← Passion Struck with John R. Miles
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- [00:00]
John R. Miles
Coming up next on Passion Struck.
- [00:02]
Suzanne Giesemann
When you realize that hurt people and that we came here to learn by trial and error the prayer or statement or mantra, whatever you want to call it, that has made the biggest difference for me is to stay, say to higher consciousness, forgive me for ever thinking I was anything less than love, because that's when we make mistakes, when we don't realize we're not only human, that we are souls. So it's really, forgive me for that action, because if I had remembered I was a soul, I wouldn't have done that.
- [00:32]
John R. Miles
Welcome to Passion Struck. Hi, I'm your host, John R. Miles. And on the show, we decipher the secrets, tips and guidance of the world's most inspiring people and turn their wisdom into practical advice for you and those around you. Our mission is to help you unlock the power of intentionality so that you can become the best version of yourself. If you're new to the show, I offer advice and answer listener questions. On Fridays. We have long form interviews the rest of the week with guests ranging from astronauts to authors, CEOs, creators, innovators, scientists, military leaders, visionaries and athletes. Now let's go out there and become Passion Struck. Welcome to episode 622 of Passion Struck. I'm your host, John Miles, and if you're new here, this is where intention meets impact. A space for those bold enough to ask the deeper questions and brave enough to live the answers. And if you've been with me for a while, thank you. This community is what keeps the fire lit. Before we dive in, a quick reminder, our new substack, the Ignited Life, is growing fast. Every week I share insights, behind the scenes stories and deeper tools for living intentionally. It's also where we've created curated playlists that we call our starter packs to help new listeners explore topics like emotional mastery, soul driven leadership, behavior change, mental health awareness, and relational health. You can join the movement@theignitedlife.net we're also in the middle of our series, the Connected Life, exploring what it truly means to live with presence, death and purpose in relationship with ourselves and others. Last week, on Tuesday, the legendary John Cabot Zinn joined me for one of the most profound conversations I've had on presence and healing. Then on Thursday, Cass and Mike Lazaro opened up about the emotional costs and resilience behind entrepreneurial success. And then on Friday, I released a solo episode, unpacking four Key Ways Inner Awareness Fuels Meaningful Connection. And today, we take that exploration to the soul level. Now, let me ask you this. What if you're not just a human being trying to survive, but a radiant soul who came here to thrive, what if the ache you feel, the longing for purpose, peace and connection isn't a sign that something's wrong, but a reminder that there's so much more? Today, we're going far beyond behavior, behavioral science and psychology into the deep waters of soulful awareness and spiritual leadership. My guest is someone whose life journey is as improbable as it is inspiring. Susan Giesemann Susan is one of the world's most respected spiritual teachers, named to the Watkins list of the 100 most spiritually influential Living People alongside names like the Dalai Lama and Pope Francis. She's the recipient of the 2024 Humanities Team Spiritual Leadership Award, an honor previously given to Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela. But before all that, Susan was a U.S. navy commander. She flew aboard Air Force One, served as aide to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of staff on 911 and completed nine tours of duty. By all accounts, she had reached the summit of success, but inside she felt deeply unfulfilled. Two events changed everything. Witnessing the horrors of 911 from the sky and then the sudden death of her stepdaughter Susan, a Marine who was struck by lightning. Since then, Suzanne has authored over 15 best selling books, launched the Awaken Way community and helped millions of people transform their lives of quiet pain into lives filled with meaning, connection and soul led purpose. In today's episode we explore why being human is hard and how your soul can lead you through it. How to move from the human belief system to divine guidance. What it means to matter in this life, not just to others, but to the universe itself. The practices that connect you to your higher self and unseen team, and how emotional scars can become glow worms that light your path. This episode is a reminder to that you are already enough, already whole and never alone. That the emptiness you may feel inside isn't a flaw, but an invitation to.
- [04:59]
Live the awakened way.
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Now let's dive into this extraordinary conversation with the one and only Suzanne Gieseman. Thank you for choosing passionstruck and choosing me to be your host and guide on your journey to creating an intentional life.
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Now let that journey begin.
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John R. Miles
I am so excited and honored today to have Suzanne Gieseman on Passion Struck. Welcome Suzanne.
- [06:26]
Suzanne Giesemann
Thank you John. Great to be here.
- [06:28]
John R. Miles
I always love to have veterans on this podcast and I've had a lot, but I haven't had someone from the Navy on for a while now. So I'm really excited to start the interview at that point because you had what many would describe a model career, a Navy commander serving at really the highest levels of leadership. You were working directly for the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. What was that experience like? Because I can't even imagine having that bird's eye view into what was going on in the government.
- [07:08]
Suzanne Giesemann
It was eye opening when the chairman personally asked me to be his aide. I had been his protocol officer. Prior to that there were six protocol officers, but the aide will be his right hand man, two steps behind him everywhere he went. Riding in the stretch bulletproof limo and going to the White House and Capitol Hill, flying on Air Force One and Air Force Two. I knew what that job entailed. So when he asked me, I was pretty floored. I know you're a Naval Academy graduate, but I went to a small state college in Pennsylvania, went to Officer Candidate School, and then I had joined before women were allowed on most ships. So I served ashore my entire tour. You may remember this term or not we were called General Unrestricted Line Officers. The problem is that acronym is G U R L. So we were the girls. To me it was a stigma that had followed me throughout my career, but I never let it stop me from doing my best. And so for the chairman, a Special Forces army four star general, the highest ranking officer in the armed forces to say I want you because of merit, not where you went to school, not who you are or what gender you are. Just I need somebody who can do the job. That was the biggest honor of my career. And so it turned out to be the most astounding Job to fly on Air Force One with the President was a dream come true. Very stressful job because you can never let your guard down. You have to make sure the Chairman always looks good. And it was really funny to have to tell other generals, I'm sorry, you can't talk to the General now, or we have to go now. But yeah, it was quite the honor.
- [08:49]
John R. Miles
So during the time that you were working with him, 911 happens, and the way you describe it is you were on a plane flight over to Europe because he was going to get knighted by the Queen.
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Suzanne Giesemann
That's right.
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John R. Miles
And while you're in route, you get this call of what's happened and then you're asked to turn around and you actually fly right over where the World Trade center is looking down on the tragedy. I can't even imagine what that would have been like.
- [09:22]
Suzanne Giesemann
We were being escorted by fighter jets. We were the last aircraft in U.S. airspace. Even the President's jet had been grounded by that time. We knew we were headed back to the Pentagon and we knew that something had happened there. We didn't realize it was a plane. I was on the radio talking to a colonel back at our office who said, I have to go. Something just happened here. We thought it might be a bomb. We didn't realize another plane had hit. So here we are flying over Manhattan, looking down. But John, we didn't realize at the time that the towers had collapsed. So we found that out when we got back to Washington. But to get back and find out that it had been a jet that flew into our building where we had just been hours early earlier, was absolutely stunning. But not no more so than stepping over jet engine pieces in the grass. I literally did that and watched them spraying water on this gaping hole where colleagues had been just hours earlier. It was a real wake up call.
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John R. Miles
Yeah. So when you landed, is that what you all did is you went right from the airport right back to the Pentagon?
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Suzanne Giesemann
Yes. Normally when we rode around Washington, it was just the chairman, me and his driver in that bulletproof limo. But this time we were met by several Suburbans, a police escort of three sedans and 10 motorcycles. But the streets were deserted. And off we went from Andrews Air Force Base to the Pentagon. As we came across the bridge towards the Pentagon, you could see the smoke rising up from it. No cars around. They've been, oh, three or four hours since it was hit. Very sobering.
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John R. Miles
And when you got back, where in proximity was, were your offices to where the destruction happened in the Pentagon?
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Suzanne Giesemann
It was two sides of the Pentagon away. And what the terrorists didn't realize or they would not have hit it. Where they did is that the side that they hit was the only side of the Pentagon that had just undergone the first phase of five phases of renovation. So all the walls in that section were reinforced for bomb blasts and hardly any of the people had moved back into their offices yet. So that was a real miracle in the making right there. The bomb blast walls allowed it to stay standing for about 30 minutes so that those who were not in the direct impact site were able to get out. And it really minimized the death at the Pentagon. If they had hit on our side or any other side, there would have been thousands more killed. Yeah.
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John R. Miles
So I ended up leaving the military because my last duty station I was working on a, on an admiral staff myself doing counter drug interdictions down at what's now called JADF south part of Southcom. And while I was there I got to interact with all these different operatives from three letter organizations and I ended up getting the opportunity to become a special agent with the FBI. However, I get out of the military on a Friday, I'm reporting to Quantico the next Friday, and on Tuesday or Wednesday of that following week I get a call from my FBI detailer saying Congress couldn't pass the budget and unfortunately your class has been recycled. So that recycling ended up being an almost 40 month recycling before my class came back on. And at that point I had moved on to Booz Allen, etc. So life had passed me by. But I remember that that time period, very much of leaving the military, when you left, you did something a little bit different. As I understand it. I'm a huge sailor and I understand you and your husband decided you were going to see the world via sailboat.
- [13:19]
Suzanne Giesemann
That's right. We'd both been long time sailors the whole time both of us were in the navy and we had decided we were going to live the cruising life. We didn't know when we were going to do that, but we decided after 9, 11 we're going to do it. The day I'm retirement eligible, I'm getting out and we're going sailing. We, in anticipation of that, sold our house, sold our cars, put all the furniture in storage and moved on board the boat. And so when I retired, the very next day, off we went. That was our home for several years. It was an idyllic lifestyle. But I tell people now, in effect I was actually running away from life. When they handed me a gas mask at the Pentagon after 911 and said, Keep this in your drawer just in case. I just thought, I've served as long as I can as a gurl, as a girl in the Navy, what lies ahead is not really my passion would have been manpower and personnel. And I really didn't feel that I deserved, if I were to move on to admiral rank, to be standing equally with those who had been warriors in the Navy. That was my own personal belief system. And so I was very happy to serve 20 years and get out and went and lived our dream.
- [14:37]
John R. Miles
Suzanne, as I was reading about your story, I saw almost like a mirror reflecting back on me. We had different careers. I ended up after going into Booz Allen, I ended up transitioning into the private sector and ended up becoming a senior executive in Fortune 50 companies, ultimately becoming a CIO, etc in my career path. But it seemed like when we were both growing up, we had similar parents. My father was a former Marine and my mom was a teacher. But both of them were. I was the first born and they had very high expectations on what I would be, what my sister would be. My brother got it a bit easier. But one thing I found was that I couldn't complain. I couldn't really express what was really going on. And so I got at a very young age into this loop of just suppressing all these emotions that I had, which ended up getting even worse by the time I got into the military. And over time just became one set of emotions suppressed over another that built this huge foundation that eventually hit a boiling point. And as I was reading about you, it seemed like you had gone through a similar experience.
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Suzanne Giesemann
Wow. We don't talk about these things a lot. It's very interesting for me to hear that from you, but it's true. My parents didn't allow me to be angry or upset. And you will probably remember this phrase from the Navy, what do you do when something goes wrong? Suck it up. That was the term. And so at 9 11, here I am. They're pulling bodies out of my office building. There was no way to deal with my emotions. I had no tools whatsoever. So I just sucked it up and buried it and sailed off into the sunset. And then life caught up with me in a way that was far more personal than 9 11. And that lack of tools really knocked me over.
- [16:51]
John R. Miles
Thank you for sharing that. And I'm sorry that it happened to both of us. But I didn't talk about it for a very long time. But I figure with what I'm doing now with the podcast and everything Else that there are so many other people who have faced the same thing. So I'm hoping that being vulnerable about it helps other people address it as well. Because looking back, I wouldn't wish some of the emotional pain it caused me on anyone, even an enemy. So while you're on this sailing expedition, you're. You were visiting Croatia. And as I was thinking about this, the last time I have seen Croatia was in 1995. And when I was in Split, there were shells landing all around us because we were trying to get three star general evac out of the airport that we were visiting as we were getting shelled in the middle of it. So to me, it's always this moment of that I look back in almost disbelief. And you also had a moment of disbelief because while you were there, you learned that your stepdaughter Susan was gone, who was a Marine. But when you heard the word was gone, you didn't initially equate that to her being passed away.
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Suzanne Giesemann
Well, I knew it meant she had died. I just couldn't conceive of it. I didn't know what to do with that. It was. My brain couldn't comprehend it. So what do you mean? Susan is gone. And Susan was six months pregnant at the time. So now we have Susan and her unborn baby boy. We're gone and here we are thousands of miles from home. We need to get home. It was. This is my personal 9, 11.
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John R. Miles
So you are trying now to process. And I didn't realize she was pregnant at the time, so I'm very sorry to hear that. So you were trying to process this grief, trying to process the loss. And as I understand it, it led you into a state of reflection and really into a practice of meditation. Is that a correct way to understand it?
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Suzanne Giesemann
That's absolutely correct. Once again, no tools to deal with that. I remember sitting in the backseat of another limo, this one the funeral car, at her funeral on Marine Corps Air Station, Cherry Point, North Carolina, and trying to be strong for my husband, who is Navy captain, ship driver, retired. He was always my rock, but now he's just in deep grief. And I remember shaking like I've never shook before because all that emotion had nowhere to go. And I wasn't going to cry in front of everybody else. That came later. But what happened at the funeral changed my life, John. I saw Susan's body and she was dressed in her dress blues in the coffin. When I looked down at her, I had an epiphany. I'd seen my grandparents in a coffin, but Susan was not Susan. There was some part of her that I knew had to have survived the lightning strike that took her. We didn't talk about how she was killed. She was killed by a bolt out of the blue. Literally struck and killed by lightning. And I looked at her body and I knew that's not her. That body never was her. There's another part of all of us that breathes us. It was a spiritual awakening on the spot. Raised with no religion, no spirituality. And I just said, you have to still exist. I've heard about meditation. I've heard about people called mediums who can connect with those who have died. I don't know if it's true, but if it is, I'm going to find you. So I began meditating that week, probably not that day, maybe two days later. I didn't know what I was doing. This was 2006. Meditation was not common. We were living on the boat. We got back to the boat in Croatia, and it sounded so strange to my ears to say, ty, I'm going in the aft cabin and I'm going to meditate. And I would just sit there quietly and say, susan, reveal yourself to me. Or, Susan, I want to hear you. It wasn't for peace. It wasn't for lack to lessen my stress. It was to find Susan. But, John, I found so much more through that practice. I found the peace and I found joy and I found tools, and I changed my life from that daily practice. It was mind expanding because it was mind altering.
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John R. Miles
And that practice has now culminated into two books, The Awakened Way, which came out in 2024, and your new book, Making the Afterlife Connection, where in both of these you talk about this journey with Susan and then in making the afterlife connection, how you reconnected with her in the afterlife and how this became a tool set that you now have perfected and help others to connect with their loved ones.
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Suzanne Giesemann
That's correct. And actually that's my 15th book, and the next one's the 16th. I've been writing since I was in the Navy about whatever I'm passionate about. And since Susan passed, it's passionate about helping people to know that we are so much more than these bodies. And it's when we focus only on this objective reality that we perceive with our physical senses that we suffer because we feel that's all there is. But when you realize you can literally turn within and expand your awareness, you open up to guidance, insights, information, peace. And, yes, love. That's been here all along. But if you don't know to look for it. It's elusive.
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John R. Miles
So, Suzanne, I about. It's probably been a decade now ago, I had this friends of ours who put on this huge Halloween party. And when I say huge, there were probably 500 to 600 people in their backyard. It was a charity event that they would put on, but at this event, they would have bands playing and different vendors playing. But they also had different practitioners there. And one of them was someone who read palms but had connections to the other side. And I didn't have much faith that this was a real thing or that this person possessed any superpower. I thought that they were there as an entertainment component of this event. And so I almost wasn't gonna go up there and have her read me. But I remember this event. She starts looking at my palms and. And starts visibly shaking when she's looking at me.
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Suzanne Giesemann
Wow.
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John R. Miles
And met me eye to eye and said to me these words. She is so upset at how you're living your life.
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Suzanne Giesemann
Oh, wow.
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John R. Miles
She never wanted this for you. She never wanted you to take the journey that you have. And you keep suppressing your talents, and you're not living the life that you're supposed to. And. And I'm just sitting here. What in the heck are you talking about? Who's this she?
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Suzanne Giesemann
Yeah.
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John R. Miles
And then out of. So I asked her, like, who are you talking about? And she said, amy. She's right here next to me, and she's really upset, and she can't move on because you're not moving on yourself. And I. I have to say that the hairs on my skin, like, went right up because Amy had been my fiance and died tragically at a young age of cancer. And I have to say, after that, when I got married, I married someone who was completely different from her and ended up getting into an emotionally abusive marriage and had been suffering for years because not only had I suppressed things because of my parents, but I couldn't even say things to my wife because it was so emotionally painful. And I remember in this experience that they said that this path I had been on from a career perspective, et cetera, was the wrong one. And that a new person would come into my life and a new focus. And that my real path was to help people around the world live a life that mattered. And I had. So everything started to click because I had been given this vision probably seven, eight years before that that I was supposed to help this group of people that were self described to me as lonely, beaten, battered, bored, helpless, hopeless. And I had no idea what this meant or what I was supposed to do. But I think it was the first realization that I had that we could talk to people on the other side. And it came in a very profound way. And I understand and I'm sorry for sharing so much, but I wanted to give you some context that you had a similar experience with a medium talking to Susan.
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Suzanne Giesemann
That's right. And I took my husband to a medium because I had been reading books about them and trusted that if I could find someone who gave us evidence about Susan being information about her that they couldn't possibly know, that they wouldn't find online, they didn't have my last name. I was open minded, but skeptical. If we could find somebody that could do that, give us evidence, then I was going to give it a try. So I took my husband, found out John, he didn't even know what a medium was and now he's married to someone who does that work on the side. That woman brought through a young lady who passed away in her 20s, wearing a brown uniform, who died very suddenly, she said, and she had a tingly electrical feeling running up and down her arm. She. There were many other things she told us, but the clincher was when she said, and she's bringing with her a little baby boy who she wants to introduce to you. Talk about life changing. It validated what my soul knew, that we are souls. But I didn't even know we were souls at the time. And so right. Susan was right there. I knew it. And I just recommitted myself to learning more about the afterlife. And that's what I tell people now. Practice the three E's. Educate yourself about the greater reality. That's what's in my book, the Awakened Way. Educate yourself that you're not only human. Read experiences of people who died and came back near death experiences. The second E is experience expanded states of consciousness for yourself. Spend more than two minutes in meditation, maybe 7, 12, 15, and start to listen and pay attention and notice how your thoughts arise and then notice what stands out from the normal noise. And then the third E. Engage voices, imagery, thoughts that stand out. Why did I just see that? Why did I hear that like you asked, who is this person who's talking to you? Engage it with a sense of curiosity. Not close minded. This is ridiculous. I'm too professional. But instead, what if the attitude. What if what you and I are talking about could lead to this profound underlying awareness that all is well, no matter what? This profound sense of connection with everyone, no matter who they are? I'll tell you it'll change your life if you're willing to look at it.
- [29:25]
John R. Miles
So you say that the Awakened way is. Is the soul's answer to our earthly challenges. And as I was reading the book, you brought up a phrase that I've now heard from two other mediums that I've interviewed. Rebecca Rosen and Susan Grah. And it's this concept that what we are living on during our human existence is. You all use the same word, Earth school.
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Suzanne Giesemann
Oh, yeah.
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John R. Miles
And I think Rebecca described it to me this way that I remember. She said that before we come here we are. She was talking about Wayne Dyer and that Dwayne had reached a higher level of his learning experience. But she was saying that what we do is we come back here with kind of a soul contract on things that we are supposed to learn during our time here. And it's typically an evolution of stages every time we come back. And that what she was explaining is that there are times in our life when we feel like we're on a glad glide path. And she said, that's where you're in tune to your soul contract and you are working on the things you're supposed to work on. And then she said that there are times when you face huge challenges. And she said that those could be times where you've deterred from your path and you're getting recorrections because you need to go back to fulfilling the things that you were called here to do. Does any of that resonate with your understanding?
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Suzanne Giesemann
It resonates, but I'm not sure that it applies in all circumstances. I tend to look at Earth School more like creative school. It's not that, by gosh, you came here to learn your lessons because you screwed it up in another lifetime. To me, it's the soul saying, oh, I'm already whole and complete. I'm already this masterpiece. But if I add a little more paint in this area, how would that improve what's already beautiful and wonderful? So we come here, and I know I came to learn patience, and I came to learn to allow others to express their emotions and not become uncomfortable, because that's what keeps coming up in my face. So these challenges are not in my mind corrections. They are opportunities to practice what my soul came here to do the best I could with. That's how I see it.
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John R. Miles
And one of the concepts that I really liked from the book was that you talk about human bs, the human belief system. And can you explain what that human belief system is and how it's different from the reality that our soul journey.
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Suzanne Giesemann
Could be taking again, the objective world makes it appear that we're separate. But once you spend time in an expanded state of consciousness, you come to realize that at the basic level, we are fields of energy and information in one shared field, a shared mind. We're all connected. And so when we buy into the belief that there's me and you and we're separate and it's a dog eat dog world, and the way we get ahead is by fighting and cheating and lying, we start to feel uncomfortable. And life doesn't flow because we're not aligned with our true nature, which knows we're connected. So when you start questioning your BS and say, what if there is a part in that person that's the same in them, that's the same in me? And what if instead of competing with them, I realize we all come from the same source and their success is my success? What if all of these things lead to greater peace and greater flow? And now success is just blowing my way in ways I never could have imagined. Now you're living the Awakened Way, and it begins with questioning your BS moment by moment. Just this morning in meditation, I noticed something that triggered me. I could feel it in my body. And I asked higher consciousness to show me a way to release that because clearly that's a lesson I came here to work on. And already I'm feeling better about that. This is an ongoing process of flowing and clearing out areas in our energy field where the flow is blocked from our bs.
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John R. Miles
Well, I love the concept. And just to reiterate, you share three core truths of the Awakened Way. We're not only human, we're all interconnected. And the creative force of the universe is love. And I wanted to lean into those three things because as I told you before we got on, one of the core focuses that I've been called to put my efforts towards is the human need to matter. And when I think about this, the fact that we're all human is one part of mattering because we need to matter to ourself. But another huge portion of mattering is the interconnected part, because there's a reciprocity to it that I matter to you and you show me I matter as well. And then I think there's a connection point to this universe is love. Because to me, there's a ripple effect of mattering where what we're really called to do is to make the world a better place. So the more that we can make others feel they matter and show love and kindness, compassion, whatever word you want to use for it, it expands that element of mattering. Does any of that resonate with you?
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Suzanne Giesemann
All of it does, John. People think we have to have some big purpose in life, when really, the purpose of life is to create and evolve and take back more love than you came here with. I was just shopping a couple hours ago, and the clerk just very routinely said, are you having a good day? And I just lighted up. And I said, boy, I sure am. I hope you are, too. And you could feel her like, oh, most people don't talk to me that way. And she just lighted up right there. You could turn somebody's life around in the most mundane situations. And that's living the awakened way, realizing that in just an interaction, a service of any kind with other people, you are shining your soul's light. It makes a huge difference, and it makes you want more of that.
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John R. Miles
Yeah, I love that example, because when I was at Lowe's, I worked with this gentleman, Steve Solagi, who was probably one of the best leaders. I shouldn't say probably was one of the best leaders I had ever met. And I remember every time someone would ask him, how are you doing, Steve? He would always say, outstanding. And I asked him about it one time, and he said, I used to answer, okay, the typical things that people say. And he said, I realized when I said outside standing, not only was I giving myself a positive way to think about how my day was going, but I was also telling the other person an uplifting version. So wherever they are, when I'm meeting them, they also get that inspiration that the day is outstanding, Great.
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Suzanne Giesemann
And it's an energy. Every word, every thought you have actually goes out as energy that is felt first in the person's energy field. We don't realize the effect that we have on people just by changing what we radiate.
- [37:16]
John R. Miles
Absolutely. So, Suzanne, one of the things that you say is that we are all shining beings and we're here to experience the fullness of life. I know for me, for many years, and I think it's possibly what Amy was saying, I was putting on a mask. I was showing up differently to the world than who I really was. And a way people could think about this is I'm an introvert. And being a senior executive in a company or in the military where you have a bunch of extroverts. I was having to show up as an extrovert because that's what people expected to see in these meetings. And I would get home and I would just be emotionally exhausted. But through time I've learned how to take that mask off. But I think a lot of people struggle of how to trust that we are enough just as we are. How would you help a listener do that?
- [38:14]
Suzanne Giesemann
I would start with my three minute daily practice. I call it the Sip of the Divine. And military people love acronyms, John. So SIP stands for Sit in Peace. Who couldn't benefit from sitting in peace for three minutes a day? This practice takes away all excuses because you can't say, I don't have enough time to meditate. If you have enough time to make a cup of coffee and sip it for five minutes, you can have a sip of the divine for three minutes. And I can't quiet my mind. The other thing that people say, well, you're not supposed to quiet your mind in the Sip of the Divine. You're supposed to watch your mind. So you just sit quietly, you relax with a nice deep breath. I talk about a specific breathing technique that's super easy in the awakened way called the Vagus Nerve breath. Take one of those vagus nerve breaths. And now you just sit quietly. You can ask a question such as, who am I? That's the best question any of us can start with. And you will ultimately, in just three minutes a day, if you stay with it for at least three weeks, start to realize you're so much more than your thoughts. You start to notice how negative many of your thoughts are, how repetitive, how unhelpful they are. And now you're saying, but if I'm noticing that, who is it? What is it that's noticing this? Could there possibly be a part of me that's beyond these thoughts? You might start asking, where are these thoughts coming from? But instead of just wondering, what if there's a higher being or some higher consciousness or my own higher self that would answer if I ask, where are these thoughts coming from? And now I listen. This is a practice that gives you direct feedback and the direct experience of the light of consciousness that is our source. And it doesn't change, it doesn't judge you, it doesn't speak negatively. It is pure being. And that's the piece right there. Because when we don't have a story, there's nothing left but peace. And my definition of divine love, by the way, is lack of separation. When you realize you are intricately connected with this being state and everyone else has it too, then I'm connected to all beings at that level. That's divine love. That doesn't go up and down. It's not conditional or unconditional. It's. It's just present. And now your light just starts turning up naturally and you're starting to really understand that what we've been looking for out there, doing silly things to get it, love is already right here.
- [41:06]
John R. Miles
Man, that's beautiful. And I wanted to use that as a segue to this question. What would you say to someone who's listening or watching right now, who feels invisible, disconnected, like they don't matter, like they don't know what their purpose. It's not even purpose. They just don't feel like they're in sync with who they are.
- [41:32]
Suzanne Giesemann
You've been listening to the voices that come from the left hemisphere of your brain that tend to create stories and build on those stories.
- [41:42]
John R. Miles
And.
- [41:43]
Suzanne Giesemann
And the more you sit in peace, the more you will dampen that left hemisphere voice and activate the right hemisphere of your brain that already knows we're connected, that knows only flow. As you bring those two hemispheres into balance, you'll realize that you do matter. You're not invisible to this source that knows every hair on your head. And that you can ask to feel the love they have for you, those in the higher realms. You can ask to see yourself in a holy new light. This is a journey. Sometimes it happens in an instant, by grace. Sometimes it happens over time and you realize you're more peaceful and you're talking to yourself more lovingly and it no longer matters what other people say. And yet people are starting to say more loving things. It builds on itself. This is spelled with a capital T because it is this awareness. This is that state of being I talked about discovering. In between all the negative self talk and even the positive self talk, in between every breath, there is just this pure state of being that the more you touch it and experience it day after day, even for a few minutes, you realize it's always here. And it is the thought, the source of everything that arises. This awareness is looking through your eyes. Looking through my eyes. It is all that is. Call it God, call it source. It's pure potential. And this is what we come from. So the more you come to know I am and everything else after I am is story. But this awareness, then I become willing to listen to the thoughts that are productive, listen to the thoughts that are supportive, ask to be shown. I am so very loved, like my guides say in the daily messages they give me. But you have to be willing to. Ah, yes, the analogy I use in the book of seeing your basic essence as the blue sky of Awareness and all this other stuff that's flowing in and out are the clouds. We have to be willing to look at the clouds and let them flow by without judging them and judging ourselves. Just be curious until you start to notice. This blue sky is pretty awesome.
- [44:36]
John R. Miles
Thank you for sharing that, Suzanne. And I want to go back to the topic of mattering, because many people carry this silent belief inside that they're alone in the universe. And you have a concept that you explore that you are never alone. How do you help? Using this you are not alone methodology to help people connect with their unseen support system.
- [45:03]
Suzanne Giesemann
It goes back to being willing to play, be as the child, be willing to go into the silence, sit in peace for a few minutes, and just trust. Okay, maybe there is like a genie in the bottle. That's childlike, right? But maybe there is higher guidance coming from a frequency that my brain can't pick up on, but can bypass the brain. If that's so, I'm going to start asking you for questions. I'm going to ask you for signs to validate these new thoughts that are helpful that are popping up. I'm going to act on these helpful insights that I'm getting and see how that changes things for me. So you start working with the hypothesis that if I am a field of consciousness at this human bandwidth of frequency, maybe there are other channels, other networks. That's a higher frequency I can't tune into with my physical senses. But if I truly am a conscious field of energy and information, then I'm going to use my intention to tune into the higher channels, ask questions and see what comes back. I'll act on it. I'll ask for signs and. And I'm going to do my own experimentation. It will knock your socks off if you're willing to play the sign game that's in my book. I am convinced beyond any doubt. I'm working on a third book with Hay House right now. It's due in June. The first half I worked on it with higher consciousness together. The second half, they're dictating every morning. I sat here this morning. I know you're here. I need some help. It's seven o' clock. I'm really groggy. But we need this next essay on this topic. And John, it just flowed beautifully. It was so beautiful. I had to share it with my husband. He said, wow, that's brilliant. And I said, that's because it's not coming through my conscious mind. It's coming via the subconscious from the superconscious imagine. The productivity level, if people could learn to tap into that. But beyond that, the sense of connection and guidance, love. It will change your life if you're willing to play.
- [47:11]
John R. Miles
Yeah, something almost exactly the same happened to me today. I'm also writing my next book and I've been trying to figure out, as I've been writing other chapters of the book, how I was going to approach this one when I got to it. And I still, when I started it this morning at similar time, I think I started about 6.30am I didn't know how I was going to start the chapter, but I had gone on a walk just before it and I had meditated. And what I have asked throughout every chapter of the book is let this not be my words, but the inspiration that's flowing through me that shows up in a way that it helps people to live their life better. And out of nowhere I was given this inspiration of kind of a person I was supposed to profile in the chapter and I did some research and it triggered that. I had done a previous interview that was of a very similar nature and then it led me into a complete framework of how it needed to unfold and etc. And so what I thought was going to be a disastrous state of writing became about 1500 words of pure inspiration. So I know exactly what you're saying.
- [48:35]
Suzanne Giesemann
And yet you our language limits us. You said out of nowhere, and yet I know it came out of the field, which is everywhere. So it's nothingness and fullness. It's nowhere and everywhere, imminent and transcendent. It's this awareness feeding you exactly what you needed because your intentions aligned with a higher purpose.
- [49:01]
John R. Miles
Suzanne, I want to talk to you about a couple of other practices in your book. One of the people who I love to interview is Mark Devine. I'm not sure if you know who Mark is. He's a former commander like yourself, a Navy seal. And he really brought mindfulness training and breath work into the SEAL teams. In fact, he used four mechanisms, those being two of them, two others, to become the honor man of his Bud's class. And at that time, the first person whose entire boat squad had all graduated from buds because he taught them these practices.
- [49:40]
Suzanne Giesemann
Wow.
- [49:40]
John R. Miles
And one of the things that Mark always talks about is early on in his career, before he became a seal, he got very involved in martial arts. And his teachers told him that the quality of your life is dependent on the quality of the questions that you ask yourself. And it really reminded me of your section of the book that you titled Question what is.
- [50:08]
Suzanne Giesemann
That's right.
- [50:09]
John R. Miles
And you encourage questioning everything. Why is this questioning such a powerful gateway to awakening?
- [50:16]
Suzanne Giesemann
Because we just roll around accepting what people tell us instead of turning within and asking higher consciousness, you grow up. And people say, well, look, there's the sun setting. And you say, oh, yeah. Then you go to school and you learn that's really not what's happening. Somebody questioned that. So when you start questioning your BS about your relationships, about who you are, about what you should or shouldn't be doing, my guides have taken the shoulds out of my life. And you. So then you just question, what is the best action for me? Now I just get in this habit of questioning, probably much to my husband's chagrin. I want to know. I'm curious. And so, in fact, I've. I've learned to not trust the news at all. Doesn't matter which side of the news I'm looking at. I know that there's ultimately only one truth and that everything is going to be seen through people's lenses here in this objective world. So these days, I'm questioning more than ever and trusting my heart.
- [51:27]
John R. Miles
Well, thank you for sharing that. And I know that one of the things that I struggle with, just like everyone does, is presence and sometimes being intentional about seeking joy in life. And you have this exercise called the Joyous Beads Exercise, and I was hoping that you might be able to share it and how it has changed your experience of presence and joy.
- [51:52]
Suzanne Giesemann
Yes, John, this is one exercise that for people who are new on the path of coming to know we're all connected, can really put some resistance up to this one, because its purpose is to get us to realize if we all arise from one shared field of consciousness, from one source, and we are all connected, then to say, I don't like that person, or that person is whatever judgment you want to make is really, you know, criticizing the other finger. On the other hand, you're all connected like leaves on a tree. So the mala beads exercise asks you to get a set of beads. Mala beads are just a tool. You could get a rosary, you could get a beaded necklace. But you sit and you take the first bead in your fingers, and in a nice, quiet, relaxed state, you say, john Miles is an expression of source. Then you move to the next one, and you say, my mother is an expression of the source. And you allow yourself to be inspired from higher consciousness. For what names come up. Try not to think about it. So I'm asking right now, and I'll say, gene hackman. Is an expression of source. Doesn't matter if they're alive or dead. And then I say, it just pops into my mind. Donald Trump is an expression of source. As you go through this, you notice how your body reacts. And then you say, and I am an expression of source. And now you're just seeing how your own thoughts affect your body. And could this be true that we're all coming from the same source? And then you go back to letting spirit consciousness put a name in your mind. Well, Joe Biden is an expression of Source, and Ronald McDonald is an expression of source. I'm just going with what's blowing in my mind right now. But spirit will give you different names that cause restriction in you. Maybe your brother, who you have some conflict with, that comes up now and you start to see how we judge each other. But you going back to my previous analogy, the leaves on a tree, don't look at those leaves over there and say, well, they look different than me. I'm not going to be nice to them. And when you do this practice, over time, you get to the point where you can hear and contemplate any name, any being, and feel the same connection with all of them. It's life changing to the point where I no longer use the word I don't like someone. The words I simply say, I don't resonate with that person. Meaning our energy and what we're radiating may be different, but I know at the source we're all connected. So to say I don't resonate with someone allows us to flow and be ourselves. To say I don't like them puts up a barrier, causes separation, causes constriction, and is out of alignment with what we came here to be. These beautiful expressions of the same source.
- [54:57]
John R. Miles
Thank you so much for sharing that. And what a beautiful concept. I wanted to go back to the vagus nerve, and this was something I wasn't that familiar with until about five years ago. I was reading Susan Cain's book Bittersweet, and she was talking about the research of Dacher Keltner all around the vagus nerve. And I had no idea how much it played a role in our emotional healing and inner growth and our sense of compassion and awe and all these things. And it reminded me to think about this question. In the book, you talk about this emotional state and the emotional scars we have, and you refer to them as glow worms.
- [55:44]
Suzanne Giesemann
If you work on them. Yeah.
- [55:46]
John R. Miles
And so part of the emotional scars that we feel has to do with forgiving ourselves of these scars. Because sometimes the scars are caused by ourself, and oftentimes they're caused by what other people do to us. What role has forgiveness, especially of self, played in your own healing journey?
- [56:10]
Suzanne Giesemann
It's huge. It's instantaneous, when you realize that hurt people and that we came here to learn by trial and error. The prayer or statement or mantra, whatever you want to call it, that has made the biggest difference for me is to stay, say to higher consciousness, forgive me for ever thinking I was anything less than love. Because that's when we make mistakes, when we don't realize we're not only human, that we're souls. So it's really, forgive me for that action. Because if I had remembered I was a soul, I wouldn't have done that. And I slip up to this day and say something gnarly to my husband, and I immediately catch it because it's so out of alignment with who I know myself to be. And I say to him, forgive me for that. But I forgive myself for forgetting who I was. And so my parents, who, like, have some moments that I carry, carried in the past, and I just say, I forgive them for forgetting who they were. That's it. And then right away, you've just cut this cord that held you prisoner. That's what forgiveness does. That's what blame does to us.
- [57:19]
John R. Miles
Thank you for sharing that. And, Suzanne, you've been recognized among the most spiritually influential people living today. In fact, you just won a major award from your peers. And I wanted to frame a question to you like this. You are now displaying leadership through this spiritual journey that you've been on and the way that you're helping people. How does leadership differ for you now compared to your days of being a leader in the military?
- [57:54]
Suzanne Giesemann
What a great question, John. In my days in the military, I was steeped in separation. There were officers and enlisted. I absolutely respected everyone I worked with, who worked for me and I worked for. But there was a hierarchy, great divisions. I knew we made up one team, but I was so aware of the divisions today. It's wholeness. It's all about how can we work and flow together. It's a softer kind of leadership. To me, leadership is motivating and inspiring others to be their best and do their best. And I even have it right in front of me, this little candle that says inspire. That's the mission, to allow people to feel what's already within them and bring it out. Before, the leadership would have been, we're going to do it for this reason. But now Everything has a both and aspect. We're going to do it for ourselves and for the whole. It has changed very much in that regard. Yep.
- [59:04]
John R. Miles
Yeah. There's a great episode that I did with Marianne Lewis and Wendy Smith on both and thinking. So if you want to learn more about that concept, go search for that episode on Passion Struck. So I have to say that for me, my own view of leadership has changed as. As well. And I think a lot of people like to say they're a servant leader. The concept that I've really been talking about that we need more of is something I call the gardener leader. Just like a gardener nourishes their plants, we need to be more nourishing of the people that we lead. And that starts with the way we lead ourselves, because we lead by example. But it also means that we've got to get out of the way of the people who work for us. And similar to the way a gardener works, you give the plants nourishment, but ultimately you need to allow them to grow. And I think the only way you let people grow is they've got to make mistakes just like we did as kids. They have to learn, but they need to be allowed to be creative. And I think that is a complete missing element in so much of the workforce that we have today.
- [60:21]
Suzanne Giesemann
I love that. I love that. And if we allow ourselves to be led by higher consciousness, we pause before we act out in human ways. We listen, and then definitely the way we lead will have much more compassion as well.
- [60:35]
John R. Miles
Amen to that. So my last question for you is for listeners who feel called to lead with more soul in their life, what's the first step to embodying that calling intentionally?
- [60:53]
Suzanne Giesemann
I would ask higher consciousness to guide me. I would say, I don't know that I'm being guided, but I want to do the best I can. Please show me how to live my life and lead others from the highest possible place. Now, you're not feeling like you're doing this alone. Now you're part of a team and you're going to see how it unfolds with this new way of being.
- [61:17]
John R. Miles
And then lastly, Suzanne, you have 16 books. You have this new book that's coming out. Where is the best place people can go to learn more about you and all the things that you're doing?
- [61:29]
Suzanne Giesemann
It's my name, Suzanne giesman.com I also encourage people to check out wolfsmessage.com because I'm about to embark on a tour, taking a documentary around the country. And it'll be available online. That story gave me the very first absolute proof I have that there is a greater reality and we are souls. It's a wow. So wolfsmessage.com and suzanne.com well Suzanne, thank.
- [61:56]
John R. Miles
You so much for being here and sharing your incredible work with us. It's a real honor to have you on the podcast and I'm just so awesome to see what former military leaders are now doing in the next chapter of their lives. So love sharing your journey.
- [62:14]
Suzanne Giesemann
Thank you so much, John.
- [62:16]
John R. Miles
And that's a wrap on today's episode.
- [62:18]
With the extraordinary Suzanne Giesemann. What a Beautiful soul. Expanding Conversation Suzanne reminds us that mattering isn't just psychological, it's spiritual. That you don't just matter to your family, team or community. You matter to the fabric of the universe itself. That no one is too broken, too late, or too lost to reconnect with the truth. So as we close, I invite you to reflect on a few soul LED takeaways. What if your pain isn't a flop, but a portal? What if your unseen team has been trying to reach you all along? And what if living the Awakened Way.
- [62:53]
Means remembering who you were before the world told you who to be?
- [62:57]
If today's conversation moved you, please consider leaving a five star rating and review. It helps us grow and it helps others discover the kinds of conversations that truly matter. You can find links to all Suzanne's books, Her Awakened Way community, and her Daily way app@passionstruck.com if you're ready to bring these ideas into your team or organization, visit johnrmiles.com speaking to learn more about how I can help you ignite intentional change from the inside out. Coming up next on Passion Struck, I'm joined by the brilliant Dr. David Hamilton, one of the world's leading voices on the mind body connection. We'll explore the biology of kindness, the science of self worth, and how small inner shifts can create big outer change. You don't want to miss it.
- [63:41]
Dr. David Hamilton
One of the key things that I've explored is that kindness is physiologically the opposite of stress. And when I say the opposite of stress, I know people might think, well, stress is a feeling, a state, and kindness is a thing that you do. So let me reword that which fits nicely with what Dacher's research says is the opposite of an experience of stress. So what that experience is psychologically for you and therefore what happens inside the body, the opposite of that experience of stress is an experience of kindness and what that is like psychologically. Therefore all that happens inside the body. If you chart the many of the physical effects in the body of stress and and those of kindness, you'll find that they go in the opposite direction.
- [64:26]
John R. Miles
And remember, the fee for the show is simple. If you got value, share it with someone who needs to hear it. And more importantly, live it. Because wisdom doesn't change lives, action does. Until next time, live life.
- [64:37]
Passion struck.