Wani Iris Manly on Fréquence Protestante 100.7 Radio discussing her new book.

about what you have to say to us when you come.

Yes, let me say again to any listeners who would like to listen to our program, I love you all. It's so cool. I know that Jesus loves you no matter who you are, what you are, or where you're coming from. Just be patient. Jesus loves you. So that's my message.

That's beautiful. Thank you so much, Dr. Campola, and safe travels. Bon voyage, and we are looking forward to seeing you soon.

Bye-bye.

Our next guest is Wani Iris Manly, an American-Liberian writer, speaker, attorney, and entrepreneur who is here to talk about her newly released book called Get Out of Survival Mode and Live the Life You Really Want.

Thank you for having me, Monica.

Well, I'm here and I've got your book and it's beautiful.

Thank you.

And you must feel really proud to have given birth to it.

Absolutely, especially sitting here in this seat before you, so I have to say I'm very, very proud of my work.

Well, tell us why— why don't you tell us about your background and what brought you to Paris?

Wow, just quickly, well, actually Paris brought me here. Essentially, I came here because I was experiencing phenomena. I was living in Miami before, and throughout the course of a year beginning January 3rd, 2011, I was getting all of these signs that was pointing me to Paris, the French culture, the Riviera. Initially, I came here to just kind of see what the signs are all about, and I got no message, and I went back to Miami, and it just continued. It was like that literally for an entire year, and sometime in August, my heart just spoke to me, said, move. And I gave it maybe like 2 seconds of a thought and I said, why not? I sold my condo, I sold my car, I gave away almost everything I had through charities in Miami, sold a few things for like $50 on Craigslist— waste of time— and I came. I didn't know a single person in Paris or France. I didn't know how to say one word in French at all. I didn't know, I didn't have a plan A, a plan B, or plan C, but I just trusted in the force that was actually bringing me to Paris because it was never a thought that I said, you know, I want to move to Paris. And so here I am. And once I got here, things were just revealed to me as to what I was supposed to be doing with my work, what's supposed to be in the world. Books started being downloaded to me, and voilà, this is one of the product of those downloads.

Yeah.

Wow, that's amazing. And so what do you think of Paris?

I love it, especially when it's hot like this.

Right, coming from Miami, that would make sense.

Exactly. No, it's such a beautiful, beautiful, inspiring city.— it's just so much eye candy. I think I have really, I have really become the one that I was destined to become in Paris. I've spent so much time with myself through my writings and just it's been through a transformational journey for myself of who I am in the world and the work that I'm actually producing. So I owe a lot of gratitude to this beautiful city and the culture itself.

Right. Well, so tell us what inspired the book because it, you know, Get Out of Survival Mode and Live the Life You Really Want, what a title. I mean, how did that come about?

Well, this is actually the second book that I actually wrote, but I wrote a first book before, it was really about the spiritual path, and it took me a while to write that book. And so I just, you know, I needed to kind of have that one sit for a little bit, and then I just kind of asked for guidance. I was like, "Okay, what book do I need to actually produce now?" And this book was actually put out to me because I think, you know, in every respect, I've traveled, I've lived. I mean, it's actually my story as well too, in terms of living in survival mode. Not based on a set of circumstances, but just based on the beliefs that I had about life. And so many of us are actually in that realm of where we're just surviving day to day. We cannot see past our basic needs, especially with the current climate, with everything that's actually going on. Everyone's living in fear. And so for me, I was in a trajectory. I am an attorney. And so I came from a household where you either became a doctor or you became a lawyer. And my father was former minister of Liberia. And so that's the trajectory that actually went on, but it wasn't the path or the career path that actually lit me up. And so—

That lit you up?

That lit me up in the inside. And I think for me, beginning in 2009, I went through a series of things that happened in my life that put me at a very low point and just kind of had me searching for answers, for questions. And as they say, when the student is ready, the teacher appears. And so I just kind of, I found spirituality and my life just completely transformed into something else than I ever thought I would be doing. That is living in Paris, that is actually writing books, that is actually speaking, that is actually living a life of inspiration I am living now. And I refuse to live any other way. I can't.

Wow.

I refuse to.

That's beautiful. When you talk about survival mode, and we were talking about this earlier, how it just feels like the climate is, we're seeing what's going on in the world today. People are in, or people are operating out of survival mode. And, um, you, you, you have quite a few pages in the book about it. And so why don't you just, can you give us, give, give us an idea of what you mean by that?

The book, you know, there's different main stages, or there's different, uh, the realm of survival mode spans, or it could be psychological, it could be physical, it could be mental. But the primary, the book is written from a perspective of when you're living in lack of limitation based on lack of money, or you're living off of the belief that you have to work hard in order to survive in life. And I think a lot of us have been taught that belief, we were taught that we had to work extra hard for everything. And so for me, my perspective came of, I mean, I can very well accomplish, but it really came with a lot of blood, sweat, and tears equity of constantly working and, you know, and pushing and striving rather than allowing to work from a space of just kind of creativity, or working from a space of imagination, working from a space of relaxation, and allowing things to flow. And so the book is just taking the angle of, you know, it's written, it's 109 short chapters, and it covers everything from lack of self-love to living in fear to people pleasing to, you know, working from the belief of I'm not good enough, I'm not worthy enough, which basically sets us up for lives of living in struggle, of living that of living lives where we think that everything is outside of us rather than what's actually within us, of living life where we have to feel like we have to depend on other people for validation rather than to looking at ourselves and say, we are perfect whole beings just as we are. I don't need to go out there and prove myself to anybody else. I'm good enough. I'm smart enough. I'm beautiful enough. I can do it just as I am right here, right now, exactly as I am.

Mm-hmm. That's beautiful. So the way the book is set up is that there's what, a list of 109 habits or patterns that keep us in survival mode, right?

Yes.

So can you talk about a few of those that you think are maybe the most important or maybe that most of the people you think are in? Because you give the solutions, you talk about the habits and ideas and solutions? Sure.

I think most of it, you know, it looks at our belief structures. And I said the number one, just very first chapter in the book, is lack of self-love. You know, many of us are just taught that— we're never taught to look for love inside of us, inside of ourselves. We're taught to look for love through other people. We're taught to seek our completion through other people. So a lot of us are going through life, going through our life, not really knowing how to —how to self-love, how to love ourselves. We're medicating ourselves. We're numbing ourselves out with drugs and alcohol. We're looking for other people to validate who we are for us to think we're good enough. And if there is no self-love, you can never manufacture a life that a life is of bliss, a life of abundance, a life of creativity, a life of inspiration if you're feeling like crap about yourself. It's just not going to work. I also talk about living in fear. A lot of us are just afraid because we're living in these societal boxes that are telling us how to behave, how to act, how to wear our hair, what sexual orientation are we supposed to be. So we're not really— we don't feel like it's okay to be ourselves because we're prescribing to societal norms and telling us how we're supposed to go about living our lives. So there, of course, is lack of self-love. Of course, there is lack of validation of our own self. We're looking for other people. I also talk about, you know, the habit of, you know, procrastination. You know, I talk about living in fear. Just a lot of us are just— we're perfectionists. You know, we're all waiting to have everything, have the stars lined up, to have the right money in the bank, to look a certain way before we can begin to actually, you know, to put our projects out there, to put ourselves out there, to actually serve in the way that life is actually calling us to serve. So, you know, and a lot of these things, we're just not— we're not aware. You know, unfortunately, a lot of us are asleep. You know, we're just, we're living unconscious lives of being, of reacting rather than actually being mindful of our thoughts, being mindful of what's around us, being mindful of what we're actually listening to, or, you know, what we're actually absorbing ourselves into. And we're just kind of, you know, we've just on a daily basis is reacting and not really being mindful and conscientious of our life. And so our life just kind of seems like we're living life's default of, you know, a series of unwanted bad events happening to us. Saying, "Why me?" And it's like, no, you actually have a part in this creation. You actually have a part if you're operating from a space of love, of deep self-love and acceptance of yourself, your life is just so much easier. And I speak from a lot of experience because I had to learn how to love myself. And my Paris journey has been a lot about that, along with my spiritual practice and my spiritual work. But I've really had to come to love this thing as it is. It's called Wani Iris Manly.

Yeah, I've also heard the idea that you need to start before you think you're ready. Because as you do that, then you're met halfway with those, you know, the synchronicity of events that you could never imagine. But if you don't get out of the house, it's true that you're not going to meet the people that you need to meet and move forward in your project.

Absolutely. You just, you just have to. I always say, you know, when you take bold, big steps with your life, the universe, God, Source, Jesus, however you refer to the Source, it just rewards you with just big rewards. And people that you've never thought would be there, I mean, people just step in and they give you things and they help you. They're there to support you. And you just realize, I mean, your whole life opens up in a way you never ever thought that it could because you put yourself out there and you open yourself to be, to receive the blessings.

Yeah, that's a great message. So how does spirituality tie in with living the life you really want?

Oh my God, I think it's essential. For me, spirituality is really getting to know the self, yourself. And for me, you know, I grew up Christian, you know, but for me there was always, I needed something else. I needed something, I needed to feel it within myself. And for me spirituality and be exposed to Eastern teachings of meditation, of yoga, of reading different texts, you know, along with the Bible, such as the Bhagavad Gita, which is one of my favorite, favorite books, you know, or Patanjali's Yoga Sutras. You know, for me, that's been the way I've been able to connect. What was missing for me was the interconnection of knowing who I really was and really bringing the teachings that I learned in religion, that I learned in church, but really kind of making it home for me. And for me, The spirituality for me has basically opened up myself creatively, has opened up myself expansively. Like, I'm no longer on this, I'm just a lawyer, you know, I'm doing everything else and I'm living from a much more bigger space in life. I've actually been able to step onto a bigger platform that life has been calling me all along to actually step out of and actually serve in a much bigger way. Right.

Well, you're also, aren't you? I saw you on Facebook that you're giving, like, what is it, every Thursday night? For the last few weeks. Can you talk about some of the subjects that you're talking about through— on Thursday night?

Sure. So Facebook has a beautiful feature called Facebook Live. It's basically a live platform on the Facebook platform. There's Periscope as well too, but I like to use Facebook because I have a bigger following on Facebook. And basically every Thursday at 8 o'clock, I have a 30-minute show. It's my book show. I talk about— basically I set an intention and I just ask God, I said, what is, you know, what are people needing right now? You know, last week it was the, you know, a lot of subconscious belief of I'm not deserving. And so I just basically set an intention, whatever comes to me I talk about, you know, I discuss a chapter in the book. I field questions from people, from the audience members, and we just have a dialogue. It's a 30-minute show in terms of me talking, but then afterward people people are invited to ask their questions and, you know, to actually— there's links for my book is on there through Amazon, how they can get in touch with me to actually, to, you know, to see if they want to have coaching, you know, coaching work themselves. I do coaching as well too. So, but it's what I do every Thursday, it's my book show and it's 8 PM Paris time. Okay. And it's on my personal Facebook.

Great. Any favorite mantras or thoughts or phrases that you use or when you do meditation? I assume you do some meditating.

Oh my God, I'm a huge meditator. For me, it's I love you. And I always tell people, because I get a lot of questions of people telling me how to connect, you know, how to create this beautiful life of what you're doing. And I just say to people, you know what, throughout everything you've ever heard about meditation, in terms of how to sit, how to hold your hands, but just literally put your hand on your heart and just say, "I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you." It's like, you know, we're so— we're inherent do-gooders at heart and givers at heart, and we're always looking to give towards other people. We're never looking to give ourselves, and all we really need is love. Your inner child, your inner being, that's all they want to know is, "I love you." I mean, no one's told me they've loved me today, you know? So, I mean, how—

I love you, Wani Iris Manly Manly.

I love you too, Monica! You know, it's like, you know, when you're living by yourself, I love. It's like, you know, those words and we're in our being, that's all he wants to hear is I love you. And it's like everything we're actually doing on the outside, the cars we're buying, the clothes we're wearing, or how we're presenting ourselves on the outside, it's just to— it's, you know, it's a front for what we're really needing inside. That's actually love. So just tell yourself you love yourself. I mean, make— and like one of my teachers always say to me, you know, start a love revolution with yourself. Like literally tell yourself I love you every single day, every moment of the day, to the point where that is the most familiar words your mind hears on a daily basis, rather than, you know, the stuff that you're hearing out there, you know. So put your hand on your heart and I love you.

That's beautiful. Thank you. Well, thank you so much. So you can get the book?

It's available on Amazon. It's available in paperback as well as in digital as well too, so yes.

Great, well, thank you for sharing your message And we're gonna go get the book. Thank you for having me. Thank you. All right, so Camila, you're next.