Highest Self Podcast 348: Discover Your Dharma with Sahara Rose

Sahara Rose · 348: Discover Your Dharma with Sahara Rose

TRANSCRIPTION

Episode 348: Discover Your Dharma
By Sahara Rose

[00:12]
Namaste. It’s Sahara Rose and welcome back to The Highest Self Podcast, a place where we discuss what makes you, Your Soul’s Highest Evolvement.

[00:19]
I am so excited to share with you that my book “Discover Your Dharma” is officially out in bookstores globally and I am shook by how well it is doing. People are loving it! They are sharing that it is the exact book that their soul has been calling them to read; that it is such a wonderful blend of your girlfriend talking to you, laying you the real facts and spiritual wisdom, truths, that resonate and permeate deep within your soul. And people are sharing that they are binge listening to the book or reading the book, it is available on audible (Apple Books as well), so if you love the Podcast, you could actually hear me read the book to you.

[01:00]
And I know that feeling of when you’re listening to a book and you’re just so engulfed in the words and you just can’t help but continue to read it or listen to it and I feel like I rarely get that feeling, it’s really hard for me to find a book that I feel so resonant with, so it literally means everything that you are having that type of experience with the book.

[01:21]
And so many of you are also sharing that you’re getting the book on audible and then realizing that there are so many just workshop practices within the book, journal prompts, questions, things to help you go deeper. I’ve created so many different frameworks in there to really support you in taking action on your Dharma and having so much clarity on where to put your energy towards. So, it’s been amazing to hear you guys creating your Dharma Blueprint frameworks and mapping out what this year’s going to look like and listening to it while reading it and doing the journal prompts and being so committed to this work.

[01:55]
And really, right now, especially in 2021 (now that we’re in) this is the year of living our Dharmas. We know what it feels like to be disempowered, we know what it feels like to give up our power to the news, to the media, to waiting for things in the outside world to get better, and this is really the time for us to reclaim our sovereignty; to realize that we are the ones that we have been waiting for, and that we can’t wait until there’s no longer any bad news in the media to live our lives, we have to just start living our lives and creating the types of worlds that we want to be a part of.

[02:31]
So, it really feels timely that this book is coming through at this really significant moment that we’re in, this shift that we’re in and to remind people to commit to what it is that their soul’s came on this planet to create, to experience, to express, to embody, and that it can feel like the right thing to do is to wait or to give up your power or to think someone else is going to solve all the things because we see everyone around us doing that. But really, this is the time to focus on what can I actually create a sustainable solution for. Is it pre-schools that foster early childhood education? Is it herbal medicines? Is it new forms of architecture that you use natural resources in a really beautiful way? Is it coaching people through their heart-breaks? What is it that your soul came here to shift? And to really focus on that and see something through; to commit to something; to create results; to create lasting impact.

[03:34]
We know what it’s like to just, you know, think that reposting something is going to get rid of the problem, and it doesn’t. And we’re all being called to show up and serve in different ways – we have the Activists, the Visionaries, the Teachers, the Nurturers, the Warriors, we have all Nine Dharma Archetypes, and when we can fully tap into them and embody which are ours, not think “Oh, well, they want me to be like this, so now I should be this or I should be that. I’m going to be more accepted if I’m like this”. You are the Sims the Universe designed you to be so rock, rock your archetype, rock your personality traits, your interests, your curiosities, your excitement – these are all the breadcrumbs that are guiding you towards your Dharma.

[04:15]
So, if you’ve not gotten the book yet, head over to my website (at the link in Bio) – iamsahararose.com/dharma over there you will find all the links for Amazon, Barns and Nobles, Booktopia, Indiebound, your local Indie bookstores, all sorts of places that you can get this book. And, you can submit your receipt on my website, now, you’ve got to do this step if you want to get my bonuses.
So, I have created epic bonuses for you. I have my Discover Your Dharma Meditation; my Dharma Embodiment Practice which is a 12-minute dance along practice with me that we will actually embody our soul’s purposes and get into the right energetic vibration to receive them; as well as my Tapping EFT Practice for discovering and embodying your soul’s purpose.
So, again, head over to my website iamsahararose.com/dharma and you will find everything right there, submit your receipt and get those bonuses in your email.

[05:10]
So, I have been on so many beautiful podcasts sharing about this book. Being interviewed by all sorts of people, probably different podcasts that you listen to as well, if you just search on iTunes my name, you’ll find them. But I really wanted to share one of these interviews with you because here, on the Podcast, you guys hear me interviewing different incredible people and you guys don’t get to really hear my being interviewed by someone else. And I wanted to share a conversation that I had with one of my friends Shannon Algeo who has a podcast called The SoulFeed Podcast. And this was just one of my favorite conversations because him and I are friends, we’ve been friends for a couple years and he’s someone that really read the book and sat with it and pondered it. So we were able to have a really beautiful conversation where we were able to look at some of the concepts of the book in a deeper way and further deepen our understanding of this work. And that’s what I love, actually, so much about the book, now, being out is I get to hear your perspectives on it and what you took away from it and what was resonant with you and what you have questions on and how it’s shown up for you. So, this was really an opportunity to go further into my own truth, my own understanding of these concepts by having a beautiful conversation with a dear friend.

 

[06:28]
So, Shannon Algeo is the host of The SoulFeed Podcast, he is an amazing meditation teacher as well as an author. He’s been on the Podcast before, he’s going to be back on soon, and it was just so nourishing for him to hold this space, to interview me and to really be able to have a real deal conversation that is both grounded and philosophical, to talk more about what “Discover Your Dharma” can really feel like, especially today in the modern world.

[06:54]
So, without further ado, let’s welcome me, interviewed by Shannon, on The Highest Self Podcast.
_____________________________________________

[07:00] Advertisement
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[08:37] End of Advertisement
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[08:39] Interview:

[08:39] Shannon:
I was taking in your tone and how easy it is. Your writing is so easy to feel and read and absorb and hear. I can really hear you and feel you and get what you’re saying in every sentence. And it’s so beautiful, it’s just one sentence leads to the next and it’s a combination of you sharing your stories then also giving very practical tools for people to check in with themselves.
So, first of all, having just written a book, congratulations on writing an awesome book!

[09:13] Sahara:
Thank you! It’s a journey! I think with writing a book, I, while writing it, it was very just stream of consciousness of like “Okay, what was I thinking on my own journey of finding my Dharma and my Purpose? Okay, my block was this. What would I tell myself now to that person?” So, it’s very, just basically me talking to myself and me talking to that person who’s like “I know I have a Purpose but I’m not sure what it is and I’m not really sure what to take action on and I’m really confused and I’m kind of overwhelmed but I’m really jazzed up about it!” And if that is you right now, I feel you and what is awaiting you is so much more than you could ever imagine. And I don’t mean this to sound corny and ‘follow your dreams’, but it’s for real. I genuinely didn’t think I had a Purpose, I thought that it’s just something like a Santa Clause story you’re told as a kid and you grow up and you realize that it’s not real. And I’m so glad that I was able to move past that belief and be in the experience that I am now, and that’s what I want more than anything for every single person listening right now.

[10:16] Shannon:
Yeah! I so relate to what you’re saying because I remember when I was in my early twenties and I’d just moved to New York and I kind of had it in me, I really felt that I wasn’t meant to be doing theater (which I had studied in college, I had studied musical theater) and I was so confused because I had been doing theater for 11 years, I had been singing and dancing, I have been in shows, performing all over and got my Bachelor’s in Fine Arts in this degree, and everyone I knew was going to New York, LA, to become actors, or directors or choreographers, and I just had this feeling in me, I was like “This is not me. This doesn’t fit me” and I was really devastated because, again, from the time I was 11-22, I was pursuing this one path, the theater. And so, it can be really disorienting to be like “I don’t know why I’m here”. But I remember, just hearing you share what you shared, reminded me of when I was younger and I was like “Oh my God”, I had this craving, this deep, deep desire to be here – the first chapter of your book “Why the F am I here?” and I feel like I ask myself that question on loop, until I found the yoga mat, which then created this whole path of the last decade for me. So I’m curious – let’s roll it back for a second – your book is called “Discover Your Dharma” and I’m curious how you define Dharma (for readers and when you talk about it).

[11:51] Sahara:
Yeah. So, I see your Dharma as your Soul’s Purpose. It’s the big reason why you are here, it is your soul’s expression, it is the unique frequency that only you can carry. So I think of it like your mission statement. Now, that mission statement can be to raise the vibration of the planet, to bring beauty to the worlds, to entertain, to make people feel, to nurture and connect, however, under that mission statement there can be many different services. We can have different roles that we play, projects that we’re involved with, careers, jobs etc. so those things are not your Dharma, those are different manifestations of your Dharma but your Dharma is that red thread that connects it all. So you just briefly sharing on that part of your journey, you are an Entertainer. That will always be a part of your Dharma, you are here to be on stage, to make people laugh, to make people feel, to use your physical body as one of your tool-ways for transformation, especially channeling that to other people. So, what was accessible for you at that time was musical theater, you’re like “I know I like to do this type of thing, so I don’t see really many yoga teachers around me, I see this, and they’re feeling really alive and in their Dharma, and I know I have these gifts”. So, that was still you living your Dharma and was in no way a failure, which I know you know right now, but I think a lot of people are like “I must be a failure because I changed my mind, I changed my career, I changed the avenue I was going through. But often times it still is related to your Dharma, it’s just the more you know about yourself, the more truthful the expression of your Dharma will become.

[13:30] Shannon:
“The more you know about yourself, the more truthful your expression of your Dharma will become” I love that and there was some music that came in while you were saying that.

[13:38] Sahara:
Boom!

[13:40] Shannon:
Underscore!

[13:43] Sahara:
And that’s really what it is. It’s not about your Dharma is to figure something out and to get it all. Some people are needing to be more analytical in their quest of their Dharma and we’ll talk about, there are three different pathways to get to your Dharma; there are four types of Dharma; we can really look at from these lenses and frameworks, but really what it is, it’s who you are at your core. So I think a lot of times, in spirituality, it becomes ascension and how do I astroproject and raise and become this thing I am not and it’s not that, more so, it’s about remembering, it’s about unraveling, it’s about unconditioning, it’s about being who you already are. So, as children we know that, you’re like “I’m an Entertainer, I’m here to be in front of a camera and make people feel and use my body doing it” and then a lady makes you think “Oh, you’re never going to make money doing that, everyone else wants to do it, you’re too late, you’re too this, you’re too that” so then you forget. So, understanding your Dharma is just to remember who you already are before the – in the Vedas we would say the temporary amnesia, which is you forgetting your magnificence, your power, your radiance and letting yourself be the unique you that you incarnated to be.

[14:55] Shannon:
Totally! Oh, my gosh, yes! You’re speaking my language sister! That is one of the truest things I’ve uncovered, is that I’m becoming who I’ve always been. It’s like this paradox; it’s the remembering; it’s that I’m the highest expression of myself, I’m going to be that best self that I’ve always known myself to be but maybe somewhere along the road I was taught to hide this quality or cover this up, or do this instead, or mimic this persons version of success. And then all of a sudden that part of ourselves (that part of myself) gets distorted to a certain degree.

[15:36] Sahara:
Absolutely! And I think when we go on any kind of – often times, I talk about these Five Stages of Dharma Discovery, but the First Stage is you realize “I don’t want to live this life, something needs to change, I’m not happy here, I don’t know what it is, but I know something needs to change”. That Second Stage, we go into personal development, self-improvement, how do I exercise more; eat healthier; improve myself? And that’s where I would say that most of the self-help books, motivational speakers, that kind of thing – it’s focused on the self. And in that Third Stage you realize that you are not that mind and that body you’re trying to improve, there’s actually nothing to improve. Your focus shifts from trying to improve yourself to knowing yourself – and this is the stage of self-awareness. Now, in this stage, this is when people can feel like they’re going crazy, they’re like “Oh my Goddess, how have people been living in this matrix and what is happening?” And you might feel like you’re just losing your shit and no one else around you, and it can actually be a little bit of a frantic time in your life as well but you’re realizing there’s so much more than you have experienced. Then we enter that Fourth Stage that you find your practices, you find your tools. We kind of speak a similar language, but other people, their language may be more galactic or someone else’s may be more Buddhist or Feng Shui oriented; you find your tools, your lineages, your pathways, and are able to get yourself to a place that you feel like “Okay, I know how to balance my mind, I know how to take care of my body, but am I living full-time in alignment with my truth? Not quite yet”. And this is where I think a lot of my podcast listener, your podcast listeners are like “If you’re listening to SoulFeed Podcast, you are sipping the kombucha, you are in it!” And you may be fully in your Dharma or you may have been drawn to this podcast because you’re like “There is this part of my life that I’m going to this job, and I’m kind of spending 8 hours a day doing something that I know doesn’t really use my gifts” or “I’m not really sure what to fully step into” or “I’m a little bit afraid” or whatever it is, and that Stage Five is really when you are you full-time. And when that happens, every single facet of your life must be in alignment with your truth. Because anything that’s not, will hold you back from your Dharma. And you realize that your Dharma is not about you but rather it’s you being of service to humanity. So the focus really shifts from ‘me’ to ‘we’. In these Stage Three, Stage Four, it’s very ‘me’, very self-care, how do I heal; how do I find my paths, my tools – and you need that, you actually need to go through that to find your very own thing. But when you’re living in your Dharma, you do that stuff so you can further be of service, and you’re actually fed from a life force that’s so much greater than anything else that you can do. That’s why when you speak to people who are sharing their Dharma, in whatever way, they’re like “I feel like I’m just sipping some fairy dust from the cosmos. I’m just on one” because you’re actually being fueled by the Universe, because the Universe wants you to be living your Dharma, it’s the only way the worlds can come into balance. And not that there’s a goal, but it’s really, that’s actually the point, that’s actually why you’re here. It’s just the way that our society has forgotten, it has made that feel like such a far away thing that that feel likes like a goal but it’s actually really your birth right, it’s actually who you already were. So, stepping into your Dharma really comes back to the “Ah! This is how life was meant to be lived!”

[19:08] Shannon:
I love that; that idea and that experience of remembering that I and each of us has a role to play, has a purpose to fulfill, has a Dharma to unlock, that we’re not just here kind of randomly, fighting for our own survival or even our own thrival of self-improvement and ‘let me make myself better’, but we’re all actually like a true team, like an organism designed to fulfill a certain purpose to make the whole more whole and more functional. I feel like that’s so much of what this process is, is like “How do I find my groove in this larger ecosystem?”

[19:58] Sahara:
Totally! I like to think of the times of the village – we needed to have the warriors, and the gatherers, and the basket weavers, and the medicine women, and the story-tellers. And one of the beauties of those times was, if you were a child and you’re like “My dad’s a locksmith but I really love to tell stories” you kind of sought someone who was doing that, so you were able to apprentice under them and learn under them and learn from that lineage, but what happens now is we’re so isolated that the only two examples we often see are our own parents or whoever’s around us, so we think that “If I’m not doing it the way that it’s been done by the only people that I know, then I must be doing it wrong”. So, coming back to the times of the village – would we want the warriors to be taking care of the kids or the basket weavers to be hunting? We wouldn’t want those things, so why would we want people who are stepping into something that they’re not born to do, it actually just won’t function at the level it’s supposed to. And truthfully, there is someone out there that loves to do the things that you hate. So, I used to think “If everyone had a purpose, then who would clean the floor?” And it’s actually, well, some people really love to clean, or I’m like “Who would do the back-end of the websites?” – some people really love to do that.
We often think that everyone must love to do exactly what I love to do – some people would definitely not want to be on a podcast; some people would definitely not want to write a whole book, but we’re like “Of course, why wouldn’t everyone want to do that?”

[21:23] Shannon:
But I have to write a book!

[21:25] Sahara:
Exactly! So, if everyone actually just listened to, truthfully, what it is that they are desiring to do, then the world would come completely into balance because we were all designed as the unique Sims characters that we were born to be in. I don’t know if you ever the Sims growing up (the computer game)?

[21:40] Shannon:
I didn’t. I saw it, maybe I saw someone else playing it, I know of the Sims of course.

[21:46] Sahara:
Yeah! The Sims basically was the nerdy ass computer game that you had your own little house and that you can design people. So, you’d make someone really organized, someone outgoing, someone that loves to repair the home, and Source, God, Consciousness, whatever you want to call it, designed us each as these unique Sims characters. So it made you love to do the things that you were meant to do, so you feel good doing them, and dislike to do the things that you’re not supposed to do, so that’s your own body’s mechanism to say “No, that’s not my direction”. But again, we’ve grown up in this society that we hear “Life’s tough – get a helmet” so we think life is a series of unfortunate events and it’s a bunch of sticking it out and doing what I’m supposed to do because that’s what makes me a good man or a good wife or a good daughter, or a good whatever it is, and actually living your Dharma is doing something that further energizes you, so at the end you actually want to keep going. At the end of a podcast, don’t you always fell like continuing the talk?

[22:44] Shannon:
Oh totally!

[22:45] Sahara:
Yeah, I’m always like “Who else wants to talk?!”

[22:49] Shannon:
Yeah, it’s like I’ve come alive and on a roll, I am awakened. I want to ask you about – so, how do you, or how does a person decipher between “Okay, I’m in my groove and my Dharma is meant to feel good and my gifts are meant to come out” versus “I’m in my Dharma and I’m learning a tough lesson that I need to learn and I need to stay in the discomfort so that I can get to that feeling of energized but I might not feel energized in this moment”?

[23:24] Sahara:
You know, this is such a major point because I would read spiritual books and they’re like “Follow the path of least resistance”, I was like “Okay, if I really followed the path of least resistance, I would just become a real estate agent like my parents are telling me to do even though I hate doing it but it’s the thing that they’re telling me to do and it makes the most sense”. So I was like “Follow the path of least resistance – then my mom wouldn’t have escaped from her country if she had followed the path of least resistance” or people wouldn’t have battled addiction; gone through poverty if they followed – that to me, that doesn’t really quite make sense. So, what I realized was – so, there’s this core concept in Vedic spirituality that I write about in the book (in Chapter 2) that we were all born on this highway (think of it like a highway and your Dharma is at the end), so you were born on this highway and you’re on cruise control down the highway and that’s when you’re experiencing the synchronicities and you’re having the right conversations at the right time and you’re feeling inspired and one thing’s leading you to the next and it’s like the Universe is propelling you in the direction of your Dharma that you’re almost taking a back seat and you’re like “Okay, I know I’m meant to be here because everything is pushing me in this direction and it’s feeling really good”. So that is how life is meant to be lived and that’s called Kria – Flow (boundless action by the Universe). Now, on this highway there are many exits, so these exits are like “You’ll make more money doing this”, “Your parents won’t be proud of you if you do that”, “Everyone else is moving to New York and doing this thing”, “You’re going to fall behind if you don’t start doing that” and you see everyone else going off these exits so you’re like “I’m still on this Dharma highway, I don’t even know where this Dharma place is, I’ve never been there, I’ve never met anyone who’s there. Does it even really exist? Everyone else is getting off this highway, maybe I should get off too while I still can; while I’m still young; while I still haven’t put in too much time and effort towards this thing that I don’t even know if it exists?” So we get off the highway, all of us have at some point. And then the Universe responds in the only way it knows how, which is through how you feel. So it begins with these little pings, this little nudge, this little ‘tap, tap, tap’ of you’re feeling anxious, you’re feeling imbalanced, you’re feeling something’s off (often times we don’t listen) and then it turns into a knock, knock, knock; you’re having breakdowns, you’re maybe having a panic attack, you’re having fire after fire after fire, but life’s tough, get a helmet – you still don’t listen. And then the Universe is like “Yo bitch, you’ve got to listen!” and it could turn into a collision, it could turn into a real breakdown experience, whatever breakdown you need to get to, it’s going to keep showing up for you. And this is not to say that you’re a worse person if you have to get to that point – Eckhart Tolle was nearly about to commit suicide before he made his transition; I had dire health problems, that was ma breakdown; we all have to get to some point to make that ship, and some people still don’t listen. So, just because you were born with a Dharma, does not necessarily mean you are going to embody it. So that’s the thing to – if I have a purpose then shouldn’t I sit back and it’s going to happen? No! You’ve got free will; doesn’t mean it’s going to happen, it means that you have the opportunity to live it if you listen, if you follow those nudges when it’s feeling off and course correct. So, I like to think of the analogy of we’re on a beach. So, Dharma’s out in the open waters but to get to the open waters we’ve got to move past the waves. So, to move past the waves, at first you go out and it brings you back to shore and you’re like “Ugh, okay, I’m going to try again”, it brings you back to shore, and everyone else is still on the beach, they’re saying “There’s no open waters, it’s just forever”; bigger wave after bigger wave – “I tried to be in a band in college and it failed”, “I tried to do this and it failed, so don’t do it, it doesn’t exist, it’s a bunch of hocus pocus and you’re going to end up regretting you even wasted the time!” So you could hang out with everyone at the beach who isn’t happy to be here but they don’t know anywhere else, they haven’t been to the open waters yet, or you can choose to believe something deeper in yourself that they do exist. And every single time a wave knocks you down you learn to maneuver, you learn how to duck it, you learn how to move through it, you become a stronger swimmer. And those waves represent the decisions you’ve made that are not in alignment with your Dharma. So the further away you’ve been pushed from your Dharma – maybe you’re super, super deep in your career that is not in alignment with your truth and you’ve been living in the bounded action, the Karma, for a very, very long time. Or for some people it may be a faster maneuver, but eventually you move through it and you’re out in these open waters and that’s when life is meant to be lived, that is the Kria you experience, but you’re going to have to move through the Karma, move through the waves in order to get there.

[28:18] Shannon:
I love that!

[28:19] Sahara:
Sometimes following the path of least resistance requires you to follow the path you’re the most resistant to.

[28:26] Shannon:
Yeah! It kind of brings up what are you resisting and is what I’m resisting the right thing to resist? Meaning the thing that’s going against maybe what I’m told I should be doing – that’s a good thing to resist, versus if I’m resisting even going out to the water and coming up against those challenges – that type of resistance might be something to avoid, to be like “No, get out there, go get in your flow, go explore, go make mistakes, go learn!”

[28:59] Sahara:
Exactly! Is it your resistance or is it the Universe’s resistance? Those are different textures. Your personal resistance could be “I really, really want a podcast but I’m so afraid of sharing my voice. I’m just so afraid of getting on the mic” but you know you really want that podcast, it feels expansive for you. So, that’s the thing I look for. If it feels expansive but scary – go for it; if it feels contractive and you’re scared to do it, then it’s not for you. So, that doesn’t mean everyone should get on the mic and start a podcast, if that’s not even your desire, but if it is, you’re going to have to move through those waves and that’s your unique resistance, that’s not the Universe’s.

[29:37] Shannon:
Yeah! I want to speak to something that I think can be confusing about Dharma is (at least in my experience, I’m curious to hear what you think about this) – there is a certain necessity for trial and error for like “Okay, maybe I need to go and try that thing and really experience it” not just glossify about it, but think about it, experience it and realize like “Oh, yes, I want more of that” or like “Oh, that’s not for me”, so I think there is a little bit of patience game that can come in to realizing that sometimes we’ve got to go down the wrong road, sometimes we’ve got to get off of at that wrong highway exit, to realize “Okay, it’s time to get back on the highway”. And so, how do you speak to or what do you have to say to someone who’s like “I want to know my Dharma now” but they might just kind of need to be in the uncertainty for a while? Or is there a way to get to certainty faster?

[30:38] Sahara:
So yeah, the more you know yourself, the more self-aware that you are, the more that you fcan eel “Okay, this thing may not me right for me before you actually go and take action, but while you’re harnessing that skill, you learn through the feedback, you learn through the failure, you learn through the action. So, there are three pathways that people get to their Dharma, and it really depends on what type of person you are. Those people who are all or nothing, “I just need to try it, see how it, that’s called taking the leap, that’s the first stage. So that’s when you’re going to quit your job, you’re just going to live in your van and go for it. And the beauty of that, it’s like this kind of all or nothing, you’re going to put everything you have into trying to make this or something work because everything is on the line. However, for some people that feeling could be so stressful that they may freeze. It may actually not help them live their Dharma, it could deter them from it, or some people may have a family that they need to provide for, they can’t go live in their van or move back to their grandma’s house or whatever it is that they’re doing, it’s not feasible for them.
So, our society really celebrates he leap and for some people that is the path that they need to take there, just like “I’m going to try it and it might fail and I’m just going to figure it out”. But the other option that I recommend, especially if you’re someone who has more of the Kapha, more of the Earth energy, the Nurturer, you like to kind of test things a little bit, is the transition, which is kind of like the slow fade away break-up. And that’s when you are not fully quitting whatever it is you’re doing, but you’re testing – “Maybe I take different courses. I apprentice or intern for someone. I try doing it part-time as a side gig. I write my book in the extra hours of my morning” whatever else it is, “I’m not expecting this thing to support me, especially financially. I’m, first of all, figuring out what it is, and then when I do figure out what it is, I’m harnessing enough skill and development at it without having to instantly monetize it too, so it can really be an integrity with my truth, that then, once it’s able to sustain me to the degree in which I need it to, I can then transition into it. So, imagine, Shannon, if you just started your podcast and quit whatever it was you were doing, and you’re like “This podcast needs to pay my bills! Tomorrow, episode 1” – it wouldn’t have worked. You would’ve had to probably make decisions that you wouldn’t have want to make just to get money coming in. As we know, something like a podcast or a book, it takes time to nurture; it takes time to nurture your community, your own skill etc. So the transition’s a really option if you want that spaciousness, you want that stability, that safety, however, it’s actually more difficult. And the reason why it’s more difficult is you don’t have that same fire under your ass, you don’t have that same like “I’ve got to figure this out”. So sometimes we procrastinate and then we’re like “I’m going to write my book every morning from 6-8” and then “You know what, I’m going to hit snooze today”, and then you do it this week, this month, this year and it doesn’t happen. So if you are going to do the transition, you have to set a sense of urgency for yourself through goals – “By April 1st my book proposal will be done. I’m going to get my shop on Etsy” or whatever else it is. So that way works better if you’re more of a calculated risk-taker.
And the third way is the Accidental Dharma. So this is when you actually aren’t looking for your Dharma, it just finds you. You’re like “I’m just living my life and I just took breathwork class and I know this is what I’m meant to do” or, I shared an example in the book, my friend’s uncle was an engineer his entire life, in his fifties. And the HR team in his company said everyone needs to take an Art extra-curricular and he randomly chooses pottery (and never done in his life). Gets his hand on that wheel and just feels the earth on his fingers and how alive he feels on that wheel and he’s like “I need to do this every day!” So he goes back every single day and today he’s a full-time potter, he makes cups, bowls, pitchers, all sorts of things. And the first half of his life was being an engineer and the second half is being a potter. Now, this doesn’t mean that he’s special, he could’ve just as easily have gotten on that wheel and said “Ugh, I should do this more often but I don’t have time, I’m an engineer” and never have fully stepped into that Dharma. So, we all have those accidental Dharmas that have been nudging at us all along and we may not have listened. Shannon, you could have taken your first yoga class and be like “Ugh, I should do more yoga but who has the time? I need to get to my next audition” and never fully stepped into the truth of who you are. So that’s why I share this ‘free will’ component, and it’s such a big part of it, because your Dharma is waiting for you but you’ve got to say yes to it first.

[35:20] Shannon:
I love those! The accidental, the transition and the one that’s often celebrated by society, is the ‘leap’. That’s the one where all the Goalcasts’ videos, tell the story, the leap. Elizabeth Gilbert, in her book “Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear” talk about how. I think it was (I could be getting this wrong) but I think it was when her book “Eat Pray Love” came out and it wasn’t until after “Eat Prey Love” was showing to be a huge success, that she quit her job as a bartender, because to her, she never wanted to mix money (survival money) with her creative writing. For her creativity, it just helped her to just keep the writing just purely creative and she made her money tending bar. And then eventually, it just got to this point, it was after she had had epic success that she was like “Okay, I’m going to receive the money for my book now and be a full-time writer”. That’s such a good example of transition.
I’ve had moments of accident, I’ve had moments of transition, I’ve had moments of ‘take the leap’, and ‘take the leap’ does light the fire under your ass, and transition is a little bit softer on your nervous system. And so, I found it helpful, depending on where I’m at in my life, different things might be appropriate. Like what you spoke to, that’s brilliant! I love that!

[36:51] Sahara:
Yeah! I think, again, it gives us permission to be who we are in our circumstances because yes, in a perfect world we would’ve all gone to a school that from the time we were kids was like “This is what you love to do, you should just do it all the time” but we’re in different situations in our lives right now. So for some of us – the concept of monetizing Dharma is really interesting because we live in a world that currency, in the form of money, is how we survive. So, it’s interesting because in the times of the Vedas or basically any times before money way invented, the healers were supported, the monks were supported. They were offered food by the community, even today in Thailand, they give the monks food every single day. So, I see a lot of people have a hard time in trying to monetize Dharma (even the word ‘monetizing’ can be very triggering) if it has a healing component, they’re like “Well if I love to do and it’s helping others then it’s wrong for me to try to make money off of doing it”. So, there comes the point of, like the Elizabeth Gilbert example, that your Dharma will require all of you. It will require your full, undivided focus, it will get to that point. So if you are spending 8 hours a day doing something that 1) is not in alignment with your Dharma, or 2) actually may be diminishing your energy and preventing you from being able to do it when you’re not on hours, then it’s actually withholding you, so you’re going to have to figure out some type of way to monetize this Dharma if you need it to support you. Now, you might be in a situation where you’re supported by someone else or I don’t know, maybe you actually live in an Ashram and you don’t need to make money and then you can just gift it to other people, but I do see a lot of people, when it comes to healing, and other people too because we’re so not used to have this form of guilt of “I don’t know if it’s right for me. I just love helping people, I should just do it for free”.
My mom, I was helping her find her Dharma when she was visiting, I was like “What’s your Dharma? What’s your truth?” and she was like “Maybe I would be a Life Coach but I would feel really bad ever charging everyone so I would just be a free Life Coach”, I’m like “Well, people aren’t going to listen to what you have to say if you’re like ‘Call me whenever you need advice, there are no hours, I’m just here’”. That’s good in terms of a friend but if you’re like “I need to figure out my purpose, I need to make this big change” and there’s no framework around it, there’s no exchange. Even in India, the monks give blessings to the homeless but the homeless must offer them fruit or flowers, there needs to be an energetic exchange there, too. And it today’s society, what affords are food, etc., crystals, whatever it is that you’re going to buy that actually may be offering the healing back, requires this currency. So, I don’t think it’s a bad thing to try to figure out a business model around your Dharma, or a job, etc., in fact, you doing so is going to afford you more time, more hours, more focus to actually improve and share more, and have the space to offer more of it for free for those who cannot pay for it.
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[41:32] Shannon:
It took me years of discomfort around the monetization of my services, whether that was when I was in New York teaching private yoga or when I started life coaching. And it didn’t really stop me but it took a long time until I stopped feeling heat tingles through my whole body when I would tell someone how much something cost or what the pricing was. It’s different for everyone, obviously, but I do think that there’s something to be said for growing into your Dharma, especially where, if it intersects with monetization. Then, once you realize and get grounded and comfortable in the fact that it’s perfectly okay and necessary and beautiful, that you receive money to sustain you to do your Dharma. Now, I don’t have that trigger in my body because I understand, deeply, that I deserve to be supported and that how I’m supporting others is of value. But before I believed that, it was so – you’ve got to believe that for it to feel like – and believe it in your body; believe it in your experience; not just believe it as an affirmation of “I deserve this”, it’s different when it’s in your tissues.

[42:57] Sahara:
A hundred percent! One little thought that helped me when I was going through that too, I was a Health Coach and I was like “I’ll help you with any issues you’ve ever had in your entire life for free. And then I had, it’s $20/h, anything you’ve got, I’m here for you” and no one was signing up, of course, because I, first of all, you’re not going to come to you for your gravest health issue if I’m like “$20/h, anything you got, I’m here”, it wasn’t going to work. But what I realized because I wasn’t making money doing it, I was like “You know what, I either have to figure out a way to create money doing this or I’m going to have to stop”. And me stopping is going to mean me stepping into something that I don’t love doing, into becoming a real estate agent or getting the job at the ad agency, or doing something else that I don’t want to do, that isn’t helping the world, that isn’t going to afford me the time to give this for free, it’s just going to have to end. So I would rather figure out a way to create some sort of income doing this so I can continue to grow and learn doing this. And I think, most of the time, there are so many healers out there, and I guarantee you, someone, right now, out there who’s listening, who has such an incredible gift – maybe the way they hold space for people is so beautiful or the way that they play the sound bowls or the way they can assess where someone’s holding onto pain in their body, but because they are so fearful of stepping into it and charging for it, they’re not doing it. And that means all of those hundreds and thousands of people whose lives have been waiting for them to be affected by, who haven’t been, because they haven’t mastered this one limiting belief that they have. So do it!

[44:34] Shannon:
I love that’s so much!

[44:35] Sahara:
We need it, we need your services, especially after 2020 (and actually right now too). I started writing this book before 2020 happened, I didn’t know, but what this year showed me more than anything with going through the greatest unemployment rates in our modern history right now and looking at all of the people who’ve lost their jobs, who don’t know what it is that they’re going back to. My own husband has lost his entire company, he works in the music industry. And, there’s an opportunity in that of “Was I loving the job I was in? Was I using my gifts? Was this in alignment with my truth? And how can I use this time right now to maneuver, to get to know myself better, so I can step into something more fully in alignment with who I am?”

[45:22] Shannon:
I love that! I was thinking that earlier on our call, I’m so glad you said that – the timing of this book, “Discover Your Dharma” is so meaningful, I think, with what has happened in the last year. There’s such a reckoning of – I know for me, and the reason that I’m in school now for psychology (depth psychology) – it really accelerated my question of like “Okay dude, why the f*** are you here?” I’ve asked myself that question a million times before and I’ve gotten a lot of clear answers but it’s interesting how the Dharma refines itself.

[46:00] Sahara:
Yes!

[46:02] Shannon:
And after I wrote my book I was kind of brought to this point of “Now what?” and very aware that there was a deepening that I needed to get into. And I could obviously go way on about that, but I think that this time has been such an important moment for so many of us to be like “Okay, if I were to die of this virus; If I were to be stuck at home with all this free time; If I were to only have this much time left with some of my loved ones; If the world were to completely transform (as it’s transforming), then, what do I really care about doing? What am I really meant to do?” And so, it feels like this book is just a perfectly timed offering for those of us who are in that inquiry with ourselves.

[46:52] Sahara:
Yeah! And I know that feeling that so many people are like “But I don’t know what I like to do” and just that feeling of defeat when you haven’t found it. I remember people like “Just do what you love”, I’m like “I don’t know what I love”, or what do I love to do – hang out on the beach, how am I going to make a living doing that? Be a lifeguard? And that’s why for me – Archetypal work, and I know you love the Archetypes too, but Archetypal work was so major because it allows you to see yourself in a framework that you could also see other people in.
So, Archetypes, for those who might not be as familiar with that word, is it’s like Myers-Brigg, Enneagram, even the Goddesses, Doshas, its systems, its frameworks, its personality types, it’s archetypes, it’s ways that we can see ourselves and other people.

[47:37] Shannon:
The Mother, the Goddess, the Priestess…

[47:41] Sahara:
…the Warrior, yeah, exactly! So, Archetypal work, when I was 23 years old and really trying to understand who I was and I was trying these different things, I came across these different archetypal systems and with each system I would learn a deeper aspect of myself. So, when I was writing “Discover Your Dharma” I was like “How can these really relate to a concept of your Dharma, or your Purpose?” And I came up with these Nine Dharma Archetypes.
So, I’ll start with what I’m seeing yours as, do a little reading on you!

[48:10] Shannon:
I just want to say, before you do, the pressure’s on because I just took the Dharma Archetype quiz and I was a little surprised by what I got, but okay, go ahead, go ahead.

[48:25] Sahara:
So, in the book it’s like a full assessment so do the one in the book too because you’re not just one or two Archetypes, you are all nine Archetypes in varying amounts.

[48:33] Shannon:
That’s what I feel. I feel like, when I’m reading the prompts of the questions, sometimes I can tell “Okay, that might be the Entertainer one” and I feel like I’m all of it.

[48:46] Sahara:
Totally! And there are some that you’re definitely not, too. So, I see you as the Visionary. Okay, so I’ll start with explaining to you (Visionary is my number one as well), so the Visionary is really here to channel the new paradigm; they are here to see where – they’re very future oriented; they’re very big picture; it’s very inspirational. Like Marianne Williamson and Deepak Chopra and a lot of these spiritual teachers have that Visionary Archetype to them, but they’re not always spiritual teachers. Someone like Steve Jobs, for example, was a Visionary, he was able to see the way that the future can be, it’s very related to the Vata, the Air Archetype (big-picture thinker).
Now, the secondary one which I see you having (I have as well) and these might not be your order or your order at this moment, is the Teacher. So, the Teacher is someone who learns a lesson in their life and the way that they actually transmute that lesson is to teach it to other people. They actually go through life as almost this Swiffer machine of ‘learn the lesson – transmute it; next lesson – transmute it’. So whatever they’re speaking on is going to be an obstacle that they’ve once experienced and Source is actually going to provide them with the exact obstacles they need to overcome, because that’s a part of their soul’s unique curriculum, as a Teacher, to continue overcoming and teaching about. So, someone who had that breakdown and that breakthrough, who turned their mess into their message, and their pain into their purpose – that’s very Teacher Archetype; they’re learning for themselves.
Now, the Activist, which is one I definitely see you have as well – is they’re here to bring about social change; they are here for a more just world. Similar to the Visionary, they’re here to talk about big picture things, however, the difference between a pure Activist and a pure Visionary (and you can be both like yourself, Marianne Williamson, myself, we have both) but a pure Visionary may be more just focused on how society can grow. Steve Jobs wasn’t an Activist per say, it was more like “Here’s how the future could be” or an inspirational speaker; whereas an Activist is really about causes, it has this more earthly element to it too, of like “The children are crying. The Earth needs our help. Here are these tangible earthy issues in this manifested form that need to bring about change!” So there’s a little bit more of a Pitta, a fire to it as well, which I know is one of your doshas. So, it has this lens of viewing the world as “I’m here to help. I’m here to solve. I’m here to bring about change”, it has a sense of responsibility to it, whereas a pure Visionary may not have that, as much of that connection, to the worldly issues.
Now, the Entertainer which you have is here to make people feel. So, that doesn’t necessarily mean laugh, it could be, you want to make people cry, think, feel nostalgic – you just want to make people feel. And the beauty of that is, it’s always been needed. We’ve had the gestures since the beginning of time, we’ve always needed people to entertain, it’s the only way for us to get through it. Even in the times of the Great Depression we had the jazz artists who were here to just make us feel. So, there’s such great beauty into actually be able to escape; escapism is not always a bad thing, sometimes we do need to escape or just be entertained or be in our senses. And, each of them has the shadow side. So someone who may be purely an Entertainer, may get lost in the roles that they play in and they might not, truthfully, who they are.
So, the next step, we have the Nurturer. The Nurturer is really here to care and connect; they are here to depth psychology, you’re going to be in a classroom with Nurturers there.

[52:26] Shannon:
This is the one I got on my quiz and I wonder if it’s related to that being such an energy that I’m cultivating right now?

[52:35] Sahara:
Exactly! Well, because on the quiz too, the answers for Nurturer are “What do you care about the most” and it’s like “Friends and family”. Of course you care about your friends and family but that might not be what it is in relation to your Dharma. For some people it’s friends, family, community, having heart-to-heart conversations – that’s their Dharma; and for some people it’s the role that they play.
So, I see Nurturer, definitely, as part of your Dharma but you also have this Activist-Visionary-Entertainer that’s airing it up, whereas Nurturer is very Kapha, it’s very Earth, it’s very one-on-one with the people, connecting, listening, holding space. So, a lot of people who go into coaching, counseling, teachers, elderly care, nurses, have this Nurturer Archetypes and they’re super, super heart-oriented.
Then we have the Entrepreneur. The Entrepreneur is here to solve problems as well, but they’re motivated by profit and impact. So, profit is not a bad thing, they see “The more profit I can create, the more impact I can create”. And they want to see “Here’s a problem and here’s a system I can create around it”, they have a lot more of that Pitta energy to them. So, a Visionary and an Activist may be “We’re going to save the environment!” The Visionary gives an inspirational talk, the Activist is signing petitions, but the Entrepreneur, that may feel very lofty to them, they’re like “Okay, we’re going to reduce plastic straw consumption by 200% and we’re going to create this company that has bamboo straws and this is how we’re going to go about doing it and solve this one, very tangible problem and here’s the solution for it”. So, they need a little bit more of a structure, a framework and to really give their all-and-all fire into that. So, people like Gary V, the Shark Tank people. Shark Tank, it’s a super-entrepreneur show, of course, they’re like “Here are all these world problems but our way going about solving them in not to talk or a petition, it’s to create a business around it”. So, that doesn’t mean that every Entrepreneur does that, but when you’re living in alignment with your Dharma, you definitely are.
Then, the ones left are the Warrior. So, the Warrior is here to protect and to lead. So, the Warrior is very physical. A lot of times, fitness, athletes, people who are very in their body have that Warrior energy because they want to set a goal and go for it. They love the feeling of comradery, they want to be a part of a team, and they also get really hyped up when there’s an underdog or someone that they’re here to protect. So, AOC, for example, she’s an Activist but she’s a Warrior as well; that people love her so much because she’s willing to speak up for the disenfranchise, stand up for them and use that Warrior combative energy, that she actually thrives in really confrontational situations that a Nurturer would lose their hibby-gibbies in, but that can actually get her more in alignment with her truth and more dedicated.
So, think we’ve gotten through all of them – The Visionary, Teacher, Activist, Entertainer, Nurturer, oh and the Researcher!

[55:42] Shannon:
The Researcher, yes!

[55:43] Sahara:
So, the Researcher is the last one. So, the Researcher loves to understand things on a really deep level. So, they are the type of people who see something on Instagram, they’re like “I need to look into this! I’m not just going to repost, I want to see what’s going on behind this!” They want to understand the world, not so much “I need to change the world” but “I need to understand the world”. So they love to be knee-deep in different books and libraries; in data; a lot of scientists; historians; people who really want to go into the past. They really are oriented into what happened in the past because they see history as the biggest indicator of what’s going to happen to the future. So, the Researcher wants to go into the nitty-gritty, and the shadow side of that is sometimes they don’t take action with that, sometimes it’s just research upon research upon research and it’s like “Well, what’s the point?”
So, with these Nine Archetypes we all have all of them within us but in varying amounts, but I would say there’s probably five that are your highest ones. And your top two will probably just be with you your whole life. My top two are Visionary-Teacher. No matter what I do those are always me and they’re going to show up for me. But then my next three are – oh we didn’t talk about the Artist, I’ll just briefly say that. The Artist is here to bring about beauty. So, they are someone who – their Instagram Feed, their house, anything they do is just going to be beautiful. They really care about aesthetics, they care about just the little things that might not matter to someone else. So, they’re going to bring about beauty. So, that’s my third Archetype, however, when I’m in a situation there’s a cause I really believe in, my Activist Archetype might go up and that might become my third one; or if I’m really in my business, it might be my Entrepreneur one. So, those are kind of my top five.
So, sometimes those last three can kind of move around in order. Additionally, different traumas can make different ones go higher up too. So, you may have, as a child, learned that the only way I’ll receive love is if I hold space and listen to other people’s problems. So you may have become a Nurturer, but actually really aren’t, you have just taught yourself that’s the only way I can get love. Or for me, my family came from political imprisonment, refugee, immigration, child marriage, all of these intense socio-political issues, so I had this identity “I need to save the world. I need to help everyone. There are people out there who are in political prisons and all these things” and I was like “I have to be an Activist”, it wasn’t coming from this space of feeling fully in my heart, it came from this responsibility, and even guilt, of like “Fuck, someone needs to save the world so I’ll just go do it!” If I had taken this quiz when I was in high school, I’d be 100% Activist – that’s me!
But now, I’ve been able to see, I’m also the Artist; I’m also the Entertainer and the Entrepreneur etc. and I have this Activist within me as well.

[58:38] Shannon:
Yeah. I actually, during the election, I was in a session with my therapist and really was able to connect, for the first time in such a really experiential potent way, that my Activist, that my need to make a change in the world for the benefit for the world being a safe place to live, was just mirroring my lack of safety growing up in my home (emotionally). So, those patterns that I learned to be combative and fight for my needs or fight for people to – for my parents to understand each other in certain disagreements was all designed so I could feel safe in my home (in my family of origin) and now it’s on a global, national scale of the Election that was happening and there was that same thing – so I was able to see that that Activist was coming from a place of trauma that I need to make everything okay so that I can feel safe.

[59:49] Sahara:
Yes! And, that’s not always a bad thing either. It’s like your soul also needed to have that experience of growing up with your parents and in your household and as a gay man and not feeling totally safe, your soul needed to have those experiences so you could feel how unsafe and other guy might feel out there who hasn’t come out to his family or someone in their home who has to be there for their parent’s issues and stuff. So you wouldn’t be an Activist if it wasn’t for that. However, if you’re just showing up in that way and it’s coming out of fight or flight rather than ‘”I feel grounded and safe where I am and I feel inspired to take action” that’s when it can turn into the – and I can speak to this because I definitely was this – the angry Activist who’s like “Buckle up, we need to change!” and it’s actually energetically attributing to the problem.

[1:00:43] Shannon:
Yeah! I think that that’s a key distinction, is to be aware from what space, within me, is this emerging. Is this coming from a place where there’s a wound that needs healing; there’s something that needs to get grounded or integrated or processed so that I can come from a more conscious place? Or is it something that’s already done and I’m able to just show up and know. To your point, it’s not a bad thing if something that was a wound had now influenced the way that you’re showing up in the world. And we want to be aware of how we’re showing up in the world and if we’re coming from the wound in place or coming from an integrated and healing place within ourselves.

[1:01:29] Sahara:
Exactly, because it’s impossible for it not to be a part of your story. It’s impossible for it to not impact your Dharma. Of course it is and whether you believe that your soul chose it or not, that a controversial belief, but regardless, it was a part of each of our stories. So, it’s informing us of how we show up, it’s swaying our interests, it’s giving us experience that we can talk upon and help other people move through it. And we know that that’s a tender spot for us.

[1:02:01] Shannon:
So, I want to ask you about the Dharma Blueprint. So, there’s sort of like an integration of bringing all these things together that you walk us through the book; going through stages of Discovery and the Archetypes and these different, brilliant systems that you’ve set up for people to kind of find themselves within. And then there’s the Blueprint where we bring it all together. Can you tell us a little bit about the Blueprint and what happens towards the end of the book?

[1:02:30] Sahara:
Yeah! So, when I was writing the book, I was still knowing that there are some people who really do better when they can list things out; when they feel like they’re moving through a framework, and the level of security that that does give us of like “Okay, I do have a purpose, even if I’ve activated my soul and done all these things, I still don’t know what it is. I can go through this process and guaranteed get really valuable information about myself and also how to take action on it” because here’s my thing on a lot of spiritual books. It’s like “Live your best life and live your purpose” and the book is done – how do I do it? For me, maybe it’s my seven planets in Capricorn, but I’m like “How do people take action on this, what does it look like, how does it show up in the world?” Because if it’s not showing up in the world, if it’s not my daily life then it’s just going to end up being this cool book I read and I move on. So, your Dharma Blueprint is how you can actually take action towards your Dharma right now. So, I’ve created these kind of five circles that you go through.
So, the first one is – what’s your Dharma Archetype? So, you do your Dharma Archetype assessment, so it’s your top three, top five, whichever Archetypes you’re really resonating with. So your Dharma Archetype is really going to inform how you do something, it’s your lens in which you’re going to view your life with.
The next one are the mediums that you’re the best at. So, there are so many mediums out there – it could be drawing, it could be organizing, it could be speaking, writing, blogging, systems – we all have different mediums that come through us. So I recommend and I list a bunch out, but thinking “Where do I feel that my most expressed self?” If I were to solve a problem, would I do it through building a structure? Would I be in conversation with someone about it? Would I record a video of myself doing it? How would I solve this problem? And that’s probably going to be some of the mediums that you’re the best at. So, we kind of share mediums of writing, speaking, verbal, throat chakra type of people, but someone else might be creating a formula or creating some sort of physical structure, or something else like that. So, what are the mediums you’re the best at?
Them, what obstacles have you overcome or helped someone else overcome? So, it doesn’t necessarily have to be you’ve overcome, it could be, let’s say your mother had cancer and because you really wanted to support her, you started to learn everything about cancer healing, holistic healing, alternative health etc. so this became a huge passion of yours that even though didn’t have the problem because someone who you deeply care about did, you began to find solutions. Or it could be an obstacle you’ve overcome from loneliness to trauma to whatever else it is that you’ve experienced.
So, the next one is what you’re excited about. So excitement, I call, are breadcrumbs toward your Dharma. Excitement is momentum, it is energy moving you forward. So, your excitement is there for a reason, it’s kind of that dangly thing that’s like “Come here, come here” the Universe propelling you towards your Dharma. So what are the things that you’re excite about? Again, right a big old list and it could feel totally random. I’m excited about spending time with my dog, I’m excited about my friend coming over, I’m excited about buying some new plants, I’m excited about reorganizing my closet, I’m excited about this. And once you have a list of all those things that you’re excited about, you can look at “What do all these things have in common?” That list I just shared is maybe you really love to deeply connect with people, or maybe you love to be in the home, or maybe you love to merge healing with technology, or whatever else it is, but notice, what is it you’re excited about? And often times too, like you shared, you wrote your book and your excitement was “I want to go deeper, I want to go deeper into depth psychology”. I wrote this and I want to go deeper into womb wisdom and divine feminine wisdom. So, that’s kind of informing you of what’s next for you. It’s like that igniting the flame and just getting barely churned up.
And then the last thing are your superpowers. So that’s the thing that people are like “You’re so good for doing this” and things that come easily for you that don’t come for others. And often times it’s hard for us to recognize our own superpowers. So, one little practice I recommend is imagine your friend texted you “I need your advice”. You just see a text on your phone right now “Shannon, I need your advice”. What do you think that this is going to be advice about?

[1:07:05] Shannon:
What do I think it’s going to be about?

[1:07:07] Sahara:
Yeah, if you just saw a friend, random friend – “I need your advice”, what do you think they’re here to ask your advice for?

[1:07:12] Shannon:
They want to know what they should do to move forward. Or do you mean more specifically?

[1:07:19] Sahara:
Sure, like what to do to move forward. So, you’re good at that. You’re obviously someone that “When I’m feeling stuck and I don’t know how to move forward, my mind, of all of the experts in my life, goes to you”. So that means it’s a superpower that you have. So, often times, it’s easier for us to see the superpowers others see in us than to see them in ourselves.

[1:07:39] Shannon:
Yes, yeah!

[1:07:40] Sahara:
So, let’s say I know it going to be about someone’s relationship, people are always texting me about their relationships, or their business plan, or what to cook for Thanksgiving, or what to do for this. That means people are viewing you as the expert in that and it’s probably a superpower of yours. Or the little compliments you get – “You’ve got such a beautiful home” or “You have such a way of making people feel welcome” or “You have such a detailed mind” – those are your superpowers. So, you’ve got to write all of those five things and then write the integration of how they come together. And I share different examples in the book, from Greta Thunberg and Deepak Chopra to friends of mine, a former intern of mine, all sorts of people, so you could actually see what they turn out to be, but putting all of those together will give you – “Okay, I could create an App about healing the body”, “I could make a tarot card deck using plus size and people of color”, it gives you this exact thing that you’re excited about, that you’re good at, that’s your superpower, that’s your Archetype that you get to just focus on right now.

[1:08:42] Shannon:
It’s like all of these threads get woven together so that someone can have a clear blueprint of action to move forward.

[1:08:53] Sahara:
Exactly!

[1:08:54] Shannon:
Wow! Wow! Wow! It’s so good! It’s so exciting! Do you have a Dharma statement or is there something that you come back to (Sahara Rose), tune into your Dharma – is it like a vibration or an image or a sentence or word? How do you connect back into it once you sort of know what it is for yourself?

[1:09:17] Sahara:
So, I’m definitely a body person, like yourself, so for me it’s a feeling in my body. So I look at what feels expansive. So, for me, when I feel expansive, I feel like arms stretched out, I feel elevated, I feel like I could reach forever, I feel like this back ben heart opening. So when I’m doing something that makes me feel like that, I know that’s my North Star that’s bringing me towards my Dharma. And then the opposite of that is contraction. So, for me that feels like being in an airplane for just way too long, where it’s like “Four more hours”, you’re like “Fuck! No!” You’re like “Remember when I could just sprawl out and lie down and jump, remember those days?” And it feels like so long ago! So that feeling of contraction of stuckness. Or another for me is this feeling of combatitiveness, I need to put out the fire and fight the fight, when I’m in that energy, that’s my contractive energy, so I know that something needs to change and it’s not in alignment with my Dharma. So I use that as my compass – is this giving me more energy or is it depleting me from my energy? And that’s how I really know. And, I’ll give an example – I love sharing and being on video and all of these things – so I always thought one day I want to have a show, how amazing would it be to have a show, but I was doing this video stuff with this team of people, there was a director and seven videographers, it was very show-like, it was for this shorter video thing, and I did not feel expansive, I did not feel that open feeling, even though I thought I would, even though “Well the next logical thing for me to do is go after creating a show” but what I realized was I love being spontaneous; I love the improv; I love the fact that I don’t know what you’re going to say next and you don’t know what I’m going to say next, and that actually gets me going. Where if it’s like “Okay, from the top. Repeat that again” I actually hate that feeling. So it gave me really good feedback of – I’m going to notice that in myself and even though it might feel a little bit like an ego kill to be like “Well, maybe I shouldn’t do a show unless it’s an improv show, I’m going to listen to that because I know I’ll be chasing a goal that’s not in alignment with my Dharma”.

[1:11:27] Shannon:
I love that! Another nod to the fact that we need to experience thing sometimes to discover how it feels in our bodies.

[1:11:36] Sahara:
Exactly!

[1:11:37] Shannon:
Oh my gosh! Sahara Rose! Everyone, go get your copy of “Discover Your Dharma”, it’s gorgeous! A Vedic Guide to Finding Your Purpose; Forward by Deepak Chopra; so inspiring and you share so many of your own stories and experiences; so easy to read and understand; so many frameworks, like we’re talked about today for people to connect to and apply their own life experience and Dharma too.
So, just congratulations and thank you! And I hope everyone listening gets to really dive into this work and absorb this beautiful framework that you’ve out together for us to get connected deeper into our Dharma and our Purpose. Thank you, thank you, thank you for bringing your Dharma forward! So brilliant and I love talking to you!

[1:12:27] Sahara:
Aww, well this was so much fun, I am just vibrating with joy, it was so in alignment with my Dharma so thank you for the opportunity. I love chatting with you, I love what you’re doing, I can’t wait for your book and thank you for being a soul brother on this planet with me.

[1:12:42] Shannon:
Likewise, thank you so much my love!

[1:12:45] End of Interview
_____________________________________________________

[1:12:45] Sahara:
Special shout-out to Shannon for that beautiful interview! I am so grateful to him for holding that space and for that conversation. It feels so good to be able to talk to you guys about these concepts, to hear your points of view on them and to really live this. This isn’t one of those books that it’s a doctrine, it’s not alive and it just is what it is, it’s really a living text, it is a testament to what I have learned and what I am learning is forever unfolding. And discovering my Dharma is never going to be done, I am forever in this lifetime going to continue to peel back the layers and layers and layers of my Dharma as I remember the truth of who I am – an expansive soul having a human experience. I am just a mere wave in the entire ocean and what’s so beautiful about knowing that is that you have the awareness that more ripples and ripples and ripples are going to come through the more that you open. So, I feel like if I wrote this book now it would even have different things in and when I did write it, next year would be the same and same, and that’s the beauty, I think, of sharing your work. It’s a moment of time, it is an opportunity to share what you know and encapsulate it and pass it forward like this crystal that connects energy and code and carries its own frequency, and you pass the crystal on but then you continue to crystalize more and deeper information and new threads and that’s the beauty of it, then that crystalizes and it passes on. So, I am so grateful to be able to share what I have learned so far on this journey and know that the journey ain’t over. So, it has been incredible to be able to experience so much in this lifetime at such a young age and excited for all that is to come.

[1:14:34] Sahara:
So, thank you all for being here. Be sure to grab your copy of “Discover Your Dharma” wherever books are sold and submit your receipt on my website iamsahararose.com/dharma to receive my free bonuses, including my Discover Your Dharma Meditation, my Dharma Embodiment Practice, as well as my Dharma Tapping Practice. You can find that link in the show notes (iamsahararose.com/dharma) and I am so excited to share this book with you!

[1:15:00]
If you loved this Episode, I would love to send you a free gift which is the first half of my unreleased book “Eat Right for Your Mind-Body Type“. This is a different book than “Eat Feel Fresh“. My first book ever which is not released anywhere, and I am gifting it exclusively to those who leave a review of my Podcast in the iTunes store. So all you’ve got to do is head over to iTunes where you’re maybe listening to this podcast and leave a review, take a screenshot that you’ve left it and email it over to me at [email protected] and I will send you back the first half of my unreleased book “Eat Right for Your Mind-Body Type“, which goes all into Ayurveda, Doshas, Plant-Based Nutrition, Body Types – all of the things in a really fun and engaging way. So this is my gift to you for free for supporting the Podcast. Every single review I personally read. It really helps the Podcast be listened to by more people so we can raise the vibration of the planet together, and I am soul grateful to have you on this journey.

Thank you so much for listening and I’ll see you on the next episode. Namaste.

Episode 348: Discover Your Dharma
By Sahara Rose