Many of the beliefs that govern our adult lives were formed long before we had the ability to question them. Ideas about worth, safety, obedience, and belonging often take root in childhood and early environments where approval and survival were closely linked. What begins as adaptation can quietly harden into identity.

In this conversation, I'm joined by Amy Green Smith, a certified life coach and hypnotherapist whose work focuses on self-worth, nervous-system awareness, and belief change. Drawing from both personal experience and years of client work, Amy reframes people-pleasing, overachievement, and self-criticism as learned survival strategies rather than personal shortcomings.

This episode originally aired in fall 2024, and felt worth resurfacing after Amy recently popped up on my Instagram feed sharing a series of powerful reflections that echoed many of the themes we explore on this show.

In this episode, we discuss:

• How dogmatic or rigid upbringings shape our inner critic and sense of worth
• Why people-pleasing is often a nervous-system response, not a personality trait
• The overlooked fawn response, and how it shows up in high-functioning adults
• The difference between self-talk and self-sentiment
• What it means to "deconstruct" beliefs we never consciously consented to
• How intuition and the inner critic can emerge from the same internal system
• The science behind hypnotherapy and subconscious belief change
• How to choose yourself without losing empathy, nuance, or grace

Do you want to feel more worthy? Get a better handle on your inner critic (or...intuition)? Reach out to Amy Green Smith today on ⁠Instagram⁠ or ⁠LinkedIn⁠, or visit her at ⁠amygreensmith.com⁠.

Connect with Nikhil to learn more about ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Untether Your Life⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and other projects:

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I first connected with this week's guest - Freeman Fung - through the Mindvalley community. At the time, both of us were actively questioning inherited templates around success, identity, and growth. What began as a conversation about travel quickly revealed itself to be something deeper - a reflection on consciousness, culture, health, and what it actually means to live intentionally in a complex world.

That context feels especially relevant now. My son is currently sailing around the world through the Class Afloat program, and I'm watching in real time how immersive, lived travel can fundamentally reshape how someone understands themselves and their place in the world. This past fall, my own travel through France, Spain, Germany, and Portugal was in service of helping get him situated and positioned for that journey - and along the way, I was reminded how learning even a few words of a new language can instantly change the quality of connection.

Freeman speaks from lived experience. Growing up in Hong Kong, traveling through more than 35 countries, navigating burnout and chronic illness, and integrating ancient Eastern wisdom with modern life, his perspective is grounded, cross-cultural, and deeply human. This is not travel as performance or escape - it’s travel as engagement and transformation.

In this episode, we explore Freeman’s philosophy and the experiences that shaped it - from solo travel and global citizenship, to confronting inequality firsthand, to rebuilding health through responsibility, integration, and self-mastery.

This is a cross-cultural, deeply personal conversation about identity, consciousness, community, and the courage to untether from inherited expectations in order to live with more intention.

Topics we cover:

• Travel as a catalyst for identity and personal transformation
• Growing up in Hong Kong and navigating global cultural conditioning
• Burnout, chronic illness, and rebuilding health through integration
• Money as an amplifier of values rather than a solution to inequality
• Witnessing global inequality firsthand and reframing success
• Language, culture, and connection as doorways to empathy
• Community as an antidote to isolation and survival-mode living
• What it really means to untether your life

About Freeman Fung

Freeman Fung is an international speaker, author, certified life coach, and global citizen. He is the author of Travel to Transform, a book that blends travel memoir with personal development, exploring how movement across cultures - and inward - can accelerate growth and self-mastery. Originally from Hong Kong, Freeman has lived, worked, and traveled across more than 35 countries and currently resides in Australia.

Learn more at traveltotransform.com

Follow Freeman on Instagram: @freemanfung.global

Want to learn more about ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Untether Your Life⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and other projects? Let's connect!

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In this milestone 100th episode of Untether Your Life, we revisit a wide-ranging and timely conversation with Mas Vidal Maheshananda - teacher, author, and founder of Dancing Shiva.

In today's climate of intense geopolitical unrest around the globe, this conversation is exactly what is needed in 2026. Mas brings a grounded, integrative perspective on yoga, Ayurveda, and spiritual practice - not as lifestyle accessories, but as practical frameworks for living with clarity, resilience, and balance.

The episode is being reshared around January 5, the birthday of Paramahansa Yogananda, whose teachings - and the broader Self-Realization Fellowship lineage - have deeply influenced Mas's approach and worldview.

Mas also appears in Awake: The Life of Yogananda, and in The Natural Law, a film by documentary filmmaker Amish Shah, who has also been a guest on Untether Your Life.

In this episode, we explore:

• What actually drives human evolution: competition or cooperation
• Why "dog eat dog" thinking may be effective to a point - but increasingly outdated
• The concept of prana (life force) and why vitality goes beyond calories and macros
• Yoga as a system for managing the mind, not just the body
• Ayurveda as a living framework for diet, lifestyle, and longevity
• The rise of "soft power" culture and why gentler approaches may be more durable
• The role of discipline, simplicity, and environment in spiritual growth
• Why technology can function as a modern stimulant - and how to relate to it more consciously
• The importance of community (sangha) and culture in personal evolution
• How ancient wisdom traditions can remain practical without becoming rigid or dogmatic

About the Guest

Mas Vidal Maheshananda is the founder and director of Dancing Shiva, an integrative school blending yoga, Ayurveda, Vedanta, and Vedic astrology. He is the author of Sun, Moon & Earth and The Evolution Revolution, and the creator of More Life Market, an Ayurvedic superfoods platform.

Mas has spent decades teaching internationally, working with students, practitioners, and seekers interested in applying Eastern wisdom traditions in grounded, real-world ways.

Links & Resources

• Dancing Shiva School: dancingshiva.com
• More Life Market: morelifemarket.com
• Awake: The Life of Yogananda (Documentary)
• The Natural Law (Documentary by Amish Shah)

A Note of Thanks

This episode also marks the 100th episode of Untether Your Life.

A huge thank you to the guests, listeners, and everyone who's been a vital part of this template-shattering journey.

Want to learn more about ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Untether Your Life⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and other projects? Let's connect!

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