She is with the Church of Earth Healing and is an ordained interfaith minister and counselor where she empowers people through the practice of spiritual growth. She bridges teachings, training, and private mentorship have helped hundreds of people transform their lives with over 25 years of experience in guiding others. Her personal journey through physical illness and emotional trauma drives her passion to help others heal and live their soul purpose. Brighid lives on Nipmuck ancestral lands in Western, Massachusetts. She really enjoys spending time with her local ceremonial, friends, and communities. So welcome, Brighid, hi.  

Brighid Murphy:    Hello. Hello. Thank you. Thanks so much for having me.  

Krystal Jakosky:    Yeah, I’m absolutely delighted. So can you tell me a little bit about the Nipmuck ancestral lands?  

Brighid Murphy:    Yes. So, I’m in Western Massachusetts, and we are in the territory of multiple, first nations folks. I feel like it’s really important to acknowledge whose land I’m on as well as work to the best of my ability to support the original first peoples on the lands here. So that is, that’s why I share what I share and like to introduce myself naming the land that I’m on.  

Krystal Jakosky:    That’s beautiful. Absolutely love that. So shamanic practitioner, what brought you to that line of work?  

Brighid Murphy:    Good question. I definitely was called into this line of work or this swirl of energy. I didn’t choose it. I have been a helper and a healer my whole life. In my early twenties, I was at a festival that had different workshops and trainings, and circles. And my teachers were doing a workshop teaching shamanic journey, and work process practice. And immediately, when I took the workshop, I just knew I needed to work with them. There was a real grounded, rooted, real, no BS energy to them, and I could tell they lived what they were teaching. I just knew. So I took workshops with them and in conjunction with a dear friend of mine who was also on the same path, we would sponsor Becky and Crow or my teacher’s names, to come to where we lived in Pennsylvania to teach weekend workshops. I built a relationship with them over many years of learning from them and watching them teach and do shamanic healing work. So that’s where it began. That’s how it began.  

Krystal Jakosky:    That’s just so cool. Yeah. I agree. It’s just something that you’re kind of called to. You’re drawn to now. You’re like me, you do not like to use the word “shaman,” and you’d probably prefer to use the word “shamanic practitioner.” Are you good to share with us why that is?  

Brighid Murphy:    Yes. So as I have learned the word shaman comes from European people observing Mongolian traditions and practices. And so a shaman, as you know, and I’ll just share with the listeners is somebody who moves into an altered state to talk to their spirits, to bring back information for wisdom and for healing. That word is very specific or originally was very specific to that region and to the people that were observed. And so it’s used like a blanket statement or a blanket word for healing these days. I am really clear with people that as I share and practice techniques that run parallel to the shamans in Mongolia. I am not from Mongolia. I do not carry a Mongolian shamanic lineage. I don’t need to do the work that I do, and I honor where the practice comes from and where the people come from. And so I’m really clear that I don’t call myself a shaman because I don’t come from the place where that word comes from.  

Krystal Jakosky:    Right, right. I absolutely agree. And thank you so much for explaining that and sharing it so that people can really understand the difference between it because I don’t know how much we’ve really touched on it here on the podcast. We have touched it on some of my other platforms, but I absolutely agree that there is this reverence and this acknowledgment that I don’t necessarily come from that lineage. Yet I do have the ability or the training and the understanding to walk alongside and use some of those tools to help you on your healing path, which is absolutely amazing and fantastic. You and I also share another thing in common and yet a different phrase. So I say own my shit, and you say being a sovereign being, so tell me a little bit about that phrasing and where you came to that.  

Brighid Murphy:    Oh yes. Being a sovereign being, I believe that we are living in a world where there’s a lot being pulled from us and that we come to the world in a state of power and energy, and love. And this specifically, this culture in this climate we’re living in can pull our power away from us and make us make it appear that we need other people to heal us and to show us our spiritual path. We do need guidance. Absolutely. And we have so much more ability to heal ourselves and to know ourselves, to know our soul, to know our power than we’re ever told from the outer world. And so the word sovereign to me feels right and good. And it feels like a place that we want to be when it comes to our own healing and spirituality.  

Krystal Jakosky:    Yeah. The word sovereign. When I sit with it, it just feels kind of grounded and center doing a quick Google search – thank you Google – is “possessing extreme power.” That’s the adjective. A noun is like a ruler-type person possessing extreme power. So to be a sovereign being as someone who rules themselves and possesses extreme power to heal and to help guide and create the path and the life and the journey that they are on. So, Brighid, let’s talk a little bit about being sovereign right now in this time of the world that we live in, the craziness, the uncertainty, the confusion. Can you dive into that a little bit for me?  

Brighid Murphy:    For these times that we’re in, we are moving from one state of being and knowing and relating to one another into another state of being, and knowing and relating to one another. And while that is happening, it’s as if the rug has been pulled out from under our feet. So we’re experiencing a lot of chaos, outer and inner chaos. Sometimes many of us are questioning what is really happening? Who can I trust? Where can I get information? What’s really true. What’s not because what was true yesterday isn’t true today. So within all of that, we can quiet all of that sound and actually use the chaos to our advantage. But that’s probably another conversation. We can quiet all of that sound and come into our center and tune into our own complex and find the answers that are going to work for us. And so that is why it is important, or that is the importance of being sovereign in these times helps us to get the answers that we need. Walk, quieting the chatter, and a lot of the illusion and confusion that is really on the front lines right now.  

Krystal Jakosky:    So how have you navigated this? Like the last two years and the upheaval and whatnot, have there been specific tools or experiences that you’ve had in the last couple of years that are just eye-opening and life-changing like new understandings that you can share with us?  

Brighid Murphy:    What I am being shown is that the old rules for connecting with your heart, for talking to God, for being connected to spirit, for being able to heal yourself, the old rules are starting to disintegrate. New rules are gonna apply. And so as that happens, I’m being shown that it is so much easier to connect with our own soul and to connect with what I call the sacred forces.  

Krystal Jakosky:    Yeah. I feel like so many people right now just shifting and changing and opening up and saying, you know what, the old way just doesn’t work for me anymore. I really don’t like that. I don’t want to embrace it. I don’t want to embody it. I don’t really want to be a part of that anymore. I want something new and I want something more that I have control over that I can move forward and less of an I’m subjected to everything else. Like what I was taught as a child and growing up, or what society taught me or authority, figures, whatever that is. I just feel like there’s such an awakening and a shift that people say, Hey, and I feel like the last two years where we have gone internal, we’ve had to be more removed from each other, has been this catalyst for that. Because instead of having as much noise, we’ve had an opportunity to be a little bit quieter. We have had this opportunity to step back and say, what’s really important to me. It’s not necessarily the huge weakness, but maybe it’s the intimacy of a connection with one person and another instead of amassing  

Brighid Murphy:    Yes. And as you’re speaking, I’m thinking this time has really called us into our hearts. And sometimes that’s painful. Ultimately it’s illuminating because our hearts have everything that we need for growth and for healing and with this,  we’ve been called into our hearts.  

Krystal Jakosky:    Yeah. Before the pandemic, a little personal thing before all of this, I really thought that I was more of an extrovert, but I would get tired after being with a large group. So I thought, yeah, I’m an extrovert because I love the large groups. And then I realized after coming in and coming back to my center, I realized that I am really largely more of an introverted person with extroverted tendencies. So there are moments that I love being out and about. And then really, I just want to curl up. I just want to have my cup of tea or I want to go for a quiet walk. I really found how much I cherished those moments to just be reflective in where am I at and where I going. And what do I want, I want to do instead of all of the static electricity and the noise that’s going on around us. So just a little tidbit for me on the pandemic.  

Brighid Murphy:    That’s a big realization to go extrovert, to an extroverted introvert.  

Krystal Jakosky:    That’s a shift. And there are a lot of people who have gone through that. There are a lot of people who’ve realized that. I want something just a little bit different. One friend actually realized that she could almost be a hermit because she’s so introverted, but she didn’t recognize that she didn’t know that before. So anyway, sorry, a little side tangent for you. So when you have you, I know you have classes, you have courses, you work with people one-on-one when you work with a client, say it’s a one-on-one, what’s the first thing that you want to help them realize, understand, achieve. How does a session work with you?  

Brighid Murphy:    Yes, that’s a good question. The first thing I like to do is find out where they would like to be, how they see themselves when they’re completely aligned with their soul, with their lights, joyous happening. They’re well-resourced, they’re in a beautiful place of connection. So I find that out and sometimes it can be a little challenging to get that image or that picture because we’re not always taught to tap into it. I find out where folks want to go and connect them to the energy and vibration that’s there. So that’s where they want to go when they’re in their full light and expression of themselves, that energy is actually leading us. It’s pulling us toward it. I always believe almost like a drawing salve. Now, when we are focused on where we want to be, the things that are not aligned with that then needs to maybe be removed, let go of, or integrated can be let go, removed, and integrated a lot easier because we’re focused on the ultimate truth of ourselves. So that’s what I do. First. I call it aligning with our vision or activating our vision.  

Krystal Jakosky:    Okay. I love the phrase, ultimate truth. I love being drawn to the ultimate truth. That is absolutely beautiful. That gave me little goosebumps.  

Brighid Murphy:    I believe we all have an ultimate truth for ourselves. And depending on our experience, our level of trauma or level of disconnection, or, things that we do to cope, we forget that we have an ultimate truth and I personally believe we can all find it.  

Krystal Jakosky:    Yeah. What’s your ultimate truth?

Brighid Murphy:    Ultimate truth for me is that I am here on the planet to be helpful during this time. That when I am truly helpful and helping people to change their reality, I feel alive and on fire. That’s my ultimate truth.  There are smaller truths that sort of feed into that. And I would say that’s my ultimate truth. I’m here with a burning commitment to my purpose. 

Krystal Jakosky:    Wow. That’s beautiful. Brighid, in some of your work, you also do breathwork and meditation. Can you tell me a little bit about breath, work meditation, and maybe the altered states that you get into when you’re there?  

Brighid Murphy:    One of the keys to creating our own reality is being able to change our consciousness as we would like to we’re at will. Meditation, whether it’s a guided meditation, meditation through sound vibration, breathwork helps us to alter our state. I will if we practice it. And so I have a variety of ways that I invite people into that state so that they can then get there on their own. Part of what I do is, I will guide using my voice or the drum or perhaps a singing role. I will guide people through an experience. I also bring them into the frequency of the experience as I’m sure you do too, Krystal. I bring them into the frequency of it so that their brains are doing (I’m doing air quotes folks) their brains are doing something their bodies are present and they’re being invited into a frequency that helps them to relax their nervous system, move into an altered state.  

Krystal Jakosky:    And how does that altered state help them to shift?  

Brighid Murphy:    It helps them because when you are able to move into an altered state, you’re able to disconnect from the chatter and the busyness and the chaos, and just come into your resonance with your own soul. So it helps you move out of the busy, hectic place of thoughts into a zone where your wisdom exists, where your helpers exist, and where you can receive information.  

Krystal Jakosky:    I just love listening to you and I’m hearing you. So is there a favorite part of your practice or do you just love it all?  

Brighid Murphy    My favorite part about what I do is helping people to see what they didn’t see before and recognize, wow, I can do that. Wow. I can heal that. Wow. I can understand what’s going on in my body. I love that aha moment people have because brings them to freedom.  

Krystal Jakosky:    It’s my favorite thing too. It’s when that light goes off and they recognize, wait a minute, I don’t have to rely on somebody else. I have that power. I can tune in. I can ask the question and I can cut out the middleman and go directly to the source.  I can get my own answers and I can understand, and I can move forward. I live for that. That is so just beautiful because their lives completely transformed from that moment forward, that shift, and that awakening and beauty. So Brighid, is there anything, if there was one thing that you could tell all of our listeners, what would it be?  

Brighid Murphy:   The one thing that I would want people to know right now is that they have the opportunity and the ability to call back the power and the energy that is yours, The energy that has gone into different places due to circumstance due to be traumatized, due to not knowing how to manage your energy. You can call that power back to you so that you have it here in the present. It’s not lost forever. And you’re not beholden to the things that have happened to you. You can bring your energy back. That I think is the most burning thing to what I would want to share right now in this moment.

Krystal Jakosky:    I wholeheartedly 100% agree. Listen to that. Everybody, you have the power, you have it right now. And you have the ability to call it back. What you think that you’ve lost is still within your reach. It’s not gone. It is not lost. It is just waiting for you to call it back. And whether you already know how to and forgot that you knew how to, and you just need to find somebody to help you do that. Or you’re being reminded right now. Hey, you’re strong, you’re capable. You’re beautiful. You’re amazing. Call that power back into you or find someone. Now it has fantastic workshops that you can sign up for and do. You can also meet with her in person. The bottom line is that we want you to understand this soul within you. You are a sovereign being. You have the ability to change the reality that you’re living. You have the ability to open it up and completely transform where you’re at. I’m so delighted that you were here today. Brighid, I’m so grateful that you decided to just join me and go through this day of just chitchatting together.  

Brighid Murphy:    Thank you. I love the way that you hold the space. That feels beautiful.  

Krystal Jakosky:    Thank you. Let’s just be old friends. There’s nothing stressful about this at all. That’s the power I’m calling back. I’m calling the power of old friendships that we probably knew each other in another life. And now we just get to sit down and have a little cup of tea together. You are amazing, Brighid. You’re amazing. And thank you for being here.  

Brighid Murphy:    Thank you.  

I hope this moment of self-care and healing brought you some hope and peace. I’m @krystaljakosky on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube and I hope you check us out and follow along for more content coming soon. I look forward to being with you again here on Breathe In, Breathe Out. Until next time, take care.