Now, so I read your book, a little bit of it.
And so I know that you used to think that you had to like get quiet and find your spirituality
in the quiet, but then it totally transformed into what it is today.
So can you talk a little bit about that and when the podcast became part of the journey?
Oh, yes.
Love this question.
You know, and it's, it is like part of the process is about getting quiet.
And then what we, what happens a lot of times, and I was, you know, I wrote about this in
a book too, and I speak about this often.
I realized that it isn't about living as I call the zombie Zen, you know, how we equate
spiritual seekers and spiritual teachers as the zombies.
And you have to talk like this, you have to, you know, look like that.
You have to wear these kinds of clothes, you have to do these kinds of things.
And this kind of forced seriousness is so imposed on the spiritual seeker.
And oh my goodness, the spiritual guide could never do any of the things that I do, right,
according to some people.
But then I realized that, you know, my most transformative experiences with my spiritual
teachers in very traditional settings like India and Nepal and monasteries and ashrams
in these parts of the world, the most transformative experiences happened with joy, with laughter,
with humor, with playfulness, with this lightheartedness.
But I felt that I couldn't let my freak flag fly.
I couldn't let my sassy nature fly because I thought that that was not spiritual.
And then I had this revelatory moment where I was like, no, you do need to get quiet.
But then once you experience the peace that arises from being quiet and going inward,
then it's really about you, you know, showing the world what freedom looks like.
And freedom, the outward expression of freedom looks different for everybody.
For me, it's bold, loud, fierce, you know, being androgynous and really expressing my
queerness for other people looks different.
It may be a little bit more quiet, a little bit more subdued in a variety of different
ways, but the inner experience of freedom is the same for everybody.
So I am just a permissionary, a permission slip for people to recognize that once they
glimpse and experience this inner freedom, then the outward expression, if it's going
to look freaky and sassy and bold and loud and flamboyant, that's okay too.
Doesn't matter what some people on a spiritual path have said to you that that does not equate
liberation.
I'm here to say that it does because I am living proof of it.
And of course, with the blessing from people from my lineage and my training too, that's
like joy is the way to liberation.
And you know, then to talk about the spiritually sassy show, the podcast, which first of all,
I'm so grateful for your platform.
And I'm so grateful for everyone who's listening to this show and making the show such a success
in such a short amount of time.
Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.
You know, what's happened is I needed another outlet to express my creativity and to also
communicate with other people in this space and to have hard conversations with people
in this space.
You know, I talk a lot about, I have a set of questions on the podcast that I ask every
guest.
And a lot of times when I realize, I'm like, oh my God, the conversation I had with my
friends when we're just hanging out at home, they should be recorded because this conversation
is so transformative.
They're like, it's so enlightening.
They need to be on the record.
People need to listen to these things.
And that's another thing that I realized, like, okay, like, let's use the platform of
a podcast for this long form content.
And then let's talk about specific questions that oftentimes, you know, sometimes when
you are, you know, engaging with people, you may talk about specific things or you may,
you know, kind of just have more casual conversations sometimes.
But I wanted to utilize the fact that I have access to so many amazing people to ask them
really, really deep, powerful questions.
And one question that I ask every guest on the show is a question on forgiveness.
How does forgiveness play a role in your life?
And the answers are like, oh my God, they're just amazing, you know.