Tracie Nichols and I have traveled in the same circles for many years, dancing into each other’s lives. When we hung out for a bit last weekend, and I learned more about this Renaissance Woman whose motto Soul Care From a Woman Who’s Been There, who encourages her clients to ‘Live, Play, Love Fierce’, I knew I wanted to introduce her to the Bliss Blog community as well.
How do you live your Bliss?
By staying curious and by being unabashedly myself – everywhere, all the time. The sensual experience of being a woman is just so juicy!
I also don’t let people’s opinions or expectations drive my choices or hinder my self confidence.
I have fun getting my crowd of paradoxical personality parts to all play nicely – or at least not be scuffling on the playground.
For example, I’m a shy introvert who LOVES inspirational speaking and facilitating circles and classes, groups and gatherings. I’m an earth intuitive and a science & technology geek. I’m a gentle, kind, earth-mama and a take-no-stuff cynic. I’m a survivor of abuse and a thriving woman who loves exploring her sensuality. It can sometimes get a little – erm – chaotic in here, but staying curious and in wonder is what makes it all a blissful experience!
You call yourself a thriver. What did you need to first survive to get to that point where you recognized your strength and resilience?
Years of being silent, dismissed and overlooked. Of feeling achingly, terribly alone. Of feeling irrevocably different and like I’d never, ever belong anywhere. Feeling broken, used up, and worthless. Feedback from coworkers and friends that completely contradicted my perception of myself was one of the catalysts for me finally being willing to recognize that I might have strength and resilience.
How can we be fiercely and passionately in love with life in the midst of challenges and trauma?
Short answer? Stay curious. Be willing to be awed. Allow childlike wonder. Remember we are part of the ebbing, flowing, thriving, messy, glorious ecosystem called Earth. If we can do those things we can be in love with life even when it feels raw and challenging. Think about this…We’re kin to millions of plants, animals, streams, stones, and clouds. So we’re never alone. We belong. We’re home. Right here. Right now. With this breath, and the next. Just because we’re alive. How can we not be in love with that?
If you’d like more… About 6 months ago I ended up crouched in my backyard in the dark sobbing brokenheartedly. Tears were streaming onto the frozen ground. I remember my hands were so, so cold, buried the grass as I shuddered. I felt raw, fragile, and helpless. Then, out of nowhere, a bird trilled. It was such a sweet sound! Waves of it rippled through my whole body. A few minutes later magenta light spilled all over the horizon and into my eyes.
I knelt there – a chilly, blotchy, hiccuping mess tumbling in love with the day unfurling itself around me. Nothing had changed. I was still facing the same challenge. But, the dawn washed herself all over me. How could I not be awed? How could I not feel wonder? How could I not be curious about where this challenge might lead?
Please describe Bone Deep Love.
Ahhh….. bone-deep love is that feeling you get when your whole body – your whole self – sighs with relief and contentment. When you feel in-your-bones-loved. It’s the kind of love that feels as steady, solid and warm as a huge boulder drowsing in the sun and as deep and mysterious as the Mariana Trench. It’s the love I feel from the earth every day, and the love I’ve learned to give myself and all LIFE.
How about Soul Truthing?
Soul-Truthing is about confidently living and leaping because our soul is solid ground we know and trust. (How cool is that!) It’s walking the terrain of our soul so we come to know the truth of ourselves intimately. It popped into being as a process I use because too often life experience has taught us to distrust ourselves. Or we view the deepest, most sacred parts of ourselves as distant & unreachable, or worse yet, as if we don’t have the right to access them. Soul-Truthing helps us confidently tap into our juicy fierceness again.
What do our souls want to say to us?
In general, luscious things like: “You are a woman of deep and resonant worth.” “You are loved. So very, very loved.” “It’s OK. You’ve got this.” “You’re brilliant and amazing exactly as you are.” Yes! You belong.” “You know how strong you are, right?” “Of course your dream is valid!” In my experience, soul-truths are loving, supportive, and blazingly honest. Our souls don’t prevaricate. They tell us the absolute truth about ourselves and about our gifts and capacities.
What keeps us from listening?
Most often fear and the critical voice choir. We’re afraid of hearing something good. How will we live up to it? Who do we think we are? What gives me the right to be that exceptional? It seems easier to keep blundering along and not see the greatness our soul will show us. Because, make no mistake, our soul, and our nature kin, will show us the fullness of our own radiance.
What is an Earth intuitive?
A planet psychic, tree talker, water whisperer… Truthfully, we’re all earth intuitives because we’re all nature.
I call myself an Earth intuitive (I’ve also used the phrase nature communicator) because I’ve worked at remembering the language of the natural world and can translate it for people who want to connect – in words – with the Earth or any of the beings living on or in her. Just like some people speak the language of numbers, or music, or image, I speak the language of LIFE.
How can we each tap into our connection with Gaia?
Quick answer? Climb into our bodies, switch on our senses (all of them!), get curious, and listen with our whole being. I have a list of 11 ways to create an intuitive connection with Gaia. Two of my favorites are:
Be willing to believe. Or, at least to stop disbelieving. If you cannot believe that a tree, stream or owl can connect with you, then even if they do, you won’t perceive them.
Be willing to be in a relationship. Intuitively connecting with the earth isn’t a one-way channel. And, it’s not about finding another tool for yourself. It’s about opening a reciprocal relationship with LIFE.
What is the TaLK Project?
Ooohhh…I’m so glad you asked!! Our official launch date is Sept. 22.
The TaLK Project is a collaborative of three soul-strong women, each of us with our own personal experiences of abuse and/or addiction, who are ready to end the silence about what we’ve survived and how we’ve come to build thriving, fiercely awesome lives. Our name, the TaLK Project, is comprised of the first letter of each of our names-Tracie, Liz and Kathy-T, L, and K.
The TaLK Project celebrates survivors of abuse and addiction and the power we have to help each other heal through story and community.
As survivors we (the TaLK Project founders, Tracie Nichols, Liz Chesla and Kathy Tooley) will share our stories, our strength, and our strategies for thriving and living a full, joyful life. We are also inviting TaLKers (brave, compassionate souls willing to share their thriving survivor stories to help save the world) to connect with us and share their stories.
How do you blend the mainstream with the metaphysical in your life and walk in both worlds?
By believing that it is all one world…and I’m just being myself. I’m innately connected with Gaia, with my soul, with LIFE (Spirit, Oneness…) So are you. What I’m doing in the moment doesn’t change or disrupt that. Well, unless I’m napping. No interruptions when I’m napping, human or more-than-human! I think the real myth is that there is a mainstream world and a metaphysical world and they are somehow separate. It’s all Oneness. And Oneness is Oneness.
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