Kabbalah: My Spiritual Toolkit

In this episode of the Inside OUT podcast, Jojo shares her personal journey with Kabbalah—her lifelong spiritual foundation that became a chosen practice during pivotal turning points in her life. From growing up immersed in its wisdom, to leaning on its teachings through heartbreak and transformation, JoJo explains how Kabbalah serves as a spiritual blueprint for the soul: a toolkit for navigating chaos, shifting from victimhood to ownership, and aligning with your highest purpose.

She clears up common misconceptions about Kabbalah, showing how it is not a religion but a grounded, universal system for anyone seeking deeper meaning—whether you come from faith, no faith, or anywhere in between. Jojo also highlights the paradox of giving and receiving, the ongoing work of self-evolution, and how Kabbalah continues to shape her mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.

If you’ve been curious about spirituality beyond dogma, are moving through a period of chaos, or simply want to understand Jojo on a deeper level, this episode is a must-listen.

🔑 What You’ll Learn:

• The difference between Kabbalah and religion—and why it’s for everyone
• How Kabbalah has impacted Jojo’s life through challenge and change
• The practical ways its teachings serve as a spiritual toolkit for daily life
• Why growth is an ongoing process of rewiring, recalibrating, and realigning
• How Kabbalah helps you connect to purpose, presence, and your soul’s journey

✨ Resources Mentioned:

• Kabbalah.com
  – Find centers, online classes, and resources
• The Power of Kabbalah (Book)

Thank you for listening! Don't forget to follow along on social media @_insideout.podcast, rate and review. And Join the MESy Mailing List for exclusive content, insights on what is coming up and more!

Transcript

the Inside Out podcast. I'm your host JoJo and this is where we will navigate the mess together that is mental, emotional and spiritual. Let's get into it.

Jojo (00:25.23)
Hi everyone, welcome back to Inside Out. And if you are new here, welcome. This is a podcast that I started almost a year ago. And I started it because I kept having these conversations with people in my life, with strangers, kind of with everyone. The perspectives and the conversations that we would have were really eye-opening and

That is why I decided to start Inside Out because I think that the more vulnerable we are, the more mindful we are, and the more aligned that we become in our own truth is ultimately going to lead to an easier and just more light life or light filled life. So with that, I wanted to talk about

spirituality because that is my background. That is what I grew up with. And the specific spirituality that I have been around is called Kabbalah. Now, a lot of people have heard of Kabbalah, have no idea what it is, but think it has to do with Judaism. And I want to

share my experience with Kabbalah and also kind of get away from this idea that it's a religion because it's not. Or even that when I talk about going to a Shabbat dinner, that doesn't have to do with like being Jewish or I think there's just a lot of misconception and not much knowledge around it. So I wanted to share my

experience with it and my perspective on it and just give a little bit of insight to what it is to me and maybe what it can be to you. First and foremost, Kabbalah is a non-for-profit organization, meaning all donation-based. And it is run by two incredible individuals, Monica and Michael Berg and Michael's parents, Karen and the Rav were the people that originally brought

Jojo (02:41.881)
Kabbalah kind of from a not very known and more secretive, I guess is the right word. It just was not accessible to the everyday world. So what the Ravan Karan did was they made Kabbalah accessible. They opened centers around the world. And now Monica and Michael's mission is to continue to spread that spiritual wisdom and to continue to open doors around the world and just give people

a deeper understanding into like what it is. Okay. So now rewind. That is what Kabbalah is. But now to apply it to Jojo and what my life is and what it has been about for essentially my whole life. To me, Kabbalah is a spiritual blueprint to your soul. Meaning the more that you understand about universal laws, the more that you understand yourself,

the more ease you have in your life. So what Kabbalah has done for me has made every complicated situation and every problem that I've had easier to understand and navigate, not from a victim standpoint, but from an ownership standpoint where I feel like I understand why the problem is happening, how to deal with the problem, and then how to move on.

from said problem and hopefully not create that same narrative and that same story in our lives. Like how many times have you been in a relationship and they keep cheating on you? Or you're in a relationship and they're emotionally unavailable or you're looking for a job opportunity and you just keep getting closed doors. What Kabbalah teaches us is that it's not about what's happening.

or what people are doing to you. It's how you are bringing yourself to that same situation. And it's so funny because I love the way they talk about this. Like, why is this in my movie is a big thing of like, why does this keep happening or why does this keep replaying in my life? And what Kabbalah does is it gives you the tools and the more or less initiative

Jojo (05:04.612)
to take control of your life, to learn about your purpose and like why your soul is here in this world to begin with. And then to keep showing up in that highest version of yourself and give and continue that circuitry so that there's not chaos. In a way, while it's not this at all, the closest thing that I can

link Kabbalah to just to make it sort of digestible, I guess, is that this is essentially a self-help and therapy. I mean, I'm under-underplaying this so much because it's so much more, but it really gives you the awareness and the acuity of the why. Now, while there's so many similarities to Judaism because of the Shabbat and Torah, I mean, there are a lot of things and Hebrew and

I mean, I can go on. I'm not going to because in a lot of religion, now I'm not religious, so don't come after me for this, but it's more just a set of rules and a dogma rather than the why, the how, and what I've noticed from friends of mine that were raised Catholic or that were raised Christian or raised in whatever religion they were raised in. It's you do this or that. You go to confession or

There's not, Kabbalah doesn't do that. If anything, it's just another tool in your toolkit. Well, basically Kabbalah is a spiritual toolkit. It's just like the foundation, honestly, to everything. And when I chose to come to Kabbalah as an adult, I've had an interesting relationship with Kabbalah in my life, but my parents started studying Kabbalah when I was six. So.

As a child, I was always around this wisdom, around these concepts. Not that they meant anything to me at the time, but I was just around it. And it was a common language in the community that I was in, in the household I grew up in, and a through point in my life. When I was 22, I went through a pretty horrific

Jojo (07:31.184)
breakup and I had been living with a person and the relationship for a multitude of reasons really just fell apart. Now in that darkness that I was in at the time, that's when I first chose Kabbalah as an adult. Again, I'd been around it, grew up with it, but I hadn't chosen

to study this or to deepen my spirituality or my connection to myself, to the universe, to the creator, until this life altering event happened. And it was a very drastic, horrible breakup. But what Kabbalah did in that was gave me the tools to pull myself out and also the why of why my soul chose that story.

and chose that relationship. And it gave me the accountability and the ownership rather than turning to victimhood and blame and shame and guilt and why me and like why him and why just it held a mirror to why the heck this had happened in my life. So that was amazing. I was like, great, cool. I have all the answers. I'm done here. And then I sort of

petered off with Kabbalah. And then fast forward to 2022, I had another ending of a relationship that was pretty drastic and really shook me up because the person that I became in that relationship is not someone I recognize, is not someone that I wanted to be.

is not who I believe that I am to my core, but it was this version that came out, reared its ugly head and set fire to everything in what that relationship was. Now that was peak COVID times and Kabbalah one, two and three were mostly online classes. And I ended up taking the teacher's name is David Giam and I took his class on zoom.

Jojo (09:52.506)
And from then on, I realized that this wasn't just something that I could dip my toe in and out when I felt like it. That Kabbalah was a foundation and almost a necessity to my life. Otherwise, I was just having chaos and making ridiculous decisions because of the victimhood, because of the blame, because of not taking accountability for my soul and why I'm here in this world.

Over the last three and a half years, I have done so much work to change and redirect myself and align myself with truly what is meant for me and choose better, align myself with the right vibrations, the right energies, the right people, the right jobs, opportunities, everything, but that didn't come peacefully.

that came from chaos, that came from a lot of pain. Now, I don't believe that evolution change and transformation is solely derived from pain. I think there's a way easier and more balanced way that we can go about it. And unfortunately,

A lot of people do come to Kabbalah when they are in chaos, when they are in crisis and when they have no other answers and they've tried everything and nothing's working. So the reason I'm sharing this is because maybe this finds someone who is in crisis mode and really needs help. And with that, I want to direct you towards Kabbalah. I hope that that can be a helping hand and a guiding light. Or if you've just had a curiosity or

yearning for something more meaningful and deeper in your life, this is also why I'm sharing it. And also just to give you guys more of a perspective on who I am and what I'm about and why this is such a big part of my life because I don't think I would be who I am without Kabbalah. I don't want to say Kabbalah changed my life because that would be kind of an understatement, but my life

Jojo (12:13.355)
has changed and who I am has drastically altered and shifted because of the teachings, the practices and the wisdom that is Kabbalah. Now, Kabbalah means to receive. And one of my favorite things that is instilled in us when we are learning about Kabbalah and the whys and the hows and all of it is that you are really meant for everything.

Your desires aren't your desires because they just are, like they are meant to be fulfilled and you are meant to receive. The paradox of Kabbalah is how much you give back to receive and create this infinite circuitry. Now, again, I've been a little bit wary to share this because I don't want this to be anything other than me just sharing my perspective. I don't want this to be like I'm pushing it down anyone's throat.

forcing it on anyone saying that this is the answer and this is the only answer. I don't believe any of that. I believe there are so many different answers. This just was mine. And when again, I have these conversations with my friends about certain aspects of life, whether that's career relationship, health, you name it. Really what I'm sharing is just grounded spirituality that I've learned from Kabbalah.

and how to integrate that into my everyday life and how to live Kabbalah and how to be in that energy so that I'm more aware, more in tune with myself, more aligned on my purpose, more able to give back and also help other people, which again, I don't believe that I would even be close to this version of myself without doing this kind of deep work.

And that's the thing, it is a lot of work. It's not easy. It's not like quick fix. It's not like snap your fingers and you're good. So if that's what you're looking for, this isn't it. This is a continuous through line and an undercurrent almost of light that you can have in your life, your consciousness and your presence. And your soul is essentially what's guiding you rather than your ego mind of

Jojo (14:38.09)
the instant gratification, the quick fixes, the right now, now, now sort of mentality. Kabbalah really, and hopefully, strips all of that away and you get deeper with yourself. But again, the paradox here is the more that you clean out and realize there is work to do, the more work there is to do. So it's not just like, I'm gonna fix all my problems in my life. It's...

I'm going to continuously be fixing and rewiring and recalibrating and recalculating all of these ways that I've been living my life so that all of the previous scenarios and stories and narratives that I've been attracting change. But that doesn't come with, again, just that quick fix of do this and then that. It's constant work. Now, I don't want to scare you with saying that, but I also want you to be aware that the more you shine a light on something,

the more crud you see. So if this is a journey for you, then get ready because it's gonna transform you and it's gonna change you and it's gonna evolve you and people are gonna fall out of your life and countless blessings are gonna fall into your life. And you might wake up one day and be like, who am I? And what am I really doing here? And that's the point, to be constantly asking those questions, to be constantly challenging.

that voice in your head that wants you to stay small. It's really breaking through and pushing and evolving and growing. Now that's my prerogative in this lifetime. I don't want to look back on last year and be like, yeah, just everything's the same. Like that's not interesting for me personally. And that's why this spiritual practice

And studying Kabbalah and being in the center is so important for me because it challenges my beliefs. It challenges my growth and it forces me to go within rather than seek answers outside and have that be what validates whatever the situation is.

Jojo (16:56.79)
From what I've heard from people, if you are religious, Kabbalah deepens your appreciation and your understanding for your religion because it gives you the why. So if you are a Christian, if you're Muslim, if you're Hindu, if you're atheist, if you're agnostic, if you're a Scientologist, if you're, I don't even know, if you're from Mars, if you're a Martian, Kabbalah will still help you and give you so many tools that you can.

apply hand in hand because again, it's the undercurrent of life. So if you're interested and this is something that you want to dive deeper into, I will direct you toward the Kabbalah Center. There are centers all around the world. So if you just go to kabbalah.com and this will all be in the show notes.

You can find a center near you. can find online resources. You can find classes. You can find basically all the information to start your journey, to start looking deeper into this and really figure out if this is something for you. This is not something for you. Maybe this is just cool Jojo. Like now I know a little bit more about you.

And then the other thing is there's a book called The Power of Kabbalah, which I highly recommend. And again, Kabbalah is a spiritual blueprint for your soul. It's like technology. a toolbox. But I just wanted to read the inside of this book really quickly because of how much misconception there is around Kabbalah and just to sort of ground it a little bit more. So this is what's written on the inside of

The power of Kabbalah. Once shrouded in secrecy, Kabbalah is now yours to discover. Imagine your life filled with meaning, understanding, and unending contentment. Imagine your days infused with penetrating insight and energy. This is the power of Kabbalah. A power that has been denied the world for some 2000 years. Your deepest desires were always meant to be fulfilled, but the system and formula for arousing genuine fulfillment were lost for centuries until now.

Jojo (19:15.498)
Whereas most books on Kabbalah flood you with history, scholarship, and raw facts and figures, the power of Kabbalah offers genuine and practical principles for living life in the light. Kabbalah's ancient teachings is rooted in perfect union of the physical and spiritual laws that already are at work in your life. This is the first time in history that these principles have been made applicable to people from all walks of life and from all faiths.

The potential to truly change your life and this world is found on every page. Desires are really just different packages of fulfillment. These various containers of contentment set us in motion to shape our lives. The wonder and wisdom of Kabbalah has influenced the world's leading spiritual, philosophical, and scientific minds throughout history, from Moses to Shakespeare, from Plato to Newton. Until today, however,

that wisdom was hidden away in ancient texts available only to scholars and historians. Now, after countless centuries, the power of Kabbalah resides right here in this one remarkable and profoundly simple book. Here at long last is the complete system and path, actions you can take right now that transform and create the life you desire and deserve. Expect and demand nothing less. So again, if this is something that you are interested in,

discovering, learning more about, head to the show notes, head to kabbalah.com, head to your local center and just dig a little bit deeper or read the power of Kabbalah because that is a very easy way to start your journey. Or if this is just information, that's beautiful. Maybe this is something that someone you know would really benefit from. But again, I just wanted to share my experience with Kabbalah.

open it up a little bit more to what spirituality and what that really means for me because it's not some woo woo stuff. It's grounded. So let's get messy with this mental, emotional, and spiritual. Mentally. Mentally, Kabbalah has reshaped my brain. It has challenged every single belief, every single way that I've navigated my life up until, well, every single day actually. And it has really given me a toolkit.

Jojo (21:33.972)
to choose differently to create a different reality. Emotionally, Kabbalah has completely grounded me. Instead of things being chaotic, trust me, things still feel very out of hand sometimes, but the toolkit that you are given and the deep awareness that you receive and start to learn, even in just within yourself, emotionally you start

balancing out way differently and you're not seeking everything outside of yourself. Again, it very much comes from within and you realize that you are your own power source and that you don't need anything or anyone outside of you and that your deepest connection is to yourself, to the universe, the creator, the light, whatever you want to call it, but that there is a bigger picture here. And spiritually, well, it is spirituality. So it speaks for itself.

but there's just a heightened awareness of and understanding of the why. And I think a lot of us might be in this world just being like, well, I'm here once and I live and then I die and that's it. And like, there's no point. Kabbalah tells you the point. It tells you the purpose of your soul, your soul's journey. And it really, really deepens what all of that means. And that's what it is. So thank you for being receptive. Thank you for being open.

Thank you for letting me share what is a very important principle and part of my life. And I really hope that this is something that can be beneficial and helpful for you. And with that, you know where to find me at underscore inside out dot podcast. Make sure you share this episode with a friend, especially this one. I always say that she has this episode with a friend. Seriously though, like Kabbalah, this is nothing.

This is so outside of myself, I don't even care. This has to do with you guys and helping you navigate and transform your soul. So I hope you have a beautiful Wednesday and enjoy the rest of your week. Bye.