Start Where You Are

Live Recording

This Lovestream is about letting go of the idea that you must be 'ready' before beginning. We often wait for more confidence, more healing, more clarity, more money, or a different version of ourselves before taking the next step. This talk explores how real transformation begins exactly where we are: imperfect, uncertain, unfinished, and human.

Transcript

Welcome everyone. And the topic is always simply a doorway or an opening for us to dive deeper, Deeper into ourselves, Deeper into whatever it is that we need to meet. In this moment, Whatever is going on for us in this moment. So I welcome you here to our space. Our topic for today is start where you are. Release the myth of readiness. Most people delay their lives waiting for that perfect moment. Waiting to be ready. Getting ready to be ready to be ready to be ready. But what if there is no getting ready? What if we just start where we are? In order to do that, We need a healthy dose of honesty. We need to meet reality as it is. This reality, The current reality, Is the starting point. The starting point is not someplace else. It's not later. It's not when my bank account reaches a certain number. It's not when I retire. It's not when my kids grow up and leave. Your current reality is the starting point for your life. This right here is the best version of yourself ever. Why? Because past and future versions don't exist. The only version of you that exists is right here. In this current reality as it is. So take this reality as your starting point. Whatever craziness, Chaos, Mess or not is going on in your life, This is your starting point. And you begin with radical honesty. No denial, No pretending, No fantasizing, No la la land as I like to call it. Just reality. In other words, Calling a thing a thing. If you're not happy with your partner, Then you're not happy with your partner. If your career is not what you want, Then that's your truth in this moment. That's your starting point. Most of us run away from ourselves. We run away from our truth. We take the bullet train to La La Land. Oh, But it's going to be better when. But only if he behaves this way, She behaves this way, They change, I change, Only then will I fill in the blank. This is a hard way to be my friends because it's not reality. It's not what is. So your current reality is the starting point of your life, Right here, Right now. This is the fullest version of myself, Yourself, Ourselves, Ever. So begin right here. Take inventory of your life just as it is. And then start looking at where you can make small steps to create momentum. Often it's the tiny consistent actions that help us make changes and eventually transform, Even more so than the dramatic breakthroughs. Sure, Sometimes it does require a dramatic breakthrough, Like, You know, I've shared before, I did divorce. I did retire my scalpel a few years ago. Sometimes those dramatic breakthroughs are necessary, But they're a step in the continuum of the small steps, And it's the small steps that create momentum to eventually sometimes lead to some dramatic breakthrough. But start here, My friends. Start now. Stop comparing yourself to somebody else. Comparing, Oh, I'm just only now beginning at such and such age, And this other person is already far along their path. Who cares? The only thing comparison does is hurt yourself. And often it creates a sense of paralysis, A disconnection from our own path. So stop comparing. How do you stop comparing? By noticing that you're comparing. The ABCs of soul surgery. A is awareness. The first step is always awareness. That's the first intervention. If you're someone who's constantly comparing, You need to begin to become aware that you're constantly comparing. If you're someone who's always judging or always creates expectations, The first step is A for awareness. The second step is B for breath. You return to the breath to calm your nervous system to regulate so that you can make your next step, Your next decision from a space of calm and clarity not from a space of overwhelming anxiety because those will be different decisions that you make That's the B of the ABCs of soul surgery. Is compassionate contemplation, Bringing compassion to yourself. For feeling upset or for not feeling good. Or for feeling like you're putting yourself down when you compare. You bring that compassion first, And then you dive into the contemplation, The self-inquiry. What is going on here? What is actually happening here? Where did I learn to compare myself to everyone else? Where did I learn to feed into my unworthiness, My sense of not enoughness? ABCs of Soul Surgery Awareness Breath Compassionate Contemplation I came up with these One day after remembering the ABCs of trauma surgery, I worked as a trauma surgeon for many years in my training and even afterwards. And when we work in the emergency department, Saving lives, We have the ABCs of trauma, Airway, Breathing, Circulation. Those are the three things that you have to do immediately to save a life. Every healthcare professional knows that. So one day I was thinking, Wait a minute, We need some ABCs of soul surgery because we need something to hold on to, Some tool that we can lean into when we are having that moment of overwhelm. And that's how I came up with ABCs of Soul Surgery. Even if you just take the A and just begin practicing with the A for awareness, It will be a game changer for you, My friend. And in this topic of starting where you are. I invite you to work with what you have. Work with what you have. Don't begin comparing yourself. Oh, But she has more time. Oh, But he has more money. Oh, But they are able to go on a retreat and do this spiritual work in a retreat space. That may be true for other people, But that's not your reality. So stop comparing and work with what you have. Work with the time that you have available to you. Work with the energy that you have. The financial means that you have, And the skills that you have, And get creative about it. This is called living in current reality, Rather than in pretend world, La La Land. And when you begin to sit in more stillness and silence, You'll start hearing that quiet inner voice. And usually it's closer than you think. But the fears and the noise and the chaotic mind and the ego often drown out this inner voice. But it's in those silent spaces that you find your truth. And it takes courage to begin. To begin not just once, But to begin again and again and again. Because remember, My friends, This journey is a journey of forgetting and remembering and forgetting and remembering. So it's not a one-shot deal. It's not a linear path. If I do these 10 steps, I'm going to get there. One of my favorite sayings is, There is no there, There. Life is only, But only always, Right here. It's not there. There is no there there. Life is just right here. All the time. It's a journey of nows. Now plus now plus now plus now. There is no there, There my friends. We're alive until we're not. We are breathing until we're no longer breathing. That's this life. So it takes courage to begin again and again. And it takes compassion to remind ourselves. Oh, I forgot. I went into that autopilot again. I totally forgot. And then we remember. The moment we remember, We're back here in presence. And then we forget again and we go into our conditioned habits and we remember oh gosh I was doing that thing that I always do I was judging this person for how they were behaving, The moment you notice, That's the awareness, The A for awareness, You're back in presence. The moment you're creating stories, You're not in presence. You're in your mind. You're disembodied. There's a love stream recording if you'd like to check it out about creating stories and the stories we tell ourselves. So if you're not quite sure what I mean by creating stories, Follow my page, Check out my recordings, And you'll see there's one dedicated just to analyzing and understanding. The stories that we create in our minds. That are not reality. So the more we can live in presence, The more of a meaningful life we're building. The more deeply we engage in our lives. And we get to choose presence over perfection. And that's why we want to start where we are. Just here. Just this. So, My friends. I have a question for you to contemplate, Or maybe you want to write it down and journal about it later. What would change in your life if you stopped waiting to become someone else before beginning? Before beginning to live your life fully and completely. What would change in your life if you were to actually start where you are? Maybe some relationships would change? Maybe you would do things differently in your career path. Maybe you would use your finances differently. What would change in your life if you were to meet yourself in truth, In this reality, And simply begin from this vantage point? When I entertained this question a few years ago. What I realized is I needed to put down the scalpel. So that was a lot that changed. I released this identity that I had of surgeon, Business owner. That I've had. For nearly 25 years plus for the rest of my life because when I was eight years old is when I decided I was going to be a surgeon. So my whole life I was building towards working as a surgeon and then I became a surgeon and worked as a surgeon for almost 25 years. And then when I started asking these questions, What do I want? What do I truly want? Now. Not when I was eight years old and said I was going to be a surgeon, But now. What do I want? And I realized I had to put down the scalpel. I didn't know the soul surgeon was going to evolve. I had no idea. I hadn't planned anything, I just closed my practice, Did a little farewell retirement party, Told my patients I was leaving, They cried. Chase me on social media looking for me. Where are you? Are you working anywhere else? No, I told them. They said, Well, We still miss you. We want to talk to you. And that's how Soul Surgery evolved because they were looking to be in that space of the transformational mentoring and the coaching. So that's how Soul Surgeon was born. And I had been thinking about coming on Insight Timer on this side of the screen for many years. And finally, The stars aligned and I realized, Yeah, This is my people. This is my platform. This is where I want to share my life experience. Because as the Buddha told us, Speak from your direct experience. Anything and everything that I share is my lived experience. It's not something I read in a book and thought was a good idea to tell you guys about. So it's important to discern Am I simply talking the talk or am I walking the walk? So you get to look at that for yourself in your own life. Where in my life am I just blah blah blah talking the talk? And where am I actually walking the walk? Creating intention and giving that intention my attention. Because my friends. Life passes us by whether we want to or not. This is the nature of this life. Time only moves in one direction. Forward. There's a forward flow. This is a forward flowing life stream. So ask yourself. How much love. Do I want to create in my life? How much love am I holding? How much love am I allowing in to receive? How much love is flowing in and out of me. And is that important for me in my life? Am I living with purpose? With meaning? So you get to ask yourself these deeper questions. What creates my life to be meaningful and purposeful? What do I need? And more than what do I need, What do I want? What do I want to create? That is of importance to me. So these are some questions that you can walk with today or over the coming days until we meet again next week. As Mary Oliver, The poet, Says, What will you do with your one wild and precious life? This is it, My friends. No dress rehearsal. This is it. Very happy to meet all of you here over and over again. And that's what it's about, My friends. It's about showing up, Remember? Forgetting and remembering and forgetting and remembering. It's okay if you disappear for a little while because that's just kind of the vibe and that's what happens in your life. But the moment you wake up and you remember, Oh, Wait a minute. This thing is good for me. I do want to dive more deeply into what's going on here. For yourself. Then you show up again. And don't beat yourself up for forgetting. Practice self-compassion. Oh, There's a recording on self-compassion also, So if you'd like to listen to that one, You can just go into my page and find that one. And before we do our closing poem, A little meditation, I'll post the option to offer Dana. Dana is donation. I call it green love, Green energy. If you feel a generous heart in this moment to offer green love, Green energy, Then do so. It goes directly to the teacher, To myself, And I will receive it with deep gratitude. The donations help us, The teachers, To have the means to continue giving this time outside to all of you. So if you feel inspired, You are invited to offer. Donna, If you're unable to in this moment, That's okay, Too. That's okay, Too. And so let's read our closing poem from Rumi, The 13th century poet. This is one of my favorite poems. I have it recorded online. My page as well, So if you love it you can go and listen to it. The title is The Breeze at Dawn. The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you. Don't go back to sleep. You must ask for what you really want. Don't go back to sleep. People are going back and forth across the door sill, Where the two worlds touch. The doors round and open. Don't go back to sleep. And let me share the merit that whatever benefit might have come to us today from listening, Reflecting, Engaging with each other, May it be of benefit not only for ourselves but for everyone we encounter and may it aid in the healing and transformation of our world. Aum. Shanti. Shanti. Shanti. Peace in your mind. Peace in your heart. Peace in our world. Thank you, My friends. Thank you for your time, For your presence. For your loving hearts. I appreciate your showing up for yourself and for all of us, Soul Family, Over and over again. I'll see you here next time. Thank you for all the little hearts. Okay, My friends, Sending you so much love on your way. And remember what Rumi said, Don't go back to sleep. Bye for now.

Reviews

Dra. Sabe que soy su fan #1.
I love your clear, heartfelt loving conversations and continued guidance, this is another good one for self acceptance to continue in my personal growth. Thank you for being here.