Embracing Curiosity: A Path to Spiritual Growth with Rachel White

Have you ever felt skeptical about how tools like meditation, tarot cards, and/or flower essences can be a path for professional and spiritual growth? If so, you're not alone. In this enlightening conversation, I sit down with Rachel White, known as the "Skeptical Shaman," to discuss how skepticism can actually be a powerful tool for uncovering deeper truths on your spiritual journey. Show Notes | Transcript "Spirituality helps cultivate intuition. It helps you think for yourself, get to know yourself, and also, just in terms of daily self-care." - Rachel White As the owner of Totem Readings, Rachel White blends the "woo" with 25 years of corporate experience. During our interview, Rachel shares her fascinating path from Catholic school to atheism, and ultimately to shamanic practice, revealing how maintaining a healthy dose of skepticism led her to profound spiritual experiences. We explore the often-misunderstood difference between skepticism and cynicism, and why cultivating discernment is crucial for anyone on a spiritual path. Through our discussion, you'll discover: Practical benefits: Learn how spiritual practices can boost intuition, self-awareness, and even support your physical well-being Tarot insights: Uncover how tarot cards can serve as a powerful tool for tapping into your intuition and navigating life's challenges Plant wisdom: Explore the fascinating world of herbalism and flower essences, and how connecting with nature can profoundly impact your spiritual growth Intuition's value: The dangers of toxic positivity in spiritual communities and why it's essential to trust your instincts when something feels off.  Whether you're a curious skeptic or a seasoned spiritual seeker, this conversation offers fresh perspectives on navigating the complex world of spirituality with both openness and discernment. Get ready to challenge your assumptions and discover new ways to connect with your inner wisdom. Resources: Join the Soulful Women's Network Connect with Rachel White: Website: totemreadings.com Women in Podcasting Awards Live. Love. Engage. has been nominated for a Women in Podcasting Award in the Mindset category. Voting is open between August 1 - October 1, 2024. We'd love your vote! Go here to express your support: womeninpodcasting.net/live-love-engage Thank you! Connect with Live Love Engage: Send Gloria Grace a message ☕ Support the podcast ❤ Love this episode? Leave us a review and rating LinkedIn: Gloria Grace Rand Facebook: Gloria Grace Rand YouTube: Gloria Grace Rand TRANSCRIPT Gloria Grace Rand Namaste. Have you ever considered that skepticism about spirituality could actually be the key to unraveling deeper truths? Well, we're going to be diving into this topic today with a woman who is known as the skeptical shaman. But before I bring her on, I would like to welcome those of you who are new to live, love, engage. I am Gloria Grace, and I help female entrepreneurs attract more clients with calm, clarity, and confidence by releasing those negative thought patterns like self doubt and poor self worth. And I'm really delighted to be bringing on our guest today because we've already been having a lovely conversation. And like, wait, we need to stop because I want to save it. I want to save it for the podcast. So her, her name is Rachel White, and she is an unusual spiritual practitioner who blends 25 years of corporate experience with the woo. And she is also a podcaster as well. She hosts the Skeptical Shaman podcast. She's the owner of totem readings and creator of the totem cart, Tarot Deck, I should say. And so without further ado, I'm going to go ahead and bring her on and welcome you, Rachel, to live. Love, engage. Rachel White Thank you so much. What an intro. Wow. Gloria Grace Rand Well, thank you. And you know, you deserve it. And I'm really. Yeah, as I said, I was really, really fortunate to have come across you, and I want to dive right in and have you talk a little bit about why, why skepticism is a form of discernment. Rachel White Yeah. Well, long story, very short, I'll give the executive summary is I went to, to catholic school basically my whole life in fits and starts and including college. I went to Loyola in Chicago. And coming out of all of that Catholicism, I went right into what I jokingly call smug atheism, where I was like, oh yeah, science explains this. I got this on lock. I know everything about everything and really was operating in that mode, in that paradigm until I had a very profound spiritual experience, very unexpected, wasn't pursuing any of this, wasn't reading any books. And it was an event that was so kind of overt that neighbors in my old building were witnessing objective phenomenon. And I had to go back to the drawing board. And what was interesting about that was the skepticism I had applied to Sunday school and asking questions I didn't feel like were getting answered in the catholic church growing up. It was the same skepticism that was present as I was questioning the other paradigm I had gotten into. It led me to shamanism and to my own shamanic practice now. So I think people view being skeptical as being cynical. And to me, those are two very different things. Skeptical is just like, I'm curious. Tell me more. And extraordinary claims demand extraordinary evidence. And if we're doing something real, there should be some evidence, even if it's qualitative. So I have a podcast where the main topic is, get curious, use your discernment. And it's fairly repetitive in the space of, you don't have to explain to yourself why you're uncomfortable about something. You just are. And it could be, yeah, you're getting triggered or you're growing, but it could also be the person's a creep or it's a cult. And so giving yourself permission to just feel it out, take your time, let things sit, observe them, and then, but keep moving. Don't let a bad actor throw you off of spirituality. Gloria Grace Rand Yeah. That is so important, really, because it has so many benefits, spirituality. So, in fact, I'm going to ask you about that. So since you had this journey going from learning about catholic school, then becoming an atheist, so what have you found the benefits of being spiritual now in your life? Rachel White Yeah. Well, I think it's way more actionable and pragmatic on a human skill than people realize. Because people tend to equate spirituality with their experience of religion. Right. Some people have very good experiences with religion, but a lot don't. And what I found is it helps cultivate intuition. It helps you think for yourself, get to know yourself, and also just in terms of daily self-care. You know, I have a mug here, actually. This was made by my beautiful client, Audrey. Shout out to Audrey. Pottery class. But herbal tea, you know, I'm now an herbalist, bringing these things in when I'm not feeling good. My throat is a little scratched. I make flower essences now. These are all things that have been used by various cultures for thousands and thousands of years, and we've kind of become disconnected from them. And we've seen religion and spirituality as this far off thing about morality and sacrifice and self-punishment instead of like a thing you can leverage for your own benefit every day. So that's a lot of what I focus on as well on the podcast. Gloria Grace Rand Yeah. And I do, I can relate to this in so many ways because I, especially the intuition part, because I don't know about you, but when I was younger, that I would have, like, these intuitive hits and I wouldn't always pay attention to them. And in fact, sometimes I would just be like, eh, you know, whatever, and ignore it. And then, as I like to say, it would bite me in the butt, frankly, because I didn't pay attention to it. And so, as I've grown on my spiritual journey, I definitely am number one. I'm here. I'm getting, like, more intuitive ideas and things that will come up, and then I'm paying attention and I'm acting on them. Rachel White Yeah, yeah. You've built a muscle memory of. I call it when I do, like, spiritual transformation coaching work with clients, it's a trustful with you and spirit, and you start little, and I don't like high stakes stuff. I'm not one of those coaches that's like, you got to take the plunge. You got to quit your job. You got to. It's like, no, no, no. Don't. Chill out. It's okay. You can build this slowly and methodically, but spiritually, building this relationship of trust, of. You've never let me down. Every time I get a hit and it feels this way or it comes in this way, it always ends up working out for me. They've never let me hang out the wind before, and as a small business owner now, because totem is my business, I self-publish decks, I make things, et cetera. I use intuition all the time now, and I'm very grateful, I have a strong muscle memory with it that I did some of the hard infrastructure work early, before the stakes were this real. And, in fact, I just invested in a podcast tour, which is something I did three years ago, and it's, on paper, kind of insane. It's money. If you grew up poor like I did, you're like, we could do a lot with that money, but you just go, yeah, no, it's going to be okay when you check in in your body, and other things are not okay when you check in with your body. And I turned down a television opportunity because it just did not physically feel good when I held it in my body. It's the best way I can describe it. Yeah. Gloria Grace Rand Oh, yeah, absolutely. And I've had opportunities in the past sometimes, too, where something comes up and it's like, yeah, I'd really like to do this, but it's just. It's not the right time or frankly, I just don't have the money for it. And I've then said, you know what? If it's meant to be, it'll come around again. And it did,...