PVLF 2025

Interview with Mynoo Maryel, author of "The BE Book"

on Mar 06, 2023

Mynoo Maryel is a visionary, author, artist, and spiritual teacher who was a highflying corporate executive and pragmatic serial entrepreneur. At the pinnacle of an impressive career, Mynoo Maryel stepped away from her hamster-on-a-wheel life and leaped out into the great unknown, She landed, on both feet, in pure magic, where expecting and accepting miracles are the norm. The BE Book is her extraordinary story.

Frontlist: In what way can your book be helpful to the young generation currently starting their journey as adults?

Mynoo: It is easy to get caught up in winning the DO RACE, and very soon we lose the perspective of why we are engaged in doing so much. It feels like every time we reach a goal, there is a new one to aspire to. The DOING DOING DOING begins again, and again and again.

The BE Book shows you a way of enjoying the journey whilst harnessing every opportunity and keeping yourself rejuvenated by mastering the BEING DOING Dance, like a Tango that equips you to live your passion NOW.

Frontlist: How can one embrace self-love and kindness towards themselves even when the world doesn’t always give this to others?

Mynoo: We can wait for the world to give us what we desire to be our experience of living this life, or we can seize the day and choose our own needs. In my philosophy, you are your world. Only what you can give to and receive for yourself, you can share generously with others. If you wait for others to give it to you, you enter the upsetting realm of blame and victimhood.

Know that you are the one you have been waiting for, BE Love and you will be loved, BE Kind and you will experience kindness, BE Free and you will feel free. Remember, it is BE and you HAVE. That is the meaning of BEHAVE. It is BE the CAUSE you care about, that is the meaning of BECAUSE.

Frontlist: You’ve mentioned how religion and spirituality have helped you in various ways. How do you think they can improve people’s lives and well-being?

Mynoo: Spirituality is the connection to your spiritedness of you. It activates the expression of you in your truth. So whatever gives you the courage to step into owning the fullness of you and placing you in a state of loving all aspects and facets of you, the good the bad the ugly, and the beautiful, and doing so with compassion and kindness, will serve you by honoring your own worthiness.

I am a propagator of this reconnection to our own spiritedness, If religion gives you access to that, then work with that, if a walk in nature does that then use that as your opening to reconnect to the spiritedness of you, and that way you also honor that in others. And you all experienced Joy, Ease, Grace Omnipresent.

Frontlist: There’s a topic on the “miracle of divorce” in your book. How can Indian women find this liberating and empowering rather than a stigma or a taboo topic?

Mynoo: I was one such Indian woman in my marriage, where I experienced domestic violence from the first year of marriage, I thought with love I would be able to turn around the trauma that this experience would inflict on me every time this occurred. Divorce was taboo due to the stigma it would leave on my family. I was in London and going through this escalating violence at home and my family would be left to endure this stigma. So I allowed my own self-esteem, self-worth, and my own connection to myself to be destroyed month after month, year after year, simply hoping that he would change. And the relationship would return to the time we first fell in love. It got worse, then worse, and then life-threatening, and because I felt this threat now affected not just me, but my son too, I finally took the step and got a divorce.
It was a HUGE choice I made that boosted my self-worth, I regained my confidence and the powerful bright, vibrant young girl returned. It transformed the upbringing I was able to offer my child and I started owning and recognizing my gifts rather than being afraid to share them.

There is a point in any relationship when you know enough is enough, and it's time to complete the relationship powerfully and reclaim the power you have over your own joy and happiness. That is why I call it the Miracle of Divorce. I continued for 9 years longer than I should have, and it continues to be one of the most thrilling, challenging, and uplifting experiences that brought joy to everyone in my family.

Frontlist: With testimonials contributed by people for the book, can this be said that people desire well-being and self-improvement in their lives more than materialistic gains?

Mynoo: There is a growing realization that ONLY focussing on material gains only offers instant gratification. To experience ongoing fulfillment, there is something beyond material gains. There is a growing quest for a deeper connection to the meaning and purpose that people are seeking.

I experienced a magical shift from being on a hamster wheel, every time I thought I had reached my goal, it was only another rung on a hamster wheel, there was no time or space to stop and enjoy, I HAD to keep moving because I was on a wheel thinking I am making progress, but actually only staying in one place, getting exhausted, disconnected and feeling powerless, unable to find any time to enjoy what I was creating.

Choosing the BE Lifestyle, opened the doorway to self-liberation, and enabled me to enjoy the journey, giving me access to greater vitality with which to accomplish my life’s mission. It does the same for others. Hence my suggestion of creating a BE List, of words that define what you are going to BE today and allow the doing to flow.

Frontlist: Why do people often listen to their minds rather than their hearts? Can the heart guide in making the decisions that are best for oneself?

Mynoo: I believe that we have three brains, the Mind-Brain, the Heart Brain, and the Gut-Brain. Each of these is connected to the different organs and systems of our body and has an impact on their wellbeing. The Mind is all about survival and is impacted by the experiences of the past and anticipations of the future. The heart, on the other hand, focuses on the NOW. And the Gut is the instinct informed by our inner wisdom.

When you focus your attention on your heart, your choices will be a pure representation of the facts that you have access to. Your decisions will be informed by the facts in the matters. Mind-based decisions are colored by your past experiences and the perceptions you may hold about your future. Remember, neither the past nor the future is real, the only reality is what you are at at the moment. So your heart-based decisions are the factual ones with the capacity to move your forward without any baggage of the past or future.

Frontlist: People experience many things in life but don’t always learn from them. What prevents them from “absorbing” them and applying the same?

Mynoo: Something happens and based on its effect on us we make it mean something. It's the meaning that generates a myriad of feelings within us and these feelings give rice to more thoughts about what occurred which in turn creates a perceived reality of what occurred. So the factual occurrence is forgotten is very easy to get drawn into the meaning realm which keeps multiplying. It becomes an experience loaded with meaning-based emotions. We move from being in a state of learning from what occurred to being consumed by blaming and feeling sorry for ourselves or being in a state of bravado for our win.

To learn from what occurred, it is important to acknowledge how we feel about what occurred and stay focussed on the facts in the situation, This way you do not get caught up in the emotional spinning triggered by meaning, you can factually see what’s yours to learn and then use that learning to take one specific action within twenty minutes of getting the learning. This supports you to multiply the benefits from the learnings from any situation,

Frontlist: Although you’ve mentioned sharing our gifts to the world for abundant growth, why do you think people are reluctant to do so, and how can this be avoided?

Mynoo: People are often not aware of their own gifts and talents or feel that it is not appropriate to show off or are fearful that if they do share them, they may lose them.

The first step is to identify what your gifts are, that are distinct from what you have seen in others. Once you have identified them, then acknowledge how these gifts have served you and supported you. Look at specific situations or relationships that were positively impacted by you utilizing your gifts. Now consider a goal or a challenge you have in front of you. Envision what will be possible if you approached this goal or challenge by utilizing and sharing your gifts. What difference will it make to you and to others in terms of the outcomes? Then begin by taking your first baby steps, choose what is your logical next step to share your gift, and get started.

I begin my morning by expressing gratitude and appreciating my gifts and talents and end the day by acknowledging what became possible as a result of sharing them. This way I keep my connection going and keep sharpening my gifts by sharing them every day and every way with humility and generosity with the precise intention of making a positive difference.