Reshaping Your Life after a Spiritual Awakening with Josephine Hardman

Intuitive healer Josephine Hardman joins host Johnny G to discuss the overwhelming experience of reshaping your life after a spiritual awakening. Months away from completing her PhD, and after years of trying to ignore the inner nudges she felt, Josephine’s life reached a tipping point. She knew that if she stayed on her path, one she had spent her entire life forming, she would face an uphill, miserable existence. She discusses coming to terms with the life and career changes she felt compelled to make, the wider implications of those changes, and discovering healing opportunities along the way.

Learn more about Josephine’s journey and how she helps people on their own spiritual journeys by visiting her page: JosephineHardman.com. She hosts a thoughtfully crafted spirituality podcast called Inner Work: a Spiritual Growth Podcast, which you can find by clicking here. She is also available on Instagram at @Healer.Josephine.

Learn more about host Johnny Guidry and his work to help others step into their authentic power, finding a career that fits, relationships that fit, and a relationship to the self that feels just right. Visit his page at RefractiveCoaching.com. Find similarly themed content in these episodes: Find Your Genius with Mahima; When Purpose Gets in the Way with Daniel Mangena; Learning to Use Intuition; The Courage to Change Careers with Dr. Karen Barnard.

Episode transcript:

Hello Hello, everyone, and welcome to another episode of Refracted Podcast. I’m Johnny G. Today, I am delighted to introduce you to my guest, Josephine Hardman. She’s an intuitive healer, and she started by spending ten years in academia before she realized that there was something in her pushing her towards a shift. She eventually transitioned into full time spiritual work, and today she helps clients primarily in accessing the Akashic Records and working through that. She likes to say that she helps clients find the healer within through the spiritual work that she does. So that sounds just like the sweet spot for this podcast. So I know that it’s going to be it’s going to be an amazing episode. She has her own podcast that I invite you to check out. It’s called Inner Work, a spiritual growth podcast. You can find it on all of the platforms and on Instagram you can reach her @Healer.Josephine – Welcome Josephine, it’s so nice to have you with us. Oh, thank you so much for the invitation and for that lovely introduction. Absolutely. So I, you know, listeners of Refractive will know that I went through a similar experience to you.

While I don’t necessarily work with intuitive gifts directly with with clients. I left my career, which was rather traditional and mainstream, to pursue a path that was heavily influenced by my spiritual experiences. And it is a super exciting but a super uncomfortable process to go through because so many people in our lives can’t relate to what’s happening.

And at best, they can just smile and wish us well. And, you know, so it’s uncomfortable to go through. And part of the reason that I started this podcast is that I believe that there are a lot of people who feel these nudges inside – that it’s time to put aside the life that doesn’t fit, the life that

fit ten years ago, but that today doesn’t quite fit. And to step towards the guidance of your highest inner wisdom and love towards a life that feels just right. That’s what this is all about. And so the fact that this is an area that you’d like to discuss feels so natural and healthy and perfect.

So, you know, would you be willing to kind of walk us through what it was like back then, what happened and how it brought you to where you are today? Yeah, I would love to talk about that. And

first of all, I think it’s so important that you just said that we have to follow that core deep inner guidance. Yeah, which I think comes from the heart and also from, you know, the divine source, our guides, whoever else is working with us and our own intuition.

Because if I go way back the way I think about this now and the realizations I’ve had along the way is that there was a time when I learned this pattern of retreating up into my head. That’s how I learned that I could be safe in the world because it wasn’t comfortable to be

in the body. Also, I identify as a highly sensitive person, as an empath, so just feeling things so deeply all the time. Which is how I grew up and how I was as a teenager and then into early adulthood.

So I learned, OK, I’m just going to try to live from the neck up. This was not a conscious thing. I didn’t actually say it, it just gradually happened because it felt safer up in my head. And also because I realized through intellectual pursuits, academic endeavors, I can really succeed here.

I get rewarded, I get approval, I get love, quote unquote. So that felt really good and safe and rewarding. Yes, it’s kind of like in a laboratory, like the animals that push a button and get the fruit, right?

It’s like, OK, yeah, I can just push this button all day long and I get everything I need, right? Everything I think is best. Yeah, exactly. So it really feels like it’s working while we’re in it, right?

At least in the beginning. So eventually I learned that pattern so well that I went to college, really excelled there, graduated with a 4.0.. Like all the stuff, I was always an A student and a people pleaser and all that stuff.

And then I went straight into grad school, I didn’t take a break, which probably, looking back, you know, I didn’t feel like I needed a break, but probably if I had taken a break, maybe there would have been more reflection.

But it just felt like the momentum was there. So I just kept going. So I went into grad school, I got my masters, I got my Ph.D. in English literature, and the plan for a very long time was, OK, I’m going to be a tenured professor and that’s what I’m working towards, that I’m jumping

through all the hoops and I’m making everything happen as expected. And as I was doing that, still, I was getting a lot of approval, rewards, scholarships, funding like even material benefits, which is difficult, that’s difficult stuff to walk away from.

But anyway, I started feeling like there’s something missing here. First of all, the environment of academia itself, which I started feeling like this is too competitive for me. I don’t want to live a life where I have to be constantly jumping through hoops based on other people’s expectations.

Yes, of what I have to be accomplishing next because it’s all pretty clearly defined, predetermined- like these are the things you do to get to be a tenured professor. And if you don’t do them, you don’t get there.

So it’s not this unique path where you can be totally yourself, really. So that started feeling very constricting and I started to feel in my heart, there is something missing here. And probably also I started to feel in my body the repercussions of existing only from the neck.

up, because my body started saying, Hey, this is not working in a lot of different ways. What would that be like? If I could jump in. Like, let’s say, you know, and certainly there may be some sensitive areas that you might not want to go into, but for a listener who may

not realize that their body is shouting, like, Hey, this isn’t working because you’re not following your authentic path. Like, what does it look like? So for me, and of course, it’s going to be individual to each person, but for me, I can identify probably two different things that really stand out.

One is that I started feeling as I was completing my Ph.D. coursework and attending my graduate seminars. first of all, I didn’t want to go any more. So it was like dreading having to go into the two and a half hour seminars.

Where we were talking about 17th century English literature, which is what I wrote my dissertation on and, you know, I loved it at the time. I mean, I still love literature, but I felt like some of the things we were talking about had nothing to do with the real world.

Yeah. So I started kind of like escaping from my body or like there was a part of me that was hovering above me looking down and saying to me, Well, what does this mean? Is this meaningful enough? What are you doing here?

Maybe there’s another place where you are needed more than in this classroom, like talking about this stuff? Yeah. So I started to feel almost like that dissociation or that my higher self was hovering above. And so some questioning started to happen, which I just try to suppress that by eating sugar and bingeing on Netflix.

Don’t think about it. Because it was really like, Oh, if I if I really ask these questions, maybe the answers are going to lead me to a totally different place. And what the hell do I do with that?

What does it mean? Yeah, I’ve I’ve already done all this work. I can’t just, I can’t just like turn left right now. But when you said that this dissociation was that kind of in the form of almost like daydreaming?

Like what? How did it feel? Yeah. It felt like daydreaming. It felt like, I mean, again, I wasn’t fully in my body. And it was like I could see myself from outside of myself doing all the actions, taking all the steps to finish my Ph.D. do all these things, but it just started to feel kind of robotic-

like is this really where you want to be? So yeah, it just felt almost like there was a split, like an internal split or something, you know, with the part of me that already had built this identity and was thinking, Well, we better keep going because I want the benefits, I want the salary, I want the prestige.

I want the recognition. I don’t want to upset or disappoint anyone. All the narratives that come with that and the attachments. And then the other part of me, my heart, my higher self, that was saying, wait, maybe you’re supposed to be somewhere else.

So that was one thing. But then also my body started speaking to me physically. So I had a number of different, I mean, accidents. They’re not really accidents, but I injured my knee while I was walking on campus.

And then I had knee pain for a long time after that, which now looking back, I know was just a way that my body was trying to communicate with me. And then I started getting sick a lot. So I had laryngitis recurrently.

I had strep throat. I couldn’t speak. It was like I was losing my voice. Yeah, which again, is really symbolic. So yeah, there was just a lot happening as the truthfulness of what I really wanted to be or needed to be, that was coming to the surface.

So there was a lot. And so for listeners who may not resonate with the idea that your body is tripping itself or whatever, you know as a way to warn you about a spiritual or a life path, I think there’s another way to look at it right there.

There’s there’s the idea that because you’re not doing what feels refreshing and energizing. It takes more energy. Right? And so because it takes more energy, it drains you. And over time, as you are drained, your immune system becomes weaker.

Your awareness becomes diminished. Right. And so you know, we can look at it in the way that I do, and that you seem to, where this is really my physical body communicating with my emotional body, communicating with my spiritual body.

But if you want to look at it from a physical level as well, it also really makes sense. Yeah, yeah. The body will break down because you can’t sustain that level of- I mean, you’re exerting so much energy doing something that’s not aligned, right?

And exactly as you’re saying, it’s almost like your life force itself gets drained and then, yeah, you are going to have more accidents. You’re going to trip, you’re going to get sick if there’s a flu going around. Yeah.

So yeah, it’s many different levels that go into that. Yeah. Thank you for letting me kind of detour into that. So OK. So this is how it felt in your body when when these kind of red flags are going up- wait, I’m not exactly on the right path.

So what was next? Yeah. Well, and I also should backtrack a little bit and say, because my whole life, I really, first of all, I grew up in a very spiritual home. My mom is a psychotherapist, also a healer.

My dad was a high school teacher. Now he’s a professor, but also a very spiritual person. So growing up, I was exposed to yoga and meditation, mindfulness, the Akashic Records, the tarot, all of these things, and it was just really open.

It was like a natural part of the household. And so I always had this active spiritual life that was running in parallel to my academic, very heady intellectual experiences. And my spiritual life was always a great place of solace and comfort for me.

So I would turn to that when I felt like, Oh, the questioning is coming up or I don’t know what the next step is, and I would just use that, and I use that in a lot of ways to heal myself, really.

And then I started getting trained in healing modalities for myself first at the time, not knowing, Oh, maybe I’m going to use this in the future to be of service to others. But so I learned about Reiki, I learned about cycle synthesis, which is coaching modality.

Then I became certified in the Akashic records for myself. So all of that was still going on in parallel. And then I started feeling more and more of a pull towards that side of things. And then I started thinking, Well, what if

this could actually be, instead of like a little side hobby or something that I do on the side, what if that’s really what I’m being called to do, right? To me, the bigger part of my life, right? And to be of service for other people.

So I already had a lot of those tools. And then that’s when I started realizing in a very organic, gradual way. Oh, right. Yeah, I’m supposed to hold space for others, as we say. And just be of service in this deeper, spiritual, really profound way.

So because I already had a lot of the certifications, at one point I just decided, OK, I’m going to finish my Ph.D. because I’ve done so much work. I’m so close. It’s just to give that closure. So follow through, which is really important to me.

So I did finish and then I took the summer off and then I started my spiritual business, so I started building it from the ground up like the same year that I finished my PhD.

So in this journey, you were pursuing this path to a tenured professor and part of that was earning your PhD. And it’s like as soon as you get this Ph.D. that kind of opens the door to the path that you had been pushing towards.

You’re like, You know what? We don’t need that anymore. And I thought about, you know, I thought, OK, do I go on the job market, right? So as you’re finishing your last few semesters, you start to get all your materials together to go on the academic job market, which is a nightmare, by the way.

And yeah, I mean, there’s a lot I could say about that, but I won’t. But it’s like a really draining anxiety producing stressful experience for people, and most people do not get the job that they want. Yeah, and then they have to be an adjunct, which is a whole other problem.

But anyway, so I thought, OK, do I go on the job market anyway and see what happens? And then I just realized there’s really no point in that, like, I’m just not going to. That’s not where I want to be.

So instead, I just celebrated myself for completing a PhD and then just rested the whole summer and then started my business. Some people were like, what? But that’s just what I had to do. A really wise friend of mine said in reference to another person that we both knew who felt guided to make a major life

change. I’ll just want to keep it simple. I’ll say this- this wise person said, when you step in to follow your highest path, the universe, kind of supports it. Yeah. And, you know, this is referenced by a quote from The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, which is, when you pursue your personal legend, the universe conspires in

your favor, you know? However, he said. Once you kind of lay these first few bricks, then comes the loving attempts by the universe to make sure what you’re doing is what you really want. Yeah, and and like they’re going to make, the universe is going to make you work for it.

It’s not just this ordained slide down a slide. No. You know, it’s easy to get up to the slide and it’s easy to get to the edge of the slide. But it’s not going. It’s not effortless just because it’s been ordained by the universe.

So tell me about those bumps that you found where the universe really made you prove that you wanted it. Yeah, that’s so good. Um yeah, it’s now I can have a retrospective understanding. Or, you know, looking back at the years I’ve been doing my spiritual business versus all of the years I was in grad school and teaching

college, and now I can see how that was a lot easier because everything was predetermined and I knew what was expected of me and I knew what the criteria was for success, so I could be my full perfectionist self.

And that really served me well there. But building a business from the ground up. It’s not like that at all, at least my experience of it. There is no roadmap. You can’t, I mean, if you’re trying to imitate or copy what someone else has done, it’s just not going to work.

So for me, now I realize how making that shift and starting my own business was really almost like jumping into this accelerated healing incubator where all of my stuff just comes up to the surface all of the time or a lot of the time, because I’ve hit up against my perfectionism, for example.

Which is so counter to being a successful entrepreneur where you have to be experimental and you have to be curious and you have to make mistakes, you have to allow yourself to make mistakes, and you have to redefine what it means to be successful or what failure means because there really is no failure.

You just try things and then gather the data and then see how you proceed from there. So having to adopt that more experimental mindset and that mindset of, OK, sometimes I’m going to try something and it’s going to feel like I’m falling flat on my face and I’m failing and nobody cares about what I’m doing and

they’re not interested and I feel like an idiot. And yet, the next day, I’m going to get up and try something else or do it again, because now you just have to keep showing up over and over and over again.

So I think that’s that has been the biggest thing or this it’s almost like a divine requirement of showing up over and over and over again consistently. No matter what has happened the day before and not having that attachment to having to get everything perfect, yeah.

Which for me has been huge. And also, of course, you know, so there’s been bumps just more logistically in terms of, oh, I try to launch this course or offer the service and then, oh, OK, that’s not actually what people need or want so I have to retool and redesign it and check back in with my guidance and see what

actually comes through. So that’s just a continual learning and growth process. Yeah. You know, yeah, of course. And you know, when we started talking, this thought that arose, What a dramatic shift to go from academia, where every we only deal in what is known-

Yeah- to a spiritual path where we only deal in what is believed. We know and believe through feelings, believe through experience, believe through intuition, whatever the case. And it’s like, on one hand, they seem so polar yet

I see a really beautiful correlation in what you’re just describing with the scientific method. Right? Because if you’re in a laboratory, there’s no such thing as failure. If you don’t get the result you expected from the experiment, that is as valuable and as successful as if you got the the result you wanted.

And it might even be more valuable, you know, whereas we, the sensitive, fragile, emotionally needy, beautifully perfect beings that we are, you know, we have to show up. We have to try. And then sometimes we get the result we expected.

Sometimes we get the result we didn’t. Yet, unlike the scientist who has an upper hand in this viewpoint, we are like, It’s over, it’s over. It’s over. It’s time for a new incarnation. Just take me. It’s over, it’s over.

You know, and so it’s so fascinating to see how, you know, we can often look at science and say, Yes, science, that’s cute. We’re dealing in something bigger. We’re dealing in, you know, in all. And yet, you know what?

There are some things to learn on both sides. Yeah, that’s such a great point, because it is like that scientific method. And there’s so much we learn when we try something and then we don’t get the expected result.

Yeah. And something different happens. But sometimes that’s where the magic happens. Sometimes that’s where a doorway opens. So we have to follow those threads. That’s so important. But then another thing I’m thinking of now, which we were briefly chatting about earlier, which is, you know, you get on your spiritual path or your path of just being true

to yourself. That’s right. We have to be spiritual, necessarily. And sometimes it feels in the beginning like, well, first of all, there is a kind of euphoria, right, when you first set out on that path. And the sense of, Oh, now there are expanded possibilities.

Now I am free now I’m going to do exactly what is authentic to me. And that’s all wonderful and great, although sometimes it can also be destabilizing because we’re like, what? Who am I now? What am I? Where my living?

What am I going to do? But then a lot, then we have to stay on the path. And as the path unfolds, it’s not always. There’s not always a high. We’re not always at a peak having a peak experience.

Sometimes we’re just in that neutral space, as you were saying before. And I think for so many of us, we also have to learn that there are a lot of moments in life that are most moments in life are neutral or just that there’s quiet and not a lot is happening. I think, because of our culture and

society and the fast pace, speed and just everything happening, always faster and faster, and we’re trying to accumulate more and more and technology keeps developing, and it’s almost like the sense that we’ve lost. The connection to her inner rhythms and to the rhythms of nature and to that rhythm, which

does have some peaks, but then there’s valleys and then there’s just those flat places. And I think it’s so important. That we learn how not to try to escape from those moments or to use substances, experiences, other people, chaos or drama, whatever, just to have more of the fireworks and to just embrace those moments of stillness.

We’re not alone. It’s happening as well, because sometimes those are the moments where we receive the clearest guidance about what the next step might be. So it’s just so important not to fill them up with stuff. Yeah, that makes sense.

I think that’s really valuable. You know, last night I was talking with a close friend of mine and I was saying, how I left my career, I have not had an address in almost a year now. Wow, right?

I own about ten boxes of things, that’s all. I don’t have anything left, right? You know, and it’s like, there’s this part of me that says, look, God, source, universe, whatever, like I’ve done my part.

Like I did the crazy that you asked me to do, you know? And I started this podcast, I started coaching. I did all of this and I had great momentum at the beginning. My numbers were growing at the beginning and all of this.

And that like, you know, I, I put my skin in the game, right? I put my butt on the line and I took these leaps with nothing behind my back, but some internal nudging, and it’s like, I want some prizes, right?

I want the prizes, I want podcast growth. I want my business to take off. I want —more important than those things, all of those things really matter to me, too, but more important than hose things, I want to wake up in the morning like Snow White with the birds helping me get dressed.

Yes, I want the world to visibly and noticeably gather its forces and around me and like, hug me all the time and say, Good good boy, good boy, you are doing it, you’re doing it, you’re doing it.

It’s so good. And I got to tell you, Josephine, like, that doesn’t happen. Yeah, almost all the time. The best I get is neutrality. Like you just mentioned, yeah. And in our society, neutrality feels like a loss. Yeah.

Oh, it feels like emptiness. Yes. It feels empty, and I don’t want to feel empty— my ego, I want to feel energized and refreshed all the time because I had the courage to follow my faith or the insanity to follow my faith.

You want to look at it, you know, and I don’t have that, and it sounds like you have had moments of this too. And like, what can we even say about this? Yeah, well, I think

the first thing that comes to mind for me is the importance of asking what part of you is the part that is longing for that, whatever it is, the approval, the recognition, the metrics right to grow? Well, damn, Josephine, warn me before you stab me!

I’m sorry, I just did that. But yeah, I’m saying like, that’s something that I’ve learned. That’s very important to me and how I run my business. Before taking an action, or if I feel I’m having a triggering, a triggered response to something is to sit and center myself and observe,

OK, from what part of me am I operating right now, because I have moments where I operate my business from my eight year old little girl self who wants to send out an email campaign as though it’s an invitation to my birthday party and I want everyone to come because if people don’t come, then I’m an idiot and I’m

not loved and am going to feel like a failure, and I’m going to feel rejected, right? So the fear of rejection is in there, too. And then that will paralyze me. Yeah, right. So I have to ask, OK, from what part of myself do I actually want to run my business in this moment?

Or what’s the part that has the attachment to everyone coming to the party? What does that actually mean? And is it okay to take the risk of sending out the email campaign anyway and seeing what happens? Right? And then, of course, I think we can have bigger attachments, right?

So to the approval or to be loved or getting the respect or the recognition. But like you said, that’s the ego getting in the way. Somewhere in there or a part that fell unloved growing up, or a part that wants the constant excitement and feels really scared to face that void of the emptiness that feels

like death almost sometimes. Yeah. So really about working with those different parts, I think it can be super helpful and important just to be more mindful of that. I agree. I think, you know, understanding your motivations is so key, and this is why so many coaches do values work with people, right?

Like, what are your values? What are your drivers? And let’s embrace the nastiness of it and let’s embrace, you know, if achievement or if competition is a value, let’s just roll in it like, like a pig.

You know, let’s leave the story that we’re being greedy because we’re naturally competitive, like, let’s like, roll around in it and see what’s what, where the love is in that too, you know?

Yeah. Wait, can I say something? Yeah. That’s also so important. And I think specifically on the spiritual path, sometimes people can have this misconception, this idea of like I have to release all the attachments, all the desires, I have to be able to just sit here quietly with myself and just be at peace at all times,

which maybe is like asking a lot of ourselves and kind of unrealistic because we still have human bodies and we’re having a human experience. And I think that having desires, wanting more for ourselves, being ambitious, like all of that can be part of the human experience.

It’s not wrong or bad or on spiritual or greedy to want more. And sometimes I think there are some people, probably, it sounds like you are one of them, I’m one of them, that we just want bigger things for ourselves all of the time.

And I don’t know if it is we’re Type-A or ambitious or whatever it is or if we just have big desires. That divine source is calling us for us to fulfill those desires. And so sometimes I think that’s why the moments of stillness can feel uncomfortable because we want more and we want bigger.

But again, I don’t think that that means that we’re being greedy or wrong or selfish for wanting that so we can embrace that and then work towards it. Yeah, I think that’s totally fine.

This is such a liberating concept that because I have come to believe that for all of my qualities, for each quality that I have, the quality lies on a continuum and on one side of the continuum is the self-serving side of the quality

and on the other side of the continuum is the others-serving side of the quality. Now, I believe that all is one, right? I believe that all is one. So therefore, is there really a difference between serving the self and serving others?

That’s a philosophical conversation we don’t have time for today. You know the point of, the point of me bringing that up is that in order for me to serve the world in the way that I feel guided to,

I need to want to have a successful podcast, right? Do you know what I mean? So the way I look at it, I could look at it as being selfish and say, Oh yeah, well, like, I want my ego validated by having this big podcast.

But the fact is, the fact that I naturally strive towards this is a gift from the universe. Because imagine if I was called to do this and I hated it. If I was called to do this and I was painfully shy to talk to strangers.

Like, How difficult would that be? You know? So there’s a way to look at this as the universe is using my characteristics, which is that I like being in the spotlight. I like having a lot of attention, and it’s using that to say, all right, let’s funnel this into this way.

And yeah, sometimes you know, we still need to look for the middle path of that, of that characteristic. But it’s incomplete, in my opinion, to see my desire for validation or my desire for achievement or my desire for financial comfort as a negative because it is a tool that the universe leverages to help me accomplish

service in in an important way. Yes, that’s such a good point. I think you’re also talking about, because I think if you have a what I call a clean motivation or something, so a clean motivation for your podcast to grow.

And I have the same issue because I have a podcast too. And of course, again, we are spiritual, but also human beings. So we’re going to have the higher spiritual goal. I want to be of service. I want to reach as many people as possible to help them free themselves from suffering, to be authentic.

So they feel heard and seen and understood all of the stuff. And as a human, I also want to have nice things and a nice house, and I want people to like me. Like, there’s just no getting around that because if we try to suppress it, I think it just gets stronger or it can be,

It can almost like change the motivation or corrupt it. So just being aware of all of those things that are floating around in there, of why we want something. Yeah, but that there always can be a higher purpose to it.

And if we align with that higher purpose, then we’re going to be that much more successful in getting there. Right? That’s right. Yeah. 

So shifting a little bit, Josephine, why don’t you tell us a little bit about

how you help people find their inner healer and activate their inner healer. You know, there may be I talked on earlier episodes about the Akashic Records, but never in depth. So I wonder if you could give us like a gentle overview of, you know, how you help people heal and what are some of those tools and modalities

you use? Because I think I think it might be valuable and it could give listeners inspiration to go do some research on this. Oh, definitely. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So first. Well, I should start by saying, typically the clients, the people that are drawn to me are people that have been on the spiritual path for a while and

who, maybe at some point, you know, they feel like they’ve had an awakening, whether it’s been gradual or through a sudden catalyst or something happening. And so they have some experience with doing inner work or they’ve already explored some modalities.

But really, I think the key thread for all of them at the end of the day is that they— they’ve been on the path for a while, but they’re hitting up against something bigger that’s emerging to be healed or they’re discovering I’m hitting up against this recurrent pattern over and over again, and I don’t know how

to shift it or I’m so sick and tired of being in this place. And also, I think they’re discovering that there’s no one outside of themselves that’s going to, say, rescue or fix them or heal them. And so they’re kind of like in the midst of taking the power back from wherever they’re giving it away to-

to other people, to patterns, to even substances or compulsive behaviors, wherever, or even to other spiritual teachers, because sometimes we give our power away there, too. So that’s typically where they are. And then the Akashic Records are so appropriate and helpful modality for people when they are in that place because the well, first of all, I should say

that the Akashic records are a vast archive of information that includes information about every single time that a person has incarnated into a physical body. So it’s almost like when your soul is first sparked into existence, that’s when your record is first created, so people have individual records inside of their records.

And so there is information there about past life experiences, unresolved past life trauma. Also, if we’ve made past life contracts or vows like, for example, a contract of I’m never going to use my intuition again, because in the past that has made me suffer or I was killed, rejected, banished for using my gifts, whatever the story might

be. And then the records are also really, really good for exploring questions about purpose in the current lifetime. So what am I here to do? How am I here to serve and how can I embody my sole purpose at its highest level?

How can I take my power back? All those kinds of questions so we can go into the records to explore all of that and then to remove the past life contracts and battles that are not helpful anymore, and also to explore if we have unconscious agreements with people in this lifetime or family members.

Because sometimes we have agreements on an unconscious level, for example, of I will never make more money than my father. For whatever reason, or I will never outshine my sister or my mother, because that’s how I stay safe when I need to be behind the scenes, I need to be in the background.

So I work through a lot of things like that and also just shifting patterns that are really strong or recurrent or dysfunctional and helping people. Well, a lot of what we’ve been talking about today about the different parts that we have within ourselves.

So for that, I use more psychosynthesis, which is a modality about bringing integration to all those parts and really just harmony so they can work together instead of always having this inner conflict that’s happening where one part one’s the material success and the other part is like, no, that’s not spiritual.

So there’s like self-sabotage that is created. So really, in working to harmonize those parts so that then the person at their highest level can take steps forward to create the life that they want to create? OK. All right.

Yeah. And so from this human perspective, we look at the concept of healing, and it’s almost like when we we want to start a healing process and then get a certificate at the end and say, OK, you’re healed.

And so what does healing really look like? I mean, if if someone, let’s say, if someone has, you know, crippling self-worth challenges and they come to you for healing on that, like what does the healing manifest as how does it take form?

What’s the proof that there is healing in their life? Yeah, that’s a great question. And I think that’s another of the sometimes that we have expectations about that that we can really get in the way of the healing or just get in trouble with that.

We call it well, the way I see it healing is not linear- it is on a spiral. And there are deeper layers of healing that can come up even as we think, Oh, I’ve already done this thing, I’ve already healed this thing, I’m never going to deal with it again.

And it resurfaces and there can be anger. There can be disappointment. There can be, Oh, I didn’t do it right. There can be shame. And there’s a lot, a lot of mixed emotions that can come up when that happens.

So just really remembering that it’s on a spiral. And if it’s coming up again, then it’s coming up in a different way because you’re still moving forward. So it’s coming up in a different or a deeper way to be looked at again.

So for self-worth specifically? Well, there’s a lot of different ways I could look at that based on the person’s individual story. But for example, we might go into the records to ask something like first I would start with.

Are the self-worth issues something that are limited to this one lifetime, or is this bigger than this lifetime? Because if the person is carrying those patterns or those wounds from prior lifetimes, then we might want to go into what were those past life experiences where the issue originates.

That can be a really important thing to look at in the records. And what is the trauma associated with that? And then what are the unconscious contracts that maybe this person made as a result of the trauma to keep themselves safe now?

And so often with self-worth issues, ultimately, when it comes down to it, what we discover is that at some point on some level, it’s almost like the person made a contract or an unconscious agreement of convincing themselves of the story that they’re not worthy.

Yeah. For whatever reason, like, however, that played out in their upbringing or a past life, and now they’re just continually convincing themselves of the same story. So at that point, it really becomes about looking at the story and then seeing how we can release it- shift it.

What’s a more empowering story that they can tell? And I think it’s also important because sometimes we’re working in the records and it’s really abstract or really high spiritual realms, but also bringing it down to the body. So like making it safe even at a nervous system level, like what does it feel to be worthy or to

feel worthy? Does it feel safe to feel worthy and to be worthy in the world and to carry yourself in that way? Or does it not? Does it feel like you’re going to die if you do that or other people are going to be mad, disappointed, whatever.

So even bringing in the body level or somatic level of making it really safe and OK to believe that we are worthy? Does that make sense? Yeah, that’s beautiful. That’s beautiful. So I imagine some people have a more dramatic leap in their healing, right?

They’re able to see that they don’t need to keep carrying a particular part of the story forward. And then there’s like, there’s there’s there’s a quantum jump there. And then for others, it might be more like a sunrise where like the sun keeps rising, but you can’t really see it move,

but if you come back five minutes later, you can see there has been progress over time. Yeah, that’s exactly right. And again, we can never tell in advance or say in advance how that’s going to happen for people, so I think letting go of rigid expectations is really important and seeing the healing

as a spiral and also having the awareness that sometimes there are parts of us that don’t want to heal or that want to hold on to the old story because it’s become some kind of safety blanket. And maybe that’s just how we learned – this is how I’m going to be safe in the world and OK in the

world. And if I let go of this identity, then what? Like, sometimes the unknown can be a lot scarier than staying in discomfort, the present discomfort, which is already known. So I also work on that a lot too, kind of figuring out what is the secondary gain of the self-limiting story.

Because if there wasn’t a secondary gain or some benefit that we’re deriving from it, we just wouldn’t have it in the first place. So really working with that too, to avoid sabotage in the healing process down the line.

Oh, thank you for your service. It’s really it’s beautiful to just be able to observe people, you know, using their gifts to help others. It’s inspiring. Oh, it’s my honor. I mean, I’m so blessed every day that I get to do this even in the moments where I’m like, the podcast is not

big enough. Yeah, that’s right. So if people want to learn more about you, what you do, how to get in touch with you, or to examine some of your services, how can they do that? Yes, so they can go on the website, which is really simple.

JosephineHardman.com. And if they want, I would invite them to sign up for my newsletter. They will get my spiritual hygiene routine. So it’s for different spiritual practices really to ground our souls throughout the day, but to stay connected also to the divine to create more stillness, all those kinds of things.

And I’m also on Instagram, as you mentioned where I do every month, I do free tarot challenges. Yeah, the people who want to explore the tarot or connect more to their cards or learn how to read. Intuitively, I do that every single month.

So there’s a great community on there. And then, of course, the podcast, which is “Inner Work- a Spiritual Growth Podcast” on all the platforms. And what’s your Instagram handle one more time? Oh yeah, that’s @Heeler.Josephine. OK, very good.

And then for those who are not on YouTube, but who are listening on a podcast on an audio platform, Josephine is with the PH and Hardman is H-A-R-D-M-A-N. Yeah, that’s important.

Josephine, thank you so much for joining us today. It was really a lovely, uplifting, delightful conversation and I really appreciate it. Yeah, that was so great. I love everything that we talked about, so thank you so much and I hope this is helpful to someone.

Absolutely. Everyone, thank you for listening to refractive. And as you go out and meet people in the world, realize that everybody’s just doing the best they can. No one would ever hurt another person if they weren’t confused. So don’t forget to aim your light.

Take care.