Sense of Soul - Awakening

Episode Date: August 27, 2021

Today on Sense of Soul we are talking about Spiritual Awakening with Stephanie Fulgencio! She is a licensed therapist and certified life coach. Stephanie’s goal is to provide a safe space and an objective, non-judgmental perspective to help you explore your thoughts and emotions, heal from the past, and break free from the patterns and cycles that have been holding you back. Her biggest passion is the place where personal development and spiritual growth meet. She has been on her own path of exploration, healing, and growth for the last 25 years, and loves helping others find their way, get unstuck, and reach their true potential.  Learn more about Stephanie website https://www.stephaniefulgencio.com Follow her journey on Instagram @Stephanie.Fulgencio Stephanie’s Facebook page Visit www.mysenseofsoul.com check out our new merch and our new Sense of Soul Patreon! 

Welcome to the Sense of Soul podcast. We are your hosts, Shanna and Mandy. Grab your coffee, open your mind, heart, and soul. It's time to awaken. Today we have with us Stephanie Fulgencio. She is a certified spiritual life coach who works with people who are suddenly finding themselves in the midst of a transformational awakening experience. She is here today to share her journey of spiritual awakening and what she has learned while working with others who have awakened as they move into a new way of life. As a coach, Stephanie supports and guides her clients to finding the answers within. Stephanie, thank you so much for joining us today to talk about one of our most popular topics, spiritual awakening. Thank you. I'm so us today to talk about one of our most popular topics,

spiritual awakening. Thank you. I'm so happy to be here. Seriously. When we first started, this was the topic that everyone wanted to know about something that people are searching right now in their Google search. This is a hot topic. I feel like we're in an awakening. I mean, let's just break that down.

We usually break that shit down at the end, but let's break it down right now. Like what is a spiritual awakening? Yeah. Well, to me, a spiritual awakening is when you kind of have this sudden or gradual expansion of your identity of who you are, when you go from sort of this limited person walking around in this world to, you know, just sort of this greater sense of who you are in this greater sense that are connected with this, with everyone and everything around you. So that's kind of the simple, quick version. So can you share with us your spiritual background? Yeah. So pretty interesting all throughout my life until I was actually 42, I had no conscious spiritual path whatsoever. Looking back now, I see that I was kind of on a spiritual path

because I was always really into personal development, self-growth. I always felt like I had this, you know, potential that I was trying to reach and everything. But when I was also doing yoga, I was doing meditation for like 20 years, but I was doing it from like a secular perspective, just for relaxation, for stress relief, that kind of thing. And then for me, it happened really very suddenly. I mean, there was a little bit of a buildup about 10 days of, I started noticing all of these synchronicities happening that were kind of leading me. I felt like I was being led down a path. I had no spiritual belief system whatsoever, but I was open to it. You know, it just seemed like there was all these synchronicities leading me towards spiritual

things and opening up my mind. And then one night I sat down and just started writing about my hero's journey because I had watched the Power of Myth with Joseph Campbell. And I just was writing, you know, if I was on a hero's journey, what would this be about? And somehow through that process, it just came over me, just a snap, one second, I was basically an atheist. And the next second, it was like my entire life had changed, you know, it was, it was just kind of the ultimate, you know, all the tingling and the fireworks and the laughing and crying and everything that went on for a couple of hours. It was really, really intense for me. I know not everyone, you know, a lot of people go through a much more gradual process, but for me, I think because I had been

resisting it for so long, it just hit me like, like a freight train. Wow. Can you talk about a couple of those synchronicities? Yeah. So the first thing that I really noticed was I was at the chiropractor. So I've, I've been battling with migraines for quite a long time. Um, and I was, I had been going to the chiropractor for like a year. I had been doing all these different diets and everything, trying to figure it out. And he kind of had to come to Jesus moment with me where he said, you know, you're not going to find a magic bullet. You're going to have to take all of the things that you know, and put them together and just commit to taking really good care of this and taking really good care of yourself. Now that doesn't sound like anything spiritual, but for some reason, for me, it just like opened up that light bulb. And from then on, it was like every day I would get into a conversation with some somebody

and it would turn into something spiritual or they would say, you know, check out this podcast, you know, Oprah's podcast about this or that. And then I would on Oprah's podcast, I would hear about a book and then I would get the book and I would learn about another book. And then, you know, and it was just like that. It was like this stepwise thing that kept taking me deeper and deeper down the path. And like I said, I just was like, I'm not sure what's going on, but I feel like I need to follow this. So I'm just going to see what happens. And it led to that. Well, that is so funny. That sounds very similar. I mean, Mandy and I same. So the physical stuff

I was going to ask you about, because I know we both experienced a lot of physical symptoms and upon trying to add up the many, many symptoms that we had, I'm researching, you know, what I'm, Oh, I think I'm dying by the end of my research, by the way. But one of the things that kept popping up was like Kundalini, um, spiritual awakening. And I was like, Oh, so other people have actually experienced this. And I remember calling Mandy once and I was like, dude, maybe we're not dying. Maybe we might be going through this like spiritual awakening. And she's like, what the fuck is that? You know? I mean, like

we're already spiritually woke. We go to church every Sunday. Okay. We at least participate, but yeah. Physical symptoms. You said you were at the chiropractor. Yeah. I mean, I was having migraines literally like 25 days out of the month. I mean, it was just absurd every night. Yeah. Yeah.

And then you hear like, that's kind of like your, your third eye is blocked. You know, you're, you're blocking your, your spiritual stuff and which would make complete sense for the way that I was living my life. No, right. Yeah. Especially for the age. I don't know if you know, the developmental stage of ages of the shockers 42 to 49, that would be your crown chakra. That's amazing. So ours was just a little bit earlier. We were in our late thirties. So you guys went through it at the same time? We did. And thank God. So that's my question.

Like, did you have anyone to like bounce stuff off of? Cause Mandy and I, we did. Although we thought we were crazy that we had the same symptoms. Yeah, no, that's amazing. And that is exactly what I was missing when I went through it. I mean, when I was kind of going through the synchronicities, I was just kind of keeping that to myself. But as soon as the awakening happened, it was disruptive and confusing as fuck, you

know, and I didn't have anybody to talk to. And the thing is that because I was not spiritual and I was not religious, I was looking for someone, I at least knew that it was a spiritual awakening. But when I looked for, you know, teachers or coaches or someone to talk to what they were all talking about all of this kind of new age or like really spiritual stuff. And I could not speak that language yet. I can now years later, but at the time I couldn't talk about spirit guides. I couldn't talk about astrology and Akashic records or whatever, you know, like that still seemed just crazy to me.

I couldn't find that down to earth support that I needed. And that, and that is now, you know, when I'm going back and really wanting to provide for anyone else in that, in that situation, because it was very difficult. You're breaking it down so that people who maybe all of that stuff you just mentioned, like the Akashic records, all that woohoo stuff was just too much for them. They need to keep it simple and just get simple tools and understanding. Yeah. I mean, we've been saying that like for years that we needed, everyone needed this.

Like this is something that is needed. A program that can help to be with you, to walk with you and guide you. And that's why we created a sense of soul because we knew that we didn't have anybody to talk to except for each other. And we knew there were so many other people out there. And so that's why we did that. And when you said you were listening to podcasts and same, I mean, those things got me through and made me feel less crazy, right? For sure. But I want to ask you, because I was just thinking about this yesterday. Think about like how many people, you know, that are actually really awakened, like not that you've actually seeked out that are

awakened in general, like your family and your friends that you grew up with and stuff. I mean, it's almost like a left-handed person, you know, meeting another left-handed person, like, oh my gosh, you know, but then think about this. If we're evolving souls, right. That are awakening. And I do believe in reincarnation. It makes sense because think back to like biblical times, there wasn't this huge, massive population. So then that kind of makes sense why there's only like these little kind of pods everywhere of awakened people but do you believe in star seeds and like the waves you know I do and it's partly because I believe my son sort of is possibly one of those he's been really displaying a lot of really high empathy and a lot of spiritual connection. He's nine years old and it's just amazing the

things that he says. Unbelievable. Oh my gosh. I read your Instagram post about him and I loved the picture of him laughing in your lap. And yeah, you talked about how he talks to his organs. I mean, are you kidding me? That's something we should all be doing. And then you, you mentioned that he says that illness is fear. Oh my God. I mean, that post just really touched me. That's still, I mean, that still gives me chills when you said that it gave me chills again, because that's just so, I mean, that's really deep, right? So, and he's saying that now, like at nine. Yes. I think it's amazing to be awakened as a parent because I have kids from 24 to nine.

So it's amazing to see, cause I'm a different mother. So I have a different kid. I mean, Mandy's daughter's been seeing spirits, you know, her whole, I mean, they're just, it seems like this younger generation is extra special. I agree. There's definitely. And that's why I do think that there is this evolution of consciousness or this raising of consciousness happening in the world, even though, you know, you don't necessarily meet most people who are awakened or, you know, have gone through this yet. A lot of people are starting to open up, especially in this past year. And so just that whole, you know, vibration, that whole energy of the world, of course, these kids are not only probably picking up on that, but also then

their parents are more likely to be open to it. And I feel like that's, you know, my job is just to not shut that down, you know, to validate it for him. Good for you. We need more parents like you. It seems like lately I'm struggling with the word spiritual awakening and not for myself, not for myself, but for others, because other people could be like, well, first of all, it just feels rude. What you're saying that we're just walking around asleep or, you know, like certain people

and certain religions call themselves the chosen ones. Well, when you find out the real meaning behind what they're saying, it doesn't mean that other people aren't chosen, but do you see what I mean? It can really give off kind of this yucky feeling for people. Like, what do you mean that we're asleep? What are your thoughts on that? I totally agree. In fact, when I was saying that it was coming out of my mouth and I was trying to say it in a way that didn't sound like that, because that bothers me too. And I haven't

figured out a way to talk about it. That doesn't sound a little bit like almost condescending. You know what I mean? And I hate that because it's not the intention at all. It's just that, you know, everybody's kind of at a different stage in their journey. I mean, I think every, every single person is on that path. It's just a different stages and in different ways. But doesn't it feel like you awaken? Cause I mean that quote, whoever wrote it, like I, I awakened to see that the world was asleep.

I mean, that was so true to me. I'm living with a bunch of unconscious people. I'm working with unconscious people. My family is unconscious. I mean, it was crazy. I felt very alone and very scared. And I was thinking at many times, like a lot of people who have during this time, like I'm crazy, something's wrong with me. But I think that that's that space that you need to be to be able to receive. Because if I had met a bunch of spiritual people at the beginning of my journey, I probably wouldn't have had the space to evolve the way I needed to in that space,

that quiet time, becoming the witness of my thoughts, finding self-love, which has nothing to do with anyone else. Right. Yeah. And, you know, saying that about this idea of awakening, I mean, truly during that 10 day, you know, period where I was kind of going down that path, I heard in a few places, this, this concept, it was the first time I'd heard it about people who were awake, people who had woken up, and that what was different about them. And it just, it felt weird, but it was what gave me maybe that space or that opening to say, is that me? Am I not awake? You know, and just to start to question that, I think that that opens some things up. And so maybe there's some benefit to, to that kind of, you know, weirdness of it because it was for me, it was helpful to hear it. Yeah. So let's talk about some of the shifts that you witnessed and went through when you were

going through this. Like I said, it was a very disruptive, very confusing kind of expanded, you know, idea of the world and of who I was. And then the first thing that happened was that suddenly it seemed like my day-to-day life made no sense. And I wanted to go away. I wanted to go to India. I wanted to quit my job. I did not want to be this day-to-day stuff.

Totally. We've had so many people say about the quitting the job thing. We're like, don't quit your $300,000 job. Yeah. At least, you know, at least give it a little time to kind of figure out what you're going to do. So, yeah, I mean, that was the first thing. There was a lot of like feeling like I was crazy because I didn't know anybody in my

life. And you guys mentioned this too. I didn't know anybody who understood, so I couldn't talk to anybody about it. I was writing incessantly in my journals. I'm always a big journaler, but it was like a journal every week. I remember thinking if anybody found these, they would probably put me in a mental institution. Right. Mandy has told me that same thing. In fact, I swore to her that if she ever did die, I would take those and burn them for her. Yeah. I need somebody to do that for me. It is just, it's such an exploration and you have to be able to just, you know, explore your

thoughts. And, you know, I went very quickly into the whole, you know, non-dual direct path kind of place. That is that very, very deep place that is very, very hard to understand or explain, you know, like the way that Eckhart Tolle talks, like he has to talk in all these metaphors and this poetic language, because it just, he would get locked up too, probably. I mean, people would just say, you're insane if he really came out and said what he means, because it's very hard to conceptualize that because it's so different from how we tend to see the world. So I think those are the two really big ones. And then I went through this whole period where I had to take myself on an emotional integration journey because I had a lot of locked up emotions. We all do, right? A lot of, you know,

kind of inner resistances and stuff. So I went through a very hard time, you know, kind of inner resistances and stuff. So I went through a very hard time, you know, kind of a dark night of the soul for a while that I, that I put myself through because I knew I was being blocked by, you know, these old emotions that I was holding onto. So I went through that whole place and that dark night of the soul was really hard, you know, and I think a lot of people go through that. So, I mean, there's been everything there's been the honeymoon and the dark night of the soul and the I'm crazy and the, I love everyone and everything. Did it shift relationships for you? Yes, definitely. My relationship with my parents and my son improved quite a lot because I learned to be a lot less reactive and I was coming from a place of love and

connection so much more than before. Then there were, you know, friendships that dissolved in, you know, not so nice ways, honestly, and things that still kind of, you know, nag at me a little bit. And I think it's just because when, when you change so much, sometimes it's just not a match anymore and you cannot connect with certain people. And then other, other friendships have remained exactly the same. So I think it just, it just depends on the, you know, how you're resonating with different people.

Yeah. I mean, just the part about like finding that love within yourself, everybody was like, wait, you're not the guest person anymore. Like I'm not okay with that. Right. And also, you know, I found that I was filling my time with everybody else's issues. So then when I put down those boundaries with them and saying, well, I'm going to start, you know, meditating in the morning. So I can't talk to you anymore, you know, but I love you. And they still were like upset for like years. And then when they start kind of awakening themselves, came back and said, Oh, I get it now. So you weren't pissed at me or sick of me bitching or anything, which I kind of was

sick of the bitching, but, but really I was so protective of my energy. Yeah. I would say that I'm that way now too. I, especially, you know, as I've been starting this business in this past year or so, I've really had to kind of protect my energy in so many ways when it's other people and, and food and, you know, just the way that I take care of myself and all of that. And I would say one other thing about the relationships that I was just thinking as you were talking, Shanna, is that because I spent so much of my life as a skeptic and not a religious or spiritual person at all, and in fact, would even make fun of people with my friends, like just kind of be like, they're just saying these things that sound

nice so that they can feel better about the world, you know, the world that's going to shit kind of thing. And then when I just suddenly like shifted into this, you know, being this spiritual person, it's almost like, you know, coming out of the closet, you know, now that I'm in this business and I know a lot of people that I used to connect with in that way, in that sort of atheist, agnostic, skeptic way, you know, it's something that I've really had to overcome to be okay with saying, yeah, I'm one of those spiritual chicks now. Okay. It's so humbling too, because I can remember at one point, my father writing my son a letter and it upset me because he was giving my son a different perspective on religion.

And I was pissed because I was like, how dare you? How dare you open that space and that different thought for my son? And now I'm like, I'm right there with my dad. And I've had to go back to my parents and say, I'm sorry. Like I judged, I judged you on what you believed in. And now I believe in the same thing and I'm sorry, but I had placed myself in this box. And so, yeah, it's humbling. So how important was discovering self-love?

We talk a lot about it. That was the beginning and kind of like the spark of my journey is when I started to look within and that's what I had found first. Yeah. That is probably one of the most, if not the most important parts for me, it didn't come in the beginning. It came after a lot of that emotional clearing work that I did. But you know, when you get to this place where you actually understand at a much deeper level, what self-love really means and that self-love isn't just, you know, I'm okay with my body and I'm going to treat myself nicely. It's so much deeper than that, you know, and it's love for yourself because you know that you are innocent

and that, you know, everything that feels like it's wrong with you is just kind of stuff that's been layered on top and it's not really who you are. And, and then self-love becomes love of, for everyone and everything really, because you know, it's, it's all connected. So I did have to mourn religion. It took me years and I'm still mad. I'm still going around 2000 years. Oh my God. You know, even yesterday I was doing that. So that was part of my journey for sure. But what I found when I found self-love really wasn't just myself. I wish they had another word for self-love. Words are so crazy. But I found that I was connected to something way bigger. So really finding the love inside the self helps me connect

to everything. I do think love is at the core of everything, right? I mean, that is the most important thing. I love the way you worded that self-love and love for yourself is knowing that you're innocent and that the rest has just been layers. I love that. What a beautiful way to describe it. I learned the concept really early on about that a true spiritual path is actually a path of subtraction. So you don't have to learn anything or add anything on to who you are. You only have to take away the parts that don't belong, the parts that have been layered on top of who you truly are at the core. And at that core, we're all the same. And I've just made my wall of fame. I have sticky notes. I have sticky notes with things guests say. And oh my God, I love that.

A true spiritual path is subtraction. Wow. You're so right. It's just unknowing, right? Unpeeling, unlayering. Exactly. And I think these days we have access to learn about everything that we want. You know, we can learn about, and I did this. I learned about every single religion, every single mystical tradition, every single spiritual path that I could find, you know, all over the world, all through time. I wanted to like explore everything

and see where the connections are and what's similar between them all. I needed to do that, but it's very overwhelming. And I think a lot of people get stuck there and feel like, I need to know this. I need to know this. I need to know this. I need to read these books and I need to go through these programs or whatever. And there is some value to that to some extent. Then I always bring myself back to that idea that, you know, it really isn't about anything that I can learn. It's about going within, taking those layers off. Speaking of taking those layers off this emotional integration journey that

you went on, that might scare the shit out of some people. They might be like, Oh, nope, I'm walking the other way. And I don't know about you, but from experience, when you resist it, then just a whole bunch more shit gets piled on in your life. What hope can you offer people that are afraid to do the work? Well, the hope is the result that you get, you know, it's that you kind of have to trudge through the muck and you have to feel it to heal it. Right. You know, that saying, but that when you do, when you do that emotional integration work in a way that is, you know, really feeling those feelings, really allowing that stuff to soak back in, then you are, then it doesn't keep coming back. You know, we tend to, I, I like to talk

about it like a racquetball. It's like the metaphor of playing racquetball. You've got these emotions that keep coming at you. And each time you swat them away, which is what we normally do. You know, we go watch TV. We look at social media. You know, we try to ignore it. We try to talk ourselves out of it. We keep swatting it away.

And each time you do that, it comes right back at you. When you do the emotional integration work, you allow that ball to just fall and be still. And it doesn't keep coming back, flying back into your face anymore. And then when you don't have all of that strength of all of those emotions, you've been trying to keep away all your life, then it's just, to me, it feels like a lightness. And like, I would literally sometimes be in this process where I would just be crying and crying, you know, just so much emotion and it feels like it's never going to end. And then all of a sudden it does, there's this shift and then there's this lightness

and that lightness stays. And that is so worth the work to me, you know, and I think for anybody who truly wants to, to grow and to release and to feel some peace, it's worth it. It helps to have support during that for sure, because it can be tough, you know, especially if you've got trauma and things like that in your past, it can be really hard. So what are some important tools that may come in that integration? What does that look like? You know, to me, the process that I used, I read a book called the presence process by Michael Brown. And that was really important book to me in the early year or two

of my process. And he does a 10 week process and really the gist of it. I mean, there's a lot of kind of perceptual tools and things that you go through during that. And you do breathing twice a day, but the main emotional integration tool is that whenever you feel upset, basically you drop the story. So you don't, you don't keep running around the story in your head, but you just identify the feeling in your body, literally a physical feeling. And, and some people, it takes a long time to kind of get to that point where you even can recognize what that feels like. For me, it's typically a feeling in my gut or in my, you know, solar plexus or my heart or my throat, you know, usually it's kind of these

middle chakras for me, but just feel what it feels like and just sit there with curiosity and explore it and just allow it to be and hold it. That sounds like rain from Tara Brock. Have you ever heard of that? And you know, Deepak has one too. I think it's called stop, but it's all the same. And it's so important. It's all about awareness, right? Exactly. Exactly. Being able to pause, like, you know, I love pain body. I love Eckhart. I heard you mention him earlier, but so important to be able to hear your thoughts and then like analyze them, investigate like what, who is this talking in your head and where did it come from? Exactly. That's two different pieces, right? You have to be able to feel your emotions and you have to be able to hear and recognize

your thoughts. Because normally what we do is we walk around this ball of thoughts and emotions, and we don't even realize that that isn't the core of who we are. Yeah. And I, I agree with you. I think that there are so many different versions of this emotional integration. You know, it just, the presence process was just the one that happened to speak to me for whatever reason. It was the one that fell in my lap, but I've, I've learned since then that there are so many

different ways to do it, which is awesome because then, you know, more people will, will stumble upon it. I don't know about you, but I was not a reader. And now over the last, you know, few years, I cannot get enough of books. And I felt your excitement when you posted that cute picture. I think your cat was even on the bed of all your books. Let's talk about that. Where does knowledge come in for you during this awakening? Yeah, I went a little crazy initially with learning because I had not explored any of this before. So I think for the first year I was at the used bookstore every Saturday for five hours and walking out, like barely being able to hold all the books that I had. And I'm kind of like a speed reader. I don't read every word. Like I'm just, I was just going through books like crazy, just from everywhere, you know,

everything I could find and it was necessary for me. So there's some people who can just go down one spiritual path and just trust it and believe in it and stick with it and be disciplined. And that is beautiful, but that's not me. Like I had to set up this entire foundation and structure in my mind of like, what all is there? Obviously I don't know everything, but I've gotten to a point where I have enough of that sort of scaffolding, you know, and just in this last year, it's been really time to, you know, to deepen more. So I think that the knowledge is really important to kind of set the stage. And it just depends on the person, how much of that you feel like you need. We're seeking knowledge and truth.

I mean, that's where the whole term truth seekers got to come from because it goes back to the question. I say it all the time and because it was so profound, that question, and I don't even know where the question came from. It may have come from a spirit guide. I don't even know, but it was how much have you actually really experienced or have you literally lived your whole life by what everyone else told you to believe? I had nothing. I was like everything that I, I believe in, I was told to believe I had no experiences for myself. And that really fucked me for a long time. And so from then

on, it was, what do I believe in? You can have all the knowledge in the world, but until you actually experience, does it really turn into wisdom? Right. Yeah. Well, and Stephanie, let me know if you can relate when I did have an experience and mine was dramatic. Mine came from a near-death experience. Because I wasn't told that it was something you should believe in, I was told that it was weird and wrong. And I felt ashamed. And at first, I didn't even know if I should share what I had experienced or share these new experiences because I felt like I was going to be judged or be put labeled as a

conspiracy theorist or a weirdo, or, you know, they were going to stone me because I didn't believe that people are going to go to hell if they don't ask Christ into their life and all of these different things. I mean, did you ever feel that way? It is so funny that you said that you thought they were going to stone you. Not that that's funny. It's terrible. But I felt that same way. I had this fear for a while that if anyone knew what I was going through and what I was exploring and what I had discovered that I could be persecuted for that, like burned at the stake, like a witch or something. You know what I mean? Like, it's not like it's not happened. All three of us right here. And I was, I was

worried about that for a while. I was like, who knows? Because really in a way, this kind of awakening, this way of being, it is dangerous to the, you know, the traditional kind of forms of, of society and our culture, right? Because if, if more and more people start waking up and being more independent and starting to see like, wait a second, you know, this isn't how life is supposed to work. Like we're not supposed to be just cogs in the machine. That would be really unsavory to the people who are trying to hold everything together the way that it is right now. You know, when people are trying to force spiritual awakenings, do you have people who try to do this? And it's like, they're stuck in kind of like you said, self-love doesn't come

right away. Definitely. There's so much that leads to actually experiencing it, but that's part of the journey. But usually there's just a big emptiness prior to that. Yeah. Generally there is a lot of suffering and a lot of challenge and a lot of pain. I think that there is now this possibility of just deciding that you're going to be spiritual. And so you just start, you know, listening to Gabby Bernstein or whatever. And, you know, you're just trying to kind of force like manifestation and things like that. And there's nothing wrong with that. But I think that when you're trying to do that from a real kind of ego-based mindset, it, it doesn't really have anything to do with true spirituality. You know what I mean? It's just another way of trying to get what you want. But I do think that the pain and the challenge and all of that is part of what

humbles us and makes us really able to look within a little bit more deeply. I've had a lot of parents who've lost children who want to just go from A to Z on this whole spiritual journey. They're like, I want to jump into it and get to the end where I can talk to the spirit world. And I'm like, whoa, you know, like my heart bleeds for them because if I had an outline or a program that I could hand them to give them that, oh my God, would I ever, because my, my heart hurts so bad for them. Yeah. Well, I mean, my, my thoughts about that is that I think that seeds can be planted, right? You know, because we've all had that experience where, you know, someone says something and it

just kind of lights something up in you or it makes you stop and think or whatever. And I mean, but to me, I think I'm pretty open about the fact that going on a spiritual journey, a true spiritual path, you know, of self-discovery is for most people, not easy. And you have to be willing to strip yourself clean. You have to be willing to go through some pain. You have to be willing to open your mind, look at yourself in a different way to admit certain things that you've never wanted to admit about yourself. And if you're not ready to do those kinds of hard things, then you're going to stay on the surface, which is fine, because, you know, at some point you might decide that you're ready. And that's, that's fine. You

know, I had a few friends when I was going through my intense, you know, emotional integration work who were just like, I applaud you. I would never do that. And in my mind, I was thinking, how could you not want to, you know, but yet I want to be crying every day because I knew what was on the other side. Right. I knew it was going to be a growing process for me. Yeah. Well, I just think that we're so conditioned. And so looking from the outside in, it's like, and when I liked how you said, you know, dropping him a seed because seeds lead to experience. So like, I love to do the discernment exercises with people who don't get it because you act, I actually lead them through something that they could physically feel and

connect with. And they're like, holy shit, or giving someone Reiki for the first time and letting them experience their energy. And, you know, cause you can't just say, Hey, this is what I believe. You should believe that too. It doesn't work that way. Well, and that's what religion is, right? I mean, that's not for everyone, right? I mean, I, I think there's a huge continuum of people. There's definitely people within traditional religions who are very spiritual and are very deeply connected within themselves, but there's that surface side of religion where it's just like, here's a book, believe everything that's in here and just believe this guy who's standing at the front of the room. And that's why I was not religious. Cause I couldn't, and I always had this thought in my

mind, like, it's not that I'm, you know, I have decided that this is all untrue. It's that I can't believe something that I haven't experienced myself. I would have to ask them kind of something. How old was your son when you went through this? About five and a half, six. And it was not long after. So it's funny. I was just having a conversation about this yesterday on clubhouse, because we were talking about kids with spiritual sensitivities. And it was really not long after my own, you know, kind of experience and waking up and stuff where I started to notice these things in him. And I honestly don't know if it was always there. And I just didn't see it because I wasn't in that state of mind or if, you know, because he's so closely connected with me and so empathetic that my, you know,

process kind of also started him on his process. I don't know. The wisdom that comes from, from my kid who literally here's my notes from the other night. She told me she has a spirit guide who has reddish hair, burgundy dress with green trim. Her name is Marikani and she has elf ears and green wings. And I'm like, oh, wow. I mean, I was so interested. I wrote down notes as soon as I got back in my bedroom. Yeah. You know, my son had this whole thing for a while. He actually just decided that maybe this isn't true, which makes me kind of sad, but he had this whole idea for a while. He actually just decided that maybe this isn't true, which makes me kind of sad, but he had this whole idea that he had been a werewolf. He told me about

this whole other planet that he was on and how they lived. And it wasn't really a werewolf, like a person that turned into a wolf. It was like they were wolves and they lived under the ground and they lived close with nature. And that he went through a wormhole and decided that I was going to be his mom and went into her belly when I was pregnant. And it was, you know, we, we had on, um, Evan Alexander who wrote the book proof there's heaven. And he talks about the wormhole all throughout his book. Interesting. Kids are, I mean, so awakened because they're closer to spirit. I mean, they both, they have more memories on the other side. We're always saying it's imaginary or fairy tale or this or that, or they're just making it up. But I mean, I did a Brian Weiss meditation not too long ago. Well, it was a past life

regression meditation. And the first thing he says is use your imagination. I mean, and Einstein was big on that as well. It's like, yeah, we shut that down. It's the same thing with like the shamanic work too you know that that there's not a lot of difference between your imagination and your exploration of the non-ordinary reality yeah i think our imagination is is more reality than we give it a credit for i think it's my higher self and our our third eye opening up to reality. So I hate that that word imagination has gotten attached to fake or made up because I don't. Yeah. So Stephanie, if someone were to take your program, what would it look like? Where did they start? And if someone thinks they're at the

beginning of a spiritual awakening, what words of wisdom do you have for them? Well, so as I said, you know, I work with two different types of clients. So people who are going through a spiritual awakening, I actually don't put them through any kind of a program. That's usually pretty short term. It's usually one to three sessions because they're just needing to get kind of support right then. I mean, I think sometimes people can continue, but just that spiritual awakening piece, it's usually about support and validation and being able to just normalize the experience in a down to earth way, in a kind of simple, straightforward way. And I like to share with people that like, you know, if you're waking up and you're not already on a path, you know what I mean?

You have to get on a path and you can kind of choose your path, right? You have the whole world to sort of choose what draws you and, you know, what you feel drawn to with like your intuition, you know, that sort of expansive feeling of wanting to go in this direction or that. And I'll tell them a little bit about some of the pitfalls that I and other people have been through that we talked about earlier, you know, just feeling like you're crazy, you know, not having anyone to talk to, you know, you want to have some sort of a support system or some way of being able to process your feelings. pretty broad because I've studied and explored so many different paths that it's really about kind of, because I think so many people will try to say, this is the way it's supposed to be, but that's because that's their path, you know, or that's not right because that's their path.

That's my main goal is to just be validating and supportive of what they're going through. And then when someone is a little bit, you know, in this place where they want to go through, you know, more of a program, then that is more about the kind of clearing the way, the habits, the meditation, you know, the emotional integration, and really getting to that place where you can see the world and your whole life as being, you know, kind of guided, like things aren't happening just randomly, you know, you can find lessons and guidance in every single thing in your life. And that's just such a beautiful way to live. So I love talking about that and getting to that place with people as well. You mentioned earlier clubhouse. I had this vision

while you were talking of, of like a, a meetings and a rooms, but it being for people that are going through a spiritual awakening. And then you mentioned clubhouse. And I was like, being, do you go on clubhouse and do these kinds of meetings at all? You know, I have not, um, we've done more kind of casual rooms and like spot coaching kind of rooms. And I have seen rooms like that. The interesting thing that happens on Clubhouse is that when a room gets popular and there's so many people in there, then there's less opportunity to really interact and explore. And so the spiritual awakening rooms that I've seen have been really big and it's great to listen to other people, but harder to get any one-on-one connection.

So that is something I've just finished up a round of workshops that I was working really hard on. And I have been thinking in the next, you know, month or so to start opening up a little bit more on clubhouse and spiritual awakening would be, you know, one of my first topics to want to talk about. Cause I agree with you. Like, I think I want to somehow create some community. I'm thinking about doing a group, a group program in a couple of months, somehow, you know, having that support because support from one person is good support from a group of people

is, you know, even better exponentially. Yeah. That's exactly why I started the sense of soul sacred circles just for that, because everyone I was talking to was like, I have no one to talk to. I'm going through all this could all together share that within and support and learn from each other. And that's exactly what I saw. That was very needed. That's needed big time in this world. Definitely. The fact you got through this by yourself, like my heart actually hurt for you when you were saying you didn't have a Shanna. I mean, thank God I had Shanna and her and I were going through it together because I was able to text her at five o'clock in the morning and say,

I just had a dream about this strange purple woman who came down and told me that I need to look into epigenetics. And Shanna would be like, I got you back. Let's research it. And then the next thing we know we're researching epigenetics. And then I, she would text me and say, I was driving down the street and there was all these synchronicities about different dimensions. And then we'd go on a path of looking up dimensions. And so we had each other and we were synchronized. And of course, you know,

like that soul sister and that soul family connection, but like for someone to go through this by themselves, oh my God, it must've been so hard. Yeah. And you know what, Stephanie, if you're ever interested, I mean, cause I want everyone that joins the circle to also lead circles for us, you know, like everyone take their turn because you can bring something unique to it. And so if you're ever interested, let us know and we'll add you on there. I think that just, we all have such amazing things, you know, all the way, you know, through our genes,

through our DNA that, you know, will bring so much light and wisdom to one another. I love that. And I would love to do that. I think that sounds fabulous. Amazing. I love what you guys are doing. And I mean, that was why I reached out to you because I love your podcast and the way that you explore all of these topics with people in such a down to earth

and easily accessible way. So yeah, I think that'd be great. Well, I think one thing that you definitely bring that is needed is just keeping it real simple for people because it's already super overwhelming. So I love what you're doing and I love how you're guiding people. And I also love how you keep going back to the fact that people need support, that people need someone just to like, say, Hey, I'm going to validate what you're going through. And so thank you for that,

because there needs to be more of that work. And that's what I love about what you do. Yeah, thank you. And I don't even know if I if it was mentioned anywhere, but I was a therapist for 10 years. So that's part of where that came from. You know, I have that background of being a therapist and working with people in that way. I do have that perspective that I bring to my coaching, you know, that's very deeply ingrained in me. And now it's time for break that shit down. I think that there's a lot going on in the world right now, right? Last year was really, really intense. And this year seems to be really intense in a lot of different ways. And so I think a lot of people are waking up even outside of anything spiritual, you know, they're kind of waking up and not even realizing that it's spiritual. You know, I know people who

in the past year have suddenly decided they're going to move across the country or just want to give up their job and do something different. And to me on some level, that's a little bit of a spiritual awakening. And that's something that, you know, I see that is, you know, kind of expanding because so much of our world has changed in the past year. And so many people have been through so much hardship and we're all, you know, just kind of exhausted and, and challenged and not as physically connected as we, we used to be, but it's, it's beautiful how now it's so common, you know, to listen to podcasts, to get on social media, to get on zoom, to get on clubhouse. Now for those who have been on it, it's such a, you know, it's a great way to, to meet people and be connected in a real way. So. Yeah. Okay. I'm going to ask you to do something

on your Instagram. You talk about how a lot of times you just go to your books and you grab one and you flip open to a page and you read. So I'm going to ask you go grab a book and flip it open and let's see what the universe brings. Okay. All right. Who are the lightworkers? They are us. Each of us has the potential to be a lightworker. We can all be used by the other side to make things happen for others. And we often are, even if we're none the wiser about it. All right. Who is the author of that one? That's a book called signs by Laura Lynn Jackson. Nice. And that is called synchronicity. She literally turned around, grabbed a book, flipped it open and read something that completely aligned with the three of us on this podcast right now. So it's trusting yourself, trusting the, what you grab, trusting what you flip open

to and trusting what you read that is called a sign synchronous space. So thank you, Stephanie. What would you say to someone who asks you, what's the difference between being a therapist and a life coach? Cause I've been getting that question lately. What would you say? One big difference is that, you know, as a therapist, you have to have a master's degree and a license, and you have to follow a lot of rules and with coaching, of course, we know coaching is pretty free and coaching, you know, there's so many different ways to coach and it's not really all that regulated, but when it comes to the actual work therapy, although when I was doing therapy, I was a solution focused therapist. So very much, you know, like,

let's talk about what's going on and how to make it better. You know, what are you looking for? What are the solutions? But therapy as a field tends to be a little bit more past focused and kind of psychologically focused and sort of, you know, looking at how things work less spiritually and less future focused than coaching. Coaching tends to be future focused, tends to be more about what do you want and where do you want to go and how do we get there kind of thing. When it comes to spiritual coaching, I think all over the map. Awesome. That's a great way to explain it. Yeah. So where can everybody find you if they want to, you know, check out your coaching and amazing blogs on your website?

My website is just my name. So stephaniefulgencio.com. And then I'm on Instagram, a little bit Facebook, on Clubhouse too, if anybody's on there and wants to, you know, connect with me there. Cause that's always fun. Yeah. Well, we will. Thank you so much. It's been such a pleasure.

We really enjoyed it too. So thank you so much for having me on. I think it's, it's been a great conversation. You're beautiful inside and out. Thank you so much for reaching out to us. We feel honored to have had you on. Thank you. You guys have a great day.

Thanks for being with us today. We hope you will come back next week. If you like what you hear, don't forget to rate, like, and subscribe. Thank you. We rise to lift you up. Thanks for listening.