When Your Heart Feels Heavy: A Sufi Path to Deep Healing with Salima Adelstein

Introduction to the Guest and the Show 0:00

Hey friends, I'm your host Dr. Elizabeth Samana, the intuitive psychiatrist, and you're listening to Stepping Into Soul Power. Friends, we are in an interesting, somewhat chaotic, transformative time right now. And during this time, now more than ever, We are having to look within ourselves and start to really heal some deep wounds. Our next guest is a master at helping people to heal on multiple different levels. Not only that, but reconnect with a part of the divine that many of us honestly have unfortunately forgotten.

She is a Sufi spiritual guide, master healer, co-president of the University of Sufism, and she's the only female spiritual Guide in the U.S. having helped over 40,000 people heal. Salima Adelstein, welcome to the show. Oh, thank you so much. It's so great to be here and to share a little bit with your audience.

Finding a Spiritual Path and Early Healing Work 1:32

Yeah, so you're one of very few spiritual female leaders. Like a lot of times we see a lotta men. We see there are men that are in there. But so I would love if you could tell us how you went about your path to become a spiritual leader. that is really helping people to heal? I think for me, it starts with role models. And as female leaders, we don't have that many role-models to look to. So for, me I started with Mother Teresa. I love the work that she was doing. What does it take to really be able to be that humble To be that nourishing and nurturing to someone and to be in service.

And that became sort of the touchstone for what I call my walking in this life. What really made a difference in my life in the choices that I made of things that become important to me. I was never, when I sort of growing up, I wasn't ever too much interested in the things that sort most kids or teenagers were interested. And it really was drawn to more philosophical and deeper meanings of life. You know, why are we here? What's my purpose? Who am I? And what is truth all about? Those were the questions that haunted me.

Wow, look at you. and you know you don't find that in a regular traditional school environment and I had always thought well maybe I'll be a doctor because I was always fascinated by healing and i found very early in life that For me, the medical world was not the kind of healing that I was really interested in. First of all, I couldn't stand the sight of blood, so that right away made a difference. But secondly, i was more interested In people's spiritual growth. What made them not only unique as individuals, but connected So there was a certain hunger in my soul, if you will, for knowledge about unity, knowledge, about oneness, and knowledge of God.

And that's what ultimately led me to the Sufi path. I was doing a lot of energetic healing before that. Working in hospice programs, working with children who were dying, Working with people with serious chronic illnesses. And it was all based on sort of an energetic model. When I got introduced to Sufism, SuFism brought this spirituality in. It had you look at who is the real healer here. Is it me as a healer or is it the divine working through me? And how do I empty myself so that glorious Healing energy comes through my being to help heal somebody else.

Sufism, the Heart, and Divine Healing 4:46

So we say in Sufism that the transformation of our human soul into our divine soul helps us become the hands by which God heals, the eyes by what God sees, The ears by God hears, and the voice by Which God speaks through us. Wow, wow. And so if you were introduced to Sufism somehow, how did that manifest itself? I met a Sufi guide and master who happened to have been visiting the United States. I was on a meditation path before that, so I wasn't really interested in Suism. i was pretty happy with my meditation And you really have to be open-minded and openhearted to explore different things.

So I decided I would go and see what it was like. And when I met him, the first thing on an energetic thing that I noticed was if you'd say his aura or his energy field was the most brilliant white that i had ever seen. And you know, and I was captivated by it, so much so that sort of his odor appearance, I may have been turned away a little bit by, because it was so foreign from my upbringing. But there was something about the presence of love in his heart, a real unconditional divine love, in this beautiful white purity that in all my spiritual travels, and in all my work in energetic healing I had never seen before.

So I was curious and I wanted to learn more about it and wanted it to be initiated in it so I could really dive deep to see what it was. And you may know and your audience may now about sort of the third eye and how the Third Eye works. What Sufism and what he taught me was to not be so much up here, but really to focus here and to focused on the heart. And inside the hear, there's actually an eye. And to learn to see through the eye of your heart rather than your third eye. And when you see it through, the, eye, of the heart, everything changes because you begin to, see, through.

The spiritual nature of an individual, you, begin, to. See everything through , the eyes of love through . The eyes. Of holiness. and through the eyes of the divine. And that changes your whole perspective on how you heal and how do you work with people. Remember I was doing a workshop with medical doctors and I asked them When you look at your patients, what is the first thing that you see? And most of them responded, I see an illness, a symptom. Oh my gosh. Wow. Right? That's their training, right?

It's a little bit heartbreaking. That that's the 1st thing. that came to mind. Yeah. So I asked them, well, what would happen if you saw your patients as divine souls? What would happened if You saw them as holy beings? what Would happen If a cancer patient was in front of you and you Saw them healthy and whole? And one of them who, you know, I really invite conversation in my workshops and one is I've said, Oh, could never do that. I said why not? If you don't see them as healthy, how are you going to take them on the road to health?

And that's what Sufi spiritual healing is all about, is holding somebody in their highest and most divine nature, starting with what is their relationship

Practical Heart-Centered Healing Practices 9:19

with God or the divine or universe, whatever they believe in, and then looking at what are the soul struggles that they're experiencing in this life that is helping them become who they are. Those are two such important, I wish we could add them to the diagnostic process that's going on. And that is why we started the university so that we can begin to train healers and train doctors and training nurses and psychologists and psychiatrists and people who were sick to learn how to heal themselves.

Yes, yes. That's a very unique university in that respect. I know I can, I see, yeah I want to go back a little bit because you said something about inside the heart there is an eye and I wanted to ask you what are the practical steps that people can do to start moving in the direction of using their heart space Yeah. Coming from Cambridge, Massachusetts, I can tell you that this isn't an easy process for people that have very strong minds and very intellects. Because the very first thing that you need to do is bow your mind to your heart.

Yeah, and understand that your has a wisdom that's far beyond what your minds knows. And that first step is a hard step. And if you look at the body, when the is in a prostration, meaning when your head is on the ground, you'll see that that's a natural position where your is lower than your heart. So that often a position that I say to people, move into a frustration so you can just begin to feel what it's like where you're heart is in a position where it's over the head's knowledge. And then the second is, in the breath.

It's like, how do we begin to open the heart? Most people's hearts, you know, we live in world where a lot of people, their hearts have been hurt, and there's been a lots of wounding that has happened in their heart. So a of lot people are very reluctant to take that dive into the heart, because they have to deal with and experience the wounds and the hurts that are in the hearts. And that's the first step of the healing, is recognizing what are those, and some of those wounds go way back, go back into wound, when we first come into this world, right?

You know, and then start from there with parents, you know. Meaning well, but life is hard. Right. And our teachers, we always, I've yet to do a workshop where I ask people and I asked your audience, have you ever made a mistake? And everybody says, yeah, I've never met anybody that hasn't made a mistake in their life, but we treat mistakes. in a very different way that hurts our soul. Right? Because we say when we make a mistake, there must be something wrong. I did something. Instead of seeing the mistake as an opportunity to what we would say in Sufism, clean and purify the heart and beautify to receive God's mercy and love in those places that are hurt.

I'm thinking of it like a psychiatrist, you're reframing what that word means. There are a lot of connotations that that mistake has. I like that, an opportunity to clean. Purify and beautify, because the heart is like mirror. And do you ever as a kid go into those fun houses where the mirrors are distorted and you see a wacky reflection of yourself? I'm short, so I particularly like one of those mirrors that made you tall. Most of the time, they're distorted images of who we are. Well, a heart symbolically is like a mirror.

And through these mistakes or through this experience, hard experiences, hurtful experiences that we have, the heart, you could say,

Connection, Balance, and Inner Peace 14:22

gets tarnished or gets wounded. Then we see and perceive ourselves and the world through those wounds. And we don't really get to know the beauty of who we are. We don' really know what we in Sufism say, the secrets and the treasures that God placed inside your heart that make you uniquely you and also connect you to everybody else as one family. That's so beautiful. That is so beautiful. And you are right. You're saying this and I'm just kind of translating it to the world in psychiatry. We talk about like a heart wall and we can do work in this space.

and you were so right that we do see ourselves through those wounds. Yeah. When you look at your life, because you had a transformation and you've learned this, what helped you on your journey as you moved from focusing on the energy healing third eye to having an eye in the heart? I think two things. One, I was always on a quest for truth. when I wanted to experience truth, not just learn about it. So I wanted to have an experience that would say to me, so somebody could talk to you and say, oh, this is truth.

But when you experience it, you either get goosebumps, or you have some knowing that says, yes, I can trust this. I know this to be true. And that was what I was looking for. How do I that this was true? How can I have, I know there's a God, how can have a direct experience of God's light and God love that I am so certain about, no matter what anybody says to me, that is true? And that was the journey that I was on to have those kinds of experiences. And I literally traveled the world studying with all kinds masters.

I had one Sufi master, but before that many gurus, many spiritual healers, Wanting those experiences. I found that when I did the Sufi practices that your audience will have a chance to experience in the offering called the five C's of inner truth that they'll have an opportunity to sign up for it's all free to Experience because once you experience something then nobody can change your mind about it, right? So, I've had this experience and I know this is truth. Wow, you said something, the five C's of inner truth, what are the Cs?

The five c's, there are many, but the one that we start with, with our Sufi teaching is looking at what is our connection? What is the connection to the Most High? How do we begin to have a deeper connection? Whether you believe in God or you belief in love or believe the universe, whatever that is for you, how do you begin align and connect? with that. So that's the sort of first C that we talk about. And in that connection, there's a communication that you begin to have. Right? A communication, that leads you towards truth.

Oftentimes, I didn't know about you, but oftentimes I worked with special ed kids and oftentimes in their education, they were told, you're not good enough, your stupid, and you don't anything. And those become sort of the voices that begin to direct their lives. So the communication is then, how do you listen to a voice of the divine within you that's going to clear those outside voices that somebody else said to you, that created some pain and hurt within your heart? How do you begin to break down, as a psychologist, those ego structures, right, that begin say, I need or I desire, or set us in directions one way or the other, they don't allow us to...

How can I say this? They don't allow us to really understand what our relationship is to the divine. I can do it all myself. Nice. It's part of the ego, right? I've got this, I can do it all myself. I don't need anybody. Yes. That voice can be very destructive to us in our soul journey and our spiritual journey because we need that connection. Part of what we're dealing with now in is so much loneliness because people don't feel that connection. They don' t feel the connection with each other and they don t have that connexion with the divine.

It's so powerful. Connection is a basic need. Yes. And this connection leads us to the truth of who we are and what we're doing here and the impact we want to make in this life.

Divine Love and Healing Through Life Experience 20:38

Wow, wow. We live in a very destructive and distracted world. Are there practical things we can do to nurture that connection? Yeah, there's spiritual practices. I mean, Sufism has a whole bunch of them, but there are spiritual practice that you can do anywhere. But one of the reasons why I love the Sufi practices, because unlike meditation where I've got to find a quiet place and close my eyes, which for busy people, you don't always have the time to do that. Some of the Sufi practices, one in particular, is called remembrance, and you're just being reminded of this divine light inside you, this Divine Love inside through the repetition of a sacred name.

And you can do that while you are stuck in traffic. It creates like an inner peace in your being. And again, it helps connect you and it help align you. And more importantly, what we're missing a lot in today's world is balance. What I find is people are really totally out of balance They're either focused on work and work takes over their life, or they're focused something else, but there's not a good balance and an understanding that our whole world is in balance. And the more that we're in harmony with this balance, the More we'll feel the harmony of the world.

And I honestly think that's part of The crisis that We're In right now is a call for this Balance. Call for balance. You are right that we are out of balance, we gotta get our priorities straight. We gotta take care of ourselves. I've seen so many caregivers burn themselves out. I've seen so many people who are advocates for good causes burning themselves out because they're not caring for themselves. Yeah. I say to my students, fill your cup and give the overflow to the people you're serving. But it's hard to do.

It is hard. Yes. As you said, you have to make it a priority. You have say, this is important. Otherwise, what happens in my experience is people get unhealthy. People then get disease, right? It's true. Well, diseases are like a balance. Right. And it's dis-ease. We want to return to the ease. I really believe that we have the potential within our lifetime for world peace, but it starts when we find peace within. Oh, yes. Right. We have to find our own inner peace. we have deal with our inner conflicts.

And then we'll see, there's a beautiful expression in Sufism. It's what happens on the inside is a reflection of what you experience on outside. So if that is true, then the more that we can establish peace within us, the most we'll begin to see peace in the world. Absolutely. I am in full, full agreement with that. And I say that as a psychiatrist, I do see like when people, when they do the inner work, it's a ripple effect. People feel it. The world knows. Yeah. And I'm sure you've seen this with parents.

When parents do their work, their kids change. They're changed. I think that I've said to somebody, my son can tell. If anything's off with me, he can't tell, and when I am good, I was working with parents once who were not getting along and their kids were acting out all the time. And they were coming and they're saying, help my kids. They said, no, I first want to work with the two of you. As soon as they cleared the issues that they we're dealing with as parents, their kid stopped fighting. And they said, oh my God, this is a miracle.

And I said no, right? It's not a Miracle. That's what happens when we do our inner work. It is reflected on the outside. Yes. Oh, so, So, important. He said something, divine love. Can you speak to that? When you say that, what do you mean? What we all know are human love, and oftentimes human has conditions to it, right? You do this and I'll love you, all right. Divine love isn't unconditional love that no matter what, love is always there. I don't know about you, but in working in hospice, when people are making that transition, they'll often say to me as that world sort of opens up, as the veils lift, Salima, all there is is love.

It's what you've been saying. The universe is just love. That's the divine love that I'm talking about. We have the opportunity to experience that love now, not when we die. And that's why the Sufis have this strange expression, die before you die, so that we can live in that divine, unconditional love, now. It doesn't mean that don't have boundaries, and we don' say no to what's not right. but it means that we're holding and understanding that there's love behind everything. Holding and Understanding that There's Love Behind Everything.

What does it look like? Can you paint a picture or give an example? Sure. I was working with a bunch of Vietnam vets a while ago. And as you know, in our country when the Vietnam War happened, the Vietnamese vets were not treated in a way that would honor their service to this country. So there's a lot of healing and a little hardship that went along with that, as well as what they've experienced in Vietnam. And as we were working in and doing the healing work, one of the things that I asked them is, as you look back on that experience now,

Where to Find Salima Adelstein 28:38

what was the mercy in it? Was there love in that? And it took a while. Then we did some Sufi practices to help open. And as they opened, they said, oh my, I would not be where I am today without that experience. I will not have taken myself into college. In this case, this man was a psychologist and be a psychologists trying to health other vets if I didn't go through that experienced myself. Oh, I didn't realize even before the war I had all this anger in my heart and more brought up all of this.

Anger that I now am dealing with and finding what that anger, the root cause of that. It wasn't what happened in the. That happened to me at a much younger age. Wow. Oh. Beautiful. I know that our listeners are going to want to connect with you. Can you let us know, where can we find you? The first is at Sufi.net. That's how you all can receive the five Cs of Inner Truth. And also at www.sufiuniversity.org. Wow. Thank you. It has been a pleasure for you to be here on the show, Salima Edelstein. I am just in awe of your presence and I feel the love.

Yes. Just imagine a world where every one of us is reflecting and transmitting that love to each other. You know, I love what you said that you can see that we will achieve that peace on a global level. And I'm with you. Yes. Well, thank you so much. Please, your audience, we'll enjoy the five Cs and just learn more about yourself and stay in balance. Very good. Thank you and many blessings to you. Likewise, thank you If you haven't heard it yet today, I appreciate you the soul in me honors the song in you if you'd like to see more episodes like this, please subscribe or click here and friends if this spoke to Leave a comment below.

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