Transforming Grief: Manifesting Hope After Loss with Raven

Ever wondered how to find hope again after loss? Raven gets real about grieving, single parenthood, and how manifestation played a huge role in her healing journey. We talk about rebuilding dreams, finding purpose after tragedy, and making life feel aligned again—even when it feels impossible. This one’s raw, honest, and full of insight you won’t want to miss.

We talked about...
• Understanding the power of self-awareness in manifestation
• Learning the art of co-creation and making conscious choices
• Introducing the concept of emotional dimensions in relationships

Who's Raven?
Raven is a light worker, healer, business and life coach. She is an entrepreneur at heart, single mother of three beautiful children and soon to be published author.

Timestamps to help you navigate this episode:
0:00 Intro
0:24 FREE Self Love & Sweat MONTHLY Calendar
8:37 The First Steps to Manifestation
20:46 The Co-Creation of Experience: Understanding the Energetic Exchange
30:27 The Intersection of God and Manifestation
40:33 Trusting the Evolution of Your Path

Connect with Raven
Website: www.itsjustraven.com
IG: @theyogiraven
TikTok: @yogiraven

Chapters

• 0:00 Intro
• 0:24 FREE Self Love & Sweat MONTHLY Calendar
• 8:37 The First Steps to Manifestation
• 20:46 The Co-Creation of Experience: Understanding the Energetic Exchange
• 30:27 The Intersection of God and Manifestation
• 40:33 Trusting the Evolution of Your Path

Transcript

Lunden Souza: 0:00

Welcome to Self Love and Sweat the podcast, the place where you'll get inspired to live your life unapologetically, embrace your perfect imperfections and do what sets your soul on fire. I'm your host, Lunden Souza. Hey, before we jump into this episode, I just want to make sure that you get all the free things possible, if you haven't already. You need to get your self-love and sweat free monthly life coaching calendar. Honestly, the way to experience deep change in your life is by doing small little things over time, and so that's what you'll find in this free calendar. You can get it by going to lifelikelunden. com/calendar. Get yours for free and let's get into today's episode. Welcome back to Self Love and Sweat the podcast. Today's guest is Raven. Raven is a lightworker, healer, business and life coach. She's an entrepreneur at heart, single mother of three beautiful children and soon to be published author. Raven, welcome to the podcast. I'm so happy that you're here and excited to connect today

Yogi Raven: 1:23

Lunden. Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to be here as well.

Lunden Souza: 1:27

When I was thinking about this podcast today and, yeah, just reflecting and doing kind of my morning thing as I prepare to be talking with you I was thinking about the first time we met, and we met in Denver, when we were recording some promotional content and stuff for the NABA community that we're both in, and I just met you really quick. I was on the way out to go to the airport. You came in and stopped by to say hi. We were all sitting at a table together. I think it was me, you, Lyndsay, Veronica oh, I should tell you that Veronica said hi, by the way, I was talking to her on the phone this morning when she said hi.

Lunden Souza: 2:08

But as soon as we started talking to you, you started talking about manifestation. You started talking about just like, went right into it of how you manifested your dream partner, life, all the different things and I know that's your area of genius is manifestation. But that's something I remember right when I met. You was like and that's what I love about people in this way is where we bypass all the stuff. We weren't talking about the weather or like surface level shit. We went straight into just how passionate you are about manifestation. So how did you become so passionate about manifestation? What's been your journey in that way?

Yogi Raven: 2:53

Yeah, I won't forget meeting you too. That was a really magical moment and it was like all of us connected. I remember you guys walking down the hallway from the elevator and everyone just embraced me. It was just so beautiful and I think that is a testament to the depth of conversation that you can have with people. And so you guys are all manifestors in your own regard and it's really exciting to be connected with you guys, with NABA and even just connecting with Austin. That was a manifestation in itself, and I think that we can kind of trip ourselves up because so much of that algorithm there's so many algorithms behind all of the computers and the phones that we have. We think that synchronicities can just be a logical way to rationalize something. But the way that I met Austin, the way that I met you, was really magical and that's been the epitome of my life ever since I was really young.

Yogi Raven: 3:51

I grew up with religion. My grandparents were devout Methodists and as I grew up I was curious about all religions and spiritualities. It was just a craving of mine, but for some reason I had this connection to the non-physical realm that was interacting with me and I was paying attention to it and it was to the point where it would rain. There would be soothing environmental experiences based off of emotional conflict that I was going through all the way down to the memory of me trying to raise money for the Avon three-day breast cancer walk, when I was like really young, I was like early teens and the high school allowed me to host a car wash and I was like I have no idea how many people are going to come if anybody's going to come and I set a number in my head for myself. I was like it'd be great if I could raise this amount. I don't remember what it was at the time, but that I just let go. And before I knew it, the day had passed by and we had doubled that amount and I was just interested about that. And so, much to the point, I have a tattoo on my back of a fairy blowing butterflies, and that constitutes from an experience I had growing up, when I was riding bikes with this neighborhood friend and the weather had just gotten okay, because in the Midwest it's just crappy out there all the time and so we decided to go for this bike ride and the sun was out and it was beautiful, and we stopped near this Creek and there were all these butterflies by the river and I'm like, oh my God, I want a butterfly to land on me.

Yogi Raven: 5:38

I'm like if a butterfly lands on me, it means something Like I was just like, hey, you listening, you know, sort of thing. And of course I'm holding my arm out just waiting for this thing to land on me and nothing happens. So I just let it go and I'm hanging out with my friend and we're just chilling, we're enjoying the environment, we're about to get ready to get onto our bikes and start riding again and all of a sudden a butterfly onto our bikes and start riding again and all of a sudden a butterfly flutters around and lands on my arm. And this progressed for about 15, 20 minutes where a butterfly would just land on me. And I started having this very profound conversation with my friend, who had happened to be a heroin addict, and we were talking about God and spirituality, and it was like these butterflies would land on. I was sitting cross-legged and they would land on my shin or right in front of me and then fly up and then land back down on me. Stuff like that, experiences like that that you just can't make up and that are out of the ordinary, for butterflies, for animals that just come walking up to you at a random moment. A lot of people talk about this when a deceased loved one passes away that a certain animal will act interesting, out of the ordinary, and so that's been the epitome of my life.

Yogi Raven: 6:58

I was also resisting my gifts and my abilities ever. Well, about till about seven years ago, when I moved up here to the mountains and I had my own dark night of the soul and I was. I was leading yoga trainings at the time and I was meeting all these people that I had never met before and I was getting these downloads of addiction and abuse and their families and I'm just like, oh my God, what is going on? I felt like I was going crazy and so I had to address it. So over the last seven years, I've especially dropped into it and I do sessions for people, and that's where this book came from, because there's just so much symbolism in our life. Everything is energy, frequency, vibration, but the symbolism around it. I don't think that we were taught, and if we were taught, we've been misled and we've been led astray to what our natural talents and abilities actually are.

Lunden Souza: 7:58

That natural manifestation energy. So I'm so glad that you painted that picture for us and that you leaned into your gifts over the last seven years. Like I said, when I first met you, it was just like you could just tell that was your jam, your space, what you know, you've experienced in your life and what you can talk about and share. Where do we start? So, if someone listening maybe has heard the word manifestation I think most people listening to this podcast perhaps have Maybe you've had experiences, maybe they've had experiences like you, where they can't explain but then they chalk it off as like, oh, that probably was nothing right. But where do we start if we want to begin our manifestation journey?

Yogi Raven: 8:44

Well recognizing, I think, identifying and acknowledging that you are a manifesting machine, that that's what you're here for. You are co-creating in your own body. How many of us that are listening to this podcast can say that you felt connected or disconnected? I need to come back to myself. I lost myself when A, b, c, d and E happened, and so really understanding that you are here to create Everything that you are doing in physical form is of co-creation in some way, shape or form, and it starts with us. So identifying that you have that quality inside of you starts with us. So identifying that you have that quality inside of you and it's part of your every.

Yogi Raven: 9:29

It's almost like we just disregard the you know, parking spots or the, the, the things that fall into place really easily in subtle, subtle tones. Those are the things that we disregard in our society pro programming television. Even our governments can discredit these qualities, and maybe it's because if we're all empowered, what would we do? What would our society look like in terms of being able to control the population? So the first step is just identifying. And I think another thing too is there are qualities around certain religions that tell you that you are a sinner, that you are not special, and for many generations and decades, we've had something outside of us telling us about our connection. We needed a Pope, we needed a guru, we needed something to help us tap into that source. And so, even just starting to identify that you are special, you are insignificant and extremely significant at the same time.

Yogi Raven: 10:38

And so identifying. You know your life matters. What you do matters. The things that you say or that you don't say, the actions that you take or that you don't take truly matter in terms of being able to manifest larger things, greater outcomes, and some of those things take time. They do. They take time because you need to change in order for those things to occur. So I believe that the first part really truly is is just identifying that I am a create, you are a creator, you are truly a creator, and owning that and that has to do with you create your day. You get to decide if you're going to get up, if you're going to go to the gym, if you're going to meditate, if you're going to eat healthy. Those are personal decisions and those things trickle out into the ethers, into every interconnection that we have with everyone and every single thing around us, so that evolution of ourselves creates evolution around us in terms of our daily experiences and then to the collective as well.

Lunden Souza: 11:45

Yeah, yeah. So what I hear you saying is like that first step is getting real with what the essence of us being here is, like you said, in co-creation, and diving into that and what that might look like. I think somebody can hear that and maybe it's a split second moment of listening to a podcast like this and hearing that and remembering that, but I'm sure there's some, yeah, like a journey to that of being really tapped into what you just said of like that we are co-creating that. What we do, our day-to-day actions matter. So the first step is like that awareness and understanding and tapping into the co-creation and then being able to make the daily choices. Are you saying like, make those daily choices to then be the version of you that then can attract the things that you want? Is that what you're saying about the decision to wake up and eat healthy and go to the gym and take care of your physical body? Are those steps to manifestation? Is that what you were saying?

Yogi Raven: 12:52

Yes, yes, and I think taking a, an audit of yourself and your life and how much you are looking for for energetic validation and confirmation outside of you, so that we we, you know we talk about battery drainers or energy vampires, we can call them people that you have. You just feel tired spending time with them, people that you know are are negative sometimes, you know, identifying that that quality inside of you is really huge. That that level of self-awareness that do I need ever. Do I need to be on my phone calling. Is it okay for me to be by myself? Like, how comfortable are you in your own skin? Because when you create more self-awareness inside of you, the whole as above so as without, as within, so as without, as above so as below concept really is true. And so there is this. There's math to it, there's a mathematical equation around it, it's understanding how much and this is a new word that's in my book that I call e-mentions. Okay, this is the first time I've talked about it on a podcast Like dimensions, but without the D.

Lunden Souza: 14:11

Like dimensions.

Yogi Raven: 14:12

Yes, so emotional and mental dimensions. You and I just met for the first time, you know, like a year ago, and so we were feeling each other's energy and that's what we do with everybody you know like. Is this safe for me to like have a conversation with you, so to say, and understanding that everything is of co-creation? So how I show up mentally and emotionally to everything and everyone around me is clutch and understanding if I'm stepping out of a place of being triggered from my past experiences, or what I call stepping into a place of neutrality. And that does not mean complacency, it means a state of observation that you can then choose to change your behavior in some way, shape or form that will create a different outcome in the future for you.

Lunden Souza: 15:04

Thanks for sharing that with us. I like that word. Where'd you get that from? Did you just download it? I made it up.

Yogi Raven: 15:12

Yeah, no, it's a thing you won't be able to unsee it now. It up yeah, no, it's a thing you won't be able to unsee it now. You'll just be like walking in to go get your massage and like what's this dimension that I have? Or seeing your friends. A good example is when you're hanging out with someone or you're in a relationship. You guys go out to dinner and you spark a conversation that starts to get uncomfortable and you can feel that person shut down and it feels like there's this huge wall up and they are now on the other side of the room and you can't get to them, you can't have a conversation, you can't be in. That state of connection with them is a really good way of identifying or feeling like we use it all the time. I feel close to you, I feel distant from you, I need space. I need to look at this from a different angle. Those are all dimensions that we talk about like math. It's the same way in our reality as well.

Lunden Souza: 16:06

Yes, I'm excited to ponder that word a little bit more and look for instances of that. As you were talking, I was thinking of three instances that have happened in my life. All I would consider some form of manifestation, but they were all very different and so I want to share them and then you can let you know. Just we can kind of go from there. But the first one is so I lived in Austria for a long time. The position that I had for a company called Runtastic was very front-facing. I was on stage in front of thousands of people all the time and I guess maybe four stories. So because of that stage experience I remember as a kid singing karaoke, performing in my room, getting that feeling of being on stage in front of thousands and just that vibe right. Then fast forward, I lived in Austria. That happened right. I was on stage in front of thousands of people, very much in the public eye. Then, after a great run there, I decided to step away from that and just move into more of who I was, becoming right and when you go from being on stage on TV on the things all the time and then not, I remember having this vision that I wanted to be able to be in a white room with white walls and nobody, no things, nothing, and be okay and love Lunden anyway. So I had that vision and that thought. And then, um, a bunch of friends of mine, we went to, um, we do a lot of escape rooms. When I lived in Austria I had friends that we did escape rooms with, right. So we're in Budapest one weekend and we do like seven escape rooms right, we're just like fire, we're just like cognitively challenged, we're doing the escape rooms Right. Then the last one. This guy was like oh, if you guys love escape rooms, you guys should go to the white room. So we go to this escape room and lo and behold, it's a white room with white walls and you have to figure out how to do the room right. Little one there.

Lunden Souza: 18:06

Another one my first week-long meditation retreat with Dr Joe in Cancun. I booked all the things but I just didn't book the shuttle. I didn't remember to book the shuttle from the airport to go to the hotel. But I was like, oh well, it's going to work out, I'm just going to arrive and there's going to be a solution. I just had that feeling that that was going to happen. So I get there. I haven't booked the thing. I'm like I'm just going to figure it out, maybe I'll get Wi-Fi and call and figure out how to get on the next shuttle. Right when I walk out to the shuttle areas, this guy's holding a sign that says Dr Joe shuttle and I was like, oh, I didn't make a reservation, but this is where I need to go. He's like it's okay, we have room for you, come on Right, just like super easy.

Lunden Souza: 18:52

The last one is when I moved to Utah. So I left Austria, moved back to California where my family was then was ready for this next chapter of my life, whatever it would look like. And this time I took pen to paper. I wrote down what I wanted, where I was going to live, what it was going to smell like, what I was going to do, even putting my feet in streams with rocks, that the water was just passing right at ankle height. So that time it was very much like I wrote down pen to paper and then, lo and behold, here I am with all of these. I go through that list a lot and I'm like check, check, check, check. So I share all of those stories because I just, yeah, they're moments of what we're talking about now in my life, but sometimes it was like a feeling, sometimes it was a list, sometimes it was just a knowing that things were going to be taken care of. Are those all forms of manifestation formula, or what's the best way to go about creating more experiences that we want?

Yogi Raven: 19:55

Yeah, well, I mean, you're you're privy to this because you're you're definitely connected with, with Joe, and Joe talks a lot about this. Um, but what you did bring up, there were four things that you. You brought up four different scenarios, but they had all four of them had similar circumstances, and what it was was your vision. Similar circumstances and what it was was your vision. You envisioned something happening before it did, and that's those are the pieces, right, it's we talk about, like we have the five senses, but these are, they're extended. We have these intuitive senses about us as well, and so that's where, when we get into a place of self-awareness or meditation, we then can clear our channels so that we can receive those visions for us and actually reach towards them.

Yogi Raven: 20:46

The thing that you're experiencing wants you to experience it. It's of a co-creation in itself. There's something of your future or something some other person that you know that you're working with that is there's. I'll say this there's no relationship or experience that anybody has that is one sided Okay. So, even if you're in an unhealthy relationship which I'm sort of citing from here but both parties are getting something out of it, there's a feeding, sort of a container between the two of them. So, absolutely identifying yes, you are a co-creating machine and your mind isn't just there to do math, so you can do accounting, so you can just get by with your bills. You know it's there so that you can feel compelled, feel passionate about something. What drives you, what excites you. Those things are what we're, that's our birthright. We're here to experience joy, and that joy, I'm sure, comes from places of understanding, suffering, places of experiencing pain.

Yogi Raven: 21:55

And so I think another thing for people to identify and understand is part of manifesting is painful sometimes, and you didn't really share any pieces of overcoming obstacles to get to that point, and I'm sure you did along the way from getting to where you're at, to going to Austria and then developing yourself even further. But we have this sort of blueprint. Every single person has a path and it's up to us. It's like a choose your own adventure, and I believe that we sort of hit these markers, like life is sort of like okay, we're on this trajectory, we have these cycles, we have these patterns. This is something that every single person goes through. But how much are you identifying the patterns and are doing the same thing, or are you just staying, you're refusing to grow, you're refusing to feel, you're refusing to change in some way, shape or form. So life is going to present something to you that will shock you into it. So sometimes that's breaking.

Yogi Raven: 22:52

I broke my femur, I fractured my femur a couple of years ago and that brought me to my knees. It was the most. That was worse than childbirth, I'll tell you, and I had three of them. But you know that, like when we have upsets, when we have difficulties on top of that, those alter you and they shift you, sometimes because you're not willing to, and they shift you sometimes because you're not willing to Right.

Yogi Raven: 23:16

And so so manifestation is, is is really like learning how to be your own authentic self in everything, throughout all of your experiences in life. And that can be sometimes hard, because we have this old story from our upbringing. It's this subconscious patterning that gets formed like a computer, programmed in your brain, like a system, and then we perceive our reality as fight or flight. Something is threatening, something is challenging to us, but really, ultimately, we have to ask ourselves how much are we feeling good about ourselves? Or how much are we feeling guilty, shameful, resentful, fearful, because these are lower vibrations that will inhibit you from actually taking action towards the thing that you want to experience. It will help. It will inhibit you from creating connection and creating intimacy and relationships that you really truly want to have.

Lunden Souza: 24:16

Yeah, a lot of the well and this kind of segues into what I was. Yeah, want to ask you next, and what I was thinking about is like the level of detachment necessary in order to manifest. Because you know, I can think of and I know we'll talk about different areas of our life and manifesting. But there's some areas I can think of in my life where I'm very detached to the outcome and that co-creation process seems easy and effortless. And I also know that from what I know about manifestation and also just being human and making all the mistakes of things that I talk about too, is like you know that needy energy, you know the wanting to manifest out of fear of losing it or not having it or whatever.

Lunden Souza: 25:05

I know that's not the way to go. So what level of detachment do we need? Kind of like the butterfly moment, where you had your hand out hoping for the butterfly and then it didn't come. But then you kind of like you said butterfly and then it didn't come, but then you kind of like you said I just like let it go, and then, lo and behold, it was butterfly land. When later on you know, so like where, what is the level of detachment necessary for manifestation, and then like how do we detach from those areas we want to manifest in when we might feel a little bit of like the needy energy or like stage five clinger energy to that particular scenario we want to create?

Yogi Raven: 25:41

you know, yeah, I think that this goes back into the question of how self-aware are you? Because there's really only two ways to transform, and that's mentally, emotionally. My partner argues that it's physically as well, but the mind and the body are connected. I believe that we are like a battery, and so the more that we understand how we are positively, negatively and neutrally charged with our mind and our emotions, then we can become like that. Knowledge truly is power. It really is power, it is electricity, it is capacity, it is magnetism. It causes people to want to know you or be repelled and not be near you. A, either because you've got a negative energy, or B, because they're intimidated by how much you are standing in your own worth, in your own value, and so the level of detachment is huge and that's not sociopathic. That's the place of neutral. That's the place of being okay with feeling bad, being okay with feeling really good, being neutral to difficult situations so that you can absorb the nutrients and the lessons, because really that's all that we have. We only have the ability to learn and to do something different. So it really is like knowing.

Yogi Raven: 27:11

I get sparked when I do this. Why is it that? Because I feel abandoned and rejected, I'm afraid. Why? Because this thing happened to me when I was four years old and my dad left and I never saw him. So then we punish the people in front of us for the fears that we have concerning that they may do the same thing to us. We will continue to repeat that pattern. So we have to be in that state of neutrality observation, the observer, the witnesser, that thing, that part of you that's inside of you, that is timeless and it's ageless and it's unconditional. It watches you go from age four to 40 and it does not judge it, just it guides. It guides you if you allow it.

Lunden Souza: 28:05

Yeah, yeah, that guidance for sure. Oh, so much good stuff. How do you, um, how do you teach your kids to manifest, like, do you? You have three? I know you have three kids and you know we are all kind of we. We are born with this essence and then, for one reason or another, the way that we're raised, school, how you know, I feel like we forget how much power and creative energy and manifestation energy that we have. And how do you preserve that in your kids and teach them and parents like a manifestation mindset, let's say?

Yogi Raven: 28:39

Well, it's a cute little thing. We actually I had a friend here visiting a couple of days ago and my, my girls were searching, because their friend lost their tooth and so she had this little tooth necklace. They had misplaced it. And so you hear them, we have to ask the angels to help us find the necklace. Ask the angels. So they're walking around the room because angel is just a word, but I mean really, words are just symbols, and symbols are just, it's just the vibration, it's just the frequency, even you think of like homeopathy and how they work with the medicines and the sugar tablets. And so I tell them you know, ask the angels. We have guides, we have other things outside of us. You know that that can help us.

Yogi Raven: 29:27

And there was a situation we were at the grocery store. I was just with my daughter and she was like mom, can I have this? It was a taffy apple. And I was like no, and we just kept walking and this woman comes up. She's like excuse me, I am a grandmother and I overheard your daughter saying she wanted a taffy apple and I just wanted to buy it for her. So she like gave me the money. Look at you. So I try to insert it where I can you know, but also they're. They're in a very interesting circumstance, based off of what they just experienced, and so they're really questioning why, why bad things happen, why things go wrong, and so it's something I'm sort of massaging through as the days progress and as they get older, so they can cognitively truly understand what I'm saying.

Lunden Souza: 30:27

Yeah, and I want to talk too about the journey of your family and the loss you guys have experienced and how you continue to manifest and create through a lot of pain and hurt, and those probably aren't even words that capture the feeling that your family has experienced this year and before that. I want to ask about God and manifestation. You mentioned your kids asking the angels. Do you feel like God? A belief in a higher power has to also exist with manifestation. Can you manifest without this belief in God? And also, coming from a religious upbringing as well, we're often taught that you can't manifest and believe in God. Right, but do they go hand in hand or how do you see that?

Yogi Raven: 31:23

I believe that words, again, are just symbols, and when I say the word God, every single person that's listening to this podcast is going to have a different image of it. Just as I was saying, there's only all we have is the ability to learn, and that's learning through what we've been told or what we've read or our personal experiences, but, at the end of the day, we really don't know where these texts came from, who wrote them, which one is right, which one is wrong, and so that's where I highly encourage people to go back into the vibrational, energetic. One of the things that I say is think like light, feel like energy and move like a magnet, because that's all that we are. We're made up of millions, billions atoms that create our physical form, and these atoms are made of protons, neutrons and electrons, which are positive, negative and neutral. We have positive, negative and neutral thoughts. We have positive, negative and neutral emotions, and so, underneath whatever it is that you are believing in, you need to ask yourself if you're in alignment with it and if it feels good to you. And if it's, you need to ask yourself if you're in alignment with it and if it feels good to you and if it's taking you in a good direction. That's what I say.

Yogi Raven: 32:42

I believe that we don't really truly know. I have high respect for sacred texts in the Bible. I've had manifesting very interesting experiences with it as well, and so that's why it's just giving me this inclination that it's far beyond the whole idea of what we know of God or Jesus or Yeshua or the Buddha, all of those things. So that's where we have to go back into our own level of self-reliance. Does this feel okay to me? Does this feel in alignment?

Yogi Raven: 33:18

And I went through when I was growing up. I went through my own personal experiences of feeling like I was connecting to the devil. There was some devil worshiping involved, like all of the fear, sort of things that happened. But I will also tell you that the sessions that I do for people have done nothing but help them. You, that the sessions that I do for people have done nothing but help them. That the information that I channel through and that I assist people with only helps them evolve and grow. And typically, when we think about the devil and things that are bad, it's like bringing you down a bad path so you can manifest, because you are a physical human being in three dimension. That's what you're here for. That's what you're doing every single day. It's beyond, if you ask me, it's beyond religion and spirituality. It's our birthright.

Lunden Souza: 34:10

Got it yeah. So yes and no, I guess, is the answer to that question. Like, if it feels in alignment for you to relate those things to create, then that's the path that you're on.

Yogi Raven: 34:27

Yeah, I mean, there's just so much outside of our reality that we're just tapping into and there's so many people that have had really profound experiences where they've flipped out of cars. And I had a friend where this happened. She flipped out of her, her car flipped and she was on the side of this country road and this man walks up to her that is really strong and blonde and bright blue eyes and he just seemed like he was glowing and he like helped her get out of the car and made sure that she was okay and then all of a sudden she sort of like looked around and he had just disappeared and then all these other people came to help her. So you know, these near death experiences, there's just remote viewing. There's near-death experiences. There's just remote viewing. There's something about energy that we're just scraping the surface on on the collective and understanding what we truly are and what our thoughts and our minds can really take us, and so I think that's something to explore and to navigate and investigate. That's what you're here for. Who are you? And this is another thing that most people don't know about, and this is another thing I'm talking about on the podcast.

Yogi Raven: 35:48

We call ourselves human beings but we don't actually realize that that word, the origination of that word, comes from hominucleus, which means tiny, human, artificially produced. It's based off of an alchemical, philosophical question of which came first the chicken or the egg? That is what we label ourselves as. That's the quandary. So, which is the point of manifestation in itself and understanding, we grow, but we're the same person.

Yogi Raven: 36:20

We but we're, but we're yet the same as we were when we were a baby, our characteristics, our qualities, so there's just this. It's this over or a boris infinity, constantly going within our own selves to explore and transform what we know to be true. So if we're constantly feeling like we're disempowered or we're in a place of victim mode, which is an archetype every single human on the planet is having to overcome, you're going to stay in a lower vibrational state and things will not necessarily All the things that you're wishing for you won't receive because you're not putting action into it. There's this place of you got to do work too. You have to put the effort in and say I'm willing to show up to God, the universe, the energies, whatever it is, in order for me to experience this thing, because I know it to be true. It excites me inside and, I think, getting into a place of joy. Most people have become listless. They're just like oh, it's just a groundhog day, this is just the way that it is.

Yogi Raven: 37:31

Right. And so it's like how could you imagine anything else? Because this is you believe so hardly in this outcome You're not thinking about that Joe talks about. We need to step into and fully believe what that future version of you feels like, connect in it so much that it just pulls you and propels you to the right people, places and things, circumstances and outcomes that will allow that thing to align and be realized in physical form align and be realized in physical form.

Lunden Souza: 38:04

Yes, and it makes me think a lot about my transition from being more of a fitness personality, the workouts and I just remember and I talk about this on my podcast a lot and in different interviews like that work in process is so, so important of exactly what you said, of like that future version. How does she feel now and how can I feel that now? And the power in that we think, if we want change, we just got to work harder and do more and exercise more, do more things. But that inner introspection of like sitting with how you want to feel, getting beyond those stuck in tough emotions, is, yeah, a game changer. A game changer.

Yogi Raven: 38:48

Um, and I'd like to ask you, Lunden, you know what. Do you think that all of your fitness experiences that you had prior to taught you and is helping, aid and assist you in what you're doing now?

Lunden Souza: 39:03

For sure, the power of doing hard things and also, just, I'm really grateful for that chapter because I learned a lot of ways to really make sure I'm taking care of my physical body. This is my vessel that I get to do my thing with, and so, even if I'm not teaching fitness, embodying that fit avatar, being strong, doing the hard thing with my physical body, coming into my body, feeling strong and energized my word of this year, two words I had integrity and endurance, but endurance when it came to physical but also emotional stuff, and I feel like, yeah, working out and the way you move your body transcends into a lot of areas of your life. So I've learned, yeah, how to do hard things and to appreciate this body that I have.

Yogi Raven: 39:53

And so what was it that compelled you to change careers?

Lunden Souza: 40:07

compelled you to change careers. Yeah, I just knew there was a culmination of. I just remember getting a lot of questions about, like, what exercise can I do to fix this? How many calories does this workout burn? And I just was like over it, I don't want to answer those questions anymore. And then I remember, yeah, just decide, it was the end of 2020, I believe when I fully just was like not going to teach on that anymore, that's not going to be my main focus. But I just wasn't. Yeah, I wanted to have conversations like this and go beyond if you had a wiggly arm or a muffin top or not. I just that wasn't where I wanted to be anymore.

Yogi Raven: 40:45

Which is a really great example of the evolution right. It's like the stacking of foundation. You gained confidence in what you were doing and you're like you know what? I'm going to do a podcast now. I've had so many conversations, I've been on stages with thousands of people and I'm going to do a podcast now. I've had so many conversations, I've been on stages with thousands of people and I'm ready to go deeper and I'm ready to feed my soul in another way.

Yogi Raven: 41:11

And I think that that's another thing that most people don't look at everything that the hindsight that happened to them in their past and how it led them up to this point. Like you're saying, the hindsight that happened to them in their past and how it led them up to this point. Like you're saying, I just was over it, I was just done. I was done learning and sharing and helping in that way and I was ready to do something different. And that calling that insight is something that most people don't recognize and acknowledge. Something's telling you you want to go somewhere else, you want to learn something new, you want to learn something new, you want to share in some new way and to trust that. Oftentimes, we don't trust that.

Lunden Souza: 41:46

Mm-hmm. Yeah, I'm grateful that you asked me those questions because helped me reflect a little bit. The last thing I want to talk about or tap into is tap into is manifesting through when you lose someone that you love and when life does its life thing and it maybe isn't joyful in the moment. I would love for you to share what you want to share when it comes to the loss you experienced this year and how you're continuing to believe in creation and, like you said, with your kids and their belief in manifestation based on this loss. What's that been like?

Yogi Raven: 42:29

So I want to take this a little further back because I want to preface, and maybe this is something that is a take home for everybody. But I was with my husband for 15 years and when I met him, a voice in my head said you're going to marry that man, and then six months later he asked me out and we were together ever since that point, and so I knew that it was a special relationship from the get-go. But as we progressed through our relationship, we did some learning and some growing and and things started getting difficult between the two of us and so we were actually in in the process of, unfortunately, getting a divorce and we had. What's really interesting about this is that trying to act for the highest good and for the greatest good of all. If you could just use that sentence, write it on a sticky note Say it again.

Yogi Raven: 43:32

Act for the highest good and the greatest good of all.

Lunden Souza: 43:35

Act for the highest good and the greatest good of all, yes, good and the greatest good of all.

Yogi Raven: 43:41

Yes, and so relationships and separation can be difficult. It can be really hard for people emotionally to feel and to move through, and so that was something that I really held at the high point of what I was navigating with my relationship with Matt, and we were still co-parenting, we were living together, but things were getting very strained and he was really pushing me away. He didn't want to pay for me, which I found out was illegal. When you're married, you actually have your income is combined. But I was in this position of trying to figure out. I was scattered, trying to figure out how I was going to start making income, how I was going to pay for my children, all three of them. He didn't want us to still live together, he didn't want to nest, which is you rotate around the children, and so I was scrambling, trying to get my book out, trying to start working with new clients, starting to generate, because I was taking care of the kids and he was travel nursing for a couple of years, just to give this backdrop of it. And so I would say in shambles, and I was experiencing a lot of like PTSD and stress, albeit I was creating and trying to think as positive as I possibly could and act with respect and love to Matt. And so I will say that I had a few dreams leading up to the experience that were foreshadowings, and I did not know the brevity of them, so I had one on March 26th and then one on June 9th and he passed away on June 22nd.

Yogi Raven: 45:26

And so we live up in the Roaring Fork Valley and so there's a lot of fly fishing and rafting, stand-up paddle boarding, we float to the exit of our house, essentially, and the river was really high it was the highest it had been, with the snow running off, so you can imagine the river was running about like 10 miles an hour in speed, and the week prior he had asked me if he could go on a quick float with some of his friends that had invited him and that he would take the kids if I was busy, and I sternly expressed no, I will watch the children. We had just been talking about people drowning there had been numerous drownings already in the season and that I was very concerned about the speed of the river, the season, and that I was very concerned about the speed of the river. Well, I went out of town the next day or the next week to South Carolina with my partner, because we were both seeing other people at that time and the way that I met Rob actually was very profound in itself. That's a side story in the impacts that he's made. So I was in South Carolina at the time and I had gotten really exhausted, very out of it and asked to go take a nap. And when I went to, we went to take a nap and about 20 minutes later I got the phone call that he had taken the kids on the river with his brother and dog. And my children are 10. My daughter was seven at the time and my youngest is five.

Yogi Raven: 47:11

And within 10 minutes of the trip they hit a rapid and it's what I've been told, one of the gnarliest rapids in all of Colorado, and they were in a fly fishing drift boat. So there's no buoyancy, there's no like a raft has a ton of air in it and it floats on the water. This was just all of the weight of everybody and it was about a 10 foot drop. So the water just smashed into the boat and pushed everybody out and Matt was the only one not wearing a life preserver and so he drowned in my daughter's arms. They had to let him go.

Yogi Raven: 47:53

It was very, very traumatic. My brother-in-law grabbed my, my brother-in-law grabbed my. So when the boat flipped, matt had all three of the kids and Nick had Oogie, his dog, who actually just passed away like two weeks ago, and he saw Matt struggling. So he swam over and grabbed Jasper, my son. And this is what's very interesting too about the circumstance was because they had gotten to the ramp and Matt realized he didn't have a life PFD, a life preserver for his brother, and so he asked him do you want one, do you care? And he's like I probably should get one. So they went back to the house and they picked mine up and he, he gave him mine. And if they hadn't done that, they would have been in front of this raft company and they would have been missed.

Yogi Raven: 48:51

So what happened was this raft company was coming out of uh from a uh commercial trip, and they saw the boat flipped over and passing by, and then they saw Matt with my two girls and Nick and Jasper, and so they knew immediately to get back into the river and help recover everybody. And so they went and Nick and Jasper finally made it to shore. Nick and Jasper finally made it to shore so they immediately went over, grabbed them and they went and they grabbed my daughter, pepper, and then Prairie. My youngest was the last one to be recovered. It was 40-degree temps. They could have experienced hypothermia, they could have died in the water if that raft company was not there to preserve them. I mean, my daughters literally had to let Matt go because he had drowned.

Yogi Raven: 49:46

So it's insanely traumatic and I find myself, when I go out to places with my partner, like we went to a birthday party and I was like meeting all of these people and I was doing my best to navigate, not talking about it because a I don't want it to be the label of who I am or my children, because this entire Valley knows. It was on the newspaper Go fund me. My friend set up a go fund me and a large amount of money was raised for my family, hence some of the blessings that occurred. Hence some of the blessings that occurred. There were situations like, two years prior to Matt passing away, we refinanced and my friend helped us refinance and she highly stressed to get because he bought the house without me. My credit wasn't great at the time and so she stressed to put me on the mortgage if anything happened. And so we were literally on the verge of having mediation the day before I flew out and I canceled it, and if we had agreed to a divorce, if we had come to some settlement, I would not have this house. I would not be in a position to be able to take care of my children. The funds that were gifted to us and donated to us have created the space for me to grieve and take care of my children, who are I mean, it's not. This is part of life, and this is how I told my children when I came home of life, and this is how I told my children when I came home that death and birth are part of our experiences being human and in our life, and we just don't know when that's going to happen to us, and so part of us experiencing life is experiencing not having their father anymore, and we don't know why it happened, but we can only learn from the experience, and he has shown up in many ways already.

Yogi Raven: 51:50

Another really cool example the day after the celebration was on a Sunday and I met up with a new friend to go climbing, and I was really hesitant. Actually, to be honest with you, I was like I need to start working, I need to start making money. This was two months after he had passed away. It's three months, two and a half months, and I just was battling in my head We've all done that. We're like should I go, should I not go? Should I do it, should I not do it? And something was like you need to go just release and have fun and go climb, just have a good time.

Yogi Raven: 52:25

So I met up with her and we climbed a couple of routes and we were going to the car to go to another location and climb and this man starts walking up. I just noticed him and something in my head was like I'm supposed to talk to him. He has something for me. It was very split second, very fast knowing, and he walked by me and as he did, I looked at his shirt and he had a shirt. I'm sure no one on this pot on this will know of this restaurant, but it's called Ken and Sue's will know of this restaurant, but it's called Ken and Sue's. And what's interesting about that is I had told a story at the celebration of life about my husband had a nickname and it was buck and he actually had a a buck tattoo jumping over his butt.

Lunden Souza: 53:13

Crack, he was he was give a little insight on his personality. He was real, memorable.

Yogi Raven: 53:21

We're just going to say that we were both kind of out there and we kind of met in this like out there middle, so to say. So he was working in Durango at this restaurant called Ken and Sue's and there were a bunch of guys named Matt there, and so the manager was like you need to pick a different name. And he's like, how about Buck Naked? He's like, get rid of the naked and you can be Buck. And so he has, like a huge part of his friends know him as Buck, and then everybody out here knew him as Matt. And so I shared that funny story.

Yogi Raven: 53:57

And so I'm talking to this guy and I'm like, oh my gosh, you have a Ken and Sue shirt. I've never seen the shirt, I've never seen anybody wear it, and it's the day after the celebration. And what was so interesting about that was he he didn't live in Durango anymore, he wasn't working at Ken and Sue's and he only visited this climbing location maybe once a year. And I'm like, well, what are the odds? Right, what are the statistical odds? That of all days you decide to come out and climb here and of all days you decide to pick up that shirt and wear it. Like statistically speaking. So that was a really profound like okay, I see you, I see you, you know, and. And that was like maybe I wouldn't have seen that if I didn't go and he would have tried to connect with me in another way. I mean, he's come through dreams, stuff like that.

Yogi Raven: 54:52

And these are the things that people we got really stuck on when people pass away and I know that I'm talking very calmly about this A because I've experienced a lot of death in my life. I do shamanic sessions for people. I channel deceased loved ones. I have a very different understanding and relationship with death and dying than most people. And B because I have I'm on this podcast with you and I'm talking matter of factly, but that does not negate the fact that I have moments of sadness and crying and devastation and paralysis, Like the first week.

Yogi Raven: 55:33

I couldn't move, I couldn't do anything, I couldn't think it was, it was a lot, you know. So, um, that's what happened and now it'll be six months, on the 22nd, it might. You know, we talk about it and that's that's. My big thing right now is teaching my children to not make this their story but part of who they are and and help it. Help them grow from what they had from their father and the lack of him, but not make this part of their victimizing devastation. I can't live. Life sucks. It's not worth living. Everything goes bad, sort of thing, which can happen to a lot of us if we don't allow ourselves to see the blessings that have occurred as a result, and it's really, really sad to say that, but it is unfortunately true.

Lunden Souza: 56:34

It takes time. I'm sure there's days where you're, like you said, paralyzed and devastated and big emotions, and then some days where you have more clarity to see, wow, this might I have my best friend, kara. She's in our NABA community as well and she lost her husband almost two years ago and her ability to see. She'll sometimes like she'll say, like God had to take Ryan, like he just had to, and when she looks at all the things that she learned about what was happening in their relationship before he passed away and the experiences now, it always just full body, like goosebumps, and just like you did too, where you're like and I, yeah, I don't know what it's like to lose a partner and I can't imagine, yeah, that grief and I noticed that similarity in both of you where she will say things like yeah, but because this happened, then this and then this and then this, and if he wouldn't have died, then this. And even every week, her and I well, her and I talk like every day, but there's like always something, some way, that she's choosing, not the victim story and choosing, you know, every week, her and I well, her and I talk like every day, but there's like always something, some way that she's choosing not the victim story and choosing um you know exactly what she said like this had to happen. It couldn't have not happened, and I'm really beginning to see that and I feel like that's what you shared as well.

Lunden Souza: 57:55

Um, I'm so grateful for you, raven, and for you coming on the podcast and sharing all of your, everything, all of it. I appreciate you so much and I, yeah, when I was talking to Veronica this morning, I was like, oh yeah, I've talked to Raven a little bit when I first met her and you know, she reached out saying she was ready to talk and be on the podcast, and I was just, yeah, super excited to get to know you more through this conversation too, which is my favorite part is not talking about all the things before waiting until we press record and being able to have a very real and authentic conversation. So I appreciate you so much. I know there's many people listening that are deeply, yeah, transformed because of you sharing your story today. Where can people connect with you further? Social media website, if they want to connect with you. What's the best way for that? We'll include all the links in the show notes.

Yogi Raven: 58:53

Yeah, I do want to say really quick I heard a statistic that about 70% to 80% of the population has experienced trauma and I think that that's the biggest thing that people really get stuck on in terms of manifesting, because we don't find the joy anymore. So I just want to express that to the viewers, like you're not alone in what I would say you're going through, and that you have what it takes inside of you to get through and to lean into your support systems and dig deep. So you can find me at it's itsjustraven. com. My website is going live in the next few days. I've just revamped it. It used to be yogi ravencom that was sort of my identity, but now it's. It's just Raven. No, no, apostrophe, it's itsjustraven. com. It's just Raven. No, no, apostrophe, it's itsjustraven. com. And um, I'd love to speak to anyone, support anybody that's looking to uplevel their lives, looking how to learning how to manifest.

Lunden Souza: 59:53

I work with companies as well, and I'm just excited to share this message. Thank you so much. I appreciate you. It's itsjustraven. com. I'll link everything in the show notes. Thank you guys for listening and, raven, thank you for being here. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of Self Love and Sweat, the Podcast. If you enjoyed this episode or were inspired by it or something resonated with you, do me a favor and share this episode with a friend, someone that you think might enjoy this episode as well. That's the ultimate compliment and the best way to make this podcast ripple out into the world of others. And also, you can leave us a review up to five stars wherever you're listening to the podcast. Thank you so much for listening and we'll see you at the next episode. I appreciate you.