Flower Consciousness: Speed Up Your Spiritual Growth and Healing with Flower Essences

So the flower essences will speed up and accelerate that personal and spiritual growth process. The normal amount of personal growth people go through in about six months gets sped up into one month. And here's the freakiest part.

Katie Hess is the author of Flower Evolution, an entrepreneur and expert of bioenergetic remedies. You said that if 3%, just 3% of humans use these essences for healing, for connection, then it could radically transform the planet.

Only 3% could create enough ripple effect and enough momentum that it would be like a domino effect, could change the outcome of the future. A flower essence is like the consciousness of a plant, and that is then operating on our consciousness. It helps you reconnect with the divine power inside of you. It's penetrating deeply into what makes you human. Actually, what we're working with is the 21 grams of you that leaves your body when you die.

How does the essence turn the volume down of the traumatic experiences we've had for us? So there's 40,000 species plus of flowers, which is wild, and you've said that we move and nature puts in our backyard the perfect flowers for us to be able to give us exactly what we need. Maybe we don't even know we need them. How is that true? And how do you know that to be true?

I mean, if you think about what blooms. Let's just take like in the United States, for example, we have this vendetta against dandelions, right? We want to use Roundup and weed killers, get the perfect lawns and get rid of the dandelions. Yeah, but if you look at the whole plant of the dandelion, from the flower to the root, if you were to make a tea out of that every day, it would help clean your blood and your liver. And what's one of the. You know, the. In the Far east, they'll say you'll live a really long life if you have all five tastes. And the one taste we don't have in the U.S. except for coffee, which brings other issues. Right. In excess, is bitter. And dandelion is the bitter that we all need. So it's sprouting everywhere in abundance. And if you look at the flower essence, the flower essence is for neck and shoulder tension, which most of us have from time to time. So you can look in your backyard and see what flowers just pop up naturally. They will. They will inevitably have a particular quality that you most need in the moment. How do I know that? I mean, just from observing, I guess from observation and from seeing what sprouts up in, in my backyard.

Yeah. Your life's work is to be a translator, a conduit for these flowers, and there's 40,000 of them. I don't, I don't assume that you have mastery over 40,000 yet.

No, we only have like 300 flowers in our library.

How do you sift and sort? Do you have like an intuitive or energetic capacity when you go into a field? Or do you get like a thought form that says, go to this place, see this flower.

Yeah.

Bring back its adaptogenic qualities. Like, how do you decipher that?

Yeah, all of it. I mean, it's a, it's kind of like how herbalists have done in the past where they ask the plant or the plant life directly, like give me the information directly or asking the earth, what are you for? And in a language that other people will understand. Right. And I mean, it's the way it's been done for thousands of years. Like the allopathic Western system is only 150 years old. So you're looking at like thousands of years of medicine, men and women and people, you know, and average people going out into the forest and being drawn to certain things and finding out what they're for even.

It's not a plant medicine conversation per se, although maybe it is the chakruna and the ayahuasca vine, they grow within walking distance of each other. And I remember Jordan Peterson was talking, he was like, shaman said the plants told us to combine them. And in rational Western thought, people are like, what the plants told you is that the wisdom of which you speak. The way in which plant mycelium communicate to each other and human beings 100%. How so?

I mean, it's a quality, it's a language that we all have. Like when you're kids and you mean you like looking at your beautiful kids, it's like, yeah, they have no filter, they have no self judgment. They have no, you know, their world is so open. So when they go out, when you go into nature as a kid, you're just like, it's natural that you're having this communication. And then over our life span, it's like we get a little crunched down, a little skeptical and a little critical and, and we close some doors that were open when we were kids. When you think about like, like if you close your eyes and you think about what you were doing as a kid and what trees or plants or flowers you were playing around, what's the first one that comes to mind?

A Douglas fir pine.

And when, when you Think of that. What were you doing? Like, walking, climbing?

I think I was, like, hitting sticks against trees, just being a boy, full of testosterone. Like, let me see what happens when I smash a stick on this tree and then smell it and smelling it. Take. I remember as a kid taking it, rubbing it, smelling it, and being like, whoa, this feels cool in my lungs. I mean, I have the same thing now. We'll go on walks with Nova, and I'm like, smell this, babe. And he loves it. So that I. I distinctly remember that.

And if you could describe that tree or the way it made you feel in the moment in three words, how would you describe it?

Awesome, playful and nourished.

Awesome, playful and nourished.

Yeah.

And if you think about any flower or tree that you think is particularly interesting today, nothing from your childhood. It's just like, oh, that one comes to mind. It's super cool and interesting. What comes to mind?

Well, we just did your experience in the banana plant with the. With the game changer spray. Obviously, that's. That was, like, spot on.

And if you forget. So forget for a minute, anything you read about it just by looking at it. What would you. How would you describe it in three words?

It was like nature's way of being driven, but without effort because it just pokes right up, and then it's got this supporting structure underneath, kind of regal, actually, like a regal plant.

Okay. So when you. When you look at the. The way you describe your childhood flower or tree is typically the. The way you bring your greatest gifts into the world. Awesome, Playful, inspired.

Let's go, Katie. Let's go. I want that.

And so. So if you look at how you do things, that's probably at the core of the way you bring it in. And then if you look at what you're drawn to today, the banana blossom, it's something that you're aspiring to embody even more. So there's a part of you that wants to embody more of that. Like regal King. And also the driven part, but effortless.

Right.

Wow.

Did you ever notice that early on that psychotherapy and words and healing were a part of this? And when did that actually come online? I felt like that was a mini therapy session Via Language of Flowers. At what point in your journey did you start to receive codes for a lack of term, the codes of the flowers? Do you remember where you were when you were like, this is it. I actually feel these plants, these flowers talking to me, communicating with me.

Yeah. The first flower essence collection trip I did was when it happened. That Was in Canada, north of Whistler. And that was an experience where I literally felt like the flowers were talking to me.

Did you feel quite crazy or did it matter?

Absolutely. Oh, totally, Yeah. I was like, am I crazy? Am I making this?

Am I hearing voices? Yeah.

And. And also there was this element of animals, which I have never to this day experienced with such acuity as. As that particular time I remember going out. I was in this forest. I didn't know anything about the flowers or the place really. It was just, you know, I meditated in the morning, did some tai chi, and I made a really strong wish to find those flowers that I could that would most benefit humanity. Like, just make me an open channel. I want to find what's going to help most. And so I'm walking out into the forest, and there's two different pathways. I'm deciding which way to go, and this huge black bear comes out and crosses one of the pathways and literally stops on the pathway, turns and looks at me right in the eye, and then lumber. Lumbers off into the forest. So I waited a little bit, and then I thought, well, I'll take that as a sign and I'll go down that path. And then I was walking for a while, and there was this beautiful butterfly circled around my crown three times and then landed on a flower. And I just from that point thought, okay, call me crazy, but, you know, nobody's out here, so I'm just going to follow this and I'll collect this flower essence. And then I walked for a while, and this beautiful, shiny snake slithered like a foot in front of my toes in front of me, off into this patch of white flowers. Okay, I'll collect that flower. Since then, the whole day was like this. I didn't eat the whole day, and I collected maybe it was like a marathon, 15 different flowers, which is actually quite unusual. That first flower that the butterfly landed on, I would say is probably one of the most needed flowers on the planet. It's like it dissolves old, bad memories or ways that our heart has been wounded to just, like, let some of that energy go, you know?

What kind of flower is it?

It's called fireweed, and it's actually a pioneer species. So it's one of those flowers that is, if there's been, like, a raging forest fire, it will pop up to heal the environment and the people and the animals. The one that the snake slithered into was yarrow, which we now put in every single formula that we make because it revitalizes your body's energy after EMFs and radiation and, you know, in the beginning it was just in one blend, but after everyone started picking up smartphones and being on their laptops all the time and exposed to so many EMFs, and 5G was like, okay, we have to put this in everything. So what is interesting from that particular flower essence collection trip, which is like 2007 maybe, is that those flowers are in the top six blends of what we have that we've introduced to the world. And by far, those are the most popular to this day. So there's also something to that element from, you know, from my perspective of when you get on your knees and you really deeply, sincerely are motivated by benefiting, you get a lot of assistance and a lot of help from, you know, outside of yourself to. To locate what it is that will be of benefit.

When you, when you say on your knees, do you mean open to your creator, open to source, open to God, Whatever word resonates, right?

Yeah, like dissolving the ego out of it. Like, oh, I want to find something that, like, I'm going to get recognition that science will recognize me or that I will get fame or I will. It, you know, that's like completely out of the picture that it's, it's so clean and so pure that you can meet the flowers at the level of purity that they're at so that you can, you know, fully pull out the purity of. Of what the. What the plant has to give you to offer.

Yeah, I, I'm very familiar with aromatherapy. This is not aromatherapy. It's totally different. Could you shine light on that? Because maybe somebody's learning about essences for the very first time. And if you're watching on YouTube and Spotify, we have this beautiful chart that Katie had me do an exercise on. And the flowers change and the adaptogenic inputs change as we change. But it's so powerful because each flower has an energetic signature, a healing signature, maybe a frequency signature. Would you say that's what it is? And can you shine light on the difference between, like, aromatherapy and essences?

Yeah. So aromatherapy, you need a lot of plant material, so you need 40 roses to get one drop of oil. I have huge respect for essential oils, and we use them as well, we put them in a lot of our products because it just creates an amazing experience.

Yeah.

And flower remedies are totally different. They have no scent. Well, we. I go out into the wild, collect the flowers as they're at their full bloom point. You actually don't need that much plant material. Because what you're doing is using the exponential dilution process similar to homeopathy. So your, your, you know, collecting the life force energy of that flower. So if you look at like, you know, the whole body of a plant is really good for our whole body. It'd be like tinctures, teas, you know, eating. And then the essential oils are more like the blood or the immune system of a plant. So that's really helpful for our circulation and our immune system. And flower essence is like the consciousness of a plant and that is then operating on our consciousness.

How do you get the consciousness out? What's that process look like?

It's actually really simple. It's using. Using the five elements or some of the elements. It's like the, the, the sun. The sun is really special. Right. We know like more and more and more we see more research about how incredibly powerful the sun is. The sun is the driver that drives the life force of the plant into water. We're also seeing about how amazing water is these days. Right?

Yeah.

So the sun will drive the life force of the flower into water. Water is like a storage device, just like this shiny stuff on the back of a CD or dvd. Yeah, right. And it's has an incredible capacity to store information, which is like a subtle electrical current. And what is electricity? It moves like at the speed of light. So we put that in our body or on our body or anywhere in our electromagnetic field. And it is that subtle electrical frequency is actually moving at the speed of light through our meridian system, our nadis and our chakras. In the same way that if you get acupuncture, you're also regulating your energy through those meridian pathways.

It's. So it's the whole flower, it's the consciousness of the whole flower. And you do it through either using the sun to dry it and then infusing it into water, because it's almost like a hard drive.

You need the fresh flower like right at its full, full bloom point.

Okay.

And then you can either bend it over in the water, you can clip it, and then you soak it in the water for a certain period of time, and the, the sun will drive it into the water. Then you take the flowers out, you have this supercharged water, you add alcohol which preserves it indefinitely, and then you, we take it back to the lab and then do several dilutions. The crazy part that I still don't really understand after 25 years is that the more, the more you dilute this mother essence is what we call it the more powerful it goes in the deeper layers. It goes into like say even seven to eight generations back in your family lineage, which is stored in your cellular memory.

That seems so counterintuitive. The more you dilute it, the more powerful it gets. How, how does that work?

I mean it's kind of like homeopathy, you know, if you, you break your arm and then people say, well try take arnica6x. Right. But if you have issues for a long period of time, take something that's 60, 60 C or million. Six million, right?

Yeah.

You think of it as like it's going into like deeper layers. Like some. I visualize it as like, well, if it's really super tiny nano, then it's, it's like penetrating very, very deeply. You know that it's easier to think of it as like a physical, you know, like they say, you know, the nano something is penetrating deeper into your skin, but in this case, it's penetrating deeply into what makes you a human. So it's like actually what we're working with is the 21 grams of you that leaves your body when you die. That's really all we are working with.

Yes. We were chatting about this at the party you had on Friday. So it's so interesting that spiritual weight can be measured once a soul leaves the incarnate. When did you first learn about that?

A few years ago. I read about it actually. A friend of mine, she's a massage therapist, like long term, several, multiple decade. And she's just always looking to improve her craft. So she goes to Colorado to study with this guy who teaches massage therapists and other body workers through opening up cadavers. And she comes back and has had this whole transformational experience about working on this 90 some year old man who died of natural causes and opening him up and feeling into all of his fascia and muscles. And she said everything was so soft, so smooth, like not one knot. And then she realized in that moment that, oh, it's actually not the physical body. Like what gives us knots and tightness and kinks and stuff in our physical body that is not where it's coming from. So once the, once the consciousness leaves the body, everything is like silk smooth. And so then I started looking into, you know, and then found this, this information or this study showing that they had weighed multiple people at the moment of death.

Yeah, it's not just water weight per se. One thing I love, I heard you say in media, you said that if 3%, just 3% of humans use These essences for healing, for connection, then it could radically transform the planet. I. I think of the 97, and I'm like, you know, the skeptic, the healthy skeptic in me is like, what do you mean, 3%?

That's something that my flower essence teacher hooked me with back in the late 90s. You know, I was like, you know, he. I don't think I had a clue what he meant. I thought, that sounds amazing.

Yeah.

Because everybody wants to benefit the world. Everybody wants to help. Everybody wants to, like, make their mark. Right. But then how. And. And you look at all the problems in the world, and you think, how am I gonna. Little old me. How am I gonna really make a difference?

Yeah.

And when in. In hearing that only 3% could create enough ripple effect and enough momentum that it would. It would be like a domino effect. It could change the outcome of the future. Like, it's super inspiring. I don't think I really understood what he meant until, like, 20. 20, 2021, when we saw this wave of contagious fear take over the planet.

Yeah.

Then I was like, that's what he meant. Okay. So, you know, and after. This is crazy because this is like, after so many years of seeing really radical transformations in people through the flower essences, and I realized, oh, that's how quickly it can happen. You can have contagious love, you can have contagious joy, you can have contagious empowerment, you can have contagious fearlessness and courage and, like, allowing people to come into their full and truest selves? And that's what we're really doing, is speeding up, so the flower essences will speed up and accelerate that personal and spiritual growth process so that we fully realize our true nature a little bit faster.

Did you ever have any inclination that generational healing and. Or letting go of the gifts of our epigenetics that we don't want to pass on to our children could be one of the healing facets of these essences 100.

I mean, that is from the very beginning. From the very beginning, My flower essence teacher said there are three forms of information that we're storing in our cellular memory. Right. And you. You learn this in science class. Your one little cell has your DNA of everything. Right. But they're just looking at physical DNA. We're talking about energetic DNA. So you're looking at. Yes. Seven to eight generations back in your family lineage. Good, bad, ugly, beautiful, all of it. So you can retain the good parts. But if there's something that, you know, maybe Your family experienced the depression. Maybe they went through a war. Maybe they had hard times. You know, something happened. You want to turn the volume down on the things that aren't serving you in everyday life that are not applicable to today. And then there's the second form, which is every experience we've had from womb until now creates some filters in how we see reality. None of us see reality as it is. None of us. We are seeing through many multiple layers of filters of our personal experience and how we've interpreted that. So we want to turn the volume down on the filters or remove the filters altogether together so we can get closer to seeing what's actually truth. Right. And then there's the whole collective. That's where it really becomes obvious. Because you see, you know, we have the Austin Collective or the Texas Collective or the United States Collective. We're part of all these different collectives, and we are receiving information from these collectives all the time, whether we're watching the news or not, because we're. We're energetically tapped in. I think of it as like, you know, when you dig into how cell phones work, you see that some cell phones increase their connectivity by pinging off of other cell phones. So if you're in a room with lots of people with lots of cell phones, your cell phones are all talking to them, talking to each other without you even knowing it. So the same thing is possible with humans. It's happening all the time. You and I are close enough, in close enough proximity that there is a part of us energetically, that is speaking and sharing information, like my teacher used to call it, like packets of information.

Yeah.

So we're exchanging packets of information. Even if we weren't talking, we just sat in a room for an hour not saying anything. Oh, yeah, we would share information. So we just want to make sure that the information we're pulling in, we can either say, oh, no, that's not true for me, and dissolve it, or yes, this is truth and amplify it.

Yeah. What I heard from you, in really eloquent words, is these essences help to sharpen our intuition that modernity has blunted. And we don't need to go into the pitfalls that we all know to spend any time on this podcast going into the hooks of modernity. We're well aware. I'll just mention. I'll just mention a few EMFs, toxic food, toxic people, thought forms that have innate negativity, so on and so forth, media propaganda. So it becomes quite a challenge for many of us. To be our own signal above the static, above the noise. What's both the science and the spirit of the essences when it comes to becoming our own signal? Strengthening our intuition so that we don't fall victim, which is rewarding, in a paradox way, to the static, to the noise.

Yeah. I mean, sometimes when I think about, you know, all the. Even just, like, take away all those external things, there's the internal, you know, when you think about the. The generational stuff, everything you've experienced in your life, and then the collective stuff, it's a wonder. We're like walking, talking, functioning well. Right.

We're just. For the most part, we're just. Humans are awesome. We can handle a lot.

Yeah. So the I. So the idea is that you want to continually. It's kind of like an onion. You want to peel off the layers that aren't you. And it takes time. That's one thing I really am realizing lately is, like, it takes time. Yeah. You know, people who have been on spiritual paths for long periods of time. Like, it takes time. But there are the. You know, there are methods like flower essences that I feel speeded up. So in my experience of working with people, you know, the first 10 years of what I did, I just worked with people one on one. No. No products at all. And what I noticed was that the normal amount of personal growth people go through in about six months gets sped up into one month. So if you're looking at life like, as we do, as we get older, it's like, wow, life is really short. How do I make the most of my time? Yeah, I'm interested in something that can speed things up times six of me having a realization and insight into what's actually true or, you know, being able to bring out my good qualities at a faster rate in a gentle, gentle way that, you know, elderly can use and babies can use and pregnant moms can use. And we just sort of slowly drip it into our life and our beverages and our daily rituals so that we can really speed up that process of becoming who we are meant to be here.

How did that work out for you? I'm sure we teach what we most get to learn. That's how it's been for me. I don't think you're immune from that. So as you were teaching one on one for so long, and then now, you know, I don't know. Hundreds of thousands of people across the planet have been touched by these essences in your company, what did you notice about your own speeding up? Not from A place of scarcity, or I have to have it go faster, but just it innately was faster because of the technology you speak.

It just feels like we move through a lot very quickly. You know, if you look at, like, our team and. And it's also intentionality. We want it, like. Yeah, that helps. Yeah, we want it.

If you don't know where you're going, anywhere will do.

Right, exactly. So we move through a lot. And also I feel responsible as the. The. The. The head of this company, that I must look at my own stuff, because what I provide, whether it's flower essences, whether it's experiences, events, a conversation, it can only be good, as good as I am. And I have to walk my talk. So it's kind of like this little interesting, subtle internal pressure of. I must address everything that arises in me. I must work through, I must evolve, because it will funnel through everything that I create.

What was one of the things that you were aware of that you got to get through that made you a better vessel? And, like, you're purified in a way.

Yeah. Like, I'm looking at some of the white flowers on the. On the card next to you. I had an experience where I just probably I hit the deepest levels or layers of grief that I've ever experienced in my life. I just didn't even know that that kind of grief existed. Like, bottom of the barrel. I was at a friend's house for. For dinner. I had to, like, get up, like, run out from dinner, go into the front yard, and just like, you know, there was this community, and I just didn't care. I, like, threw myself on the grass and was sobbing and snot coming out of my nose, and it was just. I just didn't care who saw me because it was just such a. Like, it was the end of me. It was such a profound layer of grief and surrender. And I thought, I. I don't want other people to experience this. Like, I have got to create something that at least if people are in that experience, can lift them up out of it a little faster and gentler. So that's what led me to create, you know, to put all these white flowers together and orchids and, you know, beautiful flowers into this blend called Sacred Heart to help give people a boost out of that experience. So a lot of it's been personal.

Is that the spray that's on the.

That one's. This one One.

Okay. But is that also the one that I have down there on the guest little shelf? Is that a different one?

Actually, this is different. This has a different story. There's some other really cool things about this one.

Tell, tell the story of this one. Because I intuitively, I just, like, my guests need this. I just felt it.

Oh, 100.

What is this one all about?

You were, you were totally bang on.

I was like, this is going to make the conversations fun.

So I use this anytime before I am doing a podcast, before I do speaking, public speaking. Ah. Or, you know, because what it does, there's a little white flower here that looks like neurons.

And what was the name of this one again?

This one is called Sacred Awareness.

Sacred Awareness, Yes.

So there's a lot of different flowers in here, but the white one is the driver for that very rapidly being able to energetically tap into people, places, environments. So you know how to speak and you know how to say things in the way that, for example, you or your listeners need to hear it. So it helps us, you know, grab things from the outside that maybe ordinarily we wouldn't say, but we need to say it that way for who's. For the listener.

Yeah, I like it too, because it's a little pattern interrupt for me. So if I. I run fairly warm. You were like, it's like a fridge in here. I run warm. And so I like these because they give me a cooling feeling as well. And I think we all deserve so many more pattern interrupts in our day than we give ourselves. Oh, my gosh. Whether it's like a five minute walk break or just laying on the floor and breathing for 30 seconds, how does this interrupt? And what exactly is this interrupting when it comes to us being in scarcity or depression or anxiety versus openness and trusting and flow. What's going on there, both scientifically and spiritually when we spray.

So many ways? I could answer that. So, I mean, if you just. If I think about it, like experientially, I'll catch myself a million times during the day, like inattention or constriction or like I'm tightening because I'm thinking about something. So it's a pattern interrupt there. We, we all think that thinking is what solves things. Thinking doesn't solve things. You know how you have your greatest ideas? It's probably like you're in the shower in the morning and you're not trying to figure something out.

Yeah.

Or you, like, went for a little walk with Nova and you're like, bang, I know how to do it.

Or I'm in the sauna just chilling.

Yes. Yeah, it's when Everything relaxes and there's openness and space. That's when your genius comes in. Like, that's when like all the constriction dissolves and it can finally, finally fall in. Right. So, but we think that thoughts are going to help us get somewhere so we get all tightened up. That's just like one way, like you can miss yourself. You can put some in your drink and take a drink. You can put some oil on. Taking a deep breath. That's a huge pattern interrupt. And it loosens the grasp or the fixation or the grip of how important we think that our thoughts are. And, and when you, when you so good, when you actually trace it back to, oh, right, this is thought patterns from my family. This is the thought patterns from the way I've lived my life. This is collective patterns. It's like, oh yeah. Then all those thoughts, you realize actually they aren't that important because I'm, I'm sourcing from that hard drive that isn't all me.

Yeah.

So when I can just chill and be spacious and open, that's actually when the real me can be heard. So you can think of it as experientially, you can, or you can look at, just like observe a couple over time. We all know those elderly couples who have not wanted to look at things, who have just gotten tighter and tighter and more tense and constricted their bodies.

They slump, they get kyphosis and they're kind of bent over like this.

And why do their bodies become like that? It's not a physical issue. It's because their minds have constricted. In the world of energy medicine, the projector is the etheric body, the screen is the physical flesh body. Things have to go through so many layers of invisible formats of us before they manifest as a red flag in the physical body. So when you see the physical constriction is because they're emotionally, mentally, spiritually energetically constricted over time. And here's the freakiest part. I once had one of my Tibetan Buddhist teachers tell me that there is no like neutral. You know, when you're on a bike and you coast, that that does not exist for human beings. There's no, there's no like spiritual coasting because the weight and momentum of our habitual patterns is so great that if we so called coast, we just get worse. So when you see the elderly couple that's super crunched down, it's because they didn't have the luxury of insight or reflection or personal growth practices or, or they Just weren't willing to look. Right. They didn't want to. They're like. Or you see the elderly couple that's, like, wide open. And they become more loving and more generous and more free and more interesting. And as they get older, right. So we have these two paths, and to. To. To be, like an elder person and to be wild and open and free. It requires a significant amount of attention, awareness, and work. Effort. Effort. So in that moment that the. The Tibetan Buddhist teacher told me that, I was kind of, like, bummed. Like, geez, you know, it felt like pressure. Like, I gotta. Like, you mean I have to put my attention on this every day. Like, every day I have to want to be a better person and improve. And the answer is yes. So. And flower essences are a great tool for that. You know, everybody has their practices. Flower essences are so easy to bring into your daily life in a way that can continue to, like, open up the parts of us that are actually blind spots. It's quite hard, you know, when you say, like, how do I improve every day? Because there are. There are blind spots. There are things that we can't see. So really gently, they help open up the blind spots. And now that you can see it, okay, now we can make a. Make a decision whether we want to engage in this particular behavior or way of being.

I love these and the luxury to look, because I find that we're so fortunate. I look what I get to do for work. It's so beautiful. It's. I'm like, every day I walk out to the podcast studio to have a conversation like this, and I'm just sometimes in so much total rapture that, like, there's been a couple times I've just cried, and I'm like, wow. My parents, my grandparents, they. They literally didn't even know that. They didn't know that's the blind spot of which you speak. And there's such a code here that I want to get your take on. And the code is, I have a family altar over here with all my grandparents and all my relatives. It's on the shelf. I'll show you when we're done. And about two years ago, I went super deep into a layer of just anger and resentment towards my lineage. And then when I went into the anger, above the anger was acceptance, and above acceptance was love. That's the map of consciousness that's on the wall. But it wasn't an intellectual thing for me. I actually started to feel more love, to feel more compassion for my grandparents, for my Parents, because they're just people and they didn't have the luxury that you and I have. We are so fucking fortunate to be able to live with the skills and the resources and the time that we have. It's not that it's a responsibility from obligation or pressure or shame that we must have this conversation. It's more like, wow, what a disservice. What an unconscious disservice it would be to all of our ancestors if we didn't have this conversation. Because they're in the background just cheering for us. Anyways, you guys, we didn't know. Forgive us. We didn't know. What's your take on that? What comes up for you? When I. When I share this, I think about.

Fundamental goodness and the fact that all of us, at our core, we're good people. Like, we, you know, we're good.

Yeah. At the center, I don't think anybody's inherently born evil, and we just adapt.

And then I think about the future generations. In the same way that we pull information through, through the past generations, we also bring it forward into our children and people that we caretake and our businesses and whatever we create. Right? So the more that we put attention and awareness towards becoming refined human beings, it's like that. There's an Iroquois saying that if you. If you transcend a certain pattern or habit, it will simultaneously spontaneously be freed from your lineage in both directions. So you've, like, let's say your parents are still alive and you. You, like, get to the bottom of why you feel resentful about X. It will spontaneously liberate backwards and forwards in your children so that they never have to deal with that. So it's this, like, wow, like you said, incredible power that we have as human beings to shift and change things on the inside. And not just for us, but for anyone that we come in contact with. You know, you look at like, you know, what's that saying, you know, people. People are afraid of their. Their greatest light. So, like, when you can come into a room and be really fearless and comfortable with yourself, that liberates everyone else. To be fearless and comfortable. Like, we're doing it all the time. It isn't even just in our family lineage. It's everybody that we touch energetically. We are like these walking crystals. And, you know, they never tell us in science class that in our blood and the fluids of our body, we. We literally are like walking crystals.

Oh, my God. I. I'm just having, like, full body chill. I just had this conversation with Dr. Steven Young yesterday, it was the first time I'd heard of it. And here you are saying the exact same thing. This is breadcrumbs, where there's literally crystalline structures in our fascia. And so when we rub and move, we're energizing the piezoelectric crystal in ourselves. It's so wild, but it's. It's actually science as well. For the naysayers. What do you mean?

It is science.

There's published data on this. Does that fascinate you when it comes to how the movement of the body and the way we respirate and the way the essences work all together, it's like this cleaning crystal momentum.

Yeah. And our bodies. Our bodies actually create light. Like, we create light in the same way that flowers do, in the same way that the sun does, and we magnify things. I get super geeked out about thinking of us as walking crystals, because energy comes in and we magnify it. I mean, I think that's what's so genius about, like, the intelligence of nature is when we introduce these life force energies from flowers and plants into our systems. It isn't like, you know, drinking coffee. Like, you just drink coffee, feel jacked up. It's like. It's like the intelligence of our body receives the energy first. It, like, shoots it through all of the systems, goes to where it needs to go, and then it magnifies it so that I can then offer it to you. You know, we're. It's like we are these crazy, powerful beings. So it. Then it becomes, all right, what am I projecting out into the world? How am I tending to what's inside?

Yeah.

So that I can magnify and spread all the goodness.

Last week, I was being interviewed on a podcast, and he was like. And it made me cry when I said it. I've been crying a lot, Katie.

I don't know what's going on. It's a good thing.

I never thought in my wildest dreams that I would be, like, 10 years into podcasting, crying all the time. It's kind of a trip. But he asked me, he said, what's the greatest gift you want to leave to your children? And I said, a life that is free of my pain and projections. That's the greatest gift I could ever give them. Then they can have their own unique experience that isn't clouded by mine. Isn't that amazing? Do you feel the same way in your own words? What arises in you? When I share that, I think of.

It as, like, the main frame of the Whole planet, you know, however many billions of people there are here. We're inputting information in all the time. So. So what are we putting in? You know, I don't have children. So if I had children, I'm sure I would think of it in the same way as you. Very acutely.

Yeah.

Of, you know, what am I instilling in. In my children? But since I don't have children, I think of it more as like, the whole world. What am I inputting into the mainframe? And how can I, you know, how many? Because I'm thinking if I need to get. I was kind of tripping about this yesterday in the pool was like, oh, my God, I'm so tired, and I need to reach 720 million people before I die. Like, I. This is my commitment to reach 3,000 people. How do I reach 720 million people before I die? I'm a little bit tired right now.

Yeah.

You know, and I have those moments of tired, and then pretty soon after, I get really motivated and it's like, next step. Right. So from my perspective, it's like, how can I infuse. How can I get flower essences into as many human beings as possible? Because I'm enhancing their light. I'm helping them dissolve static. I'm helping their. Them, like, be their greatest selves. I want to live in a world where everybody is, like you said, they're freed of their projections. They're freed of their past trauma. They are liberated to be them, their full selves, to be vulnerable, to be who they are, to be real, to not have. To be fake, to not have to be, like, nice, nice and PC. To be able to say it like it is, to be themselves and to be beautiful and cherished and, you know, open. So that's where I come from, is like, how can I liberate as many people as possible? And not me liberate them, necessarily, but the flowers give them a tool to help them liberate themselves. Flowers can show you the door. Ultimately, you have to walk through it. So from my perspective, it's like time and my own capacity to catalyze things that will, you know, spread seeds and allow. Allow the flowering to take place around the world.

You had talked about turning down the volume of the trauma, and I love that because I'm a. I'm a geek as well. I think dorks and geeks run the world. I really do. Like, if you're passionate about something, you're a dork. It's just like dorks around the world all the CEOs of the biggest companies are dorks, right? Because they believed in something. They were so entrenched in their vision that it just gives them joy. And then they're made fun of. Because I think that the shadow is that the reason that geeks or people that are passionate are made fun of is because they're shining a mirror on those that may not feel a sense of purpose or they may not feel like they're on their path. The reason I bring this up is because my science hat is like, oh, well, I understand the default mode network and the reticular activating system, where whatever we focus on grows. If I am a trauma person, if I'm traumatized, then I show up with a label of I am traumatized. And then I seek out unconsciously more trauma. It's like trauma brings the drama. And so how does the essence actually turn down? I don't know if it's the default mode network. I don't know if it's another portion of the brain or their neurology behind that. But how have you learned that? It actually does turn the volume down of the traumatic experiences we've had for.

Us from both personal experience and working with the flower essences with other people. I'll give you one example that's more extreme. I worked with somebody who was in the Special Forces, and he had been shot multiple times. He had been stabbed. He had been like a bomb go off in between his legs. He'd been trapped under a burning car and couldn't escape because he'd be shot. So he had all this, like, experiences. And if you asked him, he's super masculine, like, super strong, super settled, calm. If you asked him, did you experience trauma from being in the Special Forces or being overseas, he would have said, no. Like, I'm. He'd be. He would tell you what's traumatic is sitting at a desk in an office, like, I just want to get back and do what I was doing. That being said, like, that's his conscious mind, right?

Yeah.

But then when you. When we tapped into his energetic body, all of those experiences were trapped in his fascia and wanted to be released. So with like an hour of body work and the use of a lot of different flower essences, he re experienced each of those experiences. Like. And I sat with him as he felt the heat of the bullet going in and the coldness of the knife going in his belly. And we went through each experience. And it. I watched as something as subtle as, like, a flower essence mist pulled all of These memories out of him, Big guy, you know, in a fetal position. And pulling all that out of his system radically changed his life. Because all that stuff is running in the background consciously. He was like, no, I have no trauma. I'm not one of those guys who comes back home and I have trauma. I don't have it. Yeah, but it's running in the background. It's like running in the background of your computer. So to liberate that kind of information, and I saw it with my own eyes, you know, and then I see it in myself. You. You work with a particular flower essence regularly and then give it a few days, and you like, damn, I'm thinking differently about this, or I'm feeling differently about this, or this thing used to really piss me off, and now I'm like, super even keel or. Gosh, it used to be really hard to express something, and it just, like, fell out of my mouth and everything. Everything's fine. So you see it in yourself sometimes at a shocking level.

By the volume, you just mean that record player in the background, it just turns down. Does it ever go away fully?

Yeah, for sure. It takes a long time and probably, yeah, a lot of work. But I would say. But yes, if you look at a particular strain of something, like you were talking about your resentment or you. People have grief or they want to be more, like, creatively fulfilled, or they have a habit of, like, not eating when they're hungry. There's so many things. Right. You can definitely. I think of them as, like, threads. You can pull those threads out and they're gone forever. There are thing. There are things in ways that I used to be that I am not anymore.

What's one of those ways?

And there are things that I'm still working on today. Like, there. It's. It's almost like layers. Like, things come to the forefront that, like, are next, you know? Oh, gosh. What's one of those things? I don't know. I don't look back. I'm thinking more about, like, what. What's my next step?

Oh, okay.

Next step is, like, this sense of feeling overly responsible for things that makes me take on too much.

Yeah. Like that moment in the pool you had.

Yep. And then the other one is not allowing myself to do the things that really bring me joy. So, like, when I first started my business, like, the actual flower essence business, I had, you know, done the 10 years of consultations and knew all the stuff and collected all the flower essence. And now it's like, how do I bring this into the world. What I really wanted to do was do YouTube videos and social media, because I just thought that'd be so fun. Oh, my God. But I could not allow myself to do that. I was like, at that time, you know, in that space of history, it was like, oh, that's crazy. I should go to trade shows and do what everyone else is doing. So I took that route. Our company would probably be so much bigger by now. If I had just allowed myself to do the fun thing and do the YouTube videos and just keep hacking at it, we'd probably have a massive audience by now, you know? So I look at myself in. In the now and say, oh, shoot, I'm still in that position. And then I look at multiple members of my organization who also have that same pattern of doing the things that we know we gotta do and we gotta crunch down and do these things, but, like, ooh, this would be really fun. And my theory is that if we let ourselves do the thing that would be really fun and joyful, we'd actually make more money, be more successful, reach more people, and impact more.

Yeah.

So that's one of the things I'm gonna, as an organization, instill as a group, that we can hold each other accountable and, like, check each other on. Like, are you doing what makes you feel wild and free for the 80% of the time? Okay, 20% can crunch down.

Yeah. That's where we do emails in the 20%. Because spirituality and spiritual growth at times, if we don't check ourselves, can be fucking serious. It's so serious. And it doesn't have to be. I mean, there's moments where it is. It is what it is. But this seriousness, my friend Luke Story, is like, I think seriousness is a mental disorder. We're so fucking serious. Serious all the time. It's like, can we all just take a breath and have this pattern interrupt? It's so. There's so much medicine in it. So is this fun for you? Is this. Is being on a podcast and doing this? Is this fun? Does this feel super fun light? It's what you wanted to do back in the day and you're doing it now.

Super fun. I love it.

What. What is the. What is the medicine that you being out there in the world digitally and all that, what are you receiving from that?

What am I receiving?

Yeah.

Oh, that's a great question. I was thinking more broadcasting. What am I receiving? Connection, understanding, and also vulnerability and seeing how. Where people are human, Seeing where I'm human. Seeing where you're human.

Yeah.

And it's really disarming, you know, like, to see how human you are, to feel how human I am. It's like there's so much strength and power in that.

We're in this time of, like, Instagram influencers, which is such a paradox, because if you have the right strategy and if you have the right money, you can present yourself as someone you're not. And it's real. It's. I call it the spiritual commodification of spirituality. And it's sad, but then I'm like, well, wait a minute. We need these characters in the play. We need, as we grow, our intuition through the pattern interrupts and the essences and everything else, any kind of adaptogen, anything that we take in that allows us to achieve greater homeostasis or balance. As we achieve that balance, we can see people for who they are more. It's almost like we can remove the filters and the veils from how people are wanting to be received versus how they actually are. Do you sense this?

Yeah, more and more and more and more. I mean, I think humanity is waking up, in a sense, and we can see through the bullshit much more now than we could five, 10 years ago.

Social media makes you, I think, more of what you are eventually. Maybe not up front, but if you're doing something that's out of integrity with who you are, eventually there's going to be no place to hide. You eventually have to get on a stage, you eventually have to work with people, and you eventually get called out. Do you find this to be the case?

For sure? Yeah.

Does it. Does it bring up. What does it bring up for you when you see this. This part of the theater?

I mean, I was just having a conversation with my business partner yesterday. All of us were. Because we were talking with her, and she's. She's got 25 years of meditation under her belt. She spent 10 years in Asia, living in Asia, studying with meditation masters and doing solitary retreats in caves. I mean, this woman, you look at her, she's so humble, and she's did a retreat in a cave by herself with, like, a rat and cooked her own food. And, I mean, it's just like, it's. And. And if you ask her, she'll tell you that was the happiest she was in her life. Like, so free and so wild and so liberated. And, you know, then I see. I just see all the depth of that realization and wisdom and experience. And then, you know, there's, like, the folks who, like, learn something in a weekend Workshop.

Yeah.

And. And there's nothing wrong with that. There's nothing wrong with the weekend workshop. We all got to freaking start somewhere.

Sure.

But. But that's what that makes me think of is, like, when I'm listening to somebody, do I want to be like them? What is their lineage? Where did they come from? How long have they been studying? How long have they been in the trade? How much experience do they have? What is their knowingness? How many people have they helped? Who was their teacher? What was the realization level of their teacher? Like, what. Where is the lineage? Here.

Yeah.

And do. Do I want to be like that? And if I do, then I'm all in.

Yeah.

And then if there's something that just quite. Isn't quite clicking or something just doesn't quite feel right, then I just pause.

Right? Yeah. I always, whenever I receive wisdom or guidance from someone I like you always ask myself, do I want a portion of their life or does their wife or husband love them? Do their children want to spend time with them? Are they mentally sharp? Are they physically. Well, can I sense they have a connection to something that created them? Are they broke? Are they. You know, I want to know all their stuff. Because I'm like, if your life in mental, physical, emotional, spiritual, financial. I call it the wellness Pentagon. If that's not nourished and something's really lacking. But yet you're speaking about the thing that I can sense you're in lack of. It's not wise for me to receive counsel from someone like that. It's just not wise. But I also. There's a paradox. People are where they are. And when I sense into you, I told you before we were walking up here, I'm like, you're very mysterious. There's some mystery. And I was like, where do you think that mystery comes from? And you said the perfect answer. You're like, I'm not sure. Do you. Do you sense that with your work? Because the flowers are pretty mysterious. Like you even said there's a portion of the. When you capture the essence of them, you don't exactly know there's a mystery there. Do you see that same mystery in yourself?

Mystery? I mean, I feel like I know me, so it's not a mystery. But yes. I mean, if you think of it as, in terms of, like, to each one of us as a human being, there are parts of me that I don't know yet. And every month. So every month I work with a different flower, and every month I get shown a side of me that I'VE never seen before. So there is a level of mystery because there's a level of unknown there. And every one of us is like that. Like, there are certain things that you might be amazing at that you just don't know yet, because you're not going to find out until you're 55, and then something's going to hit and trigger you, and you'll discover that you're amazing at this other thing or that you have this particular quality that when you were seven years old, you wouldn't have known. Like, maybe you wouldn't have visualized yourself here when you were seven years old. So in that way, yes, there's mystery to all of us. There's so much capacity that we don't even logically, intellectually understand about ourselves, that we're capable of.

Yeah. When I was young, I used to listen to, like, Adam Carolla and Dr. Drew on my cassette player behind my head. You know, they had this show, Loveline, where people would call in with, like, sex ed questions. And even when I was young, I was like, I want to do that. I want to be a radio dj.

You did know? You did know?

There was a sense where I was like, that's kind of fun. Because what I longed for most when I was younger was what you and I are doing. I just wanted this. I wanted to learn and connect and grow and all the things. But my mom, God bless her, she was struggling with bipolar, and my dad was gone, essentially with his own stuff. And I can look at it now and be like, wow, it played out perfectly. There's no way that I'd be sitting here with you right now unless I had experienced the opposite of how special this is. Do you find that there was an event or two or, I don't know, a thousand that gives you the same gratitude to be able to lead Lotus Way. And how does that. How did that play out for you?

For sure. I mean, I think, gosh, this takes so much time. I mean, unravel, unraveling the parts of life. And I think that, you know, my father also left when I was one or two, and I think that created this dynamic where I needed to feel responsible for making sure things were okay and to work really hard and to achieve and. And I want to be clear, I am not in any way blaming at all. Like, there's no blame. It's like you're saying you got set up. We chose. Like, I chose. Yeah.

I don't get any blame from you.

I get blame, energy. I chose to be here I chose to have this experience, but it. It did set me up in a way to be an achiever and to make sure everybody was okay, which is a really awesome quality if you're leading a big company is you want to make sure everybody's okay, you want to bring out their strengths, you want to work really hard, and you want to, like, create harmony, I think, where that, you know, then it can also go to the other side where you're, like, too responsible. Oh, no, no. I'm burning out.

Yeah.

Okay. So now I have to find my way back into. Is everyone okay without me? Can I let everybody be okay? Are they going to be able to take care of themselves? Yeah. Then. Then the almost scary part is, like, what is the freedom on the other side of not having to be overly responsible? Or what's the freedom of being on the other side of worried about people abandoning you if you don't make them happy? Well, some of that freedom is you can be fierce as and you can tell them like it is, and you can inspire them to improve spiritually or emotionally or in their life. You can motivate them to improve. That is a certain kind of freedom that is not possible when you are being nice because you're afraid that they're going to leave or, like, you're just keeping everything all, like, sweet and soft so that everyone's good. So, like, that's part of the. The. That's part of my edge that I'm exploring right now is how much freedom can I allow myself to experience? And. And what is that even going to look like if I'm not worried about being alone? Alone? And what. What is possible if I'm alone? I don't know yet. I'm exploring that.

You're gonna sit in a cave with a rat and cook your own food.

I mean, I think we could do that in our daily life. It just looks a little bit different.

What would you say to someone who's, like, super locked in, but they're feeling a bit of resistance or aversion to these adaptogens, these, these. Steven Young calls them plant partners. Right. I don't know how you would describe them. Essences.

I love resistance. I love skepticism. I think it's really smart. I think we need. We need more critical thinking in the.

World today, specifically on the generational healing, though, if somebody's the part of them. It's so funny. I don't know how deep you've gone into. Parts work. Richard Schwartz. And ifs fascinating. The part of a human being that is in exile that has a protector in front of the exile, the protector is doing its job. It's keeping them to not be taken advantage of any company or. What do you mean? These things can help me? Right? It's like that skepticism, but where skepticism turns into self harm actually can be when skepticism is overly protective. If somebody's in that thought pattern, what might you share with them? From curiosity about how these essences can allow the protector to relax.

I just talked to a different part. There's so many parts of us, you know, like, yeah, we all have the protector part, but we also have the curious child. And the curious child is like, so, Josh, which one of these flowers do you like today? Like, you can't resist that. Oh, I mean, maybe you could resist it, but most people are like, open enough to can you resist it? I just.

I saw this one.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And actually, this is exactly what you're talking about. You chose the flower flower that is precisely for what you're talking about, which is when something has disappointed you and you shut down a part of your heart and you get apathetic and you're like, it, whatever. So there's that resistance. Like, I don't. I don't need it. I don't want to look at it. I'm fine. Right? It's what. It's what you're talking about. This is like the ultimate softening flower. It softens so we can re. Engage. It softens so we can engage with our protector. It softens so we can engage with the exiled part, with a curious child, with the little part of us that's like, well, maybe there is something better on the other side. And I think, you know, all of those parts are at play. And we can speak to the different parts in a flower essence blend. There is a flower for that protector part to calm down. It's okay. You did good. You're doing a good job. And there's a part for the one that's curious or a flower for the one that. That the part of you that's curious. And there's a flower for the part of you that's an exile. So you're just. It's sort of like offering, like a child offering a bouquet of flowers to all the different parts that make you up, that disarm everybody and let everything relax so we can open to a new reality.

How do you know which combination of flowers to put in to address a protector specifically?

Most of the time, I just do it intuitively, you know, so it's like.

The Chakruna and the ayahuasca. It's like the plants told us, it's like that, essentially. Okay.

Yeah.

So it's just a knowingness.

Yes.

Got it.

Yeah.

Is there one blend? You said when you had the experience with the bear and the snake that you were led to the white flowers. Is there another flower that you think we all really are calling for right now? Is there a handful that we are really calling for as a species?

There is one. Is the one that you chose.

Which one is that?

It's a Japanese camellia.

Oh.

In the last two years, every single person is drawn to that flower. Everyone, Everyone, Everyone. I've never seen anything like it. Actually, I saw. Okay, the closest I saw was when I went to Japan shortly after Fukushima. Everyone was drawn to Yarrow because of the radiation. Because people were saying, there's still radiation in the water.

Ah, yeah.

But nothing like now everyone is picking this flower because there. I think on a societal level, there's some way that we felt disappointed. Oh, yeah. And then we shut down.

Yeah.

So it's like the ultimate heart softener to, like, open up, Keep opening up, keep opening up. Engage more, engage more. Don't check out, don't numb out. Don't check out, don't run away. Soften and engage more.

Yeah. The challenge that the protectors. I want to speak to my protector and all protectors is that, well, you hurt me before, you've let me down before. I can't open up or otherwise I'll be hurt again. How does the essence help us with that? There's vulnerability, and then there's also just being open emotionally and having the strength to not allow yourself to get harmed.

I mean, that's the cool thing about flower essences is there's so many angles and ways you can come at it. You know, whether it's like, allowing someone to be vulnerable and then it just, like, comes out and they see that, oh, everything's okay. And actually, people like me more when I'm vulnerable.

Yeah.

You know, or. Or coming at it from, like, the strength and determination, imagination. It's kind of like you don't even have to think about it. You don't even have to worry about it, because your own innate intelligence, which is those 21 grams of you, which is the spiritual essence of part of you that is wise, beyond anything you could imagine. It's not something your mental mind can understand, that part of you just picks a flower because it knows what the next little unlock is. You know, if there's like a Million different little locks. And these flowers are the key. You know what the next layer is. And for some people, it could be assistance and being vulnerable and knowing it's okay. For some, it's about determination. For some, it's about strength. For some, it's about not needing external validation. For some, it's about purpose work. Or some it's about taking bigger risks and not having to be perfect. For some, it's about feeling supported. For some, I mean, it's like endless. What the unlock is.

Wow. Okay, well, I'm unlocking my phone. By the way, you shared that right at 11:11 about the Japanese. What was it?

Camellia.

You literally shared that at the perfect time. So just in full transparency, I went to a really cool gathering at your. At your place. And my banana blossom that I chose magnifies spacious, expansive mind, bringing projects to fruition with ease and slowing down to rest and feel nurtured. It dissolves hurrying, feeling anxious and worry about having not enough time.

Tell me about how that shows up for you.

Oh, we're back in therapy. I see. So, yeah, I live and die by my calendar. Every single thing I do, whether it's like a friend hangout, a 15 minute call, everything is in my calendar because I don't want to miss anything. I have so much that I'm holding and so much that I desire to bring to reality that sometimes I'll be like, carrie, babe, why didn't you put it in the calendar? So that's how it shows up and you get pissed. I don't. I used to get more. I actually noticed, to give myself credit here, I used to get way more triggered. And through this, ifs work, and through many different pattern interrupts, I just notice I'm less angry about stuff I don't hold. I know it's not her trying to mess with me. And I used to come at it like, well, why don't you love me? Why don't you respect me? Why don't you put it in the calendar and just go into this crazy story? And now I'm like, okay, here it is. This is the game changer. So it's like, now the trigger might be there, but there's not so much intensity behind it. And I have time to process it literally for probably five to 10 seconds before I respond to her. And then I'll just be like, hey, babe, I would really appreciate if you could just be as mindful as you can to put stuff in the calendar, because I'm holding a lot. And, you know, I know you are, too. I love you. It's way better delivery.

Okay, I have a question for you.

Yes?

What's the worst thing that could happen if you miss it?

If you miss something, then I might miss an opportunity that could help us grow as a podcast, as a company.

And what's the worst thing that would happen if you missed that opport, that big opportunity, then?

I. I don't know. Fomo? A fear of missing out.

Yeah. Okay. You totally missed out. You missed the big one.

Yeah.

What's the worst?

That I won't be able to reach as many human beings.

And now you're not able to reach as many human beings. What does that mean? What's the worst thing. Then?

I won't make as much of an impact as my heart desires.

Okay, now you're not making any impact like your heart desires. No, it's the worst possible thing.

Well, the worst possible thing is that my family would still love me, which is not the worst possible thing.

But is it that you would lose your family?

No.

No.

I'm a very driven person. Hence why I picked the banana.

Yep.

Banana leaf. Banana. Banana blossom. But I liked the banana blossom because when it grows in its strength, it doesn't necessarily have to be efforting to do so. So there's an embodiment there that I'm craving, that I'm desiring. And it's actually a week ago, I interviewed Alison Armstrong, and she was, like, telling me about the tunnel before a man goes from prince to king. And I genuinely feel like I can't figure out if I'm a late stage prince or if I'm already a king. There's a big part of me that's like, you've won, dude. Like, you've already. You already have every dream you ever wanted when you're a kid, like, just chill out. Just chill out. But there's this software that's like, go, go, go, go. So I'm learning how to be at peace with that software.

Yeah. I'm just curious about what's running it. The worst thing about missing out, you.

Know where it comes from? It comes from the first five years of the podcast. I was so broke in every way.

Yeah.

Financially broke. I was addicted to pornography. Like, it was real for me. Like, every. Like, the wheels had fallen off the wagon.

Yep.

And I had learned from a mentor at that time. Like, no matter what you do, put it in the calendar, because you may miss an opportunity and it'll pass you by. And that opportunity could essentially allow you to suffer less. So that's probably what it is, is.

Like fear of suffering.

Fear of suffering or fear of it having to be. Oh. Fear of having it have to be harder than it is. So if I miss an opportunity, then I miss out on a pathway of my ease of my suffering.

Got it. Okay, so now you can have, like. I love this exercise because what I think it does is it teaches us self compassion. Because if you're in a moment where you're somebody didn't put something in the calendar and you're like, God. Knowing that it isn't just about a calendar, knowing that it goes all the way back to oh. Because it's about suffering and having a really hard time. No wonder I get so bent out of shape about this. And then you can kind of turn towards yourself and go, oh, okay, all right. And then it doesn't have to be expressed externally, or at least you can just understand where you're coming from.

Yeah, yeah, that's. I've never thought about it in this way, which is super cool.

I think a lot of people have fear of success, and I do this exercise a lot where, where, you know, where we bring people down to, like, what's the worst possible thing that could happen if you're successful? I think a lot of us are afraid actually of being, like, wildly successful. I think it just teaches a lot of self compassion.

Yeah. I. I don't sense that I'm afraid of success. I. I sense that I'm a. I'm potentially afraid of spending less time with my family and having less time to nourish myself, which makes me show up loving and powerful. If I were to be, quote, famous, I could give two about being famous. I just don't care. I really don't. I actually interview a lot of famous people and I won't name names, but I'm like, I don't want their life. They're like one person when the lights are on, and then when we turn off the pod, they're a totally different person. And I'm like, I never want to. I have no desire to be that way. None. So I don't have a fear of success. I do have. I don't know if it's a fear of being famous. I just have an aversion to it. I don't want it. But I can see how the vigilance on the calendar is connected to something much deeper. But, like, I shared. I really have been proud of myself because I don't have the intensity. Even with my team. I'm like, hey, can you. Can you put that in the calendar. Otherwise it rents space in my head. I'll just say something like that. You know, it doesn't have to be this huge story where I'm like, I need to process with you. I need to process with you right now because you have to understand the depths of my suffering.

No, you know, no, it's really more about our own awareness. You know, there's this, this one study I think that you would really enjoy in Boston. It's a 10 year longitudinal study and they found that if you become wildly happy, it has more of a beneficial effect on your friends. Friends. Friend. Then if someone had put $5,000 cash in their pocket, it's a little bit, it's a little older study. I'm like, now I'm thinking with inflation, it's probably more like $10,000. Okay, so. And this is somebody you don't even know. And if someone, if your friend's friend's friend becomes wildly happy, it has more of a beneficial effect on you than if someone put $10,000 in your cash in your pocket. So what that essentially means is that we're constantly impacting people that we don't even know all the time.

Oh yeah. Especially with this conversation. Think of how many thousands of people will feel a shift but will never verbalize it. Like if one person writes in or five people write in, that means that there's like 500 or maybe 5,000 that have been moved or shifted, that didn't have the courage or didn't have the gravitas to, to share. We've talked, you've talked a lot about vulnerability. And you know, I've been feeling into this and learning a lot about vulnerability, like what it really is. I think there's a misnomer about vulnerability and I wonder how you feel. I believe that vulnerability doesn't necessarily mean that when you open up your heart and you share that you're welcoming trauma or that you're welcoming your vulnerability to be weaponized. I don't think that's it. I think me trust, true vulnerability is this spaciousness in my heart to be able to share, but also the self awareness and strength that if somebody does try to weaponize it, that I can just lovingly say no. I think that's what true vulnerability is. And I think there's this misnomer of like vulnerability means my heart is open and I'm welcoming any and all feedback. No, that's not what I mean by vulnerability. What's, what's your take on that?

Yeah, it's More of an internal response. It has nothing to do with the people around. Around you. I think true vulnerability is do. Can I allow myself to look at it? In most cases, we don't want to even look at it ourselves. It's not that it's. We're so afraid to show other people. It's that it's so hard to hold it ourselves.

When you say it, you just mean a stuck emotion.

Yeah, yeah. Something about it. Whatever the emotion is or the thought or the thinking or the situation, it isn't. It isn't so much about the people around us. It's like, can we sit with it? Can I sit with it? And then, of course, there's a little like, can I sit with it with whatever the weird reaction is and, like, crying and snotting and snorting and people can see my ugly cry face or whatever that is.

Yeah. And then there's the other form of it where, like, a nurse in a hospital sets up a camera so that she can cry and be seen crying. Then there's like, the glamorized vulnerability. I'm just like, that's not vulnerability either. So vulnerability is this. You know, brennani Brown's whole work is on vulnerability. And I remember she was speaking and she had a man come up to her at her speech, and he said, hey, I noticed you talk a lot about vulnerability for women, but I noticed you never talk about vulnerability for men. And her response to him was, oh, well, that's not my specialty. And he said, well, isn't that convenient gut check moment for her? Because she described the man speaking to her as he carried on. And he said, you know, I am such a knight in shining armor for my daughters and for my wife that they would actually rather see me die than for me to get off my white horse. That's the position that he's in in his family. And I'm like, well, it doesn't have to be that way either. Like, what's the.

No, no, no, no, no, no.

I think it's interesting that your company is called Lotus Way. I don't know if it's. If it's similar to the Wu Way. Is it similar to the Middle Way? Is that why you named it that?

Yes.

The Middle Way is like just this beautiful space right now. We can't also attach to being in the Middle Way because then it's going to attract lots of traumas and things, like an attachment to the Middle Way or the Wu wei will not be Wu Wei. It's like, how do we. How do we live this. And. And why did you name your company Way?

I mean, Way has a lot of meanings. In. In Mandarin is the. The effortless. The action of Wu Wei Wu Wei Wu is like effortless action. It also means for the benefit of all.

Like the banana.

Transformative action.

Yes.

And then lotus, of course, is like, you know, lotus grows in a muddy, stinky, swampy place. It's like life, chaotic. But the lotus has this particular quality to it that aeronautics engineers adopt for airplanes because it doesn't allow any speck of dust or dirt to get on a pedal or leaf. So it's like, you know, you're in this, like, crazy, chaotic world, and yet you're able to realize your most pristine, pure, true nature in a format that can be transformative for everyone. And to reference, like, just to go back to your guy on the white horse.

Well, he's not my guy, but.

Not your guy. The guy.

He's a guy.

A guy?

Yeah.

Or anybody. Like ourselves. On a white horse. Pretty sure. Although, you know, I picked Cannonball the other night, and that was for not wanting to be vulnerable. So maybe you're trying to get me here today, too.

Okay.

But vulnerability is not easy. But I believe that it actually makes you more strong. People will hold you up higher or, like, entire esteem or respect you more when you can be vulnerable because you're being truthful. It's truth. There's, like, nothing higher than truth. Right. And so, I mean, for that guy, I would have thought if he becomes vulnerable, he's on that horse and he's even stronger than ever. Like, they will hold him in such high esteem. There's so much strength and truth and, like, being down to earth, being real with someone else. It's a meeting of the hearts is what it is.

Yeah.

There's nothing to do with weakness.

A mentor, a therapist of ours. Her name is Margot Running. She's been on the podcast a couple times. We did an episode, and in the episode, she was like, you know, no mud, no lotus. It was from Thich Nhat Hanh. And it's so true. It's like this beautiful flowers birthed from crud from, like, muck, and then it doesn't get dirty at all. And how do our lives really just be a mirror of that? It's so fascinating. The wisdom of nature. It's like nature is always speaking, and it's such a platitude, you know, Nature always wins. The wisdom of nature is divine. Trust in them. Trust in Mother Nature. Trust in Mother Earth. We're in A really interesting time where if we don't listen to what's going on, if we don't attune to what's going on with nature, there could be some cataclysmic events in the future. I don't know if you've explored that or what you might feel about the future. I mean, I know all we have is now. I get that.

I think that's what, you know, in the late 90s, when I met my flower essence teacher, that's part of what he was saying was, you know, there are some things that are prophesied. There are things about the future. I mean, he, he never like, was specific about it, but we know, we see it in all different types of traditions. It's there.

Yeah.

And there's a timeline and you can speed that up, you can slow that down, you can change things. And we have the potential to. To make things better on this planet. And, and that's, that's what we believe in, is if you work with the intelligence of nature to amplify your own intelligence and your own true nature, that you can prevent those things or slow them down.

Yeah. In the same way of me being a prince or a king, I just. I do feel like we've already won. I feel like we've already won. And it's just there's going to be people that go one way and then there's going to be people that go another, and that's fine too. Everybody's choosing our reality, as reductionized as that sounds. I know that's very. Might be harsh. Like we are choosing our reality. We're creating our reality with this conversation, with the pattern reps that we choose. It's like, it's so. There's so much responsibility and can we keep it light at the same time? Like, does it have to be so serious? I feel like that's the edge of life. Life. The. The feeling of our responsibilities and our sacred responsibilities and also just being playful. How do you hold those two worlds?

It's funny, you know, when you see, like I have. My spiritual teacher will say, like, it's funny. You know, like, humor disarms people and also it just disarms us. So when we, like when I get too uptight about something, I have to tell myself, like, it's funny. Like somebody does something up. It's funny. Like it's funny.

Yeah.

Or like somebody's bad behavior is funny. And I think there are so many, like, inconveniences and things in life that occur where you're Just like, what? But if you can go back to that, like, it's funny. Everything is kind of funny. Yeah, it's funny. Then it helps, like, helps us loosen up and be more resilient and also, like, disarm everything. And it is pretty funny. Yeah, it's pretty funny.

Levity brings gravity. It's like when we're in our heads, somebody can crack a joke at the right moment. It's like. Like all the air. All the hot air leaves the room and.

Exactly.

So good. What do you think we didn't cover that your heart wants to share, like, what's been on your heart recently about these essences and your work in the world that maybe you haven't shared yet on any podcast?

Yeah, I think I've been afraid to share. And now I'm like, okay, I'm ready. That, that. The. The one thing that flowers. I think I talk about flower essences more in terms of, like, health and emotions and how you feel. And really what I want to tell people today is it helps you reconnect with the divine power inside of you, that part of you that's divine, that part of you that is, you know, all knowing and wise and beyond what you could imagine. And that. That there is a. That this is a practice and that is serious. And that if you try it and you use it five or eight times a day, over time, you become, like, you have more of a visceral sense of the. That, you know, in your quiet moments, it's like. Like, how. How big can you allow yourself to be? And that's both in life, but also, like, that sort of divine power inside of you or that sense of whatever you want to call it, connecting with your spirituality, connecting with a part of you, or the way you experience life as sacred and meaningful or magical or whatever the right word is for you, rather than just thinking about it in terms of like, well, this flower elicits this quality in you. But, like, can you. Can you allow yourself and can you deserve to get in touch with that part of you that is that powerful? And can you allow spiritual transformation, not just emotional or mental or not just sleeping better or feeling better with your partner having a better relationship? Or, you know, it's. Can you allow spiritual transformation and. And, like, what's. What's on your edge? What's standing in the way? What's. What do you want to be free of? And let's get to it.

Yeah, let's get to it, Katie.

Together.

Thank you for being my guest.

Thank you.

Thanks for coming here.

So much fun.

And thank you for the hookup. You know, going and sourcing these flowers is, I assume it's not easy. Somebody has to pick them by hand. Yes. It's not a machine. There's not like a tractor. It's you. Okay. So thank you. It's on the screen right now. Joshtrend.com Lotus the code is Josh10 to get the game changing. My favorite one. This is for me. Y' all can do the test. There's a test on the website where they can look for the flower.

And it's so fun.

Tune in.

It's a quiz. You just choose the flowers you're most drawn to, and it'll tell you. It'll reflect something about you back to you.

And don't think about it. Just trust. Just whatever your unconscious speaks to you on. Just go to that flower.

Yeah.

Okay. Amazing. Thank you for being here. This has been really special.

Thanks for having me.

Yes. You're so welcome. All right, y'. All. Share this podcast with somebody who has been suffering with themselves or in relationship or that just needs a pattern interrupt.

Awesome. And just wants to, like, know more, experience more, and just wants to be.

Fuller and bigger until we see you again. I'm wishing you love, wellness, but most importantly, peace and power. You cannot have power unless it comes from peace. We'll talk with you soon.