M from grandmothers who whispered in their baby girl ill two fathers on dimly lit street corners, instructing young soldiers to always keep their eyes open. You be queen, you were fired. You will pass through centuries on the hands of your daughters. They called you wisdom. Proverbs on the backs of diamond eyed school children who grew into hymnals recited by amethyst holding urban philosophers who recited neighborhood commandments out of the windows of restored ALCHEMYO chariots to keep the warmth of their blood, be wise, be smart, being black, opal brown courts, bloodstone and prayer. Be every form of jim see king told, scribe, scribe, told son, son, told wife, wife told her daughter, and daughter told the ass is, and the Ansasis told me that you would come to give wisdom of thousands. They said you would come. Drop. Welcome to the Dropping Gym's podcast. I'm your host, Stevie Brown. This is a safe place to land. And what I mean when I say a safe place to land is this is a space where we don't sit in judgment of ourselves or others. It's a space where we are free to be in our process. Whatever that looks like for each of us, and we connect to what fits and leave what doesn't, and so on this show, my goal, my deepest desire and intention is always just to share and unpack conversation in a way that is serving to the mind, body, soul connection and in a way that really allows us to go deep in the unique ways that we specifically are called to, which is very often more of a private manner, you know, more of a manner of us being in practice and being in process with ourselves day in and day out in a way that only we can observe. So I like to open up a container to share space for that on this show and to bring some amazing conversations with people I connect to and I admire along with me. So this show will definitely not be an exception to that. I am so excited to connect with today's guest Um just a remarkable human spirit. Uh. And I'll get to that piece in just a second. But to start to set the container, I always like to take a moment, take a deep breath, connect to my heart, and then I shuffle my Caramel Bliss affirmation deck that has fifty four different affirmations that I've written. I shuffled the deck, I see what card wants to pop out on its own, and very often that card endto being significant to what this episode will be about. So, as we get ready to take in this show, see where it lands for us. I want to invite everyone, if it is safe for you to do so, and if there's ease to it, I want to invite you as we start the show to just take a moment with me to get really comfortable wherever you happen to be seated, and settle in a little bit more deeply into your seat. Start breathing in through your nose, nice long, deep inhale that's nourishing to you. And exhaling deeply, slowly through your nose. Let's do that chest a couple of times. And as you really connect and align with that breath, allow your eyes to gently close and right now, just connect to your heart, connect to that breath in and out, and I'm gonna read the affirmation that came out of the deck today. So that affirmation is my mind is clear, and I am able to make good choices that serve my highest good with ease. My mind is clear, and I am able to make choices that serve my highest good with ease. Breathing here, exhil, My mind is clear, and I am able to make good choices that serve my highest good with ease. All right, now, let's gently release that and you can come back into your body. Allow your eyes to open as you feel called. Connect to a breath that feels natural, nourishing, easy, welcome. All right, Today's show. I'm excited. Today's show is with um a force, someone that I am so happy to be in community with and so happy to know. Today's show is with the dynamic, brilliant, soulful one of one. No one in this world exists like him, one of one, powerful spiritual teacher, broadcaster, author, you Smil Gala is myel Gala is a life and business strategist. For five and a half years, Ismael Gala was the host of The Gala during prime time on CNN and Espanola. The New York Times described him as the Latin Larry King, a businessman and social entrepreneur. Author of eight best sellers on themes of leadership, entrepreneurship, and personal development, including El Pod, The Power of Listening and Despiera Gala Wake Up with Gala. Gala was born in Santiago de Cuba in nineteen sixty nine and holds a degree in art history from Oriente University. He is the co author of the book Beat the Curve with Brian Tracy. He graduated from the School of Communication at York University in Toronto and as a diploma from Seneca College and Television Production. He is the president and founder of the Gala Enterprises Corporation and the Ismael Gala Foundation. He is currently considered one of the most important communicators on the con to it and his message of social entrepreneurship, mindfulness and well being has impacted millions of people who follow his work in books, seminars, workshops and conferences. Gala has toured more than thirty five countries. Ah, welcome to the show. This exceptional being is my il Gala. Hello, Hello, Debby, Thanks so much for that kind and beautiful introduction. Uh you have made my day. Thank you so much. I am so, so so happy. I'm so happy to have you here. I feel ecstatic inside my body. So I always love to share a little bit of the personal connection with the audience. So it's my l and I had our love affair began in Mexico, and um, we were both. We were both teaching and leading at the Chopra seven Spiritual Laws of Success retreat that happened in Rivera, Mayan, Mexico, over the summer. And from the moment I saw him, I felt so connected, Like I looked in your eyes and I was like, how many lifetimes have we mutual? Mutual connection de lave at first sight m And you know, we had this amazing experience while we were out there together. Um, it was really magic. Do you remember that night we went to dinner? Yes, yes, I I do a beautiful dinner. I'm beautiful setting and Darlin and I am brooding when you and everybody connecting, and it was a very cosmic chatting. I I think it was really special. We were right next to this gorgeous body of water, and so I'm also highlighting the power of manifestation because when you get certain energies together, you just can't help for the best possible outcomes. So I remember we were sitting at dinner and we were by this little body of water, and we're like, would it be so amazing if a boat came. I want to get on a boat Tuesday right on't you right on. The boat appeared. A boat appeared. We ended up getting on this boat and it took us on the most gorgeous starlet night, deep night, you know, cruise around around the land, and we came into these little pockets where there were these gorgeous exotic birds, hundreds of them, sitting on a tree, white against the black moon and the stars and the music, and it was just utterly divine. And moments like that or what I live for. Um. So it's just so special connecting to that with you, me too, me too. Let me tell you it was something very special to me because I mean years ago, I was part of some other cho retreats at least time. When I got to the retreat, I heard your voice before entering the room, you know, opened the door. I haven't or haven't seen you yet, and I heard your voice and I said, oh my god, what a deep, profound voice with such a sweet connection. And to tell you the truth, that was my first encounter. And then I met you, and then we talked and I felt your huge electromagnetic heart energy and I said, oh geee and got it. Thank you, my friend. It's my hel Where do I even begin, you know, you. You have lived such a powerful life. And something I love so much about your journey is, you know what I recognize also in myself and in all and in so many great great healers and storytellers of the world. It's like you have had such a mixture of really deep, highly specific experiences that were so necessary for your destiny to be able to arrive the position that you're in. And you know, I I had the beautiful chance of hearing your story and learning from you while you were on stage, and you were teaching so many deep spiritual knowings um and through your lens and through your story. And you know, from from your childhood you went on to have this just impeccable, incredible career in Latin America. You're a leading journalist, you have touched millions of people, and then you you felt the call of spirit to really take you deeper in the ways that you communicated with people and also kind of on a whole new journey. Can you tell me about that moment where you knew you needed to be more of you in front of the millions of people that were in your audience. Wow, that's that's something that it's a divine calling because you know, when I was a kid, actually I never never imagined that I was going to be a coach or a guide or a spiritual teacher of any kind. Why because, as you said, I needed to live so many kind of complex experiences as a kid with low low, low self esteem and stigma about eschisophrenia. My father was diagnosed with exchisophrenia, My grandfather committed suicide, my aunt committed suicide when I was a teenager, and I was just raised without masculine figure, even though my father was nearby. So you know, my childhood and my ado lessons Debby, to tell you the truth, were periods of introspection and a lot of questions and my worth living this life. I didn't have a lot of smiles like I do right now because I had to build my my smile. So but at the eight age of eight, radio came to me and there was a woman who literally became my most wise teacher of all time times which is or who is Nilda hell Man. She still lives in Santiago, the Cuba, in my my island where I was born, Cuba, And you know, she just asked me to raise my hand in front of the class. If I wanted to do it, try out reading out loud. That was the defined moment of my childhood and my entire life because I just kind of half raised my hand, but she was able to see me, and she said, what's your name? And I said, it's my old okay, it's my ald calm. Maybe you're nervous, but that's okay. Come to the front of the class, read out loud a few paragraphs, and do you want to do a radio show for children? And I said, oh yes, I love reading. That day, that out of courage changed my entire future because radio every single Saturday became my refugee. You know, I was bullied at school because I was not a match of type as Latinos we are kind of, you know, like strong men don't cry. Even mothers tell their kids, oh, come on, don't be a girl, don't cry. Los aberes no Jordan, men don't cry. So you know, I was kind of never understanding why I had to really use violence against other boys to defend my rights. So I was so conflict with inside, and that day changed my life, and radio and the training that this lady gave me really made me a communicator. Because she did everything possible to teach me how to talk, how to act, how to kind of have a better addiction or articulation annunciation with words in Spanish. And that was the first defining moment in my life. And after that, you know, I I thought that I was going to be my entire life and career like a communicator in mass media. So this second reinvention or transfiguration was a divine In working with Deepak chop in two thousand fourteen, something deep Act said one day that you know, in my mind kind of it was like a drop, like dropping James, like your podcast, and it's sort of ripple effecting my mind saying you have to stop what you're doing because you don't know yourself. Enough is mine, So stop what you're doing. Abandon your success, abandon your power, abandon your fame, abandon your reputation, and take time to know yourself. And that's exactly what I did in two thousand sixteen. Mm hmm, Okay, you just gave me so much meat. I don't even know where I want to go back to. Wow. Um, So there's multiple things that I heard and what you just said in first I would love to sit in and I really deeply relate um when you said you had to build your smile aile. Can we talk about that childhoodself that does not necessarily have mature adult relationships present, where you have to teach yourself what it is to be alive, to be human, to have emotions, and how to reconcile all of that. You know that that experience of being a child and being really confused at the way that other people are operating and knowing that it doesn't inherently feel true to you. Can you speak to that. Wow, that's exactly exactly in your words how I felt. I felt totally displaced by society because my family hard and still has a problem with the stigma of mental illnesses or brain disorders. So the first thing that I heard was, never ask your father ab out why he's not working. He's sick, but please do not ask him about the illness. Another prohibition they told me, never ask your father how he lost when he was eight years old. He was a kid, he's left arm. So you know, I was a kid with so many questions that I couldn't because I wasn't allowed to talk so and to express myself. And imagine if that kind of affected my entire body that now I can't understand starting epigenetics, that my inability to express not only do not smile or to smile, my inability to express myself in an honest way created constant throughout infections. Because now we know that whatever you swallow and you don't express will seecken you. And you know this is this is really good, because what I'm doing with you today is just sharing the journey of a wounded healer. You know, I didn't choose I didn't choose to be a doctor. I didn't choose to be a healer. I didn't choose to be a spiritual leader. Life chose me. God chose me because I could understand that I needed to do a personal work to heal myself and to understand my brain and reproduct my brain, and to build smiles even if I didn't have smiles during my childhood, and to understand something very important. Our predispositions are not necessarily our destiny. If we understand that we can change almost everything about our character, personality, traits, and lifestyle. And that's exactly what I've been doing, very entertaining, very complex, the process for so many years until these days, Oh my goodness, wow, wow wow. And the piece that you just touched on too, I think it's so we're just now collectively as a society, as a world, as humans um, beginning to understand the impact of what it is to not be able to be expressed. And so when you know that piece you said is so powerful around I think for a lot of us, previous generations thought if someone has emotions, right, like, if someone has emotions, if there is a pain present, do not talk about it, don't ask them about it, don't bring it up. And so then you have people who have surrendered decades of their lives to being in constant war with themselves simply because they did not have the space to say something out loud. You say something out loud, you express it, It It frees you. And so it's like, I'm even imagining how isolating for your father to have these experiences, to have this amputation as a child, to have this um relationship with his mental health that no one ever asked him about, no one's ever asking how do you feel? What does this mean for you? What do you need? You know? And it's like the battle that that brings inside that that then passes down to every other generation because then we carry their burden and our burden until you finally release it, which is where you landed. Wow. And the good news is that when we understand that even people we love and they pass away, that is there is space for healing with them. And the good news is that the best conversations I've always have had with my father have been in this new relationship that I have with him after he passed away. He is a powerful energy. He's such a good, good guide in consciousness to me that every single day I talked to him and I say, thank you, Father, thank you. I totally understand you. Thank you for how I saw you when I was judging you. Thank you for the thoughts I had about you, you know, kind of resenting the hugs that you never gave me, even with your only arm, because I don't remember my father hugging me. And it's really good, Dabby, because you know, sometimes people think, Okay, I have nothing to do. This person passed away, and you know there is an open end, and I said, no, no, no, no, no death. It's only a transition, and it's a transition that leads us with more freedom and liberty to interact with pure joy and no analytical mind, with the loving energy of our loved ones. So and it's beautiful right now. And it's an amazing relationship with my father. So I don't know, I kind of I'm sad that he's not present, but I'm so happy that he taught me how to live without him. And that's a celebration for me, every single daing rock. Thank you for walking through your process for everyone, because I know I felt instinctively what clicked into place for thousands of people. Just now you know that there is an opportunity to even reconcile these challenging relationships if the person is not there. There is a way to know their energy, the best of them, and not just the way that we were influenced by their presence or by their lack of presents. You know another another things that you brought forward, Um, I just I would love to get into one more piece you rought for it too, as we continue on this journey together. And I told, I told you before we started um the conversation for the podcast that we have such a connection that when I saw you and I saw the color of your blouse and I said, oh my god, you know, it's like we we sent a memo to each other to use like earthly colors. But it's because I think, really we have a pure and wonderful and probably historical connection. I don't know, Yeah, I feel that you're I mean, you're one of the most remarkable people I've ever met. So it's just being in your light is such a profound joy for me and I love you know specifically, so for those that can't see us, we're both wearing orange shirts and that's um big sacred chukra energy. So this is of creation, um that we're bringing forward. So there we'll see how that unfolds. UM. But is my you know, um, one of the things that you brought up to was your road to yourself and your opportunity to begin building your smile, to begin building your esteem, to build your knowing nous of yourself through that teacher asking you to use your voice. And what is so powerful about that to me is what a lot of people, UM do not receive, which is why for so many especially you know, what we're referring to as wounded healers, why sometimes it does take a little bit um of deep, deep practice, not a little bit it takes a lot of practice. It takes an immense amount of personal excavation to come into this space where you really understand your power and a reason that's sometimes for many it's not inherent as one our family structures. But to not receiving feedback about your innate gifts, not being around adults that can recognize what is authentic about you as your own being without it triggering them and how they feel about themselves. And so to receive a feedback and your voice is just so incredible. Your voice has been in the ears of millions and all you needed was to know that there was value there, you know, And so one I'm just hearing the power of expressing that when you see a child, when you see a young person, and you see an adult share enthusiasm with them, you have no idea what their home life looks like. Offer feedback to people in real time if you're able about what you see in them, because more often than not, they don't know that that even exists in them yet where they know but they have no idea that other people know. Yes, exact clear as you said, Debby, you know I think that when I noticed because somebody told me that I have so many things to say to the world, that I had a powerful voice to express myself. I started building myself worth and I started dreaming, and those dreams started to grow. And it's unbelievable because I remember that a year after I started my training with that radio personality and that radio writer and director. You know what I said to my mom, I said, could you change me from the little town school to the big city school. With implied that she had to take me, of course, like twenty minutes from the town, a mountain town where I was born, to the main city, Santiago de Cuba. And my mom said why and I said, well, because I think I prefer the city because the school is better and and bigger, and I want to try. So I started dreaming bigger and bigger and bigger because somebody told me you can't express yourself. Imagine that. I still have with me two little booklets from my fourth grade, eight years old. One it's with little poems and the other one was with two stories, short stories that Nilda, my teacher, said, please, you have to write. You have so many things inside your head. Right poems right too, short stories. Don't worry about if it's good if it's not good, I'm going to help you to edit them. And she used it typing machine at that moment years back, and she edited and she kind of put it together with everything, the cover and everything done with her hands. So the love that I received from my mom, my father, but also from this vocational teacher made me they smile that I am today. And she's still alive. And I never lost contact with Nil da Aliman that's her name. She has um now some illness, is not you know, like the person that I made, but still so conscious and also eighty seven years old. And I talked to her almost every month, and I visited her several times in Cuba. Why because I think that when you had the opportunity of having somebody who made such a huge impact in who you are still today, that's gratitude forever. And that's how I feel about Nil. That she is, she was, and she is an angel sent to help me understand my worth in this world. Wow. Wow, Wow, When did you leave Cuba? I left Cuba. I was already twenty eight, almost twenty nine June seven, and I left as part of a Cuban delegation sent by the Cuban government to Toronto, Canada, and it was the master of ceremony of a musical band, a cigar roller, and a chef. So we were the delegation showing a little bit of the culture of the island in a multicultural festival in Toronto. And I always wanted to live since I was like ten years old, because I always wanted to know what was beyond the ocean, that natural frontier surrounding my island. And I couldn't travel, you know, I couldn't travel for twenty years. So my first opportunity, I said, God, you send me this life boat. I'm staying here. I didn't. I didn't speak English when I got to Canada. Actually, I had to lie to be able to get the gig because they asked me, smile, do you do you speak English? And I said, of course yes, because I knew that if I said no, they would look for another person. I said, I know how to speak English. I'm going to memorize my lines, and I sounded like Ricky Ricardo in I Love Lucy when I was hosting that Cuban show. Because imagine, I didn't know how to improvise. I only memorized the lines. So I remember that when when we were in the middle of the show, I said to the Canadians in the hall, okay, instead of saying, let's play the conga, I said, let's touch the conga. Touh the conga, touch the conga. And there there is one anecdote that is really funny. You know that when I was in Toronto, I said, I want to go to downtown. And I asked somebody, and somebody told me, oh, it's easy. You will see the signs for the subway and you go into the train and you will ask for downtown. And I said, well, that sounds easy. And you know what I did. I saw the sign subway, I enter into the establishment. I saw somebody preparing a sandwich, and I said to that person, I'm going downtown. What is the train? What is the train? And the person said what train? And I said, this is not subway and it was the restaurant subway, restaurant Debby. But I have a better I have a better an adult of my English to you. I went to the supermarket by myself because I wanted to be independent. And I was just like two weeks in Toronto. You know, in Spanish we have very definite uh, five, only five sounds for the vowels A E, I owe you only five in English. May be native speakers don't notice, but when you learn English as a second language, you have to differentiate a lot of combinations of the sounds of the five owls. So for the Spanish speaker is not that easy to differentiate. So I went to the supermarket and I love peanut butter, and I said to the lady, how much is that job of penis butter? And she blushed and she said what And I said, how much is that job of penis mater? And she would like read as a tomato. And I didn't understand because I said, oh my god, my English is really bad. She doesn't understand me. How many times I have to say how much is that jar of penis moter? And she said, okay, do you mean peanuts butter? And I said, that's what I said, penus moter and she said, no, penicks, it's some in different peanuts. It's what you mean. And then I went to the school the following day and I said, okay, I had this on my teacher, by the way, that was from Russia leaving in Toronto teaching me English. She said, Oh is mild. That's so funny. I'm going to use your anecdult. That's the way that you learn a second language. No shame, keep practicing. Wow wow wow wow. That is h Larry us. So you I mean when you got here, you just hit the ground running. Oh, I mean, which is just it's just so remarkable, like the destiny at play. And I know we keep referencing that, but I want to make sure that everyone really gets that in their mind, like there are forces for good unfolding in your life in powerful ways. We have to trust. You know, you came here on the delegation and then and just a you years time, you go to become the leading voice in Latin America on CNN, because I never lost my vision. The power of manifestation is so huge that in in I was a radio antiv personality already well known in the entire island in Cuba and internally in the monitors inside the radio station and the government's channel. They had SEENN International signal in English, so that was what I was watching, you know, like CNN Wow International News and in NTE March. I remember the day that they said Sena has premiered a continental pank regional Spanish network sen Espanol or CNN in Spanish, and they switched the signal to sen Espanol. That day, Debby, I was looking at the monitor and I said to one of my colleagues, you know what they have now, SENN in Spanish. I'm going to be working there some day. That day, I didn't know how I'm going I was going to be able to leave Cuba. It wasn't that easy. And when that happened in two thousand one and I became an intern, and I paid all my fares from Toronto to Atlanta for three weeks. Pay Hotel paid everything because CNN said, no, we take interns for three months. You're only coming for three weeks. That doesn't serve us. And I said, please, please please, And a friend of mine helped me to secure my three weeks internship. That was only what I needed for Seneca College in Toronto to finish my diploma of Television Production. I became an intern. I became the freelancer in Canada in Toronto, the first one that they ever had, and then I moved to Miami. I was a freelancer. I was filling in for all the main guys anchoring the shows, and little by little I was kind of escalating. And then in two thousand and ten they changed programming and I became the Larry King for the CIENN in Spanish, because I said, let's do Larry King. Let's do a show interviewing artists, celebrities, sportsmen, writers, philosophers, spiritual leaders, everybody. I want to interview everybody. And the show wasn't mega success. I didn't expect that it was going to be a mega success. I knew that I had a passion for listening, that I always wanted to learn listening to other people's stories and messages and wisdom. So I knew that I was going to be good at listening. But I didn't know that the show was going to become the mega phenomenon across the United States in Spanish for the latter community, and also all across to any something countries in Latin America. So that's that's what I'm saying, because this is important. We have the power. We have the power with our thoughts and also with our loud expression to be sure that whatever we feel possible, we can create it in our personal reality. And that's the exact thing with CNN. You know, it started with just an intention in ninety seven in Havana, Cuba. Oh my god, I meanwhile, where do I go from there? You know? It's just like that is so meaningful for me because I especially um am just a believer in the whispers of God. And when we really take the time to get still, we're able to home through our lives experiences to understand the steps that have been in play for us. That is the true guidance to what our purposes, you know, And I think purposes this leading connector for a lot for many even venturing onto this journey, this idea that there is a purpose. But I think so many people consider one purpose just being like a career title of swords or something that like you spend a weekend kind of figuring out what what do I want to do and what can I make money at? Okay, yes, all right, that's my purpose? And in actuality, it's like it's all of these beautiful breadcrumbs that God leaves us, these things where we really remember time stopping in that moment and we paid extra attention to something, even if it was a commercial on television or if it was you know, just something very brief. We know that time stopped a little, even for seconds, and so think about those things that that you remember, and it's like, well, why and what it was that leading to and what is that giving me a little elbow about our a little nudge and knowing, And you know, eventually that becomes the sum of what is just so special and unique about each of us, and what is um how we can tap into, as our beloved Deepox says, you know, the pure potentiality that is available in our lives, like the just the limitlessness, the endless, endless flow of opportunity, the endless flow of best possible outcomes in every way. Yeah, and listening to you now, what came to my mind, Davy, is that I divide my life in two halves. I am fifty two right now, and I'm hoping that I'm going to live over one. But let's let's play by ear taking care of our body with the intention of longevity and quality of life. But you know, like the first half of those fifty two years, I lived with the wrong paradigm because I thought and I was convinced by domestication or edu castration or education, the rush to conformity. You know, society told me that my intellect was my savior and that my intellect was the highest resource that I was going to have to be successful and to be happy and to be productive and blah blah blah. And then I understood that it was not going to be my intellect. That probably my intellect without the proper energy or consciousness state, was going to drive me crazy inside my mind. When I changed the paradigm and I understood that my energy it's more important than my intellect, my life became a world of much and revelations. Before that, when was my intellect, my intellect and my reasoning the highest resource that I was always honoring, I was so depressed, so unstable, so sick of myself, sometimes so full of myself, sometimes no humility, and life was a struggle. And it's so simple. And then when I said, Okay, no, intellect, be brilliant resource. You know, it's a brilliant resource, but it's secondary energy. It's my life force. It's what I live by and I leave poor. It's what I wake up every single day to cultivate, is the discipline of joy every single day. My energy, it's what I sent to the world and what I want that the world sends back to me and the universe. That's my only mission every single day, because I know that if I'm in a loving mode, I will be able to give love and receive love. If I am in a compassionate mode, and my energy it's all about compassion. I'm going to be less reactive, and I'm going to have I'm going to have my intellet serving me, but not with a very noisy ego. It's going to be a silent ego, well trained at service of the soul, you know. So like getting out of the struggle. I thought for the first twenty five or twenty eight years of my life that it was going to be so hard to change how I saw life, because I used to see life as a struggle. But David, the good thing is, it's not the hard. It's just changing the perspective of being spiritual beings that need to cultivate the spirit and to pay attention and to make time for our daily practice for the spirit and life. Right now. It could end right now, tomorrow, for in fifty or sixty more years, I don't care, because life is so so much a flow of beautiful things that even death is welcome when it's time for that. I don't want it now, but I don't fear it. It's whatever it is. It's part of the existence, and that's a beautiful thing. And this is a mile that is talking to you. When it looks back and sees the other is Mile, he says, Wow, this is this is a totally different person, the same essence, but in a different wiring of the brain, of the mind, and actually of the vibration of the spirit. And that's it makes me so happy to see that I could do something for me, for my father, for my grandfather who committed suicide, for my two ants who committed suicide, for my brother who suffers from schizophrenia from from for my other brother who now is totally healed, but for many years was lost with addiction to alcohol. So it's the struggle of entire family. But now I say, okay, let's help release this living with intention, high consciousness, doing the practice, not only for me, for so many people that I can help, not telling anything, just being different, being light. And this is wonderful because you know, I don't talk with so many people about this, but I have to tell you because I know that you totally get it, and your audience gets it. Yeah, it's rocking ship. That was so powerful, and I it was just so so so so so so so felt. It was so felt, and I'm just I'm grateful that you are giving such beautiful teaching in in the fibers of how to make this reel in people's lives. You know, like, this is what's necessary. We have to give these deeper details, these these more hidden shifts, you know, some of these darker crevices, because who does not feel that in some ways? You know that there I think that there has been this leading ideal is Mael, that everyone in the in life had a good life, and there's just only a couple of people who had it so hard or who it was so difficult to push out of and and in actuality, what I have found it is the absolute reverse. There is this one to five cent of the human population that has this ideal situation um that we've all kind of internalized or built our cultural understanding around, built our self understanding around. That is what is promoted through television, through film, through literature over the course of human history. But it's not authentic to what the lived human experiences. The lived human experience is painful. Pain is a master teacher. You know. There's that quote, m that roomy quote that it's you know, allow your heart to break over and over until it stays open. That is what that's beautiful that her allow your heart to break, to break, to break, until it finally stays open. In the openness, there is no breaking but the fibers of being, the weaving, the small and doings that allow you to actually know and live that. That is what the world so desperately needs right now. How do you make that real and tangible? You know? So I'm just I'm in deep gratitude for the way that you teach and the way that you share yourself and your experiences. Thank you so much, thank you, thank you. I'm just a follower of so many people that when you read the biography you understand that they made a difference in this world because they were coherent, because they elevated their state of consciousness, because they became love to spread love and to receive love. And you know, it's like my had mgandhy when you when you understand that I had mc gandhi said, be the change that you want to see in the world. That's exactly what we have to do. You know, we want to not have to talk about wars. Okay, I'm not responsible for the war in Ukraine, but I am responsible for the peace inside my heart. And I know that if my heart is open, as you said, and it's full of peace and love, I will never be part of the war. And if every single human being does this work, there is no need for work, you know, because somebody starts a war when there is no peace in the heart. If you have peace in the heart, it's totally impossible to justify for yourself the need for war or violence. So that's exactly what we need to do right now, especially in these times, you know, after COVID now living with news bombard in us every single day about the war, and we need silence, we need peace, We need time to really nurture our spirit as you do with this beautiful podcast. This is the kind of content and the kind of time well spent that human beings need on a daily basis, not only when we fall. When we fall, because that's something that we have to do. Also, you know, somebody told me the other day, oh, your meditation app is smile is wonderful. Every time that I feel sad, I use it. And I said, come on, every time that you feel sad, that's not that's not the purpose of the meditation. The meditation is for every day because probably if you meditate every day, if you do your practice every day, you will not feel the sadness staying that alone with you, because you will be able to move on because you are meditated. Instead of medicated. You regulate your nervous system, you know, you teach yourself new ways of feeling in your body. And ah, ah is Mail, can we talk about your book flow? Not to suffer? First of all, that line flow, not to suffer? What is what is flow? This line is not from my brain. I have to be honest. The book started the process of creating this book and writing the book started in two eighteen, before the pandemic. But then in March the book was almost done and I was going to send the manuscript to the publishing house Penguin Random House Spanish Division in the US, and then I said, no, I can't. I can't do this because I mean, there is a pandemic coming. We're going to live in extraordinary situations. And then I sat in the meditation Dabby one morning before sunrising, and I asked God, and I said, I know this book is going to be very helpful, especially in the moments that we're going to start living for the next few months. I didn't know that it was going to take two years almost and I said, please, God, give me, give me a line, give me a message, give me a title, because this book was going to be called Eleven Principles to Transform your Life The Leader Bamboo, because it's all about bio mimesis or bioempathy, studying the bamboo as a plant and taking trades and correct realistics of the bamboo being assimilated by humans as leaders, for instance, flexibility, versatility, consciousness, elevation, gratitude, integrity, passion, collaboration. There are eleven principles or values taken from the bamboo as a plant, observing the natural laws of the nature and the universe. So flow not to suffer. It came to me in Spanish fluid that day, that morning, during that meditation, and I remember that it is a fluid. But what a dramatic title will Latinos are so dramatic, We love so proper as I'm telling novelas. But God, if you gave me this. I'm not going to question this line. This is going to be the title of the book, because I actually think after the pandemic will be a need for these tools and knowledge and wisdom and prodocols and rituals and habits to be installed to be able to kind of serve the wave of mental disorders and the consequences of two years of extreme survival. And actually, debby, I consulted the title with the publishing house. I propose different ones, kind of more positive and less dramatic, and everybody loved this one. Flow not to suffer. Flow is not to give up to Flow is not to conform and to say there is nothing that I can do. This is what it is. The situation overpowers me. I'm just throwing the towel. No, not at all. Flow is to understand that if you offer resistance to whatever reality you are interpreting inside yourself or in the exterior world, that resistance it's going to take the vital energy that you need to create a better response instead of using instance and reflexes just reacting. That's the concept. I'm not saying that you don't change what needs to be changed. I'm telling you that probably you need to pass. Use the same vital energy with your kind of primary force, offering resistance to what it's not something that you like, and use that vital energy to pass, to breathe, to relax, because during relaxation you will be able to create strategy, a better designed response or answer. That's the concept that I use saying people flow, flow and create the response. You need to change whatever you don't like about yourself today or the world that you live in. And actually, when I flow, everything gets solved. When I don't flow, I spend a lot of time sacrificing my intelligence and my creative energy just offering a physical, physical resistance to this force that is coming against me. So that's the concept. A lot of people reading the book in Spanish, is not yet in English, but it will be because I'm manifesting that this is going to be my first published book in English. I have one that is going to be an Amazon in July, self published, and that's my first book, The Power of Soul Listening, that will be in English. But I want this one to go published by a major publishing house, and it will happen because it's already it's already out there. Wow, well, I I will be getting it and I'm so I'm so happy. I'm so happy. Um the concepts that you said are the it is, it is the it is the path to lifelong transformation. UM. So I'm really excited for all that we'll get to connect to this work and understand what living your healing looks like. You know what, what deep authentic restructuring of our brains, our hearts and the systems we have in place in our lives. So so so so powerful. Ismael, thank you so much for joining me on the show. Thank you to see you again. I cannot wait to get to Miami and to come to your incredible healing center. Yes, yes, we are waiting for you. Here are your son and whoever you want to bring with you your team come to the Color Center in Miami and in the month of July, Davy your audience. You know, if they go to the Chopra app, they will be able to listen to my five sessions or five meditations about Purpose. I am so thrilled, so grateful with Deeper, with Malika, with you, with the entire Chopra Global team, because for me, it's a it's a major milestone, you know, coming from the story that I'm coming from Cuba, been twenty nine not speaking English and now being invited by deep at Chopra to be one of the guests you know in Journey to Journeying to well Being. Wow. So July it's a month for me of celebration. I already recorded the sessions and they're wonderful. They are really powerful and amazing, so amazing. I cannot wait. And everyone please join us on the Choper app Choper well Being App. It would be available for Android users as well, UM and for couple users in your iOS store. But yes, Ismael is leading for the Journey to well Being, which is an incredible program we've kicked off at Chopra a year long of having workbooks, having tools, having meditations to take you where you want to be in your life, to get you to that next level. UM just always so deeply grateful for Deepak, for Molica and for all of the things UM that we're able to create there. So Ismael will be joining the entire month of July. You can connect him on the app on the website you sign up for the Journey to well Being program. He'll have a workbook that will help you connect to your purpose to take his meditations and to take his teachings and actually be able to bring them from your brain down into your heart. So please join us there. And I actually and I haven't announced this yet, but for May, which is like tomorrow, UM, I'm reading the Chopra well Being for you, and the focus will be work. So I'm really excited to share UM, so many meditation, so many tools and workbooks that can better help connect all listening to this new um, this new frontier in our working lives as we're rejoining the world, are reimagining what this you know, um, quote unquote work life balance can look and feel like for each of us. So you can. I'll have more info on that next episode of the podcast. But yes, join us there, connect to this work. UM. It's time. It's time to move forward on your destiny, on your purpose, on your healing. It's myel I love you, I love you, Thank you. I'll love you too, Debby, I love you too, and I will see you soon. Thank you for joining us my pleasure. Thank you so much, such a powerful episode. Share this with a friend, Send this um if you can. Right now, I say, go ahead and add this and the share to the group chat that you're in to a dear friend, to someone you're connecting with it needs this, or that you'd like to reflect and discuss this with. Is my il gala? What an exceptional person? The affirmation we connected to at the beginning of the show. Let's recenter right now and get ready for some soul work and see where that affirmation lands having now heard this episode, because I want to invite you to get comfortable again. Settle in, connect to the seat of your body. If able, maybe consider putting your feet flat on the floor and grounding, Connect to your heart, connect to your breath, and I'm gonna invite you to gently close your eyes. My mind is clear, and I am able to make choices that serve my highest good with ease. My mind is clear, and I am able to make choices that serve my highest good with ease. Mm hmm. My mind is clear and I am able to make choices that serve my highest good with ease. So hearing that hearing that affirmation now connected to the contexts of the show that we just had and some themes that are really standing out to me right now. As I reread that, myself was settling into a clarity setting, settling into a spaciousness with yourself where you can hear the bigger stories of your life that are being told, where you can zoom out a little bit from the pixelated view you may have about yourself and your experiences, about your gifts, about your purpose, and really allowing yourself to zoom out and say, what else is happening? What other things may have been conspiring for my highest good? Where even in some of the more challenging moments, was their opportunity for me? Was there an unseen support for me? Was there a learning that was available for me? And now, as we think about our soul work, if you have a journal that's present, or if you want to double back to the ending of this episode later, when you have a pen and paper, I'd like you to jot down what are some of the whispers that are availing to you in this exact moment. And by whispers, I mean where are you noticing signs? Where are you noticing synchronicities, where are you noticing ease? Um? You know how we've all begun to notice on our phones that we might be having a conversation about something, and all of a sudden later that day or the next day, an ad appears for it on your Facebook account, or it appears on your phone in some way or in an Instagram ad, and you're like, I was just talking about that or I was just looking for that. Wow. So that's a little bit of you know, social manipulation. But that is kind of how it operates on a soul level when we are noticing things out in the world, when you happen to say, oh my gosh, I have deja vu about that, or Wow, I was just thinking about that at this book popped up, or this opportunity popped up, or this conversation came. When things like that happen, I found that is where the truth lies, that is where the learning lies, that is where the nudge of what your next step is lies. So for soul work this week, I want you to jot down any observations around that that you're making, or if there are no observations that you can think of, present, really explore this next week of your life through that lens that I just expressed to you, that lens of noticing, that lens of observing, that lens of commonality of themes that play um a little bit of assistant, a little bit of miracles that are pouring in. So just watch, and I want you to start keeping notes about it. Keep a bullet point of oh this just popped up and I was just thinking about that. Put a date next to it. Start to notice what patterns are happening. And I don't just mean the patterns about our challenges. That's really powerful to explore when we're learning and we're growing. What are the patterns, what are the themes of the challenges that have presented themselves, so that we can be aware of what our curriculum is this is. Let me be aware of the patterns of blessings in my life. Let me be aware of the patterns of ease in my life. Let me be aware and start to cultivate a connection to the patterns of purpose and destiny and curiosity and creativity that are present and available in my life. That might feel really really serving to you. So if you feel called, that is your soul work for this next week. I will be back next week as always. Hop on in the app and leave a five star rating and review. Big thanks for that and big big love. And I haven't done a show on this yet, but if you follow me on social media, I announced it um I will be having a show on this coming but kicking off in September. Myself and my divine divine sister, Queen a Fua will be leading our very own retreat together at the Omega Institute and Ryan Beck New York. This incredible five day retreat that we are doing. We are calling women who Heal, Women who Heal an Omega Institute. It is open to everyone, but we're really looking to cultivate a sacred community of those that identify as light workers, as healers, as teachers, as activists, as mental health facilitators, emotional health facilitators, as deeply self aware men and women, people beings, those that are connecting to the deeper parts of themselves and would like to have community that speaks that language. If you want to deepen your practice in the journey that you're already on, if you want to learn how to protect your energy, if you want to learn how to settle more deeply into your spirit, how to settle more deeply into peace, how to nourish, restore, and recharge yourself, That's what we'll be doing so five days. I'm really excited about the price point we were able to come in out with this offering. UM. We are partnering with Omega Institute, which is Sacred Exceptional Land. It's been a spiritual campus and upstate New York for over forty years. I taught there this past fall, so I'm excited to be coming back to the Land as faculty along with Queen of FLUA and presenting this five day experience UM that comes in under seven hundred dollars for five days. Really excited to offer that at this price point. UM. I've never seen that before, so we are so happy to be able to do that. And that includes meals UM and I believe lodging as it's available, but there's also air babies and all the things. So all of those details to a whole another show about and you can find that UM. All the info on my Instagram at Debbie Brown click link in bio. Big thank you for listening. I love you. Please connect deeply to your heart, nourish yourself with your own love, and I'll catch you next time. I must stay, I must day, I must day, I must I must day. Hey find me on social let's connect at Debbie Brown. That's Twitter and Instagram or go to my website Debbie Brown dot com. And if you're listening to the show on Apple Podcasts, please please please don't forget to rate, review, and subscribe and send this episode to a friend. Dropping Jim's is the production of I Heart Radio and the Black Effect Network. It's produced by Jack Please and me, Debbie Brown. For more podcasts from My Heart Radio, visit the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. M M