>>Alex: So hi everyone, welcome to our Authors@Google
series.
Today we have Gabby Bernstein.
She's a, according to the New York Times Sunday
Style section, she's our next generation guru,
a motivational speaker, a life coach and an
author.
Her new book is Spirit Junkie, which you can
get for a Google discount of $10 right over
there and you can take it away Gabby.
>>Gabrielle Bernstein: Thanks Alex.
Hi everybody.
[audience murmurs response] Thank you so much
for coming out.
I got word this afternoon that it is assessment
time at Google, so hopefully I can calm any
nerves that might be happening during assessment
time and help you raise your own personal
assessments today.
[giggles] But thank you for coming out.
Thank you for showing up.
I am out here on my book tour for this new
book, Spirit Junkie, which is my second book.
My first book came out in 2010 and it's called
Add More -ing to Your Life -- A hip guide
to happiness.
Ing, i-n-g, stands for inner guidance, not
the other ING, [chuckles] but it's inner guidance,
not the bank.
And I've been practicing and teaching principles
for transforming your perceptions and creating
positive changes in your life and I've been
teaching this work for the past six years.
And I came to write this second book as a
result of many of my readers, my first book
came out and many of the -ing readers came
to me and said, we love this book, it's so
prescriptive, it's really helping us, I love
taking all this action in my life, but I wanna
know more about how you became the happiest
person you know.
How did you change your perceptions?
How did you overcome your fears?
How did you get over addiction?
How did you get over work addiction, love
addiction, drug addiction, all the different
things that each of us in some corner of our
life deals with in some way?
And so, I, I had to listen to that call of
my readers and I was inspired and guided to
write this new book, Spirit Junkie, and really
put my story on paper and be very authentic
about who I am and what my experiences have
been so that I could not only be a genuine
messenger, but also be a guide for those who
were inspired by my story.
So throughout each chapter in every book there
is my own personal anecdotes of how I've experienced
my fear-based illusions and how I've transformed
them and within every chapter there's also
beautiful guidance, there's tips, which I'm
gonna give you many of them today.
And so it's not, it's not just a memoir, it's
a memoir-style-guide book is what I've written,
so it gives you this opportunity to soak up
someone else's experience, be inspired by
somebody else's story, but in the same moment,
take on your own experience of creating whether
it be a spiritual relationship or you could
call it a relationship with your own internal
guidance system, or activating your inspiration,
or creating more life flow.
A big, a big thing that happens when people
come to my lectures or come to my groups or
read my books, is that a common through line
with most of the people that come to me is
that they're feeling as though at least one
corner of their life is not flowing naturally.
They're feeling like, ok, I think things could
be dialed up a little bit more in my career
area, or I have a great relationship to my
finances, but I'm a complete mess in my romantic
relationships.
Or there's some corner that feels as though
it could be more amplified, it could be more
inspired, it could flow more naturally.
Or maybe it's every corner.
Many people come to me and they say, across
the board things are tough, I'm in fear.
And so all of my work is to help my readers
and my listeners and my audiences learn to
shift their perceptions and create change
in their life.
And so what I'll do today is I'll give you
a little bit of a background about how I became
the happiest person I know, how I became a
spirit junkie and then within that story,
I'm gonna give you some guidelines for you
to start to do the same.
And the purpose of this book and my, my goal
for this book was not to say, ok, here is
my story, here is how I did it, here is how
you have to do it.
But rather just to create a platform for you
to crack open, to have the willingness to
make your own change and to help you create
a relationship, a spiritual relationship or
a, an inspired relationship to your own inner
guidance system of your own understanding.
So this isn't about you just saying, ok, I'm
gonna take her work and do it my way, it's
about you opening up and creating your own
path through the guidance I'll give you.
So throughout my experience of writing this
book, I really tell this story of how throughout
my life, from adolescence to the present,
I have been hearing this knock on the door,
this inspiration, this inner dialogue, this
voice within me that has said, be great, be
wonderful, love yourself, have an incredible
life, you can do this, you can have what you
desire, you can achieve a life beyond your
wildest dreams.
And each of us has that loving voice within
us.
Each of us has that intuition, I call it your
ing, your inner guide, that loving presence
within you that is like, yes, you rock, you
can do this.
But at some point in time, most of us at a
very young age, we pick up this negative belief
system.
We pick up the beliefs of the world, we pick
up the fears of our parents, we pick up the
fears of our, of the news, of the people on
the playground, of our teachers.
At some point in time we pick up this one
negative mad idea, it becomes like a virus
in our mind.
And these different limiting beliefs come
to each of us in different ways.
For some people it might be just something
as simple as maybe your parents didn't pay
attention to you.
So you feel 'I'm not good enough because when
I was six my parents didn't pay attention
to me'.
And this, it could be as simple as this.
Or it could be something much more traumatic
that you know, all of us have different pain
experiences throughout our lives.
But at some point in time, that negative belief
system is imprinted within our emotional being
and we recreate that belief system.
We replay that negative thought pattern.
We take that negative thought pattern and
bring it into our present moment and we project
it on to the future.
And it becomes like this spiral and we become
stuck.
We stay cornered in these negative patterns.
I'm sure most everyone in this room in some
area in your life feels as though you keep
replaying the same crazy crap over and over
and over again.
And just get honest with yourself right now.
You don't have to get honest in front of all
of your coworkers, but get honest with yourself
right now and just be really clear with yourself
of what are the areas where I'm replaying
all that stuff?
Where am I saying to myself, I'm not good
enough?
In what ways am I replaying that belief system
that I picked up as a kid?
It's something as simple as 'I'm not feeling
like I can have that career' or growing up
with the experience of lack in your home and
then believing in lack and never feeling as
though you can make more money.
Or seeing your divorced family and seeing
that you know 'I can't have a powerful, loving
relationship because this is what I grew up
around'.
And so for me this was the case in many different
corners of my life.
I was this adolescent girl having an existential
crisis and I felt as though I was really confused
when most of my contemporaries were worried
about the prom and you know what they're having
for lunch, I cared more about why I was here.
I always had this deep desire to know what
is the purpose?
What is my purpose?
Why am I here at this time?
And there was this, this 16-year old girl
and this, this crazy mindset of what's going
on?
And as many young people, I experienced a
lot of depression.
I felt as though I was just stuck.
I felt as though I was misunderstood.
And so for me, I grew up in the suburbs with
this Yogi mom and a hippie dad and I turned
to my mom for guidance.
I said to my mom, listen, I see you walk into
your meditation shrine every day.
I hear that mantra coming through the door.
I smell the incense pouring out through underneath
the door.
What goes on in that room?
I see you go in crazy and I see you walk out
calm.
What goes on in that room?
I want some of that.
And so I said if I want what she has, I gotta
do what she does.
And so as a 16-year old girl I turned to my
mother and I said, show me what you got.
Give me that meditation practice.
Teach me what you're doing.
And so my mom sat my ass down on a meditation
pillow [laughs] and she taught me how to meditate.
And so at 16 years old I was desperate.
I was willing.
I had this deep desire to change.
I needed a solution.
And so I allowed my mom's words to come through
me, I allowed the mantra to come through me
and I began, at the time, what began my meditation
practice.
And so I felt this amazing connection from
the beginning stages of my practice.
I started to feel that within five minutes
of sitting in stillness and deep breathing
and practicing the mantra that I could actually
feel more calm.
I witnessed my extremities begin to tingle.
I felt like I was connecting to a much greater
energy than the energy that I was just dealing
with on my day to day life.
I felt inspired ideas come forward.
I felt, most importantly, peace.
I felt a sense of peace, a sense of oneness,
a sense of being good enough, a sense of being
understood even though nobody else was around.
And so this was a really neat time for me.
It was this beautiful seed that my mom had
planted that would then become the catalyst
for many changes in the future.
But, like most smart-ass adolescent girls,
I thought that there was a better way.
I said, ok, that's cool, I got that now, but
there's gotta be a way better way than this.
So I did what most kids do, which is, you
know, I rolled the joint and drank a 40.
And I said ok this is, this is the other way.
Right?
It's something out there is gonna make me
happy.
Something beyond me is gonna be my source
of peace.
And so for several years, from 16 to about
the age of 25, I was on a big search for that
outside source of happiness.
I was looking for it in my credentials.
I was looking for it in my relationships.
I was looking for it in a pair of shoes.
I was living in New York City when I graduated
college and at 21 years old I started a public
relations business representing night clubs.
And so I was out there feeling like, ok, now
I have arrived.
I had this credential and it says president
on my business card and I'm 21-years old and
I am hot shit.
Sorry.
Can I curse at Google?
I'm not sure.
[laughing] I guess so, it's comfortable here.
Should've asked that first, right Alex?
So meanwhile I'm sitting here thinking that
I'm this great, this great thing because I've
got these outside credentials, I've got this
fast-paced New York City lifestyle.
I have it made.
This is working for me.
Meanwhile, that search became this addiction.
Looking for more happiness.
Once I would get that client, I needed more.
When I had that relationship, I needed a different
relationship.
And I constantly felt like I was this hamster
in a wheel, searching and searching and searching
for happiness and inspiration outside of myself.
One day at a time I kept looking further and
further and further.
By the time I turned 25, I had a really hardcore
revelation that that was not where I was gonna
find it.
By this point in my outward search I was emotionally,
spiritually and physically bankrupt.
I had, I had no real friends.
No strong inspiration.
I had found myself really addicted to the
New York City party scene and feeling like
that became my home and my lifestyle and that
reflected in some really nasty habits.
I also would see myself just up at night doing
God knows what.
But in the midst of all this there was still
that inspired voice within me.
There was that loving voice, that power voice
within me that said, there's something coming.
There's something greater.
I'd be up at 3 a.m. at after-hours parties
in New York City saying to God knows who,
"I'm gonna be a motivational speaker and a
self-help book author."
[chuckles] And somehow I believed me, I really
believed this.
I intuitively, psychically, knew that there
was this thing coming even though it did not
reflect in any form the life that I was living
at that time.
And so by the time I turned 25 I thought to
myself, ok, this is not working.
Life is not flowing.
And that divine moment when I said to myself,
there has to be a better way.
I had that moment of surrender.
And so this is the first lesson I'm gonna
give you today which is that all you need
to make any change to your life is the deep
surrender and the willingness to change.
And so I had that.
It was October 2, 2005, at 3:00 in the morning.
And I was sitting at home and I was coming
down from God knows what.
I was you know late nights whatever it was
all of the crazy crap that I had been putting
into my body, all of the terrible ways that
I had been living and I was writing in my
journal and I wrote, "God, universe, whoever
is out there, I need a miracle."
There has to be a better way.
This was the moment that I fully surrendered.
This was the moment that I said, "Show me
what you got."
I woke up that morning and I heard a really
loud internal dialog.
A really strong intuition.
It said, "Get your life clean and you will
live beyond your wildest dreams."
This loud voice was very authoritative and
very clear and I had no other choice but to
listen to that guidance.
And so from that day, October 2, 2005, I have
been listening to that voice.
And one day at a time I have been opening
up that willingness to be guided to the teachers,
the lessons, and all of the universal guidance
that we receive once we become willing to
change.
And opening my heart one day at a time to
make these shifts within my own life.
And so it's that beautiful line when the student
is ready, the teacher will appear.
And this is the case for me and I'm sure it
will be for many of you in your life.
When once you make that willingness to change,
the book falls off the shelf.
Or the teacher shows up in a form that you
could have never imagined.
Or you hear something on the radio, or you
meet a cab driver or some enlightened conversation
comes into your realm that all of a sudden
is that shift that you needed to make that
change and create that catalyst that becomes
your greatest accomplishment, your greatest
shift.
And so that's all we need at first, is that
slight willingness.
That willingness that I had, that desire to
change, that moment to shift was all I needed
to become the woman I am today.
To live that life beyond my wildest dreams.
And so when I became ready, I opened up and
I said, "Ok, I'm ready for change."
But what's beautiful and what is the main
purpose of what I teach is that once you make
that decision to change, you do not have to
do it by yourself.
You cannot be expected to make these changes
on your own.
All you need is that slight willingness.
With that willingness you open up and like
I said your teacher will be guided to you
like a magnet way faster than you can imagine.
And that teacher, I know that Thich Nhat Hanh
was here last week, did you, have many of
you, I hope every one of you followed that
man wherever he was on this campus because
that was one of my greatest teachers at that
time.
When I opened up I read Peace is in Every
Step.
I would sit there in a subway station.
I would sit on the grass.
I would sit wherever I was and I would just
read Peace is in Every Step.
That was one of my greatest teachers and so
Thich Nhat Hanh became my teacher in the form
of a book.
Marianne Williamson, a great spiritual teacher,
became a beautiful guide for me.
I would listen to her audio albums like a
top-40 hit.
And Marianne teaches a metaphysical text called
A Course in Miracles.
And it became very clear to me that the way
that she was teaching the course was really
something that would resonate with me deeply.
And that many spiritual teachers come to a
path that is their guided path to teach.
And it became very, very obvious that I was
to be a teacher of these messages.
And so I came to her about a year into my
practice of studying the course through her
interpretation.
And the Course in Miracles is a, is channeled
material, it's metaphysics.
It's not, it's totally non-denominational,
but it is the purpose and the message behind
A Course in Miracles is that we need to shift
our perceptions to create miraculous change
in our life.
So we need to take our fear-based projections
and turn them into a more loving, more positive
perspective, so that we can change our thoughts
and change our energy and therefore change
our life's experience.
And so this is quite simple.
Our, our thoughts affect our energy.
And our energy affects everything outside
of us.
And so what I learned as a student of A Course
in Miracles is that the outside world is a
reflection of my internal state.
And A Course in Miracles teaches that projection
is perception.
So whatever you are projecting on your internal
movie screen, right, I'm not good enough,
I'm not good enough, I can't get that raise,
I can't get that raise, I can't get a girlfriend,
I can't get a girlfriend, like you know I
suck, I suck, I suck, I suck.
Whatever it is.
Whatever you're walking around with, you are
projecting onto your life.
That internal projection makes perception.
Your internal movie screen is what you are
perceiving to be your reality.
And so I, I became extremely conscious of
what my internal movie screen was saying.
I became extremely aware.
That's the second step I'm gonna give you.
I will recap all of this for you, but it's
very, very important to recognize that one
of the most powerful tools we have is to become
the witness to our thoughts.
And so as a student of this messaging, I came
to my teacher, Marianne Williamson, I went
to visit her at a lecture that she was hosting
in New York and I raised my hand in the audience
and I said, "Ok, Marianne, how would you suggest
I carry this message to my generation?"
And she looked at me and she psychically knew,
she said, "Ok, this is a, this is a job for
you, I get this.
This is what you're gonna do."
And she said, the book A Course in Miracles
is written in three sections, and she said,
"Read the text."
And the text is really where you begin to
embark on that reconditioning.
Where you learn all the principles throughout
the messages of how we choose our fear-based
projections.
How we project those fears onto others.
How we're unwilling to forgive.
All of the different ways that fear gets us
in a headlock.
That's what the text guides us to understand.
And then she said, "Do the workbook."
This is 365 days of daily meditations, where
you begin to go through a daily practice of
reconditioning your thoughts.
From fear back to a positive perspective.
And then she said, "Read the teacher's manual.
And then ask the universe God, whatever you
talk to, ask God how you, how he plans for
you to carry this message to your generation."
And so I did just that.
I became a student of A Course in Miracles
and I've been asking ever since, how can I
carry these messages?
And most importantly the main message I got
was just be the student, be the student, be
the student.
As a teacher, my primary purpose is to be
a student every day.
And what I've learned in the past six years
as a teacher of spirituality, as a teacher
of A Course in Miracles, is that the world
is my classroom and people are my assignments.
So every single moment offers me this divine
opportunity to go deeper into fear or to strengthen
my faith in love and positivity and a higher
level way of being.
And so I'm gonna give you some of the tools
that I've been practicing as a spirit junkie
in the past six years.
I can give you a greater understanding of
how you can take these tools into your personal
experiences immediately.
The neat thing that happens when you have
that awakening and that moment of 'yes, I'm
ready for change' and that teacher shows up
and you've been given these tools is that
you can create quantum shifts in your life
immediately.
The moment that you choose to shift your perception
a miracle occurs.
And the miracle is that you feel better.
The miracle is that you raise your energetic
thought and therefore raise your energy and
then the world around you starts to vibrate
at a different frequency.
So think about it for a second, those of you
who have coworkers who walk in, this place
is pretty happy, people.
I'm not really too concerned about what's
going on here.
You guys are well taken care of, you're well
fed.
It's sunny outside.
But you have those days when you come into
the office and you come in with a really bad
attitude, right?
Let's just say you got in late or something's
happening at home and you come in and you've
got a bad attitude.
When you come in with that bad attitude, I'm
assuming that you lower the energy of those
around you.
People start to get a little bit negative
back to you.
Maybe those e-mails are not coming in as quickly
as you want.
Maybe you're not figuring out the things that
you need.
You're not given the energetic support that
you need to show up for this big job which
you all have at your highest capacity.
So your low-level thoughts are affecting your
low-level energy and therefore affecting your
experience in the job, or your experience
on a date, or your experience in the gym.
Whatever it is, however you are functioning
with low-level thoughts, you are affecting
low-level energy and therefore affecting your
life's experience.
So all of the things that I'm gonna begin
to teach you are about how you can raise your
thoughts, have more faith in a higher-level
way of thinking and therefore have, more important,
a higher-level way of being, a more enlightened
experience, a more inspired experience.
Another part of what this work does is that
when we start to shift our perceptions, when
we start to see things with a better perspective,
when we start to see our experiences as obstacles
turning into opportunities, or a resentment
as a divine assignment to forgive more or
a moment of lack as an opportunity to focus
on what we're grateful for rather than focus
on what we don't have.
When we start to make these shifts within
our life, what begins to happen is that we
begin to have more faith in that way of being.
And so the neat thing that occurs, and this
has been my experience the past six years
of practicing the life of a spirit junkie,
is that now my choices, my moment to moment
choices, are choosing more of a positive perspective.
When there's traffic my first thought is,
ok, I welcome the traffic to go, I start to
think about the way, or if I'm supposed to
be late, maybe I'm meant to be there late.
Maybe there's something greater coming.
Or if something doesn't happen the exact way
that I believe it should happen, I know and
my first thought is, there's something way
greater coming.
So this is just the types of miracles that
occur and the ways that your mind begins to
shift when you start to practice these principles
in your every corner of your life.
And so one of the really neat things that
happened for me is that I started to find
really divine guidance throughout my life's
experience.
And I'll give you one example of how that
guidance starts to come in.
When you invite spirit and inspiration into
your life and you start to crack open and
start to perceive your ways in a little bit
of a more positive perspective, you start
to see a lot of synchronicity show up.
And so what happens is is that synchronicity
is always available to us at all times.
But our fear-based thoughts block that synchronicity.
We cut off communication with our internal
GPS.
That loving voice is always there, it's always
working, it's always saying, go to that room,
forgive your boss, they didn't mean to be
that way, or choose to see this differently,
or yes, you can have that job.
Your loving voice is always ready to bring
you that loving perspective.
But the negative voice within us, that chatter
of all of that fear-based beliefs, cuts that
communication off.
It just cuts it off at the knees.
And that communication, when it's cut off,
[claps hands lightly] blocks the synchronistic
flow that we are all allowed and ready to
receive at all times.
So that synchronicity of wanting that new
job and that perfect employer being sitting
next to you on the bus, if you're in a low-level
thought, your energy is lowered, you won't
be smiling and that employer can't talk to
you.
So you're cutting off the communication.
You're cutting off the guidance.
So once I opened up to that guidance, I started
to see the synchronicity show up in every
form.
And often that that synchronicity, particularly
early on, will come in the form of your teachers
and your guides.
And so for me I started to witness how I opened
up to make these changes in my life and I
was really ready to at this point in my life
I had been sober for awhile, I put down all
of the substances.
I had started to recover from my work addiction.
And I was recovering from my issues with food
stuff.
But I was still hung up in my romantic relationships.
It was a really trippy corner of my life.
And so I, I turned to my inner guidance system
and I started to surrender again, much like
I did on October 2.
I said I am willing to see things differently,
I am ready to change.
I need another miracle.
And so I started to pray for this miracle
and affirmed my desire to change.
And so I started to get this guidance from
the universe.
And one of my neighbors suggested that I meet
this woman named Rha Goddess.
He said there's this really groovy woman,
she's out there, she's doing great work with
women, much like what you're doing, you should
totally meet her.
So I said, ok that sounds cool.
A week later my friend and I are having lunch
and she says, "You need to meet my friend
Rha Goddess."
I said, "Oh, this is the second time I've
heard this, I guess I should meet this lady."
I e-mailed this Rha Goddess, I'm like, 'hey
Rha Goddess, I guess we're supposed to meet
and I, I put it out there and she's like,
listen, I'd love to meet.
I'm out of the country for most of March,
maybe we can meet when I get back'.
I said to her, well, I'm actually leaving
the country in March, too, I'm going to visit
this medium in Brazil for a spiritual quest.
She said, "Oh, I'm gonna be visiting this
same medium in Brazil the same week that you're
there."
I said, "Ok, maybe I'll see you in Brazil,
ok."
So I go off to Brazil, I don't meet Rha.
A week, that, that, on my flight back from
Brazil I'm sitting next to a woman who had
been there as well and she says to me, "Oh,
you live in New York.
It sounds like you're doing neat work.
You should totally meet this woman.
Take this card."
Rha Goddess.
A week later I'm in New Orleans for Eve Ensler's
V-Day.
And I'm looking at the lineup of different
speakers and I see 12 noon Rosario Dawson,
and we've got Jane Fonda and then at 2:00
p.m., Rha Goddess.
So it became very clear to me that this woman
was going to be some kind of powerful influence
in my life in some form.
And so I took the universal memo and I finally
found my friend and I said 'ok Rha, let's
meet, let's take some time just to get together.
Clearly we are being pushed into each other's
lives, the synchronicity is way too wild.
Show me what you got.
Let's hang out.'
So we meet up and as I mentioned I was going
through a lot of my own personal traumas at
this time.
I was, I was coaching, I was teaching, but
I was teaching young women how to release
fear in their romantic relationships, but
meanwhile I felt like a fraud because I was
feeling completely fearful in that way.
And my willingness to change guided me.
So I go and I meet with Rha and I say, listen
you know I would love to talk about business
to business, what are you doing?
And she begins to tell me instead of talking
about business, she starts telling me about
how she called in her romantic partner and
her husband and she started to beam about
how she got over all of her fear-based illusions
and came to a place where she was a much more
loving perspective and had this amazing relationship
with her husband and was so proud of the work
she had done around her romance.
And so I said to her, "Awesome, I want that,
that's what I want."
And I knew that she had coached people, so
I said, "Do you still coach people?"
And she said I only coach a handful of people
a year and they're people that I want to take
to the next level.
I coach people just like you.
And I said, "Tell me where to sign the check.
Where do I sign up?"
And she then became my guide, became my teacher.
That slight willingness opened that door for
me to be led to the woman who would be the
change maker, who would be the container for
me to do all the transformational work that
I needed to do to kick this one fear that
had been holding me back, had me in a headlock
for 28 years, and through the work I did with
Rha, I was able to release those chains and
now today live in a very free-flowing, incredible
way.
But this is just a beautiful example of how
when you do become willing, when you invite
that spiritual intervention, when you invite
that guidance around you, when you open up
the dialog for that communication, then you
can allow that synchronicity to pour into
your life and guide you to the right people,
guide you to the right book, guide you to
the right lecture, guide you to the right
bookstore, wherever you need to be to be led
to your greatest teacher who will be the catalyst
for your change.
And so my hope for you today, my goal for
you today, was to open up your mind to start
to see the corners of your life where things
aren't flowing naturally.
To take a little magnifying glass and say,
"Things could be more clear here.
I could be happier in this area of my life.
I could have more flow over here.
I'd like to see things differently here."
And start to open up and become willing to
make that change.
And so much like myself I want to be very
clear this, this shift does not require a
lot of work out there.
It requires a commitment in here.
It requires a daily intention.
The world around us gives us plenty of opportunities
to think and feel crazy fear.
Right?
All we have to do is just turn on the news.
All we have to do is sometimes show up to
the office and then that fear just comes down
upon us.
Not here at Google, but in other offices.
It's not so fearful here, it's pretty groovy.
People are riding bikes and you know, doing
whatever.
But, but in general we have a lot of chaos
that we need to, we wake up in the morning
and it's like we got to put on our armor because
walking out the door is gonna give us another
opportunity to have fear in front of us.
And so we have a lot of work to do to overcome
these fear-based projections.
And so the first step for each of you is just
to become willing to see things differently.
And so much like myself, I hope for all of
you to become conscious and aware of the ways
in which your limiting beliefs, your fear-based
projections, your negative thoughts are holding
you back.
How are they keeping you small?
How are they keeping you stuck?
How are they lowering your energy?
How is your negative energy affecting your
life's experience?
Right?
How are you when you show up on that date
and you're like, "I hate going on dates.
I suck at dates."
Right?
Is that really attractive?
Not really, right?
[giggles] I don't think that's very attractive.
Or, you know, you show up and you're trying
to get your review and you're going in for
your review and you're like, oh my God, oh
my God, I suck, I suck.
You're not supporting your employer wanting
to raise you up, right?
You need to raise yourself up if you want
the world to reflect that back to you.
Remembering that the outside world is a reflection
of our internal state and if we want to have
the world support us, we have to support ourselves.
And so we have to support ourselves with our
thoughts first and foremost.
So I hope for each of you to take a little
brief moment of this story of my experience
of how I chose that other way, I lived in
that way of fear and projection and then I
chose to see things differently.
Now one of the greatest tools I've been using
throughout my practice is the practice of
meditation and prayer.
Now prayer can be for you something as simple
as setting an intention.
It could be your little alarm clock on your
Android that comes up in the morning and says,
I choose to have a good day today.
I choose to see things in a positive perspective.
Whatever it may be, just setting a positive
intention daily is a massive part of this
practice.
Meditation.
How many of you practiced meditation with
Thich Nhat Hanh?
Did you guys get a chance to do that?
I'm so happy, I'm so jealous.
So hopefully you learned something from him.
Maybe you can take something from him.
But throughout my book every chapter has a
guided meditation.
I created a meditation album to accompany
this book.
So having a guided meditation practice often
when you're, if you're a meditation newbie
and you've never meditated before, find a
guide, whether it be me, go on to iTunes and
just Google guided meditation.
I'll come up, other teachers will come up,
Thich Nhat Hanh will come up, Jack Kornfield
will come up, Sharon Salzburg, all these beautiful
teachers.
Let these teachers just lead you.
Allow that guidance to open up your right
brain, which is your creative capacity.
The part of each of you that's gonna have
the inspired ideas that will keep the interweb
moving, right?
We need you people to be inspired.
And to have that loving voice just present
in your life.
And that when we sit in stillness for five
minutes a day, I'm gonna prescribe to each
of you five minutes a day for the next thirty
days.
Just give yourself five minutes of stillness.
You live in a beautiful environment.
You can probably go to your backyard, sit
outside somewhere, sit on campus somewhere
here for five minutes, sit in the sun, listen
to your favorite song, listen to a guided
meditation, listen to Thich Nhat Hanh, listen
to the voice of a teacher that guides you
and just allow yourself to tune in to your
power energy.
Activate that loving presence within you.
And all it needs, all that this requires,
is five minutes of stillness.
And so give yourself that.
Give yourself that moment of 'I choose to
see things differently'.
Maybe you do set your alarm in the morning
that says I choose to see things differently.
And just allow yourself to awake into another
perspective.
And then also just most importantly, start
to focus on the good stuff as many people
like to say in this business.
Focus on what is enlightening to you.
Focus on what you do have.
Focus on all of the resources in front of
you.
Whenever you get into a mindset of lack, say
I have the most awesome job on the planet,
which you all have a great job, right?
I have beautiful employees, I have great lunch,
whatever it is.
Just focus on the amazing things.
And what happens when gratitude is our attitude
is that we raise the energy again and that
energy raises our life's experience.
So start to pay attention and focus on the
good stuff.
And be conscious in every moment of your day
when those limiting beliefs come in, when
those negative thoughts show up and be very
aware to not judge your fear-based thoughts
with more fear.
Be very gentle with yourself when you begin
this process of paying attention to your thoughts,
because at first you might be like, oh, my
God, I only think fear all the time.
This is a mess.
I can't get over this.
I'll never ever get over this, right?
But rather than doing that, just start to
pay attention of, just witness, as Eckhart
Tolle says, he says, "Be the witness to the
thinker."
So just witness the thoughts very gently.
Be kind and forgiving to yourself.
I like to say practice the f-word, the forgiveness.
And really allow yourself to be really present
with that forgiveness practice of really being
kind to yourself, being gentle with your thoughts,
saying, well, of course I had that negative
thought.
I've been thinking that thought for 30 years,
but you know today I'm gonna choose to see
things differently.
And be very very kind when you embark on this
process.
And then a major tool that I want to leave
you with is that you can begin to practice
the f-word in all of your affairs and start
practicing forgiveness as often as you can.
When we carry a resentment towards someone
it's like drinking poison.
We are the one who carries around that negative
belief system.
We are the one who just keeps harboring that
negativity.
And we take that negative fear-based experience
and we bring it into the present moment and
we project it onto all the, all the other
relationships that we have.
That employer who fired us at some point we
bring that into the new job.
We create the opportunity to be fired again.
That relationship that was negative, we bring
that into the new romantic relationship and
we create more chaos in every corner there.
So be conscious of how your resentments are
holding you back and become clear and ready
and willing to let them go.
And so the practice of forgiveness can be
very scary for people and so there's three
simple steps I'll leave you with.
And one of them is to become willing to forgive,
witnessing who you need to forgive and be
willing to forgive.
The second step is to become conscious of
your side of the street.
How have you been participating in your negative
resentment?
Maybe you're participation is that you've
been unwilling to forgive.
Maybe your participation is that you had some
negative stuff that you did, too.
But be very conscious to clean up your side
of the street.
Forgive yourself for whatever you did, but
be aware of your part.
And then the third step is to surrender and
be willing to forgive daily.
All you have to do in this third part is just
to say to yourself every morning, every night,
'I choose to release you, I choose to forgive
you'.
Whether it be yourself, whether it be another
person, whether it be an institution, whoever
you or whatever you are willing to let go
of.
Say 'I choose to forgive you, I choose to
release you'.
And practice that mantra.
Whenever that fear-based projection comes
up, just set that intention one more time.
'I choose to forgive you, I choose to release
you'.
And that moment when you make that decision,
the moment that you affirm your desire to
forgive, you awaken that inner guidance system.
You reconnect with that voice and you can
be guided once again to the teachers, the
assignments and all the things that you need
to allow that forgiveness process to occur.
And you don't have to figure it out anymore,
you just have to be willing and surrender
it and allow the universe to show you what
she's got, ok?
So that's, that, these are just some different
tips throughout the book that I've given you
now, just to give you a broad overview of
the different ways that I have been practicing
the life of a spirit junkie in changing my
own perceptions.
And so today I do live a life beyond my wildest
dreams.
Today my job is to come and hang out at Google
on an afternoon on Friday and be with people
like yourself and carry these messages.
Today I live an inspired life.
Today I feel intuitive guidance all the time.
All of my hang ups have melted away.
All of the things that I feel I need I know
they're coming or greater.
And I allow this work to just grow and expand
naturally because I live inspired.
And so I hope for each of you to find a way
throughout your life's experience to awaken
your -ing, your inner guidance system, and
start to practice the spirit junkie way.
And start to welcome your own perceptual shifts
one moment at a time.
So before we take some questions, I'm just
gonna wrap up with, I like to, at the end
of all my book lectures, just read the last
page and a half of the book, to just give
you sort of an insight as what happens once
you start to live as spirit junkie.
So here we go.
[pause] "Constant contact with spirit got
me here.
When it came time to conclude this book, I
found myself putting it off.
I wanted to savor the last chapter, take my
time, and allow the words to pour through
me.
And I did just that.
I waited.
I revisited all the chapters leading up to
this point.
Reflecting on the pages of this book I was
astounded to find that I didn't even realize
what I had created.
There were stories and sentences that seemed
as though they'd come from a higher source.
I kept thinking, 'I don't remember writing
this.'
This experience was a sure sign that I had
done good.
I'd truly allowed spirit to enter into the
process and guide me.
Clearly I hadn't over thought the contents
of the book, but rather allowed the work to
flow creatively from my inside out.
This book is an extension of my spirit and
all the inner guidance that I choose to work
with.
By listening to this guidance I've enjoyed
every second of the writing process.
I've healed more, learned more and loved more.
I've deepened my relationship with spirit
throughout the collaborative effort to create
this book for you.
Throughout my process of creating this work,
I felt a presence by my side.
Often a rush of energy would pour through
my hands.
Inspired ideas would come to me in the middle
of the night.
Human guidance was always present and new
assignments led to authentic content.
Each moment of the process has been guided
and I hope you felt the presence of a power
greater than me pour off each page.
Each word, thought and sentence is infused
with spirit's love.
Together let's say thank you.
We thank the infinite loving universe and
the beautiful spirit that flows through each
of us.
We thank spirit for your guidance, your inspiration,
your lessons and your support.
We thank you for reminding us to have faith
in love.
With endless love and gratitude, I send you
off with the spiritual connection of your
own understanding.
A connection that will be yours to grow and
share with the world, an everlasting companion
on your miraculous journey in word.
May you release your fear, have faith in spirit,
expect miracles and always listen to your
inner guide."
So I will leave you with that.
I will take any questions if anyone has them
related to anything.
I wonder, any questions?
Looking at you.
Do you have a question?
[laughter]
>>Gabrielle Bernstein: Somebody's gotta have
some kind of question.
I know you're in your office.
Yes?
>>male #1: [inaudible]
>>Gabrielle Bernstein: What was that?
>>male #1: How much we have achieved [inaudible]
>>Gabrielle Bernstein: Through meditation,
yes.
>>male #1: [inaudible]
>>Gabrielle Bernstein: I love this question.
Thank you for this question.
So, yes, there is a dramatic shift that occurs
when you have a meditation practice.
I one day at a time began to expand that practice.
And it's much like going to the gym.
So it's like when you first start working
out, you feel, you're sore and it's uncomfortable
and you kind of hate going, but the more you
go the more it becomes second nature, the
more you enjoy the practice, the more it becomes
part of who you are.
And so that was my experience with meditation.
And so one day at a time, I grew this practice
which was 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 20 minutes.
Eventually I would get to a place where I
could sit for an hour and just be in stillness
and what would happen for me was that I would
lose track of time.
Time became irrelevant and I would open up
that right brain and I could create images
in my mind.
I could start to have inspired ideas come
forward, sort of psychic projections in many
cases, knowing, seeing things like if I was
working on a project I would hear a strong
intuition that would say, role model, or say
word or something would come through in my
writing.
And these conscious moments of divine inspiration
became my greatest, my next right action in
my career or became a relationship I needed
to be guided into.
So what happened was I opened up this creative
capacity to experience that guidance and most
importantly, I began to experience tremendous
flow within my life.
I started to feel at ease.
So today because of my practice I wake up
with a tremendous amount of ease.
I wake up and I feel good.
And in those moments when I feel out of center
and off kilter, I know how to tune back in.
So for five minutes I can just go sit in stillness
and breathe, set some positive intentions
and be back in that centered state.
So it's really what happens when you have
a meditation practice is that you learn how
to recalibrate your energy in any moment and
knowing that this is your greatest tool, your
body, your being, your energy, your spirit
is your greatest asset and through meditation
you can begin to learn how to tune, that dial
that up, like tune into the frequency of a
loving presence on a moment to moment basis.
So the best gift that any of you could give
yourselves in this world is the practice of
meditation.
May you find it, I hope you do.
Anybody else?
I knew, I had a feeling that you guys might
be a little quiet and introspective, but that's
ok.
So, so listen, if there are any more questions,
I would love to take them.
Yes, Christine.
>>Christine: [inaudible] So I actually know
Gabby, we're friends, but I have to ask this
question because I know that you were like
the book launch and you were traveling around
and you have a lot of stress in your life
right now and I'm [inaudible] would be a lot
of stress trying to juggle lots of things,
so I'm just curious like what you're doing
right now to keep your energy level up and
you know be able to do all the things that
you're doing, [inaudible] all the things that
your doing besides just meditation that any
one of us could, you know, bring into our
lives.
>>Gabrielle Bernstein: Great question.
Yeah.
So what am I doing to manage my stress levels
right now?
You know in general in any area of your life
but especially being on a book tour and traveling
a lot or whatever.
And for each of you having high-powered jobs,
all the things you have to deal with, manage.
For me there's, there's several different
way that I stay in tune, like I mentioned,
where I stay calibrated into a loving frequency.
The first way obviously is through my meditation
practice.
The second way is through that conscious contact
with my inner guidance system.
So it's consciously speaking, maybe it's an
internal dialog, maybe sometimes it's saying
it out loud, maybe sometimes setting an intention
by writing it in, in a notebook.
But consciously setting the moment to moment
intention to stay centered.
To be in the moment.
To be ok with whatever is right in front of
me.
If I start thinking about all of the cities
that I have to visit in the next ten days
or in the next three weeks, I will go nuts.
But focusing on what it is, what's my next
right action today?
What is right in front of me?
I'm really focusing into the present moment.
And being in that present moment allows me
to just be cool.
I'm here at Google.
I mean this is awesome.
I can't be here with you guys worrying about
where I'm gonna be next weekend.
Then I cannot be present with you.
Then that stress level does get raised.
Then I am not my authentic truth, I am not
my highest service and I'm not being me.
So focusing on the moment to moment situations.
And then most importantly practicing forgiveness
in all of the areas of my life.
Because if I start getting resentful at others
then I lower my energy, I get sick, I cannot
support what I need to do.
So when I get pissed off because the airplane
isn't on time or I get mad because I'm not
getting the feedback that I need to from my
publicist or whatever it is, I practice the
f-word.
So I will say you know that gentle moment
of I choose to forgive you, I choose to release
you and let go of whatever it is that I need
to just let go of because I cannot focus on
that negative stuff if I want to live and
be this beautiful container to do this work.
And each of you have massive, massive jobs
and you must keep your channel, your instrument
clear so that you can hold that work, feel
good, be balanced and have a vibrant life
at the same time.
So those are some of the tools I use.
>>Christine: And stop, drop and meditate.
>>Gabrielle Bernstein: Yes, yes, yes, that's
a good one.
So, so I have this moment where I stop, drop
and meditate.
If I have these moments where I'm feeling
like I'm all over the place and my message
to myself is stop, drop and meditate.
And it's you know just go wherever you are,
sometimes I'll go into a bathroom and I'll
just shut the stall and I'll say, "I choose
to release this" and I'll breathe for five
minutes or five breaths, five deep breaths.
A powerful meditation is just breathing into
your feelings.
Just identifying wherever you might be holding
on to any discomfort.
Join me in that right now.
Everybody shut your eyes for a minute.
Shut your eyes.
You wanted to meditate, let's meditate, ready?
Ok, so shut your eyes and sit up straight.
Uncross your legs.
Put your palms facing upward.
And just take a deep breath in your nose and
breathe out your mouth.
And just identify any area in your body where
you might be holding on to any discomfort
or anxiety and gently breathe into that space.
Allow yourself to be present with whatever
is coming up for you.
And on the exhale, release.
Continue this cycle of breath, of breathing
deeply in to that space in your body where
you might be holding on to any discomfort,
expand your feelings.
Allow yourself to be present with that emotion
and on the exhale have a beautiful sigh of
relief.
Just let it go.
Take a deeper breath in, just expanding, feeling
and allowing yourself to be present in that
experience.
And on the exhale, release it even deeper.
Take another deep, deep, deep breath in, just
honor, allow, accept whatever you are experiencing
in this moment and take one last deep breath
and then release and when you're ready, open
your eyes to the room.
You feel a little bit better anybody?
A little lighter?
Yeah, I'm getting yeses, yes.
That was 60 seconds.
Right?
Sixty seconds.
I just tuned a lot of you up, right?
You guided yourself.
And so that power of just feeling your feelings,
just being present with whatever is coming
through you.
Just allowing yourself to open up that way
of being, to open up your heart and just be
present with whatever you're feeling.
A really, a really important message of being
a spirit junkie is that, is not that we have
to be happy all the time.
Part of being really happy is being ok with
our unhappiness, being ok with our difficult
feelings, being accepting and comfortable
being uncomfortable sometimes.
And that's part of being a happy person is
just allowing your emotions to be this beautiful
rainbow of emotions, allow them to come in,
allow them to shift and constantly work to
recalibrate back to that place of happiness.
And this is a practice that takes time and
it takes commitment.
And so I hope for you all, I hope for you
all to just really awaken.
Yes, one more question, good.
>>male #2: I realize [inaudible] ask a writer
this question,
>>Gabrielle Bernstein: Cool.
>>male #2: but in your, you know, journey
here as far as what part do you find actually
write pen to paper plays and is it mandatory
you know for meditation and [inaudible]
>>Gabrielle Bernstein: Yep.
>>male #2: being present but will we find
it's required work to put pen to paper?
>>Gabrielle Bernstein: Yeah, yeah, so great
question.
So is it required to put pen to paper as having
a spiritual practice?
Yes.
So in my first book, Add More -ing to Your
Life, I had three steps in thirty days for
every chapter.
So the ing equation is rethinking, moving
and receiving times 30 days equals changing.
Ok?
So the rethinking was the positive thoughts
and the moving was physical activity, so combining
those two, followed by meditation.
Every meditation I followed with what I called
an -ing write, an inspired writing exercise,
it's just free writing.
Just stream of conscious writing.
One of the most powerful tools you can do
when you begin to awaken this presence of
your inner guidance system is to just stream
of conscious writing exercises.
Just get a notebook.
A clean beautiful notebook, and allow your
pen to flow.
Allow that inspired voice to come forward.
Sometimes you hear it, but the best way to
connect often can be to just write it out.
So yes, if you do start your meditation practice,
I would strongly suggest that you have a notebook
by your side and when you come out of that
meditation, just give yourself five to ten
minutes of stream of conscious writing exercises
and so much will come forward.
Thoughts that you may not have ever let come
through.
Don't just jump out of your meditation and
pick up your Android, ok?
Come out of your meditation and write for
ten minutes and just let it marinate and let
that inspired movement come through you naturally
and put it on the page and know that that
is beautiful direction.
So that's a great, great point.
Thank you for bringing that up.
Yeah?
Cool, yes.
>>male #3: Earlier you mentioned about using
meditation to recondition your thought.
Can you give an example for that?
How to do it?
>>Gabrielle Bernstein: Sure, sure.
So how do we use meditation to recondition
our thoughts?
So what happens when we meditate is that we,
we tune in to that creative part of our brain,
we tune in to that and a more relaxed state
occurs, right?
So interestingly enough what happens is is
that we start to raise that feeling vibration,
but even if that negative thought continues
to come in, the best thing to do when you
sit with that thought is to not try to push
it away.
Just allow it to be present in your meditation.
Allow it to come in.
Allow it to leave.
Allow it to come back.
Allow it to leave.
We start to get into this place of like trying
to push the negative thought away and change
the thought proactively, we create more negativity
around it.
It's kind of like, you know, fighting with
a barking dog.
It's like you gotta just let the dog freak
out, right?
So the, the, the process of sitting in stillness,
that chatter of voice in your mind will show
up.
It will be so loud, it will be so present,
it will be, it will want to come in.
You'll feel a little good then it'll come
really, really loud.
And so the main thing I suggest for you is
just to let it be with you.
Just let that voice be part of the experience.
The same way you might be listening to the
sounds in the room, you can listen to the
sound of that negative voice and just allowing
it to be with you the same way you allow that
uncomfortable feeling to be with you allows
it to come in and allows it to go.
But when you try to push against it, it's
like pushing against the stream.
You can't, you'll get bulldozed over, ok?
So just allow it to be with you.
And what you'll start to recognize is when
you start to deepen that connection and that
communication to your loving voice, you will
have less faith in that fearful voice.
And that is how the transformation occurs.
So you'll have less faith in that voice.
Now in my guided meditation albums, I also
guide you to new perceptions.
So I'll say, ok, imagine yourself in a loving
place.
I'll take you on a journey through your mind
so that you have that guidance.
And that's a lovely way too, because sometimes
your inner guide is not strong enough yet
to lead the way, so you can have a loving
guide lead you down a beautiful path and help
you create this inspired vision that will
help you transform those thoughts.
Yes.
Any other questions?
[pause] Ok.
So I'm gonna hang out at Google.
I'm gonna stick around.
If anyone has questions for me, feel free
to come up and we can chat.
And if anybody buys a book, I'm happy to sign
it for you.
Alex, anything else?
Do you wanna ask anything?
You good?
>>Alex: Ok.
>>Gabrielle Bernstein: It was a real pleasure
to be with you guys, thank you so very much.
Thanks for showing up for yourselves today.
Thanks for showing up for your spirit junkie
mentality and I hope you all take even, if
you take one thing I mentioned today.
If you take one exercise, one message, I can
guarantee miraculous shifts.
If you apply one shift, one thought, expect
miracles.
Thank you very much.
[applause]
