Historical Figures and Mystical Beliefs

Before we start, this episode contains some chats you might find difficult to hear, so do check the show notes for more details. Hello and welcome to Happy Plays with me Fern Cotton. This is the show that wants you to trust your gut. Today I'm chatting to Poppy Jamie I called my mom and she said, Poppy, I don't know whether you want to know this, but I knew you weren't going to have this baby I said, what And in that moment, it's so strange, but for me, that was the most healing thing I could have received because I thought My gosh, Poppy, I was never this is I don't know Wh I was pregnant, but I was never supposed to have this baby. Like the fact that my mother wrote down I wasn't gonna have a baby next year was giving me kind of so much hope that everything was unfolding, even though it was desperately painful and the most traumatic thing I've ever been through It was kind of unfolding as it should Oh my God, I am going through a very mad period of life at the minute. Everything feels very busy and I am overwhelmed. That's the word I'm looking for. I have just got I feel very lucky and I've got lots of exciting projects that I'm working on and things that I'm doing at the minute. But that alongside sort of parenting and just being a human It just all feels mad. I'm sure many of you listening to this will feel equally as overwhelmed. So let this be a moment for us to pause. and not be racing ahead so what you've got to do next. That's what my brain constantly does. L, oh my Godd, right, I'm doing this thing, but actually I'm thinking about the three activities I've got to do or jobs I've got to do, or things I've got to tick off a list. in the future. Let's just all be here for the minute because I promise this chat Whatever your inclination is, whether to be more science minded or woooo minded or somewhere in between, this chat will prove to be positive and hopeful And just actually bloody lovely. this chat came at the right time as did Poppy's book The Book of Magical Living. There was some synchronicity with all of it, and I hope that you find that from this conversation too So let's talk about lovely Poppy Poppy was well known as a TV host before pivoting into the mental health space She experienced a lot of anxiety and burnout, which led her to write her first book Happy Not Perfect. And now she's written this new book. of magical living. I love anything with the word magic in. We all need more magic. I love this book because it's basically pointing out the extent to which we've been trained to dismiss the stuff that we can't measure We're meant to trust logic over intuition and data over energy. and I think that has been massively accentuated more recently. and look I'm here for it. if we think that quantifying know tracking our sleep or our footsteps or whatever it is, is helpful to you and it feels like it's a positive in your life. Blood you brilliant. I'm not going to argue with that But I do think if we are only looking at numbers, you've all become sort of slightly obsessed with quantifying everything from likes and followers to how well we're sleeping, to how much energy we're burning off to whatever. We're just trying to quantify everything like there's meaning in the numbers when actually we're not looking at just the meaning in life the little magical moments that we feel means something. I think we've the balance has tipped so far into numbers And I'm guilty of it. you know, I can get totally carried away with that. Like how many people listened to the podcast How many people are follow me on Instagram? likeike, who fucking cares? It doesn't matter Actually what we all really need for our mental health, our general well beinging is proper, meaningful moments. They don't have to be huge. I think they can be tiny little glimmers throughout your day, throughout your week that just harm you or make you feel like you're on the right path, on the right track That's what I'd rather deal in Also Stick with this podcast. I mean quite early on, Poppy has a huge announcement that got us all Totally teary in the studio. mayaybe get a tissue to hand We have the tech to get food delivered in fifteen minutes, but we all have horror stories about buying tickets. The Gameetime app gives fans the advantage. Get amazing tickets in just a few taps. Fes are included, so what you see is what you pay, and the Gameime guarantee means authentic tickets at the best price every time.ake the guesswork out of buying tickets concerts, sports, comedy, and more with game time Download the Gameime app and create an account for twenty dollars off your first purchase. Terms apply All right, let's do it. here's the show It's so lovely to see you in real life, not just on an Instagram grid Oh my gosh, I cannot tell you how much I am excited to be here. I am obsessed with this podcast. You've been always such a pioneer in all of this. so it's a real moment for me to be here. Oh my Godd, that means the world. Thank you. and thank you for writing your beautiful books. magical living, which accounts how you came to me like good books do at the right time. I love it when you get a book and you're like, I had no clue that you'd written a book about this stuff And it landed on my doorstep and I was like Oh my Godd, I needed this right this second That makes me so happy. The book did the same thing for me as well It just came write on time. I love that. I love that. So before we get into exactly what's in the book Tell me what you mean or your understanding of magical living. What is that to you that it's best to start off talking about magic in the way that it feels, because everybody understands what magic feels like that moment when You meet the love of your life on the night that you didn't want to go out, but there was a small voice that said, I'll just go to the party. and suddenly you're standing there and your destiny is about to change All that idea that comes in the middle of the night that completely sends you on a different journey. Or perhaps it's when a loved one has died and suddenly they send a sign and you know it's from them It's these inexplicable moments that expand your understanding of what is possible offtten think that we see and feel magic often in tragedy orr when you're on the edge of life, whether that be birth or death, you know, it's like something like One in four hundred trillion charts are being born I mean, the fact that we are just magic, even by the fact that we are Yeah toot. And is those those moments that suddenly you go, we don't understand life And to me, that mystery and the fact that science is now validating how little we know. NASA says, we've only ever att tracked five percent of the universe. ninety five percent is totally unknown You go, wow, why don't we lean into this ninety five percent becausecause if we think we know, that's when I think we lose hope. Oh God, I feel depressed when I think, Oh, that's it. We're just blobs walking around a planet and I actually can't bear that thought. I need some magic. Yeah. I need it. And everybody has experienced some form of magic. And so the book was this dive into let's reawaken magic because the moment we decide we're not going to see it, we don't see it. But the moment we open up going, I know my life is magical comes faster and quicker and signs arrive before you've even thought about where they could be coming from. Yeah. That's what your book did for me. It just put a positive Bin on some stuff I was not feeling positive about. And I think that's the joy of having your eyes wide open to the possibility of magic is that you actually start to just feel a bit more optimistic. andes I find anything like whether it is signs or having that. almost childlike awe about things. I find it comforting And especially like the Ss one. So I had read the chapter on signs and me and my daughter, who's ten. go for a walk after dinner, nights,'s my favorite of the day We have a little walk, can we chat about her day and like she's got friendship dramas going on always. So we dissect that And then I said to her, Oh Should we chat about signs? Be you know I han't really we talked a little bit maybe you know, in an abstract way about it previously, but We started having this really cool chat about it and I said, so you could pick like anything and say that's going to be my little sign that there's somethingomet positive on the way. It could be like a butterfly or whatever And we were stood by the river and she went literally as I'd said that, she went, o, look there and there was on a posts takeick out the river, a massive hern L You know, a meter tall heron stood there and I was like, oh my God. I remember reading somewhere that herons represent something like really positive forward motion, like a step into something good. And then it kind of gracefully flew above the river and we both just stood there going, o my God, this is so cool And if we hadn't had that chat, probably wouldn't have seen the herin. the whole moment would have been missed. It's like those little moments I think really add up And it's interesting because children are more intuitive. The average five year old sees ten more details than the average adult. NASA even did an experiment in the sixties looking for genius creative talent and they looked at one thousand six hundred children When they tested five year olds, ninety eight percent of them scored creative genius levels. Wow. By ten, only thirty percent did, by fifteen, twelve percent, and by adults, only two percent scored creative genius levels. It's knocked out of us. It's knocked out of us. And that's kind of what really made me want to write this book because if we're not careful, we're living in a world that wants to destroy our magical sensors liiving in a world that prioritizes logic, reason, science over intuition, in a knowning, the unknown Things that you can't explain, but you know they mean something. You know the universe is going fern This way this way this is a good thing or actually hold on in a minute, no, no, don't go down that door. And I think it opens you up to start questioning life, which then becomes like a scavenger hunt. You're like, okay, if I'm on this incredible maze, this Snakes and Ladders maze, that I know I'm going to go on this amazing journey and I'm going to be given kind of a bit like Hansel and Gretel. There's these breadcrumbs that you can follow and the universe is always winking at you and it's always giving you breadcrumbs, but it's learning to see the breadcrumbs. Yeah, without a doubt. that knowing that you talk about, I think is really important because you don't have to be particularly like woo woo minded or think magically already Oh identify with that If you like everybody on the planet has had that moment where they've gone, I had a feeling that either I shouldn't do that or I should do that. And there's often no logic. I've had moments where I think there's one particular moment that I won't really share because it's something like I'm still doing therapy about. But there was one moment where I was like just had and knowing. I had a knowing And I think looking back and seeing those little moments through life where you're like, o, I definitely need to walk down this path or I definitely don't want to go down that path, whatever it might be. We do know and it is a feeling and it's like it's a very physical feeling. and that rep know yes, we can be scientifically minded, we can be cerebral, but our bodies are so tuned in. and that's why we call it, I guess, a gut instinct. It is usually you know, you feel it in your gut or you feel it in your body or I get like I feel almost sort of like lightheed when I know something's off. When I know like definitely don't go down that path or you know this situation is not good for you. I feel like I'm sort of like spinning out a little bit. It's a physical thing rather than a train of thought that I'm following And we've been taught to dismiss those feelings. Yeah We've been taught to override them. And actually I think it's interesting. women often have the capacity to be more intuitive than men because we evolved without the same physical strength So we needed to be so much more aware of our environment to stay safe. Yeah. And it is the body, I think seven percent of communication is verbal. ninety three percent is non verbal. Our body is the greatest wisdom tool that we have constantly giving us messages. And if if we're numbing, if were separateated, if we're so busy, we're not listening to these signals, we can miss them Yeah. And that's what the book is really helping people hopefully to go on a journey of reconnecting with that innate magic inside. Like even all of us, I'm sure have walked into a room and gone, o something's off it, like the vibe is bad. Yeah Or you've walked in and gone God, this is this is like electrifying. like this is so amazing L it's a feeling. It's not something you can say These are the reasons why I felt like something was off. You just felt like it was fucking off. Do you know what I mean? Yeah And you're so right. we are We're actually encouraged to numb via just stay scrolling on your phone or just keep eating shit or keep buying things or like anything to distract us from feeling anything actually, like feeling any sense of emotion or knowing. we're kind of encouraged to just Numb it down to nothingness. When you start to reconnect with science in the body When you're going through the worst times possible, it gives you gift of going, You're going to get through this. When you allow the universe to talk, it will talk back. And I remember being at my cousin's wedding and his mother died far too young and he just started his speech and this bird came to perch on top of this see through tent The moment he started and the moment he finished bird flew off and my mum said, she was here There's so many I you know, if we put this out on Instagram, there will be thousands of people that have got stories like that, whether it's somebody that's died and there's something inexplicable that happens or Just some magical, I even had like a weird sign this morning with a wge plate that had a word in that was related to something that I was worrying about. and I was like It' got to be It was a word. I was like, that's got to be a good sign. Yeah. I love that shit. I need shit up. I Absolutely love it. Now, just there, you mentioned when we're going through the worst things, this is often when yes, we need to be maybe more open minded to this sort of thing because it can be not only comforting but also pointless in I think often a healthy direction. I'm the sort of person that could spiral into a negative mindset really easily. We all can. getet totally wound up in the drama of a situation or going into self loathing. But if I am more open minded to right, what are the signs pointing to here? What can I have hope in? What can I have faith in? better, My mental health will be in a better state. I know that that's the way to go And you talk in the book about your own dark times and losing two late pregnancies which I'm imagining tested you in every area. How did this mindset, this way of thinking, these methodologies, how did they help you get through that period of your life So I remember when I was nineteen, I was told by this incredible wise mentor I have called Ruth Namas. and she said, Poppy, there's no such thing as a coincidence. Everything is a coordinated instance And I feel that that was one of the best things she could have ever told me because In these moments, I've been kind of taught to pause and say This isn't the end of the world. You've just got to see this story through And so I started writing this book And I had been diagnosed with extremely low fertility at thirty years old. I went for a check, randomly we woke up in the middle of the night and I just had this feeling, I think you need to go look at your ovaries. You know, five years ago' a lot more talk about fertility now, but five years ago, nobody was speaking about it. Anyways, I go online, find the closest clinic, go along, and I really assumed I was very healthy and very fertile And they sat me down and they asked all these kind of weird questions that started making me think, o things don't seem quite right here And she said, Poppy, I'm really sorry to tell you, but Mers are as if you're in your late forties. you're on the verge of infertility And at thirty years old, I'm single and I'm thinking to myself My whole life is kind of crashing down because I'm thinking, o, maybe I can never be a mother. And so I had to do the egg freezing process, do that multiple times. I had very few follicles and as consequent eggs And so I assumed that this maybe just not on the cards for me. And my partner also had had a history of cancer. So when I found a partner absolutely in love with him. and you know, even you know, when I thought, wow, I'd love to have children with him, I also knew his history of cancer. so I knew that also might not be a possibility. So I just thought, okay, this might not be our future And I went I have an amazing tarot reader who's a bit like a mentor and she's a union psychologist called Dia Beg And she said, she was pulling my cards and she said, Poppy You're going to be pregnant. And I laughed. I said Hilarious. like love the cards of saying this. It's actually biologically kind of impossible But whatever. And she said, justust call me in five months. you're going to be pregnant. And I just put it to the back of my mind because I knew it's impossible. Maybe they think pregnant with a new book or pregnant with a business. or you know the tarot is a form of kind of storytelling And anyway, so five months later suddenly start to notice, you know my piods missed, but I thought stressed, you know, there's obviously that And I find out I'm pregnant and I cannot believe it. And I call up diagram, second person in I call up after my mother She said I cannot believe I'm pregnant and she laughs and she said, Okay, you know enjoy And it was felt like a real miracle pregnancy and I loved being pregnant. It felt like I was evolving this life and it was amazing. and told my mother and anyway, every time I was coming up to a scan, she would say I mean, look, you know sometimes scans can go wrong. and I thought, why are you being so negative? You know, my scan is going to be fine. I'm positive thinking, it's going to be fine And the scan was fine. So I thought, honestly, she's being such a worry wart, it's fine. Anyway, I get to five months and we go for a scan and basically very critical bones are missing And so the baby wouldn't be able to live after it was born And so we have to go through a termination And when you're so late along so many plans have been made So The loss is just, you're grieving so many so many things and the shock and then the trauma of an abortion, that late The most painful, horrendous in the entire world. You know, I was halfway through an abortion. I'm on the street floor fainting because the medicine had hit me too soon, hadn't me be able to catch to the hospital at time. It was one of the most physically horrendous experiences I've ever been through Anyway, I call my mom and she said, Poppy, I don't know whether you want to know this But I knew you weren't gonna have this baby I said what And my mom has a crystal, a pendulum that she ask questions too. And the crystal will either swing right or left depending on the you' know. So when I had told her in October I'm pregnant She'd ask the crystal but hadn't to me And she said, is Popy going to have a baby next year? And the crystal had said, no. And she wrote down all the answers the crystal said, and she sent it to me. And in that moment, it's so strange, but for me that was the most healing thing I could have received because I thought My gosh, Poppy, I was never this is I don't know Wh I was pregnant, but I was never supposed to have this baby. Like the fact that my mother wrote down I wasn't gonna have a baby next year, knowing her daughter was pregnant. and she thought, I'm being crazy. Igignore this cryistal. What am I doing? Of course I want my daughter to have a baby. This is crazy town. But she wrote it down anyway just in case So I had the abortion and then six weeks later Total shocker. I'm pregnant again And at this point, I really cannot believe it I'm th Basically on the verge of infertility, how on earth can I get pregnant again But it was obviously total miracle. It was, you know, super healing. I was still kind of traumatized, but I was like, wow, this is so amazing And my mom had that crystal had said Poppy is going to have Baby girl in twenty twenty six. So me and my partner kind of assumed like, o, okay, well the crystal is slight wrong, we're going to have a baby in twenty twenty five because it's going be end of the year now. And so we get to the three month scan and then you want't know the gender. And we said, yes. and they said, Oh, what do you think it is? And we go, it's obviously going to be a girl And she said, Oh, sorry guys, D definitely a boy, you know, from the scan and then we have the test and it was a boy. And I thought, o, that's weird. Okay, my mom just was so wrong. You know, these are things whatever, this magical crystal stuff, whatever, fun things, but don't take it seriously and it get to five months again And the same thing happens There is a huge problem with the baby that would mean that I wouldn't be able to breathe on birth and I have to have another abortion at nineteen weeks And you know and the doctor who saw us just said, dont I haven' in my whole thirty years, I haven't seen this. I've not seen a woman having to have two wasortions at five months. And it was weird because the crystal had said I wasn't gonna to have a baby in twenty twenty five. So I kept kind of going back to this prophecy. thinking How is it that I'm pregnant again? but you know This crystal was giving me kind of so much hope that everything was unfolding, even though it was desperately painful and the most traumatic thing I've ever been through It was kind of unfolding as it should. and so What I can tell you is I'm pregnant with a baby girl Yeah Yet. Seventeen weeks. yeah and I will come to I trace it Yeah I know. and it's just like if and that's why I truly believe in truly believe in this because I just wouldn't have gone through it had I not known. It's gonna be okay I'm so happy for you. That's Yeah, so it's been such a journey, but it's weird this book. And you know, the people in the book that everybody will kind of find out about, you know, there are these incredib incredibly wise women. And these women to me are the heroes of today These women stand outside of society and they are able to notice things that other people can't notice. And these women, those magical women, I think everybody has the ability to, you know harness this sort of magic. But honestly, it wasn't for these incredible, you know and how I describe them as witches., it wasn't for these witches The last two years would have been unmanageable. and it was the magic that just has gotone through We have the tech to get food delivered in fifteen minutes, but we all have horror stories about buying tickets. The Gameime app gives fans the advantage. Get amazing tickets in just a few taps. Fes are included, so what you see is what you pay, and the Gameime guarantee means authentic tickets at the best price every time. Take the guesswork out of buying tickets to concerts, sports, comedy, and more with game time Download the Gameime app and create an account for twenty dollars off your first purchase. Terms apply We're gonna to get ont to witches in a minute, but I am goose bumps over my whole body hearing you tell that story and I think for so many people out there who are going through might not be the exact same story as you, but their own challenges and us non you know, we've all got shit going on or have had. and I think to be able to see the reasons as to why something isn't unfolding in a certain way, even though it feels Terrible. is there is some sort of comfort in that, like you say. and I'm just I'm so thrilled to hear your news. I can't tell you. Thanks so much. I can't absolutely Buzzing for you Oh yeah, it's very, very the whole thing has been so bizarre in this pregnancy when I was finding out the gender because I knew this prophecy two years ago I thought, I wonder what the gender is going to be or when they called me up to say, it's going be a girl. And I read these notes. My mother wrote down everything So I could read these notes back from twenty twenty four I thought, wow This is beyond wild it's magic. It's magic magic. I mean you talk about your mum a hell of a lot in the book. And she really laid the foundations for you to think in this way. It's almost been a language that you've had from childhood thinking about the world in this way. And then forgot it You know, we grew up with this really amazing magical woman that taught us to kind of, you know, notice The small things, you know, the things that make my mum's day is seeing a bluter in the garden and I just Now I appreciate that so much because there is nothing. she doesn't want anything that society tells you that you should want. Her joy is saying a blue tot in the garden And I think that, you know when I left home, you kind of go, I'm going to go and do all of these things And I chased after all these things I thought I wanted. I probably didn't really want And it was a journey back to this. of simplicity of noticing these smaller things in life. Yeah, I love that. I mean, let's talk about some of because a lot of it really resonate with me in your story of how, you know, first of all, you're thinking, right, I want to go to LA. I want to host TV shows. you know I did all that went to LA thing and I was like, fuck that. I'm coming home. I do not want to be there. But you know we have these ideas set out by society that these are markers of success and this is what people will deem successes if you take them off the list. and I can still sometimes fall into that trap and go No, I need to be achieving more and doing more and actually What I really want to do is be at home with my kids and paint. I wish I could paint every damn day. L that's my dream and hopefully I am moving towards that down the line And all the other stuff is like, whyy am I doing this? Is this like to prove it to myself? Is it ego? Is it because I need validation? and you start to really challenge a lot of the stuff that is pushed our way is like what we should be doing. So at what point did you think Oh, something's missing here. somethinghing's not quite right It's interesting because I did that all of those things, went to LA, wanted to set up a company, built a tech company. And then I kind of sat there going, I am so deeply unhappy I am not a natural tech founder. Yes, I did it and we were able to build this amazing company. but didid it forcing myself to be at a triangle when I was a square or the other way around I think it's so easy for us all to change our shapes, knowing that actually the original shape was so much more in line with our true self. And I love what Carl Young said says Well said years ago, the greatest privilege of a lifetime is to be who you are, to know yourself And so it was a journey of going back to the purest version of myself. and that was a lot of taking off many outfits that I'd put on and realized they didn't really fit. Yeah. And I think probably a lot of people can resonate with that. And the other thing that I got really obsessed with was I am going to learn everything about the brain. That's going to kind of stop my anxiety. And if I know about the prefontal cortex and the amygda and d d d, and then you realize science is desperately short when it comes to the matters of the heart and soul And actually when I was going through a hard time I didn't want to go see a scientist. I wanted to go to a wise woman that was going to expand my understanding of what was possible. I wanted to go to a healer. I wanted to go and touch the invisible world and realize that my reality was very limited or what I was seeing was super limited. And that was kind of the big the big change to going I am doing life in such a mechanical way and I am chasing things that society has told me to chase. and actually What really makes me Yeah really makes me happy and who actually am I? Yeah, and you know, it's no bad thing to try on these different hats and you know, you built something massively successful and that was helping lots of people and also you were learning the science of it and we can all do that and great and understand it But I think to have it in tandem with this other stuff I like learning about the brain. I find it really interesting. I'm not massively academic, but I love learning and I'll always be up for chatting to people in this forum and going, right, tell me everything you know and I'll take it on board. But I still want to go and do the magic stuff.. And also you know, you write about rituals in the book, which is another thing that I'm very interested in. And again, it could be very easily palmed off as like what a load of shit, like doing a ritual, That's not going to do anything. I've got proof in my own life and that's all I'm worried about. I don't need to have some data led experiment. I know that for me, I've done a bunch of different rituals in different settings and it has made a huge difference to my mindset and therefore the outcome. So like one of them, I've talked about this on another episode before, but I had to go for a medical procedure that I was dreading and I'd had like a bit of kind of I'm not going to use the word traumatic, but like a not very pleasant situation before that that freaked me out and I couldn't I was really disturbed by it. so I felt very unnerved And I spoke to a brilliant wise woman that has in that field for years and I said, please give me a ritual or something to do on the day so that when I go into that room, I feel better So it was on the twelfth of December. I was like, Oh, twelve twelve. that seems like pretty good sign And she gave me a bunch of stuff to do before. and then she said, When you go into the room Scan the whole room, first of all, just so you go right. I know exactly what my surroundings look like. Second, every person you meet as you enter the hospital from the personal reception to every nurse in the room, every doctor, you say, oh, what's your name So I had everyone's name, so it was much more human experience. And then that kind of seemed to soften everything. And one of the nurses said, Oh would you like me to hold your hand? And I said, I would really like that. Thank you. And I held a hand and then there was a big delay. so I was like, no, don't get frustrated. it's going to be okay. So by the time I was ready to have the procedure I looked up and it was Bang on twelve midday on the twelfth of the twelfth. And it was meant to be at eleven. So it's like an hour delayed at that point My whole mindset changed to I've spotted a tiny little speck of magic and now I feel comforted, I feel safe, which is the main thing. And I feel like everything's working For me rather than this is an awful experience I don't want Yes. Changed everything. one hundred percent. It Einstein has a great quote, You know, you can either approach life that nothing is a miracle or approach life that everything being that everything is a miracle. And I love the other quote from Martha Beck that says ritual, the magic and ritual isn't that it changes the world. The magic and ritual is that it changes us. Yes. And it is. It's like ritual completely ch it rewiise your body to your mind, It helps you to see different things. And that's kind of where I do love science where it backs up magic because as we know, our brain filters out ninety eight percent of what we see. We're bombarded with eleven million pieces of information a second and our conscious brain only processes fifty. So what is your brain filter filtering out And that's where I think we're at risk of losing the ability to see magic. and that's why it's so important to intentionally say I am going to go into this hospital and I am going to create my own magic. Y. and ritual helps you to see things that you wouldn't have otherwise seen. And that's kind of why I love the science of spells. The idea of a spell feels so kind of magical, a bit whimsical, bit kind of woooo, rubbish. And actually what a spell does, it makes a ritual feel really fun And when you're learning, you learn something forty times faster if you're playing Yes. And the other thing is the intention of focus. Abraham Hicks says, if you focus on something for seventeen seconds, you create a thought wave that then kind of goes into the ether. And I just you That's hard to kind of quantify, prove. but I think to myself, in our distracted world, when you can turn making tea into a ritual into an intention setting ceremony to start your day, you're going to have probablyably even if it's a no point not one percent better day than you would have had if you were just going, okay, teabag in milk you know, it just slowing down for a second to say, what do I want today? I want today to show me something that I haven't seen before. Yes, intntention is a key word because Ritual to me is the marker of intention. I am intending to walk into whatever situation in the most positive mindset I can And if I haven't done something, some sort of prep or got my head in that space, I'm walking into it like Any could happen bad, ugly. whereas I think if you set the intention, it doesn't mean everything's going to work out perfectly, but at least you've set the tone that you will gain the most positivity you can from that shitty situation. And there are so many things that you write in the book that I needed to hear again that week when I read it about How things unfold and on what timeline? Because we might expect like, I've done the ritual, everything's going to be fucking great. And actually it's like, no, sometimes you go through the worst possible thing. your own anecdotes that you've told today could be your life fucked because you've been through this trauma and the physicality of it and your headspace could be entirely negative, and I've been through my own hell and back you know, you could think, o, that was just fucking shit and I've moved on. But actually I know from my own horrible shit that happened I've created happy placelace. Yeah. I wouldn't be doing any of this Yeah. So it doesn't unfold on the timeline you wantes. but you can usually look back retrospectively and go Oh I get why that bloody awful thing happened I had to go through it because I've learned this, I have grown in this way, I have changed in a positive way, I might see life with a slightly different lens to the one I had before. like there has to be something, some sort of positive something that comes out of it. It's fruitful. Some of the greatest magic is realizing how happy you are that you didn't get the thing you thought you wanted. Yeah. And you look back and you go, than God, thank God, I did not get that job. Thank God. or thank God that person rejected me. Oh thank God we never moved to that country. And I kind of love that because at the time you have these plans And this is where I am slightly I find manifesting in the way it's taught quite a little bit It tricky to kind of totally get on board with because I think it gives almost people too much a set idea of what they think they want. I agree. This is my big problem with manifesting. Me too. I don't think you should sit there writing a list of buuy next year, I want this, this, 'causeuse like what the fuck do we know? hundred percent. theyt know we need is the issue with it a lot of the time. And then I think it sets us up for failure, huge disappointment of failure. L Yeahah. I failed at manifesting I wrote my listter and did all the things I was told to do and it still didn't happen. That's not how life works. No ninety two percent of people do not achieve their goals. No. That is not because ninety two percent of people have failed. That is because we are on these magical journeys that we've got no idea our soul wants to go on. And actually being nimble and saying, okay, these are things I think I want. But next week I might be a totally different person So we need to constantly re assess. And I studied a philosophy called Kabala for now pretty much over fifteen and sixteen years and this kind of ancient magical philosophy that they have. And one of the laws of Kabala is the law of cause and effect. This idea is that the universe and physics also says the same thing. physics as in physics, it's the law of causality Life the universe works on equilibrium. So the cause and effect, so if you are trying so hard and you are not getting the effect you want, that's not because it's not coming to your point you have gotten you will always get what you have given. Yeah. For good or bad If you know you're putting all this energy and goodness into the world, you will be, you are one hundred percent going to be receiving it back. You just don't know what in what shape or form. Correct. And I also think the other thing with the law of cause and effect is you always have a choice. Do you want to be the cause or the effect? This is the bit that I've said to myself all week because one of your teachers asked you or said yes question in a situation Are you the cause? or are you the effect And I asked myself that question in a situation and I was like It's humbling Yes. So I in a good way. Yes. I had this spiritual teacher say, Poppy, have you been the cause of the effect this week And I thought, what is she talking about? And then I thought, o my gosh, I've definitely been the effect because I've come home, my partner's in a bad mood and suddenly I'm in a bad mood because they're in a bad mood and they shouldn't been a bad mood because, you know, I've just come home well I could have chosen to be the cause. I could have observed their bad mood, taken myself on a walk, protected my energy, been the cause of my environment, come back and changed his mood because I have remained in my upby energy. Yeah. And it's the same thing if you're in a traffic jam, are you the cause or the effect? The effect of the traffic jam, you're really stressed. so it means you arrive at your meeting in a bad mood and then as a consequence not coming up with the ideas that you want to come up with. But if you're the cause, and the best way to be the cause is to pause, pause and be the cause, because in that moment we so want to emotionally react to everything, but it makes us a victim of everybody else's emotions. And so when you're in an argument with someone, it is so easy to be the effect of their world. So if we weak and this is like the greatest magical skill that we have to practice then it's a lifelong practice Even for nineteen years I've been told at most weeks and I still am terrible at doing it. You know, when I get an email I don't like, I'm so impulsive that I can just go I have to now go. P probablyably they' resp Yeah. Don't respond. Be of the calluse Be the course, setet the energy that you want to experience. Yeah Yeah It's so true and it's tricky because It's so much easier often to be the victim in whatever situation. And I don't say that lightly because you know, we've been through as have most of our listeners here stuff that we thought I didn't want that to happen and I also I wasn't the cause. But if we can look You know, I can look at my own backstory, I can't speak for anybody else, but I can see things that I really didn't want to happen And I can see how Well I can see my part in it. I can see what I am accountable for and how My string of decisions led me to be in a place I don't want to be in That's not to say it's all my fault and turn on myself. There's a big difference, I think here in looking at I was accountable for this and actually therefore, I can be accountable to take a different route and for good change and to grow from it. And it's the harder route. It's much easier just to go, I did it last week, had a tantrum about something. I don't want this to be happening, freaking out, whatever. It's so much easier than going puse How do I actually want this to play out? It requires more energy. It requires more energy and as a consequence to be magical, it is to nurture your energy and that's there's a chapter in the book called charge your internal power source Because in one study, eighty percent of workers that they were burnt out, they were exhausted. We are in an energetic crisis, I think, because everybody knows all the reasons. schedules a pact Pressure has never been so much. contontent, socialream media, everyone is trying to get our attention. We are all exhausted. But in order to take back control of your life, to be the cause of your life, to be the cause of what you want to happen, it does require a tiny bit of energy to not react and be taken in a river that you don't want to go down. Yeah It takes discipline, which is boring. No one wants to do discipline, but discipline is like the key to so much is to have the discipline to not do that? Yes. And that was the other thing that was that's very deep in this philosophy is this idea of restriction Whatever you are your natural inclination is How do you restrict to create light? And they always give the example of when you light a match In order to get fire and light, it has to have friction. So if you are someone who is easily impulsive Y're. task in his lifetime is to restrict and to pause and not to react If you're someone who is so passive, never gets into arguments and kind of lets everyone walk over over you, your restriction is to the opposite. Your restriction is to raise your voice and to be able to advocate for yourself And then this is what's kind of interesting when you go really nuanced into this deep philosophy You can realize that there is no one size fits all. depending what our natural inclination is, it's like how do we just push slightly against it? Because that's how we create a new reality? Yes. And we've all got the power to make this change, Sometimes it doesn't feel like it. When life feels heavy and there's a lot of shit going on, you just think, I am literally getting through to the end of the day, That's all I want to do. Yeah. But if we can find those teeny moments, like I'm saying this for myself. I'm definitely not being authoritarian about it because again, like last week, I did not feel in a good headspace. but this week I feel good and strong and I can go right, there's an opening here for me to preserve some energy to do something for myself, so I am less reactive, etcetera Now there's something you said a moment ago that's just been like whizzing around my brain A lot of this stuff is unquantifiable, which is To me, not a problem. For some people who just want science, it might be a trickier subject matter, but you talk about The um I guess the detrimental effects of us trying to quantify everything and how it can sort of be a vibe kill, essentially. So we've got all these tracking apps now, for instance How did you sleep last night? I mean, if I wore one, it would say like shit. but if you wear one of those, you wake up and it says, Oh, you only got six hours. that could then set you off to go, well, my day is screwed. My day's going be dreadful. I'm going to be tired. And that's you set for the day. whereas actually I'll give you an example. The other week, I'd had a bunch of people for lunch I drank while of tequila I a bit of carried away because it was very, very fun. And I went to bed way later than I should have on a Sunday, and I slept really poorly because I'd drunk a bunch of tequila. And if I'd worn a tracking app, it would have said you had full seconds sleep. Yeah. But anyway, I got up and I thought, o God, I really don't feel too brilliant. But I came here. I had Joseph Fenes sat in this very chair. an esteemed actor massive career behind him. I'm like, I am so unprofessional. There's no way I should have done what I did yesterday. Anyway, somehow it ended up being this lovely conversation where I thought actually did quite a good job there. And we vibed and had a good chat together and it's like, you know what? I didn't listen to the little voice going, You're unprofessional, you're an arssole. I just thought, goo with it And I'm so glad I did because I had this joyful experience where I'd had a great chat and I was a bit hung over and I was a bit tired, but actually it's fine Sometimes I think a hangover is amazing for magic. I agree. you slow down And you only think of one thing, you can't think of one thing. You think of one thing. O job am I do? Because I'm so hyperactive normally, when I'm just like, you know, oh pure sober, I haven't had a drink right now. My brain is going When I'veunang over, I'm like, you're chatting to Joseph Finnes, Just chat to him. Just keep talking to Joseph Fines. I can only think of one thing. Its like I'm not saying like everyone should just going get shit faced and make life better Every now and then It's no bad thing. This biohacking trend I'm so against because it' just it's making everyone out to be small machines. Yes, little robots. And this is why I'm not afraid of AI. There's so much fear around AI because we're trying to make ourselves like AI. I don't want to be optimized. I don't need to think better. I want to enjoy life Yes. And enjoying life is being messy things go wrong to your point being a bit hung over and having to kind of and know it's when you miss the train, it's potentially you meet the stranger that's going to change your life. thingsings going wrong is actually often where the greatest magic unfolds And so I feel that this And and the buy and most of the buyer haackers I know are all men who are trying to control and magic is actually releasing the control and the need to control knowing that you know what, life is unfolding for you. Yes, You're so right, there's something so important about that, like the level of control, like beating human nature somehow and actually I think especially As women We are this wild mess often of menstrual cycles or how our hormones are fluctuating or how we're expressing ourselves, like it's not in neat lines. it's not to this schedule that works exactly to the five minute time slots. It's like, I mean, I'm completely bored by stuff like that. It doesn't interest me at all. I want I think I sort of feed off creativity and creativity is a mess. It's absolutely not The the greatest magic ever. And it shouldn't be controlled. It should be wild abandoned. your art is the ultimate magic. Y. You have something in your head and you're make create it. Yes, That is such a good point actually for anyone out there whoort I guess more science led Any of the arts, it doesn't matter what it is and it doesn't have to be of a high standard or professional, but any level of art, whether you're like singing in the car or you've had a little idea and you make it happen for like a party or you are painting or you're making a pot. whatever you classes aret, like you say, is you've had an idea and then the next thing, it's happening or it's a tangible object. And the oldest word for magic a word called Heca and it's one of the oldest words we've ever found. humanity wrote down. and it was found on the ancient Kingdom Tombs in Egypt and Heca stands for divine creative energy. And we are so unique as human beings that we can have an idea and create it. Yes. And that's why Again about AI, I'm not scared of AI because AI looks at what has already been thought. Yeah. human beings, we have ideas that no one has thought of before And if you were open yourself up, It is I think that the sky is There is no limit. I totally think about. Say someone's just listening to this now and they're in the mindset I was in last week, like you just think Everything's fucked. this will point, like this is just lo of old shit and everything's going wrong. and L last week, my energy it was sort of like the tail end of last week. L my energy's low I can't see the positives, I can't see U I can't see the magic. it is not there. It is absent. I just cannot believe that it even exists. If people like that are listening to this now Where do they start? They get up today and they do what Go and find nature Because nature is such a gift And I can prove it using science. there was a study out of Exeter University that found people that lived closer to the sea had twenty two percent less chance of experiencing mental health issues And it's because the sea is full of it has negative ions, negative ions interact with our nervous system calming us, raising our serotonin. If you go into the forest, again, trees are giving off chemicals that boost our immune system. There's studies that found that those people in hospital that had a view of nature recovered and healed quicker than those that didn't. We are, we are nature go into nature and there's this thing called restoration, attention restoration theory, we never evolve to see straight lines we evolve to see natural landscapes. So as soon as we see a natural landscape, our nervous system slows down When we are in cities or when we're staring at straight screens It is so stressful for us So firstly, I think it's go back to where our ancestors came from always a gift when we can connect to nature in some way shape or form. And then I think it's really important what content are you surrounding yourself and who are you surrounding yourself with? Because when I have had moments of total despair, that is when I will go seek out someone magical. because actually When you meet a magical person, they can totally shift your reality. And it is amazing. I love Marianne Williamson's quote, A miracle is just a shift in perspective S that just when someone just gives you a nugget and you go Yeah, you're right. I can totally understand my life slightly differently. And that's when I do love this emerging science In twenty twenty two, the Nobel Prize in physics went to scientists that proved quantum entanglement. this idea that particles can stay connected despite time and space. Yes, I found this fascinating. tellell us about this is when you don't feel magical and you just reflect on this idea that it's been proven particles can stay connected despite time and space, they can be at other ends of the world and yet two particles can stay connected and affect each other This allows us to go Well, does this mean that we stay connected to people that are loved ones that die Does this prove that telepathy There's many scientists that have proven that telepathy it can happen to all of us. eighty percent or seventy eight percent of people have experienced telepathic phone calls. You've thought about someone and they call. Yeah. And this is the content and the material that I seek out when I at my wit's end and think that everything is going terribly and nothing is ever going to get better because I have to remind myself I know so little. If I can stay connected, what thought can I put out there and what will come back? Yes I know, my God is all feels like liberating and relaxing to think of the world in this way.. I think when we see ora indoctrinated by like dead ends. L this is just how the world works. And like this is just how your life's going to unfold or this is just going to be the outcome of something. I feel like very strait jacketed with that sort language. And I know there are rules and there's etiquette in certain ways that we're going to rub along with people and the world around us. But having that bigger perspective of just noticing those tiny magical things, whether it's like one of my little signs that I give myself is a lion. love. And it all came about because I've been having a chat with a wise woman They're always older. I love an older gres woman. I've got some great crones in my life and we've reclaimed that word in the most positive of senses. Yes came about about having this lion or more accurately, lioness energy of like I stand my ground. I'm not scary, I'm not like scaring other people off, but my boundaries are set with this powerful lion energy. and I really loved. it was a much deeper chat, but I loved the idea of like, o, a little lion could be my symbol. And now if I'm having a shit time, I'll go right and bring me a lion like in the next you know hour or whatever. I'll always see one. It will pop up, it'll be like on the back of a van or it'll be like a statue on someone's you know house or whatever. And I just think it's having those little moments of like It's all going to be okay, evenven if it seems like it's not. It's all going to be al right. There's no harm in doing it. There's no harm in doing it There's no harm. I mean, placebo is the greatest magical phenomenon that has ever been observed. And that is science backed as we all know, there have been countless studies of the placebo effect People actually taking sugar pills and being told they're something and then them having some healing property. Yes, they can change health outcomes. Yeah. You know peoplee that believe they are luckier been found to be psychologically more happier. Yeah. People who believe that they are luckier have been proven to live longer. Some antidepressants have had the same impact as a placebo pill. Yeah. Thef having belief that the future is going to be better, having hope changes your entire physicality. You know, we have something like trillion cells listening to our thoughts So this idea that we can shift with our thought my mum always says, probably if you can tell your little total wiggle, what else can you tell your body to do? I laa Isn't that it's such a simple thing to think about. And that is the greatest magical tool. And I'm fascinated by well known people that have been very explicit. I love that you do this on Instagram. Secret mystics. Yes. seecret mystics, I love, tellell us the Coco Chanel one. Well, I was going to say because when you told me the lion is your symbol, the lion was very important to Coco Chanel ookish now built whole business based on signs, synchronicity and magical wisdom and psychics. So a psychic told her that number five was going to be a lucky number. So as a consequence, she named the perfume number five, which I think is the most successful perfume to ever sell in the history of perfume She in her house in throughout the you can see through the collections of Chanel, they've used symbolism to have a magical effect. Christian Duor is the same. He spent his entire life speaking to a psychic. when he was a young child, he went to a fair and someone looked into a crystal ball and said, You're going to change women's lives. you're going to empower women. And you're going that's how you're going to make your money. And he then he had a lucky number and everything was based around number eight. And there was a, you know, it's all been documented and people around Coo Chanel and Christian Du have documented their interest in the mystical. and even there's American presidents, Ronald Reagan and Nancy Reagan use an astrologer for his entire time throughout the White House Albert Einstein, Isaac Newton the greatest scientists that have ever lived spent more time focused on the mystical and the magical and the unknown than they did on science JP Morgan, one of the greatest financiers that I've ever lived. He had a personal astrologer. called Evangeline Adams in New York, who he asked her for all the dates that he should do big money moves. Wow. And as a consequence, it was one of the most successful Americans have ever lived. And so when I started to like unpeel the history of these huge empires that were all built by people who were very rational All these people were building very rational businesses, and yet they did not deny the mystical. Yeah you can do both. You can do both. You can do both King of it. Oh my God, it's like I feel buzzed t I needed to have this chat. I absolutely needed to have this chat Um Before we wrap up, which I don't want to happen, quite frankly, I'm going to ask you a couple of questions and I wonder if they relate to what we've talked about today. One of them is a music choice because we're making a happy Place playlist. And there one song that makes you feel maybe is the essence of magic and everything that we've talked about today Quite like Nina Simone's I put a spell on you. Oh I love Nina Simone so much. She was very magical. I mean if you listen even you listen to his lyrics. Yeah It's a great song. So I think she was ly magical. I love her song A little sugar in my bowl. I love that song. She's just got the best voice. She's best voice and it comes from the heart. and I think music is an amazing magical tool. And I'm sure you've spoken about on the podcast tons, but dancing. We know how dancing you raises your energy. If you're going to do a ritual, do a dance beforehand because you've raiseed your frequencies. So then whatever you put your mind to, I think is charged with the energy of dancing. And this is often a tough question becausecause it could be anything or any place or anyone or any mindset, but where is your happy place my happy place must be at my parents' lavender farm They in their retirement, they set up a charity lavender farm to raise money for Parkinson's and Huntington's. And it's just it's so amazing because that even how it came about was magical. My dad was driving down this country road. he'd taken the wrong road. He didn't know where he was going. and he saw this field. And lavender's very difficult to grow because it needs very certain soil And it just happened this random field on a road he shouldn't have taken was the right soil. ream he's worked his entire life just to be able to build a lavender farm And they yeah, and that when I go there, I think, wow, this is just Totally magical. Yeah, it's the outcome of magic. Yeah. I love it. Oh that's so gorgeous. Look, I cannot thank you enough for being on the pod and also I am thrilled to hear on N news. It's Thank you so much. made my day and I wish you all the love and all the luck Oh gosh, thank you so much. Thank you so much. Thank you. I really appreciate you having me on was Absolutely Electrifying. I loved that chat so much Buzzing for Poppy and her beautiful news. That was such a great moment. I didn't know she was pregnant. I had absolutely no idea, so it was the most amazing surprise to hear that I'm after hearing the heartache that she's gone through and the physical trauma that she's gone through on that path to gettingting pregnant or having been pregnant twice before absolutely elated for her. So, so happy for her. And honestly, this book is just beautiful. It really cheered me up at a time when I needed it. so go get it. It's called The Book of Magical Living and it's out right now