The ONE Thing We Keep Overlooking on the Spiritual Journey | Guy Lawrence

Guy:
So do you wanna hear what some of the most common questions we get asked while s- helping others on this path with their spiritual work, including myself? So, how do I stay connected to myself when everyday life gets overwhelming? Why do I keep falling back into old patterns even though I’m doing the work? How do I deepen my connection to the divine and actually trust what I’m feeling? Do they sound familiar? Here’s a question for you, one I’m gonna ask. What if the spiritual connection that we’re all searching for is already available right now in this moment in the life we’re living? How do I deepen my connection to the divine and actually trust what I’m feeling? All right, let’s jump into this.

I can honestly say one of the greatest challenges, I think, is that we get so caught up in the searching of this all that we forget in the presence and the doing and the being in the moment. You know, when I hear these questions, and even when I catch myself hearing these questions, automatically I’m in my head. And when I’m in my head, we, we can find all sorts of justifications for all sorts of reasons, and this is where we go into overwhelm. W- wh- this is when we go into anxiety. This is when we can go into all sorts of different states that can feel d- debilitating, uh, over time. And when we– when I start to unpack this, then what if the spiritual connection, actually the word here, we’re searching for is already available to us in everyday life and what we live in?

Now, I just had my good friend Marcus Pearce on the podcast. I’ll, I’ll point to you. I’m sure it’ll, it’ll appear on the screen in a sec, and he is somebody who’s pa- very passionate about, um, studying lo- you could say longevity, but also the core principles behind that in, and he’s been going to Icaria for the last 10 years, I believe. And Icaria is a tiny little Greek island, and, uh, it, they c- it’s, uh, the lo- I think one of the lowest populations of disease. Uh, the people live very, um, l- long, robust lives. And what came out of that conversation for me, what was evident, is that these people on Icaria are doing, living spiritually, and they don’t even know it, I think, in some ways, because it’s just imbued in them, in their p- in their essence, in their, in their being.

And one of the deepest things that had come out of that was from, and the podcast is fantastic, by the way. I, I definitely recommend it. But was this, this, this whole concept of presence and human connection. And I feel that what we tend to do as Westerners is separate the spiritual work, and I say that loosely, to everyday life. And we have an opportunity in every single moment to drop out of our head and come back to our heart and support oneself in a space of nurturing presence with that. But I just feel that when we tend to capitulate and go into overwhelm, we d- we don’t, we don’t think rationally, we don’t feel rationally, and we perpetuate certain states of being and certain choices that make no rational sense and are not supporting us in any way.

And When we flip the narrative and start coming back to looking at life is supporting you and serving you, and that there is an opportunity for growth here, we can really s- start to become more consciously aware of everything that we’re doing in any given moment and make choices from that vantage point. But if we don’t have the foundations in place, and if we’re not constantly conditioning the state of being of who we wanna become and who is that person in more in this present moment, we’re always gonna struggle, and the mind is always gonna take over to what the heart is calling forward, the heart and soul.

And that’s where the, the real friction really starts to, to, to happen, and that’s when the challenges arrives. ‘Cause if you, if you think about it for a moment, think about it, our quality of life is governed by our thoughts, emotions, and feelings. So obviously, the thoughts are creating an emotion. And the way I view a feeling is a feeling is then an interpretation of what emotion has just been felt. So with that in mind, we are then starting to impose our version of reality based upon our past experiences on this given moment of any given time. And as I’m sure you know, you could have two people that have experienced the same event but have very different feelings because of the way they’ve interpreted the response from that instantaneous response of perception to thought, to emotion, to then feeling, and then experiencing, and that is becoming your reality.

So unless you start to unpack that and, and start to, to be okay and get comfortable with that, and allowing the body and setting up environments for the body to really start to nurture and express itself, we’re always gonna be challenged, and we’re always gonna be struggling. And those very questions that I started with at the beginning, uh, are, are always gonna be ruling the mind because we’re constantly going back to mind. We’re constantly going back to mind, and the mind will always ask questions, and it will always try and control. And I sometimes wonder if what we’re trying to discern from the, the, these spiritual, uh, experiences or connections in our life is actually just having the courage to act upon what our heart is desiring.

And like I, uh, did in my recent solo podcast around why we’re still looping, then that would make sense, right? So with all that in mind, like if I look at my life, listen, I’m about to fly to the USA tomorrow. It’s, uh, I’m recording this in between. It’s my wife’s birthday today. We’ve been, um, celebrating that over the weekend. Uh, we’ve have to move house, so we’re in the middle of moving house. Um, last week, my, my daughter went down with gastro. It was diarrhea and vomiting. Then my wife then went down the next day and, and boy, does the house f- quickly fall apart when my wife’s down. And then, and then the next day, I started feeling unwell, and it’s like all these shifting things are happening in my world at, at the moment, and I kind of go, “Holy moly.”

But what I do is come back to presence and come back to heart, and I’m very acutely aware when I’m going into mind and trying to control all these things that are, uh, uncontrollable and just coming back to, to conscious moment-by-moment presence and, and taking steps from that vantage point, meeting them in the moment. And through that, I then start to navigate my way, but also then embrace, I guess, the s- the, the storms that are happening and acqui- applying myself correctly to what’s needed to be met in this moment. And as challenging it can be Uh, there’s always great rewards that can start to come out for it if you start to look for, excuse me, the, the different vantage point that can be done within that basis.

But what it comes down to, at the end of the day, I really feel is that is when the practices start to come into place. That is when the exploration of retreats and events come into place. That is when the exploration of exploring energy work comes into place. All these things are then contributing factors for you on your own journey to continue to navigate more and more of the present moment. So if you find yourself in overwhelm, if you find yourself going back into old patterns, it’s all okay. They are all patterns and behavior that we tend to slip back. I find myself slipping back. But the more we are re-reconditioning, retraining our body, our nervous system, our environment, our inner, internal environment, th- we adapt.

We, we, we’re almost then affecting … As we heal and release old traumas and wounds, it’s all affecting the nervous system, it’s all affecting the body, and it’s all affecting our perception of reality, which is affecting the way we think, which is affecting the emotions to the way we feel, which is governing our life at any given moment. I mean, so much so that you can get to the point where y- do- even the way you reflect upon your, your, your old self, the emotions and feelings and the relationship to that can actually change over time as well. It’s quite profound, really, and in some ways I’ve forgotten how I used to think ’cause it’s like I’ve rewired myself at a, such a, a deeper level.

And Yeah. It, it, it’s, it takes time, it takes effort, but the, the whole thing is rewarding and can be so beautiful, right? So I wanted to share those, those things with you and I wanna make ’em a bit more, um, my podcast a little bit more personal as well, so you can a- you can actually relate to me and know that we have challenges too. I have a life that’s doing things. Um, but it’s, it’s how we navigate that through that and, um, know that there’s, there’s something in there for you, within you, that if you start to come back to this heart and nurture that and place yourself around the, in the right environments, the right people, and the right circumstances, you can really, you, you will mirror your environment, so you can really shift, um, yourself moving forward. It, it can be massive.

So a couple of things that to, to before, um, wrapping up that can help is, one, just notice when you’re in your head and you, you find yourself ruminating and you’re going over certain questions, and come back to your heart. Just simply come back to that space. If you don’t give your- that space in the moment, ’cause the divine is ever present. It’s, it’s the remembrance. It’s the letting, it’s the, it’s the letting go of what no longer serves us. It’s the de-hypnotizing of ourselves is, is where the magic is happening. one thing I did when, uh, I, I was making quite dramatic change from my old company into what I’m doing now and crossing that river of change per se was, um, I learned to juggle, and that was really rewarding because it was a task that actually felt impossible, and it was something that I could focus on in the moment, but I could start to see the rewiring, if you like, starting to happen in real time just by doing that.

So that was a really great, uh, metaphor for me about difficult things that we might find, but if we, we show up for ourselves, uh, it can do as well. So, uh, try those things, um, by that. Anyway, like I said, I’m about to fly to the US. Uh, it’ll be there, that intimate gathering, uh, just outside the Nevada desert. It’s gonna be so awesome to meet, uh, some of you that have tuned in and are coming out as well. And, uh, I’ve got links below for the energy healing sessions I’ve opened up through Nov- uh, November, and the, the– I’ll be releasing them monthly now anyway, so no matter when you’re watching this, uh, they should be there.

But they, I would imagine they’ll book out. So if you wanna keep exploring this work with myself, um, there’s more information below. Anyway, hope you enjoyed this podcast. Much love from me, and I will see you soon. I’m standing here right now in Lake Taupo in a beautiful retreat space, and there’s a vast difference between an intellectual experience and passive listening to a fully embodied lived experience, ’cause that’s what retreats can do. They can help you land, start to truly reconnect to yourself, to others, to nature, and to spirit as well. There’s so much in it. That’s why we created Live in Flow, and that’s why we are so passionate about getting this work out there and bringing people together. If you wanna find out more when our next retreat or event is coming up, just check out the link below.