Growing Up Spiritual - Weekly Energy Boost

Growing up spiritual or not, we all face issues of guilt, living up to others expectations, facing our fears and many other challenges. This week we discuss the importance and value of a spiritual environment, of having and being a spiritual influence and the keys to facing and transforming our common challenges. Original airdate: 3/28/22

Transcript

Good morning,

Everyone.

Good evening,

Good afternoon,

Wherever you are,

And welcome to this week's Weekly Energy Boost.

My name is Elise Sheva,

And I am so excited because this is an episode I have wanted to manifest for a very long time,

And it's finally seeing the light of day.

Today we are talking about growing up spiritual with two people who I can attest grew up in spiritual homes.

One of them you're very familiar with.

It's Yehuda Yashurun,

Back for another episode by popular demand.

Yehuda was also in the series of family episodes that we did,

And we started to touch on some ideas and that started more ideas and that inspired today's episode.

Our other guest is no other than my firstborn child,

Also named Yehuda.

Yehuda Kelman is here.

For those of you who are curious,

Yes,

He is single and I will be vetting all inquiries,

So please email me directly.

All jokes aside,

What we're talking about today is what it's like,

What are the benefits of,

What are the,

What's the opposite of a benefit?

Challenges?

Downsides.

Downsides to growing up with spiritual parents,

And I have lots of questions because the truth is we've never discussed this and I'm so excited to have it,

Have this conversation.

The weekly energy boost is usually a seven day spiritual weather forecast where we provide our listeners with the most powerful and practical tools to navigate the coming seven days.

This week actually touches on the idea of raising children and the truth is I don't think that this discussion,

If you don't have children and you don't want children,

This discussion also concerns you because this,

We're really going to glean from today's conversation the importance and value of a spiritual environment,

The importance and value of having a spiritual influence and being a spiritual influence and how the tools and the wisdom can help enhance your relationships.

Full stop.

The fact that it's coming from the experience of these two lovely gentlemen is even more,

I think more profound because they are both products and users.

They're products and users of what we're talking about,

So I'm excited to hear their experience,

But even more so to be able to share with all of you who are listening and watching.

I don't know,

This is almost like a commercial.

Why be spiritual?

Why study spirituality?

Why look into the wisdom of Kabbalah and how its wisdom and tools can be useful?

Before I get into my questions,

I want to ask you guys if you have anything you want to share that I might not ask about or any thoughts or insights to get the ball rolling this morning.

As the Leo,

I defer to you.

First off,

How are you guys doing?

I want to thank you for having me on the show.

It's my honor.

Oozing with pride.

I don't really have anything to start off,

But I think the way that you brought up the idea that there's advantages and there's also disadvantages.

There's advantages to having a certain understanding of the world,

Whether it be spiritual or whether it be intellectual.

Having experienced both the challenges and the advantages that come with it,

Hopefully we can give you guys a good show.

Yeah.

Yehuda,

I don't know if you know this.

Yehuda,

Yeshua,

When you were on the family episode,

Which I think was the first episode you were with us,

People thought you were David Giam's brother.

That's really funny.

You had talked about your brother,

Who we all know,

But whoever it was was commenting,

Oh,

That's David's little brother or David's big brother.

I don't even remember.

It was just so funny.

So you carry the torch and the mic very well.

Anything you want to shoot out before I aim and fire?

I guess we'll discover what the disadvantages are of growing up in a spiritual environment,

But I would say regardless of what those disadvantages are,

They are far,

Far outweighed by all of the advantages and all of the blessings that I have in my life because I have the family that I do and I'm in the environment that I'm in.

Well,

I think what Yehuda said,

Or I actually said it first,

The disadvantage is it's not really a disadvantage.

It's more of an annoyance.

If you've listened to the show for any period of time,

You've heard me say,

Cabal is annoying because you forget or it's painfully true or I don't know what in the matrix,

Right?

You have a choice between taking the red pill and the blue pill and you can't go back.

In that sense,

It's a disadvantage because you can't go back and you can't,

Once you know the laws of the universe or let's say you discover gravity,

You can't jump off a building and hope it's not going to affect you,

Right?

I think that that's the illusion is that it's,

Illusion with an A,

Is that it's difficult sometimes because you know better or you have a different perspective and you wish you didn't because then you would be able to make other choices.

So I want to start on a high note if it's okay with you.

I know Yehuda actually I'm thinking about things that you shared in the family episode.

So maybe we'll,

Well,

No,

I don't,

It doesn't matter.

Yehuda is the older Yehuda.

We could call this show between two Yehudas.

Yehuda Yashorn is the older Yehuda,

So we'll defer to you and not the Leo on this one.

What is the most powerful lesson you learned as a child?

Powerful spiritual lesson you remember learning as a child and it maybe it's the one that affected you the most or inspired you the most but that it may,

Maybe it's the one that made the biggest difference and you can start to think of your answer right now.

So funnily enough this isn't something that I learned from my parents or my family specifically.

This is something that happened in my childhood but without being in a spiritual environment it probably would have bounced right off and in one ear out the other kind of thing but it's really stuck with me for so many years.

So in fifth grade,

Remember we had this science,

We had like ten science teachers that year.

The rest of the class was pretty terrible,

I was alright.

Of course.

We had like ten different science teachers but we had one that was great and then she left for whatever reason,

Her name is Mrs.

Rainbow.

Of course.

And she would,

Whenever she'd ask us a question,

You know,

What is the meaning of biome or this word or that word or whatever it was,

Nobody wanted to raise their hand and answer in case they were wrong and she would say this often and this really has stuck with me for so long,

What's the worst that'll happen?

The worst thing that could happen,

Just say the answer,

The worst that'll happen is you'll be wrong.

And again without having had a spiritual background and understanding and being able to fit the puzzle piece into the right space it probably would have just,

You know,

Probably would have forgotten it within a year,

Right?

But it's something that has stuck with me for so long because A,

I have a fear of being wrong.

In fact I was having a conversation with someone earlier this week about like a light bulb moment went on about the triggers when I feel like I'm wrong with something.

And it's crazy that like thirty something years later like there's still things to work on which I'm grateful for because it means that I'm still growing,

Right?

But it was just such a powerful thing to keep in mind and it really would not,

You know,

My parents have shared many pieces of wisdom with me over the years and I've learned a lot of things from them.

But this one is something that I think about all the time.

What,

You know,

The worst that'll happen is you'll be wrong.

God forbid.

God forbid.

Well,

You know,

It's funny while you were talking I was thinking and again assuming that not everybody's listened to every episode of Weekly Energy Boost already,

You may recall that both David and I stumbled on Kabbalah when we were teenagers.

That's something else that we have in common.

So it's not that we didn't,

We did grow up to some degree in this environment but not,

But we did know another reality,

Right?

So that's I think one of the things that distinguishes these two guys from let's say David and I having the same conversation is that when they were in diapers or they were toddlers or they were in preschool,

Their parents were focused on instilling the same concepts you hear us talking about week after week when they were three and five and seven and so on.

The other thing that came to my mind while you were talking is that even my introduction to Kabbalah was a little bit backwards because I started coming with my parents and the first time I sat in a formal class,

Your father was the teacher.

I think I was 16 or 17 and the reason I came is because I wanted my aunt to study and she wouldn't go alone.

So I took my aunt to sit in your dad's Kabbalah 1 class.

I have not thought about that in a long time.

Yuda,

What's the most powerful and please do not,

You don't need to attribute everything to me.

I want to make this clear.

This is not about me.

This is about you.

What's the most powerful lesson you remember learning as a kid?

Well,

Unfortunately it is from you.

Unfortunately.

Unfortunately.

I wish I could say it wasn't.

But I remember when I was a kid,

When I was a youngin,

My brother and I used to have conflicts all the time and I remember one time he called me stupid.

We were,

You know,

Six,

Seven,

Really young.

So it really hurt me.

And you know,

People would call me names as kids do when they're young.

And I would always go to you and say,

You know,

Ima,

Ima's mother in Hebrew.

I would go to you and I would say,

Ima,

You know,

These people are calling me stupid or fat or,

You know,

Not intelligent or whatever it was.

I don't remember because it doesn't matter.

And you would ask me straight faced.

You would always say,

But are you stupid?

And I'd never,

My response would be like,

No,

I'm not.

I'm a very intelligent young,

Young boy.

And it just sticks with me whenever someone says something negative about me or people are talking about me or if maybe someone gives me a weird look,

I know that whatever they're saying has nothing to do with me,

Has to do with the way that they view me or the way that they even view themselves.

From a young age,

It was just the simple idea of just being okay with people insulting you and knowing that it's not,

Has nothing to do with your character.

But as I grew older,

I also saw that when I'm judging someone,

Odds are I'm really just judging myself.

I'm really just insecure about something within myself.

The same way when they judge me or when they say something bad about me,

It's probably that as well.

So and I always had,

It's not like I made it more complicated in my head when I think about it.

I really just,

When it comes down to it,

I hear you saying,

You know,

Are you stupid?

And it doesn't have to necessarily be an insult to my intelligence,

But whatever it is,

I just hear your voice saying,

Are you stupid?

And then me answering no with that little boy voice.

That's it's true.

I actually,

I use,

Continue to use that method in with your younger siblings and they say no and then I say,

Well then the other person's lying and the conversation really ends there.

You know,

They're a liar.

You're fine and let's move on.

Maybe I'll pose this to you Huda first cause you brought it up actually earlier.

What was the most difficult thing about growing up in a spiritual home?

Knowing what you're supposed to do and knowing you should do that,

But not doing it and feeling guilty about it.

But do you think that that's unique to being in a spiritual home?

It's probably,

I mean,

I mean that seriously,

I don't want to sound defensive.

I hope I'm not sounding defensive here.

That like,

Let's say your parents have expectations of you and we all fall short of those expectations,

Right?

The shoulds and the shouldn'ts.

You think that that's unique to growing up in a spiritual home?

Well,

I didn't mean in a way that your parents will look at you or punish you or whatever.

I really mean that,

Internally,

You know,

That,

You know,

I'm sitting in watching television,

Television,

And my brother Mikey will come and change the channel to a younger kids TV show and I yell at him or we fight.

Like I know at the end of that I'm not going to feel good.

I never felt good afterwards.

Not because you shouldn't get upset,

But because I know that I wasted energy at a young age.

I was like,

This is bad.

Perception of you have light.

This is exactly that.

I'm giving away my light or I'm losing light.

You know,

That's the way that I always used to look at it.

I'm losing light.

And then I'm also gaining light when I do push myself to be better and all of that.

But the disadvantage is it's just you have a very high expectation of yourself because you have so much of an idea of what you should be doing and when you're not doing it.

Maybe it's more of the,

You understand the real reality of the consequences of what you do and you don't do.

Yeah.

And then you say,

You know,

I always personally,

Because I'm a Leo,

I had a very high view of myself.

So when I was not,

Rightfully so.

Yes.

So when I wasn't a hundred percent,

You know,

Great or sharing or going out of my comfort zone or volunteering when I was a teenager,

I felt like I was doing something wrong.

I felt like I wasn't being that high version that I see myself at.

I wasn't collecting all the light that I could have if I was doing that.

And if I didn't know about spirituality or I didn't grow spiritually,

I don't think I would,

It would come to my mind.

Obviously,

You know,

Parents,

You do stuff bad.

Parents get upset at you.

But it was more of,

I was my own watcher and seer of what I was doing and what I wasn't doing that I just,

You know,

Was making sure that I was on the right path.

And when I wasn't,

I felt a little like,

Okay,

I'm not the greatest right now.

And then,

You know,

Each action has its own parent talking in the set.

So I love it.

Yehuda.

Yeah.

The other Yehuda.

Well,

I,

I,

I kind of want to add to that,

Right?

Because do you relate one 100%?

And although my parents made sure never to teach us anything with a frame of guilt,

In fact,

Even though I'm sure they wanted me to be a Kabbalah teacher,

They always told me and my brother,

Both of us who are Kabbalah teachers and who love what we do and do this,

Not because anyone has guilted us into it,

But because I really love doing this and being a huge impact on the world,

But they'd always say,

We will always love you no matter what you choose to do in this life.

So it was never any,

There was never any external guilt.

It was always more internal of now that my eyes have been opened and I know what I'm,

You know,

What's out there,

You know,

It's kind of like in the biblical story of Adam and Eve,

Right?

The,

This is this verse,

Right?

After they eat from the tree of knowledge,

Suddenly their,

Their eyes were open and suddenly they couldn't go back to who they were before.

Once you know two plus two equals four,

You can't unknow that.

There's no existence of you now without that knowledge.

So it was more internal guilt of,

I know that I should be doing something different,

But not should with that negative connotation,

But really just,

I know what my purpose is.

I know how,

I know how to be happy and it's just difficult to do it.

And especially when you're young,

You don't have all of the experience you do when we're older and we have the patience to go through challenges.

When you're young,

You don't have that patience,

Right?

Are we there yet every two seconds,

Right?

So it was difficult in that sense because I know where I'm going,

But I'm not there yet and I just really want to be there and I don't have the patience and you know what,

It just feels so much better to be and do something else.

And so there was some of that internal guilt,

But again,

That was all self-imposed,

Right?

I think probably if,

And this is in no way a negative review of my parents because really they are,

I mean,

We could probably argue about who had the better parents.

I'd like to see that episode.

And I really do love my parents and I'm so grateful,

So,

So,

So grateful for everything they've given me.

And probably my soul needed to not be taught this so that I could learn that process on my own,

But certainly it would have been great to have been taught also how to work through self-imposed guilt.

But again,

That's probably something my soul specifically chose because I'm sure there are spiritual parents out there who talk about these things and you know,

And so,

But yeah,

Definitely that was probably one of the bigger,

Bigger challenges.

It's important,

I think,

To point out here that we believe,

Kabbalah teaches that our souls choose our parents based upon what we need to do in this lifetime,

In this,

What we choose to transform,

What we choose as our gifts to reveal in the world.

And that's one of the other unique things that I think these two gentlemen bring to the conversation is that they chose parents who were already immersed in their own spiritual growth.

Whereas some of us may have chosen parents that would eventually find spirituality,

They might not have chosen a currently spiritual environment to be born into.

And with that in mind,

Both of you have siblings who were raised in that same garden,

But are very different species,

Very different plants.

And I wonder if you have any,

If you can think of any examples or anecdotes about how spirituality helped you.

I mean,

You shared a great,

A couple of sort of stories about you and your brother in the family episode,

Because we were talking about how our family is really there to help us learn.

And each member in our family has something not to teach us,

Meaning they're up there and we're down here,

But through our relationship,

We gain something.

There is a unique gift there.

Can you think of something you could share about either of your siblings that you,

Yehuda has one brother.

I should stop,

People who are listening don't see me pointing.

Yehuda Yashurun has a younger brother.

Yehuda Kelman has a younger brother that is two years younger than him and a younger sister who's four years younger than him.

And then he has younger siblings that are much younger than him.

So I'm more referring to the ones who you had to share a bedroom with.

Right.

So I'll give you Yehuda Yashurun time to think.

It's interesting.

I actually shared this anecdote with my sister,

Esty.

She's eight.

She's eight.

Me and my brother,

Mikey,

He's 22.

We used to get into fights all the time and conflict as kids.

Mikey is also a Leo.

Yes.

So he's a double Leo.

So that was just,

We were just bashing heads our whole entire childhood.

There's a reason that there are not two lions leading a pack.

Exactly.

How's that for a spiritual fight for?

And he would push the right buttons that would always get me to the edge of where I'm ready to rip someone's head off.

Every single time we'd have a conversation or we'd be playing.

We also shared a room until the day I was 18.

So we have a long history together of being in close quarters,

Two lions just going at it.

And I just remember always thinking if we weren't brothers,

Would we be friends?

Because we were always at each other's head.

Not violently,

By the way.

No,

Not violently.

But verbally and we're also competitive.

So when we'd play games,

We'd just start getting into yelling competitions.

They're picturing kids wrestling on the floor and teeth flying out of your mouths.

No,

We were very much aggressive with our words.

There you go.

And what it taught me was a lot of restriction.

He would come to me and he'd say,

I remember one time,

This will never leave me.

He was probably four or five,

Which means I was six or seven.

And I was sitting,

Minding my own beeswax in my room.

And Mikey comes to me and he says,

Yuda,

We're watching Lilo and Stitch in the living room.

And I'm like,

Oh my God,

For real?

That's awesome.

It was one of my favorite shows.

He's like,

Yeah,

Yeah,

Come,

Come.

He has like the biggest smile on his face.

I'm like,

Something's off here.

He takes me to the living room and the TV's off and he starts dying of laughter.

He's like,

I got you.

And I was on fire.

And it's such a small story,

But like he lied to me.

So I wanted to just,

You know,

Let all hell loose and just go at it.

I didn't.

I wanted to.

I held that and for years of my life,

That one story when we were five and six.

But a part of that and a part of that learning or what I got from that relationship with him,

Because now he's one of my closest friends.

I,

You know,

I wouldn't change the way our relationship was because I feel like it helped.

You know,

We've been through a lot together and a lot of anger and a lot of happiness and a lot of love.

One of the closest people to me.

But what it taught me or what I learned from him in that relationship as children until even our teenagers was that,

You know,

People are going to get under your skin and the way you react will either continue making them,

You know,

Try to get under your skin a little bit more or not.

And it helped me tremendously in my adult,

In my early adulthood.

I'm only 24,

So I haven't had many years of that.

But also in my teenage years when there were semi-difficult people that were talking to me,

I never really had an issue with them because I had my brother at home that me and him would go at it and he'd hit all the right buttons.

So it's really helped me.

And then just going to the idea that what I was talking to Estie about.

Estie has that similar relationship with Sarah,

My five year old sister,

Your five year old daughter.

Yes.

And I sat her down and I said,

Look,

Estie,

You know,

Me and Mikey,

We used to fight.

You guys don't even compare to how much we used to fight.

And she's the older one.

I was the older one.

And I had a little bit more power because I knew how to use my words a little bit better than him.

So she has that same power and she makes her feel little sometimes.

So I remember I spoke to her two weeks ago and I tell her,

Estie,

Look,

You know,

You have so she looks up to you so much.

And every time you say something negative to her,

She'll remember it for her whole life.

I remember the things Mikey said to me and he remembers things that I've said to him.

And I told her that when we were growing up,

It was like we were always in battle.

And then eventually,

You know,

More recent history,

We're like the closest people,

But we could have been that for our whole lives,

Even though we were very close.

We lived in close quarters.

We weren't friends yet.

We didn't get that friendship aspect.

And I basically explained to her,

You know,

You'll go through difficult times with your siblings and people in your life,

But it's just you need to know that your words have actions and that your words affect her because you're someone she looks up to.

So that was a fun experience.

And I think,

You know,

The next couple of experiences that I saw them together,

She was a lot nicer,

Which was nice to see.

It had an effect on her.

But it's also a part of that.

It's the learning experience that I got was I need to treat.

I have a certain power with my words.

I need to treat people.

I need to use that power for good,

Not for,

You know,

Winning an argument or making someone feel bad or putting them down.

You to you to why would you like to or would you like to pass?

And I'll go on to the next question.

No,

Actually,

That's the there is you said two things,

Yuda,

That I want to reference.

One you asked,

Right?

Would we be friends if we weren't brothers?

And the way that are that my parents raised my brother and I is to be friends first and brothers second.

Because we moved around a lot growing up,

I went to 13 different schools in the 12 years you are legally mandated to be in school.

So we lived a nomadic lifestyle.

We did.

We really,

Really did.

And so for the most part,

My brother was the only friend I had for,

You know,

At least how far apart are you?

We're two years apart.

Same as you as Mikey.

Yeah.

But we both from an astrological point of view,

And this may not mean anything to some of you.

We both have Scorpio Moon.

So instead of being aggressive,

Both being Leo's in a different way,

In a very,

Very different way,

Instead of both being aggressive to each other whenever we would push each other's button.

Even though we were raised to be friends,

We were still there were still I mean,

You're always going to fight.

Our fights were more passive aggressive.

And sometimes they still are,

Although I mean,

We've gotten so much closer since we've stopped living in the same house,

Which I guess is just a thing that happens to everyone who wants to get closer to their siblings,

Not to everyone,

Period.

But one of the things that my dad specifically would always say this every time I would fight with my brother,

And for me,

The trigger was always justice.

As the Libra,

If something wasn't fair,

It would trigger me.

And sometimes things weren't fair,

Because between siblings,

Things just aren't fair.

Not every sibling is made alike and equal.

Everyone has different needs and different desires and different things.

And so sometimes we'd have to share games.

Our parents wouldn't get us games or things unless we could share them.

And so if we would fight about it,

Neither of us could play with it,

Even if it was my birthday present or his gift or whatever.

If we couldn't share it,

We didn't have it.

So we had to learn to share things all the time.

And whenever we would fight,

Even if I was right,

My dad would always ask me this one question.

And he would ask it in Hebrew.

Do you want to be righteous,

Meaning spiritually elevated,

Right?

Or do you want to be right?

Which one?

Because you can't really have both for the most part.

It's like the question you ask,

Right?

Do you want to be right or do you want to be happy?

Because most of the time you're not going to get both.

I often say,

Do you want to be right or do you want to be light?

There you go.

You can't be both.

You really can't be both.

I mean,

And as a Libra,

It was so hard for me because that's my trigger is things need to be right.

Things need to be just.

Things need to be fair.

And by the way,

All kids go through a phase like that.

It's a certain stage in development where they start to compare and contrast.

Whereas what,

You know,

As very young children,

Everybody,

It's all good and everybody's good and everybody's amazing.

And then suddenly you start to realize that there are different abilities.

I can read,

They can't read.

Those kinds of things start to emerge and they start to measure fairness,

Justice,

And it goes away after a while,

But it emerges anyway in children.

So to have that be your button must have been extremely difficult.

I mean,

It's like a permanent button.

It's one of the reasons why I can't really.

It's a lever.

It's not even a button.

Yeah.

I mean,

It's social media becomes really difficult to follow all the time because you see so many things that are just not okay and suddenly it's just like your whole day is just ruined.

So for me growing up with that,

And that had a really big impact on how I approached my relationship with my brother.

And then we grew up and as teenagers,

We ended up having like really different cliques,

But my brother always wanted to be in my clique and I really did not.

Judah Kelman has no idea what you're talking about.

Never experienced that with his little brother.

Just like always coming and hanging out with the older kids and you're like,

Yo,

I see you all the time.

Go away.

Yeah.

But because of the way we grew up,

I always wanted things to be better in our relationship and I was always searching for ways not just to say like,

Oh,

He's just different than her.

He's got this thing.

He's got that thing.

And we'll just split off into our own paths and that's it.

I always really wanted to have a good relationship with him.

So I was always looking for,

Okay,

What can I learn from him and the way he approaches because we're really very,

Very different people aside from like being passive aggressive sometimes is like the one thing we have in common in terms of like our personalities and then our dad jokes.

It's like the only thing we do that's the same.

Everything else is really wildly different.

And I was always was looking for how can I be more like that?

How can I do more of that in my life?

Because I want to grow.

I want to be better and I want to have a better relationship with him.

So that's how I always approach every,

I mean,

That's how I approached growing up every situation with him.

Okay.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

We're moving on from siblings.

You to Killman.

Yes,

Mother.

So here's an example of how spirituality helped you as a teenager.

David actually a couple months ago spoke about how somebody invited him to their house to talk to their teen and a group of their friends more lecture,

Not coaching one on one per se and how they were talking about,

Um,

You know,

The one thing that they do is they let themselves like abuse their parents.

And it became a whole other,

It was also in the family series that I think that he was bringing it up,

But it was so interesting.

We were talking about how you kind of like let yourself,

Let it all hang out in front of the people that are closest to you.

You're less careful with them.

Um,

But I think,

You know,

Kids,

You guys are adults,

But kids today face crazy things that you didn't simply because you didn't have a phone or a,

You know,

Social media.

There's all kinds of crazy things that happen now or are happening in the world.

And I think our listeners would like to hear a concept or something you learned that helped you deal with something,

A challenge,

A situation,

Or I don't know,

It might be hard to think of if you want,

You can pass it to Yuta who might have a quicker example off the top of his head.

He has one.

I just first want to say,

Yeah,

When I was in my early teens,

Tim from MySpace or Tom,

Someone it was like,

That was,

That was the Facebook of,

Of,

Of that age.

It was like,

He has no idea what MySpace is.

For me,

One of the ways that,

Um,

Kabbalah helped me in my teens,

Um,

Was keeping me busy with the right things.

That's really,

If I really had to think about it,

It was,

And,

And my parents pushed my brother and I to volunteer a lot,

Not just in the Kabbalah Center,

Although primarily in the Kabbalah Center,

But so every spare moment we had,

Um,

You know,

We,

We would be volunteering.

Uh,

Yeah,

Like we,

We had vacation.

We were in service.

Yeah.

We were in service to others.

And that kept us busy from going into the dark recesses of where teenage brains usually tend to go.

Um,

And although,

Yeah,

That meant I got to explore a lot more of the world as an adult and you know,

Just later in life,

I'm actually really thankful for that because I mean,

First of all,

It's just from a spiritual perspective.

There are multiple levels to the,

To the soul,

To this force that we have.

And the,

The,

The third one,

Which is actually when you become like a complete human being of energy is when you're 20.

So which is what makes the teenage years so difficult,

Right?

Is because there's this like,

There's a literal war going on between your ego and your soul because you've really only been experiencing just the me,

Me,

Me,

Me,

Me of childhood.

And then suddenly you become a teenager and that's actually,

No,

I want to do for the world.

I want to change.

I want to do all these things without,

But you haven't let go of the me,

Me,

Me,

Me.

So there's this fight happening constantly.

And that balancing force only happens when you're 20.

And that's really when you can,

You have the ability to look at life and make decisions in a much more responsible way.

And not every decision I made in my twenties was responsible at all.

Far more than probably if I didn't have Kabbalah and spirituality,

But,

But a lot of the things that I might have explored in my teenage years irresponsibly,

I simply just didn't have time or the desire to,

Because I was just so busy being in service to others.

And,

And always with Free Will,

My parents never forced us to do this,

Right?

But it was really,

You know,

Not every Sunday we would do this,

But every so often there'd be a Sunday where we could dedicate some of our time to bringing spirituality to strangers off the street.

You know,

Are we interested?

And sometimes there was,

You know,

Less Free Will,

But always still feel like if I really didn't want to go,

My parents would never force me to go.

And now do you have one?

I was thinking about it,

You know,

The first thing that came to my mind,

I was like,

No.

And then I was like,

Went through a whole list of things.

But I think the first thing,

And it kind of leads back to the idea,

Is being okay with where you are at right now,

Not where you were at,

Not where you're going to be,

But being okay with where you are now.

And trusting that you're in the right place,

Or trusting yourself to make the right decisions when decisions come up,

Whether they be small or big.

The story that came to my head was when I was 15,

I was studying to get my permit.

Driver's permit.

Driver's permit.

We have international listeners.

Driver's permit.

When you're 15 and a half in Los Angeles,

You can get your driver's permit.

So I was studying and it's a long test and I'm pretty good at taking tests.

But I have a habit,

Or I had a habit,

Thank God I don't need to take any more tests.

But I had a habit of second guessing myself throughout the test and going back at the end and changing my answers because I didn't believe that I could have the right answers like that.

So what I did was I changed a couple answers after I took the test and then I handed it in and you can see them grading it,

The individuals that are grading it.

And I got one above the limit,

Meaning that they failed me,

They said I had to come and take the test,

And two of the answers- Were the second guessing ones.

Were the second guessing ones.

And it's just very interesting and I held it all throughout high school,

I held it all throughout my college career.

A lot of the time when you make a decision based on your experience,

Based on what your heart is telling you,

And not what other people are telling you,

Or being self-conscious about the decision you're about to make like with the test,

I thought that I wasn't- I didn't have the ability to get it right on the first try,

That's why I went back and kind of did my whole thing with it.

And I know that there's studies about it,

But for me it was more of doubting myself and not being confident in myself.

And I struggled with that a lot throughout my childhood,

Throughout my teenage years.

At a certain point I said,

I don't really care what outside factors think of me,

I know that I'm on the right path and if I look a year backwards,

I'm in a better place or I've grown more than I was that year,

And I know that I'm on the right path.

And I was a teenager not too long ago,

So I know how social media affects a teenage psyche,

It's hard.

You have people telling,

People cyberbullying,

Cyberbullying was a huge part of from 13 to 17 before people said,

You know what,

Cyberbullying is not cool.

So- It was cool in the beginning.

Yeah it was,

Because people were hiding behind the screen and it was a new concept that you could just basically say whatever with no- Like in chat rooms.

Yeah,

In chat rooms or on Facebook or on Twitter or on,

I mean Instagram came a little bit later.

But all of that futter gets into your head.

Someone says you don't look good or I struggled with weight throughout my whole life or you're too fat or you're not.

All of these things affect you,

They affect the way you look at yourself and they affected the way that I looked at myself throughout my teenage years and at a certain point I said,

Enough's enough,

I'm happy with myself.

I live with myself 24 hours,

Seven days a week,

365 days a year.

If I'm not happy with myself because of people that I see sometimes,

Then I'm not going to have a good experience.

And I know what I've been through and I know that where I'm at spiritually is good or where I'm at career wise is good or where I'm at in school is good,

Even if I get a bad grade and a test,

I know in the grand scheme of things I feel good about it because I'm happy with myself.

Where do you think that comes from?

The idea of being happy with yourself?

Like self-acceptance.

All the parents and teenagers out there who are listening to this are saying,

Wow,

I want to drink some of that.

Right.

I think it comes down to the lack of caring about what people think about you.

I don't know if that's a spiritual concept,

But.

.

.

David says sometimes you have to act like you're the only person on the planet.

Right.

Because you can go into quantum physics,

But simply put,

You experience everything that you're going through.

Nobody else experiences it that way.

So you're the captain of your own ship.

You have to find a way or find the parts of yourself that you love and that nobody else has.

And just go with it.

Ride that wave.

As a kid,

I was very good at speaking to people.

Yuda was a friend of mine and he's 10,

Like eight years,

Nine years older than me.

But when you're younger,

It's like a big difference.

And I always had the older friends.

It helped me realize that I can speak in public.

And that's what I did for the center.

I did the announcements on Shabbat.

I led the kids Torah readings and stuff like that.

I was MVP of a debate team that I would have been in the finals and I didn't have a partner.

I was doing it on my own and everybody else had a partner.

So I realized my strengths and I didn't focus on my weaknesses because I have a ton as everybody does.

But I took what I was best at and what I knew for a fact I was best at or I thought I was good at because Leos have a certain view of themselves.

But it's finding those,

The diamonds in the rough because you might not feel good about yourself physically.

You might not feel good about yourself emotionally,

But there are certain parts of yourself that once you discover and you ride with just that,

It really helps take away all of that nonsense that you hear.

Say,

I don't care about what this person is saying because I know that I'm really good at this other thing.

Maybe it's helping people out.

That's how a lot of people find out because they went through so much in their life that was hard.

They know that they can help people.

That's what I used to always tell myself.

I'm going through this because in 10 years from now I'm going to meet somebody and they're going to be going through the same thing and I'm going to help them.

So I can't,

I don't know the spiritual concept,

But it's finding the one thing you enjoy about yourself and just riding with it.

And then along the way you find a bunch of other subcategories that you're also amazing at and then eventually you're like,

I don't care if this guy just called me an idiot while I was cutting him off on the road.

I know I'm smart in this and this and this.

And you know,

Once you start to take,

You start to become more confident in that one part,

The rest of you kind of like becomes more confident because you're not focusing on all the other stuff.

I don't know if that answered your question.

It did.

I tried.

Believe it or not,

That's all the time we have and I still have more questions and I think we're kind of leaving people on a cliffhanger because we didn't get to all the questions.

So we may have to do another episode of insights from spiritually raised individuals.

I don't know how,

What else we can call the episode.

Bring your son to work day.

Bring your son to work day.

You heard it here first,

Everyone.

Closing thoughts?

Wow.

I mean,

I'm not sure how to sum up an entire childhood.

Well let me ask,

Can I ask you each a question that we will answer in one sentence?

Yes,

That I can do.

What is the one thing your parents did with you on a spiritual level,

Right?

Not took you to the baseball game or whatever like that,

That you will do with your own kids?

They gave me space to grow and figure myself out.

They didn't interfere with their agenda in any way.

You to kill me?

That I'll do with my own kids?

Provide them with a loving home that's always filled with happiness.

I can go into more details,

But that's one sentence.

Well,

I'll have to bring you back to hear about that loving and happy home.

So thank you Yehuda and Yehuda for being here with me today.

I think I'm going to have to listen to this episode again.

I wasn't taking notes,

But there's a lot of nuggets there that I think I can learn from as well as of course our listeners.

And we'll see you next week on the Weekly Energy Boost.