Marie Diamond: I was declared dead. They told me very clearly that I have to go back to enlighten more than 500 million people.

Olga Karpman: So I wake up at night at 3:00 just crying and feel like my soul is just wrenching. This journey up and down, it can feel very, very lonely at times.

Marie Diamond: The ego is always trying to keep you smaller, doubting yourself, feeling shame, judging yourself.

Marie Diamond: That is always the ego. Sometimes a dark night of the soul is like you're in a transition hallway. The day that I forgave my father, I dropped the mask.

Olga Karpman: What you lose is not your end, it's your initiation. The phoenix rises from ashes. Welcome to Unmasked. I'm Olga Karpman. This is the show about what lies beneath.

Olga Karpman: Today's guest, Marie Diamond, has been one of the most recognized voices in personal transformation for more than 30 years. You may know her from The Secret, the global phenomenon that brought her work to millions around the world. She has starred in her own network television show, Feng Shui Your Life, and appeared in more than 15 transformational documentaries worldwide.

Olga Karpman: A feng shui master, bestselling author, and dame honored for her contribution to humanity. Millions students, more than 30 countries. In this episode of Unmasked, we go beneath it all.

Olga Karpman: Welcome, Marie, to our show. I'm so, so excited to have you here. As you remember, you were one of the first people who came to my very first show in the Russian-speaking community, and then here now, so thank you so much.

Marie Diamond: Well, thank you so much, Olga, for having me here. It's always a pleasure to be with you.

Olga Karpman: You chose this beautiful mask for a very specific reason, I believe. Nothing happens without purpose.

Marie Diamond: Yeah.

Olga Karpman: Can you tell us a little bit more why you chose this mask?

Olga Karpman: Before we start the interview-

Marie Diamond: Yeah ...

Olga Karpman: I invite you to choose the mask that speaks the most to you and to the collective. Wow. I'm ready. Right? Are you ready? I'm ready. I'm excited.

Marie Diamond: I always wanted to wear a mask like this. Yeah.

Olga Karpman: I didn't choose them randomly. Uh-huh. They came through me For a reason

Marie Diamond: Well, this is like, uh, one of my favorite colors.

Marie Diamond: I like this one, too. But the one I feel as it's the beginning of this new, um, podcast series, we need to be, like, bringing in the fire, so- Don't think too much. Don't think too much I

Olga Karpman: know, but I'm going to need this one. I love it. Well, I will be asking you few questions about it in a minute. Yeah, yeah. And also, at the very end of our interview, I will reveal what this mask has as a message for you and for collective.

Marie Diamond: Ooh,

Olga Karpman: okay, can't wait. So stay tuned to the very end to find out.

Marie Diamond: First of all, I love very much Venetian balls, right? And I felt out- that looked the most Venetian. That was the first one. The second thing is we're actually getting right now, uh, ready for going into the Fire Horse year. And so I've been, like, writing this whole week about the Fire Horse as a Feng Shui mask.

Marie Diamond: I'm preparing my courses for my students, and that felt like this is like a fire horse. Fire is one of the strongest elements right now for the next 20 years, actually, and it's all about bold action, movement, freedom, courage, uh, to speak up. And so when I look at that, I felt like this is so... It's elegant and still q- quite rebellious.

Marie Diamond: And I feel sometimes there's two parts of me. Like, I'm very much a freedom fighter, um, for the world, for what I bring. I've been the number one in many things or the first to do certain things in my life, and at the same time, always want to do it very elegant, but also, I feel always a little a rebel in myself.

Marie Diamond: So I felt that was like an elegant rebel.

Olga Karpman: That's very, very true, and at the end of this interview, I will tell you exactly what this mask was trying to tell us through Marie for our beautiful collective. Mm. So make sure you stay tuned for this. It's a beautiful symbol. I said that this show and this mask came not from me but came through me.

Olga Karpman: For example, this mask is the original mask, the mask that started it all. I feel like I was going through dark night of the soul. Mm. And when I was creating this mask, I was called to put all of these symbols as the representation of- Mm ... night and light, and, um, but when I put all the symbols on, I was called to actually paint it completely different.

Olga Karpman: Mm. So this supposed to be white part, and this was supposed to be black, and I painted it differently, and I put the consciousness, like the symbol of consciousness in the middle. And then the phrase, "Not everything as it seems," came to me. Mm. As if this mask was trying to tell me, hey, we as a collective, humanity, going through so many changes in life right now, and what we think is light can be dark.

Olga Karpman: What we think of dark can be light. So Marie, uh, tell us a little bit about your personal transformation, where you saw the light where everything was dark.

Marie Diamond: Well, I have to go back to the time when I was young and lived in Belgium. Um, I lived with a father that was very abusive, uh, physically and emotionally to me, and he was also a victim of, uh, the Nazi regime, you know.

Marie Diamond: He was, uh, captivated and tortured, and so he came back with probably a high level of, uh, post-traumatic stress. And even in all that darkness at that time for me, there was... I was always looking for that, like you said, that light, you know? And I... Later on I could see that even if that was a very dark time, it was actually the time where I, uh, started learning to meditate when I was seven years old, where I was, like, really connecting in with, you know, nature and, uh, the, the energy that was in nature, having dreams about the future.

Marie Diamond: So even if it was very dark, if we look from the perspective of that child, that child was also... There were this very deep, intense moments of transformation happening already. And so when I look back at it, I always say I would not have done it any different, because I would not be who I am now if I would not have gone through that darkness.

Marie Diamond: And so when I was 25 and my father was, uh, ready to pass on, I was able to forgive him completely on the last night of his life. I could forgive him because I kept ha- having these moments of light, and even there were moments where he was, like, not in that disturbed field that he was sometimes emotionally, and we had also great moments.

Marie Diamond: Great moments of conversations, great moments of laughter and fun, and there were moments that I could see, like, the other side, because I sometimes said he was like a, a Jekyll and Hyde guy. You know, it was like he had these two parts in him. I felt I needed to keep that light up, right? So yes, I learned to find that inner light, even in that moment of darkness, even as a child.

Marie Diamond: And I would say definitely the moments of light for me were when I was reading. There was no self-help books at that time, right? So for me, as a Catholic, that would be reading the Bible, for example, or it would be reading historical books or romance books or books about, uh, poetry. So I would always start looking for, like, what is it that I can be inspired by?

Marie Diamond: If it's nature, if it's meditation, if it's fun or something to get me through these dark times. So even if there were dark times, there were also times of light for me.

Olga Karpman: That's beautiful. Thank you so much for sharing. I'm pretty sure that a lot of us who are listening and watching this interview went through periods of time in their lives where themselves or their loved ones were in such a dark place.

Olga Karpman: Yeah. And in that space, it seems like there is no end of it. And what you shared with the books and finding the light in those darkest times, I think it's really, really- Important for people to hear that there's always the light at the end of the tunnel, right?

Marie Diamond: Yeah.

Olga Karpman: W- what would you say w- to people who think that there is no end of it?

Olga Karpman: Like, it seems like it just dark night of the soul just keeps going and going, and they don't know when it's gonna end.

Marie Diamond: Well, there was not only my, my only darkest night of the soul. There were other moments in my life where I went through not the same experience, but shorter time. And there's one thing that I always just knew, that my soul would not bring me through it if it was not important for my journey.

Marie Diamond: So that was, like, something I knew, like, as a child already. Even if whatever is going on right now, it has a purpose. I don't know what the purpose is yet, right? So I remember when I was 23, my kidneys start failing, and so for seven months I was totally bedridden, and they decided that I would have to be on kidney dialysis for the rest of my life.

Marie Diamond: I was in college. I mean, I had not really had such a, a long life yet. And at the same time, I just knew that going through that experience, I was learning something there. I just was aware of that. I just did not know yet what it was. And ultimately, I got through it. You know, w- I didn't have to go on kidney dialysis.

Marie Diamond: We found a way to heal. I w- I started working with, uh, a lot of homeopathic and alternative medicine that ultim- ultimately helped me to get through this difficult situation. And I would say yes, because of that, I became more aware of the healing power of my body also, and that there were alternatives that I could perhaps open myself up to.

Marie Diamond: And so many times when I look back on my life, there was always this... I don't call it hope, but, like, a knowing. I cannot get around this dark night or this moment of darkness, but I know if I go through it with this belief that, yes, there is a way out, and yes, there will be solutions coming my way. I always had that deep knowing as a child.

Marie Diamond: So when I was 15, I had a near-death experience, and I think that has helped me. I went to the other side. I was declared dead, and as I was on the other side, I saw the light. I saw beings of light on the other side, and they told me very clearly that I have to go back to enlighten more than 500 million people.

Marie Diamond: Now, I had no idea what that meant, but I, I felt there is the knowing there is something greater, something different for me- If I can just keep going even if it's dark. Like, let's say you're in a dark part of your home, and you're, like, going through the hallway and it's dark, but you know if I keep going through that hallway, I'll get to the kitchen.

Marie Diamond: There's light there. I can go to the bedroom. There's light there. Yeah. Right? So sometimes that dark night of the soul is like you're in a transition hallway, but when you keep going and trusting, trusting yourself, trusting perhaps a higher power, perhaps trusting God, whatever your belief system is, but even just trusting your own life force, that if you go through that hallway of darkness, that you will get to a point where you can switch on the light.

Olga Karpman: It's interesting how the whole space started speaking to us, right? Yeah, yeah. As soon as you started talking about dark night- Yeah ... of the soul, the candle, the- Yeah ... everything started moving and shifting, and it's interesting how you moved the mask, uh, closer to you. When I'll read you the message at the very end, you'll know why.

Olga Karpman: How would you describe it for people who don't know that this is it, the dark night of the soul? Because they feel maybe they're depressed, maybe they are just going through changes. How would you describe the whole experience?

Marie Diamond: I do believe that we are on an evolutionary path, uh, both hu- on humanity level, but also individually, and I always kind of describe it as we are going from mountaintop to mountaintop, and a mountaintop is like an evolutionary state of being and where we open more to awareness, where we grow as a human being.

Marie Diamond: But between the mountains, there are actually valleys, and so we can be, like, in an amazing time, and then you suddenly... You cannot, like, almost keep that energy or that experience, and something start happening. So you're kind of sliding away from that moment of happiness or that moment of victory or that moment of accomplishments that you have had.

Marie Diamond: Like, accomplishment can be, for example, you got through college or you got a job or you got a relationship, and then- I think it's part of life, to be honest, that we go to the mountains but we also go to the valleys, and these valleys sometimes will be experienced by human beings as a, a dark moment in their life.

Marie Diamond: And that can be that they feel depressed or they feel they are losing their job or money-wise, and that's not only individually, I think it's also collectively. There's not a straight path forward. The path is up and down, and, and this is literally, um, what life is about, is that when the moments are that you have that darker moment in yourself, that you remember the high moments in your life, that you're connect with the blessings that they were, that you're still grateful for this, but also to be grateful even for the moments when it's not so deep, not so high and, and more deeper and, and more difficult in your life because that's where you actually see- start seeing things in perspective.

Marie Diamond: When you're sometimes in that high, you don't see things in perspective. You don't see it really. You're like so in that, yeah, everything works well for me, right? And that's the moment we forget to see the blessings and we forget to be grateful, and it's the moments when we go in a- another field where we actually learn the most lessons also of who we are and where we question ourself.

Marie Diamond: Like, who, who am I really? Why, what am I really here

Olga Karpman: to- Besides the body, besides

Marie Diamond: the- Besides the body, yeah ... job

Olga Karpman: title- Correct ... career- Yeah ... relationship.

Marie Diamond: Yeah, beside all that, who am I really? We don't ask that question when on the top of the mountain when everything is fine. We ask the questions when everything is steep and difficult.

Olga Karpman: You know what's interesting? I still have your drawing here-

Marie Diamond: Oh, yeah ...

Olga Karpman: and I brought it with me, about the seven valleys. You guys won't be able to see it all clearly. Yeah. But when we met with Marie last time for lunch, I was sharing with her my own experience of dark night of the soul, and that's, this is what she's talking about- Yeah

Olga Karpman: the seven valleys. And she's like, "Okay, the dark night of the soul is right here, right?" Yours is. We're here. Yeah, yours is. Mine is already here, so. Yeah, yeah. And after this conversation, she's like, "That's it. I'm launching the podcast." Yeah Mine is already right here. But you're absolutely right. This journey, this journey up and down, it can feel very, very lonely at times.

Olga Karpman: Yeah. You know when you're on top of the mountain, everything's great. Yeah. Everyone loves you. You're in high energy. Yeah. But when you're actually in that deep, deep, deep space, that you feel... First of all, you feel lonely. You feel like no one will understand you, even your loved ones. Yeah. I mean, when I was going through this, I have a beautiful family.

Olga Karpman: I have the most- You do ... loving- Yeah ... uh, b- generous, with, uh, intention and emotion, emotions husband. But even for him, it was hard for me to explain what I was going through. It was just waves of emotions, and it was like, "Am I going through my hormonal changes- ... I'm 40 plus? Or, like, my kids are-" That could be too This could be too, right?

Olga Karpman: I was like, "No, this is not it." Yeah. If I wake up at night, at 3:00 at night, and I'm like just crying and feel like my soul is just wrenching, and it's like, what is going on? And I feel like this is such a lonely space. Where do you go for help, uh, in this case? Yeah. Do you share? Do you not share? What do you do?

Olga Karpman: Yeah.

Marie Diamond: Well, I think we're now definitely in a different era of, uh, the world. I couldn't really talk to people too much about it. I could have a good cry with my mom, for example, or I could go and talk to a, a priest or something. Like, but it was like people would not go to a coach or to a, a therapist or a psychologist.

Marie Diamond: Right now, more and more people know there's a path forward, that there's help out there, that you don't have to go through these difficult times alone. But even sometimes, even if there are people around you, you feel quite alone bec- why is that? Because you are in a time where you go in yourself. And so it's interesting you, you showed the black and white mask, but in, uh, feng shui, we talk about...

Marie Diamond: in, in the, the Chinese traditions, talk about the yin and the yang. There's moments of yang. We're active. We're, everything is amazing, right? We're partying, and life is great, right? But even in that moment, in, we call it the white side, there is a little black dot. That black dot is telling, yes, remember, you know who you are.

Marie Diamond: Please- Keep asking the questions, be humble, don't go in your ego and, and see all the things are great. And then before we know it and we're like, we're slipping into that darker side of us where we go in ourself, and that's where we ask the questions, but that's also where we feel lonely because the only one we really need to communicate with is ourself.

Marie Diamond: So our own intuition, our own emotion, our own traumas, we need to really tap into that because we all have traumas, right? We all have gone through experiences, but it's the moment to listen to ourself. What is it that I really need? What is it that I need to really learn from this experience? 'Cause also in that black part of the yin yang, there's a white dot for you to remember, yes, there is light.

Marie Diamond: And so we just have to remember when we go through that experience, there is light. And look for things that give you light, that give you joy. And it can be literally, I remember this woman and she was like, "Everything is dark. I'm at the end of my life, you know, everything is dark," right? And I said, "What makes you happy?"

Marie Diamond: Right? Just focus on the little things that make you happy. She said, "Well, I love watching, you know, stand-up comedian." Okay, well, keep watching it, right? Or, "I love walking with my dog in nature." Well, keep doing that. So even in these moments of darkness, keep looking for these small moments like what I did walking in nature, or driving in nature, or reading books or poetry, or I would also go once a week dancing or whatever it is, right?

Marie Diamond: Keep bringing that moment of light in and also know that that light, that small part of light will bring you back to the other side. But at a certain moment you will start seeing that we need to accept that these two both sides are in us, and that's why we kind, kind of go in and out of it, and we are in the light and we're in the darkness, till we accept Both parts are us.

Marie Diamond: Yeah

Olga Karpman: Yes

Marie Diamond: Right?

Olga Karpman: This brings me to a beautiful topic of the shadows in us, right? Mm. Until we accept our shadows, until we accept our darkness and our light together, we cannot be whole and complete. And it's so important that you mention this through, again, my own experience, right? It's like I don't know what it is, but I have to get outside.

Olga Karpman: I started running, walking, just I don't know why, but I just wanna walk in nature, walk, walk, walk. It feels like body has all this tension- Mm ... from, from stagnation, right? Whatever it is- Mm ... that we are processing. And also, we live in a very interesting time- Mm-hmm ... where Earth itself receiving a lot of energies that human body is not probably ready for.

Olga Karpman: Our job as humans to take really good care of our body- Mm ... at the times of this transition. This is what I experienced firsthand. It is, it's interesting that you mentioned dancing, because one day I woke up, I wanna dance. And today I actually found in the same book, I'm not gonna read it, but my intentions for 2025, the letter- Yeah

Olga Karpman: that I wrote to myself, I'm dancing through life. And one day I literally woke up, I'm gonna go dancing, and guess what? I chose pole dancing.

Marie Diamond: Amazing.

Olga Karpman: My inner Lilith said, "Enough of sleeping. You're gonna go dancing." Why? Why pole dancing? I had no idea. But now I understand. It's strength, it's beauty, and not everything as it seems, because- Yeah

Olga Karpman: people perceive pole dancing as something only sexual, only dirty. But who said that sexuality is dark? When we just marry those two things and bring them into life and accept it and show this is who I am and it's okay, this is when the true magic, I feel, happens.

Marie Diamond: Yeah.

Olga Karpman: And this is where the true awakening happen.

Olga Karpman: Would, would you say so?

Marie Diamond: Oh, totally. I think a lot of people are on a, a path of positive awakening, but they always want in that positive awakening that everything is exciting and everything is celebration and joyful. And yes, it can be, but at the same time, the awakening is also to tap into the difficult times, and your shadows, and your ancestral programs, and your limiting beliefs, and to look into them, you know?

Marie Diamond: And to make sure that you heal them, and, and to know that the first thing we need to change in our awakening is our self-judgment. 'Cause we're always thinking when we're in the light, oh, then we do all things right. And then when we're in, in that darker moment in ourself, we judge ourself for that. No, don't- Exactly

Marie Diamond: judge yourself for that moment. You know, it's part of your experience of human e- your human life. That I think if you can stop judging yourself, it doesn't mean that you don't question yourself like, "Do I do this well?" Discern, you know, if things are the right way, what you're doing. But not judging yourself, like, for whatever

Olga Karpman: comes.

Olga Karpman: Just stopping it. Yeah. Just exactly stopping it when y- when this voice comes over, right? Yeah. It's like stop. You know what? Recently I started saying, "I'm just observing."

Marie Diamond: Yep.

Olga Karpman: As a, as if... Because there were so many voices, and this, and conversations, and it's, I was like, "Wait a second. I need to get out of this.

Olga Karpman: This is not me talking. These are the old programs. They're trying to keep me back." Mm. And as soon as I tell myself this one word, "I'm just observing, I'm observer," it's something energetically gets me out of that program, out of that matrix, and it just disappears. Not right away, but I forget, and sometimes it's like I go back, "Where was it?

Olga Karpman: Oh, I'm not thinking about it anymore." Yeah. How do... What, what are the practical tools- Yeah.

Marie Diamond: Well, I think this is a really good one, what you just shared, is, uh, to understand that it's our ego or personality. That means our body reactions, our emotions, and our mind. Tell us

Olga Karpman: more. How do we recognize if it's-

Marie Diamond: Yeah

Olga Karpman: ego or, or someone else- Well- ... or our heart or our soul speaking to us?

Marie Diamond: Yeah, so I would say the ego is always trying to keep you smaller, doubting yourself, uh, feeling shame, judging yourself. So when it, like, brings you to a smaller place, yeah, that is always the ego. While when you said, "I'm observing," you actually at that moment said, "I'm not staying in the noise, yeah, of my ego.

Marie Diamond: I'm kind of stepping out of the room that is my ego reaction, and I'm looking at it." At that moment, you already are in that transition. It's not the soul yet, but it is the transition to the soul. Then the soul is then saying, "What can I do in, to inspire you, to uplift you?" So ask yourself these questions.

Marie Diamond: Like, first of all, when you're in the noise, I observe. Like, step back, take a breath, and say that, "Okay, this is going on right now, but do I want to stay in that experience? Or- Do I want to be inspired? Do I want to be uplifted? Do I want to be expanding myself, accelerate myself? Because that is what the soul wants you to do.

Marie Diamond: So just ask yourself the question and look at your life. If you do certain thing, does that bring you down or br- lift s- you up? So when I said yes to this, it's because I know this would lift me up. This is a new ex- wonderful experience to come to the Unmasked show and to have, like always, wonderful conversations between us.

Marie Diamond: Um, but it's also we need to understand that we need to make a choice to be lifted up, to be awakened.

Olga Karpman: Mm-hmm.

Marie Diamond: And how can we do that? Well, it can literally by what you just said, listening to your body and listening to your... the intuition that speaks sometimes in a dream or in a, a smaller voice. It's not the loudest voice, yeah, 'cause the loudest voice is the fears and the ego reactions.

Marie Diamond: But it's the smaller voice that some say, "Why don't you go for a walk," right? Because your ego will never say, "Go for a walk. Why don't you go dancing?" Right. That never is going to be your ego, because your ego will say, "No, stay in front of the television- Right ... and eat that pizza and drink that beer." Or

Olga Karpman: just like-

Marie Diamond: Right

Olga Karpman: what, what, uh, how many judgments- Stay stagnant ... how many judgments against the pole dancing- Right ... for example, right? Yeah. Like, oh my gosh, pole dancing. Why pole dancing, I ask myself. Uh, yeah. And how many people judge? And

Marie Diamond: then- But it's

Olga Karpman: about dancing. It's about dancing. About expressing. It's about st- uh, strength- Strength, yeah

Olga Karpman: because you have to be so strong, and it can be whatever you name it. Yeah. You can dance for yourself. You can dance, uh, in just, in studio. But for me personally, it's my therapy. Yeah. I can do pole dancing or just floor dancing, jazz, and I also... Again, back to not everything is it seems. Sometimes I look at our ladies in the studio and then ballerinas, and then why ballerinas?

Olga Karpman: Just because they're wearing white? But they pretty much doing the same moves, but they have a pole horizontal, not vertical. Yeah. Why, why they're not judged- Yeah ... like that? Yeah. And I feel like, well, this is the perception of humanity. Again- Mm-hmm ... just what we put, what kind of intention we put into something.

Olga Karpman: Yeah. You've been in the space of personal development industry for such a long time. Yeah. One thing about hu- us as humans and about society and especially personal development industry, that we feel like we need to be the light. We need to always be the light, but coming back to conversation of shadows, how to marry them.

Olga Karpman: Yeah. What's the purpose to be always light? This is the mask that we wear a lot of times, to be perfect, to be light, to be good mom. Yeah. What good mom cannot be dance, pole dancing? If she's pole dancing, she's a stripper. She cannot be professional interviewer- Yeah ... or have other jobs. Yeah. So these are all these sorts of programs that running through our heads a lot of times.

Marie Diamond: Yeah

Olga Karpman: And I feel like they're, a lot of times they're mirror of what we do have inside- Yeah ... than what we do wanna look at.

Marie Diamond: Yeah, but it's interesting. It's just not only the self-help development. If you look at the whole religious background, you know, and, and many- Yeah ... cultures, right? We always were looking for the light to have the higher energy, and of course that is needed in society that there are these examples of people that are showing the way forward, right?

Marie Diamond: These are the teachers and in religious, the priests, the priests and, and the, the monks and the nuns and whatever they are called in that, in, in, in that religion. But the whole point is that, yes, that is good, but at the same time, if we don't be authentic with ourself and honest with ourself about the pains we have and the difficulties we have, and we don't address them and we don't w- work with them to forgive ourself, for example...

Marie Diamond: I think forgiveness is a huge process, forgiving ourself for the judgments, and I do every day with my students. I always teach them to do every day a forgiveness process because, you know, yesterday we already were perhaps, you know, creating darkness for ourself. Let's f- don't take it with you for another day, right?

Marie Diamond: Exactly. Forgive yourself and release all this old, uh, pain that we have so that we become a, a balanced human being, right? A balanced human being that is open to the light, but also has accepted the darkness and healed the darkness as much as it can because then that will be brought forward to the next generations.

Marie Diamond: What we heal in ourself, our children, I know you have two beautiful children and I have three, they're already benefiting from that, uh, b- because we have healed so much in us and we have found a balance in, in the darkness and the light within ourself. And so the more we do that, the more we go through a dark night of the soul and we get through it and we find a new balance because each time every mountain is finding a new balance, is a new awakening, and we can only get to that new awakening when we go into the dip first of a difficult time.

Marie Diamond: I was today with my son and I was speaking at, at an event, an interview. He was listening to some other speakers and he's like, "Mom," you know, and he's, you know, 28 years old, and he was like, "Mom, I mean, the way they spoke, I mean, you can already see, like, they show the light- But I can tell you this one man, this is the darkness what this man is, is working with right now.

Marie Diamond: And I said, "Yeah, you're spot on," because I knew the personal life of that man. And he's like... I said, "I would never really go that direction. I see how my children are so different already-

Olga Karpman: Yeah ...

Marie Diamond: than I was at 28." Then my daughter's 22, how she is now at 22, I'm like, my God, and it's because I went through my moments, and I went to the other side, and I became a different human being because I looked at what lied b- beneath me, and I checked it out, and I healed it, and I replaced it with something more uplifting and more inspiring.

Olga Karpman: Y- you said very key word, once we release one type of energy, we wanna put something in there because there is no emptiness in the- Yeah ... in the universe, right? No, we- Or in our body We always have to fill the void We always have to. Yeah. So we have a choice to fill it in, and it's so important, as you mentioned, to create the environment for our children, not only, like, beautiful home or good food on the table, right, but the environment of emotional support and emotional- Yeah

Olga Karpman: lightness, I would say. They will go through dark spaces- Yeah ... unfortunately, as we want them not to go there, but they will go through there. But I feel like evolution will happen differently if we do our work. Yeah. And for the space where we raise our children, um, you're a beautiful feng shui master known all over the world.

Olga Karpman: How would you say we can, uh, empower our space so we can feel more- light in our environment

Marie Diamond: Yeah, I think it's very important part to support, um, your energy, and this is like the tool that most people, uh, forget about is yours- your space. That's why in my latest book, Your Home as a Vision Board, I talk about how even myself-

Olga Karpman: You brought it here, right?

Marie Diamond: Yes, yes, I have it here.

Olga Karpman: I haven't seen it yet.

Marie Diamond: Yeah, I wa- I s- I love it ... I brought you a copy. Oh- So, yeah ... I

Olga Karpman: love

Marie Diamond: it. Yeah, I tell the, there the story where when after my near-death experience, um, and when I look back I was a very depressed child because all the things that were happening. But the space around me was also very depressing, to be honest.

Marie Diamond: There was not a lot of sunlight coming in. Everything was blue. It was like all the images that were out there were, like, all from top models. And a- as a child I couldn't tip on or top these top models. I mean, they was like... These were, like, women I could never connect with. Then I did the first thing was like, is that what I want to be surrounded by, right?

Marie Diamond: And so I changed my bedroom to a place where s- more sunlight came in. I painted it warmer colors, yeah, like, um, warm, uh, orange and, and peach. And I start drawing my own because we didn't have money for posters. So I was like... I was drawing, like, friends and love and, and suddenly my whole life ch- shifted around, and that's when the first time I really understood how also my environment can really uplift me and get...

Marie Diamond: help me to get through that dark tunnel. That's why I'm saying Your Home as a Vision Board, start looking in your space that you have right now and walk in and see is this house reflecting who I am? Perhaps it is. Perhaps you're single and you have all images of single people, right? Or you're very chaotic in your mind.

Marie Diamond: You don't see a way out and everything is chaos around you. It's clutter everywhere. And then you can say, well- Why don't I change that and make the space a reflection of who I want to be, right? Perhaps now you feel in a dark space, and you look around, and everything looks really dark. Yeah.

Olga Karpman: Yeah.

Marie Diamond: And but I want to really be in the light.

Marie Diamond: I really want to be more in a balanced way 'cause in feng shui, we look for balanced energy, harmonious between the light and the dark, right? We look for that, actually. And so to make sure the space is telling something different, yeah, for your future and even already for yourself right now. And it can be decluttering, yeah?

Olga Karpman: Yeah. It- That's the first step, I feel

Marie Diamond: like ... is the first step, right?

Olga Karpman: We all have clutter in-

Marie Diamond: We do, right? ... every corner

Olga Karpman: of the house.

Marie Diamond: We do, and, and just letting go of things that w- no longer serve us, things that are broken or dead plants or just books even or pictures that you're like, "That's not me anymore," right?

Marie Diamond: Mm-hmm. "This is not my family anymore." Why don't you start changing that? And you'll start seeing as you're making your awareness different around you is that also your mindset will start picking that up and feel so much better because when you do feng shui, you really b- create balance. And so the Book Your Home as a Vision Board is really helping you together with a, a special app that we have that is based on your birthday.

Marie Diamond: You actually start seeing very small changes you can make because sometimes it's so hard to make the changes within yourself. That's

Olga Karpman: true. It's great if we wanna change ourselves, but that's feel sometimes a longer process, and it- Yeah ... doesn't happen overnight, where decluttering happens, o- can happen literally overnight.

Olga Karpman: Uh, totally can, yes. And it is just like put everything in a box. And I love your app. I've been using it for years now. By the way, we will include all the links, um- Yeah ... uh, in this interview. Please download it. It's free to begin with, and you put your birthday in there. Yeah. And you see every direction where you put your, you know, different things for success, success corner, and everything.

Olga Karpman: I remember when I was changing my path, uh, I was like, "That's it. This has to go. This has to go. Marie's app." And it's like... And my daughter, my younger one, she loves feng shui, and she's like, "Mom, I need to reorganize my room." I was like, "Here you go. Use the app." Yeah. So she used that as well. Beautiful. And I love it how practical.

Olga Karpman: You know, sometimes we get into the spaces, oh my God, this process looks very, very big, and- Yeah ... and where do I start? Everything is overwhelming. But you start taking one step at a time, just like the walk in the nature, right? Yeah. One step leads to another and another- Yeah ... and another. So the environment that we create- can, uh, reflect exactly of what's on the inside- Yeah

Olga Karpman: and vice versa.

Marie Diamond: Yeah.

Olga Karpman: So once we start changing that, I feel like we are moving in the right direction.

Marie Diamond: It is, and that's why I always say sometimes it's too hard to change something within you, to change your mind. But I've seen, and I've done this now for more than two million online students, that, uh, when they start doing something, changing in the outside world, that at the same time something shifts on the inside.

Olga Karpman: That's true.

Marie Diamond: You know? And sometimes sh- shifting something around you, you don't even understand sometimes the power of it, but it can be really very strong how that, it reflects back within you. You're like, "Oh, I feel better," or I make a different decision, or, you know, I have more friends, or my health is feeling better, or I wake up in the morning much more-

Olga Karpman: Mm-hmm

Marie Diamond: alive and concentrated to do something today. So just these small little outside things will reflect back because we have something called mirror neurons in our brain, so whatever we see around us, in a subconscious way, that is a message 24 hours a day. And so if you look, uh, I will just give you an example.

Marie Diamond: I came into somebody's home and, uh, she said, "Oh, come inside," and I stop and I look at the painting. It was a very expensive painting, and it was actually signed by an artist, and in the painting was hidden the word victim.

Olga Karpman: Hmm.

Marie Diamond: Yeah. And so each time she comes in, she sees the word victim, right?

Olga Karpman: Right.

Marie Diamond: And I said to her, "Are you aware of that?"

Marie Diamond: And she said, "Oh, I have this for years. I never even noticed the word victim is in the painting." I said, "How have you been feeling lately?" "Oh," she said, "oh, everybody's after me. I can't do anything right for nobody." I said, "So you feel like a victim?" She said- Oh my God. So I said, "Take that off. Let's put it somewhere where you don't see it when you walk into your house."

Marie Diamond: Yeah. "Let's put some beautiful fresh flowers, something uplifting, a, an image of your family, something that when you come in you feel like, 'Ah, I'm home. I'm happy- Right ... to be home.'" Right? A happy moment, a happy feeling. And she started doing that. She's like, "My God, my life shifted around." Because it was still somewhere in the hallway, but she didn't, uh, see it all the time.

Marie Diamond: And so that can be in your bedroom. It can be in your office.

Olga Karpman: Yeah.

Marie Diamond: It can even when you are, for example, people that sit with their back to the door, yeah, they literally are creating what we have seen more beta brainwaves. When you are more beta brainwaved, you actually create more stress, more fear, and you think more into problems.

Marie Diamond: But if you look at the door, like you put yourself in a position you can see the door, you literally shift the energy and you go into alpha brainwaves, and then you actually are focusing more on solutions. You're more happy, more optimistic. You're more concentrated. So just simply changing your position in your space- Yeah

Marie Diamond: can change already your mindset, and so that you see more balance and more harmony in your life. So just use your home. As I say, that's responsible for 33% of the outcome of your life, the space where you live, sleep, and work in. So why don't we change that- Yeah ... and start there? If you feel like all the other things don't really work or it's a longer process, let me start decluttering my bedroom And sleep in a more harmonious place.

Olga Karpman: And for someone who wants to change careers, for example, but doesn't know what it is yet- Yeah ... what would you recommend as well?

Marie Diamond: Well, I would definitely make sure that they activate their success direction. So they can actually download the app, and then they will see a, a special compass that we have.

Olga Karpman: While you're looking, Marie, uh, this was one of the questions that I received from, um, uh, our audience- Mm-hmm ... on Instagram. So make sure that you subscribe to our Instagram page, and we're in stories. A lot of times I say, "Hey, I'm going to the interview. Ask me questions." Yeah, beautiful. And I actually bring that up.

Marie Diamond: Yeah, and so there's a special compass that people will see, and there will be a success direction. So the first thing you want to do is that you are holding the, the compass in the center of the room and see where your success direction. My success direction is right here now, right? It depends on your birthday.

Marie Diamond: And so the first thing you do there is putting things that are related with success, or it could be books on abundance or books on leadership. Declutter that area. You cannot have any clutter there whatsoever. And you can put there also something in royal blue, because royal blue stands for confidence and courage.

Marie Diamond: Could be a royal blue candle, for example. You just put it there. If you want more clarity, you work with aqua blue. Mm-hmm. Aqua blue is like, think about if you look at the sea, you can see the fish swim. Right. Right? So something in aqua blue actually activates that energy. So you can place something in that color, something very small.

Marie Diamond: It doesn't have to be... You don't have to repaint a wall. It's all about acupuncture, because feng shui is an energy system that is actually like the acupuncture of your home. And so by doing that, this will help you. But also, when you're not feeling clear enough in the future, I would always write a forgiveness letter, and we talk about it in your book, Your Home is a Vision Board, is you need to also release.

Marie Diamond: And so by writing a forgiveness letter of all the things that didn't go well or the failures or that you feel stuck right now, you write that, and then you burn that letter, you know? Um, like when it's a sunny day, you burn that letter. You will actually release some of that energy that doesn't make you feel clear about your future.

Olga Karpman: That's beautiful. Thank you. Thank you, Marie. You know, unfortunately, we come to the time where we need to wrap up our interviews, but I have so many questions, and I think we'll do part two at some point. I, I love how we went through- a lot what was on the collective mind through the mask, through the shadows, to beautiful practical tools and the light energy.

Olga Karpman: Do you feel it? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Do you feel like it was, it was very beautiful transition. Yeah. W- if this mask could speak- Mm ... again at the very end of the interview, and I will read what this means, and you'll understand why Marie chose this particular- Okay ... mask. I'm so excited to know. But if this mask had a one final message, what would it say to our beautiful community?

Marie Diamond: Well, what I really also like about this mask is that the feather, is the energy is up, right? And I do feel when we focus on improve ourself and to uplift ourself and to celebrate ourself, that we would really have it easier to get through the dark nights and to see, uh, easier, uh... And make it easier for ourself to heal what leads, what lies beneath everything.

Marie Diamond: Yeah, so that's one of the reasons and that I want to say uplift and awaken and inspire yourself. Yeah.

Olga Karpman: That's for sure. Well, I have a... As I mentioned, uh, this mask came to me. It's, it's not, like, from me, right? Everything just came to the show. This mask, it's called The Phoenix Artist. Aha. I love it. And now you know why you chose this.

Marie Diamond: Oh, yeah.

Olga Karpman: The phoenix rises from ashes. Yeah. What we were talking about. Yeah. The darkness-

Marie Diamond: Yeah ...

Olga Karpman: and light, and how we can bring light into our daily life.

Marie Diamond: Yeah. Well, it's the upliftment, like I was-

Olga Karpman: Uplift- ...

Marie Diamond: speaking about, right?

Olga Karpman: Exactly.

Marie Diamond: Yeah.

Olga Karpman: As if we are reborn through destruction- Mm-hmm ... and our pain becomes our medicine And this is the alchemy of endings Mm And th- you might hear the message for yourself, Marie, as well

Marie Diamond: I would love...

Marie Diamond: I, I'm listening.

Olga Karpman: So just take it all in. It's, because it wasn't only here. So think where one era of something in you as well, right? Yeah, for sure. Ending right now Yeah And something new, beautiful becoming. Because this archetype is very, uh, it's like a sacred initiator Mm. You know how we were talking about going through dark night of the soul?

Olga Karpman: You feel like when you're going through this, you feel like you are dead, like your soul is dead, like you were, you're never coming back. And then you're rising like phoenix. Yeah. And something new is always coming through. And as Marie said, the symbol of it is fire, and feathers, and rebirth. Everything at the end of it is love and light.

Olga Karpman: Mm. And you become alive again, and unafraid. So maybe for you or for our collective, it's a new stage of life where there is life- Mm ... after darkness. And what you lose is not your end, it's your initiation.

Marie Diamond: Mm.

Olga Karpman: So anyone who needs to hear this right now, and I will give a bigger explanation in our membership community.

Olga Karpman: Um, we are just starting this series of podcasts and the show, but my idea was always to have a community, supportive community where people can come and don't have to feel alone-

Marie Diamond: Mm-hmm ...

Olga Karpman: going through the journey. And you will find all information around this interview, and I will fe- I will give you a deeper explanation, actually the message from this particular mask in depth for, uh, collective feminine and masculine, and what happens when you, uh, come together in this.

Olga Karpman: But it has beautiful, beautiful message. And just if you'd like to join our community, please do so. It's probably less than you spend on coffee a month. Uh, but you will feel supported, and you feel guided. And every step of the way, where you're going in life, which direction you're taking, you feel like you're not alone.

Olga Karpman: And you can always ask questions and get answers from, uh, beautiful videos that we will be uploading there. So check it out. It's around this video.

Marie Diamond: This makes total sense also in my own life. There's, like, something new coming forward next year that is not out of ashes, uh, really, but it's definitely a new step for me.

Marie Diamond: It's, um, yeah, it's a new direction for me. So yeah, I can totally relate with the mask now.

Olga Karpman: The initiation is to let purpose replace just the performance, to rebuild not from ego but essence, and to let the fire strip away all that isn't truth until only love remains.

Marie Diamond: Mm. Beautiful. Thank you.

Olga Karpman: So check out other videos where it's more, more, more explanations for this.

Olga Karpman: And this is... it's like a sacred fire that cannot be contained anymore. Mm. And I know even though you created, Marie, so many beautiful communities, so many great things, I cannot wait to see- What else will unfold? And I'm very excited because after you- ... reach certain point of success, right, for you it's, like, millions people around the world, books, best-selling author, best teacher, best speaker, there is, there's always something more beautiful and deep and as deep and beautiful as you are.

Marie Diamond: Oh, thank

Olga Karpman: you. And there is always new depth of it.

Marie Diamond: Well, I think every teacher is always l- you know, learning even more the next steps in life, and the journey is never done, so we just continue.

Olga Karpman: So the last and final question: Who is Marie unmasked?

Marie Diamond: Who is Marie unmasked? I have to be honest, I don't think I, I wear a mask.

Marie Diamond: People that know me in my private life and they see me in my professional life, they're like, "Oh, that's Marie." So I think I left that mask, I, I would say the day that I forgave my father, I dropped the mask.

Olga Karpman: That's beautiful. Thank you so much, Marie.

Marie Diamond: Thank

Olga Karpman: you. I love you.

Marie Diamond: I love you too, sweetheart. Oh. And good luck with this beautiful show.

Olga Karpman: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for being here until this very last second. If something in this conversation stopped you, made you pause, made you feel something different, that wasn't random. That was yours. I want you to truly remember it and take it with you, and I strongly believe your unmasking process has already started.

Olga Karpman: I'm honored to be part of that journey. Click the video on your screen. It's the next piece. It might take you a little deeper. Subscribe so you never miss what's coming next, because I personally promise you, me and my team are committed to bringing you quality conversations this deep again and again.

Olga Karpman: And if someone in your life needs to hear this today, share it with them. You might just change someone's life by doing that. I'm Olga Karpman. This was Unmasked, the show about what lies beneath. I'll see you in the next video