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Jay Shetty Podcast

Big Sean's Manifestation Mantra: Why You Need to Stop Chasing and Start Attracting

Big Sean opens up about transforming his darkest moments into profound awakenings.

Big SeanguestJay Shettyhost

Jan 17, 20251h 27mWatch on YouTube

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CHAPTERS

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Chapter summaries

Defining Success and Choosing Happiness
After an opening exchange of mutual admiration, Jay Shetty asks Big Sean about manifesting success versus manifesting happiness. Big Sean says success is a feeling of purpose being activated, while happiness is something you can choose instantly.
- •Big Sean defines success as an emotion, a feeling that comes when your purpose is activated and you impact people
- •Money is a byproduct of success rather than the definition of it
- •He calls this distinction the "power of separation"
- •Happiness can be chosen instantly, and he says you are a magnet for what you feel
- •He learned this the hard way through depression, anxiety and self-sabotage
The Power of Separation and Growing Pains
Jay Shetty asks how people can cultivate the power of separation. Big Sean says low points confirm you're meant for something greater, and he points to heroes who move on after wins and losses.
- •Growing pains and feeling low confirm you are out of alignment and meant for more
- •Accepting where you are opens space for more and clears baggage
- •Big Sean says he now has "armor" for when things don't go his way
- •He gives Denzel Washington as an example of someone who moves on after a hit or a flop
The Kobe Mindset: Get Back to Training
Jay Shetty shares his football coach's advice to cry or celebrate for only a night and then get back to training. Big Sean links it to a Kobe mindset, interconnection, and not trying to please everyone, and Jay says Kobe found peace through a new purpose.
- •Jay's coach said to cry for a night if you lose and celebrate for a night if you win, then get back to training
- •Big Sean says he spoke with Kobe a few months before Kobe died, and Kobe described meditating
- •Big Sean says everyone around us is a reflection of us and we are all interconnected
- •Trying to please everyone is a business you'll never succeed at
- •Jay says peace comes from finding purpose, not from pursuing more prizes
Acceptance Isn't Giving Up
Introducing the first practice in Big Sean's book, Go Higher, Jay Shetty asks how someone with a painful past can accept it as their starting point. Big Sean says acceptance isn't giving up, and that there is always a thread from where you are to where you want to be.
- •Jay says the book demystifies the path and starts at "accept"
- •Big Sean says accepting means being ready to go somewhere else and being thankful for the lessons
- •Jay says resistance to acceptance is what blocks us
- •Big Sean says there is always a thread leading from where you are to where you desire to be
- •He says to put your attention on your intention and that we only have the present moment
Attracting vs. Chasing, and Letting Go of Control
Jay Shetty asks about the difference between attracting and chasing energy, and Big Sean says chasing implies the thing is running away. Asked about his hardest acceptance, he names the things he can't control, like how people perceive his art. Jay adds that trying to please others makes you lose yourself.
- •Chasing something builds in the energy of it running away, while attracting uses the power to magnetize
- •Setting a goal like taking a shower shows we already use this power every day
- •The hardest thing Big Sean had to accept is what he can't control, such as people's perceptions of his art
- •Jay says if you do what you want they don't like it, and if you do what they want they still don't, and you lose yourself
- •Big Sean says you have to be right with yourself first
Choosing Your Family and Peacemaker Roots
Jay Shetty shares that he was the peacemaker in his family as a child. Big Sean says we choose our parents as spirits, that people get what they need rather than what they want, and that Jay's early role led to his impact today.
- •Jay says he was the mediator in his family at age 10 and tried to get to the root of what healing was needed
- •Big Sean believes spirits choose their parents
- •He says God gives you what you need first and foremost
- •Some people learn what not to do from their parents
- •Jay credits his monk teachers and Big Sean's mother's role in their lives
Lessons From Fatherhood and Lineage
Asked what fatherhood has taught him, Big Sean says his son made him see that DNA carries a whole lineage and that the answers are within. Jay Shetty adds research on ancestral stories and his own connection to the Gita, and Big Sean talks about living through your descendants and healing so you don't pass on trauma.
- •Big Sean says DNA is like a computer passing information on, so his grandparents' wisdom is already within him
- •His son is teaching him to find joy in simple things like flowers and birds and to choose happiness
- •Jay cites research that kids told ancestral stories have a deeper sense of belonging
- •Jay says feeling part of the 5,000-year-old tradition of the Gita makes him feel unstoppable
- •Big Sean says you pass on the good and the bad, so it's important to heal physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually
Breaking Worry and Building Confidence in Noah
Jay Shetty asks what unhealed generational pattern Big Sean doesn't want to pass to his son. He names worry, saying he wants to pass on confidence instead, and describes his parents' fear-based caution shaped by the civil rights era.
- •Big Sean used to worry intensely, including fear of losing everything and going back to Detroit
- •He recalls Sadhguru saying his favorite place is wherever he is
- •He imprints confidence in a child by building it up, and quotes a lyric about his son's confidence
- •His parents came up in the civil rights era and taught caution that came partly from fear
- •He wants to keep watering his son's confidence
Strategy as Intentionality in Action
Jay Shetty introduces strategizing, the second practice, arguing that spirituality and strategy go hand in hand. Big Sean describes studying people you respect and planning your intentions, and Jay compares planning your life to building a city.
- •Jay defines strategy as intentionality in action
- •Big Sean says nothing amazing comes without a plan, and strategy starts with studying
- •Strategizing can be as simple as writing intentions down, which he does before a studio session
- •Jay compares life planning to a city that needs a fire station, school and hospital
- •Big Sean says structure can jumpstart you when you feel all over the place
Strategic Wins, Chaotic Misses and Saying It Right
Big Sean says strategy helped him get his first record deal by working backwards from getting on the radio, and that strategizing eliminates work. He also admits he could have strategized better during his fallout with his mother, and Jay says communication needs the right timing, place and words.
- •Big Sean planned every step toward battle rapping on the radio, working backwards from the goal
- •Strategizing eliminates hours of work, and reading a book saves time rather than taking it
- •Jay says we often live on level 21 without taking the elevator up from level zero
- •Big Sean distinguishes distress, which weighs you down, from eustress, which motivates
- •Big Sean says his fallout with his mother during a chaotic period could have been handled better
- •Jay says even the right thing said in the wrong way, place or time doesn't land
Boundaries: Understanding Isn't Accepting
Big Sean says that understanding something doesn't mean you have to accept it, and that setting boundaries over the past year brought him happiness and self-trust. He and Jay discuss compassion fatigue, boundaries as being for yourself, and Big Sean's practice of reconnecting with things he loves like anime.
- •Big Sean says understanding someone's perspective had led him to not respect himself
- •Boundaries cost him some things, like skipping a show in Dubai to take his son trick-or-treating, but gained him trust in himself
- •Jay says he had compassion fatigue and was giving people his leftovers
- •Both say boundaries are for yourself
- •Big Sean says he watched his father let people take advantage of him
- •He took time to get back to watching anime, which he had lost
Giving Space Instead of Rescuing
Jay Shetty describes his boundary of saying "let's talk in three days" when friends call with non-urgent problems. He found that people often process things themselves, and Big Sean adds that influencing someone in the heat of emotion can ruin things.
- •Jay's instinct to fix problems immediately came from being the peacemaker at 10
- •Saying "let's talk in three days" excludes urgent or life-threatening situations
- •Jumping in to solve problems can enable people not to process them themselves
- •Space often gave people more than his words could
- •Big Sean says answers are within people and calls this a great way of exercising boundaries
Journaling, Gratitude and Signing Your Intentions
Jay Shetty asks about Big Sean's journaling and meditation habits. Big Sean describes writing intentions and gratitude with "I am" statements and signing the entry like a contract, then meditating with light visualization and colors.
- •Big Sean writes music by letting it flow through him but uses a pen as a sword in journaling
- •He writes gratitude and "I am" statements and ends with "it is done" or "so be it"
- •He signs his journal like a contract, and not everything he writes comes true because he's on God's time
- •His journal practice takes about five to 12 minutes, followed by meditation
- •His meditation visualizes light and colors, and he says there's no wrong way to meditate
- •He cites a book on water crystals and says the most successful people he knows meditate
Therapy, Adderall and Recovering Through Depression
Big Sean says therapy works differently for everyone and describes how it helped him. Asked about nearly becoming addicted to Adderall on tour, he describes the synthetic dopamine crash, a severe depression after going cold turkey, and how his mother's help and reconnecting with himself led him out.
- •Therapy gave him someone to confide in who wasn't family or a partner, but he says you may need to find the right therapist
- •He started Adderall to accomplish more, living in fear, and felt he couldn't do anything in the studio without it
- •Quitting cold turkey brought a depression in which he wanted to kill himself despite his wealth
- •His mother came to his house and introduced him to meditation and other methods
- •He rebuilt by working out, trying new activities and watching anime again, and says being high on life beats any drug
Grandma, Giving Up on Music and Almost Striking Gold
Asked how his grandmother would feel reading the book, Big Sean talks about her strict belief in education and the college money he spent on studio sessions. He explains that he gave up on music after meeting Kanye, and that his mother's encouragement came just before things took off.
- •His grandmother gave him a book about King Solomon's strategies and wisdom, and she was a trailblazing Black captain, police officer, teacher and counselor
- •He skipped college and spent the money she saved on studio sessions, yet she supported him
- •Sunday dinners asking about music broke his heart
- •He gave up music after meeting Kanye and waiting two years for contact
- •His mother urged him to keep going and months later things began to pick up
Miscarriage, Embracing Darkness and Five Miracles
Jay Shetty asks about the miscarriage Big Sean and Jhené went through, and Big Sean offers perspective on worthiness and keeping doors open. They close with finding light by accepting darkness, the five-miracles practice from the book, and final thoughts on the present moment.
- •Big Sean says miscarriage doesn't make anyone inadequate and urges people to express their grief without letting it consume them
- •He says to accept the life meant for you and keep your doors open to how the universe may bless you
- •To find light in dark times, you accept all aspects of yourself, including your darkness
- •The book asks readers to list five miracles, and he says recognizing miracles breeds more
- •His examples include having his son, waking up, and surviving a car accident as a teenager
- •He ends by saying you can change your environment and asking what you'll do with the time you have left

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