The Smoke Trail Ep 10: Cultivating Awareness for Heart Mind Coherence with Danielle "Dani” Brooks
S1 EPISODE 10
Episode 10: "Cultivating Awareness for Heart-Mind Coherence" with Danielle "Dani" Brooks
Guest: Danielle "Dani" Brooks – A coach specializing in emotional healing and personal transformation, integrating plant medicine and practical tools to help clients uncover their true selves. She has a background in nutritional therapy and has been on a spiritual journey since her early twenties, inspired by "Autobiography of a Yogi" at age 24.
Setting: Smoke and Dani in Sedona’s tranquil environment connecting for a deep dive into awareness and healing.
Summary
In this episode, Smoke and Dani explore the intersection of spirituality, trauma, and personal growth. Smoke shares his journey of uncovering childhood trauma through plant medicine, guided by Dani, who has been instrumental in his healing process. Dani recounts her own path, starting with struggles like negative self-talk, emotional eating, and substance use, and her transition from a nutritional therapist to a coach integrating plant medicine for rapid healing. They discuss the stages of spiritual growth, using Smoke’s framework of "Clean Up, Grow Up, Wake Up" and Dani’s four phases: letting go, identity crisis, acclimation to truth, and managing ego. The conversation highlights the concept of emotional "hairballs"—unprocessed emotions as stuck energy—and the importance of letting go of stories attached to past events. Practical techniques like journaling, letter-writing for forgiveness, and mirror work are shared as effective tools for healing. They emphasize the power of awareness, presence, and the role of the ego in personal transformation, culminating in a live awareness exercise led by Dani, guiding listeners to ground themselves, notice their surroundings, and open their hearts for greater coherence.
Dani’s book can be ordered here:
Learnings
The episode offers several actionable insights for personal growth:
- Stages of Spiritual Growth: Smoke’s "Clean Up, Grow Up, Wake Up" framework, complemented by Dani’s four phases, provides a roadmap for spiritual development, emphasizing cleaning up trauma, personal growth, and awakening to higher consciousness.
- Processing Emotions: Both discuss unprocessed emotions as "hairballs" of stuck energy, suggesting that awareness and non-attachment to stories can release these blocks, fostering emotional freedom.
- Forgiveness Through Writing: A practical tool involves writing letters to express rage and then forgiveness toward those who caused trauma, eventually leading to understanding and release, as exemplified by Smoke’s experience.
- Mirror Work for Self-Love: Dani shares her breakthrough with mirror work, staring into a mirror to confront self-criticism, which helped her overcome feelings of unworthiness and cultivate self-love.
- Cultivating Awareness: The most critical practice is cultivating presence and consciousness, with Dani leading a live exercise at the episode’s end, instructing listeners to ground in their body, notice sounds, and open their hearts for mind-heart coherence.
Universal Truths
The conversation reveals several philosophical insights:
- Energy Dynamics: Everything—thoughts, emotions, experiences—is energy that can be managed through awareness and intention, aligning with the podcast’s focus on vibrational resonance.
- Awareness as Liberation: Observing without judgment can free one from past traumas and ego traps, emphasizing consciousness as a tool for sovereignty and peace.
- Cyclical Nature of Growth: Spiritual and personal growth isn’t linear; it involves cycles of letting go, identity crises, and integration, often accelerated by practices like plant medicine.
- Ego Management: The ego can be transcended or transformed through love and non-engagement, with Dani suggesting "swiping left" on ego-driven impulses to maintain true freedom.
Examples
The episode is rich with personal anecdotes:
- Smoke’s Healing Journey: Smoke details how plant medicine and Dani’s guidance helped him process childhood trauma, using forgiveness and understanding to release emotional burdens.
- Dani’s Transformation: Dani shares her battle with emotional eating and substance use, her shift to counseling, and her development of coaching programs using food and later plant medicine, illustrating her own growth.
- Letter-Writing Exercise: Smoke’s specific example of writing letters to express and process emotions, leading to forgiveness, highlights a practical application of the discussed tools.
- Mirror Work: Dani’s personal breakthrough with mirror work, overcoming self-criticism, serves as a tangible example of self-love in action.
- Awareness in Business: Smoke mentions his struggle with staying present during business calls, overcoming it by consciously turning off distractions, showing the relevance of presence in professional life.
Smoke Trail Threads
This episode builds on and connects to previous discussions:
- Forgiveness and Letting Go: Echoes Episode 7 (Luke Wallin) and Episode 8 (Liv Fisch), where forgiveness and releasing burdens were central, with Dani’s letter-writing aligning with Luke’s forgiveness of enemies.
- Presence and Awareness: Continues from Episode 9 (Steve Hershberger), where gratitude and presence were key, with Dani’s awareness exercise reinforcing Steve’s focus on dropping stones.
- Plant Medicine as a Tool: A recurring theme throughout the podcast, with Smoke’s Nepal epiphany (Episode 1) and guests’ experiences, highlighting its role in transformation.
- Ego and Sovereignty: Tied to Episode 9’s discussion on dropping ego’s burdens, emphasizing personal sovereignty through conscious choice, as discussed with Dani.
The Smoke Trail - Episode 10 Pre-Show Q&A with Danielle "Dani" Brooks
Introduction
*The Smoke Trail* explores life, spirituality, and enlightenment amid the material world’s challenges. Each episode dives into a guest’s unique journey—uncovering what matters, facing shadows, and sharing lessons to inspire others. Leadership runs through it, especially how personal growth shapes decisions. Below, Danielle "Dani" Brooks answers pre-show questions for Episode 10, “Cultivating Awareness for Heart-Mind Coherence,” offering a deeper look into our dialogue. These insights spark reflection for listeners. Connect with her at [DanielleBrooks.com](https://www.daniellebrooks.com/).
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Bio
Danielle "Dani" Brooks is a coach dedicated to emotional healing and self-discovery, using plant medicine integration and practical tools like journaling and mirror work to guide clients to their true selves. Formerly a nutritional therapist, she transformed her own struggles with emotional eating and self-doubt, sparked by *Autobiography of a Yogi* at 24. Now, she empowers entrepreneurs and seekers to achieve heart-mind coherence, sharing her experiential wisdom through her book, *The Extraordinary Ordinary You*.
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Journey of Self-Discovery
Q: Please share a pivotal moment or experience in your life that shaped your understanding of what truly matters. When you realized what truly mattered to you, did it challenge or conflict with how you were living at the time? How did you reconcile that?
A: No single moment flipped the switch—selling my company, ending a relationship, and moving states were mini-moments that built my knowing: love—expressing, experiencing, sharing it—is what matters. I was on an unconscious treadmill, chasing money, success, significance, believing wealth bought happiness. That clashed with my truth. I reconciled it gradually as my beliefs shifted, choosing presence and joy over societal scripts, living more awake each day.
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Overcoming Shadows
Q: What internal challenges or fears have you faced, and how did overcoming them shape your personal philosophy or leadership style? What’s one shadow or fear that still lingers for you today? How do you confront it, and what does it teach you about yourself?
A: Judgment was my big hurdle. I faced it by noticing it every time it popped up, letting it go repeatedly until it faded. This freed my leadership—replacing judgment with curiosity and presence, I now seek to understand, not dismiss, focusing on others’ paths. A lingering shadow? Fear of not having enough money, wired by society’s materialism. I counter it with trust—“all is well”—and each scare blooms into growth, proving I have everything I need within.
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Spiritual Awakening
Q: How has your understanding of spirituality evolved? How have you integrated this understanding into your life? Have you ever faced skepticism or criticism for incorporating spirituality into your leadership? How do(did) you stay true to yourself in the face of that?
A: I once saw God as a jealous, sky-bound judge, per church teachings. Now, I know Source—spirit, universe—is in, through, around all, unconditional and indescribable. Family skepticism stings, uneasy with my shift from their beliefs. I stay true by owning their judgments as theirs, not mine, biting my tongue while honoring my path. Cultivating awareness keeps me grounded, resisting old paradigms’ pull, living my truth despite the friction.
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Balancing Material and Spiritual Life
Q: How do you navigate the tension between pursuing material success and staying aligned with your spiritual or personal values? Was there a time when you felt trapped by the pursuit of material success? What did it take to break free, and what advice would you give others in the same position?
A: I was caged by my company, managing 18 employees, chasing success over soul. Selling it took guts and self-trust, embracing a month-to-month life until my path emerged. Now, I follow the unfolding—fun, free, sharing my gifts, from CEOs to family mediations. Advice? Find courage, ditch society’s “shoulds,” and leap. Trust you’ll never be homeless, always loved—you are. Do what lights your heart.
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Leadership and Enlightenment
Q: What does enlightened leadership mean to you, and can you share an example of how you’ve practiced it in your work? Have you ever made a leadership decision that, in hindsight, went against your personal values? What did you learn from that moment?
A: Enlightened leadership drops ego—expectations, status, outcomes—for integrity, kindness, and a “we” mindset, serving company, people, planet. I coach CEOs to evolve this way, showing conscious choices yield better teams and profits. Keeping unfit employees from a “no one left behind” belief hurt more than helped. I learned slow hires, quick fires build purpose-driven teams that thrive, aligning values with abundance.
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Lessons from Adversity
Q: What is the most significant lesson you’ve learned from a failure or challenging period, and how has it influenced your approach to life and leadership? During your darkest moments, what thought or belief kept you going? If you could speak to yourself in that moment now, what would you say? Have you ever taken a stand on an issue that was deeply personal but controversial? How did you navigate the fallout, and what lessons did you draw from the experience.
A: I learned I’m enough. Society screams for more—big house, fat savings—but I swapped money’s cost for freedom, love, passion. No job, no identity, no partner, I leaned on “remain unmoving until right action arises,” giving me space to be. It unfolded beyond imagination, guiding my coaching. I’d say nothing—I needed that void to find myself. Not knowing who you are is the edge of knowing.
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Unusual or Supernatural Experiences
Q: Many of us have had unusual or supernatural experiences but never talk about them. Sometimes we call these synchronicities. Can or will you share such an experience you’ve never shared publicly before? Or would you elaborate on one you have shared?
A: On mushrooms, I sat in God’s lap for four hours—pure awe, understanding myself and the universe. Asking for humility brought a universal bitchslap, facing selfishness, fear, unworthiness. Owning it freed me. Now, my intuition’s sharp—nudges are treasure hunts. I’m also budding at non-physical communication, excited to grow this gift.
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Influence and Impact
Q: Who or what has had the most profound influence on your journey, and how has it shaped your understanding of life and leadership?
A: Mentor Laurie Ivers taught me self-trust over three years, showing me how to fish—she led by example, shaping my leadership to empower others’ knowing. Masters like Eckhart Tolle, the Dalai Lama, Siddhartha, Jesus, and shamans bridging worlds inspire me to live beyond constructs, guiding with curiosity and heart.
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Practices for Inner Peace
Q: What practices or habits keep you grounded and aligned with your purpose amidst the pressures of leadership? When life feels chaotic, what’s the one non-negotiable practice or belief that brings you back to clarity? Why does it work for you?
A: I ground daily, centering in my body with a quiet mind—it’s my tool for conscious choice, not reactive muck. Awareness is non-negotiable, letting me pick actions, words, responses deliberately. It works because it anchors me in self-mastery, clear and free, no matter the storm.
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Mentorship and Guidance
Q: Who do you turn to for advice or mentorship, and how have they helped you navigate personal and professional growth? Have you ever had to let go of a mentor or influence that no longer aligned with your growth? What did that process teach you about evolving relationships?
A: A mentor guided me for seven years, but I’ve outgrown some—when the student’s ready, the teacher appears. Now, I look within most, with mentors on tap if I’m stuck. Letting go taught me relationships evolve or fade, and that’s okay—growth reshapes who walks with you.
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Legacy and Wisdom Sharing
Q: What wisdom or advice would you pass on to the next generation of leaders about integrating life’s deeper lessons with leadership? What’s a decision or action you’ve taken that you’re most proud of, and how do you hope it will shape your legacy or impact the lives of others?
A: Shut up, listen, understand. Be humble, evolve the whole, hire slow, fire fast, choose consciously, stay kind. I’m proudest of living freely, sharing my path—it’s my legacy to show others they’re enough, sparking courage to trust their unfolding.