Gabby Bernstein doesn’t seek out spiritual wisdom. It appears to find her. Take the newest practice in her repertoire: Kundalini yoga.
“It came to me at a time when I was praying for a deepening of my spiritual space, for the way to move out stagnant energy, and for. a way to feel my practice more in my body and not so much i believe,” explains the New York Times best-selling author from the Universe Has Your Back and other titles.
“At one point, I had been invited to a private yoga dinner,” she recalls. “Now, I didn’t like yoga, but I like dinner, so I went!
“I walked into the room and saw this 70-year-old teacher who was just beaming light,” she says. “I had no clue that I was in a Kundalini class, but in a few minutes I burst into tears and said to myself, I found my yoga.”
The following day she signed up for a 200-hour yoga-teacher training program and committed to becoming a teacher of Kundalini.
“I felt struck by lightning with this training. I love the mantra. I love chanting,” Bernstein says. “It changed my entire life, my work, my energy, and it’s changed many lives because I started talking about it and i believe it opened the door to Kundalini for several other people who may not have found it otherwise.”
Sharing a holistic approach to spiritual health along with other seekers is what the 39-year-old motivational speaker has been doing since 2021, when she released her memoir, Spirit Junkie. In her own forthcoming book, Super Attractor: Means of Manifesting a Life Beyond Your Wildest Dreams, she continues sharing the story of her life and offering guidance to people looking for happiness in all the wrong places.
Q&A
Experience Life | That which was the spark that led you to definitely write your new book?
Gabby Bernstein | The joke I tell is that I actually write books for myself, knowing that working through things myself will most likely benefit readers, too.
I’ve done lots of personal-growth work, and I was feeling prepared to take all the hard heavy-lifting that I’ve done and start claiming this better-feeling experience. I needed to use it to cultivate and co-create the world I want to see and be a part of.
My goal was to write a positive book that empowers people to take responsibility for their experiences and alter their attitude and belief systems to enable them to start to have a more positive perspective and get more of what they want into their lives. This is exactly what I mean by super attractor.
EL | What are some things that limit our super-attractor power?
GB | There are many ways we lose it. To begin with, we forget that we have it and instead get consumed with the belief systems of lack and judgment, what are opposite of what our super-attractor power needs to be cultivated.
Fear is another huge force in keeping us from attracting what we want — we tend to rely on it as a false sense of safety. We worry about the future, for instance, because we believe that will keep us safe when, ultimately, all that worry is actually creating more of what we don’t want.
EL | What exactly are some ways we can reclaim that energy?
GB | You are able to realign with what I call the 3-Step Choose Again Method. The first step is to witness that you’re disconnected from your super-attractor power. You want to ask, “How am I blocking myself right now?” You might find that your energy and thoughts are often out of step together with your joy, for example.
The second step would be to forgive the thought, which is a beautiful practice of saying, “I choose to see this differently, I forgive myself, and that i forgive this thought.” This takes the ability away from the thought. You can also have gratitude toward the idea or feeling for relaying to you what you don’t want.
The final step would be to ask, “What’s the next best thing I could feel and think at this time?” This part is about choosing again.
Remember that you’re looking for the next-best feeling, not the best solution. Choose a thought or feeling that feels possible and realistic.
For example, if you're struggling financially, saying you’re getting out of debt in a week is likely to create more misalignment. Instead, set a realistic goal as the first step toward getting out of debt, such as paying off one credit card at a time.
EL | You’ve been involved in the spiritual-wellness community for some time now. How has it changed?
GB | After i started out as a spiritual teacher and self-help-book author, there have been fantastic teachers like Louise Hay, Wayne Dyer, and Marianne Williamson, who all became dear friends and mentors to me. But there really wasn’t a voice for the following generation, and my mission and commitment were to claim that space.
Over the past 14 years, I’ve seen a surge in interest in wellness and spirituality. I'm able to only see that as an incredible blessing. I believe it’s a much better trend compared to bullying, consumerism, and judging that people see too often on social media.
EL | How has your own work evolved?
GB | I’m super proud and grateful to have been at the forefront of this new movement for seekers — it’s mind-blowing to determine how far it’s come. Through the years, what it’s meant is the fact that I’ve been able to become more unapologetic about my spiritual faith.
It’s really reflected in this book, where I talk about angels and deceased family members as guides the very first time. I went to these places since i know the world is ready for it and I don’t have to be put off by what I believe to be true about what it means to live a spiritual life and to be a spirit having a human experience. It’s type of cool to push the metaphysical envelope beyond before.
Also, in the beginning I wrote books and gave talks. However in the last five years, when I saw a profound need for a real perceptual shift to occur in the world, I knew my greatest contribution wasn’t likely to be made by talking from a stage or writing. So I committed to not just being a mentor to individuals who wanted personal-growth experiences, but also to teaching teachers and helping people help people.
That’s what led me to create the Spirit Junkie Masterclass, that is all about training spiritually minded folks how to get their own messages out to the planet in a way that’s honest and authentic. It’s intended to help them inspire others by doing what inspired them. I think we can change the world with a kind of enlightened ripple effect.
