Honoring International Women’s Day & Honing your Self Sovereignty in Season Two with Rainbo Founder Tonya Papanikolov

Episode Summary: 

Happy International Women’s Day! On today’s episode, I want to honor International Women’s Day and fill you in on everything in store for Season Two of The Rainbo Podcast.

Show Notes:

As humans, we have this innate life power within ourselves. Masculine energy exists as order and discipline, whereas feminine energy exists to fluctuate and mimic nature. Suppose you play around with this mind-body connection through Kundalini yoga. Through that dynamic practice, there’s an opportunity to unearth a powerful sense of self, which can improve your brain chemistry and how you lead your daily life. 

This season, I am bringing on several guests to explore topics like Kundalini yoga, epigenetics, Dharma and Spiritual Bypassing, and new interpretations of mental health. We’ll also dive into elements of financial sovereignty, community building, and other parts of business that have been lighting me up recently. 

Listen in to celebrate International Women’s Day and learn more about what to expect from this next chapter of The Rainbo Show. 

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or on your favorite podcast platform. 

Topics Covered:

• Women’s chakra and how to hone that power
• Cultivating that life force found in yourself to improve your daily life
• The benefits of practicing Kundalini yoga
• Epigenetics and turning back the hands of time with lifestyle changes
• A look inside new interpretations of mental health (e.g. depression)
• Harnessing the power to heal yourself

Resources Mentioned: 

• Sex Time and Power by Leonard Shlain
• When the Drummers Were Women by Layne Redmond

Follow Me:

• Follow me on Instagram: @tonyapapanikolove 
• Follow Rainbo on Instagram: @rainbomushrooms 
• Shop Rainbo: rainbo.com 

 

Tonya Papanikolov  00:04

Hi, welcome to the rainbo podcast. I'm your host, Tonya Papanikolov. Love, Rainbo and I are on a mission to upgrade humanity with fungi and expand the collective conscious. This podcast builds a virtual mycelial network of bold, open minded thinkers and seekers. I chat with experts, thought leaders, healers, scientists, entrepreneurs, spiritual teachers, activists, and dreamers. These are stories of healing, human potential and expansion, tune in route and expand and journey with us. Hello, and welcome back. It is Tanya here, your host of the rainbo podcast. For anybody that may be new and listening. Welcome, thank you for being here. We have some awesome, I believe around 11 episodes before this one. And this is really just a short Hello, an update me saying hi, I took a little bit of a break from our podcasting because I injured my neck, which was not fun, pinched nerve and I really didn't realize how bad that could be. But it took a little while to recover. And then I ended up just kind of getting a bit behind with my recording schedule. Lots of you know that I'm the founder and CEO of rainbo, a medicinal mushroom company. So that can get the best of me and, you know, takes up a lot of my days and time and I love it. But anyways, I just got a bit behind. And you know what, instead of making myself feel bad about it, because I've been really trying to be consistent with my podcast episodes. I was just like, you know what this is, okay. I don't have time to make myself feel bad about this, I had a couple of days where I felt a little bit of guilt. But then I was like, You know what, just forget it. Like, let's just, let's just ditch that. And we're gonna start this backup when we're ready and feeling good. 

 

Tonya Papanikolov  02:09

And I have such an amazing crew of people coming on for the next season. I'm calling it a season, but it's really just a new way of organizing the information for listeners for you guys. So before we get too far, this is going to be a relatively short updated update of a podcast. But before we get too far, I want to wish you a Happy International Women's Day. Yay. It's a great day. I love I love this day. And, you know, I was reflecting on today. And I identify as a woman. And I have a team of incredible women that are on the rainbo journey. And actually all of our employees, there are five of us now we're all women, and most of our consultants and subcontractors, and really like most people within the organization, are women. And I feel so grateful to work with such an incredible team. And there's definitely a part of that that is intentional. I grew up very close to my sister and mother. And I just love I love women. 

 

Tonya Papanikolov  03:30

I love working with women, I love giving women opportunities. And I believe that we need to come out in the workspace as founders and CEOs and in executive roles and in leadership roles. So when I started this business, I kind of knew that it was going to be largely women led. And I'm very proud of that. And it feels really exciting to have this concept. And this idea that started out as you know, this small mushroom company turned into a company that actually sustains a whole bunch of our lives in different ways. And that we can actually make a difference and make a living through something that we feel so much passion and joy for. So it's a true honor to celebrate today with my team and with all of you who I know are well, I don't know how you guys identify. But I know that a bunch of you are women. And that's a key part of our demographic. And you know what I also have been kind of reflecting on this day in the sense that, you know, however you want to call this there are a few things in this universe that we maybe all share in common. 

 

Tonya Papanikolov  04:43

Actually, there's probably so many things we all share in common. I take that back. But one of the things we humans all share in common is that every single one of us came from the womb of our mother and everybody has a mother And that creative powerful Shakti force is a woman, it comes from who we are. And it is part of our strength and part of our power. And part of the gift that God bestowed to any creature with ovaries is that we hold the power of the universe, in our bodies. And that's the most powerful force in the world truly. And, of course, we exist in a time of patriarchy and all that. All That Jazz and fighting back for our rights for the past 100 years and longer. And really, just this long saga and history, which I will note is also his story, the word. So maybe there's a reclaiming of her story that we need to do. 

 

Tonya Papanikolov  05:59

But you know, this concept of the woman and our bodies and our minds, and you know, what is ours and what is theirs has been a subject of tension, let's say, for hundreds and hundreds of years, if not 1000s of years. There's some really incredible books, if anybody's interested in diving in, to really understanding where maybe what some of the civilizations were like before that really honored women, and that came from a different hierarchical kind of form. And, you know, I'm not even sure it was a hierarchy per se. But there have been ancient civilizations that really treated the woman with reverence and treated the life giving power within her body, as that as a true form of power. 

 

Tonya Papanikolov  06:47

And there's a great book called Sex time, and power by Leonard Shane, and it's a really, really fascinating book about women's sexuality shaping human evolution. And another great book called when the drummers were women, there's so many more incredible books that you can dive into on the topic. So if that's of interest, I highly recommend diving in, you know, when I found Kundalini Yoga, I would say that was when I started to first really experience full embodiment of my power. And I did an Ask Me Anything the other day, and I got so many amazing questions. And we're gonna dive into Kundalini Yoga in this episode, for sure, in a bit more detail, and like really focusing on the practice, I think there's a lot of, there's a lot of a lot of things around around it, I would ask you guys, you know, what are the preconceived notions, the stigmas, maybe the barriers to entry, it's a funky practice, no doubt. I mean, you might have a hard time entering a space, if it's not super, you know, inclusive or enchanting to you. 

 

Tonya Papanikolov  08:09

And I really stumbled into it truly by accident, just by kind of following a random Google search, paying when I was in a new city. And what I discovered through it, though, was such a deep form of wisdom around the woman. And it was information and wisdom and mystic teachings that I had never heard somebody speak about ever. And that was really enchanting and drew me in, and I felt really seen and understood. And so there's, you know, I just continued to practice. And it's not that it's a woman's only practice by any means. But it really amplifies and treats the woman and her physiology and psyche and mind with an extreme level of reverence and, and really teaching women to hone that power. And I want to share a quote with you from a teacher. You are the nucleus of this universe. You are the source of the beginning. You are the master of the space. You are the hub, you are the pivot, you are the force, you are the mother. If you walk tall, that's all you have to do. resurrect yourself. exalt yourself, Excel, you are born to rule. That's the rule of creation. You are the giver, and the birth of the eight facets. And I just love this. I wanted to share it on this day on International Women's Day.

 

Tonya Papanikolov  09:50

Just because there's such dense teachings around the empowerment of us, and that includes whoever wants To identify as as that, but there's, there's such a importance for us to really step into our power and to just get over it. And to come up to that altar and realize that being who we are is the more most creative force in the universe. And with that, we hold an immense power. And although that power has been tried, you know, many have tried to suppress that power. There is an insurmountable energy that we can really step into, when we start to get down with it and get jiggy with it and get really excited to cultivate that lifeforce in us, which, you know, a lot of energy medicine teachings, we know whether it's Kundalini or something else is, is this energetic force that comes from the base of the spine, maybe it's inside of the womb, but wherever it is, it's it's also there for men. And it's a primal lifeforce energy. 

 

Tonya Papanikolov  11:08

And that's what we have the ability to create. And whether you're extending that creation to a project, a piece of writing a job, your life, your family, to a baby to anything, you have this creative Shakti force to really generate. And there's lots of ways that that can look, I met, one of my teachers had a women's day meditation, kind of a little teaching on Saturday, and I attended and it was really beautiful. And, you know, one thing that she shared was this concept of masculinity and femininity, and really not as a anything related to gender, but just as these polarity forces that exist in everything, and you know, she was just kind of telling us about how the woman is innately chaos, pure and utter chaos in this universe. Because that's what creation is. And if you know, this masculine energy type really relates to form an order, and discipline, a woman or whatever this feminine force is really the opposite of that it is about the undoing and the chaos and the generation and the creativity and the receptivity. 

 

Tonya Papanikolov  12:32

And I really loved that because, you know, it is to be a woman is slightly indefinable, because there are a lot of facets to our moods. And that's dictated by nature, it's dictated by the moon. It's dictated by our surroundings. And it's also the internalization of nature, through our hormones, and through our existence as physical, biological creatures, which is really fascinating because our bodies are inherently mimicking nature and the environment and the cosmos. And that is reflected in our psyche and in our mind. And so there comes this thing that I've been really focusing on for the past six years, through the practice and the discipline of Kundalini, which again, is kind of like, it's so much more than yoga, it is really this ability to modulate the body through the mind. And it's the ability to get the whole thing, the spirit, the soul, the body, the mind, this integration of those pieces, working in harmony, and in a way that I am the driver of that destiny, and I am not subjected to my moods, or my mental tones, or this day or that day. 

 

Tonya Papanikolov  14:05

And you know, the inherent ups and downs that come with that, that everybody's gonna go through, you know, whether it's feeling extra overconfident or the days where you don't or and the days where it's, you know, you're comparing yourself or there's whatever day it is, there's going to be movability in that. And in the process of really becoming disciplined with a daily practice. You become a moveable in a way. And with that comes this like psychic and psyche power for your mind to direct the body. And that's a real kind of form of powerful creative leadership of self and sovereignty of self, which is pretty fun to play around with. And it took me a while to realize that I could do that and that you know, that there were even tools To help me do that. And so, yeah, it's been, it's been an interesting process. But I hope this is this is just kind of a bit of a stream of consciousness of flow. But I hope it is useful to some. And also just know that if any of this is resonating or speaking to you, we're gonna dive a lot more into it in this next season, which again, I just kind of decided starts today. 

 

Tonya Papanikolov  15:26

So the season is basically just deep diving into specific topics, there's no really market difference that you're going to see in the conversations. But I created this framework that is really kind of this organizational tool, to start to batch some of these episodes into larger pockets of this holistic paradigm that we exist in since you know, we're on this life mission to kind of feel this integration and merging of all areas of our life. And, you know, as I was thinking back to being like in university and being in my 20s, I remember just feeling so lost, and that a lot of information, just, you know, there is this deep yearning for something that I didn't know what it was, and I didn't know that it existed. I think that's the path of the seeker ultimately, and I still feel that way. More or less, yeah, I wanted to create this framework for people navigating that for the first time, and creating a bit more ease around it. And it's, you know, it's a bit of a different time. Now, we're a bit further into this, you know, Aquarian Age, where information is kind of decentralized,

 

Tonya Papanikolov  16:42

we don't have information protected, I mean, we do still have forms of information that are protected, but for the most part, there is this mass dissemination of information. And that, in and of itself, is a lot to navigate. And we have to use a lot of discernment to really be able to recognize truth, and especially the discernment to know our own truth. And, you know, that's that can be referred to as this this info dementia, where there is just so much information coming to us at a speed that no human has ever had to comprehend. And with that comes a new set of challenges for us. So anyways, this season is going to be I'm going to share this graphic that might help put it into context a little bit, but it's really just, it's pretty simple. I mean, it's really just these holistic buckets that we're going to be speaking to. 

 

Tonya Papanikolov  17:41

So we have mind, body, spirit, we have emotions, lifestyles, social career, environment, financial. And we're going to cover really juicy and cool topics, like Dharma and spiritual bypassing, Kundalini Yoga, Mystic teachings, subtle energy, energy medicine, will cover you know, things like mantras, and meditation and micro dosing and words as vibration that create our reality and that every single cell in your body responds to, we're going to talk about, you know, how you are truly the ultimate medicine to yourself. And this Age of Aquarius that we find ourselves in, is really about self healing, and taking the information that you know, to be true and healing yourself. And I'm excited to provide some tools and experts and have conversations around how to really do that. But we no longer have this framework of medicine that we have to exist in where you take a pill and it has to come from a doctor. 

 

Tonya Papanikolov  19:07

And it's a chemical and mechanistic view of the body. We have really incredible new medicines emerging and quantum state types of information that are coming to us that we can use to heal ourselves and little anecdote about that is again, I'm going to bring it back to Kundalini. When I started practicing, my teacher told me to take a mantra and record myself saying chanting whatever it didn't matter, saying that mantra chanting it monotone and putting it on a loop and listening to it all night long and all day long as as much as I could. And I remember being like, why would I do that? And basically, nobody else's His vibration in the world can heal you the way that your vibration can heal you. And that's because all of your cells in your body are yours. And they will respond to your frequency, the frequency that you make through the vibration through the reality is through the spells that you cast with your words. 

 

Tonya Papanikolov  20:21

And so Montra has this really incredible ability to hold a vibration. And that is typically a healing vibration is a vibration of, you know, high consciousness. And when we say that, it's like, I can hear my teachers say that to me. And it's powerful, and it's going to resonate, and it's going to alter me. But when I start to chant the mantra when I start to say those words, it's like going from zero to 100, or going from 10 to 100. It is the power that we hold to heal ourselves is unlike any other power. And I'm excited to dive into that more, and get into some science around that as well like how that actually works with the subtle energy fields with our neurology, maybe with our mirror neurons, with our nervous system, the interconnectedness of that, we'll also be bringing it back. So now I'm talking about season two, again, we're also going to be talking about new interpretations of mental health, things like depression and anxiety and how to heal them. We're going to, of course, talk about mushrooms and psychedelics and micro dosing. 

 

Tonya Papanikolov  21:34

We're going to talk about sleep, different types of sleep hygiene, we'll get into some body physical stuff like blood sugar, balance, nutrition, and detox from mold and parasites. We'll talk about women's health hormone balance, nutrition supplementation, I have a really cool episode that I recorded a couple of weeks ago on epigenetics and turning back the cellular clock. So we have our biological age, and we have our chronological age. And we have an expert on and a new friend, I made Hannah, from true diagnostics, who's going to tell us all about epigenetics, there's some really cool tests coming out, that we can use to really help give us a baseline of like, where are we at. And the really incredible thing is that we truly can turn back the hands of time, through tons of different really proven simple things like lifestyle changes, and nutrition and diet and sleep and happiness and healing, psychological issues, traumas, those types of things have a real impact on our cellular health on our DNA on our pace of age, on our biological age, which is a it's so cool. It's very empowering. 

 

Tonya Papanikolov  22:55

You know, in the realm of emotions, we're going to have a really cool episode on healing guilt and shame. We'll talk about the inner child nonviolent communication, love and relationships, we'll talk about the power of oxytocin. And we're going to talk about things within our social spheres like community building, and group think and healing and communities and the power that's unlocked when we are physically present with one another. Which if anybody's had any of the joys or blessings of being in, in group healing circles, retreats, who you know, it is, it's more powerful than any anything I've ever been able to experience. It's really incredible, you know, in the realm of career, and like, I don't even really love that word. I'd really rather the word like destiny. But we will talk about karma versus fate versus destiny and getting on this destiny path. We're going to talk about defining your why and the importance of starting with that question. We'll talk about time management, a topic that I really love. 

 

Tonya Papanikolov  24:04

And something that I've been deeply invested in over the past few months actually, we're going to talk about play joy and rest, which is the projectors blueprint, we'll talk about human design. In this category of environment, we're going to talk about the consciousness of water. And I'm sure we're gonna have tons of guests in this weaving of fungi through everything and everyone. And we're going to talk about, you know, these broader connections to nature. I have some beautiful, indigenous wisdom to share through it a dear friend of mine spirit bear, who's going to come on and will share his wisdom with us and we will be so lucky to receive and then we'll also talk about financial sovereignty. 

 

Tonya Papanikolov  24:52

We're going to talk about what that really means. We'll chat sacred economics the Genesis and potential of Bitcoin ln crypto and digital currencies, I think a lot of that is going to be co hosted by Simon, my fiance, my husband malaba, who is a expert in that space. And he's such a wealth of knowledge. So I'm really excited to bring him on. And he has accepted the invitation. And I really started to understand money for the first time in my life through him in a completely different way. So it's pretty, pretty life changing information. The you know, those are just a little sprinklings of things that we're going to talk about in this season does not cover the full gamut. And really, the idea here is to provide this framework. But really, there is a an integration and this like educational thread that flows through this that is ultimately really trying to empower people with information, and with information that will empower people to be sovereign to make decisions for themselves, for their families, for their communities, for the collective, and to really liberate our minds and help us come together help us to heal some of the great divisions that we face, some of the natural polarity that we're here to experience. And I'm so excited to just dive into some of these topics. I would love for this to just be collaborative, if

 

Tonya Papanikolov  26:25

you if you want to come on the podcast and share some of your knowledge. If you have topics that you want to see covered here, I would love to hear from you. You can DM me, I respond to every single DM on Instagram, obviously, through my personal channel, you can DM me and I respond to everything. And I also respond to a handful like a lot of stuff on rainbo’s, Instagram, as well personally, and my team does as well. So if you have topics that you want to see covered, if you have a story to share, if you have wisdom to share, if you feel called to just open up that beautiful throat chakra of yours and share and wisdom share, I would be so grateful to hear what you're thinking. So email me DM me, any of it. And I'm really excited to jump into some of this. I also have some really exciting founder chats that will flow into this like social career space. So we're gonna get to hear from a lot of great and dear friends of mine who are running incredible businesses and who are so inspiring. And it's going to be a fun time. So if you love this podcast, I would really deeply appreciate if you did the thing and give us a five star rating and review on Spotify, Apple wherever. That really does make a difference to the show and to me, and I really appreciate it. So I will be hearing from you. Very soon you'll be hearing from me very soon. I'm going to leave us with this quote that I also saw the other day that I wanted to share in all chaos, there is cosmos in all disorder, a secret order. And Jung said that I will leave you with that, dear friend. Happy International Women's Day. Thank you for being here. Very, very grateful to share this time, space and reality with you all and to be awakening and evolving and making mistakes and having it be messy and beautiful and absolutely imperfect. With deep gratitude thanks for tuning into this episode. If you liked it, hit subscribe and leave us a review that is always very appreciated. Mushrooms transformed my mind and body and if you're interested in bringing medicinal mushrooms into your life and health journey, check out rainbo.com for our meticulously sourced Canadian fruiting body mushroom tinctures. Until next time, peace in and peace out friends.