Latest / Spiritual Sense: Practical wisdom to quiet an overthinking mind and recharge your soul / Reclaiming Your Soul's Natural Joy

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Reclaiming Your Soul's Natural Joy · Spiritual Sense: Practical wisdom to quiet an overthinking mind and recharge your soul

• 0:00
  Speaker A: You love to experience more joy, more happiness, more, well, being in your life. Feel better, naturally, without no drugs. No, you don't want to. If you want to stay depressed, don't listen to this podcast. There's really no need for it. But if you want to feel better, then keep listening. We're going to be diving into natural ways to feel more joy that you can do in your life whenever you want. So welcome, welcome, welcome. I'm Michael McIntosh and this is Sister Shop Shereen. And we are spiritual teachers with about 60 years experience between us. And we do lots of meditations and courses, trainings and all these different things, retreats and everything else to help people feel happier and more spiritually awakened. So welcome, welcome, welcome. Hello, Shereen.
• 0:48
  Speaker B: Hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello.
• 0:51
  Speaker A: How are you? Doing.
• 0:54
  Speaker B: Great. Doing great, thank you.
• 0:56
  Speaker A: Praise the Lord.
• 0:57
  Speaker B: How about you?
• 0:57
  Speaker A: Doing great. Feeling. Feeling pleasantly amused by the wonders of life.
• 1:05
  Speaker B: It's a good place to be.
• 1:06
  Speaker A: Place to be. It's either that or pleasantly or unpleasantly disturbed by the chaos of a little secret.
• 1:15
  Speaker B: Right, Right. It's a better option. Yeah. Only two options, right?
• 1:20
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 1:21
  Speaker B: So whatever you're feeling is a better option.
• 1:24
  Speaker A: Yeah. So a lot of. A lot of our happiness, or lack of happiness, comes down to our perspective on life. And before the podcast yesterday, Shirin and I were talking about what we were going to talk about, and, you know, there was all kinds of stuff, you know, going on in different situations and challenges, as life has for all of us in different ways. And we decided just to focus on being in joy again and again and again. And we're going to get into this more. We have this little magic to timer here, which. Which basically is. I think it's meant for like, counting people or things or something, but we can use this for counting powerful thoughts. And I'm up to 11, 179 so far today, so I feel great. Right.
• 2:19
  Speaker B: Because I've been thinking 11,000 or 1100.
• 2:21
  Speaker A: Sorry, 1100. Sorry, 11. 1100. 11,000 would be quite amb. Precious. Actually, no. 1100. Actually, 1179. The maximum I've ever managed in a day is somewhere around four and a half, I think, bordering on 5,000. But we have apparently roughly 60,000 thoughts a day. Somewhere between 40 and 60,000. So the more we have powerful thoughts, thoughts of joy and happiness, and we keep going for them, the better we'll feel. How are you doing? How is your practice doing?
• 3:03
  Speaker B: I had a different practice. It was like, it's. It was a drill. It was on sweetness, which was, for me, connected to Joy because of whatever I was going through, right? That I'm sweet. The supreme soul is sweet. Everyone is sweet. Situation is sweet. So it's doing that practice and it's not as ambitious as yours.
• 3:37
  Speaker A: Well, I started early in the morning and you know, it's all good, isn't it? So the, the key point we're making here, just to get started on this, is that our, our feeling state, how we feel in, is largely created by what we focus on, what we think. And this is an inner game. And our physical body is basically a chemical factory and we control the chemical factory to a large degree. We can cause ourselves terrible, unnecessary pain. And we can also shift our feelings into a higher state. And I know this from my own experience because I used to be depressed when I was younger, younger when I was a teenager. And then I started doing meditation and I started experiencing joy. Nothing had changed. I was the same person, same situation, everything was the same. But my thoughts change and then my feelings started changing. And so ultimately the whole point of spiritual work is to shift this inner world so that we are actually creating our state rather than just kind of passively having all this stuff going on and then wondering why we're not feeling good. So Shireen, what do we, what do we need to do to experience joy and happiness and well being?
• 5:03
  Speaker B: We need to understand thoughts and we need to understand what our enemy is actually, right? That's why counting thoughts because we need to understand what our enemy is. So recently, you know, there's so much going on here all the time, right? So there's a very big thing coming up in here and I need cooperation from a lot of people. And I called someone who usually cooperates, right, usually cooperates, but this time said, no, I'm not doing it right. And I'm so overwhelmed by the amount of stuff that I have to do that in that moment. Because they always cooperate in that moment. I got like, what, you're not doing it? I've realized that something is happening here. I realized that I started having waste thoughts about the situation, right? Like, how can she say that? What's going to happen? Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, right? So I started having waste thoughts about it. Not necessarily negative, but just wasteful thoughts about it. And then that waste thoughts created a spiral which made me feel even more overwhelmed, even more. And then I kept just going down and down and down. And I realized that the enemy here or the bad person here is not this person who said, no, the bad situation is, you know, the bad circumstance or whatever. Is not the person who said no. The bad thing here is the thing that really needs transformation. Not the person who said no, not that she should say yes. But the thing that needs transformation is my thinking about it. Because that is the enemy. The way I think about that situation is my enemy. Because the more I have these waste thoughts, the more my joy is going away. And no one is going to be perfect. No one is going to say yes all the time, right? They're human beings. They have, you know, moods, and some people have more moods than other people and some people are very moody. But so everyone has their, you know, stuff going on. So if I base my joy, like if I base my thoughts on what other people are doing, then I will lose my joy for sure. For sure. It's going to go away. And so we need to understand what the enemy is. The enemy is the way the negative and the wasteful thoughts. I'm thinking in any given situation, that is my biggest enemy. Because that is what is robbing me of my joy. Because not the other person. Right? Like how many times, like how many of us think, oh, if my boss just understood me, if my partner just changed, if I just had a little bit more money, if I just had this or that, you know, then I will be happy. How many of us have said those things? But it's not that. That's not what's going to decide because that's conditional joy. Conditional joy doesn't last for too long. We have to come into a state of super sensuous joy.
• 8:40
  Speaker A: That's right. Joy beyond the situation. Because we, we need to talk a little bit about victim versus victim, consciousness versus responsibility. Because this is this the foundation of being able to do spiritual work. So normally, if we're not very spiritually evolved, we will think the reason I'm feeling bad is because of this other person or this situation, right? That that's just the natural kind of like lower consciousness response. And there are actual, you could say real victims in life where someone's just getting on with their life and some crazy thing happens out of nowhere and they're like, what the. So we might be a victim of a situation practically, right. Which we're not going to get into, like who did this and why did it happen? All the rest we. That we can be in situation where we didn't do anything specifically and it just came. But. And we don't want to be in victim consciousness because of the situation. Because that basically means that I'm saying I'm. I'm unable to Respond how I want. Victim consciousness is where we say, I'm not responsible for my responses. There's nothing I can do about it. There might not be anything we can do about the situation. That. That's why I like the. I like the Serenity prayer. Serenity prayer is a great prayer. God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. This is a really powerful prayer, actually, that applies to this situation again and again and again and again and again. So in this situation with Shireen, someone said no to help, right? Fair enough. That's except the fact that this. Because you can't force someone. You can't just like, you know, threaten them. I mean, you should probably try threatening them. It might work, but in the long run it's not. It's not the best option. So then the courage to change the things I can change, which is like, what are we gonna do about it? And the wisdom to know the difference. So ultimately, in order to. To experience more happiness, we have to understand what we can change, what we can't change. Stop being a victim, saying, oh, this there's nothing I can do, and actually take responsibility for the one thing that we do have control of in any situation, which is how we respond in the thoughts that we have about the situation. So what did you do? Well, let's. Let's. Let's hear all about Shireen's latest situation.
• 11:29
  Speaker B: Let's hear all of this. I didn't do anything. I just realized.
• 11:33
  Speaker A: Do you figure out why you're threatening her to make sure she did? There's a. I can change these people.
• 11:38
  Speaker B: They'll threaten me. You know, they'll threaten me. I don't know.
• 11:41
  Speaker A: I.
• 11:41
  Speaker B: There's no one here who's going to listen to my threats. But anyway, that's not happening. But no, no, that's not the way I work. I just have so much to do. I don't have time to get into guilt trips and stuff. Right.
• 12:00
  Speaker A: Going on GPT. How can I guilt trip this person to like, like that? Just.
• 12:08
  Speaker B: Really. Chad will tell you.
• 12:09
  Speaker A: Probably no. They'll probably say, no, that's not ethical. You have to say, oh, hypothetically, if I did want to guilt trip. But. But this is. This is. The ego has a. Has a quite a sophisticated mechanism for this sort.
• 12:20
  Speaker B: I didn't know that. Thank you for telling me.
• 12:22
  Speaker A: Now we know.
• 12:22
  Speaker B: Now maybe I do need to ask Chad. Yeah, now we know. Okay. So. Okay. Forget about this person. Right. Whatever it is that's going to take care of itself eventually. All situations actually take care of themselves. It's my thoughts that I have to worry about. Because what is the pattern of thinking that's happening, right? And if the pattern of thinking is woe is me, how dare they? Jealousy, carelessness, arrogance, how can they not do it? You know, I have so much work to do, which is. Worries me, really. All of those, right? So those are really a very. You think you're justified? You think this gives you power to think this way? You feel comfortable? Yes. I feel so sorry for myself. And this is that. But that's not the case, right? Because all you're doing is sabotaging your joy. So I've decided every thought is my responsibility and every situation is coming to tell me, show me how, what. What's going on at thought level. What are my thoughts around this situation? So that's what I did. I sat down and looked at all of the thoughts around this situation. I said, no, absolutely not, don't do that. And just sat in remembrance, right? Remember who I am. Remember the supreme soul. Remember, I'm fine. Everything is fine. It's not the end of the world, right? Nothing's happening here. And so. And then my joy really returned. Other things happened, but in that situation, my joy really returned.
• 14:15
  Speaker A: That's beautiful.
• 14:15
  Speaker B: Briefly.
• 14:17
  Speaker A: So you just basically figured out how to.
• 14:21
  Speaker B: Come back to what I'm doing a journal. I did. I did the journaling prompt in that. You want to hear the journal?
• 14:30
  Speaker A: Let's have the prompt.
• 14:33
  Speaker B: So it's a journal I got as a gift here. And this journal is not available for sale, though Michael keeps telling me I should put it up for sale. Okay. And it's a year of sacred practices. So there's 52 practices in this journal. And I'm doing Week of Joy. Every. Every week has one practice. So Week of Joy. And there's a knowing, a being and a doing knowing. So it's like this, right? We have knowing, being, doing. So that's knowing, that's being and that's doing. Okay. Knowing joy flows from your connection to the divine. Happiness is not fleeting. It is your original nature as a soul. In remembrance Being, let divine joy fill you. I am light hearted. I am connected. I radiate inner delight. Doing this week, consciously return to your joy when challenges arise, smile from deep within your being and allow that smile to uplift others too.
• 16:06
  Speaker A: That's beautiful.
• 16:11
  Speaker B: So I've been. I was. I did the journaling on this and I just started. I did the being Part I am fine. I am light hearted. I'm connected to the divine. I'm. Everything is fine. And I went in front of the mirror, gave myself a big smile, I was fine.
• 16:30
  Speaker A: Yeah, it's. I mean just smiling is a good thing to do, isn't it? Just a forced smile.
• 16:35
  Speaker B: That sounds really. Yeah, it does work. That sounds really cheesy, but it does work. It always worked for me, right? Like something happens, I just go in front of the mirror and give myself a big smile and I'll continue to smile till I feel better.
• 16:51
  Speaker A: This is, this is a William James, William James, you know, psychology experiment. He was saying, do we, are we smiling because we're happy or are we happy because we're smiling? And it's, it comes back to the Sanskaras thing we talked about in another episode that when we, when we think good thoughts or we do good things, it affects us. And what. So it goes round around whether you do the thing and you're not feeling it. It will create the feeling and the feeling will create the action, but they both affect each other. So we, it's good to do on both sides of the spectrum because everything affects everything else. And the interesting thing about happiness and joy and well being is that joy and happiness is, is, is what's called an emergent property. And by the way, if there's noise you can hear, it's because of all this, things are going on outside.
• 17:46
  Speaker B: Crickets.
• 17:47
  Speaker A: Not crickets, there's actually lots of wind. Lots of wind. But anyway, joy, joy, happiness, well, being, success, wealth, whatever it is, anything that is in our life that we're feeling and experiencing is an emergent property of other things. So we often try and like get, get straight to the thing. How can I get straight to the thing? Normally you can't get straight to the thing. The feeling of happiness and joy is a result of other things that we do and it comes, becomes there. So for example, thinking good thoughts, it might not immediately create joy, but it will create certain feelings that lead to joy later on. Like, like Shireen was. Instead of thinking, she could have got her little timer out and said joy, joy, joy, joy, joy a million times. But she didn't. She thought sweetness over and over again because sweetness led to joy. Right? So it's, it's not like a one to one connection. Normally there's getting up early, doing practices, letting go, having forgiveness, accepting what we can't change, having the courage to change the things we can change, eating well, you know, taking responsibility for, for our life, finding solutions all These different things, there's a whole number of different things. When you stack them on top of each other, it leads to this feeling of, of joy and happiness and well being. It's not just one thing, you know, that we live in a one step society where because of like what lotteries and pills, people think if I just take this pill or drink this, you know, glass of whiskey or whatever, it's going to lead to a state change. Because there are one step things like that, right? You take a drug or you do.
• 19:43
  Speaker B: Something and it leads, it's known, right. Alcohol is a depressant, like initially, yes, but the after effects of alcohol is depressing.
• 19:53
  Speaker A: It's true.
• 19:54
  Speaker B: Do you know any alcoholic who's happy?
• 19:56
  Speaker A: No, they're, they're happy drunks. But there's not happy alcoholics.
• 20:01
  Speaker B: No.
• 20:01
  Speaker A: So but the point is that there's the, there's this idea that there's a one step solution to a lot of things. Like if I buy a lottery tricket, I can become a multimillionaire. If I do the drink or do the drugs then I can experience this state. But in, in real lasting experiences, it's not one step, it's multiple things stacked on top of each other that eventually emerges as happiness and well being, you know.
• 20:32
  Speaker B: Michael, can I interrupt you for one second? You were talking about lottery, right? What you're saying is so important, but let's talk about this double click on the lottery business. So first let's say you keep buying tickets and there are many, many people who kept buying tickets, never won the lottery. But let's say you were lucky enough to win the lottery, so now, or unlucky enough, whatever it is. So now you have money. Right. And there has been research on this on lottery winners, how they become bankrupt, how they lose everything, how they just because they don't know how to manage the money, they don't know how to manage themselves once they have money, they don't know how to manage themselves, right? So just having money is not a solution. You need to know how to manage yourself when you have money.
• 21:31
  Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. Now a lot of people's lives got horribly worse after. I mean if, if they were people who had already figured out how to manage money before they won the lottery, they might be all right. But most people who doing the lottery don't know about these things and yeah, absolutely. I've heard some fascinating stories about this. Actually A lot of them, they go bankrupt and they're worse off before and they say, oh, if I never won the lottery I'll be so much better. I'm so sorry that I did that. It wrecked my life, which is very strange.
• 22:01
  Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. Here actually there was someone here in Florida who got killed by his girlfriend or something for the money he had because he won the lottery. If he didn't win the lottery, he would still be alive. That's a really bizarre story, but that's a true story. And one thing though, right, about managing, about success, about thinking I want something, these are things that we really need to deeply think about, right? We can always say that. Oh, I didn't get. No one told me. You know, there's some things people think that we just have to bring up children and not ourselves. We have to bring up ourselves. We have to educate ourselves. That's our responsibility. You know, now everyone has everyone, right? Now we have the spiritual technology where everyone in the world can be absolutely, completely happy. Why isn't that happening? Right? Actually, let's, let's not even talk about happiness. Let's talk about even hunger. We have enough food in the world where no one needs to go hungry, but there are millions of people who are going hungry because of distribution problems. And so there is enough technology for us to be happy and joyful and all of those things. But then we are still thinking of one step solutions. Like you're sharing. Go ahead to your one step solutions.
• 23:47
  Speaker A: One step solutions are not real solutions, they are fake solutions. And if we still think that we have a one step solution to everything, then we are deluding ourselves. Even spiritual things. Like, it's not just you think like this. This is kind of as close as you're going to get to a healthy one step solution where you get a timer and you have powerful thoughts again and again and again and again. I mean, this is actually in a way almost a one step solution. But if I did this, and I'm also doing stupid things in my life physically, this won't work, right? Because I need to also avoid bad things that are going to harm me that I'm involved with, you know, like, like if I'm having unhealthy relationships or I'm watching stupid nonsense on the Internet or I'm, you know, eating the wrong food or I'm doing something that's going to make me anxious or whatever it is, then this is not going to work, right? So in order for our personal growth to actually have a genuine effect on us, we need to look at what are the harmful behaviors that I have that are wrecking my life, that need to stop another podcast I wanted to do, we're going to do another time is what is my happiness? Kryptonite. In other words, what are the things that I'm doing that ruin my happiness? You know, like Superman, if he's connected to kryptonite, he loses all his magic power. Powers. We have natural happiness actually, but it's being sabotaged by certain behaviors or certain, certain thinking leakages, you know, so we're going to get into that another time. But we, so in order for us to feel more joy on, on one hand we need to remove the things out of our life that we're in control of the harming us. And then on the other hand, what are all the behavior systems and, and practices that over time are going to lead to sustainable well being.
• 25:51
  Speaker B: So sustainable well being, I like those words. It has to be sustainable.
• 25:59
  Speaker A: Yeah, sustainable long term solution to our real issues. And so it's worth thinking about this for yourself, right? What, what are the things that are harming you that you can remove, that are in your control? So if it's not in your control, then you just have to accept it, right? But if it is in your control and you're still sucking up, putting up with it, then what's all that about? That, that's a big topic in itself, right? We haven't got time to get into that today. But we, we do have to look at these things because if we have a situation which we could move away from and be freed from and we're still putting up with it into ruining our joy, then it needs to be dealt with. You know, a lot of spirituality is about having the courage to actually deal with things. You know, it's not about spiritual bypassing. So it doesn't matter, everything's fine. I'm a spiritual being. That, that's not proper understanding. So what are the issues that we can get rid of and then what are the things that are going to help you feel better? So like for example, I got up this morning at four in the morning and I did my practices and I felt great, you know, because I have all these practices that I do and I'm like, yeah, I feel great. And then I, then I did some recordings, things that I haven't been doing, which I felt good about because that's taking action, right? Then I went for a walk. I listened to some spiritual teachings and went for a walk. Then I came back and I joined a group and then I did some other stuff that would brought me joy. And now I'm doing this right? So I'm doing things with my actual day that bring me joy. If I was doing, if I was spending the whole day watching YouTube videos, then I would feel depressed, right? But instead I'm thinking good thoughts again and again and again with my clicker and I'm actually doing things that are uplifting and inspiring and service to others. One of the biggest things that actually causes happiness is helping other people. So a lot of people say, oh, I'm too depressed to help anyone else. Well, if you help more people out, you'll actually feel better. That's why a lot of times like if someone goes to a soup kitchen and they help feed the homeless, or if they help somebody else who's in need, their mood will be lifted. Right? So being of service, even if we don't feel like it leads to us feeling better, ironically. So.
• 28:27
  Speaker B: Absolutely.
• 28:29
  Speaker A: So what are all the practical things we. This is a big topic by the way, but it's worth making a note of. What are all the things you can do that create a sustainable well being? But you can tell us what you, what you do to stay in your joy because you've been doing this for years.
• 28:45
  Speaker B: It's my original state now. Remembrance, Remembrance. Remembering the supreme is. Really brings me a lot of joy. Just chilling, just being, you know, just being contemplating my life, contemplating the soul, really contemplating the soul. Seeing how eternal I am, how imperishable I am doing my practices like the clicker, which I don't know where that went, but that, that brings me joy. Doing service, doing service brings me joy. Helping people.
• 29:27
  Speaker A: Mangoes.
• 29:30
  Speaker B: Mangoes. Yes, mangoes.
• 29:33
  Speaker A: Good mangoes bring joy as long as they're good mangoes. The problem is if you've had really good mangoes like we have from in India has the best mangoes in the world by far. And then if you go anywhere else and then you have mangoes that aren't quite up to scratch, you can cause sorrow. Oh dear. But, but the. We're just joking really. There are physical things that bring us joy, but it's good to have a foundation of unlim things. And then when you get things like nice mangoes on top of it, it's just like an added bonus.
• 30:06
  Speaker B: Right? Mangoes. Being with people, good company, having good spiritual chit chats. I love that. Talking about spiritual things like the murli and stuff. I love those things. That brings me a lot of joy actually. I feel like that's who I am, right? And like I have to force myself to get into practicalities. When I have to get into practicalities. I'm like, this is not life like too practical for me?
• 30:48
  Speaker A: Absolutely, yeah. It's. We have to put up with stuff. That's why it's. I like that term. What was it called? What was the term that Plato or Socrates said something leisure. What was the word? Noble leisure? Nobody. The point, the point of work is to have noble leisure. And what they meant by that is to be able to have the time to think about high level things and talk about philosophy and spirituality and do artistic pursuits and be in a state of higher consciousness. And noble leisure has been, has been destroyed because when people have got any time these days, normally they spend all their time, you know, just wasting it on social media or whatever it is.
• 31:39
  Speaker B: Mindless scrolling, right? Like mindless.
• 31:42
  Speaker A: We have like the capacity for noble leisure and it's just been hijacked by these tech companies. So that's a very, a different topic right there. But this, what you're talking about, essentially what brings you joy is noble leisure really isn't it service.
• 31:59
  Speaker B: Right. You know what is shocking? You think it's free, right? Just scrolling is free, but it's not, right. Social media is never free. It's a product and they're trying to sell you a product or you're the product, right? They want your attention. So I have premium on YouTube. So whenever I'm watching YouTube, I don't really get ads, but every once in a while I'll go to an account like on my computer or something where I'm checking another email or something and if I click on YouTube there or someone's YouTube and let's say you do shorts or anything like the amount of ads that you get. And I'm thinking, whoa, this is why people, they want you addicted to this because they want to sell you all this stuff.
• 32:53
  Speaker A: Yeah, that's the, the, the way it works is it's a free product and the reason it's free is because the users are the actual product and they will do absolutely anything to get everyone addicted to random. The longer you, the whole point of all these programs, all these different YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, blah, blah, blah, all of them is get you on there for as many hours as possible so that they can show you ads. And so they'll figure out what is going to get you addicted, whatever it is, and they'll just keep figuring out ways of getting you back more and more and more and more and more. And so instead of us having time for noble leisure and for spiritual things, we, we get caught up in this stuff and that's why? My personal approach nowadays is zero tolerance because I know how addictive these things are. And just like an alcoholic can't handle one drink, I, I find. No, if I watch one little short video, I'm not gonna. It's not gonna be one. It's not gonna be one. I mean, has anyone ever watched one?
• 34:06
  Speaker B: I wanted you to watch this hen.
• 34:08
  Speaker A: Talking, was trying to show me this talking hand and I said, no, it's not worth it to me, you know, because I know it's not going to be one hen, one little.
• 34:15
  Speaker B: Oh, but then it's not like talking. It was just saying a particular syllable.
• 34:20
  Speaker A: And there's a magic toad next and then there's a magic.
• 34:23
  Speaker B: That was unbelievable, Michael. It was unbelievable. I don'. It's AI. It didn't look like AI. I was really wondering about it. I was really wondering. It was not talking in a full sentence. It was just syllable. It was saying a syllable. It was shocking, actually. Right. It could be AI. I don't know. Nowadays everything is so. You never know. Right. But it looked real. It looked real. But I agree with you, I don't mean to contradict you, I agree with you.
• 34:56
  Speaker A: I've never watched one YouTube short without watching a second one afterwards. So keep in mind, I have. Well, all right, well let's give Shereen a round of applause everybody for having self discipline that none of us have. I mean, maybe someone else has. I talked to some recently because I have just. She just watched the one, the one speaking chicken and that was good enough for her.
• 35:20
  Speaker B: But no, no, that someone sent it to me.
• 35:24
  Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. Well, it's. So this is, this is a source stuff that can potentially see watching us talking chicken can bring us joy, but then the next half an hour spent watching random other stuff can cause us sorrow. So it's a very dangerous situation, isn't it? Our well being is like on a fine. It's like on a tightrope. We're walking along a tightrope and it's quite easy for it to just fall off and, and, and it doesn't happen.
• 35:53
  Speaker B: Yeah, you never know when. Yes, absolutely, you're right, you're right. Don't wash the chicken.
• 35:59
  Speaker A: Forget about the talking chicken, everyone. Now everyone's like, they're like, hang on a minute, what's this talking chicken?
• 36:05
  Speaker B: It's like the same thing. Like you're trying to get me to take cold showers. Really?
• 36:08
  Speaker A: But yes, it's not quite the same thing. Cold showers are actually good for you.
• 36:13
  Speaker B: But who says talking chickens are not good? For you.
• 36:17
  Speaker A: I've never heard talking chickens are good for you.
• 36:21
  Speaker B: They give you so much joy. That little thing gave me so much joy, I couldn't believe it, how focused it was.
• 36:26
  Speaker A: What a wonderful, what a wonder. So as you can see, this is a nuanced topic. There's, there's everything in life is, has these like nuanced decisions matrix. Like if you do this one thing, what is the effect of that and what's the effect of the next thing that that leads to? And then so we have to decide this. So think about what is it that brings you joy, what is it that doesn't bring you joy and realize that what you're creating is a joy matrix where you start with one thing and it starts building, building, building in one direction or in another direction. And that really is the game we're playing. And we can't tell you exactly what to do. No one can tell you, because you have to figure this out for yourself because you're an empowered being. And once you realize that you're an empowered being and you have to think about this for yourself, then you're taking responsibility for it. Then you'll figure it out. So there it is. Whether talking chickens work for you or they don't work for you, that is your choice. Yay. Any last thoughts?
• 37:39
  Speaker B: No. I agree with you though. I don't mean to contradict you. Right. I don't. I agree with you that social media, doom scrolling and watching shorts, reels, whatever it is that you do, not a good idea. Even though people say, oh, but I get so much useful information, many times it's not very useful. Right. It just takes so much out of us.
• 38:07
  Speaker A: That's right. We have to. I mean, we're not saying everything's bad because if, if we were to say, don't have any media at all, then you wouldn't listen to us, would you? Because this is media, isn't it? So there's a fine line. We, we have to. The, what we're trying to say here is that having happiness and well being is an inner game. And you personally have to figure out your own chemical factory, your own joy factory and what the correct ratio is for you personally. And nobody is the same. So there's, there's not like this one method for everyone. It's a custom situation. And so just start thinking about it. What, what's working for you, what's not working for you. Try things out, see what works. And over time you'll feel better and better and better and better and better. But one thing we can say for sure is meditation is a good thing to do. So there it is.
• 39:05
  Speaker B: Thank you, Michael.
• 39:06
  Speaker A: Thank you. Shereen is a joyful being. Yay. That's one of the things I like about Shireen. She's a joyful being. Joyful soul. Joyful soul. So let's have a blessing.
• 39:20
  Speaker B: My nature. What is your nature? What's your original nature?
• 39:24
  Speaker A: I think I have lots of original natures because we all have all I have joy, happiness, peace, love, bliss. But I do. Yeah, I like bliss. I can't say I feel bliss all the time, but it does feel very good for me when I do experience it.
• 39:39
  Speaker B: It. And how about peace?
• 39:43
  Speaker A: Peace. Peace is definitely a natural state that I can come into quite easily.
• 39:53
  Speaker B: Great.
• 39:53
  Speaker A: Yay.
• 39:55
  Speaker B: Thank you for being peace.
• 39:57
  Speaker A: Infinite peace.
• 39:58
  Speaker B: Because right. This is ultimately what it is. Right. When we are in our original nature, we do affect change. Just my. Be me being in my original nature, I affect, affect change.
• 40:14
  Speaker A: So if you want to change the world, stay at home and feel peace, love, joy and happiness.
• 40:22
  Speaker B: It's a good formula. At least you should appreciate. Right. Hey, audience, appreciate that. We are not selling you something. No. We're not saying, you know, buy this, do this.
• 40:34
  Speaker A: If you want to feel happiness, just buy our $100,000 magic thing.
• 40:39
  Speaker B: You know, we're not saying that.
• 40:43
  Speaker A: No. So I always think it's good to. Whatever you do, it's good to be of service for free. No one can complain to us. Oh, you're just after the money. Well, no, we're going to keep giving blessings and service for years and years and years to the rest till we die in one way or the other out of love in our hearts because it brings us joy. And we know that being of service is very important and it makes the world a better place. So that's one secret that you can do. How can you help other people in some way? Because that will actually lead you to feel better and better and better. Yay.
• 41:14
  Speaker B: All right, should we do a blessing?
• 41:16
  Speaker A: Blessing. Why don't you read this? Blessing on joy or happiness.
• 41:21
  Speaker B: Joy. Let's see if there is a blessing on. There is a blessing on joy. Let us see happiness. You've found that the secret to joy is to fill each moment with meaning and love. This happiness, a powerful nourishment, has made the difficult seem easy and the heavy feel light. You share this joy generously through life's ups and downs.
• 41:57
  Speaker A: So wishing everyone happiness, peace, love, well being, figure out your own methods. One thing we know for sure is if you consider yourself to be a soul. And you remember God. It's going to lead you to joy. So much love. Talk to you soon.