Overcoming Worry and Finding Peace: Soul Recovery Practices for Life’s Challenges

In this episode I’m stepping outside of our usual conversations on codependency, people-pleasing, and addiction to address the heaviness many of us are feeling in the world today. Between natural disasters like hurricanes and fires, political tension, and the ongoing wars, it can feel overwhelming. How do we hold space for these crises without getting lost in fear and worry? How can we be of service to others without losing ourselves in the process?

Join me as I explore how Soul Recovery can help us navigate these turbulent times by turning inward, focusing on our own spiritual growth, and co-creating with a higher power. Through compassion, light, and trust, we can hold space for others while staying connected to our own inner peace. I’ll share personal stories and offer tools to help you rise above the fear, step into your power, and find strength in your spiritual journey—no matter what’s happening in the world around us.

May this episode bring you comfort and inspiration to stay grounded and open-hearted in the face of life’s storms. Together, we can Recover our Souls and bring more light to ourselves and others. Namaste.

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This podcast is for educational purposes only and is not allied or representative of any organizations or religions, but is based on the opinions and experience of Rev. Rachel Harrison. The host claims no responsibility to any person or entity for any liability, loss, or damage caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly as a result of the use, application, or interpretation of the information presented herein. Take what you need and leave the rest.

Chapters

• 0:00 Navigating Complexity
• 15:17 Embracing Complexity and Trusting Divine Guidance
• 27:19 Building a Supportive Community

Transcript

Rev Rachel Harrison: 0:43

For today's episode, I'm stepping outside of my normal conversations around codependence and addiction and how to not be a people pleaser, because I'm feeling the weight of the world. I'm feeling the heaviness that's coming from our political situation right now. I'm feeling the heaviness of the wars that are happening and the storms that have just hit Florida and parts of our country and the storms that have just hit Florida and parts of our country. And so I wanted to address, from the hat of Rev Rachel, really stepping into the spiritual path of a happy and healthy life, the aspects of soul recovery that are around us, co-creating with something even greater still and moving into that place in our heart where we can touch in on these difficult situations, to that place in our heart where we can touch in on these difficult situations, hold space, have compassion and not get whipped into worry. It's so easy to worry. So in this episode, I hope that I can give you some tools to use in your own life as the world around us feels heavy. We can follow a spiritual path to a happy and healthy life. We can be a light and we can offer light to others. Enjoy Welcome to the Recover your Soul podcast a spiritual path to a happy and healthy life.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 1:59

My name is Reverend Rachel Harrison. I started Recover your Soul after having profound changes in my life from my recovery of alcoholism, codependency and control addiction. I was guided to share the tools and principles of spirituality and soul recovery to help others transform their lives as mine was transformed. For us to overcome external circumstances, we need to turn the attention to ourselves, focusing on our inner change and healing. Positive results in our lives will follow. Welcome to the Recover your Soul podcast. It's Rev Rachel and I am so grateful that we get to spend this time here together. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you for being part of the community, Thank you for sharing this podcast with others, Thank you for coming back time and time again and, if you're new, we are so glad that you are here.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 2:55

I wanted to touch in on the complexity of what's going on in our world right now, because we spend a lot of time and energy talking about what's going on within our own lives and how we can weather the storms of our own life, and right now we are actually in a place. As I record this, Hurricane Milton has just gone over Florida. We have fires in a lot of the country. We have two wars going on and we also have an election coming, so there's a lot of energy and a lot of complexity happening that is really affecting people in a very day-to-day, real way, and so I wanted to not dismiss the truth that there is your lives and in the people that you know. And when we look at the soul recovery perspective of how can I show up as my authentic self, how can I not people please or be codependent or worry about or be in a space where my mind is consumed with the fear of what's happening for other people mind is consumed with the fear of what's happening for other people and yet, at the same time, how can I be more connected to be of service in ways that are truly beneficial for those people around me, and how can I use my energy and my light to bring light to others? I wanted to talk about this because this is going to be more of a Reb Rachel spiritual, metaphysical talk than talking about some of the other things that we talked about in other episodes. And I want to talk about this because I think it's remiss if we don't hold the larger collective of everyone and what's happening in these bigger situations because they do weigh heavy on our hearts. It can be very difficult to be okay when you know that so many people are not okay, and I know that it is important for us to really be in our own self, to be in our own experience and be doing this from a place that this morning, when I was, when I was journaling about it, what I said is, the more spirituality that I bring into my life, the more I realize this is there is no me, it is only us. But I'm not responsible for the us, I'm only responsible for the me and at the same time, I feel the us. So that's what I want to talk about today is how to be in these complex times and really be caring for yourself, and what are the tools that we can use to offer to be helpful to others.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 5:45

This morning, I woke up pretty early, maybe around five or 6am the first time I woke up, and I woke up with this big like my heart felt heavy and what I was thinking about was I was thinking about all the people in Florida who were waking up this morning to wonder whether their house was still there or what the damage was, and I remember that feeling from when my mom lost her house in the fire here in Louisville, that there was this time of unknowing when everything was happening. And then there's the morning after, and Rich had ridden his bicycle up to my mom's neighborhood and witnessed all of the houses that had burned down, and my, that happens all the time, right, Like whether it's a storm or a fire or whatever. Sometimes there's these houses that are untouched, right? You wonder how all that happens. So Rich rode his bike up and saw that indeed, her house was gone and took a couple of pictures and sent them to us. And there's this feeling when everything that you've known shifts and changes. Everything changes. It's a defining moment when everything changes, and there's a lot of people right now who are in that defining moment.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 7:21

And so this morning what I was feeling was I was feeling this compassion for these people, or millions of people who are without power, millions of people who have been affected, and for those people who really have been affected. Right, and I was so grateful that, instead of panic which was my first hit right, the first like that wave of just real sadness and despair, I almost immediately moved into a space of compassion and using the Buddhist meta prayers and it's may all beings be free of suffering, May all beings be happy, May all beings find peace. And as I recited that meta prayer and thought of those people in Florida, I could feel an opening within my heart that allowed the space to just hold space for all of it. There's this piece of me that always wants to be fixing or helping. It's still in there. You know, I hold space for so many people in the support group that we have, or when people come for coaching or just really having an awareness of the expanse of this particular community and holding emotional space for all of you.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 8:42

And I want to hold that space from a place of compassion instead of empathy, and we've talked about this before where empathy is the piece where we feel the feeling or empathetic right. Many of us have this part of us that actually feels the feelings of others and we feel that feeling. But we have this movement into from wanting to fix it for them. In compassion, we hold space for the feeling and we recognize that they have the capacity to be with it in their own way, that we trust and know that they too are being held by something even greater still and in soul recovery. It's so important that you feel this, knowing that having a spiritual life, that being connected to whatever higher power is for you, whatever the collective energy of love, the higher consciousness, God, universe, source, spirit, whatever that is for you, that you have created that space for you, that you're working and cultivating that relationship with source for your own experience.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 9:56

I believe there's many, many languages that speak of the love of spirit, many ways to get up the mountain to our own enlightenment and our own connection to source. And we fight over what is the right words, what is the right way, that this is the only way to heaven or to our higher consciousness. We fight over whether there's heaven or not heaven, whether there's heaven or hell. I mean, people are just at each other, about them being right. And in soul recovery we're actually releasing all of that, the attachment. We are detaching even from the concept that there is only one path. Whatever is right for you. But when we move into compassionate space, what we're opening up is we're opening up that All of us have the capacity to touch into this greater energy, this higher consciousness, and to recognize that we are given the energy, the support, the guidance, the intuition, the fortitude, the strength to handle anything to handle anything. To handle anything to handle anything.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 11:18

Are you ready to step into your soul recovery? Well, I am here to support you as your spiritual coach. Visit the website to book one-on-one coaching sessions with me as we transform your life through working the nine steps of soul recovery. You can also choose to work the steps on your own through the modules, at your own pace. I'm excited to also be announcing that there are retreats every year, both in Colorado and other places in the country, workshops and events, and I hope that you also will join us the first Monday of every month from 6 to 7 pm Mountain Standard Time for the free Zoom support group. This is an amazing place for us to connect, learn and share our stories. And don't forget to join the private Facebook group for soul recovery inspiration connection, answering each other's questions and giving shout outs. I thank you for supporting this podcast, either by being a Patreon member, Apple podcast subscriber and getting that extra episode every Friday, or by your one timetime donations or your small monthly donations that are found in the show notes. You are helping spread the soul recovery message and supporting this community. Visit the website recoveryoursoulnet for dates, times, everything that's happening, register for the support group and how to stay connected Together we can do the work that will recover your soul.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 12:36

Stay connected Together, we can do the work that will recover your soul. And that doesn't mean that it isn't hard, it means that you can do it. You can do it. I see all these pictures of the last hurricane. The people are shoveling mud. You know, my mom went through her house that burned and she did it. She went through that process. She had to fight the insurance company for money. She ended up being able to buy a house. She went from having 3000 square feet of belongings to having what fit in her Subaru. She did it. It wasn't easy. There was a lot of grief, there was a lot of sadness, there was a lot of difficulty.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 13:17

But when we are in a space of trusting source energy, connecting to whatever that is for you, you don't feel like you're doing it alone. And this collective energy that we're in that is indeed heavy not only the storms, not only the fires, not only the two major wars that are going on, with the potential of more escalation of those wars, the people who are suffering in those wars, but also the political divide and coming up to the election and the energy that's behind it. That is real. That energy that is vibrating around all of us is heavy and it is real, and when you have tender hearts like I know that you do you feel that energy. We feel that energy in our families, we feel that energy around us in the world, and so it's not about just pushing it away and dismissing that it exists. It's around stepping more fully into our internal knowing and our connection with this, something greater still, and not falling into our behaviors and patterns that want to worry, that want to fix it, that want to be afraid, that spin that wheel of we're powerless over everything outside of ourself and yet we spin our wheel of trying to figure out how we can fix it for somebody else. There's nothing that I can do for all the people in Florida other than send some money and hold space for them Really hold space for them, see them in the light, and that gives me something to do. It's the same with my family, If I'm coming down into my smaller family situation, when something's happening within my family, instead of being afraid I probably said this before, but in the Bible, over 400 times, it says do not be afraid.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 15:17

Do not be afraid. How can we hold space for ourselves to allow us to trust that each one of us is resourced and held through the difficult times? There is no promise that life is not complicated and does not have major things going on, but our worry is wasted energy. Nothing ever got better from worrying. There's some quote that's like nothing ever was achieved better because someone worried about it.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 15:52

But we worry, we worry intensely. We worry about others, we worry about what's happening in our future. We worry, and that worry erodes our ability to be present in the moment for where we are right here, and sometimes those present moments are not easy. But when you step into changing your a way that you see it, God, help me be able to see this differently. Resting in the knowing that you are held in the hands of divine energy. God, good source, whatever you want to call it, Can we step into a place where we open our hearts. We step into a place where we open our hearts, where we allow and accept things to be complicated, where we feel our feelings. And what I recognize in this situation of everything that's going on is I feel sad. It's okay to feel sad. It's actually really important to allow your feelings to come in. I feel sad that our country is so divided. I feel sad that it doesn't feel like there's an opening for people to have differing opinions, that there's so much rhetoric around who's right and who's wrong.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 17:12

Right now we're doing a book study in the bonus episodes of the Recovery Soul podcast on Apple Podcasts and Patreon and it's a book study on the five levels of attachment by Don Miguel Ruiz Jr and it's really fascinating to look at how our attachment this is such a soul recovery, essential piece of the soul recovery how our perceptions, what our beliefs are, how attached we are to those beliefs and how they're affecting our life. And if we have a belief and an attachment that says these people will never get through it, or if somebody believes these things, then they're not good or our country is going to go to crap if this happens or if this person wins. I mean, Our country's going to go to crap if this happens or if this person wins, no-transcript. But when we start to open up on a spiritual level, we start to be more curious, we start to be more open, we start to recognize that maybe there's more possibilities that if we believe that spirit is indeed in charge of co-creating with us? I don't really, you know.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 18:25

Sometimes people will say you know spirits in charge, this was determined, this was supposed to happen. Well, bad things happen and how does that feel when you get cancer, or whether your house was burned down or a flood washed all of your things away or your family member died in a tragic accident? What does that mean? That it was in the hands of God or it was supposed to happen? I think it's bigger than that. I think that we even that's an attachment to a belief system that we just recognize that being human beings are complicated and people get sick and disasters happen and massive accidents happen that are tragic.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 19:04

But we can open to the space that says we can co-create with spirit within our own minds to experience it from a place of awareness, a place of love, a place of trust, a place of faith. That we can handle it, that we can be resourced to handle it, that we can feel the feelings in that moment can be resourced to handle it. That we can feel the feelings in that moment and these meta prayers, these abilities to really utilize the power and the energy of light and love and kindness and generosity, I do believe, counteract, counterbalance the energy that is heavy and it isn't about Pollyanna being so happy and bright and, you know, smiley and forgetting or pretending like there's not something really happening and the concept of denial in spirituality. It's not that you're denying that it's happening, it's denying that it has power over you. You can be in the heavy feeling, but you can deny that it is going to have power over you and that is strength. That's the place where you can really begin to step into your own experience of spirit.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 20:25

And when you start looking at religions and you start looking at the prayers, and you start looking at the prayers and you start looking at everything underneath, there's this mystical, metaphysical aspect of everything that is around love and support and kindness and compassion and service, and that we are all one. So, of course, when they're hurting, you're hurting, but it's also okay to be okay even if they're not okay, and that doesn't mean that you can't hold space for them and have compassion and grace for them. You know, sometimes we feel like again you're only as happy as your least happy child was what I heard at some point in raising kids. But that is important to begin to really claim your independence of your own being life and have compassion and deep, deep awareness of other people's suffering and not feel like you have to fix or change or worry and hold on to grief and grievance and sadness for their sake. We can rest in the knowledge that we are held by something even greater still All of us are, by something even greater still all of us are, and that there's unlimited love in limited light and limited creative energy that fixes and changes and grows. Now, sometimes in storms, everything gets completely washed away and there's incredible difficulty and complexity that happens within that, and yet there's also renewal and rebirth and opportunity for change and an opportunity for things to be updated and shifted and grow.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 22:19

I know in Louisville they're building all the homes. A thousand homes got burned down and you know what it created. It created an entire industry for a whole bunch of people that needed work. It's created the ability for people to build homes of their dreams, to be able to have it look and feel exactly like what they wanted, and for some people they have continued to be in the lack and that's their experience. They're entitled to that experience. They're holding on to the fear, they're holding on to the pain. That is their experience and for others. They really see it as a gift to have been able to open their hearts even more through tragedy. Sometimes our hearts expand even more. We realize there's more capacity to hold on to everything and to bring more spirit into your life. Our darkest moments sometimes are the ones that bring us the most learning.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 23:16

And my mom, who ended up not rebuilding because she knew that she didn't want to do that at 70 something years old, moved into a house that's better suited for her. She's filled it with all the stuff that she loves books and sewing materials and beautiful things from her last couple trips and she loves her house. She sits and has coffee on her back deck looking out over this field. She's closer to me. It's one level you know.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 23:44

She often reflects that who would have thought three years ago, as we're coming up to the fire three years ago, that it would have created a life that actually was more aligned for her and that she's very happy? Well, she had to go through a lot of things to get there, but she chose every step of the way whether she was going to be in the light or whether she was going to be in the dark, whether she was going to choose love or whether she was going to be in the light or whether she was going to be in the dark, whether she was going to choose love or whether she was going to choose fear. So we want to hold the space to be in all of it, to not dismiss it, to not try to spiritually bypass it and just go to the everything's working out for its highest good. Sometimes it doesn't feel that way. Being in the real life, the real heaviness of what is happening in our lives is real, but we get to decide how we're going to interact with it. We get to choose whether we are going to open our hearts to this energy that is around us. That will provide us with insight, with wisdom, with strength, with the ability to have things work in a flow that one thing leads to the next, that these things begin to come together. And when we hold love of everything and everyone, regardless of what they believe, regardless of what is happening in their lives, regardless of how they're responding or reacting, regardless of what is happening in their lives, regardless of how they're responding or reacting, regardless of what they are doing, and we hold them in light and love, healing happens for us and for everyone else. So we are indeed resting in the arms of something greater still, and may you find solace within that space to be tender to your heart. That might feel heavy, whether it's in your own life, with your own family or in the greater world, but being in a community like this one allows you to remember that you're not alone, that you are indeed here on purpose, that that greater still brought you here to me, indeed here on purpose, that that greater still brought you here to me, to each other. I don't know anything that you don't know already within you. Everything that I say that resonates with you already is in your heart, is already your own wisdom. And as I bring in all the books and all the studying that I do, I feel more and more aware that I know less and less and less, and at the same time I feel whole, I feel resourced, I feel connected, I feel curious and I have more ability to hold space for what feels heavy and feel those feelings, but not get weighed down by fear. That is my hope for you as well. Until next time, namaste.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 26:37

Thank you for listening, and I hope that that helps support your soul recovery process. I just wanted to give you a quick reminder that every Friday is the Recover your Soul bonus podcast and this is available both to Apple podcast subscribers for $3.99 a month, or it's available for both free and paid Patreon members. So as a Patreon member, you can choose. Do you want to support the podcast with $5, $10, or $25 a month? Totally volunteer. But to let you know that if you want to listen to those bonus episodes incredible interviews, wonderful book studies you don't have to be a paid member. You can access them in the first week or two that they're available free on Patreon.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 27:19

This community is so important to me and I want you to know I treat it with love and consideration. If you want coaching, I'm here for you. You want to come to a retreat? I'm here for you. You want to come to a retreat? I'm here for you. You want to come to the free soul recovery support group? The community is here for you. Watch us on Facebook, Instagram, follow us on all the social media for daily inspiration. Be part of the Facebook group. And one of the most important things is that you share this podcast with people that you think that it will resonate with, that you think that they're interested. Give it five stars give it a review. We are growing this community together because together we can do the work that will recover your soul.