Sense of Soul - What To Do With Your Woo?

Episode Date: October 7, 2024

Today back on Sense of Soul we have the amazing soul, Dr. Michael R Smith. For nearly 20 years, Michael has helped to connect empaths & sensitives with their Divine potential. As a doctoral trained counselor, spiritual medium, and healing practitioner of indigenous energy medicine, Michael's great joy is to serve as a spiritual guide for those at all levels of awakening. He is an author and is the founder of Empath Connection, a large online community of empaths devoted to Spiritual growth. In todays episode Michael and Shanna talk about the current shift and rise in energy and “what to do with your woo?"  Michael inspires people to connect to the Divine and make sense of their woo experiences that perhaps they have not had the courage or motivation to explore - hearing voices, sensing Presences, seeing colors, hearing tones, past life glimpses - all as a result of the veil lifting.  https://www.empathconnection.com Follow Michael on Instagram where he posts daily videos or at Empath Connection Facebook and join 25,000+ readers of my inspirational "Monday Messages Connect with Shanna visit www.senseofsoulpodcast.com

Hello, my soul-seeking friends. It's Shanna. Thank you so much for listening to Sense of Soul podcast. Enlightening conversations with like-minded souls from around the world, sharing their journey of finding their light within, turning pain into purpose, and awakening to their true sense of soul. If you like what you hear, show me some love and rate, like, and subscribe. And consider becoming a Sense of Soul Patreon member, where you will get ad-free episodes, monthly circles, and much more. Now go grab your coffee, open your mind, heart, and soul. It's time to awaken. Today on Sense of Soul, we have a sweet three-peat. My dear friend and someone who I have looked to over the years, Dr. Michael R. Smith.

For nearly 20 years, Michael has helped connect empaths and sensitives with their divine potential. As a doctoral trained counselor, spiritual medium, and healing practitioner of indigenous energy medicine, Michael's great joy is to serve as a spiritual guide for those at all levels of awakening. He is an author and is the founder of Empath Connection, a large online community of empaths devoted to spiritual growth. He's joining us today to help us figure out what to do with our woo, to help inspire you to connect with the divine, to make sense of our woo experiences. Michael always has amazing things going on. And right now going to his website, you will be able to find out his latest, which is coming up very soon. So check out his website, empathconnection.com. And he's with us today.

Once again, he's been on a few times before. If you haven't listened to him before, check those prior episodes out. And it's my honor to have him on again today. Please welcome Dr. Michael R. Smith. Good morning. How are you? Oh my gosh, I'm so excited to connect with you. You look fantastic. Thank you.

So do you. Thank you. I am super excited to have you back with us and to share you with those who have never met you. Just to start off, let's talk about who little Mikey was as a child and how did he turn into this amazing man, Dr. Michael R. Smith. Oh, dear God, you're so kind. And props and energy and love to you for what you are doing for humanity and all the movement. It's so exciting to hear about all the things that you've got planned. But for me, when I was a little kid, like a lot

of listeners, I knew I was different. And I knew that I was here for a reason. I think a lot of us who are lightworkers, attracted to metaphysics, or maybe even would identify as empaths. I think a lot of us had that sense, like I did, that there's something like, I'm not part of the muggle world, to use a Harry Potter term. I'm not part of the ordinary world. And I don't like using the word special. That's not the word that I was feeling, but just different and maybe called, called to do what I'm doing now, which is to share that the divine is our friend. I mean, that's basically my career in a nutshell. It's been the last 20 years of work is just to share that we're connected to our divine in a nutshell. So when I was a little kid, I knew that I was called. And I remember very vividly having a conversation with

my father, who, to his credit, didn't understand me very well, but he listened to me. And we had a conversation in the driveway under the stars. I'll never forget it. I must have been eight, nine years old, something like that, where we were talking about what's the meaning of life? And I had all these questions and I was asking my dad and he was like, clueless, but he listened, right? And he helped me to work out that in myself. So does that resonate with you? Yeah, I think that it was the same for me. I felt very connected, and I think that I was leaning towards my religion to give me the answers. That just wasn't happening because growing up, I thought everything was kind of seeked outside of yourself. No one ever told me really to go inward. It was really just, nope,

you know, we're going to do this rosary together and this is going to give us many blessings. And I really don't ever think I was told that I had this power within me. Isn't that, ironic is not the right word, but isn't that wonderful? Not necessarily that you were told by religion, but that you're discovering and we are discovering now that the answers are with inside of us and that we don't need to use religion, that we can go within. And I just think that shift from what you described where growing up Catholic, my grandmother, let's pray the rosary together. Okay, fantastic, right? Nothing wrong with it. And we are moving now, thank God, beyond that to realizing that when we open our hearts and when we just ask to receive the energy of spirit, not only do we get the physical

benefits, the vitality of the spiritual energy, we get the wisdom that's contained within it. I think you do feel so magical as a child. There's a poem, Michael, have you ever heard of it? It's called A Boy's Life. No. And it talks about how as a child, this kid felt like a magician and all this magic was around him and then he makes a very powerful statement and it's like, it was combed out, spanked out, churched out. And he says, I think it was more of the adults around me were afraid to admit that they had lost that within themselves. That touches me very deeply to hear you say that, right? And yes, so many of us go through life and we're seeking that spark within us because it has been a little bit stamped out. And a lot

of us over the last, even those of us that are, you know, those of you and us that are watching this right now, with all that's gone on, it's been a little fatiguing. And I'm going to speak for myself, too. There's been times the last few months, and just with what's going on in the world, there's so many new energies that the divine is moving us into and asking us to move into that it can feel a little disorienting. I'm not necessarily speaking for myself here. I'm very happy what can I do to reignite the spark within? What can I do to feel that passion again, knowing that I've got to raise three kids on limited income and the finances and the economy and this and that and politics and can be a bit overwhelming. And just speaking for myself, going through a big move this year, I moved to San Francisco, which I'm very happy at. I live in a beautiful redwood forest. It's quiet. And one of my favorite animals, I live in a bat colony. So they whiz by my head at night and I'm just like,

I'm on cloud nine. That took 25 years for the right moment and the opportunity to arrive so here i am i'm moving and many of us are are just we're we're shifting with the era the new era of consciousness that we're in we're shifting into these new modalities like i tell me about this for you. I feel like my work is changing. So not only the physical move, I feel like I asked the universe several years ago, I said, I love my female clients. I wouldn't have a career without them because most people in 80% of metaphysical circles are women. And I asked the divine, I said, please give me more men and more men are starting to show up. So, I mean, that's for me. What about you? What have you been noticing like shifts and urges and changes? When you talk about that instability, I feel like it's

part of the systems that are breaking and there's nothing really solid right now, but it gives us an opportunity to create something new and something more authentic. And I love that you said that. That was what I've been feeling lately. And when it comes to also the balance of the divine feminine and the divine masculine, I've been on this hard go divine feminine rise, but what really hit me was the importance of the divine masculine to also rise equally. It's part of the relationship that I have with the divine. And it's not one or the other, it's balance. And it's bringing, in this era that we're in, it's bringing the divine masculine, divine feminine into balance.

And one of the ways that that happens for us to come into balance is through divine surprises, divine orchestrations, synchronicities, even challenges. What we think of as challenges at the time, they often will need to happen. And that's happening for a lot of us. So if you're one of those people that is struggling right now, or you feel like you're struggling, there's always a higher order and a higher level reason for that because we need to get the buses arriving on time and we're just puppets. We really are. So even the challenges are necessary. So how does that change it for us when we look at our struggles? It's very easy to get caught up in three-dimensional human thinking, is it not? Where,

oh, I've got the bills to pay, I've got this, I've got that, I've got health stuff going on. Well, really in the bigger picture, all of it is you weave together in this tapestry called our own universe, our own life. And if we're going to fulfill, each one of us, our soul contract, which if you're listening to this right now, watching it engage thus far, you're going to fulfill your soul contract. You're a seeker. That's why you're showing up today to listen to this conversation, engaging with it energetically, with your own reflections on what we're talking about.

So when we look at it in that sense, it brings, for me, I don't know about you, but it just brings, I guess, hope. We need a lot of hope right now. If I'm seeking anything, it is that, to see the light in the dark, to see even in the worst challenges I've had recently, that's what I've been shifting and seeking is one, to kind of surrender that I cannot control everything. Those things that side of me I cannot control. And two, it's kind of like I told my son the other day, the outcomes will be as they are. You know what I mean? And it's how we react to

them. We have a choice. Yeah. We always have a choice. And often what I found is the simplest choice, whatever feels the simplest, that's a fifth dimensional spiritual energy, is simplicity. pain. It does not feel simple. It just, it doesn't. And why? Well, because we have this thing called an egoic mind, which is a gift. It is our friend, despite what some of us might feel like, oh, I wish I could just make my ego go away. Well, we've been given an ego for a reason. It's my belief. And we make friends with it. And oftentimes, because it's doing its job, which is to try to make sense of the universe and to keep us safe, that's, in my view, the primary job of the ego is to keep us safe in times that don't feel so safe. And how does it do that? It thinks. It needs to think. It needs to plan, to orchestrate, to get in there and try to do its job to keep us safe. And what does that lead to? Overthinking, complexity. So if you have find yourself, awareness is the first key. When you find

yourself overthinking, as I have been aware of in myself these last few weeks, which is very unusual for me, the awareness piece allows us then to make a choice. As you said, it is a choice. We can shift it from over to the other side, to the balanced side, which is the fifth dimensional spiritual connection. And all it takes is a request, divine spirit, great mystery, whatever we call it. And then everything gets quiet and still and simple. And that's a miracle. You know, I feel like there is always like a theme with my podcast, whether it's a yearly theme, maybe seasonal theme.

But right now now you are the fifth person that is mentioned safe. And this, I mean, I've had, I had an experience with it like a week ago and then four podcasts in between, two that I was editing and two that I interviewed where it was about feeling safe, which is important because there's a lot of outside fear going on. There's fear mongering all over us, all over the internet, all over the world. And sometimes, Michael, even if I don't know it's there, I still can feel it collectively, being that empath. And I don't know what it is sometimes. And then I'll look it up or someone will tell me, did you hear what's going on?

And did you hear what happened? I'm like, oh, no, I didn't hear it, but my body knew about it. It's a joyous experience to recognize that others have a shared experience. And in this day and age, just like hearing what you just said, it's resonating in me. Yes, we need each other to work these things out. We need these types of conversations. And thank God you're being gifted with an even bigger platform because the world does need it. And what we really need is to hear, oh my God, someone else is having the same experience as I do, the shared experience. We all are one. There is no separation. And so many of these interesting experiences are happening for us. And where is the magic in recognizing that we're not alone? And in this day and age, community and connection, those two very closely related words, community and connection, are the new currency of the new era that we're in. They're priceless, and they're more valuable than gold, because hearing another person's experience is so reassuring, and it makes us feel safe internally.

I love how you said that. And it does begin with that awareness. When I am outside with nature, which I know you love nature too. One of my greatest teachers, right? Yeah. The amount of synchronicity and the amount of wisdom and the amount of signs and symbolism that I'm getting from nature right now is undeniable. It's like the earth is almost like there's an orchestra outside if I go outside right now. Michael, weird shit's been happening. Yes. Let's talk about this. What to do with our woo because the woo stuff is happening. So what have you been noticing?

Dude, I have a video of these two birds in my front yard on the ground sitting and not moving for like 20 minutes until I finally stopped watching. I went inside and I did eventually go out and they were gone. But I was like, what the hell is this? Why are they just, they're like stoic, just sitting, not doing anything. What's even my daughter said, maybe there's some like government robot birds or something, mom. That day I needed to be still just like them. Perfect. Right. They'reing, nature mirrors for us. As you said, it mirrors what we need.

And we're getting what we need right now. And you in that moment needed to be reminded to be still. And I find when I lead my retreats in Sedona, and I'm starting to do retreats here in the Pacific Ocean Redwood Forest where I live in north of San Francisco, just before I got on this call, to get myself in a really good energetic state, all I need to do is just look up at the clouds or look up at the sky. And if you look at a cloud, you see it's just like, oh, they move so slow. And for me, it's very calming. And I would suggest for those of us that have really busy lives, we do need to be reminded and to remember that nature is not an option anymore. It is a requirement. If we are

going to survive, that we get back to the way that we were created to be as humans, which is to be one with nature. We cannot be disconnected from it or we will go crazy and the fear energy will overtake us. So that's why outside I've got these giant redwoods and the divine has planted me here for a reason so that I can be centered and grounded and still. And yes, there's so much magic in that and it is the way to the divine. I used to think, I think a lot of us have thought this at one time or another. I used to think like I had to leave my body or go up through the crown chakra to get to spirit. And as I get older and wiser, it's down. It's like in the earth, in the roots, through the root chakra that we find the magic and the connection that we're

seeking. Oh, I so agree with you. You know, I had a pretty busy summer and lots of transformation, lots of things moved in my, like my oldest daughter moved out. I mean, just big, big things that changed, you know, my everyday life. And I would go outside and I would water. I had, I had some fungus. I actually like the fungus because I get tons of the little, what do they call them? Fairy circles with the mushrooms. I just kind of left them alone because they were cool. But I had some patches. So I was really trying to work on it because I'll get written up because I don't live in the red woods. I live with an HOA in cookie cutter hell, the same version of my house is a few doors down. But I was spending so much time watering my grass, which is probably why I have the mushrooms.

But it was like I was stealing this moment with nature and I did not want to go back in the house. I could have been out there all day and sometimes I would be out there all day. You know, my neighbors were like thinking I'm nuts, like how much can you water and tend to your lawn? But it was just, I was in relationship with everything there. You know, that's such a beautiful word, relationship. Being in relationship with everything around us, nature included. We've been designed, here's the science. I mean, I have a PhD for a reason. I like science.

What is one reason why we feel so good when we're around nature? Our brainwaves on average are 7.8 Hertz. We've been designed by the universe to carry a brainwave frequency, 7.8 Hertz. When we go outside, what is mother earth's frequency? Also 7.8 Hertz on average. Now there's spikes up and down just like our brain, but that's not, I mean, that's by design, you know? So, it calms our brains when we get outside and have a deeper relationship with nature, which is a deeper relationship with the divine. For me, I've been noticing that new animal spirits have been showing up for me. So here's an example, and this may spark something in you and then also in the listeners and viewers. So I moved here and I live in, like I said, I live in a bat colony and that's new for me. I have not been working with bat energy

at least consciously until this year. I go to Sedona in May just after I moved here. I lead my annual retreat in Sedona. Sedona and the Airbnb I stayed at was also in the middle of a bat colony and was flying by my head just like it is here at night. So new energies that were being initiated into. So I guess my question for listeners is what have you been noticing showing up for you in terms of the new animal spirits that have been showing up? How, like Shanna had mentioned, the animals have been acting or operating differently. When we remember to ask, there's medicine and meaning in asking that type of a question. I love that.

And I always try to really discern it for myself first before going to a book. You know, because I mean, and you'll still find that it usually is pretty aligned. I mean, because animals, you know, have their own characteristics. And a lot of times they come into your life for those reasons. I'd love to know, you know, what the bat meaning is for you. But I had a different one too recently, snakes. And I definitely would have been afraid of snakes before. Actually, when I had the big five-foot snake in my backyard a few weeks ago,

yeah, that was a little frightening. And you know what came up for me as soon as I felt frightened was that this is my sanctuary. And I'm afraid to step foot into it right now. And so I sat with that for like a whole morning outside

and thought to myself, can we live together in peace, me and you big five-foot bull snake? I don't want to be afraid of you. I don't want to be afraid of my yard because this is where I feel most safe. And all of a sudden, the wisdom of the snake for me came forward. It was all the transitioning and the shedding of my daughter leaving. Ooh, get choked up. I'm so touched by your story. I'm truly touched because especially about you recognizing, can we live in peace? We have been taught

in Western culture because we've gotten away from our indigenous roots, I've worked with the Lakota tribe for the last 25 years. And the one thing that I have learned about having a relationship and learning shamanic practices, it's a fancy word for just original first nation practices, first human practices, is that we've been taught to fear aspects of ourselves that have great medicine. So like you're rightly recognizing, the snake is about shedding the old, shedding the skin, that's part of its medicine. And so that the new things can come in. And I'm so touched to hear you, the way that you say it with such humility, you know, can we live together in peace? What a beautiful model for all of us. Many of us are afraid of spiders, and spiders are all about

connection and weaving the connections between the other people that we are meant to connect with and connection with the divine. So divine networking, if you will, is what the spider does for us and one of its many qualities in my understanding, right? That's one way to interpret that. When we have taught to fear spiders or kill them or step on them, we can't do that anymore. We don't want to do that anymore. We can. We always have that choice, right? When we do choose to kill a spider or be afraid of it, because it is a choice. When we learn to humble

ourselves to that creature, as you've done with the snake, oh man, that's when the door opens. Then you'll meet the people that you're meant to meet. So what a beautiful story you shared. Thank you, because now, okay, the question then becomes for all of us that are witnessing this conversation, what have I been afraid of, pushing away, resisting, neglecting, that is a piece of me, the spider, the snake, the bats, they are us. There is no separation. The veil is lifting. And before the call today, I asked the divine. And I said, all right, what do the people need to hear today? And I'm being a channel for the divine.

This is what I ask. This is why I do my work. And they instantly, as they always do, they come with an answer. And sometimes it comes right away like it did today. And sometimes it takes a while for it to show up in our everyday life. Today, they said, you need to talk about the metaphor of windshield wipers. So what is happening on our planet, and it's perfectly evidenced by your story and what we're talking about, is a lot of times, myself included, I have a very messy car and dirty windshield.

When we're walking around with this dirty windshield, I don't know how dirty it actually is. When my friend Aiden gets in the car, he points it out to me, Michael, you got to do something about your windshield. But the point is, is when we don't recognize that we have dirty windshields, meaning the truth is being obscured by lenses that have been tainted by cultural conditioning and things that we can see things and directly experience the truth without distortion of cultural conditioning. And for all of us, we want to be asking the question is, what have I been avoiding, resisting, suppressing, right? And what do I need to do to allow in more goodness into our life and often for many of us the answer is recognize that we're a part of everyone and everything and that even things as spooky as which is happening for a lot of us feeling presences seeing presences in a new way before those are not anything to be scared of.

And I know it brings up a lot of fear in a lot of us, right? Absolutely. I mean, honest to God, I feel like I've even seen straight up glitches where I'm like, wait, what? What was that? I just thought everything pixelated for a second. Or I've been seeing stuff out of the corner of my eye like I've never seen before. It's hard to even put words to it

because I don't know the words. It's interdimensional. Well, you're right, because when we're talking about spiritual principles, spirit doesn't operate with words, but we do. So we do our best. So what I'm hearing and what you're saying is you're seeing the world in a new way, as we all are. And often, and I've been having that exact same experience, maybe not exactly the same. You're talking about, you're seeing it in your own way and you describe, use the word glitch, right? Like a glitch in the matrix. Like, did I really see that?

I've had that. Take my glasses off, right? And I'm like, wait, you know, and you'll still be like that. And I'll be like, oh my gosh, what? I don't know what's happening. I don't know what's happening. Exactly. And so we are all having our own version of that.

And here's some common experiences that I'm excited to share these because I know that it's just going to light us up, those of us that are listening and watching. All right. Sensing presences, number one, maybe even in a new way. I never used to see presences until the last month or so. I would always feel them like standing in my aura. But now, oh my God, I was at my mom's house last week and I was like, what the hell? I just saw a dark figure moving into my mom's pantry. Apparently it was hungry. It was like, I told my parents too,

they know that I'm what I do for a living, that I sense. So there's that, sensing the presences and seeing them in a new way. Have you had that experience also? I'm tripping out, Michael, because guess what? I usually see things, right? Okay. But all of a sudden, I'm hearing things. So many of us are hearing words, we're becoming clairaudient.

And when we clear the throat chakra, if you've been doing a lot of work on clearing your throat chakra, you're automatically going to become clairaudient much quicker and faster because once we clear the throat, the throat chakra is the center of clairaudience. And that's my primary gift. So I'm glad to hear that the universe is working with you so that you're starting to hear and I'm starting to see because that was out. Clairvoyance was always my down the list gift. So this isn't as cool how this balancing effect is happening. We're becoming more telepathic with each other. And that goes along with the clairaudience.

We're picking up thought forms that have always been there, but they're from other places, other times, other people. And we're recognizing now that, hey, that wasn't me. That was not me. And we're becoming, once we're aware of that, boy, I don't know about you, but it makes me feel like, oh, and a lot of the clients that I work with, like once we recognize like, oh my God, that thought that I'm worthless or I'm thought that I'm this or that, that limiting belief doesn't originate from me. It originates from whoever, whenever. It doesn't matter. Once we recognize that it's not who we are, it's not us, it's not originating from us. It's just an echo or an imprint, if you will, from the past, what does that do for us? How does that make us feel? It's a big relief. And it lightens us. I feel like it lightens us and it makes us more open, less dense,

to allow that light to come in. It gets us in touch with the fact that we are the light, we are the beings, and we're experiencing that now when we hear those tones. Some of us have been hearing tones, not, not tonight. Have you been hearing the tone? You know, I heard them. It's a little frequency change. Now I'm firm again. But you know what, Michael, I could tell you so many stories.

They're so common now on a daily where there's synchronicity or there's these telepathic things happening or think of something and manifesting it like everything is really super and you got to be careful too about that i do you know because you know sometimes you think you want something or you even a thought just goes by. You haven't actually analyzed it with the ego yet. And all of a sudden, were you ready for that? Oh, that brings us to a really interesting topic. Yes, the power of manifestation is speeding up. There's a quickening happening in the world.

That's the word that I like to use, quickening. It's a speeding up because we are getting closer and closer to source, and source is getting closer to us because of the work that we're all doing intentionally. That prophecy, that story, every major religious tradition throughout history has spoken about the times that we're in. The Lakota, just an example, the time of the return of the great white buffalo calf woman as being one example. The Hopi, I mean, every, the Christianity, the time of revelation, it's every major religious tradition, that's where they get it right. That's where they have a piece of the truth. We each have a piece of the puzzle. And this is happening, this quickening,

this manifestation speeding up. And what is the question then? How can I keep myself and my vibration high, not fall into vices, addictions, and patterns, sugar, internet, social media, that take me out of my true essence, away from my true essence? How can I remain closer to my essence so that I can receive more revelations from spirit, more truth from spirit, so that I can share that with others and the world and therefore light up others around me? That's really the question that we're all asking now. And when we remember to ask that question, we'll get the answer. And additionally, we need to be very vigilant about the quality of our own thoughts, the thoughts that we do think and using language carefully. One of the things that I learned, I had a very incredibly powerful experience when I left my body, the equivalent of a near-death experience. I wasn't clinically dead, but I was not here. And I left my body,

this was in 2014, and I saw how it all worked all at once. And it was very traumatic from my egoic mind because I was like, oh my God, how can this be? What I thought was true isn't true. And I was seeing everything. And one of the things that I saw was that we want to speak, we must speak what will be, not what is. Say that again. Now really wrap our heads around this best we can and our spirits around this. Speak what will be, not what is. Meaning we do not want to let our pea brains, that's what they are. They're very, I mean, they have a. We want to speak what will be. So I am confident, happy, joyful, grounded, radiant, glowing, abundant. You know, all of these things, when we say our affirmations, we say them from here, not from here.

And that's why if you're one of those people who are wondering, well, I don't know about affirmations. They don't work for me. You may be saying it from the wrong place. You may be saying it from the egoic pea brain, the small mind, rather than here. So what I like to do is when I say my affirmations, I place my hand on my heart, and then I speak into existence what will be what I want, not the current reality of what I think is happening. And we're all coming into this truth.

Thank God. Keeps you from going to the past and grabbing some of those conditioned patterns into existence too. Putting the foot forward, not backwards. That's one of our gifts. It's our superpower that we all have been given. So I don't say this in a religious sense. Many of us are coming home who have been wounded by Christianity. I was wounded. I grew up gay. I was told I was going to hell. And my story is all of our stories. There probably isn't a person alive who has not been one way or another wounded by Catholicism or Christianity or any religion in some way. Now, do they fulfill a certain function and is there good there? Of course. And many of us have been

wounded by that. And we're coming around and recognizing, okay, we were told that we needed to focus on the external, that we needed to not eat meat on Fridays, that we needed to say the rosary. There's nothing that we need to do to prove our worth to the divine. The worth is already there. And we're just coming around and recognizing that once we ask the question and that our superpower and all of the power that we would ever need has been given to us from the moment that we were born and before. And now we're remembering that we don't need anyone, anything external from us. The power is here. When we speak those words into existence, they become real and it is speeding up. Talk about speeding up. So every morning, you know, I bring the dogs out before I get on a call, you know, because

I don't want them to bother me. So they got to go do their business. So that way they don't come knocking while I'm on my interview. And then I come in the house and I look at the clock on my stove because it's like the first clock I see. And I just looked at the clock on my phone and I was like, wait a minute, this is odd. It's different. How did I lose two minutes? So then I turn around, I've got another big clock on the wall and it's aligned still with, I don't know if they changed the time on the phones. I was so confused. So I go and check all the clocks. I mean, I always, you know,

use my phone to set the time and they were all like two minutes off. Called a friend and I was like, can you please look? She's in California. I was like, please look, did I just lose two minutes? And she was like, so was mine. And she has a different phone service than me too. And it wasn't exactly two minutes. It was like in between a minute and two minutes. So it was hard for me to like really pin how, what the time was. I've had many experiences over this past summer, especially where I felt like I was in a parallel universe or something. I mean, even language between me and other people just don't even seem the same. I mean, it can be lonely. That's why I think it is important to listen to these conversations, to join communities like yours so that you don't feel so alone in this. That's the one that I have in a community for that specific reason. It's called the Empath Sanctuary Community. And we gather in community and the magic that happens when we realize, like you just said, these types of experiences are happening.

I would suggest in listening to what you said, this losing time, that Pluto has moved or will be fully moving into Aquarius. And a lot of people, myself included, believe like, okay, this is really the age of Aquarius. We moved out of Pluto was in Capricorn, and Capricorn is all about linearity, structure, societal structures like time that have a precise definition from the human sense. When I'm listening to your story, what I'm hearing is, of course, the universe would show you a time shift because we're moving out of Capricorn, that energy where we've been stuck for the last couple hundred years, where it is all about linearity and time. And now guess what? Now that we're moving into Aquarius, which is about oneness, a totally different energy, community, connection,

oneness, recognizing that we're all related, of course the universe would show you a shift in time. Wow. And a lot of us are waking up to the fact that we're earth empaths as well, and that we are feeling and we're being asked to pay more attention to the movements of the earth. So I've always had the ability to predict earthquakes. I'm about 50-50%. I get a sense, I tune into the earth, and I'll just start hearing the word earthquake. And about 50% of the time, it happens. So many of us have that latent ability. And for those of us that have, it's been latent, you may not have thought of yourself as an earth empath, meaning you're very highly in tune with the earth. Now with the shift that we're in, many of us are waking up to the fact that the earth is always speaking to us like the divine and speaks to us in many different ways, as we've already mentioned about lightning, one of the things we haven't mentioned being one of them.

And so pay attention, everyone, to where you go on the planet, because if you're listening, watching this, you're an emissary. There is no question you are an emissary. There is no question. You are an emissary of the divine. And we have something called an earth star chakra that is about roughly two feet underneath the earth. And it's a part of our human chakra system that often does not get credit that yes, we have a chakra underneath the earth that is a part of our own human body. Wherever we step on the planet now, and I know this is true for me, I know that I'm an emissary. I know that I have been gifted with a lot of light through my life experiences, my unique design.

We all are emissaries and need to be emissaries so that wherever we go, the divine is able to reach us and reach other people and spread this out wherever we step on the earth. Let's recognize the truth is that we're all emissaries and we all spread light just by our mere presence alone without even conscious awareness. The divine uses us through the power of that earth star chakra to bring more light in through our crown and through our heart. And boy, does this earth need it. And a lot of times I hear the question, well, what's the purpose of my life?

And then people think like, oh God, I need to do a podcast like Shanna or I need to have empath connection like Michael or no. What do you believe the purpose of your life to be? I would like to hear. Mine? Yeah. To be as connected as I can. I would say the same thing, to be as connected as I can, because when we connect, we change the world. And that is, I know the purpose of my life as well. And when we get to the other side, those of us who've had, or those people who've had actual near-death experiences where we see it all, one of the truths that always comes back from those who've had near-death experiences is that what I thought were the big things didn't matter and what were the little things

really did matter. And the little things meaning just having a moment of silence, a moment of meditation. That's how we change the world and create peace on this earth. Sharing, even those little moments where we have a conversation with a friend or with someone who's holding space for us and they say something that radically changes our world. I'll give you an example of that. Someone told me one time when I was going through severe depression around 25 years ago, they said, there's going to come a time where you will be unstoppable. And I never forgot that.

And to me, that's the purpose of life, is to take our perspective, hold space for one another and share and mirror back to what we see the light in each other. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And when you're called to do it, step up and be courageous and unstoppable. Right? Yeah. It takes a lot of courage, especially those of us that have been told through whatever experience, through society or our parents, that there was something wrong with us and we needed, you know, defective with us.

We need to shut up. So many of us lightworkers have gone through that. Have we not? We've been told like we needed to squash our voice when the opposite is true. We're learning to use our voice because it's the voice, it's the word, it's the power of the word being the one that creates the miracles for other people. You know, it's funny how you said about the earthquakes, you know, years ago, and actually now that I've kind of connected it with the science behind it, it makes sense. In 2019 about, you 2019, I'd done so much work.

I don't call it anxiety. I call it energy on my chest. But I hadn't had any in so long. And out of nowhere, every once in a while, I'd get like, my body was experiencing something, and just nothing around me could explain anything. And it was one of my cousins I had met through my ancestral journey. He and I study our shaman ancestor together. He said,

you know, there's lots of solar storms going on right now. And he sent me suspicious observers, which I listen to every morning. It's a solar forecast. But I noticed that that is exactly what my body is experiencing. I always can predict the solar storm. I've become so attuned with it that I probably am like a meteorologist, you know, would be able to in some way. You know how they say barometer for people who have arthritis. But yes, i can always sense it and for the longest time michael i was letting it control me i was not aligned with it

in fact i started to fear it um i'd get anxious about it and um i had a friend who said instead of you know this here you go, how important it is to have, you know, people in your space. She said, instead of rejecting it, like you are and experiencing all these negative things, um, why don't you try to like meet it, meet it, like align with that. So I was like, oh my God, you're absolutely right. And that night I went and sat with the sunset, just like I had to do with the snake. Can I feel safe? Can we make friends? Can we align? Can my energy, I am now, I would say today using the scalar energy, this radiant energy to my benefit rather than fearing it. I sense it and now I use it. I think it's also the reason why a lot of us are experiencing such heightened spiritual gifts

right now is because this energy is coming into the earth's magnetic field. And yes, it can be dangerous, especially if you fall victim to it. How do you use it to your benefit, your relationship with that solar energy? How do you now use it for your own benefit? And I've even had circles where we talk about this because I was so affected. I have a lot of symptoms and I would hear other people talking about their symptoms. And I, I mean, I was always like, gosh, they don't even know, but they're really affected by this, by the solar storms. There's a very much up and down thing go that goes on. You could almost feel bipolar, right? You have so much energy and then you have weak energy, you know, and it's just like crazy,

especially like over the past few days. So like two days ago, we had a solar storm that very much affects humans and animals and it affects navigation. If it affects the navigation of an animal, right? Can you imagine how it would even affect us, right? It affects the, of course, you know, like the obvious things, like we depend so much on technology, you know, what will happen, you know, if there's no technology. One thing for me is I have really wanted to become more self-sufficient and not realize so much on technology. And I've been trying to teach this to my children, just in case, if you cannot survive because you don't even know how to plant something. We've come away so much from just natural things that humans have done for millennia. So how I use that now is that I listen to my body.

So when it tells me that I need to rest, I do, right? I don't try to force myself through it because I think that if you do, doctors are now saying that you can have a heart attack. I know people who have had strokes during these big storms. Like back in May, we had that huge storm. A friend of mine had a stroke. So I feel like you have to listen to your body more than ever, which isn't a bad thing. We've been so distanced from our body as well

for so long. When I have that extra energy, I put it to use as much as I can. Sometimes I do. It's a burst of energy. During these storms, it's hard to find a happy medium. It's not a coincidence that the sun's activity is increasing right now. It is. It's a fact. The sun is reversing its magnetic poles. And when that happens every 12 years, we get massive solar storms and the radiation does affect us. So what a great model that you are paying attention to your body, listening to your body. That is our primary instrument that we have and you're friends with your body. I'm friends with my body. We're all learning to become better friends with our body and listening to what might or feeling and sensing and acknowledging when our bodies give us a signal

that feels like anxiety, for instance, we pay attention to that. And often, you know, who knows where that comes from? It doesn't matter though, what you're teaching us and what we're all learning is that we need to rest. We need to slow it down because when there is extra light and extra fire energy, what we need to do is that's divine masculine. That's masculine energy. That's high. And it's cortisol. It literally puts cortisol out to our environment. Yeah. And so when we have the added cortisol, we can't keep doing what we've been doing in the past, the habits of the go, go, go, go, go. We need to slow it down or we will have a stroke like your friend that you mentioned there. Like we will have negative

health consequences. So we're all navigating through these new uncharted waters. And boy, isn't it an interesting time to be alive. I say that all the time, Michael. I must say that. But I have noticed, because I've been tracking everything for over the past few years with this. And one thing, and I'd say even my children have tracked this with me, that our senses are super high during these storms. So this scalar energy, right, and our magnetic field around the earth has weakened so much that now it is dangerous that it's coming so close to us, especially in higher altitudes and latitudes. So I've noticed these are the times where I can barely wake up before synchronicity is hitting me in the face, right? And that might, I mean, my daughter and I on the way to school yesterday morning, I'm in crazy shit, you know, like I'm

speaking stuff and I'm like, I don't even know what I'm speaking. And she's like, mom, do you know what you just said? And I'm like, no, where is this coming from? Yes. Yes. It's humbling experience. All of this strangeness and newness and unfamiliar, because we're really in, we're in these new uncharted waters and we're becoming channels. Many of us, we are speaking the truth that comes out of it. We've all had that experience in the past where, well, where did that just come from? I just spoke something really profound. You know it's profound and you're aware and we become aware. This was an infrequent thing in the past for us. Okay, it happens for most of us. Now, it's happening with increasing frequency, is it not? I mean, it's like, where is this it for me personally, that we are like icebergs.

Let's invoke the opposite polarity of the fire for a moment and just invoke the water polarity. Interesting, this is coming up. So why are we like icebergs? Because when you look at an iceberg, only the tip of it juts out of the water. 99% of an iceberg is below the surface, thus why we have the Titanic. We can't see it with our eyes, but it's there, it's beneath the surface. Same thing with us. 99% of us exists on the other side. 99% of us, 99.999% of us is in the world of spirit. And what is happening now is we're able to access that frequency, that dimension, if you will, easier than ever before. And it's just becoming closer and closer to us and more apparent and more apparent. And we're having these experiences that are really

like, what the hell is going on? Or WTF? You know what I mean? That's why it's more important than ever before to have these types of conversations and to connect with others to realize like, oh my God, we're not alone. Anything but. I think that there's a lot of people who would also benefit from some of the workshops and courses that you offered to Michael. I actually know some of my listeners who have went through long courses with you and have told me, well, I already know you're amazing. I don't have to be told that. But I think that, you know, sometimes if we, like I was trying to do, I was trying to run away from the sun, like as if I could, right?

Right. Or reject this energy. In fact, I was like, what is wrong with me? I've done so much work. Why can't I block this out? And I think it's true because I'm part of that iceberg that I'm human as well. And so you have to learn how to protect yourself or to align yourself or to connect with nature and grounding myself was huge for me to connect with the sun. And I've been a moon person my whole life. I was thinking, you know, Putin, dragon, sun. But, you know, just like with that, there is a divinity in the sun and the moon. Of course, you can't have one

without the other. So it goes right back to that balance of, you know, feminine, masculine, light and dark and the fire and the water. How do we find our balance? I mean, that's what I do. That's why I have a career is basically around that question. So I invite the listeners to check it out. It's Empath Connection, empathconnection.com. And I run two retreats a year. I offer intuition development classes. I've really been offering, the divine has been asking me to not just focus on the empath work, which I do. I have the Empath Academy twice a year.

Now I'm doing mediumship classes. I run spiritual development groups. We have the Empath Sanctuary, which is truly a sanctuary where empaths come together for community. And we do monthly play shops. And it's a lot of fun. I mean, my work is about having fun. In a lot of circles, it's so damn serious. And it's like, there's a time and a place for seriousness. The vibration in my experience with spirit is fun. My guides, they're funny. They know exactly what to say when I'm having a down day to make me laugh. And that's why I like being surprised too, because it makes me like, oh, thank you for getting me unstuck by making me do a U-turn, have to do like a spiritual U-turn or an actual

U-turn with my car. It's all the same. Or put two stoic birds in your front yard. Yeah. Yes. Oh my gosh. Yeah. It's just all so much fun. I'm so grateful to be having this conversation with you. Thank you for the work you do for inviting me back onto the show so that we can all be inspired because it just like jazzes me. These types of conversations, it just gets me going and it gets all of us back into the essence of remembering. If there would be one word that I would put in my perspective of what is really happening on this planet, we're just remembering who we really are. We knew it before we were born and now we're here to remember it.

Yeah. Michael, I'm writing a book right now and much of, I would say, after reading it all and going through it all, it's like, that's truly what I see too. It's like all the experiences that I've had been led to, that I've leaned into, were all trying to get me to remember truly who I am. Yeah. It's so simple. Again, it's just the simplicity. There's a phrase that I like to use based on what you're saying. I can't wait to read your book, by the way. I'm writing a book also. I want to remember. I say that at least once, twice a day, and especially before we go to bed.

When we invoke that right before bedtime, rather than scrolling our phones. Let's just make it our intention to ask the divine, hey, I would love to remember who I really am and all that's attached to that. And I found that it's really deep in my dream life to connect it. Really? Yeah. Yeah. That's much of my book is a lot of it is in my life. I love dreams because I get to go to work. And I always tell the divine, I'm like, put me to work tonight. Like, I want to work. Like, just last night.

I don't remember all of the dreams, but I remember enough to know that I said before bed, I'm like, put me to work. I want to serve you in the dream state. And I did. And I was in ceremony. And I can't remember the exact details. We should plan a retreat in our dreams. We can. And we can do all of this fun stuff. Okay, let's do a little fun little, this is vibration of spirit. Those of you that are listening and watching, all right?

Yeah. Yes. Is there someone in your life that you're close enough to that you can do a little experiment with and call them up today or text them or whatever and just say, hey, I want to meet you in the dream world tonight. And it may take a couple of nights of practicing this or maybe not. Maybe you'll be lucky enough and both of you will be aware that when you make that your intention, intention is being everything, it's going to happen. So let's have fun with that. You're inspiring me right now. I'm going to... I love that.

Yeah, I did that with a girl that night. We all decided to meet that night and all connect in the morning and see if anyone, and we all had really cool stuff. Yeah, it's fun. In the solar storms, that's one of the things that is common is that people

have a hard time sleeping. So sometimes I'll even intentionally drink a lot of water so I wake up so I remember my dreams. It's a good time to do it. That's,

I love the fact that you drink water. That, talk about committed. I drink water before going to bed. Amazing. If I need answers.

The other thing I've noticed is, I'm glad we're talking about this because a lot of us are being woken up around 3 a.m. Yep, you're 100%. Right, everyone gets quiet and for a reason because the divine wants us with them at that hour. To not fade a brainwave. To be still, experience the stillness. So rather than being frustrated, a lot of us are learning to embrace that now and say, okay, I'm awake, not a problem. I'm still

going to get all the energy and sleep that I need. It's just that right now the divine is asking us when they wake us up at that hour, they need us to be with them and to use that hour intentionally. Yes. That's what I'm getting from you today, Michael. And that's what I've been sensing that I really need to do is lean into whatever comes before me, whether I, you know, I need to stop judging it from my ego brain, right? I need to say, what is the snake going to teach me? What is this restless night? Instead of seeing it in a negative, just leaning into it and surrendering to the moment, saying, you know, speak to me, spirit, speak to me.

That's the path of spiritual mastery and ascension, becoming an ascended master. Many of us are on that path where this might be our last lifetime. And what do we need to master in order to master or to get there? Just accept what is. Accepting what is is not necessarily the easiest or most comfortable thing to do. And invoking that energy of acceptance, I accept that I am awake right now at 3 a.m. Boom. What does that do? It eliminates dissonance, pain, suffering, and attachment to what we think in the pea brain should be happening. Let's just accept what is. That's the path that a lot of us are on right now. Hallelujah. I was going to say that path is going up. That's for sure. Thank you,

Michael, for sharing all your wisdom. Thank you so much for the gift that you are and having me on the show and allowing all of us to be just inspired in what you do in your community. It's so beautiful. Thank you. Love you dearly. Love you too. Yeah. Tell everybody where they could find you throughout your website and your social media.

Empathconnection.com is the website. The social media is listed there. And Michael underscore Robert underscore Smith underscore on Instagram. And then there's Facebook as well. If you go to the website, you can find it there. All right. I can't wait to hear about those retreats in the future in the Redwoods.

Oh, I can't wait. I got a beautiful retreat center about five minutes from my home as the universe would have it just down the road. And we are going to be going to, well, let's just put it this way. We're going to be talking to the earth and the earth is going to be talking back to us and spirit will be talking back to us.

And if you're interested in that, I'll be opening up registration soon. Okay. I'm definitely. All right. We'll see you later. Thank you. Thank you. Take care. Have a beautiful interested. All right. We'll see you later. Thank you. Thank you. Take care. Have a beautiful rest of your day.

Thanks for listening to Sense of Soul Podcast and thanks to our special guests for joining me. If you want more of Sense of Soul, check out my website at www.mysenseofsoul.com where you can work with me one-on-one or help support Sense of Soul podcast by donating to my coffee fund. Thanks for listening.