Ep. 150: Are You Leveraging Every Challenge in Service of Your Dreams?

Have you ever wondered whether the hardest parts of your life are meant to break you or reveal what you’re truly capable of becoming?

In this grounded, reflective episode, Kohenet April N. Baskin shares a powerful perspective for navigating contrast, conflict, and chaos without losing your center. Recording from a hotel lobby at the end of a family reunion in North Carolina, she explores how to take what life hands you - whether it’s painful, disruptive, or unexpectedly useful, and decide how to use it in service of your dreams, your healing, and your collective purpose.

You’ll learn:

• How to tell the difference between “fertilizer” and “fuel” in your life
• Why some experiences can be transformed, while others must be released differently
• How to build adaptive inspired resilience in unstable times
• What decolonized, rehumanized wisdom looks like in practice
• How to stay aligned with your dreams without shrinking in the face of pressure

This episode is especially relevant if you’ve been feeling the pressure of personal challenges, social upheaval, or the emotional weight of living in unstable times. April invites you to consider a deeper question: are you just surviving what comes your way, or are you learning how to metabolize it into strength?

If you’re longing for a more rooted, intentional way to move through difficulty, this conversation offers both reflection and a practical mindset shift. Because sometimes resilience isn’t about escaping the mess, it’s about learning how to work with it wisely.

Key Timestamps:

• 00:00- Opening 
• 00:44 - Greeting listeners and introducing the episode
• 01:32 - Returning to Dunn, North Carolina for the family reunion
• 02:53 - Core teaching: using hardship as fertilizer or fuel
• 04:27 - Adaptive inspired resilience as a core practice
• 04:57 - Distinguishing negative experiences from contrast
• 05:24 - Early influence of Esther Hicks and energetic teaching
• 07:51 - Defining contrast as anything different from what we want
• 08:28 - Using discomfort for growth, healing, and collective good
• 09:00 - Why resilience matters as chaos increases
• 10:19 - A holistic system that weaves together body, power, and difference
• 13:41 - Fertilizer versus fuel: the central metaphor
• 14:42 - Some adversity is worth fighting through; some is not compostable
• 16:28 - Toxic energy as fuel, not soil
• 16:29 - Reframing “everything is working out for my highest good”
• 17:27 - Blackness, indigeneity, and transformation as survival wisdom
• 18:04 - Energy cannot be destroyed; it must be directed wisely
• 19:00 - Staying strategic without shrinking your dreams
• 20:03 - Resilience can be learned over time with support
• 20:59 - Invitation to reach out and share your experience
• 22:00 - Invitation to stay connected to Grounded and Growing
• 22:52 - Building capacity in weeks, months, and beyond
• 23:39 - Closing thoughts and final refrain

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Shalom!

Transcript

Kohenet April N. Baskin (00:44)
All right. Hello, dear one. Comrade, friend, beloved, colleague, future friend, future comrade. Thank you for joining me on the Joyous Justice podcast on this day. I have another shorter episode coming up for you. I'm really working here on being

Consistent, which is sort of impossible based upon my very makeup and my being in terms of my ADHD and being a mental projector. But as much as I can, it's not so much about the consistency as it is working to continue to lower my super, super high standards to be at the level of my humanity and where I am in this moment.

And specifically, where I am in this moment is in Dunn, North Carolina. We are at the tail end of my family's annual family reunion on my father's mother's side and my Draw Hon family. We are a mighty and beautiful and wonderful, wonderful family. And it's been years. I haven't gone to the family reunion since around 2019. It has been far too long.

Ugh, and it just felt incredible to be back and gave me so much to think about and ponder. And also, too, you might hear some background noise. So specifically, we are at the tail end of the reunion and I am in the hotel lobby because I had to leave my room, obviously, and we're heading toward the airport soon, but I wanted to fit this in, so you are truly meeting me in this moment.

if you could, you'd see the nice little fancy schnazzy hotel background and hotel upholstery, but that's where I am. So if you hear some of that humming and chitter-chatter and southern accents in the background, that's why. But I have my nice one-directional mic. So hopefully it'll just be like, you know, it's you and me at the table in the lobby together. Okay.

So what I wanted to speak about today is I don't recall if I've mentioned this on the podcast or not before. I may have that a central saying within the joyous justice ecosystem is if and when we choose for it to be, all ish H I T can be used and or leveraged as fertilizer or fuel in service of our dreams.

Of our goals and our dreams.

And yeah, that's pretty essential. And so the thing that I wanted to talk to you about, well, there's a couple additional pieces I might want to say, but the core thing I want to check in is are you in a place in your leadership where that is consistently true? Where no matter what comes your way, whether it is desired or undesired, you are perfectly crystal clear how you can leverage it in service of your dreams for your personal life as well as your visions.

for our world. And if that is not the case, I would challenge you and encourage you, I would generatively agitate you to aspire to get into that state. And that is one of the core things that I do here at Joyous Justice is help my clients achieve that level of capacity and

adaptive inspired resilience that takes anything that comes our way and uses it in service of our dreams and goals and values.

So where are you with that right now? Is that true? And for instance, which obviously I could teach about this and I plan to teach about this in a few weeks. Can you tell the difference? And maybe a little bit here too, I guess that that would probably make sense, huh? Can you tell the difference in certain situations, whether a negative experience, whether that S H I T, which I would just love to say, but also I well actually we're not probably sharing it on YouTube at the moment, but just

So, you know, case this is like a family-friendly episode, I go back and forth with that. if we were in personal space and I would, or in private space, I would just say the word. But anyway, so when when that when negative experiences or what Esther Hicks calls contrast, and I have a complicated relationship with her leadership and expertise, and there's whole parts of her work that I truly love and other things that I never fully resonated with, and

She was a really wonderful intermediary resource for me before I began to reconnect more deeply with deeper elements of my Cherokee and Indigenous lineage and Afro-Indigenous spirituality and mysticism. So I really appreciated some of her teachings about energetics that I still teach to this day and I apply to this day and are incredibly helpful and powerful. And some people have

Said that some of her teachings are a pathway to the alt-right. And I can see that. I don't know if that's exactly true, but I can see how a variation of that is true. And that was never something for me because my analysis is totally different. And in general, when I receive bits of information and insight, particularly historically in the realm of spirituality and mysticism, I had, I was very attuned to healthy versus not healthy.

dynamics and taking what was helpful and leaving the rest. And also noticing, okay, a lot of this is being used in the context of like a superficial materialism in different ways. And that being said, I used a number of her teachings for very practical material needs, as well as leveraged her teachings to advance and enhance and strengthen the strategy of my

social justice and collective liberation tactics and approaches. And so for that I will forever be appreciative to her and I deeply appreciate her as a teacher. And she's a complicated figure in some ways. I wasn't planning on that interlude or teach her body of work. I don't think she herself is complicated, but there's the ways that her material interacts with systemic oppression can can be tough.

And so I pick and choose. Anyway, all of that to say she uses the word contrast, and that is one thing that I find very helpful. And basically, she uses contrast to mean anything that is different than what we want. So conflict would fall under contrast, undesired occurrences, anything that is contrary to what we are hoping would happen. And so when we have those experiences of a very negative.

That could be more neutral and just not what we wanted to extremely painful or a targeting or an attack, physical, spiritual, mental, psychological. Do you have a sense in your practice of some confidence and a core set of tools that whether circumstances are remaining consistent or are or are evolving, that you know you can take that contrast, that dissonance.

That discomfort and use it for your growth, your well-being, and also alchemize it in service of what you want and your healing. Do you know how to take that apart and use those different component parts in service of the collective, your individual, and the collective good? Can you alchemize your life experience reliably and consistently? And this is so important.

Right now, in this moment where the chaos is increasing as our society is struggling more and is beginning to steadily start to fall apart as the inherently unsustainable nature of how our colonized Turtle Island was set up, how the US American society was set up and established.

Our food systems, the ways we think, all of these things in many different ways inherently were going to eventually fade away. And a number of indigenous nations have been clear about this for quite some time. And that process is underway. The exact timeline, you know, I hard for me to tell, not fully clear. That is underway. And with Project 2025 and Project Esther.

And these very specific efforts to undermine our democracy and advance fascism and other means. And part of what helps in support of that, as we know, is sewing and nurturing chaos. Chaos that keeps people on their toes, that keeps people distracted, that keeps people disoriented.

And not able to focus and build power. And so in that context, it is incredibly important that you have systems and tools and insights and resources that are not only effective for this moment, but that you have a solid and clear, convicted understanding that those are not only helpful for you now, but will consistently, but you've

Have access to them in such a way that they will continue to be helpful to you no virtually no matter what you navigate. And that is what I have been both consciously and not even directly striving for that. I was really striving for a number of years to, for myself personally, to develop a more decolonized, rehumanized orientation and understanding of the world and information and life itself.

And in the process of doing that, I ended up curating and creating and co-creating a process that is anchored in enduring wisdom and insight, and also underneath the five core, and it's more, but about five to ten core bits of truth and insight that are true across time, identity, and space.

Do I have the ability to I lost my train of thought. My cousin just texted me that they're heading back to the hotel. So it's a little tight, but yeah. But we might be able to see them. Hmm. Where was I? yeah. So with time, identity, space. So and that's what I established in grounded and growing.

And it's not been easy to market because it's not really what anybody is looking or many people are looking for. They're not really looking to figure out a holistic system for engaging in decolonization. Although actually with how I just said that now, maybe that maybe that's how I should have been marketing it. I don't know. that helps to meet multiple needs or that has the capacity to meet many different needs. But that's what I've been developing. And I don't know many or any, I'm sure there's gotta be some other folks out there.

Who have done this with the sort of intercultural rigor and robustness that I have, and covering so many pieces. So people often take a slice of this, like in in terms of embodiment or power analysis and oppression analysis, or working effectively across lines of difference. But very few things are accounting for all of these things, your physical well-being.

All of these things and more, and understanding how they weave together and are a part of one system. One system that with my clients, I don't give them the whole system because each person also needs to bring the stories of their living and their knowing, but a core baseline foundational framework upon which people can build out and you know, like the bones that people can then add the flesh of.

of their preferences, the stories of their living, their sacred text from their lives and their knowing and their wisdom and expertise, and weave that with these enduring truths that gives them the capacity to

Adapt as needed and to navigate the chaos and be able to compost and consume or burn or use as fuel these different things and to know the difference between the two. And basically the difference between the two is certain circumstances

And this is somewhat sometimes it's very obvious. And some of it's it's somewhat objective, but also can be subjective. But basically, I refer to fertilizer versus fuel, is because some of the ex experiences of contrast or adversity that we go through truly serve a higher purpose, which actually I choose to believe about all of it, but inherently serve a purpose in terms of certain challenges we may have with a certain family dynamics or our.

Just our personal spiritual journey or in our relationships with people who are good people, and at times there's honest differences and there's adversity there, but it's worth fighting for. And it's clear that there's going to be lessons and learning involved, right? And then there's things that are more depraved and dehumanizing in nature that aren't inherently a dignified or

Third, I'm looking here, like spiritually clean. That's you know, that word has all kinds of connotations. It isn't inherently righteous. And I believe any good person who is pursuing any adversity, there's a righteousness about that. That there's a there's a dignity we can, a layer of dignity we can add on it. But there's certain things that are just pure hatred. And it's it's something or just pure evil, for lack of a better word.

And and it's not so compostable. You know, I think of it kind of like gasoline, like like it's not something that you can just put back into the soil of your living. And instead you need to use it for fire, wood, or fuel and burn it off. So we don't use that material in the same way in our process. It isn't inherently holy. We can make it holy. You know, one of the things that speaking of her, which I wasn't planning on talking about her.

And I have a lot of love for her, so I feel a little complicated about some of some of what I shared, but I also want to be accountable. with Esther Hicks, one of her teachings

she says something along the lines of everything is working out for my highest good. And I wrestled with this for a long time. And the place I came to is I don't believe necessarily, inherently, although I in some ways I do, but it's like a deep spiritual practice related to what I'm about to say. That everything is working out for my highest good in and of itself, but related to the saying that I choose to believe and live into that if and when we choose for it to be.

All-ish, all dookie can be used as fuel or fertilizer in service of our dreams. So basically, I've come to a place where I've decided this and I encourage it or suggest it to my clients, but also it's their choice. It's totally their choice and zero pressure. That I choose to actively believe that everything is working out for my highest good, either because it inherently is or because

I've committed to making choices that will ensure that I will leverage the heck out of that material so that it is in service of my highest good. It feels very inherently tied, not exclusively, but it feels very much tied to my blackness and also my indigenity and my Jewishness too, but specifically the blackness of you can give me slap, but I'm going to make some of the most delicious beautiful food you've ever seen.

That will help sustain my family and keep them alive. And that is also my my generation, too. As a descendant of people who had to eat fry bread and made soul food from slap and healthy and unhealthy ingredients that I am adding in that dimension of it's not all organic material that can be put in our soil. Some of it is poison.

But it's still energy and energy can neither be created nor destroyed. So we wanna we don't want it we don't want that energetic clutter. We wanna burn it or leverage it, put it in our fuel tank. So it you know, it might be toxic. So we don't wanna get too close to it, but we wanna move that energy into our fuel tank and not have it mucking up our windshield or adding toxins in our car or dumping it for somebody else to encounter. No.

We want to use every last drop.

In service of what we want.

All right. I think that's about it for now. So I wanna ask you, are you in a place where in terms of the different things you're navigating, you are well equipped?

To leverage these, to navigate these things with great skill and build your inspired resilience. Maybe we can say it that way, right? Or or recommit to pathbreaking positivity, where something happens and you're able to really effectively metabolize that experience and stay the course and or adapt the course in light of the wisdom you've gained.

But not engage in contraction, other than temporarily to heal, of course. but shrinking your dreams or necessarily just continuing to barrel ahead without adapting for the circumstances around us that we're navigating, that we need to account for, not necessarily in a overpowering way, but in awareness of the facts sort of way.

while still continuing to believe in the beauty of our dreams and

continuing to strengthen our strategy and resolve. And if that is not the case for you, I want to tell you that is possible for you.

It's possible for you. It's something that you can learn in a matter of months and within grounded and growing for another several months and potentially a few years be in a loving and inspired accountable community where you can receive support in ongoing ways to strengthen your awareness and practice of these insights that play to the strengths of your inherent humanity.

And help you reclaim more of that humanity and that power and the ability to weave these different elements together in service of your dreams and in service of collective liberation. So I think that's about it for now. Thank you so much for tuning in. If you have questions, again, there's a link in the show notes where you can ask a question. I think I even noticed there's a way where if you go to Joyous Justice,

The Buzz the Joyce Justice Podcast Buzz Sprout page where you can even leave a voice memo for us if you'd like, if that's easier for you. And we might even put it on the show with your consent. so thank you for tuning in. I hope that this is generatively agitational for you. And also if you do sense that you are truly in a place where you are human and also largely unstoppable because you've really got that unlock. Please let me know. I'd love to talk with you.

Because as far as I know, there aren't many folks out there who truly have that. They may think they do, but then they just kind of ignore the places in their life where they've gotten smaller or where they've been truly slowed down. And not just because they're in a season of rest, but because they may actually may want to move, but they don't have the ability to do so. So if you're someone who you really do have that level of agility, I'd love to hear from you. Feel free to reach out to me and I'd love to know what you have going on in your orbit.

And if this isn't something that you've got on lock, then I encourage you to either check out Grounded and Growing and or continue to stay connected to the Joyous Justice orbit and community and what we have going on here. Because I am doubling down on this before I was worried about my income in terms of the work I'm doing with regard to what I'm speaking about it being from my perspective, I think, and based upon what other people tell me.

quite countercultural and visionary in different ways, and also not inherently so well resourced or popular yet. And yet I believe that this is worth fighting for for us, and I believe it's worth you developing the capacity in a relatively short amount of time. Something that took me decades to develop. I can teach you now skillfully as I have done for my clients in a matter of weeks.

in a few months and then you can take several more months to really implement it to see improvements in your life in a number of different ways and that plays to your complements your authenticity and your humanity. You know, just who you are outside of conditioning, outside of pressure. And I want that for you.

I really want that for you. So I'm doubling down on this. I've continued, as you know, if you've listened to any of the other recent any of the other recent podcasts to work through my stuff about this. And you'll be hearing more from me around this. So I invite you to tune in. And again, if you have questions, feel free to respond to one of my emails, send me a note in the show notes. And in the meantime, I am wishing you so much love as a final refrain.

Yeah.

If and when we choose for it to be, because part of it's about timing, it's not that we experience adversity and then immediately jump into transmuting it, although you can. If and when we choose for it to be, all dookie can be used as fuel or fertilizer in service of our aspirations and values.

Alright. Take good care of yourself. Stay nourished and hydrated. Much love and more soon. Bye-bye.