Q&A TELL ALL: my spiritual journey + personal life
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Hello, hello, beautiful souls, and welcome to the Claim Your Power podcast, the ultimate show for all things New Age spirituality, entrepreneurship, and embodied leadership. I'm your host, Kim Peretz. I'm an author, entrepreneur, and yoga enthusiast. If you're ready to step up, tap into your gifts, and unleash your potential, you are at the right place. It's time to claim your power.

Hello, hello my friends and welcome back to the pod. How's your day going? How are you doing? You guys know that I like to start off the episodes recently with these little check-ins. So maybe take a moment, put your hand over your heart and ask yourself how you're doing on a scale of 1 to 10.

I'm really excited to have you here. And I wanted to say really quick that I've been seeing you guys' Instagram stories and your DMs, and they make me so happy. Like, they honestly make me cry sometimes. Like, when I see... When I get tagged in stories of you guys going on a run or painting or journaling and listening to the podcast in the background, it just...

fulfills me and fills my heart in the most unimaginable ways. So I just wanted to start off by saying thank you for listening. Thank you for supporting my show. Thank you for making me feel like I have, you know, valuable things to say because I started this podcast with no listeners of just me in my room talking to a microphone and I didn't realize like how much it would grown and now we have friends all over the world and just this beautiful community that

So I just wanted to start off by saying thank you before we dive into this episode. So little life update. It's currently 8 p.m. on a Tuesday. I'm filming this episode. You guys know I usually film my episodes...

on Mondays and then episodes come out Fridays. But little life update. So I just spent the weekend in Switzerland with my best friend, Claire. She's my soul sister. Shout out to Claire. Claire, if you're listening to this, I love you. So I spent the weekend in Switzerland with my best friend and it was just the most, it was something that like my soul needed. I don't know how to explain it, but it just all fell into place. And going and seeing Claire, she lives in

so far away from me. We live like across the globe away from each other. So seeing her after like a couple of months of not seeing her just was so amazing. It just felt so good to like reconnect with her again and to catch up and just to be with someone who is so on your same energy and just so aligned with you.

just made me so so happy we spent the weekend like in the mountains in switzerland really immersed in nature with animals and just big fields and it was just something that my soul needed so badly was like to ground and center and reconnect so i'm so grateful for that but i got

But I got back last night, Monday night, so I didn't have time to film the episode yesterday. So this is why I'm filming it now. Little update. But this episode, I'm excited for it because this has been a very requested topic. I've gotten messages about this all the time, about just doing like a general Q&A episode about my own spiritual journey and my personal life in general. So I posted something on my Instagram story a little while back and

for you guys to send in questions like about my spiritual journey or just like specific questions that you want me to answer or just things about my personal life and so I'm gonna go through it and I'm gonna pick the top ones that like I really want to answer and I just feel intuitively called to talk about and

So yeah, let's just dive right into it. So first question is, what age did your spiritual awakening start at? So this is actually very interesting and I don't think I'm going to go into the entire story in this episode, but my spiritual awakening was started when I was around 15 and

And my mom was kind of the one that catalyzed it. My mom has been someone who is so influential and impactful over my life. Like my mom and I have a very big soul contract. I grew up in a very spiritual household. My mom, you know, is an NLP certified trainer. She knows a lot about neuroscience, the power of the mind, all these things like have been evident in my life for a very long time.

We're Middle Eastern. So I had that like big sense of, you know, I'm Iraqi on one side of my family. So I had that like very big sense of like spiritual connection. I'm also like Egyptian going back. So just very interesting like things about like my genes and my DNA. Like I won't dive too much into that because I also have a whole other side of my dad, which is like Austrian and Ashkenazi Jew. So like there's just so I have like I'm a big mix. So there's a lot to unravel about like my ancestors and things like that.

To answer the question of like, how did my spiritual journey start? I've always been exposed to like motivation, self-development, things like that. But I was never really connected to it. I didn't feel any resonance with it. My mom as a kid would always tell me these things, but like I didn't feel any resonance to it. And it wasn't until I had my own dark night of the soul when I was 15 and I was depressed, anxious, suicidal, eating disorder. And I was at the lowest of my low, like low,

literally the lowest that I've ever been in my life, my dark night of the soul. It wasn't until then that I had like an epiphany moment where it was like, okay, there's this choice. I could end my life or I could find purpose in my life and connect back to my soul and find myself and come home to myself all over again. And that is exactly what happened. And it was a slow, very slow journey at first.

a journey of discovery and remembering. And my spiritual journey started off very similar to most people. I feel like there's like a foundational like mold to how people have a spiritual awakening. It's usually an awakening, a dark night of the soul, something triggers it.

And you start this journey of self-discovery. So I started reading books like The Power of Now and Annie Edgar Tolle and The Alchemist. And just I started journaling and really like sitting with my feelings. And then I started meditating five minutes a day in the morning, very slow and steady. Started going on walks, started connecting with nature. And I started to do a lot of healing work.

I started to really connect to my shadow side, to my triggers, to my past, to my inner child, to past traumas and really working through it. I went to therapy for a year and I worked through some things that I needed to do there. I started EFT tapping and then eventually after two years, I got EFT certified, which is amazing because EFT changed my life. But there's so many things that like went into my journey and it wasn't like overnight like boom.

Boom, like suddenly I became like the spiritual connected to the universe creator where I just like was so tapped into my power. It wasn't like that. It was connecting back to my passions and taking a leap of faith and start communicating with the universe. I remember I started asking the universe for signs. That was when I was like so skeptical about the universe and I didn't know if it actually existed and I started asking it for signs and

And wow, I have a story for you guys. I have to tell you guys. Okay, so little anecdote of the episode. This is when I was 16 years old.

it was my first love we were in the kitchen my ex-boyfriend and we were in the kitchen talking and i was telling him like i don't know like i started getting into like spirituality and like the universe but i'm not sure if it actually exists and i think i'm gonna ask it for a sign and my ex-boyfriend was like very supportive of those things he i'm not sure like how spiritual he was but he was very open and very accepting which is something that i'm very grateful for looking back now

And he was like, "Okay, ask the universe for a sign. Like, let's see it." So we're sitting in my kitchen and I'm thinking like, "Oh my God, what sign do I ask the universe?" 'Cause I didn't wanna come up with something basic. I didn't wanna be like, "Show me a bird or show me an angel number," because that's easy, you know? That's surface level. I wanted something random, like the fucking randomest thing, that's what I wanted. I wanted the universe to work for it and to prove me right. Because that was when I was in a phase of like, "Oh, you have to prove it, you have to prove it," you know?

I'm over that phase now. As you can tell, years later, I've got a podcast all about spirituality. So anyways, we're sitting in my kitchen and I'm thinking to myself like, what sign do I ask for? And then it hit me. Okay, so little fun fact about me. I grew up in a Jewish household. Like ethnically, I'm Jewish. I wouldn't say that I'm religious in any way, but I do feel some sort of connection to Judaism, especially like Orthodoxy.

old very ancient Judaism that's connected to like astrology and things like that in no way am I like religious or like connected to that that's like a whole other episode just like about that side of me and like my ancestors we'll have to dive into that one day but anyways so I'm sitting there and I'm like what sign do I ask for and then I realized you know what universe I'm gonna ask for a menorah and if you're not Jewish or you don't know what a menorah is I

for Hanukkah it's like the light it's the menorah it's where you light the candles and I think it was around like the beginning of December so like around Hanukkah so I was like okay maybe like ask for a sign of like a menorah and then someone will text me a menorah or someone or I'll go to someone's house and I'll see a menorah like sitting on their shelf or something that's what I was thinking

But the thing is, when you ask for a sign, you put it out to the universe and then you have to trust and you have to surrender and you don't think about it anymore. And that's kind of what I did. And the reason that I think this experience worked for me is because I was skeptical and because I wasn't attached to it. Because sometimes when you are so spiritual and attached to the universe, you start looking for confirmation and this and that and you think that everything has meaning to it.

But at the time I was just like so disconnected and detached. I was like, okay, if it comes, it comes. If it doesn't, it doesn't. So I'm sitting in my kitchen and I literally remember like opening my arms. I'm standing next to my ex and I told the universe, universe, show me a menorah if I'm on the right path.

That's the exact sentence that I said. That's the first time that I ever really communicated with the universe besides when I was like a very little girl, when I was like clairvoyant. Again, guys, I have so many crazy like spiritual stories as a kid. I was a very clairvoyant child. We'll have to get into that on another episode if you guys want me to. But anyways, that's the first time I really communicated with the universe as like I was getting older and more mature.

And I let it go. And then two hours later, my ex and I were like, oh my God, let's go get acai bowls. So we're getting in the car and my ex is driving. We're like right outside my house, like a couple blocks outside my house. And we get to this intersection. And so we're about to stop like we're at an intersection. Boom, we stop. It's not our turn to drive.

Right when we're at the stop sign, I kid you not, I cannot make this up. I remember my ex was in shock, in shock. I was in shock. I have goosebumps right now telling you guys this. Like, oh my God. So we're in the stop sign, sitting there. And right in front of our eyes, like we could not have missed it. A huge truck drives by, like crosses right in front of us. And on the roof of the truck is a humongous menorah.

What? What? I remember both of us looked at each other and we were like in a state of shock. We were like, how is this real? How did that happen? Like we could not have missed it. What are the odds that right when I'm at a stop sign, a huge truck with a menorah when I asked for a sign two hours later shows up?

Zero. There's no coincidences in the universe. And that day I realized that. That day I realized that the power of our words and our intention means something. And when we put out energy into the universe, the universe responds to that vibration if we're open and allowing ourselves to receive those messages. And so that is kind of like that day like triggered me.

positively my relationship with the universe. And then from then on end, I started talking to the universe all the time. I would tell her, send me a sign that I'm on the right path. Send me a sign to guide me. Send me a sign to tell me that things will be okay. And since that day at 16 years old with my first boyfriend, I have never stopped talking to the universe.

We are besties now. This is like a long-term relationship for eternity, me and the universe. And so I hope that this story kind of inspires you and also maybe it inspires you to start communicating and starting a dialogue with the universe and asking for a sign because the universe is listening to you more than you know. Okay, wow. This episode is going to be a lot longer than I envisioned, but we're here for it because I love all these questions.

Okay, so second one is what have you learned from your relationships? And I love this question because I think that this is a question that I'm still reflecting on. I'm still reflecting on what I've learned from my relationships, not just romantic ones, maybe like friendships that have come to an end or relationships with certain family members. But I think one of the biggest lessons that I've learned in relationships is to learn how to choose myself.

because you guys know that for a very long time I was a people pleaser and I've talked about it because I'm an ex-people pleaser now, that's what I like to call myself.

And I have learned over time in my relationships to never ever let someone bring me out of alignment. To never let someone take my power away or have so much power over me that I feel miserable in my own energy or in my own skin. And specifically with romantic relationships, I think the biggest lesson that I've learned is that I'm whole and complete on my own. And that no person, no man, no woman, no one in life can complete you. Ever. Ever.

You complete yourself like that person is not your world You are your world and they are part of it and when you seek someone in Your life externally to fulfill that need for you and to fill that void You are setting both of yourselves up for failure because the way true relationships work Is you feel whole on your own that person feels whole on their own? And you guys come together and could join on like a journey together to help each other grow and evolve

But their job, your partner's job is not to fill up that void, to not validate you, to not show you that you are worthy. That is your job. And the moment that you can do that, you will meet a partner that will reflect that same energy to you. And also another thing that I want to say, and this is something that is pretty like evident to me now, because currently I'm single. I've been single for like, I want to say like nine months, 10 months, 10 months. And

And I've been on like a big heartbreak, self-love, coming home to myself journey in the past year, especially in 2022. 2023 has been a very new energy. And I'm finally starting to feel like my heart is opening truly because it was closed off for a very long time because I was working through a lot of things on my own. And now I finally feel like it's opening up.

But I do want to say that so many people jump to relationships to settle or because they want someone to feel something for them. And what my biggest tip for you guys is become the person you want to attract. And this is something that is actually very useful to me now in this moment because sometimes we think we know what we want, but the universe wants something better for us. And the universe is kind of knowing something behind the scenes that we don't.

And so if you want to attract a certain partner and you have a list of all their traits, become those traits. Become that person you want to attract. And there will be no other choice for the universe to deliver and send that person into your life because that person will naturally gravitate and find you. When I realized like I want, I made a list of

all the traits and qualities that I would want in my next partner. But after making that list, I've realized that I still have some inner work to do to become that person myself. Because I see those traits and I wrote those traits down, but I'm like, wow, okay, maybe in this trait, like I still have some more work to do. Or maybe career-wise, I have some more work to do that I want on myself before I can truly become and attract that person.

So I think it's so important to realize that if you're single right now, that is the most beautiful phase in your life to be in because that is a period in your life that is dedicated solely to you and your soul and your purpose.

And another thing is like, you're not going to be single forever. Like it's just impossible. Like you came onto this earth to experience love and romantic relationships is part of that. And so telling yourself like, I'm not going to be single forever. At some point, my person is going to walk into my life. And what if that,

time is going to be tomorrow. Wouldn't you want to enjoy and make the best out of you being single? That is honestly what I tell myself. Like I could as well walk tomorrow outside, get into a coffee shop and meet my soulmate, like meet my next boyfriend. You literally never know. And so I'm going to make the best out of my time being single and working on myself and becoming my highest version so that I can be open to the highest partner for me.

Okay, question number three is how did you find friends that you connected with in your journey? And this is a very interesting question because what's coming to mind right now for me that I feel like I need to say to you guys is quality over quantity. I have always been someone who's very social. I'm a social butterfly. I love to meet new people. I love to connect with new people. And I've always been someone who like connects with people a lot. And I know a lot of people.

but to be honest like true friends i can count them with my fingers i do not have 50 000 true friends i have three to four true girlfriends that i can really really rely on that i can really trust with my life that i can really you know connect with on a spiritual level beyond something superficial and surface level like these are deep friendships and to me personally that is more than enough because

Because what I've realized through my own life is that you do not have to be best friends with every single person in your life. And not every single friend that walks into your life is destined to be like your truest, ride or die, soulmate best friend. Like you can have your going out friends, you can have your work friends, your school friends, and then you can have the few people that you really connect with on a soul level. And I have to say that those people, like your soul friendships,

they take, I don't want to say like they take time to find because they don't because time doesn't really exist and it's whenever you are ready and open to receive it.

But those friends come in when you feel so whole and complete on your own that you tell yourself, okay, like even if I have zero friends, I'm happy and I'm joyful and I'm grateful. When you feel whole and complete on your own and you don't feel FOMO all the time and you don't feel like jealous or you need to like keep up with what other people are doing all the time and you just feel whole and present in your life and your reality.

those friends walk into your life. It's really crazy how these things work. Like the second you detach from the outcome of like, oh, I have to have a billion friends and they all have to be spiritual and like be on the same level as me. The second you detach from that, you meet those people.

and you also have to be grateful for the people who maybe you don't connect with on a spiritual or deep level because those people maybe can't meet you where you are but you should still wish them the best of luck and you should still be grateful for them because those people came into your life to teach you something to awaken something within you and that's powerful okay next question is did you go to college and my answer is yes i'm currently in university i

and I'm loving it. I am a university student, like part-time, like I'm a full-time student, but like I'm really trying to work and balance everything with all my passions because going to school was a decision that I really wanted to align with my soul. And it took me a long time to like find the school that I wanted and the program that I wanted, but I feel very happy with my decision and where I am. And I believe like early on,

earth you come here to learn and I think it's really great that there are a lot of people who like don't want to go to college and do not need a degree to be successful like I totally agree with that but me getting my degree is something that I'm actually choosing to do for myself I want to expand my own knowledge and my own consciousness so I'm currently getting a degree in communications that specializes in digital influence so social media and how to make an impact

online and how to deliver content and messages, which is basically like my soul's purpose, which is like what brings me the most joy. So my studies have been so interesting and I'll be minoring in entrepreneurship. So like how to bring those skills and knowledge to life and tangible results and starting a business. So I'm really excited. I'm really enjoying university so far and I'm really grateful that I've been able to find a really big balance between my studies and also my divergent passions and the podcast and continuing to work and create content and

And yeah, I'm excited to see where that takes me and the prospect of that. And I'll definitely keep you guys in the loop on that. So last question that I'm going to answer today, and I think I'll do a part two of this. Maybe I can make this like a bi-monthly, like every other month thing where you guys like send me questions and I answer them because this has been really fun. And I also feel like I get to connect with you guys more deeply. But last question is, what is the biggest lesson that you learned in 2022?

Amazing question. I'm excited to answer it. I think the biggest lesson that I learned this past year is surrender.

is trusting more. Because for many years in my life, I was very much in my masculine energy. I was trying to control every aspect. I was working very hard. I was chasing all these goals and dreams. And I was very ambitious. And I was very much in my masculine energy. But in 2022, I experienced a lot of big changes and big shifts and rejection and heartbreak and triggers for abandonment and all these things that have basically...

triggered me and pushed me in a way like no other to move out of the masculine and more into my feminine side and into surrendering because I was very much immersed in unknown for a very long time and uncertainty. And for most of 2022, I had to learn how to find my self-worth from within and not from external sources and how to find inner peace within

Amidst the chaos. And how to find gratitude amidst not knowing everything. And amidst not having everything figured out. So I really learned how to master. And honestly, to be honest and like to humble myself. Like I don't think that I've mastered it completely. I think I'm still learning how to do this.

but I think I've learned a lot about the energy of surrender and trusting and leaning more into trust and allowing the universe to take the steering wheel in my life and telling it okay maybe I don't know what's right for me but you do universe so you show me the way you pave me the path and so this is something that I've been consciously really working on and something that was really like a big theme that was highlighted for me in 2022 and honestly I'm really grateful for that because I

it allows me in a way to enter 2023 with a big sense of more ease and trust and surrender and letting go which I'm so grateful for and I'm really excited for this year I am just excited to like

experience and live and I'm just grateful and I love my life so I'm grateful for every lesson that I've learned this year because it has made me who I am and it has shifted my entire perspective I'm really grateful for anyone who sent in the questions I hope that these questions kind of like allowed you guys to understand more about my spiritual journey and also relate to it in a sense and I will be doing I think a part two on this if you guys want to just message me so I'll know that there's like a desire for this

And yeah, I love you guys. Beautiful souls. Thank you so much for joining me in today's episode. As always, feel free to DM me on Instagram if you have any topic suggestions for future episodes or if you would like to apply to be a guest on the show. I hope you feel inspired to claim your power today. Bye. In this election, we each face a question. What kind of country do we want to live in?

We choose freedom. The freedom not just to get by, but get ahead. The freedom to make decisions about your own body. We believe in the promise of America and we're ready to fight for it. Because when we fight, we win. Paid for by Harris for President.