Hello and welcome to Five Minutes in Nature with me Liz Scott up on Dartmoor as a mist descends.
It is grey all around and the greyness of the granite boulders in front of me just seem to be camouflaged by the greyness of the mist.
This is very typical Dartmoor weather,
It's renowned for the mists that rise so quickly on the moorland.
And today's reflection is all about the difference between learning something and remembering something.
And I guess it could be summed up by saying,
What I share with you is not about learning something new.
It's about remembering something true.
It's not about learning something new.
It's about remembering something true.
And all I can do is you about my experience because I spent years and years trying out different tools and techniques to be a better person.
I did this for many decades and then about 15 years ago I came across something that made a lot of sense to me,
Something called the inside out understanding and that completely shifted the way I saw myself and I turned up in life.
And for me,
The inside out understanding was me remembering something true rather than endlessly trying to learn things to make me a better person.
In this explanation,
Learning is about application.
It's about using your intellect to remember things and to put things into practice.
When you're trying to learn something,
It's like you're trying to change the way something is.
I remember,
For example,
I used to meditate and I used to do it religiously morning and evening for 20 minutes every day.
And it would become my thing that I did because I knew I needed to have less thought and thinking and stress on my mind.
And it became even a little bit stressful for me sometimes when I was meditating because I didn't know if I was doing it right.
It seemed to drag.
I used to peek out of the corner of my eye to see how long I had left for my meditation.
I was trying so hard to feel something different,
Trying to be a better person,
And yet it was hard,
Hard work.
And for me,
That was the equivalent of learning something,
Learning something and trying to be a better person.
And then when I came across the Inside Out Understanding,
Also known as the Three Principles,
And there's a course here on Insight Timer if you want to know more about the Three Principles,
An introduction But when I came across these three principles,
I began to see something that felt true,
Something pre-existing within me.
It was already built into my system.
I began to see that I was okay.
Now,
In the very early days,
I went to a group that was in a village very close to me,
And there was a group of us that reflected on what we understood about the inside-out understanding.
My husband knew nothing about it at the time.
What he knew is that when I came back from this group once a week.
.
.
I just seemed light and joyful and had nothing on my mind.
And he was more used to me being the person that was learning lots of tools and techniques and then trying to tell him about what I'd learned.
So when he said to me,
What are you doing with this group?
What are you learning?
And I said,
Well,
I don't really know.
I just know I feel better.
It became a bit of a standing joke,
Particularly in the years as they've gone by.
Because he couldn't understand what was happening to me and I didn't know,
I just knew that deep within me I was feeling something true and that true feeling had me align with the love and presence that was already in my life.
I didn't need to chase it,
I didn't need to try and get it.
So today is all about the difference between learning something new and remembering something true.
I'm not telling you to do anything or to try any techniques or tools.
I just don't see that that's where the value lies.
I'm asking you to remember that which is true to you,
For you,
For all of us,
That we are deeply okay.
At the core and essence of our soul,
We are made of love.
From love,
We are love in action in the world.
And when you remember that,
If it occurs to you to do a tool,
A technique,
Or to try something,
Do it.
It's coming from an alignment with the way that life works,
Rather than trying to get life to work in a particular way.
So remember,
This is not learning something new,
It's about remembering something true.
What feels true for you in your life?
What do you know absolutely that you are at your core in essence?
I'd love to know your reflections.
And of course,
Don't forget to join me again tomorrow for another five minutes in nature.
