Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Well Severin, thank you for joining me today.
[00:00:02] Speaker B: Thank you for having me.
[00:00:05] Speaker A: For sure.
So yeah, getting this thing started, would you be able to give us a little bit about who you are and what you do? Exactly.
[00:00:13] Speaker B: Sure.
So yeah. My name is Severin. I was born and raised in Germanium.
I started modeling.
I had a few other professions, but I started modeling. I quit my full time job in real estate and I moved to Milan.
From there I worked in Europe as a model.
And then 2017 I traveled around the world for an entire year.
This is how I came to New York. I've been to the States before, but never to New York.
Get signed with an agency there and decided to move to New York.
So for now, eight years I'm based in Manhattan, working full time as a fashion model. And around two and a half years ago I did my certification as a, well, health and wellness coach and also my national board certification.
And so now I'm kind of moving between worlds, you know, like this fashion world, all the outside kind of thing. But then the more fulfilling side for me which is coaching and yeah, helping people. I focus on, I do model coaching, relationship coaching and mind body wealth alignment coaching.
[00:01:30] Speaker A: Cool. Yeah, it's like a blend of worlds as you said, the outside and the inside that you have unique background.
[00:01:37] Speaker B: Yeah, totally. For me, I mean, you know, I hit a point where the fashion industry, I've seen it all. It can also. There's a beautiful side about it, but it can be kind of dark too.
And I just hit a point where it felt like this external validation or it didn't fulfill me anymore. You know, there was a kind of a sense of emptiness which helped me start looking inwards and explore the deeper truth that lie deep inside me is.
[00:02:13] Speaker A: That the dark side is the whole fashion industry. Modeling is almost like getting your worth, your sense of self worth from outside.
[00:02:23] Speaker B: Validation 100 it really is based on the way you look.
I mean it helped me. There's a lot of benefit. But it's not only, you know, it's not only the external. I think in order to be a successful model, it has more to do than only with your looks. Is it's also about your work ethic. I think if you are able to have a high emotional intelligence, that's something that's very beneficial for your job.
But it's just, you know, especially New York, it's a very much go, go, go, very fast paced city.
And I kind of came to a point where I felt almost addicted to keep going, going, going, achieving more and no matter what I achieved, no matter how much more money I made it, you know, it didn't fulfill me. And I started realizing, like, where's this going?
Kind of caught up in this hamster wheel.
And this is how I started exploring myself deeper. Like, what's in there? You know, what's my real truth? Who am I not based on what other people think of me? And I think if you live a life based on external validation, it can be really tough, you know?
[00:03:44] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. And it has its limits.
[00:03:47] Speaker B: Exactly.
[00:03:49] Speaker A: I think everyone can relate to that in the Western world. You don't have to be in the modeling industry.
That hamster wheel. We're all on our own hamster wheel in some way. And, yeah, it reaches a breaking point for all of us in its own way, to go inside, to really figure out who one is, to ideally become happy, to find that peace that we all yearn for from the outside.
But, yeah, let me ask you that. I mean, was there like a. Was there a breaking point for you? Was there some.
Something that just hit you that led you to the inside search?
[00:04:27] Speaker B: I remember two things that happened that actually were kind of a breakthrough.
One thing was when I was. Was during my world trip. I was on Samoa island, far away from everything. I spent seven weeks sleeping in an open beach valley without any infrastructure, no civilization.
And it really hit me, you know, I started reflecting like, there's nobody. It's just me.
And there were things I wasn't happy about. So I really started reflecting and, what do I want in life? And I kind of start using the law of attraction to really imagine what kind of life would be fulfilling.
And I started journaling and writing down the things that I want. I feel like that was one breaking point. But the other one that lead me to being a coach was going through, you know, a pretty intense breakup in New York when I was dating.
That helped me build a lot of emotional resilience, but that also allowed me to really slow down and feel and process my feelings.
I feel like back then I was very quick on, you know, suppressing feelings, or as we all do, if negative emotions come up, we find coping missionism, or we dig into more work.
But you can only do this for a certain time. And. And I'm a big believer that if you keep on suppressing those feelings, at one point, they. You know, the body keeps the score. So they manifest in chronic diseases, and that's what a lot of people are experiencing.
[00:06:12] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah.
The body keeps the score. I like that.
[00:06:15] Speaker B: The body always keeps the Score. That's the thing. Unfortunately, it does.
[00:06:21] Speaker A: Yeah. Fortunately. Or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it.
[00:06:25] Speaker B: True.
[00:06:27] Speaker A: Yeah. And I think you described it very well. The essence is solitude and finding out there's got to be another way. I think your breakup, correct me if I'm wrong, was probably like. It was probably like the catalyst to be like, hey, something's got to give here. Something's got to stop. Right.
I've heard that from a lot of people, breakups just not even break up with another person. Like, breakup of like something like a lifestyle, an attachment that you have where you figure out, like, it's just not working.
And yeah, it leads us into the spiritual search. But would you be able to get into what that search looks like for you? You know, like, how did. What's your modalities or practices look like?
[00:07:12] Speaker B: I think the most important thing is really stillness and presence.
And I know it's very hard, right, because there's this abundance of information, social media, there's so much input we get on a daily basis that it's so easy to be distracted.
Especially for high achievers, you know, the time they have off there, even if they do a meditation, very often it's just to check off the checklist. So it's always with an intention.
But to truly just sit there and let it all come in, you know, in waves, like, even these are emotions like grief, guilt, shame, to really sit with it. It's not easy to do, but that's one thing I did. I allowed myself to just be fully present and let's just see what comes up.
I use journaling practices and I started writing a lot. I still, to this day, I love to journal.
But in the present, like right now, the most important thing for me, what I do on a daily basis, it sounds easier than done. It's 30 minutes to do nothing, like, really nothing. It's like just sit there, stare at the wall and see what comes up. And don't listen to a meditation or something, because this is the best way how to process since we talked about the body keeps the score.
It. It's just like sitting with your emotions and embracing them.
There's this thing that we say, you know, oh, you shouldn't be sad. You know, this kind of toxic positivity. Whereas I believe the answer and solution to everything is to surrender, which means if I feel sad, that's okay, and let me embrace the sadness. Let it. Let it be here, let it come in and sit with it. And any emotion lasts about 90 seconds only in the Body. But you just gotta sit with it. It's not easy, but it's something that helped me a lot. You know, like somatic exercises.
[00:09:23] Speaker A: Yeah, I feel that it's definitely not easy, but it's simple. It's almost too simple actually.
And it sounds too good to be true. Like you just gotta be still. Be still and know.
Yeah, actually, yeah, you just gotta sit with it. But I mean think of it. Most of us, I think anyone can relate to that is we don't like to sit with ourselves. We're scared of ourselves. What's going on in our head. It's unfortunate, but it's. The truth is like we're scared of what we may see, the unconsciousness that we may see.
But it is as simple as just being with it and surrendering to everything that comes up. And that is really the only way I feel to become anew, to actually be happy that we spoke of, to be peaceful, to live the life that you really want to, is to slow down a little bit, find a little solitude and slow down. Right.
[00:10:12] Speaker B: 100.
Slowing down is so important.
I remember that all my days, you know, I am.
I reflected back on my days on the level of productivity.
So no matter how much I did at the end of the day, I measured how good was the day based on how productive I was.
Now I try and it's still a journey. You know, I try to measure my day on hey, how aware I was, how conscious did I walk through my day?
So that has been also something I feel like helpful. And yeah, slowing down is really the answer.
Mean, look at this world right now. It's so easy to be distracted. I feel like our brains, our attention spam is less than from a goldfish. Seven second reels, you know, so much input. It's so easy to have a minute off and grab your phone. Like I feel like a lot of people have tremendous addictions and addictions not in the sense. I mean not only in the sense of alcohol and drugs, but the addiction to staying connected, to always do something right. To always cleaning. Finding ways to control everything.
[00:11:31] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:11:31] Speaker B: And we can't control everything. And that's also something important to learn. Like if you struggle, take a look, what are you able to control? And what are you able to control? How other people perceive you.
You're not able to control that they'll have an opinion no matter what. And especially in my industry, you can get so stressed out thinking how are they gonna perceive me? And it's just add so much stress to your life where you Understand which is not in your control. Try to let it go.
[00:12:07] Speaker A: Yep, Amen.
[00:12:08] Speaker B: Amen.
[00:12:09] Speaker A: Yeah.
The only thing we can control is how we respond to the world and the people around us. That's what I'm coming to find.
Because, yeah, as you said, there's. People are always going to have some kind of opinion. There's always going to be some sort of outward something coming in from the outside that will try to suck you in. Right. Try to suck you into its orbit, almost like its vortex. The only thing you can control is how you respond to the vortex.
And it comes from the stillness. The best response always comes from the stillness.
First of all, practicing it. Right. In a ritualized form, as you said, like finding actual solitude. But bringing that into our work also, I think, is the second half of that. Because, you know, you're still modeling, you're still doing your work, as am I, as is everybody else. I think the place of the 21st century spiritual seeker is to take that monk mindset, that solitude mindset, that meditative mindset into the world. And that's really how we transform ourselves.
That's how we transform the world. Ultimately, you know what I'm getting at.
[00:13:15] Speaker B: 100%, and that's that adds to collective healing. If everyone would be more centered and being able to enjoy their solitude, I think that would have such a big impact.
I don't know if you heard about this quote when they say, you know too much psychology. If you can never get mad at anyone because you understand their reason for why they do what they do. And I feel like I kind of reached that level.
I developed so much compassion that, you know, I see people, some people try to profilize them, or even if they lie, I'm not one who takes it personal because I see there's a deeper reason behind. Right. People lie to. In order to protect themselves. There's like, certain patterns going on.
And having compassion is something so powerful, which would make the world a more peaceful place as well.
[00:14:15] Speaker A: Yep. Again, amen to that. And I think you described it. It's that compassion comes from understanding. Like you understand the other person's situation, because ultimately it's like you've been through it or you can see how you could go through it. Right. So the more you understand yourself, the more you can understand somebody else. So it all just comes down to in the solitude, we get a deeper understanding of ourselves. And then thus we respond better to the outward self of other people.
Picking up what I'm putting down here so much totally.
[00:14:48] Speaker B: I, in general, have A very multidimensional mind. And there were times I'm like, is there anything wrong with me? Because I see my perspective, obviously, but I see the other person's perspective. But then I look at the world for you too, you know, so in a sense of that, you just have understanding for what's going on and understanding that we are unique, but we're all sitting in the same boat and everyone has things going on. Like, everyone struggles in life, and it's so natural.
Once you realize that, I think it helps you be even more compassionate as well.
[00:15:29] Speaker A: Yeah. I feel that it comes from understanding that we're all suffering in one way or the other. That's a huge realization to come to.
That's tough. That's a tough pill to swallow, for sure. But that's where the compassion comes from, is that this person might not necessarily be against me. This person might just be suffering a lot. And it seems like in the moment they're against me or they're saying some mean stuff to me, but it's because they're suffering deep down.
That's the essence of it.
[00:15:57] Speaker B: Yeah. And you know what? It makes life so much easier if you, for example, in Manhattan, you walk through the streets, everyone is in their head. And if someone maybe smashes the door in front of you and you could get mad, but you don't know what. What's going on in their head right now. And if you just understand that everyone is going through their own things, it's so much easier to not take things personally.
Yeah.
[00:16:22] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly.
This is powerful stuff.
[00:16:26] Speaker B: Yeah.
I love your lightning.
[00:16:30] Speaker A: Yeah. That's your thing, right? Alignment is like aligning people.
[00:16:34] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:16:34] Speaker A: It's like, that's your motto. Alignment.
[00:16:37] Speaker B: I feel like align. So two things for me, like, I mean, presence, alignment, and authenticity is really huge in my life. And alignment is something so powerful because if you feel aligned, it actually creates momentum, and momentum is action.
And this way you can actually build things because a lot of people also. And it happens to me too, I get stuck in my head. You start ruminating.
But when you feel aligned, and I think to achieve alignment is to surrender, as we spoke about it earlier. Okay, I have a bad day. You know, am I over fixating on that? I can. And the day is gonna go by, but I can just embrace how I feel right now. And that already creates a certain feeling of alignment, I think. When you just surrender, does that make sense too?
[00:17:37] Speaker A: Oh, for sure. Yeah. I think those all play into each other. You said presence, alignment, and then authenticity.
It's Almost like they're in order. I think from, from presence comes the alignment, then comes the authenticity.
[00:17:54] Speaker B: Exactly.
[00:17:55] Speaker A: But let me ask you this. What do you say? We're aligning to what?
[00:17:58] Speaker B: We are aligning to alignment in a way that acceptance.
Alignment is acceptance of the current circumstances for me.
And if you reach that sense of alignment, your frequency is aligned with what's going on around you. So you're not trying to persist anything. Like the more you resist, the more it persists. Right. So meaning, accepting what is is for me how I create alignment.
How do you. How, how, if you don't mind me asking, how do you align or what feels alignment like for you?
[00:18:47] Speaker A: Well, I would say it's through meditation, just a regular meditation practice as we spoke of a little bit already.
[00:18:54] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:18:54] Speaker A: And how I know I'm aligned is that there is this, there is this flow state. There's like no resistance to the goings on of my life.
Very difficult to explain, but I think you know what I'm saying. It's like this sense of yes. It's like a sense of yes. And I know when I'm not aligned to. Because there's a sense of no also it's like resistance or momentum, you know, entropy or momentum.
It's almost like a feeling. It's almost like in my heart, my stomach. It's intuition really. And it goes beyond words. It's something that is beyond the chattering of the mind.
But it's very powerful. It's subtle. Very, very subtle in the body, but also very powerful.
[00:19:41] Speaker B: Yeah. I would even also describe it sometimes can be an out of body experience.
Like if I do breath work, I do the WIM HOF breath breathing exercises. Just kind of hyperventilation. You hold your breath one and a half minutes up to three, if I'm going to be honest.
While I hold my breath, these are the most peaceful moments of my day. It's. You almost experience a high. Like your body is tingling, but in a sense of that you can feel this oneness, this, you know, love is the answer. You connect it with the collective. You can sense that we're all energetic fields and that there's no such thing.
There's no problem, you know, like even.
[00:20:26] Speaker A: Yeah, there's no problem.
[00:20:27] Speaker B: Yeah. Like for example, happiness.
How do you, how would you describe happiness?
[00:20:36] Speaker A: That's a tough one actually. I don't know, It's something that is just.
It just feels good. I don't know, it just. There's something like when I'm happy, it feels good.
It's like as you said, there's no problem here. Like, when I'm happy, I'm good with everything that's going on.
How would you describe, I think for.
[00:21:01] Speaker B: Me, happiness is that there's nothing I want to change in the current moment. You know, you sit and most people are like, again, you get into your head, you're like, but I wish now I had this. Oh, but what if. But there's nothing. You just content. You, you just surrender. That's happiness. Like, I don't want to change anything under current circumstances.
[00:21:25] Speaker A: I like that there's no what if, not this you.
[00:21:28] Speaker B: Ego. No ego identification. Just. Just being. And I think a powerful thought too, that might help a lot of people struggling with mental health or something is that when you think about any feelings of, know, anxiety, fear, grief, shame, guilt, they're all associated with either the past or the future.
Because if I would ask you right now, you're sitting here, you're breathing, you're healthy, there's no such thing as any problem once I start thinking about the future, oh, I have an appointment, I need to get ready. Or from the past. I should have said that differently.
This is where those negative emotions come up.
This identification with the past or the future. What do you think about it?
Yeah, right.
[00:22:19] Speaker A: And those are all living in illusion. It's all living in delusion, living in the past, in the future. And that's why it causes us unhappiness. That's why it causes us disharmony, because you're living a lie.
So when you're really happy, like true, I don't even know if happy is the right word. You said content. I like that. But when you're really content, there is no you. Just as you said that you're living here and now might sound cliche, but you're here and now. You're not trying to be anywhere else. You're not trying to be anybody else. Literally, you're just okay with whatever's going on. And sometimes this is the tough part too is whatever's going on might not seem physically pleasurable, right? You may be sick, hurt, or somebody else may be sick and hurt. That's the true test is like, can you find this happiness, the so called contentment? Contentment in the midst of the storm, right? And I think that's why we do the practices, because we can both recognize here now that our lives aren't going to go all rainbows and butterflies. It's not going to be picturesque, we're only getting older. So I think that's why we do the work is to almost prepare, right. To have this, like, fortitude, this foundation of happiness, this foundation of peace that we bring along with us as we traverse the.
Traverse the ups and downs of our life, you know?
[00:23:44] Speaker B: Yeah. And I feel like a lot of people underestimate the power of what you've just spoke about, that with what you just spoke about, how powerful you are, you become to create and manifest things.
For a long time, I used to think, oh, my gosh, okay, I need to go do this, this, this in order to be successful. And for some reason this year, something shifted also.
My. My presence on social media, I know as a, you know, as a creative or as any artist, it's very important. Probably it's your portfolio, your social media presence, Right. So it's important to post and put yourself out there in order to get more bookings. That client sees you working and all that things. And something shifted in me that it didn't feel like I want to post, that I'm working. It felt very repetitive. And I stopped posting and I experienced that. I still got incredible offers. I still kept working more than ever. And I believe it's because I felt aligned. It was a truth. I listened to my intuition, which is my inner truth.
In this way, I felt aligned. And the frequency brought the jobs in. And I don't have to prove myself out there, if that makes sense, if I explain it. So it's. Sometimes you need to do less and you can achieve more. You can lay back, you align, and things are coming your way. It's incredibly powerful. The more you hustle, the more you'll chase something.
When the cat chases a mouse, they keep on running, Right. If you sit still, things come to you.
[00:25:28] Speaker A: Yeah, it makes sense, right? The more you're aligned with the universe, the more the universe will align with you. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And sometimes that may go contrary to what the mind wants to say. Actually, a lot of times it will.
Where, you know, your mind may say, I got to do this, I got to do. I got to post more. I got to.
I. I gotta. I gotta do something. But the intuition is saying, wait, no, I'm just gonna chill. And yes, serendipitous things happen when.
When you work from that place. It's like a different intelligence, you know, it's like we have two different intelligences in us. We have the mind and then we have our intuition. It's probably a little more deep than that. But keeping it simple, it seems like two different intelligences that go head to.
[00:26:13] Speaker B: Head, you know, I love you say that. And it's so true. I feel like intuition, especially women, it's so powerful. Our intuition is so strong.
[00:26:24] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:26:25] Speaker B: And there are many times in my life, I'm gonna be honest, where I kind of felt it like that gut feeling. And I choose not to listen to my intuition.
And so I experienced some painful moments or even relationships where I maybe notice something is off, but I. I chose not to listen. But instead of looking back and blaming myself, I believe that my soul chose this path. So I had to learn this lesson, you know, sooner or later, it would have happened anyway.
Yeah.
[00:26:56] Speaker A: Yeah.
I think that's the soul speaking to us. That's the spirit speaking to us, is intuition.
And yeah, if you don't listen, you'll get the lesson one way or the other.
[00:27:10] Speaker B: The beautiful thing is, I feel like more and more people. I don't know what's your take on that, but I feel like more and more people are awakening. Like, there's definitely a separation happening. Right.
People that are very much led by the media, by social media, by, like, you know, I define myself through my job, but then there's this other part, or even light workers that. That really mostly through painful experience, awaken and approach things differently. What do you think?
[00:27:43] Speaker A: Yeah.
Yeah, it seems like there's a rift, like a split.
[00:27:46] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:27:47] Speaker A: In the collective, like not only within ourselves, there's two intelligences, but it seems like it's being represented also in the collective of how people think.
Right. People getting sucked into the matrix, sucked into technology and that way of thinking or. Or tapping into the spirit, tapping into oneself.
I see that for sure. I mean, we're definitely in the minority, people that are tapped into oneself, but I think it's definitely picking up little by little.
Every day that goes by, more and more people are.
They're getting the message.
[00:28:19] Speaker B: It's true. I mean, it's so easy to get sucked into media and believe everything. And for me, I believe that media on purposely, you know, it can create a lot of fear. And what happens first? First of all, fear weakens your immune system and it makes you more manipulative.
So it's a good way to keep people where they should be, you know?
[00:28:45] Speaker A: Oh, yeah.
[00:28:46] Speaker B: I mean, we don't need to go down this rabbit hole, but I guess you understand it's another day, maybe.
But yeah, it's really, really pausing and sitting still and seeing what comes up. It's so important. I can only encourage everyone to do that. It's not easy, though, because again, our mind, it's Our brain is also. Our brain is built for survival. Our brain is not built for happiness. Happiness is your job. And so many girls I know or man, they're probably still living in this fight flight and this freeze response.
And it keeps you going. You wake up, you're anxious and your anxiety actually keeps you going through the whole day and that's okay. But if you can find little times where you just maybe focus on your breath, ground yourself again. It's something that has been super helpful for me to just get through even bad days, you know.
[00:29:47] Speaker A: Yeah, that's what it is is if you're just working from the mind, it's all survival. It's just trying to get through the day, put food on the table and also competition comes along with that. But once you do heighten your consciousness a little bit, it goes from survival to thriving. Right? You go from surviving to thriving and you still have to survive, obviously.
But there's like another layer, there's like another purpose to your life that I.
[00:30:12] Speaker B: Feel and that was for me again, it's such a profound experience because for many, many years I was on my head, you know, high achiever, getting on to the next, next, next, never stop.
And then I started doing less and I attracted the same amount of work or even better opportunities with doing less. But it's, it's a, it's scary to think about it be like why I need to work hard to actually achieve things. But it can go the other way around. But you have to trust yourself. And I feel like self trust is the foundation also for everything.
And yeah, and knowing who you are deep inside. I mean there's all these things, attachment styles and or what's your love language like how you or personality types.
But really just listen to your own truth is the most powerful thing. I mean you can use tools, right? I love, for example, I love to journal. I love breathing exercises, somatic exercises.
I. I'm obsessed with reading self help books.
But the thing I noticed also about self help, it's also really interesting because a lot of podcaster that I listen to, I noticed that a lot of them became sick or they went through, through, you know, they got diseases.
There's this thing that if you over fixate on improving your life, making things better, it can actually go the opposite way.
Yeah, right. Like even with Instagram, like I feel like 2023 is when Instagram kind of died in a way, in a sense that you don't see what your friends are up to. All you see is you. The algorithm feeds You. So if like even my Instagram, it's all about, oh my God, you need to cleanse your body, there's parasites, you can't use these toxic products.
And you go through it and it's like, it's. I can't even drink water anymore, right? It's like too much, you know, so it can also go the other way. Yeah, yeah.
[00:32:30] Speaker A: I think that's the power of our minds, the power of belief, right? It's like if you're addicted to self development, it's going to be a self fulfilling prophecy where you never actually, you never actually improve yourself, you never actually develop because you're constantly striving for more and more and more. So there's always going to be more and more and more. That's a sickness.
[00:32:50] Speaker B: Exactly. And I've been there, I'm telling you, honestly, I've was like, no matter what, I'm like, okay, now I need to work on this and I can improve this.
And then it's like again, surrender.
It's okay. You know, like just if you, with the intention, if you drink out of a water bottle made full of plastic, I mean, we all have microplastics in our blood, everyone, it's in the air. There's nothing we can do about it. So now if I drink this water and I'm in my head, oh my goodness, it's gonna be so bad for me. Your cells, your body cells are listening to you, you know, but if you enjoy or even you eat a pizza or something super unhealthy, but you enjoy it, your body is differently processing it, which is also really beautiful. So if you indulge in something, enjoy it, it's my take, you know, I get that. Right?
[00:33:44] Speaker A: Yeah.
But let me ask you this one though, because this is actually the route that I was going to go down. So it's a good segue. Do you think that taking care of yourself, like having a baseline of health, you don't have to be a health freak, but just a baseline of health is sort of like half the work. That's, that's like most of what we have to do to be able to align. Because I do, I feel like if you have a baseline of taking care of yourself just a little bit, right, all of this takes care of itself. If you take care of yourself, all of this takes care of itself in some way.
Do you feel that?
[00:34:21] Speaker B: Beautifully said. Yes, I agree.
I think the first step is definitely because everyone is different, right? I'm a person, I drive on routine. I love routine. Like it's morning, evening routines. But there might be some people, they are in the middle of the day, they need to do whatever to feel good about themselves. So I think noticing what is actually what fulfills me, what do I need, and then integrating that on a daily basis.
But I think basics, like movement is so important, you know, like, it helps if you, like, get stuck in your head. Just go on a walk and disconnect.
I feel like also digital boundaries is something so important.
Unplug your phone. I sometimes do days I don't even turn on my phone. I don't look at the laptop and I'm telling you, it's so peaceful. You start realizing, like, you leave the house and you're like, oops, okay, I can't do this and this now because I need my phone. I can't drop off packages, whatever. But you are so.
You're so aware in the. You're, like, so conscious in the present moment.
So, like, little tiny things that you can integrate are definitely the baseline.
And if you have a day where you're not able to do it, don't blame yourself too much, because then despite, it goes down, right?
It's like, yeah, yeah.
[00:35:49] Speaker A: There's also, like, a sense of forgiveness that comes along the way that you should incorporate.
Because we're not perfect beings, so don't strive for perfection either.
I was kind of getting at food, though, in terms of health, right? Like, food and exercise. Like, I think if you have a healthy diet and you have some sort of exercise, which you did mention, like, staying active, I think this kind of takes care of itself. That's half the battle. I think most of us can't access this higher intelligence, this other intelligence. I don't know if it's higher or lower, but we'll just say intuition. It's hard to access because literally our bodies are suffering. Our bodies just create this barrier because you're not healthy. So I know for sure you take your health to a high degree. You know, you, You. You definitely take care of yourself. So do you think that's also like a huge part to incorporate in somebody's path?
[00:36:43] Speaker B: Yes, I would definitely say so, because your gut is functioning like your second brain, right?
So what, you feed yourself, it like fast food, highly processed foods, they. They create depression. Like, I can even notice if I have a day or with friends, because I.
I try to be healthy, be like 80, 20%, but I'm not a person who's like, oh, my God, I can't eat that.
Since I'm from Europe, I Feel like gluten is different in America. It's differently processed and affects you differently.
So I try to be careful with it, but I also eat it. But I can totally sense, you know, if I had a day where I eat a lot of processed food, which doesn't happen often, but I honestly, it makes me like my energy is low, I'm kind of depressed.
And it takes maybe two or three days for someone to get out of this, to start eating healthy. But once you have three days without sugar, like only natural sugar, a healthy, balanced diet, it's actually so easy to eat healthy. And you grave healthy food.
[00:37:58] Speaker A: Yeah, right.
Yeah. It's like the better you take care of your body, the better your intuition is intuitive. Eating is. And it plays into itself. That's the thing.
[00:38:10] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:38:10] Speaker A: Right.
So, like, the more intuitive you become from eating healthy, the easier it is to intuitively eat what's good for you.
[00:38:20] Speaker B: Exactly. But most people get stuck in this.
Like, they numb themselves. And with food, you can numb yourself too. And food is a beautiful copy. Missionism for a lot of people.
At the end of the day, where things slow down. You've been working, actually, things can come up that might need to be processed emotions.
Some people go have a drink. Other people, they need connection. They call someone. And other people eat comfort. It's comforting food. But it's also based on how probably you got raised in your childhood. Like most kids, they're being raised right. You go to the doctor or you get a lollipop when you go to the doctor. So it's kind of this, you know, it's. You get a treat for something. So of course, when you. When you're an adult, you're like, oh, I treat myself. I deserve it. It's kind of. It doesn't maybe build the healthiest relationship with food for some people, but I feel like numb. Numbing. Numbing yourself is a big thing, and everyone does it probably in somewhat way, but as you said, it lowers your intuition a lot.
[00:39:32] Speaker A: Yeah. It's all about moderation.
[00:39:34] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:39:35] Speaker A: Definitely don't want to be a freak either, health freak when it comes to that, because that can cause suffering.
[00:39:39] Speaker B: Exactly. And that's what I noticed. Like a lot of podcasters I've been following, and I can even sense it. I'm like, every day they interview incredible doctors and people, but I even see visually there. There's something going on with them. It can't be too much, you know?
Yeah.
[00:39:57] Speaker A: I think the path is all about balance. You got to live a little bit here. You got to enjoy yourself.
[00:40:02] Speaker B: Totally.
[00:40:02] Speaker A: If you're not enjoying yourself and it's all work, it's all taking care of yourself.
Yeah. You're just going to ironically destroy yourself. You're going to destroy your experience, you're going to destroy your well being. Ironically so. Because I think a lot of it is energetic. Like if you're not energetically sound, you're also going to suffer. So you gotta, you gotta balance yourself. Find balance between the pleasure and the pain, I guess.
[00:40:30] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:40:30] Speaker A: You know.
[00:40:31] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:40:32] Speaker A: But right now we're unbalanced. That's the thing. So I think the spiritual path is just bringing a little bit of balance to the force.
[00:40:39] Speaker B: Yes. 100. And also again, how, what you said earlier, how we react to it, it's such a big role. You know, there's people there, maybe they live so unhealthy. They go out every night, they smoke, they drink.
But hey, they're enjoying their life. And they turn or 80 years old and there's people.
[00:41:00] Speaker A: Right, exactly.
[00:41:01] Speaker B: That are, you know, they work out every day, hit training, they only drink and eat the best food and they have a heart attack at 40. Because chronic stress is so intense. And that's the thing. Like, if you meet a person, you can't see their level of stress. I mean, you can notice or if you have psychic abilities, you can kind of see through it a little bit. But it's so hard to notice chronic stress.
So from the outside, everything looks perfect, but. But it's not the real deal most of the time, you know.
[00:41:33] Speaker A: Yeah. It goes a lot deeper.
[00:41:35] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:41:36] Speaker A: Yeah. And it really comes down to stress. I've heard so many bad things about stress. Or cortisol really is what it is, is cortisol kills us.
And yeah, if you're stressing about your health, how ironic is that you're killing yourself by trying to be healthy. Yeah.
I mean, crazy.
[00:41:53] Speaker B: I even myself, I. I felt kind of addicted to this dopamine chase in a sense of always doing something right. For a long time I was like, okay, now I come home, I've been working all day. I could be like, that was great. I can relax. But no, I want to do this. I want to write another to do list. Because even a writing a to do list or little things, it gives you this hit of dopamine and people can even be born. Or if you're pregnant, your mom had. Had a tough pregnancy at a high cortisol, you, you might be born with that level of high cortisol. So you grew up like chasing, chasing dopamine. Constantly. And it's in general, I think, about stimulation in the world where I live with the, you know, fashion industry, I've met incredibly wealthy people, very influential people. And most of the time, those people seem really empty to me. But it makes sense, right? You have everything. You can buy everything.
There's everything available and accessible. So they need a certain sense of stimulation to get, you know, to feel something. So it's very much also always doing something. This ADHD world everyone's talking about is really real.
Yeah.
[00:43:18] Speaker A: Yeah. You exist in such a unique realm.
Right. The fact that you're on the spiritual path, if you even want to call it the spiritual path, but you're also in. You're in the belly of the beast. You know, you're in New York doing modeling, like you're in the trenches and moving between worlds.
[00:43:36] Speaker B: It's so true.
[00:43:38] Speaker A: It's like a big test.
[00:43:40] Speaker B: Yeah.
And you know what? I always felt like, or even with the breakup I went through, and for the first time, I knew what it feels like to be depressed because I never felt that way.
And then that was the time when I started my coaching certification. And at that point, I'm gonna be honest, I was like, how am I supposed to be a coach with what I'm going through right now? And there's this belief, right, that the people, healers or therapists, they need to have it all together. And that's not true. It's like, in my experience, the more you've been through, the better you're able also to help people. And now I also start realizing that life experience is so powerful.
Back then, it was all about which degree you have, the college you went to.
But life experience and. And presence is something so healing that you can give to other people.
[00:44:41] Speaker A: Yeah. And I think that's the only way to be able to give it, per se, is you have to go through it yourself. Because if you didn't go through your certain things, your certain trials and tribulations of life, you wouldn't have learned the lesson. And if you're trying to teach a lesson that is inauthentic, that you didn't actually go through, I don't think it's actually going to help people.
So there's a time and place for everything. There's a time and place for our suffering. And I think that is the path ultimately, where we get to when we go through our strife, we go through our struggles, adopt the rituals and practices, is ultimately we give back.
If not, then what is this all for? I think giving Back and helping people, even if it's just like a handful of people, even if it's just one person. That's what makes it worth it, right?
[00:45:24] Speaker B: A hundred percent.
So much.
[00:45:26] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:45:27] Speaker B: With me and my coaching practice, it's I, at the beginning I thought, okay, I have all this knowledge, right. And I daily feed myself and I study.
But then they start realizing that how you can make a conversation meaningful is with presence.
And some people, they really mostly just want to list, be like, listen to. And a lot of people, they don't really listen. Right. Like active listening without I listen to you without me already trying to figure out my answer.
[00:46:00] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:46:00] Speaker B: And that already it's a skill and I had to learn it, you know? And I for sure still don't listen actively at times. But with coaching, that actually helped me and it's just creating this moment.
It's really powerful and I think.
[00:46:19] Speaker A: Yeah. Do you feel it helps you to help others?
[00:46:22] Speaker B: Oh my God. So much and interesting.
[00:46:24] Speaker A: It's like a win win.
[00:46:25] Speaker B: It is a win win. And the funny thing is that you always attract clients too. That kind of mirror things that you might been going through, which is so beautiful. Like you see yourself or even if I, I, I coach models that they want to become models and like 10 years younger than me, and then I just see myself in them and it's always a mirror. I mean, life in general. Right. Every relationship you have, it's a mirror. They push you buttons and you learn so much through that.
[00:47:01] Speaker A: That's cool. Yeah.
I didn't know that you teach or you guide, coach a lot of models.
[00:47:09] Speaker B: Yeah, I do. Sometimes I'm, I'm like, do you really? Are you sure you want to do this? I don't know.
I would recommend not. It's, you know, it's tough. Yeah. But I think what helped me a lot because, you know, modeling, it sounds, wow, you're a model. But honestly, the most. There are so many beautiful women out there, more beautiful than even models. And they're not models. So it's not not.
And they're more confident too, because with modeling, it's this thing that most models are very, very insecure.
And you might don't see that, but even the most successful models, they are very insecure again. And it's based on external validation. And for me, it happens too. When I go to work and I don't look a certain way or I don't feel well, it gives, I get also, I get a little anxious sometimes. I'm like, what am I gonna think of Me, but then I stop myself and then acknowledge that that's just a thought, and I let it pass.
But, yeah, it's. It's a beautiful way to, you know, work with always different people, to travel the world.
But for me, I'm at this point right now where true fulfillment is working one on one with people and being able to heal people.
Yeah.
[00:48:40] Speaker A: Cool. Yeah.
Well, I feel that from you. You have good energy.
[00:48:47] Speaker B: Thank you.
[00:48:48] Speaker A: You're definitely a good listener. Listen to me a little bit.
[00:48:50] Speaker B: Thank you. I mean, I would love to hear a little more about you. I don't know how if you do that during interviews, but. Yeah.
[00:48:56] Speaker A: What do you want to know?
[00:48:57] Speaker B: When did you start, like, podcasting or how did you come up with this idea? Would love to know.
[00:49:04] Speaker A: Yeah, it was about four or five years ago now. It was during 2020.
It was during COVID So I was going through a teacher training, and we had to. We were in person at the start of it, and then midway through, we couldn't meet anymore. We had to do it over Zoom. So there was one class, it was a yogic philosophy class where this guy was just going off for six hours about yoga philosophy. And I was. I was just asking so many questions. I was so curious about it. I'm like, what is this? This is amazing. I've never heard Dharma. I've never heard any of this before. And something just clicked in me that said, wait a second.
It feels like I'm conducting an interview. It feels like I'm interviewing this guy right now.
And I said, why don't I just do this myself? Why don't I just actually interview people that I'm interested in talking to?
So here I am five years later, speaking to you, doing the same exact thing that I was doing in 2020 in that virtual Zoom class.
[00:50:01] Speaker B: Amazing.
You. All you. That's. I love that you're doing that. I think for you, too, you probably learn so much, too, like, getting different perspectives and everything.
[00:50:13] Speaker A: Yeah. And it's also something that's beyond knowledge, hard to explain, but it's when you sit with somebody that is wiser than you, that has a certain kind of experience, you know, a certain level of understanding about themselves, something rubs off. I don't know how to describe it, but there's like an energy that rubs off when you're really linked up with somebody that you sort of download. It's like you get in a way that's in their words that goes beyond words.
So, yeah, it's hard to explain. I mean, in the east they call it like a Dharma transmission. They call it a darshan, almost like initiation. Sometimes I feel that with people, like, oh, what are they doing to me? They're doing something to me with their words. And. Yeah, it goes beyond, like, classical learning, classical knowledge, the wisdom that people can impart. It's very powerful. Didn't expect that, that's for sure.
[00:51:11] Speaker B: Almost sound like an energy shift happening, right? Yeah. Do you feel it after.
After you call Stan? Are you.
Do you notice something?
[00:51:21] Speaker A: Yeah, I think this is. I say this a lot, but this is my sadhana, which means spiritual practice in Sanskrit. This is my most powerful modality in my practice, like, in my path is just sitting down with people that just. They know, you know, sitting down with people that may be a little bit wiser than me, there's something that just changes. And 100. I feel it afterwards, like, after I turn the camera off and go sit down is like a very, very serious shift that happens. Not everybody, obviously, but with select people and select conversations that I've had, it just like, it seems like a key that unlocks something that I wasn't able to unlock before the conversation.
And I'm sure I'd recommend that to everybody.
[00:52:09] Speaker B: You probably even attracted that person then, too, at that moment that, you know. Yeah.
[00:52:15] Speaker A: Yep. Very serendipitous. Like, the connections that I've made, how I've made them, like, how these people get in touch.
Very, very serendipitous. And if I wasn't aware enough, I wouldn't.
The serendipity wouldn't enter my life to be able to conduct the conversation, if that makes sense, if you know what I'm getting at. It's like you have to really be in tune with your mission and your purpose, and then things would just line up. And I'm not saying necessarily everybody's purpose is conversation, but I think mine is in some way. So if I wasn't aligned myself, I wouldn't be able to notice the opportunities that are present in terms of who I'm able to connect with.
[00:52:53] Speaker B: Yeah. And I think it's such a beautiful thing. I would. We are doing right now, for example. I mean, again, we always learn from each other, and you can read as many books, you can listen to as many podcasts, but you do it as a practice, one on one life, and then you share it, and other people can benefit from it as well.
It's something beautiful for the collective that you're doing.
[00:53:18] Speaker A: It's extremely beautiful. I call it a miracle. Like, just the fact that we're able to do this.
[00:53:23] Speaker B: Right.
[00:53:23] Speaker A: It's crazy. Yeah, it's magic.
[00:53:25] Speaker B: Like, you are over there, I'm here, and we connect.
[00:53:27] Speaker A: Yeah. We're talking like we're in the same room. It's magical. And yeah, as you said, we're recording it as well. That's another layer of magic, is this is like a time capsule of our interaction.
[00:53:38] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:53:39] Speaker A: Very, very cool. We take it for granted because everybody has a camera, everybody has a microphone in their pocket with their phones, and we can connect to pretty much everybody all over the world. But when you sit down and think about it, it's just like, what, what's going on?
[00:53:53] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It's true. If you think about it. I love you say that. It's so true. Would you say that then one of your core values is like connection or with people or. Yeah, yeah.
[00:54:10] Speaker A: And it's genuine connection. It's hard to do because not everybody's open. It's a two way street. So I want to genuinely connect with somebody. Like more than just to have a surface level interview and talk about stuff that's already been talked about. It's like, I really want to know who you are. And it's tough because a lot of people have their defenses up. You know, I just met the person, we're not actually in the same room, so it's tough to penetrate. I don't know if penetrates the right word, but like to really get into somebody's heart. But when you can, it creates a very fruitful endeavor.
And I think that's a skill of mine too, because I try to make people feel safe. Like when I'm here, I'm like, hey, you can be you. I know the camera's on, we got the recording going. I'm gonna put it on YouTube. But you can be you. You can be you. So that's my thing that I tried to present in the connection is like, I want you to be the best version of yourself. And yeah, that's what I try to do is I really try to connect with somebody and who they are, who their soul is, like beyond what they try to portray online.
You know, whatever label they want to use, how, whatever they want to show themselves as like really who you are at a deeper level. That's my goal.
[00:55:17] Speaker B: I see that your energy, it makes people open up and being able to be vulnerable. And I think vulnerability is something so powerful too, that actually makes you connect with people, you know, it's very beautiful. For myself, I've noticed I am also very vulnerable and it took me a long time to understand, especially being a model, over a decade.
I always had this feeling that I need to look a certain way and people are gonna judge me based on that or even in intimate relationships.
And came to a point where I started realizing, hey, and I can say this with pride now, that for me, the most beautiful part about me is my soul, and I really stand behind it. I still struggle as everyone with my looks, and I'm like, that's not fine.
But, you know, understanding that, and if you know someone who's interested in seeing your soul, exploring the depths of your soul with the good and bad, the traumas and everything, that's what makes a genuine, beautiful connection.
[00:56:25] Speaker A: That's love.
[00:56:26] Speaker B: That's love.
[00:56:29] Speaker A: Yeah.
Well, hey, on that note, I think that's a perfect spot to wrap up.
I thank you, Severine, for coming on here. This was wonderful. Beautiful person inside and out.
[00:56:43] Speaker B: I appreciate you. Thank you for taking time and that we were able to connect for sure.
[00:56:49] Speaker A: Do you have anything else you want to say, or do you want to keep it at that?
[00:56:52] Speaker B: Love. This is the end. I think we.
[00:56:55] Speaker A: That's it.
That's all I need to say.
Well, thank you, Severine, again. I wish you all the best. Keep up the good work, and maybe we can tap in again in the future.
[00:57:04] Speaker B: I would love to. Take care of yourself. Namaste. Thank you. Bye.
[00:57:08] Speaker A: Namaste, everybody. Goodbye.
