SOUND FOR THE SOUL WITH ELIKA MAHONY

Christina: Hello everyone, and welcome to another episode of "I Am Christina DiArcangelo." I'm so excited for this episode. I know a lot of my episodes I say this, but I am really, really very thankful to have Elika on with me today to talk about all the things she's been doing because I think today's segment will bring a lot of patience, a lot of hope, and hopefully healing today. Welcome, Elika, to our podcast today.

Elika: Thank you so much for having me. Thank you.

Christina: So how about we start off with you explaining your background a little bit and what you do and what drives you every day, and then we could just take it from there. Does that seem okay?

Elika: That sounds great.

Christina: Perfect.

Elika: I grew up in a musical family, so my mom's a piano teacher, and my father is a lover of all things music. And so I am a musician, primarily. I'm also a professional organizer on the side when I have time, and I basically create music to uplift souls and uplift their day because life is so full of distractions, and it can be really challenging to face the day with everything that comes at us. So my music, the goal of it is just to uplift and bring in a joyous mood.

Christina: I love it because that's how I found you, was through your music initially on Instagram. Somehow you had come up in my browser for somebody that I would want to listen to or connect with or whatever. You know how that works. And I know that because of the analytics, because I own a tech company, I understand why things show up in my feed, if you will. And I think the reason why it did was because you're a Bahá'í and I'm a Bahá'í if I recall correctly. I think it's something to do with that, because that's how it showed up. And so I started listening to your music, and then, if you recall, I reached out to you because you're a Bahá'í. And I was like, oh, this is so awesome to have met another Bahá'í person. Right? Because it's not like we have hundreds and thousands we're all over the world, but it's not like other religions where it's very common practice, right, to run into a Bahá'í.

Elika: Yeah. Instagram is a great way to connect with like-minded people, and often I'm communicating with new friends, not only Bahá'ís, but I have met incredibly spiritual people on Instagram that I connect with almost on a daily basis. So I'm really glad that we were able to connect on there.

Christina: Me too. And then we figured out that you knew my adopted Persian parents that I talk about sometimes that are from the West Coast. And so once we made that correlation, I was so excited because I love everybody that I have met through. Farhad and Lily and their family, because I've been in their family, if you will, since 2005. And that was how I learned about the faith initially was because of them, because I was out in San Francisco working with Farhad, ironically, at one of our biotech companies that we worked together, and he asked me for dinner to go with his family. And okay, I accepted and I went and I'm so thankful I had, because once I went and I met them, I met Lily and I met Tammy, because Rod was down in L.A. Working for a pretty big fashion industry as one of the top finance guys. He's really smart. I met them, and so then I started hanging out with the Redwood City Bahá'ís through Farhad and Lily. So that's how I started learning about also the Persian culture, which I love. I know how to cook Persian food. Now, I'm not as good as you guys are but I know how to make tati. I have Persian spices in my cabinet.

I recently moved my home and my offices and my distribution and my movers were like, when they were packing all the spices, they're like, we don't understand what this says because it's in Arabic, right? And they're like, we don't understand. And I'm like, well, that's Persian. That's Persian spices, that's saffron, that's this, that's that. So I am

Elika: It was because of you that I got reconnected with Lily and Farhad, because it's such a small world. She is actually on my music mailing list, and I didn't even know that we're closely related. So after you and I connected, I wrote to her and I said, I need to know exactly how we're related, and it's quite close. So thank you for that connection as well.

Christina: My pleasure. And Lily and Farhad were so happy that I found you and reconnected you guys together, because there's a lot of things that go on in families, and it's nice to have that connector reconnection again, because when you go through challenges, it's nice to have a tribe of people that support you. And they also already appreciated your music, right, because they were listening to it.

Elika: So sweet. Small world, really.

Christina: So awesome. So tell us a little bit about what inspires you when you're working on your drafting of your music, when you're composing your music, what inspires you?

Elika: Well, I can share my latest video and composition that I've been working on, because it's about ten Bahá'í women who were who sacrificed their lives for their beliefs 40 years ago in Iran, and they were asked to recant their faith and if they did so, they would be spared. Their lives would be spared. But they did not. Despite all the pressure, they were martyred. So the latest video that I'm working on and music is in honor of these ten women, and it's actually a campaign that's happening around the world. Called Our Story is One. And so I wanted to contribute something really meaningful to honor their lives and remember them for their steadfastness and their courage. These women really inspired me to just live more fully and more courageously. Thankfully, I'm not in a position where I need to do anything that drastic, but to bring me courage in just facing day to day things.I mean, even being on this podcast is a form of courage because you're being vulnerable and we're sharing art and we're having conversation. So this video will be out in a couple of days.

Christina: Awesome.

Elika: So individuals usually inspire me. I turn to the Bahá'í writings for inspiration. I set a lot of the Bahá'í prayers on different themes, like healing. For example, there's a beautiful, long healing prayer and I set it to music for one of my dear friend's son who had cancer. He was 19 years old. And also for my nephew who needed heart surgery. I decided to set this prayer to music, which normally I would never have the courage to do because it's really long. It's 19 minutes song.

Christina: Wow.

Elika: And so that took a lot of courage. But that prayer has a lot of power, and I just felt it was really important to put it out in the world so that others could use it for their own healing.

Christina: I love that. I love that message of healing because since the pandemic, we have all kind of gone through multiple things, whether we got COVID, we have lost people who have had COVID, we are stuck in a location because of COVID and we can't go back to our home country. There's a lot of things there's financial implications that happen because of COVID there was the isolation that occurred because of COVID. So there's so many things, right, that we have to heal from as a community across the world. And also the fact that we have seen what has been happening in Iran, especially I'm not Persian, but because I have adopted family that is Persian, I have been watching it very closely because obviously I'm a woman too. And I believe that we should have the right to speak about what we think and share our beliefs as long as it's not damaging, like we're slandering someone or we're being grievance stricken by doing things that are demonic, that's a different story. But speaking up for yourself, especially women's rights, that's something that we're lucky enough because we're where we are in the world, in the United States, that, yes, we still have issues as women. There is still a glass ceiling. However, these women have given up their lives for the cause. And I had someone on my show not too long ago. It was probably a couple of months ago or so. She's also a Persian woman who is living she left Iran and is living in Germany. She's a clinical researcher. Her name is Shabam and we talked a little bit on her podcast about this very topic. So it's very interesting that once again, I'm bookending with two separate people, but it's the same messaging. We need to do better as a society.

Elika: Yeah. The fact that I'm not living in Iran now that I'm in the U.S. Well, I live in China normally, but we're in the U.S. We've been here for the last year and a half waiting to go back to China. But basically, I'm able to work on music and record music, which I wouldn't be allowed to do if I were living in Iran. So when this whole revolution started in September of last year and women were standing up for equal rights, I really felt moved to be a part of that in some way. So I actually, at that time, created music especially for these women, in honor of these women. It's called Dance to Freedom. Women are not allowed to dance, they're not allowed to sing, and they're not allowed to ride bicycles. There are many prohibitions. And I just felt moved that I have the freedom to wear what I want to wear, to sing and share that with others. And the video that comes with the music of women from different cultures around the world dancing in their traditional clothing. So I hope that brings some form of encouragement and upliftment, and that ties with this video that's coming out right now, which is in honor of these women who tragically lost their lives 40 years ago. So this movement is still continuing to this day, that women are calling for justice and equality.

Christina: Well, I mean, not to make this a political discussion or anything, I mean no disrespect by bringing this up, but the fact that Roe versus Wade got overturned in the United States, how the hell did that happen? That just doesn't make sense. And I'm not just saying, like, oh, yeah, you should use that as an excuse to terminate pregnancies and things like that. Abortion? I'm not saying that, but in the instance when there is harm that could potentially be done either to the baby or to the mother that's carrying the child, where it could result in death.

Now, depending upon where you live in the United States, you cannot get an abortion, even though it could kill you. And I know that for Pennsylvania, we're a safe harbor state, so we still are able to get abortions. But what they do not talk about is how long it takes you to get approval, because at a hospital level so the hospital has to speak with their legal department. Can you believe this? This is an incident of life or death for a patient. I don't understand how we have allowed so much control to be passed to the politicians in our fine country here that they can tell us what we can and cannot do with our own bodies when it's health related issues. You know, what I'm saying. It's not because you're just doing this to get an abortion. You need it or you're going to die, potentially, or the child will. And the fact that they make these poor women have the child, if the child is stillbirth and they know the child is dead in the womb, they still make them deliver a dead child. What is going on here? What about all the trauma that's involved? Like, when you have a child to begin with, right, the unexpected things that happen during childbirth, and now this has happened, and this is going to just be on this poor person's soul for the rest of their lives. They'll have to try to heal from this.

Elika: Well, you know, I think, as Bahá'ís, we believe that the world is it's in a turbulent stage right now, and there's a process of disintegration happening so that the process of integration can happen. So the world is crumbling and a new system needs to happen instead. And I think that spirituality will play a huge part with the integration of new systems that happen in the world. And that will all take time. We're in the midst of, as you said earlier, just suffering in all spheres, especially from COVID and what's been happening just coming out of that. But it will take time for us to really start to heal and to change society.

Christina: I'm sorry to interrupt. I actually just wrote a notation that's what I was doing when I was looking to the right, because what you just said reminded me of a discussion I just had because I spoke with Lily a couple of days ago and we were talking about mental health. We talk about mental health all the time because, you know, she's a homeopathic as well, so she treats people mental health related. And we were talking about my recent magazine publication that we put out for mental health awareness that was dedicated to all of the people who have been impacted by mental health. But specifically, two of my immediate family members, my mother and my brother, were on the front cover. And my son also has mental health disabilities, and he's ten. So from that vantage point of living in an household, growing up with two mental health disabled people, then having a child that also has it and being his mother. And one of the things that we discussed was about spirituality and mental health. And so when you brought that up, it just made me think back to my conversation I had just this week with Lily about mental health and spirituality and how much, if you can embrace whatever religion you are. Like, I'm not trying to push religion on people or make them sway over to our side over here. As a Bahá'í, I'm not doing that. This is not a recruitment call. But what I'm trying to say is, if you have some sort of spirituality present in your head, and heart when you're going through these trials and tribulations of social injustice, gender injustice, just a bad date, like we talked about when we first got on before we were recording. If we can get ourselves in a better mindset because of our spirituality, imagine how much we can accomplish as a human.

Elika: Yeah, I agree. I think one of the things that helps me during my day, because mental health is a huge discussion and a huge podcast on its own, but I was just thinking, like, what uplifts? And what brings out our noble self? And one of the things that I do is prayer and reading the Bahá'í writings. And it's almost like a kind of armor that I or, you know, it's like putting on your clothes ready, getting ready for the day, or armor to protect you from all the things that will come at you. And without that, I find that my day is completely different. Maybe I'll become more angry or more impatient much more easily. But with prayer and meditation, it's like uplifting the higher side of ourself to combat whatever comes, and it really creates more mindfulness. The power of prayer really is incredible. We were talking about it yesterday and all the things that it brings out within us, and I don't think we've even tapped into the incredible things that it can do for us. So that's something that I try to do as often well, every morning. It's important as Bahá'ís that we spend the time to do that.

Christina: Yes, absolutely. So I do that regularly. I start my day off. I wake up in the morning and I go ahead and I grab my phone and I immediately pull up all of my Baha'i prayers. I keep my Bahá'í prayers for myself because I'm a little lazy and I don't want to have to tote books around with me. I hate really, I don't like paper. I'm not a paper person. So for me, I keep it in my browser electronically, my Bahá'í prayers. And I run through successions of certain prayers I say every single day when I start my day. And then sometimes in the middle of the day, if I've had a bad day, to your point, things happen sometimes. I had a challenging situation yesterday where I had to let someone go. And I don't like to do that, right? Because we're a family. That's how I run my company, is like it's a family. And so when I have to let somebody go, it's upsetting, right? And so it kind of upset me, pardon me from yesterday carrying forward today. But I end my day with prayer as well. And I really try to meditate through the end of my day, because the morning of my day, I could allow some more time. But it's hard because I'm a single mom and I have multiple companies, and then I have two puppies on top of my kid that are like my children. So I don't have as much time in the morning, but nighttime I do. And I make sure that at nighttime, I take that time to really reflect on things. And it has helped me so much, prayer. Some of the things that I did transitionally dating back to 2019, when I ended my marriage with my exhusband, what got me through it all, through all of the stuff that happened, the abuse and everything, was prayer. I just gave it to God and I'm please God. And I didn't go to God because I was having a bad time. I always talk to God, but I stopped trying to push the boulder up the hill. I just let God handle it. You're going to push the boulder up the hill? That's what you're you're going to help me? I need to step back and just trust and believe in God because that's what I need to do to get through this.

Elika: Yeah. I think that reflection at the end of the day is just as important as the morning. And you reminded me of something that I would do with my kids, and now I do it with myself as well. I would ask them questions every night. What was your highlight today? What did you do to bring joy to someone else? And how can you improve your day tomorrow? So process of reflection, I think, is really helping refine ourselves so that we can do better day by day. I think reflection, prayer and meditation is hugely important.

Christina: I love that. I love that you do that with your kids. So, like my son, when he would get home from school, he would get home at 4:00 in the afternoon and I always carve time out for my schedule so that when he gets off the bus, we have an immediate meeting, if you will. How was your day? What was the best point of your day? What could you have done better? Same type of stuff. I do it right when he comes out of school because now he's off for the summer. But we'll still do this, right? Because I think it's important. I love that you do this because I think it's important that kids have that reflective ability, but also accountability. Right? Because our kids are not perfect. They're going to do things. And even though they're being raised with a spiritual center, very important center as our religion, there's going to be times where things don't happen the way you would want it to happen. And so what could you have done better? So you're taking accountability. So you're not doing this again five days down the road or whatever.

Elika: Yeah. And I think it's also the focus on personal transformation. I wanted the kids from a young age to think about personal transformation, but also service to their community.How are you bringing joy to someone? So it's not only about the self, but it's how are we giving back to the community, what are we doing to serve others?

Christina: I love that. And not all schools believe in that concept. The school district that my kid goes to, it's public, it's not private. They believe in service. So we get emails as parents, do you want to sign your kid up to do this or that? So recently, before school ended, they had a sidewalk chalk. It was Mental Health Awareness Month. So obviously there's a lot of focus on mental health awareness, especially at a school level age, because these poor kids go through the wringer as it relates to education and also how other kids interact with these kids. It's difficult, right? It's a different time now for our kids than it was when we were kids growing up. And so this school sent an email and said, hey, we're going to be doing art, sidewalk chalk art for mental health awareness. So if your child wants to sign up to do this after school, they can. And they had a cap of so many kids or whatever. And I asked my son if he wanted, Christian, do you want to do this? And he was like, yeah, mom. Because he was been being raised since he was an infant that he's Bahá'í so he understands about service. And when he was a little chicken, two or three years old, he was going to fundraisers for my nonprofit, which is in honor of my father. So he's had service since the beginning. So I love that service centered heart, because that's what we are supposed to be as humans, is to give back. And you do it every day with your music and everything you do, your prayer, your connection with others, the fact that you reach out to people wholeheartedly. I've seen it on Instagram, so I know how you are. I haven't known you for years, for God's sakes, but I've seen and observed how you really try to help people purely.

Elika: Thank you. I feel truly blessed to do what I love to do every day and to connect with people daily about just the challenges they're going through. And I feel honored to be able to just be in touch and allow people to be vulnerable with what they're going through.Because I think we know we are one. We believe we are one family, and if we're not concerned about our brothers and sisters, then what are we here for? And so I remind myself daily that we are here really to bring joy to others and uplift spirits. I remember a few months ago, my mom was going through lung cancer, and she was healing from it. I was assisting her while she was going through treatment. And there were moments that were really difficult, that were really challenging. And I remember one morning thinking, Elika, all you need to do is bring your mom joy. That's your job right now. She's going through challenges and having a really difficult time, even though she hardly ever complained, but there were moments that she wouldn't eat or she didn't have strength to get up. And one feels really concerned and worried, and we react. But in those moments, and this is again, through prayer, reflection, and journaling, I would write and say, you just need to bring joy. And I think, really, that's what we're here for, to share love, to uplift other people so that they can reach their higher selves as well.

Christina: I love that. I believe that our purpose here is really to develop the qualities of love, of patience, forgiveness, all of these beautiful qualities as much as we can in order to prepare us for when we depart from this world. Because, like a baby in the womb that's developing its limbs so that those limbs can work in this world. In the same way, I think that our qualities are what we're developing in this world in order for us to use those in some way in the next. So I try to remind myself every day, okay, what are we working on today? I love that. Well, I love that you share that with us today because I think it's very important for our listeners and viewers to think about these things. Because if you start your day off with mindfulness, like you just said and ironically, I just had an article released on CEO World magazine today about being more mindful as a CEO. Right? Because it starts with us, right, as CEOs and how everybody always talks. It's top down kind of thing. I've been thinking about a lot of various things business wise and just in personal things, personal life. And so I wrote specifically about mindfulness, and it got published, and it just came out today. So it's really ironic that you're bringing this up, because it all ties together, and we didn't practice this because it's always unscripted. But I really appreciate that lesson that you're sharing with everyone, because I think that if you kind of think about it in that way, like, what is your intended purpose for today and bringing joy to someone? It could be your neighbor. It could be you take their trash dumpster down for them, right? Because the trash people were here, and you have an elderly neighbor. Whatever it is, whatever it is that you can do to bring joy to people is really, really integral to us as humans, I believe. Yeah, definitely. Well, with that, we could talk forever. We went over a little bit. It's my fault. I apologize. But what we were talking about was so very important, and I really appreciate you taking time out of your day today to come and meet with us.

Elika: My pleasure. It was really my joy. It was just so awesome. Thank you.

Thank you Christina.

Christina: It was my pleasure. The pleasure was all mine today. I was really looking forward to this today because it's just always so nice to connect with people that are like minded because sometimes it's hard to find people like us out there in the world because you kind of get stuck in situations where you don't always run into the same people as you. So, thank you.

So as we say in every episode.

Remember, we are the same.

I am Christina DiArcangelo.

Thank you for joining us today.