Spirit School – Details, episodes & analysis

In this episode of the Spirit School podcast, Danielle is joined by Will, a dedicated member of the Spirit School Collective, who shares his powerful journey from addiction recovery to embracing his identity as a highly sensitive person (HSP). Will discusses his ongoing PhD studies in mind-body medicine, focusing on Vantage Sensitivity, a concept that highlights how HSPs can transform their sensitivity into a strength. He also talks about the importance of self-compassion, the challenges and rewards of personal development, and how creating safe, supportive environments can foster healing and growth. Will’s insights into the intersection of emotional, physical, and spiritual well-being provide valuable takeaways for anyone on a spiritual journey. Tune in to learn how to harness your sensitivity and turn it into an asset in both your personal and professional life. For more information on Will’s work, visit FitnessWithCompassion.com and VantageSensitivityTraining.com.

Join us in The Spirit School Collective: https://www.squamishmedium.com/spiritschoolcollective 

Welcome back to Spirit School! In this special segment, I’m thrilled to introduce you to my dear friend Carolyn, also known as the Comedium. Carolyn has been a part of Spirit School from the very beginning, from being one of my first online mentees to attending both of our transformative retreats. In this episode, we take a heartfelt look at her journey over the past four years. Carolyn shares how she found me, her path through energy healing, and how she has blended her skills as a hairstylist with mediumship to create a unique practice. We also delve into her incredible sense of humor, which she has seamlessly woven into her spiritual work. Get ready to be inspired by her story, and stay tuned for a special treat—a clip from her standup routine on mediumship.

https://www.instagram.com/thecomedium/

https://www.instagram.com/ccthesensitive/ 

Come hang out in The Spirit School Collective with us! https://www.squamishmedium.com/spiritschoolcollective 

On National Indigenous People's Day, I proudly bring you an interview with the most sacred of humans, Asha Frost.

Asha Frost is a traditional healer, Indigenous medicine woman, best-selling author of the book You Are The Medicine and creator of two oracle decks Sacred Medicine Oracle and the Upcoming Animal Elders Oracle Decks.

Asha hails from the Crane Clan and resides on her traditional Anishinaabe territories. Asha is also the mother of two sons, and a leading voice of advocacy on behalf of indigenous people facing stereotyping, microaggressions and racism on Turtle Island and beyond.

In this episode we discuss the Indigenous Reconnection Journey, Social Activism, Cultural Appropriation, Motherhood, Healing and so much more

Website: https://www.ashafrost.com 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ashafrost/ 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AshaFrostHealing 

Sacred Medicine Oracle Deck: https://ashafrost.com/the-sacred-medicine-oracle/ 

Pre-order her new oracle deck, The Animal Elders Oracle: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/760310/the-animal-elders-oracle-by-asha-frost/

Watch this interview on Youtube 

https://youtu.be/sP1ArjeASyo

Cycles and Schedules - The Birth of Goddess Week

I have been wanting to talk more about spiritual entrepreneurship on the podcast for the past year, but I had a lot of healing and deconditioning to do first before I could do so openly. As I mentioned in the previous episode, there are not a lot of spiritual mentors treating their practice as a business and teaching about that side of it. This episode intertwines my journey with PMDD and how I have structured my business to allow for one week off every month to honour my feminine energy. Your cycles as a lightworker are important and I even have a module for members of the collective that goes more in depth about why. 

Topics covered in this episode:

• Instead of being upset, my clients appreciated me showing them that it was possible to take time off in their business
• A minimum of 2 weeks off per year is not conducive to work/life balance
• I hired a coach who talked about having a week off per month because that was a goal of mine when I went full-time in my practice in 2020
• My therapist recognized that the times of extreme reaction and rage were because I was suffering with PMDD
• I was able to track my cycle with the Stardust App
• I had a thought that this rage was related to me not honouring my feminine
• My desire for a week off per month and not being able to work during my PMDD “hell week” were aligning and Goddess week was born
• Entrepreneurship is creative, not prescriptive
• Goddess week is for preservation and I learned a lot in the first two months
• In January, I was forced to rest when I got COVID and in February, I did not honour my break from social media and was triggered by a DM
• I had a peaceful week in March that allowed me to put my family first
• In April, I was able to take my family on vacation without needing to reschedule anything and my PMDD symptoms were nonexistent
• Goddess Week may be a new norm for spiritual entrepreneurship and it is an act of self love
• Think about what days and what time you enjoy doing your readings
• Track these cycles and test out different schedules to get clarity
• Boundaries are difficult but necessary for you to show up well for your clients
• A scheduling system is crucial for a clear and smooth booking process
• Be realistic about how many readings you have to do for your income goals
• I acknowledge that I made the leap to full-time from a privileged place

Registration is now open for The Calling, a 3 month experience for lightworkers serving the public, which starts on May 18! 

𝗟𝗜𝗡𝗞𝗦

The Calling

The Spirit School Collective

Visit https://myspiritschool.com/ for more information on classes and programs

I haven’t covered this topic on the podcast before now, but my program The Calling is all about how to make the leap into charging for spiritual services as an entrepreneur. I had to teach myself because no one was really talking about it! My first mentor told me that I should not be considering my work as a medium to be a business, which really made the transition to paid readings a difficult one for me. A lot of shame came up around money and spirituality that I've had to walk through. 

I want to share my journey with you and also some signs that you might be ready to start charging for your spiritual services or raise your prices. I know these signs well because in addition to my own experience, many of my clients come to me when they are ready to take the leap! Almost immediately after going full-time in my practice, people were hiring me to help with creating structures for their businesses so that they could focus on the work they love. 

Some topics I cover in this episode:

• Wanting to understand my gift deeply before considering practice readings for the public
• I set a goal for myself of 150 free readings before I would begin charging
• My first paid readings were at an event held by a friend for $20 per person, then referrals
• Increasing prices as expenses for my online business increased 
• Paying for my development with the money from my readings 
• Figuring out pricing to replace my corporate salary
• The connection between pricing and how I felt about myself
• Some healing is intergenerational in the spiritual space
• The first story we carry is the belief that we shouldn’t charge for our gifts
• The second story is, “How can I charge $X for a specified amount of time?”
• The third story is worrying that people won’t be able to afford your price
• The final story is, “I am not good enough yet”
• As I develop and invest my time, the price needs to reflect that
• There is a lot of healing that comes up as a human on this path
• This is a lifetime path, so there is no rush to get to the next destination 

Teaching about entrepreneurship is a passion of mine and I can’t wait for the next round of The Calling, a 3 month experience, which starts on May 18!

𝗟𝗜𝗡𝗞𝗦

The Calling

The Spirit School Collective

Visit https://myspiritschool.com/ for more information on classes and programs

Hello Spirit School Listeners! I’m so happy to be back with the April Spirit Messages. If you follow me on Instagram, you know that I had to step away from my business and my practice for three weeks in March due to a family emergency. It feels like yesterday that I recorded the last spirit messages and I feel like I’m not the only one who felt personally attacked by March!

I am starting a 12 month series of masterclasses that will begin in April with Discover Your Personal Session style. It is for anyone - whether you’re already serving the public or you’re aspiring to do so one day! No matter what your modality, you will learn about what your magic is that sets you apart. This course will be free for anyone in the Spirit School Collective and there will be a 90 minute Q&A in the community as well! You can also choose to just attend the masterclass.

April will be an exciting month in the collective as we have a few more classes and events!  Our guest mentor Lynn Tucknies is my Emotion Code practitioner and her sessions have been life changing for my family. We will also have classes on Chakras 101, Manifesting with Synchronicity and Clearing Low Vibrational Energies by members of the collective.

We are going to be moving to a new platform this summer and I am so excited for the expansion and changes I have planned for the Spirit School Collective!

Highlights from the April Spirit Messages

• In March, I learned that in times of chaos, we learn a lot about ourselves and our priorities
• I learned that I am a family first person even though I love working
• Some of you may be the opposite, shifting your energy from being all about your family to find what lights you up 
• When we aren’t making necessary shifts, chaos comes and we are fundamentally changed on the other side of it
• We are surrounded with multiple conflicting truths at once and we get to choose ours
• As a person with a positive bias, I am able to see beauty in the darker experiences
• We have it backwards when we try to control things we can’t and are apathetic to the things we can
• A lot of people feel stuck in jobs and situations that they could choose to change
• Confidence comes from knowing who you are first, not validation
• The other side of mediumship development is the human part that shows up  

𝗟𝗜𝗡𝗞𝗦

Register for the Discover Your Personal Session Style Masterclass: https://myspiritschool.teachable.com/p/session-style

The Spirit School Collective

Visit https://myspiritschool.com/ for more information on classes and programs

This episode is from the Spirit School Lecture Series that highlights my live teachings in the areas of mediumship, spiritual and personal development, entrepreneurship and quality of life. 

In this episode, I share how I surround myself with people who inspire me by embodying the qualities that I admire. What we see as possible helps us to expand and dream bigger. I also talk about how important mindset and self-talk are to your overall health and quality of life. Worthiness is not something we can receive elsewhere, but rather something that we need to claim for ourselves.

Some of the main points from the episode are:

- Staying small because we aren’t inspired

- I am always inspired and seeing what is possible so dreaming big is easy

- Find people who have qualities that you admire

- I share my struggles to show what is on the other side of fear

- Looking to others from a place of inspiration instead of comparison

- You can go back to what you’re comfortable doing after taking a leap

- Shifting from a mindset of negativity or worry to seeing more positivity

- Your quality of life starts with how you look at the world

- History repeats itself and there is beauty even in difficult times

- It is important that my children learn to receive love and compliments

- Self talk impacts our physical well-being

- Worthiness is not given, it’s claimed

I love my Instagram audience and our live conversations! If you want to get in on the conversation next time, follow me @squamishmedium on Instagram.

𝗟𝗜𝗡𝗞𝗦

The Spirit School Collective

Visit https://myspiritschool.com/ for more information on classes and programs

This episode is from the Spirit School Lecture Series that highlights my live teachings in the areas of mediumship, spiritual and personal development, entrepreneurship and quality of life.  Today’s episode is about manifesting your dream life and cultivating personal power. It is from a few IGTV videos and I hope it inspires you to call in the schedule and life you love. 

Recently, I decided to outsource my weekly laundry and that made me feel so abundant! Time freedom has always been a focus for my dream life and I love finding more ways to manifest it.

In this episode, I share how I called in my dream weekly schedule as an entrepreneur by allowing myself to dream big. I share about the shift from staying small to expanding so that I can inspire others by shining brightly. Have a journal handy to follow along with my exercise to manifest your dream week!

Some of the main points from the episode are:

• My love for the creativity of entrepreneurship
• Women pursuing their dreams despite limiting beliefs
• Being clear and specific with our words when manifesting
• The uncertainty when you take the leap as an entrepreneur
• Speak from the heart and show up authentically
• Realizing your power inspires others so there is no need to dim your light
• Doing what scares you offers invaluable growth
• Having boundaries around your cycles and time
• How to manifest your dream week
• Manifesting from feelings and emotions
• Devotion and following your intuition leads to downloads
• Learning how to find balance in your routines to optimize your own energy
• Cultivating self love and personal power without external validation

I love my Instagram audience and our live conversations! If you want to get in on the conversation next time, follow me @squamishmedium on Instagram.

𝗟𝗜𝗡𝗞𝗦

Visit https://myspiritschool.com/ for more information on classes and programs

The Spirit School Collective

As always, the world of Spirit inspires the monthly Spirit Messages through my own life and experiences. I have been going through a dark night of the soul since November and was feeling the loneliness that often comes with these times. I shared an inspired post on Instagram and it resonated with hundreds of people, reminding us all that we are not alone when we are doing our deep inner work.

We tend to focus on the light but the shadows stay in our body and will come up eventually. I am often thanked for being vulnerable on the podcast and in classes. Vulnerability must come naturally for me because I feel like it is part of sharing authentically. I know it can feel unsafe and like it is only for our close circle, but what if we expanded beyond that so that more people could feel seen in the world? Imagine if we were to process and share these things as they come up to release them instead of carrying them around.

I have been struggling emotionally and was feeling bad because my life is so beautiful. After feeling this way for a couple of weeks, I decided to join a breathwork session that was offered through a course I am in. I have avoided breathwork because of its vulnerability but this ended up being one of the most powerful experiences I’ve ever had in my life. It broke me open and there were sounds that came out of me from a version of myself that I didn’t know existed. It’s often in these moments of crumbling that we are brought back into devotion. When we feel like we are spiraling and don’t have control, the answer is to take a seat and tune within. 

This path means surrendering to something greater than ourselves and the unpredictability of these cycles. I don’t believe in consistency as a goal because we are not the same person every day. We need to honour the ebbs and flows and allow ourselves space to rest when we need it. The momentum created will sustain us when we take a break. 

Another thing to remember is that we all have blind spots, which is why we hire mentors and coaches. Sometimes emotions and patterns that we carry are not even our own. Working with healers and mentors allows me to hold space for the people who are looking to me and tapping into my energy. Don’t be afraid to ask for help when you need it. If we want to have it all, we cannot do it alone.

𝗟𝗜𝗡𝗞𝗦

Visit https://myspiritschool.com/ for more information on classes and programs

The Spirit School Collective

In honour of Black History Month, this episode highlights Black mediums in history, Sojourner Truth and Le Cercle Harmonique. Unlike my usual episodes where I riff on an inspiration or idea, I did a lot of research and prepared notes to ensure I was sharing accurate information about these amazing historical mediums. 

Although I have an appreciation for the structure and awareness that spiritualism has brought to mediumship, my guides have ensured that my approach to mediumship has been through the lens of my Indigenous culture. I consider myself lucky to have had the opportunity to learn from elders at my corporate position in Indigenous health and wellness. I reconnected to my culture through this experience since residential schools prevented me from being immersed in it growing up. It is important to remember that mediumship and spirit communication has existed as long as we have been here on earth. We have always communicated with our ancestors and I invite you to learn about your own culture’s history with mediumship. 

As I reflected on my research for this episode and the impacts on society that these people had, I have been considering what I will leave behind as my own legacy through my work as a medium and inspirational speaker. Take some time to think about what you share of your beliefs and opinions and how you want to be remembered from your imprint on the world.

Sojourner Truth highlights:

• Sojourner was born into slavery as Isabella Baumfree in New York state in 1797
• Isabella was the first Black woman to sue a white man and win in court when she fought for custody of her son
• In 1843, Isabella changed her name to Sojourner Truth, declaring that she would travel to preach truth and work against injustice 
• Around 1856, she moved to Harmonica, Michigan where her spiritualism journey began
• Anne Braude, a lecturer at Harvard Divinity School talks about how Spiritualism in America was informed by the traditions of enslaved African people in North America
• Many abolitionists and feminists had a connection to spiritualism and most working mediums were women
• At the time of her passing in 1883, Sojourner Truth had never learned to read or write, but her lectures changed the cultural fabric of the United States

Le Cercle Harmonique Highlights

• Le Cercle Harmonique was a Spiritualist group of seven Afro-Creole men from affluent families in New Orleans founded by Henry Louis Rey in the early 1850s
• These circles combined Spiritualism, radicalism from the Caribbean and France, and Andrew Jackson Davis’ Harmonial Philosophy. 
• Protocol included an emphasis on punctuality so as to not disturb the harmony created and the room needed to be dark so the mediums could concentrate
• There were messages from deceased family members of the group and also well known spirits such as Voltaire, Vincent de Paul and Abraham Lincoln
• “The Idea” was the foundational principle of the circle, representing egalitarianism, equality and brotherhood - a spirit world structure and model for the physical world
• Unlike their white Spiritualist contemporaries, Le Cercle Harmonique received messages identifying a spirit world without race where bright spirits would replace raced bodies

𝗥𝗘𝗦𝗢𝗨𝗥𝗖𝗘𝗦

Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/interview-2-margaret-washington/id1409481160?i=1000462567039 (a must listen if you love the history of spiritualism)

Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/interview-1-ann-braude/id1409481160?i=1000461897236

https://nerdist.com/article/black-mediums-psychic-history-marginalization-misconceptions/ https://www.religion.ucsb.edu/wp-content/uploads/EPerez-Spiritist-Mediumship-as-Historical-Mediation-.pdf https://www.shondaland.com/live/a23652668/legacy-of-spiritualists/ https://religiondispatches.org/black-spirits-matter-a-spiritual-history-of-new-orleans-that-recognizes-afro-creoles/ https://spiritualpathspiritualistchurch.org/le-cercle-harmonique/ https://wrldrels.org/2017/06/12/le-cercle-harmonique/ https://medium.com/lessons-from-history/sojourner-truth-a-19th-century-symbol-of-strength-and-hope-10fb0715d842 https://works.swarthmore.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1022&context=sta-libraries https://spiritualpathspiritualistchurch.org/sojourner-truth-slave-political-activist-spiritualist/ https://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/truth/1850/1850.html

𝗦𝗽𝗶𝗿𝗶𝘁 𝗦𝗰𝗵𝗼𝗼𝗹 𝗟𝗶𝗻𝗸𝘀

Visit https://myspiritschool.com/ for more information on classes and programs

The Spirit School Collective

The Empowered Podcaster