Nurturing Minds and Hearts: From Yoga's Calm To Global Wellness Education's Embrace With Linda Orsini

Alan Carroll: 00:00:00

Hi, everybody. Welcome back to the mindful U

Alan Carroll: 00:00:05

podcast. My name is Alan Carroll and I am your host as we journey

Alan Carroll: 00:00:12

together down the pathway of mindfulness. And today it's my

Alan Carroll: 00:00:22

pleasure to introduce you to Linda Orsini. Linda has been a

Alan Carroll: 00:00:28

teacher for 30 years. She is dedicated to personal

Alan Carroll: 00:00:34

transformation, specializing in mindfulness, self compassion,

Alan Carroll: 00:00:39

meditation, yoga, Reiki, energy, sound, healing, hypnotherapy.

Alan Carroll: 00:00:47

She's the founder of the global wellness education, and has her

Alan Carroll: 00:00:51

own podcast called a call for love. She talks about the stress

Alan Carroll: 00:00:59

that she experienced the burnout that she experienced. And she

Alan Carroll: 00:01:05

discovered that the tools of mindfulness were much better

Alan Carroll: 00:01:09

than any Western medicine that could be taken to reduce

Alan Carroll: 00:01:14

anxiety. And so she became a believer and mindfulness. And so

Alan Carroll: 00:01:20

she's dedicated her life to bringing mindfulness to others

Alan Carroll: 00:01:23

and to heal others. So I am excited. And I'm welcome to

Alan Carroll: 00:01:27

introduce to you, Linda or Seanie. Please welcome Linda.

Alan Carroll: 00:01:32

Thank you. Linda, welcome to the mindful you podcast, I'm excited

Alan Carroll: 00:01:40

to have an opportunity to talk with you. And I'd like to start

Alan Carroll: 00:01:44

by having you share with our audience, a little bit about

Alan Carroll: 00:01:48

your your journey, your personal journey, your your background,

Alan Carroll: 00:01:53

and what were the like, critical milestones that accelerated you

Alan Carroll: 00:01:58

down that personal growth path, and then the contributions that

Alan Carroll: 00:02:02

you use in the world to heal and help other people.

Linda Orsini: 00:02:07

Sure, Alan, it's so great to be here. Thank you.

Linda Orsini: 00:02:11

I am the youngest of 11 children. And so I am quite

Linda Orsini: 00:02:15

resilient. And when my doctor had proposed that I take anti

Linda Orsini: 00:02:20

anxiety medicine, because it was just too my life was just too

Linda Orsini: 00:02:27

stressful for me, I was really had high anxiety, Soul fatigue,

Linda Orsini: 00:02:32

I was a school teacher, I had gotten divorced. And life was

Linda Orsini: 00:02:36

very big, very emotional. And my anxiety was through the roof.

Linda Orsini: 00:02:41

And I didn't want to take anxiety medication, because in

Linda Orsini: 00:02:45

all honesty, I was dating. And the side effects were, you know,

Linda Orsini: 00:02:50

gaining weight, low libido, and there was other one and it just

Linda Orsini: 00:02:53

like, that's not going to work. So my neighbor invited me to go

Linda Orsini: 00:02:58

to yoga class. And I went, and I was like, Oh, I had a little bit

Linda Orsini: 00:03:03

of break from suffering. And so I thought, well, let's, let's

Linda Orsini: 00:03:09

try this. Let's try this. If it doesn't work, we visit the

Linda Orsini: 00:03:12

doctor and see if I can maybe think about some kind of

Linda Orsini: 00:03:17

medicine. And I kept on going and I kept on feeling better.

Linda Orsini: 00:03:22

And I kept on loving it. And, and so then it just snowballed,

Linda Orsini: 00:03:26

because and now I bring in the peace again of the youngest

Linda Orsini: 00:03:29

child, because I really learned resilience. And I am the type of

Linda Orsini: 00:03:34

the person that really gets in there fast. And self advocates

Linda Orsini: 00:03:40

and self improves anyway I can. So I just took it upon myself to

Linda Orsini: 00:03:47

heal myself, I guess you could say. And yoga allowed me to get

Linda Orsini: 00:03:54

to meditation and mindfulness, because it was too far of a jump

Linda Orsini: 00:03:59

from over anxiety and stress. So fatigue, all the way to

Linda Orsini: 00:04:04

mindfulness and meditation. So yoga was the bridge.

Alan Carroll: 00:04:10

Well, that's that. Yep, I agree. In my own

Alan Carroll: 00:04:14

experience. Linda, I read a book in my late teens by Bob a

Alan Carroll: 00:04:19

rhombus is called D here now. It was the classic back in the 60s

Alan Carroll: 00:04:25

and 70s. And the book was divided into three parts. And

Alan Carroll: 00:04:29

the part I the part I liked the most was the section on yoga.

Alan Carroll: 00:04:34

And that got me down to this moving the body and stillness

Alan Carroll: 00:04:38

and getting myself relaxed and and here we are 50 years down

Alan Carroll: 00:04:44

the 50 years later. mindfulness and meditation are part of the

Alan Carroll: 00:04:51

the game part of the mindfulness game, because I imagine you

Alan Carroll: 00:04:54

realize that they follow each other as you begin to steal that

Alan Carroll: 00:05:00

anxiety, you began to look at well, what other ways? Can I

Alan Carroll: 00:05:06

steal the anxiety that I'm feeling? And so mindfulness and

Alan Carroll: 00:05:11

meditation is certainly one of them. I also wanted to ask you

Alan Carroll: 00:05:16

about some of the things that I read in your biography. And one

Alan Carroll: 00:05:21

of them was the the global wellness education. You're a

Alan Carroll: 00:05:25

founder of that. And I wanted you to sort of share with the

Alan Carroll: 00:05:28

audience what what that is because you put some energy into

Alan Carroll: 00:05:31

that, and I'd like to hear what it's about.

Unknown: 00:05:34

Well, thank you for recognizing that because yes, it

Unknown: 00:05:37

has been a journey. I was a school teacher for over 30 years

Unknown: 00:05:41

for an elementary school, from JK to grade eight in various

Unknown: 00:05:45

roles. And I knew that once I started on the wellness journey,

Unknown: 00:05:52

it was like such a burning desire in me to expand this

Unknown: 00:05:57

further. So at my first eligibility date, which happened

Unknown: 00:06:02

to be in Canada, I was close to 54, because I started teaching

Unknown: 00:06:05

very young, I retired, and I didn't retire, I shifted, and I

Unknown: 00:06:11

began global wellness education, I felt like it spoke to all the

Unknown: 00:06:17

elements, it was global, which I am, and education, who I am, and

Unknown: 00:06:23

wellness, which I always advocate for. So I began with

Unknown: 00:06:28

global wellness education, and I thought I would just come into

Unknown: 00:06:32

wellness because I'm trained. I'm a Reiki Master sound healer

Unknown: 00:06:36

trained in hypnotherapy. I have so many tools under my belt. But

Unknown: 00:06:41

I wasn't quite sure the business piece because as a school

Unknown: 00:06:45

teacher, that's not something that we really learned. But

Unknown: 00:06:49

nevertheless, through global wellness education, I am

Unknown: 00:06:52

expanding and growing it every day, especially with my podcast

Unknown: 00:06:57

now a call for love.

Alan Carroll: 00:07:01

And if I was interested in the global

Alan Carroll: 00:07:04

wellness education, how would you give me like a purpose

Alan Carroll: 00:07:07

statement or a mission statement for what that organization is

Alan Carroll: 00:07:11

about?

Unknown: 00:07:12

That's a great question. I really believe that

Unknown: 00:07:15

global wellness education it permeates every continent, every

Unknown: 00:07:22

being every age group. And so this is a global mission, that

Unknown: 00:07:30

we live healthier in our mind bodies and spirits, because when

Unknown: 00:07:35

we do, we can be of greater Stuarts to the earth and to

Unknown: 00:07:40

others. So all love becomes comes from self love. And unless

Unknown: 00:07:44

we can hold space for all our pains, and our low tears and all

Unknown: 00:07:48

our joys, then we cannot be of service to others.

Alan Carroll: 00:07:54

That's beautiful. That's very, very beautiful.

Alan Carroll: 00:07:57

That leads into the concept you you mentioned earlier, was the

Alan Carroll: 00:08:05

concept of there are two types of love. And the way you

Alan Carroll: 00:08:10

described it, if I remember there's a one type, which we'll

Alan Carroll: 00:08:14

call love. And we'll call that the highest, the highest level

Alan Carroll: 00:08:19

of consciousness. And there I like what you said. And then the

Alan Carroll: 00:08:22

second type is not like against love, or the bottom love or the

Alan Carroll: 00:08:26

ugly part. It's just a I think you use the word, a lower

Alan Carroll: 00:08:32

vibration. That's that's a sweet way accurate, and accurate way

Alan Carroll: 00:08:38

of talking about a continuum. I mean, I believe and you believe

Alan Carroll: 00:08:43

that it's it's all one love. And so let's go into a a definition

Alan Carroll: 00:08:50

of you're talking about love. Can you define because a lot of

Alan Carroll: 00:08:56

people have a lot of different definitions about love. And I

Alan Carroll: 00:08:59

especially hope I'm hope I hope that that word space is involved

Alan Carroll: 00:09:07

in your understanding of giving space as part of love. And I

Alan Carroll: 00:09:11

don't know, but I'm keeping I'm keeping my fingers crossed,

Alan Carroll: 00:09:13

because that's certainly where I'm at with it.

Unknown: 00:09:16

Well, I'll give you a little teaser, you're right. But

Unknown: 00:09:20

the thing with it is that we really complicate our life. We

Unknown: 00:09:26

really, really complicated and life is complicated. But if you

Unknown: 00:09:31

can just know where you are standing through awareness which

Unknown: 00:09:37

comes to space, you cannot know where you're standing unless you

Unknown: 00:09:40

stop to really find space and stillness. So then you decide,

Unknown: 00:09:47

are you in a place of love, love as you said is the continuum.

Unknown: 00:09:51

Love is the highest vibration, love and joy, highest highest

Unknown: 00:09:54

vibration? What else is there if there's not love? And then the

Unknown: 00:09:58

lowest by abrasion is shame, and all the ones above it. So here

Unknown: 00:10:05

you have the spectrum. And we through awareness, through

Unknown: 00:10:10

intention. And through action, we can decide where we are

Unknown: 00:10:16

standing. Are we standing in a place of love the highest

Unknown: 00:10:20

vibration, our highest self? Or are we anxious, envious,

Unknown: 00:10:26

jealous, frustrated, depressed, all those lower vibrations,

Unknown: 00:10:34

where are you standing. So if you're in a lower vibration,

Unknown: 00:10:37

which is under the title of fear, then you can practice

Unknown: 00:10:44

mind, body and spirit skills in order to raise your vibration.

Unknown: 00:10:51

So that you can step in love, through self compassion, through

Unknown: 00:10:56

stillness, through space, through meditation, through all

Unknown: 00:11:00

those modalities that enable you as the vehicle to raise you up.

Unknown: 00:11:05

And then from there, you live more intentionally you can be of

Unknown: 00:11:09

greater service to those who you care about, too. We're stewards

Unknown: 00:11:13

of this earth, when you are vibrating and living from a

Unknown: 00:11:17

place of love, then you are really living from loving

Unknown: 00:11:21

kindness, and from loving kindness, Everything blossoms.

Alan Carroll: 00:11:28

You certainly are very sweet and the way you

Alan Carroll: 00:11:30

verbalize that, that space of consciousness. There is a a

Alan Carroll: 00:11:38

vibration. And when you talked about specific, could you give

Alan Carroll: 00:11:43

some specific exercises or practices, someone who's on the

Alan Carroll: 00:11:49

lower end of that scale of love, and they want it? What can I do

Alan Carroll: 00:11:54

now? That would support me and accelerating my my growth down

Alan Carroll: 00:12:01

that mindfulness level 10 Love?

Unknown: 00:12:06

Okay, well, I do have some specific examples, I could

Unknown: 00:12:10

say, very easy one, let's take as a parent, right? You know,

Unknown: 00:12:15

you've been working all day and you come home and your children

Unknown: 00:12:19

are or child is really wanting your attention, kind of crabby,

Unknown: 00:12:25

kind of tired, right? And you can get frustrated, right?

Unknown: 00:12:31

Frustrated, because you're tired, etc. And then you have to

Unknown: 00:12:38

stop. What is really happening here, you create a little space.

Unknown: 00:12:44

And then when you create a little space, you know, that

Unknown: 00:12:47

your child may be had missed you, it could even be your

Unknown: 00:12:50

partner, who you haven't given enough time to that day. And

Unknown: 00:12:55

what they're really trying to say is they miss you. And so

Unknown: 00:12:59

through your frustration, if you create this time in the space,

Unknown: 00:13:04

you can look at it from a new awareness with a different

Unknown: 00:13:09

intention. Instead of me getting frustrated, short tempered, or

Unknown: 00:13:15

defensive. Those are the lower vibrations, I can step into

Unknown: 00:13:20

love, I can stop what I'm doing for a minute. And I can sit with

Unknown: 00:13:25

them. And everyone wants to be seen, valued and heard. And if

Unknown: 00:13:30

we can offer that first ourselves, because we have to

Unknown: 00:13:34

see what's going on within ourselves. And then we can offer

Unknown: 00:13:37

that to others, then not only do we shift our reality, but we

Unknown: 00:13:42

shift the vibration around us.

Alan Carroll: 00:13:49

That's beautiful. That's beautiful. You you are

Alan Carroll: 00:13:53

you're when you say you have to be able to stop. Well that What

Alan Carroll: 00:13:58

do you mean by that? And then you have to be able to see

Alan Carroll: 00:14:02

what's going on. When you stop. Well stop implies that you're

Alan Carroll: 00:14:08

moving somewhere. So how do you wake up in the in the, in the

Alan Carroll: 00:14:14

chaos of what's going on with your children? And what's going

Alan Carroll: 00:14:17

on with the world right now? What do you mean by stop? I

Alan Carroll: 00:14:20

don't Yeah. So how do you stop in order to create the space in

Alan Carroll: 00:14:25

order to observe and then so you no longer react? You now are

Alan Carroll: 00:14:29

able to respond and keep your body still and relaxed and

Alan Carroll: 00:14:32

dealing with the situation? How do you how do you how do you?

Alan Carroll: 00:14:37

How do you wake up? How do you wake up in order to stop?

Unknown: 00:14:43

I love that you asked this question because no one's

Unknown: 00:14:47

really asked me this question and I love it. I am a meditation

Unknown: 00:14:53

guide. I'm a course creator, I host retreats but I always say

Unknown: 00:14:58

it's a practice. We have to teach ourselves how to do this.

Unknown: 00:15:04

We are reactive human beings. We react all the time. But through

Unknown: 00:15:11

safe space through meditation and through mindfulness, right,

Unknown: 00:15:16

we train our mind to stop and notice. And it's through the

Unknown: 00:15:21

training through mindfulness and meditation, that we acquire the

Unknown: 00:15:27

skills to practice it in crisis's, but we cannot practice

Unknown: 00:15:31

it in crisis, when we haven't practiced it in a safe place.

Alan Carroll: 00:15:38

Absolutely, my experience too, that you are,

Alan Carroll: 00:15:43

when you're in the battle is not the time to be thinking about

Alan Carroll: 00:15:47

how to prepare, you should have been preparing step by step, day

Alan Carroll: 00:15:53

by day, practice every day, something to create stillness.

Alan Carroll: 00:15:59

So it becomes, at first it's an effort. And then it's done. It's

Alan Carroll: 00:16:04

downhill skiing. It's like you want to you want to have that

Alan Carroll: 00:16:08

stillness feeling. And what I noticed for myself and I, and I

Alan Carroll: 00:16:12

bet you do too, that the agitation, the clouds, the

Alan Carroll: 00:16:18

storminess, that's happening in the moment, begin to settle

Alan Carroll: 00:16:24

down, you can begin to breathe. I bet when you're on that level

Alan Carroll: 00:16:31

one and two, you don't even aware of breathing. And I bet as

Alan Carroll: 00:16:36

you move towards that eight, nine and 10, the relaxation of

Alan Carroll: 00:16:40

the physical body, the tension in the physical body becomes

Alan Carroll: 00:16:45

more observable. And then I bet you can tell me if you can, if I

Alan Carroll: 00:16:50

can observe the physical tension that what can I do?

Unknown: 00:16:53

Well, when you notice it in your body, and you feel it

Unknown: 00:16:56

in your body, then it then it becomes a somatic experience.

Unknown: 00:17:00

You can say, Oh, I feel this in my body. We always feel it in

Unknown: 00:17:06

our body first, and then we can you know that it's the monkey

Unknown: 00:17:10

mind, it's the mind, we say to our mind, you know what, first

Unknown: 00:17:14

of all, is probably an illusion, that we're really thinking, and

Unknown: 00:17:19

we are not our thoughts. And so we pull back the reins, we pull

Unknown: 00:17:23

back the reins, we have been exercising our mind like we

Unknown: 00:17:28

would our biceps, in order to pause to, to become aware, to

Unknown: 00:17:35

embody the emotion to think with a little bit more space and

Unknown: 00:17:39

rational. And then therefore we can make an action make an

Unknown: 00:17:46

intention to create an action where it's

Alan Carroll: 00:17:50

out of love. Yes, yes.

Unknown: 00:17:54

But that's practice. And that's intention.

Alan Carroll: 00:17:58

The intention is it you have a choice. In my the

Alan Carroll: 00:18:05

way I look at it, you have a choice between defending my ego

Alan Carroll: 00:18:08

point of view, which are attack thoughts, or I can let the voice

Alan Carroll: 00:18:13

of God speak through me. And if the voice of God was going to

Alan Carroll: 00:18:17

speak through me, the voice of God would be saying loving kind

Alan Carroll: 00:18:20

things. But my ego says I'm not God. Well, yeah, now maybe

Alan Carroll: 00:18:24

there's a little bit a god this in you, and you start to

Alan Carroll: 00:18:28

practice, looking for the cup half full, practice loving

Alan Carroll: 00:18:33

kindness, as you have to say with compassion. And that that's

Alan Carroll: 00:18:37

exactly what you know, from my reality, what the Buddhism talks

Alan Carroll: 00:18:42

about the vehicle to the Buddha talks about love and compassion.

Alan Carroll: 00:18:46

But what does that mean? Well, that that comes with that, that

Alan Carroll: 00:18:51

space, you're talking about that space of, I call it the the

Alan Carroll: 00:18:55

witness, or the observer of the movie, you're sitting in the

Alan Carroll: 00:19:00

you're standing in the movie theater with some popcorn,

Alan Carroll: 00:19:02

watching the clouds watching the movie go by on the screen, and

Alan Carroll: 00:19:06

you're enjoying it, but you're not taking it personally. But

Alan Carroll: 00:19:09

most people are the movie because they can't create the

Alan Carroll: 00:19:13

space between the chair and the screen. They are if there's no

Alan Carroll: 00:19:16

space, then you are the thought. But if you can create a space

Alan Carroll: 00:19:20

then oh, I'm, I'm having a thought right now about that.

Alan Carroll: 00:19:23

But I don't need to act on it. I can say wait a minute, nothing

Alan Carroll: 00:19:30

personal. Take a breath. And then look at how I can proceed

Alan Carroll: 00:19:35

with kindness. And I bet that is what what you've discovered on

Alan Carroll: 00:19:39

your journey too, because it sounds like you and I are

Alan Carroll: 00:19:42

connected here. Really, you are. You're throwing the ball with

Alan Carroll: 00:19:46

me. I'm throwing it back to you and you're catching it and I'm

Alan Carroll: 00:19:49

catching it because we've walked the path. You have covered

Alan Carroll: 00:19:55

universal things not not personal but universal things

Alan Carroll: 00:19:58

about space. Ace breathing. It's all of relaxation. And we

Alan Carroll: 00:20:07

haven't even talked about surrender forgiveness yet. Maybe

Alan Carroll: 00:20:10

the next time we do a podcast, we'll talk about surrender and

Alan Carroll: 00:20:14

forgiveness, because those are, those are two ingredients that

Alan Carroll: 00:20:17

seem to come with that, that journey from that egoic.

Alan Carroll: 00:20:21

Defending thing to, to not. Well, Linda, although our time

Alan Carroll: 00:20:26

has been short, it's been full of golden nuggets that you're

Alan Carroll: 00:20:31

sharing with our audience. And I bet there's people in the

Alan Carroll: 00:20:35

audience who are saying, Wow, Linda sounds like a pretty cool

Alan Carroll: 00:20:37

person. How can I how can I connect with Linda, what, where

Alan Carroll: 00:20:41

can I go? And in the show notes, we'll have your your all the

Alan Carroll: 00:20:47

links and things like that. And but this right now, if people

Alan Carroll: 00:20:52

wanted to connect with you, Linda, how would they go about

Alan Carroll: 00:20:54

doing that?

Unknown: 00:20:56

Well, you can reach out to me on global wellness

Unknown: 00:20:59

education.com and on social media platforms that are called

Unknown: 00:21:03

for love. And from there I host courses retreats,

Unknown: 00:21:08

transformational life coach, and I'm really here to support

Unknown: 00:21:13

people on their individual journey with self compassion, my

Unknown: 00:21:17

main route is unless we can love ourselves with self compassion,

Unknown: 00:21:22

that spills over to empathy for others. And then as you said

Unknown: 00:21:25

that forgiveness becomes a little bit more possible. So

Unknown: 00:21:29

that's just a little teaser for next talk.

Alan Carroll: 00:21:32

Wonderful. Well, I hear the ringing in my ears. So

Alan Carroll: 00:21:36

thank you very much, Linda for being a guest on the potter

Alan Carroll: 00:21:40

Palooza and the mindful you podcast, I enjoyed very much

Alan Carroll: 00:21:44

having the opportunity to talk with you. And I look forward to

Alan Carroll: 00:21:47

having another conversation with you in the future. Thank you

Alan Carroll: 00:21:50

very much. All right, bye bye for now.

Alan Carroll: 00:21:59

Okay, so I'm going to, I'm going to leave the I'm going to leave

Alan Carroll: 00:22:04

the meeting. Okay. And how did it go?

Unknown: 00:22:07

I loved it. I felt like both were just so in sync. Yes.

Unknown: 00:22:11

tossing the ball. I mean, I, our mission, our, our DIS ideology

Unknown: 00:22:16

are so similar. So bad.

Alan Carroll: 00:22:19

Yep, I agree. I agree it was because the way we

Alan Carroll: 00:22:25

were talking is from experience. Hmm, and not from a book. And so

Alan Carroll: 00:22:33

it's so the depth of the words have more power. When it comes

Alan Carroll: 00:22:38

from experience rather than Well, I'd read a book about it.

Alan Carroll: 00:22:42

Because I can see when because the observer and the witness,

Alan Carroll: 00:22:45

that's a that's a big, big thing. When you when you get

Alan Carroll: 00:22:50

that witnessed observer space stuff, you're now flying a lot

Alan Carroll: 00:22:57

rather than crawling along the ground. And unfortunately, most

Alan Carroll: 00:23:00

people, what do you mean by space and observing and witness

Alan Carroll: 00:23:05

and well, you start to meditate you, you start to create space

Alan Carroll: 00:23:09

between the thoughts that you think. And in my work, what I do

Alan Carroll: 00:23:13

with training professional speakers, what we do is we train

Alan Carroll: 00:23:16

them to create space between the sounds that they speak. And

Alan Carroll: 00:23:24

every time you create the space while you're speaking, you

Alan Carroll: 00:23:27

create a little bit of stillness. And boy, stillness is

Alan Carroll: 00:23:33

the the entry into that vastness of mindfulness. So you can be

Alan Carroll: 00:23:36

mindful while you're speaking. We call it mindful, spacious

Alan Carroll: 00:23:39

speaking. All right, well enjoy the power palooza. And I will

Alan Carroll: 00:23:43

reach out to you to reschedule because I want to talk to you

Alan Carroll: 00:23:46

more.

Unknown: 00:23:47

Sure, that'd be great. Thank you so much. It was such a

Unknown: 00:23:50

pleasure meeting you.

Alan Carroll: 00:23:52

You too. It was a pleasure knowing that there's

Alan Carroll: 00:23:54

other people on the planet like you makes me happiest