833. Kimberly Snyder, Holistic Wellness Expert, On How To Tap Into Your True Self And Discover Your Power

Thanks to calm, the number one mental wellness app for supporting Earn youn happy. Go to calm.comlori to get 40% off your Calm Premium subscription with hundreds of hours of programming, unlimited access to CALM's entire library and new content is added every week. And thanks to Indeed for supporting Earn your Happy Indeed partners with you on every step of the hiring process so you can find talent with the skills you need through tools like Indeed instant match assessments and virtual interviews. Go to indeed.com happy to claim your $75 credit before March30.

When we want to really create our best stuff and we want the most abundance, the most success, we have to do it from the inside out. Because we are unique. We're here for a purpose. I can't create what Lori can, Lori can't create what I can and anyone else. So don't go out here. Birth it from the inside out.

Welcome to the Earn your Happy podcast. I'm Lori Harder, Founder of Light Pink, best selling author, three time fitness World champion, and I'm a crazy, multi passionate entrepreneur. My journey has taken me everywhere from being a broke waitress, barista, retails associate and personal trainer with massive anxiety and no belief in myself to later becoming a multimillionaire in love with my life. In 2007, my husband and I lost everything. We found ourselves hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt at rock bottom. We had no ideas and I had no education to fall back on. This is when I development and learned everything I could about business. Not by choice, but because I realized no one was coming to save me. The conversations on this podcast are going to let you know that you're not.

Alone and that we all feel like.

We don't know what we're doing.

We're going to give you the tools.

To help you face your fears, take action, start your business and grow those massive dreams that are keeping you up at night. It's time to create a life that you can't hide from and put so much on the line that your higher self is forced to come out. You're going to stop waiting for someone to approve of you and you're going to anoint yourself. Because I'm obsessed about building businesses that give women a platform, I want to feature you. So if you text the word podcast to 310-496-8363, you can get your questions answered on our Q and A segment along with a shout out. And if you rate, review and subscribe to this podcast, we're checking choosing someone every month to get coached and featured on our show it just might be you. So let's get started. Welcome back to the show. I'm so excited to share this conversation with you all about how to truly tap into being your true self, where all of your authentic power is. And if you really strip away all of the things that are blocking you, what you are capable of will blow your mind. And that is what Kimberly Snyder talks all about today on this podcast. She's a spiritual and meditation teacher, nutritionist, and holistic wellness expert. And she's a three time New York Times bestselling author of five books.

That is no small feat.

Like that is incredible. Which really says how deep her wisdom goes, including Radical Beauty, which she co.

Authored with Deepak Chopra. She hosts the top rated Feel Good.

Podcast, which airs on the Podcast One Network. She has worked with dozens of the entertainment industry's top celebrities to feel their best, including Drew Barrymore, Reese Witherspoon, and Chatting Tatum. She has been featured in media outlets including Good Morning America, Ellen, the Today show, the Dr. Oz Show, New York Times, Vanity Fair, the Wall Street Journal, and Ellen Vogue.

You know what?

I know you're just still stuck on the Channing Tatum thing, so why don't we get started?

Kimberly, I'm so excited to have you on the show. How are you?

I'm doing great, love. I'm so excited to chat. It's been a little while, but it's great to see your face and reconnect.

I know it's always so good to see you and I love seeing you just out. Even in the social world, you've got such amazing energy. You guys definitely go follow her. You're just one of those people who I think just always wants to make other people's lives better. And that's why this is such an exciting podcast, because you have written a book all about that, which is so cool. Just want to touch on that for a second. You are more than you think you are. Such a beautiful title because I think that all of us are a lot more than we think we are. And it's such a good reminder every single day, right? Like, I'm sure that you even still have those moments of like, I wrote the damn book and you still need.

To remember who you are.

So where did that come?

Totally Lori. And what's funny about this book, I'd love to get into this in a moment about what we really are, but 10 years ago exactly is when I wrote my first book. So it's six books ago, 10 years ago, and it was when I got back from backpacking around the world. And I was on the road for three years. And so much of my philosophy came from the road and a lot in particular from India. So I was there the first time for three months, and then I circled around. I was there for another extended period. But this is where I was learning about these principles of in yoga and meditation and creating union and working with your energy. And so when I got back to the US I didn't know what I wanted to do exactly still, even though I had been on this trip, but I started a free blog, I started a website, and I was going back and teaching yoga. I was going back to nutrition school. And so I was applying these teachings, Lori, And I started to see patterns emerge in my life and this flow started to happen. And so the website started to grow and my first celebrity found me, even though to this day I still don't own a team. So I wasn't trying to get into that world, but I, you know, I got on a film set, I started working with these actors and celebrities, and then I started doing national tv. I was a regular correspondent on GMA for some time. And then the first book deal came. So this is why I tell you the story, Laurie, is that my first book was called. The idea was called Catching the Fire. And it was a travel memoir with a lot of the teachings in this book and my first publisher, HarperCollins. My first editor, Sarah, looked at my website and she's like, well, the food and the recipe part seems to be taking off. So why don't we do a food book first, this book second. So the food book was called the Beauty Detox Solution. And that note grew and grew until the second book, they wanted to do a food book, but by the third book, I was coming back in. Third book was called Beauty Detox Power. And it is about the chakras and energy. And then my fourth book was with Deepak Chopra, which is about Ayurveda and spirituality. And then the fifth book was Mind Body, you know, research connection. But this book, Laurie, I feel like this book has been building in me for so long. And to ask, to answer your question, yeah, I'm a work in progress like everyone else. But now, you know, a lot's happened in 10 years and I feel like I'm a lot grittier and more raw and real and I can really share these practices and these teachings that have helped me so much in creating the life, beautiful life I'm so grateful that I have with love and abundance and health. So, yeah, you know, sometimes we get Disappointed when things don't work out exactly the way we want them to. But there's so much in timing and trust and here we are now.

I love that so much. I can resonate so much with what happens in a decade. From looking back just earlier in my career. I can only imagine having it documented in a book 10 years ago to who you are now now. What has changed? What would you say internally about your belief system is one of the biggest beliefs that has shifted from 10 years ago when you wrote your first book, to now when you were writing this book. What do you think is one of the biggest beliefs in you that has shifted?

The biggest thing is really what this book is about, which is living life from the true self. So what that means is we have two parts of us. And I didn't really understand that until I started doing and digging into this work glory. So we have this human part of us and we have this ego that usually for many different reasons we over identify with. So the ego is what we look like, what we're out doing in the world, basically peripheral nervous system and what our senses are sensing out here. And in the past, I think it was so much of trying to improve that and shine that up and look better and get more and do all this. But then there's this other part of us. So it's this funny duality in the oneness. We're becoming this human part of us like we're becoming and growing and evolving. But then there's a stable part of us known as the true self that is already whole and complete. So it's this part of us that is, you know, the formless energy. It is the voice of the intuition and the heart. In spiritual terms we can say it's the universe or God or spirit individualized inside of us. And so it's this resource that we can count on and we can learn to connect with. But it's often dormant for most of us because of this primal fear because we're so identified with survival. The difference, Lori, over the past decade is learning to really connect and trust the true self inside of me and live life more and more, allow this to rise up more inside of me. And what that's done is create more expansion in my life. And I know this is possible for everyone. So just expansion in energy, confidence, peace, love, vitality, all these things come when we tap into our true nature. And you know, if it sounds esoteric too, because I think our mind, the chatter is the ego. Laurie. You know, there's so much self Doubt. There's so much overvaluating, so much looking out. So one of the things that we can do moment to moment is drop down into our bodies instead and specifically in our hearts. And you ask the question, am I in my true self? Which is again, is this expansive, infinitely creative, intelligent part of us or am I an ego? And your heart will give you more clear answers because sometimes the mind tricks us, right? It goes in patterns and reactions and we're wounded, no inner child and all of this stuff. But in your heart, in this moment, if you feel expansion, like the universe is always expanding, lights always expanding. So our true nature to be loving, compassionate. If you feel that feeling of openness and expansion, you're there in that moment because it shifts. Like you said, we're in and out. But if you're an ego, you'll feel some sort of tightness, constriction, because the ego is what keeps us small. So it emulates that energy. So in that moment, Lori, that's not the place where we want to create from. We don't want to speak, don't send that email. In that moment, don't, you know, make a mean comment or judge. Wait till you recenter right. And it could be as simple as taking three deep breaths down into your belly, feeling the bottoms of your feet, feel your body here in this moment. You know, many other practices I share, but yeah, it's that moment to moment checking in of where we are identifying.

2026 is the year that you launch your business. It's the year that you've become the boss, you become the leader. That idea that you have that has been eating at you forever that just will not leave you alone is going to come to life. Maybe it's something that someone tells you you should always sell or a store you've already designed in your head. And with Shopify, 2026 is when you finally make it happen. Shopify gives you everything you need to sell online and in person. Millions of entrepreneurs have already made this leap from household name to first time business owners. Just getting started you guys. I use Shopify for glossy and I remember when they sent me my little shopping bag celebrating my 10,000 sales and I literally cried because I was so scared to take the leap. And I'm so glad that I did.

And that I use Shopify.

It gives you all the tools to easily build your dream store. You can choose from hundreds of beautiful templates that you can customize to match your brand. Setup is fast with Shopify's built in AI tools that write product descriptions and headlines and help you edit photos, so marketing is built in too. You can create email and social campaigns that reach customers wherever they scroll. So as you grow, Shopify grows with you. You can handle more orders, expand to new markets, and do it all from the Same dashboard in 2026. Stop waiting and start selling with Shopify. Sign up for your $1 per month trial and start selling today at shopify.com happy go to shopify.com happy that shopify.com happy hear your first cha ching this new year with Shopify by your side. Too many people finish their workday feeling frustrated, drained and unfulfilled. I know that. I have experienced that my myself. And the good news is it doesn't have to be this way and you don't need a new job to fix it. Patrick Lencioni, author of the Five Dysfunctions of a Team and more than a dozen other bestsellers, created the Working Genius Assessment to help you pinpoint the kind of work that gives you energy, the kind that lights you up, and it also shares the kind that drains it. So over a million people, including me, have taken it and completely changed how I look, lead, and show up every day. If you're a CEO, an entrepreneur, or someone who just wants to level up in business and in life, Working Genius is going to give you the clarity and confidence to operate in your strengths and find greater joy in what you do. Because confidence isn't pretending to be good at everything, it's knowing where you're truly gifted. Take the Working Genius Assessment today and get 20% off with code earn@working genius.com that's working genius.com you'll be glad you did it it.

I know you've been working so hard towards your goals and dreams this week, so I want you to take a minute right now and take a well deserved break.

Okay?

Unclench your jaw, relax your shoulders and take a deep breath. Sometimes we all just need a reminder to take a little more time for ourselves and CALM can help. I'm so excited to partner with calm, the number one mental wellness app to.

Give you the tools that improve the way you feel.

Clear your head with guided daily meditations, improve your focus with Calm's curated music tracks, and drift off to dreamland with Calm's imaginative sleep stories. And if you go to calm.comlaurie, you'll get a limited time offer of 40% off a Calm Premium subscription, which includes hundreds of hours of programming and new content is added every week. Over 100 million people around the world use Calm to take care of their minds. And if you're not one of those.

People already, you should be.

Lately, I've been so into their curated music that Calm provides. Listening to calming sounds like a rain downpour, ocean waves has been an amazing way for me to unwind at the end of the day while I prepare for the following morning to perform. At our best, we have to take the time to interrupt our work, recharge and reset. Calm is the perfect tool to help you do this. Sleep more, stress less, live better. With Calm, Calm is offering you a special limited time promotion of 40% off a Calm premium subscription at calm down.com Lori Go to cm.com Lori for 40% off unlimited access to Calm's entire library. That's calm.com Lori.

Oh girl, this is so good. So I feel like a couple years back I was really dropping into that and then there were a few different things that had happened. I think throwing yourself in a brand new situation and tackling something super outside of your realm. So maybe some people listening right now might be doing what I did a couple years ago in like a complete pivot, like going into something so different. And it's kind of like I was in this space of speaking and writing. And maybe people listening are kind of like getting in their zone or they're understanding, you know, where they're at right now and they're like, yeah, this is me. And it feels so good to like, know what to do. And I've learned how to show up in this space to be creative and tap in and hear source or spirit or, you know, universe, whatever. And then when I decided to pivot, what I found, like if people are doing something new or maybe they're starting a new business, is that it's very easy to slip back into fear because now everything is new again. So you never kind of like wake up and feel like you have your bearings in the things that you're doing because you're constantly learning or you don't feel good in what you're doing because it's new. So you're failing a lot. So what happened the past two years is like my channel felt like it shut off. So for people who are in that state. And I just started to get it back. So let me tell you, this is like divine timing. So I'm so excited to also implement what you tell me today. Cause I'll do all of it. I'm a really good student. But what can we do if we're in that place of discomfort, newness, fear, anxiety, and we're trying really hard, but our daily tasks are kind of throwing us into this place of, like, I don't know who I am within this new space, and I don't know how to do this thing.

So thank you, love. And in the book, the first chapter, where we get into the actual material is on fearlessness. And this is because the great yoga guru Paramahansa Yogananda, who brought yoga to the west, where these teachings come from, he says there's 26 soul qualities that we must develop as humans in order to reach our fullest potential. And fearlessness is number one. So if we don't get past the fear, if we don't have tools for getting past the fear, then we're not really getting on the path in the first place. And the subtitle of the book is Practical Enlightenment for Everyday Life. And this word enlightenment is really about freedom. It's about more awareness. It's not being fully enlightened like Jesus or Buddha, but it's just creating more of that expansion in our lives. And so fear is what keeps us small. And so, like you said, Lori, when we're in a new situation, the ego reacts because the ego is used to controlling and manipulating and staying in what's safe. And the people that we know and the patterns in which we're, you know, we're doing things. So newness is going to throw up a big challenge for the ego. And we don't want that to keep us down. We don't want to water down ourselves. We don't want to play small. So we want to have these tools for really understanding how to get past fear. It's a huge thing. Otherwise, we're going to stay in the same little situation and we don't expand. So there's three things I would say about this, you know, Lori, that can help us. I'll start with the most visceral one, the most physical one that we do in this moment. A little bit of what I mentioned before is, first of all, realizing that when fear kicks in, it's never about right now. Unless there's, like, a tiger chasing you or unless there's, like, you know, this, whatever, this monster breathing down your neck, it's about the future. It's tied to past trauma. So it's past and future, right? So something happened, and let's say you got wounded or you got hurt or you shut down or someone rejected you or you got abandoned or whatever you got made fun of on the. It just in the. So the present situation reminds you of something in the past. So the past then makes you create fear about the future. Oh, you know, this isn't going to work out. What if this happens? Then I'm going to lose my job, then I'm not going to have anywhere to live. Blah, blah, blah, blah. Our minds take us there. So where it can't live, where it can't control us, is right here in full presence. So when you feel fear start to come in, the first thing you do is you get out of your head and you drop into the wisdom of your body. And what we can specifically do, like I said, is feel the bottoms of your feet, literally the groundedness of your feet on the ground. And then you go to your hips and your sits bones and you feel where they are on the chair or on the sofa or wherever you are. This is your root chakra, literally your centeredness in your body of safety and security. So you come here, you feel, oh, I'm in this moment. And then you place one hand on your heart, one hand on your belly, and then you feel your heart rate. And you know, it's usually if it's, you know, it might be a little bit elevated and fear is there, but you just tune in. And the Heart Math institute, which puts out all this incredible clinical research about the radiance of the heart, they share that just by tuning in, you start to reregulate your heartbeat, which then sets the tone for many other systems in the body. And then your hand on your belly, you want to make sure the breath is going all the way down there and the belly's actually expanding. And if it's not because you're in shallow chest breathing, then you cultivate that. You consciously say, okay, take some deep breaths. So you recenter in your body for about 30 to 60 seconds, Laurie, and that already is going to break some kind of the pattern in some way because you're pulling out of present or, sorry, past and future. You come into this present moment. So then after you breathe, after you're in your body, then you can open your eyes and say, oh, what is the best action step for me to take? Which is sometimes nothing at all. But you've recentered. The second thing is that we need to be aware of our fears in the first place, otherwise they're going to keep controlling us. And you know, I say that and we say, oh, I know some of my fears, but I would challenge you and say that we can go deeper. And this is a beautiful practice. In the fearlessness chapter of the book where you write out your Fears. But then you go to what is underneath the fears and what you're scared of feeling. And that's really where the magic is. So it's part of the work of Carl Jung is taking things out. Because when we see them, Laurie, then we can process them, then we can work with them. So I'll say for me, I noticed through these exercises. I noticed this pattern in my life that I didn't know before, but I was aware. I was like, wow, I get really annoyed when people interrupt me or when people don't agree with me, right? So I go on this whole thing and like all these studies, and they're like, no, don't agree, or someone would interrupt. And so then this pattern was like, you know, what is under that? And so I looked and what I found was, oh, it triggers this childhood part of me where I have this fear that, you know, I'm not worthy of being seen and heard. And once I saw that, that underneath that was the fear that I wasn't lovable. Like, wasn't. Couldn't be loved for being me. So then when I really identify the fear, which, again, through these exercises, we want to distill it down and down, then that fear of not being lovable, something I could work with, I could heal that in me, nothing from the outside world. But then I healed it in myself. So awareness is really key here. And really taking the time to understand what you're fearful of. And then the third part of this is what I said about the true self. So we can't, as much as we want to, we can't control everything. Our ego wants us to control. Situations keep us safe, keep us around certain people, block certain people out because we label them as not safe or whatever it is. We just try to manipulate situations. And what happens is, again, that keeps us down. So when we develop this inner resource, which. The best way to do that is meditating in the morning, at least before you go into the day. And the practical enlightenment meditations I put out are generally around seven minutes, Lori, to start. You know, so just. You have to have seven minutes, otherwise you don't have a life. So when we balance our energy not just out here all the time, but really connecting here. Now when something happens, we have this inner resource. We keep ourselves calm, we breathe down, we connect to this bigger part of us. So there's less, you know, trying to control these little things, but more this confidence that whatever arises, I can deal with it. So that is, again, it does require work. You have to, you know, consistency. But it's not more work than you're already doing, I can almost guarantee because we run around, we do all these lack based survival mechanisms, we waste a lot of energy and time. So those are some of the ways that we deal with fear. We develop that inner resource, we get really present and we really become aware of our fears in the first place.

I love this. I think I used to be like, okay, in order to do this, I'm going to have to take some time each day and go into the fear and journal and do all the things. And I'm like, okay, that's not necessarily working because we don't really make it time for that. And what I found is what you're saying is like, I'm really doing it moment to moment. Like I'm living life and when something comes up, I'm like pausing for a minute and trying to work on it, solve it, have grace, you know, do all the, all of the work that I've learned around it as well. But I think sometimes or people listening might be like, okay, I'm gonna need to get this book. I'm gonna need to take time, I'm gonna put it in my calendar, I'm gonna study. I'm gonna have to find this fear.

And go to the root.

And it doesn't have to be that way at all, right? Like you can just, just live life and implement.

Oh no, that sounds like this isn't like what I'm talking about. Isn't one of those things where it's like you buy this and you're supposed to radically change everything. There's two parts of this and I'm paraphrasing this quote, Laurie. It's in the beginning of the book from Yogananda where he says something like, a cave can be in darkness for thousands of years, but bring in the light and it's as if the darkness never was. The first part of this is wisdom. The first part of this is understanding and reframing your perspective. So just by virtue of reading these ancient teachings, just by virtue of having access to this is going to create change in your life because it opens up our perspective. So when I was writing this book, Laurie, I went through thousands of pages of ancient texts. The Vedas, the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita, the New Testament of the Bible, Rumi, all of it. And I distilled down really useful practical teachings that most people don't have access to because they're not going to dust off these dusty books, right? So it's like in the world today. I think we put so much value on the new stuff, right? Like the biohacking, the new study, the new thing. Maybe it's this miracle pill or whatever it is. And that can be fun and great, but there's so much value in the old, right? And ancient, like they're really old. It's tried and true. It's been around for a thousand years, thousands of years. And so what I'm really excited to share is, you know, are things that have been around and are so useful for modern life. So just by virtue of having access to these teachings, you're going to create great change. And then the second part is the experiential where yes, meditating for a few moments, doing some of these practices which can take 10 seconds, 90 seconds like you said, if you feel yourself in comparison Mode. There's a 90 second practice I have in the book for just recentering. So it becomes these little ways that you rejigger your life. You know, Lori, it's not like I spent three hours meditating because imagine if the Titanic was one degree over, history would have been changed. So what I have found is these small steps, these ways, these practices where we create that awareness. We keep realigning, we keep realigning. We see when we're in ego, we come back to our hearts, we come back to our true self. Next thing you know, you're holding whole life is changed. And that's what I experienced.

There are so many challenges to business that I don't want starting to be.

One of them for you.

And when you want more, when you're starting a business, you need Northwest registered agent because you get access to thousands of free guides, tools and legal forms to help you launch and protect your business. And it's all in one place. You can build your complete business identity with Northwest today. Northwest registered agent has been helping small business owners and entrepreneurs launch and grow business for nearly 30 years. They're the largest registered agent and LLC service in the US with over 1500 corporate guides. Real people who know your local laws and can help you and your business every step of the way. You can sign up for free account to begin managing your business hub with lawyer, drafted operating agreements, bylaws, resolutions, membership certificates, bills of sale and more at no cost. Northwest makes life easy for business owners. They don't just help you form your business, they give you the free tools you need after you form it. Like operating agreements, meeting minutes and thousands of how to guides that explain the complicated ins and outs of running a business. And let me tell you, this is life changing because I had no idea how much went into this. So don't wait. Protect your privacy, build your brand and get your complete business Identity in just 10 clicks and 10 minutes. Visit www.northwestregisteredagent.com Earn free and start building something amazing. Get more with Northwest registered agent@www.northwestregisteredagent.com earnfree.

It's a new year and not only do you deserve a fresh start, but your business does too. Take your team to the next level with a hiring partner that makes it so simple to find candidates with the right skills. That's Indeed. Indeed is an unbelievably powerful hiring partner where you can attract, interview and hire all in one place. Don't struggle on your own to find quality candidates. I did that for way too long. Indeed can help you hire the right people.

Literally right now.

Hiring is a full time job in itself. I can tell you that firsthand. And as a small business owner, it is tough to allocate time for the hiring process on top of all the regular work. Indeed partners with you every step of the way in the hiring process so you can find talent with the skills you need through tools like Indeed Instant Match assessments and virtual interviews with their Instant Match feature. As soon as you sponsor a post, you get a short list of quality candidates whose resumes on Indeed match your job description and you can even invite them to apply right away. According to Indeed data, over 90% of employers get quality candidates as soon as they sponsor their job post through Instant Match. One of the things that I love about it is that it makes hiring all in one place so easy and finding great talent. Talent doesn't have to be my second job. I can hire faster and better than ever before with Indeed. Get started right now with a $75 sponsored job credit to upgrade your job post at indeed.comhappy get a $75 credit at indeed.comhappy indeed.com happy offer valid through December 31st. Terms and conditions apply. If you need to hire, you need Indeed. Now, now let's get back to the episode.

I look back on the year. Let's just even take the past like two years and it's tiny things that I have implemented. But if then you really look at a decade and you look at how implementing one or two new things every year and it doesn't even have to be things. It's almost. It's it's ways of thinking right like or just ways of how you handle different thoughts that come up that profoundly changes your life. And you're so right. Like, it's not these big shifts. Like, if you sat down and wrote out all the things over the last decade, what's really changed your life? There'd probably be a lot of things, but in accordance to how many days that is, you know, within 10 years, it's not that many big things. So it's these tiny little shifts, you know?

Totally. And, you know, one thing that was a big aha for me, Laurie, that I didn't know, you know, in the past, was I used to talk a lot about digestion, and that was in my first two books, quite a bit. And digestion is this energy where you take things in, you assimilate into your body, and then you let go and you excrete. Right. I didn't know that. We have to metabolize and digest our feelings and our emotions, just like food. So this isn't something that we're typically taught. So what happens if something triggers us or we have these feelings we don't like? We tend to push them down, or we distract, or we have sugar, we have cookies, or we watch Netflix, or we scroll on Instagram endlessly to sort of get away from these feelings. But the issue is that they don't really go away. It stays as an energy encrypted in our body and it starts to come up in chronic, low grade inflammation, breakouts, rashes, again, constant food cravings. All the ways that this energy is inside of us. So one of the practices in the book is explaining and detailing how we get out of the head and get the thought part to quiet down, drop into the body and go into these feelings and emotions. We lean in. And the work of Dr. David Hawkins, this incredible psychologist, he says that if we really do it that way, out of the mind chatter and the physical feelings, then we can metabolize at a time, usually about 10 minutes or less. We get through that big feeling, let's say it's grief or sadness or whatever it is, and then it comes up again. But we keep doing that and feeling it and letting it go. We're digesting and eventually we get to the bottom of the well. So for me, there was things I hadn't processed for many years. And when I started to do this practice and digest them and then let them go, you know what happens, Laura? Your overall mean becomes lighter. It's like less toxins in your body, less toxic emotions that are there in your being, you become lighter. Back to this word enlightenment, which is freedom. Our natural state is to be blissful and to be joyful and to love one another. And all the times we put up walls, we feel competitive and push people away, we judge people. This is because of wounds. That's not who we are. So it means that there's just things that we want to digest and metabolize and clear so that our full heart, our potential comes up and out of us.

Oh, so good. I literally can pinpoint what I'm digesting right now. I'm just digesting a lot of new fear and I'm observing already. So I decided. I don't even know. Sometimes you can literally flip your decisions on how you want to be in a moment. Like, and I know that. So that's.

That's what.

And I believe that. Right? That's part of it, is believing it and knowing it. So at the beginning of the year, I was like, I don't want to feel this way anymore. Like, I do not want to have this feeling of anxiety and fear and worry about disappointing people just because I've, you know, I've recently raised money and I'm starting a new company. And so there was just a lot of newness.

Right.

So. And so I've kind of been in this holding pattern for a year without, of course, I've realized it, but without, like digging into the root and allowing myself to digest just like, what you're saying. Just a lot of fear over disappointing people and where that came from when I was younger and worrying about, like, I won't be, you know, if I disappoint them, I won't be loved anymore. Maybe I'll be kicked out of the tribe or whatever that looks like.

Right.

So at the beginning of this year, I was like, no more. Like, I cannot live this way. I'm not tuned into God anymore. Like, the messages I used to get all the time. You have that feeling of lightness and expansion. And all my ideas flow from that place. I can be the person who can support this vision and mission. And that felt really blocked off because everything you're saying, I was so in the. Just the solving, like the technical in the building and forgetting that it's so important to support the you of the person who's bringing this vision to life. So I love this so much because it was a decision in the beginning of, like, I'm not going to do this anymore. So now where's this coming from? Who would I be without it and really nurturing myself around that? So what are some things for you when that feeling comes up? I know you named a lot of things. You named meditation. You named probably some of the conversations that you have in your head. You named getting really present within your body. Are there some other things that you do when you're very present in it or you feel kind of like your energy source is cut off?

Wow, thank you for sharing that, Laurie. And this reminds me. Or I'd love to just share a little bit about my rock bottom place.

I'd love that.

Which happened about four years ago now, which was, you know, because it's easy to go in and out of these practices when things are going well. Right. I'm going to meditate today, but maybe I'll sleep in, you know, because I went out last night. I feel great, so I'll just do another day. But when we are really challenged and feeling that, you know, sense of lostness, frustration, whatever it is, then it's like, okay, we either believe in this stuff or we don't. We rely on it or we don't. So my rock bottom happened four years ago where my mom passed away really suddenly. And we found out she had cancer on Valentine's Day. And then she was gone the end of March, so six weeks.

So sorry.

And it was. Thank you, love. It was this, you know, shock because she was with us at Christmas and she was fine. So my older son wasn't yet a year old. And then the next part of it was that when she passed it, like. Like, I woke up to looking around at my life, and then I was like, oh, this isn't where I want to be. Meaning that since some months after that, I left my relationship and moved out on my own, I was like, this is not how I thought my life was going to be. I was a new mom. I lost my mom. And then I became a single mom, like, in a fairly short amount of time. So this was the period. And I still get goosebumps.

Yeah, that just gave me goosebumps.

So then I took the advice of a monk at the Self Realization Fellowship, which is Yogananda's meditation organization. And this is before COVID but he said to me, you know, Kimberly, just. Just focus on yourself for five months, right? So I needed to have this reset period. And in those five months, I was reading the texts. You know, for me, I love scripture. I love the ancient teachings. I was going in and I was meditating a lot, and I simplified my life. So in that period, I knew it was a set amount of time. I didn't go out that much, Lori. I wasn't just tuning into Stuff. I wasn't watching stuff. I don't watch that much stuff anyway. But I was just re centering. And what happened after five months when I started to come out and I started to go out into the world again? I was taking care of my son and I was working, but I was very simple life. I found that, wow, I had this one thing that I never had before. You know what it was? Trust. I never trusted anything. I was always trying to control and manipulate and make things work out. So then I emerged because I was. I had simplified so much and I had done. I would say, number one thing is consistency in the practices. So even if you're like, well, I feel like shit right now and I don't know what to do, stick with that morning meditation every day. Help it start to realign your energy. So I emerged with this sense of wholeness and this deep sense of trust. Trust for life, trust in God. Trust that, you know in myself and the true self inside of me that no matter what happens, I could meet that moment, I could rise up. So it's such a different energy, Lori, like walking around the world. And I'd love to share about the wholeness, practice in a moment because this really helped me. But then some months after that, I was walking around in this wholeness with this trust, different frequency. And guess what? I went to this random dinner party with like 12 people and I end up meeting my husband now, John, without arduous pushing. She's like, oh my God, here he is. Soulmate. Because I had found this sense of wholeness in me. So I mean when I say the benefits of this work go across everything, you know, I. True soulmate. Love, outrageous love. Just deep peace, fulfillment, success in your career. Which maybe we could talk.

There's so many things I want to.

Share, Laurie, but there's something I want to share about creating your best stuff. Or do you want to talk about wholeness?

Oh my gosh. Well, I want to talk about success in your career.

For sure.

We'll fit it all in. Let's do all three.

Okay, love. So here's what I want to say about this. The way the book is structured is three parts, right? I mentioned the first part, which is getting past the biggest blocks. So here's where we'll talk about wholeness in a moment. Because most of us feel incomplete, we feel broken. So part one is getting past the blocks. So fear wholeness. These topics. Part two of the book is where you embody the true self qualities more so you start to live them. And Expand them in your life, like peace, intuition, all of this. And then part three is where you're ready to create. So the longest chapter in the book is actually called you are a creator. It's chapter 19. And it's where we take our formless energy and our best gifts that are unique to us, and then we channel them out through these exercises into form. So this is where I create my best website or my best product or my best content. Right? So we can't skip parts one and two. What this means is that your best stuff, your business success is going to come from the inside and you're going to birth it out of you. We create not our best stuff when we do it the opposite, which is what most people do, which is where we look to the external world. Oh, here's some trends, here's where things are going. Well, maybe I'll try to jump on this bandwagon. And then we reverse engineer it through us. Does that make sense? Like, oh, this person's doing this, maybe I'll do what she's doing. Or it's always looking out here. Ego is two physical eyes always seeing here in yoga terms, the word rishi in Sanskrit means seer, right? So this is when third eye, which is we could say, oh, it's esoteric, this point between your eyebrows a little higher. But there is science to this. When we meditate, when we tune in, when we connect to the true self, this seeing part of us, we perceive more than the physical eyes. We have more intuition, more wisdom. And science shows when we focus here as well, we start to wake up. And this medulla oblongata, this part of our brainstem, this ganglion of nerves, so actually wakes up creativity in different parts of our brains. So when we want to really create our best stuff and we want the most abundance, the most success, we have to do it from the inside out. Because we are unique. We're here for a purpose. I can't create what Lori can, Lori can't create what I can and anyone else. So don't go out here, birth it from the inside out. And then you can't skip parts one and two. We have to get out of the blocks and then we have to embody who we are and then we create the best stuff. So that is part three. I talk about magnetism, abundance, creating, but there's a reason it's in part three, right? So if we haven't got rid of these blocks, we're going to self sabotage. You know, we put out all the energy, do all the Stuff, right? But you know, this energy, we can't cheat energy. Everything is energy, everything's pulsing energy underneath, right? And physics shows that this, you know, these interconnected ways of energy, so we can't cheat it. We can say the right things, we can do the right things on paper, but if we have this lack based energy that we're projecting out, it will be felt and it will block us.

What do you find, especially as you're having these conversations out in the world, it's one of the most fun parts.

About a book, right?

You start having all these conversations and these kind of like through lines start showing up in the conversations with who you're talking to. What are you finding? People are saying, are there blocks to this? What are some of the main blocks that people do, whether conscious or unconscious, that block them from feeling their true selves or being their true selves.

So again, I can't help but come back to fear here. I think that fear in all the ways, including not feeling good enough, the fear of, oh, if I do something different, you know, is it, am I going to benefit? Am I going to be benefited? Is it going to make a change? So it just, I would say that is the number one thing, right? So it's like, I know this, I'm going to cling to like this diet or this way of being in the world versus oh, you know, like there is this other way. There is this expansive energy inside of me. I will also say that I'm getting quite a lot of reaction to the love chapter, which is a very different way of looking at love. So that's been something that people have been bringing up to me a lot.

Ooh, tell me what's different about it.

Okay, so the ego tells us that love is out here, right? Love is a thing. Love is a noun, something, something we have to get. So think about the ways we try to get love. We feel, oh, I'm a loser unless I'm in a relationship, right? Or we tried to get love in the form of validation on social media, people liking our stuff, following us. It's always this like getting it right. The ego tells us we have to get there versus, oh, it's inside of me. So the difference, instead of thinking of love as a noun out here is that love is a verb. We learned that love is a verb that we live. So it comes in and out of us. What do I mean by that? We activate it. We activate it as a living energy in our life right here. So wake up in the morning in the first 10 minutes. Do an act of love, the verb of love. Text someone that you you just a loved one and just tell them that you love them. You have a pet, snuggle your pet or your partner or your roommate. Or do something of love. You go out in the morning, you get coffee. Be extra kind to the barista. Do a gratitude practice. Spread kindness. Now we've shifted our relationship with love and not something that we're trying to get this desperation out here. But it's me. So what does that mean? Then you become the source of love. So if you are looking for more love and then in terms of a romantic relationship, deeper friendships, whatever it is. In the love chapter I go into these practices of the love comes from inside of you. So then people are attracted to you because you're a source. Instead of again, this lack based energy of like I'm trying to get it and I don't have it, which keeps so much away from us.

I love that I've even recently found. So I've been going on walks and during my walks I'll kind of like look at my text list and see who I'm talking to. And I'm like, okay, I'm gonna send them a little love voice note. It is profound how different you feel and how just that little bit of maintenance and love and checking in helps move your relationships forward and helps maintain them, which I really believe is such an important piece of life is those relationships. But you're so right creating that for yourself first.

Yes. It means it's here, it's now. I'm not seeking it because I already have it.

I just walk the earth different on those days. I really do. Like, I just, I feel like it's such a good remembrance. That was such a good reminder to. Even for a while there I scheduled it in. So like, okay, you're gonna like actually send notes to people or text people like little reminders on my phone. Because it's so easy, like it's so easy to go back into our own headspace where we're lonely and we self sabotage and we tell ourselves like we're better alone or like what's the difference anyway? Or all of these little things that we tell ourselves to isolate and cut off. Right. Do you think that that is the. I know that you had mentioned the natural state that humans want to be in is joy and bliss, but I feel like a lot of if left unattended without these practices. Right. I feel like our natural inclination is to isolate and try to be alone and go to that place where it's just not a good place. So what do you think of that? Is that. I know you said it's the ego, but which one is more powerful if left unattended?

So the world that we live in is the world of ego, right? We are in this world which is image based, which is always trying to sell us something, tell us we're not enough. It sets us up to compare ourselves and then contrast and then create competition. So the world is not this enlightened, wise place. So left unattended, the ego is very strong and it will keep us going into these like attachments and even more into our control mechanisms, honestly. So when you said the practice, you know, we need these practices, we each and every single one of us has to choose, hey, I want my life to expand and be its highest potential or not. And that does mean, like I said, it does require some work, but it's a shift of focus. It's. I can almost guarantee it's not more work, but what it means, Laurie, is like in the morning, even a lot of people get out of, they're not even out of bed, they wake up and they go straight to email, straight to Instagram, right? They're already out here. Versus taking the time to nurture this inner energy. So what I'm saying is when we do consistently nourish the inner energy, and I say this from personal experience, this love and this connection and this power and this calmness is so much more powerful. I meditate in the morning, I prioritize and carve out my time because I know the difference in my days, you know, so when we start to do this, it's that experiential, over time, it builds energy over time of wow, life is so different. You know, I used to find something wrong with all these people. I used to create all these walls, you know, I used to just think, oh, you know, project, oh, this person's this, this and this. And then you realize people don't bother you that much and anymore you take back your power and it's like energy, energy comes, energy goes. I don't have to comment on it. Use the word witnessing earlier. I don't have to. I can witness and not judge. There's just this real expansion. And what that does is it also frees up all this energy where you can focus on your purpose and on your business, Laurie. And like you're, you know, this mind chatter takes up so much energy. All the self doubt, all the like pulling us out here. So again, through consistent meditation, through Doing these practices, what we do is we're still going to perceive, we're still going to sense, but we don't have to believe anymore. We don't believe the stories, we don't have to believe the Doubting Voice. It allows us to discern the voice in our head, the chatter of the ego, and the voice, what Yogananda calls the infallible counsel of the inner voice, real intuition, spirit, universe, coming through us. And then we move from that place. We make different decisions. We. We use our intuition more, we connect more to other people. Right? So our whole lives change. This isn't, you know, in the past, some of my books that, like I said, about one thing, like Ayurveda or diet, but this is the first time, Laurie, I'm really sharing this full playbook of everything that's helped me create. And so I'm so excited because I think that different teachings will resonate with different people. But it's, you know, it's universal truths. Mm. Yeah.

I love that. And, you know, the more podcasts that I do, I'm almost. I'm almost a 900 podcast right now. So I literally am like, I will tell you there are universal truths, because there's no way that you, you know, have that many interviews and don't find exactly, you know, so many of the things that you're saying, you're saying in such a beautiful way, and you have so many incredible tools, but so many of these truths come through. So much of what you're saying, the true self, and. And so many incredible people that I've talked to, successful people, yourself in there, like, it is all about that true self and letting go of the ego and letting go of fear. So I love this. And one thing that you really said that I loved is when the person that you were talking to, I forget the name, but had said, focus on yourself for five months. And the reason that I want the listeners to hear that is because sometimes seasons are five months or a year or two years or three years. And it can feel really, especially with the passing of somebody, you can lose who you are for a while. You can lose who you are for a year or two years or whatever that looks like. There's no amount of time. You can't really put an amount of time on it. But what I found is, just like you said, you either believe or you don't. Right? You either believe these things will end up working or not. And I can say, you know, even I've gone through some winters that were two years, maybe a little bit longer that you will come out, you will come out on the other side and you will come out with some profound learnings and looking at life in a new beautiful way that you do walk around lighter. So I feel like obviously you've gone through that. How do you perceive life right now? So, last question, finishing up with this. What would you say if you could share with people you know after doing this book who you are now on the other side? You've gone through a lot. How do you perceive life? Like what can you share from the other side that people can know is coming if they do the work?

So I would say, Laurie, that for me everything has changed and shifted so much, including my definition of success. And I really tie true success to the level of inner peace that we have an inner connection. So on the other side waiting for you is what you really want. And when I say that is because we all want the same things underneath. We all want to feel free, we all want to feel love, we all want to feel bliss. And I used to tie it to these measurables things in the outside world. Whether it's like this achievement or how many times am I going to make this list or do this or how do I look? And you realize like now where I sit in life is oh, you know, it's not these numbers, it's not measurable. It's really about connection and love and peace. And you know, it sounds, you know, may sound simplistic, but it's like this is our life, Laura, you know, what do you really want? And then we realize a lot of the things that we do that we think are going to give us what we want. You know, having this huge social media following or having this or that, it doesn't really give us what we want. It really doesn't. So where I sit is no, it's easy to go by in this frantic way of the ego of doing more, pushing more like in less time, really warped relationship with time as well. This constant desperation where I sit now is. I can say with honesty that my biggest goal in life is really just to live life more and more from the true self and to live from this place, spirit, God, universe rising up inside of me, identifying with that. And you know, in a way life has gotten a lot more simple. But yeah, I'm saying it's, you know, it gets simple but wow, Lori, I want everyone to have of, you know, more of this. Like I'm not there yet. We're all works in progress. But I look back at where I was 10 years ago, five years ago. Just the level of peace, the, you know, the, the love, the expansion of love in my life is so much more. I know if it's possible for me, who used to be such an anxious, insomniac, self hating mess, you know, so much self doubt to, to feeling this level of peace. And it's possible for everyone as well. And the ironic thing is when you're in this and you're like, hey, you know, I'm just, I'm focusing on peace and expansion. Ironically, the outside stuff tends to work out better. So for me there's more of this flow. We, you know, the last year my business has grown more than it's ever grown before and you know, everything is flowing without all this attachment and this holding on. So again, the book is very practical and we talk about things like career and success and you know, on the outside with prosperity as well. But these teachings, everything runs through and everything will expand from the inside out. So good.

That was just relaxing and peaceful to listen to. I'm so excited about your book. So I think everybody needs to read it. Everybody needs more peace. And when they have everything that you just talked about, I'm telling you the ideas that come about and the things that happen in the world that need to happen to help change it, to help get it to a place where we all want to live. And I think that that starts with us and that feeling that you're talking about. So where can we get your book? I know it's out so exciting.

Where can we get it?

We'll put the link in the show notes and all the things, but go for it.

So the book again is called you Are More Than youn Think youk Are Practical Enlightenment for Everyday Life. And you can get it, you know, pretty much everywhere books are sold. Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Target. I'm so excited that it just feels like a birth. Like this book births into the world and now it's out here for everybody.

Well, I'm so excited for you. I can literally feel, you know, when you're just dropped in with people who are very present and just beautiful energy. So I definitely. It's working for you, sister. All right, so you guys, the best thing that we can do for our guest is to let her know your biggest takeaway. Well, number one, go get her book. Number two, let her know what your biggest takeaway was on social media. Would you share your handle with us?

This sure. It's atore Kimberly Snider.

Amazing. So you guys go follow her go share this podcast, let her know what the big aha moment was for you, because it's always so nice to know what is impacting the listeners. So you guys, until next time, earn your happy. Bye everyone.

Sam.