Kushal Choksi: 9/11 Survivor on Meditation, Purpose & Consciousness

Annie Wenmiao Yu (00:00) Today with me is Kushal Choksi, a 9-11 survivor, entrepreneur, author, and now spiritual trainer based in New York. Kushal M. Choksi (00:09) doubt is always about the goodness, right? We always doubt good things. We never doubt the negativity. Annie Wenmiao Yu (00:15) Street as a quantitative analyst at Goldman Sachs, rose to VP, and then led portfolios at Ethelium and BlackRock. after experiencing and surviving 9-11, he really changed his view on how he approached life. That life altering experience led him to look into meditation, breath work, and down a spiritual path that now really shaped his day to day. Kushal M. Choksi (00:40) But the inner dimension are where our true happiness comes where the true control comes from. We hardly do anything about it, like you go and rest deeper so that you can go out and play harder. Annie Wenmiao Yu (00:52) Kushal has since founded startups and today co-runs Elements Truffles, which is a wellness inspired and ethically driven chocolate company with his wife. Kushal M. Choksi (01:02) I never knew that waiting can also be fun. it's kind of training my mind, training my being to new ways of thinking. Annie Wenmiao Yu (01:11) whilst balancing his work as an intuitive life scanner, and sits on the US board of the International Association for Human Values. Kushal's story is about blending ambition with purpose, resilience with mindfulness, and how to live a life that is truly meaningful to oneself. Kushal M. Choksi (01:29) when you learn to quiet your mind, when you learn to experience stillness, That's when you can log in to another dimension. But with that effort that, I want that, I want that, I want that, not the way to get there. it starts with an intention, of course, that I want to go there. Then the first step is Annie Wenmiao Yu (02:41) Kushal welcome to the Low to Grow podcast. It's a pleasure to have you. who do you think will benefit the most from listening to our conversation today? Kushal M. Choksi (02:49) Well, ⁓ thanks for having me, Annie, I think pretty much anyone, who is curious in life, who thinks that life is not just linear, who thinks that life has more to offer than what just meets the eye. Perhaps anyone who thinks that the experiences they have had, is there more to life than that? If you feel that, okay, I'm doing this particular thing and perhaps I could do something else, but how? Where do I start? What do I do? How do I listen to that, tap into that inner voice? Anyone who is curious about it would benefit. Annie Wenmiao Yu (03:19) where would you say that your life started? Kushal M. Choksi (03:22) Well, geographically, it started in India. That's where I was born and that's where I grew up. But the real growing up happened when I came to this country. When I came here for the first time, I got on a plane and came to this country as a student. And then I met with that very different set of expectations and sort of a proverbial cultural shock. That's when kind of things started happening. And that's when for the first time, I met with what really is life. Annie Wenmiao Yu (03:46) Understood. And when you first arrived in the US from India, what surprised you about the American culture and the American way of life? Kushal M. Choksi (03:56) Well, first was my challenge with the language. I think everything was very different. I I came from a very modest background. And so when I came here, just everything was very refreshing. education was very unique and how Transferring information, transferring wisdom was very different compared to what I was used to. I remember when I was on campus and the first time, then later on turned out to be my first employer, Goldman Sachs came to the campus and the way they talked about living the American dream and what it takes to be successful in this country. And I realized, my goodness, this is an amazing place to work hard in. Annie Wenmiao Yu (04:39) And that's where you began your career, wasn't it? As a quantitative analyst at Goldman Sachs. I know, you're also an author and you've written very honestly about your experience of surviving the 9-11 attacks. Could you tell us a bit more about what happened in the lead up to that day? Kushal M. Choksi (04:44) That's right. Well, yeah, think it was just, I was just an analyst at Goldman Sachs at that time. you know, I was just going about my regular day. I used to work in Manhattan and that's when these horrendous attacks happened. Nobody can ever be prepared for something like this. Nobody knows how to deal with something like this because nobody has seen something like this. So like the rest of New Yorkers, I too taken aback by what had really happened, kind of caught in the middle of the storm, if you will. I think something like these moments like this in life are page turners in otherwise a very monotonous pursuit or monochromatic pursuit, if you will. And something like this really opens up your in some words, like a violent disruption of that sense of control. You know, you feel like, everything should happen in certain way. I want it to be this way and that way. I want to plan my life, everything like this. And I want to be this and after that couple of years, this and then buy a home and this and, then suddenly something like this happens. Boom. that sense of control, the plans, the possibilities, they all just go out of the window. it's window. It's a very different look at life just emerges. Annie Wenmiao Yu (06:05) Now looking back with a few years of hindsight as well, how would you say that surviving the 9-11 attacks changed how you viewed yourself and also how you viewed success? Kushal M. Choksi (06:19) You know, Clarity compounds faster than hustle. that is clarity is one thing I gained from that event. Clarity that there's more to life than what I see in front of me. There is more to life than just chasing bonuses. There is more to life than just living the American dream. There's something more than what we all see and run towards every day. I did not know what that was, but I knew that there was a missing piece of puzzle. And that was a clarity that came to me. So everything about life that I knew in a way changed. But then I also struggled to what is that missing piece of puzzle? So in a way, it was a wonderful wake-up call. ⁓ which kind of opened me up to new possibilities in life. Annie Wenmiao Yu (07:10) And in what forms did those new possibilities take place in your life? Kushal M. Choksi (07:15) The biggest change that happened when right after that I learned how to meditate. I was not looking for it but somehow I stumbled upon it. I met this teacher, Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar in New York in 2004 the breath work that he was teaching, called sky breath meditation, that was a game changer for me. I always thought that after 9-11, I really want to do something that my heart called for, that I wanted to do something that here to do, always looking for that proverbial purpose. What am I really here to do? I'm not here to make money on Wall Street. That's not my purpose. But what is it? That's something I didn't know at that point. But learning this meditation, learning this technique, gave me the ability to tap into my inner self. And that voice that we all have inside, the something that we all carry with us, it's always guiding us. It just amplified over a period of time. And that I felt was a gift today keeps on giving. Annie Wenmiao Yu (08:20) if I asked you today what you believe your purpose in life is, what would your response be? Kushal M. Choksi (08:26) I think. many things that come to me, you know, but I feel it's one of the biggest things that I learned is to not take life too seriously. To be able to really follow the calling of your own heart. You really tap into the voice and just it takes you. you. We often put too many guidelines and too many guardrails around what we do. And most of those things are inspired or I should say we collected from what we see around us. My senior in college did something, so now I want to do that. I see someone make more money and I think that is the key to happiness. I feel someone around me has a better home and I feel, I should have that too. So a lot of time we do things in life just because osmosis, we capture things from what we see around people doing it. But what if reality was different? What if none of those things mattered? What if what we're looking for is not outside, but something that you gain from within? And I think our purpose is to follow that, follow that thread be able to be in touch with who I really am. Annie Wenmiao Yu (09:47) Understood. advice would you give to young professionals? know, these might be people in their mid to late 20s. They have spent a few years in their first job after university and they are feeling that... Kushal M. Choksi (09:48) anymore. Annie Wenmiao Yu (10:02) they are slightly out of alignment. They can feel a little bit of doubt in their mind of whether or not they are on the right path, but they haven't quite learned yet how to really listen to that inner voice. What are some actionable things that they can do in order to aligning that to what the purpose in their life is? Kushal M. Choksi (10:20) Yeah, great question Annie. I think doubt is always about the goodness, right? We always doubt good things. We never doubt the negativity. We always doubt, you know, if something's really good, then yeah, yeah, is it really that way? we never doubt our own shortcomings. We never doubt our negativities that surrounds us. So I think doubt is good. It's form of human evolution. Holding the doubts is part of the journey. So not to do away with the doubts or the things that follow around the doubts. But I think it's very, very important to look within, especially with the times that we are in with social media, with tremendous amount of information that we consume it's constantly compounding all the time. I feel it's very important to Take a moment to connect with it. Our mind is like a slate and we constantly keep writing things. Any events, that leave like an impression on it, like writing on a board. The more and more impressions we gather, the more and more life experience we go through, the more crowded that space gets. Imagine, take a blackboard, write with a chalk, then write again, then again, and again. After a point it just becomes illegible. You know we do everything for everything around us. There are two dimensions to our existence, outer and inner. Outer dimension is our cars, our families, our bodies, our bank balances. You know we do everything for that. But the inner dimension are where our true happiness comes from, where the true control comes from. We hardly do anything about it, isn't it? our time and energy and focus is all geared towards that outer dimension. But if you take a moment to just pay attention to that inner dimension, a lot more happens, a lot more opens up. And so I think one thing I would say to the newer generation, take a few moments, meditate, take a few moments and go deeper. Learn a breathing technique. Use breath work to manage your own mind. A few minutes a day. There's that to do something like this, have to the material pursuits. That was one misconception I had. It's not that they both go hand in hand with each other. It's like you go and rest deeper so that you can go out and play harder. pull that arrow back so that when let it go, it goes much farther. it's very important in these days because the information, the impressions that we are collecting, it's at such an alarming rate that you need that moment to just settle down and take a moment to hit the reset button for your own self. Annie Wenmiao Yu (13:22) since you left Wall Street, basically, you've been a co-founder of a company called Elements Truffles, which you run with your wife. How have you found entrepreneurship? Kushal M. Choksi (13:33) Entrepreneurship is fun. It really gives me lot of joy. Problem solving gives me joy and entrepreneurship is just a crash course in problem solving. sometimes if you ask me, you know, in whether in finance and tech in something like CPG, which I'm doing right now, what is different and what is the same? Well, problem solving is one part that's consistent across everything. You know, when I was on Wall Street, I used to solve problems around interest rate movements every day. Now I solve problems around logistics. The flavor changes. The flavor of problems change. But at the end of the day, all of us are problem solvers. And with more alacrity, with more effectiveness, with more intensity, and with more enthusiasm, we can solve those problems. The more easy it becomes and the joy it becomes, the right becomes joyful, right? Otherwise it becomes like dragging your feet. Then it just, it feels like a chore. Then it feels like, my God, it's a Monday to Friday and I'm waiting for the weekend. and it becomes a nine to five and that's not a good place to be for anyone. Annie Wenmiao Yu (14:42) I can relate to when I was doing internships at university, I think that's when I realized that I really wanted to be part of a startup after graduating because I realized that I needed to feel enough ownership and also not be counting down the hours until the weekend for whatever I do because work takes up such a amount of the time. I'm quite curious, Kushal, why did you choose to start a company in the particular industry of Truffles? in Wall Street and in finance before, why did you choose chocolate as the area to build your company in? Kushal M. Choksi (15:17) It was just a passion project. one thing, this practice of breath work and meditation gave me was the, the ability to, to follow what my heart desires, you know, follow what my heart wanted. So after my finance stint, I did do a tech startup. I had a company called Hubble, which was in the machine learning area back in 2010 when this AI and machine learning was in its very nascent stage. And after it was acquired, that's when I thought I want to do something completely different. And both my wife and I, we love chocolates, and we wanted to do something in the field of food that was both and it had nutritional value, because those two things don't go well together. Because chocolates were something we so deeply loved, we thought, why not do something there? It started as a passion project and started from a small farmer's market and now it became a real company. Annie Wenmiao Yu (16:15) Hmm, that's a really beautiful story actually. What have you learnt about yourself over the course of building and creating elements truffles? Kushal M. Choksi (16:27) a lot of joy in creativity. That's something I never I enjoyed so much. I mean, there's creativity in all the fields, but especially when you're creating a consumer product, when you're shipping a product, there's a different part of the brain that gets used, and that's something that I really enjoyed doing. And then again, at the end of the day, It also taught me a lot of patience. One thing that Wall Street does not, it's a hustle culture, right? It's like, you don't have patience for anything. Everything is right now, right here. I come from that field where I want to see quick results. Everything is very result oriented. want to... I want to put it in effort in and I want to see an outcome out right now. And one thing that I learned in this area was there were no quick wins. It's almost coming from a digital to an analog world. Things take time. Things take time to move. And you sometimes watch paint dry on the That's a beauty in it. I never knew that waiting can also be fun. it's kind of training my mind, training my being to new ways of thinking. And of course, problem solving is something that's consistent across no matter what you do. Annie Wenmiao Yu (17:45) I can see the strands of creativity and also problem solving coming various areas of your professional life. Kushal, now you're so involved with the Institute of Absolute Intelligence. Could you tell us a bit more about what your involvement is and also what that institute does? Kushal M. Choksi (18:00) Sure. So Institute was recently my teacher, Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar. And it invites scientific inquiry into the field of consciousness. See, the study of consciousness is not new to the world. In the past, it has been limited to sort of a spiritual pursuit, right? When you meditate, you'd be more conscious, mindfulness, Consciousness comes through that. the inviting you to go deeper from a scientific lens. there's so much study right now done about, if you look at the scientific Americans, one of the recent editions, it just talks about, consciousness. It's all about consciousness. potential of that to lead us to unveiling a completely new way of living. There are a couple of things that the Institute focuses on. One is an intuition process. That's more for children up to age 18. What is intuition? Just the right thought at the right time. And through the practices, through going deeper, connecting within, you open up that intuitive ability where more right thoughts come to you at the right time. How do you know that's happening? Something which is very visceral, something you can see is I've seen these kids read with their eyes closed. can pick up things that are not in front of them. They can see things outside. Because consciousness, our mind is like a receiver. we are surrounded in the ocean of consciousness. You know, we are in the ocean of consciousness. So the mind is always perceiving and telecasting things. Think of it like a Even if you switch the television off, the waves still remain. may be tuned into one channel, but there are other channels out there too. So it's all about tuning into a particular frequency to tap into the knowledge around us. And there's infinite knowledge around us, the knowledge of the past, present, and the future. All is that right here in this moment. And the Institute just does these practices and studies that allows one to go deeper into it and explore. The other aspect of that Annie Wenmiao Yu (20:13) Mmm. Kushal M. Choksi (20:14) is scanning. Scanning is again the ability to see through time. We think time as a linear vector, linear quantity, but it's not so. It's all around us and a lot has happened in the past that has brought you to this moment. And this moment like a... Like a seed has the possibility of becoming a tree. This moment has the infinite possibility of what lies ahead in the future. Isn't it? So just by diving through it, you can see the past and the future. And that's fascinating. Annie Wenmiao Yu (20:51) That's very interesting. is the reception of people towards the Institute? So for example, if I go to some of my friends who are or engineers, they will not even look into what the Institute does because they just think it's absolutely not possible to be able to read with our eyes closed or to be able to see colors with your eyes closed. How have you found the reception of that from a general public? Kushal M. Choksi (21:23) it's very warm. Actually, most of the members of the Institute are neuroscientists, physicists, and students of consciousness. Of course, it's very intriguing how you do it. And that's why the science meets spirituality. There's enough scientific studies that are done now that talk about the capacity of the mind, the capacity of the human potential dive deeper into things that may come across as, what is this? But there are studies, there are actual scientific studies that have already established the ability of the non-linearity, the ability to see through the time. All that is now scientifically also getting into the play. Is it a mainstream narrative yet? No, it's not that. It's not there yet. And that's why Institute's work becomes more and more important to kind of invite that scientific rigor into seeing how this really happens, how this plays out. Annie Wenmiao Yu (22:24) Hmm, I'm quite curious to delve a bit deeper into that actually, like, what are some of the scientific explanations that you can maybe talk about that would explain the process of how some of the teachings or some of how some of the activities within the Institute actually works? Kushal M. Choksi (22:41) I will give you a point of view and then we will see how science corroborates with it, right? See, the idea is that there's infinite potential within all of us, right? There's so much knowledge around us. Wisdom is all around us. There are three different types of spaces. There's a space that is the physical space. what surrounds us, the body, it's the Bhutakash. Then there's a space about our mind. Mind, I don't mean the brain, but that field of energy where the thoughts come from. And then there's a space outside that, which is the ether, which is called the Chittakash. which is this pure consciousness. Now, most of us are in the Bhutakas, the physical space, and our thoughts are in the Chidakash the space, the next immediate space. All our desires, all our wants, all our cravings and aversions are in that space. But when those modes of the mind, they settle down a bit, that's when you get access to the ultimate space, the pure consciousness, which has all the wisdom and knowledge of time in it. meditation, you can still your mind and log into this other dimension. And there lot of studies being done about these spaces and how do you go from one to the other. how spirituality comes to it is from the angle of, are turbulences around you that prevent you from seeing deeper, prevent you from going within. It's not like the one who can scan has any, has anything special. They've just learned to silent their mind and everything that we spoke about earlier about clearing the impressions in the mind. going through the life events, collecting the dust and using a eraser to wipe it so that you can tap into this inner voice. It's all now coming together in this theory. when you learn to quiet your mind, when you learn to to experience that thoughtless stillness, That's when you can log in to another dimension. you can train your mind to tap into space, which is pregnant with infinite knowledge and wisdom. Annie Wenmiao Yu (25:11) Understood. And for any of our listeners who might be interested in reading up a bit more about the science behind this, are there any resources that you would recommend they look into? Kushal M. Choksi (25:20) Yeah, the instituteofai.ai is the website where you'll go and you can tap in. You can learn into these different aspects. There are some scientific studies that have been posted on it. There's more information about intuition process and scanning. There are also some, I believe, some videos where you can see these kids performing some things that you feel, hey, how did this happen? Also on YouTube, I believe you can find the intuition process, out of living intuition process. And yeah, experience the scanning yourself. I you can, I think you can sign up and be part of the Institute and experience these techniques yourself. After all, seeing is believing. Annie Wenmiao Yu (26:00) Yes, that's true. And what happens in a life scan? Kushal M. Choksi (26:04) Life scan is just sort of a meditative process, it's a one-on-one process where this person who can just go through the time and see what's in the past, what's in the all have our own set of impressions that are somewhat debilitating us, right? There's things that are preventing us from being a best version of ourselves. So in the scanning, those kind of things come up. In scanings, you can see the things that are, what are your strongest impressions? What is it that you, there's sometimes very visceral things come up too. Some past impressions, past events that come up, something that's not happened yet, that can also come up. So it's just a conversation. It's like a meditative experience and things, whatever comes through in that moment comes through. Annie Wenmiao Yu (27:00) Can you remember when you did your first life scan Kushal M. Choksi (27:04) Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I remember and... The first time I had a scan, the scanner was reading me like an open I've met that person once before, so the person clearly didn't know much about me. But they were able to tell some of my deepest-rooted tendencies. They were able to guide me through certain things that I wasn't very sure about at that point in life. I was at a fork at that point whether to go to left or right. And that person not only identified that, that I was maybe in some state like that, but he also guided me way to go. And I've seen over a period of time with scanning is that it just alleviates a lot of anxiety in people. It's right now so much anxiety, you know that. people are not so sure about so many things. And that just breeds so much anxiety and stress because of that, that fear of unknown. And a process like scanning just allows them to move past. It's like GPS, know, like when you have a GPS, whether you're not there ahead, but on maps, you can see, there's a red patch ahead. So maybe I should take another route to bypass that. It's a process like that. Annie Wenmiao Yu (28:15) Understood. Kaushal, you're welcome to say no, but would you be able to share at what stage of life you were in when you had your first life scan and also how that affected your life afterwards? Kushal M. Choksi (28:29) this is about three years ago that I had my first life scan. And, you know, it wasn't a very, for me at that time, was, it was more of a professional decision, our company was growing and we were not sure whether we wanted to invest in a bigger facility at that point. go outwards sort of farm it out to someone or, or invest in house and, and build that muscle ourselves. I got a very clear instructions on what to do. And, and that turned out to be the absolute right thing to do because had I taken other option, the tariffs would have completely killed us. So Annie Wenmiao Yu (29:03) Mmm. Kushal M. Choksi (29:04) In retrospect, it turned out to be the right thing. I was anyways leaning towards it, this just, the fact that it came from the scanner and gave me so much clarity, my confidence in exercising that option was much more stronger. Annie Wenmiao Yu (29:21) how does one become qualified to do a life scan for someone else? Kushal M. Choksi (29:26) It starts with learning sky breath meditation and it takes a few months or sometimes years with the training in meditation. that ability to quiet your own mind, the ability to not let what's happening around you knock you off your is something that comes with time. It's not something you earn, it's something that kind of happens to you. It's not something that you really work hard towards. You can't really work so hard towards it. When you work very hard towards it, it's effort. And this whole process of meditation, going deeper and scanning is a process of effortlessness. You just let go, you just completely let go of everything. And that's when you can log into that dimension. But with that effort that, I want that, I want that, I want that, it's not the way to get there. So it starts with an intention, of course, that I want to go there. Then the first step is Annie Wenmiao Yu (30:23) Mm. Kushal M. Choksi (30:29) you learn sky breath meditation. You meditate. You start cultivating that refineness of refine that consciousness. And then immediately you start gravitating towards that. You see it. Every day you see that difference. And when you're ready, you're ready. Annie Wenmiao Yu (30:47) many life scans have you done for other to date? Kushal M. Choksi (30:51) Hundreds. Annie Wenmiao Yu (30:52) we were going to do a demo of the life scan. Would you still like to do that? Kushal M. Choksi (30:56) Yeah, sure. If you're open to it, I am. Annie Wenmiao Yu (30:59) Okay, sure. Kushal M. Choksi (31:02) So it's very simple process. If I see something, I will share it with you. But otherwise, if you have any questions that are bothering you that's on your mind, you can also ask those questions. Annie Wenmiao Yu (31:12) Okay. Kushal M. Choksi (31:13) Yeah? So you can sit with your eyes closed if you like, or you can keep them open either ways. you can ask any questions as if I'm not here. You can just ask. It's a conversation, if you will. take a deep breath in and out. How do feel when you go close to a big body of water? Annie Wenmiao Yu (31:33) Peace out. Kushal M. Choksi (31:38) Do feel sometimes that there's so much potential but You're not landing it. Like it's there's so much you can do, but. But you're not living your full potential. You get that thoughts? Annie Wenmiao Yu (31:52) Yes, more frequently when I was younger and now Kushal M. Choksi (31:56) Hmm. Did lot of comparison happen when you were growing up? Annie Wenmiao Yu (32:08) No, strangely actually. Kushal M. Choksi (32:17) Vitamin D is okay. Annie Wenmiao Yu (32:20) Yes. Kushal M. Choksi (32:22) you pay attention to it. Annie Wenmiao Yu (32:25) Yes. Kushal M. Choksi (32:31) You feel like you want to write something? Annie Wenmiao Yu (32:33) Yes. Kushal M. Choksi (32:39) You write, you begin writing, you will... Don't worry about if you don't have ultimate clarity. Don't wait. Do you see yourself sometimes waiting for like the perfect moment? everything to align before you can take the next step. Annie Wenmiao Yu (33:01) Yes or no? Kushal M. Choksi (33:05) You be open to it. You don't wait for perfection. You just, you start writing. A lot of people will benefit from that. You're right. Do have a sister? Annie Wenmiao Yu (33:15) I don't have a sister. Kushal M. Choksi (33:17) Or like someone, a friend or cousin, someone you're very close to, like a woman. Annie Wenmiao Yu (33:25) A woman, I have good friends who are women. Kushal M. Choksi (33:33) Do have any questions? Annie Wenmiao Yu (33:41) Yes. Am I on the right path? of my life. Kushal M. Choksi (33:58) You've been asking that question a lot. Yes, sir. Yeah, you operate from this space, you be free. You be free. You be completely free. You be natural, you go out there and... Don't, you do different things. You execute different things. Don't worry about the consequences. You just do it. Your time changes after June. lot of things you've been planning for, you may feel like those things are shifting, those things are changing. Do you sometimes feel... kind of slowed down or between the right and the wrong, that kind of feeling. this is. that judgment comes of. of this is so wrong that I, and you kind of, you don't want to get associated with that and that kind of slows you down. the sense of right and wrong is, is that too strong for you? Annie Wenmiao Yu (35:07) The sense of right and wrong... Kushal M. Choksi (35:09) You feel sometimes that thought of something that's not right, you wanna just completely stay away from it. Sometimes you say, okay, it's there, I'll just move around and keep walking. Do you find yourself in the first set where it kind of slows you down when you see something wrong around you? Annie Wenmiao Yu (35:29) okay, understood. ⁓ I think I'm now in the second category, which is accepting that there are wrong things and having to navigate it. Kushal M. Choksi (35:44) But there was a point where you would get stuck in it. Did that happen a lot before? Annie Wenmiao Yu (35:52) Yes. Kushal M. Choksi (35:55) There's some old impressions, yeah. Do you like movies? Annie Wenmiao Yu (36:06) I do like movies, yeah. Kushal M. Choksi (36:11) You wanted to make one? Annie Wenmiao Yu (36:14) No, actually, I've never wanted to make a movie before. Kushal M. Choksi (36:18) You can pursue that, like a documentary or something that a visual form of communication will really, it's something your strength, it'll be perceived well. Annie Wenmiao Yu (36:35) I do have a question for you. What kind of skills that I have do you think I should lean into more in the future? Kushal M. Choksi (36:46) your writing and communication. For sure. The ability to paint a picture, the ability to communicate through. through storytelling. Annie Wenmiao Yu (36:54) And why is that important for the future? Kushal M. Choksi (36:58) That's where you will grow. That's where that's your way. It comes very natural to you. So you won't feel like an effort. You'll enjoy that. As you grow, as you grow older, you'll enjoy that. It'll bring you lot of satisfaction, bring you that comfort as you do more, as you touch more lives. You be careful when you trust people. Don't be too trusting. You just, you know, you do your homework before making big decisions. I have already experienced. Annie Wenmiao Yu (37:27) Are you seeing particular, sorry. Kushal M. Choksi (37:30) Go ahead. Annie Wenmiao Yu (37:31) I was going to ask, there particular scenarios for you seeing that? Kushal M. Choksi (37:37) You may have already experienced where you felt like there was some regret or some trust that was betrayed, like that kind of thing, that you felt that you were too naive, that kind of feeling. Maybe as life moves on, you'll be a little more aware of not getting yourself into situations like those. Thank you. Annie Wenmiao Yu (38:06) Thank you. Hmm. I think before we started, I actually felt a bit scared. I wasn't sure why. Um, but yes, that was a very interesting experience. Thank you for doing that. Kushal M. Choksi (38:19) Yeah, you're welcome. How do you feel now? Annie Wenmiao Yu (38:22) I think before I was feeling curious and scared, and now I feel very peaceful. Kushal M. Choksi (38:31) scared because not knowing what this could bring up, that scared? Annie Wenmiao Yu (38:36) I think I had a lot of preconceived ideas of Kushal M. Choksi (38:40) Mm. Annie Wenmiao Yu (38:40) how useful or not useful, in my opinion, I thought that this could be. And I was also, yes, scared of what could be brought up. I am glad that we were able to share that experience together. Kushal M. Choksi (38:56) I'm glad you enjoyed. Annie Wenmiao Yu (38:58) Yes, thank you. ⁓ Kushal M. Choksi (39:00) This is just tapping into consciousness. This is not like a psychic or a medium or anything like that. This is purely a deep dive into consciousness. It's a very meditative process. Annie Wenmiao Yu (39:14) Understood. Actually, leads on to my next question, which is how is this different, for the general listener who might not have heard of this before, how is a live scan and tap into your consciousness different to going to see a psychic, for example? Kushal M. Choksi (39:31) I have never been to a psychic, so I don't know that. But what I've heard is that... Annie Wenmiao Yu (39:34) Mm-hmm. Kushal M. Choksi (39:38) You know, theirs is not, it's not very, I shouldn't put anyone down, but this one is, I should just say it's, you are reflecting your own self. You're reflecting the consciousness. That's something that, what connects you and me is the consciousness. That's one thing that is common across us is that. That's the same thing that you, me and the rest of the humanity. All the events and everything that's here now and happened before and going to happen in the future. All that is tied through one single thread is consciousness. When you go deeper into it, a lot more opens up. In the other modalities, you're connecting into some dimensions, you're connecting into some voices, you're connecting into some spirits. I don't know all those things. It is not, it is not this. It is not so scientific in my opinion. Annie Wenmiao Yu (40:31) Kishaw, that was a really interesting conversation and experience. I don't think it was one that I would have ever expected having on the Low to Grow podcast, but I really appreciate you coming on and giving up your time here. Let me end by asking you our podcast staple, which is what is one thing Kushal M. Choksi (40:45) cost. Annie Wenmiao Yu (40:50) that you believe will allow more people to have better mental health. Kushal M. Choksi (40:55) Meditate. Learn to meditate. Learn to tap into yourself and to be in touch with yourself. and all these mental health issues that we're facing around us, anxiety, depression, negative tendencies, you'll just see that all that is just like waves on the surface. When you dive deeper, it's just stillness, calm, and all those things don't matter. It just brings that strength, that courage to move through without getting tossed around. So I cannot stress how important it is in today's day and age to just develop. We spend so much time about everything around us, but this body, this mind, we don't spend any time in our mental hygiene. So it's just that mental hygiene. Annie Wenmiao Yu (41:47) Wonderful. Thank you for sharing. Kushal, it's been a pleasure to have you on the Low to Grow podcast. Kushal M. Choksi (41:53) Thanks for having me Annie.