Maria Teresa Pratico-Swanson : Podcast Recording

[00:00:00] You’re listening to Women’s Dream Enlightenment. Dream decoding, deep discussions, and spiritual stories of self discovery to inspire your personal enlightened journey. I’m your host, Megan Mary, founder of Women’s Dream Analysis. Let’s bring in the light.  

Megan Mary – MeganMary: Welcome! Today we have Maria Teresa. She is a heart centered and highly conscious healer who embraces her sensitivities as superpowers. Having triumphed over her own traumatic experiences, Maria has emerged as an empowered psychic medium and channel with a unique ability to see souls. A published poet with six books of channeled poetry, she [00:01:00] inspires spiritual awakening, development, self love, and empowerment. Welcome Maria.

Maria Teresa: Hello, Megan. It’s good to be here. I

Megan Mary – MeganMary: you here. And I’m going to start out the way I do all of the episodes by asking you the pivotal question, what does enlightenment mean to you?

Maria Teresa: believe enlightenment is awakening to the truth viewed through the lens of soul. So the title of my sixth book is My Soul’s Dance, Accepting the Shadows While Embracing the Light, Poems of Death and Rebirth. And I believe that many of us are here to incorporate that . I know my life has been nothing but that.

Continuing change continuing death and rebirth and death and rebirth and just bringing the shadows to light and loving it all along the way

Megan Mary – MeganMary: I love that. I always love to hear people’s interpretation [00:02:00] and it’s always so unique. And of course, very much intertwined with your own personal story, which you’re going to share here today. So I really created this podcast as a means for women to be able to tell their stories of spiritual awakening, what happened to them, what led them down their path.

And then once they had that experience where they ended up. So. It’s usually a long story, but in a brief, in a brief way, what were some of the key highlights

Maria Teresa: oh my goodness key highlights well I did not realize or was aware that I was as sensitive as I am. Until it took me 40 years to learn this vehicle, this vessel that I’m in and life was incredibly uncomfortable. God set all my sense settings on high and trauma turned them all off.

I believe that I’m one of the light worker star seeds that has been [00:03:00] afraid of her own power and light my entire life. And I had to go through a series of experiences in order to stand in my truth and to be who I am. And that has taken an awfully long time , in linear time. But once I awakened that, you know, my life has not looked the same since that was in 2019.

I am now 47. So that was right after my 40, 41st birthday I’d say that some of the highlights are attempting suicide in 2011, I I call it the gift of my desperation. That was my bottom. Really opened me to something else, and having the courage to be curious enough to seek the truth within myself, because I was completely, I say it felt like being like a million piece puzzle dropped on the floor.

 I’ve just been trying to pick [00:04:00] up the pieces ever since that. And when I had a shamanic healing in 2019, I was ready to unearth the pit of my trauma, which was being sexually abused as a child. That session changed my whole life. And I’ve not looked back since. So it’s about , accepting myself for who I am and shining light and owning my gifts.

And these are all things that I ran from. I ran from spirit. I did not want to see and be and hear all the things that I was experiencing. They were quite scary. I had nobody to talk to them about. So. Yeah, it was really just about being comfortable in my own skin.

Megan Mary – MeganMary: Yeah, completely understandable, particularly when you’re highly sensitive and when you’re highly intuitive and when you’re picking up on all sorts of things throughout your life, but especially as a child, you’re told to just shut that down. And of course, we do shut down a lot of things just as a coping mechanism,

Maria Teresa: [00:05:00] Mm hmm.

Megan Mary – MeganMary: as a way to move forward in our life because we have to but we don’t realize that all of that is harboring and it’s causing disease and it’s causing all these other problems.

Maria Teresa: I’m very grateful for it. I’ve gotten to the point in my life where I am so grateful for everything I’ve experienced. Years of drug addiction, years of alcoholism and eating disorder, being sexually abused These things have, have shown me more of myself and I say I’ve turned pain into power.

So it’s the self love journey that really started from a very dark place. So yeah, and this is what I help other people to do now as a healer and writing the poetry that I do. And most recently in 23, starting to channel light language. And so it’s a combination of light language and poetry that just kind of emits from my body.

And I just allow, I say a lot of this is allowing and listening, listening and allowing and just being one [00:06:00] of my mantras is my being is freeing. I’m as free as I allow myself to be, and I am a very free spirit. I always have been. I’ve always been very different and unique. And those are things that I tried to hide in a way.

But now it’s just like, this is what I’m here to do. So I’m going to help other people be who they are, because that’s what our world needs right now.

Megan Mary – MeganMary: yes, I agree so much. And I recently discovered that, light language actually can also be in dance and it’s not necessarily speaking at all, that it’s actually freeing the being, using a bodily movement to express an emote and communicate things that can’t really be communicated in words, and I’ve seen you do that as well, and that was a moment for me.

Cause I was like, Oh, okay. I already knew how to do this and I just didn’t know what I was.

Maria Teresa: I love that you’re bringing this [00:07:00] up, Megan, because, receiving as many messages, messages as I do, Spirit started to share with me, like, you’re going to start doing all of it, Maria, we’re going to have you incorporating all of it. I am a dead head. I’m a hippie. I’ve, I’ve been a dancer my whole life.

I was trained dancing. So that was really how I first started to connect with my soul when I was young and just dance freely and do all these like movements. And then it’s all kind of just come right. It’s just this beautiful orchestration of soul, my own personal heart song, the words.

 The languages of soul that the different things that I do, they all come out in the sessions that I hold. I mean, we’re doing that no matter where we’re going. Our presence is affecting other people. Once you stand in your power and your light, you are activating others and we’re helping each other remember who we are and what we’re here to do.

It’s really just quite joyful. I’m in a very joyful place in my life, a very harmonious. Peaceful, joyful place.

Megan Mary – MeganMary: [00:08:00] Wonderful.

Maria Teresa: thank you.

Megan Mary – MeganMary: There’s something about dance that can be so freeing and healing that when you don’t have it, you really feel that empty lack of it, right? It’s

Maria Teresa: The heaviness.

Megan Mary – MeganMary: yeah, and yeah, and I’ve I remember someone that was empathic said that when they’re on the dance floor, they actually can’t handle it because everybody’s throwing off all of their energy and they’re getting rid of it.

 It’s a very interesting healing modality that I don’t think is recognized enough and that certain people are placed with that gift to share that in that way, because I’ve had some other people on the show that do light language and they speak it and I found that to be very fascinating when I first discovered it and when I first discovered it for myself, but Then again, there are so [00:09:00] many languages, right?

So many ways to communicate and beyond the physical five senses, right?

Maria Teresa: Yes. Yes. I love that you’re talking about all this because I feel like my parents could sense I was a super, super shy child and they put me into dance and that was my thing. I mean, that is just how I express myself. I wanted to be a dancer that the two dreams I had in life were to be a dancer and to be a writer.

And all these years later, who would have known that, I would have been quite successful with, with both of them just really being who I am and allowing all that to come through. And it is something again, just that allowing because wherever I go, I can’t help, but kind of shine and stand out and people are like, oh, and I’m just like, here I am

Megan Mary – MeganMary: Right.

Maria Teresa: to do my thing and it sparks other people, you know and it is so beautiful.

So, yeah, dancing, one of the questions a shaman would ask somebody in ancient times was, [00:10:00] when’s the last time you sang? And when was the last time you danced? And if you hadn’t done those 2 things, there was a sickness in your soul. And those are things I do on a daily basis. I speak like language to my dogs.

They, we have 6 German shepherds. The males especially understand it. I am always moving and shaking right now. I’m sitting in a rocking chair. Like, I’m somebody who has Has been given the gift of movement. So just go with it. Yesterday. I was working on some of my, like, computer stuff and that is hard for me.

I am somebody who really can’t sit in front of a computer like hours on end. And that is super sensory overload for me. In today’s world, these are why these things are happening. I’m here to say, it’s okay that you can’t do that. There’s many of us who weren’t wired to do that.

And I’ve always known that about myself. I’ve always had like to be connected to people before I, started focusing on my purpose full time. It was not sitting at a desk.

Megan Mary – MeganMary: And mentally I love it, but [00:11:00] physically it’s horrible for me, right? I mean, I’ve heard it called sitting disease and I definitely have

Maria Teresa: Hmm. Oh, I like that. I have sitting disease.

Megan Mary – MeganMary: yeah, and I was reading last night about the auric field and the auric body and the emotional aura and all of the other layers of energy that we cannot perceive.

Well, some of us can, but that we cannot perceive visually. And it’s interesting to me what’s happening with those fields when we do movements. And how we exchange energy for good or bad in ways that we cannot visually see. And so I want to talk a little bit about the chakra balancing work that you do.

And transplants. I want to know a little bit about that too. Yes,

Maria Teresa: an energetic system, is out of balance, it will have [00:12:00] these, which looks like tar cords that are negative that needs to be removed from it. And that helps it spin and operate and glow the way that it needs to. And then transplanting chakras are just when that. specific place is like dead and it needs to be just completely removed.

And so I do a lot of this obviously through guidance and through, angels, dragons the, my, my team pretty much consists. of angels, dragons, galactic beings, and they helped me to do that. So I’m just a bridge for those things. And these are things that I’ve been able to be aware of for most of my life.

I feel like before I met the person who kind of taught me how to really hone these skills. I was born a healer, you know, when I first dropped into a session in my apprenticeship, I said, Oh, I’ve done this before. I’ve like totally done this before. I’m a toner and a chanter and I do a lot of channeling just things that that happened and come [00:13:00] out of me are just very they were not taught to me. They they are just coming through me. So it’s just tuning into somebody else’s system and seeing where they need a tune up. So to speak, I’m tuning souls. I’m a tuning people and sharing information along the way.

And, connecting to other people, to their guides, connecting to their loved ones. There’s so many things that go on in a session with me. My teacher would like to say that, you know, I’m like human drugs, like a mushroom in human form.

Megan Mary – MeganMary: Yeah, because there’s so much revealed, right?

Maria Teresa: Depending it’s an energetic exchange. So it’s whatever that person is. Is ready for an open for, and then we can just go back and forth. And so every session is different, because every person’s different. So that’s, that’s the interesting thing about energy. It’s what you’re ready for.

And then the discernment on, on my part of doing somebody’s highest and best good, it’s not [00:14:00] up to me. It’s not up to Maria. It’s, it’s up to my soul and my soul. Her name is Serena and that is my most recent past life. And so I’m very aware of these things. That’s also something I was gifted with is knowing and understanding many of my past lives and what I’m here to do to incorporate in this life.

And yeah, it gets pretty out there.

Megan Mary – MeganMary: But it’s commonplace for this podcast. So a lot of, a lot

Maria Teresa: Oh, good. I’m glad.

Megan Mary – MeganMary: all my listeners have pretty much heard a lot of this.

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Megan Mary – MeganMary: I want to talk about soul retrieval . Did you, I would imagine, have to first go through that yourself?

Maria Teresa: Yes. Yes. That was what occurred in my first session

Megan Mary – MeganMary: Mm hmm.

Maria Teresa: my teacher. She retrieved a piece of my soul from a past life. And literally Megan, that’s why I say my life has not looked the same since it was like, Oh, I’m here. Okay. And I was angry. The beginning parts of my awakening were like a lot of anger.

And what’s going on here? I just felt very discombobulated. [00:16:00] Like I had to learn things in a very kind of backwards way, if that makes sense. But yeah, and then the second. Session I had with her was me raising my own vibration, which felt like an earthquake in my body and just bringing myself up to where I needed to, just by her connecting our energetic fields, it kind of like burst me, like almost like, the paddles that they rub and just, that’s what it felt like, it was like, Oh, okay, I’m here.

Megan Mary – MeganMary: Mm hmm.

Maria Teresa: And understanding that in other people, seeing where pieces are left behind and incorporating that into them. And they say, give it time, this kind of healing is incredibly deep and profound and it takes a time to integrate. So give yourself grace, rest, drink a lot of water.

And, and things will change over time, but it’s so beautiful to watch that. And other people, it’s a pay it forward for me. It’s doing for others what was done for me. [00:17:00] And it’s just so beautiful. And now when things like overtake me, like last night I was hit with like a ton of light language, just like the soul shiver came on me.

And I was just speaking in, in light language it’s an interesting time.

Megan Mary – MeganMary: Yeah, I like the term soul shiver, because I have definitely had that. I know exactly what you’re talking about. I put it in my books. I tried to explain it for people who are like, oh, I know what that is. And it’s hard to explain. It’s hard to quantify. And when I don’t get them for a while, I think, oh, no, am I doing

Maria Teresa: Yeah.

Megan Mary – MeganMary: But I think that it’s just that goes through periods where you’re getting in a lot, it’s very intense, and you’re just kind of along for the ride, and then you’ve kind of gotten your information, and then you have a break. Right?

Maria Teresa: Yes. Yes. We can’t constantly. This is what I say to people, that I help guide. It’s like, we can’t constantly be in a flow state. That would be craziness. We would be not grounded. We would be, up [00:18:00] and living in our upper chakras all the time and that’s not doable. It’s not good on the human body.

Megan Mary – MeganMary: it’s desirable though, I have to say, this whole

Maria Teresa: there’s a high to it. Yeah, there’s a high to it. So I have somebody I’m guiding now and we were joking around and she was like, can I just mainline all this light Maria? And I was like,

Megan Mary – MeganMary: Huh.

Maria Teresa: it’s, it sounds great. And I do understand that because when I’m in a session, that is the greatest high surpassing any drug I’ve put into my body.

It is amazing. But then I also come down and and be in my body and connect to Mother Earth and and rest and that for me, a lot of my journey has been learning balance and boundaries based on the way that I was raised in a lot of chaos and dysfunction. And finding my way in the world has really been a lot of balance and boundaries and saying no.

And I’m free spirit. I’m fun. I like people, but I also have learned to really value and respect and give myself [00:19:00] grace in quiet. That’s, it’s essential to do this work. I can’t just keep going, going, going, going. I know burnout is real. Burnout is something you don’t want. It hurts.

Megan Mary – MeganMary: Yes Yeah, initially when I experienced my whole thing I was just kind of like I don’t I don’t want to do grounding. I don’t want to do earthing I don’t want to be here. What why would I do that? And so I’m starting to realize the importance of it because it’s Keeping you here to do the work you need to do.

And it’s like, yes, you can go there and you can have these floodgates, but like you said, then, then you’re not going to be here to, spread the message and help the people and do all those things.

Maria Teresa: Yeah. It’s a marriage between ego and soul. Like I can say that most of my life, especially being the channel that I am, I’ve spent most of my life outside my body, Megan. So I can tell you that that is highly dangerous. It has put me in some really precarious places and [00:20:00] places where, I know I’m divinely guided and protected, but there’s no logical reasons why I shouldn’t even be here.

 So when I first was popped back into my body, I was like, Ooh, this is like, what is this? This is like and now I can sense that, you know, I’m very aware of like, when I’m like, and when I’m like, like just the, the, the levels and it’s important for me cause I can go.

It’s easy for me.

Megan Mary – MeganMary: where we’re from.

Maria Teresa: exactly.

Megan Mary – MeganMary: Mm hmm. Yeah, I get that.

Maria Teresa: Yeah.

Megan Mary – MeganMary: Well, I also love that you’re a writer because that is something I’ve recently stepped into. Not that I It wasn’t always, right, but I think the first things that I ever wrote were poetry, and that was what I liked to do the most, and it was only in the last couple of years that I actually stepped into much longer stories, but poetry was my [00:21:00] first love, really, and I think that in its brevity, it can be so profound.

Maria Teresa: Am always like when I put a manuscript together, I am and I look at things I’ve written because I, you know, channeling, they just come out. I literally write things. Most of my work is done in minutes. It’s like done and then I move on to the next and I move on to the next. And so the blog is really helped me.

Look at those things and then putting books together has helped me look at what I’ve written I mean at this point I have six published and six unpublished And they just come they’re just they’re just messages. And so when I read them I go, huh Wow.

Megan Mary – MeganMary: yes,

Maria Teresa: But I’ve always been somebody like, you know, I say God gave me all of these gifts and senses, but I also was given the gift of articulation and being able to document it.

And so that is something that is held dear to me when I was in a hospital after mental breakdowns and the suicide attempt, given a journal. [00:22:00] That was my lifeline writing has saved my life over and over and over and over again. That’s really the inception of emotional musings was to show people that you’re not crazy, that you can heal and you’re not alone.

And so getting all of those thoughts down, really, really saved me and then reading them again. And then when people bring up something to me and I read it again, I go, huh? Wow. I don’t have words for it. I am never not awe inspired by all of this and what we’re here to, to do and to remind people of and to share.

 One of my prayers every day is to , clear my channel and to give me a humble servant’s heart in order to allow these things to come through because that’s really all I want to do is just help other people.

Megan Mary – MeganMary: Yeah, I like that. I really like that. And, having the gift of words and then also having no words because

Maria Teresa: I mean, that just the, the, the paradox of it all. Well, and to bring that up, Megan, like my partner we’re very, very different [00:23:00] and he is a much more quiet, private, he says that to me a lot, Maria, Maria, you need both. You need a good balance of both and we definitely are yin and yang.

Megan Mary – MeganMary: Oh, yeah.

Maria Teresa: And, you know, I think being around people like that helps us to embrace those things within us. It’s that perfect mirror. That’s what he does for me at least, you know?

Megan Mary – MeganMary: hmm. Yeah. And I think that’s the gift of writing too, is when you can have the gift of words and articulate what you’re feeling or experiencing, that instantly allows someone else to mirror their experience in your words and go that’s exactly it and I could have never written that down and I could have never explained it that way but you hit the nail on the head and I think the reason that we do write is because there’s people out there that need that resonance.

They need to hear it back and so there has to be people to write it so that they can [00:24:00] hear it back.

Maria Teresa: Well, I always say, I’m a poet troubadour. That’s what I’m here to do. I’m like, you know, everything I do is, is very like ancient and kind of old and original is what what’s coming out of me. I’m a very old soul. And so I agree with you. And there was a few months I’ve actually ceased doing it, but I was holding space and it was called words with wings.

And it was me and a girlfriend of mine. Sharing our poetry and holding space for others to share their stories. And it was just this beautiful, what you just explained this little container of nourishment for people and I want to expand that and maybe do that in different ways.

And that’s, that’s why I share what I share, you know, that’s why I do what I do. I actually have a poem here that I wanted to share

Megan Mary – MeganMary: Yes, please.

Maria Teresa: that I was. told to bring to this little chat with us. Okay. It’s called fire feathered flight, bathed in spirit, blessed in light, holding onto what I’ve learned by the [00:25:00] glow of moonlight.

I’m strong in my convictions. I know who I am. Soul resonance rings out like a church bell. Calling me in words to the altar of my being inside the sacred halls. I am safe in the knowing protected, guided, and openly enlightened traveling the path my soul chose to take sovereignty lies in spiritual truths, singing, dancing, and chanting, taking careful steps.

Discerning the angles and the edges, Climbing the levels of awakened ascension, Invisible staircase to the heavens, Bidding farewell to the past, Washed clean from the ash, Flying towards my destiny, Cloud shaped forms delight in joyful laughter, Peace is mine forever after. Hehehehe.

Megan Mary – MeganMary: Thank you so much for sharing that. And there’s so many reflections of what we were talking about

Maria Teresa: Yeah, well, that’s why I bought that one. I actually wear this. [00:26:00] My, partner bought this for me and we have a yin and a yang with dragons on them. And I am the Phoenix, you know, that is, I am the Phoenix. I am very much embodying that that story and that role for sure. For sure. And I’m also mostly fire.

I’m a double sag. Actually, I have a sag stellium. So I’ve got Sagittarius sun, moon, Neptune and Venus.

Megan Mary – MeganMary: Oh, I’m Sagittarius Rising.

Maria Teresa: There we go. There’s our connection.

You still, got that fire. I’ve always been very interested in astrology and I follow a lot of things and I listened to two people they’re like my go to people, Molly McCord and Pam Gregory. I love them so much, but I’ve always been interested, ever since I was a child, I’ve just had this innate question and curiosity about energy.

And so learning more about yourself, and that’s really what astrology is just the blueprint of your own energy. And then being human and holding free will it’s all within our [00:27:00] hands to reach that destiny and nothing is ever going to pass us by. So, all of these sparks and things, which we’re beginning now, because we’re moving into this, beautiful creation period with tomorrow’s equinox we’re all going to start doing new things, things that are going to. Enlighten us and keep us, keep us enjoy. And I always say to people, do what lights you up. And if you don’t know what lights you up, try a whole bunch of things. I am here to inspire others to have the adventure through experience. And I’ve experienced so many different, I say a lot of lifetimes in this one lifetime.

And I just, I keep going. I don’t stop.

Megan Mary – MeganMary: Yes. And I love that too. I’m so happy that you were able to share your story and your really personal experience and that you’ve been able to emerge, like you said, like the Phoenix from it and really give that back [00:28:00] and be a light for everyone else. So where can people find you if they want to work with you and they want to know more about everything that you offer?

Maria Teresa: Everything I do is emotional musings. I am on all platforms except for Facebook. If you go to emotional musings, my website, you click on services, it’ll bring you to the musing shaman, which is all of my services and yeah, emotional musings, Maria Teresa, that’s where you can find me.

Megan Mary – MeganMary: And that actually makes me happy because I am one of the only people that says I’m on everything but Facebook. So you’re the only other person who’s said that.

Maria Teresa: Girlfriend, I got off Facebook in 2020, right before the COVID. I was like, I got to get off this platform. It’s just not for me. My son’s got me onto Tik Tok and that’s where I do a lot of my poetry, but everything pretty much crosses over, and then you and I met on LinkedIn.

So. I’m active there and my blog, mostly, I post once a month, but I’ve had that blog since 2018. So there’s, there’s a [00:29:00] wealth of information there. It should hopefully one day will be a book. The blog itself.

Megan Mary – MeganMary: Oh, good. Yeah. It’s got, you’ve got all the foundation laid.

Maria Teresa: I have. I’ve done a lot of work.

Megan Mary – MeganMary: All right. Well, thank you so much again for being here, Maria. I really appreciate it. And for sharing your story.

Maria Teresa: Thank you, Megan. In light and in shadow, always with love. Namaste.

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