Miracle Mentality with Tim Storey (Motivation, Self Help, and Mental Health)

Unshakable Faith: Gabrielle Bernstein on Healing Trauma and Leading from Self | Spirituality | E36

50 min
Apr 20, 2026about 1 month ago
Listen to Episode
Summary

Tim Storey interviews spiritual teacher and author Gabrielle Bernstein about her journey from addiction and trauma to becoming a thought leader in spiritual healing. They discuss her evolution from 'Gabby' to 'Gabrielle,' her use of Internal Family Systems therapy for healing, and practical tools for overcoming shame and building self-compassion.

Insights
  • Spiritual evolution requires continuous healing and willingness to update outdated versions of oneself; rebranding from 'Gabby' to 'Gabrielle' represents a quantum shift in consciousness and teaching approach
  • Protection mechanisms and destructive behaviors (workaholism, rage, addiction) are survival strategies developed in childhood trauma; compassion toward these 'parts' is more effective than shame-based approaches
  • Self-leadership and operating from 'self energy' (calm, compassionate, curious, connected, courageous, confident) creates ripple effects that allow partners and audiences to access their own higher consciousness
  • Authenticity about personal struggles and ongoing recovery paradoxically increases credibility and impact; admitting imperfection removes pressure and allows for genuine connection
  • The gap between stimulus and response can be shortened through consistent therapeutic practice, enabling leaders to stay in higher consciousness even during triggering moments
Trends
Shift from guru-based spirituality to relatable teacher models that emphasize ongoing personal recovery and vulnerabilityIntegration of clinical psychology (IFS therapy) with spiritual practice as mainstream healing modality for high-achieving professionalsGrowing demand for spiritual content addressing trauma recovery and childhood wound healing among millennial and Gen-Z audiencesEvolution of personal brands and thought leaders redefining their public identity as they mature spiritually; audience acceptance of 'version upgrades'Therapeutic frameworks (IFS, Internal Family Systems) gaining traction in self-help publishing and mainstream wellness discourseMen's wellness and leadership development focusing on emotional intelligence and trauma recovery rather than traditional 'hustle culture' narrativesCouples therapy and relationship healing as central to spiritual development; partnership as mirror for personal growthMediumship and channeling experiences being discussed openly in mainstream wellness conversations without stigma
Topics
Internal Family Systems (IFS) Therapy for Self-HelpTrauma Recovery and Childhood Wound HealingAddiction Recovery and SobrietySpiritual Leadership and AuthenticityProtection Mechanisms and Shame CyclesSelf-Compassion and Non-Judgmental WitnessingMeditation and Spiritual PracticesCouples Therapy and Relationship HealingMediumship and ChannelingPersonal Rebranding and EvolutionHigh-Achieving Men and WorkaholismFaith and Spiritual ConnectionManifestation and Miracle MindsetEmotional Intelligence in LeadershipCourse in Miracles Principles
Companies
GlobalSKU
App sponsored by host Tim Storey that helps users identify resale value of items across eBay, Amazon, Walmart, and Fa...
People
Gabrielle Bernstein
Guest discussing her spiritual journey, trauma recovery, and evolution from 'Gabby' to 'Gabrielle' as a thought leader
Tim Storey
Host conducting interview and sharing parallel experiences in spiritual leadership and trauma recovery
Dr. Richard Schwartz
Creator of IFS therapy framework that Gabrielle uses and teaches; described as close friend and mentor
Wayne Dyer
Deceased mentor and inspiration to Gabrielle; referenced as ongoing spiritual guide and influence on her work
Louise Hay
Deceased mentor and inspiration to Gabrielle; foundational influence on her spiritual teaching approach
Marianne Williamson
Early inspiration and mentor to Gabrielle; influenced her approach to spiritual leadership
Oprah Winfrey
Featured Gabrielle on Super Soul Sunday; described as friend and sister to Tim Storey
John Paul Dujara
Creator of GlobalSKU app; previous guest on Miracle Mentality podcast
Lewis Howes
Interviewed Gabrielle about trauma and pain; referenced by Tim Storey
Diane Hudson
23-year executive producer for OWN; close friend of Tim Storey who helped introduce him to Oprah's team
Quotes
"A miracle is something that is extraordinary, uncommon, not normal. Kind of think that's how we should live."
Tim StoreyOpening segment
"I'm going to have my father is going to be abusive and alcoholic and he's going to leave my mother. And what it's going to teach me is it's going to teach me forgiveness and self-reliance."
Gabrielle BernsteinMid-episode
"The faucet was on. I was just in the flow the whole time. It wasn't like I'm in my outline and then I'm in this flow and then I'm back to noticing what's happening in the room."
Gabrielle BernsteinMid-episode
"If you don't run to the refuge which is the things of God you will run to a refuge which is trying to find ways to find release."
Tim StoreyLate episode
"I'm not a guru. I am a teacher. I am here to just tell the truth. I'm here to have fun along the way."
Gabrielle BernsteinLate episode
Full Transcript
Hello, MiracleMetallityFamily. You just heard my good friend, John Paul Dujara. He was so good on this podcast. I want to tell you something that he's doing that I think is amazing. I'm introducing to you for the first time, GlobalSKU. It is an app designed to help you make extra money for stuff that you have just sitting around. Now, how does that work? Number one, it only costs $12 a month, and you can cancel any time. What happens is that you scan an item and it tells you what the item sold for in the last 90 days. And it lists across multiple platforms, including eBay, Amazon, Walmart, Facebook, Marketplace. This is amazing. Go to the GlobalSKU website or the App Store and start making money today. But I have something really good for you for the first 50 people from my world that comment, I'm going to give you GlobalSKU for absolutely free for one month. For the first 50 people to comment, I want to give you a free month subscription. So respond right now. That's GlobalSKU. Hello, my name is Tim Story. Welcome to MiracleMetallity. Remember rooftops, drawing spaceships on the ground. It's for the dreamers, the doers, the believers in something greater. In each episode, I'll invite you to rise above the mundane, to push past the messy and learn to live boldly in the miraculous. Every episode will have practical wisdom, spiritual insight, and my guests will explore what it takes to activate your Miracle Mindset. Remember to subscribe, follow, and like. Welcome back to the Miracle Mentality Podcast. Again, I want to thank you guys for continuing to like, subscribe, and leaving comments. And we're constantly, as you know, in the top five. Thank you guys for constantly letting other people know. I see it as kind of a movement. You know, I like this whole title, Miracle Mentality. A miracle is something that is extraordinary, uncommon, not normal. Kind of think that's how we should live. So when I was looking at guests that I would like, when I was deciding to do a podcast, I thought of this guest, Gabby Bernstein. But you can't just wish something and it happens all the time, because she's hard to get. The idea that I get to interview her today is quite exciting to me, because when you look at the fact that she has had setbacks in her life, like all of us, but decided to do something about it, decided to study, research, grow, and then turn challenges in her life to then bring a lot of healing to a lot of our lives. She is a New York Times best-selling author. She is a spiritual teacher, and you'll see that. She's also an inspirational speaker and phenomenal at it. I've seen her live many times. She's a podcast host at a high, high level. Everybody wants on her show. She grew up in Largemont, New York, and studied theater at Syracuse University that I find interesting that she was in theater. In her early 20s, she was confronted by addiction and hit what she called rock bottom moment in 2005. When she whispered, I need a miracle. And that was a decision to launch onto her path of healing and personal transformation. From that moment on, she stepped into spiritual practices, meditation, yoga, and principles from a course in miracles, and she began developing simple tools for manifesting, building self-love, releasing fear, which she's phenomenal at, and stepping into faith for herself and others. She has been singled out by the Oprah Winfrey on Super Soul Sunday as a thought leader for the next generation and the generation that is still here. So let's welcome to the program the amazing Gabby Bernstein. Hi, Gabby. Hello, my friend. It's so good to be with you. Thank you for having me here. Was that intro too long? That intro was beautiful. Yeah. I would take you to anywhere. You could come on the road with me and be my intro. Ladies and gentlemen, Tim Story has left his current job, and now he's the intro guy. So Gabby, let's get into this thing a little bit about, when you were in high school, let's say like senior year, what were you thinking about becoming? Like what was your skill sets? Could you got into the whole theater side? Were you a theater thespian? Were you outgoing? Were you shy? What was it like like senior year? Senior year, I was having an existential crisis. I felt very misunderstood. I didn't have any girlfriends. I just had a bunch of guy friends. They're all in a band, in a rock band. One of them was my boyfriend and the rest of them were my friends. I did find some comfort in the theater arts, which was what guided me to go after a BFA in theater and college. But I think where I felt most confident and most comfortable was actually as a spiritual guide at that time, believe it or not. So I was the president of the regional Jewish youth group in my community in Westchester County, and I would lead these spiritual weekends at the temple. Even to this day, I don't identify as very religious in the Jewish traditions, but that was one of the ways that spirituality was first introduced to me. It was through this youth group, and it was for me about gathering and singing and being in really in light, being in the light with others. Like I said, I was the president of this youth group, so I was kind of just leading those like this 18-year-old or 17-year-old spiritual guide, just a little bit of a Sherpa in Westchester County, guiding these weekends, and that's when I felt most aligned, probably the only time I was aligned. Yes. So interesting. I say this, and I think you would agree, that sometimes our calling calls you. That's always right, yes. And so the word calling is always where you're pulled out and it's specific and it's unique. One thing that I'm loving about your style, because I've been in this thought-leader space for a while, is that it is very specific and it's very unique. So were there a couple people that you saw that were doing their thing, you said, wow, I like what she's doing or he's doing, and I think I can draw from them to add to what I feel like life is calling me to do. Totally. When I was 25, I started my career as a spiritual teacher shortly after getting sober. And at that time, my inspirations were Dr. Wayne Dyer, Louise Hay, Mary Ann Williamson was a big one, and then years later they would become my friends and mentors, and to this day, still my friends and mentors, even Louise and Wayne are past, but they're still my guides. And these teachers really showed me where I wanted to go and who I wanted to be as a spiritual leader and as a teacher. The path was laid out before me. And to this day, that type of teacher isn't sort of the aspiration that a lot of folks might find these days. I don't know that a lot of us out there making the choice to speak on behalf of God in that way. And so unapologetically, and with such faith and certainty, that is my life's mission is to carry that legacy of being that voice for the masses, being that voice of guiding people to identify and recognize what faith means to them. And to speak on behalf of the spiritual realm with full-bodied certainty, so that I can be a power of example and a guide to help people remember that light within themselves. So a lot of spiritual teachers that I get a chance to dialogue with, many times they had a specific encounter, a revelation, or as our friend Oprah says, like an aha moment. Was there a time in your early teens where you felt like you had this encounter with God that was really significant, where you felt like you got like a revelation of an understanding of what you were supposed to do at least at that moment? Yeah, I had many moments like that. I was brought up as a child sitting on the meditation pillows in the ashrams with my mother. My mother was a devotee of Guru Mai, and I was named by the Guru and really brought into these spiritual spaces as a child. And I could feel very early on, when I was like seven, eight, nine, ten, the energy in those spaces. And I could feel because I was such an empath and such a wide open sponge without the container to hold that, I could pick up a lot of that energy and I kind of knew then like, oh, there's a lot of suffering in the world. And then when I started to experience that suffering through anxiety and depression, my mom taught me my first mantra and gave me meditation practice. And this was when I was about 16, I started to develop my own meditation practice. What I realized very quickly, I remember about a week into having this practice, my boyfriend and I went off to the beach and we were at a guest house somewhere. We pulled up to the house and I said, I'm super anxious. I need to excuse myself. And I went into this random room in a house I'd never been in. And it was this tiny little white room. And in the room, I remember it like yesterday, there was a little window and I was sitting on the single bed and there was this little picture in the corner. And I closed my eyes and I put my hands up and I started repeating my mantra and I started to feel this energy start to move through my body. And it felt like this blanket of love pass over me. The anxiety just dissipated and that peace settled through my system. And that was when I started noticing my extremities go numb, just like they are right now. So when I start to channel my hands, go numb and then just feeling that buzzing in my extremities and just knowing, okay, there is an energy beyond my physical sight that can actually heal me and that can guide me. From that day forward, I always knew that God was real. Okay, so from this experience, then when do you start thinking about who you're going to reach out to and almost release these types of practices and healing on people? I'll go there on myself just for a second. So I went to seminary. So my doctorate's in world religion, but I didn't want to be like a traditional religious leader. I wanted to be like a cool mother Teresa, but I started having a lot of experiences in spirituality. And the more I traveled, I was very open to other healers and how they did things and really wanted to learn. But then I think more and more it got crystallized of who I wanted to help. And Gabby, who I wanted to help was the underdog. I liked the Struggler. I liked the up and out or the down and out or that was where I was focused on. Then and even now. So was there anything similar like that for you? What an interesting question. No one's ever asked this to me, Tim. And I think it's a beautiful question. At the time I was 25 years old. So I have always taught where I am in my own journey. And there's a message in the metaphysical text, of course, and miracles that your students will find you because they will recognize themself in you. And so as I've grown up in the different stages of my spiritual development and in the stages of my own life, my audience has been a reflection of oftentimes where I'm at and what I have to give. And so I don't know that I actually had a desire of saying, this is the type of person I'm going to serve. But I do know that witnessing what was drawn into the room was often people who were meeting their spiritual life where I was. Today, my demographic that I serve is much less gender specific and age specific. And it's really just teaching and serving anyone who is willing to get closer to God consciousness, to get closer to a miracle mentality. Gabby, in that case, when you see that this call is on you, do you think that all of us have a similar touch of God, the 8 billion people on the planet? Or do you feel like some of us, we just have a touch of God on us that is a deeper type of calling to touch people in a specific way? What are your thoughts on that? I think that our soul, before we come into this body, makes a choice and says, okay, what do I want to learn this time? And what am I going to teach this time? And we all come to unlearn fear and remember love and we all come to strengthen that connection to the divine and whatever form that comes. But I think our soul makes the choice and so the soul says, okay, I'm going to have this experience. I remember listening to Wayne Dyer say this at one point and I really struck with me like, he sat there, he's like, I'm going to have my father is going to be abusive and alcoholic and he's going to leave my mother. And what it's going to teach me is it's going to teach me forgiveness and self-reliance. And that's what I'm going to teach. And so I do think that there's that I believe that I believe that our soul looks at this lifetime and says, okay, what's the plan? What do I want to learn? What do I want to heal? And how am I going to show up? And I think that different evolutions of our soul we come in with a different heightened awareness of that God consciousness. We all are touched by God. We all have the capacity to have that awakening and have that connection and that God within me is the same with the God within every single person listening. It's the same energy. But the choice in the lifetime is, am I going to lean into it or am I going to stray from it? And so that choice is our free will. We're not burdened by this desire that we had and that we never can change. We have free will, but I do believe that our souls come with this evolutionary path of what's the next level of my spiritual awakening now. And so I can speak for my soul and say that I believe my soul came in saying, I'm going to go through some tough shit and I'm going to go through that shit so that I can speak on behalf of what it means to return to love. And I do believe that most spiritual teachers, if you lined them up, they'd probably all say the same thing, that I had to experience the depths of this darkness so that I could remember the light of who I am so that I could teach with authority and certainty. I like you started early. So I remember being like 18 years of age in seminary, but I'm still going through things. I'm going through, am I going to date this person I was dating or not? I'm going through trauma from my father dying when I was 10 in a car accident. So I was going through things that people go through at 1819 20, but at the same time I could get on stage Gabby and this gift from God would just light up and I was just in this zone. How did you deal with the personal Gabby and then with the other side of you that was really channeling God the way you were in really such a powerful way? I think up until last weekend, literally, because something shifted in me last weekend actually, I decided to go by Gabrielle now so Tim you can call me Gabrielle for a reason and I'll explain it. I think that you have all these years and decades of healing and then you can hit these points where you're like, oh, that's flipped. That's flipped. I'm stepping into new energy now. The flip happened for me last weekend. And so I got on stage at a talk on Sunday the day after declaring that I'm now Gabrielle and it wasn't moments of channeling. This is answering your question too, but it wasn't these moments of channeling. It wasn't like I'm in my outline and then I'm in this flow and then I'm back to noticing what's happening in the room to them being back in the flow. I was just in the flow the whole time. It was like the faucet was on. And so I think throughout my life, I've sort of been in this dance of like the in the body and then in the spirit and then in the body. Particularly, I'm talking when I'm in my art when I'm speaking publicly and there would be these sustained experiences of being in the full flow and then sort of thinking my way into something. But this shift occurred where I'm just so surrendered to being in that flow. By the way, I'm obsessed with you and I love this conversation so much and I'm so glad I'm here with you right now because this is the only kind of conversation I want to have. I'm so excited to be good friends with you. So the shift occurs last weekend and I'm on the stage and I have my outline behind me and I'm just like it's there. I can come to it if it's in me, you know, but I leave it behind me. And I decide in that moment that I'm allowing and I'm letting this energy come through and the thing I said at the top of the talk was this group came into this room in this moment to have a spiritual experience. We're going to be container for you to have a quantum shift today for you to have a spiritual experience. And so I immediately indoctrinated the entire group into this familial energy of we're here in the service of each other and in the service of this moment. It was so clear to me Tim, that's what I want to do from this day on as Gabrielle. I want to be walking into rooms and creating spiritual experiences. And so that doesn't take away anything that has happened in the past two decades of my work. It's gotten me to where I am here, but it's an up leveling. It's a right of passage. It's a new wave of being. So I'm in it. I'm just committed to it. And it's not like it happened over. You know, this is 20 years of trauma recovery, sober 20 years of sobriety, 20 years of internal family systems therapy, 11 books, like healing myself through my work to be in a moment where I can be self led, where I can feel free. And I can fully surrender. So what I have seen in you is a real beautiful maturing of you and your gift, because I think Gabrielle, what happens to any of us, whether it's me, you, a deep ash opera, Oprah Winfrey, Mary Ann Williamson, people that we do know and work with is that we are asked to be on these stages. And there's certain things that people want from Gabrielle when you get on that stage. And many times it's like, play the hits, play the hits from your second book, play the hits from your third book, play the hits from your fourth book. And I think sometimes you don't really want to play those hits. Not that those hits were not great of the things that we've said in past books and spoken in past lectures or talks, but we've evolved into this different space. So when I talk about this idea of some people wanting you to remain Gabby Bernstein, but now you've moved on as Gabrielle, what goes to your mind as far as, you know, I just have to be true to what I know my calling is and this is what I'm called to do now. I don't think anyone would want to hold me and Gabby. I think that people will be pleasantly accepting of and embracing of Gabrielle because you know this because you've created this since a young age. But when you're in that energy and you're holding that channel, people borrow the benefits. They can be actualized in the presence of someone who is God actualized. And so for me, having that greater access only allows people to recognize their access even more. So I don't think anyone would want to hold me back and what was I think anyone around me family, loved ones, friends, audience members, strangers would be like, Oh, I want more of that. That vibration is really reminding me of who I am and what's inside of me. So there's no going back and there's no regretting what was right. I believe that every day of our life leads us to the next right action, especially if we're living in the humility of being that happy learner of saying, Okay, what can I learn from this? What can I learn from this? Yeah. And as you teach, we are constantly unfolding. I remember when I was in seminary and I think at this point I was 20. And I used to study a lot on healing, like how people get healed from all different religions. There was a gentleman that was ill in one of the dorm rooms and these three young guys said, Get Tim story. He could heal him. And so I remember going and this young guy had heard his back really in a terrible way. So I just remember just putting my hand. I was about a foot away from him. And this energy went through him and he says, I'm really not joking. I feel heat going through me. I said, just go ahead and move. And he ended up getting healed. When did you first start to see that the devotion of Gabrielle and studying spirituality and studying God? And then now you started having experiences where it was changing people around you, whether it was your friends or family at first. Speaking for what you're saying, I could start healing myself. So I remember in my teenage years when I would have period cramps, I would move them off of my body. Like I would almost like take them off and then be recycled. So the energy shifting, I was sort of practicing more on myself. And as a spiritual student, I followed a lot of different teachers at times. And unfortunately, for many of us, this happens, those teachers turn out to be terrible people. And that's unfortunate. But does it mean that some of the teachers feel and for a while I was visit this medium, a trans medium who did really healing work turned out to be a terrible human. But a real spirit, right? A real healer. And so in that journey, I remember just being in these rooms meditating for hours, like six, seven hours with thousands of people. And just knowing that I was feeling not only the energy of the community, but the energy of the healing that was happening bestowed upon me, walking out new, witnessing healings, like witnessing miraculous healings, witnessing people walking out of wheelchairs, witnessing people from blindness to sight, like witnessing it all in real time. And that for me really locked it in of like, this is all real. This is all I know this to be real. And this is the only truth that there is. And that we do have the ability to alchemize and to heal physically, to heal emotionally. That was sort of another level of certainty in my spiritual connection. I know that I was guided to that work for that reason. And also to tune my mediumship, right? So at that time, even though it didn't turn out there's two paths I followed, unfortunately, and it's just an unfortunate truth. It happens a lot. There's two paths I followed that really did spiritually crack me open, but also turned out to be led by very bad people. Reality. So all the more real reason why we have to be as genuine and authentic as we are, right? To make up for those that couldn't, that didn't do that. So what I see, what I experienced in that time was the acceptance of mediumship and acceptance of being able to be in this world, but feel the energy of the spiritual realm, use that energy, particularly on stages, like being able to hold the container of a room, whether it's 100 people, 2000 people, but just to hold the energy of the room and to not just from a masterful way of being a presenter or performer, which I think folks like that can do that because they are in their own ways channeling, but being a medium to be able to say, okay, this is 1000, 2000 people, but I can hold the container with my breath. I can hold the container with my hands. I can hold the container with my words, with my intentions, with my silence. That's such a cool thing. There's nothing like it. And you know this as well. Maybe we can get on a stage and we may have a talk that we're going to present. And all of a sudden, we start getting these shifts where we know we're supposed to go a different way. And you see the whole room just just break open. And you know, there's just nothing like that, truly. So let me ask you a question about this idea of we have this similarity that we want to help people turn their setbacks to comebacks. You really are helping a lot of people come out of darkness. Where's that coming from of you wanting to help people come out of darkness? Is it because of you coming out of personal darkness or it's just because you feel like that's where God's leading you to lift people up from that state that they're in? Both. Both. Yeah. I know that member I said my soul came here and I was like, okay, let's experience this tough stuff. You know, there's real tough stuff along the way. There's a trauma and depression and suicidal ideation and just moments and time. Yeah. Loss. Okay, well, I need to know that and I need to know that spirit can hold me and guide me through that. And I lived those extreme moments. I've survived those stream moments and I've thrived on the other side of those extreme moments because of my devotion to my spiritual faith and my devotion to my therapeutic processes and my commitment to my inner well being. And so having lived that it's my responsibility to teach that. And along the way, I felt like even being in the living process of the healing, I was called to continue to teach. And for me, it was healing to teach and it was also healing to be authentic about the truth of where it was at. Thank you for being a part of this movement. I want to go here with you because I work with a lot of men and a lot of men who do well in their careers of financial. But I saw an interview that you did with Lewis Howes about a year ago, and you were talking about the trauma and the pain and the hurt that really challenges the innocence of us being children. And I see this in so many of the men that I work with that they're the type of men that are like, I'm going to beat the sun up and I'm on my grind. And no matter how much they have, they just keep going and going and going and going and going. And then many of them are labeled then narcissists because they're not good with relationships with women. Usually they're not great relationships if they have children. If you're working with a man that's like that, give me maybe two things that you think would help somebody that is just that type of a, we're talking about men for now, that he just needs to realize that he's causing a lot of damage to himself and others by being that way. Maybe give me two things that would help a person like that step out of it. My therapy training, and I'm not a therapist, maybe one day we'll get a doctorate or something, but I'm not a therapist that I'm trained, level two trained in internal family systems therapy. And the interviewer for just when I was talking about my book, Self Help, which is a self help book based on the practices of IFS. Yeah. And can I pause there for a second? Because I've read that and gone through it. Make sure and get Gabrielle's book on self help. Self help. So good. And I love so many of the ideas you have because you're coming up with a lot of great original thoughts. Because I go way back to a lot of the people that have been doing things similar to both of us for years. And I feel like life is downloading a lot of beautiful things to you. And that book is fantastic, which I think it was done maybe about a year ago. Yeah, came out a year ago. Yeah. Yeah. Life is downloading a lot of beautiful things to you. That's so nice. It was beautiful. Yeah, I mean, this was part of my journey, right? You know, part of my journey was this trauma recovery and remembering childhood trauma when I was 36. So a decade ago, I remembered sexual abuse from my childhood. And that journey of recovery, one of the big therapies that healed me was a therapy called internal family systems therapy, founded by my very close friend, one of my best friends. Well, I'll have to introduce you to have him on the show is Dr. Richard Schwart. And again, a pure channel that man. And he created this therapy that has healed millions of people through therapy, one on one therapy sessions. And with Dix mentorship and permission, I was gifted this opportunity to write this book based on internal family systems therapy, but as a self help practice. And so for the men that are listening that are your students that are high achieving called narcissists, putting that corner labeled in that way, the high achieving pushing past making happen, leaving behind all that is actually a protection mechanism. It's not a bad. They're not to be blamed or shamed. They're meant to be guided to self compassion and witnessing. And the witnessing in this work that I'm speaking of an IFS and in my book self help is being the non judgmental witness of these parts of ourselves. And to see these aspects of ourselves that are oftentimes the most shamed, blamed parts of ourselves that may seem like they're successful on the outside but make us feel like shit on the inside right. These experience of really extreme parts of ourselves are actually protection mechanisms. And if you asked yourself, how long is that workaholic been around that workaholic will say forever. Or how long is that controlling part been around forever. How long is that rage been around that people please or whatever it might be. In the case of these sort of extremely successful men that are kind of figuring out who they are now. Maybe it's a part that feels like if I'm not achieving I'm not good enough, or I have to prove myself to the world and see to ask yourself how long is that part been around. And the self help practice that I've created based on IFS is four steps. And then the first step is to check inside instead of check out. So normally we get triggered by something we want to check out we want to go pick up the drink we want to go back to the work we want to go call the person that's not right for us we want to go binge at the refrigerator. Instead of checking out we check in so we just focus our attention inside. The second step is to offer curiosity towards that part of yourself so the part that wants to overwork or the part that wants to rage. Just curiosity. Where are you in my body. What do I know you. What do you want to tell me. And then the is compassionate connection by asking the part of you. It's like a child inside of you saying what do you need and let it speak up. You do this in such a wonderful way I remember when I was a young kid. I got a knot in my converse tennis shoe. I must have been about eight. I was playing basketball. I came home and I said mom can you help me get this knot out of my tennis shoe. I'll never forget Gabrielle she went to the kitchen and she got a needle like we've got a thread and needle and just with one hand she went like this. And then she took the other hand and boom next thing you know she untied this knot like literally within about 12 seconds. And I feel that you have a gift to untie knots and I like the way you're doing it because there's a lot of men's movements where they tried to yell it out of men man up get the F up get over your crap. And to me that's really not the way to have a man find the solutions he's looking for to step into what he needs to step into. And even the two things you just shared with us are so important. There's a book called the shame that binds and shame is an amazing thing as you know. And I see so many men because I deal with men and women but so many men that are just stuck in that shame cycle. And as you are saying but this is Tim story verbiage I say if you don't run to the refuge which is the things of God you will run to a refuge which is trying to find ways to find release beautifully said beautifully said the refuge that you run to in IFS terminology is a protector part. It's a young child part of you it's a inner child that's been around for as long as you can remember trying to protect you from impermissible feelings of inadequacy shame blame. So if you were to line up all these successful men that you work with and I hope they're listening right now. And you were to say to all of them you know that part of you that works so hard that part of you that pushes past or the part of you that's addicted or whatever it is. You said how long has it been around been very young it's been here for as long as I can remember it's going to be the answer it's going to be the answer. And then you could say OK maybe a little bit more exploration what experiences and did you have an experience in your childhood that was impermissible or you felt unlovable or you felt not good enough or you felt ashamed or you felt terror and everyone will say yes yes yes big tea small tea is all in the room. OK. And then you look at that person you say well wouldn't it make sense that you would do whatever it took to protect yourself from ever having to feel that feeling again. These men may all say yes yes yes yes. Anyone of us would say yeah make sense that yes. No I was abused as a child or my parents left or I was not feeling like I was seen or my brother got all the attention. Of course I would do whatever it took to put out the flames of that fire and protect myself. Yes. And so you can see pretty clearly now as you start to take the needle and thread it that that pattern that you like least about yourself is actually a protection mechanism that's a child inside of you. It's working its ass off to keep you safe. And so good. Soon as we see these parts of ourselves from that lens so much inner expand up because we can have this tinge of compassion. Oh I am not my addiction. I am not my workaholism. I'm not my rage. I'm not my chart. It is a protection mechanism. It's a part of me that's stuck in a story. It's stuck in time. And so the work here it's a spiritual practice as well. It's updating those parts of ourselves and letting them know hey no we have actually an inner self. You might call it God. In IFS we call itself capital S. We have an inner resource to calm connected courageous compassionate confident part and that part is called self. And so when we start to bring aspects of ourselves to self energy the aspects can feel safer inside. It's just like if you bring your fear to God your fear can just start to dissipate the same with self. I want to go into the personal side. Like for me if I'm in a relationship with someone I was married for 11 years and then I got divorced from an amazing lady who's a college professor. But it's interesting when you start to grow and you start to get enlightened and you start to evolve and the other person does not. That can be a very frustrating place to be. And I've been also in relationships where I'm just dating someone and it's an interesting thing because I'm very compassionate. I really accept people as they are. I'm never trying to fix a friend. It's more if they want to come to me then I will dialogue with them. How has that worked for you with being as evolved as you are in so many of these things and being so aware and being in a relationship with a man. But yet you see him staying stuck. Well the beautiful thing about my partnership is that as I grow and I develop more self my husband self expands because self energy begets more self energy. And so if I can sit in our couple session and I can be neutral and I can stay calm. And I can stay curious connected to him clear about my needs. That's himself right courageous to speak up that he can be in his parts but his parts. These parts of him they don't have a match anymore there's no match for it. And so that's the choice of the other individual in that moment. Can I match that energy or am I going to stay stuck in this protection mechanism. And the beautiful partner is that he can match pretty quickly. And we actually noticed yesterday in couples therapy where we have this extraordinary new therapist and she was saying sort of I don't get to into the personal stuff but she was saying say something back to each other about what you saw in each other and I was able to say to him like yeah Wow your ability to shift so quickly is incredible. But it's it's not he can't do that if I'm stuck in a part right. So if I'm in my knives out rage part which I had been in for 20 years. It would be just activating his shame parts as just this fight. And so I started to heal that knives out part and start to let her be more in self his self starts to actualize. I love what you're saying. And I love this side of you again of being that type of woman that is patient with your husband and listening and letting him flow in his own ways. This is new baby. This is very new. This is Gabrielle. This is Gabrielle and it really is new. It's very like a month new. But again it happens over time right was getting less and less and less and less and I was having more the distance between the stimulus and the response became shorter and shorter and shorter. It was hard to expand like I didn't need to react as much as that started to happen over time through the therapy. And now I can still mess. Okay. I have two more questions for you but I love talking to you. We're going to do a lot of wonderful things together. You know that I've been to 82 countries of the world doing this. I believe you have. And we could really do some beautiful things together. It would be an honor. So Gabrielle, I think that with you when I saw you just start to just take off and I would say Oprah Winfrey is my real friend. She's like my sister. And I saw you just take off. And one of her executive producers for 23 years is Diane Hudson who is one of my best friends. Some friends with the whole team. I used to come and teach her for staff. And I saw you just come up, come up and then I'd see you come up here and here and here. What is that pressure like for people to see you as this person up here? Was it okay for you? And is it okay for you? Or did it almost feel like too much at times? How do you deal with the pressure of the way people perceive you? Again, I've seen you at events that I was speaking out that when you came up, stand in innovation, all the energy towards you. How do you handle that? You know, there's this Joan of Arc quote that I've felt in my body for so many years. I'm not afraid I was born to do this. And it feels to me like this is just my path. I don't have a question of is this me? I'm sure many years along the way the ego is there for years and years. I'm sure it was very present. The older I get and the more aligned with the mission I get and the more in self I become, the less it is about how do I perceived or what am I here to do or any of it? The pressure was less for me recently about how do I show up and be this perfect person? It was more about how do I get so good with me inside so I can be the purest teacher I can be. And I never spoke for that pressure, but I think it wasn't a feeling of pressure from the outside. It was an inner knowing. I'm on the pursuit of getting so good inside that the purity and the channel can be clean. And I feel like we can be doing really good work in the world and suffering at the same time. That's not uncommon. And it's not something that should hold us back from doing the great things that we're here to do. But it's a beautiful place to come when the suffering doesn't have to sustain that energy anymore and you can be free in the service of what you're here to do. I've always also been very authentic about who I am, good, bad and ugly, which takes all the pressure off. You could line up 15 people that worked for me over the last 20 years and they'd probably be like, let's say, let's imagine they're not working for me anymore. I'm not going to be, but I am full there and been with me for a decade and then a lot that did that are gone. You line those 15 people up and you might say, well, what do you think about Gabby Bernstein or Gabby because it would have been Gabby, not Gabrielle. And they'd say she's really well meaning she's very beautiful teacher. She's a good person, but she's a real fucking pain in the ass to work for her. She was a real bitch or she was. Yeah, because I had a lot of parts, you know, parts that were like, yes, you're meant to take care of me. You know what I mean? Like just so much rage and control and I was probably just a big pain to ask to work for, especially now I've sort of recognized like the type of person that will thrive working for me. And I can look back and look at all the people that were there and I'm like, they're not that type of person. God bless them. That was probably so hard for them. And so, you know, I know that being in the truth of that and being able to be like, yeah, there's relationships that I've had over the years or just not right or difficult or or these controlling parts of myself were so extreme it must have been so difficult to be married to me or whatever it was right. I can speak to that with so much compassion towards myself and so much gratitude for my recovery and living amends right for sort of saying like, oh yeah, this is where I was and this is where I am that it takes the pressure off because I'm not trying I'd never want to pretend to be anything I'm not, and I'm not your guru. I'm not a guru. I am a teacher. I am here to just tell the truth. I'm here to have fun along the way. I'm here to enjoy being doing the work that I'm doing but I'm mainly here to help people recognize themselves and me. You know, Tim, I was at a dinner the other night and with another sort of wellness person or whatever. And we were sitting together and this guy's going through his own shit, whatever. And this woman comes up to us and I think he thought she was coming up to say hi to him and he looked at me goes, I have and we were in a very intimate moment like he was talking about something very personal. So it wouldn't have been far off to say hey I'm so sorry like I'm having personal conversation right now like do mind if I was but the boundaries are beautiful. But the way it happens, I'm having a personal conversation right now. And I don't come near us and this poor woman like her whole face just dropped and she just looked and I looked at her like I'm so sorry. And I think that she was actually coming to say hi to me. You know, that was the other thing was just like, never treat anyone like you would not treat your best friend, or your outs or your child like treat people with love and kindness. Of course have a boundary. Hey I'm so sorry we're having a moment right now like I'm just in a deep conversation like maybe we can say hi later So totally get it. But we can't put ourselves above anybody. I'm loving this because I think we stay in a state of recovery. I'm still being healed from tragedies of my childhood. And I'm okay with that. I really, I'm okay with it. There's a statement that says you may not be what you want to be but thank God you're not what you used to be. And if you allow yourself to go to recovery, I say you go to recovery and discovery at the same time. I'm okay with that. Yes, yes. And you know what my friend shout on this woman he's probably in his own recovery and discovery at the same time he's doing the best he can in that moment. Yeah, and that was nice of you to eat with them and try to walk him through it. Yep, that's right. But I think that when you do take a stance to be the service of others you do have to be really kind and meaningful about that kindness and the ways that you can. Okay, so Gabrielle what are we going to do with all your excellence and beautifulness right now? Where will we see you? We're going to see you with your own TV show. You're going to do specials. Are you going to do conferences? You're going to do gatherings, write a new book? Tell us a little bit about what you're going to be doing. Everything you just said, everything you just said. And we're going to a new book called unshakable faith. And it's a big one in terms of my spiritual download and it's not it's timely. It's timely. It's timely. I want it to be the kind of book that people have next to their bed and they just hold it so closely and they just know it's making them safe. And they read it a thousand times over and over and it's a curriculum too. It's like you can you can do it. It's a book you can do. And I'm being mindful and sort of curating what the next wave of Gabrielle is looking like. So I'm in the process right now of who are the people that are going to be around me and how am I going to do this right intentionally. And so that's where I'm at. And I'm also really being led because like I mentioned earlier, my teachers, Wayne Dyer and Louise, hey, they talk to me all the time. And so they're showing me. And so as I said that I just looked right over at this letter that Wayne sent me 20 years ago and hits the quote of his and then it has a little note from Wayne. It says when you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change and then there's a little note from Wayne here. This falls down a lot. I'm sitting on my desk and then it just like falls randomly at times. Yeah. So, you know, Wayne's here and really wanting to do good by that. Right. I want to carry the message in that energy in that way and be part of that new wave of messaging. I want to ask you one last question. I have a movement called lead with love. And the reason I say that is because I think so many things are not led with love anymore. They're transactional for money or whatever. But I'm all about what you're about and that is moving with compassion. So lead with love is a movement that's doing very well. We travel around the world with a team and speak to people and have masterminds and bring in amazing people. I like to talk to you about that at some point. So I want to ask you a question that I've been asking people that have been on my podcast is what does lead with love? What does love mean to you? And maybe if you can just give me a real short answer for it. But what is leading with love mean to Gabrielle? What does it mean to lead with love? This is actually something I'm really wanting to teach as much as I can to right now is self led leadership, leading with calm, compassion, curiosity, connection, creativity, connectedness, like I said, courage, confidence, and leading from those C qualities. We can create real long lasting change when we're in that energy. Yes, you are a amazing soul and an amazing wordsmith, because I'm really good at connecting words, but what you just did with those C's was fantastic. Oh, those C's are Dr. Richard Schwartz's C's. For those are IFSC's, that's the definition of self. Yeah. That was wonderful. Gabrielle Bernstein, awesome. Best way to stay in touch with you would be where? I got my YouTube channel at Gabrielle Bernstein. Just see what I'm doing on YouTube. I've got a lot going on there. Just get the teachings just took a place to start. I love the humility. It's like talking to Robert De Niro and he says, you know, I'm doing a few movies. As it should be, as it should be. You can take her to tell us too seriously. You're wonderful. You look wonderful. You are wonderful. Thank you for watching and listening to Miracle Mentality Podcast with Gabrielle. It's what a beautiful conversation. Just talking about life and how we're all unfolding and that we can be healed. We don't have to stay in the dark places. Continue to follow her and read really her last many books. I've gone through four of them. She's helping people's lives on purpose. And if you really think about some of these takeaways and don't stay in that shame, don't stay in that shame. Don't get stuck in that. Don't nurse it and don't rehearse your shame and step out of it. So Miracle Mentality, continue to like, subscribe and comment. Comment some of the takeaways that you had from this podcast today with me and Gabrielle together. Life is good. Keep going forward. Talk to you soon. Keep going forward. Visit me at Timstory.com. That story with an EY on the end. Until next time, walk by faith, embrace possibility and create your own comeback story.