Cinthia Varkevisser 0:00

Welcome to Mind Power Meets Mystic. You are here with me, Michelle Walters, and my co-host, Cynthia Varkevisser. We are so excited today to be recording our one-year episode. Happy anniversary, happy anniversary, happy anniversary, happy anniversary.

Michelle Walters 0:50

It is pretty amazing that we have managed to keep this thing going for a full year. But Cynthia told me after we got started that we were doing a minimum of 100 episodes. So we're really only halfway done. And maybe maybe we're not even that far done. Recording this podcast has been a lot of work and a joy. And our episode today is going to be a little bit of looking back on what the last year has been about, what we've learned, what we've taken away. And then a little bit about where we're going.

Cinthia Varkevisser 1:26

Right, right. It's been quite a year because we wanted to start this podcast to share our curiosities and excitement about expanding our mind and our intuition and sharing with a lot of other people who have similar interests. But what we found is that it's easy to get sidetracked, easy to get sidetracked on subject matter, and it's easy to get sidetracked with other things.

Michelle Walters 1:53

It certainly is. And I think everybody here knows that Cynthia and I both have lots of other things going on. But we have prioritized making this podcast. And I think it's a good thing we have.

Cinthia Varkevisser 2:10

It's been a beautiful thing.

Michelle Walters 2:10

It's been a beautiful thing. We've both learned a lot. We've both grown a lot. We both met a lot of cool and interesting people, which I don't think we would have pushed ourselves to do without this.

Cinthia Varkevisser 2:21

Microphone. Exactly. Speaking of the microphone, let's go to our first memory. So when we were thinking about starting this podcast, Michelle and I had gone for a walk. And we had everything figured out at that time, it was a different title, it was under "It's All Connected," right? And Michelle came up with this great intro, except we couldn't seem to be in sync when we were not when we were not in the same place. So

Michelle Walters 2:52

yeah, so we decided that it would be best to record our intro when we were physically in the same place, which as it happened was on this walk at a local reservoir. And so we recorded the beginning of this podcast when it was "It's All Connected" on my cell phone in my car. Fortunately, we have evolved and upgraded, and we are recording today's episode on a lovely Yeti bi-directional microphone at Cynthia's place. So kudos to us for moving forward.

Cinthia Varkevisser 3:28

We are techies, actually. Michelle's the techie, watching Michelle operate the boards and do the editing in front of me. I don't have the opportunity to see that. It's been really impressive. And after 50 episodes, 50 plus episodes, you're working the boards like a wizard, so

Michelle Walters 3:49

well, I'm not really a sound engineer wizard. But welcome to the world of 2023 when we have great tools that make a lot of podcasting a whole lot easier. We wanted to talk a little bit today about, you know, what's been challenging with putting on the podcast, and then also a little bit about some of our favorite themes and episodes that we covered in the last year. And I'm totally in your camp, Cynthia. It's been there's just quite a bit of work to put on a podcast. It's not enormous. It's not unachievable, but producing an episode every week is working on a deadline. And Cynthia and I have never worked for newspapers before. This is a different kind of project for both of us. And I think we've done really well. Not every episode has come out exactly as desired exactly at the right time. But hey, it's a year, and we're on episode 52. So we must be doing something right.

Cinthia Varkevisser 4:54

Right, right. I remember in the beginning, we were really excited. And we made sure that we always had at least two episodes in the can. So that if anything were to happen, that we would have something, we would have something that we could drop and be really consistent. The thing that happened for me is I kind of ran dry on who to invite because I was still all over the place. Business is so interesting to me because intuition is so much a part of my life that I wanted to do a lot of business stuff. To find out that not as interesting to many other people.

Michelle Walters 5:33

Yeah, yeah. I think our business episodes have been well-listened to, and frankly, not that out of line with most of the other episodes. But it's just been, I don't know, like we're saying, it's been a neat opportunity to get to meet so many other people and to have this value of talking to a microphone, right, in terms of a way to get to know people. We did want to talk about some of our favorite episodes, for those of you who have not had the opportunity yet to listen to the entire catalogue. And one of the episodes that I thought we could talk about was one of Cynthia's friends. She came on; she was an early guest on our podcast, Bridget, who recorded with us a Reiki Master's journey. Do you want to talk a little bit about Bridget's episode?

Cinthia Varkevisser 6:23

Yes, Bridget's story is incredible, and she is all about energy. She's a Reiki Master, and she knew that when she was diagnosed with cancer, that healing needed to happen, that Western medicine needed to be in there, but that her Reiki and other practices had to be side by side. And it was just so amazing how she advocated that it felt like the story needed to be on our podcast, and she's just an amazing person. Anyway, so yesterday, love.

Michelle Walters 7:03

So if you haven't heard it, look for Bridget's Reiki Master episode. It's a really good one to listen to. And then we took a little tour around the stars last fall and interviewed several different astrologers. We interviewed Leslie Togorta and Gautam and Janet, looking at Western astrology, Vedic Astrology as well as Chinese astrology, right. And that was a lot of fun.

Cinthia Varkevisser 7:32

That was way fun. It was so much fun to hear everybody's perspective. And the thing that's a lot of fun is not only did we come from different modalities of, or different types of astrology, but we also got to see how everybody has different hits like Leslie Western astrology, hers is about business and marketing.

Michelle Walters 7:53

Right, right, right. And Gautam was more about medical stuff, right, health, health. And Janet, Janet has, well, Janet's Chinese astrology folds in with Feng Shui, environment, landscape, and geomancy, and all kinds of other interesting topics. So yeah, the tour around the stars was,

Cinthia Varkevisser 8:19

however, it was really fun bantering with Janet that one time where she started talking about your sex life. And oh, my, I cannot forget about that. I cannot look at you the same way. Well, thanks for that. Bow down to you.

Michelle Walters 8:36

And building off of that, another popular episode that we recorded, which was sort of half astrology and half Cynthia's intuitive forecast for 2023 was our January episode called "Surf's Up Water Rabbit."

Cinthia Varkevisser 8:52

Yeah, that was a great episode. It was a great episode because Michelle had the foresight to talk with me before we had a chance to talk with Janet and collaborate. And we found that there were similar themes going on, which is always really cool.

Michelle Walters 9:06

So that would be kind of a fun one to have a listen to if you haven't heard it yet. Now that we're halfway through 2023, you can see what's coming true and what's not, maybe what's still ahead for the remainder of the year. And then a more recent episode that we just kind of recorded because we needed an episode which, truth be told, sometimes that happens, folks in the podcasting world. And Cynthia recorded an episode very recently about dreams. And if you haven't listened to it, I highly recommend it. Cynthia sent it over to me, and I did the editing and posting, and I will tell you that since I listened to Cynthia's dreams episode, my dreams have gone crazy. And I don't mean crazy in a bad way, crazy in a good way. And so if you are looking to better understand your dreams, maybe up the energy of your dreams, this is a great time to listen to the dreams episode.

Right? The thing that was great about the dreams episode is that your eight symbols were eight symbols. Yeah, your eight symbols that you use for hypnotherapy are what kicked off or inspired me to do the dream episode because you know, dreams are all about symbols. The thing that happened for me is that I haven't stopped dreaming, either. It's been crazy. Sometimes I wish I could get a little bit of rest from it. But it was really lovely to remember the potency of that language.

Yeah, yeah. No, they were both good episodes, the symbols in hypnotherapy, as well as the dreams episode. Absolutely. So in short, friends, we have had a great time doing this podcast. And I think lots of people would probably enjoy having their own podcast. It's just a great way to get to meet people, to get to share expertise, and to learn, which Cynthia and I are big, big, big learners.

Right? Well, and let's talk about this really quick. You and I have known each other for easily over a decade. Yep. And even in our talking, we find that there are so many things that we don't know about each other through. So to hear how interested you are with astrology is what got us to get into all the other astrologies. And I'm really excited for our upcoming episodes because what I think's happening is that we are actually even more in sync and are interviewing people that are just absolutely amazeballs.

Yes, yes. And so now because it's the middle of our episode, we want to remind you all that you are listening to Mind Power Meets Mystic with me, Michelle Walters, and my co-host, Cynthia Varkevisser. We have just done a little recap of our last year of podcasting. Yay, go us. And we wanted to give our listeners a little forecast of some of the episodes that we have planned coming up in the next couple of months because we have some really great topics and exciting guests coming up that we hope you will listen to.

Right. So the one that I'm most excited about, well, for right now, because Michelle and I can't stop talking about her, is Carrie Lee Kentucky, the finalist of "Alone" Series Nine, because she is that woman who walks her talk. She walks spirit. She communes with the earth.

Yeah, so the backstory on this is that I'm not really one to watch a whole lot of reality shows but "Alone" is one of those shows where they put 10 people in the wilderness, and then each one of them has to survive completely on themselves, depending only on themselves for as long as they can. And the last person to leave the wilderness is the winner of a great big cash prize. And so watching season nine, I became kind of in love with one of the contestants, Carrie Leake Nocchi. And amazingly, I invited her to be on our show. And she said yes, so her episode just evidences exactly how she is a woman who is walking her talk and living in absolute co-creation with nature, right? And I think our listeners will love her upcoming episode.

I agree. I agree, especially if you are a person over 50 thinking that you can't get shit done because, you know, you're over 50. It's absolute crap.

Yep. And she's living proof. Carrie will teach you it's not true. So what's another episode you're looking forward to, Cynthia?

I'm absolutely looking forward to a talk coming up very soon with my friend Louis, who I absolutely love and don't know very well, because I know Louis as many happy returns, one of my favorite drag queens, and we're going to discuss confidence and what it's like to really be out there in all your brilliance. So I'm excited because who doesn't need more than that?

I can't wait to see what we will learn from Louis and Many Happy Returns.

What about you? What's your favorite coming up?

I am excited to talk to Eloise Hill. Eloise is local. She's somebody that Cynthia and I have known for a while. I am curious to talk to her author to author because Eloise has a couple of books that she has published. She is also somebody who works with Tarot cards and works in medical intuition. And I think it'd be really curious to see what Eloise can share with our listeners about both her experience with book publishing and book writing as well as the work she's doing here for people, right?

Super excited. Oh, you know who else I'm excited to talk with is my pal and birthday twin, tukia. So "tukia" means "same, but not the same." We both have our birthdays on September 3. And she does animal communication and flower essences. Now, I know that animal communication is something everybody knows about. But Flower Essences is not as popular as I believe essential oils and herbs are. And so to expose our friends and family out here in podcast land is exciting to me.

It is exciting. And tell our listeners about the therapist you've invited to join us on the show.

Right, ladies, ladies, ladies. Here's the deal. One day, Michelle and I were talking about men. And I thought, wouldn't it be great if we brought on a male therapist and talked about the men's point of view, not just because he's a man, but my friend, Nick Whiteman also runs men's groups. And we're in a movement right now of women empowerment. I mean, I saw the Barbie movie. Did you see the Barbie movie?

Speaker 3 16:35

I am dying to see the Barbie movie. I will be going I will tell you.

I watched it. I went in with a bag over my head. Literally. I have pictures of it. Because I wasn't sure I didn't think it was going to send the message that I wanted. And I came out with the bag knocked over my head. So that's a good thing. thing. Yeah. And so with this women's empowerment, I wanted to I want to ask Nick's perspective of what it's like to be a man in this movement, as well as how can he help us understand men better because

I do think it'd be really interesting to hear what he has to say. The women's movement has, in some ways, cast a shadow over men. I see this. I've seen this with partners in the past, I've seen my son trying to kind of figure out how to navigate where he fits in in this world. And I think we can all agree it was time for women to have a louder voice. But where does that fit within the balance?

Right? Now here's the other beautiful thing about Nick is that he also is an artist. He's a painter, so he does know his feminine side. And that's the reason why I believe it's really important to get his perspective because he is in touch with that, that side of himself. And how is he helping people? How's he helping men specifically really recognize it? You know that they all have it? Right? Right? Right, honor their whole selves.

We're also going to be talking to Helena about labyrinths, and I think labyrinths are really, really cool. But maybe that's because I'm a walker.

Have you gotten to the one at Sibley?

I have been to the one at Sibley. I've also been to the one at San Damiano. I've been to a few other ones as well. But there, it'll be interesting to hear her observations as to kind of the value of that practice and where it can fit within somebody's investigation of their life.

Yes, yes. And she actually constructs labyrinths, as well as tends to oh wow, and cares for, and I love that she can create a labyrinth pretty much out of any material. And there's a math that goes with it, which I find also really fascinating.

Right, right. I'm a sacred geometry nut.

Yeah, right. So very, very interesting. And we have a few other guests that we are still talking to and putting together that aren't completely nailed yet. So I don't want to sell someone we haven't booked. But we want to talk to some folks about shamanistic practices. We want to talk to some folks about UFOs and the hearing and all the stuff going on over there. And we also want to talk to more people about the planet and what's going on on the planet and how we all need to be thinking about what is our part in the sustainability and health of our planet because even with all this going on and all this discord and all this craziness, we got one planet guys, that's the nuts and bolts of it.

Well, you know, when you started talking about that, I thought we get to reincarnate as spirits, right through. What does the Earth get to do?

Yeah, yeah. Right. Maybe we can talk to someone about the arrow of time. Let's talk about that. That sounds, okay. Okay, yeah, just you can see the podcast is really maybe just an opportunity for me to play and think and be curious. And lots of things you get to do when you have a spot.

You know, and in the beauty of it is that we get to have people come along with us and get their curiosity piqued and let them know that there are people out there who are really, really unique. And that you that that all our listeners are really unique as well, and they have something to share.

And at the end of the day, I think this one-year episode needs to be an episode where we express our gratitude to you because we would not be doing this if we did not know that there were just a few people out there who cared about what we care about and the things we have to say and the friends and guests that we bring on the show. But we're here, we're here for us, but we're also here for you. And to that point, we would love, love, love, love to get some more ratings and particularly reviews on either Apple Podcasts or on Spotify. We want to know what you think, guys, we have enough of a catalogue now that we ought to be able to get at least Bye. Bye.

Bye.

For now. Bye.