016 From Depression to Leadership, a Journey of Soul Liberation Featuring Riya Sokol

Hello, beautiful souls! Welcome to another episode of The Calling. Today, I am deeply honoured to be in the presence of the remarkable Riya Sokol, a beacon of light and a true artist of the heart.

Summary:
In this soul-stirring episode, Riya Sokol shares her profound journey from the depths of depression to the radiant expression of her true self. From battling clinical depression to embracing her artistic calling, Riya's story is a testament to the transformative power of self-discovery and spiritual awakening. Through her artistry and inner resilience, Riya invites us to explore the depths of our own souls and reclaim our inherent magic.

Key Takeaways:

1. The Depths of Depression: Riya candidly opens up about her struggles with clinical depression, describing it as a profound disconnect from life itself.
2. Art as Salvation: Despite the challenges, Riya found solace and purpose in her art, using music and expression as a means of healing and self-discovery.
3. The Power of Self-Compassion: Riya emphasises the importance of self-compassion and inner healing in navigating the journey towards wholeness.
4. Embracing the Present: Through her journey, Riya learned that true transformation begins by embracing the present moment and finding gratitude in every breath.
5. Manifesting Dreams: Riya shares her belief in the power of manifestation, encouraging listeners to dream boldly and create their path to fulfilment

Join us on this illuminating journey as we delve deep into the essence of being and discover the boundless potential that lies within each of us. Remember, dear listeners, the light you seek is already within you.

Riya Sokol Resource Links: 

• Website: https://riyasokol.com/en/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/riya_sokol/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/riyasokolcom/

Homaya Resource Links:

• Website: https://homaya.org/
• Follow on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/homaya/
• Free Light Constitution Quiz: https://homaya-amar.mykajabi.com/light_constitution_quiz
• Soul Contract Activation Meditations: https://homaya-amar.mykajabi.com/podcast-the-calling

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction and Welcome
• 3:32 Reflecting on the Past: Riya's Journey
• 6:36 The Depths of Depression
• 9:32 Recognition and Acceptance
• 11:24 Society's Perception of Depression
• 12:55 The Impact of Fame on Mental Health
• 18:22 Discovering Inner Light
• 23:08 Embracing Personal Responsibility

Transcript

The Calling EP16

[00:00:00] Homaya: Hello and blessings, my beautiful, dear people. What a day, what a meeting, what an experience. I'm honored to share this space. I have full body shiver as I'm speaking. I am so honored to share this space with Riya Sokol. She is a dear friend and a beautiful artist. And a beautiful person who, whenever I have conversation with, is reflecting so much light through her beautiful, pure heart.

[00:00:37] Homaya: Riya, I'm so honored to have you. I remember our physical meeting for the first time. I remember afterwards feeling, Oh my God, this lady is so connected. The way that I could feel that you are reading the space, reading interaction, reading communication, was exceptional, and the level of positivity that you are bringing to every conversation that I had with you until now, and probably to this conversation as well, it's a wow.

[00:01:21] Homaya: It's a whole beautiful energy to hold. So practically, Riya is And art is an artist, a singer, an artist of the heart that is going through the world and expressing her wisdom through music and sound and movement. and leading her life and the people around it through that welcome 

[00:01:51] Riya Sokol: my dear. So lovely to be your guest.

[00:01:54] Riya Sokol: So lovely to see you again online, but having in my experience this beautiful meeting in physical world. Thank you for the invitation and thank you for the magic that will unfold. I can feel it now. 

[00:02:09] Homaya: So beautiful. When I'm tapping in within me, I feel that already the days, we can say the time in Thailand, we were somehow in each other orbit, but we have never met there, right?

[00:02:26] Riya Sokol: This was, this is what happened, yeah. 

[00:02:29] Homaya: Yeah. And then I, if I am correct, that was a beginning of a whole chapter in your life. 

[00:02:37] Riya Sokol: I think we're talking about 2018. This was the year and for me this was the moment of my last episode, depression episode. My, my biggest breakdown and my. last episode, the last time I felt like I will, I want to choose not to live.

[00:02:59] Riya Sokol: And since then I feel liberated and I feel free and I feel healthy. However, it was the end of my five years journey of clinical depression that was diagnosed. Yeah. 

[00:03:16] Homaya: Just for the inspiration, because I'm assuming some of the listeners still are not aware of your magnitude. How far was the shift?

[00:03:27] Homaya: Like, how far did you go? Can you share just a glimpse of where are you and what are you doing now? And then we take the journey together. 

[00:03:36] Riya Sokol: So just now I'm very Experienced and very recognizable speaker and singer here in Poland, I lead a lot of people through different transitions from the place that they struggle or they are unfulfilled or they are unhealthy or in any way not content with their lives into The sacredness of life into recognition of what it means to be blown away by every breath.

[00:04:11] Riya Sokol: And this sometimes leads to a reparation of relationship. Sometimes the side effect is earning more money. Sometimes the side effect is making multi million business. There are so many side effects of what can possibly happen once we start to recognize what life can be and what is the potential of us being here.

[00:04:40] Riya Sokol: Because the potential is, it's just, do we use it or do we not? So 

[00:04:47] Homaya: beautiful and Like I'm saying to myself, you were just saying so little of your magic. So little of your magic. I feel that the movement between feeling depressed and holding yourself to how much you evolved and grow and how much you've led yourself is, for most of the people, will appear as unreal.

[00:05:16] Homaya: And we can also say that in a very short period of time. There were jumps upon jumps during this period. But when, so for those who do not know, whatever Riya said now is just a tiny bit. You can follow her and find more. But I want to go to this energy of depression as in my heart eyes.

[00:05:40] Homaya: What is happening in depression is that you are holding your voice. You're holding. your knowing, you are holding your soul contract, your life mission, your supreme destiny, you're holding it behind and you don't allow yourself to follow it. Was that the experience for you as well? 

[00:06:03] Riya Sokol: Yes, it's life without life without feeling alive, life without aliveness.

[00:06:09] Riya Sokol: It's like you're walking only with your body, but every cell of your soul, like energetic cell of your soul is dead. It's almost like You're walking through the darkness, and you cannot recognize, you cannot find out what is the point of walking in this darkness. This is why probably people shift because it's like with a battery, the battery goes down and down.

[00:06:41] Riya Sokol: If you don't charge it, then it just dies. So I guess the last one percent is when people Just take commit suicides and take their lives away. And yesterday I was giving an interview where I actually said it's formality. I think that people who are committing suicides, it's it's like formal thing that was already done.

[00:07:04] Riya Sokol: It's just like turning the last, pushing the last button because being depressed is actually dying. It is becoming dead slowly. It's like a cancer, but the cancer of your soul, the cancer of your heart. And this is something not tangible, although depression is also happening in your brain physically, because on the hormonal level, there is so much cortisol, there is the tryptophan, the amino acid that is responsible for our serotonin is just being stopped and it cannot create serotonin, which is the hormone of joy, of feeling alive. So there are things. Biologically happening in our bodies, in our brains, but everything starts with energy. Everything starts with a thought.

[00:08:01] Riya Sokol: So we start with the thoughts. We start with the energy that is slowly dying and dissolving. And then it's just, there is this last 1 percent where you get to decide are you going to recharge or are you going to let go? and decide not to charge. I 

[00:08:20] Homaya: feel that the one of the things that is very tricky with depression is that in the beginning you might not even pay attention that you crossed the line and you started swimming in the pool of depression.

[00:08:33] Homaya: You're just functioning as you said you're functioning and you're not aware. that you lost. You lost your magic, you lost life, you lost divinity. 

[00:08:44] Riya Sokol: This was literally my case. I think I was having tiny micro episodes before, before the diagnose, but I never paid attention to it because I was thinking that this is how people live.

[00:08:59] Riya Sokol: And then when I. I heard from my psychiatrist that actually it's a diagnose and it's like it's serious now. It's almost like we didn't see the snowball that was becoming bigger and bigger. And then we suddenly saw it when it was massive. And then he said Whoa, this is serious. You're ill. And I remember being shocked because when you're in depression, especially on that, advanced.

[00:09:28] Riya Sokol: advanced level, you numb because the pain is so chronic that at some point if you don't regulate yourself, if you don't know what tools to use, then you need to your nervous system has to handle. So the only way to handle it is to survive, and to survive you just Numbing yourself. And then when you hear something like that, it's What?

[00:10:02] Riya Sokol: Like you don't even, you don't even understand it. You don't even get to It doesn't make sense. On the other hand, there is also a relief because it's oh, okay so I'm ill actually so it's not normal. This is not me who I am. There is something happening to me There is something wrong, but also Simultaneously I need to emphasize it was 2013, Poland.

[00:10:30] Riya Sokol: The level of consciousness and awareness around what depression is was more or less you're just exaggerating, you're mad, or you're just you know, get to get yourself together and you're fine. You're just having a bad day. So this is another 

[00:10:51] Homaya: bad day 

[00:10:52] Riya Sokol: of recognition what depression is. So obviously the second step was tremendous amount.

[00:10:59] Riya Sokol: Of shame. What will people say when they hear that this is not me, I am ill, but the illness is depression. It's not cancer, it's not, anything else that is serious physical illness, it's depression. The most shameful illness that you can imagine. Why? Why? 

[00:11:23] Homaya: Why was it shameful? What do you feel around it that you.

[00:11:28] Homaya: The society around you could not give a space for that really to 

[00:11:33] Riya Sokol: happen? I don't think it was recognized back then as an illness. Maybe medically, it was in the books, but when it comes to like collective consciousness, It was almost like what smoking was back in 50s. No one knew. And everyone who was saying smoking is bad was treated as someone who is just stupid and doesn't know what he's talking about.

[00:12:04] Riya Sokol: I'm curious to know No one knew that actually depression is like medical illness, like that it's diagnosed, that it's serious. that it's not just having a bad day. Yeah. 

[00:12:15] Homaya: And I'm curious to know, at that time of depression, was your art alive? 

[00:12:22] Riya Sokol: Actually, my art was the cause of it, because my art became very famous, and I became very famous, and I jumped into show business.

[00:12:32] Riya Sokol: And show business is a very Special tweets.

[00:12:36] Riya Sokol: It's a very special place. If you don't know the rules, you lose immediately. You lose the game. You, just in the first level. It's you cannot I don't know what kind of luck you have to have in order to get there without knowing the rules and survive there. So I, I didn't, I wasn't prepared.

[00:12:59] Riya Sokol: It was out of the sudden, I didn't dream about it. It was just, it happened because my art became so famous. I made a video clip and a song that just became viral and people were crazy in love with it. And. Within thousands, hundreds of thousands of comments that were thanking me for saving their lives, for giving them hope, for just all the transformations that happens through one song, I found two comments that were against me, that were hating me with the most brutal way.

[00:13:39] Riya Sokol: And that hit right in the spot of my wound. And nothing could take me away from that. Everything focused on this, why these people hate me, what do I have to do for them to like me? How do I deserve their love? How do I, change so I can be loved. And this became my focus. So in this moment, this was the choice that I made unconsciously.

[00:14:07] Riya Sokol: But I made the choice to focus on these people instead of all the crowd that loved me. And this was the beginning of spiraling down. Yeah. We're so 

[00:14:19] Homaya: programmed to look at what is not working. It is such a collective consciousness, a consensus to find point, to highlight in ourself, in each other, in society, what is not working.

[00:14:35] Homaya: It's almost like it gives us the permission to have a conversation. It gives us a permission to walk. And us, I'm not speaking about those who decided to choose positivity. Because when I hear you speaking about those two comments, and I'm saying to myself, remember the day we were sitting together in a restaurant with another dear friend.

[00:15:00] Homaya: And I was amazed by your positivity. I knew your positivity before because we knew each other on the online space, right? And we were exchanging and I heard some feedback from you. When I experienced that in your presence, it was remarkable.

[00:15:17] Homaya: Do you see that? Do you see this shift inside of you? Do you perceive yourself now as a very positive person? 

[00:15:24] Riya Sokol: I perceive myself as a very alive person.

[00:15:30] Riya Sokol: It doesn't always mean positive. It means that I'm alive whether I'm hurting or whether I'm celebrating and that makes me probably be experienced and perceived as very joyful, but it's because I am giving my all to whatever happens to me. And yesterday on this interview, I was asked this significant question, how did you get out of depression?

[00:16:04] Riya Sokol: And it's pretty controversial, but I always say I never got out of there. I literally, after so many periods, after so many episodes of depression because it was back and forth through the five years, I was at my end, at my last episode I sat there. I stayed there. I decided I'm staying there.

[00:16:33] Riya Sokol: And literally, you know how you sometimes turn off the light and you're sitting in the darkness and at first you cannot see, you're scared, nothing, everything disappears. But then if you give yourself time and permission and calmness, your eyes become more familiar with the darkness and suddenly you start to see in the darkness.

[00:17:01] Riya Sokol: This is literally what happened with me. I stayed there, I allowed myself, I found the courage, but also it almost felt like I don't have a choice because the disappointment of falling back after being already healthy, becoming again ill, and the lack of hope that I was experiencing was heartbreaking.

[00:17:22] Riya Sokol: These were the moments when I didn't want to leave anymore because it was like I was already okay. How many times do I have to get back here not to ever get back here? And the last time was actually me sitting there. And finding out that I can start seeing there and literally in this darkness, I built everything that I have now in my life.

[00:17:49] Riya Sokol: I didn't build it when I got out of there, I build it in there. All the abundance, all the light, all the senses, all the breaths that stopped hurting finally. Everything that I am experiencing now is built there, not out of there. 

[00:18:07] Homaya: Beautiful. There was a moment today when you were describing this This really direct and up going energy that happened to you when you release a song and it got viral and everyone loved it.

[00:18:26] Homaya: And one of the things you said, I wasn't dreaming about that. But what you're saying now that in that moment where you were in your inner cave, when you directed your light inward, when you were compassionate towards yourself and you started building this future, you started consciously dreaming.

[00:18:50] Riya Sokol: This is exactly what happened and there is this illusion of us wanting to change something and there is this idea that in order to change something, we have to get out of where we are. And my experience is I'm not getting out anywhere. I'm actually starting here. This is my power. This is my biggest strength that I can build anything from where I am now.

[00:19:22] Riya Sokol: I don't have to go anywhere. I don't have to get out of anything. I can start building it now, overriding all my blockages, all my convictions, all my flaws, like all my Bad experiences, I can all rewrite it just now in this moment without getting out of anything that I'm in just now. And then you start 

[00:19:45] Homaya: living it.

[00:19:46] Riya Sokol: And then there is just literally no other way. There is nothing, there is no other option. And also, nothing can take it away from you. Because if you need to get out of here in order to be there, then there is always possibility. That you will be taking back there again. But if you start building it here and you build it here and everything is here, then you cannot be taken anywhere because everything is here because this is what you decided to do.

[00:20:20] Homaya: And because there is no other place than here. Because there is no 

[00:20:23] Riya Sokol: other place than here. And then, boo, all the illusion dissolves. What?

[00:20:32] Homaya: How is it now to live with that dream?

[00:20:37] Riya Sokol: It's like my own Narnia, this beautiful island where I realize everything is here. It's my micro quantum field, that I'm just very aware of. And I know that everything is here. Everything that I will think about will be here. Everything that I focus on will be more here.

[00:20:58] Riya Sokol: And I can visit places, I can create places, I can move places. I can rewrite things. It's I realized it's mine and I'm still exploring it and I'm still exploring myself. And as I'm exploring myself, I can see the island is much bigger than I thought. So it is something that's, that requires a lot of courage because Big dreams are fantastic when we, it's different to say that big dreams are difficult to be fulfilled.

[00:21:30] Riya Sokol: It isn't easier to say that than to actually realize that it's possible. Because once you have a big dream and then it arrives for me, sometimes it can paralyze me. It can just scare me to death. So this is a dance between taking responsibility for my dreams and staying available for them when they arrive.

[00:21:58] Homaya: Yeah, I hear within me showing up for them, showing up for those dreams, being the person in that dream. It is, I would say, people can have the money to buy a car, not necessarily they have their presence to drive safely, to take care of the car. People can have the charm to have a partner or can be pregnant and have a child but not necessarily have the presence to be this beautiful lover, to be this beautiful parent.

[00:22:35] Homaya: So when you're saying my responsibility towards my dream, I have the feeling that this responsibility is the key. I would even say for really magical manifestation, because you are showing up for what you were weaving in the astral. You're showing up for what is there in the quantum, but have this portal to be here in the physical.

[00:23:05] Homaya: You're showing up as that. And it is, when you were saying about here and there, we were in the context of our conversation, we were speaking about, okay, depression or something that doesn't work physically, and then you go out of it. When I was listening to it, I was saying to myself, how many people cannot come into peace with themselves, with their body, with the way that they speak, with their history, with their family, with,

[00:23:36] Homaya: I don't know, whatever they have, cannot come in peace and are having this idea that if they will change, if they will change that, if they will lose weight, If they will speak better, if they will write better, if they will change their physical appearance, right? If they will end a certain relationship or start a certain relationship only when they get married, only, all of those fake dream, fake dreams which is not yours, probably it's a society dream, your mother dream, your grandmother dream, but not necessarily your dream, not your soul dream.

[00:24:16] Homaya: I have a feeling that when we're saying being responsible for your dream is also being responsible of who you are, of what you've received, of all your 

[00:24:25] Riya Sokol: magic. Of who you are and also who are you becoming. Because it's I think my biggest disappointment in life was that I always thought that there is a certain path of mine, and that I need to find it.

[00:24:42] Riya Sokol: Half of my life and my spiritual path was all about finding the right path. Finding what is my thing, like, where is it? Is it there? Is it there? And searching, and looking, and having this energy of like, where are you? I'm here, I'm ready, just show up for me. And like the biggest, cold shower on my face, like a splash was like, there is no path.

[00:25:09] Riya Sokol: You freaking create one. And then it appears this is your path. Like you create your path is your path. And it literally took me on my knees. It was like, what? So like me, but where is this? person who decides, about it. I thought there, there is one, like there is this boss or, whatever.

[00:25:33] Riya Sokol: Yeah. 

[00:25:37] Homaya: And I feel, so exactly. And I know many times, my spiritual awakening where I received my life purpose. And so many people are saying to me, so what happened there? What did you receive? What have you seen? How does it look? What are you doing? And it's like, I cannot say what it is.

[00:25:55] Homaya: It's full, just light, full transparency. Everything is possible. It's like, how can you give words? Even now saying those words, it seems so, Oh my God, how can you give words to that? Cause the mind want to attach to an idea, to a formula, to a proven way. without realizing that by that you're getting lost.

[00:26:18] Homaya: We're laughing now, but I'm sure that there are some people who are listening now that are trying to puzzle in case what do those ladies are saying. 

[00:26:26] Riya Sokol: This is the magic of these encounters because there are certain encounters. where we start to have a conversation, but the conversation that happens in the physical realm on the level of logic, on the level of words, of articulation, of verbalization is only on the surface, but underneath there is a second.

[00:26:50] Riya Sokol: Simultaneous reality and conversation happening and if you are able to get to that, if you're able to listen to our meeting, to our conversation, to your podcast on that level, beyond words, beyond what actually we are talking about. Talking about beyond the subject and actually dive deeper and start feeling what is happening there.

[00:27:13] Riya Sokol: That it's not only us human speaking, but there is also like the two souls that are talking, that there is deeper divine conversation happening and it's, there are no words there. Then you get to realize that words are only like an excuse to be able to feel, to go deeper. And this is the tool that I found, like speaking, having conversations like that, storytelling.

[00:27:41] Riya Sokol: Dancing, expression, but there, it's something to get people out of logic, to get people out of what they think they saw and what they predict can happen on based on what they saw. This is something that this opportunity and you can take this chance and use it and actually applicate. Apply it to your life.

[00:28:06] Riya Sokol: So this is why I love connections like that, because it's like, it's nothing to understand. Don't try to understand what we're talking about. Actually, please don't try to understand what we're talking 

[00:28:18] Homaya: about. Yeah. Because trying to understand this conversation mentally is not so different than figuring out the way.

[00:28:28] Homaya: Where is the formula? Oh, now they have the formula and the formula is saying I make the path. Okay, so how do I make the path? And going again, okay, this is what they said. Let me try to calibrate with it. No, it's it is, as you said, it is here, it's only here, and it starts here, and it is, it will happen here, with what you have.

[00:28:51] Homaya: With what you have you win, with what you have you celebrate, with what you have you walk, with what you have you cry, with what you have you live. This is it. It's here. It's 

[00:29:03] Riya Sokol: all.

[00:29:04] Riya Sokol: Period. Amen. 

[00:29:07] Homaya: Such a beautiful embrace and

[00:29:10] Homaya: accepting that the infinity is here.

[00:29:13] Homaya: Not only what not only what you hear, infinity is here.

[00:29:17] Homaya: Beautiful one. Thank you so much for this . 

[00:29:22] Riya Sokol: I feel it goes viral. I feel it's going to be big. And the intention is to get to as many people as possible, to as many souls as possible. I remember I had this reading in 2017. Because I was giving a speech and then a concert and there were, I think 10 people on it.

[00:29:44] Riya Sokol: And then a few days later, I was performing in front of, I think, 500 people. So it was like a big shift and a big thing to compare to. And I remember that my experience was so different and I didn't know why. And in the reading, the lady, she is like a channel lady, a beautiful Tantra teacher also. And she told me that in one of my previous lives, I was a great priestess and I was the I was witnessing a huge genocide that happened and somehow I got to realize that there is a next level of evolution because it was happening in that.

[00:30:28] Riya Sokol: time of matRiyarchy. So it was like, it was the end of matRiyarchy and the beginning of patRiyarchy. And she told me that I came back and I am gathering all the souls that were killed back then to complete what's been what's happened and to heal them. And I do it through my voice. So my intention in everything that I'm doing is to get as many people as possible that to get to the potent, to the maximum of potential of how many people can look, can listen to it in a certain moment.

[00:31:09] Riya Sokol: This is my intention because I know that's my path. I know that I am here to gather as many souls as possible for them to be healed and for me to be healed. So in here, I also claim that it goes to the fullest potential of where it possibly can go. 

[00:31:28] Homaya: Breathing. into it and expanding with it. I feel that this is a wonderful conversation and it's like a beautiful blend of wisdom and hope in a very exquisite way.

[00:31:46] Homaya: Sometimes we have hope and it is like Mona Lisa on the wall and sometimes we have hope and it is like fire in the belly. 

[00:31:55] Riya Sokol: Yeah. I love you. I love you too. Thank you so much. 

[00:32:01] Homaya: Thank you.