Becoming Who You’re Meant to Be: How Your Work Evolves You with Millana Snow

Millana Snow is the author of It's All Within You, and the founder of Integrative Breathwork, a modality for which she has trained over 200 practitioners globally. Her work has been taught and shared globally, reaching millions in-person and online. 

Millana has guided experiences at Soho House, NYU, Columbia University, and Public Records, touching thousands through her grounded, heart-led approach. Before stepping into full-time healing work, Millana spent years living between NY and LA working behind the scenes of fashion and entertainment at VIBE, Z!NK and Uptown magazines and in front of the camera in TV and film as the model winner of Project Runway season 8 and various fashion and commercial campaigns.

In her healing work, Millana weaves ancient practices with modern healing to create spaces for collective release and remembrance. Through Integrative Breathwork sessions, Millana invites transformative self-inquiry and inner listening via immersive sessions that weave sound, breathwork, visualization and movement. These sessions have been described as providing 15 years of therapy in one session.

In This Episode, We Explore:

• Millana Snow’s journey from childhood meditation to becoming a spiritual guide, and how her early experiences shaped her path in healing and self-discovery
• The power of daily practices like meditation, breathwork, and morning pages to clear mental blocks, support emotional healing, and create lasting personal transformation
• How to cultivate presence and joy in everyday life, even during challenging or uncertain moments
• A deeper look at navigating emotions, avoiding numbing behaviors, and building resilience through self-awareness and intentional living
• The importance of interconnectedness, community, and compassion in supporting both personal growth and collective healing

Learn more about Millana Snow here: www.millanasnow.com

Follow Millana Snow on Instagram: @millanasnow @integrativebreathwork

Purchase her book, It’s All Within You: https://cmchiy-fg.myshopify.com/products/it-s-all-within-you-pre-order 

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome to the High Vibration Living Podcast. I'm your host, Chef Whitney Aronoff, health supportive chef, founder of Starsea Kitchen, and creator of nourishing food rooted in real ingredients, intuition, and intention. This podcast is a space where food, wellness, spirituality, and everyday living meet. We explore how what you eat, how you live, and what you believe all shape your energy, health, and overall sense of well-being. You have a physical body, a mental body, an emotional body, and a spiritual body. And all need to be recognized and nourished so you can feel balanced and truly thrive. Only you know what your body truly needs. Let this be your reminder that you already have the wisdom to tune in to your food, your self-care, and your spiritual practices and choose what supports you best. Through personal insights and conversations with experts across food, wellness, and spirituality, we'll explore how to nourish the physical, emotional, spiritual, and energetic layers of who you are so you can feel your best and live with clarity, vitality, and purpose. Let's get started. Welcome back to the podcast, friends. Today on the show, I am joined by Milana Snow, a wellness entrepreneur and founder of Wellness Official, where she's created a global platform around modern healing and emotional well-being. She works with clients around the world and has trained hundreds of facilitators in her breathwork method, helping people feel more grounded, clear, and connected in their everyday lives. But I don't feel that that description describes her enough. She's also an author. Her new book, It's All Within, is out now on Amazon and you can find it on her website. But still, these descriptions don't fully describe this beautiful woman. She is a wealth of wisdom. She's deeply grounded. She is like your new wellness intuitive BFF. Follow her on Instagram. I feel like we're going to be seeing so much from her. She just has a great point of view. She has experienced so many angles and ups and downs of life. And she is like that new BFF that can consciously help you navigate it through it all. So enjoy this episode. We talk about her book. We talk about breath work. We talk about the ebbs and flows of life right now, what everyone is feeling on the planet: the good, the bad, the ugly, and just how we need to reevaluate little things throughout our day. So we actually feel like we're living a positive, purposeful life. So without further ado, I'm going to introduce you to the episode. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed experience it. Cheers. Welcome to the podcast, Milana. Hi, thanks for having me. Well, I want to learn a lot from you today about the modalities that led you to changing your career path and building your business and writing your book. And I also want to learn more about the practices that are working for you now because what served you and got you to where you are today might not be the same things that you need now to thrive because you've evolved so much. And I don't think we talk about that enough is kind of the entry-level tools that help us, and then the ones that you know ultimately fall away. And then we have to start anew again and find new ones.

SPEAKER_00 3:44

Well, I have a I have a kind of weird and unique origin story in that I learned how to meditate and began meditating when I was four years old. And so my uh path has has always been this path. Um, I didn't know that you could be a healer or a guide or that you could teach people how to meditate as a profession growing up. So that was never, that was never a dream. I didn't even know that was a thing that you could do. Um and so when I started modeling and acting, and I also used to work at magazines in my 20s, I was actually what I call a closeted spiritual person because I I was doing all of these things with my friends and myself in private, but I didn't tell anybody else about it. I was hypnotizing my friends, I was doing energy healing and you know, talking to spirits and all of these things because it was just kind of who I was. I didn't, it was always my interest. And I didn't know that it was a thing that you could get paid for. And then when the industry became wellness, it became an opportunity for me where I realized people were actually interested in these things. And um, over the course of now 14 years, I have become a guide and a breathwork teacher. I founded Integrative Breath Work back in um 2020. And this past uh fall, I wrote my first book, and my book, It's All Within You, talks about that journey of over 30 years of exploring what life is really about through a spiritual lens and how that has come through my work. But something I want to mention that I think will inform our conversation today is that writing my book changed me in a way that I wasn't expecting. In that in the process of writing my book on spirituality and my spiritual life, I realized that I had been ignoring the artist that I had always been, and that that was an aspect of myself, an identity of myself that I had ignored because it felt safe for me to show up as the healer. And so, in the process of writing my book, I realized, oh my gosh, I'm a writer. Oh my gosh, I'm an artist. And so that is actually the new evolution that I'm into right now. And when I put the book out, I realized that that's the healing journey. That so often when you have a traumatic childhood and you have things that you need to heal, you will spend many years healing yourself. And then over time, all that creative energy that you spent towards healing yourself can eventually be the creative energy that you use to create beautiful things and beautiful meaning in the world. And so that's kind of the evolution that I've stepped into. And now my spiritual practice is also very much my art practice. I feel like there's probably more that you asked me, but I'll I'll pause there for a second.

SPEAKER_01 6:46

Yeah. So when you say your spiritual practice is also your art practice now, can you explain a little bit more about what that is? Is it setting up your altar? Is it the things that you like to prepare before you meditate or how you unwind at the end of the day? I'd love to hear more about that.

SPEAKER_00 7:01

Yeah, well, I think maybe um talking about how the book helped me understand that is probably the best way for me to start with the the details on that because I had this really interesting experience where I knew it was time for me to write a book. I had gone into a deep meditation about this. I had been turned down by agents, nothing was working out. I finally decided, you know what, I'm gonna write my book no matter what. I'm just gonna do, I'm gonna do the thing, whether I have agents or a book deal. And then within 24 hours of deciding that and doing that ceremony, I got offered a book deal. That really did happen. And I had never written more than 20 pages in my life. Ever. So I was thrown into this contract without having any experience in writing. And in the process, what I realized is that all I needed to do was wake up every morning at four o'clock in my case, and everybody needs to do that, and write. And write until I can't write anymore. And in most cases, it'd be about three hours. And for many months, that writing was really bad. But after a few weeks of doing that over and over and over again, some call it free writing, it's similar to morning pages. What I realized was that, similar to a meditation or breath work experience, I was becoming a vessel for something that was bigger than me. And so in the process of writing, I went into deep presence and experienced what some might call God, what I call God, what I call spirit, speaking to me, speaking through me to the point where I'm writing and I'm just like, oh my God, this is amazing. I can't believe this is coming through. And so that's what I mean about the spiritual practice also being the art practice. That daily practice of getting out of the way, i.e., my personality, who I think I should be, who I think I'm not, getting that out of the way long enough, just like you do in a meditation when you go into deep presence, you let all that fuzz finally pass, your to-do lists, what you should have said and didn't say, you let all that pass. And then you make space for something greater than your personality to come through. And that is what happens in spiritual practice, and that's what also happens in any art practice when you're really in the flow of it.

SPEAKER_01 9:16

So they say that if you want to learn to channel through writing, that you have to show up at the same spot at the same time every day, and that you will get out of your own way because the light will now know when to come through. I love that. And so that's so neat that you did that because I've been taught that by my mediumship teachers for years and in other astrologers and spiritual teachers. They've all said the same thing. You show up at the same place, the same time, and you just do it. And ultimately you'll start to channel. We've heard it about writing, but you can use that for any art. It's like the painter who shows up to the canvas and they can't think about what to paint today, you just do it anyway.

SPEAKER_00 10:00

Yes. We are we're humans are habitual beings, we're built on habits. So if we allow ourselves to do the same positive practice, a practice that is life-giving, a practice that makes space for a new version of ourselves to be met every day, the brain will support you. So, yes, I think there is absolutely the spiritual aspect of this, and I had never heard that when it comes to mediumship. And I know that the way that our brains and bodies work, just like how it loves to wake up on the same schedule, it's the same thing with habituating any other practice in our day-to-day lives. And so, yeah, that makes total sense to me.

SPEAKER_01 10:43

And I also find it interesting that you got up so early because the best time to channel information from God, the divine, your guides and angels, ancestors is early in the morning when the collective, when the noise is asleep. Yes. Yeah. So how did you like how ooh, I just got the chills? How did you hear that you were supposed to be getting up early and writing?

SPEAKER_00 11:04

Yes, yes, yes. That that that period from about 4 to 6 a.m. is so sacred. And it it is also when our minds are least um like task-oriented. We're a little bit, we're a little bit more in that day's open receptive state when you wake up at that time. Um, and in Vedanta, they actually say that that's the best time to meditate. Vedanta is the the founding philosophy behind Hinduism and Buddhism. And so that that little pocket of four to six, as you said, that that's that's in every religion, every spiritual lineage, they have told us, wake up at that time and get into your practice, whether that's art, whether that's writing, whether that's prayer. I have to also give my husband credit. My husband is a music producer and a music artist, and he was really the one that helped me understand because I, again, I wasn't, I wasn't allowing myself to consider myself an artist. And I realized that I had to actually take on that identity. I had to allow myself to be called that, even internally, so that I could start doing the things that artists do to get their art done. And writing is one of those actions. And so, yeah, waking up at 4 a.m., I have to tell y'all, it is highly recommended. And I was never a morning person, so I know somebody's gonna say, Oh, I'm gonna I'm not a morning person. I wasn't either. But if you do it, again, you you go to sleep early and you wake up at the same time and you do that for a couple of weeks, and before you know it, it's automatic and it's easy to do.

SPEAKER_01 12:43

Thank you for that tip. I needed to hear that because I've been sleeping a little later than I like to, and it makes me feel like I'm starting the day late. Yeah. And part of me is sad that I'm missing out on that wishing hour. Yeah. I'm missing out on that clearer energy. Even though I'm still doing the same spiritual practices in the morning, there's still even there's a kundalini mantra that I've been wanting to do for 11 to 15 minutes every morning. And I haven't been doing it because I've been getting up a little later. And so I get the call to, you know, start my day. But that's the joy and the power of having that extra time in the morning is it's not just quieter and your mind isn't running, but then you can add in all the secret little wellness rituals and spiritual practices that you want because you're essentially ahead of the game.

SPEAKER_00 13:32

Yeah, exactly. I mean, don't get done on yourself. It's also the the days are getting longer, it's gonna be harder to do in the in the summertime. A lot of my best writing happened in the winter because the days are shorter. And so, you know, also being attuned to nature and listening to the seasons. Spring, summer is about us coming out into the world and listening to the seasons in fall and winter is about us coming inward. And so when we think about our spiritual practice, our art practice, or even the way in which we engage in life, we also want to listen to the seasons and recognize that, you know, sometimes even the way that we do things needs to shift just a little bit so it can reflect the energy that's present.

SPEAKER_01 14:12

It's a really good point. And writing and getting the information out on paper about you and yourself and your journey is it's a great thing to do in the winter time.

unknown 14:22

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 14:22

But now it's spring, you're coming out, you're stretching, you're sharing the work that you've created. So, what what's shifted for you in your morning and evening routines from wellness to beauty to spirituality? What's starting to shift this spring so you can kind of move forward in the season and feel good about sharing the artwork that you created? A quick pause to share something I truly use and love. I'm Chef Whitney Aronaff. And as a personal chef, I began sharing my Starseed Kitchen organic spice blends with private clients when I couldn't find high-quality seasonings that met my standards for their meal prep. My clients are people who care deeply about what goes into their food and how it makes them feel, just like you. Every Starseed Kitchen blend is made with the highest quality organic spices with no added sugar, no MSG, no anti-caking agents, and no fillers. Just clean, real ingredients that support your body and elevate your cooking. Two of my most loved blends are 11 Magic Herbs and Spices, a go-to everyday seasoning that works on just about everything, and Starseed Kitchen Adobo, a light, bright, anti-inflammatory blend designed for modern, health-supportive cooking. Every jar is prepared with intention, charged with kundalini mantras, quartzkies of crystals, and blessed by a shaman. Because spices and the food you prepare with them are not just nourishment, they're a transfer of energy. You can find Starseed Kitchen Spices at all Erawan locations or online at starseedkitchen.com. Use code Starseed for 10% off your online order. Now let's get back to the conversation.

SPEAKER_00 16:01

Yeah, so one of the practices that I really recommend to any and everyone that relates to their spiritual practice and just a healthier life is morning pages. Have you ever heard of morning pages, Whitney? No. Oh, okay. So it comes from the artist's way, but it is also just a really great practice. It's a very universal in its origin. And what you do is you want to have an actual um physical journal and a pen. And you're gonna write three pages non-stop. First thing that you do when you wake up, you just write three pages. And it means non-stop until you get to three pages. So it's like if you don't know what to write, and you're like, I don't know what to write, you literally write, I don't know what to write. This is so stupid, nothing's coming out, I don't know why I'm doing this. And after just a few minutes of that, not even a few seconds of that, new things will come to the page that you weren't expecting. Because again, it's about getting out of the way. And so forcing yourself at first to actually get to the page until your ego relents and lets go, you can channel in a really beautiful way. And so one of the things that has come up for me is I've been able to connect with my ancestors, my inner parts, I've been able to talk to future versions of myself, I've been able to get really big ideas about things that came after I got out of my logical linear thought processing and into a more nonlinear way of bringing down information and wisdom.

SPEAKER_01 17:36

Yeah, and I'm sure you probably hear that a lot from clients that you work with that they're struggling to get out of their own way, or they feel like they're in a rut, or they feel stuck, or they aren't sure what path to choose next, or they aren't even having the ideas. Um, is this one of the things that you suggest to them when they're coming to you with these kind of universal, you know, soul questions?

SPEAKER_00 17:59

Yes. I I work with a lot of entrepreneurs and artists and creatives one-on-one. And one of the things that I find that keeps us from really breaking through in our life's purpose and our work is that we believe the critical thoughts that we have. We believe that we are not good enough because we don't even recognize that our repetitive belief about that is not true. We believe that we have to do better, be better, that we said something wrong, that we should have done this, because it's a repetitive belief that keeps playing unconsciously in the mind that we just believe as truth. And so when you start to write and get the stuff that's in your brain out onto a page, and I mean free writing, not telling a story necessarily or writing something that's really linear and clear, but when you start to get what's in your brain onto a page, you can start to see what you are playing on the tape that just keeps replaying over and over and over again. And then you get to question wait, is this a belief or is this reality? And I think that's something that a lot of us don't know is actually what's getting in the way.

SPEAKER_01 19:09

That's a good call. Why does someone reach out to you and make an appointment with you? What where are they or what are they working to clear that they hear that you are the one that they need to make an appointment with?

SPEAKER_00 19:23

Well, I I it's funny, I actually don't have one-on-ones available online anymore. What what we have done in the business that I think has really been life-changing for myself and our community is that the core of the work that I do are my breathwork teacher trainings every year. And um, this will be my tenth one over the course of six years this fall. And we're actually going to be opening it up so that people who don't necessarily want to be breathwork teachers can also come in and have the experience because it is such a life-altering, life transformative experience that we wanted everybody to be able to have it. So the way that people work with me now is being able to come to these retreats and trainings, and it is truly like having a psychedelic journey every day for five days in a row. And if you have ever heard about psychedelics or if you've ever experienced it, you know that it is extremely life-altering. But in this case, we don't work with any plant medicine, we don't work with any substances. And so when I work with one-on-one clients, it's people who've come out of that training and who want to become healers, guides, and take that work into the world. But I would say the reason why people come to my trainings and come to the integrative breath work world is because they are interested in healing themselves. They are interested in going within and finding the things that they've heard people say is true. People have heard that there is a soul, people hear that there is God. And we believe in this lineage that it's in you, it's inside of you. You can experience God, you can experience your soul, you can know for a fact that that is real, and you don't need to read a book or go to a church to get that, even though it doesn't negate any of those things. And so the reason why I do this work and why people come to me is because I want people to understand that they are their own healers and everything that they're seeking, they have inside. And this is one of the ways that they can find that.

SPEAKER_01 21:30

I love that you're doing this and that you're talking about that breath work can take you consciously to those levels. About maybe 11 or 12 years ago, when I moved back home to my hometown of Laguna Beach, it was a little bit of a shocker. Like you think you can just move home and just carry on with life and who you have been. And then suddenly all these little things start to percolate that you realize you didn't deal with once you packed up, packed up and went to college. And so I went to a therapist because I was like, well, I don't want to sit with this stuff. I want to clear it out. And I went for about three months. And then my therapy, my therapist, fired me because she told me I was fine. I'm good. I've processed it. Now go out and live your life. But we became friends and we would meet occasionally just to have like deep spiritual consciousness talks. And this was like 10, 11 years ago. And she would tell me, um, she's like, I wish people understood that you don't need to take any psychedelic drugs, that you can get to these places with breath work and meditation and a variety of other things that are just within you. She's like, you don't need the drugs. And she's like, you can't trust where the stuff's coming from. There's no way that someone can get you a traditional medicine that is from South America, you know, here in Southern California, and it be fresh and done properly and safely. And so she she would always just remind me all these experiences people are having they can have naturally.

unknown 23:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:05

And so I love that you're doing that because um it's I think it's the most natural way, right? Everyone's looking for the natural way to have an experience, but truly it is by doing breath work, by meditating, by being on being on the right piece of land that's activated for you and your soul. There's a lot of different ways to have spiritual experiences and it and it's not necessarily drugs.

SPEAKER_00 23:34

Yes, yes. I think, you know, I I do believe that plant medicine can be a beautiful thing. And I think with the um the way that it has uh become more accessible, I think that it's really a a positive thing and it can be dangerous. And I think that people have to be very conscious about how they engage with it because it's a very, very powerful substance. These are very powerful substances. That being said, I also have to throw in that not all breathwork is the same. I think that one of the things that I've seen is that, and I'm happy to see there are a lot of breathwork teachers, a lot of breathwork schools, and a lot of great teachers, a lot of great schools. And I find that people come to my breath work now, which I'm really glad to see when I do have my my uh public events, they're like, Oh, I've done breathwork before, I know this. Not all breath work gets you into that transcendental state. A lot of breath work, like breathing in a cold plunge, for example, is considered breath work that can be uh state altering, but it is less about having a transcendental experience and more about altering your physical state so that you lower your cortisol, right? So while integrative breath work is a two-part uh inhale, one-part exhale format, one of the things that makes this work very specific is that we go into transcendental states, meaning more spiritual, psychedelic-like states, by deeply feeling a deep presence, by moving deeper into your emotional experience, not just by doing a two-inhale, one-exhale breath, which is powerful in itself because that does change your physical state, but by allowing yourself to fully feel what it's like to be you. And as we pull back the layers of all the protective mechanisms and all the things that you don't want to feel, and all the things that you want to ignore and that you don't want to look at, when we pull that back slowly, gently, and you start looking at it, and you start feeling it, that's when all of the encasing that you put around your heart, around your spirit fall away, and you experience who you really are beyond your protective mechanisms. So what I really feel that makes this transcendental is how much it helps you recognize the preciousness of your own human life while having a perspective from your soul, while being able to see the bigger picture of your human life and your human story. So, yeah, there's there's some differences out there because I find a lot of breath work is very physical. It has a very um uh physical uh altering experience. And what I want to see more of, not just with the people in my community, but in in general in the healing space and in wellness, is for people to really feel because I think that's one of the things that we're missing right now in our healing wellness world.

SPEAKER_01 26:34

Is that why breath work's really hard sometime? Because like you're feeling so many things on the inside all at once that aren't normal. Because I personally like I don't think breath work is easy. The word makes it sound so, but I find it it's it's hard, it's a challenge, it's a yoga pose I'm not necessarily comfortable with or great at.

SPEAKER_00 26:58

I l I love that you just said that. Thank you for sharing that, Whitney, because I want to just I wanna like like break down something you said that I think is so important. Those emotions that you feel, they actually are normal. We have been taught to treat them as if they are bad. All the cacophony of of the rich experiences of feeling joy and grief at the same time, of feeling terrified and powerful at the same time, that is what makes us human. And because we live in a world that has been so overshadowed by this more machine-like way of living, we've had to push all of that complexity of our human experience into our unfeeling bodies, but it's still there. And so when we start to, when it starts to emerge, because that's what needs to happen for it to pass through and for it to release, which is what we need to be healthy and happy, by the way, we don't know how to hold all of that. We don't have the capacity for that level of energy, that level of aliveness, really. And so one of the things that breath work in this regard, integrative breath work, is here to do, is to help open your window of tolerance for your aliveness, for the complexity of what it means for you to be alive. And literally the the two things of wow, I I feel so much grief about what's happening in the world. I mean, that's that's a heavy emotion, just in its own to feel. And then to also recognize that at the same time you are so grateful for your life, that is what makes you alive. And so often we push that down and we wonder why we're depressed. We push that down and we wonder why we have stomach aches. So, this is the kind of stuff that we that we look at by feeling, and that's not just thinking.

SPEAKER_01 28:47

I think those are those those are two major feelings I think majority of us are feeling right now, right? It's like a little it's a little bit of both.

unknown 28:55

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 28:55

Um, we kind of feel guilty for feeling both, which is so silly. It's just the moment that we're in.

SPEAKER_00 29:01

Yeah, yeah. There there's there's uh it's the human conundrum. This is this is the tale as old as time. This will never not be the case, yeah, right? And so, and so how how do we hold all that? Well, I can tell you one of the things that doesn't work is trying to think it away, trying to rationalize, even trying to take action to try to fix everything because you can't.

SPEAKER_01 29:27

You can't, and that trying to take action or trying to have conversation with others within in your community to create positive change, I don't even like how that's feeling in my body. Yeah, which is so embarrassing to say. It's like I want to be a part of creating the positive change and fixing the systems that aren't working and the broken infrastructure and helping us, you know, gently evolve forward so it's more supportive for everyone. But then when I get into those conversations, I can't explain it except my body's telling me like this isn't how we're supposed to be spending our time.

SPEAKER_00 30:04

Yeah, you know, uh what I really am starting to understand about this when I talk to people more and more is that we also need to make sure that we're tending to um our own emotional experience and and check where we're coming at our action from. So if I am trying to solve the world or heal people or fix people, it's coming out of fear, it's coming out of need. But if I come in to my inner world and tend to my own wounds, and just hear me out because this this doesn't last for for years. You can do this in a couple of sessions, you can do this before you go and do your activism. But really look at what is the underlying intent? Am I coming at my activism or my my change out in the world out of fear? Or am I coming out of a place of wholeness and I'm clear on where it is for me to contribute? Right? Am I, you know, in 2020, 2021, there was a lot of activism that people were doing because because they were ashamed. They were ashamed that that they were a part of systems that were hurting others. And so they were doing things reactively. And we saw how the pendulum then swinged in 2023, 2024, 25, right? So we want to be clear that we're not doing things out of guilt, out of shame, out of fear. And that again requires that we spend some time to slow down and go within and check in with ourselves. And again, what's so tough about that is that we have to feel feelings that are not comfortable, that don't feel great. But once you let yourself feel that on the other side is wisdom and information, intuition and understanding about what your part is in this global uh quilt of life. And so this is one of the I just heard someone talk about how this is now post-activism. Like we have to actually look at like what do we do beyond marching now? We've gotten past that, right? We we've been making the phone calls. We we we've been uh not shopping at certain stores or buying certain brands. Um some people are literally fighting to save their their countries and their families, but we understand that that's not it. And I I dare say that we need to come back in ourselves individually. This is a very personal exploration, and really ask, where am I coming from? Where where am I actually called to do my work? And that's an inward journey.

SPEAKER_01 32:37

I know, and what keeps coming to me is I just need to personally live my life with joy. That by figuring out a way to do your work in a state of joy, um then you can move through those other areas where you want to support positive change. Um, and you can do it slowly, deliberately, positively. Because I notice that the other energy where you're more reactive and you're moving too fast, and um the energy where anger comes up, um, that that doesn't serve anybody.

unknown 33:11

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 33:13

Yeah, absolutely. I think joy is a really important um aspect of our lives that we frankly could all spend some more time in. It's actually one of the principles in my book that I I believe is one of the core pillars of how you live a good life. We have to have joy, otherwise, you wouldn't want to live at all. Joy is essential. And we also have to recognize that we need to be warriors for love. And to be warriors for love means that we are not just strong, but that we are deep feeling. And sometimes those deep feelings do not feel good. Sometimes those deep feelings can be um what feels like the opposite of joy. But here's here's the irony about joy that I really dug into when I wrote my book is that joy contains all emotions. Joy is one of the highest vibrational places that we can be because it does not deny depression or shame, it includes it.

SPEAKER_01 34:14

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 34:15

So when we pretend that we don't feel shame or guilt or anger, which by the way, anger is very powerful that a lot of us women have a hard time holding, then we are not actually living joyfully. Joy includes all of that, denies nothing. And it's a very high level of consciousness. And so I think it's really important for us to not delude ourselves to think that when we live joyfully, that it doesn't mean that we can't have anger or rage. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 34:46

I want to take a moment to share how Team Starseed Kitchen can support you beyond the podcast. I'm Chef Whitney Aronoff, founder of Team Starseed Kitchen, my personal chef and custom meal prep service. This is for people who want to eat well, feel better, and be supportive with nourishing food without the stress of planning, shopping, or cooking. Through Team Starseed Kitchen, I work with a trusted team of health supportive chefs who prepare fully customized meals based on your needs, preferences, and lifestyle. Whether you're focused on clean eating, hormone balance, digestion, energy, or simply having high-quality food ready for your week, we meet you where you are. All meals are made with real, whole ingredients, no seed oils, no refined sugar, and no shortcuts. Just thoughtfully prepared food designed to support your body and make your life easier. This service is deeply personal. It's about having food in your fridge that you can trust. Food that supports your health, saves you time, and helps you feel grounded and cared for. If you're ready for consistent nourishing meals made just for you, you can learn more about our service and apply to work with us on starseedkitchen.com or follow the link in the show notes. We have chefs ready and available across the country, and we so look forward to nourishing you. Now let's return to the episode. Well, and when you show up at your job or the nonprofit that you're spending your time with or that board that you have a seat on, when you when you move your time towards anything that you're trying to create a positive change in the world, if your intention is always joy, you don't you don't need to feel guilty about that. I think sometimes we think, no, no, no, I need to have as much rage and anger and energy and fire as some of the other people that are showing up. Um, but you you don't. And just because you're showing up in a joyful, positive place doesn't mean that it doesn't lie within you. Yes. But I'm just I'm just trying to move through how does my body feel best?

unknown 36:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 36:47

And that's the state I want to be in the most.

SPEAKER_00 36:50

Yes, yes, and recognizing simultaneously that most people are not gonna be there with us, and that there are a lot of people, billions of people, literally billions of people, who are not gonna be able to eat today. And and recognizing that we are all interlinked. And so one of the things that I I believe why I talked about being warriors of love and why, you know, joy includes everything is that it joy truly is the most humble, um, honorable things that we can hold and and walk and live with because it's also recognizing that those who are suffering in the world actually don't want us to be suffering with them. And let us and let us honor that the experiences they're having one day we could too, and that all of this is fleeting, and that we will do our best every day to contribute to the joy, the well-being, and the love of all. That's my prayer. And so, like, I I think it's important for us to get like nuanced about when we say this because I don't want anybody to look at us and be like, you know, us two beautiful Western women and be like, of course you can say that because nobody's bombing your house. I I gotcha. Right. I gotcha. Totally. I no, I think it's important for us to say that because I know I know what you're saying, but I think it's important to give that that that context that that what we mean by joy is this tender understanding of how fleeting and how precious all of this is for all of us and how interconnected we are. And and how joy is actually the celebration of that sacredness.

SPEAKER_01 38:28

Well, and also nobody knows where we've been, you know?

SPEAKER_00 38:32

Yes, girl.

SPEAKER_01 38:33

Nobody knows where you and I have been in this lifetime. Yes, girl. And like I get to be where I am now because you know, I I've not had meals, I've had a mattress on the floor. Like everyone has had their moments, and we don't need to hear about it and talk about it and relive in it. Um, but I really respect with every soul that I come across with that we've all had our moments. Yes. Um and we don't need to walk around with a badge saying, This is how bad it's been for me.

unknown 39:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 39:09

We just get to meet people now where they are and move forward, like no more judgment about whether they have it this good or not.

SPEAKER_00 39:17

Yes, you know, that doesn't I think people forget though. I think when people look at us, yeah, it's it's you know, I I I realize that I I I drive a car that when people look at me, they have no idea how hard it was for me in my 20s to just barely get by. They just can't even imagine, you know, and so I think it's actually really beautiful that you just said that because it helps people understand when they forget that all of this is fleeting. And I think this that's to come back to what you said about living with joy, and and and I'm just connecting this, that that greater context about how interdependent we all are, because to live with joy is one of the greatest examples that you could give anyone. And at the same time, people some people have not left that dark side of the that dark season of their lives yet, so they could never guess that someone like you has been going through what they are going through right now.

SPEAKER_01 40:15

Totally, right, totally. I mean, even when I was going through those moments, people didn't know I was going through those moments. And I just kind of always looked at it as nobody needs to know my dirty laundry, you know, like and why would I want to walk around with it? Like, wouldn't life be so much more fun and joyful if I got to show up at school or my soccer game or a class or the beach and just get to be me, yeah, not me with everything that's going on at home or everything I really have to deal with. You know, you you just that's no way to live. But everyone has it there, and so you got you gotta let it up let it go and move through it. I'm grateful, just I'm sure as you're grateful now of all the things we've been through because it led us to having a more spiritual practice. It led us to just, I feel like we got the fast track to getting to know ourselves.

SPEAKER_00 41:16

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 41:17

And a fast track to understanding what's of value and not of value in this lifetime. And maybe that maybe we set it up that way so we could be better teachers.

SPEAKER_00 41:27

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 41:27

You know, who really knows? Um, but the ups and downs that we all go through are just tools for ourselves and the people around us. Absolutely. Absolutely. I don't think there's a single soul on the planet that's having a smooth ride at the moment. Um and it's maybe it won't last long. It's good to I'd like to meet you. Like, like maybe it'll rip off on me. Um, but like I think that's, I mean, that's very much why I do this podcast, is because I love to learn the tools that people keep in their tool belt for those downtimes. Yeah. And then I want to know the tools in the tool belt for like when you're riding high, when it's good, when like you're waking up every day and you're vibing and you're feeling good and the opportunities are there and you are super happy. You know, because our our practices and our routines do tend to change when times are good and times and bad. Yeah. Um, you know, it's harder to have consistency, you know, right? Like when you're a little overwhelmed or times are bad. And it's, you know, sometimes it's easier to have consistency when when everything's good. Um, so I'd love to know, because you've gone through so many evolutions, and like you've just finished a book and like you've transformed into another version of yourself. Um, what are some of the things that are working for you right now? Like, what are some of the foods that are making you feel good and the practices that you make sure that you squeeze into your days to help you stay like balanced and on your new course?

SPEAKER_00 43:01

Yes, thank you for asking. I mean, one of the things that is key, whether things are up or down, is presence. And it's the first principle of my book. And when I talk about presence, it's about allowing ourselves to be fully with what is happening in this moment, like right now. And one of the ways that we do it in breath work or meditation is just like using your sensory system, right? Like allowing yourself to really deeply listen, allowing yourself to feel the clothes on your skin. These are ways that we become present with our physical world. Well, one of the other ways that we do that is allowing ourselves to just feel our emotional state. One of the things I want to do to kind of just illustrate what I mean by this is think about the top three most amazing moments in your life. Like, just if you can for a second, I love how you had a little smile. Like the the top three things that come to mind, you're just like, oh my God. Oh my god, that was so amazing. And now, just very quickly, think about the top three things that were the worst things that happened in your life.

SPEAKER_01 44:09

I don't want to.

SPEAKER_00 44:10

Yeah, you don't even want to. And you know what, you know what the correlate corollary is between both of those two categories? That you were fully present in both. Even in the things that you didn't want to experience, like let's say a car accident, you couldn't not be fully in that car accident when it was happening. You may not want to be in it. Very interesting. Yeah, if someone hurts you, you didn't want to be there, but you were fully experiencing it. That's why it's indelible in your brain and felt in your body. Same thing when the most amazing thing, one of my examples, when my husband asked me to marry him, fully present. So here's the thing you can recreate that consciously by being fully present in your life day to day. And when you do that, you can alchemize the meaning that you make of those things.

SPEAKER_01 44:59

That's the key. That is the key. That's the muscle memory. That's when like negative emotions get stored in the body. And then you replay it over and over again. So then it builds. Good point. Yes. Really good point.

SPEAKER_00 45:15

So the ultimate practice is to be fully present when I don't want to be. It's so easy for, I mean, get on the news scroll on Instagram. So shopping. Ooh, I just love to shop online and I'll just and then I have to ask myself, Lana, what are you not wanting to be present with? And sometimes, honestly, babe, it's like the good stuff. It's the good stuff. Like, oh my gosh, we're about to buy a house, and honestly, I'm kind of freaking out because it's my dream come true, but I'm kind of scared by it. So I'm gonna just scroll so I can't feel all the right.

SPEAKER_01 45:53

Yeah. So I notice I do that in business, is when I have to send certain emails. Yeah. I have to send an invoice. Yeah, I draft it, it's about done, and then I just get on and start scrolling. Yeah. And it's because I'm a there's something I'm avoiding. Yes. And it's it's like what are your tips for breaking those habits when you know you're doing it to avoid moving through this next step, which is going to expand your life. Yes. It's like I feel like it's it's avoidance, but it's self-sabotage. Ah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 46:27

Yeah. Yeah. Well, the first thing is what you just did, which is you name it. We have to name it, identify it. Oh, it's just like when you have a thought that goes through your brain, instead of just thinking the thought, you say, Oh, wow, that's a thought. Wow, I'm thinking about how I should be somewhere else right now, right? So in that moment, it's habituating, just naming it. And then you get to make a conscious choice because otherwise it's just playing in the background. It's just a thing that you didn't realize that you're doing. And so now you know. I know. And now the question is, what choice do you want to make? And and what I would offer is can you let yourself feel all of the emotions that are coming up, even for just five seconds? So what you can literally do is just count one and see if you can let yourself feel it, two, three, and really breathe into it. Four, it's almost done. Okay. Five. And then once you've let that five second period of just being with it, maybe you couldn't even feel the feelings, but you were just with it. Now you can make a more conscious choice. And what we see happens is that instead of life being in these flashes of the big up, the big ups and the big downs that we're present for, and that's why they stand out, and that's what our life is kind of the frames our life is told from. We get to have more aliveness because we're present more often. And that's why things like social media is stealing our life. And quite literally, it's taking hours, weeks, months, years of our life. Because instead of instead of going like this, we can come back and feel the aliveness of what this moment contains. And what I tell my clients, what's so powerful about this is that when you do something that small, it's quite powerful because you slowly start taking your power back. You slowly become less afraid.

SPEAKER_01 48:24

Yes. That you what you are teaching right now is literally what I was gonna reach out to a shaman about. I'm I'm not even kidding, because I had been recognizing this avoidance, this little self-sabotage, you know, and it only happens a few minutes here and a few minutes there, but that builds up. And so the next thing you know, you've lost an hour of your life.

SPEAKER_00 48:45

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 48:45

Where you could have just moved through the discomfort and made accomplishments to move yourself forward to the person you want to be. Yes. And that's actually just pausing and breathing and then moving through the action.

SPEAKER_00 48:59

Yes, exactly. Letting yourself feel and be conscious of what you're taking action from. Like what place in yourself are you taking action? And Whitney, I would love to have you at my training this fall because I just feel like we're gonna go deep, girl. I can already see it. I'm already seeing the visual.

SPEAKER_01 49:16

You are such a great teacher and a great communicator and a great storyteller. And like, like you tell me, I can't even believe an hour of my life has just gone by. I feel like I've only been chatting with you for 15 minutes. Um, and I have 25 more questions for you. Uh, so another time for sure. But I really do want to know um, tell me about your next retreat and how people can sign up if there's still openings.

SPEAKER_00 49:42

Yeah, so we'll be releasing the dates for the group retreat that's happening in upstate New York this spring and summer. And this is actually the first time I'm doing a retreat that's not a training. This one is specifically, I'm really excited about this one. This is about getting yourself ready for the one, or if you are with your person but are having a hard time connecting with them. This is a retreat for you because what I have found is that when we abandon ourselves, we cannot connect with the person who is really our soulmate, aka how can you be with your soulmate if you have abandoned your own soul, right? And so that's what this is gonna be about. So we're doing two this spring and summer, and I'll be releasing that on law snow.com. And then in the fall, we'll be doing our breathwork teacher training. And that's that's that's the real one. And when I say the real one, it's only for those who are ready to really go into the deep end because it is life-changing. And we've had over 200 people train with me. Many people come back two, three, four, five, even six times. A lot of my clients and community come every year as a a way to have an initiation in their lives. Um, but that will be this September slash October. We're firming up those dates in the next couple of weeks. So if that's something that you'd like to join, I would love to have you, Whitney. I I really would. And if anybody out there is is listening and feeling like, wow, I really want to learn what it's like to know myself and feel again and feel alive and and and not be afraid of that. This is definitely the opportunity for that.

SPEAKER_01 51:15

I was wondering how you had connected with and taught over 200 facilitators. And it's actually a beautiful pivot that you made, and I think one that more business women should realize is you know, a lot of us create careers in different paths because we want to create positive change and we want to help more people with what tool and skill we have. And you are doing that by training the trainers, yes, or training the teachers, like training, you know, more soldiers to go out and do the good work. Um, and then building community comes with that. So just like great job and brilliant move. Thank you. Um, I love that. It's like the new yoga teacher training.

SPEAKER_00 52:00

Yeah, and you know, all of that came from just listening. You know, I didn't I didn't have to, I didn't even have to think about or work out what it was. It came naturally, it came out of listening to my inner guidance, asking, praying, and then listening to my community. And what's so beautiful is I don't even have to sell these things. I let people know. We we send out emails, but these trainings sell out because it's in divine alignment and it's we're we're we're growing and evolving as we're called to. And actually, I'm really excited this year will be the first time that I will not be the only teacher. I've got other teachers who I've trained who will also be training, and that came out of me getting the message that I was not supposed to be doing this alone anymore. So there are some new leaders in the community that are teaching already. We have a monthly live stream that we do on my website, monaso.com, where one of my um lead teachers teaches every third Saturday, the breath work. And um, this training is really evolving into a much larger community of very powerful guides. And all of this came out of listening, listening in the inner world and then connecting to those who were also listening and being like, oh, we're supposed to do this together. Oh, this is the next step of the business plan.

SPEAKER_01 53:15

Yeah, I think this is the it's the next step of a lot of people's business plans, they don't know it yet because it shouldn't be on just one soul's shoulders. I think that's the way um that it's gonna evolve into, and I think it'll be even better for the student. Yes, because they'll get to learn from a few different teachers and like with everything right, we pick up codes from different people in their body language, in the light coming off of them, in the words that they share. And so, really brilliant move. Thank you, thank you, Whitney. This was such a treat. I'm so grateful that you and know you um and get to watch and see everything that you're gonna create. What are the other places where people can connect with you and learn from you and um and and watch you along your journey?

SPEAKER_00 54:03

Yes, so you can find me on Instagram, milanasnow.com as well. Um that's M-I-L-L-A-N-A. Um, I I am really excited about people taking in some of what I talked about today in a deeper way through the book. It's all within you. And you can find that on Amazon or wherever books are sold. I also have it for sale on my website. Um, and you know, it's all within you. This book, it changed my life. And I've gotten quite a few emails and messages about how it's impacted others. But I will say this is over 30 years of doing this work myself. It is very much um my life's work in the first 30-something years, and um, I'm excited to see how it evolves from here. So I hope that you'll get a chance to dig in with me there as well.

SPEAKER_01 54:54

I will, thank you. And can you leave the listener with just one last health, wellness, or spiritual tip they can consider adding into their life?

SPEAKER_00 55:03

Well, besides some of the things that I mentioned today, oh, something I highly recommend. It's really simple, and it's called a news fast. A news fast something so simple for your mental health, and that is for just a day or two or a week, do not engage with the news. I promise you, that doesn't make you a bad person. That doesn't mean that you don't care, that doesn't mean that you're not taking action. When we withdraw our attention from those things, it actually puts us in a better position to be of use in a positive way. So I highly recommend for your mental health, your spiritual health to take breaks from intaking news from the media so that you can attune to the the things that you have going on within yourself.

SPEAKER_01 55:48

Oh, great tip. I feel like you're channeling a little bit for me today. So thank you.

SPEAKER_00 55:53

I got you. I also have one more thing. We have a really special uh 26-day practice on my website called Get Into the Flow. And it's actually uh a gratitude practice, but it's with a spin on it because we'll be doing daily practices. It's actually available right now that are gratitude specific. But it actually is about feeling gratitude. Every single day is about feeling it. You can write lists all day long, but if it's just performative, it doesn't mean anything. It has to be felt, it has to be embodied, a deep personal appreciation for the things that you have in your life and the things that are coming into your life. So if you feel stuck in any area of your life, get into the flow is one of the ways that you can get it unstuck by refocusing your attention on the things that are working that you do like, that you do prefer. And that's on Melanasnow.com as well.

SPEAKER_01 56:44

Thank you so much. It's such a treat to connect with you and thank you for everyone that tuned in. I hope you guys enjoyed this conversation. Thank you. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of the High Vibration Living Podcast. If you enjoyed today's conversation, I'd love for you to leave a five-star rating and a written review wherever you're listening. It truly helps this podcast reach more people who are looking for this kind of support. And if something resonated with you, please pay it forward and share this episode with a friend or loved one who could benefit from it. To learn more about Starseed Kitchen in my organic spice blends, you can visit starseedkitchen.com. You can also follow along with me on social media at Whitney Aronoff, where I share recipes, behind the scenes, chef life, and everyday inspiration. You can also follow Starseed Kitchen and Team Starseed Kitchen on Instagram as well. Thanks again for being here, wishing you nourishment, balance, and a vibrant life experience. I'll see you in the next episode. Cheers.