Paula Agudelo: House of Becoming

Ross Tayler (00:00)

Hello, I'm Ross Tayler, your host and guide for Sacred Sundays, a space to slow down, tune in, and return to what's sacred within and around you. I'm also a life coach walking alongside those who are ready to come home to who they actually are. These conversations are part of fulfilling that purpose, a collective exploration of what it means to live in connection with the sacred. Some weeks you'll hear a sound-based offering to open the space. Other times we'll simply begin in conversation. However it unfolds, this is an invitation into presence, connection, and the beauty of the unseen. If these conversations find you, please subscribe, rate, and share so others can find their way here. Pour a cup of tea, settle in, and let's begin.

Ross Tayler (00:46)

Today on Sacred Sundays, our guest is Paula Agudelo. Paula is a sacred interior designer, a self-described house therapist, and the founder of Sacred Interiors. With 14-plus years in luxury residential design and nearly two decades studying spiritual and metaphysical practices, she helps women redesign their homes around one question: how do you want to live? She is the creator of House of Her, a certification program for aspiring designers, and the author of the forthcoming poetry collection House of Becoming. Paula believes a home is never just a backdrop. It's an active force in how a woman lives, heals, and grows. Welcome to Sacred Sundays, Paula.

Paula Agudelo (01:28)

Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited to be here.

Ross Tayler (01:32)

And I'm excited too, because we haven't actually met, and we don't have a direct connection. So it's cool to connect with someone who discovered Sacred Sundays and reached out. I'm happy to have you as a guest and to bring what you do to the forefront.

Paula Agudelo (01:48)

So glad. And it was such a beautiful synchronicity, because when I had this desire to be on podcasts and decided to go on this tour for my book, you were the first podcast I actually sent an email to. And what got me was obviously the word sacred, because that's what I do, sacred design. So it was perfect.

Ross Tayler (02:10)

Yeah, and it was cool, because I went to your website and saw the alignment immediately, which was great.

Paula Agudelo (02:15)

Yeah, beautiful.

Ross Tayler (02:17)

So, Paula, you're going to start by reading one of your poems from the collection House of Becoming. I'll hand it over to you.

Paula Agudelo (02:25)

Okay, amazing. Thank you for the space to share this. This is actually the first time I have ever read this poem out loud, so thank you for doing the honors of listening to it. This poem is called The Life She Prayed Into Existence.

Spoiler alert: you get the house. Yes, the one with the Moroccan tile and the arched, carved wooden doors and the colorful kitchen and the copper claw-foot bathtub. You get the cottage. Yes, the one on the lake with a view of the mountains, where the deer come to say hi in the early mornings while you write and drink your coffee. You can't ever stop smiling, because every moment is as joyful as you imagined it, or even better.

Your kids make lifetime friends who empower them and admire them. They get the roles, the scholarships, the awards, and pretty much all they desire, because they are manifestors like no one has ever seen. They fully forgive their dad, they fully forgive you, they fully forgive Russell. They travel and live and laugh and cry, and they deeply know how to feel and trust themselves more than you could have ever taught them.

You write. My God, you write, like pure consciousness is streaming through you, like pure healing is being spread through you, and like a woman who stopped explaining why she never finished the degree, who tells people she used to cut hair for a living and watches their faces and doesn't rush to fill the silence anymore.

You commune with the earth like a child being wrapped in her mama's breasts. You whisper like air and take action like fire and flow easily like water, like water, like water.

You hold your ex-husband's hand as he takes his last breath and thank him for your daughters and his love and his tantrums. Your daughters are there, your husband is there. They all honor what was and what will now be.

You make millions of dollars and you use them to support thousands of women and children who are finding their roots. You are blessed, abundantly blessed, abundantly blessed.

And somewhere between the coffee, the mountains, the tile, the deer, the writing, the daughters, and the people you love, you realize this was never about getting everything. It was about finally having the capacity to receive it.

Ross Tayler (05:13)

Beautiful. It's very emotional to hear that, actually. I was quite moved by it. The moment I read the end of your bio, about the home being an active force in how a woman lives and heals and grows, I felt full-body chills. And I could feel that entering this poem as well.

Paula Agudelo (05:35)

Yeah, very much so. This collection is years and years of notebooks and pieces of paper and Post-its and notes on my phone that have just been part of my creation and part of my healing process. I never thought I would publish a book of poetry. And never did I think there would be a connection between doing that and the work that I do as an interior designer.

But the foundation of the work that I do is so rooted in, how do we want to live? And for me, the answer has always been surrounded by the sacred. The sacred in my world is both what seems good and what seems negative, right? When I wrote this poem, it was a very personal journey. It has zero fiction. It is literally my life. And I realized that the way I've been designing my homes, and the way I've been leading my work designing homes for women, has been all about exactly that: building the capacity to receive what we want. Because I think the desires we have in our heart were put there by God, and for a reason. If we desire it, it's part of our co-creation. And that's what I want our environment to reflect back to us.

Ross Tayler (07:14)

And ultimately, like the closing of the poem, finding that peace both within and without is really the goal. It's not about all the external things we can gain. It's about that inner peace and inner alignment that we're all searching for, whether we realize it or not.

Paula Agudelo (07:33)

Exactly. And a really big piece of why this touched me so much is that I had been fighting internally with the work that I do for many years, because it almost felt as if interior design was too shallow, or too superficial, or a very materialistic thing to do. When I used to work in luxury design in Palm Beach, Florida, many times I had that experience of feeling deeply unfulfilled by my work.

I often tell the story of a client I had who paid about $57,000 for a rug. And this was one rug out of the entire house we were designing. It was so opulent and so luxurious. And I remember walking out of that house when I finished the project, feeling so empty. I cried the entire way home. I was like, something has to be different. There's a piece of soul missing in the work that I'm doing.

What really shifted for me was when I started to understand that how we live inside our spaces, and the sacred relationship we have with our spaces, is what makes design exciting for me. Then I was able to realize, this is not shallow work. This is not materialistic work. This is sacred work. It's really about designing our home like a big vision board that is consistently reminding us of what we are here to do and what we are here to appreciate. And I think that's what builds more and more of that capacity to receive. So yes, it's not about the external things at all.

Ross Tayler (09:31)

And I guess the reason it really spoke to me, and the reason what you do speaks to me, is that I've been blessed with women in my life who seem to know this. Their home is a reflection of their passions and a reflection of the sacred. And if it's not, it's a goal to get there. It's an important piece. I've worked with mostly women in my coaching practice over the years. I've now shifted much more towards men and groups, but I've seen the journey that women have to go through to get that level of clarity and peace, the challenges that need to be faced to get that knowingness of what's aligned and what's not, and the hurdles you have to jump through.

Paula Agudelo (10:23)

Absolutely. And it's interesting, because I was actually reading some studies on, at a very practical level, how much clutter and environments affect a woman differently than they do a man. There's a really high percentage, and don't even try to quote me on percentages, because numbers are not my thing, but it's really, really high, of how much more stressed a woman is by a cluttered environment than a man. It's almost like it's in their biology. Men don't really seem to care that much, whereas for women, it takes you off your game. You're not yourself as much. So I find that very interesting on a practical level. Any time I see that synchronicity between psychology and the sacred and the interior design world, I'm a big nerd about it.

But more than that, I think of the devotion and the love that we put into caring for our children and our families. And I really strongly believe that when we are in a space that feels beautiful to us, that feels good to our soul, to our nervous system, to our being, our intuition is so much higher and louder and stronger. So this is the piece that differentiates it. It's not just decorating. It's not just material stuff. You're actually able to be more connected and more in spirit, because you're facilitating a physical environment that helps you connect to that deeper part of you.

I feel like I learned a lot about that in my life through the initiation of going through a divorce and switching homes, and the initiation of preparing my home to give birth to my youngest daughter. That was probably the biggest moment in my life, and honestly, the moment that opened up Sacred Interiors as a service and a business, for other women to have a home where they live inspired. And to me, being inspired means being with spirit and in spirit.

Ross Tayler (12:47)

And so your connection to the sacred, how did that come to be? How did you become connected to the sacred, and how have you built upon that connection in your everyday?

Paula Agudelo (12:58)

I love that question very much. Okay, so, long story short, I would say my connection with the sacred started with death and increased through birth. What I mean by that is, when I was nine years old, my dad was murdered. I'm from Colombia. And I remember very, very vividly the moment the phone rang in my home and my grandmother answered. Before she even picked up the phone, I could see, it was a bit of a psychic vision really, that the news was that my dad was dead. And what I saw was a really clear vision of the funeral home where we were going to be, in such a degree of detail. I could see the flowers and the dimensions of the flowers, the chairs. The vision of the space was so clear to me. Of course, I didn't understand it at the time, because I was nine years old.

But over the years, I went on to have a lot of other losses in my life. I lost a lot of men, particularly, that I deeply loved, including a baby, a fiancé, my brother. It was a lot of loss. And every single time, before I got the news of the loss, I would imagine the exact place where I would be grieving them. I could see it to such a degree that I started making this connection between the space and the ability to have reverence for the life I was grieving.

From there, it became part of my grieving journey: creating sacred space to heal, sacred space to cry, sacred space to rage at God for taking my loved ones away. It was almost as if the space itself facilitated that connection, of being able to feel vulnerably.

And then came pregnancy again, and then came birth. And birth was the piece that helped me recognize that creating sacred space for healing was one option, but creating sacred space for growth and empowerment and dreams was also an option. That's what that home birth signified for me. And from there, I pretty much vowed that every space in my home would be a sacred place, which means worthy of my love, worthy of my devotion, worthy of my attention.

Ross Tayler (15:54)

And there's so much intention in all of that. You're creating these spaces through your intention. I love the duality of death and birth creating these spaces, and it makes sense, because so much happens in our homes, in our environments, and our spaces hold us, whether we realize it or not.

I think about something you said earlier. I remember when I got divorced, for years my places were empty. Nothing on the walls. And I could see my growth when I started to care about the walls and care about how my place feels. So the inner reflects the outer, or the outer reflects the inner, both ways.

Paula Agudelo (16:35)

Both ways. It's quite fascinating, actually. I think it's one of the ways that our spaces speak so much about who we are and where we are in that season of life. I always like to say that our spaces really reflect where we have been and where we are. But where I really get excited now is, where do we want to go? Who do we want to become? Hence the title, House of Becoming.

And realizing that the walls literally absorb our worries, our fears... There's a Maya Angelou quote where she says this: the walls, the rugs, the tile, the bedding, the sheets, everything in your space is absorbing your worries and your thoughts and your conversations. When I think of that, it makes me really focus on the level of influence we have from the inside out, and vice versa. The kind of art we're displaying is subconsciously influencing us, whether we're aware of it or not.

One example I like to give my clients when they ask me about this: I had a client who had a painting in her hallway. When I walked into her home, I saw this painting. It was large and colorful, and to my eyes it was gorgeous, and I could tell it was expensive. So I stopped in front of it, as one would do, and asked her, what's the story about this painting? And it so happens that she bought it at an auction with her ex-husband. But after she left the auction, she found out he was cheating on her with the person who sold her the art.

So every time she walks down this hallway, she's looking at this painting, and she's remembering that moment. I get chills saying that every single time. That is the power of influence one piece of art has over her. Which obviously makes it a non-negotiable. This art has got to go, right?

So how intentional are we with that level of detail in our home, where this thing might be reminding you of your ex, and this thing might be reminding you of, I don't know, your late grandmother? Maybe you do love her and she brought a gorgeous energy to your life, but maybe she didn't, right? So there's that level of intentionality, because there's a subtle current influencing the way you think and how you feel, which, as we know, influences the outcome of the kind of life that we live, and that we have, and that we design.

Ross Tayler (19:34)

So you're shining the light on the fact that you're not just doing interior design. You're actually connecting with your clients, helping them understand themselves, and getting to know them in a different way as well. So there's a psychological aspect that you're working with in some way or another.

Paula Agudelo (19:52)

Absolutely. And I would also say there's a spiritual and really ancient wisdom that is co-working and co-creating with me. As I said even at the beginning of this call, it's not mine, right? It's sacred wisdom that has been taught for many, many years, and that's the wisdom of feng shui as well. I like to call myself a house therapist, because that's exactly what I feel like I do.

Ross Tayler (20:21)

Sure. And that's the interesting piece, because it's probably easier to work with your clients in that way, because you're working with the reflection of the house, which is easier to relate to than some of the things we need to look at in our personal lives.

Paula Agudelo (20:38)

It really is. And it's genuinely the part of me that feels like she's at play when I work. It's the part of me that gets juicy and excited about life, and about the life my clients are creating, because they come to me knowing that they have a story they want to tell about their life. And at the same time, they don't want that story to define who they are and where they want to go. So it's really beautiful to be able to literally alchemize and transform a physical space.

It's part of why people love before and after pictures. There's something so satisfying about that. But if only they could see the level of internal transformation that person has gone through from living in that space with the new transformation. It's hard to market that, I'll be honest. And it's where my soul just... it feels like play. It really does.

Ross Tayler (21:45)

Because the house then becomes some sort of vision board. It's also helping to manifest that reality. That's fascinating. It makes so much sense.

Paula Agudelo (21:57)

A hundred percent. It really does make sense. And it's also unfortunate that most people don't really see it that way. It's not the mainstream type of design that I've gotten to work with. A big part of the mission I feel I have is, can I bring light to this wisdom of understanding that how we live matters, where we live matters, and that we're not any less spiritual or less good because we care about these material things? They're actually here to support us, kind of like how we take care of our body. This is our temple. This is where we live. This is a holy place.

I always like to say that our homes are where we connect with our family. This is where we laugh, where we cry, where we make love, where we cook meals for our children. There's really sacred stuff happening between those walls. So yeah, a vision board is exactly what I would love every home to be.

Ross Tayler (23:14)

I remember, years ago, working with real estate agents and coaching them, and really encouraging them to connect with, what is it you're really selling? Yes, you're selling four walls, you're selling land, but what are you really selling? And what I would say is all the things you just said about what a home is and what happens in a home. When they connected to those things authentically, it really shifted their business.

Paula Agudelo (23:39)

A hundred percent. I can imagine that. I think that's exactly the depth of these very mainstream activities, right? Because so often we think of the sacred as some big spiritual practice. I'm a Kundalini yoga teacher, and oftentimes people ask me if sacred space means we're going to be chanting, or meditating for hours, or doing some weird kriya with our tongue out, and these weird asanas that sometimes do come up in the practice.

And I love the twist that the sacred can actually be quite modern, because most of the people I work with have a job, like a real estate agent. They have kids throwing spaghetti at the wall, and way more pets than they know they should have adopted. They're running businesses, they have jobs. So bringing the sacred to the day-to-day and the mundane is really what it's all about for me. And I love the example of the real estate agents, because they are selling so much more than just property.

Ross Tayler (25:00)

Yeah. I have a friend whose mom got older, and they had to sell the family home. The family home ended up getting sold to someone who had actually been her mom's student, years before, in elementary school. And the story that got reflected back was how special that was, because of the connection this person had with her mom in school. They felt so honored to be able to live in this family home that held all these experiences. It was so unexpected, and such a sacred moment, actually.

Paula Agudelo (25:43)

That's so beautiful. I love that. And it makes me think of a client I recently worked with, because sometimes people inherit homes, or buy homes, or move into homes where the memories aren't always gorgeous and beautiful. Sometimes there are some really dark, heavy experiences that people go through, right? Think of all of the childhood trauma that happens inside the home. A lot of the difficult experiences many of us remember from growing up happened at home, in the interactions we had with parents.

So I had this client recently who inherited her childhood home. Her mom suffered from dementia, and she was also bipolar when my client was growing up. My client was torn when she inherited this house, because she felt a lot of resentment and anger towards her mother, and had a lot of negative memories of being a kid in this house. But at the same time, she also had some great memories of her dad. Both her parents passed away in this home. So we had quite a lot of work to do.

It was such a beautiful process to guide her through what I call the HOME method, which is a four-step process to design a sacred space. It starts with the H of HOME, which stands for healing. A big part of the healing process starts with remembering all of these maybe negative things that sometimes we don't want to see. The other part of healing the physical space happens with decluttering, really letting go of a lot of the items and things that remind us of those dark moments. And in that process, we also get to keep what we do want to keep, right? A lot of the decluttering process is digesting what doesn't serve us and letting it go, and keeping with us what we want to keep.

And it's a beautiful process to do that with the space through ritual, through ceremony, through channeling the home. That's something I learned with her, because she's an intuitive and a psychic medium. It was her idea. She was like, what if we channel the home? And I was like, my God, that's a great idea. Ever since then, it's something I've started doing, and it's beautiful. It's being in relationship with the home as if it's a living entity. And being in relationship with it means loving it and caring for it, and also letting it help us. And that's the piece about receiving that I wanted to tie into the poem.

Ross Tayler (28:46)

That leads to the question of what other practices you bring in. You said you bring in ceremony. What can that look like when you're working with someone in their home, transmuting energy, shifting energy, bringing in positive energy? What kind of practices do you bring in?

Paula Agudelo (29:05)

Yeah, there are definitely a lot of practices, and this is where the witchy side of me gets to play, and it's really fun. The HOME method is how I structure things and bring a clear container to any kind of design or ceremonial practice. We always begin with healing, and usually that looks like space clearing. The ceremony of space clearing is so personalized and so intuitive. I love working with feathers, and different kinds of birds bring different kinds of energies for what we need to clear. I'm a really big fan of co-working and collaborating with herbs and oils and fruits. There are actually lots of really beautiful fruits for clearing a space of subtle energies.

I'm a big lover of mantra, and that's where I think the Kundalini part of me comes in, especially in the healing process, but also in the next step, which is the O in HOME, which stands for opening up to possibilities. This is where a lot of sound comes in, like mantras and chanting and affirmations. But I also like to use the concept of wining and dining the muses. And this is where a lot of somatic practices come in. Oftentimes there's the practice of shamanic dance, the practice of somatic dancing. There are lots of pleasure practices that I love to recommend to my clients in that area of opening up to possibilities.

And then there's meditation, in terms of Kundalini yoga practices, because they're kind of like medicine. There's a meditation for everything. So I'll often prescribe a 40- or maybe 90-day meditation for each of my clients, depending on what they want to manifest with their space. And that's important because, as much as clearing is part of the sacred process, being very clear about what we then want to charge a space with, and what intention we want to fill the space with, is equally important, if not more.

So those are some of the rituals I like to bring in. And then we end the HOME method with the E, which is all about energizing. That's where I have a wide collection of practices, like ironing your sheets with rose oil to bring in more love, more pleasure, more harmony. I work with crystals and flowers. And this is so personalized that it becomes a little bit challenging to express in a broad way. But that's pretty much what we bring into the space.

Ross Tayler (32:07)

And I just had the thought, thinking about people who are at this place of being so overwhelmed, where life is kind of running them, that what you're offering is so opposite to that. I'm not judging it. I'm just wondering how you help people where they're at, in terms of, hey, life is hard right now. And I could tell from your story that you know what it's like to be there, because you've gone through these experiences. So how do you meet people where they're at? Because the journey to what you're describing may be a little bit off in the distance.

Paula Agudelo (32:41)

Yeah. Well, I always say we've got to start somewhere. And if people weren't overwhelmed and confused about where to start, they wouldn't come to me. They come to me because they're overwhelmed and they don't know where to start. So for me, the place to start is always with healing, and that's why I created the method. It always starts with really getting oriented as to where we are in our life.

Because I work with feng shui and with the bagua map, we work with nine areas of life. I like to say that we're going to start by taking inventory of, yes, your home, literally. What do you love? What do you not love? We might go item by item. It's like when you decide you're going to clear out your garage, and halfway through you're like, what did I do? Why did I even bother starting this? You get so overwhelmed. The only way to start is to pick one thing and go, where does this go? This goes here. Do I want to keep it? Do I want to give it away? So we take inventory of the space that way.

But we also start to take inventory of how each of these areas of our life is doing. Like I said, there are nine. There's your relationship area, your wealth area, your career, your health, et cetera. And each of these areas is connected to a room, or a part, of your home. So we start to take inventory of how happy and how content I feel about each area of my life. And then we start to prioritize, because if everything is a priority, then nothing is.

So if you come to me and say, I need to design my entire house, I'm going to say, what is the one area we need to start working with? Usually that's the area that's going the least right. Maybe the client is clear that their relationship with money is really bad, and they need to start there. Or maybe it's a specific room, like, my bedroom is a disaster, and I need to start there.

That's the beginning. And I always like to say that when you choose one space to prioritize, you begin to notice the ripple effect into every other area of your life. That's especially true when we decide to work on self-love, which is almost always the first room I work with: the bedroom. So many people have a gorgeous entryway and driveway, and they've spent their money on the exterior of their house for their neighbors to see. And then you look at their bedroom, and it's a giant, ugly mess, right? No judgment. But that is a reflection of your self-love, because that's the place where you start your day and end your day. So, to answer your question, I like to start with what is a priority in their life and in their home. And from there, the momentum they gain is inevitable, and you just keep going.

Ross Tayler (35:56)

I love that. It makes me think of the wheel of life that I've used with clients in the past. Once you focus on one area, it spills over into the others, for sure. And I also laugh, because when my last relationship ended, I ended up staying in that home for about nine months, consciously, as a way of leaving in a good way and all of those things. And my tactic was to focus on my bedroom, because that was the space where I could be. And all the things you mentioned, I did. I bought new bedding. I got a plant for the first time. It was such an interesting process, and I didn't realize until later that it was about connecting to myself. So I love that you said the bedroom is that place. I did not know that. It makes total sense, though.

Paula Agudelo (36:46)

Yeah, it really is. The bedroom is almost always the place where I'd suggest someone start if they're feeling overwhelmed about their life in any shape or form. The bedroom is the place where you rest. This is where you're literally coming out of your body at night, and giving yourself the opportunity to dream big about your life. It's such a sacred space to really get connected with self. Get connected with who you are, where you are, and where you want to go. And when we start there, with that level of self-care and self-love, it's inevitable that everything else will start to flow. It just is.

Ross Tayler (37:30)

And you're making me think about a theme that shows up a lot. I used to work in treatment, and sleep was a huge thing for people. So when you hear about people who are struggling with sleep, what do you share to support that? I know environment is a big piece, but are there any specifics when it comes to sleep?

Paula Agudelo (37:50)

Yes, definitely a lot of specifics. On a deep level, to me, the inability to sleep usually equals an inability to surrender. So I'll often speak about not being able to sleep as an opportunity to strengthen our faith, strengthen our trust, and strengthen our ability to relax into believing that what we want will come to us. It's really hard to receive or manifest what we want if we're tense and unable to let go. So, let go is mantra number one.

Number two, environmentally, there are a few things that are really important. Lighting is almost always the most important to me. I won't get crazy into this, but I think LED light bulbs are really messing with our brains, with our ability to rest and to be relaxed in a space. They activate our nervous systems a lot. And that also includes the use of our devices. We're on these screens so much that we're not giving our brain enough time to get the message that it's time to rest, time to sleep.

Also with lighting, I love the idea of getting rid of blackout shades. I'm a big fan of letting the sun come in in the morning and waking up with the sun, instead of the room being pitch dark at all times of the day. So that's the lighting part.

I think bedding is also really important. I'm a big fan of natural materials. 100% cotton sheets are great. Polyester is terrible for sleep. It's really hard for your body to feel relaxed when it's lying on plastic.

And then I would say keep it really, really tidy. I notice that a lot of people have a lot of items in their rooms, and also a lot of family pictures. I'm a big fan of no family pictures in the bedroom, unless it's of a couple and a relationship you're cultivating. I don't keep pictures of my kids in my room, or of anyone else. It's really about creating that intentional space: I'm using this room as an altar for my sleep, my rest, and quiet time, so no other activity happens there.

And then, of course, there's the modern part of us. Many people work from their bedroom, because maybe that's the only space they have. That's fine. My suggestion is to keep the workspace in the room really, really clean and tidy. The same with the nightstands. Have the book you're actually reading, and maybe your body lotion for the night, the things you actually use, but not a super cluttered nightstand. I think that's probably all I would say.

Ross Tayler (40:49)

Those are some great points, and all really valid. I think they're things I've shared as well over the years. Lighting is huge, and not being on your phone. Last week I went to a ceremony and ended up sleeping on a thin mat on the floor, and when I got back, I appreciated my bed so much more. You just don't realize how important it is, right?

Paula Agudelo (41:12)

Oh my gosh, a hundred percent.

Ross Tayler (41:16)

So I wanted to highlight something that I'm intuiting from everything you're saying. You didn't go to school to learn all this, other than the school of life. Am I right about that?

Paula Agudelo (41:31)

I did go to interior design school. But yeah, and part of me wants to laugh, but other than the school of life, exactly.

Ross Tayler (41:43)

Yeah. I'm a scholar of the school of life as well. And I think it's important. These are your lived experiences that you're reflecting, and I think that's why it comes across so powerfully. You've actually lived it. You're not just sharing something out of a book. You're sharing what you know from having done this for yourself. I think it's important to highlight that.

Paula Agudelo (42:09)

It is really important to highlight. And not only that, I think it's part of the purpose of going through such heavy, difficult times in our lives. The first book I wrote is called The Path of Beauty. I remember someone who read it telling me at some point, I have to tell you, halfway through the book, I really didn't understand why you named it The Path of Beauty, because everything in it was so dark and heavy.

And since then, I've really realized that transmuting the dark and the ugly into the beautiful is literally what I'm here to do. That's what I see when I walk into a space that's old and abandoned and moldy, and looks like it's worthless. I actually get excited, because I see the possibility and the potential of transforming that space. I think that's the medicine I honestly feel I'm here to share with the world, and maybe part of why I had quite a rocky start to my life and went through quite some hardship. I wouldn't change it for anything. It's such a beautiful part of my story.

Ross Tayler (43:31)

Yeah. And you mentioned this piece about transmuting these energies. I always say to people on the podcast that the medicine we bring is often the medicine we needed. Our purpose is rooted in the medicine we needed for ourselves. And that's the medicine that you're also bringing out to the world. So it makes total sense.

Paula Agudelo (43:56)

Yeah, it really does. I remember, going back to that story of when my dad died, the thing that helped me cope with that grief and all the challenges my family started to have after that, because that was just the beginning, right? I had a young mom who was all of a sudden a widow with three kids. And then we moved to the United States, and that was a whole new world, a whole new country, a new language, and lots of hardship was lived through those moments.

The way I coped was that I would go through the neighbors' trash and pick out furniture, and I would paint it, and I would redesign the house. We lived in a tiny, ugly ghetto apartment when we first moved to the US, and people would compliment the way the apartment felt. I remember even picking a mattress from the trash at the time. That's how poor we were. And that was how I coped. It was very intuitive, very innate. I just needed the space to feel good so that I could somehow feel better about what was going on. And little did I know that it would become the work that I do in the world.

Ross Tayler (45:25)

I love that. And it feels like a great place to pause this conversation, because I think we've touched on so many great points. Your passion for this work comes across so clearly, and I really appreciate the way you show up in the world. I love the work you're doing, because I can feel and sense the impact it has on these women who are becoming, and stepping towards that. And I think the poem spoke to that so beautifully. So thank you. I want to ask you, how can people find you?

Paula Agudelo (45:59)

Thank you. And thank you for creating space for this conversation, and for bringing that awakening that we get to co-create with our spaces. It's part of the beauty we're bringing to the world. People can find me very easily. I'm on Instagram, and that's usually where I hang out the most these days. And on my website there are lots of free rituals that people can download, and ways to integrate the sacred into their everyday life and into their homes.

Ross Tayler (46:34)

Excellent. I love that. I'll make sure those links are in the show notes. And I always like to close the podcast with the same question, so I'll ask you that very question. What's one simple way that someone could bring the sacred into their life today?

Paula Agudelo (46:50)

Fresh flowers.

Ross Tayler (46:51)

That's simple. I love that.

Paula Agudelo (46:53)

Fresh flowers. Yeah, that's simple.

Ross Tayler (46:56)

Amazing. All right, Paula, thank you so much for sharing your energy with us today and having this conversation. I'm really grateful to make the connection.

Paula Agudelo (47:05)

Thank you, Ross. I appreciate you very much. Thank you.

Ross Tayler (47:09)

You're very welcome.

Thank you for joining us on Sacred Sundays. I hope something in today's offering spoke to your spirit, stirred something true, or simply gave you a moment to breathe. If this conversation resonated, please subscribe, rate, or share. It truly helps this work reach the people who are meant to find it. Until next time, may your day be slow and sacred.