Latest / The GLIMPSE Method Podcast: Your Guide to Raising Your Vibration, Spiritual Awakening & Breathwork Practice / The GOO Stage; Free Will in the Dark: Choosing Faith Over Fear

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The GOO Stage; Free Will in the Dark: Choosing Faith Over Fear · The GLIMPSE Method Podcast: Your Guide to Raising Your Vibration, Spiritual Awakening & Breathwork Practice

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Hello, it's Megan.
• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Glimpse Method Podcast.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for joining.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: So we had a breathwork session today in my community on free will.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: And if you were there, you experienced it.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: So I've been thinking about free will quite a bit recently.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I've gone through a transition of kind of acute care for my child in supporting her in some um uh treatment for her depression.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: So we ended up doing, and I think I talked about this before, but we ended up doing about six weeks in Arizona, and Nate, my husband, and I uh went back and forth.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: So it was like me for a week and a half, then he was there three weeks, and then I was there two weeks, and then we're back.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: It went really well, and I am gonna be going back to work soon, and I think I'm sort of like in this weird space between I haven't quite started back to work.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: She's starting a new um with like a new counselor this week and a new um a new program less intensive, and so I've been feeling like maybe a little less purpose with her, and I and I feel like everything was just kind of in an acute way before.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: So I wanted to um so I've been really trying to, and I'm just feeling this like uh, this feeling, and I wanted, I don't want to feel it anymore.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm I'm kind of discovering this free will and I'm diving into my faith and um trying to look you know into scripture and you know doing my cold plunges, doing my steps, um, doing everything that has worked for me in the past, um, doing some breath work and I and I wanted to just dive a little bit deeper into this, you know, idea of free will, and I want to start with a caterpillar.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: So we all know the story.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: The caterpillar crawls around and eats tons of food, and um, you know, for days it's starving, and then it builds itself a cocoon, and then boom, the story goes to and then it comes out a beautiful butterfly.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: And yes, it's inspirational, it's on every motivational poster you've ever seen.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: We all read the book, um, but here's what nobody talks about.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: And this, um, I was listening to another podcast today, and this part came up.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: She's like, what about the part where the freaking caterpillar is in the goo?
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: And its body is like dissolving, and it's you know, like do you they skip that part?
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: Nobody really talks about it.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: And so inside the cocoon, the caterpillar doesn't just quietly transform, it basically dissolves.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: Its whole body breaks down into this goo, as I said, and its own system like turns on itself, and it like its immunity and it starts destroying kind of what it was, and it's not like probably beautiful or graceful, it probably doesn't feel so great for the caterpillar.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I don't think the caterpillar quite knows, like, um, I'm becoming a butterfly, and this is this is so great.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's probably like this sucks, you know, and it feels like it's falling apart because it is, and I think we can make that um comparison when we go through hard times in our life, and actually sometimes we go through medical things that are hard, or you know, illness or depression or the loss of somebody.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_00: And here's a part that I think is so beautiful, and honestly, like almost brought me to tears.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: It's like a little wink from God, like inside that goo, there are these tiny clusters of cells, they're called imaginal cells.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: I probably am not saying that right, but isn't that cool?
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: Like, imagine what you're gonna become.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: They were in that caterpillar the entire time, but they were dormant.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: Think shingles.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: No, just kidding.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: Um, even back when it was just a caterpillar crawling around, minding its own business, dormant and waiting, and then those cells that organize all that mess, they're the ones that actually like imagine the imaginal cells.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: Um, they actually organize that goo into a butterfly.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, that is just like amazing uh just in itself, just thinking of that transformation.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: The blueprint for what it was becoming was like already inside.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: And I feel like wow, that is totally what I've been, you know, studying and learning, and not studying is maybe the wrong word, but just enlightening myself and trying to share the messages that I'm learning with you on this podcast and in my community, and then I also have the walking challenge, and I'm gonna continue doing walking challenges because I find them so fulfilling to do.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um so just think again about that.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: The becoming was already in that caterpillar before the breakdown started.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: Here is the thing the caterpillar doesn't get a vote on whether it goes into the cocoon.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's just like you know, what is it?
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: Instinct.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: That's just what happens.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: It's probably not even instinct, it's just like it just happens, and so if we can think in our lives, a lot of things, you know, feel like they just happen.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_00: We don't choose the diagnosis we get, or you know, the divorce, god forbid, or you know, the loss of somebody, or the job loss, or the hard season you're going through with your kids.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um we, you know, the caterpillar, same thing.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: But here's where I want to talk about free will.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: We don't get to choose if we go through the dissolving, but we do get full autonomy over what it means while we are in it.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_00: So the journey.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: And that's it, the whole thing.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_00: That's where your power actually lives.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_00: Not avoiding the glue because you the the glue, the goo, because you can't, but deciding the story you tell yourself while you are in that dark space, while you are in that goo, if you will.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_00: And I want to bring that back to science for a second here, because this isn't just a spiritual concept, this is actually how your brain works.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: It's called neuroplasticity, and basically what that means is your brain physically changes shape on the thoughts you keep having.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_00: So I know it feels like we don't have control over our thoughts a lot of times, and I know kids, their neuroplasticity is a lot more susceptible to changing, but adults, we do have it too, and so the more we get with our thoughts and catch our thoughts, um the better off we are in the end.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: So every time you choose a thought, like I'm falling apart, I can't do it, um, and not I'm forming, I'm changing, I'm you know, I'm growing.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_00: You're not just being positive for the sake of being positive, you are physically rewiring your brain in that moment.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_00: You're building neural pathways, you are quite literally construction constructing the actual um map in your mind, your architecture through one thought at a time.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_00: So that's why, and I know we've I've talked about this on the podcast before, I feel like our mind is a liar, and you know, it only kind of knows what has happened in the past, and that is not always what is going to happen in the future.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_00: So free will is not just philosophical or like a feel-good idea, it is neurological.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_00: Every time you see you use it, you're building the brain that gets to decide where you go from here.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_00: And we can talk about how that's actually kind of like super exciting.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_00: And oh, I hate saying this word, delicious, but it is.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_00: It's just like wow, we can change our brains, and we can change the way that we perceive things.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um, this, I want you to think of this as power, not like pressure.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_00: You don't have to wait for the outcome to know that you're okay.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: You get to enjoy using your view or your lens or your thoughts in the goo, in the turmoil, before you know how it turns out.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm not I don't like really of a everything happens for a reason thing, because I don't think the actual thing that is happening was like laid out and planned out, but you can choose how you are during that time, so both can be true at the same time, and I and you can, you know, I'm not to say, and I don't want to like the toxic positivity or whatever.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_00: That's that's not what I'm saying because you definitely are allowed to be like this freaking sucks, and I you know, but I'm gonna choose to because I have the free will, I am gonna choose to reframe my thoughts and reframe um my perception and look forward to um the growth that I'm experiencing.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I want to talk about God a little bit here because that is my belief, but you know, pop in whatever belief you have.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um because I don't think this is an accident.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_00: God could have made us not able to deal with the pain and you know, like no choice, end of story.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_00: You're in the goo, you're you know, but he actually left space for us to have the free will, he gave us free will, and what's so awesome is we can choose to use that free will to reshape our thoughts and to have the faith in him.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_00: So even in the goo, even in the dark, even when you're feeling like you're dissolving or your world is falling apart and you don't recognize yourself anymore, um he didn't take your ability to choose how you react.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't think that that's cruel, I think that that's trust.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_00: I think he looked at us and said, I trust you enough to let you make a choice.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_00: I love you so much that I am giving you this free will.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_00: And the thing is, he could have made us all like good and doing all, you know, like a bunch of angels always making the right decision, and but that's not why he created us.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_00: And I think the darkness in our life, if we didn't have darkness or struggle, I don't think we would have the opposite.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_00: So like without light, there's no dark, without, or I should say without dark, there's no light, without sadness, there's not happiness.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_00: So to talk about faith, I I think faith is not passive.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_00: It's not just like sitting back and hoping it works out.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_00: Faith is an act of free will, is a choice.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_00: I learned this in Sunday school when I was young, like it is a choice, and that's why it's so beautiful.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_00: Faith is an act of free will, it is a choice.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_00: It's you in the goo using the exact gift that God gave you to say, I don't need to know, like you can be in the unknowing.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_00: And um every time that you choose to trust and to have faith over you know, panic and despair, you're not just coping with what's going on, you're exercising the freedom that he handed us, and he did that on purpose.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_00: God gives you free will, you use it to choose faith in him, and in that picking that choice, sorry, I'm trying to pick my words carefully here.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_00: So I think that that creates an intimacy with God and his children, giving them the th the free will and giving them the option to trust and to put faith in him.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_00: And um, this can also come into um my glimpse method, which the last two letters of glimpse um are surrender and equanimity.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_00: So if you listen to the past podcasts and you're following along with the seven pillars, surrender is letting the dissolving happen instead of like white knuckling your way through it and trying to control everything.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_00: Um you can control how you view it.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_00: And then equanimity is just staying anchored in who you are while you are in the goo, while you are formless, while you feel like you're kind of in between.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_00: And um, equanimity again is just having that peace within yourself when things are happening.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_00: I always explain it when things are happening around you, but in this example, it's actually happening within you, and just to have that strong faith and that strong knowing that things will turn out as they should.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_00: So, what I want to leave you with today is just asking.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, maybe there's nothing huge going on, you know, hopefully there's not, but if you're in the goo right now, where is that?
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_00: Is there a way that you could use your free will and your perception to make that journey a little bit easier on you?
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_00: Because I bet there's a part of your life, maybe a big part, maybe a quiet part, that you haven't really said out loud yet, where you feel like you're dissolving.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_00: You don't really recognize the shape of things anymore, and you want to know you know what's happening.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_00: You're more like in the in the panic mode.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_00: And I just want to want you to know that this is not evidence that you're broken.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_00: It might be the exact evidence that you are actually becoming, you are actually growing your vessel.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_00: And does it suck?
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_00: And you and you know, you can express that, but in the bigger picture, I would hope that you could use your free will to change your perception and to make the journey just a little bit easier on yourself.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_00: Believe that those imaginal cells are within you and they are about to bloom.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_00: Even if you can't see it.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe free will isn't just a permission to choose, maybe it's an invitation from God saying, I trust you enough to let you decide how you'll go forward.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_00: And like I said before, it's it's quite intimate.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's not a burden, it's not cruelty.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_00: It's growing your relationship with God.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_00: So that's all I have for you today.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_00: I would love to hear your comments and um leave a review, that would be great.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_00: And I would love for you to use your free will for good, not evil.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_00: Just kidding.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, I'll see you next time.