MINING GEMS
“… it’s so much simpler to find joy than we give ourselves credit for. It’s really about the intention.” ~Devi Brown
Listening to Devi Brown the host of the podcast “Dropping Gems” I continue to discover where in my life I have extinguished sparks of passion or have spaces where I have yet to forgive myself or others. Her show is described as “a soft place to land where higher consciousness meets your everyday life. Nourish your spirit, grab new tools for the journey and fall deeply in love with the highest version of who you are.” It delivers on all those levels.
Devi is this innate source of power and comfort. She truly nourishes the soul with a tone and contagious energy that seems to effortlessly lift you up just by listening to her. Besides holding this peaceful space she “serves as the Chief Impact Officer at Chopra Global and is the voice of daily meditation on the Chopra wellness app. A wellbeing educator, author of Crystal Bliss, founder of Karma Bliss, a founding board member of the Mental Wealth Alliance, host of the Black Effect Podcast Network podcast Dropping Gems, seasoned broadcaster and multi-modality healing practitioner. Devi is devoted to spiritual connection meant to aid in the healing of intergenerational trauma and internal liberation. Her work is rooted in weaving ancient and modern practices into tangible healing tools that are in support of emotional growth and radical self-love.”
Beyond any titles she holds or her list of accomplishments she gives you room to breathe. Since the pandemic hit, compounded by the “racial reckoning,” breathing has been harder to do for many, most, and definitely me. Living in a city of millions who are possibly still wounded by the recent deaths of loved one, ingesting pollutants daily, tolerating toxicity, not only on the news, but possibly in the encounters we observe on the streets where folk are struggling to survive another day, it’s a lot. Walking passed someone laid out on the concrete who calls it home or whose addiction has gotten the best of them is not an uncommon occurrence, it’s a lot. You are encountering the energetic waves of so many people daily that are working to make a way out of no way. Social distancing is creating these fortified bubbles that are both emotional and physical but may be prisons rather than protection. I had a friend tell me recently, “I may never leave my apartment.”
So hearing Devi speak about a “juicy” self-care routine, while I’m clear I would never phrase it that way, I understand the necessity of it. I’m also clear that a daily practice of “listening to [your] spirit and honoring its needs” is essential to everyone on the planet.
There are too many of us imploding and exploding because we’re not cognizant of self so we’re incapable of dealing with others. It just doesn’t work! I assert that not knowing self is the source of global conflicts, the sheeple activities that led to electing a narcissist for president, too many Black lives not mattering, and the current wave of Asian hate. You have to be with you first before anyone else.
The next words that roll off Devi’s tongue as I continue to listen to the March 25, 2021 episode of “Dropping Gems” titled Everything is Sacred with Koya Webb are “two hours of meditation a day” and even she chuckles. I’m like, “Say what now?! Ain’t nobody got self-care time like that.” Clearly, I’m still a work in progress.
I’m in awe of the level of peace she must generate from her meditative practice and she does express that usually she’s not “always that deep in flow.” Instead she may do multiple 20-minute intervals and with the two hours she breaks it up into one hour in the morning and one at night. What’s important is that she’s paying attention to her needs daily.
We all need to do the same. Once we listen to ourselves finding a pace that works to meditate is possible but first we have to grant the time to just listen. I can get so caught up with the next task that listening to my soul and my body only occurs when there’s a pain that stops me in my tracks. Yet, if I’m working smarter not harder it doesn’t need to come to limping around, figuratively and literally.
Little things can keep you sane, sound, and most importantly, happy. Waiting on the big thing, the major life-altering transformation can kill you slowly, and hurt you daily. It’s taken me over a half of a century to truly realize that life does not happen in a vacuum. You can’t just huddle up with yourself and tackle your goals.
One of my friends reminded me that sometimes you have to stop and enjoy the balloons even if they are not for you. They are symbols of celebrations; birthdays, graduations, and sometimes just a treat for our eyes that reminds us to find beauty wherever we go. Even if it’s on a city block that we have walked a hundred times before but one sunny day it’s shrouded in balloons of every color for a store’s grand opening, own it. While the balloons may not have been in honor of our march down the block we can strut as if they were.
It’s the little things that count just like breakfast tacos. I enjoy Devi’s infectious laugh as she shares in the podcast that making and eating tacos is her jam “and how it’s so much simpler to find joy than we give ourselves credit for. It’s really about the intention.” She then goes on a short rant about different types of tacos reminiscent of Mykelti Williamson in his role as shrimp-loving Bubba Blue in the Oscar-winning film “Forrest Gump.” Needless to say I was now hungry after imagining all these types of tacos but I was satiated by Devi explaining that every morning building these culinary masterpieces brought joy to her.
“I was thinking to myself what is it that makes this so enjoyable for me,” she says. “And I think it was really settling into waking up and doing something that I know would make me smile. Something that taste good to me and the way I like to do it — taking my time with it — then also connecting to the nostalgia. For me tacos represents living in the dorms and having big parties back in day, having Taco Tuesdays, and it was just something fun. So I was kind of gifting myself that little trip down memory lane each morning, as I did that, and working with your hands even if it’s just for ten minutes cooking something it’s just such a beautiful connection. You can kind of get lost in it. I say all that to say, you know, everything can be self-care.”
She poses two wonderful question for us all to answer daily: “What are the things that matter to you and connect to you? And, how can you do it in a way that also makes it a ritual or makes it something that does give you access to that smile or something you can just kind of get lost in and savor a little bit?”
At this point I’m just six minutes into the podcast and I’ve already mined a number of gems. The gratitude is already flowing but she has so much more to offer as she invites another dynamic spirit to the show — “visionary yoga practitioner, teacher, author and entrepreneur Koya Webb” who conveys the transformational power of the breath. Devi also shares how the perception of Yoga in America is changing from being deeply connected to whiteness. Now other communities are connecting to the work and bringing to light the safety and support this tool for tending to your body and spirit has provided communities of color for decades. She even mentions photos of Rosa Parks doing Yoga that must be amazing to see. But, according to Devi, Parks may be only one of the warriors and activists who used Yoga to maintain themselves while doing exhaustive work to change the world.
I invite you to listen to the entire episode. This episode really resonated with me, which is probably why I penned this today, when I heard Koya share that her sacred knowing is the breath. She says that, “breath is spirit, and that is our free tool to manage our stress, manage our emotions, manage our trauma. And, everyone who is in this life, we have it to use, from the time we get here,we have it, and when we leave we don’t need it any more.”
So I’m stretching now in preparation for adding new practices physically and spiritually. I think listening to a podcast is one of those little things to help us find some peace, connect with ourselves deeper, have empathy for others, and allow some space to breathe. I’m thankful that when one person drops a gem all of our lives may get richer.
