Episode Transcript
Hello, my name is Aziz and I'm the son of a divorced mother. She is really my superhero. That's why it's important for me to support women to share their uniqueness, their personalities, perspectives, and emotions about life. Too many women in this world feel alone. They worry about the judgment of others and they struggle with their mental health but when they listen to the Rare Girls podcast who are empowered women share their voices and tell their stories. Many women will feel inspired to live a life of freedom and to overcome all insecurities. They will feel it is a safe space to find their confidence, to remember their unique beauty and to feel their self worth and they will connect with the sisterhood of rare girls who encourage their success and support their dreams. That's what this podcast is all about. My guest today is Nassima Abou-Ferrid. Nassima is a French Moroccan woman, master in finance and worked 13 years in a major oil company, then changed her field into personal development, coaching, mentoring, meditation and healing. Nasima moved to Dubai in 2022 and opened her company at the beginning of the year. She is a curious person. She lives all things related to the mind, consciousness, metaphysics, and ancestral tradition learning from different tribes. And she loves food too. Nasima, how are you today? I'm doing fantastic. Thank you. Thank you, Thank you, Aziz, for asking and thank you for inviting me to your podcast. I'm happy, honored, lucky to have you here looking forward to know more about you. So I'll begin with this nice first question, which is, "Nasimha, if your friends and the people who know you best could describe your personality, what would they say about you?" So if my friends would describe my personality, they would likely say that they will highlight actually my radiance that I'm very solar and joyful. They will highlight my generosity and my determination. So yeah, they would really speak about like how I'm in a quest of self-improvement and my never ever give up attitude. - I love that. Please tell me a bit more about that because I have a similar attitude, but then I noticed and discovered most people don't have that. There are some people or many people who are not interested in self-development but maybe in distraction or in other things. For me, if I don't grow a little bit or learn something new every day, I feel like dying, like it's death literally. But it's because life is short and so full of potential. And I'm like so excited and curious about finding out, discovering this journey, what it will reveal, but to you, what motivates you in order to be into self-development? Did you have it all your life or did it develop over time, this attitude? Tell me a bit more. - So thank you very much for sharing. I really developed it. You know, like most of people say sometimes where challenges come into your life, this is your awakening. And I would say that my parents was really the ingredients for my awakening. And I was born in a very, very traditional family, Moroccan. So imagine my parents moved from Morocco in the seventies and they move with the same mindset of Morocco in the seventies, which means they never evolve. They stayed in the same mindset. And it was really, really like a conditioning family into tradition. And I have four brothers older than me. And so that was the seed for me to really like being empowered because in my traditional family, men's were more important. Women stayed at home. And your voice is not important. We will always praise men and women aside. And that was my quest actually since my childhood. Like I was like, no, even if I was the fifth child and I was a woman, I was like, no, like, we are equal and like, I will prove you that we are equal and maybe woman, we can be even better. So that was really my, my, my, my quest since my childhood. And I lost my two parents, my mother in 2015 and my father in 2020. And I think since my mother was actually starting to be sick, I started my journey into personal development, into healing. And I was looking for more because I realized that all my life, I was living through the lens of my parents and through the lens of the conditioning. I was living to please my parents because in my culture, you realize that you're kind of born to please your parents and to do whatever they want and like to be a good person. That's like how my parents raised me. And my biggest awakening it was like because I did everything like I was very successful in my career. I was married in that time like I was ticking all the boxes for being a good Muslim and a good daughter for her parents and like having a good life for them. but you know the moment my mother got sick, I realized how she sacrificed all her life for us, for the kids, for her husband, but she never lived her life actually. And I was like reflecting on my own self. And I realized that I was not living my own life. I was mirroring and I was sacrificing myself for my parents, but I didn't know who I was actually. What do I love? what do I want to do? And this is where my journey started and I was like searching for answers for myself, for my healing. And I start to layer all the belief systems that of course like I was raised with and I was like, we can't like stay in this life without never knowing who we are. And I think all in our life. We are like an onion. Of course, there is always layers and layers we think we understand, but the more we understand, the less we know actually, and the less we understand. And that was my biggest awakening, and that was my journey. And this is how I start to look for mentors. This is how I start to meet amazing, amazing, amazing people. And my life totally changed like 180 degrees, like my environment, my people, my tribe, my learning, my understanding, like everything changed. I love that so much. And I'm curious, how does that relate to your radiant energy? Because growing up, pleasing your parents might have killed the passion in your life. So I don't imagine you were radiant in that time. Or maybe like many women, they worry a lot. They They have a lot of anxiety. What was your journey of discovering your radiance? What does it mean if you could explain it to people that don't know what that will mean? How does it feel? How is it? Tell me more about that. Fortunately, maybe I was born with this and they didn't dim my light for this because I don't know. I was born with a positive mindset and with always laughing. You know, I was always laughing. So what was interesting, it was when I was at school, I will, oh, by the way, like when I was at school, like my, you know, because every time you have comments or how you behave, and because of course at home, I couldn't express my craziness. Every time it was like, this girl is talking too much. She's disturbing the class. She's like, because I found my playground at school. So this is how I could still have my character. But radiance has nothing to do with the conditioning. This is something I could develop more into my journey because of course after I could have my own decision, I could have my own freedom. And so everything I experiment after was amplifying my radiance. And of course, the more you're connected to yourself and to your voice, to your power, the more you're gonna magnet people around you. But it's all start with an understanding that, you know, what was my, one of my understanding also like on self-love and self-empowerment because of course we, we always compare ourselves to others. But the moment you realize that you were born worthy, we are like as a baby, everyone is worthy of everything. We are worthy of love, we are worthy of whatever you want in life. This is how we were born. And everything that top up in our journey is just conditioning and it's just layers. But the moment you connect to yourself and you come back to your true authentic self and you understand who you are, you will realize that somehow we are all radiant and we are all light and we are all like worthy. - Thank you so much for that. I appreciate you for saying that. And at the same time, you are working for some big oil companies, you being more in an executive role is very, very different to you needing to create business in your life, to get clients to create money out of thin air. It's a very, very like more risky, but also more exciting situation. So how was that change of you going from being an executive that can expect some salary and bonuses so you know what to expect. And to you looking out and thinking, wow, there is a whole city, I have to conquer it. I have to create a name for myself, create clients out of thin air. What was your attitude about that? What changed in you about that? How did you approach it? Maybe what lessons did you learn that some women who are working might learn from if they're moving into the direction of starting their coaching business? So for myself, definitely like when I wanted to change my colleagues, like, oh, they were like, you are crazy because people fear, like the first fear is insecurities and it's all about money. And they were like, you have like people in the company. I was there having their career until they retire. Nobody is moving. And, uh, for me, it's like, you are not realizing because you don't even can imagine what is outside of this world. And by nourishing all this fear and by nourishing all this comfort, you will never, never know who you are and you will never unleash your potential. And for myself, I was like, I don't want to live a life for others. I don't want to live a life which is structured by a corporate or is structured by an employee. I want to live a legacy. I want to live a life of purpose. And I want to help people to understand that and know that outside of this, they will say like, "Oh, we are in a golden jail." So outside of this golden jail, there is a world full of amazing possibilities. And you cannot comprehend it right away because your mind wants to keep you safe. So of course, if you believe, if you trust your mind and your insecurities and all the belief you have around you, your environment, your family, whoever is going to say, "Oh, no, no, no, don't go there. You're crazy." Because also you have to understand that people will project their own fears to you. But if you listen to the voice inside of you, if you listen to your soul, you will know deep inside of you that you want something else. that's my recommendation and that's my journey. And after all, I traveled so much. I've been in almost 50 countries. I was traveling the last five years. This is something I cannot do if I'm working in a corporate or if I'm working for a boss. And so for me, this freedom, what you can create that's the biggest self development you can give to yourself because you need to have all casket like you need to be marketing you need to be like everything you know like when they said like oh I left my like my 9 a.m to 5 p.m for 24 hours that's true because you're working more but it's not work anymore we I'm not calling it work because you are fulfilling a purpose and you are enjoying everything you're doing. Also the reward you're receiving from people. For me, that's my big motivation. When I see people change, when I see people being more tuned to themselves, when I see people loving more themselves, for me, there is nothing better than leaving that. Thank you so much for that. I love that answer. And I'm curious, how did you discover that that is your purpose, your legacy or calling to help people in a spiritual, metaphysical way to find their happiness and their joy because mostly you are working in a way where it was all about finance, hard skills, maybe a little bit of soft skills and then you might have tried different things. What was the moment or the story that let you know I want to dedicate 24 hours a day to this in particular, instead of any other thing you could have done in this world. Yes. So first, why did I went to finance? You know, what was my, my motivation to finance? It was just about money. I was like, Oh, what can I do? Like someone in my, um, in the university was in master in finance. I just, uh, finished my, uh, back. And I was like, and she was earning so much. I was like, Oh, this is what I'm going to do. But if I listened to my voice, I liked before psychology. I was into psychology, but when I checked, I was like, "Oh, it's going to be difficult to find a job." And you know, I was in France and you have also this mindset where you're like being an Arabic in a country like France, like being a psychologist is maybe not easy. You will find a lot of Arabs in finance, by the way. And that was my first thought. So, okay, let me be strategic. Let's go in finance and I'm going to earn a lot of money. And this is exactly my strategy was really good because this is what happened. But deep inside of me, I was like, "Oh my God, someone from the HR said, 'You came as a flower and this flower, instead of blossoming, it's going--" No, no, the opposite of blossoming. It's dying, kind of dying. And I was like, "Yes, true because, okay, I love the trading. I love being ambitious. I love the stress market. I loved, there were qualities I really enjoyed, but the missing part was people. And so for me, that was the first, I was like, "No, no, no, I cannot stay there." And when I started to change, I did many, many, many things. And you realize what is your mission, what is your purpose out of your challenge, actually. most of the coach, most of the healer, they start with themselves. We always start with ourselves. And that was my journey. I had to start with myself first by healing myself out of all the pain I had for losing my mother. And then I had to follow myself. And so I realized that, oh my God, there is such a huge potential in everyone. The moment I understand how the university is working, the law of everything, how manifestation works, like for me, it was for someone who was really curious, it became like a marvel of possibilities and learning. And so I did so many things, like I cannot name them because I did so many like, and that's why my friends, they will say, she's so determined because I never set up for less that I can do. So I will always like, whenever I see something that can make me grow, I will go. And yeah, that's my personality. Not everyone is like me. Definitely. I can understand that. And I will not take people where I went because for me, I really wanted to understand the power of the mind. So for example, I've been like, Now it became new age, but back in the days when I did it, it was not so new age, but I had to go for me. I was like, okay, how can I understand everything I understand through neuroscience? Because I'm a trainer certified by Dr. Jody Spencer, where I teach people how to understand their mind and create their realities. And I was like, everything I learned, I was like, it's something to learn, like reading a book, going to an event, it's something to learn. but embodying and experiencing what you learn, it's another story. And this is where I went. I was like, okay, let's go. I'm going to meditate and I'm going to do 10 days meditation in the dark. So at that time, nobody knows about darkroom therapy. Now it's start to become new age. Oh, I want to try dark from, I want to try darkroom, but I think when I did it, less than 1% of the population did it. And I learned so much by myself because when you're in the dark, this is where all the shadow came, all the memory, because you don't have any distraction. And by having no distraction, you are going inside and you understand many things. Your subconscious start to bring you memories of your childhood. Like for me, doing this meditation and understanding the power of my brain, the power of my pineal gland, what I can create, what I can live, really like, I think it's maybe 10 years of therapy for people who's going to go on therapy and stay and just try to understand what happened in their life. But we can do everything by ourselves also. Thank you again. I really, really appreciate everything that you shared. And it makes me much more curious about your metaphysical perspective on life and the world. Do you feel and believe that people are all on the same journey to become radiant, great people? And therefore, you give every person a chance because you are part of growing them and adding them to your life in order to impact them and that's part of your legacy? Or do you believe more in screening, in that there are some people who are on the same vibration and frequency as you, those people should be in your life, those people have the right potential in order to discover their deep radiance and benefit from all the help that you help them and therefore life is not long enough to give your gift to everybody in the world, but you should be more selective. How does it work? Do you go? And then as soon as you meet a person, you think, "Okay, this person is absolutely great. I love how they are. I want to spend more time with them, give them more of my energy because I receive and it's such a beautiful experience." While these people, maybe their energy vampires, know it's not good. Or do you have the donkey shot kind of syndrome? Or like, "No, I know that I can find something within them, I can turn any person over time with enough persistence into a radiant, great human being. This is more about whether you believe every person can quickly transform, or there are some people who are more ready and have the energy and the elements necessary more than other people who might be still behind on their development. I think we are all in a different maybe I wouldn't say level but in our life we all have like people who came into our life for a purpose and maybe I was in my junior at one point and this is what happened I met people who did more than me and like they helped me to learn and to understand more so if I talk about my close circle of people of course they're going to be like-minded because they are my peers. They are the people that uplift me and help me to give my best. But in my day to day life, I cannot say, "Oh, I'm going to stay with my people and oh no, I don't like your energy. Oh, she's so low vibration," or whatever. No, I know that positivity is contagious. So you cannot be with someone, try to be with someone who keep complaining and you're smiling to them and you open your heart and trust me that you're You're gonna inspire them because people doesn't want to be like, this is human nature. You don't want to be putting aside or being always in the complaining mode. So as I am like that, I know there is other people like that and we need radiant people, but we are all different. We are all different. Like maybe I'm gonna bring my radiance, you're gonna bring your jaw, you're gonna bring your you're going to bring your peace. Everyone has his own gift and own signature. And that's really like the melt of all these different signatures that create beauty of life, but we are all unique. I agree with that 100%. And to know even more about you before we keep going, what kind of work do you do with people in Dubai? Like, what are you helping people with when it comes to manifestation and metaphysical things. What can some people, let's say they're listening and they see in the description your Instagram and they go there, what can they expect? What are some of the things that you are being radiant and transforming the world with in Dubai? So just to come back to the previous question, you know we are all in a different level of consciousness. And sometimes when you are ready, you think everyone is ready to hear what you have to say or but you have to respect also and to have the humility to know that everyone has his own journey. So you cannot expect from anyone to understand what you understood. So that was just a parentele that I wanted to add. So what I'm doing now in Dubai, I'm helping people through stress management actually with meditation. And I coach like I'm a very like tune into mindset. So I have a community, for example, which is interesting, it's I have a community of traders. And I'm like, be coming from the field of finance and trading, it's like this community followed me, which they have nothing to do like with the company. And like it's just I met someone. And he said, I want you to be the mindset coach for my community. And so what I offered for them, it's a lot of exercise, it's a a lot of mindset. It's a lot of meditation, breathwork. So this is what I do. And besides that I do healing. So as a ritual master here in Dubai, there is like, I've been trained by mystery school. There is no like such a thing in Dubai. And this is what I offer to my clients. And yesterday, actually, I did through we did the meditation and after the meditation, I told them just lay down. They were like about 40 on the call. And I said, "Just lay down and receive. Be open to receive." And I just sent energy. And I had so many feedback from people, like from what they experienced. I was like, "That's my signature." I know now what is my signature. I'm into mindset, but like my true, true gift is energy. Tell me a bit more about that. What is the meaning of energy from your own perception? Because that's a very complicated topic. How does it manifest within people? How does it make the world work? Just tell me a bit more about this based on your own perspective. So on my own perspective, since many years, I learned many modalities in healing. I've been trained by a Japanese shaman for one year. I've been trained also in Peru. I've been trained in different modalities as Reiki. And every time there were new modalities in healing, I was, "Okay, I'm going to learn. There is something new to learn." And I did also theta healing, many things. And recently, and I was very tuned to the magnetism and to the energy. Recently, I was in Morocco for the wedding of my cuisine. And I started to talk with two of my aunties. And I don't know why really, I don't remember how my grand grandma came to the picture, I asked a question. And my auntie said, "Yes, she was a big healer. She was very known in our city because she was healing people and people like even with Scorpio, with snakes, she was healing everyone." And the moment, and my auntie still carry with her at her wedding, she offered her a scarf. So she cut a piece of this scarf that she put on her wallet. And she said, I was always abandoned. And I never, never left this piece of scar that her grandma, my grand grandma gave her. And you know, the moment she just talked about her, and she said she was a healer, I started to cry. But like, really, like, it came, it was so deep, and I was crying, crying. And I was like, it's like she gave me the answer of all my searching in healing. And it was like just by her talking about my wrong grandma, it was like, okay, I'm connecting to my wrong grandma, and I'm recognizing her soul into my soul. And now I know why I'm a healer. But before I was like, okay, I know I'm a healer, but I don't know why until really, really recently. And no one in my family is tuned to the healing. So nothing is by coincidence, never. And when you're ready, things appear to you. And so what I'm doing now, for example, I connect to the universal energy we have around us, so many energy. And so now I'm not using a protocol as I learned so many protocols. I'm using my own energy and my own protocol because at the end, it's your intention. What is your intention? And somehow it works. So I was like, wow, that's really amazing. And the second thing I'm doing, this is a protocol, but I found it empowered a lot of people around me and it changed my family actually. It's called life activation, which is a DNA activation. Your physical and your spiritual DNA is activated. And so people are more tuned to themselves, they are tuned to their power, it enhance their gift. They feel so much peace after this and it's once you don't have to do it many times you do it once you're connected, you activate your DNA. And, and that's centered a lot of people. Thank you. I appreciate your answers very, very much. And it makes me curious because I was thinking about this right now. There are a lot of women and younger generation girls who grew up looking at Instagram thinking that they look ugly, they don't see their unique beauty because they compare themselves to photoshopped women or women who are made now by artificial intelligence and things like that and they think it's real. I want to ask you from a different space, how can women appear more beautiful using their energy? Everything is from inside out. And when you understand vibration and when you understand energy, okay, like the appearance by the standards that we have, because it's all about perception in standards. What is beauty after all? It's really all about your beliefs and your perception. But the more you're going to value yourself, the more you're going to understand that you are unique, you have your own fingerprint, you have your own beauty, your own unicity, the more you're going to validate yourself and the more you're going to give this love to yourself, the less you're going to see outside. Because the more you judge yourself, the more you're going to divide your energy and you're going to weaken your energy because your mind is going to be, "Oh, she's better. Oh, she's better." So what is people around you seeing? They are not seeing all the makeup and whatever you're going to do. They are seeing your vibration and your vibration is based on your thoughts, emotions, and feelings. And actually, it's so interesting, because sometimes there is women out of not the beauty standard, they look so radiant and so beautiful because they love themselves. So the journey, I think in this life, it's all about self-discovery and self-love. The more you're going to give love to yourself, the more you can share it with others. It's like a chocolate cake. If you love a chocolate cake, you want to share it with everybody. So it's exactly the same. If I have self-love, I want to share my self-love with everybody. Thank you. And then what are some of the mindsets that make a woman be one of the radiant ones compared to the mindsets of those that don't have it? So let's say you, for example, you want to have new clients and you have a survey and you want to realize whether this woman is radiant or not without speaking to her. So it's based on mindset, based on questions that they answer or whatever it is. What would you ask or what would you look for in order to think this woman is probably very radiant because she answered blah, blah, blah. And the other one, this woman needs to work more on her radiance because she answered blah, blah, blah. The first question would be like, how do you describe yourself? And depending, of course, the author or the person, you will know that if she's embodying herself love or if she's still searching for validation. And so I think, yes, that would be my first question, like just to see, but you know, it's small to understand like where the person is, like it's not about judging or like, okay, it's just, I think like there is some readjustment that you can do for the person, like to connect to herself. And this is the work I do, like all the work is inside. you have nothing to go outside and to search. Everything is inside you. So that would be like my first question and understanding like where the person is. Does she have a lot of beliefs around herself, around her beauty? And what is beauty for you also? That would be another question because beauty is so general. You cannot define beauty. My beauty is going to be another beauty for you, is going to be another beauty for another person. That would be the kind of question I will ask. Thank you so much for that. And to finish this, is there any lesson that you learned recently or advice or anything that you believe if you shared with more women, they will discover more of their radiance, live more up to their potential and be happier and less stressed, especially in a city like Dubai? Recently, like I've been into a heartbreak recently, like more than a year, I I would say it's not recently recently, but it, it teach me like so many, so many things. And, uh, everything is a, it's a lesson in life. And for me now, giving myself, as I'm telling you, like this self love, this appreciation, this boundaries, you know, that I'm going to, I'm going to put around me to know, like, okay, you are allowed to be around me. You're not allowed. You are knowing what I like, really change my perspective and change the people I'm allowing around me. And this is all about self-love, really all about self-love. And this is what I did for myself through meditation, through affirmation, through awareness, the more you're aware of your blind spots and of your thoughts. So now, my daily day, it's being aware of who I am and what I am projecting. And the beauty of it, it's the life will always reflect to you so fast, because this is how life works. And yes, I will always like, okay, what is life reflecting to me right now? And this would be my feedback for where I am. And if I have to give any, I would say, any advice for women, it will be like, really like, don't let anyone validate you. Like no one can validate you. No one knows your story, like where you come from, what happens into your life. So you cannot give your power away to someone that will validate you, who you are to say who I am. And nobody knows you after all. Like people see maybe 15% of you, like they see a cover, they They don't know who you are, only you. So why I will give my power away and I will give someone to validate me. That would be the first thing, like I will never let anyone validate who I am. And I will remember to myself, like every single day that I am powerful, I am worthy, I was born worthy, I am brave, I am abundant and no one can change that. And this is what I'm living in, this is my reality. And either you are aligned with this reality, Or go and you are not part of my reality. So surrounding yourself with people that uplift you is a key in your life. It's really fundamental. Don't let anyone sending you their projection or whatever. And if you use social media for comparison, instead of lowering your energy with envy, like judging, like see it more as an inspiration. Like how can this person, okay, I like this. So if you like someone, something in her, it means you have it in you because you cannot observe something in someone that you don't have. Just be inspired by her and do the work because there is nothing, like if you don't do the work, at one point it's going to ask action from you. So that would be my answer. Thank you so much for that. I appreciate your answer and it makes me wonder you said it's important to fill your life and surround yourself with uplifting people. What's the difference between radiant people and uplifting people? Are they the same? Is it different? Can you tell me a bit more about that? Is it that radiant you can be radiant without doing anything, but uplifting is you are injecting and giving good energy to others or what does it mean for you? Uplifting, I would say, like people who bring the best out of you and people who's going to amplify your qualities. And you know, sometimes you have people in your life who will recognize and believe in your potential, and they will see something that you don't even see in yourself. And this is the people you need to surround yourself with. This is the uplift people I'm talking about. That's very clear. Thank you so much, Naseema. It was my privilege and my honor to have you here to share your voice and your perspective is very, very interesting. I'll make sure to put your Instagram in the description if people want to connect and know much more. I wish you a radiant day, a week full of prosperity and a life in Dubai that makes all of your legacy dreams and purpose goals come true. Thank you so much, really. I'm deeply blessed to be in your podcast and if I can inspire people, really, that's my most important thing in life. So thank you so much for bringing this up and allowing me to be here and share a bit of my story.
