Ep 85: Right Livelihood, Magic, and Meaning with Lindsay Pera of the Modern Mystics Institute

I’m honored to share this special episode with a woman who has been an incredible source of wisdom, support, and guidance in my life, a mentor and teacher who has helped me claim the “mystic” in me, Lindsay Pera.

Lindsay and I connected in a magical way at a group dinner in San Francisco about four years ago. Though she was seated at the other end of a long table, she came up to me before the evening ended to say “I have this feeling I’m supposed to talk with you!” We had a delightful conversation and parted ways. But several months later, when my youngest son Jacob received a Lyme disease diagnosis, I searched in one of my Facebook groups for someone who had experience with the disease, and Lindsay’s name popped up again and again.

I reached out to her for guidance and after an almost two-hour phone conversation, I learned about how she discovered she had chronic Lyme disease and had passed it along in utero to two of her children. I hung up with tremendous admiration for her motherhood journey, a plan of action to navigate Jacob’s care, and also knowing that Lindsay would become a trusted resource in my life.

Blending strategy honed from her career as an analyst at Accenture with her intuition as the founder of a new paradigm business called the Modern Mystics Institute, Lindsay is a source of inspiration and guidance for so many others like me. We all benefit from transformational courses she has created like the Journey to Right Livelihood which you’ll hear more about, her books the Mystics Path and the Mystics Almanac, the Mystics Oracle Deck she created with her partner Sarah Love and her membership community, the Mystics Society. 

The idea that we can care for ourselves and the children in our lives, even through significant health and developmental challenges, and do work we love, blending all the parts of who we are, stepping into our leadership and legacy, and finding magic and gratitude along the way, is something Lindsay demonstrates herself. And she illuminates it all for us in this conversation.

From her decision to move her family to a multigenerational homestead and creating the Modern Mystics Institute, to how she’s navigated having chronic Lyme and now long-haul COVID, this discussion is a beautiful weaving of all the ways Lindsay slows down in her life to manifest and notice what she’s grateful for, even when things are difficult. Her gratitude practice, which she started in a “spark moment” when she found beauty in the sunset during one of her darkest days, begins its 11th year of 365 days just as this episode is being shared.

I was so grateful for this time with Lindsay. I hope you’ll find time to slow down and listen to this beautiful conversation, so you can find strands of what Lindsay shares that are meant for you, and that help you weave some new magic and meaning in your E.P.I.C. life.

Connect with Lindsay

• Website
• Instagram
• Facebook

 

This episode is dedicated by:

Hi! I’m Selina Davis, and I am honored to dedicate this episode of the Mother’s Quest podcast to Lindsay Pera, my friendtor. What’s a friendtor? Well, that is a friend and mentor all wrapped up in one. Over the years, Lindsay has helped me learn how to gather all the things I know to create the right livelihood. Lindsay even introduced me to Julie as a Mystic, because of our similar path in disability and special needs parenting.

I am a person of a multifaceted lifestyle, so I’ve learned to create a business with blogging and podcasting, all while creating a special education advocacy practice, life coaching, and management consulting, with an emerging community called Spectrum Mother. Without the help of Julie and Lindsay, I never would have realized how to gather and align my life and my work with being a mother to a special needs child who is severely neurodivergent.

Thanks to them, I am reminded to always live an EPIC life and claim my right to livelihood. Thank you again so much!

--

Selina Davis is the founder of Trillium Consultancy and Spectrum Mother, both of which are emerging communities dedicated to connecting caregivers virtually in respite and retreat offerings, as well as training and supporting parents to become advocates. 

Selina is a cis-gendered woman, a woman of color, mother, social justice advocate, and former social services clerical administrator. She parents a teenage son with profound neurodiversity and who also has an additional diagnosis of intellectual and developmental delay, as well as mental health challenges. Selina has also earned certifications and education-based degrees specific to advocacy.  

 Selina is truly passionate about children, women, and caregivers and believes it’s time to start supporting one another by hosting virtual and in-person retreats. She continues sharing her message through her podcasts, “The Parental Advocate Strategist” and “Strong as a Mother”. She is also running a series called 52 Weeks, 52 Caregivers which aims on showcasing the stories of a caregiver each week. 

You can connect with Selina on Facebook and Twitter. Don’t forget to join her community on Patreon and to sign up for her upcoming virtual retreat by clicking this link, as well as her SPECial EDition Training and Strategies Hub!

Topics Discussed in this Episode:

• The sacred trinity of mothers who raised Lindsay: her biological mother, her stepmother, and the woman who cared for her daily while her mother worked as a trailblazing leader at Hewlett Packard
• The internal voice that said "this is killing you" every time Lindsay walked out the door to her fast-paced management consulting firm 
• The chronic Lyme diagnosis that Lindsay discovered after her third child was born with serious neurological issues.
• A moment of total defeat that transformed into a moment of gratitude and a daily gratitude practice that Lindsay has maintained for over a decade.
• Lindsay's family's journey of healing from COVID and what was different for her this time on the "spiral" or "nautilus" of coping with chronic illness.
• Lindsay's perspective about how to apply ancient learning traditions for modern times without appropriating, capitalizing, and extracting.
• The annual program Journey to Right Livelihood, rooted in the Buddhist tradition, that helps us identify our soul purpose and path, sacred commerce, and our leadership and legacy.
• As we grapple with current crises, like climate change, Lindsay's belief that we all came in for these times.
• The importance of tending to our "taproot" placing ourselves at the "center of our rings” and her "YOU" acronym for building connections.
  
  

Resources and Topics Mentioned:

• The Mystics Path
  
• Journey to Right Livelihood a powerful program that includes live masterclasses, an instructional portal with videos and resources and a private FB community during the 8-week course. This is my affiliate link and if you participate in the program, you will also get a special Mother’s Quest bonus. 

 

This Episode’s Challenge:

Next time you are feeling stressed, overwhelmed, or despondent about what you are facing in our world, slow down to allow yourself to see, feel and experience what you’re grateful for and take the next aligned step from that place.

 

The Mother’s Quest Marketplace

I’m excited to share about a new resource on the website, where I’ve curated a collection of my favorite courses, products, books, and more, all created by Mother’s Quest members or podcast guests. From Lindsay Pera’s Journey to Right Livelihood, which you’ll hear more about in this episode, to my own recently published book the “Mother’s Quest Inspiration Guide,” I hope you’ll find something on the Marketplace page that will light the way on your epic life journey. Visit www.mothersquest.com/marketplace to take a peek!


Journey to Right Livelihood (JTRL)

Led by Lindsay Pera...JTRL is a powerful program that includes live masterclasses, an instructional portal with videos and resources and a private FB community during the 8-week course. As a Mother’s Quest affiliate partner, I’ll be offering a special bonus if you participate in the program. And I’ll be there right alongside you, learning and stepping more fully into my Right Livelihood. Join us if this calls to you!

More about Journey to Right Livelihood

Right Livelihood IS for you

Do you ever tell yourself that you simply can't make money doing what you love?

Do you sometimes feel as though you can have financial success OR you can be happy, but you can't have both?

Do you believe that you must sacrifice one for the other because they are mutually exclusive?

We see it all around us, don't we?

• People staying in careers they hate
• Stuck in chronic patterns of lack and scarcity
• Overworking and overwhelmed as they watch their health and happiness deteriorate
• An overarching outlook in our Western Culture toward the "bottom line" at the expense of people, our planet, relationships and our values

It's time to shift these myths

It is your time to claim...

Purpose, Path, and... Right Livelihood

Calling together a circle of women (and men)

• On the next step of their life evolution (expansion) journey
• Who feel, deeply, that there is more for them in this life
• Who are looking to create a stronger alignment between their work and their inner calling
• Willing to make meaningful changes with meaningful actions
• Seeking a community full of support and powerful guidance

Sign up through the Mother’s Quest Affiliate link here.

Mother’s Quest is a podcast for moms who are ready to live a truly E.P.I.C. life.

Join in for intimate conversations with a diverse group of inspiring mothers as they share how they are living an E.P.I.C. life, Engaging mindfully with their children (E), Passionately and Purposefully making a difference beyond their family (P), Investing in themselves (I), and Connecting to a strong support network (C).

Join our community of mothers to light the way and sustain you on your quest at https://www.facebook.com/groups/mothersquest/