Greg Voisen
Welcome back to Inside Personal Growth. This is Greg Voisen, host of Inside Personal Growth. And joining me from Santa Barbara, California. Just a little piece up the road from me here in Encinitas is Diana Raab, and Diana and I are going to be speaking about Diana, can you hold up this book, which is the newest book, Hummingbird: Messages from My Ancestors and Diana, good day to you. How are you?

Diana Raab
Good, Greg. Thank you for having me. I'm fantastic.

Greg Voisen
Well, I want to let my listeners know that you're quite the writer and a memoirist, which I hopefully I'm pronouncing that right. And then I actually looked it up because I didn't know what it was. But you have you're somebody who has a good memory.

Diana Raab
You're thinking to them.

Greg Voisen
You're also a post poet, and essayist, a blogger and a speaker. She presents workshops in writing for healing and transformation. She has a PhD in Psychology with a concentration in transpersonal psychology. I have one in spiritual psychology. How about that from USM with a research focus on healing and transformative powers of the of memoir writing. Her educational background also includes health administration, nursing and creative writing. So she's got quite a background. She's been writing since a very early age. And she has I think, 13 books award winning books, and articles and poems. She's got one writers on the edge. 22 writers speak about addiction and dependency and writers and their notebooks to memoirs, Regina is closet, finding my grandmother's secret journal, and healing with words a writer's cancer journey. She has five poetry collections, including an imaginary affair. Poems, whispered to Nerja is it Narada Neruda Neruda, her writing workshops, and inspirational speaking engagements are based on her books. Today, we're going to be talking about hummingbirds. You can find her blogs on Psychology Today Thrive global medium, the wisdom daily sticks 60. And me and the good man project. Oh, is he a cool guy, the good man project. Love that guy. Hold your book up again, if you would, Dianna. We're gonna be talking about hummingbirds. And believe it or not in my logo for my company as a hummingbird, because the Indians and the ancestry has significant meaning. And the hummingbird has significant meaning for me. So you have this fascinating background. There's somebody who teaches writing, you're somebody that writes poetry. You're somebody that's a psychologist, you've used all these things in an interesting way to kind of build to really take you where you are today. But tell listeners a little bit about how you got here. And why hummingbird was a really important book for you to write now.

Diana Raab
How I got here well as to Parral says, where do I begin? I started writing when I was about 10 years old when my grandmother and my caretaker took her life in my childhood home. And my mother was an English major at the time, and she handed me a journal and she said, just write your feelings. And I it was the 60s and she really didn't know how to handle it therapy was not a big thing back then. So I realized from a very early age that writing heals, it makes me feel better. And then I started teaching others all about writing for healing. I went on to have a difficult adolescence being a hippie in the 60s and I did some journaling and writing then, then I went on bedrest with my three children. I wrote a few books on that. And so and then dealing with two cancer diagnoses, so I've always turned to writing as a form of healing and I love sharing my passion with others. So that's basically my life in a nutshell. I was a nurse for a few years until I had to go on bedrest. And I do have my PhD in psychology and a master's in creative writing. But my passion has always been writing and healing. All the professions I've done, I've always been aligned with that.

Greg Voisen
Well, there's so much that can happen that transforms somebody as a result of them, or putting their words on paper, and being able to express themselves. I know when I was in the class on in spiritual psychology, we would write about our angers and our frustrations and thing happens in life. And and the teachers would say A you know, the reality is you don't even need to read it back, what we want you to do is burn it. And literally kind of burn up all of this anger and frustration you've been holding, there isn't it's not necessary to read it back. And I thought that was kind of interesting, right? It was an interesting approach. Have you ever heard about?

Diana Raab
I have, I actually taught some workshops at funeral homes and just helping people navigate grief. And one of the funeral homes had a little actually had a little outdoor fire pit, and they were telling people to burn their words. I'm not really a big fan of that. Because as a writer, I believe all words are precious, and they might come in handy later. Kind of project. So I'm not a big fan of it. But you know, if it makes you feel better, why not? Well,

Greg Voisen
I think it's a way to release things right? And it can be. It's not like they're not, they're releasing through memory through my psychology, and you started the book off with a beautiful poem. And the chapters kind of seamlessly blend poetry and your memoir, how did you navigate the intersection of these two genres? And what do you believe each, from each of them will bring to the narrative of the book? Well,

Diana Raab
first, I want to say, Greg, thank you so much for reading the book, because it's amazing how many podcast hosts do not read the book. And I could tell by your questions that you have read the book. And so sometimes poetry memoir fully merged, but they're also you know, comfort zones. Sometimes one form calls me and sometimes another form calls me, when I was a young mother, I didn't have a lot of time to write. And so poetry was an easy thing to fit in between childcare and maintaining the house. And so that was, you know, poetry is good like that. And my, the way that I work now is I will write let's say, 1520 poems at a time, and then I take a break. And then I go into prose writing. So it really, I see whatever calls me, you know, it's just kind of where's the flow? Where am I filling the flow? And that's basically why I, you know, and I really love writing about real life experiences, because they can help other people navigate their own journeys.

Greg Voisen
What advice would you have for listeners out there who've never written a line of poetry, but might like to try? And I would be one of those because I haven't not even haiku. So, you know, I'm sure there's people out there that could certainly pull it together. But is there any quick advice you'd give some people?

Diana Raab
Well, I think before you can write anything, whether it's poetry or narrative, you have to do a lot of reading, I would say, start by reading five to 10 poems a day, and then just see what emerges. And you know, poetry is really the voice of the soul. And it it's good to start with either an image or a feeling, because it has poetry has a lot of emotions to it. So I would say start with reading.

Greg Voisen
That's a good one. That's a great idea. Because I know if you bought a book on poetry, I know one of the guys that I helped publish a book on poetry. Wow, his poetry was very moving. Not usually a lot of books on poetry sell. You know, I mean, it's it's a type of genre to get people engaged in, unless maybe you go to the speakeasy or something like that, where they're doing, or you're going to a stoic event, and you're gonna bring some poetry with you as well. But hummingbird evokes a range of emotions for you, and hopefully, for the readers speak with our listeners about working on the emotional landscape of the story. And how did your background and psychology and health contribute to really writing this book?

Diana Raab
Well, I think you know, because I'm very interested. I've always been very interested in the psyche. And so even from a young age, I was reading psychology books and personal stories of people going through challenging experiences in their life. You know, writers want to elicit emotions, that makes me feel really good that you felt some emotions that were elicited. Sometimes it's not easy writing about emotions, and then oftentimes to write about an experience, it's good to have a distance from it. Because if we're too close to it, it's, we don't see it clearly. So how to do it is just I tell people to just get in touch with their heart center. It's much easier to write from our heads to write, you know what you're, what you're seeing, but not necessarily what we're feeling is very hard. So I tell people to write from their hearts. And it's not so much I believe it's not so much about the experience you had but how Under the experience affect you and change you. So that's something we have to really dig deep into your psyche. And that's when you touch your emotions.

Greg Voisen
Yeah, I think that emotions are expressed in so many different ways. But writing about them is truly a cleansing to an opportunity to cleanse. It's one thing to get angry at somebody and express an emotion that way. And sometimes it's tied up. It's another thing to go deep with the emotion through an experience of writing, and truly trying to either cleanse it or come clear with it or understand it better, and how it's affecting me, and how it's affecting other people around me. Every chapter, the book starts with quotes, insightful quotes. How'd you choose these quotes? And what important role do they play in setting the tone for each chapter? Because, you know, there's a lot of people that start books with quotes, but maybe not a lot of people that have kind of their seamless kind of memoir, plus their book inside of this, and then start it with a, quote, any sense on how you chose it? And what are the meaning behind him?

Diana Raab
Well, thanks for noticing I've always loved quotes, you know, when I teach my workshops, I very often have quote cards, and I have people, you know, pick them like from a pile and they've supposed to write about that, quote, I use, I actually have a file on my computer of my favorite quotes, so I kind of pulled them there. And when I couldn't find anything that was pertinent I, you know, Mr. Google helped me out.

Greg Voisen
Uh huh. So you, you are doing that. So, I have a friend who created an app, with just quotes in it, there's 2000, some odd quotes. And unless I find it here, I am going to actually give it to you. And I'm going to give it to everybody who's listening today, I will make sure that I get this one is called Brain bump, which is not the first one. But that is that is a good one. And it's an app you can get for your phone. And it also has authors books with their quotes on it, that Mark allows for free, right? The other one, and I'm looking so let me get this because this would be good for you. And for my listeners is to be wise. It's called to be wise. And I'm going to take it up and I'm just going to like, show it to the screen if I can for a minute. There you go. It's kind of hard maybe for my listeners to see this. But the the quote scroll, and you also can pick the topic and there's the videos. The opportunity for brotherhood presents itself every time you meet a human being Jane Wyman, Dale Carnegie. You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in them more than interested in yourself. So great, great, quote, little app here. Everybody go out and get it to be wise. Diana, in my grandmother, my guide section of the book, you tell a story of your grandmother. Can you briefly share this story with the listeners and why that's was so significant in and memorable for you?

Diana Raab
Right well, my is my maternal grandmother. And it was actually the story is the basis of my first memoir, which is called Regina is closet and I just got described her suicide when I was 10. She basically taught me how to write how to be how to use a typewriter. And I think I wrote my first poem on her typewriter, which was in her room. She was orphaned in World War One at the age of 11. And she also went through the color of pandemic. So it was interesting how I, her name came up through the hummingbird, of course, the hummingbird visit. As we were both going through pandemics at different times in history, I was going through the COVID-19 she was going through, she went through the cholera. And so I do share some of her journal entries because she was a writer too, in Hummingbird journal entries, some more than we're one.

Greg Voisen
What is what is the significance of the hummingbird for you? I'm just curious because you draw from your own life experience. How do you approach you know what we call the process of transforming personal stories into a work of fiction? And what considerations did you keep in mind?

Diana Raab
Well, in answer to your question about the hummingbird, I mean the significance really is if you read and I think you mentioned earlier about Native Americans, they do believe that there is a hummingbirds have connections to the heavens. And so when when I was in my writing studio during the pandemic, the whole On, there was a hummingbird that kept coming to the red flowers outside. And so I, after a while I took it that it was my grandmother visiting giving me messages. And so I started communicating without me bird. And I did get answers. In terms of fiction. I'm not a fiction writer, and I feel much more comfortable writing in the first person, but there are people, some students that prefer writing fiction, because the stories are too. too sensitive for them. Maybe it was some trauma. And so they would write in the third person, or if someone was alive that they wanted to write about, it's easier for them to write in the third person. Yeah, remove from your story, obviously. Yeah.

Greg Voisen
And I love the part you're talking about the hummingbird giving you a message from the heavens because you know, their significance and a hummingbird for me. Number one, it's on everything I have its own logo for my company, in the reason is exactly that about, you know, being closer to one with a higher source to God, to basically getting messages from someplace and using your intuition with a greater level. I think writing requires that people tap into intuition. What are they feeling? What is it that is moving them? And it's a very important element that I think people need to cultivate. They haven't cultivated, probably enough of it. Now, we know that your trauma that you've had, you've obviously been through this bout with cancer to your depression and resilience. What advice would you give listeners? who might be experiencing personal and emotional challenges like that? They're either having a health problem, they're having a marital problem, they're having a financial problem. They're having some kind of trauma in their life? And how did you get through it?

Diana Raab
Well, my answer often is writing. So most people are most comfortable with journal writing. And I would say how does a lot of people ask me how to start and I would say, if the problem is if the trauma or the difficulty you're having is with another person, or if it's with cancer, I always suggest writing a letter, write a letter to your cancer, write a letter to someone that's hurt you not that you have to ever send it. But I think when you have a target, or a focus of where the where the feelings are coming from that it's much easier to get the words on the page. The second thing I would really suggest is exercise. I mean, most studies these days about depression, I mean, some you know, definitely therapy, and sometimes medications are indicated. But studies have shown that, you know, increasing your heart rate getting out every day is really important. I saw my acupuncturist today, and he you know, because I just dealing with my own health issues. And she's said, just make sure to walk 10,000 steps a day. So I think the trend right now is to get your body moving your body?

Greg Voisen
Well. And yeah, you know, I think another part of that, and exercise is just being out nature. There's so there's so much that becomes important to us, I think we think it's super important. You know that next email that posts on Instagram, whatever it might be, when really, you know, going into the trees or by the ocean or taking a hike in the woods has so much more impact on our emotions, then anything else we could do. So getting your 10,000 steps in while walking down the beach, or while walking in a forest or while walking in your favorite place is the place to do it. And it's a big emotional release. Anything you want to add to that? Absolutely.

Diana Raab
Now that you've set it all up, and the next thing, the third thing I was gonna mention is journaling. journaling exercise and getting into nature. Bingo. And

Greg Voisen
I think and I think that exercise could be and I'm gonna suggest it for people is, you know, some people for some people, it's ITP. It includes in martial arts and meditations kind of a combination. George Leonard was on the show many years ago before he died. And he was the founder of ITP. He also was the founder with Michael Murphy of epsilon. So when I remember sitting in George's living room and saying what was ITP integrative transformative process, it was really this combination of a martial arts movement, along with yoga, and meditation all combined into one class. And I can remember doing that up in San Rafael at the studio, and I'll never forget the experience I had From that, Diane, it was like I was on a different plane when I left. And so, you know, look, an hour of that a day or an hour and a half of that a day is going to change your life. And you mentioned that sometimes it's good to stop and examine our lives and to put it in a deeper connection to make a deeper connection with our consciousness, and what ways did the process of creating hummingbird deepen your understanding of yourself and your consciousness?

Diana Raab
Well, in a lot of ways, when I first want to also say that, well, ancestors are people that can be relatives, it can also be mentors that have passed on. And it can also be places, you know, you mentioned SLN, well, Big Sur is one of the places that just really informs a lot of my writing, and informs me it's kind of I consider it one of my ancestors, because it's just has so much character, and it has so much, it brings so much into my life. So I think what I what I came from it connected with my ancestors felt like I was being grounded in today, with all the chaos going on in the universe, I felt very grounded being connected with people that have lived before me that have survived, but were survivors as well, of wars and various health issues. I also mentioned that those who have lived through trauma and challenging events also tend to be more conscious and more intuitive. We have to be tuned in if we're going through difficult times, it just makes it just makes it easier to navigate. And of course, that's also controversial, whether intuition is a inherited tree trait or isn't learned, and I believe it's a combination.

Greg Voisen
You know, up in your neck of the woods, I've been there with the cursor to murder us to have a place and then through that, and through a lot of my experiences and going to meditation retreats, I got introduced to some great people. And I'm gonna go back to this because Mark watts, Alan Watts, his son is going to be on for a program coming up here, called the dow of now. And in reflecting, when you look at the body of work, like your body of work, I'm just looking at it 13 books and all this other things. I think as people get in this and go to your website, it's going to be quite an awakening for them to look at writing with bliss, or writing in bliss. You know, the point is, is that you help people get connected to a new level of consciousness in which they can express their ideas. I'm going to say more with more meaning with more purpose, with more fulfillment, with more joy, with more happiness with more love. And that's what I would say you do with all the works that you've come out with. So that's a good thing. So go ahead.

Diana Raab
I said thank you. Yeah.

Greg Voisen
So you said that one of the most compelling aspects of writing a memoir is the ability to look back in our lives, reflect about our lives. Were there moments during the writing process that you found unexpected insights or revelations about yourself?

Diana Raab
I think there's always revelations when you're writing, you know, I, when I start out with a project, I usually started in my journal. And I never know where it's headed, although I knew the title of this book was going to be hummingbird. But I had no idea where it was going. It started with the hummingbird visitation, and the book ended with, you know, maintaining a legacy with my children and grandchildren. And so I'm constantly having more revelations out of this year, I turned 70. And just reflecting back and all plethora of experiences I've had, I'm a very aware, intuitive person, but I didn't, I didn't really have too many new insights in the book. But it just like I said before, it just really grounded me in, in my in that I'm doing the right thing in my life that I'm doing. I'm following my passion. I'm following my heart. I'm trying to spread love and compassion in the universe. I'm trying to think positively, as opposed to trying to stay in the light as opposed to the dark because that's, that's what I need to survive. And I hope others will kind of catch on to that.

Greg Voisen
So I think I get that from you. And happy birthday. Happy seventh year. I'll be 70 in July. So I'm just right behind you. And it's interesting how as we age, our perspective shifts about the important what's important in life. And you almost wish there was that movie where I think I forget who was in it, but you age backwards. I kind I wish that I kind of wish life had had the insights that I had now, when I was 18 years old, versus having to wait another, you know, 60 years to get get those are 52 years as it might be. But the point is, is that, you know, if we could have the wisdom and insight that we have now, early on, I think it would make our life a lot easier and a lot less challenging. Although I believe the way God made us, he wanted to give us those challenges, so that we could learn and get to where we are today. So you know, the reality is, you've got to go through them. So at the end of each chapter, the book with a series of reflections or writing prompts, this is the cool part. To inspire the reader identify and explore significant events in their life, if you were to choose three of those reflections or writing prompts, from any chapter in the book, what would you leave the audience with today, and lead them to embrace a life of their dreams, because you're talking about bringing light to them. With light comes greater levels of consciousness and awareness. And I think if there were prompts that anybody could give me, it would be to provide me with greater levels of awareness about what is Hmm.

Diana Raab
That's a great prompt for sure. And what would they be? I think the first thing would be is what brought you bliss as a child, and what brings you bliss now, and can you connect the two can connect us? The next question would be is in what way? Do you want to honor your ancestors? And I guess the third one would be in keeping with the premise that we're all brought here for a reason, and that we have a life purpose. What do you say yours is?

Greg Voisen
I know mine, because I worked on this. And it hasn't changed. Although I'm going to relook at it. I exist to serve to inspire passion. So passion, biblically means one thing, but to me, it means helping people come from confusion and misunderstanding to clarity, and understanding. And the whole program inside personal growth. And I've said this before, is about providing people resources, to gain clarity, on not only who they are and what they are, but really, who they want to become and what they want to make a difference in the world doing.

Diana Raab
Yes, and I think people like you and I who are seekers are constantly looking for that one thing, or a few things that really can help others. And for some people comes easy, other people just struggle with it their whole life. So lucky.

Greg Voisen
I think what you've given them is a book and or books that help them with the, you know, luck when people are lost. And I'll use this analogy of like hiking up a mountain and having to cut back the brush. You know, you can't see the path, you're trying to create a path. But all of us are on a spiritual path, whether we know it or not to get to the top of the mountain, it's just that we don't all take the same path, there's many different mountain paths to the top of the mountain. Right? When we get to the top of the mountain. Usually what's happening is there's clarity. You can see across the land, you can see the path you can check, you can see a lot of things that you would normally see. So as an and it kind of an allegory or story, I would say, it's really cool when you get to the AI just for your edification. And my I think many of my listeners already know this. But last year, I helped write a book called the precipice of life. And in the process of that I got the interview 26 of the top mountain climbers in the world who climbed the highest peaks, all of the eight highest peaks that there are so we're talking Everest and all of them right. And in the process of interviewing, I would see here this same thing. Danna uh, you're not living. I don't want you to take everybody to take this literally you're not living unless you're facing death. So, you it I think it depends on how you really want to look at that. I would say you're not really living unless you're challenging yourself. So in each of these individuals case, it is the pursuit of the challenge the It's more important than the top of the peak. Jus. Okay, absolutely. And and I mean, in the end, we're not going to be recalled by how many mountain tops we climbed, we're going to be recalled for the love and compassion and the numbers of people that we've affected as a result of telling our story. Okay, now it might include that drive to the top of Everest. But more importantly, it's going to include the analysis that I've made about life events along the way to actually be able to make it to the top of that mountain. So I would say your book does that for people. I'm going to tell my listeners where you hold it back up again. Hummingbird, her memoir, but also her poetry, and also an opportunity to prompt you to chronicle your life in journal with the prompts in the back of the book, Diana, anything you want to leave listeners with?

Diana Raab
No, I would just continue to say follow your heart and follow your bliss. And it's not about the destination. It's the journey that's important.

Greg Voisen
Jeff, what we talked about. So we know namaste to you. Thank you for being on inside personal growth and spending a few minutes with our listeners about your new book, folks, we'll have a link to this on Amazon Go out and get it it breaks January What 1550. So you can preorder it now? Yes. Thanks, Diana.

Diana Raab
And for those that are not on Amazon, you can go to my website, and you can find my publishers address there is also a Barnes and Noble and bookshop everywhere.

Greg Voisen
So it's not just the Amazon, which we know, we have a tendency to forget that though. Only because the Amazon is the elephant in the room. But I do that I do get it or you can go to one of our book signings, by the way, which when you go to her website, look under Events, you'll see that she's doing some books, book signings, she lives in Santa Barbara, so for those listening in Santa Barbara, check it out under readings and signings. She's also got some workshops coming up on the 23rd, the 25th and the 27th. And all these are around how to become actually a better writer. So thank you, Diana.

Diana Raab
Thank you, Greg, thank you so much. Happy New Year.