What I learned from Gabby Bernstein
We’re in a continuous lockdown state in the middle of winter here in Toronto, and I felt like I needed an uplifting book to read. I started off the pandemic reading interesting, historical books (and even some thrillers!) but slowly as February crept in and the lockdown started to feel longer and slower, I began gravitating to lighter more feel good novels. It happened to be right at the point where I was finishing up my life coaching course through Jay Shetty’s accredited life coaching program while working full time. I was so excited about the new journey my life was going to take through coaching but I was also filled with questions and fear around whether I had what it takes to succeed.
I began meditating more using a mixture of my own prayer and spiritual practice with meditations I’d find on YouTube — Vishen Lakhiani’s 6 phase meditation and Gabby Bernstein meditations. I found myself feeling really connected to Gabby’s meditations and began exploring her work more. That’s when I realized Gabby had written a book that I had heard about years ago, The Universe has your back. I remember a friend telling me how this book was life-changing for her and for some reason I had let years pass without reading it! I was at a point where I really needed some positive comfort so I decided to download it on my kobo and settled into a night of reading.
Here’s what I learned from Gabby Bernstein’s, The Universe has your back.
The power of surrendering. We are all so accustomed to trying to control our days. From the moment we wake up, we have a goal. Throughout the day, we try to force ourselves to act according to our goals and immediately get frustrated when we fall short. What if we tried it the other way around? What if our goals moved according to the signs we were getting throughout our days? Imagine you woke up and just meditated, letting your mind go completely blank. Then imagine that you set an intention to spread love throughout the day and then allowed the Universe, God, or whatever spiritual entity feels right to you, take over and lead you through the day. Would you feel lighter? In Gabby’s book she talks about the idea of ‘co-creating’ with the Universe. This refers to acknowledging that although we as humans were given immense power there is a higher power that is also guiding us. Once we surrender to the will of the Universe, our intuition guides us throughout the day — allowing us to move through a day that is designed more purposely for us. This doesn’t mean we’re completely giving up control of our lives. It just means we’re pushing our ego aside along with the need to control everything and allowing our core purpose to find us and guide us. Practicing this can help us feel aligned and a lot less anxious as we begin to realize that we don’t have to figure everything out.
Choose again. The choose again concept refers to the fact that we are all continuously growing, evolving and learning. Sometimes in this process, we make mistakes or think ugly thoughts. When was the last time you felt envious, resentful or angry? All of these are such normal human emotions and none of them make you a negative person. You’re not defined by these emotions. In fact, these emotions can be seen as lessons pushing you to ‘choose again’ and enter a space of love instead. When you ‘choose again’, you can replace any one of these emotions with a thought of love for the other person or for yourself. The more you do this, you’ll start to feel these negative emotions fade away and begin to be empowered by the love you created. The negative emotions are there to show us that as humans we often come from a place of lack and the more we ‘choose again’ the more we grow into who we’re supposed to be.
The dichotomy of growth and fear. This concept in Gabby’s book resonated the most with me. She talks about the idea that often when something great happens to us, we begin to feel fearful about whether we deserve it. We try not to jinx it and often worry that we’re not ready or that it’ll be taken from us. The dichotomy of growth and fear is so present for many of us that we strip ourselves of the beauty of just embracing the growth in our lives. Gabby talks about showing appreciation for these beautiful things and just being grateful. We can also ‘choose again’ when we notice our ego popping up with feelings of fear telling us that something is too good to be true. These feelings can take us away from trusting in the Universe and it’s plan for us.
Overall, I loved the book and I finished it feeling lighter and full of love and peace. If you’re looking for a little bit of reassurance and guidance during this extended period of lockdowns or even just something to take your mind off the news these days — I would highly recommend Gabby Bernstein’s book, The Universe has your back. just as much!