240: How to Truly Connect with Your Heart to Achieve Fulfillment from the Inside-Out with Wellness Expert and Author, Kimberly Snyder

In this episode of The Light Watkins Show, Light sits down with renowned author and wellness expert, Kimberly Snyder, to discuss her new book, The Hidden Power of the Five Hearts. Kimberly, known for blending spiritual wisdom with modern science, shares her groundbreaking insights on how the heart plays a critical role in both physical and emotional wellness.

During their conversation, Kimberly takes listeners through the five stages of heart awakening: the Dark Heart, the Propelled Heart, the Steady Heart, the Devoted Heart, and the Clear Heart. She explains how each stage reflects a deeper connection to the heart’s intelligence and how we can all move toward greater emotional clarity, inner peace, and authentic success. Light and Kimberly also explore the difference between toxic positivity and authentic positivity, and the importance of embracing simplicity and minimalism to live a fuller, more balanced life.

Listeners will gain practical takeaways on how to tune into their heart’s wisdom, develop stronger emotional intelligence, and live with greater fulfillment. Whether you’re familiar with Kimberly’s work or new to the idea of heart-based living, this episode will provide you with valuable tools to create positive change from the inside out. If you’re ready to understand the true power of your heart and how it can transform your life, this episode is a must-listen.

Tune in to hear Kimberly Snyder’s heart-centered approach to wellness, spirituality, and personal growth, and how these principles can help you lead a more peaceful, purposeful life.

Transcript

KS: “We're trying to get more, more money, more fame, more followers, more achievements, like higher salary like, Hey, I want to be in this club or I want to do this or that. It's like more and more. Then that's where, so funny, I used to work with a lot of celebrities and people that are, in that life and it's it's stuff really doesn't make you happy. We hear that, but sometimes it's just amazing when you really see it. We're all struggling with the same stuff and it's nothing out here. So the steady heart light is where there's big turning point because it means we've become more heart led than ego led. And this is where he talks about the necessities for the human heart have nothing to do with anything outside of yourself.”

[INTRODUCTION]

Hello friends and welcome back to The Light Watkins Show. I'm Light Watkins, and I love to interview ordinary folks just like you and me who've taken extraordinary leaps of faith in the direction of their path, their purpose, or what they've identified as their mission in life. And in doing so, they've been able to positively impact and inspire the lives of many other people who've either heard about their story or who've witnessed them in action or people who've directly benefited from their work.

And what I found after conducting hundreds of these types of interviews with luminaries who have discovered their purpose is that there was usually a moment where they hit upon some sort of internal crossroads where they could either go in the direction of fitting in or They could go further in the direction of being themselves. And 99.9% of the time, the people who ended up finding their calling are the ones who chose and sometimes against all of the odds to be themselves. It's really that simple. And I think we need to hear these stories over and over in order to build up the courage and the confidence to do the same thing in our lives, to keep choosing to be ourselves because it's not about just making one choice in order to find your calling and to properly see it through.

You're going to have to make that choice hundreds, if not thousands of times, because as you get older, you realize that the world is not set up for people to be themselves. So it's an extremely scary and uncertain process to choose yourself over and over. And I know from experience how much you constantly question yourself and your path. But if you can stick with it, eventually you become the model for what it's like when someone follows their path. And that's when people want to write books about you. That's when they want to invite you on to their podcast to hear your story.And today I'm back in conversation with Kimberly Snyder, who is a renowned author, wellness expert, and the creator of the Solluna brand.

She's got an epic new book out called The Hidden Power of the Five Hearts, and it represents a culmination of her 15 plus years in wellness where she integrates both physical and spiritual wellness with deep scientific research. And like much of her other work, The Hidden Power of the Five Hearts is heavily influenced by Paramahansa Yogananda's teachings, but it's also combined with science, it also explores the science of the heart in connection with ancient spiritual traditions. 

Overall, it's presenting five stages of heart awakening, starting with what she calls the dark heart. And then moving to the propelled heart and then the steady heart, the devoted heart, and finally to the clear heart. And don't worry, we're going to break all of those down in the interview. We also talk about the differences in toxic positivity versus authentic positivity and the importance of incorporating more simplicity and minimalism into our lives, which I'm obviously a big fan of. And as I mentioned, Kimberly has been on the podcast before back in episode 115, and that's where we went deep into her full and fascinating backstory. So I do recommend checking out that episode either before or after this episode, just to give more context to Kimberly's worldview and how she became the luminary that she is today. And so without further ado, I introduce you to the author of The Hidden Power of the Five Hearts, Kimberly Snyder.

[00:04:11] LW: Kimberly Snyder, welcome back to the podcast. 

[00:04:14] KS: So great to talk to you again, like I've been looking forward to this.

[00:04:17] LW: I know me too. Me too. So you have a new book. The Hidden Power of the Five Hearts. And it combines two of my actually favorite subjects, which is anything having to do with Paramahansa Yogananda, and this is about, one of his teachers, Sri Yukteswar. And the heart, I love the heart. I talk about listening to your heart, following your heart all the time, but I'm not as well versed in the science of. The heart that's what your book essentially is all about is you've done the deepest dive into the science. I've been on the heart math institutes website before, and I've sort of dabbled in that, but you've done the research for us heart advocates and heart aficionados. And so I'm really looking forward to understanding more about the science and research of the heart as well as the integration of what the ancients have been saying about the heart for a long, long time. But before we get into all of that, for, those listeners who have not yet heard our first episode, where we get deep into your backstory, your superhero origin story, let's do a little synopsis of who you are and how you've kind of found your way and how many books have you written and what's going on these days. 

[00:05:45] KS: Yeah, I mean, the journey continues life, but thank you so much. I am so excited to talk about this, which really feels like the culmination of all my prior books and everything I've been studying in wellness for over 15 years.

So this is my eighth book. And my first three books were very physical wellness oriented, very much about nutrition and lifestyle. And then it kept expanding. I wrote an Ayurvedic book with Deepak Chopra. And then my book started to become more energetic and spiritual, but always a lot of science in them.

So I am an author as we mentioned, I have another podcast as well, which you've been a guest on called the feel good podcast. I have a wellness brand, Solluna. And I would say that my journey has always been about seeking number one, seeking to feel better in myself, which I would describe as feeling more connected, lighter, more peaceful, more fulfilled, and then really sharing that with others. So I went backpacking for 3 years around the world, like when I came back, I was so fired up to just share some of the amazing information that I had discovered. So I started a free blog. I was teaching yoga. I was going back to nutrition school. That's really where my journey began sharing and sharing that parlayed into getting book deals and getting clients and sharing with them and then sharing on national media. So it remains to this day. And what blew me away about this heart research, which is heavily scientific, but also heavily spiritual, is that I've been working in wellness for almost two decades and no one is really still talking about this, that the fact that the heart is another brain, the fact that there is practical ways to access this deep intelligence, which elevates our physical health, can elevate us to new levels of consciousness, not just the heart oh, this feels good, or vague, or sentimental, but there's a real process for doing this, which I'm so excited to share, which happens through five stages. I could go on and on, but I think that's enough of an intro for now probably.

[00:07:50] LW: Beautiful. All right. So, I lived in LA, you've also lived in LA and you still have a residence there and anyone who's in the wellness scene in LA has heard about, or has been to the lake shrine and the Palisades, which is the self realization fellowship set up this really beautiful, I guess, shrine, worship place center in one of the most stunning parts of Los Angeles. And it's all associated with Paramahansa Yogananda and his work. And if you've read The Autobiography of a Yogi, there are several mentions to Sri Yukteswar. So let's start by talking about who this person is and how you sort stumbled upon his work as it relates to the heart.

[00:08:37] KS: Yes. Thank you, Light. So Yogananda, first of all, has had a formative impact on my life. And I first found Yogananda in India when I was backpacking and started taking a deep dive into Kriya Yoga. Turns out I end up living somewhat close to Lake Shrine. So I go there quite regularly. And this is where things get, we talk about synchronicities, we talk about energy. I think big part of expanding our life is staying really open. 

So Yogananda spoke very highly of his revered guru, Swami Sri Yukteswar, who is said to be very stern but had the love of a thousand mothers. And so one of the things he talks about was how tough 11 years in the ashram was with him, but how it expanded his consciousness so much.

Swami Sri Yukteswar only wrote one book called The Holy Science, and I remember the first time I tried to read it. It was very esoteric. It's very succinct. It's written in shloka format. So just a little bit out there, you could say, and he was also a Vedic astrologer. So there's a lot about like mathematical calculations. So the first time I read it years ago, I didn't really connect to it. A couple years ago, like when I was researching my last book, which is about Yogananda's teachings for modern life, I started feeling this natural pull towards Swami Sri Yukteswar.

And where we are in Hawaii, there is a temple and there's this Hindu magazine, this yogic magazine, and I opened it up the first time I went to this temple. And there was this picture of Yogananda with Swami Sri Yukteswar. And I just had this feeling. They both want to work with me now, like he was coming to me. So I sat in my hammock in Hawaii for about eight or nine months reading, taking a deep dive into the holy science. And there's a part in the holy science, which I totally glossed over the first time I read the book, where he's talking about the five stages of the human heart that we all go through to awaken the heart's power.

And the stages are the dark heart, the propelled heart, the steady heart, the devoted heart and the clear heart. So I was reading and taking this deep dive light. It was just like, oh my gosh, like in the forest, sometimes three in the morning before my kids would wake up. And it was around this period that I got in touch with the heart math Institute.

So I had read about some of the research. But I felt like, Oh my gosh, I need to really connect with them. So then I reached out and we did a podcast exchange. Long story short, we ended up doing a research study together called the Heart Aligned Meditation Study. And it combined some of their research with some of Yogananda's teachings, and what we found was a 29% increase in coherence in four weeks, which we can talk about in a minute, but that's basically what Heart brain nervous system communication. That's feelings of clarity and lightness and inspiration and more vitality. All these things that can be measured, but also experientially really tapping into that place of expansion that we're all looking for.

So this is what blew me away. Like the five stages Swami Sri Yukteswar was talking about corresponded to the science of coherence. So basically the dark heart is where your heart and your brain aren't communicating. And that corresponds to incoherence. All the way to the fifth stage known as the clear heart, which is heart, brain harmony. This is when we experience oneness, no separation, profound connection, miracles, synchronicities. So the science and the spiritual boom, just clicked in. 

[00:12:07] LW: Look, I'm sold right on the whole thing. And at the same time for the more Western minded listener, how would someone like Swami Sri Yukteswar come across this understanding if he reveals it in the book. 

[00:12:24] KS: So he was a Vedic scholar and had studied, his guru was Lahiri Mahasaya. So he had an ashram and he was deeply steeped in this incredible intuitive knowledge. We can say all the Vedas, all the Rishis, all the seers were really, deeply meditating, contemplating, he was, scholar in all the scriptures, the Bhagavad Gita and the Mahabharata and all of the texts.

But what blew me away was that when I started to go deeper and deeper as well, like it wasn't just that the yogis were talking about the heart. Iif you go back ancient cultures, the Babylonians, the Greeks, the Egyptians, there was always this special significance around the heart. For instance, the Egyptians didn't remove the heart when they created mummies, they would remove the brain, but they believed that the heart was an integral part of navigating the afterworld, right? And there was just this significance to the heart. It's also seen as a gateway more than a physical organ in all religions, all spiritual traditions. So we think about the sacred heart of Jesus Christ and the heart sutra and Buddhism live. The word for heart is. Written throughout the Torah and the word called, which is the word for heart used in the Koran, I think is mentioned 132 times and the Anahata Chakra. So there's this intersection of this power center, energetically and spiritually and then we're seeing what happens in the modern world where the ego can take over and we start to get really, we overvalue the rational, the linear, the thinking, right? The brain up in our heads, which is, of course vital and important, but it's superseded in our culture in modern times, the power of the heart.

So what also blew me away was some of this research was like, some of it's like we know and it's obvious but we forget. So as a mother, for instance, when you are pregnant and you go to the doctor and you get an ultrasound, you hear the baby's heartbeat. This is weeks before the brain is formed. So there's a higher intelligence creating this, directing this life force that doesn't need the brain. Right? And so then we continue through life. And so the teachings of Swami Sri Yukteswar are talking about these heart stages, and then the heart math people are saying, hold on a second. We're studying the fact that there's 40,000 neurons in the heart, and it sends more messages to the brain than vice versa. How do we create neuroplasticity with these neurons? How do we work with this independent nervous system to change our patterns, to heal trauma, to create more efficiency in our body, to elevate your vagus nerve connection? All these things like you see in my book, there's all these charts, but it's because it's simple, you can experience this for yourself, but it's also been measured in science, which sometimes I think the discerning brain needs to see to be like, holy crap, I don't need to buy anything, I don't need to buy a device, I don't need to spend all this money on some biohacking thing. The heart is right here, it's inside of each and every single one of us. 

[00:15:34] LW: Yeah, that's what I find so interesting about this work is that, from my understanding and my experiences in studying Vedic culture, these people, these sages and gurus sometimes are illiterate. Sometimes they couldn't even read and write, but they would sit down and they would meditate.

And through the practice of repeated exposure to this kind of unified field of pure consciousness, they would cognize these ideas and understand these principles, these universal laws of nature, which could explain, okay, this is how the heart works. This is how your energy centers work. They would just come out of meditation with these understanding and they would teach them to their students and then their students would teach them.

And then 50 years ago, people in Western science start studying this stuff and the synchronicities and the way it matches up with what they've been talking about for literally thousands of years really does give. A lot of credit to these practices that I think a lot of Westerners see as, it's kind of airy fairy or it's optional, but you don't realize how much wisdom you can attain. 

And you talk about this in your book. And we're going to go through each of the five stages in a moment. But you start in the book, talking about how your heart had been broken many, many times. And I want you to talk about when you were going through those various heartbreaks, right? What does that actually mean when it comes to the intelligence of the heart or your relationship to your heart? Because I just posted something the other day that said, your heart doesn't break. It's your expectations that break. And as your expectations break, it actually gets you closer to your heart. Let's talk about that. 

[00:17:27] KS: So I like how you're framing this because I think that for instance, when we're in the earlier heart stages, the dark heart, for instance, which doesn't mean evil. It just means your heart, your brain aren't talking. You're in a lot of fear, you may make fearful decisions, right? You're in chaos, so that means relationships can be far more dramatic. You're picking someone, maybe with missing matching trauma. We can talk about the electromagnetic field of the heart in just a moment. Or the propelled heart, where I spend a lot of my life, which is externally oriented. This person is convenient, or we look good together, or this is how I feel good by what I could show and all these things.

So when I described my heart being broken in some ways, having really painful relationships or things not working out. It was I can look back and say, oh, I was in a propelled heart stage or dark heart stage. So I wasn't really resonating in the deepest part of my wholeness and my truth and my abundance and my power. And that was reflected in the relationships I was picking in the life situations I was creating. And so it was all burning, crashing. We say, this in the Tao and there's other texts we're talking about, it talks about, let it burn. So we keep letting that burn and the pain and the breaking, because what's left is what is really true. It's who we really are. 

[00:18:48] LW: Is that what you mean when you say darkness is a great teacher? It's teaching you the reality underneath the illusion of the person is the source of my happiness? 

[00:18:57] KS: So we get to the point where we realize the suffering of, it's like the dark art is like I describe in the book, we can't see across the room, right? So you bang into tables and chairs and you can't see yourself in the mirror. And so we come to this point where, and this is where you kind of move into more energy and the propelled heart where you're like, I just can't do this anymore. I don't want this to be my life. I'm tired of self sabotaging. I'm tired of living in confusion and pain and fear. Right? 

And so you start to feel more energy and at first it's still outwardly directed, but there's a lot more energy in the propelled heart than the dark heart. So, yeah so we move through what Swami Shree Keshavar teaches. And again, the science of coherence teaches is that there's this progressive movement through the stages. 

Now, it doesn't mean that it's linear completely and you get to one stage and you never experienced dark moments because we all do. There's regression, there's more shedding of who we're not. We actually are primarily in one stage and I can look back and say, Oh, I was really most of my life in that propelled heart stage, outwardly looking, achievement-oriented, ticking things off a box, trying to control lots of expectations, right?

And then we realize as our heart awakens and we start to see more right in a spiritual sense the third as the heart awakens. This is what Swami Sri Yukteswar says too when the heart awakens the third eye awakens So that means you can see yourself so much more light so I could see, Oh, I can see where I created drama there.

I tried to project this or blame this on that person, but it was me that had all these wounds or these triggers or was me that came across that way in my tone I was in hurry energy a lot or whatever picked from this place. So we start to see more. And that's this intelligence of the heart that is not so step by step, like an instruction manual, like the mind. There's a deeper intelligence that's wider. It can find more solutions. It's more expansive. And this is one of the reasons that as you awaken your heart more, you greatly increase your emotional intelligence and your ability to just create more success and forge deeper understanding with others. 

[00:21:11] LW: Yeah, it kind of reminds me of the Portia Nelson poem my autobiography in short, in five short chapters, where she talks about falling into a hole in chapter one, and then chapter two, falling into the hole but accepting full responsibility, and chapter three I forget falling into a hole and swearing. She's not going to come down that street again at the end she's choosing a pathway and want us to kind of hang out in the dark heart for just a little bit longer, if you don't mind, because you introduce us to a meditation technique because it's not just about understanding this intellectually. It's about doing the work. To strengthen your relationship with your heart so that you can progress through the various stages. 

But my question before we get to that is, and I was trying to kind of work this out for myself when I was going through the book. Is the dark heart stage, the incoherence you talked about, is that kind of like where the experience of toxic positivity would reside?

Primarily meaning, when you're in that state and you're surrounded by other people they've progressed to a different stage and they're describing other experiences of more coherence and you thinking to yourself, well, that's not my experience. You're, shaming me and this and that and the other, where that term lives and talk a little bit about the heart aligned or some of the lifestyle changes because you also dedicate a section of each chapter, each stage to like very basic things that we can do to move ourselves to the next stage. 

[00:22:50] KS: Yes. So like I'll say, first of all, thank you for that. The book is very practical. So we're talking about understanding the stages, but there's practices and tools that are evidence-based. They combine science. They combine teachings to help you transcend the dark heart and the propelled heart into deepen into awaken. And oh, my gosh. Again, we can talk about more of the personal aspect of this in a moment. I can't tell you how much it's impacted my life. I would say my relationship with my husband is about 90% better because we came together in love, but there was a lot of dark heart energy, old traumas, things inside of us.

So there were triggers, there were misunderstandings, there was pushing each other away. And then as I came into more steadiness in my heart, which is beautiful. Stage 3, then I was able to get into more stage for this devoted heart. Right? So it's so practical. There's an embodiment section with foods. There's research. This shows you can do these practices. There's one of the studies that shows a 23% reduction in cortisol in 1 month and goes up 100%. It's necessary for vitality for fertility for a million things. So powerful what we can do with this work so anyways to answer your question about toxic positivity. 

So the dark heart is where we're like low like we are self-sabotaging. We may hurt each ourselves. We drink ourselves into oblivion. We smoke too much weed. We take drugs. We may even cut ourselves. We pick traumatic relationships, sloth energy, slothful energy like tamasic as our video would describe it just on the couch. It's hard to get up what you're describing is toxic positivity I would actually placed in the propelled heart because the propelled heart is always looking out. How do I appear to others? How can I define my my worth by what others think of me? This is where we only want to post what really beautiful things on social media or we want to be portrayed a certain way. We put ourselves in certain boxes this is where judgment really comes in because the mind likes to put people in boxes if we put ourselves in boxes. We want to be seen as like a certain person.

So toxic positivity means we're not authentically there. But we're trying to create a facade that we are right. So that's propelled heart is, Swami Sri Kishore describes it as the heart is propelled to seek meaning. So this is where we're trying to figure it out. And some of this stuff is bad, but we're trying to get more, more money, more fame, more followers, more achievements, like higher salary like, hey, I want to be in this club or I want to do this or that. It's like more and more. Then that's where, so funny, I used to work with a lot of celebrities and people that are in that life, and it's stuff really doesn't make you happy. We hear that, but sometimes it's just amazing when you really see it. We're all struggling with the same stuff and it's nothing out here.

So the part, the steady heart light is where there's big turning point. Because it means we've become more heart led. than ego led, and this is where he talks about the necessities for the human heart have nothing to do with anything outside of yourself. This was like, whoa. 

So I describe in the devouted heart how much I realized strong attachments, especially to my first son, because it was like the most pure love I had. We create so many attachments to other people, to that job, to that situation, to what we think we need, where actually we can get to the state where, of course, we want to enjoy life with loved ones and friends, but we're self sustaining. We can be self-reliant. The heart has this field of energy that can continually renew and rejuvenate itself. And that's what the power of this work does. It gives us that incredible self-reliance. And so then we become less immersed in the maya or the delusion of the day. So we're less irritated. We're less into controlling and time and hurry. And it has to be this way and the comparing. I mean, it's life changing, Light. And I don't say that lightly, no pun intended. 

[00:26:54] LW: Can I go through all the stages? You said the dark heart, stage two is the propelled heart. Stage three is the steady heart. And we have the devoted heart. And then finally we have the clear heart. And you mentioned the devoted heart. And then finally we have the clear heart which is where you have intuition and the ability to forgive and just to kind of give it more layers, I would love to just share or talk more about your experience with your business partner. Because I had a similar experience with a realtor back in the early 2000s, where I got into, I was my ego. Which I wouldn't just say was the dominant part of my experience in that time, but I allowed it to get me into a situation where I ended up losing my shirt in real estate and I was listening to this realtor who was a nice guy, but when I was sitting at the table and all the paperwork was in front of me, my heart was definitely saying, whatever you do, don't sign those papers. Yeah, but I overrode it with my ego saying, just kind of thinking, well, maybe I'll be the exception and maybe I'll become the next real estate mogul and all these things. And of course it exploded, but some good things ended up coming from it regardless. So talk a little bit about your experience just to kind of flesh this devoted heart, out a little more and listening to your intuition. 

[00:28:31] KS: So intuition is one of the most powerful things that we can develop for our success. And I mean, success. In the broad sense, meaning that day to day decisions, including what you eat, what businesses, what business partners you pick, life partners, what you do with your time and attention, how you create that work, the work projects.

I mean, success is a very broad concept and there is this inner knowing known as intuition, and we can actually learn to heighten our intuition with evidence based techniques and again, correspond to the spiritual. So I'll give you the example. 

Back in the day I was starting off my business and it was like, Oh, this blog's growing so fast. And I need to somehow my neighbor in New York introduced me to this tech guy. And because I knew nothing. And I still know nothing about tech, but he was like, yeah, we could create all this stuff. And I just remember thinking to myself. Or just feeling like I was like this guy, I don't know. It just feels like a little fast talky, like just the vibe, the energy. And so, anyways, I felt well, who else am I gonna pick? There was a little bit, as I look back, of that hurry energy. I need this, right? This kind of desperation a little bit. So I chose this person, and we created some stuff, but then it just got kept getting weirder and weirder, and it ended up that he's so weird. Stole a bunch of money by the time I figured it out and then it got really messy and we had to dissolve the partnership. So it wasn't about linear time. It was just something inside of me that could sense that something was wrong. 

I'll give you another personal example that I share in the book when I met my now husband. We met at the dinner party. Within 15 minutes, we knew that we were for each other and long story short, we got married in two months, which in linear time could feel really fast, but I was so clear and I was doing this hard work and it just felt like this resonance. Now, one of the things that the heart that scientifically can be measured is the heart field.

So magnetometers measure magnetic fields. And so there's a field given off by your heart. That's 100 times stronger than the 1 given off by your brain. So as I mentioned, when we're more coherent, when we're in a certain vibration, we tend to attract more of that like vibration. So this is why if we're in the dark, hard light, and there's just a lot of chaos and incoherence, we tend to attract more drama, more work situations that don't work out relationships that don't go anywhere, whatever it is, friendships where we get screwed over wherever it is. So what's amazing about this heart work as we progress and we get to the devoted heart, which is where we become more devoted to the inner world. 

So it's unconditional love for, compassion, care, living a peaceful life matter the most to us. But here's the crazy part because we're in such a high level of coherence, things tend to work out better. And I talk about the devoted heart in the world of commerce and give examples of how businesses can work out better and projects because you're communicating so clearly. And from this place where you're finding unity, and it's just such a practical way to turn on your intuition and to make better decisions. So things actually work out more and more without that pushing and that trying so much. You are just a different energy. You embody this, and this isn't like a thing. You can measure it with scientific instruments. You become literally more magnetic. You literally have just a different type of intelligence that you have access to.

[00:32:09] LW: Obviously you can't know what's really going on behind the scenes for stuff you see on social media, but when people, it looks like things are going well for them, There's no consideration to their heart or any of these stages. They're just kind of like working hard grinding and this kind of thing.

you suggesting that? You could do that, but if you align yourself with your heart, then you could achieve goals that also feel more aligned with your heart. Because just the idea of achieving for the sake of achieving doesn't necessarily mean you're going to feel successful. You may look successful, but you're not necessarily going to feel successful.

[00:32:48] KS: So we live in a world of delusion. Most of society reflects The dark heart and the propelled heart. You can create any type of illusion that you want. And so in our world, ego can also take you very far to a point, right? The pride goeth before a fall, but on the inside, You can be suffering more than anyone on earth could ever feel or realize you're in true darkness. You are true. Oh my gosh. I have all the money and all the fans and all the followers and everything I ever want. And I have never felt so empty and so lonely in my life. 

[00:33:27] LW: And that's almost worse because it's you can't even achieve anything else. You've gotten it all. And you still feel that way. At least when you don't have it all, you still delude yourself into thinking, well, I just need to have more money. I just need to get more success. 

[00:33:41] KS: So not only do we live in a world of illusion, but what the Bhagavad Gita also talks about is that we're all in a sense in our own personal reality. So we have to ask ourselves, what is the most important thing in our life? Like, how do we define success? And I talk about this in the devoted heart. There's a different way that we can define success. And I define it as living more from your heart. Heart based living means your words, your actions come from your heart. And when you live that way, it's not just oh, that sounds nice. You actually do feel more connected. You feel more fulfilled. You feel like, oh my gosh, like I'm connecting and supporting others and living this life. And then what I've experienced in my personal world is that my relationships become more successful.

I've been able to create this credible family, which was nothing like what I experienced growing up with so much love with my kids and my husband. We've been able to create financial abundance. Transcribed When we came together, back in the daylight, I, explain this, or I share this in this book in our last podcast, couldn't even pay my rent in New York. It was a concrete and I longed for more nature. We were able to just keep creating. And then we bought a farm in Hawaii. We doubled it the next year. So this isn't airy fairy stuff. There's a real practical nature. The other thing is the heart is right here. Boom! This intelligence, this is the middle of your life.

I feel like a lot of spiritual teachings and meditations are disassociative. Let me imagine I'm somewhere else to relax my body. Let me imagine I'm in a waterfall. I'm not fun of that. I'm just saying it may relax you. But what we're talking about and with the heart aligned meditation is it brings you into your power right here in the present moment. This is where you create your highest health. This is where you create real success. This is where you take those opportunities. And in that moment, you walk into the room and people are drawn to you and you, you take that opportunity. You ask that person to connect. You go on that person's podcast. You meet that person, right? It's right here. So the heart is between the crown chakra and the root chakra. So we don't want to be up in the crown all the time. We don't want to just be earthly. We want to be here both. We are spiritual beings and earthly beings. It's all the continuum of energy, right? We're having this earth experience now, but the soul goes on and it goes on. So the heart is the gateway. The gateway to our highest potential. And so for me who has been meditating for over 15 years, what I loved about this work and learning the science as well to show that it all. It's not. Oh, I choose science or I choose spiritual. It's both when it comes to this heart work when we use these techniques.

And in the heart aligned meditation that you described that we did the study with heart math. Some of this research was published in the American Journal of cardiology, simply by shifting some of our attention to our heart, which we can do right now here you and me talking, I'm fully present with you, but part of my attention is on my heart that actually rewires your nervous system that alone starts to create different neural circuitry between your heart your brain and your nervous system. Now we're coming into a more deep calm expanded grounded place, We're making changes physiologically, this is where the psychological becomes the physiological and when you start the day that way. Oh my gosh, our meditations eight minutes light you can change your day. 

[00:37:10] LW: When you talk about the ego, there's somebody listening right now, to this conversation you, and they're on the fence of a decision and they genuinely don't know if one choice is being driven by their ego and if the other choice is being driven by the heart. Because just like with me and the real estate fiasco, my ego did a great job of disguising itself as my heart, right? Because I had been meditating, doing all the things. And I was telling myself a story that, once I become a real estate mogul, I'll make all this money and I can help more people. I can expose more people to meditation, et cetera, et cetera. And ultimately actually indirectly, very indirectly, it, did help me achieve that goal, but how does one know, how can you feel if you're listening to, or hearing your ego versus your heart. 

[00:38:10] KS: That's a major question. And I think one of the fundamental things we need to work through in this book, because at first you say, well, is it my ego or is it my heart? It's really hard to tell the difference. So, again, the science and the practices help to create that aligned communication, which leads to real clarity, light and real stillness. A lot of people think they're meditating and they're trying, but there's so many thoughts, and they're really just sitting there thinking or reinforcing neural patterns and pathways and sort of just in the same perceptions. So what's amazing about this work and doing the heart align meditation, which I introduced in the dark heart, the heart align harmonize method, which you do in under a minute in the middle of your day, is that you start to turn on those 40,000 neurons in your heart. So you change your perceptions, your perceptions, change your thoughts. And your thoughts will ultimately change how you make decisions. So we're not going to the same place to find a solution as the mind. The mind says, wait a minute, am I overthinking this? Am I my heart or my ego? And when you turn on the heart's power and you become more coherent, there's a deeper sense of knowing.

Now this gets stronger and stronger over time. So one of the things the scientists coined is this term coherence capacity. What that means is your capacity to be more resilient against stress, stay calm, grounded level-headed, make better decisions on a day-to-day basis increases the more you do this work. So the participants in our study for increase their coherence 29% in four weeks. I guarantee if we kept that study going in two months, their coherence would be higher and higher and higher. 

So the point is, over time, your ability to make decisions and to know I'm in coherence and I'm making a decision from my heart versus the erratic fear patterns, old neural networks of my brain becomes more clear. I also want to read you a quote from the book and this of course, again as we do the work. This becomes more clear what I write light is does a thought or decision bring you peace? If so, it will be from the heart. Not every decision is going to feel good, but there will be a sense of peace Sometimes there's a sense of pain grief or loss along with a piece. But underlying peace will be there always.

So with this situation where I picked this business partner who ended up stealing a lot of money and. Wasn't really paying attention to the business. Basically I got screwed in so many ways. It wasn't peaceful. I was just angry a lot.

I felt restless. When we decided to part ways. It was like, oh my gosh, there was grief there. Like I really lost money and sent myself back or whatever, but there was a sense of peace, like it's over now I can move on. and I felt that in relationships with my ex and I moved out shortly after my mom passed away, it was like, Oh, lots of pain and sadness, crying in the closet.

But there was also a piece of I did something for me because I know this relationship wasn't really going anywhere. So there was peace there. 

[00:41:25] LW: I was thinking about that, we were just talking about how when you make heart aligned decisions, you tend to find yourself in more favorable circumstances. But even when you're not in those favorable circumstances, you could arrive at that decision to move on to make an adjustment to adapt to some new change. And it's just okay. It's not the end of the world, whereas before it was the end of the world. And what does this mean? And you're like, you said, you're validating yourself by what you look like on paper. And I think that's a very powerful way to move about the world. And you also reference something else and this was in stage three, which I think everybody can relate to is shifting from the need to process your decisions with someone else versus a place where you can feel the answer. And it's not to say that you never because I still talk to my friends about decisions, but I'm not necessarily looking for them to validate my choice or to even give me the answer. Because I've already come up with the answer, and I've written before saying that who you talk to is a clue into the answer you've already chosen for yourself. Because if you're thinking of doing something that would be seen as risk-averse and you talk to someone who's conservative and ask them for their advice, then answer is, I don't want to take the risk because that's where they're going to tell you to be conservative versus talking to someone who's taken a healthy amount of risks. They're going to tell you to go for it probably. And so because you went to talk to them means you've already decided that You're going to take the leap. You just want it that little extra motivation or inspiration to do so. 

[00:43:13] KS: So we become these, for the term that just comes to mind spontaneously, is a heart-based warrior, right? I think of Hanuman. I think about these amazing figures and spiritual texts and histories that are so full of courage and power, going to someone else, it's kind of like how on social media we follow people that kind of reinforce what we believe, whether that's in politics or diet. Now you're surrounded by reinforcing. But here's the truth. We're all on this individual journey and the way this person found success and the way this person found this or that is not going to be the same as for you. It's like when I coach people with diets as well, there's no cookie cutter. This is the best diet for everyone. Like it really is. Your body and your genetic inheritance and your, your specific body, it's like a very specific blueprint. So when we're constantly looking outside, it means that we haven't strengthened this true interconnection yet fully it keeps getting stronger and stronger and stronger as we steady into the heart. 

The other thing you mentioned is if you're struggling a lot of people are struggling I struggled a lot. And I'll tell you something, there is no better time to come into this heart work than when you are in the dark heart all of the hearts. You can keep going and going but let me tell you something if you can't pay your rent right now You're like, Oh God, I just got dumped again. I just found out that person is cheating on me again, the third person in a row. I just got screwed over. First of all, I say this with compassion. We have to start to be aware that there's some kind of darkness. There's something we're not seeing yet about ourselves. Once we can just humbly say, I want to awaken more. Right? 

Yogananda says, bring the light into the cave that's been in darkness for 10,000 years. It's as if the darkness ever was. This heart coherence work is like turning on light after light after light. So suddenly you can start to see a way to get out of a really shitty situation. Maybe you can apply for a job there, or maybe you can ask this person for a different work project, or whatever it is, you start to perceive more, you can start to get out of the dark. You don't have to live those same patterns. So I know what it's like to be in a really low stage. And so I really want to say that, like this is so much of that confusion and that fear. It doesn't have to be repeated. 

[00:45:32] LW: Yeah. And I think one of the ways that we sort of process these kinds of situations is in a very binary way, which is, if it's not a hell, yes, then it's a no, or if it's not working, I need to leave the situation. And it's not always the answer. Usually it's a little bit of a gray area where maybe you just relate to that person differently, or maybe you speak your truth a little bit more. Maybe you have just healthy boundaries and you experiment with that first. like you said, in a work situation, maybe you put your emphasis on a different aspect of the job while you devote some time and resources to pursuing something that you're more passionate about in the 5 to 9 hours. And letting your 9 to 5 become the funding mechanism for that. So I always like to encourage people to get away from the binary black or white, good or bad off and on, approach to things. And I think talking about the progression of these stages is so important for people to understand that you're not just going to go from, stage one, the dark heart to stage five, the clear heart overnight. You got to work your way through just like you work your way through the five stages of grief when something. It doesn't go your way. You got to get a little angry. You got to be a little depressed. You got to be in denial a little bit and you move through that. But what changes when you do this kind of work is you don't linger in those states for too long, you talk about emotions and I want to kind of talk about that a little bit more with you so we can understand what we get wrong about emotions because I remember hearing some Ted Talk where someone said an emotion only really lasts, I think it was like 90 seconds or three minutes or something, but we can experience that emotion for three months or three years or, 30 years. Yeah, indefinitely. And that's a sign that there's a misalignment happening. So talk a little bit about emotions, because I think a lot of people can relate to navigating emotions and having them linger for a very long time. 

[00:47:37] KS: Yes, and emotional intelligence is a big theme in the book because emotional intelligence is born of heart intelligence. First, though, I want to address what you said, because that was so well said about not right or wrong, like these black and white categories, which is very much propelled heart likes to lots of ego mind thinking likes to put things in boxes. The clear heart isn't this inaccessible state? We all experience moments when you look into your dog's eyes or your child's eyes or you just feel out of time and space. You're at an amazing concert or a sunset and you just are in this feeling of oneness So what these teachings do and these practices is that it's not just random once in a while How do I get that back and out? You are actually able to increase your capacity to feel and experience those heart based emotions and feelings more and more in the clear heart too. I referenced the Dow and where we go into that which cannot be named, right? There's like a way we connect to other people. We don't have to put them in categories. You're this, you're that you believe in this. I can't connect to you like, Oh, I could never work there. I judge you. It's just this is-ness that that's real unconditional love. It's just real connection that changes like the medicine and highest intelligence is the unconditional love. So, emotions back to your question, our energy in motion, they're meant to move through.

And so, as a nutritionist, I also found this highly interesting because I've spoken about so much about digestion over the past 15 years or so. And you see what happens with stagnation when things aren't able to be processed, they create inflammation in the body. They create blockages, they keep you from really focusing, feeling full lightness and the vitality. So then I was amazed to learn the science that we actually, emotions can be encrypted and held in your body as well. And this has been proven scientifically. 

So let's say there's something that happened when you were a young child, and it was so overwhelming, you didn't have the tools to speak about it or process it, so you ended up pushing it down. So then what happens is when something that reminds you of that incident, something goes off in your amygdala and you react and feel that fear or something happens over and over and over again. So one of the things that I talk about in the book, the science shows that you don't want to just relive that experience the anger over and over again. That was something Sigmund Freud first recommended. And then he later didn't said, no, this practice isn't the right way, meaning we want to keep that steady anchor of the heart. There's a practice in the steady heart called steady in life where you can actually create coherence.

And then you let these big sensations and emotions, waves, whether they're grief, anger, jealousy, resentment, come up and be digested through. And that's how you really process it from the heart versus going into the rage. What that does is it reinforces the neural networks and even five minutes of anger light. The research shows depletes your immunity for six hours. We don't want to keep depleting ourselves. We don't want to keep hurting ourselves. So what we do is from the heart. perspective, we can process these emotions. So in the devoted heart where I talk about forgiveness, this is a big one. First we start working on the surface thorns. Then there's the big stuff, It's like a deep thorn and then your skin works around it. As we've kind of grown accustomed that this is how life is or this is how I'm going to feel. 

But there's a six stage process for really, really deeply forgiving, which we may have to do in stages through the heart that can totally, totally change your energy field. And I'll say on a personal note for me, I used to have some grievances against my parents, like a lot of us Oh, I wish they paid more attention to me. They're always working. I wish I was loved this way. I felt neglected, whatever it is. You can forgive you really can and then there's another stage where it's beyond forgiveness. It's oh, this was perfect. You can say to that, really look at that person, your ex husband that cheated on you and be like, thank you because I learned so much about myself or learn what I really wanted. I got so strong. If I didn't have this perfect childhood, I wouldn't have been on the seeking path. I wouldn't have been on the spiritual journey. So there's layers and layers of this emotional healing and the opening of the heart. And again, when you get to that clear heart stage and there's this oneness, like it means there's no separation. It's just what's happened and life and love. 

[00:52:13] LW: Yeah, I've definitely had direct experiences with that where something with other people what can perceive to be negative or bad happens to me. And I'm immediately able to jump to the lesson to jump to the silver lining to focus my energy and attention on what I learned from this situation. And as you're saying, this is kind of like stage 4 level work and going back to our original. topic of toxic positivity. A lot of times when you express that people may accuse you of being toxically positive.

But I think a healthy reminder for people is, you don't have to really engage with that either. You can just understand, okay, that person's kind of working their way through their own experiences and their own progression with their heart. And that's what they can see right now. but it doesn't invalidate the What you see with whatever you're experiencing in your heart and you talk about if you don't allow yourself to go there and just kind of be in the lesson of it all, it's going to feel off to you, just like the person who's focused too much on what didn't go right. It feels off to them to focus on the lesson at that stage. So it's we're all kind of like doing our work at our various stages. 

[00:53:33] KS: Yes, and certain things may, because of our wounds and our trauma and our past experiences of the, wounding in the heart, certain things may be easier for you to process than others. Right? I'm saying this for everyone. So I have a friend, for instance, whose girlfriend cheated on him. And it wasn't that big a deal to him. It was like, Oh, I guess we weren't right for each other. And yet he got screwed in a business relationship and the money and the kind of the whole situation ate away at him for over a year, right? So some people, this really bothers them. And then this wouldn't, so we're on such individual journeys.

We can't really label someone as toxic positivity because we're not in their shoes. Just like we can't label someone's journey in general, because when we do that, we're also dividing our like, highest level and we say we're all one when you're judging someone, you're actually having a fragmented version of yourself and sort of projecting that out. If you're, whole. What you see is wholeness. And I say that in the clear heart, the light sees the light.

[00:54:36] LW: And that in and of itself is, I think, inner work, just refraining from judging anyone for anything. And just kind of including yourself and just focusing on just know that we're all in the process somewhere. And speaking of which, in that same chapter to the devoted heart, you talk about never missing out on an opportunity to serve. 

[00:54:55] KS: What do you mean by that? Exactly. So sometimes we think of service and he's kind of grandiose. I volunteered at the soup kitchen for Thanksgiving this year, or we went on the service trip to the, whatever Habitat for America. Those are great. But moment to moment, like here, right, presence, heart, face, living is moment to moment. Never miss an opportunity to serve, means never miss an opportunity to connect with someone from your heart, to say the loving thing from your heart's impulse. Maybe you could lift someone up with a smile. Maybe you could be extra kind to that barista. Maybe you could hold the door open for someone. Maybe you can intuitively feel that one of your colleagues could use a compliment or a kind moment, or maybe you could feel like your child needs an extra hug. Never miss an opportunity to serve. Means never just go through life like an automaton, like a robot from a mind, but be in your heart. There are infinite ways we can serve moment to moment. And isn't that part of this, you oneness is what we are putting into the field? We can serve with our heart, these heart based emotions, we can serve with more compassion and care, unity and love, or we can kind of glide through the day, autopilot. I'm hurrying here. You see the people in New York City. I used to live there. Now, when I go back, it's everybody's just marching ahead. When you go to India, like you look, everybody's chatting to each other. There's this presence, there's looking into people's eyes. So never miss an opportunity to serve means come right here into your heart, come right here and live here. Not just sometimes, not just when it feels good, but increasingly as we do this work, this is the real work moment to moment. 

[00:56:41] LW: And then in your final stage, the clear heart, I got a little validation or affirmation from reading about an affirmation mantras, but also you mentioned embracing simplicity. This is the stage where you start embracing simplicity. And I wrote this book about spiritual memory. And I was like, I'm there. I've embraced simplicity. I've made a whole lifestyle out of. not needing much more than what's in the backpack. Is that a literal interpretation or what do you actually mean by embrace simplicity?

[00:57:11] KS: The more you come into your heart light, the more simple life becomes literally cross all levels. So I'll give you an example. You and me talking. We've unpacked a lot of the baggage. We've done the work. We've, healed a lot of the triggers. reframed things, gotten out of our heads, all the narratives, all the stories. There's just a conversation. I'm talking to this person. We're talking, not all the like stuff from the past. Makes things real simple. It makes your relationships real simple. Way less drama, right? We're just here expressing our needs. By the way, the heart doesn't need to get trampled on boundaries. Clearly I'm drawn to this person. I'm not drawn to hanging out with this person. I don't have to say yes when I don't feel like it. I'm not abandoning myself. I'm not betraying myself. And that simplicity carries through. So in my life, I used to make all these recipes and be into all this stuff. I eat so simply. I cook veggies and I make bowls. My family, our kids eat simply. We spend our schedule is very simple. And all these things to pack in I've cleaned out so many clothes. I love in your travel light book, you talk about your capsule wardrobe and things like that. You just, all these things that we thought that we needed, it's not that they're wrong, but it just fills your mind with more thoughts and more thinking and evaluating when people start to go really down that rabbit hole of, let's use the example of fashion or clothes. It's a never ending cycle closet you can just keep going in spending a lot of energy and time and so it's not wrong. But it just makes things a little bit more complicated We want to pick and choose where we spend our time and attention. And so, certain things that you love your relationships get simple your life gets simple for me. There's very clear buckets There's spirituality and my relationship with god all my time in meditation. There's my family There's my work, right? Books, podcasts, Solluna, my wellness brand, and I have friends and I have, wanting to travel and experience and stuff like that, but they're further down.

And so that's really simple. I'm not trying to create like just chase a lot of different things. Do you know your buckets? There's simplicity and there's so much joy in simplicity. It's much easier to digest. And then you put your time and attention to what matters. 

[00:59:30] LW: So how do you think about dating across stages? So someone is in clear heart. They have that sort of simple approach to life in this framework, do opposites attract because I'll just be completely 100 with you. I haven't attracted women who embrace simplicity in the same way. I mean, compared to other women, maybe they are embracing simplicity more, but I having been dedicated to my inner work for 30 something years. And typically dating younger than myself. I just I don't attract that many people who I feel like are experiencing what I'm experiencing it. And is that something that obviously is not a problem for me. But is that something that is there a way to think about that? When it comes to dating, because I think sometimes we may feel like if I'm attracting someone who's narcissistic or who's got all these other issues, is that a reflection of where I am, or is that just, a thing where. People are attracting what they need in order to grow to the next level or do you think about all of that? 

[01:00:38] KS: So you keep saying the word think, right? So when we're talking about this, we're going to go beyond thinking. Because I think we tend to get really linear in the dating world. Like how do I write my app, my bio on the, on who am I going to swipe or thinking about this, how does this person fit into my life?

And when we come into the hearts, we're talking about simplicity when you get real clear and real coherent. So remember, we talked about the heart field sometimes, and I could see this now with such clarity. Your heart is in a certain level of coherence. You may think you're a certain level of that consciousness, but the energy doesn't lie, right? There's a certain level of coherence and maybe there's a pattern that's not worked out. So you may attract someone that's a matching trauma or a matching pattern. So I'll give you an example. We hear about people choosing their father that they had all this trauma with or this, whatever this person, your mother, whatever it is, you don't consciously want to attract that person, but there's something in the energetic field.

So what I can say is this, as you keep becoming more coherent. You can see more. So when I saw my husband, I was meditating for months. I was holed up in my house. Everybody has to do this, but my mom had passed away. I went through a breakup and I just was, pretty, living a pretty quiet life. So I was in a lot of coherence. I met this guy like, and usually I would never date him. He's got a grill in his teeth, meat smoker, just like all these things. I was like, who's this guy? But there was some energetic pull. So the things that really mattered, the values, the deep loyalty, the deep devotion and commitment in this groundedness and the strength I could feel.

Now, it doesn't mean we didn't have to work out things, but those are the things that were able to be worked out, right? I could see, Oh, I have trauma with abandonment. And then, we had a matching trauma where he like would push people away. So I'll say with your thing with simplicity. That may or may not be the most important thing when you find your woman Maybe she's so deeply in her heart and she can work on the simplicity or you can teach her that or she evolves into that But maybe some of the other energies that you can't even say in words The qualities will draw you in and then that will unfold Or maybe as you just continue even on this journey for 30 years, but at a time in space, right?

There's just these Quantum leap moments, which Swami Sri Kishore talks about as well, and also the heart math, science shows where you can just be in a different state and then attract a completely different person or see someone in a different way and express how important simplicity is to them. And then they open up to it. I love simplicity. My husband is big clutter person, but I've expressed it and we work through things and he keeps it in his area most of the time, but the bigger things align light, it's you can't even explain it in words. It's all energy. 

[01:03:39] LW: Can we talk some of the lifestyle suggestions for various stages? Because I want people to see how practical. you're not talking about, rubbing your face with peanut butter and standing on your head for two hours and just kind of, you just go out into the sun, go into nature, eat this, drink that. are some of the lifestyle suggestions, maybe as you walk us through the progression?

[01:03:59] KS: . Yes, and you would do that through. So the steps briefly of the meditation that are based on first of all this tensing and releasing which is based on yoga Nanda's practice is just to prepare the body There's so much tension that we hold and when we're tense in our bodies that tends to create tightness in your thoughts and your energy So we simply relax the body then you shift to your heart Which again, research based on the American Journal of Cardiology, you take some heart focused breaths, which I explain more in the book, what creates coherence.

And then you find something that triggers this feeling of appreciation. So appreciation is a mix of gratitude, awe, approval, it's different than gratitude. And what the book showed, and for anyone watching this, I'll show a little graph. This changes how your body actually feels. Functions. It's not just oh, appreciation feels good, or I heard about this. Look at this chart, when we're in appreciation, this is the easiest heart based emotion to access. Because let's say you're saying you're frazzled, or you just woke up. It's hard to go into love or peace. But this changes the neural networks. So you can do this in just two minutes starts to create that a deeper coherence and I'm abbreviating this and you come out and you're more coherent five minutes, late seven minutes. You changed everything for the day. So I want to say that's the most practical step. And then there's different practices throughout. And then I also mentioned different foods and elixirs and herbs and things through each. 

So for instance and the dark heart and throughout, there's a strong relationship between foods that are really great for your heart and ones that are great for your brain. So healthy fats, for instance, grounding foods, more fiber. Since we have three brains, there's one in your gut, one in your heart, and one in your head. They all work together. So there's ways in which we can eat to decrease inflammation, lots of greens. are really important. There's certain greens like spirulina and chlorella, which really help to strengthen your body's resilience. There's certain functional mushrooms, cacao which we grow in Hawaii and the bliss chemical can help you tap into some of these expansive feelings so you can experience them and then go to increase them more and more. As you mentioned, and the clear heart, we talk a lot about simplicity, sprouts which are really simple foods, but really high activations in your body, full of amino acids, grounding, connecting with nature, getting some sunlight on your skin, walking barefoot on the earth.

I mean, this is a really practical book. So each part, there's you're learning the teachings, you're doing the practices and you're learning lifestyle tips. So you can really live a more heart centered life. 

[01:06:37] LW: And you also say that the intention is to awaken us to our true power so that we can contribute to a heart based society. Give us the big picture. What's the big vision, Kimberly? what does a heart based society look like? How many people need to be doing this kind of work? 

[01:06:53] KS: Oh, man, this is one of the reasons every morning I'm like crying when I think about this because I feel like there's many of us that are coming out together. Many of us are stepping in and saying, we need to change things. This is not going a good way. We know what it's like when most of society is in the dark heart. Every heart that awakens changes the world around them. So I can't quantify how many actual people, but one of the things that Swami Sri Yukteswar talks about in the holy science, he talks about these different ages. He talks about the dark ages. And then there's the Satya Yuga, where so many people awaken, it creates a different society. I mean, can you imagine what our day to day life would be like if more people were in the devoted heart? It would be amazing. Our children would grow up in this world of connection.

We wouldn't want to trample on the environment. We wouldn't want to hurt our own bodies. We wouldn't dump all these chemicals into the forests. We wouldn't hurt each other. We wouldn't have a lot of these conversations about things. They would just dissipate, it would just be so different. So I feel a real sense of urgency now, because I think the only way that we're going to heal all this ego and separation in the world is through the heart, one heart at a time.

[01:08:14] LW: This work was influenced by the self realization lineage, right? I'm just curious from a technical perspective, you have to clear this with anyone or do they appreciate people being inspired? And wanting to put forth, work with and further the advocacy for the heart work and for Krishna yoga Kriya yoga and, all the other practices or how does that work behind the scenes? Is there like a political thing that people have no idea about? 

[01:08:45] KS: So I have the deepest of respect, of course, for the Self Realization Fellowship, for Yogananda, for HeartMath. So I worked really closely with both organizations. This book is, I'm not presenting myself to be a guru or the, scholar on it, but this is a modern interpretation of Someone in today's world, taking Swami Sri Yukteswar's teachings and saying, hey, they line up with the science.

So I did send, I worked with the Self Realization Fellowship on the book. So they were able to check every quote for accuracy to get their take on everything. I also Edited the book with the HeartMath Institute to make sure the science was exactly on point and all the citations were correct. Of course, we did the study together. And so, because a lot of the research is used in the practices, they also gave permissions. 

So, yes, with the deepest of intention, it's to further the work of these great ones. The Yogananda Swami Sri Yukteswar, these very rare beings that come here to show us the way. Jesus Christ, Krishna, right? There's not so many of them that come, these avatars, but we don't want their teachings to get lost in dusty old books and, bureaucracy and, complicated religious systems. This is to be lived. And so that's the intention of the Hidden Power of the Five Hearts is to bring their teachings forward and also to show how the science actually validates what they were saying all along.

[01:10:17] LW: That's beautiful. Yeah. And you said you did podcast exchange with the HeartMath, the doctor who founded the HeartMath Institute, which is awesome. I love their work. I think it's so important and so necessary. and it's really great to hear that the Self Realization Fellowship is. supporting your work as well. I appreciate you coming on sharing your work. So this book comes out on September the 17th, 2024. And obviously we want as many people to go out and grab a copy as possible. And just to spread this message as far and as wide as possible. This is again, book number eight for you, which is very, very impressive. People don't appreciate how much work goes into a book from inception to publication and marketing and all the things, but you make it look easy.

And in that regard, you are my inspiration. So, what else do you have associated with the book or associated with your work or platform Solana that you would like to talk about? 

[01:11:20] KS: Well, thank you so much. I'm so excited to get this book out into the world, like really excited to share about the heart. And I will say that for the next week, if anyone preorders the book, they will automatically join our four week heart reset program, which I promise is going to be life changing. This is where I'm going to take you through each week with live zooms, videos community interaction. How to really. open your heart and take a quantum leap in your life.

So you'll get access to that just by preordering the book as well as our heart awakening vitality ebook. So there's still one week left to enter, Light. And I'm so excited about that as well. 

[01:12:01] LW: Amazing! And does the entry close once the book comes out or can people still do that? That's right. Okay. 

[01:12:06] KS: By the 17th we'll close, and you can get information at mysolluna.com/five heartsbook. 

[01:12:13] LW: Wonderful. And of course we'll put all that in the show notes as well. Well, thank you so much, Kimberly. Looking forward to chatting again when book number nine comes. 

[01:12:22] KS: Thank you so much. I just appreciate you and your big, warm, beautiful heart so much. I saw you the second I saw you and I still see you.

[01:12:34] LW: Thank you. Thank you.

[END]

Thank you for tuning into today's episode with Kimberly Snyder. You can pick up a copy of The Hidden Power of the Five Hearts everywhere books are sold and you can follow Kimberly on the socials @KimberlySnyder.You can also find links to everything we discussed in the show notes, which is always at light Watkins.com/podcast.  And if you connected with this interview again, make sure you check out Kimberly's previous interview, which is episode number 115. And that's where we talk about her full backstory. 

And if you're thinking of somebody else that I should interview, I'd love to hear your guest suggestions, just email them to me at light@lightwatkins.com. And a simple way that you can help me make those interviews happen is to just leave a rating. It really does make a difference. Ratings will help a potential guest see the reach and the impact of this show, which will make them more likely to come on to the show to be interviewed. It just takes a quick moment. All you have to do is look at your Apple podcast app. You click on the name of the show. You scroll down past the first five episodes. You'll see a space to rate us. And just tap the star all the way on the right if you want to leave a five star rating. and if you're feeling generous, write a quick line about what you enjoy about this show and that can also go a long way. 

Also, you can watch these interviews on my YouTube channel if you prefer a visual element to Kimberly's story, and don't forget to subscribe there as well. And for those of you who crave a bit more, I do post the raw unedited versions of every podcast interview in my happiness insiders online community, which you can join at thehappinessinsiders.com to access not only the full uncut interviews, but also my 108 day challenges, my 30 day challenges and my masterclasses for becoming the best version of yourself.

And finally, you may have noticed that I'm releasing bite sized plot twist episodes each Friday. A plot twist is a shorter clip from a past episode where the guest shares pivotal moment in their story, which is usually the moment that shifted them away from the conventional thing that they were doing and it helped them to learn something profound about life or live with a greater sense of purpose. So look out for those each Friday.

And in the meantime, I hope to see you back here next week for another inspiring story of ordinary people doing extraordinary things until then, keep trusting your intuition, keep following your heart and keep taking those leaps of faith. And remember, if no one's told you lately that they believe in you, I believe in you. Thank you and have a fantastic day. And I'll see you for the next plot twist this Friday.