Transcript Interview Episode with Dr. Lynn Anderson
[00:00:00] Laurin: Welcome to the Curiously Wise Podcast. I'm your host Laurin Wittig. This podcast is all about honoring, sharing and celebrating the natural and experiential wisdom of my guests through curiosity, provoking conversations, shared stories and tips we've all gathered along this journey. And from time to time, I'll be sharing my own stories and my own wisdom in solo episodes.
Oh, and we'll be laughing. A lot. I invite you to join in the fun as we uncover the unique wisdom. We each carry within us. Ready? Let's get curious.
Hello, friends and welcome to curiously wise. I'm Laurin Wittig, your host. And I have Dr. Lynn Anderson here today as my guest. And I'm really excited to talk to her about a lot of things, she's got a whole lot of experience. Let me just introduce you through her bio. Dr. Lynn is a, Naturepath, a Yoga Nutritional Therapist, a Fitness Professional, a Karma Master, which is something that I'm really fascinated by, Published Author, International Speaker and Video Producer with over 30 years experience in the field of natural health and fitness.
She's the author and producer of the Soul Walking Series of books. The Naturopathic Wellness Series of books and Dr. Lynn's proactive aging workouts. And she has a ton of stuff available on her website and YouTube. And I just went and looked at it shortly ago and there's a whole lot of stuff out there that she's put out there.
So it's a great resource. So Dr. Lynn, thank you so much for joining me here today, and I'm really excited to talk to you and can we just start with this concept of karma. And if you could define it for the listeners because for me it's a pop culture thing. Karma's a bitch, you know, so if you could define it for us and then just, talk a little bit about what your work is with karma
[00:02:03] Dr. Lynn: Well, you're absolutely right. Everybody. It's like bad karma, good karma. And in karma, there is no such thing as good or bad, good or bad predisposes judgment. And karma is not about judgment. Karma simply is cause and effect. If you don't like the effect, look to the cause. Very simple. But what we do as human beings, we add judgment and we add pop culture in and you know, it's used it's that word is used so freely, but it really has nothing to do with good or bad.
I like to give an example of, if you steal something and you never get caught, you're still a thief.
[00:02:46] Laurin: Mm-hmm
[00:02:47] Dr. Lynn: Cause and effect, that's an example.
[00:02:49] Laurin: So I know that you work with this idea of karma and with your clients. Just tell us a little bit about what role it plays in that sort of therapeutic kind of relationship.
[00:03:00] Dr. Lynn: I've been doing karma. I've been practicing writing, teaching karma for over 30 years. That's what makes a karma master. A master is someone who practices, writes, reads and teaches. And I ran tons of karma workshops in Los Angeles where I lived up until the pandemic. And now I'm here in Florida.
I moved there during the pandemic. So what it is with karma is karma really is about, and we use the word work. We hear that karma is about work. And it really means that we are here each and every one of us to do some form of work. And that doesn't mean your work work that you do, but that can be how you work through your karma.
And that those are all depending upon different emotions and things that come in or different things that play out in our life. For example, every one of us is here to deal with the four great passions. Karma says we have four great passions in life and they will affect each and every one of us. One of them will affect you, you or me, a person to, and more degree than the others, but they're called deceit.
Greed, anger and pride and everything comes off from those four great emotions according to karma. So if, for example, you used to have a lot of anger issues that keep coming up in your life. Obviously, that's the one that you need to work on. And it's very easy to say, let's say you and I are in, you know, some kind of an, an antagonistic situation.
It's very easy for me to say, well, you made me angry, but you didn't make me angry. I took on that emotion of anger. And so it's the ability to step back and to see yourself and not to want to be an angry person. And to remove that anger that takes work, that's karma
[00:04:58] Laurin: Okay. All right. So one of the things I talk to my clients a lot about, and myself, frankly is perspective. And that sounds like a little bit, like what you're talking about there is for a long time, I felt like I was a victim of my parents. And I finally got the perspective of I don't have to be a victim.
I can change the way I see things, the way I react to things, and change that. So is that an example of working the karma?
[00:05:24]Dr. Lynn: Right. According to karma, we choose our parents. We choose our body. We, which to me, I always say to my clients and my students, you know, love your body. You chose it. You chose it for a reason. According to karma, when we leave this plane, we go to a place that's called the holdover place. And it's a place of reflection and it removes all human emotions, feelings.
You're not a human there, but in order to come back, and correct whatever it is or experience it, you need to come back and take on human form because human form allows you to have the emotions and the issues. So we choose our parents to help us work this out. And you're absolutely right. We fall into this and then the parents are all at fault for everything that ever happened in our lives, you know?
And, and you're a mother and I'm a mother. So then you, then it turns around and it comes back
[00:06:17] Laurin: right.
[00:06:17] Dr. Lynn: you know, that you're, you know, but then when you realize that you chose them and that they, you chose them for a reason, whether to, to work something through that's really important for you to work through.
Karma is not easy. We're not here to have a cake walk through life, or for example, to never have any pain. Pain is a human experience. Sadness is a human experience. We will all experience those things. That's part of choosing to come back.
[00:06:46] Laurin: mm-hmm. Yeah, there's another concept that I've learned early in my awakening journey was a contrast because I wanted to be happy. I wanted to just be joyful and is, and then something would happen and I would go, damn, you know, this isn't what I wanted, but I've learned that that contrast allows me to really enjoy the good things. And to notice when things are not good and do something proactive about it.
[00:07:13] Dr. Lynn: Absolutely. You cannot experience pleasure or happiness if you don't know sadness and pain. They're the same thing. And yes, we would all like to figure out how to get through this life without any pain, without any sadness, without any sufferings, but part of our process here is for us to learn how to endure.
Endure sufferings and hardships because when you learn how to endure those, it takes you to that higher level. That's part of why we chose to be here.
[00:07:41] Laurin: Interesting. So it's, a growth of the soul. Is that what you would say?
[00:07:46]Dr. Lynn: Absolutely. We are here for the soul. We take on the body, the body's the vehicle call that the vehicle and I call the mind the GPS of the soul. So you've got the body and the mind, we take those on that gives us human form. But the real mission here is about the soul. And that's why when you see people running after material things or money or whatever, that's not what it's about.
It's about working your soul. That's why we are here.
[00:08:14] Laurin: That makes a lot of sense to me. Yeah. So. How do we learn? I mean, are you given us some examples of things that we may do that will sort of point to what our karma work is, but are there tools that people could use to, if they really wanna focus and figure out what it is that they're here to work on?
[00:08:34] Dr. Lynn: This is not a plug for my book, but the book that I have in the soul walking series, which is Karma: How to Master Your Karma. If you go into that book, you can look up, there's a place in there where you can look up your birth date. And remember it's very general cause I had to write it so that it worked for everybody.
But you go in and you look up your birth date. Now, this is not astrology. This has to do with the, to come, which is part of, sort of Cabala. And it's about your correction. That's what it means. So when you go in, you will find which one of those four great passions, deceit, greed, anger, or pride is prominent in your life.
And it's kind of interesting because even though it is kind of generic, it will hit a few tones in there and you'll go, wow. Wow. I didn't realize that I was really dealing with deceit and what deceit really means, cuz we think of deceit as a lying and it's not necessarily that I'm deceiving you. I may be deceiving myself. And so it'll give you kind of a general feeling, but you wanna look out the signs are the things that keep reoccurring in your life. That's why they talk about karma keeps coming back.
You know, what goes around, comes around. It keeps circling around and you keep finding yourself.
Falling into this place where you're hanging out with people that are angry and whatever, or deceitful, or, or greedy, whatever it is. And it's the ability to have the awareness to step back. That's when you take you step back into the soul and this all goes, oh, I gotta work on this. I don't need to be in this.
And when you start to change that, everything in your life begins to change. And that's what we refer to as good karma.
[00:10:19] Laurin: All right. So that's interesting now I'm, I've gotta go dig into your book so I can figure that out.
[00:10:25] Dr. Lynn: Which one is yours,
[00:10:26] Laurin: which one is mine?
[00:10:27] Dr. Lynn: Yeah.
[00:10:28] Laurin: I do know that when, when I hit on truth things like you're talking about something will ding for you. I call it resonating with me. It like, it, it is like, it kind of hits a bell inside. It's like, yep, that's it. So that's really interesting. And I was wondering if it had anything to do with the astrology with the birth natal charts, but you're saying that it does not.
[00:10:48] Dr. Lynn: It will not be your astrological sign. It doesn't connect to your astrological sign. However, astrology, I'm not an astrologist, but that does play in, it's like, you pick a particular time that you come to earth and there's a reason and an astrology will tell you all that you bring, and that is part of your karma too, you know? So it, it, it is, it does intercept.
[00:11:11] Laurin: Okay. Cuz it just, it felt a little bit like it did. So once you noticed what your karma, what, which one of these first four? What did you call them again? I'm sorry.
[00:11:22] Dr. Lynn: The four great passions.
[00:11:24] Laurin: Four great passions. Which one is the one you're here to work on? Are there, I don't know how to say this. I'm always looking for ways to help people.
Like move on, on their journey or continue on their journey. So I'm always looking for ways to help them figure out how they can take this information that for me, it comes up in healing sessions and how they can begin to incorporate it into their lives. Are there some general things that you teach people or that you share with people about how to move towards working your karma?
Or is it just individual.
[00:11:55] Dr. Lynn: It's mostly, it's awareness. It's understanding what it is and doing exactly what you and I are doing right now. We're talking about what karma really is. Most people, get caught up in the pop culture of good and bad. And so when you become aware of that, karma is not a bad thing and it's not a good, it's not bad to go and, steal.
For example, in our morals, in our ethics, tell us it's bad to steal, but karma isn't really concerned about that. You do that. You're a thief. You wanna carry that with you through eternity? Because you will, because according to karma, you take that with you. And then when you go to the holdover place, you gotta reflect on that, and you may come back and you may have everything stolen from you in the next lifetime. Because you chose to come back and say, I'm gonna be the victim this time. Cuz I need to work that through cuz I was not such a good person this last time, but it is really about awareness and how the individual wants to take the focus and put it on themselves because it's so easy in this world to point the finger at everyone else.
You lied to me, you deceived me, you make me angry. You're a greedy person, I mean, it goes on and on and on, and we're always sending that stuff out when if we take it back and we don't take it to judgment. You're not a bad person if let's say greed is your one, you're not a bad person.
It's just, you've been given that task to work on it.
[00:13:27] Laurin: Yeah.
[00:13:27] Dr. Lynn: And when you start working on it, it's like, it's like something lifts. You feel your lighter and lighter.
[00:13:34] Laurin: So as you begin to understand it and you begin to take responsibility for it,
[00:13:39] Dr. Lynn: Mm-hmm
[00:13:40] Laurin: then things start to get lighter.
[00:13:42] Dr. Lynn: One of the main things that we do karma has, there are things that block us from working at karma. And one of them is knowledge and we're all guilty of that. We block ourselves out and, sometimes we reach a point where we think we know it all. There's people that think they know it all, or I went to a seminar the other day, for example, and the person who is doing this seminar was the information was really not very interesting and it was not very well thought out and it wasn't very well presented. And , the first thing is, is, and then I stopped and I said to myself, I'm gonna learn something from this. And so I stayed and I watched, and I really thanked her afterwards because she taught me so much about what not to do. And, and, and how to turn that. So rather , than being directing it to her, I step back and say, wow, I can improve myself by watching this. I can see this. And I can find ways to make sure that I'm not redundant and boring, you know? So it, that is where you start to work through your karma. But most of the time we block knowledge. We don't open ourselves up to what's really happening. What we can really gain from a situation
[00:14:56] Laurin: Right. . That's something that I ask myself a lot and talk with my clients when things are not going well, instead of, and, and victimhood is something that I . I did a lot, not anymore. Well I'm sure I do occasionally, but it's
[00:15:09] Dr. Lynn: We all do. We all do.
[00:15:11] Laurin: It's, I'm a work progress,
[00:15:13] Dr. Lynn: You can't, you can't have a husband, a dog, children, grandchildren without, yeah, yeah, yeah. You gotta have it somewhere.
[00:15:19] Laurin: That a beginner's mind, you know, coming at something with the idea that maybe I don't know everything. And if I can just step back, give a little myself a little space to be okay in whatever's making me reactive and say what's in this for me
[00:15:38] Dr. Lynn: mm-hmm.
[00:15:38] Laurin: instead of why is this being done to me?
[00:15:42] Dr. Lynn: Perfect.
[00:15:43] Laurin: And that question is incredibly powerful.
[00:15:47]Dr. Lynn: Yes. Yes, because then you step back and you begin to do the work and that's what karma is. Karma is work. And if you're not willing to do the work, that's fine. You don't have to. Because according to karma, we reincarnate. So you just keep spinning through the universe. You keep coming back and you keep repeating and repeating and repeating that's what, when it says that karma, it comes around and you keep repeating things.
That's what it means. You keep coming back and you keep placing yourself in situations till you work that through. Ultimately, we're hoping to work it all through and become like the Buddha. But I mean, for most of us, we we're coming back a few more times.
[00:16:27] Laurin: Right. There's a lot more work to be done. I, I have noticed on my own journey and I noticed this with my clients as well, that I, I think of it my journey through this life as a spiral. And so when I was younger and I was hitting this big victim stuff, and I was just blaming everybody else for me.
And then I got a handle on some of it. and that was better. It was that lifting, but then it came back again, but it's like, I've, I'm at a higher level now of understanding. And so the second time it's still kind of a lot of work, but I get through it faster. And by the time I get to the fourth or fifth iteration, I'm like, oh, I know what this is.
[00:17:07] Dr. Lynn: Exactly. And it it's instantaneous. It's like anger comes up, you go, oh, that's me getting angry. I don't want that emotion because what do I do if I carry that emotion, it ruins my whole day. I'm unhappy. It's stressful it affects my body, my mind, everything. So why would I wanna carry that around?
And the quicker I can release myself from that come back to the calm place, which is what karma teaches us. That one of the great qualities in life to develop is the ability to become.
[00:17:38] Laurin: yeah.
[00:17:38] Dr. Lynn: To be able to step back from all this chaos that's going on out there, which it is the world's very chaotic and it's never gonna change.
That's the thing, you know, you can be as idealistic as you want. There will always be war. There will always be famine. There always has been since the beginning. I would love to live in a Utopia, but it doesn't happen. So the more we can sort of come back and say, okay, first thing I'm gonna do is take a breath and I'm gonna calm myself down and then take an objective look at this situation rather than throwing my judgment in and my prejudice and my bias, which we all tend to do.
[00:18:12] Laurin: oh, yeah,
[00:18:13] Dr. Lynn: You know.
[00:18:15] Laurin: Can we shift gears just a little bit? I want you to talk about soul walking.
[00:18:19] Dr. Lynn: Okay.
[00:18:20] Laurin: Because I just think that's such a great term. I'm like, oh, I gotta know what that is.
[00:18:25]Dr. Lynn: Well, from, from all of my books and everything that I put together, in life, especially karma. That's where the karma comes in and the prosperity is that's really what we're doing here. We're soul walking, we're walking around this earth. It's the soul. The problem is we have this other thing called the ego and the ego is.
Very valuable in that your ego is there to protect you. It's to make sure we survive. And we thrive in this world, so we never wanna get rid of the ego, but the ego likes to be really loud and appear. And the soul sits down here and goes, okay, I'll watch, you know, I'll contemplate, I'll watch all of this cuz the soul doesn't use C it's wait.
For you to open that door. And so once you start to open that door, you will find yourself, there's this body in this mind that you're carrying around from the soul. As opposed to the other way around, I'm this body and mind. And I think there might be a soul in there somewhere, you know?
So soul walking means to be walking and living life from your soul's perspective, as opposed to the ego's perspective. And that again, karma takes work because the ego's constantly going to come up. You get into an argument with your mate or whatever, and that ego comes up cuz you wanna win that argument. That's the ego and the soul sitting back here going, okay, go ahead. Yeah. Yeah. You know, but when you can take that back and let it go, you'll find that the soul comes up and the soul's like, oh, what did I learn? What did I get? How did I work that through? Isn't that wonderful that I was able to work that through and let it go.
[00:20:07] Laurin: Yeah. That's where I know for myself, I, meditation has been a huge factor in being able to calm myself enough to have that perspective. I'm a very emotional person by nature and so I tend to react very strongly emotionally and getting through some of the things in my life I've had to learn to really just, okay.
Take a breath, go take 15 minutes and go meditate. If that's what it takes, go walking outside that, that quietness of the nervous system, the emotional system really does allow you to feel and hear what's the real point of this situation, , what's in this for me.
[00:20:49] Dr. Lynn: Right. Right. And you hear, you can then hear that inner voice, there's an intuitive inner voice in there and we suppress it and suppress it. And especially in today's society, there's so much information coming at people that it's so easy to just feel like you're soulless, where, where is it?
You know, and to get beyond all of that. But when we do, when we develop the quality of calmness and we understand how to take ourselves to that calm place. Then you can listen. And when you stop and you really listen, you will hear the soul and the soul will direct you where you need to go. And it's a part of us, you know, I'm a, I'm a naturopathic doctor and as a naturopathic doctor, we believe, and
When I work with clients and students that you are body, mind, and soul, and that all three of those have to be in perfect balance for there to be perfect health. And if you come to me and you wanna work with me and I only work on your body, then I'm neglecting the mind and the soul, and we need to make sure that all three are integrated together because that's what you are.
You are body minded, soul. You are not a body, a mind or a soul. You are all three integrated. And that goes, that is exactly the philosophy of yoga.
[00:22:03] Laurin: Mm. Yes. Yes. I'm just gonna touch on this quickly, but you have this yoga dance class that you teach, which sounds like so much fun. How does that fit into what we're talking about?
[00:22:16] Dr. Lynn: Well, just give you a quick history on the back of that. I'm a cancer survivor and I was diagnosed with cancer 10 years ago. And for the first time in my entire life, I was flat on my back in bed and couldn't get out of bed. And that was a really a trauma for me, cuz I'm an extremely active person.
I mean I still teach yoga and cycle and I'm very, very active person. And when I was in bed, I, I said, there's two things I wanna do. If I get out of this bed, well there three things I'm gonna climb stairs cuz I couldn't climb stairs and I'm going to dance and I'm gonna do yoga.
Cause I was teaching yoga at the time I was teaching a lot of yoga classes and I had clients and stuff. As I got out of bed, I started listening to music and tapping my feet to music and doing small yoga exercises. And I developed a Dr. Lens, anti-aging yoga dance, and I hired a whole team and we produced it, the DVDs, and we sold them internationally all over the country.
The DVDs. So it was an offshoot from that. And then I went into the studios and the gyms and I taught the class, and people loved it because it's really more a proactive aging class. So we touch on a lot of things that are a concern to people as they are going from, let's say menopause, onward.
Although I had younger students come in that had issues with their knees, with their backs, with whatever. So it's a class that combines. The idea was you have one hour to exercise. So I'm going to give you flexibility, strength, balance, aerobic exercise, and rest and peace, a little meditation all in one hour so that if you don't have the time, which most people don't.
The one thing they do neglect is aerobic exercise get 15 or 20 minutes of a yoga dance inside that hour. And so you've, you've done everything you're supposed to do
[00:24:07] Laurin: Yeah. Wow. That sounds great. I'm gonna have to, I'm definitely gonna have to go check that out.
[00:24:14] Dr. Lynn: That class is on Wednesday's just a little pitch here, but anybody. And if anybody, any of your audience or anybody would like to come to either that class or my karma yoga class on Saturday, it's online on zoom. All they have to do is shoot me an email and I will send a free invite to anybody to come and try one of the classes.
[00:24:32] Laurin: Thank you. That's lovely. Appreciate that. Yeah, definitely gonna try those out cuz I'm I love yoga, but I don't get out very much these days.
[00:24:41] Dr. Lynn: I hear you.
[00:24:44] Laurin: All right. I wanna go to my rapid fire questions that I ask everybody. These are just for fun and just whatever comes to you first is the right answer. So who is, or was the wisest person in your life?
[00:24:57] Dr. Lynn: Oh, I would say probably my grandmother.
[00:25:02] Laurin: Hmm.
[00:25:03] Dr. Lynn: And she was not my biological grandmother, but she was my grandmother. My mother married my father who adopted me and she was a very she was not an educated woman. She had an eighth grade education, but she understood intuitively how to love, how to share, how to pick things up from nature and, make things happen. So she was a very influential person.
[00:25:26] Laurin: Lovely. All right. What's your favorite self-care practice?
[00:25:34] Dr. Lynn: Well, I would say it's, it's hugging and kissing my four year old granddaughter. That's that's I mean, I'm in heaven, I'm in heaven when I'm when I'm with my little granddaughter, because she makes me laugh and I laugh and you know what? I get down and I play. And I'm all. And, and I think that that's something that many of us don't do anymore. So it that's, that's a really favorite. Yeah. That's real.
[00:25:57] Laurin: Oh, that's lovely. I love that. I don't have grandchildren yet, but someday.
[00:26:01] Dr. Lynn: You wait. Oh, you wait. They're better than the kids.
[00:26:04] Laurin: That's what I hear. more fun. Less responsibility.
[00:26:08] Dr. Lynn: Right, right.
[00:26:09] Laurin: So what lights you up when you're feeling down?
[00:26:12] Dr. Lynn: When I know that my entire family is healthy and happy.
[00:26:16] Laurin: Mm-hmm
[00:26:17] Dr. Lynn: That's I mean, to me, I, I, that has always been my position in life. If my family is healthy and happy and I hear them laughing, cuz I love the sound of laughter. Then I, you know, I can get through anything. That's it. I I'll I'm back up.
[00:26:34] Laurin: yeah, yeah. One of my favorite things, I don't get to hear it very often, but when my kids who are almost 30 and 33 get together and just by themselves and they're laughing and talking and I I'll just sit downstairs and just listen to the laughter. I love it. It just makes me feel wonderful.
[00:26:51] Dr. Lynn: It, it, it it's, the laughter is the most wonderful sound in the world. It really is. Yep.
[00:26:57] Laurin: And then the last one is, do you have a favorite mantra or affirmation that you can share?
[00:27:02] Dr. Lynn: Hmm. I have so many of them but my favorite is if it is not useful, if it is not meaningful, if it is not beautiful and it is not helpful, let it go.
[00:27:19] Laurin: Oh, that's awesome. Oh, I love that.
[00:27:22] Dr. Lynn: that's what I live by. And when I, and as I go through things in my life, when I encounter them, that's how I look at them. And if they don't meet those qualifications, I let 'em go.
[00:27:34] Laurin: That's oh, what a lovely way to be able to discern if something's serving you or not.
[00:27:40] Dr. Lynn: Yeah. Yeah,
[00:27:41] Laurin: Oh, I love that. Thank you. Appreciate you sharing that with us.
[00:27:44] Dr. Lynn: Rapid fire questions, you
[00:27:46] Laurin: I know, I know. I try not to make 'em stressful. So can you tell the listeners where to find you online?
[00:27:52] Dr. Lynn: Sure they can go to Doctorlynn.com. That's my website, D O C T O R L Y N n.com. And if you go there there's a list of the classes that I do. There's a place for private consultation. If someone wants that all the books are listed, those are all bought through Amazon, but there's a whole list there. If you go to the the store. There's a background on me, anything that and all of my
Instagram, Facebook blog, all of that stuff is there. So they can follow me on any of those.
[00:28:19] Laurin: Good. Perfect. Easy. All right. Well, I wanna thank you for this amazing and wonderful and insightful conversation we've had today. I've really enjoyed having you here, and I hope our listeners have enjoyed it as much as I have. So I wanna thank the listeners for being here today. I always appreciate you showing up and, and I encourage you to leave me comments or reviews, cuz that would be wonderful to get some feedback about what you like or what you don't like.
And I hope you'll join me again on next Tuesday. When we come out with another episode of Curiously Wise, have a wonderful day and I hope to see you soon 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. 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.