Jalen Rose talks to wellness guru Devi Brown

I hope the Golden State Warriors give my “Renaissance Man” guest a 2022 NBA Championship ring because wellness educator Devi Brown gave their power forward Draymond Green a big assist this season.

On her Amazon Prime special “The Sessions,” Devi worked hard with Draymond to tighten his mental game and win that fourth title. And her scouting report of Draymond is unique.

“The thing that was so powerful working with him is Draymond is truly one of the most self-aware people you could ever meet,” she told me. “So, even if he didn’t have a meditation practice yet, his heart was so open, his curiosity was open, which is really the biggest step in any kind of changes we want to make in our life.”

Devi continued: “And he’s just so highly intellectual. It’s like you start talking to him about something, and if it connects, he’s all in and he wants to know everything possible and kind of really holds it with a high level of respect. I’ll never forget we were talking about goals, talking about what are some adjustments you want to make in your life? What are some ways that you want to grow? And he was just very clear that his intention for this year was, ‘I’m going to win another championship.’ And he did.”

I wish I had access to her during my playing days. Devi is the author of “Crystal Bliss: Attract Love. Feed Your Spirit. Manifest Your Dreams,” is the host of the “Dropping Gems” podcast, a meditation guru to the BIPOC community and is a frequent guest on “The Breakfast Club” radio show with Charlamagne. She is also the chief impact officer at Deepak Chopra’s Chopra Global.

“As a child, I knew that I had a really different and kind of strong intuition that I didn’t know what to do with and I didn’t know what it meant. And I always found myself in these emotionally charged situations and I didn’t know what to do with all of that. But I was so interested in human transformation from a really young age,” she said, adding that she was reading self-help books as a youngster. But in 2010, she started meditating and it was a “game changer.”

“Because the thing about meditation is and we can read so many books and we can have powerful experiences that shift us, but meditation teaches you how to cultivate an internal world inside of yourself. And so when I first gained access to that, it was so revolutionary in my body and in my life and in the way that I was able to break really challenging and painful patterns in my life. And it was in that moment that I was like, ‘I’m meant to do more with this.’ And over the next coming years, I traveled the world quite a bit studying with different masters and dealing in mindfulness and meditation,” said Devi.

Then she read “The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success: A Pocketbook Guide to Fulfilling Your Dreams” by Deepak Chopra, which really opened her world.

Devi said, “I read it in a time in my life that I was struggling really deeply with depression, like a high-functioning depression. Nobody would have known. I was still doing well, succeeding and able to be kind of vibrant in myself. But, inside, I was so exhausted. Inside felt like a daily battle. And I remember reading that book and it just shifted my understanding of what life could be.”

Devi has a soothing, relatable approach to everything, but she knows how to get people to really dig deep. Her dream podcast guest she’d love to dig into next?

“Beyoncé and Jay-Z as a couple. I think Beyoncé and Jay-Z are truly two spiritual teachers who are really committed to helping people heal and grow through their artistry, through their philanthropy, through their creativity. And I would just love to talk to them about that deeper call, that sacred responsibility that they’ve really been kind of sharing with others.”

We spoke about the intersection of these ancient practices and spirituality and that, for too long, they were considered a bit woo-woo and out there. But now wellness is not only massive, it’s also mainstream with tentacles in every part of our culture.

“I just feel so grateful to be alive right now. I feel grateful that we are in this paradigm-shifting moment. I feel excited,” she said, adding a caveat. Devi said it in a more artful way, but, basically, beware of scammers.

“But I also feel the thing about wellness as an industry is I’m a healer and I’m an educator, but this is also now an industry the wellness market makes, I think we’re at $3 trillion a year. The thing that’s really important is that when things do hit the mainstream, very often, a lot of language gets appropriated that people don’t fully know the meaning behind. So now that we are in this moment where mental health is at the forefront, we are hearing a lot of things being misused, a lot of predatory behavior coming into this space. And so I think it’s really important for anybody that is feeling called to do this work: Please do your research.”

And while you’re researching, spend some time with Devi.

Detroit native Jalen Rose is a member of the University of Michigan’s iconoclastic Fab Five, who shook up the college hoops world in the early ’90s. He played 13 seasons in the NBA, before transitioning into a media personality. Rose is currently an analyst for “NBA Countdown” and “Get Up,” and co-host of “Jalen & Jacoby.” He executive produced “The Fab Five” for ESPN’s “30 for 30” series, is the author of the best-selling book, “Got To Give the People What They Want,” a fashion tastemaker, and co-founded the Jalen Rose Leadership Academy, a public charter school in his hometown.