Choosing Your Battles - Weekly Energy Boost

Every battle is a spiritual one, and according to Kabbalists, the only enemy we need to defeat is within. This week, master your internal energy so you can elevate the reality around you. Original airdate: 12/13/21

Transcript

Good morning,

Everyone.

Good evening,

Good afternoon,

Wherever you are.

And welcome to this week's Weekly Energy Boost.

My name is Ellie Sheva,

And I'm here this lovely Monday morning with David.

And we are excited to talk to you.

It sounds funny to be excited about a topic like this.

But we are talking today about choosing your battles.

And today's topic is inspired by the fact that we are in the middle of the month of Capricorn,

Which can be a very heavy month.

It's a month in which I normally advise people to be light,

Because the rest of the world who doesn't have access to this wisdom is going to be heavy,

Stubborn,

Belligerent.

And some other Webster's Dictionary words to describe how people can be in the month of Capricorn.

It's one of the months on the Kabbalistic calendar that are considered to be the most challenging.

And we look at Kabbalistic astrology not as a way to predict the future,

But really how to measure our energy,

How to strategize the expense of our energy.

And this is one of those months in which it's better not to spend too much energy.

It's really a great time for reflection,

Strategizing,

Planning,

And doing internal work versus trying to fix the world.

And that's one of the reasons that this month's episodes are focused on the inner work versus the external work,

And dealing with opposition from others in a light way.

So the Weekly Energy Boost is a seven-day spiritual energy forecast.

We have been focusing this past year on monthly energy,

But of course the week's energy coincides beautifully.

We gain this wisdom and the tools that we share with our listeners through delving through the wisdom of Kabbalah.

David and I are both Kabbalah teachers,

As are the majority of the guests we bring on the show.

And the conversation really centers on how to best take advantage of the opportunities in the week,

How to best navigate the potential challenges in the coming week,

And of course those lessons end up not only being applicable for the coming seven days,

It's something you can use anytime,

Anywhere.

And I got a message last week from somebody.

She said that she started to listen.

Somebody called her to have a tough conversation,

That she needed to have a tough conversation with.

They got disconnected,

The call dropped.

She started listening to the episode and the person didn't call her back until the episode was almost over.

And the episode had exactly what she needed to hear in order to face the conversation,

To deal with it proactively.

And it was really positive.

And so that to me is a sign,

An example of how this wisdom,

Not only is it universal,

But it really is timed for exactly what we're going through.

And we can talk from personal experience,

But the truth is it really is a universal vibe out there that people are butting heads and up against opposition.

And we want to give our listeners the best tools to navigate that and not only to navigate it,

But to come out on top of it,

Not to have it own us or define us,

But really to own it.

People often ask,

How do I know I'm doing the work,

The spiritual work that I'm meant to do?

What's my northern star?

And there are probably many answers to this.

One answer is,

Are you seeing miracles every day?

Are you seeing things beyond the norm that are positive,

That are happening to you,

Almost not related?

It seems like it's not related to something you did.

If you're experiencing positive moments throughout your day that are unexpected,

And that's on a regular basis,

That's a sign that you're doing the right thing.

That's a sign that your consciousness is in the right place.

Our teacher,

Rob Berg,

Would always say,

It was a little facetious,

But he said,

You can't be my friend if you're not seeing miracles every day.

Meaning we are meant to live the life where there are positive things happening constantly.

Now,

What if I don't experience that?

What if I'm feeling stuck?

What if I'm feeling dry?

What if I'm feeling that my life is slow and sluggish,

Which this month can represent?

That's just indicative of a shift that needs to happen in the consciousness.

There's no other shift that needs to happen besides what's going on in your head.

The head,

The consciousness,

Which we in Kabbalah define consciousness as the energy you put out in the world through your thoughts,

Your words,

And your actions,

Which are all related.

Whatever you're thinking,

Eventually you're going to say.

Whatever you're saying,

You're eventually going to do.

That energy that comes out indicates positive consciousness,

Negative consciousness.

Positive consciousness is exactly what it sounds like.

It adds value.

It adds energy.

It inspires.

It elevates.

Negative consciousness does the opposite.

It sucks the energy.

It breaks down the molecules.

It creates negative sewage energy everywhere you go.

A sign that you have positive consciousness is again,

You see miracles.

You have blessings.

Blessings mean that good things happen and good things stay.

So not just something good happens and then it leaves you.

But you notice that there are things in your life that are very positive that stay for a long time,

If not forever.

Businesses you get involved in get better.

Friends you connect with,

Everything gets better.

Everywhere you go,

There are blessings.

You have the Midas touch.

It turns into gold.

The Midas touch means you have the right consciousness.

At least I've ever met people who no matter what they do,

And they could sound good,

But it's always like the trip at the finish line falls apart and it's a very Pisces thing.

They always have a good excuse and they know how to slither their way out of why it happened.

Excuses.

What's with the excuses?

Excuses don't mean anything.

It's either you created the miracle or you didn't.

This month I think it becomes very clear.

There's no ambiguity about where our consciousness is at because as Adi Sheva said,

It's one of the three months that the Zohar explains the force called the Shekhinah doesn't exist in the month.

What does that mean?

It means there's actually an aspect of the Creator that is because of the bread of shame,

Because of the shame,

The fact that souls need to earn miracles,

It says that since the beginning of time the Creator's light is kind of retracted,

It's restricted.

So we live in a world of darkness and our job is to reveal the light in this darkness,

Right?

Then we feel that we've earned that.

We don't feel shame around it.

It's like Kabbalah 1 in a nutshell.

But in order to make sure that we have a chance of winning the game,

There's an aspect of the Creator that does exist in this world that holds our hands,

So to speak,

That kind of protects us,

That gives us bumper lanes so we don't totally crash and burn.

This is called the Shekhinah.

It comes from the word Shukin which means to dwell.

It's the aspect of the Creator that dwells with us even though we didn't really do anything for it.

However,

The Zohar says that there are three months in the year where that energy doesn't exist so we're kind of exposed.

The spiritual ozone layer,

If you will,

Doesn't exist.

So we are exposed.

What does that mean?

You will see yourself.

The Vicodin is wearing off.

The Prozac is wearing off.

It is the master of metaphors.

Right now,

Whatever numbing agent,

The high is coming down,

Whatever we're using to kind of soften our own,

Protect us against our own negativity is disappearing.

That's why it's a tough.

That's the toughness is you're seeing the raw version of who we are.

So we can go into the months that don't have it.

We can also talk about actions we do that push that energy away as well.

But I think I wanted to start with that baseline which is this is why we're experiencing what we're experiencing this month because that energy isn't there and it behooves us to work harder to draw it.

Right.

And in simple and very practical terms,

As we go through this week and of course this month and this life,

When somebody does something or says something that triggers us,

It's especially important in this month and we could say this for every month but really we're focusing on this month because exactly what David said,

The bumper rails are off and so when we fall,

We fall harder or we feel it more because the numbing agent isn't there.

So when we are triggered,

We have to,

We don't have to,

We get to look at not what the problem is,

What triggered us.

Instead we look at what is it triggering and it's a funny thing because normally when you look at,

You know,

If you would examine your typical negative responses to other people,

You'd probably come up with a list of two or three go-to responses.

I get annoyed,

I get upset,

I get frustrated,

Whatever your two or three top words are and you would say,

Well,

Wait a second.

What triggers me?

What makes me upset,

Frustrated,

Angry?

And you would come up with,

You know,

Slow people,

Intolerance,

Injustice,

Insensitivity and let's say,

You know,

I'm having a one-on-one with everybody who's listening here.

I would ask you,

What's the problem and most people would say the injustice,

The insensitivity,

The slow people out there,

They're the problem.

It's important for us to delineate for our listeners this month that the problem is never outside of us.

It's actually the response,

The trigger is what attracts the triggers and I'm going to repeat that in different languages so that everybody who's listening gets it,

Downloads it,

Downloads it.

That the universe is structured so that I will uninstall those buttons and in order for me to uninstall them,

They have to be pushed.

So the universe will send me the people that make me upset and angry and frustrated.

Not so I will get upset,

Angry and frustrated,

Similar to what David was saying,

You know,

I can't help it or what do you want me to do?

That's a very Pisces response.

What else could I do except to get annoyed,

Irritated,

Frustrated or angry,

Right?

Aren't I a human being?

You are a human being.

But the purpose for which that spiritual earning that David was talking about a minute ago happens when we transcend our natural response,

When we go against our nature so that when that slow person or that intolerant person or that judgmental person comes to me to trigger me,

I may feel triggered for a moment,

But then my opportunity is to respond differently.

And when I no longer respond with the impatience or the anger or the frustration,

I won't need those people to trigger me anymore.

It's backwards.

It's not I'm going to move to a farm where only the animals can trigger me so that I don't have to be triggered.

You will be triggered anyway if those buttons,

If you haven't consciously transformed those responses.

So especially in this month where people can be provocative,

And I don't mean provocative,

Short skirts provocative,

I mean provoking us,

It'll seem like everybody out there is testing our patience.

It just wants to get us angry,

Just wants to see us at our worst.

The opposite.

There is an intense drive toward looking at what your stuff is and not allowing it to be the narrative anymore.

I'm not going to be a frustrated,

Angry,

Upset person anymore.

And I had a conversation with somebody last week where she was pointing out that someone that was very close to her really transformed.

And to me,

By the way,

That's one of the most inspiring things ever.

When you know someone who before used to be the angry,

Frustrated,

Judgmental person and suddenly what would have made them fly off the handle before,

They're calm,

They're reflective,

They're embracing what's going on.

That is really an inspiring moment.

So she was telling me,

You know,

How can I support them to do more of that?

That will be the norm and not the miracle moment in their lives.

And I think for all of us,

It's an important question to ask.

When I'm triggered and I don't respond in the usual way,

Right?

I focused my work not on strangling the other person or showing them how they're wrong or eliminating them from my life.

When I look inward and I say,

Well,

Wait a second,

How can I handle this differently?

That's actually the miracle.

When I've transformed my behavior or the other person transformed their behavior to celebrate that miracle as well.

But the point,

The reason I'm saying it is because the battle,

All of the battles that we feel we face in our lives are really within.

And that may mean,

As we spoke last week,

You might actually have to get a lawyer or call the police or all the other things that may happen.

But the first line of attack is me.

Why is this upsetting me?

Why is this?

Where is my opportunity to grow,

To elevate,

To transcend in this situation?

And then I'll deal with the physical circumstances.

But the first punch I throw has to be to me in my corner of the ring.

I need to figure out why this is in or even if I can't figure it out,

I need to ask the question,

Why is this in my movie?

How is this for me?

What is this coming to teach me or to help me grow into?

And then I can deal with the situation.

And I think that that's,

If that is not our go-to response this week,

We're making things more difficult than they need to be.

This is the week to make a bold move against a structure that you have,

A norm that you have,

That you're stuck in,

That is collecting dust and swampy,

Bacterial,

Infectious energy.

Things have to move.

Energy has to move.

Energy has to flow.

The most successful people.

.

.

Take a spiritual fiber supplement.

That's correct.

I like it.

That's good.

I give that a eight.

Thank you.

That was an eight.

Fiber plus magnesium plus a lot of water.

You got to let it easy exit.

Easy exit.

Let it go.

All right.

As easy as it comes in,

It needs to be able to come out.

Spiritual constipation is dangerous.

That's what it is.

That's what it is.

That's it.

By the way,

We need to change the title of the episode.

The colon is backed up.

This is the week of spiritual.

This is the month of spiritual constipation.

And that's what we're saying.

Like you have to,

Energy has to flow.

All right.

When are you happy?

When you're exercising.

Why?

Because blood's flowing.

Everything's flowing.

When things flow,

There's joy.

When things are stuck and you start ruminating and you start having like intrusive thoughts,

Hijacking you,

Everything starts to become paralyzing.

So what is it in your life that is stuck?

What is it that you're just waiting and waiting and waiting?

People are so afraid of failure.

People are so afraid of being judged.

People are so afraid of making a mistake.

At the end of the day,

Your end result is already determined.

How you get there,

Whether it's through pain and suffering or through miracles,

Depends on one thing.

Not if you make the right choice.

There's no such thing as the right choice.

It's are you going against the fears and the nature?

As long as you're going against your fears,

The light will guide you in the most direct,

Beautiful path to the end result,

Which is determined.

If you're avoiding your fears,

You will be pushed to the same end result eventually,

But it will be very painful.

It will hurt.

So your only free will is really just to break your nature.

This is the week to do it.

This is the week to just make that step.

It's okay if you fail.

In fact,

Failing brings more wisdom than succeeding.

Failing brings more of the light of wisdom than succeeding.

Succeeding actually is very negative.

Succeeding extinguishes the vessel.

It sounds very paradoxical.

So how can you be successful and keep the flame alive?

All right.

So let's say,

For example,

A person- By the way,

Just pause.

I think that this is one of the biggest struggles people have to keep the momentum and to keep the desire going when they've achieved what they want.

That question is very deep and is probably beyond the scope of this session today,

But if you really think about it,

When does the desire for something,

Which is the vessel,

Right?

So a desire equals a vessel,

And if there's no desire,

There's no vessel.

So when does the desire for something expand and when does it contract?

A desire not only contracts,

But practically disappears when you feed it what it wants.

For example,

If I'm hungry and I go to dinner,

The hunger equals the vessel of desire,

Right?

You hungry desire food.

Now let's say I eat food.

I no longer want food,

So I no longer have a vessel.

Everybody's so anxious to find love.

They want love.

They have desire for love.

They have a vessel for love.

All of a sudden someone loves them and the vessel,

The desire goes away and then problems start in the relationship.

So what you're asking is how do you receive something but still maintain the vessel?

It's a very deep question.

I'm a deep person.

I figured.

I figured.

So,

So this is the secret to this is always through what's called restriction.

Every time you let something go,

You actually receive,

Again,

This is too deep and everyone's going to be confused after I say it,

But we're going to just say it and then move on,

Which is as soon as you let something go,

You acquire what's called a new,

A circular vessel,

A new vessel.

And what that,

What is a circle?

A circle means something can flow infinitely and not get stuck.

A line has an end point.

So I'm hungry and then I'm not hungry.

That's a line.

A circle is just constantly flowing.

There's no beginning and there's no end.

When you restrict,

You shift from a spiritual vessel that is linear to one that is circular.

Finite to infinite.

Yeah.

And those of you who have taken Kabbalah for a long time,

I know you got a little bit of what we just said.

For those of you who are brand new,

You're like,

What the hell just happened?

Make it practical.

When you're very needy of something and very reactive,

You're probably operating from the linear vessel,

Which means that if you did get what you want in the needy state,

It would have a beginning and an end.

It would be chaos.

And you feel relief.

That's one of the,

I think one of the ways you know that you're operating from the linear place is you're tense,

You're stressed,

You're fighting,

And then you're relieved.

Right,

Right.

It's kind of,

And you're also saying things like,

If only I had that,

Everything would be okay.

Right.

That's a linear vessel.

And the circular vessel is,

I did want it,

But I let it go because I'm open to the time it needs to come,

When it needs to come,

How it needs to come,

Or if it needs to come.

So you're no longer attached,

But you're not ambivalent.

You're not just,

You still desire,

But you're not attached.

That's called a circular vessel.

So what happens is when you do receive,

It doesn't really change who you are.

Doesn't change your desire,

Doesn't change your appetite.

It just flows inside and then it elevates you.

So and if you probably see the greatest blessings in your life came to you when you were no longer needy of it.

And the area in your life that you probably have the most ups and downs and the most chaos,

Think about that area,

Right,

Where you like always have a problem.

It's probably the area where you have the most neediness or the most dependency or the most fear.

So you're operating from the linear vessel.

So your life is,

It's good and it's bad.

It's good,

Bad,

Good,

Bad,

Good,

Bad.

So that is- Struggle,

Relief.

Struggle,

Relief.

Struggle,

Relief.

Sure.

Yeah.

So,

I mean,

Drugs is kind of like,

You know,

There's a high-low,

High-low,

High-low.

It's a line,

It's a line,

It's a line.

And that is one world.

That is the world that the opponent wants us to live in,

Is the linear world.

And what's difficult about it is that there is a high.

If there were no highs,

We'd all abandon the linear world and run to the circular world.

But because there's just a little,

Just enough,

Just enough bribery happening that makes it worth it,

Right?

So people are addicted to the linear.

But there is,

The Kabbalah teaches about the circular.

It's very deep.

It's called the tree of life.

The Ten Loomis Emanations talks about it.

And there's the deeper Kabbalah talks about it.

But that's the preface.

I think what's most important about what David shared,

And he didn't even say it explicitly,

Is that all of the struggles that we experience outside of ourselves,

All of the opposition that we face,

All of the people that give us a hard time and make us wish we could off them,

Even if just to transfer them to a different city,

They're really,

It's really within our hands to conquer that struggle,

To conquer that opposition.

We don't need them.

We actually talked a little bit about that idea last week,

That many times when you need to confront someone about something,

Or someone needs to confront you,

And you're worried,

Oh my God,

What if they call me on my stuff,

Or they criticize me,

If we would do that internal work,

Right?

The reason that we're afraid in that situation is because we are attached to feeling safe,

Feeling good,

Being perfect.

Perhaps it's connected to our paycheck,

Or our social status.

There is some level of attachment.

What David was sharing before is that if we can win that battle with our need for things to be a certain way,

Or look a certain way,

Or feel a certain way,

That's half the work.

That's what's really going to transform the external experience of things in the best way.

It reminds me actually of something,

We were having a conversation,

And this is one of the.

.

.

It came up as a result of a lecture that we had heard by Michael Berg a few months ago,

And he was talking about how the only opportunity for growth is in the struggle.

There isn't an opportunity for growth when everything's okay,

And you're completely satiated,

And you have everything you want.

That's one of the reasons that even when,

Let's say,

We do achieve,

Or accomplish,

Or receive what we want,

Or somebody does agree,

Or admits that we're right,

Another challenge is going to pop up somewhere else because that's really the only way we can grow,

And the purpose is growth.

The purpose isn't peace and tranquility,

Although one of the benefits of being in that constant state of auditing,

Pushing the envelope,

Being proactive is that there is an inner peace.

When we're the ones who are challenging ourselves to grow,

That's where the inner peace is,

And it sounds counterintuitive because you think,

Well,

That's tiring.

Constantly trying to grow sounds really tiring,

But the truth is being open to every opportunity to grow actually allows.

.

.

Because David was saying before,

We want to make sure that things are flowing.

That is a way to make sure that energy is constantly flowing in our lives.

There is a peace and tranquility that comes.

It's not like a waterfall.

It's a steady babbling brook of energy that just flows,

And then there is no need for the conflict,

And the opposition,

And people to challenge you.

One thing I learned from David,

He walks around.

He'll walk through the office when he is there,

And he'll be like,

What's one thing you think I need to change?

This is maybe David from 1997,

But what's one thing you think I need to change?

Do you remember that?

I do remember that.

I think about it often because thinking,

First of all,

That we were all so very young then.

Imagine being a young person and being so open to feedback from others that you literally solicit.

You don't wait for the yearly review or the report card.

You're literally walking around asking people,

What do you think of me?

What can I do better?

How can I be a better person?

Well,

I saw a direct correlation between criticism,

Humiliation,

And rejection with immediate miraculous events occurring minutes later.

You became addicted to the- I became addicted to almost- To humiliation.

I remember one of my friends caught on.

They're like,

Wait a minute.

I'm not giving you any more criticism.

You're perfect,

David.

No,

I'm not giving you any more criticism.

Every time I give you criticism,

Some kind of miracle happens.

I'm on to you.

Well,

David may be an extreme Kabbalah Ninja Warrior,

Being willing to take on all of that inundation of criticism.

For the world.

Right,

For the world.

By the way,

We got to wrap this up in 30 seconds.

Our audience is getting too much content.

I have to police the content here.

We can let them have a desire and a vessel for next week's Energy Boost.

Let's leave our listeners with this.

Please.

If you want to diminish the amount of.

.

.

I'm going to talk very slowly.

Please.

No.

If you want to diminish the amount of opposition that you face,

And we came into this conversation saying,

We're going to talk about choosing our battles.

If you want to filter the battles that you experience in your life,

And I don't even mean one-on-one arguments over the price of milk or something like that.

I mean the struggles that we face,

The adversity,

The challenges,

The difficulties.

Be like David.

Be like 22-year-old David,

And really invite the opportunity to reflect on those things you can do better and differently.

It sounds.

.

.

I mean,

I feel part of me cringing because why would you want to do that?

That's one of the secrets.

Like David said,

He would experience.

.

.

It would be ego crushing at times,

But the degree of ego crushing was directly correlated to the amount of miracles he experienced.

Miracles is not just winning the lottery or being saved from a car crash.

Miracles is that constant state of flow of positive things happening,

And that's why learning to embrace the criticism,

The humiliation may be a little bit extreme,

But really being open to seeing where you can do better is part of the recipe for those miracles.

I think this week as we go into whatever potential potholes may be on the road,

Really looking for the opportunity to be called on your stuff and to make the struggle that you experience between you and your ego rather than you and other people.

David,

30 second last thought.

No,

That was good.

That was good.

That was marvelous.

Marvelous.

Okay.

On that note,

David really wants to wrap it up,

So we will give him that gift this week.

Wow.

We are wrapping up 2021 in the next coming episode,

So that's going to be interesting as well.

Wishing everybody a fabulous,

Peaceful,

Light-filled week through utilizing everything we talked about in the last 30 or so minutes.

Have a fabulous week,

And we'll see you next time on the Weekly Energy Boost.

Reviews

Perfect way to start my day, my week

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