My former client, Linda Neff, and I discuss how our quiet time rituals have evolved over the years and why it’s something that we continue to show up for daily.
Bringing purpose and ritual to the start of each day is a powerful elixir for the rest of the day. Today, I introduce the practice of "Quiet Time," a daily ritual in my life since I was a teenager. Through the decades, it's become increasingly valuable and how I access my wise inner teacher. I’ve worked closely with today’s guest, Linda Neff, and introduced her to quiet time and tuning into the innate wisdom within.
In our conversation, we discuss how our quiet time rituals have evolved over the years and why it’s something that we continue to show up for daily.
We’re all inundated with outside influences and noise, but when I have my morning quiet time, I find that I can move through life more intuitively and connected. In this episode, Linda and I look back on periods of our lives where quiet time really shifted what we were feeling and provided us the space to proceed in a more aligned way.
Linda and I share some of the props and elements of our routines that have been supportive throughout the years, such as journaling, reading, or sometimes simply sitting in silence. Linda also opens up about what’s been coming up for her in quiet time during this season of her life.
Listen in to learn about what quiet time is and why it's where I start with my clients.
If you enjoy these conversations, please subscribe and spread the love by leaving a review and sharing it with your friends.
Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, TuneIn, or on your favorite podcast platform.
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Dana Frost 00:07
Welcome to Vitally You, a podcast created to introduce you to the tools that will be your roadmap for feeling younger while growing older. I'm your host Dana Frost, a wellness expert, life coach and energy medicine practitioner. Here's what you can expect conversations about vitality from the inside out with guest experts in the field of health, culture and spirituality, and solo episodes along the way from me where I do deep dives into the topics of aging, heart intelligence, energy, medicine, and your innate capacity to heal. If you want to feel younger, while growing older, this is the place for you.
Dana Frost 00:52
Hi, everyone. This is Dana Frost, your host coming to you this week for a special episode that is part solo and part guest appearance of a very dear person in my life. So stay tuned to meet my guest. Now in a previous episode this year, I mentioned a daily practice that I call quiet time. And I urge you to let me know if you would like me to dedicate an episode to the topic and several of you said yes. So today we are diving into quiet time. So what is quiet time, the idea of a quiet time in my life started when I was in high school and involved with an organization called young wife. Now Young Life is a Christian organization whose mission is to support young people with the love of Jesus Christ. The adults who supported me through young life, they were I will tell you, they were a lifeline and a lighthouse.
Dana Frost 01:43
They weren't pushy or legalistic. It did not feel agenda driven. Really rather it truly provided a framework of love and acceptance that became a bedrock for my own spiritual life. Now in young life, we had these weekly meetings called campaigners. And we would study passages from the Bible and talk about real life like, Hey, how is this passage related to the everyday life that you're leading really was so such a significant influence in my life. And in this setting of weekly campaigners quiet time was introduced as this opportunity to talk to God to set aside time to communicate with the Creator. And I was a spiritually curious teenager and I, I took them to task I started having regular quiet time. And guess what I've never stopped. I learned during this impressionable time in my life, the value of setting time aside to be quiet, and seek spiritual counsel. Now, my quiet time has definitely evolved through the years, but the purpose has remained consistent. And this purpose is to nourish the connection between myself and Divine Source energy.
Dana Frost 03:04
Now, we obviously don't all share the same perspective of what that Divine Source Energy is, who we each consider God is what we feel about guides in the plural, the Holy Spirit, we have lots of different faiths, and some of us have no faith at all. Even still, I believe there is a tremendous value in this daily ritual, where the outside voices and influences are quieted. And you can tune in to your own soul voice. This daily quiet time ritual, it is more valuable. This is what I really just I'm 56. And so you know, I started this in high school. And I see that it is even more valuable now because of this 24/7 connection through our devices to targeted propaganda. We are bombarded with noise. And this propaganda that if allowed, takes us further away from our own inner knowing the why our wise inner teacher, it really holds our answers. It knew us before we came into this world, it's been with us it's recorded everything that's ever happened. It is connected to Divine Source Energy.
Dana Frost 04:27
There's a deep well of wisdom that resides within. And that's the counterbalance to this temptation to mold ourselves into what the outside world tells us. We should be by this, eat this believe this, do this. The goalpost is always changing and you can never be enough you can never achieve enough or do enough. So really in order to take dominion over the influences in our lives and create Eight beautiful boundaries around the voices we allow to cross sacred lines that we draw. This is our responsibility. It's our soul's desire to create these sacred, beautiful boundaries. And how do we create them?
Dana Frost 05:18
How do we create sacred beautiful boundaries, the way I believe that I have found and you know, this is just my experience, the way is found in the quiet, your way is found in the quiet, because we are all unique, and all of the complexities and dynamics in your life matter. And your complexities are different than mine. And your experiences are different than mine. However, there is this energy that connects us all together, we cannot ignore what we can ignore that there exists a divine energy that connects all of us. And we're not going to know where to draw the sacred line, if our hearts and heads are full of outside voices. If your world is always noisy, the still small voice of divine wisdom that comes from within, she's not going to come out and play with you. She's just not she it's a still small voice.
Dana Frost 06:23
And actually, there was a I got that insight from studying my Bible as a young person, the first three decades of my life for decades. But I can promise you that when you become quiet and tune into her, she will bless you with messages, desires, traumas, asking to be cleared and sacred, beautiful boundary lines, you will need a lot of courage because I'm going to tell you there will be resistance. If this is a new practice for you. And you're going to see, my guest who comes on was resistant towards this idea of a quiet time when she was first my client. And we always have resistance when we embark on a new practice that is fully rooted in truth. And when we're swimming against the cultural tides, when we're swimming against our own patterned ways from our childhood, and from however many years and days we've lived on this planet. But I want to encourage you don't fight against the resistance, just let it slip away, just you're going to feel the resistance.
Dana Frost 07:28
And if you focus on it, it's going to become stronger because that saying what you focus on become stronger, it is very true. And so what you want to do is draw upon discipline, simply shift your focus into a daily practice of being still, even if you just come and say I'm going to be still some some of my clients will say Be still for two minutes. That's enough. If you're if you're starting at Ground Zero, start someplace that's really, easel easy. Start someplace that you know you're going to succeed. Give yourself a goal every day that you cannot miss that you will need discipline. And you know what I've experienced that discipline is kind of this dirty word today. But I will tell you a discipline is just as beautiful as a boundary and it's through discipline that all great people create and achieve. So what do you have to gain? If you follow the path of a daily quiet time, you will gain a coherent, calm sense of presence with yourself. And this calm sense of presence goes out with you into the world, you will gain a mind that is quieter and less agitated.
Dana Frost 08:40
You will gain guidance for your day, you will gain focus for your life and your day and focus for the activities that are worth your time. You will gain feelings that are fueling and regenerative and release hormones in your system that support immunity and health and healing. You will gain divine guidance, you will gain messages inspiration, you might even receive prophetic information. This has been very true for me. When we are connected to source energy there are no limitations, except those you believe. So let me share a little history of my quiet time. So for about two decades, it consisted of prayer requests, listening and documenting everything in a journal just like a good secretary. In two decades, this is more or less in I was in the middle of a major life transition and to be honest, I just I lost my words my I didn't have the energy to document anything to write anything down. You know previously I had prayer requests for people in my life and list and for myself and bla bla bla bla bla but I lost my words during my quiet time during this major life transition.
Dana Frost 10:00
But you know what I continued to show up. And I just simply said in the quiet, I was exhausted but present. And I will say there were buckets of tears. There were questions that were non verbally communicated, but very much so heard. I felt seen, I felt cradled and I felt cared for, even though the form of how I spent my time really dramatically changed from being a very active, guided time, to being a very just silent present time. And even though I was in this rough patch, I was imbued with such divine energy. It was visceral and comforting, deeply, deeply comforting. This taught me that I could lay aside this quiet time form that had been so active, and simply show up and be present with divine energy and allow all the communication to occur, without any words, just wordless, just wordless.
Dana Frost 11:08
And still, there was this energy that pulsed back and forth, up and down deep into the crevices of my soul, outward to people, my community, my intimate community, the people, I loved, the people I interfaced with this energy during this time, I knew that it was present when I went out into the world, but it's, I really felt this divine energy, I felt my, my chakras, I felt my energy field just open, and this light just emanate from me. And so words are even insufficient into explaining it to you. It was such a game changer for me. My relationship with divine energy blossomed, and it wasn't attached to a religion or a belief system. And as I said, words are insufficient in this moment to explain them, but if you know, you know, and if, you know, let me know, let me know if you know what I'm talking about. Because, you know, this is one of the reasons that I'm so connected to this person I'm bringing on in a few moments.
Dana Frost 12:19
So in this next part of our time together, I'm going to bring on a dear friend who has become a soul sister. She's been a client and she is a confidant and I love her dearly. She is Linda Neff. While Linda has been in the workforce for nearly four decades, with a deep commitment to her health and well being of women and girls, she describes herself as a soul on a journey. Linda's journey now includes her own quiet time practice where guess what everybody she rejoices in finding the quiet in the quiet. All the goosebumps right now. Please join me and welcoming Linda to the show. She is going to give us a peek into her quiet time journey. Hi there, Linda, welcome to the show.
Linda Neff 13:14
Hi, Dana. Thank you for having me.
Dana Frost 13:17
Yeah, it is it is really a deep honor to have you here. So, you know, I've already talked about who Linda is and how I know, Linda, and it's just such a pleasure to have this conversation that other people, this larger community of Vitalii, you can benefit from this experience with quiet time that Linda has had that in, in our coach friend soul partner relationship goes way back to when she actually was a client who came into my home and my home office and sat down in that client chair with me across from me. And we started engaging in this idea of quiet time. Right, Linda?
Linda Neff 14:04
Absolutely. And Dana, and you would talk even before that moment of walking into your beautiful office. You had been I had heard about you doing quiet time, we had been to a retreat together. And I had shared a room with you and you got up early to do quiet time and invited me and I'm like, Nope, I'm good. I'm really good. God is really comfortable. Yeah, yes. So you it's that saying the teacher appears when the students ready. So you would been there a lot, but I just wasn't ready as a student and then one day it just clicked like, oh my gosh, the power of just being able to be quiet. And you hear so many people talk about meditation and that for me II that seemed that that just seemed too much. I didn't know how to find my way into that. But once I could quiet, I realized just starting the morning, with a little bit of quiet time, is really an elixir for everything else that can happen throughout the day.
Dana Frost 15:23
I always say you have a beautiful way with words, and an elixir for how for your day for how you start your day for as you move through your day. Yeah, and, you know, quiet time is something that I bring in to for all of my clients, this idea of quieting the outside influences and tuning in to yourself and, and for some people it starts it can start truly with two minutes. You know, it doesn't, it's really you're telling your system that you're here and you're listening and you're present. So Linda, do you remember how it started for you when you began to get quiet in the morning before your day started?
Linda Neff 16:06
So you won't be surprised, Dana, I felt like I needed like, okay, what are the instructions? What are the steps? How do I do this? And so I was pretty rigid. When I started out. There are a couple of things that have so Okay, the question was, how did I start up really in a very rigid way of saying, Okay, I need I had, you and I had been gifted something called a grantee pad, which I still have. And I still use that it's just a little each day you can write down the things that you're grateful for. And then I had a novena that are friendly, and Zell's Collins had given me. So I was doing the novena. And every nine days, I would set an intention in my journal, I would just write what the intention was, and then read the prayer. And the other piece that has that I've pulled through, is I have Liam's book view from the mountain top. And I really liked just selecting a poem each day, and letting that guide me to, and then I will write a little bit. So I certainly haven't been doing quiet time, Dana, my entire adult life like you have been. But it's evolved and flow flows. And I'm not so rigid about it. Sometimes I write in the morning, and now sometimes I don't.
Dana Frost 17:41
Yeah, I was going to ask you how. So I do know that starting out with a plan is really helpful for people. And I started out as a teenager, really with a plan from my leader in Young Life, which was how to do with just talking to God really not not rigid, but just you open up this conversation with God. And for me, it has really evolved through the decades. And but I do think that having a plan is I think that it is important. And I love we'll put in the show notes the resources from Leanne, because Leanne is a sound healer, she's a spiritual leader. She's been a tremendous resource. I actually, I will have make a note to have her on the podcast so everyone can learn from her. But there are so many resources. So Linda, why don't we just throw out like some of the things that we use in our quiet time?
Linda Neff 18:38
Well, the thing that I use every single morning, and what I have while we're meeting is my tea. I just love the time of filling up the pot, turning the water on and letting the tea brew and that just that ritual feels really good. Some the sun, just waking up with the sun. And that doesn't cost anything, right. None of this cost anything. This is all your own personal practice.
Dana Frost 19:13
Apps. Absolutely. Yes. Thank you for bringing that forward. Linda. I do think it's important. We can have props, if you will. Yeah, but you don't need props.
Linda Neff 19:26
Yeah, and I mean, I think the other the other thing is your heart. Right. It's really when we get quiet. It's that innate wisdom and you talk about this all the time, Dana, the innate wisdom of our heart, in our ever we want to think about a higher power, God, whatever that is. That is the God within us, within our hearts. And that's available to us. All of us.
Dana Frost 20:02
Yes. And that actually is the deeper point of this quiet time, right that we are connecting with our soul. We're connecting with the divine within we're connecting source energy, we're connecting with a source that, you know, is more powerful than us, but it resides in us and fuels us. And, you know, Linda, I've been thinking that it's so interesting, because we can be almost, you know, tricked into believing we don't have time for this. But we have time what we make time for. And so, for you in your journey, was there anything that you can remember? And I know it's been a while now, but is there anything you remember? Do you just think it was right timing or like, What? Is there anything that like, brought you to this point of like, I need to try this out? I need to get morning. Yeah,
Linda Neff 21:03
I don't know, Dana, if I can remember what it was. But once I started, I'm like, Oh, my gosh, why didn't I do this sooner?
Dana Frost 21:13
I remember you coming to me at one point and saying, why did that take me so long? This is life changing? Like now I can't breathe? If I don't have my morning quiet time. Yeah,
Linda Neff 21:25
I don't know what that thing was. But now that I know it, it's one of those things where I wish everyone and every single person can know about this.
Dana Frost 21:38
This is why I wanted to bring this episode forward. And actually Linda is the person who when I asked on the podcast, hey, does anybody want to know about quiet time and Linda, Linda, who was recommended do quiet time, and now has this very robust, quiet time said, please talk about quiet time. And this. That's one of the reasons I wanted to bring her on. Because I know her journey. And I know, when you have quiet time, you actually, you can be in sync with the people in your life who are having quiet time. And there's a real soul connection between Linda and myself, we will be able to support one another during our quiet time, right, Linda? Absolutely. And you can pull in your life where there's this mutual support, because you're dedicating a part of your time, getting quiet and tapping in to the people you care about to the needs in the world to the divine voice and energy within that is wanting, you know, to infuse divine energy through you and spread it out through the world. And when do we get those downloads? And that connection? It really is in this time that set aside for daily ritual daily practice daily connection?
Linda Neff 22:53
Dana, I wonder if it's when I got that gravity pad? I mean, and you don't even have to buy the gravity pad, right? It just, it was the practice of sitting down every day and writing five things I was grateful for.
Dana Frost 23:08
Yes. And we will put the grantee Pad LINK, because it's a cute pad of paper. If you're again, you have to think about what will motivate me to do this time. And if it's something like a grantee pad or having a journal, my quiet time has gone through various iterations. I do want to share this because I know Lyndon knows the story. But there was a time in my life that there was like this dividing moment or period of time when, before this period of time. I did a lot of talking during my quiet time. And I did a lot of writing like, who am I thinking about? And who am I praying for and what are you know what's going on and doing a lot of journaling and it was sort of like, quiet time was a little bit busy. And there's nothing wrong with that. But I hit this life experience where it was a rough patch, and I was so tired. And the load was pretty heavy on me. And when I sat down for quiet time, I just didn't have any I say this, I lost my words. But it showed I continue to show up. And I didn't have energy to do anything except to show up.
Dana Frost 24:24
And I remember we lived in Brazil I remembered where I had my quiet time. I always have like a quiet time chair. It was an outdoor area that was covered, like really covered. And I just went there and I just set so all I did I just said like I stayed open like I'm open I'm here. I'm having a lot of feelings and I would just you know just be and not try to explain anything. And it really shifted in me. What was really happening during that time. It was okay I just really that time I just had to show up for myself and to beat connected to source energy. And so I don't know why sure that that might be meaningful for someone. But the point is to show up and to connect, there can be specific things you do and conversations you have in journaling can be a part of it. And meditation can be a part of it. And now like, over the past couple of years, playing with my voice and saying different mantras and using my voice in it in a different way, and repetitive phrases, but it doesn't have to be, it's what's meaningful to you, at any point of your life,
Linda Neff 25:38
then I think that that's the key to it, right there is, it's about showing up for ourselves, right? When I first started showing up, it was an all the doing of how I know, know how to be. And then eventually that started, I unweld, from the doing to be in the been the most profound thing that has come through in this work, which is this message of, there's quiet in the quiet, to just really unwind and know that that quiet is with us. And in, in that quiet of the quiet is such wisdom and knowledge and grace, and divinity. That's really beautiful.
Dana Frost 26:33
Thank you for saying that. And maybe that's why the quiet I don't really have I don't have my response to that is quiet. You know, we're so inundated with messages and words and noise and propaganda, and peel all that back. And what's inside, what's true for you in this moment, in the season in your life, you know, and you find that you find that in the quiet. And I bet my life on that, like I bet my life on in a quiet is actually more powerful than having a 20 minute, app based meditation in the quiet is more powerful than doing your rosary. In the quiet is more powerful. If those things are all good. There's nothing wrong with them, then reciting prayers in the quiet. So much can happen with out
Linda Neff 27:39
words. Absolutely.
Dana Frost 27:42
Because it's the energy. It's the you know, everybody who's ever heard my podcast knows about Heart Math, that vibration that comes from your heart it is it's connected to all of time. Source energy, it is ancient, and your breath flows upon that vibration. That's in the quiet time. It's not quiet is actually there is a lot of happening in the quiet and it's a vibration that's coming forth that we're connecting into when we allow ourselves to be quiet. Absolutely. So Linda, tell us where are you like now in this season in your life? Where what's happening? If this isn't too personal, what's happening in your quiet time? Like, are there? You know, is there anything significant that's really calling to you and your quiet time at this in this season?
Linda Neff 28:36
Yeah, it's a season where it's I think it's an ongoing season of wandering and being open toe, what's mine what's next. And so I feel a lot of anxiousness when I come into quiet time because I want to I want I'm efforting around, okay, just give me the message. Just tell me what it is. So I'm having to find a new way to find my way into the quiet within the quiet. Because I think I'm wired to bring what has been successful for me in the past. And that's the doing going doing. So that's, I think that's the season of where I am right now is trying to lay down the tools that I've used before, too. I cared deeply about women and women's ability to access all the things able to step into our own divinity. And I realized I had been bringing the energy of fight to that was curious about what happens now, when I shift that energy from fight to love And what presents?
Dana Frost 30:03
Thank you for sharing that, Linda. Thank you. Yeah, thank you. I'm sure that's gonna resonate with people. And you discover that in your time. There's so much that I think I would have easily missed. If I wouldn't have had that time just to be present with whatever comes up. Like you said, you're feeling anxious right now. All the feelings, all the feelings are valid, and meaningful. And welcome.
Linda Neff 30:36
Right? Yes. Thank you for saying that, Dana. Because sometimes we want to judge those feelings, right? Do Yeah, we want all the time. I want to judge them all the time.
Dana Frost 30:48
And we label them good or bad. That's right. They're just coming forth. Because feelings are a vibration. Yeah. So they're forward to be because that energy is present in our system and at what needs to be seen for some reason, like, so. Yeah. Thank you for sharing that you have that? The feeling that most of us kind of go I don't want to feel anxious.
Linda Neff 31:13
Right, right. Yeah. I would love
Dana Frost 31:17
to know, as we're wrapping up our conversation, what does feeling younger while growing older mean to you?
Linda Neff 31:24
So we want to maybe just do a little bit of storytelling around that. And for people who have been listening to your podcast, I, my big wish, Dana, is that you're gonna take all of the answers from your podcast and put them somehow into a book or some there's just so much wisdom, and everything that people have shared. I love your podcast. And I it just such a beautiful way for you to end because there's always this gorgeous nugget of wisdom that comes through from the people you invite on. But what does that mean, to me? It's an invitation.
Linda Neff 32:11
And it's the invitation you gave to me, Dana, that first time when I came into your home office, and you had been out walking in probably a walking quiet time, and something came through for you. And it's really become the cornerstone of my work. And when I sat down in your beautiful home office, you had written the words, coming home to you beautiful one. So it's this constant invitation. And what we've just talked about, how do we, how do we come home to our beautiful selves?
Dana Frost 32:59
Thank you for that beautiful, Linda. Thank you so much.
Linda Neff 33:04
And that's the divine and that came from you. So let's think all that is. Mm hmm. That was the gift that you gave to me. And I just want to reflect that back to you, Dana.
Dana Frost 33:18
Mm hmm. Coming home to our beautiful selves.
Linda Neff 33:22
Right. Coming home to you. Beautiful One.
Dana Frost 33:27
And yeah, thank you, Linda. Well, it's been such a pleasure to have you and share you with this community and to have this conversation. So thank you, Linda. I would just I love you.
Linda Neff 33:41
I love you to see you. See you in the ethers and quiet time. Okay. Viva na.
Dana Frost 33:47
Hey, everybody, thank you so much for being with us this week on this episode that to me, feels like we are connected together on sacred ground, sacred territory, this conversation. It will change your life. It changed my life. You can see it change Linda's life. If you're interested in having a conversation about quiet time, or sharing with me your quiet time practice or telling me hey, I know. I know. And I want to tell you how I know and I want to tell you my story. Please get in touch with me. You know, it's so easy. It's Dana Dana frost.com. Sometimes that email fails so you can also always reach me at Dana frost@me.com.
Dana Frost 34:41
But you know, we can even have a sacred circle and talk about quiet time together. So don't hesitate to reach out. If you like this show. You're listening you're tuning in, please make sure you are have subscribed and you've hit the download button. It really helps my show in the podcast world and And if you haven't yet, I think I have 53 reviews. If you're one of my listeners and you haven't left a review, I know Apple can make it a little bit difficult, but you just want to get on the vital you page, you'll see where it'll say, you know, it'll show you a few reviews, just scroll down until all the reviews pop up.
Dana Frost 35:19
You're gonna see the ability to star it and leave a review. You'll leave that review and then it'll take apple probably a day to get it on my podcast page. If you listen on Spotify, you can give me stars. And it really helps me and it makes me it makes me so happy when I see in your review. So maybe that can be your little gift to me this week. As always, I am streaming love from my heart to yours. Thank you so much for being in the Vitally You community