a business and life you love. And this ain’t Q&A Tuesday, you know why? It’s a very special

episode today. We have one of my dear friends who also happens to be an incredible spiritual

teacher.

Featured on Oprah’s Super Soul Sunday as one of the next generation of thought leaders,

Gabrielle Bernstein is making her mark. Expanding the lexicon for the next generation of spiritual

seekers, Gabby is the number one bestselling author of Add More -Ing to Your Life: A Hip

Guide to Happiness and Spirit Junkie: A Radical Road to Self-Love and Miracles. And now she’s

launching her new book, May Cause Miracles, published by Random House. Gabrielle is also

the founder of the social networking site HerFuture.com for women to inspire, empower,

and connect.

Gabby, Gabby, Gabby. Welcome to MarieTV!

I am freakin’ psyched to be back on MarieTV! Second time.

Second time, I know.

So good.

Your first episode, the first one that we did together, was all about manifesting and

I think, I don’t know, like 35,000 people watched that video as of right now.

They were diggin’ it, yeah.

They’re really, really diggin’ it.

Yeah.

So I know you have a new book here, which is May Cause Miracles, your brand new book.

Congratulations.

Thank you.

This is huge. So, tell me about this book. It says it’s a guidebook of subtle shifts

for radical change and unlimited happiness. I am so proud of you for this, this is amazing,

but I wanna hear what inspired you? Why did you write this next book?

So you and I talk about this a lot.

Yeah.

We really want to listen to what our audience wants and needs from us.

Yes.

And so I write my books based on what the call is from the audience. So if people are...

I can sense it. It’s not even necessarily some things people say, I can feel it.

Yeah.

So when I wrote my book Add More -Ing to Your Life, it was very clear that I needed to give

people... it’s called A Hip Guide to Happiness. It needed to be very easy and fun for people

to digest.

Right.

Spirit Junkie I felt that my audience needed to know more about me and needed to see myself

qualify the work and say, “Ok, this is who I am. This is how I got here.”

Right.

And then when this book came to be, it was really clear to me that it was time for my

readers to be given a handbook and I kept feeling the sense of this call from people

saying, “I just wanna know how to do things. I want to be told what to do.”

That’s really, really interesting because I’ve seen that a lot in my work and just

throughout my career that people want to be given the step by step to anything.

Absolutely.

And they...

And you do a great job of that.

Thank you.

Yeah.

But they don’t wanna figure it out on their own and I know that this is... it’s a 42

day...

It’s a 40 day guide.

Yeah.

It’s a 6 week course and it’s broken up into all the different corners of our lives.

So from our personal experience with ourself to our body image to our finances to our experience

of the world to our romantic relationships.

Ooh!

Kind of cover everything.

That’s awesome.

40 day guide, yeah.

And so tell me more about how the book is broken down. So it’s a 40 day guide, there’s

meditations.

Every day has the same ritualistic practices. So every morning you wake up with a morning

reflection, which this is also really based on my personal practice.

Yes.

So I was like, “Oh, well what works for me? Let me put this into a practice for everybody

else.”

Yup.

And I really have to say that it works because obviously I’m walking around a pretty happy

girl, you know?

You know, I will say this too, and I love this because you and I have been friends for

years and so I see you when we’re out doing things in the world, like we got to do Oprah

together, and I also see you at parties, but I also hear from you, you know, you call me

up. And that’s one of the things I love about you is that you walk your talk. And

so I love that you’ve put everything that  you do down into a book for the rest of

us to be able to learn. So that’s awesome.

That was kinda part of the call. Like, the audience kept saying, “Well, what is it

that you do? How do you start your day? How do you practice these principles? How do you

keep it going?” And so that was really the main message was saying, “Ok, here’s a

morning reflection. Start your day with this new idea. Here’s an affirmation that goes

along with that. You can continue to practice with that affirmation throughout the day.”

And then the final part was at the end of the evening to really sit in contemplation

and that’s when I really do most of my journaling and I do some reading and I open A Course

in Miracles. And so I’ve given all the heavy lifting in the evening because I think people

don’t wanna do that self reflective work in the mornings.

Right.

And they don’t have a midday break...

Right.

...not everybody.

Right.

So it’s an evening exercise to just go a little bit deeper, do some journaling, get

a little dirty.

I like it. So... so, you know, all of our MarieTV viewers, we have folks that maybe

spirituality and God is not really a part of their conversation. But, I have to say,

I think most of them it is part of it whether they consider themselves religious or spiritual,

they’re very open minded to it. And the title of your book is May Cause Miracles.

How do you define a miracle?

So to simplify a miracle, it’s really when we shift our perspective, when we see something

with more love. And it’s often that we’re walking around in these sort of crazy cocoons

thinking, “Oh, I can’t. I don’t have enough. I can’t change my body. I’ll never

have that partner. I can’t have that experience of life that I wanna have.”

Right.

And so when we’re locked into that cocoon of negativity, we really feel as though there’s

no way out.

Right.

But through these practices we begin to shift our thinking. And the moment that you shift

your thinking, the moment that you say, “I want to see this differently. I’m ready

to see this differently,” that’s when the miracle occurs.

So that’s awesome because I’ve heard you, you know, I attend your lectures and we always

talk and I love that idea that a miracle is simply a shift in perspective. I feel like

that’s so powerful because it doesn't mean, like, the clouds have to part and someone

comes down and then all of a sudden that your life is necessarily different because some

outside force came and, you know, changed your home or gave you a new job. But really

the power of a shift in perception, I know for me, whenever I do have that shift, my

entire life does feel different.

Yeah. Well, when you have that energy shift, then you open the floodgates for everything

to fall into place. And often what I teach is that there’s really a lot of powerful

energy working on our behalf and this is... this is science too. It’s quantum physics.

You know?

Right.

It’s like we are vibrating at a certain frequency, and we talked about this in our

last episode.

Yeah.

If you start to think with higher thoughts and move into a more enlightened way of being,

then you literally... it’s almost like you open this massive door for all of the guidance

that you need to expand your life. And the books will come in, the teachers will come

in, the resources will come in, the support system, the publicity will come in to get

the messages out. Whatever it is that you need, you actually say, “I’m ready for

this,” and you open the door for it.

So, Gab, I know this is airing right now and we just... we’re right at the beginning

of 2013 and so many people have resolutions at this time of year. They’re pumped up,

they’re ready to, like, make all these big changes, and I know that May Cause Miracles

can help people actually transform their habits and behavior. Tell me more about that.

Well, one of my big intentions for this book was to make it really helpful for folks that

are ready to make that resolution stick. Because when we hit January 1st, everyone’s like,

“Oh, I’m ready to make changes,” and they’re, like, all psyched about it. And

so that’s when...

That sounded like South Park. That sounded like...

Well, did you want me to do Cartman?

Can you do...?

Hey, Cartman. So we have this experience of wanting to make change.

Right.

And we’re ready for that transformational experience. So, for me, it’s like jackpot,

let’s got on these folks now. Let’s give them the tools when they're in that place

of willingness.

Yes.

Because that’s what most of the book is about, is really opening up to willingness.

But January is a hotspot, it’s like right when we’re all willing to change.

Yes.

We’re ready to do something different. And so that’s really the first step to having

any resolution stick is having the willingness to make it happen.

So let’s talk about willingness a little bit more, because I find willingness to be

this really kind of magical state, magical kind of tool. Because, for me, if I’m hanging

on to my point of view or my perspective, there’s almost like whenever I’ve been

really bratty, there’s no willingness inside me to even have it transform, whatever my

bratty state is, because I’m so committed to my own point of view. And I think that

for many of us, and I’d love to hear your opinion on this, you know, we say we want

change but we’re not really willing to let go of either our behaviors or our way of thinking.

And so have you noticed that with your work? Like, the willingness piece is a bit of magic?

Yeah, I think that people have to hit a hard enough bottom to really wake up and say, “I’m

ready to do this.” You know?

Yes.

So it’s like, for me, I’ve been on a path of trying to give up coffee for several years.

And something just hit me. You know, I was given some guidance from one of my spiritual

teachers, it was like, “You need to clean that up if you wanna go big.” You know?

And sometimes there’s just those moments when you’re like, “That was enough of

a bottom.”

Yeah.

And that was just a moment for me to say, “I don't wanna do that anymore.”

Right.

And so I think that you can’t deprive someone of their bottom, they have to have that experience

naturally, and there will maybe many moments of just, you know, reverting back to old behavior,

reverting back to old behavior, until you’re really ready to commit.

Yeah.

But the neat thing about January and New Year’s time is that people are kinda like looking

back at last year and they’re like, “Oh, I got shit to do.” You know?

Right.

So they’re ready to make some change.

Yeah.

And that’s what this is really, hopefully gonna be a major guide for people to make

that change stick. And the main way that the change will stick is because of the repetition.

Mm. Tell me about that.

So all the yogi’s and the metaphysicians have used these practices, 40 day practices.

So when I do a cun delini meditation, I’ll do it for 40 days. And the purpose of the

40 days is, one, from a neuroscientific perspective, it’s literally changing the neural pathways

in our brain.

Yes.

You know, we’re... we’re creating new patterns. And then from a spiritual perspective,

it’s just the more you call on spirit, the more you call on a higher way of thinking,

the more that way of thinking becomes your reality.

Yes.

And so it’s really just the repetition of a new thought.

Love it. Absolutely love it.

Yeah.

So you know one of the things we love to talk about is the idea of winning in your business,

creating a business that you love, creating a life that you love. And whether you’re

an entrepreneur and you have your own business or you’re working in a company or you’re

a freelancer and you work for many different companies, you know, money is one of those

hot topics. And I know that you and I often have fun conversations about this, about the

spirituality of money and, you know, can making more money be spiritual and just the idea

of abundance. And I know that on page 174 you have this, and I thought this was gorgeous:

“The ego has a get mentality rather than a give mentality. When we’re ego minded

with money, we believe we need to get more to be happy. Our peace and salvation has a

dollar amount. Giving can often become an afterthought when getting is the primary function.

And the course teaches to have, give all to all. This concept is confusing to the ego,

but throughout your miracle minded practice you’ll gain real clarity around the true

purpose of giving.” Talk to us a little bit about giving, the ego, getting, and how

that relates to money.

It’s so trippy. You know, the ego, it’s like money and sex are the places where the

ego is just like, goes crazy.

Right.

Right? So it’s like with money in particular, people really get hung up about, like, this

sort of hoarding mentality or I need more to get that fulfillment or a way of, you know,

feeling like I’m good enough in the world. Often I’ve seen in people, and I’m sure

you may see this in your practice because you really help people... you see people start

earning more.

Yes.

But sometimes even when they’re earning more, it’s not... it’s like, “Oh, well

then what’s next?”

Yes.

And it’s like a lot of this sort of like hovering over, “What’s next? I need more.

I need more.”

Yes.

And so we need to really hold that energy of yes we can receive more, yes we can earn

more, but we also can give more. And the process of giving, and you know this because you’re

business is very philanthropic. You know?

Yes.

But not even just being philanthropic, just being a generous person in general. The experience