Latest / STOPTIME: Live in the Moment. / Erik Liberman: The Alchemy of Spirit - Channeling Your Inner Wisdom

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Erik Liberman: The Alchemy of Spirit - Channeling Your Inner Wisdom · STOPTIME: Live in the Moment.

• 0:23
  Lisa Hopkins: This is the stop time podcast. I'm your host, Lisa Hopkins, and I'm here to engage you in thought provoking motivational conversations around practicing the art of living in the moment. I'm a certified life coach, and I'm excited to dig deep and offer insights into embracing who we are and where we are at.
• 0:47
  Lisa Hopkins: So my next guest is known for originating roles in several productions on Broadway and off, including the telephone guy and the award winning the band's visit opposite Tony Shalhoub, Charles Revson opposite Patti lupone and Christine Ebersole, in warpaint, and co packing of the gypsies in the Hunchback of Notre DOM. He has been the recipient of the Helen Hayes ovation. Garland and Connecticut Critics Circle Awards among others and his onstage work has been reviewed as a showcase of sheer star power. television work include some roles in Modern Family Martin Scorsese is vital and unforgettable and he helped to develop and guest starred in the series finale of Amazon's transparent He has also contributed to numerous books, including performance of the century and with his father, wisdom from an empty mind and luminous life how the science of light unlocks the art of living.
• 1:38
  Lisa Hopkins: His masterclass series bridge to Broadway earned him a 2020 encore award from the Actors Fund. And it is really my great pleasure to introduce you to Eric Lieberman. Welcome, Eric.
• 1:51
  Erik Liberman: Thank you so much. I'm very happy to be here with you, and with all of your listeners. Thank you.
• 1:58
  Lisa Hopkins: You know I have really been looking forward to speaking with you today. And with your permission, I'd really like to start with a question that's been on my mind. Sure.
• 2:08
  Lisa Hopkins: Although I'm connected to most of my guests in some way through either a referral or a previous professional relationship. What brought you and I together here today is neither of those. And so from my point of view, the fact that we are here together right now, it demonstrates that you have an openness and a willingness to connect, and I'm so curious to know what intrigued you enough to share this time with me today.
• 2:34
  Erik Liberman: Well, it was the big broadcast, yes, that appeared in the sky when your email arrived.I think that the listening practice is the most important. And listening Of course, with with not only the five senses, but beyond them.
• 2:49
  Erik Liberman: And our job is to show up in alignment with purpose. And so I feel that whatever comes my way is an invitation to step into larger purpose. And that all that comes for me is toward the good. So you, consequently, are part of that destiny. And that's why we're here together.
• 3:14
  Lisa Hopkins: Hmm. That's beautiful. You know, it's funny, because I, I'm not sure how you came to me.
• 3:22
  Erik Liberman: I'm not sure how you came to me either.
• 3:25
  Lisa Hopkins: It's so funny. And and, you know, you know, having sort of done a little research on you after you came to me.I was sort of struck by Well, of course!
• 3:37
  Erik Liberman: There is an inevitability about things these days. So I just toss it up to that.
• 3:44
  Lisa Hopkins: Yeah. Sounds good to me. So when when I was looking around, I was struck by something you said on your website. Do you mind if I share it?
• 3:52
  Erik Liberman: Please.
• 3:52
  Lisa Hopkins: Yeah. So you said,"ultimately, I think our job as artists is to share the secrets of our heart so that others may be set free saving our own lives so others can save theirs." Tell me a little more about that.
• 4:06
  Erik Liberman: Oh, that's a good one. Thanks for picking that one out. Yeah.I would say that as a young person, my experience was marked by parallelobservations.
• 4:16
  Erik Liberman: One being, I knew I was here for a reason. And that was in place before I even arrived. I felt that from the very youngest moments of my memory, so that was in place. But there was also a great amount of emotional tumult and circumstances which threw me to and fro, and, and sometimes not a lot of external validation for that sense of purpose. Through those darker days, I was inspired by artists who gave me the courage to live either directly by by extending hand and mentorship or friendship to me saying, keep going young one, or through their performances, which made me feel less alone in the world.
• 5:04
  Erik Liberman: And I found that with the courage to do the work, to survive, and then to live in a more graceful state, as one hopes to meaning to rise from the mechanics of survival into something a bit more inspired.
• 5:26
  Erik Liberman: One can,in effect become inspiring, because years later, young people would come to me at stage doors and say, something you said made me literally one said something you said, made me not want to take my life. I'm going to come out to my parents.
• 5:45
  Erik Liberman: I know that I'm, you know, not living in sin. And there are variations of this, which come to me through students, I work with them those who sometimes attend performances when we were doing that. And that, to me is the ultimate testament to having faith in one's blueprint. And then doing the work also to address and alchemize the tumult, which threatened one's desire to be here in physical form. So in other words, it took a while for body and soul to come together. But once they do, purpose comes online, and then you hear that echoed back to you through those who witness it.
• 6:28
  Lisa Hopkins: Hmm. That's beautiful. Yeah, thank you for sharing that. It's, it's so interesting to me, you mentioned validation.Um, talk to me about how, how if it's changed at all, the definition of validation has changed for you from that time to now?
• 6:45
  Lisa Hopkins: Yes.
• 6:48
  Erik Liberman: Yes.Well, of course, it's no news to any of us that we're living in a culture that is specifically designed in many ways to pull us from center, and to make us believethat the next product or TV show or boyfriend or girlfriend or whatever, is going to make us whole, and that we are ostensibly broken pieces in search of completion. And that's, that's the marketing model. Because if you didn't think you needed something, why would you buy it is really the fear based underpinning of that capitalistic drive. Soa number of things contributed to the reversal of that, or at least the mitigation of that, I mean, one is meditation. Because in meditation, one identifies more with the background than the passing fancy of that, which appears to be the solution.
• 7:55
  Erik Liberman: Louise Hay, the late great, Louise Hay has a wonderful talk on YouTube about how to love yourself. Which, if you asked me about this five, even six years ago, I would have thought you were kidding. And what kind of narcissism is this? But I realized, as actors in particular, we asked for a lot.
• 8:17
  Erik Liberman: But as my friend Tanya pinkens, says, If you can't accept a compliment, how can you accept an Oscar and most actors can't actually receive love, or Thank you, or a compliment. And yet, we want the big approbation at the academy award winning level.
• 8:34
  Erik Liberman: So once I started to realize that it was an inside job, and that if I couldn't say I love and appreciate you, and I'm going to get you through the night to myself, then no person or thing or or accolade could fulfill that everything changes.
• 8:50
  Erik Liberman: I look in the mirror now. And even though inside I still feel extremely young, the outside gets older. And our type may change how we're viewed by the world may change whatever it is, but I'm interested in what's unchanging, your question is leading me to something which I thought we may or may not come to. Mind if I go down a rabbit hole?
• 9:13
  Unknown: no,
• 9:13
  Lisa Hopkins: No, go for it!
• 9:15
  Erik Liberman: Okay, I don't know how esoteric your your your listeners. sensibility is. But I will tell you that when I was,well, my parents are extraordinary. Humans, they've been endowed, let's say with something extra that they never encourage their kids to turn off. And I think that's one of the greatest gifts parents can give their children is to not shut off their valves of perception. So I was working with a palette that was broad and colorful already. When at 17 years old, I had what is called a near death experience. And so what that experience gave me Upon my return was the sense that this is a continuum. Life is not begun nor ended when the body expires. And what most humans fear which is death.
• 10:13
  Erik Liberman: physical death is nothing. What is something is death while you're living. To me that means not living in in allegiance and alignment with that greater mission or passion or spark that we touched on with our first exchange. So what you're hearing actually is rooted in that experience. When when one can locate why they're really here for themselves, I think it makes a lot of things easier.
• 10:42
  Lisa Hopkins: Yeah, no, absolutely. And I mean, you you touch on so many, so many important things. The idea that, you know, no amount of even though even though the game seems to be to achieve these checkpoints, these bullet points on our resume or these awards and so on at the incapacity to be able to, to have compassion or or understand what value that's connected to...
• 11:06
  Erik Liberman: the why behind it all.
• 11:08
  Lisa Hopkins: Well, yeah. And it's sound so simple. You know, the idea of value based choices versus fear based choices, which you touched on. They look the same, but they're completely different.
• 11:19
  Erik Liberman: They smell different!
• 11:23
  Lisa Hopkins: And you know, that it's, you know, it's not about the end game. It's about the journey, isn't it?
• 11:28
  Erik Liberman: Well, certainly, but also, Larry moss has a wonderful acting teacher and friend would always say showbusiness is a bad parent. So there's nothing wrong with wanting Oscars, and Tony's and all that fun stuff. It depends on why.
• 11:43
  Lisa Hopkins: Yes,
• 11:44
  Erik Liberman: If one thinks, again, this is an anodyneto what ails me, then that it won't be big enough, you're gonna need two Oscars and a Nobel Prize.
• 11:52
  Erik Liberman: Yeah. But if you're in pursuit, because it's fun. And because who knows, maybe the platform, a lot of you with that Oscar win, will allow you to amplify voices or stories that you feel need to be heard more. Yeah. So I remember when I first landed in Los Angeles, when I was a teenager, I worked three or so survival jobs a day. And one of them was as a janitor, and sort of poetically was that a place that could have changed my life professionally in the realm of show business. So I was a janitor. And I felt shame about that, because it didn't meet the model of, you know, flash discovery, which we hear about, and also that mythology of Oh, you know, the cavalry is coming to rescue you from your bad choices. Not that being a janitor was a bad choice, but my way of thinking my mindset was not aligned. And my father said, scrub the toilet with the same integrity, as you would approach a role. My whole life changed because I stopped compartmentalizing. And that's when my vibration shifted. I would say that I carried a kind of poverty of the soul for a long time. Because I, inherently, particularly growing up, never wanted people to feel alone with their pain. So as an empath, and as an actor, I'd say, oh, I'll help you carry that. And so I wasn't clear.
• 13:29
  Erik Liberman: Number one, what was mine? What was others? And number two, I had skewered ideas about what success could possibly do to a person. So in pre emptive avoidance of that I said, I'll show you, I'll go without, it's hard for me impossible, I would say, as a teacher to turn away student who, who demonstrates genuine desire and, and heart hunger, because I don't mean hungry ghosts, but I mean, those who I can see the fire in their eyes, it's not my place to deny their divinity. And if I have something that can help them on their way, I in turn, become part of their fabric. And it's all very laughable, right?
• 14:14
  Erik Liberman: Because I was watching a wonderful old movie last night with my aunt and uncle. And I thought, these humans who thought they were becoming immortal by being in motion pictures, they're all gone. And they're not really here to see it. It. It's measured on a whole other balance scale. Now, for them, they're out of body. And what they leave behind are these exoskeletons on celluloid, which, and we'll all be we'll be doing a version of that we all leave behind the words, the moments and when the last person who remembers us is gone unless we've written something or put something on film, we're out of here. The point being make a difference while you're here, by activating the essence in others by demonstrating that you're at home with your own.
• 15:09
  Lisa Hopkins: Yeah. Oh, yeah.
• 15:09
  Lisa Hopkins: Yeah. Amen.
• 15:12
  Erik Liberman: If that made sense.
• 15:16
  Lisa Hopkins: No, it makes perfect sense to me. You know, I'm really curious. It stood out to me. You said you know that you're an empath and a helper And that you give pretty selflessly, as a giver. I'm so curious to know what value you connect the giving to. and subsequent to that question.Was there a time when you felt that the reason for giving has changed the attachment to the outcome?
• 15:43
  Erik Liberman: Yes. Very much.So, we're going to go deep.
• 15:48
  Erik Liberman: So first, I want to transmute your first question. So when this experience happened at 17, for us, we started to channel because it became very clear that there was televisions larger than the thimble sized brain capacity of a mere human that wanted to stream through Eric. And they're here now. So when you describe selflessness, first we want to offer the caveat that there are boundaries to that. So selflessness when given without boundaries, is usually applied with a hook to receive something in return, correct validation, love, etc.
• 16:46
  Erik Liberman: We view this giving as you call it as receiving actually, because with receiving, one must share, and share being the operative word beyond giving or taking. Hmm. And Dynegy synchronicity abounds. In the heart as the frequency rises, yes, you think of someone, and there they are, or the phone rings, and there they are. Or you think of someone and you feel moved to send an email in that moment, and they say, How did you know? These are things one should take notice of.
• 17:23
  Lisa Hopkins: No, absolutely.
• 17:23
  Lisa Hopkins: There's no lack of evidence that your talent has been recognized and celebrated and appreciated.
• 17:29
  Lisa Hopkins: It's your bio, it oozes with accolades. It's a who's who list of impressive mentors who have clearly seen and supported your gift throughout your very impressive career. Right. And, you know, what I was really struck with, at first, I was very curious about how important, you know, listing all those things were I also remarked that it led with a person and what somebody said about you. It didn't even say Eric is, but I'm just so curious to know where the intersection of who you're supposed to be as an actor, having already really done what you've done. Where do you go from here?
• 18:09
  Erik Liberman: Thank you for the question. Because you've brought more Eric back. It was funny, because when you first were asking the question, and you talked about what you've done, quote, unquote, that's seems very strange to spirit. Because Spirit is saying, no, no. It's at best what you allowed us to do through you, Eric, me can feel like not enough. Yep. And that, psychologically, certain people don't want to be the first buyer. So they need to know that other people have validated. Like, it's been very hard since the pandemic for me to find an agent. And so marketing materials were looked at by other people saying, Well, Jesus, you know, you've worked with a lot of heavy hitters, you need to put that out there. I'm not want to promote that, per se. As an actor, I feel like a nobody, meaning professionally, my job is to be the blank slate I described in meditation. So at this time in a Lauer, so it feels weird to take credit for some of those, those things.
• 19:20
  Erik Liberman: Nevertheless, on paper, they're the exoskeleton that was described earlier that's left on screen. So there is a fear construct in Hollywood, for instance, that we need to know that people well, maybe it's not, I think it is to a degree, your base, but it's also very tribal. It's also very human people want to know that people they know, like and trust, have vetted you already. So I asked myself the same question that you just asked, What's more for me and the big shift has been that the pandemic really brought into focus how much I had lived my life as a tool and other people's toolkits, building other people's castles and their visions. And as an actor, I was always a collaborator, but there's always that level of being a supplicant to someone else's vision for the world and we can see a lot of the slapback of those of us who said yes to something we didn't actually want to be complicit in but thought, this is the game, this is how we do it. I got to play along. And my identity was very tethered to who said yes. And what I noticed on my last three productions was that in TV and in in theater, I had things I devoted years to stripped away from me without so much as a thank you or goodbye. I had moments that I thought were very revelatory in plays that someone sent a bootleg video of, and I'm not even lighted at that moment.
• 21:03
  Erik Liberman: That, you know, I've contributed massively to other things, and it's maybe it doesn't even land on screen. The point of that is to say, it's not my story, those aren't my stories to tell that that was me in service of other people's stories. And all of this is leading to, we must be makers, we must be creators, we cannot complain about the narratives that are out there, if we are not making ours. And so for the last year, I have developed a television series, a documentary and a book. And I have been told for decades, stop waiting for the cavalry to come, you are the cavalry to these are borrowing phrases from from Jay and Mark duplass, claim, authorship and ownership of what is in that blueprint. Because if one looks back at those exoskeletons on the resume, you can see, oh, I've always been cast and these particular archetypes or these particular stories, these are the roles that I tend to, these are the stories that tend to enhance with these roles. use those as clues. And then dare to pull the skin back on what you're here to light up and whose way you're here to light up. So that any misunderstanding between your talent and your audience, is obliterated by you. I want to say that it's very appropriate and important to work with masters and to be mentored. And I would not be here having this talk with you had I not been, but at some point, one must claim ownership over their own narrative, and set that free into the world and not to try to marshal and control it and make it so perfect, that it's inhuman, but to let the wrongness emerge, you know, for me, I have a lot of friends acting now. And I bless I bless them. But every time that the email pops through with a self tape, you know, five to seven times a week, life stops, and they just become machines. And if that's your game, more power to you. But I realized that I don't want to stop everything. I want to see these things through that I'm doing. I love acting dearly. I miss acting. I mean, I've acted in a few things over the break. But I missed the I asked myself what I miss, do I miss the hunt? Do I miss the love that feels like it comes back. I love the feeling of it streaming through me when I go through all my fear. And I go through all the not enoughness and I still walk to the edge of that cliff and kick my own ass off of it. That's what's thrilling, because all the prep in the world is appropriate but can't compare to the flight. And that I love that's why this series and the dock and all these things. I'm in them all! They're all part of that map of my life. It's time to be unabashed about your offering.
• 24:16
  Erik Liberman: None of us know how long we get to be here. So take that into consideration when you wake up in the morning. And when you go to bed. Nobody usually wakes up or goes to bed and saying, This is my last day on earth. It's our responsibility to see everything we can see. And only with that vision are We inspired to align and protect. If you don't know what the rain forest is, you just know that you get a ream of paper whenever you need it and you throw your plastic bag in the trash, because you don't know where the Maldives are. And the fact that the water is swimming with your plastic bag and your floss. And then it's tunnel vision. So that's our job as artists as far as I'm concerned and as human beings, peel our eyes open, open our ears up, open our hearts up and have the human experience.
• 25:16
  Lisa Hopkins: Hmm, beautifully said we've grown very selective about what we choose to see. There is a moment a magic moment in all of our lives on a daily basis when our eye leads us to something that it wants us to see. And very quickly, without even a conscious thought, we tip it away. And we say, basically, that's not important enough to be addressed now.
• 25:46
  Lisa Hopkins: we're hardwired to be to be drawn towards things that threaten us. things where we need to react, we respond immediately to those even if even if we've missed interpreted them, but our eye will be drawn to the shadow that, that we that are with Oh, that might have been someone jumping out of a bush at me or whatever, we'll notice those things. But would we notice a beautiful rose? On the on that bush?
• 26:12
  Erik Liberman: Yeah. And that's part of the trouble with phone technology is that so many are now looking down when they walk?
• 26:19
  Erik Liberman: Yeah. and myself included? Yep.
• 26:19
  Erik Liberman: It's a very conscious decision, either to not bring it at all.
• 26:26
  Erik Liberman: Or just say, I challenge you, Eric, to notice 10 beautiful things on this walk, and you cannot return home until you have. And I don't mean just like lazily named something like something that genuinely moves you. Yeah, when I go and work at universities with with acting students, I do certain exercises to create firsthand direct encounters with presence and ensemble. And it's based on the principle is we cannot proceed unless we know we are whole and whole doesn't mean complete means with a full cup enough to offer. Yeah. And and I find human beings to be so extraordinarily beautiful, particularly beings who often get overlooked. Yes. I remember when I was that janitor. Nice still inside here. And a lot of other things that I did. I remembered who didn't..who didn't see me, who looked right through me because of my apparent station in life. Yep.
• 27:36
  Erik Liberman: And so now, it's very, very important to me, that everybody feel loved.
• 27:43
  Lisa Hopkins: It kind of leads me to what I what I love to ask my guests, which is how do you want to be remembered?
• 27:49
  Erik Liberman: He made a difference. And preferably a good one. Yeah, I've thought of that a lot, actually. Because I have often felt that my human life would not be the longest.
• 28:04
  Erik Liberman: And so I've always felt the kind of divine fever around using my days. If people can feel less alone, having known me, or the space that I could, that I hold.
• 28:14
  Erik Liberman: That's the best, because my favorite thing when I'm surrounded by these students at university, I don't know their names. And I don't remember much of anything about them, or what even was shared for them through me. I see in their faces, mine, the suicidal teenager who chose to live another day, and lived long enough to be able to encourage them to live. I, I meet these people all the time.
• 28:51
  Erik Liberman: On the street, you know, after a show, they'll say Do you remember me?
• 28:57
  Erik Liberman: And I say no. They say I remember you because you taught me to live. In a one day workshop, I say I didn't teach you live and teach anybody live?
• 29:10
  Erik Liberman: They say no, you you helped give me a self that made me feel worth staying here to live. I said I'm glad that that happened. Because actors did that for me. So I didn't, it does strike me to the core.
• 29:28
  Erik Liberman: That's why I'm crying. Because it's such a sacred exchange. And that's why the art is to be honored. And as our lives you know, I am a big proponent of living your life as a work of art and not divorcing yourself from taking care of what you've got. I see a lot of humans particularly on the younger side of things, mistreat people, and there's sort of an epidemic of not calling people back and not texting back and sort of leaving that dangling grievances Unforgiven or unamended and hiding, not wanting to run into someone Because they know, Oh, I didn't finish that piece. So I make it a practice. I tried to tell people, I love them. I thank them. I'm grateful for them. I'm sorry. Please forgive me, whenever and however I can.
• 30:39
  Erik Liberman: Because I don't want to carry that burden with me as I live when I do die of body. And that, to me is a prescription for wellness.
• 30:54
  Lisa Hopkins: Mm hmm. Beautiful.
• 30:54
  Lisa Hopkins: Thank you for your grace.
• 31:01
  Lisa Hopkins: really, truly grateful. So, I like to finish by playing a little game. It's what makes you Are you ready to play with me?
• 31:17
  Lisa Hopkins: Yeah, let's do it.
• 31:18
  Erik Liberman: Yes. All right.
• 31:20
  Lisa Hopkins: So what makes you what makes you hungry?
• 31:29
  Unknown: Hungry?
• 31:31
  Erik Liberman: Hmm, I'm getting the weirdest image of whales make me hungry. And they make me hungry for size, and ocean and having life and singing your song because whales have a single song. That's their life song. And just the majesty with which they take space in the ocean. And through peace, not abuse of power. That makes me hungry to eat the see. And the light and and play in the waves and just honor what I am. Yeah.
• 32:07
  Erik Liberman: Beautiful, strangest response you'll ever get!
• 32:10
  Lisa Hopkins: No, not at all.
• 32:10
  Lisa Hopkins: No, actually, you know, the hungry thing is really fun.
• 32:13
  Lisa Hopkins: Because usually we've had, you know, pretty deep conversations and and then I I deliberately say hungry because I'm so curious to know a if that'll just shift them and they'll go they'll actually say well, tacos or something? Or if they'll they'll try to come up with some, you know, great esoteric.
• 32:30
  Erik Liberman: Oh, well, I mean, there's definitely foods that I hunger for. But that wasn't what you asked.
• 32:35
  Lisa Hopkins: No. And it's it's beautiful. Because I you know, I'm again, I'm not attached. I it just it's for me, it's a real signal to where they're at. And it's so fun. I it's so much fun for me to ask that question. So I loved I loved your answer.
• 32:47
  Erik Liberman: Oh yeah, there's one other visual. Yeah, there's one other thing that makes me very hungry in a similar way, is riding on the back of a truck with a golden retriever. Because when I see them eating the air, to me, it's like they're so hungry for life. I love that.
• 33:02
  Erik Liberman: It's just the ultimate freedom.
• 33:06
  Lisa Hopkins: Yeah. Great images. Love that. What, what makes you sad?
• 33:12
  Erik Liberman: Children who are neglected by the parents, or or children who are used as props by their parents. And it makes me sad because it falls them to the rest of the world to repair the being seen that the child was not. I'm saddened when I see children who are not seen. And so I always try to give them a little bubble of Hello. So they're, they're delighted, you know,
• 33:41
  Lisa Hopkins: Mm hmm. What inspires you?
• 33:45
  Erik Liberman: Children and humans, who don't have all of the normal capacities that we consider part of the 100% physical package of being a human being, you know, the way that obstacles provide and provoke. And my also the other thing that brings me great joy, our elders, I have three friends who are over 100 years old.
• 34:12
  Erik Liberman: Their perspective is extraordinary. And and what matters now, that to me, I love talking with elders, because, as my sister says, they're like sponges that are full. And they need to be squeezed before they leave the planet. They need to know that their story had a reason for being and so asking them that. I received so much.
• 34:42
  Lisa Hopkins: What makes you frustrated what frustrates you?
• 34:46
  Erik Liberman: The last four years of government?
• 34:49
  Lisa Hopkins: What makes you laugh?
• 34:51
  Erik Liberman: My mom.
• 34:54
  Erik Liberman: My mom is the funniest person on the planet. I'm convinced of that. And my great inheritance from her is this deeply irreverent sense of humor. Like, you know, listening. We talk about all this stuff and channeling this stuff in the other. You'd think that I'm not like, I am just like the dirtiest Joker the most mischievous fool. And I love that. I love that sacred foolishness. Oh, toxic masculinity makes me laugh. A lot, and I probably shouldn't say it, but I just I find it wildly entertaining. And, and just so negligent in its effect that I have to laugh at it. So yeah,
• 35:38
  Lisa Hopkins: what makes you angry?
• 35:39
  Erik Liberman: I njustice comes to mind, and also negligence, negligent follow through people who don't honor the time and spirit of other people. I can't tell you how many times it's obviously part of my my soul map, but to experience being ghosted, you know, when you show up 100% that to not be able to afford to have enough self respect and afford someone the dignity of your clean exit? Hmm, that pisses me off. I've gotten much better about it. Yeah.
• 36:16
  Lisa Hopkins: And finally, let me ask you, what are you grateful for?
• 36:19
  Erik Liberman: Everything. This moment, us, you, me, my parents, my family, my children, which are my roles that I've played, and the students I've worked with nature, God got us all that is flowers, trees, plants, animals, laughter, joy, sex, tears, feelings, spirituality, you name it. I'm grateful for having woken this morning. And think about this. When you go to sleep tonight, you have a heart that hasn't stopped beating.
• 36:56
  Erik Liberman: Since before you were born.
• 36:56
  Erik Liberman: There is no machine known to any of us that can function nonstop like that. And we have it as long as we have it. It's an extraordinary instrument. And it's constantly working on our behalf, just as our lungs and everything else we're blessed to have. So never forget that we're on borrowed time living on the grace of this body machinery in order to have conversations like these through which hopefully something larger than this pinpointed focus of a single human being can flow. And I'm grateful for that.
• 37:38
  Lisa Hopkins: Yeah. Finally, what are the top three things that happened so far? Today?
• 37:45
  Erik Liberman: I woke up, I spoke with you. And I had a glass of hot water with lemon in it from the garden. And all three of these things were terrific.
• 37:54
  Lisa Hopkins: Oh, my gosh, Eric, I so appreciate you taking the time to be in the moment with me today. Really.
• 38:02
  Erik Liberman: I'm grateful for any opportunity to be in the moment but especially with new friends who feel like old friends. So thank you for asking, because asking is one of the most powerful and humble things we can do. And it opens so many more doors than we're aware of.
• 38:21
  Lisa Hopkins: Yeah, absolutely.
• 38:21
  Lisa Hopkins: I've been speaking today with Eric Lieberman. Thanks for listening. Stay safe and healthy everyone and remember to live in the moment. In music stop time is that beautiful moment where the band is suspended and rhythmic unison, supporting the soloist to express their individuality. In the moment, I encourage you to take that time and create your own rhythm.
• 38:46
  Lisa Hopkins: Until next time, I'm Lisa Hopkins. Thanks for listening.