How deeply you can liberate yourself from everything that you are not?

On this episode, I bring on liberation expert extraordinaire, Zahara Zimring! We shed light on how liberation is the missing piece of the puzzle and one of the main feelings that you truly desire when you do things such as breathwork, therapy, and other healing practices. This conversation is here to activate that part of you that has been craving liberation and remind you of your fullest truth and potential.

In this episode, Zahara and I talk about how we choose our bodies/the human experience when we reincarnate, how to connect with our most liberated expressions, why people avoid the healing journey, the power of embodying trust around your path + what shows up for you, how to release in order for the universe to present you with opportunity, how dharma (your soul’s purpose) is a path to liberation, the difference between the path of embodiment and the path of transcendence, and SOUL much more.

This episode is a full-blown JOURNEY of LIBERATION, embodiment, and truth. I recommend setting some time aside to fully drop in and receive the codes in this episode from a grounded place so you can integrate and expand on the wisdom that is shared.

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If you are looking for a diverse + nourishing community of like-minded souls I’d love to invite you to join the waitlist of Rose Gold Goddesses at https://www.rosegoldgoddesses.com

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Intro + Outro Music: Silent Ganges by Maneesh de Moor

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Transcript

Episode #500: The Path to Liberation with Zahara Zimring
By Sahara Rose

[00:00] Sahara

To me, another part of liberation is the rewilding of ourselves, of tuning back into our natural, primal, untouched nature, because society has so deeply domesticated us that we’re, like, playing all these roles and wearing all these masks and performing our lives, you know.

Like, even with social media, I witnessed in myself, of like, I was, like, at this gorgeous waterfall in Costa Rica and my first inclination was to grab my phone and take a video for the Instagram stories, rather than being at this waterfall. And it’s like, even just those layers of domestication. 

So, how can we, first, become aware of them and then release them?

[00:39] Zahara

Yeah. Slow down enough to really listen. And I notice, for myself, deconstructing and deprogramming the social media addiction is significant, and when I really slow down enough, I can see that when I do that, there’s something that I’m wanting to get away from inside of myself, even if that something is the feeling of being bored, or doing nothing, or lacking some sort of stimulation. But why is it something to resist if we’re lacking stimulation? Stimulation in the form of talking to a friend, or social media, if you need to have something happening all of the time, there’s something that we’re afraid to feel.

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[01:32] Sahara

Welcome back to The Highest Self Podcast! My name is Sahara Rose, and on this Podcast, we take spiritual topics and make it really grounded, modern, fun, relatable, so it can actually serve the needs of today’s people.

[01:45] Sahara

And I have been on a path of spirituality through the body, using the body’s wisdom to tune into our soul’s desires, and seeing our desires really as sacred.

And for me, our body, our human vessels, are the most godly things on this planet. And when we tune into our body, we’re able to tap into our intuition and our womb wisdom, and all of the ancestral wisdom that we’re holding onto somatically. 

And to me, the path of embodiment is the path of liberation, because, ultimately, I believe, why we are here, in humanity, is to liberate ourselves from all of the wounds, and the limiting beliefs, and the traumas, and the suppression, and the stories that we have been holding onto, not just psychologically, but also somatically, through the body. 

And as I have been on my spiritual journey, I’ve realized it’s not about me getting somewhere or realizing something, but rather it’s “How deeply can I liberate myself from everything that I am not?”, and it’s really a shedding process more than anything. Like, things that you thought were just you, like parts of your personality, were actually parts of your childhood conditioning, or societal conditioning, or ways that you thought you had to be to get accepted by men, or friends, or other people. And I find myself, as I grow, it’s really observing and becoming aware of these different layers of conditioning that I have developed over time, to gain love and acceptance, and realizing that through the very things that are holding me back, because it’s causing me to wear a mask and be someone that I am not. For example, if I want to be in a relationship, I need to be the perfect trophy wife, and how playing that role is actually keeping me from being in a great relationship, because that’s not who I am, I’m a full spectrum, multi-faceted goddess.

[03:35] Sahara

So, I’ve been on this path of liberation, and when I met this queen that you’re going to hear today, named Zahara, so, yes, you are seeing Sahara x Zahara, on the Podcast today. She has dedicated her life and her career to liberation. 

So, I’m excited to have her here on the Podcast here today because we’re going to be talking about what I believe is the missing thing that we’re all really desiring, like, underneath the breathwork, underneath the therapy, underneath all these practices, what do we really want? And that’s liberation!

[04:03] Sahara

So, let’s welcome Zahara, here, on The Highest Self Podcast.

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[04:07] Interview

[04:07] Sahara

Welcome sister queen!

[04:08] Zahara

Thank you so much, Sahara! It feels so good to be here! And this topic is my jam!

[04:15] Sahara

And before we get into it, I would love to ask you, what makes you your highest self?

[04:20] Zahara

Yeah, that is a very big question. I think, you know, in the conscious community, in the spiritual community, we talk a lot about “Oh, embody your highest self”, but what are we actually saying when we say “Embody your highest self”?

For me, what that actually means, my highest self is the me that is free. My highest self is the me that is transcendent of the stories, the conditioning, all that is not me. But I used to have the impression that to transcend is to come away from. Actually, to transcend is to include all of. And so, to transcend the stories, to transcend the fears, to transcend the limitations, means to include all of the parts of yourself that ever went through any of the traumas that would cause you to go into protection, to experience limitation, to include all the parts of yourself that ever had conditioned fears that allowed you to create identity structures because you’re an intelligent being to create identity structures to protect yourself from that what you’re afraid of. And as we grow and we liberate ourselves, we become ready to, not avoid that which we’re afraid of, but we actually become willing to feel that which we’re afraid of. And that’s what true liberation is to me.

So, higher self, the embodiment of my higher self, is to become when I am the embodiment of willingness, when I am willing to include all parts of myself, when I’m not avoiding that which I’m afraid of, when I’m willing to feel all fears of fear of feeling, when I’m willing to feel that which I’ve been afraid of, which doesn’t mean you’re creating yourself into that, it just means you’re not resisting the experience that you’re afraid to have, it means you’re not controlling yourself away from it, which, often times, I find, we end up self-fulfilling ourselves. If we have too much resistance, that’s why the saying “What you resist, persists”, with so much resistance and pressure against something, we actually have a certain amount of attention on it, and we will, very commonly, have to actualize ourselves into that reality, so that we’re afraid of gets stirred up and we have to generate the tools in order to hold ourselves right there. And then, through that process, we develop and build trust in ourselves that goes beyond anything we had ever experienced before, which, when we trust ourselves, we’re not resisting that which we’re afraid of in the same way, and that is liberation.

And so, to embody my highest self, means that I’m willing to feel it all, and that’s means expanding emotional resilience and capacity. I believe, on the highest, highest level, we’re all connected, we’re all one, we all came from Source, and we chose to incarnate into an individuated form. So, we chose to come into a separative experience into the body. And when we come into the body, this body is the only body on this entire planet that is uniquely attuned to receive the frequency of your higher self consciousness. Like, I’ve got the antenna for the unique curriculum, personality structure, liberated expression of my soul that is meant to be channeled through this system, through this body, in this lifetime. 

So, the first step, for me, is to actually receive the texture of who it is that you are, what is the frequency that your body is tuned to receive, what are the textures of her, the you that is free. Like, if I really connect and open up my channel to connect to me that is free, what is she like, how does she feel, what does the most liberated expression of my essence actually feel like? But that’s a different thing to attune into that, than it is to embody it. So, you can tune into how you move, how you walk, how you feel, your dharmic purpose on the planet in this lifetime, but then, to actually embody it (that’s step two), you become familiar, that’s through meditation, you’re becoming familiar with the frequency that is yours to steward through this body, in this lifetime.

Then, the second step, from my perspective, is to embody that frequency. Now, on the phase of embodiment, which you spoke to in the intro, when we devote ourselves to becoming the embodied expression of our higher self consciousness, that means Spirit is moving through your system at speed. So, Spirit comes in, inspiration strikes and you are instantly in the action of it. There’s no fear, there’s nothing obstructing the liberated force of God consciousness moving through your body and your action. That is a tall glass of water, that means you have deconditioned all of your humanity’s conditioning. 

And there’s something in that that, like, I really feel like, for me, it’s been a really humbling journey just to say “Okay, now, what is the embodied expression of me that is free?”

So, then, when we bring that in to the body, it will illuminate everything that’s not a match. In my container, it’s a lot of the trauma healing that comes up, where the fears are, where the conditioned protection patterns are, will come up very strong, in contrast to this deep devotion that you’ve made to, now you’ve received yourself, now that you’re embodying that frequency, so you’re in the action, speaking, saying something that you’ve been afraid to say, for the very first time, singing on stage, writing a song, serving in a way that you never thought you could, and everything you’ve been afraid to touch, in protecting yourself. We keep ourselves small, we over-effort, we, all, the protection mechanisms, as we start to shed them away, it’s really vulnerable, because in that reality, you are willing to feel the thing you’ve been the most afraid to feel, to embody the frequency of your higher self, that means, I’m saying “I’m willing to feel that which I’ve protected myself from my entire life”. That is so courageous, that is so courageous!

So, embodiment, that’s where a lot of the deeper somatic work and trauma healing, nervous system recalibration, to help to actually expand your nervous system capacity, to capacitate the energy of fear, the energy of grief, the energy of heartbreak, the energy of sadness, the energy of failure, the energy of rejection, are you willing to risk feeling those feelings that you’ve spent a lifetime protecting yourself from? That’s what it takes to embody the frequency of your higher self.

And then, from there, once you feel that you are in a large degree, because I don’t know if we’re ever all the way there, but if you’re getting there, to a large degree, the third phase, from my perspective, is, then, expression. So, receiving, you receive, become familiar with the unique frequency of what it is you’re here for, at the highest level, and then embodying that through devotion, that can take years of deep work to really calibrate the body to be able to source that energy. And then, once you’re in there, there will be a shift, and once that shift happens, now, we’re in the expression, now we’re doing the things we never thought we could never do, now we’re singing the prayers we never thought we could sing, now people are showing up in front of you and saying “There’s something different about this person. I feel different when I’m in this person’s field”. And often, contrasting energy can come up, you’re the walking as the expression of your liberated being, that can bring up a lot of contrast in other people who aren’t there yet, that’s where competitiveness and comparison and unworthiness, and those pieces can come up. So, actually having a field of invitation for others to do this work is what I’m here for, you know.

[12:17] Sahara

That was the most comprehensive answer I’ve ever heard to that question. So, much to share, I’m like “Where do we get started here?”

It’s funny that you said that because, yeah, to me, my process has been to emote, embody and express, like, feeling the thing. And I’ve noticed, in my own process as well, of like, we spend our entire lives running from that thing that we don’t want to feel, and that’s why most people, you know, they don’t start the healing journey, you know, because they’re so afraid of feeling that core unworthiness, or abandonment, or unimportance, or whatever that thing was, and just, like, feeling it feels like “If I actually felt it, I wouldn’t never be able to get out of it”. 

And so, I think we create all these protection mechanisms and create all this, like, logical sense of like “Oh, I don’t need to do that because XYZ”. 

Like, for me, just recently, I went to Burning Man in 2019 and it wasn’t my thing and I just had this like, I was like “I don’t like Burning Man, it’s too much work and it’s dusty and it’s blah, blah, blah”, and then most recently, the past couple of days, I’m like, I have resistance there and I know so many of my dear friends, it’s like this huge, like, revelatory experience for them. So, what if I went into this thing that I don’t want to do, that feels uncomfortable, that feels like a lot of work, knowing that there is magic to it, that just wasn’t my experience at that level of time, but then I’m like “Why am I going to put myself through feeling discomfort? Why am I going to put myself through that? My life is great here”. And it’s like, oh, because there’s resistance, it’s there for me. Exactly.

So, it’s funny because I feel like Source Consciousness, almost makes us have to walk into our biggest fear to grow. And it feels by design, and that has been my life and, you know, your life as well.

So, where do we cross that line between like “Okay, I’m really afraid of this thing, let me walk into it”, vs. like, just making our lives hard, and how do we know the medicine is going into your fear vs., like, nourishment and taking the path of ease?

[14:16] Zahara

Totally, it’s such a good question! So, I love, even around Burning Man because it just brings me back to that, I went very comprehensive in my response, and the simplicity, if we want to condense my response into one word, it’s willingness. It’s willingness, I’m embodied in my higher self consciousness when I’m willing, and within willingness, includes compassion.

Willing is not perfect, willing doesn’t mean it’s going to be comfortable, willing doesn’t mean it will go the way you think you want it to go. And I said the way you think you want it to go because, often, when it doesn’t go the way we think we want it to go, it went the way we need it to go, so that we can get to where we need to be for the next season of our life. 

And I feel like there’s something in that that’s really valuable, relative to your question where, I know, through many seasons of deeply initiatory experiences. And when I say initiatory energy, I mean something that, on the other side of it, you’re not the same anymore. And after those initiatory seasons, the result, even though I was experiencing that, which I didn’t prefer, the result on the other side was a level of trust in life, that I wouldn’t change trade for the world. And when you know that – so, I feel like, let’s add trust into the ingredient with the higher self embodiment, willingness and trust, and sometimes to really gain embodied trust beyond concept, we have to die before we die, we have to actually surrender control, and it’s hard to do that through concept, say we’re just under control and you’ll develop trust, that’s, like, easier said than done, right? 

And so, for me, on the other side of getting slapped around hard by the Universe, having to let go of everything in my known reality multiple times, as soon as I did, life showed up in ways that blew my mind every time. And I realized the degree that I don’t resist the release that is happening. So, if there’s a surrender, if there’s a letting to go that you’re being asked, the place you’ve always lived, the familiarity, the relationship with the person you thought you would be with for the rest of your life, the degree that you don’t resist the release that’s happening, is the degree that you can simultaneously receive the new life that’s coming in.

And so, that doesn’t mean – if you’re not resisting it, it doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt. So, this is to your question, if it’s happening, I trust that it needs to be happening. And if there’s a big initiatory energy happening in your life, I don’t think you can just decide to take a self-care day and it’ll go away. I really believe that we can recognize – like, the Burning Man piece feels like a choice, that feels like your bad-assery being, like “Yo, like, I’m pretty solid, I’ve been through many initiatory archs that I didn’t choose and now I’m like, I’m working, I call myself a liberation artist, I’m working my liberation artistry, and like, when I track my field, and this is you in active participation in life, I feel, if I’m consciously tracking from my edges “Oh, there’s one there”, hmm, that’s, kind of, where you sit in the question of like “Do I want to, like, stabilize in a deeper level of self-care, would that be valuable for me in this season?” I would say the answer to that is yes, if you’ve just been through a major initiatory arch. And you can feel with your intuition that “You know what, right now, I think the most self-loving, you know, stabilizing choice, would be to nourish and restore, not to resist another initiation happening, but actually to replenish so that when change comes again, when the next big ask comes again, especially for those of you who are leaders, and facilitators, and guides, and lighthouses, on the planet, in whatever form. And I imagine, if you’re listening to this Podcast, you’re one of those.

The initiatory archs are coming, they come and they really change us in ways that are good, and they hurt, sometimes, on the way, but it’s good. And so, if you need to restore after a big one, you kind of know, you’re like “Wow, phew, I feel like I just turned that corner”, you know.

[18:28] Sahara

And sometimes, too, after a big one, it kind of makes you want to make the choices as well. Like, I found that, during my divorce, I never was a cold plunger before, but I wanted to start doing it because it would make me realize pain is just sensation and this too shall pass. And it was, like, the somatic practice of that, of like “I really don’t want to go into that, and once I do, I feel amazing after”. Then, after a while of doing that, I just didn’t feel like I needed that medicine anymore and it served its role for me.

But I think that, yeah, we can take these moments and, like, lean into it, and then that medicine is acquired, that sometimes the medicine is like, you don’t always need to be chasing the next healing modality as well. And it’s, like, finding that balance within yourself of where do you naturally tend to lean.

[19:11] Zahara

And that can be tough too, because we also, in the personal development space, can kind of get off on getting expanded and the next big expansion. And so, to move into the non-doing, actually then becomes the next big expansion. And just to know when we really do need to restore, and there’s a difference. But it’s important to be willing, and that trust that comes from the initiatory archs, for me, help me recognize when something I really don’t prefer, is rising, and like, wow, I’ve had resistance to that, you know. And this is something that’s here for me, and sometimes it comes in really subtle ways now, where I can see the way my own pattern of either, one example is needing, like, things will feel really, really good, and then there’s like an upper limiting thing that can happen for me, that I’m working through right now where it’s like “Oh, I need to, then, make sure that what’s really good is really true and is really going to stay”, and that’s a fear of losing love, the idea of the other shoe is going to drop and this need to check. And then, when I overcheck or I over start to force, and that’s the energy of control, I’ll notice this, like, ripple in the field, where then you actually start to push, self-fulfil your way right out of the thing that was already happening, that you wanted. 

So, we really are an active participation with life, and sometimes in any relation, like, sometimes life is doing a little bit more of the heavy lifting, of here’s the next wave of expansion. And sometimes you’re in the seat of like “Oh, do I want to be proactive in this next wave of expansion, or am I actually responding to this is where the growth is right now”. They are a little bit different, and sometimes it’s right in the middle, where you’re, kind of, in that sweet choice point.

[21:01] Sahara

And I find, the more that we choose to die, the less intense the deaths are.

[21:05] Zahara

For sure!

[21:06] Sahara

You know, of like, previous me was like “Oh, I don’t want to stick with ayahuasca, that sounds like really intense and I don’t want to vomit”, now, whereas, this Saturday, I’m sitting my first ceremony, which I’m very excited about. And you know, the old me was just like “I’m afraid of what will come up”, you know, and now I’m like, the only thing that can come up are emotions, and I’m willing to feel it all. And it’s like, I’ve felt so much, that I’m just like, I’m actually excited to know what does the next level feeling feel like, you know, because it makes you come alive, the more that you feel. It’s like, these parts of you come online and you realize that you were just operating at, like, this much of the frequency of life, like, radio station, like, 94-105, and now you’re like 80-120. Like, I think of it when I’m, like, DJ-ing, you know, it’s like, if I just, like, stay in the 120 range, the set is going to be all the same, but if I’m like, working my way down, it’s really a dynamic set. And it’s like, that’s your life, right? Like, you need to have these different genres.

But yes, to experience those higher highs, bliss, unity consciousness and love, you need to go into the low ends, you know, and you need to feel that pain and that suffering.

And I realized that I had spent my whole life so afraid of pain, so afraid of suffering, and then, it was like, I wouldn’t have chosen to go into it, so God made me have to go into it, and now I’m like “So, let me choose it in these micro ways”, and then I don’t need to have this, like, crazy experience. It can just be “Okay, I can feel that something’s off, I can feel there’s that next initiation”, and that’s how it does become exciting, of just like “Oh, what else is under the hood of the car that I’m not aware of?”

[22:44] Zahara

Yeah.

[22:44] Sahara

So, I want to dive deeper, just into the concept of liberation. You know, I feel like a lot of us, when we think of liberation, we think of, I don’t know, like, take your top off, or like, I don’t know, the 4th July. It’s almost like a word we haven’t really embodied in our lives and our vocabulary. Even, like, the word freedom, it’s like, we think of human rights, but it’s like, to you, what’s it like to live a liberated life?

[23:09] Zahara

Yeah, living a liberated life is a life where I surprise myself again and again, and I find that I’m able to unlock untapped potentials as an infinite being, channeling Source Consciousness through a finite body, which sounds so meta. I’ve had so many lifetimes in this lifetime, I hear myself, even that sentence that I just said “I’m an infinite being, channeling infinite consciousness through this finite form”.

In my Olympic athlete phase, or my sports agent phase, I didn’t have an ounce of connection to that, even that type of language. In the first 7 years of my journey of awakening, I had no touchpoint to the possibility that I could play music, sing songs, play the guitar, work the drum. Like, now, I’m able to hold hours of sound on my own, because I was willing to feel the feeling of it not sounding good, I was willing to feel the feeling of being rejected, what if it doesn’t work, what if people don’t like it, what if… you know, all those feelings. Everything around speaking to here, is through the willingness to feel the shadow sides of the spectrum, which I spent so much of my life protecting myself from. And the way that would look for me, historically, was, people-pleasing, contorting myself, keeping myself small. 

When someone’s in that type of protection, they’re afraid, they’re afraid of being rejected, of love being taken, of love being conditional, right, of not being included. These are, like, primal human instinctual pieces, that it makes a lot of sense that we would protect ourselves from.

And so, I had to be, actually, willing and go through a season of letting relationships recede for a while, so that I could feel what it is to have my own back fully, no matter what. And in that, and then put myself out there, and be vulnerable, and try things that I’d never tried before. And that’s what liberation means to me, is that I’m just willing to be having fun with life, to try new things, to rock it out and surprise myself. If I’m not surprising myself with what’s possible, like, right now, I’m watching you DJ-ing, you’re finding new iterations of who you are and what’s possible for you, because the higher self consciousness that you’re stewarding through this body, is limitless. We are limitless beings with so much uncapped potential and so many different categories. 

Now, the body that we chose to come in with, I really do feel we all each have a unique design and that design is connected to our body, the combo of the consciousness, being channeled through the body. So, focusing our attention as we discover and we unlock more of what’s possible for us, we’re going to start to lock into our design even more. And we find that through what we’re excited about, what do you lose time, what are you doing when time goes away? When I’m in my facilitation mode and facilitating ceremonies and immersions, I can do that marathon level for a full 24-hour experience, an overnight experience, that’s a 10-hour, full on, and it feels like 30 minutes, for me, it’s when you’re losing time and it’s the same for anyone else. So, if you haven’t found what it is that allows you to go into a timeless state, I know that there’s more.

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[26:40] Advertisement

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So, you can head over to rggquiz.com to learn what your unique Rose Gold Goddess Archetype is. Again, that’s rggquiz.com and you can find that link in the show notes. And I’ve created custom graphics that you get in your results so you can share which Rose Gold Goddess Archetype you are. I’m super excited to see!

[28:12] End of Advertisement

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[28:13] Sahara

And I want to stop right there because what you’re describing is living your dharma. And also, what you’re describing is, you may have dharmas and things that you’ve never actually yet tried. And I think that a lot of us think “Well, if I was a good singer, I would’ve been gifted with a good voice. So, because I didn’t have a good voice, that’s not my dharma”. And yes, some people actually have better voices than others, but then, look, for you, that wasn’t your background, you were a sports agent and an athlete, and now you’re singing for hours on end, and your greatest expression is singing. And we’ve shared, first, it was surrounding yourself by musicians, then you realized why, it was because you wanted to be that. And it was the same for me, of like, I was like “I want to date a DJ”, because I wanted to be a DJ, but I thought I could never do that, so how can I be close to it. 

And now, even for me too, it’s like, I love people’s voices, I’m, like, very, like, magnetized, I hear that a lot, and it’s because I haven’t – I mean, I’ve done my speaking voice, but I haven’t stepped into my singing voice yet, because that’s what’s there for me.

So then, we have those things, that it’s like, how do we not have the courage to step into this new uncomfortable thing that you’re not good at it. Like being a coach, like, at the beginning, you probably, the first coaching session, you talked the whole time, you don’t even let the person talk, and it’s like that discomfort at the beginning, most of us never go through, that we – it’s like Aladdin going through that little, you know, that gold mine thing, that there’s nothing there and like boom, all this gold, and it’s like, that’s there, on the other side. So, it’s like, finding that balance between the things that come easy for you, effortless for you, you know it’s why you’re here. 

I’m the same way, I could do this Podcast, I’m like on hour 5 right now and it felt like 5 minutes. And there are also expressions that I don’t even know about yet that will become part of my life’s work.

[30:02] Zahara

Including potentially singing.

[30:04] Sahara

I’ve created that runway now, I was like “One day, I will be here, singing!” And even, like, my relationship with plant medicine and things like that, I was like “That’s not my path”, and it’s like, now, that identity has changed. So, it’s like, letting new parts of ourselves come online, with wrapping them with who we’ve already been all along.

[30:26] Zahara

Yeah. It’s amazing and I’m so excited to experience all these new iterations of what you’re stepping into on the other side of some of life’s biggest initiatory death portals, is life. That’s the cycle, that’s the nature of life, that’s the nature of nature, it’s cyclical. We’re going to go through life/death life cycles no matter what, that’s what it is to be human on the planet, at this time. If we’re in resistance to the death part of the cycle, that is what’s going to yield stagnation, you know.

So, I really appreciate the many iterations that I’ve gotten to journey through, that has led to more possibility spectrum opening. And with singing, I mean, I wouldn’t consider myself a professional musician, but I would say that I can now hold a field with my voice, and it’s not about having the best voice, it’s about loving the voice that you have and going all in on the voice that you have. And I’m telling you, if I can sing, you can sing. And it’s literally just the willingness again, I keep coming back to that word, it’s the willingness and the devotion. But really, where do we want to apply our devotion, it’s to that which we’re most passionate about. And you’ve really got to devote yourself, so find what has you go timeless and then devote yourself right there.

[31:45] Sahara

And to me, another part of liberation is the rewilding of ourselves, of tuning back into our natural, primal, untouched nature, because society has so deeply domesticated us that we’re, like, playing all these roles and wearing all these masks and performing our lives, you know.

Like, even with social media, I witnessed in myself, of like, I was, like, at this gorgeous waterfall in Costa Rica and my first inclination was to grab my phone and take a video for the Instagram stories, rather than being at this waterfall. And it’s like, even just those layers of domestication. 

So, how can we, first, become aware of them and then release them?

[32:25] Zahara

Yeah. Slow down enough to really listen. And I notice, for myself, deconstructing and deprogramming the social media addiction is significant, and when I really slow down enough, I can see that when I do that, there’s something that I’m wanting to get away from inside of myself, even if that something is the feeling of being bored, or doing nothing, or lacking some sort of stimulation. But why is it something to resist if we’re lacking stimulation? Stimulation in the form of talking to a friend, or social media, if you need to have something happening all of the time, there’s something that we’re afraid to feel. 

And rewilding, for me, is coming back to my primal nature, it is coming back to my connection to the planet, to the earth, to the breath, to the waters, to the trees. And if I’m in nature, the way that I appreciate it the most is to get still. And in that stillness, it doesn’t mean that it’s always firm golly comfortable, you know, firm golly beautiful and fairytale vibes, it’s like, wow, when I get the most still, that’s often the most revelatory place to be.

I have this tree, it’s not my tree, there’s a tree that I love, in Topanga, and it’s this incredible, the biggest grandmother oak that I’ve ever seen, and it’s just so beautiful. And it’s the secret spot, in over all my years here in LA, I would just go to this tree and find time to be by myself, there’s no service, so I can’t check my phone, even if I want to. And in this stillness, in that place, in that space, is where I meet myself the most. That’s where I find, I notice all the ways that I want to reach outside of myself, in order to feel safe, in order to feel secure, in order to feel whole. And I find the security and the stability through in-training, co-in-training, co-in-regulating with the tree. You can co-regulate with the earth and move it, you know, connect it to the Shuman resonance. The Shuman sequency, which is the pace of the planet, and to really feel that, to breathe that up through your feet. We are of the earth. To breathe that up through your feet, we’ve got to find our way home, to move slow, and that’s earth energy, that’s earth energy, that’s the most wild.  

It’s, I think we’ve jammed on this a little bit, from, you know, there’s Eastern traditions, and there’s, you know, these South American and Native traditions, earth-based wisdom, and then, there’s also the more transcendent, right? There’s leaving the body through spirituality, it’s like the elevator goes up, transcending the form. A lot of the Eastern traditions really encourage more of the transcending the form, coming out of the feeling, not letting the drama of all of the form get a hold of you. And then, there’s the earth-based traditions, which is so much about the howling at the moon, dancing around the fire, permission to feel and express fully, that’s the path of embodiment. 

And so, I really, I walk more the path of embodiment and I find that the path of transcendence is also really important medicine. They’re complementary, I think both are super important because we can go into the shadow of what’s rewilding. There’s like, first stage in David Data’s work, first stage, second stage, third stage. The first stage and the third stage can look very similar. So, if we put it in that framework, wild, you know, often, in the first stage, it’s just like “I need to get free at all costs”, so, first stage wild is like, you know, a woman who’s been contracted, closed, repressed her whole life, just in that explosive “Fuck you”. It’s almost like a teenager, kind of, a rebellion, like “Fuck you, I’m free, I can do what I want”, you know, that kind of energy. And that’s actually really important, that’s an important stage of development, to blow away all of the control systems that you’ve bought into at any point. We’re always responsible for whatever it is we’ve chosen to buy into, we blow them out with our rebellion, like “I can do what I want, I can run naked outside and howl at the moon”, it’s kind of like “Fuck it”, you know. And then, there’s a grounding in of, I would say, the second stage (if we’re using this framework), which is more of a balanced, integrative place of mutual respect for self and other. And then, there’s the third stage, which I think is, kind of, where we’re aiming for, which is total devotion to whatever’s true and needed in the moment. 

And sometimes, what takes the most courage and what’s true and needed in the moment, the wildest thing you could do in certain situations, is be quiet. But that isn’t because you’re repressed, that’s because you’re not speaking out of force or pressure, it’s because what’s true in that moment. The most wild and authentic thing that you can do is actually hold the mark, hold the line in the moment. And then, in that same, a different scenario, same day, the most true, authentic thing you can do is hold a boundary and speak a truth that is really scary to say. And that’s wild! That was wild, Sahara said that and I was like “Wow”, and I really sat with it later, that took a lot of courage to say, that was wild. But she had to go through phase one, of liberating, being willing to do that; phase two, become integrative, landing in it, not needing to do that; but then, phase three is again, just being willing to do whatever it takes that is true for you in the moment. That’s spirit moving at speed through the body, that is you embodying your highest self. That’s wild, that’s nature, that is what is what is natural, that is supernatural, that is supernatural, to be fully allied and devoted to the moment and willing to do, and not do, whatever serves the highest for you. Which, if it serves the highest for you, and it’s true for you, it will absolutely serve everyone around you, it will serve the field that level of devotion and willingness, that’s third stage wild. That’s higher self embodied. That’s hot! I love that, that’s where, you know, that’s the aim.

[38:31] Sahara

Yes. It’s so interesting that you say that because this morning, I was, like, observing in myself of – you know, after my divorce, I was like “I’m travelling everywhere, I’m in Egypt, I’m in Dubai, now I’m in Bali, and now I’m in Trinidad, now I’m in St. Lucia, I’m DJ-ing at Costa Rica”, for months. Then I came back to LA and I was like “I kind of just like want to stay at my house and ground”, but like “I’m free, I can live anywhere I want, like, why would I do that?”, but I was like, but that’s my genuine desire. I love my inner bad bitch, that’s like, you know, all over, but I just want to ground, and have these conversations, and have a routine, and a fridge, and you know, do my writing and stuff. And it’s like, I have the full potentiality to it all and I’m choosing this in this moment.

[39:16] Zahara

It’s not because you’re repressed, it’s because it’s true.

[39:18] Sahara

Exactly. And I was like, it’s so interesting because we think, yeah, imagine you just got out of a jail, for example, it’s like, the first thing you’re going to do is whatever you can do, you’re going to eat, you’re going to whatever, and then, it’s like, you’re going to, not create a new jail, but create a new cocoon and create a new nest. And I think there’s something really natural in that, that, like, we need those ebbs and flows of winters and the summers, and the winters and the summers, and then we can have more micro expressions of it that, like, maybe this weekend, we’ll all get naked and howl at the moon and have that.

[39:49] Zahara

We might.

[39:50] Sahara

Yeah, we probably will. And then be able to have, like, a really inwardly week where you’re just, like, really committed to your work and, like, loving doing that too.

You know, I think, sometimes when you’re not – like, I asked people who are not living their dharmas, I’m like “If you could do anything you want, and you won the lottery, what would you do?”, and they’re like “I would just hang on a beach forever”, and I’m like “Would you really?”, you know, because even that beach would get boring after a while. So, I feel like that’s exactly what liberation is, is to choose, and choosing doesn’t mean the most grandiose thing at the time, but to choose what actually feels like the right next step for you.

So, so many juicy tidbits to share. So, if someone is listening right now and maybe they’re feeling like “Okay, I’m in this death and rebirth cycle, but I haven’t allowed myself to fully die, you know, I’m still holding onto a past relationship or the job, or the thing. I’m so afraid of letting go”, what advice do you have for them?

[40:48] Zahara

First of all, compassion, you know. Becoming aware, I would say, is the first step, just be willing to become aware of where you are holding on, and be honest with yourself about that.

And then, when you are honest with yourself about where you’re actually holding on, that means you’re speaking to a part of yourself that’s afraid, because if you’re holding on, and in control, holding on, for example, to a relationship that has expired, and you know that and you have to fight to be in it, and it’s expired, there’s a part of you that’s terrified to experience the feelings on the other side of what that release would be, and to go into the unknown which, may be the first time, ever, truly going into the unknown, you know.

I had a big break-up after a 4-year relationship where we built ourselves into a reality that was everything I thought I wanted, beautiful home in the Palisades, incredible community here, serving in a good way, both of us, man I thought I’d be for the rest of my life, and then, I started feeling stagnant and I held on for as long as I could and we laid it all on the field, we did everything and then we found out the house was being sold. And by the time we moved out of the house, we decided to each go to different countries, create separation for a month, and by the end of that month, we ended the relationship. And I found myself in a foreign country, no longer living in the city I had been in for 8 years, no longer knowing if I’d even be back with my huge community that I felt safe with, the relationship with the man I thought I’d be for the rest of my life, over, had no idea what was next, and just on my knees in the jungle, for the very first time, like, wow, you know. 

And what happened in that moment is, I made up a story, which in some way is true, that from my facilitator hat – so, take what’s true in this, right, that I had to know, for the first time in my life, that I could hold myself through that initiation. 

So, I had a session with a somatic therapist during that time, that a friend recommended to me, and my nervous system was, like, freaking out, even on a higher level, this brings us back to the highest self and the body. On a higher level I could see that, while this was going to be a reference point for me, for the very first time of actually holding myself in a truly unknown place, with heartbreak, with trauma coming up, and with awareness, that I’m not going to numb, escape, run away from it, like, really, like, I’m here for this, I’m choosing this. I had enough perspective and context at that point to recognize this was an initiatory energy that was creating a reference point for me, to actually hold the work that I do, with integrity, for others to move through these life passages. And still, my body, in that moment, freaking out. My nervous system, like, panic attacks, in the jungle, by myself, this heartbreak relationship, barely able to fully accept that. 

And this somatic therapist gets on with me and I shared with her while I’m, like, in tears, I’m in the mind, I’m in the story and in the theory of, you know, I chose this, and this is happening, it’s going to amplify the work I’m doing with the Dojo field and I’m in the unknown, and I need to know that I don’t need anything or anyone outside of myself, to hold myself through this, I need to know. And she said “You know, Zahara, the story you’re telling me right now, like, I feel you in the facilitation of it, and perhaps, looking back, retrospectively, you’ll see that, which is, what happened. And I feel really sad for the little girl in you right now, that you’re asking to white-knuckle on the level of the body, through this experience. This is really hard, what you’re going through right now, this is a really big thing. And if you see, this is like developmental level stuff coming up where you feel, you know, like the masculine safety authority figure is not…, this is, like, developmental trauma coming up for you, where you’re feeling abandoned, you’re feeling alone, nobody’s there to support you”, you know, all those things. But it wasn’t nobody was there to support me, it was that I had a story that I had to do it myself, so I wasn’t open to the support. 

So, in that moment, she said “If you see a baby in a bassinet, or even a 3-year-old in a crib or a small bed, and that 3-year-old is crying, or 1-year-old is losing their mind, or even bring it lower, I mean younger, because this is developmental trauma coming up, which, it rings the bell of the whole line, if you’re about to release something that big. If you see a baby crying in a crib, you don’t take away its pillow, take away its bottle, tell the mother to leave and say “You figure it out yourself”, you say “Oh my god, how can we make this more comfortable for you. This is a really big thing that you’re feeling, that’s a big feeling, you got this. Here’s a bottle, here’s another blanket, let’s bring the momma’s face over, and like, you don’t have to do this by yourself Zahara. You know, like, the 1-year-old in you, so, maybe there is a reality where, you, doing this for yourself actually looks like creating a reality where you’re receiving support”, and that really landed for me.

So, what happened after that, as soon as I opened up my field and I was like “Wow, like, I actually get to take care of myself, deeply, through this experience, which includes receiving support from others, that is me receiving support from myself”. I walk into a coffee shop, that day, and a dear brother of mine was sitting on his computer, I have this big house in the jungle in Costa Rica, that I’m at by myself, and he’s sitting on a computer looking at Airbnbs, he’s like “Wow, Zahara!”, we hadn’t seen each other in a good couple of years, but he’s a good, dear, brother. And he was also going through a break-up and he’s looking at Airbnbs on a computer to move into that day, and I was like “Man, do I have a spot, you should just come stay with me”. And after that, it was like this windfall of support in every form, coming in, I was just open to support in whatever form, whatever’s the bottle from my 1-year-old, from my 10-year-old, from my 25-year-old, from my 35-year-old, whatever it is, it was just like one stepping stone after the next, showing up. And that’s where that trust in life began to build, in a way that feels like it’s integrated, where now, I know when the next big ones, you know, big initiatory archs come, I trust and I know.

So, for the ones going through that right now, that are holding on, they’re like “Wow, I just can’t seem to let go, I’m too afraid, I’m at the edge of the precipice and if I jump, I just don’t have the reference point that the net will appear”, I would say, first, just be willing to know and be honest with yourself that that’s where you are, and bring compassion to the fact that that is really scary. And compassion is the lubrication that a true evolutionary process needs to actually feel healing. 

We want to, like, stretch, but we don’t want to break a leg, you know what I mean? So, it’s like “Wow”. Then, when you start to feel this environment of compassion and no matter what, like, with yourself, like, no matter what, you could stay “I’m aware that I’m staying in this relationship longer than is true, and maybe I’m not just not ready, I need another month to fully, thoroughly explore it”, that’s me, like stretching, but I’m not going to break a leg. And then, life will continue to make it harder to stay, as soon as you’re honest with yourself, and then, there will come a time where you’re ready to let go, and it doesn’t mean it’s not going to be scary, but when you let go, that’s where we’ll start to find all the ways that we had needs that weren’t met in any point of our life. They’re going to come up and we get to find the way to meet those needs for ourselves, and sometimes it doesn’t look the way we think it’s going to look. Meeting our own needs, sometimes, doing it ourselves, having a backbone, doesn’t always look like “I have to know, I’m doing this for myself, I’m self-sourcing”, this is all coming from inside. It’s true, that’s true, and your energy is an attraction field. We are relational beings, so the what you need in the moment, it fluctuates. So, can we just let any story go about what it looks like that you’ll need, and just know that you’re willing to give yourself whatever it is that you need when you jump off that ledge into the unknown, and life will support that process. But that reference point is a big one.

[48:59] Sahara

I love that. Well, thank you so much for sharing all of your wisdom here, I deeply resonate with your story of the exact same thing. It was really, like, my dark night of the soul that opened me up to receiving support and community, and sometimes we need that experience. And it’s going to hurt regardless, so, it’s like, do we want to prolong the pain or are we ready to dive into it.

So, thank you for all of your wisdom and your stories. And where can listeners connect with you further?

[49:25] Zahara

Yeah. So, you guys can find me on Instagram at @zaharazimring and my website is the same. I’m calling in the women now, for an intimate group for the next round of the Dojo Immersed, which is a 3-month higher self embodiment initiation that Iactually described at the beginning of the Episode. And you’ll know, I really trust that the women who are meant to come into the Dojo field will feel it and will know. And I encourage you to reach out to me, this is the time, calling in the women now. So, I feel really grateful to have the opportunity to be exposed to your community, and I know, knowing you and who you are, and the way that you walk, that the women and men listening are a reflection of that.

And so, I feel really grateful to get to transmit my message and my heart and my work into a field like that, so, thank you.

[50:19] Sahara

Beautiful! Thank you so much for being here today! And thank you so much for tuning in!

[50:24] Sahara

If you loved this Episode, I would love for you to leave a review on the iTunes Store, and as a free gift, I will send you my Womb Meditation, which is a meditation to connect to your womb’s inner wisdom and receive her answers, because our bodies know, we just need to take that moment of stillness to really drop in and listen.

So, you can head over to podcasts on your iPhone or the Apple Store, leave a review and take a screenshot and send it over to me at [email protected] you can find that email in the show notes and I will email you over my free Womb Meditation.

[50:57] Sahara

Be sure to also share this Episode with anyone that you think will benefit from it, share it on your stories, we need more liberated souls out there, living their dharmas, living their fullest expressions, and being permission slips for other people of what’s possible. This is how we co-create the world that we all seek to be a part of.

[51:14] Sahara

So, I just honor you for really tuning into this conversation, it takes a certain type of frequency for being here, so, I see you, I feel you and together, we’re going to co-create this beautiful liberated world.

[51:26] Sahara

So, thank you so much for tuning in and I’ll see you on the next one. Namaste!

The Path to Liberation with Zahara Zimring
By Sahara Rose