Welcome. This is Ayn Cates Sullivan, one of the SuperPower Up hosts. And you are listening to Wisdom of the Ages. Are you ready to lean back into the wings of wisdom and be carried by a higher source? If so, you will love the show today for we will be exploring the force behind spirited women. But before I introduce my guest, I would like to begin with a wisdom quote from a poem called Ceasaire. And Ceasaire was a spirited woman. And so, I’m thinking of my guest when I read this. It goes like this. “Each morning a flower blossoms just for you. Go outside and see if you can feel its message, walk in nature and learn her language. May you be blessed with ears that hear the colors of the moon, the wind and the stars, for their melody is all around you if you look with the eyes of your heart.”
So that’s from Legends of the Grail: Stories of Celtic Goddesses. And that, Ceasaire was just a wonderful, magnificent character. She’s a true spirited woman. And that just reminds me so much of Nancy. So, I want to introduce this amazing woman. Nancy Mills is an influencer, a builder of community, a world traveler, and an energy artist. Nancy Mills created or started painting at the age of 70, which is quite amazing. She believes that there’s no age limit on it, self-expression. She is the founder of Spirited Woman, a leading women’s empowerment community. Her mission is to help heal and support women through actions of empowerment. She does this by celebrating female visionaries with her spirited woman movement, including placing books on her spirited woman book lists. So, I thought it was, it was interesting to read a little bit from my book that was on this list. So, she’s just been an amazing help. So, Nancy, welcome to Wisdom of the Ages.
Thank you for having me.
Yay. And thank you for all the work you’re doing. It’s just been so helpful to have, you know you’re like one of these people that you know has your back as you’re trying to sail out with a new book, with a new insight, you’re always there it seems, holding us and guiding us.
Thank you.
So, Nancy, you created the Spirited Woman movement 20 years ago.
I did.
I don’t know the whole story around it and what happened and how you did it. Can you tell me more?
Well, the story is really an amazing one, actually. Years ago, over 20 years ago, I had a boyfriend. We broke up and a neighbor heard me crying, this is a true story. And she knocked on my door and she said, “Are you okay?” And I said, “No, I’m really not. You know, I was involved with this guy and we broke up and I’m really not so hot right now.” And she said, “Well, what would make you happy?” And what she didn’t know was that I had been a former travel journalist prior to starting Spirited Woman. And I looked at her with tears streaming down my face and I said, “A trip, a trip would make me happy.” And she said-
Oh.
“Where would you like to go?” And I said, “Montana, I want to go to Montana.” And you have to understand, I knew nobody in Montana. I had never been to Montana. I had never thought of Montana. I have no idea why I told this woman I wanted to go on a trip to Montana. Two days later there’s a knock at the door and my neighbor again, she said, “My mother is leaving next week on a driving trip to Montana ,and one of the people that was going with her dropped out. Would you like to go with my mother to Montana?” Now, being very involved in signs and being very intuitive, I said to myself, somebody up there is talking to me. I am going on this driving trip.
So, I went with total strangers, three other women on a driving trip to Montana. We stayed at this woman’s house and the woman’s house was next to an Indian burial ground. And, I didn’t think much of it until I went for a walk with the woman who owned the house and we go to the end of the property. And I see this rock and it is in the formation of a woman. And I said to the woman whose house I was at and who went on the walk with me, I said, “That rock looks exactly like a woman.” She said, “yeah, we called her spirit woman.”
And I looked at this woman and I said, “That’s what I’m doing for the rest of my life.” She said, “What are you doing?” I said, “I’m going to do spirited woman.” And that’s how it all started. And I share this story upfront because listening to your intuition, following the signs, you know, life is a journey and if things happen to you that are remarkable, you listen to them and you move forward. And that’s what happened to me and that’s how I ended up starting Spirited Woman.
Wow. that’s incredible. What a beautiful story. It’s like we were talking in the beginning about how the wings of wisdom can come and pick you up and carry you and it’s real. It’s not fantasy. It’s that there really is guidance. We really can find our way if we listen.
There really is guidance. I really didn’t know at the time what the form was going to be. I didn’t know, but I knew that this woman, this rock was symbolic of empowerment. I just knew it and I really felt that that was the next step of my journey.
So, and now, thousands of women around the globe have related to this concept of being a spiritual, a spirited woman. Yeah. So how do you define it? How do you define what a spirited woman is?
Well, I think every woman is a spirited woman. I think every person is spirited. You know, I think each one of us has this unstoppable force that lives within. Call it what you like, call it your spirit, call it your soul, call it an unstoppable force. We all have that within us and it’s free. That’s one of the things that I always like to remind people of, you have this essence, this within you.
And when you… you don’t tap into it all the time, I mean it would it, most people do not tap into it all the time, but when you do tap into it, you know that you are moving forward in a way that is natural and natural for you. And, I think that the definition of a spirited woman is somebody who really taps into that force more so than most and listens to it and moves forward. You know, there’s this unstoppability to it.
No, I completely agree. It’s rather than like my Sparkle series about Sparkle who will never ever give up her inner light. And she grows up and she becomes a spiritual woman with her soul, her essence, her sparkle and tap. So, I’ve really loved following what you’re doing and the prayer scarves and all the different things that are going on.
But before we talk about that, can you give me your website?
My website is thespiritedwoman.com.
Right. Okay. Excellent. So, they can find you there. They can find out all sorts of things. All the listeners can find out about what’s happening there. So, we’re going to prepare for a break right now. You’re listening to Wisdom of the Ages podcast on the SuperPower Up Network. You can find out more about the show on Wisdom of the Ages.. So, when we come back from this short break, we’re going to talk more about what it means to be a spirited woman. Stay tuned. We’ll be right back.
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