Special Guest Expert - Patricia Long: Video automatically transcribed by Sonix

Special Guest Expert - Patricia Long: this mp4 video file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.

Daniel Aaron:
What does it take to create a vibrant, thriving life? First, the sad news is that Thoreau was right most people are leading quiet lives of desperation, lacking in meaning, fulfillment, and vitality. But we choose more. We choose to create extraordinary lives and the art of vibrant living. Show entertains you with inspiration, empowerment and education to create your life into a masterpiece. It's time. Let's vibe up. Hello. Hi, y'all. Daniel Aaron. Here I am, your host. This is the Art of Vibrant Living show and I'm so happy that you are here live or by rebroadcast. We have a super cool show. An amazing guest first though, the art of vibrant living. What does that mean? I don't know, it's your life. You tell me, what does vibrant living mean to you? What is a life that is filled with thriving joy? Purpose, impact, income? What would make your life sing? And if you have the feeling that it's not up to its potential yet, well, that's what we are here for. To entertain you and empower you. And if you'd like to have a conversation about how I can help you with that, please send me an email. Daniel at Daniel aaron.com. I'd love to meet you and have a conversation now. Today we have an amazing, fantastic guest. Patricia Long has offered 33 years of service, which is weird because she looks like she's 20. I'm not good at math, but you tell me 33 years of service as a retreat leader, coach, psychotherapist, musician and sound healer. She's led over 175 retreats around the world. Patricia's deepest mission is to help people open the doorway to their own source of strength, inspiration, fulfillment, and love within. Super cool. I'm amazed and delighted that you are with us today. Patricia, thank you so much for joining us.

Patricia Long:
Hi there Daniel, I'm very happy to be here with you.

Daniel Aaron:
Yay! Cool. All right. So 175 retreats. The weird math on the 33 years of service. I don't know, tell us, though, if you would, since not everybody here maybe knows you yet. How did you get here? How did you how did you get to the point where you've led 175 retreats? Why are you doing that? What's the story?

Patricia Long:
Yes, it's a very interesting path, and I'm looking forward to telling that. Um, thank you for the beautiful introduction and that the pre introduction about people living lives of quiet desperation. So one reason I'm here is I know we have so much potential that's untapped. Everyone does, and I really care about helping everyone find their way to opening that. So, uh, as a kid, I was raised in a household that there wasn't much emotion. There was some restriction just out of fear of being the right parents. So there wasn't a lot of feeling and vibrancy in my household. So I got involved in music and drama at a very young age, and when I would engage with music and drama, I felt my own aliveness. I felt like it opened me up to what I what I wanted to express. I was encouraged to express. So I started out that way and I had great teachers, even in grade school, that helped me with that. And, uh, I started church choir at six years old, and then I started playing piano when I was little, and then later the flute. And, um, I kept it up all through high school because I had the most amazing music teachers. Uh, they just changed my life, these three men that were just remarkable. So then I. When I went on to college, uh, again, my parents were very concerned that I would get some kind of degree that would lead to a definite job. And naturally, they just wanted me to be safe in the world. But what I started feeling right then was I didn't know what my purpose was going to be, but I wasn't pressured and worried about it. I don't know why, but I just knew that I had to follow what I loved and that it would eventually lead me to my purpose. So I kept up with music during college, still not knowing what it was going to lead to. And then after college, I moved to Philadelphia, and I was working with a group of musicians, uh, that we were trying to get grant money to help people hear music. And suddenly I got this guidance that I should return to acting. I had acted in second grade, so I got this sense that I needed to go back to acting, and I felt very drawn to that. But I didn't have money. I just had enough money to pay the bills and all of that. So, uh, then I, I had I'd say something miraculous happened that really connected me to perhaps the support of the universe.

Daniel Aaron:
Um.

Patricia Long:
Uh, I knew that I wanted to move to New York City to study acting, but again, didn't have the resources. So one night at my restaurant job, I was working in a room in the restaurant that I don't normally work in, and I struck up a conversation with this woman at the eating her dinner at the bar. And she was a salesperson who commuted between Philly and New York for work. By the end of the conversation with her, I was had arranged to share an apartment in Greenwich Village for $60 a month. Now, what are the chances of something like that happening? You know, so I started opening up to maybe what Grace was or what the universe was. I didn't understand it, but. So I started commuting between Philly and New York, and I had this great apartment that I was sharing with all these other people. They were never there, by the way, just me and the large water bugs. But I would endure anything to to study acting. So. So I did that for a couple of years and I saved the money. And I eventually moved to New York City. So I started studying, uh, both when I was commuting and when I, when I got there permanently studying, auditioning and performing as an actor in film and in shows. And it was fantastic. But then I had the awakening that changed my life. Mm. I was in an acting class, and the teacher said, we're going to do a relaxation exercise to prepare for class. So she had us just lie down on the floor and do some just simple breathing. And I thought to myself, I can't do this meditation thing. I've tried it. I get I get too distracted. But I thought, well, I'll give it a try. Maybe it'll relax me a little bit. So and at one point I saw her standing over me and I thought, she's standing there because I can't do this meditation thing. I'm too restless. But I went back to it. I kept trying, and then in a few minutes I heard her say, you can sit up now. The meditation is over. So I sat up and I opened my eyes, and everything in the world around me looked like I had never seen in my life.

Patricia Long:
Everything looked alive, glowing as if a veil had been lifted. And then I felt this amazing energy moving through my body. Energy I had never felt before. And then I started to laugh. And you know how when you're laughing so hard, you set to tear up? It was ten times stronger than that. It was this laughter and this energy was moving through my being. And I couldn't stop it. I couldn't have stopped laughing if I tried. And then, you know, the laughter ended and everything still looked so expanded and beautiful. So naturally, I started practicing meditation after that, and I joined a meditation community, and these laughing fits went on for six months. It would just start and then it would last for a few minutes and stop, and I would always feel clearer and more alive. And a man came up to me at the meditation center once and said, were you serious as a child? Mm. And that's when I got it, that there was this knowing inside me, or from the universe that what I needed, what exactly what I needed was this opening that was turning me from a more anxious, careful person into someone who could play, who could be alive. So, you know, naturally, I continued practicing meditation and in this meditation community, and I grew a lot. My intuition grew, my confidence grew, my sense of freedom, instead of being restricted and anxious, grew a lot. And then in 1988, when I had been in New York about ten years, I was in meditation and I heard the acting. Isn't it yet? What do you mean, this isn't it yet? I've devoted all this time to it. So. But again, I trusted. I was confused and kind of frustrated, but I trusted that this was all leading me somewhere. So in the fall of 88, I moved here to the D.C. area where I live now, temporarily, before I was going to take a big trip and I met the man who mentored me for 30 years and he said, I know what you're going to do. You're going to use everything you've ever learned music, drama, body awareness, movement, and you're going to help people.

Patricia Long:
And as soon as he said it, I knew that was it. And I was 34 years old. So it took me all that time. But somehow I had the trust that I would figure it out, and I did.

Daniel Aaron:
Wow. All right, now, Patricia, that's just plain cruel. What you did there. You you said 323 really interesting things about all of which I have questions about. Um, so, uh, you know, so much of my own experience as a kid For me, I was fat, shy and depressed. Music was was such a relief and an outlet for me. Years later, getting into acting as part of my own therapy. Not that I necessarily recognized it at first as that, and then later more overtly, that became a really important part of it. So there's lots to talk about with acting, the the experience of that you described from sitting up from the meditation. And then a veil was lifted and you didn't say these words. Exactly. I don't think the way I way you said it, though, brought this imagery to me, which was like that. The world was sparkling more right, more alive.

Patricia Long:
Absolutely like scintillating, sparkling. I could sense the movement and everything. And I was just in a room, you know, class room. I wasn't even in Mother Nature, you know?

Daniel Aaron:
Yeah, yeah. Well. And that's that's so powerful. I experienced that for the first time in a conscious way through breathwork. And then it was years later before I got to something like that through meditation. So I have some experience of just what a, how earth shattering, how life changing that can be. Um, so there's more to speak about. With all of that, though, I want to jump ahead to one of the last things you said, which was that you worked with a mentor for 30 years. Yes. And my experience it as a as a student, as a coach, as a teacher in life is having mentors, teachers, coaches is so, so important. And there's a lot of confusion and I think sometimes challenge around that. Um, so will you say anything for us about what your experience was? Because that's clearly that's a long time to work with someone. And the way you spoke of that person sounded like that. You you held that relationship with a certain reverence. Am I hearing that right?

Patricia Long:
Absolutely, absolutely. This man is very, very talented. He. When he lived here, he had something called the Washington Center for Consciousness Studies. And we we would study with him about how to how to work with our energy, how to meditate, and how to strengthen whatever we were offering as healers, therapists, coaches. And it was reverence. I mean, the, the capacity to ask for help and know that we need help is very important. You know, some people may have a challenge with that for different reasons, but when we can open to that and really receive help, it's so powerful because the mentor sees things in us, in my experience, that we can't see in ourselves. He sees potential in us And he would, you know, he saw those things in me and he helped me develop myself, especially that moment where after 34 years, I didn't really know where it was heading. And he was like, I know. And it was a synthesis of everything I had ever done. And he saw that. What if he hadn't seen that? I might still be wondering, you know. But so it's very powerful when you say confusion around mentoring. What are you thinking about there?

Daniel Aaron:
Well, I'm happy to, to say that. Let me let me check in with something you just said, though, about the capacity to ask for help. And somehow that's not always there. Um, or maybe the capacity is always there, but people don't realize it. Will you say more about that? It sounds like there is something important in there.

Patricia Long:
Yeah, sure, I mean, I think there's pride where sometimes we're vulnerable and we don't think we should admit that we need help. Other times, we might not know we need help. We might be stuck in habitual patterns or ways of doing things, and we might not realize that something else could open up in us. You know, uh, and it's I think that's about holding the unknown. If we're completely in control, we know. We know what to do and how to do it, and we know what's going to happen from it. And we think we do anyway. Um, uh, then it's one state, but if we really have the guts to hold the unknown, then we can allow ourselves to be taught and guided. You know, there's an ancient scripture that says those who know don't know and those who don't know know.

Daniel Aaron:
Um.

Patricia Long:
So I think it's the capacity to hold the unknown and to and to admit that we don't know things or we need to strengthen something or we need help with something. And I've had it all the way along like I was mentioning, I had my choir director and piano teacher at my church. Then I had these amazing music teachers in high school, and I had great professors in college. Then I had so I had it all along, which is a wonderful gift.

Daniel Aaron:
Yeah, well, I'm with you, and we're we're birds of a feather on that, because I learned early on in my life that having Yeah, having people that I looked up to, that cared about me, that I could learn from, was invaluable. Right. And I think, as you were speaking, that part of what I heard is. Um, it's. True, a lot, a lot of people, some people don't want to admit that they don't know something, don't want to admit that they they, whether even they need help or they could just benefit from help. There's there's somehow a conditioning that gets into some of us, which is I should know, and it's a sign of weakness for me to ask for help. Yes. Um, and I've been very lucky, especially as a man, to be able to stop and ask for directions a lot of times in my life. Right. Like, hey, you know.

Patricia Long:
My dad wouldn't do it. My dad was a great guy, but he just had that thing and we would drive around. And my mother kept saying, Joe, can't you just ask? No, no, no, we'll find it. And it would take us like three times longer to find it. He just wouldn't do it.

Daniel Aaron:
Yeah, yeah. Well, and, you know, and let's look at the other side of that can also be a slippery slope. Right. Because it's possible for, for us also to go to the other side and like I don't know how to do it. Tell me, tell me, tell me. You tell me what to do. Right. So there's this, this, this, this, this middle space right where I love and value myself enough that it's not. It doesn't mean there's anything wrong with me if I ask somebody else for for another perspective, right. For a different view on things.

Patricia Long:
But you're right, it's a balance point. We want to have the vulnerability to take a risk, to ask for help, but we also want to keep our own authority intact. Like we don't want to go to the other side, which is, oh, you know, I don't know, just tell me what to do. And that that isn't really mentoring. If you're just following what someone's telling you to do either. And if if anyone is trying to mentor someone that way, it's not really mentoring. It's more their own ego functioning, saying that they want to tell someone what to do. So it is a balance point though, and a lot of times in the work that I do, I can sense people want me to tell them what to do. And you know, that's not how it works, really. If it's if it's truly supporting someone, it's providing a safe space for them to get their own inspiration and supporting them along the way and giving, maybe giving them ideas, suggestions. But it's definitely a collaboration where they end up experiencing their own unique spark, their own unique authority from within.

Daniel Aaron:
Yeah, absolutely. Well said. Okay, so now you I'm not sure if you know this, uh, genius component of yourself. Um, let's let's bring it forward, though, because you said that you had great teachers in music. You had great professors in college, you had great mentors. You've always had that all your life. Right? And I know people that say, I've not had any great teachers and what we what I firmly believe and know is it's not out there. Right. So here's the question. What have you done or not done right? What have you thought or not thought? What have you said or not said? Who have you been that has resulted in you having such amazing teachers, mentors, guides throughout your life?

Patricia Long:
I love the question. Um, the first thing I think of is emotional vulnerability. Mm. Uh, as I said, there wasn't much comfort in having emotions expressed in my upbringing, but then becoming a musician and an actor, even when I was six years old, I started to be able to feel my own emotions and something very important I feel with all the teachers and mentors I've had is to allow that openness.

Daniel Aaron:
Mm.

Patricia Long:
Like if I needed to start crying or if something felt really difficult to be able to express it in the moment rather than making, making, pretending I was okay, you know? Uh, I heard a fascinating interview on NPR after the, the Columbine shootings, you know, that. And they they interviewed five kids to kind of investigate the relationship they had with their parents because they thought, you know, this is this is interesting, this is curious. And, you know, one girl was like, uh, my mommy is my best friend. I'll do anything she wants. And so you couldn't feel any differentiation from her and her mother. She was just kind of following her mother. The other three kids were like, yeah, yeah, they're great. It's too mushy. Yeah, we love them. They love us. You know? They were maintaining their own separateness while still acknowledging that there was a connection there. So it's the separateness and the connectedness, I think in in being open to learning. And, you know, the fact that I got on a train once a week and went to New York City to study with someone instead of waiting till I had the money saved. One time my acting teacher said, I'll let you work on the scene with Patricia. She rides a train every week to get here. So I think determination to to get mentoring as soon as I could, even when it was a bit of a hassle to do it. I think that's also the courage and determination to pursue it, to pursue the right guiding and mentoring, to receive that in our lives. I think that's really important.

Daniel Aaron:
Absolutely. Yeah. Beautifully said. And so I'll echo one of the pieces that you said a moment ago about emotional vulnerability. You know, that's that's another way of putting it is it's like without having that. Right. And you pointed out to how that's been something that you did have or do that resulted in having great teachers, mentors, guides without having that. It's like going to the doctor because we're, you know, in some kind of pain or something's troubling. And then the doctor says, so you know what's going on? Like, nothing. Everything's fine.

Patricia Long:
I'm all good. I'm good.

Daniel Aaron:
Like, okay. What makes it a little bit harder to help you? Right. Yeah. Um, I have a a colleague. I'll just. I'll just say it in a general way. Who, um, in the way he behaves with coaching is he'll say, hey, I've got this issue going on and say, okay, so you have this issue go, no, no, actually, it's not really an issue. It's fine. Like, oh, okay. Like the ability again to say, hey, you know what? I'm a little lost or I could use some direction, um, or. I don't. Understand. It's it's powerful.

Patricia Long:
Yes, yes. Just have the courage to do that. And then if the mentor is a great mentor, they will provide a climate for you to do that and help you feel safe doing it.

Daniel Aaron:
Yeah. Hallelujah. One of my one of my first most important teachers is a writing teacher. And when I studied with her for quite a while, and then I did a like a mentorship program with her to learn how to facilitate writing workshops. And she said something that stuck with me. This was 35 years ago, I think, she said, one way to measure a good teacher is after you spend time with that person, do you feel more like doing the thing or less like it? Ah.

Patricia Long:
Yes, I love that that I agree, that's great. More invited into it, even if it's challenging you.

Daniel Aaron:
Exactly. Yeah. And I think that's the implicit the implicit assumption there is, it is challenging you and yet still there's desire to do more of it. Right. Yeah. Absolutely.

Patricia Long:
Absolutely. Yes. I think that's a superb quality and necessary to have when you are helping someone.

Daniel Aaron:
So what about this part though? Um, I'm going to have you work with Patricia. She rides a train to get here every week. What? What was it in you that was like. All right, I'm. I'm I'm not going to wait for things to happen. Happen here. I'm going to take the bull by the horns. I'm going to put some serious effort, you know, do some miles here to get this. How did that happen for you?

Patricia Long:
Yeah, I just couldn't wait. Once, I once I realized I was supposed to return to acting, I just didn't want to wait. I just needed to do it as soon as possible. And then I had that thing happen with the apartment, right? The $60 a month. And I thought, I. This this is a sign. I have to do this now. I'm not going to wait till I save the money, because I didn't know how long that would take me either to save the money to, to get there. So that's what. That's what I get excited about. Always.

Daniel Aaron:
Yeah. That's beautiful. Well, two things that reminds me of there's this wonderful quotation from James Allen in as a man thinketh, and he says, successful people come quickly to decisions and are slow to reverse them. Right? Unsuccessful people are slow to decisions and quick to reverse them. So part of what I hear is you're like, I got the call. I'm back into acting. Let's go. Right. Yes. And then yes. The other piece is the amazing, amazing quotation from Goethe. Right. It says there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans. That's all just the setup. What's the ignorance of which? What's the truth? The truth is that once one truly commits oneself, then providence moves too, right? So part of what I heard you illuminate there is you saw it, and then next thing you know, you're talking to some woman in the dining room you've never worked at, and somehow you end up with a $60 apartment in New York. What?

Patricia Long:
Yeah, and the next line in that quote is all sorts of things occur to help that never otherwise would have occurred. So it starts with our longing, not with just a silly coincidence. It starts there.

Daniel Aaron:
It starts with a decision. Yeah, it starts. With the decision.

Patricia Long:
The yearning and the decision.

Daniel Aaron:
Yep. Yeah. Beautiful. I love that. And I'm. I'm kind of.

Patricia Long:
Amazed that I trusted for until I was 34 that I would figure it out because I wasn't pressured. You know, a lot of a lot of us get pressured in our 20s because everybody around us knows exactly what they're doing for the rest of their lives. And I just somehow knew, nope, this is going the way it's going, and I'm going to figure it out eventually.

Daniel Aaron:
All right. Well, let let me let's, let's I'm not going to let you get away with that, Patricia. You just somehow knew. Let's see. Let's go a little deeper. How did you know what. What gave you that? What? That takes courage, right? That takes something. What? Because and and you know, and you said you spoke earlier about your parents. Of course. Well, meaning wanting you to be safe, you know, how's that going to get you a job, right? And they're not the only ones. Um, I heard that from a lot of folks, too. So how did you know? How were you able to have that that faith or trust?

Patricia Long:
I think that it was that source that was awakened me that I got more awakened to later. I think that source of knowing which we all have, which is beyond logical thought, and it has in it desire and longing and our heart's intelligence. I think it was always in there, and I wasn't as aware of it as I was later after I had that big awakening, but it was guiding me anyway, even earlier.

Daniel Aaron:
Wow. Okay. So yeah, it was it was a wake in you earlier and guiding you and yes. Would you say it was a turning point in that meditation moment that you came into a greater relationship with it?

Patricia Long:
Definitely. I mean, it was happening on all levels. It was physical, the energy moving through me, the laughter, everything I saw visually. And then it was an internal, internal situation. And then until I started meditating at the center, every time I went to her class, I would have some other crazy experience that kept opening me up. Uh, I was I traveled to Santorini. Uh, you had done that three years before, and I was on the I on, um, this village called Iya, and it was on the edge of the island. And I had this amazing experience three years before that, where the clouds were parting and the sun's rays were coming through. So the next time I went to her class, I was trans. After I meditated, I was transported back to that place. And then I started floating up toward the heavens. I mean, things like that were happening to me every week. So it was like, okay, Patricia, this meditation thing, you actually can do it.

Daniel Aaron:
Yeah. Well, and that's a that's, you know, that reminds me of, of a truism which is, um, in Buddhism, there's an expression called satori, and it's translated as a glimpse of enlightenment. Right. And I think everybody's probably had this in one way or another, even if it's just like a fraction of a second at a sunset where there's this, right, everything's perfect right moment. Like, we've all we've all had that in some way. And sometimes we get them in more overt or longer duration way, like you did. Um, and we still have the capacity. That's why they call it a temporary like satori enlightenment. It's temporary because we we experience it. And then, oh, then, you know, regular life comes back in and maybe we forget about it. And we think there are problems and we get worried or stressed or whatever. Um, yes. However, you can't unknow it, right? Like, that's what I heard from your experience is once once you had that realization, once you had that opening, like there was something in you that was always saying more, please. Like, how do we get back to that? How do we create that? Absolutely.

Patricia Long:
That once that's opened, that's what happens.

Daniel Aaron:
Yes. All right. So lest I stay too far, keep us too far in your past. Right. I love that when you were 34, you had this mentor part, some other clouds and say, it's all coming together. You're going to do bring all of this together and help people. And you've led 175 retreats, presumably. Um, that's a lot of the way that's shaped up that combining things and synthesizing and helping people. What what's going on for you now? How's like what's the latest expression? How's it evolving for you and your work these days?

Patricia Long:
Uh, yes. Thank you. So, uh, I'm ready. As evidenced by this interview, I've done most things locally where I live, through word of mouth and through promoting things with one person, talking to another person, etc. and, uh, what I'm desiring to do now is just go a bit more public and let more people know what I'm doing. And, uh, my work keeps getting stronger and deeper the longer I do it. And that's exhilarating. And I'm so grateful for that. I just keep learning more about how to do it and how to help people heal and become more of who they really are and release anything, limiting them so they can keep moving forward in life. So I'll be continuing to do that work. And um, I've also had some other inspirations come in in meditation, including for a novel that's very exciting. And as a musician, uh, I'm also receiving more inspiration about what I'm going to do as a sound healer and musician.

Daniel Aaron:
Uh.

Patricia Long:
I had an amazing study during college where I could study the history of music of a certain period and the theory of the music, starting with ancient times. So one of the things I studied was Gregorian chant, and I still have memories of these chant melodies that were chanted, of course, by men in the Catholic Church. A lot of, uh, structure to that. Uh, but they some of the melodies themselves are absolutely beautiful. And same thing with some Native American melodies. So I'm planning on bringing those out into the open and and seeing how I can illuminate those melodies to help people as well.

Daniel Aaron:
All right. Beautiful I love that. Okay. Well, and you know, and I know that music and sound has been an important part of your while your life, right, your life and your work and and who you've become. And as we were talking about before the show, there's um, it's it's in. Right. That's what you said sound.

Patricia Long:
It's become more known and trendy, even sound healing. Yes.

Daniel Aaron:
Well, for two. Questions, then why? Why do you think it is in. And what's going on with it? Why why, why, how does it work?

Patricia Long:
Yeah. Well, um, there's more curiosity about that. Uh, you know, instead of just going to a concert and hearing music, people now are realizing they can enter their own experience more through sound in different forms. And, uh, there's also there's also science and research that's discovering more about all these things. And that helps some people through the language of science. So I think there are many things in our current culture that are helping people open up to this experience. So vibration is the source that creates and sustains all life. Everything is in a state of vibration, in a state of movement. And I believe that we are now understanding what the ancients knew. And I believe the ancients knew this, that everything that is vibrating emits a sound. The human ear can only pick up a small range of what is sounding around us. The human ear can hear about 60,000 cycles per second, which is one way of measuring range of sound. Dolphins 180,000 dolphins, for example, can hear three times what we hear there. Recent research, through a process of being able to amplify sound that we can't hear, is is bringing these amazing things to light. Like I've heard the recording of a rose opening and it sounds like a distant organ playing. Wow. And I've heard the recording of the human body in vibration, not the heart rate and blood pressure, which you could hear if you were amplifying that, but just the vibration of the body. So what's true then, is the universe is constantly sounding. We can only hear a fraction of it that we need to only hear a fraction of it. And we couldn't function as a human being. But since everything is sounding, working with sound is our true nature, and it connects us more deeply to everything. So there's what we can benefit from. Sound coming in from the outside. And sound doesn't just enter us through the ears. It enters through the skin, bones and hair. It enters, enters us through the body everywhere. And then the vertebra of the spine are extremely strong sound resonators. They pick up these beneficial sounds and send them along nerve pathways to our organs and tissues. And that's how we benefit from what we're listening to. The most powerful way we can work with sound is self-created sound. The obvious versions of that are speech, song, and, you know, sounds we create that one can hear. But the other powerful ways of working with sound are thought. We can become conscious of the vibration of thought, which is a sound. We can become conscious of our intentions and our moods and how we vibrate. So the more powerfully we work with our own self-created sound. And of course, that includes singing our own song or speaking, uh, it's very healing and powerful.

Daniel Aaron:
Wow. Cool. Okay, you you took that in some deep directions. So will you say more about this piece? Thought has sound. Is that. Did I hear you right?

Patricia Long:
Well, thought is a vibration. Since everything is vibrating that has life. Um, we can't hear the vibration of a thought, but since it is a vibration, when we work with our thoughts to shift into more uplifting thoughts or thoughts that are going to serve us better, then we are raising our vibration as well.

Daniel Aaron:
Yeah, yeah. Well, I'm with you. And one of the things I, I work with for myself and with my clients is, um, well, you probably know it, right? The word abracadabra, right? The word abracadabra, we think of. Okay, it's the magician. And pulling a rabbit out of a hat. Really? What it means is, through speaking, I create, right? And it's through speaking. Although, you know, I think of it as speaking as in, you know, I have my declarations that I speak out. It's also the speaking that's going on silently. And I'm with you that of course, that has a vibration. Everything does. Um, so yes, it's beautiful to expand, expand the definition and possibilities for what sound is. And as you were speaking about it, part of what came to me is maybe and tell me if this seems true to you, maybe we're coming to a a refined appreciation for sound in our current age and all these different kinds of events that people are hosting sound baths and sound healings, right? Where, you know, people are laying down and, you know, playing crystal bowls or harps or whatever, the things that people are playing that, that the participants or the receivers, they're they're allowing it to come in in a way that maybe people weren't or there weren't as many people aware of the power of that receptivity before. Does that make any making any sense?

Patricia Long:
Absolutely agree. I think it's more people are opening to that, even though over the centuries people have experienced profoundly these the power of sound. But yes, I think it's opening up to more people and in more dimensions as well.

Daniel Aaron:
Mhm.

Patricia Long:
Yes, absolutely.

Daniel Aaron:
Yeah. Interesting. Okay. I remember years ago, one of my first teachers, someone described him as enlightened. Um, he didn't describe himself that way. And we would do these groups. And a lot of the group was kind of a classic darshan, satsang kind of thing, where he would he would sit up at the front of the room on a stage in a chair, and we would all be sitting around on the floor in cushions, chairs, whatever, and people would ask him questions and he would talk and he would give a, you know, a little talk for us, though, every afternoon. And he had a background, um, from being a, what do you call it, choir boy. As a kid, he had a really spectacular voice. Every afternoon everybody would lay down and he would take a microphone and he would. He would speak these sounds that were, I don't know, somewhere between like celestial or what some people would these days call light language. Yes. You know, at the time, I think it occurred to me like it's like a it's like a voice of another species or something or, Or, um, aliens, I don't know, it's just like these sounds that were so strange and weird and we'd all be laying down and just breathing and that that would come in and by the end of it, and it was only like, I don't know, half an hour or something like that, we'd get up and, and almost everybody would have this like transform state. Um, and I didn't understand it at the time. I was new to this, all the new Age stuff. I didn't no idea what was going on. I just was like, wow, that's cool. Something's going on. Yeah, yeah.

Patricia Long:
Did you have and you had a good experience as well?

Daniel Aaron:
I did, yeah. And, you know, and it was just I was just going along with it. I didn't think much about it. It was powerful. Um, yeah. But the more we talk about this now, the more I'm thinking, like, all right, I haven't been going to sound baths and and those kind of things though, they they're happening all the time. So I'm getting motivated. Thank you.

Patricia Long:
Yes, yes. That sounds like an amazing experience. So that that that that gentleman was really creating moment to moment what sounds were coming through him. It sounds like it sounds very, very unusual and powerful.

Daniel Aaron:
Yeah. And, you know, let me jump back because you spoke earlier about. There's an awareness coming in the consciousness now that that sound is can be more than just going to a concert, right. Um, and, and because vibration, as you said, is, you know, the base of everything, everything that's alive is vibrating. When someone to see if this makes sense to you. I'm just just formulating this now that when someone speaks well, let me put it this way. When someone creates a certain vibration or consciousness inside themself, or maybe they become a vessel for a vibration or consciousness to come through them, there's a transmission that can come from that in the form of sound, which may be maybe one of, or maybe the most powerful way of transmitting that vibration such that other people can attune to it. Does that make sense?

Patricia Long:
Yes, yes. And as as we receive that, say we're receiving it from the outside, it can help us harmonize and come into more coherence within ourselves. Absolutely, absolutely. And it also it relates to the quality of listening. Because, you know, listening is really a relationship. I can be half listening, you know, I can be doing some five other things and then listening. But, um, Alfred Tomatis, this renowned ear, nose and throat physician that did a lot of work on sound, He said when hearing gives way to listening, one's awareness increases, the will is aroused and all aspects of our being are involved at the same time. So when you're deeply listening, you're completely present. It's like a relationship to whatever you're listening to or whomever you're listening to. So the more attuned the people hearing the sound are, the more they're going to receive benefit as well.

Daniel Aaron:
Okay. And now I'm going to ask you to say that again, because I wasn't really listening when you said, no, I'm kidding. Um, uh, I was listening. And yet that quotation you just spoke was so powerful and rich. I would love it if you would repeat it. I have the sense that there's we're going to a next level. Um, anytime I hear someone speaking about listening, I perk up because I believe that's one of the greatest superpowers we have. That Yeah oftentimes is a bit dormant compared to its potential. So would you say that again?

Patricia Long:
Think about everything we get bombarded with in modern life. I mean, just to be able to create a climate for listening is challenging enough. But actually I need to say something before I repeat it. That little joke there, I kind of got an essence of maybe a stand up comedy on the side for you. I mean, I wasn't really listening, just kidding. It was good. Okay, so this is Alfred Tomatis, an ear, nose and throat physician that did a lot of research on sound when hearing gives way to listening, one's awareness increases, the will is aroused and all aspects of our being are involved at the same time.

Daniel Aaron:
Mhm.

Patricia Long:
Yeah. We're body awareness breath. Yes. Our ears everything is involved. We're just as present as we can be in the moment without as much without distraction. I mean, that's a practice. We have to practice this listening thing. It's not easy to go there.

Daniel Aaron:
Mhm. Yeah. I'm with you and, and and it's true we, we have extra challenge in a way at the moment in the world because there is so much pollution shall we say. Or do we have to judge it as pollution. Just, just such a huge quantity of stimulation, right. And so much.

Patricia Long:
Of so many kinds, you know. Yeah, that we literally have to work harder to help our, our environment be contain the sounds we want to hear because we get invaded constantly by other things.

Daniel Aaron:
So, so clearly this is an area that you have experience with. Know something about you value, right to be able to speak that quotation. And I love that that quotations from I don't know, the uh, I don't before I don't know the person you're speaking of, but a physician, right. Um, yes. Not not necessarily a metaphysician and not necessarily a philosopher or a therapist. So for that to come through a physician, right? Yes. So what can you teach us then about how to cultivate that higher level of listening that that is indicated as a possibility through that quotation?

Patricia Long:
That's a wonderful question. Uh, the first one is practical. Decide what in your environment you need to listen to and what feels more intrusive and manage that. Manage that, you know, and it might involve a little bit of exploration. Oh, I'm listening to this person and oh, it's it's more harsh and I don't really get anything. I don't get inspiration, I don't get any heart. And my heart presents with that when I listen to so and so. Oh, that's inspiring. Or deciding how much news we listen to or deciding, you know, I'm I'm into baseball and I try to watch a clip of baseball and there are five commercials before the, you know, so I try to turn the volume down so I don't have to hear what they're trying to sell me before I can watch the baseball clip. So on a practical level, it's managing with all the sound that's in our world. It's managing it the best we can. Um, then there is cultivating awareness. Spending some time every day. However you do that, you might call it meditation, or you might do something else that helps you go inside and experience more stillness and peace rather than intrusion. Any time you do that on a regular basis, that's going to help you get attuned to what's right for you. Mm. And even music choices. You know what? Music nourishes me and what music actually either bores me or it's not. I'm not responding to it because one of the things in my work that I feel is so important is that no two people respond to entering a healing space in the same way.

Daniel Aaron:
Hmm.

Patricia Long:
When I work with people, some people are more kinesthetic. They respond to some gentle touch. Other people say, I'd like to listen to some music that will help me enter a deeper state of awareness. Other people, they like to do writing. Other people might need a dramatic technique to help, so each person has their own unique profile in terms of what they respond to based on their personality, their body, their life experience. So part of this is becoming attuned to what you respond to and what nourishes you. And it may not be what someone else prefers at all, or what someone else can benefit from at all.

Daniel Aaron:
Got it. Yeah. One. So part of this is oversimplified, but part of what I hear you saying is it's helpful to have some intention, right? Like what do you want. Right. And that'll help you decide. Like, well, am I going to listen to this or this or this or this. Well, you know, where do I want to go in my life, right? Um, great.

Patricia Long:
Research to to find out what's turning you on, what's benefiting you and what isn't helping you. And sometimes that changes over time. Of course.

Daniel Aaron:
Yeah. Beautiful. Okay. And, yeah, this, this idea about being discerning, I think maybe, maybe there's more to say on that. Um, you spoke about this question just coming to me, so bear with me here. You spoke about, you know, what? What inspires you, what maybe isn't inspiring you so much. Um, and, you know, I've been speaking to for some reason lately, a bunch of people that have one ear. I'll just put it this way. One ear attuned to things that are not inspiring. Things that are depressing, right? Yes, a general like that. And and they feel responsible to that. They feel like they have to or they should do that. Um, and part of me looks at that and says, what's the result? What are you creating with that? So, I don't know. I might be a little bit too general. Maybe it's enough. What, do you have a perspective on that as we're talking about listening?

Patricia Long:
Absolutely. I think if you're doing any kind of personal growth work or any kind of on any kind of journey where you're wanting to understand yourself more deeply, you will become more attuned to what is benefiting you and what might not be benefiting you. And as I said, that can change over time. So it takes courage sometimes to walk away from something. It might involve other people's expectations, or it might involve, you know, shaking up your own opinions or expectations. But you might, you know, arrive at a place where I was doing this and it's not serving me anymore, and I need to move to this. So it takes courage. And it's an art. There's no formula. It's different for each person. You know, that's really the core of the work that I do, which is taking people into a state of deeper awareness, where they're more relaxed, they're more aware of their body, their breath. They're more aware of their heart's intelligence. The mind is less dominant. Uh, you can still be aware of thoughts, but we're more into experiencing rather than thinking. Mhm. You know, if I'm watching a beautiful sunset, I don't think it I'm, I'm entering the experience. So when I help people enter a state of deeper awareness, they are they enter more of an experiencing mode rather than thinking. And from there it's becomes a safe space because they feel more of their well-being. They feel better. It becomes a space where they can allow something that may be limiting them to arise. So we can help release that. You know, Jung said, what you resist persists. What you embrace dissolves. So I help people bring up that which is no longer serving them, so we can work on releasing it, because everyone has a natural capacity to release. So in that process, people can realize, oh, this isn't serving me any longer. Like you were saying, I'm ready to move this on.

Daniel Aaron:
Mm.

Patricia Long:
Or this is serving me, and it's time for me to make that more powerful in my life and choose that more. And sometimes it takes guts to do.

Daniel Aaron:
That, to.

Patricia Long:
Change, to change things that way. But if we know it's serving us because of how we're expanding and growing, then it's in front of us that opportunity to choose that.

Daniel Aaron:
Mhm. Beautiful I love that. Yeah. And I'm with you I speak of it these days a lot for myself and with clients as let's make ourselves trigger happy, right? Which is weird to say in the same conversation with speaking about Columbine. Oh no.

Patricia Long:
I get what you mean.

Daniel Aaron:
Trigger happy? Yeah. As in, like, let me notice where I get resistant, upset, bothered. Um, where I think something's wrong because once I notice it, then I've got the past capacity to release whatever is inside me causing that resistance, you know?

Patricia Long:
Yeah. And we do have that capacity. We have so much potential that is untapped. And I think it's going to be that way. The whole lifespan, we can just keep expanding more. You know, you hear stories about a mother who picks up a car when her kid is trapped underneath, and they have theories about what happens in the physical body that makes that possible. But that's symbolic of how much power we actually have on all levels to keep learning and expanding. And it doesn't stop. It goes on and on, you know.

Daniel Aaron:
Yeah, there's always more. Okay, well, that's a good segue then, because, um, very inspiring this conversation, Patricia. And I'm sure some of our audience, live or by rebroadcast would love to learn more about you. Get in touch with you. What's the best way for that?

Patricia Long:
Wonderful. So first of all, my website, uh, is w w w dot the true pathfinder.com.

Daniel Aaron:
All right. The true pathfinder. So I'm going to spell that out in case anybody's listening and not viewing. And okay actually all those words are pretty darn easy in English. The True Path finder.com I'm not going to spell it out.

Patricia Long:
And then as a special gift to those watching the podcast, hear your podcast, there's a private link. Oh so there, what's underneath now is the website.

Daniel Aaron:
The True Path and the okay, the first.

Patricia Long:
Thing you were showing, yes, is, um, it's still the web address and then slash gift and that's a private link that will take you to, uh, the capacity to have a 30 minute call with me so we can get acquainted in case there's any way I can be of service and we can collaborate.

Daniel Aaron:
Right on. So you're giving the gift, um, for our audience that they can have a conversation with you? Yes. Beautiful. That's awesome. Fantastic. Thank you. Cool. Okay, so again, that y'all that's the true Pathfinder comm slash gift. Very kind awesome generous cool. And what was um, I got one more big question for you, but before I ask that, you go ahead. You're about to say something, I think. Yes.

Patricia Long:
And also if if you could show my email there. I just wanted to include that. Yes, I am I'm in the challenge of online scheduling, which I've never done. So in case something goes awry there. Here's how you can also reach me.

Daniel Aaron:
Okay, so yeah, if you if, um, if the tech stuff doesn't quite work out for you, then you can email Patricia directly. And the email address is Tricia Fontaine at gmail.com. I'll spell that t r I c I a f o n t a I n e. And I'm going to go out on a limb and guess you know how to spell gmail.com. All right. Thank you. Cool. So we've got, uh, we've got a variety of ways that people can be in touch with you. Patricia. Thank you. Is there, um, is there anything that I haven't asked you that, um, that I should have? Um.

Patricia Long:
I think this has been a very inspiring conversation. Yeah, I love poetry, so I didn't know if there'd be time for me to offer a short poem, but there probably isn't, because I think you have one more question for me.

Daniel Aaron:
Yeah, well, maybe, um, maybe we can get that, um, poem next time we speak. Or in another way. So awesome. Sure. Um. And yes, I do. Thank you so much. I do want to ask you the final question. The big question. So big it's impossible. And it's impossible because you got, you know, 30 plus years of experience and learning and 175 retreats and all these different modalities you've worked with. And I am now asking you to distill it down to if you had one thing to offer to our audience that would help them to create their most vibrant, thriving life, what's the one thing you would say?

Patricia Long:
Okay, here it is. Practice finding the gem in every life situation. Now there's a caveat with this. This is not positive thinking. When you're going through a difficult time, you just often need to just summon the courage and the stamina to get through it. So it's not like you're supposed to be thinking positively. You may need to have courage. You may have to work through anger, through frustration, through difficulties. However, if you're holding the intention to eventually find how the situation, how the challenge has benefited you, that will keep expanding your life. So when it's the right timing for you to practice, finding how, no matter how difficult the situation has been, how it has it benefited you? What is the gem from that difficult situation?

Daniel Aaron:
That's beautiful. I love that. Right. That's I think that goes beyond the silver lining concept. Yes, yes. In Hawaii there's an expression where I live it says no rain, no rainbow. Right. And what I hear you saying is there's always a rainbow. And even if we're struggling a bit during the rainstorm, that's okay. Um, and if we're curious about and looking for what the rainbow is, well, we're going to get a lot more out of it.

Patricia Long:
It builds trust and And it it reduces the possibility for becoming embittered. It just we. It's a practice, though. We can't always do it easily. It's just practicing that and getting to that gym when we can.

Daniel Aaron:
I love it, get. Getting to the gym. Beautiful. Okay, well, speaking of gems, Patricia, what a gem you are. It's such a honor and pleasure to be with you here. Thank you so much for all the work you've done and for, you know, investing this time and sharing with our audience.

Patricia Long:
Uh, this has been so much fun. And I knew it would be Daniel, because I really respect and love the work you're doing, and I've just had a blast with you. It's been great.

Daniel Aaron:
Oh, fantastic. Awesome. Well, I look forward to the next round sometime soon. And for y'all in the audience. Holy moly, thank you. Thanks for being interested in your life being even more vibrant, right? Because not only does that benefit you, which is cool, it benefits the world, right? You changing yourself is what changes the world. So y'all, thank you so much for being here with us. Join us again soon. We got another show coming up I love you. I'll see you. Mahalo for tuning in to the Art of Vibrant Living show y'all I'm Daniel Aaron and may you live with great vibrancy.

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