#206 Mahima: on self-mastery, meditation, and the power of now.

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EPISODE TRANSCRIPTION

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Please note, while an effort is made to provide an accurate transcription, errors and omissions may be present. No part of this transcription can be referenced or reproduced without permission.

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Mahima  0:00  
Let's say that you already versed on the ego you already know about the ego and you already living with most of your identity, being attached to that part of you of your name, your story and all of that. Now, let's get you connected to your soul. Yes, let's do exercises activations experiences, where you feel free from the ego. Yes, you feel free like that voice in your head that nicotine is gone. It's just gone. And what you experience is is love you experience peace. Experience ecstasy, bliss, Joy.

Agi Keramidas  0:50  
You are listening to Personal development mastery podcast where you will find both the inspiration to grow and the actions to implement towards your next level. I am your host Agi Keramidas, and my mission is to inspire you to stand out and live your best life. I interview thought leaders, authors, entrepreneurs, spiritual teachers, exceptional people who will inspire you to improve your life and offer through their wisdom actions you can take and implement. Tune in for two new episodes each week and make sure you follow the podcast to get the episodes as soon as they are released.

And today's show I am blessed to speak with Mahima. Mahima you are a self mastery mentor, bestselling author and an award winning speaker who got to share the stage with people like Sir Richard Branson, Les Brown, and Lisa Nichols. You were born and raised in Zimbabwe. But you have dedicated your entire adult life travelling around the world teaching the art of joyful living in the now. Since 1997, you and your team developed a world class personal growth Academy which has evolved into what is today known as the Mahima mindset. You also have over 20 years of meditation, training and experience and you are passionate about helping people to feel clear and happy, and to live their higher purpose. Mahima welcome to Personal Development mastery podcast, I'm delighted to speak with you.

Mahima  2:40  
I am so overjoyed to be here. Thank you, it's an honour to speak to yourself and your audience. So thank you, again for having me here. And for doing this, getting this message out to more people. It's so important, especially during this time in our lives. So I really appreciate you Thank you.

Agi Keramidas  2:58  
Thank you as well. And I agree that sharing the message is extremely important, especially now and we're that's why we're doing it. Mahima I would like to start this conversation today by asking you for a little bit of of background Sure, obviously gave an introduction, which is some little elements of what you do. But there is actually an element of your story that I wanted you to talk to me about. And that was when you left Africa after your divorce in your life to an unexpected detour to India and you say that you had the deep breakthrough there. So can you take us back and share this experience with us?

Mahima  3:48  
Absolutely. Um, I was I was having an intense argument with my then husband, right. And this argument sort of was very dramatic. And there was this wild car chase that happened through the streets of Harare, where I was driving my car chasing my husband in the car and you know, I was completely an utterly lost in in the rage of the story. I had I almost crashed my car. Because I was so desperate to catch up with him. I didn't know what I thought I would do once I did catch up with him. But I was just in a complete and utter rage and I lost control of the car. And the car started spinning out of control and heading towards a big tree. And I was 22 years old so I saw my life literally flashing in front of my eyes and I thought this is it. This is how I'm going to leave this planet. And you know as the tree got closer and everything was in slow motion I just suddenly bang the brakes on this, like I woke up and just put the brakes on and literally millimetres from the tree. My car stopped. It was in that moment that I realised that I was messed up. Yes, I hadn't thought about it before I knew I had problems, but I didn't know how much, you know. I was actually messed up. And, and, you know, I'm born brought up in a society in Zimbabwe, it's about apartheid, right? I'm born in 1971. And I believe Zimbabwe gained independence in the in 1985. So, my adult my child's life was about segregation. People being separated, not allowed to live here not allowed to live. They're not allowed to go to this school or that school. I, I have, I had been beaten as a child, right? Because that's how kids were brought up back then. And if you're a kid from the 70s, in Zimbabwe, you might know what I'm talking about. Right? So I wasn't like, it wasn't special that I got a hiding, right. Like all the kids used to get hidings most of them, that I knew, at least, when they did stuff wrong. They even used to beat you up in school. So I still was at school, when they took a ruler and slapped your hands or slapped the back of your legs with a ruler where the teacher would discipline you through beating, right? So I was definitely brought up with all of these things. And now the reason I'm telling you guys this is because our our thoughts and beliefs are imprinted in us from a young age. Yes. And as an adult, you will start acting out those imprints from your teachers from the society from the a&r A, we call it the programming, right, your mental programming. And the reason this is important is because whatever programme is running is going to be creating the results that you're trying to create in your life. So if you're trying to create a create abundance, create peace, create love, create joy, more of that, and you have programmes that are creating animosity.

You know, lack of abundance, the opposite of that, right? So that moment with my husband was the moment that my life changed because I did something radical, I got on a plane, and I flew to Miami to visit a friend of mine. And while visiting that friend, I met a guy that was into meditation. And I would have never gone to meditation from Zimbabwe, never even even the guy I'm talking about, didn't sell it to me. He literally he would meditate by himself. Every morning, I would see meditating. He didn't invite me to meditate. He didn't talk about meditation. He didn't, he just would meditate. And so that's that was how it came into my into my life. And then the same guy, when I went back to Zimbabwe, I got a divorce. And then I was thinking, What do I do with my life now, you know, he was, hey, come and visit me. And at that moment, he was in Miami. Sorry, he was in Italy. So I went to Italy, and I was a hot mess. He saw me and said, Mahima, you cannot go to America, because I was planning to go back to Miami to study as a chef, I would, that's the plan I'd come up with because I loved cooking. That was one of my passions. And he said, No way, you've got to go to India, you got to sort yourself out you are a wreck, emotionally, mentally, spiritually. And I was like laughing and crying at the same time. And I just said, why not? And that's how I got on a plane and went to India.

Agi Keramidas  9:02  
What was the intention was then to do meditation in India, was that did

Mahima  9:10  
not have that intention. My intention was to, he said to me, you can live cheap in India for a long period of time. So you know, it's not going to cost you a lot just go there, relax, you know, you know, and and then in 234 months, you can sort yourself out and go to back on your trip. So that was my intention. I did not go there with like, I'm gonna learn how to meditate and now I'm turned on to meditation. Not at all right. I was like, Oh, the cheap place to live an adventure when, you know, and I was 22 years old. So when I arrived in the ashram, the first day I was there, I had a profound awakening that led me to this experience of self experience of my soul. Like my mind was Full of thoughts, judgments, judgments about the people in the ashram judgments about what was going on. But at the end of the day, my mind became peaceful. My heart felt more open, I felt light, after two hours, three hours of being in this evening, what they called Darshan, he has with the guru, and the guru had already died. These people were just watching a big screen with the teacher 1000s of people from all over the world. Yeah. And it was very interesting, because this is in 1993, right? So they have people coming from all over the world, with their, with their phone, from, you know, from Africa, from Asia, from Europe, all over Europe, America, I was just like, this is Wonderland, I'm in Wonderland, right? With all of these people mixed together, coming from a segregated culture, right? To see people loving each other, respecting each other, hugging each other, celebrating each other, the diversity meeting in the heart, this was a new world for me, and I just fell madly, completely and totally in love with it. And I literally stayed for Indian five years, you know, not at that same place because I needed to have a teacher in his body. So after about six months, I was like, oh, I need to find the live guru. I need to find life Guru, I need to know more about this enlightenment stuff. Because I felt like I'm enlightened, I'm enlightened, I need to find a live guru to show me if I'm enlightened or not. So that's how my story started. So very, very unconventional. Like there is I was not seeking for it. I was not looking for it. But when I did find it, I found myself. I found my heart, I found my piece. And, and you know, and I've dedicated my whole adult life to the exploration of self and sharing it with as many people that will listen, yeah, that will listen to the story.

Agi Keramidas  12:07  
Thank you for sharing that. And when you said that it found us at you. I know that. I think people can relate. I know that I, when I told you earlier that put podcasting found me, I didn't, I was not looking for it. So it's, it's amazing when you connect with something deeper. So if you, let's talk about what you lost, said about teaching the exploration of self, which was what happened and actually want to discuss with you about self mastery. And as you know, the my podcast is personal development mastery. So it's a topic that I'm very much intrigued about. And I wanted, tell me, first of all, mastery, self mastery, how do you define it? What is it?

Mahima  13:06  
It is? It is a couple of things. It is the ability to be present in the moment with what is bringing your focus out of the past, out of the future, and being here. And now. Time doesn't exist. The only thing is moment, after moment, after moment after moment. But we live in the delusion of time, because the society teaches us yet. Yeah, we time, time time. So and but the truth is, you could leave your body at any second, that's actually the truth. When we come into this planet, or into this body into our bodies, we don't know if we have one day, 20 days, 20 years, 150 years, yep, or 80 years. And that not knowing Self Mastery is waking up to that truth. And therefore allowing yourself to live in the power and the presence of the now. And when you do that, you're able to focus your energy on what matters. Yes, what really matters. When we're lost in time, our focus is fragmented. And we're all over the place. Right? But when we focus in on the presence of the now and we start to understand that our focus is actually interacting with the world, yes, that we are not separate from the world. We are connected to everything around us. Yes. So Self Mastery is knowing that, that first of all, I came into this world with nothing, except you know, the soul of that I am and that soul is going to continue its journey wherever If it continues its journey, my true self mastery is knowing that and breathing into that truth on a day to day moment to moment basis, right, that I understand the fragile illness of what people call life. Yes. And so in this awareness of respecting that you have no idea how much time you have, you start allowing yourself to make better choices of, of how you interact with the world. Right. So I would say the greatest thing that my teachers taught me is that you get more of what you focus on. So if you focus every single day, on what is good in your life, what is first of all, what's good inside of you? Yes? What what what what are you good at what? What lights up your heart, your soul, and you focus on those things on a daily basis, you focus on love on peace on joy, inner love, yeah. Then you expand what you focus on, and you get more of it. So I would literally say that before meeting my teachers, my focus on negativity was like this, okay, if I would give it a size and if you can't, if you're not watching video, it's just put your arms both arms out from palm to palm, you know, just huge. Okay? And, and my focus on positivity was very tiny, very small focus on positivity, right. Let's say 10%, focus on positivity. 90 90%, focus on negativity, self mastery is flipping that switch, that you honour the positivity that's all around you. And you diminish the impact of negative focus. Yes, so And because your soul is whole, and not broken. Yes. And when you start to understand that, that when you connect, that's what meditation is, it's the ability to connect to the part of you that came into this world with nothing, and that's going to leave with nothing. And so our job here is to experience life, experience the world, see how we can play and create in this dimension. But that's not what I was taught. I was taught from my, from my mother, who learned this from her mother, who learned this from her great grandmother, who learned it from you, so forth and so on. That life is suffer, suffer, suffer, and then die.

So Self Mastery is waking up from the belief that, that life is hard, that we're just here to suffer. And it's very difficult. And all of that, you know, normal thought patterns. Self Mastery is allowing yourself to experience a part of yourself, where you feel safe. You feel grounded, you feel I am love. Yes. So Self Mastery is understanding. I don't need to give love, I don't need to receive love, I am love, love is the DNA of my soul. Love is who I am, when when I would give away everything else like when I have nothing else right. Love is my core essence. My so these are the things these different things are what I call self mastery, right? Knowing who you are beyond your name, by D, occupation, possessions, what you possess your relationships. Who What else are you besides of these things? Right? Answering the question, Who am I? Yeah, so that is self mastery. It's very deep and complex, but also very simple. Very simple, right? You can just this will do nothing, and you leave with nothing. You don't know how much time you have between birth and death. So you want to wake up and use this time. This unknown time wisely. And you can use it focusing on negativity, pain, suffering, confusion, all of these stuff, or you can use this time focus as much as you can on peace, grounding, love, joy, yeah, connection, intimacy, experiencing witnessing, listening. I could go on and on.

Agi Keramidas  19:59  
It's it's A beautiful answer that you gave me about self mastery and two things that really caught my attention. The way you were describing was the first you use the phrase waking up to the truth, which is, it's so much here's so much in that by itself. And then there was something else that you said on a day to day moment to moment. And that was a question that came to mind while you were saying that was is then Self Mastery, something that is a point that can be attained. And what is there after that? If it is a point, or is it because that day to day moment to moment? Think? For me? At least it implies that if I attained that, that's it, or am I wrong? So that is really my

Mahima  20:57  
I love that question. Self Mastery is definitely not a destination. It's not a place where you can arrive. Okay, it is a journey of arriving, arriving, arriving. Okay. It's a journey of staying, staying staying. Right. So yeah, it is, it is a journey. It's a lifelong journey. And I believe that it happens before we came into the body, and maybe even after we leave the body, right. So it's, it's it is what but what is important to know, is that only in the power of the now can you grow. So what is important to know, is only in the power of the now can you grow mine. So I always tell people, most people most of us are in the past, or the future, we never really hear, right. And when we become present, we realise that we only ever have two choices that we're making in life. Right. And that is to either lean into our two into some kind of positivity, or lean into some kind of negativity. Those are the only two choices you ever making. So let's say if you if you're really angry, you're really angry because something happened, ah, I'm angry, right? You have only two choices, either you become more angry, or you calm down. You can either get more angry and more angry, and then you there's maybe no limit to how much you could go in that direction. Right? Or you go in the other direction, which is you let it go. Right. And you become more centred, grounded, peaceful by. So once we understand how simple it is actually, that it's not that complex, you know, you you just have two choices you're making all the time you can either be leaning into like even now in this podcast, yes, you can be listening and being like, Oh, wow, this is cool. Oh, I like this. And for whatever reason, that's just how you feel. And that's the, you know, choose you you're getting into it. Or you could be like, and this is crap, this is nonsense. I'm gonna turn this off now done like it might. Those are the two choices you're making, right? And it's not negative if this is not for you. But you know, you could joyfully say, Oh, this is not for me. Or you could really go into some kind of negativity about it, right? So that's I just want to give as an example of how we only ever making two choices. So when I, my students come to start working with me, I say, first of all, realise that you either in the past or the future. So when you're telling a story, like, Oh, I was, you know, I am not happy? I'm like, Are you not happy right now? Or are we talking about previously? Five minutes? 10 minutes, 20 minutes, you know, two days ago? What like, What are you saying when you say I'm not happy? Are you saying right now? And then when we start to examine they're in the now? Ah, no, no, actually, actually right now I feel okay. Okay, good. So we're talking about the past? I'm afraid I'm afraid. Okay. Do you feel fear right now? In the second? No, let me look. No, no, actually, also we talk about the future. So you're afraid of something that's going to happen, right? So this is the thing when we start to realise the power of the now we can start to really do the growth work, which it's going to take to cause some transformation? Yes. Because that's what I've gone through. I've gone through a transformation that allowed me to go from poverty mindset, to abundance mindset. Yes. To go from you know, I my everyone in my family had a job that paid very little to becoming an entrepreneur and building a seven figure business. Yes. From you know, all of the women in my family had horror, had very tough relationships with men. Right To Be Being able to maintain a conscious, loving relationship over 21 years. So I've reprogrammed my mind through the power of the now to examine if the stories I'm telling myself is really what's happening here, or it's something that has happened. And therefore, I'm going to allow it to happen again, because I'm letting my path define my future. Right? So in the power of the now you get to change the story, you get to make a different choice. Yes. Hi,

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 I like what you say about the the leaning into either the positive or the negative. And you talked about focusing putting our focus on what's good, or choosing to put our focus, take it from the negative and put it on the positive. And I suppose manage people's talents with that. And you used an example about anger. But and I will, I will keep on that example is that once it happens, once they do get into a and get it many times tends to spiral or returns to get into a loop before they realise that or I am angry. Because in order to be to make a conscious choice to break from that and go to the positive first we need to become aware of it and we get sucked into a situation that we are not aware of necessarily. Because if we're away or when we get aware of it, then we can shift it to the the other side, the positivity show. That's what I wanted to ask you about. What are your thoughts on this element of actually realising that I'm not in the now this momentum somewhere else?

Mahima  28:21  
Yes, I love that. So the important thing to realise I'm gonna keep it like gonna keep it simple, right? So I if you have a piece of paper right now, just imagine this piece of paper in front of you, because this is podcast, right? And you draw a big circle. And inside the big circle, you draw a small circle. Okay, the small circle is what I call the ego mind. Okay, it is our story, our personality, it's our beliefs about life, whether we, you know, whether if you're if you're Jewish, you have a certain, you know, belief system, if you're Christian, you have a certain belief system, because of that, if you are Muslim, you have a certain belief system because of that, right? If you if you brought up with no parents, because you were an orphan that creates that small circle is creating a conditioning a story might, if you had great parents who were present with you, and both your parents stayed lovingly together, and then that creates a story within that small circle. So so first of all, we have to understand who we are. Yes. And the small circle is like a wave inside of the ocean. And the big circle is the ocean. Right? So, to first to to, to, to get distance from thinking you just wave. Instead of realising you're the ocean. You first need to realise the ocean and that's where the work I do gives people direct experience with their soul, so that they start to understand the soul is real spirit. You can call it spirit, soul Source Energy awareness. You could simplify it and call it love presence. That this is real, it's as real as anger, confusion, sadness, those things are real for most people, right? There's no I really feel angry. It's real, right? So, when you start to understand that your soul, which gives you the which from being connected to your soul, the big circle, the wave, so the ocean, right, you start to see that I have so much more power. I have so much more potential. I, I have so much more possibilities, instead of living from identifying myself with the ego mind, which is the wave. Yes. So this is how we get to understand more about how to, you know, come out or snap yourself out of like, Oh, I'm angry now. You know, I'm acting out of what I call this the little me. Yeah, that's another name I have for the ego mind. Yeah. Little me. And then then the soul energy could be the mother energy, the father energy or the bigger my bigger self, my true self. Right? So So I do it the opposite. Instead of focusing on trying to analyse and understand more about the ego, I say, let's say that you already versed on the ego, you already know about the ego and you already living with most of your identity, being attached to that part of you of your name, your story and all of that. Now, let's get you connected to your soul. Yes, let's do exercises activations experiences, where you feel free from the ego. Yes, you feel free, like that voice in your head that nicotine is gone. It's just gone. And what you experience is, is love you experience peace.

Experience ecstasy, bliss, joy, you know, my teacher used to tell me Mahima I'm going to teach you an inner peace, a love and a joy. That is not dependent on outside circumstances, events, or people. Oh, okay, an inner peace, a love and a joy. That's not dependent on external circumstances, events, or people. That is our true nature. That is who we came in this world as and who we will leave as is our pure essence. Right? So this work is not about learning something new, like you're at school, like, let's learn something new. It's remembering. It's remembering who you are, and allowing yourself to reconnect to the truth that's already there inside of you. Mind. So yes, I would say, you know, the pathway to self awareness is to not notice when you're angry or not angry, but rather notice, sorry, not notice like the negative aspects of yourself, but to reconnect to the positive aspects of yourself, right, that space where I say, Okay, close your eyes, breathe. And allow yourself to feel your soul. But yourself, give space every day for this connection. And once you know it, you know it, there's no way to deny it is like the same way you know, anger. And you know, for you, it's real sadness, real I felt it all the time. I teach people how to know their soul, so that peace becomes real love becomes real joy becomes a real and as real as this. And now you start to be a balanced human being who has the opportunity to say I'm done with anger. I will return back to Seoul. Back to peace back to stillness, back to myself to my precious loving heart.

Agi Keramidas  34:19  
Yeah. Thank you. So many think so many things that you share the I will reiterate something in my own words as I understood it, how you say it was the importance of realising the big circle as you described it the spirit or the soul, soul, consciousness or God I suppose you can call it any lots of different ways it doesn't matter. Then realising my my question and Actually, I will combine this with my own personal challenge, if you wish or circumstances times of meditation is that this point of realisation that you know, your spirit, you have seen the shore nor I think you describe it like that is very elusive. So, I know now I'm asking something that is, for me, I believe is important because I have been following a practice of meditation consistently for a few years. And I still what you were describing earlier? I don't I didn't recognise in your description. So can you tell me a bit about? I know, there are many facets to the question. I don't even know if there was a question in the first place.

Mahima  35:59  
I think what what probably is missing for you, but and you maybe I'm wrong. And you can tell me is some people come to meditation these days through either an app, or through some kind of online thing? Were they doing it by themselves? Has that been your experience?

Agi Keramidas  36:22  
Yes. Okay.

Mahima  36:23  
I've been using a nap. Exactly. So what I'm talking about comes through connecting with other humans in meditation. That's where you take it to another level, even if you do it online. Live? Yes. With so so I got my, my, my meditation muscles and understanding I could literally I not I could, I did, I've done, I would say at this point, I've probably because I used to say I've done 10,000 hours of meditation, but that was already 10, you know, 15 years ago, right. So by now I probably can say I've done 20,000 hours of meditation, I used to meditate for like, you know, five, six hours a day at the beginning. But just to tell everyone who's listening to this, it's because it's my gift. Like, I could find meditation and stillness, naturally. And so it was not hard for me to meditate. When I started meditating. It was just like, I felt like a dolphin that was stranded on the beach. And then, you know, some lovely people who were walking by pushed me back into the ocean. And then I was breathing again. Yes, and diving. That's how I felt when I found meditation, I found back just joy and exit. And I could just sit and, and explore and and see my mind moving, like, like, thoughts coming in, and thoughts going emotions coming in emotions going. So I really, you know, created a foundation, with meditation through being with my teacher, I could never have done it on my own. Not in a million years. Like he's, he's connection to himself, and to his light, allow me every time I was with him, to connect to my light and to get my connection to self, right. So that is the way and when you do that with other people, what I call a tribe, a community, right? That is what reinforces it even more. And you can go to these places of ecstasy of bliss of like, wow, I really see that, you know, that I am free. I have always been free. And I'm actually that is my essence right. Now, maintaining that over time. Yes, that requires a an up levelled commitment.

The experience of self in the Now many people can experience it, and we you know, we do events where, for example, we're doing now, one coming up in Zurich this weekend, a three day journey where people will come with us and we will do exercises and meditations and people will get profound experiences. For some people, they'll open portals to new levels of self love, and that they've never experienced before my and and they'll know like, like they know like like this, you know, whatever is real like anger. That is they will know that this is real as well. Peace, ecstasy, love joy. Now, what do they do after they've left the event? Right? If they just tried to go back to their normal lives, they're going to switch back into the modus of oh, okay, that was a nice experience over there. So the difference between myself and most people is I stay committed to the journey. I meditate every day, you know, and I meditate today, right. And and so, so I am understand that, that you need to continue, you know, unfolding, especially when you want it to get to that level of depth where you can say, I can choose to let go of pain and suffering, when you know, like I can, I can feel it because you're human. So I will feel and experience, let's say, if something very sad happens to me, right? A friend that I really love dearly, you know, something happens and there's a feeling of betrayal. And they, they, Oh, I don't want to be your friend anymore. And it's painful, I will process that pain. And I'll feel the pain. But I'm also able to let go of it and allow myself to feel well, I did have a good time with that friend. And I'm grateful that friend was in my life. And I wish them all the best. And I'm open to continue bringing beautiful friendships into my life, because that's what I deserve to have. Right? So I'm not going to let this disappointment from a friend. Define me now how I show up in other friendships, right? I'm not going to close my heart and say, you know, so this is all self mastery, this is that ability to go, nope, I'm going to send this person love. And I'm going to stay open and be in love and and find and continue creating beautiful relationships, right? So this is work, it takes work to experience a level of self love, I call it self love, where you are willing to, you know, let go of the ego mind and say that's just not who I am. It's a small part of me. But it's not me. Right? So it takes it takes a bit of time to get to that level of mastery. But it will go faster when you can surround yourself with other people and the teacher who can keep reminding you and bring you back to reality every time come back to reality now you floating off egos taking over egos hijack to come back to your soul essence. Right? So that speeds up the process.

Agi Keramidas  42:01  
Thank you. That's, and I want to ask you about that a bit more in detail before that do that. What what do you think then the place for the meditation app says Who is it for? Is it just for the complete beginners?

Mahima  42:16  
Now I would say I would say it's for for for anybody who likes to continue their their journey. Like even for example, my students, we have an online academy and then they listen to the audio recordings. The thing to remember is that this this, there's a programming about who we are that we need to unlearn. So the meditation practice, and depending on what type of meditation stuff you're listening to, what it should what it needs to be doing, or what it's awesome when it's doing is reprogramming your mind. So you you think about yourself differently. So therefore you think about others differently. So therefore, you think about the world differently. Right? So I would say that meditation apps have their place in, you know, the daily self practice, it's very easy to stay disciplined when you have a great app and with stuff you like how ever it cannot be replaced with having a live teacher that is going to keep helping you to return back and show you when you are going off into the ego. Right? Like you said before, like how do I know like, how do I notice like, because it's so automatic, right? And so having that being able to be around that tribe around that community where you can have that access to have that mirror, have that mirrored back to you? Like, do you really want to feel this? So let me give me it'll give you a more solid example. So you know, when someone comes on our campus, let's say they're going through a divorce, okay. And there's a lot of bitterness, they're really pissed off. And, and I'm like saying, Listen, you you have a choice. You can make this, like more miserable, or you can find a more peaceful way. Yes. And I want to work on you understanding that you have that choice, right. So let's get you connected to more love. Let's get you connected to your peace. Let's get you in out of this aura and all this negative, you know, focus. And let's just get you to really for yourself, not for your husband, not for anyone else. Just come back to stillness, come back to love. And so once they start doing that they experienced that more and more they have the apps they you know, using the app, the out not the app, but our, you know, meditations. And then they'll come back and we'll do live sessions and we'll do retreats and we'll be doing other things that allow them to continue and tapping this you have a choice. You can feel light, you can fit, you can let go. You can actually give your ex husband love. Give him love. He's lost like you are lost. And he's just Acting out is like a little child acting out. He's hurt and pain, right? So if you start to recognise you're doing that, right, but all this negative energy, is that really Who do you want to be? Yeah, if you knew you were leaving your body like today, like, Is this how you want to continue spending your time? No, you would not. Nobody would want that, why? You want to have more joy, you want to have more peace and more fun. So that is the process of starting to recognise how we do have choices, right? But you can't make that choice to be more peaceful until you've experienced peace. Yes, you can make the choice to let go of anger until you've experienced the opposite of anger, which is peace, deep peace and joy, right? So that's what we do. We train people, I say, get your PhD in being happy. Get a master's degree, the minimum mindset is about getting a master's degree in inner peace, right? And then when you have that you can do anything, right? You want to be pissed off at someone and you want to spend weeks on that you can do it if you want. Yeah. Or you can say, Look, I'm done with this, right. And so what we've seen is people come on campus, and they'll start changing their energy. And then they'll be able to start going through the divorce process with so much more grace, and ease and really ask themselves, is it is this worth me becoming upset about? Right? Who am I upset at? And that, you know, they start owning their participation in the negativity? And that's where the magic happens. Because as long as we're operating as victims, yes, it's my ex husband is my kid is my boss, it's the world. It's, we are lost. But if we say how am I contributing to my lack of joy? Right? It's becomes a game changer. That question. Yeah,

Agi Keramidas  46:57  
absolutely. assuming responsibility. Yes. Everything that happens to us, you know, you were saying earlier, about meditating, like with other people with you use the word tribe or community. And I remember that some of my most more deep sand, we say experiences in meditation, were always hadn't noticed it before. Now, when you said it, they were always well, I was meditating with others examples, not when I was doing it, myself. And that's an insight for me with so just share it as I got it.

Mahima  47:41  
That's beautiful. Thank you for sharing that. And again, I can explain what's happening. When we come together with other people. Consciously, we are creating a vortex of energy, or like, it's like, if one, you know, human heart is beating, it creates a vibration, right? And if we have 100 people, all you know, together and everyone's beating at the same, you know, a heartbeat kind of it creates a vortex of energy, a healing energy, a transformation space, actually, that allows us to easily drop into different levels of consciousness. Yes. And what is important to do is to take those experiences once you've had them, and own them, so you don't leave them with the group. Yes. So it's like the group shows you, you who you are. Now someone next to me in the group could be just experiencing only thoughts in their head, nothing. Some buddy else next to me is like, they went to the deepest place of ecstasy, bliss that they've ever been in their whole life, right. So everyone is having their own unique experience. But the but the group energies, definitely, if you come with a sincere, open heart, it is a place where magic is going to happen in your meditation practice. And all you need to do is own all of those experiences. Just thank the group. Thank you for showing me how much power I have. Thank you for showing me how much love I have. And now you go home, and you can start to experience those levels of consciousness on your own.

Agi Keramidas  49:19  
Yeah, that's amazing. And can you share with me then someone who is listening to this and is very intrigued and want to, let's say, either beginner or advanced their meditation to next level? What, how, how would you advise them to approach that?

Mahima  49:39  
I would say join, I'm going to offer as a free gift. Yes, that's one thing, which I'll tell you about in a second. But what I would say is commit to giving space every single day for doing nothing. Just sitting quietly. Yes. And doing nothing, like, give more space for your soul to speak. Instead of the ego mind, right? It speaks a different language. I tell people, when you join our campus, I'm actually going to be teaching you a new language. Yeah, that I'm going to teach you the language of the soul, the language of love, like you learn French or Italian or, you know, is really, I'm going to teach you the language of love. And this is a completely new language, right? The language that can say, to the ex husband, I thank you, for these precious years that we've shared, I'm so grateful. I want us to part peacefully, and honour what we have shared together for all of these amazing years. And I hope that we will continue respecting and loving each other, even if we're not together, that is my wish that we can be thankful and grateful towards each other. Right? And I want a peaceful and beautiful ending, like how we beautifully began, let's beautifully end this, right. So it's a language of love. It's a language of connection. Now, the ex husband might not get what the frick is going on. Okay. But that doesn't mean he gets to define how you are going to be. So he's angry and bitter. And so you have to bend? No, let him do him. And you do you, right. So this is when we start to learn that, that when we give time and space every single day, to connect to our soul, it starts to actually transform the wave, it starts to transform this small circle, right? So you and this is what my students tell me all the time. They're like, Oh, my God, I used to get so angry. And now I just drop it. Like it's hot. I just say, I don't even want to go there. Right? Some of them will say like, oh my god, I used to be so confused. I used to live in confusion. And now I have clarity. And it feels amazing, right? Some of them like, Oh my God, my relationships with my family was awful. Now, it's peaceful, because they're not trying to change their family. They're not trying to they're not judging them, right. So give space in your day to day life, to learn the language of love, which comes through connecting to inner peace through meditation. Yes, it is the most advanced technology that we have on this planet, to for self awareness, self exploration, self love. Yes. And if this sounds exciting to you, then you're going to love my 21 day meditation challenge, which I'm going to offer for free for everybody who would love to, you know, either deepen their practice, or, you know, say, Look, let me get started. And the cool thing about it, it's only 12 minutes maximum a day. If you allow yourself to continue sitting afterwards, then, you know, props to you. Yes. But if you just say, look like, I'm just gonna do the 12 minutes, it will transform your life, because it is the invitation to let go of everything that doesn't serve you to feel your true nature to feel the inner peace. That's your birthright. Right? And it's just 21 days, most people do it. And they're like, Oh, my God, I feel amazing. Everyone at work is asking me what happened to you, you know, even just with this 21 day meditation challenge, and then you can go back and do it again, because you're gonna love it so much. Yeah, or join us on some other adventures. That was also fun. So yeah, that's gonna be at the Mahima mindset.com, you can go ahead and get your free copy the Mahima mindset. And I will say Mahima is mama with a high in between. Yeah, the Mahima mind mindset.com.

Agi Keramidas  53:59  
And I will also link that in the show notes. There was one thing I will repeat, it really made. I loved the phrase that you use to commit to give space and time doing nothing. You said, doing nothing. Allow your soul to speak. And that is for me a very beautiful way of describing it. And to tell you the truth, when you said Give space and time. I didn't think that you were talking about 12 minutes I was talking I was I thought that you were talking about much more. Let's say substantial amounts of time.

Mahima  54:38  
Absolutely. Look for my 21 day meditation challenge because people are very busy these days. This is better than nothing. But what I also mentioned you is if afterwards you feel drawn to sit for longer, do it. But let me say what is the most important thing in meditation? It's what you do after your practice. That's the real Meditation, right? So it's not hey, I did 12 minutes oh, I did two hours of meditation. And now I can continue being an asshole. Right? So. So I just want to make it clear that the meditation itself is just the fun part of building the muscle so that you can walk in awareness and walk in the light. Right? So it's very important to understand that the real meditation starts after your meditation practice. Yeah, moment to moment. I was

Agi Keramidas  55:31  
about to say, what you said day to day, moment to moment. Yes. Thank you, Mahima. This has been a really intriguing conversation, I'm really finding some elements that I think they're fascinating. I'm sure that there are people that listen to this and the good to up, let's say,

Mahima  55:56  
an apple, right, so. So I just want to make it clear that the meditation itself is just the fun part of building the muscle, so that you can walk in awareness and walk in the light, right? So it's very important to understand that the real meditation starts after your meditation practice. Yeah, moment to moment.

Agi Keramidas  56:20  
I was about to say, what you said day to day, moment to moment. Yes. Thank you, Mahima. This has been a really intriguing conversation, I'm really finding some elements that I think they're fascinating. I'm sure that there are people that listen to this, and they go to, let's say, start a new practice, because for me, the commitment part is probably the difficult thing. Everyone can find 12 minutes to commit to do it. And of course, it gets easier as you go. Maybe the first day is the most difficult to commit to do it.

Mahima  57:02  
Yeah, that's true. That's true. And I do want to mention that, like, we want to get to a place with our self love practice, where it doesn't feel like something else on the to do list. Yes, we need to go deeper with understanding what we're doing in these practices. Right. So this is not Oh, I have to do sports or fog or get a good massage. Oh, I got it. You know, it's this is like you shower. This is just a moment you need to shower because it feels amazing. Right? Eating Oh my god. Lovely. Off. Food is so good. It just feels amazing, right? So I want people to understand that. Connecting with yourself, listening to yourself, giving time to feel good in your own skin, to feel grounded and centred. This is called self love, practice. Forget the word meditation, who cares, right? Like, this is about your sanity, this is about your self respect. And if you can give yourself attention every single day, listen to yourself, be present for you. Give love to you. Yeah. Because you asked me what self mastery is, it's all about self accepting yourself as you are in all of your darkness and shadow, and all of your light and magnificence. Yes, it's about owning all of you, right? The crazy part of you, the restless part of you, and the brilliant part of you, right? The magnificent part of you, we also need to become aware of that aspect of self. So, you know, think about this, you know, I usually say forget meditation, replace it with self love practice. And that's the ability to just feel good about you, in your own skin every day, right? So you can have fun while you're here for this limited amount of time. So you can play the game of life with a higher level of understanding of the magic you're able to create, right? And there's obviously not enough time in this webinar to go into all of the aspects of what happens when you give yourself that love every single day over an extended period of time. You become a magician you're able to create. So I want people here who are listening to this to understand if you have situations in your life that you want to change. Put this practice into place and I tell you, you will start to see magic happening in your life. It's crazy. It's crazy how powerful it is. Yeah.

Agi Keramidas  59:40  
Thank you. Thank you, Mike. I would like also to start wrapping things up to ask you a few quickfire questions and one that I always ask you've already answered it in a different context about personal development synthmaster So we'll leave that. I will ask you a hypothetical one. If you could go back and meet your 18 year old self, what piece of advice would you give her?

Mahima  1:00:12  
I would say, always, always be independent love, love any man, woman, whoever, but figure out how to stand on your own two feet. In this life, like, you know, your joy, your peace, your love, you are enough, you are enough. And, you know, enjoy your natural beauty that is inside of you. Yes. And let that shine out in everything that you do. And stay independent, enjoy people's company enjoy, but don't become dependent on anybody. Right. And specifically, because I am a woman, I would also add, stay financially independent. Okay. That's an important one, emotionally, spiritually and mentally independent, which and the and the cool thing about this independence is that it gives you that possibility to show up even more powerfully to all of the gorgeous relationships that are gonna come into your life. Right, because you're not needy and clingy and unconfident and insecure, right? So trust in your inner beauty. Let it shine out, stay independent, and just enjoy what the universe brings to you. And when it's time to release it. Let it go. Yeah.

Agi Keramidas  1:01:42  
Imagine from all this conversation we had today, if you were to give to the listeners, one action of light and something that they can do tonight or tomorrow morning, what would you tell them?

Mahima  1:01:53  
I would say wake up and say yes. Say yes. We're very good at NO and NO has certain frequency and it's very important. Yes. But start to say yes. Yes. To love. Yes. To joy. Yes. To peace. Yes. To beauty. yes to the things that are good for you. Yes, yes, yes, yes. To the things that are good for you truly good for you. Right. So we're not talking about yes to vodka, or yes to more champagne. Like, you know, we're talking about the things that truly light up your soul. Give yourself permission to do more of what you love. So the first thing to do tomorrow morning, or tonight is do something you love that something that's good for you. We deprive ourselves so much of goodness, and we punish ourselves a lot, right? And so for me, self mastery is all about being able to say yes to the things that are truly good for you. Right. So that would be my advice. And maybe you can even put some music on and do the what I call the yes activation. We just dance a whole song and say yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. To in a peace. Yes. To more love. Yes. To the moment. Yes. To connection. Yes. To intimacy with my wife. Yes. To being more present with my children. Yes to dancing and feeling. I'm happy in the morning. Yes to going to work and having a great day with my amazing colleagues and working on this great project. Yes, yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Agi Keramidas  1:03:31  
Yes, yes. I will agree completely. And that's the way you were describing northwater wonderful practice to do for five minutes every day. Just play your your song can't affirm this. Yes. And what you said about the frequency that it has it's very different than No, yes, the vibration will change. Even I hearing you saying that changes the vibration, how about if how much more if you want does it

Mahima  1:04:04  
exactly.

Agi Keramidas  1:04:08  
Is there I know we talked about quite a few things regarding meditation. Is there anything else that you think that is very important and you would like to to add on this?

Mahima  1:04:23  
I think the only thing is just to I would love more people in the world to take ownership of what they putting out with their thoughts, feelings and actions are really love all the adults on this listening to this to turn away from being a victim and blaming and complaining about what others are doing or not doing and start to be aware of what you are doing and what you bring to the table, and every day, ask yourself, How can I bring more lightness, love and elevation into the space for myself and others? Yes. And if we're depressed, if we are fearful, if we are, you know, going through challenges, there's nothing wrong with that. But you need to understand how it's affecting you and others around you. So if more people learned how to elevate their energetic frequency, so that we can create more, more, like No, don't say positivity, more connection. Yeah, with different people from different cultures, different places, different mindsets, right. So the more we can own what I call, I said, our students own your shit, right? Yeah, own that you are angry own, that you bring a negative energy, because you can put a mask on and smile. So it looks like you're not angry. Right? But that's not the real truth. Because that's just a mask on your face. What's the deeper layers of what's happening inside of you? So I feel if more people would own those deeper layers and be vulnerable enough to say, I'm not bringing the best version of myself to this conversation? Yes. And I want to work on being able to do that. Yes. Whether your boss with your mother, whether you're, you know, in whichever situation in life, how can you elevate? Yeah, how can when you enter a room, the light seems a bit brighter, and not because you're faking it, but because you've sincerely worked on yourself. And that's who you are, and who you and what you want to present to others as as inspiration. So that I think would be my closing words on just, you know, let's make this world a better place by elevating and being honest and getting our level of vibrational frequency

Agi Keramidas  1:07:04  
up. Yes, absolutely. Thank you very much. Mahima. This has been a most intriguing and fascinating conversation for me, thank you very much. And I'm sure that the listeners will find this very valuable. I wanted to I want to thank you and wish you all the best to keep on doing this amazing work and transforming people's lives and the collective. Any last parting words?

Mahima  1:07:34  
I would love to say thank you, ag for your awareness for holding the space for this beautiful conversation. I've had so much fun. As you can see, this is my passion, I can feel your passion as well on this topic. So I feel absolutely delighted to have met you. And I'm just so happy that they're more conscious men in this conversation. I can't tell you how happy I am. Because for a long time, this has been a woman's conversation, right? If and you may know that because when you go to the groups of you know, these type of groups, there's a lot of women there, right. So I just want to thank you for being here as a conscious man and putting your voice out into the world and I've had an absolute pleasure spending this time with you. I feel lighter, I feel illuminated I feel happy. So thank you and for those listening to thanks for your time. We appreciate you. Keep shining your light into the world.

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