Raj Girn: This week’s mindset and clarity theme show, where I’ll be deep-diving into a very common challenge most of us face at some point in our lives, and that is the whole concept of why mindset is working against me. That is the topic today, and to help me just deep dive into that, please welcome to the show the founder of the Two Word Story, Alia Sobel, who is a renowned Reiki master, yoga teacher and energy healer.
This is Part One of our conversation:
Raj Grin: Alia, my dear, thank you so, so much for bringing your light to the show.
Alia Sobel: Thank you so much for having me in this beautiful space. And I’m saying hello to everyone. Thank you guys for listening and being here with us. That’s very special and I’m very thankful for that.
All right. So I’m going to dive right in Alia. I have so many questions for you and I just want to garner your wisdom with this. So in addition to being a multi-hyphenate wellness professional, you are also a two-time published author and you also facilitate numerous courses and retreats and a number of wonderful other things that you bring your world of belief into. Everything that you do points to one overarching intention.
From my perspective, when I looked at all of the wonderful things that you are putting out there in the ecosystem, and that is to help people step away from their life’s habits that don’t serve them and into a mind body, soul wellness lifestyle that does. Before we tap into today’s subject matter. I would love to ask you: Why did you pick wellness or did wellness pick you as a professional pursuit? Can you walk us through that a little bit?
Absolutely. And I love that question because I can answer it for hours or I can answer it very simply, and I’m going to go the more simple route to start out. But it was my own personal struggle that really just catapulted me into opening the door to wellness and spirituality and bettering my soul. And so it was actually specifically postpartum depression that really sank me, and I have a whole long journey with that. I have two beautiful children. And it’s that feeling lost and completely disconnected from who I was, and the wellness was needed very badly.
So let me ask you this what does wellness mean to you personally?
I’ve been on this journey for nine years now as far as my youngest is nine. And so I find I’m always learning, I have to see that, right? That’s so important because every day I’m learning something new and more magical that flows in from the universe and teaches me how to be more grounded in my wellness journey. But I will say I found such an appreciation of the connection of the mind, the body and the soul. The three things and your energy body. And that is a key component of your actual mental wellness, your physical wellness, taking care of that energy, soul, body.
“Every day, I’m learning something new and more magical that flows in from the universe and teaches me how to be more grounded in my wellness journey. ” ~Alia Sobel
So let me dive a little bit into that, Alia with you. You focus on a very holistic approach to wellness. You just mentioned mind, body and soul are communally cultivated as the best way for me to describe what you just said. Can you explain the relationship between all three and how to achieve optimal wellness through tapping into them on some level?
And I know that’s also a huge volume of information. Are you able to perhaps encapsulate it for maybe someone who doesn’t really understand how the three work together? But I’ve always been curious because I feel that kind of ground zero explanation is going to help everyone out there, no matter what level or what I.Q. they have to tap into where you and I are going to be journeying today in this conversation.
Yes, absolutely. So I love all your questions. They’re so good. To easily answer that, I share Two Word Story. And, quite simply, it’s picking two words that are your mantra. You know, part of wellness and part of the journey. There’s so many things out there: affirmations, mantras, journaling, meditation, doing yoga flows. There’s so many different modalities you can do to clear energy and find peace and create wellness in your system. So this two word mantra is something that you can just grab a hold of. Pick two words that fuel you. And one of my life two word mantras is — I’m getting to the answer here — rebel soul. So rebel stands for radiant, elated, balanced, empowered and loved soul.
Love that.
Thank you. You know, the funny thing is it came to me in a meditation. I have a journal that’s published on Amazon and you can purchase other places as well, but the name of that journal . . . what really flowed to me from a wellness perspective is what makes me feel rebel. And being my rebel soul will be different for you. So wellness looks different for everybody, and that’s a big part of my message. So your wellness might look like gratitude and going for walks during the sunset. Whereas my rebel, you know, clearing and rebel soul connectedness to your mind, body and soul. What makes you feel rebel? What makes you feel radiant, elated and balanced, empowered and loved every day? So my soul’s journey is I just want people to feel that connectedness.
And so to me, from a wellness standpoint, you can just, in your day when you’re feeling stressed, ask yourself what’s going to make me feel rebel right now? What makes you feel rebel in that moment? Maybe it’s just putting your bare feet on the earth for 10 minutes. Maybe it’s grabbing your crystals. Maybe it’s calling a dear friend because you just need to clear your mind. So there’s so many ways that we can be tapped into our wellness from a mind, body and soul. If your body’s feeling weak or tired connecting to that question, what can I do to make me feel more rebel? Is it saying no to the evening plans that I have because I want to go to bed at 8:00?
I’m giving these examples because I just feel like you can really make it as simple as possible to connect truly to you. And then I always like to share this concept of being rebelliously in love with yourself. And so if you find it difficult to connect to that mind piece of wellness and that body piece and soul piece, if you find that they’re not connected, working together, feeling blissful and peaceful, you might be on a journey with more self-love and needing to really strengthen that as well. And that’s a beautiful thing acknowledging that. You need that strengthening and self-love, I needed that in a bad way. And so I’m so thankful that I journey through all of this to do that: rebelliously, loving myself. You know, that’s important.
“If you find it difficult to connect to that mind piece of wellness and that body piece and soul piece, if you find that they’re not connected, working together, feeling blissful and peaceful, you might be on a journey with more self-love and needing to really strengthen that as well.” ~Alia Sobel
It is. And I love what you said there. And for anyone that’s just joining us, I’m speaking to the fabulous Alia Sobel. She is the founder of Two World Story. Alia, I want to ask you this: What I got from what you just said there was that we have to always be in our present space and acknowledge what’s happening.
Is it a mind thing? Is it a body thing? Is it an energy thing? And to sit with it and to serve what’s needed in that moment. That’s kind of what I’m hearing you say and rebalancing whichever one requires your space and your healing and your energy at that time. Am I encapsulating some of what you’re saying sufficiently?
Very good. Yes. Amazing.
Brilliant. So let me ask you this. Why do you feel that having a wellness practice is important for every single person, especially those people in high octane careers, like myself, and multifaceted roles like working mothers (me, you)? Why is it important?
Well, because you are important. That’s it. If you wake up and feel disconnected or lost or sad, depressed, anxious, worried, fearful. There are things you can do. I mean, life is busy, life is chaotic, so yes, it’s about you and taking care of you. Think of that energy. Just imagine everyone waking up in the morning, and waking up with a smile in their heart. And what that energy would do is they walked out into the world and interacted with other people. And a lot of people are waking up with fear in their heart with anxiety. There’s so much heaviness out there. So it’s just so important because you matter. You don’t realize what an effect you have out on the world, right? And it’s about you feeling your best. That’s how I look at it.
Absolutely. I completely agree with you. And for anyone out there that’s curious about figuring out how to tap into some of the stuff that you’re talking about, how can people tap into your ecosystem? You have a couple of books, you have courses, you have retreats. Can you share that with everyone now, Alia?
Of course. Absolutely. And I am somebody who loves just chatting on my Instagram. I have my cell phone number. You can text me, call me. The door is always open. Emails, DMs. I really love conversing because I feel like you have to be vulnerable to step forward and ask and say, “You know, I’m interested in the things you’re offering.” And you shouldn’t feel bad. I mean, it’s truly a self-care, really strengthening that self-love that I’m really promoting for everybody. So there are so many different ways, like you said. I like to send people to Instagram because I have everything linked to there.
As far as the Instagram pages, @twowordstory_mindsetmovement, and I know you have that highlighted. And the website also is aliasobel.com, and everything is highlighted on there. But the direct access, you know, a reiki session, one session alone virtually can move mountains. It can really, really clear a lot as far as any stuck energy and anxious energy and just really get you closer to your mind, body and soul. So all these different things I offer because I found so much peace in them. So you decide for your soul is it one session that we meet? Is it a spiritual retreat that you decide to join in?
I’m actually headed later today to my retreat for 2021. I’m hosting 12 women in Cartagena, Colombia. And so that’s going to be beyond magical — she retreat. And so there will be a retreat for 2022 announced eventually. And then there’s one-to-one eight-week coaching. It’s the rebel soul rebirth. So all of these things are to nurture your beautiful self and feel your best truthfully.
So is this retreat specifically for women Alia? Or is it something for men, women, people that identify in many other ways? Can you share that a little bit with everyone?
Absolutely, yes. So I open it to anybody. Obviously, men, especially right. I have men that are my reiki clients, and I just love when they are able to be open about their healing and their journey in life. But all the retreats I have hosted thus far, it’s been women that have signed up for it. As we expand and there are big dreams of mine, my family is from Amman, Jordan. And so in 2023, 2024, I’m hoping to plan something at the Dead Sea, a spiritual retreat there. So there are all these beautiful things that are in the vision works. And again, it’s just the number one route of taking care of your mind, body and soul. Do things that take care of your mind, body and soul.
Absolutely. So you heard it right here, guys. Just head on over to Instagram. What is your handle? Because I don’t believe you shared that. Is it your name?
So it’s actually @twowordstory_mindsetmovement. So it’s a longer handle. But if you type two word story, you will find it.
OK, brilliant. So let me ask you the next bunch of questions that I want to ask you. All this is based on this whole topic that I feel is really important, like why mindset is working against me. So let’s talk about why the wrong mindset works against people. What have you learned about mindset practice, be it your own learned experience or experience to your various clients that you’ve worked with that you feel everyone really needs to understand about wrong mindset. Like what do they need to know?
Right. So it’s interesting because our mind is such a powerful tool, but it can play tricks on us. And it’s about knowing when the tricks are being played. And through my journey, I like to connect this mindset piece. Because we have our ego voice and we have our soul’s voice. And that’s a big piece in mindset because the ego voice is actually your self-doubt, your anxiety, your fear and your soul is your light and your love and your nurture, your feeling nurtured. So I’m just going to give a quick example here. So let’s say you want to start a new business or you have a new work project. Time is limited. You’re very busy. So your ego voice is going to say, put it on the back burner. You don’t have time, you aren’t creative enough, you’ll never be successful. But your soul’s voice. You want to be careful. Turn that ego voice off. Listen to what your soul wants to tell you. This is going to be amazing. You’re going to flourish with this. You’re going to learn a lot. Even if you fail, you’ll still learn so much.
“We have our ego voice and we have our soul voice, and that’s a big piece in mindset, because the ego voice is actually your self-doubt, your anxiety, your fear. And your soul is your light and your love and your nurture, your feeling nurtured” ~Alia Sobel
There’s a real difference when your soul wants to speak from deep inside. It’s what you’re born with, your light and love. So as we age, we go through difficult things in life and our ego voice becomes stronger and stronger, so it can really affect your mindset in such a strong way. So a mindset shift can be the whole thing for me. Started with a mindset. I need a mindset shifting big time. And so now it’s interesting because I’ve gotten to such a deep rooted, soulful place that when you are listening and knowing the difference between your soul and that some people call it something different, but you know that ego voice, when you know the difference, just stop for a moment and ask yourself, is my ego talking or is my soul? It’s kind of like the bad little guy in the shoulder and then the good guy. Who are you going to listen to?
I love that you said that because that’s something that I’ve really honed in on the I just want to share with you through meditation. I find that when I tap into meditation because I go into my sub and super conscious and just the third eye meditation really helps me see and hear what truly is my soul’s calling. And I find that any kind of rational, conscious thought process is kind of the ego that speaks to me because then I’m sitting there thinking to myself as opposed to feeling to myself. And I think that’s just the way that the infrastructure of our universe has been created, unfortunately, by humankind; is that we have to put things into boxes and put them into rows because that’s how they can create some, may I say, normalcy even though that’s not the normal human condition. The human condition is to flow through everything. That’s how we’re supposed to experience life.
And I think that’s a part of the problem people are having with mindset today. And my mindset is a big pop cultural discussion because people are grappling with the two versions of themselves so much more consciously today than I think that we have done, at least in the last few hundred years where we’ve been kind of shoved and prodded into other people’s versions of what life is supposed to be. And that’s what I’m hearing a lot of what you’re saying, and I want to share with you that I’ve learned from working with a lot of my clients. That the number one reason that they tend to struggle to get to the next level in their careers is because of this kind of negative self-talk that then results in limiting beliefs, which then causes self-sabotage. This is the formula that I constantly come across when I’m speaking to my clients. So I want to ask you this: What are some mindset hacks people should tap into to adjust to the negative self-talk, which is the one thing that causes kind of this ripple effect that eventually comes to self-sabotage? What have you noticed should be what we should tap into there just for that negative self-talk piece?
I love everything that you’re saying. It’s so good. I can’t wait to share this because it’s so important to hear these things. Don’t you find that we know that just listen and really take it in and remind yourself how important all these things are? And what you said about meditation is honestly my number one suggestion to stop the self-talk. I turn to journal and meditation. So for me, the journey started, my spiritual door cracked open with journaling and therapy, actually. If you have some self-talk going on that you’re like, this is bringing my energy vibe really down and I feel not good. Get your journal and just flow. I feel anxious. I don’t feel that I’m worthy. Whatever you want to write in the moment, clear it.
“For me, the journey started, my spiritual door cracked open, with journaling and therapy, actually. If you have some self-talk going on that you’re like, this is bringing my energy vibe really down and I feel not good. Get your journal and just flow.” ~Alia Sobel
For meditation, I try to make it as simple as possible for people because a lot of people will say they don’t like meditation. I never really loved it in the beginning. It’s hard. You want to do these things that nurture your soul, your mind, your body, but doing it more consistently and finding the rebel way for you, right? Because a meditation for 40 minutes in a group setting on Zoom might not be your thing, but like getting an app like Insight Timer and doing a search for self-doubt meditation and then finding one that’s 10 minutes long might serve your energy way better. So do that. It brings it back to that beginning concept of doing what makes you feel rebel.
Yes, I love everything about what you’re saying here.
