Season 5 Real Beauty with FD: He has a gift for helping people understand their unconscious which we explore in the second part of this interview featuring Dr. Michael Lennox

LOVED this episode with Dr. Michael Lennox - PART 2 

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Transcript

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Hey, welcome to real beauty with FD. This is episode six and it is part two of my conversation with Dr. Michael Lennox, which I am super excited about. Especially as I mentioned last week, my mom is currently out staying with us, and this is the episode where we touch on her. Um, specific dreams. So, um, I know she will definitely be tuning in for this one. So, Hey Dorothy, hope you enjoy this episode. We will dedicate it to you. Um, So anyone that listened to last week, How have you been analyzing your dreams? I know it's not just me. That you know, Google's them straight after or like Michael. Referenced. It's a good opportunity to kind of have a note, pad and pen next to your bad, and either draw them or however much you remember. Or just kind of write them down. And I'm forever Googling to understand what my subconscious is trying to tell me. And. I was telling my husband the other day. I had this odd dream that I bought a pair of sunglasses, which were fake. And I went to a dinner party. And the host, I don't know who it was. They were giving out free, fake, like dollar sunglasses. And they were basically the ones I was wearing. And I told They were like real, you know, like branded. Um, which is odd, right? And trust me, I've so many of these dreams. But they always have a fashion reference. Um, I think I spoke about a couple of things with Michael and I can't remember if Phil's on the podcast or, um, if it was just when I was kind of going back and forth with them. Um, but I constantly have dreams that someone comes and steals my clothes. Clearly I have fashion. Trust issues. Um, But anyway, I'm really looking forward to this episode. We have more coming in the futures. I hope you enjoy it. Um, We recently came back from an awesome kid-free trip to new Orleans this weekend for one of her best friend's weddings. And it was the best fun. Um, but I feel like it's just been non-stop over the last, like four to six weeks. Um, So I'm looking forward to some kind of tilt up time. But, um, anyway, without further ado, I'm not going to continue to chat. I will pass it straight over, um, or straight back to Michael. Thanks for listening. Yeah. Do do, do you ever think, um, there's so I was talking to my mom last night, um, and I was just telling her about this interview and we're very. I would describe herself as very spiritual, like very much into crystals, very much into signs and just being conscious. Again, I've always been into my dreams and she was saying that, um, like most of the time for me, I have different dreams. But I also have the ability when I go to sleep and I will go to sleep like in a second, I've never an issue with going to sleep. I will think of stuff. And then I start dreaming kind of early on. Um, so I can, I don't know. I feel like in a way I can kind of set the scene before I go to sleep. But my mom was saying that she keeps on having a reoccurring dream that she's. Roof. And she gets, you know, she gets dragged down the roof, which I was like, oh God, mom, this is terrifying. Anyway, dragged down the roof, she's holding onto the gutters. And then she feels. This is, oh my God. She was telling me last out. I said, mom, I don't wanna know this. She then lets go. Because she feels comfortable that as she lets go, it's actually into nothing. I was like, oh, I need to bring this up. Cause no one told me like that. Um, And so things like that. And I was trying to think about it. I was like, okay, what does that mean? Cause it's like, you're comfortable. You're great. You like go into the unknown. And she's also gone through a divorce as of like four years ago. So a part of me was thinking, well, this is, you know, a new chapter, you know, it's scary. You're letting go, but yeah, sure. Um, but yeah, yeah, but that dream is wild much, much richer. Now listen. You and your mom have a conversation about the dream and you posit yeah. This idea that you've had an association with. Oh, mom, you're getting a divorce. That's a little bit like surrendering to change. Surrendering is a little bit like letting go of the gutter and letting you feel like that. So Brava, brilliant dream work. Right. That's good dream work. now I go to a much deeper place with these images. Yeah. Right. First of all, the house is the. Yeah, right. We live in our homes. We identify with them, um, in waking life. And so, yeah, when, um, when. you know, when we're dreaming of any kind of building that we might live in, we're in some consideration about ourselves. Okay. The roof is the highest thought, the closest to the divine, the most, you know, elevated ability to perceive and conceive of where we are in the, you know, existence is the roof. Mm-hmm Rain gutters. Mm-hmm like what you're holding onto the rain gutters is what we do with excess emotion. It's like rain is water, water's emotion. And the unconscious, when it comes flooding down, we have these structures called gutters that channel our emotional. Now and dreamland channel our emotional outpourings in such a way that we're protected that it goes well, we don't damage anything. Right. So we start with your mother's current, current structure of highest thought and emotional wellbeing, but she's got a surrender. Into the next chapter, whatever that is. Right. And she's, she drops into nothing which to me, especially after all of that buildup about my mom's into crystal, she's into synchronicity, she's into this. She said, well, the void, the void, the nothing is the most sacred state. There is. And it's terrifying to people. In fact, I hear all the time from people who might have sort of some natural affinities for energetic experience, they meditate or they go to meditation mm-hmm and they feel themselves leaving their bodies a little bit. And they're like, ah, go that's. Scary. And I'm like, are you kidding me? It's the most delicious thing in the world to have those experiences, but naturally people are frightened of the void because it's terrifying. We're so used to controlling things through ideas or knowing. Yeah. Um, so surrendering to the void then to me is a deeply, deeply. Spiritual moment of surrender. It might also correlate with a daily waking life thing of a divorce and a new life that she must surrender to mm-hmm but the dream is telling me that her salvation isn't in the practical world of three dimensional form, her salvation is in her higher thoughts. The way she has constructed her emotional life to be able to take outpourings of emotion and flow them where they need to go and then surrender to the void or the greater spiritual arms that are embracing her. Wow. Oh my gosh. That was great. We, so this afternoon, we, I live in Houston. Um, And we went to one of like the crystal stores, like close to us and she got a couple of things and, um, I have a nearly four year old, so I was like, okay, Luna, go pick whatever crystal. Um, you wanna get for Nana? And I wish I knew the name of it, but it was very. Um, it's like an orange crystal and it's one specific for change, kind of that new chapter. I was reading it and I was like, no way you know, to pick up that particular one. Um, but that's see in my world, of course that's what happens, cuz everything's connected. Nothing really separate and everything reflects everything else. Yeah. So do you believe in fate? Oh my God. What a question do I believe in fate? Well, yes I do. I do. Mm-hmm but, but, but not as an exclusive way that consciousness unfolds, right? Meaning it's the, I think it's like, We, we have experiences that are the divine plan unfolding, but not only do we have free will within whatever it is, you know, we choose to, to guide our lives by, um, there's also the fundamental principles of chaos and randomness. Yeah. You know what? We don't even, we're barely in a place of understanding chaos and random events. It wasn't even until the sixties and seventies that we developed, the math that describes chaos and random events, fractals were discovered, and that fractals led to, you know, patterns. And there were patterns in fractals, which were computer generated that seemed to match the patterns of. You know, really in your lungs and tree branches and mountain ranges like, oh my God, there's this random and chaotic way that nature expresses itself. And holy shit, there's math. Mm-hmm that describes it. Mm-hmm so if there's chaos and randomness, that's 50% of the equation. Then if there is such a thing called fate, it has to be married to, to chaos and random. right. So I think what that means is there's fate and there's luck. There's fate and there's happenstance. Yeah. There's fate and there's random. There's fate. And there's the, the thing that isn't like didn't happen because you attracted it. Yeah. It just like manifestation. It's like, you can manifest anything you want. Is that true? Not in my world. You can't manifest something. You don't feel like you deserve, you can't manifest something that is not in your scope of talent. Yeah. And you can't manifest something. If the random and chaotic nature of the world interferes with a desire, you have to manifest that thing at that time. Yeah. So the answer, I guess, I mean, I didn't know, this was my answer to your question is yes. I believe in fate and I believe that it is 50% of the equation. Mm-hmm not a hundred. Yeah, that's a great, um, explanation. It's a, it's a hard question, right? I was just curious, um, on your thoughts, but even I'm all about trying to create positive energy around me. So to your point where you're right, unless you believe you deserve something, unless you believe, you know, in that happiness, it's really hard. Pull that in, and then you could link that up to, you know, sometimes people say it's luck over, um, you know, fate and it depends on the timing and you know, how you feel in that moment. If you're more confident to ask someone, you know, for that job or whatever it is, ask someone out. Um, so I think sometimes for me, it's all. Mentally how I feel in that moment. You know, one of the ways I grappled with this was all of the people I knew who wanted to be in the entertainment industry. Mm oh yeah. God, a fascinating world. Well, it, it is amazing to me how many people thought that their goodness was gonna lead to their career? Mm-hmm like they got this spiritual idea. That being loving is a good, good idea. Cause it is yeah. Healing, your trauma and being less reactive in the world is a great idea. And there are people who I counseled when I was younger, you know, uh, um, because you know, I, before I was a professional at this, I was doing this for everyone in my circle. Right. I was counseling. Oh, I'm sure they loved it. Yeah. At least I've been, my mother was my first client when I was five, you know? So, um, so. That was a paradigm that I bumped into so frequently with people I knew who had this idea that if they had the talent and that they were good in their hearts, that that was gonna lead to the career. And then you would look at all of the assholes would become very successful and see that goodness has nothing to do with it. Yeah. Nor does not talent. Yeah. It's so true. Nor does talent and ability. So in that case, there has to be luck. There has to be fortune. There has to be happenstance. There has to be that you get chosen and you don't, and it doesn't mean anything. It's just that 50% of our experience in is in this mysterious existence, includes randomness and chaos. Mm-hmm. How, um, like, I know you mentioned you worked at Playboy. How did you find that side of the industry? Especially at that time? Cause I think so much has changed, you know, over the years and, um, everything else, but I can imagine it was a difficult industry to be a part of. You know, I was, I was fortunate from the difficulty of the injury to be on the studio side. Mm. And the studio side of the entertainment industry is a corporate atmosphere. Mm, okay. Okay. It's yeah, it's the world of production and the making of product. Mm-hmm, that all of the really juicy, but I'll tell you in the entertainment. Even on the corporate side, it's the one place where having a personality disorder will not keep you from having a job, right? you could be a borderline personality disorder, rageful, crazy person and run a studio or run an agency, or be a how high powered executive. And so I certainly saw a little bit of that. What was interesting in, in the four years at Playboy, which. The last place I worked as this on, we was rising up. Playboy was a wonderful place to work. The, the atmosphere was warm and joyful and conscious. And, um, not at all. What people from the outside might well, you, I granted there was a, it was a party atmosphere and I got laid off at the moment where Chicago said, Los Angeles is a party. We need to stop the party. And 20 people got laid off and everything changed. Um, But it, it was not a place of nefarious, difficult entertainment industry stuff, but you know what we were selling. Right, right, right, right. Was soul eating to me. Yeah. Yeah. So that was interesting to be in a place that was ultimately about sex and sexuality, which was fine with me cuz I, I, you know, sex and sexuality is my, you know, jam. Yeah. Um, um, Personally it was that I could, I literally could see my soul being eaten away because I wasn't serving. Or, or I wasn't serving. I understood. Yeah. Yeah. Understood. And I guess as well, um, you know, it's, it's, it's hard to, you know, have a passion. You obviously have a gift and to be able to move forward and build up that career where, to your point, you're helping people, you're teaching. You're also doing something that you're passionate about. It's. It's I think that's more rare that you think so many people are kind of stuck in jobs and you know, you end up just continuing down and you're like, what's your hobbies? What's your passions. And the amount of my friends are like, oh, I don't really have one. You're like, yeah. And I'm not, I'm not finding joy. Yes. Find the joy come on. That's life. You know, one of the things that was true for me about this. Journey the path that the desire to get on the path and create a life, a career and a business where I could do what I loved to be remunerated well for it. Yeah. Um, took a really long time. Yeah. That and, um, the experience of having the world say no, Over and over again, but knowing my yes was interesting because it was wildly painful, but it, it was clear as a bell. Like there wasn't when I had painful, I had a moment. It was after the television show was canceled and. And I had several opportunities came up for being, because I was so visible for four or five months on TV. Right? So there was a conference in New York city with a bunch of other spiritual leaders. There was a workshop in somewhere and there was another workshop in somewhere else. And within the space of three weeks, each one was canceled for lack of registration. Oh, wow. And I was all I barely gotten over the televis should show me and canceled and I'm like, it's gonna take me two years to build up my career. And then bam. In the first of those two years, it was like, Nope. Nope, Nope. Yeah. That's hard. It was. But you wanna know something, there was never a moment where that no. Had any meaning for. At all never good. I was so clear of my yes. Yeah. Yeah. That speaks to fate. Yes. Yes. I could feel back then in 2004 and five where I was barely making a living and facing no after no after no, I could feel this life. this life where, where I'm successful and abundant and prosperous and, and loving, you know, where my work has taken me. Um, and I could feel that I think a lot of people shrink away from following their dreams because the first no, or two, yeah. It's tells them that the world doesn't want what they have to offer. It's like, yeah, that's not really accurate. It's true. Persistence is the key. But it's having that confidence as well to be like, no, I know this is what I wanna do, or I know that this is what I'm good at. Um, so question switching it, um, a little bit. So you obviously studied astrology, you mentioned it at the start of this call. Um, and it was a full moon, but last night. Yeah. Was it last? Yeah. Yesterday? Yeah. We're out for a walk and I was like, damn like that. Moon is incredible. So tell me mm-hmm when there's a full moon, how. Because I think again, sometimes, like we're not conscious of, you know, how we're feeling and we put it down to, oh, yesterday was a busy day or, you know, I'm stressed out whatever it is, but I feel like there's so much more in that kinda cosmic raise of what's going on in the universe and how it affects us. So, um, tell me more about it. Ha well, first of all, energetically speaking, there is an amplification of. That we move through on a monthly basis. And when the sun and the moon are in the same place, what we called a new moon mm-hmm you know, farmers used to plant mm-hmm when the sun and the moon were together. But when you put the gravitational pull of these two luminaries in the same place, they're yanking on the earth in a very big way. And they are pulling the water of the earth downward. Yep. because the gravitational poles coming from one side, right. Pens, tides change, right? Yep. And we are 70% water and we are experiencing some pull down, whatever that means. Just words. Right. Mm-hmm words to describe a kind of energetic sense. Yes. Then as the lunar cycle progresses and the moon crosses the other side of the cosmos and now the gravitational pull is equal from both sides. The water is not being pulled down into the earth, but up into the crops we have planted, which is why we harvest in the full moon. Cuz all of the energy is up in the wheat Berry. Oh. And so that same upwards watery expansion, we feel energetic. While empirical studies might not show that certain events happen more frequently during a full moon. Talk to anybody works in, uh, um, a school or an emergency room, you know, where they day to day get to see the evidence of sort of chaotic energy. Then they will tell you that it's always crazier in the full. No, my, my word for this is amplified. Okay. Everything is amplified in a full moon mm-hmm right. And so between this sort of polling energy at the new moon and amplification of energy at the full moon, we definitely have an ability to say, oh, it's not just that I had a crazy day at work. Mm-hmm that there's more going on than meets the eye, but for my money, The focus on new moons and full moons is really much more about a spiritual practice. Okay. Right. Yeah. That we plant seeds in new moons and harvest in full moons than the same thing to be said, can be said about our conscious attention on the desires that we have to create. Talking about manifestation. Yes. We manifest things by first declaring our desire and our intention to have them to create them. And that's what we do at every new moon, because the energy of the solar system is guiding us to do that. And then when we're in the full moon, the, the culmination moment. That in farming looks like the harvest. What happens when the harvest we take the wheat Berry, but we leave the CHF. We don't want the CHF mm-hmm And then what happens with that leave behind stuff is it can, it can, um, decompensate and turn into fertilizer for the next crop. So at the full moon, we're doing these two things. We're lifting up that which we've created, and we're making sure that we leave the. Behind that doesn't service anymore. And that shows up in full moon celebration as gratitude and release. What am I grateful for? What am I ready to release? And then the signs in astrology that the moon and the sun are in can give some distinctions about what area of consciousness to focus. Right. So the full moon that we're in or were in, you know, the other day before we met today was in cancer. Mm-hmm cancer is the archetype of the mother and the home and the heart and family and intimacy and feelings and tenderness and vulnerability. And so these last couple of days, the full moon's gratitude would be all the ways that you are practicing self care and, and, and attending to the nurturing needs that you have, because that's what the cancer arche. Is all about, and then what the release moment of this would be, what, what gets in your way of a, of, of sort of feeling more whole complete and able to climb the mountain of your ambitions, where the sun is Capricorn, the mountain that we climb up. Yeah. And so what we're letting go of in a cancer moon is everything about not taking care of ourselves, of not putting ourselves first of running around the airplane, trying to help everybody with their oxygen mask, but you haven't put yours on yeah. And so that's, that's the theme archetypally of the full moon that we've just had. And so as a spiritual practice, as a way of relating to this existence, that we are a part of honoring the new moon in full moon is natural because that's what the system is doing. The system says our conscious and our unconscious is lining up at the new moon. And so it's a great time to be in both conscious awareness of what you desire, but connecting to your unconscious where all the manifestation juice happens. And then two weeks later, we're in this place of gratitude and release. And this is what our ancestors did, right? Yeah. Our first peoples. Use the sun and seasons to create civilization because they told you when to plant, when to reap, when to rest, when to move mm-hmm and then the movement of the moon governed, the more sort of inner communal experiences, um, and certain pagan rituals developed over the years of honoring the P moon honoring the full moon. And so I like. I respond to that as a way of feeling connected to the cycles that we are already connected to. We might as well notice them and honor them and work with them. Oh, for sure. I feel like I need to pay more attention to, um, like the Fu moon cycles. Like I'm, so I'm a Scorpio and I'm obsessed with reading my star sign. I read it every week, every month. Um, You know, I I'm very much aware that you can read something and connect it back if you want to. Right. Like you can say something and be like, oh my God, that's so me, but I'm very much my star sign. The only thing I'm missing is the jealousy part. Um, but I get very possessive over my friends, but, um, I am, I feel all of that. Like how we are kind of what our makeup is. And I'm always very conscious to kind of keep aligned with the weaknesses of my sign and. Trying to use things or will make me a little bit stronger, but yeah, I think that's marvelous. I mean, that's part of the value of astrology, even at that low level of like, just being curious about your, about your sunshine. Yeah. I'll tell you this. I don't know your chart. I've never looked at it, but I'll bet there's something in there. That allows you to more easily connect with, you know, forgiveness and, and balance and harmony. So that mitigates the, the personal sense of jealousy that might typically be associated with the Scorpio archetype. Yes. Yeah. So that's, that's the value of, of like knowing your whole chart? Yeah. Um, because it's very, very reflective of who you are. Mm-hmm mm-hmm it really is. One of the reasons I think I became an astrologer on a more existential level is that my body is so sensitive to energy that I'm constantly having sensations in my body that I now know are simply based on the energetic movement. Because I've had 25 years of being able to look at right how the planets are moving and how my body is feeling. So for the first 38 years of my life, I had a myth about myself that there was something wrong with me that I was probably sick all the time and that I was gonna die, horrible death because my father had been very ill as a man. He had a, he had a disease. It had common variable immune deficiency disorder had a terrible, had terrible health. And I had these terrible sensations all the time where I would feel like sick, except that it's not sick. It's like what? I now call moon sick. So I can have moments where I don't feel good in my body, but it's just energy. And if I look at the astrology and see what I think is causing it, the moment it passes, the feeling goes away. So I was just misinterpreting the sensations of my body for the first 40 years and learning how to read the contextual tool that told me why my body was feeling a certain way. Energetically, do you ever, um, feel different energy from different people? I speak about this a lot with some of my girlfriends that, you know, if you're around, I, I don't know. And I don't wanna say you get like a bad feeling about people, but you know, sometimes it's just, I don't, I, I don't even know how to describe it. It's like sometimes I'm drawn to people and I feel great when I walk away and, you know, yes, you could say, it's your personality, you know, beauty, whatever. But there are other people that is. I don't know. You just get, I don't, I, I dunno how to describe it. I feel like it's just energy, but, well, it is just energy and I, I know for myself that I can be say out at a gathering, I am extremely extroverted and, um, pretty sunny. In my personality, right? So when I am in that state, I like everybody. And, and it'll be really interesting to me to like, be at a table for example, and be sitting next to somebody and be very aware. I don't want to talk to you. Right. Right, right. Right. And then other people of fact, I Thanksgiving, it's like, you know, someone on my left, someone on my right. It was like, Ooh, very different experiences. now I didn't look at their charts, but I betcha. If I did, I would see a connection energy between the two charts where I felt. Yummy in the energetic connection and just something that would be like friction in the other. Yes. Yeah. Cause I'm sure that woman was a pure, fairly wonderful woman. She was certainly friends with the people in the crowd and it was a lovely crowd. So she's unlikely to be horrible. It just, wasn't an energetic match. Yeah. And astrology reflects that. God, that's so interesting. I love this subject. Um, so I really want to be mindful, um, of your time. So I will ask one more question. That's good. Um, and then we have like a quick fire around and, uh, I promise I will let you get back to your, um, everyday life. So I ask every guest. Um, to be honest, the reason I started this podcast was, um, looking at what beauty means to people and not just, you know, makeup or skincare, but like deep down, what makes you happy? Like what makes you passionate and really trying to encourage those types of conversations. So I will ask you the same. What does beauty mean to you? Well, What an interesting question. I can just say what came up for me when you asked is I am reminded of how profound shared laughter is. Yeah. Life is painful. It is painful to be here. It's painful to be in a body. Um, and life is wildly joyful. Mm-hmm And I think that when I think about it's funny, because even just beauty as superficial things, that's a disconnector like, yes, beauty might be beauty in that manner, but that beauty is something that is much more about let's, you know, admire that from afar. Yes. You don't actually get to own that. You get to observe that and maybe be moved by it. Mm-hmm But when. When people share a moment of depth and intensity that erupts into laughter then connection occurs. Yes mm-hmm and that, I think that's, what's beautiful is connection. I love that. That's a great, great answer. Um, okay. Quick, far round. So say whatever comes into your head. Um, and don't judge me for these questions. uh, so favorite cocktail. I don't drink, but it was an apple Martin. Oh, great. Great cocktail. Um, who would play you in a movie? Robert Downey, Jr. Oh, I love him. Oh my God. I love him so much. I get mistaken for him a lot. I could see that. Yeah. I definitely could see that. Um, most used emoji, uh, most used. Golly, why am I stopping on this? I have to check. probably a kissy face or a. Smile. That's good. Let's say smile's If you could be anyone for a day, who would you be? Oh my God. I, I know. Oh my God. I, oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God. Who would I be? Somebody who can do something physically spectacular, like an athlete. Yeah. I'm not gonna, I can't, I can't, I can't grab one for you specifically, but that I would wanna have the experience of someone who can move in their body in some profound, like a diver or a gym, a gymnast. Oh, Yo. No, that would be amazing. Yeah. Even just to be flexible. um, if you could, oh wait, wait, wait a dancer, a ballet dancer, an incredibly gifted male ballet dancer who can jump and be fabulous. Yeah. Oh yeah. That'd be great. Um, if you could relive one of your dreams over and over, but won, it would definitely involve singing. I'm a singer. This is probably one of the most joyful expressions that there is in my body is to sing. I love to sing. Yeah. Um, I don't, I know this is sort of a, I, I don't know how. It's it's easy to say as a singer, this is not a lightning round. I'm totally fucking up your lighting round going Downing this. But like, I think in the old days, it might have been like a moment where I was performing for a lot of people and, you know, being giving. But, you know, I had an experience about six months ago where I was, I sing every day and I have tracks that I work in and I live in a place with lots of great acoustics and far neighbors. And I had a moment recently where I was in a prayerful experience of singing, like connected to mother. And it was so spectacular if I could live that over and over and over again, that'll be a little bit like being in heaven. Yeah. Oh, I love that. Um, okay. Last one. Um, what is your life motto or favorite phrase that you live by? I slept and dreamed that life was joy. I woke and found that life was service. I served and found that service is joy. Oh wow. That's amazing to gory his tag gory. Who's an Indian Saint. Oh my gosh. That's the most profound idea that runs. Wow. That's incredible. Um, Hey, thank you so much. Um, I really, really appreciate, it's been a great conversation. I can't wait to listen to this back. I also, can't my mom delight my pleasure Lenox. Yes, we, hopefully we will keep in touch, but yeah. Hey, thank you so much for your time. I really, really appreciate it. It was really my pleasure. Thank you so much.