Carolyn: [00:00:00] So I, I is intuition and when people are very spiritual, the intuition is the language of your spirit. What language does Carolyn speak? English. What language does my spirit speak? Intuition as your language and other people. And intuition is can be physical. You can get the chills on your arms. You can get the hair in the back of your neck stands up. You can get goosebumps or I call 'em God bumps. They're like, oh my God, why is that?
Laurin: Hello friends, and welcome to Curiously Wise. I'm Laurin Wittig, your host today, and I have Carolyn Coleridge here with me today. Who is so much fun. And I can say that for sure because we actually had a conversation not too long ago and I forgot to record it. So, thank you Carolyn for coming back today. Carolyn is a psychotherapist, intuitive and healer for the last 25 years.
She has a master's in clinical social work from Columbia. [00:01:00] She works as a psychotherapist in a lot of different settings and has been trained in a lot of different wonderful places. I'm not gonna go through the whole detail. We'll have it in the show notes. Her spiritual background includes training at the Edgar Casey Institute in New York and a spiritualist church.
We have an Edgar Casey place down in Virginia Beach, not far from where I live. I've never been there yet though, so I'm intrigued by that. She's also a reiki master and an integrated energy therapist, master instructor, a chronic healer. Prana, of course, is the breath and a theta healing practitioner.
So, you got lots of modalities here with Carolyn. And one of the more interesting, one of the most interesting things I found on her website is a video of her working with kids at UCLA in their pediatric pain program. For six years she was there. She came in and did reiki and did and, you know, brought the woo.
It was awesome. So, we'll give you the contact information for her website and stuff at the end and also in those show notes. But. I suggest you go listen or watch that cuz it's really [00:02:00] fascinating and exciting to know that that kind of work is being brought in to a Western medical system.
Carolyn says she works well with empaths, light workers, sensitive souls, and those who are open to working with their intuition. Her gift seems to be clear information from spirit and methods to help people define their purpose and passion. So welcome back Carolyn.
Carolyn: Thank you for having me back. This is wonderful
Laurin: Well, we had a great time last time, so we're gonna let it roll this time and I'm sure we'll have equally as great a conversation. So, or better. Yeah, we're better. So, let's just dive in to you do a lot of work with the universe. You are an intuitive and spirit, but you're also counseling.
And I'm sure those come into your sort of more clinical psychotherapy kind of work. As an intuitive I know it infuses everything I do. So, for someone who maybe isn't connected to that idea of the universe or working with the universe, tell us a little bit about that.
Carolyn: Oh, okay. So, I feel the universe is the divine or the creator [00:03:00] on the planet, and I use the word universe because so many of the clients I worked with had issues with God, the word God, and church and Catholicism or Judaism or all the different religions that seem to have these stories coming out now that are very distressing and uncomfortable.
So that was one level, and then I worked in mental health and you can't say, you know, hey, I'm Episcopalian this is what Christian Jesus does. It's not gonna work. So, I just felt like working with a universe was a more global way, clean. The plants, the animals, the crystals, the community and people seem to open up to that.
Cuz I feel when people have a mental health breakdown working in mental health, a lot of times our depression or anxiety, it's the universe calling to them. It's like, what is your purpose? What's your higher calling? And I've practiced this idea in many different settings. Inpatient, outpatient, partial programs, and people just gravitated towards this information cuz I look at patients as souls.
You know, when I [00:04:00] started this work years ago I started to see lights and colors around people before when I, I'd say ghosts around. And I just start saying, why is this happening? You know, and, and when I saw colors and I looked them up, I was like, wow, purple. They're a very old soul or yellow.
They're having issues with their power centers. And I realized I was reading their chakras or their energy and I also do research and I realized I must have been doing this before. Cuz the minute I sat down with a, a person, a patient, a soul, sometimes their information just showed me. And, the universe or God showed me this is what you're supposed to do.
And so, I said, well, I somehow, I have to incorporate this in mental health, but, you can't be biased. Religion or politics you're supposed to stay away from. So how did I do it? So, when I was working at one of my first jobs outta Columbia, was working on Wall Street at an employee assistance program.
Laurin: That's a leap.
Carolyn: I know. Yeah. But it was an employee assistance [00:05:00] program and I feel like the, the reason the managing partner hired me was because I had worked on the hill for a year under Governor Wilder. So I had a corporate background and I actually really wanna work in the Bronx in a psych facility. But they offered me a job.
And it was interesting cuz the managing partner was actually very intuitive herself. My supervisor was into astrology. Like all of us were working this corporate job. I had an office facing the Hudson River and corner office. I was 30, you know, and I know I was, it was really nice.
Laurin: Yeah.
Carolyn: And, and, and then we started using like spiritual principles. She said, you know, I like the way you change the energy in the room. And I was like, what's energy? And I went to reiki and then again, I'd see ghosts and stuff a couple years earlier. I don't know if I explained that, but when I was studying at Columbia at 28, which is beginning of your Saturn return, which is a, a spiritual cycle, ghost just showed up and I would just wake up in the middle of the night and they'd be looking at me or they'd be [00:06:00] pushing my bed.
They were friendly ghosts. It wasn't exactly Casper, but they weren't scary ghosts. They were just lost souls. They must have been at some portal at Columbia at the, the dorm. It was just some portal and then, it was also open, so that's when I sought out the Institute and other things like how do I close this portal down?
And I was taught from some by the wonderful teachers. So, going back to when I was at Wall Street it was very corporate, but then having the energy of spirit, like I had one guy come to me and say, I'm making millions and millions of dollars, but I really wanna be a monk.
And I'm like, that's interesting. Why would he say that to me? He goes, I just wanna meditate. I wanna go into the heart of the soul. So, it was a good balance cuz when people are stressed, they need people that were spiritually open. So, they gave me the privilege of starting my practice there. Cause I was licensed in New York.
So one time I saw this patient at night in my office and she was very, very depressed and she had a lot of in the material world [00:07:00] things against her. She was a gay black woman, alcoholic, a survivor of abuse, incarcerated. Oh my God, what a wonderful soul. Yeah. But she had all this light around her because a lot of times people may judge people who have all these things against them, but older souls would pick harder lifetimes to live through because God or the universe knew that they could struggle and that they could, they would always go back to the light, always go back to the light.
So, she was very depressed and suicidal. And I, it was like in August around this time. And in New York City, everyone goes to the Hamptons or wherever, different places. There's no psychiatrist. And she said, you know, this is my plan to kill myself. And I was a young therapist. I was like, oh no. And she's just gave me this whole elaborate plan.
And I think I was the last one in the office. I didn't know who to call. This is my private practice. They let us see patients, so I just took a breath, which always opens you up to spirit. So, what [00:08:00] should I do? And I heard send her a reiki symbol. So, I send her the choke ray. I sent her the symbol, not waving my hands or anything, just kind of telepathically sending it to her.
And she was like, whoa, what, what did you? She goes, I felt this wave of peace come over me.
Laurin: Mm.
Carolyn: I feel so calm, I feel so centered. I, I can't kill myself. I have a partner, I have this, I have a lot to live for. I, and she just changed her dialogue and I'm like, thank you, God. So, then we cont, we contracted her you know, and again, there's an old soul.
Laurin: Mm-hmm.
Carolyn: Teaching me the next steps that I need to incorporate this in mental health. Shifted her, contracted her, worked with her for a while. She was, she was better. She was a lot better and she had a lot to be upset about. And when she was incarcerated, it was because she defended herself when she was married to a man in the South in domestic violence, very violent relationship.
And at that [00:09:00] time, a lot of women get incarcerated if they use a gun. It's just weird. It was in the South, so it was very unfair, you know? And there was just so many levels, beautiful soul. And then that's when I started incorporating spirituality into mental health. And in a way, that I could get people to open up and not feel like it's still traumatic, it was judgmental, it was my opinion.
And some ways I do that and I say to them, alright, I know you guys are having a hard time and we talk about your mind is losing it as a mental health, anxiety, depression. Your body's depressed, you can't get out of bed. What about your spirit? And you know, when I worked at this major HML, there's like 40 people in a room, and I said, what is your spirit?
And they look at me like crickets. And I'm like, Oh boy.
Laurin: Yes.
Carolyn: So, as I wrote in my book, Honor Your Spirit, Spirit gave me an acronym that was very user friendly. So, I said, a spirit is not just an energy, it is a guiding force. It is [00:10:00] something that's a functional part of your soul. So, I said, let's break it down very easy. As an acronym SPIRIT, S.
Carolyn Coleridge: There's synchronicity in signs. So, whenever you see signs and synchronicity, that's your spirit, that energy leading you. And I said, have you ever like said, I really wanna become a teacher? Then all of a sudden you look in a paper and it says, a free introduction to teaching, discount for the first three classes.
And people are like, oh my God, that happened to me. That’s a sign and that's a synchronicity. Or you talk to a friend and they say something to you that kind of hit your soul. Like you might go out in the world and say, I really need a message and I need help. And somebody says, you know what? Have you ever thought about going to a counselor?
I've found this good counselor. And it's like out of the blue, like, who's listening? The universe is listening.
Carolyn: So that's the S. And you look for the synchronicity and the signs. Your unit, the spirit in you is guiding you. What's the next. P [00:11:00] People wanna know what their purpose. My belief is that we all have a purpose that we are sent here to do.
And a gift. And what's our purpose is usually something we're passionate about. It could be art, music, teaching, counseling, you know, being a, you know, medicine, different things. That's our passion. And whatever we're passionate about is usually our purpose. And when we find our purpose, we become passionate about it.
I loved looking at spiritual things. Where do the souls go? And I grew up in a very spiritual family, and I love that stuff. You know, going to new age book stories and reading all this stuff about Egypt or, shamans or smudging and different things. It just, it fed my soul. So, I said, wow, this is really, I'm passionate about it.
How in the world can I make this my purpose? And I had no idea. And at the most conservative, the oldest social work school of Columbia, I can't tell them I'm seeing auras and hearing voices because they would think I'm [00:12:00] psychotic and it wouldn't work. I said, how do I hide this but use it? So, I said, so you asked the universe.
I say, Spirit, help me when I go like this. It's like a way, just like the ocean, what goes out will come back. So, I said, Universe, help me understand. I'm passionate about spirituality and healing and mental health. How do I incorporate it. So I can give you another example. I went out to, and I'll fill the acronym to Manhattan.
And I, I said, universe, just show me. And the night before I'd seen this Asian man just float into my room and started speaking to me when I woke up and I was terrified. Later I found out he was an extended master, but I know who he was. I was like, who's this Asian man? You know, it's in my room and I go out to fifth Avenue and I'm walking down the street.
And there was this man with all these alabaster Buddhas and different spiritual Hindu symbols. And I actually have it in my office here. I should have brought it for an interview. And he said, you need a gift. Here's a gift for [00:13:00] you. And he gave me this alabaster Buddha. And I'm like, that's so nice.
People in Manhattan don't give you gifts. And he is like, well, he goes, if you look at it, it's a little damaged, so, but here's a gift. And I'm like, oh my God, Asian, maybe I'm supposed to study Buddhism.
And I'm like, wow. And that got me later into meditation. I'm like, this is great. So, I'm walking down Manhattan looking at this little Buddha, and I was so busy looking at it excited.
That on Fifth Avenue they had a parade, a Korean Buddhist parade. And I was walking like with them in the parade and they all looked at me. I was, you know, all these Asian people. I was with them and they laughed and I said, oh my God, I'm in your parade. So, I jumped off into, out to the street cuz they had closed off the street.
And then, they smiled and I said, wow, a Buddhist parade. I need to study Buddhism, if you believe in past life, I feel like I had a past light as a, a monk or something, cuz I'm very drawn to it. Yeah. So then yeah, so then I kept going and we had payphones then and I said, this is strange.
And I felt called, you have that energy of your spirit to you know, go down my payphone. I went to a payphone in Manhattan and I [00:14:00] called my friend. She goes, hey, I'm having a, a goddess circle, and we're sending Amaterasu, the Japanese goddess with the, you know, and the, and the flag, that white flag with the red dot that's represents Amaterasu, the Japanese goddess of light and peace.
And I was like, wow, that's so weird, Asian. So here I was, and then I got into reiki with that. So here I was, I was called to, I was given a gift.
Laurin: Mm-hmm.
Carolyn: I was walking on my path and then there was an invitation, and that's how Spirit will call you. So, then I said, the universe definitely wants me to incorporate my passion with my purpose and my purpose and my passion.
So, I kept asking and then different things would show up to help me. Guide me to do this in different environments. So, what's the next, after P is I, you know, spirit, I'm spelling out spirit. So, I, I is intuition and when people are very spiritual, the intuition is the language of your spirit. What language does Carolyn speak?
English. What language does my spirit speak? [00:15:00] Intuition as your language and other people. And intuition is can be physical. You can get the chills on your arms. You can get the hair in the back of your neck stands up. You can get goosebumps or I call 'em God bumps. They're like, oh my God, why is that?
Laurin: That's mine. I know when I've hit the right, you know, when I've sort of been feeling for the answer, because I can feel it coming to me and I'll, and I kind of have to sometimes like go, is it this, is it this, is it this? And then I just get covered in goosebumps and I go, Okay.
Carolyn: Beautiful. That's beautiful. And that's really your spirit inside of you. I'm gonna use a little visuals here cuz I always teach this even in mental health. This is our aura and this is our spirit. What it look alike with a Chakras. And what happens is your spirit inside of you, it's like poured inside of you and it shake, rattles, and rolls.
So, then it's, that's what I feel is the goosebumps. It's like, yeah, that's a marker on your path. Yeah. So that's the energy inside of you and sometimes it emanates out and that's how people see colors and auras. And I just started, [00:16:00] I saw, I started seeing auras with my patients. So, I, the intuition, that's your spirit.
So it's physical and it can be a thought, a feeling that guides you. It can be your stomach dropping. It's like, ooh, I don't like that. Or your, or butterflies in your stomach. It could be pressure on your third eye. So, your chakra system will be using intuition or just getting a message or, you know, feeling called or pulled.
Your energy can really pull you. So, what's the other eye. The other eye. I like to use the double word to affirm and confirm that your spirit is a guiding force and a functional part of who we are. The other I is intelligence. Your spirit is so intelligent cuz your soul is intelligent. We are highly intelligent souls and spirits that come here.
People should not hold onto the suits people wear. These are just car symbols. You know, you’re like maybe a Honda, I'm a Nissan, you know, or your BMW. These are just suits we wear for this time being we’re pure energy. So, the [00:17:00] intelligence of this pure energy can guide you.
And when I ask the universe, putting it out there, as you know, vocally. What should I do? Why did I see this Asian man? It came right pop back to me. So it was like the ocean, what goes out or come back. So, the intelligence knew that when I decided to work more with spirituality and mental health, cuz I knew I wasn't just healing people's personality, I was healing their soul.
Laurin: Mm-hmm.
Carolyn: So, I called my mother when I started seeing things, this is the intelligence of the universe that knew that I wouldn't feel like I was losing my mind. I called my mom and I said, Mom, she was a chemistry teacher. She was named Teacher of the Year by Williams College. And she also used to see was psychic and she had mediumship experience all the time.
So, and she would tolerate all these stories. She was really a powerful teacher when it comes to spirit, you know, and trusting it and not, but also having, she went to Columbia herself, a scientific, pure background.
Laurin: That's a hell of a combo.
Carolyn: [00:18:00] Yeah. Right. Yeah. Yeah. She, she taught Biology and Chemistry and Physics.
Laurin: Hmm.
Carolyn: So, I said, Mom, my God, I'm seeing ghosts. And she's like, Where? I said, in my room at Columbia. She goes, Oh, okay. Good. That's great. How are your grades? I'm like, mom, they're terrifying me. She goes, oh, Carolyn, what are you worried about? They're just ghosts. They're coming to you. Give me a message. Don't worry about it. And I see ghosts all the time.
And then I was like, well, I'm a little nervous. So, then a little bit later I, I called again. I said, Mom, those ghosts are still around. Oh, Carolyn. She goes, mom, my grandmother as a paternal, she's like, Carolyn's like us. She goes, oh, she's seeing ghost. She goes, how are her grades? Expensive Columbia. She's like, they're good.
And it was just like they normalized it so much. There was no word of psychosis or craziness or anything.
Laurin: That's amazing cuz that's not what most of us who have these kinds of, of gifts get at least at the beginning from family and friends. It's like, what? [00:19:00]
Carolyn: Yes. And I think, and I think some of the religions really closed that stuff down.
Laurin: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Carolyn: And maybe that's why I was pulled to Buddhism and different other religious backgrounds.
Laurin: Yeah.
Carolyn: And just being spiritual. So, the intelligence of the universe knew that when I was studying at Columbia, and, and I was doing both the parallel between the psyche, which is the mind therapist, the psycho, the psycho, the psychic, the soul. Cause they think it's psyche, they think it's psych, you know, psychotic, which it isn't. That combination 25 years later would help, would be the soul awakening on the planet, which is happening all the time, but it's getting stronger with covid and stuff.
Laurin: Yeah. Momentum is definitely building around that.
Carolyn: Yeah, cuz Covid, you know the word Corona means crown. And I felt that's a crown chakra opening worldwide.
Laurin: Oh, I hadn't put that together.
Carolyn: Yeah, yeah. I did this whole podcast on my own podcast about Corona, crown and, [00:20:00] quarantine and, 40 days that quarantine really is usually 40 days. And Jesus was in the desert for 40 days. So, I was like, oh, this is all like subliminal programming of us to go within as we were closed down. But let me get.
Laurin: Yeah. Sorry. We, but we digress.
Carolyn: Yes, I, I so much cuz Spirit just brings you this information, but the eye is the intelligence of spirit. So, so the universe, God knew that I would keep on the path because it was normalized in my household and that's the intelligence of the spirit that knew it.
It came to me and also, I was helpful. I felt like I helped people in mental health cuz I worked for a partial program and there are a lot of people, that's right after you get hospitalized or before you go get hospitalized, that became psychotic. Cause they're hearing or seeing relatives or ghosts. And in the past, they may have been over medicated, they may have been told they were crazy.
And there's a great article out there, the spiritual. It's called Shamanism and Mental Health the exact title, but the Shamanic View of Mental Health written by a African shaman in a Peruvian shaman about how like a lot of times of people have breakdowns or [00:21:00] breakthroughs because shamanism is, will be called a lot of shaman will have that cuz they're, they're talking to different realms. Okay. Digressing
Laurin: I, I am, I'm one of those people,
Carolyn: Really?
Laurin: Yeah. I do. I use shamanic work in my, in my practice and for myself a lot too, so, yeah.
Carolyn: Really? I know I wanna interview you. Where? Shop. That's cool.
Laurin: It's, it’s my favorite modality that I use. I don't use it very often cuz it is different. But we digress again. But yeah, so I know exactly what you're talking about.
Carolyn: Yes. And I love, you know, the deep earthbound work. I love that. And I had a grandmother who did a lot of that work. But so anyways, intelligence of spirit. So that's the intelligence of spirit. Then you can trust. If you invest and follow this guidance, it will lead you on a path that what your soul came here to contract with.
So the intelligence told me to stay in the path, and then also it knew that I would be okay and I could kind of pull people out with mental health. And I've had so many people say, oh my [00:22:00] God, this helped me so much. I mean, you talked about spirit. So, R the spirit is a functional part. I show that picture before about it.
Aura, we have to take care of it. She's like, we have to take a shower for a physical body. You have to take care of your spirit. How do you do that. That energy inside of you with the chills, you meditate, you pray, you smudge. You know, you use sage and smudge yourself. Essential oil, which is earth, you know, and essential oils, which is part of earth.
They're plants, medicine, put them on. And what it does, it helps to in rejuvenate and renew your spirit that can get drained. So, a lot of times when people will come to me when they were really depressed, I would just immediately smudge them. Okay? Especially for a reading. You know, for years I had two practices, reading, healing, and then therapy.
And when I worked in mental health in LA at a HMO, I was working in an intensive outpatient program and the people, patients would go out to walk. So, I [00:23:00] asked one of the teachers, which coincidentally synchronistically one was a meditation. They went to have at least a Meditator. The other one was a yoga teacher.
So, they were very open. So, Spirit knew it was okay. So, when the patients went out to walk, I said, can I smudge them outside? They walked outside. They said, sure. So, I would take sage and smudge them, and the patients were like, oh my God, these layers of sadness were dissipating. I felt so many, so much better because our aura, our energy can get overwhelmed and it, it's kind of reorganizing them.
So that's renewing and rejuvenating. And there may be other things. Some people may dance to renew themselves. They may go to a spa, the heat and then the, the sauna, and other things to kind of use like universal symbols. Cuz nature actually can very much heal you.
Laurin: That's, yeah. Yeah. That's my go-to is nature. When I'm feeling depressed or having whatever issues feel like I'm kind of icky in the, in the energy, I go into the woods and I love it. It's very [00:24:00] renewing.
Carolyn: Yes. And that's another thing, a little tangent. When I, when I spoke to people about how to renew your spirit. And they're like, I could tell me. They're tracking me. They're understanding. I said, your spirit you haven't you said to yourself, I feel so burnt out. God, I feel drained.
I feel exhausted. Ugh. I'm dead tired. I said, and this spirit taught me this. I said, drained is what? Water. When you say I'm burnt out, need fire a sauna? The sun. When you say exhaust, you need air aerobics.
Laurin: Huh.
Carolyn: Breath work. You know, when you said you're dead tired, you may need a crystal. You know, or earth, meditating love my crystals. So, I, I said, we use these terms that have been pushed away and it's right there.
Laurin: Language is amazing, isn't it?
Carolyn: It is amazing
Laurin: I never connected that.
Carolyn: Yeah, and Spirit gave that to me. That's in my first book Outta Your Spirit, that we need these [00:25:00] elements to heal us. You know, the four directions and what's interesting, where else do you find these elements?
The beach. There's always the sun, the fire, the earth is the sand, the wind is the air, the water. That's why people love to go the beach and it's so healing. Where else do you find this, that that helps renew your, your spirit? A spa. There's always mud baths. There's always like, you know, saunas, you know, heat, there's a mud, the earth, they always have candles, fire.
Laurin: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Carolyn: And then you know, the water could be the steam room and then just the water, like going into the bathtub and everything.
Where else do you find these elements? The church synagogue or temples, they always have pews, which is earth. They always have flowers, which is earth again, and then water, candles, incense sometimes and air. And so, they have all the elements. So those four elements, that's why people are drawn cuz it renews our spirit, which is inside of us.
Wait a minute, how is those elements inside of us? They are fire your [00:26:00] heartbeat. But I remember going to get my heartbeat looked at and my heartbeat had a little rhythm and I was like that, that is like fire, but ju, but also the synapses in the brain firing. That's fire. That's with inside of us. Air, obvious breath, Earth, physical body, and water our organs and our you know, our organs and blood.
Laurin: Our blood. Yeah. Yeah.
Carolyn: Blood means soul. So, it's interesting. And spirit means the word breath. So, so we have it inside of us. That's why I feel drawn to go to nature and to heal. So that's the renew and rejuvenate. That's a long one.
Laurin: I'm learning so much today. This and it's all like right here in front of us, but we just don't see it.
Carolyn: This is the fantasy. This is the, to me it's like even like why is the divine feminist stuff coming up? We're on a female earth. Hello. We don't respect women. So, it's like, it's all like coming forward so that the other I we, or you know, we're using the word spirit as a functional part of our soul.
The other [00:27:00] I is insight. So as whatever gift you're giving from the divine, we're all given a gift before we come here, everyone's given a gift. You, you could be more insightful. You might be a wonderful artist, a therapist, a shaman, a writer, and you have a little bit more insight cuz that's your gift.
And you have insight with spirit. So, use that. And the other I is inspirational. How does the spirit function? Whenever you feel inspired? Music, dance, song you know, nature. That's leading you to your path. So, inspiration in spirit, inspire. That's also, you know, anything that inspires you is your spirit. So, if you get down and you feel inspired by jazz music or Celtic music or whatever it is, that's your spirit leading you to heal. So that's the other part of it.
Laurin: Mm-hmm.
Carolyn: And then we're at T already. I say already that is a long story.
Laurin: That's good. It's good.
Carolyn: How is your spirit, your function? You know, what does spirit do? You have to, you have to, your [00:28:00] spirit will tell you the truth. T.
Laurin: Mm.
Carolyn: So, when your chills and the goosebumps are on your hands, that's your truth. You have to follow that path of your truth. So, if you go to a certain job and you get goosebumpsand you feel chills, and it doesn't pay that much, but you feel great, you better take that job.
If you go to a job, that's your truth. That's your spirit guiding you cause your spirit connected to the divine. But if you feel heavy and sad and they're paying you a 75K and you get headaches, then that's not your truth. And that will lead you down. Maybe not the right road and also the other T is trust. You gotta trust your spirit gives you messages, Science, synchronicity, I call it SMS, like our, you know, our little cell phones, SMS.
So, our spiritual SMS is signs, messages, and synchronicities. You have to follow that path. It's like following the white rabbit. You gotta follow that path because we are here as creators to create. So that's the functional aspect of your spirit.
Laurin: [00:29:00] That's, that's excellent. Wow. So, there's a couple things I wanna pull out from there that you have mentioned, because I am constantly telling people you have this is part of the process, One of 'em is asking. Because, we walk around in the soup. Like we, like, I've just had these aha moments about our language. I'm a writer. Language is my jam. You know.
Carolyn: Mm mm.
Laurin: And didn’t I see those, those aspects of, of the language that are such brilliant clues to our state of being. But I know that we walk around in this soup and sometimes we'll ask without realizing it. I used to get synchronicities and gifts because in my head I was mulling something over.
I didn't phrase it as an, an ask. Prayer can be the same thing. A wish can be the same thing. But once you start asking things start coming faster and faster. I, I made an ask recently, just a few days ago that I want to know everything I can know about the divine feminine,[00:30:00]
Carolyn: Hmm.
Laurin: And this was about three days ago. And all of these people have been coming to me who are just out of the blue talking about the divine feminine. It's like, oh, and books have been going. You know, it's like I forgot to ask.
Carolyn: Mm-hmm.
Laurin: But then the other piece that I have, I often forget, is action.
Carolyn: Mm-hmm.
Laurin: Because you get this information.
Carolyn: Mm-hmm.
Laurin: You learn to recognize when it's true, but if you don't take the action…
Carolyn: Mm-hmm.
Laurin: Then you don't get a result.
Carolyn: Exactly, that's the trust and the truth. And I use that similar, I use it as an acronym cuz I said like we have different vehicles that were ours, our souls or races or genders, whatever. And I called it like car, you know, like we're like different cars. And I said, you know when you're in crisis you call AAA. Least I do. I've had AAA for years and it's a AAA. You ask, you'll always get an answer and then you have to take an action.
Laurin: Oh, I love that one too.
Carolyn: Yeah. [00:31:00] Yeah.
Laurin: One, I'm making a note for myself.
Carolyn: Absolutely, you'll always get an answer. And I, I actually learned a lot of that from Agape with Reverend Michael and then also Louise Hay's book on Science of Mine, which is a certain type of spirituality.
Metaphysical looking at the Bible, like working with Jesus said thoughts or deeds. You know, and it is done unto to you as you believe, and ask, and it is given. So, all these things are right in front of us. People throw away, the baby with a bathroom.
Oh my God, the Bible's horrible. Or this is horrible. I love the Course in Miracles. I, I, I love different ways and I feel like this is what I'm trying to do. There's different ways to bring people back to the light. Because for a long time struggling, growing up Episcopalian, my father was Episcopal bishop, like, what are you doing with the crystals?
But my, he's married to a woman who had premonitions, but I kept asking the divine, I said, should I bring this into mental health? And then after I finished my speech, tons of people would be standing there like, thank you so much. like I grew up in Mexico and I grew up in nature, and now [00:32:00] I'm inside and I love Jasmine, I love lavender.
And that, I forgot about that, or, I was in the city. So, all this stuff really resonated with the souls. I speak to the soul of people, of clients and patients.
Laurin: Mm-hmm. Yeah. And that's such a gift when, when you can meet them in that place and, and surprises them.
Carolyn: Yeah.
Laurin: Yeah, it's, it's, I think part of my path to where I am now was because I did begin to meet people who saw something different in me that I didn't realize was there, and were willing to talk about it or share their healing modality with me, or, make suggestions. Cuz the universe of course is bringing them to me, you know.
Carolyn: Yes. Yeah.
Laurin: So, it's yeah.
Carolyn: It’s of your path. It was part of your path. And that's another thing that you're saying, like, how does that, we emanate our soul, emanates this energy out that, that us aura, our aura is our defining force. So, this is, and it, like a lot of therapists will [00:33:00] say, why did you become a therapist? Oh, for years.
People tell me their problems and I don't know why. You know, I could be at Ralph's and somebody would come up to me and say, you know what? I never liked him. I always wanted divorce him. And I'm like, excuse me, can I get the peas? Cause I don't know why you're telling me your problems. I don't know you.
And it was because my spirit was, before I was a therapist, was emanating that energy. So, we emanate our truth and then other people are drawn to that if we listen.
Laurin: Right, right. And yeah, and for me it was a lot of it was other people bringing my attention to where my passion and purpose was.
Carolyn: Mm-hmm.
Laurin: Cuz I think. I think I'm a little bit older than you, but you know, I was sort of, I was raised by a feminist, but it was a feminist of the seventies. So, it was still, there was still a lot of sort of roles and things that were expected of, of how you behave or what your life path would be or, you know, that sort of thing.
And so I've, I've had to have other people say, you know, you don't have to be a computer consultant. You could write books. It's like hmmm.
Carolyn: mm.
Laurin: I never, I was a [00:34:00] bookaholic. Read, Read, read, read, read. Loved, loved books. Never thought about being an author until my husband said, why don't you just write your own? I was like, ooh!
Carolyn: Wow.
Laurin: I could do that. So, I've had a lot of that kind of, I, I can be a little blind to my own, my own gifts and skills. Sometimes not so much anymore. That's when it's really nice to have other people see you in ways that you don't necessarily recognize in yourself.
Carolyn: And you know what? A lot of us do need permission cuz we live in a society that really just like either through teachers or, TV or that just bullies us and programs us. This is what you should do. You should do this. You know, you're in this book, like you're African American, like I remember my mother's a teacher, so they're like, why is she applying to all these top schools?
It's like, my mother's like, she has an average all high grades. Like, why wouldn't she? You know, my mother. So, I mean, it's just people are like, no, no, no. She should never, you know, she'll never get into Wesleyan and I did. So, I mean, there's all these things that tell us, like a woman, you're not [00:35:00] supposed to do that.
You know, why are you good with Math and Science or whatever. So, I feel like that we need permission and sometimes the universe can give us permission, and ask. And sometimes, like, again, you've been led, people will come to you, you know, if you're willing to listen. Yeah.
Laurin: Yeah, yeah. So, and yeah, so the universe is a great, a great resource that is underutilized, I think. All right. Let's, let's do some rapid-fire questions just for fun. So, who is or was the wisest person in your life?
Carolyn: My mother.
Laurin: Okay. And you've told us a little bit about why she's…
Carolyn: Yes, Yes. Oh, she's, it was brilliant. I mean, she was in the 1950s. She's an immigrant. She got into three medical schools. She didn't have the money to go and she was very intuitive and she would tell me stories about all her, like astral projecting and mediumship and she wasn't, she was just telling me stories and how people come [00:36:00] to her and say, you're gonna go to this country, you're gonna be very successful.
So even though she didn't go to medical school and she desperately wanted me to be a doctor because I was really good with Science and Math, you know what happened, I mean, they wanted to skip me, et cetera, but she said in her culture, it's like, you, this is my healer. And I said, well, like doctor. And I said, well, next time be more specific. Cause I am.
Laurin: Yeah. All right.
Carolyn: So with that, yeah, she's that. And then she also won teacher of the year from Liam's College, cuz you have a lot minority women go to medical school. She said she did, she couldn't go and then she had like three or four scholarship funds. Giving, giving, giving is very much part of our family, you know she told my dad like she had a dream.
She said, you’re gonna be the first black bishop of Connecticut, third in the country. He said, no way. It happened; you know? And just like as she saw. So, she was a guiding force, and then she normalized the spirit that God will take care of you. That God, that the universe is a guiding force. Cause the universe, my belief is [00:37:00] just from my, you know, sends us here.
God sends us here. And I said, if you send me here, give me my walking instructions. It's like being in a job. You know, like, what are we supposed to do? You know, like why is this trauma happen? Because you're supposed to make it a triumph, you know? So, my mom definitely.
Laurin: Yeah. Yeah, she definitely triumphed. Wow. She sounds like a really beautiful balance of sort of the divine masculine, divine feminine energy.
Carolyn: Oh, a hundred percent. My mom could holler, but, and she also she's passed on like five years ago, and right before she died, she said my, your grandmother's here and my guides are around me. I may die of a heart attack. And then she died next day. Mm-hmm.
Laurin: Wow.
Carolyn: Yeah.
Laurin: Wow. That sounds like a, actually a lovely way to go to know all of those lovely people or souls are around you.
Carolyn: I think she knew telling me, my father was looking at her like, what? But I said, Uhoh, why is she saying that? You know, even though she was pretty healthy, she's had a UTI, but it was her time. You know, she had told us for years that in a different way that, our time here [00:38:00] is limited. She'd always say, When I go back home, when I see God, yeah. Mm-hmm.
Laurin: Mm. Well, she, and you know, you know she's still with you.
Carolyn: Oh my. You kidding me? She's running the household virtually every time I see a hawk, I know it's her. It's a long story, but yeah. It's symbol. Mm-hmm.
Laurin: So. All right. What's your favorite self-care practice?
Carolyn: Oh, meditating, and going to nature. I think both. I just love nature. I'm a little concerned about the ticks out here in Connecticut cause everyone's like, wow, what kinda ticks? But I just love trees. I have, I had all these trees next to me in this office and then I was so mad because they cut them down.
So, I've been getting like these moss a crystals, which is kind of, or tree a at moss like crystal. I just love trees. I think they're like wise wisdom.
Laurin: Oh, absolutely, absolutely, absolutely nothing calms me down like going out into the woods and just like leaning against a tree. It just, it's like this [00:39:00] beautiful, calm energy just comes through me and it just washes the crap away. you know?
Carolyn: Right. And then when meditating, grounding and they, you know, rooting, that’s why I teach people and they, they're rooted and then they have like an antennas.
Laurin: I use, I use the tree metaphor for grounding and, and, and connecting too. It's, it's a beautiful metaphor for that. What lights you up when you're feeling down?
Carolyn: Rapid fires. The first music, I guess I was gonna say, like watching lifetime. No, but no no, that's what lights me up. I like, you know, I actually, I like inspirational stories, like when I hear stories of miracles and, of just kindness, honestly it sounds really weird.
Kind of wired strange too. Like if somebody says like years ago in mental health is one woman came up, like I helped her and she now works at a crystal shop, and she said, you know what? You changed my life, like when I was leaving LA, she said, I know who, you know, you were at this mental health center and you talked about crystals and now I've been work at Crystals, I've healed myself.
That just [00:40:00] feeds my soul. I mean, it sounds like arrogant and like, but it's like, cuz sometimes I'm always like, why am I doing this with mental health and should I be using Oracle cards and crystals? And I think there are a lot of people that need to come back home.
Laurin: Yeah.
Carolyn: I feel like I'm leading them. So if, if that kind of and other messages like that really inspire me and music.
Laurin: Yeah. Yeah. Music is one of my go-tos for getting myself out of a funk cuz it's, you get the body moving, you get the energy moving. It's just, yeah, it's this isn’t aside, but I've, I've been an addict of Grey's Anatomy.
Carolyn: Oh really? I love that show.
Laurin: And in the earlier seasons when they were just getting into being doctors or surgeons or whatever, they would have awful days. And at the end of the episode, they would dance it out.
Carolyn: Yes, I remember that.
Laurin: You know.
Carolyn: Yeah. Right, right.
Laurin: I was like, Yeah, that's good. That's good. All right.
Carolyn: That's why a lot of cultures do trans dancing and other dancing. Just to kinda, [00:41:00] as like in the African American college, like they're always dancing and singing, but it's like dancing was a way to release energy. It was like a aura, like creating your aura and then universe versus a song. So, you know, within our culture, we remembered where we came from. A lot of people in different, yeah.
Laurin: Right. Favorite mantra or affirmation?
Carolyn: Oh, I, I love Lakshmi, the goddess of abundance, going to Hinduism, like Omshre, Maha Laksmi, Swoha, which gives you abundance and it also leads you to, it could be relationships, health it just puts you on your spiritual path. Somebody told me that years ago, and it's always helped me, like when I had two rents to pay in LA and almost $3,000 Omshri Maha Lakshmi Swoha, and more people would come and, and, I would, I ended up on CNN and then some Good Morning America, like these just synchronistic things would happen.
And that's just one way I like chanting in another language. And by the way, my great-grandmother, my father's grandmother was Hindu.
Laurin: Oh.
Carolyn: So where [00:42:00] my parents, yeah. So, there's a lot of Indians in South America, so, so she, my father said he used to go to a spirit circle, so it's not like so far people like, oh, that's, you know, not part of my culture in a way.
But yeah, so my, yeah, Edith, Yeah, Edith is her name. So, she would have these spirit circles. My father, she would bring, my father was, you know, his grandchild and she, he said he could literally feel like energy of spirits come in the room. So, I just got, I just picked up chanting. I love chanting another language, cause I don't know how to negate it.
If I say I'm abundant, I could say I don't have money, I'm poor.
Laurin: Right, right.
Carolyn: But if I say Omshri, Maha Laksmi Swoha, I don't know how to negate it in Sanskrit. So,
Laurin: That's brilliant. I I, yeah. That's another brilliant. You're so smart.
Carolyn: Yeah, this is all taught to me by spirit, honestly. And again, I'm like, should I be chanting another language? Oh my God, is I idle tree? But you know, A then my father's like, oh, you're great grandmother. And I'm like, What? You know? And then B, it, it just stayed and then it helped me and it helped other people
Laurin: [00:43:00] Mm-hmm. It's a vibration. I mean, whatever language you use, you're putting a vibration out there. The idea that you can't negate it means you're not messing with the vibration of it. You know?
Carolyn: It stays in your aura field and you attract that.
Laurin: Yeah, yeah. So that's brilliant. That's brilliant. I like that a lot. Okay, so tell the listeners and eventually the viewers where they can find you.
Carolyn: Okay, great. Yeah, you can. My website is intuitivesoulhealing.com. I'm on Instagram and I just changed my name to Conscious Creations Conscious_Creations Connecticut. Cause I'm in Connecticut. I have a healing center here. I teach classes on Universal Wisdom. It's a Conscious Creations in Bloomfield and that's, yeah, the best.
And on my website, you text me, don't call me. Texting either cause I’ve been seeing so many patients. But yeah, that's where I am.
Laurin: Okay. And you also have books. I know you have those on your website.
Carolyn: Yeah. I also, on Facebook, I have a group how to work with the universe. My books are Honor Your Spirit, which is my that was written in 2016. I'm reading, writing another book.
It's been a while, and that's about my spiritual path as a therapist and healer, and then Soul Wisdom. It's all in my newsletters. I just inspired by spirit. I put together as one of those quick mindful books. You open it up, get inspiration that was dedicated to my mother. And then a workbook, How to Work with the Universe.
Cause I don't, again, the spirit is functionals. I want people to, you know, work with this energy. So, it becomes second nature. So, when something happens, it's difficult. You're like, Okay, why did this happen? Less or less? How can I heal?
Laurin: Yeah. Cause that'll help you move through it much faster.
Carolyn: And realizing they're powerful souls that have many of the answers themselves.
Laurin: Right. Right. Nice. All right. And of course, we will have all of that in our show notes. And along with a few other things that I may gather from you, from our conversation here. So, this has been wonderful. And I again, I appreciate you coming back after my oops, with the recording. But I know I learned even more this time than, than you taught me last time, so [00:45:00] it's a win-win for me.
Carolyn: Awesome. Wonderful.
Laurin: Alright. And I wanna thank the listeners for being here with us today. I hope that you had as many aha moments as I did, because the whole language thing for me is, is just like a in my face and never saw it kind of thing. But I, I, there's just so many nuggets of wisdom there. I love the, the Spirit acronym and, and yeah, you need to do like a, a poster of that, you know.
Carolyn: There you go.
Laurin: I'll put it up in my office.
Carolyn: Alright. Good. Thank you.
Laurin: And yeah, and we are here every Tuesday with a new episode at Curiously Wise. So, I hope to see you there. Have a great day.
Thank you so much for joining us today on Curiously Wise. If you enjoyed this episode, please be sure to subscribe so you don't miss future fabulous conversations. And if you had any ahas, please share them in a review on Apple Podcasts so we can continue to pay forward the unique wisdom we all have.[00:46:00]
If you want to know more about me or my intuitive energy healing practice Heartlight Wellness, please head over to my website. www.heartlightjoy.com.
Curiously Wise is a team effort. I am grateful for the skill and enthusiasm. Arlene Membrot, our producer, and Sam Wittig, our audio engineer bring to this collaboration. Our music is Where the Light Is by Lemon Music Studio.
I'm Laurin Wittig. Please join me again next week for another episode of Curiously Wise. From my heart to yours, may your life be filled with love, light, joy, and of course, curiosity.