Life Conversations with a Twist
Join me once a week for a new interview with a local, badass woman who has an amazing story to tell. Join me in conversation so you too can gain inspiration and empowerment from these stories! If you love hearing about leadership, relationships, families, motherhood and navigating hard times, then tune into my podcast and share with others. If you love what you hear, share and tag me on Instagram at @heathernelson.life. You can also visit my website at heathernelson.life.
Life Conversations with a Twist
Embracing Vulnerability: Lessons from a Transformative Retreat with Marcy Bravo Tang
“You need to ask for help… At the end of the day, you get resentful because you feel like people aren't there for you, but they don't know how to be there for you, because you're not clear on what you need.” —Marcy Bravo Tang
A lot of people tend to write off the idea of retreats because they think it's all just a bunch of "woo-woo" nonsense. But the truth is, retreats have a remarkable power to unlock profound personal transformation. They offer a sacred space for us to finally confront those deep-seated wounds we've been suppressing for far too long. In a world that constantly demands we keep our emotions in check, the vulnerability found in these experiences can be the key to unleashing our true potential.
Marcy Bravo Tang is a visionary healer, artist, and coach who has dedicated her life to empowering others through creative expression and somatic practices. This week, Marcy is back for another inspiring conversation to share her unique blend of wisdom and compassion that has made her a sought-after guide for those seeking to navigate life's most challenging transitions.
Whether you're seeking to heal from grief, reclaim your intuition, or simply prioritize self-care, this episode offers valuable insights and inspiration. Tune in as Heather Nelson and Marcy dive deep into the transformative power of retreats, the importance of emotional expression, the power of having a community support, and practical steps to nurture our well-being.
Connect with Heather:
Episode Highlights:
02:07 A Chance Encounter Blossomed into a Powerful Friendship
07:16 From Retreat to Rebirth
15:00 A Transformative Path to Wholeness
25:00 Strategies for Maintaining Inner Alignment
30:10 The Importance of Being Ready
33:16 The Next Chapter
38:25 Many Ways to Heal, Many Willing to Help
Resources:
🎙️Podcast
Life Conversations with a Twist: The Power Behind a Women's Retreat with Marcy Bravo Tang
Connect with Marcy:
Marcy Bravo Tang is a dedicated transformational coach who helps individuals change their mindset and elevate their lives. With a blend of intuitive understanding and practical advice from her successful business and personal life, Marcy provides personalized coaching sessions tailored to each client's growth and confidence-building needs. She empowers her clients to face challenges, take control of their futures, and create lasting change for themselves and their families. Marcy's commitment to accountability and support enables clients to unlock their true potential and lead fulfilling lives.
Heather Nelson: Hello everyone. Welcome to this week's Life Conversations With a Twist. I'm here with my very good friend Marcy. Yay, excited to have you back. I think you're my first guest that has been on here three times now.
Marcy Bravo Tang: Oh, I think it's only two. Is it three? Oh yes, yes, yes. It is three.
Heather Nelson: Because you and I met, and then you came on, and then you came on after one of our retreats, and we chatted through that. And now, you've just gone through a whole nother transformation, and you were like, I've gotta come on and talk about it. I'm so excited for this.
Marcy Bravo Tang: I am so excited too. And I just want to say too, so excited for your next retreat because people are getting so excited about it. So I just want to throw that in for you, yeah, getting some momentum going for this. We're in this state around the world where people want to go within and figure out what's going on with them, and how they could be better. Because you can't change the world, but you can change who you are. So I think full circle, that's where we are.
Heather Nelson: I love this. I actually just recorded a podcast before you, and she does a lot of health around perimenopause. It was all about taking this 10 years of uncertainty, and really diving into your intuition and your body, and listening, breathing and all these things. I'm here right now.
Marcy Bravo Tang: You're present.
Heather Nelson: So for anybody who hasn't heard our past podcast, which you can totally go back and listen to, tell everyone. Do you want me to tell the story of how we met? I actually talk about this quite often because my world is all about connections and building my network and all the things. And I always tell people, if there's somebody who you've met in your world or you feel would align well, or doing the same things, to just reach out. I'm like, totally here for it. And you did. You rush back to Wellington, and you're like, hey, I'm local. I feel like our worlds could align, let's connect. And we just called, we instantly connected. And then we were planning a retreat, and I was looking for speakers, and you came along. You were a speaker/guest at our first retreat, the first overnight retreat was only a year ago.
Marcy Bravo Tang: I know it's so crazy, so much has happened in between then and now.
Heather Nelson: We are like this amazing. We have this beautiful friendship that is not just surface level. We've done some deep dives. We've had some internal, crazy conversations together. We've gone through some really cool experiences together, and I'm so thankful for you. And so again, just reach out to someone. You never know, you're one of my coolest friends now.
Marcy Bravo Tang: I'm like full circle people, Heather's on my top, and we got a whole thing going. We're talking all the time, and we're sharing, and it's like we're sharing our challenges and our wins too. It's not just a like, look at me, look at what I did. It's like, oh, today was a shitty day, and we support each other. And if I wouldn't have reached out, I wouldn't have this beautiful friendship. And it's a core group of people now of women that we are there for each other. So yeah, exactly. Reach out.
Heather Nelson: Reach out. You never know. So that beautiful connection happened, and then you were part of our first retreat. Do you want to talk a little bit about your experience, one, as an attendee, but also as a speaker. How has this aligned with the things that you have going on in your life?
Marcy Bravo Tang: Yeah. It really was an alignment, because I was definitely reaching out to women and trying to build a community of women that could support each other. And then we got into the retreat. I went in having an idea of what I was going to do, and just sitting there super present, and seeing what people are going through, and just tapping in. It's easy to navigate. Like, oh, wow. What I was going to do is nothing like what I want to do for these ladies and the deep knowing of love, this is what they need to really break through something. And you could see, I learned so many things from Malia. I learned all these different speakers. I'm like, oh man, I never even thought about that. And that's like soul searching stuff. And one day, there were some transformations. And then being with you, and getting to know everybody on a deeper level just sitting down and connecting with people. I don't even think we had lunch before we went to the retreat and met each other. So we're all sitting there, hanging out, like we're known each other forever. And that's that connection. It's just amazing. Then guiding everyone. I decided to do an inner child visualization for everybody, and I built a beautiful fire outside, and it was the end of the retreat. I was the last person, and there wasn't a dry eye in the entire place. And my goal was get Heather to cry, because she's not a crier. It wasn't really my goal, but it was a beautiful thing to see. Because of vulnerability, it's hard. We're not taught to hurt. We're not taught to be with each other in grief. We are just not taught to just put it all in there and don't show big emotions, and just move on with your life. And you know what? I think that's one thing I could teach people is to start talking to everyone, talk about your grief. Don't feel like you have to show big emotions, or that you have to hide your big emotions. That's one of the key things that I learned this year. Stop hiding. We can all be there for each other.
Heather Nelson: Ever since then, you hear about the power of crying, and it feels really good. Or just releasing whatever energy or whatever you're feeling. And I actually have cried more than I have in a very long time. I cried on Christmas Eve. I cried last week, one night when my son was just giving me a run for my money. And there was something about it that just felt so good. We put on this face of everything's perfect and great. Everything is abundant, but we're really going through things at times. And it's okay to feel it, to talk about it and cry about it. And so, yeah, I just want to say thank you, because now you make me cry outside.
Marcy Bravo Tang: I don't know if I want to be known for that person.
Heather Nelson: I think that just supporting, and again, having a group of women to be able to be like, today was tough. Or today, I'm going through this, or I'm not sleeping because my hormones feel out of whack. Just having a group of women that you can relate to is super powerful.
Marcy Bravo Tang: And I think the same. I'm going to ride this one out with the crying, because I went, and we're going to talk a little bit more about this plant medicine retreat I went to. I saw a lot of people crying, and I wasn't crying the way other people were. And I was going, why am I not crying? And then I thought, man, I've been crying all freaking year. That's why I'm not crying. That's pretty much all I did. I found out my dad had cancer in June, and my mom was at a retreat in Italy, and I had to help him figure out what was going on. And it was devastating. I didn't really know what to do except step up and help him. We got everything done, and we're going back and forth to the hospital. And then I realized between the visits and all that, I always have worked out. I've always taken care of myself. I've eaten all that good stuff. I mean, wine was like my second best friend. Get home and be like, okay, I just have some wine. Okay, I'll have some more wine. Okay, I'll have some more wine. And then my big emotions started coming out. Then I was crying, and I was upset. I felt all these emotions like anger and resentment, and just pure grief that I couldn't get past. I was just stuck in this cycle. There was this thing over here going, you need to do something else.
You need to ask for help. You need to talk to your people. And I did. I talked to my friends about it. I talked to my parents about it. And at the end of the day, I think you get resentful because you feel like people aren't there for you. But they don't know how to be there for you because you're not clear on what you need. So that kind of led me to meeting with a local medicine woman. And I'm doing some somatic work, some trauma, some inner, just asking questions. And I'm like, oh, it's not anyone else's fault. It's my fault. What I'm doing to myself was I was starting to have unhealthy habits. It was becoming escapism, just having a drink with friends, with dinner. So I got in with her. She did some clearing for me, and I hold a lot of energy. I think a lot of women out there, you'll realize that you have your kids. I have four kids, four adults now, but they're still my children, and you always hold, you have energy for them. I have energy for my parents. I have siblings who I worry about. I have friends that I worry about. I'm a compassionate person. I love a lot of people. And with that, I carry it all the time. So learning to really bring my energy back within, and someone teaching me that like, hey, you're holding the world up. Why? You can get a little energy here and there, but you gotta come back. So it was a really, really cool awakening just to hear and see that. And then I got invited to another retreat, which we're going to talk about. Take a sip of water here.
Heather Nelson: Yeah, take a sip of water. I have a thought on that. I think that, especially that I am 100% with you, I hold everybody's feelings, my husband, my kids, my friends, my clients, my podcast guests. I think those are some of the moments where I cry because it feels like a lot sometimes to have that much to hold on, and I wouldn't want it any other way. I'm so thankful that I can hold that space. But sometimes, it's just okay to not be okay, and to release. How do you think a woman, if they're feeling that way, or just feel like they need some support, what advice do you have? Because I think a lot of people get stuck in like, oh, I don't want to go to counseling because that's showing that I need help. Or I don't want to go to a retreat, because I don't want people to know how I feel, or finding somebody to go through this work with you. What advice do you have since you've been through it?
Marcy Bravo Tang: Just a little bit different. But the main thing is perspective. I feel like I'm a super well known prospective coach. And if you're sitting there thinking all these things, negative things, I'm going to say, if you're arse or something that's holding you back, or there's some subconscious limiting beliefs here that, and it's usually worthiness for a lot of people so you're not worth of taking the time for yourself. You're not worthy of spending the money on yourself. You're not worthy of whatever it is. And I'm going to say you are worthy. And once you start saying that to yourself, I am worthy of beautiful things. I am worthy of taking a day for myself as a mom and getting away from the kids to recharge, because you are a much better person when you're recharged than when you're just in this loop, right? And so I would invite you to just take a moment and ask you what you want your story to be like. Do you want your story to be something different? Or do you want to stick to this, and stay in this story? And what other perspective can you see most times if you just take a moment and say, what would I do for my best friend? What would I tell my best friend to do if she asked me? And then usually, most women sit and go, oh, why aren't you going to retreat? You need to do this. You need to do that. This is beautiful. You need to connect. If you feel that energy start to grow, then look at yourself, look in the mirror and go, my only best friend is you who's in the mirror. So say all those things to yourself. I need to start recharging myself too. I need to do the things and have as much compassion as I have for others or myself.
Heather Nelson: So good. And you do this work. When you work with your clients, this is the work that you're doing. You have to seek support and security for yourself. So talk about getting together with this local medicine woman, going on this new medicine retreat. I want to dive into this.
Marcy Bravo Tang: Like I said, I searched her out because I didn't have an integration piece. People that don't know me don't know that I've always had a natural inclination to use plant medicine for healing. So I would go in my backyard, and people are gonna go like, what? Let's talk to the plants. Sit and look at the birds, look at the trees, and just be like a kid that sees things from a different perspective. I was even doing that as escapism. I started doing that as escapism too. So it went from alcohol to this new thing that I respected, that I started losing respect for. I'm going to say. With that being said and seeing a local healer, she said that healers need to be healed too. Who's holding space for you? Who's helping you heal? And that was a huge aha moment for me.
My husband could only do the best he could. He's amazing. My family is trying to do the best they can to support me, and my friends are checking in and all that, but you're still alone with yourself. You have to make the decision to do something for yourself. So I got invited to a retreat and it does revolve around plant medicine, and just happens to be all women. I signed up, which made it so amazing for me because I'm in this very divine feminine art medicine practitioner program that's just like everything's beauty and love, divine woman and all that good stuff. So I go to this retreat, and it's all women. You get to connect, and you feel a little bit more vulnerable if there's no men around. You don't have to put on different masks to talk to people, I guess, is the way I'm going to say about it. So basically, I went into this. I wanted wisdom. I wanted to know what I've been missing. I wanted to know why things were ugly and scary. I think that's what it was. Anytime I would do any plant medicine, things were just getting ugly and scary. I was in the forefront. Really quickly too. And I think now that I've done it, I know that because I wasn't using it with respect and integrity. And if you're not respecting the medicine, it's not going to give you what you need, not what you want. I'm in deep breath there. I kind of went into it the same way. I'm like, oh, I want to respect it. I want to respect it. And I did it on the first day. It was a three day retreat, and I kind of sat there like a scolded child, and didn't get what I wanted out of it.
Heather Nelson: On day one, you didn't?
Marcy Bravo Tang: On day one, I didn't. And then we did a little bit more on day one. It's a deep inner knowing that you had the wisdom inside. And all of a sudden, I was standing tall and proud. And I have this feeling of like, you are a medicine woman. You are here to help people. You are here to help people heal. You are here to have some deep healing as well. And it was just like this beautiful moment of gratitude and connection, and just a deep knowing again. So that was pretty much how the first day ended. Then you go on to the second day. And the second day, people go, I don't know how to explain it, but it's like an ego death. You realize that you are a beautiful being, and you are also one day going to be in the ground as compost, like the dirt. All that cut and dry, right? You are this beautiful thing. We all share energy. We're one same, we're all love, everything's love and beauty. And at the end of the day, you're in the ground. And that's like, whoa. That's freaking deep. But then it goes back when you're reborn. I felt this feeling of being reborn, loving and appreciating myself. I literally kissed myself like, I love you. And you're reborn and respect your body. This beautiful body that you have. You have this beautiful body to live in, right? And a lot of us don't respect that. Because if you were a plant, or if you were a tree, because it is plant medicine, it connects you to the plants. The plants are alive, and the trees are alive, but they don't have body and flesh to move around them. So respect what you have.
And then also, if you are reborn and your inner child's now out, what are you going to do with this wonder that you have? This excitement, this glow and adventure? Everything's beautiful. I had this new brightness in my eyes, and I could see things from a different perspective. And I was told to lay on the stunt, lay on my stomach in the ground and the grass, and roll around and be playful. Be curious. Everything's not that big of a deal. That was being shown to me, or a deep feeling. I say it's a deep knowing because people are like, well, you have visualizations. At the end of the day, it's inside you. It's knowing. You have all these tools in there already just like a coach, everything is trying to be pulled out so you have to ask the questions, you have to ask for wisdom, you have to keep continuously being okay. So what does that mean? And what am I going to do with it? That was pretty much like the short and sweet of day two was just like a childlike wonder. Open your eyes, everything's not that big of a deal. Because at the end of the day, you're gone. You're only here for a short period so live it right. And then the third day was the biggest thing. It's just learning wisdom for my painting that I'm doing, my art medicine. There's a female on a masculine side in our bodies that needs to be balanced, and to start to learn how to use that. Ask questions like, okay, for my female side, what do I need? For my masculine side, what do I need? How do I get these balances? And checking in with myself every day going, hey, are you alright? Are you speaking your truth? Is your heart pure? Is there something wrong here? Why is your stomach upset? And going through your body, tapping in every day and going, hey, if you're stuck and have pressure, what is this about? Start asking those questions.
So a lot of the things I learned were about being in alignment with myself and being clear. And if I am aligned and clear, and not using alcohol, drugs, plants or whatever it is, social media, sex, you know? People don't know the broad way of different kinds of addictions, right? It is a lot. It's not just alcohol. See what you need to take away from yourself for one day, and how much it hurts you. You'll know if you have a problem with addiction to social media or anything else. So the deep knowing was, if I'm aligned and clear, and have a pure heart, and clear mind, I can do anything because I'm connecting with myself, with your divine spirit inside. And people are like, oh, we're getting woo woo. And I say, I'm getting woo, woo because I'm going to bring the woo woo to everybody else so they can start healing. That was the thing I was told. Your job is to find all the business women and men, all the other people that are grieving inside, lonely and hurting, and they don't believe they're worthy to do the work, or to have asked for help, or to just do anything. It's easier to go inside and be this lonely child again, and you connect with this lonely child. I want you to connect for the child before they get hurt. I want you to connect with the child that can wake up and be like, oh, everyday is amazing when you can find gratitude in every day, if we look for it, right?
Heather Nelson: And that is probably your biggest takeaway from that experience. I have so many questions, and I'm saying this because it was at a place that I know very well. It's a beautiful place, and you walk out, even just in our retreat, you've had this beautiful experience, you've bonded, you've connected, you've learned things about yourself. How do you go back into the normal world and feel like you probably felt like a whole nother person? Oh, I know you do because you text that.
Marcy Bravo Tang: You have this beautiful spirit, and going to any retreat is about integration. So how you're going to take what you learn and keep it flowing, keep it flowing, keep it flowing, keep it moving. And for me, it's with art. So the way I know I can connect is because I have gifts for art medicine, and that's where I'm supposed to be helping people heal. It's daily, 20 minutes I'm working on something, and I'm developing a weekly class so people can start using it in their life, and they don't have to worry about it. You can leave a retreat and go, okay, this week, I'm going to do this one little thing. And then everyday, I'm going to take 5 to 10 minutes to add to it. So you have that spark, and you can keep adding it. You see the little, I don't even know what you call them, but the little flickers and a beauty. I would tell people as well, take another day or another week, and that's what I did. I took a week to just not be around people, just to sit and journal and think about, what is it that I really want?
Heather Nelson: I'm after the retreat. I remember going back, and being a mom, all of that feeling of like, I cannot wait. I'm gonna make changes, and then you get thrown right back into it. And I was like, yeah, that cannot happen next time. Or even just a couple hours too, I think you went and got a massage or something. Just something that transitions you back into the real world.
Marcy Bravo Tang: I'll give an example. This weekend, I had a party. I was like, okay, I'm gonna have a couple glasses of wine or whatever. And I did. I made an intention to leave the party early, get home. I already knew I didn't want to give. I was already giving a lot of energy out and talking about this. I was so excited. And people are like, you're glowing. People didn't see, didn't know. They were like, hey, I have to come talk to you because I can see you from over there and you're glowing. I'm like, what's going on? And so talking about all this stuff, and then it's like building momentum for excitement. But even that burns you out. So then yesterday, I was kind of cloudy and like wow, even just couple glasses of wine, I don't feel great. And so I took the time. I'm like, what are you supposed to do? You're supposed to go outside, lay on the floor. You're deep knowing, this is me. Nobody is telling me? So if you actually ask yourself, okay, what is it that I need? Well, you need to go outside, lay in the grass. Take the time to lay in the grass, see how that feels. Okay, what else can I do? Okay, I'm gonna get in the bath, take an epsom salt bath, listen to some sound healing. And that was enough to just push me over to tip the thing and the scale, right? I'm like, okay, I'm getting there. And then I sat and ask myself, what else could you do to get back to where you are to that connection? I'm like, oh, I can do my 20 minutes of intuitive art. Just start sketching, put on a video and something that I'm helping create. And like, okay, take 20 minutes doing that. And that was enough to be like, I'm fucking back. I'm back, I'm back, I'm back bitches. You know that, you always say that. I'm back bitches, let's fucking go. And that's all it took.
Heather Nelson: Let's fucking go. I already got this. I got my session dialed in for this retreat where I'm, like, great. I'm organizing hell in my garage. But yes, I know that there is a lot of fear about this plant medicine retreats. I know there's a good handful of people in my life who've had these experiences and have nothing but great things to say about it. You're my first victim that comes on. What is it like? Because I know you said there's a lot of women when you're doing this process. Are you solo? You're in a group environment this whole time, except for going to sleep.
Marcy Bravo Tang: It's a community. It's your people, you're there for each other. You see people hurting, you see people laughing, you see people doing whatever. But at the end of the day, you're together as a community. I had another deep knowing that if they're healing, I'm healing. If I'm healing, they're healing, and that was a big thing. Because sometimes, we want to look away and be like, oh, that person's hurting. I'm supposed to go inward. No, you're actually supposed to be there for people too. You're supposed to care, and that's what I think people forget. A lot of men and women we're supposed to love, we're supposed to care, you're supposed to care about your community. You're supposed to have open arms and support each other.
Heather Nelson: I know that people who've experienced this, it's like a three day, everyone obviously experiences it differently. Or people are like, the first day is really hard, but they get better the second. You want to talk a little bit about how everyone's experiences kind of change?
Marcy Bravo Tang: I think at the end of the day, if you can connect, if you go in with an intention, everybody has a different intention. There's divorce, there's parents dying, there's grief, there's all these things. Whatever your intention is, that's what it's going to navigate your experience. If your mom died, you're gonna probably have some work to do. I definitely had some healing with my grandmother. She came, I could feel her with me and apologize for not being there with her when she passed away. It was actually a beautiful experience on that note, because she was just like, this doesn't matter. What are you talking about? You're good.
Heather Nelson: Clarity to be okay.
Marcy Bravo Tang: I think that for most people, it's not a big deal. We make things such a big deal, and it's really not. But yeah, are there going to be hard times? Yeah, just like anything. Are there going to be good times? Yeah. Are you going to, at the end of it, be fully aligned and have clarity on what you want to do next? Yeah, that's the ding, ding, ding right there. Is there gonna be something that comes out of it where you're like, that's it. Every single person had that. And you do a lot of sharing, so that's it. This is what I need to be doing. This is what I need to focus on. This is what I don't need to be doing. And this is how I'm going to bring it out in the world. I started a group on WhatsApp with everybody that went, and were just sharing, how are you doing? What am I doing today? Yesterday, I didn't feel great. This is a bummer. And then today, I was like, hey, guess what? These are the things I did. And this is how I feel because I looked up integration, and I looked up how to keep that. Because this glow and this shine, and I call it polishing, is keep polishing, keep polishing. And if you look at it that way, people that are really in grief or hardship right now are going to listen to this. Maybe that's not going to land for them or hit, but if you are pressing through in your healing journey, you know what I'm talking about.
Heather Nelson: I know you had mentioned that an experience like this, you have to be ready for it. You spoke about it with me. Because our little group of women, we're on different paths and journeys. And you said you're like, Heather, you're not ready for it. Can you talk about why? I mean, I think with the retreat, there's so many people. You have to be here because I know you need it, but I can't force someone to be there when they're not ready to do it.
Marcy Bravo Tang: And I think that's along those same lines. Exactly the same lines. There's going to be a deep calling to do it. It's going to be like a hell yes or a fuck no. And I tell people, this is what we talk about. If it's for plants, you have to be in it. It'll call you, and you're gonna want to do it. If not, no. Just don't do it. There's so many other ways to heal. There's so many groups, small groups, community groups, there's different things, but just don't go at it alone. That's the thing I want to tell people. Don't go out of the loan. I'm going to have some free little workshops that are an hour a week, and some paid ones, all kinds of different stuff where you can just come in and be on a Zoom and start working on some inner grief, some transitions. There's so much stuff. All my kids will be out of the house this year. People are like, that's great. All my kids are going to be out of the house this year. What do you like? How much time do I have on my hands now? Guess what? All the time, I start helping people more.
Heather Nelson: Well, obviously, I'm in a group with you. But even like social media, you can tell like, if I didn't even know what you just went and experienced, you could tell like Marcy just went through something because you hit the ground running. You're glowing. You just have this different aura about you. But then also, you just sent out a newsletter, and it felt like you had so much clarity and like, what is the direction of your life is? And there was something that was so beautiful about that.
Marcy Bravo Tang: Thank you. The whole part of doing the retreat is the integration. I could have just said, no. Nobody wants to hear that. No, I don't want to share that. No, I don't want to do crazy hair and do braids. This deep thing that I felt like, oh, I want to do braids on my hair, and I want it to be a little bit crazier, and be a little more creative. I could have just done my hair straight and not done what I really felt, and it just sounds silly to people. But that bravery in the beginning of the day or the week is what pushes you through. Because you then look in the mirror and you're like, I did that. Maybe some people are gonna be like, what the heck did she do? But I love it. It makes me feel good. It's a creative femininity part of me, and the wise masculine side of me. That's what it represents. My deep understanding was that. And for some people, it's whatever. For me, I'm wise and beautiful.
Heather Nelson: What I love about it so much is that I feel like you're, this is me. This is my life. I'm taking control of it. And all the outside noise, all the social media, all the crap that everybody pours into us, that we give so much about, but you're like. I'm owning it. And that energy feels so good.
Marcy Bravo Tang: And the part of that too is sacrifice. You know what a retreat is? You're supposed to not be on social media a lot for a week before and a week after. You have to follow a special diet that's very clean, no alcohol, no sex. I didn't have sex for three weeks, you know? I didn't know that. You're keeping your power within. And then you start to realize that when you clean up your body, it really helps. You're clearing everything. So if everything's clear, this is clear. This is where I wasn't clear. I have a pure heart, I know that I wasn't clear, and I wasn't aligned spiritually. I wasn't able to tap into my deep knowing to know who the fuck I am for real.
Heather Nelson: So who's Marcy point 2? What does the future look like for you? And what are some of the projects and stuff that you're working on now?
Marcy Bravo Tang: I am still helping. Let me scroll this back. How do we want to say this? I'm going to start some workshops. I'm going to just dive into it for people, and they're going to be in great grief. It's going to be art, medicine and creativity. So you will grieve through creativity. And it doesn't matter if you can make a stick figure. It doesn't have anything to do with that. Everything's in here. And if you like, you can just put a little bit on paper, colors, pencils, paint. I don't care. It doesn't matter. I'm gonna start doing different workshops with spirit animals connecting with them weekly, and we're talking about one hour workshops once a week. Then you have homework that you're going to be doing just a little bit, like I said, 5 to 10 minutes to add to this. 5 to 10 minutes to get your little meter to go from here to here where you start moving through things. People don't realize, you know what? We can't all talk about it. Some people can't talk about it. You can leave their grief on that paper. They need to show it, and it becomes beautiful. So that's my next thing that I'm going to do for people. I'm going to, of course, speak at the retreat with you.
Heather Nelson: I can't wait. You're going to put it together.
Marcy Bravo Tang: Yeah, I am. I'm a big part of the Sonoma County women's professional group, so I'm seeing you there. I'm going to be a speaker in June. I haven't decided what I'm going to do for that yet, but just being hyper involved in a community of women, supporting and empowering women and men. I'm not going to just say women, because I think you saw an email when I started, I thought I was going to be a female transition coach, and I'm not. I am both. I do grief transitions, and embrace that grief and transition to get to a better place for yourself. Inner child work for men. Men reaching out to me going, I heard you do inner childhood work, fix me kind of thing. And it's like, I won't fix you, but I'll support you. I'll help you, and that's a beautiful thing. I would have never thought I had a gift for that. I'm really thinking about separating groups, doing all women's groups, and doing all men's group workshops for painting so everybody can have their own community to support each other. Then you have breakout groups, and you have group messages, and text messages where people can connect.
Heather Nelson: I love that. I love that so much. I'm so happy for you. I'm so glad. I knew you were nervous going into the experience, and I knew it would be beautiful. You were sending us photos from the hot tub like before. I'm like, girl, go. Enjoy. But it's been really cool to see your journey through it, and your experience. So yeah, thank you.
Marcy Bravo Tang: Thank you. I want to say too for people that are listening that want to connect with me, connect with me. Send me a message. Love to hear from you. Hear your thoughts, hear your questions. And I do free Clarity Calls for 30 minutes, and you can send me a message at Level Up With Marcy, and send me a message. Let me know if you want to learn more, or you need someone to connect with, or you want to know when the next women's group is. But at the end of the day, I just have supreme gratitude for everybody, everyone, everything I've known, everything I do know, everything I'm learning, and everything I'm ready to share with the world. It's amazing.
Heather Nelson: I love that so much. My heart is always so full. Every time I speak with you, and even I've done your Clarity Calls are really cool. Every time I read, I actually think of you. I'm like, oh, yeah, I gotta read. I've been trying to implement that more in my life. But I'm just so glad you reached out to me on LinkedIn randomly, and these beautiful friendships that we've created are just absolutely amazing.
Marcy Bravo Tang: Yes, I wouldn't have it any different.
Heather Nelson: Well, thank you for sharing your experience, and thank you for being my guinea pig to talk about this retreat. Like I said, so many women have, I was just saying, so many people have gone through.
Marcy Bravo Tang: There is a stigma, and there's people that aren't talking about it, and maybe we just open up that conversation and make it okay. And it doesn't mean you have to do it. There's so many different ways to heal. There are so many different coaches out there. There's so many practitioners out there that are ready and willing to help you, if you just make the call. And again, that's my thing. Don't do it alone. One of my best friends, she'll probably be listening. Your mind is a horrible place to go alone sometimes, so don't do it.
Heather Nelson: I love it. And there's so many people doing work, like specific work. You're doing a specific practice and I've had so many of them on this podcast, and it's just so cool. It's you as a person to find where you need support whatever that is in your life, and get that support, whether it's a group, or one on one coaching or whatnot. So that's what I love about this community. So much, exactly. Well, thank you for being here. I can't wait to see what you bring to us for this retreat. It's going to be amazing.
Marcy Bravo Tang: Yes, I can't wait either. And hopefully we go ahead.
Heather Nelson: We are totally on a delay. So anybody who's watching this, sorry, I was just about to say, all your contact information in here, how they can find you, find the retreat, find and connect with you and all the things?
Marcy Bravo Tang: Great. Thank you so much.