Connecting with nature in a deep and meaningful way has been a true desire of Jillian Rutledge since she was a child. She believed she could “talk” with the animals. As she grew up, this desire matured into discovering ways to foster interspecies relationships, as she trusts this is one of the ways in which humans and the planet can flourish together. This led her to evolve as a Veterinary Technologist, Animal Behaviorist, Energy Worker, Yoga Practitioner, Life Coach, Underwater Photographer and Freediving Instructor with a focus on the connection between people and animals.
I have a woman on the phone with me. She’s fascinating. I have a pretty cool backstory but she absolutely trumps me on the backstory. She’s the dolphin whisperer, animal psyching, whatever. We could label her all day long. Ultimately, she is at one with the ocean, the life, like dolphins, whales. You just feel it from her. She’s connected in a way that I’m a little jealous of. Instead of being jealous, I’m just going to stick close by her and by osmosis, get that coolness off of her. What she’s gleaned from them and talked with them and gotten from them, you know. You know as soon as she starts talking about it, just the value and what they’ve entrusted her with is really how I view it. Of course, she’s got other cool science-y stuff, biomimetics, which I can’t even say, let alone understand what it is. She leads free diving and has a great perspective on how that over lays, what we can learn from that in our own existence, even out of the water. Please join me in welcoming Jillian Rutledge to the show. Hi, Jillian.
Hello, Tonya. Thank you so much. I’m really looking forward to connecting with you and sharing more.
I’ve been looking forward to this interview for a while now, ever since you and I first connected. Shout out to Allison Donaghy who connected us, who’s also just this amazing person. Of course, I meet all the coolest people. Talk to us a little bit about your superpowers.
Communing With The Ocean; basically matching with them, matching their vibration.
You really actually relayed it in a nice, concise, simple way. That really is about connecting with your environment, really deeply being in harmony with your environment. I’ve done that through mimicking dolphins. The word is communing; basically matching with them, matching their vibration. They’re deep divers, not just physically deep divers. They dive deep within themselves. They have a conscious breath, meaning they have to think about their breathing. They are energetic vibrational communicators. They’re multidimensional and they totally transcend duality. There’s so much more that’s hard to give language to. This all really is what has them live in a very high vibration, in abundance, freely in joy and powerfully within their own body. This is something if we, as humans, are interested in mimicking. The overall thing that happens is we just feel great. When we feel great, we do great.
I see you as really this embodiment of those concepts. You are those concepts. You are that marine life, that communing. If you can envision this profile of a person, like a silhouette of a person, but there are ocean waves instead of detail. It’s just this drifting in you that I love. I totally selfishly just want to stay close by you. I want that. I want that connectivity. I see the power in it. I just plan to ride those waves that you’re creating.
For me to watch people be in that space with themselves. It doesn’t have to be in the ocean. It doesn’t have to be with the dolphins. It’s within themselves, within our lives, there’s so much pleasure and joy for me to see people in that space for themselves.
I don’t know if you all can feel this. I literally feel those waves. I feel them coming off of you. There’s this energy that pervades everything around you. It’s just got its own rhythm. It’s a really, deeply connected, free-flowing, but solid. It’s not crashing and sliding, like I’m adrift and I can’t find footing. It’s just solid. It’s confident. It’s everything that you described the dolphins as being inside of themselves. I’d imagine it’s even more densely available in the whales because of the size. It’s fluidly solid or solidly fluid. I don’t even know which one this would be. There’s such strength and power in it. It just comes off of you.
It’s amazing, the words that you’re choosing. Obviously, you are tapped in because you’re really describing a freedive, what it means to dive while breath-holding. That’s the metaphor for what it is I do, although, I am an actual freediver. When other people freedive, they may not exactly describe it the way that I do because we all have our unique experience. The gist of it is diving deep within. That requires an intense focus, and yet a very, very high level of relaxation. That really does give us access to ourselves, into the deeper layers of ourselves, the subconscious mind, which then gives us more access to life. That experience is really what a freedive is, whether it’s a freedive in the ocean or a freedive into ourselves.
It’s so powerful. What’s interesting is free diving in it of itself is a pretty cool superpower. Let’s just take a moment to honor that. That’s pushing the bounds of what most people feel is possible. That’s extreme living. You can do that. We just slid over that piece. She’s a freediver and she talks to dolphins. It’s so funny. The theme of the most recent interviews has been around this concept that you have this one layer of things, which is a skill set or an aptitude or something. There are lots of freedivers. It’s a superpower for sure. In that world, it’s common place. Amongst the people who do free diving, it’s common place. At the same time, people have that and then look at what you’ve done with it to add to. Why are you fascinated by that? Why would you do that? The argument I get all the time about the superpower is like, “You’re calling some usual things superpowers.” I’m like, “It’s all in how people are using them though. It’s all in how they’re putting them altogether that makes them unique.”
Your unique superpower, being that ability to commune and be entrusted in this information from dolphins and the whales, how did you get to that place? You got it through these predetermined superpowers that you had. You were designed to freedive. That’s what you designed yourself as. You have the courage to say, “Why? What’s next?” You could have just stayed a freediver but you didn’t. You said, “Okay.” Why? What’s beyond this? I’m just going to overlay you with all kinds of stories and pre-suppositions, but it’s like what that experience must have been like for you. Why don’t you tell us?
Communing With The Ocean: I first started communing with dolphins without necessarily knowing I was free diving.
Interestingly, I did it the other way. I first really communed with dolphins without necessarily knowing I was free diving. In fact, I broke some rules in the free diving world in the beginning because I had no idea what free diving even was. I was responsible for looking after some dolphins in human care for about twelve years. I know that’s a controversial topic. If we can just put that on a side track for a second and stay focused here on the animals themselves, they are profound beings wherever they live. That is where I really became in tune to vibration, to life, my life, their life, the big life. I had to have courage. I had to have courage to give them the best life that I possibly could. Inside of that aim or that goal, I really had to step it up as a human being for myself.
Part of that was really learning about them. That involved going beyond the science that we generally know of, certainly in the ‘90s and early 2000s. I saw them echo-locating, which is using their sonar. I saw them energetically communicating. I had no access to what that was at the time. This is in a land-locked area in Canada. I just started to explore. I started with chiropractics and chiropractors that were working with animals and using me as a surrogate and feeling that experience.
As a kid, I did communicate with animals. I didn’t know what I was doing. I thought everybody could do it. As I got older, I didn’t realize that there was a difference there between me and others. I thought everybody could do this. I just carried on with that. I ventured into Reiki and other energy work, with the idea that I want to understand what these animals are doing. What are they communicating with each other? It opened me up to being able to communicate with them and understand them, and really be able to listen. That translated to listening to myself.
Part of becoming dolphin or communing with dolphins is copying them, mimicking them, and that’s where this biomimetics comes in; imitating models and systems and elements of nature that has the purpose of solving our complex problems. Because dolphins are hugely intelligent, perhaps even more conscious than we are, they can be really good models for us. Through that process, I started to model their behavior because I didn’t really know what else to do. I modeled their breathing, which is a huge part of what I do and what I work with. I modeled their diving. That’s where free diving came in. I wanted to learn how to be under the ocean. What does it take to be there? What does it take to be in that pressure, holding my breath and in that state? If they’re in that state, maybe if I’m in that state as well I’ll be able to mimic them even that much more accurately.
You had shared with me before who you started coaching using these techniques. It’s such a fun story. Tell our listeners about that.
Communing With The Ocean: Life takes us on a journey. If we’re listening, you’d go with the flow.
Life takes us on a journey. If we’re listening, you’d go with the flow. You’d go where the energy is going. This led me to working with race car drivers, which is all my friends and family shook their heads and said, “What? This holistic ocean diving mermaid, she’s working with who? Race car drivers?” Really, what it’s done and why it even occurred was because upon talking to a race car driver, I heard the same skills, the same amazing superpowers actually, that were coming through that I recognized as a freediver that they possessed as a race car driver. High levels of awareness, being almost able to predict or even able to predict the future, moving at high, high speed accurately.
These things were really intriguing to me. When I started to work with some of the drivers, I realized there was a need for them to even own their skills further, that they could, that there was room to grow. Of course, they have a big goal. That is to drive well and eventually to win. They’re very motivated. That’s exciting to me because they’re so motivated. They’re so motivated to do whatever it takes to have that edge. Of course, that can come maybe from the old paradigm of competition. But through the work that we do, they realize that’s actually not a very potent form of energy, to be driven by competition. They tap into things that are much more of value, much more efficient, and much more powerful for themselves.
I love that you say that competition just isn’t that powerful. It seems like it would be. That’s what it looks like on the outside, but it’s not. When you first told me about it, it makes perfect sense that race car drivers, extreme athletes, those types of folks, would absolutely entertain something like, “I learned breathing from dolphins.” Because it’s the people who are willing to push the extremes of physicality who get that. It’s not enough just to want to be a race car driver. You’ve got to get over the initial “This is what I’m going to do.” Then it’s the journey that opened you up to. As you get better, and better, and better, there are going to be more and more layers of what’s next, what’s next, what’s next. It makes perfect sense to me that extreme athletes or anybody really who is in those daredevil “take your life in your own hands” kind of arenas will welcome anything that allows them to connect ever deeper into themselves.
You said it there. These extreme sports, if you want to lump it all into that category, what these people are doing, what I’m doing when I’m free diving is seeing our limits. Maybe it’s not even our limits. It’s, what’s possible? It’s not because we’re crazy and we have a death wish, it’s that we know that humans have this immense potential. The rat race, the 9 to 5 person, not that that’s a bad thing for everybody, the mundane life isn’t everything. I’m not saying everybody needs to be an extreme athlete at all. The drive to just tap into our power, to tap into that latent power, ability, skill, feeling, sense, whatever that is for each individual person, if we all had a taste of that, I think everybody would be interested in that.
I agree. That’s extreme in it of itself, which is just the willingness to push things. I remind our group, Super Power Experts, all the time. Make no mistake about it, not everyone is having these conversations. That’s still not normal. That’s why I said earlier, amongst freedivers, free diving is normal. It’s not. Sometimes it’s a challenge. I remember after the whole army experience, because I went in my army career, if you could call that, was very non-traditional. I was 27 with a master’s degree when I enlisted. I remember people saying, “How did you get through basic training?” I’m like, “I don’t know. Everyone around you is doing it.” You never stop and say, “I’m doing this thing.” You just do it. You get swept up in it.
I think that’s how a lot of people survive these amazing experiences or even really rise to pushing the bounds of what’s physically possible, because you have to surround yourself with people doing it. It normalizes the process for people and that’s a big part of Super Power Experts, is we’re normalizing the dialogue that we can do more and we can be more. The more we say it, the more it’s true. That’s how convergence happens around these rebellious, divergent ideas is enough people just have to talk about it. It’s really formulaic when you look at it.
I love that there’s this matter-of-factness to you, plus you embody the confidence that we talked about. Just the solidity of being able to say, “This is real.” I’d imagine it wasn’t always that way. There was some kind of “What is this?” You have your own freak-out moments, but you wear it so well now. From my own experience with you, it allows me to relax into your brilliance and your genius. I just get to be in it and I get to absorb it and glean from it, and utilize it, because you did all of that, and so I, for one, thank you.
Communing With The Ocean: What I really think is key for people is the word experience; to experience it.
Tonya, what I really think is key for people is the word experience; to experience it. We have access to information online, endless access. That’s just a piece of the puzzle. What really allows me to be in my power about it is because I experienced it, because I had my own experience, my own unique experience. I just read something. Of course, this isn’t new. But it just reminded me that I am as unique as my fingerprints. Therefore, my place on this planet is as unique as my fingerprints. If you just sit there and look at your fingerprints, “There’s a little journey going on my fingerprints.” That’s how unique I am. My experience in life is unique and I need to treat it that way. I need to foster it that way, cultivate it that way. That means tuning into myself. That means, gathering information on the internet, gathering information in my communities, learning from others, but then tuning into myself with that, because I am my greatest teacher, I am my guru. All of those types of things.
Where I work with people, where I feel it makes a difference is because of taking them into the ocean, taking them to freedive. That’s the extreme level of the work that I do, where I actually have them do a dive where they experience themselves, because they have to. If you’re not tuned into yourself while under water holding your breath, you’re not going to go very far. It’s going to be super uncomfortable. When you’re tuned in, when you’ve done the work to be able to hold your breath, you tap into that potential power, whatever that is that’s unique to you.
It’s such a great analogy for everything. I’ve shared before on the show and I’ll share it again. Part of my journey included a particular period of my life where every day, every morning, I woke up and ask myself if I wanted to stay. It wasn’t a morbid, suicidal thing. It was a legitimate, very intentional process I put myself through to remind myself that this is not an obligatory existence. We can leave. We have all kinds of mechanisms to be able to leave. Every morning, I would look around and be like, “I’ll stay today. That’s cool.” Then the follow-up to that was, then play. If you’re going to stay, if you’re going to play the game, then make sure that you’re doing it.
You just got to talking about create the story. What do you want the day to look like? Not in the controlling, like all the how’s and details, but who are you going to show up as today? It’s easy to get out there, “I didn’t sleep well. I don’t want to get up. I don’t want to do this. I don’t want to do that.” It shifts everything, depending on how you approach things, to write that story and allow yourself to be that uniqueness. We’re big on our rebels and everything.
Anybody who’s willingly challenging themselves to be courageous and to show it differently, to be unique and all of that good stuff, the world is starving for those players. Not the single guru type, but really the ones who are willing to say, “I’m pretty freaking cool. You’re pretty freaking cool. Let’s be cool together.” Not in a clique-y way but in an inclusionary way. Everybody has the capacity to be cool. That was a big issue for me when starting Super Power Experts. How do we do something that gives people information and helps them with processes and identify steps and everything else, but doesn’t create Stepford Wives? I don’t need a lot of little Tonya-ites running around. That’s not what we need. How do we continue to help people flesh out their own uniqueness and their own brilliance and give them support and some structure and some guidance and assist them. It’s a constant balancing act.
It’s super easy to say, “Just do it like I did. Become me and that’s easy,” which nobody can become that. I think it’s a cop out. Can you get into someone’s space with them? Again, the analogy of what you do is, who do you become in the ocean? That brings out all of that stuff in you that you have to take a look at. Like you said, you’re going to be incredibly uncomfortable. I just got this analogy. You throw in everybody into this pot and turning up the heat, because the pressure you talked about, it is like a pressure cooker. You’re cooking people. Come on. Let’s get all that stuff out of you. It’s really a phenomenal packaging that you’ve put together.
I think the thing is that the analogies are pretty accurate. There is a lot of pressure in life right now, whether we want to call it evolutionary pressure, ascension pressure, whatever you’re tapped into about that, there is pressure. There’s time pressure, business pressure, all of this pressure. What happens when we’re under that pressure? How do we act? Who are we when we’re under that pressure? When we can go and practice who we want to be, who we say we are in a pressure place and it’s fun, then that’s a really wonderful way to grow. You’re having fun. You’re releasing stress. You’re letting go of your lack and limitation all while having fun. Whether it’s actually doing freedivings, swimming with dolphins or whatever it is that we’re out there doing that’s fun.
It’s easy to put on a good face when you’re feeling confident in the world and you’ve got everything under control. But it really comes forward when you don’t, when you’re in an uncomfortable situation. I think any time we can put ourselves in those circumstances, I can tell that’s a big part of the reason why I went to the army. I don’t know why that space and time keeps coming up in this conversation. It was extremely uncomfortable. It wasn’t normal or natural. I tell people that about superpowers. It wasn’t natural. I didn’t wake up going, “Let’s just tell everybody superpowers are real. Let’s do that. That’s a really smart idea.” I had to work into them and be like, “I think there might be something to this.” I had to make sure it was grounded and well-founded and that there was a process, “What are the ramifications? Is this something I really want to be doing? Is this even good for the world? What are the conflicts going to be with this?” I think that there’s so much value in facing yourself in those moments. I know so many people are going to want to know more about you. Where can we send them?
You can come find me at my website, www.JillianRutledge.com. That’s the same on Facebook. That’s my hub for all things going on for me professionally, but also personally, a little bit of personal too because it all crosses over.
You have a retreat coming up, right?
Communing With The Ocean: The orcas in the Pacific Northwest are an endangered species. That means they’re in trouble.
This is really amazing and really, really timely. It’s going to be on September 29th to October 3rd. It’s about orcas. The orca is an apex animal. Traditionally, scientifically that means they sit at the top of the food chain. To sit at the top of the food chain, it means a lot of things. The orcas in the Pacific Northwest are an endangered species. That means they’re in trouble. Their populations are declining. It’s all human activity. We’re really calling upon a group of people to come together to collaborate. You said earlier, synergistic collaboration. This is with the orca. It’s not only to learn from them and to offer them our assistance, it’s to collaborate and create something new. How are we going to exist together in this area of the world, and be apex animals together? Because humans are the apex of the land. This, again, is on September 29th to October 3rd this year. It’s in the San Juan Islands in Washington.
Is there information in your site about that?
There’s a link on my site to my co-facilitator, Anne Gordon de Barrigon. She is from Panama. She does whale watching in Panama. She is an amazing woman. Her and I are collaborating together to create this retreat. My website will link to hers, where all of the information is laid out.
Give us that website one more time.
It’s JillianRutledge.com.
Thank you so much for coming in. I see really great things in the synergy between us moving forward. This is not the last you’ve heard of this woman, folks. Let me just assure you of that. Go check her out. Thanks so much for being you and for doing what you do in the world. I really appreciate it.
Thank you, Tonya. Same to you.
To all of you out there, we appreciate you too. Thank you for your loyalty. Until next time, go out, uncover your superpowers and change the world. Take care, everyone.
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