a, according to the New York Times Sunday Style section, she's our next generation guru,

a motivational speaker, a life coach and an author. Her new book is Spirit Junkie, which

you can get for a Google discount of $10 right over there and you can take it away Gabby.

>>Gabrielle Bernstein: Thanks Alex. Hi everybody. [audience murmurs response] Thank you so much

for coming out. I got word this afternoon that it is assessment time at Google, so hopefully

I can calm any nerves that might be happening during assessment time and help you raise

your own personal assessments today. [giggles] But thank you for coming out. Thank you for

showing up. I am out here on my book tour for this new

book, Spirit Junkie, which is my second book. My first book came out in 2010 and it's called

Add More -ing to Your Life -- A hip guide to happiness. Ing, i-n-g, stands for inner

guidance, not the other ING, [chuckles] but it's inner guidance, not the bank. And I've

been practicing and teaching principles for transforming your perceptions and creating

positive changes in your life and I've been teaching this work for the past six years.

And I came to write this second book as a result of many of my readers, my first book

came out and many of the -ing readers came to me and said, we love this book, it's so

prescriptive, it's really helping us, I love taking all this action in my life, but I wanna

know more about how you became the happiest person you know. How did you change your perceptions?

How did you overcome your fears? How did you get over addiction? How did you get over work

addiction, love addiction, drug addiction, all the different things that each of us in

some corner of our life deals with in some way? And so, I, I had to listen to that call

of my readers and I was inspired and guided to write this new book, Spirit Junkie, and

really put my story on paper and be very authentic about who I am and what my experiences have

been so that I could not only be a genuine messenger, but also be a guide for those who

were inspired by my story. So throughout each chapter in every book there is my own personal

anecdotes of how I've experienced my fear-based illusions and how I've transformed them and

within every chapter there's also beautiful guidance, there's tips, which I'm gonna give

you many of them today. And so it's not, it's not just a memoir, it's a memoir-style-guide

book is what I've written, so it gives you this opportunity to soak up someone else's

experience, be inspired by somebody else's story, but in the same moment, take on your

own experience of creating whether it be a spiritual relationship or you could call it

a relationship with your own internal guidance system, or activating your inspiration, or

creating more life flow. A big, a big thing that happens when people

come to my lectures or come to my groups or read my books, is that a common through line

with most of the people that come to me is that they're feeling as though at least one

corner of their life is not flowing naturally. They're feeling like, ok, I think things could

be dialed up a little bit more in my career area, or I have a great relationship to my

finances, but I'm a complete mess in my romantic relationships. Or there's some corner that

feels as though it could be more amplified, it could be more inspired, it could flow more

naturally. Or maybe it's every corner. Many people come to me and they say, across the

board things are tough, I'm in fear. And so all of my work is to help my readers and my

listeners and my audiences learn to shift their perceptions and create change in their

life. And so what I'll do today is I'll give you a little bit of a background about how

I became the happiest person I know, how I became a spirit junkie and then within that

story, I'm gonna give you some guidelines for you to start to do the same. And the purpose

of this book and my, my goal for this book was not to say, ok, here is my story, here

is how I did it, here is how you have to do it. But rather just to create a platform for

you to crack open, to have the willingness to make your own change and to help you create

a relationship, a spiritual relationship or a, an inspired relationship to your own inner

guidance system of your own understanding. So this isn't about you just saying, ok, I'm

gonna take her work and do it my way, it's about you opening up and creating your own

path through the guidance I'll give you. So throughout my experience of writing this

book, I really tell this story of how throughout my life, from adolescence to the present,

I have been hearing this knock on the door, this inspiration, this inner dialogue, this

voice within me that has said, be great, be wonderful, love yourself, have an incredible

life, you can do this, you can have what you desire, you can achieve a life beyond your

wildest dreams. And each of us has that loving voice within us. Each of us has that intuition,

I call it your ing, your inner guide, that loving presence within you that is like, yes,

you rock, you can do this. But at some point in time, most of us at a very young age, we

pick up this negative belief system. We pick up the beliefs of the world, we pick up the

fears of our parents, we pick up the fears of our, of the news, of the people on the

playground, of our teachers. At some point in time we pick up this one negative mad idea,

it becomes like a virus in our mind. And these different limiting beliefs come to each of

us in different ways. For some people it might be just something as simple as maybe your

parents didn't pay attention to you. So you feel 'I'm not good enough because when I was

six my parents didn't pay attention to me'. And this, it could be as simple as this. Or

it could be something much more traumatic that you know, all of us have different pain

experiences throughout our lives. But at some point in time, that negative belief system

is imprinted within our emotional being and we recreate that belief system. We replay

that negative thought pattern. We take that negative thought pattern and bring it into

our present moment and we project it on to the future. And it becomes like this spiral

and we become stuck. We stay cornered in these negative patterns. I'm sure most everyone

in this room in some area in your life feels as though you keep replaying the same crazy

crap over and over and over again. And just get honest with yourself right now. You don't

have to get honest in front of all of your coworkers, but get honest with yourself right

now and just be really clear with yourself of what are the areas where I'm replaying

all that stuff? Where am I saying to myself, I'm not good enough? In what ways am I replaying

that belief system that I picked up as a kid? It's something as simple as 'I'm not feeling

like I can have that career' or growing up with the experience of lack in your home and

then believing in lack and never feeling as though you can make more money. Or seeing

your divorced family and seeing that you know 'I can't have a powerful, loving relationship

because this is what I grew up around'. And so for me this was the case in many different

corners of my life. I was this adolescent girl having an existential crisis and I felt

as though I was really confused when most of my contemporaries were worried about the

prom and you know what they're having for lunch, I cared more about why I was here.

I always had this deep desire to know what is the purpose? What is my purpose? Why am

I here at this time? And there was this, this 16-year old girl and this, this crazy mindset

of what's going on? And as many young people, I experienced a lot of depression. I felt

as though I was just stuck. I felt as though I was misunderstood. And so for me, I grew

up in the suburbs with this Yogi mom and a hippie dad and I turned to my mom for guidance.

I said to my mom, listen, I see you walk into your meditation shrine every day. I hear that

mantra coming through the door. I smell the incense pouring out through underneath the

door. What goes on in that room? I see you go in crazy and I see you walk out calm. What

goes on in that room? I want some of that. And so I said if I want what she has, I gotta

do what she does. And so as a 16-year old girl I turned to my mother and I said, show

me what you got. Give me that meditation practice. Teach me what you're doing. And so my mom

sat my ass down on a meditation pillow [laughs] and she taught me how to meditate. And so

at 16 years old I was desperate. I was willing. I had this deep desire to change. I needed

a solution. And so I allowed my mom's words to come through me, I allowed the mantra to

come through me and I began, at the time, what began my meditation practice. And so

I felt this amazing connection from the beginning stages of my practice. I started to feel that

within five minutes of sitting in stillness and deep breathing and practicing the mantra

that I could actually feel more calm. I witnessed my extremities begin to tingle. I felt like

I was connecting to a much greater energy than the energy that I was just dealing with

on my day to day life. I felt inspired ideas come forward. I felt, most importantly, peace.

I felt a sense of peace, a sense of oneness, a sense of being good enough, a sense of being

understood even though nobody else was around. And so this was a really neat time for me.

It was this beautiful seed that my mom had planted that would then become the catalyst

for many changes in the future. But, like most smart-ass adolescent girls, I thought

that there was a better way. I said, ok, that's cool, I got that now, but there's gotta be

a way better way than this. So I did what most kids do, which is, you know, I rolled

the joint and drank a 40. And I said ok this is, this is the other way. Right? It's something

out there is gonna make me happy. Something beyond me is gonna be my source of peace.

And so for several years, from 16 to about the age of 25, I was on a big search for that

outside source of happiness. I was looking for it in my credentials. I was looking for

it in my relationships. I was looking for it in a pair of shoes.

I was living in New York City when I graduated college and at 21 years old I started a public

relations business representing night clubs. And so I was out there feeling like, ok, now

I have arrived. I had this credential and it says president on my business card and

I'm 21-years old and I am hot shit. Sorry. Can I curse at Google? I'm not sure. [laughing]

I guess so, it's comfortable here. Should've asked that first, right Alex? So meanwhile

I'm sitting here thinking that I'm this great, this great thing because I've got these outside

credentials, I've got this fast-paced New York City lifestyle. I have it made. This

is working for me. Meanwhile, that search became this addiction. Looking for more happiness.

Once I would get that client, I needed more. When I had that relationship, I needed a different

relationship. And I constantly felt like I was this hamster in a wheel, searching and

searching and searching for happiness and inspiration outside of myself. One day at

a time I kept looking further and further and further. By the time I turned 25, I had

a really hardcore revelation that that was not where I was gonna find it. By this point

in my outward search I was emotionally, spiritually and physically bankrupt. I had, I had no real

friends. No strong inspiration. I had found myself really addicted to the New York City

party scene and feeling like that became my home and my lifestyle and that reflected in

some really nasty habits. I also would see myself just up at night doing God knows what.

But in the midst of all this there was still that inspired voice within me. There was that

loving voice, that power voice within me that said, there's something coming. There's something

greater. I'd be up at 3 a.m. at after-hours parties in New York City saying to God knows

who, "I'm gonna be a motivational speaker and a self-help book author." [chuckles] And

somehow I believed me, I really believed this. I intuitively, psychically, knew that there

was this thing coming even though it did not reflect in any form the life that I was living

at that time. And so by the time I turned 25 I thought to

myself, ok, this is not working. Life is not flowing. And that divine moment when I said

to myself, there has to be a better way. I had that moment of surrender. And so this

is the first lesson I'm gonna give you today which is that all you need to make any change

to your life is the deep surrender and the willingness to change. And so I had that.

It was October 2, 2005, at 3:00 in the morning. And I was sitting at home and I was coming

down from God knows what. I was you know late nights whatever it was all of the crazy crap

that I had been putting into my body, all of the terrible ways that I had been living

and I was writing in my journal and I wrote, "God, universe, whoever is out there, I need

a miracle." There has to be a better way. This was the moment that I fully surrendered.

This was the moment that I said, "Show me what you got." I woke up that morning and

I heard a really loud internal dialog. A really strong intuition. It said, "Get your life

clean and you will live beyond your wildest dreams." This loud voice was very authoritative

and very clear and I had no other choice but to listen to that guidance. And so from that

day, October 2, 2005, I have been listening to that voice. And one day at a time I have

been opening up that willingness to be guided to the teachers, the lessons, and all of the

universal guidance that we receive once we become willing to change. And opening my heart

one day at a time to make these shifts within my own life. And so it's that beautiful line

when the student is ready, the teacher will appear. And this is the case for me and I'm

sure it will be for many of you in your life. When once you make that willingness to change,

the book falls off the shelf. Or the teacher shows up in a form that you could have never

imagined. Or you hear something on the radio, or you meet a cab driver or some enlightened

conversation comes into your realm that all of a sudden is that shift that you needed

to make that change and create that catalyst that becomes your greatest accomplishment,

your greatest shift. And so that's all we need at first, is that slight willingness.

That willingness that I had, that desire to change, that moment to shift was all I needed