Episode 20 Tea Ceremonies, Stillness, and Connecting with the Universe with Li Ying

The Scrumptious Woman EP20

Thu, Sep 14, 2023 9:48PM • 44:09

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

people, tea ceremony, feel, love, ceremony, beautiful, recognise, space, share, find, medicine, woman, met, incredible, body, work, call, happened, listeners, tea

SPEAKERS

Juliette Karaman, Li Ying

Juliette Karaman  00:00

Hello, my lovelies. I have an incredible guest today who I met in person we actually we’ve been part of the same community. It was a mastermind year long mastermind and we’re really connected and then I met her in London for the first time a few months ago. So Liang is a ceremonial keeper of the CHE Dora the way of tea, you may have to have to correct my pronunciation darling.

Juliette Karaman  00:32

She’s a divine energy did thou right divine energy Alchemist, and is a spiritual mentor. She empowers multi dimensional feminine leaders to create impact from the deep core of their truth. She has mentorship spaces, one to one mentorship spaces and group spaces, where she guides her clients through a period of four to six months to about a year as well as exclusive ceremonies, masterclasses and masterminds. Now, I’m going to leave it there because you’ll have much more to explain it, you can do it in your voice, which is always more scrumptious and more alive for us. So welcome. I’m so happy to have you here.

Li Ying  01:18

Thank you so much for having me. I want to say like when we first met in person, and I think I told you this before, but I think the audience would love this is that even before I met you in person, there was just this calling to share the ceremony and the medicine with you. It was just like a no brainer. It was just like, yes, yes, yes. So I am so honoured and grateful to be here actually, just to be in conversation with you, and, and you sharing my story with your audience. That’s such a precious gift. So thank you so much,

Juliette Karaman  01:53

you so much for being here. And that’s really, I love that you brought this up, because this podcast has only been live for about five weeks now. And we’ve just surpassed 12,000 downloads. So but that is the ripple effect, right? Where it’s like, I don’t want to have to do this on my own. I’m so honoured that I get these incredible guests that come on and that actually tell their story. So I mean, I want to find out about you, I know a little bit, but our listeners probably won’t know, what is it? What is the tea ceremony? precess? What do you do? And how did you get here?

Li Ying  02:36

Wow, all the questions.

Juliette Karaman  02:39

We get tickets.

Li Ying  02:43

I know. But yes, I think I would absolutely love to share that. I mean, it’s it’s quite an honour to be a keeper of this beautiful plant spirit medicine. And just to just to share a little bit, the tea ceremony that I carry as the lineage is very much, you know, something that has returned me home to myself. So it’s like, really, you know, imagine, you know, I want to take you on a journey with me where, you know, when I was when I was very, very young before I was quote unquote, conscious. A lot of the conditioning around me has really led me to believe that, you know, I am vastly not enough and I am not the kind of woman or the kind of the kind of female that is to that lives up to the beauty set standard that I thought I would be. So I am very open.

Juliette Karaman  03:43

I’m gonna get yes race so that we can actually let that in. We’ve had a lot of not good enough, not beautiful, most beautiful enough, all of that. But quote unquote, consciousness. Just dip your toe in that a little bit for our listeners, because not everyone will understand what that actually means. That is true. Now, sorry, I slow you down a little bit. Because for you, it’s easy to understand, but for some of our listeners to be like

Li Ying  04:14

No, I I love that. I love that. It really does. It has it has. It carries a sort of weight, doesn’t it? If there is there’s an understanding, of course, but if it does not ring a bell. It can almost feel it. What do you mean? I’m not conscious? So what do you mean? What do you mean, right? Let’s sink into

Juliette Karaman  04:41

1. I’m gonna let you have your little breath and just see what it is. It’ll class above the class, give your your guests a little bit of a break so that you can get gather your thoughts a little bit as well. So for me, consciousness is really the awareness Most of the patterns that we’ve been reading the reactions that we have to certain emotional stuckness, and certain things that have happened to us or we think that the world is happening to us, we don’t actually see that all of these are little glimmers. They’re beautiful ways to kind of see what’s Oh, we are not free, though. Oh, I’m holding on to resentment maybe I can see from a different point of view, maybe I need to get some help here or look at it in a different way gets an embodiment practices go into a ceremony DuPont ceremony, but recognise that I don’t have to have my blinders off.

Li Ying  05:46

I love that. I think it’s so incredible that we all have access to such things now that we get to we get to see that there are options like this for us, if it sparks a curiosity, like your soul gives you that little nudge and you know what this is, and it actually relates to my my story as to have found how I met ti actually, I would honestly think I really believe that I was found more that I found her. But um, you know, when I say consciousness, when I think of consciousness, I almost feel like there was this like this, some, some part of me was kind of forgotten on my way out to here to Earth. And it’s interesting, because if I look back, and let’s go back to a time when I was quote, unquote, unconscious, really, I always felt this feeling of like, oh, I felt like I left some part of myself behind. And I don’t feel like I belong to this world, you know, and then I tried to fit myself in, and then I tried to make sure I fit in everywhere as much as I can. Don’t stand out, you know, don’t speak to them, right? Otherwise, you will piss people off. And you know, all all these things. So when you

Juliette Karaman  07:05

didn’t feel as much consciousness where you didn’t feel as much awareness about you, what were you doing at that time? What were you in a different job? What? What was your day to day life? Like?

Li Ying  07:19

You know, it’s interesting, even just talking about being not conscious, and I say this with, quote, unquote, all this way, because I feel like even if I say, Yeah, I wasn’t conscious back then, there has always been all these little nudges that kind of, you know, opened a little crack of the door in a way of speaking of like, do you want to come in? Do you want to come in, and this is something I speak about all the time, which is like, I truly feel that there are always these invitations for you to step into your truth, your purpose, whatever you want to call it, your desires. The dream, though, the one thing that you you know, can set you free. Like there are always invitations around you. And the real decision lives in your hands is really like, Okay, are you ready to step through this one not ready yet? All right, let’s just take another round around the garden. And then let’s come back and let’s let’s, let’s just take a peek here and okay, not ready. All right, let’s go again, you know, so, while I was going through those things, you know, I was the typical, you know, good girl, you know, did all the things made sure I got all the good grades, I made sure I got into the University got the degree. And then things start to kind of fall apart. I was I was in my first ever serious relationship at that time, when I started to find myself seriously diagnosed with anorexia. And while I was going through that, you know, I can still remember the real, real reason that propelled me to do that was that I remember thinking at one point that I won’t ever let myself be, you know, given a reason, like, I don’t want anyone to say that I have anything less. You know, I don’t want to be the one to give anyone any reason to say that. I’m not good enough. Right? It’s a very external looking thing. It’s like, so in order for people not to think I’m not good enough or not thin enough, or not pretty enough, not smart enough, not, not under no whatever. I thought that I could control that by controlling my body. And that set me off into a very dark journey into anorexia and it just got worse and worse and worse, to the point where I had to be admitted to the hospital with IV drips coming out of my hand and The doctor saw me and said that you know, you do know that you are in your 20s. But you have the constitution of a woman in her 60s. And you you might not your bones are fragile, your your hormones are all all, all out of whack. And if you really want to live, you got to make a decision. What do you want to do? And you know, the funny thing is Juliette, like at that time, when I heard this, I, I wasn’t even registering the fact that I was going to lose my life. I was literally lying there just thinking, Gosh, I don’t want to be here for another second, because then I’ll miss my exercise tomorrow, I will miss my workout I because I ran religiously and was a maniac athlete, just, you know all about losing calories, right? So a lot of workouts and very little food intake. At that time, I actually sprained my ankle, so I couldn’t run either. So it was very much a very big divine intervention. Let’s just put it that way. So anyway, to cut things short. I did go on to recovery. But it was a very, very turbulent recovery, it was always recovery and relapse, recovery relapse. Like, I think, looking back, now, I didn’t actually have an anchor, I didn’t understand why I needed to recover. Like there wasn’t a bigger reason for me to do that. It was just basically like, make my mom happy, make sure everyone’s happy with me. And then I started to get into a place of like, Oh, God, if I eat more than I will be so unworthy. And it was just yo yo back and forth. And if I got into a relationship, I wanted to look perfect for them. And I started to lose weight again. You know, it was never ending, never ending, never ending, never ending. And the more I looked at myself in the mirror, the more I couldn’t recognise myself, basically. And so what happened was that I was in my second relationship at the time, and it was a very, very mentally and emotionally abusive relationship. He was alcoholic, and I didn’t even recognise it. At that point, I was just thinking, if I could fix him, you know, I was removing all the attention from myself to him. And if I could fix him, I will be worthy of this love. Again, divine intervention. We lost touch.

Juliette Karaman  12:21

How many of us have have done that? Right? It’s like, Oh, if we can put attention on them, if we can look outside of ourselves, and just fix I mean, yo, over, over over giver and fixer in the making, but you know, recovering over over? Yes. We just kind of see Wow. And I love I’m gonna just stop you for a minute because I actually had a friend of mine who was deeply anorexic. When, and she died when I was eight. We went for a ride on horses. And she fell off. And it was like, What do I do? And I she was like, 12 or so. And I was eight or nine. And I remember just thinking, What do I do? Do I go back and get help? Or do I stay with her? So at one point, I went back, got help. The ambulance drove into the field got her but on the way died. So for me what that had it mean, is that dieting and getting them is really dangerous because you die. So which has kind of like set off my whole journey. Why yo yo journey with food? How we have these moments where I could have woken up them, but I didn’t Yeah, I didn’t realise what was going on. I just made things like this is actually dangerous.

Li Ying  13:51

I mean, I love that reflection, because and also just so much compassion for the eight year old you right? Because also for all the women around the world because we’ve been so conditioned to get into diets to look good to fit into a specific size, because that is the standard and none of us ever question that. I mean, most of us don’t. I mean, I think I do see the changes right now that people are questioning that we see all kinds of different uniqueness out there as leaders and mentors and you know, even pop stars and singers, whatever you look up to like idols, but I think when I was growing up, it was a very, you know, and what unfortunately and I hope there is going to be an S or we do have changes at the moment that’s happening. But like in Asia is a very, very, it’s very important, so to speak to local specific size otherwise you’re really picked out and your laughter your durda like people make fun of you they say names and oh my gosh, like so much of that and also, you know, not just the size of your body, but also how the skin looks like your your skin colour of your skin, you know, like when you you’re fair, you’re beautiful. But if you’re not white and porcelain, then you’re less, you know, it’s, it’s a very

Juliette Karaman  15:18

kind of what we hear right? And what we grow up with what we then think is normal. Exactly. We’re bodies into certain sizes. And then yeah, and umbrellas to just. It’s just incredible notes all because that is what we’re talking. Exactly. Anyway, I took your part of your story, tell him tell us more.

Li Ying  15:48

No, no, I just, I’m so passionate about that. And I think, you know, at one point, I was set a, you know, I was told, like, Oh, this is behind you now that you don’t have to talk about this anymore. But I really want to say this is that the reason why I always share from this point of my life is because I truly believe that self love cannot be tweaked. If you don’t have a good relationship with your own body. You just can’t. You can’t say Oh, I love myself, but then you’re on the other hand, you know, weighing your food and in, you know, criticising your own body and and saying why why not? Why am I not losing weight fast enough? And that’s, that’s a contradiction to self love, you know? So I think it’s important for us, even when we’re doing spiritual work, to acknowledge the body to know, what is the bigger picture of your body here, you know, you don’t have to look like every other, you know, like this, there’s this thing as well. I don’t know if want to go there. But like, sometimes I feel like I’ve been there myself where I felt like, oh, I have to look a certain way. If I were to be in the mentoring world, like I have to look and dress a certain way. But like, I think right now, we got to wake up to the fact that all of us are so unique. We all have our own medicine. Our own magic is the way we look the way we dress like I mean, Julian, you know, that’s right. We’re in the beautiful mastermind, where all of us come together. But we are so different. And we walk shoulder to shoulder like that is the world that we’re creating right now, which is so important, right?

Juliette Karaman  17:23

And that’s the beauty where they’re actually woman supporting woman because as I was growing up, and as I had my kids, woman like to outdo each other by catastrophizing by saying, yeah, oh, my God, this happened to me, it’s like, oh, but you don’t know what happened to me. Like, you know, I found this so often with with the kids and with their, their parents, especially their mothers. It’d be like, oh, you know, you don’t have my my son painted on the walls this morning. And I had to get out, and I have to get painter to come and repaint it. And then someone said, you don’t know what mine has done. The whole car is full of I don’t know, sticky toffee or whatever. And then the third one was that oh, yeah, well, my house got burned down because one of them played on matches. So it’s a funny thing, how we want to kind of like outdo each other, but things that aren’t so good. And then it’s very difficult to say it’s like, Oh, I’m sorry, you guys all had a crap day. But I’ve actually had a wonderful day. Because you walked out that empathy, but you’re kind of thinking like, Oh, I’ll be shot down. And this is where I have love the only female masterminds and because we create that sisterhood again, and we actually get to carry each other and get to just say, Hey, you’re having a shit day? That’s absolutely fine. You’re having a great big Great, let’s celebrate everything in between, from the good to the bad and everything in between. Let’s just normalise that we have feelings.

Li Ying  18:58

Yes, exactly. No judgement. You know, we’re whether you turn up looking like you’ve got tears running down your eyes, or whether you’re wearing your crown and you’re walking in, like you’re the biggest queen in the world. Like we hold each other. You know, and I think it’s so important to say this because I do stand by this so much in the work that I do is that I want to create that world and I’m so glad I met people like you that really really is like the proof of concept, right? Like it’s like, yes, there are women who are ready for this. There are women who are so sick and done with, you know, creating the drama so that we can step and bulldoze each other and get to the top and whatever we want. Like what that what, you know what we’ve been conditioned to do, which is like, oh, it’s lonely on the top or like, you know, you can have partners or you can have friendships going if you want to be at the top if you want to have it all like, oh, no, no, no, no All we have to be the first go forth and say, That’s total BS. And we have to start to get into our own truth, our own medicine and love ourselves so much so that we can love others for their differences for their whatever that is, that is not the same as us. That to me is leadership. You know, it’s not about everything looking the same. And that’s it. Yes, that’s me. But like, can we be different? Can we still respect each other? You know, it’s, oh, that’s a leadership I love.

Juliette Karaman  20:38

And that’s the beauty about what you do. Because you take people through these beautiful ceremonies, the Medicine found you you said, and you then take this to other I mean, is it only early woman? Or is it couples is that anyway, it’s

Li Ying  20:55

interesting to ask. I used to do this, with all genders, like whoever that comes in. So I guess I can, I can, I can share a little bit about, you know, how I started, which is, you know, I was living in Hong Kong, I was fully fully recovered from my eating disorder, one one year in, and I made a solemn vow to myself that I’m going to love myself. And I’m going to put myself first whether it’s in a relationship, especially because I was open to finding someone new in my life. So I was just starting out with my then boyfriend, now husband, we were going really steady really well. But I was coming to a point in my life. We’re living in Hong Kong, where I was starting to question the dream life that I manifested. Because I was working in media. I loved it. You know, I did some really revolutionary stuff when I was there. But I was seeing a really disillusion piece of like, okay, there is a lot of celebrating about bad things happening. It’s like the thing that news agencies thrive on. Right? And how can we make this better? Right? So I was questioning and

Juliette Karaman  22:05

man bites dog is the news. Love dog bites? Not so much.

Li Ying  22:12

Exactly. And every time I suggested a piece about like, Oh, can we do alternative medicine, it was always turned down and shut down. And I was like, Okay, why am I so passionate about this? What can I do about this? So I literally got down on my knees one night after meditation asked the universe, like, can you show me away? Please, just anyway, because there must be more to this. And quite swiftly, the universe answered with an invitation as a man like a media representative to go and attend a tea ceremony. And I was, of course, I love tea, you know, why not? Oh, and once I went there, it was just nothing like I’ve ever experienced in my entire life. You know, I have been to a Japanese tea ceremony before, but it was just not the same. It’s not a Japanese tea ceremony. It’s literally the shamanic way of serving tea from the very beginning of time. When I was there, I when I lifted the bowl of tea, I can still remember this. Oh my gosh, it gives me tingles. Every time think about this is I heard a voice that I recognise now as T spirit. And she said to me, you have to go and serve T. Job, everything you know. And serve. Wow. And I hold this to my heart every day. Because if I remember this message, drop everything you know and serve tea. It’s not for just a moment there. It’s every day, every day drop everything you know, drop everything you know, come back with a beginner’s mind, come back with the I don’t know mine. And this is how I get out of my mind and into my body to know deeply who I am.

Juliette Karaman  23:57

Yeah, there’s so many different ways of getting back into your body right and so many it’s interesting, so many teachers out but you know, your mind need to get out of your mind or out of your body because your body is the beasts and then I see all the all the different bits of it. And they’re all right. And they’re all They’re all some nice that, you know, we might see slightly different. So this is how we how I love when you say come with a beginner’s mind. Because we take things from the universe, right? We get codes, they’re there, they’re dropping it, right? So whoever is open to them, receives them. And otherwise it goes on to someone else and don’t receive it. So this is why often you’ll you’ll have an idea you didn’t act upon it, then yeah, you look around your Instagram. It’s like oh my god. 10 people are doing this, what the heck I’m not originally. But really take the things that come Your way, make them your own, personalised and you make them your own. The ones that resonate the ones that don’t just discard them.

Li Ying  25:08

I think that’s, like we, we have clients who I’m sure you can resonate with this. It’s like, you know, they are leaders, they’re the top in your field in a way and then they also have that doubt of like, okay, how can I is this? This? Is this really my own? Like is the how can I own this? How can I make this me? And is this Can Can this be enough? You know, and I think so much of that work really lies in knowing like our deep knowing of like, I think part like most of the work that I do, honestly, right now isn’t even like going out there. And hustling is really about coming back in here. And really like, Okay. How can I stay in my vortex of stillness? What is it that is coming up from this, this space of stillness? Right, and I that’s why I love the work that I do. And Juliette, you can, I would love for you to share what you felt, you know, when we dropped into Reverend silence, like I feel like most of the work just came through T like I didn’t even do any talking really?

Juliette Karaman  26:18

Good. No, no, I mean, it was it was really beautiful. And I’ve I’ve played in lots of different rooms with medicine, with plant medicine, with frog medicine with Bufo with other things with going into shimmer tights. So when I met you, and we went to Kensington Gardens and found this beautiful little spot under a tree, and it just felt so right. And you kind of explained to me it’s I’ve listened to more probably spend most of the time in silence. So this is what I do, I put the cup on the beautiful piece of cloth that if and if you put it there, then I know to refill and otherwise just keep it. So it’s like okay, perfect. Good guidelines. I understand them. I won’t forget though. That’s perfect. And also, it was kind of like, I think we took a moment, both of us to just drop in to us. And it was a Friday afternoon. I think it was kind of busy. There were lots of people in the park. And yet we found a spot that was perfect, right? This is like we were just guided under this tree. Yeah. And I don’t even know how long the whole ceremony took. But it was that tea was so potent. It was like I had my near death experience again. It was like I was on on plant medicine. Again. It was like all the ego. Everything just dropped away. And I was present. I became one with the trees with the light with the wind. And I was like, Oh, here we go. There is no there is no monkey mind, there are no bits of my body that are uncomfortable. And plus, if I wasn’t Hunter, I’d move because that is my practice, right? Where I move. And I make sure that this human body actually can be comfortable as well. And in its most scrumptious. And so it just felt like that whole movement, that whole energy was coming through. And it was such a beautiful divine moment that we that we shared together. Yeah, that’s that I felt like we somehow connected out into the universe. To we’re sharing this beautiful experience. Yeah.

Li Ying  28:37

Yeah. And that is really, thank you so much for sharing that. Personally, I love hearing these things. Because I always I deeply understand, you know, after holding so many ceremonies is that I my work My responsibility is not to tell you everything before the ceremony but to also just hold space, be the crystalline vessel for the cosmic light to shine in through me to you and for t spirit to speak to you, you know, and everyone’s transmission, everyone’s experience. Just I never get enough of it. Because it’s always different. It’s always so different for everyone. And to watch you I remember witnessing You and just feeling like you freed yourself in some ways when you were just moving with the wind and you were moving with sun on your skin and everything about you was just free. You know, it was this freedom. And I think when you said meeting mean the cosmos in the universe, and that’s really it. Like that’s, that’s us meeting our, you know, our highest self meeting each other, you know, and the cosmic being having human experience here. How can we inhabit this human suit and have the best time of our lives? You know,

Juliette Karaman  30:02

See this guy like something that we put on every day?

Li Ying  30:07

Exactly, you know? And

Juliette Karaman  30:09

so tell us a little bit where can people find this and we’ll do this again at the end. But I just want to make sure that everyone knows how to find you. Because I know you have a Facebook group as well. Just Just what do you want to share with them and then we’ll do it again.

Li Ying  30:23

Oh, come and say hi on Instagram, I’m when still waters speak is when underscore still waters underscore speak. Come and find me on Instagram can come and find me on Facebook as well. It’s same. And then there is a Facebook group that is we’ve to join called vortex of stillness. I feel like I’m everywhere really. I’m on LinkedIn, I’m but like, come to come to those places. Those are the places I’m very, very active, it

Juliette Karaman  30:54

will all be in the show notes. So just go down to the shownotes and you will be able to find her. So tell me, what does a typical coaching container with you? What does that look like? Who are the people that that I mean, I’m attracted to you, but who comes into your world? And how does that happen? Because you said you just have people walking in? Just coming in with cortex, right? I

Li Ying  31:23

1. And I think Juliette you know what I mean? Right? Like, it’s really like, oh

Juliette Karaman  31:32

listeners, right? Because they’re like, what does that show up? For?

Li Ying  31:37

What if it’s true? Um, look, I am someone who really have nothing that I don’t really hold back in anything. I know, I know. There are certain elements that I can I can always be better at. But I love putting my work out there. I love writing poetry. I like white writing just words, anything that trans any transmission that comes through, I just share very openly. And I think people just come in, they see me I’m on Insight Timer, people see me and then they’ll start to DM me, I think Facebook all these places, right? So I think with what we have now I feel like we do have an abundance of exposure. Let’s just put it that way. You know, and people can find this, you know, even on Tik Tok, for goodness sake, I’m on threats as well. Oh, my goodness, like, you know, anyone could just anyone could just reach out and say, Hey, how can I work with you? And, you know, my most reasoned because I’ve been doing this since 2020. A lot of them were I started off with free ceremonies. So most of the people who got to know me, I don’t even know how they found out. I had a free ceremony, we asked me maybe it was the Facebook event, maybe it was someone who shared that, you know, so I don’t really I think, you know, you and I, we’ve been in a mastermind where we really, you know, I I was it was deeply ingrained in me of like, just just let go of knowing how like really just put yourself out there get real with your message. And you know, everything else is taken care of. And also I have aligned for in human design. So that really means that you know, when I’m out there, and I’m you know, all my heart is out there, my heart energy, I’m sincere, I’m authentic. Like, I don’t have to worry about it, because someone’s gonna refer someone to me. And that was what happened as well. Like, I got people referred to me. And then I quite recently ones, the most recent clients, they really literally was like, you know, we didn’t even have to go on a call, it was just really very much like DMing me like, you know, and it’s like, okay, let’s let’s do it, you know, so I think I’m, I’m very much unified me, let’s just put it this way, at this time, where I don’t worry about following the guidelines at all anymore. I used to, I used to think I have to be real about this, right? Like, I used to think, oh, I have to have calls with them first before anyone would sign up, I used to think I only can have one offer otherwise everyone else will be confused. And this comes back to the leadership conversation we were having is that when we trust that they have the intellect and the intelligence to make a decision, without us having to manipulate or convince or chase like, you’re gonna bring in freaking amazing clients. Like I don’t know if we can if I can swear on this podcast, but you know, I mean, it’s like we’re

Juliette Karaman  34:42

kind of over it. Because there’s a little while don’t

Li Ying  34:48

just stop myself. But you see why I’m doing this like so when they come into a mentorship container. We go deep. We do have tea ceremony activations, where we We work with the integration of mind, body and spirit. So what I call it is that I want you to be soloing in your life, I want you to live as the soul. And what that means is that my work is really to help you to bring your, your mind back to its primary purpose, which is to be a super consciousness to be the one who executes for the soul, instead of driving you mental with, you know, overthinking and exhausting. You know, what a word is that about things that hasn’t even happened. So that’s really what we’re doing, we do that a lot with the work we that I would say is a mix of Taoist alchemy and also bio energetics. So we work a lot with quantum fields and things like that. So a lot of energy work. And it’s just been incredible to watch that unfold in the ceremonial space. Because, like I said, this is just where I stand, in my experience is that a lot of work can take place in the stillness, like a lot of work can take place when you’re given the empowerment, to feel into that yourself instead of me, you know, fixing you, is like giving you that space to be like, Okay, can you feel it? Can we align to that in? And that is, in the long run? What’s going to stay with you, right? Like the mentorship space is here to hold you as you go through that process. So I think it’s important because I really have come to a realisation that, you know, yes, there are places where people would go to when they feel like they have hit rock bottom. But equally, I feel like I want to create a space where, where people can come in, when they are not at a rock bottom, but they want to just be more, they want to feel free. They want to be able to go out there and do something purposeful. You know what I mean? Like so. So it’s important to know that I think there are lots of conditioning about how bad it has to be for us to seek for help. It doesn’t have to be, you know, so yeah, just want to put

Juliette Karaman  37:15

and that’s the beauty, right? What you’re also saying it’s like, doesn’t have to be bad, we don’t have to fix it. And I don’t have to give you a 10 step way method of doing my things my way. Yeah, I might learn to hold the space for you so that you can find your way back to yourself. Because, as Rhonda says, We’re all just walking each other home.

Li Ying  37:37

Oh, my gosh, yeah, exactly that. Exactly that. So the space, I want to that I always remind myself, you know, whenever it feels like there’s a lot of outside noise. And one that space to be somewhere where you can clean out the outside noise is something I call just leave the world of dust behind and come in. And this is going back to the very beginning of a T space, you know why a T space was created, it was because they wanted everyone to come in and sit on the same level, you know, nobody’s on the pedestal, nobody’s higher or lower. And we can all just sit together, you know, whether you are a samurai or emperor, you sit together, whether you are a you know, a concubine, and the Emperor is to sit together. And I love that I just love that idea. You know, and it’s such an honour to carry that forward. You know, if you go to Japan, if anyone has been to a tea ceremony, you will notice that you have to crawl through a tiny door to get in as well after you’ve washed your hands and your feet. And there is a significance to that right? You you when you wash your feet is really to enable the light of the soul to shine through to the world. And when you wash your hands, you’re washing away the old dust and coming in crawling in because all of us have to crawl through the door of life. We literally had to kind of slide out and we had to crawl you know, we’re coming back to rebirth. So I love that.

Juliette Karaman  39:12

I love that I had I was going to ask you about the whole background of it. And it’s so interesting, right? Because yeah, I’m in I’m in the UK, I know that you’re in Scotland, and a lot of our listeners will be in the States and worldwide. But it’s Isn’t it beautiful how we can have a taste of different cultures and realise that they kind of transverse time and space, but they may have their own ways of doing it and that they are very similar to other cultures that have the same kind of thing. And this is again where we pick up whatever thread really, really resonates with us and we I knew that we were like, okay, yes, we can make that are

Li Ying  40:03

absolutely. I mean, you know, I, I was born in Malaysia, and I am Chinese by descent, but I, you know, when I was growing up, I never really acknowledged that, like, I really just wanted to escape that, like, I was like, ah, you know, I want to go to the west, I want to, I want to do all the things that people are doing, you know, and look, the way they look and things like that, but like right now, when I was, you know, really, when I found that home inside of me when I met you spirit was like, it’s just ever deepening. It’s like, How can I know connect back to my ancestors even more. And there’s so much beauty in this. And I think that allows me to, to kind of see how we can run parallel, you know, like, you know, where we were at, you know, in Scotland being in the west and then how can I bring that and let’s be real, like, I most of the people I work with, like literally they’re everywhere around the world, you know, like

Juliette Karaman  41:08

being online and then video calm.

Li Ying  41:11

It’s incredible. Exactly. So I think it really is about there’s something about the ceremony, there’s something about the medicine, there’s something about maybe even my words, that stands out to someone and then you know, it’s following that light. And that’s it. Like I’m literally just lighting the way but the one who needs to walk is you you have to walk the path. The good news is you’re not alone. I think that’s the most important thing right? You know?

Juliette Karaman  41:44

Yeah, and everyone has their own path right? We can be there and we can be few steps next to you or slightly in front of you or perhaps slightly behind you. And we can link arms and say hey, this is the way I do it might help you or you have to find your own way which is also a perfect view beautiful Well this has been an incredible conversation do you do in person tea ceremonies as well in Scotland

Li Ying  42:16

is so good that you asked I am starting to do them again. So the first one is coming up in September in a private art gallery. So that that’s exciting but I intend to do more of that when I move into my new home which is going to be so larger yes yes your retreat circles circle. So I’m excited

Juliette Karaman  42:42

beautiful beautiful so people can find you on Instagram us

Li Ying  42:47

one when still water so w h e n underscore still waters underscores you will you’ll see me

Juliette Karaman  42:58

so really losing you’ll see it you see it in the show notes you have the most incredible offers things there for for people to really get a taste of who you are, what you are what you bring to this world, right because we’ve now spoken for a while and they’ll be like oh yes, this is this is resonating with me. So I want to find out.

Li Ying  43:24

Thank you so much.

Juliette Karaman  43:26

It’s been absolutely wonderful having you.

Li Ying  43:29

Thank you for having me such an honour.

Juliette Karaman  43:33

It’s been wonderful. Much much love to our listeners and please share this episode with someone if this has resonated with you if there’s been even just one little glimmer where you’re like oh my god, I have a friend Amy whatever whoever it is worldwide, she would love this he would love this. They would love the whatever gender they are. Doesn’t matter just bring this share the love because that is how we bring the ripple effect for until next time. Much love