#121 Awaken Your Divine Vision

Transcript of Interview

Find Your Voice, Change Your Life Podcast

Podcast Host: Dr. Doreen Downing

Free Guide to Fearless Speaking: Doreen7steps.com

Episode #121 Jane Applegath

“Awaken Your Divine Vision”

(00:35) Doreen Downing:
Hi, this is Dr. Doreen Downing, and I’m the host of the Find Your Voice, Change Your Life podcast. I have a new friend with me today, and I’m going to introduce you to her. It’s Jane Applegath. Hi, Jane. Yes, and this is part of what I do on the podcast, is introduce my listeners to people who are brand new to me, but I found on the internet or social media, that somehow I’ve come across fabulous women who have a story.

And today it’s more about what I believe in too, which is our inner voice, finding your voice is not just about learning how to speak on a stage. It really is being more aligned and more you might say expressed from a deeper part of yourself, your truth. But how do you know that? And how do you find that?

We’ll learn more today from Jane.

(01:38) Jane Applegath:
Yes. Thank you so much. I could start by telling individuals a little bit about my background in the sense that where I came from, you had to have a voice. The outer voice, because I grew up with 5 siblings, and so if you didn’t speak up, you pretty much got lost in the fray.

I didn’t have an issue with speaking up and I had a great platform and a great stage to practice that a lot. In fact, we all spoke up a lot more than we probably should have, seeing as it was where we were four girls and one boy. So even young little girls have the tendency to go on and on.

So we had lots of fun and we had a lot of things to talk about as you can imagine. But as Doreen said, the inner voice was something that we didn’t explore, and certainly in the generation that I grew up in, and probably a lot of your listeners, we didn’t delve into the expression of what’s going on behind the scenes.

Why are you saying what you’re saying? What does that really mean? And so the inner voice for me was at 1st, like a stranger. And it started, I think we all have it, but we’re not really aware that it’s there. It’s that self-doubt now they’ve branded it as the saboteur or the imposter syndrome, and we’ll get into that a little bit later because I do not believe that we are imposters, but it lives within us.

And it started to really make a lot of noise when things were difficult and they became more difficult and 2008, of course, when there was the great recession and things started happening and unpredictability and chaos and so on and so forth. And my husband lost his job and we had to move so that we could make some money.

And that was the beginning. And then there were a lot of different things that came up and we came back. When I say we had to move, because I’m originally from Toronto, Canada, and there were jobs in Canada for what his profession was, but there were no jobs here. Being dual citizens, we were fortunate enough to pack up and leave, but unfortunately, we didn’t like it anymore.

We discovered that it was not home anymore, even though a lot of my family was still up there. So that lasted eight months and then we packed up and came back. And so, you can imagine all of that going on. And then coming back, of course, there was a lot of the economy still very poor and there was a lot going on.

And I jumped around from job to job and he had something that he could do, so this instilled the voices that kept coming up. This isn’t what you should be (not the should) but this isn’t your path. Why are you doing this? You’re feeling uncomfortable and I didn’t realize it at the time, but they just kept popping up and getting stronger and stronger.

And then there was the stress and the anxiety and that’s what the inner voice. I think it’s the nudge that’s trying to tell you magnificent, but you need to listen but the outer world wasn’t giving me a choice to listen. So I was in conflict with myself.

(05:18) Doreen Downing:
Your expressions so far of what you’ve been painting this picture of yourself in this kind of chaotic life moment, the context of our world was shaken up, right? And we inside of it, of course, we’re shaken up. And I want to come back to this. You’re already starting to lay out some wonderful groundwork for us to explore inner voices and the kind of harassment sometimes we get from the external world, or even the way we take it in our own brains. But before we go too far away from what happened in childhood, I want to go back, because so many people have had, oh, dysfunctional families. And a lot of people on my podcast have said that’s where they didn’t have a voice and you though said, I have a voice and you laughed about it and you said, I had a lot of fun with my family.

You had sisters and a brother but you must have, when you went out to school, then probably had that kind of confidence that most people don’t have. Is that true? Yes. Like when you went to grammar school or high school? 

(06:33) Jane Applegath:
Yes, absolutely. And because we were so close in age, Doreen, my sisters, and I were only a year apart.

(06:41) Doreen Downing:
I’m 11 months apart from my sister. There you go. To be close to school. Yes, exactly.

(06:47) Jane Applegath:
So we were like a team, it’s if somebody’s bullying you just say let’s get together and beat them up. That sounds terrible, but no. We stuck together. So yes, I did have the confidence to go to school.

Absolutely. I didn’t have a lot of the background that many of your listeners grew up with. And we did have the wherewithal that we were almost like one. As you can probably relate to with your sister, I would think it’s a close relationship. Yes. So absolutely we had that close connection and we fed off each other. We helped each other build our own voices and our own confidence. And we all went to school at the same time and we walked together and so it was a wonderful synergy between all of us. So yes, you’re absolutely right.

I wasn’t plagued with the history of an inner voice, but it flared up later on in life. Because we all have them. Yes. Some people call it the ego, the outer inner self. Like I said, there are many names that we give, but we all have it. And I feel that it flares up most when we’re in conflict with who we genuinely are here to be.

(07:58) Doreen Downing:
Yes. We’ll get to that. I knew there was a nugget something way back when, and what you just said about the sisterhood that you have. Hello. This is the work that you do. I didn’t read your bio, but I’m just going to say a piece of it right now.

Jane serves passion-driven women who are ready to create radical self-empowerment to become the bringers of big ideas, influence, inspiration, and change. Jane’s commitment is to end the disempowering belief that it’s “Too late, too hard, too pie in the sky” for women to prosper and matter doing work they love.

She knows that having more, being more, feeling more, and creating more exists for every woman when she learns to feel and access the vision of her dream and make it her new reality. I had neglected to actually read the whole bio before we got started, but I just felt like there was something about this relationship you had early on with your family that feels like it was foundational for the work that you do now.

And to me, it feels like it’s a mirror, a reflection of what you came into the world with. And how it started and then all the kind of changes and whatever happens in society is where you felt like you started to disconnect from listening to the inner voice anyway. So let’s go back to the inner voice.

(09:33) Jane Applegath:
That is a light bulb, Doreen. You’re absolutely right. And no one has picked up on that. And, wow, that is so incredible. You’re absolutely right. It does go back to those days of the sisterhood. Yes. Because women even when we get together now, it’s oh no, now they can’t hear anything but us talking.

We can hear ourselves, but the men are like, okay, we’re out of here. So it’s just too funny. Oh my gosh. Absolutely. So the inner voice got louder and louder as things were, it took a while for everybody to readjust and figure life out from 2008. Some people were fine but we had all kinds of different things. We had moved. We had come back. We had financial issues. We had work issues. Where were we going? What were we going to do? Your whole life is turned upside down in a matter of a month or a year.

Which is what happened. And then from there on from 2008, it’s actually been quite a roller coaster for everyone. And so I did pick up yoga in between that. I did other jobs and so on and so forth, but yoga was my salvation. From yoga, I learned a lot about the mind, body, spirit, and funny enough how the universe works, and I’m sure you realize this is because I found a little advertisement on the internet when I was scrolling for Jon Kabat Zinn.

And it resonated with me and I clicked on it and I learned all about meditation. I hadn’t heard of him before, but of course, he is the founder of bringing meditation to the Western world. And I just loved his teachings and I bought his books and I read and I listened to his videos and I noticed that he kept mentioning yoga.

And so I went around and looked for a yoga studio, a true yoga studio, not the ones that they teach in the gyms because they’re much more commercial. And I found one and it became home for a number of years, and I became a certified yoga instructor. And so that really opened up the door to begin to understand the inner self and the outer self and the voices that we hear and do we push them away, or do we stop and listen. I learned that we want to listen to them, but they are not a reflection of who we are.

They can take us down. I call them barnacles now, we don’t need the barnacles, and they flare up. We’re only human and we’ve had the pandemic and we’ve got craziness happening all over the world. From here on out, I believe, in my opinion, that we are going to live in an unpredictable world.

It’s not in the olden days when my parents grew up and you could have a job for your entire life, retire, get a pension, and a one-income household, and you would feel secure and safe. Now, it’s not so much. So how do we deal with that? And that’s where my work comes in as well. Taking all the teachings that I have and Doreen, I just continue to learn from individuals like yourself.

I learned from all of the individuals that are out there. Discovering new things about how our minds work, the science fascinates me. That’s one thing that I really, I enjoy learning about how our minds and our brains really work. And it’s actually what the ancients have known for years.

It’s just that science has given us in the Western world, the facts that we need to understand it. And that applies to yoga.

(13:33) Doreen Downing:
I think you said that you were an instructor. You probably had to not just learn whatever they’re called poses. You probably learned more deeply about what stillness means, spacious empty presence is, and that to me goes along with the inner voice that we have to get into a still place. We have to make room, which is spaciousness, and we have to empty out the best we can and dropdown. That is the way I describe it. And then that comes back to what you’re talking about. When you said, should I listen or should I not?

What do I listen to? And it just feels like when you go down and you’re so embraced, I feel by that wisdom, that inner voice. I just felt like saying that because of yoga and science and now science is definitely supporting what our bodies can do when they put wires on us and they show how healthy meditation is for our brains and our bodies.

(14:44) Jane Applegath:
Yes, absolutely. Because I’ve learned that when our thoughts are no longer a record of the past, but a roadmap to the future, that’s when we draw our vision to us, our divine life because we are all divine. And what happens with what I call the static of life. And the static is when we’re out of frequency, you think of it as a radio.

We’re all emitting a frequency and we change daily. We change hourly our frequency. But have you ever walked into a room? And felt the magnetism of someone and vice versa. Have you walked into a room, especially women? Because we have a lot of intuition and walk into a room and feel the heaviness of a room.

That is our frequency. And our frequencies are contagious, this is why the poses actually up-level our frequency, they go with the flow. But when we can tap into that frequency, that really is our divine, then that is when we start to heat those voices that we don’t want to, that are bringing us down from our divine self and start to fade and we start to tap into who we really are.

And sometimes it’s not easy. It’s simple, but it’s not easy. And it’s interesting because I’ll tell you a little story that a lot of the military individuals, they say one of the hardest things for them to do is meditate and close their eyes because there is always the record of the past is to be on high alert.

And so closing their eyes means danger to them. But we know now through science that neuroplasticity, which means that we can change the functioning of our neurons, which means that our brains can rewire themselves like a computer. If we can repeat things that are positive rather than negative over and over again, we are actually rewiring our brains.

Yes, so yes, it’s really powerful. 

(17:03) Doreen Downing:
There’s Rick Hansen who’s in my area in Northern California and has written the book Buddha’s Brain. Yes goes along with what you’re saying about scientifically we can change our brain in such a way that we create new states. And what you said, was so exciting and was about how we carry the past into the future.

Can you say that one more time? 

(17:34) Jane Applegath:
Yes, certainly. When our thoughts are no longer a record of the past, but a roadmap to the future, that is when we draw our vision to us. Because it becomes magnified towards us. The reason why is because we’re changing our frequency. 

(17:58) Doreen Downing:
I’ve called it resonance. I like the idea of frequency.

It’s more visual. Resonance feels more maybe I’m more of an auditory person. And frequency is a little more visual. You can see the little Yes, the radio waves.

(18:12) Jane Applegath:
Exactly, but it’s true. It’s just the record of the past. All of us, there are always thinking, we fall back on our past, what has happened, and where we’ve come from.

We just need to put our minds into, here’s the thing, Shakespeare famously said, all the world is a stage and every day we play a role on that stage. The question is, are you living your default vision or your desired vision? Because we make the choice every day to play the role. And there are many roles we all play.

We can play the victim, we can play the villain, or we can play the hero or the rescuer. And we interchange. 

(19:02) Doreen Downing:
Fabulous. I feel like I’ve got a mirror in front of me because I say life is your stage because the work I do is helping people find their voice. And it’s not just about going on a literal stage with a microphone and giving a speech, life is your stage. So this is so much fun to meet a sister, a soul sister meant to see our frequencies have connected.

What can I tell you? Yes, you’re resonating truth to me that I am just so infused with. And that’s what happens, I think when somebody speaks the truth and it reaches yourself more deeply and paying attention to that.

And I want listeners to remember that when you get this feeling of somebody reaching you, into your soul, then that’s powerful. And there’s a reason I’m going to take a quick break because I can’t wait to get back and talk further about what you do and how you help people get through this whole, how to leave that.

 It’s a transformational process, isn’t it? So we’ll be right back.

(20:29) Doreen Downing:
Hi, we’re back with Jane Applegath, and I am so excited having learned about some ways in which Jane has already inspired me and inspired my listeners today with these ideas about how our past is not really what our story should be. Does not lead us to our most desired vision, which is what we’re going to talk more about now.

Give you the stage as we were talking about right before, life is your stage. Every moment is a moment for you to show up and be your full self. So welcome back. Thank you. 

[00:21:07] Jane Applegath:
Thank you, Doreen. And yes, it absolutely is. And use your imagination. One of the things that I love is the science and power of imagination and we lose that when we get very young, but to delve into some of the work that I do, I use this process and it’s an acronym.

It’s VUCA. So it’s spelled VUCA the VUCA is an acronym for vision, understanding, clarity, and adaptability. And the process is one where we delve into all of the different facets and I’ll just touch very briefly on each one. The vision as Doreen and I have just mentioned briefly it’s about understanding the questions that we ask ourselves every day, and do we look at ourselves on that stage as the bringer of our future? Or are we living in the past? Because once we have that awareness, so you want to be aware of how we’re performing. If you want to put it that way. And it doesn’t have to be something where you’re always stuck and we always have our foibles.

So we’re going to go. It’s not about judgment. It’s not about good or bad. It’s really about first and foremost, being aware. I bring you to the place of creating your vision, what that means to you and the understanding comes from understanding what your priorities are. So when I was first asked what my vision is, I was like that’s a really big question.

(22:50) Doreen Downing:
Yes. What is your purpose?

(22:51) Jane Applegath:
Exactly. And many of us have not been given the time or the space to think about that question, we get very busy with life. Life happens. We have responsibilities. We have duties that we have to take care of. We have children. We have households. It goes on and on.

So we’re on a hamster wheel, and we’ve never given ourselves the chance, but understanding and this is where the values. Not versus priorities, but I know many like to say what are your core values that to me goes right into the prefrontal cortex, which has you thinking I don’t want you to think, I want you to feel.

Yes, because feeling is all about energy and motion. It’s your emotional stance. If you see a movie. And you come out and say. It’s just okay. And you know why? Because it didn’t move you emotionally. It can be a good emotion. It could be a bad emotion. It can scare you or it can leave you happy or sad, but it moves you emotionally.

Our emotions are what we want to trigger. When I say understanding our priorities, that’s what I’m using instead of values. Here’s one thing, when you come down in the morning, what are you most excited about? Not something you have to be motivated for, but what are you most excited about getting to?

What is within 4 feet of your working space every single day? I’m not talking about your job. 

(24:23) Doreen Downing:
You’ve got a question for me now? 

(24:25) Jane Applegath:
I can be. Yes. What is within 4 feet of you every day, Doreen?

(24:28) Doreen Downing:
Then within four feet. You were saying what? When you get up. Oh, okay. So I was thinking about my morning hug with my husband.

Oh, beautiful. That kind of reaffirmation, daily of love. And Oh, lovingness shared, I think so that’s what first came to my mind when you asked that question. 

(24:52) Jane Applegath:
And then two more, two other things.

(24:54) Doreen Downing:
Two other things. Let’s see. The opening of the day for me I don’t go to the calendar yet or list.

The third would be something that you mentioned a while ago, just a second ago about meditation. I’ve been realizing that a morning meditation, even just 10 minutes really does something to my whole system throughout the day. So even though I’m gone, I’m too busy there’s a refreshment if I can just stop. So those three things. 

(25:35) Jane Applegath:
So to me, that really brings in spirituality, a lot of spirituality, all of those things together. The meditation, the love, the opening of the day. Yes, absolutely. So your priorities count, but we go through a whole process and a number of questions that are off the beaten track, but it’s like you lit up because I want to know how you feel.

Yes. And that’s what your priorities are. So that is understanding your priorities and that’s going to help with getting you to your vision. And then the clarity is to see that you are not the imposter. The imposter lives within you. In other words, when you feel what they call the imposter syndrome, what I say is that’s your divine self giving you a nudge to say, you’re feeling uncomfortable because you’re not living your divine self.

Wonderful message. I love it. Yes, it’s a message. The imposter syndrome to me is different than what they say. It’s basically, I’ve got a little thing here. It says the core essence of who you are being does not. Need to be fixed or improved nicely and that is your core being saying you don’t need to be fixed.

You’re perfect. Just the way you are. That’s the clarity that you get from the course and what it means to be divine and then the adaptability is adapting to the change so that we can understand how we can adapt to unpredictability in today’s world, because it’s not just what’s happening, it’s also artificial intelligence and the way things are going to progress very fast in an exponential world.

And what does it mean to our humanness to adapt to the world that’s coming? And that’s the VUCA.

(27:40) Doreen Downing:
Beautiful. I’m so glad you explained it and I got to get a little taste of it, the flavor really helped me realize I love embracing and I feel like that’s what I do on my podcast is embrace my guests and I feel like I’ve embraced you today.

We’re coming to the end quick here and I do feel like I just want to continue having conversations with you because of the wisdom and the clarity. Because love is what I relate to. I feel you have such a loving spirit. Thank you so much. Yes. That’s wonderful. It resonates.

You resonate. So before we wrap it up here, I just want to give you the platform again to bring to a close what you want or what you feel, what comes to you to say something to the listeners before we leave today? 

(28:42) Jane Applegath:
I love the work that you’re doing Doreen and for all of those listening as I said before, know that you are magnificent. And we are all here to serve in some capacity with the gifts that we have. We just need to unearth them and they’re there. So whenever you feel that imbalance or whenever you can’t quite find your voice, that’s okay. Breathe into it and then just settle yourself and ground yourself and say, Hey, I know I’m in there and I’m going to find you and when I do, there’s going to be a whole lot of light coming out because we are the light and we just need to understand how to access it.

(29:34) Doreen Downing:
Oh, wonderful. Thank you so much, Jane. 

(29:37) Jane Applegath:
You’re very welcome. It’s a pleasure to be here and thank you so much for having me. Namaste. Honor the divine within you.