Wake Up with Susan

Find Your Tribe

• Susan Sutherland

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After setting a personal intention to grow and connect, my journey at the DG MindFest with Derek Grant opened my eyes to the transformative power of community. In this episode, I invite you to explore the profound shifts that occur when we align ourselves with like-minded individuals and begin taking inspired action to call more of your soul tribe to you. 

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Speaker 1:

Rise and shine everybody. It's time to wake up with Susan. Spiritual awakening can be a beautiful, messy and sometimes lonely journey, so let's do it together. I'm your host, susan Sutherland. I'm an intuitive healer and spiritual mentor. We are all called to rise up above our conditioning and limiting beliefs and shine our light on ourselves and others. So let's get to it. Good morning everybody. You might be listening to this in the afternoon and so good afternoon to you. However, it's morning here and I am flying high. I am super happy. I am so excited to talk to you. My bucket is overflowing and if I had not gone to gym this morning, I might be floating away on the cloud. However, there were 100 burpees and that my friend is grounding, so I get to talk to you today after just arriving home last night from DG MindFest.

Speaker 1:

Dg is Derek Grant. His Instagram is at DG Mindset. He's brilliant, he's inspiring, he is an incredible teacher and he has created a community of which I am a member of. So DG Mindfest was our first community get-together, so it was part conference and part tribe fest, and it's really interesting how much I got from the weekend that differed from my expectations. Now, expectations are are I, I highly recommend against them, but because I know of his superpowers of teaching, of you know, we have weekly calls where we get on and you know he's just a bomb dropper, or I should rather say a mic dropper dropper, or I should rather say a mic dropper, that's probably more appropriate. He is a mic dropper and and I think what what I love most about him is he is a seeker, and that's what I love, that's what I consider myself to be. I want to know all of the things I want to learn. I want to just understand how all of this works, and what I am still working on mastering is how to communicate that back so that other people understand it, and that is truly his gift. He is so good at taking complex things and helping you understand how that plays into your life now, how you can make that work for you in your journey, and and so I expected that from him and he delivered. I didn't doubt he would. You know that just that just is. It is his gift. He has stepped into it and delivered on that.

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However, what I intended for but what I got so much more of than I could have possibly anticipated was being filled up by the community. I don't think I realized how much I was lacking in that department until I was filled up by it. I don't even really understand how to express. I guess it's one of those things do you ever get hungry and then you have a little snack and the snack makes your stomach go like there must be more. I'm freaking starving. I guess that's how it was. Where I thought I was a little bit hungry, I thought I needed connection and when I got there, it was like holy cow. I had no idea how much I needed this in my life, and on so many levels, y'all so many levels.

Speaker 1:

I think I'll be able to talk for weeks about what I gathered as personal insights from this weekend away. Some of what was intended, some of it was the content of the programming and some of it was like oh Susan, yes, this girl, this. So I have a lot to share with you on that, but let me just tell you how it started. This is how my weekend started. I set the intention to learn, to grow and to sit in the seats I need to sit in, to meet the people I need, to meet my goal for 2025, which we are taking on now. Now is the time we're doing. That is my goal is impact. I want to make an impact, but I also want to just feel so connected in this world. Right, I want it. I want those connections and that was my intention going into this weekend.

Speaker 1:

I knew one person from the community, maurice, my, my friend, maurice. I see them, I see the community in their zoom squares each week, the ones who are on camera. We see each other, but that's not knowing somebody, that's not really understanding who they are. So there's only one person that I've really connected with in a deep way that I didn't know prior to the community. There's another person that I knew from a different community that no longer resonated with us. We moved out and after I found DG, I told her about it and she's there now, so I did know her already.

Speaker 1:

But I set out for this weekend and I you know it's like go meet strangers who aren't strangers, but I set the intention that I'm going to. I'm going to meet my people, I'm going to find some of my people and I booked my flight late and when you do that and you're not willing to pay the upgrade, when you're already paying more than you should for this flight, that was like two hours. I was booked into a middle seat. Now, I'm not going to tell my husband that, but every time I fly with my family I'm in the middle seat. I am smaller than he is, so I get the middle seat. Or if I'm with my kids, they would you know, they both want to sit with beside me. So I'm in the middle that way, like I am always in the middle. It just is what it is, and and so I'm in the middle. And here I am flying by my freaking self and I've got a middle seat, but it's my own doing.

Speaker 1:

I waited too late to book the ticket and that's just what was going to be. So I went and, as I'm sitting there near the gate gate, I'm looking around like maybe there's somebody here that is going to DG Mindfest as well, like wouldn't it be freaking amazing if there's somebody from Charlotte that I don't know that is hopping on this plane to go the same place? Like wow, what kind of cool connection would that be? And I didn't really spot anybody. I mean, you know, I was looking, but, um, I was also eating my breakfast and doing my thing, um and I. I got on the plane and I was in between two gentlemen, one to my left who fell straight asleep he was asleep in no, no time and then a gentleman on my right and I have I'm, I'm, I'm, so technology, technologically behind. It is no joke.

Speaker 1:

But my, my daughter gave me her like over the ear AirPods when she got new ones. She wanted the in-ear ones, and so it was kind of like a birthday upgrade. You'll get those and then you'll give me these. Well, I don't even know. I didn't even charge the things. I thought, because I haven't used them since last trip, which was a freaking long time ago, that they would still be fine. Turns out they had 1%. So, not putting those over my ear.

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But I do wear hearing aids that have Bluetooth, so I can still listen to my audio book with my hearing aids. Well, I have my audio book up on my phone and it has a picture of the title and I'm listening in my earphones. But you, they're not like the over the ear earphones that say do not talk to me. Nobody around me would even know I was actually listening to this book, because I have these, these hearing aids that you can't even see in my ear, and so I'm listening for a few minutes and then the gentleman to my right asked me if it's a good book and I kind of side eye and I'm like, hmm, let's see how I'm gonna answer this.

Speaker 1:

The book I'm listening to is Convoluted Universe, book three by Dolores Cannon. It is not not her entry level book, meaning Dolores Cannon is a hypnotherapist. There are several books that she has that talks about lives remembered, going into past lives, which might be like a little bit of a jump for a lot of people to be like you're listening to a book about past lives. Well, this is an extra jump because this one is about past lives in the spirit world or the energy worlds or, as the others, as extraterrestrials and all of these different things. And so I've got this guy sitting next to me and I'm like, oh, I'm about to do it. I'm just gonna about to tell him I'm listening to a book about ETs and about multi-dimensionality and we're just going to see how it goes.

Speaker 1:

And instead of looking at me like he was, instead of looking at me like I was crazy, he was like, yeah, okay, I get that. I was like, okay, all right, let's see where we're going to go with this. And so we started talking and then I was like, are you going to see where we're gonna go with this? And so we started talking. And then I was like are you going to DG Mindfest? And he didn't know what it was and he wasn't going there he actually lives in Indianapolis, so he was just going home but we ended up having the most wonderful conscious conversation for the entire flight. It was maybe the only flight I have not looked forward to landing. It was incredible.

Speaker 1:

And he is on this journey and he's figuring things out and he's understanding how his words and his thoughts matter. He understands conscious creation and using positive mindset and visualization and intention to create your reality, and what he needed was confirmation of the path he's on. So I was able to provide that to him. Meanwhile, I am able to provide impact, which is what I was looking for, and out of it we both got a new friend, and so it was really incredible to sit here and have this conversation with him. A random dude on a plane and I'm telling you there wouldn't be many other people on a plane that could have the conversation that we had, that that would feel comfortable in this space, talking about what we're, what we're experiencing, what we understand, what we see that others don't understand and how to navigate that. And it was just really a beautiful connection and he was like I'll see you at DG Mindfest next year.

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I really do think he's going to end up as a part of the community and because I know the beautiful this feels weird to say the man tribe, the gentlemen that are in our community that are active participants. They are dope dudes, like they are men who are having conscious conversations on the regular. They are talking about feelings and experiences and really navigating this course, and I don't think that's a typical man. I don't think a lot of men have that kind of support in their friendship groups and in their, in their family structure, and so for them to have a place to meet with other people and and have that connection is such a beautiful and powerful thing it's like. For the women it's really important to have that connection and for us it's really different, because I think women connect on a lot of levels. But it is a different level when you are not getting together to talk about one another, when you're not getting together to just gossip about your neighbors or what's going on in your community, when you are not bashing your husband when you are having conversation to lift people up. That is a different conversation, that is a different vibration. And so what we are able to hold in the community for one another is it glorious, and I knew that going into it. I know that there's these connections there available in in the community.

Speaker 1:

What I didn't understand is how different it would feel when I had one-on-one group on one time with these individuals. I'm telling you, I don't think I've laughed that much in a weekend. I can't even tell you when, I cannot tell you when I have had that much freaking fun, just absolute silly fun. And we were doing deep work. We were doing, you know, heartfelt, intense listening during the conference and when it was over. I guarantee you this is the only time that embassy suites lobby has been full of people having that much fun and actually not drinking, like even the people who typically drink. We're not drinking, we're just having amazing conversation and laughing so hard. And I do feel like that is just the past two days I have felt more authentically me than I have in so long, and so they unlocked parts of me that I didn't even realize needed to be unlocked, and so it's been really interesting to feel into what I gathered from the experience. So I have so much to share with you growth that I experienced from the weekends.

Speaker 1:

But the first and most important and biggest aspect of that is the importance of finding your tribe, of finding the people who, yeah, they might sit with you in the dark but they're also going to be like girlfriend, get up and walk. You are the light to move forward. We can't stay here licking wounds forever. We have to be accountable to our story. We have to be accountable for shifting our perspective and navigating forward. We have to choose to be around people who are choosing growth, who are learning and growing and not taking this life for granted, and so I want to really encourage you. Perhaps you can't get to a conference like that. I know it's not always available for people to take a whole weekend to go and connect with others, but there's other ways to do it, so I just want to talk about that today.

Speaker 1:

First of all, I think it is really important to make space. You have to make space energetically for new connections, and sometimes that means releasing the old connections. Now, a lot of this happens organically. As you start to do this work, your friendships will fall away and a lot of times we can hang on. We can feel lonely. We can, we can try to, you know, drag those friends behind us. You know I feel like it's kind of this energetic cord with the aluminum cans like clanking behind you. You know they're not meant for you, but having something there, having that noise behind you, kind of softens the experience of being alone.

Speaker 1:

But I want to encourage you to make space have a perspective shift of not I am alone, but I have created space for aligned connection because the universe cannot stand a vacuum. When you create space, something else will fill it in. Go ahead, go ahead and clean out your junk drawer today and see how it looks next Monday. You create a vacuum. More stuff is going to go in that drawer. It just is. You can't keep it clean. It didn't get the name junk drawer for nothing.

Speaker 1:

But when you create space in your life for new connections, they have to come to you, set the intention. I want to make aligned friendships. I want to call in relationships that suit me now, that suit my growth, that support me where I am now, that are in resonance with this frequency that I hold now. We have to call in those connections. But if you're one of those people who keep your calendar chakrabart full because you don't like the feeling of stillness, you don't like the feeling of being alone, then you have not created space for those relationships. So it's really important, as you do this work and maybe feel lonely, shift your perspective and say I am creating the space I need to call in those connections that are aligned with my vibration right now, because we deserve those connections that support where we're going.

Speaker 1:

We cannot keep dragging the past behind us and expecting to accelerate at the pace that, if you're listening to this podcast, I know you want to be at. We want to find divine life of passion and joy and happiness and we cannot keep like tying ourselves to the garbage and pulling it forward. I know those people served, in whatever capacity that they did for so long and we can release that with love and say thank you for being part of this season. Thank you for for showing me. You know that I have grown. You can feel when people are no longer in alignment with you and it's okay to acknowledge that they played a very important part for you and in your life for a season, and it's also okay to acknowledge that you've outgrown the relationship, and so I really encourage you to make a conscious cord cutting or boundary setting or intention to release some of the relationships that just no longer serve you or are aligned with who you know you're becoming, because we really are the product of our relationships.

Speaker 1:

We need to be aligned with the people who are doing the things we want to do, who are, you know, have the practices that we want to have, because if you have a commitment to yourself that you're going to do these non-negotiables every day, but the people that you're calling and talking to, that you're sharing time with, don't have that same discipline, they don't have those same practices. They're not going to encourage you, they're just going to be. Like me, neither, you know, I slept till 11. I, you know, rolled over. I haven't worked out in three weeks. You need somebody who is going to hold you accountable to your goals that you made for yourself. You need the people who have their own goals, who are striving for things, who are, who are trying to grow and expand and bring more light and love into this world. So you have to maybe put yourself out there, create the space and then put yourself out there. It might be uncomfortable. It is hard to make new friends as an adult. I'm not saying it's easy, but you have to put yourself in situations where you can.

Speaker 1:

I think there's a funny meme where it's like in my 20s I thought I could meet the man of my dream in a bar and now I know that he's going to have to find me at 7 o'clock in my house in pajamas, like they're no longer going out and looking for it. So it is one thing when we have, you know, kind of sealed ourself off from the rest of the world, it's hard for those soul connections to find you. So it's really important for you to look in places that they might be, that the people who would resonate with you might be, and so that's probably not at a club or a bar. So are there other things that you really enjoy doing? Or maybe you've never done but you would enjoy trying? That would be a place that those people are at. I know the the bag lady and some intuitive places near me in charlotte host. They have full moon circles and they have sound healings, and there are other experiences like that where you know that the people who show up are on some kind of journey. Now I'm not saying that everybody who's showing up for those are going to resonate with you.

Speaker 1:

There are different chapters of this journey. There are different chapters of this journey. There are different styles of writing. Every story is not the same, and so even at this conference, there are certain groups that just were in resonance together, that maybe were not vibrating as the same frequency as other groups, or that just kind of spoke a different language, and that's okay.

Speaker 1:

But we were in a group of so many people that you knew you could find some, some people. And it might take trial and error, like going to a yoga class or maybe a hiking meetup. Or if you have a different passion where you could, I don't know. Give if you love art, different passion where you could, I don't know, give if you love art but you've never tried watercolor, don't go to a private instructor. Go to a course and find other people who might be trying it for the first time too, and see with that intention, like I want to meet new people that will expand me, that will support me, that will bring me joy. I want to meet these people, universe, show me, show me where these people are and start putting yourself out there, into these groups, into local events that have other people who are working on the same thing you are.

Speaker 1:

I think it's really important to be brave, knowing that it is worth it. I mean, I got on a plane and I went to a different state and I haven't met these people in person, but I know from previous experience. I mean, the coach that I'm working with right now is somebody that I met in May of 2023 at a Hay House convention. I went to the convention and in one of the workshops we got paired off and we got paired off and we did a really deep exercise with a perfect stranger where you're like staring into their eyes and she and I were working together. And now, nearly a year and a half later, you know we connected there, followed each other on Instagram and have kept kept up.

Speaker 1:

She's actually been a guest on this podcast, christina Amador. She was a guest on the podcast and now I'm working one-on-one with her because I knew that we had a connection and you don't know why. You don't know why there's this beautiful thing. I did have her, I had her on the podcast, like I say, but later I just knew, I knew her energy, I knew that I could work really well with her and so I'm excited to be doing that now. But it's putting myself out there into this big conference, and in that conference there were other people there. I made one great friendship out of the people I already knew from a different online community that I was meeting there. There was one incredible friendship that I made. I actually went to another conference with her this past January and then I met Christina, who's now my mentor, and so that all just comes from being brave, and that was the first conference I'd ever been to of a spiritual nature, and a year and a half later, I'm still reaping the benefits of those relationships and I'm so grateful that I did it All right.

Speaker 1:

The last thing I will say is put away all of expectations of what you think your tribe looks like, because you don't know. You do not know what they look like. You know what they feel like. You know when someone is in resonance with you, you can feel comfortable. It is a person who makes you feel at home, that makes you feel you can be authentically you that you are so comfortable with that. You your nervous system and like shooting up warning signals left and right and you might not get that from your, your first interaction. We are kind of conditioned to have these walls up, to have these barriers up. I know I bubble every morning to protect my energy, and so should you, samira. So we have to kind of gauge people out and that's okay. Like you might not hit home run your first at bat, it doesn't mean you're on the wrong team. I don't think that metaphor even works. But anyway, it is important for you to find the people who are comfortable, and you really don't know what they look like.

Speaker 1:

Our little crew. We are from different parts of the country. We are of different religions or non-religions, or past religions or whatever. We are different shades of people. We are different hairstyles and hair. Well, I mean, one of my soul sisters is my tennis ball, and I say that because I love her so much and she allows me to. But I'm going to have her on here at some point because her journey is one that has to be shared and she knows this, so she can start it here. But she has alopecia. She lost all of her hair and has been doing the work at such a profound level that that shit is coming back, y'all, and that is how we heal the physical by doing the inner work. She's a badass and because I love tennis, she is my little fuzzy tennis ball. I love her too.

Speaker 1:

So you don't know what your people look like.

Speaker 1:

I wasn't out there. Like I love tennis, let me find a tennis ball. I'm just kidding Lord. But you don't know, you don't know, you can't see them. You feel them. You find the people that are home. So I've got my friend Betty in town who when I see her and hug her it feels like home. She is home to me.

Speaker 1:

I've known for a long time that she was my soul sister. Now it took us meeting and being in the same space for a while when I was at a gym for a little while and then I left for a couple of years and something took me back. I know what it is. We were meant to be in this relationship, in this friendship, and I feel so comfortable with her and I can be myself with her and in spite of her previous resistance, she is learning that she can put her walls down to that. She has a safe space to be as well, and it's really important to find those relationships, to have those people that will hold you and hug you and also say and now, what are we going to do about this? Now, what are we going to do to move, you know, out of the mud puddle and into the giggle puddle, because that's where I like to live? So, um, so I just really encourage you to be bold and be brave and find, find your people, find your tribe. I really cannot tell you how motivated and excited I feel because of the love that was poured into me this past weekend.

Speaker 1:

I'm going to talk about how they served me on a different episode, because it's one I really want to expand on, but I want you to know that you need something too. There's something that you don't even know you need until you have the people who are equipped to give it to you. And so I really want you to create the space for aligned connection, create the space by you know who they are. You know the connections that no longer serve you. They are energy vampires or they are ones that keep you in the 3D. The conversations bring you down, they lower your vibration, they make things heavy, not uplifted, and it is time for us to say goodbye, to say thank you so much for the time that we had together and I am ready to move on. And when we do that, we really create the vacuum we need to call in those connections. And so I am, I'm pumped, I am here and I am ready and I've got so much more to share.

Speaker 1:

But I wanted to start there by saying get out there and meet some people. While we are going through this world, especially this political cycle, it can get dense, it can get heavy, and you don't have to get caught in that. There are amazing and beautiful people out there who are looking for you. They're looking for you. So put your antenna up and say, here, I am, I'm here, I'm ready, I want this connection. Come find me, I'm ready for it. I love you guys.

Speaker 1:

I am excited to talk to you next week. It is not going to be like, oh, what am I going to talk about? I'm like, oh, how do I pare this down? I've got so much to share. So have a great week, have a week full of laughter and joy. We need more of it in this world and that's what I'm going to start delivering. So I love you. Bye. Thank you so much for joining me this week. Be sure to not miss any upcoming episodes by subscribing to the podcast. That way, it's available automatically in your RSS feed. This is a crazy journey. Let's do it together.

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Susan Sutherland

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