Heart of Herbs Herbal School Podcast
Welcome to the Heart of Herbs Herbal School Podcast, with Demetria Clark.
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Heart of Herbs Herbal School Podcast
Soul Spark Awakening: Heathir Brown's Journey through Craniosacral Therapy and Community Healing
Discover the transformative world of healing as we sit down with the extraordinary Heathir Brown, a master of blending craniosacral therapy, Reiki, and sound healing. Heather shares fascinating insights into connecting with what she calls the "soul spark," and how she tailors her sessions to each client's unique needs. From soothing a frazzled nervous system to reclaiming depleted energy, Heathir’s compassionate methods create a safe haven for holistic healing. Her unique approach even extends to ancestral healing, where she senses the supportive presence of ancestors, lifting burdens and fostering deep emotional relief.
Uncover how the integration of craniosacral therapy and Reiki forms a powerful duo, bringing balance to the energy body—especially vital for those in caregiving roles. Listen as Heathir, and I share personal stories of how these practices have reshaped our understanding of energy work, making it accessible and relatable. We unravel societal misconceptions about energy healing, illustrating its transformative potential through real client experiences and everyday applications that might just spark your interest in exploring these modalities.
In moments of crisis, the strength of a community shines brightly. Heathir's dedication to providing free healing sessions for disaster victims highlights the incredible power of collective support and kindness. From sound baths to simple acts of everyday generosity, we explore how communities come together, offering solace and healing. As the episode winds down, we reflect on the simple joys of relaxation and companionship, leaving listeners with a warm reminder of the small moments that weave joy and healing into our lives.
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Hi, this is Demetria Clark and this is the Heart of Herbs Herbal School Podcast, and today we are talking with someone who's really inspiring to me and when I say that, that means that one. I just think she's an inspiring human being, but also, whenever I see any of her social media or the way she talks about healing, it makes me want to fly to California and get a session with her, because it's the way that she blends things and the way that you can just feel her intention and her integrity when she's working is just so inspiring. So today we're talking to Heather Brown and she is going to tell us about her unique blending of healing practices to make well, why don't you take it away?
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely so. I have several modalities and sometimes when people say, what do you do, it's a really tricky question because it's if I name the practice that I do or the modality I'm going to be like explaining for a really long time. But the core of what I do is tuning in with my client to their inner wisdom, that you know, if you want to call it a higher self, but that part of them that's just always been like there, like that soul spark, and getting the guidance from that of where do we need to go in this healing journey. And so for that I blend in craniosacral therapy, that I blend in craniosacral therapy which I'll explain what that is Reiki and then some sound healing, and so I'm using instruments, I'm using touch, we're working with the physical body, the energy body and everybody.
Speaker 2:Each session, even with the same person, will be completely different because what they are ready for and need on one day might be different than another day, and so we're tuning into that. And the type of healing really depends again on where they're at on their journey and what they need. So for some people they might just have a very dysregulated nervous system, be super stressed out, maybe have some chronic pain and they're going to need more holding and gentleness and just feeling safe. And maybe they've never felt safe before, and so that might be where we start, where someone else. Maybe they just broke up with somebody and they want their energy back and they're not feeling like themselves anymore and that's going to be a more active session.
Speaker 2:And then a beautiful thing that started evolving over the past year actually was ancestral healing, and this was something where I really will feel the energy of their ancestors coming in and helping lift heavy things that they've been carrying, and so it's been like I didn't even know that was possible, and then there it is happening, and that's kind of how this whole journey that I've been on has gone of. Like I learned a modality and I'm like, okay, I'm doing the thing, and then I'm like, oh, but what's that? What's this other thing I feel? And so it's just, I don't know. It's very interesting, like to me, like I get excited about, you know, transformation and people, and you know, dimitri, I started off in birth work, which transition was my favorite part of labor every time. So I'm like, well, this makes sense.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think it's funny because I think that you touched on something that I think is really important. It's like, I think, with healing well one the first thing you said about sometimes that's like the first time you can help someone feel safe, right, whoa, that's incredible, especially right now, I think a lot of people are trying to figure out where their safety net is in the world, so the fact that that you can work on that with someone just is completely mind blowing and I love that. But then, another thing that I was just thinking when you were saying that is that the modalities sometimes call to you. It's like I know for myself, like I didn't like set off, being like hey, when I grow up, I'm going to work with herbs or whatever, right, it was just like they kept slapping me in the face and then that was like oh okay, you don't really have a choice, right. But I think that it's.
Speaker 1:It's just cool that if I feel like, as I've watched your career progress, I feel like, as I've watched your career progress from the outside, it's like these forms of healing like are scooping you in and I feel like you're one of these rare people that has the kind of energy that really facilitates healing. Does that make sense, like you know? So I just love that you are, you know, talking about that. So what is craniosacral therapy?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so craniosacral therapy is working with the craniosacral system, which is from the occipital, the back of the head, the bone of the back of the head and, you know, cranium. So we've got our head, that's the cranial part.
Speaker 2:And then all the way down the spine to the sacrum and in that we've got the nervous system and we've got cerebral spinal fluid flowing and so the craniosacral rhythm is the movement of the cerebral spinal fluid and in, let's say, someone who's a healthy, adult person, it has a certain rhythm to it and it's flowing and in the body you will notice, if you put, you can palpate it. It's very, very, very subtle, but it is there. You could palpate your own, if you even like are listening, palpate it. It's very, very, very subtle, but it is there. You could palpate your own, if you even, like, are listening and you want to put your hands on your thighs and kind of feel along the spine. It's going to be kind of an upward, downward motion and then in the limbs they're going to rotate out to the side. So like your arms are going to rotate out to the side and I'm obviously exaggerating If you are watching the video part your legs are going to rotate out to the side. So when you're palpating it on your legs you're feeling a slight rotation and that's through the fascia. So we have the connective tissue all through our body and so when the fascia is holding any tension it can affect that craniosacral system because it's kind of pulling. So it'd be like if we had a tablecloth and I like set a heavy rock on part of it, it's going to like affect the rest of the tablecloth and you could close your eyes, probably, and pull a little bit on that tablecloth and tell me where the rock was. You could be like, oh yeah, it's's over to the left, like I feel that. So part of what I'm doing is palpating the fascia to say where's that stuckness in the system? And so when the cerebral spinal fluid, when the craniosacral rhythm is all working beautifully, it's nourishing the central nervous system and helping that support the rest of your body.
Speaker 2:So if you look up craniosacral, it'll tell you that it helps so many different things. You know, like you're like that's not possible, like how could it help autism? How could it help also chronic pain? And you know, like all this other stuff. And the reason is because it's it's supporting the central nervous system and it's helping your body go into a self healing state.
Speaker 2:So the belief is that your body is self healing, but sometimes it needs a little support in order to do that. It can get stuck, yeah, so it's just, it's so wonderful how it can do that. And it's just finding the parts that are stuck in you like maybe it's something emotional, maybe it's something physical, maybe it's even stress, and then just holding that part. It's a really gentle touch holding and then just inviting it like hey, did you want to let go? And we just follow the tissue so that it's not, it's not leading. Like when I'm facilitating, I'm really just listening, I'm as neutral as I possibly could be, and then the body just kind of unwinds and starts doing it, which is my favorite part about it.
Speaker 1:So it's like massage from the inside. Instead of the massage therapist massaging the person, the person is massaging themselves energetically.
Speaker 2:Is that?
Speaker 1:what it's more like, for I mean, is that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean it's, it's like, it's like it sounds like it's a release.
Speaker 2:It is definitely a release. Sometimes emotions can come out too, and it's just like taking that part that was storing whatever heaviness, whether it was like a physical thing or an emotional thing. It's like just witnessing it, like hey, what's here right now? And so there's an aspect of craniosacral therapy called somato emotional release. So somato is like just releasing those emotions in the body, because the body will say, wow, I'm going through a lot right now. I don't have the emotional capacity to even figure this out. A lot of things like that happened to us when we were children and we just didn't know how to even tell an adult what was going on. Or they would just say go to your room.
Speaker 1:You know like I'll give you something to cry about, yeah you're fine.
Speaker 2:So then the body went okay, well, let me just store this in the shoulder, Let me just store this in the lower back. And so what you'll find is, when you go and hold those points, that emotion will come out and it might not match. You may even kind of remember like, oh, I fell off my bike but it wasn't that big of a deal, you know, but at the moment you at five, it was a huge deal and you couldn't.
Speaker 1:You were going to die and you couldn't. You were going to fall guy mode right.
Speaker 2:Exactly, and so for that out of the body, and then that helps release old stories like no one's here for me or you know, I don't matter, and so like there's other stuff tied in it as well, and that's why every session is so different, because we don't really know what's. I mean, we know what happened to us and it's not like we are remembering things we didn't know happened, but we didn't think they were that big of a deal sometimes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they might be put them away long enough that they are not allowed to be a big deal anymore.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. Or you wouldn't believe how many people start remembering like their ex boyfriend from high school and they're like who wasn't very nice and they're like what I thought it was so over him. Why am I thinking about this? And it's like, well, because you kind of shoved it away and went oh, okay, here I go again.
Speaker 1:Oh, wow, yeah, I mean I imagine. So one of the great things, I think, is that you, you get to, you get to witness people going through all of that, but you also get to witness them coming out on the other side of something and coming back to you and because this can be something that is, you know a few sessions, right, like so you get to work with people as they go through it and yeah. So my other question is a lot of people don't know what Reiki is, and so how do you combine Reiki with this?
Speaker 1:I think Reiki is great and I remember when I was learning Reiki, I got my sister to take the class with me and we were both bawling, just really bawling at one point, like just bawling, and I think like sometimes, um, when you have like a shared experience with someone, right, and then you're both going through it, it you know what the other one's thinking about or feeling, you know.
Speaker 1:So I think, that was, but I've always really like that was always something that reminded me how powerful Reiki is. You know, as I go through and and you know I would do it with my kids and stuff like that and and clients sometimes sometimes but Reiki is really really powerful and I don't think I mean we see more that like um, I think it's like Mayo Clinic and places like that are incorporating Reiki and therapeutic touch into different kinds of healing um, you know, around cancer and stuff like that. But Reiki is something that's really powerful and it's always so weird to me that more people don't know what it is Because, literally, you know, mommas do Reiki all day long with their kids without even thinking about it.
Speaker 2:You know what I mean.
Speaker 1:But it's like such a powerful thing. So can you explain to people how you use Reiki in your practice and what Reiki is for you?
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely so. For me, when I started doing the craniosacral, I was feeling other things that were not being discussed in my craniosacral classes. So I was feeling energy, body, basically, and we were talking about, you know, the fascia, the tissue and the cranial bones, and those are great. But I was like, yeah, but what's this other thing? Like, what is that? And so then I had a partner that I was in the class with who started doing some Reiki during the cranial treatment, and then he was like, oh, sorry, I know we're not supposed to be doing that. And I was like, no, no, no wait, what was that called? Because I didn't, you know, and I'd heard the term Reiki.
Speaker 2:But I just was like oh, I don't know what that is, like I'm not paying attention to it, and again it kind of called to me like hey, you're feeling this and here it is, and this is what it's called. And so for me, the way that I use it now is if I'm doing distance work with someone, like if I was tuning in with you now, like Reiki doesn't care if we're in the same room or not, and so I would start using that to listen to your inner wisdom, to tune in, to see what's going on. I'm like trying to stop myself right now, because when I talk about it I immediately like but and then in person, if I have, like I was saying, we kind of hold the body and in the craniosacral and I'm feeling into what's going on, and I might feel something that's a little stuck and I feel the body wants to move. It wants to move it, but it just kind of can't, and it might be that the person is just so depleted Like, especially if I work with people who are like caregivers, kind people who just give everything to everybody else, I will feel into their energy, body, and so this is where, like, we've got our physical body and then we've got our energy body and you know they are intertwined, but for the sake of this conversation we'll separate them. And so, feeling into the energy body, they're so depleted I'm like no wonder your body can't do what it needs to do.
Speaker 2:You have just given like I'm feeling your energy, going out to your kids and going out to your clients and going out till you know, like the whole entire world and everywhere but you, and so that's where starting to fill it with reiki, which is is this universal energy. We all have access to it. If you talk to some trainers, they will say you need to be attuned in order to connect to it. I'm going to tell you that that's like teaching you how to use your radio. You could connect to it anytime, you probably already are and the attunement is more like teaching you how to feel it, how to sense it, how to notice it, and just like amplifying that awareness.
Speaker 2:But it's a universal energy that's always available. You can call it in and then it's like just kind of cranks up the volume on whatever you need and it follows your intention. So if my intention is to give this person a little boost of energy because they're really depleted, I'll start with that, and then I'll notice that, oh, the tissues are moving in my hands now because they have a little extra energy, and then the next step of that would be calling their own energy back to them, because that's really what they need. But I teach my clients how to you know Reiki themselves, and it's it's really like anybody can do it. You just wherever, if you're you know, if you think about, like if your kid fell and hit their knee, you might put your hands on their knee and comfort them right, like you bandage it up and you put your hands there Like that's Reiki.
Speaker 1:It's, you know, sending love to your kids from afar.
Speaker 2:That's yeah, exactly, kids are off at college. I'm like, oh yeah, that's right, I send them Reiki. I like send Reiki into their apartment, like. But it's, it's this universal energy that is available, it's this like pure, loving energy. There's nothing like tangled up and bad about it, you know, and I think it's not really that mysterious. It's just it's that in our society we don't talk about the energy body, like we're like, oh yeah, like we sing the head, shoulders, knees and toes, like we've got a physical body, and we don't talk about the energy body. But it's there too, and so Reiki is a way and it's, it's really fun.
Speaker 1:We make fun of the energy body you know like oh good. Vibes. Or you know we make fun of you know our culture has a long history of making fun of. You know our culture has a long history of making fun of people acknowledging the energy around them you know, yeah, um, you see it in tv shows and books and airy fairy. You know we make fun of that, so it's really interesting that to me, that you know, saying that you know and acknowledging that to people like we've all got it know, this isn't this isn't some unique thing that only the certain chosen few have the force, you know?
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, it's there. And I think it's like also thinking about when we're feeling stressed and overwhelmed, how much of other people's stuff is in our energy body and like. One example that I can think of was I had a client who came in and she was like I am normally the happiest, most joyful person. That's just my personality, that's who I am, and I am depressed and I have no reason why I'm depressed and it just came over me, no reason why I'm depressed, and it just came over me. And when I tuned into her energy body, I literally like without making this story super long I started like see, sometimes I'll see images like in my head, like like you're dreaming, or if I said apple right now, you can imagine an apple. So I'm seeing these images and I'm telling her then and we realize these images are all related to her mother-in-law, who is a very depressed person and who she had been hanging out with a month before and then the depression came. So she was.
Speaker 2:She took that all of her mother-in-law's energy and then she was one of those care caregiving people, so her own energy wasn't really, it was pretty far out from her body. So the depression mother-in-law energy was. So we scooped that out, cleared it away and like brought herself back in and literally like she texted me like the next week. She's like, oh my gosh, I feel amazing. I mean, because she felt good after she left. She's like, well, well, let's see if this sticks right. Yeah, yeah, that's always the question like was that placebo? What was that? And then she's like, no, I feel like me, like yeah, and so she had to see her mother-in-law like six months later.
Speaker 2:I know it was, it was it's like, but it just shows like how it's like. If you you aren't feeling like you, it might be because you actually need to clear your energy.
Speaker 1:Well, it's funny because, as parents, when our kids are struggling, I think a lot of parents pull in that energy and either they're trying to figure out what's going on with their kid or they're just being affected by it, whatever the reason. And you have to sometimes be like okay, wait a second, I am not an angsty 16 year old boy. Yeah, I need to clear it out and figure out what's going on, but yeah, I can imagine that, um, there are people in our lives that can really bust into our energy field and really like mess with us. Yeah, they're not doing it on purpose, but you know, it's just a different kind of personality. And oh, I'm glad she was feeling better week later.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I think still feeling because she knew it wasn't her. She's like this is not me. She's like I know some people just have, you know, different moods. She's like that that's not who I am and like what's going on.
Speaker 1:She must have felt under attack.
Speaker 2:Yeah, she was just very confused by it. And then I think her friend like referred her to me She'd never heard of, she didn't even know what I did. She's just like my friends had to come see you, you could help yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, I mean to be honest that is the best way to find someone who can help is someone telling us who loves us and trust us. So I can imagine you get a lot of referrals that way.
Speaker 2:Because it will happen Like you have.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you have the personality of a safe healing place to rest. I can imagine that people really feel that with you. So my other question is how do you include sound baths? I love sound. You may think it's mostly the sound of my own voice, but I do. I do love. I love music, I love sound, love sound. I think that music and sound has more to do with our happiness and our well-being than a lot of things that we come in contact with, and people used to joke that my children didn't know what my speaking voice sounded like, because I would be like mama's little baby, you know, just all day long, right and so. But I think like music is like, so important and sound. So what is a sound bath?
Speaker 2:yeah, so a sound bath is you're not in the water although you could be, I guess but you're usually laying on a yoga mat, if you think of, like the end of yoga class, you, you're laying on your mat, typically, you're laying down and you're being bathed in sound waves, basically that vibration. And so when I you can do it with really any instrument, but I typically use crystal singing bowls. So what those are is they are these bowls that are made out of quartz, but really it's silica sand. They're like 99% silica sand. They get poured into a mold and they're tuned to certain notes and those notes actually match.
Speaker 2:If we talk about the energy body, if anyone's familiar with chakras or you've heard of, like, I've got my root chakra, I've got my crown chakra, so each of those have a note to them. So your root is a C, your, you know, your heart is an F, and so when they're playing the bulls, or when I'm playing the bulls, I'm thinking about that as well as. So it's like it's less about does this sound cool and more about what do I? What's my goal here? And so if I'm wanting to relax somebody's nervous system, then you're starting to play a harmony of sounds and just really drop somebody in. And what's really cool is that those instruments start to do some entrainment with the brain. So the brain is maybe a little stressed out, the heart beats maybe fast. You're coming in from your day and so as you're laying there, those bowls are played in a way, and other instruments too.
Speaker 2:But usually most people start with the bowls to start calming your nervous system and putting your brain into a theta wave state. So theta wave is that space where we're kind of almost asleep, sort of dreamy meditation as a theta wave state. So if you're like my mind is so busy I can't meditate, this will take you into that state, even if your mind's kind of going places, it'll start to. It'll start to slow and calm, and so that's the magic of those bowls and there's ways to play it so that you're really bringing people, you know, dropping them into their body and then dropping them into that, um, calm, creative space. That is the theta wave space. And then, once they're in that space, they go down into this layer that I like to call the bliss layer.
Speaker 2:If you know anything about the koshas, it's like there's this layer of bliss and that's when they'll start to bring out other instruments. So I'll bring out maybe a shaker and I'm also because I, you know, understand energy and Reiki I'm using that during the sound bath as well to tune in. So maybe I'll feel that, oh, this person has like a blockage at their throat chakra, like I can just feel it, and so I'll take a shaker like a little chime. I wish I had them with me right now, I would use them, but I'm not at my office today. But I would shake that maybe over their throat and then they'll start coughing and you'll be like, okay, we've moved that energy or you know, it could be a blockage maybe lower.
Speaker 2:You know, if you're working with new moms, maybe it's sacral that you know womb space and so using it there, drumming, so I use a lot of different instruments and it's kind of intuitively what I'm feeling, like, oh, I need like something sparky or I need something like grounding and so like the drum sometimes can be played really quick and, like you know, bring things up. But a lot of times if you play it slowly and you really put the drum right over their body, that whole vibration goes in and then they're like, oh, I'm safe, like you just get that feeling or things can release. So there's there's lots of different instruments, but it's the point of it is that you are tuning into the person who's laying on the floor what do they need today? And you're playing it for them. So I'm not coming in with like a set idea of how I'm going to play it, unless I knew kind of what they were wanting.
Speaker 2:Like, if they're wanting to, get into a creative space versus if they're wanting to relax their nervous system. But it's not like there's no music sheets.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, it sounds like it's very intuitive.
Speaker 2:And then you would like this part because some people who are not me because my voice I only sing for myself and maybe my family, but, like some people, will sing notes with the bowls as they play and it sounds like angels singing. It's like amazing.
Speaker 1:I like to sing. I didn't say I was good at it, I don't care anymore.
Speaker 2:I used to care. Now I'm like I don't care, just give me.
Speaker 1:You know, give me a whiskey and I'll be good. But I mean, that's awesome. That sounds so relaxed, okay, so first of all, before I go into how relaxing it sounds, how do people contact you?
Speaker 2:How do people contact me? So I am based in West LA and I also do virtual although the virtual sessions are more energy work than anything and I have a website that is heatherbrowncom, and Heather is spelled with an IR, so it's H-E-A-T-H-I-R, browncom, and then on Instagram I'm just Heather Brown as well, with the IR. I have to be confusing. So, yeah, it would be like I do answer my DMs, as long as you're not scamming.
Speaker 1:As long as there aren't any pictures, we're good.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't want any. No, no, no. But yeah. So Heather Brown on Instagram, and then heatherbrowncom, and I also do offer like free discovery calls that do not have a script. I hate those, you know, when you do the discovery call they're like I can't.
Speaker 2:So the discovery call is literally just a 15 to 20 minute call where you can ask me whatever you want to ask me. Like I yeah, that's how I do it, cause it's like working in this kind of way with people like you need a good fit. Like you know, I used to be a doula. I always tell people like interview like three or four, like see, we're going to go into the depths of things. So for like see, we're gonna go into the depths of things, so let's make sure we want to do that together, and that you know it's yeah, so anyway, that's how people contact me. It's just reaching out on my website they can book a discovery call or on instagram I love that and I do that.
Speaker 1:You don't have a scripted discovery. Call everyone's like oh, you'd make so much more money if you did the. And I'm like I. I literally can't function that way. Hi, my name is. How can I help you? I mean, I just can't do it, I'm not yeah some people do it really well.
Speaker 2:I just, I just can't, so I yeah, no, and I used to do like when I was, like in college, I had a like a sales job that I did, so I like I know how to do that, but I'm like no, I don't want you to work with me. If you don't want to work with me, like, let's not do that.
Speaker 1:Like, let's not have a problem from the beginning.
Speaker 2:No, and then I was also gonna say real quick I do also have a podcast that I only have like five or six episodes for, because I don't update it, but it's called the impact playground and it's for highly sensitive people and it's got guided meditations in it and there's no ads. I kind of made it for my clients and then it's on there for anybody, but it lets you kind of learn how to understand your own energy body. So if you're someone who's like, oh I do have my mother in law and how do I get rid of it, that podcast kind of touches on stuff you can do yourself.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, I'm not saying that's personal, no, but I think that's so cool. I didn't know that you had a podcast. You'll have to make sure you send us a link so we can put it in the show bio. Okay, because I think a lot of people would find that really helpful. Now um off to like another kind of subject.
Speaker 1:I know that you have been doing different things with groups and you've been doing things um post california fires and how has that work been for you? That has got got to be really hard work, and so first of all, I want to thank you for doing it, because you know when the when it hits the fan, it's good to know there's people who are there on the healing side. So I just wanted to say thank you. I mean, we have I have relatives that are out in that area and friends, and so you know you always worry about how people are doing, so it's always nice to know that there's something good people out there to help them. Sorry, I'm going to start blubbering here in a second, so I'm not going to do that. So why don't you tell us a little bit about what you've been doing in reference to that kind of work, if you don't mind?
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, it was like, thankfully I I was close to where the fire was but I was safe. I didn't have to evacuate. I had a go bag but never had to use it, and so I was just kind of witnessing. Like I think, when these things happen, like the first thought is like, well, how can I help? Like what can I do to help? And I was hearing from everybody that, which is of cool, the centers for volunteering, for, like you know, sorting donations and things like that. There was a line out the door to volunteer. If you needed help you could just go in and that wasn't a line. But there were people just waiting to volunteer and like getting turned away because they had so many and going to another center and, like someone said, they drove around for like three hours just trying to figure out where to go to help. So like I'm hearing that and going like, okay, so that's, that's covered, right. And then it's like well, you know, I have a specific set of skills that can be helpful and in this situation, and it's not those immediate needs obviously we have our hierarchy of needs and like, but the food and the shelter and the clothing, like all those things were getting taken care of. Um, thankfully, I mean la, stepped up. Like it was incredible how the people just kind of like just took care of each other. Um, that was beautiful.
Speaker 2:And so I had this thought of like, okay, well, I could do sessions for people who've lost their home and like, again, we, if we go back to what we talked about earlier, of like whatever stress and things that you're going through that you don't have time to like move store in the body. And so my thought was like I can't, you know, fix everything, because obviously they're still going through this crisis, but if we can move some of it out of their body, it's going to make it a little easier for them to like file their insurance paperwork and do the things they have to do. And so so I've had a few people who've come in who have lost their home, and I'm just doing free sessions for them, like about an hour long. And then the other piece was I was like I want to do something for the community, like that anybody could come. And so I am part of a group that's on. It's like a Facebook group, like West Side Ladies. It's a free group.
Speaker 2:And I was talking to the lady Brandy Culver who runs that, and I was like you know, I can do a sound bath, but like I don't know where to do it because my office is really small I can only fit like six people max. And so she was she's like community organizer. So she was like I'm going to figure this out. So she found a coffee shop that was like in Santa Monica or Venice and kind of around there, and basically they gave us a free space to use when their coffee shop closed for the night and we did, they just opened the doors and people could come in and we did a sound bath. And again it was like just anybody who wanted to come could come.
Speaker 2:And the idea around the sound bath, my intention was just like regulating the nervous system and letting people just release whatever they needed to release if they needed to cry during the sound bath, that they needed to fall asleep or just however they needed to be, and just I think it was really beautiful because at the end, like it wasn't just about the sound bath, it was all these people going through this collective experience. Some of them had lost their homes, some of them just had been through all the you know alerts for the last week and the fear of maybe I'm evacuating, maybe not, and afterwards I was just like just turn and you know, say hi to your neighbor, and they ended up just chatting to each other Like they didn't even know each other, and then everybody was talking and just like having little conversations, of connection, and I think that in those times, you know, we're all in our homes and we're like so isolated or we might be online, but I think there's a lot of like just fear dumping online, and this was like you're sitting with a person who can see you and like you can just really be however you are. And I think that was one of the person who can see you and like you can just really be however you are. And I think that was one of the pieces. And so from that, I did another sound bath. That was at a hotel that some people who had evacuated were staying and we um, one of my clients knew them. They were like families who actually lived in the Palisades and like went to a school, and so she knew them from that community.
Speaker 2:So I'm just, I think it's just my way of volunteering because I'm like I have the skill, I have the time. Let me just do something, and it's not going to fix all of it, but if I can move out some of that stress out of their body, it's just going to, like long term, you know, make them not be like, oh, why do I feel sick, like next year or whatever, you know, yeah, and I think it was just beautiful that it wasn't just me doing that. Right, like there were other healers stepping up, like everyone was kind of whatever skill they had, like showing up with it, and if anyone's listening to this, and they did lose their home, like I'm not putting an expiration date on that, so if they reach out to me, like we can do a session whenever they're ready, cause I know some people were like not ready to go get on a table and do that kind of thing. They're just doing survival, especially if they have little kids, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, survival, especially if you have little kids, you know, yeah, survival, survival, yeah yeah, wow. Well, I do know that one of the things that's really incredible about human beings is that if we choose, we can really show up for each other. We really can, regardless of what, what is out there online. We we definitely can, we can show up for each other and I love that. I mean, when I saw that you were doing that kind of stuff, I mean first of all I was like, of course, she is like that's just you, right, um, and I don't know if that's like the doula on you or the you that became the doula, like whatever you know, like, but but but I do think that I do think it's inspiring, I think it's beautiful, I think it's kind and I think we need a lot more kindness in the world. I think we need a lot more people who focus on being kind and I love that that you were able to, you know, do that with your community. I don't know if that makes any sense.
Speaker 2:It does make sense. It does make sense and I think it's like it's easy to think that the world's not kind if we look at certain things and I think what, especially like LA, has this like reputation of like everyone's out for themselves and they're in it for you know, like, and when you know things hit the fan. That wasn't the case. Everybody would. I mean, maybe maybe some of them were taking some selfies while they were volunteering.
Speaker 2:I don't know, know, but like but they were doing it, they were showing up they were helping and I think like, yeah, like the kindness I also feel, like a lot of people are like oh well, I don't know how to help, and I think really, that was this feeling of what could I do, what could I do, and with everybody, like we can just tune into, like what do you love to do? What lights you up? Like maybe you love to bake, maybe you love to, like you know, sing.
Speaker 1:Because they're always welcome, right or whatever yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, cause there's like thing can be a helpful thing and just sharing that kindness, cause I think some of it isn't even about like how much did that help. Like maybe you bake like some muffins and bring them to somebody who's going through a hard time, like that means a lot, just to oh my gosh, you cared enough about me to like think about baking me muffins. You know like it's just it's easy to do and it's easy to think. It doesn't matter too.
Speaker 2:You know like yeah yeah, but it's I don't know. But yeah, we definitely need everybody to show up. Be kind, yeah.
Speaker 1:I agree. I remember. So when the flooding happened in North Carolina, my oldest son went and he was doing some of the volunteer stuff, some of the volunteer stuff, and he was saying that a lot of it was people. You know, people weren't thinking about what needs to be done, it was more like oh, I'll bring a bunch of my used clothes, you know, and he's like, and they're turning stuff like that away. And then he said that he's noticed the conversation was changing from the very beginning when he went out towards like.
Speaker 1:You know, a few weeks later, you know, it was more like so what are you good at? Like, what tools can you use, like, so even even the people who are trying to coordinate things were trying to find, like your special. You like what? Yeah, you know. And so I think if you go into it like, okay, I can, I can bake 1000 muffins, you know. I can do that with my you know, my eyes shut, or I'm really good at, you know, doing wash, you know. So I'll volunteer to help and wash my neighbor's clothes or whatever you know. I think that that's something that we can be mindful of when we go into those situations. Not, you know, what am I good at and situations not you know, what am I good at? And and am I good at just doing what I'm asked? So if you're not going to be able to do the job, then don't don't go, don't don't take, and that sounds so mean, that's not what I'm trying to say, but um yeah.
Speaker 1:I think you understand what I'm trying to say. Yeah, yeah, check your ego. You don't need to save anybody. Get in there and you know dig holes if you've got to.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, absolutely, because it's like, yeah, and maybe the thing that you have isn't needed yet, but you also can do this other thing and and yeah, I get what you're saying.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, it wasn't doing a very good job describing it, so thank you for understanding. Yeah, so do you have any events or anything planned for this coming year, or are you just gonna work so I, things are happening and I don't know what they are yet and that's kind of exciting.
Speaker 2:So in my whole thing of just kind of going down the rabbit hole of oh what's this, oh what's that Is, I have some new things that I'm learning and so I'm going to probably start some virtual offerings for those. But I'm actually learning. I'm becoming a Kundalini activation facilitator. So that's a whole other conversation, but it's comes down to we all have this innate intelligent energy within us. Everybody does and it's about sending kind of like, amplifying that and awakening that in a very gentle way.
Speaker 2:So sometimes Kundalini sounds like whoa, this is, this is a softer version of it, but it's really beautiful at just clearing out the old and it's usually the sessions can be held online on zoom and you're listening to music and you're laying in your space and you're just moving and crying and doing whatever you need to do. And so I'm in the middle of that right now. So that will be coming out probably this summer, but I'm just letting it organically unfold. I'm going through the training right now. So I'm I'm going through all of the, all of the clearing. Oh cool, it's been very interesting. I'm like laughing one day, crying the next just moving a lot of stuff.
Speaker 1:I deal with that too, but I think it's perimenopause. There's that as well, you know.
Speaker 2:What's interesting, though, is when I've learned about the Kundalini and even like, sometimes the energy will like burn up like a hot flash, like a lot of it matches the symptoms of perimenopause, which makes me very curious, because they say that it starts to awaken when you're older and I'm like so are we all just clearing? I don't know. Um, I'm liking that. That'll be a whole other conversation later, but it's something I've been pondering.
Speaker 1:All right, we'll have to have you on when you're doing that, so you can share more of that with us?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I have that coming up, but for now mostly I'm just working one-to-one with people, and sometimes it's a one-off session, sometimes it's more like you know, six sessions. I'm doing a little bit of mentorship for people who kind of are wanting to blend their healing modalities, but it's all like it's not a one size fits all. It's kind of like we hop on a discovery call, we figure out what we want to do, or we do a session and then we say, okay, now what?
Speaker 1:So, yeah, oh, I love that. How cool. Well, thank you so much for being here. Now it's heatherbrowncom H-E-A-T-H-I-R-B-R-O-W-N. Everybody, that is how you can connect with Heather. Definitely do so. Um, there's, there are people out there who, um, have skills and have all this education, and then there's people like Heather who have the skills, have the education, but also has the right intent and energy, and I would be like totally at her office on a regular basis in California because of just, you've got some like common juju about you. You know, you're just, I don't know how to say it, but anyways, so definitely check Heather out. Thank you so much for being here today. Thank you, really appreciate it today.
Speaker 2:Thank you for having me Really appreciate it.
Speaker 1:And guys, listen, I fell asleep in the tub and I was late to our call and my hair is still wet, so that tells you what a professional I am. And Heather was so kind to me. I was like 15 minutes late. I was like, oh my gosh, she's going to think I'm such a flake. I just just I don't know.
Speaker 1:The tub was warm, it's a really good bath it was. I was just like, and then I was like oh my gosh, I almost never do that, so it was really. It was perfect, though, because it was you, because you can just your being, can make people feel safe and relaxed, so I was anticipating feeling, feeling nice and comfy. You're just like warming up for it.
Speaker 2:You're like okay, let me just you know I had some music on. I was like, anyway, that sounds great. I mean, you know it's a, it's it's a Saturday, so like, or well, today that we're recording it.
Speaker 1:So I think it's like that's kind of vibe for that anyway.
Speaker 2:So like or today that we're recording it. So I think it's like that's kind of the vibe for that anyway, so yes definitely, definitely, so.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much for being with us today. I really appreciate it. Thank you.
Speaker 2:Thanks for having me. This was so fun. All right, you have a great day, thanks.
Speaker 1:Okay, bye.
