Is This Feeding My Soul?

In this podcast, we explore the importance of exposing our souls to things that create peace and happiness in our lives. Otherwise, we end up drained and uninspired. (Please note: this is a lecture, not a guided meditation.)

Transcript

Welcome to the happiness podcast.

I'm Dr.

Robert Puff.

If we're listening to this podcast,

Then one question is probably going through our minds.

What do I need to do to be happy?

I think where a lot of people get confused about happiness and peacefulness is they think it's a state,

Something that you arrive at and you stay at for the rest of your lives.

Basically,

There are unhappy people and there are happy people and that's pretty much the way they are.

If they're happy,

Then they're happy no matter what.

If they're unhappy,

No matter what,

They're going to be unhappy.

Some people see happiness or unhappiness more as like a trait,

Say eye color or hair color.

Yeah,

You can make some changes and mostly if you're happy,

You're happy.

But like I said earlier,

Probably if you're listening to this podcast,

You do want to be happier.

You want to improve your life.

That's why we all are trying to learn about how to be happy.

One of the lessons that I've learned along the way about happiness is that happiness is something that we work at and we keep working at if we want to maintain that level of happiness and peace.

It isn't a state that we arrive at and that we stay at for the rest of our lives.

It's something that we achieve and we stay at the rest of our lives if we keep working at it.

It's very much like being in top physical shape.

We can get into excellent shape as long as we eat well,

We exercise and we make sure that we're doing things to improve our overall health.

And the really great thing about happiness,

Unlike physical health,

When we're physically healthy,

No matter how healthy we are,

As we get older,

Our bodies are going to slow down.

We may be in top physical shape,

But with time,

Our bodies are going to slow down.

This is not true with happiness.

We can keep improving our level of happiness until the day we die.

And if you're a regular listener to this podcast,

You know that there are a lot of things that we can do to improve our lives,

To make our lives go better and to find happiness in the here and now.

Well,

Today I want to talk about a special thing that we can do every day throughout the day.

A question we can ask ourselves that can be very helpful in navigating the course towards a happier life.

Because if I'm correct,

That happiness isn't something that we possess,

But something that we work at and get better at and achieve through regular and discipline action,

Then here's a question we can ask ourselves throughout the day as we're making decisions.

It's a really good question to consider when you decide how you're going to spend your time.

The question is,

Is this thing that I'm going to do going to feed my soul?

And I'd like to share an example of my own life that happened yesterday that really typified this in regards to finding happiness in the here and now.

I live in Southern California,

And if you've ever been to California,

You may have heard of the missions that we have along the coast.

They're beautiful.

Most of them are retired.

No missionaries live there anymore,

But they're beautiful places that all of us can visit and spend time at.

Well,

There's one called San Juan Capistrano mission,

Not far from my home.

You may have heard of it as the jewel of the missions.

It's a beautiful mission.

There are flowers,

A couple of koi ponds,

And it's just a very tranquil place for my heart to go to.

And I go there regularly to find peace and just to find quietude in the midst of Southern California busyness.

Well,

I spent an hour there yesterday,

And as I said,

This is one of the things I do that definitely feeds my soul.

When I'm there,

I'm just quiet.

I'm at peace strolling quietly through the corridors,

And I find that it's a very good way to feed my soul.

That evening,

I had planned to watch a show.

I'm not going to mention the name of it because I'm sure all of you know the name of it,

But it's a show I've never seen before.

It's a series that's out there,

A super popular series,

And I'd been asking people about it,

And one of the people that I do respect gave really,

Really high reviews about it,

So I thought I'd give it a shot.

Well,

That evening,

I did watch one episode,

And I thought,

Okay,

Wouldn't call this feeding my soul,

But I thought I'd give it another try because I had two episodes that I had rented,

And I tried the second one,

And it definitely did not feed my soul.

And I thought,

Well,

This may be popular for a lot of people,

But for me,

It isn't feeding my soul,

So I'm not going to watch any more of the series.

And for all of us,

We're different,

So I get that,

But I think we all know when something feeds our soul.

For you,

The mission in San Juan may be a boring place.

You may not like it at all,

But for me,

When I'm there and when I leave,

My heart gets so quiet and it's so peaceful when I'm there,

It definitely feeds my soul.

The show I watched later,

You may enjoy and find it really fun,

But for me,

It didn't.

It had a lot of dark images and a lot of dark messages that did not feed my soul,

So I decided I wouldn't be watching that again.

We have to decide what's best for our souls,

But the question each of us should ask throughout the day as we make decisions is,

Is this thing that I'm engaged in right now,

Particularly with my thoughts,

Feeding my soul?

I think where it can get a little confusing is our past and what's happened to us.

Like,

For example,

Let's say you were raised Catholic and you had some bad experiences being raised as a Catholic,

For you,

Visiting a mission may not be a very peaceful place to go to.

For me,

Who wasn't raised Catholic,

I don't have those negative experiences,

So for me,

I love the mission,

But we want to be a little careful not taking it too far.

For example,

I consider nature to be one of those places that really feeds our soul,

But maybe growing up you've had some experiences that were bad.

I remember one woman who I encouraged,

A client of mine,

To go to nature and she went when the flies were really bad and she had a bad experience.

She didn't like the flies in her face,

So she never went back again,

But what we mostly want to be doing throughout the day,

As much as we can,

Is ask ourselves,

Is this thing that I'm engaged with right now feeding my soul?

And if it isn't,

Could I find something that would feed my soul?

I mean,

Is the music that I'm listening to feeding my soul?

If not,

Could I listen to different types of music?

Is it the podcast or the television show or the movie that I'm watching right now feeding my soul?

If it isn't,

Could I perhaps find something that is feeding my soul?

And then when we do find these things that feed our soul,

We need to do them often and regularly and with time,

As much as we can,

If not most of the time,

Even when we're in a negative environment,

It's where our minds focus that matter.

So we may every day have to go to a hostile work environment where it's negative,

But do we participate in that or are we focused on things that are positive,

Things that are feeding our soul,

And we're around people that are having negative conversations?

Do we politely leave and go find other people who really don't participate in those negative conversations?

And on our way to work,

On the way back or whatever we're doing,

What are we doing to feed our souls?

And the more we feed our souls with positive,

Loving,

Kind things,

Guess what?

The happiness that we're looking for will come our way.

But if we stop or if we do things that aren't feeding our soul,

Then the negativity that is going to be there will find its way into our heart.

And that will be what our experience is all about.

So we have to be pretty diligent about this and say,

Okay,

I do want to find happiness.

I do want to be at peace.

The way I'm going to do that is by actively throughout the day saying,

Is this feeding my soul and finding things that do feed my soul,

That fill me up,

That make me feel good inside at peace,

Tranquil,

Trusting that all is going to be well no matter what.

When we do these things,

Then happiness is going to begin to grow in us because it's going to condition us to think about things that are positive,

That are loving,

That are kind.

And the more we think about things,

The more our hearts are shaped to be like those things that we're thinking about.

Our thoughts shape our hearts.

So if our heart is being fed positive because we are exposing ourselves to loving kindness,

To things that create peace in our lives,

Then guess what?

That's what we'll find.

Now I want to end this podcast with really two ways we can approach this.

And what I mean by that is if something isn't feeding my soul,

We can ask ourselves this question.

Okay,

Is it all right for me to do this every once in a while?

For example,

I do enjoy entertainment and most of the things that I watch on television or on movies is very,

Very positive.

You'd be surprised how many good things are out there that we can listen to and watch.

However,

Every once in a while,

I will go to those blockbuster movies and see them and it's okay for me.

They may have negative images that really aren't feeding my soul,

But because I do it so seldom,

It doesn't really have negative impacts in the long run.

It's like having desserts every once in a while.

Are desserts good for us?

No,

But having them once in a while may be okay.

However,

I have found for a lot of things in life,

Sometimes it's best to do more of the 12 step program.

And what I mean by that is just pure abstinence all the time,

Just staying away from it all the time.

For example,

If you know porn negatively affects you,

Then it might be better instead of saying,

I'm going to do it once in a while,

Just not to do it at all or whatever it may be,

Whatever images you have that are negatively impacting you.

Sometimes just saying,

I'm not going to do it at all is a lot easier than saying,

I'll just do it once in a while.

I mean,

After all,

Could a drug addict once in a while do drugs or could an alcoholic once in a while do alcohol?

No.

What works for them is pure abstinence,

Never to do it.

And I think sometimes in regards to something that doesn't feed our soul,

Pure abstinence is the best course in regards to how much do we expose ourselves to this negativity.

But at its core,

What is going to boil it down is to this,

Whatever we have been feeding our souls throughout our lives is impacting us.

It's going to have a lot of momentum to it.

So if we've been exposing ourselves to things that aren't feeding our soul,

Then we have to make changes.

And at first they're going to be subtle.

And at first they may be very challenging because it can seem boring.

It can seem just not as exciting as the things that we used to do that didn't feed our soul.

I mean,

Let's just use the example.

If we're used to watching scary horror movies all the time,

We may find watching nature documentaries boring.

That's really the one thing that can keep us from doing things that feed our soul.

I mean,

Think about this.

I really believe that almost everyone listening to this podcast has been exposed to the truth that organic fruits and vegetables are good for our bodies and deep fried foods or candy just isn't good for our bodies.

We all know that,

But why would we choose a chocolate cake over the salad?

Why?

Because it's more exciting.

It tastes good.

Our taste buds are just synthesized by having that experience.

It's like that.

Peace and happiness initially don't seem to excite us as much.

I remember once working with a woman who I encouraged for her to go watch the sunset just one time.

And for the life of her,

She just couldn't figure out why I kept asking her to just go watch the sunset.

It seems silly to her.

And yet,

If you are like me and watch sunsets,

You know why it's good for our soul to watch them.

Her life at the time I was working with her was truly awful.

I mean,

It was miserable,

But she was so addicted to the drama,

She just couldn't see any reason to go watch the sunset,

Even though her life was truly awful.

So in conclusion,

We need to do things throughout the day if we want to be happy,

That feed our soul,

That really add to our state of peace and happiness that we know after we do them,

Our hearts in a more peaceful,

More happy place,

Things that make us feel good,

Not things that wear us out and get us exhausted.

And they make us feel good at the time and afterwards so that they really do feed our souls.

And if we do this throughout the day,

What we will find is that that peace and happiness,

It may have been eluding us throughout our lives with time will become our natural state and we'll be so excited about this change that we will do things for the rest of our lives until the day we die that feed our soul.

Thank you for joining me on the happiness podcast.

If you are finding these episodes helpful,

I would love for you to share your experience with others.

The easiest way for new people to listen to this podcast is just refer them to www.

Happinesspodcast.

Org.

That's happinesspodcast.

Org.

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You'll find a Yelp link,

A Google Plus link,

A testimonial link,

Or perhaps even the site you're listening to this podcast on.

Often you can leave reviews there too.

The reviews are an awesome way to encourage people to start listening to the happiness podcast.

And until next time,

Accept what is love what is.

Reviews

Beautiful, useful, pragmatic

Simple sound advice! Thanks for an encouraging talk, peace and happiness need to be worked on every day! Focus on feeding my soul. 👍🙏❤️

Feeding my soul is truly worth a daily practice. Even if it's just looking for beauty in unexpected things or places. I truly appreciated this talk🙏

A timely reminder that it is really okay to feed my soul throughout the day. It truly does make me happy to be in nature, honour sunrises and sunsets and to step away from the screen. Thank you Dr Puff 🙏

Love this, thank you!

I like your flow of thoughts.
Does this feed my soul?
Thank you. 🌻

Your views on feeding your soul really resonate with me. Little over 25 years ago I started on my journey of awakening. One of the first things I noticed is the shows I was previously entertained by, I felt I’m comfortable with. I was feeling fear anger and sadness in situations that were not part of my own life. I decided to stop exposing myself to on screen trauma, and focus more on enhancing my joy, peace, awareness and tranquillity. That seems like a lifetime ago, and sometimes I do better at it than others, but I know one thing for certain, no matter how good, or how bad, the situations in my life may be, my soul is always more satisfied. Thank you for feeding my soul today. Namaste.

This is a question I will be contemplating regularly. Thank you for your calming presence- 🕊

Wonderful focused message inspired by a simple yet powerful question.

Grazie!! 🙌🏼🙏🏻✨

Sometimes I just listen to hear Dr. Robert puffs voice.

Beautiful! A podcast that I come back to regularly... a wonderful concept for finding deeper inner peace and pure happiness🙏

I will recognize things that feed my soul and indulge in them regularly to boost my happiness. Thank you for this lesson. I’ll share it with my love ones. 🙏🏾

Wonderfully uplifting. Thank you xx

Super message. One to place at the front of our daily thought. Thank you. Always enjoy your teaching.

Thank you for this great advice. If I feed my soul on the goodness of God, my thoughts will be peaceful and loving . If I obsess over the tragedies in the world, I will be Miserable. I am responsible for my negative moods or my wonderfully positive moods. I am not a victim of circumstance. I have a choice to feed my soul with things that build me up or things that tear me down. Thanks again and again Dr. Puff.

Another WONDERFUL Lesson❣️🙏🏻💕