Religion verses Spirituality

TRANSCRIPT:

Deb Sheppard 00:00
We are going to talk about religion versus spirituality today, Miss Dana. Oh, so who’s with me is my wife, Dana. I’m sure if you listen to any podcast, she’s been here with me for a little while, right? That’d be honest.

Deb Sheppard 00:20
This is a topic that crosses my desk or whatever all the time just because of what I do, and so I want to go into the difference between religion and spirituality to get some clarity. But without it being a challenge for those that may say, “Well, it’s this way or that way.”

Deb Sheppard 00:38
This is just my perspective. And a little bit of background here, I was raised in a very strict religious home. My father was an elder and I was raised as a Jehovah’s Witness. I was actually baptized around the age of 13, you know, made these commitments at that age about my faith.

Dana 00:57
Before you could really make that decision. on your own. I

Deb Sheppard 01:01
Now I look at that and go, “Hey, maybe we shouldn’t have done that.”

Dana 01:03
Or maybe maybe those in control shouldn’t have.

Deb Sheppard 01:07
And what I want to talk about is I’ve had a connection with both and I’m not saying all religions are exactly the same or everyone that spiritual is the same. These are just some topics here that I want to cover to let people know the differences. But in the community, I was raised you associate with people that were part of the faith, you were told how to dress, the community was very strong, we actually preach door to door.

Dana 01:30
You as a child?

Deb Sheppard 01:31
Yes. And hence, I’m still, you know, talking to people today. You weren’t raised in any faith.

Dana 01:42
No. When I was born, I was baptized Catholic.

Dana 01:45
Okay. So very early.

Dana 01:46
Very. When I was young, yeah. When I was a baby, I was baptized into the Catholic religion. So

Deb Sheppard 01:52
And for them, it Catholicism, it’s about, you know, baptizing a child in case they die, that they’ve been blessed.

Deb Sheppard 01:59
No sarcasm here, okay. I know you’re serious. You are. So all of these faiths have tradition and things like that. So that’s what we’re going to talk about both but you know, in, we’re in the US, and we’re supposed to have freedom of religion. And we are asked, often, you know, when you’re going to a hospital, if you’re going to have surgery, they ask you your faith, because they want to know and respect those types of things. I know that when someone’s getting ready to cross over, there’s some connections to fear about passing because of their belief system. So it’s huge. And even today, we know people going to the Supreme Court because of their faith and belief system. And in our politics, these days, there’s so much around the freedom of religion versus of freedom of someone’s body. This is a big controversy. So I certainly don’t want to battle with all this.

Dana 01:59
So I can be saved.

Deb Sheppard 02:13
But I certainly want to give a perspective for both and how it has affected my livelihood. Because you and I have had people that are a strong religious faith, kind of not be kind to us online or certain aspects, even when we’re doing you know, Facebook Lives and things like that. So people are really strong about what they believe.

Deb Sheppard 03:14
When I was around the age of 22, I was basically kicked out of the church.

Dana 03:20
What do they call it?

Deb Sheppard 03:20
They call it disfellowshipped. And some cases, excommunicated, things like that. But the belief is that everyone I knew growing up, including parents, cousins, everybody, I was no longer allowed to ever talk to them again. And it really changed my whole take on religion because they sided with my husband.

Dana 03:43
It’s like shunning them, right?

Deb Sheppard 03:45
Absolutely.

Dana 03:46
Like they – we’ve seen movies where the whole community basically, literally and figuratively turns their back on you.

Deb Sheppard 03:53
Absolutely.

Dana 03:54
And that’s what happened to you.

Deb Sheppard 03:56
Yeah. And, you know, I made a choice. So I honor that that’s their faith. And that’s what they stick by. For me, it just didn’t, as we say, in our community, it didn’t resonate. I just knew and even though I didn’t understand the complete, because my world was pretty small. I didn’t understand why my gut said I can’t do it like this anymore. And walked away. Ended up almost homeless. Just so you know, a lot of challenges.

Deb Sheppard 04:19
But now I look back and see that as a: I’m gonna use that as a gift to take me on another path. And when I went on another path, I just realized I was more open minded. I wasn’t – I didn’t consider myself spiritual. I didn’t even have that term on my radar. I was more open-minded. I just wanted to understand. I wanted to see a bigger picture. I wanted to be more accepting of others because I was raised never to accept anyone else’s beliefs. Ours was the truth. And that was it. So

Dana 04:46
So growing up, you weren’t even allowed to associate or talk to people that were not part of the faith – as in a friendship or anything more than a hello or maybe we’re kind of

Deb Sheppard 04:57
Absolutely. One thing they were open to all walks of life, so whatever race you were, but if you were not part of that religion, I was not allowed to, like, stay over have camping trips, school functions, you know, no holiday events.

Dana 05:14
Not even eat lunch with them, right?

Deb Sheppard 05:15
You could eat lunch. Absolutely, there was that part of it. But you normally we hung out with the people that were still of our faith, you know, we didn’t really include other people.

Dana 05:24
So that you had a JW table.

Deb Sheppard 05:25
Yeah, that’s normally what you did if you didn’t have people the same same faith. You know, we were never considered rude. But you just know, we were not allowed to do sports or go out for school activities or be more involved in school and pretty much you received your education. And then you were part of the the organization and preached and shared with people.

Dana 05:48
So you weren’t inclusive of other people and their belief systems unless you were trying to recruit them.

Deb Sheppard 05:57
Yeah, absolutely. Okay. And you know, when I lived like that, I just believe that was, that was good. I mean, I didn’t see it as a negative.

Dana 06:06
You were taught that way.

Deb Sheppard 06:07
I was taught that way. I didn’t look like, “oh, I should question this.” And that’s what’s changed, obviously, over time is now a question. And in that atmosphere, we didn’t question you just had a strong faith. And that’s the difference between religion and spirituality, even though I know some strong religious people are very- they question a lot. I was not one of them. Until later.

Dana 06:27
For me, it was more, I wasn’t raised with a specific, I wasn’t raised with religion at all. Actually, when I was very tiny, I remember going to mass and kneeling, and my grandma, you know, would take me as a small child to, to those things. I remember going to weddings, you know, just the once a year, or once every five years thing that I was included in. But I remember, I think it was the age of 15 or 16, trying to reason why things in my life were the way they were. And this is in past podcasts, if you ever want to go back and listen – my story is in those past podcasts, called Dana’s story, but it was my own discovering or trying to reason which is when I started thinking about reincarnation, and I think you mentioned Shirley MacLaine.

Deb Sheppard 07:25
Oh, yeah. You know, there’s a first book years ago, it was in my mid 20s.

Dana 07:30
It was Shirley MacLaine, that

Deb Sheppard 07:31
Out on a Limb. If you guys have ever read that if you’re my generation. Yeah, Out on a Limb.

Dana 07:37
Yeah, that’s when I started thinking about, oh there’s other answers out there. There’s other things, or there’s things out there that can help you understand beyond – what beyond the traditional.

Deb Sheppard 07:51
And there was just a lot of fear brought about in my religion. And that’s what we’re going to talk about – about the difference between spirituality and religion, where religion, it’s all about an afterlife. You know, what happens when you die? And so there’s fear of, you know, what is the goal, the ultimate goal? And so you really stayed focused on that outcome.

Dana 08:12
Would you say spirituality is kind of that way too, because you connect with the afterlife?

Deb Sheppard 08:16
No, I don’t think it’s the same thing. I think there’s just a lot of doomsday when it comes to religion – from what I’ve experienced. From my experience from – if you don’t do things a certain way. Now, I don’t think all religion is that way. But for the majority have a belief system

Dana 08:34
It’s dogmatic.

Deb Sheppard 08:35
Yes. It’s about dogma about this is how you have to follow. And you know, it’s interesting, because through this process of religion with my family, you know, we reconnected and did a lot of healing. And then as you know, recently, in the last couple years, the religion has played another role in them disconnecting again.

Dana 08:53
Disconnecting from you again. Shunning you again basically.

Deb Sheppard 08:56
Aand my brothers were never baptized, so they have not had the same experiences because they never – at 13 that sealed my fate basically, about what the organization can do.

Dana 09:07
I wonder why your brothers were not?

Deb Sheppard 09:10
They chose not to

Deb Sheppard 09:37
My younger brother, which is – well they’re both younger, but the other ones 20 years younger, same parents, for people that may be listening. Yeah. He never got baptized, but he did end up with someone that is of the faith and they sort of follow it back and forth. So they’ve had some interesting so it’s sort of three different dimensions of our experiences with the with a religion. I don’t think all religions are are like this, but there’s a lot of similarities to all religions. And doing this work. We have people that will have a session and tell me right away well, I’m a Christian. And I am never here to push people to believe in something different. In my program – my classes – I tell people keep what resonates and throw away the rest. Always, you know, they can bring in whatever faith they are. I’m not here to make

Dana 10:23
But they had some influence over you.

Deb Sheppard 10:23
Oh, yeah. Well, I just think it’s, each of us have our own path. Yeah. And my brother that’s eight years younger, just never went down that he just saw things differently than I did, and went to, you know, the meetings with my parents. And then at one point just was, that was not his desire, and he didn’t marry someone in the religion and things like that. So he’s taken a very different path.

Dana 10:23
That’s a metaphor, though for you can have both right?

Deb Sheppard 10:30
Absolutely. I believe that you can combine both religion and spirituality together. Some people really love that tradition. The history of it – those things that come with that belief, whether rituals,. Yeah.

Dana 10:38
We have people of Christian faith. Jewish faith. Hindu. Agnostic, Hindu. Buddhist. All of the above. Yeah.

Deb Sheppard 10:45
And to me, it’s, I’m not there to talk about a faith, I’m there’s more talk about some experiences, and how to figure out what beliefs work for you and what beliefs don’t. So it’s all about limiting beliefs, okay, and what we take it.

Deb Sheppard 10:59
And I think people two a lot of times they will come when they’ve had a significant loss, they really want to understand their their faith or religion based on someone that’s passed. Yeah. What’s that all about? So have to be this way – this opens up, you know, new ways of thinking, yeah, a different door. Yeah.

Deb Sheppard 11:15
And so part of that is explaining my feeling. Besides religion and spirituality, one of the things that I feel is that you can do both, but what works for you is really the key. I did have my both my kids, I took them to different faiths because I want them to have experiences. Because of my upbringing, I didn’t want them to not have an opportunity to go to a church or a temple or a synagogue, because I wanted them to know that this is out there. And I wasn’t given that.

Deb Sheppard 11:47
So I think it’s – if you’re sort of on the fence, I don’t know, or you’re in a religion that’s really strong, but you’re questioning things, go experience other things. It doesn’t have to be limited to what you know, maybe do some studying, ask some people some questions, and I think that’s how we grow.

Deb Sheppard 12:04
One thing that you will learn through religion is that there’s similarities with all of them. Yeah. And we know that because we’ve studied a lot of religion, they each have a similar story. They just give it different names, or different sort of top down twist on them, for them to fit. And for religion, I was going to talk about this, I had this young woman, she’s still a friend, when she was in high school, she called and said, I’m doing this paper, and I’m interviewing people that are spiritual versus people that are religious. And I said, okay, and she wanted to know why spirituality worked for me. And when I, when I talked to her, I said, “Well, it works for me because I get to do my own thinking. I don’t feel like I’m in fear. And I get to figure out my own process. And I don’t live a limited sort of viewpoint.” And she goes, “Okay.”

Deb Sheppard 12:52
She went to meet with a woman that is very devoted Catholic. And her response was, “I don’t have to think outside of anything because I know exactly what God expects for me. So I can live my life based on that, and I don’t have to even go…”

Dana 13:07
I don’t have to try to figure it out.

Deb Sheppard 13:08
I don’t have to try to figure out. So two, two ways of thinking that satisfied each individual. So when I think about someone that is religious versus someone spiritual? Maybe they’ve done some research and it works for their soul and for their heart and for their purpose in this life? And what right do I have to say it’s right or wrong.

Dana 13:26
So when we talk about spirituality versus religion, you have a different perspective, because you connect with the Divine, you have been tested and tested and proven. You have a connection with loved ones on the Other Side. So if you’re speaking just from that viewpoint, and you take both spirituality and religion out, what would you say the basis of our existence would be?

Deb Sheppard 13:53
I believe we’re here to learn unconditional love, how to find ourselves, how to grow to become enlightened, I believe that we’re here to listen to that inner guidance and to figure it out for our growth as beings, when we – spirituality to me puts – it doesn’t put the fear. You know, religion has a lot more as we talked about dogma and fear about what you do creates the results in your afterlife. What I do, I feel that we’re here to learn and grow. And we’re not perfect by any means. But we’re not judged because of that.

Deb Sheppard 14:28
Now on a human level, there’s judgment. And I believe there’s two types of judgment. One judgment is you’re not like me, so I’m going to judge you. The other judgment is when people choose things that are wrong, like murder, rape, they should be judged, so we can’t put it all in one category. But with how many 1000s and 1000s of readings I’ve done, which still amazes me

Dana 14:48
It’s 60,000.

Deb Sheppard 14:50
We’re here to learn. We’re here to be you know, to figure stuff out, we’re here to go into that our inner soul have knowledge and see things from another perspective, I think when we are learning those rigid beliefs, we don’t get to see some stuff outside of us. And I see that so often where people are not really happy, but they are living this life that might be, in my opinion, small, but if it makes them feel good, why should I judge that? Right? Right? You know, I think the difference between spirituality too is there isn’t one truth. And there’s more acceptance. When I look at religion, all of them believe it’s one truth. All religion believes that theirs is the truth.

Dana 15:36
They even call it the truth, don’t they?

Deb Sheppard 15:38
Yeah. They call it the truth, which is now really interesting is back in my life, and I’m honored that I’ve had those experiences. Because I do understand religion. I do understand the Bible. I do understand certain faiths that people have, and why they, you know, and when we see wars, we see people fighting over their faith or religion.

Deb Sheppard 15:57
Didn’t you study the Bible like three times a week or something?

Deb Sheppard 16:01
Yeah. People go, do you know the Bible? I’m like, pretty well. And you don’t forget those things, you know, those things are still with me. And and I am grateful that I’ve had those experiences that I can carry, because people of all different faiths come to see me. And I’m honored for that. And I want to be able to honor their belief and where they come from, right. But spirituality, the difference is, they don’t believe in one truth. And they accept all. Yeah. And that’s another thing is I just can’t fathom any God that you believe in – You know, people believe in one God, but you know, each religion has their idea of a god. That they would say, this is the only way. And I struggle with that philosophy.

Dana 16:48
Yeah. You know, the funny thing is, is that I, in my experience, I feel looking at the religions and studying like, probably a year ago, I was like, I really need to understand the Hindu faith, which is a really beautiful faith. And I’m like, I don’t understand I need to understand it more. There’s so much you know, we talk about meditation, we talk about mindfulness, yoga, Ayurveda, the Vedic Astrology, that’s all ancient Hindu. And so when we go into those things, I’m like, I need to understand this. Like, is it multiple gods? Is it one God? Is it? What is it? And when you really look at it, I’m not going to share that. But when when you really look at it, it’s all similar. It’s all similar. Yeah.

Deb Sheppard 17:37
So there’s just little twists and turns, each faith puts on it. It takes your story. And if people that are listening are highly religious, and they think no, there’s a difference then study a few of these other faiths to see. Yeah, I mean, there’s just a few there’s changes in them and we even talk about how paganism is so much in the Christian belief and certain faiths that you know, there are some very traditional similar – Yeah, all the similarities different. And for you and I, we do celebrate certain Christian holidays, but we don’t look at it as a Christian belief, we look at it as, hey, we get to get together, and there’s a holiday.

Deb Sheppard 18:11
And we honor our friends

Deb Sheppard 18:15
Absolutely.

Dana 18:15
who believe in those religions. And we honor the people and our friends who will who hold those faiths, which were great with.

Deb Sheppard 18:22
Oh absolutley. I want to celebrate them and cheer them on. And we do want to celebrate with them. Because that’s what that’s what holds their soul together. And that helps their heart and you’re asking about the other side. And what I’ve gotten, I think most of it is that spirituality is bringing in – Well, the purpose of it is that inner awareness, that forever growing and when I’ve been teaching this work for over 20 years, way over 20 years, it has changed over time of what I believed originally and what I’ve experienced up to now, not a whole lot, but just the fine tuning. And I think people that have done the work like this, it should always change because you are growing and having an experience, which is spirituality, you’re having an experience, it changes the way you see things. We are here to evolve. In my opinion, we came to this planet to evolve and with religious beliefs, it’s taking traditions from 1000s of years ago, or even you know, if you look at the Jehovah’s Witnesses, or the Mormons or certain more curre nt beliefs that maybe are 100 years old, they’re still taking a doctrine or a belief of that individual and continuing that tradition, without allowing questions to be asked. So it’s more predestined how you behave, how we do things. And again, the difference between one individual to the next maybe for some that is really more valuable.

Dana 19:43
But it’s really interesting how because I know you identify more as a Buddhist and as you work through your belief systems and everything that you know, meditation, the Buddhist faith is more of your I don’t even want to call it a faith. It’s a belief system is more your speed. Right?

Deb Sheppard 20:03
Right.

Dana 20:03
But when you think about it, they use malas which are similar to rosaries for your meditation and chanting, which Hail Marys, our fathers, right. So that is a meditation done differently.

Deb Sheppard 20:19
The prayers and meditations. Yeah, yeah.

Dana 20:21
So it’s really interesting when you really think about it, it’s, it’s still bringing in those elements, even into the religious faiths. But we’re having those meditations and having rituals, yeah.

Deb Sheppard 20:34
Rituals are so important, I think, for energy and vibration, and yeah, and our commitment. And when you’re talking about faith, I think the same thing, but Buddha and Christ, there’s some very similar stories that I find fascinating. So if you’ve never studied the Buddhist belief, and you are a Christian, when you start looking at some of the stories, even, I think it was Buddha and Christ both went out for 40 days, into a place to meditate, basically, or be mindful, whatever you want to call it today. There are so many different parallels. And I think through history, we take these stories and see truths in them.

Deb Sheppard 21:08
The word you brought up was our faith, the faith in something and the faith in religion is the difference between spirituality and religion, faith and religion is you don’t question you have faith. And I think faith is really important in something to have faith is it feels purposeful, like I have a purpose with this faith.

Deb Sheppard 21:26
Spirituality, the faith comes from experiences and validation. And in religion, we’re not looking for validation. In spirituality, we do look for validation. Science is more spiritual than it is religion. And I and I think science is so important, where sometimes religion may not be,

Dana 21:50
Right, we have a friend who is a doctor, who is a creationist, and she’s scientific, but does not believe in the science of the history of the Earth, which is fascinating.

Deb Sheppard 22:03
Well even talking to my father, when we were talking, you know, he was asked me, “Do I believe in the Bible?” And I said, “I think the Bible is a great book. I think there’s so much history and so much to go on. But I think there’s parts missing.” And he said, “well

Dana 22:16
A lot of metaphors

Deb Sheppard 22:17
A lot of metaphors, just like spirituality is just, there’s a lot of metaphors. And it’s so and he asked me. He goes, “well, what do you mean by that?” And I said, “Well, we have, what’s the diet, we have a fossil fuel. We have dinosaurs. We know we fill up our cars with gas. But there’s nothing in the beginning of the Bible talking about dinosaurs.” And he would not talk further with me about that. So I’m not saying that the Bible is wrong, or there’s the stories, but I think there’s so much more that we allow ourselves sometimes to get tunnel vision.

Dana 22:48
Yeah. Instead of looking at the bigger picture of what the meaning is.

Deb Sheppard 22:53
100% And one thing I tell people about the work I do, and I teach, I always say, Don’t walk away with believing everything I tell you. I’m not perfect. I don’t know it all. I’m not a guru, whatever you want to call it. These are my experiences, but take what you want, and throw away the rest.

Dana 23:12
Take what resonates resonates.

Deb Sheppard 23:13
Right. Did I explain that correctly? Thank you.

Dana 23:16
I because I don’t feel like people should throw away the rest. No, really don’t. And so when you say take what take what resonates and throw away the rest. I feel like absorb what resonates. And if it doesn’t resonate, maybe question it more.

Deb Sheppard 23:31
Absolutely.

Dana 23:32
Look at it more apps and look at why it bothers you. That’s kind of my thought when you say that

Deb Sheppard 23:36
When it bothers you, I think is the key. If you’re looking at a spiritual path or opening yourself to that whatever books you read, whatever person people, situations you go to, they are learning as well. So remember that that don’t take everything on that value. Again, like you just said, question it. And when people question I’m like, yes, because that also makes me go deeper. When someone asked me a question, if I’ve been believing in something for a long period of time, when I get questionned, it’s really good because I get to go a little deeper too, and go well maybe have to think about that again. And one of those topics is karma.

Dana 24:12
Yes, that’s a big one for me, too.

Deb Sheppard 24:14
So in a spiritual belief, a lot of people you know, say karma, you know what happens to somebody else, or if you do something bad, it’s gonna come back though.

Dana 24:23
Or karma is gonna get you.

Deb Sheppard 24:24
Karma is gonna get you

Dana 24:25
Or they deserve their karma coming back, or they deserve what karma is going to give them or you know, stuff like that. Yeah.

Deb Sheppard 24:32
And there’s people in my life that drive me crazy or have hurt me and I want karma for them. But that’s not what I believe I just say it as a that’s yeah,

Dana 24:38
It’s very dogmatic.

Deb Sheppard 24:39
It’s very dogmatic. What you’re saying is someone deserves to be punished. What I believe in and what I what we teach is that we’re here to learn and so we have people are like that may causes pain to learn. And so what is the experience? How do we you know, learn from that grow from that. What is our inner guidance telling us? How do we move forward?

Dana 24:57
When I took your Soul Contracts class – at the time you were teaching it, this was like seven years ago. But at the time you were teaching it as you believe more in Dharma as in an exchange of energy.

Deb Sheppard 25:10
Correct.

Dana 25:11
But that inspired me to dig deeper into it. Because I’m like, we hear about this karma thing all the time, like karma, this karma that. It’s an overused word, in my opinion. And it made me dig deeper. That’s actually when I started digging into the Hindu belief system. And it inspired me to listen to the Bhagavad Gita, which they had. They they have the Hindu faith has a very interesting take on karma, which I really believe, which I think, you know, we’ve talked about

Deb Sheppard 25:44
Go ahead and explain it. I love the way you explain it.

Dana 25:47
Well, karma being, the law of attraction versus your thoughts are things. So when we talk about manifesting, or the law of attraction with what you think is what you create, what you think about yourself, is what you create within yourself, what you think about the outside world is what you’re going to create, etc, thoughts or things? Right, right. That’s what karma actually means. In the eastern, the old version, the original, the Western version, is dogma, punishment. Or if you do good, you’re gonna get good back,

Deb Sheppard 26:26
Which we don’t see happening all the time. So that’s why there’s a twist to it. But to me, when people want to punish someone with karma, it’s, it’s the same belief system of religion of, you know, you’re gonna go to hell, you’re going to pay, you know, you’re not going to be accepted by God, things like that. So we have more of a an alignment with the Dharma. And if that’s a new word, it’s DHARMA.

Dana 26:45
Dharma and karma. Yeah. And in the original version.

Deb Sheppard 26:50
And these terms are taken way, way back too – just like the Bible and Christianity and other types of Judaism, all this, you know, older religions. And as time has changed, all those things have changed. Dogma, and really, and fear came into a lot of belief systems in order to control the masses, because humans got a little crazy, right? So there’s a fear and things like that, that continued, and I think there’s still so much of that in it, you know, for people to have fear to come see me versus when they have the experience and go from there.

Dana 27:20
I was just gonna say to learning that the Bhagavad Gita, and all the Vedas were written 1000s of years before the newer religion.

Deb Sheppard 27:32
Correct

Dana 27:33
Before Jesus came into existence, and Muhammad and Buddha, and you know, those belief systems, the karma. Karma is actually from that ancient time. Yeah. And it’s brought forward

Deb Sheppard 27:50
I think, going back to ancient times, with any faith, a belief system is, is good. But I also think that our evolution on a spiritual – as a soul. If our souls haven’t evolved, but our souls do evolve. And if they’ve evolved, some of the old teachings are not applied. So our applica so when you look at Old Testament, or old verses of any faith, there are things that were applied because of the law of the land, or what was happening in that culture.

Deb Sheppard 28:21
As we’ve evolved, some, maybe not everybody, but as we’ve evolved on a soul, spiritual lesson, or life, things need to adapt to that. And I think that’s where I get a little bit irritated or agitated of, we’re in a new place. And spirituality is more about making sure our planet survives, making sure that there’s peace on this planet. You know, I don’t know what’s going to happen to our planet if we continue the way we’re going.

Deb Sheppard 28:49
But I know that our souls never end. And I think that’s the difference of doing the work I do. I don’t believe that. I believe the body ends, but never the soul. So what happens to our soul? And that really is everything about our belief system, no matter what faith religion. If you’re agnostic, if you’re Christian, if you’re Jewish, if you’re Hindu, if doing all of this work, with testing and with evidence, it’s really about what happens to our soul and why we’re here.

Deb Sheppard 29:20
So I think my biggest suggestion in all this is really go deep into why you have a faith or why do you believe a certain way? Or what do you think your purpose is, which we talk about in my program is, it’s what are you here to learn? It’s not about what you’re here to do as a job because I think people want to know, what is my job? What does God want me to do? What am I supposed to be fulfilling? And how do we then fulfill our hearts and souls and make a difference? And is your faith helping you support your growth?

Deb Sheppard 29:54
But I think the biggest thing that I’m getting here right now is what if you have absolutely no faith at all? You know, I think for the individuals in life that have had such horrible things, and when we talked about your childhood, thank goodness you had whatever in your soul that was wired to have a compass to get out of that and figure it out. How many people feel like, there is nothing out there, there’s nothing for them on a soul level or souls purpose. And how devastating that would be to be in that space. I can see your wheels going. So yeah.

Deb Sheppard 30:31
I think the biggest thing to walk away with for anyone here is figure out what works for you. I think the hardest thing for anyone to question, especially a religious belief is a loss of family and friends. And that’s certainly was what’s happened to me. But I know that I don’t want to live, being not authentic, and to change who I am to be in those relationships. I can love them from afar and love that they have a faith for themselves, and that they truly believe what they believe in what they’re doing is right. But I’m not going to change just to be accepted.

Dana 31:05
Right.

Deb Sheppard 31:05
And I think also, your your life purpose is an inside job. It’s all about what’s inside of you. I think every single one of us have our own compass. And we’re designed to look at how do we believe? How do we move forward? What do we want to do? But we ignore that because maybe it’s easier, easier. We don’t want to be judged. we don’t know what to look for. And the biggest thing, we don’t want to do it wrong.

Dana 31:35
Say the first part of that, again,

Deb Sheppard 31:37
Our purpose basically is an inside job.

Dana 31:41
I love that

Deb Sheppard 31:41
Because it’s what’s inside. And when something doesn’t work. That’s where the karma or the Dharma that we talked about, you’re not receiving in life, what you are expecting, because you’re really not living to your authentic self. You’re living what other people are expecting.

Dana 32:00
I love that. Great insight.

Deb Sheppard 32:03
Well, I think that’s how we found each other no matter what other people say about us. Right? We’re here. We’re here doing it. But also, whether you pray or whether you meditate, whether you do yoga, you’re mindful, you take care of the planet. It really all comes down to your love and your kindness to your fellow human being. And I think even more importantly, are you kind and loving of yourself? Because if you are kind of loving to yourself, you’ll expect the universe to take care of you and for you to question things until you find the answer that works for you. It’s an inside job