Sally Pasieka's Author Summit

I want to welcome you all to this beautiful Freedom House Author Summit. So Sally Paciaka is one of our amazing authors. My name is Kira Brinson. I'm the founder of Freedom House. I'm the founder of a publishing house that's committed to changing the world with published books, books that actually are going to go out and make a difference. And Sally is one of our awesome authors. And what we do for our authors is we have these summits so. So that anybody and everybody can actually get to know the author, like ask questions, share about the book and so you guys can go a little bit deeper with the author themselves. So welcome. This is going to be. These Summits last about 45 minutes to an hour. We are going to open up space in the end for you guys to ask questions to Sally, maybe share some pieces that you love about our book so you don't have to, but just know that's a place I open up. It's kind of like we are doing the best virtual author book signing ever right here. We're all in different states and different places in the world here to celebrate Sally. So, Sally, I'm just so excited. Why don't you show everyone your book? Oh, hold on, I can't hear you. You want to unmute?

There we are.

Hi.

Hi, everyone. Thanks for coming. Always so happy to see everyone.

Yes. So this is your new book, Just Breathe, and I put it in the chat. You guys, if you don't know Sally, if you're here from our Freedom House email list and you just decided to pop in tonight, this is the link in the chat for you to go grab her book. Go grab it. You're gonna love it. I also put a link in the chat for the podcast that Sally had with me on my podcast where we promote our authors. So it's a really great listen. You guys will love it. Sally, I just want to celebrate you. How does it feel to have your book published today?

I feel like celebrating. This is the day that I'm excited for. I was excited for the summit and the build up to this and now to see everybody here, that makes me like so happy.

It's such a huge deal to write a book and then put it out into the world. So I want to talk a little bit about what that experience was like for you. Talk to me a little bit. What it was like to write the book. How was that experience?

The writing was the fun part. The writing was really the best part of the process. Every part had a unique characteristic of it. I appreciate every Part of it. But, like, where I had the most fun was, you know, thinking of the chapters and digging in and honing into it and making sure, you know, that the reader could come along with me.

Yeah. Yeah. And then it's the delicious part. Writing is. It's the thing that opens our hearts as authors. So tell. Why don't you tell everyone here what inspired you to write this book?

Well, I've always loved to write, and these stories really started just to come into my head, and I just tried to hone in on them, and the writing process just seemed to be the most respectful way to do that for these stories for me.

Oh, I love it. I. I was the only way I.

Could control that, like, emotion, you know, once the first process was to, like, just release it. Sloppy, you know, however it came out. But then to go back and really hone in and, like, understand even what I was trying to say. Yeah.

Talk to us about your deep. Like, what was the deep purpose? There's, like, I. I've talked to you a lot about this book, and I love this. This purpose that you have around why you wrote the book.

Who.

Who needs this book? Why do they need this book?

Well, I thought to try to be a little bit more transparent. There's a lot of, you know, the. The book is hopefully some suicide awareness and some mental health awareness.

And.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Which is powerful. Which more than anything in the world right now, that's what we need. Right. Like, that is what humanity needs right now is help with depression and suicide. So, like, your book has such deep importance to go out and help people. One not feel alone.

Yeah. And that was the intent to the, you know, for all the lonely people. It's just a good read. It's, you know, come along with me. You're not alone. Here it is.

You know.

Yeah. I love it. I would love for you to. To close your eyes and get in your heart and just think of one of the stories in the book that you want to share tonight so that anyone here hasn't read your book yet, that your book actually impacts them tonight and this evening.

All right. Well, I have been thinking about the box of memorabilia all day today.

Tell us about that.

Well, I think I started this was probably. It's chapter 20, but it may have had some of my first sentences that even developed in here. But something that, you know, I keep saying today was, let's see. Well, for me, I really love the sentence like faith music can change a person. Healing harmonies humming in my head often leave me to Think of the dead. So that is, you know, it's like the dead and then the Dead. The Grateful Dead, you know, my people. It's just all the dead. The dead.

That's a beautiful. Will you read that?

Yeah. I like faith music can change a person. Healing harmonies humming in my head often lead me to think of the dead.

So beautiful. I love that.

Just. I love this whole vibe here, which is. I begin the process to unpack the compartmentalized emotions from the freight boxes created for my life and transported inside the lawless reflections. The lawless reflections. I like that.

Oh, that's so beautiful.

In your head, you can just, you know, it's all there. The lawless reflection.

It's like. It's like. It sounds like music to me. Like those. Those lines right there are pure poetry. I love it. I would love to open it up for anyone who has read the book or. And I know this is, like, always really, like, scary for people on Summit.

So if I can turn your cameras on. If you wanted to, you can.

We would love to see your beautiful faces, but would love to hear from anyone who's here what this either, you know, what she just read right now means to you, or if you've read her book, if it made an impact in your life. So anyone. I know it's very scary to share on a live summit that you don't know anybody, but we're going to open that up if someone wants to. All you have to do is turn on your screen and unmute, and that will help us. So I'll let you guys kind of, like, let that marinate. What I would love what one of my favorite things to do on these Summit, Sally, is have the author teach something. So while you were writing the book there, I want you to think about something that you could teach them right now that it would actually change the way they feel today. Like, we want to have people feel different from this event. I do see someone put their screen on. Lilibeth, do you have something you want to share? Oh, hold on. You're muted. Let's see if we can unmute you. There we go.

Hi.

Hi, Kara.

Good evening. I'm thankful to be here.

Yes. I'm so happy you're here.

Welcome.

I didn't get the line. Clearly, it was. I was doing something that. I didn't get it quite clearly. The passage.

Do you want to have her read it again?

Yes. Yes, please.

Yeah.

And I will say I've said it before. Something I did throughout the process was I bought myself flowers every Two weeks before I wrote. And it was just, you know, it was like, this was the beginning of the chapter. This was the beginning of, you know, my inspiration or set the intent for the chapters. I would buy myself flowers and then set the table and write. And that's how I really did the whole thing.

I did not know that story. That's beautiful.

Yeah, that was something that was really. You know, you had mentioned the essential oils and the candles and things that you wanted to kind of visualize your crystals or whatever that you brought. But then I thought the flowers, the life. Because it was.

I really.

I get inspired in the winter, so I like to write like, this is the time that I'm kind of like re. Inspired again. Okay. Where was I?

Okay, well, I'll have you reread both of those passages for Lilibeth so she can. She can drink them in.

Okay. Like faith music can change a person. Healing harmonies humming in my head Often lead me to think of the dead Change is worth waiting for I can only see vibrations unraveling the chaos and greeting the static Listening for the music Unstable in time I begin the. I begin the process and unpack the compartmentalize emotions from the freight boxes created for my life and transported inside the lawless reflections.

Oh, that is so beautiful, Lilibeth. How did that land for you?

It is so. For me, it's like. Like a fresh breath, suppressed breath of life that we find peace when. When we actually talk about bed. Like reflects about the. What do you call it? The peace that comes from knowing that you have that at this moment in time to. To do something about the essence of that moment. Something like that. To me. To me, that. That's so beautiful in a way that I. I am in flow of what is happening around me. I get a goosebumps.

I love that. What do you. What do you have to say, Sally? How does that make you feel hearing that reflection?

Like, kind of excited, you know, because that's what it was. It was. That was the moment that I was like. You know, I called that chapter sort of my soliloquy out of the whole thing. That was like where I was really just. This is how I'm feeling right now. Exactly how you took it. So good. I love that.

So fun. This is what's so fun about these summits is to hear, like, how your work actually landed people. Right?

Yeah.

Beautiful. I see Caroline's screen on. Do you have something to share?

This is Bella.

Okay, Bella, we'd love to hear from you. If you want to just unmute your. Unmute your microphone. Let's see if we can get it to unmute.

Yes.

Am I there?

Oh, hi. Hi.

This is so exciting. I am Caroline Bella, a chapter in the book, and Sally's been my best friend my entire life.

I love it. I love it. How does it feel to. To. To read her book? Like, how was that for you?

I have read Just Breathe probably a hundred times. Every single time I read something, every time I read a chapter, there's something new in it. Sally puts words together. I'm sorry, I'm looking away because I need to think. Sally puts words together like someone would paint strokes. And for me, a book has to be visual. And her. For me, her book is very visual. I mean, trading crafts in the desert. Just the colors and, you know, the people and just the whole vibe of, you know, So I. It's just beautiful.

Thank you.

Yeah. This is beautiful. What a gift. What a gift for you both to have each other as friendship and to have that reflection back. I mean, how does that feel, Sally? Isn't that just so delicious?

Amazing. Yeah. And I know, you know, you have a care bear, and she'll be my care. She's my care bear. So she's read every word of every line.

Oh, that's amazing. That is amazing. Thank you for sharing. I appreciate you speaking your voice. So anyone else that wants to pop in, just, you know, show us your screen so we know, or. Or you can put in the chat so that I know that you want to pop in, I'd love for us, Sally, if you want to kind of drop in your heart a little bit, and if there was one thing that you could teach, either what you learned while you were writing or one of the things that you teach in the book, what is it that you could share tonight with these beautiful people that would just shift their energy tonight, help them kind of feel a little bit more breath.

Yeah. I think the main thing that I want to share and that people have shared with me regarding the book is the interconnectedness that we're all experiencing right now and how nice that is to share it with all of the people that showed up here tonight, especially. And you, Kira, for facilitating that, really can appreciate just the interconnectedness of it all. It's very glaring.

Yeah. Yes. I love that. I love that. Okay. I would love for everyone here to just take two minutes. Like, we're going to take two minutes. I want you to just write down maybe something that you got from reading her book. You don't have to, like, share It. Because I know it's, like, really scary to share live, but I want everyone to just have, like, a moment of reflection, like something that you got from reading this book or even something that you got right now as we're talking and sharing, let's take a minute to reflect, and then we're going to actually create something really powerful together. So I'm going to just give you guys two minutes, sit there, write whatever is present for you, and then we'll come back in in two minutes. Okay, awesome. So now that everyone has written down something that either they've gotten from listening to us right now or what you got from this book, now we're going to go into a practice of actually creating. So one of the things that I really love about Sally's book is that in the back of her book, on page 124, for two pages, two and a half pages, she has music. And I feel like, first of all, I want you to talk to us a little bit about how you picked the songs and. And how they go in with the chapters. And then we're going to move on to, like, the creation part that's coming in for me.

Thank you so much for mentioning that, you know, because I. I always mean to talk about that, but I don't think I have up until this point. And that really came right at the beginning with this whole idea. So the music was always intended for the book and always going to be a part of it. It just didn't. I just didn't know how it was going to happen. So finally, towards the end, you know, the songs. Some of the songs that were already in the book were the songs that were just on my playlist. You know, I was already listening to and being inspired by. And some of that did change towards the end when I actually had to make the decisions and pick the QR codes and translate that. So, yeah, I just.

I wanted to tell me about, like, when you were writing. So, like, the introduction and you picked this. This. This song. So how did it come to you? Like, while you were writing, you got the idea, like, tell me a little bit about that process.

Well, it was more vice versa. Like, the song sort of inspired that chaotic prologue and introduction because it was like, where is this coming from? And that's what the song is. It's like, goes into the whole story and breaks it down, and it's probably. Maybe. I don't know if I'm gonna say that right. I'll have to check with Craig. But, like, maybe the most modern of the songs, besides for the portished. The epilogue ones, the last entries. So I wanted to, like, sort of note that there was like a change of tune, you know, there.

I love it. I think this is so fun. So everyone who's watching, if you don't have a copy of her book, in the back of her book, she has QR codes that go to a song that matches the chapter. So would you say, like, this is really fun, that while they're reading a chapter, they should turn on that song?

Well, I don't know if that helps a reader to listen to the words of songs while they're trying to read. That's a lot. Like, for me, that would be a lot as a reader. But if I were to reflect on the chapter, I might go to the song and be like, oh, well, what was she thinking? Or what was the inspirational moment? Or that song? Or the word. One word that I pulled from the entire song. Even for that California chapter, this one was kind of cool. Well, it was for that Bob Dylan song that I put in there.

Yeah.

I used Craggy. Like, bold and craggy. No, no, no. Ghost of Electricity. That's what it was like. That's from that song. So it was just like something I pulled. Maybe I wanted to do an extra page, like an added fun page that was like, how many movie quotes or songs can you pull from the book?

You should do like a little, like a word search kind of.

Yeah. Like a clue thing. Because there's a. There's quite a bit. So maybe some. Some people pull them.

Oh, my gosh. I love that. And I also love this picture. I don't know if you guys can see it very well. I would love for you to talk to us about what this picture means to you.

My niece. My beautiful niece, Andy Pacica did that. She's quite a talented artist. And I had her take my headshot. And then we had an inspirational picture that my daughter did, Molly. And so I asked Andy, I said, could you take this picture and kind of use my picture and merge it? And so we worked on that. And I thought that was going to be the COVID actually.

Yeah.

But because I thought it was like a unique enough to kind of draw like some attention. Yeah.

See how beautiful.

It'S on your sweater? No, wait, I want. I want a sweater.

Like. Oh, okay. I'll have to add that to the pack.

That's freaking rad. Holy cow. I love it. Well, tell us why. Tell us why you chose this cover. What. What inspired the feather and that the.

Picture was what was supposed to be the COVID until we had our first meeting and talked about the title as Just Breathe. And then I had that first white feather, like, vision kind of thing. So then it started from there, and then obviously with your talented person that designed the COVID Yes, they were amazing and worked with me. And then, I mean, it was really down to the bare bone of, like, if. Even if nobody reads it, would they pick it up for this beautiful cover?

I don't know.

I kind of.

It's so pretty.

So I love it looks pretty.

It does. It's really beautiful. And it makes me take a breath.

It's. Yes, it's encouraging to do something.

I think it really feels like a breath. And I love that Lilibeth said that just listening to you say that phrase made her, like, be able to breathe deeper, right?

Yeah.

And so I feel like that's really. There's two things that are coming to me. One, I want everyone to do. We're going to do a little journaling practice here. One, just, like, looking at all of the create creativity inside of this book, right? Like, the songs, the art that was in there. Just an. Even though, like, these beautiful little. It feels like there's, like, little pockets of poetry. Sally, like, really woke up all this creation. And in a world where a lot of us work full time and we're raising kids, it's like creation gets a little depleted, you know, for most humans. And so I want to open up this space right here with Sally and her beautiful energy and her beautiful book for everyone to just take a few minutes to write out. Like, where can you be more creative and in that creativity, find your breath? Like, how can you use what Sally's done to help you wake up more creation and help you, like, breathe deeper. Right. Is there anything you want to add to that, Sally?

I like that. I'm gonna do it, too. I've got my.

Let's do it. So we're gonna take a few minutes here to just have you guys spend some time writing that, and then I'll pop back in with my screen. Okay, Got it. Awesome. Okay. Awesome. I hope that created some magic for you guys. Our intention with these summits is that you actually leave these summits feeling activated, your energy alive, you have a desire to go forward and bring something beautiful into the world. So I hope that that activated something for you that even at the end of a long day, no matter what your day was, that you leave this feeling energized. And I want to read a piece of your book, Sally. That, like, I really love it. Like, makes me just fall in love with you. Actually. This story is so good. So if anybody has the book, it's on page 62 and I'm just going to read it. Okay, so you wrote, once mud season hit and light makes the days longer, the rivers start flowing and the snow starts melting, you just cannot stop spring. On Earth Day, there will be a festival with music and bands. I miss my crew and invite my brother Skinny and the girls up to join the festival. Fun. I had wanted to show them a super good time. So the next obvious thing to do was to join a band. I played no instruments and had no talents for singing or anything even remotely musical. I fake played the flute in fourth grade. The guys in the band decided to name the name the group after me. Sally and the Balls are born and booked for the Earth Day festival opener for better known bands like Wild Spread Panic and ominous Seapods. Yep. I play the tambourine now and Fake sing backup sing backup vocals. Blue sky look into my eyes. Our band travels locally to colleges and has a small following, playing a few of our original songs and cover songs. Like Eyes of the World by the Grateful Dead, we record our live performance and bootleg our shows. I'm having a Donna Jean God show. I don't even know how to say that word. How do I say that word? God show. How is it?

You're pretty close. God show. Yeah.

Okay.

Moment when Ice Cream man and I collide. He carries some skills and ingenuity and I. That I was lacking. So I serve it up. First of all, what a fun story. I freaking love you. Like, how fun that you just were like, I'm going to be in a band and they named it after you.

I still laugh at that. And I'm so glad that that is something that like, you laugh at in this because, like, that was, you know, for a laugh.

Right? And it's like, this is what. This is breath hearing stories like that.

Ah.

This is what helps us breathe in life of like, oh my gosh, like, can I be that wild and free and. And just. I love that that story wakes up for me. It wakes up my stories of growing up and when I was just this, you know, wild flower child that, you know, was just oblivious to so many things and. And I missed that part of me, you know? So I love that you wrote that.

Somebody was like, somebody said the other day, they're like, I always wanted to be a hippie, you know? And I was like, I honestly don't think the Hippie's going to handle you there, sister. Calm down.

So great. What a beautiful story. And really, like, this is such a beautiful book. So if you're here tonight and you don't have Sally's book, go grab it. You're going to love it. It's going to breathe life into you. It's going to help you in so many ways. You didn't even know. And the links are in our chat, so you can go over right here on Amazon. Go grab our book. You can listen to our podcast, which is just a little bit more in depth. Just me and Sally, one on one, talking about our book. As we're closing up tonight, is anybody here have anything else they want to share? Ask questions. This is a beautiful time to do that. Just. Yes, Lilibeth.

Yes, Kyra. I just. I just want to share something. I feel. I feel empowered by her book. Even if I haven't, you know, hand it in my own hand, like, you know, so I have here the power of solitude, brings forth the aroma of peace, love, and tranquility of this moment. Just breathe. So beautiful.

Thank you for sharing that.

Wow.

Thank you. Yeah. And I love that you pulled the solitude out because sometimes that's, you know, that's where it is.

I love that, that, that this space right here is what opened for you. So keep writing, Lilibeth, because you've got magic inside of you.

It's beautiful.

Anyone else want to share? Okay, well, we want to thank all of you for coming. As always, Sally, I'm gonna have have you complete this with me. I want you to drop in your heart, Sally, and just feel if there's a final message that you can share with everyone here. What would that message be?

What.

What does your heart want to share with everyone?

Just be well, thank you so much. My gratitude run is over tonight.

So much, and I just have so much love for you, Sally. It's such an honor to have published your book. Such an honor to have you part of our team of authors who are out changing the world. Everyone, thank you for being here with us. I know life is busy. I hope that this little moment just really held you in light and love and that it activated some creation and some breath and sending you all so much love. Thank you guys.

Thank you guys for coming. Love you all.

Yeah.