STILLNESS – That sacred place we ALL can find

Brent Smith (00:01): Hello, everyone. Welcome to the Change Your Heart Podcast. I'm your host, Brent, and I'm here with Don Nathe. Don has been a friend and we've been on and off of contact for the last seven years now. And I met Don in a very pivotal part of my life. It was at the moment that Anne and I decided to move to Brazil, it was during a trip that I met Don. And during this transformative time, Anne, and I just received ,the energy and the willpower to break free of the patterns that we've been doing for so many years and the things that we'd been doing for so many years and make a big change. And so we moved to Brazil and Don we've kept in contact for seven years now. I know you have been going through a lot. Well, welcome, Don. Welcome.

Don Nathe (01:15): Thank you, Brent. I appreciate and look forward to this conversation.

Brent Smith (01:21): Yeah, me too. Me too. So we'll get into all the things that you've been into the, well, no, let's dig into it. Let's dig into it a little bit, Intuitive Healing Touch. Yeah. It's beautiful.

Don Nathe (01:47): You like that title. Yeah, I do.

Brent Smith (01:49): I do. What are you envisioning? What have you created? What is the space Intuitive Healing Touch?

Don Nathe (02:01): So Intuitive Healing Touch is, I hate to call it a business. It's a practice, a healing practice that I started, gosh, back eight or nine years ago when I was studying Reiki, energy work, became a Reiki master and practiced that along with quantum touch, another healing, modality, 'hands on' healing modality for five or six years and had a nice client base, but, I always felt like, there was something more and so during the course of practicing Reiki in some volunteer situations, we ended up treating some musicians at the Monterey jazz festival, here in California, and came upon a craniosacral therapist and got reintroduced to that modality, did an exchange with her and saw that that was something that I needed to learn about asked when I could, you know, how to go about that.

Don Nathe (03:24): She let me know that there was a training session just starting up that week. And so it was meant to happen. And I joined that class and after two years of study and training, I became a registered craniosacral therapist about a year and a half ago, something like that. So now that is most of what I do. I integrate a little bit of Reiki, some quantum touch and some other modalities into the treatment, but by and large it's craniosacral therapy that I perform. And what was it about it? What was the difference? What was the draw? Yeah, craniosacral therapy, focuses more on an external entity on a spirit spiritual basis for healing. It right away in the first chapter of the first book I picked up, it talked about an energy called the breath of life, which pretty much translates into an aspect of God, Source, whatever you choose to call the One.

Don Nathe (04:46): I tend to look at this breath of life as the nurturing component, the spiritual supportive breath that keeps everything that has been created, all of us, breathing and acting and healing in our, in this life. So when I started to read about the breath of life and that we, the notion that we are all being breathed, just like the universe is being breathed, continually, every living organism is being breathed, not by virtue of anything that it is, it is that we are generating ourselves, but by an external force, and I'm looking at movies of slime mold, protoplasm, and watching the fluid flow, 50 seconds in one direction and 50 seconds in another. And there's no, there's no heart doing that. It's all an external spiritual force. And it really fit with my with my spirituality. So it was a way to tie together my spiritual beliefs with the healing work that I was doing.

Brent Smith (06:16): Yeah, beautiful. You know, something I was really interested in, when you prepare for this work or actually, how do you prepare this healing space? I know for a fact, you're in Santa Cruz, which is a very beautiful area. And other than the location of just being an incredible source of energy and beauty, how do you set up your space?

Don Nathe (06:53): Well, the primary thing and this is a great intro. It's stillness, it's using that, that's my word for this conversation. And so in order to get into the right frame of, I want to say mind, but in the right framework to support the client to facilitate the healing, there's a whole alignment process, a meditative process that I go through to find my what's called practitioner neutral so that I can show up as an attentive presence without imparting any of my 'stuff' on the client. So that I can listen more clearly with my hands, with my heart, in a non-intrusive way so that I can be just that witness and make bypassing the client's mind, be able to be present, with the body and with the nervous system so that the client can then release any stored up trauma or inertia that they're carrying from a psychological trauma or a physical trauma. So it's about becoming still. And so meditation helps but just setting that intention to be aligned.

Brent Smith (08:36): That's so nice. So a cleansing, just a cleansing and you called it a practitioner neutral. And anything you do with your space?

Don Nathe (08:49): So my healing space here that I'm sitting in, so this is my little healing temple. I try to make it a safe and comfortable place for the client to arrive so that it's very comfortable, lots of space to sit, to talk about why they came, what they're bringing with them that day that needs to be worked on. It's open to a little green belt of nature. So it has calming, natural view as well. I do put on some soft music and, light some candles and go through a little meditative relaxation process to help them fully arrive and feel safe on the table.

Brent Smith (09:55): Stillness. What made you come up with stillness?

Don Nathe (10:00): For my word today? I think it's a very central, it's central in so many ways. but it is crucial to the healing process. So, finding that, that zero point that zero point of energy field, finding that, place where that's absent of any agitation any, thought you know, any mind interference, is crucial to allowing the body to repair and regain its intrinsic health. We're all born and live with a divine blueprint that our body is continually 24-7 trying to return us to no matter what we go through and what we put ourselves through, stressors and agendas and, all sorts of traumas that we introduced to ourselves. There is that intrinsic health, that's always present, that our bodies, as amazing healing machines ,are trying to return us to, but it takes moving out that interference that, and thoughts.

Brent Smith (11:44): Yeah. That brings up. That sounds great, Don, how do I, you know, I'm moving and I'm working and I come home and I got the family and I, you know, what is that that I'm looking for? What is that stillness, where, where, how would I even start with finding it?

Don Nathe (12:06): Find yourself a place that you can, that you can, even if you have to turn your back to the room and find a corner,. If you're living in one room it's a little harder, but most people have a space that they can meditate. And I know you, I know you do meditate and do prayer and so it's, sitting down with that, with that intention and asking the Source, the universe to support you in isolating your being from all external noise and interference and the power of your being is such that the, you can command that. It's really, the interfering energies, muscle Bay, your intention and your prayer. You have control of your space and you can, and you can create a bubble that is impermeable from all interference. If you, if you will that.

Brent Smith (13:26): Making the attention to just be still

Don Nathe (13:31): Create a space and make that intention. Yeah.

Brent Smith (13:34): So then when I am still, what am I, what am I feeling? Where am I going? What am I feeling in that stillness?

Don Nathe (13:49): Well, that's, that's kind of up to you, but I'm going to say that stillness is a portal to everywhere, to the Divine. Really, if you, if you can get into the stillness and move into your higher self, your spirit, your soul, then you are connected to all that is. And you're also connected to every other living being. And through that zero point through that stillness, that divine, still point, we all have it and we can instantaneously be linked to every other being on the planet, but it also more broadly can, connect you to all that is... Source energy. That's the portal in.

Brent Smith (14:58): What came up a few times in my head, as you were talking about that, is community, is family and, just being part of something bigger. I know family is very important to you and the, how do you experience community as we work towards, after the COVID and as we go forward, do you see things changing in that way?

Don Nathe (15:34): I think a lot's going to change, I think a lot has already changed. I don't believe that we're going to be going back to, the old normality. This has been, it's been a curse and a blessing. I think, I like to focus on the blessing of what all of this has created in terms of slowing down, in terms of cleaning up, and, having more space, more space to go inward, space to create. I think you're, you're experiencing that right now. Yeah.

Don Nathe (16:28): Um, so in the future, I think it is going to be different. We will cherish, I think the connection even more, I think humans are made to hug. I think this is, that part will return, you know, we will get to where we feel safe, being around loved ones, and less in fear, I think, I think the fear has been, you know, for some useful purposes has been, heightened to try to get more people to comply. But I think, as that fear diminishes and we more better understand the disease itself, the virus, then we'll be able to more fine tune our interactions with people. So, I still, I'm fortunate to live with a beautiful partner, Lisa and we are able to have more space to do meditative practices.

Don Nathe (17:40): I'm in other meditation groups on zoom. And so it is an opportunity to, again, go deeper within and find out more about who you really are and why you came. For me, coming into my second career here in in this past, since my, since my wife of 42 years left her body about 10 years ago. I went from being a Silicon Valley executive to a healer. It was an opportunity for me to finally find my divine purpose. So I'm convinced that one of the main reasons I came to the planet this time was to be a healer and I can feel it every time I have my hands on a client and feel as if I'm holding their soul in my hands. It is, It's divine joy.

Brent Smith (18:50): Yeah. That's an incredible way to be creative and feel your passion and just the, the reason that you're here helping others. I really think that it's, it's turning into a world where there's no one person has an advantage over the other. It's everyone has their ability to help each other out to give this little tidbits of knowledge and to just help each other. There's an abundance for everyone. I'm feeling more and more as this time is going by.

Don Nathe (19:27): And then you said it, nobody has anything on the other. Everybody has something to contribute.

Brent Smith (19:34): I felt that when you were saying, when you were talking about how you felt working with a client and where do you see, where do you see it going now? Where do you see your purpose and your draw? Do you see it more going virtual? Do you feel like you can do these works over zoom with these tools that we have now? Or is it, do you really enjoy the one-on-one personal hands on?

Don Nathe (20:11): Yeah, I apologize if my Internet's going in and out, not sure. I much more enjoy the in person treatments. It feels like I'm better, lost you hear me? Okay. I'm sorry. I see a message come on here and it said you've lost internet. Um, yeah, I feel like I'm much more capable of listening, to the clients' systems, in person rather than remotely. I have, used remote technology in the past , telephone and Zoom for people who can't get here and are in a lot of pain and have had some degree of success with that. So, it's a nice tool to have in an emergency when somebody is on the other side of the country.

Brent Smith (21:20): I wanted to talk to you about Love Letters for Humanity. I read it on your website. And I was wondering about the process, how this came up, what were the circumstances when you decided to write this down or to say this?

Don Nathe (21:44): It's hard to explain. I was just inspired to do automatic writing. I'd been reading about it, studying about it and wanted to experience it. The first automatic writing was when I wrote the song, you know, Remembering the Agreement. That was the first thing that I did. And it's just a process of going into meditation, asking to be downloaded with the information that my higher self or ultimately Source wants to communicate through me. And I sat in meditation, asked for that to happen and listened. And the things come in bursts, a little, three word increments, or maybe just a flash, sometimes an image that you need to translate and write down. So it's process of writing as fast as I could all the information that would come down and asking Source what is humankind needing to hear right now? And, so once I have written down all of the, bursts of phrases and critical elements, then I'll go back and make complete sentences out of them. So that's the process.

Brent Smith (23:26): I feel like I've been able to be able to write things more smoothly, like things have, I guess I've been using my intuition more, or my just automatic writing in a way, I don't know much about automatic writing, but it feels like I'm able flow a little bit more. And is that sort of the, the idea of it? It's just, it's a way of connecting to.

Don Nathe (23:59): I think that people have talked about being inspired when they wrote. In the past, automatic writing is, something that various people have specifically labeled it, but it's just opening yourself up to be inspired from something greater than yourself and to write it down as you hear it.

Brent Smith (24:31): I feel like I've been able to write more lately too. I feel a bit more, I guess, connected, like you're saying, or I feel like the flow is better. Yeah. I also thought that it was very important to start writing things down more, as far as journaling. I haven't gotten that far as far as journaling yet because it's, for some reason it's a very difficult thing for me. But if it's little notes, if it's something that I'm watching, I write a comment about it. I've been really trying to, if I watch something on YouTube or something to really, to make a comment of something that I enjoyed during the show and for some reason, it amplifies what I thought was cool with it or just, or the positive in it. And so that's, that's, as far as I've gotten with.

Don Nathe (25:34): What I will tell you is that once you start writing, it just flows, and then you look at what you wrote, you'll be amazed. You know, I was thinking, who wrote this, you know, it wasn't, it wasn't Don, but it was my higher self. Some, you know, my consciousness, my larger self, if you will, that came with this message. And it was pretty, it was very cool. So I ended up doing it three times. Because every time something new came in and after I wrote the third one, I felt I felt done for awhile. Maybe I'll do it again, in the future.

Brent Smith (26:20): What I was thinking with it and your other posts. I was really seeing a book in the future. Anything like that?

Don Nathe (26:30): Well, that's ominous.

Brent Smith (26:32): It's ominous. It sounds big, but have you considered it?

Don Nathe (26:37): You know, I think if something happened where I had enough of those downloads to make it a book, I'd staple it together and publish it or something, but I think it's not a you know, writing a book is not a passion or a dream that I have right now. It feels more, that would feel more like a stressor, you know, to get it out and get it done. But that's what I like putting it on my website, intuitivehealingtouch.com, you know, and just letting people see it that way and adding to it as time goes by.

Brent Smith (27:21): Not getting out of your stillness. You can't put those stressors on you, but how do you, I think we got cut out during that part, but how do you see things as you move forward and what you're going to be creating and what kind of community you want and who you want to gather together? There's a lot of questions all in one, but who do you see your, who do you picture your community, the people you're with as you move forward?

Don Nathe (27:51): Well, I am a part of a community here, in California, in Northern California. And I see that circle growing. We have, you know, small groups that meet and we have great exchanges about spirituality and evolution, consciousness. I'm really quite satisfied with that. At the same time, I like the word of mouth, about my healing practice getting out so that I would love to stay busy, and get back to the more of the schedule that I had before Covid arrived. Then to do more writing and put more on my creative expressions page and, and invite, invite feedback. So I I'm quite happy at this stage of my life to just have those aspirations.

Brent Smith (28:54): What do invite feedback? That's an interesting one, isn't it?

Don Nathe (29:06): I mean, I'm open to a conversation about, things that I write. I'm not looking for, you know, somebody to agree or, or start an argument about it, but just to, I'm interested in other people's thoughts about what I put down, and, I trust the universe will, provide me with, useful, you know, feedback from different conversations.

Brent Smith (29:42): Different ways of thinking about it. I think it's very similar to this podcast and what we're doing here. And it really is just bringing up different things, just bringing up different ideas and, and just talking about it.

Don Nathe (29:58): There's no one right way of doing anything. You know, we all come with our unique, we're all unique expressions of soul consciousness, you know, we're all, we're all one. And at the same time, we're all, we all have individual perspectives of how we see the world and, how to make sense of it. And we're on different journeys, different paths, all circling back to be one again, in a kind of, kind of the melting snow, we're all individual snowflakes. We all melt back into the same stream. And then we go through the process again and, become unique pieces of water that once again, joins the body of water flowing out to the sea.

Brent Smith (31:01): It's really nice. It's really nice being with you. It's really nice being in your energy. And when we connected last week and with Anne, it was so wonderful to see your smile, to see you really lit up. And I remembered when we went to go visit you in Santa Cruz, about five years ago, how it was, you took us around, you took us a walk down that path, and you were, you were proud of what you created. I mean, you just like you, you lit up and I saw you lit up again and it's just so nice experiencing that of when you're able to share. And when you're able to experience something with someone else, it's really nice feeling being with you.

Don Nathe (32:02): Same here. I'm so glad you're doing this, Brent. I'm so glad you're here. restarting again, to do this. I missed listening to your broadcast. Thanks for, thanks for stepping up to do this. Yeah, I love it here in Santa Cruz. I hope to never move. It really matches my energy and, and, climate wise, it's perfect. It's a beautiful place. So I like being here and I love doing what I'm doing.

Brent Smith (32:37): Thank you so much for the compliment. I am very excited to do this again, and it was so awesome for you to be part of that before and when life takes a different way and you just, you have different priorities and different, different thoughts. And this time has really got me back to feeling again, that I'm here for something more. I'm here to, to really start sharing and being with more people to really just getting out the door, I guess.

Don Nathe (33:19): Yeah, that's what I meant about that divine purpose. You know, when you feel, when you're on purpose, you can feel it in your bones. You can feel that surge of passion and energy that says this is what I'm here to do. And, that's the experience I get in my healing practice. And I know that you light up when you're doing this particular work. Now this is this phase of your divine purpose.

Brent Smith (33:51): It's almost like a stillness, but it's a little bit more, a little bit more action. Yeah. Yeah. When you're able to help somebody, do you feel that stillness?

Don Nathe (34:06): Oh, yeah. Oh yeah. And you know, stillness is, I'm thinking about that along with something that, Anne said the other day in one of the broadcasts, this stillness is not empty it's.so, it's this, it's this void that is full of potential. It's, this, it's this void from which everything emanates. You know, it's, it's where the Breath of Life comes into being. And so it's a dynamic stillness, if you will, it's full of dynamism. Even though it appears to be void of any stimulation. It's, it's full of that potential to move to the next thing, to create a new star, you know, from nothing, from anti-matter, you know, all of a sudden, you know, something something gets created.

Don Nathe (35:23): So yeah, so when I practice and feel that stillness it's like a meditation for me and this whole practice, I'm so blessed and grateful to be able to be doing this work in my life. Every session that I participate in, it's like a deep meditation for me. So when it's over, I feel as healed as the person on the, maybe more, as the client on the table. So it's really, it's so right, and it's such a blessing for this, for me to have this second career, you know, and to have it be more purposeful, you know, more on point for me in this, in this lifetime.

Brent Smith (36:18): Do you feel that now that you've really started working with people and helping out that you have needed more help from the outside, or has this been sort of your therapy? I know you just said that it's very therapeutic for you and healing for you when you go through this process with people. Do you feel like you have to go find, find help more often now?

Don Nathe (36:50): I receive bodywork. It's very therapeutic for me to do that. I do receive craniosacral therapy, from time to time, massage therapy. And, I would say that it is, it does, it does take care of that need in a lot of ways. It is therapeutic for me to perform the sessions. So there's, I feel more calm, you know, afterwards, so it really is like having a session myself. So, it's very, it's very, it's very nice for me to find this occupation, you know, this path.

Don Nathe (37:50): So yeah, I'm not aware of being, overanxious or, you know, going crazy, so I need to go seek out a healer to calm me down. You know, again, I'm blessed to be living with a healer and so if I'm ever in, out of sorts, I've got some kind of attachment energy on me, that is not me. I'm not acting like myself, boy, she can spot it in a moment and, we'll sit down and, identify it and go into meditation and ask to release those misaligned energies. Those attachment energies have decided to hang out in my field to make, you know, just to tag onto some, fear or anger or, you know, some misaligned emotion that is not me.

Brent Smith (38:59): I feel very similar having Anne with me, she's a powerful healer and I have this ability to, I'm able to bounce things off her and to really go through things with her sometimes, or a lot of times, I feel like it's a lot for her too, to feel like she has all her stuff going on too, but also dealing with, with my things that I'm like bringing her into. Do you feel like that at all with Lisa or do you feel like it's.

Don Nathe (39:38): Yeah. And I think, you know, don't sell yourself short. I mean, there's a reason you guys are together. It's not just to take care of Brent. I'm sure she's getting a lot of healing back from you and a lot of feedback, good feedback, when she's out of sorts or what have you. Yeah, so yeah, it's the same with Lisa and I, there are, we are able to, spot in each other when things are misaligned and be able to talk through it. You know, there's nothing to.

Brent Smith (40:16): They're more gentle ways than we have in the past.

Don Nathe (40:22): Probably, yeah. This is probably true for you and Anne as well. There's nothing that Lisa and I can't talk about, and it's so good to hear myself say that, you know, there's, there's nothing, there's no holding back.

Brent Smith (40:39): I was wanting to say that as well, there's nothing that Anne and I can't talk about. It does feel good because it's, it's wonderful being at a place with your partner where that's, that's true.

Don Nathe (40:55): Yeah. Just to notice that, you know, we're just, we're just in these bodies, in these human space suits, you know, that we're really, you know, this consciousness evolving, ever evolving throughout eternity. And this time around we picked this sex, gender, this body size and shape. And we're just having an experience. We're just having a human experience, as a spiritual being, you know, a light energy energetic being. And so to notice your partner, as that, in that divine sense and that spiritual sense and not get hung up on the personality piece and start to get into where you disagree. Just to kind of like you were saying in one of your last episodes, just laugh at it, you know, say I'm the, I'm the best, most gifted guy. And you got to love me, you know, and, yeah, just to take things lighter and notice that we're all just going through this life, you know, walking each other home.

Brent Smith (42:29): I think that's a very important point is just, it's really trying to take things lighter, to move with more, ease, with more stillness with more just It's really, we're here for a purpose where we're here for a purpose. And we're things aren't, we're not here for things just to fall apart in the mall, just like the whole thing go completely right. So there's a little bit of ease with knowing that that we're supported.

Don Nathe (43:04): Just remember that we're here to have fun. We're here to have pleasure. And if we're not having fun, let's figure out why that's not happening and ask to be rid of it, you know, and by going to that quiet place, going into meditation together, if there, if your loggerheads, you know, butt heads just to sit down and meditate together and get into that quiet space and so much of it falls away. Again, from that place of stillness, all is love, you know, you can move into gratitude and love, and then you can't be angry anymore. If you can, just, if you can just sit with what you're grateful for, there's nothing to be afraid of or to be angry at. It's just love.

Brent Smith (44:05): It's the way you put it. It's really nice. It felt like things dissolved a little bit, like things just the ease. I mean, it just, it just falls away.

Don Nathe (44:20): Things dissolve in stillness. That's true.

Brent Smith (44:25): I feel like your word has given us stillness, you know, very calming effect during this talk. And I really appreciate that in a way. I like it a lot. Thank you. I appreciate you. Too cool Don. Thank you so much for being with me. Thank you, Brent. Thanks for having me. Thank you everybody for joining us. This conversation, Change Your Heart Podcast, until next time, enjoy life and have fun and find that stillness.

Don Nathe (45:10): Blessings.