Mahara Wayman [00:00:05]:
Welcome to the art of badassery where I explore what it takes to live life on your own terms. Break free from the status quo and unleash your inner badass. Whether you're a rebel at heart or simply seeking inspiration to step outside your comfort zone, this podcast is for you. I'm your host Mahara Wayman and each week I dive into the stories, insights, and strategies of those who've mastered the art of badassery and are living life to the fullest. They smile when no one is lucky. Welcome to the Art of Badassery. I'm excited to introduce you to my guest. Her name is Devin DeGreif, and I'm gonna invite her to tell you a little bit about herself before we jump in.
Mahara Wayman [00:00:52]:
Hey, Devin. Welcome to the show.
Devin DeGreif [00:00:54]:
Hey. Thanks for having me. Yeah. I love the show. I love the premise of the art of badassery, and the truth is is that the work I do and is totally badass. And so I I help people embody themselves and be and, like, be their badass self, which has many different definitions for each person. But I myself am a badass because of my, my own personal journey of recovering of recovering from trauma and really embodying myself to help others embody. So I'm super excited to be here, super excited to dive in, super excited to share with people what's possible in the human spirit and, maybe wake something up in others.
Mahara Wayman [00:01:31]:
Yeah. Love that so much. Would you mind starting off by talking a little bit about what the word embodiment means to you because I know it's a word that you and I talk about coaches bandied about, but I'm wondering if the people that need to understand it most do.
Devin DeGreif [00:01:46]:
Yeah. No. I'd love to because I think it's a really can be one of those buzzy words, can wanna be one of those buzzy words that gets a lot of publicity and is bright and shiny. But really, what embodiment is to me is is that your soul, your spirit is genuinely in your body. So you and I exist here being fully present, fully alive within ourselves, knowing who we are, and actually living in our tissues. I think that's the other piece that the bigger piece that I help people drop into is embodiment as a principle. It's like, okay. Yeah.
Devin DeGreif [00:02:13]:
I'm a spirit here in this body and look, hey. I'm Devin. Right? That's one thing. The other thing is to be, like, healthy as Devin in this body, being well, being in my tissues so that I can actually heal my tissues. And that's a big part of embodiment. That is what I specialize and help people with. A lot of the women and people that I work with are not only suffering from mental and and and spiritual pain, but also physical pain, and there's a correlation to that. So people with chronic illnesses or chronic diseases or autoimmune disorders and things like that, those are physical manifestations of someone not fully being embodied in their physical body.
Devin DeGreif [00:02:46]:
And there's usually some sort of discord between the spirit and the body that there needs to be some integration with, and that's where I really specialize to help people come back into the body when traditional or, even esoteric modalities. Like, I have people who go to western medicine providers and then also spiritual medicine providers, and there's just not a bridge between those two worlds. And, I'm that bridge for people to where we got we gotta combine spirit and science to be able to get people really living in their body so that, you can heal. Like, if you have an autoimmune disorder and you aren't in the body, you aren't healing. You you're actually fighting your existence, and that's where, I actually see a lot of autoimmune disorders being correlated with this, like, fighting fighting with being inside of yourself. Yeah.
Mahara Wayman [00:03:29]:
Okay. Thank you for that. And, of course, individual person that I am, my brain is all over the place picturing trying to picture this and I'm picturing this. So I Yeah. That what a great way to start my day. Let me ask you this, though. What comes it's like that question. What comes first, the chicken or the egg? So we are here.
Mahara Wayman [00:03:48]:
We have incarnated. We've made a decision on our soul plane to to to take on this experience and this physicality. Mhmm. What comes first? Healing the physical or healing the spirit? Or does it go back and forth all the time?
Devin DeGreif [00:04:04]:
No. I love this question because I think it's you're not gonna be the only one that has this question. It's a it's a not an or. It's an and. Truth be told is is that you can't separate these things. But how we work in our little human mind is this one, two, three, very sequential, very linear. The thing is is that you can't feel heal the physical without the spiritual and emotional. You can't hear the spiritual and emotional without the physical.
Devin DeGreif [00:04:24]:
And what happens is if we if we have them being a separate and being like, well, I have to have this before this, then what we're doing is is we're having things being separate. Truth be told is is that we're gonna have all of that at once. And so when I work with somebody, sometimes the access point is through the pain in the body because that's that's where our spirit is is held up. Then I have some people who are totally disconnected their body where we need to come from the spirit first. So what I would say is it's very individualized based off each individual's life journey. And when I get when I get with a person, and it's because it's individualized, if I can get some one on one with someone, I know exactly what's going on in their field, in their body, in their scenario. So it's really it's really both, but for each person, the strategy to get them reconnected or get get those parts integrated is going to be unique because everybody has a different life story and different things that have happened. You know? Some people have had more physical trauma, you know, car accidents or bike accidents or abuse or or things like that.
Devin DeGreif [00:05:19]:
And some people have had more mental, spiritual, emotional things that, that that's unique to them. And so, so at the at the at the at the risk of sounding sounding like one of those people, it's an and. It's an and thing of that. It's an and thing, and it's very specific to each person. And I I love it that way because if it was a blanket thing, then wouldn't everybody be well already? Affluence.
Mahara Wayman [00:05:44]:
So you bring up a really good point, and it's interesting because well, this is how the universe works. Right? I have a conversation very similar to this with one of my clients. Mhmm. But what was different about it is that I don't work with I mean, I do some somatic work, but I'm not a I'm not a physical healer. But what I was what we were talking about was there is for most of us, there's an outer world and there's an inner world. And I can tell by the outer world what's been going on on the inside for people, for myself as well, because I see I understand the correlation. Yeah. Sometimes I start with just the outer world, like, okay, let's put some good habits into practice, for example.
Mahara Wayman [00:06:21]:
That's that's something that you're gonna do. You'll see it on the outside. Yeah. Same time, let's not shy away from what your thought processes that created that that experience that we wanna change. So it's kind of similar in that it is an it's not an or. It's an and. As you do this on the outside, let's also examine what you're telling yourself, the story that you're telling yourself. Who are you listening to? Is it your divine guide? Is it your inner critic? In my world, that bitch that talks to me nonstop? Mhmm.
Mahara Wayman [00:06:56]:
Or is it your shadow queen? So similar idea that life is an and situation. Doesn't have to be an either or. Okay. Dying to go back a little further, though. We're gonna do a deep dive in everything that you do now, including by the way, guys, she's got a book that's about to be released. Very exciting. We're gonna get to that. But can you take us back a little bit? I know she's you see, it's I know.
Devin DeGreif [00:07:18]:
I'm so excited.
Mahara Wayman [00:07:20]:
Okay. Go grab the book. Show it to us.
Devin DeGreif [00:07:22]:
It's just so pretty, and if we're bringing it up, you know, and you're the first people that I actually get to share with. I just got this in physical form just yesterday, so I'm just so excited to share with the world.
Mahara Wayman [00:07:31]:
Her book is called Good Grief, a Journey from Healing to Joy. It drops May 28, but we are gonna do a deep dive in that a little bit later. However, let's go back a bit in time. Let's talk about the Devin before. Mhmm. Can you share with that share with us a little bit about the before Devin and how she was instrumental in helping you to navigate your way to where you are today.
Devin DeGreif [00:07:57]:
Yeah. No. I mean, that's the foundation of of transformation. Right? Is is we were a before. I was a before. So I really appreciate appreciate that. And thank thank you for that opportunity to dive back in because, yeah, the before Devin was in her early twenties. It was in her early twenties and had grown up pretty, like, pretty positive, and my mom was always building me up and saying, you know, if you can if you can see it, believe it, achieve it.
Devin DeGreif [00:08:21]:
Like, she was she was a badass in that, like, she knew that anything you can put your heart and soul into that you that you would be able to create, and she wanted that for her daughters. But unfortunately, my mom was killed. My mom was murdered, brutally murdered when I was 23. And not just like any murder, I'd always say, like, I wish my mom was just shot. I wish it was just like a simple murder. It was actually really brutal murder where, CSI in I grew up in Las Vegas, and CSI was there. And just so happened that Dateline NBC was also following Las Vegas CSI, and so this became like a public ordeal. And so the Devin before was, traumatized, was totally shocked and disassociated.
Devin DeGreif [00:09:01]:
So, basically, my mom is killed brutally. And, long story short, my book is about it, but, basically, I end up disassociating from my body. Right? Is this just like, I this is all too much. I don't know how to deal with this. Nobody gives you a handbook of how to deal with this. Right? And so, truthfully, I it's it's wild to even think that I even survived that time. There was a two good two or three years where I was, like, doing the life thing, but, like, I wasn't here. Like, Devin was gone.
Devin DeGreif [00:09:24]:
Devin was, like, out of the building, just, like, honestly thinking I would wake up and it'd be all a dream. Like, every day was, like, I'm gonna wake up. And it was all a dream. And mom's gonna be there and everything's gonna be, but every day facing reality of what what what actually is here. Right? And then you can't escape it. You can't escape reality. And so those disassociative strategies only work for so long until you realize, okay. Like, I this isn't working.
Devin DeGreif [00:09:46]:
Right? And, thankfully, the divine led me to a person. I I started going into, prerequisites for for PT school, got a job at at a PT clinic to just start helping out. And there was a woman there who saw it in me, And she looked right at me, and she said, you're not okay, are you? And I was like, no. And it was just like nobody was seeing it before that. It was literally like I was sitting here, like, does nobody see this? Like and that was part of my my story. My suffering was really that, like, I'm in this world alone. Like, what the hell? Right? The one person I care about most was taken from me. But this woman saw me, and she led me to a, a facility in in South Florida where I was living at the time that did an income based therapy sessions.
Devin DeGreif [00:10:29]:
And yeah. So I started with just basic, like, talking and sharing and having another person listen to me and, like, be seen, you know, like and just come out of that, like, void space. Right? And, and I was, of course, told to take antidepressants, but my soul was like, that's not the way. That's not the way. Just wasn't it was there was something about, like, I have to, like, be with this. I tried I tried antidepressants for, like, two days, and my suicidal thoughts just skyrocketed. It was way scarier than than not being on. And so it was it was, like, very true for me to navigate this on my own.
Devin DeGreif [00:11:01]:
And but I but, honestly, the beginning of first five years was just, like, put your head down and just kinda do what you know how to do because none of us get, like, a handbook to grief, nonetheless, traumatic grief. Right? And, but I started I started listening to the inner voice. The the you know, we have the two inner voices. We have the hypercritical one, but then we also have our loving inner voice, our divine inner voice that that's always there. And at this point in my life, this voice started to kick up a notch, started to come in to where there was more of that connection with that voice. And so then around this time was when, when I went to PT school. And, honestly, it was just trying to go at it go at things of, like, what made sense. Right? Like, I just knew how to go back to school.
Devin DeGreif [00:11:39]:
But when I was in school and I go in-depth into my book about this, so I don't wanna share too much about it. But, basically, I was still struggling, ended up finding mindfulness and meditation. So I started off with just straight up mindfulness of, like, feel your feet touching the earth, taste the tomato, like like literally coming back to life with the most basic mindfulness of, like, okay, here I am. Here are my hands. Okay. Here I am. Here's my like and literally coming back into the body and just being like, okay, here I am. And it was it was it was just following these breadcrumbs of what the universe was giving me of starting with mindfulness, meditation.
Devin DeGreif [00:12:13]:
And then when I was leaving grad school, I literally put my hands up to the divine and said, take me where I'm supposed to go. Just, like, guide me where I'm supposed to be. And then that led me to Oregon and led me to all the different stages of me becoming a specialist in trauma rehab and embodiment and a pelvic specialist. I had pelvic pain aside from the the mental, emotional trauma. I also had the physical. I had broken my tailbone three times as a kid. Had horrible pelvic pain, horrible urinary incontinence, a lot of women's health issues that my doctors told me was normal. And so my whole journey and quest of the before Devin was the search for truth, was the search for the truth for my body, search for the truth for my soul.
Devin DeGreif [00:12:55]:
And the more that I was had truth is like my beacon, the more that the universe kept providing me the breadcrumbs and the places to go and the things things to be guided to. But it all came from this, like, honestly, surrender. It's like I'm suffering. Somebody fucking help me. Right? And giving it over to give it like, give it over to God, give it over the divine, just being like, where am I supposed to go? And it was honestly when I was ready to kill myself that that that's when the biggest takeover happened when I when I said, okay. I'm done. I don't wanna do this anymore. And then I heard the loudest no I've ever heard in my life of spirit basically saying, no.
Devin DeGreif [00:13:30]:
That's not how your story ends. Your story is meant to be shared with people.
Mahara Wayman [00:13:34]:
Okay.
Devin DeGreif [00:13:35]:
And and it's it's been a journey to share the story ever since.
Mahara Wayman [00:13:39]:
Well, a couple of things. First of all, I am very sorry for your experience. Thank you. But I know your mom is with you. Right? %. Always. I'm curious, though. Okay.
Mahara Wayman [00:13:53]:
I'm very curious about lots of things. But the first thing that comes to mind is, do you think that the reconnection of the disassociation the reconnection back to yourself began when that woman saw you? I'm just curious if if that was just the beginning or if it started after that. Because I know in the work that I do, it's so important that people that people that are hurting are seen. And that's why, you know, that's why I coach. Right? That's why there's therapists and counselors and coaches and great friends. Right? Just this this need to be seen. So I'm curious if you think that was the the the start of your coming back to into yourself.
Devin DeGreif [00:14:35]:
Yeah. It's funny before even sharing this story today, like, it it it I would say that it was in the fact that it you know, like, when you're suffering on your own, you know you need to change, you know you need help, but it's like you don't know how to. But the like, you were just talking before about our inner world and our outer world is that we are existing in an inner world and at the same time in an outer world. So in my inner world, I'm suffering alone, and I'm having that dialogue of I'm alone. No one can see me. Oh, wait. Somebody sees me. It breaks you out of that.
Devin DeGreif [00:15:01]:
Right? So in many ways, it is that is at least we need a catalyst of some sort in our journey. And this is a catalyst of being like, you're not alone, Devin. The world the world can see you and the world's here to help you. So so, yeah, I would definitely say so.
Mahara Wayman [00:15:15]:
It's like a pattern interrupt. Yep. It's so important for many in and it it shows up in many different types of therapy. This idea of let's just interrupt the pattern, whether it's a thought pattern, a feeling pattern, or a spiritual pattern. Okay. So that was one question. And thank yay for that woman for seeing you Mhmm. And having and, you know, reaching out to you.
Mahara Wayman [00:15:38]:
My other question is more around as you were growing and seeing the pebbles that the universe has put in front of you, were you necessarily aware of it? Or was it just were you still in this go with the flow? I don't know what the fuck's going on. I'm just whatever. Or were you like, oh, that's a sign. Oh, thank you.
Devin DeGreif [00:15:59]:
Yeah. No. Once I'm yeah. No. That's a good question. Because once I once I made that decision, basically, like so before I before, like, the line in the sand was me hearing no from Spirit. Right? Like, before that, I would say it was very it was very sporadic, very, like, you know, okay. That could be a coincidence kinda thing.
Devin DeGreif [00:16:15]:
At this point where I had had that conversation decided, everything from then on was was communication with the divine. Everything. I'm like, from the tiniest little thing was was just like, okay. And it was like I had I had that line of connection now that had was there's just no doubt to it. It was just like, okay. We already had the conversation. Let's go. Like
Mahara Wayman [00:16:36]:
And Yeah. I really love the power behind there was no doubt. Because to me, that that is so telling when we have such confidence that we are part of something bigger, that there is a divine Yeah. That we are connected, then it feels in my world anyway that life gets easier. Even though I live as a spirit, you know, I'm a I'm a human being, sometimes it's too easy to get caught up in the humanness and to go, oh, life sucks. Oh my god. Of course, that happened. And, you know, bemoan, bemoan, bemoan.
Mahara Wayman [00:17:11]:
Yeah. Then when I remember and thankfully, I'm remembering more than I am forgetting. But when I remember that I am I'm here for a reason. I'm not just here to shoot the shit. Mhmm. I'm actually here for a reason. I'm learning lessons along the way. And every lesson helps me to articulate my growth and my powers and my gift.
Mahara Wayman [00:17:33]:
Right? Mhmm. But it does help it does end up feeling like life is easier than it was before I had this understanding. I think I went off on a side topic there, but love the power behind that no doubt. Right? There was no doubt.
Devin DeGreif [00:17:46]:
Well, if I can just segue into there to help you there is is what I hear and what you're saying is is that yeah. It it and this is part of whether it be physical healing, spiritual healing, any level of healing is is to have that connection to that greater source within yourself. And, you know, it's everybody's way to connect to that is gonna be different. We're not I'm not saying, like, oh, it needs to be God. It's just the way that you connect with the inner spirit of yourself in connection with the the greater spirit that we're all one part of, that's critical in healing. And for some people like myself, it happens from traumatic events, and we need that big wake up in this lifetime to wake up. But I do share this with people because people like, well, what if you don't have a big big traumatic event like that? Because not everybody does, thankfully thankfully. But there's there's usually things that are gonna happen in our lives that make us question what life is about.
Devin DeGreif [00:18:33]:
That that when we start questioning things, those are the time frames when we're actually questioning, is there something bigger? Do I have support? And it's it's huge. And, and that's just my life story in this lifetime that I needed that big event and this big, like, there's no doubt in my mind. And that's how I'm able to do the big work that I that I that I do, but it's definitely, that that's where that comes from.
Mahara Wayman [00:18:57]:
Yeah. I love that you you talked about this idea about being curious because I think curiosity is everything. Yep. Curiosity is a sign that we're ready. Kids are incredibly curious for you know, just for example. They're constantly asking how come, what if, why not, what you know, what? Explain. Tell me. Tell me.
Mahara Wayman [00:19:14]:
Tell me. Mhmm.
Devin DeGreif [00:19:15]:
And I
Mahara Wayman [00:19:16]:
think so many of us have lost that level of curiosity because we got caught up in living a life and paying the bills and being the you know, being this type of person or doing these types of things. So curiosity is key to me. What are some of the things that you were most curious about after you realized that you were healing? Mhmm. When you sort of in that space between I'm doing the healing work knowing that there is something on the other side. Mhmm. What were some of the curiosities that that came to your mind then if you can remember?
Devin DeGreif [00:19:43]:
Oh, yeah. Of course, I can. It's also it's also real and visceral when I tap back into it because it still continues, truth be told, is is that it's the curiosity of what's the purpose behind the pain. Right? Is is that, like so the whole time, I'm asking, like, why? Why? Like, why? Like, why? Like, why? Like, why are we doing this? Why do I need to go through this? Why does it have to be this way? Why? And every time I was questioning why, it was from a space of, like, I genuinely wanted to learn through moving through the experience. Because healing healing is about taking what's there right in front of you and what or whatever's in your body and, like, facing it and being and being in acceptance. And you need support in that, but every stage the beauty of the the type of healing that I work do is the work that I do is that we combine parts work. So it sounds like you're you might be familiar with some parts work where we have parts inside of us in in all of our psyche, but our parts can also play out in our body. And so what's beautiful about this work is you can actually find from your body's inner wisdom, you can go you can find out what's going on.
Devin DeGreif [00:20:40]:
Right? So if my kidney's upset, I wanna go talk to my kidney and find out what's going on, kidney. And we have these we what we what we do when life experiences are too big is we take the emotion of those experiences. We stuff them in the body. And the longer that they're stuffed, the more that they can actually cause physiological ailments. Right? So anytime I was coming to work with my body or work with my spirit is is I'm coming from a place of a curious why, not the, like, why I need to know right now. Right? Like, the like, float it out and let like, it's a dialogue with your body, and there's a communication that's happening. But you're learning what I talk about is you're learning a new language. You're learning a new language.
Devin DeGreif [00:21:17]:
Right? So we have to give time for the translation to come in. But, I would say that it's finding what's the purpose in this pain and, like, there's gotta be a point to this. Right? Like, I can't be suffering. Like like, the divine would not have me suffer for anything. Right? And so I was seeing these images. I was seeing of these images of the people that I was gonna be helping that who would read the book, who would hear my story and be deeply impacted by it. So that was, like, that was, like, the guidepost to, like, we're gonna keep going. Like, this is needed.
Devin DeGreif [00:21:46]:
Like, hearing that your story is meant to be shared with others. Your story is meant to be shared with others. It was like every step of the way, I would continually reminded of that. But then truth be told, in the nitty gritty, when you're actually healing, it's like you have to come into the micro of, like, there is purpose here. Let me just be with this chunk of time that I can be with right now while still having a larger vision of, like, okay. I see where we're going. But but truth be told, it's it's getting curious on on levels on levels that you can only get curious inside your inner world in this, like, really intimate juicy way. You know?
Mahara Wayman [00:22:21]:
It's interesting that you you qualified the curiosity, which I've never heard that before because you can be curious with a lightness of spirit and heart, and you can become curious with judgment from a place of judgment. And folks, I talk about this a lot on the show and with my clients. Judgment hurts. It really hurts, and it hurts you. The person that you're judging, half the time, they don't even they don't even know you're judging them, and they don't give a shit. It's us that hurts when we judge. So, nice interesting call out that you chose to have this curiosity from a place of lightness and invitation to connect, which is, of course, what conversation is all about. And this idea of conversing with your body, my the very one of the very first books that ever intrigued me and actually started me on this path of personal development was You Can Heal Your Life by Louise Hay.
Mahara Wayman [00:23:16]:
I probably read it how old am I? 59. I probably read it forty years ago. I was a a teenager. And it was the it was my introduction to affirmations and mindfulness and this whole idea. What? You can heal your body? What the fuck? Okay. That's kinda cool. That was I was I was a I was very curious. My dad was into meditation at the time, so that was sort of the beginning of of my journey.
Mahara Wayman [00:23:41]:
And so I just find that it's it's fascinating. And, of course, I'm in my as I've already mentioned, I'm in my late fifties, and I've got some aches and pains. And I'll mention it to someone and they'll say, what side hip is it? Is it your left or your right? I'm like, what's my left? And they're like, oh, that's interesting. And I'm like, okay. I don't even I don't even know if I have the bandwidth to to do a deep dive on that. I just don't wanna hurt anymore. So to your point, it does require that we sit and get curious. Not always easy to do.
Mahara Wayman [00:24:11]:
Alright. What are some of the biggest things that you've learned about yourself in this journey from who you were to who you are?
Devin DeGreif [00:24:20]:
Yeah. I mean, there's so much. There's so much, but it's really actually the capacity. I would say overall, it's this capacity for enjoyment in life, actually. Because so much of my life was defined by pain and suffering is that really actually learning the amount of of joy and exuberation and high vibration and who I really am, whereas all of that untruth was covering who I believed myself to be based off my life experiences. Right? And so it's really getting back to the core of who I am, which is that inner child spirit. Right? Talking about the curiosity is that we all have this inner child in us. And, you know, I think there's a lot of talk around, like, the dysfunctional inner child, which is like the angry one.
Devin DeGreif [00:24:58]:
But there's but we also have this this the pure creative spirit child within us that is basically covered up by all the rubble, if you will. Right? And it's like clearing away all the rubble of untruth and life experiences to uncover the truth of of who we are. And for me, Devin, it was it was about finding that divine light, finding finding and letting just letting her shine and just getting getting getting out of the way of who I really am. And that, that's really big because, you know, I do pride myself on the resilience I have. But the resilience that I was taught was more of that, like, strength, fortitude, like, bear through anything resilience. When I'm what I've really learned is the resilience that I have is that true spirit resilience of that, like, I stand the test of time. I I'll be here through anything, but it's not from it's that from place state of, like, if you've ever heard heard or read the book Peaceful Warrior, it's about, like, we're yeah. We're in battle, but, like, you have two ways that you can go into battle.
Devin DeGreif [00:25:53]:
You can be fighting or you can be standing your ground and hold holding holding where you're at, holding the line. And that's actually where true healing comes from and where true stillness and, like, peacefulness comes from. Because my stuff still happens. It was just Mother's Day just yesterday. I still have emotions. You know? I'm still gonna get that. But I know that I'm bigger than than than a day, than an emotion, than an experience. And so the the learning of who I really am in the core spirit of of who I am is the biggest takeaway.
Devin DeGreif [00:26:22]:
Like, that that's, like, the real goal of the whole journey. Like, if nobody else ever heard my story. Right? It's like that's the real gold of it is that I have me once again and that and really connected that core truth of myself and can just rest in that.
Mahara Wayman [00:26:35]:
What a great description. And it does come up a lot in the work that I do is this idea that, you know, people will say, I need to find myself. And I'm like, you're not lost. You're there. What we need to do is peel away the crap, the BS that you've taken on. Because within you is the spirit that is so divine, so clear, so true, but you just don't hear the voice anymore. It's been it's been covered up by all of the shoulds and the the all of that stuff that that just warps us if we not if we let it because we're doing our best at any given moment. At every given moment, we are always all of us doing our very best.
Mahara Wayman [00:27:11]:
It just right. It just plays out differently depending on circumstances. Okay. Now let's jump in and talk about what's coming up for you. When did you know you wanted to write this book?
Devin DeGreif [00:27:23]:
Oh my gosh. Literally, like, the days of that conversation in the bathroom, like, with with spirit. Like, I knew I was gonna write a book, so it's been fifteen, sixteen years now. And it was so wild because in the first couple years you know, probably probably not those first three where I was totally disassociated. But after that, when it was like, okay. We're gonna do something with this. And I would try attempts at it in small bouts, but it's been the last two or three years that was like, okay. We're doing this.
Devin DeGreif [00:27:49]:
Like, it's enough. Time it's time. I had, like, chunks of book all over the place. You know? But, it was two years ago really like, okay. Let's really go for it and bring it together and do it.
Mahara Wayman [00:27:59]:
So so good. So as you were writing this book, I've also written a couple books. One was really easy. One was not so much easy. So I'm wondering how your journey was. Did it flow? Was it like divine downloads or was it a real fight? And I say fight in quotation marks of, okay, focus. Alright. What's the connection? Let's put no.
Mahara Wayman [00:28:23]:
This goes here. No. Wait. Stop. Think. Retract. What I would like for you. She's laughing though, so maybe I maybe I No.
Devin DeGreif [00:28:30]:
No. You hit the nail on the head because this is such a and it's such a reflection of what the spiritual journey as a whole is. Right? Like because you can take this micro experience that I have around a book, and we can just plop that on anybody's internal spiritual journey is because what I thought it was about was right? What I thought it what I thought it was about was taking the story and making it make sense. And, like, what do I wanna share? What can I be vulnerable about? What would really connect people? Is that really even needed? So a lot of headspace when I first started. Right? And, that wasn't going anywhere. And so when I actually wrote the book, as I actually wrote it from, intuition, And so I connected to a writing muse and, learned a strategy to write write from truth and write from a writing muse. And so I basically downloaded the book. And, it it's beautiful because what you do is, like, you get yourself out of the way.
Devin DeGreif [00:29:14]:
And as you're downloading the book and the muse is sharing with you, I'm just the vessel vessel to share. But part of it was part of it not only part of it, but the whole thing was it was healing me. And so I was crying onto the pages of the book. I'm I'm putting my soul onto this book, but it's not from a place of this makes sense to share. It's more of this needs to be shared. The soul of this story needs to be shared. And so I I was just there as the conduit to let it move through me, and I was surprised what I was even writing. Like, as I'm writing, I'm like, this is incredible.
Devin DeGreif [00:29:45]:
If I would have written it from my headspace, this would have been a very different book. And so even when I read it and when I hear people, I feel the spirit in there because that's exactly how I ended up writing it. But the struggle to write it came from thinking I knew what needed to be written. But once I got out of the way of my egoic mind and just let my the true soul of myself connect to, to that divine source to to to amuse for the book, when it just came through and, oh my god. It's magic. It's magic. And still to this day, I'm just so surprised every time in the most in the most magical way. Like like, I it it it the book was such a cathartic healing, but not from a place of healing of, like, let me just share my story to make it dramatic.
Devin DeGreif [00:30:29]:
It was like the parts of the story that needed to be shared were shared. The parts that did not need to be shared didn't weren't shared. But there was it was this beautiful blend of my experience, but also what my experience the wisdom that came from the experience. And that's really beautiful about this book and what I always wanted it to, and I knew that it would once I lined up with things was that the story is about grief, but what it's actually about is joy. So, like, this story can be so focused on and can be so focused on the grief and the pain and the loss, but it's more about, like, what what who am I here for you today to speak from that? Right? Like, that's what really came out of it. That's what where my spirit came out. What I want other people to know of, like, if I can come out of that shit, you can come out of your shit. Okay? Like like, that was hell.
Devin DeGreif [00:31:13]:
If if a if a if you can see another soul that's done that, then let me like, let that be a reflection to you of what you're capable of. But it the writing process was another layer of my healing. And then even just speaking with you today and now sharing it verbally with the world is another layer of, like, I don't know what's gonna come out of me, but I know that everything that needs to come out of me will come out of me. Because it's like, I'm getting out of the way and letting my divine like, that purpose. You know, you're talking about purpose, basically, is I have a purpose that I'm here for. And,
Mahara Wayman [00:31:46]:
The other thing that's coming through loud and clear is this level of trust. Now you mentioned it earlier when you used the word surrender. Mhmm. Surrender to the experience. Surrender to the feeling. Surrender to your truth. Even if it scares the shit out of you. It's once you surrender, then everything's change changes.
Mahara Wayman [00:32:06]:
It's almost as if it's almost as if all the gears stop and flip, flip, flip, flip, flip, and you have a whole new a whole new perspective. And a whole new vision. It's like you put on a different lens, a different pair of glasses. Yep. So I love that. This understanding that there is a there is supreme trust that is required to experience this level of growth and or forgiveness and or understanding. Just trusting in yourself, in the process, in in the feelings. The book is written.
Mahara Wayman [00:32:41]:
It's going to drop in two weeks. And, folks, just check the show notes because, of course, the link to purchase it, you can prepurchase it because I already went and checked that out. You can prepurchase it. Get your name on the list. But it does it does drop officially. Is it dropping online only or will it be available in bookstore in hard copy?
Devin DeGreif [00:32:59]:
As of right now, it'll just be online May 28. But if anybody knows of a bookstore who wants to carry it, just ask them and they can find it because it's all available right there. So I I've always seen it being in, in bookstores, but that'll be the next step. So if you have a favorite bookstore, ask them about it.
Mahara Wayman [00:33:16]:
Okay. Do you know the assignment, everybody? Yeah. You know the assignment. You said in earlier in in my intake form that what we perceive as our greatest weakness is actually our greatest strength.
Devin DeGreif [00:33:30]:
And, of
Mahara Wayman [00:33:31]:
course, that ties in beautifully with you with your book. Can you tell us a little bit more about that? Underneath that you came to.
Devin DeGreif [00:33:37]:
Absolutely. Right? It was because this is a common one for everybody, especially but especially women, but it's really everybody of that. So we all have this so I had this point of pain of that. Growing up, I was seen as being too sensitive, too emotional, too too too sensitive, too emotional. Right? And that was seen as a weakness. And then of course, after my mom being killed, I'm very emotional and very sensitive. Right? Like, it's like took that, that experience of me and just amplified it. Well, guess what? That turned out to be my superpower.
Devin DeGreif [00:34:06]:
I'm highly intuit I'm highly intuitive, highly sensitive, and can pick up on people's emotions and pick up on things to help people heal. So but it took me this lens flip of having to take the darkness and the pain of what I was doing, and then going through the transformational process to see the light of who I am and see that some of those very same things are actually my superpower. My ability to read people, whereas in the past was me being hypersensitive and but I could pick up on anything people were saying and know how to engage with a person. But in the back of the day, that was from a place of safety of, like, me being to assess a person to know what their prerogative is, or can I lean in and that sort of stuff? Whereas nowadays, I can if need be. But, like, when somebody comes into my clinic or if I do an online session is I can read a person and, like, pick up intuitive things that they have not told me. Right? It's my intuition is actually my superpower. And I think that's a big big thing that a lot of people that I work with find is is that we're always having little, like, snippets of our truth, little little glimpses of it. Right? Because the truth is we are wearing two sets of glasses right this very moment.
Devin DeGreif [00:35:10]:
Right now we have a glass of glasses of illusion of our ego. And then just like at the at the optometrist, when you can just change it real quick, is you can go into set b. You can go into that that that set it that set b lens to where you're looking from truth. We're always getting glimpses of our truth. It's whether or not we're awake and paying attention. And so I'm sitting there awake and paying attention because I'm treating people and then also healing people. And so I'm looking at all these reflections and coming to find that, like, I'm really freaking intuitive, and I can I can go into like, the way I do my healing with with organs and things, I can go into the most minute detail in someone's nerve or someone's blood vessel? And when I during COVID, I was led to come online. I was like, I can do this online.
Devin DeGreif [00:35:51]:
Like, what? Like, I what? And my mind is blown of what I'm capable of doing, but it's been this evolutionist expansion over the years. But absolutely, oftentimes, people's people, what they're perceiving as their their worst quality is actually their best quality, but it's in it but it's in hiding. And so helping people to see that, but again, it's not it's not from a positive self affirmation of being like, I'm sensitive, but, like, it's a great thing. Right? Like, it's not like that bullshit. Shit. It's actually learning your truth and then seeing the the beauty of all the pain and struggle that that caused you to create that very gift. Right? Like, diamonds need pressure to create a diamond. We need we need the dirt.
Devin DeGreif [00:36:33]:
We need all of that. But it's the gift that's born out of that. So it's usually in the wound that someone's carrying that they hold their greatest gift.
Mahara Wayman [00:36:41]:
So so good. And, again, it comes back to this idea of judgment and nonjudgment. When we can look at a quote gift without judgment, it is what it is. The minute we put judgment on, oh, you cry you're a cry pants or you're a little baby or suck it up buttercup. Don't be so sensitive. There's so much judgment around that gift versus non judgment. So that is so beautiful. Thank you so much.
Devin DeGreif [00:37:04]:
Yeah. Well, I I love that you bring that up because the big thing about was left to our own devices, we're gonna judge ourselves in a certain lens. Right? This is why we need a coach or someone to be reflecting to us truth is because we we're gonna judge ourselves. But if someone's in that neutral space, one, we can learn not to judge ourselves. We can see how we look from a different point of view because we have somebody that there's in service to us. But truth be told, it's really difficult to change those patterns on your own because you're in your own judgment wheel. Right? And so being able to step outside of that, whether it be one on one with a coach, a healer, or something, or, you know, podcasts are a thing where we get we we're able to step out of our lives and, like, view things from a from a wider lens a little bit. But, but, yeah, the truth be told that judgment does harm us, but I think a lot of times people struggle with, okay.
Devin DeGreif [00:37:50]:
So how do I shift out of that? You know? And I think that, view yourself outside of yourself for a hot minute. Right? Like, if you were to step outside of yourself, I bet, you know, if you ask your friends three great qualities about you, they would have three great qualities about you. You know?
Mahara Wayman [00:38:04]:
I remember once, quite a while ago, actually, someone I was chit chatting away at work. This was in Vancouver. And one of my coworkers looked at me and she went, who are you? I'm like and I looked behind me. I'm like, what? I thought I thought, oh my god. Are you stoned? Like, what what? And we kinda laughed it off. And then fairly recently, just a couple years ago, I met a a stranger. I was buying a couch from her actually. And I came in all energized and whatever.
Mahara Wayman [00:38:34]:
And I touched her arm and she started to cry. And she said, who are you? And I went, excuse me? And she said, your energy, who are you? And I realized in that moment well, I didn't. I realized after the moment, but what what I think happened was that she saw me in a way that I just was not ready to recognize. Mhmm. And she saw right through me and she ended up where is it? She ended up gifting me a beautiful sound bowl. It's about this big and it's just this gorgeous sound bowl and I'd always wanted one. And when my husband came to her house to pick up the couch that we bought that I said, yeah. I like the couch.
Mahara Wayman [00:39:09]:
Let's buy it. She said, you need to give this to your wife. This is hers. This is hers. And it was just as I was on the precipice of developing my own business and learning who I was as an entrepreneur and what it is that I I want to bring to the world. But I'll never forget that. There have been a couple times when people have just looked at me and they've seen the real me. I did not see the real me.
Mahara Wayman [00:39:32]:
And I like I said, the first time, I thought she was just stoned. Right? Oh my god. You're stoned at work. Wow. This is crazy. Right? This is going back fifteen, twenty years. Yeah. It's it's interesting that part of the human challenge is that we give ourselves permission permission to step outside.
Mahara Wayman [00:39:49]:
Right? Just give ourselves permission to to tune in even. And I love that you mentioned the basics of mindfulness. Right? Tuning into our senses. That's how my business is called Mindfulness with Mahara, and I'm all about tuning into our senses. What am I hearing? What am I tasting? What am I feeling right now? And and I realized the other day in talking to a client that the reason I tuned into that so well all these years ago, all those years ago was I was tired of being in the past or being in the future. Beating myself up over crap that had happened before and worrying about what was gonna happen in the future. I just needed a break from that. And unbeknownst to me, that would be the beginning of my business was the idea of I just what am I smelling right now or tasting or seeing or feeling? So Mhmm.
Mahara Wayman [00:40:39]:
A little bit of a second.
Devin DeGreif [00:40:40]:
Well, no. I mean, that's the basis. That's why mindfulness is such the foundation of people starting to starting to come into themselves is because the irony is is that we're coming outside. Right? When we're hear what are we hearing? That's outside of myself. What am I smelling? That's outside of myself. It's actually this bridge when we start to become aware as we realize, oh, I am an inner being and there is this outside world, and we start to get this orientation. But it's it's this it's a the awareness of that inner and outer world that allows things to settle, because otherwise, we're just living in our little egoic mind thinking this is all there is. But it's a big deal to start to become aware of like, oh, yeah.
Devin DeGreif [00:41:14]:
I am part of something bigger. And it just starts with what am I hearing? Like, simple it's the simple stuff, actually.
Mahara Wayman [00:41:19]:
And the other thing that it makes me think of, which I've I've always known, but is this idea of feeling better when you're in nature. Right? When we are outside, feet on the grass or on the ground or on the dirt or on the rocks, we are connected to mother earth. And I full disclosure, I used to chuckle chuckle when I'd hear hear people refer to it as mother earth. I'm like, oh, you witchy idiot. What the fuck? It's the ground. Right? It's the backyard. It's the lawn. It's the playground.
Devin DeGreif [00:41:46]:
Mhmm.
Mahara Wayman [00:41:46]:
But now I have a much healthier respect, and I do refer to the outside as mother earth. Yeah. Does fill me. It does energize me. And it for most people. Right? I'll ask them in a session. So what brings you joy? Being outside. Mhmm.
Mahara Wayman [00:42:00]:
I love being outside. I love being outside. And so I think that there is definitely a movement. There is a movement of foot people getting to wake
Devin DeGreif [00:42:09]:
up. Yeah. Well, nature reminds us of our truth. Nature has a very distinct vibration. So I teach about vibrational things is that when we're in in here and in our chaos, there's a very distinct vibration. And when as soon as we're out in nature, the vibration has shifts because we're starting to attune to that environment. And, yeah, for myself, being more of a a western coming from the western side of things, I poo pooed mother earth earth stuff. But I can tell you, referring to mother earth was huge and critical in my journey because having lost my mom, mother earth was my my biggest mother.
Devin DeGreif [00:42:38]:
And she want like, literally one time said, like, let me hold you. Like, I just laid down sobbing on the earth, and mother earth said, let me hold you like a mama would. Yeah.
Mahara Wayman [00:42:46]:
My god. Mhmm. Beautiful. Mhmm. Alright, Devin. Tell us a little bit as we as we wind this amazing conversation to its Yeah. Can you share with us some tips for how we can tune into our body just a little bit more if we are struggling with some part of it, our body?
Devin DeGreif [00:43:07]:
Yeah. So the easiest, most easiest way, honestly, is whatever is loudest, listen. Is that if the body is communicating with you with a sensation that won't shut up, assume that it's meaningful. Don't assume that it's that it's a a pest. Right? It's actually like so if you have a pain in your side or your stomach, like, first thing right now is just follow follow your awareness to imagine that you could walk down inside of your awareness to that spot. And just notice what happens when you stop resisting it and you actually realize or at least play with the idea.
Mahara Wayman [00:43:37]:
Are you
Devin DeGreif [00:43:38]:
trying to tell me something? Like, just sit there with that spot in the body and just notice that's like, this is the most basic mindfulness of, like, okay. There's a sensation. Let me walk to the sensation. Let me be with the sensation, and don't judge it. Just be there with it. And then the next step would be to just say hi to it. Like, just say hi. Yeah.
Devin DeGreif [00:43:57]:
I'm here now. And that will start you on this journey of things are gonna start to open up. Things will start to if you sit with that for first like, just even if you start of three minutes. Like, I think in the beginning, people think this is a twenty minute ordeal. But, like, this in and of itself, you not ignoring the body, coming into the body and spending three minutes with this sensation. I invite you to just see what that's like. Notice what shifts out of that. Because what you're doing now is you're taking your conscious awareness no longer separating from your body and saying, I don't wanna talk to you, but you're taking your conscious awareness and coming saying, hi, body.
Devin DeGreif [00:44:30]:
I'm here. So that'd be one one of the most simple little tips that I can give people to come into your body and start exploring. And the next one would actually involve mother earth, is actually to go outside and to whether it be standing, sitting, but have some sort of contact with her. It can be with your feet, but it can be with your butt too. You could lay down, whatever. Just have contact with the earth. And and I actually invite people to receive from the earth. You know, a lot of times people are actually trying to work and root themselves in is what I actually invite you to do is just to lay there and imagine what it would be like to receive from mother earth.
Devin DeGreif [00:45:05]:
She's always she's always sharing energy resources with us. She has an electromagnetic field that is very healing to us. That's why we love to go to her. But I invite you to consciously be with her. Like, consciously lay down, put your feet in, be like, what would it be like to actually receive energy and love and support from mother earth? And so those are those are my two, like, quick, like, super easy. You don't need any skill in this. Just try it and and and allow your imagination to take hold. And this will start to shift something in in yourself for sure.
Devin DeGreif [00:45:34]:
For sure. For sure.
Mahara Wayman [00:45:36]:
Oh my god. Guys, guess what I'm doing right after this? I'm going outside, laying down on my grass, and I'm going to receive because I it really resonated with me because so often when I'm outside and I put even when I do meditations in my office right here or if I'm outside, it's all about I need to get into, I ground into. But I love this idea of of opening ourselves up to receive. Mhmm. I've never thought of doing it that way. So thank you. Thank you for for both of those tips. Yeah.
Mahara Wayman [00:46:08]:
Is there anything else that you'd like to bring to this conversation?
Devin DeGreif [00:46:11]:
Yeah. Well, I mean, to speak off that is that I would say that if you're trying too hard, might not be the path. Is is that yeah. There's this big conception talking about this whole idea of being a badass and being being resilient and everything is is that if that starts to to feel like your identity, it's it's uncomfortable, like, it doesn't need to be that hard. And I think so to share with you on that, that's a really common one, I think, in the healing world is this whole, like, trying to connect. It's like it's just right there. Let it be. So in general, that be it being a theme of that.
Devin DeGreif [00:46:42]:
If you're trying too hard, it it just may not be the right path and to follow follow where you go, like, as if you could receive the right wisdom of where your next steps are. And then speaking of receiving is I invite you all to receive because I'd love to give all your listeners, the first three chapters of my book for free.
Mahara Wayman [00:47:00]:
That would be wonderful. How how would you do that?
Devin DeGreif [00:47:03]:
So I'm thinking the easiest way is if you just go on my website, I have a simple contact form and just say, hey. I heard you on mindfulness, Munhara, and I'll just email you over the first three chapters. So anybody who would love to get a sneak peek into the book and to start your own journey because the first three chapters, of course, are, like, gonna they're really they re I don't I dive deep real quick. So if you're interested, I would love to share those those, the beginning of the wisdom of the story with you all. So just go on my website, doctordevondegree.com. There's a contact form, and just say, hey. I heard you on Mahara or I, you know, and let me know, and I'll I'll send you over free gift.
Mahara Wayman [00:47:39]:
Folks, I'll I'll put those I'll put those instructions in the show notes as well. And thank you for that, Devin. What a beautiful gift. We really do appreciate that. I wanna thank you so much from me to you because I've loved chatting with you. I'm it's it's so I haven't this is a little bit new, this idea of I was gonna say medical medium, but that's not what I meant to say. It's a little it's more than that. Right? It's it's the bridging and the honesty and the trusting of and the importance of our actual physical body as a possible woman who is very judgmental about where her body's at these days.
Mahara Wayman [00:48:11]:
I'll admit it. I'm especially interested in what you've had to share with our audience today. So thank you for that very much.
Devin DeGreif [00:48:17]:
Yeah. My pleasure.
Mahara Wayman [00:48:17]:
This has been the Art of Badassery. No doubt about it. My guest today is really freaking badass. Check out the show notes so that you can purchase her book and or get the first three chapters ahead of time. This has been the Art of Badassery. We'll see you next week. Thanks for tuning in to another badass episode. Your support means the world to me.
Mahara Wayman [00:48:44]:
So if you enjoyed what you heard today, don't forget to like, share, and rate the episode on your favorite podcast platform. Your feedback keeps the badassery flowing. And, hey, if you're ready to unleash your inner badass and conquer whatever life throws your way, why not book a complimentary badass breakthrough session? Just click the link in the show notes to schedule your session, and let's kick some serious butt together. Until next time, stay fearless, stay fabulous, and of course, stay badass. This is Mahara signing off.
