In this episode, I’m sharing some updates and reflections from my social media logout and musing about what could be possible if more people took the time to carefully consider the impacts of so much social media. I’m also exploring the importance of experimenting and testing things out to find the best answers to life’s biggest questions. In a world where so many people are constantly telling us what and how to think, practicing thinking for ourselves and drawing informed conclusions is a really important practice.
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In episode 431 of the Embodied Podcast we discuss:
(4:24) How testing things out is the only way to find a conclusion that works for you
(9:28) The belief that social media reflects someone’s level of success
(14:48) Excerpts from the School of Sacred Embodiment’s new ‘about’ page
(20:34) Why sacred embodiment and wild soul liberation are crucial to purpose and power
(23:21) Helping people find a route into spirituality that works for them
(30:40) The relationship between social media and people who want to help themselves
(34:31) The potential outcome of a mass social media exodus
Resources mentioned in the episode:
- View the School of Sacred Embodiment’s new ‘about’ page
- Listen to episode 426, “Reclaiming My Focus”
- Our conversation around paradox in episode 429
Work with me:
- Join me on July 22nd for the Soulful Prosperity Workshop
- Join the interest list for POWER 2023 – applications open on 7/17, we start on 8/8
Special offer:
Stay in touch:
- NEW! Join our Free Wild Soul Community on Mighty Networks
- Subscribe to my Substack
- Catch the full show notes for episode 425 here
- Email us with questions or feedback
- Don’t miss an episode of The Embodied Podcast
Quotes from this Week’s Episode of the Embodied Podcast:
- Social media is too full of people wanting others to think how they think. I just want to show up, share what I’m asked to share by my divine and ancestral support squads, and let it land for people however it needs to any given day.
- I’m a big believer that the only way to know if things actually work for us or serve us is to test them out. And the only way to not delude ourselves about whether or not things work for us is by testing them out.
- If people made a mass exodus from social media, the world would change in a lot of dramatic unnecessary ways, simply because it would allow folks to connect more deeply and more regularly with their souls. It would free up a lot of mental and emotional space and bring back their abilities to focus on things that truly matter to them, and engage with life and relationships and much more meaningful ways.
How was this episode for you?
Was this episode helpful for you today? I’d love to know what quote or lesson touched your soul. Let me know in the comments below OR share the episode on Instagram, tag me your stories @elizabethdialto, or send me a DM!
About the Embodied Podcast with Elizabeth DiAlto
Since 2013 I’ve been developing a body of work that helps women embody self-love, healing, and wholeness. We do this by focusing on the four levels of consciousness – physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual.
In practical terms, this looks like exploring tools and practices to help you tune into the deep wisdom of the body and the knowing of the heart, which I believe are gateways to our souls. Then we cultivate a new relationship with our minds that allows the mind to serve this wisdom and knowledge and soul connection, rather than override it, which is what many of us were taught.
If you’ve been doing self-help or spiritual development work for a while, these are the types of foundational things that often people overlook in pursuit of fancier concepts that often aren’t practical or sustainable. Here, we will focus on building these strong foundations so you can honestly and thoroughly embody self-love. If you’re feeling it, subscribe to the show, and leave us a review wherever you listen from. You can also keep up with show updates and community discussions on Instagram here.
Transcript for Episode 431 “Living My Best Social Media Less Life“:
Elizabeth DiAlto 00:00
I don’t share everything I share because I want you to think how I think I share everything I share because I want you to think for yourself. Social media is full of people wanting others to think how they think. I just want to show up share what I’m asked to share about my divine and ancestral support squads, and let it land for people however it needs to any given day.
Elizabeth DiAlto 00:22
Hello, everybody, welcome to episode number 431 of the embody podcast. I am your host Elizabeth DiAlto. Today we’re talking about Living My Best Social Media Less Life. Part of this episode is written out part of it, I’ll just be riffing. And I’m excited to talk more about this topic. Before I dive in, though, I have two reminders for you. Number one, is the upcoming Soulful Prosperity Workshop. That is on July 22, which is Mary Magdalene feast day.
Elizabeth DiAlto 00:54
And if you want to explore a framework for prosperity that’s rooted in sufficiency, sustainability, soulfulness, and satisfaction, and allows you to engage with prosperity in ways that are aligned with your values deeply personal to you, and really help you to navigate living in a lot of the paradoxical and like double binding aspects of the capitalistic culture that we’re all in. This workshop is going to be phenomenal for that. So check it out at untamed yourself.com forward slash soulful dash prosperity as well, I want to put a little asterix on this, especially if you’re a person who tends to like over give under charge, under value. And it’s not necessarily about self worth. Because what I noticed is there are a lot of people out there, myself included, this is something I’m always dancing the line on is I value myself plenty. But just like having a consciousness around inclusivity. And accessibility sometimes has me under charging or undervaluing my offerings, really, because I just want as many people as humanly possible to be able to access them. So the framework of sufficiency, sustainability, soulfulness, and satisfaction, also really help us come into better alignment with all of that. And as well just like keep our eye on it. Because of course, there’s always going to be different phases and stages of life where, you know, we’re really flowing with it. And it’s great and other times where it’s more challenging, because that’s just how life is.
Elizabeth DiAlto 02:33
My second announcement is that I am rebooting my power program this month, applications open on July 17. And this program is built around my wild soul liberation framework. And specifically, we’ll be focusing on journeying into the mystical heart. So essentially, it is a year long mystical mentorship for people who want to live a deeper, more satisfying and powerful life, guided by their own soul and rooted in spirituality that works for them. So in an increasingly secular world, where a lot of people have been turned off and disappointed by religion, there are a lot of spiritual seekers and mystical hearts out there, looking to find the community and practices that work for them. Power is designed to help you map your own way and anchor into a solid spiritual foundation that isn’t rigid or dogmatic, that will grow and evolve with you throughout the course of your life.
Elizabeth DiAlto 03:28
So if that sounds exciting and important to you get on the interest list for that at untamed yourself.com forward slash, power Dash 2023 Dash interest. You could also just go to the show notes for this episode at untamed yourself.com forward slash podcast, we’re just looking the description on whatever platform Spotify, iTunes, where you listen to podcasts, and you’ll find a link for all that stuff as well.
Elizabeth DiAlto 03:53
So getting into today’s topic, Living My Best Social Media Less Life, if you listened to episode number 426, which was called Reclaiming my focus, you know that I am logged out of Instagram and Facebook for the summer with the possibility of being logged out forever. Really, I’m conducting an experiment around this. So coming up on a month being logged out, I thought I’d give a little update, as you know, or maybe you’re new to the podcast. So you’re learning this for the first time. I conduct a lot of experiments in my life, because I’m a big believer that the only way to know if things actually work for us or service is to test them out. And the only way to not delude ourselves about whether or not things work for us is by testing them out and just seeing getting some friggin data instead of like constantly hypothesizing or like rationalizing. And this is important because we can listen to other people’s advice all day, but it’s not always appropriate for us. And we’re also living in a time when we’re just inundated with other people’s advice all the friggin time, and regardless of how vehement people can get about things, or how appropriate their methods are, for them, or for specific people, if it’s not a fit for us, it’s not a fit for us. And that doesn’t mean there’s something wrong with us because it worked for somebody else.
Elizabeth DiAlto 05:17
But again, the only way to truly know is to test it out, and not just like once, but to conduct an experiment over a period of time, that is substantial enough to get some conclusive results. So trying something out for a few days is not going to give you conclusive data. And what I love about this is that it removes the wondering, you know, many people are afraid of conclusions, by the way, like, there’s a reason why a lot of people won’t take the time to actually try things out for a long enough period of time to be able to get a conclusive result. Because conclusions often reveal truths that a lot of people don’t want to have to face. This is why a lot of people don’t try things or go all in, because if they don’t know, they don’t have to decide or make choices that are sometimes hard to make, which is a way of playing it safe. But it’s really playing it vague. And when you play it vague, you create a life rooted and a lot of thinking and guessing but not a lot of truth. And listen, if you’re feeling called out by that, or if you’re seeing like where it could possibly be reflected in your life right now, I know it might be uncomfortable, but like, don’t feel bad about that. Don’t beat yourself up about that. It’s it’s very, very common human nature.
Elizabeth DiAlto 06:26
So I call this episode, social media less, Mike, my Living My Best Social Media Less Life, because it’s not entirely social media free. So I want to read you, I wrote about this in an email last week. So let me read you this email, because I detailed some of this, and we’ll talk about it a bit more. So about three weeks ago, I logged out of my business account on Facebook and Instagram for the summer, I intended to take a longer break than I ever had before, to evaluate whether or not I’d ever want to go back, I can tell you after being logged out for three weeks that being logged out is glorious.
Elizabeth DiAlto 07:03
And I’m laughing because you know, I’ve taken a lot of social media breaks over the years. But this is different. It always feels nice to logout. And there’s something different about this because in the past, I’ve always logged out knowing that I would be logging back in. But this time logging out, knowing that there was a strong chance I wouldn’t be logging back in feels very different. I did keep a private account on Instagram, just for looking things up that are only on Instagram. But I don’t scroll I don’t look at any stories. I don’t post anything there. It’s essentially just for using Instagram as a search engine for small and local businesses. Since a lot of those use Instagram more than they use an actual website. And I want to tell you something I’m obsessed with. I’m obsessed with not feeling any pull to check, create or effort on social media. I’m also obsessed with no longer creating social content. And this is something I really didn’t anticipate. Because originally I was thinking that I would post similar content in the free wild soul community on mighty networks that I do on Instagram. But it turns out, I was not just logging out of Instagram, I was opting out of creating short bite size, social media specific content. And it also turns out that I was much more tired of that than I realized.
Elizabeth DiAlto 08:20
So what’s happening instead in the free wild soul community is actual conversation and connection. We geek out on the podcast every week. And I’m gonna get back to the podcast in a moment because there’s a really cool thing that’s been happening with the podcast related to logging out of social media that I hadn’t anticipated. I post two or three times a week in the free wild soul community with prompts like how do you identify spiritually or tell us about your real life happy endings, and we get to learn so much cool shit about each other. That is what I love about online community. And that’s what makes it feel worthwhile to me. Because something I’ve always been a huge advocate of is reading about learning about listening to hearing people’s stories, so that we can expose ourselves to other people’s lived experiences. And of course, we still share hilarious memes once a week. If you were following me on Instagram, you know that I used to do Saturday sillies posts every Saturday, I do a meme dump of hilarious things. We do it on Fridays now. And it’s so literates I call it Friday funnies. Also, because I don’t need to be logged into shit on the weekends, I could be out living my life, were just resting or relaxing.
Elizabeth DiAlto 09:28
So I’m also obsessed with not putting myself out in the world to be grazed upon mostly by people who are never going to be interested in going any deeper than that, which is par for the course on all social media platforms. And it really is misleading how you know over the last decade, it’s been built up in a lot of people’s minds belief systems and imaginations about influence and business growth and productivity that you know amassing a lot of followers on social media is any kind of direct reflection or correlation to how successful someone might be in their business, but the fact of the matter is, especially these days, social media just does not convert to business does not convert to revenue. clients, customers are people who actually pay you for what you do in any kind of significant or substantial way. Unless you’re paying for ads, some people do have incredible organic conversions. But that is so rare these days, it used to be used to be that way, far more often, for more people, myself included, but that ship has kind of sailed, especially on platforms like Facebook and Instagram, again, unless you like living there. Unless you’re like living there all the time figuring out how to hack the goddamn algorithm and shit like that. It’s just, it’s really, the ROI is really a lot more investment and a lot less return.
Elizabeth DiAlto 09:28
So thing I want to say about the podcast is earlier this year, when I was producing the real uplevel interview series, I stopped interviewing people on the podcast, because that would have been entirely too much interviewing for me for like two or three months there. And as I was recording these shorter solo episodes, each week, this natural rhythm began to emerge. And at some point in the week, here’s what happens, the topic for the following weeks podcasts, we’ll just, you know, drop in. And I’ll either jot down a few bullet points about it, or sometimes the whole episode just kind of pours right through, and I end up typing out an entire script, then over the course of the next few days, I’ll look back over it and either refine the bullet points or the scripts, I usually record it at some point between a Friday and a Monday, and it’ll air the following Monday.
Elizabeth DiAlto 11:37
Now creatively in my truth telling, and in my souls need for expression, this rhythm has become more than that. It’s a weekly ritual, it feels so much better than creating that bite size, social content I mentioned earlier, which by the way, was often something I was like sitting down with an intention to do. And while it would still be, you know, my voice, and genuine like reflections, and coming from things that I teach all the time, and valuable and legitimate content, there is just something that feels so much more potent, and natural and like tuned in, tapped in and soulful to me about how these podcast episodes kind of drop in every week, right? It’s like the thing that’s floating around that needs or wants to be said for the following week, taps me on the shoulder, I say yes, and we begin the creation process together. As always, I’m not here to preach that to others should do what I do. I’m just sharing what’s real, and in this case, very, very exciting and enjoyable for me right now. I’m curious, though, what other people’s relationships to social media are like these days.
Elizabeth DiAlto 12:47
So if you’re in the free wild soul community, or if you want to join the free wild soul community, and you’re a woman identifying person, go to untamed yourself.com, forward slash free Dash community. And I would love to hear from you. Some people did also respond to this email. And I took some interesting notes from folks about how they’re engaging with social media these days. Something I also wanted to share is as a result of being locked out of social media, I really have to say it is incredibly humbling and eye opening, just how much energy and attention I was putting into that kind of unknowingly, and also how it was distracting me and really, really, really messing with my focus and giving my fullest most careful attention and energy to other things. And something I’ve done since I’ve been logged out of social media is update the about page on the website at untamed yourself.com. And I think the other week, I read you a little piece of the about page, where we talk about spiritual Special Ops, there was a podcast episode where it was called on spiritual special ops or something like that.
Elizabeth DiAlto 13:59
But here’s a couple little excerpts that I want to share with you from the new about page, you can also read it by going to untamed yourself.com forward slash about First things first. I’ve never been one who’s been very good at like describing what I do or giving myself a name or a label. And you know, over the years people will give me whatever name or label makes sense to them in their brain. Sometimes it’s very basic stuff like I was interviewed on a podcast recently and the guy called me a coach and I was like whatever like on identify as a coach, I wouldn’t consider myself a coach. Certainly coaching happens in my work, but that’s just so not how I would describe myself professionally. It also just doesn’t matter because here’s the thing, if people are coming into my world for this medicine that we offer through the school of sacred embodiment, it doesn’t matter what they call me What matters is that they get what they need. But I wrote on the about page here that I’m the founder of the School of sacred embodiment, and hosts of the embody podcast. Essentially, I am a map making mystic here to help guide you home to yourself.
Elizabeth DiAlto 14:59
I think of me like essential truth bringing wild soul friends slash mentor, who was also part Carebear and exceptionally skilled at helping people tap into their true power and purpose. This page is part info and part love letter to your soul to my soul, and to the soul of the School of sacred embodiment. Welcome. We are also glad you’re here. And there’s something about offering an About page on my website as a love letter to your soul to my soul and to the soul of the school, instead of having it be, you know, which is what it’s supposed to be accorded marketing people on a website is like little introduction to you that essentially shows people how to work with you and makes people want to work with you. I’m sure this page will still have that effect. But everything in my life now that I’m logged out of social media feels like I have such an increased capacity for being more relational, with everything. Because ultimately, at the end of the day, no matter how relational you are, social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, tick tock are so transactional, and there’s no avoiding that. And there honestly is no minimizing it either.
Elizabeth DiAlto 16:11
So this is also from the about page what I’m about to read you imagine a society that is built on sacredness, not sacrifice. This is my wildest dream. It’s what I believe is possible and why my body of work is for mystics and spiritual seekers. We are the ones who came to embrace the complex and paradoxical nature of life and bring immense healing, liberation and grace to all of it. And by the way, all of that was essentially like to run on sentences. So the next thing I wrote was, I think I write and run on sentences because I myself am a run on sentence. I’m a highly creative, psychic and sensitive, mystical, mixed race, multi ethnic woman with Caribbean Taino roots. It took me a very long time to discover all of my parts and all of my gifts, embracing, expressing and integrating is my own ongoing healing and liberation work. If your heart burns, to know the divine, commune with your ancestors, serve love and be part of a reverent revolution for Sacred living, you’ve got a wild soul to no matter who you are, where you’re from, what you do, who you love, where you went to school, or how much money you make, the world needs more of us living out here, untamed.
Elizabeth DiAlto 17:30
My job, I put that in quotes, is to help you peel away the layers of wounding and conditioning that help keep you from fully embodying all of your gifts and all of your parts. So you can let your wild soul guide your life. And I want to go back to that sentence, no matter who you are, where you’re from, what you do, who you love, where you went to school, or how much money you make, I put that in there. Because again, it is just so rampant in the over culture that we live in, for people to base their worthiness, and externally for access to resources to be determined by who people are, where they’re from, what they do, who they love, where they went to school, or how much money they make. And so one of the things I love about the school of sacred embodiment, and the communities that I get to build is that we get to look at these things that we think are garbage practices, and systems out in the big over culture, worlds in the greater society and go listen in our little microcosm here, and our little society, we just don’t do things like that. So the next thing I put on the page are our values. And I wrote in an Age of Spiritual influencers and cult II. Look at me lifestyle brands running rampant on social media, the true meaning, gravitas, and significance of certain language has become very diluted. In this school, we always aim to bring depth, realness and respect to everything we share.
Elizabeth DiAlto 19:03
So here are our values defined in clear and sacred terms that we actually practice and embody, because I think we all know there’s plenty of people out there, putting their values and their mission statements and their justice and anti racist business statements on their websites. And they just really don’t put their money where their mouth is when it counts, right. So here are our values joy, and for us joy is about prioritizing. Curiosity, beauty, humor and pleasure, love, and for us love includes truth, integrity, and real deal compassion and forgiveness. I’m talking about the kind that acknowledges harm done and does not bypass trauma and responsibility. Liberation, which for us requires awareness analysis and action. hat tip to Dr. Dr. Barbara J. Love for that framework. This means healing and cultivating community and freedom for everyone, not just us.
Elizabeth DiAlto 19:59
select few, also grace, so much grace, then we have peace and peace for us is born from devotion to practicing and embodying genuine humility equanimity, non attachment, surrender and trust. And finally there’s prosperity, which for us means in order to truly serve the collective, not just individuals or privileged pockets of society, prosperity must be rooted in sufficiency, sustainability, satisfaction, and soulfulness. In other words, this ain’t just about the money, honey.
Elizabeth DiAlto 20:34
So I also wanted to share more about sacred embodiment and wild soul liberation. So here’s what I wrote about that sacred embodiment facilitates healing and wholeness, which are crucial pathways to true purpose and power. embodiment on its own means having a felt sense of connection to your body and awareness of your nervous system. When you’re embodied, you can notice a name your sensations, emotions, and feelings states, on the deeper, more wild and sacred levels that we focus on here. embodiment gives you access to your body’s wisdom, signals and communication. Practicing sacred embodiment, enhances your ability to perceive your intuition, and also the presence of spiritual guidance and support in the School of sacred embodiment. We don’t separate the human and the soul, or the body and the spirit, getting in a place where you can treat all of your parts and I really mean, every aspect of you, with equal reverence is the root of our medicine. This is important for collective healing and liberation. Because once you’ve learned to treat yourself this way, treating others this way, and standing up for what you believe in, comes more naturally to so difficult things like courageous conversations, setting boundaries, developing unwavering self trust and self worth, leading with love letting go of the past, and releasing habits like control codependency and people pleasing, are so much easier when your wild soul is free to power up your life.
Elizabeth DiAlto 21:57
And then exciting things like becoming excellent and inspired at using your voice, being an amazing lover, friends, sister, mother, activist, leader, business owner, or whatever else it is that you desire to do and be or dream about creating also becomes easier, when you just know in your bones that life also wants those things for you. I also share some of how the school came to be which you’re welcome to read on the page there.
Elizabeth DiAlto 22:22
And as well, at the bottom of the page, I wrote, As I write this as 2023. And I’m looking back on the last decade, seeing it as the magical period of research and development that it was, it’s been an intense honor and a privilege to create this school, where we help 1000s of women to embody healing, grace and liberation and become shining examples of them too. I listed out some of our creations like the embody podcast, or signature healing frameworks, the wild soul movement practices liberatory, and life altering approaches to body reverence, holy consistency, wild dreaming, and prayer, a bunch of our offerings. And I ended the page by saying that I’m beginning to imagine what’s in store for the next decade at the School of sacred embodiment. And all I can tell you right now is that it feels very expansive.
Elizabeth DiAlto 23:09
So I hope you’ll get in on this ever unfolding liberatory adventure with us, and see for yourself. And if you are here, listen, this podcast, you are on the liberatory adventure with us. So thank you for being here. So one of the things that has emerged over the last decade in the School of sacred embodiment, that I certainly didn’t anticipate being a as significant, a part of my work as it is, is really helping people to find and route into spirituality in a way that works for them. So the other week, I did a post in the free wild soul community and mighty networks, where I asked people, How do you identify spiritually, and I wrote on that post, it’s okay, if you never thought about this before, or don’t feel the need to label yourself. If that’s the case, just say that in the comments, I use the word mystic and spiritual seeker a lot personally identify as a mystic, and I’m curious how would you describe yourself as a spiritual being or practitioner or believer and why I asked him put this out there because for some naming, it gives it life and strength in a personal way that celebrates your choice, especially if you’ve had labels put or forced on you in the past without consent. Like often happens with some religions, it can also give meaning and strength when you’ve never identified as anything before.
Elizabeth DiAlto 24:33
So no matter where you land on this, since there’s no right or wrong, I’d love to hear about it. I’d have to tell you, there was such a rich conversation evolved on this post people coming from all kinds of different places, you know, people writing things like whoa, where’s the it’s complicated button. I’m still trying to figure out how to label it in a way that people understand. Because spiritual but not religious doesn’t quite fit and other people share it of having like strong religious upbringing.
Elizabeth DiAlto 25:00
Some people shared not having any religious upbringing at all and trying to find their own thing. Somebody shared. I thought about this question all day long, I’ve been calling myself spiritual Seeker for lack of better terminology. But that doesn’t quite feel right. Then I was browsing, browsing some old journaling, and found an entry from two years ago. And they share that. And I’m not going to share that part. But they said, you know, this community reminds me that I’m not alone in this journey. But I’m still in fear of the journey. And that kind of goes back to what I was saying earlier, about why people don’t conduct experiments, or why people won’t really like, try things out deeply. They’ll like try things out for a little bit, but they won’t go in enough to really see how it works for them or not. Because people are afraid, often of the outcomes.
Elizabeth DiAlto 25:48
People share other things like in some ways, a pluralist or humanist makes sense for me strong Christian influencing, things started to get better for me when I saw God and the divine as life itself, and like water, and in our breath, and in the cosmos. And I love this, there are deep ties to my spirituality and my deepening relationship between the divine and nature, including humanity, and sexuality and gender. And this is what I really love about the conversation, right? Because a relationship to an all encompassing spirituality is always going to weave into every area of our lives. Unlike in a lot of ways we see specifically a lot of spiritual and religious people who do not practice what they preach in every area of their lives, right, people who might be like Bible thumping on Sunday, and then, you know, in their businesses, underpaying their people, or, you know, doing cutthroat business deals or cheating on their spouse. It’s like, okay, these things don’t go together. So I love I love this idea of weaving it through every single area of life.
Elizabeth DiAlto 26:56
Other people just had labels, which shadow worker seeker sear, and you know, one of my favorite shares on the post was from a woman who’s actually an atheist. And it was funny, because she wrote at the top of her comment, takes a deep breath, hope she doesn’t get kicked out of the group. To which I responded, by the way, you’d have to be a toxic harmful asshole to be kicked out of the group. And you certainly aren’t, love the share. And I’m glad that being a wild soul resonates. Because one of the things that she said is the label she really likes is wild soul. And that feels right to her. Even as an atheist, she said, I like to think I transcend labels and definitions. Life is constantly shifting, and I need tools to manage it and enjoy it. And religious slash spiritual dogma is not one of those tools. I don’t even like the label atheist, especially because once I say it, the other person is then relating their definition of it, instead of attempting to learn mine, but it most accurately describes my truth.
Elizabeth DiAlto 27:55
What I also really enjoyed about this, we had a couple of comments back and forth, I share that I always figured people who identify as atheists just wouldn’t be interested. And most of what we talk about here, and how we talk about it. So it was great to get her perspective. But I also think is a testament to this particular person’s ability to take what works for them, and ditch what doesn’t. And then there were also people who have like walked that line or identify that way that commented on that little sub thread there. There were just so many things later on in the post, I made a comment. Reading through all these comments is a living wild dream for me. Because dogma free community where people can own their truths, be curious, live in the questions, share what’s real for them right now, and be witnessed and accepted, is really my dream. I also love the CO illumination, how some people shares are helping to illuminate truths or curiosity for others. And it’s all just okay, of the dozens of comments on this post. There isn’t a single person trying to convince anyone to believe what they believe. And that is also a wild dream for me where people can just coexist and respect that other people come from different places and not need them to change in order for those people to feel safe and comfortable in the environment. I also want to share related to all of this from Spring 2022 to spring 2023, I went on a very deep and very personal healing journey to get into some of the deepest layers of my own shit. And coming out on the other side of that, it was clear to me how much time energy attention and resources I had been investing things that just are not reciprocal. And one result of that experience is that now I’m intentionally being a bit more direct about my strong stances on things this year because what I’m really wanting to do is make sure people who really aren’t for me and aren’t for the School of sacred embodiment, find their way out.
Elizabeth DiAlto 29:55
So this is both personally in my life and professionally in my work, and I’m also peeling back yet another layer of over giving overextending myself and doing way too much. And what’s always amazing to this about me is every time I peel back another layer that for a while be like, Great, I’m not over giving I’m not overextending anymore. And then I’ll always see another way that I’m still kind of doing it. And listen, it’s less and less over time. And I’m sure some of you can really relate to that. But that shit is just so incessant, and insidious. And this is just in my work that’s across the board in my life. And I will share more about the other areas I’ve logged out of, in addition to social media, in some upcoming episodes, namely dating of men, and also some members of my family.
Elizabeth DiAlto 30:40
But back to the school of sacred embodiment. I’ve been building this thing by listening to and trusting my intuition for the last decade. It’s a mystical place for people who want liberation, who were there to help themselves and be in community. And I want to talk about that important descriptor for a moment, people who want to help themselves. This is one of my favorite things about being locked out of social media. Because on social media, there’s a lot of people who say they want things but aren’t actually helping themselves to get them. Because scrolling and grazing and reading shit can really delude people into thinking that they’re doing their work, because they’re doing something. And not only are they doing something, but they’re doing something for like several hours a day, in some cases. But when people are only engaging in consuming content, more often than not, if you’re on social media, and nuanced, bite sized chunk content, that’s not the work. And it’s really shocking to me how many people are more interested in being rescued, or convincing others to be okay with their shitty behavior and choices than helping themselves and becoming better safer people who are capable of love beyond codependency and manipulation. And like almost everything, I have a ton of compassion for this. And there’s only one reason ultimately at the root of all the reasons, it’s one thing why people don’t take responsibility for themselves. And obviously, I’m speaking about people who are physically and mentally able to do so it should go without saying that I am never blaming folks who cannot take physical or mental responsibility for themselves for behavior they can’t control. I’m speaking to the vast majority of people that absolutely can. And the only reason they aren’t is fear, they will give you all these other reasons and make excuses some of which sound totally valid. But ultimately, underneath it all it’s fear. And rather than doing the work to heal whatever makes them afraid, and liberate themselves from their fears, so they can show up better for themselves in life and for others. They continually shirk responsibility for what’s theirs, and get very, very good at unloading it on others, both consciously and unconsciously. In this school, all of the tools and teachings we provide help people to feel fear and take action anyway. And so ultimately, they start to build up proof in their life that it’s okay to be afraid. And it’s okay to keep going at the same time, which is kind of paradoxical. We talked about paradox in I think it was last week’s podcast episode, as well. This is about becoming trauma informed, culturally competent people, and shift towards a more collective approach to living.
Elizabeth DiAlto 33:19
So really, in the School of sacred embodiment, we help people live in to their wholeness. And I say, live into their wholeness, because I really believe we are all whole we have all of these parts. Do we get fragmented over time? Yes. Do we shun or deny parts of ourselves? Yes. So when I say live into their wholeness, I’m talking about helping you gather up all of your fragmented parts, integrate the parts of yourself that you’ve shunned or denied for whatever reason, and let all of it be okay. This is actually the main reason being logged out of social media is changing my life. I’ve had more space for what’s real, relevant and important in my life now, that I’m not spending so much time creating shit for a manufactured world on the internet. Because that’s what social media is. And again, some people dig the manufactured world, and if it works for you, makes you happy, is not destroying your ability to pay attention and focus on things that truly matter to you, or distracting you to the point that it’s affecting your physical, mental and emotional well being. That’s great.
Elizabeth DiAlto 34:19
Again, I’m not on a platform here trying to tell people log out of social media, but I’m telling you, you might want to try it out. For me, it being social media became more harmful and distracting than it was helpful or connective. And if I’m really being honest, I just don’t believe in it anymore as a useful tool. I don’t think there’s a net positive effect from social media for many years, I justified engaging with it on that basis, thinking that the overall outcome was overall effect is net positive. I do not believe that anymore. I actually think that if people made a mass exodus from social media, the world would change in a lot of dramatic unnecessary ways, simply because it would allow folks to connect more deeply and more regularly with their souls, it would free up a lot of mental and emotional space and bring back their abilities to focus on things that truly matter to them, and engage with life and relationships and much more meaningful ways. I’m sure all of you can think of at least one relationship, either in your own life or somebody you know, that has been ruined because of social media. I mean, that’s a whole episode for another day, especially in the pandemic times, my goodness, I had a couple of friends who I had known for over a decade, who I’m I think of three people come top of mine, who were no longer in communication. They literally just dropped me because I felt differently about things during the pandemic than they did. And listen, I now have way more time and space and can hear my soul better.
Elizabeth DiAlto 35:41
And for us here at the School of sacred embodiment, hearing the soul is the basis for liberation, since our work is specifically centered around soul liberation, which means letting your soul take up more space in your life, which influences all forms of personal liberation, and contributes to collective liberation in innumerable ways because it’s integrated. It goes beyond social justice, personal traumas, relationships, or beliefs. It’s physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual. And I want to go back, I already read you the value section of the about page on my website. One of the reasons why we did that and one of the reasons why I said you know, because the industries of self help personal development, coaching spirituality, and health and wellness have become so massive over the last decade, I talked about this pretty regularly, how language gets co opted, diluted and loses its meaning. This is one of the reasons I’m always giving you our definitions of things, and letting you know where we stand on things in the School of sacred embodiment, not only so you can determine like whether or not you want to be part of this community, but also so you can locate yourself. And whether you agree with my stances or not doesn’t matter. What I hope to model for everyone who crosses my path here is building a courageous foundation for your life on self awareness. Knowing yourself accepting yourself trusting yourself and respecting yourself. That’s actually our self love framework, self awareness, self knowledge, self acceptance, self trust and self respect. I don’t share everything I share because I want you to think how I think I share everything I share because I want you to think for yourself.
Elizabeth DiAlto 37:11
Social media is full of people wanting others to think how they think I just want to show up, share it, I’m asked to share by my divine and ancestral support squads, and let it land for people however it needs to any given day. So hope you got a lot out of this one. Listen to it more than once if you need to join us in the free wild soul community if you want to talk about it afterwards. And thank you so much as always for listening.