Universal Spirituality & Embracing Oneness with Catherine Corona

Jennifer Norman:
Hello beautiful humans. Welcome to The Human Beauty Movement Podcast, your source for hope, healing, happiness and humanity. My name is Jennifer Norman. I'm the founder of The Human Beauty Movement and your host. This podcast is here to guide you on your journey of self love, empowerment, soul alignment and joy. With each episode, I invite beautiful humans from all corners of the globe to join me for open conversations about their life lessons and the important work that they are doing to help heal humankind. Take a moment now to subscribe to this podcast so you don't miss an episode. I'm so glad you're here, joining me for today's show.

Jennifer Norman:
Transcend the limitations of your physical existence. Deepen your spiritual connection. Awaken to your soul. These words invite a journey beyond the ordinary. A journey that my guest holds very sacred. Catherine Corona is a renowned spiritual teacher, author, award winning filmmaker and singer, composer. Having practiced meditation and nada yoga for over 60 years.

Jennifer Norman:
She holds a doctorate in Spiritual Science and a Master's in Theology with counseling certifications in Spiritual Psychology. Her her works, including the Nautilus Award nominated book Tapping Your Spiritual Source and her number one New Age album The Voice of The Stillness, reflect her depth and dedication to exploring and teaching the path of spiritual love. Catherine's feature documentary the Great Mystery seeks to bridge the six major religions with universal questions such as why are we here? Who is God? And will there ever be peace? In today's episode, you'll learn how to integrate sacred spiritual practices into your daily life, cultivating a sense of deep belonging, peace and support. Catherine's insights offer not only spiritual understanding, but practical steps to awaken love, compassion and joy within ourselves. Prepare to be inspired to transcend, connect and live with a renewed sense of purpose and spirit Spiritual fulfillment. Welcome to the show, Catherine.

Catherine Corona:
Thank you Jennifer. What a privilege to be here with you and your audience.

Jennifer Norman:
What a privilege and an honor to host you. You've been doing this for a long time. 60 years is a long time to be studying meditation and yoga. And so please tell us, what are the ancient spiritual practices? How do they differ across cultures?

Catherine Corona:
So I had the strange experience when I was about 19. I lived on a ranch. I lived above the barn. I had this tiny little two room with no running water.

Jennifer Norman:
That sounds so idyllic.

Catherine Corona:
It really was. And in the big ranch house, some Sufi people that followed a Sufi mystic teacher named Rashad Field moved in. And so I learned a little bit of the path of the heart, the spiritual heart from the Sufis. Then they moved out and some people that followed Lakota traditions moved in, and I got to go to. They would invite me to ceremonies. I was in college. I was studying science, and then here they're like, come to these pipe ceremonies, come to sweat lodge. And I was like, well, I don't know anything about this, but I'll go for the food.

Catherine Corona:
I'll go. They would always have a feast, and I'll. I'll go for the feast.

Jennifer Norman:
Yeah, that sounds good.

Catherine Corona:
That was good. But going to sweat lodge, none of it was in English. It was all in Lakota, so. So I would feel completely free and transformed for about three days after a sweat lodge ceremony. Wow. And so I wanted more of that. I just wanted more of that. And so the spiritual teachers sort of came my way.

Catherine Corona:
They just came my way wherever I lived. They say literally right next door to me. So they say, when the student's ready, the teacher will come. I'm sure you've heard that. So the teachers came. And when I was really, really little, about five, the same things kind of happened. So that set me on a course. I knew there was something more than what I could see in physical existence.

Catherine Corona:
I wanted to pull back the curtain. What's behind all this? As if walking through life was everything we see and feel and touch was just like a movie set. That's how I looked at it. There's something behind the movie set. So then I started to find out what's behind it. What's behind it. And the best way to do that is spiritual practices. So each spiritual tradition.

Catherine Corona:
To go back to your question, I kind of went on a long tangent to come back to your question.

Jennifer Norman:
Thank you.

Catherine Corona:
Each spiritual tradition that I've studied and I've found has certain practices. Basically, they hone down to what opens your heart and your soul. Each person is different. Each person is different. And we each have some. So. And it can change throughout the years, but we each have sort of a feast, a suite of things that will open our soul to what is beyond the physical, to what will transcend our physical existence. First step is considering it, right? Having the intention of asking the simple, the obvious questions.

Catherine Corona:
What's life about? What's beyond life? Where do we go when. When we leave here? What's this body all about? These kind of set the trail, right? They just kind of open the trail and practicing. However, each person practices what is sacred, then opens the connection to where the trail leads, right? So if you want to go for a hike and do you have an idea that there was. There's a waterfall, there's something Beautiful to see that you want to see. First you find out where the trail is. Maybe you'll go to All Trails or go to one of the new apps that can tell you what the trail is. Then you get your gear, right, you get your gear, you want the right kind of shoes, you're not going to slip.

Catherine Corona:
And then maybe you get somebody to go with because that just makes it more fun to share. And you drive or walk to the trailhead, and then there it is. But it's an adventure. You don't know what you're going to see along the way. That's what the spiritual journey, in very simplistic terms is. Stepping on that path are the spiritual practices. So I would suggest to your audience to consider that they're already doing spiritual practices, but maybe they have not defined it that way for themselves. So whatever you're doing that opens your heart and your soul.

Catherine Corona:
Maybe it's walking your dog, maybe it's sitting with your baby and bouncing them on your knee or meal time and seeing how that goes, or a connection with your favorite people and having dinner with them, whatever connects you and opens your heart and then making sure you do those things. Because life, if you, I've noticed, kind of is designed to pull us out of those things. So building a spiritual life, in part is building the strength to stay on that path, to get to that waterfall. Because there's so many distractions along the way, aren't there? There's so many distractions, whether it's you need to look like this or you need to do that, or you need to make this amount of money or you need to have this kind of career, or this person wants you to do their idea for your life is this, or your spouse thinks this is what you should do, and pulling that all away and coming right into the depth and the center of your own truth, your own self with a capital S, and then letting that on the hike, light that journey. So that own light in your own heart, that's another spiritual practice. So stepping on the path, doing what your heart lights up for you, and then traditional practices like practicing, practicing stillness, Some people like to practice meditation. I think sometimes people want to connect to their soul and their heart and they go, I'm going to do that with meditation. And then they try to shut their mind off.

Catherine Corona:
And then that does not work. If you've noticed, that does not work because you can't shut the mind off. The mind's not meant to be shut off. So rather, when people ask me about meditation and I have a lot of people that say, well, I can't meditate, I can't sit still. My mind just rocks and rolls. And I think of my grocery list and I think of my to do list and I get overwhelmed. And that's what I do when I sit down for meditation. And so my response when people say that is, don't try to shut your mind off because it'll just get worse.

Catherine Corona:
But rather find everybody has a place of deep stillness. And you can find that place, go inside there, even if it's just for 15 seconds, but just find it for a moment. And maybe you find it out in nature. Maybe you find it in your church or synagogue or temple. Maybe you find it with a friend can be. Knows how to be quiet. And you just kind of vibe with them wherever you find it. Add that as a spiritual practice.

Catherine Corona:
And the more you practice that, the longer you'll be able to sit in stillness. And what happens is the mind starts to get quieter. So you go, you quiet the mind, or the mind quiets itself, sort of through the back door. Once the mind gets quieter is when you can go inside, invite your soul. Okay? And I define that as the eternal part of ourselves, the part that we come from, that we go to. That was the initial. It's what we were created into. So when we were created, our consciousness was created.

Catherine Corona:
I have a Buddhist Rinpoche friend, he says we don't go to consciousness. Consciousness comes to us. Consciousness came to our bodies. We. Right? So that consciousness, you can consider your soul, that part that is eternal. So in this place of stillness, you can invite that consciousness, your soul, consciousness to be present with you. And then you go into even deeper stillness and listen, just listen to. Sometimes you'll hear its music.

Catherine Corona:
Sometimes you'll feel its rhythm. Sometimes you'll sense its beauty, its ineffable beauty. It's a beauty that goes beyond understanding even. It's a beauty that brings us into bliss, ecstasy, transcendence. And then from there we go even higher into a sense of oneness, an experience of oneness with all creation. At that point, you're not here on this level anymore. So the mind becomes inconsequential. You're beyond your mind, beyond your emotions, beyond even your physical body into that transcendent soul body.

Catherine Corona:
From there you can travel the spiritual worlds, the spiritual realms. In the Bible it says we have many mansions. I consider that the spiritual realms travel. Open your spiritual eyes, open your spiritual ears. There's sound on each level of spirit. There's sights and sounds. And start to learn the topography, learn the realms, even know their colors, know their inspirations, know their wisdoms. And when you come back here into this physical body, then you come with a much expanded awareness.

Jennifer Norman:
What would you say is the difference between your spirit and your mind? Because some people think like their inner thoughts is like the astral field, and it's the things that people don't necessarily see in the physical, but it definitely shapes how we feel about ourselves, how we interact with the environment around us. And it can be influenced by what we see, what we hear, and then create new belief systems. How do we know if our mind is true and connected or aligned with what our true soul is?

Catherine Corona:
That's a beautiful question. Because the mind can go in all kinds of directions, right?

Jennifer Norman:
Yes, yes.

Catherine Corona:
And sometimes even the thoughts that we think may not be our own. There's a concept that some people. Meaning that if you've ever walked by somebody, like in a crowded shopping center or something, and then you come out and you're thinking something and you go, I never think like that. You may have just picked up a thought form from somebody else. So, and the reason I'm telling you that is you can work with yourself to say, is this thought mine or is somebody else's? I think that's a good place to start because it's real subtle. If it's somebody else's thought or a thought form, an energetic form that we've kind of walked through, and then it sort of becomes us and it gets confusing. The reason I'm bringing that up is that we have these levels of thought within ourselves too, beyond just other people's thoughts. So I will ask myself, where is this thought coming from? Is this coming from an old pattern? Is this coming from an emotional.

Catherine Corona:
A feeling I have something about something? Is it coming from a limiting belief, a doubt, subconscious, unconscious, imagination level? So when you start to work with yourself and master the mental levels like that, intellectual levels and then the emotional levels, you can kind of see where those thoughts and feelings come from. And we're human. We want to have those thoughts and feelings. We want to accept them. We don't want to push them away or push them down. We also, what you're bringing up, want our thoughts to come from our highest nature, from our truest self, from our soul. So when you look at where those thoughts are coming from or feelings, it's the same process. Then you can invite your highest nature to bring you the thoughts, the wisdom, the guidance that you might want to make decisions, important decisions in your Life.

Catherine Corona:
So we're not stopping. It's not mastery to try to stop thoughts from different levels. It's mastery to know where they're coming from, what levels they're coming from, accept them, and then you can shift focus to the highest level you want. If I'm playing pickleball, I want thoughts about how to play pickleball, right. I don't need it to come from my soul. I need. I'm out there to have fun, and gratefully so. Or if I'm out shopping and I need certain groceries, I don't need highest thoughts.

Catherine Corona:
There. There's a reason we have thoughts on what we call the conscious level.

Jennifer Norman:
Right. I have an interesting history of experiences with different spiritual practices, more in the forms of religious boxes, whereby at the time, for example, when I was young and I was brought up, Roman Catholic, baptized, the communion, confirmation, like all of those steps, all of those ritualistic practices were part of Catholicism. And then, congratulations, you're an adult and you can now accept Jesus. You're in the gateway of heaven. And all of those things. And what those beliefs were very much grounded in all of the church lessons and family. Then, for some very odd reason, I was put into a Protestant junior high school.

Jennifer Norman:
Now, you'd think that because the same God, the same Jesus, it would be very similar, but there was a lot of antagonism between, as we know, Protestantism and Catholicism. And so as a young girl, I'm brought into the principal's office because they discovered that I was Catholic. And they said, did you realize that you are part of a cult and you cannot be here? And they showed me the differences between the King James Version Bible and the Catholic Bible, which didn't have inspired by God chapters and books in it. And, you know, I went home really puzzled. But then I also knew that to be born again, I had this conviction that that's what I needed to do. And I truly believed with every grain of my soul that I needed to be saved. And I was fearful of the second coming of Christ because I thought that I would miss it and I'd go to hell if, you know.

Jennifer Norman:
And so all of these things got into my brain from a religious perspective. And it was very much, again, brought about by this religion is right, that one is wrong, and we must do. We must do this missionary work to save the rest of the world then. And it was also vilifying a whole lot of other religions in terms of, like Buddhism or Islam and a lot of other things were just seen as the Jewish. These people are going to hell. It was frightening and it became this place where I was living in fear for many, many years of my life. Ultimately, it might have been what I would call backsliding, or it might have just been free will or just stepping away from it. I found my own path.

Jennifer Norman:
And now I do consider myself more of a, like a universal system spiritualist, probably more similar to what you are. Where I see that there is ritual, there is practice, there is this idea that you can transcend and there is something greater than yourself, but it's all the same. It's really like we create these man made fabrications of beliefs that divide us and that create an us versus them situation that perhaps is something that we feel cultivates community and cultivates a sense of right and wrong. But ultimately, because of this dualistic plane that we're on, it creates walls between religions, between peoples, between society and causes a lot of war. I mean, it's a very opportune time that we're having this discussion and this whole controversy. The war in Gaza is happening and so what is it? I know that you had this beautiful documentary which I'm looking forward to seeing. I hadn't had time to see it before this cast, but tell me what you had learned about what we can do as just a humanity to recognize this whole universal sense of spirituality. That there is something greater than us and that we are all the same and that we don't necessarily have to have wars and power conflicts over each other in order to survive and to feel that we belong.

Jennifer Norman:
What did you learn?

Catherine Corona:
This is a big question and pulls on my heartstrings and I'm sure it does yours and probably your audience, many of your audience, when we see that. However each faith tradition started at their core is a connection to God or whatever you want to call the source, whatever word you want to use the word. The word doesn't. It's not important.

Jennifer Norman:
I use Source and Universe more now than ever.

Catherine Corona:
Yeah, it's Creator. I like the word Creator. Oneness. Pick your word. When a person has that experience of that, I think it's Hafiz that says, I've learned so much from God. I cannot be called a Jew, a Christian, a Buddhist, a Hindu. I think that when you have the experience of what is transcendent and you know yourself beyond just this physical existence, you know yourself in the oneness and the connection with all people. The game of superior inferior, which is what you're talking about.

Catherine Corona:
You know, you're one, you know, we're all equal. I don't know that you can teach it, but you can open the doors to the experience. And I think that's what we all want and what people are looking for in religion. People go into religion because they're born into that religion, right? You were born into Catholicism, so was I. That's why I was there. That's what the family was. I actually find a beautiful depth in esoteric Christianity. So if you dig deep enough and you get into some of the very, very sweet and read some of the saints, they're all saying the same thing.

Catherine Corona:
Why do organizations get corrupted or try to place people in ritual and dogma? I think it's. I mean, that's a big question. I don't know that I have the complete answer, but one answer is it's the superior inferior game. If I'm superior to you because I say my ridge, my religion is the one, then I can, in a very messed up way, feel superior if there's someone inferior. So that's how the whole brainwashing of anybody you want to make a soldier goes. You say they're less than, they are less than. When people...When you can do that, you can control people, you can have them do whatever you want, and then you control people with fear.

Catherine Corona:
And that works at the lower consciousness level, right? So that's why spiritual practices, something beyond a dogma of a. Of a tradition brings you into the connection with your source, with the universe, and you're not afraid there, and you can't be controlled there. And you don't need to be superior to anybody because, you know, not as an intellectual concept, but you have a knowing that we are all one, that we all have hearts and love and souls, and that in that place the love just overflows. And even if you don't like somebody, you love them, you can have that both going on. You know what that is? I just saw that. Oh, yeah, I know what that is. I don't know. Did that answer your question or even come close?

Jennifer Norman:
Well, I know that it's almost an impossible question to answer. I just was curious what your take was. And I completely appreciate. And I think that if we certainly, if we knew the answer to that, we'd solve world peace.

Catherine Corona:
Well, I do know the answer. I think we know the answer. But doing the answer is two different things.

Jennifer Norman:
Yes, yes, I think that that's so true. And I think it's. There are, as we know, there, you know, there's multiple levels to gaining kind of like this transcendental nature. And when we are stuck in the very physical, the very see, smell, touch, hear, taste, and we're in survival, the lowest rung on Maslow's hierarchy. We're going to act and beh in different ways. It is going to be a bit more fear based. It's going to be more about survival, competition, us versus them. And so when religions are more towards the lower level, the physical level, or they get conflated power, unfortunately, because we are human and imperfect.

Jennifer Norman:
Because there is this sense that I can utilize the fear of hellfire as a way to control people, as a way to have power, to create empires, to better think, serve this particular type of person versus others that may be more of the followers rather than the leaders and manipulate. Sometimes certainly that happens. And even despite the fact that we may at the soul level all recognize that we are similar in human form, There is this hierarchical habit that we get into of organizing, of stacking, of creating levels of people based on skill, talent, color, race, gender, sexuality. All of these things that might partition and separate people.

Catherine Corona:
And yeah, you don't have to play in that game. Yeah, it's a choice for each one of us. We don't have to play in that game. Yeah, that's the world of the law. They're all rules and laws and boundaries. And we don't have to play in that game. We can move into grace where there's freedom and liberation and loving. Each one of us has that choice.

Catherine Corona:
And it's not like we make that choice and all of a sudden we're there. The choice is made every moment, you know, and we get pulled out of that choice. As long as I've practiced spiritual practices and meditation and esoteric practices, I still get pulled out of that choice. But the master, it's not that we don't get pulled out of that choice, is that it doesn't last very long. And we go right back into the loving. We go right back into the loving. So what happens on the spiritual path in my experiences where when I was younger, maybe 19, and I get into all this emotion, I had all these hormones rolling and they were all new. It would be on me for days, if not months.

Catherine Corona:
Now maybe it's five minutes and I catch it. It's a path of vigilance. And over the years I've learned how to work with myself to go back into the heart, into the soul, into the loving. Even if somebody yells at me in traffic, I can. God bless you, I love you on your way. I don't know that I've heard it said, we're not born here with a rule book, but we come here and we learn the mastery if we choose to. And we grow if we choose to and make our intention of that spiritual path and of a path of being the best we can be. And we're living out of our wisdom and our higher self and our soul.

Catherine Corona:
When we choose that, then we get that. We get that spiritual promise. You will become that guarantee. It may take two years. If you're really high soul and you already came here and you're high soul. I've seen people like that. It may let my like me take 50 and then you go, I like who I am.

Catherine Corona:
Yeah, I came to it. I'm there. Yay. I love it. I've worked it. Yeah, it doesn't matter how long it takes, but it is a promise that you will get there. And the slings and arrows and what goes on in the, in this life, in this physical world, you'll feel it and you'll want to contribute and share and make it better and you'll ride over the top of Won't touch you any. It will not touch you anymore. It just won't.

Catherine Corona:
And you'll be more of a servant than you ever knew possible.

Jennifer Norman:
Interestingly, and I for the audience that is listening today, this episode is not to criticize religion. I don't want to give that impression. There are so many beautiful, beautiful religions, traditions and ways to find your own enlightenment. I, for myself, and I'm only speaking as an N of 1, had discovered that there was such restriction and fear based living in the way that I had been taught to practice those religions, religions that I was fighting myself constantly. I was self loathing. It got to a place where I kept thinking of myself as a sinner or as evil and that I needed to suffer or repent or. It's kind of like the Lenten, you know, give ups in sacrifice and, and do these things because it shows your godliness. And I recognize that living in fear was not living for me.

Jennifer Norman:
And I chose instead to live a life of love and to kind of flip the switch and to see what felt free, what felt positive, what felt light and what felt just more profoundly connected to other people and to myself rather than creating these walls and these restrictions and these confinements. And so I discovered that there certainly was an opinion about living that way. Some even called it hedonism or, you know, savagery. You know, if we think about how Indians and who express their, their love and appreciation for nature or other gods of nature or what have you in various theologies. Those were certainly not looked well upon in, you know, some of the Christian traditions. I have come to believe that spirituality does transcend all of that. And there is this space and this place above it all that is so universal, and that does tie us together in this beautiful expression of creation and love and propagation, evolution and knowing that the consciousness and the soul just carry on. And once I discovered that my soul really wasn't about beliefs, but it was more about awareness and getting back to that place of just being that observer.

Jennifer Norman:
And rather than grounding myself in the conflicts of the day, it helped me to be less reactionary. You know, you were talking about somebody cutting you off in traffic, and the first thing that you want to do is honk your horn and call the person a name or something like that. But it helps you to understand and have more compassion and be like, oh, that person was having a bad day. Let's, like, you know, send love, blessings, and just recognize that you don't have to live your life feeling like everything is out to get you anymore. You can feel more like everything is going to work out for you. Everything is always going to go your way. Everything. And once you feel that way inside, then your external world starts to mirror that, your external world, you start projecting more of that love that is that you find within yourself rather than this conflict and these confinements, because then you're going to build walls around you.

Jennifer Norman:
Everybody else is going to be seen as the enemy and trying to take up your space. And I think the true path of spirituality is one where we can elevate and recognize that we are just souls and kind of traveling this strange and wonderful place that's called Earth together. And we can have this more. This calm and this peaceful relationship with our inner selves that can then reflect and have a calm and beautiful relationship with everybody that's around us.

Catherine Corona:
Beautiful. You got it. You got it. That was gorgeous.

Jennifer Norman:
Wow. So what do you think that because you've been practicing meditation for so long, and it's like, okay, let's not try to just quiet the mind. Let's... How would you say, a practical sense. If somebody wants to say, okay, you know what? My mind is racing 24 7. I'm so busy. I've got work, I've got kids, I've got mortgage, I've got all of these things that I'm stressed about, and I don't even know where to begin.

Jennifer Norman:
And everybody knows a journaling, meditation, you know, sound bath, all of these things. That can, you know, sometimes be considered well, being or wellness, like the wellness space. What exactly are we trying to do when we do those things?

Catherine Corona:
Reconnect with who we are. So be in the beingness rather than the doingness. Right? You can do, do, do, do, do. You can be. We do both. In this level, we're physical. We have to do stuff, right? We have to go do our stuff. But the beingness, that's where we're enlivened, inspired.

Catherine Corona:
It's where wisdom comes from. It's where we know our existence is bigger than maybe what we can see every day. And it's where we connect soul to soul. So all those things that you mentioned, sound bath or yoga, doing meditation. Absolutely. Whatever works for you. I have a master's and a doctorate degree in spiritual science. What that is is looking at what connects each person to their beingness.

Catherine Corona:
And again, here we have words again. Beingness, your soul, your true self, your reality with a capital R, whatever word you want to call it. When you hit that place, that's when you transcend all those things you were just talking about that weigh us down, make our le. Our beliefs limiting, make us reactive. All those things that don't make life very fun and don't make it very fun to be in this body and in this life. So, yeah, everybody's very, very busy these days. Society has made that our existence here in North America anyway, so it's up to us to carve out five minutes a day to be present in our beingness and in the stillness. However you do that.

Catherine Corona:
However you do that, maybe it's a walk. Maybe it's just breathing. Maybe it's... I use a mantra. I like the mantra 'hu'. That's a Sufi mantra. Hu. It's the...

Catherine Corona:
Om doesn't really work for me, but that's beautiful too. It goes to a certain level. It's got a certain vibe. I like the hue that has a vibe. That an energetic field that is, to me, sort of the strings of creation. And it comes from the Sufi tradition and other traditions. And so you can practice a mantra like that. Hui hu anai, you could say an ihu anai brings the energetic field of compassion and empathy.

Catherine Corona:
It's nice to practice. Or you can use the word God, or you can use the word Source, or you can use the word Universe. You can use whatever word is a mantra that love. I'll do that a lot lately. That's my one I'm playing with. Just to bring. Bring that feel. Just more present in actually my physical Life and my mind and emotions.

Catherine Corona:
So I'm working right now on bringing the spiritual love from the sacred heart of the most high, highest spirit that I could ever comprehend, and bringing that loving into my everyday life, into my body, into my very cells. And practicing that is really fun.

Jennifer Norman:
Yeah.

Catherine Corona:
And it brings its own journey with it because it acts. Loving acts as a guide in and of itself because it's a field, it's a consciousness, it's a feeling as well. And it opens up. I let it lead and then I go, as you were saying, in that observation mode, in that neutrality, I go, and I just watch it, watch where it leads. So there's a spiritual practice. Pick a word, contemplate it, let it fill you, even if it's just for a minute. Sometimes that can be enough to change your entire day.

Jennifer Norman:
I love that you were talking about mantras and sounds and hu. I didn't pick up on that, but I was like, that's probably one of the reasons why I love the word 'huma'n and why it's part of The Human Beauty Movement. And the interesting thing is hu, as you were describing, has a certain vibration. And then ah, if you think about 'ah', there was a podcast where we were talking about sounds, and 'ah' is a release, and it's also part of Alpha, Omega, God, Buddha, Allah. There's something magical in the sound of 'ah' that is really very ancient and it's something within us. And so the idea of creating resonance that work for you, whether it be om or...

Jennifer Norman:
Because om is part of Omega, if we think about that as well, the sounds that we make have these beautiful vibrations and you may connect with certain ones more than others. Sometimes people just like to chant, whether it be in Sanskrit or various words or just kind of affirmations to themselves, to kind of ingrain that in their minds and get themselves to a place of calm and peace. And it certainly helps. I find that it helps to be grounded in this from the very beginning of the day. Because when you wake up and if you're, you know, you got your phone next to you and you're automatically checking your texts or your emails or what your calendar is doing, then you've already become reactionary and you've already lost a bit of self control or you've given your power away to whatever you know is on your phone and leading you down a certain path. But if you say, you know what, I'm going to take this time to take some breaths, to go outside, get some sunlight, to maybe drink some water, to Give a gratitude, practice maybe to journal or to sit in calm for. Even if it's just a few moments, it's a really great way to establish the tone for the rest of your day. And even that can be part of your spiritual practice or ritual to just reconnect back to your sense of self, your own guiding light, your own true north, and then set intentions for how you wish the rest of the day to be.

Jennifer Norman:
And a lot of times it is very helpful to say, you know, this is going to be the best day ever. This is going to be such an amazing day. And just set yourself up in that excitement and that enthusiasm for what the day can hold. Then, you know, think about going in and how you might light up inside and how other people might react to you. How can that change your world? Rather than be like, I'm so tired. And then everybody around you is like, oh, you know, so really makes a difference. You have the power and the energy to shape the way that your days go, the way that your days flow.

Catherine Corona:
Exactly. And then they... Then people can tune to your, like tuning forks. You know, if you're, if you're setting out with this very high resonance, people will just light up around you. So what you've described is also exactly what I do before I get out of bed. I do an invocation. So I just invite. Invite myself into the highest consciousness I can know.

Catherine Corona:
And then I will chant my tone. I will also work with mind and emotions, so I will. Usually I have. I love quotes. So I'll have a spiritual teaching that I particularly like for the day. I have one for every day of the year. And then I'll make an affirmation from that so I can work with my mind and emotions. So what we just said, I think I quoted.

Catherine Corona:
I think it's Hafiz. I have learned so much from God that I no longer can call myself a Jew, a Hindu, a Christian, I might say, for the day. I am learning so much from God today.

Jennifer Norman:
Oh, beautiful. What is this here to teach me?

Catherine Corona:
Yes. Then I'll do my meditation, go into stillness, chant my tone until I hit that chord, that beautiful sound of the soul, and then I will go. Just what you said. I'll go, this is going to be an amazing day. And I'll think about my day and I'll think every single thing, like being here with you today. This is going to be an amazing conversation we're going to have. And people are going to the people that listen to it. I'm just going to love every single person, even though I don't know them, I haven't seen them, I am loving them through this show and I'm sending that, that loving out.

Catherine Corona:
It's going to be amazing. And then I set the day up like that. Just exactly what you described is my practice every morning. I do take time during the day to do another usual meditation practice and I have a whole outside walking meditation. I do. And as I've gotten older, I've just made it my intention and my focus to make my day sacred, to bring in the holiness and the sanctity to make my day sacred so that I don't just. If people want to start, I would suggest they start with what you said as your routine. Maybe parts of what I said as my routine.

Catherine Corona:
But in my recent years, for my recent older age years, I think all day long I'm chanting all day long inside, I'm praying all day long. Yeah, I'm look, I'm sending loving, I'm in my heart all day long. I try not to do anything that's not of service. Like if it's not going to contribute, I'm not interested. So that I think every life can be a prayer, a walking prayer.

Jennifer Norman:
Beautiful. Wow, I love that. You also mentioned, you know, this goes and extends beyond church, beyond temple, beyond the yoga mat. Like carry it out into the rest of your life. I can't tell you the many times that I go to church and then right after church is over, like on the way home, people are criticizing what people are wearing or how off key the choir was or things like that. It's like what happens? What just happens? Is this not. What did we learn? Nothing. It's not just for the four walls, it's for, it's for life.

Jennifer Norman:
That's what the spiritual practice is about so that you can take it into every moment of your life.

Catherine Corona:
I think we have to remember and accept that we're all at different places. Yes, we're all at different places. And I remember an imam, he's in my movie actually, and he talked about that people go to their spiritual practices or their faith traditions on so many different levels. Some people are just there for the ritual and that's where they're at. Some people are there for the friendships and that's where they're at community. Some people are there for a combination of all those things. Some people there really connect with the spirit and they have a depth of experience that transcends their everyday life. And that's what they get in whatever service their faith tradition provides.

Catherine Corona:
So we have to accept people right where they're at. We don't have to. We don't have to enter in to the gossip or whatever it is or. One of my things is that I try to accept is, you know, the complainers, if people just find fault with everything and they're always complaining about something. I have a friend like that. I love her dearly, but I mean, I love her. I love her dearly, but she pretty much complains about everything.

Jennifer Norman:
And I've tried. It's like, okay, are we judging people that judge? Are we complaining about people that complain? I don't know. But it's. Yeah.

Catherine Corona:
She's complaining. In my judgment, she's complaining and then I am complaining. Oh, it puts me in a spin.

Jennifer Norman:
Yeah. We find ourselves there.

Catherine Corona:
Yeah. But I just pull myself out and try not to think about it. You know, acceptance is just not. I'm just not going to think about her behavior. I'm just going to enjoy her loving because she is such a big heart. Yeah. And then just go there. So that's my mastery.

Catherine Corona:
That's how I have to play with all that, you know, you're not going to. I'm not here to change anybody, but I appreciate what they bring to me so I can change myself.

Jennifer Norman:
Yes. I wanted to touch on a couple of things. One is I've never heard of Nada Yoga before and I would love for you to describe that and any kind of differences between. Between Vinyasa or Kundalini. What? You know, how does nada fit in? And then, of course, I'd love to talk about your spiritual practice program, soul and spirit, daily practice. But first, can you. Can you describe Nada Yoga for us?

Catherine Corona:
Nada Yoga is the yoga of sound.

Jennifer Norman:
Ah, see, we've already been talking about it.

Catherine Corona:
We've been talking about it. Yes, We've been talking about Kundalini Yoga. There are some that is a sound current practice as it's taught by Yogi Bhajan. And I'm not a Kundalini. So I apologize for any of the Kundalini yogis that may be listening. I have spent time with them and I love them. They have a beautiful practice and it is a sound current practice. So what that is is practicing the sacred sound of creation to resonate, to harmonize with the vibrational frequencies that create everything that we see.

Catherine Corona:
One of the very first practitioners that we know is Guru nanak. Guru Nanak, 14th, 15th century, I believe. He was a Hindu and a Muslim kind of at the same time. But he started The Sikh tradition and the Kundalini Yogis in America, anyway, are Sikhs if they go that path. But that's a. So Guru Nanak, there's a long story to tell you that Guru Nanak traveled for 25 years singing the names of God. When you sing the names of God, that's all he did, as far as we know. I mean, he did write poetry, which is in that sacred book called the Guru Granth Sahib, if I pronounce it correctly.

Catherine Corona:
So he did write poetry, or the person he traveled with who played the instrument wrote it down. I'm not sure he was literate, but what he taught was just sing the names of God. That's your spiritual practice. Sing the names of God. So that is one way to describe Nada Yoga, singing the names of God, which is basically not God like a deity or a being, like in Christianity, a being with a beard that we see up in the sky, but the source of all creation, the consciousness that created us, the oneness in everything, the spark, the divinity, the presence. When you sing the name of God, which can be a mantra, you will begin to resonate in that, in with that. You just begin to harmonize with it, and that's what you will become. We talked about that earlier.

Catherine Corona:
I talked about the spiritual promise. So that's one way to practice Nada yoga. One of the very first yogas was a yoga of sound. And you brought up ma. And then, ah, that is a bija mantra, a seed mantra. And it can be. Some of the bija mantras are in the classical Indian Sanskrit, what's called the sargam. I hope I'm not getting too much into the words.

Catherine Corona:
Okay, so sare gama padanisa, they go up the chakras. So let's say I want a real connection with the earth. I might try the sa as a mantra for your root. And that is. That resonates at the root chakra. Okay. And some. So Nada yoga, we can go on and on.

Catherine Corona:
I mean, we could have a whole podcast on just...

Jennifer Norman:
And maybe we shall. Yeah. Do you have to chant it in the note C?

Catherine Corona:
Oh, no.

Jennifer Norman:
Okay.

Catherine Corona:
No, actually, I would. Where you chant. Just let it come to you.

Jennifer Norman:
Okay.

Catherine Corona:
What note you chant? Just let it come to you. And it can move. So you can start with a note and you can. When I chant out loud, it always comes as a melody. I call it the sound current melody of the day. So I listen to the melody in my soul. Soul is always ringing. It's always singing.

Catherine Corona:
I listen to the melody in my soul. And then I will repeat it as a practice in one of the seed mantras. But I really like the hu, so I'll usually use the hu. Then I let that sound let me lift into the level, the vibrational level of the soul that that sound came from. Then I rest in that place and I let the beingness unfold me of that spiritual realm. That's how I would. The best description I can make of Nada yoga.

Jennifer Norman:
Oh, that is a beautiful practice. Wow. I think a lot of people will be very interested to learn more and maybe we shall. We'll have a continuation and maybe just talk about Nada Yoga.

Catherine Corona:
Well, you can. You don't have to have a formal class in it or you don't have to go to. I went to the Nada Yoga school. I have a certificate in it, but I practiced it even before I got. Got that. But you can just listen, feel. Not everybody is auditory, so not everybody's going to hear the sound.

Jennifer Norman:
Right?

Catherine Corona:
Right. But you might. And you might. But you might feel the rhythm like a breeze going through the air. You might. Or like a whisper that, that you feel the breath or you might see in your mind's eye a color kind of wafting through your vision. All of those are sound. So we say the sound current or the celestial melodies or the nod or the logos or in Judaism, the voice of the heart.

Catherine Corona:
Every tradition has, has these, have these sounds. They may not call it the same thing, but it is what in Hinduism you would call nada yoga. And you can just practice it. You don't need any formal. Just listen.

Jennifer Norman:
Oh, that's lovely. Okay, so let's talk about the soul and spirit daily practice, because you've offered that now to help people dive into having more of a daily practice and a connection with yourself as well as with others too. Tell us about it.

Catherine Corona:
Thank you. Yes. So from people asking me, will you teach me to meditate? I kind of went. I kind of thought, they're not. I'm not sure that's what they really want. That's what they think they want, but what they really want is a connection with their soul, with their beingness. And time out to go into that beingness and explore it and step onto a spiritual path or deepen an already spiritual path they may already have. So what I did was just way I describe my spiritual practice routine in the mornings, I recorded an invocation, a teaching.

Catherine Corona:
I curated a teaching from one of the great spiritual teachers throughout history and many of the sound current teachers actually. And I took one of their teachings and I recorded that. And then I recorded an affirmation based on that to work with your mind and emotions to set the day, and then a chant. So as a singer, I composed. Well, I didn't compose the music on this one, actually. I just did the chant, and then I hired an arranger to compose original music. So you'll get a chant.

Catherine Corona:
Just what we've been talking about with some of the bija mantras, some of the Hindu mantras, and the hu and the Anayu. And that will just help you to resonate and harmonize with those chants for the day and lift you. And then there's a guided meditation with moments of stillness. So. And it's five to seven minutes. I made it short for people.

Jennifer Norman:
Very doable.

Catherine Corona:
Yeah.

Jennifer Norman:
Good for starting out. I love that. So tell us where we can find out more about you and where people can sign up for this.

Catherine Corona:
So soulandspirit.net and you can get all the information on it there. And I also have, as a gift to your. To everybody, I have a daily quote that I curated from the spiritual masters throughout history, and you can sign up for that. And every day you can just see the quote of the day. Make your own affirmation if you'd like. The practice is it's $19 a month, $19.97 a month. I just cringe when I charge for it, though, because I think that spiritual things should not be charged. But it's expensive to do the tech, so I tried to make it as low as I could and cover the tech, but there it is.

Catherine Corona:
And it's a good place to start, but it's also a good place, and it's not on this. I will tell you this. A lot of the practices out there, the meditation apps and things like that, this is a whole different level.

Jennifer Norman:
Okay

Catherine Corona:
This is a whole different level. This goes right to the soul level. We're not doing the psychological level. And what I did, what I put together for you went right to the most profound soul level that I could. I could intone for people.

Jennifer Norman:
Yes, yes, there is a difference between the wellness practice of meditation and, you know, for your mental health, certainly. But, yes, this comes at it from a more spiritual and soulful perspective. And so it's, you know, got ancient practices kind of tied in and all of these wonderful things to really get you connected to that higher self. Inner self, inner being, however you like to call it. Oh, Catherine Corona, what a joy to speak with you today. Thank you so much for sharing your work and for all of this information about how we can view the universality of spirit and get into better connection with ourselves. Thank you so much for being my guest today.

Catherine Corona:
Thank you for the work you're doing. Really, it's such good work and it's so needed. So thank you, Jennifer.

Jennifer Norman:
It's an honor.

Catherine Corona:
Okay.

Jennifer Norman:
All right. Thank you for listening to The Human Beauty Movement Podcast. Be sure to follow, follow rate and review us wherever you stream podcasts The Human Beauty Movement is a community based platform that cultivates the beauty of humankind. Check out our workshops, find us on social media, and share our inspiration with all the beautiful humans in your life. Learn more at thehumanbeautymovement.com. Thank you so much for being a beautiful human.