Shownotes
Every long life eventually arrives at a quiet question, underneath everything I have done, who have I actually become? This is for the person who has been busy proving and performing, and is finally ready to slow down and remember.
teZa Lord offers a gentle, reflective conversation about the essence that has been with you all along, and simple ways to return to it on an ordinary, noisy day.
About the Guest:
teZa Lord is an author, artist, and lifelong yogi and meditator. Her nonfiction books include one drawn from teaching yoga to incarcerated teen girls, and her work explores oneness, consciousness, and the inner life.
Key Takeaways:
- The essence you are seeking is not new, it has been there since childhood, waiting for you to slow down.
- The breath is a bridge between the human and the eternal, even a few conscious breaths can shift your state.
- Soulful living comes down to choice, how you begin your morning quietly sets the tone for the day.
- On the loud days, return to something simple, a walk in nature, your breath, food made with intention.
- What annoys you in others often mirrors something in you worth reflecting on.
Connect With the Guest:
- Website: https://tezalord.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tezalord
- Podcast: the ZLord Podcast
Episode Chapters:
[00:00] The Question Underneath a Long Life: who have you actually become
[03:30] The Child Still Within: the curiosity and joy that never left (approx.)
[09:00] The Only Season That Matters: living in the present moment (approx.)
[14:00] Remembering What You Always Knew: soul, memory, and connection (approx.)
[19:00] The Breath as a Bridge: a simple practice anyone can try (approx.)
[24:00] Soulful Living on a Busy Tuesday: choice, nature, and food with intention (approx.)
[28:00] What to Carry, What to Put Down: releasing fear, following your bliss (approx.)
🎙️ Want to Be a Guest on Healthy Mind, Healthy Life?
Send me a direct message on PodMatch.
👉 DM Me Here: https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/avik
🌱 About Healthy Mind By Avik™️
Healthy Mind By Avik™️ Global Mental Wellness Podcast Network - focused, credible, no more identity clutter.
👉 Subscribe and be part of this healing journey.
Refer a Guest
Know someone who would be a great fit for one of our podcast shows? Email us at [email protected] with the subject line “Refer a Guest.” Requests without this subject line cannot be catered to.
Support Our Podcast: Support this Podcast
📬 Contact & Links
Brand: Healthy Mind By Avik™️
Based in: India & USA
📌 Disclaimer - This episode is produced for educational and informational purposes only. All views expressed by the guest are their personal opinions alone and do not represent the views of the host or Healthy Mind by Avik™. The Network does not verify, endorse, or assume responsibility for any guest statements. Nothing in this episode constitutes medical, legal, financial, or professional advice, please consult a qualified professional before making any decisions. Listeners are encouraged to engage critically and independently with all content do not consume blindly. Use this content as a starting point for your own reflection and research, not as a substitute for professional guidance. Third-party content is referenced under fair use for informational purposes only. Guest speakers are solely responsible for their own statements.
If you have concerns about any content, please contact us here
By listening, you acknowledge and accept this disclaimer in full. Read detailed disclaimer here.
#podmatch #healthymindbyavik #podhub.club #thesoulmirrorpodcast #soulfulliving #spiritualawakening #innerwisdom #presentmoment #mindfulness #consciousness #breathwork #selfreflection #oneness #wellbeing #followyourbliss
Transcripts
00:00:08 Shreya: Every life eventually arrives at a quiet question. Underneath everything I have done. Who have I actually become? Underneath the work, the relationships, the seasons, the losses, the loves. What is the essence that has been carrying me the whole day? Most people never ask this question out loud. They keep moving. They keep performing. They keep moving. Until one day the noise wipes and the question arrives anyway, asking patiently to be heard. And today's conversation is for the person finally willing to sit with it.
00:00:47 Shreya: Welcome back to the podcast. I'm your host, Shreya, and this is the show where we move past the surface and into the deeper layers of who we actually are the roles, the seasons, the identities we have outgrown, and the essence we keep returning to. Today's conversation is going to invite you to pause, reflect, and remember. Joining me today is Tessa Lord, a voice up for soulful living, spiritual remembering, and the quiet wisdom that comes from a well-lived inner life. So welcome. I'm really honored to have you here on my show.
00:01:27 teZa Lord: Welcome, everybody. And I welcome you to Shreya and everybody who's listening.
00:01:33 Shreya: Thank you so much for joining us. Just before we begin, a quick disclaimer for my listeners.
00:02:17 Shreya: And with that, I want to ease us in gently. Like, can you tell me a normal day in your life right now? Uh, like, what is one small ritual that quietly reminds you of the essence underneath everything you have done?
00:02:33 teZa Lord: Okay, before I even get out of bed in the morning, I always make an attunement, an alignment, a dedication of giving my energy, my life, my breath, my efforts, my journey, my meals, my love, my everything, my mistakes, even to the bigger power of the universe. And I do this with visions. I do a like an a, an attunement by pretending that there are fibers coming out of my feet. Even if I'm in bed, I pretend there's fibers connecting me to the earth. So I'm human. And yet there's, there's invisible fibers reaching out from my head. The top of my spine, reaching out beyond where I am. Beyond the earth to connect so I do. An environment of an attunement. And I do many other rituals during the day.
00:03:38 Shreya: really beautiful, and thank you for sharing this. And I want to start gently here, because the right starting place for a conversation like this is the part of you that has been constant across all the seasons. So can you take us back or walk us into the early version of yourself and tell us what part of you were then is still here, like quietly intact, underneath everything that has changed since then?
00:04:08 teZa Lord: Well, the curiosity of a child is something I nurture, and the joy of a child is something I choose to greet every day, every problem, every challenge, every every news blast. Instead of succumbing to depression or anxiety like a lot of people choose to do. And I think it's very important to remember that every newborn human is filled with bliss, filled with joy. Just look at the child of a newborn, and I want to keep that. I want to keep the joy. I want to keep the the openness and the newness. And I want to learn something every moment of my life.
00:04:53 Shreya: And and the version of yourself you could not yet name that essence. What is the most tender thing you would say to her?
00:05:04 teZa Lord: Now that we are all connected, we are all one. We are all the same in consciousness. And that consciousness is love. And this pure consciousness is within all of us. That's why we meditate. That's why we get quiet. That's why we go to nature. Because that is our true essence. And we are eternal souls. So if we can't accomplish what we want to do in this lifetime, just be patient.
00:05:40 Shreya: I think that really lands because there is something so honest in what you just shared about the essence being there long before you had language for it. Like we tend to imagine our truest self is something we have to find, but often it has been here the whole time, simply waiting for us to slow down enough to recognize it. And, uh, there is a quiet version of this conversation that needs naming. Like every long life, uh, life has gone through seasons that took something and gave something back. Uh, the loss that opened something, the love, uh, that rewrote you. The chapter was that closed a door so another could open. So I want to slow this down. Like can you tell us about a season in your life that took the most and gave the most, and what it taught you about what is actually permanent in you?
00:06:37 teZa Lord: This present moment is the season that I cherish the most, and every single second is a new present moment. And that is a new season. But I actually am in a new season of life too. And I am a podcaster. And I just started a new season on Z Lord podcasts because, um, where I'm at in my life, it's really a declaration of things are different now. And, um, and so even though metaphysically, I believe every moment is the most precious rather than reflecting on the past or when did I become who I am? Or like, oh, what did your daddy do to me? Blah blah blah. I think the present moment is the most terrific. The diamond shining bright tiara at the top of our lives. And then in one moment hence, from here, that'll be the next new, wonderful moment.
00:07:41 Shreya: And the moment you realize that, like what could not be taken from you. What did that realization give you back?
00:07:50 teZa Lord: Well, I think that Cumulatively, we are living our dharma, our dream, our wishes, our lives right now, right here, and everything we did in the past is with us here in the present and everything that has happened to us. Every choice we've made is right here with us this moment. That's what makes us unique in this huge, vast multiverse of interconnected souls that are all one part of the oneness of consciousness. So we don't lose anything. There is. That's an anomaly. There is nothing lost. There's always more and more and more into infinity. Just what's. What's to lose? There's nothing to lose.
00:08:43 Shreya: Yeah. Uh, I think I think there is something in what you just said. I want to hold for a second. Like the seasons rearrange so much of us. But underneath the rearranging there is something that does not move. Something that, uh, does not touch. Something that even the time does not erode. Uh, and let's slow this down even further. Uh, so much of soulful living is not actually learning anything new. It is remembering something we always knew before the world taught us to forget. So can you tell me about your own remembering and what was like? What has spiritual remembering looked like in your life? And what is one piece of wisdom that came back to you that you did not know you had been carrying? MM.
00:09:33 teZa Lord: Well, as a child, I remember having what we call deja vu. I remember this place. I remember that person. I remember this energy. And as I grew more aware of, of, um, awareness, I realized that that was my soul speaking to me. That yes, I have been here before and yes, we all keep meeting each other. And yes, we're all doing this work together and sometimes even in a family unit that we keep regenerating our energies as what was once our mother is now our sister, or now our friend or our dog. I don't know, you know, we're just so interconnected. It's very, very beautiful and very complicated. And as an artist, I love to make art about these concepts rather than speak them. Because when you use words to describe something that's indescribable, ineffable, I mean, we get into muddy waters. So as a visual person, I prefer to explore these concepts with visuals and images. And I am both a writer and an artist, so they work together for me because words are very tricky. Words are fickle. People take them the wrong way. They like God, for instance, the word God. A lot of people just freak out when they heard the word God. So a lot of spiritual teachers and I am not a teacher. I'm just a spiritual being who shares with my creativity a lot of people in the mindfulness and consciousness movement of the revolution of, of, of uplifting our consciousness. They don't use the word God so much because it's, it's a word and it backwards. It spells dog. So what does that mean? It's a word. It's got letters, but words have energy. That's. And so certain people, it's a negative energy. So these questions that you're asking are very interesting. But as an artist I prefer to deal with these concepts that you're talking about visually.
00:11:52 Shreya: And like, what is the practice that most consistently helps you remember when you have forgotten all this?
00:12:02 teZa Lord: Well, breath. Without our breath, we're we're not here. So my breath, I'm. I'm always tuning into my breath. Not your breath. Not bad breath, not good breath, but my breath, which is to me, the bridge between my humanness and my eternalness, my spiritual soul. So people who are just learning about that, um, it's very wonderful to, to explore the breath because I used to go into prisons and teach young girls who were criminals how to breathe. And as soon as they took their first deep breath, they would go, wow, what was that? And they started seeing lights in their brain. I said, that's oxygen. A lot of people don't know how to breathe there. They're so uptight and they're always like hyperventilating. And when you tape these, take these deep, deep breaths and really visualize that this is the energy of the universe, the oneness consciousness that is making us different from being a dead corpse. That breath of life is magic. So yes, it's the breath. And anyone who has never had any kind of breath awareness, I urge you to explore it. There's many people who teach how to take deep breaths, how to concentrate on what the breath is doing. And of course, we do it automatically. It's one of those functions of our bodies that's called autonomic, where we can either just do it without even thinking, or we can turn our brains into a watchful participant and become one with that process. So it's just like blinking your eyes. You can either just not ever notice that you're blinking or you can blink, blink, blink, blink, blink. According to your will.
00:14:04 Shreya: That's really interesting because you shared something really simple that anybody can do. Like it's not a five step or ritual or routine that people need to, uh, take time from, from their regular work or like three to five days later, they just, uh, skip all this because they don't have much time. So thank you for sharing such simple and such doable, uh, practice. And I want to get practical here because I know there is many listeners right now who feels the truth of what you were saying, but is in a noisy life and does not yet know how to actually live it. So can you walk us into the practice. Like, what does soulful living actually look like on a Tuesday morning in the middle of a busy life, in a way that someone listening could actually try this week?
00:14:58 teZa Lord: Okay, yes. So everything about our lives is about choice. It comes down to what do we choose? Do we choose to wake up and watch the news or check our emails? Or do we choose to make a little bit of a ritual about wakening up to the world and maybe not doing what I do, because that's my own special thing, but just doing something, something to align yourself with the higher choices in life. And even if you're in prison or if you're in a bad situation or if you're being oppressed, you can still do that in the sanctity of your own mind because as you think that is how you are. And so if you're thinking that you are a higher being with a soul than you are. And if you believe. Oh, that's nonsense. Well, guess what? You're going to have that kind of life. You're going to have a very unfulfilling, kind of dull life. And as you believe, that is the way your life unfolds.
00:16:03 Shreya: And on the days when the noise wins and the soul gets crowded out, uh, what do you do instead?
00:16:12 teZa Lord: Well, nature is very healing. A walk in nature is always a great relief. Rather than taking an aspirin or some kind of pill or some drink, I mean, I, I am a recovering person. I don't use substances. A lot of people are using medication these days. But you don't have to. You can learn to breathe. You can learn to even just go into two breaths, three breaths, and your consciousness changes. And also food is very important. Like, I just made a wonderful dish. It's morning time here where I'm speaking and I'm going to a potluck dinner tonight with my friends. I wouldn't have time at the end of the day. So I started my day by making this really healthy, wonderful dish that I invent. I always invent my food and and prepared it with love and prepared it with intention. And, and it's a wonderful thing to do that. I don't own a microwave. I don't do fast food unless I really, really have to. I do slow food. I like to think that preparing food and eating food and sharing food and blessing the food is, is so important because nutrition, when we put it into our bodies, we respond either in a good way or in an adverse way. And I also am a lifelong yogini. I've been, uh. I was blessed to have the necessity of doing yoga because I had scoliosis. I still do have scoliosis. And as long as I do a yogic practice as much as possible, I am okay. But if I don't, I am severely in pain. So having a lifelong yoga practice, I must say, as I'm approaching, oh, you know what they call the Golden Age? I'm in really great shape compared to people who do not have a yoga practice. And yoga is so benign that you can do it and still have strength, still have stamina, but you don't get injured. Uh, if you do it gently, you can get injured if you do it forcefully. So you always want to do it with patience and compassion for your own body. And for me, the body is the temple of our soul. So we are obliged to keep our temple clean and healthy and strong as much as we can, because then our soul can shine. And if we have problems like a disease or a bad relationship, it's our choice to do something about it so that our soul shines and has the light as high and as bright as it can. It's up to us how we how we nurture our soul.
00:19:09 Shreya: Yeah, I love that, that you made this so practical because so much of soulful conversations stays abstract and leaves people more lost. Like what you just described is something a person can actually hold in their hand tomorrow morning. And the part about the days when the noise wins, that is the part that builds real trust because no one lives soulfully every day and are a long. Life teaches you what to carry forward and what to put down. So can you tell me what you carry forward now, after everything you have lived and what you have finally put down, the pieces you no longer need to hold?
00:19:52 teZa Lord: Well, it's very important to put down any kind of fear. Once you identify that you are carrying fear, because fear is the opposite of love, and love is our soul connection. That's our that's our interconnecting energy. So fear of any sort needs to be examined and analyzed and self reflected upon and if need be prayed about to, to be uplifted from. And I myself have struggled with a lot of fears, um, not just from my upbringing or my culture, but my soul came in with some kind of weird fear maybe left over from my husband says I'm Genghis Khan reincarnated because he's never seen anybody face so much rejection. And I and I keep thinking, okay, I'm sorry I murdered all those babies, but I think we're even now. Okay. Universe. But I'm joking, of course. But fear is almost like carrying an axe in your heart. And you do not want to carry fear around.
00:21:02 Shreya: Yeah. And and, like, uh, what is one piece of wisdom you would want to, uh, like, you would want a younger version of you to receive earlier than you did.
00:21:14 teZa Lord: Um, well, I believe that we all must do what our soul directs us to do. And I just think that following our bliss is important. That was a saying that was made universal by Joseph Campbell, a great, great teacher. And it has been the motto of much of my life because some of the stuff I've done seems crazy to other people. But it's my life. It's my journey. It's my soul. I get to do what I want with my soul. And sometimes people, um, they don't appreciate it or they don't understand what motivates. So I think everybody should follow their bliss. Whatever your soul is telling you that you must do when you follow it, you know, without harming other people. Of course, I don't mean to be a bank robber or a rapist, but, you know, for uplifting your energy to the connectedness of why are you alive? What is the purpose of your of your life? You must follow your bliss.
00:22:25 Shreya: Yeah, I think, I think that wisdom you just named is the kind of thing that process generation is a kind of a sentence a younger person might not really understand today, but we'll remember in fifteen years when they finally need it. The most powerful elder are not the ones who shout their wisdom. They are the ones who say it quietly, the way that lands inside someone and waits there until it is ready to be received. And thank you for sharing it. And if someone listening today realized that the essence underneath their life has been waiting for them to come back to it, what is the small first act of remembering? You would invite them to try this way.
00:23:11 teZa Lord: Well, our feelings are the best indication of where our soul wants to go. So if we're feeling we need to do something, you must follow that urge that your feelings are giving you. For instance, if you run into somebody whose behavior really annoys you, that's probably an indication that you have that same kind of behavior and that's why you're so annoyed. So if you have a feeling like you must do something different, well, honor that and look at your life and say, wow, where can I make some changes? Or if you have a feeling that you need to be alone more and to be quiet, honor that too.
00:24:02 Shreya: That's really beautiful. And also, if someone is listening and is feeling far from their true essence right now, what is one thing you would want them to walk away from this conversation with?
00:24:16 teZa Lord: Well, I've given a lot of good things. Follow your bliss. Tune into your breath. Honor your body. The most important thing, though, is to remember that love is the weapon of mass illumination. So it's not just about you. The more you honor this loving energy within you, you're helping the world. You're helping your family. You're helping all of the blended humankind that we are today, the members of this beautiful planet earth.
00:24:51 Shreya: That's really beautiful. And thank you. Thank you so much for sharing all this information with us and with our audience. That's just me, this conversation, so beautiful and so much needed for everybody, I think. And if after this beautiful conversation, my listeners want to connect with you and want to learn more about you, about your books, about your art or your work, then what's the best place to find you?
00:25:17 teZa Lord: My website is Tesla. That's spelled with a z t e z a l o r d Tesla dot com. I'd love to hear from anybody. My website has my books, my podcasts, my yoga, my art galleries, and a lot of Interesting biographical stuff. Like I used to be a botanical illustrator working with plants. I know a lot about the magic of plants.
00:25:44 Shreya: That's really interesting, and I will make sure to attach all these details and links below in the show notes so that the listeners can find them easily and get in touch with you. And thank you again so much. There's a thank you. This was the kind of conversation the podcast was built for soulful, reverent, and willing to listen to the wisdom that only a well-lived life can offer. And to all my listeners, especially the one who has been busy proving, performing, and producing without ever stopping to remember, I will leave you with this. The essence you have been looking for is not new. It is not far. It is the part of you that has been here the whole time, patiently waiting. So slow down. Listen and remember that you are not lost. You are not behind. It was simply being invited home. Keep reflecting. Keep returning, keep coming home. And do not forget to hit the follow button. Subscribe and feel free to share your thoughts because your ears deserve premium content. Thank you.
00:26:46 teZa Lord: Oh yeah. Shreya, I love sharing. It's so important for people who, you know, who feel they've even been through the dark times. We have to share and uplift the world. Thank you so much for inviting me.
00:26:59 Shreya: Thank you so much.
