Nourishing the Soul: Discovering Spiritual Insights for Joy and Fulfillment with Bracha Goetz

Imagine your life intertwined with the spiritual and physical worlds, allowing you to perceive the things around you in an entirely different light. Our guest today, Bracha Goetz, a Harvard-educated author of over 41 books, has embarked on this magical journey herself, and she's here to share her wealth of knowledge and wisdom with us.

Our conversation tackles her unique approach to introducing weighty topics to children and how her spiritual journey has influenced her work. Bracha's awe-inspiring journey is one of transformation, a shift from seeking pleasure in wealth and power to finding lasting value in spirituality and inner peace.

Bracha dives into the profound Kabbalistic teachings of the Pleasure Ladder, a concept hinged on the five levels of the human soul, revealing how this profound wisdom can usher us into experiencing deep pleasure at any given moment. She offers an enlightening guide on how gratitude, along with physical and emotional experiences, can spark personal growth and transformation. 

Bracha's intimate reflection on her transformation, from grappling with food addictions to emerging as a beacon of spiritual wisdom, is indeed a story of resilience. By the end of this episode, you'll discover how Bracha's remarkable work continues to inspire and help children's souls radiate with unparalleled brilliance.

To learn more about Bracha: https://goetzbookshop.com/ 

Chapters

• 0:50 Sparkling Souls
• 9:13 The Pleasure Ladder
• 23:04 The Power of Gratitude and Growth

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:50

Hello everyone, welcome to our Spiritual Spotlight series. Today I am joined by Braka Getz. She is a Harvard-educated author of over 41 books that help children's souls shine in a raw and candid memoir for adults. Braka, thank you so much for coming here today. I'm so happy you're here. Thank you Very happy to be here. I love that, so I'm going to just jump right in. So, with 41 books that help children's souls shine, your work has impacted young life significantly. How did your experiences and spiritual journey influence your approach to writing in the messages you convey to children through your books?

Speaker 2: 1:27

Yeah, well, I tried to write the books I wished I had as a child. Well, I began searching at age 12 for something more. But if I had understood these really basic truths about life like instructions for living. We think there's no instructions for living, but there really are. That's the funny thing. So if I had known that from the beginning, I could have gone through a lot of unnecessary pain, and, I think, other people as well. So I try to teach happiness skills to children as young as possible, and that includes knowing the fact that we are spiritual beings that need spiritual nourishment, like we need physical nourishment every day, throughout the day, and also it includes helping our bodies to be as healthy as possible too, because both of those things together is what helps souls to shine as fully as they can.

Speaker 1: 2:44

Yeah, you have some amazing titles of books, like talking about personal privacy let's stay safe. I lost someone special searching for God, like these are all heavy topics, but to introduce them to children, how do you bridge that gap from OK this is a really, really heavy, spiritual, personal topic to OK. I can kind of bring it down to you as a child Beautiful.

Speaker 2: 3:08

I'm going to give this example of the invisible book the invisible book. So this explains to children. There are so many things we believe in that are invisible, like what? Our thoughts, our feelings, the wind, electromagnetism. How can a magnet pick up a paperclip Right Time? Time is invisible. Here we go, let go of the book. Invisible gravity.

Speaker 2: 3:42

So we see the effects of all these invisible things in the world. Children see it every day. So it's not far fetched to believe that we too, in essence, are spiritual beings. Our essence is invisible, but we're clothed in physical bodies to interact in this world. So that's what I'm explaining to children. You see the effects of so many invisible things every day, including our effect on the world ourselves, and yet, in essence, we are invisible. We are souls, we are spiritual beings. This is what I never learned and I wished I did. I actually developed food addictions because I was searching for how do I fill this emptiness inside? I don't even know why I have an emptiness inside. So when I finally understood that this hole that we all have, it's not a physical hole, it's a spiritual hole and we need that kind of nourishment in order to thrive.

Speaker 1: 4:58

I love that, so let's talk about it. Your journey from overcoming food addictions to inspiring others through spiritual wisdom is truly inspiring. Can maybe you share a pivotal moment or realization that led you to transform your own challenges into a source of inspiration for others seeking joy and fulfillment?

Speaker 2: 5:17

Yeah, gosh, there's a bunch of moments. One moment I love to describe is hey, so this is nourish the soul, this is my memoir, and all my other books are picture books for children. So how did I come to write this and a book for adults? I didn't really write it, I compiled it from my diaries. So it begins at age 12. And then you know, when I got all of it, it wasn't called a diary, I called it a journal and there were letters and then I filled in the missing pieces. So you have a journey of 20 years, age 12 to 32. It's called nourish the soul, filling the emptiness within that. That's what happened. So first it was becoming aware of the emptiness at age 12.

Speaker 2: 6:10

I began searching, searching in so many places, like everywhere, and then I eventually realized okay, maybe wisdom, I need wisdom, so I'm gonna study everything, learn about everything. I worked really hard in school to get into Harvard and there I thought this is it. Now I'm at the pinnacle. You know, because it wasn't my kind of background I didn't come from like. My parents were like why do you wanna go to a place like that? You know, it's like not what they expected.

Speaker 2: 6:42

But so there, I got invited through my boyfriend to like a really exclusive garden party with children of like the very big, powerful people in the world. You know, kennedys, rockefellers, moynihan, all these people then and I felt like this is it. I've made it to the top what's here, and I was afraid of blinking like I'd miss anything. But what I saw was everybody there was looking for more too. It wasn't the top of anything Like they seem kind of bored, looking beyond who they were talking to, looking for something greater. And on this beautiful day in May, at this garden party, all of a sudden there was a huge thunderstorm. The clouds came in, pouring rain, the whole party. That was the end of it. And I just said to myself even these powerful people can't stop the rain from coming down on their own party.

Speaker 2: 7:45

So there's something more. I know it. I thought this was the top, but there's nothing much up here that I didn't see before. But I didn't know what there was. What does have lasting value, what gives lasting pleasure in life? That's what I kept searching for. So it was a turning point. I knew then that, like success, wealth, power was not where it was at. So many people waste a lot of time searching for that illusory pleasure. It's very fleeting. I knew then it was a turning point to know there's something greater, although I don't yet know what that is.

Speaker 1: 8:27

That is amazing, Just the way that you just said that, like, even though you're with the successful, powerful people who society deems as being the top of the ladder, but really we're all searching for a higher power and this invisible connection to source. Yes, exactly, it's very interesting. So your memoir again, your memoir the Nurse, the Soul, which sounds really cool. It offers a candy-glimpse into your spiritual journey to joy. Can maybe you give a little bit more about how this journey unfolded and the spiritual insights you've gained to shape your perspective on joy, fulfillment and overcoming challenges?

Speaker 2: 9:10

Yes, beautiful. After I graduated from Harvard I went on to medical school and the summer between my first and second year of medical school I had a six-week break I went to Israel and I found my lost heritage. I found like I was born Jewish, but I did not think of it as a spiritual religion. I saw it as cultural. So it was a big thrill to me to rediscover my heritage and learn about the depth of spirituality that was in it, the wisdom I had not known about.

Speaker 2: 9:53

So there was a teacher, rabbi Norak Weinberg. He's no longer alive, but he talked about the pleasure ladder. This is based on ancient Kabbalistic teachings and I am loving sharing it now because it's universal and it's called the pleasure ladder. There's five levels which correspond to, I believe, our five fingers, because it's showing us we have the power to bring deep pleasure into our lives at any moment. We are totally empowered to do this. And these five levels, they correspond to the five levels of the human soul. So the lowest level on the pleasure ladder corresponds the lowest level of the soul, corresponds to our. It's connected to our body. So when we experience natural sensual pleasures in this world, they're designed to bring us pleasure whenever we experience them with mindful gratitude. So that's why, when people talk about well, how do you, it's really like a secret to happiness that the lowest level is experiencing like natural foods, being in nature, music, dancing, yoga, gardening, swimming, anything that can bring us physical pleasure. When we experience it with gratitude, that's when we feel this lowest. We fill up both our bodies and our souls. We nourish them both. That's the lowest level. And the next level up is love, and what's interesting about it is that you think love depends on someone else. But if it's totally empowering, how could you bring it into your life at any moment? Then it's because the idea of love here is focusing on the virtues of another, and we could do that at any moment, like even in prison. A person could think about a grandmother that once did a kindness for them, and they're uplifted with this warm emotional feeling. So that brings more connection. When we're involved in an addiction, we feel disconnection, estrangement, cut off, so what we need is connection. So this brings us the lowest level connection to a natural, physical thing, then to another, being on the next level up. Each level brings greater pleasure and the next level up is doing something good and meaningful, with gratitude that we're able to give to another. So this puts us in the world even more, brings us more connection.

Speaker 2: 12:55

And I was on another show and the host said that he was feeling lonely and he ate two slices of pizza by himself and he was about to plow through the whole box of pizza. Because that's really what it's about. What we're eating is about getting the pleasure to keep lasting. So we just keep stuffing our faces. So that's really what all addictions are about the desire for lasting pleasure. That's what we really want.

Speaker 2: 13:23

We feel a scarcity of pleasure in our lives and once we recognize there's an abundance that we have the power to bring in, it changes everything. That's what changed my life. So he said so. He was about to plow through the rest of the box of pizza and his neighbor knocks on the door. He needs his help for two minutes, comes back, doesn't want the pizza anymore. Why he just filled up. He filled up doing something good and meaningful for another person. So it works instantaneously and it just gets like the pizza stops calling your name In that very moment, the minute you fill up. It's incredible. So that's meaning.

Speaker 2: 14:13

And the funny thing is this is surprising.

Speaker 2: 14:15

What's even higher than meaning is creativity. That's when you put a unique part of yourself into the world and you know when you are in a creative zone. You don't feel like eating or sleeping, you're like, and time doesn't matter. It's such a great high to be in that creative state. And the highest level of all is called transcendence. So this is the rarest state of all, but it's that state of awe and wonder, like under a starry, starry sky at night.

Speaker 2: 14:54

And it's also when we transcend our own limitations and we break through. We make that first crack in a bad habit or an addiction. We break through, we transcend our own limitations and become more like our soul. We become more soul, like in that moment. And it's also a state of oneness. As we connect, the veils of separation lift and we recognize that we're all connected and we're all connected to the same source energy. So each level up brings more connection and there's only one price to pay to climb the pleasure ladder and that's gratitude. Gratitude is what fills us up and that's what filled me up in my life, so that I wasn't always starving, desperately starving to fill that hole. I haven't been running on empty again since I learned about this. And how long ago did you learn about the pleasure ladder? Oh my gosh, it's been over 40 years now.

Speaker 1: 16:11

And then integrating it and then educating people on others to show like, look, you know, an attitude of gratitude is really gonna transform your life and really show you purpose and meaning.

Speaker 2: 16:23

Exactly. And could you imagine if, when children learn this, how different their lives can be throughout their lives? To be able to accomplish so much more? And it's the secret to happiness. It's so simple and that's what this garden, that's what our lives were designed for, but we've gotten way off track. We've made it much more complicated and we were really put here just for that purpose to experience this life in gratitude. Yeah.

Speaker 1: 16:59

That is very true. I think sometimes, as a spiritual being, we search external for what is my purpose, what is my meaning, what is this, when really one of our purposes is to live a human experience and to feel senses and love and creativity and connection. And I think it gets missed by society's expectations of we need to be at the top of the ladder, like we missed that key component. I think this pleasure ladder brings us back to that and brings us back to self.

Speaker 2: 17:34

Exactly. People can put this. You can download a free copy from my website. You can put it on your fridge, on your cabinet, just to remind you of the abundance Cause. It's that sense, it's that fear, that sense of scarcity that gets us to feel we don't have enough and we've got to keep bringing in that fleeting pleasure whether it's drugs, alcohol, gambling, whatever it is Work like hustling for work, exactly, instead of savoring the moments, really enjoying them with the deepest gratitude. It's available to everybody, absolutely.

Speaker 1: 18:15

So children are in a lot of your books and they're often in touch with innate spirituality. So how do you infuse your books with spiritual insights that both engage and nurture the souls of young graders?

Speaker 2: 18:28

A beautiful, beautiful question. Okay, one book is called I Want to Be Famous. This book, I want to read it all. Yes, that's it, because I thought I wanted to be famous as a child.

Speaker 2: 18:41

It's such a you think fame that's it that's gonna give you pleasure, and it's. We know that from the famous people. It's so not true at all. When famous people do get pleasure, it's from this, it's from the simple things in life that they learn how to savor. So this boy, he becomes famous overnight in the way anybody could. Today, a YouTube video of him goes viral, of him doing something ridiculous, you know, and he's loving it. Loving it until, very quickly, somebody else could do it even better, and that's the end of him. Then he's a nobody again, he's under the covers, he's miserable, and then he realizes, whoa, there's another spotlight shining. It's coming from within. That is the spotlight we all have. When we recognize this, we can be less dependent on that external validation. The more we nourish our hungry souls. We're genuinely hungry, but it's not for the fame, the fortune, all that stuff it's for that gets us off track from really living joyful lives.

Speaker 1: 19:56

Oh, that's so important, like especially right now when everyone has a camera and it wants to be like this viral moment. And then I mean the backlash of you know. Like let's say I mean this happens to me and I'm elderly.

Speaker 2: 20:14

I'm kidding.

Speaker 1: 20:15

But I post a video and you know I get hate comments and it's like it's just a crystal guys, like it's just such a, it's so interesting. But because I have this innate spirituality and I have connection on that pleasure wrong, it doesn't affect me the way that somebody who maybe is not connected would take it so personally.

Speaker 2: 20:38

You know Exactly, it's so interesting.

Speaker 1: 20:40

Because we have to have that inner connection, that inner core to our. You know, whether it's faith or whatever you believe in, that makes me feel like it's okay, you can tell me I'm an idiot, it's fine.

Speaker 2: 20:53

Exactly. This is it. This is what we got. We have a light that's shining inside of us all the time, but it gets covered up. You know, we go through painful experiences. We try to cope. We put on these barriers, these blockages. So how do we get rid of them? We melt them away by nourishing that soul that's still there. It's been shining the whole entire time, but it's easy not to notice it when we're miserable, you know, and we've gotten used to all the coverings over us. That's what happens with addictions, anxiety, depression. It becomes a part of us and we need, sometimes we need therapeutic intervention to help us remove these coverings with support. At the same time, we have to be nourishing that hungry soul, Cause it's still in there, even when we don't feel it's warmth and it's radiance. So true.

Speaker 1: 21:59

So true. So before I ask you the last question, if anyone is interested in purchasing one of your 40 plus books, what is your website?

Speaker 2: 22:08

Yeah, it's wwwgetbookshopcom, and gets is spelled funny G-O-E-T-Z. Getbookshopcom. And also, please remember to download that copy. It's so. It's much more than this. It goes into more details about every level. So you can, you can, remember it. It's about first becoming aware and then remembering that you have the power to bring the pleasure into your life at any moment.

Speaker 1: 22:41

So true. So last question so your mission to help others find joy through spiritual wisdom is powerful. For those who might be struggling to integrate these teachings into their lives, what advice or practices would you offer to help them take their first steps towards a more joyful and spiritually enriched existence? Oh what?

Speaker 2: 22:59

beautiful. You start with the smallest thing. You start. I love. I love giving the example of an orange. Just think of one amazing creation in orange Like all the fruit, it's green before it's ripe. All the fruit, it's green, it's camouflaged, protected by the leaves. Then, when it's ready I'm ready it calls to us by its bright, beautiful color. Then it smells beautiful, it looks beautiful, designed for our senses to enjoy. Then we have the peel. It keeps the sweet juiciness in for months and then we eat it. And what's left? Those little seeds which are meant to go back in the earth, become an infinite amount of trees and oranges. So that's us Just plant a tiny seed, experience gratitude to a tiny more degree, 1 percent more degree, and you will see how your life changes. You will see the trees that grow from it, the fruit that you produce in your life, from just planting a tiny seed of gratitude.

Speaker 1: 24:23

That is beautiful, raka. Thank you so much for coming to the Spiritual Spotlight Series. You are amazing and I look forward to hearing from you again.

Speaker 2: 24:31

Thank you so very much, thank you.