TSM Episode 38: Bridging Cultures, Yoga, Violence Prevention & Healing Of Generations

Welcome to Episode 38, Season 3 of "Triggers and Spiritual Medicine" with your host, Laura Bonetzky Joseph, and our Everlutionary guest, Hawah Kasat.

In this episode, Laura and Hawah engaged in a rich discussion on personal experiences, cultural identities, spiritual practices, and what it takes to be truly "Everlutionary". They emphasized the importance of creating safe spaces and addressing global challenges with love, empathy, and cooperation.

Hawah shared stories of his upbringing in New Jersey and summers in India, which shaped his views on racism, xenophobia, and the need for healing. He discussed navigating cultural identities, founding the nonprofit One Common Unity, and becoming a UN delegate. Hawah highlighted the importance of expanding perspectives, finding joy in service, and the mental attitude necessary for spiritual growth.

Both Laura and Hawah discussed the challenges of translating spiritual practices like Reiki and yoga across cultures and spoke about the need for fostering belonging and redefining success. 

We conclude with Hawah sharing 3 tips that emphasize the importance of creating safe spaces, fostering understanding, and addressing global challenges through love, empathy, and cooperation.

As always, please share, like, and support if you found this episode helpful.

ABOUT TRIGGERS & SPIRITUAL MEDICINE PODCAST:

Real talk. Let's address the elephant in the room to the growing "sickness" in our society, address root issues and provide sustainable solutions.

We hope by addressing the intersectionality and connect the dots like a web of many of society’s challenges, we can help others understand the trauma infection that impacts all areas of life – addiction, domestic violence, racism, homelessness, sexual abuse, chronic health issues, cancer, environmental issues, climate change and more.

In this NEW collaborative program, we hope by highlighting these infected areas and what they share in common, a new perspective of solutions, healing, and resolutions can be birthed.

Each episode addresses a certain trigger while offering the spiritual medicine with at least 3 tips or actionable steps our listeners can take and implement.

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Transcript

0:01 welcome to triggers and spiritual medicine a community built and

0:07 Grassroots based podcast that addresses the root issues and triggers at the

0:12 intersection of our health systems of Oppression and cultural conditioning

0:18 together we explore what is truly ailing us as human beings in today's

0:25 world this space is non-commercialized no advertising dollar are involved

0:31 because our mission is clear to dive deep into the hearts of our Collective

0:36 struggles and discover the spiritual medicine that can heal us personally

0:41 within our families our communities and Collective each month we sit down with

0:47 some extraordinary guests with some incredible stories who share their

0:53 wisdom and offer at least three actionable steps to help you on your

0:58 journey this is more than just a conversation it's a call to action a

1:04 chance to tap in to the healing tools we all need to move forward as a species we

1:13 explore root systems and causes through stories of healing and recovery from

1:19 addiction cancer chronic illness domestic abuse and more we learn from

1:26 wisdom Keepers medicine people and lineage holders of sacred Traditions unraveling the

1:33 Mysteries that have survived for a millennia and examining why in Western

1:38 societies we are sicker than ever before you'll hear stories from people who have

1:45 used spiritual medicine at and their healing Journey whether through meditation Reiki expressive Arts yoga

1:54 plants or unpacking religious indoctrination persecution or

2:00 decolonizing mental constructs if you believe in this Mission please subscribe and support our

2:07 mission by commenting engaging and sharing it with others you can also

2:13 become a patreon member to support our domestic violence community and sacred

2:18 activist work membership levels start for free or you can join for just $5 a

2:24 month to gain Insider information exclusive content and more whether you

2:30 are a Healer a Seeker or simply just curious you are in the right place so

2:36 let's judney together my name is Laura beneski Joseph and I am today's hostess

2:42 with the mostess of your next episode of triggers and spiritual

2:50 medicine so today's guest is haak casad and I cannot tell you what a joy you are

2:59 in for for a treat how please uh introduce yourself

3:05 and you know listening to your bio by the way and and really looking into your

3:11 your life story it quite is fascin the quite fascinating to me your journey has

3:17 been I just want to keep using the word fascinating it is like you know when I first met you talking about you know

3:24 your history with yoga growing up and you know also kind of trying to run away

3:31 from that journey and then looking what you have accomplished can you please like share that those early stages of

3:38 like kind of running away from who you were to kind of coming back to that part

3:43 that kind of LED you to all the things you've accomplished um absolutely no thank you

3:49 for thank you for inviting me uh thanks for having me on the show it's an honor

3:54 to be here and uh yeah I just want to like lift you up for the work you're doing in creating

4:01 spaces for these conversations that are so important and vital to our Global

4:07 planetary healing and transformation so thank you for doing that and it was

4:12 awesome to meet you in person at Calo um so thanks for coming to that training uh

4:19 shout out to to our crew there for mastering Alchemy The Retreat um yeah I'm I'm I'm zooming in

4:27 right now from uh from California I now live in Northern California so you got

4:33 some small redwoods behind me and if you're just on audio I uh I moved here

4:39 from Washington DC uh which was my home for about 20 20 plus years actually I

4:45 mean I spent more than half my life in Washington DC probably uh really

4:51 formative and before that I was born in New Jersey um back in central New Jersey

4:58 like smacked between Philadelphia and New York City so about an hour from each

5:03 major major Metropolis City there um and I had a really interesting childhood

5:09 Laura because I I did all my public schooling here in the States but I was

5:15 really really molded and shaped and nurtured through these trips that um I

5:23 would go on with my family on the Summers to India to Mumbai so I would

5:29 spend in between those school years like like second and third grade like that

5:35 summer between that summer break um I would often go to India and spend those

5:42 two two and a half months in Mumbai and be surrounded by a vastly different

5:50 world a vastly different life um vastly different

5:55 culture and those were really formative experiences in my life um and then I

6:01 would come back from India to New Jersey uh and resume public school and I

6:07 was living in a predominantly white Suburban town in New Jersey and the um

6:16 the sort of exposure to people like me was was a little limited there was there

6:21 was not that many brown and black people bodies humans that were living uh in my

6:28 neighborhood and going to the schools that I went to so I think there's a lot of confusion a lot of um a lot of xen

6:35 xenophobia a lot of racism that all kind of shaped my upbringing as I was a kid

6:41 uh really kind of opened my eyes at an early age to how the world is so

6:47 different depending on where you just happen to be born uh and just how vastly

6:55 different uh life experiences could be just by the virt of what country you're born in and where you're raised and so

7:03 it inspired me at a young age to get really intrigued by these bigger existential questions and also to get

7:10 really motivated in trying to use the precious little time that I have in life

7:18 to try and make something happen uh something beautiful happen in terms of

7:24 my role my ability to create impact and to support people

7:30 uh and support myself in in healing from generations and generations of trauma

7:36 that um that's a result of racism and and xenophobia and these uh these ways

7:44 that we try to belong in a world that might not want all of us to belong equally I remember hearing um you know

7:53 when we were at Mastery and Alchemy and shout out to the crew and

8:00 um you know hearing like that if I recall correctly that there was a party

8:05 at one point that kind of ran away from your own ancestry in a way because you you

8:12 you do have like uncles that are pretty well-known Yogi gurus correct in

8:18 India yeah no it's right I have um uh my dad's younger brother uh his name is

8:26 Swami Govinda nji he lives in vava which is the birthplace of um the Hindu deity

8:33 and Lord Krishna um so and there's there's uh

8:40 there's his life which is a great inspiration to to many people he's he's

8:45 a he's he's definitely a very gifted and deeply um deeply respected and honored

8:54 Swami and sadu in in India so um I do have that in my lineage and uh I I think

9:02 from a young age the

9:08 the the ways that I was trying to integrate and understand my place in the

9:14 world was by fitting in right and so where I fit in and where I was trying to

9:20 fit in was where I predominantly spent most of my time which was up until I left for college uh which was to

9:27 Washington DC up until that time it was in New Jersey and so to fit in in in the

9:34 white Suburban town of New Jersey where I lived I very quickly recognized and

9:40 felt in my body and through my lived experience that uh that fitting in was

9:47 not me speaking Hindi with my mom um and my dad right uh fitting in was not

9:56 um was not my friends walking into my bedroom uh which in my younger years was

10:04 like my mom's prayer room it was her Puja room and seeing images of like the

10:10 six armed dur you know goddess or the Ganesh uh which is the elephant headed

10:19 deity in God in Hinduism and the pantheon uh sitting in the doorway or like a large image of Hanuman the monkey

10:27 god with the monkey face carrying a mountain Mountain over my bed uh these big images that were in my bedroom would

10:34 cause a lot of uh a lot of eyebrows to raise a lot of questions um and

10:41 sometimes like mockery you know uh just like people making fun of these

10:46 images and so yeah from a young age I realized that fitting in was actually me

10:52 getting into the basement as quick as I could getting out of my mom's uh othy

10:58 room and her Puja room and into my own bedroom where my friends could come in and I could be like immersed with like

11:06 my Spider-Man posters and my my Lamborghini poster and my poster of my

11:14

favorite rock band you know and so I did I did all the things and of course I was

11:19

interested in those things too I was a kid growing up and you know in this Western culture which I I consider

11:26

myself more Western than Eastern um clearly uh because I was born and raised

11:31

here in America but I sometimes like feel that my my my heart and my

11:38

disposition is probably as close to eastern as a Westerner can get if if

11:44

that makes sense um I can completely resonate I mean you know listening to your story just about what you experienc

11:51

as a child I can resonate in a different area different story where you know my

11:57

father's side you know being first generation immigrants from Ukraine and Russia were also Russian

12:05

Orthodox and my mother was Catholic Irish Catholic and um 10 years of Catholic

12:11

school being in second grade but also coming from a family lineage of a multigenerational Healer

12:19

and intuitive by multiple Generations that's not welcomed so I had

12:26

those inner conflicts and I remember being in second grade almost feeling

12:31

like I was going to get expelled from Catholic school because I had a prayer request very innocently about my

12:38

grandfather and just I mean slightly different but it's like what we experience that forms us as children

12:46

right it's like those foundational things and it forms our belief systems

12:51

and you know so I actually spent because of that running away from my own

12:58

ancestry and my own who I was as a

13:03

multi-generational Healer and intuitive now I like kind of throwing it out there Crone witch just because as somebody put

13:10

it it's like you're reclaiming that aspect right so um so I it's quite

13:16

fascinating when I hear this and I and I can see this little boy and just feeling like what that feels like and I know

13:23

what some of that teasing feels like right for those who' have been teased as children and then you want to conform

13:29

you know and I did I tried to conform I tried to forget I tried to unpack I tried to say no I can't do that you know

13:35

I'm not going to listen to this you know and yeah you know I grew up I mean there's a lot of weird stuff that

13:41

happens in Boston but how did that shape you though because that also like you had these gifts it's like the The

13:48

Duality right and it's like um The Duality that happens simultaneously of

13:54

who you are versus here's this other piece and then how you integrate it right yeah and so when you move to DC

14:03

one of the things I kind of want to move to is what was that moment what was that

14:09

triggering moment that made you go aha to basically want to reclaim all those

14:15

things you were running away from yeah that's a great question um it's a great

14:21

question I mean I think to start there's uh there's like a deep desire for all of

14:27

us um to belong and want to fit in right and I

14:33

think I as a young child I didn't really

14:38

understand um that Primal need I just knew that it was there um and I would do

14:45

all I could to try and try and fit in and and that's not right or wrong that's

14:52

just what what life is right that that's that's what we do as humans um and so

14:58

part part of my experience in terms of like my my understanding of vant which

15:06

is like Eastern like the the sort of root and the origin of a lot of Eastern philosophy that comes out of the

15:12

subcontinent of India specifically um that was kind of just a

15:18

part of the language that I was around my whole upbringing right so my mom was

15:24

be chanting the um the guy montra my mom would be chanting the mahaa Mantra I'd

15:31

be listening to the babad Gita um when I was like a baby you know a child and so

15:38

a lot of things that teachers and practitioners and those that are training in these arts and and these

15:45

Sciences of the yogic uh V Veda um schools what they're learning is

15:52

something that is is a little bit less of a challenge for someone that's been

15:58

in my position where like the Sanskrit words the Hindi words that's all part of a language that we've spoken since we

16:04

were children so we're not learning new language when we hear the word Moka or samadi um when we hear the word uh you

16:13

know samsara or Maya we we are we speak these words in our you know in the day-to-day language and so the sort of

16:21

the uptick to learn that stuff was less for me um and at the same time I

16:28

remember even like being always in a place of like not wanting to be uh just

16:36

a yoga teacher or or like you know a meditation teacher and I remember there

16:42

being a resistance uh when I when I got to DC I went to DC for for college of

16:48

course and I wasn't really thinking about yoga at that time in the way that

16:53

the Western world thinks about it um I didn't really understand how how it was

17:00

a a a physical exercise as as westerners have interpreted yoga to be I I've

17:06

always known yoga to be uh a much more expansive uh practice around the depths

17:14

of our ability to understand our relationality to the universe and our

17:19

deeper gifts and purpose in life Rel to that with raiki by the way too with

17:25

Western raiki versus raiki in Japan raiki Japan is much different than how

17:31

it is in the west so I completely understand where you're coming from with that too yeah how's it

17:37

different how's the Reiki in Japan so well there's questions and I actually wrote about it in this book here secrets

17:43

to Healing where um you know there's a lot of questions of whether or not the person Mrs Takata

17:50

who brought raiki who were blessed to have it and brought it to the West whether or not she may have even learned

17:56

the full training the full lineage and then there's the aspects of what

18:02

happened to the Japanese after World War II with the interment camps and everything

18:08

else and because we didn't know the roots and Foundation of raiki which was really based on the Japanese IND

18:16

indigenous practices or Shinto which Shinto is basically the indigenous

18:22

Japanese and Japanese Buddhism so and it's really you know

18:27

this is what this book goes into to are those five precepts which are really the foundation of raiki which have less to

18:33

do with hey let me put lay in my table and I'll do some energy healing with handson it's less about that that's 5%

18:41

of really what the raiki process is it's really about the other piece but we are

18:47

missing that in the west because we don't understand Japanese language we don't understand Japanese culture we

18:52

don't understand the foundations of where that all comes from so um and then

18:59

this question of whether or not she streamlined it to make it more palatable or whitewashed it for because she

19:06

thought she was the last so my teacher's mother studied with Dr hiyashi Who was

19:12

given permission by the found of raiki to

19:17

really he actually created um a center where he did raiki research in Japan so

19:23

that's how we know how to even from a treatment standpoint what him positions

19:29

like acupuncture where to go to do what but it came you don't see that in the west and that's a much more extensive

19:35

like you can't learn that in a day totally no totally and I love that you

19:40

you know you brought that in I mean the whitewashing of these ancient traditions and practices is is what we see often

19:47

when it tries to become translated into the West uh because the and capitalized

19:53

capitalized commodified yeah and and in that process of of trying to like learn

20:02

a practice that's so deeply embedded into a culture without the supporting culture it's like you you you you lose

20:09

the whole Foundation of what the what the art technology um is is based in and

20:16

so it becomes uh sadly a very narrow expression of the entire um of the

20:24

entire of the entire process and practice so or as I would say it's nice

20:31

like a glass of wine is nice but like you don't know what you're

20:37

missing until you really either find a teacher or find somebody who is so

20:43

rooted like they just walk in the door they don't have to even you just know

20:48

like there's just I can't put words into it there's just like a there's a knowing like when I met my teachers with the

20:55

lineage I'm associated with in Japan it's it was like

21:01

wow not like I just knew you know the minute they walked in the door and I go

21:06

you changed my life and it was because of learning and studying with them now for I mean I learned raiki like almost

21:13

20 years ago but it's them with probably the last uh 10 years I like my my

21:22

complex PTSD is like boom like it transformed it and it's

21:29

something that you can't put into words you can't commodify you can't like do a

21:38

uh a social media real and and and have it all fluffy and beautiful and you it

21:45

doesn't work like that yeah you know the one thing I had a hard time with writing this book was how do I translate it for

21:52

Western minds and how do I and even going back there's an aspect called K of

21:58

dama kod of dama means words have spiritual power but when I was thinking about that from the Western mind I go we

22:06

have Monas here in the west we understand about affirmations right we

22:11

understand about that but if we truly understood this and we implemented it in the west we wouldn't be having a health

22:19

care crisis the way we have it in this country we wouldn't be having all these

22:25

other things you know we wouldn't be living in a different way and we're not so what what is it what is why don't we

22:34

understand that so I actually and I remember my Japanese teachers didn't want me framing it in this way was

22:40

comparing it to gaslighting and I said but Americans

22:45

from their mind will understand what gaslighting and how that feels even though kotodama is really

22:53

more about it's the frequency and vibration of the words not necessar neily the words so it's it's slightly

23:02

different and they believe it so much that when they leave there's an energetic imprint behind even when they

23:08

die from that Kodama perspective so because I had a trouble understanding

23:13

why when I would ask my Japanese teacher like you know for an answer and they would never say no and then my other one

23:20

who was like a good Bridge was like because no is like putting bad juju like

23:26

in the air so their way of say no it be a think about it right yeah you know I

23:33

don't know if you can relate to that uh yeah absolutely no I think that there's um there's there's a lot of

23:41

resonance a lot of overlap between your experience and a lot of the experiences

23:46

that those who are are identify as South Asian in the United States of America or

23:53

even Europe um feel when we see um our

23:59

ancient practice kind of boxed commodified and whitewashed and

24:06

misinterpreted in the ways that it has been um you know for me when I went to

24:12

Washington DC from New Jersey I was very clear that

24:19

I um I wanted to to do something with my life that

24:26

would somehow be able to bridge uh eastern and western worlds and most importantly I

24:35

was impacted really deeply as a kid from the poverty I was experiencing and

24:41

seeing in India and so while in India

24:47

being confronted with and experiencing um and being with people that had very

24:55

little running water very little electricity being with cousins that uh you know did

25:02

not have as much access to the types of resources material resources even just

25:08

like shoes and clothes as as I did and my sister did like those experiences

25:14

made me feel very much in my gut that I wanted to do something that could create

25:21

some kind of impact uh around what I found to be just unfair right and I

25:29

didn't have words or language yet for this I didn't even have really good words or language for institutional

25:34

racism or structural violence I didn't understand what economic Justice was um

25:40

at these young at this young age like in my teens when I was 15 or 13 years old I

25:46

just knew that something felt really wrong I felt like something was really off and there was an imbalance uh in how

25:54

we were organizing the world it felt um it felt unfortunate to me that that

26:03

in one part of the world there could be so much waste and in another part of the world uh there could be so much scarcity

26:09

right and so by the time I got to college and I got to DC I knew that I

26:14

needed to explore what my role was going to be as somebody born here in the west with a

26:21

lot of privilege holding the US Passport um what was my role going to be in ex AV

26:28

ating and trying to understand the forces that shape the world and and

26:34

create sort of the the the Paradigm that we live in today and so I did spend like

26:41

those years of my life in college studying education and philosophy and

26:46

specifically peace and conflict resolution um I didn't set out to um to

26:52

to fully I don't think I fully understood what I was getting into like by my junior college I moved into um an

27:01

americore program where I was a big brother and a mentor to third and fourth graders and that's when I started to see

27:08

how how education was really missing

27:13

what I what I found to be one of the most important parts of learning which is creating a desire and a love for

27:20

Learning and teaching to the whole part whole person the whole child uh as as a

27:26

being that is fil with a lot of needs um

27:31

that are social and emotional needs uh as well as academic intellectual needs

27:37

right and so how do we meet the social and emotional needs the foundational needs that children have um

27:43

how do we support them in finding health and wellness and how can health and wellness be more than just uh our

27:51

understanding of success here in in the in the United States because success looks very differently in different

27:57

parts to the world and I was aware of that because I've been traveling the world at this point um and so I think

28:04

for me that like like part of that trigger was like realizing that I didn't

28:10

just want to be um I I didn't want to just be boxed into one space like I kind

28:16

of I think from a young age was was seeing the patterns and noticing

28:24

how the the world is really intersection

28:29

and that from a young age I I didn't see how like being um being in one box was

28:38

going to help us Bridge the intersectionality of how these issues are all interrelated and so that's why I

28:45

spent so much of my career um at first you know spending so much of my career in this in this space of education and

28:52

violence prevention and then developing um curriculum to to think

28:58

about how to create healing within communities that were fractured and torn by racism by Violence by by poverty um

29:07

and that became really the central focus of my work and it became the focus of my

29:14

work because I think I personally experienced racism as a child I personally experienced um not knowing where I

29:22

belonged and where I fit in and I wanted to somehow help other children that were

29:28

feeling similarly to how I felt when I was a kid I wanted to be able to create

29:34

Pathways and opportunities for children to not feel and experience what I felt

29:40

um to know that they belonged to know that they have purpose and to know that

29:46

people people um care for them uh so it's so fascinating like you know this

29:54

is where privilege comes in right and where we don't think you know I hear all the time racism like get over it and and

30:02

I and I try to educate people because I have been fortunate to have some or been exposed to some pretty amazing folks of

30:10

color in my life and um and I'll never forget there was this one kid I met it

30:16

was during the pandemic actually something was wrong with my car so I went to the auto place and

30:22

trying to figure out do the little test thingy whatever and he came out and he guided me take my mask down and I didn't

30:29

understand why cuz he said he was deaf so just because of the natural curious

30:35

conversation that I was just how I do as I always ask oh how did you lose your

30:41

hearing because he was very young and he was kind of shy and I kind of knew why he was a little shy about coming forth

30:48

with why and but it turned out we had this amazing conversation and so I

30:54

invited him to possibly come do some stuff at my space and

31:00

um he made a kind of a a polite gesture was like folks like me tried to avoid

31:07

that town and gave me a good schooling as to why and he says I have a great

31:14

relationship with the police department here they we have you know built friendships and things like that but

31:19

it's like you know folks like me we don't have to think about you know

31:24

something as simple as racism or why we avoid driving through certain towns you

31:30

know and I think the icing of the cake was I had a former mentor of mine when I

31:36

was doing uh an Addiction Counseling internship and um my former boss came to

31:43

my house just uh to talk about a few things and happened to be a person of color and accidentally parked to I said

31:51

you know I lived in a condo out of all the neighbors spaces he had to accidentally Park his car into it was

31:58

the one person you go that neighbor and I just remember like here I

32:04

am trying to create safe spaces and he was like Lord thank you very much and the minute he left my door

32:10

he like time to hit out of here and because you know and I and it made me feel horrible

32:17

because I'm like I can create a safe space within my space but the minute they walk out my

32:23

door they're not safe yeah and so it's it was a good schooling and I would

32:29

encourage anybody who thinks especially if you're white like be open have conversations and understand that the

32:37

privilege goes deeper than than what you think you know and um and so I

32:42

appreciate you sharing that you know and I also wonder as I'm listening to you

32:49

like we have this duality of what you're experiencing right like the the the racism and all in the the privilege but

32:56

also I wondered how how much of a role of growing up in a Hindi

33:02

family played a role in your level of mindfulness to know at a very young age

33:08

like I'm looking at your level of awareness at such a young age to know

33:14

like you said like I heard you say well I don't quite know where it's going but I'm sort of going like he's much more

33:19

well connected to his path than he re than I'm thinking that you realize at a

33:24

young age well let's I mean first of all let's be be clear I was whing out when I was a kid um I mean sure I had a lot of

33:33

uh early life experience that made me made me aware of of privilege it made me

33:39

aware of this Stark reality of poverty that was not the kind of poverty you see

33:45

in the west but the type of poverty if anybody's been to India um you I was in Africa so I I was there for a month and

33:52

I got to see things very clearly there you get to see you get to see life in a very different scale so I think I just

33:59

had a lot of life experiences and I was I was pretty wild um never never can I

34:06

act like I just had my together because I didn't um you know through college uh you know I the by senior year

34:16

of high school um junior year of high school senior year of high school through my sophomore year of college I

34:23

mean drugs and alcohol were a very big part of my life uh I actually left

34:29

College after my sophomore year because my friend group was we were just well

34:36

just full-blown uh you know partyers and my roommate uh I canate with that was a

34:43

full-blown alcoholic and I I dealt with um and I participated and I hung out and

34:51

worked in in my own ways with like trying to get uh just being a young did

34:58

that was was also trying to enjoy life and figure out you know as I was fitting

35:03

in and and feeling like in in in my power like experimenting with with being

35:09

alive um definitely like didn't have my together uh you know I

35:16

remember I remember going I mean I was I was an americore member right this

35:24

was probably like this was between my sophomore and Junior at College where I I I dropped out for a year at College to

35:30

join this americore program and wasn't sure if I wanted to go back to college I I wasn't feeling inspired by college um

35:38

but and I I remember being in DC and I was in Southeast DC and I I was we had

35:45

to go on a field trip and I was like a big brother to these to these third and fourth graders and spending I was up all

35:53

night partying um with my friends dancing um and literally going in pretty

36:01

bloodshot you know red eyes like showing up on the school bus without sleeping at

36:07

all the night before and uh you know I just remember being on the bus and it

36:15

was a bus filled with like like 20 20 kids between like third grade and sixth

36:20

grade and like me and like six other mentors um and teachers that were were

36:27

you know and I was just recovering from a night of partying uh and so

36:33

like I don't think I for you I don't think I did Justice in that moment you

36:38

know for like all the places I was um and it took a while like I had to have a

36:44

big falling out with my friends um by my Soph you know the way drugs and alcohol will rip uh so many things a part

36:51

including relationships um you know I had a big falling out with my friends after my sophomore year of college and

36:58

and and I triggered myself like back to your trigger conversations like because I knew inside

37:06

that that I I shouldn't be wasting this opportunity I have like there was

37:11

something inside of me that was very clear around how like

37:17

deeply um fortunate and lucky I was to be in the position I was in and there

37:23

was another part of me that was like just expressing myself as as a young you

37:30

know as a young like human that just wanted to like like party and hang out

37:36

and so like there was a deep conflict within me around like what do I do and at some point I just I I realized that

37:44

that I was on the wrong path you know for years um and I got a lot out of my system too though yeah so I'm wondering

37:51

and I know is this like the era where you also maybe weaved when did like music and spoken word and I know you

37:59

recorded even album like when did that kind of weave in too yeah that started weaving in in in in college I love

38:06

poetry throughout you know throughout um my time um in in high school even I was a

38:16

poet I I was have very melancholy days and I'd like write poetry and sit alone

38:22

and then through college it was like I mean poetry and journal writing was just this just part of how I Pro processed

38:27

and how I like made sense of the world um and then around my my sophomore year

38:35

at College I left school I moved kind of into an area of DC known as as uh UST

38:43

Street and um at that time this was UST Street um at a time when there's a lot

38:50

of underground musical venues a lot of like spoken word um a lot of like

38:56

conscious hip-hop and I met a lot of people um a few of those people I went on to start a nonprofit with the year I

39:03

graduated from college so uh but I met people that were very deeply immersed in

39:09

the music and the Arts and the social justice them I became by my you know

39:14

junior year of college when I came back to school I became really involved like I kind of had my own like aha moment

39:22

like coming to to self um by like my junior college when I finally went back

39:28

I I had a fire under my young CU I mean some people don't get their aha moment till like they're 60 or 70 sometimes you

39:36

know that's fair no I I did you know and I think this was you know part of part

39:41

of my my like I think I was in the right place at the right time um and I I had I

39:48

had known from a young age that like by the time I was like a junior senior in

39:54

college I knew I didn't care about making money I knew my life was not about how much money I could earn and what

39:59

kind of car I could drive and how like comfortable I could have my life or like those are not the things that were

40:05

important to me um at that age you know in my early 20s I I had deep realization

40:11

that like I'm here to serve I'm here to serve like use me as a vessel that was my my montra that was like Carry Me

40:18

Through My Days like I started the nonprofit organization because I wanted to serve I wanted to give back I became

40:26

a United Nations delegate um and worked on the World Conference Against Racism

40:32

because I needed to find a way to get my hands into the mess um talk about how

40:39

did you get involved in that like where did that come about like because I mean that's like you know

40:45

creating a nonprofit is nice right like but then how do you go from like nonprofit just getting out of college to

40:51

the UN well so let's tie that all together so

40:57

so the the art and the music and the spoken word became like what was the

41:03

inspiration for um for what birthed the nonprofit called one common unity and it

41:10

was me and a few friends that wanted to take a real Collective stand against

41:16

violence that was happening in our nation's capital um children were being

41:21

shot in the streets uh high school kids were losing their lives throughout the summer times um

41:30

domestic violence was was epidem was just epidemic and widespread throughout

41:35

our neighborhoods and these are the neighborhoods I'm living in you know the this is my city uh at this point and so

41:43

me and and I was the youngest of the crew there was about three or four of us

41:48

that started one common Unity um and they were older than me they were like almost like mentors to me they were like

41:55

five six seven years older than me and so um I spent time learning from them and being uh being immersed in like this

42:03

deep Excavating of like revolutionary movements and social justice movements

42:08

around the world I became intrigued and inspired and I became a part of like

42:14

what was a really important time in in I think uh

42:20

our movement building practices like I was working on campaigns against the

42:26

school of the Americas and working on Prison abolition and the prison industrial complex uh in my early 20s

42:34

like talk about 2001 2002 2003 and so and being in Washington DC

42:41

like I just happen to be in the place where one of the places where these are where protest movements were being

42:46

driven and born and this is where people were coming from around the country to protest so I was just around I was in

42:54

these places and meeting these people and the United Nations work that became a part of an extension of what I was

43:01

already doing so there was an opportunity to apply for a fellowship to

43:07

be um an ambassador like a youth ambassador to the United Nations and I I

43:12

applied at that point uh it was like around right when I graduated like senior year college and I spent a year

43:19

uh working as you know working in this youth Against Racism project um and and

43:27

so you'll kind of see the thread of like this youth work this positive Youth Development work we're in high schools

43:32

we're in Middle Schools um I'm also still pretty young in in my journey um

43:39

and I think like I think that became really pivotal in like shaping what

43:45

became the Arc of my life like I didn't I wanted to be a spoken word poet and I

43:52

was and I'd go and I'd do my poetry and I'd write and write

43:57

perform and I'd be playing my drums with my friends at the drum circles um and I

44:02

was also like in the schools working and teaching as a high school teacher uh and

44:08

building this nonprofit and raising money um and it was like this really beautiful time in my life where I also

44:14

had a chance to reclaim and to go back um to India multiple times throughout

44:21

throughout those periods for long periods of time um I would go back to India to like get back what I lost and

44:28

what I felt so much shame around when I was a child in New Jersey so I think that's all part of the story and for

44:34

those listening like if you've got kids and you know if you just got family and you you're just think about your own

44:40

life like if you feel stuck I always like recommend and and you know always

44:46

ask people to think about what it's like to like just get out of where you are and like try to try to go somewhere

44:52

different if you feel really stuck you know maybe you need to leave the country maybe you got to go live in a village

44:58

somewhere um in the rainforest for a little while get some get some perspective you know like for me

45:05

perspective has been the greatest teacher in my life um that was actually very good for me when I graduated

45:11

college was actually the peak of the recession in 1994 and so I was looking at job

45:18

applications at the time first of all that's when Microsoft came out my degree pretty much became obsolete six months

45:24

after I graduated and then it was like jobs for like $122,000 a year in New

45:30

York and I'm going you can't live on that like so I actually went to Africa

45:36

and I and I was there for for a little while and it really opened my eyes to a

45:41

lot and to this day 30 years later it was the best experience of my life where

45:47

in Africa did you travel to I was in Kenya and Tanzania okay long uh for for a month

45:55

just it was just for a month but it was enough it was pre you know pre- cell phones pre- internet you know and um and

46:03

it was simple things like you know you could only take your shower if you wanted warm water you know

46:10

between 4:00 and 5:00 p.m. you know that was it you know and your clothes are

46:16

washed in the river you know there's no wash machine you know and um I did get

46:24

sick while I was there but I made it through it was nothing like being in the middle of Masai Mara I oh no actually no

46:31

was Mas I think it was Masai Mara where I said stop the van and I go is there any Lions around

46:37

here and I'm like having to go right before because it was nowhere and out in the open I had to use the rest ofro CU I

46:43

got sick but it was it was I think even going into the Masai Villages and even

46:48

back then understanding what was happening to the Masai between Kenya

46:54

Tanzania and Somalia um was quite interesting you know how

46:59

they none of the countries wanted to recognize them as nomatic tribe so um it taught me a lot and it

47:07

opened my eyes to a lot and at so many different levels you know it gives it gives again it gives perspective right

47:14

so like a lot of I feel like a lot of times for myself when I'm feeling really

47:23

stuck um I I can use

47:28

the then the the Deep knowledge that there's eight billion other souls in the

47:36

world uh human Souls that is right that that are spread out across this

47:44

vast marble uh blue green kind of hued and spiral marble that is spiraling

47:54

through the Galaxy at tens of thousands of miles an hour and

48:01

somehow on this little precious little marble all of us are having our

48:07

own experience that is unique and at the same time that

48:15

is connected to each other right and so it's it's a good way it's a reality

48:24

check for me often to like help EXP expand my perspective of when I'm going

48:31

through something really intense uh I use and I I I draw on that that

48:39

knowledge right I draw on that that sort of that experience of being and living

48:46

and meeting people from all around the planet that all have their own different

48:51

struggles and I think for me that was always like what what gave me a lot of

48:57

Hope right and brought me a lot of Joy too like I I just always wanted to see

49:03

and know how I could um how I could serve you know how I could help so how

49:09

how do you balance between because I know we were kind of talking about this earlier too is like but the The Duality

49:15

right I'm stuck to say I'm stuck or I'm kind of Trapped in whatever situation

49:22

I'm in how does one differentiate between between needing to move maybe go travel

49:30

or even if they can't travel cuz maybe your finances but they go and they try to do something maybe locally right that

49:36

kind of gets them out of their their stuckness versus

49:42

escapism yeah well I mean I think escapism is what I was

49:48

referring to uh a little bit earlier in our conversation when you know there's

49:54

there's multiple years of my life where uh drugs and alcohol were a big part of

50:01

my my daily um diet and often times I

50:07

was escaping and just like trying to find like hedonistically like enjoying um

50:15

myself in a way that disregarded and perhaps neglected some of the deeper ways that

50:25

um I could experience reality uh relationally with

50:31

with friends and loved ones and with myself so escapism to me is is

50:38

simply going to forget about to uh free ourselves from what is

50:47

burdening us uh and that to me is very different than

50:54

going whether you're traveling somewhere or whether whether you're living in your own house and leaning into uh a desire

51:01

to know the people that you are living with um if you're traveling somewhere

51:07

for a month like really wanting to to be with the people as they are right and

51:16

not just moving in a way that's for your own pleasure and enjoyment but finding

51:23

pleasure and enjoyment in the connection and the um ability to be in in

51:33

relationship with the other people in in your field and so to me that's like

51:39

that's important right we have to discern we have to distinguish the difference between just doing things

51:46

only for ourselves and doing things in a way that's a little bit more other centered and not as self-centered and I

51:52

think we're plagued in the west I think um and it's creeped all around the world

51:58

right the modern world is plagued with like self-centeredness and we're plagued with

52:04

identifying so strongly with our own egos um and what is M mind mind what I

52:11

need what what's best for me um and I would just encourage like and I think

52:16

that's part of escapism it's like and whether we do that with a few friends or whether we do that alone I I don't think

52:23

that's ultimately going to contribute to one's spiritual growth and Spiritual

52:29

Development and so the question is if we're moving and wanting Spiritual Development and wanting spiritual growth

52:36

then we need to be able to to feel discomfort we have to be okay

52:43

with discomfort we have to be okay with knowing that I might travel somewhere

52:49

and not have all the the luxurious things that I'm used to um and and in

52:55

that discomfort we find the things that we have been missing for so long and we

53:02

don't find the things we're missing until we actually begin to let go of the things that we're holding on to so tight

53:09

absolutely I mean that's like what that's like what I was in Africa it was those very things the lack of

53:16

comfort all those things the people you know even we got rained out you know and

53:22

you know we broke down and um I it it was just it was everything um I can't

53:31

even put words into it but the people yeah I mean I was there for

53:36

self-discovery I mean you could I couldn't have done it if I even went by the way with other like with another person or a friend or a boyfriend or

53:43

husband or or because I literally went there and I even went and journaled and

53:49

and I my whole thing is to meet the people you know um but I also I I come

53:56

from I come from a family that talks to animals too so well well I think that's another word

54:02

you could use like I think self-discovery is different than escapism yeah right and and I think I

54:08

think it's an intentionality also it's it's it's having the intention having this um

54:16

this inertia for wanting to unravel and

54:23

to disintegrate and to dissolve the story that we're so bound into and held

54:29

prisoner to I think that is that's crucial um and and if we don't develop

54:36

that Pary Pary is a Buddhist word for like it's it's it's a it's sort of this

54:41

this this this way that the mind can move if we don't develop that mental

54:47

attitude then we remain stuck within the same cyclical patterns that we have been

54:54

trapped in for years months or decades right and so to really start shaking

54:59

things up we have to be willing to put ourselves into the pressure pot and the

55:05

pressure cooker and not all of us deal well with pressure I understand that and

55:11

sometimes pressure can create a lot of anxiety and stress um and not all stress we have all the stress reduction courses

55:17

and Stress Management courses uh not all stress is bad some stress is really

55:23

really vital uh say all takes is just bringing back that curious child that is

55:30

just curious and inquisitive and that can actually Dial Dial down the stress

55:36

monitor or the overwhelm monitor is just just be curious and bear witness to when

55:43

you start unpacking when you start unraveling right you know it's part of

55:49

the process and you know healing is not comfortable it's not linear either you

55:56

you know um what are you finding as

56:01

you're entering or what you've been discovering through the decades is like some of the medicine you

56:09

feel the world needs yeah

56:16

well I mean I'm kind of I've been lately I mean I think the medicine changes

56:22

right I think the medicine that the world needs right now is different than the medicine the world needed 10 years

56:29

ago it's different than the medicine the world needed 50 years ago um I I

56:35

think I think at this moment what's inspiring me uh is a quote by by Mother

56:41

Teresa and he had said once before that there is no greater sickness in the

56:49

world today than the lack of Love there is no greater sickness in the

56:57

world today than the lack of love and I I think it's important to to

57:05

ground and know that like love can be understood differently by different

57:11

people all around the world right and so like finding commonality and definitions

57:16

is important I was gonna say I said I I sometimes give a homework assignment is

57:22

like Define what love is because I think that's a whole thing how do you define it yeah and and in this way like the way

57:29

Mother Teresa I think meant it uh at least my interpretation of the sickness

57:35

in the world as a lack of love I I see that as a lack of kindness a lack of

57:43

generosity a lack lack of empathy um and I would even go so far to say like

57:49

radical love which is the act of of of

57:55

Justice um and Justice is is to me a part of

58:00

like an active love right and so so love is also it's embracing compassion for all

58:08

beings it's it's having the patience to listen I think the medicine the world

58:13

needs is is is a is a

58:21

willingness to embrace our differences right and I think we hold on way too

58:26

tight right now to uh to one perspective

58:32

as being the only perspective and I think we are fundamentally challenged

58:38

with being able to hold two truths at the same time uh two truths that may be different

58:48

than uh what we all believe right so like just because it's my truth doesn't

58:54

mean it's your truth and it doesn't mean my truth is more

58:59

correct than your truth it doesn't mean your truth is more correct than my

59:05

truth it just means that we have to like develop the

59:11

capacity as humans and this is this is critical I think this is the critical

59:16

medicine because otherwise we we're constantly fighting over who's right and

59:23

who's wrong h i I think that's part of the medicine I think another part of the medicine that we need to develop right

59:31

now is um is is dissolving some of the borders uh

59:38

I think borders and boundaries are important let me not like get that wrong

59:44

I think we need to have like an ability to dance between creating boundaries so that we

59:51

can keep ourselves safe but also to understand that like unless we're also

59:56

taus uh we can't move and we're stuck so it's like we have to learn how to be

1:00:04

able to hold nuance and that involves conversations um I think part of the medicine the

1:00:11

world needs is is moving um into like a

1:00:17

more Global Collective embracing of

1:00:23

of finding a way to share Power share uh

1:00:29

resources um and share uh and also use

1:00:35

and and be with the Earth in a way that is um that

1:00:40

is supportive and not just extractive right like we should be giving to the

1:00:46

Earth as much as we take from the earth as humans as a species and I don't think

1:00:51

we do that I don't think we are right that was the one thing our ancestors understood

1:00:56

absolutely the many civilizations understood this before the modern world and post

1:01:03

industrialization and so I think part of that like medicine is like love which is

1:01:08

kindness generosity compassion Justice mixed with like holding good truths at

1:01:15

the same time um and the capacity that and then and then I think we have to put on top of that medicine we have to put

1:01:20

on top of that a lens and a framework for building a world that

1:01:26

has the infrastructure to support our um

1:01:31

to support our species that requires uh that requires a dismantling of

1:01:38

capitalistic systems uh that typically

1:01:44

overly promote competition as a fundamental way that we understand

1:01:51

success and so like that's all part of the medicine it's like learning cooperation is as important as

1:01:58

competition um and we do that through like resource sharing and through protecting our rivers and our oceans and

1:02:05

our rainforest and we do that through building Consciousness and building awareness so those are all the things

1:02:11

that I think are absolutely essential um for us to do that's the medicine the world needs right now so a couple things

1:02:18

that brings to mind one of the first words I see on your bio is visionary and it seems like everything

1:02:26

that you really Envision clear clearly you have been able to turn into

1:02:34

reality so you also started a bip Farm am I not correct on that in Virginia

1:02:41

yeah yeah yeah yeah we've we've uh in the year 2000 uh yeah I I I was one of

1:02:49

the the instigators of the creation of roots disguise Sanctuary we are 125

1:02:56

regenerative farm and Healing Art Center located at the border of West Virginia in Appalachia Eastern United States um

1:03:05

and so we uh we're coming into our fourth year of healing with the land uh

1:03:12

and being stewards of the land and really lifting up indigenous wisdom and traditions um and and really guiding our

1:03:21

movements guiding our work through through uh through what we've

1:03:27

done well right so there's a lot of things that we've done really well as a human species um there are there are

1:03:35

practices that we can resurrect that have been lost and so we're doing that at at the

1:03:41

sanctuary beautiful and you also recently started a podcast what led you

1:03:47

to the podcast and what led you to the name evolutionary yeah thank I mean thanks

1:03:53

for lifting that up I you know my podcast uh I think I feel like it's been

1:03:59

been a couple of decades in the making I just never had time to launch it I've been thinking about a podcast for

1:04:05

probably over 10 10 years um but I've been so overly inundated with my work as

1:04:13

an executive director and as the leader of a nonprofit and then my work around the country as as a movement Builder and

1:04:22

I just never never had the capacity and the bandwidth to to start the podcast so

1:04:29

the word evolutionary is actually not a new word for me I've been using that word is like a stage name that was that

1:04:35

was my name as a spoken word poet for a lot of years um I wrote a book called

1:04:41

evolutionary uh it was like this pamphlet I guess you could call it a book but it was like my own little

1:04:46

Manifesto my evolutionary Manifesto and it was just kind of looking at where Revolution meets

1:04:53

Evolution um how we're ever evolving and I was it was a play on words for me

1:04:58

it was a play on the word revolution and evolution both things which Concepts which I've been deeply fascinated with

1:05:04

my whole life and so the podcast is called evolutionary uh I'm I'm just coming up

1:05:09

on to episode 10 uh I launched it about four months ago uh we're looking at

1:05:14

mysticism and healing and how to transform the world through our voices

1:05:21

um and I lift up change makers around the planet that are doing just that a lot of

1:05:27

Storytelling um but yeah know I love my I love the podcast uh it keeps me

1:05:32

connected with a lot of incredible people that um that are doing incredible

1:05:38

work and it's an excuse for me to have conversations with really inspiring people so yeah please check out the

1:05:44

podcast uh there's a great podcast on belonging the second podcast episode is

1:05:49

all about belonging and the loneliness epidemic so you can like a lot of what I've been talking about we unpack way

1:05:56

deeper in that podcast episode and then we have another podcast episode called you are enough which uh which is an

1:06:03

interview with borne eyasu Jones quarte who is an incredible hip-hop artist uh

1:06:09

Global uh MC and meditation mindfulness teacher and we're looking at the month

1:06:15

and you are enough um so yeah a lot of lot of a lot of juice in that podcast

1:06:21

I'm having a lot of fun with it so where do you I mean that that word

1:06:26

in itself says says so much and um for those that are listening and they might

1:06:33

be going like gez but I don't know where to begin how do I where do I begin to

1:06:39

start making maybe some of the changes or weaving some of the things that you talked about that you were able to weave

1:06:46

in your life what would be some of the tips you would give them to look at to

1:06:51

start yeah well I mean I I would you know if if you're

1:06:57

interested in in going deeper in your own life I would first try to

1:07:04

find um find some teachers out there some guides you know it's always good to

1:07:10

I my life would not be I would not be where I am in my life without the incredible teachers and guides I've had

1:07:18

um you know and I think back on the last you know just my whole life and I'm

1:07:24

just like extremely grateful for the inspiration for the people the

1:07:30

professors um the the weekend immersions the intensives like just so many guides

1:07:38

um I think it's part of this like modern world uh Western kind of sometimes

1:07:47

framework that that we're we're just G to do it all on our own we're going to figure it out and I'm a free spirit and

1:07:52

I I'm just open to the universe and it's like yeah and there's also a lot of fundamentals that we can all be learning

1:08:00

and we all need to have like fundamental uh like like Roots we got to

1:08:07

dig Our Roots into the ground and and sometimes it's helpful to be in community to do that so I would first

1:08:13

start just by encouraging people to you know find a community find a find other

1:08:20

practitioners who are you surrounding yourself with who who do you spend the most time with are those people

1:08:26

inspiring you are those people doing things to um to shake things up and give

1:08:33

you New Perspective uh you know I would start there um I've got I've got a

1:08:39

course on nonviolence that starts in about a month it's a virtual online

1:08:44

learning course once a week for like five sessions um we' be looking at

1:08:50

nonviolence AA and The Roots and the origins of nonviolence we'll be studying

1:08:55

in like how violence comes up in our own personal lives uh you can enroll for courses like that you can um you know

1:09:03

you can do some study i' would say start there uh find people to be inspired by what would be yeah I mean there's so

1:09:12

much here I mean I could go on for probably another few hours just like talking to you and just I mean you

1:09:20

you're you're like I said earlier like your ability to Envision something and

1:09:26

make it become reality is so beautiful so um and and I knew like when I met I I

1:09:33

just know like when I meet somebody I go this

1:09:38

yeah yeah let's not let's not let's not get that confused though right Laura

1:09:45

like there's a lot of steps in between there and I don't want people listening to just be like oh like if I just think

1:09:53

about it it's going to happen like manifest station for me has been work

1:09:58

yeah no it's not easy I I work hard anybody that knows me knows like I put

1:10:06

time in like I'm the guy that'll be up till 3 in the morning sometimes working on a project I get obsessed like first

1:10:12

of all I get obsessed with learning and once I want to learn about something I don't put that book down I don't stop

1:10:18

digging until I feel like I've really figured it out and then if I want to if I even if I have a vision or an idea for

1:10:24

a project we talked about Roots disguise Sanctuary the bip farm that didn't happen overnight that was like I mean

1:10:32

that was like a lot of work and it was it and it continues to be it's a lot of

1:10:38

conversations and it's ongoing um it's no I can appreciate that

1:10:43

it's a difference between sitting on the couch and watching like and binging on Netflix all day and like really like

1:10:50

deciding like I'm not going to sit on the couch for eight hours and binge on Netflix I'm going to spend my time

1:10:57

manifesting something honestly but I think that's the key right like manifestation means action manifestation

1:11:04

is action it's commitment to your vision it's not just having a vision yeah it's putting everything down and having

1:11:11

single-pointed concentration which is D dhna in our Sanskrit term and our yogic

1:11:17

terms it's it's developing concentration and so like I when I feel like I don't have enough time in the

1:11:23

week I actually sit down and I meditate um it sounds counterintuitive but like

1:11:29

if you know if you don't have a lot of time I recommend you sit down and meditate a lot more um because it'll

1:11:34

help you filter through what what's most important what's not most important and

1:11:39

so yeah like turning idea into reality Vision into reality that's that's that

1:11:46

that takes that takes saying no to a lot of things you have to say no to a lot of

1:11:53

that you do um I have to say no all the time to a lot of things I want to do

1:11:58

uh in order to manifest so I just I just want to make sure that we don't like whitewash and

1:12:03

sugarcoat that for people that's not like a oh yeah I just thought about it now it's no no it's been I used I feel

1:12:10

like I used to work three jobs I I worked 80 hours a week for for for two

1:12:15

decades literally I worked probably 80 hours a week um as a teacher as a

1:12:22

nonprofit leader as as somebody that was trying to books and doing spoken word like yeah it's not it's not like you

1:12:30

know it doesn't just happen y'all we definitely have to have conversations around that too because that is

1:12:36

important right like I know like people look at like the domestic violence work I've been working on it took 20 years to

1:12:43

get to just to get this one which was really small like to the grandscape of

1:12:48

things it looks like it's really tiny but it took 20 years of dedication it took 20 years and and it's not even

1:12:55

something and I still had to work full-time you know and um and so I

1:13:01

appreciate that you know and I think you know we don't talk enough about what manifestation really means it isn't like

1:13:08

turn it over to God and they'll take it over turn it over to your guys and they'll take it over no it means

1:13:15

action you know it's a relationship it's a relationship yeah exactly I appreciate

1:13:20

you saying that you know we we need Spirit guides supporting us on our journey but our Spirit guides need us to

1:13:29

also be committed to the destination I I appreciate you so much

1:13:36

just one Clarity like where do you see yourself going like in this whole journey that you've been

1:13:42

evolving I'm working on a new book right now um I and the reason I was able to

1:13:47

launch the podcast uh to tie loop around that is uh I Ste down as the Director of

1:13:54

of of one common Unity of the nonprofit organization about three years ago so

1:14:00

I've had about a year and a half to two years to just like heal and like decompressed from 20 years of like

1:14:06

Frontline work and now I'm specifically focused on uh on cultivating and and

1:14:14

reclaiming and finding my voice again in the world um I think I spent so many years building uh something you know to

1:14:22

support um youth voices and to create a platform for like movement building uh I

1:14:29

I just really want to like cement myself as someone that can like really have

1:14:34

more time and spaciousness in my life too I don't know if I am trying to work 80 hours a week anymore I don't think I

1:14:40

am um I really want to just do like a few things really well at this point and those are like like me being a teacher

1:14:48

um and a guide uh and supporting people on their journey through my my writing through my podcast um if people want to

1:14:55

learn with me you can you can always find programs I launch online I teach in

1:15:01

person in Massachusetts you can visit Roots disguise Sanctuary so yeah I I

1:15:06

think just like cementing like doing less but doing what I do as like hopefully a voice a reasonable saying

1:15:15

voice in a world that sometimes feels a bit unhinged well the fact that you were

1:15:21

able to even do the work you've done for as long as you have I just know again like we we were just talking about this

1:15:28

on Friday you know for the track celebration I'm part of the track Coalition here in Massachusetts and uh

1:15:35

just the celebration on how many people who do activism work get burnt out very

1:15:41

quickly so um it's not um work for the faint of heart and um it does take a lot

1:15:49

of commitment and drive to see something through so um um I've just learned to

1:15:55

reframe it a lot as sacred activism because as a lot of my indigenous teachers and other teachers have taught

1:16:01

me is it's you can't you know really do sacred work and spiritual work without

1:16:07

also Bridging the activism work right they they do go hand in hand so um how

1:16:14

would somebody want to be able to find you who would be the best place to find you you can visit me um you can visit me

1:16:20

on social media my first name and my last name howah Ha a w

1:16:25

ah my last name kasat k a t um my podcast can be found easily by

1:16:33

putting in my first and last name anywhere you find podcasts or you could type in

1:16:38

evolutionary EV R tionary l u t i o n a r y evolutionary just type that in and

1:16:47

hit the rate hit the Subscribe button and start listening to my podcast my website uh also is just my first and

1:16:53

last name.com aat.com um I got a link tree page but

1:16:58

most all that you can find me on social media you know register for one of my meditation Retreats I got a silent

1:17:04

Meditation Retreat that I'm leading in December in Calo and if you're out there and you identify as masculine or uh as a

1:17:12

man um I'm leading a men's retreat in December with my dear friend Jean jacqu

1:17:19

uh in Massachusetts at a venue called Calo so you could come uh these are

1:17:24

really powerful like deep deep um Excavating and

1:17:29

Spiritual Development work that we're doing for men in men's circles so you can come to come to the men's Retreat as

1:17:36

well to how was work by the way because you know I've been exposed to yoga and my first experience actually to yoga was

1:17:43

when I actually I was incarcerated by a family court judge in prison so

1:17:49

and but I'll tell you I never really and I have a lot of Yogi friends you were

1:17:55

the first person that really the way you lead the way you guide people and it the

1:18:02

manner in which you do it really made me wanted to learn more so I can appreciate

1:18:08

you as a human I appreciate you as a teacher I appreciate you as a guide and an author so thank you so much for

1:18:14

joining us and all the links that we talked about will be in the description and until next time on triggers and

1:18:21

spiritual medicine have a good day oh

1:18:27

so thank you for tuning in to triggers and spiritual medicine podcast I am your

1:18:32

host Laura beneski Joseph we hope today's episode provides Insight

1:18:39

insights and action steps to support your personal Journey remember healing

1:18:45

is a continuous process and by addressing the triggers and what triggers us we create space for deeper

1:18:53

transformation if you would like to dive deeper into our community and support our sacred

1:18:59

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1:19:04

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1:19:18

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1:19:24

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1:19:31

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1:19:37

work because together we are building a community that uplifts and heals until

1:19:44

next time stay grounded and take care of your soul have a great day