What a Near-Death Experience Taught Me About Living | Naiana Miranda, Ep 228

Jennifer Norman:
Hello, beautiful humans. There are some conversations that ask you to learn something, and then there are conversations that quietly ask you to question everything that you thought you knew. This is going to be one of those conversations. One of the things that I love most about hosting this podcast is that I get to have conversations with people whose experience challenge my own assumptions, not because I expect to leave with all the answers. It's really because curiosity has always been one of my favorite teachers. I do like evidence. I like research. I like asking thoughtful questions.

Jennifer Norman:
But I also know that there have been moments in my life when logic could not explain what my heart already knew. Maybe you've experienced that too, that unmistakable feeling to call someone, to change directions, to say yes, or to walk away long before you had a reason you could defend. So where does that knowing come from? Today's guest has spent her life exploring that question from 2 very different worlds. Naiana Miranda is an investor who has backed more than 50 women founders. She evaluates businesses, leadership, and opportunities with incredible discipline. She's also a medium who has spent years helping people reconnect with something far less measurable. She doesn't see those worlds as contradictory. In fact, after a near-death experience transformed her life, she came to believe they complete each other.

Jennifer Norman:
Born in the Amazon rainforest of Brazil and raised in the United States, Naiana became one of the country's youngest leadership trainers at just 22, trained thousands of leaders, spoke at the United Nations, and today helps high achievers trust what they know before they can prove it. Now, it doesn't matter if you are deeply spiritual, highly skeptical, or somewhere in between. Wherever you stand, I'd simply invite you to stay curious because this conversation isn't really about mediumship. It's about what happens when life changes you so profoundly that you can never see the world the same again. It's about intuition, purpose, and living with more courage than certainty. And perhaps most of all, it's about remembering that some of the most important truths can't always be measured. They can only be experienced. Please enjoy my conversation with Naiana Miranda.

Jennifer Norman:
Naiana, welcome to The Human Beauty Movement Podcast. I am so happy you're here.

Naiana Miranda:
Wow, what a beautiful, beautiful introduction. Super excited to be here with you.

Jennifer Norman:
This is going to be amazing. I actually would love to begin where I imagine that your life probably split into 2 different chapters. You have shared that you had this near-death experience that changed everything. Can you take us back to that day? What happened? What, if anything, did you understand about life afterwards that you simply could not unsee?

Naiana Miranda:
So it's a lot in there, but I had severe mold poisoning. I had the worst case of mold poisoning in South Florida history in terms of how fast the mold grew. And, for 2 weeks, I had the most psychedelic experience of my life. It's like I did a lot of shrooms because mold is like— I was just going to say it.

Jennifer Norman:
It was like you were on mushrooms for a couple of weeks.

Naiana Miranda:
It was, but it was so powerful. And, every day, I would have an epiphany on top of an epiphany and I was NASDAQ for an investor meeting. And it was the first time that 50 women investors from all different industries were coming together. And this was now the epitome of my near-death, right? So right before it happened, I have now been— I slept in my apartment for one night and the mold creates insomnia and mood disorder. So I'm at the meeting. This is my first time there. And they're like, if anyone wants to say anything, raise your hand. And I was like, me.

Naiana Miranda:
In front of all of these very successful investors and entrepreneurs. And I said, my name is Naiana, Queen of Peace. This guy, he was my brother in a past life. That girl, she was my sister in a past life. You think this is about creating funds? This isn't about creating funds. This is about taking down the patriarchy in the name of peace and love!!! And I got a standing ovation. It was very exciting.

Jennifer Norman:
Oh my God, that's hilarious.

Naiana Miranda:
And so then that led to me going to Bali with my mother the next day. And this is when the—

Jennifer Norman:
The next day, the very next day.

Naiana Miranda:
The very next day. So I had now been in this mold experience for 2 weeks. I had 10 times the amount of gliotoxin, I found out later, which is directly related to neurotoxicity. And then we get on a 19-hour flight to Bali with a connecting flight to Qatar. And during that experience, I had very similar to every other near-death experience I saw my whole life. I saw everything that went right, everything that went wrong, all of the boyfriends that I hurt, all of the people that hurt me. And it's like my life just— it was like I saw the string of all of my life.

Jennifer Norman:
Oh.

Naiana Miranda:
And how everything impacted everything. And why I was where I was at that point. And then, so I started, there was a lot going on. I started hallucinating on the plane. We land in Qatar. And I will share this because it's, it's the wildest part of the story. And I know my mother's tired of me sharing this story, but it's really good. So I channeled Harriet Tubman for 3 days straight.

Naiana Miranda:
So when I was in Qatar, Harriet Tubman, for folks don't know, she was a slave during the Civil War who created the Underground Railroad.

Jennifer Norman:
Mm-hmm.

Naiana Miranda:
And I embodied her for 3 days straight. I thought I was her. I don't care what people think in terms of, okay, she's crazy. That's just what happened. That was my experience. And I kept hearing everybody needs a hero's journey and it just kept replaying and replaying. And so I'm in Qatar and I end up going to the hospital because I was having an, a manic episode is what the doctors would call it in human terms. And I get to the hospital and I take off all of my clothes.

Naiana Miranda:
And this is in the Middle East. I looked at the doctor and I said, I'm not putting my fucking clothes on until you look at every woman in here with love. And so this is the Middle East. So let's think about that. And I have no clothes on and I'm with my mother and my poor mother is having a heart attack. And so my background is leadership development. And so what happened in that reality during that day I, in my brain, was like, this is what we worked for our entire life. We are starting a love revolution.

Naiana Miranda:
And that's what I thought I was doing. I was starting a love revolution. So the doctors couldn't touch me, and there were 6 nurses that were trying to hold me to keep me calm, but I was Harriet Tubman and I was starting a love revolution, so they couldn't hold me back. So I went around the entire hospital butt naked going like this. It was a love revolution. Everybody look at each other with love.

Jennifer Norman:
And for those of you who are just listening and not seeing the video, Naiana is putting her hands together in a heart symbol. And she is saying, going around the hospital with this heart symbol made out of her hands over her head and over her eyes.

Naiana Miranda:
And so the nurses and the doctors realized that they had to go along with this or else I wouldn't comply. So I got them to follow me around and go like this with the heart above Oh my God. And finally I said, love wins. And then I surrendered. I left my body. And this— I had a very similar experience to what a lot of people do in near-death experiences. I left. I went into a magical kingdom where I heard, this is where anything is possible.

Naiana Miranda:
Everything is love. You can be anything you want. You can be Naiana. You can be Harriet Tubman. You can be a chair. Anything is possible. So it was beautiful. It was love and it was amazing.

Naiana Miranda:
And I was having this realization in the moment that, huh, if you can be anything at any time, that's pretty damn boring. And it's just like, what's the point of doing anything if you can do it all at once? There's nothing to strive for.

Jennifer Norman:
Mm-hmm.

Naiana Miranda:
And so that moment I chose to come back to my body. I was like, I really liked Naiana. I really liked my life. And chose to come back into my body and live out Naiana's hero's journey, which is to be continued.

Jennifer Norman:
Oh my gosh, that is wild. Did you happen to have any brain scans done during this time to determine where the mold might have impacted your brain or your body?

Naiana Miranda:
I wish I did. And to this day, so I'm actually now, I've been talking to neuroscientists about doing different studies. But they didn't know it was the mold. They thought I was bipolar. They wanted to keep me in a psychiatric ward in Qatar for a month and a half. Luckily, when I slept, because I hadn't been sleeping in a week, I calmed down. And so I didn't have the hallucinations. I just calmed down into my body.

Naiana Miranda:
And it took me 2 months to find out that for it to get to a doctor to actually hear me and say, yes, this was mold. Let's do tests. And that's when we found out that it was gliotoxin.

Jennifer Norman:
I am reminded of when Jill Bolte Taylor had her stroke and it took out like 3 quarters of her brain and she was left with the part of her brain functioning that was essentially, I think it was like the right hemisphere and it's only a certain quadrant of that where you only feel love and unity and we are one and that aspect of it. And so I'm curious. If the neurotoxins might have impacted similar parts of your brain as when she had a stroke and really left you with this feeling of universality, of powerfulness, of being able to have these sorts of really interesting out-of-body experiences and things like that. What do you think is true now that you've kind of come back into Naiana and you've had this experience? Do you look back at it as, wow, this was done for a reason? I went through this and it was meaningful. Or do you think that it was just kind of one of those blips that where, yeah, I just went through this manic situation and now I see it and it's maybe taught me something, but I look at it as being just an isolated experience. Did you integrate?

Naiana Miranda:
It's yes. And it's also a complicated answer. And I absolutely see it as divine and I see it as divine intervention. I was going through a place in my life where it wasn't my life's And I feel like that experience was to bring me back into my life's path and my life's work. And I keep coming back to everybody needs a hero's journey.

Jennifer Norman:
Mm.

Naiana Miranda:
And the experience really put a lot of things into perspective. And I'm also able to see threads even in, in this, your story and your journey. If I really look at your journey and from when you were a child and being adopted to where you are today, if we're really looking at it, Mm-hmm. I'd love to ask the question back to you. I feel like it is all divine and it was all to set you up for where you are now.

Jennifer Norman:
Yeah, I absolutely believe that. I believe that as you do in, in past lives and in dharma and in coming and having these experiences on Earth school to really get to where our soul intends to be. And it allows us to evolve as souls and as energies and to pass it on to other people as best as we can. And if we don't do that, I feel like we're missing part of that hero's journey. I think that part of it is for ourselves, but a big service is to others, is to— and that's why I have this podcast. I know that that's why you help and coach women and others and go on podcasts to share your story, because the sharing of the stories and the inspiration that people can gather that there's more than just this, there's more than just the physical. There's really something greater at work here that maybe we have lost touch with. that perhaps we can get back to.

Jennifer Norman:
You mentioned about being different before and being in a place where you weren't following your life's path. What was that? What was that like? And then after your experience, what is that like now?

Naiana Miranda:
So my core has always been impact, and the person that I am is just exactly what you said of people and helping people. And I got to a point in my life where I started focusing more on investing and started focusing more on profits and the numbers. And that's never who I was at my core. And well, and then I, lots of other things. I also started a band with my ex-boyfriend at 36 years old, which is a beautiful, beautiful thing.

Jennifer Norman:
Did you play an instrument or did you sing or both?

Naiana Miranda:
I played my beautiful, I manifested this beautiful piano behind me. That's a whole nother I sang, but I was spending a lot of time doing that. And I know that's not the core of just why I'm here on this earth. And so part of that was for that journey as well.

Jennifer Norman:
Wow. Wow. So when you had your near-death experience and then you came back and things started to, I'll say, quote unquote, normalize, because I don't know if anything ever is the same again. I'm really curious, how do you go back to living in a world that constantly asks you to explain everything?

Naiana Miranda:
It's a roller coaster, right? But there's the ups and the downs. Because of the experience, I've— it's catapulted my psychic and my mediumship abilities. I had some mediumship abilities when I was young, and that was part of the trajectory of my career. I had a boyfriend who had a traumatic brain injury, and he came to me while he was in a coma, and that completely changed the direction of my life. At 22, I started believing if you can die and come back to life, What are we afraid of living on Earth? So that I had at an early age.

Jennifer Norman:
Mm-hmm.

Naiana Miranda:
But since my NDE, which was last January, I've had all of my channels open at the same time. I had clairvoyance. I could hear things. I can see things. I can feel things. I just knew things. And it took me down a beautiful path of really understanding consciousness on a deeper path. And you said an important word, which is soul.

Naiana Miranda:
And that's what the, I think the NDE really put into putting it back into my reality, the fact that we're all souls. And if we are just being with one another on a soul level, yeah, you get to a completely different outcome and you feel and you can resonate and you can create in such a different place than if you're just looking at it as a business or a transaction. Yeah.

Jennifer Norman:
Yeah. Let's talk more about that because Sometimes when people think about soul, we think about almost a part of us that might be detached because we're so stuck in the physical and the physical requires proof points, analysis, day-to-day hustle and grind work, all of those things that really seem to detach us from our soul or from who we are deep down inside. You often say, trust what you know before you can prove it. And I'm curious if that has been a guiding principle to try to get people back to themselves, or how do you feel? That people can remember their soul and be able to honor that as best as they can?

Naiana Miranda:
Love that question. And I'm trying to feel that question. So if our whole life's journey, and it just all depends on our reality, right? What we focus on expands. And if we believe that we are here for a reason and everything that's happened to us in our lives happened for a reason, then all we need to do is to focus on what's happening in this moment. Because your soul is never away from you. You are your soul. And if we really truly live in this, although it is, a lot of people see it as a concept. When you see yourself as separate from someone, that's when the fear starts coming in and starts looking at materialistic things.

Naiana Miranda:
But when we really just be with the moment, I think it's way much easier to see the magic that's happening right in the moment.

Jennifer Norman:
Mm. I love that. A lot of people think that intuition is something dramatic, like a lightning bolt, a voice that they hear, a big sign. In your experience, What is intuition? What does it feel like?

Naiana Miranda:
It can feel a lot of different ways, and I think they show up in different channels, like your clair— the word claircognizance, meaning something that you just know in your gut, versus clairsentience, something that you feel, versus something that you hear. And I think our whole lives teaches us to follow our intuition more. And even when we don't follow our intuition, we know that we should have followed our intuition. I've had business deals that I do, and I, I know I shouldn't be doing, it. And I'm like physically sick because I'm like, no, this isn't the direction. But in my mind, I'm telling myself, no, but this person really needs the help. I need to be doing this for whatever reason.

Jennifer Norman:
Yeah.

Naiana Miranda:
And so I think we always know. And as long as we're telling ourselves that we don't know, we're gonna not believe that we do know. I don't know if that makes sense. But I'll just add one more thing is one little exercise that I do is I will, before I get on a phone call with someone, I just practice feeling what does their soul need? Oh, and like what comes up for me? And normally now that I've been doing this now for a while, I'll get a list of 10 things of who they are, regardless of if I've met them before or not and how they are as a person, what they need, what they want. And the more that we share this with the other people, the more that we connect and trust our intuition even more.

Jennifer Norman:
Beautiful. I am thinking that a lot of people may misconstrue instinct and intuition. Like sometimes instincts are potentially more fear-based. They're more primal, more animalistic to keep for survival. So there might be a protective nature, a fear-based anxiety, something that is like, okay, this feels unsafe. Therefore I need to maybe not take this leap. Whereas maybe your intuition's like, Maybe this is a good idea. So I think that there are sometimes these little battles that happen between instinct and intuition.

Jennifer Norman:
How would a person be able to tease those 2 apart in order to know, well, this is my intuition versus my instinct, which might tell me to play it safe?

Naiana Miranda:
Well, I think you said that with the key word of, is it coming from fear? And if it's coming from fear, you know, it's not your intuition, right? And I think only having the intention of, am I pursuing my intuition and actively going after— for example, if you feel something about somebody, I'll give a fun exercise. I was at a dinner where there were 10 people in the dinner. I didn't know any of them. And the way that I've learned to use my intuition is I feel things and I've learned to communicate with my body to tell me what is it that's coming up. And then because I've just been Saying it so much, I have the courage to just tell people what I'm thinking without thinking that they're going to think that I'm crazy, and then they validate it. So in the dinner, there was one guy that— and this is intuition, this can be spirit. In my opinion, I think everything is energy, so I think it's all interrelated. So whether it's your intuition, whether there's mediumship stuff going on, I think they're both correlated.

Naiana Miranda:
So there was one guy that was— This is just a funny Fun thing. He was doing an introduction, and when everybody was doing the introductions around the table, I felt something from everybody, and I would just say what I feel. And then, for example, one girl, I was like, what's up with Tinkerbell? Like, I'm feeling like— what happens is my body, my body will start to move. So I started to feel like little Tinkerbell. I'm like, what? There's something in— and I saw Tinkerbell in my head, and I said, what's up with Tinkerbell? You have something with Tinkerbell. And then she said, yes, I love fairies. And she was talking about her superpowers and what she's able to do, but she had a very strong connection with Tinkerbell as a child. Ah, now that's a very weird thing.

Naiana Miranda:
If I were to be like, she's gonna think I'm crazy for asking this, I would have never brought it up, and then we would have never gotten to that. And a lot of times we all have these abilities to do this, but we think that we sound crazy, so we don't say it out loud.

Jennifer Norman:
True.

Naiana Miranda:
And so that was just a fun little thing. But the other guy, he was telling a story of how he escaped death, and this was part of his introduction, and As soon as he said he escaped death twice, as soon as he said he escaped death once, I felt his grandfather come in. And the introduction was a 15-minute-long introduction. And I'm just waiting and I'm like, and I'm talking to his grandpa and I'm like, grandpa, we can't go yet. He's still finishing his story. Like, because his grandpa showed me he had a top hat on.

Jennifer Norman:
Oh.

Naiana Miranda:
And he showed me that he was the person that helped him get out of this precarious situation. Someone was murdered and he would've been there with him had he not listened to his intuition.

Jennifer Norman:
Mm-hmm.

Naiana Miranda:
And so he's telling the story and then he tells another story about how he's in Japan on a mountain. He would've died and, and he got lost and would've died, but didn't because of guardian angel. And as soon, 15 minutes later, as soon as he said guardian angel, I'm like, your grandfather's here. He's wearing a top hat. He's saying that he was your guardian angel all along this whole time. And I'm screaming because his grandpa's screaming. And he just looks at me and he just starts crying. And it was a beautiful moment.

Naiana Miranda:
He's like this, my grandfather would always wear suits and a top hat. And this whole time I thought it was my grandmother that was looking out for me. And so it was this really special moment with him and his grandpa. And I just felt like I got to be, just like I had a little secret with grandpa and it was such a fun little thing.

Jennifer Norman:
Oh my gosh, that is extraordinary. I love that. And I know that so many people wish to be able to have that kind of gift. And then I have friends who are mediums and said, be careful what you wish for, because sometimes it can be a blessing and a curse at the same time. What has your experience been? Has it been more blessing?

Naiana Miranda:
It has been mostly blessings. And what's been crazy is since I've been— I did not choose to be a medium. I do not choose. I don't want to go around teaching people mediumship. However, because of this experience I've had, I've done over— because I just talk about it, It's— you don't realize how many people are curious, have family members that have passed, things that come up. And I've had over 50 private sessions of either mediumship or some type of psychic, also with leadership and advisory all in one session. I actually started a development circle for psychic and mediumship abilities because there's so many people that are going through similar experiences and don't have a place to talk about it, don't have a place to practice. And we've been meeting since September and there's over 50 people in the group and it's just, there's a need.

Naiana Miranda:
And it's also, people have a lot more magical abilities than they believe. So these are people that, some people thought that they didn't have anything of mediumship happen, and then they'll be in a session and they will get a grandmother come up and they'll get a message from the grandmother and other just beautiful things that just magically happen because they're open.

Jennifer Norman:
Ah, and I understand that you've done these private mediumship sessions and you didn't charge for them. Why is that important to you?

Naiana Miranda:
I feel like this has been a gift from God and that the word divine reciprocity keeps coming up with me in my life and of just what are we here to do and give. And I don't feel like that's not where I need to be charging in life. And I'm good financially in other places, and I feel like a gift that I want To give without having anything in return.

Jennifer Norman:
I respect that so much. I've been in contact with other mediums who feel that they can't charge for it because it's a divine gift, and they feel that that would somehow dirty the waters, if you will, if they were to charge for something that was a gift like that. I'm curious about, about that aspect of it, but I guess everybody's called to do things in different ways, and so whatever feels right feels right.

Naiana Miranda:
I'm not hating on the people that do make money from it. And because there are some beautifully powerful mediums that, that do amazing work and that's, that's just not my purpose.

Jennifer Norman:
Yeah. That's their calling and—

Naiana Miranda:
Yeah.

Jennifer Norman:
Mm-hmm. Yeah. Oh my goodness. When people come to you for a reading, what do you think that they're really searching for? Are they looking for answers or closure, connection, permission, hope? What is it that people are seeking?

Naiana Miranda:
I think it's all of the above, and I think it just depends on where they are and what they're looking for. I've had people who were writing books and wanted to communicate with their father about who have passed that wanted to communicate what, what the father would want in the book. And most times what comes out of the session is more what they need, not what they want, but it's still, still very powerful sessions. Or people looking for their own path and wanting answers from their parents who have passed and about what the best direction is. And those can sometimes be challenging because they're coming to me looking for answers, let's say, from their mother.

Jennifer Norman:
Mm-hmm.

Naiana Miranda:
And their mother is clearly telling me, I'm not here to give her answers. She needs to figure out her own life. And then I'm like, oh, I don't know what to tell you. Your mother's saying, go figure it out for yourself.

Jennifer Norman:
And they're like, that sounds exactly like my mother. Gosh darn it. You know, it's true. Yeah, I know that some people will say, like, we've got our guardian angels, we have our past ancestors. Sometimes it's even cats and dogs, pets. that have come into our lives. Do you think that our circle of spiritual guides is really those that have passed on before us and a mixture of other entities? How do you see the people who are guiding our spiritual journeys?

Naiana Miranda:
Yeah, I mean, from my experience, it's been both. It's been my family members, it's been my ancestors, it's been Harriet Tubman, it's been, it's been other entities from different planets. And, oh, well, From Orion specifically, if anyone was interested on that.

Jennifer Norman:
Oh, okay.

Naiana Miranda:
And I also think it's whoever we want to call in, and we have access to this field, and the field that we're all in that is energy, whatever you want to call it, source, God. And I personally don't believe that spirits disappear or go away. I think the energy is all around us, and we can channel and use for light and love whenever we want. Some people choose to do it for darkness, but I don't think that that is what it's here for. Yeah.

Jennifer Norman:
Now, you mentioned something, which was that you had somewhat of an ability for mediumship even before your NDE, and then when your NDE occurred, channels were opened so much more explosively. And I'm curious about, for those who really wish to open up their energies and be able to have this divine experience in this relationship with their spirit guides, with source and whatnot. Do you have other practices aside from maybe psilocybin and ayahuasca? Or do you— are there—

Naiana Miranda:
Which I don't recommend...

Jennifer Norman:
Oh tell me why. Tell me why.

Naiana Miranda:
Well, actually, no, that's— let me— let me— ancestors are gonna get angry at me. I was born in the Amazon, and I come from a family of of a lot of ayahuasca in our history. My aunt is part of the União de Vegetais, which is a religion in the Amazon that she is a part of. And so I've always felt like I've been a bridge from being in the Amazon and globally and having a global lens and knowing that we don't need to— those tools are there and they're very help— can be helpful when they're not abused.

Jennifer Norman:
Right.

Naiana Miranda:
But we can, one, ask. Right. And just whatever it is that you're looking for, to ask for help, ask for guidance, whoever you feel connected to as a starting point. So it feels more real. Let's say you have a relative that passed away and you're just asking for guidance. Ask them to show you a sign of the right direction. My grandmother is a sunflower and my grandfather is feathers, and they come to me all the time. I think the best tool that, that has helped me is just having the courage to say what I feel to the people around me.

Naiana Miranda:
And when I have an inkling about something, about someone, psychically, intuitively, I just say it. And 90% of the times I'm right. Sometimes I'm not, or sometimes it doesn't hit or it doesn't resonate with them. And maybe there's something that shows up later.

Jennifer Norman:
Yeah.

Naiana Miranda:
But for the most part it does. And it builds up my confidence in myself because, and in my relationship with the person, because I've just trusted my inner voice.

Jennifer Norman:
Yeah. And I think absence of that, or if that is dulled or veiled by some aspect of life and living in the 3D here, for those that might not be able to necessarily access that capability as fluidly as you can, sometimes I think what happens is we might get caught off guard by masks or by people's desire to be seen in a certain way. And they always say, don't judge a book by its cover, but we always do, don't we? I think that a lot of times you see somebody and you make assumptions about that person, which could be completely wrong. I mean, stereotyping, racism, all of those things aside, but sometimes I feel like I'll get into a room and I'll see people and I think that my eyes have more strength than my inner feelings. And I may come across and be like, oh, I think I know what this person is about. But re— and I think that people think that of me too. It's like they'll see me at face value and think that they know everything about how I might be and not realize the depth and a lot of the things that are going on underneath the surface or that I've experienced and whatnot. I wonder if people continue to think about that and practice, as you mentioned, asking.

Jennifer Norman:
And I know that even as far as I've come in my spiritual journey, I still have a lot of work to do and I'm very humble and I'm—

Naiana Miranda:
Going a long way.

Jennifer Norman:
Yeah, there's just so much that I come across every single day that I'm like, I still am here on Earth school for a reason. I am still doing the healing work. I am still practicing how to be open, how not to be judgy, how not to edit myself in the spirit of politeness or to people-please because I feel like it'll make me more likable. All of those things, I think those get in the way from us acknowledging and honoring our true selves and being a receiver of these messages that are divinely provided to us. Yeah, I would love if there's anything that we can do even during this podcast where you feel like you can get us into a framework of being more open and receptive. I would love to be able to invite our audience members to listen in to Naiana at this moment and to really feel this and know that this might just be an abridged moment. If you would like to have more work with Naiana and get in touch with her, I will put all of that information in the show notes and we'll talk about that at the end of this conversation. But I really think that there is this message that you don't have to depart from your successes of this planet and all the things that you're thriving for, all of the things that you wish to achieve in this world, in this paradigm.

Jennifer Norman:
And that doesn't mean that you lose touch with your spirit side. And I believe that Naiana has mentioned like the two coexist for a reason. And I would love for us to be able to have greater partnership with the physical, with the mind, body, soul connectivity that can keep us really true to who we are. So I'm going to give Naiana the floor at this moment...

Naiana Miranda:
Okay.

Jennifer Norman:
And I think that this is going to be really, really awesome.

Naiana Miranda:
Okay, cool. All right. Well, we can do a little exercise if we tap into our hearts. So if we can just close our eyes for a moment and take a deep breath in, hold it. Release. Take another deep breath in. Hold it. Release.

Naiana Miranda:
And now I want you to feel a bright white light coming in through the crown of your head, coming through your heart, and it's expanding your heart. And I want you to feel your highest self.

Jennifer Norman:
Okay.

Naiana Miranda:
And your highest self knows that your intuition is always right. And I want you to feel what that feels like. And as you keep feeling, I want you to listen to this message with the intention that your higher self already knows. True beauty is having the courage to be yourself. Unapologetically. Life will sometimes show you thousands of reasons on why you're not doing enough, why others are better than you. But don't be fooled by that illusion. Faith is following your inner guidance, even when everyone around you thinks you're crazy. And that is the sexiest thing you can do for yourself.

Naiana Miranda:
Intention: I'm honoring my true inner beauty by staying true to myself. And we can take a deep breath in. Release. And we can open our eyes. And just remember that our heart always knows.

Jennifer Norman:
Beautiful. Thank you so much, Naiana, for guiding us through that. It's true. Remembering that our higher self has this immense wisdom, universal wisdom, and that is there at our disposal to guide us and to provide answers and let us know that we are not alone. A lot of times, I think when we feel lost, we feel alone. We feel like we're just out there navigating on our own, and that couldn't be farther from the truth. That universality that you spoke of before, that we're all one and we're all connected. That is the truth that sometimes gets hard to see and to feel when we do have this disconnection and we do have fear creeping in.

Jennifer Norman:
But listening to the heart, listening to our higher selves, what a beautiful practice. Thank you so much.

Naiana Miranda:
And a lifelong journey.

Jennifer Norman:
And lifelong journey. Yeah. Now, speaking of magic, you have an upcoming book called Feel This Magic, so I would love to know what does magic mean to somebody who's experienced life the way that you have?

Naiana Miranda:
Whew. It's exactly everything that we've been talking about. It's being able to really just be in the moment and continue. Can we continue to keep our hearts open with everything that life throws at us and continue to see the magic that's all around us? Because that's the only way that we see the magic, right, is to have our hearts open. And I think that's at the core of what magic is to me.

Jennifer Norman:
And you still work with investors or you still are an investor?

Naiana Miranda:
Yeah. Yes, I'm still an investor. I'm an advisor. I'm a philanthropist. And I'm also just taking my time to be able to help where I can.

Jennifer Norman:
Okay. Okay. And so how do you utilize your intuition to assist those or to make decisions in terms of your investment opportunities, your leadership opportunities?

Naiana Miranda:
I just follow my heart one step at a time. Depends on the context of each opportunity and depends on where I'm at. But it's really a conv— it's, it's not like I'm just using my intuition. I've gone to school for entrepreneurship. I have a background in finance, but there is a blend of matching the intuition with the work that I've done as well. And then as long as I continue to follow my intuition with it, I think that's where the magic is.

Jennifer Norman:
Yeah. The reason why I asked this, I just had a conversation a day or so with a young woman who had started a business and the particular business was this app and she's already raised, I wanna say $3.5 million for it. And when I was talking to her about this particular app and the way that people these days absorb social media and general content about apps and connectivity. There's a lot of sensationalism. There's a lot of what she would consider rage bait. And that's a way that gets people's eyeballs. It gets people's attention and it gets people's engagement.

Naiana Miranda:
Yeah.

Jennifer Norman:
And I asked her, I said, oh, okay, well, is that positive? Is that good for our mental health? Like, is it socially responsible to put something out there that, you know, is contributing to this onslaught of chaos and rage and, and this disconnection from each other. And I said, could we possibly come out with businesses that are not necessarily built on that kind of model? And she said, I would never be able to get investors that way. And I said, really? I absolutely know that I wouldn't. And I was like, wow. Yeah. And that was very telling because I, as a person who strives to be socially responsible, cares about mental health, especially among young people, it saddens me That investment goes towards profits because they know that people will pay for things like this to be caught up in this. It's just one of those things that happens. Can we rewrite the script? Can we? I'm just wondering, can we as a society start funding things that could be more positive and healthy for humanity? That's my big question.

Jennifer Norman:
And what, and I'm curious what you think because you've kind of straddled both of these areas.

Naiana Miranda:
Yeah. I think that in itself deserves its own podcast, right?

Jennifer Norman:
Yeah.

Naiana Miranda:
I think the answer is yes. I think there are tons of businesses. My background is impact investing. I, I invest in social businesses. I come from a family of serial entrepreneurs where it's all mission-driven and like the business that you have, B Certified. And there are tons of business that are scalable...

Jennifer Norman:
Yeah.

Naiana Miranda:
That do care about impacts, that have the triple bottom line of people, And profits. And my focus primarily women because that's just, I'm a woman and I come from my mom being a female entrepreneur, but it's possible. It just needs more money to be going into it.

Jennifer Norman:
Yeah. And I, as female B Corp owner, it's hard. There's no question it's hard. It's more expensive. It's the long game. It's definitely something where it takes more patience for the growth to happen because you're doing things in a more rigorous way. You're doing things where Yeah, you're trying to do the right thing at the same time of building your business. And I truly believe, and that's one of the reasons why my business, I never accepted any investment in it because I don't want to be beholden to something which may lead my decision-making to a place of dysfunction.

Jennifer Norman:
I've seen that too many times in my past experience to know that it has a huge influence on decision-making. It's like more margin or less margin. Of course, everybody—

Naiana Miranda:
Yeah.

Jennifer Norman:
If you don't have a stakeholder kind of a business setup versus a shareholder setup, if it's just shareholder only, you're gonna go for the profits, whatever drives most profit. That's one thing that I just didn't wanna compromise. Yeah, it's definitely doable, but it's harder. It's harder.

Naiana Miranda:
That's so beautiful. And I think that's also the answer. We can only do what we can do, right? And it's just, I'm on the board of the Center of Sustainable Finance and Private Wealth that teaches families how to get into impact investing. And All we can do is be the ones that are making the change, and we can't control when the world is gonna catch up. And I think about how social impact started. It started from slavery, and that's like the term social impact came from.

Jennifer Norman:
Really?

Naiana Miranda:
Yeah.

Jennifer Norman:
Harriet, Harriet Tubman, tell us some more!

Naiana Miranda:
I think about evolution. It's just, it's part of evolution, right? Is it like, is it where we want to be? No. Are people putting money into things that— I think there's $5 trillion going into hazardous products and products that are killing us. And is that what we want? No. But all we can do is our portion of the world, the places that we impact. And if we continue to do our part, eventually there's evolution. That's just the way reality is. We can't get stuck on looking at all the negative that's happening.

Naiana Miranda:
It's just like, wait, what are we doing about the negative that's happening from our lens of the world, which you are doing beautifully at?

Jennifer Norman:
Oh gosh. Well, I think that no act is too small. It's like no company— like a lot of people are like, oh, what does it matter if I do This. It's just, but it does. I think that to you, living by your values is an important thing. It's feeling like you're helping and making a positive impact on humanity and the long-term health of the people and the planet. To me, that's important. And so anybody listening, and it's not to, it's not to say that I'm on my high horse and I'm trying to be holier than thou.

Jennifer Norman:
It's really just about like, yeah, let's be great if we can just make decisions, not just based on the money part of the value equation and not just based on even and the entertainment value of the equation, because I think a lot of people are very moved by eyeballs. It's what do they say? It's like the eyeball economy or the attention economy now.

Naiana Miranda:
Wow.

Jennifer Norman:
Because a lot of that also stems from the evolution of fear and survival, and it causes us to react. It causes us to jump and look at something because it looks like there's a dustbin on fire or something like that. And so, yeah, trying to diminish the cortisol levels of people and have greater mental wellbeing, have peace, have more prosperity and health and longevity for this planet. It's a good thing. And I really am so grateful for you, Naiana, for helping too with all of your impact investing, with all of your work with females and leadership and in coming back to our intuition, which is so sacred. It really is special. And it's something that I think that in this modern day, we're thinking about robots taking over. It matters so much more.

Jennifer Norman:
It really, it really does. It matters. It matters a whole lot. And it's part of what makes us beautiful humans.

Naiana Miranda:
Yeah.

Jennifer Norman:
So with that, I'm going to close out because this has just been such a lovely conversation. I'm so grateful for everything that you have shared. I do close with 3 common questions. The first one is, I would love to know what makes you beautiful.

Naiana Miranda:
My heart. I would say my heart makes me beautiful. I've failed so many times at so many things, and I just just love living. And as long as we continue to be loving to each other— my favorite quote these days is, we're all just here walking each other home.

Jennifer Norman:
Ram Dass.

Naiana Miranda:
I think that's what makes us all beautiful.

Jennifer Norman:
Mm-hmm. That is gorgeous. What do you think it means to be human?

Naiana Miranda:
To go on our hero's journey, to fail and get up and get hurt and love and Go out and see the rain and just be here and be fully alive for all of the ups and the downs.

Jennifer Norman:
I had a podcast guest on who said that we learn 10 times faster here on Earth than in the spiritual realm. Do you think that that's true?

Naiana Miranda:
I don't even know what that means. What does that mean?

Jennifer Norman:
I think that like for the like entities from other planets or in the spiritual path, that he said spiritual teachers will say that if we were just spirits coming to Earth, to planet Earth, to learn is actually really like, we are all heroes for going through this.

Naiana Miranda:
That's why we're here, isn't it?

Jennifer Norman:
Yeah, because it's not easy. And it's like we learn so much more by being in the physical and going through this in the physical space than we would otherwise.

Naiana Miranda:
For sure. I agree with it. I know, it's kind of why I came back. So I can get my ass kicked a couple more times.

Jennifer Norman:
And then my last question, what is one truth that you live by?

Naiana Miranda:
To follow the magic one step at a time. All we can do is the next step.

Jennifer Norman:
Mm. Oh my gosh. Well, Naiana, thank you so much for being my guest today. I think one thing that I'll be thinking about long after today is the difference between that certainty and trusting. I think we're taught to spend our lives collecting proof Before we take that next step, but maybe some of the most meaningful moments in life ask us to move and to think about our intuition, to trust our intuition before certainty ever arrives. Beautiful humans, today's conversation may have affirmed something that you've always believed, or it may have challenged something that you've never questioned before. Either way, I hope it leaves you with one simple invitation. Pay attention to that quiet feeling, to the unexpected coincidence, To the conversation you keep postponing, to the dream that refuses to leave you alone, because sometimes the voice that we're waiting to hear is our own higher self speaking to you.

Jennifer Norman:
If you'd like to learn more about Naiana, visit feelthismagic.com where you can receive 7 free daily messages from her upcoming book, Feel This Magic. You can also learn more about her Soul Circle community and follow her work as her book launches later this year. If this conversation resonated with you, please subscribe, leave a review, share this episode with somebody who might need it. Every share helps us to bring more humanity into the world. Thank you so much for listening. I'm Jennifer Norman, and this is the Human Beauty Movement Podcast. I'll see you in the next episode.

Jennifer Norman:
Thank you for listening to the Human Beauty Movement Podcast. Be sure to follow, rate, and review us wherever you stream. The Human Beauty Movement is a community-based platform that cultivates the beauty of humankind. Check out our workshops, find us on social media, and share our inspiration with all the beautiful humans in your life. Learn more at thehumanbeautymovement.com. Thank you so much for being a beautiful human.