How To Find More Peace and Clarity in Your Everyday – Episode #010 Interview with Tammy Mastroberte

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the soul science nutrition podcast, where you’ll discover that when it comes to your health, you’re so much more powerful than you’ve been led to believe. And now your host, she’s a holistic nutrition and lifestyle coach, chef author, and Yogi, Christine Okezie.
Christine Okezie (00:22):
Hello, and welcome to soul science nutrition. Thanks so much for tuning in today. I’m Christine Okezie. And today we’ve got a very special guest Tammy Mastroberte. Tammy is a spiritual teacher, award-winning writer and founder of the multi award winning elevated existence magazine. This cutting edge digital friendly magazine has featured interviews with the top notch, spiritual leaders, such as Deepak Chopra, Gabby Bernstein, Marianne Williamson, and Mike Julie. I met Tammy a few years back when I was still doing healthy cooking demos at the chef central store. And we got to talking and she asked me to write the food as medicine column, which I’ve had the pleasure of doing now for the last five years. So we’re going to engage in a beautiful conversation today with Tammy. She recently authored her first book. The universe is talking to you, tapping into signs and synchronicity to reveal a magical moments in your every day. So exciting. I’m going to dive into Tammy’s tool bag. That’s going to help us tame the chaos in our lives. And as she loves to say it, navigate the uncertainty of life with less fear and more faith. Okay. Hey Tammy. Welcome to soul science nutrition.
Tammy Mastroberte (01:39):
Thank you so much. I’m excited to be here.
Christine Okezie (01:41):
Oh, so great to talk to you. So I just finished your reading or first book, which is amazing. And I can see the little background there. The universe is talking to you, tap into signs and synchronicities to reveal magical moments in your every day. Um, as I was just sharing with you, Tammy, the book is a must read. Um, honestly, no matter where you are on the spiritual path, no matter where you are, um, in your journey, it is so helpful. It’s really this beautiful how to guide. And it really resonated with me because these days, I think you even said this in a book, it’s not mean it’s useful to know concepts and information, but similarly, when my work, we need to know how to do this stuff, how to make it practical and actionable, right?
Tammy Mastroberte (02:24):
Yes. And that was my whole thing is that I wanted to, every time I would share my own stories, people would say to me, I don’t get signs from a loved one, or I can’t believe you notice these things. And I was like, if I can do it, anybody can do it, right. I’m not, I’m not special. I’m not a trained psychic or medium or anything like that. But there were a lot of books out there, somebody psychics and mediums, some not that really just told stories. And it’s awesome to read these stories because they’re incredible. I mean, the stories that I put in the book are even incredible to me and it happened to me, but it really doesn’t hit until you start getting it and seeing the examples and proof in your own life. And so that’s why I wanted this to really be a, how to, because I wanted people to be able to completely shift the way they view everything happening to them.
Christine Okezie (03:13):
Oh, that’s amazing. And that’s all about change. We need to shift our perspective and kind of open up, as I say, expand the menu, right. The menu of options. And we can only do that when we change how we see things. So a little background, um, what got you started to paying attention to signs and synchronicities in your life.
Tammy Mastroberte (03:33):
So basically for signs, it started with, um, it really, really opened up and started when my mother died suddenly of a brain aneurysm when I was 22 years old. And so she always believed in signs. She always believed in our loved ones coming to us in dreams. And she would talk about that. She believed her mother could send her signs from the other side. So I sort of grew up with that. And when she died, the signs started and they have never stopped in terms of, of that. Um, and then, you know, eventually I started to investigate and learn and read and understand so much more. And for me, it was in 2007, I think when I first noticed synchronicity or started understanding. And when I say notice synchronicity, I mean, understanding the fact that we’re guided understanding the fact that there are no accidents and that even when something happens and we think this is horrible, oftentimes it’s leading us somewhere.
Tammy Mastroberte (04:32):
And when we look back in our lives, we can find these connections. So the first time I noticed that was in 2007, I had been researching, um, different things. And I was listening to a Wayne Dyer podcast. He told me about a Deepak Chopra Chopra center in New York city, which I didn’t even realize they had one. They don’t anymore, by the way. But at the time they had one in New York city and I was working as a magazine editor in New York city. So I looked into it, they were having a perfect health retreat there. They were going to teach meditation and I was just like, wow, do I want to go by myself? I don’t know. Even though I traveled for business by myself all the time, this was different. Do I want to spend the money? You know, all the things we sort of do to talk ourselves out of things and I let it go for awhile.
Tammy Mastroberte (05:19):
And then I randomly got a coupon in my email, by the way, not from the chopper center, got a coupon in my email for $400 off any course. And I was like, what? So I, I remember I called a friend. I’m like, I feel like somebody wants me to go to this. I’m like, I don’t know why. I don’t know what the purpose is. I said, but I feel like this is something I need to do. So I signed up for it and I tell the story in the book all about how I basically went to this perfect health retreat. I learned a formal type of meditation for the first time in my life. I left there knowing after a couple of days that I wanted to work for myself, although I didn’t have any idea how, and then fast forward a year later, I wind up starting elevated existence magazine, which is a spiritual and self-help magazine.
Tammy Mastroberte (06:06):
And because of that connection there, I wound up getting Deepak Chopra as the very first cover story. So the aha moment came when that coupon came in my email. But then when I trace it all back, which I do in the book and I show you all of the pieces that had to line up perfectly for me to get Deepak Chopra on that cover, it started like a year before. So that was my first aha to be like, wait a second. There’s something out there. That’s, that’s orchestrating things for us and how can we, how can I start paying more attention to it? And then how can everybody start paying more attention to it? So that’s really, those are the two sort of pieces that opened me up to signs and synchronicity.
Christine Okezie (06:49):
That’s so powerful. And the way you talk about in the book, it’s just, it has you, it’s like reading a mystery novel. It’s like, you want to find out what happened next. Honestly, it’s so good. Um, why is connecting to the universe? Why is seeing signs and synchronicities important? Like just someone out there who’s really kind of new to this, right? Why is it important?
Tammy Mastroberte (07:09):
So for me, there’s a couple of major things that, that are, that really are life changing about it. The first one is that you start realizing that you’re not alone, that you are never alone. Even if you’re physically alone in your house, you are not alone because the universe, your angels, your guides, and your loved ones who have passed on are around, you are there to support. You can be called on at any time. We are not navigating this life alone. So that alone by itself, right. Is like,
Christine Okezie (07:42):
Oh my gosh, that’s amazing.
Christine Okezie (07:44):
It’s like a warm blanket. Yeah.
Tammy Mastroberte (07:46):
It’s like, Oh my gosh, I have, I have help that I can call on. I have people that are guiding me, even when I feel like I don’t know what to do. So that’s the first thing. And when you start finding that proof in your life, which is what I, which is the how to piece of it, right? You start feeling that you start and it makes a difference as you’re moving through your life. So if you can start finding how guided you have been up until this point, if you can start seeing signs from your loved ones and know they are, they are 100% not gone. They are here. They are with you. They are seeing everything you can, there is thought away, literally. Um, and when you start seeing how, how, Oh my gosh, I’m here because of all these other things that happened, then when something happens in your life now, when something either good or bad, right.
Tammy Mastroberte (08:36):
Happens in your life. Now you can sit, stop and say, okay, this sucks. If it’s a bad thing, this is not fun. Why is this happening? We sort of go through that question, but then immediately you can say to yourself, you know what? I know everything’s happening for a reason because I’ve seen it in the past. So I can have a little bit of certainty amidst all the uncertainty that we face, that at least it’s going to be okay, it’s leading me somewhere. I may have no idea where it’s leading me, but it takes some of the sting out of it because you know, I’m going to just be open. I’m going to just follow the guidance and the science. I know that I’ve been led to the right place before, because look at all the other stuff in my past. So I can just chill a little bit and know that this is happening for a reason.
Tammy Mastroberte (09:26):
And I’m just going to trust the universe. I’m just going to surrender and I’m just going to move through it. And I know eventually I’m going to understand why I’m going through this and that alone just shifts everything. I, it happens to me all the time. I have crazy. I still have crazy. Of course, we all have crazy things happening to us all the time. But if I can sit and I can remind myself, even if I go back and forth, the human side of me is like, why is this happening? This shouldn’t be happening. We’ll know Tammy, if it’s happening, then it should be happening and back and forth. And like, Oh my gosh, this is the worst thing ever. And it’s like, Tammy, everything’s happening for a reason. So you, you sort of have that, you know, good angel, bad angel situation where you can go back and forth and just say, no, no, it’s going to be okay. And it literally shifts everything because then you can calm down a little bit about it. And when you calm your own energy down, you can open up to miracles solutions, situations that are going to get you to the next place faster than when we sort of fight against reality or argue about it, or think it shouldn’t be happening answer. But basically that’s, that’s why it’s so powerful to start understanding and recognizing these things.
Christine Okezie (10:38):
Oh, it’s so powerful because really most of our suffering, most of our struggle is like this internal war we have with ourselves, right? I mean, yes, things happen in our external circumstances, but then they happen and then we continue to kind of ruminate over them or obsess over them. Or as you said, try to figure it out or fight against them and deny them. And so much when it comes to our health, right? When it comes to our self care, navigating our health challenges, you know what to eat, what not to eat, even just the basic every day, it comes down into this mental gymnastics in our mind, which is, you said is the opposite. Right. Of feeling held, feeling guided, we feel stressed. We feel anxious. We feel deficient. Right. And we feel very isolated. Yes, yes. Yeah.
Tammy Mastroberte (11:30):
And it’s, and you know, I’ve seen it myself even with, with, um, health issues or with things that I am trying to solve myself or trying to figure out myself. Whereas if I just hand it over to the universe and say, listen, you know, if we’re talking about a diet, if we’re talking about, you know, like in terms of what would be the best thing to heal my condition or whatever it might be, right. If you just sort of hand it over to the universe and say, I am open, you will get the answers. You will get the answers. And oftentimes you’ll get it more than once where the universe will keep throwing it at you until you’re like, Oh, okay, I get it. This is what I should be doing. Or this is, you know, this keeps coming up for me. Maybe this is something I should look into.
Christine Okezie (12:13):
Why is it so hard for us to do this though? So you say there’s signs and their synchronicities everywhere. What keeps us from being able to see them or hear them or find them?
Tammy Mastroberte (12:24):
It’s honestly, there’s, there’s two pieces to it. The first piece is we don’t recognize them. We’re getting them, but we’re not recognizing that that’s an answer to our problem or that, um, and then the second piece is we’re so busy in our chaos, in our drama that we’re not recognizing, we’re not seeing them when they come in. And so the universe has to keep repeating over and over and over again.
Tammy Mastroberte (12:46):
Yes, yes, yes, yes. And that, and sometimes they repeating is, is, is, is in your face
Tammy Mastroberte (12:55):
Right in your face. And we still, sometimes we still will say like, why do I keep seeing this reason? You keep seeing that even that book name keeps popping up, or this concept keeps coming to you, or this doctor keeps coming to you, or this healing modality keeps coming to you. It’s because the universe is trying to say, check this out. This is going to help you.
Christine Okezie (13:17):
Yeah. It’s amazing. So looking for patterns, you know, our own patterns, I mean, cause really that’s what it comes down to is being able to observe ourselves, being more self aware of what’s going on around us, you know, and then noticing our own reactions and responses to things, um, is huge, right? Because oftentimes we’re just in our own little, you know, hamster wheel of, of, and then, and then we keep wondering, well, why, why, why do I keep bumping up against this problem? Right?
Tammy Mastroberte (13:45):
Yes. Because a lot of times we’re, we, we need to break out of our own heads, right? We need to break out of our, trying to solve a problem or trying so many times. We think if I just think hard and long enough and drive myself crazy enough, I’m going to find the solution yes. Off. And listen to me, I’m a Virgo. I’m an a fall I’m I drive myself and everybody around me nuts. I know that’s the way it works. However, I also know that that’s not the fastest way to this solution. The fastest way to the solution is letting go calling in help say, here’s my problem. I’m trying to find a solution. I know you already know the answer. Can you just bring it to me into my awareness? And can you help me recognize it when it comes in so that I can act on it. It takes a couple of seconds, but it, whenever we ask for help, it always comes. If it’s, you know, 50 50, who knows what’s going to happen. But if we ask for it, it’s there.
Christine Okezie (14:44):
I loved what you said. It’s the fastest and it’s more and it’s more efficient. It’s more, it’s a more efficient way to get. We want to go, right? It’s not that we need to check our brains at the door, but again, it’s kind of 50% of the equation, right? I say this all the time. Right? It’s like, you know, okay. The analytical mind is great, but it’s more of an execution. I think, you know, part of, of, of how we move. The actual inspiration comes from inspire, comes from Martin spirit.
Tammy Mastroberte (15:14):
Like when people, you know, they’re trying to figure something out and they’re like, Oh, I don’t know. I’m just tired. I need to go take a shower. And then they go take a shower and they’ve let go of the problem. How many times does it happen? And then all of a sudden in the shower, because now you’ve let go. When you shut the analytical mind, go off. This solution can come in totally. Or, you know, maybe you’re going to go clean something and just try and get out of your head or wherever it is. And then all of a sudden they get the answer. Well, that’s spirit, that’s the universe. That’s your angels and guides saying, Oh my God, finally, she shut up her brain and I can get threatened. Here’s what you need. There’s a solution. But it’s hard. It is hard when we are worried about something, when we’re in that zone of being stressed or overwhelmed or upset about something. And that’s why we have these tools available to us to sort of bring us back to the present moment because that’s where the signs and the answers are.
Christine Okezie (16:09):
Now. One of the things you mentioned present moment. Okay. So I’m going to give you a specific example because I work with a lot of folks who say, I know I need to meditate more and I’m trying to be more mindful and in my eating and you know, everything I do. Um, but your thoughts are your thoughts because we’re not going, they’re never going to go away. It’s just a matter of finding how to quiet them. So here’s a perfect example that I get, right? So nighttime eating you’re at the fridge, or you’re about to, you know, open up the bag of whatever it is or have the other glass of wine. What, what’s
Tammy Mastroberte (16:38):
Your go to tools for interrupting these patterns? Um, you have to literally stop where you are and stop what you’re doing. Sort of interrupt it and just take a lot of the things that I teach. People are just taking small breaks to get back to the present moment, to get back into your center, to get out of the analytical stress, you know, train of thoughts that are happening and just bring yourself back body and mind. Right? So it’s both. Um, so one of the things that I teach people is to just stop what you’re doing. And, and I always say set an alarm on your phone and things like that. If you can do this throughout the day, but you don’t have to sit and meditate for 20 minutes, especially if you’ve never meditated before sitting in meditation for 20 minutes, you’re going to drive yourself nuts.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
That’s just the way that it is. So what I say is stop what you’re doing and give yourself a 60 second retreat or a 60 second reset break, just close your eyes, take a deep breath in and out. And then repeat some type of a mantra. I like the word release because I feel like it’s triggers the mind to just distress and release and let go of it. You can also use, let go. You can also use, um, you know, any word that means something to you. Sometimes I’m anxious or I’m stressed. I like to just say all as well. I am and repeat that over and over again. And you bring yourself back. All it takes is 60 seconds. The cool thing about this is that neuroscience research is now backing up. The fact that these smaller breaks that you take throughout the day are just as effective at rewiring the brain at, you know, calming down the nervous system, all of that as those longer meditation periods.
Tammy Mastroberte (18:33):
Now I’m not saying don’t do the longer meditation periods because they’re awesome. However, if you’re busy, if you’re an especially, even if you do those long meditation periods, add these 60 seconds in because if you it’s like a tool that you can carry with you and take throughout the day, huge do you could, even if you work outside the house, go into the bathroom and take your 60 seconds. If you don’t want to close your eyes at your desk or something, or when you get into the car in the morning to go to work, take your 60 seconds. When you get back into the car on your way home, take your 60 seconds. So it, it just, it brings you back into the here and the, now it gets you out of your head and people are shocked at how effective 60 seconds can actually be when they try it. They’re like, why am I so calm? That was only 60 seconds. I’m like, it doesn’t take that long. Some people will even extend it to three minutes here or there, but you can see these short bursts and it brings you back. It brings you back into the present moment. So it’ll calm down the brain and the overwhelm. It’ll bring you back to the present moment. So you can notice the signs, it recenters and grounds you. There’s amazing benefits to it,
Christine Okezie (19:43):
Right? Oh my gosh, that’s huge. That’s really powerful. It’s such an easy way into, and I think sometimes that we need to get, you know, easy ways in and then recognize just how powerful they are, because we feel so different afterwards. And you’re like, wow, that’s, you know, just to feel the effects of just those small changes is really important.
Tammy Mastroberte (20:01):
Yes. And everybody has 60 seconds here or there, you know, you’re absolutely go escape into the bathroom for 60 seconds and then come back out and then you won’t want to lose your mind. You know, even just what that 60 seconds you you’ll be a more centered person when you come out. Even if they’re so screaming at each other.
Christine Okezie (20:20):
It’s huge. Yeah. I mean, there’s such a connection between, um, finding our center and you know, taking care of ourselves and moving through life with more ease and more awareness. It’s really, the stress is the most, it’s the biggest derailing factor.
Tammy Mastroberte (20:36):
Yes. To, to everything, to health, to, to diet, which I know you teach about to your mental health, your physical health it’s stressed is literally the top. I think that’s taking, take taking people down today, mentally and physically.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
Absolutely. Absolutely. So these days, you know, you, you have all these tools at your disposal, um, but take us to a time when you didn’t have the tools so that people can understand the difference that you appreciate now that you do have them. When it came to, let’s say we’re on the topic of health and physical challenges. What was it like before you had these knowings before you had these tools?
Tammy Mastroberte (21:18):
Oh my gosh. I was someone who literally would wake up in the morning with an alarm and just not want to get out of bed and then just lay in bed for as long as I possibly could and wind up being late for work. And I would be rushing. I would just, I remember working in New York city and running for the train, like a lunatic train was the same time every day, so I wouldn’t be running and I would just be, and it would just be a constant flurry of, of craziness and activity and working and just, I was just, I, you know what, as I was always stressed out and I never thought I was stressed out, like how many people say I used to say, I’m not stressed. I don’t know what you’re talking like, this is just me. This is how I operate this isn’t stress and hello.
Tammy Mastroberte (22:09):
I had no idea. And then when I was in my early thirties, I got shingles. I remember going to the doctor and I had just seen the start of the rash and it didn’t look normal to me. And I know my sister had had shingles at one point and I thought to myself, Oh, I hope this isn’t shingles. So I went to the doctor and he thought I was insane. And he was like, how old are you? Right. This can’t be shaking. And I’m like, I’m telling you something’s wrong with me. So he put on his glasses and he leaned forward and he was like, Oh my gosh, like, you actually do have shingles. I told you.
Tammy Mastroberte (22:49):
So it was like, and I, again, I remember saying to a friend, like, I can’t believe I have shingles. And she’s like, well, how could you not see that? Like, you’re always stressed out. There’s always a million things going on with you. Like, my life was a blur of Tasmanian devil chaos. Every day I had just gotten used to it. It was just how I operated. I didn’t think anything of it. And that’s what I think happens to so many of us is that we don’t realize that we’re stressed out because it becomes our normal life. And then we get a diagnosis or then we come down with anxiety or then we’re diagnosed with depression or something along those lines. And, or we get some kind of physical diagnosis, like it showed up on my side with shingles. And then we’re like, I don’t understand. I don’t understand. And that’s exactly how it was for me. So it’s funny because people who knew me back, I was in my
Tammy Mastroberte (23:46):
Early thirties. And versus now, when I’m in my early forties, they’re like, Tammy, you’re like, your energy is completely different now than when it was. Then you’re still the same person. You’re still crazy and energetic and whatever. But your energy is so different now than it was back when we were working in New York together or whatever. And funny because sometimes, you know, I don’t even, I know that, but it’s to hear somebody else say it, it’s like, Oh my God, that’s right. This stuff really does work. Like really does make a difference. Now is my life still chaotic? Yes. There’s constantly crazy things happening around me. But the difference is how I respond to it. And the fact that I have tools to immediately bring myself back into center, to release the drama, to release the emotions, to release whatever is going on inside of me so that I can give back to being stable, being centered and being able to handle anything life throws at me.
Christine Okezie (24:45):
Oh, I love it. What’s a, in your book, you talk about your favorite processes, Rant, Recognize and Remove. Yes. I love that. Can you just walk us through that?
Tammy Mastroberte (24:57):
So, so I came up with that because, um, a lot of times I think we, we, well, I know we all have these beliefs in our head and we all have these things going on that we don’t even realize are operating on us, right. That are contributing to our chaos. That might be blocking us from signs that might be blocking us from creating things that we want in our life. And we don’t know they’re there. And you hear people talk about limiting beliefs all the time, but it’s like, well, if they’re, if they’re, if they’re in my subconscious mind, then how am I going to get them? You know what I mean?
Christine Okezie (25:32):
And so I remember thinking to myself and interviewing a bunch of different people on the law of attraction and all of that kind of stuff. And they were all like, you just have to get it out. You have to talk like you’re talking to a friend and I’m like, Oh, okay. I’m like, so you have to rant. You have to just like, go on. And then that will help you recognize it. And then you can decide, okay, I don’t want these. I definitely don’t want these beliefs. So basically rent recognize and remove is, let’s say you are like blocked in some area of your life. And I always say like, if you want to notice signs and you’re not noticing them sit down with a pen and paper or computer and a keyboard and just start complaining about the fact that you don’t see signs.
Tammy Mastroberte (26:14):
So it would be like, I’m reading this book and Tammy gets it, but I’m not going to be able to get it. And I don’t know, I guess people, I guess my loved ones are communicating, but I’m not sure. Or, and you can do the same thing with, um, you know, I, I’m not making enough money, so you could go home, go and sit. Like, there’s nothing I can do. I can’t go back to school and ask for a raise. I don’t want to look for a new job. I’m too scared that it might be worse than this job. And you sort of just ran everything out. We’re talking to somebody talking to a friend and just complain about everything you can possibly complain about until you have nothing left to say about the subject, back from it, maybe walk around or, you know, come back to it later and then look at it and read through each sentence.
Tammy Mastroberte (27:00):
And you will find limiting beliefs. Yes. Find it all in there. Now some of them could be operating on you in a bad way. Some of them may not be affecting you. And that’s where I say to people, you want to start sort of testing to see which one. And I talk about muscle testing. Yes. I also teach people how to use a pendulum would you can use also if you know how to use a pendulum for this, but you could just use your body for muscle testing. You can get somebody else for, to help you with muscle testing, but what beliefs are actually operating against me right now, when you find them that there there’s an actual belief that you have and your body or your pendulum, or whatever tells you like, yes, that’s a belief you have, and it’s not a belief that you want.
Tammy Mastroberte (27:45):
Then you put that on a list of, okay, I need to clear this. And then I talk about all different sort of clearing techniques you can use. There’s EFT or emotional freedom technique that I love. My friend, Amy B Scheer, um, teaches a lot about, um, healing yourself. And she does something called the sweep. Um, there is how opponent Pono that I talk about. There’s the Sedona method and you can muscle test to even see what beliefs are or I’m sorry, what clearing method is best for that specific belief so that you can clear it fast. So I just love the fact that it’s a way to sort of take action. And once you start clearing those beliefs, you would be shocked at the changes that’ll happen around in your outside life. When you start cleaning up the inside and cleaning up that subconscious mind, it’s shocking how all of a sudden the signs start coming through or all of the sudden money comes from out of nowhere or whatever it might be.
Tammy Mastroberte (28:43):
And, or all of a sudden you can stick to a diet when you couldn’t stick to a diet before. Right? So, so that’s the rant recognize and remove. And I think that’s important whether we’re talking about signs in synchronicity or any area of your life, you might be stuck in absolutely something that can, can really easily work for you. And once you sort of figure out that muscle testing, which is actually a lot easier than people think, um, it’s like, you’re, you’re, it’s an unlimited process. You can do it for every year of your life.
Christine Okezie (29:12):
Yeah. Yeah. Well, you know, getting unstuck can certainly apply to every part of our lives. So we need these practices, we need this, these new way. And that is, we can’t think our way out of all of this stuff, because that’s not the part of ourselves that has the capability to see the bigger picture, right. To have that clarity. So one of the things that, um, struck me as you were telling your story about shingles, and as we think about our challenges with food, you know, food or health, or just our body, um, how do we get unstuck from feeling like a victim? Because w you know, the, the, I want to say the shadow side of some spiritual practices will teach you, Oh my God, I, you know, I got XYZ diagnosis. It’s because I’m paying for something. It’s because there’s some, you know, I’m being punished. Um, you know, I, I should have done something differently and, and we go down that rabbit hole consciously or unconsciously when we have things that just happen in our lives, especially when it comes to our health, how would you advise, you know, not to go down that rabbit hole
Tammy Mastroberte (30:15):
Again, it’s changing the perception of it. So, um, and, and I, I agree with you that there is that thing out there, even when people hear about the law of attraction, they’re like, Oh, I brought this to myself. It’s my fault. I, you know, I did, I brought this onto myself and it’s like, if you’re going to sit in that mode, you’re never going to shift. You’re never going to get out of it. Right. So when something happens, like the shingles to me, instead of saying, Oh my gosh, this is all my fault. I should have tamed my chaos earlier. I should have found stressed out, like what an idiot. I should have taken a meditation class, like, and just be, and just been like, Ooh, or taken the route of, it’s not my fault. Everybody around me stresses me out. And now look what happened. You know, that whole scenario.
Christine Okezie (30:57):
Yes, yes. In shame and blame. Yeah,
Tammy Mastroberte (31:01):
Exactly. Instead of that, you have to say, okay, Hey, this is in my life for a reason. So it’s here to teach me something, to wake me up to something, to help me notice something. In my case with the shingles, it was like, girl, you are stressed out. You don’t know you’re stressed out, and this is a scary place to be. And so your body, which is actually your best friend is saying, Hey, you’re not paying attention. I’m going to throw this at you. And then maybe that maybe now I’ll get your attention. Right? So even something physically that goes wrong with you is actually happening to you for a reason.
Tammy Mastroberte (31:39):
That’s how I would shift and look at it. And the other thing is, thank God I got that shingles. Right? Thank God. I started realizing how stressed out I was, or, you know, you hear people who get different diagnoses. And then all of a sudden they changed their diet and their lifestyle. And now they’re in a place where they never thought they would be had they not had that diagnosis. So instead of wallowing in it, instead of blaming other people for it, instead of blaming yourself for it, you want to look at it and say, okay, this I’m not happy about this, but it came to me for a reason. So I’m open to explore. What, what is this trying to teach me? What do I need to change in my life? And let me take that action so that I don’t find myself in this place again with another diagnosis or another situation. Um, that’s going to try and wake me up again, let me see if I can get this this time and let me actively do something about it. So it’s really just shifting the way you look at it.
Christine Okezie (32:37):
Absolutely. And, and it comes, you know, I always say that’s where the compassion comes in, right. Because at the end of the day, it’s like, yes, of course you’re feeling sad. And of course you’re feeling rejected and okay, you’re really not feeling like you’re worthy right now, but it’s okay. There’s a bigger plan. And we sort of talk ourselves down from that. Right. And, and that’s not the analytical part again, that’s just sort of bringing our heart into the equation and calming our nervous system with that gentle approach. So I think that’s absolutely correct because we have that tendency to be a task master for ourselves, you know? Um, and we start to view obstacles and challenges or things that are happening around us as bad. And shouldn’t be, and then when we see that bad and shouldn’t be, I found that, you know, I feel bad. There must be something wrong with me. I feel bad. I’m bad. There’s a very short, um, limited, there’s a small jump between those two and we get stuck there. And that’s the whole point I love the way you say it. It’s important not to get stuck there because it’s not that we don’t have these feelings. Right. It’s not that we don’t have the, as you said, the stress, the anger, the frustration, but what do we do with it?
Tammy Mastroberte (33:49):
Right, right. It’s, it’s recognizing it. See the more that we take those little breaks, the more that we become aware of our emotions and our actions, the more we can interrupt it and talk ourselves down from it. Right. And bring ourselves back. And then the more that we do that, the faster we’re going to recognize when we’re emotionally feeling off and we’ll say, what have I just been saying to myself, or what have I just been worrying about? And why, why all of a sudden am I feeling this way or why all of a sudden is, you know, is, is something going wrong or I’m feeling more stressed? What do I need to do to stop this? And it becomes less, remember I said, I literally operated that way. So to me, I didn’t think I was stressed. Now, when the stress starts coming up right away, I’m like, Whoa, like what, where did this come from?
Tammy Mastroberte (34:40):
And how do I diffuse it? Because this is not where I want to be. And it’s literally a step by step process of just starting to recognize it, using a tool, getting out of it. And then, you know, I talk about the, the magazine’s called Elevated Existence. And wouldn’t the goal be for all of us to live at this elevated level all the time. But we, you know, we’re in this physical world, it’s not going to happen, but the more that we learn and the more that we use these tools and the more that we bring ourselves back up into that elevated level of faster, we’re going to notice when we’re not there, the quicker we can get ourselves back. And then the will, all the sudden you realize I’m staying at here for longer. So now my norm is elevated and my not norm is stressed and overwhelmed and calibrating. Right? Exactly. You’re recalibrating yourself. So now I notice when I’m off and I’ll stop and say to myself, like, where did this come from? Did I take on somebody else’s energy? Is this something going on with me? What do I need to do to get out of this? And so I don’t there as long as I might have in the past.
Christine Okezie (35:40):
Absolutely. I love that. So it’s interesting because it’s occurring to me that the recognized piece, um, requires us to tame the chaos, right? So it’s almost hit that pause button, interrupt the pattern, and then it’s remember, or remind myself that there’s a bigger plan here. There’s something else going on. I can’t quite see it yet, but there’s something happening for me. And at the same time, it’s kind of a catch 22 because in order for us to be able to be in that, knowing that there’s a greater plan here, someone, someone in, you know, there’s a greater intelligence that’s supporting me. We need to prove that to ourselves. And that’s what I love about your practice is, you know, you can come in as a skeptic and this is, what’s kind of interesting. I don’t know about this, this kind of, you know, hippy dippy, you know, feel the energy, you know, I mean, come on, you know, which is not what you and I vibe, but there’s some really amazing, you know, folks who are kind of new to all this.
Christine Okezie (36:41):
And, um, and they don’t, they’re there they come in as a skeptic. So how do you start? I mean, literally, so someone says, well, you know, I’ve never meditated before. Um, I don’t really, I didn’t grow up in a religious background, you know, so I didn’t really have faith, um, anywhere in my background. Um, and it’s hard for me to believe that, you know, all the war and tragedy that’s happening around me is happening for a reason. You know? Um, how do you kind of neutralize that? Or how do you invite them to come into this different way of navigating?
Tammy Mastroberte (37:15):
Um, I would say they would start small, right? Don’t, don’t come into it and say, okay, I have to redesign my entire morning, my entire evening. I have everything. And, you know, because I think sometimes we get so excited when we do start getting into this stuff and we start seeing these tools working, and then we’re like, I need to change everything. And then it becomes overwhelming. And then we’re not meditating or doing anything. Yes. Yes. So I would say like, even in the different chapters that I give for, um, for taming the chaos, or starting to notice signs, I say pick one or two things to start with and just try it out and see how it feels. Maybe just say, I’m going to take those 62nd breaks. Maybe you don’t believe you’re connecting to a higher power in that moment or not. That’s fine.
Tammy Mastroberte (38:04):
But you can certainly understand that you’re calming your nervous system more that you’re doing that the more you’re like I’m feeling better. What else can I try? And then you start seeing different things. And then the more that you’re feeling better, the higher your vibration is getting the happier that you are, the more you start noticing things. And then now it’s like, okay, something’s happening here. I’m catching onto some stuff, but it’s about literally starting small. So some people actually, most people that find themselves on a spiritual path will start on that path because of uncomfortable happening.
Christine Okezie (38:37):
Yes.
Tammy Mastroberte (38:38):
Whether it’s an addiction issue, whether it’s a, a physical diagnosis, whether it’s the death of a loved one, whether it’s a divorce, whatever it might be. It’s like your, your soul is searching for something, for an answer for something more. And that’s what referred me. And so just starting small with one or two tools, those 62nd breaks, maybe incorporating some essential oils into your, into your life and getting into diffuser and just sleeping with some lavender, whatever it might be. And then you’ll find that it’s making a difference physically and mentally for you. And then it really just starts to take off from there.
Christine Okezie (39:16):
Oh my God. That is so priceless. Yes. Don’t bite off too big a piece that you chew because that’s really it. And then we go, Oh, it just didn’t work for me. I don’t have time for that. Yeah.
Tammy Mastroberte (39:26):
And that’s why in the book, I sort of lay it out as a process of, okay, I’m going to dip my toe into this and let me see what happens. And then I’m going to tame my chaos and you go through learning and understanding and dipping your toe in until you get to the second half, which is the five steps. But even then it’s like just pick one or two things from this chapter and see what happens, you know, maybe go back and try a third one, and then maybe eventually you’ll find three that you love. And then that becomes your everyday thing. But it has to, it has to be a step by step process and you have to just test things out and see what works for you, because not everything will work for everybody. That’s why there’s a million different options out there for people.
Christine Okezie (40:10):
Oh, I love that. Yeah. You know, we’ve talked about the book, um, it really is such a great resource because what it does is it lays out that this is a process. There’s actually a system. And, you know, we all love systems. You know, we love the, you know, kind of step by step and, you know, okay, notice this, move on, notice this and move on. And that’s really what it is. It kind of demystifies the mystical in many ways. So I love that.
Tammy Mastroberte (40:33):
The other piece too, is that, um, I have people create a, what’s called a lifetime line. Someone that’s skeptical, right? If you’re someone that is like, I don’t, I don’t think I’m being guided or I don’t see how I could have been guided look where I am, whatever it might be. I literally teach you how to right. Do this lifetime line where you’re writing down all these major events in your life, anything that would any, any people that you’ve met, you know, when you met them, when they came into your life. And I teach people later in the book, how to connect those dots. And to me, that’s the most powerful thing to start realizing how guided you are, because when you start connecting the dots and realizing if a hadn’t happened, I would have never gotten to be, and who knows how long it would’ve taken me to get to see, and you start realizing, Oh my gosh, I didn’t even, I didn’t even realize that because I met this person, I wound up getting a new job.
Tammy Mastroberte (41:27):
And then that new job met me, you know, made me meet my significant other. And like, I didn’t even think about like, we don’t even think about these things, but they’re happening. So when we can bring them into our conscious mind, you can’t help but realize, okay, I don’t know what it is, but there’s something that’s guiding this universe. There’s a rhyme and reason to stop. Even when it just looks like random chaos to me. Right. And my job therefore, is to be able to tame the chaos so that I can see it and appreciate it. Right. And that rusted, trusting it and asking for help. And then recognizing when the answers come, talk to me about asking for help. Okay. So this is my faith. This is one of my favorites is I call it Higher, Help, elevated, help, whatever you want to call it.
Tammy Mastroberte (42:14):
Um, but really it’s asking the universe, it’s asking specific angels, your guides, your loved ones who have passed on. Even if you don’t know who a guide is or what angel works with what I say, don’t get caught up in that. In the book. I give you a reference guide in the back as to the major archangels or major people that I would say call on for different things. But if you have no idea who to call on it doesn’t matter. Every time I have a problem, every time I have an issue, I will stop what I’m doing. And I will just say, I’m calling in my angels, my guides, my loved ones who have passed on all those in my soul society, which I basically named because there’s a million people on the other side that I may have met in this life. I may not have met.
Tammy Mastroberte (42:57):
I may never meet. I have no idea, but they’re working on my behalf. So I always say those have the highest vibration to please be with me right now. I just explain the problem. Sometimes I know who to call on. Sometimes I just say, listen, whoever specializes in X, Y, and Z, okay, here’s what’s happening, please. I am asking for your help. Just give me the answers. Let allow things to work. Just allow things to fall into place because I’m losing my mind, whatever it might be. Um, please help me. Thank you so much for everything you’ve done in the past, you will do today and you will do in the future. Amen. And that’s it. And so I have made this part of my, I talk about my morning prayer in the book, which I start every morning, but then calling it in throughout the day, whatever you might face, if the lawnmower’s not working, you can call.
Tammy Mastroberte (43:53):
If you have a bug infestation, you can call in, hire help. If your animal is, is, you know, I’ve had situations in the past where I used to have a cat who hated going to the bed. And, um, and it was just like a nightmare to try and get her into the cage. And then another time I had to give her medicine and I was just like crying. Cause I’m like, I can’t catch her to get her this man. Literally I w when, anytime I stopped and just said, please, you gotta help me. I’m trying to get this cap, this medicine. And it’s supposed to be helping. I’m just trying to help her. And I’m losing my mind and I’m afraid that she needs it and she can’t get immediately. I’ve had, I’ve had my crazy cat lie down in front of me and let give her medication like thing to happen.
Tammy Mastroberte (44:34):
So calling in Higher Help and just starting with the collective, I call them, right. It doesn’t have to be, you don’t have to know Archangel Michael’s for protection or Archangel Raphael’s for healing or whomever, if you do, that’s fantastic, but you don’t have to, they know who they are. You just have to call them in. And all of a sudden things resolve themselves. All of the sudden things are easier or solution comes to you. And the other piece of it that I love is that sometimes we feel like we can’t help someone or someone else is going through something and we feel badly. And we feel like I wish I could do something for them, or I wish I could help them. Maybe somebody experienced a death or whatever it might be. You can call in there, hire help on their behalf. You can say, listen, I’m calling in the angels, the guides, the loved ones for XYZ.
Tammy Mastroberte (45:24):
And he says, here’s what they’re struggling with, please, you know, help them to feel better to find the right doctor, to do whatever and say a prayer on their behalf. Because again, I’m big into scientific studies and there are scientific studies for prayer. And that it works. Whether you believe in it or not. Science is saying to you that when we ask for help, it comes so tire help is a big part of the equation. And also when it comes to science and synchronicity, I always say we’re constantly communicating with the universe, right? Through our thoughts through our emotions, whether we’re doing it consciously or not. But the way to get conscious about it is to actually ask for the help, right. Actually call in. And then that we’re getting conscious about our dialogue and then the answers come through science and synchronicity. So there really is this two way communication happening all the time. And we are just not tuned into it. We are just not recognizing it or labeling it as what it is.
Christine Okezie (46:28):
Oh my gosh. So beautiful. That’s amazing. Yes. Thank you. Calling in her and, and so needed these days, right? Because sometimes we feel like, Oh, what can I do? What can I do? You know? And, and we go into that very desperate place.
Christine Okezie (46:42):
Correct? Correct. And that’s always something you can do.
Christine Okezie (46:45):
Oh my gosh. A quote, you have so many beautiful quotes sprinkled in, uh, at the beginning of each chapter. I didn’t know which one to pick because they really kind of, again, the way the book is laid out is it takes these, you know, pretty heady concepts that we read about in spiritual teachings and gives you a day to day, you know, 2020 manual on how to use them. So one of the quotes, I think that captures everything you just said is all you have to do is pay attention. Lessons, always arrive when you are ready. And if you can read the signs, you will learn everything you need to know in order to take the next step. And that was from Paulo Coelho. So, yeah,
Tammy Mastroberte (47:24):
Gosh, actually. Um, and I, and I was like, Oh man, this says everything. It does. It does amazing, amazing quotes. I’m sure with the universe is health while I was writing this book.
Christine Okezie (47:39):
What advice Tammy would you have for someone who’s really struggling right now with their health? Um, and they’re really feeling disempowered and it feels like they’ve tried everything. Um, I’m sure you’ve been there in your own journey. We’ve all been there at some point, right. Where, um, there’s just so much challenge and, and starting to kind of lose faith, which is why I’m asking you.
Tammy Mastroberte (48:01):
Yes. Yes. So, um, I’ve gone through a lot of different, um, health challenges from when I was young, just a lot of different stuff going on. Um, and as I’ve gotten older, I was always looking for answers, always trying to figure things out. Um, but it wasn’t until I started crawling in the help. So not back to what we were. That’s awesome. Yeah, really what happened? So honestly for me, and I’ll never forget, I said, um, so I was brought up Catholic and I’m not really a practicing Catholic, but I, I still utilize a lot of the prayers. I still have the blessed mother statue next to the Buddha in my meditation space. Right.
Tammy Mastroberte (48:46):
So I started saying a novena to st. Jude for me, I’ve always had all these different allergies. I’ve always had, I was on anti-histamines year round. Never knew what was wrong with me. And I used to say to doctors, like, I don’t understand this isn’t seasonal allergies. I have like all the time, like what’s happening. So anyway, it wasn’t until I was in my thirties, that I finally was like, I am just so tired of feeling crappy and not being able to eat or drink certain things or not being able to do like what’s happening. Why are my sinuses welling all the time and making me nauseous and whatever. And so I was like, I have to do something. So I’m going to do an Obina, right? That’s like the thing they tell you to do. So it’s like a nine day prayer in the Catholic faith.
Tammy Mastroberte (49:32):
So a friend of mine had this whole, when I tell you it was like a packet and I would sit for 15 minutes every night and do this now, listen, you don’t have to do this. You can just say a prayer. But again, what I’m going to do is like an action. I’m going to take this and do this 15 minute thing. And so, and, and st. Jude in the Catholic, um, faith is the, um, the same for hopeless cases. And I literally felt like I was a hopeless case. Right. And just as a caveat in the book I talk about, you don’t have to be a certain faith to call on. So you don’t have to be a Buddhist to call on Buddha. You don’t have to be a Catholic to call on st. Jude, et cetera, et cetera, because really on the other side, everybody is one and everything.
Tammy Mastroberte (50:16):
If you believe that, you know that there is no religion there. So that’s just what I believe. And that’s what I teach people. So I called on st. Jude and I did this novena and the craziest thing was, got worse. I got, and I remember saying to a friend like, okay, the novena is broken. Like he’s not getting it. I’m asking to get, you know, to, to help me. And I’m getting worse. And what happened again, everything happens for a reason. I had to get worse in order to finally figure out what was wrong with me, because had it, had I not gotten worse, had I not gone down that road and started researching other things that led me to finally realize, Oh my gosh, I’ve had this my whole life. This is what’s wrong. And then finding the person who led me to the doctor who could diagnose me, who changed everything I had to get worse.
Tammy Mastroberte (51:18):
The first piece is it doesn’t have to be st. Jude. You can say a prayer to Archangel Raphael. As part of my prayer, my morning, prayer, every day, I say, please, Archangel Raphael, continue to heal my body and return it to its perfect state of health. And then send me to all the people, places, modality, whomever who can help me. And that girl alone has led me to people who have, who have significantly helped me in healing. But so the first piece is you can call in help and ask for help specifically with your thing. So that maybe the right doctor will come to you, maybe the right book that can help you. I’ve had so many books that have changed my life with healing. So maybe those right things can come to you. The second piece is you have to remember everything’s happening for a reason.
Tammy Mastroberte (52:06):
And that was the perfect example for me. It was like, I asked for help and you made me worse. Like what? That’s not that’s counterintuitive like that. And then, but then afterwards looking back again, it’s always in the looking back, Oh my gosh, this had to, I had to get worse. Thank God I got worse because I finally got an answer. And then I finally am healing. So I would try and sort of remember those two pieces, if you are healing from something, whatever, and whether it’s a gut issue, an autoimmune disease, something worse, whatever it might be, um, remember to call in the hire help and to realize that you will be guided to the right source. You will be guided to the right, especially when you start asking for it and that whatever is happening is happening to get you to where you need to go. And once you start get to get conscious enough to ask for the help, that’s when the answers are going to start flowing in.
Tammy Mastroberte (53:00):
Oh my gosh, it’s just so effective because it really addresses everything. The mental chaos, the physical discomfort, the emotional volatility, right. And it brings us really into that center. And that is so healing. So I always like to say, you can come into this work through psychology, through neurology or through the spiritual path. You’ll always going to end up on the same place, you know, which is really activating a capacity within us that, um, it’s, it’s always there, but you know, it’s kind of been drummed out of us in, in modern day life. And I love the way that you walk us through to rediscover and reconnect to really what is, um, why we’re here essentially is to continue to evolve and wake up to our true nature, which is what I always come back to. Yeah.
Tammy Mastroberte (53:50):
And to live with more faith, more, more, um, peace and calm because you, you, you sort of have this knowing right. With signs and synchronicity. You can literally walk around with this, knowing that everything is going to be okay, no matter what’s happening, it’s leading me somewhere. I have all of this guidance around me. I see it in my past now. So I can, I can trust that it’s going to be in my future and it ships everything in your life. And that’s what it did for me. And that’s why I became so passionate about it and started teaching about it.
Christine Okezie (54:26):
And right now, as I said, I’ll say it again, because right now, more than ever, we need this work. We need this work so much to find our center, to get the clarity and to know what to do. You know, where, who one is, who do we want to be as we work through all the changes in this world and two how do we, what role do we want to play? And that takes consciousness that takes the ability to be less reactive and hold true to what really we want to be about. Right. To have that empowered action in our life. Yeah. Yeah. I love it. Oh my gosh. There’s Tammy, is there anything I didn’t ask that you, um, would love to share right now?
Tammy Mastroberte (55:07):
I think that I want people to know if they’re listening is that I am a very practical person. I am a very down to earth living in this world person. And so, and I’m not a psychic and I’m not a medium. I’m literally coming at you from an everyday person in an everyday life. I have discovered, and here is what works for me. You can do it right. You can do it. You can understand it. I promise you, you can find the signs. You can, you can do this work.
Christine Okezie (55:36):
Oh my gosh. Awesome. So we, um, want to know what’s going on with you. So what’s the best place to find you? Um, Tammy has so many wonderful events, offerings, um, membership community, right? So what’s the best place to find you, Tammy
Speaker 1 (55:50):
People can go to, um, Tammymastroberte.com and you can find different classes there. You can find, um, actually you can get for free my top two tools to tame the chaos. It’s a quick like three video series free. Um, and then also for the magazine, if you go to elevatedexistence.com forward slash subscribe, and the magazine is free to subscribe and that’s quarterly.
Christine Okezie (56:13):
And again, your book, the Universe is Talking to You, Tap into Signs and Synchronicity to Reveal Magical Moments in Your Every Day. You can get that on Amazon or wherever, get your books. Fantastic. Can’t wait. All right. So everybody go get that book. And so Tammy, it’s been a pleasure. Thank you so much. Um, and enjoy the rest of this gorgeous day. Alright. Thank you so much. Take care.