Take a deep breath in through your nose. Hold it now release slowly again, deep in helle hold release, repeating internally to yourself as you connect to my voice. I am deeply, deeply well. I I am deeply well. I am deeply wow. I'm Debbie Brown and this is the Deeply Well Podcast. Welcome to Deeply Well, a soft place to land, a podcast for those that are curious and creative and ready to expand in higher consciousness and self care. I'm Debbie Brown. This is where we heal, this is where we become. Welcome back to the show. So as I have just set everything up actually in my office to record this episode, I'm getting ready to head out to the Black Effect Podcast Festival, and I'm so looking forward to it. It's going down in Atlanta, of course, the twenty seventh of April, and I think depending on when you hear this episode, there are still some tickets left. It looks amazing. It's happening at Pullman Yards and I had a chance to spend a lot of time in Pullman Yards. Actually a couple of years ago. I was teaching wellness to Ote, which is this incredible organization for star basketball players before they joined the league, and we did some really cool stuff in Atlanta a few years ago. So I'm excited to get back out there. Anytime I get to Atlanta, I get to head out there, it is such a treat and some of my besties are out there, so I'm gonna have a great time. And I will be at the podcast Festival and I will be doing a live podcast recording of Deeply Well, and I'm really excited to share my two special guests with you and really take a bite out of this conversation that we'll be having there. So if you listen to the show, if you are going to be there in Atlanta, and shout out. We just gave out some tickets actually on the Instagram, So if you're going to be in Atlanta, please if you see me, stop me. I would love to just spend time with everyone that connects to the show and talk and catch up and you know, hear what you're resonating with and hear how your work has been going. You know, my show is a companion for the work you are doing on yourself and your own spirit and your own soul. So and that is such a privilege for me. So I would love to hear from you a person if you head to the podcast festival. Black Effect Network is just wow. My brother Charlemagne, to say he blows me away would be such an understatement. He has been such a dear, close friend of mine for almost twenty years, which was insane to say. And he just is always not just growing the empire, which I think is so obvious and so special and so powerful, but I've never met someone in this industry that goes out of their way to recognize, to help, to uplift, to expand all the people around him every single chance he gets. And I've had the chance to be able to witness him consistently for twenty years, and at every juncture of the journey, even the juncture of him that was, you know, saying things that were a bit more wild, at every juncture of the way, when it came to his heart, when it came to the way that he shows up for people, when it came to his vision and his commitment to people to doing good, it just it's never waver It's who he's always been and it's what he does so well. So it's just so special to be a part of this network and to see it grow and to head to the second annual Podcast Festival. It's massive, It's massive. Nobody does podcasting like Charlemagne and the Black Effect Network, so such a privilege to be here. Is so happy to be here and again cannot wait to head to Atlanta. All Right, this episode, I want to check in about Joy in real time, and also at the end of the episode, I'm going to have a chance to answer some of the questions that came through on my Instagram from just a few weeks ago. First thing I want to call out before I dive into the joy of the moment is I want to shout out some of the recent episodes we've done, because I've had a chance to get quite a bit of feedback coming through and gotten some emails and gotten some dms and some comments, and it is it's I am just loving the way that some of these conversations are resonating with those who have shared their hearts and their reflections on it. We've had a chance to go really deep in the last few months. We had some amazing episodes like Shaka singor that episode Oh my God, just so so powerful, and I'm I'm just so in awe of his pathway to enlightenment and his pathway to healing and the way he moves through the world. Now, so if you haven't caught up on that episode, highly recommend it. Shaka singor also Minage Diis. Oh wow, that episode. I mean, especially for those that are in the wellness industry, wellness industry adjacent, or are finding their way to the wellness industry as a business. I just felt like that episode took it to places I have been wanting to go with someone else. So I'm so glad we just got to kind of dive into that. And you know, everyone is different, and we all have different philosophies, we surely all have different motivations. But I'm just a believer it's okay to be counterculture, you know. It's I remember I have this professor in college. I was taking I believe it was pas African American Cinema and he pulled up one of my favorite movies ever, which is Malcolm X Spike Lee Denzel, and I remember I can't remember what it was, but he had some kind of criticism for it, and I was just so offended. And he said to me, you know, Debbie, a sign of really valuing something is the ability to criticize it everything. There should be space to criticize absolutely everything, and you know that's part of what creation is. That's part of loving something. You know, it's holding a mirror to it. So I love how that episode went down. If you haven't checked it out yet, please do. And I also check out my dear friend Minage on the open app leading meditation and if you're in person, heading to Venice to pop into a class. Also, the episode that we did a few weeks ago was Saudi Simone, whose new book is out Spiritually Wee an incredible teacher of spiritual work and an incredible master of somatics saw and I went so deep about grief and some of the things that I was reading back just I'm just so grateful that episode on grief found whoever it did in whatever line timing that it did. Grief is hard. Grief is hard, and it's a guaranteed experience that everyone will face, and some face much more often than others. And finding ways to be with that feeling, to be with that sensation, and finding ways to transmute that experience in your body and in the world, it's just some of the most honorable dignified, graceful work you will ever do. I've said something pretty consistently to people in my life over the years, which is, you know, I'm really the kind of person who I say this really gratefully. When things happen, I'll just take off running to the darkness. I'll run straight into whatever it is that's present. And I'm grateful for that ability and what has been very often painful practice and being able to kind of work that muscle, because by running to your own darkness you have the opportunity to free yourself so quickly, and the courage that you build in yourself for having done it, you'll wear like a cloak for their of your life. So I don't know who that message is for, but whoever resonates, So check out that episode Saudi Simone. And then most recently, we have my girlfriend Denise Hamilton On, author of the new book Indivisible and an absolutely brilliant, brilliant, brilliant woman, so honored to call her friend, and her work is just special and it's different, and she has her fingers on the pulse in a way that is so evolutionary for so many industries. So I highly recommend everybody go and check that episode out, all right, I want to. I want to check in something that I am definitely committing to doing a lot more as we get ready to kind of sunset this season and gear up for next season, and really as I'm in the throes of completing my second book, which I cannot wait to get into your hands, And if you want to sign up for the newsletter so that you can get all the information on some of the activations I'll be doing with the book and the pre orders when that gets going, you can have to my website, Debbie Brown dot com and if you just click in the top tab ord says book, you can sign up right there, And so we have some information going out. They're really excited to share that work with everyone. And something I've just committed to is now that I feel a little more rooted in my creations and creativities, and I think I've really found the right flow for my work and my teaching and my business, and now that I officially have a little boy who's graduating from kindergarten, oh my god, turning six, I'm really committed to sharing more depth of my processes and the ways that I kind of moved through the world on a daily basis. I know that's the piece, especially on the journey, that's just so important to find because we don't want to walk around these like gaping wounds that are constantly oozing and also healing, you know, we don't want to be always tending to the wounds. It's we got to get out there and we got to practice, and very often we've got to practice our joy, and we got to practice our new ways of communicating, our new styles of holding energy, our new ability to stretch, our capacity for discomfort in the moment, and a lot of that is found in the small, tiny, tenny, tenny, daily rituals of our lives. It's found in the small moments. It's found in the small breath that goes into our crevices. And so it is really important sometimes to talk about the subtle nuance of the day and how one navigates it. So I'm committed to doing more of that. And what I wanted to share is some joy in real time. So if you have been connecting with the pod in some of my work since maybe twenty nineteen, I something I started doing and went so hard with and taught a bunch about in the pandemic is this concept that evolved in my life of what I call tiny joy for those that are on the tiktoks and all the things you might have heard, another term that pretty much encapsulates very very similar ways and technique of a glimmer, which is the opposite of a trigger. I love how that was shared, the way that I experience it, and the way that I grew it in my body. I referred to it as tiny joy, where I was finding moments throughout the day and my life that were more ordinary and small to find ways to connect to and really savor and find joy in. And it's really radically changed my life. It's changed everything about my life, changed the way I relate to myself, to other people, to purpose, to validation. When you can find ways to fuel yourself even in the most minute moments, like in the most micro microways, you really become such a force within yourself. You become this really kind of beautifully polished I don't know where I'm going to go with this. I'm trying to think you become this creature that's entirely different, and you really connect to this ability to transmute grief and pain in bigger ways and in faster ways, and you find this ability within yourself to really cultivate a deep, deep sense of authenticity, a deep, deep compassion for yourself, for the world around you, and also to really amplify the access you have to pleasure in your life. And something I share here quite often is, you know life is going to be hard. It is. Life is going to be challenging. It is. Life is going to twist the plot over and over and over again in so many different ways. And you know, not to say that some of those ways aren't also for your highest good, but it's a lot. Being alive is a lot, and depending on your lived experience, and then also caring forward to all the things that unfold in this place we live, this earth, it's just guaranteed that we're always going to be feeling the full spectrum of human emotion while we're here, and so connecting to joy, but most especially connecting to it in the subtle ways and the ordinary ways, in the easy, free ways, not just these grandiose, grand ways, these declarative ways, you can really become not just unstoppable, but absolutely delighted by your life. So in the pandemic, I used to One of the things I used to do is just go look at flowers. I started growing my garden in the pandemic, and it's very modest and now it's glorious. But I would go stare at flowers and make myself smile. I would stare at the sun. I would feel the warmth of the sun on my cheek. I would close my eyes in the sun and I would notice the glow of orange behind my eyelids, and all of it became so big for me and so magnificent. It allowed me to find joy and stability in all the moments, in all the moments, in every moment, and it really just enhanced the feeling of romance in every sector of my life. The connection to beauty, the gratitude for God, gratitude for nature, the gratitude for the divine design and all of the universe and inside of me. So ways that I have really been expanding in that is, you know, first, now that we're out of the pandemic, I can be back in these streets, I can be outside. And so this year, a commitment I made to myself, because I've been kind of going like crazy for the last few years, was to really find more time to socialize and more time to do fun things and really make it a priority. I can get so wrapped up in my work, in my purpose work, and just so completely wrapped up in my delicious, yummy child that I'm just happy to be in those parts of my life. But then I got to look up and say, no, I want to see my people. I want to have some more new experiences. So that was my commitment since January. So I want to share some of the things that I've done and some of the beauty in it. And if you have any of these stories of your own in the last couple of months, I would love to hear them shared. And hopefully if you hadn't had haven't had a chance to do this, then maybe something will pop out to you. Okay. So one of the first things that I did in the recent past was I had this credible opportunity to work with this organization called Leading Women Defined for the second time. And Leading Women Defined is this foundation that was founded by the great Deborah Lee, who used to run all of b ET of course, and just revolutionized the way our culture moves in the world and revolutionized oh my gosh, so so many things within music, within TV, within Black culture, within world culture, within you know, so many ways that we have been able to show up in the world, and this event is pristine. It is just one of the most special things I've ever been to, and I think in this kind of culture, especially over the last decade of you know, women's brunches and you know sometimes what can very much feel like formative sisterhood community. I came here to this incredible event which went over the course of about four days and was filled with really fascinating lectures and talks and music and activities and insanely delicious food and so much special stuff. I witnessed something there that was so deeply authentic that it just struck me in the core of my heart. The way these amazing women from all over the world, who were all leaders of various industries, the way they really love each other and really show up for each other. It just took my breath away, and it really kind of not just was it inspiring, but it just gave me deep hope for what long tenured friendships can be and how you can navigate and be at the top of your game but still be a soul led leader and have compassion in your heart and real genuine sisterhood that walks with you through time. Really special and shout out to my dear friend talitha walk in so I had the chance to catch up with their deeply. Well, that was one thing that I loved and was really inspired by another thing, and I shared this on an episode. A couple of months ago, I had gone up with one of my best friends to San Francisco for like a quick day and a half trip, and I had the chance to see Andre three Thousand's New Blue Sun Live. I went to two shows actually of it in San fran Well, I had a chance to go to the one of the final nights of the La show, which was at this incredible exhibit called Luna Luna. I'm sure some of you have heard of this, but it was you know, there was all of this carnival, all of these carnival rides and carnival equipment back in the eighties that someone had gathered the artistic greats of the time, so Basquiat, Keith Haring. I'm sorry I'm forgetting some of the names right now, but a lot of people, and I believe Andy Warhol too, and they all designed a different piece of the carnival, and apparently at some point it never really got shown or used, and it ended up in some kind of a container storage facility for over thirty years and it's in like perfect pristine condition. And apparently Drake and some other people found it the sword is getting out of control and set up this kind of tour that it's going to be doing. But they started in La with this incredible art installation in downtown La, this huge warehouse, rooms and rooms and all of this carnival equipment that was blessed with art by some of the greats, and it was so fresh and untouched and so it add an energy to it. It was special. It was so activating to my inner child, and it was so it was God the joy, I mean walking through that place. And not only was it like the fun of this kind of carnival spirit, but you also feel the energy of some greats in their creation and their artistry. And then you have the Goat. You have Andre three thousand and this just monumental body of work that he's created with New Blue Sun, and he's performing it intuitively in front of this room and with a live band and shoutout Carlos Nino. It was mind blowing. It was a mindbnder. It was a mindbnder. So I did that, and I did that with a group of friends, and Yeah, that fed my inner child so beautifully. Another thing that I did that really inspired me in the last maybe two months was the amazing, amazingly brilliant, beautiful anointed Rachel Cargel had an event in la and it was for her foundation, the Loveland Foundation. It was such a beautiful luncheon and I got to learn so much about this work that she has been building in the world for mental health, and it was so inspiring and so impressive, and the things that the access to free therapy and not just like a session, but it's a real change that she's giving people a community that needs it and deserves it, and they don't have to quantify their pain, right, you don't have to write in with these tragic stories. You just apply and in that process, you're not just given one free therapy session with a therapist. Because something Rachel shared at this luncheon and her team, who's magnificent, they shared that someone would need twelve consecutive therapy sessions to really be able to have the shifts and especially the shifts in their choice making and the way they relate to the things that they've experienced. To really see that change and to have, you know, a sizable amount of relief from suffering. She's supplying people with twelve free therapy sessions, and she's created this community of therapists, and she is also getting therapy for the therapists and the psychologists that are doing the work. And it's just like it's done with such an incredible amount of integrity and I'm just blown away. So if you feel led, if you feel called, please take a moment to look up Rachel Cargo's Loveland Foundation and if you feel so led, and if therapy has meant something to you or another service and mental health and you're able, consider paying it forward and helping someone else have the opportunity to have meaningful change in their life. It's really special what she's doing. I also, I'm now looking at I'm like, oh, she get a lot of joy. So one of my best friends had a big birthday and had a trip plan to go to Vegas and she invited me and got me a ticket to the Mariah Carey opening night at Park MGM. So Park MGM in Las Vegas. That's the same place that ushered it his residency where Lady Gaga has done her residency, Madonna as well, and now the Great Mariah Carey is doing a multiple part residency there. I believe it's going in the spring and then she's going to stop and restart it in the summer. But it was the entire emancipation of Mimi album, Oh my God. And it was the tour itself is called the Celebration of Mimi, and she spent the first hour going over like all the classics, and then the second hour and a half. It was the entire emancipation of Mimi album, which for me came out when I was in I think I was a freshman in college, and the way I used to play that album in my green Forest Green mazdas six two six, Oh my God. I was really When it comes to Mariah, something that was really striking to me is I think so many of us. I mean, obviously, she is a living legend. I mean, let's just hold that for a second. She's a living legend with a once in a lifetime voice. I feel like she's been so much a part of my life and even so much a part of pop culture that the legendary nature of her songwriting and her singing and her presence kind of gets overshadowed. Like it's almost like you take this miraculous thing as something that you know, you're just used to having in your life, and so being able to go to that show. And we started off by having dinner at this amazing restaurant in Vegas called Best Friends, which is Chef roy Choi's latest restaurant, and it's in the park MGM. They also have it Italy. It was I had a time listen, listen, I hate Feticini, Like on my way to the plane. It was great. But we have this great dinner at this at his restaurant that styled as a bodega and it plays nothing but early aughts music. And then we went to the Mariah Carey show and I was just brought to tears so many times by the healing power of her voice and just how rare and exquisite her gifts and talents are and how much of a master she is. And obviously that goes without saying, right, but I'm just in awe of it, Like just the mastery of her understanding of music, her creation. You know, Mariah Carey writes all her songs and at minimum co writes them. She produces the majority of her records, especially the majority of her Number ones, which she has an entire album dedicated to. So it's just I think sometimes when you're so great and when you look so shiny, people don't see how much work you put into what you do because you're just seen as a natural or seen as having it easily. But she is magnificent. She is just magnificent. She is her work ethic is out of this world. And the ways that she hears music and writes to it and produces it, and like, make no mistake, she created like an entire culture of music just because of her remixes in the nineties, Like she was really the first to successfully merge like real singing and hip hop. You know, she was creating all these different categories. Like first she was like American contemporary music, then are and be she's classically trained. Like it's just it's too much epic, epic life. And when I think about someone like Mariah, you know, she had her memoir come out a few years ago, and it's so heavy. She's gone through so much, and again it's almost like she has this cloak of invisibility because she's so talented and beautiful that it's just like, yeah, you'll, you know, you'll get past that. But she's been through some incredibly traumatic experiences. In no way can I diagnose her, but some of the things that I read it would just lead you to to assume that the person who had been through all of those things probably has CPTSD and PTSD and so to still create it such a magnificent level while also having had some of the deep rooted core that she had in her childhood. I just have immense respect for her and gratitude for her transmuting that pain into beauty. Go see that show if you get a chance. Ugh ah me and me, I love you all right. Another thing that the final thing I think I'll share, well, I might have one more final and a half is I announced this on social media. And for those that in the past few years have seen the Women who Heal retreat happen at the Omega Institute for Holistic Studies in ryan Beck, New York. The amazing Queen of Flu and I my dear sister, have had this retreat going for a couple of years there. It's been really special, that place that I love so much, that it's been such an honor to bring so many women to I was asked to join the board of directors, and I'm so proud to share that I going the board of the Omega Institute and that I'm so excited about what we're building right now. I'm working on some of twenty twenty four a little bit, but mostly twenty twenty five, and I'm just so excited to share more of that with you. And if you get a chance and you're just in a place of seeking or in a place of looking to do your refinements at your pace, you have a certain amount of self knowledge and self awareness. Omega is just really really potent with wisdom and healing, and it's a special place to visit. It sits on two hundred and fifty acres in upstate New York. They teach hundreds of courses there every year when they're in season, and it's a place that you can go for incredibly equitable pricing and stay for a weekend retreat which is like three days, or a week retreat which there five. There's three meals there. You have a comfortable bed, a cabin and the grounds, and you can go there to learn, to grow, to heal, to release, to study, to be in spiritual study, which is just such a yummy, yummy, yummy flow to be in. So I'm really proud of that and really excited to continue to share all the evolution of that and some of the great works that we're going to be continuing to pour out into the world. My final joy, and this is really a tiny, big joy for me, is my son is graduating kindergarten and he had his spring break. This year in kindergarten has been really special. I'm so proud of him. God with a kid, God, what a kid. I am so lucky and so blessed to be his mother. It's unreal. Sometimes the kindergarten, for lot of reasons, was kind of challenging. There were just a lot of in this moment, I'll say things that happened, and I hope I get a chance to talk to them a bit more. But there was a lot that happened that changed the flow. And you know, I think as a parent, when you're getting ready to get your kid more into the world and into school, you know, you just want it all to be right, You want it all to go smoothly, You want it all to be safe and special. And you know in life, life is crazy. So many of us had our babies in the pandemic or you know, those those early years were all the effects of all the things. AnyWho, I've been gearing up to have him in his step up ceremony which is coming, and thinking about summer, and I've really just been relishing the time I have with him as he's rounding the base from five to turning six, and just like the sweetness of it, with the full understanding of how fast it's all going in real time and how different he is every day. So something I was noticing. He had his spring break recently, and so I did a staycation for it, and I just we went to I live in the LA area, and we went to every museum in LA So every day we went to a different museum, and we went to the La Zoo. It was every day I'd find like an attraction and a lot of ways in attraction from my own childhood, which was kind of cool to see things through his eyes. And then a few of the new museums that have opened in La and it was just special riding through the city with my boy and seeing art. And one of the places that we went is the Broad Museum, which is in downtown LA and they have this amazing Kusama exhibit, and my son and I are both obsessed with Yayoi Kusama. It was special. And as we left, it was just such a shiny day. He was so happy, and I looked down at his face and our faces were like really close together, like our noses almost touching, and I just started to see all these little emerging freckles on that face, like the little cheeks and the little bridge of his nose had all these little, teeny tiny, little sweet bronze freckles, and it was just yummy. It was just special to see and getting a peek at you know, who he's becoming and who he's becoming physically, and what will he look like and who will he be? And I'm just a mama safer in all the moments as we slowly make our way to summer. All right, those are my joys in real time and some of my tiny joys. And I hope you'll check out some of those recent episodes. And actually that final thing answered one of the questions that I was gonna read at the end of the episode. So I got a question from on Instagram from at MJ Campbell, and her question or statement is would love to hear more about your current journey with motherhood. So that was part of my answer, and I'll also just say my journey in motherhood right now is really being still and present enough to let his inner guidance guide us. So I've really been in practice with not trying to fill all the space with talking and with doing and with asking questions and you know, all the things that I come up with in parent mode or you know, the things that I think are important for childhood, and I'm really trying to sink us back into a more natural, slower pace of life that isn't so charged and stimulated. Something I've already shared is that, for one, like, we don't have any TVs in the bedrooms and we don't really watch TV in my house. And I also got a landline phone so that I don't have to be present with my cell phone, so we will just hear a random ring. And then I put some clocks up in the house, so I also don't have to be present with my phone and so just slowing time down a little bit has been really special and just being really connected to each other, whether that's through cuddling or eye contact or just you know, kind of being present, you know, in the same space doing things. I've just tried to be really really grounded and rooted and create more space for his spontaneity to come forward and his you know, his internal compass, his creativity, his thoughts, the you know, the things that come to him naturally. And it's just been teaching me so much about the way that he thinks and the way that he sees the world. And it's been really cool, and it's just made me really proud. It's been so special to kind of sink into a little more slowness and a little more boredom with him. Our new favorite thing to do before it's like lights out. His bedtime is about seven seven thirty. He got to get all the hours of sleep, baby, We got to nourish that brain, give that body the rest it deserves. But it's still pretty light out, and so like we'll just go sit right before bed outside on the patio and sit in the quiet and listen to wind chimes and listen to the sounds of birds kind of ending their day, and we've both just fallen in love with that moment. So it's been really sweet. He's always like, mom, come on, let's go sit. Let's go sit in our spot's time. Then we just like close our eyes and listen to the sounds and let ourselves get grounded and let that nervous system get regulated and then climb into that bed. So that is my journey in this moment. There's also you know, challenging days, because that's what all of this is. But it's been really inventive. I feel it's been very creative lately with my little ones, so very grateful for that. All Right, I am headed out to Atlanta to the Black Effect Podcast Festival. Cannot wait again to see everyone that joins us, and we'll be back next week now, Mistay stay Stay. The content presented on Deeply Well serves solely for educational and informational purposes. It should not be considered a replacement for personalized medical or mental health guidance and does not constitute a provider patient relationship. As always, it is advisable to consult with your healthcare provider or health team for any specific concerns or questions that you may have. Connect with me on social at Debbie Brown. That's Twitter, Instagram, or you can go to my website Debbie Brown dot com. And if you're listening to the show on Apple Podcasts, don't forget. Please rate, review, and subscribe and send this episode to a friend. Deeply Well is a production of iHeartRadio and The Black Effect Network. It's produced by Jacques Thomas, Samantha Timmins, and me Debbie Brown. The Beautiful Soundbath You heard That's by Jarrelen Glass from Crystal Cadence. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

Take a deep breath in through your nose. Hold it now release slowly again, deep in helle hold release, repeating internally to yourself as you connect to my voice. I am deeply, deeply well. I I am deeply well. I am deeply wow. I'm Debbie Brown and this is the Deeply Well Podcast. Welcome to Deeply Well, a soft place to land, a podcast for those that are curious and creative and ready to expand in higher consciousness and self care. I'm Debbie Brown. This is where we heal, this is where we become. Welcome back to the show. So as I have just set everything up actually in my office to record this episode, I'm getting ready to head out to the Black Effect Podcast Festival, and I'm so looking forward to it. It's going down in Atlanta, of course, the twenty seventh of April, and I think depending on when you hear this episode, there are still some tickets left. It looks amazing. It's happening at Pullman Yards and I had a chance to spend a lot of time in Pullman Yards. Actually a couple of years ago. I was teaching wellness to Ote, which is this incredible organization for star basketball players before they joined the league, and we did some really cool stuff in Atlanta a few years ago. So I'm excited to get back out there. Anytime I get to Atlanta, I get to head out there, it is such a treat and some of my besties are out there, so I'm gonna have a great time. And I will be at the podcast Festival and I will be doing a live podcast recording of Deeply Well, and I'm really excited to share my two special guests with you and really take a bite out of this conversation that we'll be having there. So if you listen to the show, if you are going to be there in Atlanta, and shout out. We just gave out some tickets actually on the Instagram, So if you're going to be in Atlanta, please if you see me, stop me. I would love to just spend time with everyone that connects to the show and talk and catch up and you know, hear what you're resonating with and hear how your work has been going. You know, my show is a companion for the work you are doing on yourself and your own spirit and your own soul. So and that is such a privilege for me. So I would love to hear from you a person if you head to the podcast festival. Black Effect Network is just wow. My brother Charlemagne, to say he blows me away would be such an understatement. He has been such a dear, close friend of mine for almost twenty years, which was insane to say. And he just is always not just growing the empire, which I think is so obvious and so special and so powerful, but I've never met someone in this industry that goes out of their way to recognize, to help, to uplift, to expand all the people around him every single chance he gets. And I've had the chance to be able to witness him consistently for twenty years, and at every juncture of the journey, even the juncture of him that was, you know, saying things that were a bit more wild, at every juncture of the way, when it came to his heart, when it came to the way that he shows up for people, when it came to his vision and his commitment to people to doing good, it just it's never waver It's who he's always been and it's what he does so well. So it's just so special to be a part of this network and to see it grow and to head to the second annual Podcast Festival. It's massive, It's massive. Nobody does podcasting like Charlemagne and the Black Effect Network, so such a privilege to be here. Is so happy to be here and again cannot wait to head to Atlanta. All Right, this episode, I want to check in about Joy in real time, and also at the end of the episode, I'm going to have a chance to answer some of the questions that came through on my Instagram from just a few weeks ago. First thing I want to call out before I dive into the joy of the moment is I want to shout out some of the recent episodes we've done, because I've had a chance to get quite a bit of feedback coming through and gotten some emails and gotten some dms and some comments, and it is it's I am just loving the way that some of these conversations are resonating with those who have shared their hearts and their reflections on it. We've had a chance to go really deep in the last few months. We had some amazing episodes like Shaka singor that episode Oh my God, just so so powerful, and I'm I'm just so in awe of his pathway to enlightenment and his pathway to healing and the way he moves through the world. Now, so if you haven't caught up on that episode, highly recommend it. Shaka singor also Minage Diis. Oh wow, that episode. I mean, especially for those that are in the wellness industry, wellness industry adjacent, or are finding their way to the wellness industry as a business. I just felt like that episode took it to places I have been wanting to go with someone else. So I'm so glad we just got to kind of dive into that. And you know, everyone is different, and we all have different philosophies, we surely all have different motivations. But I'm just a believer it's okay to be counterculture, you know. It's I remember I have this professor in college. I was taking I believe it was pas African American Cinema and he pulled up one of my favorite movies ever, which is Malcolm X Spike Lee Denzel, and I remember I can't remember what it was, but he had some kind of criticism for it, and I was just so offended. And he said to me, you know, Debbie, a sign of really valuing something is the ability to criticize it everything. There should be space to criticize absolutely everything, and you know that's part of what creation is. That's part of loving something. You know, it's holding a mirror to it. So I love how that episode went down. If you haven't checked it out yet, please do. And I also check out my dear friend Minage on the open app leading meditation and if you're in person, heading to Venice to pop into a class. Also, the episode that we did a few weeks ago was Saudi Simone, whose new book is out Spiritually Wee an incredible teacher of spiritual work and an incredible master of somatics saw and I went so deep about grief and some of the things that I was reading back just I'm just so grateful that episode on grief found whoever it did in whatever line timing that it did. Grief is hard. Grief is hard, and it's a guaranteed experience that everyone will face, and some face much more often than others. And finding ways to be with that feeling, to be with that sensation, and finding ways to transmute that experience in your body and in the world, it's just some of the most honorable dignified, graceful work you will ever do. I've said something pretty consistently to people in my life over the years, which is, you know, I'm really the kind of person who I say this really gratefully. When things happen, I'll just take off running to the darkness. I'll run straight into whatever it is that's present. And I'm grateful for that ability and what has been very often painful practice and being able to kind of work that muscle, because by running to your own darkness you have the opportunity to free yourself so quickly, and the courage that you build in yourself for having done it, you'll wear like a cloak for their of your life. So I don't know who that message is for, but whoever resonates, So check out that episode Saudi Simone. And then most recently, we have my girlfriend Denise Hamilton On, author of the new book Indivisible and an absolutely brilliant, brilliant, brilliant woman, so honored to call her friend, and her work is just special and it's different, and she has her fingers on the pulse in a way that is so evolutionary for so many industries. So I highly recommend everybody go and check that episode out, all right, I want to. I want to check in something that I am definitely committing to doing a lot more as we get ready to kind of sunset this season and gear up for next season, and really as I'm in the throes of completing my second book, which I cannot wait to get into your hands, And if you want to sign up for the newsletter so that you can get all the information on some of the activations I'll be doing with the book and the pre orders when that gets going, you can have to my website, Debbie Brown dot com and if you just click in the top tab ord says book, you can sign up right there, And so we have some information going out. They're really excited to share that work with everyone. And something I've just committed to is now that I feel a little more rooted in my creations and creativities, and I think I've really found the right flow for my work and my teaching and my business, and now that I officially have a little boy who's graduating from kindergarten, oh my god, turning six, I'm really committed to sharing more depth of my processes and the ways that I kind of moved through the world on a daily basis. I know that's the piece, especially on the journey, that's just so important to find because we don't want to walk around these like gaping wounds that are constantly oozing and also healing, you know, we don't want to be always tending to the wounds. It's we got to get out there and we got to practice, and very often we've got to practice our joy, and we got to practice our new ways of communicating, our new styles of holding energy, our new ability to stretch, our capacity for discomfort in the moment, and a lot of that is found in the small, tiny, tenny, tenny, daily rituals of our lives. It's found in the small moments. It's found in the small breath that goes into our crevices. And so it is really important sometimes to talk about the subtle nuance of the day and how one navigates it. So I'm committed to doing more of that. And what I wanted to share is some joy in real time. So if you have been connecting with the pod in some of my work since maybe twenty nineteen, I something I started doing and went so hard with and taught a bunch about in the pandemic is this concept that evolved in my life of what I call tiny joy for those that are on the tiktoks and all the things you might have heard, another term that pretty much encapsulates very very similar ways and technique of a glimmer, which is the opposite of a trigger. I love how that was shared, the way that I experience it, and the way that I grew it in my body. I referred to it as tiny joy, where I was finding moments throughout the day and my life that were more ordinary and small to find ways to connect to and really savor and find joy in. And it's really radically changed my life. It's changed everything about my life, changed the way I relate to myself, to other people, to purpose, to validation. When you can find ways to fuel yourself even in the most minute moments, like in the most micro microways, you really become such a force within yourself. You become this really kind of beautifully polished I don't know where I'm going to go with this. I'm trying to think you become this creature that's entirely different, and you really connect to this ability to transmute grief and pain in bigger ways and in faster ways, and you find this ability within yourself to really cultivate a deep, deep sense of authenticity, a deep, deep compassion for yourself, for the world around you, and also to really amplify the access you have to pleasure in your life. And something I share here quite often is, you know life is going to be hard. It is. Life is going to be challenging. It is. Life is going to twist the plot over and over and over again in so many different ways. And you know, not to say that some of those ways aren't also for your highest good, but it's a lot. Being alive is a lot, and depending on your lived experience, and then also caring forward to all the things that unfold in this place we live, this earth, it's just guaranteed that we're always going to be feeling the full spectrum of human emotion while we're here, and so connecting to joy, but most especially connecting to it in the subtle ways and the ordinary ways, in the easy, free ways, not just these grandiose, grand ways, these declarative ways, you can really become not just unstoppable, but absolutely delighted by your life. So in the pandemic, I used to One of the things I used to do is just go look at flowers. I started growing my garden in the pandemic, and it's very modest and now it's glorious. But I would go stare at flowers and make myself smile. I would stare at the sun. I would feel the warmth of the sun on my cheek. I would close my eyes in the sun and I would notice the glow of orange behind my eyelids, and all of it became so big for me and so magnificent. It allowed me to find joy and stability in all the moments, in all the moments, in every moment, and it really just enhanced the feeling of romance in every sector of my life. The connection to beauty, the gratitude for God, gratitude for nature, the gratitude for the divine design and all of the universe and inside of me. So ways that I have really been expanding in that is, you know, first, now that we're out of the pandemic, I can be back in these streets, I can be outside. And so this year, a commitment I made to myself, because I've been kind of going like crazy for the last few years, was to really find more time to socialize and more time to do fun things and really make it a priority. I can get so wrapped up in my work, in my purpose work, and just so completely wrapped up in my delicious, yummy child that I'm just happy to be in those parts of my life. But then I got to look up and say, no, I want to see my people. I want to have some more new experiences. So that was my commitment since January. So I want to share some of the things that I've done and some of the beauty in it. And if you have any of these stories of your own in the last couple of months, I would love to hear them shared. And hopefully if you hadn't had haven't had a chance to do this, then maybe something will pop out to you. Okay. So one of the first things that I did in the recent past was I had this credible opportunity to work with this organization called Leading Women Defined for the second time. And Leading Women Defined is this foundation that was founded by the great Deborah Lee, who used to run all of b ET of course, and just revolutionized the way our culture moves in the world and revolutionized oh my gosh, so so many things within music, within TV, within Black culture, within world culture, within you know, so many ways that we have been able to show up in the world, and this event is pristine. It is just one of the most special things I've ever been to, and I think in this kind of culture, especially over the last decade of you know, women's brunches and you know sometimes what can very much feel like formative sisterhood community. I came here to this incredible event which went over the course of about four days and was filled with really fascinating lectures and talks and music and activities and insanely delicious food and so much special stuff. I witnessed something there that was so deeply authentic that it just struck me in the core of my heart. The way these amazing women from all over the world, who were all leaders of various industries, the way they really love each other and really show up for each other. It just took my breath away, and it really kind of not just was it inspiring, but it just gave me deep hope for what long tenured friendships can be and how you can navigate and be at the top of your game but still be a soul led leader and have compassion in your heart and real genuine sisterhood that walks with you through time. Really special and shout out to my dear friend talitha walk in so I had the chance to catch up with their deeply. Well, that was one thing that I loved and was really inspired by another thing, and I shared this on an episode. A couple of months ago, I had gone up with one of my best friends to San Francisco for like a quick day and a half trip, and I had the chance to see Andre three Thousand's New Blue Sun Live. I went to two shows actually of it in San fran Well, I had a chance to go to the one of the final nights of the La show, which was at this incredible exhibit called Luna Luna. I'm sure some of you have heard of this, but it was you know, there was all of this carnival, all of these carnival rides and carnival equipment back in the eighties that someone had gathered the artistic greats of the time, so Basquiat, Keith Haring. I'm sorry I'm forgetting some of the names right now, but a lot of people, and I believe Andy Warhol too, and they all designed a different piece of the carnival, and apparently at some point it never really got shown or used, and it ended up in some kind of a container storage facility for over thirty years and it's in like perfect pristine condition. And apparently Drake and some other people found it the sword is getting out of control and set up this kind of tour that it's going to be doing. But they started in La with this incredible art installation in downtown La, this huge warehouse, rooms and rooms and all of this carnival equipment that was blessed with art by some of the greats, and it was so fresh and untouched and so it add an energy to it. It was special. It was so activating to my inner child, and it was so it was God the joy, I mean walking through that place. And not only was it like the fun of this kind of carnival spirit, but you also feel the energy of some greats in their creation and their artistry. And then you have the Goat. You have Andre three thousand and this just monumental body of work that he's created with New Blue Sun, and he's performing it intuitively in front of this room and with a live band and shoutout Carlos Nino. It was mind blowing. It was a mindbnder. It was a mindbnder. So I did that, and I did that with a group of friends, and Yeah, that fed my inner child so beautifully. Another thing that I did that really inspired me in the last maybe two months was the amazing, amazingly brilliant, beautiful anointed Rachel Cargel had an event in la and it was for her foundation, the Loveland Foundation. It was such a beautiful luncheon and I got to learn so much about this work that she has been building in the world for mental health, and it was so inspiring and so impressive, and the things that the access to free therapy and not just like a session, but it's a real change that she's giving people a community that needs it and deserves it, and they don't have to quantify their pain, right, you don't have to write in with these tragic stories. You just apply and in that process, you're not just given one free therapy session with a therapist. Because something Rachel shared at this luncheon and her team, who's magnificent, they shared that someone would need twelve consecutive therapy sessions to really be able to have the shifts and especially the shifts in their choice making and the way they relate to the things that they've experienced. To really see that change and to have, you know, a sizable amount of relief from suffering. She's supplying people with twelve free therapy sessions, and she's created this community of therapists, and she is also getting therapy for the therapists and the psychologists that are doing the work. And it's just like it's done with such an incredible amount of integrity and I'm just blown away. So if you feel led, if you feel called, please take a moment to look up Rachel Cargo's Loveland Foundation and if you feel so led, and if therapy has meant something to you or another service and mental health and you're able, consider paying it forward and helping someone else have the opportunity to have meaningful change in their life. It's really special what she's doing. I also, I'm now looking at I'm like, oh, she get a lot of joy. So one of my best friends had a big birthday and had a trip plan to go to Vegas and she invited me and got me a ticket to the Mariah Carey opening night at Park MGM. So Park MGM in Las Vegas. That's the same place that ushered it his residency where Lady Gaga has done her residency, Madonna as well, and now the Great Mariah Carey is doing a multiple part residency there. I believe it's going in the spring and then she's going to stop and restart it in the summer. But it was the entire emancipation of Mimi album, Oh my God. And it was the tour itself is called the Celebration of Mimi, and she spent the first hour going over like all the classics, and then the second hour and a half. It was the entire emancipation of Mimi album, which for me came out when I was in I think I was a freshman in college, and the way I used to play that album in my green Forest Green mazdas six two six, Oh my God. I was really When it comes to Mariah, something that was really striking to me is I think so many of us. I mean, obviously, she is a living legend. I mean, let's just hold that for a second. She's a living legend with a once in a lifetime voice. I feel like she's been so much a part of my life and even so much a part of pop culture that the legendary nature of her songwriting and her singing and her presence kind of gets overshadowed. Like it's almost like you take this miraculous thing as something that you know, you're just used to having in your life, and so being able to go to that show. And we started off by having dinner at this amazing restaurant in Vegas called Best Friends, which is Chef roy Choi's latest restaurant, and it's in the park MGM. They also have it Italy. It was I had a time listen, listen, I hate Feticini, Like on my way to the plane. It was great. But we have this great dinner at this at his restaurant that styled as a bodega and it plays nothing but early aughts music. And then we went to the Mariah Carey show and I was just brought to tears so many times by the healing power of her voice and just how rare and exquisite her gifts and talents are and how much of a master she is. And obviously that goes without saying, right, but I'm just in awe of it, Like just the mastery of her understanding of music, her creation. You know, Mariah Carey writes all her songs and at minimum co writes them. She produces the majority of her records, especially the majority of her Number ones, which she has an entire album dedicated to. So it's just I think sometimes when you're so great and when you look so shiny, people don't see how much work you put into what you do because you're just seen as a natural or seen as having it easily. But she is magnificent. She is just magnificent. She is her work ethic is out of this world. And the ways that she hears music and writes to it and produces it, and like, make no mistake, she created like an entire culture of music just because of her remixes in the nineties, Like she was really the first to successfully merge like real singing and hip hop. You know, she was creating all these different categories. Like first she was like American contemporary music, then are and be she's classically trained. Like it's just it's too much epic, epic life. And when I think about someone like Mariah, you know, she had her memoir come out a few years ago, and it's so heavy. She's gone through so much, and again it's almost like she has this cloak of invisibility because she's so talented and beautiful that it's just like, yeah, you'll, you know, you'll get past that. But she's been through some incredibly traumatic experiences. In no way can I diagnose her, but some of the things that I read it would just lead you to to assume that the person who had been through all of those things probably has CPTSD and PTSD and so to still create it such a magnificent level while also having had some of the deep rooted core that she had in her childhood. I just have immense respect for her and gratitude for her transmuting that pain into beauty. Go see that show if you get a chance. Ugh ah me and me, I love you all right. Another thing that the final thing I think I'll share, well, I might have one more final and a half is I announced this on social media. And for those that in the past few years have seen the Women who Heal retreat happen at the Omega Institute for Holistic Studies in ryan Beck, New York. The amazing Queen of Flu and I my dear sister, have had this retreat going for a couple of years there. It's been really special, that place that I love so much, that it's been such an honor to bring so many women to I was asked to join the board of directors, and I'm so proud to share that I going the board of the Omega Institute and that I'm so excited about what we're building right now. I'm working on some of twenty twenty four a little bit, but mostly twenty twenty five, and I'm just so excited to share more of that with you. And if you get a chance and you're just in a place of seeking or in a place of looking to do your refinements at your pace, you have a certain amount of self knowledge and self awareness. Omega is just really really potent with wisdom and healing, and it's a special place to visit. It sits on two hundred and fifty acres in upstate New York. They teach hundreds of courses there every year when they're in season, and it's a place that you can go for incredibly equitable pricing and stay for a weekend retreat which is like three days, or a week retreat which there five. There's three meals there. You have a comfortable bed, a cabin and the grounds, and you can go there to learn, to grow, to heal, to release, to study, to be in spiritual study, which is just such a yummy, yummy, yummy flow to be in. So I'm really proud of that and really excited to continue to share all the evolution of that and some of the great works that we're going to be continuing to pour out into the world. My final joy, and this is really a tiny, big joy for me, is my son is graduating kindergarten and he had his spring break. This year in kindergarten has been really special. I'm so proud of him. God with a kid, God, what a kid. I am so lucky and so blessed to be his mother. It's unreal. Sometimes the kindergarten, for lot of reasons, was kind of challenging. There were just a lot of in this moment, I'll say things that happened, and I hope I get a chance to talk to them a bit more. But there was a lot that happened that changed the flow. And you know, I think as a parent, when you're getting ready to get your kid more into the world and into school, you know, you just want it all to be right, You want it all to go smoothly, You want it all to be safe and special. And you know in life, life is crazy. So many of us had our babies in the pandemic or you know, those those early years were all the effects of all the things. AnyWho, I've been gearing up to have him in his step up ceremony which is coming, and thinking about summer, and I've really just been relishing the time I have with him as he's rounding the base from five to turning six, and just like the sweetness of it, with the full understanding of how fast it's all going in real time and how different he is every day. So something I was noticing. He had his spring break recently, and so I did a staycation for it, and I just we went to I live in the LA area, and we went to every museum in LA So every day we went to a different museum, and we went to the La Zoo. It was every day I'd find like an attraction and a lot of ways in attraction from my own childhood, which was kind of cool to see things through his eyes. And then a few of the new museums that have opened in La and it was just special riding through the city with my boy and seeing art. And one of the places that we went is the Broad Museum, which is in downtown LA and they have this amazing Kusama exhibit, and my son and I are both obsessed with Yayoi Kusama. It was special. And as we left, it was just such a shiny day. He was so happy, and I looked down at his face and our faces were like really close together, like our noses almost touching, and I just started to see all these little emerging freckles on that face, like the little cheeks and the little bridge of his nose had all these little, teeny tiny, little sweet bronze freckles, and it was just yummy. It was just special to see and getting a peek at you know, who he's becoming and who he's becoming physically, and what will he look like and who will he be? And I'm just a mama safer in all the moments as we slowly make our way to summer. All right, those are my joys in real time and some of my tiny joys. And I hope you'll check out some of those recent episodes. And actually that final thing answered one of the questions that I was gonna read at the end of the episode. So I got a question from on Instagram from at MJ Campbell, and her question or statement is would love to hear more about your current journey with motherhood. So that was part of my answer, and I'll also just say my journey in motherhood right now is really being still and present enough to let his inner guidance guide us. So I've really been in practice with not trying to fill all the space with talking and with doing and with asking questions and you know, all the things that I come up with in parent mode or you know, the things that I think are important for childhood, and I'm really trying to sink us back into a more natural, slower pace of life that isn't so charged and stimulated. Something I've already shared is that, for one, like, we don't have any TVs in the bedrooms and we don't really watch TV in my house. And I also got a landline phone so that I don't have to be present with my cell phone, so we will just hear a random ring. And then I put some clocks up in the house, so I also don't have to be present with my phone and so just slowing time down a little bit has been really special and just being really connected to each other, whether that's through cuddling or eye contact or just you know, kind of being present, you know, in the same space doing things. I've just tried to be really really grounded and rooted and create more space for his spontaneity to come forward and his you know, his internal compass, his creativity, his thoughts, the you know, the things that come to him naturally. And it's just been teaching me so much about the way that he thinks and the way that he sees the world. And it's been really cool, and it's just made me really proud. It's been so special to kind of sink into a little more slowness and a little more boredom with him. Our new favorite thing to do before it's like lights out. His bedtime is about seven seven thirty. He got to get all the hours of sleep, baby, We got to nourish that brain, give that body the rest it deserves. But it's still pretty light out, and so like we'll just go sit right before bed outside on the patio and sit in the quiet and listen to wind chimes and listen to the sounds of birds kind of ending their day, and we've both just fallen in love with that moment. So it's been really sweet. He's always like, mom, come on, let's go sit. Let's go sit in our spot's time. Then we just like close our eyes and listen to the sounds and let ourselves get grounded and let that nervous system get regulated and then climb into that bed. So that is my journey in this moment. There's also you know, challenging days, because that's what all of this is. But it's been really inventive. I feel it's been very creative lately with my little ones, so very grateful for that. All Right, I am headed out to Atlanta to the Black Effect Podcast Festival. Cannot wait again to see everyone that joins us, and we'll be back next week now, Mistay stay Stay. The content presented on Deeply Well serves solely for educational and informational purposes. It should not be considered a replacement for personalized medical or mental health guidance and does not constitute a provider patient relationship. As always, it is advisable to consult with your healthcare provider or health team for any specific concerns or questions that you may have. Connect with me on social at Debbie Brown. That's Twitter, Instagram, or you can go to my website Debbie Brown dot com. And if you're listening to the show on Apple Podcasts, don't forget. Please rate, review, and subscribe and send this episode to a friend. Deeply Well is a production of iHeartRadio and The Black Effect Network. It's produced by Jacques Thomas, Samantha Timmins, and me Debbie Brown. The Beautiful Soundbath You heard That's by Jarrelen Glass from Crystal Cadence. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.