The World Is Overloading Us — 5 Ways to Take Back Your Inner State | Guy Lawrence

Please note, this is an automated transcript so it is not 100% accurate.

Guy:
So how’s this for a mic drop moment? I remember when I had Paul Check on the podcast and he said, and he quoted a book called The Body Electric by Robert O. Becker, and what he said was the average person at the time he wrote that book, which was in the 1980s, was exposed to more information in one day than somebody born prior to 1900 was ex- exposed in their entire lifetime. Mind blown. Now, when you start to consider that, what is the impact that is having on us as a species right now, and what can we do about it? Well, let’s dive in.

Guy:
And to quote Gregg Braden, who came on my podcast, he basically said that we know that our DNA, uh, we haven’t genetically changed much, roughly the last 200 and something thousand years. I can’t remember exactly. There was a significant point in time that time ago, and then since then, we haven’t changed much. But yet the… If you think about the technical, uh, logical advancements, especially in the last 50 years, you know, it- it’s literally a vertical line up, right? B- uh, but… And our bodies are struggling to cope with it. And when it comes to health, healing, and living an abundantly rich life, and I mean in health, in relationships, in, uh, obviously finance, all the areas of our lives that we really wanna feel whole, uh, in, and feel at peace within ourselves, and feel more deeper states of love, I believe that we’ve gotta go more to the body.

And I’ve got this quote here as I’m, I’m kinda winging this podcast today, which is great, which I always do. Anyway, uh, stop organizing your inner world around the demands of the outer world. Start organizing your outer world around the needs of your inner world. That’s where we gotta go. And that’s what this podcast is today, and I’m gonna talk to five things that we can apply in our life to actually support that as we move forward on our own spiritual growth and our own journey. And to m- make one more quote about this, and this is something that’s really stood in the back of my mind is, for a minute, like, if I was to ask you the question, what is the number one job, uh, for the body? It’s to keep you alive. Yeah? It’s to keep you alive, and it’s to keep you safe. I- it’s an innate…

There’s what’s called, uh, to quote Bruce Lipton, “a biological imperative,” and that means from, like, the smallest bacter- bacteria to us mammals and humans, human beings, it’s innately in wired in us to survive. It, you know, it doesn’t need our brain. Our body reacts accordingly to do that. Now, with that in mind, and if you think of all the different fad diets and all the health kicks that we going on and all the, the pharmaceuticals that are available for people and all the amount of diseases that are out there, and yet there’s only, you know, uh, one word for health, which is health, right? Like, it’s like the world is going nuts. Now, uh, to quote Jeffrey Thompson, who was on my podcast a while back, uh, and who’s a sound wizard, he’s a great guy. He was in the Heal documentary, if you’re not familiar with him. Um, we have generations of a population of people that are the sickest that we’ve ever seen in human history, right?

We’re the most technological advanced, but as a species, we’re probably at the sickest, and there’s all kinds of weird diseases that are happening, right? And what it, what he then goes on to say is your body is going to pull all available energy from everywhere it can get to, to obey one rule, which is survive at all costs. Do whatever is necessary to survive, because if you don’t, you will die, and the whole thing, uh, is for nothing. So the, the healing… But the problem is we are in a, an environment Uh, that is bombarded by all this information. You know, if you think about the lights, uh, the Wi-Fi, 5G, if you think about noise pollution, you think about media, you think about TV, phones, like it’s const- there’s this constant stimulation, and we create…

Now, to my understanding, please, this is just how I, I kind of filter this information into my world. Then you’ve got, you’ve got a nervous system, an autonomic nervous system, which helps support, govern what’s called homeostasis. Now, what, what Jeffrey talks about, ’cause he’s worked with people’s nervous systems and heart rate variabilities since the 1980s himself, talks about, um, the homeostasis, uh, is actually starts to get disengaged. So what happens is, if you think of a nervous system, I’ll just hold my arms up for you, like a, like a seesaw, right? It should be oscillating, I believe, right? Oscillating nicely, constantly scanning the body from fight or flight to rest or repair, right? And obviously, there’s times or moments in stress, and the body knows when to go into fight or flight, and it, uh, or, or sometimes if the extreme stress is freeze, okay?

Fight, flight, or freeze. And then you’ve got the, the, uh, rest and repair aspect as well. And as these are oscillating, the body’s constantly cleaning, detoxifying, doing things. And when you go to sleep at night, it’s really doing major repair within your body so you can get up and do it again. And with, and with the amount of information that’s happening and the, the levels of stress, if you think about, you know, all the pressures that are coming upon our life, our ability to handle stress is, is atrophying. And if we don’t actually start to be proactive in navigating, like the quote I said about the outer space and the inner space, then, then it’s gonna catch up with us downstream. Because ultimately, what I’ve seen over many years with people are that they have dysregulated nervous systems, and when you’re in fight or flight, or you’re in like this low low chronic stress response and y- the body becomes inflamed, and there’s all sorts of problems that are happening, but you’re hampering the, the body’s ability to to, um, repair, because it’s in fight or flight.

So cells are not fully turning over and repairing and operating at a, at a full functioning blossoming level like they should be. And over time, what that starts to do, uh, the body starts to prioritize the body, uh, the organs within the body to ensuring that you’re functioning and– because its number one job is to keep you alive. So it starts actually taking energy from certain areas of the body to compensate, to support other parts of the body that the autonomic nervous system, the operating system, has deemed as more important. So all of a sudden, we start having health conditions downstream five, 10, 15, 20 years later because of a response or something that has affected the nervous system, not only from what’s happening in our environment, but of course, we can have traumatic events.

We can have all sorts of challenges that have happened to us on a physical level, and that, that charge of energy gets held in the body, and then that’s affecting the nervous system, and the body is then unable to, to turn over and process and, and maintain the homeostasis, the balance like it, it was designed to do. And that’s when we can get into problems. And that’s why… I mean, this is not even going into a soul level and not even going into the metaphysical aspect. This is just going onto more the, the basic stuff. And this is why we even get passionate about healing work because you can– there’s multiple ways you can start to look at this in your life as well.

Because the way I see it is that if we’re this incredible divine s- essence of light being, you know, the, the rider or the wild stallion on the, the, the horse rider. You know, the, the wild stallion being the body and the, the consciousness being the rider, and we want to be working in union together in harmony. But where am I going with this? W- what we wanna be doing is ultimately pulling more and more of that divine aspect of ourselves in through our body, descending into this life, right? But when we’ve got a nervous system that is atrophied, when we’ve got a body that’s been neglected, um, not through, not through choice, I don’t think, but through belief systems and traumas and how we perceive the world, then we- we’ve got a conflict and we become very misaligned.

And that’s why you can see, um, certain, um, healings and different things start to occur, is when we get out the way and we allow that nervous system to start to shift, the body can– the body knows what to do. The body is a miracle. It will start to then reorganize itself, and different, um, outcomes from that reorganization of the body will start to happen. The body knows how to heal. It knows how to maintain homeostasis. We’ve just gotta continue to set up the right environments to allow it to do so. And that- that’s why it’s critical, and that’s why we get so passionate about this work, is what are we doing? Because it’s all well and good coming to, um, listening to information or coming to a, a workshop or a retreat, which I highly recommend, but at the same time, we wanna be setting up our life to win every day, yeah?

So that’s where I kinda go in, in for this. So there’s a few things I wanna mention here. So I’ve mentioned five points, right? So first of all, audit what you’re entering in, that’s the first point. So you gotta be, you gotta be brutal, right? Your nervous system responding to far more than your thoughts. It’s taking in noise, light, pace, information, emotion, and urgency, which I spoke about. So what I- a great place to start is look at the first and last 30 minutes of your day. That- that’s where you can start, right? ‘Cause I think that’s where we, we tend to have more control over that. And are you giving your body space to arrive or are you immediately inviting the outside world in? So I’ll repeat that. So the core question of what you wanna ponder on with this is, what am I allowing into my system before I have even connected with myself?

What am I allowing into my system before I’ve even connected with myself? We spoke about on the podcast many times that connection is one of the key things to, I believe, to healing. Healing is a slippery word, but healing, being a vibrant whole aligned being from the inside out and having alignment, well, connection is a deep part of that. So if we’re not even connecting with ourselves first or giving ourselves the opportunity and just going through the motions all the time, then of course, the, the, the body and the nervous system that’s beyond the conscious mind is gonna behave certainly in certain ways. You want it to be working for you, not pulling against you, right?

So that’s the first thing. Start to audit just the, the morning and evening is a good place to start, right? And then the second point I’ve wrote down here was work with the body and work with the body gently. So we often respond to feeling overwhelmed by adding another intense practice, protocol, or goal. Like how many times we push ourselves, “I gotta diet, I gotta do these, things. And I’m just a guy from the fitness industry, man, right? But if you’ve already got a fried nervous system- what we’re doing is actually compounding the stress. It’s what’s called a, a, if I’m not mistaken, an allostatic load.

So what that means, it’s not w- it’s not just one anything that’s gonna be the straw that broke the camel’s back. It’s about looking at all the elements in the life that are actually creating the stress loads, and combined together, it’s gonna actually accelerate the, the challenges that we have. So sometimes we just need to stop and, and actually work with the body in a different way, and rest and be gentle with it, depending on what’s on the underneath. ‘Cause as we start to identify that, then we start to make sure… Not– This is not an excuse to be lazy. This is actually, uh, something that we need to ensure that we care, deeply care about.

Okay? I literally got off a healing session working with some people earlier today, and, you know, the core message at the end of that is just rest. Just be. Drink water. Can you just, can you just sit in the garden and, and allow a space to allow the body to, to reorganize and integrate, right? But, um, so regulation doesn’t need to be forceful. Sometimes it’s five minutes of slow breathing, attention on the heart, or simply allowing the body to soften. So just be notice of, um, the pace that you, you’re doing things at, all right? Um, h- so the core idea here is the healing may respond better to, to being gentle than, than pushing, right? As well. So it’s, it’s just ensuring…

Well, one of the things that’s coming to me as I share this w- that I look at is, like I think we have to identify whether we’re actually coming f- we’re in crisis, if we’re in a place of crisis, or we’re actually in a place of wholeness and we’re, we’re expanding the evolution of wholeness. So for instance, you could look at it like a bank account. So if your bank account, you’re in a lot of debt, and it’s actually gonna take you a certain amount of time to, to pay off that debt and, um, get to a, a bank account that of course is then, you know, got a lot of savings in the bank account. So you could kind of look at it like that. So if you’re coming from a space of, uh, debt or if your, your health is in that crisis, you know, it’s, it’s struggling, then of course we– it’s a very different set of, um, instructional inputs that we wanna be, we navigating and doing to allow ourselves to get to the point where we’re flourishing again.

And that, that journey is not linear . It’s not the same for anyone. It’s very independent. But the point being is that w- we really need to start to s- to take on board these elements to allow us to flourish moving forward. You know, that’s why it’s hard coming to a podcast, you know, because y- you can’t speak to everyone and everyone’s situation. But these things are to be mindful of as you go, as you’re going through these things, right? So, so when you’re leaning into the spiritual work more and more, quite often we do need to ensure, uh, like we gotta be gentle with ourselves. Like m- my- m- myself, I’ve always wanted to push myself. I enjoy weight training.

I was doing CrossFit, and I had to actually stop CrossFit in, um, last year because the energies and working in the retreats and, and We’re getting so intense as my body is being shifting to cope with these, uh, holds, the capacity to hold more and more frequencies within my body. Um, I’ve had– I had to let go of a lot of that and, um, I spent myself resting a lot and allowing it and integrate. Now, I’ve been doing this work a long time, and I know I’m not making this shit up, and I know what’s actually happening and what my body needs. So for me then, it’s the ability to let go of, of pushing all the time and actually surrender into the presence and being of the, the, the frequency so I can allow that soul aspect of myself to… that’s coming through more and more, um, is honor that.

So that’s what I’m saying. We gotta be mindful of these things, right? So step, point number three I wanna make is reduce the amount of stimulation. So I mean, that’s a no-brainer. I speak about it all the time. If constant input is part of the pressure, right, then there must be moments when the input actually stops. So yes, no podcast, even mine, no music, no screen, no demand to learn or improve, just being. Just being, right? Just enough silence for you to begin hearing yourself again. Silence is not empty. It gives the nervous system somewhere to land. Like, if you think about it, if you create that space, you can feel the body.

As you tune into yourself more and more and reconnect to that, you’ll start to feel it when you’re in, when you’re in the pocket and when you’re out. But it’s really important that you give yourself the space and time to reduce stimulation wherever you can, okay? Uh, – organize the outer world around the inner world. So, one thing that we tend to do is, uh, look after myself once everything else is done. Yeah, I’ll get to that. Uh, but ask yourself this, when is it ever done? How much are we just chasing an, an illusion of something that’s keeping us busy because we’re actually just addicted to the stress, the, the pace of that?

Uh, maybe we don’t know who we will be if we were to stop for a moment. Maybe there’s, there’s an attachment to the identity or the significance that it gives us, and if those things are removed, maybe there’s something under that that’s not healed, that’s not … that’s keeping us in that, that place. So perhaps the real shift then is what have we got? Deciding that your internal state comes first. Imagine putting that first, not last to everything else. Above everything and everyone, your internal state comes first. Um, and that’s not from selfishness, but because it affects how you meet everything and everyone else. So here’s something to contemplate on.

I no longer want the demands of the world deciding the state of my inner world I no longer want the demands of the world deciding the state of my inner world. Like, how powerful is that? How freeing is that? When no matter what is going on around us externally, we know we are solid, powerful, grounded, at peace within ourselves, and we’re not needing external validation for anything or anyone. We know who we are We’re We have our integrity, our values All in alignment, our heart, our love. And it’s just us. You’re just being them and to me, that’s everything, and that’s, yeah, we’re, it’s like we’re all digging in the wrong place. So the last one, uh, that will help with the demands of these lives is give the body evidence that it’s safe We spend all our time s- experience life through our senses, externally focused. We tend to narrow our focus and fixate onto the tasks and different things at hand we have to do.

We have to delete a lot of information and hone in on certain things, but we then get fixated on those things, and we’re constantly perpetuating the feed in the mind that’s creating this, this stimulation and stress response. ‘Cause obviously the body doesn’t know the difference between if the event is real or you’re, you’re actually visualizing and thinking about it and ruminating on it, and the body’s gonna receive it. It’s like, do you have the experience once or do I ruminate on it a thousand times and let the body experience it a thousand times? That’s not giving a, an environment or nurturing the, the garden bed of your body, your heart, and your soul to feel like it’s, it’s safe within the body. So there’s so many little…

There’s… Th- th- this is nuanced and this can go on a while, and we, we actually have a 21-day awareness, uh, program and challenge, uh, that’s in our, uh… There’ll be a link below if you go back to our Live in Flow and go to the Inner Self Mastery page. There’ll be something there if you wanna jump in on that. But th- there’s so many things that you can start to do to, to bring it in. One thing I noticed I do, I used to and I still witness people do, is they, they hold their breath. They, they, they breathe through their mouth and from the chest, shallow breath, which is, can cause anxiety. They tend to hold a lot of tension in their body that you’ll see.

I used to rush from, rush from one task to the next to the next. I gotta get this done. I gotta get that done. I gotta keep moving. And we’re constantly making the body unconsciously feel that it’s not safe and we’re external all the time. Uh, don’t have notifications on your phone. I have my phone on silent all the time. Like, if people… My wife wants to shoot me sometimes ’cause she wants to get a hold of me. But, but it’s like I can’t have all this stuff just grabbing my attention. Every alert feels to the body as like a tiger in the woods or something like, you know what I mean? About to jump out on you. You just don’t need that shit. So unless you actually give your body the space and the time of going inward and getting away from those sensory experiences and just feeling into the spaces where it’s feeling the tension, I… It’s just trained that way. You… We’ve just practiced it over and over, and all you need to do is practice it a different way.

But you gotta want that more You gotta want it more than anything because ultimately your life depends on it. Because it will downstream bite you on the ass, I promise you. We see it all the time. People come in with the, the bank account low, you know, they’re in debt metaphorically, right? They’re in crisis. They’re desperate. And it doesn’t have to be like that. Prevention is by far the greatest cure. But even if you are in that crisis space, you can heal. It can change. We s- we see it all the time. It, it is possible. It is possible. But we wanna be nurturing the environment for the body to do its thing. We really do, and we wanna ensure that we’re around people that support us, that lift us up, that, that inspire us, that don’t put… that are not holding us back through their own needs or whatever it might be, and it can be done. You just gotta, you just gotta want it. You gotta want it more than anything. Um, so where, where am I going with all that? Did I give you, um… Yeah. So yeah, check in with your body. Anyway, I can’t remember if I did or not.

Check in. Scan your body daily. Notice if you’re holding tension. Breathe. Even if you’re just there washing the dishes or something like, that’s what I do. I say, “Oh, I’m holding myself right now. How do my hands feel in the water right now?” Uh, you know, “Where’s my breath? Can I lower it?” Just be playful. Any moment, in any given moment is an opportunity to check in with yourself. You just gotta start somewhere, right? So what’s the core message of this podcast for you? Uh, you may not need more information about how to heal I like that, yeah. You may need to become more aware of the information your body is receiving every day.  Now, that’s gold. You may need to become more aware of the information your body is receiving every day because when we begin creating the d- conditions of safety, the intelligence of the body finally has room to do what it already knows how to do.

So you gotta learn to trust your body, trust the process, and start to get into it. Anyway, hope you enjoyed that podcast. Uh, this … I don’t know when this goes live, but, um, I’ve got a, we got a five-day retreat in a couple of days. I’m very excited to be in that, up in here in Northern New South Wales, Australia. We’ll be going deep with, uh, a beautiful group of people and, uh, I’ll keep you posted on things as they evolve as well. And if you wanna find out more what we’re doing, links are below, uh, and we’ll go from there. That’s all from me, and I’ll catch 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.