...Episode 1 of the "What's Arising Podcast"

With the current state of the world with a convergence of existential threats to our way of life, what can we do? How do we find peace within ourselves and with each other. This podcast suggests that in the words of Gandhi, we can 'Be The Change that we want to see in the world'. When and as we get more connected with the essence of who we are in our wholeness, life will show us the way forward with profound insight into what we can do and become.

The episode points toward dialogue, deep listening, right-brain wholeness, and the spaces between us where new insight can emerge.

Transcript

Welcome to What’s Arising?

What if life were trying to get your attention?

What if life wanted to have an intimate two-way conversation with you — to tell you its secrets, guide you out of drama and suffering, and deepen your connection to love, beauty, freedom, joy, and peace?

Would you be willing to open your heart and mind to that conversation with life?

Would you be willing to become fluent in the language of life?

To pause.
To listen.
To learn.
To leap into the possibilities as they arise.

As you listen to this podcast, I invite you to open your heart and mind to what is arising within you while I share what is arising for me and what I notice arising in the world.

Notice any reactions, thoughts, emotions, or felt sense in your body.

Notice where you open up, and where you close down or resist.

Notice any assumptions, beliefs, or judgments that arise.

Are they true?

Consider suspending them as you practice opening to other perspectives.

Notice any deep insights or calls to action that may arise.

If you and I were having a two-way conversation, what would you feel called to say from the deeper heart of yourself?

What questions would you have?

Feel free to write those comments and questions in response to what is arising within you.

What could life be trying to tell you?

If this podcast resonates with you, please share it with your friends. And if you sense that I may be able to help you understand or navigate what is arising in your life, you can visit my website and explore ways to connect and work with me.

I hope you enjoy the quiet guest.

The world is in an interesting place, isn’t it?

Interesting is a mild word for what many of us are noticing.

I know many people are shaking in their boots. There is so much going on that it can feel like the world has gone insane, as though we are heading toward doom, collapse, or some kind of end times.

There are so many crises: existential crises, meta-crises, and overlapping forms of uncertainty.

I do not know if this time is worse than other times because I have not lived through all of history. During the world wars, things must have felt like they were falling apart. But in the last hundred years, we have developed the capacity to destroy ourselves through nuclear weapons and other technologies.

Now we are facing climate change, the fear of totalitarian systems, censorship, suppression of ideas, and a deep crisis of trust.

There seems to be more crime, more addiction, more anxiety, more polarization, more disease narratives, more concern about food, chemicals, autoimmune illness, AI, war, and even the renewed threat of nuclear war.

It feels crazy.

Absolutely crazy.

So what do we do?

Many people I watch and listen to are trying to find solutions out there. They are trying to fix people out there.

If only they changed, then we would be okay.

If only we stopped the government, the deep state, those people, those others.

That is one way to engage the world. We can focus our life and activism out there, and perhaps some progress will be made.

But personally, I do not think we will make real progress unless we also take responsibility for the inner work required to come into peace within ourselves.

That is what we can do.

As long as we are projecting hate — even hatred of hateful people, racists, leaders, institutions, or whoever we see as the problem — we will not find peace.

How can we expect peace and progress in the world if we are not finding peace, common sense, and wholeness within ourselves?

How can we move forward if we remain locked in “I am right and you are wrong,” rather than entering into dialogue?

Yes, we need to work in the world. There are real crises that need attention.

But I believe we need to work inside first.

We need to work with our inner world, our shadow, our beliefs, our traumas, and our emotions. Some of these come from our own life. Some come through our ancestry. Some may belong to the collective.

There is also the work between us.

There is the inner work, and then there is the between work — my relationship with you, your relationship with me, and the field that forms between us.

Unless we can rebuild the capacity to connect at deeper levels, honour different perspectives, and listen to the story that another person brings into the room — whether that person is friend or enemy — I do not know that I see much hope for the world.

We need to truly listen.

We need to listen to understand.

We need to understand the story that brought someone to where they are. We need to listen with compassion.

These are the capacities I believe we need to build within ourselves.

We need to take full responsibility for what we are bringing into the world.

It is about reconnecting.

It is about reconnection and responsibility.

It is about taking responsibility for the world we want to create and co-create.

If there is one deep problem in this world, I think it is separation.

It is the view that we are separate from each other, rather than dependent on each other, dependent on the planet, dependent on fellow human beings, and dependent on the animals, plants, and life systems around us.

Instead of relationship, we have often moved into domination and extraction, especially through the industrial age and the information age.

So there is a lot of work to do.

And so much of it is about connecting and reconnecting.

Understanding the wholeness of ourselves rather than the separation within ourselves.

Reconnecting with self.

Reconnecting with others.

Stopping the othering, the disconnection, the blaming, and the shaming.

Sitting down and coming back into relationship with each other.

This is also a journey from a left-brain way of seeing the world to a more whole-brain or right-brain way of seeing.

The left brain breaks things into parts and pieces. It tries to build and fix the world through a mechanical way of thinking.

The right brain sees the world in its wholeness. It understands relationship. It opens to quality, connection, and context.

And it also invites insight.

If there is hope for the world, I believe it is through true insight.

When we go into our shadows, reconnect with the parts we have dismissed or pushed away, and find our own wholeness, something changes. Insight emerges through that shadow process.

Shadow integration opens our minds to new ideas and new ways of doing things that we could not grasp before.

The left hemisphere often tries to solve problems from within the same worldview. It rearranges the chairs on the Titanic.

But when we sit in silence, create space, and open the mind, answers can drop in.

This is the kind of intelligence that geniuses like Einstein were connected to.

This is what interests me.

This is what I am interested in exploring through this podcast: collapsing the sense of separation between us and moving forward with new insight.

When we create spaces of understanding and relationship, new insight can emerge.

I do not know where this podcast will go overall. But I hope it allows new insight to arise in me as I share what is arising.

I also invite you to listen to the perspectives I share without immediately judging them as right or wrong. I am sure I will be wrong sometimes.

But I want to invite you into other perspectives.

And as you listen to this podcast, or move through life elsewhere, I invite you to step into the shoes of the others you encounter. Reconsider your story. Reconsider your assumptions.

Together, my hope is that we can create a better world — one that is more connected, more loving, and full of trust.

That is the kind of world I want to live in.

Thank you for listening.