Timeless Spirituality

Ep. 108 - The Power of Mindset (ft. Megan Evans)

• Daniel "The Past Life Regressionist"

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In this episode of Timeless Spirituality, Daniel sits down with Megan Evans, an empowerment coach and founder of The MS Stage, to explore the power of mindset, healing, and personal transformation. Diagnosed with MS 19 years ago, Megan shares her journey of resilience, self-discovery, and the incredible method she created to help women reclaim their lives after diagnosis.

🌟 Topics Covered in This Episode:

  • How Megan's background in theater, dance, and mindfulness shaped The MS Stage
  • The profound impact of mindset on healing and personal growth
  • Her past life regression experience and the insights she gained
  • The connection between emotions, physical symptoms, and deeper healing
  • Transformational stories from women in her program
  • The power of self-acceptance and shifting perspectives on illness

Megan's bio:

As Founder and Creator of The MS Stage and The MS Stage Method, Megan Evans has been living well with Multiple Sclerosis for over 19 years. After noticing a gap in the support community around MS, Evans created mindfulness practices through meditation, movement, and sharing stories that helped her on her healing journey and have now been proven to help others shift their mindsets around theirs. As an empowerment coach, Evans helps women around the world with MS become friends with their symptoms. 

🔮 Ready to dive deeper into your own healing journey? Connect with Megan:
🌐 Website: themsstage.com
📲 Instagram: @themsstage

Free 3-day Meditation Journey: https://www.themsstage.com/3day-meditation-journey
Mini Course: https://www.themsstage.com/mini-course
Join a Group: https://www.themsstage.com/join-a-group

Speaker 1:

Megan, thank you so much for being here. How are you doing today?

Speaker 2:

Thank you for having me. I'm so happy to be here. It's a pleasure, true pleasure, yes.

Speaker 1:

All right, you ready for the first question I'm doing?

Speaker 2:

well to answer your question. Yes, thank you. Yes, of course.

Speaker 1:

What is your favorite song about time and why?

Speaker 2:

So there's this song. So this is a little off the beaten path. There's a song called Change is Coming by Winter Woods. I love the acoustic version. They're kind of like a bogey kind of band. I love it because it's very uplifting. It really it taps into really what I, what I teach, and it's very all about like change is coming. I mean, that's what it sings, what they sing about and it means you know what I believe in very much so is that anything is possible, and so it kind of ties into what I teach and what I do with empowerment coaching. So I feel like it's a very uplifting song. I lead a meditation to it too.

Speaker 1:

And with regards to the guessing game for the year, I have no idea. I've never heard of the song before, so everyone's guess is as good as mine.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it's 2017. I had to look it up myself because it's a song I had found on Spotify. I had to look it up myself because it's a song I had found on Spotify. Maybe, I don't know, it was probably 2018, 19 that I found it myself and I started leading meditation to it and I just it really resonates with me, the song, and it just feels, like I said, uplifting and empowering and feels like anything is possible.

Speaker 1:

You ready for the next question?

Speaker 2:

Sure.

Speaker 1:

What do you believe in?

Speaker 2:

so I kind of mentioned that. I mean I'm a big believer that anything is possible. I feel that your mindset really can shift everything. It can shift the way you look at life, the way you experience life, the way your health is. I mean I really believe that it creates everything. So that would be my biggest belief, that I would say and with the mindset shift, then you really can create your own reality and your own vision. Whatever you're visioning, you can create that. And so if then, in turn, anything is possible, I like that, and so it then in turn.

Speaker 1:

anything is possible.

Speaker 2:

I like that, thank you.

Speaker 1:

Are you ready for the next question?

Speaker 2:

Sure.

Speaker 1:

Who is Megan?

Speaker 2:

Oh, that's an interesting one. So do you want my, like my brief bio, or what? Are we going deeper with that question?

Speaker 1:

Whatever comes up for you.

Speaker 2:

Okay, well, I am a 43 year old woman. I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis 19 years ago. I am a lover of theater and dance. I am an empowerment coach.

Speaker 2:

I was a personal wardrobe stylist for over 10 years, living in New York and LA and Nashville, and now I'm back in my hometown of Charleston, south Carolina, as of two years ago, and I created what I believe is my work, my finest work in my life, and it's called the MS stage and the MS state, the method of the MS stage. So I, uh, I work with women who've been diagnosed with MS and around the world, we work on Zoom, together with the method and the program that I created for them, and we use mindset, meditation, mindfulness practices uh, movement, dance and I said meditation and we use a lot of music, a lot of music and a lot of sort of acting exercises from my days in theater when I was young, and so it's all kind of worked and I help these women get back to their true essence and figure out what their new path is now that they've been diagnosed.

Speaker 1:

Since you've created the program. How have you grown as a result of it?

Speaker 2:

That's a good question and that's an interesting. Nobody's asking that question. So I've grown a lot from it, not only in my own healing journey because, as I said, I was diagnosed with MS 19 years ago. So my own healing has expanded, has evolved, I've gone deeper in my own practice and I've become a teacher, like a true teacher, and by becoming a teacher we have to be responsible for I believe.

Speaker 2:

I feel like it's very important to do our own work right, our own inner work and deep work that evolves, so that we can then be the best version of ourselves. So I feel like there's been a lot of you know, a lot of ups and downs, but I feel that this journey that I've been on with the MS stage in just the last two years I want to say maybe not even a year and a half has been incredible. But I also feel that it's been driven by something greater and something almost outside of myself, like it was driven through me, like it's it came through me, versus me just being like oh, this is this what I'm going to do. I do believe that it really was something that tapped into spirit and source, that came through me in this way and it evolved and I've created that, and it's been amazing to see the shifts that have been happening in women's lives thanks to it. So, yeah, it's been profound, really Very cool.

Speaker 1:

What kind of shifts have you seen transpire with the women in your group?

Speaker 2:

And I mean, one woman is probably going to be selling her home and moving or getting like literally getting rid of all her not all her belongings, but a lot of them and going probably car camping with her husband and son for a year. And one woman is creating a sort of like an e-magazine for other people with MS. And one woman actually her dream home literally just dropped in her lap and she's most likely buying it and it's all these things. And one woman got invited. She never, she had a lot of issues with her walking and has had just a lot of severe symptoms in a very short period of time. She used to be like a hiker and a rock climber and I don't know did all these crazy biking tours around the world. And she got invited to go rock climbing and did it again like inside at a gym, but she was like I never thought I'd be able to do that.

Speaker 2:

So a lot of incredible shifts in these women's lives and it's all really thanks to their mindset shifting and with that they, they started to believe that anything was possible. They started to believe, oh, I could maybe do that, or why not me? You know why couldn't, why, why couldn't I do that, and so things just started to fall into place, like the universe started to pick up on their new energy. And then so they didn't come to my program expecting, like they thought I feel. Like they thought, oh yeah, this will be good for me to be in a group of women, an intimate group, you know, a sacred space, and, and maybe my MS will get a little bit better, kind of thing. They didn't. I don't feel like they really believed that like their life might actually change.

Speaker 2:

So women are getting job opportunities and doing all kinds of things that they're learning. Oh, we can get back to ourselves again. We can get back to our true essence by doing this work with the MS stage. And it's amazing because that's what happened to me when I created the MS stage. I got back to my true essence and here I am and I'm doing my work, my greatest work, and that's what's so cool, because I didn't even know. I knew I had something, but I didn't know until I beta tested it and started actually working with women what could potentially happen or what could come out of it. And then, when I started to actually be like, whoa, yeah, I definitely this something's here, something is here, and this feels driven by a higher power than just me. I think I'm just the vessel to help guide it, basically.

Speaker 1:

Well, I applaud you for turning a can of spam into lemonade that's a good way of looking at it.

Speaker 2:

Spam nobody's said that before in terms of instead of lemons to lemonade, just turn the spam into lemonade.

Speaker 1:

I love it it's probably a little bit sweeter because of that. That transition, or alchemization Would that be a word for it? Maybe, I think it's really cool what you're doing over there.

Speaker 2:

So thank you, thank you so much, thank you.

Speaker 1:

So why is it you wanted to have a past life regression?

Speaker 2:

So well, going back to the talk about me now being a teacher and going deeper in my own healing journey, one of my teachers and colleagues suggested that it might be a good idea and I had done what I thought was a past life regression, but like I mean 20, no, probably like 15 years ago, with a woman who was amazing and I thought what she did was basically what you do, which it wasn't anything like what you do Not that she's wrong, because I do believe that she did amazing work too it was just different. But I went to her because of a boyfriend situation I had at the time and I felt like he and I were connected somehow in our past lives. And why and why did I meet him? You know all of that, whatever. But then I came to you because I felt like I kind of needed to tap more into what other emotional stuff, like what other roots did I need to get into? Like what did I really need to dig into in order to also help heal the MS, heal my actual physical body? Like what was I missing? What is the mission? Because I totally believe in our emotions are so connected to our symptoms something I do in my method. We do a lot of work around that and I was like what am I missing here? And we moved back to Charleston two years ago and it's interesting because I didn't realize it was going to take me moving back here.

Speaker 2:

I never thought I'd live here again. I was gone for almost 30 years. I went to boarding school and then was New York and LA Nashville. I was gone forever. I never thought I would come back, but we did. We did the pandemic move. We moved back to be closer to family, and it's wonderful and it's wonderful. But what it did was it forced me to also read, I guess, like come back to, well, literally come back to my roots, right and through that, delve into deeper work around my you know history, my family life, my whatever any of those old wounds started to come up. And at the same time, I was creating the MS stage. I was doing my deepest work in the MS stage that I've ever done, and so it was really interesting to see how it literally took me physically coming back to my roots to do all this work.

Speaker 2:

And coming to was like coming, figuring out okay, what does that want? Like is there a missing piece? What am I missing here? Right, and that's what I. I felt like what, what else did I need to heal? What have what had I not done? And you and I talked about this. I've done a lot of healing work. I've done a lot. I do a lot of meditation. I've gone to therapists. I've done a lot of healing work. I've done a lot, I do a lot of meditation. I've gone to therapists, I've done spiritual leaders, I've done, I mean, I've done it all. You know Reiki, whatever, and you were different and so I wanted to try it. I was like, why not?

Speaker 1:

Sure, Well, thank you for sharing all that.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I don't know, as as the the host of the show right now, I'm just sitting here and this is like yeah, my, this is my inner monologue right now. We're thinking I don't even really need to say anything right now. I think Megan's got this. She could just take over at this point.

Speaker 2:

No, ask away. What questions do you?

Speaker 1:

have. You're doing great, all right, so you ready for the next one.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, of course.

Speaker 1:

What came up for you during your regression.

Speaker 2:

Well, it was interesting. I went back to my notes before this call. It's good for me. Actually, I was glad to go back to my notes. So one thing that had come up was well, a lot came up. First of all, you even said that it was like one of the deepest or I don't know deepest, or we went like long right and a lot came up for me. So I mean, it was interesting to find out more about different past lives I had had and what was coming up in terms of how they were all connected no-transcript. I mean it all kind of started to make sense in terms of, apparently, I had a fear of success, which I didn't ever believe, or think that that was something that I was afraid of, and so it's been really interesting to sort of noodle with that a little bit since our session and try to figure out hmm, okay, what's that all about, other than the three of the past lives that showed up for me during our session? All, basically, it all made sense. They all kind of had similar issues, and so that was very interesting. The other thing was, you know and we had talked about this I left.

Speaker 2:

So I always believed I wanted to be a director in theater on Broadway, choreographer director, choreographer and I moved to New York five days before 9-11. And I was 21 years old, I was turning 22 on September 14. So three days later I was turning 22 on September 14th, so three days later and I was there for an internship at a theater company which was with incredible directors I mean Hal Prince, stephen Sondheim. I was working on a musical with them. I mean, it was just like such an amazing experience. But after 9-11, it scared me because literally there were armed guards on the subway station, you know, I mean you're 21 years old, walking around and I was making no money, I literally wasn't being paid.

Speaker 2:

But I had done that, I'd saved up, I waited tables and saved up and moved up there that September and thought, you know, this is my dream, this is what I'm going to do. But after four months I was like what am I going to do? I can't. Am I going to wait tables to make money at night and then work this job from nine to five all day? How am I going to do this? I knew that that was going to be too much and I didn't know how I was going to do it.

Speaker 2:

And so I got an amazing job at a celebrity PR firm, but it was stable, right, and it was super fun and it was wonderful and I was like the shadow. I was like being the shadow artist behind all the big famous actors, like Tom Hanks and Martin Scorsese and all the people, but I wasn't actually doing the work that I absolutely loved the theater work and the creative work, and so what came up in our session was that you know part of the MS, because the MS showed up literally as I was leaving New York, because I got a job offer to move to LA and I was on the way from New York to LA and lost feeling on the left side of my body and what really hit me during our session was could it be that my body was like no, I don't want you, I loved LA, I still love LA. But I wonder if that was my body's way of saying you shouldn't leave New York, you shouldn't have left, you shouldn't have left theater. You were on path to do what you absolutely loved, you should have stayed with it. And I gave up on that dream. I mean, I went a different direction. I'm not saying I haven't lived a great life and I've had amazing career and I've had a lot of different jobs and met amazing people.

Speaker 2:

But what's interesting with the MS stage the stage right we're coming back to ourselves these women in the group and I'm using elements of theater to get them there, and so it's truly like a win-win, because I'm coming back to myself, and so are they, and I'm using, like I said, elements of theater work that I used to do, because I'm coming back to myself, and so are they, and I'm using, like I said, elements of theater work that I used to do, because I grew up acting too. I was in commercials and in plays when I was little. I was in like adult acting classes when I was eight years old. You know that kind of thing. So, anyway, hopefully that answers your question.

Speaker 1:

You mentioned that where you lost the feeling in the left side of your body, right when you moved out to.

Speaker 2:

LA yeah.

Speaker 1:

Work with me on this one, cause I don't know where I'm going with it. I'm going to try not to mince my words too much here, just to get it out, cause, yeah, this is a I don't. I don't know how to approach this one, directly, or Okay?

Speaker 2:

You just don't worry how to approach this one directly, or okay, you just don't worry about it it almost sound like, or sounded like, your body was punishing you for leaving I mean I don't think it was punishing me.

Speaker 2:

I mean I haven't, I didn't think of it in that way. I feel like it was more of a. I always say symptoms are reminders, right, they're just messages. They're basically being like hey, pay attention, knock, knock, knock, right. So any symptoms and I tell my students this too like any symptoms that show up, are just messengers. They're just trying to get you to pay attention to them.

Speaker 2:

So, I don't see it as a punishment at all and that's another way of the mindset shift and me looking at things the glass half full, not half empty and of the empowerment around it that to me it's more that my symptoms were being like hey, wait a second here, like are you sure this is what you want to do? Is this where you need to be going, aren't you? Maybe you want to go back, maybe you want to be in, to be in. You know this. Are you really ready to leave that dream life that you've always your, your true creativity that you've always wanted to do and pursue?

Speaker 2:

So who knows, right, like where? Who knows what would have happened if I had stayed, or if I had stayed in theater all this time and not moved to LA and stayed in New York? And I mean I would, I probably would. Well, maybe I would have met my husband, actually because he lived in New York too. But who knows what would have happened? But you know, you can't go back and say shoulda, coulda, woulda or whatever, or I wish or I regret this or that.

Speaker 1:

Cause.

Speaker 2:

I don't. I feel like I had, I've had, some crazy circumstances. I I was in New York on nine 11. I mean, it's like you know, there's been a lot of crazy circumstances in my life and so I think, as a 21, 22-year-old, it's natural to be like, well, I don't know, I don't, I want to, I'm scared, I want stability, I need a real job.

Speaker 1:

Also just to clarify on my end probably shouldn't have minced my words in that way, because I wasn't trying to suggest that your body was punishing you. I know it's a bit of a head scratcher for me, because I'm far from the dictator and arbiter of the way that these things work when it comes to symptoms manifesting themselves. What's peculiar to me about that is why would your body slow you down when you were making a move? Because would that be what would get you back quicker by slowing you down in that respect?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, well, I mean, I the body left side, by the way, is your female side, if you look at it that way and I named my symptoms. Everybody I have in my program named their symptoms. My left leg's name is Roxy, who is actually a character name in the musical Chicago, and that was the first name. I tell everybody, it's just the first name that comes to you, don't overthink it. And Roxy came to me and so that just happened in the last year, which is when I developed that tool that I work with with my students. So I definitely feel like her superpower is that she tells me to slow the hell down and I was go, go, go. I mean New York, living in New York is go, go, go all the time. So I feel like maybe, I mean maybe she was just showing up to say slow down, take a minute, you know, step back and see what you really want to do.

Speaker 2:

Probably I was young, I was given this job opportunity in LA and I thought, well, given this job opportunity in LA, and I thought, well, because nothing was. That was the thing. I had been interviewing with a ton of different people. I mean that, oh, that was the one thing I interviewed with Baz Luhrmann, who I love, and he wanted to move me to Australia to be like his production assistant on a new film. And I was like, yes, I will do it, I will move to Australia because I wanted to do that work and I he's one of my favorite directors. And he ended up they called me and said he doesn't want to, they don't want to deal with the visa, like it's going to be a whole thing, we're going to have to hire within Australia. And I was like, okay, so that wasn't meant to be. So it was like all these things just weren't falling into place for the jobs that I wanted. And I got this one in LA and I thought maybe that's where I'm supposed to be and so that led me there. Was it the symptom of the left side telling me wait, no, don't go. What you really need is in the theater? Maybe, you know, because those weren't the jobs I was going after.

Speaker 2:

I was going after jobs, you know, at Vogue magazine, graydon Carter at Vanity Fair and Mike Nichols, film director, and Baz Luhrmann in Australia. I had gone after all these huge jobs and had amazing interviews, but for one way or another it was like that wasn't going to work out or no. They decided they didn't need to hire right now. Or you know, it was like all these things and I was like, okay, so for whatever reason.

Speaker 2:

And then I went to Sundance for the film festival and ran into this guy that I had known briefly back in Charleston. He didn't live here, he might've gone to college here, but he was older than me anyway, and he was in the industry and he had his own company. And he was like why don't you come? Like come to LA, come work for me. I want you to come work for me. And so it was like I thought this was an amazing opportunity. I'm going to take it because nothing else was working in New York. So I really thought, well, maybe I'll, maybe it's LA, but maybe that's where I'm supposed to be. So I don't know, I can't answer that question because I don't know. I mean, there's no way to really know.

Speaker 2:

I think it was definitely my body's way of being like pay attention to me. You know, slow down, pay attention. And LA did provide me, thank God, a more of a wellness community out there, more healthy food, because I didn't go on an MS drug for 14 years, so out there I had an acupuncturist and a homeopath and a you know, I had all my wellness people, on top of the fact that people knew what gluten free was, Whereas in New York back then there weren't juice bars on every corner. I mean now I feel like there's juice bars every 10 blocks, but that was not the case at all. That was not healthy options. People were drinking beer, having pizza because it was cheap and we were broke. I mean, I made you know, I barely made enough to pay my rent, and so that would have been a much harder place to be sick, for sure.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I mean also with regards to slowing down at the time. I can't imagine that you were kicking back with your feet up all the time while you're getting ready to move to LA and just prepare for all that. So it probably was a relatively chaotic time in your life.

Speaker 2:

Oh gosh, it was super chaotic. I mean, luckily my job in LA waited for me for a month because I was diagnosed. I came home to Charleston to get my car. My mom and I were supposed to drive across the country with my car that I left here for a few years because it was like paid off. I had it in college and I thought, well, if I ever need it, it'll be there kind of thing. And so we were going to drive it across the country and then I got here after that weekend. I had already been having some symptoms when I was like, oh, I'm just stressed, I'm just tired because of this whole craziness from the move and whatever.

Speaker 2:

So I kept writing them off all weekend and then I got to my sister's house and my leg buckled and I was like something's really wrong, cause I already hit was noticing symptoms and I was like something's not right and so I was diagnosed here and they waited for me for a month until I got well enough to get out there.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I mean, the universe works in mysterious ways.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and in some ways it could have. You know, it was like saving me too in a weird way, because it was forcing me to get healthier and, you know, change my lifestyle at a young age. But it did and in some ways and, like I said, la was a great place to be. For that it would have been much harder in my early twenties to be in LA I mean, to be in New York and deal with what I was dealing with and not have as much access to more healthy stuff would have been a lot harder and more people who were open-minded about that.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, LA is pretty good for that. Yeah, All right. Here here's a the shot out of a cannon right now. I think that'd be the expression for it.

Speaker 2:

Okay.

Speaker 1:

What's coming up for you right now that you think someone needs to hear?

Speaker 2:

I would. What just came up was believe in yourself and listen to yourself and listen to your body, because your body really holds all the answers and the magic. But you have to, you have to have conversation with your body. You have to ask them what they want, what they need, you know. Why are they? Why is this or that happening in terms of symptoms, or what do they really need from you right now? And so that is, yeah, I feel like that's the most important thing, because our body really holds the answers. And I will also say that the true key to healing is acceptance.

Speaker 2:

So I had to go on a journey of acceptance five and a half years ago, when I had my worst MS exacerbation ever, lost feeling from the neck down, and I had not been on a drug, as I mentioned, for 14 years, and so I had to really dig deep because I realized that I hadn't fully accepted the MS. I had been really in fight or flight. I mean, I had, I would say and I still say this, because I don't believe in owning a label, but I still say I was diagnosed with it, but I still didn't fully believe that. I still felt like I'll reverse it. I didn't believe that it existed. You know, I just was like in fight or flight around it. I wasn't really just like sitting with it and like I do now, like talking to it and understanding, like what does it need for me? So accepting was the huge thing for me and being willing to finally accept an MS drug.

Speaker 2:

But I do that in a much different way. I mean I literally when I take my pills or I used to give myself injections, now I take pills, but I bless them, I thank them for working as I take them. I, you know, have conversation with them too, so that it's an energetic exchange rather than a oh, I hate taking this or oh, this is so annoying. It's like no, as you're using it or doing it or whatever. You know, thank it for working for you. That's yeah, those would be my two. You asked for one, I just gave you two.

Speaker 1:

That's okay. What do you feel the difference is between acceptance and submission?

Speaker 2:

I wouldn't call it submission, I maybe would call it denial. Um, I wouldn't call it submission, I maybe would call it denial. Acceptance to me is not like I said. It's not owning the label, it's not saying oh, I give up, I accept it, I've got it, I have it, I am it, whatever. And my life, will you know, my life has changed forever and I'm the victim of it. That is not acceptance. In my mind, acceptance is yeah, I see this, it's an entity, this is a thing. Here's the MS. I can name it, I can have a conversation with it. It's there. I actually see it. I'm not in denial of it.

Speaker 2:

A lot of the women I work with are in denial. They've been in denial until they come to me. They've been in denial and they don't want to believe it exists. They don't want to believe that they have. You know, they know they have symptoms, but they haven't dealt with it. They, some of them, haven't even been to a neurologist yet, or they've been to the neurologist but then never actually did anything about it, and so they're just like whatever, this sucks my life's over, blah, blah, blah. Well, when you accept it, you actually can come out of the denial and come to the other side of that so it doesn't you know, and live a better life with it, you can have a better experience. So you have to at least accept that it exists and it's there, so that you can start having a conversation with it.

Speaker 1:

I'll toast to that one. Thank you for sharing all that.

Speaker 2:

Of course.

Speaker 1:

So where can everyone find you?

Speaker 2:

So you can go to my website, the msstagecom, or on Instagram, at the msstage themsstagecom or on Instagram at the MS stage, you can sign up for my free mini course right now. If this interests you, if this feels like it resonates with you, you can sign up for my mini course. Technically, right now I'm only working with women who are experiencing MS, but that doesn't mean I feel like that anyone dealing with any illness or autoimmune or anything could benefit from my mini course. So I definitely believe that going through my tools and my protocols could absolutely help you, and you can set up a discovery call with me if you go to my link in bio at the MS stage on Instagram, and I'd be happy to do like a mini 20 minute session with you, coaching you.

Speaker 1:

Well, thank you so much for coming on today.

Speaker 2:

Thank you.

Speaker 1:

I admire what you're doing, so just keep doing it.

Speaker 2:

Thank you so much. Thank you for having me. I really appreciate it.

Speaker 1:

You're very welcome, yay.