Make Your Mind Your Friend

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Welcome, welcome. In today's episode, we're diving into how to make your mind your friend and stop hating yourself. So if you have any thoughts that aren't particularly loving or if you have any negative self talk, then you're in the right place. And we're going to talk about how your morning thoughts, soon as you wake up, affect your whole day and how to change that, the importance of how you think. So because end of the day we're dealing with our thoughts all the time and if we don't learn how to make our mind our friend, then we are going to be dealing with a continuous struggle which is not very nice for anyone. So welcome, welcome, welcome. Hello, Shereen, What a great topic. What a great topic. What inspired you to encourage this conversation today? [00:01:00] Speaker B: You know one of my favorite quotes in the Gita, I mean I have several, but one of them is chapter six, verse six, which is about making your mind your friend, that your mind is your best. It can be your best friend or it can be your worst enemy. That was a few thousand years ago, but current research is backing it up. [00:01:30] Speaker A: Yeah. So if anyone didn't believe it before now you can believe it thanks to science. [00:01:36] Speaker B: Absolutely. Because some people only believe in science. Right. [00:01:39] Speaker A: It's a bit funny. [00:01:40] Speaker B: If science says it must be true. [00:01:45] Speaker A: Follow the science. Yeah. [00:01:48] Speaker B: You know this thing about if science says it's true. Right. Is let's take that to the next level. There's so much research on cognitive behaviors and psychology and happiness and all of that, so much of it that I feel that we don't make use enough. Enough use of it. Right. Because let's say if there's a latest version of a computer that comes out and your computer is old, you're going to go buy the latest one. Right. You're not going to just keep using one. That's not going to work. It's not working. And if we can do that with physical technology, why are we not doing with these new sciences and new technologies that are coming up about how your mind is working, how your brain is working, what's going on with you? [00:02:44] Speaker A: Well, a lot of people don't know about these researchers because they haven't done research like you have. And also I suppose the other thing is that the habits of the mind are. It's like a hypnotic trance that just repeats itself endlessly. So you have to sort of come out of it, even think that you can upgrade the software, you know? [00:03:05] Speaker B: Absolutely, absolutely. [00:03:07] Speaker A: So, so here we are having thoughts all day long, thinking things, feeling things, using Our thoughts. They're affecting everything in our life. So how do we make friends with our mind? I actually have a course about this that I haven't published yet. Named by this. And maybe I probably was reading the Gita at some point and came across this quote and named it this. Didn't realize it. And now, only now, I'm finding out that's the reason I called it that. So this is huge, huge, huge topic, actually. Making friends with our mind. We might as well make friends. We have to learn how to learn [00:03:42] Speaker B: because we're thinking all the time. All the time, all the time, right? You know one thing, right? Let's start with this research. And it's by this guy named Cross. Because there's so many. I read so much, I forget the name sometimes. And I think he's in University of Michigan. What he says is, if you are going through a hard time, let's say you're going through stress or you're having an unhappy day or your heart is heavy or whatever, right? To distance yourself and not say, I am unhappy or I am stressed, or just say Shireen is unhappy, Shirin is stressed. So when you do second person like that, you create a certain amount of distance between the negative emotion in you. So you watch it, right? Like you almost like you're watching it as a detached observer. And so I've been. Today especially, I've been telling myself that Shireen is a little off. Nothing to do with me, right? And so to create that distance, to create that distance, how would you apply it to yourself today? To create a little distance between something you're dealing with? You know, Angel. [00:05:20] Speaker A: Yeah. I was talking to someone about this the other day. And my biggest problem right now in my life is that I'm too creative. And I designed my environment to be highly creative. But it got to the point where it's so creative that it's out of control. And now I have to deal with the consequences of too many creations that haven't been finished. So it's like, it's interesting. Like a lot of people, their problem is they want to create like a book or something else and they're just not doing it at all. And it's stressing them out. I'm the opposite. I've created too way too many things now I don't know what to do with it all. And so I was talking to this friend of mine who's a spiritual person about this, and he was mentioning similar thing that there's. There's consciousness here, the soul where I'M soul, pure light. And then there's identities and beliefs that are causing behaviors and causing feelings. And we had a little chat about this and it was actually very powerful that, That the identity that I'm responsible and fear around, like, if I don't do this, some bad thing will happen. That those two beliefs or identities have caused enormous amounts of actions to happen. Right. So. So it's like I'm pure soul, originally and eternally pure soul. But this. I am this person and I've got. I'm responsible. I have to do all this stuff. And I'm worried if it's blah, blah, blah, blah. That energy of that very subtle eyes, very subtle sense of self, very subtle identity has just produced huge amount of hours and months and years of stuff that's been. Now I'm dealing with the consequence of that. And it all came from this very subtle thing. [00:07:20] Speaker B: And the subtle thing of fear. [00:07:22] Speaker A: You said fear sense. Sense of what's gonna happen if I don't do this thing, I'm responsible. I'm this person in the world. And if I don't do these things, then. Then, like, I won't have money or I won't have. You know, I mean, there's all that kind of stuff related to being a person. And that sense of self, that sense of identity which is in the mind, is created entirely in the mind. It doesn't exist in real life. These, these little, like, who I think I am, egos and all the rest of it, they only exist in consciousness. They don't exist anywhere else. But because they exist in consciousness, they produce actions. And because the actions, then there's a physical thing that needs to be looked at. And so I've been practicing just releasing that sense of identity which is a bondage in the mind. And then I was like, I feel so much better. I feel so much better. But then it comes back again. So I have to let it go again. Let it go again. Because that's that sense of, you know. [00:08:28] Speaker B: So let's say if you are feeling overwhelmed or fear or any of those things, to even. Just separate, even just for a second, say, Michael is feeling that. [00:08:41] Speaker A: Right, Exactly. Michael's feeling that. And it's an identity in the mind. You know, this. [00:08:46] Speaker B: This whole thing. If you go, michael is feeling that. [00:08:48] Speaker A: Yeah, it's over there. It's. It's not. There's layers and layers and layers. If you go. If you go back, there's Michael. But if you go back further, there's an identity of I'm responsible and Then you go back, you know. But yeah, letting it. This is a bit advanced what we're talking about. But we can start with Michael's feeling that, yeah, this is a character and he's stressed out and he feels he has to do all this stuff and he needs to finish things. That does make a big difference. [00:09:23] Speaker B: It does make a big difference. The other thing that I feel is, you know, we were talking in the introduction about starting a morning practice, right? Starting a morning practice and you get up very early in the morning, I get up very early in the morning. We meditate from four to five or earlier if you need, you know, if you call to do. But one thing I've noticed is I could not imagine my life without that practice because so many things changed about who I am in that practice, right? And one is, one of the things is about this. Every time I invest in myself, right? Every time I invest something in myself, I'm actually creating, I'm creating this. I'm a constructor, right, of my present and my future. This is who I am. I'm not just like, oh, woe is me. Things are happening to me. And that right in this moment, I can create something that will change things and it slowly, slowly, slowly changes things. But one is, do we start somewhere? We start really somewhere, right? There's a research which, out of all of the research I've read, right, this one I had to read a few times to really, I'm like, what? Right? So it was conducted in Harvard by this guy called Pasquale Leon. And what he did was he taught a group of people, a whole bunch of people, five sequences in the piano. They didn't know how to play the piano before. Five very simple sequences in the piano. And then he split the group into two and he asked the second group, I want you to just imagine you're playing the piano, those five sequences. And the first group actually played the five sequences, right? And after a while he did brain scans on the people who played the played it and the ones who actually, you know, just imagined it. And they were the, you know, where apparently there's a cortex where they, the motor skills are recorded. And they had the same pattern in a lesser degree, but the same pattern. [00:12:03] Speaker A: And they got better as well, didn't they? They improved the piano playing better, Right, right. [00:12:11] Speaker B: And so I was thinking, let's say I'm a self sovereign soul, right? Obviously the brain doesn't know I'm faking it. [00:12:23] Speaker A: The brain doesn't have any opinion, does it? There's no Arguing about anything. If you say I'm a. [00:12:28] Speaker B: Right, right. It's not going to go verify AI is she really a self sovereign? [00:12:32] Speaker A: So there's no fact check on this. There's no fact check symbol. [00:12:36] Speaker B: No, no, no. No stress test going on. And so I'm a self sovereign soul. I'm a self sovereign soul. And even if I imagine that a few times that I've really changed my life. Right. Just imagining that a few times I've changed my life. I think that is very fascinating. [00:12:58] Speaker A: That is fascinating. Yeah. They've done lots of research with like basketball players and all sorts. Same sort of thing where they have them imagine shooting hoops. Shooting hoops and then they see how much better their score is. It's really fascinating. I think just that principle that whatever we hold in mind, the brain experiences it and the soul experiences it through the body. Like it's actually very. It's almost like hard to fully accept the con. The. The meaning of that. Like the actual, the impact of you. If you really take that seriously, that whatever we're imagining in our mind is perceived as if it's actually happening and has a chemical effect on us. Because if, if we really believe that then we will be really careful about what we look at, what we think about what media we consume. Because it's, it's like being there, you know, that's why. [00:13:56] Speaker B: Right, right. [00:13:57] Speaker A: You know, it really is. [00:13:58] Speaker B: So let's say if I watch a lot of violence then I. The brain doesn't know that I'm not a violent person and I'm just watching violence. It just assumes I'm a violent person and then just installs all those kinds of programs in. [00:14:15] Speaker A: Yeah, that's. [00:14:16] Speaker B: And so we have to be so careful. [00:14:20] Speaker A: Yes, Very, very effective. When you think the simple way of coming to this is if everything you think immediately became real or if everything you saw immediately became real in your life physically, what would you choose to think about? Like, like imagine because you know, like magic, like, like Harry Potter or something. Imagine every thought turned into the real thing immediately. Like if you think a scary monsters after you, then there is a scary monster in the house. Or if you think about everything going horribly wrong in your life or everything actually did go horribly wrong like that. Or if you watch a movie of being in some. Whatever it is and you actually experienced it. If that happened immediately, we would be very, very careful. [00:15:14] Speaker B: I know, right? [00:15:15] Speaker A: Really careful. We'd be like, whoa, whoa. I mean, you've come up with a plan for the morning. Okay, I need to get up. I've got my plan. I'm gonna think this, this, this is why in Raj Yoga teaching it's meant to come up with a plan for your mind because, right, ultimately it does come true, doesn't it? Actually, it's just that, right, there's somewhat of a time lapse. There's a time lapse. If I think about my life going horribly wrong now, I might, I'll feel bad immediately, which is bad enough, but it won't actually happen today, but it could happen in a, in a year or, you know, or longer or shorter. [00:15:53] Speaker B: And, and we are experiencing double the horror, really. We're experiencing it now and we are going to experience it then, right? If it does happen, let's say even if you didn't think and it does happen, you're only experiencing it one time. [00:16:07] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. We don't want to have to double whammy. You know, it's just like, this is [00:16:11] Speaker B: other words, double whammy. It was like, I'm experiencing it now. And then, you know, one other thing, right, One other thing which I use a lot, which is in the self respect practice, the swaman practice that I was talking about in the last episode, which I use a lot, is identity statements versus aspirational statements. And that is I always set myself, especially when I get up in the morning, I always set myself in an identity. I'm a soul, I'm loved. Or I'm a soul, I'm a lucky star. Or I'm a soul, I'm a world benefactor, right? So when I do these identity statements, right, These identity. I install these identity statements early in the morning. Then I see that it's almost like it's not just I'm making my morning better, it's almost like I'm doing a deposit for the rest of the day because the rest of the day really works out. But especially identity statements, right? Not aspirational. No. I want to be peaceful. Not like that, right? So let's say if I go back to my exercise of feeling a little off, right? Instead of me feeling off, Shirin is feeling a little off, right? And. But then what would be the identity statement? I separate out and say Shreen is feeling a little off. But then my thing is I'm a lucky star, right? I'm a lucky star. That's what I've been telling myself today. I'm a lucky star. I'm a lucky star. And so what would your identity statement be versus what you were saying about what you're going through, right, about creating Too much. What would your identity statement be? [00:18:19] Speaker A: I mean, I like it should be. [00:18:24] Speaker B: I was talking, especially in relationship to what you were saying about creating too much and feeling overwhelmed. [00:18:32] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, I think, well, why one is I've attained everything. Like, because it's. It's a lack of attainment, essentially. It's like I. I won't feel I've attained something until after something else. It's. That's the basis of it. I'm stressed out because I haven't finished this stuff because blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And so it's, no, I'm fine. I love myself now. Everything's great. You know, everything. Everything happens in perfect timing. But I suppose these are not actually identity statements, but these are sort of things that make it seem less. [00:19:13] Speaker B: What would be your ident. Pick one. I mean, take your time and pick one. [00:19:18] Speaker A: I need to think about it. Yeah. What comes up is I am the. I am the eternal presence that creates everything. So it doesn't matter. Like, it's just. I go back a step where everything's fine. It's. It's coming in that consciousness. It doesn't. Everything's fine. Like it'll. Everything will happen. It doesn't matter. But I feel great. I'm the. I'm the one who's experiencing everything thing. And there's no lack. But if I go down. [00:19:53] Speaker B: This is what I was thinking content meant. [00:19:56] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:19:56] Speaker B: Right. I'm a contented soul. I'm a. [00:19:58] Speaker A: Rather than. I'm. Yeah, I'm content rather than. I need to create more content, which is the same word. [00:20:03] Speaker B: Right. I was actually just yesterday thinking, oh, my God, the difference between content and [00:20:09] Speaker A: content, there isn't any difference. It's the same word. Isn't that interesting? It's the same word. [00:20:14] Speaker B: It's interesting, but the, the huge difference. Right? [00:20:17] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:20:17] Speaker B: There is like content will not make you content. [00:20:20] Speaker A: There's content. [00:20:21] Speaker B: I don't want to go off on a tangent, but I was talking to someone at my gym and I was like, wow. Anyway, we won't go off on that. [00:20:31] Speaker A: Once we create enough content, then we'll be content. Or once we. Once we get. Consume enough content, Once you get 10 hours of content a day, then you can be content. [00:20:39] Speaker B: 10 hours and then you'll be content. So anyways, I'm a contented soul. Yeah, I'm a soul, right? [00:20:46] Speaker A: Yeah, that's a good one. Or I've. [00:20:48] Speaker B: I'm a contented soul is a good one. And the other one. [00:20:52] Speaker A: Huh, that is a nice one. [00:20:56] Speaker B: I'm A contented soul. And the other one I really feel is very important nowadays. I'm safe. I'm here with the Supreme Soul and I'm safe. Really safe. It's okay. [00:21:15] Speaker A: Yeah. That's a big one. I'm safe and secure and all is well. Yeah. Because I mean, it is. That's the truth. And the, the idea I'll be safe and secure after everything's taken care of is a dangerous perception. Perspective. Because at what point can we genuinely say everything's fine? I don't think it's ever going to happen, is it? Because all you need to do is [00:21:43] Speaker B: get one message from. No, no. We have to instill this programming now. [00:21:48] Speaker A: Yeah. It can't be. [00:21:49] Speaker B: We have to reprogram now. [00:21:51] Speaker A: Yeah. It can't be based on everything working out for us the way we like. [00:21:55] Speaker B: Right. Right. Because it might never work out. [00:21:58] Speaker A: It might never work out. [00:21:59] Speaker B: Right. And. Or it might work out. It's not ours. Right. We don't need to predict what's going to happen. That's not the point. The point is to instill something right now because we are constructing our present and our future. This moment. Right. We are gathering evidence of ourselves. Right this moment. What's going to happen in the future we don't need to think about. And that's the thing I keep telling myself these days is do not predict. Don't predict. Oh, if this happens, it means that. And that means that forget all those things, right? Just stop the prediction. Right? Stop the prophecies. Stop the prediction. Stop the, you know, oh, this means this and that means that. And it feels like such a waste of time. It's like a wandering mind. [00:22:55] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean, a lot of the time there's a great quote, I can't remember who said it, that my life has been filled with miseries, most of which never happened because that's what the mind does, isn't it? It's not here. It's, you know, like, like especially the news. I, I'm. I like. I've been reading these different magazines that get sent to me in the post about various news stories. And it's interesting, but it does cause anxiety because they're disturbing things that are going on in the world and I can't do anything about it. And all I can do is predict possible doomsday scenarios. So that's not doing anyone any good really. [00:23:41] Speaker B: It's not. [00:23:42] Speaker A: This, this bad story means this terrible thing's probably going to happen and at which I can't change either of those situations. So all it does is make my life worse today. Yeah. So we don't want to be thinking about doomsday situations because it doesn't help very much. [00:24:01] Speaker B: No, no, this, you know, this. Identity statements, right? The Swaman statements, the self respect statements are so useful. So useful. And even if we get up right in the morning and we have a plan, so the plan should be the night before, you pick your three identity statements. Or if you can't pick three, one identity statement, right? So. Or two identity statements. One could be, I am a contented soul and I'm safe and sound. I'm, you know, I'm beloved, I'm loved, whatever, right? So one of, or two or three of those things like that. You pick those at night, you rehearse them, you set the alarm, you go see where you're going to sit, right? Not in bed, you're going to get up, out and you're going to go sit somewhere else. You set all of that in place and then you put the alarm and if you snooze, just tell yourself, I'm going to get up and just for one minute walk around. And if I sleep sleepy after one minute, then I'll go sleep. But at least one minute walk around, you usually don't feel sleepy after that. You go sit down and even if it's for 15 minutes, just do the practice. Just do the practice. There's been research. There's been research. [00:25:38] Speaker A: There's research. [00:25:38] Speaker B: There's been research. [00:25:39] Speaker A: Isn't that great? Huh? Yeah, there's been research. [00:25:45] Speaker B: Absolutely. There's been research. I want to tell you about the research. If someone has concrete plans, they tend to follow through rather than abstract, right? So let's say you've decided you're not going to eat any more sweets and everyone in your family is going to dinner and you are going to tell yourself, when the time to order desserts come, I'm going to order tea instead, right? So if you have a concrete plan like that, then you're likely to succeed not eating the dessert. If you do, if you don't have a plan, then the sweets come in, you're ingesting them, right? Because you don't have a plan. [00:26:41] Speaker A: That's a very good point. [00:26:42] Speaker B: And it could be anything, right? Like let's say your husband is annoying or something like that. And you have a plan saying, okay, if he says this annoying thing, I'm going to think this, which is something, identity statement, wonderful thing about yourself. Then you have a plan, you're not going to blow up at him, which Every once in a while maybe they do need blowing up. You know what I mean? [00:27:11] Speaker A: Sometimes something has to be said, but it's. Yeah, that's a good point. If you don't have a plan, then you have to figure it out in the moment. And normally in the moment there is an automatic response. It's too late at that point, you know, because there's a trigger and then there's an action and there's no plan in the middle. You can't come up with a plan in the middle of a trigger very easily. [00:27:35] Speaker B: Now you know, someone here always says in the center, if you don't have a plan, then plan to fail. [00:27:46] Speaker A: Fair enough. Really isn't that. Yeah, I mean it could work out occasionally, but most likely it's going to go horribly wrong. [00:27:55] Speaker B: So. Especially about mornings, right? So we, we are really highly recommending you to pick up a swaman. Practice self respect practice and do it in the morning as soon as you get up. And if you feel, you're going to feel sleepy or anything, get up, wash your face, you know, you know my thing, right? It's not like, oh, I got up in the morning and started every one day someone told me, get up in the morning and have meditate. And I, and I did for the rest of my life. That's not how it worked. That's not how it worked. When someone first told me I need to get up at 4 in the morning, I thought they were not talking English first. And then I thought, you mean I can stay up till four in the morning if you want me to. But getting up at four in the morning was just so unheard of for me. And then I, after I understood, okay, I need to do this. I had to put three alarm clocks. One in the kitchen, one in the bathroom, one in the closet and the last one was in the bathroom. So by the time I got to the bathroom and the alarm is going off and I'm in the bathroom, then I'm just jumping in the shower to wake myself up. That's how you just have to make it work because you are worth it. You are a valuable being and you're worth it. [00:29:21] Speaker A: Yeah, that's so true. It makes such a big difference because like whenever I oversleep, which does happen occasionally, for whatever reason, it's such a different day. It's such, because if the, if I haven't set myself right and, and also just not only the practice, but also just being awake in the morning afterwards, you've kind of got some space to think about life without just reacting. It makes a really profound difference. And what I personally found is that on some level I believe that if I wake up and I feel tired, that is a bad sign. Even now I still think that, right? But I have to remember that once I get out of bed, then I'll wake up. I can't. Because ideally my ideal situation is I wake up and I feel fresh and awake when I wake up. That's what I'd like to have, to be perfectly honest, because that's the kind of most natural way of waking is that you wake up feeling fresh. But I might not wake up because I've just been asleep and I have an light alarm clock, which means that it wakes me up with light, which is better. If you can get one, I highly recommend it. Because the natural way to wake up is the sun. Sun comes and as the sun rises up, the melatonin gets less and we wake up. Right? That's the most natural way. That's how all the animals wake up. And so if we have a light, it's actually much more natural. And it goes very slowly. It starts very like red light and then it gets more and more and more and then, and then if I don't wake up with the light, then the sound comes, you know, and there's like I have ocean waves waking me up, right? So that's for me, much more like less disturbed. Because the last thing I want is, you know, these, you know, rattle ones that rattle away. I can't think anything worse than being shocked into being awake because then my first thought in the morning is not. I was like, what the hell's going on? So I don't want to wake up like that. So it's very natural. And then I like to have some powerful thoughts while I'm lying in bed. Just because I'm straight away awake, I don't want to get up. I want to have a few thoughts and then get out of bed and then freshen up and, and I have, [00:31:41] Speaker B: yes, those are the swaman thoughts, right? The night before, the ones you practiced. I'm a self sovereign, I'm a wonderful. I'm so wonder. Those are the thoughts, those are the thoughts that need to go on. [00:31:55] Speaker A: So. So as soon as they wake up, there's thoughts, thoughts, thoughts and then get up. But because I think it's, it's good to get them in immediately, you know, not because the. If I don't personally want to go to the bathroom and have a shower before I've had powerful thoughts because then I'M in a different headspace, you know, doing stuff, having shower. But get up, have the powerful thoughts or wake up, have the powerful thoughts, maybe sit up and then get out bed afterwards and keep them going. I have like a little robe that I like to wear that's kind of because, let's say, like, I get my incense on. I got a special light, you know, candle. You don't need all these things. But I think it. [00:32:38] Speaker B: No, I don't have time nor the patience for that in the morning. [00:32:43] Speaker A: Fair enough. [00:32:44] Speaker B: I just want to get on with my meditation. [00:32:47] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah. [00:32:48] Speaker B: I mean, everything else is just. [00:32:51] Speaker A: It takes about 20 seconds, though, to be honest, doesn't it? But it's. But whatever you need to do. Where are you going to sit? What are you going to do? Because yet again, it's too late to figure this out when you're sitting there. I mean, it can be done, but it's better to prepare for these things sometimes, you know, writing it down. Another fun thing that I like to try, I haven't. Don't do this all the time, but is to. This is a fascinating thing to practice is say I want to wake up at exactly this time, whatever the. Whatever it is, like exact time, and. And then you go to sleep holding that awareness, and you can literally wake up at that exact minute. I've done it many, many, many times. I'm surprised. I'm genuinely surprised because how. How can my subconscious mind, while I'm asleep, know to wake up exactly on that minute? It doesn't make any sense. But. So this shows how powerful we are. So that can help. I'm going to wake up exactly at this time, and I'm going to think this exact thought. And it's fascinating. It's fascinating. Another thing I like to do, it's not directly related to this, but in terms of the morning is if I have very strange and wondrous dreams. I have my phone. I have two phones. One is connected to the Internet, which is I consider a weaponized phone, and the other one is de. Weaponized or declawed phone. So it's just basically a recording. You know, it's an iPhone that can't connect to anything. If I have strange and wondrous dreams, I have my voice memo app, easy to get on the screen, and I'll just speak the dream because the dreams are science from the subconscious and giving us messages. And if you get a really strong dream and it comes again and again, you might want to, like, record it. You just press the button to say what it was. And then what I do is I run it through AI and I have this whole thing that analyzes it using Jungian psychology. Because some of these things, there's a reason we're having these dreams, right? This, not. I don't do this every day. And I'm not saying everyone should do it, but it is worth figuring out what you're thinking. [00:35:11] Speaker B: The other thing I was thinking is whatever the first few thoughts is who you will end up, right? For the rest of the day, that's how you will feel. So whatever you instill in yourself, the first few thoughts are so, so important. And so the mind is always going. You're either inherited those thoughts from past, from parents, from whoever, or you are scrolling on the phone, right? As soon as you get up, people, as soon as they get up, this. That's what they do, scroll on the phone. [00:35:48] Speaker A: Oh my goodness. That's the worry about my. Can you. Like I've. I think I might have done that maybe once or something. Once or twice. What an absolute shock to the system to wake up in the morning and immediately be programmed by stuff on the Internet. Oh my goodness. [00:36:06] Speaker B: Or, you know, they worries about what's going on, right? All of this thing is going on with you. One or the other thing is going on. So you might as well get up and really instill good things about who you are, what you are. And just remember, you don't know the difference between rehearsal and true. If you just rehearse the thought, it will become true. The brain doesn't know the difference. Just rehearse the thought. Just rehearse the swaman practice and it will become true. And I wanted to say something else about content, right? People consume content and they think they're being spiritual, right? It's just consuming content. Oh, I watched this, you know, I watched this. My favorite spiritual person on YouTube. And then I went for a. You know, I did this and I did that. And so it's just content, right? You cannot become spiritual or your mind cannot change, or who you are cannot change. And you will have the same repeated anxieties and thoughts if you keep consuming content. Content is not spiritual. Content is content. For you to be spiritual, you actually have to do some work. Even if it's 15 minutes a day, you have to do some work. [00:37:40] Speaker A: Great short right there, Shereen. We should make that into a short. It's. It's true. It's true though. Like, this is content. Here we are. We're kind of slightly odd situation to say this while someone's receiving content from us. But the truth is, listening to these podcasts probably will be good for you to some degree, right? Let's be honest, because it's vibrations and information and it's going in your head. It's probably better than something else. But if you don't actually get up in the morning and do the practices, you won't get anywhere near as much benefit. I mean, that's the truth of it. Because lots of people know about lots of things, but it doesn't mean they did anything. We don't want to be philosophers, armchair philosophers who just know about things. We need to actually put in the work. You know, pull our sleeves up and get in there and do the practices. But we're not saying you shouldn't listen to our podcast, but listen to it and do this. [00:38:39] Speaker B: You can stop listening now and go do your swarm. [00:38:41] Speaker A: Go do the practices. The most important thing is to do. [00:38:43] Speaker B: Go do the practice. [00:38:44] Speaker A: We would rather important thing. [00:38:46] Speaker B: Forget the, Forget about the podcast. [00:38:48] Speaker A: Don't worry about the podcast. If you just go did the practice, that would be the best thing ever. Most people would, by the way, wouldn't tell you that. They would say, oh, if you just listen to it, it's good for you. And it is, but it's not as good for you. Like, for example, knowing about how to exercise. It's still good to know how to exercise, because otherwise you don't know how to exercise. But if you don't do any exercise, [00:39:13] Speaker B: but no, till you really get down and go to the gym and do some exercise or wherever, do some exercise, you really won't know how to exercise. Switch off the podcast and go do something. Switch off the podcast and go consume some more content, but switch off the podcast and go do something. [00:39:30] Speaker A: Stop watching this video and do some practices. But after the blessing, after the blessing, [00:39:41] Speaker B: okay, I came on compassion. Maybe that's what I needed to feel for everyone instead of telling them love and compassion. I really do feel compassion for souls. I really do. [00:39:55] Speaker A: You just need to get off your ass and do some practices and. [00:39:59] Speaker B: But that's a compassionate statement. [00:40:01] Speaker A: That is compassionate statement. It doesn't do any. It is. It's compassionate to have the awareness or share with people that you can watch videos, you can listen to podcasts, you can listen to audiobooks, you can go on retreats, you can go to wherever, but if you don't practice anything, it's not really going to work. [00:40:22] Speaker B: Compassion. This is God's blessing for you. Compassion. You recognize the individual qualities that make everyone extraordinary. Lifting them in their self belief to shine a unique light. Your kind and unwavering vision has become a beacon of reassurance, restoring faith in others. [00:40:46] Speaker A: Worth that's beautiful. So get up at 4 o' clock and do your practices. Or at least 5 o' clock if you can't do it. Yay. Keep up the good work. 15 minutes a day. Powerful thoughts. Write a list and see what happens one thought at a time. Much love.