M from grandmothers who whispered in their baby girl ill two fathers on dimly lit street corners, instructing young soldiers to always keep their eyes open. You be queen, you were fired. You will pass through centuries on the hands of your daughters. They called you wisdom. Proverbs on the backs of diamond eyed school children who grew into hymnals recited by amethyst holding urban philosophers who recited neighborhood commandments out of the windows of restored ALCHEMYO chariots to keep the warmth of their blood. Be wise, be smart, being black, Opal Brown courts, bloodstone and prayer. Be every form of jim se King told, scribe, scribe, told son, son, told wife, wife told her daughter, and daughter told the as this is. And thencess told me that you would come to give wisdom of thousands. They said you would come. Dropping Roping. Welcome back to another episode of the Dropping Gems podcast. I'm your host, Deviie Brown. This episode, I am on the road. Oh my God, did I need this. I'm recording this episode from an incredibly gorgeous and nourishing spot on Earth. I am in Santa Fe, New Mexico right now, and I'm actually out here for a healer's cohort and to catch some silence. Surrendering to silence is a huge part of my life, and actually I think I'll share a couple of ways that I do that, because it could be really powerful for each person listening if you found a way on your own terms to fit your own needs to add a little more prolonged silent into your life. So silence is such a powerful powerful tool, and I speak to that often in terms of meditation. Being able to get still, being able to get silent, even only for five or twenty minutes a day, is a powerful catalyst for change and transformation in your life. And it's also an incredibly powerful tool for regulating your nervous system, which if you're on a healing journey, if you're on the path of creating big changes in your life, if you're on the path of calling in more self love and acceptance into your life, if you're on the path of healing trauma in your life, then the regulation of your nervous system should be one of the top priorities that you set for yourself. It is one of the most powerful tools to creating space for you to live your healing, when you're able to regulate your body, when you're able to regulate your motions, when you're able to come into a space where you're not stuck in a lot of your triggers or coping mechanisms. UM, that's where the space to be all of us is really found, the space to be more is found. So silence is a huge part of that. And something I deeply believe in is prolonged silence. Now you may have heard me share UM earlier in the fall of Actually this past fall I hosted a retreat along with Deepak for Chopra and they have a once a year Silent retreat where you enter silence for six days and it's just profound, And there's programs all over the world that offers something like this. UM. There's some of programs for some of those real deep warriors on this path, some with established embodied practices where you may go away four weeks a month or several months at a time to just hold complete silence. And if you're wondering to yourself, how that hell do I do that? One of the most amazing things about it is you get to the deeper truth of who you are. But also how to set boundaries and how to notice when you may be leaking energy under sometimes false societal constructs or politeness or niceness, or people pleasing, or any of the various things that we may carry with us on the journey to finding ourselves are most authentic selves. And when you hold silence, one of my favorite things about doing that, especially if you do it in a retreat setting, is you are not concerned with um keeping up the things that we have to do in our day to day life. Right, so you don't have to make eye contact with people that you're walking by, you don't have to greet people who are not talking. But not only are we not talking, we are not allowing ourselves to fall into um anything outside of ourselves. So as micro and macro as that can be UM on a big scale, that means, you know, being quiet for several days and not speaking and just being inside your own energy and your own internal world and your own container. And then it also means not, you know, feeling like you have to be connected to other people, even if they are next to you. The retreat that we hosted was in Yosemite, and it was with four hundred other people. So if you can imagine it was four hundred of us together in the mountains of Yosemite, completely quiet. And even though it was four hundred of us passing by each other, sitting next to each other sharing meals, no one spoke, no one had to look at another person, and there was nothing felt about that right, there was no offense taken. You're able to just focus on you, but do it with the energy of other people present. And so that also means not you know, necessarily holding the door for someone behind you, UM, not having to you know, all the things that you don't really notice that you do but that require quite a bit of energy. So silence is really powerful. I personally, UM as a well as a mom, I need moments for this, but also as a teacher of this work, UM, as a philosopher, as as a practitioner and facilitator and healer. You know, it is completely non negotiable that I must have to have silence in my life. And the way that I try to do that is I typically will hold larger silence once a year in the ways that I can. Again, I'm a mom, so that's not you know, I'm not always able to get away and do that twenty four hours a day. I may build in, you know, if my child is with a family member, I may be able to build in time to check in the morning on face time with him, checking on the evening UM, and then continue my retreat work. So I like to do about a week of silence once a year and once a month, I like to do an entire day of silence. And for me, as someone that lives in the Los Angeles area, again very very multi hyphen it, so I'm always juggling something. UM. I'll typically do that after I dropped my son at school, and I have a pin that I actually got from Chopra. We have pins that we send everyone from our retreat home with that's a holding honoring silence, and I popped that on and then I'll spend the rest of the day incomplete silence. UM. As I moved through the world, and that's running errands or that's me just being in my house, and I still try to go by the rules UM I utilize if I was somewhere else, even in busy Los Angeles. For me, UM, it's it's revolutionary, it's necessary, it's profound, and I find ways to meet my needs even within UM sometimes a more chaotic experience of being alive and being alive and a container with other human beings who are alive UM and something else I also like to do. And for those that are able, I really really recommend this. You know, every six months, I try to do two days of that. So what I'll try to do is, you know, in a day that maybe my son is with a family member UM or able to you know, be with one of his friends, share a weekend, I always take that time to usually just disappear a little bit by myself UM. And I like to do that again like every few months, every six months. UM. One of the ways that I do that is for me, in the l A area, Pumps Rings and Joshua Tree are really close and they for many many years have been too of my favorite places to just drive to alone and kind of disappear into myself. So what I like to do is like grab an air V and b um for a couple of days, go up there, have a little plant medicine, stock my fridge, cook for myself and just be completely silent. UM. I like to journal, UM. I like to walk in nature. I like to take random photography of myself and of flowers and the sky. I like to star gaze. Um, but that's how I nourish myself at a really deep level, in addition to my daily practices. So that's what I'm doing now. I'm in Santa Fe, taking a little time to just expand my soul by staring off into the distance, by staring up into the night sky and out here it's just so breathtaking. Last night I had a chance to just lay down and look up at the sky for hours at night till like you know, midnight, and you see every star while you're out here. There's no light pollution anywhere in this part of New Mexico. You just look up and you see the universe, and you really understand how big it all is, how small we are, yet how big of a role um we all play, and whatever this divine experiment at play is, you know. So I love to do that here I am. And I also wanted to pop in and um clearly break silence a little bit by doing this episode of the podcast. So something that I really want to share today, and I put this on Twitter. A question that I get a lot is, you know, how how do I find my purpose? How do I begin my journey? And I never like to give like easy answers because the truth is none of this is easy, and anybody that paints it that way, I think is really doing a disservice because you don't want to just be motivated to start the journey by thinking, Okay, yeah, that's easy, I'll do this, I'll do that. It's not sustainable in that way. Once you lock into being on a journey, it is it's a lifelong experience and you can take breaks. You know, you get tired. I just recorded an episode about some of the fatigue we feel while healing while on the journey. But it is something that once you turn that switch on, it's going to be a part of you for the rest of your life. And in the times that you distance yourself from it, you'll feel that longing, that craving that poll to be back in it. And so the way that I share things so you know, it's UM. Little by little, go as you can, but look to the bigger view and don't look for it to be easy. Look for it to be what you need UM. And as you lock into that, you carve out your own path of ease based on your unique life recipe UH to be able to sustain that and to be able to grow that and expand in that. So I wanted to share some thoughts I was having around this um. I will share some very tangible steps that you can begin to take now in this moment to get more deeply connected to your authentic self. When I say you're authentic self, what I mean by that is the version of you that came to this earth inherently pure, inherently good, that is highly creative, that is loving, that is kind, that is the purity of your soul. Underneath any of the life experience says that you've had thus far, underneath any of the traumas that you may have experienced, and underneath all societal and cultural programming. So the piece of you that has not been indoctrinated, the piece of you that has not been enmeshed um, the piece of you that lives for yourself and longs for divine connection. That is your authentic self. For each of us, that means something a little bit different, and for each of us it is incredibly beautiful, empowering to be connected to. It's the space that you can also refer to as your highest self. Your higher self, your inner counselor you know, the true you, and when we connect to that authentic self, that is what further informs what our actual purpose is in this life. UM, and I believe to be purpose. I truly believe that purpose is really just the connecting to each of our individual authentic self and from our purpose, from our authentic stuff. Excuse me, our authentic self comes our life's mission. Our mission is informed by our purpose. Our mission is informed by our authentic self, but it is actually the tangible work we are meant to bring to life here on earth while we're here. So ways to start zooming out to look at that from a non culturally created or societally impacted view are the first step I'd highly recommend for everyone, and everyone has heard me talk about this on the podcast because I've interviewed many many people that offer services in this way, would be to get a really thorough birth chart reading what is your birth chart? Your birth chart is kind of like a screenshot or a map of the sky exactly the moment that you were born. So that looks like what your sun sign, your moon sign, your rising sign are. Those are kind of UM. Three of the first basics of how you kind of begin to understand yourself and your chart, but then you got a lot more um. You know, you have your houses, you have your planetary placements in those different houses. And something I love about a birth chart reading, and I've been getting my birth chart read um for probably twenty years, and I have had the real blessing to work with a lot of really wonderful astrologers. There's a lot of different kinds of astrology, so you know, do some research see what resonates with you. My recommendation is getting a Vedic birth chart reading, which is from the Eastern system, which would be called also you dish astrology. It's like a spiritual science, is a little more mathematical, and the way that they use planets is a little bit different. What I love about Vedic astrology and you might want to revisit an episode I did with Dr suhas Is. Vedic astrology gives you a huge view of your life, of your karma, but it also provides cures for karma. So it provides you know, an opportunity to remedy some of the areas in your life where you might find challenge and restriction by doing different rituals and offerings and prayers, and for me, someone that lives a highly highly ritualistic and devoted life, it's just been a beautiful experience for me and very empowering. There's also many different forms of Western astrology where you can get powerful birth charts done. I recommend as you're getting started to look into evolution utionary astrology. So I had an amazing episode with embodied astrologists from NAY on a previous episode that you may want to check out there. So when you're looking at your birth chart, it's kind of like getting um a map of the intention of your life. Sometimes it's actually really shocking because you can see your trauma show up in your birth chart. You can see, you know, some of your childhood dynamics really explained in a way that feels very serving, that allows you to see and be validated in some of the experiences that you may have had, especially within your family systems and the karma that you may have with your family. Highly recommend also UM And there's a lot of beautiful astrology apps and know a lot of folks use Channi's amazing app co Star app, an app that I love that I actually check out really often is called the Pattern. The Pattern app does your birth chart through psychological depth of understanding, so it breaks it down not so much with your signs or your houses, but just through overviews of psychology and identifying patterns and identifying transits that are currently at play in the timing section. So I did an episode of my podcast with the creator of the Pattern, who is Oh my God obsessed with her amazing, amazing woman name Lisa Donovan. So we did a two part episode. You might want to check that out. So one of the first ways to start getting connected with your authentic self get a thorough birth chart reading. Also find someone who has been doing it for a long time. Astrology is having such a gorgeous um re emergence mainstream moment in the sun. Astrology is thousands and thousands of years old. It's a sacred ancient spiritual science um but there's so many amazing new people coming into the mainstream with their offerings. However, astrology is a sacred art that takes a lot of practice and a lot of personal application to master to be able to share at a high level. So whenever you connect with someone like this, I want you to also remember that when people give you readings, whether that is an astrology reading, a psychic reading, and energy reading. For the most part, facilitators and practitioners can only meet you as deeply as you have met themselves, and so typically their translations of their work can only go as far as their personal healing or their personal experiences and understanding. Um, with the human experience and with love and with trauma, and with career and with you know, all the things. So just two things to keep in mind as you vet different facilitators and practitioners. Um. The astrologers that I work with have been doing their work for between twenty and forty years, so UM, I feel really good about my connection to them. The next thing I'd recommend on your path to connecting to your authentic self, And if I haven't said this yet, consider getting a pin in a journal now if you want to drop some of these down, but it would be take a few personality tests. Take a few tests online. UM, you can do individual tests their sites like truity, um, Personality Lab a few others. You know that for yourself. Those are just what I'm familiar with. But consider taking a few personality tests and if you were able spend um a little bit extra. Usually it's around twenty dollars to get your full report. Breakdowns, print them out, put them in a folder, create a binder about the information you're collecting about yourself, reread them, see how you currently relate to what you're reading, and then also connected to past experiences that you may have had. Personality tests can be really powerful, especially if your childhood or adult life has not really given you the opportunity to be connected with people who are emotionally regulated and connected with people that can give you clear feedback on who you are or guidance or you know, if you had a childhood that didn't really allow you to cultivate your core identity, the deeper understandings of who you are and what you're good at and what you're curious about. If you didn't get that kind of guidance, or you weren't held space, space was not held for you in that way. Personality tests can really help you validate things that you have seen and known about yourself but haven't heard reflected from other people. So if you test that, I recommend our Myers Briggs really great test um. In the Myers Briggs system, I am in e n f J. Yeah, I'm in the n f J. I think I said that right. Um. Also, Clifton Strengths by Gallop is a really great test to take, especially for understanding your attributes in your working life. And what I really love is that they break it down based on your strengths and you get to see, you know, what are areas that are uniquely me that I can really expand and grow in and what are some potential weaknesses more pitfalls to just be aware of and look out for so you can monitor yourself in that way. Angiograham is a great test to have. UM. Love languages are a great test. You know, there is that beautiful book, but there's also actual tests that you can take online that gives you some deeper breakdowns UM and some reporting. And also take the Big Five personality test. That's a really great test to understand especially how you may be interacting with others and coming across. So number two, take a few personality tests. Number three go to therapy, UM, but look into ones that meet your specific needs. Not all therapy is created equal. And as mental health is so beautifully expanding into our mainstream and collective consciousness, as we're all on boarding, so much new language around experiences, so much new understandings. I think it's important to know that, as with every single field, that there is not all therapists, practitioners, facilitators are created equal, Not all educations are the same, not all expertise is the same, and not all experiences the same. Right, Having a therapist, UM that's working with you the just graduated and started practicing is a little different than maybe working with someone who has been doing this and has seen a lot of people over time and been making different connections over a decade, over a couple of decades, um. So those are just things to think about what's important to you personally as you see a therapist. Also, not all therapies are equal. So the main therapy system that a lot of people are seeking out right now is cognitive therapy. Cognitive therapy is incredibly powerful. However, I my personal view of cognitive therapy is that it can only get you so far. Cognitive therapy is also referred to as talk therapy. So it's amazing about giving you language for your experiences, about having a space to really look at that expanded view of your experiences and get feedback and guidance, but it can also after a while, just keep you stuck in a loop where you are just talking in circles about the same themes and patterns that you have noticed. Um And sometimes depending on what your background and experiences are, you may require different approaches to actually move through those experiences. Sometimes when you just go that kind of cognitive talk, mental head intellectualized route, you just begin to then sometimes punish yourself a little by thinking these thoughts over and over and over again in a loop and not really moving past the understanding phase into the releasing of this experience phase. UM. So, something that I always kind of consider when I hear people say like, oh, I've been in therapy for five years. Yeah, I've been in therapy for ten years. I've been in therapy for fifteen years. Something inside of me and this is just me and this is without judgment, thinks, But why right, Like, the point of us healing is to come into a space where we can live our healing, where we're able to be embodied with our understandings and with our healing so that we're able to make very different choices in life that change the dynamics of our experience. And then we come into a space where we're not always rehashing the things that have happened to us, UM, where we're able to go a little bit deeper and find the tools to release those experiences and to create more space for different experiences UM, and not just continue to come into therapy talking about new UM, new unfoldings or new people that represent the exact same patterns that we started in therapy with. So that's my viewpoint. UM. But when I say that you know something that could be powerful, especially if you find that maybe you're a little stagnated in your therapy right now, switch up your therapists. UM. Consider websites like psychology today that allow you to filter your local search. So when you filter, UM, and this is just one side, and I am in no way, Uh, I'm not an ambassador for this site, So do your own searches. But something I like about them, and I have not personally found someone that I've used on there. But you can go in. You can type in your zip code and then there are different boxes you can check based on your specific needs. So if you've identified that you've had traumatic experiences, or perhaps you may have a borderline UM a personality disorder like borderline or narcissism, or have experienced abuses from people that may have different disorders. You can check boxes to find someone that specializes in those unique specific things UM, and not all therapists or psychologists have the same fields of those deeper studies, so something to look for. You might also want to look into other therapy systems like somatic therapy, which I highly highly highly recommend somatic therapy UM. I did an amazing podcast episode with a somatic therapist my brother asthm Amnicum. Credible episode. Check that out. You may also be interested in DBT therapy UM and that kind of helps put into practice ways of change. So just something to consider. That's three. Number four. Consider sexology work. Goop did a really well done special on sexology, but there's so much more information available about that. I had an episode with a sexologist, Simone Farsheim, who is just an amazing, amazing woman. UM. She did a previous episode, so you may want to check that out. But sexology work is really powerful if you're looking to expand your capacity for intimacy and grow your understanding of your own body. Some of the things that happen with our life experiences UM, whether you've had traumas or just you know, maybe haven't explored this side of yourself yet. Is that we don't tend to really be deeply connected to our own bodies. So sexology work can really help getting back into your body being able to expand um in all the ways that you may wish to in your intimate or sexual life. And this is available for men, it's available for women, it's available for non binary community, for absolutely anyone that is a life so UM that may be something that that could be really powerful for you in your life. And there's many practitioners in this field, but this is a highly intimate work. If you have experienced sexual trauma, highly recommend that you look for someone that practices that has a background and expertise in facilitating facilitating for survivors of sexual trauma, and vet everyone that you work with accordingly read the responses actually asked for referrals. You know, really look deeply before you open yourself up in this way. So that is one to three four. The fifth one is look too potentially experiencing some energy work. UM. I am an energy healer myself, I am a reiki master and three different lineages of reiki. That's I'm a master in a sui, in holy fire and in Karuna reiki, and I'm also uh energetic master in two other lineages of energy work. And I've been deeply setting this for many years, have done it on myself. UM. The first time I got energy work was probably maybe fifteen years ago, and it really really, really, um personally changed my life. So I highly recommend looking into experiencing energy work from a master practitioner, someone who's who has been practicing this for consistently or a certain amount of time. UM. That could be really powerful. So that's five number six. Journal, Pay attention to yourself. Keep record of your thoughts, keep record of the patterns that you're noticing, keep records of the miracles that you're noticing, of your experiences, of your synchronicities, date them, study them, Consider putting this into a calendar. It's really powerful for building your self awareness, and it's also really powerful for building your spiritual confidence. Another way is really work on growing your inner wisdom and intuition. So consider stop seeking counsel and validation from outside sources if that's something that you find yourself doing pretty regularly. Here your personal gut response first and write it down. Slow down. When you need to make decisions. There is not always a need for urgency and that and sometimes the urgency comes with just feeling really uncomfortable with making your own choices, feeling uncomfortable with the potential idea of getting it wrong. And so you move fast so that it's done and that you know either the it all falls down or it all goes well. But you want to do it quickly so that you don't have the anxiety of sitting with your life. I understand, but it's so necessary to slow down with yourself, be really thoughtful about your choices, check in with your unique understanding of you, check in with your gut. Pause to consider. I think that's six or seven. I am not sure. Let me do a quick count so I can stay on it. And two, three, four, five, six, okay, seven, okay, So we are now a number eight. Um regulate your nervous system being disregulated and emotionally imbalanced. Puts up armor around the real you, the one that you want people to really see and know, not your reactions. So to really begin to regulate your nervous system, which is going to be the foundation of all the personal growth work that you do. I recommend getting regular body work done if able, like deep tissue massage. So if you have the budget to do that, I highly recommend getting two times a month a ninety minute deep tissue massage. Don't think, oh, that's selfish. Do I deserve that? Yes you do. You're a human that's alive and your body deserves to be nourished and loved. This isn't about oh let me relax, you know that that comes to This is about moving energy and stuck toxicity out of your body so that you can feel your best, so that you can make choices out of your best self. If that's not financially possible for you, there are many other ways to show up for yourself and body work. I highly recommend getting a Gasha tool, which is typically a stone or stainless steel. Um, how do I describe this? Uh? Small kind of fits in the palm of your hand tool or a trigger point massage tool or an ira Vedic massage wand and watching a few videos on YouTube on how to do that every day in the shower. I do that from my face. I do that for my body, um, my arms. I or a lot of energy in my forearms and also in my angles and my calves, so I really focus on massaging m HM those areas for myself with a gashaw tool. You know, UM being disregulated and emotionally imbalanced. It it's one of the biggest ways that we cut off our authentic self, that we limit our ability to connect to our purpose and our mission, so that deep tissue massage could be amazing. UM. I work a lot with PM meth and infrared technology. I have found both to be powerful, powerful regulators for me UM. I love using them also when like I'm ill or sick or my son is, it really helps with UM faster, moving faster through some of that sickness. It's great if you work out a lot salt baths. I take three to four some salt as a week or really hot water, stay in it for at least thirty minutes. And as a lot of people know on social media as they use the whole bag SIS, so we are not doing these little baby scoops of epsom salt. We are doing an entire gallon bag per bath. I have no idea what this does to our pipes, so fingers crossed on that, but you know something that that really does is it draws out those toxins and impurities from you. On a physical level, restores nourishes your body, especially if you have a little magnesium in it. But on a spiritual level, it also really UM is powerful for removing any negative energy, for cleansing your energy, your spiritual life, just really creating a space where you can feel more of the purity of who you are. UM. But it's so powerfully supportive for your body. So I like to do you know, really an expensive route is that on Amazon. I've signed up for the Amazon brand of UM up some salts. I get the lavader and eucalyptus. I get them delivered to me on a subscription once a month. I get enough sent to me so that I can take three to four baths a week UM. And that's worked out really well, so that might work for you. Stretching is really powerful, yoga's really powerful. Meditation is really powerful for that regulation of the nervous system. And number nine, stop being influenced. Stop measuring yourself against others and creating fantasies about who they are in comparison to you. A lot of times you may not UM really notice that you're doing this. But you may be looking at other people, looking at their pages, creating and concocting these views of you know, um, who they are and why they are the way they are, and you know if you're better, if you're not enough for all these different things, and for each starring in our own movies, we're each running our own races. We have to focus on ourselves. You will not find the answers outside of you. You will not, you know, be rewarded when someone else is struggling or perceivedly failing. It is about your internal world, and that is the number one place you have to focus to love and accept yourself and to actually see meaningful change in your life in the way that you make decisions, in the way that you attract things to yourself. So a big way to start doing that is to one start noticing how often that's done. So I recommend cutting out all TV, all film, all radio, and all books for the most part, unless you're working with particular workbooks um for at minimum a month a month a month. I did it for two years and I'm just now starting to consider watching some TV again. I've given myself about an hour a week that I may watch a show about something, but I stopped watching all television, all movie, um, listening to the radio for a little bit over two entire years. And I'll never go back to the way that I used to consume. I'll never be a Netflix and Chiller again. It's just not for me serving to the life that I want to live. Also, I'm more interested in my own thoughts right now, in my own philosophies and my own creativity and so. And I'm also someone that has a very specific intellect in way that UM I want to have conversation. I really just want to pour my free time into consuming things that I'm actually deeply, deeply curious about, interested in, passionate about UM or I just want to be in silence or dancing or listening to music so that that's something that I've really loved about. My journey may not be for everyone, But if you want a powerful accelerator, notice where you're being influenced in thought and even the subtle list of ways. Notice what you're consuming and ask yourself, what does this actually serve? How is this benefiting me, how is this valuing me? Um adding value to my life? And you know what, what am I actually learning or feeling about the things that I'm watching. There's a lot of triggering things that exist out there and some of the things that we consume, and there's also a lot of misrepresented, um, misunderstood things that are being shared. So something just for your consideration. So nine things, Yeah, nine, that's a nice power number two. Um, these are always that you can begin this summer to really lock into what I'm calling the Healed Girls Summer and grow and expand and have fun while doing it. Everything that I listed is actually really powerfully shifting and can be really powerfully fun and pleasurable. And everything that I listed are things that I've been doing with myself for probably the past ten to twelve years. I really believe in them and I really live them, and so I hope you'll find the ones that fit leave the ones that don't. But either way, consider to experiment with yourself and your journey. So there we are. This is uh my Dropping Gyms episode live from gorgeous Santa Fe, New Mexico, and I just want to share something that has really inspired me this week. While I've been in Santa Fe, I had a chance to go visit the Georgia O'Keefe Museum, And I used to study art when I was in school. I always kind of dreamed of being an artist, but never had the chance, um or the finances as a young person to really nurture that desire, that gift that you know, I felt connected to. But I remember learning about Georgia O'Keefe because she was this, you know, really dynamic woman, especially for her time her artist career. And I'm a little off with the dates, but you know, really kind of um She was teaching art and then began sharing her art around nineteen twelve, and she lived all the way to night four and created art all the way through the end of her life. So she was nearly a hundred when she passed. And when I was researching her, something that I just thought was so cool was just looking at her as a as a woman who was so far ahead of her time, such a genius and a visionary. Her art is just incredible. She painted a lot of nature, a lot of flowers is what she is really known for, a lot of landscapes of where she happened to live in New Mexico. So her museum and her home, Ghost Ranch, is located out here, and I went and I just sat and soaked up her essence and energy. It just sat alone for hours, walking through the museum and her gallery staring at the paintings. Um. It was so beautiful and I was so inspired. And something that really inspired me was that for over forty years she lived off the grid in a town that had less than a hundred people in it. Um and may be pronouncing this wrong, so apologies, but Abitqua, New Mexico, in this adobe, on this ranch for nearly forty years alone. And if you've been in you know these areas of New Mexico, you know how definitely quiet it is, how power like gorgeous it is. It's just mind blowing. But for her to live that way in creative isolation for nearly four decades and create some of the most extraordinary art, I'm just really inspired by that. As someone who is always craving silence, UM and I'm an extrovert, but I'm always craving deeply, craving alone time to just adventure with myself inwardly and outwardly. So that is something I've been feeling really passionate about, is is just continuing to dive deeper into her work and learn more about her as a woman and as a creative genius. So live from Santa Fe big, big love everyone, um and I'll cut you guys next week. I'm astay. Hey. Find me on social Let's connect at Debbie down that's Twitter, on Instagram, or go to my website Debbie Brown dot com. And if you're listening to the show on Apple Podcasts, please please please don't forget to rate, review, and subscribe and send this episode to a friend. Dropping Jims is the production of I Heart Radio and The Black Effect Network. It's produced by Jack Quase and me Debbie Brown. For more podcasts from My Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

M from grandmothers who whispered in their baby girl ill two fathers on dimly lit street corners, instructing young soldiers to always keep their eyes open. You be queen, you were fired. You will pass through centuries on the hands of your daughters. They called you wisdom. Proverbs on the backs of diamond eyed school children who grew into hymnals recited by amethyst holding urban philosophers who recited neighborhood commandments out of the windows of restored ALCHEMYO chariots to keep the warmth of their blood. Be wise, be smart, being black, Opal Brown courts, bloodstone and prayer. Be every form of jim se King told, scribe, scribe, told son, son, told wife, wife told her daughter, and daughter told the as this is. And thencess told me that you would come to give wisdom of thousands. They said you would come. Dropping Roping. Welcome back to another episode of the Dropping Gems podcast. I'm your host, Deviie Brown. This episode, I am on the road. Oh my God, did I need this. I'm recording this episode from an incredibly gorgeous and nourishing spot on Earth. I am in Santa Fe, New Mexico right now, and I'm actually out here for a healer's cohort and to catch some silence. Surrendering to silence is a huge part of my life, and actually I think I'll share a couple of ways that I do that, because it could be really powerful for each person listening if you found a way on your own terms to fit your own needs to add a little more prolonged silent into your life. So silence is such a powerful powerful tool, and I speak to that often in terms of meditation. Being able to get still, being able to get silent, even only for five or twenty minutes a day, is a powerful catalyst for change and transformation in your life. And it's also an incredibly powerful tool for regulating your nervous system, which if you're on a healing journey, if you're on the path of creating big changes in your life, if you're on the path of calling in more self love and acceptance into your life, if you're on the path of healing trauma in your life, then the regulation of your nervous system should be one of the top priorities that you set for yourself. It is one of the most powerful tools to creating space for you to live your healing, when you're able to regulate your body, when you're able to regulate your motions, when you're able to come into a space where you're not stuck in a lot of your triggers or coping mechanisms. UM, that's where the space to be all of us is really found, the space to be more is found. So silence is a huge part of that. And something I deeply believe in is prolonged silence. Now you may have heard me share UM earlier in the fall of Actually this past fall I hosted a retreat along with Deepak for Chopra and they have a once a year Silent retreat where you enter silence for six days and it's just profound, And there's programs all over the world that offers something like this. UM. There's some of programs for some of those real deep warriors on this path, some with established embodied practices where you may go away four weeks a month or several months at a time to just hold complete silence. And if you're wondering to yourself, how that hell do I do that? One of the most amazing things about it is you get to the deeper truth of who you are. But also how to set boundaries and how to notice when you may be leaking energy under sometimes false societal constructs or politeness or niceness, or people pleasing, or any of the various things that we may carry with us on the journey to finding ourselves are most authentic selves. And when you hold silence, one of my favorite things about doing that, especially if you do it in a retreat setting, is you are not concerned with um keeping up the things that we have to do in our day to day life. Right, so you don't have to make eye contact with people that you're walking by, you don't have to greet people who are not talking. But not only are we not talking, we are not allowing ourselves to fall into um anything outside of ourselves. So as micro and macro as that can be UM on a big scale, that means, you know, being quiet for several days and not speaking and just being inside your own energy and your own internal world and your own container. And then it also means not, you know, feeling like you have to be connected to other people, even if they are next to you. The retreat that we hosted was in Yosemite, and it was with four hundred other people. So if you can imagine it was four hundred of us together in the mountains of Yosemite, completely quiet. And even though it was four hundred of us passing by each other, sitting next to each other sharing meals, no one spoke, no one had to look at another person, and there was nothing felt about that right, there was no offense taken. You're able to just focus on you, but do it with the energy of other people present. And so that also means not you know, necessarily holding the door for someone behind you, UM, not having to you know, all the things that you don't really notice that you do but that require quite a bit of energy. So silence is really powerful. I personally, UM as a well as a mom, I need moments for this, but also as a teacher of this work, UM, as a philosopher, as as a practitioner and facilitator and healer. You know, it is completely non negotiable that I must have to have silence in my life. And the way that I try to do that is I typically will hold larger silence once a year in the ways that I can. Again, I'm a mom, so that's not you know, I'm not always able to get away and do that twenty four hours a day. I may build in, you know, if my child is with a family member, I may be able to build in time to check in the morning on face time with him, checking on the evening UM, and then continue my retreat work. So I like to do about a week of silence once a year and once a month, I like to do an entire day of silence. And for me, as someone that lives in the Los Angeles area, again very very multi hyphen it, so I'm always juggling something. UM. I'll typically do that after I dropped my son at school, and I have a pin that I actually got from Chopra. We have pins that we send everyone from our retreat home with that's a holding honoring silence, and I popped that on and then I'll spend the rest of the day incomplete silence. UM. As I moved through the world, and that's running errands or that's me just being in my house, and I still try to go by the rules UM I utilize if I was somewhere else, even in busy Los Angeles. For me, UM, it's it's revolutionary, it's necessary, it's profound, and I find ways to meet my needs even within UM sometimes a more chaotic experience of being alive and being alive and a container with other human beings who are alive UM and something else I also like to do. And for those that are able, I really really recommend this. You know, every six months, I try to do two days of that. So what I'll try to do is, you know, in a day that maybe my son is with a family member UM or able to you know, be with one of his friends, share a weekend, I always take that time to usually just disappear a little bit by myself UM. And I like to do that again like every few months, every six months. UM. One of the ways that I do that is for me, in the l A area, Pumps Rings and Joshua Tree are really close and they for many many years have been too of my favorite places to just drive to alone and kind of disappear into myself. So what I like to do is like grab an air V and b um for a couple of days, go up there, have a little plant medicine, stock my fridge, cook for myself and just be completely silent. UM. I like to journal, UM. I like to walk in nature. I like to take random photography of myself and of flowers and the sky. I like to star gaze. Um, but that's how I nourish myself at a really deep level, in addition to my daily practices. So that's what I'm doing now. I'm in Santa Fe, taking a little time to just expand my soul by staring off into the distance, by staring up into the night sky and out here it's just so breathtaking. Last night I had a chance to just lay down and look up at the sky for hours at night till like you know, midnight, and you see every star while you're out here. There's no light pollution anywhere in this part of New Mexico. You just look up and you see the universe, and you really understand how big it all is, how small we are, yet how big of a role um we all play, and whatever this divine experiment at play is, you know. So I love to do that here I am. And I also wanted to pop in and um clearly break silence a little bit by doing this episode of the podcast. So something that I really want to share today, and I put this on Twitter. A question that I get a lot is, you know, how how do I find my purpose? How do I begin my journey? And I never like to give like easy answers because the truth is none of this is easy, and anybody that paints it that way, I think is really doing a disservice because you don't want to just be motivated to start the journey by thinking, Okay, yeah, that's easy, I'll do this, I'll do that. It's not sustainable in that way. Once you lock into being on a journey, it is it's a lifelong experience and you can take breaks. You know, you get tired. I just recorded an episode about some of the fatigue we feel while healing while on the journey. But it is something that once you turn that switch on, it's going to be a part of you for the rest of your life. And in the times that you distance yourself from it, you'll feel that longing, that craving that poll to be back in it. And so the way that I share things so you know, it's UM. Little by little, go as you can, but look to the bigger view and don't look for it to be easy. Look for it to be what you need UM. And as you lock into that, you carve out your own path of ease based on your unique life recipe UH to be able to sustain that and to be able to grow that and expand in that. So I wanted to share some thoughts I was having around this um. I will share some very tangible steps that you can begin to take now in this moment to get more deeply connected to your authentic self. When I say you're authentic self, what I mean by that is the version of you that came to this earth inherently pure, inherently good, that is highly creative, that is loving, that is kind, that is the purity of your soul. Underneath any of the life experience says that you've had thus far, underneath any of the traumas that you may have experienced, and underneath all societal and cultural programming. So the piece of you that has not been indoctrinated, the piece of you that has not been enmeshed um, the piece of you that lives for yourself and longs for divine connection. That is your authentic self. For each of us, that means something a little bit different, and for each of us it is incredibly beautiful, empowering to be connected to. It's the space that you can also refer to as your highest self. Your higher self, your inner counselor you know, the true you, and when we connect to that authentic self, that is what further informs what our actual purpose is in this life. UM, and I believe to be purpose. I truly believe that purpose is really just the connecting to each of our individual authentic self and from our purpose, from our authentic stuff. Excuse me, our authentic self comes our life's mission. Our mission is informed by our purpose. Our mission is informed by our authentic self, but it is actually the tangible work we are meant to bring to life here on earth while we're here. So ways to start zooming out to look at that from a non culturally created or societally impacted view are the first step I'd highly recommend for everyone, and everyone has heard me talk about this on the podcast because I've interviewed many many people that offer services in this way, would be to get a really thorough birth chart reading what is your birth chart? Your birth chart is kind of like a screenshot or a map of the sky exactly the moment that you were born. So that looks like what your sun sign, your moon sign, your rising sign are. Those are kind of UM. Three of the first basics of how you kind of begin to understand yourself and your chart, but then you got a lot more um. You know, you have your houses, you have your planetary placements in those different houses. And something I love about a birth chart reading, and I've been getting my birth chart read um for probably twenty years, and I have had the real blessing to work with a lot of really wonderful astrologers. There's a lot of different kinds of astrology, so you know, do some research see what resonates with you. My recommendation is getting a Vedic birth chart reading, which is from the Eastern system, which would be called also you dish astrology. It's like a spiritual science, is a little more mathematical, and the way that they use planets is a little bit different. What I love about Vedic astrology and you might want to revisit an episode I did with Dr suhas Is. Vedic astrology gives you a huge view of your life, of your karma, but it also provides cures for karma. So it provides you know, an opportunity to remedy some of the areas in your life where you might find challenge and restriction by doing different rituals and offerings and prayers, and for me, someone that lives a highly highly ritualistic and devoted life, it's just been a beautiful experience for me and very empowering. There's also many different forms of Western astrology where you can get powerful birth charts done. I recommend as you're getting started to look into evolution utionary astrology. So I had an amazing episode with embodied astrologists from NAY on a previous episode that you may want to check out there. So when you're looking at your birth chart, it's kind of like getting um a map of the intention of your life. Sometimes it's actually really shocking because you can see your trauma show up in your birth chart. You can see, you know, some of your childhood dynamics really explained in a way that feels very serving, that allows you to see and be validated in some of the experiences that you may have had, especially within your family systems and the karma that you may have with your family. Highly recommend also UM And there's a lot of beautiful astrology apps and know a lot of folks use Channi's amazing app co Star app, an app that I love that I actually check out really often is called the Pattern. The Pattern app does your birth chart through psychological depth of understanding, so it breaks it down not so much with your signs or your houses, but just through overviews of psychology and identifying patterns and identifying transits that are currently at play in the timing section. So I did an episode of my podcast with the creator of the Pattern, who is Oh my God obsessed with her amazing, amazing woman name Lisa Donovan. So we did a two part episode. You might want to check that out. So one of the first ways to start getting connected with your authentic self get a thorough birth chart reading. Also find someone who has been doing it for a long time. Astrology is having such a gorgeous um re emergence mainstream moment in the sun. Astrology is thousands and thousands of years old. It's a sacred ancient spiritual science um but there's so many amazing new people coming into the mainstream with their offerings. However, astrology is a sacred art that takes a lot of practice and a lot of personal application to master to be able to share at a high level. So whenever you connect with someone like this, I want you to also remember that when people give you readings, whether that is an astrology reading, a psychic reading, and energy reading. For the most part, facilitators and practitioners can only meet you as deeply as you have met themselves, and so typically their translations of their work can only go as far as their personal healing or their personal experiences and understanding. Um, with the human experience and with love and with trauma, and with career and with you know, all the things. So just two things to keep in mind as you vet different facilitators and practitioners. Um. The astrologers that I work with have been doing their work for between twenty and forty years, so UM, I feel really good about my connection to them. The next thing I'd recommend on your path to connecting to your authentic self, And if I haven't said this yet, consider getting a pin in a journal now if you want to drop some of these down, but it would be take a few personality tests. Take a few tests online. UM, you can do individual tests their sites like truity, um, Personality Lab a few others. You know that for yourself. Those are just what I'm familiar with. But consider taking a few personality tests and if you were able spend um a little bit extra. Usually it's around twenty dollars to get your full report. Breakdowns, print them out, put them in a folder, create a binder about the information you're collecting about yourself, reread them, see how you currently relate to what you're reading, and then also connected to past experiences that you may have had. Personality tests can be really powerful, especially if your childhood or adult life has not really given you the opportunity to be connected with people who are emotionally regulated and connected with people that can give you clear feedback on who you are or guidance or you know, if you had a childhood that didn't really allow you to cultivate your core identity, the deeper understandings of who you are and what you're good at and what you're curious about. If you didn't get that kind of guidance, or you weren't held space, space was not held for you in that way. Personality tests can really help you validate things that you have seen and known about yourself but haven't heard reflected from other people. So if you test that, I recommend our Myers Briggs really great test um. In the Myers Briggs system, I am in e n f J. Yeah, I'm in the n f J. I think I said that right. Um. Also, Clifton Strengths by Gallop is a really great test to take, especially for understanding your attributes in your working life. And what I really love is that they break it down based on your strengths and you get to see, you know, what are areas that are uniquely me that I can really expand and grow in and what are some potential weaknesses more pitfalls to just be aware of and look out for so you can monitor yourself in that way. Angiograham is a great test to have. UM. Love languages are a great test. You know, there is that beautiful book, but there's also actual tests that you can take online that gives you some deeper breakdowns UM and some reporting. And also take the Big Five personality test. That's a really great test to understand especially how you may be interacting with others and coming across. So number two, take a few personality tests. Number three go to therapy, UM, but look into ones that meet your specific needs. Not all therapy is created equal. And as mental health is so beautifully expanding into our mainstream and collective consciousness, as we're all on boarding, so much new language around experiences, so much new understandings. I think it's important to know that, as with every single field, that there is not all therapists, practitioners, facilitators are created equal, Not all educations are the same, not all expertise is the same, and not all experiences the same. Right, Having a therapist, UM that's working with you the just graduated and started practicing is a little different than maybe working with someone who has been doing this and has seen a lot of people over time and been making different connections over a decade, over a couple of decades, um. So those are just things to think about what's important to you personally as you see a therapist. Also, not all therapies are equal. So the main therapy system that a lot of people are seeking out right now is cognitive therapy. Cognitive therapy is incredibly powerful. However, I my personal view of cognitive therapy is that it can only get you so far. Cognitive therapy is also referred to as talk therapy. So it's amazing about giving you language for your experiences, about having a space to really look at that expanded view of your experiences and get feedback and guidance, but it can also after a while, just keep you stuck in a loop where you are just talking in circles about the same themes and patterns that you have noticed. Um And sometimes depending on what your background and experiences are, you may require different approaches to actually move through those experiences. Sometimes when you just go that kind of cognitive talk, mental head intellectualized route, you just begin to then sometimes punish yourself a little by thinking these thoughts over and over and over again in a loop and not really moving past the understanding phase into the releasing of this experience phase. UM. So, something that I always kind of consider when I hear people say like, oh, I've been in therapy for five years. Yeah, I've been in therapy for ten years. I've been in therapy for fifteen years. Something inside of me and this is just me and this is without judgment, thinks, But why right, Like, the point of us healing is to come into a space where we can live our healing, where we're able to be embodied with our understandings and with our healing so that we're able to make very different choices in life that change the dynamics of our experience. And then we come into a space where we're not always rehashing the things that have happened to us, UM, where we're able to go a little bit deeper and find the tools to release those experiences and to create more space for different experiences UM, and not just continue to come into therapy talking about new UM, new unfoldings or new people that represent the exact same patterns that we started in therapy with. So that's my viewpoint. UM. But when I say that you know something that could be powerful, especially if you find that maybe you're a little stagnated in your therapy right now, switch up your therapists. UM. Consider websites like psychology today that allow you to filter your local search. So when you filter, UM, and this is just one side, and I am in no way, Uh, I'm not an ambassador for this site, So do your own searches. But something I like about them, and I have not personally found someone that I've used on there. But you can go in. You can type in your zip code and then there are different boxes you can check based on your specific needs. So if you've identified that you've had traumatic experiences, or perhaps you may have a borderline UM a personality disorder like borderline or narcissism, or have experienced abuses from people that may have different disorders. You can check boxes to find someone that specializes in those unique specific things UM, and not all therapists or psychologists have the same fields of those deeper studies, so something to look for. You might also want to look into other therapy systems like somatic therapy, which I highly highly highly recommend somatic therapy UM. I did an amazing podcast episode with a somatic therapist my brother asthm Amnicum. Credible episode. Check that out. You may also be interested in DBT therapy UM and that kind of helps put into practice ways of change. So just something to consider. That's three. Number four. Consider sexology work. Goop did a really well done special on sexology, but there's so much more information available about that. I had an episode with a sexologist, Simone Farsheim, who is just an amazing, amazing woman. UM. She did a previous episode, so you may want to check that out. But sexology work is really powerful if you're looking to expand your capacity for intimacy and grow your understanding of your own body. Some of the things that happen with our life experiences UM, whether you've had traumas or just you know, maybe haven't explored this side of yourself yet. Is that we don't tend to really be deeply connected to our own bodies. So sexology work can really help getting back into your body being able to expand um in all the ways that you may wish to in your intimate or sexual life. And this is available for men, it's available for women, it's available for non binary community, for absolutely anyone that is a life so UM that may be something that that could be really powerful for you in your life. And there's many practitioners in this field, but this is a highly intimate work. If you have experienced sexual trauma, highly recommend that you look for someone that practices that has a background and expertise in facilitating facilitating for survivors of sexual trauma, and vet everyone that you work with accordingly read the responses actually asked for referrals. You know, really look deeply before you open yourself up in this way. So that is one to three four. The fifth one is look too potentially experiencing some energy work. UM. I am an energy healer myself, I am a reiki master and three different lineages of reiki. That's I'm a master in a sui, in holy fire and in Karuna reiki, and I'm also uh energetic master in two other lineages of energy work. And I've been deeply setting this for many years, have done it on myself. UM. The first time I got energy work was probably maybe fifteen years ago, and it really really, really, um personally changed my life. So I highly recommend looking into experiencing energy work from a master practitioner, someone who's who has been practicing this for consistently or a certain amount of time. UM. That could be really powerful. So that's five number six. Journal, Pay attention to yourself. Keep record of your thoughts, keep record of the patterns that you're noticing, keep records of the miracles that you're noticing, of your experiences, of your synchronicities, date them, study them, Consider putting this into a calendar. It's really powerful for building your self awareness, and it's also really powerful for building your spiritual confidence. Another way is really work on growing your inner wisdom and intuition. So consider stop seeking counsel and validation from outside sources if that's something that you find yourself doing pretty regularly. Here your personal gut response first and write it down. Slow down. When you need to make decisions. There is not always a need for urgency and that and sometimes the urgency comes with just feeling really uncomfortable with making your own choices, feeling uncomfortable with the potential idea of getting it wrong. And so you move fast so that it's done and that you know either the it all falls down or it all goes well. But you want to do it quickly so that you don't have the anxiety of sitting with your life. I understand, but it's so necessary to slow down with yourself, be really thoughtful about your choices, check in with your unique understanding of you, check in with your gut. Pause to consider. I think that's six or seven. I am not sure. Let me do a quick count so I can stay on it. And two, three, four, five, six, okay, seven, okay, So we are now a number eight. Um regulate your nervous system being disregulated and emotionally imbalanced. Puts up armor around the real you, the one that you want people to really see and know, not your reactions. So to really begin to regulate your nervous system, which is going to be the foundation of all the personal growth work that you do. I recommend getting regular body work done if able, like deep tissue massage. So if you have the budget to do that, I highly recommend getting two times a month a ninety minute deep tissue massage. Don't think, oh, that's selfish. Do I deserve that? Yes you do. You're a human that's alive and your body deserves to be nourished and loved. This isn't about oh let me relax, you know that that comes to This is about moving energy and stuck toxicity out of your body so that you can feel your best, so that you can make choices out of your best self. If that's not financially possible for you, there are many other ways to show up for yourself and body work. I highly recommend getting a Gasha tool, which is typically a stone or stainless steel. Um, how do I describe this? Uh? Small kind of fits in the palm of your hand tool or a trigger point massage tool or an ira Vedic massage wand and watching a few videos on YouTube on how to do that every day in the shower. I do that from my face. I do that for my body, um, my arms. I or a lot of energy in my forearms and also in my angles and my calves, so I really focus on massaging m HM those areas for myself with a gashaw tool. You know, UM being disregulated and emotionally imbalanced. It it's one of the biggest ways that we cut off our authentic self, that we limit our ability to connect to our purpose and our mission, so that deep tissue massage could be amazing. UM. I work a lot with PM meth and infrared technology. I have found both to be powerful, powerful regulators for me UM. I love using them also when like I'm ill or sick or my son is, it really helps with UM faster, moving faster through some of that sickness. It's great if you work out a lot salt baths. I take three to four some salt as a week or really hot water, stay in it for at least thirty minutes. And as a lot of people know on social media as they use the whole bag SIS, so we are not doing these little baby scoops of epsom salt. We are doing an entire gallon bag per bath. I have no idea what this does to our pipes, so fingers crossed on that, but you know something that that really does is it draws out those toxins and impurities from you. On a physical level, restores nourishes your body, especially if you have a little magnesium in it. But on a spiritual level, it also really UM is powerful for removing any negative energy, for cleansing your energy, your spiritual life, just really creating a space where you can feel more of the purity of who you are. UM. But it's so powerfully supportive for your body. So I like to do you know, really an expensive route is that on Amazon. I've signed up for the Amazon brand of UM up some salts. I get the lavader and eucalyptus. I get them delivered to me on a subscription once a month. I get enough sent to me so that I can take three to four baths a week UM. And that's worked out really well, so that might work for you. Stretching is really powerful, yoga's really powerful. Meditation is really powerful for that regulation of the nervous system. And number nine, stop being influenced. Stop measuring yourself against others and creating fantasies about who they are in comparison to you. A lot of times you may not UM really notice that you're doing this. But you may be looking at other people, looking at their pages, creating and concocting these views of you know, um, who they are and why they are the way they are, and you know if you're better, if you're not enough for all these different things, and for each starring in our own movies, we're each running our own races. We have to focus on ourselves. You will not find the answers outside of you. You will not, you know, be rewarded when someone else is struggling or perceivedly failing. It is about your internal world, and that is the number one place you have to focus to love and accept yourself and to actually see meaningful change in your life in the way that you make decisions, in the way that you attract things to yourself. So a big way to start doing that is to one start noticing how often that's done. So I recommend cutting out all TV, all film, all radio, and all books for the most part, unless you're working with particular workbooks um for at minimum a month a month a month. I did it for two years and I'm just now starting to consider watching some TV again. I've given myself about an hour a week that I may watch a show about something, but I stopped watching all television, all movie, um, listening to the radio for a little bit over two entire years. And I'll never go back to the way that I used to consume. I'll never be a Netflix and Chiller again. It's just not for me serving to the life that I want to live. Also, I'm more interested in my own thoughts right now, in my own philosophies and my own creativity and so. And I'm also someone that has a very specific intellect in way that UM I want to have conversation. I really just want to pour my free time into consuming things that I'm actually deeply, deeply curious about, interested in, passionate about UM or I just want to be in silence or dancing or listening to music so that that's something that I've really loved about. My journey may not be for everyone, But if you want a powerful accelerator, notice where you're being influenced in thought and even the subtle list of ways. Notice what you're consuming and ask yourself, what does this actually serve? How is this benefiting me, how is this valuing me? Um adding value to my life? And you know what, what am I actually learning or feeling about the things that I'm watching. There's a lot of triggering things that exist out there and some of the things that we consume, and there's also a lot of misrepresented, um, misunderstood things that are being shared. So something just for your consideration. So nine things, Yeah, nine, that's a nice power number two. Um, these are always that you can begin this summer to really lock into what I'm calling the Healed Girls Summer and grow and expand and have fun while doing it. Everything that I listed is actually really powerfully shifting and can be really powerfully fun and pleasurable. And everything that I listed are things that I've been doing with myself for probably the past ten to twelve years. I really believe in them and I really live them, and so I hope you'll find the ones that fit leave the ones that don't. But either way, consider to experiment with yourself and your journey. So there we are. This is uh my Dropping Gyms episode live from gorgeous Santa Fe, New Mexico, and I just want to share something that has really inspired me this week. While I've been in Santa Fe, I had a chance to go visit the Georgia O'Keefe Museum, And I used to study art when I was in school. I always kind of dreamed of being an artist, but never had the chance, um or the finances as a young person to really nurture that desire, that gift that you know, I felt connected to. But I remember learning about Georgia O'Keefe because she was this, you know, really dynamic woman, especially for her time her artist career. And I'm a little off with the dates, but you know, really kind of um She was teaching art and then began sharing her art around nineteen twelve, and she lived all the way to night four and created art all the way through the end of her life. So she was nearly a hundred when she passed. And when I was researching her, something that I just thought was so cool was just looking at her as a as a woman who was so far ahead of her time, such a genius and a visionary. Her art is just incredible. She painted a lot of nature, a lot of flowers is what she is really known for, a lot of landscapes of where she happened to live in New Mexico. So her museum and her home, Ghost Ranch, is located out here, and I went and I just sat and soaked up her essence and energy. It just sat alone for hours, walking through the museum and her gallery staring at the paintings. Um. It was so beautiful and I was so inspired. And something that really inspired me was that for over forty years she lived off the grid in a town that had less than a hundred people in it. Um and may be pronouncing this wrong, so apologies, but Abitqua, New Mexico, in this adobe, on this ranch for nearly forty years alone. And if you've been in you know these areas of New Mexico, you know how definitely quiet it is, how power like gorgeous it is. It's just mind blowing. But for her to live that way in creative isolation for nearly four decades and create some of the most extraordinary art, I'm just really inspired by that. As someone who is always craving silence, UM and I'm an extrovert, but I'm always craving deeply, craving alone time to just adventure with myself inwardly and outwardly. So that is something I've been feeling really passionate about, is is just continuing to dive deeper into her work and learn more about her as a woman and as a creative genius. So live from Santa Fe big, big love everyone, um and I'll cut you guys next week. I'm astay. Hey. Find me on social Let's connect at Debbie down that's Twitter, on Instagram, or go to my website Debbie Brown dot com. And if you're listening to the show on Apple Podcasts, please please please don't forget to rate, review, and subscribe and send this episode to a friend. Dropping Jims is the production of I Heart Radio and The Black Effect Network. It's produced by Jack Quase and me Debbie Brown. For more podcasts from My Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.