Every person’s journey in the world is unique, and sharing that extraordinary story can inspire, comfort, or generate new thoughts in others. In the podcasting platform, one of the best ways to open up experiences and share new wisdom is by having guests. In this episode, Rebecca Victor dives deep into why she invites guests to the show. Throughout that exploration, she also shares her personal journey of seeking the answers from within.
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Why Welcome Another Unique Person As Guest In The Show
I wanted to talk a bit about the guests that I am having come to the show, the ones that have already been to the show and the ones that will be forthcoming, and explain why I am having guests. I decided to have guests because there’s nothing better as a teacher than the opportunity to witness an individual moving through their own experience of what we’re talking about. As a teacher, what I have discovered is there are times that no matter how eloquent my words are, how lofty they may be, and feeling any emotion they may elicit within me, that doesn’t mean that those words or the way I am explaining something is going to make sense to you. It’s going to touch you. It may be that you’re looking for something and seeking and the way I say it or how I say it is not working. I’ve had this in classes that I’ve taught where I’ve come across, and I’m like, “That sounded good.” Only to look out to the sea of faces and they’re looking at me, my students, and they’ll explain their interpretation of what they heard.
The next thing I know, somebody across the table is jumping on it, going, “Yes.” Before we know, there has been sparked this connection all because someone brought their idea, their thought, their concept of what it is we’re talking about to life through their words. Someone else was able to hear because they shared. In presenting different guests to share their inward journey, it is my hope that one of them may touch you, the words they use, the story they share, their experiences might all of a sudden tap something in you that you’ve been searching for. If it doesn’t, that’s great too, but it affords an opportunity to hear and to experience this dynamic of turning within from various perspectives. I do this because I truly believe there is no one way that we all turn within, and we hit that place or connect with that sense of who we are. Those ways are as unique as each one of us. By reading about different people speaking and sharing, you’ll learn about them at different stages in their journey. It could be that they have been doing this internal work for a long time and the day that they interview, it’s been a rough day.
We get from that conversation this process of someone who’s been doing this work, this movement to learn and understand, and they’re facing a rough time. We feel that energy and how they’re working with it as a result of the experiences they’ve had on their journey as they’ve moved inward. You might connect with somebody who is fairly new, but they’re dedicated to that path, and still, it’s a path of uncertainty, but there’s something that’s calling them, and we’ll hear from them. You’ll hear from individuals who are spot on in their day, and everything feels like it’s flowing well, and you’ll feel and sense that. We’ll have speakers who are brand new to this journey who feel a compulsion to want to do more now. There’s something calling them.
You’ll hear from people who are truly masters in this, who have done their work. I call it work, it is work at times because it’s where we have to often intentionally decide that we’re going to turn inward for the guidance that we seek, the peace that we seek, the understanding, and it’s a decision. It is an intention. Therefore, sometimes it’s not an easy one. Sometimes I know there’ll be times I’ll look, and I can see myself struggling over a concept. One big one that I’ve been working on is how I want to express in the world. In my growth years, there was this part of me that wanted to feel that in order for me to have any significance at all, I needed to be in the business world because that’s where it was at.
No one else ever has the journey that you're walking. Click To TweetIt wasn’t that I didn’t mind the business world, it was that part of me didn’t know if I wanted to do that because I am a feeling, kinetic-oriented individual. I have a strong mind, but I’m also feeling oriented. Feelings didn’t have a place in business as I was growing up. So I felt alienated from that. It was like, “What can I bring,” when that’s often the way in which I engage with people? It’s what I work with, what am I picking up about them that’s not necessarily coming out of their mouth. What is their body language saying to me? All these little factors that are not necessarily easy to manipulate, therefore, they’re more real, where in our language we can manipulate the words that we use to convey something that we want people to think that we know or feel or are doing. It’s not necessarily the truth for us.
In that process I was making a decision about what to do, I was like at a crossroads. “Which way do I want to go?” I knew that there was a part of me, and this is where my internal work has helped me become aware, that was still working with that old idea. It’s a message that came out of my experiences, an interpretation that I gathered when I was young. It came up and I said, “This is what I see based upon all the ways of my understanding at that age,” and all of a sudden, I was like, “I have value. I have worth. Just because I don’t want to move in this direction doesn’t mean that what I had to bring to the world isn’t of value.” There was this little feisty part of me that was like, “I’m going to stand up and own who I am,” as different as that is, and have value in it. All of a sudden, there’s an opportunity to go into direction working and supporting women and other individuals in business by the honoring of their spiritual journey.
There’s a part of me too that’s like, “You’re moving along this path in your own business, and it feels good to you and it feels spot on and yet this old idea keeps coming up. What is this about?” As I got quiet and I moved within, I began a conversation with my internal guidance, what I call my higher wisdom self. I said, “This is what’s happening here.” I’m looking for some information and a sense of what’s happening. I began to explain to my wisdom self, not like my wisdom self doesn’t already know this, but I needed to process it in my mind. I realized how good it felt to be able to turn to that higher wisdom within myself and to own right where I was at in the journey, and the struggles that I was having in this process. I knew that as I was bringing this forth in this conversation, into this awareness within myself, that I was okay – that I was loved – that even in the conflict of all that was going on, that it was all right, it was okay. It felt affirming and validating to make the choice I was going to be making, because I was sharing within my mind. With my higher wisdom self, I was sharing this conflict.
Yes. I wanted to step out there, but I’m like, “What are you about, Rebecca? Is it about solely stepping out and making sure that you’re a success in the world according to this, from when you were small, or is it following this path that you’ve created?” An opportunity came around that I could do both. I’m thinking, “Am I circumventing? My mind went in a variety of different paths.” I thought, “Let me bring that out and say this is how I’m interpreting this. Let me not pretend to myself what’s going on. Let me state what I understand.” In the process, let me be open to the love that is helping me to move through it, to honor that it’s here, honor that is coming up. What do I have to gain from it? What is the gift in this that I can receive and use that I can create my life now?
It felt good to be able to have that opportunity. When I think about my journey, I remember in the beginning of this journey inward that I didn’t have a lot of faith and trust in that still small voice, in that higher wisdom. All I expected at the beginning of my journey was judgment. Even though I didn’t want judgment, that was what I was used to because in our outer world and the world we live in, a lot of it is built around judgment. It’s like, “How do I learn to let go of that?” Even to let go of judging the judgment, knowing it is what it is. How do I turn within and then allow myself to release the judgment so that I can hear and pay attention and take action on the things that are most meaningful to me.
It was amazing to realize that in my journey I’ve come a long way. Many of you don’t know the young girl I was, the teenager or the young woman and the struggles and the anger and the frustration and the intensity. It is amazing to me, the gentle, subtle shift because I can remember saying in my journey, “I’m not into having something slam me upside the head here. I’m interested in simple, progressive steps.” I was clear about that. Some people want the big rush. That’s great. Everybody’s journey is different. There’s no one way to approach our inward journey, there’s our way. Each of us have our way. The gift is in playing with that. What does that look like? How does it feel when I turn within? What is it that’s going to be most honoring to who I am and to what I am as I understand myself to be in this moment?
Show Guest: There’s nothing better as a teacher than the opportunity to witness an individual moving through their own experience of what we’re talking about.
The journey itself for me has brought me to a place to lay down whatever it is I would want to hide. and be there with it. and embrace it. and then open to it. There was another instance, there was a lot of intense movement. I’m sensitive to energy, that’s the best way I can put it, that the feeling that there was, was a feeling of intense movement, and I was feeling pressured, but with no real mental reason why. There was a lot going on. Even in the journey I have walked, learning to feel okay even if I’m not feeling okay. Letting myself be okay, opening up and allowing for something greater, whether I’m feeling great or whether I feel sucky, I‘m creating space for something else to unfold that will allow me to welcome love or to embrace it somehow in my life. I don’t have words to describe how meaningful it is for me now.
I bring different guests on so that as we move through this process, each of us on our own way, at whatever stage we are in our experience of it, we know that it’s okay. We know that we’re on a special journey, and it is special. No one else ever has the journey that you’re walking. We have similar things we can share and talk about. Whether it’s neat or it’s difficult, that it is unique and it’s awaiting our discovery. When people come and talk, they’re people who have moved through different experiences in their lives that have caused them to pause and look at themselves, and turn inward and share with people who want to know more. Guests share where they’re at, whether it is satisfying or dissatisfying, and what more this is in life for them.
That’s who I invite and who I bring to you so that you can witness the ways they are moving, how they’re making their lives better and how they’re honoring themselves. They talk about how they’re choosing in that moment to nurture and to live life in a way that has greater value and meaning, and joy and happiness for themselves. That’s why I invite guests on. It’s also more entertaining because you get to read about different perspectives. I hope that this has given you some perspective of the value that our stories have. It could be when you’re out there and somebody’s asking for your story that you may have the exact words someone needs to hear, even though someone who you consider to be much wiser than you has also shared the same thing in their story. Yet, your words are the ones they hear.
One of my teachers, in a place where I gained some training, was Mary Morrissey. Her program was called DreamBuilder. She was sharing a story about how she was at the United Nations and she was sitting on the dais with the Dalai Lama and several other spiritual leaders. She was there to talk about New Thought because it was identified as an American–oriented faith practice. She had gotten done listening to the Dalai Lama and they broke for lunch. She was in line talking to a woman who is the Ambassador to Africa. She was sharing what she heard, and they were dialoguing back and forth. While she was sharing, whatever it was that came out, touched the woman whom she was speaking to so deeply that Mary paused.
Everybody's journey is different. There's no one way to approach our inward journey; there's our way. Click To TweetIt was such a profound connection for the Ambassador that she couldn’t let Mary know strongly enough how meaningful that was for her. Mary looked at her and stated, “The Dalai Lama said that on stage.” The woman looked at her and told her, “I did not hear the Dalai Lama. I heard you.” That struck me when she shared that story because often, as each of us are moving through our journeys, we wonder the value that it is that we bring to life. We wonder the impact that we have by the words we use. We think that we have to be these advanced spiritual beings to have something of value to offer, when in fact who we are and what we are has value. What we get to learn is how to embrace that, how to experience that, and to understand that right where we are, we may have the words that someone else needs to hear what they can only hear from us. As you go out and you feel so called, trust that process, play with it, see what it feels like, explore the feelings that come up around it and then step forward in it.
That’s what these guests that I have are doing, they’re sharing their stories. Some of them are intimate. Some of them are private, and that they come forth to share them with you, never having done that before. I want to thank you for welcoming them. Thank you for listening to them. Thank you for honoring them, for acknowledging them as they share their stories in the hopes that as you walk your journey and that you’ll embrace it with greater fullness. From it, you’ll get that opportunity to experience the wonder of your own being and what it’s going to look like as you decide how you want to live that in the world. Until we meet again on our next episode. I wish you much success, much joy, much happiness. If there’s information that you want us to explore more on future episodes, let me know any thoughts. Thank you for the respect and the compassion you show those who come as visitors to share their stories. Enjoy your life. Let me celebrate with you its beauty and its magnificence. Here is to your life.