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Why You’re Stuck And What to Do About It | Life Changing Advice · Spiritual Sense: Practical wisdom to quiet an overthinking mind and recharge your soul

• 0:00
  Speaker A: Are you feeling stuck? Stuck in the same thing again and again and again, Same thoughts, same feelings. Feel like you're trying to move forward in your life, but something's not letting you get there and it's causing this sense of heaviness, a sense of almost depression or negativity, feeling like you can't get out of it, like you've tried different things and you're still stuck and you're not sure what to do about it. Feeling stuck is a. Is a very unpleasant feeling. And the good news is in this video we're going to be sharing with you how to get unstuck and create a wonderful new future for yourselves, to shift your consciousness, to do new things and to have new experiences. Many blessings. Welcome, welcome, welcome. Hello, Shereen.
• 0:57
  Speaker B: Hi, Michael.
• 0:58
  Speaker A: Yay. So for those of you, I'm doing great. My name's Michael McIntosh and I'm here with Sister Shireen and we've both been doing meditation for between us, what is it, 58 years or something like that. So we have lots of practice of meditation, teaching, spirituality, and we are very happy to connect with you, to help you get unstuck and experience more joy. Yay. So what do we need to know to get unstuck?
• 1:40
  Speaker B: Are we stuck? Why are we stuck? Right. Why are we stuck?
• 1:45
  Speaker A: Why are we stuck?
• 1:45
  Speaker B: Yeah, it's a good question to where it's a good place to start. Why are we stuck?
• 1:50
  Speaker A: Why does stuck happen?
• 1:51
  Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. Or also how do we know we are stuck? Right. Like I was thinking, if my conversation is about complaints, I haven't done anything new and out of my comfort zone recently. All of these things, you know, know that I am stuck somewhere I'm not feeling right. Like you were saying, you know, leaving little heavy, a little depressed, a little stuck, a little stagnant. So why are we stuck? I was thinking one, the main ones could be fear of success and fear of failure.
• 2:32
  Speaker A: Yeah, that's huge part of it for sure.
• 2:36
  Speaker B: Fear of success and fear of failure. Another very subtle one I feel we get stuck is the way we self perception, the way we talk to ourselves of who we are. Right. Or the way we talk to others about who I am. So I remember when we first met Michael, I used to feel, oh, you're so creative. Right. And I used to say I'm not that creative. Right. So subtly my self perception was I'm not creative or, or I'm the one who's always struggles with weight or, you know, I always have financial difficulties. Right. So these kinds of thoughts are actually Self prophesizing, self fulfilling prophecies. Because what happens is if I'm stuck, right, let's say I'm stuck. Let's say I'm wanting to lose weight and I'm stuck at whatever weight it is and I'm not losing weight, right? That could be a certain amount. Is there a self perception thinking that you're always the one who has problems with weight, Right. And so what happens is, if subtly, if you're thinking that I'm always the one who has problems with weight, then if you do anything against that thought, right, against that perception, then then there is a cognitive dissonance that happens. And because of that cognitive dissonance, you don't want to do any action which goes against that. Because the brain wants to be in alignment with all your thoughts, right? That's the mind, not the brain. Yes, but the mind wants to, the psyche wants to be in alignment with all of your thoughts. And if you are not aligning with all of your thoughts, then it's like there's a dissonance that's going on, right? There's a cognitive dissonance that's going on and you don't want to be out of dissonance. So you think, oh, then I shouldn't do something. That's a very subtle reason why many of us are stuck. I feel that's very interesting. You understood what I'm saying.
• 5:00
  Speaker A: Yeah. It's basically self image. So if we have a self identity, a sense of who I am and what I'm like, and, and human beings have a innate tendency to be consistent. We want to be consistent with our self image. So if I see myself as someone who's creative, then I'll be more creative. If I see myself someone who's not creative, then I'll, I'll feel like I can't be creative. If I'm someone who always gets angry about everything, then that, then I'm consistent with it. So the self, the way we see ourselves and talk to ourselves and think about ourselves just reinforces itself again and again and again. And another thing to keep in mind about this is that it's not just the mind doing this. It affects our physical brain. I think this is something people don't talk enough about, is that we're thinking these thoughts, but those thoughts are affecting our physical brain creating neural pathways. So we have like loads and loads of very strong neural pathways in this certain like, box that we're in. And not only do we have the neural pathways in our brain, we have chemicals in Our body, all these other chemicals, this is a whole chemical system, and they're all sort of like lined up and set up in a particular way to stay in a certain state. And as soon as we get out of that state, let's say you're feeling a little bit down, a little bit depressed and. But you've got used to it. As soon as it goes outside of that, some part of us pulls it back in again, because it doesn't. It's not used to it because the body likes to be in homeostasis. It doesn't like change. So even getting out of it, funny enough, it doesn't have to be that hard, but there is going to be this kind of like, whoa, you know. So the question is, if you got this whole chemical thing going on in the mind, in the body, how. How to get out of it? It's a big question. How do we get out of that situation? And it's caused by the mind. So what do we think? What do we do? Like, what is stuck mean? It means you're thinking the same things, doing the same things, going to the same places, talking to the same people, consuming the same content, listening to the same music, eating the same foods. Right. And so it's like we're doing the same thing over and over and over and over again until we put ourselves in a. In basically a cage. And the reason we're in the cage is because it's more comfortable to be in a cage temporarily then to get out of it. And something I've personally found interesting is that there's a expression I've came up with which is you can either have comfort or meaning. Right. Because doing meaningful things tend to be slightly uncomfortable, Jeremy. Like if you go on a trip and you go to do something, do something different, or you do a new project or you try something new, that's going to get you unstuck, that's very meaningful to you. It's going to be a bit uncomfortable because it's different. So you can have meaning or you can have comfort.
• 8:23
  Speaker B: Yeah. Even if it's not meaning. You know, I'm working with someone to help with our Instagram. Right. And when I first met her and when we first started working, she said, oh, I really want to get away from waitressing. I really, you know, this is my passion. I want to do this right. I want to make a career out of helping people with their Instagram. And then I've noticed that, like, she's so busy working her waitressing job that she's not Paying any attention to her Instagram, you know, to that part of her life. Right. And so I feel like she's so comfortable doing whatever she's doing that she's not willing to come out of that comfort zone and be a little, you know, be a little enterprising and do.
• 9:22
  Speaker A: Something else she might be uncomfortable in. She's comfortable in being uncomfortable because she doesn't want to be in the job, but it's still more comfortable than doing something different, which is a. Of a weird situation to be in.
• 9:36
  Speaker B: Right. You know, I was thinking about this, right? About being stuck. You know, everyone believes. Remember you were saying that you asked people, how many of you believe that you're a human being, you're a spiritual being, having a human experience? And you said, so many people said yes. And then you asked the question, how many of you practice? And very few people said they practice. I feel that the fundamental problem with all of us is that we know a lot of stuff, but we don't practice enough what we know. And the first practice, I feel if you want to be unstuck, right. The first practice we need is this practice. I am a soul. I am a soul. I'm a soul. I'm a soul. If you have to do it a hundred million times using a little counter, you should do it right. To really remember I'm a soul, I'm a soul. I'm a soul. To really with awareness, remember. And keep doing that, because that, I feel, helps you. It gives you a lot of courage. It gives you a lot of courage to get out of your comfort zones. It gives you a lot of courage to get up and do things. It gives you a lot of clarity. You know what really gives clarity, though? More than. So soul gives you courage, right? Clarity is connecting with the divine, that connection with the higher power. We think our higher power is lovely and beautiful, the ocean of love. And so when I connect with higher power, with God, our understanding of God, I have immense clarity. I know exactly what I need to do, where I need to do, when I need to do. And that really helps. Yeah, that helps with not getting stuck.
• 11:35
  Speaker A: It's outside magic powers.
• 11:37
  Speaker B: Yes.
• 11:38
  Speaker A: Basically, because stuck is just stuck. The state of stuck is just same over and over and over again. Going to the same places, eating the same foods, thinking the same thoughts. It's routine. Routine. And it becomes very boring and trapped. So we need outside forces and different things to snap us out of it. And so what Shireen's just sharing is like the highest level sort of things. They're a little bit more difficult to do, but they definitely can be done, especially if you get one of these clicker things. You know, we took a whole session on this. People like, what is this magical little thing you've got? It's just basically a time account, a timer thing. You just click a button and it's just numbers. But if you think, I'm a powerful soul, I'm eternal, I'm eternal, there's no end, I'm safe, I'm safe, I'm safe, right? And you kind of shift your consciousness from I'm this little person with all these little problems and I'm kind of a fearful about change to I'm an expansive, powerful being. Then you're more likely to want to try stuff out because you're not afraid. So that's, that's like this spiritual stuff and then receiving divine power. Of course, that's, that's the magic, the magic source right there, isn't it? That's the magic stuff that, that gives us something extra. But then there's also these other things that you can do. Like for example, if you drive to the same places along the same roads and you go and buy the same food from the same store, and you're always doing the same every, every Germany, like it's just repeating, repeating. So if you want to get unstuck, it's very useful to unplug yourself from these constant routines that you have. So for example, even going to the store, right, if you want to get unstuck, the simple thing you can do, just go a different route to the shop. Next time you go and get some food or whatever, just do a different road, right? Because then you see new buildings and you see new things. And what happens is when you see new things, that's. This is why travel is good for us. It changes our brain. Because your brain responds differently to new things than it does to the same things, right? So if all you did, for example, is wear different clothes, get up at a different time, drive a different way to the store, eat some different food, watch some different content, listen to different music and speak different things and talk to different people, right? That would, that would actually change your brain because your brain would be like, ah, there's all this new stuff going on here, right? And it's not that hard. Like going, driving a different way to the store is not going to ruin your life or anything. It's not that, not dangerous or something. So you could look at your phone and say, who haven't I spoken to in like A year and just give them a call. That would help shift something, right? So the only way to get unstuck ultimately is action, right? Action caused us to get stuck and we need different action to get out of it. And meditation is action. If you think about it, you're changing your thinking. So you're thinking instead of, oh, I'm so stuck. I'm so I'm stuck. You're thinking, I'm feeling great, I'm feeling great. I'm feeling great, I'm feeling great. It's getting better and better and better and better. It's fun and games, fun and games, fun and games. If it happens enough times, then you're sort of like the brain starts to wake up and you'll feel totally different.
• 15:15
  Speaker B: You know, I. I remember when I was stuck, right? What made me unstuck. I had a near death experience. I was really going to die. That time was sure, all the signs were there, right? And just before I was about to leave the body, I had this encounter with the Supreme Soul. And I was not in my body. I was out of my body and I was face to face, right? Like whatever you call face to face, I was a soul. Soul to soul, soul to soul, soul, face to soul, face. And I had a regret. I had a regret that I did not enjoy my life. I was too stressed. I used to be stressed about everything, right? You pick a topic, I would get stressed about it. Like I would think too much and I would think of all of the possible scenarios that could happen and go wrong and this and that. So I did not enjoy my life. That was a regret. And so anyway, I didn't leave the body. Obviously I'm here. When I came back, right? When I came back, I told myself, that's a regret. I don't ever want to have that I didn't enjoy myself, right? And I really took steps. I took steps like the steps I was talking about connecting with the Divine Source, becoming really soul conscious, bodiless, really practicing bodiless, all of those things and doing. I did a lot of things differently also, like my job and everything. And then I started really feeling happy. And then a few years later, I realized why. That was the thought that came to me when I was in front of the Supreme Soul. Why was it that thought and not other thoughts, right? Why was the regret that I didn't enjoy my life? I realized that my original nature is joy. That is who I am. I'm a joyful being. And I wasn't living who I was. And so that is the question we need to ask ourselves. Not that I am stuck, but what is your original core quality? You need to be living. And that core quality should be in action, right? Because that was the regret. And if we are not living our core qualities, then they will be regret. Did it get heavy really quickly, really fast?
• 18:09
  Speaker A: Oh, no. That was fascinating. No, no, we love it. Love it, love it, love it. Well, it's true. It's. It's like this is. If we're stuck on a deeper level, we're not living in alignment with our dharma, are we? Because if we were, we wouldn't feel stuck, right? Because living our purpose, our higher self, coming from within ourselves, who we really are, our own natural way of being. That isn't a stuck state. That's a very liberated, inspired, enthusiastic, like, oh, isn't everything wonderful kind of energy, right? If you're. If you're living aligned with your. Who you are, you'll like your life. And even challenges will sort of seem like a game. But if we're not living in alignment, then we just feel trapped and stuck in a cage. And so the. The deeper thing is to figure out who. Who are you and why are you here? And what is your natural way of being. That would feel right, you know, because when you feel right, when it feels clean, when it feels. When you're content with yourself, then. Then you're not stuck at all. You're very liberated beings, right?
• 19:23
  Speaker B: You know this. Living by our core qualities, right? We all have core qualities. Like, what is your core quality?
• 19:32
  Speaker A: I have few, I think a peace. Peace, love and wonder. Wonder.
• 19:45
  Speaker B: Beautiful. So I feel you are loving and you are peaceful. But let's say if you're not right, if you weren't showing love, you were being miserly about giving love, if you weren't feeling peaceful, those are the places that you need to start, right? Why am I stuck? Why am I not able to be those things? Then you really feel stuck. If you are really giving love, if you're really being peaceful, whatever you're doing, you're really being peaceful and you're really giving love, you will not feel stuck.
• 20:24
  Speaker A: That's true. That's true. And everyone has it. So it's worth, you know, thinking about this. What are your qualities? You know, and just take. Maybe write a list and say, what. What is it? When you're. What. When. When you feel alive and you feel joyful and inspired by life, what are you doing? And what sort of qualities are you allowing to come through? So interesting question to contemplate Isn't it?
• 20:53
  Speaker B: Right. You know, I feel one of the things that we need to understand about being stuck is that it happens to all of us. It's part of being on this human journey. Right. It's part of being on this planet at this time. It happens to all of us. But also it's not a permanent thing. Right. You can get out of it. But like anything else, it requires work. Right. Like some of the times I feel that my stuckness really came from me thinking something should just arrive in my lap instead of me working for it. And so I had to be dissuaded of that very soon. I got dissuaded thinking nothing. You know, there's apparently there's this Japanese saying that, you know, a dumpling just doesn't come into your mouth or something. It just doesn't appear in your mouth. No, it's not like, like, you know, there's a momo right into your mouth. It's not going to do that. Right. You have to do the things to eat the momo, to make the momo, to do all of those things. Thinking of momos, I haven't had one in a long time. But anyway, so. So the. It's. It's somehow we have a mistake. We make that mistake thinking things should just happen. But everything worth having in life requires a little bit of effort on our part. And so it's not permanent. And it happens to all of us, and it happens to us. Like, for example, I could be not stuck now, but if I continue to do things which are not in alignment with who I am, in a month, I might get stuck again. Let's say if I'm just doom scrolling and scrolling and scrolling and watching YouTube shorts and YouTube videos, then I will get stuck.
• 23:01
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 23:02
  Speaker B: So it's constantly. You have to be on top of it.
• 23:06
  Speaker A: Yeah, that's true. Getting stuck is likely to happen. It's definitely going to happen. And so, like, we have to ward. Ward off the stuckness that. I remember years ago, I was in a business conference somewhere and the speaker was talking about stuck, but he called it stuck. Like, like, I'm schmuck, but you like stick, you know. But it's because it feels like that, doesn't it? You kind of like, it's a weird state to be in, you know, and we have to ward. Ward it off. And I think it's also very, very important to have compassion to the fact that this is partly chemical. Right. This is something that I didn't really appreciate for most of my spiritual journey. I was just like, oh, the mind should. You should just be able to think your way out of everything. And. But you have to do things, right? And the body itself has certain chemicals and certain hormones and certain things going on that are. That we're actually chemically addicted to, right? So that's why we think, well, how come I'm so stuck doing all this stuff? Because the actual body is used to it. So when you stop doing something or you start doing something, you. There's going to be a period of time where you're going to feel, like, either excited or fearful or anxious or freaked out in some way. And all those things. We don't like those feelings. I mean, excited is sort of fun, but fear and anxiety isn't. So we go, okay, let me go back to that. I'll give a. Just practical example, because this happens to me all the time, even now. So I'm trying to do some work, right? On the computer and the Internet's turned on. I'm trying to do some work, and it. Soon as it gets difficult, I immediately go and try and, like, open YouTube. Like, it happens reflexively, right? And I'm like, no, no, Michael, just, just. And then I shut it down again. I don't watch anything. But, like, as soon as there's a unpleasant chemical in our brain, there's some part of us that wants to get out of it as soon as possible. And that process done over and over and over and over again gets us addicted to these little things that then lead us to feeling stuck. And I. I've thought a lot about this, actually. The. The main problem with too much entertainment, I think some entertainment's fine, but too much of it. The main problem is that instead of us getting out, getting into our own hero's journey, because we're all on a hero's journey. Instead of us living our hero's journey where we go through challenges and we explore things and we have to face things and deal with things. It's. Instead of doing that ourselves, we can press a button, sit back on our chair, you know, have a nice something to drink and some. And just watch someone else having all the crazy stuff and jumping off bridges and flying in the air and fighting monsters, and we're just sitting there and our brain is getting all this dopamine, and then you turn it off and you're like, well, I'm still stuck, right? Because we watch someone else get unstuck, but we didn't get unstuck. So what I personally have found is that when I cut all that stuff out or chop it down massively. Then. Then I'm like, right, what is my adventure today? Right? And there's. There's actually a nice thing to think about is to ask the question, like, every day, what is the adventure? What is the adventure for today? Right? Like, what is it? Have one thing that's like an adventure. It could be a spiritual practice or a mental practice or a physical thing. And if you're living your adventure, then it seems fun, and then you get unstuck and it becomes much more interesting.
• 27:03
  Speaker B: You know, what I've noticed in my life is that sometimes I thought I was stuck, but it just happened to be a pause. And that's the whole beauty and complexity of life, right? Because there is a balance. A balance between divine timing, trusting in divine timing, trusting that everything will happen at the right time. And that's on one side of the balance. On the other side of the balance is inspired action, right? I'm taking inspired action versus trusting in divine timing. And so it could be that also, right? Like, when is it that I take inspired action? And when is it. I know that I'm just in a pause and I have to trust in the timing. And it's not just stuck. I'm just not being stuck, right? So this is something we need to really navigate. And if we become so conscious that navigation becomes very easy, the balance becomes very easy. Because you need to see if that is the case. Is it the case where you are just in pause mode, Right? It could be, you know, it's preparation for something bigger. You're not stuck. You're just in preparation for something else.
• 28:30
  Speaker A: So these are very deep things to consider. Just think about, what have you learned? Because this is a big topic, right? What is one or two things you could pull into your life to get unstuck? If you. If you did all this stuff, 100% guaranteed you're going to get unstuck. You probably only need to do three things we've talked about to get unstuck. And maybe you're not even stuck. You're just dealing with divine timing. And actually everything's fine. So that's another.
• 29:03
  Speaker B: Another thing to consider, you know, Did I tell you? I told you, right? I've. In this podcast, I've shared my story of flossing. One tooth.
• 29:14
  Speaker A: One tooth.
• 29:14
  Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so if you haven't heard the story that when I started flossing, I started flossing when I was maybe 26, because growing up in India, we didn't floss. And then I needed to get into the habit, right? So I needed to get into the habit. And so I used to do one tooth at a time. One day, one tooth. Like I did one tooth for a couple of weeks, then increased the number of teeth I flossed. And so to really get unstuck, right, we need to find that one tooth minimum. What is the one tooth minimum? What is the smallest action I can take right now and be consistent so I can get unstuck. There is a very micro practices that you can do to get unstuck because they don't have to be big practices, right? For example, really coming into the awareness of being a soul, right? How many of us can say that we can't afford 10 seconds. We can afford 10 seconds. 10 seconds in an hour. I'm just going to remember I'm a soul, right? I'm going to take this 10 minutes today and connect with the divine or any of the other practices, right? But try to find a micro practice. What's the smallest thing you can do to come out of this? Right? You have the answer to this and you can find it. And so that's one, right? But the other one, which you kept saying, which is really needs to be highlighted and highlighted and highlighted is anytime you get unstuck, there is going to be discomfort and you have to live through the discomfort. Don't go back because it's uncomfortable. Walk through the discomfort. Keep walking through the discomfort. Possibly that's the hardest thing we'll do for getting unstuck. We need to walk through the discomfort.
• 31:18
  Speaker A: Yeah. And you can just breathe. Breathe it. Breathe into it. Notice it and know that it will pass. It doesn't last forever. It might only be a few seconds sometimes, but reflexively we run away from it, even if it's not actually that bad. Because if you just say, where am I feeling this? Where is it? You know, where's this discomfort? And just feel it and breathe into it. So you know what? This isn't actually that bad. It's not. It's like the end of the world, right? But we're so kind of unconsciously avoiding unusual sensations that it can just immediately trigger an action that gets us back into the stuck pattern again.
• 32:02
  Speaker B: So, Michael, this could be the smallest action they could do, right? Is when you want to doom scroll or when you want to go to YouTube shorts or when you want to go to Instagram, right? The first time you do it today or the first time you do it tomorrow, right? As soon as you wake up, don't do it. And if you really want to do it, start breathing like the way Michael said, right? Where is it? Just don't do it. Watch your discomfort. Start breathing and then walk through it, right? Put it, push it back as much as you can of getting on social media and you will see how unstuck you will be because of your, like these massive consumptions of social media. We do right is so bad for us, so bad for our prison of getting stuck in the prison. And so to really go through it, that could be your minimum action is just push it away. Like if you start your social media consumption at 9 in the morning, start at 10. And from 9 to 10, every time you feel uncomfortable, just breathe. Where do you feel it? Just, you know, relax into it. Breathe into it. Relax into it and move. So keep moving. Keep moving it.
• 33:34
  Speaker A: Yeah. And do new stuff, new things. One is getting rid of old things. But what are the new things you could do? The new fun things, Going to new places, traveling new things, thinking new thoughts, speaking new things. Everything new, new. So write a list of how many new things could I be doing? And the more you do, the more it sort of shifts your brain state and that opens it up to new things, to unstuckness, to freedom. Yay. So let's have a blessing.
• 34:02
  Speaker B: Yay. A blessing. A blessing. Do you want to pick a number?
• 34:09
  Speaker A: 26.
• 34:12
  Speaker B: 26. Delight. You've allowed your inner child to come out and play in the cosmic theater of life. You savor the beauty of life's innumerable wonders with a sense of amazement that rejuvenates your spirit and fills you with joy.
• 34:41
  Speaker A: Yay.
• 34:47
  Speaker B: That's a nice one. I'm going to keep that. That's beautiful today.
• 34:51
  Speaker A: Yay. So that's unstuck right there. So let us know in the comments what you're going to do to get unstuck, where you're stuck, and how you're going to get unstuck. And as always, we have lots of free meditations, trainings, courses. You can get them in the description. Good luck getting unstuck. It is done. It is done. It is done. You are liberated and free and enjoy, enjoy, enjoy. We'll talk to you soon.
• 35:22
  Speaker B: Thank you, Michael.
• 35:23
  Speaker A: Thank you. Many blessings.