Blooming in the Shadows: Rising Through Adversity #211

If life’s been piling on challenge after challenge, and it feels like you’re stuck in the shade, barely catching any light—then what?   We’re diving into the times where it feels like darkness is plentiful.  But here’s the thing: sometimes, it’s in the shadows that the strongest roots grow.

These moments of uncertainty, fear, and struggle can actually be the soil where our deepest growth takes place. Just like a flower that finds its way to bloom even in the dimmest light, we, too, can learn to alchemize the heaviness around us into something that strengthens and sustains us.

So, if you’re in a phase where things feel heavy, or you just need a little encouragement to keep reaching upward, this one’s for you. 

Christina Wooten helps you access the wisdom and support of the Spirit World to elevate your life.
She is a Certified Psychic Medium and Reiki Master Teacher.  Christina is the owner of Sedona Medium and co-host of Modern Life and Spirit podcast.

She offers Psychic Medium Readings, Soul Readings, Past Life Regressions, and teaches how you can start communicating and receiving messages from your Spirit Guides - through her program.
Learn more about her offerings here

Want to schedule a personal session with Spirit?  Have a reading with Christina - book now

Want to take more aligned action in your life?  Want to understand the energies at play each month, so you can flow with Divine Timing?  Join the Inner Circle to get access to Monthly Readings with Christina and the Energetic Calendar!

Robert Wooten is a Certified Reiki Master Teacher who loves to help others to increase their life force energy and heal mind/body/Spirit.
Sessions are performed remotely thru Zoom or by phone call, and energetic information received during your session can be recorded and shared,  to assist you on your healing journey.
Learn more about how Robert can help you at www.sedonamedium.com.

Contact www.SedonaMedium.com Today!

Transcript

Narrator: 0:48

Robert, welcome to the modern life and spirit Podcast where we explore spiritual topics relevant to today's world. Your hosts, certified psychic medium Christina Wooten and Reiki master teacher Robert Wooten, break down how to work with spirit to create more positive growth in your life. Consider this podcast your go to spiritual resource for navigating the modern world.

Christina Wooten: 1:16

Hey there Kinderd spirits. Welcome to Modern Life and Spirit podcast. It's Christina Wooten, certified psychic medium at SedonaMedium.com and Hi Robert. Well, hello.

Robert Wooten: 1:26

I am Reiki Master Teacher. Robert Wooten, glad to be here.

Christina Wooten: 1:28

Welcome everyone to our podcast, sacred space, and if you haven't today, go ahead and take a big, deep breath. I've been amazed recently at just the power of the breath to just calm, to relax the body to relax the mind just that one simple process of, if you can do anything, just remember to breathe. Because our physical body is always sending us these signals that in times of intense fight or flight and intense stress, it just stops breathing. Well, we just kind of close off and clamp up, and so when we start to send that signal to our bodies that it's safe to breathe and it's safe to take a big, deep breath, we're giving that reminder that we're safe. We are okay. Our body is safe. Our body is at peace, and we can move into a higher level of thought, then the ego mind and reactions and overwhelm and all of that stuff we can go into the higher vibrations. And it just begins with that moment of taking a deep breath and sending that signal that it is okay to move into higher thought. I

Robert Wooten: 2:44

totally agree with you there, and I would add one thing to that, and that is to be totally present in that breath. If you can feel the in breath, the transition and the out breath, and be in that moment of feeling that breath as you're doing it, don't be mindlessly just taking a big breath and sigh out and then move on with whatever you're doing. That can help in a small way. But being mindful in the breath, in the complete cycle of the breath is what will help reset you, reground you, and put you in a moment so that you can think clearly about what it is you're trying to accomplish or that you're going to move into next.

Christina Wooten: 3:19

I think there's a lot of fight or flight happening right now. And you know, the medicine of the breath is so critical, it's so important, and we can practice it anywhere, when we're in that space of feeling the deep intensity of all of the emotional energy that's flying everywhere, especially for those of us who are impasse and who are sensitive to everything that's happening, not just in your home and in your space or in your office, but also in the world around us, there's just all of this static energy that's around

Robert Wooten: 3:52

I can tell you, I was on a plane recently, and when you're in an encapsulated small area with people around you, and especially being an empath, you can definitely feel the energy that's flowing through people, and you can look in their eyes as you're walking down the aisle, and it was a different look in A lot of people's faces, and it was palpable that collective

Christina Wooten: 4:11

stress seems to be this climate that we're in right now in an intensive way. I think a lot of people in the spiritual community have consistently talked about that we are moving into a different age of humanity where an awakening is underway, that even the Earth itself is shifting in frequencies and vibrations, and how important it is for us to be physically grounded so that we can absorb these new energies that are coming in to support our nervous system, to support our energetic being, an energetic body, and also to help us in this process of awakening. But I want to talk about that a lot of people think that when we move into a time of collective awakening, that it is a time of infinite peace, that it's incredibly restful, that it, you know, has this softness, gentleness to it. And I think that's more the result than the process of awakening, that right now we're in this, you know, palpable period of collective stress, and the climate seems to be no matter what paradigm you're living in, the moment or thought you're having, there's a lot of doubt and a lot of fear And a lot of uncertainty that seems to be taking place for most everyone in this time period. And instead of that being something for us to fear and to resist and to hold us in a state of fight or flight, it's important to recognize that the doubt and fear. And uncertainty is really the soil of awakening. Yeah, it's what helps us in that deeper process, to crave truth, to crave deeply love, to crave deeply that which is eternal, to move away from the material world and move into seeking for the spiritual world. So instead of looking for, you know, my end goal is abundance in this lifetime, and this it's, you know, my end goal is to shift my energy and to create a deeper evolution of my spirit. You know, those are very meaningful, aspirational goals, but it's often this soil of doubt and fear and uncertainty that leads us into that greater sense of connection, that seeking of recognition, that the material world is not where I'm going to Find you know the elevation of spirit, or always the elevation of consciousness, that in order to truly elevate consciousness, you have to make that deep connection with the divine, that we have to go beyond just this physical time period and beyond just these conditions, and beyond these circumstances, and really ground deeply into an unshakable, eternal and the only way we really have a tendency to move into those spaces is with incredible amounts of discomfort. I like

Robert Wooten: 7:19

the analogy of soil, because when you think about working in your garden, for instance, and there's a million analogies compared to working in a garden, and I think we just have to have a mindset shift to understand that this analogy of this being soil for growth is much like the soil for the growth that plants need as well, and all life really needs here on Earth. So I like that. I like I really like that analogy a lot. And I think we can take a lot from this concept of honoring the soil, honoring its purpose and its nutrients that allow for greater and deeper and more connected spiritual growth. And I was recently listening to Tara Brock, and she had an analogy that she used of trees and how great winds blowing against a tree will cause a tree to grow a form of Heartwood inside the center of the tree, and it creates the strength and the stability of the inner portion of the tree that stops it from snapping when the wind blows, but it also allows it to be flexible, so the outer part of the tree can still flex and bend with the wind, but the inner portion of The tree is solid and doesn't break in high winds. And then those winds also encourage root growth, and the roots grow deeper with the more the wind that there is, and they grow stronger, and they connect to other trees, almost like a community of trees they have found now where these roots will untangle each other and support each other. And I think that that's a profound way of looking at it, also that while the wind may blow against you, your heart can be strengthened by it, instead of instead of becoming more fragile.

Christina Wooten: 8:57

This is the time for all of us to double down into these awakening practices, into our deeper work of unifying with that which is eternal, focusing on what the deeper spiritual truths happen to be, and integrating that into our very core, into our very being, so that the dissatisfaction within the world drives us into a deeper state of awakening and embodiment of all of those principles, Of all of that understanding of the download of higher consciousness into our very cells, so that we can represent that as we come forward into the world, as we participate. And this isn't like a hiding or just being like, well, everything's cool. I'm gonna go into meditation today. But it's also this recognition that this is where the work truly is. The work is in hearts and minds. The work is in our own deeper grounding and deeper connection, and that in turn, we become prepared to represent that vibration and that energy in a very unshakable way into the world. You know you can be a seasoned meditator, a seasoned yogi, a seasoned teacher, spiritual teacher, and still find that you know you're shaken now and then by these waves of things that are happening in the world. And that just becomes the motivation, the recognition that it's time, as you were saying, to grow that Heartwood more deeply so that we can fully embody and embrace the principles that we teach and through that inevitable growth and change and process is where big change occurs. But I think it's important to recognize that the change is. Truly happening now, right? And I think that the quality, a strong, good quality thought, we've talked about the law of thought and the law of mind, and the power of a good quality thought, a truly divine, aligned, spiritual, vibrating thought, has exceptional power over however other many negative thoughts that we've emitted and that other people are admitting, that if you just have that power, that true kernel of truth, that that light breaks through all of the noise and all of the other stuff that's happening around and so my hope is that this is a time where people, instead of abandoning the work, they keep doing the work. Earlier in the year, I kept getting these messages for different people about that it was time to step into their spiritual work that they have been called to step forward in some way, into opening their herbal business, or opening their coaching business, or opening their intuitive business, and there's there was so much fear and resistance and anxiety around that has kind of kept people from moving forward. You know, I understand that this is what we need. We've got to double down into this essence. We have to embody it fully. We have to represent it deeply. No matter what soil happens to be here, we can make great growth in the soil of love and the soil of acceptance and the soil of deep peace, but that's found within and the way that we can get to those places is sometimes with what we need also, which is doubt and uncertainty. Paramahansa Yogananda tells a story about talking to wealthy businessman, and he shares a story about one in particular, where this man had all of the material wealth that he could want. He had all the possessions that he could want. He had what's known as relatively this incredibly easy life, and yet was still not happy. Still found that things were coming up empty, that he had this sort of sense of peace about him, and that he wasn't worried. He wasn't so filled with all of this anxiety constantly about making ends meet, or, you know, survivalism, sort of focus, that that was all sort of swept away for him. But in that piece, he sought excitement and Let me shake it up and let me do these risky things, and you know that there's this polarity, that that is there sometimes, and that we we have to use all of these environments and all of these soils to awaken us to the deeper truth that ultimately, our answers are in deepening our spiritual understanding and deepening our work and deepening our embodiment no matter what is in front of us, that the journey isn't always easy. You have all the material goods and have all these other things and still feel unhappy, still feel unsatisfied, and our answers come from a place that isn't this physical world. So I wanted to share all of that today, for those who are feeling this, the waves of energy happening right now. As an empath, and maybe you're feeling frustrated or overwhelmed, maybe you're feeling exhausted by the negativity, maybe you're feeling hurt by changes in relationships or things that are happening. I don't know. There's lots. There's so many different things that are happening right now, but I hope that within that we can see that there's something greater that's urging us deeper into awakening, that's urging us deeper into humanity's evolution and consciousness. And it's not always what it looks like on the surface, that sometimes there's something greater and something deeper that's at work, and that's what I invite us to do now, is to not lose hope or to get kind of washed away in all of the impulses and energies that are happening here, but to instead develop the heartwood, to go deeper, to double down in this evolution And to double down in your own awakening. So please know that wherever you are that we are sending you so much love. If we could reach out to give you a hug today, we certainly would. But I hope that you feel the energy that's moving through us right now and the love that we share for each and every one of you.

Robert Wooten: 15:27

May you be filled with love and kindness, May you be safe in mind and body, may you, to whatever extent, be healthy in mind, body and spirit, and may you be happy and safe many

Christina Wooten: 15:39

blessings. The

Robert Wooten: 15:43

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