Anitta: 6 Ways to Heal Your Inner Child & Let Go of Past Trauma

Published Jun 3, 2024, 7:00 AM

What does healing your inner child mean?

How can you heal from past trauma?

Today, let's welcome Grammy-nominated global superstar, Anitta, who has become a leading artist of a new generation of Latin American music. Her album "Versions of Me" surpassed 1 billion streams on Spotify, and she earned a Grammy nomination for Best New Artist in 2023. Known for her energetic performances and bold personality, Anitta is also deeply spiritual, integrating various practices to maintain her well-being and authenticity.

A significant part of the episode focuses on the duality of Anitta's identity. She explains how she balances her stage persona with her true self, Larissa, and the importance of nurturing both. Anitta shares the struggles she faced with comparisons, societal expectations, and the pressure to maintain a certain image. Her journey towards self-acceptance and self-love is a powerful testament to the resilience of the human spirit. 

Jay and Anitta also talk about the importance of staying grounded amidst success, sharing her daily routines that include meditation, energy cleansing, and connecting with nature. Despite facing criticism and backlash, she remains committed to expressing and celebrating her culture through her music and public appearances.

In this interview, you'll learn:

How to stay grounded amidst success

How to overcome comparisons

How to heal from past trauma

How to manage your health

How to cultivate self-love

How to handle criticisms

Anitta's story is a reminder that true success is not just about external achievements but also about inner peace, self-love, and staying connected to one's roots.

With Love and Gratitude,

Jay Shetty

What We Discuss:

00:00 Intro

03:39 How Do You Prepare for a Performance?

05:05 Meditation Practice

08:17 How Elevate Your Energy

11:06 Comparison is Making Us Unhappy

16:04 Successful But Unhappy

29:24 Doing Things for Your Happiness

37:04 Health Scare

38:10 Healing Emotional Trauma

42:46 What Are You Here For?

45:19 Getting Off Birth Control

51:12 Two Energy in One Body

58:32 Society’s Double Standard in Dating

01:01:38 Different Religion and Faith

01:11:30 We All Have a Choice

01:16:10 Challenges and Hardships Along the Way 

01:24:22 Dealing with Conflicts

01:29:14 Opportunities for Better Exposure

01:34:14 Finding Balance in Life

01:35:21 Anitta on Final Five

Episode Resources:

Anitta | Instagram

Anitta | Twitter

Anitta | Facebook

Anitta | YouTube

Anitta | TikTok

I was the first Latina to have a solo song number one in the world. That was everywhere. Everyone who was listening to the song, everyone who was dancing to it, and then it got sick, the global super song from Brasila. When we have nothing, we have something to blame. But when you have it and then you're still not happy, there's nobody else to blame but yourself.

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The number one health and wellness podcast Jay set Jay Shetyja shet.

Hey, everyone, welcome back to on Purpose, the place you come to become happier, healthier, and more healed. I'm so grateful that you've chosen to listen in today and I'm so excited because I get to sit down with someone that I've been dming and messaging for some time now, and finally we made it happen. Since breaking through in Brazil, Grammy nominated Global Superstar, Anita has become the leading artist of a new generation of Latin American music. Anita's single Evolver became the biggest solo debut by a Brazilian artist in the history of the Spotify Global Chart and broke Anita's record by reaching number one on iTunes in nineteen countries. Anita released her album Versions of Me in April twenty twenty two, and went on to earn the highly coveted Best New Artist Grammy nomination for the sixty fifth Grammy Awards in twenty twenty three. The album now has surpassed one billion streams on Spotify. Anita is the first Brazilian artist with thirty five million monthly listeners on Spotify history and the Brazilian female artist with the most charting songs in Hot one hundred history. Anita's newest album is What's to Come From, a highly anticipated forthcoming album, Funk Generation, which was released April twenty sixth, please give an on Purpose. Welcome to Anita. Anita, I'm so grateful and honor to have you here.

I'm so happy to be here, genuinely glad. Finally, yes, thank.

You, thank you. When we were messaging, I got so happy because you messaged me back, going, oh my god, I'm sorry I missed this message, Like, yeah, it was so sweet and kind of you, and I was like, you're Anita, like how are you? You know? And it was it was so so gracious of you and it was beautiful to interact with you in that way. Thank you for being so what's the right word, like just so casual and andy.

Very like that. I like to, you know, I like to be simple and everything. So yeah, when I saw your message, it was like, oh how could I miss this? I love this so much, So I'm really happy to be here.

Well, thank you so much. I want to dive straight in. It is now. I'm just it is three thirty pm. You're going on stage tonight at nine pm. Yes, I want everyone to know, Anita, no one has ever come this early to on Purpose, and it was forty five minutes early. And she has a show this evening and she's not asking to rush away. What does a show day look for you? Like when I watch you on stage, You're bold, You're powerful, you you're so energetic. Your performances are so emphatic, Like, how do you prepare You're going on stage tonight? How do you prepare for that? From now till then?

So I think it's too Anita's for everything. A few years ago and nowadays, I think before I used to just do so many things at the same time, and it was just this rush to conquer things, and I wanted to reach every opportunity to do everything, and it was very like it was a lot for me, you know, it was too much. Nowadays, when it's a concert day, I like to just enjoy the day, wake up, meditate, listen to some mantras, or do a massage or something that I know that is gonna put me in a good vibe to exchange energy with the people, you know. So nowadays I have this thing in my mind that I wanted to be a great experience. In the beginning, I used to go on stage just thinking about the result that later where I'm gonna get from it. I wouldn't. I wasn't just thinking about the present. Moment of exchanging energy with those people, and nowadays I do so for me, it's really important for me to get to this place with a good circle of white light around me. You know.

And you said you meditate. What kind of practice is that. You said you do some montras? What does that look like for you?

So I have a big circle of people that help me. I have a shaman, a woman that does constellation, a woman that does it's called a I don't know how to say that in English, but let me try to English size the word. It's called a radionic table. It's like you put some crystals and stones and you do like a cleanson in your in your aura or something like that. So I have these different people and I dream a lot, so every time I wake up, I know what's about to come. For example, yesterday I woke up feeling this crazy excitement because in the afternoon I did a Condalini session acting Invasion of Condelini and this lady from Brazil, her name is Sais, and she doesn't online. I do it in person too, but she does it online. And it's crazy because your body just moves and it's just it's it's so special. So I woke up yesterday feeling like I was going to explode. It felt like my body was going to do it was so powerful, and I heard I woke up with this song in my mind that I didn't know exactly where I heard a song before, and I was just singing. I was like, I think it wasn't a yoga class. So I called my yoga teacher and I said, Yo, have you played a song for me that goes like this? I sang for her and she goes yes. So she sent me the link and the name was Heart Chakra. That meant so much to me because I woke up feeling like my heart was going to explode, and when I had this song, that was the name. So yesterday that's what I did. I was saying this song I did a yoga It was so special. Today I woke up different. I don't know. I had some bad dreams because when I believe when we dream our soul they travel to different places, right, and sometimes it can be not as good place. So I woke up feeling weird and then I called this lady that does this family constellation with me, so I said, I feel weird and she was like, okay, sit down, let's meditate together. So she guides me and she opens this energetic circle and five minutes, ten minutes later, I was already feeling amazing again, and I was like, Oh, it's so different when you are. You have discipline and focus on keeping your frequency high, and every time I feel like it's not as high, I do something immediately to make it better. So for me to go on the concert, I need to be feeling on my highest you know.

Yeah, thank you for sharing that with us. And I love that so much because I feel that, you know, if you're out of milk at home, you go and buy milk, or if you're out of bread, you go and buy some bread. And I think sometimes we overthink when we're out of inspiration, or we're out of alignment, or we're out of the higher frequency and we're feeling a lower frequency. We don't realize that all we have to do is reconnect yeah or plug in again, yes, and that simply brings it back. And I think we overthink and we think, oh, gosh, I'm not worthy of it, or I'm not good enough, or I lost it or it's left me now, and we don't realize that it is something that we can recultivate and rebuild and regrow into. And so I love hearing that today you were yesterday you woke up feeling like this explosive energy, and today you woke up not feeling that. And that's kind of how something we can all relate to. I feel like we all experience that.

And usually when we wake up not feeling that amazing first, maybe from things from the subconscious or something like that, we're stuck in there and we don't know what to do and we don't feel like doing things. And that's what happens when we go on the lower frequency. We are aligned with and I believe in other spirits and things like that, we are aligned with other spirits and energies that want you to stay there. So of course you're not going to have the strength to go there, you know, but it's important to keep it and to do it just for the discipline. And then and then you're going to start elevating. Elevating elevating and exercises that can seem idiots idiotics. But it's not like one Michelman when I told her, she was like, okay, so you open your arms, you do a circle, And I was like doing all these exercises, put in my arms up, breathing doing it. When I was done, I was like, wow, life is great again. And it just takes you a little bit of discipline to understand that it's in your power. And sometimes we like to play victims, saying like oh a victim, like some person did this and that. To me, I feel bad because that person did this, that person did that, And no, you have the power to feel good. It doesn't matter what the other people do or the energy people throw at you. All of that is real and exists. But if you're aligned with yourself, nothing that the people do or throw it at you can reach you because you are powerful in control of your all of your own circle of energy. You know.

Yeah, absolutely, well, for whatever it's worth. I can honestly say that from the moment you walked in and we interacted, I was like, this energy is good. So for whatever it's worth, it's working.

It's not the same here. It's such a good.

Energy here, thank you, but it's I definitely felt that. As soon as we met and we started talking, I was like, oh wow, this is I was so uplifted immediately through your space. So whatever is whatever's happening, it's working, woke me through what is What are some of the things that you still find do bring energy down for people? Or do bring our frequency and vibration down? Like? What is it for you? That kind of feels that way.

I think comparation to be compared with others, it's one of the I think the most the most important thing right now that makes everybody go, you know, down, because we have the Internet in our in our hands and we're there. It was made to connect us, but we're not connected at all anymore. Instead of connecting, we're just falling apart and spreading ourselves like and just becoming judgmental and everything. And I just think when we look at other people's pages, Instagram, talk, whatever, instead of just getting an inspiration or like feeling happy for something, you start comparing and thinking, why I don't have this, I should have that, My life should be like this I should do And then you never get to be yourself because you're so consumed consumed by other people's lives and choices, and then you think you need to be this, or then you see another part, No I need to be that, and then you say, oh, no, I should be doing this and never you can get with yourself and be like, what do I really want to be? What do I really want to do? And depending on all the other people that I know or that I follow, you know, and when we compare each other, we are not being fair to us to them because we are born in different statles, different countries, different body shapes. Society has so many rules to follow. Even with all the present this racism, the opportunities are not the same. So you cannot compare somebody that is born in a country that doesn't have as much opportunities structure with a person that was born in the place that has fifty times more. It's super unfair. There's no balance. So when you put yourself in this unfair situation, I feel like your inner child gets mad at you. It's like preparent comparing two brothers were a sister and a brother that were born in different times, different situations. They are not the same gender there, and then imagine your parent doing that to a kid. That's what you were doing to your inner child. And then you feel sad, you feel frustrated, and your mind starts because our mind works on the purpose of not letting us suffer, right so when you start comparing, your mind starts creating this anxiety to think about for you to not suffer. So for me, if I'm comparing myself with that person, what's the solution. I should do this and this and that so I can get close to with And for me, it's it's too much. And I used to be like that. I used to compare myself the whole time with other singers, and then I decided to come out of Brazil, something that nobody was doing in Brazil. We speak Portuguese, not Spanish. I was learning Spanish, learning the culture, learning English. So why I was comparing myself to people outside or to people in Brazil that they were not even leaving Brazil I was. I was putting effort in something that, of course I would need to step a little bit behind, leave Brazil a little bit. So of course I cannot compare with the people in Brazil because they are not putting. They are putting one hundred percent of the time. I'm putting fifty because the other fifty I'm here studying, learning other things. And I cannot compare with the people that speak Spanish or English because they are in Spanish or English they're not in Brazil fifty percent of the time coming back to Brazil to give this and have I had this, always comparing, always comparing, and nowadays I just feel like, wow, I was so I was so mean to myself. You know, it's not fair to do this to you, you know, not even not even about the things that we can see, which is like nationality or physical type, but also family karmas, family traumas, you know, past lives, so many things that we cannot even know how hard it is for me or for you. It's just different.

Hey everyone, it's jayhere. My wife and I have had so much fun creating our own sparkling Juni and I've got big news for you. It's at Target, and we'd love your support. If you can go out grab a Juny. You'll be adding adaptagens and new tropics into your life with mood boosting properties aimed at promoting a balanced and happy mind. Through our commitment to our wellness journey and striving to fuel our bodies with the healthiest ingredients, It's been our purpose to make healthy choices accessible for all, which is why Juni is now on shelves at Target, So head to our store locator at drinkjuni dot com and find juny at a target near you. Yeah, well, said absolutely. I think you're so right there. Instead of connecting, we're comparing and we get lost in that trap and it feels like a prison. Yeah, and you kind of keep going around around in a loop. I mean, speaking of comparing, you were saying that a few years ago, before an event, you would have been like doing so many things and doing all this, and now you're like, well, wait a minute, actually I want to meditate. I want to do this.

What changed into when my song went number one in the world. I worked so hard for that. I was the first Latina, first female Latin singer to have a solo song number one in the world. And it was just like I was everywhere. Everyone was listening to the song, everyone was dancing to it. And then I got sick. I got super sick. And usually when I talk about that, people go like, but what was it what? And we don't know. I just couldn't walk upstairs at my house. I was super tired, I was super I wasn't strong, I couldn't breathe. Well, it was so many things, and then my bladder had issues, and then I did a blood test and it was like a lot of cancer indicators. It was just a lot of things that was at the same time nothing, but it was. It was so crazy. And then I tried everything, stayed in the hospital for so many months and just seeing all this success, and I was not happy at all. I was just in this internal fight with my duality, because I believe we all we all have this duality which is our ego with our soul, you know. And then I met this shaman that she does this method called pregnancy map. She gets all the informations from your mother's pregnancy when you were inside of her, and then she understands the kind that the way your brain works, the way your how your soul, your inner child suffered, what are your fears, your traumas, your karmas. And then I went to her retreat for five days, no cell phone, no no power, no light, nothing, just nature, a lot of therapy, a lot of crystals, a lot of like rituals that are actually like meditation three times a day. And then to eat, we wouldn't eat with knife and fork. It was with the hands to feel what we were eating, the food that was planted there, and we could be part of it, thinking about how this food was done, the whole process until it gets to our mouths and everything. So I was there and this whole time, right, she tells you like things that you want to give up leave and things that you want to bring to you, and I was just, you know, when you're so focused on what people were saying are what people were expecting from you, that you don't listen to yourself. I was kind of like that, and I was writing like I talked too much. I'm very like outspoking. I'm I just I'm always with different guys. I talked too much too much. I'm very like extravagant. I moved my hands too much. I did. You know when you just look at what people say about you and you just want to be less, I want to I want to talk less. I want to be less too much. So I read all those things and then what I want. I want to be balanced, I want to be calm, I want to be patient. Because my brother is very much like that, and my mom. It's fun because nowadays me, my brother, my dad, my mom, we all went on this journey together and my family too, so they all do sessions of Cundalini with me family constellations. It's so good. But my brother was more of like a calm patient to like my mom, and I was very much like my dad party as they they divorced when I was one year one year old. My mom used to be more connected, and it was hard for me to understand when I was a kid, and nowadays I super understand. But it's not about nowadays, it's about when you were a child. She used to have this connection with my dad, with my brother more and I had more with my dad, but he was out. We didn't live at the same house, so that was very painful to me as a kid. So I wanted to be like my brother, and I didn't understand that the fact that we are different is the special You know me as a kid, of course, and then I put all those things and I was so confused. And the character Anita and me as a person is so different, because I think when the artist is an actor, it's easy for the audience to see the actor acting and understand, oh, that's a character, and I don't know how this actor is in life. For singers different because they see you doing that on stage or speaking in interviews. And they think, oh, that's the person, right. They don't understand that that's also a character that you made to protect yourself, that that's your public character, but your real person is really different. Most of the times. For me, it was really hard and I was like, yeah, this Anita has nothing to do with me. I used to be Jill. I used to be there very like mean to me. Again. In the end of the process, my brother went with me because I was like, I'm going to this place that I have no idea what it is. I need somebody to come with me because what if it's dangerous. It was not. It was great, but in the middle of it, in the end of it, my brother was like, oh, I'm so happy it came in. My brother didn't believe in any of these things, right, And I was like, I looked at him and I was disgusted. I felt discussed because she does a lot of like spiritual it's kind of like, let's say reiki, but it's not it's more deeper than that. And I looked at him and I was like, I'm disgusting. And then she came to me and we were going to leave, and she said, how do you feel? And I said, awful. I think I wasted my time. I was feeling this dark energy inside of me was so bad. And she said, okay, lay down, let's talk. They lay down and she put her hands here on me. And then when she did that, and we don't take anything there, right, No drugs, no, not micro dozing, nothing, there's just meditation, that's it. And me as a kid, I showed up in front of me this girl just when my eyes closed, you know, and it happens inside of you. And she was looking at me like this, and I looked at her and I was like, please stay here. There's a demon here, there's a demon standing these dark entergy around us. We need to protect ourselves. And she was just looking at me like this, and I was like, yes, stay here, stay here, and she said, now, it's not a demon. The little me, the little me like that, it's not a demon. You wanted to be less talkative, less this, less that, less jumper, less because I must less expressive. I am not less. I am more. So if you want to be less, I'm gonna leave. I'm gonna let you here alone. And whoa no no no no no no no no no, You're perfect You're perfect the way you are. And I was just hugging, like, you are perfect, please, Oh my god, you're perfect, and she was like, okay, are you gonna accept that. I like to jump, I like to dance, I like to talk cloud, I like to call tension because I'm amazing. You felt lonely and I survived. I'm a genius, I'm smart, I'm talented, and you're not looking at it. They want me to be less, and I was like, oh, I want you to be everything you can be. Please, oh god, oh my god, Oh my god, oh my god. And uh, Since that day and then when we make pieces with each other, since that day, I know how to go there, close my eyes, talk to my inner child and understand what's wrong and huger and say and ask why we're not happy? Why what's happening?

Why are we mad?

Why are we feeling? And she's and then she tells me, and then I'm like, okay, let's get it done. As adults that we are, you know, and sometimes we don't realize that our inner child can be so hurt that start doing things that we don't like. And sometimes we ask ourselves, why do I behave like that? Why I'm so mad or why I'm so childish sometimes, and it's because of that, and we need to learn how to connect. And then after that, I just started prioritizing different things, you know. I started to prioritize my peace, my time, take care of me, because I think people congratulate you a lot about your professional accomplishments. Oh you're doing great, you're doing good, You're doing great, and then you just feel like you need that to be somebody. Yeah, you need that to be somebody, and you don't need I watched the movie these Days, and I love watching movies that put me on a good frequency. I watched a movie these Days called Becoming Nobody. I have to watch that. It was really good, Becoming Nobody, and I was I woke up like some months ago, I woke up feeling and I watched this movie and I came back to my frequency right away, because you know, there are tools that can help you, it's a song or a movie. And I was so there was this emptiness inside of me that I felt like I could fulfill it with success awards, streams, algorithms and these days. A friend of mine from Brazil that she was like very poor very like. She used to struggle a lot in life, and then a few years ago she got everything she wanted, money, everything, success, And she texted me, these days and I have my friends know that I'm very spiritual nowadays, and so they always text me for something. What can I do? I feel it's so it's funny and I feel glad. She said, I feel like I was happier when I had nothing, And I told her, I think it's because when we have nothing, we have something to blame. So we say, oh, I'm not happy because I don't have the house. I'm not happy because I don't have money. I'm not happy because I'm not successful. So we just be like, Okay, it's because I don't have that, let's keep going. Yeah. But when you have it and then you're still not happy, there's nobody else to blame but yourself. Wow, And then you feel bad because you're like, Wow, I have everything and I'm not happy. What's going on? What I'm still looking for? You know, I got all the awards I wanted, I got all the streams, I got this, I got it, and now I still feel that it's missing something. Yeah, but it's not it's because we were doing these things not because we were feeling good or enjoying the journey. It's because we've thought that the result was going to fulfill us on something that just we can do for ourselves.

Yeah, well said, that's really powerful. I've never heard it put like that, that difference between when you didn't have anything, you had something to blame, whereas when you have everything, you don't have anything to blame. And that is so interesting because I think people will say, like, oh, money doesn't buy happiness or words don't buy happiness, and it's like, sure, that makes sense, But the real thing is because we haven't yet figured out what does give our life meaning, what does give us a sense of connection? And I guess that's what's giving you confidence now in your career at this stage, Yeah, to shift and create music from a place of I'm gonna be bold, i'm gonna be authentic, I'm gonna be myself, not going to care about because I think at one point you were saying, I was reading your amazing on a for you in Variety and congratulations on that it was incredible to see and I was reading you were talking about how you know, at one point you did get really attached and addicted to all those things as you do, as things are growing and things are going ahead, and you said, well, now I actually don't feel that way I want to do. You think that's just a natural effect of having achieved so much, and then you think to yourself, Okay, now I want to do something more meaningful.

No, I don't think so, because I know a lot of people that they still feel that they need more. They still feel that it's because they are falling, you know, so they still feel like they need more. They want more. So they want a bigger house, a bigger car, a bigger this, more this, more that, And they are not understanding what's the point, you know, they feel like And I think it's because nowadays, the streaming, the algorithms, the internet, it's just crazy how people operate nowadays. It doesn't matter if you have the biggest success for five years, if nowadays you're not selling as much. If nowadays you're not number one anymore, and you people got used to see you number one many times or top ten many times. Now you're not even going to top fifty. They're gonna start saying, wow, this person dead dead. And I hate this behavior of the industry to be like, oh no, not hot anymore. This person is hot. Now that person not hot. So that means whatever this person did for these five years, I don't know, it doesn't matter because now this person is not hot anymore. Oh cheezy, oh bad eugh, don't associate with this person. This person dad. But if tomorrow this person has a success, oh no, it's super cool. Come on. And that was driving me so crazy, and I just understood we were depending on these people's approval to see if we had value or not. And I did not want to be dependent on that. You know, it feels like you are in the people's hands, and I don't want that. And I feel like we are only successful and happy if we know that if I lose everything, if I'm not number one, number ten, number one hundred, number three hundred, I'm still going to be happy. If yes, then great. If no, then you need to stop everything that you're doing and start working on yourself to make sure even if you lose everything, you're still happy, because then you're going to make good decisions. So I only when I started to go on this journey of understanding myself and understanding that I was doing things just because I was so empty inside and I felt like I was not good enough. I needed more people's approval, people love where it was like a drug. Success is like a drug if you don't understand. It's like part of life. So when I understood that, I was like, I'm just gonna do the type of music that I feel like if I get ten plays, if I have ten million or one hundred, I don't care. I want to feel good. I want to feel happy. Also, I feel like everyone has their moment. God gives us the moment for us to enjoy this amazing and then we go to the next to evolve on something else. We did what we need to hear. Oh great, you killed it, got all the awards, all the success. Let's go to another thing. No, we get addicted because the people in this environment, if you're not there anymore, they're gonna say, ugh, this person, nah, Dad, not good. And then you pay attention to that and you're like, no, I can't lose this. So you keep doing all the things that you were already tired of doing. It doesn't give you the same pleasure anymore, but you keep doing it just so people don't say you've failed. So I was like, you know what, I do not care. Everyone can tell me I failed. Oh my gosh, she used to be a success. Now nobody cares. I care. That's all that matters to me. I don't care if nobody cares.

You know, I love hearing that there's a beautiful zen saying that you're reminding me of this zen saying says that letting go is hard, but holding on is harder. And all of our pain is coming because we're holding on to who we were, holding on to who we wish. We were holding on to what people used to love, holding on to what people validated, what people approved, and we're holding on to that and not realizing that universe, the God energy is trying to gently take us away, but our holding on is what's making it so aggressive and painful. And that's when you know, if you're holding on to anything really, really tight and it's being taken away, it's gonna hurt you. And I think that's what we will go through. We don't want to gracefully accept growth, and so we sometimes get aggressively pushed out and pushed through it.

Yes, it's because I think society has taught us that we need to always be growing. But when they say growing, it's not inside, it's outside. So your house cannot be the same house in ten years. You have to be moved to a bigger one, a better one. Your job cannot be the same job, even if you're happy. No, no, no, you got to be bigger. But nature is one thing we come here and we have. If we see how animals behave right, they go to a tree. The bird goes there, eat what's necessary for him and leaves. The human goes there and gets what's necessary for him. And let me get more, just to have, just to see that I have more, just to show people that I have more. But then you're not even you don't need it, you don't need it. But the way society taught us that we need more, we need to be every day bigger and bigger. Then if you go a little smaller in this area to go bigger in another area that people are not seeing, that doesn't it's not the same value. You know. I chose now in my life to I understood. I went so big and it was so good. I'm down to keep going. And if it goes bigger, it's cool. If it doesn't, it's super cool. Too. I'm happy to sing to the amount of people that I'm singing now, or if it becomes less because I'm a little less crazy, it's fine to me too, because I want to grow in something else. It's so good when you do. When I do my spiritual things, so happy, I feel like nothing could give me this happiness. It doesn't end, it's it just goes and it goes, that goes bigger, and it's unfinishable, you know, And it doesn't give you anxiety. It just gets better, better, better, And I'm like, I'm super down to be less successful here and make more money. Would less not more money, make like less money to get big on this other side, which is inside.

Yeah, you know, yeah, yeah. I always find that material language is big and better, bigger and better, and then spiritual language is deeper and more impactful, and and that depth is I think what sounds like you're searching after with Was this the same time that you were suffering with like endometriosis? Yes, was this like the hormony? Change that?

And then it was more and then I found out that was there that, and then it was my bladder, and then it was it was so many things. And when I came out. I came out of the retreat the cancer levels and my blood was not there anymore. I didn't have anything. It was just getting better. And now I feel like I'm in control. I do feel like emotional when we hold on to emotional emotional traumas and things like that, it can get physical, you know. And when I do like family constellations for example, if people don't they never heard of it, please search because it's so good. When I do that, I feel sometimes pain in somewhere while we're doing the session. I feel like, oh, my bladder or my heart or my stomach. And then when it's when it's over, I feel like, oo, I cleaned. It's better, you know. So I do feel like it can become physical for sure.

What would the biggest traumas that have stayed with you, that have come up for you that you feel you've carried because you obviously grew up in the favelas, you grew up not in the easiest of circumstances. I think you mentioned yourself that you're almost treated like trash in Brazilian people in the first so long and so like, tell me about what are the traumas you felt you've held onto from your childhood that now coming up that you're healing now.

So there's this one interesting situation in the path of this healing thing. There was this one thought that was always coming to my mind. Right I was here being anita. I have three different houses, I have everything I need. Okay, if I want to retire right now, I can and I will live comfortably for the rest of my life. But all of a sudden, I was just here minding my business, and I thought would come to my mind. What if I get pregnant and I lose all my money and I don't have money to survive, and then I need to work in the street to get food to my babies and to and I'll be like, why am I thinking this? Why am I doing that? Why? And then I did this session with my shaman, and she said, this is not your thought. You got this thought the same way we get DNA from our parents, and like the hair, the eyes, the body, we can get from thoughts and the energy behaviors and we don't realize that. So I told her, oh, for real, And then we did a session to clean this right, to remove this from me because it's not mine. It comes from my family. So I did the session and I talked to my mom. I said, Mom, have you ever had this thought of like that you were going to lose everything, We're not gonna have money, this and that. And that was like right before my birthday of thirty years old birthday. So she said, yeah, when I got pregnant from you, your dad lost his job and I felt like we were not going to have money to feed you guys, and I would need to work in houses as like a housemaid or something to buy food. And I was like, wow, that makes she spent the whole pregnancy with this fear of not having the money to feed us, so she was fearing it. And there is like I produced a movie with a friend of mine called Me, and it talks about this the thoughts, the negative thoughts that your mom cares and the pregnancy becomes neuropeptides in your in your brain, so that's why you have these thoughts. And I was like wow, mom. And I did the session with the lady and I got I never had this thought again. And then I was doing my birthday. It was thirty years old, so special, and I had this place that I wanted to do in Brazil and for some reason, every place I was trying it was not available. I was trying everywhere, all not available because of this not available. Because of that, I closed one place. No not avaiable anymore. So there's just this one place, just this one spot. And I said, okay, let's go. What can we do. It's the only spot. Let's let's go. So I sent my dad the invitation. Said to my dad, I said, oh, Dad, the party this year is going to be here. He was like, oh my god, daughter, this address is my dad didn't know about the talk I had, so my mom nothing right and he's my best friend, but I didn't mention him. He goes, oh my god, daughter, this address used to be the company's address that I got fired when your mom was pregnant. And I was like, I'm dad, Wow, Like we're here celebrating my thirty years old with a party like full of everything that we were always afraid of not having and the same address. That's crazy where in life? That for me was such an answer from the universe, right, And I was like, Wow, this is so meaningful and life is full of these these situations that from me are not coincidents at all.

Yeah, that's that's incredible. It is that's really powerful, and I love that full circle moment. I agree and I love I mean the movie that you made is that out? Where can we watch that?

Me? The name is me? My friend of mine, the one introduced me to this shaman. She did it, and then she called she asked me to help her producing it and sharing with the platforms and everything. So I was helping her on this final touch of the movie. And it talks about this about how you can get heritage from your parents, not only in your blood physical, but all also mental and calmas that come from your mom, from your grandmother, from because it comes from father to daughter, you know. And it's important to clean it, to work on it, because otherwise we're here with no purpose. We're not we get We spend all this time here and we don't figure out what's your purpose? What are you here for? You know? And I always had in my life this desire to understand. And when I was a kid, I was very like that already. I used to dream a lot of about a lot of things. My mom tells me that I used to wake up and see people, and I was always very connected. I used to tell them everything that was going to happen in my life, every visions everything. I used to tell them, like, Oh, I'm going to sing here, I'm going to do this, our house is going to be like this, like this. I used to give them details of everything. And my dad, who was always very stressed with work, and he tells me that I used to come to him and say, Dad, don't worry. In the end, everything's going to be great. You will see you're so smart, you're so cute, you're so nice. In the end, you will see you're not gonna worry about any of this. I'm going to be a singer. I'm going to do this and that. And it's so fun when he tells me, because I was actually describing so precisily with precisely what was going to happen.

Yeah, I mean, you've it sounds like you've made so much spiritual investment in transforming your mind, your heart, your energy, your space. And at the same time you've also made physical changes, like I was learning that you also were on birth control and then you left birth control, and I feel like even those types of changes, yes, were linked to this kind of internal change that was going on right like walk me through how life has been different when you were on birth control and when you left like and woke us through that decision.

I just feel like it's not natural. It was not natural, you know, and I was just and it's not fair if you stop to think why just the woman needs to suffer about this situation. You know, it needs to be a two people decision and prevention and care. But with hormones, it was crazy because I couldn't be It was just never life was never like this. It was like crazy to me and I don't get along. My body doesn't receive this well, you know. And when I started to accept to go into more of a natural life. Also in my nutrition, I try to eat vegan and a lot of moments not one hundred percent. I made it for two years and then wow it got Yeah, it was really good. I hope I can get again in the future. But the more I can, I think if everyone cuts at least thirty percent, thirty percent, you can still eat, but just thirty percent less of animals, food and everything. It's already so good for the world, you know, and also for our energy. I understand it's hard, it's delicious. I couldn't I made it two years and I'm back, but just thirty percent less everyone. If we all get together in this decision, it's already a big shift for the universe. You know. That's what I believe. And it changed a lot to me when I started a care and give more attention and priority to this side of life, because before I was just worried about being more successful, richer, make more money. And what it was crazy was that I wanted to make more money, be more successful, but I had no idea how much money it had. I didn't check my bank accounts and I was just making to make it. I didn't even know. Nowadays, I'm more chill, but I know. I check my stuff, I take care of it. But I'm like, okay, I can chill. I don't need a bigger house, I don't need a two different cars. I'm fine.

You know, how is the birth control negatively affecting you hormonially or.

Hair loss? And then the skin goes crazy, and then the mood goes crazy, and then you get very depressed in a moment and then very happy and then very angry, and that it's rolla culture. It's a roller culture. And I just didn't want that and then and also your energy. When it gets close to the period, you have no energy. I just wanted to sleep all day. It was just so bad, And now I'm just stable.

I'm always saying you feel that different.

I can feel totally the difference. But it took for me more than a year to get clean from birth control, more than a year for me to stop feeling the side effects.

And it's interesting what you said about that joint responsibility of prevention between two people, but it all falls on moment.

Yeah, it's two people deciding something right. It shouldn't be just the women's responsibility. And I feel like if it was the men getting pregnant, it would be very different, very different. The laws would be different, the birth controls would be different, everything would be very different.

And I think people don't realize these side effects that you're explaining right now. I feel like it's so common for women to be on birth control, but people don't realize, like how many other negative impacts it's having in life, whether it's mood performance, yes, And.

I think also in the future, maybe when you're older, you're going to feel more. And before I had I had a cobra IUD and it was so bad for my youthirs so bad. It was just a lot of blood, and it's worse for the endometriosities. It was a whole thing. So nowadays I just use condom. They exist. They exist for a reason, you know. I pray God, I talk to the universe. I planned with the universe. When it's the time, I use the condom and let's go, no, no kid today. I just I just I can feel it, and uh, I think the universe when you plant it and when you communicate. I communicate with the universe so much. I say, okay, so I want to do this, this and that, and then you can send me the person that I believe that it's a good person to be the father, be the father of my kids, and then or the mother, and then I will be ready to do it. But I want this answer for me to start this. I need the answer the universe to give me that. So I always talk. I write a lot what I want. I checked the eclipses the moon, and I write according to that. And then I feel like all of this are like natural, safe rituals that you can do that can only do good for you, you know. And I like to take baths, baths of plants, roses where different plants that are good for different I love the indigenous thoughts that that they have and the way the plants can cure everything, and also the energy. So I use that a lot on me. I do my own my own stuff.

That's incredible. I love it. And you've talked a lot about the difference between your authentic self Larissa, and then any I want to know what are the differences in your mind now as you've been it seems like you've been aligning yourself, Like, what are the differences now?

Yes, So every time I do family constellations. I don't know if you know exactly how this process goes.

I know a little bit, But tell us like this.

You get a therapist that is the professional. She opens a circle of energy and then there's a lot of people there. Right, they know nothing about your life, nothing about your going there to treat, So you just tell them. You decide the theme so you can say, oh, I want to treat today, I want to treat my anxiety, or I want to treat depression or whatever. So I'm give an example. There was this day I said today I want to treat self love and then it comes for me. Right. So, and if you go there and you want to treat whatever these people, this ten people there are there, they're gonna get in their bodies the energy of the people from your family that caused you this trauma in your body in that precise moment. So let's say you have anxiety and then you say you sit there and say, oh, I have anxiety. These people one person is gonna receive your dad's energy. It's not that he's going to receive the spirit because your dad is alive, your mom is alive, everyone is alive. But they get the energy and they start telling you where this moment of trauma was done designed draw like written, you know. So let's suppose it's because when you were ten years old, your parents divorced and they were not together. They were fighting a lot. So they are gonna talk as if it was in that moment, and then the therapist will propose like a solution, which is like making peas with each other, understanding that's the best for your kid is to for you guys to understand the kid is half of each one. And then you get together and you're just one, right, and you're good. So I did it many times. So with this consolation, you understand the importance of valuing your dad and your mom or not buying the fight of choosing one side because you are fifty percent of each one of that. I'm fifty percent my dad, I'm fifty percent my mom. I cannot decide who wins the fight of their divortion because they are older, they are adults. I am just a kid that are not the responsible for that, And I need to understand and be grateful that they together did me. And if I start, if I choose a part, I'm gonna be saying bye to fifty percent of myself. So I'm never gonna be happy. I need to be grateful. So that's basically what happens in the constellation. So when I do my constellation, it's not only one person that represents me is too when person always comes with Anita's energy and the other was Ladissa energy, and Anita is very like a superhero. Let's suppose if Ladisa was like a kid insecure and afraid of being judged, afraid of not being loved, if she draws superhero, that's Anita, the one that goes there talk to people. Nothing bad happens to me. I'm the best, I'm the greatest. I do whatever I want, And that's how it came to life. And when I was becoming a singer, I put this character in real life. The problem is that I was working so much to fulfill my emptiness, and when I was working, I was Anita that I started to leave. I was just that and not value what I was Esla Lisa because it was insecure, a regular human that has regular feelings, that can be said, that can be hurt, that can be all of that. So that was when my balance went, like this, and it's bad. The other fifty percent cannot be cannot feel like you're a shit show. You know, it doesn't matter if you have another one that comes out and say I am amazing. The other fifty percent needs to believe that because the other fifty percent was the one that created this one. You know for sure, it's the creature and the creator both are amazing. So I needed to accept and see qualities in both of it and let Anita is just like this crazy girl comes there and also comes from a place of I was assaulted when I was a teenager, and I had to speak about it because I was afraid of someone in Brazil that apparently found out I don't know how, and I was I didn't want my my seek, my deep secret to be spread, not by me, so I needed to talk about it. And after that happened when I was a teenager, I felt like if I was like this, no guy would have would have done that to me. So I created Anita from this moment of pain and sadness. Right because of that, I cannot feel like Letty says, less you know, I'm just a human that has the same insecurities and fears, and and the feel the feeling like half of me had of Anita that oh yeah, that's only good thing that was making me really bad. And I also think that maybe that's why me as a character Anita was just talking so much about sex, about I do this. Sometimes I wasn't even doing shit. I wasn't even doing not even ten percent of what I was saying. But I needed to carry the person or not that persona was really important and that that hurt me my other side for because we feel like, come on, I'm not doing that's not real, that's not real. Why am I doing this? And sometimes that would push me away from relationships that I really wanted to have, and I just and at the same time, this battle would never let me get interested on anybody because I was always feeling It's like a subconscious thing. I would always feel like, oh yeah, I'm gonna get hurt. So I would never be interested on anybody, or I would be for three months and then I'll be like, eh, next, next battle, next challenge. And that's not healthy. Yeah, you know it's different.

Did you believe in right person, wrong time at the time and now you have?

I believe in that. I believe that when things are supposed to happen, they're gonna happen, no matter when. It can be now, it can be later, it can come back. So I don't believe. I think that's more it. But I also believe that the things that society put in our head can mess up relations, all types of relations for us. For example, I'm a singer, I'm successful, I have my money. It's Sarah. It's Sarah. If I decide tomorrow to date a regular guy that I met in a bar at a bar, people will be like, oh, that's all she could get. Oh my god, Anita with this nobody. Ugh. If it's a man, a successful singer, rich guy meeting a girl in the street that works in a store or works in a bar or whatever. They'll be like, so nice, did you see Oh my god, he met a grocer, was a bartender. Oh my god, and he valued her so much. Oh so nice. Is so sweet? What a great man. But if it's a famous, successful, rich woman, oh my god, that's all she could get a bartender. Ugh sucks. Oh no, real man value her. It's kind of like you need a man on your level or more to decide if you're valuable or not. So I think with society and also like for a man, if you were with a woman more successful than you, they were like, oh my god, you see the woman is so much more. And then if it's not this guy's self esteem. So I think it's ying and yang situation that the society is not understanding that women can women can be ying or yeah or you know, yeah, yeah, yeah, And I think that mess up with a lot of good opportunities of people getting together because of society's statements.

Yeah, that's I mean, that's a really really interesting point. And I think there's so many versions of that. Like I've met people that are like, oh, well, I can't date that person because if I date someone outside of my community, then people will say, oh, he doesn't date people in our community, or vice versa. And I feel like there's so many versions of that and the gender breakdown you just shared. I think it sadly is true, and that's why we can't live up try to live up to society's expectations exactly, We're always going to give away, throw away, amazing life opportunities. Yes, I know, someone was saying to me they can't do a movie because people wouldn't want to see them with a certain person. And so people are giving up huge career opportunities for themselves because they're worried about what people will think or what people will say. And I mean talking about that you recently paid homage to Native Brazilian religions in your new music video. Yeah, and you know, which is deeply important to you, and you have this, I think elegant way of balancing your beliefs and even today I think we can see what a spiritual individual you are. But not everyone was happy about that. I think it was like someone like two hundred thousand people decided to not follow you anymore.

Now it's three hundred.

That's three hundred thousand, right, Like, walk me through why it was important to you to pay homage to those traditions, why they were so important to you, and then how do you respond and react to the feeling of three hundred thousand people? Now you said, so, I already knew that was.

Going to happen, because people are very The intolerance of people of their beliefs and different beliefs is so it's crazy, it's crazy people don't accept from In my opinion, religions are it's like veins that go to a heart. They just are in different spots, but they get to the same place to be a better human, to evolve that what's religion is to me? And I believe in all of them. You can see I go to the Shanti Shahman to the church with my mother and then my Yoruba religion. So my mom is very Catholic. My dad, my dad's family brings with him the Yoruba religion. Right that this religion comes from heritages of souls. Right. Religion was originally in Africa and when the slaves were kidnapped by from their countries to be brought to America South America. They of course had their beliefs and religions, but they were very bad punished if they were exercising their religions in Brazil or whatever. So they would kidnap the slaves, bring to Brazil and tell them, now you're Catholic, we don't care and you cannot exercise your religion here. And if they did, punishment killing, not only punishment in Brazil in two Nowadays people get into the temples Tereiros, the temples of Yoruba, to break and kill in the name of Jesus. I honestly don't believe Jesus. I believe in Jesus so much and God everything, but I don't believe Jesus would come to anybody such a bride soul would say, if you see somebody doing that, kill this person. I can't. I don't believe in that. I think Jesus for me is forgiven. Forgiveness is love, is understanding each other's moment and how the speed of each one to evolve. Right, it's harder for one's, easier for others. It's faster for ones for others, it's not. I believe Jesus and all the angels and all the odishas they're all ready when a soul asks for forgiveness and for help. I believe they're always ready to help. So I don't believe there is a God or Jesus that punishes some for not following the rule. I don't believe in that. And my religion believes in the forces of nature yorubam in Brazil is called condomble. We believe in there are entities of different like the waterfall, the fire, the river, the forest, the rain, the sea, so that's what we believe. The sea yeamans from the sea. The fire is Yansa, the waterfalls zoshume, the forest is Osha sea. So we believe in these things and the nature energies because of the fact that a lot of people can impersonate or feel the energy and their bodies. They say it's the demon, but you can't just say things without going there and searching for real getting closed and understanding. Okay, let me see what is this? And I feel like when I in my religion and I follow it. Since I'm a kid, because of my dad, I never felt bad. I always felt like this piece and I can't believe the evil force can just make you feel like so connected to God and so good, you know, and avoiding things that are not good for you. You know. When we're there, we cannot drink alcohol, We cannot you know, it's it's clean, it's beautiful. We don't believe in the devil. We don't believe there is a devil. There is a demon. We believe in humans that can get to a very very low frequency, a very dark place where their souls and then they can become evil and mean. So I don't want to pass the responsibility. I don't want to just say, oh, there is the devil, and the devil is gonna make me be mean. No, we're all humans and we have the we have the dark side inside of us, and if we let it go, we're gonna become that. We cannot find another another person to blame. Oh no, I did that because the devil. No, you let's take responsibility, you know. And so I don't believe my religion. We don't believe there is the demon and God. There is God. There is like beautiful light spirits, but there is like people souls that can get to a dark place, and it's our responsibility to decide if we want to go there, or if we want to go there, not because we are scared of the law and the justice of a punishing God. Because we want to be good. I want to be good because I want to feel good. I want to be a good person, not because I'm scared if I die. Oh my god, they're gonna come and kill me.

No, you know, yeah, And it's it seems like that because you knew that you simply trying to share and express your values and your beliefs and your homage, and you were already disconnected from the fact that people may have a negative viewpoint towards it.

Yes, I didn't. I actually did not care because I think whoever wants to follow Nowadays, I chose this, whoever wants to follow me follows me. If it's ten people, if it's a million, amazing, I'll be happy with ten. I will be happy with a million. I don't care. But I just felt like in Brazil it's so much prejudice. I feel like I like to speak up about a lot of things in my country, not only my country, but whatever. I feel like I have knowledge enough to speak of, I do it. Or I started studying and then after some months years. I'm going to speak about it when I feel like I know enough. It has to be a reason why we get famous, or we get recognized, or we get people to follow, so us we have to use it for something. I can't think like, Okay, God gave me sixty five million people to be looking at what I'm doing, and I'm just gonna tell them by this, buy that, use this, use that, and make money and be rich. I can't. I feel like I need to give back good things for people to have the same tools that I have to be better humans, to be good, and if they feel like they struggle in something, I want to If I have the power or the knowledge to send something good, I want to do it. So I always felt this mission, this responsibility in me, and I don't judge who don't. I feel like each person has your own nose. But because when you do this, that's what happens. You lose people, you get criticized, and some people cannot take it. And I understand that, so I don't judge. I can take it because I don't. If what damn, I couldn't care less. So I do it because I feel like a lot of people are in need of these things because I know how much my religion helped me when I was struggling, when I feel like I didn't want to live life anymore because it was not interesting, because I was not lovable. I know how much the religion taught me that I am part of the nature. I belong to this. So I want more people to feel that if you want to feel great, if you don't, it's okay, you can do you.

Know, yeah, yeah, It's one of the things I've been thinking about lately is when you get into the top one percent of any industry or any place, you get a lot of one percent experiences. So some of those are these really tough experiences of lots of people disagreeing with you, lots of people may not like what you're doing, the choices that you make. And then at the same time, which is what you happen happen do you recently? You recently joined Madonna on a tour and did this most historic event of I think one point six million people, Like I think that's the largest ever audience at a concert, And it's almost like you go from having this experience of you know, having hundreds of thousands of people unfollow you to then having these moments where you're a part of history. I mean, what did that feel like? What was that experience? Like?

It was great. In Brazil, they do these concerts in Copacabana Beach. I did once. It was but it was New Year's Eve, so it was five million people. Oh okay, you've done a No, but it's because it was New Year's Eve. Come on, Madonna, was it was there? No, it was her. She was the event was and she got a million and six hundred thousand people. It was crazy. But a lot of people in Brazil do that in New Year's Eve at the beach and it's amazing. But also her concert had a lot of conservatives saying like, oh my god, this is so oh the devil, the ugh like she was a woman that a dedicated her life to fight for people for their sexualities, for the LGBTQ community, for women to be free to feel pleasure because just men could feel pleasure, and she fought for that and you have to be really brave to face and in that time when she started, it was crazy cops coming to her concert and all the things that she faced too, because she knew she was bringing acceptance to people that wanted to come out, that wanted to be proud of being gay, that wanted to be proud of being lesbian, of having feeling pleasure as a woman. So to me, that was really important. That was a woman celebrating, like with a million gays, a million and something gays at the beach that they were free to be gays. That was amazing, you know, not only gays, but I mean families accepting gays, lesbians, trends. It was so important. But a lot of conservatives were like, oh, this is the devil, this is this is that. And I just feel like we have the choice of doing whatever we want, and we don't need to judge our We're not judges of anything. Before judging another person, we got to see our own situations. So I just don't feel if you don't want to do it, you can just go do your thing and let people do what they want. You know, we're not judges here. We're all souls looking for evolution. And I was so happy that she she invited me. I also fight for so many things that I've believe in my country, you know, and I and I try to help as much as I can nowadays, mostly indigenous and indigenous causes, because the way politicians are killing the Amazon, it's crazy. The way they're just not giving damn to the to the Amazon, to the environment, it's insane. So I like to fight for that because nature has no voice. Indigeners are not on social media, they're not influencers. They're there. There are very good influencers, but still don't have voices that have Indigenous origins. So I like to do my best. And I was just so happy to be there. I was so happy that she invited me.

How did you invite? How did you reach out? How did that come around?

We had a song together on her album some years ago, a funk song on her album, and uh, then when she came to Brazil, the first thing she said, okay, we got to do this, and I actually couldn't. And then I was like moving so many things around so I could be there. It was so important. And she also invited Pablo Guitar, which is a drag queen, very good, great singer of Brazil, very successful, famous drag queen of Brazil.

That's amazing. I mean, you know when I'm speaking to you today and I think when you look at someone like yourself. It's very easy to forget the challenges and the hardships that someone's had on the way up. You know, when you see someone successful, I think a lot of the time we even if we knew them on the way up, we start believing people were an overnight success. And that's when you were saying earlier that you know, then we start to write people off, we find the next person whatever. But you've talked a lot about, you know, even like looking at it from a forward thinking perspective, you talked about just challenges you had with your record label and then finding the right label, Like, could you walk us through some of the key challenges you've had in even breaking out, because I think the odds of someone like yourself from the Villas who does this is so rare and difficult, and you know, I mean, I don't know what the odds are, but I'm guessing it's like, you know, one in whatever, walk us through some of those key challenges that you think you've had to break through on the way up, not now, but the ones that you've had on that journey. And maybe the record label one is a good one to start with.

I think, No, I think the first one was in my country because I come from the favelas, from the ghetto, from the communities, and the rhythm that we do there's funk, which would be like the hip hop in the nineties here in the US. People getting arrested for doing it, people suffering a lot of prejudice. So that was the first one that I was like, Wow, people don't want me in restaurants, people don't want me in magazines, people don't want me anywhere. They think I'm the shit show because I come from this environment, you know, from this that's my origin. So that was like the first one for me to fight against that. And just like I couldn't even like find a management. I was my own manager for so many years, you know, I just I would be the one going to the brands trying to convince them to support me, or to the radios to negotiate my songs. Yeah, yes, me and my brother to negotiate like concerts and everything like that. It was just me and my brother for so many years. And then after that, I think like coming out and convincing label, coming out of Brazil, convincing label team everybody that this could be something, you know, because the last time we had a successful artist was fifty years ago with tom Jo being with a girl from Ipanema and Venicos de Maris and a woman. It was in the with Carme and Miranda. So they were like, no, that doesn't that doesn't happen Brazilians. No, because when you say like a Latin singer, Brazil is a Latin country, but we speak Portuguese, so it's very different. There is another barrier because we speak Portuguese not Spanish. So the songs that go on in a Spanish market don't happen in Brazil. Whatever happens in Brazil don't happen in a Spanish market. So for me to convince the label or the team, my own team, my own brother, that this would work was really hard. He was like, wow, you finally when we broke the presidents here, you want to go to another thing. We didn't even take time to rest. But again my amptiness was like, no, where are you gonna get it? Where you gonna conquer the world? And I just wanted to. I like to try new things. I like to challenge myself. You know, I get bored very easily, you know, not only of men. Now he's going to finish for God's sake, and I was changing. That's changing thanks to Jesus, thanks to the spiritual journey. There's also it right because people think women when it's when a woman doesn't have a relationship for many years because a man didn't want it. No babies, because I didn't want it. Let's see what happens from that one. But it was a big challenge, and my brother was always like, oh my god, okay, let's go. He would go just to be with me, to protect me. But nobody else they would just be like, I am not going with this girl. She's crazy, you know. And I would put my own money. I would just do, you know, just from what I believe and go for it. I just think the difference was that before I was very anxious and pressured and nervous about it, and always like with this feeling of like, no, I need to get it, I need to get it. Nowadays, I'm like, it's okay, whatever happens happens. But this was a big one. And now with and then and then It's funny because when I started to like bring people from a Spanish market to Brazil and then come out with my stuff to outside and things started to go right and go well. Then everyone wants to figure out how to do it. Everyone wants to do it too, and I'm like okay, and then two nowadays, like my album was, it's not an easy album to put out. It's a funk, a Brazilian funk album. People don't do Brazilian funk. There's no playlist to add my songs because it's not it's not in Portuguese, so the Brazilian funk playlist it's not in Portuguese. Here outside, there's no playlist of Front of Funk in English, in Spanish neither. So basically doing like something. Let's see if everyone joins this crazy. I'm sure they will, Let's see what happens. The only reason I could put this album out now is because I was super sick. I thought I was going to die, remember, and I was like, you know what I'm gonna because I've been trying to did this album for so long, but everyone was always like, no, it's it's a fail. This album has no place to put and you see the Okay, this is country, this is pop, this is your album. There's nothing where it is going to be. Is just going to hang around and It took me a very like spiritual place of detachment to be like, Okay, I'm gonna put out whatever happens happens. So I was sick. I thought I was going to die. I was like, I'm just gonna do an album where I like an album that I would do if I didn't care about any of these things because I'm dying, so whatever. So I did this album exactly like that, and it just got bad. You got better, didn't die, and the album was out. And it's funny because still has a lot of like challenges with this album because it doesn't have a place to sit. But I honestly don't care. I'm so proud. I love the album. I can't stop listening to it. And most of my albums I would do to try to get streams and I wouldn't listen to it, but this, I'm like so proud of it. I don't like touring because it's so for me. It's such a struggle to be flying from place to place with no home, being in hotels. I carry it back just of like cleansing to the hotels I get there. I have a sage, I have candles, I put mantras in the rooms very loud and be like, oh clean this Jesus, come clean this beadroom, pass bad put spraise. But for me, it's like a big pressure to be flying from city to city. I called all my priests and shamans and I was like, help me in the store because now I love this album so much, and I'm like, I want to do a tour because I like dancing to this album. I like singing it.

Let's go.

So we're doing it and tomorrow tonight is my second, my third concert from the store and I'm doing good. But I told them help me here because I need all this spiritual connection for me to not go crazy because it's a lot of hotels, jumping from place to place. You know, it's not healthy mentally. It's important the routine and to have like grounding core it's important. So for me, I'm like, Okay, I I need support, spiritual support. But I love this album so much that I was like, I'm gonna do it because I have so much fun on stage doing it. If I'm singing for two thousand people, three thousand people, or forty or fifty, it's the same. I just feel really happy.

I know you talked about the chat nge of changing record labels, and you talked about this pain point of just like I think at one point you said like you would literally give all your organs away if you know, if you could get out of it, walk us through those kind of decisions, because I feel like if you're not in the music industry, we don't actually understand what's controlling what and how things interlink, and we don't know what artists are going through. So from that perspective, if you could tell us about that transition.

So about record label I just think I do think nowadays that I wasn't that mature on the way I did it. But maybe if I didn't do that way, I wasn't be in the position that I am right now. So we would never know it is what it is. I will never be like, oh oh my god, I'd never regret things, because I think things happen for a reason. It's just I really think the way things happen and business should change a little bit, you know, because when we are when we were chasing something, we don't know what's there, right, so we just we go through deals and situations not knowing what's the reality when we get there. And that's a very tricky point because if I'm on this side and I know what's the reality, why would I do something to the person that I know is going to be there and it's going to be different, you know. So I just think business in general, not only labels, but yes, labels, to the investments, the things. I don't know if it's because I'm more of a business person than just the artists. I don't feel like I have the perfect voice or the best dance or the I think I have a little bit of everything, and then I get there. You know, it's a combo. I just think the investments and the thing. It should be more clear so we understand why they do some type of things and why you should do some type of things. But sometimes in all the business, all the industry, and then it's not only about record labels, people come here and they say yeah, yeah, let's do it, and they leave and they're like, uh, forget it, and this should not be like that. Things should be And for me, things are very I like real stuff, real talk. You sit down on me, I will tell you. The problem is Papa, Papa, da da da da, And I expect you to say, okay, so the problem here is da da da da da da da da da da da. And I'll be like, okay, how we get disorted. We do this, we do da da cool. Cool, we both do it. But sometimes most of the times it's not. I sit and I and I'm never gonna change. So I just sit down and I'm like, here's the problem. Papa, pa pa, pa pa. That doesn't mean I don't like you, doesn't that doesn't mean you're not a good person. That means we have this problem. And nowadays, me and my brother we work together for so many years, so when we have issues in a company, we have a company together. We have crazy fights. Let's go to the movies.

Let's and we go.

Because we love each other, we can discussata. Whatever I said is what's gonna happen. Whatever he said is what's gonna happen. Bah bah bah boom. And we have the ability of still looking at each other's face and be like, I appreciate, I love you. Let's go do whatever. But people have a very hard time on doing that, and I don't. I will never understand why, but that's how things work. They just talk here, I talk my real shita. They talk whatever is necessary for you to shut up, and then you go home and you see that it worked for nothing, for no reason. You spent two hours of life that you could have been sleeping, taking a nap, literally, And then people have this. But I think it's in all industries. I don't think it's only in record labels. I don't think it's only in music. I think it's everywhere. People in work have a very hard time on sitting down and being like the problem for you is this? For me is this, let's do this, yeah, and then do what they actually agreed. It's so for me it's I don't know. Maybe I would never get to understand the way business run. That's why I go slow, you know, with my hard times.

But I go, that's brilliant. I love hearing that, and I can see just I want everyone who's listening, if you're not watching, when I'm sitting with you, I I it's so resonant to me that it's such a peaceful place with that, and what I think is really beautiful and special. I was in Bhutan recently this year, and Bhutan's known for measuring gross national happiness, not GDP, so they measure happiness then they have spiritual tradition and it's landlocked between India and China. It's a tiny country, but they have this incredible heart of spirituality that runs through everything they do. And the king famously said they measure GNH gross National happiness. So I was visiting there this year and I met a filmmaker there. His name was Poo, very wonderful gentleman, very very talented, and he, with a very small budget for a movie, made a movie that got Oscar nominated. But Bhutan wasn't even on the list of countries to have an Oscar nomination. But because of him, now the movie got you know, the Bhutan is now on the list. And I often think about that with cultures, traditions, genres that we don't know about yet, that there aren't a Grammy award for that, aren't you know? Like you're saying like there isn't a place for Brazilian funk, Like what playlist does that go on? But I think that's what the world is looking for right now, this opportunity to be introduced. I'm always looking for discovering new I was I was talking about records. I really got into collecting records, and I was traveling and I really got into Brazilian jazz lately, and I never knew about Brazilian jazz growing up, and if it wasn't for the ability to bump into something, and so I actually think what you're doing for music, for the audio library, for people to have these experiences is really cool and powerful because just like Pow who's trying to tell the story of Bhutan that you, like you asked, where is that, a lot of people don't know where Bhutan is and they don't know what it is. But because of power, now they can watch his movies and understand Bhutan. And similarly with you, someone who may not know about Brazilian funk is now going to have the opportunity to understand what that is and what that feels like. And you think about that, like someone had to be first, whether it was hip hop.

Yes, whether it were but it's always going to be harder for the first boys. It's good. It's always gonna be harder the first.

I know that.

And uh, even nowadays with funk in Brazil, it was not playing the radios, it was not the events, couldn't play funk. It was very hard. It could only listen to it in the favelas, inside of the communities, so it was a big, big fight. Nowadays people forget it, but at that time me my brother that we worked hard for it to happen. We remember very well because we know the struggle. But I actually used to care a lot if people remembered or not. Nowadays I just don't care. I just want to have a good time. I just want to be happy, because before I was doing it, but I wanted the credibility of people saying that I was the one who did it and that. There was a time my therapist, which is my schaman, she said, so why are you doing I was like, oh, because you know, I want to change people's lives. And she was like, oh, so why do you care if people acknowledge if it was you or not. If they change the life, that's it. That's what you wanted. And then I was thinking, I was like, what an ego trip? That I was right because I would say it was for the people, but I was very worried with the people if the people were saying it was me. So in the end of the day, if it's for the people, we should not care if people are acknowledging or not. If it was you or not. So right now, I'm in this place of like, and and I think that's what it took, it would take for me to be in this spiritual place of like, to do this album or to do whatever I want to do, to be on a place of like, not care about the response, just do what makes me happy at the moment, you know. And I'm like very much like that now. And I understand that could be less successful. Maybe not number one, maybe not number fifty, but I could careless because inside I feel way better than when I was number one, so much happier.

I'm so happy for you. I feel that for you. Know, what a beautiful place to be in, Anita. You have been a joy to talk to. Honestly, I've enjoyed so much sharing energy with you, exchanging energy with you. I feel I feel uplifted, inspired, I feel connected, And I think everyone who's listening and watching will have felt that from your presence and your words. And you know the wisdom that you shared as well. I think you've You've mentioned in your own words Certatimes, so many times I think you've been underestimated. People only perceive someone for the character they play or from one dimension, and my genuine hope and intention is that this interview will just showcase the multifaceted, multi dimensional individual that you are. And I love the way you're able to be playful and profound all at the same time.

I think people, that's what I want from people now in my life and my career. I want people to understand that we need to find a balance. We are in the material world, so we cannot be just spiritual. We need to eat, we need to you know, we need to work so we can have house to live in. So we just need to find the balance. So I do make music, to shake your ass, to have fun, to jump, let's have sex, da da da. But it's also important to come back and have the other side too. So we can never be happy if we only go into one side. The other side is always going to feel like, oh but it didn't look at me. We need to have the balance, the perfect balance. That's why we are in a material world. To understand that the balance in between these two things. To be able to walk around here and not let these things make you feel like heavy and life is only material, or just not only walk around here and forget the other side. Exists. You know, we're here in the middle, and that's the most important thing to be in the middle.

Absolutely absolutely, Well said. We end every on purpose interview with a final five. So these questions have to be answered in one word to one sentence maximum. Okay, and so these are your final five, Anita. Question number one, what is the best advice you've ever heard or received?

I think it's that I'm in control. I comment, what people do, they comment, how you react and receive you comment?

Well said. What is the worst advice you've ever heard or received?

Oh?

Never give up?

Oh I hate this. Never give up.

It's okay to give up.

My god, it's so okay to give up. If you're struggling, give up, take a nap, rest, do something. Then you come back when you're fine.

Well said, all right. Question over three, what's the first thing you do in the morning and the last thing you do every night?

Oh, it's the same. I have this book five minutes a day. I wake up, I write what three things I want for the day. If they think three things I'm grateful for and affirmations at night, same page, how three things I was amazing on the day and what I learned today?

I love that question before. What's something you've learned recently?

I learned this very important thing. When a person don't ask you for help, don't help. If the person asks you help, don't help someone that didn't ask for the help. If she didn't ask, she doesn't want or he Yeah.

It's unsolicited.

Sometimes we try because we are buying someone's struggle. Oh and this person can feel offended. This for the energy and the family constellation. We learned that when you help a person that is not asking for your help is like you buying this karma. You know.

Yeah, I'm going to go off peace slightly because you inspired a question of me. How has spirituality changed your view of dating and relationships romantic relationships, I.

Feel like it's like a dance nowadays. Before I used to feel like relationships with what I was reading outside, seeing outside from others. And nowadays spirituality taught me that the relationship that you have with yourself is going to be the mirror for the relationship that you have with the other. So nowadays I work and myself a lot, so I can have a relationship with somebody, and when I find somebody that is not having a good relationship with himself. It doesn't I understand. I already know that it's not gonna work, and I don't insist. I let the person know I am here, I'm working on myself, and you're here for us to have a good, healthy, soft, easy, nice thing and grow together inside. If no, then it's not you know, but I used to think of relationship one a very different way, very different way that the person needed to add me and all the things that people outside ask, Oh, how what does he do? D does he DODDA da da? How is the family? What if you have kids? And howa days? I just see inside. Do you treat yourself very well? If yes, then let's go, because I treat myself very well too.

I love that. Fifth and final question. We asked this to every guest who's ever been on the show. If you could create one law that everyone in the world had to follow, what would it be.

I would create a limit of money that each person can have. Wow, that's it, that's what you can have. Now. The more you have, you're going to pass to the nature. You don't need to pass. I understand the money comes for those who work out, work hard, but an effort. But after some here you don't need more. No one needs that much. You need to share. If you want to build a school, cool, if you want to protect the Amazon cool, if you want whatever no one needs. I'm talking about necessity. No one needs billions, billions, no more, No nobody needs than this necessity.

It's not there, Anita, phenomenal answer, fantastic interview. Thank you so much. It has been such a joy. It's been wonderful being with you. I hope that everyone has been listening and watching. Let me and I need to know what resonated with you. I know you guys, cut up the best clips for TikTok and Instagram and make sure you tag both of us so that we can see what stayed with you, what connected with you, what meant something to you. I'm sure that there were so many insights and so many points of wisdom that I need to shared today that have left a mark on you. And I can't wait to see what has stayed with you. Anita, Thank you so much again. Pleasure, such a joy, I love, so grateful and yeah, thank you for sharing this time with me. Thank you, thank you. If this is the year that you're trying to get creative, you're trying to build more. I need you to listen to this episode with Rick Rubin on how to break into your most creative self, how to use unconventional methods that lead to success, and the secret to genuinely loving what you do. If you're trying to find your passion and your lane, Rick Rubin's episode is the one for you.

Just because I like it, that doesn't give it any value, like as an artist, if you like it, that's all of the value. That's the success comes when you say I like this enough for other people to see it.

On Purpose with Jay Shetty

My name is Jay Shetty, and my purpose is to make wisdom go viral. I’m fortunate to have fascinating  
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