Reclaiming Authenticity

Teresa and Tom explore the perceptions and beliefs that others have about us, particularly in the spiritual realm. The hosts share their personal experiences of being misunderstood and judged by others based on their spiritual practices. They discuss the importance of discernment and fact-finding when forming opinions about others. 

The conversation also touches on the balance between intellect and feeling, the influence of religious backgrounds on beliefs, and the need for authenticity and self-acceptance. The hosts emphasize the importance of finding what works for oneself and being open to different interpretations and perspectives.
Key points:

• Perceptions and beliefs that others have about us can be influenced by their own concepts and experiences.
• It is important to discern and fact-find before forming opinions about others.
• Balancing intellect and feeling is crucial for understanding and growth.
• Religious backgrounds can shape beliefs and interpretations of spirituality.
• Authenticity and self-acceptance are key to living in alignment with one's true self.
• Finding what works for oneself is essential, as "There is truth in all things, but not one thing has all the truth."

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Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction: Perceptions and Beliefs in the Spiritual Realm
• 8:21 Different Perspectives and Interpretations
• 12:10 The Truth and Interpretation in Religious Texts
• 16:27 The Influence of Concepts and Belief Systems
• 19:20 The Dangers of Dogmatic Thinking
• 21:41 Embracing Authenticity and Self-Expression
• 23:31 Conclusion: Finding What Works for You

Transcript

TNT SpiritWorks (00:01)
The perceptions we have with other people and how others perceive us is a very interesting perspective, especially spiritually. And that's what we're going to share about today is truths, concepts, beliefs, and the unusual reality people go to if they don't get the facts. Sounds great. All right, let's do it, Tom. So what brought this up for myself is, you know, we've been I've been doing my spiritual work since

I guess, well, 38 is when I went to massage therapy school. Now I'm 56. gosh, almost 20 years. And it's been interesting throughout this timeframe where most of the people, I should say most, well, really most of the people that have been very close to me, except for Tom, because Tom, we really relate on this area of spirituality and this realm. But until then, and still these days, there are people who know me.

who are close to me, who really don't understand or I guess I should say they actually bring in their beliefs and concepts on who I am and what I do. So here's an example. So lately on this podcast, we've been sharing about some of our experiences that we've had with extraterrestrials, our experience we've had with apparitions, ghosts, energies. And some people we've known that

you know, have said to us, you know, wow, you know, you're really well, one person actually said recently about, know, that I'm a witch and I used a Ouija board. I'll be straight up with you guys. And, know, that really kind of just caught me. you can be a witch, but she doesn't. When she has a Ouija board, she hits me over the head with it. You know, funny, I've done. I did a Ouija board once when I was honestly probably about 15 and we were in a closet.

and it scared the crap out of me because we had a candle going and the candle got really big and we felt something in the room and we were in a closet and it was just crazy. So that's the only time. Well, except for when I was really little, actually my family had a Ouija board. Now why in the heck they had a Ouija board? I don't know, but they did. so, but that's my only interaction with the Ouija board was when I was like really young and 15 or 16. So.

Yeah, sort of in the early middle 60s, I remember Ouija boards showing up in the neighborhood and, you know, other families, other kids. Remember, there's this family of like five girls and I seem to remember they had a Ouija board. And so it was a bit of a fad back then and sort of the mid 60s, say 65, 66, something like that. 64, 65, 66, I don't know. What is interesting with that.

with a Ouija board. mean, I don't even know. I don't know the history behind Ouija boards. I don't know like who creates these, but there is something about them. That's really kind of doesn't it doesn't feel good to me for sure. you know, we so the reality of discarnate spirits or that, you know, souls without bodies, there's that's, that's a for us, you know, we have experiences and that's a reality. But, know, that doesn't

We also work with our spiritual helpers, are master souls is one way of saying that, or angels or messengers. And those helpers are 100 % positive. we talk about having a communication with them, but other souls, as we've talked about before, you can pick up impressions from them. And it's important that you discern who you're picking this up from. We also have a spiritual cleansing technique, which is what

call it spiritual cleansing, but it's just a quick technique to kind of uplift my thinking, my thoughts, my vibration, so that I tune into the highest source, you know, for my personal involvement. So, you know, there's not that there's isn't truth to some of these things. It's just there's a lack of clarity, or a lack of understanding, you know, the of all that, you know, all that reality.

Yeah, and that's I was gonna go with it. Because a few people that we've heard things from recently, they've not listened probably to the podcast. All they've seen is the headline, maybe a picture I posted, and they're like, you know, she does witchcraft and she's and I kind of like a tongue in cheek too. But really, you know, they don't have the facts of what did we even talk about? And so what I hear you, you know, moving towards in this discussion is that

know, how many times do we hear something or see something and just take it at face value and we jump right to, what are an interpretation of that. That's not necessarily grounded in the true facts or the true reality, you know, and how often do we take something that someone said in a way that was never meant. So

you know, that's part of self discovery and how we think about ourselves is sometimes how we accept what we'll accept from others. So I think this is a great topic because, you know, we talk about the balance of intellect and feeling and our intellect is our thinking mind, our brains, our feeling. We're talking about true feelings and that's where those impressions come from. Those awarenesses, those

those pictures, sounds or words, those feelings we get those inner knowings. That's how I work. And, you know, when, when we trust that, and then gain that intellectual understanding, or the facts from our intellect, you know, then we can take action, then we come back to our feelings, we get an understanding, we, you know, we can communicate. So, you know, a lot of times we're limited by

You might say the education we have or the programming or the ideas that we've been fed, particularly in our first seven years. But why people jump to conclusions is another way for me to share this is interesting to me. So is that back on? It's not back on. It's got it back on, Anyway, that's just some.

comments that as to what you're bringing up that offering my perspective. Yeah, I guess what comes to me about all that too is that depending upon each person and like Tom saying, you know, where we come from. do we come from a religious background? Do we come from a background that has no affiliation? Even though, you know, living in this world, especially in the the Western culture, we all do have an overtone of religion.

And even though you might say, no, I don't, but we really do. So, but you know, how, how, how deep is that within a person? And that would also really emphasize their beliefs in, know, yeah, she's a witch and she does, you know, she does Ouija board or, know, or she's a satanic devil person or whatever they want to save, right? Because they're, the lens are bringing it through is perhaps a religious lens. Right. Well said.

religious lens. that's okay. Right. That's okay, because that's their belief and filter or filter. Yeah, lens or filter. And that's okay, because you know, we all have them. I have them too, that you know, that I bring my things through. So and I think that's what's really important about the sharing that Tom and I offer all of you listeners out there is that it's just a different perspective.

and it might give you some thoughts or you might even have thoughts about someone close to you that maybe doesn't relate to what you're doing. Not saying it's spiritual stuff, but maybe it's your business or maybe it's the way you live your life or the way you raise your kids. so having that bigger picture in the sense that we obviously bring it through our spiritual filter, because that's what we're about, is supporting people who are sensitive and understanding. There's a bigger picture than what we're seeing and just

you know, gaining those insights. But for yourself is just recognizing, okay, so what you know, what they're talking about and sharing, how does that relate to my my life? So a couple people that have come at me recently with, you know, with some of these negative connotations they have, well, if they were to listen to this episode, or an episode of ours and go, wow, you know, the perspective they bring forth is unique. And how, how do I relate to that? How does that how does that ring for you, Tom?

I think it's just so true. And the only thing that strikes me is that when people are ready to hear more, and to start taking a look at their belief system, because you know, we're we're big about, know, helping you through self discovery, release limiting thoughts and concepts and beliefs, really let release limiting, you know, beliefs.

and still being fully involved in that, one with all loving spiritual awareness and feeling that we all relate to at one level or another. And I just know that over the years, every great sort of prophet or mystical person or someone that started a new religion, so to speak,

know, they had a great simple idea, they communicated to other people. And then over time, you know, it gets over organized. And are you talking about Jesus? Yeah, well, I'm talking about all of them. Quite a few of them, you know, so there was aspects of their message that was very clear. And, you know, I don't I don't know if I'm sure that whoever you want to talk about Buddha or Jesus or Muhammad,

know, there were aspects that were very clear that there were spiritual truth behind it. And probably there's religions we've forgotten about that, you know, there was a lot of spiritual truth behind it. Even, you know, there's ways of interpreting spiritual reality in the physical that we're in, you know, there's ways that we share it with others, and that people in the past have shared with others to help them relate to it and understand it. So

know, there becomes a time when they their thought process, they get it so over organized, that the only time it gets off is when we all have our interpretations to our feelings. And we, you know, I recommend that people get your own interpretation, you know, feel into it, get your impression, interpret it, you can modify it later, as you get more information or more facts. And I usually find how my sensitivity works is I'll feel something

And as somebody says something, like I was listening to some candidates recently, political candidates, and there's some of the promises they made, which just rang hollow to me. That's all I could do. I could just describe this feeling of it was hollow. So I thought to myself, it's funny how I kind of doubt that, when really I'm probably spot on. If I just trust that there's a hollow feeling to it,

And then maybe I get some facts behind what they're talking about. my God, I was right. My sensitivity backs up. And I've also found this with other religious, I've been listening to some folks who are religious scholars and they've read all the old religious texts and they're trying to make sense of it. they're going about it from a real intellectual point of view of who said what about him or.

about Jesus or about some saint or some apostle. And it's fascinating because if I ask myself in my true feelings or in my intuition part of me, I usually know the answer. And if I ask myself, where did this get off? I just kind of like, can just know that like, or I just get a picture. And it's so great later in life to be listening to say the scholars and go,

my God, I knew nothing about that. And I was spot on, you know, because they'll tell you about the different contradictions to different texts and which ones were chosen. And what's funny for me is, is I look at all those and I say, you know, there was truth in all of them. It's just someone's interpretation of the truth. So I guess where I'm really getting at is once we decide that our truth is the only truth, that's when we have problems.

know, that's when we're starting to be dogmatic about what we, you know, believe in. So there you go. Yeah, so I guess piggybacking on that a bit is that lately, I've been hearing from people that they're obviously very fearful, very scared, very frightened of, you know, what's coming. And the beliefs as you know, as a collective of

You know, if this again, back to the political, this person or that person gets in no matter what side it is, you know, everything's going to change and my life is going to be, you know, this way and that way. And so it's really recognizing within yourself, you know, like we're talking about beliefs or concepts is, know, your, your own beliefs, your own concepts and where you're at energetically and other people too, the people that, you know, had said some things to me recently, or I heard things about it. It's, know, it's there at

they're out there wherever they're on the journey and I honor that. And I think that's the part for myself that I noticed in a lot of people is there's not there's not a true I'll say namaste like you know that lighten me honors the light in you no matter what it is. There's there's that's kind of missing right now. It seems like it's very use more of it. That's for sure. We could really use more of it because of the fact that and I guess that's really why a lot of this is honestly happening if you think about it on a on a big picture.

and a learning and growing experience while we're all here is that it's happening, it's occurring. So there can be some type of learning from it. There can also be some type of growth from it for our soul's growth and that's individual, right? So my growth is different than Tom's growth. Tom's growth is different than mine as well as you guys out there listening. It's like where you're at is where you're at and that's the perfect place. There's nothing wrong with where you're at. It's just

It's when it gets into that, guess I'll say like, you know, the other, it gets so intense that people just really can't even talk to one another. That's the thing too, that, and that's been that way for several years now and probably longer than I've even been alive. It's been like this, but it really is being amplified now. And I really feel it's because we're at this place of really shifting into

whatever it is for you, right? Like for us, it's really supporting people in understanding who they are as a spiritual being. And that's really important for myself. And that's so that's why in the lens that I bring forth and that Tom and I share, that's the lens we bring forth, because that's what we're here to share. so I guess it's really, if we go back to that one simple idea, you know, jumping to conclusions about what somebody is talking about. So that's based on concepts.

usually a concepts or something we've picked up in our first seven years, concepts, beliefs, belief systems, and often subconsciously, you know, it's, it's more of an emotional reaction to something like, I better not talk about that somebody's programmed that person to be afraid of the Ouija board, you know, or of what witches, which is what they refer to as witches, you know, And without getting the facts or without

bothering to listen or what I'm really saying is, is really getting the facts from my feelings, getting the facts from my feelings. I'm not talking about getting facts from my emotions. My emotions are a way I react to things. I've been trained to react a certain way. I've been trained to respond a certain way, but it's better to respond and fact -find. You know, we need

We need to do both. So when we're really relaxed, I notice it when I'm really relaxed and I'm feeling good and I'm positive and I have that kind of an outlook, if I ask myself almost anything, if I bother to ask myself, what do I think about this? Or what do I feel about this truthfully? Or what do I feel is going on here? I'm usually spot on with my sensitivity. And I wonder how many of us are really like that. It's just we've been

we've been really taught to talk ourselves out of it. And then others have been, you know, they're, plenty sensitive, you know, they're that hot -eyed energetic master. They're feeling all this and that, and they don't know who's who in the zoo. You might say when comes to their, to their feelings is that they don't have enough discernment or fact -finding or you know, who they don't bother to take a look at it. So I guess we've all been trained to react and we, and we need to react in certain

you ways to keep these physical bodies here. We have to have some level of fear, but I suppose that maybe spiritual growth is transcending, you know, that, but even that becomes a big religious trip, you know, of self denial and this and that. And now you've got to be an aesthetic or a mystic. And again, there's nothing wrong with that journey. I mean, that's just a journey for the soul. I accept the soul that wants to be homeless or be a bum. I accept the soul that

is on a power trip, I accept the soul that's, you know, self -effacing. mean, it just, whatever works for you and you're it's going to take time, know, evolution of the souls, easy by, you know, an inch. But it always comes back to this balance of intellect and feeling or my true feelings. Again, I'm talking about feelings and my intellect. The power comes from my feelings. But why we tend to, well,

there's, there's definitely a inner security, our concepts of our inner security get threatened. And some of those concepts are good to keep us alive. You know, like we, we need certain concepts, we train little kids to not touch that hot pan to, you know, get help where they need it, not to cross a road without looking. Those are great concepts. There's nothing wrong with that.

but it's when we start to limit ourselves and if we start to think, you know, I'm only so good. I can only have so much. you know, I'm poor little me. Well, there's an example. That's not the only one, but there's an example. Or on the other hand, it's like, I need it all. I have to have it all. You don't have to have it all. If you're in balance with your true feelings, you don't even want it all. You know, you want what you need for your opportunity for spiritual growth.

So this is, this is what occurs to me, but I love that you came up with this because it's such a constant we see out in society. what's the solution? What's the solution to well, one for me, not buy into others reactions and allow them to be ignorant if they want to be ignorant. what's solution for you? Well, a solution for myself, because it's obviously

come up came up recently and it comes up quite often when in different situations is to really be okay with who I am and what I'm sharing. And now this has not been easy through the years because again, you know, some people around me close by, you know, didn't know what I was doing and thought I was, you know, doing weird stuff and whatever. And maybe to them it was weird, but, but yeah. So solution to me is really honoring

what I'm sharing and honoring what I'm here to do. the word I'm picking up is my authentic self. You know, sometimes that's thrown around quite a bit, authenticity, authenticity, but no, it really is about, you know, my soul that I'm calling Teresa this lifetime. What am I here to be? How am I here to express myself? How am I here to show up each day in whatever situation? And just knowing that, okay, and

being okay with what I'm sharing and being okay with who I am. And again, that took me, you know, and I'm, I mean, it's still an onion, right? So I'm constantly unfolding new layers of myself, but I'm much more relaxed with who I am, what I'm sharing and, moving that out into the world more so I can support others who are ready to step into their authenticity too. Yeah. I love that. You know, we're practicing, we're all practicing and it's like, you know,

for me that involvement where I'm starting to, you know, I gained some knowledge, I have experience and I turn it into wisdom is I have to practice it. You know, if I go, geez, I always put pressure on myself in this one situation. I, here's another example. You know, why did I run into this thing? And all certain people that I look up to stimulate me. Well, I'm just practicing and I'm becoming aware of it. But if I,

deny it. Like if I go, no, I talked myself out of what I did, or what's influencing me, you know, then I can never heal it. but if I can come up with usually for me, positive affirmations work and realizing that it's, you know, spiritual growth is by the inch, it's a cinch. And, and I guess a lot less judgment of myself helps me to be more relaxed, you know, with others.

Yeah, so I guess this is a good place probably to wind it up and you know, just recognizing for yourself listeners out there that, you know, I mean, in the midst of us sharing a lot of the things that we do and the things, the techniques we we use with cleansing different things. I mean, you have to find what works for you. And that's what we've had to do to write like in the midst of the last 20 years, I've been a massage therapist and healer, etc.

I've gone through different iterations of this technique, that thing, and what works now, what doesn't work now. So it's really finding what works for you. And I think that's the big key of what we like to offer is, in the master classes we offer, the intuition now and other things that we do is we're just offering things that work for us now. It may or may not work for you. And so that's one key I really wanna leave. However, we get a lot of positive feedback and how clear it is.

Yeah, right. Well, how it helps people pull things together. they're ready for it. But I'm a big believer in there's truth in all things. And not one thing has all the truth. Yeah. And that's a that's a great time more that I'm accepting of another person's interpretation, the better off I am. Unless it's infringing on my boundaries, on my right to be myself. Right? Well said.

Well said. Yeah. we want to thank each of you out there who have listened to this episode and, and are watched on our TNT SpiritWorks YouTube channel. We appreciate you so very much. And also definitely appreciate you taking the time to listen in to another episode of enthusiastically spiritual. And remember that life is too short to not be enthusiastic about your unique journey.