The Heroines Journey Part 6: Finding Your Allies

Welcome.

Tiziana.

Ciao.

Buona mattina.

Ciao.

Anche a te Marcella.

Buona mattina è giusto.

Si.

Okay.

Va bene.

Good.

All right.

Well,

Welcome everyone.

Welcome those of you who are returning,

My renew women.

And then welcome to those of you who are new.

My name is Marcella Friel.

I help women like you heal the spiritual roots of yo-yo dieting,

Binge eating,

Sugar addiction,

And body shaming.

And by the time women like you land at my doorstep,

You've done the diets,

You've used the apps,

You've done the intuitive eating and the intermittent fasting and all the rest of it.

And,

You know,

All of that is good in as far as it goes,

But almost invariably there comes a point either where it just stops working or it does work like,

You know,

You lose 40 pounds or whatever your goal is.

And then,

Then what,

You know,

There's,

There's still maybe,

Uh,

Unhappiness with your body and,

You know,

Gee,

It's you,

You didn't do it perfectly enough.

And what are people going to say when you,

They see you and you've lost all the weight,

There's still all these issues that dieting just doesn't ever address.

Not to mention that chronic caloric restriction wreaks havoc on your metabolism.

As I'm sure those of you who have done lots of diets know.

So what I do is I help women like you heal and rewrite the stories that you're telling yourself about your body,

About yourself,

About how much you deserve or how worthy you feel or whatever it is that might be holding you back or standing in the way of you completely loving yourself exactly as you are in this moment.

So just let me know,

Especially if you're new,

If,

If that resonates with you,

Tanya saying it's fun to learn Italian while we're doing this work as well.

Well,

That might have to be like a separate Insight Timer live.

So what I am doing in this series of live events on Insight Timer is presenting a series of talks on the theme of the heroine's journey.

And the heroine's journey is an archetypal path.

It was codified by Joseph Campbell back in like the 1970s and eighties.

However,

All he did was,

You know,

Again,

Codify it sort of put a code to it.

Really the heroine's journey or the hero's journey is an archetypal journey that if you look at all of mythology,

All of literature,

All the fairy tales,

All the big movies that we see these days,

Invariably you see elements of the heroine's journey in them.

And the reason why I've been focusing on the heroine's journey is because all acts of healing are acts of heroism.

It takes courage,

Not just simply to feel better,

But to really,

As,

As Jesus said,

You know,

Bring forth that which is within you so that that which is within you can heal you.

So today our topic is going to be finding your allies,

And we'll get into that in just a moment.

But before we go there,

I want to invite you to join me in beginning the way I'd like to begin.

So if you're in a place where it's safe and comfortable to do so,

I want to invite you to just place one or both hands on your heart.

And let's just take a couple of breaths together.

And while you are here with your hands on your heart,

I want to invite you to take one more breath.

And on the out breath,

Just see if you can drop your energy down out of your head and into your heart center and see if you can feel or hear the beating of your heart.

Just see if you can bring your attention and your awareness all the way down right into the center of your heart and see if you can connect into a sense of resting inside your heart center.

And again,

Your heart has been working tirelessly on your behalf since even before you were born.

And from this place of resting inside your heart center,

I want to invite you to call to mind someone who has been a very loyal supporter of you for a long time,

Years,

Decades,

Maybe your whole life.

This could be a sibling.

This could be a good friend.

It could actually be a spirit ally.

It could be either like a pet or an animal that you have,

Or it could be a kind of totem animal.

Maybe it's an animal that you encounter when you go out into nature.

I want to invite you,

Whoever this might be,

If it's a person,

To just imagine that person standing behind you,

Placing their right hand on your right shoulder.

And if it's an animal,

Maybe they're just by your side,

However it's appropriate.

You might be holding them or they're standing next to you in some way.

But whoever this is,

See if you can really vividly call their presence forward and notice how it feels to have them by your side.

How seen and understood and celebrated you feel.

There might be a sense of unconditional support,

Unconditional love,

And then I want to invite you to allow yourself to reciprocate that,

To really summon and call forward your respect,

Your admiration,

Your love,

Your appreciation for this person,

Or this animal,

Whatever it might be.

Just tune in to a sense of how precious and how important this relationship is for you.

And then when you're ready,

I want to invite you to just thank this being for visiting with you today and allow them to just dissolve into you,

Dissolve into your heart center,

And just hold that love,

That support.

And then as you open your eyes and rake your hands across your chest,

I want to invite you to allow that support and that love and that respect and appreciation to expand and include all the sister heroines and maybe there's a brother hero or two as well in this circle.

We heal faster when we heal together.

So come on back in.

Well,

Welcome back.

And before I get into talking about what I want to talk about today with finding your allies,

I'm very curious to know,

Please post in the comments,

Who came to mind?

And how easy or difficult was that meditation for you?

I'm very,

Very curious.

Today,

We are in stage six,

I believe,

Of the heroine's journey,

Which is finding your allies.

And Emily,

Hi,

Emily,

Welcome.

Emily is saying,

You're older sister and she came easily.

How lovely.

How lovely.

You know,

If you want to share also like,

How has she supported you?

Jenny is saying her mother and it was easy.

Okay,

Good.

And Ginger saying easy to connect and lots of emotion.

How sweet.

How sweet.

Wonderful.

Yeah,

I had kind of while I was doing that,

I had a few people sort of,

Like almost carousel in and out.

And then a very good friend of mine who lives here in town came.

And we had,

We actually just recently a couple weeks ago had a time together where we were just so bonding in our support of each other in our friendship.

Tiziana is saying,

One of my bosses that has a long standing mentor for the past 25 years.

He's like a dad to me.

Beautiful.

Yay.

Okay,

Good.

So let me do a little recap very quickly.

For those of you who are new of the path of the heroine's journey.

So as I said,

All acts of healing are acts of heroism.

It takes courage,

True healing,

Genuine healing,

Real transformation at the core of our being.

It takes courage,

And it also takes support.

And that's where the allies come in.

The heroine's journey begins with the ordinary world,

Which is the sense of what I like to call the blessed discontent,

When maybe things are not going so well,

Or they are going well,

But they could be going better.

And there's just a sense of like,

All right,

I,

You know,

Something's got to change,

Something is breaking down.

I need to go to the next level.

I'm not quite sure what that is yet.

So that's all the ordinary world.

Then invariably,

What follows on that is the second stage of the heroine's journey,

Which is the call to adventure.

And this is when life meets us in that blessed discontent.

And that can come as a sudden loss of our job.

It could come as some twist or turn in our relationships,

Or our marriage,

Something in our health,

You know,

We get a health diagnosis,

We win the lottery,

You know,

You know,

Or we just finally pay attention to the inner voice and say,

Okay,

You know,

It's time.

So that's the call to adventure in a nutshell.

Tanya is saying my mind bounced from thing to thing.

Yeah.

And then a friend who is a healer came through.

In her presence,

I felt enough and accepted for the first time in my life.

Gorgeous.

Oh,

Good.

I'm glad you all had good experiences with this meditation.

And I'll talk about why in just a second.

So then once we get the call to adventure,

What follows on that stage three of the heroine's journey is the refusal of the call,

Or the resistance to the call.

And for some reason,

This is just popping into my mind.

I heard this story about Mother Teresa one time,

I think I watched a documentary about her.

And she was riding the train in India from,

I think it was Calcutta to Darjeeling.

And while she was on that train ride,

She got her call to adventure,

Which was that her task was to serve the poorest of the poor.

And she had already been a nun.

She was Armenian,

I believe.

Ethnically,

She was Armenian.

She was in India,

She was already a nun,

She had already ordained as a nun.

And she went back to her convent,

And she told her mother superior that this is what she was going to do.

And her mother superior apparently said to her,

You are you kidding?

You can't even light the candles on the altar,

You know.

So sometimes the resistance to the call can come internally.

Or sometimes it comes from the world.

And the core of the resistance is where our identity gets challenged.

Like who am I?

Or who do I think I am?

Who would I be if I actually dropped these 40 pounds and kept them off?

You know,

Who would I become if I really felt comfortable and congruent in my body?

Who would I be if I really did build this business that I've had a vision of building for the past 10 years?

You see,

Like when we're standing on the cusp of some kind of genuine transformation,

Our identity and our capacity can come into question.

And that's the resistance to the call.

So when you feel resistance to the call,

Just know it is encoded in the heroine's journey path.

In that confusion is often when the mentor appears.

And this is stage four of the heroine's journey.

The mentor is someone who has resources,

Wisdom,

Tools,

Who maybe is walking a couple of steps ahead of you on the journey,

Or has completed the journey and is coming back to help you.

And then once that's all set up,

That's all sort of like the whole first phase of the of the heroine's journey.

Then the heroine crosses the threshold.

And then this is stage five and she makes the decision to move forward.

And that's what we talked about last week.

Okay,

So now here we are,

And we are about to summon our allies.

And in thinking about summoning our allies,

Probably the easiest way to think about this,

For those of you who grew up here in the United States,

And maybe for some of you internationally,

You'll have to let me know if this is familiar to you,

Is the movie The Wizard of Oz.

The Wizard of Oz is a classic,

Really lovely,

Delightful,

Archetypal heroine's journey.

So,

You know,

There's the moment when Dorothy enters,

She crosses the threshold,

And the film goes from black and white to color.

You know,

As she starts traipsing down the yellow brick road to the Emerald City,

Who does she meet?

She meets the Scarecrow.

And then she meets the Tin Man.

And then finally,

She meets the Cowardly Lion.

So these are all her allies on the journey.

Each of them is a character unto himself.

And each of them has their own quest in the journey.

So the Scarecrow is looking for brains,

And the Tin Man is looking for a heart,

And the Lion is looking for courage.

The Lion,

He's the best.

So the sense of finding your allies is finding companions who will walk with you,

And who will support you along the way.

Now,

It's a little bit different than the meeting with the Mentor.

You know,

Again,

If you take The Wizard of Oz archetype,

She's walking along,

She's got her allies.

Her mentor is Glenda the Good Witch.

And,

You know,

Glenda appears to Dorothy,

The heroine,

At certain moments when there might be like a decision she has to make,

Or she needs strength,

Or there's,

You know,

Some kind of a crossroads.

So the Mentor kind of comes maybe in and out of of the path,

But the allies are with her through the whole journey.

So what do you find are some of the characteristics or qualities that you would look for in a good ally,

Or that you do look for in a good ally?

Again,

When you go back to that meditation that we just did,

And you think about,

You call to mind the person,

The spirit,

Animal,

Whoever it might be,

What is it about them that makes them such an important support for you?

Okay,

So Ginger is saying,

Accepting and appreciating me as I am,

While holding me in my highest timeline.

That's very interesting.

Jenny says,

They believe in you and in your abilities.

Yes.

Okay.

So accepting and appreciating me,

Believing in me,

And perhaps what they're accepting and appreciating you and believing in you in precisely the places where it might be hard for you to believe in yourself,

Or to appreciate yourself,

Or to accept yourself.

Last week in my sub stack,

I was writing about the Japanese art of Kintsugi.

When a piece of pottery,

This is a Japanese craft,

A piece of pottery gets broken,

And then it gets mended,

The cracks of the pottery get mended with gold.

That's what a good ally does.

A good ally will fill in your cracks with gold.

Yeah.

Okay.

Great.

Good.

Okay.

Tanya's saying acceptance and seeing what I don't yet see as possible.

And Tiziana is saying,

Trust that they have the best of intentions.

Yeah.

And holding me to my highest potential.

What I'm seeing here is kind of like a dual energy,

If you think about it.

So there's a sense that they love you as you are.

Hey,

Noah.

Noah,

Welcome.

Supporting all the way.

Asking questions with empathy.

Yeah.

As we're talking about allies,

I'm thinking about,

I'm remembering a very,

Very dear friend of mine.

She and I were friends,

Gosh,

For like a good 30 years.

We kind of drifted apart over time.

But back in 1997,

When I was getting ready to go to culinary school in New York City,

I was applying for a scholarship to an organization called the IACP,

The International Association of Culinary Professionals.

And I had to write an essay,

You know,

To apply for the scholarship.

And my friend was a writer.

And I sent the essay off to her and she said,

Uh-uh.

You're not sending this in.

She said,

No,

No,

No,

No,

No.

No,

We're redoing this.

And she sat with me and helped me to write the essay.

So I submitted it to the IACP.

And on March 24th,

1995,

On my,

Gosh,

What birthday was that?

35th birthday,

I think.

You know,

This was really before the internet was a thing.

It was just getting started.

The phone rings.

Hello,

Is this Marcella?

This is the IACP.

We just wanted to let you know that we'd like to award you this scholarship.

And it just happened to be the same night as the Academy Awards were on.

So my friend was in Vermont and I was in San Francisco,

But I went down to some other friend's house.

And the whole night I sat there watching the Academy Awards with my friends.

And it was like,

And the winner is,

And the winner is,

It was like,

The winner is Marcella.

So,

You know,

If she hadn't kind of given me that kind of tough love support,

You know,

I wouldn't have won that scholarship.

And if I hadn't won the scholarship,

I might not have gone to culinary school.

And if I hadn't gone to culinary school,

I might not be sitting here talking with you all today on Insight Timer,

You see.

So our allies can catalyze.

They can not only love us and support us the way we are and hold us to our highest potential,

Like Tiziana is saying,

And asking questions with empathy,

But they can also create circumstances that kind of spark,

You know,

The next leg of the journey.

So what gets in the way of really having these strong bonds with allies?

Several months ago,

I think we were,

These are exactly the alias catalyze.

Good,

Ginger and Noah saying these are exactly the allies I would want by my side.

Several months ago,

We had a conversation and I can't remember which live event it was,

But we were talking about as women being hyper-independent.

So there's a way that,

Especially in American culture,

And I think it's really any kind of culture that has war as its basis.

There's a sense here,

You know,

We are such a war-driven culture here in the United States.

And,

You know,

There's such a sense with that of kind of like the John Wayne archetype of like the lone rider and you have to be self-sufficient and you have to do it all yourself.

And I can't tell you how many women I'll talk to,

You know,

Like a woman will come into my academy for a year,

Maybe she comes in for two years and then she's like,

Okay,

I'm ready to do it by myself.

Okay.

I'm not a cult leader.

You don't have to stay with me forever and ever,

Right?

However,

There's some belief that somehow being in community and being in healing community and being in transformational community is like a default or a less than and that really we should be able to figure out everything by ourselves.

Tell me if I'm hitting the mark here.

Gee,

My daughter suffers from the overly independent woman.

It's and she's saying,

And Tiziana is saying it is impossible to be a contribution.

There's just a wall in her receptivity and her ability to receive.

Okay.

And Lynn is saying,

Yes.

Yeah.

Now here's where I'm going to get into probably something controversial.

I don't know.

You're welcome to disagree with me.

So I was born in 1962 and I think we talked about this several live events ago as well.

And I was a child of 1970s feminism,

1960s and 70s feminism in the United States.

And everything that we heard during that time,

Like,

Well,

I went to college in 1980 and in my college years,

It were really feminist.

There was a slogan,

A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle.

And,

You know,

I thought that was such a cool thing.

Like,

Yeah,

A woman needs a man,

Like a fish needs a bicycle who needs a man.

And we had this idea at that time that to be a liberated woman,

You know,

We were reacting against being hyper dependent.

We were reacting against say a woman who couldn't earn her own income and had to rely on a husband for financial support.

We were reacting against this sense of like women just being kind of,

You know,

Imprisoned or enslaved in their houses and they didn't get out into the world.

Okay.

That certainly had its merits as we know.

I mean,

Again,

I think when I look back at my life,

I mean,

I wouldn't be living the life that I live and the just wonderful life that I've had were it not for the women at that time who fought for those things.

But we lost something.

We lost something along the way.

And what we lost or what the liability was,

Was exactly what Tiziana,

What you're talking about,

A wall in receptivity and ability to receive like a actual kind of spasm of being reciprocal,

Interdependent,

Giving support,

Receiving support,

Really allowing ourselves to be supported.

I had a long conversation with one of my nieces about this a couple of months ago.

And,

You know,

She's in her early thirties.

I mean,

She didn't grow up in this feminist time,

But she sees it for herself.

You know,

She's got her job,

She's got her car,

She's got her whole life set up.

No man,

No partner,

No children,

No,

You know,

And just,

You know,

There's a cost or a consequence that comes with that.

Okay.

Noah is saying absolutely because wartime,

You feel like you can't trust anyone except yourself.

Oh,

It breaks my heart,

Noah.

It breaks my heart.

And,

You know,

In Israel,

Where you are,

Yes,

Like the war,

You know,

We could really say it's one war,

Right?

Like the war is taking a particular form where you are.

And here in the United States,

The war takes a slightly different form,

But they're still,

The bottom line is still exactly the same.

It's hard to know who to trust and asking for help and guidance makes you look weak.

Uh-huh.

So there's a kind of the hyper-independence,

The hyper kind of militarization of self-sufficiency,

I guess is what I would call it.

Yeah.

And Ginger is saying,

I have felt that energy and wondered where it came from.

Seeing my mom hating men,

It went too far.

Yeah.

I don't know about you,

But it just makes my heart feel really tender.

It really makes me feel very sad.

And,

You know,

The consequence is when we really need help,

When we really need support,

What do we do?

You know,

That proverbial time when you need to call somebody at four o'clock in the morning or three o'clock in the morning,

Who do you reach out to?

Yeah.

So this is why circling back to that initial meditation that we did,

This is why I was curious if that meditation was difficult for anybody.

And I'm glad to hear that it wasn't because sometimes like we can sit with ourselves and we can think,

Well,

You know,

Who's really got my back?

Who's really got my back?

You know,

And we can draw a blank.

So I'm very curious to hear your thoughts about this conversation.

And I'm very curious to hear if anybody takes issue with it and disagrees with me.

Jenny is saying,

I totally agree with your analysis of that time in history and how it's affected.

Okay.

That's interesting how it's affected women today.

Yeah.

Yeah.

We,

You know,

It's just been kind of like a swing of the pendulum one way of another,

One way of another,

You know,

We lost some core of like feminine magic and power.

You know,

We thought being liberated was just basically like being like men,

But with less hair,

You know,

Something like that.

And there was a definitely a cost that came to that,

Came with that.

Ginger's saying I had to make that early AM call and my girlfriend was there for me.

Oh,

Yay.

Wonderful.

She and her partner helped me.

Good.

Yeah.

Good.

And Jenny is saying I am in your generation and my mother and I have had conversations about this.

That's good.

It is good that the conversations are happening because we,

We do have some opportunity here to come back into balance and Tanya's resonating and Tiziana is saying,

Glad you got the support you needed.

Yeah.

Very good.

Anyway,

Let's do some tapping.

Where shall we go with our tapping?

I was thinking that we should do some tapping on increasing our ability to receive support and to give support.

This is something I didn't even mention is that our ability to ask for support.

Okay.

Specifically to ask.

Excellent.

The overly independent woman is not trained to ask.

Yeah.

Oh,

I know.

It's so ironic Tiziana,

What you're saying there,

Because you know how we feel when somebody asks us and we're like,

Of course I will help you.

I mean,

My gosh,

You know,

I'm,

I'm so happy and honored that you reached out and I'm so happy to help you however I can.

Right.

We have that,

But yet when it's our turn and asking for help does not mean we are weak.

I just had a whole insight that asking for help is the path to peace.

You know,

You know,

It's like when we ask for help or when someone asks us for help,

It's like we have to see each other,

Prompts us to see each other as human beings.

You know,

Let's tap the sides of the hands together.

Even though it can be so hard sometimes for me to ask for help and go ahead and just say it,

Say as I say,

Do as I do.

It can be so hard.

It brings up all kinds of feelings.

I want to be kind to myself around this difficult issue.

It's okay for me to feel all of these feelings and it's okay for me to let them all go.

Yeah.

Good.

Okay.

Let's go up to the top of the head.

It is so hard for me to ask for help.

Okay.

Tapping inside the eyebrow.

It can bring up so much shame.

Side of the eye.

So much shame around being vulnerable.

Under the eye.

So much shame around needing help.

Under the nose.

I have been taught that it's somehow wrong to need help.

Under the mouth.

That if I ask for help,

I must be weak.

Mm-hmm.

Okay.

Collarbone.

I was definitely not trained to ask for help.

Okay.

Under the arm.

I was trained to be strong and independent.

Back up to the top of the head.

I was trained to buck up and keep a stiff upper lip.

Mm-hmm.

Inside the eyebrow.

I was trained to do it all myself.

Side of the eye.

And if I need help,

Something must be wrong with me.

Oh,

Yeah.

Okay.

Under the eye.

Oh,

This just breaks my heart.

Under the nose.

It's devastating how sad this makes me feel.

Yeah.

Okay.

Under the mouth.

All the times I have needed help and been reluctant to ask.

Collarbone.

And all the loneliness and fear and shame that brings up.

Mm-hmm.

Good.

Under the arm.

I really,

Really want to be compassionate with myself around this.

Good.

Back up to the top of the head.

Because the truth is,

You know,

It's not my fault.

Right?

Okay.

Good.

Inside the eyebrow.

I am carrying a lot of cultural conditioning.

Okay.

Side of the eye.

Combined with a lot of residual trauma.

Okay.

Good.

You know,

If you want to place your hands on your heart,

You could do that while we're tapping.

Just under the eye.

Let's take a nice breath here.

Oh.

Mm-hmm.

Okay.

Just tapping under the eye here.

All this shame,

Sadness,

Fear,

Grief.

Yeah.

Okay.

Under the nose.

The cost of not allowing myself to be supported.

Okay.

I give myself room as best I can to really feel how devastating this has been.

Collarbone.

And yet somehow,

Right?

Under the arm.

There have been people who have supported me.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Back up to the top of the head.

Otherwise,

I wouldn't be here in this moment,

Tapping with Marcella.

Okay.

Good.

Inside the eyebrow.

Oh,

I want to express so much gratitude.

Mm-hmm.

Side of the eye.

To the friends and allies I have had throughout the years.

Under the eye.

Who have loved me and given me support.

Okay.

Good.

Under the nose.

And even though it's been hard to ask,

Under the mouth,

For all kinds of reasons.

Mm-hmm.

Okay.

Tell me if this is true or not.

Maybe,

You know,

Use your own words if this isn't true.

Like more often than not,

The support has actually been there.

Okay.

Right?

Like more often than not,

There has been,

When I've asked,

I have received support.

Okay.

So,

Under the arm.

Ah!

Whoo!

This whole lie that I've been told and made to believe.

Great.

Final round.

Back up to the top of the head.

That I somehow can't ask or that it's shameful or weak.

Okay.

Side of the eye.

Or that if someone will control me with their help,

Quote-unquote.

Side of the eye.

This is what I've been led to believe.

Under the eye.

But I no longer have to let myself be defined by that.

Good.

Under the nose.

I can feel the fear and ask anyway.

Under the mouth.

I can feel the fear and ask anyway.

Collarbone.

Letting go of any attachment to results or consequences.

Okay.

Good.

Under the arm.

And I really appreciate myself for that.

Ah!

Shake it out.

Maybe just put your hands on your heart again and just see how that vulnerability feels.

How the shame feels.

The lack of trust.

I'm seeing a couple of hearts ballooning up.

Yeah.

Beautiful work,

Women.

How does that reluctance to ask for help look to you now?

Hmm.

Softness.

Tiziana.

Nice.

Okay.

Amanda's saying,

I feel I have the support of the people here to ask for help.

You absolutely do.

Of course.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Tiziana's saying putting down the armor and gratitude came up.

Yes.

Good.

Okay.

Let's do one more round.

Here we go.

Hmm.

Even though it might still be hard for me to ask for help.

Hmm.

Yeah.

That's okay.

I can ask for help anyway.

And I appreciate my willingness to do that.

Hmm.

Good.

Let's go back up to the top of the head.

You know,

I can ask for help anyway.

Inside the eyebrow,

I might feel fear or hesitation.

Side of the eye.

I probably will feel fear and hesitation and all the rest of it.

Under the eye.

It's totally okay for me to feel all of that.

Yep.

Under the nose.

And I don't have to let it hold me back.

Good.

Okay.

Let's go here.

Under the mouth.

Because the truth is when I'm asking someone for help,

Right?

Collarbone.

I might be asking them.

Under the arm.

But I'm really asking the divine.

Yeah.

Good.

Okay.

Let's go back up to the top of the head.

I'm not asking them.

I'm asking the God of my understanding.

Isn't that great?

Okay.

Inside the eyebrow.

And maybe that person will say yes or no or maybe.

Okay.

Side of the eye.

But either way,

Whatever happens.

Okay.

Under the eye.

I can ask in a spirit of trusting.

Under the nose.

If the help doesn't come from over here,

Under the mouth,

It will come from over there.

Collarbone.

Someplace totally unexpected.

Under the arm.

Completely delightful.

Top of the head.

Okay.

We'll make this the last round.

So even though it's been hard,

It's been hard in all kinds of ways to ask for help.

Good.

Okay.

Inside the eyebrow.

I do not have to be bound or defined by that.

Yeah.

Side of the eye.

I can ask for help anyway.

Under the eye.

Trusting that no matter what the outcome of my request,

Good.

Under the nose.

The universe has its hand on my shoulder.

Under the mouth.

And I will be supported.

Collarbone.

In ways that will be delightful beyond my imagination.

Ha,

Ha,

Ha.

Good.

Under the arm.

And I really,

Really love that possibility.

Wow.

Golly.

Okay.

Just place your hands on your heart again and just see how you're doing.

Yeah.

That was an interesting perspective to have that come up.

And I say this in the 12-step world.

I must say my 12-step training has been a wonderful training in asking for help and giving help.

And it's still not easy,

But it's an integral part of the program.

But here's the thing.

When we ask for help,

Like if I'm asking Ginger for help,

Ginger might be able to help me.

She might not be able to help me.

But really what I'm asking,

I'm asking the divine through Ginger.

And I can trust the perfect answer is going to come,

Whatever she needs or whatever's possible.

And if it doesn't come through this channel over here,

It can come from that channel over there.

Good,

Good,

Good.

Okay.

Here we are.

Ginger's saying we allow the divine to flow through the people around us and receive.

Isn't that just fabulous?

That's so gorgeous.

Noah,

Thank you.

I feel stronger and a little better.

Wonderful.

Tiziana,

Braver,

Stronger,

And more authentic.

And Tanya,

Ooh,

Revelatory.

We are actually asking the divine.

Yeah,

Lovely.

And by allowing others to be a conduit,

We all benefit.

Well,

Ladies,

Wow.

This went in a much bigger direction than I expected,

But what a wonderful time we had together.

Thank you all so much.

And Tiziana,

Grazie tanto,

Tiziana.

Grazie a tutti.

Grazie a tutti.

Thank you all for coming.

Lovely to be here with all of you.

Euphoric Marcella.

Lovely.

Love and gratitude to all.

Ciao.

Bye for now.