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Steve Harper: Broadcasting from the business capital of the world, this is the podcast business news network.
So I’ve got a question. Are you somebody who feels that you might have maybe some intuition, maybe some psychic ability? You think about something; it takes place; you have a premonition of feeling. And you’re spot on. You give somebody advice, and bam, and it’s, it’s accurate. You probably do. How do you recognize your gifts, your intuitive and psychic gifts? We’re going to talk about that and so much more today. And she is somebody that recognized her gifts long ago and helps people harness the power of that. Also does readings and so much more. She is sunshine; we call her the pink-haired psychic medium because that’s who she is. But she’s so much more than that Sunshine; welcome to the program; how are you?
Sunshine: Wonderful, and I’m so excited to be back with you.
Steve Harper: Great to have you back. And sunshine is the perfect name that’s so incredibly fits for you because of your positivity and just your energy. And before we dig into the psychic and intuitive gifts that I believe, and I think you do, too, that we all have, we just need to know how to harness them and recognize them. I want to, I want to. I don’t want to start negative here. But you’ve overcome a lot of challenges. Some of them are dark obstacles in your life to get you where you are here today. And you shared some of those last time we got together. But this all ties in with the spiritual awakening, if you will, and the realization that you can do this; what are some of the obstacles that you face back in the day?
Sunshine: That’s a really deep question. And I think last time when we talked, I did talk and share that I’m a recovering alcoholic. And so that was kind of the culmination, you could say, of all of this dark challenge or these obstacles, and I think most of us face challenging things in our life. And, you know, I think about this all the time. And I go back to it really started in my childhood and what I experienced there, you know, I not only am I a recovering alcoholic, I was told when I stepped into AAA, I have the three the triple three threat. I myself am an alcoholic. I was, you know, have lived with a codependent, and I’m the child of an alcoholic. So I grew up in the alcoholic household.
My father was an alcoholic; my mother was an enabler. And because of that, there was not a link to point fingers or blame. But there was a lot of turmoil, a lot of chaos, a lot of walking on eggshells, and frankly abuse, you know, from whether it was my father having to deal with his own hangovers and how he related to the world. Or even my brother, who learned that it was, you know, okay to be angry and mean and not kind in order to get your way. So yeah, that was my childhood at some of the most darkest times was really feeling like I was alone, growing up in that abusive household.
Steve Harper: What a tough time. I mean, here it is, your childhood, and you got this stuff going on. Wow.
Sunshine: Very difficult.
Steve Harper: Yeah, yeah, you just want to be happy. It was a child. And you’re dealing with that. I believe you mentioned before that you were bullied and, and, and made fun of because of your weight. And I’m gonna be honest and share with you. I went through the same thing. My parents got divorced when I was barely born. And that made an impact on my life, as did getting bullied because of my weight. You know, I’m, I’m fit now. But that wasn’t the case back then. And I’m only bringing that up because this stuff stays with you. Right?
Sunshine: Yeah. I still have this incident that has reverberated in my mind since I was little. I mean, I’ve talked with therapists about this. I’ve worked through my own shadow on it. But in this instance, that kind of culminates the bullying. I was probably around the age of 12 years old. It was summertime, maybe around this time of the year. We used to ride our bikes everywhere because back in the day, you would leave the house in the morning, and you didn’t come up, come back until the lights came on. Sure. And there was this new kid in the neighborhood, and I thought it was very cute and adorable. And so I started to try to talk to him and got his phone number. He hung around for the summer because he was a cousin of some neighborhood kids, and the week he was leaving to go back home I remember riding my bike down the street and hoping to, like, wave and, you know, talk to him one last time and him and all of the cousins in the neighborhood kids around the porch. And as I rode by, they said, you fat pig, you think that he could ever be interested in you. And they all just laugh. And like, talk about, you know, such a traumatic experience of like, having a crush for the first time and, like, attempting to connect with another human being and having that thrown into your face. And that was, that was the harshest incident. But man has that left a reverberation all the way up until, you know, I mean, even today, I’m sure it still impacts me in ways that I don’t realize.
Steve Harper: Yeah, and not to get even deeper. But a lot of this stuff stays in our subconscious. And we don’t even know it’s in there. Because as you talk sunshine, you bring it up memories for me, like things like, remember that I haven’t remembered that happened. We carry them with us. And we got to work through them. And you even more, you know, growing up in an alcoholic household. And then it didn’t stop there for you in terms of the challenges and the obstacles, right?
Sunshine: No, no, I mean, you know, so I’m already ostracized kind of at home because of that situation. And I was told never to really talk of our troubles outside of the house, and I’m being made fun of by my kids from, you know, my weight, and it just all the and, you know, intellectually, you know, I was, I picked up on books and reading, you know, school was easy for me. So, you know, I was labeled as kind of like a nerd. So, I felt very weird, awkward, indifferent, and had a really hard time fitting in and making friends. And so there was a lot of loneliness.
And, you know, wanting to connect, desiring to connect, again, desiring to feel important or loved. And, you know, the very unfortunate thing is in my young adult life, you know, when I hit, you know, late teens, early 20s, I found, I found, I tried to replace love with sex. So I became very promiscuous, I put myself in very risky situations. But looking back, I’m like, Oh, my gosh, I can’t even believe that I, I didn’t think of this as risky. And outside of that, right, if that wasn’t my extracurricular times, I just treating myself horribly.
I was almost a workaholic and a perfectionist. So I came out of this childhood, this alcoholic household, where there’s a lot of walking on eggshells to make sure everything you know, didn’t disrupt the household environment and found I would put all of that into my own life, right, whether it was work or even college and need to get good grades, and, you know, had to prove things. And, you know, at some point, no, we here in the United States, we have a bit of a grind culture that I think is counter to, you know, humans true purpose.
So I found myself working 60 to 65, 70 hours a week and not thinking anything of it. Not thinking anything about the fact that I couldn’t see my family, my friends didn’t have time to, you know, feed my soul or enjoy myself or enjoy life. I mean, let’s be real. If you’re working 70 hours a week, how much of life are you actually enjoying?
Steve Harper: Did you become a robot to run away?
Sunshine: Man, did I become a robot I have? I have very distinctive memories of being in my late 20s with some friends and the gentleman I was dating, and his thinking was funny. To call me a robot. Seriously, literally. Yeah, like literally calling me a robot.
Steve Harper: That just came to me. I’m not even kidding. That’s, that’s the image that I got.
Sunshine: I 100% and me taking pride in response to that, like, oh, yeah, I’m a robot. I’m so cool and calm. Right. But with that lack of that cool and calm. This was this horribly, horribly dysfunctional facade that really prohibited me from experiencing any emotion, including happiness, joy, peace, love, contentment wonderment. All my favorite emotion ever wonderment. Right. But an amazing thing, right?
Steve Harper: I want just want to tell you that I relate to this on many levels because I was a perfectionist. And if you look in the other room on the office wall, there’s an article that a local newspaper did when I was 17. And I drew cartoons want to be a syndicated cartoonist, but I also wanted to get into radio and broadcasting. And there’s a quote in there
or when I was 17, saying, I’m a perfectionist, and I look at it now. And I’m like, No, don’t be one. It’s not good. But why? Why were we, and many of us, like that? Because we felt we weren’t good enough. So we need to be perfect, right?
Sunshine: Yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah. It it’s a form of self-protection. I don’t I don’t want to have my worthiness judged I don’t want to have. I don’t want people to criticize me and make me feel like, yeah, so it’s this way of like protecting ourselves that we don’t even realize until we are literally burnt out, you know, maybe crying on the bathroom floor, because we we’ve have not had a break in three weeks. And everyone seems to want more, and we have nothing left to give.
Steve Harper: Yeah. And it doesn’t stop there, unfortunately, in your life, right? More.
Sunshine: Yeah, in my late 20s. I had a cancer scare. You know, I had an abnormal pap smear come back and had no clue what in the world this was going to mean. my gynecologist at the time sent me down to see them because of being so young, right? So Young at the age, I think it was 27. And so I’m showing precancerous cells and my endometrial lining. And now I’m meeting with the head of the oncology, gynecological department at one of the major hospital systems here in the metro Detroit area. And I’m literally trying to talk through my options and being told, like, I have no options. I basically do what he’s recommending, or that’s that’s it.
I mean, I just hear residents sitting in tears. I’m leaving this oncology department by myself because I have no clue what I really was walking into, just full-fledged tears, and not sure I mean, thank Thank the heavens that my gynecologist was so horrified at the treatment I received. I remember sitting there in his office, and he talked to me for two hours. I mean, what doctor does this nowadays? Two hours, they canceled the rest, like, three hours worth of patients so that he could sit there and talk me through this because he saw how disturbed I was.
And it was just, you know, I mean, we treated it. We found a way, and I, you know, screened every year now just to ensure that it doesn’t, you know, return, but it was a huge, huge scare. Like they’re literally facing this mortality at the age of, like, 27 that no human being should have to, though I know some do, right?
And then shortly thereafter, even, even though that happened, it wasn’t over. I had an emotionally abusive marriage, reflected very much of my childhood, right? We often our first kind of big love tends to reflect a lot of our childhood that we learn. Oh, wait a second. This wasn’t what I wanted. Right. Thanks for the reminder. Yeah, and so through all of this, and you know, even though I had this beautiful facade in the space, and I had a career, I mean, like my career, I’ve excelled at being a workaholic and a perfectionist, you will excel in your career, right? I mean, it’s, it’s pretty impossible not to, but you just don’t have a lot of fun, enjoyment, love, peace, and happiness along the way. And so there was a lot of self-deprecation during those times,. A lot of my own self-abuse my own not listening to my own diminishing my needs and my wants. And my desires were because I thought there was this some, there was this prescribed way that we were supposed to live, and by golly, I was doing it. I just wasn’t doing it well enough.
Steve Harper: Yeah, it’s it’s challenging because you think it’s okay. But you have all the even you know, look at have money. Alright, great. That’s fantastic. If it’s, if you’re empty, it means nothing.
Sunshine: Look at all the people that win, you know, millions of dollars in a lottery 95 I think the number is 95% of them are miserable, or it changed their life in a horrible way. You know, the same thing when you work hard, you know, I got it. I did it. I did it. Yeah, but I’m not happy. What’s the point? Doesn’t mean anything. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, if your definition of success is just to have a bunch of numbers stacked up in your bank account, sure.
Steve Harper: Good luck with that.
Sunshine: Exactly. Exactly. Good luck with that.
Steve Harper: Yeah. I, you know, I think many of us would happily just say, you know, I don’t need it, and need is the key. Do you need it? Many of us were we’re okay we got what we need. Yeah, sure. Millions would be great, but not realistic. And even if you had it, it probably would change your life like it did for all those other people.
Why do you think we go through these these dark times, many say that it’s to learn; we’re here to learn. That’s what that’s, that’s, that’s what life is about to learn. And like you went through a lot. Was there a lesson there? How do you feel about all of that?
Sunshine: Yeah, I think we talked last time about the meaning of life and that that meaning to learn. And so my own belief is, is that we go through these intense and emotionally difficult times to really understand what it is to be human, right? To recognize that we make mistakes, and we’re in fellow, you know, like, we are not perfect. And to see that there is a different way. And we are incredibly powerful and capable of overcoming these things. You know, it? Like, I think about this sometimes, like, there are folks that go through life, and they’re like, No, I don’t, I just didn’t have a lot of hardship. And I didn’t, and I’m like, God, it’s so beautiful that you didn’t write it. And those people, there’s a few of them that are truly still happy, right? They’re like, No, I’m blessed. I’m happy. I really haven’t had any. Oh, what a wonderful thing. I don’t think that is the situation for the majority, though, right? All of us are going to face something that is truly emotionally intense. And our, you know, the purpose behind that is to truly learn that we are resilient and capable of overcoming anything.
Steve Harper: Yeah. I’m with you, Sunshine; I’m with you that. I really am. Because sometimes you turn around and say, How the hell did I do that? And even in the last couple of years, in my journey, people turn around to me, even my son, and it’s very close to him. He actually said even Monday of this week, he didn’t know a lot. And he said that. We’re like a superhuman; how did you get through all that? I’m like; I don’t know, you just do because you gotta keep moving. It’s almost like, you know, the movie Finding Nemo, like Dory, keep on swimming, just keep swimming. I kind of look at it that way.
Sunshine: Yeah, there was an article that I came across this week that’s popping into my mind about someone that, you know, is working work and work in, and they just weren’t really happy. And so they, you know, quit their job. And they moved in with a bunch of Buddhist monks. And they for a year, and they continued to study these Buddhist monks at the Zen monastery, and they realize one of the places of happiness with how we choose to see things in our life. Right, like how we are choosing to actually look at and experience life and that need that learning opportunity. So when we are traveling down these deep, dark paths, it’s basically the universe’s way of saying, like, change your perspective, and things will look differently, for sure.
Steve Harper: And to your point, if five years ago, you said to me, what would you think about living with a bunch of monks for a year, and it could change your life and you’d see things differently? I would look at you and say, Oh, no, we’re going to do that. That’s crazy. Ridiculous. As you were just saying it, I am visualizing thinking about it and saying to myself, cool. Yeah.
Sunshine: Yeah, it sounds pretty good. Like, we’re gonna I’m gonna research this, Steve, and then we’re gonna figure out what then monastery we’re gonna go hang out at for a while and just really get our chi aligned and centered.
Steve Harper: Sure. I’m okay. You know what, I’m open to it, where I was closed most of my life to that, and I wasn’t open to it. How? How do we get through? How do we get through those times to the other side? What are your what’s your, what’s your advice to somebody that is going through a dark, dark moment now?
Sunshine: Find somebody else that has already gone through it. I did you? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I love that. But that’s, that’s my advice, you know, and I go back, and I’m thinking about how I and I spent almost a year trying to get sober on my own. Right, like, I got that effect, that perfection. It’s like, Nope, that work out? Nope, I’ve got it. I’m gonna figure this out, don’t worry. And it wasn’t until I connected with other individuals that have gone through something that was similar that and could start to see their perspective and see how life could change and could see literally that it was my mindset around how I was living and what I was allowing to remain in my own energetic field.
That was really bringing me to the point that I was and the moment I was able to see and connect with these other individuals. I was no longer was any longer alone. Right? But I had these beautiful examples of what was possible along the way and in the real, the reality that’s life has its ups and downs. It’s just a matter of how you choose to look at them. Not allowing them to make you a victim. So that that was a that was a big deal.
Steve Harper: Yeah. Did you go through all of this?
Did you realize that you, you were a psychic medium? Or did you know, beforehand, you went through all of this, that you had that ability? I knew
Sunshine: I knew I had that ability, a long time ever since I was a child. Obviously, a ghost as a kid. I was reading cards and stuff for my, you know, friends or you know, doing, and I mean, there were times even in my business and my corporate career, talk about being like a 24-year-old in corporate and being like, No, we should just do it this way and trying to convince your, like, 40-year-old employer. Yeah, so I’ve always had the gift. But it wasn’t until I got sober that I understood and like truly started to connect with other people and to take care of my own, like spiritual health, that I started to realize that these gifts could actually make my physical health better, my mental health better, you know, how I felt how I looked at the life, like life and it overall, yeah, it was, they were there. But I’ll be real, Frank and blunt, they were wasted.
Steve Harper: Do you think they were in your life for a reason?
Sunshine: I think that these gifts are in our light; like everyone, everyone has these gifts, and they are always in our life for a particular reason. That reason may be different for every person, but I can tell you that it is always to enhance and improve the quality of your life. If you’re not aware of how to use them, how to recognize them, or actually put them like to work, you’re, you’re like, just as I was, they’re gonna be a waste.
Steve Harper: Yeah, I’m with you on that. You need to realize it and take the time to maybe take a step back and then see why they’re in your life. And I truly believe people are in your life for a season or reason. And as we’re talking, I dated somebody with a lot of a lot of the challenges that you’re describing. And I didn’t realize why she was in my life. Until I got we kind of ended things. We still talk, and I’m helping her out with some business stuff. She’s a nurse, and I went through a cancer thing and had to get radiation for skin cancer. It’s all good.
Now, it’s about a year ago. And then it clicked in my head. Oh, she was there to help me go through that. And I was there to help her move along as well. There was a reason it’s like; I’m not trying to look for something. It’s there. Like, I didn’t even you know, she I’d be at her place. She’d come home; she goes, Oh my God, look at your face. I gotta take care of you. I’m like, Oh, wow. Oh, fantastic. It wasn’t. She wasn’t in my life intentionally for that. But that’s what it was. Maybe universally, that’s why she was there. Who do you work with? Like, who who gravitates toward you? toward you? I’m gonna have to say it’s somebody who is definitely spiritual or feels that they are.
Sunshine: Yeah, people that are spiritual. And I, you know, I have a Catholic upbringing. So spirituality is really just aligned with you; you feel like there’s something outside of yourself. Right? There’s a bigger purpose.
Steve Harper: And I don’t mean to cut you off. But with all due respect, you mentioned Catholic; I was brought up that way . This spirituality has nothing or doesn’t have to have anything to do with religion. I think people kind of like, look the other way, like, ah, you know, I don’t wonder what’s, you know, I’m not talking religion here. No, we’re not. It doesn’t. It doesn’t necessarily mean that at all.
Sunshine: No. So here’s the interesting thing, right? I actually love that you’re kind of, like, pausing on this, because there are people that are actually aren’t very spiritual. They just follow the dogma or whatever religion that they practice, right? They just maybe go to church; they go through the motions, right? They know, they, they learn, they understand, but they really aren’t recognizing the power of that like energetic life force that flows through everything that truly gives this like beautiful light to. I mean, Religions can be very spiritual, right? They can be spiritual. Yeah, spirituality is, is a personal belief of something outside of yourself that gives greater purpose to why you know, we’re here, and however you define that it’s really up to you.
Steve Harper: Thank you. Thank you for making that clear. Because I try to I wrestle with what that means myself, but in my journey, and me, I was never really religious, they would even, I’m gonna share with you even like a couple of years ago, the church and I’ve changed churches, and I don’t go to a Catholic church now.
I don’t go very often, either. I’m not very, very religious, but they would ask me to read a church. Because, hey, you have a great voice. I’m like, Okay, I hope you guys have no problem. I don’t even know what I was reading. But I’m there to help people. But there’s, I believe there’s a universe that supports us. What is this universe? Is it a god? I don’t know. Is it just energy around us? I don’t know. It could be all that. What do I know? I just know there’s a universe. And I believe in that.
Sunshine: Yeah. And so I always just spiritually curious, you know, folks that are in that same spot that you and I see that say, what’s possible? I, I don’t know. I’m not going to make any definitive answers. I’m going to respect your beliefs, my beliefs, and anyone’s belief, and anything is possible, right? That spiritual curiosity is probably the number one thing reason why people are, are drawn to me because, I am truly here to embrace whatever you believe. And let’s talk about that. How is it serving you? How is it working for you? How do you incorporate that into your life to enhance your own spiritual energy? Right? I don’t need to work against it. I don’t need to define something for you. You already have a belief. Let’s let’s, let’s bring that up. Let’s empower it.
Steve Harper: Yep. 100%. And again, you can prove it. So if you believe it, then maybe it’s true. Maybe what you believe is true. Maybe what I believe is true. I don’t know. But if it’s support you, that’s what’s important. If it helps you.
Sunshine: I was blessed in my early 20s. I don’t know if you’re familiar with the philosophical, the philosophy, or philosophical framework of existentialism. No, they, in essence, it’s kind of a very egocentric thing. But it’s every individual has its own perspective. And so, from philosophy is often a moral debate. So what you believe is right for you is actually what is right, and no one can argue that. Right? That’s, that’s right. It’s correct. It is your belief. And so I was blessed in my early 20s, who have kind of stumbled across this philosophical belief; it resonated with me. And frankly, I think it’s one of the reasons why I can connect with any individual because I love differences, I love that you can be your own person, and I can be my own person, and we can just be cool people together.
Steve Harper: Yeah. Because you’re open to it. And I, I believe, or at least I’m thinking here, that you went through a lot to make you more open to all of this, maybe if you didn’t go through, you know, all of your dark challenges. And I’m, I’m sorry that you did. But you might not have been open to a lot of us. So maybe that was your awakening, your spiritual awakening? I don’t know. I’m just thinking I don’t.
Sunshine: Yeah, I don’t, I don’t regret. You know, I don’t look back on my life and take a victim stance, anything that I went through, all had a purpose; it all had a reason. I mean, a lot of a lot of the things that I have gone through allow me to relate and connect to people in a way that I never could have. Right? Whether it’s we’re talking about the alcoholism, the workaholism, you know, abuse of the trauma, my childhood, the struggles with my weight, the feeling ostracized or man; I couldn’t like that is a way I’m able to relate. And so no, I don’t. I love my life. I love the experiences that I had.
Steve Harper: Guess what, Sunshine, all of those things you couldn’t have controlled. So I was overweight; you’re overweight. People are different people are people. It’s how people reacted to it. You can’t control them. You couldn’t control your mother and her thoughts. You can control anything your father may have done; you can control those kids that made fun of you because you had a crush on a kid back in the day. These are all things that were out of our control. So when we look at it that way, we’re beautiful. We’re good people. It was others and unfortunate for them. And listen, they have their dark challenges, which probably makes them act the way they do and did.
And that’s what gets us to the end of our podcast because we’re out of time, man. I could just keep going with you. Really good.
Sunshine: Good. Good news. We get to go again next week.
Steve Harper: Fabulous. Does any anybody want to work with you? Maybe they aren’t going through dark challenges since we opened that dark door today. Or if they want to talk to you on a psychic level? How do we find you?
Sunshine: You can always find me by visiting the website www.sunshinereading.scom or sending me an email. I love email. You can reach me at sunshine@sunshinereadings.com. I do answer all emails personally myself. And so I’d love to hear from anyone that’s going through a dark time or is just curious how to leverage and use their gifts in the same way that I have been blessed to learn how to use.
Steve Harper: I mean this with my heart. You are a beautiful person. You really are.
Sunshine: I appreciate it very much. I think you’re a very beautiful person too. And I’m enjoying getting to know you better.
Steve Harper: Same, and I feel like I know you better here by the way, I don’t say this often because I may work in Marketing. I have a company I do. So it’s on my radar. Your website kicks ass.
Sunshine: You’re sweet. Thank you.
Steve Harper: It does. It does. It’s fantastic sunshinereadings.com. And looking forward next time we get a chance to talk, Sunshine.
Steve Harper: Me too, Steve, everyone that is listening. I hope you have a blessed week until next time.
Broadcasting from the business capital of the world. This is the podcast Business News Network.
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“Only when we know our own darkness can we sit in the darkness with others.”
Sunshine is a Psychic Medium, Soul Healer, Spiritual Advisor, Shadow Worker, Eclectic Witch, Practiced Magician, Recovering Alcoholic and founder of Sunshine Readings. Her passion is helping others learn how to step into their shadows so they can uncover their magickal gifts needed to remove any energetic blocks to their soul’s enlightenment. You can find more about Sunshine and her offerings on her website.