, they think about only the physical, manifest money or cars or whatever. yes, it's possible. Manifest the physical if you want it. And that's think that we lose sight of so much more. about manifest joy? What about unconditional love? What about ecstasy? What about bliss? What about passion? What about friendship, connection? There's so much that we can actually experience when we're in right relationship with divine or higher consciousness. But the about a timeline is this. So you said, but then we put a timeline, but that's not how the universe works. And yes, because what a timeline actually is, is what I've come to understand is a timeline is to what is. Because when you set a timeline, it's like, okay, when I get there, then this will happen. And what is happening is Resisting the present moment. When we can say, hey, this is my desire, divine. This is what I desire. I don't know how I'm gonna get there. And ⁓ I am a little nervous, I'm a little but I'm super excited and I give it all to you. Like I all of it. I'm just open to it happening. Show me. Show me how to do it. Show me how it happened it whenever. Like I'm not in a rush because being in a rush is resisting what is. And what what you know, Carl Jung y used to say, what you resist will persist. And so why we get to release the concept of a timeline. And if you are someone that really struggles with that, just ask yourself, ⁓ feeling are you looking for? Because what you're chasing is an emotion.
speaker-1: Always. Always. Yeah. And sometimes if we can just even embody that emotion, magnetically attract that thing to us. ⁓
speaker-0: That's that's the way it works. That's how know this sounds sounds this stuff sounds so simple. And because I've I've heard this stuff forever. Like I grew, you know, my dad was also an entrepreneur. So we would drive in the car listening to like old school Zigziglar, like, you know, all and the law of attraction and money, yeah, all this stuff. and there's something my Body, like in my essence, that grasped the concept that there knew that there was truth for it. Didn't I fully get it? Like I didn't, I wasn't actually thinking about it. I just felt it and it felt true. fast forward to that we get into adulthood, and everybody talks about the law of attraction and money, ⁓ all these things. And think the truth is that it's really simple. It really is that simple. This it's as simple as Rosh May just said it. Like you feel what you want to feel. That feeling is an energy, it's energy, right? It's we've measured feelings on functional MRIs. We see EEGs, we see what's happening at electron electron with the electricity in our bodies. So we know it's electricity. And we want is the frequency of that electricity what we want it, what what we want to meet. And so ⁓ this morning I was actually sitting with in my meditation the concept of receiving. I said, Okay, divine, I'm open and I know I've been resistant to it. You know, and so I'm open to it. So show me how. And immediately it was like, ⁓ it's gratitude. It's like, it's the frequency of gratitude. And I was like, that's so simple. ⁓ Obviously, it's the frequency of gratitude. That's so simple. And and really is. So and gratitude is one of like it's why people talk about gratitude practices. And been literature, scientific papers proven ⁓ practicing gratitude makes you feel better. Okay, why does it make you feel better? ⁓ dopamine, serotonin, all these things. Yes, yes, yes. And what else? And you're raising your frequency to abundance and to gratitude. Like that's magical. If you can, and so all day today, what I've been doing, I've been walking around being like, thank you for this clean air. ⁓ thank you for this warm cup of tea. ⁓ my gosh, thank you for my beautiful friend Rashmi sitting across from me all day. I've just been sitting in gratitude. And of course I feel amazing because gratitude makes you feel good. But then you pull in what it is you want.
speaker-1: That's so beautiful. Thank you for sharing that. brings to mind a story because you talked about the acceptance of what's there, right? resistance is ⁓ it looks like I want because this isn't good enough for me, or I don't feel good enough, right? And ⁓ you and I, we have the honor of helping people heal. And just this weekend I had, I was able to ⁓ in a meditation retreat with a few women. And one of them, mean, i and you're right, sounds so simple, but it is so profound. And one of the things that had been grappling with is the violence that has been going on in the Middle East. And of course we're all feeling that, right? we are all beings with open hearts. And so she had ⁓ really been struggling with, you know, the schoolgirls that died in Iran, the god, you know, the kids that are dying in in Gaza right now, like these things that are very, very real and very, very true. And in meditative sort of journey, she was trying to with that. And what came to her very clearly, so clearly, was that is not under your control. You can do you can do something else here. Here's and it was shown to her. She was already volunteering. She was tutoring, you know, these group of five kids locally. She was, she had mentees, she has like she has people that she's already working with. And it was to her very clearly, like, this is this is where, this is your part of the world right now. ⁓ You focus your here. And I know it simple, but it it helped her such an immense degree, gave her so much relief. Like she can do this much. Like she can donate to this, this and this, yes. And she has no over what's happening there, right? Like just like you and I have no control over it. And at the same time, what what where is our f sphere of influence and look can we focus on that? Can we shine ⁓ our light beautifully and and and generously in that area? And that's kind of what you're talking about is ⁓ you raise your vibration, you your future to you, ⁓ and you create impact. Where you can create impact, not where you cannot create impact.
speaker-0: That's yeah, it's so true. this another great practice of surrender, by the way. I think whenever we are noticing things that are creating ⁓ grief or sadness our bodies. Okay, before I go there, let me just name something. I ⁓ have come understand we are all part of a higher consciousness. So we are sharing energy energy consciously. Everyone in the world, right? so if you have the privilege to live in a place that's safe. If you have a pr the the privilege to live in a place where you have a roof over your head always and food and water and all of those and your children are safe and they're what you know, all of those things. If you're healthy, if you have that privilege to have the right genetics to be healthy, if your children are healthy, that allows you to do ⁓ to raise universal consciousness. How? By just being grateful for what you have. And now you have the luxury to sit quietly and bring in peace. My gosh, thank you. I I receive peace. I receive love. Thank you. I receive these blessings. time you ⁓ that actively, you are raising universal consciousness. You are, you are, in effect, doing your part to raise consciousness of the world. Your of being, I've been sitting with this concept of unconditional love a lot, because boy, has that that's been coming up for me over and over and over again. and how way to ⁓ and Pass forward unconditional love is to be, just be it. Just be unconditional love and people will feel it. And that's all you need to do. You don't need to go teach them or tell them to love themselves, just like be it for yourself. Just be it, be it, be it. it's the same thing with all of the grief, everything happening in the world. So if you have the luxury to be in a place where you're not experiencing that, don't I don't I'm not saying ignore it. I'm not saying avoid it. I'm not saying pretend it doesn't exist. Don't gaslight yourself. What I'm saying is be so grateful for what you have, because in doing that, you are doing so much to raise the consciousness of the world. 100% ⁓ you, and they've done studies to show how, you 10 monks ⁓ meditating, what that does to the consciousness around them and to the environment around them. And they've so this is proven in science, also what I'm sharing here. And the more you do it, the more you do it in community, the bigger it gets and the more magnified it gets. ⁓ And tell you man especially these last couple of years it has felt like the world has been on fire listen i'm first generation latina in this country and everything happening with immigration like holy smokes like there's just so much and i i don't want to hold that in my body and so i surrender it so i say to divine i'll say okay divine this feels really heavy and ⁓ i and i just have so much grief and i just to give this to you I give this to you because I trust in the law karma. Whether I see it, I know that things will write themselves because they always will. And I don't have to be personally responsible for it. I don't have to see it. I don't have to, and I personally stopped look making that on my feed because I used to be so interested in what's gonna happen next and what law is gonna get passed. And like, hold on a second. Why am I bringing that energy in? The energy I want to create is of love, of healing, of compassion. Not because the world's not on fire, but because the world is on fire. That is the energy I want to bring in for myself and for the people around me.
speaker-1: Yeah, it's powerful it's I think sometimes we can go the other way where we build a wall against it and we insulate ourselves from it. And also not very healthy for us. And so this way you know, like acknowledging that darkness, but but not living in it, but just acknowledging it will help us lean more into that light and that gratitude and then shine our own light so that we help the ones that we're meant to help. Because if we are depleted, we can't even help the people that we're meant to help.
speaker-0: Mm. A hundred percent. A hundred percent. Yeah. And the more and more you do that, the more you become an open vessel. Yeah. Magic happens.
speaker-1: That's when magic happens yeah, again, I think ⁓ the more we to ⁓ move through us, more does move through us. ⁓
speaker-0: Yeah. I have a wise teacher who was a psychotherapist for twenty something years and then became ⁓ and as a hobby, she was what is that word? I can't remember, but she would go and study all these societies, like old ancient societies. She would just do that as a hobby. And then she really into it and started researching it and publishing papers and books on And then she's got super into astrology, and just you know, there goes her her arc into connection to something higher. And one of the things she says is, astrologically, we are born with something called a birth chart. And I you know you're super familiar with this, Raj. ⁓ For those are not, it's it's at the time of the day ⁓ that you're where you're physically located, all of those types of things, nobody else will have an identical birth chart as you. You, your birth chart is is unique. And so the question is if my birth chart is that unique, then ⁓ then what does it mean? And the picture it tells you, it's not predictive by any means, but it's essentially tells the story of the journey your soul's a lot your soul's meant to have. what's beautiful about it is the more and more you surrender and you allow things to happen, the more your life will start flowing in this beautiful direction. And all of a sudden it's like, ⁓ that's so interesting. Astrologically that's what was supposed to happen. And look, it did. That's hilarious. It's because you're in flow. That's flow. Flow state, you know, we've I did a lot of research on flow state because a a very long time ago I published a podcast on it. And when was reading about it, it was so fascinating because everything was about productivity. It was about ⁓
speaker-1: It it either has to be super pleasurable or productive. And if we're doing anything other than that, then you've lost the game.
speaker-0: Totally. Like no one's gonna want to research something if it's not gonna give me a good, you know, like productive outcome. so all of the literature was on how can we become more productive? And they were ⁓ musicians that would get into this flow state. And I was like, isn't that interesting? Because music music, ⁓ it's such a connection to divine, ⁓ the heart, to to this higher level of consciousness, to like the the fifth, what I call the fifth dimension. and that's that's of a portal. Into that. And so when those folks, when they're measuring their brain waves and they they're quote unquote flow state, what's actually happening is they're not all of a sudden more productive. They are now super tapped in to something higher than them. now they are flowing with energy, like the h like what you said, hollow bone. I I sometimes say an energetic conduit as to a sponge. And I don't want to be a sponge. I don't want things sticking to me. I want things flowing through me. And so I think about that with flow state, but the more you surrender. The more you're opened up, the more you allow yourself to clear the things that are not serving you. Cause the when say clear, I mean if there's something you haven't examined yet, maybe you experienced some ⁓ as kid, something and you're still experiencing these weird things that frustrate you or annoy you. Those are called triggers. So ⁓ triggers signs us that maybe there's something I gotta release. And the more we let go of that stuff, what that is is stuck energy. And then when we don't have that stuck energy, now we can become energetic conduits. Now energy can move through us and now we can flow with the universe. And it is the bomb. It is so fun. It's it's incredible. It really does feel sometimes. look around and I'm like, ⁓ this really happening? Like, is this really my like can I just ask for something and then I get it? And the answer is yes, because we we are of pure desire with integrity. And you ask with pure desire with integrity, you tap into something so much greater and you create this beautiful relationship of flow. powerful and it's so fun.
speaker-1: Yeah, it is fun. It is fun. And ultimately, like I think the more of those, like, how is this my life right now? Cause I've had so many of those moments in the last like several weeks, I would say. Like, how is this my life right now? This is like my ⁓ wildest dreams. I could have said that 20 years ago, but you know, like these ways of being and these ways of of I suppose non-traditional, but I don't even know what traditional is. Like I don't even know why I would call it that, right? Like being able to follow my own individual footprint without it having a on it. again, I think that's a decolonized way of thinking about it.
speaker-0: Hmm. Yeah, that's really important what you're saying about decolonized. It's very, very important that we choose for ourselves what feels intentional opposed to just accept what has been told to us because depending on where you live in the world, it's being written through a lens of colonization. And we so much beauty and magic and wisdom when we don't question that. And I'll tell you, if you are experiencing any results in your life right now that you're not happy with, anything, a relationship, weight, anything, it's probably just a belief. It's just one little thing that we've got to shift in the way you're thinking about something let something in and really questioning like, is this really the way it has to be? The answer is probably no. Nothing has to be a specific way if you don't want it to be that way.
speaker-1: Yeah. And that does sound wild. So we'll let that settle in. And we and this is this has been such such a beautiful conversation. I don't even know how the time has gone by, though time, of course, is man-made, but still we have to honor it because we we we follow timelines here. Vanessa, has such a deep honor for me to spend this time with you. I know this was a very powerful episode for folks to listen to. And to you, dear listener, make sure that you're sharing it with five or six or seven of your best friends. any anything that I should have asked you or anything that we should have talked about before I let you go.
speaker-0: No, but I do want to just put a plug-in for for you actually, for the folks that are listening. know, if you are interested in being more open, more connected, if you are interested in tapping into something bigger, higher than than you, if you're curious, if you're open to that, I I think Rashmi is an incredible teacher. You know, she's ⁓ so wise and so much love and the way you hold space for people. And I've worked with Rajmi personally and I've seen her work with groups and in her retreats and her one-on-ones. And I like by the way, she's not asking me to say this and she didn't pay me to say this, but I'm just sharing this because know there's so much we what we try to do on our own. And we are not meant to walk this walk this path, walk this world on our own. We are meant to be in community. We are meant to be held. We are meant to be witnessed. We are meant to supported. And I just So if you're interested in doing that, I'd say, man, look for Rashmi's programs and work with her. She's incredible.
speaker-1: Gosh, I received that I'm so grateful for that, Vanessa. And I'm gonna put links how people can find you, is what was gonna say on there because I would completely all of those things. I've watched you help other people in really ⁓ beautifully magical ways that we're trying to put words for things that don't really have words. And so If what you heard from Vanessa is is is something that resonates with you, find her. It's gonna be easy for you to find her. I'm gonna put all her links in the show notes. And ultimately think all of it comes together w like it that Ram Das quote ⁓ is coming up me, you know, we're all just walking other home.
speaker-0: Yes. And home is magical. ⁓ I can't wait for you all to get there if you're not there. And by the way, everyone's home. gotta get all the other stuff out of the way, right? Like we're all we're all there. That's so fun. ⁓
speaker-1: That's it. gratitude to you, Vanessa. ⁓ am just so grateful to to all the things to to be able to watch you and witness you and ⁓ spend this time with you. Thank you so much.
speaker-0: Yeah, thank you, friend.
