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Science of Healing Summit™: Every Day Peace... The Answer Dravon James
Science of Healing Summit™: Every Day Peace... The Answer Dravon James
Science of Healing Summit™: Every Day Peace... The Answer Dravon James
Shamini: It's really provocative, this idea of going from pharmacy to peace as if it was no
reason why you wouldn't do that. But it's kind of intriguing because I think most
of us have this idea of what pharmacy is and what pharmacists do. You're an
active pharmacist, right? You're doing work out in the world, in the medical
community, amazing work. At the same time, you're really, really passionate
about peace, including its effects on our health, our mental health, our physical
health. Can you share with us a little bit of your story of how did you get from
pharmacy to peace?
Dravon: Yeah, I love that you asked me that because people always frame it that way,
how did I get from pharmacy to peace? The really the answer is I went from
peace to pharmacy, not that pharmacy is absent peace. It definitely is not. But I
was on my way to pharmacy school, had finished my senior year in high school,
and my brother gave me a book, The Power of Positive Thinking, by Norman
Vincent Peale. It's a tiny, tiny book. I have a passion and love for tiny books, I
believe, because of that book. But when I read that book, it opened up and
resonated something that was deep inside of me that I knew that's what I want
to do for people, what that book did for me. I wanted people to realize that the
answer to reaching their next level of greatness was not beyond them. It wasn't
She would say, "Don't tell the Pentecostal people that you go into a New Age
Church, and don't tell the New Thought people that you're going to a
Pentecostal Church." But in my little mind, I saw the similarities in the
messaging. When I read that book, The Power of Positive Thinking, it's like
something just clicked and nailed for me that people were trying to live two lives
instead of realizing that peace requires that you accept the wholeness of
yourself. I knew at 17 that I wanted to do something that help people to have
this journey to have it full and really experience the joys of living. I didn't know it
was this, but I let my life unfold and I got here. My journey was I had already
accepted a yes into pharmacy school. I kept going and throughout that entire
time I was so impressed by this concept. I didn't call it peace back then. I just
called it this journey I was looking for. I kept studying everything I can get my
hands on. I have journals that date back way to the '80s of me just taking notes
and understanding this journey and then arriving to this is peace. That's my
journey into helping people, the whole person from the inside out.
Shamini: Wow, thank you so much for sharing that. That's amazing. Just holding these
realities that some people might call different, but you're obviously a natural
born integrator, so you already started seeing the connections between the
spiritual background that your mom was introducing you to at a young age and
recognize that you could forward both internally and in the external world.
Really great change for people. Peace is something that obviously really
resonates deeply, and you talk about something called Everyday Peace. You have
a philosophy that you call Everyday Peace. Can you tell us a little bit more about
that? What is the philosophy behind Everyday Peace?
Dravon: Yeah, I'd love to do that because oftentimes be misconstrue, at least as I use it in
my foundation, Everyday Peace. The definition that I use for peace is peace is
wholeness. It is completeness. Nothing missing, nothing broken totality. I got to
tell you, every time I say that, I feel this inner view just kind of settles in me and
just lets me know that it is here. It's from the inside out. I push it out into the
world. I think it's so important that we listen and really take that definition in
because oftentimes people believe that peace is something that they're missing
and that they need to go and get instead of realizing that is inside of them. They
think, oh, because I'm having these problems or because I have negativity in my
Shamini: I love it. Part of what you're saying is part of the pathway of peace is recognizing
that it's always in us. It's nothing that we have to go out and seek. There's a level
of acceptance, it sounds like you're saying, that brings us to peace. There's that
taking it in. This is what's here.
Dravon: Too often we want to hide or reject parts of ourself and parts of our life, the
things that are painful, the things that we don't want, that don't feel good,
instead of saying this is part of what is making me who I am. I can do what I want
with this. We miss this most powerful thing. That's what my book is about,
Freedom is Your Birthright, is saying part of the power that you have is to say I
give all of the meaning to everything that shows up in my life. I mean, I've
chosen not to show up in my life, but it's shown up. I am so powerful that now I
get to give it meaning.
Shamini: Oh, I love it. I love it, meaning making it as part of the pathway here is amazing.
What you're saying is so important, as you know, for our times because we have,
and you know this being in the medical profession. We have gross inequities in
health. We have gross inequities all over. We have socioeconomic inequities that
lead to health inequities. We have had lots of discussions with some of our
fellow colleagues around this, in public health and whatever. Whether we're
talking about on that gross large level of dealing with health inequities and
saying, we can get really angry about it, for example. We can look really deeply
to the root causes of what has caused these inequities. But in the end, we have
to kind of just sit and accept where it is and move forward in the best possible
way. I can almost hear you saying, first of all, it begins with us. Everyday peace
begins with us.
Dravon: Yes. Isn't that so beautiful? Isn't that beautiful to know that you are the solution?
We can look for the cure to all these other things exogenously outside of ourself.
But even if you had the cure to everything, if you don't first cure the way you
perceive life, perceive your position on Earth, then there will always be
something lacking. You could be without all the external things in the world, but
have this internal being of knowing that peace resides within me. I have the
option at all times to tap into that energy. That's how you reduce stress. A lot of
our health conditions right now, having been a pharmacist for 31 years and now
Shamini: Do you find that things like stress, do you feel that stress gets in the way of
everyday peace? Because it's all within us, right? We can tap into this sense of
deep connection with what some people might call our spirit, our soul. Maybe
we don't even use those words, but just that inner peace that resides within us,
and yet we don’t always connect with it. In your view, what are some things that
sometimes might get in the way, some things that we can look for that say, is
this impeding my ability to connect with the deeper part of who I am?
Shamini: Oh, I love that question. The number one thing, and there are many things, but
the number one thing, I would say, is fear. Fear is our number one thing because
in fear we are in this place of rejecting, or we're focused in the wrong direction. I
would say, fear is a focus error. We have an error in our focus, which we can
correct. We correct errors all the time. On our GPS, we're focused in the wrong
way, we're moving in the wrong way. Then we make the decision that, hey, I
need to reverse my attention. Fear is a focus error. Attention needs to be
reversed. When we're fearful, we're focusing what we don't want to happen. I
do not want this to happen. We get this rejection energy all the time. Peace is
about accepting. When we accept, sometimes we call that surrendering or
letting go and learning to live in this energy. We talked about stress. I want to
just mention a second about how stress can be used. Because stress is one of
those things, we do want to live a lifestyle where we reduce our stress. There's
definitely some things that we can do to aid in reduction of stress. But there will
always be some degree of stress. Even happy things cause stress. You're planning
a wedding, that's stressful. You're planning a big move for a new job, that's
stressful. You're having a new baby, that's stressful. This energy is there. What
happens with stress energy is that is hyper focused energy. Could you imagine
what we could do if we were hyper focused on some other positive things in our
life? It's just a matter of a small tweak in our attention. Fear prevents that. Fear
has us working on looking at things that we don't want to happen. When we
become conscious and aware of what our thoughts are doing, we realize that we
we command our thoughts. We say, oh, let me just become curious.
Shamini: I love it. This is wonderful. Thank you for making that link with how fear gets in
the way of everyday peace. Because as you said, it activates that sympathetic
nervous system. We know this. We've seen all the studies that show that, as
you're saying, the hyper focus, we narrow our field of attention. We're just not
open to all the possibilities that are right here in front of us. Amazing.
Dravon: It's hard to go from being at a 10 at fear to go into being at a 10 at peace. But if
you take a small tweak and say, you know what? I'm so revved up, and I have all
this energy, and you realize that your self-talk is I don't want this to happen. I
don't want this to happen, because that's what fear is saying, focus on what you
don't want to happen. You say, well, what if? What if this was going to lead to
something wonderful?
Shamini: I love it. Even opening up to what is this here to teach me right now? Just totally
flipping it which flips your focus of attention broadens it. So, you can see the
connections and the meaning, like you were saying before, of why this has
shown up in your life versus this fight, flight, freeze kind of response. I love that
insight, that fear can get in the way and yet you've just given us some really
great skills on how to handle it because we all encounter fear. We've all been
trained sometimes to focus on what we don't want instead of what we do want.
I hear you saying that if we can reframe that fear into a curiosity, sort of an
openness to what's here and what is it that I actually want in this situation, and
what is the situation teaching me? Can I just take a pause for a moment?
Dravon: I love that you said that because those are simple questions that help to cause
parasympathetic nervous system to this calming effect when you ask, what is it
that I want? It's just the reverse of saying, what is that I don't want? Fear has us
focus so much in that energy. Where focus goes, where attention goes, your
situation grows. When you become so hyper focused on what you don't want,
you draw other things into your life that you don't want, thereby increasing your
Shamini: It's so important. What you said is so important. I love that you've been able to
share with so many people, not just what gets in the way of our everyday peace,
but how we can actually move towards that deeper sense of who we are, that
peaceful part of ourselves. You have some key stepping stones that you talk
about. There are some key things that we can do. Because let's face it, we're all
in this onslaught of things, that if we're really focused on that external world
and we have to be. We live in a world of things that happen. There are all kinds
of influences and competing for our attention, that could almost pull ourselves
away from that sense of everyday peace that we could stay with all the time. You
have some kind of helpful stepping stones that you say can really help us keep
connected to everyday peace.
Dravon: You're absolutely right. The whole point of everyday peace is to realize that we
are part of a world structure. We are part of this world, and what a privilege it is
to be part of this world. It also requires us to mature in our understanding of
how to interact with the world. To not let the world, decide how we're going to
perceive things. Being a part of the world and saying, yes, I want to participate, I
want to serve, and I also want to be served and take advantage of all that's here
and do that in a healthy way. The first thing is freedom is your birthright. You're
born free to claim and name anything. You can say, this is what the experience
looks like. This is what I claim it to mean in my life. Two things. This is so
fundamental to having a peaceful or embracing everyday peace is to say the
same thing could happen to two people. You wake up in the morning and your
tire is flat. For one person, this is the worst thing ever. It has ruined their day. It's
downhill from here.
For the other person, they've claimed it to mean something different in their life.
One, maybe I need to slow down. Who knows what was going to happen down
the road? I have just been saved for something bigger. Yes, money is going to be
spent to fix the tire, and maybe the person who's coming to fix this tire really
was in a situation where they really needed this income at this time, and I'm able
to be of service this way. Otherwise, I would have never met this individual.
They're claiming this to mean something entirely different in your life. We are
free to do that with everything. Can you imagine what that does to the healing of
the mind and the healing of the body when we say, this is not something to be
worried about? But as you said earlier, this is something that I can ask, what am I
to learn here? What is my growth here? If you can answer that question, you still
accept the fact that I don't know how I just grew, but I'm sure that I did.
To know that the individuals that I'm interacting with are not perfect, but I
perceive them to be giving the best that they can at this moment, even if that
best doesn't look like I would want it to look. That, again, reduces stress. It
reduces anger. It reduces our sense of disappointment. All that aids in us
increasing our fear. When we can let that go, our fear decreases. We can have a
journey that is holding complete, knowing that whatever showed up in this
moment has shown up for my good. Then there is the power of no. My
goodness, those two letters, N-O, cause so many people not to follow through
on their dreams and their goals. Realize that no is a word of power for you when
you use it and when you receive it. No, not now means that it gives you an
opportunity to regroup and try again. Giving the word no oftentimes is self-love.
Saying no at this time, I must say no to this, so I can say yes to that. Knowing how
to use that word for edification and for growth causes peace, wholeness,
completeness, nothing missing, nothing broken. Then there is reclaiming happy.
Oftentimes, being happy has to do with what is happening in our life. We have a
hard time being happy if happy things aren't happening. Understanding everyday
peace is setting out an intention to be of service because when we are in service,
that's when we are our happiest.
Shamini: I love it. Oh, my gosh, such amazing keys you've just given us. The first one is so
powerful. Freedom is our birthright. That is so incredibly powerful to understand
that every single situation we're in, we have the power to appraise in a way that
helps us or doesn't help us. We can look for the truth in all of those situations,
either in that narrow tunnel vision fear based. The world is out to get me way, or
I've just been given a gift. I might not even know what that gift is. I might have
just served somebody. I might not understand the whole picture. But this has
happened for a reason, and I'm part of the universe. The universe trusts and
loves me, and I love it back. Then that's freedom. That's incredible freedom. And
Dravon: Often, we have this sense of not being enough or wanting to be a people pleaser
and thinking that that is the way to serve. When in fact, I think of service as first
you have to do a service to yourself and live in that truth of your authentic state.
Because once you fill up and you're so full of all this goodness and all these self-
affirmations and all the internal work, which there really is a lot of internal work
to do, and then it overflows from you. Service becomes something that is on
autopilot, if you will. Knowing when to say no is so important. It's one of the
truest forms of self-love I can think of. No, not at this time. Or I have to say no to
this so I can say yes to this. Yes to this often is yes to you. We work ourselves so
much. We work ourself into bad health, quite honestly.
Shamini: It's true. It's sad, it's true. Because when we live in a society or we've been led to
think for whatever reason, whether it's our own self-talk or the world around us.
That our value is in doing and not in being. What you're teaching us is essentially
when we let go of perfectionism and we learn to say no, we're saying yes to our
being and the doing flows out of our being. It's kind of effortless as you say. You
don't have to try so hard. You don't have to take every opportunity. You don't
have to scrounge and struggle and expend your energy in all of these ways to
prove something to anybody, including yourself. There's nothing to prove.
Dravon: There is nothing to prove. Oh, I love that there is nothing to prove. There's only
to accept that you are whole in this moment, whatever you're feeling. We talked
a lot about fear. Fear is part of the emotional spectrum. We will all actually
experience fear. In that moment to acknowledge, yes, I am feeling fear. I don't
have to hold that fear has come to stay for life. It's come to flow through me to
teach me what it has to teach me in this moment. I can learn it probably in five
minutes, or I can learn it in five years. What's my choice?
Shamini: I love it. Then the last one that you shared is also so powerful and so important I
would say for our times when we have this onslaught, as you might know, of
mental health issues. You've been alluding to those. Anxiety is one, depression,
suicidality. I know you know this very well. The research supports that our diving
into happiness, which can be found in so many ways, is so nurturing for our
souls. Our sense of peace in our bodies, and anything else that you want to
Dravon: I want to say that by participating in this summit, you've already started. Because
you started the dialogue within yourself, and you started the accepting. But the
number one thing before accepting, I want to say this, is awareness. Awareness
is key. That means we have to slow down. This is the perfect time for that. Slow
down. Make time. If you're working from a calendar, make sure you put some
me time on that calendar, which is a hard note to everyone else who tries to
encroach on that time, whether it's 15, 20, I don't care how many minutes it is
per day. Where you get some time just to watch you. Just to watch without
shame, guilt, or condemnation. What you'll see is that some of this fear, some of
this stress, some of this anxiety, some of this depression is because you've been
saying no to you, to just sitting down and becoming aware of self. You're pushing
yourself in the back. Not now, not now, not now for that emotion. We always
say it's not time to be fearful. It's not time to be sad. If you're sad in that
moment, just taking a moment and being aware of that.
You'll find often when you shine that light of awareness, your ego will let you go.
It just wants you to acknowledge I am here. We spend a lot of our time outside
of our bodies, meaning that we're unaware of self. While that's happening, the
body responds. It says, okay, you're not making me a priority. So guess what I'm
not going to be able to do for you? Function at my highest ability. The number
one thing for everyday peace is to sit in this place of awareness. Get to know
you. You are wonderful. You are worth getting to know. Spend some time.
Unplug. Be with you. Be in those uncomfortable thoughts. Don't follow them.
Just watch them. I think it was Eckhart Tolle that said become the watcher of
oneself. Number one way to find everyday peace and find that you are whole,
you are complete in this moment and then acknowledging that. Then thirdly,
honoring yourself for being present for you so that you can be present and you
can be in service for something and someone else. But first, it has to be for you.
When you live in that place, you'll find that this happiness that we so seek, that
we believe is because of something that's happening outside of ourselves. This
happiness is when we turn inside, we become aware, we accept and we honor
self. That happiness factor goes through.
Shamini: So beautiful and so beautifully stated. So beautifully stated. Awareness and the
honoring of oneself and tying that back in some of your keys, sometimes that
means saying no. Sometimes that means allowing for space to let things come
up. Sometimes that includes negative emotions and that's okay, it sounds like.
That's part of the process, right? So we might give ourselves the time and space
to process an emotion, to come to a place where, for example, we can come to a
Dravon: Oh, it's so beautiful. You said it so wonderfully. We're not fighting it. We're not
running away from it. We are accepting ourselves without shame, guilt, or
condemnation. This is where I am. If you're feeling sad, it's okay. We're going to
have sad days. We're humans, right? We're happy to be humans. We're not
robots. We're going to have those days when we just feel blah. Then we say, oh,
acknowledging it. That light of acknowledgment is so important. You'll find it's
like the boogeyman. When we're little kids, we think, oh, something's hiding
underneath the bed. Then your parent comes in and turn the light on, and
there's nothing there. The shadow is gone. It's the same way when we
acknowledge, become aware of these emotions that are residing in us, when we
say, I'm not going to duck away. I'm scared. We say, oh, I've just acknowledged
that I'm scared. The light of awareness comes on. Then your mind starts telling
you, well, guess what? There's nothing to be afraid of. You start self-soothing
automatically. But as long as you refuse to even look at self, the thing that you're
afraid of gets bigger and bigger and bigger even though it could be something
that's totally made up in the mind. When that fear is there, health issues start to
come in. Your body responds. It responds with deteriorating health. Just
acknowledge, oh, this is what I'm feeling. Once you acknowledge it, you don't try
to hold on to it. Those feelings are meant to flow through it. Just acknowledging
it, becoming aware of it is enough.
Shamini: I love it. It's really simple. It's all here, and it's all beautiful. Whatever comes up
when we turn our awareness to ourselves, the honoring ourselves does come.
We just want to make sure people aren't feeling like, oh, I've got to honor
myself. Oh, I'm not doing it right.
Dravon: I love that. We don't force anything because we don't have to force. This is a
practice. You don't get here overnight. You're gentle with yourself. I should lead
with that. Always gentle with yourself. When I work with my clients, I say, we're
going to talk to you. You're going to learn to talk to yourself as though you were
talking to a middle schooler. I love using middle schoolers because middle
schoolers are at that point where they're trying to find their place in the world.
Shamini: I'm going to listen to the wisdom of my body. I'm going to listen to the wisdom of
my intuition. I'm going to listen to the wisdom of being right here right now and
not needing to be, go, do anything. Just be here.
Shamini: Wow, Dr. Dravon James, thank you so much for this wisdom. It's been awesome
to just start to get to know you a little bit. I dare say there are folks that are
going to want to connect with you more and would love to know, how do we
connect with you? It sounds like you do a lot of speaking. You do a lot of
teaching. You've got a great book. Where can we learn more about Everyday
Peace?
Shamini: Awesome. Lots of ways to connect with you on social, tune in to your radio
show. You've got a fabulous book and a website where people can learn more
and connect with you. My goodness. Thank you so much for sharing some time
and space with us today and helping us connect with our everyday peace. It's
really been my pleasure and honor to get to know you a little bit better. I know
that everyone watching is very, very grateful for your presence here. Thank you.