Say It Anyway

James Ferrigno (00:09)
You're still searching for that breakthrough that always feels just out of reach. What is your true life path and how do you finally find it? Welcome to Say It Anyway, the podcast where we help you unlock the breakthrough you've been waiting for so your true life path can finally come to life.

Each week we share powerful practical tools you can use right now to start transforming your life. You'll hear raw, honest conversations with people from all walks of life, people who've found their way forward and are here to share mindsets, strategies, and wisdom that help them get there. I'm James Farigno. I've helped people reconnect with their power for years.

I'll guide you beyond surface level solutions into a deeper way of seeing the world, one rooted in connection, courage, and open-hearted dedication. This is your space to think differently, live boldly, and finally do the thing you were meant to do. Let's get started.

James Ferrigno (01:08)
Welcome to Say It Anyway. I'm your host, James Farino, and our guest today is Yasmin Turehi. And she has a podcast called Gateways to Awakening, and you've done over 250 interviews so far. Is that correct? Yeah. And she's also a filmmaker, an author, and runs an intuition school.

Yasmeen (01:26)
Yep, that's correct.

That's correct, yeah.

James Ferrigno (01:39)
And you said it was

for executives and creatives as well. All right. Well, welcome, Yasmin. And we've known each other for a few years now.

Yasmeen (01:45)
Yes, yes, yes.

Yes, yeah, through Francesca, through the academy.

James Ferrigno (01:56)
Yeah, through the Academy of Intuition Medicine. Let's start off with ⁓ the beginning. Why don't we start in the beginning? So we'll talk about gateways to awakenings first. ⁓ So how did that come to be? Where did you come up with the idea for it?

Yasmeen (02:01)
Yes.

Yeah, it's a great question. ⁓ So let's see, it's been about six years now. And, ⁓ you know, it's, I'm kind of actually surprised at how long I've been doing gateways to awakening, because it's, it was essentially just like a love letter to the world, a project that was dedicated to all the things I was learning about, when it came from closing that gap between the left brain and the right brain or the head and the heart and ⁓

James Ferrigno (02:47)
Mm-hmm.

Yasmeen (02:50)
Like, so the context essentially is I met this network called Hakawati. They're the largest podcasting network in the Middle East and North Africa. And I was in, I was visiting Beirut for the summer. So I got connected with them and they have one of their top shows in, in Arabic is actually on spirituality. And so I had, you know, mentioned to them, I had just completed the program on intuition medicine and

have been reading all these books from academics and mystics and neuroscientists on this connection between the heart and the head and really kind of going into the world of the mystic and consciousness. And so ⁓ after leaving that conversation, one of the co-founders actually really tried to convince me for a while to start my own show, but this time in English in North America. So I have a very atypical story in terms of the Genesis story.

of starting my podcast. feel like the universe was handing me my podcast as opposed to, you know, how most people start, which is, you know, to, do it themselves or to, kind of figure it out themselves. So I was very lucky and, but since then I now own the show. So I do work, ⁓ the podcast right now is entirely mine. I do hire out different folks. but essentially it's a weekly show where we discuss topics on

everything from consciousness, spirituality, and we've gone deep into things like mind wisdom or, you know, ⁓ what happens, you know, what life after death, what is that, biogeometry, ⁓ you know, what does energy mean, how does intuition work, all these, these topics and themes that are really just in service of helping people connect more deeply with themselves and helping them show up.

and be stewards for others and to essentially help us remember that, you know, we can hold paradox, we can hold different opinions that we should be really connecting with our heart and leading with our heart and making decisions from the heart. And there's a lot of reasons why, which I, you know, we talk about on the show and many different episodes. And it's really an invitation to just consider something bigger and deeper than who we are in this.

in this kind of 3D experience. So that's why we called it Gateways to Awakening and not, ⁓ I think my first decision on the show title was like, ego lovers anonymous. And then doing like a little bit of a beta test, nobody got it. They're like, what does that even mean? And I thought it was so clever. But I had a mentor at the time in Australia, actually in Tasmania, which is close. ⁓

And she really helped me craft ⁓ the right title. So, Gateways to Awakening ⁓ versus Gateways of Awakening was a conversation we actually debated for a while. She's like, I think it's too much to promise people that to awakening, like, are they going to actually have an awakening? She's like, I think it's potentially an invitation that it's an of awakening. ⁓

James Ferrigno (05:57)
Yeah.

Yasmeen (06:10)
So it's an invitation, like, can you have it? Can you not have it? But yeah, so that was kind of how the show started. Maybe a little too much information than most of the audience cares about. But it's been very successful. now in the top 2 % on Apple. And ⁓ it's been amazing just to connect with folks in the audience. I've had audience members knit me mohair sweaters and ship them overseas to giving me tarot card readings.

to giving me a Cauchyck record readings. Just such a beloved distribution of gratitude has come my way from the show and I just feel so incredibly grateful. So I'll pause there. ⁓

James Ferrigno (06:53)
Wow, that's that's fantastic. Yeah, and it's a really a

really a fantastic show. So many great guests, so many things explored and it really is aptly titled ⁓ really can give people maybe if you haven't explored those areas before give you an entrance into it. So yeah, really interesting. Yeah.

Yasmeen (07:15)
Thanks, James. Thank you. And I had you on my show as well, which was a very beloved

episode on the title was very controversial called Why Nice Guys Are The Biggest Liars. And so got a lot of hits on that.

James Ferrigno (07:31)
So

the controversial nature of it led to more hits,

Yasmeen (07:40)
Yeah, yeah,

and I think also it feels like it's something a lot of people struggle with, know, the sort of not sure what to do about being the nice guy and ⁓ I feel like your episode really provided a lot more insight into that inquiry.

James Ferrigno (07:57)
Thank you. Yeah, people don't necessarily know the term nice guy and what it means. Might have a different interpretation. So, let's talk about something else. So, tell me about the school that you run.

Yasmeen (08:05)
Yeah.

Yeah, so, well, so this school is really, it's like a, it's like a intuition school for adults, essentially. And we came from an intuition school. So we both spent two years learning intuition medicine specifically, and I think it was like seven, eight years ago now, maybe longer, feels longer. And

What kept coming up for me in the last several years was that people were asking, okay, I love the show. I'm really learning a lot from it, but I also want to hear more from you. And I want to connect with how, like, what are you learning from all these episodes, all the work that you've done, all the tools that you've, you've kind of compiled together. And it actually started as an inquiry from my, social network. My closest friends asked me, can you teach us, can you show us what you've learned? Because we've seen your life.

expand so much and how are you able to create so many things? You know, and that was like, I think really the big, the big reason, the big takeaway was like people were noticing the output and they were confused at how I could get it done in such a short period of time without getting burnt out. And I realized that I was applying, like I was practically applying all the tools that I was learning without knowing that I was applying them. And then I became conscious of applying them.

Now I would say over the last three to four years and have spent a lot of time just really trying to understand natural law. So intuition shows you a lot, right? It shows you all the cues that you can be aware of before they happen, you know? And I've had so much evidence of how much time, energy, money have been saved because of my intuition. So it's a powerful skillset if you know how to tap into it.

And I think that the world is not fixed. So even though you could see something, just, what you're tapping into is a, the highest predictable frequency on someone's timeline, given like all the thoughts they have, the beliefs that they have, the programs that they're running. So what I noticed was like, you could actually change a lot of energy if you understood the rules of the game.

And so I took all the 10 years of all the things I learned about from intuition, energy management and natural law and neuroscience and neuroanatomy. From all my guests, all the workshops I've personally invested in as well. I'm also a Kundalini yoga teacher. ⁓ So I learned a lot about yoga over the years. So I compressed that into a five week program. It's like part of the reason I did five weeks, I five weeks and I have three months and that's kind of it.

James Ferrigno (10:48)
Mmm.

Yasmeen (10:58)
We have an alumni group for people that want to connect and do tuneups. But what I didn't want was to have something where people became dependent on me, because I noticed that a lot of people in this space will have people who sort of just sit with them forever. what I really wanted was to give people access to their own inner tools so that they could become their own teacher. I think the best teachers really just encourage people to become their own best teacher. ⁓

So it's five weeks. I've worked with, you know, number of founders and executives across the world, truly across the world, from India to Indonesia, to Italy, to London, to San Francisco, Austin, all over Tahoe. And it's been amazing. I've seen incredible results. I think by the third week, people really have a big shift because part of this program is not just the theoretical piece.

It's the daily consistent habits and practices that we put into place. And so that's really what creates a lot of change. And part of the five weeks is that they have to take on something that they've never done before so that it introduces a little bit of risk taking. And so that people understand how to actually apply all the tools I teach them to this scenario. So it's like, you got to put it into practice in real time.

⁓ and there is a somatic piece to it with certain creas and meditations and prompt and then as well as prompts and, and that kind of stuff. So, yeah, so it's a, it's a fun program. It's getting bigger and growing and, ⁓ what initially kind of started out similar to the podcast as a smaller offering, a love letter has gotten better and better over time. And so I'm just really trying to iterate and learn all the, all the things I'm

that I could make better. I always want to go back and make it better. So ⁓ the intuition school has been around for about two and a half years now. So it's relatively new, but every five weeks there's like a new kind of program that gets a little bit better than the last five weeks.

James Ferrigno (13:08)
I like what you said about because this seems to be coming up a lot lately in the world. I've noticed of having people actually do the things for themselves and take care of themselves and steer their own ship as it were and

Yasmeen (13:24)
Mm-hmm.

James Ferrigno (13:31)
because I've seen that a lot of, think, because in this culture, people are, you we're kind of programmed to go to healers and practitioners to take care of it, right? We go, we pay, that's it, they take care of it. And so even if we're not paying, you can really get addicted to letting someone else change your energy or make your decisions or anything. So I think that's really great that you're doing that.

Yasmeen (13:55)
Yeah.

Yeah.

James Ferrigno (14:00)
And maybe you can talk more about the natural laws. ⁓ I've been, look, just the last six months or so, that's come up for me. And that's something I've been interested in lately. Maybe you can ⁓ maybe just give us a brief description of what that is, or what those are.

Yasmeen (14:16)
Yeah.

Yeah,

yeah, it's interesting. The idea of natural law is essentially how nature works, how these systems in nature operate to go in accordance with the flow of the cosmos, the flow of the universe, where there's expansion rather than contraction. And so that's really the idea of natural law. It's like, do we understand and work with energy?

Everything is energetic. Every object, every person, every space, especially spaces have an energy signature to it. And a lot of people are completely unaware when it comes to understanding or even building a relationship with this other energy. And if you don't have a relationship with your own energy, how can you understand how...

you are with another person, how you integrate with another person, how you alchemize with another person or space or place. ⁓ An example is like the energy in nature versus the energy in a church versus the energy in an airport versus the energy in a law room, you know, or like a judge's office ⁓ or courtroom, right? I mean, there's such different energy fields in each of those spaces. So I really, you know, use natural law and apply the principles of natural law.

you know, something is similar to watering a plant, right? If you water a plant too much, it dies. If you underwater it, it also dies. So it's just about restoring things to a state of balance. Our physical body, our emotions, our feelings always need to be in a state of balance. How do you get to that balance? Well, there's a whole formula and technique for it. So that's really how I work with natural law. And it's a way to connect with this

our own sacred geometric field and align it with the greater universal field of energy as well. ⁓ just getting a sense of things before they happen, it helps with intuition, but it also helps you manage your energy so that you're not creating too much of a distortion in your field. ⁓ So it's interwoven with intuition. Understanding natural law.

makes you a better intuitive, but it also allows you to work with the energy, not just knowing it, but then practically applying it to the day-to-day pieces.

James Ferrigno (16:43)
Yeah, I think that's really good, really good point. think that's really, really important. ⁓

related to, if not part of, think the the co-creation and the co-creative nature of the universe and I think I think that's something that kind of veered off into a lot of manifesting years back and there's maybe a little bit of misunderstanding there of what co-creation means and what it is and I think ⁓

Yasmeen (17:14)
Yeah.

James Ferrigno (17:20)
I like your focus on it, that's co-creation.

Yasmeen (17:23)
Yeah.

Yeah. I think the world of manifestation is just filled with a lot of nonsense right now. Not that, you know, there's actually a lot of good stuff, but there's also a lot of nonsense. You know, yes, we, you know, we, we can control our thoughts, but we can only control our conscious thoughts. And many people can't even do that. Right. It takes a lot of practice to be able to control your conscious thoughts. And then there's the subconscious and the unconscious, you know, that's, that's kind of working against most people.

So there's ways to work with all three of them, to reprogram them, to identify what is in the unconscious, what is in the shadow, know, what are the things that, what are the programs that I already have that are existing in my software? And so I think a lot of people are just like focusing on like visualization. like, yeah, but if your subconscious and unconscious have a different visualization, it's not going to take you very far. Or it will take you, like it'll take you down.

a journey, but it's going to be slow. And that's like most people's change is very slow. Over over a decade, it's like very slow changes happen with most people in their inner world. And so there is a way to to move very fast, you know, through a lot of those spaces and places. So and then another thing about the manifestation piece.

James Ferrigno (18:24)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Yeah.

Yasmeen (18:48)
is if it's done from the head versus the heart. ⁓ I had a wisdom teacher tell me this once. She's like, if you create and manifest things from the head, you're always gonna see the shadow side play out. You're gonna see both the light and the dark because it was created in the mind. And that comes from a place of duality of ego, where if it's something that's created from the heart, it comes from this unity consciousness. And so it's meant for you. It's something that actually is a true desire. It's not.

a program from another person or told to you by society that you need to have these material things, for example. But it's something that's truly in your heart. Not to also throw shade on material things, because I think all of it is just part of this reality that we're co-creating together. ⁓ And then I think the many worlds theory for me has landed the most. The idea that there's actually different versions of your life and you're constantly

coming against choices, making choices that take you down different paths and decision trees into different versions of yourself. Every single choice is a path down. don't like, if there's some people are like, you're always gonna get to the same destination. No, I mean, yes, we will eventually all cross over, but the journey is gonna be very different depending on so many factors, right? Like every day can actually be an exciting fairy tale every single day. It doesn't have to be.

you know, dictated by the external world. Again, that's if you understand how to work with natural law and your inner world and kind of co-create with the external world.

James Ferrigno (20:27)
Absolutely. think ⁓ one thing that

I think many of us are doing is we're changing ourselves wanting to change our thoughts, our behaviors in order to create a better life for ourselves. But I think that's a lot easier to navigate or can be when you're aware that it's not a completely solo venture that ⁓ you're cooperating with the universe that exists and is steering you down certain paths.

Yasmeen (20:46)
Hmm.

James Ferrigno (21:03)
And what I found is the way to tune into that universe in which paths is to trust that does come in from inside is your authenticity, what you really desire what you really want to do.

Yasmeen (21:22)
Yeah. Yes. Yeah, I couldn't agree more. There's a great quote by Bashar who I had on the show and he says, you know, when you go to bed at night, say this to yourself, I am who I am and that is enough. Right? Like there is, there's a knowing when we follow our own soul, what's meant for us when we know we haven't bargained off a piece of ourselves, when we haven't.

settled, right? We know that we're lit up by the things that are meant for us, you know, that are truly intended for us. And I think you really can't go wrong. It's not about, you know, keeping certain people in your life or situations in your life or job in your life. It's about just trusting that that ⁓ that heart knowing. And there's so much evidence about this. And I truly believe that as long as you do that, you're always going to be taken care of, you know, in some way, or form.

I think that the universe has a gigantic sense of humor. It's kind of hilarious that this whole life is gonna probably feel like five minutes when we cross over and everyone is super stressed out and anxious about dumb shit all the time. It's a riot. I've had moments where I've sometimes looked into the eyes of the universe and I'm just like.

James Ferrigno (22:31)
Yeah, well yeah.

Yasmeen (22:44)
This shit is funny as hell. know, it's funnier and funnier the deeper down the rabbit hole you get. You know, it's like all the ways we create so much importance over very insignificant things ⁓ all day, every day. ⁓ Yeah, I think it's quite funny. It's just a comedy and it is filled with polarity, but it's also your choice on

James Ferrigno (22:48)
Yeah.

Yasmeen (23:12)
the meaning that you assign to it.

James Ferrigno (23:16)
Yeah, you know you're getting somewhere when everything starts to be funny, when everything is funny in different ways. Sometimes things, a lot of things seem ridiculous and funny in that way, but ⁓ other things just seem funny because of just the way they combine. it's all, it's so complex and so simple. And we really get, you know.

Yasmeen (23:20)
Totally.

Hmm.

Hmm, yeah, yeah.

James Ferrigno (23:41)
we just lie and it's when you can really laugh at yourself I have moments where I'll just yeah this is what I'm doing and it's ridiculous you know and without beating myself up but just seeing the humor in the amount of stress I'm creating for myself for no reason whatsoever except to you know have the stress

Yasmeen (23:49)
Hmm.

Yeah.

Yeah. ⁓

James Ferrigno (24:09)
So yeah, that can be really, really humorous. What about, so you're an author. So talk about that for a moment.

Yasmeen (24:10)
Yeah.

Yeah, so I have been running this tech agency for, I'm gonna say like eight or nine years now. And what I do is I help companies commercialize their products. Something I do mostly part-time now, because I've got other stuff going on. But it's fun, I love getting in the weeds of early stage startups, trying to understand what are they building.

I'm extremely curious, as you can tell about so many things. And I think they're all interrelated, like being really curious about product has made me really curious about the human experience and the human condition. ⁓ And so my book ⁓ is called Product Marketing Debunked. It was at the time, one of the first books ⁓ on product marketing, which is specifically a role in the technology startup ecosystem that is catered towards ⁓ launching products.

James Ferrigno (24:47)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Yasmeen (25:14)
So I wrote that or a couple other books in that space, but I've sort of diverged away from that world. And I've written another book this year that's not coming out till later this year, which is all on natural law, how to manage your energy, intuition, personal development. So I'm really excited about that book because it feels, I think, more aligned with.

the changes that I feel like people ⁓ could benefit from making. I think it's a practical sort of application to like, how do you manage your energy? And it was written really for people who couldn't necessarily afford to go through my intuition program. ⁓ It's a lighter, it's a much lighter touch than what they would get in the school, but at least it introduces some of the principles in a way that feels helpful for the collective. So I'm really excited about that. It comes out.

It comes out hopefully by like October, November, December. We'll see.

James Ferrigno (26:11)
Hmm, fantastic. Yeah, I forward to that. And, you know, without giving away too much, ⁓ since you're writing a book on it, what do you think are there, is there any one or two things that you can think of that maybe for people who are

you know, kind of still looking for their path and going, you know, what, I don't know what to do, what should I, where should I start? ⁓ Do you have some advice on, you know, where to begin? Where's the first or second step?

Yasmeen (26:34)
in.

Yeah.

Yeah, you know, this question is an interesting one, because like, think a lot of people are just on different versions of their of a life track. So for example, certain people could just be in a different lower version, higher version. And it's not meant to be hierarchical, but it's essentially about your belief in self. You know, the world is essentially what you believe it is. So you can

decide to run a new program that just says, I'm now on my path. I'm now, like everything is essentially someone's path. just, it's about what's the highest path, right? Like what's the highest version of self. ⁓

⁓ so I, I would encourage people to start asking that question, like write it in the morning, write the question on a piece of paper and ask for automatic writing, connecting with this divine source and just let the words pour through you. Just whatever comes through for a period of usually 40 days is like a good amount of time to get cohesive information. I would ask right before bed, ask the question, show me what I need to do next.

But I don't know if we're meant to know exactly what we're supposed to do at all times. I think that there's something really fun about the mystery of this life. know, looking back, you're like, I now understand, you know, what this was all about. I mean, everything that's true for the podcast, Gateways, there was a point when I was like, I'm not, you know, I'm not sure where the, where the North Star is. And it's, it's really just about the weekly, the weekly episode and like who I've become, who my audience has become in the process. And then I know that

James Ferrigno (27:51)
Yeah.

Yasmeen (28:15)
This is meant to be a door that's going to open for something else. And I don't know what it is yet, right? But it's just having this trust and surrender. And so a mix of just ⁓ sitting in feeling states, deciding what are the things that light you up and excite you the most, right? Like it's just following the next thing that has the most energy around it. Like what is the next thing? The next thing that you want to do in the next hour that brings you the most amount of joy, go and do that.

and then go and do that the next hour and then go and do that the next hour. So it's a mix of setting intention for the day and setting intention, but also just sort of following the flow of energy. And I think that it's a practice, it's like a lost art. It's kind of nuts that we live in a world where people are like, oh, I do all things that don't feel good. I met so many people like those, like, I don't do anything that feels good. Like, really? Like the whole day? The whole day.

James Ferrigno (29:06)
Yeah.

Yasmeen (29:14)
You know, so yeah, yeah. It's like that's, we're not meant to like come to this life to like be bored or to be uninspired. ⁓ We came to this life to really experience ourselves. And I think every single person has a harmony that is so incredibly valuable for the collective harmony.

James Ferrigno (29:14)
Yeah.

Yasmeen (29:41)
And we need everyone to show up and to like bring their, full selves to the table, their full expression, you know, authenticity. actually, when I would read through like the different frequency states, you know, people are always like talking about, I want to just find my happiness. I just want to find my happiness. I want to find my joy. I want to be happy. Well, authenticity actually calibrates at a much higher frequency than happiness. Authenticity is one of the highest frequency states you can have. So it's like.

James Ferrigno (30:06)
Mm-hmm.

Yasmeen (30:10)
honoring yourself and doing what feels true to you without hurting other people, right? Being incredibly impeccable with your word and what you say you're gonna do, should do. You know, I've had conversations with people even recently with a friend who made a bunch of commitments and she didn't follow through. And I politely wrote her a letter. You know, I think that a lot of people have trouble expressing things that feel.

James Ferrigno (30:16)
Mm-hmm.

Yasmeen (30:37)
like their boundary has been crossed. And so what happens is over time, it collects and then it turns into passive aggressiveness. It turns into frustration, resentment, right? And so what we want to do is just be brutally honest with ourselves and with other people. So I'm very honest and I actually, I'm very lucky because I have a very dear friend who's an incredible attorney, one of the top attorneys in California. And she is an amazing litigator, but she taught me how to give

James Ferrigno (30:47)
Yep, absolutely.

Mm-hmm.

Yasmeen (31:06)
really powerful ⁓ commentary, feedback, expression in the most polite, respectful, and kind manner, loving, generous manner. And that has been one of the greatest skill sets I've ever learned because everyone knows where they stand with me. There's no part of me that is people pleasing, that cares about, I'm willing to hurt another person's feelings if

it means that I'm going to be true to myself. Now, it's not my responsibility again to like, for everyone to like me, right? Or for everyone to be okay with information that I've shared. Like everyone also needs to take radical responsibility for being resilient to feedback, being resilient and not even just resilient, but open to feedback, you know? And it's also something I've had to learn. It's not, I think something that we are taught when we're younger.

⁓ I used to be really bad at taking feedback, but it's a skill set that I've really invested in and cultivated over a long period of time. And I just, think it's one of the best skill sets to cultivate because yeah, there's no incongruency that I never feel incongruent. You know, I'm very transparent and there's a lot of integrity there. Now it can be very uncomfortable, but energetically I'm saving myself so much time and so much.

James Ferrigno (32:20)
Mm-hmm. ⁓

Yasmeen (32:31)
and so much of my own prana and life force because I'm not like holding disparate stories in my field. So that's also another way to create more energy is always tell the truth.

James Ferrigno (32:45)
Yeah.

I like that. Yeah, that's something ⁓ good boundaries are really will change your life. And I've seen this in myself, you know, over the years, just as they get better, things get better. So yeah, really interesting.

Yasmeen (32:55)
Yeah. yeah.

Yeah, I think I remember hearing a,

go ahead, James, sorry.

James Ferrigno (33:06)
Mm. Go ahead.

Yasmeen (33:10)
I was just, I was going to say, I remember hearing, on a podcast, this woman said boundaries are sexy, you know, and they are, you know, they, sort of tell you where someone's borders start and end and what's acceptable to them. And I think that it's a, yeah, it's a powerful way to show up in a room to just know that this is where I stand. These are my values. This is what I value. And, ⁓ and I think that that's also something a lot of people don't spend time.

really deeply contemplating like what are my values? What will I stand for? What will I not stand for? You know? So yeah.

James Ferrigno (33:47)
Absolutely, yeah, that's fantastic. I mean, I've noticed with just people that I know people with good boundaries are just easy to be around. It's comfortable, you know where you stand, there's no guesswork, you're not walking on eggshells, you don't have to worry about what they think. You never have to worry about anything because if they don't like something, they'll tell you.

Yasmeen (33:58)
Hmm.

Yeah.

James Ferrigno (34:13)
You know, so

it's really nice when someone has good boundaries. It's very comfortable. Yeah, it is sexy and it's attractive. So, I know. I also liked what you said about just following, I don't remember your exact words, but following what lights you up in the moment. You know, following the thing that really

Yasmeen (34:22)
Yeah, yeah, it really is.

Hmm.

James Ferrigno (34:43)
thing you love the thing that turns you on. don't remember your exact words were but that really sounds like that could be helpful to some people.

Yasmeen (34:54)
Yeah.

yeah. This is actually something I learned from Bashar, but it's something I've been, I didn't know I was practicing all my life, which is like, don't complain about anything about other people in your mind or externally. That also frees up so much energy and it puts you on a higher life track immediately. If you tried no complaining for 40 days, like even just about dumb stuff, ⁓ it'll drastically shift someone's life.

⁓ so that's one thing that I just, I like to introduce people to sometimes we do like a 40 day no complaining challenge and it's just fun to see, yeah, what happens and then lighted the thing that lights you up. It's like, what's the, yeah, just the most, smallest incremental thing that feels like a yes versus a no. And just, and go do that. And, Bashar's formula, I don't remember the whole thing off the top of my head, but it's essentially like.

James Ferrigno (35:29)
Well...

Yasmeen (35:48)
you know, follow whatever is exciting or passion or the most has the most energy or passion. Follow it as far as it takes you. And then as soon as the energy is complete, get off, go do the next thing, go do the next thing. There's no like there's no need to commit to something just because it gave you energy one day. I think so many people think like this thing gave me so much energy and now I'm gonna have to just stay with it forever. And it's like, of course not like we're just

James Ferrigno (36:09)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Yasmeen (36:15)
We're just constantly changing. So it's like, go follow the energy, wherever it takes you, get off and don't be attached to the outcome. You know, like it's not about the outcome. It's about who you're becoming. This whole life is about who we're becoming. It's not about what we produce or the outcome, which I think it's also just a hilarious part of this comedy that so many people are like trying to acquire so many things, material things, so they can feel secure and safe.

James Ferrigno (36:35)
Yes.

Yasmeen (36:44)
But at end of the, it's like going on a trip to Paris and then buying all this furniture in Paris. But you know, you're never, you're going to leave Paris and come back home. And so like, what's the point? Like, what's the point? The point is to enjoy Paris. The point is to like, go to the coffee shops, go to the Eiffel Tower, you know, like have that walk during sunset. Do the, do the work that you love, like be lit up by your creativity, but you know, you're leaving Paris. You know, why are you, why are you trying to like,

Get as much stuff in Paris. We're not going to take it with you. Makes no sense.

James Ferrigno (37:16)
Hey

Yeah, I think we maybe don't always stop to think about that. And ⁓ it's very...

very interesting that we focus a lot on goals and getting things and because it's not as clear as it might seem that really this life is about.

improving ourselves, right? Becoming who we really are, essentially, we already are realizing who we already are. Let's just say remembering is probably a better way to say remembering who we are, rather than changing. Because I think when we're trying to change, it's possible. I've run into this myself in the past. ⁓ The fixing is like, you think you're broken, and you need to be fixed.

Yasmeen (37:56)
Yeah.

Hmm.

Mm.

James Ferrigno (38:12)
you can really get on a treadmill of not, it's a cul-de-sac, you can get lost in it. Maybe you can speak to that, like the fixing versus the non-attachment versus the being, know, wanting to be who you are and follow the path of your authenticity and your love and your desire.

Yasmeen (38:22)
Hmm.

Yeah.

Yeah.

James Ferrigno (38:41)
versus trying to achieve something externally.

Yasmeen (38:49)
Yeah. You know, that's a big question. ⁓ I think my perspective is probably different than the consensus right now on fix the culture of fixing. It's like, you know, I think there was actually an amazing podcast on this that we've like become addicted to pathologizing our lives. Like these are the, this is like the reason why I got this is because of this reason or, know, and just going down so many deep rabbit holes. And I,

James Ferrigno (38:53)
you

Yasmeen (39:17)
know, at a certain point in my life, I think it's important to know how you, like, it's kind of the analogy that I give some of my students in my intuition school is that being in a negative thought loop or having the memory of a negative thought loop, because that's really what the pain is really from the memory. It's not so much about the experience, but the memory creates a somatic experience. But being in that place is like being in a bad neighborhood and trying to fix the neighborhood. You're going spend a ton

of energy trying to fix that neighborhood. You're to have to deal with all the neighbors and the house and the house crumbling and the whatever it is versus getting in a car and going to a neighborhood that you want to spend more time in. And we are reinforcing a lot of neural networks and programming that doesn't necessarily need that much processing in my opinion. Like I think it's about going towards what it is that you want. Like most people

James Ferrigno (40:10)
Yes.

Yasmeen (40:16)
don't actually know what they want instead of the thing that they keep complaining about. Because that's a big question. It's like, okay, well, what do you want instead? And then people usually will have like a very kind of, you know, strange look on their face. It's like they've never thought about what's the alternative because they're so hooked into the story of what happened or what, you know, okay, that happened. What do you want instead? I share my experience. I grew up a rocky American during a time when there was the first Gulf War, then the second Gulf War when I was in college.

And so I experienced a lot of, I would say strife and racism and discrimination. And it's not something that I'll ever talk about, at least not anymore. ⁓ Or not in a way in which it feels like it's a somatic experience for me, because that's not my identity. I've decided that's not my identity. I'm not a person who's a victim and I'm not a person who needs sympathy, you know? And I'm incredibly empowered.

And I know that I have all the resources within me to create whatever I want. So yeah, some of us started out with different situations in childhood for a variety of reasons, familial, economic, social, ⁓ cultural, whatever it is. We didn't start out the same, but everyone is working through different things in this life, right? Like some people, it's health. For some people, it's relationships. For some people, it's money. Everyone's got something that they're working through or on. Otherwise, life's kind of boring without.

not having something to kind of work through, if it's whatever your creativity. I think that that's also where I see, ⁓ where, where I believe that we are going as a society. Once we're done dealing with all of our ⁓ problems, we can actually start putting our energy into creativity, which is a lot more fulfilling and a way to heal a lot of our inner world is through being creative. When we work on the creative act, we are actually healing ourselves. And so

I do think it's important to know how did you get to this neighborhood? I do not think it's important to stay there and to choose to stay there. That's your choice. ⁓ I know it's obviously very different for some people versus others. Some people live in very bad neighborhoods. Some people have experienced really bad neighborhoods and some people, ⁓ you know, less so, but it's still, you can decide today that you're ready to leave. ⁓

I would also suggest that there's breath work, somatic work that needs to be associated with that. For me at least, and I'm not suggesting this for everybody, but Kundalini yoga and specifically the breath work in Kundalini has been extremely instrumental in really restoring my nervous system, ⁓ along with the energy work that we've done at the academy, along with natural law. But all these things together, it's kind of like everything that I offer in my school as well.

⁓ So yeah, I've sort of seen a mix of different cases where ⁓ two people could have gone through the exact same thing and one of them could live very differently than the other. So sort of kind of begs the question, what is the difference? You know, what happened? So it's my two cents. It's not, you know, it's definitely different than like the...

the incessant talk therapy. I'm just, I shouldn't say this publicly because I actually do really think therapy is very important for people. ⁓ But I don't understand how and why people are in therapy for over a decade and ⁓ kind of rerunning the same scripts. There's not that much change. So I think at a, what is that? There's like this idea that like certain things are really positive and then they create a negative loop.

if you keep doing them.

James Ferrigno (44:06)
Hmm. Yeah, I know that ⁓ what I've seen with traditional talk therapy, the original kind, ⁓ it's very good at helping you identify things and very good at, you you can work through it quite a bit. It's just can be more beneficial for most people to look at it.

then move on rather than to rehash it because you're building more neural connections to that event or whatever it was that happened as you focus on it and focus on it. know, then the old story of, you get what you concentrate on, you know, that's, kind of what you create. So not that it's bad to do, but it's the quicker you can move on from it, I think the more beneficial it be for, for most people.

Yasmeen (44:33)
Yeah. Yeah.

Yep. Yep.

Yeah,

yeah, yeah, absolutely. I mean, we have this one precious life and I don't know about you, but I don't really want to spend any time in spaces, in places that...

are not fulfilling, you know, and it's not about spiritual bypassing because that's also something I certainly see. see like spiritual entertainment, spiritual narcissism. You know, people are just like reading and doing all the courses and workshops, but then they haven't done. They haven't actually sat with themselves and like come up with a plan of action. There's no like plan, you know, there's just like, it's like an idea in their mind that they want to change and like they have all the resources, but they haven't applied it at all. So I see a lot of that.

James Ferrigno (45:19)
yeah.

Yasmeen (45:40)
in the space or just like the spiritual entertainment, like going down these rabbit holes just to be entertained as a way to check out as opposed to sitting with yourself and being comfortable, you know, in silence and having walking through this world with a sense of inner peace, really.

James Ferrigno (45:59)
Yeah, yeah, there's a lot of the spiritual bypass going on out there. think, although I think it's just a stage of development. And one stage is that you become aware of the spirituality, you become aware of these things. But it takes however long to really begin to...

look at yourself, look at the world, really realize what's happening versus just going through the motions and doing things and kind of a consumerist or touristic way, you know, just even fetishizing it, turning it into a hobby, you know. ⁓

Yasmeen (46:46)
Yep,

exactly.

James Ferrigno (46:49)
We see a lot of that. But from the outside, people who haven't explored spirituality, can look like, ⁓ spiritual people are all these flighty people who aren't serious and they don't know what they're talking about. It's like,

Yasmeen (46:51)
Yeah.

James Ferrigno (47:06)
that's just the stage of people who are just discovering things and there's nothing wrong with it it's just that they don't have a depth of knowledge or understanding or really experience with it yet ⁓ that they will achieve at some point this life or another and yeah but it is ⁓ very prevalent

Yasmeen (47:16)
Yeah, right, right, right.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, and there's like no, and there's no judgment, because I think like no person is more powerful on this planet than another. We're all equal. We all have, I think, an equal right to be here. And so I, there's no judgment. It's really, and my desire is to help steward ⁓ and elevate consciousness. But I'm also, don't know about you, but I certainly do not like to get involved in

a need to prove or defend. mean, if people are ready, they're ready and they'll go seek it. But I have no desire to prove anything to anybody. But, you know, I'm just like, okay, you're right. Yeah, it's just, it's not, it's a waste of energy to go into polarity conversations, in my opinion, because it's just going to perpetuate the polarity paradigm.

James Ferrigno (48:04)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, that's it. I have learned, you know, for my younger days, especially the hard way that that is not useful. It's not a useful thing. It's a for. There's so many things about it. There are a problem, you know, whether it's viewing yourself is at a higher level than the other person or thinking you can fix someone or rescue them or change them. I'm going to change you for your own good. But that.

Yasmeen (48:37)
Yeah.

James Ferrigno (48:49)
not only is not good for them it's not really great for you either ⁓ again it's a stage that a lot of us most of us go through there's nothing wrong with that there's nothing wrong with doing that it's just not effective and useful really you find that not doing it is a lot more useful

Yasmeen (49:06)
Yeah.

James Ferrigno (49:16)
Yeah, there's a really ingrained thing in the cultures of the world really at this point that the levels, the grading things, you know, as better and worse and greater and...

And it's really difficult to escape when you're raised with it. Even with the, I'm higher, higher vibration than you are. You know, it's like you're back in your five years old again. ⁓ when, know, in reality, just whatever stage someone's at, whatever they're doing, whatever their life really doesn't matter, whoever they are, ⁓ everyone has equal value. Everyone's at the place they're supposed to be. Everyone's on their path, you know? So

Yasmeen (49:40)
Right.

Right, right, right. Yeah.

James Ferrigno (50:02)
sharing when someone asks for help and you share the help or share whatever instruction with them that they want it doesn't mean that you know it's an old idea that the teacher is not better than the student

Yasmeen (50:20)
Right. yeah.

James Ferrigno (50:21)
teacher doesn't

know necessarily know more about everything than the students. I teaching I learned this just as classroom teacher. It's a two-way process. Even teaching you know six-year-olds they're teaching you too. So it's not just a single thing. The kids teach the adults and ⁓

Yasmeen (50:25)
100 percent.

James Ferrigno (50:41)
just because you know someone's you know a 10 year old doesn't have more value than a nine year old because the number is higher so because someone isn't at some place of authenticity or understanding of themselves doesn't make them less valuable or any more of a person

Yasmeen (50:47)
Yeah, yeah.

Right, right, right, absolutely. Everyone has equal value.

James Ferrigno (51:10)
that note maybe we'll begin to wrap things up here is there anything else that you wanted to share before we before we go

Yasmeen (51:17)
You know,

no, I'm just so grateful to you, James, for creating this platform and for talking about these conversations. And I think to everyone listening, I am just holding a light for you to live a life that feels super authentic, that you have sovereignty, that you can really just craft your own script, your own movie in whatever it is that you want to experience in this life. And just remember that you have full agency over

over your own life and you don't have to be a pawn or a chess piece in someone else's chess game. And so yeah, that's what I really care about is sovereignty and helping people access that. So thank you so much for this space, James.

James Ferrigno (52:05)
You're welcome. Thank you, Yasmin, for being on here and you brought up so many things. It was a really great conversation. I learned some things myself and ⁓ I really think this will be valuable for people who watch it. There's a lot of helpful content here. So thank you very much.

Yasmeen (52:24)
Awesome. Awesome.

Thank you so much, James. Thank you.