Anxiety, Meditation & Happiness, Rituals & Retreats (Live Q & A From 11/5/20)

Topics discussed include: Anxiety about things that are out of our control, how meditation plays a role in our happiness as well as rituals and the benefits of retreats. Recorded live on November 5th 2020.

Transcript

Welcome to Life, Lessons and Laughter with your host, Glenn Ambrose. Hey everybody, Welcome to Ask Glenn Anything. That's Glenn. Hey Glenn. I'll put our names up for a second. Hey everybody. Glenn, How are you tonight? Awesome, How are you? I almost said I'm good. I'm good. You almost said what? I almost said a word that didn't make sense. It starts with similar, Anyway moving on. I'm good. I'm good. I'm good. I'm good. How are you? We already went through this. I know, But we're going to do it a couple more times. Do you ever have the. . . Do you ever have the. . . Well, Maybe not because you're not an actor. Do you know the actor's dream where they're about to go on stage for a show and they've never rehearsed the show and they have no idea what they're going to do but somebody is backstage going, Hey, You're on? Yeah, I have heard of that. Yeah. Yeah. I think it's called The Actor's Nightmare. I have at 8 o'clock tonight, We are doing a version of a play that's done every year at the beach here for Guy Fawkes Day because it's November 5th right now. Remember the 5th of November? But it's usually a play with 50 people and everybody has lines and they rehearse it for a couple of days and all of that stuff and there's music and whatever. None of that has happened, But it's happening tonight virtually. There you go. I got an email like an hour ago that has like 12 scripts for each individual person, But I have no idea in what order anybody's doing anything. And there's no time between now and then to discuss it. Anyway, Yeah, If you're in Westerly, Watch that later. It should be a disaster. It'll be interesting. It will be an example. This is where you thrive though, Ben. You thrive where there's things that are all out of whack and they're not going smoothly and you just stay calm and weave them all together and it comes out wonderful. I do love chaos. Yeah. I do love chaos. Hi Faith. Faith in the hissy. Hi Faith. So if you have questions, We are here to ask Glenn anything. If you have questions, Type them in the comments and Glenn will answer it live. If you don't feel comfortable typing a public comment, Ask him anyway. Send an email over to Glenn at GlennAmbrose. Com and we will ask your question discreetly. So yeah, Basically it's that. Glenn, What has been coming up? So I know because I had life coaching with you this week, I know that it is a life coaching week for you. So my question is, How has people's anxiety been? I mean, I know not all your clients are in the United States, But how have people wanted to talk to you a lot in their sessions about the election and the anxiety and stuff around what's happening right now? Because I feel like on both sides, Just the tension is great and it's election month here in the United States. Yeah, Election month. You know, I mean, Of course, It came up in conversation, But it's not as big of an issue as you might think. And I think it's because, You know, Like you said, You're talking about my clients and which is true that, You know, They've been working on themselves. Like, So, You know, When you work on yourself and you, You know, The principles that I teach are big principles and they're true principles. And I always say that, You know, Spirituality works every time, All the time in every situation, Always, Period. So if you're working on your personal life or you're working on your job or you're working on a relationship or the way you process information or the way you're looking at things, It's all to find a more peaceful, Grounded way of interacting with life in general. So, You know, So then all of a sudden we're functioning better. So and, You know, I think collectively, Believe it or not, I know that it's not necessarily being seen too much yet, But I'm starting to feel a shift where people are kind of tired of living in sheer fear and arguing all the time. And I know that we're going to be seeing arguing for quite a while still, But the people who are more grounded and who have an opportunity to enter into a different way of interacting with life, Most of them are embracing it more now. So and it's not that they don't have concern. It's not that they're not keeping their eyes open on it, You know, And some are and some aren't, Depending on what their belief systems are. But it's just, You know, People as a general rule, My clients are handling it really, Really well. I mean, Like, I'm not that I had an expectation, But, You know, You just asked me some kind of reviewing my week and I'm looking for something. I'm looking for an emotional fire I had to put out. And there aren't any. I didn't have to put out any emotional fires because these people are implementing spiritual principles in their lives and they know enough to distance themselves from things to gain perspective. You know, So and I, You know, And it hasn't been always easy for them. Some of them have, You know, Gone through difficult periods over the last, Let's say, Four years just to generalize and, You know, Especially the last year. So it's not that they've never had any difficult times or the anxiety has never come up with any of them. Sometimes it does, But they work through it and then they're better off because of it. You know, They're more so by the time where we are now, Most of my clients are just like, You know, We might talk about it a little bit just to fine tune some things, But they understand the principles about how to how their pieces comes from within and it's primary. You know, And like, This was, I forgot where I heard this, It might have been a Krishna Das thing that I was watching, But it was, It was this story about the Dalai Lama, And somebody asked the Dalai Lama, You know, Like, If, If, How he could still be happy after everything that he's experienced in his life. And he kind of recapped his life and was like, Oh, I was, You know, Taken from my family at a very young age and forced to live this strict lifestyle. And of course his family was still there, But it was still difficult. And then at a young age, Became a leader of a nation. And then he was exiled from that nation and he's been living in exile for, You know, 60 years or whatever. And he's seen all the atrocities that have happened to his people and all this stuff and China, You know, China has basically taken everything from him and his people, You know, And he said, Should I let them take my happiness too? And I thought that was such a beautiful story because it really makes it clear that our happiness is not attached to our external circumstances. And the Dalai Lama has, Has the experience, The life experience to speak from experience on that topic. I mean, I think I do too, But my experiences don't really match up to the Dalai Lama's, You know, 20 years of alcoholism has a lot of its own dysfunction, But he's got me beat on a dysfunction level. So like he's went through a more difficult experience than I and dealt with more pressures than I, And he still says it, You know, But that's why we look at him and go, Yeah, Man, That's the type of person I would like to be like. It's because he understands happiness is separate from his circumstances. So we can be at peace. We can be happy. We can become and still care. I mean, The Dalai Lama, You know, Won the Nobel Peace Prize. Have anybody that's commenting on Facebook won the Nobel Peace Prize? No. Okay. So maybe I don't know. I don't know what Nobel Peace Prize. I'm going to go out on a limb and say no. So like, So he has taken more action and implement affected the world in a positive, Peaceful way more than pretty much anybody that's running around complaining. So, And yet he's able to stay peaceful and happy internally and take action because they are separate, You know, And that is I think that that's one of the biggest learning curves that we're in right now. And hopefully we'll get there. But he's such a beautiful example of that. And I'm seeing my clients do that as well. You know, It's not that they don't care. It's not that they're not taking action. It's just that they're not going to sacrifice their sovereign peace and happiness in exchange for trying to make some sort of actions. It's not one or the other, You know? Yeah. Monica says, Yeah, There's a fine line between anxiety and excitement regarding the election. And Kate says in regards to your clients handling it well, Glenn, That's because you rock. Very nice. And Natalie says exactly well said. Monica has a question. She said, I have heard meditation is the space between thoughts. Glenn, Do you think meditation is a primary, Is the primary way for happiness? Or can you be happy without meditation? Believe it or not, That's a tougher question than people might think. The short answer is I think you need it. I think you need it. Like I just don't understand. But I'm talking meditation. I'm not talking what people think meditation is. People think meditation is sitting on a pillow with the absence of thought for long periods of time. Do you need to do that in order to find happiness or peace within? No, You do not. But do you need to be able to still yourself internally and not attached to passing thoughts? Yes. And that can look like petting your dog or cat. That can look like walking in nature. That can look like painting or drawing. That can look like singing or listening to music. You know, It can look like all kinds of things. Meditation is not sitting still with the absence of thoughts. That's not what it is. You know, So most times when I meditate, Most times I have numerous thoughts going through. And sometimes I still even attach to them. You know, Let's be honest, Fairly regularly I still attach to them. I'm not that great of a meditator, To be honest with you. I have my moments. I've had some pretty profound experiences in meditation. But as a general rule, I've gone three, Four months easily without barely having moments of peace at all in meditation. During my meditation periods, My mind was racing the whole time. But I got stillness other times, You know, Like maybe just a conscious breath. And breathing out. There. That was just a meditation. Because I felt a stillness from within. And there's no time in the spiritual realm. So it doesn't have to be four hours or ten minutes. It can be literally half a second, Three seconds. It's like it's OK because we're breaking a momentum and regaining control over our mind. That's the big thing. There's a momentum that builds when you don't stop your mind. And most of it's been going for years. And we're like, Please stop. And it's like, What? You know, There's no way. I don't even know what you're talking about. Stop. You know, Like, So if you just stop it. And just be at peace for a moment, Then it starts building momentum, Then you stop it, Then it then you stop it. And it gets into that habit and understands that sometimes it stops and you're more in control of it. That way it gets easier and easier to drop into that space of meditation. And if you really do get overwhelmed, You know, I've been I was talking I might have talked about this in the show I did last night, But like there was times when I've gotten triggered and when I've gotten triggered when I was younger before I woke up, It was dangerous. Like God knows what was going to happen. And I got really. So like I got triggered and I had been meditating and I went, Whoa, Wait a minute, Like just stop. And I just completely decompressed in like two seconds. And I was like, What just happened? I couldn't believe that I was able to do it. And that was because I was meditating on a regular basis, You know? So, Yeah, I don't you know, I think that there are as many paths as there are people. So there's not one right way to do anything. But so there's not one, But the way this plays out to answer the question is the way there's not one right way for everyone is in how you meditate. It's not if you meditate because meditation is just experiencing peace, Experiencing stillness. And yeah, You got to do that. Like how are you supposed to experience peace and happiness if you're not peaceful and happy? Like if you're not even in touch with that peaceful, Happy part of you. Yeah, You have to get in touch with peace to be peaceful. And you know, And meditation is just a term that they use to describe many pathways to achieve that. Yeah. Yeah. So we're gonna take that to the bank. She said, Yeah, Science backs meditation and happiness. Thanks for answering that question. Oh, Science does, Religion does. Absolutely every single, Everything backs meditation. Everything. You know, Every religion has their form of it. Every science backs it. It's indisputable. I love it. I think that, You know, And I think like what you were saying. So I've heard a lot of people talk about how like, You know, Going to the gym is their meditation, Like because they go by themselves and they like they're focused and they're in the zone. And like that's how they clear their mind, You know, Or running, Stuff like that. Do you think that like, Do you think you can be actively doing something while clearing your mind? Yeah, Absolutely. I mean, I went to a Buddhist, I went to the Buddhist, The Providence Zen Center in Rhode Island up in Cumberland years ago. And I had heard of it before, But it was the first time I was exposed to walking meditations, You know. So, I mean, We did a seated meditation for a period of time and then we got, You know, I was in a room with like, Like 40 monks. It was awesome. You want to talk about dropping into a meditation? This was like 15 years ago. Like I was barely, I didn't know what I was doing with meditation and I was not good at it. You know, Everybody says I can't meditate because I can't meditate because I can't stop my mind. And it's like, Yeah, That's why you have to meditate. It's not a reason not to. Nobody stops your mind. I think I met, I know like two people that I've ever even heard of that just went to meditate and they're just like, Oh yeah, I just sat down and it was really easy for me. I just stopped my mind. I was like, Seriously? I still can't do that. Like, You know, So, So like I went into this room with all these monks and it was like, Damn, I just dropped right in because they were all holding space and it was just boom. It was so easy to drop in. But yeah, I got, And then after like 45 minutes, I couldn't meditate for 10. I was sitting there for 45 minutes. I didn't even know what happened. And we got up and we started walking around and doing a walking meditation for a while. And I was like, You know, It took me a few minutes to drop back into it. But yeah, You can do it. You can do it. I've experienced meditation with running. That's one of the reasons people who love running. It's one of the reasons why they love it because it's tremendously a form of meditation for them. They can, You know, They drop right in very much. And I've experienced that a little bit. I've experienced it playing sports. I've experienced it working out in a lot of ways. So yeah, You can definitely do it actively. Kate, Before you got to it, So there's a walking meditation. Right. So, So I have something. Yeah. So I wanted to ask everybody listening about a possible retreat in the DR. Now everybody's been cooped up here for a while. Ironically, I was just going to say that what we were just talking about reminded me of a podcast that's coming out. I think the next podcast that's coming out of life lessons and laughter is all about spiritual rejuvenation and talking about all of the things that you did while you were in the Dominican Republic. Right. So yeah, I experienced it. It's true. I experienced it in a lot of different ways there. But yeah, You know, I'm going back to the Dominican soon and, You know, I've got a friend that has this beautiful hotel right on the beach, And she's like, Let's get a retreat going, You know, So it's like, All right, So we're exploring, We're looking at maybe the second week of February, Like February 6 through like the 13th or something. And yeah, This place is beautiful. It's got a spine at a restaurant. It's right on cabaret a beach with all the rest of cabaret beach going in the opposite direction. And then in the other direction, It's more like undeveloped will say there's not all the businesses that way. So, And you can just walk forever and it's just plus they have kite surfing there and regular surfing. I mean, This is like, And I'm just talking about at the hotel, Like they have all these, You know, The spa and everything all there. Plus everything that's around there. So it's, Yeah, It's a beautiful area. So we're exploring. So I just figured I'd mention it and say, Hey, If you're interested in finding out more, Or if you have any recommendations, Input, Would like to discuss it, Whatever, Shoot me an email. You know, So I can get you in the loop and who knows, You know, Somebody might have a good idea that I can implement or, Or I might, You know, If I, If I'm getting input and all of a sudden I find out that the following week or two weeks later or earlier works better, Maybe we can accommodate. So, So, Yeah, Just want to throw that out there and give me your feedback, Your input, You know, Where we're looking. What's the weather like? It's flipping beautiful. It's like, Yeah, It's, Yeah, I mean, I'm, I haven't been there in February from what I've heard, That's kind of like their, Their tourist season. So it's, You know, It's, It's right, It's right there for us. So it's, I think if I, From what I've heard, I believe this, It's one of the best times before there because some of the other places that people vacation start getting a little chillier in the United States and there it's far enough where it's, It's still really beautiful weather. It's far enough south near the equator. So yeah, I'm pretty sure it's absolutely phenomenal. There's also the dry season. So it's beautiful weather. I just, I just looked it up. I know nothing about the Dominican Republic except for what I've seen through this screen and baseball. The dry, That makes sense because the rainy season was supposed to be when I was there, Which it was pretty dry when I, By the time I left the rain had picked up fortunately a little bit, But even then, I mean, It wasn't bad. I live in Florida and the rainy season here is way worse than what I experienced there. Like I said, Although it was, It was light this year. Monica says that she likes the idea about the retreat as well. So that, So both of those things now brought me to my next thing because we talked about meditation being like, You know, You can have active meditation. And, Oh, Sarah says Sarah's here. She says hi friend, Sorry I'm so late. Sarah, How dare you? I can, I saw this visual of her sliding in sideways. Just like, I'm here. Sarah has not adapted to the time change from last week. Anyway, Anyway, So here's my, Here's my question. And it's about rituals. Like ceremonial rituals, Right? The first one that comes to mind is, Well, A lot of it has to do with like stuff about like retreats and, You know, Like these things that are, Are supposed to be like big life-changing moments or moments of clarity. And fire walking is something that comes to my mind. Like how important or not, Not necessarily like important, Like, You know, Whether or not you need them, But how, How big of a deal are they? Like how, How much can something like a sacred fire walk or some, Some ritual like this, How powerful could that be? Like, What are your thoughts on those? I don't think we've ever really talked at length about them. No, And that's a, It's a good question. It's, I think they're, I think they're dramatically powerful. You know, In a lot of situations, Especially like how they're, I don't know, It's, There's two ways to look at this. Like sometimes you can go someplace and get all jacked up on energy and, And, And, You know, Having sunshine blown up your ass and going, You can do anything. You can do anything you can do. That doesn't last. It doesn't last, Man. I'm sorry, Tony Robbins. It doesn't last. And you know, And I'm not saying that it can't last, But it doesn't last, You know, And I shouldn't have pointed out Tony Robbins. He does a lot of good stuff and he has a lot of good information and there's a lot of, And there's a lot of good, Like there's a lot of people that go to Tony Robbins that their lives have changed forever. But those people follow through. There's more people that go to Tony Robbins and their life has not changed forever. And I will freaking say it. And I'm not saying it's Tony Robbins fault. I'm saying that it's a ton of hoopla. They get all jacked up and then they go home and they don't follow through. That's their own fault. And that's why it doesn't stick. So there is, You know, If I'm going to talk about this subject, I'm going to talk about all of it. So just, You know, Tony, The only reason I'm talking about Tony Robbins is he's very obviously feeding energy and jacking you up physically and getting your adrenaline going through the roof. That can also happen in any retreat or any event. It can happen at a retreat with mine. It's just not going to look the same. You're going to walk away feeling better. I'm not going to get you jumping up and down on a freaking, You know, Whatever those things are. Trampoline. So I mean, He literally has people do that. So, You know, I'm not going to do it physically like that. But of course you can leave a retreat that doesn't have any of that type of stuff. You can walk out of a retreat really uplifted and really energetic and really planning to move forward and then not follow through and go right back. So it doesn't matter if it's energetic or spiritual or informational, Whatever. If you don't follow through when you get back, Then things will eventually get back to where they were before. So that's the, I just want to get that kind of like kind of negative, I guess, For lack of a better term, Side of it out of the way so we can talk about the real answer, Which is the positive end of it. And the positive end of it, I mean, It's very, Very powerful because if it's done correctly, The physical aspect can actually work in your favor. That's why no matter where you go, If you do something physical, It's going to last longer than if you don't. And that's on a good note, That's why Tony Robbins does it because he knows this, Right? So the reason, That's why he has firewalks with them. That's why he teaches people to jump up and down and raise the vibration. So we are physical beings and I did a podcast on this a while ago, There's three things that we need to do to change our vibration. It's intellectual, Conceptual and physical. We have to understand things intellectually, We have to understand things conceptually, And then we have to implement them into our lives physically. So the thing about retreats and experiences is that it's a physical action that you take. So you're doing something physical to really implement the lesson or the lessons or the new perception and the new teaching that you're implementing. You're actually doing something physical to represent that and make it part of your physical vibration. And that's why it's so powerful. And I've done firewalks. I've done. . . The arrow thing? Yeah, I broke an arrow with my throat. When you're standing up against a wall with an arrow in the soft part of your throat and every ounce of your brain, Your heart and your body is telling you to step backwards and you're stepping forward. And it's just like one step. There's not a lot. . . Like you can't dilly-dally. You either do it or you don't. So when you do it and that arrow snaps and breaks and you're okay, It's really profound because you literally physically walked through fear. And it's the same thing with the firewalks that I've done. So this stuff is very profound. And just going somewhere, Getting yourself disconnected out of your normal life and put into a different environment. And the more foreign, The better. I mean, You don't speak the language and you actually have to think about how to order dinner. Although, Let's be honest, I mean, It's a tourist hotel, So they're going to speak English. But other than that, The locals don't. I mean, A lot of them don't. A lot of them do. So when you're in that foreign environment and you're forced to be in the present moment and you're living in a way that's not just unconscious, You know, It's nothing. You have to pay attention to what you're doing all the time and it forces you into that present moment. So when you add some specific teachings to that and, You know, It's yeah, I mean, I find it dramatically profound and quite possibly life-altering. A lot of my biggest leaps in my spiritual path have been because of events that I've gone to. So, Yeah, I'm a big believer in them. Monica asked, What is an example of following through on one of those? Well, It's just, You know, You've got to live with what you learn. So like an example would be like we talked about the fire walk and the arrow break. So like those are examples of walking through fear, Right? So now, Like if you sit there and you go, Oh my God, I just walked through fear, You're empowered. And the whole point of that is to get to physically, Intellectually, Conceptually and physically really understand that fear doesn't have to hold you back. And when you leave there, You're empowered, Man. You're like, Oh my God, Like I can do anything now. I can feel it within me. This is amazing. So you walk out of there like that and then all of a sudden, You know, Like there's a situation in your life arises that you're scared of. You're like, Well, I've been trapped at this job forever and then somebody offered me an interview, But I'm kind of scared. If you don't go on that interview, You're going to end up right back where you were a year later or six months later or three months later, Whatever. Your life is not going to change. The change that you did is not going to stick if you don't follow through. So if the lesson, And life gives you these opportunities, This is how it works. First you learn a lesson and then life is going to give you opportunities to reinforce and live that lesson so you can really make it part of you. So when it comes, If you go, Nah, I don't want to do that, Then you just wasted your time at a retreat. And your money, You know. So if you want to change your life, If you want a different life, You have to live differently. And the retreats can give you the opportunity to understand it intellectually, Conceptually, Physically, And really make it part of you. But then you have to go reinforce it and make it part of your life in everyday life. Yeah. She said, Also, The opposite of mindful is mindless, And I'm working on that. Yeah. Well, It's that, Yeah, The opposite of conscious is unconscious. So it's true. It's true. That was horrible, Ben. I know. It was a good excuse to try to get a nap in. Yeah, Right. That's a power nap, Like two and a half seconds. Yeah. You might need to do some adjusting in your life and find some balance if your power naps consist of two and a half seconds. I need them. They refresh me. It's a pick-me-up. All right. Well, If you want, You might, You might, We should probably get going. You might have a project going on soon. Me? Yeah. Are we talking about what, Are we talking about something else or are we talking about what I talked about at the beginning? We're talking about what you talked about at the beginning. Oh, Yeah. No, It's going to be terrible. I mean, It's going to be great. It's going to be great, But it's, I have no idea what's happening. And neither does anyone else, Which is the fun part. It's going to be fun. Check it out on the Misquamikit Beach page in Westerly. And if you're not from Westerly, You're going to have no idea how to spell Misquamikit. I know. I was just going to say, Google it or something, Because there's not even a chance. M-I-S-Q-U-A-M-I-C-U-T. You shouldn't be able to spell that off the top of your head. I mean, I've been producing their stuff for like five years, So I should be able to, I guess, But I still look at it every time. Like, Did I get this right? I can spell Mississippi. You have to do it now. M-I-S-S-S-I-S-S-I-P-I. Huh? All right. See, See what I did there? Yeah. I see what you did. Brought in a little memory trick, A little anecdote, If you will. Oh, Man. Oh, Man. I'm going to end this with the Dominican Republic live Q&A video because I watched it. The song? The intro, Yeah. And all of you guys watching, Ben is just, There's an empty spot in the middle of Ben's heart. I have to wait like several more weeks for Glenn to move back to the Dominican Republic, And I haven't done a video, Like an opening video or a closing video for Ask Glenn Anything, Because like, You know, Then I'd have to pick a song and we'd have to like create a whole new thing, And I haven't done it yet. I didn't want to use the same one as Life Lessons in Laughter. The steel drums don't make any sense when he's in Florida. It's a whole, It's a mess, Honestly. It keeps me up at night. It keeps me up at night. This is what happens to a creative mind. The inner torchings. Okay, So if you have questions that you would like to ask for next week, Send them in to Glenn at GlennAmbrose. Com. We will start the show off next week with your questions. Maybe. And if you have any questions about Miss Squamik at beach, Write Ben Barber. What are we doing? The people on Insight Timer right now, Like this is kind of entertaining live. The people on Insight Timer right now are like, What is happening? These people lost their mind. Why is Glenn's co-host so nasally? All right. Yeah, So if you liked this episode, Check out all of the past episodes of Ask Glenn Anything and Life Lessons in Laughter. Over 200 episodes of Life Lessons in Laughter or something close to it. Coming to a theater near you. Yes, And by theater, We mean your phone or iPad or computer. And of course, You can get a hold of Glenn anywhere that you want, Wherever you're listening to this. All right. Thanks, Man. What else? That's it. We're done. Adios. Hasta luego. Hasta mañana. Not mañana. I'm busy mañana. Bye. Bye. If you enjoyed this episode, You can find all of Glenn's podcasts right here on Insight Timer. Please leave a comment or send a message to connect.

Reviews

How about a virtual retreat Glenn? I'd love to be part of that. No fancy hotels needed, just sufficient technology and excellent content that enables attendees to feel part of the experience You'd be great at this. Are you up for it?

Glenn❣️
Always a pleasure to hear the WISDOM you have to share❗️🙏🏻💕

Great talk guys! Thank you!