57: Natasha Levinger - Author, Healing Your Inner Child; Host, Getting to Know Woo Podcast: Intuition, Inner Child Work, Energy Healing

0:00 What are chakras and how can better understanding them help us to optimize our physical and emotional well-being. How can engaging in a more supportive and nurturing forces punitive and scolding dialogue with our inner child, help us better manage our challenges such as addiction to Sugar social media and other vices. And what is the getting to know? Woo, podcast despite the comical title, can it provides serious benefit to? Those seeking help for their trauma, be on medication, and cognitive behavioral therapy. Stay tuned. As we touch on these and many other topics on this week's episode of untether your life.

0:44 Welcome to untether your life, show that empowers you to own your own health and break free of templates for managing physical and mental wellness. And looks at Key issues, impacting the South Asian diaspora. I am your host to kill torsa car and I'm passionate about the power of conversation to catalyze change on this show. I often encourage you to look Beyond traditional modalities for managing your physical and mental Wellness. What does that actually mean, though? It's a very Broad Statement. But intuition inner child, work and energy. Healing are some of the Essential Elements of this holistic approach this week's guest Natasha levinger is well-versed in all of this and then some based in Asheville North Carolina. She is a professional intuitive reader energy healer and inner child healing expert through her practice, highest light healing, she teaches classes and workshops delivers meditations and much more Natasha writes, a monthly column called The Energy report for the leading Wellness lifestyle.

1:38 Site Mind Body green is the co-host of the podcast getting to know. Whoo and her book healing your inner child comes out in April 2023. And with that, let's get untethered. So Natasha I wanted to thank you for for joining us today. Yeah, thanks for having me when we start. Maybe you can just tell me a little bit about highest like healing and sort of what that's all about in the services you offer. Yeah, so I mean, I guess I'll first just talk about energy healing itself which is part of My work, and it is a very broad term because there are so many like a lot of things within the woo world.

2:19 So to speak, it has a very broad definition. So a lot of people will really don't understand fully what it means. Like psychic can mean so many different things and same with energy healing. So the kind of energy healing that I do is really grounded in practical ways to help people to know themselves better to hear they're into Ocean better to know what they know so to speak and it's a way of clearing out your energy knowing your boundaries being again like I said being more clear about who you are in the world and I found this kind of energy healing about 20 years ago. And I happened to I've always been drawn to energy healing, but I started taking classes in it and I noticed immediately, how much better I felt Much more clear. I was how I was able essentially part of what I do is clearing out the beliefs underneath.

3:17 Why other people bring in that energy identify the core wounds underneath whatever is going on in whatever. The problem is that people are having and then from there you can learn to know what your next steps are. So for me, I was having a lot of responsibility beliefs where I felt like I had to To take care of other people. Or I didn't really know who I was, unless I was attaching myself to somebody else. So once I had more of my energy back, I was able to really deal with what was going on with me. And I was more able to detach from that relationship in particular part of the work that I do, the reason why I got into inner child, healing as well. Was that when I started to work with people I almost always like 99% of the time, we'll see the inner child as being under. The whatever the issue is.

4:10 So if you're having a relationship problem or you are feeling confused or unsure about next steps, there's almost always an inner child in some form underneath that, that need something from you. So once I became more aware of my own inner child in, you have we all have many inner child basis and parts. Then I was able to know myself better. Which helped me to become more clear about when I needed it. Wanted in general. So with highest light healing part of what I do is work with people one-on-one, to help them with whatever is coming up for themselves in general. It seems like a lot of the people I work with want to be more clear about their next steps or who they are. In general, what they need in general. They want to hear their intuition and then I also have meditations.

5:02 I have an energy healing class in inner child class as well. I hope people will lot with Girls, when they get activated, when things come up in their life, how to deal with that, all of that is helped a lot by knowing your energy better and knowing energy, healing tools to help you get to the next step of growth and help. You also just feel more compassionate towards yourself and allow whatever is coming up to come up. The more you have of yourself. So to speak, the more you're resilient, you are to be able to handle whatever. Coming up. What are some common problems that you're seeing? That people are coming to your with?

5:43 Like, in addition to relationships, there's obviously the brain-body connection, right? If you have anxiety, then you're going to have insomnia, you're going to have high blood pressure, just curious like in terms of physical and some of the mental issues that people are coming to you with if you could talk a little bit about that. I mean, I always preface this by saying I'm not a doctor but I have had, there's a wide range. Like, I've had people who've had Strange or unusual skin rash that were able to be cleared through more understanding about what the connection is. Again, I do want to preface it by saying, I am not anti medical, or I would never tell somebody. Don't go to a doctor to get that fixed, but a lot of times people will come to me if they've already been to the doctor, and it's not working.

6:30 But yeah, I mean, that actually has been healed by energy healing when I do the readings. I separate our energy afterwards. Is to make sure that I'm very adamant about boundaries that I'm not taking on their energy. They're not taking online. So I often will forget the specifics of what happened in the session, but yeah, I've had people come to me with chronic fatigue and of course I mean depression anxiety is a very common reason that people will come to me just to step back a little bit because energy, healing, I think is such a broad topic, right? But yeah, one topic that comes up a lot. Chakras. And you have this amazing meditation about clearing chakras.

7:13 Yeah. And I think it's something that would really benefit people because the frustration I have with Healthcare again, I'm like, you, I mean I'm not against medication but the frustration I have is this binary approach about, you know, six verses well and this piecemeal this this artificial distinctions and compartmentalization of the human body, you know I have a kidney problem or I have a heart problem. Mm. But chakras are so important because a lot of times that's where you store your trauma. Could you tell us a little bit more about chakras and sort of the room? Yeah, I'm glad you brought that up because that is actually how I work with energy healing. So, there's other modes of energy, healing like Reiki, for instance, is the one most people are familiar with, but how I work is chakra based.

8:01 So, I look at the energy stored in the chakras through either seeing pictures or getting Just having a knowing of when I look at the chakras. What trauma is stored in them? What pictures are there? What? Beliefs are there? Whatever is being held. But the chakras themselves are there basically, they're vortexes of energy, there's many, many ones. But there are seven main ones in our body, the first five are actually a connected to the spine. So energetically, they are attached to your body, your physical body, as well. All those ones are, but we also have chakras in our feet. Anyway, they're little energy centers that, like you said, we collect emotions and feelings in them. And depending on each one, it has a center. So, for instance, your fifth chakra is in your throat, and that's expression has to do with the events around expression, there's the heart chakra, which is obvious. The solar plexus is about power and control and will and also just self power.

9:08 So, there's different topics. So, to speak with each one and the root chakra, as you mentioned is around survival, you can get a lot of information. Also by clearing out your chakras because like you said, that's where we hold a lot of energy. So, the chakra healing meditation is really helpful because even if you can't see or know what energy is being released when you do it, it's still leaving. It's just having the intention to clear it out. Not everybody is so in touch with their energy. But it's still happening. Even if you don't feel lighter, I will say the number one thing. People say to me after a session is that they feel lighter. And that's just because the energy is what they don't need is leaving.

9:52 One of the main titles that you have is that inner child experts. So could you talk a little bit more about inner child, trauma, and sort of how that plays into the whole healing process? Yeah, so essentially the inner child is a part of Ourselves that has to that stayed stuck in an event. They're staying this part of us which you obviously, you can't see physically but is very much there energetically is in stuck in a past time event. And so you don't even have to know or remember much of your childhood to be able to heal it. And that's something I love about inner child work because they will show up via triggers or strong. I'm feelings that you're having and if you can learn to grow this, why self the inner adult to be the loudest voice in your head?

10:49 Then you can help these past Parts, these past inner, child Parts, Kind of Rescue them to integrate them into your system because when they're not integrated it we get more thrown off of Center. When something will come up, until you got in an argument with a friend, and you feel very upset. Abandoned and it's just, you get lost in that feeling. You feel extremely Amanda, you can't get back to Center, you feel, you know, ruins your day kind of thing. So then you can learn to Center yourself, bring in self compassion and speak to that. Part of you, that is feeling really abandoned likely. It's a very, very young part of yourself, and when that part feels safe with you, then it can be integrated.

11:35 So then the next time that you feel hurt from a friend or That maybe some abandonment gets triggered. It doesn't overtake you as much because you have that feeling of safety, it's more integrated energetically essentially, the more you're bringing your present, self present, loving self to the past, the Lester, ruled by the past because that part of you gets the message. Oh, this isn't happening anymore, I'm actually not in the past. It really is like you go back into the past without having a visual component. On it, but it really will feel like it. And so, the more you're bringing your present self into it. The less you will do that.

12:15 So I explored it a little bit, not obviously the detail that you have, but when any discussions I've had like, for instance, I have a really bad Sweet Tooth. Like I just been a chocoholic and I just can't get none. I can't get enough of this stuff even though I know what it's going to do to me the next day. In terms of not, just wait, but just in terms of cloudiness and things like that. And I did talk to somebody Who works in energy, healing. And they had said that that stems from some inner child trauma or was basically like, you know, as a kid it was just basically like you're told, you know, this is bad, this is bad. And so it's stifled. So I wanted to maybe if you could talk a little bit more about maybe how inner child trauma might play out in terms of things like addiction, not just to like chocolate per se but technology or validation or whatever. Maybe if you need to go into that a little bit more. Yeah.

13:08 Well, there's Lots of different reasons and ways that that can happen, just to use your example. If you have an inner child part, that has been told has been shamed, essentially for having dessert, or, you know, has associated with that with being bad or wrong. It's that, as you have noticed, it's going to live with you, that if that doesn't get resolved in the moment at when you were a child, and in fact, if it was reinforced, that it was bad, that's still. With you. So you would want to bring compassion and figure out more from that part of yourself. What's going on here? I want to know more about what you're feeling right now.

13:50 So you could next time you want chocolate, it also sounds like you've moralized it in this particular example where it's bad if you have it as opposed to okay, knowing you know what, I don't feel good the next day after I have this. So I don't want to be doing that. So I can talk to that part of yourself truly with curiosity, like and ask it. What's going on for you right now? Seems like, maybe, what might come up, is this feeling like they have to steal, it lets part of you has to steal it or get away with something and letting this part of, you know, you know what, we're not back at home anymore. That's not what's happening.

14:32 And just really having a compassion conversation in that way. So it doesn't feel like something you're trying trying to get away with or that you just are taken over by. Yeah, it sounds like in essence you it's almost like you have energy. Healing is like pressing pause with the remote control on what's going on because think about a lot of times when you feel this compunction to indulge in chocolate it's because you're stressed out and you know, I think it seems like that would be helpful is to just take a deep breath and then maybe do a meditation. But yeah, mind and yourself that the situation is different, right? It's not that Energy, healing presses, the pause. It's just building up awareness and part of the inner child.

15:15 Healing modality is to build up that loving inner parent which will pause which brings a calmness which brings this awareness. And that's always the first step with any kind of growth is awareness at least with spiritual growth. I believe is, you know, you can't change what, you're not aware of so that first step. Up is to pause and see what's going on and even building up resilience for changing a habit. Unless it's really a deadly happen, like, you know, drug addiction or something. I always encourage people to not make themselves feel like it has to be eliminated or changed immediately.

15:57 But first just bringing this awareness. So if you can pause a little bit before it lets say you have chocolate, if that's something that makes you feel bad. The next day to have that positive, say like okay, What's coming up? Like I said, inquiring with the inner child first, just you could even say to him. Like, I'm not saying you can't have it. Well, you can have it. But first, I want to just talk to you for a second and see what's coming up for you. And then if you still want to after that, we can do that. The more you have that trust, the more able you are to make more changes. Because right now that part of you thinks is merged with your inner child. Actually, you are merged with your inner child, so that part of you thinks they have to get away.

16:38 Way with it. And they don't really trust that you will let them have it at some point or that there ever is a good time or that they're not shameful for having it so changing that Dynamic first will help to make overall changes. Do you see a lot of people who come to you with problems with fiction? I mean, yeah. Food is is a big one. I haven't had a lot of people with more serious addictions, but I do have a, I am a believer and intuitive eating. I'll just fold disclosure. I'm Anti Diet culture. So it's not that I'm like oh you're bad if you are wanting to diet or anything like that. But I am a big proponent in listening to yourself and Building self trust and a lot of diet stuff is restrictive and and of course sometimes you need to restrict sometimes if you have diabetes or some or high blood pressure or something, you're going to have to do that. But the more that you are doing it from a place of understanding and compassion within yourself the The longer term you're going to be able to sustain something like that and when it is for other reasons than it can be hard to build up self-trust and be doing that at the same time.

17:50 Yeah. I'm like you I mean I I'm not Anti Diet culture but it just seems like a lot of these programs like Overeaters Anonymous sometimes because you're attaching such a stigma to a lot of these things that you've loved for so long. It can backfire and a lot of times that your body will respond right selling Overeaters Anonymous, I'll just interrupt you isn't a diet that actually is a pro. I'm not totally familiar with it but that's a program to help people heal their relationship to food. So I'm talking more about restrictive diets like Weight Watchers or something like that where especially women have been really given the message that they are only worthy and people in general though if they are thin which is not true because you know, healthy people can Be fat, healthy people can be thin unhealthy people can be thin.

18:42 So, anyway, it's a whole thing. But, yeah, I mean, I was just choosing that one arbitrarily, but I'm just saying, like, a lot of these things that we talked about like calorie counting, and things like that. Yeah, because you're vilifying something that also gives you pleasure. I think it's sending your body makes signals 90 from for me, like, when I tried to just go cold turkey, with chocolate and then my wife and I went out for our anniversary, I had my favorite which is creme brulee, and I was like pretty Watch out of commission for the whole weekend. So I think it is really important to listen to your body. Not make these bogey men that your body is going to respond in turn and just happens. Completely break down. If you do it now you know, falling off the wagon. Yeah.

19:23 Well we could talk a lot about culture but I won't but it basically is a shaming. There's a lot of morality with food and an inner child terms that is shaming your inner child for different kinds of Foods, whatever it is for you. And again I'm not saying that there aren't, of course there's times when you have to restrict for health reasons. But yeah there's just it's a little very loaded topic, that's for sure. Yeah. And again again like with addiction I mean it goes Way Beyond. It's like I said before it's like food and for me the other one is technology and social media, just trying to keep those things in check because these companies, their multi-billion dollar companies that literally have phds and scientists, Yeah, we're creating these programs to short-circuit your dopamine experience and everything like that and I do too. You know, that's something that I have to bring more Consciousness to myself as well with my phone. It is especially handling, you know, growing up with a narcissist and healing from narcissistic abuse. I actually think of Instagram and Facebook and all of that. Is it brings out a it's like a narcissist. That is a narcissist magnet.

20:37 Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I mean it's wanting you know, getting validation them taking it away and then a changing the algorithm. So that you're coming back to get approval which is a big Dynamic and narcissist abuse. But so it is like, it's ripe for all of our very human desires for validation. Yeah, it's really tricky, it's an interesting segue because I didn't want to talk about your Instagram feed, which you have some amazing content that some of the topics you talk about. Like intuition, I think is a really big one. And one of the things I was interested in because I've dealt with inner child trauma and growing up with narcissistic influences, just curious. I mean, like, what do you tell people who want to trust their intuition? Because obviously, that is going to lead you to the right path? A lot of times.

21:25 But there is this once, bitten twice, shy mentality. Because there's this, when you had the inner child of stifled or stymied, there's this sense. Like you just don't want to go down that path. How would you encourage people who have gone through this? This to trust their intuition. My understanding is just with intuition is just something that, obviously, you can't go blindly and trust your intuition on everything. But I think, if you want to get the best results, if you want to really invest your energy than you need to follow that intuition, it seems to me like children of the ones with the strongest intuition, because they haven't been beaten down yet because they haven't faced those consequences. So, that's the time when intuition strongest, but you have somebody who's gone through a lot of that trauma. Going to be sort of cut off, you know, that intuition. So how do you encourage people who have gone through something narcissistic?

22:15 Abuse having Junior, child, stymied to trust their intuition again. Well, so it's a lot of what I've already talked about in terms of building up trust and getting to know the difference between feeling impulsive and fear and being merged with your inner child and having more of that connection to self where you are hearing your Highest information when your nervous system is really activated. It is very hard to hear your intuition. So if a lot of times, I will get the question, what is the difference between fear and intuition? And if you are in the middle of your fear, like I said, it's very hard to hear. It is likely not your intuition.

22:57 If you're feeling calm and you're getting information, like, don't go down that street. That's a good indication. That that's your highest self, that's your intuition. I agree with you though. It is a good point that every feeling of intuition isn't always correct, but the more that you are paying attention to like a lot of times I will help people to trust their intuition just by starting to trust the tiniest decisions. They make, if somebody is very used to doubting themselves because of a childhood, like you mentioned, I will just ask them to notice every decision they make that they are aware of. If so what you want for breakfast is that like you know if you notice oh I definitely want oatmeal, I know that notice that and really valid a oh I what does that feel like okay. I do know what that feels like.

23:51 I know I need to brush my teeth. It may sound funny but that's is you listening to your information. It is very small things, sometimes people feel like intuition is like some magical thing that people hear from, you know, a voice comes down from the heavens or something. But It really isn't, it's quieter. But the more you are used to what it feels like to trust yourself as you build up that self-trust, that's what your intuition is, and it doesn't eat and the more you will get comfortable even doubting it, the more confident you are. Actually, the more you can know what it feels like to be like, well, hmm. The more confident, you will feel doubting it if that makes sense like I feel okay asking myself? Well, do I really feel that whereas, before when I wasn't Not as connected to myself, it would throw me into a loop. I don't know if I should trust myself, I don't know. Do I feel that?

24:44 I'm confused where as now because I have a greater sense of self, I can be calmer about it and say like hmm let me check that out and see if it is what I want to do or I can give it some time. It doesn't have the urgency behind it. It sounds like they're can also sometimes be an extreme of that. You talked about this on your feet is hyper-vigilance. Could you talk a little bit more about that like maybe getting too focused? Hyper-vigilance again, when you come from any kind of trauma but a lot of times it is with narcissistic parents, you will have a part of you that developed as a child, that had to be hyper focused on the adults around you and read them. So to speak in order to be safe for instance.

25:27 In my case, my mom was often very angry and would explode. And there were ways that I knew I could avoid that. And so as a child, I had to very quickly Lee figure out how do I behave? So that she doesn't get angry. And then once I wasn't in her home anymore, I still had that part of me, that felt, oh my God. In order for me to be safe, I have to figure out what is this person thinking, or what does that person thinking. That part of me, didn't get the message that, oh, wait, no, no. Other people can't determine your survival like they could have when I was a child. And also, I don't need to be checking in with them. Anyway, like, What my information is the most important in terms of my inner sense of stability and safety. So it's a very common part that I see that in so many people and it is the I would say it's the hardest inner child part because it needs to heal.

26:26 I would say because it really needs the reminder in the beginning very frequently and then sometimes not in the beginning. I still deal with that. Part of me that after really let know Oh wait, you're safe, you're safe. It's not. Don't need to read the room. I think you mentioned something. Sometimes people can experience like emotional flashbacks where it's almost like they're experiencing a lot of those bad feelings even though there's nothing necessarily triggering it. Yeah, well that comes emotional. Flashbacks is from this great book called, see PTSD from the surviving to thriving this therapist Pete Walker but that is was really revelatory for me because it yeah, you can just Feel of fissile if you had a gem in energy terms, if you had a general feeling in your house of, I don't know, like abandonment or depression or have this just a heaviness or whatever it was like maybe it was hyper feeling of intense activation all the time sometimes that can just show up in your system seemingly out of nowhere it can have a source where if you get in an argument or something like that I don't know. Depending on what it was for you getting cut off. Off in traffic or some, it can appear where you just like back in that moment and you feel it, emotionally and yeah, inner child killing again, can help with that. The more that you're establishing this presence of safety within, tell me a little bit more about podcast. If you could yeah I love the

27:57 title and just been a nutshell. If you could just tell me more about it. Yeah, so for me, that I really wanted to talk about woo stuff because it has such a negative connotation. To it in association with it. And in my life, as I mentioned, it really was, those quote unquote will practices that changed my life for the better. I did go to therapy. I love therapy for a lot of people, but I have found that not just for me, but for a lot of people that talk therapy in the beginning is super helpful. That cognitive part can be very validating to have a therapist say to you like, yes, this is what it is. Yes, you had trauma. Yes, this Opened.

28:38 But then the next steps with therapy did not really help me. Not, it didn't give me tools and I think that is changing. There are more therapist doing other things, adding tools social but things what I don't like is that things like energy. Healing have been written off as not being helpful or it's just for the special few. You have to be gifted and also pseudoscience, which is really ridiculous, you know, because it's so powerful. Yeah, so yes it was really The energy healing tools and the inner child tools. That help me to make real true changes to bring me happiness. To make me feel more self-love and secure and all of that stuff. It really changed my life and I've seen it change many, many people's lives and it's not just those tools but we talked to people like astrologers and people who do meditation, we talk to a lot of different experts the holistic approach. Basically.

29:37 Yeah. And there's something called human design and the any of G stuff like that. That I think are all very helpful and can only help the journey. And so I'm pretty passionate about getting the word out that these things can help and they don't have to be something you're ashamed or embarrassed to admit that you do it. Really helpful. So that's what we talked about on the podcast, just how it affects our day-to-day life. And if we don't have a guest, I take a particular topic and talk about like Gasps lightning or we even talked about death in the first episode and how energy healing and inner child's work can help process and deal with all of these different topics. Yeah.

30:19 And as I said earlier, I mean, I think just from the title and just the tone you guys have. I think it's great because there are people who are sort of on the fence. They're like, oh, you know, I had a cousin who had some good results, but they're like and, you know, they're a little bit, it's a little too out there for them. So I think the fact that you're calling it would just kind of It seems like a tongue-in-cheek, your kind of acknowledging that there is a little bit of skepticism out there really. Yeah. There's a lot of skepticism and we we talked about it with humor and again, I'm not trying to convert anybody but I do love helping people and I think it's a real shame that people wouldn't find these kind of tools because of the prejudice against it.

31:01 Yeah. And as you said earlier, I mean, I think therapy and medication to an extent. I mean therapy, can these things definitely Their place. But if you just limit yourself to the tried and true, if you just go by the book, then you really doing yourself a disservice and I mean and I'm like you I mean I'm not here to get drag anyone Kicking and Screaming to start doing breathwork and meditation. It's helped me immensely. People have to be in the right place to receive it, but I think through these kinds of conversations and just awareness and it'll help, at least have more constructive dialogues than sort of having this Us Versus Them approach, which Does nobody any good? Yeah, and I think a lot of people again, I am Pro therapy, if it works, it's great.

31:44 But I think a lot of times people get turned off by therapy, if they can't find somebody that they relate to and that's also true of course, with working like with somebody like me, but even if you don't fully resonate with the person that you're working with, There's You Come Away with tools or you come away with like with breath work. For instance it was a good example if Don't love your breath work practitioner. That's not going to affect the tools that you learned and doing the breath work as much as it does with the therapist, you know, where you really do have to align with them. And they have to you have to build this trust and you have to get them. And I mean that's really important with therapy. So there are what you know, you can still learn the tools in a variety of ways without having to test so many different, you know, go through whole thing.

32:36 So if people want to get a hold of you, if People want to learn more about your services Natasha. What is what's the best way to reach out to you? Yeah, you can just go to my website, highest light, healing.com, you can find out how to schedule a session with me. And I work with people and 3-month packages or one-on-one and on my meditations and workbook. Everything's on there. And you can also sign up for my newsletter, which is free. And that's where you get the meditation that you talked about, as well as two other meditations. So, that's a good way to keep in touch. And also my book healing, your inner child is available for pre-order now on Amazon so it doesn't come out till April but if you want to preorder it, that would be great.

33:18 And I go into much detail about healing your inner child, as well as energy. Healing, it's all both my whole process and I think a lot of examples personally and with my clients are in their awesome and you're on Instagram to write High esteem as well. Highest like healing, So the Tasha thanks so much for joining. It was a real pleasure speaking to you. And we will have to stay connected with you and see how your updates on your podcast and your Instagram. Thanks so much. Thank you. Thanks so much. Thanks so much for listening and I hope you enjoyed that episode four more of these types of conversations. Please visit us at untether, your life that Co you can also find us on Instagram at untether your life, as well as on Apple Spotify and other platforms by searching for untether, your life.

34:09 And if you did enjoy this episode, please leave us a review or share it with someone who might also benefit. Thanks. And until the next time we meet stay untethered.