Manders Mindset
Are you feeling stuck or stagnant in your life? Do you envision yourself living differently but have no idea how to start? The answer might lie in a shift in your mindset.
Hosted by Amanda Russo, The Breathing Goddess, who is a Breathwork Detox Facilitator, Transformative Mindset Coach, and Divorce Paralegal.
Amanda's journey into mindset and empowerment began by working with children in group homes and daycares. She later transitioned to family law, helping people navigate the challenging emotions of divorce. During this time, Amanda also overcame her own weight and health challenges through strength training, meditation, yoga, reiki, and plant medicine.
Amanda interviews guests from diverse backgrounds, including entrepreneurs, athletes, artists, and wellness experts, who share their incredible journeys of conquering fears and limiting beliefs to achieve remarkable success. Hear real people tell how shifting their mindsets—and often their words—has dramatically changed their lives.
Amanda also shares her personal journey, detailing how she transformed obstacles into opportunities by adopting a healthier, holistic lifestyle.
Discover practical strategies and inspiring stories that will empower you to break free from limitations and cultivate a mindset geared towards growth and positivity.
Tune in for a fun, friendly, and empowering experience that will help you become the best version of yourself.
Manders Mindset
Bridging Science and Spirit: A Nurse's Journey with Laura West | 141
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What if the most unexpected path is the one that brings you home to yourself?
In this deeply soulful episode of Manders Mindset, host Amanda Russo sits down with Laura West—registered nurse, psychic medium, energy healer, and author to explore the transformative journey of awakening, intuition, and trusting the unseen.
Laura opens up about growing up in a richly multicultural, multi-religious household, her dual callings in science and spirituality, and the pivotal moments that launched her into the world of mediumship, energy healing, and authorship. From meditating for the first time in 2019 to publishing her channeled book Guided, Laura shares how following her inner voice led to an aligned life of meaning, clarity, and spiritual connection.
This episode is a must-listen for intuitive seekers, healers in the making, and anyone curious about integrating soul and science.
🎙️ In this episode, listeners will learn:
🔮 What sparked Laura’s two spiritual awakenings—and how each one changed her life
🧘♀️ How a psychic’s advice to “just meditate” opened a doorway to intuition
📚 Why she decided to write her book Guided—and how it came together through channeled writing
🌌 What it’s really like to receive messages from spirit guides, goddesses, and ancestors
💼 How Laura balances her calling as a medium with a full-time nursing career
❤️ The power of trusting your gifts, even when others misunderstand them
🌿 Why meditation, vulnerability, and saying “yes” to spirit are keys to personal evolution
🕒 Timeline Summary:
[1:04] – Meet Laura West: Nurse, medium, and spiritual multi-hyphenate
[1:44] – Growing up in a multicultural, multi-faith military family
[5:08] – Discovering spirituality through Sylvia Browne and intuition
[6:46] – A second awakening in 2019 after ignoring her inner voice
[12:39] – How mediumship revealed itself during an energy healing session
[16:34] – Integrating energy work with her scientific background in nursing
[25:40] – Unexpected visitations, soul team insights, and goddess encounters
[33:06] – Channeling her book Guided and learning to trust the process
[36:41] – Launching her podcast A Guided Life to amplify spiritual voices
[42:25] – Two dream visitations that shaped Laura’s purpose and path
[49:47] – Laura’s final words on intuition, legacy, and leading with love
To Connect with Amanda:
Schedule a 1:1 Virtual Breathwork Session HERE
📸 Instagram: @thebreathinggoddess
Follow & Support the Podcast:
📱 Instagram: @MandersMindset
👥 Join the Manders Mindset Facebook Community HERE
Welcome to the Manders Mindset Podcast. Here you'll find both monologue and interviews of entrepreneurs, coaches, healers and a variety of other people when your host, Amanda Russo, will discuss her own mindset and perspective and her guest's mindset and perspective on the world around us. Manders and her guests will help explain to you how shifting your mindset will shift your life.
Speaker 2:Welcome to Nander's Mindset, where we explore the power of shifting your mindset to shift your life.
Speaker 3:As always, I'm your host, Amanda Russo, and I'm here today with Laura West, and Laura is a registered nurse, an energy healer, a psychic medium, an author and a podcast host who is dedicated to both the sciences and spirituality. She hosts her own podcast called A Guided Life and she wrote a book titled Guided, and I'm so excited to speak with her today. Thanks for joining me.
Speaker 4:I'm so happy to be with her today. Thanks for joining me. I'm so happy to be here, thank you Amanda.
Speaker 3:So who would you say? Laura is at the core.
Speaker 4:Laura is a loving, open-minded soul who is open to exploring and learning about the world of spirituality and what's out there, but also somebody who likes her alone in quiet time and needs to be comfortable. That's me.
Speaker 3:I love it. So can you take us down memory lane a little bit? Tell us about your childhood family dynamic?
Speaker 4:Yeah, I feel like I had a pretty interesting childhood in a good way. I was brought up in a Christian and Jewish household, in both Caucasian and Korean households, so I feel like I got a lot of exposure to the different religions and then, obviously, cultures. And I'm also an Air Force brat. So my dad retired from the Air Force and we moved around a lot. So, on top of already being in this household that was multicultural, multi-religious, I also lived in different parts of the world, different parts of the country, so I feel like I got a lot of really great exposure that way. And you know, you hear a lot of these stories of these military kids who just really had a hard time. I think that's what helped make those moves enjoyable versus scary or sad or overwhelming, and so I just got good flavor of many things.
Speaker 4:I was also very lucky because, even though my parents did follow religious paths, they were very open-minded, so I got to talk to my mom about Buddhism. She loved a lot of the teachings about that. Whenever I had spiritual experiences, I was able to talk to my parents about that. They were very open-minded about it. Spiritual experiences as in. Oh you know, grandma visited me in a dream last night and telling him about it.
Speaker 4:Or I was in the sleep state, between awake and asleep, and our dog, who passed away, came and visited me and telling him about that. And then my dad was very much open-minded in the sense that he loved watching the X-Files growing up. He loves the Star Trek and he's told me before that he felt like he was born too early, like he really feels like his soul belongs in the future. So just having these conversations growing up, I know I was very lucky, very blessed to have that environment. I think it really gave me that foundation to where I am today and to have the confidence to be where I am today when it comes to mediumship and talking about these things openly on a podcast platform and things like that.
Speaker 3:So you moved around a lot, but you enjoyed the adventure. Now your sister? Was she older or younger?
Speaker 4:She's younger by just under three years.
Speaker 3:Okay, nice. Did you continue that adventure as you got older? Did you continue traveling, moving around Good?
Speaker 4:question. So when my dad retired in 95, we moved to San Diego and I've been here ever since. So no, but you know how they say when people ask you where are you from. I still struggle with that answer, and as I'm sure many people do who were born and grew up in one place and then moved to another. But I still tell people I'm from San Diego. I've lived here the longest out of all places in my life, so that's my answer.
Speaker 3:Oh my gosh. So you've been in San Diego for a really long time and now, when did you start getting into spirituality in this realm?
Speaker 4:Yeah, that was a fun journey. I do say that I had two awakenings maybe, and counting, who knows. So the first awakening that happened for me was back when I was a teenager, and I would say late teens. I discovered spirituality. I found my first Sylvia Brown books had to have been in the bookstore. I read about spirit guides for the first time. She talked about the other side and all these things that resonated deeply within me. I just couldn't get enough, and so for me that was spiritual awakening number one. I didn't have a dark night of the soul, it was more of like just being exposed and then learning and being hungry for more of that information.
Speaker 4:I did the very human thing and went to college and got married, bought a house, had kids, got my job, all that good stuff, and once that sort of got settled in I had spiritual awakening number two and that kind of came about with something that happened in my life where I didn't follow my intuition and I felt my intuition telling me not to do something and I did it anyway and I got in trouble for it at work. That's when I was like, how do I hone in on my intuition? Because I do not want that to happen again. I very much do not like getting in trouble, and so that was a bit traumatizing for me, and so I went to visit a psychic for the first time Now this was in 2019. And she said I just want you to start meditating, and I had never done it before until then. So 2019, I started meditating, and then it was like dominoes, like the things that came from that.
Speaker 4:So spiritual awakening number two included practicing mediumship, learning about energy healing and writing a book, creating a card deck, deciding to start a podcast, like all these things. That, just like this, feels good, I want to do it, my intuition tells me to do it, so I'm going to do it and I do it. And it's like, oh, it's great, it feels so rewarding it. My intuition tells me to do it, so I'm going to do it and I do it. And it's like, oh, it's great, it feels so rewarding. And then my intuition tells me to do the next thing, and so, for me, spiritual awakening number two encompassed the next phase, I suppose, of where I was meant to go spiritually, all while still being a wife, a mom and a full-time nurse, so being able to do all of it, and spirit, giving me the energy to do it, because otherwise I don't think I'd be able to do it all.
Speaker 3:Wow, okay. So you went to see the psychic in 2019 and they told you to meditate. That's it, simple, really Okay. And no, you had never meditated before. Had you done anything similar to meditating?
Speaker 4:a run or a walk and just getting ideas. I could see now how those were downloads, because that still happens to this day. But I didn't meditate before, because you know a couple of things. One, I thought you had to be like this guru who sat lotus on the top of a mountain for hours. I thought that's what meditation was. I'm like I'm not that, so I can't do it. And two, I was like, well, if I just sit there and open myself, then who's going to possess my body? I was like afraid that I was going to get possessed by some sort of spirit, and so that was just my lack of knowledge. But so there are reasons why I never meditated before. And now I know it's so simple and nothing like that happens, but before that, yeah, that was probably the reasons that stopped me from doing it, do you?
Speaker 3:remember what else the psychic suggested you do.
Speaker 4:If anything. Yeah, she told me to write down all of my experiences because she saw me writing a book. This was actually the second time I went to visit her and I thought, oh, that's interesting, like I'm sure it's crossed everyone's mind at some point to, wouldn't it be cool to be an author? But it's another thing to actually do it. And so that was one thing that she did tell me that eventually I did do, and that's how the book Guided came about. So there were lots of things that she told me. She validated a lot of things for me.
Speaker 4:I think the biggest impression for me was how I left that first reading. I didn't know what to expect. I was very skeptical going into it and when I left I felt light and excited and happy, versus frustrated or disappointed or anything like that. Like I felt really good about the reading and that's when I knew, okay, there's something to this. And when I do readings for people, that's how I want them to leave too. I want them to leave feeling lighter, happier I joke with my medium friends as long as you don't feel worse, then we did something right. So that same feeling. So anyway, that's what really stuck out to me with these readings, but then the action items that she gave to me. That also made a big difference.
Speaker 3:Wow, I love that. So you leave the psychic and then from there you start meditating. And what was your next step? Post that.
Speaker 4:So I wanted to make sure I did it right. So I reached out to some of my other friends who I knew were on a spiritual path. I had one friend who taught yoga and I was like can we meditate together? Can you show me how to do this? I had another friend who was already doing journeyings, like shamanic journeyings, and so she was already connecting to the animal realm, and to do that you get into a very meditative, deep meditative state. So she shared some meditation apps that she used, which were also very helpful, because the guided meditations are really helpful for me. At first and that was my next step I reached out to people who I trusted and I felt knew what they were doing and gave me good resources, and I want to say that it really did help. So that was my next, those were my next steps.
Speaker 3:You started meditating and did you notice this was helping you with your intuition. I did.
Speaker 4:How, I still don't know, but it did. It's interesting. What I noticed, or what I picked up on, was the ability to be able to clear the mind. With meditation, you're focusing. It's a practice because the human brain is very busy, so it's a practice to focus on your breathing or something, so that you sort of clear everything out or just let things pass through your thinking. Well, that's the foundation to mediumship you have to be able to clear your mind, not worry about your to-do list, and connect to spirit, and so I found that meditation allowed that. So, for me, my intuition, I feel like, is spirit's way of communicating with us, and so, by meditating and learning to either quiet my mind or allow the thoughts to come and go, it helped to clear up that channel of communication from the other side, and so it was allowing me to start to listen to my intuition and then opened up to other things, like mediumship, which was meant to be my path, and I was grateful for it because that's what I wanted.
Speaker 3:Now, how long into this did you discover mediumship? How long into this?
Speaker 4:did you discover mediumship? So I had known about mediumship for a long time, Sylvia Brown, who I read her books and that's how I discovered spirituality. She was a medium and I was like, oh gosh, I would love to do that. I can see in hindsight how a lot of the things that happened to me as a teenager, some of the thoughts that I had when I was younger, really set that foundation for me of, okay, I can or I am a medium. I had to practice it a little bit to tune it into a way that worked for me, and it wasn't just happening while I was sleeping and getting visitations in my dreams. So in 2019, when I started meditating, I started to follow my intuition and got really excited about wanting to explore energy healing. Well, when I would get into that mind space of doing an energy healing for somebody, I was already connecting with my guides. I had already started to do channel writing and communicating with my guides. I was channel writing for other people and their guides. So I felt very comfortable and safe in that space and so when I started to do energy healing, I would go in that same space.
Speaker 4:One time I was doing an energy healing for a friend's husband and this spirit came in and I was like if you're here for so-and-so, then you can stay. But I did pick up on some identifying information from this person and I saw her and everything. And then when I reached out to my friend and say, hey, I did the energy healing for your husband, and it's because I did it all remote, you know kind of around COVID time, so you had to do things remotely. And it's because I did it all remote, you know kind of around COVID time, so you had to do things remotely. And I said, by the way, I think a spirit, someone that knew him, visited me and this is what I picked up and this is what they looked like. And she said I know exactly who you're talking about, You're correct in how she passed, You're correct in what she looked like, you correct, you know all these things. And I was like, oh my gosh, this is amazing. She showed a picture. I said, yep, that's her. And then I was like, well, gee, that wasn't so scary. That just felt like when I communicate with spirit guides, like it's not like I'm seeing ghosts or anything.
Speaker 4:And so that was allowed me to become a bit more confident in wanting to practice in Facebook groups with strangers. There are mediumship development, Facebook groups and people post pictures and they ask for a reading and they give you feedback, and I was doing pretty well with those. So I said, okay, time to start practicing with people, even though it was still virtual, with immediate feedback, and was doing pretty well with that too. And so then that led to maybe taking a couple classes and just continuing to practice. So that's again that intuition and that meditation. It just really started to do that domino effect of what I was meant to do next, and so that was on the path of what I was meant to do next, and so that was on the path.
Speaker 3:That's amazing and I love how you mentioned like you weren't seeing ghosts and you had that like little bit of almost no, like that realistic authenticity, like a little bit of a fear, almost Not even I don't know if I want to say feel, but a little bit. Oh, I'm a scaredy cat.
Speaker 4:It's totally, it's a fear. Are you noticing like a pattern of like? I'm scared to meditate, scared to do mediumship but it turns out to be fine.
Speaker 3:No, I appreciate the authenticity. People might not say that like, but there could be a little bit of fear. I'm like what's the ghost going to look like Now? I'm so curious how you weave in the energy healing with being a nurse and if that intertwines and helps you at all.
Speaker 4:So it's been very separate. So doing the energy healing and doing my work as a nurse, it's actually very separate. I offer energy healing on a private basis and right now I don't work directly with patients, I'm more in an administrative role. So I'm really not using it at work at all. But I think what it does allow me to do is having that nursing background and having to practice full body assessments. It's a similar mind frame when you're assessing the energetic body and I have a really good documentation system because of nursing.
Speaker 4:That I didn't get taught in my energy healing class I came up with on my own. Nurses love to document everything. That's probably where the overlap is. But I will say, you know, for somebody who maybe already has that predisposition to want to be a nurse and to care for others and help people feel better, that does carry over into the energy healing and the mediumship work and to really want to help someone feel better, versus the opposite. You don't want them to feel worse.
Speaker 4:I'd say on a personal level I'm definitely the common denominator for both things, but as far as who I'm practicing on, it is pretty separate. I think the healthcare industry is making their way into being open to energy healing, and the energy healing that I practiced was actually created by a registered nurse, and the exciting thing is that I did get continuing education units for it, because it is an evidence-based type of energy healing practice called Healing Touch, and when I went to school to get my master's in nursing, I did a lot of my papers on energy healing, because, to me, that was something I was really interested in and excited to write papers about, versus something else. So in those cases it did overlap, I suppose, but not so much in my place of work. The mind frame, though, is the same.
Speaker 3:No, I gotcha. Do you talk about your energy healing aspect in the nurse aspect of your life?
Speaker 4:I have told my coworkers that I've signed up for this energy healing class, or I can do energy healing and I think for the most part people are pretty receptive to it, at least my nurse colleagues. I haven't talked too much to physician colleagues about it but again, now I'm not in that position where I work directly with too many of them, so the conversation doesn't really come up, but my nurse colleagues are very open to it. I think there's some sort of there's like a spiritual aspect to being a nurse, because we look at the you know, the mind, body and the spirit, because we also do gauge how a patient you know their energy, whether or not we realize that we're doing it. I would imagine that we were all, like you know witches in wizarding school and practicing the magical arts of healing and all these things, because we were just in this group together. I feel like there is this energy and this intuition that you need when you become a nurse and that you gain as you are a nurse.
Speaker 3:I know I gotcha. I was curious because sometimes you never know and sometimes like the healthcare field also, like in my day to day I'm a paralegal and I do energy healing and breath work and some people are like, how do they go to get? So I was curious, you know from your aspect of it, but I get what you mean, especially as the nurses. That makes a lot of sense. Like I have some friends who are nurses, so even though that's not my profession, like I get what you mean by like the energy, the energy of people, like even if they can't speak, like the energy that they like you can just kind of read it. Yeah, I don't know how to even explain it, but like nurses, just they can you know.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it's definitely heightened for a nurse, because when you walk into a room, you're gauging right away how your patient's doing. I think we all have a degree of that for sure. Like you can walk into a space and say, ooh, like I don't want to be here. So we all have that. But when you're on the job, say, ooh, like I don't want to be here. So we all have that. But when you're on the job and I think that's why there's a lot of compassion fatigue for nurses is because you're just, you're always on, you're always tuned in to your patients and if you've got multiple patients at once, it's a lot. And you're working 12-hour shifts and sometimes even longer, with a very short, maybe 30-minute break. It's just a lot to be on for. But yeah, you're constantly tuning into the whole picture when you're looking at your patients.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so I want to transition in terms of the mediumship that you've gotten into and you're doing. I'm curious have you ever done a reading for somebody and had something you didn't expect come up?
Speaker 4:Yes, I prefer to go in like no expectations at all. If I just know your name, that's perfect. The less I know, the better, because I don't want to be swayed either way. No-transcript.
Speaker 3:Okay, yes, I heard that. Are we back? I think so. I didn't hear everything you said before. I heard some of it, though.
Speaker 4:Okay, can you hear me? Can you hear me I?
Speaker 3:hear you now. I think we're good. Are we back?
Speaker 4:I think so Okay, all right, let's see I was talking about grandmas. Did you hear that part?
Speaker 3:I heard the word grandma. I didn't hear that, okay.
Speaker 4:So a lot of the times I'm very surprised with what comes in readings, because I go in with like zero knowledge or expectation or very minimal knowledge or expectation, and then there are times where you just get like, okay, grandma's, here, lots of people have grandparents who passed and stuff. So sometimes you get that You're like I hope they don't. Like, okay, grandma's, here, lots of people have grandparents who passed and stuff. So sometimes you get that You're like I hope they don't think I just pull everyone's grandpa. Anyway, that's a whole different topic. Yes, I've had a reading before where, because I do not just past loved ones, I like to really connect with spirit guides and then other members of a person's soul team. So I leave that very open because I don't like to limit to myself, I like to just be open to all of it and soul team being guides, angels, ascended masters, etc. So I was doing this one reading for this client and the way that I visualize people's spirit guides is they're standing on their left side. Well, I had her spirit guides there on her left side, but I also had a being a female entity on her right side and so usually the right side is reserved for anything other than spirit guides and I was like, oh, this is interesting, who is this? And I could tell it was not a past loved one. And as we did the reading I realized that she told me she is the goddess of astrology. The reading was very astrology, heavy, like about this client's astrology practice and all this good stuff. And she gave me a name. I don't remember what it was, but I shared the name. Don't remember what it was, but I shared the name. And the way that I do my readings right now is I like to just share whatever it is Spirit wants to let the person know and then, if we didn't get to all of the questions during that time, then ask your questions and then we can address them. Well, that reading we answered all of her questions and you know the moment she thought, oh, I wonder what that goddess's name was. It came and I gave it to her and that was without her even asking me, so I did not even know that she came in with astrology heavy questions. I thought I was going spirit guide and then I'm like, oh, but I've got to talk to this female entity here for you. And she said you answered all my questions and they were all about astrology and I was like that's crazy. I never knew there was a goddess of astrology. So that was really cool and yeah, we got all her questions answered. She had nothing left in the end and this was before I even knew what she wanted. I've met the goddess of rainbows. Now that sounds really cheesy, but she's actually the goddess of rainbows as in for miscarriages and for me. I'm thinking like I didn't realize there were so many different kinds of goddesses, but that's how they like tell me their what their name is. So that's how I share it. What they give me, I share. So you'd be surprised with, I guess, how I was surprised with how many goddesses there are out there that haven't been shared in Eastern Western cultures. Those have been really interesting. Those are the ones that stand out.
Speaker 4:I've had mediumship readings where I just like to share whatever comes through, and I had a client whose grandmother came through and I said I know you're worried about a cancer returning and I have to tell you that it's not going to come back. Like your grandmother is telling me it's not going to come back. And she said I wanted to ask my grandmother that question. Grandmother was telling me it's not going to come back and she said I wanted to ask my grandmother that question. So it's really exciting and validating when I get that feedback and realize I am communicating. It's like me communicating it. So you know, that just gets me really excited because it's just more validation, that spirit is there, spirit's communicating and I'm able to be that vessel of communication which I love doing. So it feels really good.
Speaker 3:Has spirit ever told you anything like alarming about anybody or like doing a voiding? That's?
Speaker 4:a good question. I wouldn't say so much alarming, but always comforting. So, for instance, I was doing this energy healing for this client and spirit loves to communicate during energy healings because the energy feels really good and there's a lot of good stuff going on, energies connecting and anyway I had to tell this client. I said I just have to tell you you're not cursed, there's no curse with you and your family line, something like that. This was a few years ago already and she again, without having said anything about it before, she started crying. And she said just a few days ago, like a family member was upset with her and told her that she cursed the family line or something like that. So it was very relevant to what was recently said to her and it was always exciting and surprising to get messages when you're like I don't know where this comes from, but I just have to tell you this and then when it lands, it's just the best feeling in the world.
Speaker 3:Have you ever gotten any messages that, like you, were a little, I guess, surprised by you?
Speaker 4:were a little, I guess, surprised by. So I mentioned to you the second time I visited that psychic. She told me that she sees me writing a book and I was like, oh, okay, you know, whatever. I had another friend, who's also a nurse and was the one to introduce me to energy healing on a very separate time, not related to the psychic at all, asked me am I writing all my experiences down because she sees me writing a book? And so it wasn't an official reading, but it was her relaying message to me, definitely from spirit, because she was the second person to say it to me. And so when I decided at that moment, I said you know what? Okay, I'll do it, I'll write a book. And because I knew it was, I knew it was a sign. And so as soon as I said okay, I went from yeah, that'd be cool.
Speaker 4:To opening up my laptop and I couldn't wait to get started. It was like motivation just like flooded through me, like ready to go, and I sat there, I opened up my laptop. I'm sitting in front of the Word doc waiting to type and I'm like, where do you even start? Like what am I writing about? This isn't my book, because I'm not the one who wanted to do this, and so I started by channel writing. So that's what I did I channel wrote and I channel wrote I don't know a good handful of pages, I don't know, maybe 20 or something. Like I just couldn't stop. I was like really excited to go. And then I would say that was probably a pretty unexpected and alarming message in the sense that it was something I had never considered. And when I finally gave into that and said okay and sort of surrendered, I guess, to the idea that, okay, I'll do it, it was like a switch flipped and I just kept going. Until I published Wild.
Speaker 4:I feel like I probably have thought like, oh, that would be cool to write a book. But gosh, what a feat, like what you know, that must take a lot of energy, that must take a lot of time. It didn't. That part didn't really appeal to me and I'm like what do you fill a book with? And then, if it were up to me, I'm like, well, what would I even write about? I feel like I don't have anything exciting or interesting to share. So I think there were a lot of those sorts of it would be cool to write a book and I'm always impressed when you know people have written books and I read some of these books. I'm like gosh, like you came up with this, like this was definitely channeled, like where the heck does this come from? You know, just this amazing, these amazing works of art, and it just felt so far fetched until I actually did and I said I can do this. But before it was like a cool idea, until it turned into reality and it felt amazing.
Speaker 3:And now, how long did it take you to write the book?
Speaker 4:Yeah, so I think, from from the time that I started to the time I actually published, probably close to two years, like a year and a half to two years, maybe something like that, maybe gosh, that's a really good question. I know I published in October of, I think, 2019. No, not 2019. I lied 2021? I don't remember I know. But so yeah, I mean I would definitely less than two years but more than a year. So that makes sense about that time.
Speaker 3:And now was it something you were just easily readily doing once you started.
Speaker 4:Yes, I tried to do like an outline and get things down on paper. I channel wrote a lot of it, at least for direction and guidance, to know what was going to be written about. And then I got myself a book coach to give me more direction. I had no clue how to get my Google Docs into a published book. So there's just all these little steps. So I needed help, like I needed guidance, and so I was lucky.
Speaker 4:I worked with this amazing book coach, danielle Perling Good. She was also a guest on my show and she helped to guide me in the writing process. She kept me accountable. She was also an editor as well, so she did really extensive editing with what I was writing and, just again, it gave me really good guidance.
Speaker 4:One of the best things that she told me which allowed me to I think I like typed up 80 pages in one day was she told me to write from start to finish all of my experiences that I had that I can recall like my spiritual experiences, and so when I started to do that and put down on paper, it was very therapeutic. It was easy to do because I experienced them, so it was easy for me to write. It wasn't like I was having to make anything up, so it was just putting these down on paper and it was really neat to go back and remember some of these experiences and, like I said, very therapeutic as well. So that was an amazing piece of advice that she gave me, because I think that really gave the bulk of the foundation of the book.
Speaker 3:I love that you mentioned you hired a book coach, hiring somebody to help you do it and accomplish the goal. You know, I love that.
Speaker 4:Yeah, you would be surprised. For those who have never published and I did it on Amazon so for those who have never published or self-published, I mean there's a lot to consider with not just the book cover and the size of the font and the type of paper, but there's also, you know, do you get an ISBN number? And then do you have the Library of Congress. I mean there's like stuff where I'm like what Like making it legit, so anyway, there's just all these little bits to consider when you submit your stuff, and then the editing and everything. But it's exciting, it's very exciting.
Speaker 3:Now you started the podcast before you wrote the book.
Speaker 4:I wrote the book first, actually, and then started the podcast. Yeah, okay, so how did the podcast come to be? Post the book?
Speaker 3:I wrote the book first, actually, and then started the podcast. Yeah, okay, so how did the podcast come to be? Post the book?
Speaker 4:That's a good question. I would say probably. The podcast was. Maybe if I'm getting my years right it became an idea about several months after the book published.
Speaker 4:I was toying between the idea of podcast or blog or something. I just like something to just put my ideas and my thoughts out there. And I was actually talking to my sister's boyfriend, who has a podcast and his does really well, and you know I was just having this very authentic conversation with him about you know, what do I even talk about? Am I even interesting? The same ideas that I had before writing a book? And I liked the idea of a podcast versus a blog because in the podcast you can hear our voices, see video, you know you could see the expressions, you can hear the inflections and you can have guests on and not that you can't with a blog, but it's a little different. Right, it's different, and you can take these transcriptions and still put them in a blog, which is a great idea too.
Speaker 4:But there was something about having conversations with people and then sharing the conversations. That really appealed to me, and so he was so great and so kind. He's like you have a lot to talk about. You know you're a mom, you work full time as a nurse and you have this whole spiritual thing, like I think that's interesting and you're very you know, you have a lot to share, and so I was like, all right, you know, I'm just going to do it.
Speaker 4:And it helps to have guests too, because having these conversations also allows you to bring up ideas or stories that maybe you wouldn't have thought of to do before and you bring outside perspective to your listeners that they don't just have to hear you all the time, and so it was nice to be able to have that dynamic. And I learned that I really enjoy editing. I enjoy the process of creating a podcast and putting it out there. So it's just worked really well with me and I think because of that I've been able to do it for a few years already, you know, without missing a week of uploading an episode consistently. So it's just been such a fantastic journey and I'm so, so thrilled that I get to do it and I'm so thrilled that I get to do it.
Speaker 3:I love that, I love that. And you wanted a place to share it, okay, and you thought it was better than the blog, but so you started with the book.
Speaker 4:And now you still had a little bit of fear with the podcast, even though you had written a book. Oh yeah, I think we try a new venture that is ours, we feel strongly about in our soul and in our hearts. It's scary. It's very vulnerable to put yourself out there. Now I'm like, oh, you know, it's not bad. It's actually very easy to just say whatever and put it out there and that's it's been great and I get to meet awesome people like you, amanda, doing this stuff. So it's been fantastic.
Speaker 4:I would never turn back and anybody who's ever interested I'm always like, yes, do it, you know it's such a great experience. Do it, you know it's such a great experience. But yes, definitely there's vulnerability in any of it. Even before I do a reading for somebody, I feel that vulnerability of you know what if you know it's very human? But like what if no one comes through? What if I can't connect? So you just sometimes have those thoughts. I hope it's going to be a good reading. I hope that the person leaves feeling more fulfilled and if they don't, then ugh. So it's always again, when it's your heart and your soul and it's something that you truly love and believe in, it takes a lot of vulnerability and courage, courage to put it out there.
Speaker 3:No, I get that completely. I just meant I thought the book would have taken a little more courage than a podcast, Even, like you mentioned the Library of Congress. I didn't even know that was a thing, but the book took a lot of courage. It's very vulnerable. Yeah, that's what I mean. I've got podcast hosts who are friends, who have recently written books, and they're like that's different. Anybody can listen to your podcast for free To buy your book like it's a different thing. It's true. Buy your book it's a different thing, it's true. What would you say was the biggest challenge out of either of them writing the book or starting the podcast?
Speaker 4:Well, I think that when we talked about the vulnerability for the book, that was a big thing. I start the book off sharing about this toxic relationship that I had when I was 19,. No-transcript I guess that was the longest thing is just how long I let it go for and I shared some specifics in the book about that relationship and some of the things that happened and how my intuition when I first met him didn't fire Like my intuition didn't say run, didn't say this is going to be bad, nothing like that. So because of that it made me think like, okay, I had to experience it. There was nothing keeping me from being with this guy. But then my intuition started to fire with the red flags and everything and I ignore the red flags. And then we joke that the red flags become these two by fours that hit you over the head and you start to sort of ignore those. It just gets louder and louder. And so I share the vulnerability of being in that relationship for as long as I did, ignoring all those red flags, until I finally was like enough is enough and found myself again and ended that relationship and like the load, the weight, just how it came off when I did that, it was a relief. There was no sadness that I missed him or anything like that. It was like, oh, why didn't I do that sooner? And so I see now in hindsight how I'm able to share my experience in hopes that it helps somebody else or gives them the courage to either leave something that is toxic or to help them to see that they aren't alone in their toxic relationship, like in their decisions to not leave a relationship right away, but to share that.
Speaker 4:It took me a long time to be comfortable sharing about that relationship in this kind of capacity because I was afraid of judgment. I had shame around it. People are going to think I was weak or that. Oh my gosh. I thought about her this way and now to hear that she was in a relationship like that and she let it happen for so long. I don't think of her the same way. So there was a lot of that around that.
Speaker 4:When I shared about that in the book, I was nervous to share that, but I haven't gotten any sort of negative feedback or anything like that. I think lots of us have experienced toxic relationships, so there's a lot of camaraderie in that sense unfortunately or fortunately, depending on how you look at it. So, yes, I would say with the book I mean in the podcast I can talk about things that I want, like spirituality, like that's awesome. I'll share about my journey with anxiety and things like that, and at first that was a little bit scary to be vulnerable about that. But at the same time I'm like I've learned that if something feels vulnerable, then that's what you should be sharing because other people will connect with that. So if something feels almost shameful, I feel like that has the biggest impact on other people, whether it's your listeners or your readers.
Speaker 3:I love that. That makes so much sense. Scary, but true. Yeah Now, and I feel like you may have answered this, but I'm going to ask you this anyways. So I tend to ask guests if they've experienced a lot of people have experienced a lot of these, but if you've experienced a big aha moment in your life where, basically, everything just started to click and make sense for you.
Speaker 4:Definitely my two awakenings and I always go back to like when you first asked me that you know what came. What popped into my mind first? And when I was a teenager, prior to my first awakening and prior to me picking up a Sylvia Brown book, I had two very significant dream visitations. And the first dream visitation was significant for a couple reasons. One I had mentioned earlier that I had grown up in a Jewish and a Christian household and we moved a lot because of the military, and so we grew up going to both. My sister and I grew up going to both synagogue and church, and so with Christianity and Judaism, jesus is the Messiah in one and he's not in the other. And so when we would go to church, like a Christian church, I was trying to like find that feeling that I saw the people around me have with that relationship they had with Jesus, and I was trying to find that. And then, you know, in synagogue it felt a little bit different. It was a little bit more traditional. There's a lot of Hebrew, so I loved the way that I felt being there, but I don't know if I was connecting with the words so much. The reason why this is important is because that first significant dream visitation was with Jesus and it was during a time when I was like I don't know where I stand with Jesus because my only connection with him at the time was through religion and it was you either believed in him as a Christian or you didn't. So that was sort of my all or nothing thinking. And so when he came to me in a dream during this time of I don't know like where I stand with him, it was surprising. And he came to me and he asked me in that dream to spread his word, which was more surprising because I'm like, oh gosh, he wants me to evangelize. Like I don't even know if I believe in you, you know that sort of thing. And then for him to ask me, that just felt like the timing felt weird. But I did tell him I would try and that was enough for him. And then the dream ended.
Speaker 4:And so I sat with that dream because in my mind I'm thinking I'm going to be, I'm going to have to feel more Christian, like that's the only way that I could feel that I could evangelize about Christianity is I have to feel it here in my heart. And I was waiting for that and it never came. In fact, I started picking up Sylvia Brown books and reading Sylvia Brown books and I felt like I was moving further away from that. But that felt so good and so I didn't know where I stood with that stood with that and later on, during spiritual awakening number two in 2019, I decided to well, why not try and channel Jesus like I've channeled other entities? Maybe I can ask him what that dream was about. And that's when I learned that he wanted me to spread the word of love, because if you think about what Jesus stood for, it wasn't about the rules and the dogma and everything around Christianity, but what I resonate with is the love that he had for people and spreading the word of love. And I said, okay, that I can do, that feels good, that I can do, and so that was significant.
Speaker 4:The second dream that I had that was significant maybe happened a year or two after that was a dream visitation from my grandmother, who had passed away from cancer. That day and I do share these stories in the book too that day she was in hospice and we went to go see her. We drove from California to Arizona where she was, and we saw her in hospice and you know she was a ventilator, was breathing for her. She wasn't in her body for sure, even though she was still technically alive, loud, and I mean my grandparents are from the Bronx and so they've got their Jewish New York accent. You know they're loud and they're. They've just got like so much personality in how they talk and then to see her like that, like nothing, I was like that's not, you know, it just felt really weird. So we got to see her, which was nice, and then that night I had a dream about her and I said Grandma, I said you're all better? And she said yes, I am, and it was the next morning that we found out that she had passed through the night.
Speaker 4:Now, that dream was significant because that was the start. Well, besides the dream about Jesus, that was the start of me remembering dream visitations of people who have passed, people who have lived and passed. I say that because it's not always just family members. I've had family members of friends come to me in dreams as well, etc. So that was significant because that sort of set the stage in her playing a significant role in my spiritual journey by occasionally visiting me in my dreams, and so my grandmother has had this profound impact on my spirituality, and she would only be able to do that by being on the other side. Not to say that she passed away for me, but because of that there's that silver lining, I suppose. So those two dreams when I was younger were very significant, because I feel like they really were the big stepping blocks to get me to where I am today and why I do what I do.
Speaker 3:Thanks, amber. So much Thank you for speaking with me. I really appreciate it.
Speaker 4:Thank you so much for having me. It's an honor, oh my gosh, of course.
Speaker 3:Have you heard of a man named Jay Shetty? I have, oh, yes, I have. He's got a podcast, former Monk. He wrote a book. I think he might have wrote it for you. He hosts a podcast on purpose and he ends it with two segments and I've incorporated those two segments into my podcast. First segment is the Many Sides to Us. There's five, five questions, and they need to be answered with one word each. What is one word someone who was meeting you for the first time would use to describe you as? Consider it. What is one word that someone who knows you extremely well would use to describe you as? What is one word you'd use to describe yourself? Lovely, lovely. What is one word that, if someone didn't like you or agree with your mindset, would use to describe you as?
Speaker 4:Too diplomatic, that's two words.
Speaker 3:What is?
Speaker 4:one word you're trying to embody right now Love it. I was going to say three words.
Speaker 3:I'm going to say compassionate or compassion. Okay, second segment is the final five.
Speaker 4:What is the best advice you've heard or received? It's just keep going. Simple. Nothing's finite, so just keep going, because even though things may be low, it will come back up, and even though things may be high, it'll come back down. So you just keep going.
Speaker 3:What is the worst advice you've heard?
Speaker 4:or received Just keep going. The worst advice. Oh, I'm sure it exists. I probably just blocked it out or forgot about it. Gosh, that's a good one. I can't think of anything. I think I really blocked it out.
Speaker 3:What is something that you used to value that you no longer value?
Speaker 4:long go value. Okay, so I'm getting better at valuing my truth. Now, what I mean by that is if I feel strongly about one thing or another, being okay to speak up about that or being okay to keep practicing that. For instance, there was a time when I started my medium their judgment and their lack of knowledge and fear of what it is that I do, I guess to better explain it, there was a time when I was called out by a family member extended family member they asked me to stop practicing mediumship. They said it was evil. They said I'm practicing witchcraft and that I'm going to connect to evil entities. And now I don't care if people have that opinion, because I know that what I do is of love and light. So I think that's where I'm at is speaking my truth, learning to value that.
Speaker 3:If you could describe what you would want your legacy to be, as if someone was reading it, what would you want it to say?
Speaker 4:So there's this quote by Maya Angelou that says people won't remember well, I don't know the exact words, but people won't remember what you tell them, but they'll remember how you made them feel. And so for my legacy, I want people to remember how I made them feel, how I made maybe life easier for them or lighter for them or fun for them. Not like I'm trying to take away from any hardships they may be having that they want to talk about or vent about, but I want to leave people feeling better.
Speaker 3:I love that. If you could create one law in the world that everyone had to follow, what would it be? And I want to know why.
Speaker 4:So I find that a lot of the times, if we don't understand something, we automatically fear it or want to destroy it. But I think if we took the time to understand each other, understand circumstances, before making an emotional decision about it, I think that can really make a big difference. Going back to my example of speaking my truth, I think that instead of people automatically assuming that what mediumship is evil or whatever, to at least be open to a conversation, hear the other side about it. You know, if this family member had a conversation with me and learned that I only work with love and light and Jesus plays a really big role in the work that I do, they might have had a different opinion and it wouldn't have caused the strife that it did in our relationship Not that we really had a relationship to begin with, but it did make me not want to.
Speaker 4:I had to put up a boundary for that, whereas maybe in a different circumstance we could have had a conversation and maybe even had a stronger relationship for it. Don't make an emotional decision or rash decision right away. If you had to stop and at least take a minute if you have a minute and it's not a life-threatening situation to be able to stop and hear from the other person before you make a decision based on fear, then I think that could help a lot of misunderstandings out there and help people to understand each other better.
Speaker 3:I love that. Well, thank you so much for speaking with me. Appreciate it.
Speaker 4:Thanks so much for having me. It's such an honor again to be on here. So thank you, but where can listeners connect with you? I'm on Instagram and I'm on Facebook. They can find me on a Guide to Life podcast, laura West. I also have a link tree as well that has everything all in one spot.
Speaker 3:Okay, I will link all of that in the show notes, and no pressure, but I do just like to give it back to the guest.
Speaker 4:If you have any final words of wisdom you want to share with the listeners, want to share with the listeners, just to remind everybody that they are so loved and protected and surrounded by their amazing soul teams that they're never alone and that they're there and they want to communicate with you and send you signs and be there to help you, to guide you along, whether it's intuitively or however else that you like to get your connection with the other side. But pray, but also meditate, because we pray to talk and then we meditate to listen. So don't forget that part of it.
Speaker 3:Love that explanation. I really appreciate it. Thank you, and thank you guys for tuning in to another episode of Mandate's Mindset.
Speaker 2:In case no one told you today, I'm proud of you, I'm booting for you and you got this as always. If you enjoyed the show, I would really appreciate it if you would leave me a five star rating, leave a review and share it with anyone you think would benefit from this. And don't forget you are only one mindset. Shift away from shifting your life. Thanks guys, until next time.
