September 15, 2025 • 55 mins
Elizabeth Hamilton-Guarino, host of The Best Ever You Show welcomes Spiritual and Life Coach Ashu Khanna.
A spiritual teacher and life coach, Ashu guides individuals to align with their inner self. Through her books, teachings, and coaching, she offers a space of love and courage for individuals to anchor within and unlock their infinite potential.
Ranked among India’s 100 Emerging Voices by YourStory, Ashu is the Founder & CEO of Arka Leadership. Also, she is the Founder President of the Mumbai Chapter of the International Coaching Federation (ICF) and has served on the Board of the Young Presidents' Organization (YPO) Gold Mumbai Chapter.
Ashu has also served at Miracle Foundation, Ascent Foundation, Aspire For Her, Annamrita Foundation, and Della Leaders Club.
Visit AshuKhanna.com for more information
A spiritual teacher and life coach, Ashu guides individuals to align with their inner self. Through her books, teachings, and coaching, she offers a space of love and courage for individuals to anchor within and unlock their infinite potential.
Ranked among India’s 100 Emerging Voices by YourStory, Ashu is the Founder & CEO of Arka Leadership. Also, she is the Founder President of the Mumbai Chapter of the International Coaching Federation (ICF) and has served on the Board of the Young Presidents' Organization (YPO) Gold Mumbai Chapter.
Ashu has also served at Miracle Foundation, Ascent Foundation, Aspire For Her, Annamrita Foundation, and Della Leaders Club.
Visit AshuKhanna.com for more information
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hi everyone, and welcome to the fall edition of the
Best Ever You Show. We've been a podcast for over
fifteen years now, so we're going to kick off this season,
our fifteenth season, with our beautiful guest, a Shoe Canna
and her website. I'm going to spell this for you.
It's a s h U k h A n n
A dot com and Shoe is love her happiness chronicles everybody.
(00:26):
But she's a spiritual teacher's She's a coach in her
own right. She posts daily messages on Twitter. And have
I met you on Twitter? And I just want to
welcome you here. I'll give it. We can talk more
about your bio and stuff like that, but I just
want to give a warm welcome, big a hug.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
You so much I expect from you, lovely to meet
you and Elizabeth, I mean, it's such a privilege. I
don't honor thank you.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
I feel the same way. And we met on Twitter.
I'm in Maine, you're in India, and so it's it's
nighttime where you are, it's morning where I am. And
here we are connecting. And I had the privilege of
being on a Shoes podcast a couple of days ago.
I don't know when that comes out, but just anyway,
we're just sharing the love here. So tell me all
about tell tell I know about you, but tell us
(01:15):
all about you so we get a really good sense
of who you are and what you're trying to do
in the world.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
So I'm a mom, I'm a wife, I'm a coach,
I'm a spiritual teacher, I'm a friend, I'm really you know,
as many runs as I can embrace. I love to
enjoy life, and of course I'm a person in my
own right. I would take that completely.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
So everybody, if you need some boy parenting advice, we
have six boys between us. I have four and you
have two, and they are all okay. So mine are
twenty four, twenty six, twenty eight, and thirty and yours.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Are thirty and twenty five.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
So we've got it covered.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
Yeah, we've got it covered.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
Yeah. All the people who are sending their kids off
to college right now, do you have some advice for them,
because it's happening, if it hasn't already happened, and we've
got all those freshmen in first year, you know.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
I think it's it's a beautiful phase to see them
fly off the cuckoo's nest and find the wings. While
I must say I did have my share of banks
of you know, empty nest of banks, but just seeing
them blossom mix up for all of it.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
Yeah, isn't that wild? When you drop the first one
off at college? I had this like it was like
a moment in you want them, you know, fly little
birdies fly right. I totally agreed, you know, fly and
do great things. But boy, I had a moment where
it was like time reversed for a second. I'm like, Wow,
where did all that time go? Right? Did you have
(03:00):
that same feeling? You know?
Speaker 2 (03:02):
I think it hit me more when my second one went,
because suddenly I had both gone, and that was you know,
it was a little it was more emotional. Yeah. And
but staying regularly in touch with them, I would say,
is key to keeping that bond, that relationship, the support,
(03:25):
all of it. Just staying in touch, especially for us
since we are seize a part my son. Yeah, my
sons have studied in the US, and the only way
we've really stay kept the bond even stronger is staying connected.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
Yeah, through isn't can you imagine doing that without the
invention of the of the of the phone, you know,
the iPhone and zoom and FaceTime.
Speaker 3 (03:53):
And all that.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
Funnily, I don't know which one whether it's while it's
a blessing to have all of this and stay in
touch and see them every day regularly and everything. I
think there was a charm to writing those letters on
letter papers, right, the memories that were captured on that,
I think just had a different romance to it.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
Now, do you still write them letters? Because I'm a
letter writer, like i'd be a great pen pal. We'd
be great pen pals because I don't know, I don't
know how to send a letter overseats, but I can
find it, I'll admit it. You know, I'm so used
to the technology that I've never even done that. So
that'd be fun, though, wouldn't it.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
It would? But I don't write letters now as much
as I used to. Oh, I love it.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
They have they have stores here with magnificent stationery, and
but I just I love handwritten letters, handwritten thank you
notes and things like that. So maybe we'll have to
maybe we'll have to fire that up. So all right,
I'm going to go to your website for a minute.
Here you are all about happiness, is a choice. Leadership
(05:03):
is an attitude. That's that's like right on the homepage
of your website, how did you how did you get
started in all of this and what does that mean
to you? That's a that's a big message of yours.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
So I really okay. I think the main thing about
really me is that I'm really intuitive, very very intuitive.
I am very much into self. Respect is very important
to me, and I think one of the things that
(05:37):
I found as a gap when I was I lived
in India and overseas. I've worked with both places, and
I think one of the things I saw missing in
corporate India was a corporate world per se was respect.
Sometimes I think the leaning towards authority is sometimes so
much that people lose sight or you know, now we
(06:00):
talk about profit, purpose people, all of that, but back then,
twenty plus years ago, no, it was just so much
of profit. People did not talk about purpose or managing teams,
really technical training. Oh absolutely, So you were treated like
this little machine who had to deliver all the time.
(06:20):
It's all about execution, and that bothered me. That really
bothered me in terms of seeing that the focus on people,
focus on purpose was missing and That's what made me
really quit the corporate world and say, no, there is
a better way of doing leadership. There has to be
because I'd seen leaders, I'd worked with leaders who were
(06:43):
you know, like any other person, you work with leaders
who are more mature, you work with leaders who are
more aggressive. So I'd had my share of diversity leaders
who had mentored me, and seeing that, it was like, no,
there has to be. And I grew up in a
family where my parents were very relationship oriented. Always it
(07:05):
was so much about love and relationship life that had
a very it still is a very big part of me.
And that's how I guess we met even through Twitter.
For me, it's really life is really about relationships. Yeah,
and I think I.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
Have a question. Sorry I'm interrupt you for a second.
I have a question for you. I want to go
back and just I want to put the female spin
on that whole thing too. With children and working and
trying to be a leadership and even just hold down
a job with small kids, did you find that challenging
or was that easy for you? Because I know I
had a heck of a time with four small kids
(07:45):
to your age, to your part.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
Of course, see when you decide to want okay, I
think it's all a question. If you want it all,
then you have to find a way to balance it
all and constant. It's a constant thing of juggling the ball.
Sometimes one falls and sometimes you have to get okay
with yourself with dropping the ball. Once in a while,
(08:08):
there's no way you can catch each one of them.
And it required me to learn how to be more
authentic with my children and actually respect their feelings and
say I'm sorry, I won't be here today, or I
can be here, or be okay, telling my clients I
got to go to school, you know, or even my
(08:29):
managers at I got to be at my son's school,
or I need to do something personally. So I think
that authenticity or communication becomes a very fundamental thing to
even asking for support, bringing that vulnerability out. Stop trying
to be super mom and doing it all. That's hard, yeah,
(08:52):
because you know you wear that mantle of thinking that
you need to hold every ball in the air and
it's only your problem. I had to learn to empower
my staff at home also all at work and say okay, no,
you have to let go. I think letting go is
a very big lesson that I learned and vulnerability through
(09:13):
this whole parenting and and kids, are they observe they
really catch you?
Speaker 3 (09:21):
You bet.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
So. While they are your biggest fans, they are even
your quickest critics. They will catch you if you slip right,
So there's no point pretending. There is really no point
pretending and being more humble about it than saying, yeah, okay, yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
Did you have exactly Yeah, did you have a moment
that you can share with us whe you shifted from
the corporate culture and career and so forth to the
path you're on now? Is there a moment where you're like, Okay,
that's it, I'm done or was it more gradual?
Speaker 2 (09:59):
So there, okay, it was more gradual. But I think
there was a very defining moment in my life when
I got stung by one hundred bees Elizabeth in Singapore.
Speaker 4 (10:10):
Yeah, so that was a Yeah, that's a huge one.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
That's scary to live through.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
Yeah, let me ask you a question.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
Were you allergic on top of it or just stung
by bees?
Speaker 2 (10:21):
So I was allergic. I had had a very very
severely allergic reaction in a few years before that in
Hong Kong, where I just survived it and the cause
remains unknown till date because it was such a you know,
close to fatal episode and the second So when I
(10:42):
got stung by the bees, there was nobody who stopped
to help, even though I was just outside in the
center of my outside my condominium in Singapore, but nobody
stopped to help. So I drove myself to the hospital.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
Oh wow, because there.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
Was no I just knew I had to find a
way to survive it.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
Was it smart, I don't know. Was it foolish, I
don't know, but divine providence helped me get there and
I'm here to you know, I guess I still had
a lot more to live and do.
Speaker 1 (11:16):
Yees, So I feel with my allergy. I have food allergies.
We were talking about it for life threatening food allergies.
So allergies are terrifying. So now do you carry around
do you have a A so like I have a
medical alert on.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
Used to carry an EpiPen for the longest time.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
Oh please please do again, because there's terrifying.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
Yeah. So I've been I think quite blessed in terms
of but that was a big wake up call to
saying if you know the universe has given me two
near death experiences. It's time for me to question my
own existence, what I'm up to. And that was a
very existential moment where I stopped, where I started looking
(12:00):
at what am I doing with myself? And the biggest
realization that came was that I'd suppressed my feelings. I
had suppressed my feelings. I had you know, I'd gotten
into the mom homemaker mode so much that somewhere I
had stopped valuing myself. Oh yeah, because there are no
(12:24):
gold stars for a mom. We give gold stars to
the kids.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
But thanks right for her all the time because it
did the same thing. Okay, keep going with this, because.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
So that's what really made me say, hey, I that's
what really made me say, hey, I need to look
at what do I want to do with my life
and myself. I started exploring options entrepreneurial. I think I
was quite done with the corporate world by then, and
I was flirting with in out, in out, what should
(12:57):
I do? What will work for me? Yeah? And coming
back to India is how I found this gap in
leadership development and I decided to totally jump out of
everything and say, okay, I'm doing this.
Speaker 1 (13:11):
Yeah, yeah, and and do you love it? Are you?
It's a I have I have bouts where you feel
like you're a little bit alone sometimes in doing you know,
like the corporate culture for me meant a little bit
of bouncing ideas off of each other and collaborating on things.
So that's the one thing I've had to recreate here
(13:31):
at home to find people that I could collaborate with
and and and love and so forth and get feedback from.
And you know, I love, I love to collabor I'm
just such a big collaborator. So sometimes I would feel
a little bit lonely in my endeavors. Have you had
that or are you all good?
Speaker 2 (13:49):
So no, of course, I mean moving from a structured
environment to a totally creating your own structure, right. I
have a huge ecosis of people I reach out to literally,
whether it's coaches, people from my spiritual community, whether it's friends,
my family, my team, my digital team, my tech team.
(14:13):
I reach out for feedbacks, ideas, conversations, my Twitter for
that matter, social media platforms, because you know, based on
the feedback is how you really say, Okay, what do
I do next? How do I do it? Differently? There
is just so much that I receive from the world,
(14:35):
and I am more than happy to go out and
get it.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
Yeah. Yeah, I hear your puppy in the background. We
have puppies too, Okay, so we're here. This is the
part the authenticity. I think one of the things that
is most important everything is authenticity and not hiding anything.
So for me, like when COVID came around, and I
hate it every minute of COVID, but I respect and
(15:01):
love the fact that people were up on their computers
and they were who they were, and they had kids
in the background and cats and dogs and their hair
up and shorts.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
On and whatever it was. She's barking for attention.
Speaker 1 (15:13):
She wants to come bring her in. Yeah, if you
need to get a bringer in because because I love dogs,
so come on in. So cute. So now we have
a dog joining the podcast. That's a cool door and
(15:37):
a beautiful outfit.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
And that's my hi. Hello, and what is your name?
Speaker 2 (15:46):
Her name is Laika?
Speaker 1 (15:50):
Oh my god? So she aren't they aren't they the
best life coaches ever?
Speaker 2 (15:58):
Unbelievable. So she goes to office with me very often. Yeah,
and she loves her outings. So everybody at office. Loves
her because it's this perfect distress of you will run
a little with her. You will give her your cuddles,
and she'll give you your licks and your set.
Speaker 1 (16:15):
Yeah, I have a dog. She's got her nose to
the window over here, so I won't let her in
because she'll be all over the place. But she and
I are kind of inseparable almost. Her name is Bahama,
and she goes everywhere with me, stores, all the all
the same stuff. So all right, so she used to
come back up to let me know, and all right,
so let's talk about your teachings. What about let's talk
(16:40):
about your inner voice and the importance of listening to
your inner voice. Maybe maybe touch on some of that
intuition that you were that you were talking about.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
So you know, way back two thousand and six my
journey of transformation. While like there were many defining moments,
this was yet another one. When I decided to do
leadership development. I went to Henley on Thames and I
(17:09):
met my coach there. I went for just a course,
trying to figure out how do I do it? What
do I do next? And she observed me through the
week and I was yojoing between being very friendly and
being very judgmental and aggressive, someone who really as if
needed to capture attention, right, And that's when she actually
(17:34):
asked me, you know, how coachable are you? I'd never
even heard the word, never knew that concept existed. So
that's when she so I asked her. I said, if
you were to coach me, what would you say? And
lo and behold the first question she asked me, whose
acceptance are you waiting for?
Speaker 1 (17:53):
Oh? There's a good one, right, that's a huge one. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
Now, we don't even realize that we've been sitting and
spending our entire life looking for somebody to give us approval,
whether it's our parents or you know, family, or society
or someone or the other. It's always around. And I
just had a complete meltdown moment because I looked at
her and I just said everyone. And I think it
(18:23):
was such a revealing conversation for me. And then I asked, Okay,
what do I do next? How do I deal with this?
She has had the most beautiful way of managing me
in terms of leaving me with the thought and saying, okay,
now you figure your answer out.
Speaker 1 (18:42):
Ye, health how we do that? Though? Like we're really looking.
I don't know what that is like. I've been in
pageants before, seeking I know now I didn't know at
the time, but you know, maybe even seeking approval or
attention or whatever it is to fill whatever gaps. But
isn't it such a peaceful to have that inner piece.
(19:03):
I don't know if it's fifties, I'm fifty five. You
know you're right about the same age, right, And have
you found that aging has any component to the to
the wisdom associated with this or does it make it
worse or better? Sometimes in some ways you feel a
little worse's you can have lack of a conversation with yourself.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
But I think I would I wouldn't say it's necessarily aging.
Of course, with age you collect a lot more experiences,
but I would say it's a lot more consciousness.
Speaker 1 (19:35):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
And that's what Lynn, my coach, sparked in me, is
this awareness of how do I find my answers? And
I figured the inner voice has all the answers. You
simply need to turn in and align and focus internally
to pay attention to what it's trying to tell you.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
Do you think that's easier when you aren't? Okay? Let
me take you back to your twenties for a minute,
even your teens, twenties and so forth. Is it easier
now to do that than it was previously? Because like,
(20:17):
picture yourself a twenty year old now on social media
and all of the things that they do for attention
and hair and makeup and dancing and this and that
and another thing, And I'm like, oh, I can't. I know,
I don't even know if I would do that in
my twenties. Had I if I were twenty right now,
I'd probably be on the shy side of that. But
(20:39):
do you think that accessing that consciousness is easier in
your fifties because there's sort of a mellowness, like a
kind almost like a kind of like, well, I don't
know if I care what everybody thinks anymore happening.
Speaker 2 (20:51):
Well, obviously there is a lot more self love, self acceptance,
all of that. Yeah, in the twenties, I was not
even aware of it either. I was too busy doing
what the world thought, what I thought the world expected
me to do. Uh, you know, the typical thing of Okay,
(21:12):
you go to school, you go to college, you get
a job, you do so. Yeah, whereas once I got
into this pole space of spirituality. It became life has
become a lot easier because now there is a very
there's a you know, there's an intention to say, how
(21:33):
do I want to live? Do I want to constantly
live because a certain way because the world expects me
to do it? Or do I want to live true
and be at peace and love myself. So that's where
the difference comes. Now it's a very I know it's
a difficult choice for many because they fear that, oh
will I get cut off from society? What will happen?
(21:55):
What will people think? And what I've discovered is that
the relationationships that were never meant to be with you
for a long term will fall off anyway, or they'll
get realigned and you'll always find more and more relationships.
So I have a you know, I always tell people
that look at the population of the world, you cannot
(22:20):
say you're alone in this world. You just have to
reach out. And I think the best thing social media
has done in a way, while it may have you know,
we look at the negative side of the noise of it.
It's given access to so many communities and it's up
to us whether we want to build a relationship or
(22:40):
an authentic relationship through it, or do we just want
to look at the you know, the likes and the
followers and get bent out of shape with that. So
it's a very personal mindset you have to cultivate as
to what do I really want there?
Speaker 1 (22:58):
How do we find each other on Twitter? It's been
the most beautiful I don't know either. It's just like
and there you are kind of thing and and I
and I love taking social media into real life and connecting.
Like you're saying, uh, it makes it so much like
it makes me day.
Speaker 2 (23:19):
Oh sorry, sorry, sorry. We are in a common group,
and I think you reached out to me right to
write for your magazine Best Ever You. Yeah, you, And
that's where I saw your whole website. I saw the
work you're doing, and the resonance was so strong that
I think the relationship just moved from there.
Speaker 1 (23:41):
Yeah. When I wake up in the morning and I
see a tweet from you and I'm tagged in it,
it makes I'm like, I don't have to worry for
the whole rest of the day. Like there you feel
included and and a bit of wisdom, happiness, joy, everything
right off the bat, it's it's beautiful and I'm so
grateful for that because it just I love that group.
(24:04):
Whatever we're in a group and then there's maybe like
there's not a lot of people in it. There's maybe
like five or six people in it. And it's a
lovely group.
Speaker 2 (24:12):
It's a group that is really full of wisdom, joy
and I think so many stories to share. I love it.
Speaker 1 (24:22):
Yeah, And there was somebody yesterday, hang on, I think
you had her on your podcast, Isabella, and I do
not know how to say her last name.
Speaker 5 (24:30):
Yeah, it's I was on there, and I'm like, you know,
let's feature you two come on so so, so so
adorable and just I mean, it's just lovely.
Speaker 1 (24:41):
Like today three hours ago, one of your one of
your tweets was growth is silent like trees, we change
without noise. And so every morning you put something out
like this, and then once that goes out, everybody comments,
says a little bit of wisdom, supports each other, says
thank you for brightening my day, and it's just it's
really lovely, and people add their own quotes and so forth.
(25:03):
So I hope people follow follow us through you. Yeah, No,
it's beautiful. Let me go back to my I have notes, guys,
So yeah, I have little notes just to remind myself
of some of the things I want to talk to you about,
so we don't go kind of all over the place.
But I think I would really like to talk to
you about your books and then your masterclass, so that
(25:26):
people really get a good sense of how they can
go go buy your books. I don't think people are
aware that, you know, Amazon reaches globally, well we know.
I mean people know Amazon reaches globally, but in a
book sense, Amazon reaches globally. So you can publish, you know,
I can buy your books, you can buy mine, and
so forth, and they arrive just like just like normal,
(25:47):
wherever whatever country they're published in, and it's pretty lovely
like that. So do you want to tell everybody about
your books?
Speaker 2 (25:54):
So yeah, the way you've written perculate and success guide
Book and change guide Book, I would say pretty much.
What happened for me was as I was transforming, I
had a complete desire to pen down the insights. There
was just so much excitement to experience the change by
(26:17):
living in alignment with the inner voice, that I kept
penning them down, and little by little, my first book emerged,
which is I'm Freedom, because I was seeking freedom from
really all the perceptions. Like we talked about what does
the world have to you know, should we listen to
the world or should we listen to ourselves. My next
(26:37):
book emerged after that, which is I'm Abundance, recognizing that
I got so attached to so many concepts and perspectives
I didn't know so simple thing like I didn't know
what's the difference between honesty and authenticity. So honesty can
be okay, I was honest about something, But I used
(26:59):
to even think honestly expressing myself was cool. Now you
don't realize that, you know, just saying whatever's in your
head is not always cool because you could.
Speaker 1 (27:09):
Be sometimes honestly.
Speaker 2 (27:14):
That's like filter sometimes Yeah, so that filter was missing.
Speaker 1 (27:22):
Yeah, I've cused to being blunt before myself.
Speaker 2 (27:26):
So that's when you know, so things like that, recognizing that, no,
that opinionated me is not necessarily the right me. And
so that's when I'm Abundance came out. And really looking
at the world as interconnected. I think that was the
biggest part of it, seeing the world as one and interconnected,
(27:47):
and the whole concept of a loneeness went from God address.
There then came my next one, which is my favorite book,
I Am Love my poetry book. So I think the
magic about that book was that each poem was written
in less than a minute. While all my books are
(28:09):
revealed wisdom, this one, I would say was the highest
spontaneity that I could have ever experienced. And I never
saw myself as an author or a poet, but I
just had poetry pouring out. And the book takes the
(28:29):
whole sequence of you know, questions for the quest of
a human life, of what is life? How do I
live life? And who am I? So it carries the
whole sequence. And then came the next book, I Am Perfection.
Now this is really I had chased perfection, so called
(28:51):
perfection as a myth, which I know it is now,
but perfection so much in my life. I want to
be perfect externally and I wanted life to be perfect.
That whole insistence and expectation was so much that obviously
there was constant judgment and noise or disappointment in the head.
Speaker 1 (29:10):
Still I went that up too, isn't it. It's really
hard to wake up with your hair perfect every morning?
Speaker 2 (29:15):
Yeah, So it's a very Yeah, you're putting a tough standard,
not just yourself, but you're messing with everybody around you.
Speaker 1 (29:21):
Right, Yeah, there are some people that I always say,
you know, it doesn't say perfect ever you it says
best ever you can. I do a little asterisk, like,
you know, I think I want my heart surgeon to
be perfect, though, like I do want my pilot to
be pretty much perfect. Like there's some people I think
that might need to almost be perfect, Like you don't
(29:43):
want to be like hello, everybody, welcome to you know,
the airline today, and I'm going to do my best
to get you there.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
Make a slight distinction here between excellence and perfection. Yeah,
and I think that's the thing that emerged for me
that actually life is about the inner perfection and not external.
The external comes out when you are absolutely embracing the
inner perfection.
Speaker 1 (30:10):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (30:10):
So the book I'm Perfection was really the journey to
realizing that. And now I'm writing the book I Am Light,
which is I would say my love affair with min
a voice haha.
Speaker 1 (30:26):
Yeah, yeah, it's beautiful. Yeah. We have a lot of
the same things, like we've said before, like a lot
of the same things the journeys a little bit of
the same with just you know, toning it down a
little bit, but toning it down but tuning it in
is kind of what I say, like toned down but
really super tuned in. I think, I'm I think I
(30:49):
probably will always struggle with listening. My listening skills could
be always improved. I think kind of maybe everybody's listening
skills could always be improved. I find myself to be
cock and it's like, ah, you know, and so I
always work on that and just and really try to,
(31:11):
you know, observe. I think observe is a is a
good one. So tone down, observing and so forth. Are
you doing that too?
Speaker 2 (31:19):
It's an everyday practice because there is no end to
this practice.
Speaker 1 (31:25):
Yeah, no, I agree with you. All right, let's tell
tell everybody about your master class, because there's a master
class and happiness.
Speaker 2 (31:33):
I hear, yes, thank you for that. So that is
going to be coming out sometimes shortly. I think as
I went through this journey, I realized, ultimately we all
look for happiness in the world, happiness, joy, peace, because
that is our inherent state of being, that's our core essence.
(31:53):
And the master class takes a full journey. That's been
the highest miracle that I've experienced so far, amongst many others.
But I think the framework of the master class that
got revealed to me during COVID, it gives you the
essence of the Bugworth Ghita that has been the Bugworth
(32:17):
Ghita has been the guiding light in terms of the
wisdom for me. And essentially the way it works is
that all of us use our four faculties all the time,
which is our sensory perceptions, our thoughts, our emotions, and
our energy. And when you so, there are the four
(32:37):
yogas that go with it, and when you anchor them
inside or use each of them in alignment with the
inner voice or the inner self, you are actually able
to anchor each one and live a far more aligned
life or a life of alignment is a life of
(32:58):
yoga or union. And therefore, when you live in alignment,
and whether you're using your senses, your energy, your emotions,
your thoughts, everything is in alignment, you are able to
actually become one or in dissolve the mind to become
actually an embodiment of consciousness.
Speaker 3 (33:19):
Yeah, okay, we're going to give a practical I'm going
to give a practical example of that because I love
all the teaching, but I want people to like here,
how do I actually use.
Speaker 1 (33:30):
That in my daily life? So you know that inner
voice that toxic and says I shouldn't do that, or
that's not right, or or you even might even feel it,
but you ignore it. I think that is let's talk
together so we can teach people a little bit, because
I really believe you know you and I are like
(33:51):
heart truth energy. That's the change guide. But make everything
align heart truth energy authentic. You pay attention to the voice,
pay attention to the gut, pay attention to what you're thinking,
and so forth. When you ignore that, when when you
aren't when you ignore that or don't have your value
(34:14):
with you, you're not listening to yourself. You're listening to
other people with what they think you should do, and
so forth. How does that affect us? And and and
and what do we do about that?
Speaker 2 (34:27):
So I'm really saying very practical terms. I think the
biggest thing that happens is you get angry, you get anxious,
you get stressed, you get your face burnout, you you
get you feel incomplete, you start comparing, you're jealous, you're envious,
you get you know, there's just this whole thing of
something's not right.
Speaker 1 (34:48):
See now your great I love it. Oh hm, oh
you know. I love what you did. Though something wasn't right,
you didn't ignore it.
Speaker 2 (35:07):
I so sorry. So she is my protector of thoughts.
So anybody comes to the other door, she had to bark.
Speaker 1 (35:15):
Yeah, yeah, that's but that's you know, that just happened
for a reason, I swear, because that's what we're talking
about exactly in long terms, that's exactly it. You know,
It's like, don't ignore. Don't ignore it.
Speaker 2 (35:31):
Right, don't ignore the signs. You don't ignore that your
body doesn't feel okay. You know, you're right, you feel
just doesn't.
Speaker 1 (35:39):
Right, out of back.
Speaker 2 (35:40):
You really feel out of back, you know. And the
thing is, you know it, but you don't necessarily know
how to trust it or what to do with it, right,
or you don't know what to do with it. So
I think that was what was happening with me. I
knew something was not right. I didn't know what to
do with it. So that feeling of helplessness, the feeling
(36:01):
of blaming the world for all your problems, that's why
I call it a choice that whole feeling of what
should I do, who should I listen to?
Speaker 1 (36:12):
Yeah, so when I talk about like like a I'm
gonna put my hands up like this, like a touch
not touchdown, but just like this and say, you know,
like we're here right and we might need to make
a change, and then we sort of maybe get stuck
and we go back to hear like comfort zone, comfort zone,
comfort zone, comfort zone all day long, and then over
(36:33):
here is fear and the unknown, and it's like moving
this way toward the fear and the unknown is the
scary part. And that's what you're saying, like where you
don't trust yourself and so forth. And then what we
do is we stay stuck like on hamster wheel, going
round and round and round and round and around. What
we really want is off of that movie that way,
but we're scared or we don't have the right tools
(36:54):
for the right people or the right book or the
right sentence or quote or whatever it is, and so
we go all the way back to here sometimes and
we're just always over here when we want to be here.
And that makes you really what you're saying, angry, man, upset, jealous, comparing, ungrateful, whatever,
it is right. It makes you really unsure of your
next steps.
Speaker 2 (37:17):
So you know, the journey, like you talked about fear
to faith or fear is really learning to is love. Yeah,
it's loving yourself. It's really love because love is our core,
Love is our essence. And the more we learn to
love ourselves, the more we are kind, we are generous,
(37:37):
we are compassionate, we are you know, we just we
listen better, we are more accepting. It's the whole energy,
the whole one. Energy changes, there's a that field around us.
Everything changes.
Speaker 1 (37:58):
Yeah, I think everything changes with self love and self
worth completely self love, self worth, self care and so forth.
And and people think those I've had people where I've
encountered them and they've said, I've never heard of self love,
what is that? I've never heard of self worth? What
is that? And so forth? And and you explain it
(38:18):
and they're like, oh oh, oh oh, And it's almost
like the core of all of it, isn't it that
self love?
Speaker 2 (38:26):
Yeah? It is absolute, Like if.
Speaker 1 (38:28):
You're here and then here's the stuck and here's the fear,
fear and so forth. Beyond that is what you're like saying,
Like the faith like so to go from here to
faith is all these steps in between. And the creatures
that are on board with us are self love, self worth,
self care, intuition.
Speaker 4 (38:49):
Right leadership. It's all of it it right. And it's
not linear either. I'm making it sound like you know,
this is a linear path.
Speaker 1 (38:59):
It's like.
Speaker 2 (39:01):
Right ride, It's a complete The difference is that earlier
you dislike the roller coaster ride. Now I embrace it
and take it on. In fact, I want the roller
coaster ride.
Speaker 1 (39:15):
The ones that take you upside down and move.
Speaker 2 (39:18):
Oh you have to go.
Speaker 1 (39:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (39:19):
So that was my skydive where I said, Okay, how
do I let go of this incessant need to be
in control even all you know that, all that little
tick that stays in the head. And I said, okay,
I'm going to do something that is so crazy that's
going to totally throw me out of the whole concept
of being in control. So I went and did a skydive.
Speaker 1 (39:41):
Oh I need a photograph of that. I put that
up and were you on the plane? Like, see, I
can't do no, that's a no for me, no matter what.
I'd pretty much rather do anything else but that. And
like even if they shoved me out the airplane. Did
you have to get shoved out or we're like, okay,
(40:02):
I'm going to jump.
Speaker 2 (40:04):
No, I actually jumped because I was so mentally prepared
and excited. Wow for you, I just jumped out. I
think I was so ready for it.
Speaker 1 (40:16):
Yeah. And so when you do something like that, do
you feel a need to have a layup and do
something else like that? Like are you climbing mountains or
running marathons or doing things like that? Or was that
it for you? And you're pretty good? Are you like it?
Speaker 5 (40:29):
Are you right? So?
Speaker 2 (40:31):
I challenged my comfort zone all the time, whether it
is a polar plunge in the Antarctica, or whether it
is an ice dip in the Arctic Ocean or the
or a trek up to the Everest base camp area.
(40:52):
I love to challenge my boundaries because for me, life
is really I think about embracing that unknown. Yeah, it's
constantly and seeing okay what and nature is my go
to it's my home. Yeah, so anything that takes me
closer to nature. And but I think what happens really,
(41:17):
Elizabeth is there is a very high part of me
which will say, okay, if I need to open myself
to So the polar plunge the way I said, you know,
letting go of control was the skydive. So the polar
plunge was how do I just embrace the world as
is the expanse? I just said, okay, And am I
(41:39):
scared of heights? Yes? I am, But I did it.
Am I scared of being in the ocean? Or absolutely
I did not have I can swim, but very very okay,
not enough to be in a nocean. But I think
it was for me about pushing myself to say, okay,
let's just go for it, and that I think once
(42:04):
I have that internal conviction mhm uh, I don't have
anything that stops me. Then it's just I'm just able
to jump.
Speaker 1 (42:16):
Yeah, let's talk about I want to I want to
bring that to other people and bring it to a
level where maybe somebody is afraid even to go to
a different grocery store, or their routine is set and
so forth. Can you talk about that a little bit,
because I still think it's important even to challenge yourself,
(42:38):
even if it's okay, so you're not a mountain climber
or or jumping out of airplanes or anything like that,
you know, I get I love it. But what are
the things that we could do like in our our
non adventurous spirit and incorporate into our everyday lives that
are brave like that?
Speaker 2 (42:57):
So, so you know, I I think the first thing
is that we are born explorers. I think we are
the ones who start building these walls around us of
what if right, so many what ifs. And I think
it's all about baby steps. So it's not as if
(43:18):
I suddenly one fine day found all the courage, right,
It's been baby steps. It's been little little steps of saying, Okay,
let's try something new today. It could be just cooking
a new dish at home. It could be going and
meeting somebody new outside. It could be doing something new
(43:42):
on social media. It could be really anything, right, anything.
It could even be a new type of conversation, even
with my family. Anything that will say Okay, I'm trying
something new, or even learning something because today we have
(44:04):
access to so many courses, so just pick up something
that will challenge your or spark your curiosity. Again.
Speaker 1 (44:13):
Yeah, that's what I'm not. I love it. Yeah, I've
got a story to add. So tomorrow is going to
be a big day for me. When I was a kid,
I was a gymnast from age like pretty much when
I was born to about age twenty eight, I was
a gymnastic in the state of Iowa. And I've had
my children and my businesses and all these things. And
(44:33):
we have a neighbor girl across the street who said,
would you come you know, I know, you know, we
were talking about gymnastics. I'm like, all right, she said,
would you come to my gymnastics lesson with me and
my mom? And I'm like, just watch me and see
if I'm good and what I can improve and so forth.
So I went to the main gymnastics, main academy of
gymnastics and sat there for an hour and a half
(44:54):
and watched Taya do her gymnastics, and the whole time,
I'm like feeling like a little kid. So with the
coach hat on, like, I'm like, oh, I can see
they need to point their toes and the handstands not
not correct or whatever, and I'm like, oh oh. And
and so I was working with Tay and everything shoes
you gener, mom said you need to coach here, and
(45:16):
so I let it sit for a while. Yah, wait
a minute, it gets a better.
Speaker 2 (45:21):
Yeah, so I'll give a real life story here. I
used to be very very camera conscious. Oh yeah, hugely.
And that's something which I think for public speaking or
coming in front of a camera is one of the
highest fears, right, And each time I would record something,
I would be stiff, I would be miserable. And so
(45:41):
what I decided was, Okay, if I really want to
get out there in the world, I went and joined
theater group.
Speaker 1 (45:47):
Mhm.
Speaker 2 (45:48):
I joined a theater course. I it was I was
one of the oldest ones. All the students there were
under thirty. Yeah, but you know, and to make you
do so many things that are out of your comfort zone. Yeah,
but it really set me up for the camera.
Speaker 1 (46:08):
I love it. Yeah, I absolutely love it. And I
think that's the point here is you know, at whatever
age you are, to go for it. And so I'm
going to do something tomorrow. I Am going for a
meeting to join the main Academy of gymnastics to be
a coach tomorrow, all right, And I am so scared.
(46:30):
I am so scared, and but I'm so brave and
the same and the same. I'm on walks with my husband,
like why didn't I do this? Like thirty years ago.
I know YMN is like whatever, you know. So I
beat myself up a little bit. I'm like, just you know,
and I'm so ahead of myself, like in fear, like
what if? What if? What if I'm like, calm down,
calm down? Did you do that with your theater group?
(46:51):
Like what if they don't like me? What if I
make a fool of myself? What if?
Speaker 2 (46:54):
I all the time?
Speaker 5 (46:56):
Right?
Speaker 2 (46:57):
Yeah, every day every class was because because there was
some who you know, were natural at it.
Speaker 1 (47:04):
Yeah, but I.
Speaker 2 (47:06):
Think it was I had such a blast just trying
insane things. But I think the biggest realization I had
was that I'm definitely not cut out to be an actor.
Speaker 1 (47:24):
Yeah, that's that are when you're getting in front a
group of people and they're like, act like you're crying, I'm.
Speaker 2 (47:29):
Like yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (47:34):
No, I get it. So tomorrow I'm job shadowing one
of the coaches to learn and I think that that's
the That's one of the most important things is to
to be coachable, like make yourself you might know things
that they don't know, or have miles you know, of
years or whatever it is. But I'm going in with
the baseline of like, I know nothing, teach me kind
(47:55):
of thing, and I'm so excited that it took me
a while to kind of figure that out. I'm like, Okay,
I'm not going to go in and like coach the
gymnastics team. I'm going to go in and I'm going
to coach the preschoolers and get a feel for this
and learn this and be coachable and learn how to
coach people and all of these things. And did you
feel that way in theater group too? I know we've
(48:16):
got to go pretty soon here too. Were you like, okay,
I'm open to this.
Speaker 2 (48:19):
No, no, no, no, no, I'm good. So I think
every time I take on a course so I did.
For instance, another course I did was Digital Marketing and Strategy. Yeah,
because I was not the most adept at technology or
embracing social media. And it was uncomfortable because against what
(48:43):
I've seen is the courses I've done, have all these
youngsters there, the youth there who are twenty thirty years
younger than me, and right, and here I am learning
at this stage of life. But I think the fact,
like you said, when I go in there completely being
okay with not knowing anything and asking all the questions,
(49:07):
the stool silly questions, the whatever type of questions and
making a buddy out of somebody and saying, hey, can
you help me? Yeah, you'll find your way.
Speaker 1 (49:17):
Yeah, no, I agree. I love it. Thank you for
sharing all of that too, and thank for letting me
share a little bit on me interviewing you. But I
thought that would be nice for people, because you know,
we're in our fifties and we're writing books, and we're
doing new things, and we're taking classes. And I think
it's a great example because it used to be like,
well you're forty, you know, kind of thing, and it's
(49:41):
not that way anymore. And I love it. So hopefully
we'll inspire. My hope here is that we inspire even
just one person our age or not to go on
that journey of self love, self worth, remembering their value
and bravery, so much bravery. So all right, I know
we gotta go take I hope you come back by
(50:01):
the way, and please do, and we'll cover the rest
of the questions I have for you. But if you
could leave our audience with one powerful reminder or invitation
for their own journey of self discovery, what would it be.
Speaker 2 (50:17):
Know that your inner self is always the right. It's
your playbook to happiness.
Speaker 1 (50:23):
Love it all? Right? Will you share your websites one
more time?
Speaker 2 (50:26):
It's right, thank you for that. It's w w w
ashkhana dot com a s h u k h A
n n a dot com and uh, I'm on a
social media with I am a shoe Khana.
Speaker 1 (50:43):
Yeah, I'm not done yet. What's your favorite plat have
a couple more questions for you? What's your favorite platform.
Speaker 2 (50:48):
To be on?
Speaker 1 (50:48):
Like, where do you feel most like people engage you?
And you're comfortable on there?
Speaker 2 (50:53):
Twitter?
Speaker 5 (50:54):
Twitter?
Speaker 1 (50:55):
Undoubtedly, undoubtedly, And and we already learned that you're probably
maybe your favorite book that you have written. It's hard though,
because they're like all babies. Is I am loved? Which
is your poetry book? Right? Yeah? And then if you
could leave us with a book recommendation, I would really
appreciate that. I love it when our community gives us
book recommendation.
Speaker 2 (51:15):
After the bugwad Gita, I think the other book that
really influenced me was Matma Gandhi's My Experiments with Truth
to read about a personality like him, a leader like him,
really talking about his imperfections and embracing them was very
(51:36):
imparting for me and very inspiring.
Speaker 1 (51:39):
Love it, yeah, because we think somebody like that's just perfect. Right.
Speaker 2 (51:42):
Yeah, So you know, whether it is Andrea Gassi's Open
or other such books I have seen that. I remember
reading a book of you know, entrepreneurs when I was
struggling with fear of failure, and I think one of
the things that I had to really take back was
everybody fails, everybody explores, everybody experiments. You never get your
(52:07):
answer the first time round.
Speaker 1 (52:09):
You're always learning if you can, if you could help
somebody be their best, give give advice to help people
be their best, what would that be? Uh?
Speaker 2 (52:21):
You know, just love yourself. That there is Like I said,
there is no such thing as perfection external love yourself
all whatson everything, because there is only one you and
for a reason. I think that's the thing that I discovered.
(52:42):
I had to really come home to myself saying, there,
I'm born for a reason, and let me really make
sure I live up to and make that reason do
something about it. I love it.
Speaker 1 (52:58):
Well, thank you for doing that, because we're here, right,
It's beautiful to me. Yeah, thank you, thank you for
being here. Let's give your website one more time, and
let's let's give a sign off of we hope everybody
follows us on Twitter and joined in our little morning,
our morning ritual there and just just helping everybody be
(53:20):
their best.
Speaker 2 (53:20):
Right, Yeah, so my web thank you again, Thank you
so much, Elizabeth. My website is Ashukana dot com and
I would be more than And we have a Happiness
Chronicles newsletter that we published twice twice a month, and
we've started something called Wisdom Unplugged on Thursdays once a month.
(53:43):
So it's really about sharing whatever's happening in the month,
our podcasts, our little blogs, and any new content that
we have created.
Speaker 1 (53:55):
All right, well, thank you for being here. All right,
thank you everybody for listening to listening and watching. I
guess the best ever you show, Ashukhana is here with us,
and it's just been a wonderful hour and some with
you learning all about you. And I hope that one
of the things that I always hope and pray for
and have faith in is our listeners and our viewers
(54:17):
because the best ever you network and the best ever
you show are all completely grassroots. There's never any advertising
or anything like that. So it's all word of mouth
and connection and community. So as you connect to somebody
that you love, let us know and we'll feature them
on the website or here on the podcast, because that's
how we all grow and share and kind of cut
(54:39):
down fear. I think. I think the more the more
community we have and the more we have people supporting us,
the less fear we have, and that allows us to
pretty much I think the possibilities become infinite at that point.
Speaker 2 (54:54):
That is such a beautiful way to end the conversation that, yes,
the more we connect, the less the fear, and the
more possibilities and the more the love.
Speaker 1 (55:04):
Yeah, love and peace. Thank you so much, thank you
all right bye, everybody, take care,
Hi everyone, and welcome to the fall edition of the
Best Ever You Show. We've been a podcast for over
fifteen years now, so we're going to kick off this season,
our fifteenth season, with our beautiful guest, a Shoe Canna
and her website. I'm going to spell this for you.
It's a s h U k h A n n
A dot com and Shoe is love her happiness chronicles everybody.
(00:26):
But she's a spiritual teacher's She's a coach in her
own right. She posts daily messages on Twitter. And have
I met you on Twitter? And I just want to
welcome you here. I'll give it. We can talk more
about your bio and stuff like that, but I just
want to give a warm welcome, big a hug.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
You so much I expect from you, lovely to meet
you and Elizabeth, I mean, it's such a privilege. I
don't honor thank you.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
I feel the same way. And we met on Twitter.
I'm in Maine, you're in India, and so it's it's
nighttime where you are, it's morning where I am. And
here we are connecting. And I had the privilege of
being on a Shoes podcast a couple of days ago.
I don't know when that comes out, but just anyway,
we're just sharing the love here. So tell me all
about tell tell I know about you, but tell us
(01:15):
all about you so we get a really good sense
of who you are and what you're trying to do
in the world.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
So I'm a mom, I'm a wife, I'm a coach,
I'm a spiritual teacher, I'm a friend, I'm really you know,
as many runs as I can embrace. I love to
enjoy life, and of course I'm a person in my
own right. I would take that completely.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
So everybody, if you need some boy parenting advice, we
have six boys between us. I have four and you
have two, and they are all okay. So mine are
twenty four, twenty six, twenty eight, and thirty and yours.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Are thirty and twenty five.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
So we've got it covered.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
Yeah, we've got it covered.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
Yeah. All the people who are sending their kids off
to college right now, do you have some advice for them,
because it's happening, if it hasn't already happened, and we've
got all those freshmen in first year, you know.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
I think it's it's a beautiful phase to see them
fly off the cuckoo's nest and find the wings. While
I must say I did have my share of banks
of you know, empty nest of banks, but just seeing
them blossom mix up for all of it.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
Yeah, isn't that wild? When you drop the first one
off at college? I had this like it was like
a moment in you want them, you know, fly little
birdies fly right. I totally agreed, you know, fly and
do great things. But boy, I had a moment where
it was like time reversed for a second. I'm like, Wow,
where did all that time go? Right? Did you have
(03:00):
that same feeling? You know?
Speaker 2 (03:02):
I think it hit me more when my second one went,
because suddenly I had both gone, and that was you know,
it was a little it was more emotional. Yeah. And
but staying regularly in touch with them, I would say,
is key to keeping that bond, that relationship, the support,
(03:25):
all of it. Just staying in touch, especially for us
since we are seize a part my son. Yeah, my
sons have studied in the US, and the only way
we've really stay kept the bond even stronger is staying connected.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
Yeah, through isn't can you imagine doing that without the
invention of the of the of the phone, you know,
the iPhone and zoom and FaceTime.
Speaker 3 (03:53):
And all that.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
Funnily, I don't know which one whether it's while it's
a blessing to have all of this and stay in
touch and see them every day regularly and everything. I
think there was a charm to writing those letters on
letter papers, right, the memories that were captured on that,
I think just had a different romance to it.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
Now, do you still write them letters? Because I'm a
letter writer, like i'd be a great pen pal. We'd
be great pen pals because I don't know, I don't
know how to send a letter overseats, but I can
find it, I'll admit it. You know, I'm so used
to the technology that I've never even done that. So
that'd be fun, though, wouldn't it.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
It would? But I don't write letters now as much
as I used to. Oh, I love it.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
They have they have stores here with magnificent stationery, and
but I just I love handwritten letters, handwritten thank you
notes and things like that. So maybe we'll have to
maybe we'll have to fire that up. So all right,
I'm going to go to your website for a minute.
Here you are all about happiness, is a choice. Leadership
(05:03):
is an attitude. That's that's like right on the homepage
of your website, how did you how did you get
started in all of this and what does that mean
to you? That's a that's a big message of yours.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
So I really okay. I think the main thing about
really me is that I'm really intuitive, very very intuitive.
I am very much into self. Respect is very important
to me, and I think one of the things that
(05:37):
I found as a gap when I was I lived
in India and overseas. I've worked with both places, and
I think one of the things I saw missing in
corporate India was a corporate world per se was respect.
Sometimes I think the leaning towards authority is sometimes so
much that people lose sight or you know, now we
(06:00):
talk about profit, purpose people, all of that, but back then,
twenty plus years ago, no, it was just so much
of profit. People did not talk about purpose or managing teams,
really technical training. Oh absolutely, So you were treated like
this little machine who had to deliver all the time.
(06:20):
It's all about execution, and that bothered me. That really
bothered me in terms of seeing that the focus on people,
focus on purpose was missing and That's what made me
really quit the corporate world and say, no, there is
a better way of doing leadership. There has to be
because I'd seen leaders, I'd worked with leaders who were
(06:43):
you know, like any other person, you work with leaders
who are more mature, you work with leaders who are
more aggressive. So I'd had my share of diversity leaders
who had mentored me, and seeing that, it was like, no,
there has to be. And I grew up in a
family where my parents were very relationship oriented. Always it
(07:05):
was so much about love and relationship life that had
a very it still is a very big part of me.
And that's how I guess we met even through Twitter.
For me, it's really life is really about relationships. Yeah,
and I think I.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
Have a question. Sorry I'm interrupt you for a second.
I have a question for you. I want to go
back and just I want to put the female spin
on that whole thing too. With children and working and
trying to be a leadership and even just hold down
a job with small kids, did you find that challenging
or was that easy for you? Because I know I
had a heck of a time with four small kids
(07:45):
to your age, to your part.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
Of course, see when you decide to want okay, I
think it's all a question. If you want it all,
then you have to find a way to balance it
all and constant. It's a constant thing of juggling the ball.
Sometimes one falls and sometimes you have to get okay
with yourself with dropping the ball. Once in a while,
(08:08):
there's no way you can catch each one of them.
And it required me to learn how to be more
authentic with my children and actually respect their feelings and
say I'm sorry, I won't be here today, or I
can be here, or be okay, telling my clients I
got to go to school, you know, or even my
(08:29):
managers at I got to be at my son's school,
or I need to do something personally. So I think
that authenticity or communication becomes a very fundamental thing to
even asking for support, bringing that vulnerability out. Stop trying
to be super mom and doing it all. That's hard, yeah,
(08:52):
because you know you wear that mantle of thinking that
you need to hold every ball in the air and
it's only your problem. I had to learn to empower
my staff at home also all at work and say okay, no,
you have to let go. I think letting go is
a very big lesson that I learned and vulnerability through
(09:13):
this whole parenting and and kids, are they observe they
really catch you?
Speaker 3 (09:21):
You bet.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
So. While they are your biggest fans, they are even
your quickest critics. They will catch you if you slip right,
So there's no point pretending. There is really no point
pretending and being more humble about it than saying, yeah, okay, yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
Did you have exactly Yeah, did you have a moment
that you can share with us whe you shifted from
the corporate culture and career and so forth to the
path you're on now? Is there a moment where you're like, Okay,
that's it, I'm done or was it more gradual?
Speaker 2 (09:59):
So there, okay, it was more gradual. But I think
there was a very defining moment in my life when
I got stung by one hundred bees Elizabeth in Singapore.
Speaker 4 (10:10):
Yeah, so that was a Yeah, that's a huge one.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
That's scary to live through.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
Yeah, let me ask you a question.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
Were you allergic on top of it or just stung
by bees?
Speaker 2 (10:21):
So I was allergic. I had had a very very
severely allergic reaction in a few years before that in
Hong Kong, where I just survived it and the cause
remains unknown till date because it was such a you know,
close to fatal episode and the second So when I
(10:42):
got stung by the bees, there was nobody who stopped
to help, even though I was just outside in the
center of my outside my condominium in Singapore, but nobody
stopped to help. So I drove myself to the hospital.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
Oh wow, because there.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
Was no I just knew I had to find a
way to survive it.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
Was it smart, I don't know. Was it foolish, I
don't know, but divine providence helped me get there and
I'm here to you know, I guess I still had
a lot more to live and do.
Speaker 1 (11:16):
Yees, So I feel with my allergy. I have food allergies.
We were talking about it for life threatening food allergies.
So allergies are terrifying. So now do you carry around
do you have a A so like I have a
medical alert on.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
Used to carry an EpiPen for the longest time.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
Oh please please do again, because there's terrifying.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
Yeah. So I've been I think quite blessed in terms
of but that was a big wake up call to
saying if you know the universe has given me two
near death experiences. It's time for me to question my
own existence, what I'm up to. And that was a
very existential moment where I stopped, where I started looking
(12:00):
at what am I doing with myself? And the biggest
realization that came was that I'd suppressed my feelings. I
had suppressed my feelings. I had you know, I'd gotten
into the mom homemaker mode so much that somewhere I
had stopped valuing myself. Oh yeah, because there are no
(12:24):
gold stars for a mom. We give gold stars to
the kids.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
But thanks right for her all the time because it
did the same thing. Okay, keep going with this, because.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
So that's what really made me say, hey, I that's
what really made me say, hey, I need to look
at what do I want to do with my life
and myself. I started exploring options entrepreneurial. I think I
was quite done with the corporate world by then, and
I was flirting with in out, in out, what should
(12:57):
I do? What will work for me? Yeah? And coming
back to India is how I found this gap in
leadership development and I decided to totally jump out of
everything and say, okay, I'm doing this.
Speaker 1 (13:11):
Yeah, yeah, and and do you love it? Are you?
It's a I have I have bouts where you feel
like you're a little bit alone sometimes in doing you know,
like the corporate culture for me meant a little bit
of bouncing ideas off of each other and collaborating on things.
So that's the one thing I've had to recreate here
(13:31):
at home to find people that I could collaborate with
and and and love and so forth and get feedback from.
And you know, I love, I love to collabor I'm
just such a big collaborator. So sometimes I would feel
a little bit lonely in my endeavors. Have you had
that or are you all good?
Speaker 2 (13:49):
So no, of course, I mean moving from a structured
environment to a totally creating your own structure, right. I
have a huge ecosis of people I reach out to literally,
whether it's coaches, people from my spiritual community, whether it's friends,
my family, my team, my digital team, my tech team.
(14:13):
I reach out for feedbacks, ideas, conversations, my Twitter for
that matter, social media platforms, because you know, based on
the feedback is how you really say, Okay, what do
I do next? How do I do it? Differently? There
is just so much that I receive from the world,
(14:35):
and I am more than happy to go out and
get it.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
Yeah. Yeah, I hear your puppy in the background. We
have puppies too, Okay, so we're here. This is the
part the authenticity. I think one of the things that
is most important everything is authenticity and not hiding anything.
So for me, like when COVID came around, and I
hate it every minute of COVID, but I respect and
(15:01):
love the fact that people were up on their computers
and they were who they were, and they had kids
in the background and cats and dogs and their hair
up and shorts.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
On and whatever it was. She's barking for attention.
Speaker 1 (15:13):
She wants to come bring her in. Yeah, if you
need to get a bringer in because because I love dogs,
so come on in. So cute. So now we have
a dog joining the podcast. That's a cool door and
(15:37):
a beautiful outfit.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
And that's my hi. Hello, and what is your name?
Speaker 2 (15:46):
Her name is Laika?
Speaker 1 (15:50):
Oh my god? So she aren't they aren't they the
best life coaches ever?
Speaker 2 (15:58):
Unbelievable. So she goes to office with me very often. Yeah,
and she loves her outings. So everybody at office. Loves
her because it's this perfect distress of you will run
a little with her. You will give her your cuddles,
and she'll give you your licks and your set.
Speaker 1 (16:15):
Yeah, I have a dog. She's got her nose to
the window over here, so I won't let her in
because she'll be all over the place. But she and
I are kind of inseparable almost. Her name is Bahama,
and she goes everywhere with me, stores, all the all
the same stuff. So all right, so she used to
come back up to let me know, and all right,
so let's talk about your teachings. What about let's talk
(16:40):
about your inner voice and the importance of listening to
your inner voice. Maybe maybe touch on some of that
intuition that you were that you were talking about.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
So you know, way back two thousand and six my
journey of transformation. While like there were many defining moments,
this was yet another one. When I decided to do
leadership development. I went to Henley on Thames and I
(17:09):
met my coach there. I went for just a course,
trying to figure out how do I do it? What
do I do next? And she observed me through the
week and I was yojoing between being very friendly and
being very judgmental and aggressive, someone who really as if
needed to capture attention, right, And that's when she actually
(17:34):
asked me, you know, how coachable are you? I'd never
even heard the word, never knew that concept existed. So
that's when she so I asked her. I said, if
you were to coach me, what would you say? And
lo and behold the first question she asked me, whose
acceptance are you waiting for?
Speaker 1 (17:53):
Oh? There's a good one, right, that's a huge one. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
Now, we don't even realize that we've been sitting and
spending our entire life looking for somebody to give us approval,
whether it's our parents or you know, family, or society
or someone or the other. It's always around. And I
just had a complete meltdown moment because I looked at
her and I just said everyone. And I think it
(18:23):
was such a revealing conversation for me. And then I asked, Okay,
what do I do next? How do I deal with this?
She has had the most beautiful way of managing me
in terms of leaving me with the thought and saying, okay,
now you figure your answer out.
Speaker 1 (18:42):
Ye, health how we do that? Though? Like we're really looking.
I don't know what that is like. I've been in
pageants before, seeking I know now I didn't know at
the time, but you know, maybe even seeking approval or
attention or whatever it is to fill whatever gaps. But
isn't it such a peaceful to have that inner piece.
(19:03):
I don't know if it's fifties, I'm fifty five. You
know you're right about the same age, right, And have
you found that aging has any component to the to
the wisdom associated with this or does it make it
worse or better? Sometimes in some ways you feel a
little worse's you can have lack of a conversation with yourself.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
But I think I would I wouldn't say it's necessarily aging.
Of course, with age you collect a lot more experiences,
but I would say it's a lot more consciousness.
Speaker 1 (19:35):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
And that's what Lynn, my coach, sparked in me, is
this awareness of how do I find my answers? And
I figured the inner voice has all the answers. You
simply need to turn in and align and focus internally
to pay attention to what it's trying to tell you.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
Do you think that's easier when you aren't? Okay? Let
me take you back to your twenties for a minute,
even your teens, twenties and so forth. Is it easier
now to do that than it was previously? Because like,
(20:17):
picture yourself a twenty year old now on social media
and all of the things that they do for attention
and hair and makeup and dancing and this and that
and another thing, And I'm like, oh, I can't. I know,
I don't even know if I would do that in
my twenties. Had I if I were twenty right now,
I'd probably be on the shy side of that. But
(20:39):
do you think that accessing that consciousness is easier in
your fifties because there's sort of a mellowness, like a
kind almost like a kind of like, well, I don't
know if I care what everybody thinks anymore happening.
Speaker 2 (20:51):
Well, obviously there is a lot more self love, self acceptance,
all of that. Yeah, in the twenties, I was not
even aware of it either. I was too busy doing
what the world thought, what I thought the world expected
me to do. Uh, you know, the typical thing of Okay,
(21:12):
you go to school, you go to college, you get
a job, you do so. Yeah, whereas once I got
into this pole space of spirituality. It became life has
become a lot easier because now there is a very
there's a you know, there's an intention to say, how
(21:33):
do I want to live? Do I want to constantly
live because a certain way because the world expects me
to do it? Or do I want to live true
and be at peace and love myself. So that's where
the difference comes. Now it's a very I know it's
a difficult choice for many because they fear that, oh
will I get cut off from society? What will happen?
(21:55):
What will people think? And what I've discovered is that
the relationationships that were never meant to be with you
for a long term will fall off anyway, or they'll
get realigned and you'll always find more and more relationships.
So I have a you know, I always tell people
that look at the population of the world, you cannot
(22:20):
say you're alone in this world. You just have to
reach out. And I think the best thing social media
has done in a way, while it may have you know,
we look at the negative side of the noise of it.
It's given access to so many communities and it's up
to us whether we want to build a relationship or
(22:40):
an authentic relationship through it, or do we just want
to look at the you know, the likes and the
followers and get bent out of shape with that. So
it's a very personal mindset you have to cultivate as
to what do I really want there?
Speaker 1 (22:58):
How do we find each other on Twitter? It's been
the most beautiful I don't know either. It's just like
and there you are kind of thing and and I
and I love taking social media into real life and connecting.
Like you're saying, uh, it makes it so much like
it makes me day.
Speaker 2 (23:19):
Oh sorry, sorry, sorry. We are in a common group,
and I think you reached out to me right to
write for your magazine Best Ever You. Yeah, you, And
that's where I saw your whole website. I saw the
work you're doing, and the resonance was so strong that
I think the relationship just moved from there.
Speaker 1 (23:41):
Yeah. When I wake up in the morning and I
see a tweet from you and I'm tagged in it,
it makes I'm like, I don't have to worry for
the whole rest of the day. Like there you feel
included and and a bit of wisdom, happiness, joy, everything
right off the bat, it's it's beautiful and I'm so
grateful for that because it just I love that group.
(24:04):
Whatever we're in a group and then there's maybe like
there's not a lot of people in it. There's maybe
like five or six people in it. And it's a
lovely group.
Speaker 2 (24:12):
It's a group that is really full of wisdom, joy
and I think so many stories to share. I love it.
Speaker 1 (24:22):
Yeah, And there was somebody yesterday, hang on, I think
you had her on your podcast, Isabella, and I do
not know how to say her last name.
Speaker 5 (24:30):
Yeah, it's I was on there, and I'm like, you know,
let's feature you two come on so so, so so
adorable and just I mean, it's just lovely.
Speaker 1 (24:41):
Like today three hours ago, one of your one of
your tweets was growth is silent like trees, we change
without noise. And so every morning you put something out
like this, and then once that goes out, everybody comments,
says a little bit of wisdom, supports each other, says
thank you for brightening my day, and it's just it's
really lovely, and people add their own quotes and so forth.
(25:03):
So I hope people follow follow us through you. Yeah, No,
it's beautiful. Let me go back to my I have notes, guys,
So yeah, I have little notes just to remind myself
of some of the things I want to talk to you about,
so we don't go kind of all over the place.
But I think I would really like to talk to
you about your books and then your masterclass, so that
(25:26):
people really get a good sense of how they can
go go buy your books. I don't think people are
aware that, you know, Amazon reaches globally, well we know.
I mean people know Amazon reaches globally, but in a
book sense, Amazon reaches globally. So you can publish, you know,
I can buy your books, you can buy mine, and
so forth, and they arrive just like just like normal,
(25:47):
wherever whatever country they're published in, and it's pretty lovely
like that. So do you want to tell everybody about
your books?
Speaker 2 (25:54):
So yeah, the way you've written perculate and success guide
Book and change guide Book, I would say pretty much.
What happened for me was as I was transforming, I
had a complete desire to pen down the insights. There
was just so much excitement to experience the change by
(26:17):
living in alignment with the inner voice, that I kept
penning them down, and little by little, my first book emerged,
which is I'm Freedom, because I was seeking freedom from
really all the perceptions. Like we talked about what does
the world have to you know, should we listen to
the world or should we listen to ourselves. My next
(26:37):
book emerged after that, which is I'm Abundance, recognizing that
I got so attached to so many concepts and perspectives
I didn't know so simple thing like I didn't know
what's the difference between honesty and authenticity. So honesty can
be okay, I was honest about something, But I used
(26:59):
to even think honestly expressing myself was cool. Now you
don't realize that, you know, just saying whatever's in your
head is not always cool because you could.
Speaker 1 (27:09):
Be sometimes honestly.
Speaker 2 (27:14):
That's like filter sometimes Yeah, so that filter was missing.
Speaker 1 (27:22):
Yeah, I've cused to being blunt before myself.
Speaker 2 (27:26):
So that's when you know, so things like that, recognizing that, no,
that opinionated me is not necessarily the right me. And
so that's when I'm Abundance came out. And really looking
at the world as interconnected. I think that was the
biggest part of it, seeing the world as one and interconnected,
(27:47):
and the whole concept of a loneeness went from God address.
There then came my next one, which is my favorite book,
I Am Love my poetry book. So I think the
magic about that book was that each poem was written
in less than a minute. While all my books are
(28:09):
revealed wisdom, this one, I would say was the highest
spontaneity that I could have ever experienced. And I never
saw myself as an author or a poet, but I
just had poetry pouring out. And the book takes the
(28:29):
whole sequence of you know, questions for the quest of
a human life, of what is life? How do I
live life? And who am I? So it carries the
whole sequence. And then came the next book, I Am Perfection.
Now this is really I had chased perfection, so called
(28:51):
perfection as a myth, which I know it is now,
but perfection so much in my life. I want to
be perfect externally and I wanted life to be perfect.
That whole insistence and expectation was so much that obviously
there was constant judgment and noise or disappointment in the head.
Speaker 1 (29:10):
Still I went that up too, isn't it. It's really
hard to wake up with your hair perfect every morning?
Speaker 2 (29:15):
Yeah, So it's a very Yeah, you're putting a tough standard,
not just yourself, but you're messing with everybody around you.
Speaker 1 (29:21):
Right, Yeah, there are some people that I always say,
you know, it doesn't say perfect ever you it says
best ever you can. I do a little asterisk, like,
you know, I think I want my heart surgeon to
be perfect, though, like I do want my pilot to
be pretty much perfect. Like there's some people I think
that might need to almost be perfect, Like you don't
(29:43):
want to be like hello, everybody, welcome to you know,
the airline today, and I'm going to do my best
to get you there.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
Make a slight distinction here between excellence and perfection. Yeah,
and I think that's the thing that emerged for me
that actually life is about the inner perfection and not external.
The external comes out when you are absolutely embracing the
inner perfection.
Speaker 1 (30:10):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (30:10):
So the book I'm Perfection was really the journey to
realizing that. And now I'm writing the book I Am Light,
which is I would say my love affair with min
a voice haha.
Speaker 1 (30:26):
Yeah, yeah, it's beautiful. Yeah. We have a lot of
the same things, like we've said before, like a lot
of the same things the journeys a little bit of
the same with just you know, toning it down a
little bit, but toning it down but tuning it in
is kind of what I say, like toned down but
really super tuned in. I think, I'm I think I
(30:49):
probably will always struggle with listening. My listening skills could
be always improved. I think kind of maybe everybody's listening
skills could always be improved. I find myself to be
cock and it's like, ah, you know, and so I
always work on that and just and really try to,
(31:11):
you know, observe. I think observe is a is a
good one. So tone down, observing and so forth. Are
you doing that too?
Speaker 2 (31:19):
It's an everyday practice because there is no end to
this practice.
Speaker 1 (31:25):
Yeah, no, I agree with you. All right, let's tell
tell everybody about your master class, because there's a master
class and happiness.
Speaker 2 (31:33):
I hear, yes, thank you for that. So that is
going to be coming out sometimes shortly. I think as
I went through this journey, I realized, ultimately we all
look for happiness in the world, happiness, joy, peace, because
that is our inherent state of being, that's our core essence.
(31:53):
And the master class takes a full journey. That's been
the highest miracle that I've experienced so far, amongst many others.
But I think the framework of the master class that
got revealed to me during COVID, it gives you the
essence of the Bugworth Ghita that has been the Bugworth
(32:17):
Ghita has been the guiding light in terms of the
wisdom for me. And essentially the way it works is
that all of us use our four faculties all the time,
which is our sensory perceptions, our thoughts, our emotions, and
our energy. And when you so, there are the four
(32:37):
yogas that go with it, and when you anchor them
inside or use each of them in alignment with the
inner voice or the inner self, you are actually able
to anchor each one and live a far more aligned
life or a life of alignment is a life of
(32:58):
yoga or union. And therefore, when you live in alignment,
and whether you're using your senses, your energy, your emotions,
your thoughts, everything is in alignment, you are able to
actually become one or in dissolve the mind to become
actually an embodiment of consciousness.
Speaker 3 (33:19):
Yeah, okay, we're going to give a practical I'm going
to give a practical example of that because I love
all the teaching, but I want people to like here,
how do I actually use.
Speaker 1 (33:30):
That in my daily life? So you know that inner
voice that toxic and says I shouldn't do that, or
that's not right, or or you even might even feel it,
but you ignore it. I think that is let's talk
together so we can teach people a little bit, because
I really believe you know you and I are like
(33:51):
heart truth energy. That's the change guide. But make everything
align heart truth energy authentic. You pay attention to the voice,
pay attention to the gut, pay attention to what you're thinking,
and so forth. When you ignore that, when when you
aren't when you ignore that or don't have your value
(34:14):
with you, you're not listening to yourself. You're listening to
other people with what they think you should do, and
so forth. How does that affect us? And and and
and what do we do about that?
Speaker 2 (34:27):
So I'm really saying very practical terms. I think the
biggest thing that happens is you get angry, you get anxious,
you get stressed, you get your face burnout, you you
get you feel incomplete, you start comparing, you're jealous, you're envious,
you get you know, there's just this whole thing of
something's not right.
Speaker 1 (34:48):
See now your great I love it. Oh hm, oh
you know. I love what you did. Though something wasn't right,
you didn't ignore it.
Speaker 2 (35:07):
I so sorry. So she is my protector of thoughts.
So anybody comes to the other door, she had to bark.
Speaker 1 (35:15):
Yeah, yeah, that's but that's you know, that just happened
for a reason, I swear, because that's what we're talking
about exactly in long terms, that's exactly it. You know,
It's like, don't ignore. Don't ignore it.
Speaker 2 (35:31):
Right, don't ignore the signs. You don't ignore that your
body doesn't feel okay. You know, you're right, you feel
just doesn't.
Speaker 1 (35:39):
Right, out of back.
Speaker 2 (35:40):
You really feel out of back, you know. And the
thing is, you know it, but you don't necessarily know
how to trust it or what to do with it, right,
or you don't know what to do with it. So
I think that was what was happening with me. I
knew something was not right. I didn't know what to
do with it. So that feeling of helplessness, the feeling
(36:01):
of blaming the world for all your problems, that's why
I call it a choice that whole feeling of what
should I do, who should I listen to?
Speaker 1 (36:12):
Yeah, so when I talk about like like a I'm
gonna put my hands up like this, like a touch
not touchdown, but just like this and say, you know,
like we're here right and we might need to make
a change, and then we sort of maybe get stuck
and we go back to hear like comfort zone, comfort zone,
comfort zone, comfort zone all day long, and then over
(36:33):
here is fear and the unknown, and it's like moving
this way toward the fear and the unknown is the
scary part. And that's what you're saying, like where you
don't trust yourself and so forth. And then what we
do is we stay stuck like on hamster wheel, going
round and round and round and round and around. What
we really want is off of that movie that way,
but we're scared or we don't have the right tools
(36:54):
for the right people or the right book or the
right sentence or quote or whatever it is, and so
we go all the way back to here sometimes and
we're just always over here when we want to be here.
And that makes you really what you're saying, angry, man, upset, jealous, comparing, ungrateful, whatever,
it is right. It makes you really unsure of your
next steps.
Speaker 2 (37:17):
So you know, the journey, like you talked about fear
to faith or fear is really learning to is love. Yeah,
it's loving yourself. It's really love because love is our core,
Love is our essence. And the more we learn to
love ourselves, the more we are kind, we are generous,
(37:37):
we are compassionate, we are you know, we just we
listen better, we are more accepting. It's the whole energy,
the whole one. Energy changes, there's a that field around us.
Everything changes.
Speaker 1 (37:58):
Yeah, I think everything changes with self love and self
worth completely self love, self worth, self care and so forth.
And and people think those I've had people where I've
encountered them and they've said, I've never heard of self love,
what is that? I've never heard of self worth? What
is that? And so forth? And and you explain it
(38:18):
and they're like, oh oh, oh oh, And it's almost
like the core of all of it, isn't it that
self love?
Speaker 2 (38:26):
Yeah? It is absolute, Like if.
Speaker 1 (38:28):
You're here and then here's the stuck and here's the fear,
fear and so forth. Beyond that is what you're like saying,
Like the faith like so to go from here to
faith is all these steps in between. And the creatures
that are on board with us are self love, self worth,
self care, intuition.
Speaker 4 (38:49):
Right leadership. It's all of it it right. And it's
not linear either. I'm making it sound like you know,
this is a linear path.
Speaker 1 (38:59):
It's like.
Speaker 2 (39:01):
Right ride, It's a complete The difference is that earlier
you dislike the roller coaster ride. Now I embrace it
and take it on. In fact, I want the roller
coaster ride.
Speaker 1 (39:15):
The ones that take you upside down and move.
Speaker 2 (39:18):
Oh you have to go.
Speaker 1 (39:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (39:19):
So that was my skydive where I said, Okay, how
do I let go of this incessant need to be
in control even all you know that, all that little
tick that stays in the head. And I said, okay,
I'm going to do something that is so crazy that's
going to totally throw me out of the whole concept
of being in control. So I went and did a skydive.
Speaker 1 (39:41):
Oh I need a photograph of that. I put that
up and were you on the plane? Like, see, I
can't do no, that's a no for me, no matter what.
I'd pretty much rather do anything else but that. And
like even if they shoved me out the airplane. Did
you have to get shoved out or we're like, okay,
(40:02):
I'm going to jump.
Speaker 2 (40:04):
No, I actually jumped because I was so mentally prepared
and excited. Wow for you, I just jumped out. I
think I was so ready for it.
Speaker 1 (40:16):
Yeah. And so when you do something like that, do
you feel a need to have a layup and do
something else like that? Like are you climbing mountains or
running marathons or doing things like that? Or was that
it for you? And you're pretty good? Are you like it?
Speaker 5 (40:29):
Are you right? So?
Speaker 2 (40:31):
I challenged my comfort zone all the time, whether it
is a polar plunge in the Antarctica, or whether it
is an ice dip in the Arctic Ocean or the
or a trek up to the Everest base camp area.
(40:52):
I love to challenge my boundaries because for me, life
is really I think about embracing that unknown. Yeah, it's
constantly and seeing okay what and nature is my go
to it's my home. Yeah, so anything that takes me
closer to nature. And but I think what happens really,
(41:17):
Elizabeth is there is a very high part of me
which will say, okay, if I need to open myself
to So the polar plunge the way I said, you know,
letting go of control was the skydive. So the polar
plunge was how do I just embrace the world as
is the expanse? I just said, okay, And am I
(41:39):
scared of heights? Yes? I am, But I did it.
Am I scared of being in the ocean? Or absolutely
I did not have I can swim, but very very okay,
not enough to be in a nocean. But I think
it was for me about pushing myself to say, okay,
let's just go for it, and that I think once
(42:04):
I have that internal conviction mhm uh, I don't have
anything that stops me. Then it's just I'm just able
to jump.
Speaker 1 (42:16):
Yeah, let's talk about I want to I want to
bring that to other people and bring it to a
level where maybe somebody is afraid even to go to
a different grocery store, or their routine is set and
so forth. Can you talk about that a little bit,
because I still think it's important even to challenge yourself,
(42:38):
even if it's okay, so you're not a mountain climber
or or jumping out of airplanes or anything like that,
you know, I get I love it. But what are
the things that we could do like in our our
non adventurous spirit and incorporate into our everyday lives that
are brave like that?
Speaker 2 (42:57):
So, so you know, I I think the first thing
is that we are born explorers. I think we are
the ones who start building these walls around us of
what if right, so many what ifs. And I think
it's all about baby steps. So it's not as if
(43:18):
I suddenly one fine day found all the courage, right,
It's been baby steps. It's been little little steps of saying, Okay,
let's try something new today. It could be just cooking
a new dish at home. It could be going and
meeting somebody new outside. It could be doing something new
(43:42):
on social media. It could be really anything, right, anything.
It could even be a new type of conversation, even
with my family. Anything that will say Okay, I'm trying
something new, or even learning something because today we have
(44:04):
access to so many courses, so just pick up something
that will challenge your or spark your curiosity. Again.
Speaker 1 (44:13):
Yeah, that's what I'm not. I love it. Yeah, I've
got a story to add. So tomorrow is going to
be a big day for me. When I was a kid,
I was a gymnast from age like pretty much when
I was born to about age twenty eight, I was
a gymnastic in the state of Iowa. And I've had
my children and my businesses and all these things. And
(44:33):
we have a neighbor girl across the street who said,
would you come you know, I know, you know, we
were talking about gymnastics. I'm like, all right, she said,
would you come to my gymnastics lesson with me and
my mom? And I'm like, just watch me and see
if I'm good and what I can improve and so forth.
So I went to the main gymnastics, main academy of
gymnastics and sat there for an hour and a half
(44:54):
and watched Taya do her gymnastics, and the whole time,
I'm like feeling like a little kid. So with the
coach hat on, like, I'm like, oh, I can see
they need to point their toes and the handstands not
not correct or whatever, and I'm like, oh oh. And
and so I was working with Tay and everything shoes
you gener, mom said you need to coach here, and
(45:16):
so I let it sit for a while. Yah, wait
a minute, it gets a better.
Speaker 2 (45:21):
Yeah, so I'll give a real life story here. I
used to be very very camera conscious. Oh yeah, hugely.
And that's something which I think for public speaking or
coming in front of a camera is one of the
highest fears, right, And each time I would record something,
I would be stiff, I would be miserable. And so
(45:41):
what I decided was, Okay, if I really want to
get out there in the world, I went and joined
theater group.
Speaker 1 (45:47):
Mhm.
Speaker 2 (45:48):
I joined a theater course. I it was I was
one of the oldest ones. All the students there were
under thirty. Yeah, but you know, and to make you
do so many things that are out of your comfort zone. Yeah,
but it really set me up for the camera.
Speaker 1 (46:08):
I love it. Yeah, I absolutely love it. And I
think that's the point here is you know, at whatever
age you are, to go for it. And so I'm
going to do something tomorrow. I Am going for a
meeting to join the main Academy of gymnastics to be
a coach tomorrow, all right, And I am so scared.
(46:30):
I am so scared, and but I'm so brave and
the same and the same. I'm on walks with my husband,
like why didn't I do this? Like thirty years ago.
I know YMN is like whatever, you know. So I
beat myself up a little bit. I'm like, just you know,
and I'm so ahead of myself, like in fear, like
what if? What if? What if I'm like, calm down,
calm down? Did you do that with your theater group?
(46:51):
Like what if they don't like me? What if I
make a fool of myself? What if?
Speaker 2 (46:54):
I all the time?
Speaker 5 (46:56):
Right?
Speaker 2 (46:57):
Yeah, every day every class was because because there was
some who you know, were natural at it.
Speaker 1 (47:04):
Yeah, but I.
Speaker 2 (47:06):
Think it was I had such a blast just trying
insane things. But I think the biggest realization I had
was that I'm definitely not cut out to be an actor.
Speaker 1 (47:24):
Yeah, that's that are when you're getting in front a
group of people and they're like, act like you're crying, I'm.
Speaker 2 (47:29):
Like yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (47:34):
No, I get it. So tomorrow I'm job shadowing one
of the coaches to learn and I think that that's
the That's one of the most important things is to
to be coachable, like make yourself you might know things
that they don't know, or have miles you know, of
years or whatever it is. But I'm going in with
the baseline of like, I know nothing, teach me kind
(47:55):
of thing, and I'm so excited that it took me
a while to kind of figure that out. I'm like, Okay,
I'm not going to go in and like coach the
gymnastics team. I'm going to go in and I'm going
to coach the preschoolers and get a feel for this
and learn this and be coachable and learn how to
coach people and all of these things. And did you
feel that way in theater group too? I know we've
(48:16):
got to go pretty soon here too. Were you like, okay,
I'm open to this.
Speaker 2 (48:19):
No, no, no, no, no, I'm good. So I think
every time I take on a course so I did.
For instance, another course I did was Digital Marketing and Strategy. Yeah,
because I was not the most adept at technology or
embracing social media. And it was uncomfortable because against what
(48:43):
I've seen is the courses I've done, have all these
youngsters there, the youth there who are twenty thirty years
younger than me, and right, and here I am learning
at this stage of life. But I think the fact,
like you said, when I go in there completely being
okay with not knowing anything and asking all the questions,
(49:07):
the stool silly questions, the whatever type of questions and
making a buddy out of somebody and saying, hey, can
you help me? Yeah, you'll find your way.
Speaker 1 (49:17):
Yeah, no, I agree. I love it. Thank you for
sharing all of that too, and thank for letting me
share a little bit on me interviewing you. But I
thought that would be nice for people, because you know,
we're in our fifties and we're writing books, and we're
doing new things, and we're taking classes. And I think
it's a great example because it used to be like,
well you're forty, you know, kind of thing, and it's
(49:41):
not that way anymore. And I love it. So hopefully
we'll inspire. My hope here is that we inspire even
just one person our age or not to go on
that journey of self love, self worth, remembering their value
and bravery, so much bravery. So all right, I know
we gotta go take I hope you come back by
(50:01):
the way, and please do, and we'll cover the rest
of the questions I have for you. But if you
could leave our audience with one powerful reminder or invitation
for their own journey of self discovery, what would it be.
Speaker 2 (50:17):
Know that your inner self is always the right. It's
your playbook to happiness.
Speaker 1 (50:23):
Love it all? Right? Will you share your websites one
more time?
Speaker 2 (50:26):
It's right, thank you for that. It's w w w
ashkhana dot com a s h u k h A
n n a dot com and uh, I'm on a
social media with I am a shoe Khana.
Speaker 1 (50:43):
Yeah, I'm not done yet. What's your favorite plat have
a couple more questions for you? What's your favorite platform.
Speaker 2 (50:48):
To be on?
Speaker 1 (50:48):
Like, where do you feel most like people engage you?
And you're comfortable on there?
Speaker 2 (50:53):
Twitter?
Speaker 5 (50:54):
Twitter?
Speaker 1 (50:55):
Undoubtedly, undoubtedly, And and we already learned that you're probably
maybe your favorite book that you have written. It's hard though,
because they're like all babies. Is I am loved? Which
is your poetry book? Right? Yeah? And then if you
could leave us with a book recommendation, I would really
appreciate that. I love it when our community gives us
book recommendation.
Speaker 2 (51:15):
After the bugwad Gita, I think the other book that
really influenced me was Matma Gandhi's My Experiments with Truth
to read about a personality like him, a leader like him,
really talking about his imperfections and embracing them was very
(51:36):
imparting for me and very inspiring.
Speaker 1 (51:39):
Love it, yeah, because we think somebody like that's just perfect. Right.
Speaker 2 (51:42):
Yeah, So you know, whether it is Andrea Gassi's Open
or other such books I have seen that. I remember
reading a book of you know, entrepreneurs when I was
struggling with fear of failure, and I think one of
the things that I had to really take back was
everybody fails, everybody explores, everybody experiments. You never get your
(52:07):
answer the first time round.
Speaker 1 (52:09):
You're always learning if you can, if you could help
somebody be their best, give give advice to help people
be their best, what would that be? Uh?
Speaker 2 (52:21):
You know, just love yourself. That there is Like I said,
there is no such thing as perfection external love yourself
all whatson everything, because there is only one you and
for a reason. I think that's the thing that I discovered.
(52:42):
I had to really come home to myself saying, there,
I'm born for a reason, and let me really make
sure I live up to and make that reason do
something about it. I love it.
Speaker 1 (52:58):
Well, thank you for doing that, because we're here, right,
It's beautiful to me. Yeah, thank you, thank you for
being here. Let's give your website one more time, and
let's let's give a sign off of we hope everybody
follows us on Twitter and joined in our little morning,
our morning ritual there and just just helping everybody be
(53:20):
their best.
Speaker 2 (53:20):
Right, Yeah, so my web thank you again, Thank you
so much, Elizabeth. My website is Ashukana dot com and
I would be more than And we have a Happiness
Chronicles newsletter that we published twice twice a month, and
we've started something called Wisdom Unplugged on Thursdays once a month.
(53:43):
So it's really about sharing whatever's happening in the month,
our podcasts, our little blogs, and any new content that
we have created.
Speaker 1 (53:55):
All right, well, thank you for being here. All right,
thank you everybody for listening to listening and watching. I
guess the best ever you show, Ashukhana is here with us,
and it's just been a wonderful hour and some with
you learning all about you. And I hope that one
of the things that I always hope and pray for
and have faith in is our listeners and our viewers
(54:17):
because the best ever you network and the best ever
you show are all completely grassroots. There's never any advertising
or anything like that. So it's all word of mouth
and connection and community. So as you connect to somebody
that you love, let us know and we'll feature them
on the website or here on the podcast, because that's
how we all grow and share and kind of cut
(54:39):
down fear. I think. I think the more the more
community we have and the more we have people supporting us,
the less fear we have, and that allows us to
pretty much I think the possibilities become infinite at that point.
Speaker 2 (54:54):
That is such a beautiful way to end the conversation that, yes,
the more we connect, the less the fear, and the
more possibilities and the more the love.
Speaker 1 (55:04):
Yeah, love and peace. Thank you so much, thank you
all right bye, everybody, take care,
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