The Inner Power Series - Session 2 Of 4 - Igniting Your Fire

Recording of Part 2 of 4. During this session I talk about the life force inside us, sparking that fire that energizes us and puts us into the right frame for life. Aliveness, energy, fuel. The yang to the yin that I spoke of during session 1. I talk about how to create an energy audit, and I go a little tough love on you because I know the things that I wish I would have learned by seeing past my blind spots. If it was helpful, drop me a message or comment to say what you got from it. Enjoy

Transcript

So yeah, When I say aliveness, I really mean this feeling that's flooding through us, Without the need for some kind of external reason for that to be happening. And this isn't easy, Right? Because we grow up in a world of, We're looking outwards, That's what our senses are. Things come in from the outside, And it creates things for us. Often that's what we, You know, That's how it works. That's how we're brought up. But really it's happening on the inside. Everything that we feel is actually happening on the inside, Right? It's our interpretations, And they can be different for different people, Even with the same outside situation happening, Right? One person might be at a, Let's say a rock concert, And they're just loving it. They're pumped. Another person could be like, Oh my god, This is giving me a headache. I'm not feeling any energy right now. So there's so many variables in place, Even if the concert is the same. It's the effect, It's how we're processing it differently. So when I talk about igniting your inner fire, This is something that we all have, Firstly. It doesn't matter what age we are, Doesn't matter. It's not about what young people have or what older people have. For example, My dad's a good example. There'll be times when he'll just be running around and fired up and making all these jokes and laughing ecstatically. There'll be other times where he's not, But in general he's got this fire going through him, A lot of aliveness. And he's way older than me. So what I really mean is this life force flooding through us. And sometimes that, Like if you were thinking about rollercoaster, There's a lot of life going through you, Right? Your heart rate is probably pumping. Your imagination is like, Oh my god, What is going on? That's happening. Or another example is, Let's say you are a performer of some sort. You like to dance or sing. There's this feeling of just pure life going through you, Flooding through your veins. And that's what's projecting your voice out or is helping you move your body out. It's not coming from the thinking. That doesn't exist. That doesn't exist when you are really tapped into that fire. Thinking is not required. I've tried to dance by thinking, By the way. And it doesn't work. I've tried to do a lot of things by thinking about it and that doesn't work. And if you are new to me, The background around me is I was completely possessed by thinking. I could call that anxiety if I want to put a name on it. But it was really some deep stuff, Some deep doubts of myself, Like really doubting myself. I didn't even know the depths of that actually at the time. I just knew that I got challenged by situations, A lot of social situations. Anything that was to do with performance, I cracked. And I deemed myself as lazy, One. Number two, I deemed myself as not that kind of person who can perform or has that passion or that fiery energy. I was like, I'm a thinker. I'm just a thinker. I'm a person who is good with logic. There are these labels. We put these labels like, Hey, I'm a logical person. I'm this type of person. I don't think they exist anymore and I wouldn't have said that before. I don't think it actually exists. I think we're all given the same opportunities. Yes, We have some experiences which shape us up and we might become more experienced with some things or we might have some tendencies which perhaps have been coming through from our environment. But I think we all have the same potential, Honestly. There's some things maybe someone likes, Another person doesn't like as much. Okay, That's fine. That's different. But we all have potential to feel fully alive, To really tap into this life force. What do I mean when I say life force then? If I was to put like spiritual words on it, Some people might use the word prana, Chi, Whatever else you like to use, Shakti, Energy, Whatever. But keeping it simple is the energy that's in everything. And the last session I was talking about nothingness. I was talking about the power of tapping into nothing. Like I said before, The stars came from nothing, Right? There's so much more darkness out there. There's so much more space than there is things. So I was talking about tapping into that space. Because once you tap into space, Things come alive from that. Things come from the nothing. That's where this life force, This energy came from, From nothing. So today I'm talking more about how to generate this force. What this force is, It's the something. It's the potential of something, Let's actually say. Is when a star can be born, Right? Like where does it come from? Where does everything come from? Nothing. But then once it's formed, It has this potential to be something. And this is a very deep topic because this almost taps into the whole story of creation itself. And I'm not going to go too much into that. I'm talking about a personal development viewpoint for this session. But personal development is really just, For me anyway, The development which came from all development. It's just us being able to hone into that. So we actually are made of the elements, Right? Because firstly it's simple enough to know we have a lot of water. But we also have fire in us. What is actually going on when things are happening? There's fire, There's a life force. But imagine you can really understand that thing. And this took me a while actually. It wasn't like something I just picked up instantly. I was practicing a lot of yoga. And not the yoga which often is called yoga which is just based on physical. Not about flexibility. But I was practicing yoga in the traditional sense which is really to tap into the different parts of us, Right? The different layers that we have within us. I started realizing I'm feeling like this bit of aliveness after these sessions. And I'm sure all of you can relate. It doesn't matter what type of yoga you do, You probably feel something different that you cannot get from anywhere else. So I was like oh my god, This is amazing. I started honing more into it. And I felt like this powerful, But calm energy just flowing through me. I'm sure you guys can relate to this as well. You sit in Shavasana and you're like oh my god, I feel so good. And it depends like how you're working and how you're doing that, But there's times where you don't just feel relaxed, You feel oh my god, I am buzzing with energy. But it doesn't have to be like this is only the thing that I get sometimes based on being in a class where I don't really know what's going on. If you can harness that, You can use that for everything. That's what I started doing. I started learning about it by experience. Just by using my breath, Using different breath techniques, Different sequences, Reading about it more. But not just that actually. Not just this whole yoga aspect. I started tapping more into things that made me feel alive in general. What makes you feel alive? Well, First here's a very important one. The things you're putting into your body. This is huge. Things you're putting into your body can determine how you move, You know, How you feel. And I'm not, As you can probably tell, I'm not this kind of extremist who wants to tell people to become a pure this type of nutrition. Don't believe in that. I don't believe in these special things that you have to do. I just think of well balanced, Well balanced nutrition. You're eating things that are real, You know. Things that are actually food. They're real food. If you're reading a packet and it says this is what this food is made of, It's made of all these ingredients, How can that really be food? It's got all of this stuff in there, You know. So when I say eating your food, It's just things that make you feel alive. Things that are alive, You know, Like nutritious things. I'm not going to, As you can see, I'm not going too deep into this because I don't want this to be a session on nutrition. Although I know a lot about it, I think people know this stuff in general. You know, We know what's good stuff. It's just about living it instead of knowing it. This doesn't mean you stop eating everything that you enjoy. It just means well, Just look what's going in, You know. And then moving your body. That creates aliveness in you. Moving the body in some way. I actually went down this road of being very obsessed with my physical health. That's how I got into all of this actually. How I got into personal development. I became obsessed with my body, Obsessed with looking a certain way, Performing optimally, Having great endurance, Being a runner, Boxing, All of that stuff. Because I was, I loved this feeling of aliveness that I got from exercise, You know. But through experience I realised I was overdoing it. Really relying on this. And it actually, I don't even know if it was worth it. It felt great at the time. But now I realise it's about being precise and intentful about what you're doing for your movement. Personally now, Any movement for me is to bring this feeling of aliveness inside of me. It's not really about physical appearance anymore. That's the bonus, Let's just say. But it's about igniting this energy. So that's something to look at. Like how are you moving? Are you moving enough? What moves you that creates energy? What creates energy for you? Something I like to do with a lot of people, Which I would love for you to try, Is to do an energy audit on yourself. And this means looking at your physical energy work, What is giving you energy versus what is taking it away. Just two columns, Just write that down. What gives me energy, What's taking it away. Do that with your physical. And you might realise, Whoa actually, This thing I thought was giving me energy, Really isn't. And here's another thing, There's a bunch of, There's so many things out there on supplements and healthy health diets and special things to take for your health. Multivitamins, I used to take all of this. So this is basically, This is my experience. I'm not saying I'm right by the way. Actually, With everything I'm saying, I'm not saying I'm right. I'm just saying this is my experiences and I'm sharing it, It might be helpful. Maybe it helps you. But I realised that all of these supplements, I didn't need them. It was just in my head. I don't need something that's created in a factory that says, Hey you eat this tiny thing and you've got all your vitamins for the day. That can't work. Life can't work like that. But I tricked myself into believing it. I was like, Yeah, I can eat less. I can eat whatever I want. I'm just going to take these vitamins. Okay great, I'm done. If life was that easy, You know, Everyone would be in elite health and happiness. It doesn't work that way. Your vitamins are not useful. Always, Anyway. Let's just say in general, For me. Because I don't know what deficiencies you might have. Maybe it's helping you in some way. But I realised it was giving me an excuse not to get things naturally. Not to eat well enough. Not to move enough. Not to get enough sunlight because oh look, Pop this vitamin D tablet. Oh, Amazing. Vitamin D and B are meant to be so popular but they really didn't work for me. They actually made things worse in terms of anxiety. That's just my experience anyway. I'm just going to say that again. Just to check yourself. Just to check. Just to try. Try different things. I eventually got rid of everything. I had a cupboard full of supplements. Healthy ones, You know. Nothing like weird. Just things that I thought would help. Like all of these little things. I used to take them with me if I went away. Because I was like yeah, I need to take this, You know. I didn't need any of it. All I needed was to create energy within my body. By moving, By breathing. Breath practices are so powerful. If you don't do any breath practices right now, Do that and you will see how much your body will flow with energy. Breath practices have probably been one of the most powerful things I've ever done. And when I say I practice yoga, It's not just the postures, You know. It's not the physical stuff. It's also that for me means breath practice. That for me means meditation. That for me means like a way of living. That's why I'm sometimes hesitant to even use the word yoga. Because you know, Sometimes I'll say to people, Yeah I do yoga. And they're like, Oh, Oh, Okay. You must be flexible. And I'm like, I'm not actually at all. But that's not what it means to me. So to work with this life force, This energy, Firstly like I said, Physical, Sort that out. That's the foundation. This is actually the easy part. I'm not saying this to shame anyone. I'm saying this is just the beginning of working through your energy. And again, You can eat desserts and things. That's fine. But it's just bringing more consciousness to what you're regularly eating and how you're moving regularly, The practices that you have. Looking after yourself, You know. And we know this stuff. We know that it doesn't feel good to do certain things. Then our mind comes in and says, Oh look, Look what you did. Look what you did. It's not worth it. I use this term, I'm not giving my monkey any bananas. My monkey is the mind which has an excuse if I screw things up and I go off the rails too far. You know. If I'm being led by mind instead of what I know is nature, Let's just say. So that's the first thing. On your energy audit, Look at all your physical stuff. What's giving me energy, What's taking it away. Really, Really look in detail. One by one. Second thing on this energy audit is to look at your social connections and you know, Your generally just people around you and habits, Activities you're doing that energize you or take energy away. And when I say energize, I mean this like, Wow, I feel alive, I feel excited, I feel good. What kind of people, Places or things, Habits are lighting you up or not lighting you up? That's important because it's bringing out this best you or it's not. And here's the thing, We can't go blaming other people really. Because there's so many people who say to me, Oh this person is like, This person is draining me. It's down to you. Is you that's reacting to this person really? So you have to bring that back to yourself. What is this doing inside of me? Is there some kind of thing I should work on to maybe, You know, This is bringing something up for me. I should look this up. Instead of the easy road of oh that person, Blah blah blah blah, Blame, Blame. That's not good. That doesn't help us. And I've done this, This is why I'm saying this. I've done this, A lot of people that I'm working with say this all the time. It's the easy way out. Blame game. That doesn't help you. Maybe you don't agree with me and that's okay but I just want you to be aware. So you feel empowered, You know. You feel empowered. You are the person driving now. Because if other people are going to affect you forever, What can you do about that then? How are you empowered in that situation? You are empowered if you bring it back to yourself. You lose your power if you give your power to everyone else and say that person did this. It sounds hard for me to even say this, Right? You might even hear this and say, No I don't agree with you Raj. But deep down this is the truth. It's happening within you. So you have to do something about it. Or you don't. And that's your choice. So that fire stays burning, You know. Think of it literally like a little candle inside you. And then the winds are trying to blow it away which is your mind which is everything happening. The winds are trying to blow it away. Your only job is to firstly know that there's this fire inside even if it's like this tiny little flame. But then secondly start growing it, Start expanding it. So the winds affect it a lot less. It starts growing into a flame. Then you feel aliveness. People sometimes say to me, Because I'm a coach, Right? I'm not just a teacher who's going to say, Oh let me help you slow down and be present. No, I like to work in different ways. Slow down and be present, Very useful. It's a part of what I do. But people often say to me, You're like a combination of some kind of zen spiritual master and someone like Tony Robbins or a sports coach who's helping you get fired up. Because that's really what we are. We are fire. We want to feel alive. That's why all these drugs exist. Someone was trying to manufacture the feeling of aliveness. That's why caffeine is so exciting. To have a coffee, Whoa, Boom. Why else would it be so enjoyable to have caffeine? And actually I used to have a lot of it as well because I love that feeling. But with caffeine it plays with your body as well. And I'm not trying to turn anyone by the way. I'm just saying what I know and what my experiences have been. It can mess with your body, You know. There's a hundred benefits of why it's useful. I went through all of those and I was like, Wow, The research says this, The science says this, Whoa, Okay, I can drink coffee, Yes. It helps me with workouts. It helps me get work done. It's amazing. But anything that you will try and take into your body, If it feels that amazing, There's going to be a payback. And often, For me anyway, It was a lot of anxiety creating. It was like a, It wasn't a smooth aliveness. But that's why it's very popular. That's why all drugs are popular because people want to feel alive. They want to be free from the mind and just feel this ecstasy, This buzz going through. But in the end that's created from ourselves. The substance just amplifies something that's already there, You know. That's already possible naturally. You go on a vacation and someone says, Oh, Look at this adventure thing. Let's do this. You go and do it and you're buzzing with energy. You didn't need drugs then. You didn't need anything. Or even just the feeling of booking your ticket to go on a plane, To go on vacation. Even before that, The idea of booking a ticket, Oh, It would be such a good idea to go on this vacation. You're feeling alive already. So it starts in you. And really, Just the fact that you're there is just your idea coming into action. That's why it feels fun because you thought of this idea, Look, I did it. That's what's happening. Took me a while to figure that out because I was traveling around the world, Right? I thought this was everything. Yeah, I still, I'm not opposed to traveling. I still want to do that. It's still fun. But I just know now that is an inside job. It's not actually the things that are giving me pleasure. I don't need to have those. I think that's probably the point to drill home. I don't need to have this. I don't need to have that. If I'm already good, If I really understand what's going on, Then I can tap into that. So I don't know how you're feeling right now. I hope you're feeling a bit of fired up-ness. I'd love to hear. Are you feeling a bit of fired up-ness? Even though that's not a word. Maybe I should make that a word. Fired up-ness. And here's the other part. I talked about your physical, Talked about the things, Your habits and all of that stuff that you can do. The other part is deep inside you, Where your eyes are even closed, Where you're away from the senses, You're away from everything. You can do this via meditation, Which simply just means shutting yourself off to senses. There's different forms of meditation of course, Just like these different parts of this series I'm doing. But you can tap into aliveness by just sitting down. And it's funny because you look at your YouTube video or you look at something or a photo and you get that aliveness right? You can have it. But only because your mind is visualizing and going through this process. So you don't actually need that thing. You can sit in darkness, Well not darkness, With eyes closed I mean. And you can think of what makes you feel alive. Just feel it. There's a few ways to do this. You can either think of something exciting coming up. That's one way, Simple. Something you're grateful for is another powerful way. And this is popular so I'm sure some of you have experienced this. Something you're grateful for that you have right now. Wow I feel alive. Something that you have already. That could be your family member, Could be the roof you're under. It just brings up this stuff inside you. You feel alive. Gratitude practice, Amazing. Huge. Or like I said before you can do breath work, Breath practice. You can do some movement. But those really are precursors. I think personally when you're in stillness and you're just going deep, That's the best way. Gratitude. Or you can visualize something you'd like to create. Be excited about it. Like it's happening. We do this all the time. This isn't some mystical thing. We do this all the time. You speak to somebody and your imagination will go wild. But this is a conscious practice. That's what I'm talking about now. Going consciously and doing it. Not unconsciously. Consciously tapping into this is another level. Yeah I like to keep things simple. It doesn't have to be some complex, Scientific or research studied art and you have to read a hundred books to know what this is. No I want to just tell you the simple stuff that you already know. But just to do more of it. Things that light you up. Some people will be things like music. Do some of that then. That lights you up. Go do it. Again consciously doing these things. Consciously knowing that this is something that's useful for you. Not just hey oh it just shows up and I like music when it's there randomly. Or oh yeah I'm in nature. Oh great. Feels nice. Consciously. And then when you're in your stillness in silence. Feeling into that. And coming back to the breath. Someone mentioned actually what type of breath practice is. There's something very simple that could be used. There's a practice called the breath of fire. And it's such a simple one. I actually practice breath of fire nearly every day. I have done the Wim Hof method. Actually I did a Wim Hof method for over a year I think or two. And it was great. But then one day I was just like I can't be bothered to do this thing anymore. This feels like too much force you know. Too much force I'm putting onto myself. So I stopped. Just to try. I was like let me experiment. Maybe I don't need to do this anymore. It was great. It really was. But something was just telling me it's not serving me anymore. Definitely fires you up. It definitely gets you alive. It shakes off all of this stuff. This haze. But I went back to the basics I guess I like to call it. The path of yoga. Which includes breath practices. Pranayama it's called. So I went back to that because I was like this makes much more sense to me. Instead of like hey let me count to 30 and just you know this Wim Hof thing. Which again like I said is powerful but it just wasn't serving me anymore. So breath of fire is great. Very simple and there's a few ways to do it. Also just moving your spine. Moving your spinal cord. Because your whole. Actually let's actually step back a bit. This whole system that we have. We have a whole sympathetic system. We have a whole parasympathetic system. We have a whole sympathetic system. It's all running along the spine. If you're doing things that are moving your spine and this is why yoga was probably made by someone a long time ago. Because they realised whoa if I move the spine in these certain ways and I breathe whilst doing it in a very specific way I am unlocking all this energy. So when you work the spine through certain breath and movement practices you're really unlocking all of this fire. This life force can work through you. Practises like Kundalini Yoga. That's what I've practised for a long time. Kundalini Yoga is very powerful for that. Because it really sparks something. But it's not for everyone. This is not a formula. I'm not prescribing anything. I don't know what's going to work for you. If you want to have a conversation one to one we can. We can talk all about that. Because it could be different for everyone based on their circumstances. And that's usually what happens with us as humans. We're like oh this person said this is a good idea or this looks like let me just this should be what I have to do. I should do this. I should do that. This is a good thing to do. I should do that. Oh my friend is persisting on this. You know you have that friend who is just trying to convince you that this is what you should do. Then you start feeling like oh what's wrong with me. Why don't I like this. It's working for them. So I don't believe in like everything works for everyone. And if you have a friend who is trying to convince you then just be mindful of what actually does work for you. But yeah there's things like Tai Chi, Qi Gong, Other energy practices. They're just manipulating your energy. That's what I figured out. I was doing a lot of running, A lot of weight lifting, A lot of CrossFit, A lot of yoga, A lot of different breath things. I realized all I'm doing this for is to feel alive or to calm down. I just wanted to work those two energy systems. That's the only reason I did that. I want to feel calm or I want to feel alive. Sympathetic system, Parasympathetic. So I started really mastering and understanding it, Understanding everything about it within me, Using myself as an experiment. But I guess all I'd like to say is if you can light this up, This is really the, This energy can do so much for you let's just say. And that's what I'm going to be talking about in the next two sessions. It's about how to use this stuff. That's why I wanted to talk about your awareness and what this stuff is, What it's useful for. The next two sessions I'm going to be saying how to use them. It's almost like you get a sword and it's like okay how do I use this sword now? Great. You got to learn that stuff because ultimately what it helped me with was moving past the mental blocks, The ego created, The identity, The fears, The doubts, All of the mind stuff, The inner child that was in me. People spend years on this stuff because the mind is constantly blocking. It's like being an American footballer and you know you're trying to run across and then the mind just comes along and destroys you, Knocks you to the floor. That's why sometimes it takes years and years and people say to me oh yeah I've been working on this for 10-20 years and I'm still challenged. Because something has to be done differently then. If the mind is constantly blocking you off you have to go deeper. I don't think it takes that long. I think if you really focus and you really go in deep like I did really and what I'm doing with clients right? I'm doing this with people now to show them hey look we can create this. You can get past these blocks. You don't have to have a lifetime worth of challenges with this. And I'm not saying you get to this oh I'm going to enlighten you. I'm going to get this little finger and tap your forehead and you're an enlightened being. Yeah, Development continues but I personally think we can get through these blocks quicker. So once you start building this energy through you and you gain more awareness of it, You start being able to use it and break through all of the barriers and the deep foundations that have been set that block you off. That's why I'm talking about this stuff. It's not just for fun, Just oh yeah let's feel alive. No it's a power source. It's like filling up your tank. Filling up your tank with life force. If you've got a full tank, Your energy is optimized. Okay great let's go drive. Let's go drive. So to summarize, Really look at your energy. Don't blame anyone or anything or time on this. This is on you. You can't use that excuse. You can change how you see the world. You can build up energy. Yes there's challenging people out there. I'm not saying there's not. I'm saying it's up to you because it's very hard to change people but you can change yourself. So work with your energy. Find things that help you feel alive. Really feel alive. That aliveness that's surging through you. Electricity. Everyone has it. This is not some yogic person who spends their whole lifetime developing this. Everyone can feel alive. It's just doing more of that. And remember it's an inside job. If you go in, Do some practices, You can start tapping into this. Consistency. With consistency. I like to say that word a lot because I'm not expecting anyone to say, To think this is going to be instant or quick. It's more of like you do a little bit every day and you have these massive shifts occurring every now and then. It's almost like an upward chart and then sometimes you'll have this life changing insight moment. Boom, I've gone up high. Then there'll be little shifts, Boom, Little shifts, Boom. Consistency. If you treat this how you treat your financial plan or your whatever else, Your career development, You treat this like with commitment, Massive things can change without that much effort. I'm not telling anyone that they have to change their lives and stop working and spend five hours a day on this. No, It's little things every day. So, I'm going to leave it as that because I think that gives you guys enough of an intro into what I mean by this inner fire. Once you have awareness, Consciousness of this inner fire, Which I talked about in the first session, Awareness, Consciousness in general, Expanding what you know, Once you have that and then you're aware of this fire, Those two collide. Those two collide to create almost a third force. I like to call it a third force, Which is those two unified. And actually, What I learn is that this is what all of the spiritual teachings are trying to tell us. They're trying to tell us how to unite things, How to unite this, Sometimes you can call it yin and yang, The dark and the light, Aliveness and stillness. They unite and they become this one powerful thing. And that's what we're going to talk about in the next session, How to use this third energy to ground yourself in your own being. Yeah, So the next session is going to be all about grounding. And when I say grounding, I mean grounding into the heart really, Into yourself. All this stuff like self-esteem and confidence challenges and challenges with all this stuff that's in the mind or the psyche. That's what I'm going to talk about next time. How to use these forces to apply them onto these personal development areas. It's so much easier once you do that. Instead of going into these challenges in your life without anything. That's why I became a teacher of meditation because it's just one tool to use. Many other tools but they're all tools that are going to help you move forward. So yeah, Next session is all about grounding, It's all about getting to this place where you're okay with everything. You are okay with yourself no matter what's happening around you. You're just okay no matter what. Everything's good no matter what happens. And that's a powerful place to be in. So I'm going to leave it as that.