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Against All Odds Podcast, The Less than 1% Chance with Maria Aponte
Maria highlights stories of people that have been the "less than 1% chance" and have come out of their situations thriving and seeing life as happening FOR them and not TO them! Inspiring and empowering stories that will show you that against all odds you can make it through anything!
Against All Odds Podcast, The Less than 1% Chance with Maria Aponte
How Listening To Your Heart Can Rewrite Your Life with Vinaya
What if your mind is brilliant at solving problems but terrible at steering your life? We sit down with Vinaya, a traveler-turned-guide who left rigid expectations in his early 20s and learned to trust the quiet authority of intuition. His path winds through the Himalayas, European ashrams, crystals, and esoteric study, then circles inward to a simple idea: the heart speaks first, and the mind arrives a moment later with reasons to ignore it. That tiny gap, he says, is where freedom begins.
We unpack the difference between doing a meditation and being in meditation. Instead of chasing a perfect routine, Vinaya shows how observing breath and sensation brings you into the present, where thoughts, pain, and anger are witnessed rather than fused with your identity. From that grounded place, parenting shifts from control to guidance. You’ll hear a moving story about transforming chaotic mornings through calm energy and small choices, plus practical tools for anxiety: five conscious breaths, describing three things you can sense right now, and reminding yourself that most of the present moment is still safe.
Vinaya also opens the curtain on his reading practice: a permission-based, ethical connection that reflects your own higher knowing back to you. Rather than predictions, he offers clarity about gifts, next steps, and the beliefs that keep you small. We address trauma honestly, naming why nervous system release must come before mindset work, and how somatic practices help thaw freeze states so awareness can land. Throughout, gratitude and simple daily presence act as anchors—stepping onto a balcony, breathing, opening your eyes, and saying yes to the life in front of you.
If you’re ready to stop overthinking and start listening to the signal beneath the noise, this conversation offers tools you can use today. Tap play, subscribe for more stories of radical resilience, and leave a review to share what your heart is telling you to do next.
Connect with Vinaya:
Website: https://www.psychiccrystalreadings.com/
Instagram: @psychic.crystal.readings
Youtube: @vinayakarmicawarenesscatal7170
Facebook: @satyam.vinaya
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Welcome back to the Against All Odds, the Less than 1% Chance podcast with your host, Marina Aponte, where we will hear stories of incredible people surviving against all odds. And my hope is that we can all see how life is completely happening for us, even when we are the less than 1% chance.
SPEAKER_01:Hey, hey, welcome back to Against All Odds, the Less than 1% Chance podcast with your host, Maria Ponte. I am so excited. We're back for another amazing interview. I am just gonna quickly introduce you. So he at 22 realized that he couldn't conform to societal expectations. So he embarked on his transformative journey to the Himalayas on a quest for purpose, which I can totally relate to. Not to the Himalayas, but on the quest for purpose. Over 30 years, he traveled through Europe and Asia seeking answers until he encountered a master whose teachings shifted his focus inward. This led to a decade where he immersed himself in personal development and eventually facilitated groups through this journey and his studies in tarot and crystals. He honed his intuitive abilities, allowing him to create a unique approach to psychic readings that reveals deeper truths. Today he helps bring clarity and empowerment to everyone who is on a path to freedom from themselves through crystal readings and coaching. So welcome, Vinaya. I'm so excited to have you. Tell us a little bit of what brought you to where you are today. I would love to know.
SPEAKER_04:Oh, that could be a 10-year story. Basically, what you mentioned, what brought me here where I'm at right now, is really I grew up in Germany and really tried to be a good German.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:When I was like 21 or so, no, that's not for me. And if life is just like being born, learning, working, dying, excuse me, what's the point? So I went on a search, and yeah, through many adventures, and also later on going inside and becoming basically free of the German programming.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:So like releasing that through groups and meditations and awareness exercises gave me freedom from myself. And what I mean by that is freedom from myself, the what the self we are supposed to be when we grow up as a German, a Christian, as a whatever.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:So I became free of that. Mind you, sometimes things pop up still, but then true awareness is oh, that's my father, that's not me. And so I'm not playing the game anymore. And in the meantime, basically, also I was always somewhat intuitive. I could always see what is behind the story, behind the facade people showed.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:And my I'm a crystal freak for 50 years collecting. I love them. Working with them and all of that. I basically now am able to really do what I came here to do in this incarnation, which is really helping people to become free from themselves, which is not themselves, but free from the programming.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Stepping into their power. And I use crystals and a specific deck, which is not tarot, hard to explain. It's basically stories from enlightened being to beings, make things clear.
SPEAKER_02:I love that.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, give it deeper insight or insight from a different angle. And yeah, basically, besides being a tourist on planet Earth, my job, which I put myself into, crazy as I can, was actually helping people to get out of the story. Get out of programming out of the story.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Really stepping into their own power and following their path of becoming more aware, becoming more empowered.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. It's definitely I'm I'm a freak of crystals too. I love them. I have so many back here. I so I and I feel like I've gone through my own like mini spiritual journey as well. I grew up very hispanic Catholic, very ingrained in that culture. And I don't, I not that I there's still things that I believe in. However, I feel so much more open spiritually. Like things are so much, I feel like things are so much more simple than the organized religion of it. And so I've been through that journey of maybe being a kind human being, compassionate and caring, and really listening to that, you know, what I know to be like the solar plexus, my gut feeling, my that we when we pray, we pray to God to whoever you pray to, but when we listen to that that intuition, I feel like that's God, universe, whoever you're praying to, that's their conversation back to you, their response.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, and when you say that, it's so when I started the journey, it was like a heart feeling, it was like a knowing I have to go. And there's one trick also which the mind plays on us. Anyway, so I went to my parents and said, I'm going to India. And my mother goes, You can't do that. Why not? Because you need to work, you need to have a pension, you need to take care when you're old. Absolutely perfect argument. Absolutely right. Okay, my heart was too strong, and I just said to her, When I'm old, I figure out what I'm gonna do. Now I'm going to India. And I've been following my heart ever since, never really knowing where is next going or what's happening next, or what's in the cards, so to speak. Always following my heart. And what I also learned is that, and that's maybe a good trick for everybody don't listen to your mind. Heart suddenly goes, I want to go to Spain, and your mind goes, No, you can't. You don't speak Spanish, you don't have money, you don't know how to get there, and what's gonna be all very good arguments. Yeah, and we want to understand possibly that the mind always works out of past experience, it does not know about the future. I've never been to Spain, so how can my mind know how it is? It's not possible. So, not listening to the mind, even though the arguments are first class, yeah, but my heart says, No, it's Spain, or in my case, it's India. Yeah, and I follow my heart for 50 years, and I have an absolutely fantastic life, amazing pictures, no worries, no fear, no nothing, because I learned deeply that when I follow my intuition, my heart, my gut feeling, whatever you want to call that, it's always right. Yeah, and I also learned if I don't, and that's maybe a good example. I went with a bike to town to do some shopping, and I always put my key on my belt, period. That morning, for some reason, I wanted to put it on my back, and I knew instantly that's not a good idea, and that's also a good trick. The heart and the gut is instantly there, but a split second later, my mind goes, What's the problem? You always take care of your bag. Yeah, that's right. So I put it on my back. An hour later, the bag was full. A friend went home a few miles away. I said, Hey, can you take my bag?
SPEAKER_03:I knew forgetting.
SPEAKER_04:I knew instantly. The mind has always good arguments, so learning to listen to this first faint voice is a really good idea. And maybe as a little plus, a good exercise, how to learn to listen to your heart, is say in my mind comes, I want a coffee, or I want a cigarette, or I want to go to the disco. Then I stop, I close my eyes, I become conscious of my breath, and then I go, Heart, I am in the disco, how does it feel? Heart, I am in Spain, how does that feel? Heart, I'm having a cigarette, how does that feel? Then I know that's like learning to listen to this voice by actually asking.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah, that's so important. I've I was a single mom for many years, but every time we would move anywhere, it was always for so this one. I'm gonna use this particular situation. There was this one moment where right after my divorce, we were in the process, I was supposed to move for work purposes somewhere, and my ex-husband ended up fighting it and whatever. And so the court sided with him. I couldn't move, so I needed to find a place because I already had a place where I was supposed to move to. So I live in Orlando now. I've lived in the Orlando area for almost all my life, and and I was supposed to move to Miami, which is four hours away for work. And I had to move back up to Orlando, and so I went with a realtor to help me find a house. And I told him, these are my the things that you know, the things that I'm looking for. And he was like, Okay, so we he had a list of places to go. And I was like, Yeah, I would walk in and I'd be like, no, and he's like, You haven't even seen it. And I'm like, no, I don't know, I can't explain it. And so as we're going from place to place, I find one that is slightly above what I wanted to pay. So I was like, hey, how about this one? He's this is higher than what you wanted. And I'm like, yeah, but let's go check it out. And so he makes the arrangement. We go and check it out. This is the last house that we see that day. And I walked in and I was like, Yep, this is one. He's you haven't even seen it. I said, I can't explain it to you, but my gut, my heart, my everything inside me is telling me this is the one. Yeah, and it ended up being such the perfect place for everything that I needed in that moment.
SPEAKER_04:The heart always knows.
SPEAKER_01:It is so beautiful to allow yourself to listen to that and forget the logical aspect of it because you're right, it always has such great input that you're gonna be like, eh, maybe not.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, that's a good argument, machine.
SPEAKER_03:Yes, it's always wrong, yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Okay, it's right when I need to repair a car or figure out how to paint or do things like this in the 3D world, yeah. But for my path or my what is right for me, I don't know, but I do know, yeah, and really this is such a good tool to really step into your uniqueness and into your power to listen to that, know that I might it's scary sometimes, yeah. I had no idea what's gonna, I didn't even know how to get to India basically. I just started chugging and taking buses and trains, but it was absolutely right, and then also there were moments in my life where I knew this place is done, but I had no clue where to go. Okay, I know it's done, and then I just sit, be present, and wait, not in five minutes or something, but then I'm being there. I know I have to move or I will move, and I'm waiting for a signal, I'm waiting for an inspiration, I'm waiting for a hello from existence.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, that's so beautiful, so beautiful. So the phrase I can't do it, is it true?
SPEAKER_04:No.
SPEAKER_01:The short answer is no.
SPEAKER_04:Because if I have not tried it, I don't know. Yeah, if some and this is really interesting because I'm gonna start to do uh collective readings on Instagram starting tomorrow every week, where we can put awareness into what is important to become aware of in this time. And there's one story about an archer, and that's I cannot do it. I'm focusing on the goal, like I want to build a house or whatever I think I cannot do, but it feels right, so then I focus on that, I see the goal, see what I want to do, and then I drop it and do the first steps because also I'm out of the future, I'm right back in the moment, so I'm really aware what's going on, I'm really becoming aware what is needed as next steps, and then maybe at one point I find out that actually doesn't work for me. Great, but I tried it. But starting with I cannot do it, who says so? Maybe my father said I can't paint, but actually I can. I didn't know until I actually tried. So mindset comes up, I cannot do it, but I want to do it, so I'm starting, yeah, and then I go from there.
SPEAKER_01:I love that. I love that. I always tell my kids, my so my kids are now older, they're my oldest is 21, I have a 20-year-old, and my youngest is 17. But anytime I hear them have a desire, I will always tell them I honor and support your intentions, go for it. Because who am I to tell them no? Obviously, I'm here to guide them. And if I see them going down a path where I can be of more knowledge and help and support, I will be there. I was telling my daughter yesterday, listen, you make choices. You when you decide that you're gonna do uh something funny that a saying that I tell them every day is make good choices, don't do stupid shit. And that it just gets a chuckle, right? Okay, mom, I won't do stupid shit. But ultimately, she's a teenager, so she's gonna do stupid shit. So I told her she's so yesterday, I'm talking to her about something that was not the greatest decision, and I said, listen, you have free will to make the mistakes that you're making or choose the things that you are choosing. I also am still your parent, and I also still have a responsibility to show you that good and bad choices have good and bad consequences. So if you do something stupid, there's gonna be a consequence to it.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah. And there's this one I don't know who said that, but it's really great. I made so many mistakes in my life, and I learned so much. I think I make a few more.
SPEAKER_01:Exactly. Listen, she's mom. I need to make these mistakes in life, or I you need to let me make these mistakes. I'm like, you go for it. Just know that I am teaching you what life will teach you. Good and bad choices have good and bad consequences.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:I'm just being a teacher, that's all.
SPEAKER_04:Also, like Osho, um, I can't really quote him directly, but it's basically saying when you raise kids, let them make the mistakes. Yes, only protect them from physical harm.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_04:So if they want to run on the street, you stop them. That's a mistake you don't want to make. But if they want to fall in the if there's water in there, let them fall in, you pull him back out.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah, they learn.
SPEAKER_04:We learned, and yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:So I I think that yeah, I've again being raised the way that I was, I think that I was so overprotected that it didn't allow for freedom to feel like you could make these choices and have autonomy over what you're doing and in a loving way, still have the ability to make mistakes and own them and move and still feel like you're loved and you're not personal. I don't know.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:I try. I'm making mistakes as a parent too.
SPEAKER_04:So don't come with the manual, so you don't know a difference. Yeah, I was a single dad too. And did I make mistakes? Probably. Yeah, I guess, but that's all we can do.
SPEAKER_01:That's all we could do. I told them I was like, there's no manual for you. Each of you are so different, so very different. There is no manual to tell me this is how to do things, so I'll be the first to tell you that man, I make mistakes. And yesterday morning, if you would have asked me how I would have reacted to the mistake that you made, you probably would have been smacked to back to one year old. And now I'm having a conversation with you. You see, it's evolution. Um I don't have to put energy into getting upset. I just need to have the energy to have that conversation with you so that I could guide you in a better way so that next time you maybe think twice before doing the things that you are doing.
SPEAKER_04:Or you just go ahead and do it and don't listen to mom and find out for yourself. Actually, it worked for me. It didn't work for mom, but maybe it actually works for me. I don't know. So I try it out.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, absolutely. Always tell them, listen, my goal is to raise kind humans that have love and compassion and are happy and healthy. That's my goal in life, is that I don't, I'm not gonna steer you into you have to be a doctor or listen, you do whatever your little heart desires. However, I will always want the basic important things for you health, happiness, and like unconditional love and support from me as well. So it's fun, fun being a parent.
SPEAKER_04:Quite a bit of work, yes.
SPEAKER_01:So, one of my favorite things that I think that really altered me in so many ways was meditation. So, could you give us a little bit more insight on what is meditation?
SPEAKER_04:Absolutely, fantastic, love it. So there is this little bit of discrepancy. I am doing a meditation. Be it staring at the wall or yoga or what have you. I'm doing something. Being in meditation is a different situation when one is really inside in meditation. The I, the ego, is not doing anything. I am in the space of observing, and maybe that needs some clarity. It's like absolutely clear when I show you my phone. Here's my phone. It's absolutely clear that I'm not the phone. I have to be separate from the object I'm observing in order to observe it. I think everybody will understand that. So I can observe my body, even with closed eyes. I can observe my mind, I can observe my emotions. Obviously, I'm none of these things. And when I'm in that space of observation, there's no action, there is just watching, there's just being this, and then everything changes. Then I'm not in pain. There is pain, but I'm not in pain. I am observing this pain. The pain doesn't necessarily go away, but out of my experience, suddenly it's like I I don't really have anything to do with it. I'm still experiencing or observing the experience, but I'm not in it. I'm not angry. No, there's anger, and I have to let it flow, but I'm observing it. And the funny part is like suddenly when I and then I have a distance. I'm not identified with the situation, and that for me is meditation or being in meditation. And one can practice this washing. I can be in meditation, washing dishes, be on the toilet, walking, whatnot. I don't need to sit in the corner at six o'clock in the morning and stare at the wall or whatever. No, I just want to be aware and as much as possible, remembering to observe, step back. And that for me is being in meditation instead of doing a meditation because then I am doing something. Yeah, yeah, and the difference is amazing. And I invite everybody to try that out, just like learning, and I have an on YouTube a course of five weeks, which is really fun. Of how to become more the observer, be the watcher, it's called. And all in light masters basically just point to the same thing: it's don't buy, don't be identified, just be present and observe what's going on, and then suddenly, yeah, I'm still exp, or there is still the experience, but I'm just sitting on a couch somewhere in my head and watching the movie going by.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, that's yeah, that's beautiful. So when my oldest was around anywhere from like 10 to 12 years old during that time period, I was dealing with my own health issues. I was experiencing cancer as a single mom, and my oldest had just been diagnosed with bipolar disorder. And she was, again, only around 12 years old, but this had been going on for many years. I don't believe that she's bipolar, however, that was the diagnosis that they were able to come up with in that time period. It was a really tough time, and mornings were the hardest thing for us every single morning. For her to wake up, it was always like this all-out fight and all the things, right? So I needed to come to myself and make a change because I realized with the observations that I was coming to her the mornings with anxiety about what was to come because the evidence of everything that I had gone through over the last years has been every morning it's a fight, and every morning she's upset. And so I realized while I was observing myself that oh, I'm already going with the energy of anxiety into waking her up in the morning before school, and I had to open my eyes to what I was bringing to the table, and so I started to wake up a little earlier and really observing myself and the energy that I brought to the interaction, and then became a little with that, I became a little more intuitive on how to make changes. So she needed to feel in control. Her biggest issue was feeling out of control. So to help her, I was gonna give her something that made her feel more in control. So if I had to wake her up at seven, for example, I would go in there after I did at least five, 10 minutes of just like breathing deep, getting in a good head space, like allowing the good energy inside me to just radiate out. And that's what I would envision was this like beautiful purple light out, and I could feel it in my hands. It was just really healing. So that was that's how I calmed myself down. As you could tell, purple is my favorite, all shades of purple. Um my hair is purple, like it's my favorite, but I feel that's the color that that calms me and makes me feel grounded and so forth, and that's what I would imagine. But I started to wake her up like at 6:45. And I would go in there, I'd be like, Good morning, baby, it's time to get up. And it was such a different energy rather than hey, good get up, come on, good morning, I need you up. And I remember the shift that I when I would tell her, Good morning, it's time to get up, baby. Is do you want me to give you another 15 minutes so then you can wake up? And she's okay, so I'll wake you back up in 15 minutes, but at that time you have to get up, okay? Okay. And I would go back in there at the time that she had to actually wake up, and it was such a different, it's just such a different reality than what we had been experiencing. And I was just like, oh my gosh. It the two little things that I was able to change was those two things becoming a little bit more intuitive on how to approach her and what energy I was putting into it.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, because through the observation you became more present to what I is and intended and just went into a different space. And that's one important thing in this time that we all or as many as possible come into the space of beingness. And when we are present, we don't need to do anything. Yeah, energy radiates, and then suddenly everybody lights up.
SPEAKER_01:It's such a different experience.
SPEAKER_04:It's amazing, and you mentioned breath, it's one thing, also like a little trick for your listeners, yeah, and maybe. Maybe, well, you probably know it already. So when you're mind fucking, you're in Japan, even though you're sitting in Mexico, or being on the bus, or whatever, or thinking about something you didn't do, or whatever, and you become aware that you're totally stuck in the mind. Instantly just become conscious of your breath. Or the breath goes, it's not even a concentration, it's just being conscious of the breath going in and out. Feeling it, observing the feeling, and seeing the breath going in and out. You're instantly out of your mind.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Those things don't work together. It's like an amazing trick. Or I'm angry. That's actually being stuck in an emotion. Closed eyes, but being conscious how the breath goes in and out. Boom, the story is gone.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. She, my oldest, she deals still with some anxiety and so forth. And when she texts me, because she doesn't live with me anymore, but when she texts me, mom, I feel like I'm having a panic attack, and I'm like, give me three things that you can describe to me right now that you can see or feel or whatever. And it's so that she can concentrate on being present in the now and just those little things that that I'm looking at a blue car that has silver rims or something that you can explain to me what is happening to get you to calm your breath and just be present in the moment. Because the first thing I tell her is, okay, take a deep breath. And I need you to tell me, explain to me three different things that you can that you can see right now or feel right now and explain it. Give me detail. And if she doesn't give me detail, I'll ask. So what does that feel like? Or how does it smell? Or something so that she can come down with her breath. Cause usually when she's in anxiety, she's breathing hard. Yeah. And and it's just those those little things. Again, I learned all of that from these circumstances that I've had to go through, yeah. Go through myself. And I'm like, okay, if it's helped me, then those are maybe tricks that I could help her. And I think that my spiritual journey has definitely allowed me to be more of a an extra tool for them to be able to learn tricks and tips and stuff for themselves.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah. And worry and anxiety is one of the favorite pastimes in these times.
SPEAKER_01:Tell me about it.
SPEAKER_04:And what I tell people who are really into the story, like worrying and being afraid, or whatever. The trick which works so far for pretty much everybody is okay. I'm worried about tomorrow. I have to blah blah blah. Or I'm worried about that. I won't have any money, or what whatever the worry is, or the anxiety is. Again, the trick is stop, breathe, open your eyes. Everything is fine right now. There's nothing to worry about. The house is still standing, the food is still in the kitchen, the kids are still okay. Right now, everything is fine. And if there is a possibility that tomorrow is gonna be trouble, I will cross that bridge when I get there. But right now till that moment I get to that bridge, everything is great. Nothing is wrong. Nothing is wrong in 99.9% of the cases. Everybody can see, like right now, everything is fine.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Everything.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I had I don't remember where I heard this in one of those many different times that I was presented with words that really shook me in a good way. I heard if you live in the past, it's depression. If you live in the future, that's anxiety. But what if you live in the present, which is the presence or the gift of life? And I'm like, yeah, that makes total sense.
SPEAKER_04:When I was it is nothing else because past is gone, future is not gonna happen yet, or hasn't happened yet. So the only thing, and that's again, this the way to freedom is really again and again remembering here and now, and this just five breathings, yeah, becoming aware. Best is close your eyes and just breathe. Open your eyes and wow. Yeah, dang, this is wow, yeah, and then I can and okay. What comes now is also like when we said before, like being in meditation is doing nothing. That doesn't mean that I have to sit and do nothing. Yeah, but when I move, it does not come from my head, it comes out of my being, and then I'm still in meditation, even though I'm washing the dishes. Yeah, yeah, and yeah, it always comes, everything comes back to being here and now, and never mind, I forget, but by and by you get more and more faster in realizing wait a minute, I'm already in tomorrow. Yeah, okay. Sometimes I sit down because we do retreats, and so I have to make a meal plan and I have to prepare for the future, but I'm doing that in the present. Yeah, it's a little bit of a difference, which in my book makes all the difference.
SPEAKER_01:Absolutely. So you say you do psychic readings and so forth, right? So I guess why, if you were doing a psychic reading for me, why should I listen to you? And how do you know?
SPEAKER_04:Okay, a don't listen, try it out.
SPEAKER_01:I love it.
SPEAKER_04:I give you whatever is needed for you to hear. Yeah, and what was the second part of the question?
SPEAKER_01:And how do you know?
SPEAKER_04:Oh, how do I don't know nothing? I call myself a tourist on planet Earth, I have no clue what's going on. Well, how it works is I, with your permission, connect with you energetically and ask your higher self, your higher being, your spirit guide, spirit doctors, spirit helpers, and all who work for the highest good and benefit of all, to let me be a clear channel and guide to convey what needs to be conveyed for the highest good and benefit of all. And basically, with that little exercise I have before, which is also breathing, yeah, the vinaya steps aside. And one time I gave a reading, and this woman goes, You're really in my head.
SPEAKER_01:How are you in here?
SPEAKER_04:Your head is in my mouth. Basically, I just let go and I just talk and I just let flow what comes, even though sometimes, and that's funny, I'm always laughing at that. My mind goes, You can't say that. Anyways, and 100% it's like, yeah, ah, yeah, that feels right. So it's again not listening to that mind unless you repair a car, is a very good idea, especially when you work as a medium, as a psychic, or want to work with people that I don't know anything about you, so why would I know what meditation is good for you? I don't, yeah, but I have the ability to energetically connect and then you talk through me, and that's basically how it works.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, so the way that I so I've had on my heart for many years to start a podcast for many years, and fear, your brain, gets in the way, and it was always like, Oh, but I really want to, but oh, how would I even start that? And a few years ago, so my dad was sick with cancer, and my mom was working, so I really took care of him. I took him to appointments and so forth, and I was at I did all the things for them. I was his primary caregiver as my mom worked, and I really felt that I needed like a retreat from that, and I have a friend that I actually did my Reiki one and two with, and so she was she's the Reiki master that I did that with, and so she moved from Orlando to the Pacific Northwest, and so I went and visited her for a few days and ended up doing a I don't remember what the name of it called was called, but basically she spoke to my higher self in that yeah, so I came back and said that I was gonna have a podcast that it was gonna be called Against All Odds, and it was because I have overcome all these obstacles in my life that have been incredibly odd in terms of statistically, I really shouldn't necessarily be here. However, there's a greater purpose for it, and so I connected with my twin. My mom had a miscarriage and I stayed. And typically, especially in the time that I was born in the 80s, when you go through a miscarriage, your body expels everything. And I stayed, and so it was very uncommon and it was very dangerous, many different things, but I stayed and I fought for that. And in this retreat that I had with her, I connected with my twin and it gave me this sense of peace because I've always felt like something was missing, like my another part of me was missing. And so it was really beautiful, but it just felt okay, this is what I need what needs to happen. And right after that, my dad got really sick. He ended up passing away a few months after that. And so maybe five or six months after he passed, I went to a mindset conference, and they were like, do something that that you've been holding on to that you feel in your heart is what you want. And like I will before you leave today, you need to do a massive action on it. And I started a podcast. I opened this website, I like all the things, right? But things that I wouldn't have taken massive action on if I wouldn't have been like, hey, this is your goal or your task for today.
SPEAKER_04:Yes.
SPEAKER_01:And so I just I think it's so beautiful when you connect to that because it shows you what your dreams really are rather than what's superficially in your brain.
SPEAKER_04:And that's what my readings are basically about. It's like very often I hear, yeah, yeah, I know that. Thanks for the reminder. And it's a presentation. So basically, what comes out is what are your gifts? Why are you here? How do I get there? Yeah, the next steps, and then it's up to the person to do that or not. But basically, seeing the light in their eyes when they actually get verified, and like then it's also like somebody who doesn't know me tells me what I actually know, but I think I'm crazy. Who am I? What do I think who I am? And then suddenly somebody else tells me the same thing. Oh, it's probably true because I'm not just imagining things. That's like very often in the reading comes out that, yeah, okay, great. I love that. Really helping people, and it's amazing. I do this for like on and off, maybe not every day, 10 minutes, every 10 minutes, but for 30 years. That's beautiful. I've never actually never ever experienced anybody not coming out of the reading like with a glowing eyes, and it was always spot on. But like I say again, I don't know anything, but you do the all that is, or whatever speaks through. It's not an archangel, somebody from serious, it's you who's talking, and except that we've been programmed to forget what we know and told that we are crazy or that's not the way to do it, and blah blah blah. Yeah, you don't do things like this.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, actually. So give me some helpful tricks how to become more aware of yourself.
SPEAKER_04:Okay, a general trick would be the breathing and then observing what where you're at and what the feelings are, and all of that, and on top of that, there is no general trick, it really depends where you are at. Some people, or actually, many people these days have really intense trauma. Yeah, nothing you can do unless you first release the trauma from the physical, because that's is stuck in the cells and in the nervous system, and that runs me. And no matter how easy things sound, it's impossible for me because I'm still stuck in this freeze state because I couldn't fight or I couldn't run away for whatever reason. I was whatever. So I freeze, and the energy stays, and that runs many people, and that comes up often in readings where okay, this is what you might want to remember after you release the trauma, because that's the first step you need to do. So, again, it's really depending on the individual. Sometimes it's the reading normally takes about an hour, sometimes it's 10 minutes because they're already so in class number 10 that it's just a little tingy, and sometimes there's really more to say, and more understanding needed, and more feeling into it. And then again, what you said or what you asked me at the beginning, don't do what I say, don't believe what I say. Try it out and see. Yeah, that's the only way.
SPEAKER_01:I love it, I love it so much. So, what are some daily habits that have gotten you to help you reach the level of success in your spirituality or where you are today?
SPEAKER_04:I'm really bad with habits and discipline.
SPEAKER_01:Breathing seems to be a good one. Breathing aware awareness of your breath is it sounds like a good one.
SPEAKER_04:Yes, that's a good one. I don't really have daily practices. I for some times then do a certain exercise, I don't call it meditation anymore, a certain exercise for a little while and then it drops because it probably did what it was supposed to do or what, it brought me more awareness. The only thing is really being aware of my mind, yeah, and then like really stepping back into the presence.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:But that's an ongoing, it's not really daily practice, it's a moment-to-moment practice. Yeah, like when I remember, oh, maybe there's one practice I do pretty much every day or exercise, which is being on the balcony or under a tree, or even in town, whatever, but I'm hardly in town, but in my space, I close my eyes, I breathe a bit, become conscious of my breath, and then open my eyes. Wow, and I express my gratefulness to be able to have a body to have this wonderful adventure, as crazy as it is, yeah, and really expressing this gratefulness of being alive. That could be the only daily once, twice, trice. Sometimes I forget, but more often not what I do, what I really love to do, because it really brings me back into the space of gratefulness and thankfulness and ah yes.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I love that. Yeah, I love practicing gratitude at any moment, and that to me is has been very instrumental as well. Were there any limiting beliefs or roadblocks that you had to overcome in order to get to where you are today?
SPEAKER_04:It was actually a limiting belief, I just in the process of changing.
SPEAKER_01:Okay, I like it.
SPEAKER_04:Which is actually really hard to say because it's really a big picture of not stepping out, not becoming more vocal, not being really more visible and helping people to wake up. Yeah, there is this like limiting belief that nobody wants to listen, anyways, and I can't do this, and I don't want to be a guru, and all of that stuff. And it's actually funny because that's a limiting belief, which is uh I would say about 99.9% gone in the last two weeks. I've been working on this, yeah. Um, some exercises, and tomorrow I'm gonna start uh Instagram again and share some experiences or some exercises and which people can do, and yeah, I'm gonna I'm in the process of stepping more out.
SPEAKER_01:You started with me as well, like that's a good step.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, I've been doing podcasts, but it was always like I've been told actually that I cannot leave this existence until I actually do what I was supposed to do. Okay, it's about time to really let go of this idea of who am I? Yeah, who do you think you are? And it's just an old mindfuck, and it's belief. I know who I am, yeah, and it's just this fear, a little bit of nobody wants to listen, which is actually also not true, it's just this old mind story, yeah. That's where I would say it's it's pretty much gone. I'm starting tomorrow to actually jump out and be the weird guy.
SPEAKER_01:I love it so much. I'm all about it, all about it. That's awesome. Um, oh my gosh, this has been so good. I will listen to you. So you have one person.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, maybe we could do a reading sometime.
SPEAKER_01:I would love that. I'm again very open to to those things because I've seen how when someone is so beautifully in tuned with the universe, spirit, what beautiful things can come from that. So yeah, I'm definitely down whenever.
SPEAKER_04:Well, you know where you can find me? Psychicchrystalreadings.com.
SPEAKER_01:Excellent. So I will definitely, I'm gonna also put that everything in the show notes so that our listeners could go and and take a look at that as well. I'm really grateful for this conversation today because I it's beautiful when life is going so fast to have the reminder of slowing down and just take a deep breath and be present in the moment. And I feel like this afternoon was a little more crazy than I expected. And I got in and I was like, oh my gosh, let me just let me get on and prepare everything. And so it felt really good to just, oh yeah, I could take a deep breath and I am here and present, and I could have an amazing conversation, and it really, yeah, it was exactly what I needed today. That that's life happening for me and not to me.
SPEAKER_04:Yes.
SPEAKER_01:Oh my gosh, it was so amazing. Thank you so much for joining us today, listeners. Thank you for listening. Hopefully, you got as much out of today as I did because seriously, this was incredible. Thank you, thank you so much. I so appreciate it. I hope you all have an amazing rest of your day. Thanks so much for listening. Peace out, love your life. Bye.
