Practical Manifestation with Diana Alexander - EP 031

 

 

In this episode, we sit down with Diana Alexander, a manifestation coach who shares her inspiring journey of discovering the art of manifestation and how it’s completely transformed her life.

Diana opens up about why believing in your own worthiness is the foundation of manifesting anything successfully. She views manifestation as more than just attracting your dreams; it's a spiritual path that deepens your relationship with the universe and helps you recognize the divine within yourself.

She shares practical, everyday techniques like practicing gratitude and visualization during simple activities, and she challenges us to dig deeper into the “why” behind our desires. By focusing on purpose and surrendering to the co-creation process, Diana shows how manifestation can be both intentional and effortless.

We also dive into the delicate balance of hard work versus smart work in entrepreneurship, understanding when to hustle and when to step back. Plus, Diana explains how self-awareness and personal alignment are key to manifesting goals that truly serve you.

Whether you’re new to manifestation or looking for fresh perspectives, this episode is packed with practical tips, soulful insights, and actionable advice to help you manifest with intention and ease.

Tune in now to learn how to co-create your dreams with the universe! 🎧

 

Key Takeaways:

• Manifestation is a lifestyle that involves deepening one's relationship with the universe and recognizing the divine within oneself.
• Believing in one's worthiness is crucial for successful manifestation.
• Practical manifestation techniques can be incorporated into daily life, such as practicing gratitude and visualization during everyday activities.
• Reflecting on the deeper purpose behind desires and surrendering to the co-creation process with the universe can lead to profound transformation. Manifestation requires being detached from the outcome and being okay with the possibility that it may not happen.
• In entrepreneurship, it is important to find a balance between hard work and smart work, focusing on inspired action and knowing when to push and when to ease off.
• Self-awareness is crucial in the manifestation process, recognizing one's own needs and goals rather than comparing to others.

 

Episode Chapters:

00:00 - Introduction to Diana Alexander

01:48 - The Grounded Approach to Manifestation

05:35 - Discovering Manifestation and Dreaming Big

08:06 - Believing in Your Worthiness

11:12 - Manifestation as a Spiritual Path

14:18 - Unraveling and Undoing for Growth

17:07 - Building the Muscle to Feel Joy

19:46 - Practical Techniques for Everyday Manifestation

23:37 - Reflecting on the Deeper Purpose Behind Desires

27:24 - The Balance Between Manifestation and Detachment

28:42 - Finding the Balance: Hard Work vs. Smart Work in Entrepreneurship

35:04 - The Importance of Self-Awareness in Manifestation

43:18 - Recognizing Diverse Goals and Starting Points in Coaching

 

Connect with Diana on Instagram @diana_alexander_rane or check out her Podcast The Conscious Mustard with Diana.

 

If you’re ready to have a deeper conversation about how to maximize impact, profit and pleasure in your business and life, you can schedule a time to connect with me right here >>> 

Did this message resonate with you? If you are enjoying the show, it would mean so much to me if you would take a few minutes to leave a review. Reviews like yours help podcasters like me get my podcast into the ears of more people. Thank you in advance for taking a minute to share your kind words. Rate this podcast on your favorite platform. 💜

 

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Episode Transcript

 

Rachel Anzalone (00:02.986)

Hello and welcome to Pleasure and Profits. My guest today is Diana Alexander. Diana is a manifestation coach on a mission to empower women of color to create lives they truly love. She's been manifesting in her own life for over 15 years, turning dreams into reality one step at a time. Born and raised in India and now thriving in Canada, Diana weaves together her rich cultural heritage with down to earth manifestation techniques that resonate deeply with her clients. 

She's the host of the Conscious Mustard, which is an awesome name, The Conscious Mustard with Diana, a podcast where she dishes out practical holistic manifestation advice with a dash of humor and plenty of heart.

Using her unique approach, she guides women through a journey of self-discovery and spiritual growth, helping them unlock their full potential and manifest their wildest dreams. Her work isn't just about teaching, it's about transformation. Diana's passion is making manifestation accessible, relatable, and life-changing for women ready to step into their power. 

Welcome to Pleasure and Profits, Diana. Thank you for being here.

 

Diana (01:16.141)

Thank you so much for having me.

 

Rachel Anzalone (01:18.174)

I'm very excited to talk to you about manifestation and specifically this like grounded approach that you have. Because I think often we talk about manifestation, it feels very like etheric, a little sometimes woo woo out there to people. And even though we know now there's like physics to back this stuff up, right? Sometimes it can be hard for people to really grasp it in terms and like in a practical sense.

So we're definitely gonna dig into that for sure. But I would love to start with just like, will you just tell us how you stumbled onto this path? Like how did you first become aware of manifestation and start learning and how did you end up where you are now?

 

Diana (02:05.324)

Yeah, it was, think, 15ish years ago and I was still studying in university. And one afternoon, my brother, he comes home really excited. He brings my mom and dad, gets us to sit on the sofa and he's like, there's this movie, you've got to watch it. And so my mom, dad, me, we're sitting there and the movie that he played was The Secret. And this was, I think, back in 2007.

 

Rachel Anzalone (02:29.26)

Mmm.

 

Diana (02:33.771)

And you have to, you know, I was a 20 year old something and at that time to watch this movie where they are telling me that I can have anything I want in life. You know, I loved it and I was like, my God, is this, you know, is this really possible? Because so far till I was 20, all I had seen in my life was adults who were working jobs they hated. Who struggled all day and I just figured that has to be my life because that's what everyone else is doing, right? 

And then to watch this movie where they're telling me that it doesn't matter where you are, it doesn't matter what your history is, you have the capability to manifest anything you want. So I really wanted it to be true, but I'm also a very, I'm a very realistic person.

 

Rachel Anzalone (03:19.66)

Hahaha

 

Diana (03:23.509)

So I said, I'm going to test this out. You know. I'm going to see if it actually works. And if it does, then great. If not, no big deal. It's just something I'm trying for myself. And so I was still in school. So my biggest goal at that time was to get the highest marks in class. And it's something that I had been trying to do since I was in kindergarten. And I could never do that. For some reason, I would always get good grades, but never the highest.

And if you know anything about Indian parents, you know that getting good grades is such a big deal for us, right? That's literally your life goal when you're a kid. So I said, let me set that as my goal. And so that entire year, I applied everything that they shared just in that movie. I didn't have any other resources. So I did all of that. And by the end of the year, the exact same call, like I remember visualizing this call that I called my dad from the university. And I tell him, you know, Papa, you know I came first in class, you know, and that joy and it happened. Like the end of the year, I got the report and that was, you know, it. 

And so because this was such a big goal, something that I had never achieved, I knew it was something I manifested. And that year, the most interesting thing is I didn't study extra. I didn't stay up all night. I didn't wake up early. It was literally the easiest year and I enjoyed myself and I managed to achieve that. So that was my first introduction to it. So I didn't really need to believe in woo woo or to me it was not, it was none of that. It was just, I'm trying this out, it's working and so I'm just gonna use it, right? 

And so I still didn't take it that seriously, but on and off in my life, I kept using it for different things. And the biggest, I think the benefit I got from understanding that is, it gave me the courage to dream really big. You know, like if there were things that I would wishfully think about, I no longer did that. I was like, yeah, I think I can make that happen, you know? So yeah, that's how I started to manifest on my own like 15 years ago. Yeah.

 

Rachel Anzalone (05:35.018)

So I love, first of all, this idea that you, that it allowed you to dream bigger. I think that I had a similar experience probably around the same time. I think it was like 2008. First, it was The Secret and then it was like the Abraham Hicks recordings.

And similarly, all I had ever seen people do was do the jobs they had to do to pay the bills, to raise their family. I didn't grow up in a place where people were chasing their passions or doing anything super creative. And there were a few people like that around, but they felt very other to me. And it was sort of the messaging I got growing up was like, that's for those people, not for us. 

 

Diana (06:12.123)

Yeah, exactly.

 

Diana (06:24.194)

Yes, I have that too.

 

Rachel Anzalone (06:26.858)

And so hearing, like watching the movie, Secret and hearing the Abraham Hicks, the CDs I used to listen to over and over, it was like a foreign language I was learning and it felt very exciting. And again, like you, just, I was like, I want this to be true. I want for this to be true.

 

Diana (06:48.643)

Yeah, yeah.

 

Rachel Anzalone (06:51.898)

And I started to play with it with like, with the little things too. Like they would talk about, you know, a parking spot or, you know, whatever the little things are. But ultimately what it led to was like, I don't have to have seen it done before in order to know that I can do it myself or have it or experience it myself. And so that idea of this like opening your mind to be able to dream bigger, I think is really exciting and to shift from like wishing or that kind of like hopeful feeling to expectation and to like real possibility. 

So what do you feel like that shifted for you and the trajectory of these 15 years?

 

Diana (07:37.06)

I think it shifted me from being this victim, from being in a state of mind where I needed somebody to come and save me, or I needed some miracle to happen and somebody to come and make my life better or decide that I'm worthy or I'm good enough and then I'll get this great opportunity. And suddenly realizing that, wait a minute, I have that power and I can you know, just create my life the way I want to. 

And I have to say, just having that first thing 15 years ago was not enough for me to immediately believe in manifestation and keep doing it. I still had so many, and I probably still do, had so many limiting beliefs around, you know, maybe that's just a fluke, maybe it was just one thing, right? And there were so many things that I had to work through and navigate and release all of that to get to truly 100 % believing that this works and you know that's just how it is for me.

 

Rachel Anzalone (08:42.27)

Yeah, you mentioned worthiness. How do you feel like that plays into manifestation and how have you seen that show up for your clients?

 

Diana (08:54.594)

It's such a big deal. If you don't believe you're worthy, all of those other manifestation practices, they're a waste of time. You can do everything, but deep down, if you don't believe you deserve it, it's just not going to happen. A good example I can think of is when I'm coaching somebody who's trying to manifest a partner, they're soulmate basically. The first thing I always like to ask them is, do you love yourself? Do you believe that you're worthy of it? 

And most of the time, the answer is no, right? And so we just crap all the manifestation practices and I'm like, every morning, go in front of the mirror and just look into your eyes and say to yourself, I love you. And that's really hard for people to do. I've been there. I think it took me a whole year of doing that, looking into the mirror and saying that to myself. 

And I remember the first time I tried to do that I couldn't even look directly in my eyes. I would look away as I just said that to myself because there were so many parts about myself that I did not like. And I had to train myself to look at those parts and say, I love you. I love that. And it's OK. And I accept it. And loving yourself is, again, believing that you're worthy of being loved and receiving whatever it is that you're trying to manifest. So I think believing that you're worthy is a huge, huge part of being able to manifest that thing.

 

Rachel Anzalone (10:27.634)

Yeah, that element of belief of not just like desiring something, but also believing that it's possible that it's possible for you and that you're worthy of it. Yeah.

 

Diana (10:40.701)

Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

 

Rachel Anzalone (10:44.034)

And so you mentioned that you're a very realistic person and that especially when you started this, I wonder if this has changed over the years that it didn't start out as sort of like spiritual or this kind of like woo-woo vibe. Is that still the case and has or has it evolved and how do you approach it from your perspective that might be different from how other people are talking about it?

 

Diana (11:12.191)

For me, think I didn't start off believing that this is a spiritual journey, but over the years I have seen that it actually is, you know, and I feel like manifestation or getting those things is just a side effect. The actual thing you're doing is you're deepening your relationship with the universe, and I feel like that's really our life's purpose.

And it's not just connecting with something else, but connecting with the divine within you and recognizing that, you know, you're not just this small entity living by yourself. You are one with the divine. And so, and I'll give you an example of, I think the time in my life when it felt like, you know, this was the most important thing. Around 10 years ago, I went into depression and this is actually as soon as I manifested my biggest goal.

And that was, you know, to move to Canada. It was a huge deal for me at the time. I didn't have the finances to do that. You know, it was just something that was like big-huge-crazy-impossible kind of a goal. And somehow I did manifest it. But the moment I landed in Canada from that moment for the next three years, I just went deeper and deeper in depression. For the first year and a half, I didn't even know that I was in depression. But once I realized that, I already knew what manifestation was. I knew the concepts. And so I started to apply these concepts to help myself out of it. Because at the time I didn't have a job, I didn't have healthcare, I wasn't in a position to be able to go get help and do whatever. And so it was like, I have to figure this out by myself. And what I know is the concepts of manifestation. I know that my thoughts are attractive, you know, and so I need to change that.

And so the first thing at that time that I needed to do was to lean into faith and to, you know, build, go back and rebuild that, that faith that I had in, you know, I call it God, but universe, same thing, right? You call it whatever. And to build that faith and to trust in the invisible, you know, even though I had no proof, there's no person in front of me coming and telling me that I'm going to take care of you. I had to build that faith. I had to trust that I'm being watched over and that good things are coming and it will get better. 

And that is that small thing that was the fire that was lit that actually got me out of it. If I didn't have that first thing, I don't think I would ever be out of depression because it's very easy to go deeper and deeper into self-pity and to look at your circumstances and to feel sorry for yourself and to just keep diving deeper. So for me, that was the time I obviously realized that on hindsight, but that relationship with the divine, that strong faith, the spiritual part of it was the core of it. Getting the things and achieving those things, those are really a side effect.

 

Rachel Anzalone (14:18.946)

That's an incredible story and I'm really curious if you on reflection kids can see why those things happened in the sequence that they did. Like immediately I'm thinking of like Gay Hendrix and an Upper Limit, The Upper Limit Problem and that often when we you know, something really incredible happens, something we've wanted so badly, something that we worked really hard for, or, you know, something that has so much emotional charge around it. When it happens, there's some part of us that can't accept it, can't let ourselves feel that good. And we respond to it, either through like self-sabotage or just an emotional response. I know I've had that myself under some circumstances. So I'm curious if that, if you feel like that was part of the process of what happened.

 

Diana (15:14.329)

Yeah, yeah, it's interesting that you mentioned The Upper Limit. I'm just reading it right now. I'm just half way through the book. So yeah, absolutely. I didn't really apply that to that period, but it does make 100% sense because I just wouldn't let myself feel happy, even if it was everything around me was the things that I visualized and the things that I, you know, dreamt about, it meant nothing to me all of a sudden. Right. And I couldn't make sense of that. But yeah, absolutely. That does make sense.

 

Rachel Anzalone (15:44.252)

Yeah, I definitely have had that experience. One in particular, I can think of a couple years ago where I just made like a lot of changes in my life pretty quickly and everything was half like it was happening. Like I went away to a manifestation or to a meditation retreat. And while I was there, I got contacted by like a new client. I was like, you know, it was just like life was just happening and it was happening fast and I felt really good. And then I had like one little uncomfortable exchange with somebody and it just knocked me down for weeks. And looking back on it, like when I was in it, I was just, I was like mad at them and they made me feel this way and all that stuff. And looking back on it, I was like, oh my ability to feel the joy and the celebration of what I was feeling was very precarious. And all it took was like one little flick from somebody and I fell apart. And learning that I needed to build that muscle to be able to be in that space, to be in the gratitude of that space and to not have it be so precarious that any little thing, was like I was looking for an excuse to go back to where I was, right?

 

Diana (17:07.297)

Yeah, that does make sense. I've been practicing that it's an exercise in that book, right, to just extend your capacity to feel good. Yeah, I've been doing that recently. It's really powerful, I have to say. Yeah. Yeah.

 

Rachel Anzalone (17:21.138)

Yeah, that's fantastic. It's a great book. I'm glad you're reading it. That too comes, think, in layers, like layers of learning it and then hitting a next layer and needing to, you know, revisit and remember. Yeah.

 

Diana (17:33.846)

Yeah, yeah. And also if you look back at my period of depression, I feel like it's one of the best things that happened to me. Even though I wouldn't want to go through it again, it was horrible. But it is what got me to look at so many limiting beliefs I had, so many stories I had, and I had to really work through all of that. And if I look at the type of person I was 10 years ago and who I am today, it's night and day. It's a whole other person, right?

So yeah, it's everything that happens, I think it's for you and it's working out in a good way.

 

Rachel Anzalone (18:11.209)

Yeah, I think often we have to have like an unraveling or an undoing in order to get to the next place. Yeah. And it's kind of paradoxical, but there's this level of, I feel like we have to, when things are bad, when things are really bad, then we'll do the work that we need to do. And if things are like pretty good, there really isn't that incentive or that motivation.

 

Diana (18:33.556)

Yes.

 

Rachel Anzalone (18:39.442)

And so it's kind of like the universe lines up, some things need to come apart here in order to get you to do the work, to go to the next place instead of staying at, like what's probably not bad, you know, like pretty good, but maybe it's just a tiny fraction of what's possible for you in the world.

 

Diana (18:57.682)

Yeah, absolutely. I don't think I would have dived so deep into, you know, spirituality and personal development the way I have if I didn't hit depression, you know, because life is good. Why would you do that? You know, just enjoy life and yeah, it makes a big difference.

 

Rachel Anzalone (19:13.234)

Yeah. And so how do you teach manifestation in a way that is practical and approachable for people who are, you know, either in a dark place, in a hard place and trying to get out of it or in a place where it's pretty good, but they know that there's something else for them. Do you approach them the same way? And do you and how do you approach it so that it's practical and they can incorporate into their lives on a daily basis.

 

Diana (19:46.257)

Yeah, and I think that's a big part of, you when I'm coaching around manifestation, I like to look at their lifestyle. And people tend to think that manifestation is something you do for a period of time, and then you go about your day, and you do, you know, your day, and then you come back the next day. And that's not how it is. Manifestation is a lifestyle. It's the way you think, right? So some simple things that I like to tell my clients is even when you're driving to work, instead of thinking about your day and planning all the things that you have to do. And normally it's just the brain ruminating over the same things over and over again. It's not really helpful. 

So instead of that, how about you think about all of the things you're grateful for? Or how about you think about your affirmations or something good that happened, right? That kind of helps. And it's one little manifestation practice. You've applied it and it's done. 

 

Rachel Anzalone (20:24.948)

Yes. Yeah.

 

Diana (20:45.586)

Another thing is while you're taking your shower, you know, that's such a good time to think about your dream or just to like go into that intuitive receiving, you know, space where you just, you know, get downloads or inspirational ideas from the universe. That's also another time people are just, you know, thinking, thinking, thinking, and you know, it can be used in many different ways.

And the most fun thing that I like to have people do is if you're working in an office, you go to the washroom at least for three or four times a day. But when you get up to walk to the washroom, if you can just imagine that whatever it is you're trying to manifest, it's done. And get up as though you're that person and walk as though you're that person. Feel that you're the person who's already manifested whatever it is you're trying to manifest. And just enjoy that walk and the five minutes. And that's five minutes of you doing that, almost like a visualization, but you're feeling into it.

 

Rachel Anzalone (21:42.12)

Yeah, you're so like embodying it in those moments where you might normally be inclined for your mind to be thinking about what emails to do or your grocery list or whatever, but just take those couple minutes to actually embody that sensation. Yeah.

 

Diana (21:52.418)

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So there's lots of like little, you know, spaces where you can fit in. And these are just spaces that we waste, you know, thinking about things that we probably shouldn't. And yeah, I like I like sharing those things. And my clients find them easy because they don't need extra time and extra effort. Right. 

 

Rachel Anzalone (22:15.388)

Yeah, that's what I'm thinking here. And you say that so often, it's like, well, I need to plan an hour to work on my whatever my manifestation goals or, you know, you start to stack up all these things that we want to be doing for ourselves and it can become really time consuming. So figuring out ways to just like slip it into like two little spots while you're washing the dishes or walking the dog or whatever it is, I think is really brilliant.

 

Diana (22:42.317)

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And that being said, you do need some dedicated time, because even if you're setting your intention, you need time for self discovery. You need time maybe to journal or to understand why you want whatever it is you want or all of those things. But that doesn't mean that the rest of the day there's nothing that you can do, right? 

 

Rachel Anzalone (23:07.55)

Yeah, yeah, so it's both. Yeah.

Okay, so you, we talked about this a little bit, but you talk about manifestation as a spiritual path rather than just a means to getting what you want. So do you feel like when people come to you, it's often because there's a thing that they want or like an experience they want to be having and how do you go about sort of shifting their perspective to understand that it's not just about like getting the new house or the new car or the love or what, you know, the partner, whatever it is.

 

Diana (23:46.957)

Yeah, it's very often that's when people would come to manifestation is when they want something and there's nothing wrong with that, right? Like having desires is great. But what I like to do is first, instead of immediately starting off on all of these manifestation practices, I like to take like five steps back with them and talk about where did this intent goal come from.

Is this your ego identity who wants to just prove to your friends or your family that you're good enough? Or if you feel like you're not going to be worthy unless you make that much money? Or is it something that's coming from a higher purpose? And this is where I help people to connect with that deeper part of themselves and really to reflect on where that's coming from. And then of course, you go after your goal and that's great. 

I think…in the Vedas, I'm by no means an expert on the Vedas, but I do like to study here and there. And they talk about how when we are born into, you know, we reincarnate, right? And so when you're born in this lifetime, you come in with a set of, they call it vasanas or desires that you have, your being has, and you want that to be fulfilled in this lifetime.

And so dismissing that and saying it's not spiritual of me, you know to want that is not good because you'll come back with the same desire again, right? So if you have yeah, so if you have the desire, know, go ahead and you know, enjoy it. But also remember that you're not alone. You're co-creating it right?  Manifestation is not just you. It's a co-creation process and that's where the spiritual aspect just has to be part of it. It just doesn't work otherwise.

 

Rachel Anzalone (25:15.248)

We'll keep doing it again and again and again.

 

Rachel Anzalone (25:34.89)

Yeah, I mean, I think it's really exciting to think about it in terms of rather than I have this thing I want to accomplish or attract or create. And so I'm going to do the work to manifest it. It's so much more exciting to think about, like, or I could just be co-creating with my higher power 27/4.

And it doesn't have to be like, I'm just, it's because I need something now or I want something now that it's just every day, every minute that you're in dialogue and energetic exchange and you're part of the process that what is, you know, what joy or what expansion could that bring that's so different from, you know, doing it for a day or a week or a month to get a particular thing, right?

 

Diana (26:28.221)

Yeah, yeah. And I have to say that level of to be able to truly surrender and to be able to recognize that you're co-creating requires a lot of letting go, a lot of surrender, which most people are not ready to do. And I get it. I understand why, because we do have a lot of ancestral trauma. We've got a lot of all of those things that is unconsciously keeping us stuck in survival, you know. And so it takes a lot of trust. That's why that spiritual connection, that deepening of that connection with the universe is required to be able to trust and surrender and being okay with never manifesting what you think you want. And people hate it when I tell them and that's one of the...

Rachel Anzalone (27:17.705)

I bet they do. I bet they do.

 

Diana (27:24.11)

Yeah, yeah, when someone tells me I want to manifest that, I think, yeah, we will work on it, but I want you to really sit with, “what if it never happens?” And I want you to be okay with that, right? Because there's that desperation and that's when we hold on so tightly and it literally just pushes it away, but we don't realize that. Yeah, that's another aspect of why it's spiritual, right? It's just so important.

 

Rachel Anzalone (27:50.12)

Yeah, and it's a fine line, I think. So what you're describing is like that sort of force, trying to force an outcome that probably is ego driven, right? If we're so attached to the outcome or we're attached to it looking a particular way or being a specific thing, like there's definitely some ego wrapped up in that and shifting to a perspective of just being in alignment and letting things flow and trusting that the right things will come and the right things will happen and maybe we just don't even know what's possible for us. Yeah.

 

Diana (28:22.095)

Yeah, yeah. And even if it doesn't happen, it doesn't mean anything about you. It doesn't mean that you're a failure. It doesn't mean that you failed at life. That's the general impression. And I think that's why this is dry that, oh my God, if I've set the goal, I have to make it happen. It doesn't make you any less. Right. Yeah.

 

Rachel Anzalone (28:39.049)

Yeah.

Yeah. Okay, so that is a brilliant segue into talking about entrepreneurship and hustle and drive and goal setting and sort of the culture that, you know, is I think evolving. And I think there are a lot of people doing the kind of work that we do that's helping people to sort of shift to a different way of operating. But I also think we're in the very baby stages of that, right? We're at the very beginning of that curve. 

And so, so many entrepreneurs struggle with this idea of that they need to set a goal and go after that goal and do everything they can to meet it. And some of that's for external validation. And some of it's just habitual. It's just the way that we've been trained is how you do business. And so how do you challenge that mindset and get people who are very goal focused or results oriented to start to just think about it in a different way and to open up to a different experience around it.

 

Diana (29:50.319)

Yeah, so I'll answer that with a nuance as well. So I feel like there's two sides to this. First is, yes, there are people who, and I think that's majority of our generation, our ancestors had to work very hard for survival and for basic things. And so we were all taught that you've got to work hard. That's only when you can survive, right? It's been literally ingrained into us since we were kids.

And so now if that's how we know how to be, that's how we think we can get things in life. And then, so yes, there is a balance I think that we need to achieve where you don't want to go almost overdrive where you're working hard. But then there's also the other aspect where there are people who love the idea of not working hard and might say, if I'm gonna manifest something, I'm just gonna sit back and the universe is gonna do everything. 

And I find that a lot in the manifestation world, unfortunately. Yes, because it sounds very easy, right? It sounds like you sit back and you just do things in your mind and things happen. But yeah, yeah, and that's not how things work. And I think there is a place for hard work.

 

Rachel Anzalone (30:51.693)

Yeah. 

Really?

 

Rachel Anzalone (31:02.526)

Like you meditate and then you just receive. Yeah. Yeah.

 

Diana (31:09.889)

You know, if you look at all great things that have happened in life, people have worked hard for it. But that doesn't mean that, you know, it's, you don't do it every time. But it's, I like to call it smart work, right? So you, yeah, so it's where it's inspired. You know in what direction you're going towards and you're working hard in that direction. 

A lot of people in our generation are stuck in jobs that they hate. They don't know what they're doing and they're just hustling and grinding and just doing things because they feel like it needs to be done. And there's not a minute to take a step back and actually think, am I actually going in the right direction? But I think if you are, if you know that you're going in the right direction, the direction of your purpose, and there are moments where you need to work hard, go for it. And if that's an inspired thought and you feel like I need to stay up all night and do this, I say go for it.

And I think it's important, it's an important part of manifesting as well.

 

Rachel Anzalone (32:07.112)

Yeah. So there is so much nuance to this. One aspect being, like I think about in the entrepreneurial space, how many people are on their purpose, on the right life's path. And then the way they're going about executing it is contradictory to that, right? Because they're heart-centered, purpose-driven, they want to make the world a better place, they want to help people make their lives better and they're hustling and grinding and burning themselves out trying to make that happen. And it's sort of counterproductive. And it just brings to mind sort of learning what enough is. It's not about not working hard. It's not about just sitting on the pillow all day, but it's about figuring out what does enough feel like to you and when are you gonna push a little harder and when are you gonna ease off a little bit, but it's really about being mindful of that energy and not just blindly hustling and grinding, nor just sitting on the pillow and waiting for a million dollars to fall in your lap. Yeah.

 

Diana (33:17.386)

Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. This actually brings to mind when you talk about enoughness, Jim Carrey, he recently had, I think he said something like that, that I'm retiring because I feel like I'm enough and I don't need any more validation. And he said it in such a beautiful way. I absolutely love that. And he said, you won't find any other actors saying that, but yeah, I feel like I'm worthy and I'm good enough and I don't need to do anymore.

 

Rachel Anzalone (33:45.65)

Yeah, there's an energy that changes when the work you're doing is as an act of service and a gift versus a search for validation. Whether that validation is like verbal or socially or financially, there's an energy difference there, I think.

 

Diana (33:59.549)

Yes, yeah, absolutely.

 

Diana (34:09.371)

Yeah, yeah, and that validation is something that you'll probably never get if you're looking for it externally and it's just like a never-ending search. And the other thing that comes to mind when you talk about, you know, hustle is I find that in our, in the corporate world generally, the way we talk about business, it's very disconnected from who we are as creatures of the earth.

It's very, I have to go up, up, up, up, up, every year has to be better than the next and I just keep going further. But if you look at Earth, that's not how Earth functions. We have summer, we have a fall, we have winter, you have spring, right? There's cycles. And sometimes maybe it's okay that you don't make as much money as you did last year, or you have a little rest year and then you go back and you go back even better.

And I think that's, it's just something that most entrepreneurs struggle to adjust and they feel like I just have to keep going and it's not sustainable. That's when you end up with stress and just being completely done and you just can't keep going.

 

Rachel Anzalone (35:21.672)

Yeah, if you don't build those cycles in, then they will take over. They will put you in your place. Yeah.

 

Diana (35:24.221)

Yeah, it's not in our nature. Every day you gotta sleep. You can't work 24 hours, you have to sleep. Take a lesson from Earth and we are creatures of the Earth.

 

Rachel Anzalone (35:40.01)

Yeah, yeah, I heard and it was very comforting at the time because of so much of the turmoil that we are experiencing globally in these recent years. Eckhart Tolle in an interview, it might have been in like, I'm gonna say it was between 2016 and 2020. He said, no matter how things appear in this moment, the world, our experience is actually expanding and that there has to be these like little contractions and then expansion, little contraction, expansion. And if we apply that to our own selves and our own lives, that there just has to be this sort of like breathing out, breathing in, right? That it can't just be expanding, expanding, expanding, there has to sort of always be a little bit of a contraction before the next expansion.

 

Diana (36:41.776)

Yeah, yeah, I think it's unrealistic to expect that you'll always be expanding. It's just not in our nature. Yeah.

 

Rachel Anzalone (36:49.032)

Yeah. And yet that like so much of our culture, that's what the message is. Like, you know, you have to get better and better and better and companies need to make more and more money. And, you know, if you're an athlete, you need to get faster and faster and faster, you know, that, and we've seen so many great examples of people who've sort of stood up to that and said, I'm not playing that game. And, you know, we're talking now it's August, the summer Olympics just finished and Simone Biles is such a great example of that where she said, I'm not playing this game and she stepped back and she took care of herself and then came back as the oldest gymnast ever to compete and win golds and outperform her own records from four years ago. Like she could not have done that if she had just pushed and pushed and pushed. Capacity increases.

 

Diana (37:45.155)

Yeah, that makes total sense.

 

Rachel Anzalone (38:10.266)

In your own journey now that you have your own business and you're coaching clients and you know you're sort of building all the things that go along with building a coaching practice and I'm curious if you've had any experiences yourself in that process of needing to even learn more, refine more around your own manifestation and in order to not get caught up in sort of what everybody else is doing in the coaching industry or, you know, in the online business world, how do you, how do you create your own boundaries around that for yourself?

 

Diana (38:48.056)

I think I always like to go back to what works for me. And I'm constantly learning. I don't think there's ever a time in my life where I don't have like 10 books on the go or different courses going on. And it's not necessarily around manifesting, but it might just be about spirituality or learning about myself. So that's always happening. But when I learn something, I always like to first apply it to myself.

And if it works for me, then that's what I would talk about. If it does not work for me, I just let it go. But for me, think personally with my business as I started to coach, there are many limiting beliefs that come up. And I don't think they would ever have come up had I not had a business. 

One good example is when I'm sitting in front of a client, and this was like the first few calls that I used to have. And to be able to tell them that I charge this much amount of money. It was the hardest thing for me to do. And I couldn't wrap my head around why, you know, and I had to go get coaching and, you know, do some journaling of my own and all of that to figure it out. And I realized that I didn't believe that I deserved it. I didn't believe I was worthy enough for somebody to give me money, you know, and so to even ask for it felt...you know, so wrong. It felt like I'm taking advantage of them. So there was a lot of such little things that, you know, I have, you know, had to work through. And I think I still am working through many things like that. But just getting into business, I feel like it's the best way to, for personal growth, because so many things will show up and you'll have to work through it.

 

Rachel Anzalone (40:33.086)

Yeah, because especially when you're in business for yourself and you are the product, right? That everything about your own worth and every insecurity that you have, it all comes to the surface to be worked through in a really different way than when you're showing up and doing a job for somebody else.

 

Diana (40:38.259)

Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

 

Diana (40:47.441)

Yeah, it does.

 

Diana (40:55.07)

Yes.

 

Rachel Anzalone (40:55.688)

Where I don't, mean, maybe the environment there stinks, maybe the management's not good. You know, there's sort of all these variables and you can just show up and do the best you can. But when you're the management and you're the environment and you're the product, you're the one who has control over all of those things, right? Yeah.

 

Diana (41:11.145)

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, yeah. And the other thing is, I find that in the manifestation world, the teachers who are teaching about it, while they are fantastic and they've got some really good wisdom, not many people look like me or have the kind of ancestral background like I've had. And so many, many people, when they talk about manifesting, they talk about, you know, manifesting that dream vacation or, you know, this luxury. And I really struggled with that because I didn't want that for some reason, not that I don't want to experience it. It's just that where I am in my life, I don't, I think my struggle was I need to get a house. I need to get a car, right? I had to start there, right? And I had to really look at, you know, what was it that was causing me to not be able to, you know, manifest this dream vacation and be so stuck in survival. And this is where I have to go and look back at, you know, just, you know, my ancestral history.

And I come from, you know, India, a country where there has been so much, you know, for centuries, I think there was colonialism and, you know, my grandparents and great grandparents and even much further, they've been repeatedly told that you are not worthy, you're worth nothing right? You're not good enough and all of that and there was class and all of that and and if I think that none of that affects me because I grew up in a free world that's not true. You know it's very much ingrained in me and it's very much what I've been taught and so I really had to go back there right?

So this is where I had to kind of cut out you know the noise from the outside and look at where am I and what do I need and it might not look like what I'm seeing on Instagram or I'm seeing other people do and that's fine right and I need to take it at my own pace.

 

Rachel Anzalone (43:18.546)

I think that's such an important message for anyone who's coaching in any capacity. I think that, again, I think this is an area that's improving in the industry, but I think for so many years there was just, and there certainly are still people approaching things this way, sort of a lack of awareness about where other people are coming from that maybe doesn't match where they came from.

 

Diana (43:45.127)

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

 

Rachel Anzalone (43:47.754)

And yeah, this sort of like you can manifest, you know, the $5 million house and it's like, well, I would just like to be able to pay my rent this month. Could we start there? You know, or, you know, coaches sort of this in this culture of like, you know, you just need to change your mindset or you just, those things when there are people who are processing deep trauma, people have these like deeply ingrained, you know, cultural experiences, inherited messages, linear, like really deep stuff that's not just about shifting a mindset, that there is so much more to it. And so I think the perspective you bring is really, really important. And I think that as more and more people engage with this kind of material, it's gonna become more and more important because it's democratizing this, right?

 

Diana (44:42.629)

Yeah. Yeah. And I don't think there's anything wrong in someone who's had privilege to talk about, you know, what they're trying to manifest because they're doing what they know best. But as a consumer, if I'm in a place where I need more help, I just need to have that awareness to recognize, hey, you know, mine might not be the same and I don't need to feel bad or less than because, you know, I can't match that. It's just that self-awareness that's more important.

 

Rachel Anzalone (45:08.936)

Yeah, it's self-awareness as a coach and also as a consumer. Like what you're putting out in the world and how you're interacting with people, but then, and also what you're investing in for yourself, right? Yeah.

 

Diana (45:17.143)

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And I'm sure there are many people who want to, you know, look at that, you know, vacation and all of that, because it helped me to like, I look at that and I think maybe someday in the future, I might get there. So I love that. I like to see people do that because, you know, it's possible. Yeah.

 

Rachel Anzalone (45:35.016)

Yeah, yes, amazing. So as we wrap up here, what is one piece of advice that you would give to listeners who are maybe skeptical but interested in sort of dipping their toes into the world of manifestation?

 

Diana (45:50.446)

I would say just try it out you know, like set one small goal for yourself, do all the things and just test it out for yourself. You don't need to believe in what somebody else tells you because I think till you experience it, it'll mean nothing to you. And if by chance you've tried it out and it doesn't work, before you dismiss it, maybe just do a little bit of self-reflection and ask yourself, have you missed something? Because that happens very often, right?

Either you have this resistance or you're too tightly holding on to your goal or there's something that we block. So look at that before you completely dismiss it and say, this doesn't work for me. But I think it has to be a personal trial and error experience for sure.

 

Rachel Anzalone (46:37.032)

Yeah, and I imagine they can find all sorts of helpful information from you on your podcast, The Conscious Mustard.

 

Diana (46:44.158)

Yes, yes, I think my Instagram is the best place right now because that's where I'm pretty active. And yeah, the podcast is also a great place.

 

Rachel Anzalone (46:53.106)

Awesome.

I'll put it in the show notes. I'll also put your website link in there and people will come find you, I'm sure. Thank you so much for being here. This was a great conversation. I really enjoyed it. I appreciate your time. Thank you. And thank you all for listening. Until next time, I'm wishing you even more pleasure and profits. Take care.

 

Diana (47:19.564)

Yeah, thank you for having me. Thanks so much.