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Mojo Monday - A 13th Century Poem 's Surprising Lesson on Facing Life's Struggles by Carly Taylor · Hardiness with Dr Paul Taylor

• 0:09
  Speaker 1: Hi everyone, Carly Taylor here for this week's My Joe Monday.
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: So I'll be really honest with you. The last few
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: weeks have been pretty tough. Some of you aware that
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: Paul had open heart surgery and it's been quite a journey. It's,
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: of course it's been quite a journey for him, but
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: also for me and the kids. He's doing really, really
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: well now, which is amazing. And so it was a
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: challenging time in a very short space of time. And
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: I came across this poem by pure chance. I had
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: never heard it before. Some of you may have heard
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: of the poet, but it really stopped me in my tracks,
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: and its impact actually created this space for me to pivot,
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: which is what I really needed to do. It's by
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: Roomy Remy is a Persian poet Sufi mystic from the
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: thirteenth century, which is just so amazing. And somehow this
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: amazing human across centuries wrote down these words that really
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: hit exactly where they needed to hit. So I'm going
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: to read you the poem. It's called the guest House.
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: This being human is a guest house every morning, and
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: your arrival a joy, a depression, a meanness, some momentary
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: awareness comes as an unexpected visitor. Welcome and entertain them all.
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: Even if there are a crowd of sorrows who violently
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: sweep your house empty of its furniture, still treat each
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: guest honorably. He may be clearing you out for some
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: new delight, the dark thought, the shame, the malice. Meet
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: them at the door, laughing, and invite them in. Be
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: grateful for whoever comes, because each has been sent as
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: a guide from beyond. I sat with these words, and
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: they made me realize something that while I was going
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: through this sort of challenging time, that I'd really been
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: resisting how I was feeling. And when life throws that
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: sort of discomfort our way, which it inevitably will, whether
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: it's stress or sadness or self doubt, our instinct is
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: to fight it, to push it away, to distract ourselves,
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: numb it, over analyze it, anything but not to feel it.
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: And the more we resist, the heavier it can get.
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: But what Rumy is saying is quite radical, and this
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: is what amazes me. That is a thirteenth century poet,
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: and it just shows that humans in the thirteenth century
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: had the same struggles. Their thoughts and emotions as we
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: do today. So Rumy is saying welcome it. Not because
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: pain is fun and not because you want it, but
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: because it's part of the deal. It's part of the
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: deal of being human. And this being human is like
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: a guest house. So some days joy knocks on the door,
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: and other days it's grief barges in and flips you
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: weled upside down. But every emotion, even the ugly ones,
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: if you want to call them that, or the difficult ones,
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: the uncomfortable ones, they come with something to teach us.
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: And if we can stop resisting, when we allow these
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: emotions to come and go, we stop being victims of them.
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: They don't control us anymore. And that's what this poem
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: gave me these past few weeks. It reminded me to
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: stop fighting, stop resisting, stop over thinking, and just allow
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: to feel it, to move through the emotions and trust that,
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: just like every other emotion, it will pass. So this week,
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: if you find yourself feeling overwhelmed, take a step back
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: and pause, take a deep breath, and instead of resisting,
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: notice that urge to resist, Notice the emotion and allow
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: them to come, let them go, and trust that each
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: one is shaping you in ways that you might not
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: see yet. Because when we stop resisting life, we can
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: start truly living it. So I hope those insights have
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: been valuable for you. I hope you have a great week,
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: and I will catch you next week. See ya.