Gabrielle Bernstein:
It’s about momentum. It’s about creating the patterns in our day where we create sustainable serenity not just serenity when we’ve melted down.
Dr. Mark Hyman:
Welcome to the Doctor’s Farmacy. I’m Dr. Mark Hyman and it’s Farmacy with an F, a place for conversations that matter. If you’re struggling with these difficult times in the midst of COVID-19 and coronavirus, this conversation is going to matter to you, because it’s with one of our special human beings on the planet, Gabrielle Bernstein. I’ve known her for many years. She’s a spiritual teacher and a reverend soul, a deep thinker, and a guide for us all in this troubled time.
Dr. Mark Hyman:
She’s a number one New York Times bestselling author of The Universe Has Your Back. I hope that’s true right now for all of us. She’s written six additional New York Times bestsellers including Super Attractor, which launched in September 2019. I encourage you all to get a copy right now. She was featured on Oprah SuperSoul Sunday as the next generation thought leader, and the Oprah Winfrey Network chose Gabrielle to be part of the SuperSoul 100, that’s like the time 100, but for spiritual folks, I guess. It’s a dynamic group of a hundred trailblazers whose vision and life’s work of bringing a higher level of consciousness to the world.
Dr. Mark Hyman:
New York Times identified her as a new role model, and I agree. She appears regularly as an expert on shows like The Dr. Oz Show and co-hosted, this is really cool, I think this is really cool, she co-hosted the Guinness World Record largest guided meditation with Deepak Chopra. She’s been featured in Elle, OWN, Today, Marie Claire, Health, SELF, Women’s Health, Cosmopolitan Glamor, and the covers of Success Magazine and Experience Life and more. Welcome, Gabby.
Gabrielle Bernstein:
Hi, Mark. We made it happen.
Dr. Mark Hyman:
Well, we did. Everybody is in a different situation than they were a month ago. Everybody is hunkered down with their families hopefully, maybe alone, struggling to make sense of this new world order where this virus has literally brought humanity to a sneeze, and it’s created enormous disruptions in our health, in our economic lives, and in our emotional spiritual lives. I’m really glad to have a chance to talk to you about this, because we’re all struggling and I think you managed some thoughts for us about how do we actually navigate this craziness, and how are you navigating it, and how can we think differently about this in a way that doesn’t take us down but help us get through this and do it in a way that has integrity.
Gabrielle Bernstein:
I love that you just said, “Do it in a way that has integrity.” Thank you for that. That was a beautiful message. Yeah, I think that’s my primary intention is to get through this with integrity to practice the principles that I’ve been writing about for 15 years, practice them like a full-time job. The only way right now that I can speak for myself, the only way that I’m going to get through this without crashing, or burning out, or making mistakes as a mother, and making mistakes as a business owner is going to be by relying on my spiritual foundation right now more than ever. That’s not lip service, that’s serious truth. I am-
Dr. Mark Hyman:
You got to double down now, right?
Gabrielle Bernstein:
I have to double down right now. I actually said to my team today, I said, “I had created this hour long anxiety relief workshop for people,” and we delivered it. I said to my team, “Hey, how many of you listened to that?” How many people watched it? It wasn’t in a way of trying to be like calling them out or shaming them, because they all have devoted spiritual practices, but I just said, “We need to rely on the tools that we share right now more than ever.” Right?
Dr. Mark Hyman:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Gabrielle Bernstein:
Always, and it’s a devotion for me of meditated every day for the last 20 years. Well, for the last 15 years daily. I had to just say to the team, “Let’s put this in a schedule.” So after the call, we put a whole 1:30 every day that we would all take 20 minutes, not expect anything from each other and do our practice. Now, for me, I have three times through the day that I schedule my practice, and I have to be very routinized about it right now, because we don’t have childcare at the moment. My husband and I are running our business here with a 15-month old that is probably the most important business that we run, [crosstalk 00:04:36] baby boss.
Gabrielle Bernstein:
So, it’s not something that we’re accustomed to. We’ve had an amazing person who’s been in our home every day taking care of our son as we work, unless it’s a weekend. That is a new thing for us as everyone is experiencing new things. We have to create a sustainable energy at this time no matter what kind of obstacles are in front of us. Obviously, many people have far bigger obstacles than others.
Dr. Mark Hyman:
Yeah, so true. I find myself the same thing. All the things I know, I practiced for decades to actually maintain my health, and wellbeing, and my emotional resilience, I got to double down on, which is sleep and eating wholefoods, and exercise, and meditation and time, really connecting time with the people I love, whether it’s my wife who lives here with me, or whether it’s friends through just remote connections. My wife’s birthday yesterday, and her family lives in New Zealand, and Arizona, and some of her family was in Utah. So we’d literally had a virtual dinner party where I put up the computer with everybody on a video conference call.
Dr. Mark Hyman:
We literally just hung-out for the entire dinner, and it was just so special. I think those things are so critical. I think for people who aren’t disciplined in the structure of their days, and their lives, and their routines can be a very unsettling time, because we’re all taking out of our normal routine, and we don’t have anything to replace them. What can you share with people that could be helpful in this moment where people are used to going out, and being in the world, and going to a job, and coming home, and having a routine that they’re used to, and all of a sudden, it’s gone. What can they do in this time to actually get grounded and connected to what matters?
Gabrielle Bernstein:
The first thing I would recommend is take out your Google calendar or your app calendar, or you written calendar, whatever it is that you have that you use, and schedule your spiritual practice. It’s not something that I’ve typically loved to do, because I’ve had the freedom throughout my life to be able to tune in when I felt like I needed it. Often, typically around the same time of day, but it would always change depending on what was going on that day.
Gabrielle Bernstein:
Right now, we can’t do that. We have to create a routine that is sustainable. I would say choose two spiritual practices, or at least one that you can put into your day right now, whether it’d be a meditation, whether it’d be listening to a guided meditation, or an affirmation meditation, or just giving people an opportunity to really ground themselves in whatever way, even if it’s going for a walk and listening to a podcast like this, that can be your way of grounding.
Gabrielle Bernstein:
I don’t want to decide for you what that is, but I’m really strongly recommending that you schedule it in, so it’s a non-negotiable. Because some of my friends have been calling me, and team members calling me and saying, “I’m losing it. I’m melting down.” My question is, “What is your routine? What is your spiritual routine? What is your mental health routine right now?” Because it’s about momentum. It’s about creating the patterns in our day where we create sustainable serenity not just serenity when we’ve melted down.
Dr. Mark Hyman:
Yeah, right. Be proactive. I love for you to share what your routine is and maybe I’ll share mine, it might be helpful to people, to understand how do we take this chaotic time, and create a bit of coherence for us to actually get through this, because it’s not going to end tomorrow. It’s going to be not weeks, months, and it may be even longer.
Gabrielle Bernstein:
I have the privilege of having a 15 month old, which is [crosstalk 00:08:27] to be in a routine, right? I got to work around those naps, man. I want to really say that I have the gratitude that my husband and I both work together so we can tag team this, but it’s no joke.
Dr. Mark Hyman:
He’s watching your son right now?
Gabrielle Bernstein:
Yeah. I texted him, I said, “Hey, remember I have a podcast.” He’s like, “I didn’t remember.” I’m like, “Yup.” So there’s a lot of that going around. He’s saying, “I didn’t remember.” So we have to really put it in our calendars and schedule it. What I’m doing is we do have our days around my son, but each morning when I wake up, what I did that’s so cool is I bought this really grooving mike that you’re seeing and listening to right now. It’s killer.
Gabrielle Bernstein:
It gave me this deep inspiration to start recording meditation. So, I just started randomly in the middle of the night recording meditations just because there is just a lot coming through. I think that anyone that’s on the path of being a guide in any form is probably hearing that call and rising up to it as [inaudible 00:09:34]. I’m just randomly recording meditations.
Gabrielle Bernstein:
One afternoon, I recorded this affirmation meditation that was so unbelievably beautiful. I just sat down and just rift for five minutes. It’s my team, my editor put some music behind it and it’s so gorgeous, and I want to give it to all your people. I want to give it to you. I want you to hear-
Dr. Mark Hyman:
How can they find that?
Gabrielle Bernstein:
I’ll give you the link to put into. It’s totally like it’s a gift. I want it to be everybody’s. I’ll give you the link to put into your show notes [crosstalk 00:10:02].
Dr. Mark Hyman:
Okay, great.
Gabrielle Bernstein:
The affirmation meditation that I created I felt was so moving to me. This has never happened to me before. A lot of the meditations I create, I don’t use them like I don’t listen to myself. I use the practices in my own mind or in my own meditation practice, but I don’t listen back to my own voice. This meditation, and I’ve created thousands of meditations in the last 15 years, hundreds maybe a thousand, right? I am so moved by this meditation.
Gabrielle Bernstein:
So I wake up and I’m listening to it every day. Then I play it for my son in the morning. He looks at the phone and he goes, “Mama. Mama.” Every day, I do two TM, I practice transcendental meditation. With all the tools I have in my toolbox, TM has actually been the one that I think brings me the most serenity when I lie down to do my mantra based transcendental meditation practice. This energy comes over me Mark, and it’s like, you know when you’re just feeling relief come on slowly?
Dr. Mark Hyman:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Gabrielle Bernstein:
That’s what it feels like. It feels like this slow titrated release of stagnant energy. It’s slowly hissing out not like a pressure cooker on full blast, but the slow release, right?
Dr. Mark Hyman:
Yeah.
Gabrielle Bernstein:
It literally is that. We’re walking around like a pressure cooker right now, and then when we start to meditate or slowdown, your nervous system isn’t going to go blasting into full release, although it can, you start shaking [crosstalk 00:11:44] which is good. That’s a good sign. It just means stagnation is moving, and trauma is releasing, but for me it’s like slow release. It feels really amazing.
Gabrielle Bernstein:
Then at night, I have prayer. I just pray of the night. I’m praying for the world. I’m praying for people I love.
Dr. Mark Hyman:
Yeah, it’s powerful. Yeah, it’s interesting my wife and I were talking this morning about how do we build even a more structured calendar. How do we want to design our days so that we can do the work we need to do, and also be in this practice of nourishing ourselves in every way. I think for me, my life’s been so much on the road, and being home is really different. It’s actually good.
Dr. Mark Hyman:
We go to sleep at 9:30 every night, and read before bed, and connect. In the morning, we do a 20-minute meditation. It’s essentially driven of a TM from our friend Emily Fletcher, the Ziva meditation. It’s just mantra based primordial sound meditation. Then we drop in together before the day starts with a cup of coffee. We just drop into this practice of called, “What’s up below?” Which is essentially when you’re in a long-term relationship, it’s easy to just go through the day of a logistics of life, but this is a moment for us to stop to know what’s happening on the inside.
Dr. Mark Hyman:
Are we anxious? Are we happy? Are we excited? Are we frustrated? Are we lonely? Whatever is happening, and we just listen to each other, and it’s a really amazing way to start the day in a connected way. So you start with connecting to yourself, and letting go of that hissing like you said, but also do that. Then we go about our day and really focusing on eating well, because I think in this time it’s easy to start to go to comfort foods.
Dr. Mark Hyman:
Once we’re going to realize that the more junk you eat, the more likely you are to get sick from coronavirus, the more likely you’re going to die from it. The people who aren’t getting sick and dying are the ones who are unwell who have obesity, or overweight, or have heart disease and diabetes. 75% of us are overweight, there’s a lot of us. This is the time you’re going to double down on your health.
Dr. Mark Hyman:
Then I try to find time to exercise a little bit every day, whether I take a walk with my wife out in the woods. We could do our social distance. There’s nobody around here, or I jump on my Peloton, or I have tennis court so I can hit some balls. I find a way to just get the physical anxiety out. In the afternoon, we decided to take a few hours every afternoon just as a break time so we can work in the evening if we need to, but or we stop and we’ll do some yoga, we’ll meditate, we’ll connect, take a steam, we’ll go steam shower. There’s a routine that allows me to stay focused, and connected, because the collective anxiety-
Gabrielle Bernstein:
Your quarantine sounds like a retreat.
Dr. Mark Hyman:
Yeah, sort of. The truth is that sometimes I wake up at 4:00 in the morning, and I just feel the collective anxiety of everything, of everyone, and the enormity of what we’re going through as a human race right now, which is unprecedented and our lifetime has certainly been common throughout human history of plagues, and pandemics. We just got nailed so many times right in the history, but for this collective generation, the last hundred years is nothing like this.
Dr. Mark Hyman:
I think we have never really had to grapple with such a radical change in our lives, especially in America. We haven’t dealt with war in our home turf, we haven’t dealt with the kinds of distraction and chaos. The unemployment level is staggering. So I think people are losing and losing, and it’s easy to get sucked into that. I think for people listening, you define what it is for you, what is the practices that call to you that keep you grounded.
Dr. Mark Hyman:
It’s really more important than ever to double down on that. I think that’s so important.
Gabrielle Bernstein:
There’s another practice I left out and you reminded me, because it’s something I just have been doing this whole time. In Super Attractor, I wrote about this daily design method. You had said earlier, “Design your day,” right?
Dr. Mark Hyman:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Gabrielle Bernstein:
Zach and I do half of it. The method is every morning you ask yourself or you write in your journal, “How do I want to feel today? Who do I want to be today? What do I want to give today? What do I want to receive today?” Zach, my husband and I wake up and we say, “How do I want to feel today and what do I want to give today?” We say that to each other, because the feeling we are co-regulating all day long, or not so we are either contributing to the other partner’s high vibe feelings or contributing to a low vibe experience.
Gabrielle Bernstein:
We want to tune in together about how we each one feel and then what we want to give. The giving is to our family, or the world in the ways that we work. Most days, it’s we want to give our son a fun day or we want to give love, which was both of us said this morning that we want to give love.
Dr. Mark Hyman:
That’s always a good place to start.
Gabrielle Bernstein:
Right? If you give love, and you always want to come back to your method again, your daily design method, and remember what you decided he wants to give. One 4:00 in the afternoon, rolls around and your child is upset. So, yes.
Dr. Mark Hyman:
There’s that.
Gabrielle Bernstein:
Yes.
Dr. Mark Hyman:
There’s that. All right. I really wanted to do this podcast with you, because your work is so extraordinary, and you help bring messages of wisdom, and hope, and integration for so many people. Your recent book Super Attractor, which I encourage everybody to get is a slight departure. It’s not so much a how to book, but it’s really about how we reframe our thinking to attract the life we want.
Dr. Mark Hyman:
Often, we’re doing the opposite. We’re attracting the life we don’t want, but we don’t even realize it. When we come from a place of lack, or things not working out in our life, where we just perpetuate the problem. So what’s the best way to shift our mindset where we can be in a more proactive, engaged and positive effort in our achieving what we want in our lives?
Gabrielle Bernstein:
In Super Attractor, the subtitle is, “Methods for manifesting a life beyond your wildest dreams.” That is true. That is the promise of the book, but what the book is really about is a book on how to feel good. Because the key to manifesting the life that you want is to focus on feeling good. So right now with what we’re going through, the first method that I share in the book is probably the most valuable. This is the method of the choose again method. It’s something that is really required of us right now in this time, because all day long we are going to be taken out, taken out, taken out.
Gabrielle Bernstein:
We’re going to be turning on the news, we’re going to be outraged by the political arena. We’re going to be whatever it may be, okay? So we need to have the self-regulating tools to bring ourselves back to a place of higher vibe thoughts and feelings. Here’s how it works. Step one is you notice that negative thought that you have on repeat, and then notice how it makes you feel.
Gabrielle Bernstein:
Maybe the thought is right now, here, I’ll give an example, “I don’t know how I’m going to sustain full-time childcare and full-time business.” I don’t know how, and that’s a repeated thought, right? That thought is giving me a sense of anxiety in my chest, that’s step one. Describing that thought and how it makes you feel. Like calling it out, there it is, there’s that sucker, let’s talk about it.
Gabrielle Bernstein:
Step two is really the metaphysical part, which is where we have to suspend our worldly perceptions and recognize that the thoughts that we’re having are not who we are. When we have a repeated thought, Abraham Hicks has his beautiful thing, which is, “A belief is just a thought that you keep thinking.” So if we’ve had a thought that’s on repeat, and repeat and repeat, it becomes a belief that we have about ourselves and about our reality.
Gabrielle Bernstein:
The only way to unwind that belief is to forgive ourselves for having the thought. That’s step two. In that moment where I can to myself, “I forgive-
Dr. Mark Hyman:
Oh, I’m human. Like, “It’s okay, I thought that stupid thought.”
Gabrielle Bernstein:
Correct, or, “Actually, I’m a spirit having a human experience.” It’s a little heady for some people, but getting into that place of recognizing that the human thought that we thought was who we were, this perceptual thought that we got hooked into isn’t the truth of who we are. The moment that you forgive yourself for having the thought or even simply forgive the thought, right? Forgive the thought, “Oh, there is that thought again. There it is. There it’s up again.” You are no longer in the belief that that thought is who you are, and you can see that thought as something separate that has been a behavioral pattern rather than the truth. It separates it.
Dr. Mark Hyman:
That’s a very powerful idea. I just want to impact that for people, because what you’re saying is you’re not your thoughts.
Gabrielle Bernstein:
Correct.
Dr. Mark Hyman:
Because often people conflate who they are with their thoughts and there actually become things that are real instead of just a ripple on the surface of the ocean or lake, right? That’s the whole purpose of meditation is to witness the crazy mind that you have. Like at meditate, well, because I hate thinking. Well yeah, that’s the point. You actually are watching the unquiet mind do its craziness. Then eventually, it slows down and off we go, “Oh, there’s a thought going by. There’s another thought,” and it’s not me.
Gabrielle Bernstein:
That’s right. What’s so interesting about this is that you actually can do this practice before you meditate, and it will help you get into a deeper meditation. The third step, so you’ve now identified the thought, you’ve forgiven yourself for having the thoughts, so you’re no longer stuck in the belief that you are that thought. The third step is to reach for the next best feeling thought [crosstalk 00:22:26]. It’s not like, “Oh, I’m struggling with full-time mom, full-time child, full-time business owner.”
Gabrielle Bernstein:
Instead of being stuck in that thought, I’ve forgiven that thought now, I can say to reach for the next best feeling thought would look like, it’s a privilege that I get this devoted time with my kid at such a really groovy time in his life when every day is a new development. Every day is a new word, every day there’s the new understanding and that it’s just happening so rapidly, and I’m going to be the first to see it, and I’m going to be able to focus on my deepening of my bond with my child.
Gabrielle Bernstein:
I keep going, so keep reaching with the next thought. What a privilege it is to be able to serve this human, and to be able to put food on his plate every day. I am so devoted to this child that I can put my business on pause for him, and it will actually expand time, because the more fun I have, the more time expands, and I can create more. So you just reach, and reach and get yourself into that momentum.
Dr. Mark Hyman:
So it’s the frame in the mindset, right? It’s like a friend of mine said to me, you probably know her, Mickey, right?
Gabrielle Bernstein:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Dr. Mark Hyman:
Yeah. She says, “You reframe your conversation from I have to, like I have to take care of my kid, I have to cook dinner into I get to.” I get to make dinner for my family. I get to hangout with my kid. It’s a really different way of thinking about your life.
Gabrielle Bernstein:
It changes everything. Any situation whether at your deepest low, you can choose again, at your deepest low. In the book, there’s something really big that I wrote about in the book, which happened before something big happened to me. I wrote about, I said in the book that, “Feeling good is to decide to stop feeling bad.” A lot of people listening might be like, “FU, Gabby. I have mental illness, or I have no money in the bank.”
Gabrielle Bernstein:
I actually learned how to live that wholeheartedly in May of last year, a year ago when I was diagnosed with post-partum depression, and anxiety and insomnia. I was suicidal. At that stage in my life that I’d never been before, I’d never known [crosstalk 00:24:51], I did use, I was able to use the choose again method, because the simplicity of witnessing the thought of I want to kill myself, I’m so miserable, to forgiving myself for having that thought which I could. I could forgive myself because I could say, “Okay, that’s a biochemical condition. I forgive myself.”
Gabrielle Bernstein:
Then choosing again some days whether it’s simple as saying, “I have people I can reach out to. I can [crosstalk 00:25:19] psychiatrist. I had two hours of sleep last night rather than none. My son is healthy.” Those small thoughts were what gave me the power to live, and the chance to seek help.
Dr. Mark Hyman:
Powerful. That’s a scary moment for you to have to feel that when you have a little baby and you want to kill yourself.
Gabrielle Bernstein:
It’s the worst experience of my life, but it was also the best, Mark. I can tell you right now that that bottom, and I’ve had quite a few bottoms with addiction, remembering trauma, but that bottom gave me such a deep understanding of mental illness. To be honest with you, I was probably part of the stigma for a long time, because I could see people would say things like, “I’m depressed, or I’m diagnosed with anxiety disorder.” My response would be like, “Here’s a meditation.”
Gabrielle Bernstein:
When you have biochemical condition, the fact that you know this, that meditation isn’t going to work. It’s not that it won’t work ultimately, but there may be some medical intervention. I went on medication, and that medication saved my life, and it deepened my spiritual practice, because it made me safe enough to go deeper into my own personal-
Dr. Mark Hyman:
Yeah.
Gabrielle Bernstein:
I think what I love about functional medicine is the balance between both sides of the story.
Dr. Mark Hyman:
Yeah. Whatever it takes, I always say, “We believe in what works, whether it’s exercise or exorcism, we’re going to prescribe the right treatment for the right problem at the right time in the right way.”
Gabrielle Bernstein:
Exactly. I think that right now, people’s depression may be activated. Their anxiety is definitely activated, gut inflammation is activation. I’d like to share a method, because you’re so devoted to then gut, right? Which I really think is what’s genius about the functional doctors is that it’s all traced back to the gut, and I couldn’t agree more. I really just couldn’t agree more.
Gabrielle Bernstein:
[crosstalk 00:27:28] when we say it’s traced back to the gut, we have to recognize this trace back to stress, it’s traced back to anxiety, it’s trace back, because the root cause of gut inflammation and dysbiosis is our mental condition, our energetic conditions.
Dr. Mark Hyman:
Yeah, those [inaudible 00:27:46] in your gut are listening to your thoughts by the way.
Gabrielle Bernstein:
Exactly.
Dr. Mark Hyman:
You’re listening to their thoughts, so it’s quite interesting dance.
Gabrielle Bernstein:
Listen, I’ve lived this. There’s I’m a SIBO survivor. I am a SIBO survivor.
Dr. Mark Hyman:
For those of you who don’t know what SIBO is, it’s a condition where you have bacteria growing in the upper part of your intestine. When you eat food, you get a food baby, and you blow up, and you feel very uncomfortable and all this terrible bloating that affects your whole body, and your mind, and your immune system.
Gabrielle Bernstein:
For me, I did all the food related changes, and I took the medication. There’s stages of having to clear SIBO, but what needed to happen most was to regulate my nervous system. I would love to share something that helps with the gut. Actually, literally sense of vibration into your gut and then stimulates your vagus nerve and puts you into a parasympathetic state and relaxes you, but ultimately relaxes your belly. It’s called, “Voo breath.” Have you ever done this?
Dr. Mark Hyman:
Mm-mm (negative).
Gabrielle Bernstein:
It’s really cool. So take a deep breath in, and extend your diagraph. Then you hold that for one moment. Then on the exhale, you chant the mantra “voo.” Okay? I’m going to do it with you, but you do it in such a way where you get a real resonance in your belly. So you inhale and you hold, you exhale voo.
Dr. Mark Hyman:
Voo.
Gabrielle Bernstein:
Voo. Hold it again. You let the inhale come in naturally, hold, voo.
Dr. Mark Hyman:
Voo.
Gabrielle Bernstein:
Voo. Hold. Inhale again. Hold it. Voo.
Dr. Mark Hyman:
Voo.
Gabrielle Bernstein:
Voo. Let’s do it one more time. Hold and inhale, naturally inhale. Hold. Exhale, voo.
Dr. Mark Hyman:
Voo.
Gabrielle Bernstein:
Voo. Each time you let yourself voo, you can go deeper and deeper into a place where you start to feel that relaxation. It’s like a resonance. It’s like a vibration in your gut, in your belly. In just a few voos, I feel very different. I feel very relaxed. It will help you get into that relaxation mode. Your nervous system can relax, but then most importantly your gut can relax.
Dr. Mark Hyman:
It’s powerful. These are really great tools, the method of three-step choose again method is great. I think the little techniques were amazing. I want to loop back to the Super Attractor book, because right now it’s an unusual time. You say in your book that when you have faith in universe, it becomes safe to all big visions, even if you can’t see them yet. Question is, in this time where people don’t feel safe, in this time where even if you had dreams and visions for your life, and I know I had that have been completely derailed, how do we deal with this in this time? What holds people back in the best of times from pursuing their dreams?
Dr. Mark Hyman:
Because I’m struggling with this now just personally, because I watch my book, Food Fix about transforming the food system. I was going to be speaking at the Vatican and Stockholm and this global conference, and that global conference, and meeting with senators, and congressman, and launching a campaign, and all of a sudden, boom, just stops. I’m struggling.
Dr. Mark Hyman:
I think people who even didn’t have a dream are struggling even more, because they’re unemployed, and they’re unable to do the things that they even thought were possible, forget the things that they might have thought were impossible. Can you share what we should be thinking about all these visions and dreams, and how do we deal with this big obstacle called “coronavirus” that’s in front of all of us?
Gabrielle Bernstein:
Yeah. There’s just so much I want to say on this. I’m just going to rant, okay? First things first, I have a mantra that I use whenever I feel that there’s a block in the way, and if it’s particularly around an abundance block, or actually it’s really just around any block. I offer this out for people who were having abundance blocks or blocks around life, purpose, and goals and visions.
Gabrielle Bernstein:
Here’s a mantra for you. It’s a prayer. I’m open to creative possibilities. When I say that, what happens is, is it opens your consciousness up to release that single point and focus if this was the only way that this could’ve happened, and open you up to what’s possible now. It’s a prayer. It’s a prayer saying guidance that I’m aware of, a gut of my own understanding, “I am open to creative possibilities. Show me what you’ve got.” Reveal to me what I can do right now.
Gabrielle Bernstein:
That energetic state can relax you, because it gives you this opportunity to stop searching and start allowing. It’s also just a very different vibrational stance to be in. That’s step one. The other thing that I do, and I believe this has been the key to the momentum that’s been the work I’ve done in the world, and I think you can probably find your own agreement with this, and it’s probably a practice that could be most valuable for us right now, and it’s a method in Super Attractor called, “The spiritually aligned action method.”
Gabrielle Bernstein:
Here is the message behind it. The message behind it is that whenever we take an action from a place of fear, or uncertainty, or grasping, or controlling, it will not be supported, because the energy is funky, right? If you send an email with that graspy energy, the universe doesn’t support it because the other person on the receiving end feels assaulted by that email, right?
Dr. Mark Hyman:
It’s what you talk about is “pushers,” right? People who push and try to control and reach their goals and feel safe, right?
Gabrielle Bernstein:
Right baby. That’s right. I think that I’m calling the doctor baby.
Dr. Mark Hyman:
It’s okay. It’s actually a common thing. People try to force things. They try to make things happen, and I feel like the more they do, the more they try to achieve, the better it’ll be, but often it’s not that way at all.
Gabrielle Bernstein:
I’m seeing a lot of it right now, because I think people are totally rocked. People that own clothing companies are like posting, posting, posting, trying to do discounts and sales. There’s a lot of reactivity, and I understand that completely, but you back up your actions, which you must take action to create you can’t just sit there on your ass and let things come to you, although once in a while that happens, but most of the time it’s going to require of us to show up.
Gabrielle Bernstein:
The actions that we take right now in the pursuit of momentum for getting a new job, or running a business, or keeping healthy or whatever it may be has to come from a place of spiritual alignment. Because when we take an action from that centered place and spiritual alignment, it is greatly supported. It’s supported by others, because what happens is those that are on the receiving and feel like you’re not assaulting that, right? They feel relaxed and you’re relaxed delivery.
Gabrielle Bernstein:
Here’s how it works. Step one is to make sure that your desire, whatever it is, is backed with love and service, and not your own ego, right? Our ego gets into this story of like, it was supposed to be that way, or our ego gets in the story of I’m losing money right now, or I lost my job, and I’ll never get another job again, but get back into, “Why do I love the work that I do? What is the service behind the work that I do?”
Gabrielle Bernstein:
We can use your example right now, love and service is this book I wrote will help people stay healthy right now. Love and service, right? The second step is to have faith. That’s where we have to return to our spiritual condition in whatever form that comes. That faith comes through prayer. That faith comes to the affirmation, just that I’m open to creative possibilities, that faith is asking of us to return to a centered state. However, we get there individually, there’s methods all throughout the book.
Gabrielle Bernstein:
There’s methods all online that are free, but coming back to center through meditation, through prayer so that we can get grounded in the faith that everything is working out for me. I am truly supported and taken care of even though I can’t see it right now as you quoted me before. That’s step one and two.
Gabrielle Bernstein:
Then step three is that only take action from that place of service, love and faith. No action unless it’s coming from that place. If you’re out there writing a newsletter to your audience, or you’re sending an email for employment, ask yourself. Tune in. “Is this email backed with service, love and faith? Is this post on social media backed with service, love and faith? Is this announcement about the book backed with service, love and faith?”
Gabrielle Bernstein:
When you know that you’re grounded in that place of service, love and faith, you know that you’re there because you’re not attached to the outcome.
Dr. Mark Hyman:
Right.
Gabrielle Bernstein:
Whenever you take an action when you release the outcome, it will always be supported. The final step, fourth step is-
Dr. Mark Hyman:
That’s a really important thing to underscore, because I think people often can do things, but they’re maybe coming from a good place, but they also are attached to what happens at the other end of it. That attachment to the result is what causes all the suffering and pain, and actually impairs your ability to get what you want.
Gabrielle Bernstein:
Exactly. Then the final step, which is so relevant right now is patience. We have to continue to take action. If you’re unemployed, you have to seek employment, and get on LinkedIn and work on your resume. If you are a business owner struggling to sell your products, do not try selling a single product until you’re spiritually aligned. It will fail. It will offend. It will come off as tone deaf.
Dr. Mark Hyman:
Although people making toilet paper are making out like bandits.
Gabrielle Bernstein:
My feeling is they’re backed with service, love and faith right now.
Dr. Mark Hyman:
What is that? I have no idea.
Gabrielle Bernstein:
It’s funny, I actually tried to order toilet paper on Amazon yesterday. I was like, “Maybe I’ll order three packages.” They only let me order one [crosstalk 00:39:41].
Dr. Mark Hyman:
Yeah, and it won’t come till the middle of April.
Gabrielle Bernstein:
May 17th or something. So here’s the deal, I really, really cannot emphasize this method enough right now. We all have to take action in order to keep the momentum of our lives going. We can’t just crumble and fall apart to the point of that will be the demise of our economic system if we all just stop working and failed to show up, right? What we have to do right now is really use this time to strengthen our commitment to service and love, set devotional practices that strengthen our faith.
Gabrielle Bernstein:
Then when we feel that we’re in that alignment, that’s when we take an action. Those meditations I’ve been recording at night, I’m not recording them because I’m like, “I need to create, I have plenty of content out in the world that almost too much, right?” I’m recording them because I’m feeling this call for service and love, and I have deep faith that they are going to change lives and serve people.
Dr. Mark Hyman:
Yeah, we all have to do a we can, and all the skills we have whether you are a meditation teacher, whether you’re a doctor, or whether you’re a writer, or whether whatever. Maybe you’re the Amazon delivery guy. We’re all doing our part, and I think within this new world, we each have to stop and I hate to say silver line, it’s really not that, but what could this chaos actually help us figure out about our own lives that maybe we didn’t think about?
Dr. Mark Hyman:
As I was listening to a podcast with Ryan Holiday, and Peter Attia this morning, it was interesting hearing Ryan talk about how he had this life schedule of talks and events, and this and that and everything, and things that he thought he wanted or looked forward to. All of a sudden, he’s at home and all the rest of us, and he stopped and he’s like, “Well, maybe I didn’t really want those things. I actually would prefer to live my life like this.”
Dr. Mark Hyman:
I’m having a similar experience, because for me to be two weeks at home without getting in a plane is really unusual and I’m like, “Wow. Maybe I don’t want to go back to that. Maybe I want to figure out a different way to live that is more in connection to who I am, what matters to me in this moment of my life, and how do I do the work I do in a way that isn’t so costly to me.” I think a lot of people are having to reframe what they’re thinking and doing in their life. It’s tough. It’s not easy. It’s not easy for me and like everybody else have … everything is contracted.
Dr. Mark Hyman:
I think it’s an interesting moment for us to stop, and start maybe thinking about a way of reframing our lives, like you talked about the Super Attractor. One of the things you shared that I’d love for you to share and close with, which is these five principles that you recommend people following when they’re starting a spiritual journey. So what are those principles? Why do they matter?
Gabrielle Bernstein:
You’re the third person to ask me to riff on these principles, which I don’t remember the order.
Dr. Mark Hyman:
Okay. Well, the first one is the universe always says yes.
Gabrielle Bernstein:
Mm-hmm (affirmative), yeah.
Dr. Mark Hyman:
I’ll queue you.
Gabrielle Bernstein:
I know. Now, this happens to you when you write a book, but you forgot what you wrote.
Dr. Mark Hyman:
Some does. Yeah, and you write it and it’s two years and like, “Okay, which one-
Gabrielle Bernstein:
Well, no, I will reread something that I wrote yesterday. I’m writing another book right now and I’m editing because I’m submitting it right now. I’m reading it over to do the edits and I’m like, “I have no recollection of writing that a week ago. Because some of it is just channeled right? You can prompt me with my own methods. Here we go. So the universe is always a yes. The universe is always a yes means that every thought we have is a message, is a request, and the universe is always responding yes.
Gabrielle Bernstein:
If we’re saying, “I don’t have enough. I don’t have enough. I don’t have enough,” then the universe is reflecting back to us that we don’t have enough. Whereas if you were in a story of, “I’m welcoming creative possibilities for abundance,” and the universe [crosstalk 00:43:57] yes for creative possibilities for abundance. It’s all about getting into an energetic state of feeling into what it is that you truly desire and sending that message out through your words, and your actions, and most importantly through your energy, and trusting and knowing that the universe delivers.
Dr. Mark Hyman:
It might not always be what you think, right?
Gabrielle Bernstein:
True. The other element of this is having a desire, getting grounded in that desire, being conscious about putting the energy out and putting the words out, but also being open to this or something better.
Dr. Mark Hyman:
Really just brought back in memory, I was about probably like 23, and I literally, you know how you have an epiphany, and you remember where you’re standing and what you were doing?
Gabrielle Bernstein:
Yeah.
Dr. Mark Hyman:
I remember struggling with trying to force things, or being unhappy with how things were in my life. I just had this download, which was just trust and the unfolding of things, because it’s always going to be exactly what you need to learn or understand. It’s not always going to be easy. It’s not always going to be fun. It can be extremely painful and difficult, but at the end of the day, if you can relax into that, that concept that you’re saying that the universe is a yes, and it reflects back how you navigate your life, because it’s really led me to how to take the hands off of the wheel a little bit.
Gabrielle Bernstein:
Right. That’s right.
Dr. Mark Hyman:
It sounds scary, but you go, “Wow.” There’s a higher consciousness at work and guiding the unfolding of my life. If I trust that, then I don’t have to live in a state of fear and anxiety. It sounds a little woo and crazy, but it actually has been really the fundamental principle through which I’ve lived my life, and it’s allowed me to be alert to when things are happening that may seem out of the ordinary, out of unusual that I didn’t create or plan. All the things that I really am doing or have done in this life were not things that I intentionally set out to create.
Dr. Mark Hyman:
I didn’t, for example, get sick in order to learn about functional medicine, but getting really sick allowed me to become an expert in something like help lots of people, or getting the job at Canyon Ranch where I didn’t even apply for the job. I met someone on a bookstore, and I collided in a way that allowed that to happen, or getting a job at Cleveland Clinic. I was invited to an event where I met the CEO, and said some crazy thing to him, and he wouldn’t leave me alone, and wanted me to come work there.
Gabrielle Bernstein:
The answer there Mark is that all that unfolded for you because you were a yes for health and spreading health, spreading healthy living and living healthy, right? That commitment and devotion was why the universe kept responding yes to you.
Dr. Mark Hyman:
Yeah.
Gabrielle Bernstein:
The other thing I want to remind everybody is that okay, you might be sitting here and be like, “I’m deeply stuck in a yes for poverty, or I’m deeply stuck in [inaudible 00:47:04].” I gave you a lot of methods today. I gave you this method in where you can reorganize your yes. I gave you the daily design method where you can reorganize your yes. I gave you the spiritually lined action method where you can reorganize your yes. Even the voo breath can reorganize your breath, your breath of course and your yeah.
Gabrielle Bernstein:
So use even one of these tools, and/or the affirmation meditation I’m going to give you. I just want to really empower people to recognize that we’re not just talking about stuff that we can do because we’ve been on this path for so long, but this is stuff you can do right now if this is your first time experiencing an idea like this.
Dr. Mark Hyman:
So great. I just like to leave people with a question, which is as we’re all navigating this completely uncharted territory, you are, I am, everybody listening is, and that’s the one strange thing about this whole pandemic is that all humanity is the same condition right now. We’re all in the same common human experience of this viral threat that leaves no one spared from Prince Charles, to Tom Hanks to whoever.
Dr. Mark Hyman:
As we’re in this common human condition, how do we maybe reorient our way of being in the world? Maybe it’s challenging us to look at the divisiveness and the conflict, and the hatred, and the unhappiness as it reorient us to what’s really important in life and what really matters. Because we are all having this collective human experience, whether you’re Muslim, or Jewish, or Christian, or republican, or democrat, or white, or black, or whether you’re from China or whether you’re from America, we’re all the same.
Gabrielle Bernstein:
It’s beautiful because in times of crisis I think is when we remember our oneness most. When all of our safety mechanisms and pretenses about who we are taken from us, what are we left with? We’re left with the truth, which is that we’re all spirits having a human experience. We’re all in this together. No one is immune to this experience right now, not just COVID-19 but the experience of what’s occurring around.
Gabrielle Bernstein:
What you do see a lot of, which is just beautiful is people, it makes me cry thinking about the New Yorkers who got out on their balcony and clapped for the hospital workers, and for the people giving lunches to children, and just the giving. In the midst of all this, there’s just tremendous unity, and love, and giving, and support, and people thinking beyond their personal problems.
Dr. Mark Hyman:
Once they’ve talked upon toilet paper, then they’re looking at service.
Gabrielle Bernstein:
Exactly. Now, get your toilet paper and then you can [crosstalk 00:50:27]. Even today, I was feeding Oliver, and I was making him eggs, and then I was making him apple crisps, and I was brought to tears as I was cooking, because I thought about all the children who do not have food to eat because the only food they get is in their school, and they’re home right now with potentially abusive parents, or parents that don’t show up because they’re at work, and they’re little people home by themselves, or in a very dark scenario, and my heart broke, and I started crying.
Gabrielle Bernstein:
Instead of getting lost in that, I got on my Instagram and said, “No kid hungry, right? No kid goes hungry. Let’s go support and donate now.” Right?
Dr. Mark Hyman:
Yeah.
Gabrielle Bernstein:
I made my own contribution, and I shared it publicly, and just these moments where we feel powerless, we have to remember where our power lies.
Dr. Mark Hyman:
Yeah, where?
Gabrielle Bernstein:
Our power lies in our interconnectedness, and our oneness and our compassion. Our true power lies in our ability to be compassionate. [crosstalk 00:51:30] to really tune into that state of compassion, that’s when we’re inspired to serve and help.
Dr. Mark Hyman:
Yeah. I was reflecting on the, so this bipolar nature of America. You have Thomas Paine saying, “Give me liberty or give me death. Don’t restrict my freedoms.” Of course, now we have all of our freedom to straight it or we will die. Then Benjamin Franklin said, “We must all hang together, or most assuredly we will all hang separately.” I think that is really what I’m focused on now is how do we hang together through all this. How do we help each other? How do we each contribute in our own way, small or big to helping our fellow humans through this crisis? How do we stop in this moment when we have a little more time and think about how we want to create our lives going forward. How do we want to create a different world, a more humane world and more loving world, and more awake world.
Dr. Mark Hyman:
You’re a beacon of light in that journey Gabby, and I’m so happy to call you my friend, and fellow journey on this road to help wake people up in every way.
Gabrielle Bernstein:
Can we do a FaceTime dinner soon?
Dr. Mark Hyman:
Yeah, sure. Yeah, virtual dinner party is just the way to go.
Gabrielle Bernstein:
Couple date. Actually, let’s close on that. One of the most beautiful things is how much connection people are creating right now, because they felt like they’ve been deprived with that connection so they’re creating more of it, [crosstalk 00:52:57] and everybody off with take advantage of all of the miracle moments throughout your day and celebrate them. I’m proud of anyone that’s listening, because that means that you’re part of the solution.
Dr. Mark Hyman:
Thank you, Gabby. Everybody just go to gabbybernstein.com. Again, her book, Super Attractor. Take this time to honk her down and make up a little bit, and all those practices in on routines, and just every little bit counts, even if it’s a one minute meditation, it matters. You’re just such a great contributor to a voice of wakefulness in the world, and you’ve got so many great resources in which we follow you in Instagram, and social media, catch her book, go to gabbybernstein.com, and learn all about what she’s doing and what she’s up to, because it’s a lot of good stuff.
Gabrielle Bernstein:
Right back at you.
Dr. Mark Hyman:
All right. To those of you who’ve been listening to Doctor’s Farmacy, I hope you’ve enjoyed this podcast. If you loved it, please leave a comment. We’d love to hear from you, share it with your friends and family. Subscribe wherever you get your podcast. Will see you next time on the Doctor’s Farmacy.
