Pivoting Into Peace, Connection & Our Gifts with Dr. Anita Sanchez

Welcome to the Conscious Pivot Podcast with international speaker, business mentor, best selling author of Pivot, and your host, Adam Markell. The Conscious Pivot shares the stories and wisdom of people who have successfully reinvented some area of their business and personal life. You'll gain powerful insights into how you can fully embrace new opportunities, increase your performance, and master the art and science of innovation and resilience. So please join Adam as he guides you on your Conscious Pivot.

Hey, everybody. Welcome back to another beautiful, beautiful day in the beautiful life that we all get to live. And welcome to the Conscious Pivot podcast. I'm so excited today to have a wonderful person to join me in conversation about consciously pivoting in your life and your business and creating just more of what it is that you want. So we'll start, as we always do, by taking a deep breath. Breathe into the fact that today has been a gift already. No matter where we are. It doesn't matter whether it's, you know, we're just getting our day started. When you're listening or watching this, or whether you're sort of, you know, midway through a day. This breath right now is sacred. Just like the first one we took. That first conscious breath to start the day was sacred, was something holy even, because in that moment, and I'm reminded of this, and I get to remind other people, which is a blessing in my own life, that when we take that breath, there's an awareness right then, just as it is right now, that there are people taking their very last breath in this moment. So that that makes this moment sacred. So whatever the, you know, things are that are going on, and sometimes those things are challenging, sometimes we're dealing with stuff. We've got a lot of stuff happening, you know, the good, the bad, the ugly. At times, it's a great reminder to all of us to. To be present to how magnificent our lives are, just by reason of the fact that we are, that there's an assignment that there's something here for us to do that's really special, and the beautiful lady that I have in front of me that I get to see and that you guys hopefully can see and hear. But either way, I want her to say a little bit about herself. Her name is Anita Sanchez. Anita, it's such a pleasure to have you on our podcast, and I'd love you to share just a little bit about yourself and your background and what you're up to, things that you're passionate about right now in your life. I know, Anita through an organization that we Both get to participate in called the Transformational Leadership Council, some beautiful beings that are part of that group. Anita and I connected and my lovely, amazing wife, Randy and Anita have connected and we have some really great memories together in this space that we call tlc. So now we're going to extend that to the space here. So welcome Anita.

Thank you. And I'm honored to come to this sacred space that you opened with. I just love that because we're always in that sacred space. But I'm Dr. Anita Sanchez. I'm Aztecan, is my tribe and Mexican American. I've been for now more than 40 years consulting, training mainly in global corporations with global leaders and their teams, but also nonprofit global organizations as well. And what I'm focused on right now is really, is about wisdom and this book that I've been called to bring forth as a messenger of indigenous elders from all over the world.

And I love the. I love the title. Would you share the title of this book with us?

Yeah, the title is the Four Sacred Gifts, Indigenous Wisdom for Modern Times.

Yeah. And part of, if I recall, wasn't part of that title at least sort of being birthed or. You became aware of that title while we were at one of the retreats, one of our get togethers. Is that right or no?

No, you're absolutely right. It tells you when. You just keep following when you're called. So it did get birthed, actually, at one of our meetings, I decided, I pulled my courage together and decided I was going to present to this amazing group of people at tlc, all spurred on by the racial things that were happening in the country. And so I thought, well, you can't sit around complaining. Just do more. Do more of creating what you want, which is peace and connection. So I went and gave a talk. And at the end of that talk, Adam sitting, having lunch with a group of people and this woman, new member, just kept asking me all these questions. And I finally said, who are you? And she said, well, I'm a publisher for Simon and Schuster and we want your book. And I was like, what? And she goes, and the title you've been working on, it's all wrong. And so she just names the title. And I went, oh, my gosh, that's right. That's the title.

Don't you love it when you meet people like that and they see you even. Even a little more clearly than you can see yourself sometimes?

Absolutely. And that's. It is important who we surround ourselves by, because it does make a difference and it certainly has that Was that was again, another, as you talk about with pivots, that was a pivot because it took something that I had been working on for a number of years, a story that actually was after my mom's death. I was writing her story, but her story wasn't coming out. My story did. So I said, sorry, Mom, I'm going to write your book later. And then I kind of got in a block. But then when things started happening and I felt like you need to make a difference, that's what you're here in the world to give your gifts, to make a difference brings you joy. And lo and behold, it resulted in a publisher finding me.

Yeah, you put yourself out there. I mean, that to me is part of the takeaway here in terms of pivot. Look at things through that pivot lens quite frequently these days, which is fun. You know, it's our brand, and so it's fun to. To be looking at it that way. But I also see it as just this expansive. This. It's an expansive context to see things, to see things that are happening as not negative or even positive for that matter, just things sort of neutral in and of themselves. But where I think that the joy of living and the art of living comes into play when we can integrate or look at where the connection points are between those things because we know on some level of higher wisdom that we don't always. I don't. I'll just say for me, I don't always live in that level of higher wisdom, but on a. On a deep knowing basis and even intellectually, I know that we're all connected and everything is connected. So to see the connection points and to even be able to play with those things for purposes of what you do in the world and how you want to serve and how you want to give back and fulfill your. Your heart's desires, that's just. That's just fun.

Yes, I agree with you. I really now say more and more like, what is the gift in this? So like you said, even in the difficult. What is the gift in this? Because. And one of the things that I found, actually, which was a huge pivot, if I could say back in the 90s, was I was giving up hope at that point. I had had eight years in corporate work, and I just felt like doing a lot of diversity, inclusion all over the world, bringing people together. And I just felt like I wasn't doing it. And it was. These leaders were still asking me, like, why am I doing this? Why am I doing this extra work and So I was losing hope. And then it was at an indigenous gathering where I was volunteering my time that I got these gifts. And what I realized in the gifts, that the gifts are even stronger in the darkest times, that the light is brightest. Right. The. So even when you're, you know, having a really tough time, it's. I ask myself, what is the gift here? And pause and take a breath like you had us do to begin today.

Yeah. Randy's language for me is always, what is the creative opportunity? Which is very similar. Right. Because there's all this stuff that sometimes flying around and go, oh, that sucks. Right? Yeah, you could say it sucks. And maybe on some level some things do suck.

And.

And yet still, what is that creative opportunity that's presented by that thing? And oftentimes, as you say, the greatest joy comes from when something that we think is a negative turns out to be this life altering experience, this positive, this hugely transformational gift. Yeah. Fantastic. So I want to dive into your pivot story and, or stories, but if you could just a couple of minutes, just unpack the book a little bit for us because I would love for people to find out more at the end about how they can get your book and how we can support you in that. So if you share a little bit about the book, that would be tremendous.

Yeah. And they're very much interconnected because in the mid-90s, I was losing hope. I just like, okay, I'm going to stop doing this diversity inclusion work. I'll work in corporations, I'll do mergers and acquisitions, I'll do executive coaching. I mean, all of that seems so much easier than getting into people's core beliefs about other people and each other and biases and stuff. And I went to this gathering where I volunteered and at that was this hoop. And that's where the four sacred gifts were given to me. That's the basis of the book. And so these elders came together back in 94, called by Spirit, 27 elders from around the world. And together for a weekend, they built a hoop with a hundred eagle feathers and put four gifts in there for all humankind, not just indigenous people, indigenous and non indigenous, for all humankind to remember our connectedness to people, earth and spirit. And I'll tell you, when I received those, I realized that one of the gifts was exactly I wasn't using, which was the gift of hope. And hope really is an energy Source. So these four gifts from that point in 95, when I received them, I began using them in my own Life. So over 21 years of using in my own life. But I began taking them into the corporate world. So meeting with CEOs and C suite people and new entries, young people into the organizations, I would teach them, do different things, facilitating, but these gifts would keep coming forward. So the book basically is the stories of people from very well known people, CEOs of major 100 Fortune 100 corporations to people you would never have known who were just out of the bush and that. And then all these elders, not only the 27 at the beginning, but the ones who come in at the end.

Okay, so I know people are just sort of going, ah, I gotta get this book, I gotta get this book. When is the book coming out? Is it coming out soon?

Yes, it comes out September 5th. You can pre order now. And all you have to do is go to four sacred gifts.com four sacred gifts.com and you'll be able to see, you can pre order it and it's in hardback ebook audio. And there was a song created for the book. I actually sing in it. Luckily there are a lot of professional singers who sing in it, but it's a beautiful. And you can get that download for free.

Hey, Anita, Just before we move into the next section. So gift of hope is one of the four sacred. These four sacred gifts. So what are the other three?

So the four gifts that they put in there was the power to forgive the unforgivable. The second gift was the power of unity. The third gift is the power of healing. And the fourth gift is the power of hope. And these are the four gifts. They say if we. There are many gifts, there's thousands of gifts. Spirit gives us, that we all have. But it's these four gifts. If we use these, they will help us to stand in that space knowing our connection, our beautiful, powerful connection to people, earth and spirit.

So again, the power to forgive the unforgivable. Yes. Wow. I would think there are people right now going, oh man, if I could just do that. Right. Both on the side of people that have harmed us, you know, harmed you. And then the harm that we've caused that we don't. Some of which we know, and I think some of which we don't know, that we're not fully present to the harms that we've caused. Yeah, so. So to forgive the unforgivable. And you know what, it's interesting because when that word comes up, unforgivable, it makes me go into a judgment, sort of a place of, well, what would be unforgivable? And what wouldn't be, you know, what would rise to the level or wouldn't rise to the level of unforgivable? And I'm not being. I hope I'm not kind of playing in semantics here, but what next came up for me was, well, anything that we won't forgive is in the realm of unforgivable, right? Because for whatever reason, it could be that that person, you know, took your job promotion. You know, you were supposed to get the promotion. Somebody kind of swooped in and they, they, you know, did whatever they did to manipulate. Or maybe they just, you know, were just more bright and shiny at the moment in front of whoever was making that decision. Or maybe they sabotaged you. Whatever. I mean, something like that, that, that caused a harm and a hurt. And you wouldn't, you know, in. And on an intellectual level, you say, oh, that's unforgivable. Like, nobody died. You didn't kill me, didn't take one of you, didn't take my children or something. But yet I'm holding on, like I'm hanging on to that resentment and that, that feeling. For 20 years, I still think of that guy. And every time I think of how I'm not somehow where I ought to be, want to be, should quote, but you know, should be, I think of that person and go, that so and so, right? It's like not an unforgivable thing. And yet you haven't forgiven, which makes it sort of unforgivable. Is that remotely accurate, do you think?

Yeah, no, totally. And look how much energy that you have. Because it's not just the mind. Your whole spirit, your whole body gets caught in it. And that's what makes it such a powerful gift, because it truly is a way to true freedom. And so a lot of times when I bring up that first gift, people don't go any further. I don't think I can do this. And I'll go, well, listen. And they're like, you don't know what you talk about. So I'll go to the unforgivable is, as you said, whatever it is for you. Some people go immediately to the big, the huge things. Like they just. The corporation who just laid off, you know, the whole. A whole section, because they're going to take it to another part of the world or a whole group of people, the Holocaust, or what's happened to indigenous people all over the world. Or for me, which people go, okay, I'll listen to you because I've gone to some pretty tough areas ago, okay? Because I'll say, I know something about this, because first of all, my father was murdered and it was racially motivated. When I was 13, I had a white man, mistook him for a black man and killed him. I know what it means to forgive. It changed everything. I also endured sexual abuse for nine years of my early life. I know what that means to feel that being Mexican, being indigenous, all the racial things I've seen, I have a sense of that. So it's not being Pollyanna and going, no, just forget it. What I'm saying is, you are worth it. And what we're trying to create in the world, all that, what we hold on to, that we call unforgivable, is taking up energy and causing us not to use our gifts, our energy, for what we want to create. So what I have found is in forgiving the unforgivable and doing that process, which it is a process, it's rarely an event. It can be, thank goodness, there are miraculous, kind of immediately like turning it off and on. But generally, it is a process. And once you feel that sense of freedom, you are able to move forward in the world and you're able to be truly happy and joyful in a way that I can tell you I didn't know it that way before. And now if I try to turn it off, if that unforgivable comes up again, I immediately feel it in my body, I feel in my spirit, I feel it in my dreams. And it's like, okay, shift. And that's a choice. We have choice. We're pretty powerful beings.

Yeah. And I look at the choice, that shift that you just described as a pivot, that's. Yeah, yeah. Because it's sometimes the smallest change. It or shift in our perception. That shift in the direction of our thoughts or the direction of our energy or the direction of our love can create something we can't really even predict. It's miraculous. It's a miracle in and of itself. That shift in perception.

And I think all the people around you do, whether you believe in God or universe, energy or consciousness, or just what you physically are seeing, it all does shift around you. When you let go of something that didn't work out the way you wanted it to, either you did it or they did it or whatever, it lets go of that. But I also want to say on the forgiveness, if I could add, people think when I share this from the elders, the power to forgive the unforgivable means, like, you just, okay, it's gone, it's done. It doesn't necessarily work that way. It doesn't mean that you forget what happened. It doesn't mean that you might even seek justice. But it means you let go of all the hurt and stuff inside of you using that energy or the resentment or all that stuff, you let go of it and you are able to transform yourself then into more of the whole human being that you always were meant to be without hanging on to that. That's a huge difference. If I could say, I know this a little bit different than business, but what blows me away is when I see on the news, you know, some young person being killed or a young police officer with a young family being killed, oh, my gosh. And then you hear the family member who says, no, I don't want rioting, I don't want destruction, I want justice, but I want peace. That's power. And when you hear that inside of companies, we're seeing that happen there too. When we see some of these horrific kinds of anger and hatred happening that seem totally unforgivable, then you have these business places, these executives who are speaking out, saying, wait a minute, not here. Here is a free zone in terms of everyone is embraced, acknowledged and treated with dignity. We do not allow that here. And people coming forward that way. We create those environments where what I call it, Adam, is a mark for me is that it's life giving. What I'm being and doing, thinking, feeling life giving or not. And that's my barometer.

That's so beautiful, Anita, thank you for that. Will you share one of your, your pivots and how it impacted your life and what you learned from it? Because this community loves, they live for that. The idea of how do you turn things around and what did it take and what did you learn from it?

Well, yeah, so one of my pivots was, and I didn't know, I didn't know things were going to go south or not to do in the south, but just not go well, is that I was flying high in my business and it was in 2007 and I could start seeing in the corporate world, they're hanging on to more cash. And I was like, I'm an external consultant. So I can get the feeling like my business that was doing really well, this little business doing great, all of a sudden, three and a half years, I didn't know it when it started, no work. I went from a little two person, million dollar company to no work work. And that showed me some muscle that I didn't know I had and how that worked out for me. Was for me and my husband, business together was, well, we can't. We would look for work for a couple hours in the morning, calling clients new, all that. And then we volunteered our time, and that's when we found the Pachamama alliance, and we just started volunteering our time. We decided to go to Ecuador, to the rainforest. And who did we meet in the rainforest? This is the very start of three and a half years. We met Jack Canfield and Inga, his wife. We met all these authors. John Perkins, Confessions of an Economic Hitman Nina Just amazing people. My two sons, 11, 16, my husband and I. And I will tell you what looked like disaster from anybody else's viewpoint. No money. Three and a half years was actually, in hindsight, now was one of the biggest, best things in my life. Absolutely.

Could you share even a little more on how it was one of the best things? Because that's so rich.

Yeah. So I'm getting excited. I'm sitting up in my chair because it really was on a really personal level. And then I'll take it to the other part, too, on a really personal level. A couple of things. One, I didn't know it was the last couple of years of my mom's life. So rather than going and being three and a half weeks on the road and squeezing her in a couple of times a year to see her, I spent a lot of time in the last two years of her life with her, and I hospiced her. No one could give that back to me, and I didn't have to make a choice. And my mom would say, go to your clients. And I would have been so thank you. I was with my mom. Two, showing our sons how you can create happiness for yourself. That's truly what you do. Others don't create happiness. You create your happiness. We. We stopped buying video games, eating out, all that kind of stuff. And when one of his, my son's friends came over and I listened walking by, I heard him talk, and he said, my mom and dad got laid off, too. And they're fighting all the time. And my little son says, all of 13. Well, where are they volunteering? And this little boy goes, nico, my mom and dad are fighting all the time. They laid off? Yeah. Well, where are they volunteering? And what he and the kid said, he goes, no, my mom and dad don't have any work either. And they just go and volunteer. And they are so happy. And, you know, maybe they need to volunteer. Maybe they need to think about somebody else. And I was like, wow, he got that Gift. And then the third thing I want to say in terms of the corporate work, it rejuvenated me. It had me, in those three and a half years, decide what. What really did matter to me, what were the gifts I wanted to bring forward? And those four sacred gifts that are in my book, I began using them in a deeper, deeper, deeper level. Not only in waking time, but in dream, before I go to sleep at night. I'd ask, you know, please let me understand how hope is playing in my life. Please let me understand what other healing. Please let me understand the unity. Who else do I need to be in unity with? And so it was. That's. I mean, that's one of the best pivots in my life. And it came out of a point where people would have gone, oh, my gosh, you know, that's just horrible. And I didn't lose my house, my son. Then when he was ready to start college, we had the funds there, and we were doing all the things that I imagined. Actually, it was a great opening to us as a family in terms of my relationship to myself, my husband, but also to my work. It totally changed. And my clients could tell it. They're like, something really has shifted for you. And. Yes. So thank you for allowing me to remember and share that with everyone. So in the darkest time, remember, that's when the light is the brightest. The light isn't as bright when you're in this, like, this beautiful room right here in the room that you're in. It's when things are just so looking bleak that even at that time, it is working to give you what you need to be able to bring forth. I would not trade it. Sounds crazy.

No, it doesn't. It's compelling more than it is crazy, because I think a lot of people would be going and are right now thinking to themselves, geez. So I don't necessarily. Maybe I just want to have more of something.

Yeah, go ahead. Go for more detail.

No, no, I'm saying they're thinking, I want, you know, more of something. Maybe it's more happiness or more health or wealth or whatever it is. And the volunteering piece, that piece where you. You took that opportunity not only to hospice your mother and be with your mom and to also give in other ways, is a bit counterintuitive that the kid that you described, his parents are fighting because they don't have enough. So if they don't have enough, how is it that they're giving anything away? How could they be giving at a time when they're in need of receiving.

Right. It sounds counterintuitive, but remember is that we create our reality. So it was all, you know, I was getting something back. First of all, during those three and a half years, there was not a time I wasn't training people. The Pachamama alliance is a global non profit organization. I was training people all over. I even did symposium train trainers in Thailand, Mexico and the northern parts of Canada. I mean, so all my skills were still being used. But at the same time it was like the indigenous part of me and the corporate science business part of me, like got so much more intimately interconnected and not separated. Because then I understood that business doing good in the world, individuals being who they're meant to be in the world is all possible. So I was getting lots of benefits. So that giving I was receiving. And I think for most people, you know, even though it sounds counterintuitive, they think about it. Think about when you've truly given, not expecting anything back, just truly given, you always get more back. You always get more.

It seems like that was that moment, that coming together of, as you say, something deep and personal within you in terms of your identity, which was indigenous identity and culture and all of that coming together with the business side and that corporate side, that, that integration created more wholeness, that you were able to have that wholeness because you weren't just, just sort of working one side of yourself, you know, and let's call it the side that knew how to make money. Because I think again, people know there's a side to you that knows how to make money. And the question is, so for me, my story was 18 years of practicing law. That was a side of me that knew how to make a lot of money. And it was also at a cost, at a price, which was to my heart. So because I didn't love the work and I didn't feel it was bringing out the best in me, had nothing to do with being a lawyer. I mean, there are lots of people who probably practice law and do wonderful things and they're fulfilled every day and it's their dream, they're working in their dream job and all that kind of thing. It just wasn't for me. And so to do that just for the money was the opposite of wholeness. It was disintegrating to my soul. And you can't do that forever unless you want to get sick, get sick or die or be like a miserable angry person. Which is kind of where I could feel myself moving in the direction of just more and more anger.

You look at 88% of people are disengaged at work.

Yes.

You know, that's horrible. That's so much part of our life is spent at workplace. Even if you work virtually, you're connecting with all those folks. And so it's like, this should be. This should be life giving. This should bring me happiness. And if it's not, then there needs to be some time to assess. And what I found is that assessing, first of all, is not just a body thing. It's a body and spirit thing. So it is about breathing, meditating. You know, I chant to walking some people, it's hiking for me. It's once a year. I also go to the Amazon rainforest. I take leaders of businesses and their families and we go there and they learn about the power of nature and connection to culture. So any of those things that you use, it could be staring out at the window at a tree. They don't have to be huge things. They don't have to be little things. They just have to be things that give you centering so that we don't just get this caught up constantly in what is happening out here. When really whether it's healing, wholeness, it's from the inside out. And. And actually, Adam, I was able to start not only modeling that, but teaching that in a much better way with my corporate clients. And it's like, wow. And the shifts that were happening in their lives became bigger and bigger. So in some ways someone said, well, you're still doing the same work you did before that. Three and a half years of not having any work, but it's not. It's very different.

Would you share. Share something that's an example of how it is that you. You incorporated or brought this into the corporate space? Because that's intriguing to me.

Right. Well, part of it now is that in any of the work I'm doing, I do have people make a commitment to some meditation. And so that's a big piece because it's important what your physical body, what your exercise and eating is important part. But just the quiet space, quiet time, really insist. If they're going to work with me, they have to create that quiet time. And I'm talking about it could be just two minutes every couple hours, but it's just truly quiet. Like, turn off everything quiet. The mind can still be racing, but just quiet. Just that process. The other thing is, I do speak of the spiritual part of us now, not in terms of religious sense. I'm not talking. I'm talking about Something that, not something that we, you know, were born and someone selected for us or whatever or later maybe we chose it. But I'm talking about a greater sense. So in my podcast. Well, in radio for Hewlett Packard, I'm just gonna take that example. I do and I start those radio shows. I start with a couple minutes of meditation. And first it was only one minute and people loved it. It's like going to a spa. Then it went to two minutes. People, oh, that's too long. But after a while, what happens is people begin to realize this is what they need, they need this. And what we get to do is not telling people what to do. It's more modeling. And then they get to choose what's right for them in their life. And so I think that's a big difference. Where before I was kind of like, is this the right thing? Is this the right presentation? And you know, so some of it's age, some of it's from just being in that big pivot is just saying no. It's about really showing up and being present. And when people know you really are present and acknowledging and there with them, not with the answer, not trying to talk about just being present, then it opens up the magic.

Yeah. How beautiful. So last part of this interview is really about rituals and practices. So you're already kind of there. We're there, we're there. That's what I was feeling, that we're right on the cusp of something that you do that brings you that centeredness or that peace, something that you do that's a ritual for your own success or ritual for resilience. Because before we actually turned on the recording, that was something you and I talked about.

Yeah.

Was the importance of resilience, which is a pivot principle that with everything in order to be successful in any pivot, whether it's a health related one or relationships or something to do with money in business. Resiliency, the ability to bounce back and bounce back even stronger, you know, with that wisdom, with that guidance, with that strength and centeredness is so key. And we have to practice that. Resilience isn't something that we're just. Yeah, we can just assume we'll be there when we want it or sometimes even need it.

So how I start some of my clients beginning steps, and I know your listeners are probably beyond that, but I think it's always good for us to remember is being conscious that we're already doing it. First of all, we don't just inhale. We would die. We have to inhale, and we have to exhale. So in action, rest. In action, rest. And so what I start with is every morning first, just wiggling my toes, putting my feet on the floor, and I don't get out of bed fast. I just sit there and just start acknowledging everything here and giving gratitude. Giving gratitude. That's key. And then I do get up because I walk my dog. So then I chant, and I walk my dog and I chant down my mountain road. People can hear me chanting to the four directions. A little short Seneca chant that I do. And it just reminds me I visualize being connected to everyone and everything. And then when I get back, I sit and I do a meditation with my husband. This is all sounding very long, but it doesn't take very long at all. And then finally, I generally will read something, not picking up the paper or something, but something that I know will be rejuvenating. So I've been picking up my. My four sacred gifts and reading from one of the 43 elders, wisdom that's in that book and the one recently that I've been reading.

Do you have it nearby? Is it nearby?

Yeah, but it doesn't have the right cover. It's an old cover. Yeah.

Well, you don't have to show it. You don't have to show it, but I'd love to have one little piece of that.

Yeah. But one of the elders, Alarion Merkeliff, he's from just off the Bering Strait. He's of Alaska, and he's amazing. Messenger and elder, Onangan tribe. And when I was getting all frazzled last fall, just like, gathering all these elders and trying to work with my clients and get everything done, I was a lot like this.

If you're not watching this, Anita just took her hair and put it out to the side.

And I know some of you can relate. I do this in front of CEOs, too. And they go, oh, yes. If my hair was longer, you would see that I'm doing that all the time.

Yeah, I can't relate to that, but that's okay.

Yeah, I know. But what Ellerian said to me when I finally stopped for a moment is he said, anita, remember, we human beings create a time when we forgot how to be present. Everything is here that we need. And there hasn't been a day that's gone by since he said that in the fall. And that quote is in my book, that when I start letting it all twirl and stuff, and my hair, I was just like. And just be present. So I think that's the biggest practice of all, is just sitting and being present. And how do you know that? Well, just like, you can start first with the physical world. Like, so what is the colors on the screen here? You know, is my breath fast, slow, not judgment, just. Just getting very descriptive about everything. Am I hearing not only the words that Adam is saying to me, but in between the words, the silence. And it just gets fun where you yearn for being present, to where people say, oh, it's hard to be present. It's hard not to be present. It's crazy making to not be present. I love when I can be present, and that's when everything opens up.

Wow. Something that just dropped in for me, which got me smiling, really, because it seems that presence has a lot to do with observance. Do you agree with that?

Yes. All the senses. So observance. So sight comes into that. People think, observe, meaning, see. But it's actually all the senses. Hearing, listening. Am I listening to myself? Am I listening to you? Am I listening to the Lord, what's happening in this room? So listening, smell. I mean, this is the closest sense right to the brain. So paying attention to even what you're smelling, people, you know, all those different funny things. Like, I can smell fear. Well, believe me, if you're starting to swell up with something, you'll be able to. You'll notice that this. These senses are becoming stronger. So it really is observant in the sense of all the senses alive. And we can learn this from most, I think, little, little children. Little kids. We can learn breathing from a little baby. Look how the baby breathes. Their whole body moves. Their stomach, their chest goes up and down. Or we always try to hold everything tight to look. You know, it's like breathe fully and then you can have. Your brain is clear. I can give you all the science of it, but I know you all know that, you know, frontal cortex comes online, they make themselves down so you have more clarity, planning, function, and all of that. However, we know that when we're present, we're just so much aware. Our awareness goes from this to huge expansion. We can go back and forth like that. And your business will do great, your family will do better, because you're better with yourself and then with everyone around you. And you can either be good medicine or bad medicine. Good medicine is life giving bad medicine. Not so good.

Anita, thank you so much. What a pleasure this has been. If you enjoyed our conversation.

Oh, you know that I can't wait to see you and your wife again. But I just love it and I do want to say thank you. You honor me on having you on this show and entrusting me this time with your audience because I know you've spoken of them in the past and I know how much you care about them. So I hope that I was able to bring a little bit of joy and wisdom being a messenger for the elders and for my experience. So thank you so much. I truly was wonderful a part of my day.

Please share again the name of your book and where people can find it.

Yes, it's called the Four Sacred Indigenous Wisdom for Modern Times. And you can find it at Four Sacred Gifts. If you can buy it in any of the book, pre order it on Amazon and of course all the bookstores, you can pre order it as well.

Because it comes out September 5th.

Go to Four Sacred Gifts Calm, because what you'll find there that you can't in the other places is you can download my free song that goes with the book.

Beautiful. Lovely. That's so great, Anita. Thank you so much. And everybody, what a blessing as it always is to speak spend some time together. Perhaps you're on the treadmill of life at the moment, or literally on the treadmill, maybe exercising, taking care of your body or perhaps you're driving or doing something else. But wherever it is that you've been watching or listening or both, thank you for your time. Thank you for sharing your energy with us. What a blessing it has been. And as we started, we'll end with a breath and acknowledgement of something that is so important that we be reminded of and that is love for ourselves. We cannot give anything that we don't personally possess. So it's very difficult to love others any differently than we love ourselves. And that's why to me I love to remind myself and as many people as I can to practice self care. Because self care is an act of self love. And so when you wake up tomorrow morning, I wish you that. I wish that you wake up because that in and of itself will be a huge blessing, an affirmation. It's a confirmation that the universe, God, spirit, source, whatever you may believe in or don't believe in, but that you are given another day for a really good reason, that there's an assignment, there's something important for you to be aware of, to be observant of, to to be present to tomorrow as you wake up. And if nothing else, be present to the fact that as you take that first waking conscious breath, there are people that will be taking their last. And that's a reason to be in gratitude, as Anita reminded us to be in gratitude. Right, then put your feet on the floor, stand up, and if you're inclined to say these words, say, I love my life. I love my life. I love my life. And have a beautiful and a blessed day. We'll see you very, very soon. If you've not yet subscribed to the content conscious Pivot podcast, go ahead and subscribe and come and see us at StartMyPivot. The StartMyPivot community on Facebook. Some really incredible folks sharing their stories, sharing their successes and their challenges in such a vulnerable and an authentic way. And there's a great deal of support for you and your startup. So whether whatever it is you're starting up, if you're starting up a new relationship, you're starting up a new health ritual, if you're starting up a new business, you're an entrepreneur. This many resources there. So start my Pivot community on Facebook. We'll see you there. And you have a wonderful, wonderful rest of your day. Ciao for now, everybody.

Thanks for listening, everyone. We hope you now have the tools and greater insights to navigate your own Pivot. Help us inspire others by sharing this episode episode and leaving your comments over@adammarkel.com podcasts for more tips, strategies and support as you consciously pivot into a new business and lifestyle you love. Join our Pivot community on facebook@pivotfb.com.