The Edge of Everyday

The Conscious Consultant Hour

This week, on The Conscious Consultant Hour, Sam welcomes Inter-spiritual Minister, Actor/Singer, and Motivational Presenter, Sandra Bargman.

After a lifetime of learning about the mystical, earth-based and energetic traditions, Sandra answered the call to spiritual leadership, taking on a parallel career by enrolling in seminary at The New Seminary (TNS) for Interfaith Studies in NYC and was ordained at St. John the Divine in 2007. She has a subsequent seminary degree in Spiritual Counseling from One Spirit Interfaith Seminary, also in NYC.

Sandra has been a professional actor and singer for 40+ years and holds a BFA from Carnegie Mellon University in drama and music. In 2014, Sandra started her own company, Sacred Stages, LLC, which produces plays, performance art, and media, as well as her one woman shows dedicated to exploring our big questions about life and contemplate these challenging times. Her most recent show, The Edge of Everyday, was nominated for a Broadway World Cabaret Award.

Sam and Sandra will discuss the relationship between performance and the divine, with a special announcement at the end of the show!

Tune in for this enlightening conversation at TalkRadio.nyc or watch the Facebook Livestream by Clicking Here.

Segment 1

Sam opens with the passage “Chaos Allows Us to Go from Evolutionary to Revolutionary” from his book, Everyday Awakening, available at all major booksellers. When we take our chaos and spread the mess around, it can create new constructions of the chaos that allow us to process and work through them in revolutionary ways. As humans we find comfort in being orderly, but that’s just not how life tends to work. Things will come along to make a mess in our lives. That mess however can create an opportunity to reinvent ourselves. Sometimes we need to experience this chaos in order to be motivated to make big changes in our lives. Most of the time we take actions to improve our lives one step at a time, but it’s the chaotic moments that are real opportunities for us to do something different. If we can cultivate presence of mind and learn to see every challenge we face as an opportunity, we can create positive change. A great example of this is the last year and half, when we’ve all had to reinvent our lives in certain ways. There can be magic in not knowing where we’re going. Go to the Everyday Awakening website to learn more about the book. Sam welcomes to the show Inter-spiritual Minister, Actor/Singer, and Motivational Presenter, Sandra Bargman. Sam asks Sandra about her upbringing. Sandra describes herself as someone living under her mother’s dream, since her mother was a musician but became a teacher by profession instead. Her father was a violinist. She was very musical and spiritual growing up and decided in high school that she wanted to be a performer. She was spiritual growing up - she loved going to churches and describes herself as someone who could always “read the room.” After the break, Sam will ask Sandra what her tipping point was in wanting to become an interfaith minister.

Segment 2

Sam comes back from break to ask Sandra how she came to her decision to do what she does. Sandra says it was a slow buildup. She moved to Syracuse as a child to a school district her parents chose due to the reputation of the arts program. When she was a junior in high school, she says she couldn’t imagine not being a full-time performer. She was accepted to Carnegie Mellon Conservatory. She has never regretted her decision and knows her heart would be empty if she didn’t choose her path. She was always very spiritually aware and became interested in the New Age scene in high school. At 40, while on tour, a friend who was a life coach introduced her to life coaching and she was interested, but it didn’t quite do it for her. Then one day she came across the website of someone who was a life coach and interfaith minister which sparked her interest. Within one week she was enrolled in a seminary to become an interfaith minister. Sam asks if Sandra cultivated any practices to enhance her spiritual gifts or if it just came naturally. Sandra answers it came naturally but she always has had a sense of understanding that it’s a gift. When she was in seminary she realized she needed to give her spiritual gift much more space in her life. Around the same time her mother was battling cancer and asked her to be the minister at her funeral. It was a tremendous gift but also agonizingly painful to fulfill this duty. Sam has had conversations with people who have for transitioning out of life since in our society we do so little to prepare. Sam asks if seminary was just what she was looking for or if there were surprises along the way. Sandra answers it was mostly what she was looking for but says there were definitely some conflicting ideas in seminary compared to her personal beliefs, especially with regards to organized religion. Seminary teachings were that interfaith ministry is not possible without an underlying religious belief, which Sandra vehemently disagreed with. She made her own beliefs, traditions and rituals to inform her practice. After the break Sam will ask Sandra how she combined interfaith ministry with performance, and how Sacred Stages came about.

Segment 3

Back from break, Sam asks Sandra what was the journey that brought interfaith and performance together. Sandra answers performance was always a good fit because it is the background and community she is familiar with, as opposed to any organized religion. Sam asks what ways did she use her seminary to connect with people. Sandra joined a wellness center where she was their spiritual counselor. From there she started to gain her own clients, and then started a wedding business. During this time she was still performing, and she developed a practice combining acting techniques and therapy to help people get across what they’re trying to say in an authentic way. People would write monologues for situations they were revisiting, and instead of just talking about them, they could use their whole bodies to vocalize and give the situations energetic meaning. She gives the example of a woman who acted out a serious conversation she wanted to have with her father. The woman was blown away by how therapeutic the experience was. Sam says he has learned from his wife, who is a therapist, that trauma gets lodged in our bodies, and that performance can be an effective way to physically deal with the trauma. Sam asks about the development of Sacred Stages. Sandra says that Sacred Stages is the combination of her performance and ministry backgrounds. She wanted to have a production umbrella that overrode all the things she does. The name Sacred Stages is a literal phrase but it also covers the internal stages she thinks people are visualizing when they are interpreting their feelings. Sam will ask Sandra more about The Edge of Every Day one-woman show Sandra produces.

Segment 4

Sam comes back to ask Sandra about The Edge of Every Day. Sandra says her life was very service-oriented, and she had an edge of feeling unfulfilled. She was with her husband in the Catskills where she lives and came across an abandoned restaurant, which she told her husband she’d call “The Edge.” Her husband, a scientist, then told her about the “edge effect,” - the area where a field meets the forest, for example - where bursts of creativity and beliefs come together. Hence the name of her show. In the show she blurs the lines between multiple types of performance and her spiritual practices. The show is about coming to terms with chaotic, liminal spaces. Sam asks if attitudes toward the show have changed over time. Sandra says people can choose how deep they want to go when they experience the show. Sandra then makes the surprise announcement that her new show, Live in the Hive, is going to be premiering on TalkRadio.nyc. She’s going to explore the edges in life. What are the feelings you’re experiencing in life and how are they edging up with your personal and professional lives? Listeners will learn how to work through these edges on her show. Listeners can find more information about Sandra at SandraBargman.com.

Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-conscious-consultant-hour8505/donations
Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands
Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy