Courageous Conversations with Lionheart Coaching Co
Courageous Conversations with Lionheart Coaching Co
Ayahuasca and Self-Healing: Conversation with Amanda Brooke ep 048
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This conversation is about breaking cycles and embracing change.
Has your life ever hit a dead end, leaving you yearning for a transformative experience? Join us on a captivating journey with Amanda Brooke, who sought her answers in the sacred lands of Peru. Amanda opens up about her life-altering trip, revealing how her encounters with shamans, ayahuasca ceremonies, and microdosing with psilocybin initiated a powerful personal transformation. This riveting story is a testament to the profound impact of a positive mindset and the importance of releasing negative energy.
Join us for a conversation brimming with courage, healing, and transformative insights.
Follow Amanda: instagram.com/amandabrookehome or instagram.com/amandabrooke.co
Join my free workshop! lionheartcoachingco.com/beta-babes
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Courageous Conversations
Speaker 1Just having this very, very intuitive feeling that I needed to start pivoting and shifting in certain ways, but I didn't know how, I didn't know what that looked like, I didn't know what I was meant to be sort of shifting into.
Speaker 2Welcome to courageous conversations with Lionheart Coaching Co. I'm your host, mandy Wooderton, and my goal with this podcast is to empower you to own your story and to live courageously in your relationships, with your goals and any adventures you might go on, and especially in your healing and self-discovery journey. I wanna show you what's possible through what I teach and share and through the stories of others. All right, my friend, let's get started. Hello, my friend, welcome back to the podcast or, if it's the first time you're listening, thanks for joining. It is November 28th and this is episode 48.
Speaker 2I actually am, really I cannot believe that I am only two episodes away from 50. It feels like I don't know. It feels like I just started yesterday, but to think of 50 episodes, it's like wow, I've stayed consistent. How about a pat on the back? Anybody who has started anything knows that consistency is one of the key elements, but it's also one of the hardest and there have definitely been times where I've disappeared with the podcast for a couple weeks because family or life just happens and I can't keep up and I definitely give myself grace in those moments. But to be here at this point, it's pretty cool. So I'm thinking I might actually do a giveaway or a fun thing for episode 50. If you have any ideas, I'm open to hearing. And, by the way, I have to tell you I love your feedback. When you send me feedback my wonderful podcast listeners it means the world to me, and when I'm seeing you guys sharing the takeaways in your Instagram stories or on your social media pages, I just want you to know how grateful I am for that. It's how we can grow. The space is by you sharing, and I appreciate all of it. I really do.
Speaker 2I did want to tell you, though this week is our second week in the free workshop that I'm running. If you missed hopping in in the beginning, it is not too late. You can still join me. Just go to lionheartcoachingcodecom. Slash beta babes. Wait a second, it's beta dash babes. I'll link it in the show notes, so don't worry, but come join us. It is so much fun. We are really having a great time over there and the energy is amazing.
Speaker 2This week we're talking about focus, and where focus goes, energy flows. Or is it the other way around? I always mix this up. I teach it all the time, but I always tend to mix it up. I have replays available for what has already been created, and it will be nothing for you to catch up, and I'd love to have you in there. So come, join, come join us in that great space because, listen, my biggest thing is teaching about energy and how what we are not clearing, what we are not getting rid of, is weighing us down. And also, if we wanna thrive, if we wanna create lives that really feel aligned and good for us, then we have to raise our frequency, we have to raise our vibration. So I'm teaching all about that, we're talking all about that, and weaving in actionable steps along the way, because we gotta take action too. All right, let's jump into today's episode.
Transformational Journey
Speaker 2My sweet friend Amanda Brooke. Oh gosh, I just love her. She has always been such a light. I met her several years ago because we worked for the same network marketing company and she has always been so sweet and so kind every time I interacted with her, and we talk a little bit about this, but I'll just say again, she has always had such a positive mindset and in my early days of starting life coaching, I would talk to her about things and it would be like, oh, she gets it, she gets it. So when I saw that she recently went on this incredible journey to Peru, I thought, wow, I've got to have her come share her story and I am so glad I did, and you're gonna be glad you listened today. So I feel like we're gonna just jump right in today. Here is my courageous conversation with Amanda Brooke. First of all, I have to tell you you're totally fine if you make noise because I edit.
Speaker 1I do edit so if I like, swallow my teeth and you're like that was really annoying. I hate the sound of swallowing. Me too, I edit it out and eating Like generally just any sort of mouth noises.
Speaker 2I wanted to pop back to your human design to see, if you were, did you have the highly sensitive person gate? You don't necessarily have that gate, but do you feel like you're a highly sensitive?
Speaker 1person. Yeah, absolutely yeah, like. It's the thing that my husband like always. We are so polar opposite. I am so like hypersensitive and like empathetic and he's like the opposite end of the spectrum. And so it's funny because we have our kids, are basically like clones of ourselves, like Charlie is like my mini me, jack is his mini me, but then like swapped in terms of their like personality. So like, jack is the like me, the very like sensitive, thoughtful, empathetic, sweet, like, and Charlie's the stoic show no emotion, like hard like Marcus. It's so funny.
Speaker 2That is so funny. Yeah Well, thank you for being here. Let me start by saying that you look so cute. Oh, thank you. I'm digging these overalls. I feel like I need to find this for myself. These are my faves. They look comfy.
Speaker 1They are very comfortable. They're like pajamas.
Speaker 2So you know what? I wanted you to come onto the podcast because I could just I was just kind of telling you this, but I'll tell you another piece to it was I could feel your energy and how beautiful it is, and I've always loved my conversations with you yeah, me too Back in the day, when we would see each other at events and stuff. I feel like you've always had that growth mindset and I just felt this energy. I think it was your travel reel caught my attention recently I think you posted it recently and going through this journey that you went on, was it last year?
Speaker 1Yeah, last year at this time, my husband and I went to Peru for my 40th birthday.
Speaker 2It seemed like it was very transformational. And so I was like, oh my gosh, hey, do you want to come on the podcast? Because I want to hear, I want to hear all about, like, what led up to it and came to the choice to go do that, because I feel like it is a big decision to do that. And then how it was, and then what's transpired afterwards. So I mean, that's a lot. Share what you want. Obviously, I'll hold space for whatever you share, yeah, and if you don't want to share something, that's okay too, but I just I love where you're at and I feel like that is the goal is to get to that energetic place where you're in alignment and it feels like that's where you are. That's what you've really walked into. So I would love to hear about it.
Speaker 1Yeah. So for me this all kind of started more than a year ago. I would say like last August, september we had a lot of like shifts happening in our life. We almost moved to Tennessee, basically just like left everything and moved to this, into this new opportunity in Tennessee. But there were other things happening in my life at the time that like just having this very, very intuitive feeling that I needed to start pivoting and shifting in certain ways. But I didn't know how, I didn't know what that looked like, I didn't know what I was meant to be sort of shifting into.
Speaker 1I felt very comfortable, I guess, like where I was, but then also very uncomfortable in other ways, because I had this intuitive feeling that there was more that I was supposed to be doing with my life, with my time, with relationships, and I don't know, I was just like I'm turning 40, maybe I'm having some sort of like midlife crisis kind of thing. That's how it felt. But it was very intuitive and I really wanted to do something that was like big bucket list, truly transformational for my 40th birthday. Like I didn't want to just go like lay on a beach somewhere and drink cocktails. Like I wanted it to be like really purposeful and really, hopefully, transformative.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 1So I've always really wanted to go to Peru my husband has as well. So we're like let's do it, let's go, let's hike the Inca Trail, let's do it right Like hike the Inca Trail, go to Machu Picchu, do all of that. But then I also really wanted to experience an ayahuasca ceremony. So, being that Peru is like the mecca of ayahuasca and where it originates in the Amazon jungle, there, it was like the perfect time to do it. And we had, like my husband and I we had started probably I guess it was like the year prior to that we had started microdosing with like mushrooms, with psilocybin, like very small, just for all sorts of things like mood and just overall health and things like that. So we felt like we were kind of like prepared for a bigger journey into something like ayahuasca. We knew that it was going to be intense, we knew that it was going to be very potentially transformative, yeah, and so I really went into it. The thing with ayahuasca, because it is so intense, it's really really important that you set like a very strong intention around what you want that experience to deliver for you and for me.
Speaker 1I asked very specifically for release and for clarity, because I felt like I was just kind of lost at the time and I didn't know what direction I should be going in Asking for release around just some like very heavy emotional baggage that I had been carrying around with me.
Speaker 1I was really struggling with different relationships at the time that were I just felt like very hurtful in a lot of ways. I was very blindsided, even like friendships. And then also my relationship with my dad has been so, so hard Like ever since COVID and just different things going on in his life. Now he and I used to be basically best friends, like he has been like such a huge influence in my life, like one of the closest people in my life, someone I could always go to with anything, and that all started to change and we actually haven't spoken to each other for almost a year now. So that's been really, and I have really really struggled with trying to wrap my brain around like how could things change so drastically? How could anything potentially be more important than our connection? And so I really went into that experience, just wanting clarity, wanting release, just not wanting to try to figure it out, like just release it, like just let it be what it is and not have to understand and I very much got that.
Speaker 2I'm so glad to hear that.
Speaker 1It's so funny, like, honestly, you could have my husband on a podcast episode and he could be his own episode.
Speaker 2As far as his experience, in the IWASCF Right, I'm sure it's totally different.
Speaker 1We had completely opposite experiences. His was very just overall. It was like very good and positive and very insightful. He's actually completely stopped. We both have now completely stopped drinking alcohol as a result of that, which has been very, very positive.
Speaker 2I'm the same. I haven't drank since I did my Reiki training. Pretty, much. I've had a glass on my anniversary, which I regretted, and then, a glass on my birthday, which I also regretted. Yeah because it made me feel like crap. It really brings your energy down.
Speaker 1So anyway, yeah, so that's been very, very positive. But yeah, he could be his whole other episode. His experience was wild, but mine was very a lot of purging and it was a lot of, I felt, the release it was not only just because you do throw up. When you do IWASCF, you are supposed to. They basically make you just if you don't naturally, which is by drinking warm water, because you want to get you allow the medicine to get into your system, but then you want to actually purge the actual physical liquid. That way all of the effects can go through your bloodstream into your brain and you can really get the maximum benefit from it.
Speaker 2I did not know that.
Speaker 1Yeah, so there's a lot of purging, but mine was excessive and I could feel that it was like also that emotional purging, that emotional release that I needed. I was crying through it uncontrollably. I had no control over these emotions that were coming out as I was physically throwing up, right. So it wasn't necessarily I didn't have necessarily some of the really insightful bits that I was hoping for in that exact experience, but what I later learned was that it opened me up.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 1So at the time I was like, oh, I actually kind of sucked. I just threw up for six hours basically, yeah, and I was crying and it was really hard, but it opened me up.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 1Because I then felt like I had the space after that experience to. I felt when we came home from that it was. The whole experience was amazing, from the ayahuasca to the whole hike of the Inca Trail. It was just such a special. You can feel how sacred it is. Right, there's so much like sacred energy there. It's amazing and our guide that took us along the trail for the four days he was born on the Inca Trail.
Speaker 1We got to visit his tiny, tiny little village on the trail. So it was amazing, it was very authentic, very just like special. So coming home from that and kind of back to real life came back, and that's when basically all shit hit the fan.
Speaker 2Yeah, I can imagine though, because, like that integration, like here you are in this magical space getting all this healing energy, feeling all this sacred energy, and then you come back to real life and it's like plop.
Speaker 1And everything just imploded.
Speaker 1Like it was crazy, the things that were happening, just one after another, after another, after another. That was like what the hell is going on here, like what is happening? Like the whole Tennessee, like all of that just fell through All of a sudden. We were like our house is on the market, thankfully it didn't sell, thankfully my husband still has his job, like all these things was like okay, this could be a lot worse but and I just felt we were dealing with some really hard stuff, like my daughter. She's 10. She was nine at the time, soon to be 10., and she was struggling with incredibly hard anxiety which I'd never experienced before. I've never personally experienced my husband's, never personally experienced. We felt so helpless and it was literally every single night she, leading up to bedtime, she would start, the cycle would start and she was going into these like just awful, like full on anxiety and panic attacks, every single night.
Speaker 1I've been there and I was laying with her in bed until she would finally fall asleep, and it was just. It was so like emotionally, mentally, physically exhausting.
Finding Peace and Growth Amidst Chaos
Speaker 1Yeah it really is. And I just felt so helpless and I finally we got to a point because it was just getting progressively worse and nothing that we were trying to figure out to do on our own was helping. So finally I was like we need to get her help and we started her with therapy, which has been night and day. It's just helped so much. I'm so glad to hear that, yeah, but it was that.
Speaker 1And then everything else kind of crumbling down, and then these relationships crumbling that I thought were so solid, and just one thing after another after another and I finally was just like you need to just get quiet, like you need to just I just wanted to completely retreat, I wanted to just disappear, I wanted to to become a hermit, like I wanted to just be like by myself in my house, off social media, like I just wanted to cut the world out and I wanted to just figure my own shit out. Because I was like what is happening here and I'm very much someone who I it's hard when you're in those moments, when you're in those seasons of like it feels like the world is against you and everything is like just you're just taking punches left and right, and I think that it's easy to potentially fall into like victim mentality or like, yeah, why is this all happening to me?
Speaker 1Like, why, what did I do to deserve this this? You know, life sucks kind of a thing, but I'm very much someone who I kind of sit in that hard and I'm like, okay, there is something I'm supposed to be learning from this. I'm sure it's probably blatantly obvious based on, like, what's happening here, but I haven't figured it out yet. Yeah, and the only way I'm going to figure it out is if I allow space and time to listen and just let it in and figure it out. And so I really do think that that ayahuasca ceremony allowed me that perspective to just get quiet. And I did. I shut the world out, like I was not on social media or very, very, very sporadically. I was just in my life, like genuinely in my life, like I wasn't worried, I didn't all of a sudden, just things that I really cared about before just didn't matter.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 1And I needed that space and I had a lot of things come through for me in that time, like at the beginning of this year, that were just these aha moments, and then things were still hard, like things still kept happening that I was like geez, like when is this going to stop?
Speaker 1But the cool thing about it was that every time stuff kind of kept coming up, it then became this additional reinforcement and additional clarity towards where I needed to pivot and where I needed to go. That was not in that comfort area, that was not in the norm of what I was used to, and I saw it very much that way. Okay, this is showing up again because, right, you're resisting it, you're still resisting it, because it's easy, yeah, and what you really have to do is you have to embrace the suck and you have to embrace the hard and you have to just have some courage to go against the grain, go against what you've been used, to cut out some of those relationships that are really, really not serving you well, and you have to just listen and get in alignment with what you truly want to do with your life and stop thinking it's this thing over here, just because that's what you've been doing.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 1Yeah, and so that really has been kind of a slow, steady, hard journey throughout this entire year, and although it's been very, very hard and things look very different, I feel so much more at peace in my life, like I feel like I'm finally getting back to myself. I feel like I'm just so much more content with where I'm at in my life now, even though I still haven't quite figured it all out and I know I'm not where I'm still going. I haven't arrived.
Speaker 2Yeah, I don't know that we have ever fully arrived True.
Speaker 1I'm light years ahead of where I was last year at this time.
Embracing the Journey, Microdosing for Mental Health
Speaker 2God, what a beautiful journey. I want to pick apart so many things. You well not pick apart, but dissect and dive into so many things that you've said, but one of the last things that you just said about embracing the hard I just was having this conversation with my brother yesterday and I feel like I have this conversation all the time. It's like you make this decision, and it was a really hard decision, and now you're standing in the gap because you're not quite where you want to be, You're not where you used to be, but you're like in the middle. Yeah, and to really truly surrender and be in the middle, stand in the gap, is so powerful because that is where the answers will come. I feel like you did exactly what you were called to do to get quiet. I feel like that's something else I say all the time. You might feel like a broken record, but it's like, yeah, you're not going to get that intuitive information with all of the noise there's too much to like so much you actually let it in.
Speaker 2And especially like I love social media for some reasons, yeah, and I hate social media for some reason Me too Because we really can get caught in the comparison or, oh my gosh, I should be doing more All of the thoughts that might be on that hamster wheel that goes on in our brain, but to really shut it down. I think I did the same Well, I don't even think I know. I did the same thing last year. I was like posting reels, even for my coaching business, and then in like May, it was this heavy resistance to just not even pick up my phone, yeah, and I was even like what are you doing? You're building a new business. You need to be on your. I didn't, yeah, I didn't have to be on my phone and it's still built, because it was an energy thing. We do have to put in work, physical work, but it's the energy thing. Yeah, absolutely. You mentioned the micro dosing. I would love to hear more about that, and did you? And have you stopped doing that? Because I watched the documentary. Actually, let me rewind In 2021, that was probably my most anxious, slash, depressed year outside of postpartum depression, with my kids, and I was in the darkest place that I had been, and it's because I wasn't in alignment with myself, I wasn't listening to my intuition, I wasn't ending things that I needed to end, and I don't even know that I realized that fully.
Speaker 2Yeah, that that's what was keeping me in that space until I started to move towards making those choices. And then, all of a sudden, the clouds started to lift a little bit and it was like, oh yeah, it's like the fog. Yeah, this is where. But I was reading an article that Maps put out and about the program at John Hopkins and how it can rewire your brain. Yeah, it's amazing and it's so much more than just rewiring your brain. It's like shutting down the neurotransmitters, the things that are firing off and they're misdirected, they're going in the wrong direction, so it shuts it down and then, when it reboots, they reconnect Back. Where, I guess, are they quote unquote supposed to reconnect? And I went into my husband's office and I was like, man, do I need to do this? Because there's literally something wrong with my brain. I really think there's something wrong with my brain.
Speaker 1Yeah. And I never did I feel that.
Speaker 2Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1Yeah, no, we still microdose and I honestly I cannot recommend it enough. Yeah, even just I've noticed such a shift, and I don't want to talk about my husband, but I've noticed such a shift in him with his overall mood.
Speaker 1Right, and he's just so much more chilled out, yeah, just so much more level Like, and I find it to be incredibly. What I love about it is that number one. It's not like you feel like you're tripping. You're not hallucinating, you don't feel high when you microdose, you are fully functioning. The only thing I would say that you physically feel is just you feel good, like you just feel this heightened mood, like just you just feel good, but not in a kind of trippy kind of way. It has so many benefits, so many health benefits for your brain, for your mood, for things like anxiety, depression, ptsd. And what I love is it really helps you tap into like your creativity and it helps you tap into nature. It has this I don't know, it's weird you almost have this like really intense call to nature, like you just kind of want to be outside, like you want to be connected to nature and the earth. I love that aspect of it. It's also just helps your focus. And so if I can tell you another story, yes, please do.
Speaker 1After the whole ayahuasca thing, I could tell that I was more open and I honestly don't know that I would have had this experience had it not been for ayahuasca. I think I would have been too blocked for this to happen. But it was like in January, it was a weekend where, like, both of our kids were away for the night, they were both having sleepovers, and so my husband and I were like why don't we do more of like a larger dose of the psilocybin and we can just kind of chill with it and see what comes through? I am not kidding, like the experience, and we didn't even do anything crazy like any sort of crazy mega dose or something. But the insight that came through in that experience was what I hoped I was going to get from ayahuasca, but it was like delayed. It was absolutely mind blowing, like amazing the things that came through, like.
Speaker 1So, for example, one of the things in my experience, I just all of a sudden started to see the numbers 313, with almost like accompanied by these, like what I can describe as almost like angelic kind of beings sort of floating around with, but it was very, very distinct 313. It was just that number repeated and I even thought at the time I was like that's weird, because both of our houses previous to the one we live in now, our address, was 313. Oh, wow, and I was like that's weird. But then I kind of just, you know, continued on. I thought I'll come, I'll kind of look into that tomorrow and then later in the experience I just I felt this very much like.
Speaker 1I got a lot of clarity in that and I got this very distinct download of like you are. Just because I've just been asking myself, like what am I supposed to do with my life? Like what is my purpose? What am I supposed to do? I don't feel like I'm doing it. Whatever it is, I don't feel like I'm there but I don't know what it is Like, what am I supposed to be doing?
Speaker 1And I got this very, very distinctive download of like you are just meant to create. Like you are a true sort of creator at heart and almost like it doesn't matter what realm that's in, like you just have to create and put your creations out into the world. And this is going to sound mild. Shortly after that, I basically went into my own body, basically into my womb. All I can describe it as is like on a cellular level, like as if I am this tiny little speck inside my own body, like in my womb, and I could see both, like both of my children inside my womb, like at the same time, and I just I started just tears just streaming down my face. I'm going to get like emotional now, but I love it. It was this like I've already created the most meaningful thing in my life that gives me chills.
Speaker 2I have new tissues here.
Speaker 1Well.
Speaker 2I love that so much.
Speaker 1And it was like it was so amazing and I just like at that point, like my husband and I are like laying together and he could just feel the tears just on my face, just wet, and it wasn't the crying like sobbing, it was just like uncontrollable, just gratitude.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 1Like I've never experienced in my life and it was like again just this, like wash of peace, yeah, that it doesn't matter, like it really doesn't. It doesn't matter, I don't have to do some like crazy profound thing If I do, great. But I don't have to, like I don't have to feel this pressure that I have to, like accomplish X, y and Z, and if I don't, then I'm not enough.
Appreciating the Little Things in Life
Speaker 2Yeah, oh, I love that you just said that Because, even like in my space and I think we all are human and get caught up in thoughts, but I think I maybe just needed to hear that, like you don't have to create this, you just have to be. Yeah.
Speaker 1Just be Like that is what we're supposed to do with our lives, yeah, like we are just supposed to really enjoy it Right and enjoy the little things as much as the big things. And I really really, since that experience, I've really been a lot more just intentional with my time and a lot more appreciative of the little things. I'm talking even like my husband's English. He loves tea, even just like making tea. Yeah, I got recently got a nice teapot because we haven't had one since we lived in England and I got a nice teapot. So now, like on a weekend, we'll like share a pot of tea together and it's like having the teapot and pouring the milk into a cute little jug, a cute little like creamer jug, and like making it an experience. And it's like the smallest thing but it's like so much more special.
Speaker 2I'm with you.
Speaker 1You're like slowing down and you're just like. I guess that I've seen a lot of it going around like romanticizing your life. And that's like, yeah, that's what I want. I don't need these big grand accomplishments or millions of dollars in my bank account.
Speaker 2It's those little moments, it's the little things. It's that mindfulness too. Yeah, it's a mindfulness yeah.
Speaker 1And I just had so much peace. After that experience I was like whoa, like I have already created the most meaningful thing in my life that I could ever dream. I've literally created human beings, these amazing human beings. Like I don't need to, I am accomplished. I could die tomorrow and be like fully I've done it. I've done it. I've done the best thing ever with my life. But I needed that like I needed that like crazy experience to be like whoa. Stop overthinking it, stop thinking that you have to do so much.
Speaker 2More more more, more. Cause you don't.
Speaker 1Yeah, it's in the simple little things.
Speaker 2That really is what we're here to do and I think that in that knowing that you have now, you will do big things because it's your. When we embrace the simple and or the simplicity and we allow ourselves to just be in that space, that's when we make room for the big ideas to come through anyway, Cause we can't receive that information Now. You said this is gonna sound wild. I just want you to know that it's not wild to me and most I'm not sure about all my listeners, but I know a lot of them are my clients, so they aren't gonna think it's wild either, because I get that in Reiki. I think 2020, the beginning of 2020, like I had three sessions in a row January, February, March and they were so incredibly profound and descriptive, Like it's like watching this movie play Wow and you. That's why, ultimately, I ended up just I never did do the micro dosing or anything else, and I'm just. You know, I think it doesn't matter what you do, it's the energy and your intention.
Speaker 1That's the thing with. It is like to me. Like you said earlier, we all have the ability to tap into this. It's all within us and we have the ability to tap into that, but so many of us are blocked. That's exactly what I was gonna say, and that is what like the micro dosing and things like ayahuasca and those genuinely like healing plant medicines? They just unlock it.
Speaker 2Yeah, they hold all that wall down.
Speaker 1Yeah, it's all there, it's all in you. It's not like it's magic thing, the stuff it's inside, but it just helps you open up.
Speaker 2Right. Well some people are way more blocked and walled up than others, and so it varies. It very much varies.
Speaker 1Yeah, and so you? Now you probably don't even need that because you're, so, you're doing what you're doing and you've, you're tapped in.
Speaker 2Yeah, I mean, as you talk about your experience, I do feel like, well, I definitely experienced that, like in my Reiki classes that I took for my trainings like those were also powerful and I had a similar moment. We did the. It was a healing love meditation and you're supposed to basically call in everyone who loves you, and the people that I saw were my kids. Yeah, and it was only them. Yeah, and I could not see anybody else.
Speaker 2I know there's my mom loves me, but I was realizing all this, but for whatever reason, it was just my babes and I had such a similar experience of like that's it, that's it, that's my heart right there and that's it, and that's all I need. That's what really matters. Yeah, yeah, so.
Speaker 1I love that for you and, honestly, for me. It's also just given me a lot of perspective in and I think just like calling me to have more grace with people, like, for example, like with my relationship with my mom. Growing up was like when I was little it was fine, but like growing up when I started to hit like teenage years and beyond, like we bought heads unbelievably. My mom and I are very different personality wise. I'm just a lot more like, even keeled, and, like I was saying too earlier, I will like avoid confrontation. Yeah, and my mom because of that, like a lot of it was to do, because of her reaction, it would be like these explosive arguments and ugly and I didn't want that. Like the like terrible feeling I had when she would get like that. It was like on a nervous system level, kind of like. This feels so bad to me.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 1And so you know we've really struggled in our relationship a lot over the years and it really hasn't been until the past few years. Like she and my dad got a divorce maybe like five or so years ago now and it honestly wasn't until she kind of got through that and now she is much more at peace, like she's a much more peaceful person. And it really gave me that perspective that although we've had our really difficult times, I know like deep down, like she's the same, like her family, and that has been very, very apparent. Like her actions have been very, very apparent over the past few years of like what really matters to her is her family and nothing else. Like her family is her whole heart, is everything.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 1And so it's given me. I've just kind of backtracked a little bit. I've been a lot more just graceful and empathetic around. Like I'm never gonna fully understand because we're just very different Some of her reactions over the years, but I know at the core of everything, like that's it and I think that, like for so many mothers, that is that's what matters most.
Speaker 2Right. Well, and it's to this ability to honor their journey and how different things are now compared to what they were in the early 2000s, the 90s, the 80s, the 70s, the 60s Like life was so different. Mental health was not at all a thing Some people still don't believe that it's a thing, but not being able to process what happened maybe in her life and like how that kind of brought her through. And also my first thought was does she have the emotional wave in human design? And you don't, because it's exactly what that sounds like. Like the undefined emotional center is more, even killed. There's not that zero to a hundred. And then also the avoiding truth and confrontation. I told you that's what I mean, that's what I have too. So, but we will amplify the energy of the room. So I have one. Like my husband has an emotional wave and if he goes to zero to a hundred, if I get caught up in his wave, I'll go to 200.
Speaker 2So, it almost as if, like, I'm the one with the wave. What I wanna hear now, like you talk about your relationship with your mom, is the lessons that you've learned within that space to carry to your daughter. Like, do you see that? Oh yeah, and you said your daughter's so different. Just honestly, like me and Scarlett are like this right now. We're like we're super tight and I do have three kids, so they're all three very different.
Speaker 2My oldest is the one that had severe anxiety, and I say had because it's not what it used to be. I do give him Reiki quite often. I actually let him take a mental health day yesterday, which is a big deal, because he has to miss football practice. He's a junior, so you can't just miss football practice. But I'm like, buddy, you said you need this, we have to honor it. So I mean, but we had a hard time for a little bit too, even as close as we were. And then even my middle son like it's you go through these phases with your kids where it gets hard and they don't want mom to tell them which I've had to learn.
Speaker 2I can't always just tell them Great, like you were talking about before. We started about being a manifesting generator. And Having had this, did you say guilt I don't know if it was guilt was the word you used of bouncing around for things Just felt like there was something wrong with me, right? So for me, I'm a projector and projectors are guides. It's it's innate in us to guide other people, and with that comes unsolicited right.
Speaker 1That might be my husband. He might be, I wonder.
Speaker 2I mean he may be, and I do think I would love to have him come share his journey. But uh, oh, you would. It's why I'm sure I've met. I think I met him on a couple trips previously.
Speaker 1He has a great energy, he has a great personality, very charismatic.
Speaker 2Yeah, but uh, I had to really learn to stop telling people what to do all the time.
Speaker 2And wait for the invitation and so that includes with my, that includes with my kids, because you know they don't always want their parents to just jump in and fix it, and that was like what would cause the contention with each of them. Is me trying to tell them different. Well, let me show you this way. Well, this, this, and that is your thought. But what have you looked at it this way? And they don't want to hear that.
Speaker 2Yep they just want to know, yeah, they're friends, suck, and I agree with them, and that is what it is. And it's like man. How dare she? She did that, how your teacher yelled at you for that. What is wrong with her?
Speaker 1This sounds exactly like my husband saying I'm more of the like listener and just kind of yeah. Yeah, my husband's the one who's like constantly playing devil's advocate, constantly like well, you need to consider this. Have you thought about this? This one time? Let me tell you from my experience, and they're just like oh, he's got to be a projector, that intuitive knowing and just speaking it, so it's like forever was a problem.
Speaker 2I don't see it as a problem anymore because now I am more in alignment, I wait for permission and I ask them do you want me to just hold space? Yeah, do you want to hear a different perspective? My kids have gotten really good at saying what they need in that. Yeah maybe not my daughter so much. Yeah, she's only about to be eight. Yeah, but the boys I've almost 13 and 16.
Speaker 1Yeah, and I sometimes have to say that to my husband because he's like that with me, and I have to say to him Sometimes I'm just like right now, I just need you to listen, yeah that's it.
Speaker 1Like I just need to get it out, right, I just need to Then and tell somebody and just get it out, but I, right now I don't have capacity to like have your solutions, yeah, fired back, like I, maybe later, maybe later, yeah, we can come back, but right now we'll be really helpful as you just listen. Yeah, that's it With your kids, though. With your daughter. How old is she? She'll be 11 next month, okay.
Speaker 2Have you. How do you feel going into that? Like you're coming into the teenage years, or maybe you just don't know yet, like what that's gonna look like.
Speaker 1Honestly, I'm just so. I could not have like asked for A better relationship, yeah, with my daughter and Because of my relationship with my mom. When I found out I was having a girl, it was like the thing that I sort of just More than anything, I was just like I just want my relationship with her to be so strong and healthy and safe and like all these things that and it sounds bad, but because my mom really is like she's a wonderful person and and her heart is always in the right place. But there are a lot of things that I have now kind of taken on board is like as far as modeling of what I don't want to do right, and part of that's just not my nature.
Parent-Child Bonding and Generational Healing
Speaker 1It's just not who I am so part of me is always known like well, I'm not going to be like that, because that's not who I am. That's part of why we buy heads so much. Yeah, we're so different, but yeah, it just my. For me, I am my daughter's person, like I am, her like Her safety person, her like it, and I love that.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 1I love that like and she and I have the same like ridiculously goofy personality, like she's just weird. So in sync with each other, even though she does have more of my Husbands tend to use as far as not being as sensitive and being very stoic and trying to show emotion. I'm not that way, but In like all other aspects, yeah, we are so, so similar to one another and we have such a tight bond and I'm just very, very grateful for that.
Speaker 2Well, and that and itself is healing. Yeah, I think, yeah, I feel that with each of my kids.
Speaker 1It has been because I feel like if it wasn't that way, I probably would really really struggle.
Speaker 2Yeah, do you know? What I love too about your story and what you've shared is that your kids do get to see that transformation, like I just saw it, based on a few Instagram posts I can only imagine the impact that it's had on them to be able to say you know what? That relationship was toxic, that environment was toxic and I am not going to stay there in that space.
Speaker 2I'm gonna come over here and get in alignment with myself and, even if it felt like so hard and such a mess, I'm telling you they 1000% will honor that more than you did. Because that's what happens each generation gets a little bit better. Yeah, like you know, from my grandma to my mom, to me to now scarlet, it's like this whole thing, yeah, and each generation it gets a little bit better, a little bit better, a little bit better. So I laugh because it's always the hair brushing thing. Like I'm pretty sure my grandma was pretty aggressive with my mom and I don't want to tell the story. My mom does want to come on the podcast, so I'm not gonna tell the story. But then my mom, she wasn't aggressive with the hairbrush with me but she would nag me for it.
Speaker 2In fact, to a point in my 20s where I was like I'm not brushing my hair at all. Yeah, I ended up like getting so many knots and I found a tick in my head one day after shooting. I because, you know, I did photography too, so I was like I had a session and I washed my hair, but I didn't brush my hair when I got out of shower, because I'm being rebellious.
Speaker 2Yeah 22 years old, right, and the next morning I'm like getting ready for another session. I squat down like all raggedy in front of my clothes and I go to scratch my head. I'm like, oh, there's a tick right in my scalp and I'm like this is why you brush your hair. So I brushed my hair from then on. But it's, it's funny. And now, with scarlet, I'm even more gentle. Yes, oh, you don't feel like brushing your hair today. Okay, okay, yeah, that's your red, curly hair can just be all over the place and we embrace it and love it and that's fine, and it's like the story of the hairbrush.
Speaker 2It's just so funny, how it goes from the top down how it changes, and even with the relationship piece like that with your daughter, so like who knows what she may pull from, but she's gonna get it faster, I think, because she's watched you and Watched you come through this journey, and your son too. I love that. You say he's sensitive, and Honoring a young boy's sensitivities is what I think will change the world. I'm not even exaggerating. Yeah, there are too many men in this world who feel like, who don't even realize that they are a highly sensitive person actually, and Not just in the way of emotions, like it can be in so many things, like Heightened sensitivity with sound, with taste, with energy. They're intuitive, but they've blocked it off, because I do think women are highly intuitive, but I think men have that gift too. And so for Generation after generation after generation, it's just been no, the boys don't cry, right, you don't get to feel, you don't get to do this. Yeah, tough enough, yeah, rush it off, right, yeah. And so to have these next few generations and I do see the shift, I really do see the shift To, I see the shift in the men.
Speaker 2Like, I have clients who are in their 50s, who are in their 40s, who are in their 30s, who are in their teens, who are like 12, and to see that shift is. I've had Dats with their sons. I've had a few dads with their sons come sit and get reiki together and heal together, and it's you would never believe that that guy came in with his son, it's not who you would picture it to be, and I have to tell them every time you have no idea the incredible Shift that is happening just even in humanity, just by you being here doing this. Yeah, because that honoring a young boy's sensitivities Would stop worse, I think, yeah, and it's not happening enough. Yeah, it's not happening enough, yeah, so, anyways, I'm going to ask you To finish us out to share. Do you have a golden nugget for us that we can end on? Like, what's your big piece of golden advice that you would give somebody?
Speaker 1Oh, oh, honestly, I feel like from this past year, for me it really has been the thing that sticks out the most is just Truly truly allowing yourself that space and time to get quiet, because I think it's so simple, but it's something that the majority of people are not allowing themselves any time.
Quiet Reflection and Doing Less Importance
Speaker 1Yeah, certainly not enough. Yeah, if any, because of all the distractions. Everyone's so busy and then we have our phones and we have social media and it's like you can't Shut the world off, yeah, unless you're asleep. And, honestly, I genuinely believe that, like If you are looking for some sort of answers, like you said, like they're all within us, but you're not allowing it to come through and so giving yourself, even honestly, if it's like 10 or 15 minutes a day, that you can just get Quiet with no distractions, and it doesn't have to look like Sitting cross-legged in meditation, it doesn't have to look like anything. For me as well, I've just been more intentional about if I'm Taking my dogs out for a walk and I'm going around the sort of big loop in our neighborhood which is a 45 minute walk, I don't take my phone. Yeah, I used to listen to podcasts and feel like I had to be multitasking. I've got to be doing two things at once, or else I'm not being productive, not doing enough.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 1And again it's like even just some of the Creative thoughts that I've had Just in that 45 minutes of no distraction, just with my thoughts. The things that come through they're not necessarily these like big, profound things, but I know that there are things that wouldn't have come through if I was listening to a podcast. Yeah Well, they're still moving the needle.
Speaker 2Yeah, they're still doing something.
Speaker 1Yeah, or it's helping someone else, like I have these thoughts for other people that I've had. You are intuitive, like these things will come through, and I'm like, oh, I'm gonna message her when I get back and tell her, like, what I just thought about, and so that's a gift.
Speaker 2That's a total gift. Yeah, I don't think we were talking about this before I hit record with you were talking about having this gift. It's like I want that gift. You have it If you're. If that's happening, then that's. It's there already it's already there.
Speaker 1It's more so like ideas for other people. That's okay.
Speaker 2That's okay.
Speaker 1I love it, I love it, but yeah, that would be my, my very simple golden nugget is I, I. I really don't think that there are many better things that you can do for yourself than allowing yourself that space of quiet.
Speaker 2Yeah, well, I would echo everything that you just said. It's like the I feel I've thought about this actually like if there is a thing, like a one thing, that I would zone in on that I am called to do, it is to show people that get quiet. And if you feel like you can't do that because your life is too busy, then you need to do that more than anybody.
Speaker 1You need it more.
Speaker 2Yeah, exactly it's even more you have to.
Speaker 1you must. And I think when you get tuned into it and you do prioritize it, you then crave it. Yeah, you crave more stillness, one thousand percent More quiet. Yeah, because I just I don't know, I can't explain what happens in that time, but it does. They really does become this like kind of magical space that you're in that you can get these amazing ideas and downloads and creative thoughts and intuitive things come through. That just wouldn't. They wouldn't because you're just too distracted.
Speaker 2Yeah, yeah. So I love that. You just said that because you know what I thought of I saw your link in your bio is the hundred ideas for creativity, right?
Speaker 1To get into your creative self. It's the yeah hundred ideas for basically creating digital products, resources, okay, in different niches. That because that's kind of what I'm transitioning into right now in addition to house projects, which is what I like. My big, big passion in terms of creativity right now is have this vision for our house and really, really wanting to chip away at making it the way my vision is for it.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 1Started a YouTube channel this year for the projects and but it's slow going and so I'm also kind of, in addition to that, dipping into the world of like digital marketing, digital products and just very that's. Another thing that really came through for me this year was more doesn't equal more, like you can do less yeah.
Speaker 1And achieve more, make more, have more impact. Less can be more, and I've really, really, really had to retrain my brain. Yeah, because from my experience in network marketing and all of that, like for years, it's been never enough. Never enough. Yeah, grind, hustle, wake up earlier, go to bed later. Yeah, like your, if your calendar is not packed, that's why your paychecks aren't where they need to be, and that has just been like pounded and pounded and pounded into my brain, yeah.
Speaker 1And that's what I've been kind of trained into thinking I'm not doing enough.
Speaker 2Yeah, I mean, that is such a toxic mindset and that's too part of that. Get quiet and get still that I like that is literally right behind. That is, you don't have to hustle when you're in alignment and when you're in flow, the energy and when the energy, yeah it's you're going to call in so much more, and not just financial, it's so many other things. It's more peace, more happiness, more joy.
Speaker 1And I know a lot of people think that's all BS and it's all woo woo and that's fine Right, but I know that that's it. There is truth to that. I know because I've experienced it and you have experienced it, like people that are overlooking that basic, just energetic aspect, yeah, of what you can achieve, what you can attract into your life you can't. No amount of hard work that you put in will get you there.
Speaker 2Yeah, well, because I did the hard work. Yeah, I grinded till, yeah, I was in tears and burnout, yeah, and then I shifted and was like when I started Lionheart, I said I'm doing this so different. Yeah, and I am only going to work. I do work two days a week seeing clients now, and I'm definitely doing work outside of the two days because of the marketing and the digital, like the online stuff. But I very much know that if I were to do this five days a week, I'd be in the same place that I was burnout and the energy wouldn't be there. I wouldn't serve anybody from that place.
Speaker 1So it is the less. It's amazing how, when you start to experience that, that when you do finally make that shift and you let go of those things that are not serving you anymore and you do, like we talked about earlier, like you do actually, like energetically, you cut the cord. Yeah, it's amazing. Yeah, what? Just how things open up, how doors start to open up, how things just start to flow and feel easy. And it's because you're in that energetic alignment and a lot of people are missing that, and I think that's what a lot of people are not. They just maybe think it's BS or they're just not allowing themselves to get into that flow and get in alignment with those things. Because for people like that, the answer is more, more, more. Be the hardest worker in the room, and if you're not, you're not doing enough.
Speaker 2Right, right. Well, I think a lot of it is the society and culture that's been created year after year after year after year, and so people are unable to hear the opposite.
Speaker 1Yeah.
Speaker 2And the energy piece does feel woo-woo. But I do feel like that conversation is shifting.
Speaker 1Yeah, it is, but because?
Speaker 2like in school, nobody talks about energy, nobody talked about emotions, but now, like my kid's generation, it is talked about, I mean at least the emotional piece, and I talk about the energy with them all the time. So you know, I think that it's going to shift, but it's not here, it's not like in the forefront of people's minds, because it's kind of a new concept, even though it's thousands and thousands and thousands of years old. Right, it exactly. It's coming back around, it is coming. It's just going to take time.
Speaker 1Yeah, it's going to take a lot more generations of, but, like you said, it's with every generation it's getting better and better. People are becoming more aware and more open and making those shifts, which is great, and that's for me, that's something that I'm very adamant about really instilling in my own kids. Is that importance of that?
Speaker 2Right.
Speaker 1And that's why pivoting into something else just over this past couple of months has been so and again it was sort of all the timing of it was like, ah, this makes sense now. Yeah, all that other shit. Right, the shit sandwich I was eating all year long and choking down all year long. Right, it was all making space for this new thing.
Speaker 1Yeah, that actually allows me to do exactly what I have been intuitively knowing I needed to do, which was less. Isn't that beautiful how that happens, yeah, and giving me the opportunity to impact people in that way, to also show other people and to change that mindset to like. Just have this turnover of like, no, it doesn't actually have to be more, it can be. Do less, yes, and achieve more and be more.
Speaker 2I love that you do that. We need more people doing that. We need more people saying that out loud. So I love that you are. Can you tell us where we can find you?
Speaker 1Yeah, so I have two Instagram accounts right now One my like main one is Amanda Brooke home, and then my other one that I just started recently is Amanda Brooke dot co.
Speaker 2Ooh, that's so cute. I love it. Well, thank you so much for coming and sharing.
Speaker 1Thank you for having me. This was so good.
Speaker 2I know that was such a. You shared so many wonderful things that I just can't thank you enough.
Speaker 1Oh good, I feel so honored that you came. I'm honored that you asked me. Oh, you're so sweet, but really All right, how about some takeaways?
Speaker 2I hope you enjoyed that. By the way, I hope you really enjoyed hearing her journey and the things that she got from it. I have some of my takeaways. I'd love to hear what yours were, so be sure to tag me if you shout them out on socials. Okay, takeaway number one just let it be what it is and not have to understand. So often we want to make sense of things and we end up filling the gaps with what we think we know, and I love how she said just let it be what it is. This was part of her process when she was going into her ayahuasca journey to just let it be what it is, and I think that we can use that as a takeaway for all the time.
Speaker 2Sometimes we try to find the meaning of things and there's not always meaning, I know. I know I say all the time everything happens for a reason, but sometimes it's not. Why did this happen? It's, what can I learn? And we then get to ask God to help me learn. Show me what I need to know.
Speaker 2Takeaway number two just be in your life. When she was sharing this, she was talking about the season that she was in, but it reminded me of last year when I was really just in my life and no social media, no keeping up with the world, just right in the moment with my family. I know that I told her about that when we were talking, but it reminded me again as I was editing and I just feel like you know what it's. It might be time to lean into that again. We need to have seasons of that. It's important, it's vital.
Speaker 2Takeaway number three embrace the hard. Now, I know this is hard. I know we resist the hell out of it when we try to push and push and push, and really that's the opposite of what we need to do. When things get hard and we're trying to hold on like hell, we need to sometimes just let go, just free fall. Let universe, god, let it catch you. When we resist that wave, it crashes into us and it takes us out, sometimes in worse ways than if we would have just embraced it. We have to embrace those hard moments, though, and what we resist persists. So. So we have to stop pushing so much. We have to really just let go and let be. Takeaway number four when she was telling the story about creation and her kids. It led me to this thought. We put so much pressure on ourselves. It's generally what will cause us to spiral.
Speaker 2Two of the biggest factors in stress is time and pressure, but so often it's made up. It's made up deadlines and made up pressure because you really can just put things down. It's really okay and I actually had that for myself today. I had that little lesson for me this morning. I was having this insane dizzy spell and I couldn't get anything done on my list and, believe me, I had a list. It was a long list and I'm talking to my sister on FaceTime and she reminds me. Like you know, you can just put stuff down. You don't have to do everything Like what's the worst that's going to happen. She said, what's the most urgent thing and what can you get to later? And I'm like man, did you just life coach me? It's exactly what I would have said to me, and so I was grateful for that and I did and put some stuff down and let it go, because that time, that pressure, a lot of times it's just made up and we're the ones making it up. You make the rules. Put stuff down.
Speaker 2Takeaway number five just be, just be. We're all called to just be. There's nothing more to this. Just be who you are in the moment that you're in.
Speaker 2Takeaway number six. Stop overthinking it. Gosh, we do this so much, we overthink so much, we overthink so much when really we need to get out of our head and into her body. We need to get out of our head and into her bodies and ask what's your inner wisdom? Say what's that inner voice want to tell you and listen to that.
Speaker 2Takeaway number seven you have the ability to tap into your inner wisdom. Oh gosh, we talk about this so much. I mean, I just kind of let into it from takeaway number six. We have so much inner wisdom, but we have to get quiet. Allow yourself to get quiet, which was also takeaway number eight. Allow yourself to get quiet, and less is more. I needed this reminder today, so it was perfect timing for me and I hope that it was something you needed to hear also. All right, my friend, if you'd like to shout out me or Amanda, you can tag either one of us on Instagram. My handle is at lionheartcoachingco and she is at Amanda Brooke home and also at Amandabrookco. Thank you so much for being here. I'm sending you so much love and, as always, please remember you are loved, you are valued and you are appreciated. Bye now.
