When Tricia Barker was 22 she had a near-fatal car crash. She broke her back in three places. During her emergency operation, she experienced a Near Death Experience (NDE). Her consciousness left her body and she saw Angels in the operating room.
In this episode, Tricia talks through the details of her experience, as well as the messages that she received that were so clear to her. Specifically, we discuss:
- Experience of leaving her body, and recognizing that she existed outside of her humanness
- Angels who communicated with her telepathically
- How the Angels worked through her Doctors to heal her broken body
- The small details she noticed of things that were happening outside of her operating room, which helped to verify her experience
- The messages she took back from the loving God energy she experienced
- What it was like to come back to her physical form
This is a story that is full of hope and love. She talks about the sense of connection between us all and how we all have lights that can be turned on.
To learn more about Tricia: www.triciabarkernde.com
*To link to her book, Angels in the OR: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1642931594/?ref=exp_kate.snowise_dp_vv_d
#141: Tricia Barker: Life Lessons from a Near Death Experience
Tricia: “All the little petty things that we get mad at one another about, they dissolve in death and all we’re left with is love and so you might as well just get back to love and one that’s now. You know there’s no reason to hold grudges and hate people like that’s how my soul felt. I was just sending love to anyone and everyone I’ve known and I felt this complete this oneness like this is just what our souls come here to do. We come here to learn lessons let’s support one another, be good in your lives, have fun. And that oneness experience was amazing. I mean it was just this form of release and forgiveness all its own.”
Kate: That was Tricia Barker and this episode we’re talking about near death experiences. She had hers when she was 22 years old and although we go into some of the details around her near death experience, what this really focuses on is what she came back with, what she learns from the experience. It’s a story of light and hope and something that I think our world really needs right now. Throughout the episode we reference Tricia’s book, it is called Angels in the OR. If you want to find Tricia after listening to this episode, the website is triciabarkernde.com. Over there she has plenty of links to resources. You’ll also see how you can work with her. She does readings and other healings.
Let’s jump on.
Welcome to Here To Thrive. I’m your host Kate Snowise. This is a podcast for people who are ready to step up and live a happier life. It’s for those of us who are dedicated to understanding ourselves and getting the best that we can out of this thing called life. It’s a mix of psychology and modern spiritual thought always with a focus on practical advice so that you can take it back and apply it to your own life. I don’t believe we’re here to merely survive. I truly believe we’re here to thrive. So let’s get going.
Kate: Thank you for joining me on Here To Thrive today.
Tricia: Thank you. I’m excited to be here.
Kate: I was just saying to you, I stumbled across your story on a YouTube video and I’ve seen you actually have a YouTube channel, but I was mesmerized by your life lessons and some of the things you took away from your near death experience.
Tricia: Oh, thank you. You know it’s been such a joy to connect with people and to talk about spirituality. And a near death experience is a huge awakening for people especially people like me who were agnostic you know, who go from you know, no interest in spirituality to kind of a fast track.
Kate: [laughs] The fast track. I love it! You were pretty young when you had your accident. Can you take us back and share some of those details with us?
Tricia: Yeah, so I was a college student and I’ve grown up in a religious town. But I saw a lot of judgments and I just didn’t vibe with a religion at that time in my life and not that I wasn’t open to poetry and the beauty of the world and and the universe but I just didn’t vibe with religion so I considered myself agnostic. Well, I had a head on collision in my senior year on my way to run the Austin 10K which is this big 10k race and broke my back in three places, had massive internal injuries and didn’t have health insurance so I waited a long time for surgery. And when I went into surgery, I was so surprised that the spirit form goes on. So I saw my surgeon is operating on my body, I saw angels in the operating room and I have to tell you Kate, like initially all I was excited. I mean I thought that maybe we just died and went into the ground and that was it some people made up all these stories. But I knew my spiritual form and my consciousness to be this reality that continues on and it was deeply comforting. If that’s all that it happened in the near death experience, I would have been happy [chuckles] because I would’ve been certain that we go on.
Kate: One of the reasons I was so mesmerized by your story and I don’t think I’ve really gone into depth with this on the podcast. I think I’ve mentioned it in [passing?] but my father who has since passed on, he had a near death experience in his twenties. And he was an incredibly stoic, [farmer?] type, very sort of quiet. And for him to have had a near death experience, I think for me really made it real. You know, he’s not someone that were just searching for that kind of thing and nor was really discussing it with anyone. I had to pry it out of him. But I was struck by what you talked about in your near death experience. Really mirroring so much of what he said. So if we can go back to that you’re in the operating theatre, you are having this major surgery on your back and then what happens? Do you just noticed that you’ve left your body?
Tricia: Yes. I felt as if my eyes were no longer my eyes like I could see behind my head. I could see the ceiling, the floor and I floated and it felt more like this light body that resembles my own body but this consciousness, that continued on and I felt great peace. The angels were about nine foot and they stood at the end of the bed and they were deeply intelligent. Everyone’s angels are a little bit different, mine happens to be these powerfully intelligent beings who had healing abilities and a lot of angels do have that quality of healing. So they were sending information almost like downloads into my spirit form, telling me what was going on and then they very playfully wanted to show that they can work through the surgeons and that idea stayed in my mind. I thought “Isn’t it amazing that angels can work through our center life.” They maybe work through you in your podcast, me on my YouTube channel. You know, all of us talking about the spiritual topics, the angels can connect up to the right person who needs help or is feeling depressed or feeling sad and needs that message. Also they were showing me that as brilliant as the neurosurgeons are, there’s also an added element to this, this kind of magic on the other side. Really, this healing light that they sent in to my body assured me that I would walk, that I would be fine and it was this form of intelligence as well. At some point, the monitor stopped. I knew that I was dead. I left that operating room– we call it operating room in the US. I guess you call it operating theatre or that–
Kate: [laughing] Yeah. I– honestly I live in the USA and like I just have so many issues still seven years later. The people don’t know what I’m saying, so there you go — theatre, Rome, same thing people.
Tricia: [laughing] I know but it causes some problems because my book is Angels in the O. R. and so people overseas or what’s what’s OR?
[Both laughing]
Kate: Oh I do know what an O.R. is Yeah, it’s Angels in the O.R people not in the operating theatre.
Tricia: I need– I need another version for overseas.
Kate: So you hear that your flat-lined, you know– you know that you’re dead. You can see this kind of 360-degree view. So you’re literally looking at your body and you’re looking at the surgeons working on you, right?
Tricia: Right. And when I realized I was dead I thought they’re going to have to revive me. And my back is open and that’s very bloody because it’s a very long incision and my hip was open because they were taking both bone from the hip and putting it in my back so I thought “Oh I am out of here.” And the spirit form can simply fly, you just put your intention where you want to go. So I left to that operating room, saw my stepdad get a candy bar. Never thought that that was an important part of my experience but researchers love that because it was later verified that he did get that candy bar and my mom and dad at that time were certain I had died and so I think there’s a psychic bond between parents and kids. And it’s just evident to me that they truly felt my death in that moment. And then I went over the night sky and I begin to feel that beautiful oneness and I always tell people like all the little petty things that we get mad at one another about they dissolve in death and all we’re left with is love and so you might as well just get back to love and oneness now. You know there’s no reason to hold grudges and hate people like that’s how my soul felt. I was just sending love to anyone and everyone I’ve known and I felt this complete oneness like this is just what our souls come here to do. We come here to learn lessons. Let’s support one another be good in your lives, have fun. And that one this experience was amazing I mean it was just this form of release and forgiveness all its own. Then I felt this intelligence of God coming toward me and I ended up in some sort of cosmos and I had a bit of a life review. The life review is prominent in many near-death experiences and some people when they’re quite a bit older fear that because they think they’re going to be harshly judged. Even when you’re judged you’re held, in my experience, in this loving light and it’s just instruction for your soul on how to do better, how to be better. There’s a quote, a meme that goes around a lot of if you would have known how to do better, you would do better. And that’s the energy of that life review that basically I was shown– how to be less judgmental, how to be more inclusive, how to see into people’s hearts and not judge them based on fashion or style or their education or things like that but to really look at who they were. And it was almost embarrassing to me at 22 to realize how silly I had been in my judgments than who I let into my life and who I didn’t and I came back and I was like “Oh, I’m going to be someone who cares about people. Who is that person who makes gatherings warm and makes people feel respected and loved and seen. And that was my mission in that point. Kate: I mean it just it just hearing you say that, right? Like that understanding of “I want to be the person that makes other people feel warm” I mean that makes me feel emotional just you actually saying that because it is almost that other [meme?] move imagine if we saw each other’s souls rather than in these human forms.
Tricia: Exactly. You know and I’ve been so blessed to have been jumping ahead, you know my mission is to work as a teacher and a professor. And I’ve been so blessed to see that. I don’t see students walking into my class wherein I see souls and my mission is to just help them on their journey and it’s been a shift to try to see all of life that way [laughs] like it’s easy with the students.
Kate: When I you know I pried into my dad’s that near-death experience he talked about he never had a life review. He didn’t go that far away for like a better way to put it. He was outside his body, he was in his hospital room, he went outside of his hospital room I believe. But you’d had angel standing at the foot of your bed with that that bright and powerful light speaking to you. My dad said he saw a bright light that was so warm and loving that all he wanted to do was go towards that. That it was hard for him to put into words what it felt like but it sounds very similar to your experience of this feeling of oneness and love that is it difficult to put that into words? Into human words?
Tricia: It is. You know the next part of my experience was I saw my grandfather who was the only person I knew over there and then I went towards that light of God and that’s– that’s a big part of the near death experience because like your dad, it’s so magnetic, it’s so amazing, it’s so beautiful. I never wanted to come back so I realized that I’d never been fully loved. I didn’t know how to love myself and this light was loving me completely and I felt safe to love God and be loved by God. I felt as if I was finally okay. As if the struggle here just didn’t make sense because I was just a piece of something that was broken and in the presence of God I was whole and wonderful and so that type of love is just– it’s– I call it an atomic bomb of love in comparison to anything we’ve had here, you know. Even great passion feels like just a piece of that love of God. Even family love just feels like a piece and so if you have a particularly difficult life, you’re especially going to be drawn to that light. But even if you’ve had a great life and you love your family, you’re still going to be drawn to that light. It’s either way you’re going to want to stay there and so I totally understand your dad’s experience with that white light and–
Kate: It’s funny you mention that wanting to you know, wanting to stay there and having a good life because my dad actually got very angry at himself in his near death experience because he wanted to go to the light but my mom had three little babies and he was angry at himself that he wanted to go so badly. And that’s when he popped back into his body.
Tricia: Wow. Yes. So Mary Neals, another near death experiencer who had several kids in this great life, she was a doctor and she too just– what she felt as if and if this hurts family members but there’s a sense of eternal time in this timeless in that realm and so you feel like you’re going to see people in the blink of an eye. So if you stay there you think “Oh it’s really not that big of a deal. I’ll see you soon.”
[Kate and Tricia laughs]
Kate: Like “In the blink of an eye we’ll be back together.”
Tricia: Although here on earth people are like “You died and left me.”
[Both laughing]
Kate: Well it’s kind of reassuring to think that all our loved ones who are on the other side, and I know your dad has passed too, that we’ll just see them in a blink of an eye as far as they concern. Tricia: Yeah. They– they really see it as quite soon and then they reminded me to enjoy these moments and to not take it all so seriously which– which really is true. We do take way too much too seriously and in fifty hundred years, does it really matter what matters. And what I’ve learned, those lessons on the other side is that kindness matters, the love that we give to one another, the inspiration and how we remind others to– I mean my particular mission was to work as a teacher and remind the students to turn on their lights. And you can still be agnostic and turn on your light that can be this power that you have because you’re following a life goal and a mission to clean up the ocean, or to you know do something fantastic. You’re just on fire with intelligence and drive and you know, that light can represent many things that can represent purpose and joy and service and– but it’s it’s the opposite of feeling bad about yourself, feeling like there’s no hope feeling like you have no purpose and just not being in that flow of goodness.
Kate: So I want to hear a little bit more about how you got your mission. You were saying how you went towards the slide of [guard?] and then you had this kind of moment of understanding. Can you tell us a little bit more about that?
Tricia: Yes. So when I got closer to that light of God, I gave up the idea of returning here and that just didn’t seem important. And at some point God stopped me and said “Look down”, and there was this beautiful river and there were souls that were walking along the side of the river and some of them were covered in darkness, some of them were covered by their own light and their own light kind of connected to God and they had more power because of that light, more joy. And God said “Oh you’re going to go down there and you’re going to teach and you’re going to remind students to turn on their lights.” And I actually argued with God for a moment.
Kate: [laughing] You’re like “Thank you, no. Thank you.”
Tricia: [laughing] Yeah. I was like “I was born in the 70’s and I am not a traditional woman. I’m not going to be a nurse or a teacher, uh no. I came here to you to have a much more powerful job than teacher. No, thank you. That that grew up poor no no no no no.”
Kate: [laughing] Not interested in this mission, thank you muchly.
Tricia: And I don’t even like public speaking and so that was– my soul was kind of crumpled up. I call it like a softball or something and it curled back into my body. So I kind of imagine God like humorously doing this like “Ha ha ha ha ha. This is the last thing I said to you. You’ll never forget it.”
Kate: Try getting that mission out of your head, right?
Tricia: And I woke up and you know after a couple of days in the ER, I was like “Yep I’m going to be a teacher. You can’t–” and I just knew that if I tried to go against that mission, everything would be a mess of my life. I knew I had to follow it.
Kate: You huddled back into your body and you say in your book, Angels in the O.R., that you almost didn’t want to call yourself Tricia for a couple of days . It felt very strange to be back in human form.
Tricia: Yes, it truly did. The nurses always ask you when you come out of surgery to say your name and I kept referring to myself in third person because I still felt like some part of my consciousness was hovering above me, looking at me, or I felt like my consciousness just filled up the room. I don’t think I was fully back in my body and so they insisted and I remember some sadness around that because I thought “Oh, I feel like I know so much more out there and I feel smarter and more inlined.” It just like my consciousness not shoved in my body was something I liked better than being in my body and my body was pretty broken. There’s a lot of pain. Kate: I can yeah– I can only imagine when I read your book the amount of physical pain that you then had to endure on that road to recovery. Tricia: Yeah and physical pain is something a lot of people contact me about you know, when they they’re in a hospice or very ill and I think we need to teach people how to get out of body in meditation. I think this is really important both for anyone who is afraid of death you know to have an out of body experience can really put you at ease or to be able to lucid dream in and then there’s the sense of “Hey the soul really does travel.” And like this– this body is not not our total experience.
Kate: I’m fascinated. Is this kind of out of body lucid dreaming, do you believe it’s teachable?
Tricia: You know I’ve come across a few people who have taught courses in this. I haven’t taken their courses but I certainly have– I know that does exist, that there are workshops around that. And I know Joe Dispenza talks about it a bit and how challenging it was for him first like it first he got just directly out of his body and hit the glass window, got scared, went back in his body. You know it was this progression of “Oh no the ceiling scares me, okay I’m back in my body” until he was finally able to fly.
Kate: Fascinating. So I guess with you having a near-death experience right, you just sort of my bypass all of that because you were just catapulted out.
Tricia: Yeah and– and then it became easy for me in those times after the near-death especially that first year when I was still in physical pain, it was easy for me to disconnect from the body during meditation. So I think that’s the problem is – or the solution is once you know you can do it, you can you can do it with more ease but a lot of people are afraid of those first seconds outside of their body or they’re afraid they won’t get back to their body or there’s this sense of it probably takes a lot to teach someone but once they get it, it is doable.
Kate: Fascinating. The other part of your story in the near-death experience that I found really striking was around this concept of those angels that was standing in the OR, and obviously that is the name of your book, you said there were these like three light beings and you mentioned in the book that angles is just the best word you would have to describe them.
Tricia: Yeah, it took me a long time to call them angels. I just called them light beings and sometimes people would question me and say “Well how do you know they’re not aliens?” And I would just say “I don’t– I don’t know.” I just know that they were incredibly loving, incredibly powerful, incredibly beautiful, and they were higher being so they had an intelligence that was higher than my own as if they understood this realm. They were there to guide me and it was this powerful experience to see the telepathy, the way they communicate. So they communicate with telepathy, there was light through their eyes and I never forgot that image. It was very striking to me because we’ve heard the term angels but to see them in this way, as strong and powerful healers was fascinating. And then you know people in religious communities sometimes get angry at these stories and they say “How do you know that this wasn’t a trick of your mind blah blah blah.” I was like “Your soul knows. Come on, your soul knows the difference. You know when you encounter something that is so deeply good. You couldn’t possibly be tricked by this.
Kate: And the angels, one of my favorite parts of your story and you skipped over a little bit before, was with the angels worked through the neurosurgeon. But there– it sounds like they were a little bit cheeky Tricia, they were like “Watch this.” Right?
Tricia: Yah, they were. And it was almost as if they wanted me to see. “Yes, the neurosurgeons are brilliant and they have the skills but we’re adding the true magic that is going to help your spine.” And I saw their light touch on all the pieces and fragment– bone fragment that was pressing on my spine and dissolve it to some degree. You know or they just ensure that the surgeons would find it and pick it out of my–my spine because I had lost feeling in my left leg and I remember thinking “Oh God if I can’t run, if I can’t walk, I don’t have a family that you know I can live with and depend on for the rest of you know this this life to that degree. I just don’t see staying here.” You know, that was really my thought and so the angels were just assuring me that I would indeed walk and run and it was due to their help.
Kate: Due to their help. And coming back to this mission of helping others turn their light on and your mission was to help others turn on the lights through being a teacher. I just love that phrase “turn on their light”. Have you always felt like the angels have worked through you or help to do that?
Tricia: Yeah. I think a lot of people in service positions feel this. You can wake up depressed and tired and drink a cup of coffee and then the minute you put your feet in the classroom, you see “Oh God there’s a student who is beaten up last night” or “This student just broke up with someone” and “The student doesn’t understand how to write this paper.” “This student has no self esteem”. And you walk into a classroom full of that and you know you have so many people to help that you forget about yourself and– and you realize that you really do have the tools certainly. You know my life had prepared me in in various ways to deal with kids who suffered abuse or self esteem problems or were bullied and that just gave me this energy to fix it at a sense or to do what I could and in the sense of maybe some people were there for me in my life maybe people didn’t know how to be there for me so I thought “Well, I will be there for the students to the best of my ability.” And yes, do the angels work for people? Definitely in realistic ways and then in energetic ways to– there are times later when I lecture more frequently at the college level and I’ve felt– I’ve been lucky enough to feel some kind of energy come through me and I don’t understand why it took a lesson in a particular direction but I’ve had students come up and hug me after lectures and say “You were speaking directly to me. I don’t understand why you said what you said but it has altered my path.” [Laughing] I’ve gotten some confirmations.
Kate: That’s amazing. So with all of this kind of knowledge that was injected into you in this near death experience, what are some of the big lessons that you feel like you’ve taken from that that have helped to ground you even through hard times since then?
Tricia: Yeah, the healing is always possible and I saw how fast and complete it was in the presence of God so I really have a lot of admiration for all the people who are doing healing work and energetic work and I don’t want people to suffer from various traumas for the rest of their life. I want a combination of modalities to work so healing is always possible and that other side can assist is one thing I believe. But I also know that love is all that we take with us. So the love that we give. People misunderstand this concept and no right near death experiencer should say “Well nobody loves me.” And you know, we right back we’ll go volunteer at a homeless shelter and animal shelter and we’re talking about you giving love we’re not talking about you being popular.
[Both laughs]
Tricia: So love is all that matters, all that we take with us. And go to nature over and over again. The idea of nature being the ceiling force as well or this force that simply writes our minds, just like a hug can help us with endorphins of feeling okay. Standing up against a tree can also help us . It can help us deal with depression better, it can help us come up with more creative ideas. And I think we forget just how powerful nature is.
Kate: Oh my gosh. So powerful just those three points.
Tricia: Yeah. There’s a lot more I guess. You know that calling to God to help us, to give us energy and whether– whether you believe in Jesus or God or you know, an angel, He is going to help you. Just calling on a higher power in that moment to help you gives you energy. And I know that it’s possible to not only change a lot within yourself but to have the energy to do the things that you want to do in this world especially when you add that for the highest good. [laughs] Yeah, like that plays out in different ways and then the ego might like but it certainly does have good effects.
Kate: There, you just reminded me of another thing that struck me as part of your story and that was when you were on the other side that you could feel the prayers of people.
Tricia: Yeah, prayers and energy. So if you– when people say sending love and light or sending prayers, sending energy, it’s true. It is an energy that– that moves like the wind and it is something that is deeply comforting. So does it alter the course of things? Sometimes not but it still is felt and it still is an energy that is important. And so does it alter the course at times? Maybe because someone has enough energy to get through a difficult part in their life instead of giving up. So we literally are helping one another on our past when we send good energy.
Kate: Hmmm. It really struck me and the other thing that I’m just really moved by is what you just said about — it’s the love that you give.
Tricia: Yes that’s– that’s a concept that is sorely misunderstood because there’s so many manifestation courses about bringing you know, love into your life, bringing that great soul mate. And not that that’s not important. It’s beautiful, it’s– you know, the spiritual journey can be heightened by having a partner who helps you in that way. But when we take with us if that doesn’t happen for you, we take the love that we give. So did I love writing this book? Yes, I put love into it. Do I love talking with you now? Do I love working with my students? Like all the things I do I just make sure I love them.
Kate: Oh, I just– yeah, that really just warms me up. Tricia, I ask a few just intermission questions to get to know people a little bit better. You okay if I ask you a few?
Tricia: Oh yeah.
Kate: Do you have a favorite self-care activity?
Tricia: Yes. This is a good one for anyone like you or anyone who speaks publicly or out there, I make sure that I cleanse my energy every morning and every night and so I do a meditation. If I don’t have time for meditation, I just imagine it while I’m in the shower just like the shower washing away all the energetic threads and thought of anyone whose you know, thought or said anything about me and really just kind of stay within my eight foot bubble of light and just to remind myself that I’m here to give that light.
Kate: Oh that’s powerful. I’ve actually done that before. I haven’t done it for a long time, that idea of just having my shower wash away that– the lack of a better word that– the energetic [inaudible] of the day.
Tricia: Yeah.
Kate: Do you have a book that has touched you in your life? Like an important book that landed
Tricia: So many of them and at different times on the journey. There’s a quote I love that readers are leaders and I tried to ignite a fire in my students for reading because if you’re down and you’re thinking is causing some of your depression, you can find a book that alters your thinking and suddenly your world begins to change. So I– you know, I can’t even pick one in particular that standout to me but I know right as well since we’re talking about the near death experience, I was so grateful for the work of Raymond Moody and Dannion Brinkley who talked about near death experiences at that time and so that’s part of why I continue to talk about it because we need other people to relate to us in these experiences. But as an English major, I have loved some of the great stories that talk– that combined philosophy, psychology and I’m kind of fan of the Russian writers believe it or not. You know Tolstoy, Dostoesvky and some of the really great literature because I think it shows how complex humanity is. And you can look at the story of someone’s life but behind what they’re going through, oh there’s a whole drama going on inside them and in their lives.
Kate: Right. And how true was so complex. We are all human. Is there a life lesson that you feel like you have resort with or that it’s taking you a good long while to learn, Tricia?
Tricia: Yeah, there’s a couple of them. And I honestly one of the hardest ones we get a lot of programming in childhood about how life is and one of my life lessons from a parent was life is hard. And so there were some part in my soul that thought “If I didn’t struggle a lot, then people are going to dislike me.” Like if you were a trust fund kid and everything just came to you wonderfully and you never had to struggle then you’re not likable. That was my implant in my head that life is a deep struggle and I thought it’s taken me a long while to go “Hey it’s okay. Not everything has to be a struggle. Something’s can come with greater ease and that doesn’t mean you didn’t earn it through work and that doesn’t mean that you’re not worthy of it.” So I think sometimes when people have hard childhoods, they don’t feel worthy of goodness. So I struggle still with that and kind of open to greater and greater receptiveness to just goodness while I’m here
Kate: I think that’s so true that some of our programming and just how it gets lodged in us, right? And can often be so unconsciously driving our behavior.
Tricia: Yes, yes.
Kate: Oh my gosh. This is an interesting one for you, Tricia. How would you describe the soul?
Tricia: Oh, the soul is the truest part of ourselves and the part that is perfection in the sense that it’s also– it records everything that we do but it’s greater than we are so it’s the part of us that flies free and the part of those that knows its part of God whatever your mind’s belief systems might be. Your soul is the part of you that can fly and it can laugh, that can experience the greatest bliss that you could ever imagine.
Kate: Hmmmn. And then the final question, what does fulfillment mean to you?
Tricia: Oh you know the first thing that came to my mind and so I’ll just say it is doing exactly what you said you set out to do on the soul journey. So no matter how challenging it is, if you keep walking in the direction of your dreams you will accomplish them to some degree, but it may not be the absolute degree that you wanted to but you will get there. And I think your soul is proud of yourself when you don’t give up you know, whatever that might be when you just keep finding a way to express what your soul came here to do.
Kate: When you talk about dreams and following them, would you say that is the path towards our life mission typically?
Tricia: A lot of times and what’s so funny is you know, I’ve seen her dreams change and the dream might be “Yes, I want to write poetry”. But the dream later becomes “Oh, I’ve created a community. It was really an amazing spiritual people who liked poetry.” And now you know, my poetry is out there in there and there poetry’s out there and we all love poetry [laughing] So it becomes a different kind of dream. It’s not just about you know, the ego just sees your book upon the shelf you know “That’s where I belong.” And the life path is “Oh, I’m connected to beautiful writers who share amazing insights and spiritual experiences all over the world and we’re one big community.”
Kate: Oh so kind of like a dream if you follow the dream, the path will kind of evolve on the way.
Tricia: Yes!
Kate: [laughing] I know you mean. Thinking practically Tricia as we start to wrap up, what would you say I’ll listen is can do to connect with that divine energy.
Tricia: It sounds so simple and people say it all the time so I don’t want to just say meditation but I want to say, Hey try pulling in the energy of God to any situation that is troubling you. So saying you just got trigger, you’re just have a moment of feeling anxious in a moment, go walk in nature if the weather’s nice. If you can on that walk, say “God, give me the energy and insight to handle this problem in my life or just take it away.” And I can’t tell you how many times I’ve taken a walk and I don’t even remember what I was trying to work on like. It’s not even that important and it’s just gone.
Kate: So would you say that really that intention that you hold to connect is the greatest part?
Tricia: Yes. That if you just– if you believe 100% that God’s energy, that this unconditional love can heal certain things in you, then if you can open to it– and sometimes I’m not able to fully open and so it’s or it’s going to take longer for it to work itself out. But when I can, it’s amazing — the amount of healing that can come through.
Kate: You also mention meditation, how do you meditate? Do you have a favorite way of connecting in this form?
Tricia: Yeah and that’s why I hesitated to go into it because I’ve seen people get so much benefit from mantra meditations and I like them. I’ve seen people get so much benefit from guided meditations, I like those on occasion. I think I’m like a sampler plate when it comes to meditation [laughing] but I can– I can certainly just do my own form of meditation which is just let go of everything and connect to that light of God which I know a lot of people don’t. They feel like they’re watching their breath or their mind is wandering. And meditation is pretty easy for me, I guess? If that makes sense. So to me, if you can do that, if you can let go of everything and just connect to energy and stay in that beautiful realm and see what happens then do that. If you can’t do that very well then train your mind with mantras and guided meditations until you can.
Kate: I’ve came across a meditation a number of years ago that I found very powerful and it was kind of like a mishmash of the two. So it was about focusing on the breath but my intention was always to breathe in the light. And so I’ve found that useful people just to have that intention of breathing in the lights and being energized by the light.
Tricia: Yes exactly. It’s a good combo.
Kate: Yeah. If you had to leave our listeners with just one thought today Tricia, what would it be?
Tricia: Oh, so the first, extend that love of God to yourself, to every shocker in your body to any pain, to any emotional pain and really just allow that love to work on you. And then do something kind whether it’s sending an email to someone to tell them how much you appreciate them or whatever it is. Just do something that puts you in the flow of adding goodness to this world.
Kate: That was the lovely Tricia Barker who graciously shared her experiences of those near death moments and the lesson she learned which I take as ones of love, unity, kindness – things that I think we can benefit from at the moment. I think there’s so much power in knowing we are supported by angels and that they can work through us, that we can call on that light from the other world to help strengthen and embolden us during tough times. One thing that I know that will stick with me from this episode is that one thought that it is the love that we give that we can take with us. Oh, heartwarming. Filled up my soul just a little bit more listening this again. Now we’re going through some tumultuous times and I hope that we can focus on these ideas of kindness for our fellow people. As per usual it would mean so much to me if Here to Thrive has helped you in some way, if you can take the time to leave a rating and a review. That really helps how the podcast is seen. Also, I was kind of excited around the election. I worked out how to get on to Twitter so if you want to come find me over there, I might actually start using it. What do you call like a twitter handle – it’s not a username. Is it handle? Well, mine is @KateSnowise so that’s me. Go find me there and I’m going to see if I can work out how to use it.
Oh, beautiful people just take care of yourself at the moment. Please take care of one another. Kindness. Caring. It is the love that we give that we will take with us. Keep thriving beautiful people, keep thriving.