Be Still and Live

#07: Unlock Bliss and Happiness: Releasing Emotional Blocks and Realigning with Love with Tara Camp

• Gillian Gabryluk • Season 1 • Episode 7

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In this episode, Tara Camp, a Bliss & Happiness coach and retreat leader, shares a grounded path to spiritual awakening that actually fits real life. Tara helps people unlock lasting happiness and freedom by releasing emotional blocks, realigning with love, and reconnecting with their true essence. Through her retreats, programs, and teachings, she blends science, spirituality, and soul to guide others toward lives they truly love.

We talk about the difference between transcendence and bypassing, why neutral doesn’t mean numb, and how to stay centered without shutting down your humanity. Tara also shares a simple heart-centered regulation practice for moments of conflict, plus practical ways to experience joy and peace in the everyday - parenting, work, and relationships included.

If you’re craving calm, connection, and meaning, this conversation is your invitation to return to yourself - gently, fully, and without pressure.

Connect with Tara: 

Website 

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New here? Start with episodes 1-3: “Take Back Your Life”, "From Hustle to Healing", and “5 to Thrive.”

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Tara:

A spiritual awakening can look like a lot of different things. It can it can just look like self-improvement on a day-to-day basis, and you just notice that life is getting better and better.

Gillian:

If your days feel full, but your heart longs for more meaning, you're not alone. Between the screens, the schedules, and the never-ending noise, it's easy to lose your sense of peace. But what if the way forward isn't found in doing more, but in learning to slow down, to simplify, to be still. Welcome to Be Still and Live, a podcast for individuals, couples, and families longing for calm, connection, and a more meaningful way to live. I'm Gillian, speaker, coach, and founder of Sileo Health and Wellness. And I'm here to help you create space for stillness and step into a life that feels whole and good again. Welcome back to Be Still and Live. Today's conversation is a beautiful one. We're exploring what it really means to awaken spiritually and to live with lasting joy, not just in the extraordinary moments, but in the ordinary ones too. My guest is Tara Camp, a coach and retreat leader who helps people unlock lasting happiness and freedom by releasing emotional blocks and realigning with love. Her work blends science, spirituality, and soul to help others reconnect with their true essence and live lives they genuinely love. Together we talk about what spiritual awakening can look like in real life, the quiet invitations, the unraveling, and the rebuilding. Tara shows how to integrate bliss and happiness into everyday routines, and how returning to love can become our most natural state of being. Whether you're on a healing journey, searching for deeper meaning, or simply craving peace in your daily life, this episode will meet you right where you are. So take a deep breath, settle in, and enjoy this conversation with Tara Camp. Welcome to the show, Tara. Hi, Jillianne. So good to be here. I'm so grateful. It's so good to see you. Ever since I met you, Tara, I've been wanting to continue this conversation with you because you are a force and you are such an inspiration. So I'm just, I'm just so excited to have this opportunity to continue my conversation with you, but more importantly, to share your knowledge with the listeners. And uh just knowing a little bit about you, I would love to start the conversation with you just sharing how you started your day today. Because that's a big part of why I'm so inspired by who you are and what you commit to on a daily basis to help you stay in the space that you want to stay in.

Tara:

Thank you so much. What a good, wonderful question. I'm so glad I started my day like I always started. Like what did I do? It's so, it's so automatic for me. You know, I get up pretty early, um, usually before sunrise. Well, pretty much always before sunrise. And I went for a beach run. I went for a beach run. I got up and actually, actually, I started fishing in the last week. I kid you not. I I've lived here, you know, like you know, for many years and I grew up fishing. I fished on other boats or yeah, boats like deep sea fishing and whatnot. Um, and in the last week, week and a half, I have just had a hankering to go and like be on the water in a different way. And um, so I took my fishing pole out with my headlamp and uh threw my line in a couple of times and then I took off for a sunrise run, which, you know, that just warms my heart. It inspires me. And, you know, it just it just brings the day in in, you know, in an inspiring, an inspiring way for me. And, you know, whether it's doing nothing or doing something, um, it kind of, well, I can't say it all feels the same, but I can I can be feeling really good and then go out and be in nature and it just levels it up. So that's how I usually start my day, not necessarily with a run, but in nature in some some way, form, or fashion.

Gillian:

I love that you share it. And I feel like we should clarify where you live, Tara, because we're all thinking she's on a beach. I mean, we're trying to figure out where exactly you live. So on a beach, is it warm? I'm thinking it's warm because it's September, but let's share where you live, Tara.

Tara:

Yes, yes. Um, I am in, I'm in Dustin, Florida. So I'm in Florida and it's October, which I love that, you know, you have this, you've lost your sense of time. Yeah. Yeah. Good job. We're timeless. We're timeless. So um, yeah, we're, you know, I'm right on the water, which is um Dustin is on the panhandle of Florida. And it's just now starting to cool off and it's the middle of October. So I'm grateful for that. And I'm also grateful that it's actually starting to cool down some.

Gillian:

I bet a lot of people from Florida talk about how hot those summers are and that when the fall comes around, it's nice to get that break.

Tara:

Yes, yes, yes. Oh my gosh, it has been it has been a stinker, as the Australians would say. A stinker. I love it.

Gillian:

Okay, Tara, let's dive in. So, for those of people who are just meeting you today, can you share a little bit about your story? Specifically, what led you to your work as a coach and retreat leader, guiding others towards happiness and inner freedom?

Tara:

Oh my gosh, where do I start? Um, you know, I years ago, I set, I set a goal to be, you know, a spiritual teacher, if you will. Um, just from just from like seeing, you know, what my teachers were doing and what they were able and capable of doing, going, oh my God. If I could ever do that, that's what I want to be when I grow up. And um, and I totally forgot about it. You know, COVID happened at a time for me when I was wanting to start teaching. Um, and with that being said, I ended up kind of going like off the beaten path and teaching Pilates for a while, not really understanding that it was leading me exactly where I needed to be in order to get me to where I'm at today. Um, so I was teaching Pilates and I decided to um basically, you know, throw the baby out with the bathwater, so to speak. Like I loved teaching Pilates 12 people at once. It really, you know, gave me experience for being in front of people in a very active setting. And at the end of the day, you know, my energy was flowing good, but I I wasn't feeling the love. And I know love is truth, and I wasn't, I wasn't feeling love. And and so I just decided to quit and take off and go to a retreat center. And it wasn't until I got there at the retreat center to volunteer that I realized that, oh my God, I'm in a retreat center, and this is exactly where I need to be in order to really move in the direction that I intended, you know, many years ago. And so I volunteered there for a while, did everything from, you know, helping people host retreats to coordinating retreats to hosting dinners to, you know, washing dishes and even cleaning toilets. And what I discovered there is well, you can do anything and still tap into the bliss. You know, it's it's not what we do, it's how we do it. And um from there, you know, winter was closing in and it was starting to get cold and my internship was up. And I basically was like, you know what? I'm gonna start doing retreats. And I kid you not, Jillian. I listed um, I didn't know how it was gonna come together. I didn't really have any contacts. I wasn't into like, you know, marketing my former um clients or my employer's clients because they weren't mine. Um and things just came together magically. I I basically posted a retreat online and within probably two weeks it started to fill up. And um from there, it has just been, it's just been, you know, light speed ahead. I'm about to do my 23rd retreat in uh two years, just under two years. That's something to celebrate. Yeah, I know. Well, and you know, it's wild because I literally jumped in head first and I had no idea what I was doing. I didn't know how I was gonna do it, but I knew I knew I was supported because of the way that it felt. The way that it felt to my body, it was just it was just like a holy hell yes.

Gillian:

Right. Yeah. Well, I'm pretty sure you found your calling, just knowing who you are. And if you can hear the joy and optimism in Tara's voice, this is who she is through and through. She really is just such a light in the world. And uh, that's why she's here today to share that with uh with everybody who's listening. Tara, was there did you always live your life like this? Did you always feel this way? Or did you have to go through a process of trial and error and figuring out who you were? And was there was there a defining moment that kind of initiated this spiritual awakening, if you will?

Tara:

Oh my gosh, girl. Oh, there's so many different directions that I can go down this conversation. Um, you know, I I actually grew up. I was diagnosed with depression by 14, bipolar disorder, ADHD by 15. Um, started experimenting with alter states uh unknowingly, you know, as a teenager, um, not realizing they were spiritual experiences. And, you know, I went down that did I went down that rabbit hole too far, you know, thinking that it was the drugs that were making me feel good instead of spirit. Um, but they did open me up, but it wasn't until about 15 years ago where I started having spiritual experiences, just completely sober. And about 10 years, they just got stronger and stronger. You know, they lasted days, weeks, months, years. And and no, I haven't always felt like this, even during my process, like it was it was, you know, a roller kiss to ride, as you might know. You know, I would go to these, you know, high, high, high peaks for who knows how long. And then it literally felt like I was being dropped off back on earth in 3D, and I would just be like, What's going on? Right. You know, and and and I did go down different paths. I've explored so many different paths. And, you know, what I what I learned is that if I bought into a certain belief system, like this this path believes this. And if I bought into that, then I was kind of held to those confines, if you will. And um, and finally, I don't know why or where, but I was like, it's not supposed to feel like neutrality. I'm not supposed to feel like it's I just like because that just felt blah to me. And I I lived there for years because I read it somewhere that that is what the awakening is. It's just, you know, you live in this state of neutrality. And yes, like it does mean like not having like polarized um polarized energy, but it doesn't mean that we don't have preferences. Um and and it's really like up to us to define it. If we read somewhere and think that it's uh, you know, hellish, well, guess what we're gonna experience? Hellish. And I did that.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah.

Tara:

I did that. And then I and then I read somewhere that it's you know, it's it's supposed to feel like, you know, nothing, but that nothingness can also feel delicious. So um it's wild now because again, you know, I know uh we all have our different experiences, and it breaks my heart to to see people like buying into something that's less than the truth, and that is just a limitation of the mind, a limitation of what certain people know and are are teaching or sharing, and um, and the truth that I know is this, and you know, it's funny because like I even tried on the whole like you know, the being very quiet, right, Zan. And and that's very that's very divine feminine, and there's nothing wrong with that, but it's not me. Right, right.

Gillian:

You're hiding, you are hiding who you are, yeah.

Tara:

And and it and it, you know, I felt like I was trying to fit in someone else's definition of what that's supposed to look like, not realizing uh uh until I had enough experiences that that were meant to bring that masculine and the feminine, and and that is that's you know, me talking fast, but still being very present because it works for me and I can still take in all the cues in the body language and all of that and still be very present. And I will tell you, Jillian, that I am working on slowing down.

Gillian:

Oh good, that's where the magic happens.

Tara:

Because I do like, I see, um, I see, you know, just in conversation, like my life, my lifestyle is pretty slow, maybe not at retreats, um, but just in my communication, I am slowing down some to where it feels right for me, right?

Gillian:

Right, right. That's good. You're listening to the cues. I think that's what it's all about. Yeah. I I love that you shared that story. And uh I'm I'm grateful that you shared it so openly because for you to come on here and just share all of your bliss and happiness and your optimism, but not share what was a part of the journey to get you to this point. That's that's not um helping the people who are in a place where they're struggling right now. So you're giving by sharing your authentic story, you're giving people hope that you can be in that dark place where you're searching for love in all the wrong places and um feeling disappointed and depressed and anxious and all these these feelings that um come from that mindset. And you're showing us that there's hope. There's hope. And it's easier than we think it is possible, and that we have more power than we've been told, right? Than we've been programmed to believe. So thank you for sharing your story because um that's important for us to hear.

Tara:

Yeah, yeah. I would love to add something to that too. You know, there's something that I feel like is getting lost in translation, at least from my perspective, not to say it's the correct one or the right one. I do believe that it's the true one in alignment with, you know, the true reality of love, bliss, and happiness. And because when I speak of happiness, it is from that internal ultimate happiness that I'm referring to. And it and it's that, you know, I feel like transcendence or even spiritual bypassing is a little misunderstood. Um, transcendence is our true nature, and and the path, at least my path, has been learning how to overcome, which means transcend, you know, the negativity of life, those polarized views. And again, not to say we don't have opinions. I have opinions, I have preferences. It's just learning how to dissolve the negativity, that the polarized energy that keeps us stuck in those lower vibes, right? Um, because yes, we accept them, but then we have to do something about them. And that is the clearing work that that I specialize in, and that I basically hand to people to do their own work. Um, if they choose to do their own work, I I can help as well. Um, but I do believe in handing the tools to people um so that you can do your own work and then you can you can share the love, right? Um but I I feel like in today's in today's um you know spiritual marketplace, if you will, like people are thinking that think people are thinking that transcendence is bypassing, that we're just ignoring and we have our head in the sand. Um and that's just not the case. Like, you know, I don't subscribe to the news because I know how the news affects consciousness. And I know that my greatest job duty service here is to stay in the oneness. And again, it doesn't mean I don't have opinions. It just means those opinions don't have me going from one extreme to the other. And really they don't have me going anywhere because I choose to stay inside in the oneness, but it doesn't mean that I'm ignoring the fact that that, you know, the things that are going on in the world, right?

Gillian:

Right, right. And that's what I wanted to ask you next is the the people who are the people who are yearning for this deeper sense of meaning and connection right now, the people who are coming online, they're they're experiencing that the beginnings of a spiritual awakening. How would you describe that awakening and what does it actually look like in everyday life? Like how can people define if that's what they're experiencing? Because it's a little bit disorienting, isn't it?

Tara:

It can be, it can be. You know, a spiritual awakening can look like a lot of different things. It can, it can just look like self-improvement on a day-to-day basis, and you just notice that life is getting better and better. And, you know, I that's where mine started before I started having the extreme spiritual experiences. I just kept going year after year. Holy smokes! I never dreamed life could be so good. And that was before I even had started having spiritual experiences. Um, so we can look different, and I do believe that it kind of starts off slow. And that was really before I got on a spiritual path. And I was like, okay, God, source universe, like, you know, here I am. I'm here showing up. Um, and then once once I kind of leveled up to the next level, it did require a lot more surrendering and a lot more conscious awareness in my practice and how I was showing up. Because before it was kind of like, oh, I wasn't really being differently. The energy was like slowly transforming me to a certain point. And then it was like it got to certain points, and the universe is like, hey, yeah.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Tara:

How are you? How are you showing up?

Speaker 2:

Yeah. Yeah.

Tara:

Like, how are you showing up around the clock? Um, yeah. You know, and I feel like, you know, a lot of people they will come to a retreat and they'll have a spiritual experience. And whether they come to a retreat or not, they'll have the ex the experience and then they'll just kind of forget that it ever happened, or or not even like try to do anything to perpetuate. Um, and I'm not just about having experiences, but I am of the mindset like we are meant to live in this bliss and happiness state. Like this is heaven on earth, and we can still function. I buy groceries, I'm doing a podcast, I do retreats. Like I am, like you know, I do a lot and I can be blissed out to the gourd and still function perfect.

Gillian:

Thank you for sharing that that is possible because I think a lot of people don't even know that that's a possibility. They're just so busy in the thick of life. There's so many distractions, constant motion, overstimulation, striving. That's the challenge of modern living. And I think there's a lot of people who are feeling that right now. They're realizing, oh my goodness, is this it? There must be something more to life because they're just completely numb, right? They're just going through the motions. I'm curious to know what you see as one of the greatest blocks to peace and happiness today. And how can we begin to move through it?

Tara:

Oh my goodness. One of the biggest blocks is just, you know, we've been programmed to think that the reality that we live in, the 3D reality, and even a step above that, maybe, is that that's the norm. And, you know, we're not, we're not taught to question that for a reason. And we don't even need to go down that rabbit hole. But, you know, it's it's just the norm. So people don't even know what they don't know. Like, I didn't know what I didn't know. Like when I got on the path, I didn't clueless. I had no idea what was going on. So I think it's just the fact that, like, you know, we're just not we're just not open to it being different. And and so it's um, it's just really knowing that there is so much more. Like you said, there is so much more. I mean, it's heaven on earth to the point where you know, and and this is what I teach people the path that I teach is very simple and very effective in and stabilizing a person in the bliss and happiness. And it takes peeling back the onions. And and like you know, I have some very simple tools, but it's just, you know, first and foremost, being open to a new reality, a new way of living, knowing that we don't need to work, you know, you know, 12, 15 hour days and sell our soul for money. In fact, when we do it this way, life is more rewarding. Money, people, places, like things, experiences, they just come to us effortlessly because we're fueled by spirit instead of, you know, depleted and and um spiritless in a way. I hate to even say that, but it's you know, it's the way that I used to operate, you know, when when you're open, you just have a ton of energy and and and that fuels your life and brings to you all the experiences, the money, the abundance, the prosperity, yada yada yada.

Gillian:

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And that that we are enough in just being who we are and sharing our gifts and talents with the world, not in the doing, right? You're talking about the 12 to 15 hours a day, trying to prove ourselves, trying to push ourselves, trying to achieve, accomplish, you know, collect more money in our bank account. That's what seems to drain us of our joy. When we get back to a space of being and really acknowledging and celebrating the fact that that is enough, that's a beautiful space to live.

Tara:

Yes, yes. Oh, just, you know, like that point is it's it's golden because when we do come back, you know, into our beingness and tap into that, it contains everything. Like it is the connections that we feel like we're uh longing for in other people. Not to say that people, places, and things don't accentuate our happiness because they do. Um, and it's it's unlike anything, it's it's something that money can't buy. And I basically tell clients you do the work on a daily basis and you can do it in less than 30 minutes. It's like a million-dollar job per day because that's how good it is. Yeah.

Gillian:

Yeah. And you've experienced firsthand, so you can say that with confidence. So Tara, your work is centered on helping people live happiness. So this means having it be a state of mind, not just something to chase. Can you share a little bit more about this and how we can begin to integrate bliss and joy into ordinary moments of life? Especially those moments like parenting, working, and managing our daily responsibilities. I call it the daily grind. How can we integrate this bliss and joy into the daily grind that so many of us are feeling more than ever?

Tara:

Well, uh there's a couple different things. As you know, daily practices are huge, right? Daily practices are huge. And basically, like the recipe that that that I teach, it's it's basically like four things. And um, and if you do those on a daily basis, it just brings it, well, it keeps you in harmony, it keeps your energy in balance. And and the more you do them, the more you stay open, and the more you stay open, the more you're connecting to God, source universe, you're the more you're opening to that, right? And so after a while, that energy just becomes you. So, first and foremost, like, you know, doing the deep work really helps because we've been programmed out of our natural state. So I like to say happiness is a state of being, it's a state of mind, and it's a lifestyle. So it's a state of being, it's who we are, but we've been programmed out of that, right? Yeah. So we have to program ourselves back into it. And that means that we have to make it a state of mind, meaning it has to, it has to basically be our highest priority. Like we have to want happiness more than anything, more than letting your kid trigger you.

Gillian:

Right.

Tara:

And and it and it um something practical to do there is like when you're triggered, whether it's a kid, whether it's um someone that you know is just being confrontational or whatnot, you know, this is how I learned it. Because, you know, like we've all been told just drop into your presence and and then your nervous system takes over.

Gillian:

Yes. You lose your mind. And then you're apologizing to your kid again and saying, don't do what mommy did.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Tara:

What did I do? I did it again. I know, I know, I know. And I was like, what do you mean? I used to be like, I'm doing it, but I don't feel anything. Right. Right? Like, I don't feel anything and it's not working. And so I was in this very I was in this confrontational um um encounter conversation, if you will, where someone was basically calling me a fraud for being too happy. Oh, that's a new one. I know, right?

Gillian:

It's hard to see somebody be so happy when you feel like it's out of reach for yourself. And that's why your story is so important, Tara.

Tara:

I know, and I do. I well, I don't feel bad, but I do at the same time because I do have that compassion, right? Yeah. But Jilly, and for so many years I held it in. I held it in, and I couldn't express it because I felt bad for being so happy. So it took me years to actually like to express myself. So uh basically what I teach is like in those moments of of trial and tribulation where you feel that fight, flight, or freeze go off. And for me, my fight, flight, or freeze was going off. And for anybody that knows me, like, you know, I have so much fire, and I always have, you know, when I was younger, I was angry. I've I've been angry for most of my life, um, you know, up until maybe last 10 or 15 years, maybe. But basically what I teach is grounding your hands on your heart space. And when I speak heart, it's your energetic heart, right? So it can be under your collarbone, all the way to the center of your chest. And then if you pull your mind, if you pull your attention into your hands, into your heart space, uh, this can um unhook the trigger. It can, it can deactivate the fight, flight, or freeze. And if you do this for, you know, six, twelve, a dozen times, like for me, it took, gosh, I don't know, it didn't take that long before most of my fight, flight, or freeze is gone, unless, unless there's a real threat, right? Um, and so that's like once you can start to unhook that, um it just it opens, it keeps you open, right? Because flight fight or fleas is closing our energy field down so we can keep our energy open. And then, you know, the cleansing work that I do, you know, most people are reactive because we haven't been taught how to let go and peel back the layers of the own and getting rid of the past and all its hooks and triggers. So those two things are kind of like the core of my work. And um, you know, not to promote myself only, but to to share them here. They're a little too simplified because they are of the spirit nature. And a lot of people can't grasp how effective they are because they're so simple. And so I I have people have an experience of them, which I will offer at the end here if if anybody's open to it.

Gillian:

Absolutely. I'd love that. And I'd love to touch on what you were just saying because I feel like in my own life, there's been this experience of having the choice and sometimes not wanting to choose that piece. Or I don't know if it comes from not loving myself enough to choose the piece, or maybe I'm addicted to the fight or flight because it's what I've known my whole life. It's I I really learned that doing that deep work and getting to a space where you're opting to choose that joy, to choose that peace because you've decided is what you want more than that chaos and disruption. I think that's where the magic happened with me is making that choice. And it's an ongoing decision. All right, am I gonna let myself spiral into chaos here? Or do I want the peace and joy more? And uh, I don't know if it happens overnight. It's still, it's still a journey. It's an ongoing process, it seems, of allowing yourself to receive that joy, that love, that happiness in your life.

Tara:

Yeah, that is um, yeah. I mean, it's still like things come up for me, and I'm like, okay, there's two choices here. Right. And I'm pretty good about, you know, choosing the higher, higher road, higher choice, and what's going on. And it happens for most people, and I see it all the time with clients. They're just like, no, she's gotta pay or he's gotta pay. They have they're full of resentment still.

Gillian:

Yeah.

Tara:

And I'm like, you know, we'll do a clearing. We'll do a clearing. And then I'm like, call me if you need to, you know, and they they have the tools, but if you decide to go down that row road, oftentimes the tools won't work at a certain point because you spiral so far down that you basically go to the depths of hell. And you're you're you're so closed that you need you need someone to help you out that's at a higher, higher plane, if you will. And um, and you know, Jillian, this is this is um, I say this with all love and respect. Of course, I did it myself and I still do it. Like that's just the ego. And and the ego wants to hold us and keep us away from the truth, right? It wants to perpetuate the negativity, the pain, the suffering. And so that voice that you hear that wants to go there and stay there and and um be right or or show them, it's just um, it's just that part of yourself that was programmed when you were a kid, right? And that you have through, you know, living life following those programs, because that's what we do, um, it's just a pattern. So you have to decide that you again, you already said it, like, hey, happiness is way more, way more better, way more important than yes, maybe right.

Gillian:

Or and in a lot of cases, in a lot of cases, forgiveness is more a gift to yourself than it is to the other person. You're releasing the other person, but you're also releasing yourself from having to harbor that resentment or whatever negative feelings you've been carrying. Yes, I love that. Thank you. Thank you for sharing that. And I'd love to pull it back to very practical advice that we can offer here. When life feels chaotic or we drift away from presence in general, what helps you, Tara, personally return to stillness and realignment with love? Or maybe just what are what are some of the simple rhythms or practices that anchor you back into that space that you want to live in?

Tara:

Yeah. I think um, I think what I offered earlier is probably the most simplistic tool. And oftentimes, if a person, you know, has a lot of stuff they're dealing with, a lot of resentment or or you know, a lot of challenge going on in their life, they may not feel it. But it's just, you know, taking the time to just pay attention to your breath. Your hands on your heart really ground you into that energy. And then it's a pulling of the attention inward. And then you can just pretend as if you're breathing from your heart space. And then from there, I like to just continually like as I inhale, pretend like I'm breathing in the love. And then as I exhale, I exhale the love and I just start to open my energy filled up. And I, you know, what I teach is to open your energy filled up to the you know far stretches of the universe. And so it just teaches us to be open, to stay open, and it grounds us in our heart space, it reminds us who we are, and living wide open with discernment is the secret. We don't need, you know, any other protective measures because when we're limping wide open, our protection is the love, it's God, it's source, and um, and well, that's the place of miracles.

Gillian:

Beautiful, Tara. I don't know why I just had an avatar moment. You know, an avatar where they're they're all underneath the mother tree and they're moving together, and there's this beautiful energy, and they're all plugging their tails into the energy that is uniting them. That's what I felt when you took us through that exercise. This is always available to us when we're feeling chaotic, when we're feeling like we don't know which way is up, where we're lost in ourselves, resisting everything around us, full of fear. We just have to take that choice to be still, which is why I love what I do, and to plug back into that God source energy that you speak about, that's always there to remind us who we are and who we were created to be. Yes. And it's that simple practice of pausing, coming back to our heart, dropping in to our heart and out of our head that returns us back to that space. And if we all took responsibility to stay in that space as often as possible, I mean, that that is what changes the world.

Tara:

Yes, yes, absolutely, absolutely. And I do want to just circle back really quick because when I um, you know, when I was having a rough time with my integration, what I did is I just I slowed life down. Like I, I, you know, I do a lot now and I can do a lot and still stay present and in my heart space. And and, you know, for a while I had to take things off my plate so that I could really stay present and and connected without forgetting who I was.

Gillian:

Absolutely. I I love that, Tara. And that's what I teach when I talk about the pillars of health and wellness in Five to Thrive. We have to start prioritizing the things that matter most, the things that keep us grounded, the things that remind us of the most important things, the things that connect us with our creator, with each other. And uh when we do that and when we give other people permission to do it, then we're creating this culture where we're prioritizing the things that keep us grounded before the doing and achieving and the striving. And I think that that's that's the direction that we're slowly going to move in as we continue to realize that the direction we're we've been moving in is no longer working. That we have to come back to, you know, those foundational pillars of health and well-being that really do work. Yes. Tara, if someone is listening today, feeling completely disconnected and weighed down. Maybe they're just beginning their own awakening and they're afraid of what's on the other side. What gentle reminder or first step would you offer them today?

Tara:

Well, the challenges happen for a reason. You know, they happened to bring us back into resonance and alignment with source, with spirit, so that we we live a life that we love. And it doesn't necessarily mean having all the things, but I do. But it like Jillian said, like it's a stepping stone, you know, learning to bring that beingness into the doingness, into the having this. And um, and you know, I would say reach out to someone, you know, reach out to someone because I've been in the pits of hell more than once, more than I can count with all my fingers. Yeah, yeah. And my biggest mistake was not having not having that support of someone that can pull me out in those dark times. Because we need each other. We need each other.

Gillian:

Yeah. Or maybe believing that you're the only one experiencing it, or you're the only one who has experienced it, right? Because we're we're all going through this journey together. There's the ups and downs, the good, the bad, and the ugly. And the more we share with other people, the more we give them permission to share as well. Creates a safe space for connection, which is what I'd love to talk about next, Tara. Where can listeners connect with you or join one of your retreats or learn more about your work?

Tara:

Well, I have, and I don't think I share with you this, but I have a book that's due out at the end of the year. Oh, yay. Good.

Gillian:

It's that'll be a Christmas gift to myself.

Tara:

Awesome, awesome, awesome. Uh it's called The Secret of Bliss and Happiness. And I believe the subtitle is um uh a modern path to um oneness, um, embodiment, and love. And um, and then, you know, I'm hosting um Bliss and Happiness Experiences online. I'm hosting Bliss and Happiness Retreats in person, and um I also offer coaching. So uh blissandhappiness.com is my main website, and then I have a little sidekick website for my online experiences. It's experiences.blissandhappiness.com.

Gillian:

And you said that you're on Facebook, Tara. Are you on Instagram as well?

Tara:

Yeah, I'm on Facebook primarily on Instagram as well. Yes.

Gillian:

Okay, so I will share those on this episode description. And I just wanted to share my own promo of Tara. I I went to one of her retreats last December. And this is after a crash and burn that I experienced that I spoke about on one of the earlier episodes. And it really was a beautiful opportunity to understand the work that I needed to do still and help me to break through a very difficult point in my life. And I have to tell you, I after meeting Tara, I was like, there's no, again, there's no way she's this happy. She's making this. We're gonna see her true colors come out 48 hours in. She can't maintain this. But it was so consistent in everything she did. The meals that she made for us were completely organic. She brought all the food into the home that we were, we were renting that we were staying in. She made it all from scratch. It was the best tasting food I have ever had in my life, hands down, all made from scratch from Tara. She pulled out all the stuff. She was there before five o'clock every morning, and she was the last to leave cleaning up the kitchen and and really just had this joy that that never left the space. And um, that's why she's here today. Because I just I was so inspired by the person she is, by her story, by what she's doing, what she's offering, you know, people today, how she's serving the world around her. And um, if you're in a place where you can go on one of her retreats, I would highly, highly recommend it. If not, just link up with her online and have her in your world in any capacity that you can because she's a beautiful soul.

Tara:

Yeah, thank you so much. I have to uh I wanna I want to say something about that whole cooking experience. I think this, I think you were in the group where I I cook, I cooked some steaks on the uh I tried to cook steaks on the grill, but the the gas was out or something. Yeah. And so I cooked them on the stove and there was like seven and the fire alarm was going off.

Gillian:

Yes, yeah. Um, all I remember is the purple potatoes and thinking like there is so much magic in this one spoonful of potatoes, I can't even describe it.

Tara:

Yeah. Well, it was such a good learning. It was such a good experience. Again, like all the challenges that are thrown at us are lessons, right? Like everything's our teacher. And so in that moment where we where I had to cook the steaks in the house, you know, in the house, and um, you know, I think there was like six of them in a pan. And then the fire alarm, for whatever reason, the homeowners have put it next to the stove. So it was going off. Yeah. And, you know, again, it's all about me just maintaining the zen. I'm not stuffing it down. I'm not pretending it's not, you know, there was nothing there. Like I had, you know, cleansed it. And again, that's what I teach how to cleanse in the moment. It's um, you know, again, what a lot of people think is bypassing. But um, anyway, um, but the fact is, is y'all all stayed calm. And I I I'm pretty sure, Gillian, I still think that's the best steak I've ever eaten. Oh, it was amazing. Oh good. Anyway, it was amazing. I told you I'm good at rabbit holes.

Gillian:

Yes, yes, you are. I love it. Thank you so much for being here, Tara. This has been such a pleasure having this conversation. I wish we could chat every week like this. And uh maybe we'll have to have you back on because that was that was lovely.

Tara:

Awesome. I would love it. I would love it.

Gillian:

Okay, have a wonderful day. Enjoy sunshine, Florida, and uh send some of that sunshine our way in the north here. And we hope to to keep you in the loop.

Tara:

Thank you so much, Jillian. I had so much fun with you. Have a wonderful day.

Gillian:

Thanks, Tara. You too. That was such a beautiful conversation, one that reminds us that happiness isn't something we have to chase. It's something we return to when we realign with love. Tara's reminder that awakening isn't a single moment, but a continual invitation to live awake, to notice, to feel, to connect is something I think we all need to hear right now. If this episode spoke to you, I'd love for you to share it with someone who might need a moment of peace today. You can connect with Tara and learn more about her coaching and retreats through the links in the show notes. Until next time, take a breath, let it land, and remember, you were created to thrive, not just survive. Thank you so much for listening to Be Still and Live. If today's episode brought you a breath of peace or a moment of clarity, I'd love for you to subscribe, leave a review, or share it with someone who might need it too. For more resources to support your journey toward a slower, simpler, more connected life, visit SoleiloCoaching.com or connect with me on Instagram at SoleoCoaching.

Speaker:

Until next time, be still and live. This podcast is produced, mixed, and edited by Cardinal Studio. For more information about how to start your own podcast, please visit www.cardinalstudio.co or email Mike at mike at cardinalstudio.co. You can also find the details in the show notes.