The Inner Journey: Food, Stillness, Self-Reflection, and Finding Your Own Way

Speaker Identification

Speaker 1 – Host, Beverly Medley. The host identifies herself as Beverly at the beginning, and the closing prerecorded theme names Beverly Medley.

Speaker 2 – Caller / Guest Caller. The caller is not identified by name in the transcript. The caller discusses alkaline food, travel, meditation, herbs, and prior radio experiences with the host.

Speaker 3 – Prerecorded Theme / Song Voice. A prerecorded lyrical segment appears briefly at the opening and again after the host’s sign-off.

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Speaker 3 – Prerecorded Theme / Song Voice:
[Opening lyric unclear.] Come all the way in.

Speaker 1 – Host, Beverly Medley:
Greetings, everyone. This is Beverly, All the Way Live.

On my first show last week, I did an introduction and told you something about myself. Today, there are so many things coming to me to say. If you know the call-in number, you can always come in and join me and tell a part of your journey and your story, because in this lifetime I’ve come here to grow and manifest.

I was thinking about my mantras that I always say. The first one I started over 40 years ago, and that one was, “Create in me a clean heart.” That came to me because I could see a lot of the work that I had to do.

The second mantra that I always say—and this is not always with words; sometimes I speak it, but a lot of times it is just inward—is, “Everything always works out for me.” It doesn’t matter how challenging it is; somehow, it works out for me.

I realized that no matter who is around me—my mother, father, sister, brother, whatever—it all comes back to me and my journey. I think about why I’ve encountered certain relationships. I was married for 30 years. Two beautiful children came out of that union. We eventually divorced, but it was a part of my journey, a beautiful part of my journey. I learned a lot within those 30 years.

Today, when I look at how I got here, who would have thought? I never would have thought it, coming from the background of a sharecropper’s daughter. From my diet to the way I thought, it has changed. And it was all good. I was raised eating [unclear] gravy and chitlins. That’s how I was raised in the South, and it was made with love. That’s what I came through. That was the food people were given back in the South from slavery times, and they made the best of it and made it beautiful.

However, my journey was going to take me down a different road.

I look back and think about what I remember about my education. The best years of my education were grades one through six. I can see each teacher, and I know all of their names except one. I can’t remember my second-grade teacher, but the rest of them I can see. I remember them.

From grades one through six, all I did was shine. I was always intentional about being the best I could be, and this came from within myself. Junior high is more like a blur. High school is like a blur. I remember some things, but not like I remember grades one through six.

So my journey this time has been a purification journey. It has been beautiful. I don’t know why, because I didn’t need anybody else to make the changes. I became a raw-food vegan in my twenties. I didn’t know anybody who was doing it. I read a book, and for some reason it was within me to do this.

As I look back, I understand why it was meant for me to go through this particular purification process. Everybody’s journey is different. Everybody needs something different. [Unclear phrase] is what I needed.

Coming up, I was the sickest one in my house. I was the sickest one in my house. My family now is only me and my baby sister left out of the five, and my parents have passed. My sister said, “You were the sickest one, and look at you now.” It’s very interesting where life has taken me in this journey of purification.

With this vegan thing I was doing, after I researched it, I decided I didn’t want to eat blood, and I didn’t want to eat death. For some reason, it didn’t make sense to me anymore. Now, I ate my fill of it before. This change came from my reading.

I had a friend of mine who told me I ate a lot of pork meat, but I didn’t really get too much from her because I kept eating it. It didn’t click with me. She would talk to me about it, but I didn’t understand what she was talking about. At that particular time in my consciousness, I was saying to myself—not to her—“I enjoy what I’m eating. It’s good. It’s enjoyable. What is she talking about, saying I’m eating too much pork meat?” I loved pork meat.

But as time went on, I did some reading. I read a book by Arthur D. Gregory. Something happened while I was reading that book that made sense to me at that time, and it still makes sense to me now, almost 50 years later. I decided I didn’t want to eat flesh, and I didn’t want to eat blood. That was the beginning of my journey to cleanse myself of so many things.

When you cleanse yourself and eat differently, you get rid of a lot of things. But you don’t know what you’re going to get rid of, because you don’t know what you don’t know until you start that purification process. A lot of it just gets flushed down the toilet—inflammation and all kinds of things.

My husband didn’t understand why I was doing this, but he was very supportive. He didn’t understand, and I told him, “I don’t understand either, but it’s something I want to do because I feel it. I like the way I’m feeling.”

I didn’t so much like the way I was looking because I was losing weight, but I felt good. I decided: Are you going to worry about how you’re looking, or are you going to pay attention to how you’re feeling?

People would say, “You look bad. Look at you, you’re losing weight. What’s wrong?” Nothing was wrong. I was going somewhere. I just didn’t know yet where that was.

You never know where life is going to take you. You never know. When I started, I didn’t really know exactly what was going to happen because I had never done it before. I didn’t know anyone else who was doing it. I met some people later, but by the way I was feeling, I knew it was good for me. Everybody’s journey is different. That’s what I needed. That’s what Beverly needed.

Right after that, I started meditating. I remember I had my daughter—it’s a whole story with me, so I’m skipping some things—but I was nursing her one night. The radio was on, and a man came on and talked about meditating. For some reason, I said, “Oh, I think I want to do that.”

Being aware, being present—that was the icing on the cake. That’s what kept me in that lifestyle when everybody around me was doing what we had always done: my husband, my family, his family, work, everybody. Meditation kept me grounded. Every night when my husband went to work was my time for meditation.

All of this I’m telling you is a little bit about that release journey. And if you know the phone number, you can call in if you want to talk about your own journey or have any comments.

I see how all of this was good for me because I know now that I’m always in the right place at the right time, whether I think I am or not. Sometimes that doesn’t seem like it makes sense, but it does. You’re always in the right place at the right time.

If you think things aren’t going well, then there is something for you to deal with, something for you to look at, something for you to go within about. Remember, your experience is all about you. Whatever energy you’re drawing toward yourself, whoever you’re involved with, whatever it is, you are the common denominator.

I’m ready. Hello? Hello?

Speaker 2 – Caller:
Hello. I’ve been listening. I thank you for having your show. This is your second show, and I’ve been listening. I love listening to your voice very much.

Speaker 1 – Host, Beverly Medley:
Oh, wow.

Speaker 2 – Caller:
I love your voice. Thank you for telling us about your experiences.

I wanted to say, if I could, that I eat differently than I used to. I eat alkaline food, and I prepare a lot of it myself. I come into your place and get beautiful food.

I still want to be around others who eat the way they do, which is different from the way I eat. I still want to spend time with them. I still want to be able to eat some type of food when I’m around them.

I went out of town and had some Mediterranean food. I had a lot of chickpeas—garbanzo beans, which are the same thing—cucumbers, and pickled red cabbage.

Now I’m noticing that when I get to places, especially if I’m flying on an airplane, I have to find food once I arrive and when I visit other people. It’s new for me because I used to drive to a lot of places when I traveled. I would bring food with me, different blenders, equipment, and all kinds of things.

Now I’m flying with one little tiny backpack. I have to learn how to find food everywhere I go and have food that I can eat because I want to be with my relatives. I want to eat food when they’re eating food, and I’m not going to try to change them.

I don’t talk about what I’m doing. I don’t talk about what they’re doing. They know what I’m doing, but I don’t bother them about what they’re doing. I don’t try to convince them of anything. I’m just being present with others while trying to eat what I eat and be around them with the way they do things.

How has that come up for other people you’ve talked to who are beginning to change, or have changed, what they eat but still want to be around their friends and family?

Speaker 1 – Host, Beverly Medley:
Okay. Food is very special. Families like to get together and enjoy food. Friends like to get together and enjoy food. When people go out to eat, they want to enjoy a meal together and break bread together.

When you are on an individual journey, like your journey, and you decide you want to make a slight turn and do something different, you can learn how to still sit with your family, break bread with them, enjoy their conversation and everything, and still do your thing. It’s not the easiest thing, but it can be done.

What I also found is that when I would go around family, especially on a holiday or when a large group of family members were there, I basically wouldn’t be eating. I would go around talking to my family members. They wouldn’t even really notice that I wasn’t eating because I was enjoying myself, enjoying their company, and enjoying the fact of being around them and being with them.

So I learned different techniques. When I first started, my sisters didn’t take it well. It didn’t sit well with them because we had eaten the same things all our lives. They were like, “Now why are you doing this? Are you in some type of cult or whatever? What is wrong with you?”

Sometimes it’s hard for people to see you being different, especially family members or friends. They may feel like you’re alienating yourself to some degree, when it’s just a part of your journey.

This is what I learned. Seven years into my marriage, I changed, and we were married for 30 years. My husband wasn’t interested in changing what he ate because his journey was different.

Sometimes it’s hard for people to recognize that, even though you’re a part of the clan, you are also an individual. That’s hard for people sometimes. But I know you and how family-oriented you are. You’re finding a way to still be with them, be around them, and still do your thing.

The food thing is very intense because everything kind of revolves around food. I’ve gone through different stages, including fast-food addiction and sugar addiction, so I get it. I understand a lot about socialization and food.

Are you there?

Speaker 2 – Caller:
Yes. Yes, thank you. Can you hear me?

Speaker 1 – Host, Beverly Medley:
Yes.

Speaker 2 – Caller:
Thank you. This was definitely a different experience because usually I would bring so much of my equipment and buy so much food to take with me. This time I just had one little tiny backpack, and I had to get food once I got where I was going.

It was new and different because I had never had to do that in the location where I was. I would always bring so much of my own food, traveling by car and bringing my equipment and all my things from home. I’m finding I can’t travel with all of that now.

So this was a first: to arrive somewhere and then have to find what I needed.

Speaker 1 – Host, Beverly Medley:
This is a part of your journey. You’re learning how to navigate and still be on your journey while enjoying your family, and learning places where you can go and get what you need. It’s beautiful.

Speaker 2 – Caller:
Yes, thank you. May I ask another question?

Speaker 1 – Host, Beverly Medley:
Please.

Speaker 2 – Caller:
You talk about meditating, and I never really felt I was good at meditating. I felt like my attention span was very short and that I could close my eyes for maybe three, four, or five seconds, and then they’d be back open. I felt like I was having trouble meditating because I couldn’t be still.

Speaker 1 – Host, Beverly Medley:
Right. When most people start wanting to sit quietly, there’s a part of you that doesn’t want to do that. You’ve got to see what’s going on. A part of you doesn’t want to catch up with yourself. So you sit, and then you want to get up. You have something to do, or you find a reason not to be still.

But that teaches you. Let’s say you’re only able to do it for four minutes or three minutes before you get antsy and want to get up. You need to at least do 10 minutes. Make yourself sit for 10 minutes. It’s like anything else you want to make a part of your life.

Meditation is my saving grace and why I’ve been able to keep the lifestyle I have for all these years. Once you do it, you learn and you see what it does.

How can I say it? Being present makes everything more beautiful. If you’re anxious and you become aware, you can become aware of yourself. Just breathe into yourself. Just breathe, and that can take that feeling away. But you have to be able to realize that you need to do it.

If you’re feeling nervous, antsy, jittery, anxious, or any of those emotions, and you don’t know there is a safe haven in being present, then you don’t know what you don’t know. You have to experience it.

What you’ll find is that you’re spirit; you’re not really your body. But you have to sit in it long enough to make that realization. What you’re doing in meditation is watching yourself.

It’s a lot, probably, what I’m saying right now. I don’t know if you understand me, but you’re able to watch yourself. You’re able to see yourself instead of just running around and doing things. It’s beautiful. You’re able to see your mistakes. You’re able to see what you’re doing and not make excuses for it.

When we do things, we make justifications. “I was talking that way to that person because of what they did,” or, “They made me say it,” or whatever the case may be. That’s not true. They didn’t make you do anything.

When you don’t have self-control, people and things outside of yourself can influence you to do different things, and then you justify it. But once you go inward, you can watch yourself and see that you could have handled something differently.

Someone can’t make you do anything. You reacted to what they said, and then you said, “Well, that’s why I did that. I did that because they did this to me,” and you just keep it moving.

Whereas, when you pause and reflect on your own self, you’ll see that maybe you could have handled that differently. There could have been a whole different outcome.

You can’t change that particular situation, but in the future you can pause. And even in times when you don’t, you can look back. Once you become meditative and you see that there’s something you said or did that was out of line, you can correct it. You can come back to the person or the situation—not all the time, but sometimes—and apologize for your behavior if you need to.

Speaker 2 – Caller:
Yes. Yes, thank you.

Speaker 1 – Host, Beverly Medley:
So if you’re having trouble sitting, just do a little bit at a time until you gain more control.

Speaker 2 – Caller:
Should I add to my story a little bit more?

Speaker 1 – Host, Beverly Medley:
Yes. Yes.

Speaker 2 – Caller:
Okay. What I used to do every day, when it was dark, maybe around four in the morning, was wake up and have my computer. Before I got on my computer, I would enjoy herbs early in the morning while it was dark.

Then I would think of everything. Everything would come to me, and I would type it all down. So much would come to me, and I would type for two hours.

Then I became allergic to the herbs. My skin was allergic to it. My eyes were allergic to it, and I stopped. When I stopped, all the ideas that used to flow for hours stopped coming in the same way. I lost touch with it.

Speaker 1 – Host, Beverly Medley:
What were you allergic to?

Speaker 2 – Caller:
Herbs.

Speaker 1 – Host, Beverly Medley:
Herbs?

Speaker 2 – Caller:
Yes, I would have herbs early in the morning.

Speaker 1 – Host, Beverly Medley:
Oh, okay. [Brief garbled exchange.] Go ahead.

Speaker 2 – Caller:
So I would have herbs early in the morning, and I would sit and type for hours. Everything would come to me. I would type everything, every day, for about two hours. It was dark—around four in the morning until six, or sometimes around 4:30 or 5:00 until seven. Everything was coming to me, and I would record everything.

Then I became allergic to it. It was affecting my skin and my eyes, and I had to stop using the herbs. Then I lost all the information that was coming to me. It just didn’t come the way it used to anymore.

Speaker 1 – Host, Beverly Medley:
Oh, wow. Okay.

Speaker 2 – Caller:
So then I tried meditating again without it. The information that used to come to me doesn’t come like it used to. There was just so much. I would record it all. I would type it all. But it didn’t come to me like that anymore.

I heard what you said when you said, “Breathe into myself.” I’m going to try some of the things you suggested because I want this to come back to me. I want to be able to access what was coming to me before.

Speaker 1 – Host, Beverly Medley:
Yes, but you have everything you need. Once you go within, you’ll see that you can get all of that back. You don’t want to think you can’t get it back because you’re not taking the herbs.

Don’t put it in your mind that, “Now that I’m not taking the herbs anymore, I can’t get any of those downloads anymore,” because you basically have everything you need within your own self.

Can certain herbs and things add to things? Yes. But you really don’t need anything. You are the instrument. The more you fine-tune yourself, the more you have love in your heart. That’s why one of my first mantras was, “Create in me a clean heart,” because I knew that’s what I needed.

But you have to be still. You have to be still. In this society, everything is always moving and going, and people are never being present, never catching up with themselves.

Once you learn to breathe, you can be aware of yourself. Just be aware of yourself. You can be sitting in a chair. You can be lying down. Just be aware that you’re lying there. Just be aware of yourself, and that will start a wave of breath.

You might want to start by being aware of your hands, simply that your hands are there, and breathe into your hands. That’s how I started. Just breathe into your hands. Keep it steady, and it’s going to keep you present. Breathe into your hands, into your body, or into your breath. Everybody will find their own technique.

But the answer is stillness. You can’t get around it.

Everything is moving too fast. You have the internet. You have TikTok. You have all these things you do every day. You have to work. You have to make food. You have to get ready for tomorrow. You have to take care of the children. It’s just constant.

So when are you going to have time to decompress, to catch up with yourself? Look at your day. What did you do? How did you act? How did you treat yourself?

This thing goes deep because on upcoming shows I’m going to talk a lot about the different places being present is going to take you. It’s a realization of so many things that you will stop blaming other people for everything.

I don’t care if your mother was on crack. You will no longer blame her because you don’t know her story. For some reason, that’s the energy you came through. She was your mother, so you have a lesson to learn from being born to her. It’s all good.

But can you get to the place where you see that and appreciate life, period, with all its twists and turns? Because nothing is a mistake. Everything is synchronized. When the sun rises, all of that is synchronized. Everything is as it should be.

Do you like it or not? You don’t have to like it, but it still is. So why fight it? See what it is and how it applies to you.

I was just talking to a customer who told me that he has to go to court on the 17th or one of those days because he was driving a car with someone he didn’t really know. He took the person to a store, and it turned out the guy was trying to rob somebody. He said, “Bev, I didn’t know he was going to do that,” but now he’s involved because he was driving the car.

You let somebody out. They say they’re going to the store. The next thing you know, you’re in trouble. Now, why is that? I don’t know. But you’re always in the right place at the right time. What lesson is in it for you? I don’t know.

Maybe you sit back, pause, reflect, and look at it. Who is this person you had in the car? Look at all of that. But you’ve got to be still, because if you’re not still, you won’t go beyond the surface. You’ll just say, “This is all a mistake. I don’t know what happened.”

I believe I’m always in the right place at the right time, whether I like it or not. It’s a hard truth. Everything is synchronized.

I’ve had things happen to me in my life where I no longer ask, “Why did this happen to me?” I ask, “What lesson is in this for me?” Just like I enjoy the good things that happen, if something is not so good, let me reflect on that, because it’s all going to come back to Beverly. Everything will come back every single time.

Life is bittersweet. [Unclear brief phrase.]

When you’re on this journey and you start dealing with diet and cleansing, you’re on your way to something because when you cleanse the body, the mind will follow. When you first start cleansing the body, you don’t know that the mind is going to follow. There is going to be a cleansing there as well.

Life is good. We actually come to this planet to work out whatever we need to work out with the souls we need to meet, the people we were born to, and all of this. Everything is in divine order.

So, any more questions today?

Speaker 2 – Caller:
I would say I’ve had my eyes closed for quite a while, and hearing your voice with my eyes closed was very peaceful.

Speaker 1 – Host, Beverly Medley:
Okay. Take that and use it, because the stillness is where the truth is. You will see that if you just sit, you’re going to want to get up. You’re not going to want to sit, but you have to do it a little at a time—10 minutes every day. Then increase it as you go.

As you become proficient at it, you’ll be in a meditative state even when you’re driving. You’ll just be present. It will become more natural. You’ll be able to see yourself because it’s all about you. It’s all about you and the energies you bring into your life to help you grow—whoever those people or souls are, whatever those situations are.

If you find yourself saying, “I don’t know why this person is in my life. I don’t know why I’m with this person,” I believe you attracted that energy into your own life for a reason. Now learn from it.

But don’t look at the other person and decide something is wrong with them. Nothing is wrong with them. They are who they are. You drew them into your being, into your circle, into your energy. Why?

When you become introspective, then you can look at yourself to see why, instead of looking outside yourself and seeing something bad coming in.

Speaker 2 – Caller:
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you.

Speaker 1 – Host, Beverly Medley:
Well, thank you for calling. I love it when you call in and we can learn from one another.

Speaker 2 – Caller:
Yes, thank you.

Speaker 1 – Host, Beverly Medley:
So much of this, even owning a restaurant, makes me ask, “How did I get there?” I don’t know, but that’s where I am, and it’s beautiful. It’s work, but it’s good work.

I’m sharing things that I’ve learned about school, about having a place where people come in and share energy, good music, good vibes. It’s beautiful.

And if you’re ever in the Philadelphia area, [address appears to be 6108 Germantown Avenue, Philadelphia, PA]. Stop in Thursday through Sunday.

Speaker 2 – Caller:
Yes. You know, I’ve been there several times.

Speaker 1 – Host, Beverly Medley:
Yes.

Speaker 2 – Caller:
I was in your home.

Speaker 1 – Host, Beverly Medley:
Yes.

Speaker 2 – Caller:
Many beautiful times there.

Speaker 1 – Host, Beverly Medley:
Yes. Yeah, yeah. Thank you so much for joining me today. We’ve had good times on the radio on your show.

Speaker 2 – Caller:
Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. Very nice to be with you on All the Way Live right now.

Speaker 1 – Host, Beverly Medley:
Okay. All right. I’ll let you go. [Unclear phrase.] So I’ll let you go. Thank you.

Speaker 2 – Caller:
All right. Thank you.

Speaker 1 – Host, Beverly Medley:
Wow. That was beautiful.

The meditation thing is hard for a lot of people because of the energy we live in. It’s very—I don’t know the word—but it doesn’t involve stillness.

If you get up early in the morning and sit quietly, you’ll feel the peace. You’ll also feel when everything starts moving. It’s a shift, and you’ll feel it.

So, everyone, thank you for listening. I so enjoy sharing a part of my journey. As time goes on, I hope you want to share some of your journey as well.

I want to end by saying my mantras, which are, “Create in me a clean heart,” and [second closing mantra wording unclear]. Peace and love until the next time.