October 10, 2025 • 39 mins
Discover the purest love—self-love—and learn how to love yourself through ancient wisdom and daily practice. In this episode, host Ananta shares powerful affirmations for self-love, including the mantra "I love myself unconditionally," and teaches a simple hands-on-heart practice for forgiveness of yourself.
Topics include:
- Self-love affirmations and mantras for daily practice
- Learning how to love yourself after betrayal and trauma
- Forgiveness and letting go of painful experiences
- Self-love journal prompts for inner healing
- Quotes about how to love yourself from the Bhagavad Gita
- The purest love: discovering the true Self within
- Pray for forgiveness meditative practice
Whether you're healing from codependency, seeking forgiveness of yourself, or looking for a book on how to love yourself (check out The Way of the Goddess: https://theancientway.co/wayofthegoddess), this episode offers practical wisdom for becoming your own best friend.
Resources:
Begin with Wisdom: The Way of the Goddess Book
“I very highly recommend it... I think anyone can benefit from its wisdom." Dr. Deepak Chopra: a.co/crHf7Wm
Get Grounded: Free Living Liberated Newsletter
Rituals and inspiration to stay steady and radiant in your purpose: theancientway.kit.com
Know Yourself: Free Chakra Healing Guide
Discover where your energy flows and where it’s blocked with actionable insight: chakrahealingguide.com
Heal Your Gut: Free Digestion Healing Guide
theancientway.kit.com/digestive-healing
Give from a Full Cup: Circle of Life Community
Grow alongside fellow givers: theancientway.co/community
Journey Deeper: Book a Free Discovery Call
calendly.com/anantaripa/discovery-call
Disclaimer: Resources are for educational and spiritual growth purposes only and are not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Please consult your healthcare provider for medical conce...
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
Namaste, and welcome back to the True to Yourself
podcast.
I'm your host, Anan TaripaPajamira.
And today I'm going to talk toyou about the purest love there
is, and that is the love of theself.
When we talk about self-love, itis such an important topic, and
yet it's hard to know where tostart.
(00:21):
We think that love is somethingthat we give to others and that
we receive from others.
This is really true.
But actually, we often don't getto know that love is something
that lives within us, that liveswithin our own heart chakra, and
is always there for us to beable to access, to heal any part
(00:45):
of ourselves that is in need ofthe love that comes from the
self with a capital S.
And this self that is within meis within you and is within all
living beings, all plants, allanimals, all of nature is
vibrating with this frequency ofthe one self that is common to
(01:08):
us all and that unites us all ata very, very deep level.
And the interesting thing thatwe get to learn on the spiritual
journey is that the way to knowthis true self with the capital
S, this big self that is thecommon thread throughout the
universe and throughoutexistence is by actually getting
(01:29):
to know our own self.
In the ancient wisdom ofAyurveda, one of the core
principles is that we are amicrocosm and the universe is
the macrocosm.
Anything, therefore, that youwant to understand about the
world outside the macrocosm, youwill best understand by
examining your own self, themicrocosm.
(01:52):
And similarly, anything that youwish to understand about
yourself, you can look to natureto help you to unlock within
yourself.
And that's why Ayurveda as ascience is so helpful to us in
understanding our connectionwith the world around us through
the presence of these five greatelements.
(02:13):
We're connected to naturethrough our common space, air,
fire, water, and earth elements.
We all have all of theseelements, but they're all in
different degrees and differentproportions, and they combine in
different ways to form what areknown in Ayurveda as doshas.
And when you know your kind ofunique composition of these five
(02:37):
great elements, you're able toreally harmonize yourself with
the world around you and also tounderstand more, even at an
emotional level.
The emotions vibrate at afrequency connected with these
five great elements as well.
When we talk about emotions likeanger and frustration, they are
(02:58):
really connected with too muchof the fire element.
When we talk about emotions likegrief and really deep sadness,
and also the emotion even ofcompassion and love, we are
talking about the water element.
And when we connect with theemotion of fear and anxiety,
(03:19):
it's a lot of movement of theair element within the mind.
And you know, when you look atnature, you see the air going
through tornadoes and throughhurricanes, and our minds
literally through fear cancreate that kind of experience
for our bodies, right?
And our fear can translate intoall kinds of problems at a
physical level.
(03:41):
Similarly, our anger can be seenin the outer world as the
presence of a volcano erupting,right?
And we can be like that volcanoerupting like crazy, or this
ball of sun shine, where whenit's just the right amount, it's
brilliant and you really arehappy to have it.
But when there's too much offire, too much of sun, and it's
(04:03):
just, you know, burning us, thenwe know that it's too much of
the fire element, right?
So that excess of fire is anger,and that creates a lot of havoc
in our minds and bodies as well.
I actually have gone throughthis amazing journey with the
emotion of anger that I feelcompelled to share with you a
(04:24):
little bit about today myself.
I had learned about ancientVedic spirituality from a
variety of teachers andlineages, and I feel very
grateful for all the teachersI've had, genuinely.
I feel that each and everyteacher has really served me so
well on my journey andapproaching each one with the
(04:45):
intention to really separatewhat I was being taught from the
messenger of the teachings waspart of what allowed me to go
through some really devastatingheartache and betrayal with the
teachers I studied with.
I had really, you know, idolizedthe teachers I had learned from,
(05:09):
and I outsourced a lot of thelove that lives in my own heart
to such beings who I felt werebringing me closer to understand
what is the nature of love, whatis the nature of the self with a
capital S in the universe thatwe are living in, and how do I
connect with it?
And I don't regret any part ofthat journey.
(05:31):
I feel I had to go on thatjourney, and I had to then wake
up through that journey torealize that the ultimate
teacher is actually withinourselves.
The real guru lives within you,within me.
And I feel that it's the samewith love, right?
(05:52):
Like we go through our wholelives outsourcing love.
We feel we need to get it fromoutside, we need to give it
outside, but we forget thatthere's a self-regenerating fuel
of love that's already there forus, right within the convenience
of our own heart chakra.
And once we know that this isactually where we need to be
(06:13):
looking, it makes the journey alot more efficient and effective
to actually unlock what it iswe're really looking for.
I remember listening recentlyactually to an amazing podcast
that Elizabeth Gilbert, thefamous author of Eat Ray Love,
had given with Oprah Winfreyabout her journey of writing
(06:36):
this extraordinary book abouttraveling to Italy and eating
her way to find love, going toIndia and praying her way to
find love, and then ultimatelygoing to Indonesia and finding
love in another human being.
And then about how theaftermath, after becoming very
famous and receiving love,right, and admiration from all
(06:57):
sorts of humans from all overthe world, and lots of money and
accolades, and a film even madeabout her with Julia Roberts,
and just the whole nine yardsthat you know any author
probably would dream about, sheended up after that journey
quite devastated on the inside.
(07:18):
Here, all of the outer successhad come to her doorstep, maybe
rather unexpectedly.
And rather than feel such joyand happiness and fulfillment at
what was coming from theoutside, she found herself
actually leaving therelationship with the person she
(07:40):
wrote about in the book andgoing to pursue a relationship
with a drug addict.
And it about how you know it wasit was such a journey for her,
even to then go and get someheroin or or whatever you know
drug this person was addicted tofor that person, and being told
(08:04):
that the person giving it to herwas such a big fan of epre love
and not having a script for whatto say when that happens and
you're going to get drugs foryour partner because she was so
addicted to love.
She had a love addiction, whichis also known as codependency.
And I feel that we all havethis, you know, to a greater or
(08:26):
lesser extent.
A lot of us look to food, lookto spirituality, look to
romantic relationships or anykind of relationships, look to
social media, look to otherpeople's acknowledgement and
praise to try to get that lovethat we're always looking for.
But what's so important, I feel,on this journey is to be
(08:49):
anchored in the knowledge ofwhere love really lives.
And I feel that having anopportunity in life to develop a
relationship with your ownhigher self is the greatest
opportunity that we can have ashuman beings to really start to
connect with the true source oflove, to stop going to other
(09:14):
people like you know, we'rehungry and they have the food
that we need and realize, oh,the food that we want is
actually right here.
It's within ourselves, and wedon't have to even order it, we
don't have to wait for it.
We just have to close our eyesand connect with ourselves and
look within for it.
And yet it's the hardestjourney, right?
(09:35):
It's the most convenient onebecause our heart is right
within us, and yet we mighttravel miles and miles to study
with different teachers, andcertainly I've done that myself.
So I speak about this from verypainful and profound personal
experience.
But I feel that what you knowchanged everything for me is
(09:58):
really being so diligent aboutseparating the teachers from the
teachings and really embodyingthe teachings.
I was a very, very disciplinedstudent.
Every single thing I learned, Ireally practiced it.
I basically lived a monasticlifestyle for many years.
And I loved it because it was anopportunity to really experience
(10:22):
the liberation that comes fromdiscipline and that comes from
actually connecting with thesource of love and connecting
with the divine within our ownself.
And through, you know, spendingtime really studying the
spiritual texts, reallylistening to the teachings,
(10:43):
deeply transcribing them,internalizing them, writing
about them, reflecting about onthem, and also sharing them
eventually with people overtime.
It was such a transformationalexperience for me that I loved.
I loved doing all the practices,waking up really early in the
(11:04):
morning, chanting lots ofmantras on a jappa mala, which
is like a garland of rosarybeads.
I would do this water cleansingritual.
I actually still do a lot ofthese things.
And it is something that I justyou know got into such a rhythm
with and doing a lot of selflessservice and you know, the whole
(11:26):
process of sitting with thetruth, receiving the truth,
listening to the teachings ofthe truth, I never would miss a
lecture.
And I would spend a lot of timeinternalizing it, practicing
what I learned, and then youknow, sharing about it through
editing books, through doingdifferent kinds of service
projects for the school.
And then, you know, abruptly, asI was completing the editing of
(11:52):
a very, very powerful book,actually about discovering the
sovereignty within yourself, Ireally got tested if I
understood what it is I waslearning about in this
laboratory of spiritualteachings.
And over time I really realizedthat the most important
(12:16):
teachings that we know are signsof true spirituality awakening
are when we can really practicedetachment and discernment.
Discernment of what is trueversus what is false,
discernment of what is going tobe beneficial for us and also
(12:37):
other people and what is not,right?
And the detachment is theability to let go of that which
no longer serves us.
And as I really, reallysurrendered to practicing these
two primary disciplines, I gotinto a really tough few months,
like a six-month journey of justone betrayal after another in
(13:01):
this organization.
And I didn't even have time todo all the elaborate practices
that I loved to do and that Ihad done so diligently for so
many years because I was beinginundated with so many outer
things I needed to do tobasically help these teachers
manage their lives.
You know, they're they're reallydependent upon me.
(13:22):
And because I was somewhataddicted to love that came from
from outside and from them, Iwas very much, you know, all
about doing whatever it is I wasasked to do, as per the ancient
tradition of study withtraditional teachers.
And so I was very, very busy.
I didn't have as much time to dothe practices that I had come to
(13:44):
really love and appreciate.
But I developed a new practiceduring that tunnel of going
through all this heartache andbetrayal that really got me
through.
And that was just a reallysimple practice of placing my
hands on my heart multiple timesin a day.
And I invite you to join me indoing this.
Just place your hands on yourheart, and we're going to
(14:08):
silently repeat a self-loveaffirmation.
It's very, very simple.
I love myself unconditionally.
I love myself unconditionally.
I love myself unconditionally.
(14:31):
And as I will do this, I wouldjust observe whatever emotions
were coming up.
And it's like giving a hug toyourself, right?
Like you feel your own heart.
And I would feel sadness, Iwould feel some anger, I would
feel, you know, just so manythings.
(14:52):
But it was my way to reallyconnect with me through this
process.
And it was my way to really getto know my own heart, to get to
know my own emotions, to know myown pain, to know my strength
also.
And also to practiceforgiveness, right?
Forgiveness is a quality of theheart.
(15:14):
And it's something we can onlygive to another when we're able
to extend it to ourselves firstand foremost.
And I had to really forgivemyself for allowing myself to go
through so much of punishmentand abuse of different kinds and
just, you know, beinggaslighted, being manipulated.
And and I, in doing that,actually came to a really
(15:37):
important discovery that I hadjust basically recreated my own
childhood trauma subconsciouslyto have an opportunity to
rewrite the end of that script.
And because I had gone throughthis journey of so much study
and an intention to really livethe teachings, not just digest
(15:59):
them and absorb them and youknow, approach them like a
hungry animal, but to actuallylive them, to actually embody
them.
I through God's grace, right?
There's a combination of our ownself-effort and God's grace that
I feel goes into everything, Ireally experienced an awakening
(16:19):
to my own sovereign power to sayno and to forgive with grace and
also to set some really, reallyhealthy boundaries for the first
time, perhaps in my life in thisparticular classroom.
And it was the beginning oflearning on a whole new level
(16:42):
what it meant to really be aspiritual warrior and what it
meant also to really practiceloving myself and to learn how
to be a friend to myself, how toreally become my own best
friend.
And that journey was hard, youknow.
That journey involved a lot oftears, a lot of internal
(17:05):
searching, soul searching,really, really, you know, being
with myself.
I moved across the country, Istarted new work, and I started
to then share what I hadlearned.
And it was such an amazingexperience because then I
recognized, oh, maybe I'm doingsome of the same pattern of
(17:29):
people pleasing and you know,somewhere valuing the opinions
and the contributions of otherpeople who I'm serving more than
uh being connected to myself.
And so even after creating somuch outside, I decided to go
within and to really connectever more with my own self and
(17:54):
to, you know, sort of redo someof the practices that I had
learned.
I wrote this book, The Way ofthe Goddess, which is a journey
through the nine chakras, andit's a journey that I developed
based on what I had learned frommy years of spiritual studies,
and and it became my own roadmapfor my own self.
(18:15):
I feel that this has been andcontinues to be my own map for
learning how to love myself andhow to really become my own best
friend.
And I knew that even as I'mwriting this for other people,
technically, this is first andforemost my own personal
transformation project.
(18:36):
No matter what happens as aresult of it, I am very
committed to living thisknowledge and to embodying this
path, this way of the goddess.
And boy, did I go through trialsand tribulations as I set that
intention.
These teachers even had tried tostop the publication of my book.
(18:57):
And I didn't let any of thisaffect me.
It didn't affect me the way thatit did before, simply because I
had set that intention and Ikept going back to it that this
is not about proving myself,this is not about having a next
eat pray love big, you know,success in the world.
(19:18):
The success of this book isactually my linear, my being the
book.
I really feel that as authors,as teachers, as therapists and
coaches, as parents, as leaders,as anyone who has the ability to
influence and impact otherpeople, whatever it is we are
telling others and sharing withothers and teaching and
(19:41):
preaching is somewhere our ownhigher self actually giving us
what it is we need for our ownevolution and our own growth.
And when we have the humility toreally recognize that, to really
embrace that, and to also carveout some time and space to
digest what the heck that meansand what it is I'm saying to
(20:04):
others that I actually need todo more of myself and I need to,
you know, constantly look atwithin myself.
It ignites such an amazingjourney of learning, of growth,
of discovery, and of really,really true, profound healing.
Part of the role of healers isto heal thyself, right?
(20:25):
It's not about just simplyhelping others.
I personally started learningAyurveda, the world's oldest
healing system and the sisterscience of yoga with the
intention of helping others.
I had no intention of actuallydoing it myself.
I thought, oh, I'm fine.
It's all about what I give,right?
It's about how much we helpothers that we get valued and
(20:46):
that we get rewarded, right,with the worldly things that
come with being of service,right?
Even having people say thankyou.
As simple as that, you know, andthen as I got into writing
books, I didn't even seek thatout, but it came to me.
And it could have totally becomeabout what kind of attention
(21:09):
I've got as a result of it.
And I'm very grateful that mybooks have done really well in
the world as far as, you know,whatever that means, as far as
other people's benefiting fromthem and having genuine
experiences of transformationwith them.
But as I observed in my teacher,they were teaching one thing and
practicing another and totallymiserable as a result.
(21:32):
And I realized that, gosh, whatthey're teaching would help them
so much.
It's exactly what they need tolearn.
And as I'm saying that aboutthem, I'm realizing that's what
I'm doing as I write.
That's actually the main thingis that I live this journey.
And I am so happy that I setthat as my intention because
(21:52):
it's made me just ever open andeager to learn every single day.
My dad always says that life isa learning curve every day.
You learn something new.
And I literally have learnedsomething new every day of these
past years of just, you know,learning what it means to even
(22:12):
share this knowledge with you,how to do a podcast, how to, you
know, be out in the world onsocial media, how to write
books, how to get thempublished, how to, you know,
actually follow through on myown promises to myself and to
other people.
And just having this focus onintegrity, right?
And on really like embodyingwhat it is I'm sharing with
(22:34):
other people.
It's led me so, so deep intodiscovering so many different
healing modalities as well.
Most recently, I had been goinglocally for acupuncture sessions
to help with some neck-relatedtrauma that I've had due to a
car accident I was in almostthree years ago.
And the acupuncture was amazing.
(22:56):
The center has all kinds ofdifferent healers and all
different kinds of sessions thatyou can benefit from.
So they had homeopathic consultavailable where you could go for
15 minutes and have a freereading of your organs and see
what may be needing some harmonyand you know help, right?
(23:18):
So I'm like, oh, this is cool.
This is like my chakra healingguide that I help other people,
you know, discover which oftheir chakras are needing some
attention or maybe out ofbalance and how they can align
it.
And you can, you know, checkthat out in the show notes.
I have a link to thechakrahealing guide.com.
But this is like my chakrahealing guide, you know, to go
(23:39):
and have this doctor actuallycheck out all of my organs and
the energies connected to them.
And it was so amazing what hediscovered in terms of these
really, really old programmingof scripts that I had had since
traumatic childhood experiences.
(24:00):
I realized along my healingjourney that I definitely
recreated parts of my childhoodin order to be able to be the
sovereign author of the endingof that script.
And I was very proud of myselffor the way that I resolved the
outer conflicts that I had withthese teachers who had tried to
really, you know, manipulate meto such an extreme degree.
(24:23):
But it wasn't over just to haveresolved it even in a better way
with them.
It was actually what I hadinternalized about that
situation that needed to beliterally rewritten.
I teach a spiritual warriorprogram, now known as Become the
Hero of Your Own Journey, tohelp people do exactly this, to
(24:45):
rewrite the story of their owntrauma through the lens of the
hero's journey and throughapplying some of these ancient
spiritual teachings to your verypainful, you know, personal life
situations.
It was so amazing and sohumbling to have someone offer
(25:06):
me the opportunity to do thatfor myself.
And after teaching this program,you know, twice, I sat down and
literally was supported torewrite the script of the trauma
that had led me to this darksituation of betrayal and
manipulation with outerteachers.
(25:29):
And I'm like, wow, you know, I'mso glad that I was open to this
and that I was ready for thisbecause I had that intention and
I had that understanding thatwhatever I'm doing for others is
also something I need to bereceiving from my higher self
and from you know whateversources are aligned with that in
the outer world.
(25:50):
And it was just so so beautifuland so amazing to be able to
literally be guided in how torewrite the way I internalized
traumatic experiences in my ownchildhood.
I have done this in my book,definitely, for a lot of the
situations that I have been in,and it's been very, very
(26:10):
liberating for me.
But it was just amazing to havesomeone else actually help me
with even deeper stories that goeven further back than anything
I have ever even written about.
And oh, I can't tell you howmuch relief I have felt from
that discovery of where thisreally deep-seated anger came
(26:34):
from.
I was having so many breakoutsin my skin for all these years
that of, you know, recoveringfrom the abuse that I went
through with these teachers.
And yet it wasn't until Iconnected with this doctor that
he could really, really take meright to that source of the
(26:54):
trauma and rewrite a script thatincludes forgiveness of myself
and forgiveness of the other,and an intention to really
dissolve that karma that createdthat situation.
Because on a spiritual level,nothing happens by accident.
There's nothing random and thereare no coincidences.
We are always creating our life.
(27:15):
And when we know this, when weknow that every thought, every
word, every action that we takeis actually creating the seeds
of the karma that comes to us inthe future, we start to become
really, really responsiblebeings and we become awake to
not only our responsibility, butalso the power then that we have
(27:38):
in our own hands to write thestory of our healing and to
write the story of our hero'sjourney.
And, you know, this experienceof receiving the medicine that I
give to others for myself andfinally getting clear of all
this heat in my skin that wascreating all these recurring
breakouts that I could not evensolve, even though I have all
(28:01):
this knowledge of Ayurveda,which helps so many people with
skin.
And even I have helped a lot ofother people with their skin,
but somehow mine was just, youknow, continuing to be a
problem.
I got to the bottom of it and Iwas like, wow, you know, it's
amazing how the universe broughtthis to me.
And I also am just so gratefulnow to have this new community
(28:25):
called the Circle of Life, whereI am continuing to do this for
myself, actually, first andforemost.
Creating the Circle of Lifecommunity has been my gift to my
own self.
I have to say this because it ishelping healers, therapists,
coaches who are giving to givefrom a full cup and do so with
(28:47):
ongoing connection that sustainsthem.
I have met so many incrediblehealers, teachers, therapists,
and coaches through my healingjourney.
And I've also met some reallycrazy ones that I, you know, got
through a lot quicker than I didmy original teachers because of
what I had learned from thatclassroom.
And I really, reallystrengthened my muscle of
(29:08):
discernment and detachment.
And in that process, I realized,gosh, I have all these great
friends.
You know, I have all these greatpeople of all ages, of all walks
of life, of all backgrounds andall different modalities of
work.
But what is the common threadbetween us all is this really,
really deep-seated calling to beof service and to transform
(29:30):
whatever pain and trauma we'vegone through to be of service
and to really, really helpothers in some way, and at the
same time to continue to growand evolve so that when even our
work reaches a bigger scale andmore people, we won't get so you
know, disoriented by it that wewill need some kind of outer
(29:51):
dependency to cope with it,right?
Because that is actually theshadow side, even of fame, even
of success.
And I feel more than Ever thatit's the company that we keep,
the satsangha, the connectionwith truth, that really sustains
us on this journey and allows usto grow in deeper ways than we
could do by ourselves.
(30:12):
Because healing actually doesn'thappen in isolation.
It happens through connectionand it happens through safety
and through trust.
And as I've rebuilt my abilityto trust myself and to trust,
you know, in who is trustworthy,right?
Who is worthy of my trust.
I have been so grateful todiscover so many wonderful souls
(30:35):
who have pure hearts andmissions.
And I felt that it's importantto bring us all together because
we're so often giving the loveto others.
And yet, you know, here's aspace to receive that.
Here's a space to come and shareyour hero's journey to share
your story as your medicine andto share, you know, even about
(30:55):
the pain that you've gonethrough with the lines of what
it is you learned from it andhow you grew as a result of it.
Because we draw strength fromstories, we draw strength from
each other.
And what we used to do in theWell, which is an amazing
integrative wellness center,coming soon here to Miami,
Florida, which is nearby where Ilive, is something called the
(31:16):
like a grand rounds, where wewould all, as practitioners of
different modalities, look atpatient case studies with the
lens of our particularmodalities and what we would
say, you know, from thatperspective.
But we never did this forourselves.
So I decided to create a spacewhere any healer, therapist, or
coach can bring their ownquestions.
(31:38):
It could be related to clientsor patients, no doubt, but also
your own questions, like, okay,this is coming to me, right?
Like this person has this issue.
What is that mirroring back tome?
Because it always is.
Nothing comes randomly, right?
Everything is a teacher,everyone is a teacher.
But are we awake to learning?
What are we learning?
And also how do we learn fromeach other?
(31:59):
And how do we draw upon thecollective wisdom that we all
carry, right?
So that it's not like apersonality-based mission, but
actually one that is inviting ofa true sense of connection
through community and people whohave the same values.
Another offering of this circleof life, as I call it, is a
(32:21):
member-led workshop.
Each month we have a workshopbased on one of these nine
themes of the heroes' journeythat I take through through this
podcast, through my book, andthat has just become a life map
for me.
And this month in October, we'reactually doing a special
member-led workshop with mystudent Cheryl Montanis, who was
(32:42):
my guest on the last episode ofthis show.
And she talked about her hearthealing transformation through
the Heroes Journey program thatshe was with me in.
And she actually is an emotioncode certified practitioner.
So I asked Cheryl to lead us inan emotion code member-led
workshop.
(33:03):
I'm personally so excited for itbecause it's all about releasing
trapped emotions that have comein when we've had such
overpowering experiences thatour body literally could not
digest them or process them.
And so they get stored somewherein our body and keep creating
problems for ourselves indifferent ways or the same way
(33:24):
and just over and over again,right?
So as I've gotten cleared ofmany things, I'm still so
excited to know, like, okay, isthere something in my neck from
the car accident trauma?
Is there any fear, you know,that got in there because that
was such an intense experience?
Is there still anything morefrom my childhood that I need to
let go of?
(33:44):
Like I'm so excited to explorethis and just, you know, get
into releasing more and more ofthis.
And, you know, really justwalking this path of liberation.
I love teaching about thisbecause this is what I'm
learning.
You know, I'm learning to be thehero of my own journey in every
possible way.
And it's been such anextraordinary journey.
(34:05):
And I really just my intentionis also to extend this space
that I've given myself, thispermission that I've given
myself to receive what it is Iteach other people with all the
healers, therapists, and coacheswho are drawn to this type of
container and to this type ofcircle for deepening into your
(34:26):
own mission and your own healingin that process.
And as we do so, we really learnto befriend ourselves first and
foremost, because that's themedicine, that's the love
actually that comes from deepwithin, that sustains us, that
heals us, that transforms us,and that allows us to continue
(34:47):
to give from a full cup, right?
And have that ongoingconnection.
There's a lot of loneliness, Ithink, in those of us who give
and heal.
We can feel very isolated andmisunderstood.
I know I've even felt that waymany times on my journey.
And yet just knowing thatthere's other souls out there
who are committed to this,right?
Who are on it, who are with usin their own parallel universe,
(35:11):
you know, doing this in theirown way, I think just gives a
lot of strength and a lot ofcomfort and a lot of upliftment
to the soul as we continue toevolve ourselves and really
become the best version ofourselves, right?
And that's what this journey isall about.
And I love how, you know, in theBhagavad Gita, this great text
(35:33):
of the yogic tradition, LordKrishna has said to the warrior
Arjuna on the battlefield, youmust lift yourself by yourself.
Do not lower yourself.
Yourself alone is your friend.
Yourself alone is your enemy.
(35:53):
So whether you choose to be yourfriend, whether you choose to be
your enemy, know this that it isindeed a choice.
And together, let us continue topractice this beautiful
self-love affirmation that Ilove myself unconditionally.
Let anything come and go, letanyone come and go.
(36:14):
But I love myself, I love thetruth, I love liberation.
And may that be our mantra, maythat be our prayer of
forgiveness of ourselves, ofothers, of anyone who's hurt us,
of ourselves for hurtingourselves, of ourselves for
internalizing some veryself-defeating scripts and
(36:35):
stories unconsciously due to nothaving processed the experiences
of life.
Let us just, you know, allow itall, accept it all, release it
all, forgive it all.
And if this resonates with you,I really would love to invite
you to join us.
You can visit the show notes andlearn more about the community
(36:58):
at theancientway.co.
It is co I couldn't get the dotcom, so it's co slash community,
and you'll learn about thecircle of life there.
And you can book free interviewwith me.
The first year of membership isactually totally free.
So I really believe that thiscontainer and this kind of
support needs to be there foreveryone who's on this journey
(37:19):
of trying to help others andheal yourself, no matter what
your situation or if you'veinvested into your practice or
your business and your funds arelimited, it doesn't matter
because your presence is themedicine, and this will just be
available for you.
So whenever you feel ready, Iwelcome you to benefit from it.
We have a regular newsletter andall these rich offerings that I
(37:43):
just shared with you about, andwe're growing.
So, you know, the more themerrier.
Please feel free to join us.
And also, I I offer thesetransformational programs based
on both of my books, which arecontinuing to transform me first
and foremost.
One is starting up very soon,actually next week, called Take
(38:03):
Health into Your Own Hands.
It's an eight-week journey toreally learn Ayurveda's
incredible healing wisdom, tolive in harmony with nature, to
really practice loving yourselfin a very tangible, practical,
day-to-day sort of way.
I also teach a program of 10weeks called Become the Hero of
Your Own Journey.
(38:23):
And that's the journey that I'mon, you know, learning how to do
that.
And I learned a lot along theway, and I continue to learn a
lot from all the wonderful soulswho come through that journey.
And it's it's available to you.
So just please feel free tocheck out the website,
theancientway.co not.com.
And we will be so delighted tomeet you and to welcome you into
(38:45):
our ecosystem of offerings thatare designed to really support
you to know yourself, to loveyourself, and to liberate
yourself and be of the highestservice you can be to this
divine universe.
And so, with that, I thank youso, so much for joining me on
(39:05):
this episode of the True toYourself podcast, a place where
we explore the power ofauthentic living.
I am your host, Ananda RepaAjameh Namaste.
Namaste, and welcome back to the True to Yourself
podcast.
I'm your host, Anan TaripaPajamira.
And today I'm going to talk toyou about the purest love there
is, and that is the love of theself.
When we talk about self-love, itis such an important topic, and
yet it's hard to know where tostart.
(00:21):
We think that love is somethingthat we give to others and that
we receive from others.
This is really true.
But actually, we often don't getto know that love is something
that lives within us, that liveswithin our own heart chakra, and
is always there for us to beable to access, to heal any part
(00:45):
of ourselves that is in need ofthe love that comes from the
self with a capital S.
And this self that is within meis within you and is within all
living beings, all plants, allanimals, all of nature is
vibrating with this frequency ofthe one self that is common to
(01:08):
us all and that unites us all ata very, very deep level.
And the interesting thing thatwe get to learn on the spiritual
journey is that the way to knowthis true self with the capital
S, this big self that is thecommon thread throughout the
universe and throughoutexistence is by actually getting
(01:29):
to know our own self.
In the ancient wisdom ofAyurveda, one of the core
principles is that we are amicrocosm and the universe is
the macrocosm.
Anything, therefore, that youwant to understand about the
world outside the macrocosm, youwill best understand by
examining your own self, themicrocosm.
(01:52):
And similarly, anything that youwish to understand about
yourself, you can look to natureto help you to unlock within
yourself.
And that's why Ayurveda as ascience is so helpful to us in
understanding our connectionwith the world around us through
the presence of these five greatelements.
(02:13):
We're connected to naturethrough our common space, air,
fire, water, and earth elements.
We all have all of theseelements, but they're all in
different degrees and differentproportions, and they combine in
different ways to form what areknown in Ayurveda as doshas.
And when you know your kind ofunique composition of these five
(02:37):
great elements, you're able toreally harmonize yourself with
the world around you and also tounderstand more, even at an
emotional level.
The emotions vibrate at afrequency connected with these
five great elements as well.
When we talk about emotions likeanger and frustration, they are
(02:58):
really connected with too muchof the fire element.
When we talk about emotions likegrief and really deep sadness,
and also the emotion even ofcompassion and love, we are
talking about the water element.
And when we connect with theemotion of fear and anxiety,
(03:19):
it's a lot of movement of theair element within the mind.
And you know, when you look atnature, you see the air going
through tornadoes and throughhurricanes, and our minds
literally through fear cancreate that kind of experience
for our bodies, right?
And our fear can translate intoall kinds of problems at a
physical level.
(03:41):
Similarly, our anger can be seenin the outer world as the
presence of a volcano erupting,right?
And we can be like that volcanoerupting like crazy, or this
ball of sun shine, where whenit's just the right amount, it's
brilliant and you really arehappy to have it.
But when there's too much offire, too much of sun, and it's
(04:03):
just, you know, burning us, thenwe know that it's too much of
the fire element, right?
So that excess of fire is anger,and that creates a lot of havoc
in our minds and bodies as well.
I actually have gone throughthis amazing journey with the
emotion of anger that I feelcompelled to share with you a
(04:24):
little bit about today myself.
I had learned about ancientVedic spirituality from a
variety of teachers andlineages, and I feel very
grateful for all the teachersI've had, genuinely.
I feel that each and everyteacher has really served me so
well on my journey andapproaching each one with the
(04:45):
intention to really separatewhat I was being taught from the
messenger of the teachings waspart of what allowed me to go
through some really devastatingheartache and betrayal with the
teachers I studied with.
I had really, you know, idolizedthe teachers I had learned from,
(05:09):
and I outsourced a lot of thelove that lives in my own heart
to such beings who I felt werebringing me closer to understand
what is the nature of love, whatis the nature of the self with a
capital S in the universe thatwe are living in, and how do I
connect with it?
And I don't regret any part ofthat journey.
(05:31):
I feel I had to go on thatjourney, and I had to then wake
up through that journey torealize that the ultimate
teacher is actually withinourselves.
The real guru lives within you,within me.
And I feel that it's the samewith love, right?
(05:52):
Like we go through our wholelives outsourcing love.
We feel we need to get it fromoutside, we need to give it
outside, but we forget thatthere's a self-regenerating fuel
of love that's already there forus, right within the convenience
of our own heart chakra.
And once we know that this isactually where we need to be
(06:13):
looking, it makes the journey alot more efficient and effective
to actually unlock what it iswe're really looking for.
I remember listening recentlyactually to an amazing podcast
that Elizabeth Gilbert, thefamous author of Eat Ray Love,
had given with Oprah Winfreyabout her journey of writing
(06:36):
this extraordinary book abouttraveling to Italy and eating
her way to find love, going toIndia and praying her way to
find love, and then ultimatelygoing to Indonesia and finding
love in another human being.
And then about how theaftermath, after becoming very
famous and receiving love,right, and admiration from all
(06:57):
sorts of humans from all overthe world, and lots of money and
accolades, and a film even madeabout her with Julia Roberts,
and just the whole nine yardsthat you know any author
probably would dream about, sheended up after that journey
quite devastated on the inside.
(07:18):
Here, all of the outer successhad come to her doorstep, maybe
rather unexpectedly.
And rather than feel such joyand happiness and fulfillment at
what was coming from theoutside, she found herself
actually leaving therelationship with the person she
(07:40):
wrote about in the book andgoing to pursue a relationship
with a drug addict.
And it about how you know it wasit was such a journey for her,
even to then go and get someheroin or or whatever you know
drug this person was addicted tofor that person, and being told
(08:04):
that the person giving it to herwas such a big fan of epre love
and not having a script for whatto say when that happens and
you're going to get drugs foryour partner because she was so
addicted to love.
She had a love addiction, whichis also known as codependency.
And I feel that we all havethis, you know, to a greater or
(08:26):
lesser extent.
A lot of us look to food, lookto spirituality, look to
romantic relationships or anykind of relationships, look to
social media, look to otherpeople's acknowledgement and
praise to try to get that lovethat we're always looking for.
But what's so important, I feel,on this journey is to be
(08:49):
anchored in the knowledge ofwhere love really lives.
And I feel that having anopportunity in life to develop a
relationship with your ownhigher self is the greatest
opportunity that we can have ashuman beings to really start to
connect with the true source oflove, to stop going to other
(09:14):
people like you know, we'rehungry and they have the food
that we need and realize, oh,the food that we want is
actually right here.
It's within ourselves, and wedon't have to even order it, we
don't have to wait for it.
We just have to close our eyesand connect with ourselves and
look within for it.
And yet it's the hardestjourney, right?
(09:35):
It's the most convenient onebecause our heart is right
within us, and yet we mighttravel miles and miles to study
with different teachers, andcertainly I've done that myself.
So I speak about this from verypainful and profound personal
experience.
But I feel that what you knowchanged everything for me is
(09:58):
really being so diligent aboutseparating the teachers from the
teachings and really embodyingthe teachings.
I was a very, very disciplinedstudent.
Every single thing I learned, Ireally practiced it.
I basically lived a monasticlifestyle for many years.
And I loved it because it was anopportunity to really experience
(10:22):
the liberation that comes fromdiscipline and that comes from
actually connecting with thesource of love and connecting
with the divine within our ownself.
And through, you know, spendingtime really studying the
spiritual texts, reallylistening to the teachings,
(10:43):
deeply transcribing them,internalizing them, writing
about them, reflecting about onthem, and also sharing them
eventually with people overtime.
It was such a transformationalexperience for me that I loved.
I loved doing all the practices,waking up really early in the
(11:04):
morning, chanting lots ofmantras on a jappa mala, which
is like a garland of rosarybeads.
I would do this water cleansingritual.
I actually still do a lot ofthese things.
And it is something that I justyou know got into such a rhythm
with and doing a lot of selflessservice and you know, the whole
(11:26):
process of sitting with thetruth, receiving the truth,
listening to the teachings ofthe truth, I never would miss a
lecture.
And I would spend a lot of timeinternalizing it, practicing
what I learned, and then youknow, sharing about it through
editing books, through doingdifferent kinds of service
projects for the school.
And then, you know, abruptly, asI was completing the editing of
(11:52):
a very, very powerful book,actually about discovering the
sovereignty within yourself, Ireally got tested if I
understood what it is I waslearning about in this
laboratory of spiritualteachings.
And over time I really realizedthat the most important
(12:16):
teachings that we know are signsof true spirituality awakening
are when we can really practicedetachment and discernment.
Discernment of what is trueversus what is false,
discernment of what is going tobe beneficial for us and also
(12:37):
other people and what is not,right?
And the detachment is theability to let go of that which
no longer serves us.
And as I really, reallysurrendered to practicing these
two primary disciplines, I gotinto a really tough few months,
like a six-month journey of justone betrayal after another in
(13:01):
this organization.
And I didn't even have time todo all the elaborate practices
that I loved to do and that Ihad done so diligently for so
many years because I was beinginundated with so many outer
things I needed to do tobasically help these teachers
manage their lives.
You know, they're they're reallydependent upon me.
(13:22):
And because I was somewhataddicted to love that came from
from outside and from them, Iwas very much, you know, all
about doing whatever it is I wasasked to do, as per the ancient
tradition of study withtraditional teachers.
And so I was very, very busy.
I didn't have as much time to dothe practices that I had come to
(13:44):
really love and appreciate.
But I developed a new practiceduring that tunnel of going
through all this heartache andbetrayal that really got me
through.
And that was just a reallysimple practice of placing my
hands on my heart multiple timesin a day.
And I invite you to join me indoing this.
Just place your hands on yourheart, and we're going to
(14:08):
silently repeat a self-loveaffirmation.
It's very, very simple.
I love myself unconditionally.
I love myself unconditionally.
I love myself unconditionally.
(14:31):
And as I will do this, I wouldjust observe whatever emotions
were coming up.
And it's like giving a hug toyourself, right?
Like you feel your own heart.
And I would feel sadness, Iwould feel some anger, I would
feel, you know, just so manythings.
(14:52):
But it was my way to reallyconnect with me through this
process.
And it was my way to really getto know my own heart, to get to
know my own emotions, to know myown pain, to know my strength
also.
And also to practiceforgiveness, right?
Forgiveness is a quality of theheart.
(15:14):
And it's something we can onlygive to another when we're able
to extend it to ourselves firstand foremost.
And I had to really forgivemyself for allowing myself to go
through so much of punishmentand abuse of different kinds and
just, you know, beinggaslighted, being manipulated.
And and I, in doing that,actually came to a really
(15:37):
important discovery that I hadjust basically recreated my own
childhood trauma subconsciouslyto have an opportunity to
rewrite the end of that script.
And because I had gone throughthis journey of so much study
and an intention to really livethe teachings, not just digest
(15:59):
them and absorb them and youknow, approach them like a
hungry animal, but to actuallylive them, to actually embody
them.
I through God's grace, right?
There's a combination of our ownself-effort and God's grace that
I feel goes into everything, Ireally experienced an awakening
(16:19):
to my own sovereign power to sayno and to forgive with grace and
also to set some really, reallyhealthy boundaries for the first
time, perhaps in my life in thisparticular classroom.
And it was the beginning oflearning on a whole new level
(16:42):
what it meant to really be aspiritual warrior and what it
meant also to really practiceloving myself and to learn how
to be a friend to myself, how toreally become my own best
friend.
And that journey was hard, youknow.
That journey involved a lot oftears, a lot of internal
(17:05):
searching, soul searching,really, really, you know, being
with myself.
I moved across the country, Istarted new work, and I started
to then share what I hadlearned.
And it was such an amazingexperience because then I
recognized, oh, maybe I'm doingsome of the same pattern of
(17:29):
people pleasing and you know,somewhere valuing the opinions
and the contributions of otherpeople who I'm serving more than
uh being connected to myself.
And so even after creating somuch outside, I decided to go
within and to really connectever more with my own self and
(17:54):
to, you know, sort of redo someof the practices that I had
learned.
I wrote this book, The Way ofthe Goddess, which is a journey
through the nine chakras, andit's a journey that I developed
based on what I had learned frommy years of spiritual studies,
and and it became my own roadmapfor my own self.
(18:15):
I feel that this has been andcontinues to be my own map for
learning how to love myself andhow to really become my own best
friend.
And I knew that even as I'mwriting this for other people,
technically, this is first andforemost my own personal
transformation project.
(18:36):
No matter what happens as aresult of it, I am very
committed to living thisknowledge and to embodying this
path, this way of the goddess.
And boy, did I go through trialsand tribulations as I set that
intention.
These teachers even had tried tostop the publication of my book.
(18:57):
And I didn't let any of thisaffect me.
It didn't affect me the way thatit did before, simply because I
had set that intention and Ikept going back to it that this
is not about proving myself,this is not about having a next
eat pray love big, you know,success in the world.
(19:18):
The success of this book isactually my linear, my being the
book.
I really feel that as authors,as teachers, as therapists and
coaches, as parents, as leaders,as anyone who has the ability to
influence and impact otherpeople, whatever it is we are
telling others and sharing withothers and teaching and
(19:41):
preaching is somewhere our ownhigher self actually giving us
what it is we need for our ownevolution and our own growth.
And when we have the humility toreally recognize that, to really
embrace that, and to also carveout some time and space to
digest what the heck that meansand what it is I'm saying to
(20:04):
others that I actually need todo more of myself and I need to,
you know, constantly look atwithin myself.
It ignites such an amazingjourney of learning, of growth,
of discovery, and of really,really true, profound healing.
Part of the role of healers isto heal thyself, right?
(20:25):
It's not about just simplyhelping others.
I personally started learningAyurveda, the world's oldest
healing system and the sisterscience of yoga with the
intention of helping others.
I had no intention of actuallydoing it myself.
I thought, oh, I'm fine.
It's all about what I give,right?
It's about how much we helpothers that we get valued and
(20:46):
that we get rewarded, right,with the worldly things that
come with being of service,right?
Even having people say thankyou.
As simple as that, you know, andthen as I got into writing
books, I didn't even seek thatout, but it came to me.
And it could have totally becomeabout what kind of attention
(21:09):
I've got as a result of it.
And I'm very grateful that mybooks have done really well in
the world as far as, you know,whatever that means, as far as
other people's benefiting fromthem and having genuine
experiences of transformationwith them.
But as I observed in my teacher,they were teaching one thing and
practicing another and totallymiserable as a result.
(21:32):
And I realized that, gosh, whatthey're teaching would help them
so much.
It's exactly what they need tolearn.
And as I'm saying that aboutthem, I'm realizing that's what
I'm doing as I write.
That's actually the main thingis that I live this journey.
And I am so happy that I setthat as my intention because
(21:52):
it's made me just ever open andeager to learn every single day.
My dad always says that life isa learning curve every day.
You learn something new.
And I literally have learnedsomething new every day of these
past years of just, you know,learning what it means to even
(22:12):
share this knowledge with you,how to do a podcast, how to, you
know, be out in the world onsocial media, how to write
books, how to get thempublished, how to, you know,
actually follow through on myown promises to myself and to
other people.
And just having this focus onintegrity, right?
And on really like embodyingwhat it is I'm sharing with
(22:34):
other people.
It's led me so, so deep intodiscovering so many different
healing modalities as well.
Most recently, I had been goinglocally for acupuncture sessions
to help with some neck-relatedtrauma that I've had due to a
car accident I was in almostthree years ago.
And the acupuncture was amazing.
(22:56):
The center has all kinds ofdifferent healers and all
different kinds of sessions thatyou can benefit from.
So they had homeopathic consultavailable where you could go for
15 minutes and have a freereading of your organs and see
what may be needing some harmonyand you know help, right?
(23:18):
So I'm like, oh, this is cool.
This is like my chakra healingguide that I help other people,
you know, discover which oftheir chakras are needing some
attention or maybe out ofbalance and how they can align
it.
And you can, you know, checkthat out in the show notes.
I have a link to thechakrahealing guide.com.
But this is like my chakrahealing guide, you know, to go
(23:39):
and have this doctor actuallycheck out all of my organs and
the energies connected to them.
And it was so amazing what hediscovered in terms of these
really, really old programmingof scripts that I had had since
traumatic childhood experiences.
(24:00):
I realized along my healingjourney that I definitely
recreated parts of my childhoodin order to be able to be the
sovereign author of the endingof that script.
And I was very proud of myselffor the way that I resolved the
outer conflicts that I had withthese teachers who had tried to
really, you know, manipulate meto such an extreme degree.
(24:23):
But it wasn't over just to haveresolved it even in a better way
with them.
It was actually what I hadinternalized about that
situation that needed to beliterally rewritten.
I teach a spiritual warriorprogram, now known as Become the
Hero of Your Own Journey, tohelp people do exactly this, to
(24:45):
rewrite the story of their owntrauma through the lens of the
hero's journey and throughapplying some of these ancient
spiritual teachings to your verypainful, you know, personal life
situations.
It was so amazing and sohumbling to have someone offer
(25:06):
me the opportunity to do thatfor myself.
And after teaching this program,you know, twice, I sat down and
literally was supported torewrite the script of the trauma
that had led me to this darksituation of betrayal and
manipulation with outerteachers.
(25:29):
And I'm like, wow, you know, I'mso glad that I was open to this
and that I was ready for thisbecause I had that intention and
I had that understanding thatwhatever I'm doing for others is
also something I need to bereceiving from my higher self
and from you know whateversources are aligned with that in
the outer world.
(25:50):
And it was just so so beautifuland so amazing to be able to
literally be guided in how torewrite the way I internalized
traumatic experiences in my ownchildhood.
I have done this in my book,definitely, for a lot of the
situations that I have been in,and it's been very, very
(26:10):
liberating for me.
But it was just amazing to havesomeone else actually help me
with even deeper stories that goeven further back than anything
I have ever even written about.
And oh, I can't tell you howmuch relief I have felt from
that discovery of where thisreally deep-seated anger came
(26:34):
from.
I was having so many breakoutsin my skin for all these years
that of, you know, recoveringfrom the abuse that I went
through with these teachers.
And yet it wasn't until Iconnected with this doctor that
he could really, really take meright to that source of the
(26:54):
trauma and rewrite a script thatincludes forgiveness of myself
and forgiveness of the other,and an intention to really
dissolve that karma that createdthat situation.
Because on a spiritual level,nothing happens by accident.
There's nothing random and thereare no coincidences.
We are always creating our life.
(27:15):
And when we know this, when weknow that every thought, every
word, every action that we takeis actually creating the seeds
of the karma that comes to us inthe future, we start to become
really, really responsiblebeings and we become awake to
not only our responsibility, butalso the power then that we have
(27:38):
in our own hands to write thestory of our healing and to
write the story of our hero'sjourney.
And, you know, this experienceof receiving the medicine that I
give to others for myself andfinally getting clear of all
this heat in my skin that wascreating all these recurring
breakouts that I could not evensolve, even though I have all
(28:01):
this knowledge of Ayurveda,which helps so many people with
skin.
And even I have helped a lot ofother people with their skin,
but somehow mine was just, youknow, continuing to be a
problem.
I got to the bottom of it and Iwas like, wow, you know, it's
amazing how the universe broughtthis to me.
And I also am just so gratefulnow to have this new community
(28:25):
called the Circle of Life, whereI am continuing to do this for
myself, actually, first andforemost.
Creating the Circle of Lifecommunity has been my gift to my
own self.
I have to say this because it ishelping healers, therapists,
coaches who are giving to givefrom a full cup and do so with
(28:47):
ongoing connection that sustainsthem.
I have met so many incrediblehealers, teachers, therapists,
and coaches through my healingjourney.
And I've also met some reallycrazy ones that I, you know, got
through a lot quicker than I didmy original teachers because of
what I had learned from thatclassroom.
And I really, reallystrengthened my muscle of
(29:08):
discernment and detachment.
And in that process, I realized,gosh, I have all these great
friends.
You know, I have all these greatpeople of all ages, of all walks
of life, of all backgrounds andall different modalities of
work.
But what is the common threadbetween us all is this really,
really deep-seated calling to beof service and to transform
(29:30):
whatever pain and trauma we'vegone through to be of service
and to really, really helpothers in some way, and at the
same time to continue to growand evolve so that when even our
work reaches a bigger scale andmore people, we won't get so you
know, disoriented by it that wewill need some kind of outer
(29:51):
dependency to cope with it,right?
Because that is actually theshadow side, even of fame, even
of success.
And I feel more than Ever thatit's the company that we keep,
the satsangha, the connectionwith truth, that really sustains
us on this journey and allows usto grow in deeper ways than we
could do by ourselves.
(30:12):
Because healing actually doesn'thappen in isolation.
It happens through connectionand it happens through safety
and through trust.
And as I've rebuilt my abilityto trust myself and to trust,
you know, in who is trustworthy,right?
Who is worthy of my trust.
I have been so grateful todiscover so many wonderful souls
(30:35):
who have pure hearts andmissions.
And I felt that it's importantto bring us all together because
we're so often giving the loveto others.
And yet, you know, here's aspace to receive that.
Here's a space to come and shareyour hero's journey to share
your story as your medicine andto share, you know, even about
(30:55):
the pain that you've gonethrough with the lines of what
it is you learned from it andhow you grew as a result of it.
Because we draw strength fromstories, we draw strength from
each other.
And what we used to do in theWell, which is an amazing
integrative wellness center,coming soon here to Miami,
Florida, which is nearby where Ilive, is something called the
(31:16):
like a grand rounds, where wewould all, as practitioners of
different modalities, look atpatient case studies with the
lens of our particularmodalities and what we would
say, you know, from thatperspective.
But we never did this forourselves.
So I decided to create a spacewhere any healer, therapist, or
coach can bring their ownquestions.
(31:38):
It could be related to clientsor patients, no doubt, but also
your own questions, like, okay,this is coming to me, right?
Like this person has this issue.
What is that mirroring back tome?
Because it always is.
Nothing comes randomly, right?
Everything is a teacher,everyone is a teacher.
But are we awake to learning?
What are we learning?
And also how do we learn fromeach other?
(31:59):
And how do we draw upon thecollective wisdom that we all
carry, right?
So that it's not like apersonality-based mission, but
actually one that is inviting ofa true sense of connection
through community and people whohave the same values.
Another offering of this circleof life, as I call it, is a
(32:21):
member-led workshop.
Each month we have a workshopbased on one of these nine
themes of the heroes' journeythat I take through through this
podcast, through my book, andthat has just become a life map
for me.
And this month in October, we'reactually doing a special
member-led workshop with mystudent Cheryl Montanis, who was
(32:42):
my guest on the last episode ofthis show.
And she talked about her hearthealing transformation through
the Heroes Journey program thatshe was with me in.
And she actually is an emotioncode certified practitioner.
So I asked Cheryl to lead us inan emotion code member-led
workshop.
(33:03):
I'm personally so excited for itbecause it's all about releasing
trapped emotions that have comein when we've had such
overpowering experiences thatour body literally could not
digest them or process them.
And so they get stored somewherein our body and keep creating
problems for ourselves indifferent ways or the same way
(33:24):
and just over and over again,right?
So as I've gotten cleared ofmany things, I'm still so
excited to know, like, okay, isthere something in my neck from
the car accident trauma?
Is there any fear, you know,that got in there because that
was such an intense experience?
Is there still anything morefrom my childhood that I need to
let go of?
(33:44):
Like I'm so excited to explorethis and just, you know, get
into releasing more and more ofthis.
And, you know, really justwalking this path of liberation.
I love teaching about thisbecause this is what I'm
learning.
You know, I'm learning to be thehero of my own journey in every
possible way.
And it's been such anextraordinary journey.
(34:05):
And I really just my intentionis also to extend this space
that I've given myself, thispermission that I've given
myself to receive what it is Iteach other people with all the
healers, therapists, and coacheswho are drawn to this type of
container and to this type ofcircle for deepening into your
(34:26):
own mission and your own healingin that process.
And as we do so, we really learnto befriend ourselves first and
foremost, because that's themedicine, that's the love
actually that comes from deepwithin, that sustains us, that
heals us, that transforms us,and that allows us to continue
(34:47):
to give from a full cup, right?
And have that ongoingconnection.
There's a lot of loneliness, Ithink, in those of us who give
and heal.
We can feel very isolated andmisunderstood.
I know I've even felt that waymany times on my journey.
And yet just knowing thatthere's other souls out there
who are committed to this,right?
Who are on it, who are with usin their own parallel universe,
(35:11):
you know, doing this in theirown way, I think just gives a
lot of strength and a lot ofcomfort and a lot of upliftment
to the soul as we continue toevolve ourselves and really
become the best version ofourselves, right?
And that's what this journey isall about.
And I love how, you know, in theBhagavad Gita, this great text
(35:33):
of the yogic tradition, LordKrishna has said to the warrior
Arjuna on the battlefield, youmust lift yourself by yourself.
Do not lower yourself.
Yourself alone is your friend.
Yourself alone is your enemy.
(35:53):
So whether you choose to be yourfriend, whether you choose to be
your enemy, know this that it isindeed a choice.
And together, let us continue topractice this beautiful
self-love affirmation that Ilove myself unconditionally.
Let anything come and go, letanyone come and go.
(36:14):
But I love myself, I love thetruth, I love liberation.
And may that be our mantra, maythat be our prayer of
forgiveness of ourselves, ofothers, of anyone who's hurt us,
of ourselves for hurtingourselves, of ourselves for
internalizing some veryself-defeating scripts and
(36:35):
stories unconsciously due to nothaving processed the experiences
of life.
Let us just, you know, allow itall, accept it all, release it
all, forgive it all.
And if this resonates with you,I really would love to invite
you to join us.
You can visit the show notes andlearn more about the community
(36:58):
at theancientway.co.
It is co I couldn't get the dotcom, so it's co slash community,
and you'll learn about thecircle of life there.
And you can book free interviewwith me.
The first year of membership isactually totally free.
So I really believe that thiscontainer and this kind of
support needs to be there foreveryone who's on this journey
(37:19):
of trying to help others andheal yourself, no matter what
your situation or if you'veinvested into your practice or
your business and your funds arelimited, it doesn't matter
because your presence is themedicine, and this will just be
available for you.
So whenever you feel ready, Iwelcome you to benefit from it.
We have a regular newsletter andall these rich offerings that I
(37:43):
just shared with you about, andwe're growing.
So, you know, the more themerrier.
Please feel free to join us.
And also, I I offer thesetransformational programs based
on both of my books, which arecontinuing to transform me first
and foremost.
One is starting up very soon,actually next week, called Take
(38:03):
Health into Your Own Hands.
It's an eight-week journey toreally learn Ayurveda's
incredible healing wisdom, tolive in harmony with nature, to
really practice loving yourselfin a very tangible, practical,
day-to-day sort of way.
I also teach a program of 10weeks called Become the Hero of
Your Own Journey.
(38:23):
And that's the journey that I'mon, you know, learning how to do
that.
And I learned a lot along theway, and I continue to learn a
lot from all the wonderful soulswho come through that journey.
And it's it's available to you.
So just please feel free tocheck out the website,
theancientway.co not.com.
And we will be so delighted tomeet you and to welcome you into
(38:45):
our ecosystem of offerings thatare designed to really support
you to know yourself, to loveyourself, and to liberate
yourself and be of the highestservice you can be to this
divine universe.
And so, with that, I thank youso, so much for joining me on
(39:05):
this episode of the True toYourself podcast, a place where
we explore the power ofauthentic living.
I am your host, Ananda RepaAjameh Namaste.
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