This is a transcript from our podcast episode with Julie Moltke about meditation and connection.

Axel Wennhall
Welcome to the podcast “Meditera Mera”, which in direct translation means “meditate more”. This is a podcast made by the Swedish meditation app Mindfully, and the podcast is produced by Gustav Nord and me, Axel Wennhall. I’m sitting in Stockholm right now, and I’m just about to call our next guest, Julie Moltke, to talk to her about meditation and connection. Julie Moltke lives in Denmark and is a medical doctor from the University of Copenhagen, and she has also studied at Karolinska in Stockholm and at Pierrette Marie Curie in Paris. Julie’s focus as a doctor is on mental health, stress management and the medicinal cannabis industry. She has also written the book “A quick guide to CBD”. Julie is a mindfulness and yoga instructor, and she has founded the Mindfulness Manner on her estate Margreteholm in southern Sweden, from where she has hosted several retreats helping participants connect to themselves, nature and each other. And together with her husband Todd, she is also the host of Awaken in the Woods, a consciousness and music festival at their Manner Margreteholm. We cover many topics in our conversation, as the correlation between mindfulness and connection, being part of a community, raising children, and what a spiritual life really is about. Julie, so nice to see you again.

Julie Moltke
Thank you. Thank you for having me, Axel.

Axel Wennhall
So you are currently in London.

Julie Moltke
Yeah, that’s right. I’m here at the moment with my daughter and my husband who’s English. So we have been here for two months and in two weeks we’re going to go back to Scandinavia to Copenhagen.

Axel Wennhall
So I’m really happy to have you on the podcast because not only do you inspire me by a lot of your work, but you’re also one of my best friends in this meditation world and meditation circle. And I’ve been so fortunate enough to being able to be at your amazing place, Margreteholm, to both host a retreat, but then also participate and be part of Awaken in the Woods, the festival you and your husband Todd organizes. So of course I want to talk to you about the festival. I want the listeners to get to know you as I know you. I’m very grateful that we could catch up today. I know both of us, we have small kids, so it’s not the easiest to schedule right now.

Julie Moltke
Yeah, no, me too. I’m also really happy. I enjoy every conversation with you, Axel.

Axel Wennhall
Before we dive in, we usually have a short landing meditation. It would be so nice to do that now as well, if you don’t mind.

Julie Moltke
I would love that.

Axel Wennhall
Okay, so both Julie and I, we are sitting at home. For you who are listening to this, you might be moving in any kind of way, traveling, walking. If you have the possibility to physically stop, to not move your body, I would like to invite you to do that. But don’t worry if you can’t stop. If you are moving or if you still want to move, you can do this meditation as well. And you see whether you prefer to have your eyes open or closed. Just take one deep conscious breath, breathing in through your nostrils, filling up your body with air, and then just release it through your mouth, exhale, sense how your body relaxes. And now I would like to invite you to become aware of any sensations in your body that feels pleasant. Or perhaps are at ease. You see if you can find some part of your body that feels nice to hang out with. then linger with your awareness here. So you stay and see if you can enjoy this moment by fully experiencing it. And of course, thoughts arises. And when they do, and you become aware of them, just let them be. No need to fight them, resist them, judge them. Just let them be. And then shift. So you again experience your body. Experience these pleasant, comfortable, or whatever it might be sensations that you enjoy. And before you end this short, laughing meditation, just take a moment and orient yourself wherever you might be. So what do you hear? What do you see? Can you smell anything? Do you taste anything? What do you touch? Just come back to your senses. Just being fully awake, fully alive, and fully here. So, Julie, where were you in your life when you discovered meditation or other spiritual practices?

Julie Moltke
I mean, right now I’m just so relaxed and my shoulders feel so like they dropped 10 centimeters. So thank you for that. But when I first was sort of faced with meditation and the Eastern traditions, it was during my gap year when I was about 20 years old and I decided that I wanted to go to India and Nepal for six months and volunteer. And then like the colorful deities and, you know, the yogis and the gurus and the men in orange robes that are meditating by the rivers. And it’s so, it’s so deeply fascinating. So there I got like really interested in the religions of the East. And I was living in Nepal, working in an orphanage for three months. And then we would go to the high Himalayas for tracking the volunteer groups. There I was introduced to meditation and to yoga. And I was introduced to some of the Indian texts and some of the Tibetan Buddhism when I was traveling around Nepal. And I went into the high mountains pass of Kashmir and went up to the exile area where many of the Tibetan Buddhists live today. So there I just got like really, really interested in the richness of the culture and also really the way that you look at the mind. But it was kind of a seed that was planted. And then I went back. And I think on that trip, I also read Herman Hesse’s Siddhartha, which is a story about, like, you know, Buddha, Buddha, Guttama’s life and like how he became the Buddha. Then I just went back to Denmark and I went to medical school and I went all in on the science and like the anatomy and the religion of the Western world, which is science in a way. And I became a doctor and was doing my autism or residency in Denmark. I was so distressed because I thought that there was just something so important lacking in the medical system. And I didn’t really realize what it was. But I realized that people who came to, for example, like the GP, the Vårdcentralen in Denmark, like so many of them had these kind of mental health issues, existentialistic issues. And you just could not use the Western medicine to help them much. At the same time, I was like feeling quite in a crisis about what I wanted to do with my life and what kind of doctor I wanted to be. And so I was taking over my dad’s property in Sweden, which is like a family business with forestry and housing. And I just didn’t know which direction I should go with my life. So I felt stressed and I felt anxious and I also felt quite, I just felt, this is what I spent these six years becoming a doctor. Like, can’t I really do more for people? And that’s when I really found my way back to meditation and mindfulness. So I did a mindfulness course, which really helped me calm my nervous system. Because the thing is, when you’re anxious and stressed, your nervous system is in such a high arousal state. And in the beginning, I couldn’t even like, I couldn’t even do these body scans for 15 minutes. I would get so frustrated by lying still for 15 minutes just focusing on my body. It would be like a total nightmare. But slowly I did the eight week mindfulness course and I did a little bit more mindfulness for professionals. And then I realized that I wanted to do yoga teacher training. So I went to Bali. And yeah, that was sort of like the way I really got into it.

Axel Wennhall
What would you say that you discovered or what did you kind of receive when you started to meditate?

Julie Moltke
So I quickly discovered when I did the mindfulness course that I don’t have to be afraid of my thoughts. My thoughts are passing, just like my emotions are passing. And I don’t need to hang on to them or identify myself with them. They are not defining who I am. I also touched upon a sort of stillness and a peacefulness that I hadn’t really, well, I mean, I had discovered it before, but it was sort of like in those free moments, you know, when you’re with friends and you’re just like, free, you don’t think about anything. Like you just are, you know, like these kind of like also moments traveling where you just see like the most beautiful scenery and you’re just taken right out of your busy mind and straight into the world and you’re just in awe of the preciousness and the beauty of the moment. And I kind of discovered that that kind of feeling was available, even if I had busy thoughts and difficult emotions.

Axel Wennhall
And I was, it was really interesting hearing you because I have a similar background and I had similar insights and I think like the most freeing and kind of the insight I had that gave me like this huge relief was this kind of realization that wait a minute, if I’m able to observe my thoughts, to see how they just arise without really no control and see that, wait a minute, the mind seems to be crazy at times. That was just such a relief because then the identification could drop. And the stories I had about myself, who I should be or who I ought to be in the future, they were seen for just that, like this sub personality or this pattern of thoughts. And I think that’s at least for me where kind of where I always come back to. So what is this practice about? It’s really about changing my relationship to my thoughts, my feelings and my experience in life like they all go together because they affect each other but I think with thoughts that’s really where you can sense the relief because I mean as you mentioned when you were working as a doctor, people coming into the hospital with all these kind of mental health issues and then we kind of look at our lives today and we can see that well wait a minute it should be pretty good like we have so much material stuff and we are lucky enough to live in both Denmark and Sweden or at least come from Denmark and Sweden which have an amazing welfare system in place as well. But it’s pretty difficult to be a human being because we have this self-reflecting process that seems to be so unconscious for most of us until we finally see it and see this kind of um, automatic, repetitive thought process that really do does quite a lot of harm.

Julie Moltke
Yeah, yeah, I think, like um, you say this with a crazy mind, and that is really what you do discover that many of so many of these thoughts are kind of random and they don’t necessarily need to mean anything very deep or special and I think at least for me um you know I was kind of I had certain thoughts because I was stressed and they I resisted them I was like I’m not allowed to think these kind of things and you know when you what you’re resisting usually just stays there what you resist persists um and so then you think it even more and then it becomes this sort of like repetitive thought system which turns into like which for me turned into me being afraid of my own thoughts even though they were just thoughts and when I suddenly suddenly like understood the way that the mind just generate these like thoughts and how I really don’t need to fight them I also don’t need to judge them and there’s definitely nothing wrong with me because everyone every every brain is like that every mind is generating all these thoughts but somehow we are not really equipped with that knowledge like um we don’t really understand the nature of the mind and from a sort of um like biological and physiological standpoint I also really loved what I was learning about mindfulness and the nature of the mind because it makes so much sense from an evolutionary perspective like you know we that’s a that’s a way we became this species that have kind of I mean like made it to the top of the of the pile like um we have built the this incredible world you can think what you want of it, but but it is quite incredible what man has done since we came from the primates and and this is because of our ability to always think into the future. How can we improve things? How can we make it better? And like that, that is, of course, a gift. But if you, if you don’t understand the nature of the mind, then you can really easily get stuck in these thoughts about the future or the ruminations about the past, like what did I do wrong? Like I should have done better and living your whole life without not really realizing the beauty of the present moment. So so sort of like learning to understand the mind, getting familiar with the mind through meditation for me has been one of the most like useful tools for my own life. I’ve also really enjoyed like passing it on to to um the people I’ve worked with in retreats and other kinds of settings. Um yeah, like I think it’s um it’s an amazing gift and you can see it sort of like on the neuroscience side of things. You can see how the brain is changing. You can see how like your amygdala, the sort of fear center of the brain, it kind of like becomes a little bit smaller. The activity in that area is turned down and your prefrontal cortex and it’s just like lighting up when and I think it’s it’s incredible um what benefits something as simple as breathing consciously can have.

Axel Wennhall
Yeah. Yeah, it’s by far like by far the most important thing I discovered in this life.

Julie Moltke
Yeah.

Axel Wennhall
And and it’s in one way it’s so simple like because it’s really about if you want to understand your mind you sit down and you observe it. And and you and you get to learn this for yourself because that’s the whole thing right that um this kind of knowledge is 100% experiential. Like it doesn’t matter how many books you read about meditation. You have to experience this for yourself. And and the best thing is that it’s so accessible. It’s it’s really uh of course there’s there can be some pitfalls with comparing it to physical exercise but for me mindfulness I sometimes compare it to this kind of mental stamina. It’s like you know that if you want to have a better stamina you go out and you run 5K or something and and and when you do that you feel better. All of your part of your life feel better. And and there are some similarities to meditation in that extent like well if you want to be more present and more compassionate like sit down observe your mind. Disidentify with the thoughts that arise in your mind. Come back to what you just said. Just being conscious of your breath. Feel your body. Feel this moment. Perhaps you can sense that it’s very precious. Perhaps you can’t. But at least you know that you are experiencing your life when you do that. And I think because sometimes I get the question why should someone meditate? And it’s so difficult to answer that because I don’t know you. I have no clue what’s your what’s your motivation or intention might be. But for me it kind of like well if if I’m if I’m not present if I’m not experiencing this moment in I’m really missing my life and experiencing my life what can be more important than that? I I I can’t figure it out.

Julie Moltke
Yeah yeah um I I just think that everyone should meditate in the world would be a much better place. Yeah and and for me I just um I just know that if I haven’t meditated one day I find myself being like quite a lot more reactive. I don’t really deal with the world in the same in the same way as as I do when I when I’ve started my day with a meditation. So I really like try to get up before my husband and my daughter to to just have that like start to the day. So I find that I have a lot more patience with my daughter when when I just get that time to myself to sort of like reset and yeah start out and in this good frequency in a way.

Axel Wennhall
Yeah yeah yeah no I I totally agree and and I I I think we we we could leave the conversation if meditation would make the world a better place to to to turn that around but I just know that my life becomes better. Yeah and that’s uh um that’s good enough and uh so how can I put it you you because you started you you started to become a doctor and then and you started working and then you discovered meditation did you did it change your life in terms of your career?

Julie Moltke
Yeah it was kind of like it did change my trajectory quite a bit because I was there just if you just imagine that you have this like you know young girl in the mid 20s and you know on one side I have this like doctor education so it’s sort of like quite obvious that you can just continue as some kind of doctor. On the other hand I have I have just taken over um my um my dad’s business and and a small estate in Sweden um with a lot of land and housing and and I’m in this is in Sweden I’m my friends and family are in Denmark and I’m kind of like how do I make these two worlds meet like um can they meet uh and what am I to do with this legacy like taking over this business and this place which has been in our family in generations and how do I make it my own how do I make it something that’s contributing to the world um in a positive way so that I just had like so many question marks about my life. And then I went to do this. I went eight weeks to Bali. That was not a bad choice. And I did this yoga teacher training. And I think everyone who’s ever done a yoga teacher training know that that really brings you deep into the core of your being, the core of your values. Or at least for me, it did. Because it’s like such a deep personal spiritual journey to go on such a long education into the yogic philosophy. And I could just sort of visualize when I was out there in Bali, I could just visualize how this beautiful manor, Margrethe Holm, that I took over from my father, you know, how it would be such a healing place to bring people to. Like I had during my first year as a doctor, I told you I was so stressed. And then I went up to take over the property, Margrethe Holm, and I lived in the house on my own. I was there for a whole year, sort of getting to know the employees and the business and the forest and like forestry in general. And I could just sort of like feel how my, my, my pulse lowered, my shoulders dropped. I, I don’t know, I stopped worrying so much. Like the pace of my life just slowly like came, like dropped. And at the same time I did the mindfulness and the yoga. And, and when I was, when I was sitting there in Bali, which was like halfway into my year living at Margretheholm in Sweden, I, yeah, I could just see how this place would be able to be so healing and so nurturing to so many people if I opened it up. You’ve been there, actually, you had a retreat together with, with Gustav and you know how, you know, the lake of the, the view of the lake and like the, the pristine forest around and the house in itself, which is just so beautiful and aesthetic, it’s, it’s, it’s quite a magical place to be. And so, yeah, I had this, this vision of opening it up, of making retreats like yoga retreats, mindfulness retreats, and that was what we started doing. I started doing together with a friend of mine who was a yoga teacher in 2019 and we sort of gave birth to the mindfulness manner, which we called it and started having our first retreats and you were actually there. The first year and held a meditation and hiking retreat, which was so wonderful. That’s where I got to, to meet you. And so it definitely has influenced my life. At the same time, I’ve still been working as a doctor and I’ve been like working as a doctor in quite alternative ways and I still do. And I just find that now it makes so much sense to me to let these worlds meet because I feel to bring a spiritual, like to set like a framework where you can help people listen to the spiritual calling that is, that I believe is within all of us. And I think that’s a true gift to be able to do that. That’s also why we have the festival, why I do the retreats and even my work as a doctor, I always try to bring in that kind of mind-body element so that there’s a chance that the people that I work with can connect with the calling of, yeah, what can you say? I mean, the calling of their soul, it sounds so grand, but like, you know, in a way it is just to connect with something which is a little bit like untangible, like this, yeah, this thing which is a little bit bigger than yourself, which is like a feeling of just being part of something beautiful out there in the world, not just like an isolated individual. And that’s where I think spirituality and all these consciousness practices like can bring so much to the individual and to the world.

Axel Wennhall
Yeah. Yeah. And I totally agree with you, with what you said. And I think for those, for those who perhaps might be a bit scared off by the word spiritual, I think you could just use it to, or kind of change it a little bit. For me, spirituality in its essence is about reality and like the, as you mentioned, the spiritual calling is just to get to know yourself and be yourself and make decisions that kind of just feels nourishing and feels that, of course, I want to do this. This is what I want to do, rather than being lost in different desires or being afraid and take decisions out of that place to just feel like, yes, like a big yes to life and a big yes to yourself.

Julie Moltke
Yeah. Yeah, I agree. And the spiritual life is a conscious life. It’s like where you become like aware of who you are and like how you can make a positive impact in the world. And that’s not, I really don’t mean that you have to sort of like quit your job and like become a meditation teacher or anything like that, but it’s just to kind of realize that you have, you have such an impact. You know, like just by your attitude, just by smiling to people in the street and like, you know, just like being, like being here, like, and not sort of like lost on all the time on like, you know, your phone and social media, like, you know, not connecting. I think like the spiritual calling is also about just connecting to yourself and connecting to other people. This, like this feeling of being connected to the, to the world, to people around you, because I think one of the most, probably one of the most like stressful things and that can make the, the like life feel quite sort of depressing is if you just feel isolated. Right, like loneliness is, is, is really one of the things that we’re doing a lot with in our society because people like forget to, to connect. Yeah, so I think that at its core, like, you know, to sort of realize that you’re a spiritual being, that you are connected to the world around you, that you are, you can connect to your inner world. You can connect to the people around you. And it’s like, I mean, I don’t mean like necessarily like, you know, connecting in grand ways. It’s just like keeping eye contact, smiling to each other. You know, it just, it totally changes the world in a way.

Axel Wennhall
Yeah. I love the word connection because presence, mindfulness, whatever word we awareness, it’s about connection really. It’s about in the meditation we started off with, like, what did we do? We connected to the present moment. We connected to what’s pleasant within us. Connected to ourselves, our immediate environment. And I think most people who listen to this, they’ve had the realization that they’ve been disconnected. So I think that’s, I mean, awakening is an awakening is going from disconnection to connection. That’s really what awakening is. You become aware that, wait a minute, I’ve been disconnected, but it’s possible to be connected and you get a sense, you get a feeling, you experience that, how it is to be connected or be present or mindful, whatever word you want to use it. And then for me, a spiritual life or just like, um, authentic human life is about trying to bring that connection into every aspect of our lives. I think that’s, for me, that’s the greatest adventure life has to offer. Like, it’s mind blowing how difficult it can be at times. Yeah.

Julie Moltke
Yeah, because I mean, like being, working on getting to know the mind, working on like being more connected to yourself and the world around you, it doesn’t make, I mean, doesn’t mean that your life gets a lot easier. You know, you still have the same challenges, you know, like, you like people that you love, you lose people that you love, like, you know, the insecurity of life, you just never know what’s going to happen, you know, like, so there’s just always this constant, like change of life and, and you know that that’s not gonna gonna stop just because you that meditating or doing yoga or whatever like, but, but what I do think that it does is that it sort of gives this kind of beautiful tool to have a small distance between the painful, difficult events of life and yourself so that you can kind of see that these situations are, are gonna pass, they’re gonna change, like, like everything is always changing and even though it might be difficult, there might be like painful emotions, like that, that doesn’t mean that it’s, it’s bad or wrong. And, and you can kind of, yeah, like you learn with the meditation you, you can, you know, not always because sometimes you just get caught up in things that are difficult and things that are painful, but, but at least like for me, I felt that I got the tools to be able to keep an underlying joyfulness, even when, like, things have been really difficult in my life and, yeah, when they are difficult in life.

Axel Wennhall
Yeah, I would say that the joyfulness, it’s definitely there so much more in my life and I’m so grateful for it. And it’s also just this okayness. Yeah, so, like today, I’ve been so tired and when you’re tired, you become disconnected, because that’s, that’s one of the side effects of being sleep deprived, as many of us parents might be. But in feeling that disconnection today, there was also this kind of realization that, of course, I’m disconnected because I haven’t slept enough. And there was just this okayness about it, rather than resisting it and going into the stories like, no, I lost the connection or I should be able to sleep more or whatever it might be, to use those endless stories over and over again. So for me also, just the being okay with what is and it doesn’t happen all the time, but it happens so much more today than it did before I started meditation.

Julie Moltke
were born. I just remember it was like a world before having children and then there’s a world after. And children are just such great teachers and they are also just like individuals of their own. And exactly there’s the sleep deprivation and the trying to fit in like so many things in a program, in a day and just never really succeeding. Like do all the things you would like to do. So I think the okayness is really important. Like just the yeah, just like this. I’m just doing the best that I can. And exactly like today, maybe I don’t, I didn’t get to meditate like it was one of those days and it’s all right and I did my best and tomorrow’s a new day, you know, like not striving for this perfection. Which is always portrayed in like social media and you know, like this. Yeah, maybe it’s not always portrayed in social media, but but you certainly can like get caught in the idea that you know other people’s lives are more glamorous and exciting than your own.

Axel Wennhall
For me that it’s interesting like when I see those social media posts now like I just laugh because that’s just like it’s like the biggest delusion. That trick can only work on people who hasn’t got kids yet. Like you get a kid and then you see through it all and you’re like, okay, this is bullshit. But it’s interesting because as you mentioned, there is really like there is life before and the life afterwards. And I remember I got a lot of questions before I was a parent. People asking me like, how will I find the time to meditate? And I was just like, you need to prioritize it before. This was before I became a dad myself. And now I realize, okay, now I understand their struggle now because I didn’t have this experience. I couldn’t really meet them and help them. But I think what I’ve discovered, except having this okayness as we’ve been speaking about, which is just so crucial. I told you before we started recording that I had a moment with my kids this weekend where the three of us were all lying and screaming on the floor. They were crying and I was just screaming because I was overwhelmed. And it’s safe to say it wasn’t my proudest moment in life. But it was okay. And it gave me this great motivation. So what I’ve seen that been very useful in my own kind of intention to be a good parent is that first of all, try to connect with what is important for you in your parenting role. So really sense into that. Like in the morning, for example, for me, it became very obvious when I was reactive as a three-year-old this weekend that, okay, this is not how I want to act. This is not how I want to respond to the situation. So I could use that as a motivator. Okay, so what can I do instead? And then to bring in the practice or mindfulness or consciousness or awareness into daily life by just realizing when you get stressed, when you get overwhelmed. And then just to try to take it down a notch. Just take it down a notch by having a few conscious breaths or whatever it might be. Also, perhaps consciously distract yourself from the situation. And just become more conscious and then be really, really happy that you were able to take it down a notch. Like really celebrate those kind of things. So we had an interview with an Australian meditation teacher called Leanne Tang. And I loved her framing because it was really just be aware, relax, and smile. Be aware, relax, and smile. And then you kind of just retrain your mind that it kind of comes in more automatically. It’s so helpful. And it doesn’t matter if you have small kids or if you’re as stressed at work or a challenging situation, whatever. I mean, it’s life. It works in all situations. But it kind of, for me, it becomes highlighted during these years with kids. Small kids.

Julie Moltke
Yeah, I mean, I agree. And also, what you’re mentioning there in a way is like if someone ever did a mindfulness course, they would have learned about how to practice formal mindfulness, which is sitting down and meditating. But then there’s also the informal or like this sort of, you know, the mindfulness that you just do in every moment. And that’s exactly what you mentioned there, which is like every moment is really a chance to yeah, come back to your breath, like come back to the situation and sort of like step into the moment and out of any emotional reaction that you’re having. Like, I mean, the day just before I was coming over here, I made like a smoothie for my daughter and like she, I took a sip on it, took a sip of it and I should have never done that because she got so upset. And then she, like she took the, she took the cup and then she put the whole content of the smoothie out on the floor. Like this, like purple, like berry smoothie. And I just got like, I got like my first, my initial reaction was just to get so mad. I was just like, what are you doing? And then I just realized, okay, she’s two and a half years old. She doesn’t know. She doesn’t know. She doesn’t know. She doesn’t know how to just tell me. Why did you take a sip of my juice? Her way to sort of like communicate to me, I’m upset with your mom, is to put it on the floor. And so, and exactly, I mean, I just felt so much like, you know, being like, just telling her off. But I think I just took a couple of breaths and I was, I was just like, Mimi, why did you throw it on the floor? Or was it, what happened? She was like, on the couch feeling like really, really sad and sort of like moaning. And then I said, it wasn’t because I had a sip of your smooth and she was like, yeah. And you know, it’s like, these kind of situations are a bit like, exaggerated because luckily most adults that you interact with in most situations are not like that. But there’s just going to be so many times where things are happening that are kind of like a little bit emotionally upsetting, right? And so to just, to be able to come back to the moment and like, yeah, exactly like, just, okay, what’s going on in my environment? Like, come back to the breath and just, yeah, like, take a step back and, and, and it’s okay, you know, now we wipe up the smoothie and we continue. And I find that now that we’re talking about children, like, there are also just so many beautiful, mindful moments on, like, just on it, just by the nature of being a child, you are just in the world, like in this mindful way. So, so it can just be so beautiful, like, you know, playing with your child outside and like, you really get the chance to see the world from that kid’s perspective. If you slow down and just allow it, but it’s definitely interesting.

Axel Wennhall
Yeah.

Okänd
Yeah.

Axel Wennhall
Yeah, I think we can all relate to your smoothie story. And it’s talking about, we spoke about that the mind is crazy. Like I had that kind of similar experience so many times that I just realized, wait a minute, my daughter is also two and a half years old. Why am I getting so upset? Because there’s a reactive part in us that just kind of like snaps and it was inspiring hearing that you could caught it and kind of see it and then not act on it, because that’s wisdom. I mean, that’s what wisdom is. And sometimes we have it and sometimes we don’t and we have to forgive ourselves for not having it. But like, I think just the intention to try at least to live a more compassionate, sane life. Yeah, let’s call it sane because that’s what it is.

Julie Moltke
Yeah, but you’re so right. We have to forgive ourselves as well, because we’re just it’s just not always gonna regardless of how I was like mindful we are you sometimes you’re going to react. I mean, well, I mean, of course, there are people who don’t react, but I just, you know, the average one of us, right? Like, so it’s just like to have that compassion. And that’s, yeah, like just forgiveness towards yourself. I realized, like, when I was down doing my like Sunday kundalini class, like last weekend in my yoga studio here in London that I was just, I was like, what is what is this like nagging feeling in my chest and then I just, I just realized that I had been like really impatient with with my daughter and I just like, when I was like lying there and like stillness. I could just sense that I felt so upset about myself, like that I felt really guilty because I was like, what does she know? She’s just like a tiny little kid. And but but I mean, it’s just impossible to always like be the patient parent. Like sometimes you don’t have that patience because we’re just like human beings and life is happening, right? But I do find that like practicing practicing the the mindfulness, it’s it’s that’s the important part. And then forgiving yourself when you when you can’t do it exactly the way you would have liked to.

Axel Wennhall
Yeah, yeah, totally agree. So I want to circle back a little bit to Margrethe Holm, the place you inherited and then have kind of opened up to the world. So I think one of one of my experiences that I’ve been seen also in many other people starting to meditate is that we spoke a lot about connection a while ago and and so you, when you start to meditate, you start to connect with yourself, you start to connect perhaps with your inner values and you start to connect with the present moment in a more profound way. But for many people, as for myself, this can be a quite lonely journey in the sense that many people use an app, for example. I remember when I started to meditate, I didn’t have a single friend who kind of were meditating, or at least I didn’t know anyone who was meditating. And also you’re kind of depending on your spiritual practice. But it can be, my experience is that it can be quite lonely and there’s definitely something missing there or there’s a lack of something and that’s the connection and sharing this connection to others really. And I think what I’ve been experiencing together with you and why I think I really value you as one of my really best friends in this spiritual life is that you’ve been able to kind of bring people together and use Margrethe Holm and doing that, especially with the festival you’re organizing now, Awaken in the Woods. And I think when you spoke about the word connection, it’s just like, yeah, that’s it. Like that’s what I really experienced being a part of it, like both because both being a facilitator but also being a student or a participant or a part of a bigger community that’s been spending a few days there. But I wanted to kind of hear you, what’s kind of what’s your intention? What has your intention been with Awaken in the Woods? And perhaps you could also just let the listeners know a little bit about the festival if they don’t know about it.

Julie Moltke
Yeah, I would love to. Awaken in the Woods is a festival that I started together with Todd, my husband, and then some other friends from Denmark. And it was sort of a bit of a vision that came to me when I started being together with Todd and we both like came onto the spiritual path together. But then also we have like this really huge love of music. So I could just envision like having this kind of consciousness, meditation, yoga festival together with music, so a musical festival. So that was kind of the idea behind Awaken in the Woods. But another really big part of it was this experience that I had had when I had been part of other communities like spiritual communities around the world and festivals around the world that you can become this family, even though maybe you have only met each other. At the festival or otherwise you are coming back to the festival and meeting again after a year. And so I feel a lot of the spiritual work that we do, as you say, can be quite lonely. That can also be a little bit of a painful element related to it because a lot of people maybe don’t feel very well. And then, you know, as for me, for example, feeling stressed and anxious, and then you start meditating. And so there is like this healing process going on, like you’re going inwards, you’re going inwards and like finding out about yourself and things that hurt you and, you know, kind of like healing a little bit. It’s a word that’s being used a lot, but I mean, like whether you do it through meditation or psychotherapy or whatever, whatever modality you use, that’s a big focus. But I think that when we then come together in community like that at a festival where the aim is to sort of like bring the joyfulness, the connection, this sort of feeling of everyone being part of the same whole, of the same family. Yeah, that can just bring a euphoria, sort of like a joy of life and such a beautiful aliveness to your life and to the context. And I feel like so many people that have been part of Awaken in the Woods over the last couple of years have said it has been like the best weekend of the year. Like, you know, we have so many people that are coming back just because of this experience of being so alive and being so connected and being part of a community where there’s no, there’s no criteria. You don’t have to, there’s no criteria to be included. You are part of this community, no matter who you are, where you come from, what you do, what, you know, like, if you’re sad, if you’re happy, you know, you’re just here, everyone, we see each other. There is no, like, I mean, of course, you know, this, it sounds a little bit sort of like utopia, but, but, you know, we are just trying to create an environment where you can come as you are and be seen and you really don’t need to, like, live up to anything except just, yeah, following what you need and, and like diving into all the incredible, like, workshops and features. And getting new friends and, yeah, getting connected. Yeah, that’s sort of like the, the vision behind it. And it’s just been so, so fun. And like, yeah, such a, such a rewarding thing to work on.

Axel Wennhall
I love the fact that you say it’s been so fun, because I think that’s the experience also I’ve been having is that during this festival, as you mentioned, like there’s, there’s been so many different ways to, to connect with, with nature, with the amazing place that Margrethe Holm is, connect to different spiritual practices. But at the same time also connecting to, of course, perhaps most importantly, like connecting to everyone who’s there. And, and I, and I feel that people who, who spin there, and I think that actually, like, I want to give you huge credit for that, because my experience of, of being part of Awakening the Woods has been that everybody who’s there just enjoys it. I think it comes down to, to you as, as the host, enjoying it. And it’s this just warm and generous feeling that I think everybody just easily taps into. The sense of belonging, the sense of, like, allowing yourself to be exactly who you are at that moment. And, and when a lot of people do that together, when a lot of people give each other space, when a lot of people, you, you kind of create a psychological safety in which people just can relax, get a glimpse of, of something that’s not in their everyday life, like a potential, I would call it, a potential of, um, of what it means to live in an awake life. And, and see that what I’ve experienced is that the more people who can be mindful or awake or present or whatever word we want to call it, like compassion, joy, gratitude, playfulness, it just comes up naturally. It’s just inherent in the awake state.

Julie Moltke
Yeah, and it’s contagious, right?

Axel Wennhall
Yeah, yeah, but but I also appreciated that you kind of highlighted that, the kind of really welcoming and allowing feeling that Awakening in the Woods have, that you, you can really come as you are, like there’s no, perhaps this might be a weekend where you don’t feel joyful, perhaps because you have something else going on in your life, and that’s fine too, but being held by other people and held, I don’t mean meaning physically held, but just being held by their presence and their kind of allowing you to be there with whatever you might be. It’s a really good foundation for healing as well.

Julie Moltke
Yeah, exactly. And I do find that at the festival, people obviously go through very different experiences. And some people like have some come with something that’s painful, some traumatic experiences or like some, you know, they are in the middle of painful processes in their lives. But then there’s just like that sense of, you know, that’s okay, and people see me and hear me, and they don’t need to fix me. They just allow me to be exactly like I am right now, and hold the space. And yeah, we’re gonna like, we’re gonna have these sharing, sharing groups at the festival so that people are invited to, they don’t need to, but there will be an option to every day like share with a small group of people, so that you kind of, even if you come on your own, you get the option to like really share your deepest experience with a small group of people that you get to know during the festival. That’s of course an optional thing, but then we also, we are expanding with like a children’s program. We’re gonna have like a toddler area. So we really want to make it a festival where you can come exactly as you are. So if you are a parent with small children, you can bring the children and they can also have fun awakening in the woods. And yeah, I’m just really looking forward to it and I’m super happy to be, that you are coming again and we’ll be facilitating some beautiful workshops and yeah, and that mindfully is also partnering with us. So it’s just every year growing and it’s a really beautiful, I feel it’s like there are certain things in life that you just do because not out of financial reasons or anything, but just because it feels like it’s the world needs it and I need it and it’s fun and it’s joyful and yeah, it definitely creates a community. And I think that, yeah, for me, it’s really wonderful to be part of that community also when the festival ends, like many of the people are in Copenhagen or around the world and I’m meeting for like, you know, just singing circles and yeah, so many people have made really long lasting friendships because of the festival, which is really beautiful.

Axel Wennhall
Yeah, no, but I usually don’t do this in the podcast, but I really would like or I really would recommend people to come. It’s been definitely probably the best experience I’ve had the last two summers and it’s, I have quite a, quite hard to put it into words exactly what it is, but I think it’s coming down again to I felt so connected during that weekend and I also think it’s a fantastic opportunity to kind of. So your place, Margrethe Holm, is located just outside Mullsjö, closer to Jönköping in Sweden. So most people listening to this might be Swedes and knowing where that is in Sweden. But you’re from Denmark and you bring a lot of your Danish friends, which means that it’s also this amazing opportunity to get to meet more Scandinavians in there. And I have to admit, I just love the Danish attitude towards spirituality. Like it’s completely different to Swedish and it’s in a way much more freer, I would say. It’s people really come as they are and I absolutely love it. It’s so inspiring. But also I would kind of want to highlight because I know that a lot of people listening to this podcast have this skeptical attitude towards, okay, what can meditation really give you? And I think the word spirituality might make people a bit scared what it is, but it’s really an opportunity to come there, to be in this amazing place, listening to amazing music by, I mean, some of the artists that comes, they are rock stars or indie gurus, like it’s amazing music. It’s just like, so you can connect to nature, you can connect to amazing music and then you can connect if you want to do some yoga or if you want to meditate and just connect by having a lot of fun and dance and it’s, yeah, I just want to highlight that. Like if you’re into spirituality, you’re in for a treat, but if you’re not into spirituality, you would be in for a treat as well.

Julie Moltke
Yeah, yeah. So I mean, it would be great to see some of you at Margreteholm this summer. It’s from July the 11th to 14th.

Axel Wennhall
Yeah, I hope a few of you people who listen to this take the chance and come and join us. That would be amazing. So before you’re gonna guide a meditation for us, we have a segment in the podcast called five quick questions. So just the first things that comes to mind. What makes you present?

Julie Moltke
I think it’s actually is having a spiritual or like a practice, a daily practice. So a daily practice of yoga and meditation and even some, I know this sound like these positive affirmations, but just like prayers, like little prayers that I say out. After my practice and some intentions that I try to set for my day. That’s probably the basis of that.

Axel Wennhall
Which book or documentary would you recommend?

Julie Moltke
So I would recommend your book, Meditation, Ett inre äventyr. I read it when I was on maternity leave with my daughter and I found it so beautiful. And, you know, it’s just like when you’re reading these books and I just felt maybe because we are on the same path and have the same age and I just felt there were so many things that resonated with me and it was so human and so funny and yeah, I mean, there are many books I can recommend, but I think people should also read yours.

Axel Wennhall
Wow. Thank you. So if you could invite free people for dinner, they could either be alive or dead. Which free people would you like to have over for dinner?

Julie Moltke
So I would probably invite Tara Brach. She’s a little idol of mine. Like I find her sort of her compassionate attitude so like comforting and she’s a meditation teacher and Buddhist teacher and from this American community and I find her really inspiring. Then I would invite Steve Jobs. I think that would be quite interesting. And yeah, maybe just to make the dinner really fun, I would invite my sister along and get it to bring a bottle of champagne. Yeah, she’s real good company. So then the other two could entertain us with their life experience.

Axel Wennhall
What’s the best advice you got?

Julie Moltke
Yeah, so I mean, it’s my dad, he always said, since we were kids, he always said in Danish, everything works out in the end, Julie. And it was actually not a saying that he came up with himself. It was a saying that was engraved over, like over the door of a house in one of the farmhouses from the 1800s. And yeah, I really think that’s a pretty great mantra that everything works out in the end.

Axel Wennhall
Last question, what are you grateful for right now?

Julie Moltke
Yeah, I’m so grateful for our friendship, Axel. And yeah, also just so grateful to be alive and to be sitting here talking to you and soon going back home to my family.

Axel Wennhall
Julie, you know, it’s right back at you. I’m very grateful for you to call you my friend, for your amazing work with Awakening the Woods and for you taking the time to join the podcast as well. And now I’m grateful again because you’re gonna guide the meditation for us.

Julie Moltke
Yeah. Thank you, Axel, for letting me do that. So yeah, let’s end this lovely time together by meditating. So if you’re in a place and it feels natural to you to sit down and close your eyes, and I invite you to do so. And then we start by taking three deep breaths. So inhale through the nose and exhale through the mouth. Just let your shoulders drop as you exhale. One more time, a deep inhale through the nose. Maybe you pull the shoulders up a little bit and on the exhale, you let them roll down so you really feel how you can relax the shoulders and relax the body. One last time, inhale. And exhale, let go. And then just slowly come back to your breath as it is naturally. The cooler air coming in through your nose and the warmer air coming out again. Just keep your attention gently on this. Inhale and exhale. And the physical sensation which you feel when you’re breathing. Try to see where you feel the breath the most in your body right now and then just keep your attention there for a little while. It might be your chest which is rising up and down or the nostrils or anywhere where you feel the breath right now. And if you have any thoughts or emotions that come up while you are focusing on your breath, just let them come up and you can see them as they are, smile at them and let them go as you turn your attention back to your breathing. Just anchoring yourself in your body through your breath. Try to let your body soften a little bit as you sit here so if you can let your shoulders drop a little bit more like melting from ice to water. You can let your hands soften and your arms soften. Let the muscles of your face soften. Just feel how you slowly let go of any tension that you have been holding. Still keeping an attention on the breath while you slowly watch your body relax. Now turn your attention to the area around your heart, your physical heart and if it feels natural to you, you can place a hand on the heart. Just with the light pressure on that area in your chest. And if you’re not placing your hand, just place your attention there. Notice how it feels there around your chest, around your heart space. Notice it without any labeling or judging. Notice it with a kindness. And then thank your heart. Thank your heart for beating, for carrying you through life. And thank yourself for showing up in this way for yourself. For embarking on this beautiful adventure. This beautiful travel without a destination. Except coming home to you. Coming home to your heart. And if there’s anything that you want to tell yourself to tell your heart, then you can whisper it silently or you can whisper it out. Whatever you need to hear right now. Whatever your heart needs to hear. It’s okay. I love you. Whatever feels natural to you and if nothing comes up, then you just sit here with the sensation of your chest, of your breathing. Just let this moment be exactly as it is right now. If you have had your hand on your heart, I invite you to let it release and come down to rest on your thighs. Take a deep inhale. And just come back to the sensation of the body in the space that you’re in. Your feet on the ground. The seat that you’re in if you’re sitting. Just notice your body in the space. Really like take your space. Feel how you take up room in the space. Before you open your eyes, I just want to bring in gratitude for this time together and for these moments of silence. You can slowly blink your eyes open and come back.

Axel Wennhall
That was great. Thank you, Julie.

Julie Moltke
You’re welcome. Take it for all sleep.

Axel Wennhall
I feel connected. Thanks again for connecting here in the podcast and I look forward connecting again this summer at Awaken.

Julie Moltke
Yeah, me too. Thank you for having me, Axel.

Axel Wennhall
you for listening to Meditera Mera with Julie Moltke. We hope you have been inspired by our conversation and by Julie’s meditation. The world truly needs more people who connect to both themselves, each other and the present moment. If this talk has resonated with you, please share it to your family and friends. And if there’s anything you will bring with us from the conversation with Julie, is it that the spiritual calling is about finding a big yes to life. Take care and be well.