Summary: Today my guest is Gabrielle Bernstein, the New York Times best-selling author of May Cause Miracles. <br> <br> Gabrielle Bernstein appears regularly as an expert on NBC’s Today Show, has been featured on Oprah’s Super Soul Sunday as a next-generation thought leader, and was named “a new role model” by the New York Times. She is also the author of the books Add More ~ing to Your Life, Spirit Junkie and the new book Miracles Now (published in April 2014). Gabby is also the founder HerFuture.com, a social networking site for women to inspire, empower and connect – AND, she is a featured presenter at the 2014 Emerging Women Live Conference in New York City.<br> <br> In today’s episode, Gabrielle and I spoke about: <br> <br> What she means by: “Everything happens for a reason”<br> Shining light on the darkness of fear with our sense of responsibility and purpose<br> Working with affirmations and always showing up with presence<br> Making forgiveness a practice<br> Surrendering and letting the universe take over<br> <br> <br> <br> Tune in and listen to “Leading with Purpose and Presence” with the powerful and fierce: Gabrielle Bernstein.<br> Subscribe to the Emerging Women podcast on iTunes.<br> <br> <br> Transcript:<br> <br> Hi, and welcome, Gabby!<br> <br> Gabrielle Bernstein: Well, I’m happy to be here! It’s so wonderful.<br> <br> CP: I’m so excited that we’re talking and that you’re part of the Emerging Women lineup this year.<br> <br> GB: I cannot wait for that.<br> <br> CP: It’s going to be great. You know, it’s funny, when I was looking at your stuff, I came across a video of yours. And I was like, “Who is this person?” I was just sort of getting to know you, virtually—stalking you—and I pulled up a video, and I don’t know if I shared this with you or not, but you were speaking into the video and you were kind of leaning in and you were talking about, “Everything happens for a reason.” And you were almost like—you were fierce. And I’m like, “Wow, this woman’s fierce,” and you were like, “A book falls off your library shelf, and it means something!” And I was like, “This girl has got to be part of Emerging Women.”<br> <br> GB: [Laughs]<br> <br> CP: But can you really explain that? Does that really mean something, if a book falls off your library shelf? What do you mean by that?<br> <br> GB: We’re always being guided. We’re always receiving a tremendous amount of guidance. And the moment that we can say words like, “There has to be a better way,” or, “I’m not happy, I need help,” we sign an invisible contract with the universe, with God, with Spirit, whatever you believe in, and we say, “Show me what you’ve got. Show me a better way.”<br> <br> And those moments when we sign that sacred contract and accept that invitation, we open an invisible door to receive all of this guidance. And a tremendous amount of guidance comes through in very unique ways. One of the ways is [that] the book falls off the shelf! Or we see numbers in sequence, or we hear exactly what we needed to hear from a friend who is just divinely placed to tell us that story we needed to receive. And so all of that guidance is coming to us and is always available to us. We just have to open up our awareness to receive it.<br> <br> CP: And every single thing is meant to be in this way. Everything that happens is communication from the universe?<br> <br> GB: Yes, we’re always in communication with the universe, at all times. I genuinely believe that if we’re in a low vibration with negative thoughts, negative actions, and poor eating behaviors and addictive patterns, then we’re just having the low-level conversation with the universe, and we’re attracted towards us what’s funky out there.<br> <br> Whereas, it’s quite the same the opposite [way]: when we’re in a higher-level state,
