Gary Zukav

Sadhguru said, “If you are constantly aware of your mortal nature, you will only do what truly matters.” And Oprah Winfrey said, “The thing you fear most has no power. Your fear of it is what has the power. Facing the truth really will set you free.”

Is there something you are afraid of? Could it be heights, the dark, being alone, or the unknown? Whatever your fear is, that fear only exists within you, and it has no power at all unless you give meaning to it. Sometimes, all it takes is a mindset shift and courage to overcome your fears and set yourself free.

My guest today is Gary Zukav, whose gentle presence, humor, and wisdom have inspired millions of people to realize their soul’s greatest potential. In this episode, Gary will talk about how to develop what Gary calls “authentic power” in your life, how to find peace and positivity when negative things are happening around you, how fear is controlling most of your lives, and what you can do about it, the importance of spiritual partnerships when creating authentic power, and so much more! I learned a lot about fostering healthy communication in my relationships and the power of self-love from Gary, and I know you’ll love what he has to say in this episode.

Who Is Gary Zukav?

Gary Zukav is a well-respected author of four consecutive New York Times bestselling books, including the New York Times bestseller, The Seat of the Soul. This book led the way to the alignment of the personality and the soul as the fulfillment of life and captured the imagination of millions. His books have sold more than six million copies and are published in thirty-two languages. Gary has written a new book called Universal Human, which is about the new era of human evolution and offers a vision of a world based on love, along with an invitation to begin bringing such a world into being now.

He is also the author of the book, The Dancing Wu Li Masters: An Overview of the New Physics, which is a humorous masterpiece that opens the doors to the fascinating, dazzling, and remarkable world of quantum physics, and a winner of the American Book Award for Science. His other bestselling book, Soul Stories, reveals the deepest sources of your being and how the new understanding of authentic power can transform lives in countless ways. He is a graduate of Harvard University with a degree in International Relations and a former green beret officer of the U.S. Army Special Forces with Vietnam service. 

Gary Zukav co-founded the Seat of the Soul Institute with Linda Francis and appeared 36 times on The Oprah Winfrey Show where his insights, warmth, and contagious enthusiasm have endeared millions of viewers worldwide. He is a recipient of the World Business Academy Pathfinder Award for his contribution to the ongoing evolution of knowledge and consciousness within the global business community, and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine for his contributions to the psychosocial growth of humanity. Today, Gary Zukav continues to inspire people to realize their soul’s greatest potential and harness authentic power from within to create happiness, love, and peace amidst the negativity happening around us.

Creating Positivity Amidst the Negativity Around Us

Are you in pain due to heartache or the loss of someone you love? Do you have remorse in your life? Are you battling a painful physical disability or illness? Are you feeling angry, vengeful, resentful, jealous, grieving, or fearful? We’ve all been there. We’ve all had our bouts of emotional setbacks and series of unfortunate events. We have felt the pain of defeat, failures, and the loss of someone close to our hearts. Life can throw such difficult times at us that we can hardly bear the pains or take the stress anymore. We may feel like those difficult times have made us probably the most unlucky person in the world. But Gary Zukav has a different perspective on such experiences.

“When someone close to you passes on, [and you experience] a sense of grief and loss and pain and despair and anger at the universe — those are difficult experiences. But when you have experiences like that, … know that each of those experiences is blessings.” – Gary Zukav

Every experience, be it happy or a painful one, has life’s lessons that we can learn from it that will help us evolve into a better person so that we can live the life we are meant to live. Our struggles in life are meant to help us become stronger instead of pulling us down. That’s why they are blessings.

“Each of those experiences is communication … from your soul. And what they’re communicating is this: You are now experiencing a part of yourself, an aspect of your personality that you need to experience fully and move beyond the control of, in order to give the gifts that you were born to give.” – Gary Zukav

Our life’s struggles are no different from the struggles of a caterpillar getting out of the cocoon before revealing a transformation into a beautiful butterfly. The struggles are necessary in order to strengthen the wings enough to give the butterfly its flight capabilities. Caterpillars are born to become butterflies, and a struggle is an essential step of the transformation.  Just like the caterpillar, our difficult times and struggles are meant to make us stronger so we can transform into the best version of ourselves. Sometimes, they redirect us to a life we are born to live, or towards our goals. So, be thankful for those experiences instead of being remorseful.

“We’ve all met people who have had cancer or they’ve lost a leg or an athlete that’s been crippled, and they can say later, ‘I’m so grateful for that.’ It may not be at the time, but … as you become multisensory, you can even say it at the time. That’s creating authentic power.” – Gary Zukav

Can you say you are grateful at the very moment of defeat or failure? Sometimes it takes time for us to be grateful after a defeat, and it takes a while for us to recover from failure. But if you aim for spiritual growth instead of crediting or blaming others or the world for the events in your life, only then can you say you are grateful at the moment and regard your struggles as blessings.

Spiritual growth and meaningful relationships develop together. Therefore, you need to have the courage to create relationships of substance and depth on your journey. These meaningful relationships are spiritual partnerships between equals for the purpose of spiritual growth.