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Stillness Conquers Fear · Divine Dialogue

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Hello, listeners, and welcome to the Divine Dialogue Podcast, where we dig deeper into the trove of wisdom and guidance stories have to offer.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: Have you ever watched a movie and felt moved?
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: Felt called to make a change or reflect more deeply on your own life?
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: If so, this podcast has a lot to offer you.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: For our fifth episode in the Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone series, we will explore the scene when Stillness Conquers Fear.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: Now, you may be wondering, because there's quite a few scenes in Harry Potter where Stillness Conquers Fear, we are talking about Devil's Snare.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: So it is late in the movie.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: Ron, Hermione, and Harry have figured out what the next move is going to be through their research in the restricted section of the library.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: They were able to sneak out of the common room.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: Hermione Oh, what's that spell she does on him?
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: I forget, but she freezes him.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: Patrick Patrificus Totalis, something like that.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: I I should be nerdy enough to come up with that off the top of my head, but I really I don't remember.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: I just remember she freezes him and he falls backwards, and they walk over him basically, and they head to the entrance of the essentially where Fluffy's guarding the belly of the castle entrance, the trapdoor.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: And so it's very late in the movie, and they think that they're gonna go protect the stone from Snape.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: And after the harp stops playing and Fluffy wakes up, they essentially have to jump down this trapdoor a lot quicker than they plan to.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: And they find themselves falling into a plant thing.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: Ron isn't initially very happy that they fall into this, but it's actually a dangerous plant that will kill you faster if you struggle.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: So it's essentially quicksand, the quicksand equivalent of herbology.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: And the three of them get grabbed quickly, and immediately Harry and Ron start panicking.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: But Hermione is very still from the beginning.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: Like she's looking around, you know, she's not happy about it, but she's not in a state of fear.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: And she tells them to relax, but neither of them listen.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: Quickly, Hermione disappears to the unknown below.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: Ron screams for her, and then they hear her voice, just relax.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: So, a devil's snare.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: I absolutely love this scene.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: It's a great scene that really shows the power of stillness in the face of fear.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: And when darkness has you trapped, you have to let go, become soft, and don't brace.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: And you might be asking, well, how and why?
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: Because if you're trapped and you know you're scared, it's very hard to do that.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: And it's very simply that fear begets more fear.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: And what I find really interesting about this scene is that the very person who is grateful they landed in the plant, which is Ron, is also the first one to really freak out.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: Fluffy begins looking better than being strangled by terrifying vines underneath the castle.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: And that's kind of an interesting thing with fear, too, is that we'll be afraid of one thing and then we'll go into another thing.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: And you might think, oh, well, this is a much better fear, and then your mind starts to be like, well, maybe a three-headed dog wasn't as bad as this.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: But it's interesting because Ron is the most disconnected from stillness here by far of the three of them.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: And we see this throughout the series, at least in the movies.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: I know he's different in the books.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: I I actually think of this meme with the three dragons.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: I've seen reference to him a lot, where one has like a vacant expression, kind of like the hyena in Lion King.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: And essentially to say that Ron is kind of a you know a dumbbell, I guess, in the in the movies.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: I was gonna say a dodo bird, but I don't know why Dumbbell just sounded better to me.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: But he kind of has this like frantic, startled energy about him in the movies.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: We see this.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: And I really do think that this is why I've actually alluded to this before.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: He receives the Deluminator in the series because Dumbledore knows out of all of them, Ron struggles most to find the light, and it's no exception here with Devil's Snare.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: Hermione looks uncomfortable, but she immediately knows what to do.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: And I strongly suspect it's because we talk a lot about energy again, not to say that these energies are exclusively form-based, but I think that they tend to gravitate towards certain forms, and I think because she's, you know, a woman, she well, she's a girl, but she's she's female.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_00: And I think in general, females are more in touch with the feminine energy.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: So I think that she's a little bit quicker to sink into that stillness than the two boys are.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: She's also very educated, she's very intellectual, she knows what she fell into, so she has insight and awareness of the situation that both Harry and Ron do not have.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: So that can help you not feel completely overpowered by fear when you are aware what you're in.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: That can kind of provide like a window of light into the situation.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: And she ends up telling Harry later as he continues on alone by himself that she has books and cleverness and that there are more important things.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: And the fact that she has these here, though, is incredibly helpful because she's able to reach Harry just with her words.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: Her energy from below says, just relax, do what I say, trust me.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: And Devil Snare lets Harry go.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: And I think the crucial lesson, the soul of the sole meaning of this scene, is it lets him go because he lets go.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: I think that we are kind of trained to think, oh, you know, we need to fight things, we need to resist, we need to, you know, get rid of something that we don't like.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm sure you've heard this before.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: It's a pretty popular saying.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_00: What resists persists, and I think that's at play here with Devil's Snare, because Harry lets go, he gets let go, and I think that's just energy matching energy.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_00: The plant obviously feeds off of fear, so it's perfectly happy to hang on to Ron, who is the most stubborn in letting go, refusing to do so, basically forcing her mini to tap into both feminine stillness and masculine action.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: Because if you remember the scene, she has to recall a spell to break him out of his own mental spell, which shows the power of your inner light.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_00: And this kind of ties back to what I had said in the Balto series just prior to this and the last episode of that, The Howl of Truth.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: When you are able to expand your integration, you don't just impact yourself, you impact people around you.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: So she is integrated enough that her inner light is enough to essentially eclipse his inner darkness or his inner, essentially frozen and fear state that he's in.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: Because Hermione knows this immediately, but it takes a lot of convincing, especially for Ron.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: And I think it's also very true that remaining calm in the face of crisis can help you recall tools you may need more readily to assist others who cannot get themselves to that stillness.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: That's why I say, and obviously practice this with yourself first, because until if you don't get it down for yourself, you really can't do it for other people.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_00: And it's not, you know, a flaw.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: It's just, I think, how energy works.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: You have to balance your internal energy before you can even, and it's not even about trying to balance someone else's energy, it's more about holding your energetic position and allowing that to flow through to an action that can help someone else who's in a different state.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_00: And I do think it's a common theme we find ourselves in with life.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_00: Like there are, you know, constantly people around us who have a certain frequency that can drag you into fear.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_00: But, you know, stillness I believe is stronger than fear.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_00: And I did touch on a couple Bible verses when I was going over the mirror of Eresid in episode three, I believe it was.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_00: I should know it was not even that long ago.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_00: But the Bible refers to essentially the stillness state as I believe what the I am state is when they say I am the I am, I am that I am, be still and know that I am God.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_00: That's a verse from the Old Testament.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't believe it's ever talking about some God outside of you.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's talking about the divinity inside of you.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that that's something that especially religion has really twisted to make it external.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: It's not external, it's it's your inner divinity, your inner light, your inner stillness, your inner floor of peace, essentially.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_00: That's always there for you to rest in, even and maybe especially during crisis.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: And that I think is what Hermione was tapping into when she can recall the spell.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we see her get a little bit antsy because, you know, she's trying to figure out how to help Ron because he's making it, you know, obviously she picks up on the energy too.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: It's not like you are immune from outside influence.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: Like you're going to feel other people's energy, especially if you have a connection with them.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: Like by this point in the movie, they're friends, and so she feels his fear, but she's also able to feel that inner I am, that inner stillness, and she's able to cast essentially.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_00: I think the deeper meaning of this, she's not just casting a light spell, she's casting her inner light through a spell to help him because he needs, you know, the light to relax.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_00: He he he's not able to find his own, so she needs to essentially be a bridge for him.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_00: And I really do think that your inner light can light up the darkness and can has the potential to untangle the treachery that threatens to claim you and also people around you.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_00: You just have to remember the spell.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: I think that your words are very powerful, both internally and what you speak out loud.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_00: And even though, you know, Ron is completely in a state of panic and chaos, Hermione's light is able to overcome that.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: And like I said, she's not perfect.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_00: Like she gets a little antsy because she's like, I'm trying to remember, I remember reading something, and then you know, she's trying to collect herself.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: And so she's not perfect, but I think even imperfect stillness is stronger than a complete state of panic and chaos.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: I really do think that that's true.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_00: And like I said, it it goes back to what I had said in the Balto series.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_00: You don't just release yourself, you release others, or at least you have the potential to.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't always work, but it's possible.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_00: And it's it's kind of miraculous when it happens because when you're in the grip of fear, it really can feel like nothing can penetrate that, nothing can disrupt that terror and that constant state of dread.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_00: But I really do think that if someone has enough stillness around you, it can almost recalibrate, or I mean, in his case, he doesn't recalibrate.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_00: And actually, he's quite arrogant about it when he drops down, he's like, Oh yeah, lucky we didn't panic.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_00: Like, dummy.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_00: And then Harry's like, lucky Hermione pays attention, and herbology is actually the truth.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, she becomes the calm in the storm, and Harry is much easier to influence, so he gravitates to her energy.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_00: She kind of does a light tug and he comes over.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_00: But even, you know, as stubborn as Ron is, like he can still be pulled out when she decides to cast literal light to release him.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_00: And like I said, her light overcomes his darkness, and that doesn't always happen, but he's pretty much completely immersed in fear.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_00: If you watch the scene, he's pretty overtaken by this devil snare.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_00: And that will lead us into the personal mirror here.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_00: So when I watched this scene, so Harry Potter, if I remember correctly, came out in 2001, and I was 11 at the time, so same age as Harry was in the movie.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_00: And it didn't really hit me, you know, when I was 11, I I always felt in stories that there was something very special about them, but I really couldn't put my finger on it because I didn't really have the capacity to, you know, articulate what it was at the time.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_00: But when I watched the scene as I got older, I began to see it as a absolutely brilliant image for anxiety.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_00: Because I still struggle from time to time with anxiety, but it was very bad in my teens and in my twenties.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_00: And it really does feel just like Devil's Snare.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_00: Because I I love how they show the progression of essentially being being captured, being arrested in fear, because first it grabs your legs, so you can't move, you're frozen, so it restricts your movement, and then it just keeps restricting you more and more.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it it wraps around your your chest, there's pressure in your chest.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_00: At least when I would have anxiety, I would feel that when its vines encircle you, but if you relax, if you let go, it lets go of you.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that what we tend to do, especially for me with anxiety, is it's like you try to fight anxiety.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_00: You try to be like, well, I'm gonna, you know, match this visceral energy with my own visceral resistance.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_00: And it actually just creates a polar effect of it, it paradoxically strengthens the other side because you're trying so hard to let go.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_00: And the more that you can't, the more anxious you get because you're like, oh, I can't let this go, and it's not letting go of me.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_00: And it's it's weird and very annoying how that happens.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_00: But if you have had anxiety, you know.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_00: And anxiety is, you know, an energy like any other.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_00: You don't have to feed it, it may have to run its course.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_00: But remembering stillness, I think, can speed up its release of you.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, at one point in my life, I was completely arrested by Devil's Snare.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_00: The vines would constrict harder and harder, and I was never able to relax and let go.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_00: It was more like the energy would have to run its course until my nervous system quite literally exhausted itself.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't recommend that as an ongoing treatment plan for anxiety, because that's going to take quite a toll on your nervous system.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_00: And for me in particular, like after Devil's Snare had exhausted me, I would be in like anxiety and depression cycles.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_00: So I would exhaust my energy and then I would go to sleep.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, sometimes for a really long time, because being that activated, I would be so tired out, but it would make me also not want to be awake.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_00: Because it's just, you know, after you're so stressed, it kind of makes sense that the next natural feeling would be sadness, but not just sadness.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_00: Like depression, I feel like is is a more painful form, a form of sadness, almost the fear, the fear version of sadness is depression.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, that would essentially be my pattern.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_00: And I had that pattern for quite a while.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_00: But I really started to see the connection to that scene and my anxiety when I was older.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_00: And I thought it was such a great like imagery for what happens with anxiety because it will grab at you, you know, and it's kind of you're kind of it's kind of like how Ron says, like, oh, we're lucky this plant thing's here, and and you're just sitting and you feel fine.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_00: And then it's like thoughts, at least for me, it would just enter into my mind like popcorn.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_00: And as it speeds up, it just pops more and more and more.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_00: And the more momentum it has, the harder it is to leave.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_00: And that's where like meditation in particular has helped me a lot.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_00: And actually, I just had this happen this week for me, so I'm excited to share it as part of the personal mirror for this episode.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_00: I used to think that meditation was a mind first practice, because they even call it mindfulness, right?
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_00: I really think it's a body first practice, and that's something I just discovered this past week because I've been listening to this book, audiobook.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_00: It's called The Regulated Bitch.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_00: I usually don't curse on this podcast because I want to be, you know, all viewership friendly, so that's the only curse word I'll say on this episode.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_00: There might be special episodes where I curse, because I actually do curse quite a bit in real life, divine listeners.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_00: You don't have to be, you know, pure to be spiritual.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_00: Like I want to get that out there right now.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_00: But anyway, in that book, they talk about, and it really like it rung a bell in me when she said the author said, I'll I'm gonna link the book in the show notes because it's relevant to this episode.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_00: She talked about how you like your body needs to be regulated, not your mind, because your mind is essentially sending off like alarm bells to get you to pay attention to your body.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_00: So if you drop into your body, if you try this, your mind will slow down.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_00: And sometimes it'll be completely silent.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_00: And that can be very scary because I think we kind of get used to having a lot of thoughts.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_00: But meditation, now I approach it as a body first practice.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_00: I drop into my body, I return to the present, I listen, you know, I'll even ask my body, like, you know, what do you need?
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_00: How are you feeling?
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_00: What do you want me to know?
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_00: Because I think your mind is actually trying to help your body when it kind of sends out, you know, flares and and panics.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_00: We just get annoyed with it and we try to control the mind.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_00: We try to, and that's kind of like trying to control devil's snare.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_00: We try to, you know, stop the thoughts and change the thoughts and redirect the thoughts and shut down the thoughts, and then we get frustrated because it doesn't really hold.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_00: Like in my case, you know, I felt like it was like a a boat that had a hole in it, and meditation with a mind focus would help me take buckets of water out of the boat, but the water kept coming in the boat, and so to go back to your body, if the boat is your body essentially, and your mind would be the bucket, just fix the hole in the boat, you know, and then the water stops coming in.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_00: That's been extremely helpful for me to reverse that because I used to go to my mind first, and it's not actually your mind, it's it's your body, I think, that really needs the attention.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_00: And once you give your body the attention, um, your mind kind of follows because your mind is able to rest when your body is at peace and regulated.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_00: I've I've found that to be true.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_00: It's been quite a breakthrough actually for me in this last week.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_00: So I wanted to go ahead and share that as part of my personal mirror that you know, meditation is about returning to the present, but it's about returning to the present in your body.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_00: And essentially, you can feel the vines, you know, but if you return to your body and regulate, they don't have such a strong grip.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_00: And it's almost like there's this floor of peace underneath, even if you feel them kind of moving a little bit or trying to constrict a little bit, there's this floor of peace when you're in a regulated state, and you know, learning to go into stillness, you just feel that those vines releasing more and more.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, of course, I still get activated sometimes.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_00: I think that in general, I'm probably more on the neurotic side if you if you're familiar with the big five personality traits.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_00: I I probably am more neurotic than most, but I do have tools to essentially cast my own light spell to repel uh the snare of anxiety, and definitely body first regulation and meditation is a big one.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_00: It kind of goes back to what I was saying about creativity being deeply regulating.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_00: You know, this podcast is definitely a source of regulation for me, writing these episodes out, speaking these words, self-care things.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_00: It's essentially just sometimes redirecting my light back to myself.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_00: But I do think that being creative is is deeply helpful in terms of staving off anxiety.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_00: I think we underestimate just how powerful creativity is.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_00: And that will bring me into the divine dialogue questions, listeners.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_00: I have a few today for you.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_00: What in life feels like devil's snare to you?
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_00: What situation, place, or person seems to ensnare you whenever you're faced with it?
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_00: How could you bring your inner light to that part of your life?
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_00: Where are you being asked to relax?
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_00: Not because the situation is harmless, but because stillness is the way through.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_00: So that's quite a few things to think about here.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I kind of can just take a crack at what Devil's Snare typically is to me.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_00: My anxiety, generally speaking, is generalized anxiety.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_00: I wouldn't say that I have very profound fears.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_00: Like I wouldn't say I have strong phobias.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_00: Like some people only really feel activated if they see like a spider or if they're faced with heights.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_00: For me, it's it's always been general.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_00: And I would say it's it's probably a very common fear too, like fear of the unknown, like when I would do new things.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_00: I was one of those people that for some reason, and well, not for some reason, I know why, because of my how I was raised, it was very much a perfection-focused environment.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_00: It was a I essentially had two very damaging forces from both sides of my parents.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_00: My dad, it was everything that I did had to be perfect right away.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_00: And with my mom, it was don't try that because it's dangerous.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_00: And so together, it was don't try anything because it's dangerous.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_00: But if you do try it, you better do it right the first time.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_00: It's like, well, that ain't gonna work.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_00: You know, and because this is maybe gonna sound a little arrogant, but because I think I'm smarter than average, I would expect myself to be able to essentially master things very quickly.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't really give myself much grace.
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_00: So the vines of Devil's Snare were just kind of always ready to start constricting me because my internal critic, you know, mostly my dad's voice, was very strong in me.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_00: Like, oh, you know, you should you should be able to do this, you should take to this, you should know what to do.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_00: It shouldn't be this hard.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_00: So for me, it was very generalized to anything new.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_00: And that's why, you know, I would stay at jobs a lot longer than I should have, because I once I mastered it, it felt like, okay, well, this is comfortable.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_00: I might not be happy with this, but it's familiar, you know.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm sure a lot of us can relate to that, like where you're not really happy or fulfilled, you're just comfortable.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_00: That was a big thing for me.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_00: And interestingly enough, too, I I so I was, you know, I'm a millennial, so I was kind of the generation that grew up still on using the phone as a phone and not a phone as like playing slots and you know, getting on Tinder and all this other stuff that people use phones for.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_00: Now it was actually a phone, right?
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_00: And but I still had a fear of talking on the phone, and it was, you know, when I look at it now, it's like sometimes a devil's snare moment to me would be having to order a pizza and call the pizza place because I wanted to go online, you know.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_00: I wanted to order it online and I was afraid to call the pizza place, and it's like it's so funny now because that wouldn't even be a thought.
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_00: Like, do I prefer to probably order it online?
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but actually there's practical reasons for that because if I want a lot of toppings, I can select it and it's not as big of a risk of someone not jotting it down right, you know.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_00: I kind of like the error reduction of online stuff.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_00: But it had, you know, back then it was well, I was just afraid to speak on the phone.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_00: I just felt like, I don't know, I had to prepare for what the conversation was gonna be, even though there was no way for me to do that like ironclad, like, oh, know what they were gonna say and know what I was gonna say to what they were gonna say.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_00: Like it was just this always this preemptive, like, I have to know what I'm gonna do.
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_00: I can't just let the moment reveal itself to me.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that that is probably one of the best antidotes to Devil's Snare energy is not to preemptively prepare for everything.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_00: Like, just let the moment arrive, just let the moment reveal itself.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_00: You really don't have to prepare and plan and be ready as much as you think.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_00: You there's so much more space than you might think.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_00: I just speak from experience of of living in a very constricted mindset where I didn't give myself a lot of space.
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm just saying that to answer these questions, that it can feel devil's snare can feel like an everyday life low-grade anxiety, where you're just waiting for the vines to encircle you and tangle you up and constrict you.
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_00: And I just want to say, as someone who's been in that, that's not true.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_00: You have a lot more space to act and respond.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_00: I would even say respond is a better word than react.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like react is typically associated with like, oh, we have to take an action immediately.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_00: There's like an immediacy to it, there's a pressure to it, and I really do think that we have a lot more space than we might think.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_00: So I would say if you're feeling like you're living in a constant devil's snare type energy, just try to pause, drop into your body.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_00: That's what her mindy does.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_00: She closes her eyes and she drops into her body and it lets her go.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_00: So I think that's the fundamental lesson of this scene is drop into your body when you feel that constriction, let go, and it will let you go.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_00: And I think, listeners, I will go ahead and close it there.
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much for tuning into the fifth episode of the Divine Dialogue podcast on the Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone series.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_00: We only have one more to go, and it's going to be probably my favorite episode because we are going to return to the Mirror of Aracid part two, where Harry essentially has integrated himself enough to see the miracle of the mirror, which is himself exactly as he is, and I'm so excited to get into that and kind of tie in from the first part of the Mirror of Eric that I've already recorded.
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so if you haven't heard that one yet, definitely listen to part one before you listen to part two next Friday.
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_00: But I want to say, as always, if you have any suggestions for scenes, please share them.
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_00: My email's in the show notes.
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_00: You can also send fan mail to the show directly at the link at the top of the show notes there.
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_00: And I would be happy to work in requests.
• 28:31
  SPEAKER_00: I do drop every Friday.
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_00: So please let me know if you have any suggestions.
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_00: But until next time, remember that stillness is within you.
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_00: Turn toward the God within you, and fear will loosen its grip.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_00: Devil's snare will let you go.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_00: And with that, divine listeners, I will see you next Friday.