The Quiet Warrior Podcast with Serena Low

59. Conversations with a Witch: Embracing Slow Living and Feminine Wisdom with Eileen March

• Serena Low, Introvert Coach for Quiet Achievers and Quiet Warriors

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This episode is a must-listen for anyone interested in spiritual growth, the power of intuition, and the wisdom of slow living. Whether you're an introvert looking for more rest and harmony to counter a frantic, fast-paced life, or simply curious about the relevance and significance of a 'witch' in contemporary culture, Eileen March offers valuable insights and practical advice for living a balanced and fulfilling life.


Key Topics Discussed:

  1. Introduction to Eileen March:
    • Eileen's background as a midwife and her journey to becoming a spiritual life coach and energy healer.
    • The concept of slow living and how it ties into Eileen's work with introverts and sensitive individuals.
    • Eileen discusses her personal experience with introversion and how she supports her clients in navigating a world not designed for introverts.

  2. Reclaiming the Title of 'Witch':
    • Eileen explains what it means to be a "slow living witch" in contemporary times.
    • The historical context of witchcraft and its association with wise women and community caretakers.
    • The impact of the "witch wound" on women today and how it stems from historical events like the burning times in Europe.

  3. The Balance of Feminine and Masculine Energies:
    • A discussion on the importance of balancing feminine and masculine energies within ourselves and society.
    • The shift towards reclaiming feminine wisdom and power, and its implications for modern life.

  4. The Role of Intuition:
    • Eileen talks about the significance of intuition in her work and how it helps individuals connect with their inner wisdom.
    • The science behind intuition and its connection to the subconscious mind.

  5. Respecting Nature and Embracing Symbiosis:
    • A deep dive into the concept of humans as an integral part of nature, rather than separate from it.
    • The importance of moving towards a more symbiotic relationship with the natural world, drawing inspiration from indigenous practices.

  6. Creating a Balanced World:
    • Eileen's vision of a balanced world where diverse perspectives are honored, and humans remember their connection to the earth.
    • The concept of being "good ancestors" and leaving a healthy planet for future generations.


Key Quotes:

  • "The term 'witch' for me is synonymous with wise woman, knowledge keeper, and midwife. It's about connection to nature and the wisdom that lives in our bones."

  • "Intuition is almost like a superpower; it helps us tap into the immense amount of wisdom and knowing that we hold in our own bodies."


Resources:

  • Rest is Resistance: A Manifesto by Tricia Hersey - A book that argues rest is a form of resistance and a reclaiming of power.

  • Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer - A book discussing the symbiotic relationship between humans and nature.


Connect with Eileen March:


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This episode was edited by Aura House Productions

Speaker 1:

Hi, I'm Serena Loh. If you're used to hearing that introverts are shy, anxious, antisocial and lack good communication and leadership skills, then this podcast is for you. You're about to fall in love with the calm, introspective and profound person that you are. Discover what's fun, unique and powerful about being an introvert, and how to make the elegant transition from quiet achiever to quiet warrior in your life and work anytime you want, in more ways than you imagined possible Welcome. Welcome to another episode of the Quiet Warrior podcast. Today I have someone who says she's not really an introvert but she's got some very interesting philosophies and approaches to introversion because she works with a lot of introverted clients. So welcome, eileen March, to the Quiet Warrior podcast.

Speaker 2:

Thank you so much for having me, Serena. It's a pleasure to be here.

Speaker 1:

Thank you as well. I'm really curious. I remember when we first connected, you told me something about yourself and introversion. What was that?

Speaker 2:

Oh, let's think what was that? I grew up very shy and for a lot of years I thought that I was an introvert. My mom thought that I was an introvert as well because I was so shy. And as I got older and got more comfortable in my own skin and with who I was, I realized that I am not an introvert really. But I have so, so much empathy for people who are introverts in a world that's really not set up for them. Really, there's a lot of, you know, a lot of emphasis on being outgoing and social and with the crowds, and I know that that can put so much strain on somebody who really needs that downtime and alone time to recharge.

Speaker 1:

So how did you come to do the work that you do?

Speaker 2:

The work that I do. So I am, as we chatted when we connected earlier. I mentioned I am a spiritual life coach, an energy healer and a slow living witch, which I think really ties into that introversion piece for your listeners, that slow living part of what I do. And my road here was quite winding. I was a midwife for many years and I was reaching the point of burnout. It is a really taxing career, especially here in Canada. It is a really taxing career, especially here in Canada. It involves a lot of being on call for long stretches of time for a fairly significant client load.

Speaker 2:

And while I loved the work I loved supporting and empowering my clients to trust their intuition, to trust their bodies, to have those positive pregnancy, birth and postpartum journeys I knew I couldn't sustain it and so I actually kind of stumbled into a coaching program During COVID.

Speaker 2:

I was looking for something to do that wasn't just work and a friend of mine was taking a coaching program through an organization called the Center for Applied Neuroscience in Toronto, canada, and it sounded like great self-development, personal development, and so I applied and was accepted into the program and quickly found myself thinking about all the ways that coaching overlapped with what I was already doing in terms of supporting people and empowering people, and I started to think that maybe I could make a career out of this instead of being on call, at the same time where another midwife who had worked in Calgary, where I live, had started her own energy healing school Basically, it's a year-long mentorship program after she burnt out from the profession. There's a theme and I decided to dive into that as well and so, coming out of it, I've really created this really unique blend of coaching with energy healing work that I now use to support women primarily, and to support them to come home to their bodies and their intuition and to trust themselves and to slow down and rest.

Speaker 1:

I can hear all the different elements that are so necessary for the well-being, I think, of women as well as men, in a very chaotic and very uncertain environment.

Speaker 1:

And it certainly feels like in the last four years life has accelerated in ways that are not very healthy for us and so we had that period of lockdowns where actually a lot of people felt relieved and I know introverts did because they were given official permission to go into their own little bubble and take a break from the hectic routine of life and people really enjoyed that.

Speaker 1:

And I noticed also that from conversations with fellow introverts that some of them didn't really want to come back out of that bubble and engage with the community. To come back out of that bubble and engage with the community and what you're saying there is, you know from your background of intensively supporting women through a very vital part of their life experience where their emotions will be heightened you know hormones and adjustment to this new phase of life but at the same time you were doing it at the cost of your own well-being physical, mental, emotional, I imagine from all those long shifts and from a very demanding kind of role. So now you call yourself a slow living witch and I'm very curious about that word and your conscious use of that word. What does that word mean to you? What is a witch in these current times?

Speaker 2:

word. What does that word mean to you? What is a witch in these current times? Yeah, certainly. I'm glad you asked that, because when I initially thought about claiming that title for myself, or when I first did claim the title, my mom was like, can you use a different word? And I think for her it still conjures that very stereotypical, you know, evil cackling woman on a broom with green skin, and it's so far from the truth of what witchcraft means to me and means to so many women who are reclaiming the title. And so the term witch for me is synonymous in a lot of ways with wise woman or knowledge keeper, or midwife is definitely another word.

Speaker 2:

Midwives were kind of one of the original witches. They were often the women with the knowledge of the herbs that would help the community. They were community hubs. They had lots of power and sway because they held the knowledge and the wisdom. And so that is for for me, what I bring forward through witchcraft. So it's a connection to nature. For me, it's a real belief that every body on this earth, whether they are human bodies, plant or animal or even rock bodies, are, are animate and equally deserve our attention and care. And so it's yeah, it's a space of magic and care and a return to the wisdom that lives in our bones.

Speaker 1:

I love the way you've explained that. It sounds like coming home to our roots. So how did the stereotype of witches and our perception of them, how did that come about?

Speaker 2:

Old white dudes. How many times do we have that for an answer? But really it was.

Speaker 2:

The solidification of, or rather the vilification of, witches really happened during what's called the burning times in Europe, back in the kind of 15th 16th centuries, when the church wanted to consolidate power, and to do so they had to take power away from the people in society.

Speaker 2:

Who had the power, which was women, and the church wanted to give the power to land owners. Until that point, land was communally held, and so, in order to control the population, they had to remove their ability to care for themselves, and so taking away the people. It wasn't just women, it was primarily women in mainland Europe, though in places like Iceland, it was actually primarily men who were targeted as witches, interestingly enough, but they really weaponized people against each other by having it, be that knowing too much or knowing the herbs to use to treat a fever was suddenly well, that's, only God can do that, and so creating this demonization of the witches meant that the people no longer had the knowledge and the community hubs that they once did. It turned women against each other. That's where we get this witch wound. The distrust between women has come down to us over so many generations. But it was really. It was a power grab, much like capitalism is often a power grab these days.

Speaker 1:

And so that goes to who controls the narrative, who has the power to change the story, and then, if you keep telling your version of the story enough times, it sticks, and I guess that's how the generational witch wound comes about, when one particular group is vilified over time. Yeah, yeah, and it's interesting to see how that narrative has woven itself into culture, to popular culture, as in those were the stories we grew up with. Fairy tales, disney movies, the portrayal of certain people are the good ones, the heroes, and certain ones are the villains and they look a certain way, and it's wonderful to see that. You know, perhaps in the last 10 years or so, you know, the narrative has started to shift and now people are claiming you know a different point of view, which is very refreshing and it makes you think, it makes you question. You know the kinds of stories we've grown up with.

Speaker 1:

What if somebody else was the hero instead? And I did notice this as my girls were growing up too. Some of their books that they started reading had a very interesting, more feminist kind of approach. You know where the girl is the hero, but in a very unusual way, not quite an expected way, and there's something quirky about her. There's something you know she's not part of the majority, the popular group, and she actually has been singled out or even bullied perhaps, but then manages to turn that around and assert herself in a very healthy, very wholesome way. So it was interesting to watch that trend starting.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah, there's definitely a culture shift happening towards a reclamation of some of that stereotypically feminine wisdom or power. Often. Often, we think about femininity as being weak or soft or, you know, gentle, all of those things. But if we think about the creative power of the female sex and the strength that is required, there's flexibility, but it's powerful to tap into that side of our energies, and I believe that everybody encompasses both feminine and masculine energies and ways of moving in the world. And the reclamation of the feminine, the sacred feminine we can call it, is not in order to overcome the masculine. It's to find balance again, because we've really lost that balance in our society for the last many hundred years. There's been a real push towards that more masculine, analytical, critical, rational and of course, we have toxic masculinity as well, being such a big part of our culture. So it's really interesting to be living in the time where the shift is happening, where we might possibly get a taste of a little bit more of a balanced world while we're still here.

Speaker 1:

Two questions I want to ask you for what you've just shared. What is, in your view, a balanced world?

Speaker 2:

I think it's one where we honor a variety of opinion and understandings of truth. I think it's one where we spend a lot more time listening than speaking generally, in a broad sense, I also really believe that it's one where humans finally remember because it's something we've forgotten that we are no less a part of nature than every other living and non-living entity on this earth. We aren't separate from or above or outside of the natural rhythms of this planet we find ourselves on. We are very much an intricate part of it and again we have this Western philosophy tradition that started back with Aristotle, that started to remove us from the natural world, but we are of the natural world. So balance has to come back to a remembering and a respecting of the rest of the earth.

Speaker 1:

Does respecting include caretaking and stewardship, because those terms also imply that we are slightly superior. So you know, perhaps I don't know if this is a Western philosophy, or perhaps it's from a religious point of view, but the idea that humans, being at the apex of creation, would therefore then also have the responsibility to take care of Earth and its resources.

Speaker 2:

I would be very cautious treading in that kind of language, because it really does. Again, it sets us apart from the rest of the natural world. I think we have a responsibility to not take more than we need, for instance, you know, exploitive, extractive processes that are required for our very linear upward progress or idea of progress, and I do think that we have a bit of a responsibility to mend some of the harms we've done. But more often than not, our attempts to steward or to fix actually make the problem worse.

Speaker 1:

Often, the best thing we can do is reduce our harmful practices and step back and let nature do its thing, because it's really wise so this is a new twist on the saying of letting nature take its course, because I think we have developed that other reaction, the other end of the spectrum, which is that we try to control everything. We make the decisions we, we think we know best, and so we're constantly solving, fixing, rearranging, and then changing the order, the natural order of things, and then dealing with consequences and then cleaning up the messes. And then it sounds to me like what you're saying is, if we leave nature well alone, nature knows what to do.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and we get to be part of nature. I think there's a lot of wisdom to be found from Indigenous traditions and ways of being in the world, and when you think about the example that springs to my mind is the book called Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer, and one of the chapters in there she talks about how, without the Indigenous populations harvesting and tending to the sweetgrass, the sweetgrass doesn't grow Because it was in a symbiotic relationship with those humans who thinned it, who allowed it to continue to flourish because of that thinning. And we think about other animals that have those same impacts in their niches on the planet. And so it's not about removing ourselves to be a bubble and not impacting nature. It's about how do we move in more of a symbiotic relationship with nature, remembering that we're a part of it.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, You're really getting me to think in a very different way here and now that you mention it, the Aboriginal peoples and the First Nations in Australia have always known how to take without taking too much, and how to put back and how to restore, and so the word that comes to mind is harmony. If we say that we are part of nature and part of the natural world, what we are doing is consciously living such that all of us can coexist, all of us can thrive. We're not taking too much, we are noticing, observing what others need, and we're very carefully making sure that we leave things just as healthy as before we came.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it's almost the sense of being good ancestors, so that there's enough for those who come after us, whether they're human kin or animal kin or plant kin.

Speaker 1:

Yes, yes, and I did notice that you work very much with teaching women to lean into their intuition, and I can imagine that that would have been so helpful in your previous career, but also currently, when we function so much, as you say, from a very logical rational, you know, always thinking about how to fix things, how to make things better, but more from a very clinical perspective sometimes. So how does leaning into intuition help with that?

Speaker 2:

In so many ways. As you were forming that question, the thing that popped right to my mind was this knowledge that we have that only about 2% of our reactions, our behaviors, everything that we do in the world is mediated by our conscious brain, and 98% of it is being dictated by our subconscious and it lives in our body. And so tapping into intuition is almost like a superpower. It helps us to. Often it feels like receiving information or guidance from outside of ourselves, and it could be, and that could be where your belief lies. But if that is a bit too woo and out there for you, it also is this sense of oh no, we're tapping into the immense amount of wisdom and knowing that we hold in our own bodies and our own brains and allowing that to give us different perspectives, to give us new insight and to potentially point us in a direction. That is more true to us.

Speaker 2:

When we're in our thinking brain all the time, analyzing, making, making pro-con lists, all of that stuff, we forget to listen to what we truly want or truly need. And so, tuning in and learning to feel safe, listening to your intuition how to hear it? Even so, many people don't even know. So many people don't even know, and then learning to trust it in the face of a culture that has told you for centuries that it's not real knowledge, that it can't be trusted, that it shouldn't be trusted.

Speaker 2:

These are some of the really deep work that I do with my clients, and it's such a beautiful process walking with women Again, I'd be happy to walk with men through this journey too, but I primarily seem to attract female clients. But as they come home to their bodies, as they start to recognize the wisdom that lies there and as they start to really trust it, the whole way that they move in the world starts to shift. The way that it feels to be a human on this earth alive, starts to soften. In a way there's an ease that comes with it.

Speaker 1:

I love that. The word that stood out for me was trust, and I think we've lost a lot of that Trust with ourselves, trust in other people, trust in the world, trust that life is here to support us and that divine knowing or intelligence or wisdom that comes to us. As you said, it's a gift, it's something we receive, it's not something we have to strain ourselves to go looking for. For me, it comes sometimes like a divine download. You know just a word or oh, go ring this person or reach out to that person or do that thing. I find that when that happens and when I allow myself to go with it, to follow that flow and get curious and like, oh, I wonder where this is leading me. Let me just say yes, and then you know, let's see what happens next. And there's always something magical that follows Connecting with the right person at the right time. The right book pops up a phrase, you know, some bit of wisdom or some forgotten memory or something just drops in, and it's always the right thing.

Speaker 1:

And that's how, for me, I've learned to trust by trusting first and simply. I guess it's a bit like when you're swimming, when you allow yourself to float as opposed to straining really hard because you think you're going to drown, but you think the water's not going to be able to support your weight and so you fight and then you end up really sore because you've overexerted when there wasn't really a need to, because the water is designed to help you float, but it needs trust, and I know this personally from my swimming lessons. When I don't trust, I drop, I sink right, but when I allow the water to support me, that's when I enjoy the sensation of floating. So that has been very helpful for me as an analogy for understanding what trust is about. And I've noticed a lot of us, consciously, unconsciously, we strain more than we need to because we have forgotten how to trust.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah, it's true. And what I love about the way you described following your intuition and trusting your intuition is the examples you were giving, for the most part, were low stakes, and that's something that I often will encourage my clients to practice with. Right oh, I should call this person, you know it's a friend. Okay, well, what's the harm, right, when we start to trust our intuition in those ways like, oh, this book is calling to me, what's the harm in picking it up? Trust our intuition in those ways like, oh, this book is calling to me. What's the harm in picking it up?

Speaker 2:

And you might find out the magic, the thread that's there, when we've spent our lives disconnected from our intuition or not trusting it, finding safe places to start practicing, trusting it, to experience that magic, to increase the trust so that when it might pop its little like head up in a more high stakes situation, you have that foundation of trust so you can go. Oh, like everybody's saying, go over here. But I know I need to go this other direction and I'm going to and I love that you mentioned it as a scale, as something progressive.

Speaker 1:

It's something we develop and we need to feel safe, like you mentioned it as a scale, as something progressive. It's something we develop and we need to feel safe, like you mentioned before, and that increases safety. When we can trust ourselves with the little things, we start to think perhaps next time I can trust myself with something bigger, with a bigger decision, something that is a bit more high stakes, I can go there and I'll be okay.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah, exactly, baby steps.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, you've mentioned also helping people to live in alignment with their energetic cycles. Tell me more about that.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah, I used to call myself a cyclical living guide, but it's a bit of a mouthful so I took it out of my title. It's a bit of a mouthful, so I took it out of my title, but basically the premise, or that part of my work I really lean into. Again, coming back to this point I made about us being part of nature, we have cyclical energies and they are mirrored in the energies of the earth as well, and so one of the most beautiful permissions I found as I started to move into this work was the permission of rest in the winter and this sense of the seasons and the the natural world showing us how we can ebb and flow throughout our lives. Again, our world, the way that our capitalistic society is built, is very much on like a man's hormonal cycle, really. It's this 24 hour peaks at the beginning of the day, energy drops towards the end of the day. We sleep, we get up, we do it again, but it's very consistent. Day to day to day Doesn't mean that men don't have ebbs and flows. They're impacted by the seasons, by life events, by the moon, but women, especially like biological females in menstruating bodies, but women, especially like biological females in menstruating bodies have this 28-ish day cycle of hormonal changes. That means that we ebb and flow, our energy ebbs and flows, the types of activities that our brain is most suited to changes throughout our cycle, and then that's mirrored on that larger scale by the seasonal energetics as well, and I think it's interesting.

Speaker 2:

I was speaking to somebody recently who also works with the wheel of the year that's what we call the seasonal calendar that I follow and she was saying, or she described it as a society that is in perpetual spring and summer.

Speaker 2:

We plant the seeds, the plants are grown, we harvest. We plant the seeds, we harvest, we plant the seeds, the plants are grown, we harvest, we plant the seeds, we harvest, we plant the seeds, we harvest, but we never leave time for the autumn, where we look around and see what needs to be cut back, to fall to the ground, to lie under the snow and become compost and fertilize the soil as we rest for the next spring, when we're in a season of perpetual harvest. The earth can't sustain that. We've dumped so many chemical fertilizers on fields to try to sustain perpetual harvests and we're reaping the consequences of that now and our bodies are the same way. We can't always be in spring and summer. We need to have our inner autumns and our inner winters in order to assess what's not working. Let it fall, rest, recuperate and then move into spring. After that restful period.

Speaker 1:

I would say that in this conversation that has already enriched me on so many levels that what you just shared there stands out as the biggest gem and epiphany for me today the idea that we are in perpetual spring and summer.

Speaker 1:

I don't know how, I've not thought of it that way, but yes, I think we all intuitively know that there is something wrong with the way we live way.

Speaker 1:

But yes, I think we all intuitively know that there is something wrong with the way we live and that is why people are pushing back and that is why working from home, being flexible, that awareness around that, having experienced that, we know how good that is for our souls and for our mental well-being. And yet the predominant recommended way of working in a corporate environment is still that you need to show up, and I do understand of working, you know, in a corporate environment is still that you need to show up. And I do understand, of course, that there are jobs where you know being location, you know present, is very essential to the role. But for those where there is an option, there is still that pressure to be somewhere for a fixed period of time and constantly reporting in and the, the KPIs and the idea of constantly being producing. I always have to produce, I have to have billable hours, I have my KPIs. I need to meet all these targets and I'm measured. I'm constantly measured by that.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that word producing I'm glad you mentioned it, because even rest has almost been co-opted by this productivity culture. You know that. I've seen the slogan and the hashtag. You know rest is productive and the idea of taking rest in order to be more productive just rubs me the wrong way. In order to be more productive just rubs me the wrong way. And it's something that I work with my clients a lot around, because there's a lot of guilt when we rest, we don't feel like we've earned it, we're not worthy of rest because we haven't accomplished enough or produced enough. And the reality is that each of us deserves rest innately, simply for existing. You don't have to do or produce anything. And, yes, good rest and it doesn't have to be sleep to be restful but good rest may mean that after your rest you are more productive, but that's not the goal of rest. But that's not the goal of rest.

Speaker 1:

The goal of rest is to be present and to be in your body and to be well. It sounds to me like rest is actually a human right.

Speaker 2:

Yes, yes, it is. Yeah, there's an American author, her name is Tricia Hersey, and she wrote a book. It's a manifesto, called Rest is Resistance, and it's wonderful. If any of your listeners are into reading, I would highly recommend that one. It's easy to read, it's short but it's powerful.

Speaker 1:

That will be two book references you've shared today which we will put in the show notes for people that want to check them out. So thank you for those. So the idea so rest is resistance. Rest is a human right. We rest because we need it as humans. We don't have to earn it. We don't have to make enough money before our rest is justified. And growing up I remember I never saw my grandma actually sit down and have a rest other than the occasional nap here and there. She was always doing and busy about the house and I grew up with the idea that rest was for the lazy, yeah, that you have to be really sick to rest, you know.

Speaker 1:

And I remember this got so bad that even when I was working full-time as a lawyer, I remember there were times when I had to take myself off to the doctor to get a medical certificate for a very valid reason. But in the minutes, while I was sitting in the waiting room waiting to see the doctor, I kept going over in my head what my symptoms were so that I could articulate them properly to the doctor, so the doctor wouldn't think I was faking it, and that I was justified in having that medical certificate and I was justified in not working that day.

Speaker 2:

How crazy is that, yeah it's so common and how inhumane our corporate world is that we can't simply believe a human when they say they're unwell and need time.

Speaker 2:

And it's appalling with the information that we have, the studies we have too that show that when we treat adult humans as people who are capable of making autonomous decisions, deciding how much and when they work and all of those things taking as many sick days as they need or want and leave days that those companies that treat their employees like that they have better output Like. The end result is actually more productivity, better employee retention, all of that. And it's interesting that we actually see companies that are led by women. So, having women in the C-suites, they actually outperform companies that are led by men pretty much universally, and a lot of it is to do with this treating their employees as humans who can make autonomous decisions and are going to show up and do their best as they can, and that culture of care that has been passed down as a as a female realm, and so women come by it quite innately.

Speaker 1:

I think that men are carers as well, but our societies kind of robbed them of that skill set in the way that we raise boys what would your advice be to the quieter women who have trouble connecting with intuition, finding their way back to the sacred feminine in a very masculine world?

Speaker 2:

I would say that kind of coming back to what we said.

Speaker 2:

You know, practicing small, carving out a little bit of time to be alone, and I think that that's probably something that most of your listeners aspire to do anyways, but not filling it with distractions.

Speaker 2:

So, especially those of us with phones all of us, you know there is that dopamine hit we get from picking up our phone and seeing a notification, and so if everybody listening is anything like me, it almost becomes habitual to grab for it and fill our time, even just a few minutes, waiting at the line at the bank or, you know, waiting for the water to boil for the kettle and so it's consciously deciding to pause and take some of those moments of stillness and aloneness to just be with yourself and start to listen in to what your body is saying. And that might look like a really conscious body scan, perhaps a guided body scan on meditation apps so you know there's lots of free resources out there in that respect or it might just look like a few mindful breaths while you make your coffee, tuning in and just noticing those body sensations. It's the first place to start, because that's where your intuition lives. It's in your body, not in your mind.

Speaker 1:

Thank you for that. Helpful, because it's those baby steps that we take, that we decide to take, that actually start shifting the trajectory for us, and they accumulate over time. They have a cumulative effect, don't they?

Speaker 2:

they do compound yeah, yeah, I think it's really important not to try to do it all at once. Um, even when I think about my path into witchcraft, I call myself a lazy witch because I cannot be bothered to like follow a spell and like do all the pieces. It feels overwhelming to me to learn what all the crystals mean, or learn what all the herbs mean, and I I have used intuition to kind of guide my deepening of that practice and just going like picking the things based on what feels good. I'll look it up later, but the same goes for any kind of new practice. You don't want to overwhelm yourself with trying to do it right.

Speaker 2:

That's another big one that many, many women and men you know trying to achieve and do a good job and do it right With intuition. To achieve and do a good job and do it right with intuition, you can't really do it wrong. Another thing I often say to my clients or in chats with friends is you know, let yourself be right as you start to make the changes. Can you just let yourself be right?

Speaker 1:

Wow, that is incredibly powerful yourself be right. Wow, that is incredibly powerful and that is such a beautiful antidote to our tendency to be really hard on ourselves and very critical. In my online course, which we were just talking last night, about this and this idea of having to be perfect, having to get it right the first time, having to do it quickly, having to tick all the boxes that, I wonder, does that come again from that very masculine thinking being right, being perfect, being excellent?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, to some extent it is that critical, analytical, achievement-based, and some of it is very, very again falling into the almost more toxic, toxic masculine realm.

Speaker 2:

It's also a product of of capitalism and and this world we've lived in for so long, where output is the only measure of success and perfection is expected, and and again I I find so much comfort in nature when I think about nature doesn't do it perfect, have you like if, if you don't go to a supermarket but you go to a farmer's market, like the carrots are all sorts of different shapes and like you know that squash has a weird lump growing out of it. It's not perfect, it's still delicious and nutritious and and it doesn't happen fast. You cannot hurry along the growth of a plant. Well, you can with chemical fertilizers a little bit, but out in nature she's not in a rush. Everything in its time, everything in its season. And again, when I get caught, I'm very much a recovering perfectionist and a recovering people pleaser. Those are two of my big identities that I've been really working on and over and over, coming back into that more or into that, remembering that I am nature helps. So much.

Speaker 1:

It sounds to me like all of us need a few moments today to go into nature and reset ourselves few moments today to go into nature and reset ourselves.

Speaker 2:

Yes, yes, I highly encourage daily nature contact, some description, you know, putting your feet, bare feet, on the ground. We know that that has really positive, like biological impacts for us. It lowers blood pressure, it reduces stress. Forest bathing is another thing that's gaining popularity, that Japanese practice. I think it's called Sho oh, I'm not going to get the name right, but anyways they have a word for it. But there's so many studies showing the positive impact of being in and with nature on the human body and it only makes sense because it's it's from once we came ashes to ashes, dust to dust.

Speaker 1:

So my last question for you today how do people get in touch with you to learn more about what you do?

Speaker 2:

thank, you for asking um either through my social media. Um, right now I'm most active on Instagram at. I am Eileen March, which is my name. I do have a Facebook presence and it's my Luminous Life Coaching on there and I'm not active on there, but I check it daily and if email feels easier to reach out via eileen at myluminouslifeca is my email and that's my website as well myluminouslifeca.

Speaker 1:

Fantastic. We'll make sure all those links are in the show notes for anyone that wants to reach out to you and learn more about how they can tap into their intuition, be more connected to their energetic cycles, learn to rest without feeling guilty and learn to trust themselves much more. To rediscover, I think, the power of trust, self-trust, trust in life, trust that other people are supporting them. So thank you very much, aileen, for joining me today and for sharing your wisdom.

Speaker 2:

You're so welcome. Thank you so much for having me, Serena.

Speaker 1:

And that was another episode of the Quiet Warrior podcast. If you so much for having me, serena. If you found this content valuable, please share it on your social media channels and subscribe to the show on your favorite listening platform. Together, we can help more introverts thrive. To receive more uplifting content like this, connect with me on Instagram at Serena Lo Quiet Warrior Coach. Thank you for sharing your time and your energy with me. See you on the next episode.