Hello, lovely listeners, and welcome to Backyard Magic. Come on into the backyard, grab a cup of tea, let's chat, talk about some magic. My name is Nicole Berrios. I am your host for today and every day of the show. How y'all doing? How is Eclipse season going for you guys? Are you having a time and maybe not the best time? If so, I feel you. I am in the same boat. The eclipse portal. Wow. It's a different kind of chaos. Totally different kind of chaos. And it has inspired the theme for tonight's episode. Today's episode. I'm recording at night, which isn't typically what I do. But eclipse season, stuff happens. Didn't get around to doing it earlier. Let's backtrack a little bit though. What is in my mug? I do have tea today. Thank goodness I have tea. I guess I need to backtrack even a little bit further. My last episode. I talked a lot about our broken refrigerator because that was the highlight of my life at that point in time. It has been fixed. Yay! The refrigerator is functional. We have normal refrigerator storage and it's amazing. It's oh, don't take your refrigerator for granted. It's kind of like a life or death sort of thing, you know. I still haven't been able to make a big vat of tea because everything has been so chaotic. However, I have been able to make myself small cups of tea. And I had a cup this morning of a blend that I got from the local herb shop called Sniffle Be Gone. It's specific for like allergies, like uh sinus-y stuff. Not necessarily sickness, although I suppose you could use it for that. Um, it's just been very dusty here. Lots and lots of crazy dust storms. Crazy, crazy dust storms. We'll talk more about that in a minute. Um, so I had Sniffle Beagon today, and I planned on talking about that for this episode, and then I didn't get a chance to record it until later in the day. And I don't usually drink tea at nighttime because I find that it interrupts my sleep because I have to get up and go to the bathroom like too many times. But I don't know what it is about tea in particular. Like, water doesn't do that to me, it's just tea. So I don't normally drink tea at night, but after the day that I had today, I just felt like I needed a cup of tea. So, what is in my mug tonight? Holy basil or tool C. That's it. I put a little tiny splash of honey in there. It is not local honey because I still haven't had a chance to go get new herbs and honey from the herb shop. Ugh, I think I might be able to do that on Thursday. So I kind of just had to work with what I had in my cupboard and open up the cupboard, saw that I had a box of Tulsi that I had purchased, I don't even know when, and was like, that sounds perfect for tonight. Like, for those who don't know, Tulsi or Holy Basil is, I believe it's an Ayurvedic herb. So it's it's um Indian. It's from India. It's lovely, it's very, very good for regulating the nervous system, calming the stress response, just like stress relief. I actually used to rely on holy basil a lot in my early days of healing and personal development work, um, especially around the time when I was figuring out that I was an empath. And oh man, I was a hot mess. I had so many things going on at that point in time. Um, I'm pretty sure it was like after I did vipassana. That's that's a whole other episode, is uh my vipassana experience, which is like the 10-day silent meditation retreat. Um, yeah, my senses were like so heightened after vipassana, and my empathy was like through the roof. It wasn't a good time in my life. Um, but I was do I was taking holy basil like religiously, and I don't think I was drinking tea, I was doing it in tincture form, which for when it comes to herbs, there's different ways that you can take herbs. One of them is drinking it as a tea, another way is taking it in tincture form. Tincture form is when the herbs have been soaked in alcohol, and you leave it, you leave it soaking for weeks, like four to six weeks, and then at the end of that, you strain the herbs out, and then you're left with the tincture. So it's basically like super concentrated herbs, like in an alcohol base. Um, I tinctures are hard for me to take because I really don't like alcohol, even in tinctures. However, what I will say about tinctures is that they work fast, they go into the bloodstream super quickly. And I think this might be because it's in an alcohol base, for me, anyways, because I hate alcohol. It's uh it's a bit shocking to the system when you when you take a tincture that's in an alcohol base. And so I feel like that's kind of part of the magic of it is you take the tincture and it's like, oh my God, because the alcohol just gets you, and then combined with like the spiciness of the herb, it's just it's a little bit shocking. Um, but I think that's important when you're taking a tincture for stress because it immediately puts you right back into your body and grounds the heck out of you. So I relied heavily on holy basil um earlier in my uh career as a professional personal development person. I suppose in like witch talk, like hip culture, we would call this shadow work. I'm a professional shadow worker, is what I am. I didn't know what I was doing at the time, but yeah, it's it's all shadow work. So holy basil, that is what is in my mug tonight. I I actually already finished the cup, and I feel really good. I feel really, really good. I finished the mug and I got to read Harry Potter to my daughter, and it's my favorite one. It's Prisoner of Azkaban, my favorite of the Harry Potter series. So, like, I just I got like good and grounded. Like, I had my tea, read a chapter in my favorite Harry Potter book. I'm like, yeah, I feel pretty good. I'm ready to go do this episode. So let's do it. Let's do this episode. Like I said, eclipse season, chaos abounds. I wanted this episode to be about uh like tips on how you can stay grounded in times of chaos. And I kind of wanted there to be um two parts to this episode. One part was going to be like if chaos is surrounding you, like everything in your life is mostly okay, but like everything around you, like people around you, like everybody is having a hard time, and you're kind of like the calm amidst the storm. And then um like tips for what you can do if that's you, if you're in that position. And then a couple of tips for what you can do if you are the one in chaos. Like if yeah, like if if you're the one who's having a hard time and is in survival and kind of living in chaos, because I feel like there's different different things you can do depending on what your circumstances are. And so, um, yeah, and just just based on everything that I've talked to people about um with recently, like there's chaos going around, and I I'm sure a lot of you guys are feeling it too. So I hope this episode will be timely for you and will hope um give you some guidance as to how you can stay grounded in your magical power, your you know, your sovereignty, yourself, um, and also a you know, because this is back here at magic, a little bit about like how to find some magic even in the middle of all of the chaos. So here we go. Here we go. I have been um the calm within the storm lately. Like, I there's a part of me, this is gonna sound weird, and I think this is because I am a recovered, mmm, I don't I don't really know how to word this, like a recovered trauma person. Like I've I've lived so much in trauma and survival over so many, like such large portions of my life, and I've done a massive amount of work on myself. Like I said, I'm a professional shadow worker. I've done such a massive amount of work on myself that at this point I'm like mostly out of that, which I'm incredibly grateful for. Like my work has paid off, and I get it, like shit happens, you know, like you can't control everything that happens to you. And like I I get it, but I definitely feel like there are periods of time where you're gonna be going through it more than others. And like right now, I feel like I need to knock on wood. I'm in a period of time where it's a little bit calmer for like me personally, like I'm doing okay. And I I talk to my counselor about this sometimes because it comes, like me being okay when people around me are not, comes with an element of guilt. I it's almost like survivor's guilt, that sort of thing, you know, where I almost feel like I should be in the chaos with you, like I should also be having a hard time because you're having a hard time. It's like this weird dynamic. And let me know if you guys experience this or if this is just me. I don't think it's just me. I think this is a thing that happens to people, like when you're on the other side of suffering and either people, you know, you see people around you that are in the thick of it. It's it's hard. Like it's hard to witness. And yes, you you there is an element of feeling guilty that you're doing okay when others are not. So this is kind of the position that I'm in right now. I feel like everything's going pretty okay. Like I'm doing okay. It was it's hard-earned, like, don't get me wrong, like I have hustled and worked very hard and diligently and consistently to be in the position that I'm in. However, a lot of people around me are going through it right now. This is both friends, family, clients. Holy cow. Holy cow. Like, I know I talk, like for me personally, like I'm the professional shadow worker. Like, that's just what I do in my free time as my paid job. I I mean, you know, I'm an acupuncturist, but really I'm a professional space holder. Like, that's what I do. I hold space for people, like lots of space for big deep feelings like emotional hurts, discomforts. I walk with people through their dark moments, you know. And it's an honor and a privilege to be able to have this role and that people trust me with their vulnerability. And I don't take that for granted at all. Um, but sometimes it's it's a lot being a professional spaceholder for people in their, you know, showing up in all of their messiness, all of their human, humanness, humanity. And so that that's where I've been lately is just holding space for people as they are going through it. And this is really interesting because I don't think I don't think this is a coincidence. You know, the the weather is crazy, like everywhere. Like fires, I'm sure there's flooding somewhere. I don't really watch the news like at all. I kind of get bits and pieces of things that are happening secondhand. This is part of my uh boundary for how I keep myself functional and not overwhelmed with anxiety, is I don't watch the news about things that I have no control over, especially the weather. Especially the weather. I'm recovered from seasonal affective disorder. Like I gotta be mindful. But I do know that it is hot AF where I live. In fact, let me pull up the weather app. Okay. Currently 8 56 p.m. By the way, I am recording this so last minute. Because so last minute. This episode is gonna drop first thing in the morning, and I'm recording it like the night before. I I only bring that up because it's like this is the epitome of eclipse season where it's just like everything is chaotic. Like I didn't get around to doing this until right now, like at the very last minute. I am normally not this late on putting my episodes together. Um, I'm at least I'm doing it. I'm showing up and I'm doing it, but also, geez, Louise. 8 56 p.m. It is 104 degrees out right now. Right now. It's dark. The sun has been down for hours, 104 degrees. It it was up at 114 earlier today, and it is going to be, I think, 111 tomorrow, and we've got another couple of days of like extreme heat, and then it's going supposedly to come down into the high 90s. So there is a light at the end of this extremely hot tunnel. Okay. And I get it, we live in the desert, the concrete here, there's a heat bubble, it's it's a thing. I don't need to go into that. But what I will say is that in addition to the extreme heat, is we've been having a killer monsoon season, and with monsoon season comes um extreme wind and dust storms. Um if it gets big enough, they call it a haboob. In fact, they're like the craziest haboob happened two months after I moved to um to Arizona. It like made national news. You should go look it up. Like the the great haboob of Phoenix in 2011. There's like footage of it. It looked like the gods of wind and dust, wild stuff that happened like right after I moved here. And I was like, oh my god, where did I move? I'm like living in hell. This is crazy. Anyways, there have been crazy dust storms this particular monsoon season. And when I say crazy, I mean extremely high winds. I I checked after the the last one that we had, like, how high did those winds get? And they got up to like 70, 80 miles an hour. I'm like, that's like hurricane level wind. That's insane. And this wind has been blowing trees over left and right, blow like completely uprooting trees and um breaking trees, like there's broken tree branches everywhere. Like all of these landscaping companies have been so busy with all the tree maintenance just because it's it's it's everywhere, like trees in the road, trees everywhere. My next door neighbor actually, their tree got uprooted. It was a big tree, too. I was so sad when when it was down. It didn't seem to cause any damage, luckily, but still, I like I had to kind of peek over their fence to like see the extent of it because I thought that the tree had just like broken, that like the um not the branch, the base, the base of the tree. Oh god, what do you call that part of the tree? It's late, you guys. I can't think of it. You know, the big part of the tree, the trunk, the trunk of the tree. I was wondering if that had snapped, but no, it was completely uprooted, like roots up, it was crazy, and I see that all over the place. Like just uprooted trees, broken trees. I bring this up because I often feel, and I I think this is accurate actually, that the external environment impacts the internal environment, or it's like a reflection, you know, like a reflection of the internal internal environment. So like I see this like wind, extreme wind is like the epitome of chaos, right? Like you can't predict it, you don't know how strong it's gonna be, you don't know where it's gonna go, it's unpredictable, chaotic energy. And these trees keep getting uprooted, and like I kind of feel like because I'm in the position to where I'm kind of anchoring other people, you know, like I'm a professional spaceholder, and and honestly, I'm doing it in per in my uh personal life too, just a spaceholder. I feel like the message for me is I need to be the tree that does not get uprooted. I need to get my roots firmly into the ground so that I can be, I can remain tall and strong and weather the storm, which that's kind of what brought me to this episode today, like how to stay grounded during chaotic times. I'm hoping that this is a good visual for you guys because I know grounding is a popular topic, and you know, people will just tell you, like, oh, just go sit outside with your feet in the ground. And like, yeah, you could do that. But really, what I mean when I say grounding during chaotic times is to be the tree that does not get uprooted when 70 mile per hour winds come and try to take everything down. Like, you need to be, you need to be the the strong anchor point. And so some things that I have been doing to help me remain this way, to like help me stay grounded while the chaos is swirling all around me. First of all, I did my in fact, it is happening right now. I should probably blow the candle out because it uh oh is really, really going to town right now. In my last episode where I talked about magic for eclipse season, I gave you guys a ritual that I was planning on doing um just to kind of make eclipse season go a little bit smoother. Well, I never had time to do it. I just lit this candle tonight, like before I started to record this episode. I'm finally doing it. Like, man, I got so behind on things. So this this is one thing that I am doing currently is the ritual that I put in that I like said I was gonna do last episode, finally doing tonight. What I did, I took a chime candle, I coated it in olive oil, and I had some I had some dried lavender. I just sprinkled dry lavender on it. Oh, and I carved little peace symbols all over the candle. I just took like a paper clip and I carved peace symbols. I also used a blue candle. I I'm in the club, you know, backyard magic work with what you have. I'm in the club of it doesn't matter what color your candle is if you don't have a blue candle. I just happened to have a pack of chime candles, and um, there were many colors, and blue feels calm and peaceful to me. So that's why I picked it. I lit it, it's yep, it's about done now. But you know, when you light herbs on fire, they burn a little brighter than the candle would any like on its own. So um I'm gonna have to blow that out in a minute. So that's one thing that I'm doing is intentionally focusing on calm and peace and serenity. And in this instance, I'm doing it with a little candle burning ritual. This is just to kind of help get me through the rest of the week. Eclipse season is almost over, and then I feel like we're gonna be in a hangover period. So that's one thing. Um, I'm gonna give you guys a list. Just like a little, how many? I wrote this down, I made notes today. Go me. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven. Seven different things that I have been doing to stay grounded, to be the firm tree that doesn't get blown over in all the crazy. Number one, this is in no particular order. Number one, I have been doing art journaling. Super random. My bestie. My bestie got me into this. She, I know I talk about like human design sometimes and how like I'm a manifester and all the weird problems that manifestor has. She's a manifesting general. And manifesting generators are so much fun. They just have so much more energy than manifestors do. And they always have like all kinds of interests, like so many interests. And so my bestie got really into art uh junk journaling, is what it was. And then it just like became this whole thing, and now she's got like this whole art studio, like just all of this stuff just appeared, like practically for free, too. Like she, I don't know. She's finding all this stuff like at in people's yards and like Facebook Marketplace and this place in um the Phoenix area called the Art Resource Center, which is a super, super cool place, by the way. And just getting all these supplies, and she like kind of got me into it, was like, you should try this. And you know, she's reading this book called Uh Your Brain on Art, I think is what it is. And it like it has studies about how doing art like calms the nervous system, it like regulates your blood pressure and your heart rate, and all of the benefits of making art, just for the sake of making art, not for any particular reason, just because you want to be, you want to create something. And so um, I got some supplies from her. I've also been to the art resource center. I've also just purchased a couple of things and have been doing like collage art journaling. I don't even really know what you would call it. She's got all the fancy names and terminology, and I'm just like, I don't know what this is. I just know that I kind of like this style of paper. And uh I'm just gonna put stuff together. So that's what I've been doing lately, and it's been great. It's almost like addicting in a way. Like I have it on my mind all the time. It's like when I get home from being anywhere really, that's like the first thing that I want to do is like sit down and open up my art journal and like do another page. But I can never just do one page. It's like I have to do two, and then nope, I gotta do three. And it, you know, it takes time. Like, I can't, for me, anyways, I can't do any of this very quickly because I have there's like a process, I have to like plan it out, and it takes time. But I actually think that's part of why it's calming for me, is because I have to like be very, it makes you very present, is what it is. You get very present, very focused on this task that you're doing. And I'm really liking this in particular because I'm not particularly artistic. I say that and then my friends all laugh at me and they say, You're so artistic. I'm like, but I don't know. I I can't draw like for anything. Like, I can't paint. I I yeah, I feel like I can do artistic things when I feel like it, but this collage or art journaling is like perfect for me because I'm working with materials that already exist, and then I just like put them together in a different way, and then I just get to look at pretty things, and like apparently that's important for a Libra rising is aesthetic, and I like things have to look pretty for me and be colorful and bring me joy, you know. And that's something that art journaling has done for me is I I just get to look at pretty things. In fact, one of my journals, I started it specifically because I just wanted to look at pretty things. I didn't have any other purpose for doing it, like I'm not displaying this anywhere other than in my own bedroom, but I'm not like really showing anybody, like it's not for anybody's eyes but mine. Like, I just think this color is pretty and I want to do something with it, like, ooh, I found this really pretty picture, or you know, clipping, ephemera, all kinds of stuff. I'm like, ooh, I'm gonna put that in the in an art journal, and it's just kind of become its own thing. And then I also discovered yesterday that I could use art journaling to work through big feelings. Like I was something, I was upset about something yesterday. I don't even remember what it was. Oh, something like some family stuff, because it's been a week, right? It's only Tuesday. That's been a week, and I just I needed to work through it. And I was at my friend's house with the art studio, and she's got way more supplies than I do, and she's like, just have at it, play with whatever you want. And I was like, Cool. And I made Angry Pages. I actually used a separate journal for this because I didn't want my angry pages to be in my pretty journal, so I got a different one, and like I was like, Do you have anything red? Red is not my color. I'm not a red person, like at all. So I don't work with red very often. And she didn't really have much like red, she had like some maroons, and I was like, no, I want like bright, angry red. And I did manage to find one, one sheet of really, really red paper, and I was like, that's it, that's the one. And anyways, it was so therapeutic, so so therapeutic. I'm going on a total tangent about art here. Backyard magic. Work with what you have. My friend has an art studio that she just kind of hodgepodged together from I don't even know how. Um, and we're just working with scraps, basically, scraps of paper, but it's art is magical. It is so magical. And like I know this, I see my daughter doing art all the time, but like I feel like unless art is your job, we forget to do art as grown-ups. You know, like we just don't think about it. And so doing this art journaling has been really, really awesome for me because it's like tapping into a different part of myself. I like it's a form of expression. I got to work through my big feelings yesterday, and like my angry pages like slowly turned into like happier pages once I got going. It like shifted my mood. And then at the end, I have cool things to look at. Like, even my angry page looks really freaking cool. I like used this devil card. I it was just it was really cool. I love looking at it. And yeah, art is its own kind of magic. I feel like I could do an entire episode just about art. In fact, I don't even know how long I just babbled about that. I'm gonna make the rest the rest shorter because I just talked about art forever. So that's one thing that I've been doing to stay grounded is doing art. And if you guys haven't done art in a while, this is your permission slip to like go do something artistic. It doesn't have to be art journaling, it can be whatever you want. You can go get a paint by number thing or the little diamond art things, you know, like it can be a kit, something already made. I just highly, highly recommend doing art. It helps you get grounded, it gives you something pretty to look at, it gives your hands something to do, and it gives you a focus that makes you incredibly present and just in the moment, and that is what grounding is is just being present and in your body. So go do some art. Art is magic. Okay, number two, prioritizing movement. Exercise is really, really important for me in particular. I notice when I'm not getting consistent exercise, I do not do as well mentally, emotionally, my hormones get out of whack, like it's a whole thing, a whole cascade of events happens if I am not being mindful of getting exercise. So I prioritize movement. I try to get up early most days, so specifically for this. And if I'm not able to get up early or it just doesn't, I don't have time, then I make sure to prioritize movement later in the day. Lately, it's been a lot of going in the pool because it's so insanely hot that that's like the only time you can really be outside and not feel like you're gonna die. Also, the pool water, it's like 90 something degrees, 92. I don't even know. I don't have a thermometer. Every time I buy one, they break. So it's gotta be at least 92 degrees in there. It feels like bath water, it's actually really, really nice. So, but yes, just any type of movement. Like earlier today, I was at the office and I just got up and I started doing squats. Not in the middle of a session, but like in between sessions, I just needed to move around. So, like I walked or paced around the office a little bit and then I just did some squats. I was like, I gotta move, gotta move my body. So that's number two. Highly recommend prioritize movement in your life, whatever that looks like. Number three, my daily protection ritual. I did an episode about this uh a couple weeks, couple months back, um, where I talked about the smoky quartz. I broke my smoky quartz necklace. It was a whole thing. But basically, I have a little um protection ritual that I do on myself every day before I leave the house. I put on a smoky quartz necklace. If it's not smoky quartz, then it's it's the gesture basically. Sometimes I put on something that's not smoky quartz. I will dab on um some essential oil. I have an essential oil roller that I'll dab on to some um acupuncture points, two, like one on each wrist, one on my neck, and two under the collarbone. I take a big breath in. I imagine my feet, like you know, roots coming out from my feet, like the grounding meditation that a lot of people do. Um, and then I also imagine um the energy from the earth coming up through my body, like the tree trunk, didn't forget the word this time, and then out through my head to the heavens, and then I will say, May I be um, oh my goodness, may I be protected, only love and light may enter. It's funny because every time I try to say this to somebody, I like can't remember the words. It's yeah, even now I'm like I'm trying to think, I'm like, I can't remember the words. It's also like later, later than it usually is for me. It's like getting past my bedtime, so my brain isn't the best. May I be grounded, may I be protected, only love and light may enter. Some something like that. And that's just what I do, and that is actually very helpful. I also do this when I get in the car, and I just kind of visualize me getting safely to the place that I'm going, and I also kind of put up like an energetic protective bubble around my car. Um, because with chaos energy comes chaos and crazy drivers. It's also really hot here, so people are just erratic, and um, a lot of accidents, a lot of tire blowouts. Like, tires do not do well in the summer heat here. You have to replace them like every two to three years. Um, so, anyways, protection magic, how to stay grounded. Number four, being as present as possible. This is why the art journaling has been so important for me because it helps me feel present in my body. Um, I also take time to like sit at my altar. I'm actually kind of doing that right now. You guys aren't in the backyard today because we're we're having another wind moment outside. So you guys are at the altar. Altar magic, and because it helps me feel grounded and present. So anything you can do to just make you feel present and focused in the moment will help you be grounded. Okay, let's see. That was number four. Hold on. One, two, three, four. Okay, number five, energy clearing at the end of the day. This kind of goes along with the protection magic. So before I leave the house, set the intention that I will be protected throughout the day. And then at the end of the day, after I've been out in chaos land, I have to clear my energy. There's so many different ways to clear energy. I think I might actually just make a little mini course about this at some point in time. Like how to clear your energy. You can like tonight, I I just smoke cleansed. Like I lit some herbs and I smoke cleansed. I've also got a selenite, it's not a wand, it's kind of like a dagger. I mean, it's not actually sharp, but it looks like a dagger, and I will use that to like scrape myself. You could also feather dust, you can rattle, you know, you can use sound, you can literally just shake yourself. There's so many ways to clear your energy. You can go take a bath, go hop in the pool, stick your feet in water, spritz yourself. So many different ways to cleanse yourself, but yeah, I find that that's important to stay grounded. Okay, so that's number five. Number six, pulling cards. As always, I love my seasons of the witch deck. I will pull cards from that. Yeah, I usually try to pull one a day. I'm also taking a tarot class right now. I've never really taken a tarot class before. I've I'm kind of self-taught, but this one sounded perfect for me. And it has been. It's it's live, like this one meets in real time, and it's gonna go through the end of September, I think, or maybe the first week of October. Um, it's been great. I love it so much. I'm getting so much out of this particular tarot class, and I have been pulling a card from like from the deck. I I got the traditional Rider Waite Smith deck for this class, which uh surprisingly I did not already own. And mostly because I never really resonated with the artwork, but I'm like, if I'm gonna do this class, I'm gonna study the actual deck, and it's been great. I love it so much. So pulling cards, very helpful for me personally to just feel grounded, like it gives me something to focus on, something to look at. Kind of goes back to the art therapy, right? Or the art journaling. So pulling cards. Finally, number seven, connecting with deity or power animals. So I'm a shamanic practitioner, right? And when I was first doing my training, I think it was like a couple weeks in, one of our lessons was we had to meet like there's different levels of reality when you do shamanic journeys, and when you we were supposed to do a journey to go to the upper level or upper world to meet like a guide. And the first guide that I met was the deity, the Celtic deity Bridget. I didn't know anything about her, she just came through. She was the very first one that came through, and she's kind of been with me on my journey ever since then. That was when was that the end of 2014, beginning of 2015? So it's been like 11, 12, 11 years, a while. And I haven't always worked with her. She kind of just like weaves her way in and out of my life. But lately, I have felt this strong call now that I'm like less in a place of chaos and more in a place of calm, and everyone else around me is chaotic, to where I felt a strong pull. It was time for me to really, really work with Bridget. When I was doing shamanic training, we were learning so many other things. I feel like it was kind of impossible to like really form deep relationships with any one particular spirit. But now that I'm on the other side of that, it's like I can choose what I want to do. And it has been, it's been working with Bridget. And lately, with everything going on, I've also been reading a book about Bridget. It is called Tending Bridget's Flame by Lunea Weatherstone. I'll link to this in the show notes. It's been a very, very good book. This is the first book I've ever read about Bridget. I wanted to learn more about her, other than my personal gnosis, you know, like what I've learned from chatting with her in my shamanic journeys. So I wanted to read somebody else's perspective. And it's been a very, very good book. And it has also made me feel very, very connected to Bridget, to where I like kind of feel her in all areas of my life. And while everything is feeling so chaotic, like today while I was in the office, I had a I had one of my clients heavy, just heavy emotions, having a rough time. And I'm a I'm a spaceholder, right? So I had this moment where I've distinctly felt Bridget come in and like put her hand on my shoulder to kind of lend me some strength so that I can support the person that I was that was there for me to support. And I've my cat is yelling. I wonder what he's saying. He agrees, I guess. Oh, Bernard. Anyways, I've never really experienced that to like to that extent before. It's like I usually only have deities or like you know, spirits come in if I'm doing shamanic work, like if I specifically call them in. Um, but to have one just kind of come through to support me was amazing. And it just kind of made me realize that she's been showing up a lot lately to like help me feel grounded in these in these times. And I'm very, very grateful for that. And it made me just think a lot about um, you know, any people of any person who has faith of some sort or a god that they worship, or you know, whatever whatever your religion is or really isn't, whatever your spiritual practice is, like having some spiritual ally on your side can be immensely helpful, a really big source of comfort. And so that has been very, very helpful for me is working with with deity like more closely. It's like I'm deepening the relationship and it's happening be like as a result of everything being so chaotic, which is kind of beautiful, actually. So those are my seven tips for how to stay grounded during chaotic times. Like I said, this was going to be a two-parter. Um when like first part when the chaos is around you, and the second part when um the chaos is happening to you. This episode has gotten really long. We're already at like 41 minutes here. So I will just I didn't plan on this being broken up into two separate episodes. I did actually want to talk about the other part in this episode, so I'm just gonna make it real quick. Real real quick. If you are in a place right now where you are living in survival, if you are going through something traumatic or just something challenging, um, or if you are in the midst of something chaotic, you know, like some big, you know, changes, whatever, car accidents, like just big things happening to you. First of all, I wanted to say, I see you, and it's not it's not okay exactly. But what I will say is that even though it's hard, as I tell my daughter all the time, you can do hard things, and there's plenty of ways you can support yourself while you're dealing with hard things. I did just want to say that when you are living in a you're in a period where you're kind you are in survival, you don't really have extra bandwidth for having a spiritual practice, you know, for sitting in an altar, for anything like that, then that's totally fine. You don't have to be doing any of that stuff. What I would recommend most, if that is the position that you're in, is to prioritize rest. Like prioritize your basic needs as much as you possibly can. Resting, eating, and sleeping, really. Well, I guess sleep goes with rest. Eating and sleeping. Prioritize those two things as much as you possibly can. Because those are those are the big ones. I mean, we see that with every kid who has a meltdown, they're usually either tired or they're hungry. And honestly, most grown-ups too. They're having a meltdown, you're either tired or you're hungry. So if you are going through something traumatic, there is magic in rest. You don't have to have the beautiful altar, you don't have to be specifically like working closely with a deity, or you don't have to be doing art journaling or doing art if that's not the place that you're in in life. You can be having a perfectly magical experience by allowing yourself to rest when things are feeling chaotic as much as possible. If you are in a position to where you aren't sleeping well because of a you know, stress and like life circumstances, something that I would recommend is Yoga Nidra. You can totally do Yoga Nidra for free on Insight Timer. Download Insight Timer, type in Yoga Nidra, and just start trying them. It helps your body to rest to the like even if you don't fall asleep, it helps your body to like get into this um rest state that almost reenacts, I don't know the right word, umulates getting like three to four hours of deep sleep. So that's just a a little tip for your for anybody who needs it. If you're not sleeping well, you don't have a lot of time to sleep, try doing yoga nidra. Like if when you lay down to go to bed and you can't fall asleep, put on a yoga nidra. It will help. It totally helps. And make sure that you prioritize eating, eating, resting, hydrating. Do those three things. And when you start to come out of the, you know, the trauma and the hardship, the survival mode, then you can focus on the other things. You know, you can focus on your practice and kind of building yourself back up. But for now, don't stress yourself out even more than you already are. There is magic in rest, and there is magic in eating food and letting it nourish your body. So I think that's pretty much all I wanted to cover today. Like I said, this wound up being longer than I meant it to. Thank you for listening. I hope it was helpful. It's been helpful for me. Um, writing it all down was a good reminder for me as um uh to the fact that like my little routines that I've been doing have actually been useful. And hopefully they can be useful to somebody out there who is also listening and going through chaotic times. So I hope you guys are well. I hope you're doing eclipse season well. And yeah, I will catch you guys on the next episode. Hang in there. Next time we'll be talking about the fall equinox, which should be definitely more fun than this episode. Less chaotic. And yeah, hang in there, y'all. I'll talk to you in the next episode. Bye.