Curious about Evolving?
CJ and I were in a past life together. HA!
In this realm, we were in our 30s when we first worked together. He is the only person from that era that I have remained in contact with. Why? Because he has evolved into a fascinating spiritual man, dad, artist, author, teacher and so much more!
He refers to that as a merging of the selves and how creative intelligence must be present in our lives to create art and everything. Our conversation is centered on "The Art of..." and how mastery of any thing you do stops creativity.
Listen now and please share.
SIMPLY ORGANIC SOAP - sponsor link
Connect with CJ Miller in these ways:
The Spiritual Artist Podcast, link to episode on AI in art.
Instagram: cjmillerart, thespiritualartistpodcast
TikTok: spiritualartist123
YouTube: spiritualartist123
Facebook: @thespiritualartistpodcast
Christopher John Miller (CJ) considers himself a lifelong Spiritual learner. After being raised Catholic, he left that faith and sought a more personal connection to a Greater Power (God). Chris has formulated a personal relationship with this Great Power based on the premise that God is in everything, and it's each person's task to seek God within and without through the Creative Process. He's written the book, "The Spiritual Artist," which guides readers into a more precise state of connection and produces a podcast by the same name in which he interviews artists and spiritual thought leaders. In addition, CJ holds yearly Spiritual Art Retreats where consciousness and art-making combine.
Have you tried to stop a bad habit by going cold turkey?
That is hard.
Why? Because your conscious wants to and your subconscious likes the way it is.
The conscious mind is 10% of what we do each day, so that means the subconscious is 90%, so stopping a bad habit like drinking alcohol means access to that 90% . How? With hypnosis.
This is Part 2, EP 21, part 1 sets up how we get addicted in the first place.
My first hiking video - podcast. Let's see how this goes. If you want, please enjoy the Intro to this episode.
Part 1 talks about how we get addicting to those destructive behaviors. Part 2 will discuss how hypnosis can help stop the destructive cycle for good.
This is the first EP I have done outside in nature...a video too. So if you want to see my pocket prairie you can watch the video on Spotify, but if you are on Apple Podcast you will just hear the audio.
Let's see of how this goes...we learn from our mistakes and so I am anticipating lots of learning as we go from audio podcasts to the video/audio podcasts...seems like we are just going back to YouTube videos...there is something about just listening that is more imaginative and experiential. Spotify is calling the shots.
Nature the drug of choice and more specifically a human’s nature.
There is nothing more natural than what the hormone system of the body does, especially related to the hormonal changes during a woman’s 30-60s.
But rather than relaxing into it most women resist and dread those years of menopause, aging, and all that goes with that.
However, dreading and fearing only reinforce the neg effects as a self fulfilling prophecy especially when you add in the identification and association factors of what a woman’s mother and grandmother told her about Menopause.
Listen to our conversation about MENOPAUSE AND HYPNOSIS with Dr Kate Naumes, ND.
Dr. Naumes specializes in menstrual and hormone health for women, helping her clients live healthy, vibrant lives from preconception through menopausal stages. Her deep knowledge of the female hormonal journey enables her to create highly tailored and effective healthcare solutions that cater to her clients’ unique needs.
She holds a Doctorate in Naturopathy and a BA in Biochemistry, among other certifications, and is a highly trusted naturopathic doctor with over 16 years of experience.
CONNECT WITH VALERIE
https://linktr.ee/theflowcenter
CONNECT WITH DR KATE
https://linktr.ee/katenaumesnd
TAKE THE MENOPAUSE QUIZ
https://quiz.tryinteract.com/#/6526c288769da5001434049b
DR KATE'S BLOG-debunking the myths
https://naumesnd.com/menopause-signs-symptoms-and-debunking-the-myths/
READ 3 STUDIES ABOUT HOW HYPNOSIS HELPS WITH MENOPAUSE SYMPTOMS.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7097677/
https://news.web.baylor.edu/news/story/2023/managing-menopause-mind-body-solutions-hot-flashes-sleep-and-well-being
https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/women-autism-spectrum-disorder/202005/can-hypnotherapy-help-me-during-menopause
This is a deeply personal reflection on my career and the ways nature can nudge in a concept that is truly life-altering.
On the 61st year she rested...Listen to this shorter podcast to find out what I mean by that.
Today's Hypnotic Trip is with Peggy Pepper, creator of many things including Positive on Purpose.
"Every. single. thing, every person, every professional success or failure, every degree or certification I’ve worked for, every “holy-shit-what-was-I-thinking” moment, everyone I have ever loved or lost, every moment of glory and glitter, every disaster or atrocious tragedy I have survived…and learned to thrive through, every hour of mentoring and coaching, every seminar taken or book I’ve read, every turn of the cheek, every mountaintop climbed, every glaring mistake, all the jumps for joy and the big, ugly cries, every comfort I’ve given or received, all the major UH-OH’s and OH NO’s that have turned into AH-HA’s!!…have brought me to you to this very time." PP
Listen in as Valerie and Peggy share
-the transformational power of nature,
-the catch phrases they want to puke over hearing,
-mental living vs organic living,
-the disappointments of the ask and receive concept,
-toxic positivity and much more.
You can Subscribe to Peggy's newsletter and receive these free Downloads:
20 Positive Things to Start Doing in Your Relationships
6 Little Stories with Great Big Impact
7 Positive Decisions for Creating a Life to Love
https://www.positiveonpurpose.com/
Schedule a consultation with Valerie about hypnosis. https://dallashypnosisprograms.fullslate.com/
Please subscribe for future episodes and share this with your friends.
The way we met was a trip.
In this episode we talk to Ben Herman of Herman Hypnosis from Toronto about nature, the art of story telling, styles of hypnosis, ideometer responses, empowering statements, the history of the didgeridoo and what Bitter Laughter is an how it can help you.
You can connect with Ben here:
Herman Hypnosis
https://www.hermanhypnosis.ca/
https://www.instagram.com/hermanhypnosis/
Jeff Clardy loves nature and Zen meditation and words, put it all together and that spells for a meditative poetry reading in this episode.
Here are some of the references Valerie and Jeff mention in this show.
Poems by Jeff Clardy
A gentle rain dances
On the windows lure
Its peaceful tapping
Is delusions cure
A blackbird barks
It’s only word
A deeper zen
Is what is heard
Nothing here
As all has gone
In nature’s breath
And this moments song
--
It's quiet now
All thoughts are gone
All that's left
Is the morning birds song
So sweet this peace
This moment brings
When I choose to let go
The 10,000 things
Each breath is felt
Each song is heard
Everything is perfect
Without a word
--
Morning blossoms
From the songs of birds
Letting go the thoughts
So nothing is heard
Only that
Which forms this now
As stillness brings
The unanswered how
It's here my friends
The truth you seek
So silent your burden
So your soul can speak
For more, search Jeff Clardy on Facebook.
Zen Center in Dallas
https://www.mkzc.org/?fbclid=IwAR0kFIGqA4ihtQZ6YqKXVb9N-uxwu7tX6xe44ph_Pd7UMxEBEXUe4_S2pOg
How nature restores itself after the humans leave
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/chernobyl-disaster?fbclid=IwAR3HwuxoOr0QnbnSFUHuqUROsRnN5LzIqzhNnVQnvcDVzHJ33ul9zpXPt3g
George Carlin's bit about the earth and plastic and an interesting perspective on climate change
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7W33HRc1A6c
In Texas we sit at 600 feet above sea level, the summit where the lake is is about 11,400 feet. I can hike 10 miles in 100-degrees with no slowdown, but up that high, it turned out that I was the slow poke. The caboose. The last one, lagging behind about 100 yards short of breath.
I started to complain to myself about myself. I showed no mercy: “Come on! You can hike faster. They are going to think you are out of shape or worse hung over. “Why is this so hard, I thought I was in better shape. “Okay Val, you need to start hiking more.” (I had already hiked 80 miles in the month of July, which didn’t count waking the dog or other steps in the garden or the lugging of 40 pound bags of manure and building my green house in the middle of the day in 100 degree temperatures.) “I need to be in better shape.” I needed to justify why I needed to stop and catch my breath. No mercy.
Link to our sponsor Simply Organic Soap and the Simply Hypnotic Soap Bar, inspired by the hypnotic hiker.
Schedule a phone consultation with Valerie about hypnosis
The Sermon on the Mount by Emmet Fox
Sponsored in part by Simply Organic Soap, maker of plant based, organic soaps, lotion bars, salts and other bath products infused with essential oils to care for your skin and connect you with nature. Our Simply Hypnotic Soap was inspired by the Hypnotic Hiker! To take a bath on the wild side, ORDER HERE. Simply Organic Soap, made in Texas, follow them on Instagram and Facebook to stay up-to-date on all of their latest products and promotions.
What is an inner compass?
The inner compass is a set of basic instincts like those feelings you get in your stomach when you are about to face something unfamiliar. In some ways it is the way our body taps us on the shoulder to let us know how we feel about something. It then could create anxiety so we can have the energy to take action. So, noticing this and taking the appropriate action is an indication that your inner compass is working.
What are some other indications that your inner compass is set?
-hunch (tells you to call someone, to chose a different route)
-cravings for new healthy foods
-solid decision to commitment without being able to truly verbalize why
-knowing what to do to care for someone that is ill or in time of chaos
Books I referenced: Dance of the Moon; Spell of the Sensuous
Link to our sponsor Simply Organic Soap and the Simply Hypnotic Soap Bar, inspired by the hypnotic hiker.
Schedule a phone consultation with Valerie about hypnosis
Sponsored in part by Simply Organic Soap, maker of plant based, organic soaps, lotion bars, salts and other bath products infused with essential oils to care for your skin and connect you with nature. Our Simply Hypnotic Soap was inspired by the Hypnotic Hiker! To take a bath on the wild side, ORDER HERE. Simply Organic Soap, made in Texas.
HYPNOTIC TRIP: HOW TO CONNECT TO SPIRIT IN NATURE
Join me for Day Two of a hypnotic trip in the Wichita Mountains, at Mount Scott which is in the Wildlife Refuge in the state of Oklahoma.
Our first day in the area, we hiked alone in the snow, if you missed that, go back to EP 11, but this day bright and warmer and as temps rose and the snow and ice began to melt. The melting ice and snow was trickling down as we walked up the mountain, it was going down as we were doing up. It was not as profound as some of the babbling brooks running down the mountains in NM and CO, but the sound was mesmerizing.
It was new years day 2022. Because it was a clear, bright and warner day, There were more people out it was a holiday weekend and it was good to see folks in nature, getting exercise in spite of the low temperature, it was warmer, but still in the high 30s.
There’s not a foot trail up mount scott, but you can walk up, bike up or drive up on the paved road, there were no cars today because of the icy patches, so we “walked” up on a asphalt surface (felt like cheating) it was challenging still due to a mighty wind and patches of ice, so not a walk in the park, the elevation is 2464’.
Many of the trees had lost their branches due to the weight of the ice which is a heads up reminder while hiking…those branches could do some damage if they fell on or near you.
Near the peak, I sat down on a very large flat rock to take in the expansive view, the brisk air felt energizing and there was a sense that the melting snow was nourishing the soil and the sound of the snow melting was restorative to me. Maybe because it was a new day and a new year, there was a promising positive energy in the air, resilient yet relaxing.
Link to our sponsor Simply Organic Soap and the Simply Hypnotic Soap Bar, inspired by the hypnotic hiker.
Schedule a phone consultation with Valerie about hypnosis
The Sermon on the Mount by Emmet Fox
Sponsored in part by Simply Organic Soap, maker of plant based, organic soaps, lotion bars, salts and other bath products infused with essential oils to care for your skin and connect you with nature. Our Simply Hypnotic Soap was inspired by the Hypnotic Hiker! To take a bath on the wild side, ORDER HERE. Simply Organic Soap, made in Texas, follow them on Instagram and Facebook to stay up-to-date on all of their latest products and promotions.
What does it mean to “stay in your own nature”? To allow nature to guide you? To be a free range human? In this episode, we learn from a blind chicken how to live independently and develop new skills, innovate and thrive…isn’t that what life is?
Dr. Victoria Alexander is the author of Free Range Humans, published by Springer in 2021. She and her husband live on a 5 acre farm in upstate New York where they grow vegetables, raise sheep and chickens in a semiotic way allowing animals and plants to work with them for the best outcome for all. In the end it is less work on the humans to let the plants and animals assist and quite often come up with a solution to a problem.
Her extensive research in the field of complex systems sciences found that intelligence is not a top down system but distributed throughout the entire system.
People are learning the benefits of free range stock and Dr Alexander believes we need to apply the same idea to humans. Let them learn from mistakes, not be ordered to do something, to be creative again and perform satisfying work.
We also discuss the lack of a natural reward system in the modern world which pushes us to find the rewards in unnatural and less satisfying ways.
The more artificial we and the foods we eat become, the less satisfying life will be. We will be stuck in a loop, like rats in a cage. How do we stop the cycle? By returning to our nature, which is linked to the natural world.
To return to nature, you could, grow a plant, plant a tree in your yard, create a kitchen window herb garden, plant a garden, get a couple of hens, shop at a farmers market and shake the hand of the farmer or rancher, hike outdoors regularly, go outside at night and see the stars. Reconnect with your true nature.
Alexander is also a philosopher of science, author of The Biologist’s Mistress: Rethinking Self-Organization in Art, Literature and Nature. She is a Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center alum, former Public Scholar for the New York Council for the Humanities, and 2020 Fulbright Scholar at the Digital Humanities Lab at ITMO University in St Petersburg, Russia. She is a member of the Third Way of Evolution group and her work in saltational evolutionary theory appears in Fine Lines: Nabokov’s Scientific Art, published by Yale University Press, which has received much praise from major international publications.
RESOURCES:
Read the full paper: Free Range Humans
Read all of her work at her website.
Listen to the Ranching Reboot show featuring Dr. Victoria Alexander "Even a Blind Chicken"
Today’s HYPNOTIC trip happens at The Wichita Mountains near Lawton, Oklahoma where it snowed the night before. Now, I wasn’t expecting the snow and so I was not thinking right that morning when I saw it. Because it would interfere with my plans to hike.
Maybe you can relate:
I was on a mission. We drove from Dallas to Lawton to get footage for a video I was producing and the snow was going to ruin it. I am tellin’ ya…I can thrown off.
I was trying to roll with it but in the back of my mind the snow was really throwing off what MY PRECONCEIVED idea about what this hypnotic trip was about. And what is funny was the show was about Positive Thinking. Ha! Talk about being caught off guard. There’s a lesson in this, stay with me.
Link to our sponsor Simply Organic Soap and the Simply Hypnotic Soap Bar, inspired by the hypnotic hiker.
Schedule a phone consultation with Valerie about hypnosis
The Sermon on the Mount by Emmet Fox
Sponsored in part by Simply Organic Soap, maker of plant based, organic soaps, lotion bars, salts and other bath products infused with essential oils to care for your skin and connect you with nature. Our Simply Hypnotic Soap was inspired by the Hypnotic Hiker! To take a bath on the wild side, ORDER HERE. Simply Organic Soap, made in Texas, follow them on Instagram and Facebook to stay up-to-date on all of their latest products and promotions.
You are here to bring joy into someone’s life, to improve our natural world, to create jobs, to develop a new product, to write an inspirational book, to teach, or to preach. You have gifts, connect to them, our world needs everyone fully present and actively participating in creating joy, fulfillment, purpose, and satisfaction in our lives.
Be intentional in your desire to know your purpose and allow it ideas to naturally be revealed to you.
To connect to your purpose, or way of living a more purposeful feeling life, is to spend time in nature every day or at least each week. When outside focus on the intention you desire and ask the question, “If I knew why I was here on this earth, it would be to ________.” The answer will come to.
A reading of On The Nature of Things by Lucretius. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alkCQIy-yXE
There is a CD volume read by Hugh Ross which is much more pleasant to listen to...he has a great English accent. ;)
Link to our sponsor Simply Organic Soap and the Simply Hypnotic Soap Bar, inspired by me.
The Flow Center - schedule phone consultation with Valerie
Sponsored in part by Simply Organic Soap, maker of plant based, organic soaps, lotion bars, salts and other bath products infused with essential oils to care for your skin and connect you with nature. Our Simply Hypnotic Soap was inspired by the Hypnotic Hiker! To take a bath on the wild side, ORDER HERE. Simply Organic Soap, made in Texas, follow them on Instagram and Facebook to stay up-to-date on all of their latest products and promotions.
The title of this novel by Amy Smiley is a hint at the hidden world of the subconscious mind. Psychotherapist, writer, and former Professor of French Literature Amy Smiley talked with host Valerie Grimes about her novel Hiking Underground and the authors love affair with the natural world.
I wasn’t expecting to feel the way I did reading Amy’s description of the natural world. Usually I prefer experiencing nature in real time and in the real world. I was swept away by the wonders of the child character (Adam) and his mother Emma’s relationship with the natural world and each other. The book was like having a love affair with nature. Valerie Grimes
SHOW RESOURCES:
Get Your Copy of Hiking Underground from Atmosphere Press
Other outlets are Barnes and Nobel Books, Bookshop and Indiebound
Images of Breakneck Ridge Trail in New York, one of Amy's favorite places to hike.
Dactyl Book Review by VN Alexander
Podcast Theme Music by David Karsten Daniels
More about Valerie Grimes and Hypnotic Hiking at HypnoticTrip.com
This episode is about hearing the True Voice over the voice of the Shadow Self.
Your True Voice is a combination of your natural instincts + confidence + creativity + fun - what a powerful combination. Finding Your True Voice Can…is REAL self empowerment. By speaking from your true voice you are able to stand up for yourself, stand firm in your ideas and state your opinions or suggestions without fear or anxiety.
Your true voice is your “unaffected voice” the voice of your soul or you absolute best self. This is as opposed to the voice of your shadow or adapted self that most people are speaking through (without their even knowing it).
What does that voice tell you to do or not to do?
If you are plagued with consistent negative messages it is time to get out of your head and into your heart. There is a short meditation at the end of this show
Link to our sponsor Simply Organic Soap and the Simply Hypnotic Soap Bar, inspired by me.
The Flow Center - schedule phone consultation with Valerie
Sponsored in part by Simply Organic Soap, maker of plant based, organic soaps, lotion bars, salts and other bath products infused with essential oils to care for your skin and connect you with nature. Our Simply Hypnotic Soap was inspired by the Hypnotic Hiker! To take a bath on the wild side, ORDER HERE. Simply Organic Soap, made in Texas, follow them on Instagram and Facebook to stay up-to-date on all of their latest products and promotions.
In this exercise you will practice deep self communication.
Use the power of your mind to stimulate your imagination and increase your self awareness. You will travel through the Rainbow Garden awakening many levels of human experience and come to know yourself in completeness. Colors of the rainbow mirror the chakric system.
This is a hypnosis recording, DO NOT DRIVE while listening, or listen while someone else is driving.
This trips starts with a question, a rather personal one….
How does God (or source, the great one, or the universe) speak to you? Is it through prayer, through others, through nature, or other ways? My experience has been mostly in nature as I had to step away for the Religious God and step out into nature.
From that experience I know that when we take our questions or our troubles out in nature, the natural world has a way of sparking an idea or unveiling an insight. Is this universal communication? The subconscious mind? God? If it helps, does the source really matter?
All that matters is that we start on the trail with an intention to relieve a heavy heart or a scrambled brain and end the hike with a feeling of lightness and clarity or inspiration.
As a hypnotist I recognized that phenomenon is similar to what occurs in the subconscious mind during a hypnosis session. That is because hypnosis and hiking create similar states of mind called trance. More about that later.
Speaking of phenomenon. Check out Devils Tower National Monument, what a geological wonder.
Link to our sponsor Simply Organic Soap and the Simply Hypnotic Soap Bar, inspired by me.
The Flow Center - schedule phone consultation with Valerie
Sponsored in part by Simply Organic Soap, maker of plant based, organic soaps, lotion bars, salts and other bath products infused with essential oils to care for your skin and connect you with nature. Our Simply Hypnotic Soap was inspired by the Hypnotic Hiker! To take a bath on the wild side, ORDER HERE. Simply Organic Soap, made in Texas, follow them on Instagram and Facebook to stay up-to-date on all of their latest products and promotions.
Simply Put: Anxiety is anxiety
This episode actually began in my hiking notebook from a solo 2014 Appalachian Trail hike (spoiler alert, I did not do the whole thing). I started at the north end…but not the final end end. Rather I jumped on in Kent, CT on August 11. My goal was 3 nights or approx 30 miles.
My sister dropped me off at 10 am. The first leg has uphill, welcome to the AT! It took me 7.5 hours to go 8 miles. Not bad considering the elevations and the weight of my pack. I set up camp that night at “10 mile river camp”, still in Kent, it is funny how you can walk all day and be in the same city but 8 hours of driving you could be 3 states away in the east.
I did a check:
Mentally OK
Physically Good
Emotionally Flat
Why am I not thrilled and excited? I was nervous about sleeping alone with bears.
It was physically challenging, lots of ups and downs, large rocks and several streams, got to collect water from one of them, that was exciting. I bathed in the stream at the new camp. The river provided a constant sound of rushing water. It was lovely. Dusk was here. Bears? I wondered. I wonder if there is anyone at the nearby shelter? I wondered this until it was dark and I was in my bag in my tent…the thought of a bear wouldn’t leave me. GO! I grabbed my gear, along with the assembled tent and nearly ran (in the dark) and found 3 thru hikers camped there at the AT shelter. I had to go back to “10 mile camp” in the morning to get my food that was suspended in a tree. Listen to the rest of the story....
Link to an anxiety reducing hypnosis recording by Valerie Grimes, audio talent.
Learn more about Blue Zones here https://www.bluezones.com/
Link to our sponsor Simply Organic Soap and the Simply Hypnotic Soap Bar, inspired by me.
The Flow Center - schedule phone consultation with Valerie
Sponsored in part by Simply Organic Soap, maker of plant based, organic soaps, lotion bars, salts and other bath products infused with essential oils to care for your skin and connect you with nature. Our Simply Hypnotic Soap was inspired by the Hypnotic Hiker! To take a bath on the wild side, ORDER HERE. Simply Organic Soap, made in Texas, follow them on Instagram and Facebook to stay up-to-date on all of their latest products and promotions.