what if the exhaustion you can't shake isn't about working too hard, it's about carrying patterns that were never yours to begin with? Today's guest has spent over 35, maybe more, years helping people trace that weight back to its source using a healing tradition most of us were never taught. Stay tuned. You'll wanna hear this conversation. Welcome to Break Free from the Burnout. I'm your host, Dr. Anastasia Chopelas, physicist turned energy healer, and I'm here to help you make the quantum shifts to release the hidden blocks to your success. Your next breakthrough starts now. Today's guest is Salima Adelstein, a Sufi spiritual guide, master healer, and co-president of the University of Sufism. Boy, she's busy. In addition, she's worked with over 40,000 people, that's really busy, and teaches seminars around the world. Today she's here to talk with us about what she calls the sacred art of wholeness. So Salima, welcome to the show. It's been a total pleasure just speaking with you just now. thank you for being here. Oh, thank you so much for inviting me, and I look forward to sharing something that may be of value to your audience today. Oh, wonderful. So let's start with the basics for people who've never heard of the word Sufi outside of poetry. So what is Sufism? What is Sufi healing? And what does this tradition teach about wholeness? Great question. Thank you. Sufism is all about understanding the heart rather than the mind, and the heart's wisdom. We have naturally wonderful minds. I grew up in Cambridge, Mass, and our intellect is important. But there's a wisdom deep within our heart that Sufism opens the door to so that you can know in essence who you really are in truth, rather than some of the false illusions and false selves and ways that we may put on a mask to keep people from knowing or seeing the beauty within us. So Sufism is a path, a spiritual path that leads to the awareness of knowing yourself. And we say that when you know yourself, you know your Lord. And whether your Lord is your divine, your higher self, God, whatever word you may wanna use for something larger than yourself is the path of Sufism. Sufi healing takes the root cause of any specific disease or pattern and takes a look at what's really going on in the depth of your being so that it can be washed completely. if you take a, a weed out of the ground and you don't get to the roots of it, we all know, we all have gardens, it grows back very quickly. and in Sufi spiritual healing, we're looking at connecting with the most high so that ourselves… I know your show's a lot about burnout. Oftentimes we use our own energy and our own energy field As a way of helping and supporting others. And for those of us that are empaths, that puts a heavy burden on ourselves, and oftentimes we get exhausted at the end of the day. I was an energy healer for many years before I discovered Sufi healing. And the difference in Sufi healing is you become an empty vessel so that the divine is moving through you, and then your hands are not these hands, but your hands are divine hands, and you're returning them to its source. So you're not holding on to anything that later- Mm-hmm … is gonna burn you out, or make you too tired, or feel like, "I've gotta hold this pain of somebody else." or giving away your own energy, 'cause a lot of healers will run the energy through them, and it pulls their own energy out, and it makes them very tired. Exactly. how I explain it to the students that we teach in healing is imagine that you have a cup inside your heart, and you wanna always make sure that that cup is full with the divine love. Mm. And you're giving the overflow in healing, so that your cup always stays full, and that prevents that sense of exhaustion or tiredness or taking on something that doesn't belong to you, because you're letting it dive into the ocean of love. I happen to have been very psychic before I got involved in Sufi spiritual healing, and using my third eye a lot to understand what was happening and seeing what was going on in the energetic field. And what I discovered in Sufi spiritual healing is that there's an eye within our heart. We call it the eye of the heart. And Wow when the eye of your heart opens through the Sufi practices that we teach at the university, then the third eye doesn't have to work so hard, and the eye of the heart allows you to see beyond what's happening on the surface level, to see what's behind a particular illness, what's behind a particular pattern that somebody might have, that helps look at, what are some of the images or some of the illusions and some of the false beliefs that somebody might be holding? And helping them come back to the truth, which then washes the heart. So we say in Sufism, the heart is like a mirror, and when that mirror is clouded over or distorted, the image and the perception of not only how you see yourself but how you see the world becomes distorted or- Or you misperceive it, and you become frightened of something that's not frightening at all, right? I was just with my little niece, and there was, a little, a twig on the ground, and she got really scared'cause she thought it was, a worm or a snake that was gonna hurt her. we make those false illusions that will affect our being, and being able to return to the truth of what something is and return to the truth of your own being helps resolve the issues that you're working with so that then your being becomes purified and beautified in that process. So- Yeah … Sufis, Sufi spiritual healing is all about the purification and the beautification of our nature. Yeah, and so what most people aren't aware of is that the heart is not just an organ, it's also a gland, and on the surface of the heart, there are all these there are two different kinds of chemicals that are sent through the body, and that helps them relax into what you're talking about and helping them- It's- heal. Yeah Exactly. And we also have a spiritual heart that's beyond- Yes … the organ of our heart, and that- Yes … spiritual heart is much bigger and occupies a larger sense of our being than just- Yes … the cavity that our physical heart is in. Yeah, and it's also part of our energy field, our layers of the aura. It's also- Exactly … in there. Yes. So a lot of my listeners are high-achieving, thoughtful people. they've read the books. They journal. They meditate. What tends to surprise them the most when they first encounter Sufi healing? I think two things. One, the mysteries and treasures that exist within the heart. The heart is like, has jewels within it, and everybody thinks that, oh, if I read something in a book, then I've got it, then I know it. What happens in Sufism is people experience it, and it becomes a direct experience. So, y- you can have all these beautiful meditation experiences. You can have all these beautiful, knowledge about life and awareness and auras, but when you experience it, it changes you. And that's what I notice most about the transformation, is people have that direct experience. So it's no longer me lecturing them about it. It's, "I know because I've experienced it." Yeah, that makes- I know,… a huge difference. Yeah. And people ask me all the time, like, what's, what am I gonna feel? And I said, "Well, everybody's different." Mm. Everybody is going to receive something different because it depends on what they need. And some people feel, don't feel my energy coming into them, the energy I send to them, and some people, they tingle all over, and both of them get the healing. So yeah. Yeah. So you've worked with over 40,000 people. That's just, like, mind-boggling. What have you seen happen for someone who feels stuck, burned out, sick, or like nothing in their life is moving? Can you tell us about a student or a client who's had a real shift? Yeah, it just happened just a couple of days ago in, in an, a first-year class that we had where somebody was just feeling totally exhausted, burnt out, hopeless almost about life. And as we were teaching just a, a very simple Sufi technique, we call it remembrance, and it's remembering a sacred name for the divine. In Sufism, we use the, vibration. So we use the vibration of ah and la, which means Allah or the one. And as they were repeating the sacred name over and over, there was this warm sense of peace and relaxation entering their body. And all of a sudden, the worries fade away. They were, filled with what we would call divine light. Mm. And they felt their whole body as a light being. And then the next thing that they wanted to do was, "How can I be in service with this light in all the darkness and everything else that's going on in the world?" So it became not only a place where they could find peace and rest and divine love- Mm-hmm … but also a way of not burning themselves out. I I've worked with a lot of activists who use their own energy field in their w- way of justice. But to learn, how do I work with a field- That doesn't burn myself out because it's endless, because it's unchanging. Yeah. And that's the… That's what I've noticed over and over and over again with the clients and the students that I work with. They become, in awe, if you will, at what they experience and what they've witnessed. Yeah, that's really beautiful because a lot of people do get burned out. I've spoken with many people who have healing skills, and they said, "I can't do it. I just get too wiped out after one session." to help. Yeah. What generally happens if you look at the field itself, what generally happens in someone who's feeling like they're burning out is their empathic field is actually like Swiss cheese. Yes. Holes. Mm-hmm. And it has holes all over it. One of the beauties that I've noticed in the work that we do training Sufi healers is it takes those holes of Swiss cheese, and it fills them with light so that there are no more holes. It's almost like a protective shield that they have as healers. So, I, I sometimes describe it as like a, a rubber, invisible rubber suit that you're wearing, so whatever energy's coming to you just sloughs off rather than coming into you. Yeah, even have them put a filter on to prevent the low-vibe energy from entering, so it reflects the low vibe and allows all of the, the love, the gratitude, the peace- Mm-hmm … all of that in and reflects off the rest. And when you have an intact field, that's what happens, right? Right. Yeah. So part of our work is helping people move and transform from that Swiss cheese field to a, a solid field that's full of the light of God or the light of love. Yeah. So here's a question my audience always asks. Is this something a person can only access if they've had years of spiritual training, or can anyone use it? And what would you actually have someone try at home? The beauty of Sufi spiritual healing is it's for everyone, no matter what your religious inclinations are, no matter what your beliefs are, no matter what your faith or lack of faith is. What it requires is an opportunity to know more about who you are and to improve your own character so that you can become a better person, and that's why it's universal in that respect. Given what's going on in the world right now and all the division, all the negativity, we need this more than ever to keep ourselves in a state of peace so that we can generate or transmit, as you were talking, peace out into the world so that we can stay seeing the best in people rather than the worst in people. Yeah. And- Yeah. Considering our political climate right now, we're both in the US, and also considering that we've come out of a pandemic, during that time it was a real challenge because, being an empath, the amount of invasion of other people's thoughts and feelings and fears were really hard to repel. Mm-hmm. And so a lot of us need that, what you're talking about exactly. if you look at it as connection, that we're connecting to something greater than ourselves- Mm-hmm … and then returning that to something greater than ourselves so that we're never holding it as belonging to us. It's like- Awesome that- Love that… it's like that dive in an ocean. you can throw a, a coin or a pebble into an ocean, and the ocean just absorbs it and it doesn't matter to the ocean. That's what it's like when you are in that deep connection, and you are in what we would call alignment with the most high. And in that alignment, it's a flow back and forth that keeps you in alignment with the most high, which is a beautiful state of being that allows you to deal with whatever may come your way. Because truth of the matter is, no matter how evolved you are, we're still gonna get hit with the ups and downs of life. It's the nature- Yeah … of life here on Earth. So the more that we learn to remember the essence of who we are through these very simple Sufi practices- Of remembering. Then those ups and downs just become like surfing or riding a wave. That, or for me, like I used to scuba dive, like taking that dive deep into the ocean where everything becomes one, and you're no longer at the mercy, if you will, of those waves of the ocean. Yeah, and even when one does get hit with something that affects us, it's the recovery time is very rapid because of all the tools you have to offer. That's right. That's right. Yeah. And recognizing that, we have an expression in Sufism, and it's one of my favorite expressions. What was meant to hit you could not have missed you. What do we mean by that? If You're affected by something, whether it's something that you've picked up when you're healing, whether it's something that you've experienced in the world, whether it's something that happened between your child or your husband, there's a deep meaning- Yes… and a deep message for you in that, Yes, right. And if we can look at it, if we can look at it and begin to, what we call see through God's eyes, see through the divine, and see and ask, "What's being made here in my being? How am I being asked to transform through this experience?" Then we come out of blame or shame, and we come into self-responsibility in a way that helps us grow into enlightenment and beyond. Yeah, I really love that because it's so true. People go, "Why did I have to go through that?" And it's like, well, you… W- what did you learn coming out the other side? What… Are you stronger? Yeah. Are you more able? Like, for me, I was, I was so sensitive that the least little thing would hurt me deeply until- Mm-hmm I learned how to stand in my own power and be able to say, "Yes, I'm okay the way I am, and all that I went through taught me the strength that I actually have inside." And then you feel invincible. Yeah. And then you know that you're not alone. Yes, exactly. Yeah. so many of my listeners have tried therapy, medication, yoga, functional medicine, energy work, all of it, and they still don't feel well or fulfilled. In your experience, what usually is still missing at that point? Usually that someone hasn't gotten to the root cause and are either caught in a pattern, an illusion, or an image of something that may have happened to them in their past, and they haven't figured out how to claim it back. Mm-hmm. And then with awareness, learn how to love it. Yeah. I like that a lot. It's like a way to process it. So you like for me it's like I imagine it 'cause I'm a scientist. I go, "Oh, it's something I haven't processed yet. It hasn't been incorporated into my programming." Mm-hmm. Yeah. And s- and some of that programming, we say in Sufism that there's three main voices that we listen to in that programming. The voice of ourself, the voice of our ego, the voice of what we would call divine within us. The voice of God within our heart, and the voice of outside voices that we may have heard from our parents or our teachers or, somebody who was mean or angry at us for some reason that we've internalized and then believed- Mm-hmm that reality. Mm-hmm. And one of the first … This … And this is a simple thing your audience can do at home that's extremely helpful, and it's one of the first things that we teach at the university, is how do you discern between those voices? How do you know what's the voice of myself, my personality, my ego, right? Oh. It ge- Can't wait to hear this. Yeah. It generally starts with an I statement, right? It'll give you … It generally starts with an I statement. I dot, dot, dot, dot, dot, dot, whatever. How can you tell that it's a voice coming in from outside? It generally has a you, a should. it's can be, what's the right word I'm oh, it can aggravate or accentuate those I statements and make them stronger. I don't think I'm worth anything. You're no good. Right? Mm-hmm. So it will exemplify and, accentuate that I statement. Yeah, I heard, "You'll never be happy. You'll never be happy-" You'll never-"… be- you'll- because you're so selfish." But I was the opposite- Right … of selfish. But my mom tried to control me, so she would say, "You'll never be happy. You'll never form a good relationship." And all of those exist within, within our heart, right? Yes. Yeah. They all exist within our heart, and they create what we would call in Sufism a stain within our heart. Yeah. part of the work that we do in Sufism is washing away that stain through the light of the divine, through the qualities of kindness and mercy and love and wisdom it's like a hole, right? After you take it out, there's a hole there. Most people don't take the time to fill that hole with love or light. Mm-hmm. And then they wonder, "Why does it come back? Why am I dealing with this again?" Well, if you look- Yes.… you temporarily put it on the side, but the empty space with light and love. Yeah. For me, I would say- So that there's-… what did I not learn that I keep getting the same lesson coming back over and over? Yeah. Because we will be tested. We will be tested in life. It's part of how we grow, right? It's how quickly do we pass- I would say- … those tests and recognize- Yeah … oh, that's just a test. I'm being tested to see how loving I can be in this situation. Yeah. I'm being tested- Yeah. How bad do I want something, I'll ask myself, too. Yeah. Yeah. Right? And when we hear the voice of divine within us- We're filled with beauty. Mm-hmm. We're filled with light. We're filled with love. We feel whole. Yes. Right? We no longer feel there's something wrong with me. We know that we're loved, we're perfect just as we are. Yeah. So some of my audience is spiritually curious but generally skeptical of woo. For someone reading this description and feeling both interested and wary, how would you describe the real felt benefits in the body, the emotions, the relationships, and what does this actually change for someone in plain terms? Yeah. I, I, I can tell you that my mom was the greatest skeptic when I started learning all this Sufi healing stuff. She was okay with the energy stuff even though it was probably more woo-woo than the Sufi spiritual healing. But for whatever reason, maybe because of my grandmother, she was okay with it. But when I started getting into this Sufi spiritual healing, she was actually frightened for whatever reason. I still to this day don't understand, but she was, and she was really concerned about my soul and my spirit, and, and just watched, my evolution and what was happening to me over the years. And finally she said to me one day as we were having, a dinner together, she said, "I still don't understand totally what you're doing, but I have to tell you something. I've never seen you happier in your life." Mm-hmm. And that's what I've noticed in my clients, in my students. There's a joy and a happiness that comes from this kind of work that I hadn't seen in any other work. When I was in, the meditation field, I'd have the most glorious experiences. They were all out of body experiences. Right? And then I'd have to come back and be in my body and deal with all the sensations of my body. And some of them, to be honest with you, were difficult or painful. Yeah. Right? Yeah, To be able to be in your body- Yeah… and know how to be with those states in your body, to help you recover from burnout or from being tired or whatever it might be in life, right? Something you watched on TV that upset you, whatever it happened to be is, yeah, a lot of us will push- But I- Will push it down into us. Whatever pain we're feeling, we'll push it down so we don't feel it, and then th- that's what you just described, reminded me of. And then when it came back up, the amount of crying and pain that I felt was tremendous. But after it was done, then it was like I was a whole different person. So- Right. We can learn a lot from little children. sometimes- Yes Sufis say, "Be like a little child." What do they mean- Mm-hmm … when they say that? Well, if you watch a child, I, I was just with my two-year-old niece. I mean, she can have a temper tantrum, and then literally, five seconds later she's up and she's playing and she's happy. It's over, right? Yeah, they don't hold grudges. She cried, got the tears out. They don't stuff it, right? Yeah. And- God gave us this beautiful range of emotions- Mm-hmm… that we don't have to be afraid of. We can just let them out, express them, and then they're finished. We don't need to obsess- Yeah, They have a purpose. Like, if you get angry- Yes … somebody is crossing your boundaries that you set, right? Exactly. If you're, if you're feeling, if you're feeling guilty about something, like, what is that about? Where did it come from? Why? It's a you statement. Yeah. Yes. Yeah, exactly. And, and one of the things that, that I've noticed over the years is when we don't deal with those emotions, they s- get stuck in our organs. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And then that creates serious disease. Yes. And I, I've watched that in so many cancer patients that I've treated and worked with. that they're dealing with emotions that they've kept covered over and hidden, and then it turns into a cancer within their body. And I, I'm not saying that's the cause of cancer. Please don't misunderstand me. But it helps- No, it's a combination, Yes. Right… one of those factors is being able to Right? Yeah. Absolutely. And in that feeling, what am I perceiving? And what am I telling myself about it? And then what belief do I have with it? And is that the truth of who I am? So Sufism talks a lot about capital T Truth, and how do we return to that truth? Beautiful. So if someone takes only one idea from our conversation today into the rest of their week, what would you want it to be? I have an expression that I love to give people, and that's when God or the divine created you- Beauty was created. Mm-hmm. Can you look in the mirror and keep repeating that statement until you know that it's true? Oh, I love that It will change your life. It will change your life. That just hit me in the heart. That was just beautiful. Mm-hmm. Thank you. Yeah. So where can people find you, follow your work, or learn more about the University of Sufism? To learn more about the University of Sufism, we h- offer a lot of introductory courses, is very simply sufiu.org. S-U- Okay … F-I-U.org. And we also have a free program. It's a series of videos with different Sufi practices on it. It's called the Four Cs, C, capital C, of Interconnection, and you could also find that on, 4cs.net. And that's just a free program that we offer, that will give you not only some lectures that I do, but two of my colleagues, Dr. Daffy and Camel- Dr. Shenmen. And we'll just describe these Cs of Sufism, give you some beginning practices to try out, and then if you wanna explore more, you can… we'll give you the next steps along the way. And that will be, we can put it in the, bottom of this- Yeah, I'll put it … pod- podcast Yeah, I'll put everything in the show notes so people will be able to go to www.breakfreefromtheburnout.com, and your episode will be right there, and the show notes will have all the links for you. So thank you so much, Salima. This has been totally delightful. I love so many of the messages that you gave out, especially the last one about- Right? Yeah. It just, like, hit me in the heart. so if this interview inspired you, be sure to subscribe to my channel and leave a five-star thumbs up rating so others who are ready to break free from their burnout can find the show. When you're ready to bring more harmony and alignment to your relationships, check out my free five-step relationship healing protocol at scientifichealer.com/relationship. And thank you for listening to Break Free from the Burnout. Resources and show notes are available at www.breakfreefromtheburnout.com. Until next time, I'm Dr. Anastasia Chopelas, sending you golden healing light and success vibes becoming aligned, confident, and prosperous. Your gifts are so needed in this world