Danielle Laporte On Love, Courage, And The Real Work Of Healing

Start with the quiet truth: strategy can’t fix what fear is running. We open with Danielle Laporte naming meditation as her most powerful business move, not because it’s trendy but because clarity makes better choices inevitable. From there, we trace a path from performance to presence, where daily practice cleans up the inner noise so love can do the heavy lifting.

We swap origin stories about discovering A Course in Miracles and how the teachings move from confusing to catalytic. Only love is real becomes more than a quote when it meets real life—kids, deadlines, and a world on edge. We talk about forgiveness as a practical technology: a correction, not a punishment; a release, not submission. You’ll hear how to forgive while holding firm boundaries, why “vigilance in thought” matters, and how willingness alone can tip you back into alignment. Danielle shares her weekly atonement ritual, Marie walks through a five-day forgiveness flow, and together we map the terrain where healing starts to feel inevitable.

We don’t dodge hard topics. Danielle speaks plainly about human trafficking, algorithmic suppression, and the cultural upheaval bringing hidden harm to light. The invitation is to look with courage, act with compassion, and protect children without fueling division. We explore energetic hygiene—late-night scrolling, cravings, and the subtle ways we get hijacked—and swap grounded tools for staying clear: meditation, breath, clean food, rest, and relentless choosing of light. Marie shares her radical healing journey with cancer as a lesson in devotion and discernment, offering an embodied example of trust and consistency.

If you’re craving a conversation that is tender, unflinching, and immediately useful, this one will meet you where you are. Come for practical spirituality, stay for the relief that forgiveness brings, and leave with a handful of practices you can start today. If this resonates, follow the show, share it with a friend who needs it, and leave a review to help more hearts find their way here.

Transcript

Welcome And Danielle’s Introduction

SPEAKER_03 0:01

Greetings and welcome to the Yoga Off the Mat podcast. I'm your host, Marie Russell, and I'm so glad you're here. I'm a mama of two, wife for the second time, Cancer Thriver, Center of Excellence trained coach, and international yoga teacher trainer. I believe only love is real, and I'm on a mission to support the awakening of humanity to our divine potential. My superpower is being able to apply universal principles to daily life in a way where beautiful souls like you can apply them and receive the miracles that occur naturally when you align to love. In this space, you'll hear me talk about faith, forgiveness, and our human family's challenges and opportunities as we evolve into the best version of ourselves. This is Miraculous Living, and you're invited. Greetings and welcome to the Yoga Off the Mat podcast. Today I have for you the amazing, inspiring Danielle Laporte. I was delighted she agreed to be on our show. Danielle is a member of Oprah Super Soul 100, a group who, in Oprah Winfrey's words, is uniquely connecting the world together with a spiritual energy that matters. She's a former future studies think tank director who speaks about the intelligence of love. Danielle is also the creator of a Heart-Centered Membership and the Desire Map book and day planner, which over 250,000 people have tapped into. There are 500 plus Desire Map facilitators running programs in 23 countries. Her podcast with Love Danielle ranks in iTunes top 10 for wellness with over 1 million downloads. Named one of the top 100 websites for women by Forbes, over 5 million people a month, visit Danielle Laporte. I'm going to keep going here, reading her bio just because it's so impressive. Team Danielle's charities of choice are V-Day, a global activist movement to end violence against women and girls, Tree Sisters, to rapidly accelerate tropical reforestation, and Ally Global, helping survivors of human trafficking find healing through safe homes and education. Marianne Williamson refers to Danielle as a bright light in the modern priestesshood. Eve Ensler calls her a force field of energy, wonder, humor, and love. Danielle lives in Vancouver, Canada. And yeah, she's been a huge inspiration for us at Yoga Off the Mat. And for sure on this podcast, you'll hear me honor her for the motivation that I received when I started listening to her podcast. I actually call her the godmother of this podcast. But anyway, a long intro just to really share my excitement and joy around speaking with Danielle was a real thrill for me. Super, super fun. She's definitely leading the way for us heart-centered lovers out in the world to really tap the power of love and use it as a force in our lives. So, yeah, dive in. We talk about all sorts of really great stuff. We get into trafficking, we get into business, we get into for sure the Course of Miracles, and one of our favorites, the topic of forgiveness.

Authenticity, Practice, And Showing Up

SPEAKER_03 3:40

Enjoy. I'll see you at the end. Yeah, it's super inspiring how you're rocking it right now. I just I bow in gratitude. You know, I consider you the this podcast, the Yoga Off the Mat podcast, you're the godmother. I don't know if you know that. Okay, thanks.

SPEAKER_00 4:01

Very godmother podcast. I'll take that.

SPEAKER_03 4:03

You're the godmother because I was turned on to you and one of my by one of my colleagues, and she's like, Have you seen this woman? And I went to your page and I was at it and I was like, started listening to the podcast, and I literally felt like I drank it. I was like guzzling down the podcast, like food for the soul. And it was so powerful for me, Danielle, because I thought, well, maybe I could do that. Like I could just share from my heart and just be myself, and that would be enough. You know?

SPEAKER_02 4:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 4:33

Yeah. So it really feels like you're you're just yourself. And I'm really attracted to that because I think in this industry, sometimes there's a lot of pressure to kind of be somebody. And I don't, I don't know how to do that very well. I'm just like am me. And it seems to have worked so far, but you know, the difference between now and where you're at, at least for me, career-wise, feels like I'm just kind of stepping in there and I'm like, wow, can I really do this? Like, can I really do a live with a hundred people on at the same time? And I'm curious, like how you jumped, or was it a jump, or was it just you just kind of walked right into it, and there you are.

SPEAKER_00 5:14

It's a spectrum and it's stages, and it's be myself, fake it a little bit. That faking turns into some kind of painful constriction, fake less, be myself more, fake zero. And then do all my stuff like somebody asked me recently about like what's the best thing I do for my business? And I know so often, like, we just want this strategy answer. And it was like, the best thing I do for my business is I meditate. Yeah, like I show up every day, I do some form of practice. I mean, that's a whole other through line about practice, but I just like I clean my stuff up. Yeah, try and get rid of my fears and my arrogance and my where I want to be manipulative and my terror and mostly fear, mostly random fear, whole full spectrum of fear. And if I do that, I can show up and A, I can be loving and B, and in all in all directions, B, I can actually hear guidance from my higher self and the hires and the hires. Otherwise, it's messy. Yeah, it's messy if I don't sit.

SPEAKER_03 6:35

Yeah, it doesn't work. I feel the same way. I feel like the best thing I can do for my my business is just to stay calm, like just to stay present and just to keep breathing. And yeah, I so feel you. The difference between like I'm on a I'm on a roll right now, but I definitely know the days that I'm not centered and haven't done my practices and haven't sat and showed up for spirit, are the days that just feel like I'm fumbling and like they're like stitchy. Something just isn't right. And so yeah, I just find that that that element I also love and heart centered of just like the quick little get in there and what's what's a little a little hit of something is really powerful. But meditation, my goodness. So tell me then, how did A Course in Miracles come to you?

Discovering A Course In Miracles

SPEAKER_03 7:20

How does that story go?

SPEAKER_00 7:22

Like literally, I write about this in my last book, actually. I was 15 and I was I'm from Ontario, Canada. And right across my city, which was Windsor, was this a friend who lived in Michigan basically, and she had this amazing mom. And I was in awe of her mother because she was just like classy new age. She was incredible. She wore these white suits and she read Louise Hay. And I was like, I want to be that. She wasn't like flaky new age, she was like hot new age, you know? And we went to this bookstore. I got my first, I got my first book, the full set of A Course in Miracles, and I just barely could eat couldn't even get through a paragraph. And then a little bit more in my 20s and a little bit more. And now I feel like it's just like locked in, like, ah, this is my medicine, this is my language. A Course in Miracles is saying the same thing that many other mystical teachings. It's a part, you know, it's partly Bible, it's part Bagavagita, it's part, you know. But I was raised Catholic. It works for me. Christ consciousness terms, I don't have to wrap my head around them. I'm just I'm in it. So I love it, I love it, and it's also stern. Like I love a good stern talking to and it's all about love. I can see like all of my teachers have that similar, a similar characteristic to them. Course in miracles is that it's really a course in love, but very like let's talk about atonement. Krishna Murti is that for me. He suffers no fools. And if you can wade through his stuff, uh, how intense he is about don't be attached to your feelings, and we've ruined society, and we're just we're we're we're barbarians. You know, he's so intense, yeah. And then he just gets down to oh, P.S. Love is it. I'm like, oh, there we are. I knew I loved you. Uh yeah.

SPEAKER_03 9:47

Are you a course in miracles? Um, I'm I've been a student now for 15 years as well. I for I don't know how long you've been with it. Sounds like a while, but it was like that for me too. It was a friend who handed me the book. I was practicing a lot of yoga at the time. I was teaching and I'd done all these trainings and was living with my yoga teacher who was 30 years older than me, and that was like a whole thing. And I was like totally freaking out. Like my parents thought I had lost my mind, my family. I was just like, this girl from Ohio, and I was in San Francisco, and it was just this thing. And so she gave me the book, and I remember just like opening it and being like, This is a required course, going, required, this is a required course, and teach only love because that is what you are. I was like, What?

SPEAKER_01 10:35

That's what you learn what you teach.

SPEAKER_03 10:37

Yeah, and it was really helpful for me just because I I realized that I could was doing really great, like, you know, physically, I was I was doing okay, I was teaching, I had things going on, but inside it was like the minute my mother sent me a text, I was like, like everything was going off for me. And I couldn't sort out my mental stuff. And I think that's what I love about the course, especially the workbook, just those mantras for the day. Just like this is what today is about. My body is wholly neutral. That's today, you know, like that's what today's gonna be. And everything that comes up today is through that portal, and that's super helpful. At least it has been in terms of, and then one day about two years ago, it just all clicked. I I was here at this. This is one of my workspace hotel place that I love. And I was here really early in the morning and I got up and I was like drinking my tea and I was reading, and then all of a sudden it just felt like, oh my God, I get it. Like I was reading the text, like not just like a paragraph, but I was like sucking it up, similar to your podcast. Just when it's true and it's real and it's raw and it's it's powerful, it's almost alchemical, like it changes, it changes me too, and not only intellectually, but learning how to embody the principles in the course too has been just a gift, really. It's been a lot of work sometimes, but it's totally worth it.

SPEAKER_00 12:00

I feel I feel that way too. I mean, obviously I mean, the book is a literal transition, transmission, and then to read it, you get that. And I feel that even on the hard lessons, I find that I find the course content so comforting. Like it's

Therapy, Shadow Work, And Beyond Words

SPEAKER_00 12:20

just like I'm aligned. I get it. I get it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 12:25

It's like thank goodness. I keep, I it's like it feels like warm, something warm. It's like, oh yeah, like let me just let me just snug into this right now. If I can, you know, even with my kids around right now, and I have little ones, so it's like even if I get up at six, they're still, you know, getting up with me. But even if they're laying around and I'm just in it, they know that like mommy's in her meditation. Like this is, I am reading this book right now. And I think it's I hope it's setting a good example. But I I just have been, it's been so essential. And I we teach it too. I mean, not teach it, but we encourage the people that come to our teacher trainings to do the work of a Course in Miracles because I think that so much of our issues are in our mind, and we can't necessarily heal that just by working out or being physical or changing your diet.

SPEAKER_00 13:12

It really does take or even in therapy. I mean, this is the beauty, it is so many esoteric teachings take your therapeutic stuff to the next level. And you know, I'm thinking more and more these days about how therapy can actually take us backwards if we're focused on the wrong thing, if it's the wrong methodology, the wrong person. I I want to get to a place where, like it's still in my toolkit, but I'm just more interested in cutting through all that the shadow stuff and the feeling and the emotionality stuff without being a spiritual bypassing fool, but I just want to get to the esoteric cleansing beyond words, really. I want to live beyond words. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 14:04

I feel that too. And and it even energetically, just like removing the cords. Like sometimes I don't need necessarily need to talk about why this hurt me so much or why I'm so resentful of this or that. It's like, look, it's there. Can you just take it? I I don't, I, I got it. Like, take it and show me what I need to learn from it, and and I'll do it. And I'm I'm in this thing, you know, like I'm present. It feels very co-creative to be to be in that level, like in that relationship with spirit. And that's what I've learned from the course too. It's just that like I'm a holy son of God. Like, oh wow.

SPEAKER_00 14:36

But you you it was something you said about talking about it. That's the point about why therapy can be a backward, like yeah, sometimes in talking about it, we just we create the deeper groove. And it's a way of just that recapitulation is just our ego's way of making us right, which means everything else is wrong, or making us wrong, whatever it is. It just creates division.

SPEAKER_03 15:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:02

And yeah.

unknown 15:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:04

Yeah. It's important. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 15:06

Well, you said something recently in one of, I think, one of your podcasts about giving it up to the mother. Like who can take our pain? Who's got, who's got the power to do that? You know, is it the therapist or is it the divine? You know, and the therapist can serve the divine also. But I think that this next level, like what we're really called to right now, is is a much bigger responsibility in terms of how we're processing our stuff, how we're working through forgiveness. Are we really forgiving and forgetting? Like release, like it's gone. Like it's so far gone at this point. And this new level, like I really feel like this earth is just we are evolving in such a beautiful way that all of that stuff, all of the old modalities too, are kind of disintegrating. Like it's like, boom, we're in now. It's time to go now. Like now, I'm a holy son of God right now. You know, like I am innocent. You're innocent, brother. I forgive you. It's done. I love you. Goodbye. I don't necessarily have to be your best friend, but goodbye.

SPEAKER_00 16:05

And look at it, like the intensity where like things are more polarized than ever to be more loving than ever. That's the call. Like, I even on my own, in my own spaces, you know, on social media, just doing what I can every day I'm hustling, I'm hustling. But just to say, like, can you love someone who votes for the person you didn't vote for?

SPEAKER_02 16:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:27

And forget, just and and I'm interested in that place, you know, we talked about the place beyond words, like beyond the necessity for forgiveness. Why do I have to forgive you? It just is what it is. You're on this path. Okay. Okay. And it doesn't mean, I mean, the next intelligent question, but not from you, but just like in this critical thinking would be,

Polarization, Forgiveness, And Faith

SPEAKER_00 16:50

well, what about all the injustices and the horrible things happening in the world? Are you just forgiving that? Well, yes, and it doesn't forgiveness doesn't mean you're for it, you're supporting it, you're encouraging it, you're accepting it. It's happening. There are reasons it's happening, but don't deny it. You don't need to be right because you know now what? Yeah. And just you focus on what needs to be healed, who needs to be rescued, who needs to be nourished, and you let the you let the crimes go in a way. And I'm not talking literally, it's I'm not talking about not putting people in prison for everybody's safety, but philosophically.

SPEAKER_03 17:36

I I get what you're saying. I I really do. Because in the unified field of love, in reality with a capital R, only love exists. So as we step more into that, and that's what's motivating me too about world events to a certain extent, is that that the course curriculum is about heaven on earth. It and how do we do that? We do that by, yeah, the goal is forgiveness, but even forgiveness is an illusion. Forgiveness is a positive illusion, right?

SPEAKER_00 18:03

It's an illusion that it leads us to be for forgiveness, right?

SPEAKER_03 18:07

Right, it leads us there, but it doesn't mean that we get all stuck in the blame of it all. It's I love what you just said about who needs to be rescued, like who can we heal? Who who needs to come into the love vibe? And I think faith really comes in here too. That faith, faith is some powerful juju, man. Like I can see it. I just got chills. Like it's coming in here strong right now. And so for us, it's like I think keeping our eye on the ball, breathing through it is gonna be really important, especially like right now, it just feels like it's hitting a crescendo. You know, it's like everybody's really getting fried. A lot of pressure, yeah, a lot of pressure, a lot of pressure, but that's the cleansing process, too. And anyone who's ever done any kind of detox knows that that's nature. That's what's happening.

Program Invitation: Yoga Off The Mat

SPEAKER_03 19:00

Hey friends, popping in to invite you to Yoga Off the Mat, our online training. This is where we come together and move through six different modules, one a month, different tools that have been passed down from my coach and mentor Dorothy DeVac that are actionable, powerful, and transformational. The tools go deep, they allow us to explore our personal mythologies, we get to look at the way that we perceive wants and needs and fears. And the point is to just bring more and more clarity and direction, understanding, awareness, healing, vision, and all of that great stuff into our lives

Human Trafficking: Seeing What Hurts

SPEAKER_03 19:47

so that we can be more of who we are. Check it out, Yoga Off the Mat. Marie Russell. But you've done such an amazing job, Danielle. With like, I saw a couple things. Like when you posted about the trafficking, I thought, Christ. I could, I really felt you. I really was like, wow, she went. Like it reminded me of Christ, like literally, like that's what he would have done. He would have gone if you know the whole thing played out. Like he would have gone there. He would have looked. He would have said, What do we need to do here? And what are we doing? And yeah, you guys, you're done. That's done. Goodbye. Peace out. You know, you're done. I'm not even mad about it. I'm just so done with it. You know, it's like, you're just done. And when you spoke about that, I was really inspired because I I had said a few things here and there. And people, I just got such a like a weird, oh, you know, that's a conspiracy theory. You know, there's no trafficking going on. I was like, there is, guys, and it's not okay. And the only and anyone who's in this industry or healing work knows that we can't heal what we're unwilling to look at. That's like the bottom line, right? I mean, it was like you got to look and say, okay, do I want this or not? Is this valuable or not? And that's where I think, you know, I'm inspired by you because you've done that. And I wondered if you you got any negative feedback or if it was just like everyone was like, yay, Danielle, like, let's fix this up, man. Let's just get done with this. It's it's so horrific. It really is a hard thing to look at. I I get that, and I get why people don't want to, but I don't think it's an excuse not to.

SPEAKER_00 21:33

Well, I'm gonna back into this. Okay. So I have some regrets around the topic, which is when I, and these aren't recent regret regrets, but this was like 15 years ago. I was running a think tank in Washington, D.C. Future Studies, that gave me the privilege of getting a tour of this Center for the Internet National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. I saw things, heard things, learned things that you unspeakable, almost unspeakable. I wish I would have committed to the issue then. Wow. And then when I was in my 20s, I was the co-director of the Department for Social Inventions for the Body Shop Canada. And I went to we raised all this money to refurbish orphanages in Romania. I spent some time in Romania working at it at orphanages, and I learned that the fate for most of those kids would be they would go on the street, be trafficked. Maybe some of them, the males, would go into the military. And I wish I would have really committed then to the topic of human slavery. And now it's up for lots of reasons, about you know, culturally, but I think it's important to look at it not so much as you know what particular groups are talking about it loudly and what's believable and what isn't believable. It's to look at it in in two regards. One is very grounded, one is very esoteric. And I think the esoteric is very grounded, but the esoteric reason is that like everything's up right now. This is the time of upheaval, upheaval, corruption, lies, illness. We're seeing it in all sectors of society politics, medicine, education, economics. It's up. This is the time, this is the reckoning. This is this is part of the new era of greater consciousness. So all the stuff that is unconscious has to come up. So we're right on time. This isn't conspiracy stuff, right? This is upheaval. This is this is quantum leaps, and then there's a very grounded come on. Human trafficking is pervasive, it's been going on for centuries, and technology and globalization has just enabled all of it to like an nth degree. And it's happening, horrific stuff is happening at all levels.

SPEAKER_02 24:12

I know.

SPEAKER_00 24:13

This is not any kind of theory, I know, and until you know, now to like bring this into the psychological, until you look, until you do some shadow work yourself, and you just consider your potential for evil. That's a haven't you ever wanted to kill someone?

SPEAKER_03 24:34

Yeah. Wow, Danielle, beautiful.

SPEAKER_00 24:36

And just just like most of us, no, I've never, but come on, it's crossed your mind. If they just died, you just like a little my life would be so much easier if they just died. Or we have thought of killing, you know, whatever. Just however you would define evil, being abusive, manipulative, whatever it is.

SPEAKER_02 24:58

Right.

SPEAKER_00 24:59

And until you go to that and see your own fears and your own darkness in this lifetime and other lifetimes, then you're good not even going to be able to comprehend. And then with everything that's happening right now, all this these structures coming apart, it's a lot. It's

Darkness, Energy Hygiene, And Vigilance

SPEAKER_00 25:20

a lot. It's okay. You don't have to go, you don't have to go into brothels and rescue kids. You don't have to consider pedophilia at high levels, low levels, trailer parks, wherever. But just think about children and how children get protected. Let's just start there. And then you know, and then just to bring this into to real time. There it's a real problem, but that's an understatement. It's like deeply concerning that this has now become politicized and dangerous to talk about on social media platforms. My algorithms on Instagram are being messed with. We're now seeing so many, and I'm not even doing controversial stuff.

SPEAKER_02 26:13

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 26:13

My stuff is a light touch. Right. But if I go, I see, if I go watch somebody else's video that is going against narrative or then I don't, my message doesn't get out to many as many people who follow my stuff on social media. This is what did exist with democracy, and I think it was fragile to begin with, totally is really being shook. And we need to be alarmed, we need to investigate. Most importantly, after we get informed about what's really happened, we need to ask why it's happening.

SPEAKER_02 26:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 26:51

Yeah, 100%. Thank you for going there. It was so it's so beautiful to hear your history with the topic as well and to know that it's been with you because it's it's a hard, it's it's a hard one because it just it's it just brings up so much for us because we are, I think for the most part, lovers, all of us. And and this is like, well, how did this happen? And so your question of like, why is this happening really brings me back to the course because it always comes back to the course for me, but it's like our one problem is our separation from God. Our that's our problem. We we don't know who and what we are as loving entities, as extensions of light. And because we don't know that, we do really, really weird things on a very micro level, and it just keeps getting bigger and bigger to the most heinous stuff that that happens on this planet.

SPEAKER_02 27:42

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 27:43

And and so our work right now is to go back to that cause. The cause is that we're separate. We think we're separate when that's that's not true. That that's just such a falsity.

SPEAKER_00 27:56

Well, that is the the the spectrum of that is brings us out to evil, right? Like the perspective, the belief, the perpetuation of the perspective that you are separate from source. So you're just gonna be in the dark. And in that mode, you will do terrible things. But you have to take this off out of the solar system too, and just into a universal. So, you know, I think what's happening, this has been going on for eons since you know there were humans embodied on earth, but uh dark stuff is always looking for its way in. Totally. It exists. I mean, we could go into the philosophical course would say it's not real, only love is real. That is true, but on a not on the levels, on the degrees of separation, yes, it exists. So you take the degree of separation out to the extreme. And a lot of us uh everybody lifetimes no with no exception are being think of the best uh words for this, like infiltrated, hijacked, manipulated. It happens to I'm sure sometimes I'll give you the like a really specific example. Like I know sometimes when I'm checking my phone late at night, when I should be loving myself enough to get sleep, I I feel that I am being hijacked. That my own possessive energies, which by the way, are entities that are working on me. They want me to be unrested, they want me to be unwell. And if I'm not doing my work, love, compassion, and all the tools to keep me back in those things prayer, meditation, clean eating, whatever it is, then I'm leaving myself open. I'm creating fractures in my energy bodies for dark stuff to seep in. And if we create our realities, which we do, if we're creating our realities and I can make something beautiful happen, I can also be allowing for all sorts of not so beautiful things to be happening to myself. So you have a thought form, you keep giving energy to that thought form. It's got its own momentum, and that works whether it's positive or negative, dark or light. And wow, yeah. The term like you got to wrestle with your demons, I think we should take it more literally because it feels like it at times.

SPEAKER_03 31:04

It's because our minds are so powerful and we don't even know how powerful we are. So it's like when we create from love, we co-create with the power of the universe so we can create something magnificent. We could create a planet where there's no poverty, period. Everybody has a house,

Radical Healing And Food As Medicine

SPEAKER_03 31:20

everybody's got all the fresh fruits and veggies and food that they need. We could do that a hundred percent in a New York minute if we wanted to. In an in an instant, in a holy instant, if we wanted to. But because we are so susceptible to these dark energies and because our minds are so powerful, we miscreate. And I, you know, I struggle with this just in terms of like food, you know. Like right now, I'm on like a straight up fruit. I am like trying this fruit thing on. It's been nine days. Oh my God, I'm telling you, I am like, I am high as a kite, lady. I am just like, Woohoo! Ring it on, give me some orange juice. Like, I swear to you, I am like the happiest person. My husband's like, who are you? My kids are like, mommy, mommy. I'm just like, I'm so juicy. I'm back to myself. Like, but I have struggled.

SPEAKER_02 32:09

You're glowing.

SPEAKER_03 32:10

Say it again. You are glowing. Thank you. Well, I'm it's also super hot. But no, it's true. Like, I I even this morning, I was like, I was susceptible. I was like, you're tired. You got up super early, you already meditated, you don't need to. Like, and it was like, just have a coffee, just just just have a coffee. And it was like, boom, I was like, whoa, I struggled. It it felt like I was wrestling, no doubt. But I am, I have committed. I am like, I am of the light. You are not welcome here. You must go now. And and it it took a couple hours, but I had to just be with it. I couldn't avoid it. I was upset that it was happening, but that was making it worse. So it was just like, all right, this is happening. And I'm just gonna stay on focus. I'm gonna just drink my juice. I'm I'm not busting this one out anymore.

SPEAKER_00 33:01

And that is, I mean, somebody if somebody just like dropped into this conversation right now, they'd just be like, who are these chicks? But that approach of when temptation is coming in. So for you, it's like, I want to stay with the fruit, I want to stay in wellness, I want to stay in love, I want to stay in vibrancy. This is a life-affirming choice. And then the coffee is really just a it's for the sake of this conversation, like it's a symbol of death. Really? Something that takes you off of life. 100%. It's dark, it's dense, it's ignorance, it's a distraction. Right. Yeah, and for you to say, I am of the light, coffee go. You are banished forevermore, is that's using free will for the right things. So, but I'm putting those in as symbols because like you could take this with anything. It's like the coffee is a symbol of of lying, of having the affair you shouldn't have, not that affairs, you know, of have of whatever it is of not being in love, of not being conscious. And those thoughts, those demon energies, they're around all the time. Like I can have those moments where I feel like I'm on, I'm full. And by on, I mean I'm aligned. I'm aligned with my soul that is aligned with God, you know. And then I can walk down, you know, from walking in 10 feet into my kitchen. I can be back in some fucked spiral of like why I preserve this or this, I was too that or too less, or two more. This is diligence, this is vigilance. And I don't know if this phrase comes from a course in miracles, but vigilance in thought is the only way. Like every time it comes up, every time, every time, every time. Choose light, choose life, choose love. I love that.

SPEAKER_03 35:13

Choose light, choose love. Yeah, choose light, choose love. Uh yeah, because it's I think the course teaches, you know, my way is not difficult, but it's different. What's difficult is getting over our resistance to it. What's difficult is being diligent, is is saying no when it's just so much easier to just like, you know, lay it out.

SPEAKER_00 35:35

And what's difficult is believing that you are aflame in the fire of God when society is telling you that you're too white, brown, thin, curvy, whatever it is. Totally. So you're just like, what? I'm magnificent and I'm forgiven. Right. It's radical.

SPEAKER_03 35:57

It's radical and it's essential. It's but it is radical. And people, you know, I have I've had all sorts of people, like I've made radical decisions. Like I don't, I have I'm just gonna go here, but I have breast cancer and I'm healing breast cancer without anything. Like natural. You currently have it. I currently have a tumor in my right breast. It's been two and a half years.

SPEAKER_01 36:21

Wow.

SPEAKER_03 36:21

It's grown, it's gotten smaller, it's grown, I'm in it. But I somehow just knew that healing this was healing me. Like it was healing everything, it was healing all of my wounds from every lineage I've ever been a part of, all of the mother stuff, all of the father stuff, all of the masculine, all of the feminine, all of the child. It was just like I just knew I had to do it. And everyone in my life thought I had lost my mind. Like everybody, are you crazy? You're gonna die. You have two children. I was like, I might be crazy. I'm not gonna die. I'm connected to the spirit that permeates the power that is the power of the universe, that is love. And when that energy tells me to go take this out or go do something like put poison in my body, I'll go do it. But until I get that message, I'm just gonna eat fruit. I'm just like, I'm just gonna see how to get my body alkaline because if I can do that, and I know you you're involved a bit with medical medium information as well. Like that was really interesting to me. It was like, oh, I've struggled with vegetarianism, veganism for since I was 19 on a mission trip, and a cow walked up to me. And I saw, oh my God, I'm gonna cry. Like, I saw the eyes of the cow and I was like, you beautiful creature, I will never eat you again. And please forgive me for eating you ever, and all of my family and everybody who's ever partaken in that. And then, you know, five years later, I was back to it. You know, it's like I I had been like this, and it was just recently, I would say, in the last few months, that it was it was my cancer was coming back, it was getting really painful, it was getting serious. I have a clinic that I do alternative therapies with in Tijuana. And anyway, so I'm on it, but I was like, either I have to do something drastic, like cut it off so that I can drink coffee and eat shit, or I can really take this seriously. Like I like I had that flash two and a half years ago that I could do this if I stayed diligent. And if I believed that I was worth it, like if I really believe that I'm worth this, it will happen. Vigilant. Vigilant.

SPEAKER_00 38:29

It's vigilant, yeah. Well, you're amazing. Well, you're amazing. Thank you.

SPEAKER_03 38:35

It's we all are. I really think that. I just think that I I've always been a bit radical. We'll use that word. I've always been like, well,

Commitment, Truth, And Living Meaningfully

SPEAKER_03 38:45

why do we do that? Or why why are people mean to each other? Like I remember being in a poli side class in, and I worked in DC for a New York minute for a split second, six months maybe, but I ran out of there with my tail. I was like, whoa, it was not my people. But I remember being in a poli side class, and we were doing this thing, and this guy was like, We we, I was the banana republic, and he was somebody else, and we were all in harmony, and everything was great, and we didn't have any issues in our country. And he's like, I'm gonna start a war with you. And I was like, Why? Like, we're good, like it's good. Why would you do that? He's like, Because I'm bored. And I was like, I I had this moment, I was like 19 or something, and I just remember being like, Oh my gosh, like this is happening. Like, this is how it works, this is how it works, and it was such a flash for me. Like, I remember that I'll never forget his face, and I send him love often because he's he shows up for me in terms of my own process of like you can you can trust your love or you can trust your fear. You can trust your creativity, you can trust your boredom, you know, and and it all comes down to trust and where do you want to put your energy and and what do you believe is possible? And I think that for me, it's always been just stay with it. And it's not always easy, and it's not always pretty, and it's not unicorns and butterflies. A lot of the time, but sometimes it is, and and that's the part that keeps me going.

SPEAKER_01 40:06

Yeah. To life.

SPEAKER_03 40:09

To life. To life. You're the godmother. I am so, I am so delighted to be in the space with you right now. Thank you. Likewise. Yeah. Thank you very much. How do you say confident? What works for you? That you're on the right path, that you're in the light, that you're gonna keep choosing, you know.

SPEAKER_00 40:27

I'm gonna keep choosing. I um I don't know. Confidence is a funny word. I don't, I don't I have a funny relationship with the word confidence. Like how about committed? Committed, there we go. Yeah. How do I stay committed? Well, it's painful to not be committed. Thank you. Isn't it? It's worse. It's worse. It's worse. It's worse. Yeah, that's it. That's it. It's worse to not be committed. Like, so maybe it's messed up because part of it is just like it's so punishing when I slip. Yeah. It's like I will do anything to not feel that way. But I just want to live a meaningful life. I want to live a meaningful life. I obsessed with the truth. I want to know what the truth is. Like, what's the truth? And I have an inkling that the truth is that we're all connected and there's something higher. And I've just fairly recently decided or had the experience that, like, I've known for a long time, we've got to leave all this room for mystery. Who knows? You're never gonna know. You're just here. We all just agreed to go when blind to this. Like, you know, we're all like, okay, I got an idea. Yeah, you're gonna forget that you are actually a divine being, and you're just gonna cram yourself into this little body and probably attract all this, create this suffering to help you wake up. I get that. I just like uh, I just want to make a difference while I'm here. And some days like we all know this is so cliche. Some days it's easy, some days it's hard. But that's everybody gets that. I think the more honest, even more honest thing to say is some days I'm happy about that. And some days I'm very scared about that. I'm rarely resentful. I'm just some days I just want to oh just beg for mercy, you know. And other days I feel majestic.

SPEAKER_01 42:57

Beautiful, gosh, sister.

SPEAKER_03 43:01

Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 43:02

Yeah, thank you. Gorgeous.

SPEAKER_00 43:05

Real conversation.

SPEAKER_03 43:07

Yeah. That's what I like to do. I don't know what else we're talking about. I want to go beyond words too. Like if we're gonna use them, let's use them for this.

SPEAKER_00 43:19

Yeah. What else do I want to say? I want to say right now.

Forgiveness As Freedom And Boundary

SPEAKER_00 43:24

Well, I mean, let's just go to the heart of the course, which is forgiveness. And, you know, so we you mentioned earlier, like it's not even necessary, or it's like in God's eyes, beloved, perfect. Yes, you're doing shitty things, but it's actually not even real. Right. So I think everything that we're in right now, in terms of 2020, and we're just getting started, you know, it's gonna get more restricting. Yeah. It's all about forgiving. Just like if everybody, this is like I'm gonna oversimplify this right now. It's like if 50% of the sentient beings on the planet right now, I'm making this up, could just forgive. Forgive themselves for all their crappy behavior, forgive being ripped off and abused and neglected and the divorce and the bankruptcy and the lies and not getting just it's all okay. It's all okay, it's done. Yeah, still breathing, you can still thrive. Everybody just trying their it's good. Yeah, and then in that forgiveness, forgiveness isn't just like, okay, it's over. Forgiveness is I wish you well and I see our connectedness.

SPEAKER_02 44:50

Yes, beautiful.

SPEAKER_00 44:51

We don't have to do lunch because I have to take care of myself. Right. You're still toxic. You're still you still lie all the fucking time. So I'm not gonna have lunch with you because this is my job is to take care of myself, but I still love your lying ass. Really? Like you're so not evolving, right? But you still deserve everything that I want for my own happiness, and I can't even get you to change. Yeah, I'm not that special. I can't get you to change, like okay, but I love you and you're worthy, and you deserve to be fed. And you know what? I'm even gonna help you get fed. I I can just like just one iota of per personal experience, like forgiveness is so relaxing. It's exhilarating when you decide to not be an asshole by somebody else. You are gonna feel home. You're gonna you're going to wish you got over it so much sooner. It doesn't mean they change. No. No. But you know what? Whatever.

SPEAKER_03 46:05

Whatever you don't care. And they might, who knows? You hold the vision for that, but you're not attached. Like you're not invested in that. That's not your happiness, it's not dependent on somebody else changing, it's dependent on you changing. Your forgiveness is you changing how you approach it. And you're like, you're free from that place. You're just done. And I love that. You know, we're in the middle of a forgiveness challenge right now. So I run a little forgiveness challenge. It's a five-day practice. And each day they have a question, like they ask, they look at a relationship they want to work in, and then they write down their resentments, their grievances, their judgments. They ask the question, are you willing to let this go? Huge. Are you willing? Are you willing? And then if you are, yes, no, or maybe, you get a soul lesson. What does your soul want to experience right now? And then from there you get to gratitude, which, as you know and speak of often, just gratitude being that state of grace. Like, straight up, I'm in gratitude. Thanks for being an asshole. I've learned so much. I love you so much. And yeah, I'm not having lunch, but good luck with that. And really, truly, honestly, I love you. It's good. Peace.

SPEAKER_00 47:10

It's good. Wouldn't it be amazing if like one of our metrics of success was like, I want to be known as a forgiving person.

SPEAKER_03 47:18

Well, it might be in the new age. Fingers crossed, that's what we're doing.

SPEAKER_00 47:21

Yeah, let's go for it. I want to be known as a forgiving person.

SPEAKER_03 47:24

I do too. And you know, maybe it won't take 50%. You know, I there's a lot of scientists that say, you know, even just the one percent of critical mass, yeah, which is why I think people I'm so inspired by you and in growing your audience and taking a hit now and then on Instagram for for for speaking truth. And but just just keep at it, Danielle. You're doing such beautiful work. I mean, I you probably already know that, but I just really want to say that it's it's been beautiful. And thank you for talking about forgiveness, because that's I mean, to even put that on social media, people are like, forgiveness. I'm like, it's not the Catholic kind, it's the different, you know, it's atonement. It's really, it's deep.

SPEAKER_00 48:00

Oh, you can't, and you gotta be so mindful about how you're talking about atonement. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No one's getting whipped and punished. Atonement is just saying, I see where I was incorrect.

unknown 48:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 48:14

And just seeing it is you being more conscious and vibrant. I see it. Great. I hope I never do it again. I'm gonna intend to not do that again. And then you do it again. Yeah, and you go, I see it again, but look how much love I have for myself and for them. And yeah, I you know, I'm used to have a super messed up relationship with just the concept of atonement. And now I work it into it's part of my practice. It's it's not like a daily thing, but like once a week, I'll just have a conversation with the Holy Spirit and say, wow, I was a bit of a dink. And it were and I it has to work both ways. So I can say, you know, I was not in alignment with how I treated that person or what I said or what you know, the language that I used, but also to see like, wow, I was so hard on myself in that one day, or God, I've been staying up so late. That's that's missing the mark. That's the definition of a sin, missing the mark. I I atone for not being impeccable with myself.

SPEAKER_03 49:24

Yeah. I like atonement like at one mint. Like I just want to get at one again. I I want to get back in. And when I step out is when I start doing all the weird things. And then I think our natural tendency, at least until we've evolved to a certain level consciously, is to judge that we've done that and to get upset about that, which is where the weird atonement stuff comes in. Now I'm punished or not good enough. And course, course curriculum for me was huge. And that was like, you didn't even, you didn't even do anything. Like, guess what? In in the unified field, nothing even happened. And it's a mistake that all that requires is a correction. So it doesn't, it's just you just need a little bit of a tune-up,

Willingness, Atonement, And Self-Honesty

SPEAKER_03 50:05

maybe, and and a willingness to be tuned up by a higher energy that that knows you and that knows your innocence and that knows your potential and that loves you no matter what you do. But isn't it more fun to know that you're loved, you know?

SPEAKER_00 50:21

And you've used the the word willingness, willingness a couple of times. Like that's such a big thing. Like, just you don't have to have it sorted out. You don't have to know how you're gonna save the world or save your life or keep your household together, whatever. Just be willing. Yeah, I want to do this with higher love. I want to forgive. I I want to be a conduit of love. I want to live a life of service. Yeah, I'm here, I'm here, and I'm not, and and my growth edge has been I'm not here without fear. Like I used to think I had to get all like purified and perfect and like, okay, I am fearless and I'm showing up for duty and I am totally in alignment. And that and now it's just more like, oh my God, I want to live a meaningful life, but I'm really afraid you're gonna make me suffer.

SPEAKER_02 51:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 51:11

I I wanna be generous, but I'm really afraid you're gonna take something away from me. Yeah, but I'm still here. Yeah. I'm still here. Help me do something with my fears while I show up for duty. Yeah. Wow, beautiful. Otherwise, we're not gonna show up.

SPEAKER_03 51:27

It'll be lifetimes before we And that's I think the good news about having you know practices is that there's there's ways to deal with fear. It doesn't have to be the dominating force in our lives. It's there, it's present. Hello, oh, you're here again. That's like me this morning. Oh, my fear that I'm not gonna have the energy to do this interview or do all the things I had to do. It's like, oh, you're here again. Oh, good morning. Hello, okay, fine. Fine, but I'm still gonna show up for light. I'm still gonna show up for love. And that's my commitment and that's what I'm dedicated to. And that's that's for me what's been taken this last couple of months has been this like it felt like an upgrade. Like I needed to really step up my game. Like I really need to be consistent here, like consistently showing up, saying yes, even when I was afraid, even when I thought it was all gonna fall apart, like, and it might, and it has, God knows it has a bunch of times. But it's all fine. It's so incredible how resilient we are, you know, and how much we learn from the things that we thought were the worst thing that could happen, end up actually being such a blessing. Like my cancer, for example. I mean, such a blessing. It brought us to Mexico. I finally started to get serious about my practices and getting consistent. My kids are, you know, everybody's thriving, it's all good. But again, if I it all it's all about perspective. And that's what I love about miracles. Like, if I'm willing to change my perception, if I'm willing to change my perception, miracles occur naturally as expressions of love all around. And I'm just gonna keep putting my energy in that direction. And anytime those weird heebie jeebies come, it's like, look, you can hang, but not for long because you know, got work to do. I love you.

SPEAKER_00 53:07

This was so fun. This was so fun. I want to go eat fruit and curl up with a course in miracles now. Super inspiring to just be on the path. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 53:18

Yeah. Thank you. And thank you for I I was a podcast on mornings you had done, something about you would set a course in miracles, and I was like, woohoo! I love a course in miracles too. And I just I the people that we work with, I mean, it's just been so transformational for so many people. And I love, I love this work and I I feel the same. Curl up, come take a vacation anytime you want. We live in paradise, it's beautiful, it's really laid back. You're so invited. You're so welcome. We'll take good care of you.

SPEAKER_00 53:45

Crossing my mind, yeah. Yeah, thank you.

SPEAKER_03 53:50

Yeah, I love you so much. Thank you so much for this. So beautiful. I hope we do it again sometime and we stay in touch this way. It just feels right.

SPEAKER_00 54:00

You know, I said I I don't say yes to very much stuff. Really? Yeah. And I just, I don't know if that's helpful. I just want to I I want to say that to you because it's just like I do like I now maybe four podcast interviews a year.

SPEAKER_02 54:15

Wow, I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_00 54:17

Oh, John, just don't be honored. I just felt like, oh yeah, she's a good egg. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Super duper blessings with your journey. This is so courageous. And I feel like, I mean, you don't need me to say this, but I just like your life is going to be so much better because you did it this way.

SPEAKER_03 54:37

Thank you. Thank you for saying it. It's wonderful to hear. It's very encouraging. I feel so too. I feel that way too, but it's it's lovely to have encouragement because it's been a lonely journey. I mean, it's definitely against the grain. And um, I don't talk about it too much, but I felt I felt safe and and it's fine. Thank you for saying yes.

SPEAKER_00 54:57

You're doing it the hard, clean way. Yeah. The other way is easy, but it's so dirty.

unknown 55:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 55:06

Yeah. And and if you change you can change your mind tomorrow and you'd be like, give me the give me the chemo, whatever it is, you know.

SPEAKER_03 55:14

But I it really works. Like you can cancer's not that big of it. I mean, it's a big deal. I but I'm I'm living proof. Like I'm fine, guys. Like I'm I'm in touch with it. I'm it's teaching me. I'm using it as a learning device. It's neutral. I'm trying not to give it too much energy. I've never looked better. I've never felt better. Cancer saved my ass. I was gonna die. I looked like I was eating, like it was not a pretty thing. I needed to get my shit together. And cancer was cancer was my message. You know, if we don't learn our lessons, what happens? You have pain. You have to learn certain lessons. I have contracts. Like I I said I was gonna be a lover in the world, and I was not, I was not in alignment to that. Honestly, I was there was too much in me that was faking it. I was just saving face, and I couldn't get out of that cycle. So yeah, it was like, well, here you go.

SPEAKER_00 56:06

Oh, you're just getting so refined. Yeah. Clean the vessel out. Yeah. Oh my gosh, your meditation, the inner child radiance meditation is beautiful. Thank you for that. All right, I'm gonna go have a bite and then get back on for heart-centered call. Oh, wow. Maybe I can do that. Three o'clock. Love you. Yeah, so much love. Thank you. Healing, love, love, love, love, love.

SPEAKER_03 56:30

I'll take it. I'll take it right back at you, babe. Love you. Thank you. All right, love you. Bye for now. Hi, friends. Thanks for listening

Gratitude, Resilience, And Closing Blessings

SPEAKER_03 56:40

today. I trust you found something useful in there. Happy to hear what came up for you. Feel free to reach out, take a picture, screenshot, tag me on Instagram, Marie Russell One. Love, love, love to hear from you guys and send you beautiful, beautiful energy for a magnificent day. Bye for now.