Empowering Chats with Susan Burrell

The Energy of Emotions

Ep#241 - The Energy of Emotions, An Interview with Empathy Expert and Author, Karla McLaren

My guest today for this episode of Empowering Chats is Author and Empathy Expert, Karla McLaren.

Her latest book, which is actually a  revised and updated version is chock full of wisdom and definition. It’s called The Language of Emotions. What Your Feelings Are Trying to Tell You.

When I got the book, I opened it up randomly and the chapter on the "nger Family" is what appeared for me. I was obviously supposed to read this chapter. It described my family and my issues to a “T.”  I found myself writing in the margins and starring what applied to me and/or my family.

So, I asked Karla why the language of emotions? Why that title? She shared that the original title was "Emotional Genius" – but it felt like that title was too much and something that people would not relate to – so she and her editor kicked around other ideas for the title and came up with "The Language of Emotions." Karla goes on to explain that many people don’t have a language for their emotions, they just know if it feels good or bad. And if you don’t have a language for things then you don’t understand it.

Emotions hold a tremendous amount of energy and we’ve all seen what happens when we repress or carelessly express them. I know I saw it played out all the time through anger in my family. 

This is a big book for a reason. Karla explains that there is no other book like it. There is no other book that dives deep into emotions and explains in detail how to talk about them. Karla even has a whole section dedicated to practices for working with feelings and building your empathy skills.

Karla also offers an Empathy Academy. The courses offered, teach about one emotion or several emotions and how to incorporate words and language to identify what you are feeling.

Karla shared the following as we came to the end of our interview. She said that our emotions are here to help us. She compared them to our rescue team, much like when EMTs or Firetrucks are called to a fire, our emotions come to our rescue when times are tough. They are the “firetrucks” of the soul, they are here to help us address our emotions.

I love that!

To learn more about Karla and the work she does please visit: KarlaMclaren.com

To sign up for her Empathy Academy visit: KarlaMclaren.com/my-events

To order her book or see her other books / products visit: KarlaMclaren.com/bookshop/

To learn more about how I show up in the world please visit: SusanBurrell.com

Spiritual Shadow Work

Ep #240 - Spiritual Shadow Work, an Interview with author, Connie Zweig

My guest for this episode of Empowering Chats is retired psychotherapist, Connie Zweig. Connie is also an author of many books. Her most current book is “Meeting the Shadow on the Spiritual Path. The Dance of Darkness and Light in Our Search for Awakening.”

I opened the interview by asking Connie to tell my listening audience how this book came about. She shared how at nineteen she became attracted to a young man who refused to go out with her because she was not “enlightened.” He was into Transcendental Meditation or TM and it was important to him that she also incorporate this practice into her daily life. So, she began to meditate – and she noticed that her anger began to dissipate and she learned how to quiet her mind and deeply relax. This changed her direction in life and she became a TM teacher in the early 70s. She was in this movement for about 10 years.

It was about this time that she also began to witness the hypocrisy surrounding her teacher and the TM movement. She noticed that the movement became very rigid and hierarchal. She became discouraged and disillusioned, so she left the TM movement and lost many of her friends. Religious and spiritual abuse was prevalent in many of these areas and up to his point she had not been aware of what was occurring behind the scenes.

Shadow work became Connie’s focus as she began her career in psychotherapy. Her work and this book specifically talks about the shadows that are locked in the whole-body mind, and in the subtle body, the chakras. And when the shadow material gets triggered and acted out – many people go into shock and despair.

This is especially prevalent when accusations of the shadow side are aimed at an esteemed religious mentor or spiritual guru. It’s important that the “abuser” be called out, however oftentimes groupthink takes over and the “whistle blower” is banished. Nobody in the group wants to believe their charismatic leader would sexually or emotionally abuse them.  Again, it’s the shadow side being met on both sides (that of the abuser and the abused) that is being denied even exists. We all have a shadow side.

Connie believes the change the transformation begins with the individual accepting their shadow side first. It has to start there with the inner work. We must allow ourselves to look at our blind spots. It’s important to take responsibility for our own buried feelings.

Connie has organized circles with groups of people who want to go through her book together. These groups support each other in making good choices about their life and in acknowledging their shadow side. The groups are free and organized by time zones. Connie will connect you with other people in your time zone so that you can do this work together and build community around it. Connie is clear that this is not therapy it is deep listening and support of each other. It’s about being heard.

In order to join these groups send a message to Connie directly at: conniezweig@gmail.com.

To learn more about the work Connie does and other books she has written visit: ConnieZweig.com

To purchase Connie’s book, “Meeting the Shadow on the Spiritual Path” visit: https://www.amazon.com/Meeting-Shadow-Spiritual-Path-Awakening

To learn more about how I show up in the world please visit  my website: SusanBurrell.com

Unified Consciousness

Ep. #239 - Unified Consciousness - A Solo Show with Your Host of Empowering Chats, Susan Burrell

I touch on some tough topics in this podcast. Many of you already know that I don’t shy away from saying what I feel and challenging all of my listeners to pause and pay attention. Today’s episode gets a bit heavy at times, however please don’t let that warning keep you from listening to this episode. Many of you also know that I always lean into hope and optimism. 

Okay, so here goes . . . most of you know me well enough by now to know that when I do my solo shows, I almost always have to look up the word I am focusing on for the month. And I do it not because I don’t know what the word means, but to see it in a different light and to review the actual dictionary definition of the word.

And so today I am focusing on Society. The formal definition, in part, reads as follows:  An organized group of people associated together for religious, benevolent, cultural, scientific, political, patriotic or other purposes.

I find it interesting that the word “benevolent” was part of the descriptive term for society. With so much chaos and violence being perpetrated in society today, I am glad to see that benevolence can also be part of society.

A body of people living as members of a community can be kind, big-hearted and work together for the common good of all.

I believe we have reached a crux in our development of humanity, and I feel strongly that conscious choices need to be made if we are to survive as a thriving and loving society.

The society I want to live in is one where we collaborate and work together to make a better world. Where every individual has a voice. I believe we can all join in community in a way that is loving, nurturing, kind and benevolent. I know it is already occurring in pockets around the world. Violence and working against others is not the answer. I believe unified consciousness is the path forward. We need to live in diversity and honor the gifts we all carry.

It is time for a new start. It is time to change the narrative. And it has to start with you, with me, with the individual. I feel deeply that change and transformation starts here with the self. And then extends out to others in our community and globally to all who inhabit the world. The community gets richer when everyone in the circle expands and allows for creative flow.

To learn more about who I am and how I chose to show up in the world please visit my website: SusanBurrell.com

Power of the Invisible

Ep #238 - Power of the Invisible - An Interview with Lindsay Fauntleroy, Director of The Spirit Seed and Amy Schimel, a student of Lindsay's and a Practitioner at Spirit Seed.

I am thrilled to welcome Lindsay Fauntleroy, author of Our Element to Empowering Chats once again. Lindsay was on my podcast last month and our chat was so empowering and it felt like our conversation wasn’t complete so here we are for another go around. And this time I have also invited one of Lindsay’s student’s Amy Schimel who is in the process of becoming a practitioner under Lindsay’s tutelage.

I am excited to welcome Amy to this empowering chat as well. She is here to share her experience as a student of Lindsay’s and her excitement at becoming a practitioner with Spirit Seed, the community created by Lindsay. Soul medicine is the term that Lindsay has coined to describe what she and her practitioners teach at Spirit Seed. Spirit Seed is a community founded by Lindsay whose mission is to “re-store our sense of connection, purpose, authenticity, agency, inspiration, and wonder.”

Lindsay’s book Our Element, uses the Five Elements of Water, Wood, Fire, Earth and Metal to tap into the inner-awareness, inner-healing that we all carry. These elements and much of their teaching comes through east Asian philosophy and Taoism.

According to Lindsay, it’s all about the relationship between the mind, the psyche, spirituality and nature. This system gives us a diagram of the inner process. Lindsay goes on to express that how easy it is to think about the elements as part of the seasons we all experience. Water represents Winter. Wood represents Spring. Fire represents Summer. Earth represents Indian Summer and Metal is represented in Fall.

In this chat, Amy shares what drew her to Lindsay and the philosophy behind flower essence. Amy’s background is in Reiki so she was already working with energy and with the invisible that exists within our bodies. Working with Lindsay felt like a natural next step. Amy felt drawn to the spirit of the flower rather than the scientific aspect of it and for her it felt like the vibrations of the flowers were the key for her learning and embracing this workshop.

Lindsay’s teaching is all about the energy of the subtle body. Including the Physical Body which is represented by the 5 senses; the Etheric Body represented by color, by sound and by the vibrational currency of the body; and the Astro Plane Body, which is more in tune with symbols and thought; and lastly there is the Spiritual Plane or Spiritual Body which hold our inner invisible truth. They are all a continuum.

Amy explains that the Flower Essences tap into the Astro Plane Body. They each have their own way of working the energy field of the body. And they all work together to heal the body – as plants are non-discriminatory – they want to work with all of who we are, including the invisible, subtle body, not just the physical part that makes up who we are.

Amy’s experience and that of others who take the path of curiosity to explore outside of their comfort zones helps all of humanity to move forward. As we continue to excavate that which needs more attention, we find there is a over-arching need for healing in our immediate lives and on a global scale. The more we learn, the more we open ourselves up to possibilities. And the more we are willing to shift our perspective the more we learn. And the more the world responds with love and with even more possibilities.

I am grateful for the time spent in both Lindsay and Amy’s presence and for this powerful, amazing chat that we shared.

To learn more about Lindsey and Spirit Seed visit: TheSpiritSeed.org/MeetLindsay

To Register for the Flower Essence Workshop facilitated by Amy Schimel visit: https://www.thespiritseed.org/floweressenceclinic

To learn more about how I show up in the world please visit: SusanBurrell.com

Connecting to Your Moon Sign

Ep#237 - Connecting to Your Moon Sign - An Interview with author and Astrology Expert, Carmen Turner-Schott.

You all know how much I love my job and I never tire of saying this – my guests are all so amazing! And many of them come with cutting edge ideology.  As we continue to move through 2023 I am finding myself inviting some of my previous guests back for another chat. It goes along with this year’s theme to BE Expansive. I am finding that many of the guests I have been interviewing are just that – Expansive - in all that they do.

So, after my last interview with Carmen Turner-Schott I knew right away that I would have her back. In this chat we discuss her latest book, Moon Signs: Houses & Healing.  This is the companion book to her previous one, Sun Signs: Houses & Healing, which we explored in our first interview that took place earlier this year.

I began this interview by asking Carmen to explain the difference between a sun sign and a moon sign. The sun sign is your main personality and it is the one most commonly referred to when people ask, “What is your sign?” Carmen goes on to explain that your sun sign is where your main identity resides. It is how you show up in the world. The month and date you are born determines your sun sign. Most people know their sun sign, but many do not know their moon sign. The moon sign is actually the more important one according to Carmen. It is the one that holds your emotional nature. It’s how you show love, it’s how you express your emotions.

This is where you find comfort, stability and it’s where you find what you value. Your moon sign is determined by not just the date you were born but by the actual time of day you were born. It identifies where the moon cycle was at the time of your birth.

Each chapter in her book provides a breakdown for each moon sign, from Aries to Pisces. Carmen makes it simple to look up yours or a loved one’s sign. Carmen also offers affirmations in her book and self-care guidelines.

As our interview came to a conclusion, we also tapped into the energy that is currently swirling around our world. Carmen and I both feel that on a global scale we need to understand the energy of the nodes and what is occurring. Compromise has to take a front seat for peace to come to fruition. The shifting of the energy that is coming will be lighter and more positive. And we are all encouraged to speak the truth.

To learn more about Carmen Turner-Schott and the work she does please visit her website: CarmenTurnerSchott.com

To purchase her book, Moon Signs: Houses & Healing visit: carmenturnerschott.com/books/

To learn more about how I show up in the world please visit my website: SusanBurrell.com

Tapping into Your Feelings

Ep#236 - Tapping into Your Feelings - An Interview with author and emotional detox coach, Sherianna Boyle.

I am thrilled to welcome author and detox coach, Sherianna Boyle. She has written many books and her latest is called, Energy in Action.

My conversation with Sherianna was so full of insights and gentle reminders of the light we all carry within. 

Her book is brilliant and it is easy to follow. She explains that doing a physical detox in partnership with an emotional cleanse helps you release the inflammation of the mind. Sherianna explains that an emotional detox is the releasing of the stories and the narratives we use to cover up or minimize what we are going through. And she goes on to explain that you cannot hide once the detox begins.

It's all about cleansing the emotions. Which I personally love because for me I often have to have a good cry to see what all the emotion is about. Much of this comes up for me because growing up I was not given room to truly express myself.

Sherianna explains that having a good cry is a way of showing self-love and expressing to yourself the need to release the pent-up energies. She says the mindfulness process of an emotional detox is like digesting the energy that is appearing for you. Sometimes in small bites and then following that up with action, in order to move through it.

Facing your feelings is often times what ignites your intuition.

Sherianna also leads retreats and workshops. She is currently taking registration for her "Wellness & Nature in the Azores" retreat in Portugal in 2024.

To learn more about Sherianna Boyle visit: SheriannaBoyle.com

To purchase her book, Energy in Action visit: SheriannaBoyle.com/energy-in-action

To learn more about her retreats and workshops visit: SheriannaBoyle.com/events

To learn more about how I show-up in the world visit: SusanBurrell.com/about-susan

Nurture - Embracing Our Lives with Loving Care

Ep #235 - Nurture. Embracing Our Lives with Loving Care - A Solo Show with Susan Burrell

What does it mean to nurture oneself? Can the nurturing you show to others in your life also be embraced by your inner-self?

In this solo episode I talk about the theme I have chosen for the month of July – Nurture. You all know I like to look up the word and get the written definition rolling around in my head.

So of course, I looked up “Nurture” in the Webster Dictionary – here’s the definition:

“To Supply with nourishment. To educate. To further the development of or foster.”

When I hear the word “Nurture” I often think of mothers caring for their children or their elderly parents.  I think this is true for many of us.

In today’s chat I explore all that and more. Including where in our lives we can foster love and make connection with others.  And not just those in our lives but also with the environment we are surrounded by.

To learn more about how I show up in the world please visit my website: SusanBurrell.com

The Value of an Emotional Prenup

Ep#234 - The Value of an Emotional Prenup - An Interview with psychologist and author, Dr. Frieda Birnbaum 

 

Why is it important to do an emotional prenup? That is the question that prompted this interview with my guest, Dr. Frieda Birnbaum, a psychotherapist and the author of "Life Begins at 60." And so this sidebar conversation was one that Dr. Birnbaum and I found ourselves in as we began this empowering chat. This idea of managing our lives and the change that comes towards us then led us to the deeper conversation about managing our unions, specifically the union of marriage.

And so once again I ask, What is an emotional prenup and how do we create it? According to Dr. Birnbaum, it comes from a place of seeing more than just the material things we want to manifest in a marriage. For example, it is easy to share with your partner that you want 2 kids, you want to buy a house, you want to make so much money per year – but we never think about the emotional connection and what is expected of each of us in this union when it comes to emotional support. And most importantly how to deal with the unexpected occurrences that will land on your doorstep.

An emotional prenup is about voicing your assumptions about marriage and partnership and then checking in with your partner to explore if your assumptions match that of your partner. It is also about acknowledging what is important to the two of you as a couple.

Part of the process is defining what marriage means to the couple. Simply put, emotional prenups help to prevent divorce, where as financial prenups protect an individual after a divorce.

To learn more about Dr.Frieda Birnbaum visit: Drfrieda.com

To learn more about how I show up in the world please visit: SusanBurrell.com

Redefining the Self

Ep. #233 - Redefining the Self - An Interview with author and visionary, Lindsay Fauntleroy

I am so excited to have this interview and dance in this conversation with my guest Lindsay Fauntleroy. Lindsay is a visionary and an author. Before I move forward, I want to introduce her book as we will be talking about it throughout this chat.

It’s called, In Our Element, Using the Five Elements as Soul Medicine to Unleash Your Personal Power.  The foundation of this book follows the five elements that come out of Ancient Chinese Medicine – Water, Wood, Fire, Earth and Metal.  And she expanded those elements to show her readers how to utilize them in their lives.Lindsay has had the five elements as the center of her clinical practice for about 15 years. She explains that it’s not just about the body but about the patterns of thinking, of virtues and of unique ways of transforming and being in the world.

Lindsay wrote the book from a very personal experience. She has been living with these elements for a very long time and wanted to create something authentic to her experience with indigenous healing traditions.

She goes on to explain that according to the indigenous culture, the human mind is really part of the world mind. Said differently, our psyche lives in nature and nature reflects our psyche. Lindsay states, “This makes space for our healing to live out-loud. I think the elements make space for our lives to heal … and healing is not always serene, our lives are ridiculous and sometimes our pain can be exquisite!”

It's all about balance, people.

Each of these elements offers the sign of where our imbalance resides and it can also offer wisdom. By recognizing that you are heavy in one of the elements then you can do the work to re-balance yourself.

 

To learn more about Lindsay Fauntleroy and the work she is doing with her foundation, The Spirit Seed, visit: TheSpiritSeed.org

 

To Purchase her book visit: TheSpiritSeed.org/inourelementbook

 

To learn more about how I show up in the world please visit: SusanBurrell.com

The Money Walk

EP# 232 - The Money Walk - An Interview with Author and Visionary, Judy Wilkins-Smith

 

It is a true pleasure to have the privilege to once again engage in a lively chat with Judy Wilkins-Smith, whom I interviewed last year. Judy’s book, “Decoding Your Emotional Blueprint” – touches on many things, and today’s talk focuses on money and abundance.

According to Judy she says we all have a system in place to deal with inherited belief systems.

Judy’s focus is on the transformational aspect of what we can do to change our inherited patterns. She goes on to say that it begins by exploring our “personal” pattern(s). Judy breaks it down by letting us know that we all have a choice. And we inherit emotional DNA or patterns in the same way that we inherit physical DNA. So she asks the question, What is the chapter that only I can write? 

Emotional DNA is our pattern, our way of responding to an event or occurrences in our life.  These patterns can be passed on from generation to generation, so much so that it becomes “our” truth – but is it still true? And here’s where Judy helps her clients to see the pattern that needs to be identified so that transformation can occur.

I personally think we forget we have the ability to change, to transform and break the limiting cycles that we find ourselves in.

Judy strongly believes we are co-creators of our life and we can break the limiting cycles we find ourselves in.

Our thoughts surrounding money or the way we perceive money is also inherited from our family.

Judy explains that many times there are 2 patterns at play – The one that is currently playing out and the one that is trying to make itself known and take the place of the unhealthy pattern.  The one that wants to make itself known is the one centered in the heart and the one that only you as an individual can write.

Money is not about greed. It is about flow and sharing and having abundance.

To learn more about Judy Wilkins-Smith visit: JudyWilkins-Smith.com

To purchase Judy's book, Decoding Your Emotional Blueprint visit: judywilkins-smith.com/products/

To learn more about how I show up in the world please visit my website: SusanBurrell.com