Lucy Byrd Hope – Mindfulness Coach, Reiki Practitioner, and Author

Hi and welcome to the You World Order Showcase podcast.

Today we are talking with Lucy Byrd Hope.

She is a holistic spiritualist and entrepreneur and author of her brand new book.

Daily alignment tools to balance your body, mind, and spirit.

Lucy was kind enough to gift us with one of her tips August 1st when we relax.

Launched the YOU World Order Showcase Podcast and now she's here to share with us the other two tips and all about who she is, what she's doing.

Her new book.

We just wanna hear all the things.

What inspired you to write?

It and just.

All the stuff looking back, Lizzy.

It's so wonderful to be here.

Thank you for having.

So a little bit about my book, I'll kind of tell you about the evolution of it.

First, before I get into the tips.

So it's called daily alignment and it's a compilation of tools to help balance your body, mind and spirit.

And it really.

Erodes organically in my life.

About four years ago, I was going through a traumatic time.

And experiencing a lot of pain, mental and emotional, which led to physical pain as well.

So I would wake up every morning just feeling awful.

Yet throughout the day, whether it's from a friend or a therapist or a book I was reading, I would learn a new tip or technique that would have me feeling better by the end of the day.

But when I woke up the next morning, I would feel awful again.

And so I tried to circumvent this by writing down the things I learned during the day.

And I put them on a piece of paper that I kept right next to my bed, and the moment my eyes were open in the morning, I read from that paper and replaced my automatic negative thoughts that were so spiraling with these new tips or whatever it was that I had learned.

So they became pages on pages and I self bound these tips into a book just for myself.

I had friends and family noticed that I was doing better and they asked what the catalyst was.

I explained about this book and I was encouraged to publish it, and here we are.

It just came out in April.

That is really exciting.

It's.

Meeting I actually looking forward to reading it myself.

Thank you.

Well, thank you.

Thank you.

It's been a.

It's been a neat time.

So yeah, to delve into those other tips that I left you guys with the cliffhanger for.

So to just kind of reiterate a little bit the 1st.

Tip was about.

Grounding in your body.

So when we are grounded in our body, we're tapped into our parasympathetic nervous system.

That is that rest that relief, that slower breathing that's lower heart rate that allows us to really.

Go through life from a more grounded and centered place and experience more well-being so 1/2 to get into that is to check in with your senses and to simply label anything in your environment that you can see, smell, hear, taste or feel. It's a great way to ground and to get into those senses.

So As for the new ones, one I love is called focusing on positive aspects.

So this is simply labeling anything in your experience or environment that you consider positive.

So you can do this right when you wake up in the morning by noticing.

Maybe your pillow feels soft.

Under your head.

That would be a positive aspect.

Maybe you enjoy the sound of the Birds singing outside your window.

Positive aspect.

Maybe you're just like the color of the paint on your walls.

A positive aspect and as you go throughout your day highlighting positive aspects like this, you can build momentum and attract more positive aspects in your life.

For all it's similar, a little bit to gratitude, but different because you're not reaching for something to be grateful for.

Sometimes that can get us caught in a negative spiral like ohh I'm.

I'm grateful for my body.

But then in comes that negative thought of ohh, but my leg was hurting yesterday and before you know it, you're out of that positive.

It's really just labeling as a witness, as an observer, anything in your experience that you find positive, it's a cool way scientifically focusing on positive.

Aspects and embodying things like gratitude in this manner has been shown to lower cortisol to increase dopamine and serotonin.

Those feel good chemicals and to raise oxytocin, which helps form bonds with other others and lower stress.

So it's a really fun one.

It's kind of like a game as along with the sensory.

Experience you can play as a game too, just ways to tap into those positive aspects and create that focus in your life.

I like that.

I like that a lot.

Just finding things that you can appreciate.

And just as I look around my room, I know it looks different for me than it does for everyone else, but I can just appreciate the artwork that I have.

And the memories that come from that.

I know that you're a serial entrepreneur also.

So you want to tell us a little bit what led you to deciding to become a mindfulness coach and A and A and an author.

Versus doing these other ventures or do you still do the other ventures?

So I do a little bit of everything in the holistic field.

I've been an entrepreneur since my early 20s, but it was about four years ago with that trauma that I was mentioning that pain.

I went through that really pushed me to release my old identity and embrace a totally new world that was all holistic, focused.

That was the world.

I found myself in in order to deal with my.

Pain and suddenly those things became my purpose.

For example, the book I already told that story of how that just organically became my purpose.

I'm also a holistic guide. That's where I do a lot of my mindset coaching. I see clients one-on-one and promote physical, mental, emotional and spiritual well-being.

And I do Reiki and shamanic practices, and that was something that arose organically totally for me.

I was in this pain, as I mentioned, and I went to.

Get a massage.

And the masseuse mentioned.

OK. Well, with what you?

Say you have going on.

I would recommend Reiki.

Have you ever had that done?

I said no, I hadn't heard of it.

So, she said.

Well, if you want I can do it to you now.

And she did during the session, and it was so transformative for me that I immediately knew I was going to get certified myself so I could do it on myself.

24/7 otherwise I would have to have that person at my house all day, every day.

Right.

I was like, I need this all the time.

So I got.

Certified and many more levels of certification and through those levels my Reiki teacher mentioned well, would you like to open up your own practice and a couple of years later I've been doing that for years, so it's been really neat to see how it's just evolved.

The third venture that I have is a holistic beverage company that I Co own and that one came from a similar concept when I was going through all that pain, that mental emotional pain led to a physical manifestation of pain in my body.

So I experienced a lot of gut issues.

I couldn't eat dairy, gluten, sugar, all sorts of things.

When I when I was healing those gut issues, I had a friend who came over and he said.

Hey, I know you can barely like eat anything that seems kind of fun or like an indulgence, so I made you this almond milk that I created.

It's dairy free, sugar free, gluten free.

And I think you might enjoy it.

So I tried.

It and I took one sip and I said you have to create a business out of this.

It tastes so good and it's good for you.

And six months later, he approached me and said.

Would you be willing to go in on this business with me?

And I said yes and the rest is history.

So it's really neat for me to see that that my pain had so much purpose.

It makes me way less afraid of pain coming into my experience now because I know I can grow from it, evolve with it, and learn from it and turn it into something.

That can help myself and maybe even others.

Yeah, that's such a beautiful thing and.

Would we know anybody?

That has this milk product.

Or is it?

Is it just local?

Is it?

Yeah, yeah.

So it's local right now.

So we've been in business two years and the first year we spread it locally around north.

Alina, what we did in March though was we paused production of the milks and we focused on our podcast.

We have a podcast every week where we talk about how we stay whole, mentally, physically, emotionally and spiritually.

And so that's really our focus right now.

And then as that grows, we're going to get back into the milks.

In a way that we can spread them.

All over the US.

Is it just almond milk or is it different?

Right.

Yeah, it's a couple different ones.

So we do we.

Basically, highlight the nutritional properties of foods.

So for example, almonds help with blood flow and reduce inflammation in the body.

So we pair that with Ginger, which also does the same and sort of concepts like that.

So we have a pistachio.

Milk, pistachios are high in melatonin.

We pair that with lavender and chamomile, and that's kind of our chill out sleepy time tea.

Man, I bet that is just amazing.

Ohh yeah, that ones my favorite.

Like all the things I love, I already drink chamomile.

And lavender at night.

As a tea.

But just to add pistachio milk to.

I left possessed, yes.

I'm excited about this.

I just like I'm.

I'm sorry.

I know you want to talk about your book, and your book is really cool, but the milk, the nut milk thing I that that's.

No, I want.

I love all of it.

Thank you.

Thank you.

It's exciting.

We use all.

It is exciting.

Yeah, we use all natural sweeteners so.

We use date.

We make our own alcohol free vanilla extract and we use cinnamon, so that's where we get the sugary taste because they actually taste good.

That's the crazy thing about.

Our products, that's really different.

They're good for you and they taste good and that's kind of hard to find.

It is hard to find, but I've noticed that cinnamon does make things taste sweeter and.

Dates are just really sweet, but.

It's like.

I love fruit, fruit and.

For things like dates and figs.

That just have the natural sugar in them, Doctor Lustig says if you're going to eat sugar, make sure it has fiber with it.

Ah, I like that.

I like to think of fruit as the original dessert.

I mean, right?

Yeah, and this time of year, it's like the raspberries are all on my Bush and I'm out there every day.

That's so lovely that you have your own access to it.

Wow, wow.

I plant fruit.

Trees all the time.

We have 8 here.

At our house, but everywhere I've lived, I've planted fruit trees.

Didn't stay long enough to watch them grow, but.

My sons house.

Has a bunch of fruit trees that I planted and they are just like exploding this year.

It's so fast.

Ohh I love that.

I really like it too.

I could talk about that for a long time.

Talk about your shamanic practices.

I don't really know that much about Shaman and shamanic journeys or.

I just like.

Could you fill me in?

So the way that I use shamanic practices.

So one thing that that was so I took shamanic mastery level one and level 2 and then my level 1.

It was a lot about self discovery, so my teacher said we were going to take all the parts of me and lay them on a table and decide what we wanted to keep and what we decided wanted to let go.

So there's a lot of self.

Exploration for me and beginning that.

Learning and then in level 2 I learned techniques.

To be able to use.

With clients, so a lot of breathing exercises and then a lot of identifying and tapping into the different.

Bodies that we have.

So we have a physical body, we have an emotional body, we have a mental body, and we have a spiritual body.

And I like to talk to clients about identifying.

Each of those bodies.

And then we work.

To create well-being in each of those bodies.

So that's a big part of the practice I've found.

And then a third part that I highlight is.

Figuring out, identifying again and then working with the different cells that we all have.

So we have a professional cell, a mothering self, a child cells.

I mean the list goes on and on and so for figuring out for I like my clients to figure out what are your different cells.

And explore those and then create that well-being amongst the different cells, and then figure out which cells serves you most in one situation and another, and be able to really call that force in order.

To be your best.

Self most appropriate to different situations at any time.

That's really interesting.

It's a lot different than what I had imagined.

It might be, which is kind of.

I don't know I.

It's not as woo as I thought it was.

Going to be.

Well, there are.

That way.

A lot there are.

A lot of different shamanic practices out there.

So what I studied is going to be different than what other people have studied.

There's so many ways to tap into the shamanic self.

I've just found it. It's overall being in touch with that spiritual world and using it to benefit my well-being and those around me.

So there are so many ways to do that.

These were just what was specific and resonated and worked, worked well with me in my journey.

From a holistic perspective, mind, body, spirit, all of these aspects of our bodies and who we are fundamentally it.

It's so easy to just get caught up in the everyday life and think ohh I'm just this.

Person that you're not just this person as you were just talking about you.

You know.

We're parts of a lot of different.

Entities that are that make up who we are and we use them.

At different times in our lives, they service different purposes and to just really examine them to see whether they're really helping us or.

Not in your.

Totally. Totally.

In your divine abundance or daily alignment, sorry.

Ohh good, I like that too divine abundance.

Yeah, daily alignment in your book.

You're talking about tools to balance your body, mind and spirit.

Are you drawing from these, from Reiki and from the shamanic practices?

Or is it?

I'm really drawing.

Something totally different.

Yeah, I'm drawing from everywhere.

It was really what came to me on my journey that was helping me.

So I draw from a lot of the greats like Eckhart Tolle and Abraham Hicks.

And other and Michael singer, great, great literature and great books and great teachings that are out there.

I also draw from personal experience things that I was navigating, that I would have an insight as to how to handle for myself.

I would make a note of and then later it turned into this book.

At the time I didn't know.

That I was writing all these things down to.

Really, that this book would come out of it?

I was just learning what I needed to learn and what was serving me on my path.

So it really came from everywhere.

Some came from some of my therapists that I was working with.

I love therapy.

I've done cognitive behavioral therapies, thematic therapy, existential therapy, you name it.

And so some is from that.

It's really some of our tips from friends.

I have some quotes from some friends where we would get into talks and.

Try to help.

Each other through hard times and I would write down something they told me and later it came out in my book.

So it's really from the full gambit of my experience, honestly.

That's really interesting. So

How do how do you work with people?

Do you have a coaching program that you offer?

Hey I have essentially I have it in a couple of ways so when I see client one-on-one as I mentioned like as a holistic guide, I incorporate the mindset coaching into that.

I call it alignment coaching, so I'm really helping you align your different bodies that I mentioned, the physical, the mental, the emotional and the spiritual.

So with clients, we'll talk before the session about what they're going through.

So and I will during the session when I'm working on them doing Reiki.

So first I'll start with a guided meditation that is centered and catered to what they're going through.

Then, as I'm doing the Reiki, sometimes I will get insights as to how to help the client and so at the end of the session we'll talk again and I'll share what came through that.

And help them with what they've been going through.

So it's kind of in that in that package that I work with it. I also am starting a series of classes that I'm really excited about that starts in September. So I will do be doing group alignment coaching and I'm also launching specifically one-on-one.

Alignment coaching.

As I mentioned up until now, I've been doing.

It as a.

Part of my holistic guide experience.

I am now catering it though more individually, cause everyone has different needs, so yeah.

There's a lot.

That is blossoming in this area right now.

I think it's really important.

So exciting, and it is important and it's it.

How would people know if they were like the right kind of person to be?

Working with you.

That's it.

So anyone who is?

I would say most of my clients are overall not feeling good.

They are having anxiety, they're experiencing depression, they are in overwhelm, they are struggling with PTSD.

They may have panic attack.

Anything that is keeping them from being their best selves, that they want to create and cultivate and curate that it's really about their relationship with themselves.

That is, is what the coaching is all about.

So anyone who is struggling in, in really any area, if someone I have people coming to me that are struggling with.

Physical symptoms and then when we start working together, I share with them and I coach them.

And that physical symptoms are usually a manifestation of something that was mental, that became an emotional manifestation that became a physical manifestation.

So we go back into what is behind these feelings.

So really, whether it's physical, mental, emotional, or spiritual, just someone who is not feeling good.

I also do see people that want to.

Keep things going well in their lives.

I mean, some people.

That's a little.

They want that kind of staying on the right path, kind of like that direction, that kind of like when you're bowling, how you have the bumper rails, you know, someone to just kind of keep them on a good path.

And someone who's looking for evolution like I'm feeling good.

I want more out of life.

So the majority are definitely people who aren't feeling good.

But I also see people that are seeking that evolution.

Because when you're feeling good, you.

Just want to stay that way.

So Lucy.

What's the one thing you really want bodies to take away from this conversation today?

I would say that the power is.

Within you, well-being is natural and flowing to you at all times.

It's just about being open to it being available to it and incorporating the small daily habits that can align you with well-being, and if any of those things sound overwhelming, you can even embrace a simple mantra.

That I have.

A positive relationship with well-being, so if you're not ready to take any steps towards that well-being if that sounds like too much, which I totally get.

I've been there. You can even start with a simple mantra. That's just I have a positive relationship with well-being. I have a positive relationship with new habits. I have a positive relationship with.

Being open to well-being whatever it is that resonates with you, that is a great first step, but you have the power. It's within you.

That's so beautiful.

I know that you give away a.

Free alignment meditation do you want to talk?

A little bit about that.

Yeah, yeah. So it's basically.

A 20 minute alignment experience and so I am guiding you in ways to relax.

It's a body scan, breathing techniques, somatic sensory experience, check check-ins, so different ways to feel better, and it's paired with a visual animated.

Video so whether it's.

Audio that you connect to, or whether you'd rather see something pleasing visual you can get it from either angle.

So the idea is.

That after 20 minutes you leave feeling aligned and you can carry that with you in your day.

Oh, I love.

That I love that so much so.

How do people get in touch with you?

Yes. So my website is lucybyrdhope.com and it's Byrd with a Y. My Instagram and Facebook are the same Lucy Byrd hope and then my book is available on Amazon Daily alignment by Lucy Byrd Hope.

It has been such an honor having you with us and really thank you for sharing your other two tips with us this time and.

We look forward to hearing about how great your book is doing out there.

Thank you.

It's been so wonderful being here.

Thank you.