157: 28 Lessons I’ve Learned In My 28 Years—Part 1 with Sahara Rose

Namaste, it's Sahara Rose. And welcome back to the Highest Self podcast, a place where we discuss what makes you your soul's highest development. This episode is brought to you by four Sigmatic. Four Sigmatic is an incredible mushroom elixir company. I proudly drink their elixirs every single day. My favorite is their chai mix. It is insanely delicious. I quit chocolate cold turkey and what helped me was drinking this chai mix every day. And best of all, they use stevia to sweeten it. And there's no sugars like the chai lattes you'll find at Starbucks or wherever else. And the mushrooms are really good for balancing your hormones, helping heal adrenal fatigue, healing your body on an adaptogenic level. So adaptogens really kind of relate to what your body needs. So if you are high stress, it will bring you down. If you need more energy, it will bring you up. And that's what's so amazing about Adaptogen is they adapt to your body. And mushrooms, medicinal mushrooms, have a lot of adaptogenic properties. So you can head over to their website 4sigmatic.com F O U R S I G M a t I c.com Sahara I have a little shop up there with my favorite four Sigmatic products so you can try it out and you can also get 15% off any four sigmatic product using the code Sahara. My favorite way of reading books is actually listening to them. Yes, I'm a self proclaimed audible junkie. Why? Because I'm able to walk, spend time in nature, clean my house, do all the things I need to do while still getting really high vibe content coming straight into my ears. If you love podcasts then you are the perfect person to begin listening to audiobooks. If you would like to get started with a free audiobook of your choice, head over to audibletrial.com highlighted highest self podcast again audible a u d I b l e dot com highestself podcast and you'll receive any audiobook of your choice absolutely free. Want more video content from me? Well head over to my YouTube channel to check out my new show Ask Sahara where I will be answering your questions each week related to all things spirituality, entrepreneurship, Ayurveda, wellness, self care, relationships and everything in between. Head over to YouTube.com sahararose and if you have any questions that you would like me to answer on Ask Sahara simply send me an email over@questionseatfeelfresh.com we already have a bunch of episodes live talking about all things from how to know if you're a cross between two doshas and what should you eat, how to become more confident, how do you find the one, how to shift into abundance mindset and so, so much more. So head over to YouTube.com SaharaRose to dive in. This episode has become an annual tradition. Last year I did my 27 lessons I've learned in my 27 years, and I hope to continue bringing in my lessons with each year for as long as I live because you guys are seriously like my tribe slash diary that knows me better than anyone. So it feels really great to just be able to share these things with you. And meeting so many of you this year just showed like, wow, there's actual humans listening to this. Because, you know, I'm just here by myself in my living room in the chair where I, like, do everything. I, like, eat, work, go on YouTube, write, like everything from this one spot. So I'm like, wow, people listen to this. So it's very cool to know that you're on the other side. I see you, I feel you, and I honor you for being here. If it's your first time listening to this episode, welcome. My name is Sahara Rose. I am a soul having a human experience who's written some books on Ayurveda and has this dope podcast. And I'm really into dancing and having fun and becoming my highest self, which we'll definitely talk about in this episode. So this year I spent my birthday in a unicorn onesie in Disney World with my then boyfriend, now fiance, dressed as a gorilla. And I decided this was gonna be the year of the unicorn and this was the year that I'm just gonna be my full on, totally authentic self. Because the last year was really about me becoming like the Ayurveda expert and being very serious, Studying Ayurveda, launching Idiot's Guide to Ayurveda, meeting Deepak Chopra, working with him. Like, it was a very serious and professional year. So I decided that this year, 2018, was going to be the year of the unicorn and that it for sure was. I would say, yes, check that off the list. I was able to embody that the biggest highlight of this year was going to Bali, taking some photos with this girl and being pinched on my back, turning around and seeing my boyfriend, who is not supposed to be in Bali, on his knee with a green tourmaline engagement ring proposing to me. And I said yes. So that is for sure the highlight of this year. Beyond book launches and 10 programs that I launched and speaking all across the world, that was for sure 100% the highlight. And a huge shift happened then, which we'll talk about in this episode, to really bring me back into my feminine. So this has been a full on year. I'm just a normal person like you. I didn't grow up with like celebrity parents or spiritual parents or meeting an author ever. I grew up in like the suburbs of Boston. So this was a crazy year because it's the first year that I feel like I like, quote unquote made it, which is so weird to say, but it's the year that all of the work that I've put into for the past, you know, like nine years now that I've been blogging and studying nutrition and doing all of these things, this was the year that I finally feel like, okay, I could say I'm. I made it now. And I guess what shifted was having the Idiot's Guide be out for over a year, launching Eat Feel Fresh, having this podcast now for over a year and a half. And just the embodiment of it, beyond all, just the embodiment of success allows you to attract success, which is definitely one of the lessons. So this has been a crazy year. It's definitely been the year of the butterfly. It's been the year of me fully going out there, creating what it is I came on this planet to do, fully embodying my highest self. Now, with that said, by no means was this year easy. Was it perfect. There were also some of the hardest times of my life this year too. So I just want to say that even when you made it, even when you embodied the unicorn, like shit still hits the fan. I experienced some really deep dark spots as well. And, you know, and that's something that when we set for our new year, we're not like, oh, I'm gonna have some really rough times this year. But you just do have to know that, that those times do have to happen. But sometimes it's like with the rubber band, you have to pull the rubber band backwards in order to catapult forward. So I'm so grateful for those opportunities too, because they just made me so much stronger, so much more connected to my truth and able to see the lessons that stem through it all. So let's dive into the 28 lessons that I've learned in my 28 years. So the first one is you can do more in a year than you ever thought possible. So I used to think, like, doing anything took a very long time. And it's true it can, but. But it doesn't have to. The first book that I wrote before Idiots Guide to Ayurveda Eat right for your mind body Type, which I never got published. It was just a book that I had written and I was planning to self publish. And it turned into my online program that took me two years to write, like night and day, writing it, rewriting it, editing it, because I was on my own. I had never done it before. It was my first time experiencing anything remotely similar to writing a book. So it took a really long time and I had that mindset that doing anything takes a really long time. But what I learned this year is that you can achieve so much more in a year than you believe possible once you've gotten your flow going. So that's the kriya that we talk about on this podcast, the effortless flow. Now there's effort to the effortless flow. But what it means is life is no longer a struggle. Like doing a small task no longer takes all of your energy. You're able to see, okay, this is what's working and this is not. And that's something that only comes with experience. So this year I launched 10 programs. I did my eat right for your mind body type program, the abundance mindset masterclass. The abundance mindset program, Awaken your powers program, Conscious relationships masterclass, Sex money magic program, twice ran the Doshas and Dharma program, creating a podcast course, did the daily om Ayurvedic nutrition and self care course, and created a course about Ayurveda and meditation for the Unplug app. So I created a lot of content this year. And then that's not just to mention the, you know, now we have over 150 podcast episodes on this podcast. I was on Hundreds, probably over 300 podcast episodes that I was interviewed on from so many different people and online summits and, and interviews online and creating daily Instagram. I did not miss a single day of posting on Instagram. And every day it's a high quality post. I don't just like post selfies. I post, you know, shit doshas say or what the doshas like for the holidays or just meaningful lessons that I've learned or anything else. And that takes time and that takes effort as well made videos. I launched my Ask Sahara show. Just so much content that I used to, you know, have such a hard time just creating anything. It was such a bigger deal and now I just do it. I don't even think about it. I'm like, okay, that's just what we're doing. Go. And having that mindset shift has Allowed me to do so much because I'm not like, coercing myself to do it or having a pet talk in my head. I'm just doing it. And, you know, the amount of time I would have spent thinking about if I should do it, how can I do it, how does it work, blah, blah, blah. In that amount of time, I just do it and I move on. So a year can really change everything. And we often underestimate how much can be done in a year and overestimate how much can be done in a day. So a lot can be done in a day, a lot can be done in a year, but not as much can be done in a day than we think. Sometimes we put these massive to do lists. I think one of the secrets that I did this is not a secret, is I focused. I focused on the energy of the dosha of the day. So what that means is I would say, okay, these are my pitta days. My pitta days are my fire days. Pitta is the fire dosha. So these are the days that I'm getting things done. I'm doing my to do list. I'm just go, go, go, go, go. And sometimes I have a couple pitta hours that I'm just, like, answering emails, like, working with sponsors, like, really in my kind of, like, masculine. And then I'll go on a walk and then come back and then be able to drop into my vata, my feminine, or go into my kapha, which is also a more feminine energy, but, like, relaxing. So having those days dedicated to the doshas really allowed me to dive into, especially writing a book, which requires a lot of vata energy, or doing a lot of online programs, which requires a lot of pitta energy. And then the kapha, which I'll talk about, which is really the dosha that has been the most challenging for me to step into, which you would think is the easiest because it's like the chill one. But having the days as the doshas, my get shit done pitta days, my creative vata days, and my chill kapha days, has allowed me to get so much more done in a year than I ever thought possible. And I have a podcast episode just about scheduling your days with the doshas, which I did sometime this summer. Number two, love is everything and more important than anything now. This is how I ended my last 27 lessons in my 27 years, which I actually haven't listened to again. Did you know I don't listen to my podcast. Just something about it. I just feel like it. It was in the moment. And it just. I just needed to stay in that moment. So I never listened to the podcast that I've recorded, but I do remember ending with how love is everything. And it's just so true. And this year really allowed me to experience that because I was in such pitta mode, especially the first half of the year. I was traveling to different states, leading events, creating programs, did the challenge with KINO for the 14 day challenge, like, doing so much that I didn't have time to really feel love. Like, my relationship, luckily, was something that we were in a solid enough place that we were like, okay, we're both really focused on our dharmas right now, so it's really going to be about our work. And we were comfortable enough with each other to accept that. But after being engaged, it just swung the pendulum into my feminine and just like, enjoy that process of, you know, being excited about your wedding and your marriage and having a family one day and all of that. And it was just a big part of me that I had just let go of for the past couple years because I've been so much more focused on my career. And after I got engaged, I did a podcast episode about making every day your wedding. But I tried to plan a wedding in Mexico. We went to Mexico, literally planned everything. And then the day that I was supposed to visit the wedding venue, I got so sick, I threw up, projectile vomited there. And I was sick for eight days. And it was a massive reminder for me to just live my life like how I would a wedding. So all of the things that I wanted to have in my wedding, like plants and macrame and like flower lays and this and that, I actually, like I'm looking around my house and I did it. I bought plants, I bought macrame, I bought little flower lays. I am trying as much as possible to allow each day of my life to be like that wedding, instead of living for that one day and focusing more on my home and allowing myself to be comfortable where I live, which has been a very big lesson, which I'll talk about more. So really, love is beyond all. Love is beyond any accomplishment. Like, if I were to compare, eat, feel fresh, becoming a best seller again, or working with Deepak Chopra again, or anything, nothing compares to love. So if you have love, you have everything. Number three, make fun a priority. Now, this was a lesson that I learned actually quite recently, the latter part of the year, about December, and I realized that I've been putting fun on the side. And I realized it started when I was probably in college because I used to go out to parties, to clubs, bars, et cetera, when I was a freshman. And then I really had my spiritual awakening and I was not interested in. I stopped drinking. I still don't drink any alcohol. Like, I don't even take sips of it. I have no interest in alcohol, but. But I just wanted nothing to do with that world. So I stopped going out, I stopped going to parties, I stopped going to anything like that. And I missed the music. I missed the community aspect of it, of, you know, getting ready and meeting with your friends and seeing them. But I just didn't want to be around that vibration. So instead, on a Friday night, I would be reading or, you know, doing personal development stuff or working most of the time is really what ended up happening. And I. I stopped making fun a priority. In fact, I thought of fun as sort of this, like, lesser emotion. Like, fun is just something that happens along the way. You're not supposed to, like, go out there and actively seek fun. Just have fun working, have fun doing whatever you're supposed to be doing. Just like, it'll just happen. I didn't even think about the word fun, to be honest. I thought fun is something for kids. And I know it's so pits of me. So I realized in December that, you know, I'm working my ass off and I. I've gotten all these accomplishments and I'm doing. I've made more money this year than I ever could have imagined making in my life. But really, the memories that are the most, you know, substantial to me are the ones that I'm having fun. And I used to choose growth over fun, but now I've realized that fun equals growth. And when you're having fun, you're actually growing. And this is the ultimate form of personal development. So now I am actively checking in with myself. Am I making this moment as fun as possible? So if I'm going on a walk, instead of listening to, like, the depressing, like, dark music or like, super serious mantras that I normally would listen to, I'm like, hell, yeah. I'm bringing back the 2000s hip hop, that Chingy, that Bobby Valentino, Pretty Ricky, B2K, Omarion Marquis, Houston. I mean, this is just how I have fun. By the way, they're all going to be going on tour called the Millennium Tour. That's one of my goals this year, to just, like, go to more concerts, specifically 2000s hip hop. So just, like, have more fun. How can I make doing my laundry more fun? How can I make this podcast more fun? How can I make everything I do more fun? Because fun is why we're here. Like fun freaking rocks. And we've all, as adults, let go of fun. We're not like, I want to have fun today. Now it's like, okay, how am I going to make more money? Or how am I going to be more spiritual, or how am I going to have more personal growth? And it's all so freaking serious. And when you really dive into what spirituality is all about, it's about joy. You know, the most enlightened people, like you could say the Dalai Lama or Amma, they're laughing all the time. Laughter is why we're here. So I'm actively choosing fun. So this year I'm going to more dance classes, I'm going to concerts, I'm going to just spend more time time on the beach. I'm going to do fun quizzes and workbooks and drawing things and anything that feels fun to me, I'm going to make this a priority. Because when I'm having more fun, I'm creating better content, I'm making more money, and I'm a better person. So if you've also realized you're not having fun, make fun a priority in 2019. So number four, dance is your ultimate medicine. I've realized beyond any tool out there. For me personally, dance is how I connect with my highest self. That is how I totally tune into who I am. And it's different for everyone. But seated meditations, not my thing. Breath work, it's cool. Not my thing. Sound bath, meh, not my thing. Not that I don't enjoy them. Like, throw me a free sound bath, I'll be there, but I'm not. It's not how I like, walk out and I'm like, boom. That connected me to, like, my soul. But dance every time. I could be at a freaking ballroom dance class. Or I could be at five rhythms going crazy. Anything. Dancing for me is really how my vessel experiences joy. So I'm going to make dance a massive priority in my life this year. From twerking, which is a spiritual practice for me, twerking is, you know, shaking your butt. And it's something that we've let go of. We've become so serious, so straight up. And even in a yoga, most of us are, we're working all day and then we practice yoga. Yoga is a masculine practice. Yoga is a Shiva masculine consciousness. Cultivating practice, you are able to become more still in your mind. You're able to Observe. And that is the masculine. So even though most people in your yoga class may be females, it's actually cultivating your masculine essence. And actually, in India, women were not allowed to practice yoga. Yoga was only practiced by men. Ashtanga yoga was a practice made to suppress male hormones. Like, that's actually why it was created for teenage boys. So I realized that a couple years ago, I was doing all this yoga, all this Ashtanga, and I stopped getting my period, and I was just super disconnected with my feminine. I didn't even have feminine curves to me anymore. And I moved more into dance, more into embodiment, more into just juiciness, and just felt so much more aligned with myself. So now I'm. I'm moving even further into that. I go to these torque classes. I'm signing up for S Factor, which is like a sensual movement class. I tried pole dancing. I'm not very good at that. I can't get up on the pole. It's really hard. But. But if you can pole dance, go for it. It's sexy. And, like, not being afraid of the word sexy, I used to feel like you're either spiritual or you're sexy. So I'm going to choose spiritual. And I'm only going to wear baggy white clothes for the rest of my life and pretend I don't even have a physical body because I'm so connected to my soul. And I've realized that my physical body is my soul. When I'm connected to my physical, that right there is my spiritual practice. Practice. That is what it means to be a human. You know, if I was supposed to just be a soul, I would have reincarnated here as a ghost or a spirit guide. You know, I'd be Casper. This would be Highest Self podcast with Casper Rose. And I'm not. So we're here for a reason. We're here to shake that shit. And there's nothing unspiritual about that. So if anyone ever makes you feel like your ass and titties are a horrible thing and make you a bad person, said they got it twisted. So twerk, twerk, twerk. Number five. Have the willpower to rest. This actually came to me right before I recorded this. I had written down some things. I was like, you know, I'm going to take a walk, because a walk is how I tune into myself and see what comes up. And I was walking by the beach, and I realized that having the willpower to rest for me is even harder than having the willpower to work Work because I'm someone that if I want to do something, I'm just going to go do it right, Right then. I actually, like, can't even wait. Like the moment something comes to my mind, I need to take action on it right now. Again, it's very pita of me. But even when I thought I'm like, oh my God, I need to do my 28 lessons and 28 years episode, I like wrote down 28 things. I'm like, okay, time to record. And I'm like, no, take a step back, go on a walk. Even if it's for five minutes. You know, this is how you connect with yourself. You need to have the willpower to. To take a step back and not do everything that you wanna do right now. So once I started to take the walk, it became longer. It ended up being like an hour walk by the beach. And I realized that having the willpower to rest for a lot of us is such a difficult thing because we've been primed to just do, go, take action, create that. We feel like if we take a step back, we take a pause. We're no longer going to create everything it is that we want to create. And there's nothing wrong with achievements. It's a beautiful thing to want to put work that impacts other people. But to be able to schedule in downtime as much as you schedule in tasks is a gift. So most of us were either on one end of the spectrum, we're like work addicts, or feeling lazy. And that's very pitta or more kapha vata. Kapha is like super chill. Vata is like, you have a lot of ideas, but you're not acting on them. And pitta's like, you're acting on everything, everything. But we have to keep them flowing. You have to keep the doshas moving, which I talk about all the time on this podcast. So from the pitta, from the doing, you need to move into the kapha. You need to move into the sacred pause. So this year in 2019, I really want to have more willpower to honor myself enough to take a break, to turn off my computer at like 7pm I used to work until 2 in the morning every single night, night. Like, I'm going to be real with you guys. Like I was, especially when I wrote Idiot's Guide to Ayurveda. I was writing 14 hours a day with eat, feel fresh, like around the clock. Just work, work, work. And also the Capricorn in me, I think fed that too. But that's not A good thing. It's not something to be proud of. Like I don't want to be Gary Vee that like my whole life is dedicated to how hard I worked. I want to focus on me being the best human I can. I want to create beautiful work that helps others, but not tie my self worth to to it. So have the willpower to rest, schedule in downtime as much as you schedule in tasks. Number six. Communication is key in relationships. So I've been very fortunate that in my relationship the first three years we like really didn't have problems. We never got into fights. We never had to go read books on relationships. It was very easy and it still is very easy for the most part. But this year, the now third year, was when we had to actually start like having conversations about things. And it brought up, you know, kind of the fear in me that, oh my God, if we need to have talks about how we are in this relationship, that means something's wrong. And I had to realize that there's nothing wrong with that. That actually just means you're growing in your relationship. If you never have talks about what it is that you're expecting or something that the other person did that bothered you or, you know, ways that you would like to improve the relationship relationship, then guess what, the relationship is going to remain stagnant and eventually fall apart. So it was something that I really had to open myself up to and then also allow my partner to open up to. And I started reading a lot of books about relationships. And there's one book I read, I forget its name. I'm going to post in the show notes though, but it said that there's two types of communication styles. And there are people who are like the island and people who are like the wave. And most of us are, are somewhere in between the two. But people who are very much the island is, they like to process things on their own. They like to think about it. Maybe they take a day or a week or even longer to process something, but they like to keep it internally to themselves. Like while they're angry and going through something, they're not going to talk about it. They're going to be a little bit distant with you, maybe even a little passive aggressive, but they won't tell you what it is until they've processed it enough to be able to talk about it. And then the other type of people are the waves. And the waves is the moment something's going on, they want to talk about it. Like they are processing things as they're Going through it. They're very communicative. And the moment that they feel like the other person is like a little off, they're like, what's wrong? What's happening? So as you can see, they're very opposite energies. And most of us become attracted to someone with the opposite energy as us. So I realized that I have more wave like tendencies and my fiance has more island like tendencies. So when something's wrong, I can tell something's wrong. And he's not talking about it, but he won't tell me what it is and he'll tell me everything's fine. So that drives me freaking crazy. And I'm like, are you sure everything's fine? Are you sure? You don't seem okay. Let me know. I'm over here. If you need me, you can call me. And then I start mind tripping about all of the things that could be wrong. What if I did this? What if I did that? What could be wrong? Why isn't he telling me? And then I start getting mad. Well, why isn't he telling me? Why can't he just be a man and communicate about it? And then I go into like my whole tangent. I was just waving and waving like a fricking Johnny Tsunami over here. And he's just at his island, like reclusive. So I had to realize this and talk to him about it. And we had to see how can we allow ourselves to communicate in a way that honors both of our energies and honor that he needs time to think about something and to have that space and honor that. I go crazy if you need that space because then I start mind tripping. So now we have. He's able to communicate a little bit faster when something's going on. He doesn't like keep it in for weeks. He's able to talk back it maybe the next morning. And I'm able to stop taking it so personally and think that the world is over every time something's off and that things will be okay and to just, you know, focus on other things while I'm giving him that time. And then allow me to fully receive whatever it is he has to say without being defensive about it. So this was a major breakthrough for me. So I'd love to know, guys, if you are waves or islands, let me know on the mind, body balancers, Facebook group, or on Instagram. Instagram. So number seven actually is about Instagram too. And it's that podcasting is the new Instagram. So before my Instagram was like my main bae, I was Spending all my time on it. I was obsessed. I started Instagramming like the very beginning when Instagram opened. And I don't know how many years ago is that, like six years ago. But now I think podcasting is the new Instagram because we've gotten tired of this like short form, super curated content that has no soul to it. And podcasting allows you to really get to know someone. I saw at all my events this year, they were sold out lines of people who wanted to like get their book signed by me. It was so weird. And I was like, damn, like I have fans. Like, this is so strange. And I really believe it's because of the podcast. Because the podcast, you get to know someone, you get to know someone's personality, you get to really sit with them. It's like, you know me, like, you're my best friend. Like we talk all the time, literally. So. So with Instagram you don't really know. You just kind of see a picture and like a couple sentence long caption, but you don't really get the essence of them. Yeah, story's better. But most people aren't storing like everything going on or really providing high quality value on the story. It's more just like, I'm doing this, I'm doing that. You're still not really getting to know like someone's thoughts and beliefs and all the little nuances about them. So I've noticed too that this year a lot of people are interested, like in my online program, saying that they want to start publishing podcasts too. So something that I'm going to be creating at the beginning of this year is my podcast course. And this is going to be all about how to not only create a podcast technically, but how to rock it and how to create a community and be authentic and be true to yourself. So it's going to be all the stuff about how to get your podcast up there, how to choose the right server, what kind of equipment I'm using, what do I use when I'm interviewing people, what are all the tools? And then also how do you make it the best, best value content possible? And on top of that, it's becoming very hard to get your podcast on the itunes store. It's becoming trickier and trickier as well as SoundCloud, Spotify, you know, Stitcher, all the other places where podcasts are listened to. So in the podcast course, I'm also going to be hiring people who are experts in putting podcasts into the itunes store. So you will end the course with an actual Podcast. Podcast on the Apple Store if you choose to, if you feel ready to. But it will be on iTunes, SoundCloud, Spotify, all the places with this course. And I'm also going to be connecting you with podcast editors that I've personally interviewed and vetted out myself, because that was something that held me back for a really long time. The first 50 episodes I edited myself and uploaded myself and it just took a really long time and it made me like, feel like I could only do one podcast a week. And that was, was like even so much for me because I was having to edit all of it. Like a one hour podcast would turn into like four hours. But now that I hired an editor and I have another guy who uploads it for me on, on the server, it's made it so much easier because I can just hop on this mic, talk to my freaking window, and you guys listen to it. So I'm setting all of those things up, like the little tools and the right people and services on this podcast course. So you're going to be able to rock the pod. That's actually what I'm going to call it, Rock the Pod. And have an amazing podcast that really inspires and uplifts other people. So stay tuned for that announcement. I'm going to be announcing it here on the podcast on my Instagram at I am Saharose. Be sure to subscribe on my website, IAMSaharros.com and I'm super freaking excited about that because, you know, the podcast momentum has only just begun. Soon all cars are actually going to have WI fi in there. So with WI fi in every car, that means every single person in the US and more is going to be listening to podcasts. Because still, most people don't know what podcasts are like. If you ask your parents, do you listen to podcasts? They probably don't. A lot of people still don't even know how to log on to podcasts. So now with the WI FI on in cars and it's just going to be so much more accessible. It's really just the beginning of podcasts. So if you have an idea, something you want to share, a message, a voice, this is the time to do it and to rock the pot. So I'm stoked for that. We take a quick break from this episode so I can share with you an amazing opportunity. Are you interested in having a career focused on health and wellness? Well, if so, then the universe is calling you to become a holistic health coach. I am offering this incredible deal a discount of $1500 off my Alma mater Institute for Integrative Nutrition, which is the world's largest nutrition school with guest teachers such as Deepak Chopra, Chris Carr, Dr. Hyman, Dr. Andrew Whale and so many others. It is split between six months of health coaching programs teaching you hundreds of nutritional theories including Ayurveda as well as six months of business coaching. And as an additional bonus, I am offering a webinar where I will teach you how to use social media to create a thriving career as a health coach. On top of that, I have created a private Facebook community just for the highest self podcast listeners who are becoming health coaches to connect with each other, meet up with each other and support one another on this journey. So if you're interested, send an email over to Sahara s a h a r-aatfeelfresh.com with subject IIN again saharaetfeelfresh.com with sub subject IIN and I will personally send you back the email that will allow you to get a $1,500 off discount as well as my business coaching webinar and the private Facebook group. I'm so excited for you to begin your journey as a health coach. I recently came across Vodom teas while looking for a super high quality loose leaf tea online and I was blown away by their array of 10 different chai alone. And you know I love chai. I ordered it and arrived in the cutest packaging. Literally felt like a Christmas gift to myself and the tea was the freshest and most flavorful I've ever had and that's when I knew I had to contact them. Well, turns out Vaadum is one of the only tea company that procures directly from plantations and tea growers within hours of harvest. While most companies spend months in that transition time, they package garden fresh in India and ship it all around the world. World. They've eliminated the middleman so you're getting the freshest quality tea straight from the farmer. They're fair trade, pesticide free and pay the farmers a higher wage for their produce. They also educate the tea growers children which is really special to me so you can try them out. Definitely get their chai sampler so freaking good by heading over to vadometees.com V A H D a M teas T e a again vadim-v a h dash a m t e a s dot com and using coupon code Sahara for 20% off. Oprah just listed it as one of her favorite things. So I take Oprah's Word for it. Number eight, there is no greater love than the love for your pet. So you all know my obsession with Chubby, my little malty poo. But truly he is, is the reason why I'm such a happy person. He's allowed me to manifest so much because when I look at him, I get elevated to his vibration, which is the vibration of pure love. He's has no resentment, no jealousy, no anger, pure forgiveness, pure compassion. So when you're around something that's so pure and high vibrational, it automatically increases your vibration too. And that's how you manifest. You get yourself in an aligned space, a high vibration space space. So, you know, I would do talks, I would do sold out events, whatever, come home. Cuddling with Chubby was still the highlight of my day. So really there's no greater love than the love for your pet. And if you have a pet, you know what I'm talking about. If you don't adopt one, get one and love them forever, it's going to change your life if you have the space to take care of them and the time to take care of them. Of course I'm not advocating people who are not ready for a pet to get a pet because it is a family member, it is a responsibility and it is something that you have to fully be willing to commit to. But that being said, I don't think there's any better commitment than having a pet. Number nine, having a home you love and feel comfortable in makes all the difference. So guys, I don't know if you remember the beginning of this year. I had a major bedbug problem. Yes, my apartment building in Santa Monica, which was a super expensive apartment building, was contaminated with bedbugs. Not just my unit, but all my neighbors. And it was an actual building wide issue that they made me seem like I was crazy for reporting. Little did they not tell us that this was a building wide issue. So it was really traumatic. I don't know if any of you guys have experienced bedbugs, but I would sleep and every day wake up with hundreds of bites on my body. So clearly I stopped sleeping in that bed. I moved to the living room and was still so scared I had to spray my apartment multiple times. And at first I really didn't want to spray because it's toxic, but there was really no other way around it. I like diatomaceous earth, everything. I really just experienced what it's like to have an balance in your root chakra. And your root chakra is the chakra of stability, of safety, of comfort, of home. And when I didn't have that, I could not think about writing, editing my book, really making podcasts. I couldn't even get into that state. It was all about survival. I mean, I ended up letting go of, like, 90% of my clothes, thousands of dollars. Like, my bed, mattress, paintings, furniture, like, everything I had to let go of. I wasn't reimbursed. They never gave me back my rent money. I just had to leave. I mean, this is minor trauma compared to people who live in wars and, you know, massive earthquakes. But it was a massive reminder to me that having a comfortable home really makes all the difference. And when you don't feel safe, when you feel like you can't sleep because you're going to get attacked by bedbugs every single night, and you're literally like, I was wearing, like, gloves. Like, I was putting everything I could in trash bags and sleeping with blankets over my head. I was in such fear all the time, just imagining, and I couldn't sleep at night on top of that. And it really just knocked me off of everything. And it was just a reminder to me of Maslow's hierarchy, of if your basic needs are not met, you're not gonna be able to think about becoming your highest self and how important it is to really balance that root chakra. So if you're living in a place that you don't feel comfortable, your home does not feel safe for you, please make that your greatest priority, because you have such incredible work to do here on this planet. We need you to feel safe to do it. Number 10, set clear boundaries. I mean, I could do a whole podcast on just this lesson. This was probably the most major, like, personal lesson I had to learn this year. Happened around May. I realized that I was just allowing myself to be so accessible to everyone. Social media was a major part of it. Just like receiving so many messages every single day of people needing help or having questions or this or that. And, like, feeling like I really wanted to be there for everyone. But every time I would, I would be so depleted that I almost became resentful of it. And I would delete Instagram all the time. I honestly wanted to get off social media. I was sort of just done with it. I was like, I just want to write books and not deal with this whole social media thing because it's too exhausting. And it's interesting because, you know, when I was trying to build my following for years, I would, like, beg God for people to comment on my posts and DM me And then suddenly, when I'm getting that, by the way, hundreds every single day, I'm like, holy crap. Like, I can't. I can't handle. And it all came down to my own guilt. I had a lot of guilt about not being able to be of service to everyone who needed me. And I had to really work on setting clear boundaries of. Of what my work is to do and that we are all here to serve in different ways. And that for me to serve in my way, which is sharing the message and empowering other people to become leaders and allowing people to go to each other for the answers. Answers like, it's not about me. I don't have the answers. I will always point you back to yourself, and I was always pointing you back to your community and to your tribe, because that's really what my message is all about. And I really don't like the word guru. I don't like the glamorification of a single person. That's not what I'm about. And when I was seeing people were just all coming to me, it was. It felt so draining and exhausting to me. And it was a huge reminder of that's what I don't want. And with social media, it's like the whole world has your phone number all the time. That's what it feels like. Like, it's all these DMs. It feels like someone's texting you constantly. And I was just realizing I would be waiting for the elevator trying to go through DMs. I would be waiting here, trying to go through them all. And it was so draining that I was becoming a type of person no one would want to dm, honestly, because I was just that type of person who's always on my phone. And I had to really get clear on that, really let go of my own guilt that came from inside of me. And to realize that people are going to be okay, like, they were okay before me, they're going to be okay after me. And the people who need help, they need to go to someone who has the full capacity to guide them through this. You know, messaging a stranger on Instagram for support on something that's really serious in your life is not the way to go by things. If you really need support, you need to go to a therapist, a shaman, a life coach, a healer, someone who can really sit there and hold space for you. And I think with our social media culture, we don't have those clear boundaries. We don't really know who's our friend. We don't really know who's there for us, that we throw out our problems to anyone. And then that becomes really heavy for the people who all the problems are being thrown at. So. So I don't know if that's anything that you guys have experienced, but it's something that I was really experiencing this year and it really felt draining to me. So what I did was I started to meditate on a moat. Like, literally like an old, you know, castle with a moat around it with alligators. But I would literally imagine there was a moat around me and I can decide who is coming in. And just that feeling gave me so much comfort of I can decide who's contacting me, who's messaging me, who's gonna be in my life, and I'm gonna be real with you guys. When you have a little bit of, of like, fame or publicity, a lot of people start asking you for things and you feel really bad, but it's super, super draining. Like suddenly people that you met like five years ago are like, wanting to hang out and like, collaborate, AKA you promote them, and just wanting things from you. And it's really hard because you start to lose the differentiation of who's really your friend and who's using you. And that was a really difficult thing for me to deal with and to see that a lot of the people who suddenly want to be part of my life were not there for the right reasons. So creating that moat and being really particular about whose energy I'm letting in and to just like sit with my own energy was really, really powerful for me. And this goes for anyone. Whether you have a big community or not, people in our lives, they want energy from us. Energy vampires are a very real thing, and they're not doing it to bring you down and to ruin your life. They don't realize they're doing it. But these are just people who really need support. These are the people who const are like, feeding off your energy and they want you to help them with this and be there for that. And they're like offloading all their problems on you. And they're not being responsible with their energy. They're not being responsible about how you're going to feel when they just throw that all on you. They just feel like, oh, well, this is the truth for me. So blah, blah, blah, blah. And they're not reading the situation correctly. I've realized the people who are doing that are actually not very intuitive because when you're an intuitive person, you realize the energy exchange that any offloading of energy creates, creates. So you would not do that unless you're in that right situation. But anyone who's like, oh, hey, I've never met you, so let me tell you all my problems. And oh, can I be on your podcast Also? Is like, no, they're not being intuitive, they're not reading energy, and they're not respecting you. So I really had to come face to face of I can't feel guilty about people who are actually not respecting my boundaries. And this happens a lot of times, especially when you're an empathic person, especially when you want to be there for people, especially when you've opened your heart to people and people feel really comfortable with you, you become that vessel for it. And if you don't actively allow yourself to create those boundaries, it can create true heaviness, a true coffin balance that can take years to offload. So that was a big lesson I learned this year. So number 11, building a team is essential for growth and mental health. So around this time in May and in June of this year, when I realized I really need to set those boundaries, I realized I needed to create a team around me because it was me doing everything. I was editing podcasts, I was uploading things on the blog and on the YouTube channel, and I was responding to all the DMS and I was doing all the customer service and I was doing all the tech stuff. I was web designing, I was graphic designing, I was getting on calls with podcast sponsors. I was literally doing everything. And I realized that I'm not going to be able to grow as a person or as a business doing that. So I started to hire team members, which is not a simple process. It was really a long process to out figure, find the right people. A lot of people came and went and I had to be okay with that and see that it takes a while, you know, to find that right fit in a friendship and a relationship and also in an employee. So I finally was able to find beautiful people to support me with emails, with uploading things on the server and on YouTube and the blog, and all these things that actually don't require my creativity, that I don't need to be doing that I could easily outsource to other people and. And I think all of us are able to outsource many things that we're not even aware of. But it's our ego that wants to control everything and thinks that we can do it better and faster than everyone else, or has the fear that I don't have enough money to hire other people. Therefore, I have to keep doing it myself, not realizing how much money you're leaving on the table by staying small. So hiring a team, having someone to support me with different tasks I'm doing on a daily basis that don't require my creativity was a major game changer and allowed me to create so much more space mentally for myself. Just knowing that these, like my emails and all these little things I'm doing every day will be done. Number 12, you're only one walk away from a new mindset. So this is one that I'm reminded of every single day because it's so freaking true. It's so easy in our lives to just pile on one task at after the next. But tasks require different energies. They require different vibrations. So, for example, today I was doing all emails, brand stuff, podcast stuff, et cetera, very in my pitta, very in my masculine. But I knew I wanted to record this episode. So had I gone straight into this, it would have been a very different episode. It would have been much more, you know, kind of stressed out because that was. That was the vibration I was coming in. I mean, surely I would have been able to pull it off, but it wouldn't have really been coming from my highest self. So taking that walk, allowing myself to change my physical state is the biggest game changer for me personally, because it allows me to refresh my thoughts. It's kind of like that restart button of just going into nature, walking, getting out of that same environment and allows me to have a new perspective. And nature truly provides us with the air answers. We're always looking for the answers. We're looking in books, in therapists, in podcasts, in anything. But just go to nature and listen. Listen to the birds, notice the trees, notice the plants, notice how you feel in nature. Like, don't just use nature as your treadmill, but actually be in nature and I promise you the answers will find you. Number 13, perseverance. Yeah, this year has been a lot of perseverance. I'm not going to glamorize things. Like, it was a lot of having to do things and just getting it done. And I think sometimes a lot of spiritual teachers, they're like, I just align myself all day and just like work comes through me and I'm not even working a day of my life. Like, alignment over hustle. And like, yes, I'm all about that. And I agree, agree with that. But those same people are doing work. As I see them, I know them, they're doing work. And sometimes you don't want to show up for the podcast interview. You don't want to show up for the talk. In fact, I come up with a million excuses in my head before I still do a talk on why I'm not ready for it, why it's not the right time, why I wish I could stay home. I still come up with those excuses. I probably will for the rest of my life. Because that's just the human mind. The human, human mind wants to be comfortable and wants to remain the same. But that's not how we grow. But in order to grow, we have to execute our perseverance. So I wrote Eat, Feel Fresh. I've recipe tested hundreds of recipes. It was actually way harder to write Eat, Feel Fresh than Idiot's Guide to Ayurveda, though Idiot's Guide to Ayurveda is way more text because Eat, Feel Fresh was my version. I couldn't go back and like, counter check something, oh, is this right? With what Ayurveda has to say? Like, this was like, what it was I want to say. And then with the recipes and the graphic design and the images, like, that was again, all me. Like, people are like, oh, who designed it? I'm like, I straight up design down to where the watercolor is placed. Like, that's how specific I got. Every font, every spacing, every everything in that book was coming from my creation. I really wanted the book to have my essence, and I did not want to just expect that anyone was going to be able to figure it out if I wasn't able to figure it out. So I wrote the book, edited the book, deliberated over every single detail of the book while speaking across the the country, launching those 10 programs, doing all the customer service, recording up to four weekly podcast episodes for a large part of this year. I had four podcast episodes coming out this year, which was me wanting to, you know, hit the top of the spirituality category, which I ended up doing and ended up staying there. Now I do normally two podcast episodes a week, but I'm doing this podcast. I'm being on at least one to three podcast interviews of other people's a day. I'm managing people. I'm doing so many things. And that required a lot of personal perseverance. And I know perseverance is not a sexy word. It's not a word you want to, like, tattoo on your body in Sanskrit, but I swear it works. And it's the reason why some people are doing amazing things and other people are still dreaming about them. It's the ability to show up and to know that sometimes it's not fun along the way, but you have to make it fun. You have to put in that effort to. To show up when you don't want to and to make it the best moment possible and to change your vibration. You know, a friend of mine was just saying, instead of being the thermometer, we should be the thermostat. So what this means is, you know, the thermostat, you set it at whatever temperature you want. I want my home to be 74 degrees, and it's going to be 74 degrees. If it gets a little cooler, it's going to go back to 74. It gets a little warm, it's going to go back to 74. You're setting that temperature temperature, whereas a thermometer is reacting to what is going on outside of it. So if it's hotter, it gets hotter. If it's cooler, it gets cooler. And what this means for us is we have the ability to decide what we want to be. So being a thermometer says that even if everyone around me is really cold and dark and going into a fearful place, I'm going to stay at my 74 degrees. Even if everyone around me is really hot and going crazy and doing things and trying to make me feel like I'm behind, I'm going to stay at my 74 degrees. But being the thermometer is saying, well, if I'm around other hot people, then I should be a hot person, too. And I'm going to fake it till I make it and try to impress these other people in and talk the way they want and show up the way that they want because I need to adjust to them. When you're on other cold people, oh, I need to be more cold. I need to be more reclusive. I need to be more like them so I can fit into this kind of category. So having perseverance is being that thermostat. It's saying, this is what I want to do. And regardless of what is going on in the outside world, whether there are amazing music festivals going on and I'm going to have a lot of FOMO or whether everyone around me is super dreary and putting me down and I've never seen an example of what I want to do, I'm still going to keep doing it. So that perseverance is honoring your true truth. It's staying on track of your highest self. It's navigating the karma that is keeping you from living in Korea. The karma is the bounded action of the universe. It's the temptations. Whether they're good or bad. It's saying, no, I don't want to shift in that direction. It's constantly holding onto the steering wheel. You know, when you're driving down the road, you're not just holding onto the steering wheel without moving. You're making these constant little adjustments where we don't even realize we're making these adjustments. But watch someone drive, they're moving their. Their hands oh, so subtly, even when they're going in a straight line and they're. When that's like us, when we're moving in that straight line towards our dharma, our highest self, our life's purpose of why we're here. It's not a straight line. There's always going to be little navigation that needs to be done across that road. And you believing in yourself, committing to yourself, having that dedication, that drive, that perseverance is what is going to allow you to navigate that road. Number 14. Abundance is the result of worthiness. Now, this is something that I downloaded, and literally I got a felt board and I wrote it on that felt board, and I have it in my house, and I actually just took a picture of myself with it. I'm going to put on my Instagram. It is so freaking true that your level of abundance is a result of how much you think you're worthy. Because there were years of my life that I was really creating barely enough, just enough to go buy in Bali and in India, where living costs are super affordable. But my level of abundance shifted the more that I believed that I was worth it. And I realized that making money is not a bad thing. Making money does not make me a bad person. It doesn't make me evil. It doesn't make me any less spiritual. In fact, it puts me in my power. It allows me to serve. It allows me to fully show up as myself. And me being my fullest self, self sharing my gifts, doing what it is I came on this earth to do is what will create that money. Because there's a lot of ways you can make money, guys. I mean, you can do something that's totally not in alignment with who you are to make money. And I talk about this in multiple podcast episodes. This is not about get rich or die trying. This is about getting into alignment and making your abundance in that way, the highest way. But with that comes realizing that you, you embodying your highest self is a value. It's a service to other people. Because we still have this subconscious guilt that having money is taking away money from someone else. So this prevents us from fully embodying our power. We become afraid. We keep ourselves small. And when we keep ourselves small because we don't want to upset other people, we don't want to be that rich asshole. Guess what, guess what? We remain stagnant and people never get to experience our gifts. Podcasts are not made, businesses are not started, books are not written. All of these experiences are waiting to happen when you rise up to yourself. So this is why I created my Abundance Mindset Masterclass, which is abundancemindsetmasterclass.com and the Abundance Mindset program. And so much work around abundance this year, because I that was my massive awakening. I realized this year was really about stepping into my place of abundance and rewriting my money story. I read a lot of books about money. I really did research and meditations and manifestations and stepping into that. And it worked. I mean, my income increased by 10 times this year from last year, 10x, which is insane. And this is all a result, result of me shifting my inner vibration and realizing that I am worthy. So if you want to learn more about that, head over to abundancemindsetmasterclass.com it is my masterclass. It's just $20. It is an hour long masterclass with a one hour webinar that took place, which was pretty awesome. And I'll definitely be running the Abundance Mindset program, which is something that comes after doing that masterclass as an option later this year too. Because just the transformations I saw from these beautiful souls who are part of the Abundance Mindset program were astonishing. I mean, these, these incredible people had such gifts to share, such wisdom, such knowledge, such service in their hearts, but they weren't sure how to monetize it. And I realized that for me, being able to help people monetize their purpose is some of the greatest work that I could do on this planet because that allows them to do it full time and to not half ass it, to not keep it as that, you know, that thing you do once in a while when you have time, which never ends up really happy happening. But to like fully step into like, yes, I'm here to help people become healthier or to do reiki, or to create essential oil blends or whatever it is. And this can only happen when you're able to monetize it. Because guess what? We live in a society where money buys us food, home, education, resources, the phone or iPhone or whatever. You're listening to this podcast with like, it took money for that. So we can't say money is pointless. Money is useless. Money has no worth. Money actually does have a lot of worth in our society. So we can be money haters and be on the other side of money and be broke and, you know, be protesting against people with money, or we can get on the flip side and have a lot of money and then make the decisions that we want with our money to support businesses that are in alignment, to support MA and PA stores, to support people on Etsy, to support nonprofit organizations, causes, to build schools, to use our money in a way that is in alignment with who we are, because that is how we change the world, by creating businesses that change the world. And I realized that I spent so many years fighting against the businesses, fighting against the capitalism, fighting against the money, when that was actually my own shadow side of my own subconscious fear of stepping into that world because I was afraid if I stepped into that world, would I still be able to find my way out, out of it. And I can tell you that having a lot of money, which I can say I have now, I've never been able to say that in my life before. That money that I earned from my. From my thoughts, my thoughts created this wealth, not made me a worse person, have made me a more generous, aligned, and authentic person that is connected further to my truth. And you have that decision too. You can decide what money's going to do to you because all it is is a magnifying glass of who you you are. If you're a greedy person, guess what? More money is going to make you more greedy. If you're a shady person, it's going to make you more shady. If you're a corrupt person, it's going to make you more corrupt. And if you're a generous person, it's going to make you more generous. And if you're an aligned person, it's going to make you more aligned. And if you're an educated person, it's going to make you more educated. And if you're whatever kind of person, it's going to amplify that. So you decide what kind of person you want to be, you decide your thoughts, and money is just going to bloom, explode that into the universe and allow you to create the ripple effect that you want to create. And all of that shifts when you change your abundance mindset. That could have been a master class right there. I get passionate about this. And that was number 14. And if you loved this episode and you'd like a little gift for reviewing it, I would love to send you the first half of my unreleased book. It's called Eat right for your Mind by Body Type. It is not available for sale anywhere, never will. So as a free gift for reviewing this episode, write a nice review, take a screenshot of it and email it over to me before you hit submit. My email is Sahara S A H A R aattfeelfresh.com and I will send you back the first half of my unreleased book, Eat Right for your mind Body type. I hope you loved this episode and I'll see you on the next one. Now bye. Must Day.