Episode 1 - Intro Episode: Meet the Hosts

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Welcome to Spirit Outspoken, where we dive deep into the realms of spirituality, healing, and the beautiful chaos we call life.

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From ancient traditions to modern practices, we are going to explore it all.

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Whether you're a newbie or a seasoned seeker, you're guaranteed to find something that inspires, challenges, and intrigues you here.

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So grab your favorite beverage, find a cozy spot to curl up, and join us for Spirit Outspoken.

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Spirit Outspoken.

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I am Rachel Loney joined by my amazing co host.

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Jessa and Gasser and together, we are thrilled to be here today to kick off our brand new podcast that has been in the works for months now, called Spirit Outspoken.

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And we thought it would be a pretty good idea to hop on this morning and share a little bit about how we got started on this journey, who we are, how we became friends, and what we hope Personally, to get out of this and also what we hope you get out of it.

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Perfect.

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That sounds like a plan to me.

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Yeah.

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So Jessa, do you want to take it away and talk about our friendship and how we came to this decision to start this together.

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Absolutely.

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So let's see, we've been friends for what, almost five years now?

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Yeah.

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Which is crazy.

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It's crazy.

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It's gone so fast.

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It's flown by.

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And I'm a better person after meeting you, Rachel.

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Ditto.

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Ditto, my friend.

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Yeah.

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No, I would say.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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You are the main reason I feel that I've been set off on this spiritual journey.

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It started off in the kitchen where we were just chit chatting about some weird or unique experiences I was having intuition and kind of discovering some of my own spiritual abilities.

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And I didn't really know what to do with it.

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You connected me with resources to really help set me on my way.

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And I knew ever since then we would not stop talking about spirituality.

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Our poor yapping about listening to what I saw today.

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The angels were speaking to me and they're like, all right, you weirdos, go get some wine and drink elsewhere.

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But really, you have always been a tremendous resource I could always tell you these weird, crazy things that were happening and you would just.

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Open arms, accept me and accept them.

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And it was always a safe space to just share and explain the unexplainable that was happening.

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And a lot of things that I was really uncomfortable to talk about out loud Hey, Rach, like this is happening.

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Or I saw that, or I experienced this and what do I do with this?

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Yeah.

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And I always thought that was really interesting.

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You've always just, your demeanor has always been really safe and open and welcoming and Oh yeah, no, nothing like starting a podcast to share with your best friend how you're feeling about them.

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But sincerely of course, subsequent things happened since we first met and I should probably share a little bit about myself and who I am.

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So yeah.

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Yeah.

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I am a mother of three beautiful boys and my husband Charlie and I experienced a life altering event last year where our second oldest son was diagnosed with leukemia.

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We went into a doctor's office fully expecting to hear worst case scenario.

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He had asthma.

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And instead learned that he had a ginormous tumor in his chest that it was taking over basically his entire body.

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There was cancer on every square inch of him.

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Things quite literally changed in an instant, and In terms of our friendship you were the one that just hopped right on the spiritual bandwagon with me I mean we had hundreds of people praying for us for sure.

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Yeah, but the multiple they touch points of okay, I'm doing this meditation for you.

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I'm praying this for you.

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I'm visualizing health, right?

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Like really aligning to my belief system and what I believe to be true and the outcomes that we can have as moms, friends, people, you were right there in it with me.

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From day one and you've been since the beginning.

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So for me, This is really full circle for us to take a personally tragic event that you've obviously been very close to and you've experienced, almost as much of it as I have, right?

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Like you're watching it from the outside and you know exactly what's going on to now being at a place where we both are really feeling called to bring health, wellness, spirituality to other people, right?

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We both have unique experiences that have brought us to this path.

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And I think it would be really cool for you to share your experience and why you're interested in doing this and how we got here.

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Yeah.

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I think you said that perfectly about how it all comes full circle because the longer I live this life, the more I see that pattern of even when things happen to us.

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Yes.

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That are scary or terrible or tragic.

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There's this amazing way that God or the universe, whatever you want to call it, just this amazing way of it somehow becoming this beautifully transformed experience in your life that has a way of changing you on a very deep soul level and then allowing you to share that with others, which is just amazing.

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Incredible and beautiful and what it's all about really that we ourselves can heal and then be a resource for others to do the same.

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So we met during COVID, I believe, right?

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On the golf course.

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Was it probably, yeah, it had COVID because that was like when I first started golfing.

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Yeah.

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All of us, we needed something to do.

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I was like, our husbands can go do something safe outside for multiple hours and drink.

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I guess I golf now too.

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Yes.

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Yeah.

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I know we all hopped on that bandwagon.

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Exactly.

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So my backstory I have had a lot of grief woven throughout my life in different ways.

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My father passed away in a car accident when I was 10.

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My brother, after my dad's passing, was troubled and lost and eventually, got into drugs and alcohol.

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So watching someone go through addiction and seeing them literally transform into someone you don't even recognize is grief in a different form.

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And then eventually went on and struggled with infertility for a while and that was a long journey of grief and just feeling completely out of control.

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My sister in law Passed away tragically from suicide and then two years later, I lost my brother to a drug overdose and I just say all this to lead me now into COVID.

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And COVID stirred in me.

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A huge trauma response because I'm terrified, obviously, of losing people I love when we saw the news and we didn't know what this thing was.

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And we just heard about all these people dying and it was coming our direction.

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and the stakes this time around with having two children, My anxiety just soared on top of being home with kids 24 seven.

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And on top of just like the regular stress, I had just that I was experiencing some.

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levels of stress that I had never experienced before.

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Panic attacks and, I had vertigo and numbness and tingling in my extremities and heart palpitations and hearing loss in one year.

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Just like these bizarre things, which only then make the anxiety worse.

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But it was, A blessing and that I started looking to God what are some spiritual ways and meditative ways that I can get my cortisol levels down in addition to medication.

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I am not opposed.

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Oh yeah we frequently interchanged medication and.

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Meditation here on spirit outspoken.

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Just and I know that can be controversial, but I just think that some points life gets to be too much, like it's too much.

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And every once in a while we all need a little leg up.

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And for me, At that point, it was just what I needed to allow my nervous system to calm down a little bit so that I could actually go deeper in my healing.

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Does that make sense?

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Because when I was up here and all over the place I couldn't even get down to where anything was helpful.

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And I just say that as like a public service announcement.

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Yeah.

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If anyone's struggling, don't be ashamed of that.

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'cause I had tried everything too and it took someone looking at me and saying, you've tried everything.

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it's okay.

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Yeah.

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Like it's okay to take the medication if you need it.

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Yeah.

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And it's very helpful Absolutely.

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When people really need it.

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Okay.

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But it was during that time that my spirituality just took on a life of its own.

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It was like, all of a sudden I was looking at everything through fresh eyes and seeing things in a totally new, different way.

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And the best part was I was truly healing.

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Inside I was becoming a different person.

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I felt different in my own skin.

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I saw the world differently I showed up differently as a spouse as a mom as a friend and I was like, oh my gosh, like how long I've been living this one way and This is what it's all about, right?

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And I'm still growing.

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I don't want to make it sound like I have it all figured out.

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I don't.

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Nobody does.

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Because it's continual work that we'll all continue to do throughout our lives.

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But that's what just created and ignited this passion in me to want to help other people see this and experience this.

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And even if I can be one small little, piece of helping somebody grow, that's amazing.

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So it was after that I decided to go back to school and become a certified integrative health coach.

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And, it's funny how all of a sudden you start meeting people who align and just like with you, all of a sudden, constant conversations about healing and growth and spirituality and all these things.

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So yeah, I just really believe that there's a reason we were brought together and hopefully we can both.

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Do and put some good out into the world.

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No, I agree.

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I guess it's the older you get too, you realize that it's the traumatic events that have the biggest positive impact on your life.

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Absolutely.

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Because we're not going to turn to God.

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We're not going to turn to spirituality.

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If everything is just hunky dory all the time, right?

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And when you say that you are a completely different person, I look back to the person that walked into the doctor's office before I knew my son had cancer, and I look at myself today and I am a completely different person and I am so thankful for the changes that have taken place in my life because, trauma has such a incredible way of waking you up and realizing what's important to you.

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And I think too, that when you ask for help, when you turn to God, when you surrender, it's like, You will be directed on a path that shows you where to go next.

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And I think what's really beautiful is that the subsequent things that have happened for both of us have led us here, and what a beautiful thing that we, and I can say regardless of the amount of.

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Trauma and grief you've been through.

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You are one of the most positive, happy just bright individuals.

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And I think that speaks to what spirituality can do and what faith can do I think when you make a decision to have it work for you, not against you really amazing things can happen and it can change us in the best way, if we can, share our own experience and help other people that are in a tough spot or going through things and.

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Want tools or resources or other shared experiences to hang on to.

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Yes.

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And just to feel that you're not alone.

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Everyone has a story, right?

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Everyone has a story.

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Everyone has hardship.

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None of us are, able to get through this life without experiencing that.

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So I think sometimes to hear other people's experiences and stories and know that you're not alone.

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Yep.

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And to know that, we're all.

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Working together to try to do the best we can and what are the tools and ways that can help us through these really hard times?

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Absolutely.

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Yeah.

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One thing I want to make sure we mention is how we are going to help people because one of the really important things that we talked about when we started this Was making sure that there's educational application of this.

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How do I take what we talk about on this show and apply it to my daily life?

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So do you want to share how we're going to set things up and what they can expect?

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Yes.

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And I think it's really important for both of us because we understand through our own conversations, our own dialogue with other individuals and especially women, They are looking for something, and I don't necessarily mean this is in replace of their existing cultural or religious or spiritual beliefs, but they're looking for something deeper or more profound that connect them in a more meaningful way.

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And us just talking about it, I think is one part, right?

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But we really want to arm people like you mentioned with resources and ways to get started at home.

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So what that can look like are, suggested meditations journal prompts reading resources, right?

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Like things that they can leverage or kind of homework, if you will.

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It's fun homework.

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I promise.

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Yeah.

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I don't like boring homework.

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And that individuals can do after each episode to learn more and develop that practice.

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And everybody's going to be drawn to certain practices more so than others or certain aspects of spirituality.

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So figure out what works for you.

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But after every single episode, I promise we won't leave you hanging.

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We'll always give you materials to either learn more about it.

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or develop it or, facilitate it with a friend or a small group because it's all about, self development and growing closer to not only God, but to your friends and community and spirituality is such a good way to do that.

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Absolutely.

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And we want it to be fun, right?

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We've had a lot of discussions about that too, is that sometimes we feel like spirituality has this heavy or deep or serious kind of tone to it.

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It can be a snooze fest, let's be honest.

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Yeah.

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But it can also fun.

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And you can be really playful with it.

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Yes.

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And you can try things and just see if you like it.

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You don't have to incorporate those practices forever.

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God forbid people laugh, but yeah, just to bring joy and lightness to this too is another part of what we're trying to accomplish.

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Isn't that medicine all in of itself?

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It really is.

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I know.

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A place where people can feel connected.

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Yeah.

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Just here's some positive.

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Yeah.

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News, right?

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Like the world can feel really heavy, especially on an election year and all the other things going on in the world right now.

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Just to have a place to plug in and be inspired and feel supported and feel seen and hopefully understood and grow and evolve as people.

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Absolutely.

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And Rach and I have talked about this.

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We want to.

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Really collaborate with our community.

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So the best way to do that is to follow us on Tik TOK or Instagram, whatever your social platform is of choice.

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We are going to be setting up an email newsletter.

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We're going to be having blogs.

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So listen, if there is something in particular that you're interested about learning more of, or something that you have found particularly interesting or powerful in your own life, we want to hear about it.

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Yes, because we would love the ideas.

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Trust me, we've got ideas up the wazoo, but.

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Okay.

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We're always open for, yes, we want to talk about things that listeners are interested in learning about.

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So please feel free to reach out, send us a DM, comments share our posts with other friends and your community.

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We, we want to get as much feedback and input as possible.

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Absolutely.

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But we are so excited.

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We're excited.

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Thrilled.

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Yeah.

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Honored.

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To be here.

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Yes.

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It's just a wonderful opportunity for us.

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Absolutely.

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All roads have led here and I'm really excited to see what's next.

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So check us out.

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Stay tuned for our first episode launching end of September thanks for joining us for today's episode.

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If you're ready to take your spirituality to the next level, be sure to check out our website, spiritoutspoken.

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com.

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There you can download free educational resources, read our latest blog posts, and join the Spirit Outspoken community.

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And don't forget to follow us on Instagram and TikTok at Spirit Outspoken to stay up to date on news, happenings, shenanigans, and all things Spirit Outspoken.