The Wisdom We Share | Spirituality, Consciousness & Inner Leadership

Why the World Won't Heal Until We Do with Val Silidker

• Season 1 • Episode 19

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Message us with your thoughts, burning questions, or reflections, we’d love to hear from you.

What if the most radical thing you could do for the world right now is heal yourself first?

In this episode, Anjani Amriit and Robin Wald are joined by Val Silidker, actress, author, international speaker, sacred activist, and co-founder of the Psychospiritual Institute, for a conversation that goes far beneath the surface of what it means to live with purpose in overwhelming times.

Val has spent decades at the intersection of psychology, spirituality, and activism. This conversation is not theoretical. It is grounded, honest, and deeply practical.

What you will hear in this episode:

  • Why heartbreak can become a doorway to deeper wisdom
  • What deep ecology teaches us about belonging to life
  • How to move from overwhelm into grounded, meaningful action
  • What sacred activism actually looks like in daily life
  • The practice of nourishment and sustainability in hard times
  • Psychosynthesis: integrating soul with psychology
  • How to find your unique contribution to the world
  • What it means to rewild your heart and return to nature

One of the most powerful lines in this conversation:

"We only grieve for what we love.

And love is what guides us forward."


If you have been feeling the weight of the world while

also trying to stay present to your own life, this episode

was made for you.


FREE GIFT FOR LISTENERS

Val is offering an Awakened Leadership Masterclass:

psychospiritualcoaching.com/free-gift-the-wisdom-we-share-podcast/


CONNECT WITH VAL SILIDKER

Website: psychospiritualinstitute.com

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/psychospiritual-coaching-institute

Instagram: @psychospiritual.institute

Facebook: facebook.com/psychospiritualcoaching

YouTube: youtube.com/@psychospiritualinstitute4085


CONNECT WITH THE WISDOM WE SHARE

Website: https://thewisdomwesharepodcast.buzzsprout.com/

Instagram: thewisdomweshare_podcast

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-wisdom-we-share-podcast/id1859886292

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4WsiyMeAupofBqwjAEXpM2?si=c04e48c7011146a3

If this episode moved you, please subscribe, share it with someone who needs it, and leave a review. Every review helps more people find these conversations.


TIMESTAMPS

00:00 - Why We Only Grieve for What We Love
Val shares a powerful story about heartbreak, grief, and our connection to the world.

05:12 - Evolution Happens Under Pressure
How challenging times can become catalysts for personal and collective transformation.

06:15 - The Early Experiences That Shaped Val's Calling
Val reflects on childhood, nature, compassion, and the seeds of her life's work.

08:44 - The Moment That Changed Everything
How witnessing slaughterhouse footage led Val toward activism, compassion, and deeper purpose.

10:40 - Deep Ecology and Remembering Our Connection to Life
A discussion on interconnectedness, the Council of All Beings, and our place within the web of life.

15:35 - Why a Broken Heart Can Be a Gift
Exploring grief as evidence of love and a doorway to wisdom and meaningful action.

20:01 - How to Stay Grounded When the World Feels Overwhelming
Val's practical advice for self-care, resilience, and sustainable service.

24:38 - What Is Psychosynthesis?
Val explains the framework behind the Psychospiritual Institute and the integration of psychology and soul.

#sacredactivism #deepecology #psychosynthesis

#innerleadership #consciousliving #selfhealing

#thewisdomweshare #valsilidker #psychospiritualinstitute

#healingandgrowth #soulwork #consciousleadership



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SPEAKER_03

Somebody asked the rabbi, Rabbi, why are the words placed upon the heart, the holy words? Why aren't they put in the heart? And he says, because the heart must be broken in order to receive the holy words, to in order to feel the depths of life and what it's asking of us. Tiknad Han said, you know, when he was asked what we most need to do to heal the world, he said, what we most need to do is to hear within us the sound of the earth crying. Hear within us the sound of the earth crying, you know, and and recognizing the pain that we are feeling for the world is evidence of our connection to it. We belong, there's a sense of mutual belonging. And when we feel that level of grief inside of us, when it becomes a story inside of us, we realize it is actually part of our story and we are part of this larger story. And the flip side of that is that we only grieve for what we love. And so as we experience the pain or the suffering or what feels so heavy, we can also recognize that we feel that because there is such an immense amount of love and our desire for beauty and the possibility, you know, and the potential that's written in our souls to realize that. And we're moved by that, we're moved towards that. And so it's not just holding the heaviness, but it's allowing ourselves to transmute the heaviness into our action and our way of being in the world, you know, drawn by and pulled forth from our love, you know, I think that that's a really important fundamental shift that I'd invite everybody tuning in to embody.

SPEAKER_01

Welcome to the Wisdom We Share podcast, where ancient truths and modern intelligence weave together to inspire, ground, and shape us for a wiser, awakened life. I'm Angini Amrit.

SPEAKER_04

And I'm Robin Wald, and together we bring you fascinating conversations from the worlds of spirituality, science, and human behavior so you can connect to your own inner wisdom, joy and clarity, elevating the way you actually live your life.

SPEAKER_01

What happens when someone refuses to live half a life? When they refuse to choose between the stage and the soul, between activism and inner work, between changing the world and understanding themselves. Our guest today has lived all of it fully, fiercely, and with remarkable depth. Val Silidica is an actress, international speaker, author, and co-founder and director of the Psychospiritual Institute, where over for 25 years she's trained hundreds of coaches and worked with thousands of emerging leaders to do what she calls the great work that makes outer change possible. She's the author of Call of the Ecological Self, has been featured on Hay House Radio, MBC, and USA Today, and has produced close to a hundred mindful living events and retreats worldwide. But what we're here to explore today isn't just Val's credentials, although there are many. It's the through line, the thread that connects a woman who has sung in bands, performed on stage, stood in front of global audiences, built an institute, raised a child, and dedicated her life to what she calls rewilding our hearts. Because Val is a rare kind of person, someone who has genuinely integrated who they are with what they do. Robin and I are honored to have her with us. Val, welcome to the wisdom we share.

SPEAKER_03

Anthony, you literally have me in tears right now. So beautiful. Thank you for honoring me. It's it means a lot to be here and to be in this conversation, especially in these times. So I'm so grateful to be here with both of you. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, and we were just before we jumped on, we were just in the warm-up talking about these times. Let's start there. We were just talking about these times and what we're all kind of experiencing. So do you want to start there with that?

SPEAKER_03

That's a big invitation. We are living in such a time, aren't we? Really feeling the intensification of our world in many ways. And I can feel like a lot. We were just talking about the feeling of acceleration and how we're all feeling this push rather than the pull of life. There's like this push to go, go, go, go, get it all done. And there's like an urgency, I think, that we're all holding right now because there's so much suffering and because things feel so like we have to pay attention, you know? So yeah. So, you know,

Evolution Happens Under Pressure

SPEAKER_03

I I where do you even start? I feel like something that something that I will remind myself and my students of often is that evolution happens under the greatest amount of pressure.

SPEAKER_00

So powerful. So powerful. Thank you for that.

SPEAKER_03

So it helps me to just kind of lean into that understanding and rather than putting all of my focus and energy on what's collapsing around us. I invite myself to become aware and present to understanding what is happening around us while I keep my presence and my focus on what's emerging through this experience, how we're feeling called, what's moving in me personally, what you know, what I'm feeling resonating with the people that I connect with, and how we get to come together and be part of that change.

SPEAKER_01

So powerful. Thank you. It's such an important overall understanding and wisdom to have is that in these times of

The Early Experiences That Shaped Val's Calling

SPEAKER_01

massive change, we're all getting squeezed. But how can we stay planted? How can we stay grounded in that? And I guess that leads to what I was going to ask you as my first question was, you know, before we go anywhere near your institute, your framework, your books, your body of work, which is phenomenal, I wanted to start with you, the person. So take us back to the beginning, where you grew up, what was the world around you? Because I'm really interested in where you got that spark for doing this deeper work for the love of nature, ecology, and social activism, because I know that that's a deep part of who you are. It's like in your DNA. Tell us a little bit about where that seed was planted.

SPEAKER_03

That's such a beautiful invitation. I think that, you know, who we are is always in us. And isn't it funny how when we look back at our lives, we see those little moments that we forgot about in some way? We're like, oh my God, I didn't realize I was already thinking and feeling that back then. You know, I was just sharing this actually with my students that when I was in high school, I was invited to make a collage in a psychology class. And then I, you know, I did it and I put it away. And years later, I'm involved in, you know, the activism work that I was doing and all the things. And I found it. And I pulled out this collage from high school and I was like 16 or whatever. And I was like, oh my God, I thought that it was in my early 20s that I really started figuring out that this is what called me. But it here it all is, right here, you know, years before that. And then I started reflecting, and I'm like, oh yeah, when I was in middle school, I was kind of obsessed with Clana the Cape Bear. And my girlfriend and I would dress up and we'd be outside, you know, studying herbs and like barefoot in the in, you know, in the earth and like just feeling that connection. And something drew me to that and role-playing in that particular kind of way. And I was such a tomboy, would, you know, climbing trees and just like always wanting to be playing in nature and making forts. And yeah, the love of nature and natural wild spaces has always been in me. And my care for the natural world and my sense of compassion and living a compassionate life has there's been something in there that was super activated, I would say, in my early 20s,

The Moment That Changed Everything

SPEAKER_03

when I was shown some slaughterhouse videos, actually, not a pleasant topic, but I was I was shown some videos of how we treat other animals in a way that shocked me, that I had never thought about. And so all the sparks were there in that, in a way that I hadn't quite put it together. But when when that jarred me the way that it did, and it really broke my heart, I had to fundamentally rethink the way that I was living my life, the choices I was making, because they no longer felt aligned with the kind of compassionate way I wanted to live my life. I didn't want to create harm to other animals. I didn't want to go to circuses anymore. I didn't want to eat meat that was in slaughterhouses. I didn't, all of a sudden, I wasn't sure what the next step was, but I knew it wasn't going to be what it was. And it fundamentally invited me to ask those deeper questions about what do I value and what do I care about? And I realized that I cared deeply about living a compassionate life. I care about justice. I care about all animals and people being treated equally. So equality became a big value for me. And that is what really set me deep in and onto my path as a sacred activist and into the work that I do now, really. It was a catalyst for that in a very conscious way.

SPEAKER_00

Wow.

SPEAKER_04

Amazing. I I love hearing you speak about, first of all, how these things were always in you, right? And then, you know, looking backwards, you can see the the motif, like it's kind of woven in through different experiences and different ages. But I also love hearing you speak about how it came to life and really awakened in early emerging adulthood. You know, I think I have a similar experience for myself, actually, about coming to vegetarianism and eco-feminism and you know, environmental activism. And I did some work with deep ecology. I studied with

Deep Ecology and Remembering Our Connection to Life

SPEAKER_04

John Seed and the Council of All Beings. Did you do Council of All Beings? Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_03

John Seed came to Florida in my in the 2000s, and I spent a weekend with him. And that was the beginning of my, you know, getting into the work of deep ecology with John and Joanne.

SPEAKER_04

Yes, yes. Yeah. So I was in that world for also.

SPEAKER_01

Can we just for the for the uh audience, can you just either of you explain what deep ecology is, please? Just for the listeners.

SPEAKER_04

Let's have let's have Val discuss it. I could speak to what a council of all beings is because I I participated in several and hosted one myself with a partner. But I would love for you to speak to deep ecology and what that path created for you as an opening and awareness.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, absolutely. And council, I've I I create the council online with my cohorts. Every every cohort experiences the council online. And I've done it in person many times. So it's powerful.

SPEAKER_04

Wow, wow, wow.

SPEAKER_03

Deep ecology is really it's an so ecology is the study of living and non-living things and how they interact in the environment. Deep ecology invites us to ask the deeper questions about who we are fundamentally and how we relate to the natural world. So it it, I think it has it's a very philosophical and spiritual approach to understanding our sense of ecology as an as part of this living planet. And deep ecology invites us to come back into the web of life, to really understand our sense of interconnectedness, interdependence with life. You know, every inhalation is given to us as a gift from the trees and phytoplankton and every exhalation is our contribution to the world and living things beyond us that breathe in our carbon dioxide. And so every, every, you know, we are so woven into the web of life. And I think that in our world we have forgotten that connection. And I think that that at the heart is what creates so much suffering for us as humans and how we're so derailed as humans. So yeah, but that's deep ecology in a nutshell. Arnie Nase was the philosopher that created it many, many years ago. And it's, you know, it's a way of living and really understanding a deeper context for self.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, beautiful. And and my first experience with deep ecology, I was maybe 21 or 22. And I heard of John Seed was coming to do a council of all beings through, you know, one of the centers, learning centers in New York City that was like alternative, holistic, new agey, whatever. And I was like, ooh, this looks really good. I'm curious about this. And I went and it was amazing because what it does is it creates like a council, you know, like the way you would have any kind of council to come together to talk through issues and to negotiate and to, you know, kind of bring to the forum topics that feel really relevant to try to come to some resolution and move things forward in community. But in this council, everyone takes on the archetypal understanding of themselves as a different being who is non-human. So who's coming and sitting in the circle and having these conversations about who we are and what is happening on the planet and how we want to address these things, we're speaking from the voice of the rabbit or the tiger or the, you know, the mockingbird or like whatever it is. And it's it's beautiful. It's just beautiful because we're inhabiting something deeper, again, to use that word, deeper than our superficial level and an understanding of who we are as human beings, which we often divorce from this understanding of we too are just animals among all of the other animals and beings. But we somehow think, oh, there are the animals and then there are the humans. And when you come to this council, you shed that illusion that humans are anything else than just another animal, right? But why do we act as if we have all the seats on the council and animals have none? So it reverses that on its head. And it's it's incredible to participate in that.

SPEAKER_03

Absolutely. It really expands our sense of of who we are, you know, and it allows, you know, that being to speak through us. When I guide it for my students, after the experience, we come together. And, you know, I always ask them to in in just in their own inner world to ask that being, why did you choose me and

Why a Broken Heart Can Be a Gift

SPEAKER_03

what gift do you have for me? Because there's something of that wisdom that, you know, we have access to beyond our individual selves. And that really speaks also to our own unique DNA and what we're here to do. You know, we're both unique individuals and we're part of this collective experience. And so it matters so much that we also know who we are and our way of contributing that's uniquely ours, you know. And so I the counsel I feel like allows us to also like why, you know, did Mockingbird choose me? And what is what's the medicine of Mockingbird in my unique contribution to the world? So it holds the both hand.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, uh, and I I think that this is, you know, you spoke about when your heart got broken when you saw the slaughterhouses. I had a very similar experience because I think most of us for most of our life don't have exposure to how food gets to our plate, both from an ecological sense, but also from a mass food production sense. And I think our hearts need to be broken. We need to have our hearts broken in order to take action, don't you don't you think? Because otherwise we're just by we're bystanders, we're passive bystanders.

SPEAKER_03

I I absolutely agree with that with all my heart. I think there's even, you know, so many uh in so many wisdom cultures, there's there's a there's a story about of let me see if I'm somebody asked the rabbi, Rabbi, why are the words placed upon the heart, the holy words? Why aren't they put in the heart? And he says, because the heart must be broken in order to receive the holy words, to in order to feel the depths of life and what it's asking of us. Tiknad Han said, you know, when he was asked what we most need to do to heal the world, he said what we most need to do is to hear within us the sound of the earth crying. Hear within us the sound of the earth crying, you know, and and recognizing the the pain that we are feeling for the world is evidence of our connection to it. We belong, there's a sense of mutual belonging. And when we feel that level of grief inside of us, when it becomes a story inside of us, we realize it is actually part of our story and we are part of this larger story. And the flip side of that is that we only grieve for what we love. And so as we experience the pain or the suffering or what feels so heavy, we can also recognize that we feel that because there is such an immense amount of love and our desire for beauty and the possibility, you know, and the potential that's written in our souls to realize that. And we're moved by that, we're moved towards that. And so it's not just holding the heaviness, but it's allowing ourselves to transmute the heaviness into our action and our way of being in the world, you know, drawn by and pulled forth from our love, you know, that that's a really important fundamental shift that I'd invite everybody tuning in to embody.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah. So I would love for you to say more because as I was listening to you speak, I was thinking, well, what would you, what wisdom or advice would you give to someone who says, I don't want to feel all of that sadness. It's too overwhelming. I already feel so much sadness at all the things I see going on in the world, and there's suffering in so many ways. And why would I consciously, intentionally choose to lean into and allow myself to feel and open my heart to even more suffering? And then I think the key is I love what you said about, you know, we grieve for what we love, right? It's showing us what we value, what we love. And I wonder if you could speak more to the piece about how we turn that awareness into action and into standing in our power or resilience, or, you know, like what it what do you recommend for people as the next step to pull ourselves back out of that sadness and actually change the world around us?

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. So that thank you, Robin. And I feel like that's kind of a multi-layered question, too. So one, what the first thing that came as you were the first part of that is it's really important for us to feel nourished and to create a sense of sustainability within ourselves. It's not for us to fall apart or be paralyzed by the heaviness or the sadness. And if it's starting to

How to Stay Grounded When the World Feels Overwhelming

SPEAKER_03

feel too much or overwhelming, it is really important for us to go for a walk in the woods or just take a breath or, you know, meditate or do yoga, do whatever you do to feel nourished in some way or get a massage, like, you know, tune back into the things that help us feel grounded and just, yeah, nourished is the word that keeps coming through. Because in order for us to even consider stepping into doing work in the world beyond just, you know, survival, right? First of all, we have to be able to be move through survival. So if we are feeling overwhelmed to the point that we can't even be, you know, we can't even survive in this moment, we have to focus on that. So it's doing everything we need to do to feel that level of groundedness for ourselves and feel nourished and feel healthy, you know, and then take it in. Close down the computer, turn off your social media, turn off the news when you need a break. It's important because if we're not sustainable, we can't be in it for the long, the long run, right? Because we're our lives are dedicated to this as, you know, in service to life. So that's the first thing that comes through for me is to find your inner balance, balance your nervous system, have a coach, have a therapist, whatever it is that you need to feel healthy, nourished, and sustained internally. And then when we are at that point where we can find, you know, what is our way of contributing? It isn't meant for us to do everything. We're not here to do it all. You know, we're here to just find out what is what am I really passionate about? What is the thing that I am feeling called to do? And it could be being the best parent that I can be to support this next generation. You know, it could be, you know, working on my sense of patience with people who sometimes will rattle me or, you know, whatever it is, there's nothing too small. And then for some of us, we're gonna. Feel called to creating large organizations and create a massive movement. You know what I mean? But there's nothing too small. So we'll find our unique contribution and trust that it's not just me. It's me and it's you, Robin, and it's Angeny and it's everybody listening that's tuning in, you know, and beyond, right? When we all do just a little bit, a lot happens. And so we can trust in our own unique contribution, no matter how small, that we are making a difference without having to hold it all.

SPEAKER_01

There's such powerful, powerful insight, powerful wisdom around the personal and the transpersonal. And I guess, you know, in Indigenous cultures, it's it's very much I've worked with Indigenous cultures, and the whole ethos is the earth is mother, and we are her custodians, and it is our role to connect with our mother and give her what she needs and not take from her endlessly and endlessly. And you know, there's there's such a wisdom in that they can make rain, they know how to make rain, you know. These this wisdom is beyond our modern Western concepts for life, but for them it's easy because they're so in tune with nature, and and that, and to me, that is deep ecology, it's the wisdom that our ancestors had and still have, luckily, and are trying to share it with the Western world. So thank you for that. And that part about how do we sustain ourselves and then others. We Robin and I were literally just talking about that. And Robin's like, I'm going hiking, I'm going camping, blah, blah, blah. And I'm like, I don't do any of that thing. But then for me, it's sitting and doing poo, my daily, that's my daily non-negotiable, my poo, my sacred ritual. That that's the thing that nourishes me. It keeps me sane in a very insane world. And you know, the little things you talked about with how can what's your unique purpose, your the unique way you can serve. And I thought about my mum, you know, because she feeds people, she's still working, and she's a chef, and she all she does is she feeds people, and that is one of the greatest ever or service things you can do is to feed people, and so it's

What Is Psychosynthesis?

SPEAKER_01

kind of leading to a question I want to ask around psychosynthesis and the framework that you have created. Tell us a little about what is psychosynthesis, what is your institute about, and just to be really transparent, uh that's how I know you, Val, is that I came to study with you at the institute at a time, I don't know if I ever revealed, but I was very low. My brother had just passed, I was very depressed, and it it was like this guiding light in my life that just put me back on the rails, you know, and patched me up and nourished me. And so tell us a little about what it is and what it's doing, and let the listeners hear. I want to, I want them to hear all about it.

SPEAKER_03

Oh, yeah, thank you, Anthony. Yeah, Psycho Spiritual Institute was born about a decade ago. Myself and my business partner, Alyssa Whitehouse. We we realized, you know, the the main framework is called psychosynthesis. And I'll say a little bit about that in a moment. But when we learn, we studied together this work of psychosynthesis. And I came to psychosynthesis, it was developed over a hundred years ago by Roberto Assagioli, an Italian psychiatrist. And wow, I mean, he really brought in, he took depthology and the idea of the self, and he added the soul, you know, the whole soul element that was missing from traditional psychotherapy, which was really just personality level work, you know, and and understanding psychology, which is so important, that who we are as a personality is so important to understand that. And then we are so much more than that. And I found this work actually through my deep ecology work. Ironically, I was studying, you know, with Joanna Macy and Molly Young Brown, who co-wrote one of the books called Coming Back to Life with Joanna Macy, a deep embodied deep ecology work, so powerful. And Molly has her roots in psychosynthesis. And then I started studying with Bill Plotkin, wilderness therapy, and like diving into deep wilderness work in the backcountry, you know, and his roots also psychosynthesis. And I was like, what is this all about? And I found my way to psychosynthesis because what I was realizing is that I the ecological work is my passion and it's like the center point of everything I do. That through line that you spoke about in the very beginning, of all these different things that she does, right? But what's the through line? That through line is about helping us remember who we are. Because when we remember that we are connected to something so much deeper than ourselves, part of a living planet, part of an unfolding universe story, we are the mystery that gave birth to the universe. When we remember that, it absolutely fundamentally changes who we are, how we show up, how we interact, how we reclaim ourselves and our lives and each other, and even those who disagree with us as sacred, you know, and it really transforms that. When I found psychosynthesis, it allowed me, this framework really was all about coming to that center point of understanding who we are, which is the question that lives in all of our hearts. So I studied psychosynthesis for about three and a half years with my partner Alyssa. And then we created Psycho Spiritual Institute, which is a culmination of all the work I've been doing in my life, from the psychosynthesis piece to the deep ecology piece to the sacred activism piece, and then teaching holistic business skills, you know, very soulful approach to business through our psychosynthesis. So psychosynthesis is really the roots of transpersonal psychology. And transpersonal means beyond the personality. So we work with obstacles in the personality, depth psychology, and understanding what we call subpersonalities, these parts, these wounded parts of us that oftentimes will hijack our sense of self, where our sense of identity gets fused with these wounds. And we think this is who we are. I'm a quiet, shy person. I need to be invisible to be safe, or I've got to get it all perfect, or I'm not good enough. You know, so we get lost in these smaller parts of us. We work with the obstacles and the personality so we can create space between who we are and these parts of us, because who we are is something so much deeper. And so psychosynthesis helps us reclaim our sense of self, our sense of self-awareness, our ability to activate our will, to make choices that align with our deeper truth, to understand who we are as a soul. So we work at the level of psychological integration and spiritual maturity, where we're leaning into understanding our sense of purpose and meaning, our sense of interconnection with life, and how that invites us to really hear and feel and experience not only our own soul, but the soul of the world and how that moves us into action in the world. So I love psychosynthesis because at the heart of it, it's ecological in nature, because it's a psychology of wholeness. And we're not just whole and compartmentalized, you know, we are whole individuals. And then the next level of wholeness is our family and then our community and then our sense of humanity and the earth and the universe. So psychosynthesis allows us to include and transcend into each of these deep levels of understanding who we are. And it does it in a very rooted and practical way that puts us into action in our world through awareness and will. So that it, there's so much I could say about it, you know that as well. It's like a nine and a half month course just to get started, right? But in a in a nutshell, that's what it's about. You know, it's about helping us reclaim our sense of self-awareness and be so aware that we become self-actualized, you know, that who we are becomes how we live and we work with the obstacles and the personality so that the energy of our soul can be released and directed by us consciously through who we are, how we show up in life. So it's a powerful way of reclaiming ourselves.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, it and I can attest to that. It definitely helped me on my journey. I'd done a lot of spiritual training, but I I was missing that piece. And to me, that piece brought everything together for me in a way that nothing else could touch it. So, you know, I'm really grateful for the work that you're doing. It's um it is life-changing. Can you just talk about you you talked about you you train leaders, you train people to be leaders in their own way. We're not talking corporate leaders here, and you use the phrase awakened leadership. What would you what would you say? What does that look like? What does that feel like? What does that mean, awakened leadership? Because I think it's such an important distinction to be made compared to what a Western mind might think leadership is.

SPEAKER_03

Yes. Oh my God, yes. You know, I think, yeah, I think when we look at what's happening in the world, we can see the the I what's the word I even want to say? You know, this the idea of a leadership in the world when it's so limited and it really is driven by such a limited identification for who we are and what we want. It all it's all about me, me, me, me, me, me, me. You know, awakened leadership is really about awakening to who we are in the ways that we've been talking about. Because leadership is not just about what I can do for myself, it's about how we fundamentally transform our world in a way that aligns with our values of connection and compassion, that honors our future generations who have yet to be born, you know, that cares for our planet. You know, leadership is so much larger than just ourselves. And so when I when I talk about awakened leadership, I talk about this understanding of the four awakenings, you know, where on one level I wake up in the morning and I wake up to my day and my to-do list, you know, and and that could include some forms of leadership as well. I wake up a second time to my sense of soul, you know, that I am, I am who I am fundamentally, and you know, what what matters to me and my values and how to live a life that's aligned with that. What is the most ideal way for me to start my morning that feels like fully honoring me and my work in the world? So, you know, that's the second awakening is awakening to who I am as a soul. The third awakening is to is awakening to who I am as an ecological self. And so, you know, good leadership is going to include honoring this earth and every living being on this planet and considering, you know, the goodness of our choices in in a larger way. And then the fourth awakening is understanding that we are part of something, even the planet sits in this, you know, mysterious universe, you know, and we are we are we are the universe awakening to itself, you know, and so who are we really in that sense? And so awakened leadership is honoring the largeness of all that we are, and considering that when we make choices, when we look at our world, and we look at our government, and we look at how you know finances are run, and when we say, you know, okay, I want to make this much money. Well, how much is enough? You know, how much is enough in a way that aligns with our values and starts to give back to make a difference in our planet? So it considers all of these aspects of what it means to be alive, you know, and part of this great mystery.

SPEAKER_04

I'm curious what your personal practices are on a daily basis, on a weekly, monthly, like what are the practices you engage in personally to awake on all of those different levels?

SPEAKER_03

That's a beautiful question, Robin. Yeah, I I do different things. I mean, you know, when I wake up in the morning, I always and I I take at least five to ten minutes where I lay in bed and I breathe and I just connect to that's that awakening. I literally what I just said, I just feel myself awakening in all the ways. I stretch my body, I honor my body in the morning, and I really take my time. So I don't rush in the morning because I've I've noticed, and I know that sounds so simple, but as a practice, I have slow mornings. I don't start working until 10. I get the luxury of that. I don't know that, you know, I'm not saying everybody can, but for me, it's I really honor myself in the morning and I get my son ready, you know, for school, or I do the things that need to get done. And I also then take time for me to feel grounded. Sometimes it's, you know, exercising in my body. Sometimes it's going for a walk. I have a habit, a scrub habitat near my house, this little ecological preserve, and I'll just go over there and go for a walk. And so I always take my time in the morning to really nurture myself because that helps me begin my day. And then I work online a lot, which drains me. It's really hard sometimes sitting on the computer a lot. So I make conscious, I make time for conscious pauses throughout the day, where I will, I literally will just be like, oof, I'm feeling it. And I will, no matter what I'm doing, I shut it down. I just shut it down and I'll put on some beautiful music or I'll go outside and I'll just feel the sun and I'll just take a few minutes. It doesn't even have to be long, but I'll take a break and I'll just take a few minutes to just come back and center and like connect to why I'm doing what I do so I don't get lost in it. So I, you know, so my practices are these simple ways of coming back to remembering why and who and nourishing myself throughout the day. You know, sometimes I do yoga, but it's not like a regular practice for me necessarily, but definitely taking time to pause and connect. So those are just some really simple things, but they sustain me day to day. And then on the larger level, I go hiking, I go camping, I immerse in the wild spaces, you know, I take time to absolutely get lost and found, you know, in the woods. And it's so important. And I think for all of us, it's important. You know, studies have been done that even if once a week we take two hours outside, it can make a huge difference in our mental wellness, our spiritual wellness, you know, and that's not even asking a lot, two hours a week. So finding time to really nourish ourselves and connect to the natural world. Sometimes I read poetry, you know, I'll just things that like help me connect to my soul.

SPEAKER_04

I I love this so much because not only because you and I are very similar. We would like, we're like on the same, yeah, like everything you said, that's like, oh, she's talking about my morning routine and she's talking about my daily pauses and shutting down and going outside. But what I love about this for our listeners is that everything you offered is doable and simple. Doesn't require money, it doesn't require investing a lot of time. It doesn't require like anyone can turn off their devices and walk away from their computer, or even if you're at work in an office building at a desk, you can, you know, close the door or walk outside or take a stretch and just breathe and you know, five minutes, 10 minutes, go outside, feel the sun on your face, and just get some fresh air. And then we can do these things, right? They're not, they're not beyond us, but the remembering is interesting. I love this word awakening and remembering because I feel like they're very similar, right? When we remember who we are, we awaken. When we awaken who we are, we remember to be in our lives in a certain way. And so I I I really appreciate uh Anthony. Did you have anything you would add to that? We're gonna we're gonna have to drag you out on a hiking and camping trip, you know.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I think we all share the same passions. For me, it's always being nature, you know, and I I have my daily, my daily walk. And if I don't have my walk, the wheels fall off. And that's my daily, absolute non-negotiable. I don't care what's happening, I must get out into nature. And so I think it's important, like you said, Robin, to understand that these things aren't, they don't have to overwhelm us. It's starting with the simple things, and people often walk past the simple things because they go, Oh, that's too easy. But if we're not doing the simple things well, how can we do the harder things at all? And so I also love how you you're able to bring this gestalt understanding of the world and bring it down into that practical and how do we live our everyday life, especially in this these times of disintegration of the current paradigm, which is very necessary. So I I just have one last question before we wrap up, and that is if you could speak to humanity now, and you kind of are, no pressure, not as a coach, not as an academic, not as a mom, but as someone who's been spent decades sitting with yourself and sitting with others in their deepest moments of change, what would be the single most important thing you believe we need to focus on collectively?

SPEAKER_03

No pressure there.

SPEAKER_01

No pressure at all. Take a minute, take a breath, and that's it.

SPEAKER_03

Because when you guys, when we were just talking about, we were talking about what what's occurring to me is how we began the conversation, which is oh my god, it feels like there's so much happening, and I'm like juggling the world and it's go, go, go, and fast, fast, fast, and move, move, move. And the pace of life is accelerating and the online world, you know, again, it pulls us away from ourselves, right? It gives us a false sense of connection, but there's this where is our humanity? I think that's the largest question sitting right now is like, what's happening to our sense of humanity? So uh two things, I guess, that are coming through right now. One is the importance of slowing down and really taking our time, which is what I was just speaking to in a way. It's like shut it down, take a moment, take a breath, no matter, no matter what's happening. We have all the time in the world. We've just been made to believe that we don't. We truly do. So we need to slow down because when we slow down, we remember, here you go, Robin, we come back to our self, our sense of self. And that means we come back to our sense of kindness, we come back to our values. You know, when we start to feel ourselves contracting, a lot of it's being conditioned in us right now. We're being, you know, our minds are being played with, guys. We all know this in so many ways. You know, the online world is really doing a number on us, and uh AI and all the things that are happening right now. We have to come back to our sense of compan, I don't say our sense of human-to-human connection is more important than ever. And so, first let's begin by connecting to ourselves and slowing down so we can be more kind, so we can respond with more care and compassion because that's what we value, right? And it's not always easy. And I think more and more we're getting thrown off our center and we're having these reactions of default survival patterns that are not how we want to be because it's not who we really are. So if we come back to who we really are, we will rediscover our sense of love for one another. And we will be able to have difficult conversations from the heart, and we will be able to see the values that are actually quite aligned when we get off line. So I think it's slowing down and coming back to our shared sense of humanity, you know, and and that just means you, each of you listening right now, how are you interacting with the people you love? How are you interacting with a stranger? How are you interacting with somebody who has a different political party? Okay, because that's pretty you know, that you know, that's what we're all dealing with right now. But like, how can we model an invitation to come back together as humans on this planet in this deeper context so that we can lead the way, you know, through our compassion and our care. And I think that that that's what I really want to leave all of us with is we're all here together. You know, if you go into outer space and you look at this earth, it is one beautiful blue jewel, and we are all part of it. There are no lines, no parties, it's all big bull crap, you know what I mean? Like whatever. You know, these are just ideas that are making us small. Let's come back to our larger sense of self so we can really be here together in a more sacred way.

SPEAKER_01

What a powerful call to action. What a powerful call home. Thank you so much. If people want to reach you, how what's the best way?

SPEAKER_03

Well, they can reach me through psychospiritualinstitute.com. That's our website, psychospiritualinstitute.com. And we have some beautiful things coming up. If I can share a little bit about so the program that Angie spoke about that she went through now many years ago. Oh my god, seven?

SPEAKER_01

How many years? Probably more. I have no idea. Long time.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, we have our next program begins in August, August 19th, and it runs through May 30th. Um, and it's a very beautiful deep dive into the work that we've been speaking about, you know, awakened leadership, our sense of inner and outer leadership in the world, psychosynthesis. You'll do the work on yourself in a very, very profound way and learn also how to develop your coaching skills through the lens of psychosynthesis and transpersonal psychology to build a business, to work with others in the way that we are all really needing right now. So that begins August 19th, and we're open for enrollments. You could always reach out. We could have a call together. We also have a digital program called Self-Coaching Mastery, which is an it's really an introduction to the work of psychosynthesis and it allows people to move through about five modules that I teach, as well as some cool bonuses, including some ecological work and really awesome interview that I did with uh cosmologist Brian Swim. So it takes us into the fourth awakening of you know the universe story. And so it's a really beautiful five modules where it'll invite you to do some of this work for you. So you'll experience psychosynthesis, working with the soul quality of confidence. Um it's a really lovely introduction to the work as well. So those things are available on our website at psychospiritualinstitute.com.

SPEAKER_01

Thanks, Val. And we'll put all the links to everything, all that you do in the show notes so people can find you in all different ways. Val, thank you so much. This conversation has genuinely pulled on my heartstrings and you know, I kind of feel ready to go out and you know, change the world. And I think we need more people like you, more leaders like you who are passionate, to have that much passion and fire in their belly, but also have the wisdom to go with it, to know where to go and what to do and how to bring people together. So, you know, I'd say what you've given us today, it's not just an insight, it's a really an invitation to just stop running, to stop shrinking, to stop pretending and look to the inner world to see where the conflicts lie within us. The ecological self, the four awakenings, the courage to let heartbreak become our action is quite profound. They're not concepts for me, they've all been this call, a call of self back to self. And you embody that in a way that is really rare and real. So, for everyone listening, if today's conversation has stirred something in you, that stirring is wisdom. Don't walk past it. That's your soul asking for attention. And this has been the wisdom we share. Thank you so much, Val, for being with us.

SPEAKER_03

Thank you, both of you. It's been just such a beautiful conversation. And yeah, again, so grateful to be in it. Thank you. It's been lovely. Thank you.

SPEAKER_04

Thank you so much for tuning in to the Wisdom We Share podcast. We hope today's episode sparked some new insight, imagination, and practical tools you can integrate into your daily life.

SPEAKER_01

Continue this journey with us by subscribing, sharing, and dropping us a review. Until next time, stay wise.

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Anjani Amriit

Host
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Robin Wald

Host
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Val Silidker

Guest