Transcript (edited for better reading experience)

Hello, hello, hello. Welcome back to The Feel Good Factor. I’m your host, Susmitha Veganosaurus. And I’m so glad to have you back here today.

Today’s episode is all about unapologetically claiming everything you deserve!

To begin with, let me make one thing clear. This time and space we occupy, this universe that we live in, it’s infinite. Its resources are unlimited.

This means, there’s plenty for everyone. An unlimited supply of love, money, joy, friendship, success, peace, what ever you desire. It’s available to you, just waiting to be claimed.

The only limits that exist are the ones we put out there. On ourselves, and on others.

Our conditionings, past experiences and disempowering thoughts, feed our limiting beliefs and create hurdles and blocks that stop this abundant flow of universal energy from coming to us. The obstacles that we create for ourselves stop us from receiving everything that we deserve.

Fortunately, it isn’t that difficult to unlearn these conditionings and dissolve the blocks. It just requires awareness, determination, and discipline. All you need to do is be conscious of each limiting belief and thought that you have and reprogram these to thoughts and beliefs of abundance.

This starts with valuing yourself, the work that you do, and everything you contribute to the world, very, very highly.

When you value yourself, the others, people around you, the universe, will value you. Living life from a place of high self worth, a mindset of deservingness, puts you at the centre of the universe’s abundant flow.

How often have you stopped yourself from asking for something, just because you assumed you wouldn’t get it? *laughs* That is a way of thinking I can never understand.

How can you know whether you’re gonna get something or not without even trying to ask for it? Right?

The landlord of the building where our restaurant’s located is a very, very sweet man. And we’ve had a good relationship with them for many, many years now.

So there was this one time a couple of years ago, where we needed renovations done. These changes had to happen immediately, because whatever needed changing was affecting our business. But it required a lot of money, and at that point in time, we couldn’t really afford to spend that much of money. So we were kind of stuck in a bind.

One of my business partners has had a better relationship with the building owner than the rest of us, simply because he was the founder of the restaurant. As well as, he was the one who found that location, spoke to the owner and occupied the place.

So I told him, “Why don’t you just ask the owner, if he’ll do this renovation for us, without charging us anything? Just ask, no harm.”

But this guy’s like, “No way. Why would he agree to spend that much money? I’m not gonna ask.”

I wouldn’t give up this easily. So I’m like, “Just try. Come on. Try. There’s no harm in asking.”

Now there was a reason why I believe that the landlord would agree to this renovation. Previously, he had already done a major renovation for us and spent the money out of his own pocket because it’s his building. So I had faith, somehow in my gut I had this feeling, and I had faith that if we ask him, he’s going to agree to do it.

But my partner was very pessimistic about it. He was like, “No, no, no, no, he won’t do it. What’s the point in asking?”

I’m like, “No, no, no, no, no.” I don’t give up so easily. So I’m like, “No, no, no, just ask. What do we have to lose? Just ask, just ask, just ask.”

So my partner called up the landlord, and he was like, “These are the renovations we require, and these are the reasons we need it. It’s something that needs to be done urgently. Would you get them done for us?”

And without hesitation, the owner was like, “Yeah, sure. I’ll do it for you.” Then he spent this huge chunk of money from his own pocket and got the renovations done for us.

After the changes got done, it vastly improved the experience of our guests, and the business picked up really, really well.

So imagine what we would have lost if we hadn’t even tried asking the landlord to do this renovation for us.

Sometimes we don’t have enough faith in people’s kindness, their sense of responsibility. And more so, we don’t even have faith in our own deservingness that, yeah, you know, we deserve this help. We deserve this support. And that’s what stops us from getting something amazing that could actually really help us.

Through most of my life, whenever I wanted something passionately enough, I’ve gone after it. I usually am not afraid to ask for things. Even if it seems apparently unattainable. It’s still worth the effort, right? Certain things are worth the effort.

There are times when I wanted something badly enough that I’ve pursued it even after being rejected a couple of times. And many times this has led to success. Sometimes it’s led to partial success, and I’m okay with taking what I got. At least I tried to ask, and getting something is better than getting nothing at all.

Yes, of course, it’s important to know that there’s a time to give up and let go. And to realize that you have to let go because the universe has better plans for you. But at least you‘ll never have to wonder what if I had tried because you actually tried, maybe tried a couple more times, and then, only then, gave up.

But even someone like me can slip up and hesitate to ask sometimes.

How often do you stop yourself from asking someone for something just because you assume you might be inconveniencing them?

Now yeah, there are times when you know for sure that you shouldn’t be asking because it will be trouble for someone. But many times we imagine this trouble. Many times, we don’t ask just because we are afraid that we might inconvenience someone. So it’s important to differentiate between the two. And then when you’re really unsure if a person will say yes or no, ask them there’s no harm.

Last year, I went on my first solo trip to Italy. It was a fantastic experience. The trip was for about three weeks or so. The first week, you know, there was this newness. I’m seeing this new place and exploring, and there was a lot of joy and energy.

And this new experience of being alone in a completely unknown country. That was kind of great. That helped me get through the days really well, and not even realise the days go by.

Then in the second week, I was a part of a vegan women’s retreat. And that was fantastic. So again, you know, it was so good. The days just went by, and I didn’t even realise how soon eight days were done.

Then the last few days of my trip was spent at Naples, and I was back alone by myself wandering the streets.

Now, I don’t know if it’s because of the amazing women I spent time with at the Food Heals Italy Retreat, or whether I’d been away from home for so long. But somehow in the last couple of days at Naples, I started to feel a bit lonely.

There’s this lady called Anna, who I’d met on Instagram, and for over a year or so we had exchanged messages very sporadically. So we hadn’t really chatted or gotten to know each other very well. But we had exchanged messages here and there.

When I’d I arrived at Italy, she’d messaged me saying that she also lives in Italy. And then when I reached Naples, she’s like, “Hey, you’re in my town.” She even gave me recommendations for a really, really nice vegan place where I loved the food.

I hadn’t really asked her if she’d like to meet me because I didn’t know her really well. I didn’t want to impose on her. But two days before I was to leave Naples. I’d gone to this coffee shop on an evening, and I just posted a picture of the coffee on my Instagram stories. And I had said, “Oh, it would be so nice to have someone to share this with.”

It’s so funny, because immediately Anna responded saying, “Hey, you know, I can come and drink coffee with you.” I was so happy. I was like, yeah, that’s so sweet, you know. Because we didn’t really know each other very well, but there she was offering to meet me.

I was like, “Hey, cool. Well, how about tomorrow morning? Let’s meet up for coffee.”

Anna took the train and traveled all the way to where I was staying and met me at a coffee shop nearby.

Immediately something clicked. We just started chatting and laughing and you know, really sharing stories and enjoying ourselves. And it felt so good.

So I asked her, “Do you have time to spend more of the day with me?” And she’s like, “Yeah, I have the whole day free and I can spend it with you.” I was so happy!

We went for lunch. She even came with me to a bank and waited there for like half an hour until I could get some answers regarding some money exchange. Who goes to someone with a bank and just hangs out there, you know? That’s like the sweetest, most patient thing to do.

I won’t even go to a bank to hang out with a close friend or even my family members because it’s such a boring place to be at. And here Anna was hanging out with me, and helping me out with my questions at the bank.

We wandered around town, we went shopping, we had dessert and we didn’t even realise how the day just went by. She was the sweetest, kindest, most angelic host in her town for me.

As the evening was coming to a close, both of us were talking and we’re like, “Oh, you know, we should have connected a couple of days earlier.” And then I could have spent all my time at Naples with her. She was like, “Yeah when you came to Naples, I was thinking of asking you let’s meet but I didn’t want to intrude.”

And then I was laughing so hard. I was like, “Here I was thinking I didn’t want to impose, and you were thinking you didn’t want to intrude!”

Both of us felt so silly, because, what a friendship this turned out to be! And what a lovely time we had in each other’s company.

All either one of us had had to do was ask a couple of days ahead of time, when both of us realised that we were in Naples together, and we could have had all this fun and created all these joyful memories for three days instead of one.

But we were so glad that ultimately we did connect. And I’m so grateful that she responded to my story saying that she’d have coffee with me. It has developed into this really nice, sweet friendship. We still keep in touch, we still chat, and it feels really good remembering all these memories that we had together.

It was a really important lesson for me about just asking, just trying and then, well you never know what you get. What lovely surprises await for you.

When you ask, and then you allow people to give, you’re doing both of you a service.

One is your vibration is uplifted, because when you know you’re getting something wonderful, something that you asked for. But even more importantly, you’re uplifting the vibration of the person who’s giving you something too.

We all know the power, the immensely beautiful energy, of giving something to someone, or doing something for someone, and then seeing the joy that they feel. So why deny someone else this kind of uplifting high vibrational energy?

You know how the saying goes, Ask and you shall receive. Sometimes it’s as simple as that. Ask and you shall receive.

Don’t be afraid of disappointment. Ask. Try. You’d be surprised at how willing people are to give, to help, to share. And then both of you can be really happy and joyful and have this amazing exchange of energy together.

You deserve help. You deserve support. You deserve love. And you deserve all the good things that come to you.

So come from this place if deservingness. Of knowing that you are worth it. And Not only are you helping yourself, you’re actually helping those that help you and raising the energy of everybody around you.

This whole concept of self-worth, valuing yourself, valuing your contribution, feeling deserving, asking and receiving, there’s so much more to discuss on this! There’s so much more that I have to share with you regarding this.

Meanwhile, I’d love to hear your stories. Your stories of how you asked for something from a place of high self value, from a place of deservingness, and how you got these things. So tell me your story. I would love to hear.

And soon, there’s gonna be another episode all about valuing yourself.

All right, I’m signing off for today. Thank you so, so much for listening to this episode of The Feel Good Factor, with me, Susmitha Veganosaurus.

Talk to you soon. Bye!

Transcribed by Otter.