Discover the power of self-compassion, by Silvia Vasquez-Lavado
Meditative Story
WaitWhat
4.6 • 3.2K Ratings
🗓️ 6 April 2022
⏱️ 41 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Silvia Vasquez-Lavado is the first openly lesbian woman to climb the famous Seven Summits, a bucket list of the highest mountain on every continent. But while preparing for the seventh summit, a peak that has eluded her climb after climb, she realizes that she can’t charge forward with the same conquering mentality. Denali — the highest mountain peak in North America — leads her to discover the importance of self-compassion over the desire for conquest when dealing with life’s greatest obstacles.
You can purchase her new memoir, In the Shadow of the Mountain, which further explores her journey to the Seven Summits and the trauma that it unpacks, here: https://amzn.to/3uaJh2b
Listen to Donald Miralle’s episode of Meditative Story, “Where the water takes me": https://listen.meditativestory.com/DonaldMiralleSilviaep
Each episode of Meditative Story combines the emotional pull of first-person storytelling with immersive music and gentle mindfulness prompts. Read the transcript for this story: meditativestory.com
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The path to the summit is wide open. |
| 0:05.0 | A stretch of snow that comes to a night The path to the summit is wide open. |
| 0:25.5 | A stretch of snow that comes to a knife point and suddenly drops away to rows of mountains far below. |
| 0:32.6 | The edge of the world. |
| 0:36.4 | All my thoughts recede. |
| 0:39.5 | Triumph gives way to humility. |
| 0:43.9 | I walk in all of the beauty around me. |
| 0:48.5 | I'm walking with literally my mouth open, |
| 0:52.9 | like my Joe completely open wide, taking in all the available air. |
| 0:58.9 | The beauty is almost unbelievable. What a privilege to take this walk. |
| 1:19.0 | Sylvia Vasquez- Lovado is the first openly gay woman to climb the famous seven summits, |
| 1:26.6 | a bucket list of the highest mountain on every continent. As she reveals in her memoir, in the shadow of the mountain, there's a fragile person hidden inside that superhero who charges up mountains. |
| 1:33.4 | In today's meditative story, we're joining Sylvia as she pursues that seventh summit, the peak that has alluded her, climb after climb, Den Ali. |
| 1:44.0 | As she readies herself for this trek, events revealed to her |
| 1:47.2 | that she can't just charge forward. She discovers the importance of self-compassion, over |
| 1:53.2 | the desire for conquest when dealing with life's greatest obstacles. We'd also like to let you |
| 2:00.4 | know that today's story includes the |
| 2:02.9 | mention of suicide and sexual abuse. So please take care while listening. In this series, |
| 2:12.2 | we combine immersive first-person stories, breathtaking music and mindfulness pumps, so that we may see |
| 2:20.6 | our lives reflected back to us in other people's stories. And that can lead to improvements |
| 2:26.3 | in our own inner lives. From Wait What, this is meditative story. |
| 2:36.6 | I'm Rohan, and I'll be your guide. The body relaxed. |
... |
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