by healinglifestyles:  Gabrielle Bernstein is making her mark as the next generation guru, motivational speaker, life coach and author.

Expanding the lexicon for the next generation, Gabrielle is a #1 bestselling author of the book Add More ~ing to Your Life — A hip guide to happiness. In September 2011 Gabrielle’s launches second book entitled Spirit Junkie, A Radical Road to Self-Love and Miracles.

1. Did you have any inkling that you’d ever be a motivational speaker?

G: It’s funny. I was always very theatrical. I went to theater school in a conservatory program. So it was very comfortable being on a stage and presenting ideas. I was uncomfortable acting, because I didn’t like being something that I wasn’t, but I knew that there was this need to present. Even when I was adolescent, I was a natural leader and it was very, very thrilling for me to rally people around an inspired idea. When I was in my 20s, I was running a public relations business. I would still have this intuition that I was going to be a motivational speaker, a coach and an author. I had this psychic hit that that was the case. I would be at after hours partying, doing God knows what drugs and drinking and be just a mess, telling strangers I was going to be a motivational speaker. It was this voice inside of me that was like, “You’re going to do this,” but I didn’t know how.

2. In your new book Spirit Junkie you talk about how you hit a bottom and had to shut down your Sex in the City lifestyle. Why was that lifestyle no longer fulfilling to you?

G: By the time I was 23 or 24, that world was no longer glossy anymore. I was really, really disenchanted with the nightlife scene in New York. I had spent years looking for happiness “out there” — in a pair of shoes, a boyfriend, getting past the velvet rope at some fancy nightclub. I learned the hard way that none of that worked. By the time I turned 25 I hit a huge bottom and had to surrender to the fact that true happiness had to come from within. This was when I shut down my outward search, turned inward and surrendered to a life as a full-on Spirit Junkie.

3. Your first book was called Add More ~ing to your Life has served many people seeking happiness. Can you tell us more about what ~ing actually is?

G: ~ing stands for inner guidance. It is the voice of our intuition and our inspiration. The loving voice that guides us to forgive, release resentment and choose loving thoughts and actions. We all have ~ing — we just forget to call on it. My book Add More ~ing To Your Life is designed to help readers bulldoze negative thoughts and reconnect with their inner guidance system.

4. What is different about Spirit Junkie as compared to Add More ~ing To Your Life?

G: I often say that Add More ~ing To Your Life is like an appetizer. It makes you hungry to be even more spiritually fed. Spirit Junkie is the big meal that will totally fill you up! (fyi: I have chills as I respond to this question…) I love this book so much! Spirit Junkie is a memoir style guidebook. This book is based on my story of how spirit has been intervening in my life from adolescence the present. I share how I spiritually recovered from drug addiction, love addiction, food addiction, work addiction… you name it. Through my own personal recovery story I teach the reader how to do the same. This book offers a spiritual solution for all problems. My hope for this book is that it will be the conduit through which I share the beautiful lessons I’ve learned as a student and a teacher of spirituality.

5. Tell us the most important lesson you’ve learned throughout your spiritual journey?

G: The most important lesson I’ve learned throughout my spiritual journey is that true happiness comes from a connection to spirit. This connection is unique for everyone. It’s our job to be willing and surrender so that we can cultivate a spiritual relationship of our own understanding. When you have spirit in your life you feel complete, whole and inspired. You know the Universe has your back.

6. We often hear you tweet and post that you’re “the happiest person you know.” This is a bold statement. How do you maintain this happiness?

G: As you’ll read in Spirit Junkie, I wasn’t always a self-proclaimed happy person. I was quite the opposite. But because of my steadfast journey inward I’ve connected to true inner peace. I maintain this peace and happiness through a daily spiritual practice. I often say that there isn’t a spiritual part of my life — it’s just MY SPIRITUAL LIFE. My happiness maintanance comes in the form of daily prayer and meditation — a moment-to-moment practice of forgiveness and a daily inventory of my actions. I have also chosen a life of sobriety, which truly keeps me straight and connected to spirit. I no longer need drugs or alcohol to make me feel good. I just feel it…

7. Your work focuses on expanding the spiritual lexicon for the next generation. How do you do that?

G: As a teacher of A Course in Miracles I’ve been guided to teach metaphysics in a way that my student can jive with it. When the teacher is ready the students will bang down your door. This was the case for me. My students came in the form of people much like myself — a new generation of seekers looking for true happiness — knowing there had to be a better way. Therefore I must speak to them in a language that they’ll dig. And most importantly a language that is authentic to me. This new spiritual lexicon uses words like ~ing to refer to inner guidance or Holy Spirit — and Spirit Junkie to refer to oneself as a spiritual person. Making this work hip and relevant is a huge part of the gig…

8. How do we find out more about you and your work?

G: For my weekly vlogs and free meditations you can click here.

9. What’s the most important strength you possess that allows you to be successful in your role?

G:  My greatest strength is self-love. I’ve spent the past six years growing a really awesome relationship with myself. I have learned to forgive myself, honor myself and love myself unconditionally. This self-love bleeds through everything I do. When you love and respect yourself the world loves and respects you back.

10. What inspired you to start on current path?

G: My own personal transformation is what inspired me to teach. I have worked hard to shift my perceptions from fear to love and therefore know how to access true happiness. Undergoing this miraculous shift became the catalyst for me to teach what I had learned. How dare I not share my experience with the world.

In addition, I believe that to teach is to learn. The more I teach others how to embrace happiness the more happy I become.

11. What motivates you on a daily basis to keep going?

G: What motivates me most are the people in my community. Whether it be women on my site www.herfuture.com (social network for women to find mentors and be mentors) or people commenting on my vlog www.gabbyb.tv. These people who are served by the work motivate me to create more content daily. I see myself and my experience in all of these people. Through their stories I am reminded of where I came from and I reconnect to where I’m going.

12. What role do goals play in your life? Tell us a few words about your goal setting process.

G: I believe in setting goals and then turning them over to the Universe for guidance. I’ve come to realize that the Universe has a much better plan than I do. I can set positive intentions for desired outcomes but I must always release them to the care of the Universe. Today I understand that if I stay on a path of service and a commitment to love that everything I desire will come into form but not always the exact way I planned it.

13. What’s the toughest challenge(s) you successfully overcame?

G: My greatest challenge was overcoming love addiction. I spend twenty-nine years severely codependent and living in fear that without a romantic partner I was incomplete. Because I was wiling to face these fears head on and experience all the pain that came with them I was able to recover. Releasing this addiction is my greatest accomplishment in life.

14. What are some of your most meaningful accomplishments?

G: Some of my greatest accomplishments are that I’ve overcome my addictions to drugs, food, love and work. Professionally, I am very proud of both of my books Add More ~ing to your Life, A Hip Guide to Happiness. And my most recent book Spirit Junkie, A Radical Road to Self-Love and Miracles.

I am also extremely proud of my social networking site HerFuture.com (for women to find mentors and be mentors.) Today this site has 11,000 members and counting!

15. What do the top performers do differently to excel?

G: I believe anyone who is living and performing at their highest capacity is connected to their authentic truth. True power is energetic freedom. When your energy flows freely you’re able to move mountains.