Catherine Llewellyn and Meilin Ehlke discuss the importance of recognizing our unity with nature and each other. They explore the balance between personal truth and collective alignment, urging individuals to integrate and align themselves in today's interconnected world. They highlight the significance of creativity, adaptability, community support, and the journey towards self-acceptance and growth.
Meilin Ehlke and Catherine Llewellyn had a deep dive into the fascinating topics of oneness, curiosity, and interconnectedness. The chat revolved around the idea of embracing differences and rediscovering our unity with nature and one another. Catherine emphasized the importance of recognizing our inherent connection to nature and breaking free from the illusion of separateness that has fueled individual growth but now calls for a return to collective alignment.
The need to adapt to life's twists and turns with creativity and flexibility rather than trying to control everything with an iron grip came up. Catherine and Meilin stressed the value of community support and empowerment in helping individuals navigate their unique journeys while fostering environments of growth and self-acceptance.
Here are three nuggets of wisdom from the episode:
1. Embrace your truth while finding ways to harmonize with the collective.
2. Remember that we are nature itself, not separate from it.
3. Aim for a sweet spot between being present in the moment and exploring the diverse facets of life.
During the episode, Catherine Llewellyn dropped a thought-provoking quote, "We are nature," prompting the listener to ponder their deep connection with the natural world and the importance of rekindling this awareness in our daily lives.
The conversation shone a light on the wisdom of animals, especially cats, in their ability to simply be and offer healing love without reservation. Meilin and Catherine chatted about the transformative power of reconnecting with nature and the significance of tuning into the rhythm of life, as mirrored in the behaviors of plants, animals, and our furry companions.
As we navigate the complexities of modern life, it's crucial to keep in mind our unity with nature and each other, allowing curiosity and openness to guide us towards a richer understanding of ourselves and the interconnected world we call home.
Find out more about Catherine on her website: https://beingspace.world
Listen to her podcast Truth & Transcendence: https://truthandtranscendence.buzzsprout.com
Moving to oneness, nourishing curiosity, embracing differences, becoming one.
00:00:58 - Meilin Ehlke
Using all the space you're in to just be and to be everything that is surrounding you. Welcome everyone. I'm Meilin Ehlke, your host of the Moving to Oneness podcast. Today I have a wonderful guest just from over the channel for me. It's a beautiful thing to have someone so close, and I was really much closer two days ago I was just at the edge of Holland to jump over to the island of in the UK. And I would love to introduce to you Catherine Llewellyn, who in my eyes, really oozes out the freedom of adventure. So welcome with me, everyone. Catherine. Hello, Catherine, how are you? Wonderful to have you.
00:01:55 - Catherine Llewellyn
Thank you so much, Meilin. I'm so thrilled to be here. I feel like you said earlier that we really resonate on a number of levels, so it's a delight to be here.
00:02:05 - Meilin Ehlke
Yes, everyone. You know she's a cat person. I read that right away. So cats in my eyes, Catherine, they're very high, vibrating. They are fantastic in connecting beings and very connected also to the star nations. And they bring newness to this planet and are here to support us, to raise our frequency. And there's an interesting story, I think, sorry that I jump on cats, but we were both so dedicated to them, right? Or are in such great relationship with them. So I think that will work. And no one has figured out by now why they purr. And with their purring they are able to adjust the frequency to do healing for other cats or when there are on us, for us. And I think that is just fascinating that no one can pinpoint how they function. It keeps open the wonder, it keeps open the. Yeah, it's like figuring out and being more open to just what happens or to just be with them and relate with them. I don't know if you sense about cats.
00:03:31 - Catherine Llewellyn
They are absolute masters at simply being as they are with no apology at all. Like, 1 minute they're very affectionate, another minute they're, I have no interest in you, or I'm going to go out and then come back in as many times as I like, I'm not going to explain it. And they do actually gravitate. If someone is in my home and they're in some distress of some sort, cats will gravitate to them. They will sit on their lap, they will rub themselves against the person. They will give healing love to that person.
00:04:08 - Meilin Ehlke
Yeah.
00:04:09 - Catherine Llewellyn
A beautiful thing. They are wonderful. And they remind me to get over myself, to sort of let go of the dramas because they don't have dramas. They might have a fight, but then it's gone and forgotten. They don't stick to things, they don't attach to kind of low level issues. This could, of course, be all my projection, but it works for me.
00:04:34 - Meilin Ehlke
No, I think you're right. I've been thinking about that a lot. Being and oneness is really in all of your work, and you'll share many more stories about it. But we, as humans, right, we got settled so early. We condensed, we built up borders. We are not moving around or moving over the land. And we've forgotten to be in the rhythm of life, in the frequency, in the choir that plants and animals are in, and they're as dogs or many pets, right. Supporting us to feel it again and to soften the urge to be there and also teach us, in a way, how to get there.
00:05:26 - Catherine Llewellyn
Absolutely, yeah. In fact, funnily enough, I run workshops in a venue not far from here. In almost every workshop I've held, we open the doors to the green area outside. Usually in almost every workshop, some sort of life comes into the space, whether it's a bird that comes and flies around the room and flies out, whether it's squirrels that come and stand at the doorway watching us, you know, or birds of prey that fly over, crying their amazing cry. It's almost like that we're attracting these beings who are just coming in, saying hello and reminding us that we are all nature. You know, there isn't nature outside and us inside, but it's all nature. And then they move on with their lives. And I'm used to this now. Each group I have is surprised by it, and I'm like, yeah, this always happens. I can't take credit for it. It's something about, I think, people getting together and really going into that inquiry around being present, being conscious, being connected with the universal vibration, the universal love, whilst still being individual people, you know? So that whole dance between those two realities, very, very fully explored, and these animals just go, "hi, we see you", and off they go.
00:06:59 - Meilin Ehlke
Come play with us.
00:07:01 - Catherine Llewellyn
That's right. I completely agree.
00:07:03 - Meilin Ehlke
Yeah. And you're someone who loves to play. I think they invite us to play, to come out, like little nudge. So why inside again? Come out with me and play. Right. And expose yourself. So I think it's a huge invitation as they see us, you and me or your clients at the workshop, and they say, come. Come and play and dance and go into movement, into that exchange. And it's hard to do that when you're sitting in a building. Right. So I love that you are in Wales, a little bit more rural. I'm here too, but there's always transition, or I open also the doors for life to come in and out, that we become, I don't know, this moving spiral or this moving wave. Everyone likes a different movement. I'm a spiral girl. And when I dance, but to be introduced and say, then come fly with me and explore adventure.
In your life, how did you get to understand that being present in a space, in the world is so important? I do know you love to dance and everything. I would love you to go that way. But how did it start? Or was it always there? Because you have this unique. The exploration, the freedom to create, to explore. And as you more do that, you have a talent to invite others and to explore all of them and let loose of the tightness and see what is around them.
00:08:56 - Catherine Llewellyn
Yes. I think the very first influence was my parents, because my parents were unusual in the sense that they came from very different backgrounds. She came from a very upper class british background, and he came from a very, very lower class background. And in those days, in the 1950s, when they got together, the expectation was that you would stay within the background you came from, would then dictate the path of your life, and it would dictate what kind of person you could be and what you would do with your life. Now, both of them said, why? And, no, I'm not going to do that. And they both stepped away from the expectation to the shock and horror and disappointment of their families. And they met in the middle, in the artist quarter of London at the time, which was Chelsea. She was an artist, and he was there studying civil engineering. But they met through friends who were highly bohemian, which was an extremely non conformist movement, if you like, back then. It was still happening in the fifties, but I think it probably started in the thirties.
So they were examples to me immediately that any assumption about who I am or any assumption about what life is or what I can be or how I can be, is there to be questioned and not necessarily accepted. Now, that's a very, very freeing thing. So, of course, as a child, I had no intellectual or psychological understanding around this, but I did pick up on this embodied thing that they were doing, and it gave me a permission which kind of went right through my body like a stick of rock we have. Do you have sticks of rock over there? A stick of rock is like a long sort of candy bar, like a solid piece of crystallized candy. And if you write something on it, then you can cut it through, and it's all the way through. So this is all the way through me was this fundamental knowledge that I could actually choose. I didn't have to be restricted by what I thought I was going to be restricted by. So then, across the course of my life, of course, I went into different spaces where I became seduced by the idea of conforming.
00:11:30 - Meilin Ehlke
Ooh, I love that word, seduced.
00:11:32 - Catherine Llewellyn
Yeah, because, you know, it's seductive, you know, like, you want to be liked at school, you want the boys to fancy you, you want the teachers to think you're doing well, or you want to be popular, or you want to be in the in crowd or whatever, you know? Or you just want to have a bit of comfort, you know? Because being right up at the edge of freedom, of spirit, as I now call it, is very demanding. It's a very strong place to be. It's like living in the heart of the flame. Some people call it that. So, you know, you need a break sometimes. So there were times when I did then conform, and sometimes that worked temporarily, but I always then came back from it. And, of course, as I went through all the developmental stages of my life, I developed deeper understanding of myself, deeper understanding of my own vulnerabilities, you know, in terms of capacities for self compromise or capacities for self restriction in the face of influences or some of which I. Or influences that I imagined were there, and some actually were there. And then the aspects of me that could have the courage or the imagination to reconnect with what's really important. You mentioned the word dance a few times.
00:12:55 - Meilin Ehlke
Yes.
00:12:56 - Catherine Llewellyn
It's been a dance, you know, it's been a dance between my truth and how do I participate with the collective. And I would say that I'm at a point now where I am on an evolving path at the moment. So in my life, I've been on evolving and then go backwards and then evolving and then go backwards. But I'm currently on an evolving path where my connection with my truth and my connection with the collective are congruent with one another. They are in alignment with one another as opposed to being in conflict. But I think sometimes they have to be in conflict for a period of time so that we can explore them together and find our way to the alignment. Find a way to be an alignment between the individual, with the individual frailties and vulnerabilities, being a member of the collective, being one with everything. And then, of course, beyond that being nothing at all.
00:14:07 - Meilin Ehlke
To be or not to be. Or to create. Or not create. Yeah, yeah, exactly.
00:14:12 - Catherine Llewellyn
The whole thing, you know, the whole thing is one thing, but you can't get it through words. It has to be through constant contemplation. And I am actually running a workshop now called 'Freedom of Spirit'. Wherever I reached a point earlier in the year of: it's time for me to create another new workshop, and it's got to be something completely personal to me and unique to me. And it was that freedom thing that you picked up on. And I thought, how do I, in a weekend, give somebody enough to connect with that thing, which for me is a place of being at home, you know, without them having to go through the decades that I went through and all the mistakes I went through, as well as all the successes, to have something meaningful in a weekend. So it took me about eight months to birth this workshop. And it was very difficult. I had a lot of resistance because it was so personal. But then finally it was there, and now it exists alongside me. It's no longer a painful giving birth. Every time I interact with it, it's now a thing of its own.
I was stimulated to share that particular journey because of what you said about, how do you find that relationship with presence and freedom? And of course, for everyone it's different. But I've got a particular path where there's something I can contribute, particularly because of the path that I've had, which someone else can then take and incorporate with their path to help give them the boost that they want at that point to strengthen, empower them on their path, which won't be the same as mine.
00:16:03 - Meilin Ehlke
Well said. Because we are so unique, every single person. But there are similarities or similar interests or ways I can look at someone and get, in a way, get something, because, yeah, we're all same particles and we can tune into. So while you were speaking about your new workshop, I was thinking about the question, how can someone take it? You really, you are one with your experience, and someone can just come and, in a way, soak it up. That's why you're doing this, right? Because you're so compassionate about supporting another person, but it's not even support. It's. They just come in and it's, again, this playing and this dancing with each. We can learn in light speed. If someone already had that experience, the wisdom, the knowledge, it just goes over and they can just go and walk with it and integrate it and form it and fine tune it. So it fits with their path. And that is something beautiful to do. And, you know, as healers, I think that's what we're born to do. When you mentioned also, it was so hard sometimes to be with and without the collective, but it's like, we pull back, we shed, we go out, we compare, we can make our own.
00:17:40 - Meilin Ehlke
Answer our own questions through that and recognize ourselves. So we have to go out. And also, that's, again, the dance of going and reclusive. And I wish a few more people would go a little bit more reclusive. Everyone, you can pull back. You don't have to be always out there, because the time jump, and you're never alone anyway, because as what Catherine also said, nature is always around you and the spirit. We always got huge support teams. That nourishes us.
00:18:15 - Catherine Llewellyn
Yeah, we are nature. One of the very strong meditations on the weekend is around reconnecting with the fact that we are nature. People have this idea that you can go out and be in nature, that you can visit nature, but we are nature. You know, we are nature. Right now, it's a very strong meditation, and it's one of those meditations where people just fall asleep, everybody, because it's so strong, and it's so different from what we've come to believe. I actually wrote one of my emails going out shortly about this, which is this idea of not being nature has been something that developmentally, as a species, we had to do in order to create separation, the illusion of separation, in order to then develop some of the capacities which are around individuality, like cognitive faculties, analytical, scientific, everything that's to do with. It's very much the masculine principle of black and white analysis, understanding rationality, making sense, making decisions, constructing, making frameworks. As a species, it's very, very important for us to do that. But unfortunately, we've collectively forgotten that in order to allow ourselves to do that, we bought into an illusion of separation. So what we then get is people in pain because they feel separate, because we've collectively forgotten that we're not separate. We're actually all one already.
So we've now got the opportunity, because if we go back to the relationship with being all one now, our computers are not going to suddenly stop working. You know, our buildings are not going to suddenly fall down, our airplanes are not going to fall out of the sky. What we've created is resilient now. It will continue, and people can actually come out of the state of oneness long enough to design an app to whatever it is they need to do. But we can now hold both. We have the capacity now to hold both, I believe. Whereas some of the time, earlier in our development as a species, we've had to step out of one and let go of it temporarily in order to hold both. And some people find in their individual lives that in order to really connect with spirits, for example, and universal love, they have to temporarily step away from the more cognitive, rational aspects of life. Some people have to leave their job for a while, you know, grow vegetables in their garden, live on very little money to give themselves the space to reconnect with those essential, divine aspects. Once they've really done that and come at home with it, they can then bring those other things back into their lives. This is not true for everybody, but some people, this is what they find they need to do. We can't necessarily do everything all at once.
So I think it's very important for us to understand that about ourselves, that our capacities can't necessarily be focused on everything simultaneously. Sometimes we need to ease. Put the weight on the left foot, put the weight on the right foot. It's that sort of easing back and forth between the mental, the emotional, the spiritual, the masculine, the feminine, light, the dark, you know, all these different aspects. And that if we keep doing that, we can reach a place where there is an integration and an alignment within us, where we are comfortable in all of those different levels. And I think that is a very beautiful place to be. And I also think that we have more people now who are accomplishing that younger, because it's becoming more accessible as a path.
00:22:38 - Meilin Ehlke
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Talking about spirituality already is in the salon, right? You can speak about it. You don't have to hide. You don't get prosecuted. You don't get put away if you are different. And I think also globally, the Internet is a good thing. We can find each other. We can have comparison. We can see each other. We can ask questions.
Before, we were moving around much more. I'm going back thousands of years, we were exploring the land, we were exploring different continents, different cultures. We were much more mixed, and we're moving in that direction. And there was a phase where we really got segregated. And I think, as you said, Kathleen, so beautiful, this being inflexible, being separated, if it is from community, from nature, from other people, or for us women, we need to be together. So we were separated, put it as a good housewife, especially in the fifties, right into a home, and there you stay. But we suffer. We as women, have to come together and exchange and blossom our oxytocin. I mean, our hormones function much better this way. And interesting also, when we clean, the oxytocin comes up. But it's only something we started because we're always alone. What do we do? We have maybe no children anymore. This is coming back. But if you look at the longer picture, 8000 years ago, on purpose, they took away the temples of the women, the moon stones destroyed them. Or now they stuck them into the Louvre, into museums, hidden away. But you're right, now the earth is bringing things out we can rediscover. The technology is so fine because so many people did exactly what you did, thinking there's another way. What can I explore? Become free in thinking and exploring. Also new paths, where to go. And again, coming together and play with that. And again, the dance of think tanks. Or just looking at nature, how it functions, that brings out new ideas and shows us again, oh, something was not right. How can we do that again? Women in our age, or for me, there were also other women before us, or before us both. They lived what they thought is right and were a little bit of rebels. And my parents both also were rebels and went out to create something new for themselves who moved out of the community, or my mom even escaped from East Germany.
So they had to do a fight to explore something different. At the younger ones, they come and I think we opened the path we already dedicated our life to figuring out what is there more? Right? Like, you danced so much in your life and explored different cultures and paths, and now you're bringing it all together. And so that's important that we really step into who we are. You into you, I into me, and everyone else who's listening into their power. So we give the whoom. To the younger generation that they can again expand even further than what we ever were able to.
00:26:23 - Catherine Llewellyn
You're absolutely right. And like you, I've had amazing teachers who've supported me to do that. And I'm delighted to hear that your parents as well were, you know, non conformists, you know, and that's such a gift. Oh, my God, it's such a good. And you spoke about flexibility, and I think for me, flexibility is life. You know, in a garden, if a plant isn't getting much light, the plant will move. Yes, it will move, right. A human being will just sit there moaning and complaining very often. Why don't you give me more light? So flexibility is life. And for me, flexibility comes when I stop trying to decide what I'm going to do. I respond more. I mean, sometimes making a decision is important. I've got to get a new computer. At the moment, I have to decide which one to get. Okay. So I'm not going to just, you know, randomly get one. The wrong thing to get. But the most important things, my flexibility when I'm flexible comes from allowing my experience to be without trying to necessarily make sense of it and allowing myself to respond to it energetically and then seeing what occurs rather than having to go, well, what does that mean exactly? Why are you saying that? Can you justify that? Can you prove that? Should I do this? Shouldn't I do this? That's the inflexible, linear way of doing it, which is we need that, but we also need the flexibility, which is the responsive, and which, of course, is the only thing that works in a relationship. You know, I have literally tried to manage a relationship through rational thought. I've literally tried to do that. I'm not proud of it in my past. Okay. Absolute disaster. You know, I've learned not to do that now. I still have the voice that tries to go, be sensible, but, you know, in a heart connection, in a relationship, flexibility is what it's all about. It has to be an energetic and emotional and felt response. And I think for creativity, it's the same thing.
00:28:44 - Meilin Ehlke
Uhh. As we stay in dance of flexibility. I love that, even in a relationship, because I noticed in my life, Catherine, I can't even predict whatever. You can't predict what happens. And the less I do and open up, I mean, do I set intention and desire, but they're rather huge things. But there were years, every month, I thought, oh, my God, I didn't even know something that, like, this exists, that something like this could happen, that I even could survive something like this. Right? So there is this whoop and to also maneuver. And when you're creative, and I want to let everyone know also, Catherine is so creative in her way of life. She looked in so many different professions, bringing everything together, because then you can go and move. You can go a little back and forward. But going back doesn't mean it's something, bad. It's like when you go up into the mountains, you go down, up, down, up, and then maybe one day you up in the Kilimanjaro.
00:29:53 - Catherine Llewellyn
That's right.
00:29:54 - Meilin Ehlke
Right. It is just this way. And when we see that is so okay. And we move with it. Yeah. We will move in to that state. And I think more and more of us are moving into that state. On your podcast, truth and transcendence.
00:30:13 - Catherine Llewellyn
Transcendence. Truth and Transcendence. It is a difficult thing.
00:30:15 - Meilin Ehlke
I didn't think it would happen. I wrote it a few times wrong. And there's something about why I probably spoke it out this way. That this comes up. That is the sparkliness, the lightness of it. That's why it's something. Words that needed to be said.
00:30:33 - Catherine Llewellyn
That's right. Yeah.
00:30:34 - Meilin Ehlke
The glowing of the knowledge you bring out and the sparks and the igniting you do with your words. Catherine, that also brings people up lighter and creates freedom or shows them ways to be more free. And I really love that about you.
00:30:58 - Catherine Llewellyn
Thank you. I really appreciate you saying that. It does come from a fundamental belief that people are free, that we do have freedom of spirit, and also that people naturally want to grow and tend to grow and expand if you don't get in the way. And I was talking to someone about someone who had done something that I didn't like. Right. And I was slightly irritated about it, and someone was talking to me about it, and I said, you know, I don't need to say anything to this person because they are already berating themselves for this. I don't need to criticize people. They're doing that already too much. I'd much rather support people to find the light, connect with the light, because we are overemphasized on criticizing ourselves, censoring ourselves, diminishing ourselves in our world. So I'm very happy to try to rebalance that a little bit, but whilst also not ignoring the shadow in myself or in others or in the world, but putting my energy into lights.
00:32:09 - Meilin Ehlke
Yeah, that is wonderful. I love these words. So, everyone, did you feel the love that poured out of Catherine with these words? So feel free to start to ignite within yourself. Or light up all your little sparks that are not upright. Explore life, dance, breathe, connect with everything that's outdoors. Or invite maybe bird to fly through your living room or your workspace, or let a cat walk through from the neighbor. Go into relation with everything that exists so your life becomes brighter while you get brighter.
Catherine, I think what you just said is so beautiful. The criticism we do with ourselves is already rather harsh. Each person, especially us women, I think, and that we are here in community again, or moving into a community where we come together and highlight each other and just say, I see you. I see what you do. I see what you went through. Let me embrace you without words. You're right. And I think words will become less important unless a question arises. But to create experiences so everyone can expand, feel the freedom of expansion.
But still, I would like to have, the time flies. What is one, you mentioned a quick meditation where everyone falls a sleep. What do you have? One little tiny trick you can give along or practice or wise words, you're so wise, for someone to ignite right now after hearing this episode, something in their life.
00:34:09 - Catherine Llewellyn
May I give two?
00:34:11 - Meilin Ehlke
Okay, you may.
00:34:12 - Meilin Ehlke
Sure. Please.
00:34:13 - Catherine Llewellyn
One is a meditation that I recently put out on one of my podcast episodes, and one is a little technique that someone gave me, because I had this wonderful man from Vietnam come over and run a workshop in my living room the other day.
So the meditation is, that wherever you are, you might be indoors, you might be in bed. You might be in the kitchen, you might be outside, you might be in the car, not driving, stationary somewhere. Go into a comfortable position. Could be sitting, could be lying down, could be any position at all. Just make sure you're comfortable.
Close your eyes, relax your breathing, and then start this meditation with, I am the grass. I am the trees, I am the wind, I am the sky. And just keep going, describing every single thing that you consider to be nature. And just allow yourself to do that for about five minutes, and then come back to yourself. Open your eyes and just notice how you feel. So this is a meditation to help reaffirm that we are nature already, and we are magnificent and infinite. I'll let that settle just for a second.
00:35:35 - Meilin Ehlke
That's beautiful.
00:35:36 - Catherine Llewellyn
It's a beautiful one. I love it. And the other one, which will suit some people better than that one. You find a mirror in your home. You stand in front of the mirror, you see your face in the mirror, and you start talking to yourself, and you say something like, you're amazing, you really are. I'm proud of you. You're a fantastic woman. Or man. You are so wise. You've got so much love. Do you know that? You know, just whatever. And you do this for, like, five minutes. Some people will find this very difficult. It's an incredibly powerful, healing, and empowering thing to do. And you just really get into it. You'll find yourself can enjoy it and play with it. Both of these you can really get into playing with once you get over the initial resistance.
So I would suggest that you choose one of those and do it for five minutes a day for a week, and then maybe try the other one the following week, and then just see which one best suits you. Because both of those have a very. One of them have the effect of connecting you with the awe and with nature and the wonder of that. The other has the effect of connecting you with the miraculous magnificence of who you are.
00:37:02 - Meilin Ehlke
Beautiful. I'm not going to say anything else. Everyone, let that settle within you. Being one with yourself, recognizing yourself, acknowledging really, it's about acknowledging the pure being you are and acknowledging everything that exists around you that you dance with every single day. Catherine, thank you very much for being, for shining your light, for taking time to be with us and keep on being in your space. Whatever you create for other people.
And you out there, try those out, those exercises, they really will change you. And you may cry, may laugh, you may get angry. Let it just flow. Let it be, and let yourself be surprised. This is like a tiny adventure that we spoke about at the beginning.
00:37:55 - Catherine Llewellyn
Yes.
00:37:56 - Meilin Ehlke
So thank you very much for listening. I'm Meilin, your host of the Moving To Oneness podcast, and we had the beautiful energy of Wales, this green, this ancient wisdom for us. Especially in Europe, that has been able to survive so much longer than any other place. So now it's coming back to us and igniting all of us and dancing with us. Goodbye, everyone.
00:38:27 - Catherine Llewellyn
Good Bye