Latest / Spiritual Sense: Practical wisdom to quiet an overthinking mind and recharge your soul / Why Life Feels Hard and How to Fix It!

Transcript

Why Life Feels Hard and How to Fix It! · Spiritual Sense: Practical wisdom to quiet an overthinking mind and recharge your soul

• 0:00
  Speaker A: Do you ever feel like life is a bit of a pain in the ass? It's difficult, it's tedious. You don't want to do something. You're like, why is this person doing this? And you're in the moment and you don't want to be there. You want to be somewhere else and you feel like you're putting up with things. Most of us have moments like that during our day and it might go on, like the whole day sometimes. So today we're going to be diving into how to make life fun and easy, how to make this shift in consciousness. So even if we are doing tedious things we don't like, we can enjoy them and actually have a beautiful, inspiring life, no matter what is going on. So welcome, welcome, welcome to the podcast. Hello, Shireen.
• 0:46
  Speaker B: Hello, Michael. Wonderful to be here.
• 0:49
  Speaker A: Yay.
• 0:50
  Speaker B: Thank you for your patience with me.
• 0:52
  Speaker A: It's my pleasure. We have to set everything up for the podcast and there's always some funny thing going on, but we're doing great. And for those of you who don't know us, we're spiritual teachers. My name is Michael McIntosh. This is Sister Shireen. Shireen runs a meditation center and she does spiritual teachings full time, retreats, classes. And between us, we have 55 years on a spiritual path with about 40,000 hours meditation. And we've also come across many, many challenges and annoying moments in our life. So we know how to deal with this stuff. So, shreem, why don't we just jump into this? Because you came up with this term fun and easy, so why don't you tell us the story behind that?
• 1:43
  Speaker B: So in the center recently, we've had, the last few months, we've had a lot of fun renovations going on. And it's interesting because Hurricane Milton came and totally, you know, like, there was so much work went into something. Right. Like, we was so much work went into building something, renovating it. And then Hurricane Milton came and it got totally flooded, so we had to pull everything out again. Right. Like, we had to start. And I remember going through this renovation process and I, you know, like the drywall, the guy said he could do drywall, he came and he did such a bad job that we had to get someone else to come and do the drywall. And after this person came in and the person said, oh, I'm charging you twice because I have to undo the work he did. And then, you know, then do the work again. Right. And so then a hurricane came as well. Oh, yeah, right. So no, so, so all of this Went on before the hurricane. All of this went on before the hurricane. And I was so not happy because we were losing a lot of money. So we first did the drywall. Then this guy came in, charged us twice to do the same drywall again. And then the hurricane came and got totally flooded. So now you have to redo the whole thing. You have to redo strip the flooring out. You have to do this, right? And I'm sitting and thinking, okay, so I got worked up the first time. The guy, I mean, I'm like, why wouldn't you just tell me you don't know how to do drywall, Right? Why would you tell me you know how to do drywall and then do this to us? And then the second guy was, it's very hard to deal with people who are in construction. They have their own timeframe. They have their own rhythm. He wanted to come and work at night. And I'm like, no, you can't come at work at night. All of this, right? So all of this stress is going on. And I realized when the hurricane came, Milton came and wiped everything out. I realized that that is a metaphor for life, because you can get stressed about so many things in your life. And if you think of the long game, ultimately, it really doesn't matter, because it's all going anyway. Like, think about it 100 years from now, right? Think of your life 100 years from now. Whatever you worked for is not going to be here. If you're working for your children, they probably are not going to be here. And, you know, so many things are going to happen that is, you know, like, everything will be different. Someone else will be here. Someone else will be taking care of something else, and they will be enjoying the fruits of your labor. And why am I getting stressed? Why am I getting stressed? And that's when I realized, this is not going to do. I have to have a fun and easy life. Like, everything. Okay. The first guy, okay? If I would have to redo my last few months, this is what would have happened. The first guy did a nasty job on the drywall. I would think, oh, my God, it's fun and easy. Life is fun and easy. Life is fun and easy because it's all internal, really. It's all internal. If you think about it, it's all internal. Life can be fun and easy, and I need to look at it as fun and easy. I don't need to get stressed out. Stress is an option. I don't need to be upset with this guy. That's an option. I don't need to choose that option. And so I've been really rethinking my life. And everything now is fun and easy. Because I'm thinking the long game, fun and easy.
• 6:04
  Speaker A: What a great expression. So it just feels good, doesn't it? Fun and easy. Fun and easy. Because, like, what stops us having fun and easy is resistance, isn't it? It's not liking what is. So. So life is. It is what it is. Like the dry wall or something happens or we feel bad or whatever happens, right? And. And then we say, I don't like it. This is terrible. This should be different. And. And that resistance to what is makes us feel stressed because, I mean, they're going to be challenging situations in our life in various ways anyway. But we don't have to make it worse by resisting it, you know, because it's not going to get any better, is it? You know, and. And so before we go further into this, just. Just think about this for yourself in your own life, right? When, whenever you've gone through something that's challenging, just notice how much resistance there was. And did it help? Because we can go through long periods of time where we're resisting everything potentially, right? So I'll give a practical example of this. One of the most extreme situations I had that I remember having this breakthrough is when I was in India. I was in India in 2005 for six months, just traveling around and going on retreats and stuff like that, and eating tons and tons of mangoes. I had a thousand mangoes. And at the end of the trip, I was about three days away from leaving and I was on my own in this place in Mumbai, and I got really sick all of a sudden, and I had this. I couldn't eat anything, felt nauseous, and I had this really, really, really bad headache. And I couldn't get up, and it was pounding on me and I just couldn't get out of bed. It was that bad. I couldn't move. And I really didn't like it, obviously, because that's not something pain is bad enough. But it was cranked really, really high. And I was on my own. And I couldn't even call anyone because I couldn't get out of bed. And I was starting to think, am I going to die? And all these things coming up. And I was resisting, resisting, resisting. And finally I said this went on for hours and hours and hours and hours and hours and day turned into night and turned back into day, and I'm lying on the bed thinking okay, this is. This is like, what going to. I need to get on a plane or I need to least get some help. I haven't even drunk any water. And so finally I said, just stop resisting it, Michael. Just stop resisting. Just. Just like, try and just see it as a detached observer. Try and watch what's happening to you as if you're happening to someone else from. From above, from, like, over here. So I. I did this practice where I kind of went out of my body awareness, and I watched everything from over here. And as soon as I did that, the pain was still there, but it didn't bother me. Like, I was like, this isn't that bad, actually. It just. It's just an experience, just like any experience. And once I stayed there long enough, I somehow managed to get energy that I could get up, get some water, make a phone call. And sort of after. After that happened, I managed somehow to regain my power to move around the house a little bit. I managed to pack up something or throwing things in a bag. And before I knew it, I was. I got a lift down to the airport. And by the time I got back to England, I was fine, actually, when it was all just like a strange nightmare, you know? But that. But I never forget that because it was so extreme. It was so extreme. It was like. Because if. I don't know what would happen if you don't drink long enough, like, you die from dehydration. But. So I wouldn't exactly say it was fun and easy, actually, but it was a lot more fun and easier than it was before I did that.
• 10:04
  Speaker B: Right, right. But, you know, that's an extreme situation. Right? Most of our life, we are not in extreme situations.
• 10:12
  Speaker A: No, we're not dying, for example.
• 10:14
  Speaker B: Yeah. Like, not, you know, like really, you know, totally comfortable in India, we are not doing that. I mean, recently I had that experience, but we are not doing that. What we are doing is, for the example with the drywall is, I'm fine, I'm healthy. Someone else is doing something, and I'm reacting to it.
• 10:40
  Speaker A: Right.
• 10:41
  Speaker B: And that reaction is optional, actually. I can choose to react any which way I want, but that particular reaction is optional. I need to understand that I have options. I don't need to be a slave to. That is what I think was my deepest breakthrough is I don't need to be a slave to my own irritation, to my anger, to my frustration, to my. This one should do that, and that one should have done this, and they should have told me this. I don't need to be a slave to this. That is my, that is my biggest takeaway from it. Those are optional things, right? It's like we. Slavery has been abolished. And hopefully a lot of our listeners feel slavery is a bad thing. Why am I putting myself in those situations? Because that is also slavery. I'm being slave to my own, you know, like lower, like weaknesses or defects or whatever, right? I'm being a slave to that. And I have a choice to look at life as. No, I don't need to be a slave to this. I can choose to think differently because it is all internal, really. If you think about it, it is all internal. I'm not saying bad things don't happen like that bad headache you were talking about. They do happen, but it is internal. A lot of the things are internal. A lot of the things are internal. And these internal things can be totally decided by me. I can choose. I can say, no, I don't want to react this way. I'm going to react this way and react this way is. It's all fun and easy.
• 12:43
  Speaker A: Fun and easy. Fun and easy. Yeah. I. Yesterday I had. Was it day before I had a, A meeting with somebody for some technical things in my business. I, I have to admit, I don't particularly like technical things and I outsource as much as I can. So I ended up with this situation where, where we have. If anyone knows anything about email lists, right? We, we had 860 tags, like different and. And something like 120 different email campaigns, if anyone knows what I'm talking about, right? This is a real mess. I just imagine like stacks and stacks of paper and just told disaster everywhere. And I'm looking at this stuff going, what is going on here? Like, how did it get this bad? Like who did this? Right? And so my initial reaction, first few times I tried to look at it was just repulsion. I was really. I looked at it for like an hour, as much as I could and just freaked out and left it for five months. This has happened multiple times. And I decided, look, let me just sit here and this is fun and easy. Just have a good attitude. Let me just go in here and look at this stuff without a trig getting triggered, without getting annoyed about it, without thinking. Because what's going on is in our mind, we're thinking, this shouldn't be like this, it should be different, right? That. That's what my. What's happening internally is like with this situation is I'm looking at something and I'm thinking, who the hell did this and how come, like, what is. Like, this is completely ridiculous. This is the thoughts in my head. So instead of that, I'm thinking, okay, it is what it is. It's fun and games. It's fun and easy. I can make this better. This is fine. It's all good. Like, it can be improved. This isn't like some punishment that I'm having to put up with. This is something that can be made great and it can be fun, right? And like, I'm thinking about the positive benefits, the outcome, the improvements, the newness, the shifts in consciousness, and all of a sudden that energy from irritation move to, oh, this is fantastic. Hooray, hooray, hooray, hooray, hooray. Right? So it's. So we have to check our thoughts when we go into these. What are we thinking? And normally it's some version of, I don't like it, it shouldn't be this way. Or we're thinking, why did someone else screw this up? Or make a mess of it? Because that's typically. It's. It might be, why did I do this to myself? In some cases, but other times it's like, why did someone else do this to me? Neither of those things make us feel good. So we can say it is what it is. And it's fun and easy. And I'm fully leaning into this and I'm embracing it and I'm moving towards it and I'm having a good attitude towards this. And end of the day, it's a game. And it doesn't matter that much either way. You know, it's like.
• 15:35
  Speaker B: Right, right, exactly right. At the end of the day, it doesn't matter. No, it actually maybe it does matter to get your email list going properly. Because in the biggest scheme, you know, in the long. In the long game, right? Like not the next five years or whatever, but the next 50 years, it doesn't really matter. I was thinking about this the last few days is with this fun and easy attitude towards life, right? The question we need to ask ourselves is, did the chicken come first or did the egg come first? Which came first in a chicken and egg situation. That's actually a philosophical paradox. Which came first?
• 16:24
  Speaker A: I don't know, either of them.
• 16:25
  Speaker B: Egg.
• 16:26
  Speaker A: You can't answer that question.
• 16:28
  Speaker B: You can't answer that question. So my question is, let's take another example in my life where I can't. I'm like, trying to do some work and I constantly get interrupted or I've done something and then I have to go back and redo it because someone else came and messed it up. Right. So I go back and do something and someone came and messed it up. And I am feeling some sort of frustration, which is like an aspect of sorrow. I'm totally not okay with this, which is some sort of sorrow. So did my sorrow come first or did my thoughts come first? My thoughts about that situation came before the sorrow or the sorrow came before, before the thoughts about the situation. And so that's why the whole chicken and egg. Right. Because it is a chicken and egg situation where if I'm experiencing sorrow, then I have thoughts about it. And because I have thoughts about it, I'm experiencing sorrow. And they're feeding each other.
• 17:42
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 17:44
  Speaker B: And so we need to stop one thing, right? Where do you think we have power? Sorrow or thoughts?
• 17:59
  Speaker A: Well, you can't stop the situation, can you? Because the situation's external.
• 18:02
  Speaker B: No, situation can't be stopped either. The sorrow and the thoughts, that's the only control you have. Actually, the only control you have is sorrow and thoughts. And so I feel thoughts.
• 18:13
  Speaker A: Thoughts is where we have more control.
• 18:15
  Speaker B: Yeah. Thoughts is where we have total control and we can take. Even if we don't, we can regain control. So thoughts is where we have control and we take these thoughts and we change our thoughts. We change our awareness around this. And then the sorrow will stop, the frustration, the irritation, whatever. That will stop.
• 18:41
  Speaker A: Absolutely, yeah. The thought, the thoughts. I mean, when I tune into this for myself, I notice that there's thoughts and then behind the thoughts there's an attitude that's sort of like causing the thoughts, you could say even, or inspiring them. And the attitude seems to me the bad attitude is I shouldn't have to put up with this sort of thing. Why is this happening? It shouldn't be like the way it is. And that causes the thoughts. Oh, why did they do that? But the better attitude is it is what it is. And what's the benefit here? Like this is fine. Like this, this is. It can be fun and. Fun and easy. I mean, so many situations in life, we don't like them, but if, if we can embrace them for what they are, it actually can become fun and easy. Like it's, it's the resistance to it that causes it to become this major issue. But even things like, like I was going on a walk the other day and I was, didn't eat enough, so I had low blood sugar and I was like, well, I feel a bit spaced out here wandering around. And I was like, no, just, just embrace it. Just, just lean into it just be all right with, you know, just. It is just experience it for what it is without having thoughts about it. And then I felt fine afterwards, actually, because it wasn't that bad. There's so many such. Like we're coming across this sort of thing over and over and over and over again.
• 20:15
  Speaker B: Absolutely.
• 20:16
  Speaker A: Every day, this stuff coming up, you know, why does this person say this? Why did this thing happen? Why doesn't this thing work? Like just now, something in my sister system broke. My, oh, it broke. And now I have to fix this thing. I can either say, that shouldn't have happened. How dare them. This is such an affront to my dignity. How could they do this to me? Or I can say, it's fun and easy. Let me just click a few buttons and fix the problem.
• 20:42
  Speaker B: Right? You know, another aspect that I've been thinking about recently is blessing. Everything and everyone in my life is a blessing. It is a blessing. Let's take whatever broke down in your. In your system, right?
• 21:09
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 21:10
  Speaker B: Your whole system is a blessing. The one that was actually working is a blessing. Now that the fact that you can fix it is a blessing, if you really deeply think about it, it is a blessing, right? Because you have to think about it. If that did not exist, for example, if someone, if I've done something and I have to go back and redo it because someone else came and missed it, the question I have to ask myself, because it recently happened is what if this person was not in my life? Then I realized, no, this person in my life is a blessing.
• 21:46
  Speaker A: Right?
• 21:47
  Speaker B: And so whatever else happens is a blessing. It can't be. It. I, you know, no one's going to behave or life is not going to behave exactly the way I want it to behave. Right. So when I think of everything in my life, right. Whether your software or email software is a blessing. It really is a blessing. Think about it. It is a blessing.
• 22:12
  Speaker A: Yes. I don't miss a blessing.
• 22:15
  Speaker B: Everyone in our lives are blessings. Anyone who had to leave our blessings. Everyone who's going to come is a blessing. Everything is a blessing. And that is when life becomes fun and easy. Because it is a blessing.
• 22:30
  Speaker A: It's a gift. Yeah, it's true. It's true. Even, you know, the main things in life is relationships, health and money, isn't it really? These are the three big three that tend to dominate the mind all the time. And so if we have relationship challenge, what's the benefit to that? What's the blessing? How can it be fun and easy? You know, we have Money issue. How can it be fun and easy? Because we can choose our response to these things. Just even that phrase, fun and easy. Fun and easy. Fun and easy is such a powerful reframe, right? Because the old method is it shouldn't happen. Why is it happening? I don't like it. Oh, my God. I'm the new. The new version is it's fun and easy. You know, like, I remember one time when I was starting out in my work and I. I couldn't pay my bills. Like, I literally was like, I might get kicked out of my house. And it really freaked me out. But it was a blessing because it forced me to get it together and turn things around and do stuff differently. And as a result of that, you know, I've had a great life ever since. But do you know what I mean? So we can either say ah or we can go, it's fun and games. Fun and games. So this is a, this is a very powerful choice. And every one of us has situations in our life. And you're going to have them today, probably, right? I'm sure straight after this podcast, something's going to happen. You're going to be like, oh, gosh, it's fun and easy. It's fun and easy.
• 24:05
  Speaker B: You know, one thing I've noticed, to make everything fun and easy, you have to kind of look at yourself, right? Like, a little deeper. You have to look at yourself. But it's so easy. It's so easy to look at someone else. It's so easy to say, oh, that one should change, right? My attitude doesn't need to change that one. That person needs to change. That situation needs to change. It's so easy. And so the, like, the underlying principle of fun and easy is just keep looking at yourself, because that's the only control you have. The other person, yes, possibly they need to change, but you have no control over it. So it's like a waste of your time and, or any situation, right? No control based off your time. But it's easy to just be external all the time, be outside and say, okay, that needs to happen there and this needs to happen here. And, you know, this one should be like this or, you know, whatever, right? But if I keep looking internally and if I keep attainments, right? I keep my attainments in my life, in my heart all the time. More than even blessings. I have so many attainments in my life, and those attainments, I keep thinking about them, keep, you know, reflecting on them. Then life does become fun and easy. Instead of looking, I think the main obstacle to someone too fun and easy is looking at someone else. The first main obstacle, I think the second main obstacle is blaming something else or someone else for what's going on in your head. If you're thinking that's your problem, right. You can't blame anyone else for it. They are just messengers to tell you this is what's happening in your head, this is inside you, this is what's happening. They're just messengers. And so blaming someone else, looking at someone else, thinking they should change all of that. Those are the main obstacles to a fun and easy life. And so fun and easy life really is about just looking at your own self, worrying about your own self, because you don't really have control over anyone else. Let's say you are part of a couple and your spouse listens to everything you say, right? Which is a joke actually. That's not going to happen. But, but let's say that's happening. It's very temporary still. You know, you have to think of the long game, because in the long game you have to there be a life without this person or moments where this person is not around even now. Right. Like someone can't be with you 100% of the time. You have to be with yourself. What about those times?
• 27:28
  Speaker A: Right? Yeah. We are always dealing with ourselves all day long. Are we? So everyone else, I mean, if someone's nice and cooperative and loving and everything, that's a wonderful blessing. But we can't guarantee that really, can we? Because it's external. This is like the paradigm shift, isn't it, of spirituality, is to say I'm responsible for myself and my thoughts and feelings and my actions and I'm not responsible for everyone else because I can't like, I can't get, get them to change. And if we're saying I'll be happy when other people change, that's a very dangerous situation to be in, isn't it? Because we can't control them. So many people, if you analyze it in the world, are waiting around for something or someone else to change in order for them to feel good and not letting themselves be happy the rest of the time. And it's a very, very harmful and harsh way of living.
• 28:28
  Speaker B: Yes.
• 28:29
  Speaker A: Because even if you get what you want, right, it's not going to last very long. Like imagine that we say I'll have a fun and easy life when the weather's nice and I've got X amount of money. And these people do this, this and this and that. And you imagine you just For a moment that you do get it all right, and the weather' perfect and everything's wonderful. It's. First of all, it doesn't guarantee you'll feel happy. And secondly, it's definitely not going to last very long. And then what's going to happen after that?
• 28:54
  Speaker B: Right. You know, in happiness there are two kinds of happiness. There is natural happiness and synthesized happiness. Natural happiness is everything in your life like what you were just describing. Everything in your life is going exactly the way you want it to go, right? Then you're naturally happy. Synthesized happiness is things are not going the way you want it to go, and absolutely nothing is going the way you want it to go. But you've decided that you will make meaning and be happy with whatever happens, right? You're synthesizing happiness of events that. Let's say, this is the example this Harvard professor gives. Let's say you're called in to have gallbladder surgery. That's not something you're totally happy about, but you can synthesize happiness out of that. The human soul has a capacity to synthesize happiness. And what studies have shown is natural happiness and synthesized happiness are equally powerful. They're equally good. Right. They're equally wonderful things. So it's not like natural happiness is better than synthesized happiness. No, it's not. And because we have so many opportunities to synthesize our happiness than natural happiness. Right. Natural happiness is really only one opportunity. But synthesized happiness, we have 10 opportunities in a day, right? So why shouldn't we use the synthesis, why shouldn't we use the ability in the soul that can actually synthesize happiness? Because we have 10 up. We are missing out 10 opportunities for happiness while we are fixated on this one thing that we want to be happy with.
• 30:55
  Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. We can create happiness out anything as soon as we say it's fun and easy. So this is a. This is a magic mantra, right? Magic mantra. When you come across challenging situations, reframe it. I'm responsible for my own happiness. I'm responsible for my life. I'm not blaming anyone else. I'm not expecting anything else to change. I'm not resisting it. And I'm choosing to make this fun and easy and to embrace it and to realize I'm a spiritual being having a human experience. And this, this is the thing. I'm this spiritual being here having this particular moment in time, and I might as well make it fun and easy for myself because I'm here anyway. And that's, I mean, what I personally do again and again as much as I can, is I say, look, I might not normally enjoy this, but since I'm already doing it and I'm already here, I might as well put my heart into it and have fun with it. Because why not? Like, you're already there anyways, like, you're in the now having the experience. Why not embrace it? That's the big shift. You're saying, let me lean into life and enjoy it for what it is. And, and that might include. Look, if you're tired, lean into being tired. I remember one time I was feeling very strange emotionally. I was in Hawaii and I went to this health food store store and I went to get a cup of coffee and a muffin, actually, and they. And I was feeling really bad and I walked up to the coffee and. And I said to myself, michael, what if you could just lean into your feelings and just. Just fully embrace what is and stop, like, making a fuss. Like, I don't know what I was thinking. I was just having a rough time. And as soon as I just allowed myself to feel what I was feeling and leaned into the feeling and just was. Was with the moment and I stopped judging myself for feeling weird, immediately I felt better, like, instant. I vividly remember just walking down this thing and I thought, let me just fully embrace it. And it was a huge shift in my level of joy. And I remember walking out there thinking, I just feel fantastic. So this applies to emotions, situations, physical pain, to people who are technically annoying people, software problems, money issues. Do you know what I mean? Guaranteed, between now and next week, you're going to have quite a few opportunities to practice this. So this is, this is our. This is our wonderful gift homework for you next time you have a challenge. What are they supposed to do, Shereen? Next time someone has something, what are they going to do?
• 33:53
  Speaker B: You have to check your thoughts around it and make them fun and easy because you have the power to do that, right? But you're resisting, but you're thinking, oh, my God, I have to do this. This, this. Just say no. This is great. It's a blessing. Yeah, it's fun and easy.
• 34:14
  Speaker A: Blessing, hooray. Aren't I lucky to have this experience?
• 34:20
  Speaker B: It is actually however. However bad it is, right? It is a wonderful experience. We are very fortunate to be alive. We are very fortunate to have everything we have right now. And so let's just be happy about it.
• 34:39
  Speaker A: And the thing that we can bring to this, that maybe other people talk about similar things, is that when you realize you're a spiritual being. And fundamentally, you can't die, right? That is a really important part of this. Because if we think on some level we could die, then the fun and easy side of things can be reduced somewhat, right? Because you're like, oh, this might be the end of my life, but if you say, I can't be killed, I can't die, like, this body might end, but I'm a spiritual being and it's just going on forever. And it's a bit like we're watching a movie. The whole time we're really experiencing life is like watching a film. And in the film it might be all sorts of weird things happening, but behind it we're safe and everything's okay. That consciousness lets us experience that fun and easy thing. Just like if you go to watch a movie, like an action movie, and they might be cars and people jumping off buildings and all sorts of things, it brings up adrenaline and there's all these struggles happening. And you're like, don't know, don't press the button. Don't do this. Don't. Right? But you know, you're okay experiencing it all from over here. And so that lets us have fun and easy. And people go out of their way to go on roller coaster rides and watch movies and do all this stuff to bring up all these emotions anyway and pay money for it. So we're getting our own roller coaster ride for free in our life just the way it is.
• 36:10
  Speaker B: That was fun and easy.
• 36:12
  Speaker A: Fun and easy.
• 36:14
  Speaker B: So should we do a blessing? I wanted to say something before a blessing, Something you said just now that you became detached when you were in India, that you became detached. You watched yourself. And so that's like being a witness. Like that is a. You would call that, like witness consciousness, right? Detached observer. Awareness of being a detached observer. And so I feel that that's a very important aspect of meditation, is you watching yourself. So, you know you're a soul. You know you're a soul in this body. We hope you all know this. If you don't. So you know now you're a soul in this body, right? The body is a vehicle. It's like a VR headset. And the brain is a VR headset. It's the whole thing, right? So we are experiencing the world. The soul is experiencing the world through this body. So the soul actually has the capacity to detach from this body, go, let's say, about 20ft away from the body. And watch yourself playing this part in the body. Just watch yourself playing this part. Watch yourself in the body, watch yourself doing whatever is going on with the soul, with whatever is happening. Just watch yourself just for a few moments. And first you watch as a witness. Then second, you watch with love. You watch yourself with love. Now again, watch yourself as a witness, as a detached observer, again, watch yourself with love. So you can keep doing that and you really will feel life is fun and easy after you come into the body and you start doing whatever you supposed to be doing.
• 39:19
  Speaker A: Fun and easy. Yeah. The more detached we are and come back, go beyond, come back, the more ease everything feels. It's just like going away to some other place and you come back and like you're. It's an entertainment, it's temporary. These are very deep things. And we, we talk more about this in our free courses that you can get as well. And you can find out about that in the description. So, Shereen, let's have a blessing. Blessing.
• 39:54
  Speaker B: Blessing. I'm just opening a random page.
• 39:57
  Speaker A: And by the way, before we do the blessing, Shireen had to rewrite that entire book having lost it all, didn't you?
• 40:04
  Speaker B: Right?
• 40:05
  Speaker A: And it was fun and easy, wasn't it?
• 40:08
  Speaker B: It was fun and easy for the whole book. And then see in the. I don't even remember that now. Why would. Why do you need to get stressed about it? Right. If I'm not going to remember the worst part of writing the book and just feel the blessing of the book, why get stressed? Why? I might as well enjoy it while doing it. Freedom.
• 40:33
  Speaker A: There we go. Very nice.
• 40:37
  Speaker B: You are free from others expectations and your fears leading you to self realization. You have uncovered your core and found the purest form of liberation in it. With your wings wide open, you fly higher than ever. Experiencing serenity. Tea.
• 41:11
  Speaker A: Ah. Fun and easy Peace, EAS and grace. Thank you very much. So wishing everyone a fun and easy life. A fun and easy day. Fun and easy week. Think about how many opportunities you're going to have from now on for the rest of your life. There's so many. So we can synthesize happiness again and again and again. It's fun and easy. Enjoy. Enjoy. Loss of love. Yay.