Mindrolling – Raghu Markus – Ep. 345 – New Growth with Nikki Walton

Nikki Walton

Nikki Walton joins Raghu to discuss her beginnings as a spiritual seeker, the process of letting go, and how to tune into the silence to find love.

Nikki Walton is a best-selling and NAACP Image Award Nominated author, and Licensed Psychotherapist. She has appeared on Tyra, Today, Steve Harvey, Katie Couric, Nightline, and many other national programs, and has been profiled in Forbes, The NY Times, The Guardian, and many other publications. She is best known for her industry-disrupting hair and lifestyle blog, CurlyNikki.com, and her many appearances on The Dr. Oz Show as its resident beauty expert. Over the last 10 years, Nikki has expanded her platform, which not only takes her readers from outer to inner beauty, but from self-help to self-transcendence. On her New Growth Podcast Nikki welcomes headlining guests to explore Divine Love as the key to spiritual growth, empowered service, and inner and outer success.

Nikki has joined the Be Here Now Network! Check out her brand new podcast series New Growth
Awareness of the Seeker

After early sparks of spiritual inquiry led Nikki to dive headfirst into an ever-evolving library of spiritual authors and esoteric traditions, Nikki found herself taking on the role of a seeker, one-pointed in her search for the divine. Triangulating these various teachings off of each other, she was able to discover where the truths intersected, which was in the unspoken presence of “I Am.” Through this process of intense seeking, reading, and meditating, she was able to experience this presence for herself. Rather than continuing to see herself as the “seeker” or “meditator,” she began to align more with the presence that was watching the meditator, the thing that was watching the act of meditation. Instead of being caught being Nikki, she was now aligning with the awareness watching her unfolding.

“There was a shift from being Nikki sitting, trying to silence the mind, and all of a sudden it was seen that no matter what Nikki does or doesn’t do, what her mind is doing or not doing, what that body is doing or not doing, even if that body is balled up crying in the corner; that love is there, that peace is there. It’s completely accessible at all times, and it’s more real than the body or the mind. So, I’ve been living in that space, as that love…I’m still reading everyday, but it’s not that same type of seeking energy.” – Nikki Walton

Open yourself to the inaugural First Episode of Nikki’s podcast New Growth
Listening to the Silence (23:05)

Nikki shares tips for dealing with the fires inside of us, like the lapping flames of fear which can saturate and overwhelm our minds. Offering examples from her own life, she includes a step-by-step overview of how to listen into the ever-present silence which holds our existence, and how tuning into that silence allows fear to burn away and love to move in.

“I have to be aware enough to notice that the anger is there and that it is not me, that it is a visitor. That’s step one: ‘Ah, anger is here,’ in the midst of whatever is going on out there. That’s very important because if you can’t do that, you can’t do the next step: I listen to the silence that is present. Even if I was at a rock concert, I’d be able to hear this loud silence that the rock music was arising and falling back into. So, it’s almost like I turn and listen to the silence, and love rolls in like a fog.” – Nikki Walton

For wisdom on tuning into the silence to find love, check out Ep. 152 of Ram Dass Here & Now
See the World, Feel the Kingdom (29:42)

When we see everything as God, and everyone as God in drag, we realize that any outward appearance is not the true form because anything in form is perpetually transitory, in a constant passing state. If all of these forms are always changing, Nikki suggests that the only real presence is love. From this place of of love, she offers us to ‘see the world, but feel the kingdom.’

“When you’re with the love, you are accepting. It is the surrender. When you reach for that love in the midst of the emotional storm, that is letting go. When I let go, love is there. When I’m resisting it, it’s difficult to find that love, to feel that love, but when I let go and allow that grief, or allow that anger, and not judge it; all of a sudden there’s the love. It’s always been here. So, it is a surrendering to it. It is a being with it. It’s an accepting.” – Nikki Walton

Uncover resources for surrendering and letting go on Ep. 61 of the Heart Wisdom Podcast
Wat​ch the latest Ram Dass Documentary film on Becoming Nobody on Gaia.com. The Gaia.com library supports you with transformational content. See it for yourself and go to Gaia.com/BeHereNow and check out the Be Here Now Playlist curated just for you. Visit Gaia.com/BeHereNow to start your free trial today. 

Images from NikkiWalton.love and CurlyNikki.com