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How To Unleash Your CREATIVITY Into The World & Raise Your SELF-ESTEEM | Jhené Aiko & Jay Shetty

Jhené is fascinated by roots — tree roots and her own roots. Making music that is connected to her own history is a way for her to learn more about who she is.

Jhené AikoguestJay Shettyhost

Dec 21, 202055mWatch on YouTube

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CHAPTERS

Chapter summaries

Cold Open and Welcome to Jhené Aiko
The episode opens with Jhené's childhood butterfly memory, then Jay welcomes listeners and introduces Jhené Aiko and her album Chilombo. He frames the conversation around sound healing and the creative intention in her music.
- •Jhené recalls talking to God as a child and seeing two butterflies
- •Jay introduces her as a six-time Grammy-nominated R&B performer, author and mother
- •Her album Chilombo is described as helping people through struggle and pain
- •The conversation is framed around sound healing and meditation
Roots: The Tree Photo and Family History
Jhené explains the Point Lobos photo of exposed tree roots and her recent fascination with roots. She describes using ancestry.com to study her family history and feeling more grounded. Jay shares his own test results and a teacher's story about redwood roots.
- •The photo was taken at Point Lobos on a hiking trail
- •Jhené has studied her family history for three or four years using a DNA test
- •Connecting with distant relatives made her feel more grounded
- •Jay shares he found he was 1% Native American
- •Redwood roots grow wide, intertwine and share nutrients across the network
Where Jhené's Spiritual Journey Began
Jhené traces her spiritual beginnings to age four or five, when her Japanese grandmother died. She describes the Buddhist funeral, Christian Sunday school, her fascination with death and loss, and the butterfly moment that made her feel her grandmother was still present.
- •Her father, a pediatrician, explained death in scientific terms
- •She was exposed to both Buddhist ceremony and Christian teaching
- •The butterflies made her feel her grandmother was there
- •As the youngest of five in a loud house, she observed and effectively meditated
How Loss and Parenthood Shaped Her Music
Jay asks when spirituality and music connected. Jhené says music started as fun at 12 or 13, and became personal after heartbreak, motherhood, and her brother's death in 2012. She describes unhealthy coping and a turning point that led her to meditation.
- •She began her music career at 12 going on 13
- •Heartbreaks and having her daughter pushed her to put her real story into songs
- •Her brother's passing in 2012 was her most pivotal moment
- •She tried to escape through substances before deciding to commit to meditation
- •Her music reflects what she is going through at the time
Thich Nhat Hanh and the Red Light Meditation
Jhené describes discovering Thich Nhat Hanh's Peace Is Every Step at 17 or 18 and how it shaped her practice. She explains the red light meditation, and Jay reflects on turning ordinary moments into extraordinary ones.
- •She found the book in a bookstore and read it in two or three days
- •She loves his simple language and stories
- •Meditation for her is a way of living, breathing through every moment
- •A red light is treated as a bell of mindfulness, not a frustration
- •Jay says there is always another level in meditation
Sound Bowls and the Wisdome Immersive Experience
Jay asks about the immersive healing experience she designed. Jhené recounts discovering Tibetan and crystal singing bowls, working with her mentor, and creating a sound bath and concert in a dome. She explains her wish to give people music with real healing intention.
- •She fell in love with Tibetan singing bowls in a spiritual store
- •She later discovered colorful crystal bowls and felt they were her instrument
- •Fans' stories convinced her that her purpose is to help people deal and heal
- •The Wisdome dome suited the bowls' acoustics and visuals
- •Mentor Jeralyn Glass taught her about sound healing
Music as Healing and the Triggered Mantra
Jay reflects on music's power to heal, including how rap helped him growing up. Jhené explains why she created the song Triggered as a modern mantra to help people calm down. Jay compares finding tools for anxiety to eating when hungry.
- •Jay says rap gave him permission to express his feelings
- •Jhené freestyled Triggered at the peak of feeling triggered
- •She chose bowl notes intentionally with her teacher
- •She still uses the track herself, such as on planes
- •Jay says we need a tool that satisfies the hunger of anxiety
The Meaning Behind the Name Chilombo
Returning to roots, Jay asks about the album's title, her family name. Jhené explains her father chose it, how her feelings toward it changed, and that it means wild beast in an African language. She shares the breakdown she created with her father.
- •Her father chose the name Chilombo for himself
- •She once wanted to change it but grew to love it
- •It means wild beast, which she ties to embracing all parts of herself
- •She connects it to dragons, and the album as not pretending to be perfect
- •She and her father broke it into Chi, L, Om, B and O
Messages from the Universe
Jay asks what message the universe has repeated to her. Jhené says surrender, let go, love, and just be. She describes sitting in the sun and receiving one-line downloads that she now writes down and processes.
- •Her recurring messages are surrender, let go, and love
- •As a child she sat in the sun and breathed
- •After about five minutes she would receive clear one-liners
- •She used to tweet them but now meditates on them first
Intuition, the Inner Critic and Silence
Jay asks how she tells intuition apart from ego and the mind. Jhené describes growing anxiety and self-doubt, a retreat at Esalen, and the book Silencing Your Inner Critic, which taught her she is the observer of her thoughts. She mentions other books and choosing audiobooks or silence in the car.
- •As she got older and more jaded, the voices multiplied
- •A friend gave her Silencing Your Inner Critic
- •She learned she is the observer of the voices, not the voices
- •She reads Joe Dispenza and other books to practice better mental habits
- •She now listens to audiobooks or natural sounds in the car
Final Five: Rest, Anxiety, Cats and Sharing
Jay runs his fast five round. Jhené's answers include rest for mental health and refueling, slowing down and breathing through anxious energy, her love of cats, and a world law to share. The episode closes with thanks and a call to share on Instagram.
- •Sleep and rest helped her mental health this year
- •Her biggest lesson was to slow down and breathe through anxious energy
- •She is confident that cats are the best
- •Her one world law would be to share everything so no one goes without
- •Jay invites listeners to tag him and Jhené with what resonated