Making Peace with Your Thoughts l Sam Manchulenko l S2E084
Welcome to A Call for Love, where we explore choosing love over fear. In today's episode, host Linda Orsini and guest Sam Manachenko discuss making peace with your thoughts. Sam shares insights from her global journey studying yoga and meditation, emphasizing self-compassion and curiosity to understand and transform our thoughts. She highlights the teachings of Dharma Mitra, Byron Katie, and Eckhart Tolle and how understanding our thoughts can lead to deeper self-awareness and vibrant living. Join us in discovering how to embrace every moment with love and presence. Stay enlightened!
Linda's Website https://www.globalwellnesseducation.com
Follow Linda on Instagram at lindaorsiniwellness
About Our Guest
Sam Manchulenko is a lifelong seeker of unconditional love. In 2012, she followed an inner calling to sell her possessions and travel the world, immersing herself in yoga, meditation, and breathwork. Her journey led her to yoga ashrams and, ultimately, to her first teacher and living example of the practice, Sri Dharma Mittra.
Now a senior Dharma Yoga Instructor, Sam mentors in the Dharma Yoga Life of a Yogi teacher training (200–1000 hours) in NYC and assists Sri Dharma in workshops. She also studies with Byron Katie and Eckhart Tolle, integrating yoga’s off-the-mat wisdom into courses and private coaching. She is the founder of Abhyasa Living Yoga Teacher Training and New Collective Self-Awareness Training.
IG: @samtheyogi
About Linda:
Have you ever battled overwhelming anxiety, fear, self-limiting beliefs, soul fatigue or stress? It can leave you feeling so lonely and helpless. We’ve all been taught how to be courageous when we face physical threats but when it comes to matters of the heart and soul we are often left to learn, "the hard way."
As a school teacher for over 30+ years, struggling with these very issues, my doctor suggested anti-anxiety medication but that didn't resonate with me so I sought the healing arts. I expanding my teaching skills and became a yoga, meditation, mindfulness, reiki and sound healer to step into my power and own my impact.
A Call for Love will teach you how to find the courage to hold space for your fears and tears. To learn how to love and respect yourself and others more deeply.
My mission is to guide you on your journey. I believe we can help transform the world around us by choosing love. If you don’t love yourself, how can you love anyone else? Join a call for love.
Website - Global Wellness Education
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Transcript
Welcome, everybody. Welcome back to A Call for Love.
Speaker:And if you are a new listener, then A Call for Love is
Speaker:a place where we inspire you to choose love, peace,
Speaker:and joy over fear, stress, and anxiety
Speaker:to embrace the growth that is available to you and create a
Speaker:life rooted in compassion and connection. And
Speaker:today, I have a very special guest. We are going to
Speaker:dive into waking up to making peace with your
Speaker:thoughts. And my guest, Sam Manachenko, is a
Speaker:lifelong learner curious about the true meaning
Speaker:of unconditional love. And in 2012, she
Speaker:walked into her home and a little voice whispered to her,
Speaker:sell all your possessions and get out of your lease.
Speaker:She followed those directions, and for 7 years, she traveled,
Speaker:studying yoga wisdom, meditation, and breath work
Speaker:all around the world. She lived in yoga
Speaker:ashrams and eventually was led to her first teacher and
Speaker:living example of the practice. And his name is
Speaker:Dharma Mitra, a beautiful guru who
Speaker:is still alive today. And she has studied with
Speaker:not only Dharma, but Byron Katie and Eckhart Tolle.
Speaker:She has a wealth of information and the
Speaker:purest, most gentle, and beautiful heart as she
Speaker:shares how we can make peace, how to make
Speaker:peace with ourselves, and unraveling the story,
Speaker:the story of illusions of pain and suffering into
Speaker:the peace and light that is always available to us.
Speaker:So welcome, Sam. Welcome to A Call for
Speaker:Love. Thank you, Linda. We have a mutual friend,
Speaker:and our friend is Monica from Be Yoga and Wellness in Burlington, and
Speaker:she was on the podcast as well. We talked about yoga.
Speaker:But today, we're gonna talk about something really special to all of our
Speaker:hearts, and it's called making peace with your thoughts, which was
Speaker:is actually the part 2 that you'll be offering at b
Speaker:yoga. But I feel like there's so much you have to share
Speaker:and offer in this area because I'm a
Speaker:meditation guide, and I love meditation. And I always say it's
Speaker:about befriending ourselves, and befriending ourselves
Speaker:means, for me, making peace with our thoughts.
Speaker:And so I'd like you to share what does that mean to
Speaker:you, making peace with your thoughts. Yeah.
Speaker:It's a great question, and the
Speaker:answer has been evolving. If you asked me what
Speaker:that meant 10 years ago, I would have given you a different answer.
Speaker:And, really, I'm noticing on the practice, everything is
Speaker:moving from the external getting closer, closer, closer, closer.
Speaker:So my first idea of making peace was,
Speaker:okay, I have to act a certain way in the external world to
Speaker:not ruffle any feathers, to, you know, get along with others. I thought it
Speaker:was all about our actions and, you know, how we
Speaker:interact with so called others in form. And as you
Speaker:go deeper in the practice, you realize, oh,
Speaker:actually, how we're interacting is determined by our vibration.
Speaker:And, you know, according to our vibration, we're attracting
Speaker:beings, situations that are aligned with that vibration
Speaker:to help show us the cause of that vibration, which is
Speaker:our thoughts. What are we thinking?
Speaker:And for many years, I would have you know, I was raised
Speaker:Catholic, and I would feel
Speaker:guilt or shame if I had a thought that was unkind.
Speaker:And I thought I must annihilate this thought, or it's bad, or
Speaker:it's wrong that I have these thoughts. And all that does in yoga, we
Speaker:talk about, being free of resistance than aversion. That actually
Speaker:just has more resistance than aversion towards yourself. So on the surface,
Speaker:you might be pretending to be peaceful and kind to others, but
Speaker:inside, there's this war.
Speaker:And so, really, making peace with the
Speaker:thoughts is going away from this idea that some are
Speaker:good and some are bad, which is conditioning,
Speaker:to the perspective of God
Speaker:or love or consciousness, whatever you call it, which is
Speaker:unconditioned and which loves
Speaker:everything that arises in it. So really know
Speaker:noticing every thought that arises, it's consciousness
Speaker:that makes it possible. It's all arising. Everything is arising in the palm
Speaker:of God's hand. And just as the sun shines evenly on
Speaker:everything, instead of being moved when
Speaker:an emotion comes up and think, I'm bad, I'm wrong, and going to
Speaker:battle. Can I be like the sun and see the emotion
Speaker:and be curious about it and not afraid to feel
Speaker:it? Or sorry. The thought. We're talking about the thought. So notice the
Speaker:thought, be curious about it, and and
Speaker:brave enough to actually explore it inside
Speaker:before I act it out on the outside.
Speaker:So it's really more and more I've realized everything.
Speaker:Yeah. Every time I think someone's to blame, I
Speaker:know I'm I'm confused. I know my ego is tricking
Speaker:me and that there's there's no one to blame, but learning
Speaker:more and more to to be
Speaker:neutral in my observations of what's arising in the field so
Speaker:that they can simply pass instead of
Speaker:going to battle with them, which makes them stronger and, you
Speaker:know, gives them ammo. Yeah. I do love that
Speaker:because I think we are conditioned to judge.
Speaker:You know? And I always I have this phrase, isn't this
Speaker:interesting? And when I invite that phrase into
Speaker:a thought, in this case, I can kinda hold space for
Speaker:it to see what's really going on
Speaker:there. And, also, I think it takes, as
Speaker:you are such an advocate for it and me too, self
Speaker:compassion. Oh, absolutely. If I feel ashamed
Speaker:about something and I don't tell others,
Speaker:if I'm try to closet it or, you know, if I don't have peace with
Speaker:it and I try to mask it, and I look at how I actually treat
Speaker:others in that moment, there's a disconnect.
Speaker:And I'm treating them like we're different. Sometimes we think,
Speaker:oh, it's okay if they feel shame, and I'll go help them. I'll be the
Speaker:fixer, but I should never feel shame. So then there's, like, this
Speaker:hierarchy where we're acting like we're better than others. And then
Speaker:or on the opposite, sometimes we think we're worse than others. Oh,
Speaker:imagining no one else feels this shame. When we talk about self
Speaker:compassion, how we isolate and forgetting about common
Speaker:humanity. But if I make peace with this
Speaker:thought of shame, if I just see it, I'm like, oh, wow. Look.
Speaker:There's a thought of shame, and I can talk about
Speaker:it. Suddenly I'm not violent anymore. I'm not violent
Speaker:towards myself, and I'm not violent to someone else. So
Speaker:it's actually I used to think that if you do everything
Speaker:perfectly and you get it right, then you'll be connected to others
Speaker:and and you'll feel safe. And I realized that it's actually by being
Speaker:imperfect and vulnerable that you feel the
Speaker:connection and feel that safety that's inside of us. And there's
Speaker:that there's there's nothing to run from. We don't have to run from these thoughts.
Speaker:They're natural. They're safe to explore, and they're not
Speaker:our identity. We're we're the we're that which can perceive
Speaker:them. Well, I have a question for you because
Speaker:I have a lot of beautiful relationships in my life, but sometimes
Speaker:in some relationships, we may feel unsafe.
Speaker:Mhmm. What would you advise one does in
Speaker:those circumstances? Well, if
Speaker:you feel unsafe, I would listen to my body
Speaker:and, you know, remove yourself from the situation
Speaker:and continue to do my own work.
Speaker:So I I wouldn't, you know, remove if I
Speaker:remove myself from the situation and then say, oh, it was because of them, they
Speaker:were bad. They you know? And just then I'm keeping that war and that
Speaker:separation. But if I remove myself, it's totally fine to
Speaker:remove yourself from a situation and then start to notice,
Speaker:You know? What was I thinking and believing when I was with that
Speaker:human? And you become aware of it. So I do I
Speaker:study with Byron Katie a lot, and I do her work every day.
Speaker:And she says a worksheet a day, it was
Speaker:He's the doctor. Yeah. Yeah. It was something and then
Speaker:it's about sanity. But the she
Speaker:talks about how the ego is a frightened child looking for
Speaker:love. And so often we're trying to annihilate our ego and get
Speaker:rid of it, which creates anxiety in ourselves because it
Speaker:feels like we are at war with part of ourselves.
Speaker:So she talks about loving the ego,
Speaker:actually listening to it. So if you feel unsafe, your body's telling you, I
Speaker:feel unsafe, well, a loving mother would listen to that. Okay, honey. Come
Speaker:over here. I'm gonna hold you. But then look deeper. Is there a
Speaker:thought either that attracted you to that
Speaker:dynamic? So sometimes people have very
Speaker:strong beliefs. I don't deserve to be treated with
Speaker:love, or, you know, no one will ever love me or people don't
Speaker:respect me or whatever these beliefs are. And so they end up
Speaker:attracting characters that do this. Remove yourself when you
Speaker:notice it, and then you can start to do some work on that
Speaker:thought. How do I live my life
Speaker:when I believe I don't no one treats me with
Speaker:respect? You know? And and really look, how do I treat
Speaker:myself? I feel like I'm less than others. I feel
Speaker:desperate or or clingy or needy. I try to
Speaker:change others. I don't believe that I could find someone
Speaker:else, though maybe I feel stuck in situations. It'll be different
Speaker:answers for everyone, but there's there's it's all the same
Speaker:stressful thoughts. We're all repeating. And if you
Speaker:really sit still in meditation and notice what
Speaker:web, what life does that belief create, it's really
Speaker:fascinating. And how do I treat others when I believe no
Speaker:one respects me? I'm watching others and
Speaker:waiting for them to disappoint me. So I don't notice
Speaker:when they do respect me. I don't notice other
Speaker:things. And, you know, what does it cost
Speaker:you? Presence, connection to your
Speaker:intuition, many things. Well, it's very
Speaker:interesting because, you know, I am mid to
Speaker:late fifties now. And, you
Speaker:know, there's been a lot of people that come in and out of
Speaker:one's life. And in my younger years,
Speaker:I would get so panicky over those more challenging
Speaker:relationships. But now I'm like, oh, okay.
Speaker:There's another teacher here in this moment teaching me about
Speaker:myself, not teaching me about them, but Yeah. Teaching me
Speaker:about myself. And I said, this is an opportunity
Speaker:for myself to do the work. And so
Speaker:I I don't look at it as so daunting or
Speaker:scary anymore, but I do go slowly,
Speaker:and I have many, many practices. But I think of it
Speaker:as an invitation to grow and to grow
Speaker:in self awareness through self compassion, and I
Speaker:just really find it very interesting. I would love to hear
Speaker:what Dharmamitra you have really
Speaker:embraced him, and many people may not even
Speaker:know him. He is larger than life. Correct?
Speaker:And so just a really I'd love for you
Speaker:to share about him, your path, and maybe his
Speaker:teachings that have, as well as Byron Katie, that
Speaker:really drew you into deeper self awareness.
Speaker:Yeah. So, Dharma, Dharma is 85 years
Speaker:young. He's still teaching in New York, and
Speaker:he's so playful and joyful.
Speaker:You know, in the Bhagavad Gita, it says the yoga sees sameness everywhere.
Speaker:That's one of the main things Dharma teaches us is to see sameness
Speaker:everywhere. Right? To have the same love, the same amount
Speaker:of divine love is in every in the heart of every single being.
Speaker:And to really work on recognizing that love in all the beings. So
Speaker:we're seeing that part, we're connecting to that part, instead of, you
Speaker:know, the little web of thoughts, the shadow outside, the limiting beliefs.
Speaker:When we when we focus on that and other people, we strengthen
Speaker:that. But when we're with someone else and we're focusing on what's
Speaker:behind that, our presence can help them
Speaker:connect to their presence. We're seeing who they really are. So
Speaker:Dharma treats all the students equally with
Speaker:incredible kindness and respect. He's very humble.
Speaker:Dharma says I don't know a lot, which is amazing. Had so many teachers
Speaker:before Dharma that, you know, asked a question, and they'd make up an
Speaker:answer, and you can ask, and he says, I don't know, which
Speaker:I love, like, you know, and sometimes he says, oh, maybe this
Speaker:person will know. He's he's he's very humble
Speaker:and curious and open, and he teaches about
Speaker:joy. So at first, I felt like, oh, okay. This is a rigid,
Speaker:harsh path. Dharma does have incredible discipline. He's very
Speaker:reverent to the practice. And then, you know, after a class, he could
Speaker:turn on some crazy techno music and start dancing and shaking.
Speaker:There was one class in particular where he did that, and then he turned off
Speaker:the music and said, joy is very important.
Speaker:And that's really what drew me to him because I had very serious
Speaker:teachers before then. I had one who told me, you know, Sam, life
Speaker:isn't meant to be joyful. And I it's,
Speaker:I'm sure not every moment, but I do believe our essence actually when we're
Speaker:awake is joy and light and love.
Speaker:So, yeah, he's really
Speaker:changed my relationship with everything I
Speaker:really taught me how to treat everything as sacred. You know, Dharma will
Speaker:sometimes pick up a little table and be like, this is my beloved. You
Speaker:know, everything has is made of the same
Speaker:source. And, you know, he encourages
Speaker:us to eat a diet that is
Speaker:compassionate, to do our best to make choices that are compassionate.
Speaker:And a lot a huge part of studying with Dharma is to
Speaker:reflect on compassion every day on, you know, how can
Speaker:we treat everything with more love, including
Speaker:our thoughts, our emotions, whatever arises. It's just it's just
Speaker:passing. Just passing. It's not us.
Speaker:No. It's not us. And I love how you say, you know, he
Speaker:invites that presence to everything. Presence to love.
Speaker:So so this is what I'm thinking that you
Speaker:are sharing here that whatever making
Speaker:peace with our thoughts is holding it in
Speaker:a loving space to see the beauty in it, the
Speaker:beauty in the lesson. And sometimes lessons aren't easy, but they
Speaker:can have the essence of beauty. Is that what I'm hearing?
Speaker:Oh, I think everything's beautiful. I think when we're in our right mind,
Speaker:everything is beautiful. Katie talks about this too.
Speaker:But to have have the courage to actually look at our
Speaker:thoughts. Often, there's so much shame. Oh, how could I have a thought
Speaker:like that? So we don't even have the courage to bring the light to it.
Speaker:And when you really bring the light and look at it, it's
Speaker:nothing there. There's nothing dangerous there. It's just
Speaker:vibration. It has no meaning. It can't last.
Speaker:Right? Anything in form is subject to time. Anything
Speaker:subject to time is not us. And so to
Speaker:really know that we are the the timeless
Speaker:witness that's observing this beautiful evolution,
Speaker:and knowing that there was a point in time where this part
Speaker:of creation, we really wanted this creation. Dharma
Speaker:says, you know, every being experiences the same amount
Speaker:of suffering on their path to awakening.
Speaker:But once you're awakened, that's not the end. You continue to
Speaker:exist forever, but you get to delight in your
Speaker:creation. So everything gets better and better and better, but what lies
Speaker:ahead of us is amazing. We can't even imagine
Speaker:it, you know. And to to have that
Speaker:faith and to realize that no what no matter what you're going through right now
Speaker:well, there's 2 ways. Whatever you're going through right now, there's a
Speaker:perfect reason for it according to the conditions that you're going
Speaker:through it. And if you get really, really
Speaker:still in the present moment, really
Speaker:still, nothing's happening.
Speaker:I once was lying in bed, and I'm like, the now how small is the
Speaker:now? I'm like, it's smaller than the sound.
Speaker:Like, so small. The present moment is
Speaker:so small that you can't there's there's only one there. There's not
Speaker:another being to observe it or judge it or analyze it. It's just
Speaker:there. So suffering in order to
Speaker:suffer, we need a window of time so we can make comparisons.
Speaker:And then also in order to play in creation, there's a gift
Speaker:of time that we can pretend that we are these separate bodies
Speaker:and enjoy the gift of being able to create.
Speaker:But through life, we start to notice if we're if we're not afraid
Speaker:to look at our thoughts, and we can see, oh, that's a thought I think
Speaker:a lot, and look what world that creates.
Speaker:And what's another thought that I could maybe focus on?
Speaker:So it's just like going to the gym, but instead of a muscly gym, it's
Speaker:strengthening our power of attention to focus on what we
Speaker:really want. Yeah. That's that's
Speaker:very beautiful because I do feel and I guess this
Speaker:is really Eckhart Tolle's
Speaker:thought. This moment is the only moment
Speaker:there is. If we can live in that finite space,
Speaker:then we can live in the truest essence of who we are.
Speaker:And I believe we are love at our deepest core.
Speaker:It's just like Michelangelo. I chipped away the marble until I found the
Speaker:angel within. And so I think if we can really come
Speaker:into that really finite space and connect with
Speaker:that love within, then, like, everything softens.
Speaker:Yeah. And Eckhart often says when he says that,
Speaker:I don't mind what happens. That's what enables him to be in the
Speaker:present moment, which really is karma yoga.
Speaker:Dharma says this too. Right? Dharma often talks about be
Speaker:established in the eternal present moment, in the eternal now.
Speaker:So you know the content, whatever we're seeing through our senses
Speaker:of perception is the past. Even you you know, we're
Speaker:looking at each other, but there's beyond just the delay of
Speaker:Zoom. My eyes, for this equipment to go out and
Speaker:see that and then put that image back into my brain and to
Speaker:analyze it, I'm seeing you in the past. It's impossible for me to
Speaker:perceive you in the present through this technology we have of our
Speaker:senses of perception. And so knowing that that whatever you're seeing,
Speaker:Dharma says this a lot, whatever you're seeing right now, this is the result of
Speaker:your past imagining. Don't worry. If you like
Speaker:if there's something you don't like, now imagine different. What
Speaker:you're focusing on in this moment is is what's gonna
Speaker:help the next moments unfold. So you don't
Speaker:have to suffer for your past and replay it.
Speaker:And and that's the thing is because, the past gets
Speaker:skewed, it gets manipulated and
Speaker:transforms, and then it can become,
Speaker:a source of suffering. But if we can have the beginner's
Speaker:mind, right, and start really fresh, then it
Speaker:can it can really transform into a new experience.
Speaker:Yeah. Yeah. If we spend too much time, it's like mind candy.
Speaker:It just and ring that.
Speaker:He will sometimes, Dharmel will say very aggressively, the past is
Speaker:over. Let it go. Right?
Speaker:I also Eckhart recommends an amazing book, 3 Magic
Speaker:Words, and there's a beautiful part in there that talks
Speaker:about remorse, and that it's not helpful for anybody.
Speaker:That part one of the main teachings of Jesus was that we need
Speaker:suffer only the errors are sin is just belief and lack of
Speaker:love. Only once in just the laws of cause and
Speaker:effect. So if we, you know, create some
Speaker:error, it's already in the effect. That's it.
Speaker:But you don't have to replay it and keep punishing yourself. That
Speaker:doesn't do anyone any good. It actually tethers your
Speaker:vibration to that. So your heart
Speaker:is is not as open around others. Yeah. That's that's
Speaker:beautiful. A reminder. And, you know, when you said 3 magic words,
Speaker:doctor Wayne Dyer has something that an excerpt
Speaker:that he took from that 3 magic words, and I listened to it
Speaker:often. And it's a really, it's a beautiful
Speaker:resource to look into. So thank you for mentioning that. What
Speaker:is it? Do you know specifically, or is it a long Well, it
Speaker:well, it is it is a a paragraph, but it's, doctor
Speaker:Wayne Dyer says, you know, the last words that you put into your
Speaker:mind at night is what you marinate in. And so he takes,
Speaker:an excerpt because it's a chance for us to
Speaker:plant the seed of who we really are, you
Speaker:know, and and the essence of kindness for
Speaker:ourselves and all beings. And so I took
Speaker:his, and then I recorded it in my own voice.
Speaker:And then I closed my eyes, and I play it
Speaker:just off my phone voice recorder. And then I just listened to
Speaker:it. And, it's a really beautiful way to
Speaker:drift off into sleep.
Speaker:Beautiful. Yeah. Every chapter of that book has a meditation.
Speaker:They're really nice. Yeah. Beautiful. I know that you
Speaker:have been to Sivananda Ashram in
Speaker:Bahamas. I went there too with a with a good friend.
Speaker:So tell me about that. What was your experience? Were you working or,
Speaker:just Yeah. I did. My first teacher training I did was
Speaker:in India, and then I stayed a little longer and went to the Sivananda
Speaker:Ashram in Nayar Dham, and I loved
Speaker:the experience there. So then I went as a guest to the,
Speaker:Ashram in Valmoran, and then I did the karma yoga program
Speaker:for 4 seasons in the Bahamas, which is an
Speaker:amazing way to get immersed in yoga. So
Speaker:I went there. I thought I just I'm like, I just wanna cut vegetables
Speaker:in silence and meditate all day, and no one talked to me. And I
Speaker:ended up the job I got, I was the hostess to the guest speakers.
Speaker:So I had a cell phone, and I was on call, and I was
Speaker:pick people up in the airport, and I met amazing people. You
Speaker:know, I got to Krishna Das comes every year. I got to know him and
Speaker:Nina and Deepak Chopra was there. Sally Kempton was one
Speaker:teacher I loved before I was there, and then she came. So it was really
Speaker:amazing to get to meet her and many other teachers.
Speaker:I just I was expecting, oh, I'll be there and be silent. And
Speaker:I was busy. But one of the best teachings of
Speaker:theirs, you know, we had to do our sadhana every day. We had to wake
Speaker:up with the bell at 5:30 and go to satsang,
Speaker:do the meditation, the chanting, our asana practice.
Speaker:And often, I'd be doing my asana practice, and then my cell phone would ring.
Speaker:A guest would want something, and I would get, oh, or I'm trying to
Speaker:do my practice annoyed. And then I realized one moment, finally,
Speaker:oh, when they call you in the pose and you're walking to see them,
Speaker:walk in the same energy of the pose as you go to them. So
Speaker:you're actually learning how to integrate this practice so it's not separate. This
Speaker:is my practice, and this is my life. Really, can
Speaker:you move that way while you're really busy? While, you
Speaker:know, they kind of they make sure you're you're at
Speaker:right at your edge. So everyone, when they can see, okay, you're coping well, they
Speaker:give you more tasks, and they give you a little more responsibility. So you're
Speaker:always, you know, at your edge of doing, but
Speaker:learning to do, it really is a the karma yoga is an immersion
Speaker:in you know, karma yoga is the act of doing our
Speaker:actions without expectations for the fruit
Speaker:and attachment to the result. And they often would say,
Speaker:you could try to live karma yoga your whole life, and you
Speaker:might do, like, 2 selfless actions. And I noticed there often if I
Speaker:was rushing, I'm like, why are you rushing? Oh, I want I don't want
Speaker:my manager to be disappointed in me. So you could start to see even
Speaker:that little expectation. I want that person to think this of me or I want
Speaker:that. It was really interesting to get to
Speaker:see all the little attachments we have.
Speaker:And the past karma yoga Dharma
Speaker:his karma yoga was his main practice too. He lived in his
Speaker:guru's ashram, and he talks about, like,
Speaker:it's really about how do you stay in the
Speaker:moment and do every action because it needs to be done
Speaker:without wanting anything from it. So then it's just simply
Speaker:an expression of your heart.
Speaker:That's so beautiful. I feel like every day for the rest
Speaker:of this physical body that I have,
Speaker:I want to practice the teachings of yoga. Everyone thinks
Speaker:yoga or not everyone, but many people think yoga is the
Speaker:asana. But, you know, it's it's off the mat. It's the
Speaker:practice of living the that union,
Speaker:that yoking of everything that you had mentioned.
Speaker:I say sometimes I've done more yoga off the mat than I did on the
Speaker:mat. And then I went on to your website, and I realized, that
Speaker:you have that as one of your taglines in your
Speaker:website. But it's very beautiful practice, and I do agree
Speaker:that the universe or spirit or God,
Speaker:puts those things on our path so
Speaker:that we can practice what we need.
Speaker:Yes. Absolutely. Now you took the risk
Speaker:to sell everything and follow this journey, this
Speaker:new path. But if somebody would
Speaker:like to make those changes and make peace with their thoughts
Speaker:and evolve into their higher self in a new
Speaker:journey, what can they do
Speaker:in this moment, like in the space, in the life they
Speaker:are living?
Speaker:Well, you don't have to go anywhere, and you
Speaker:don't need any time to wake up. So that's really
Speaker:good news. It's really easy to create a
Speaker:story. Okay. To become enlightened, it's gonna take this many years, and I have to
Speaker:do this action, this action, this action, this action. Waking up
Speaker:is is actually independent of all those actions. You can't
Speaker:do yourself into being.
Speaker:It's really a surrender into presence.
Speaker:And it's simply a shift from thinking, you know, while I'm doing
Speaker:this, I'm moving these things around and thinking that I'm the one that's moving this
Speaker:versus I'm the the consciousness behind that's
Speaker:watching this hand go there and there and doesn't have
Speaker:any stories. So if
Speaker:you got really present right now, and took
Speaker:one fully conscious breath, and really allowed yourself to
Speaker:feel the breath in the body without making up
Speaker:any story about it, without comparing it. As soon as you
Speaker:compare, then you're in duality.
Speaker:You're holding an image of the past on top of what's happening right now.
Speaker:So each breath is if it's your very first breath ever.
Speaker:And if you started to do that just, you know, once a day, if you
Speaker:don't do anything, one conscious breath a day, and then
Speaker:maybe 2 and 3, slowly spending more
Speaker:time where you are focused on being and
Speaker:less than doing. It will shift. And if
Speaker:you have no desire to do that, it's okay. The
Speaker:doing will actually eventually get to a point where it exhausts you,
Speaker:and you realize this isn't working. I don't wanna do this path
Speaker:anymore. And then it's it's already programmed
Speaker:in what what you will need
Speaker:to to slow down. But if you are feeling drawn to
Speaker:right now, it's it's here right now. You can
Speaker:slow down right now. Byron Katie has a really beautiful practice we
Speaker:do at her schools. We do a morning walk. And you go and you
Speaker:walk, but everything that your eyes rest upon,
Speaker:you imagine you're seeing them for the very first time.
Speaker:And then, you know, you can give them a name, like you were god
Speaker:naming things for the first time, but only a first generation name. So
Speaker:maybe dog, snow, basket. If
Speaker:you catch yourself going big dog, beautiful
Speaker:snow, ugly basket, then no, stop and come
Speaker:back. So she's teaching us to strip away
Speaker:those labels, the those judgments, those conditions to see things
Speaker:purely. And eventually, you
Speaker:know, often in this practice, I'll be going and I'll just everything will be
Speaker:friend, friend, friend. Like, you really see that everything
Speaker:is a friend. The the ground that holds your foot is a friend.
Speaker:You know, it walks by you.
Speaker:But that it just comes from practice.
Speaker:Notice when you are labeling things and see if you can practice
Speaker:peeling back the labels and just get to
Speaker:a a word or a name that doesn't have so
Speaker:much meaning to it, so much story. So
Speaker:really what we're doing is unwinding, unraveling the
Speaker:story. The story is the little cloud on top
Speaker:of this infinite light of what we are.
Speaker:And when we move it aside, we're like, oh, there's just
Speaker:the light there. That's it.
Speaker:That's so beautiful. It, makes me think
Speaker:of I didn't have any grandparents
Speaker:growing up because they had all passed. But there was
Speaker:a lady, Louise Despirit, and I was a young girl.
Speaker:And she would look at me, like, with stars in her eyes, and she
Speaker:would say, oh, you're so beautiful,
Speaker:and I which is a judgment. But what I thought was, no.
Speaker:I'm not pretty. You know, I got this. I got that. But I
Speaker:I realize now she was just looking at my soul,
Speaker:and she was saying, you are so beautiful. You are such
Speaker:an angel. And this is the parallel I
Speaker:see, that she had that essence
Speaker:to look at things, not the shape, not the
Speaker:color, not the size, not the attributes of it,
Speaker:but to really focus in to the vibration
Speaker:of love within it. And I believe that's what
Speaker:you're saying here. Mhmm.
Speaker:And so if we in this moment, if we can
Speaker:we don't have to travel far away. It's like Buddha
Speaker:before he became Buddha, he he did
Speaker:he his wife not say, you know, you found enlightenment. And he
Speaker:says, well, I I didn't know I had I could find it right here.
Speaker:I I thought I had to travel to look for it, but it's really right
Speaker:here in this moment. So that if the listeners
Speaker:know that this shift in perspective is
Speaker:seeing everything from its purest essence of love,
Speaker:then there can be that miracle to come into a
Speaker:higher awareness and a sense of enlightenment? Is that what I hear you
Speaker:saying? Yeah. We're all enlightened. We
Speaker:just don't know it. Just and who doesn't know? Just the mind and the
Speaker:senses. Dharma says this often. Any corrections I give you, he's like,
Speaker:they're just for the mind and the senses. The real you is
Speaker:there, full and pure. That's so
Speaker:beautiful. I also sometimes I'll do a walk where
Speaker:you know, if we think of and, like, I hear I'm holding up my iPad
Speaker:case. It looks solid, but we know that this is made of
Speaker:atoms, that this is actually made of light and
Speaker:vibration and mostly empty space. And
Speaker:sometimes I'll go for a walk and imagine that I can see, instead of seeing
Speaker:the solid forms, that everything I'm passing is just light and vibration. I imagine
Speaker:light and vibration in the form of the trees and the house and and the
Speaker:body. So you feel like you're just in this field of
Speaker:sameness. And then by this gift of our senses of perception, we
Speaker:can pretend all these nice costumes.
Speaker:But there's something behind everything
Speaker:that's that's what we are, not the surface.
Speaker:Absolutely not. I ask everybody towards the
Speaker:end of the show, and I would love to hear yours,
Speaker:the question. A call for love
Speaker:is really about noticing how we are living.
Speaker:You know, are we in the place of separation, fear, anxiety,
Speaker:stress, the ego based
Speaker:self, or is there a call for love,
Speaker:a call to shift into that enlightenment that we
Speaker:always are, as you had said? So what do you do when
Speaker:you are feeling that you're slipping out of alignment
Speaker:with who you truly are? Yeah.
Speaker:So I suffer. If I before I I usually suffer
Speaker:first unless I'm wiser and, you know, more awake in
Speaker:that moment and catch it. But usually when I slip out, I don't
Speaker:notice at first, and there's a little bit of suffering. And then
Speaker:when I'm fortunate enough to recognize, I'm suffering.
Speaker:Great. Then I I can
Speaker:use my tools. I'll share, for example, I had a headache,
Speaker:last week, and I noticed, you know, trying to sleep, I was trying to
Speaker:push on one side of the head and trying to go child's pose. Well, how
Speaker:can I make these sensations go away? And then I had the thought, oh, you're
Speaker:at war with this. Don't be at war with this.
Speaker:And then I was like, okay, stop calling it a headache.
Speaker:It's fine. Sometimes it can be helpful for people to label things if they're not
Speaker:so charged. But to me, a headache is a sentence. I have a
Speaker:big story about what it means to have a headache. And so I let
Speaker:go of that, and instead, I went right into the
Speaker:sensations in my head and allowed myself to
Speaker:experience them, pretending which actually they
Speaker:were. There's only the present moment. These are the first imagine this is the
Speaker:first time you're ever in a body. These are the first sensations you've ever
Speaker:experienced. What is it like? And when I
Speaker:went in with that curiosity and actually felt the
Speaker:sensations in my head, there wasn't pain anymore.
Speaker:Katie often says all pain is remembered or
Speaker:anticipated. So when I have an idea, I
Speaker:remember different sensations in my head that I thought
Speaker:were so called better, that comparison
Speaker:creates the suffering of these sensations or imagining in the
Speaker:future that there'll be a sensation that I don't wanna have. All pain remembered
Speaker:or anticipated. But when I got really still and went right into
Speaker:the sensations, there there wasn't pain. There was sensation,
Speaker:and it was expansive. So I I do the
Speaker:same. I try to do the same with the emotions, with
Speaker:the thoughts. I used to really try to run away from
Speaker:sadness. And now when there's sadness, I'm like, oh, hey.
Speaker:Hi, sadness. What does it feel like to be sad?
Speaker:And, you know, I just let it do what
Speaker:it needs to do, but not feeding it. Not saying this is because
Speaker:x y z, but befriending it, actually
Speaker:allowing allowing the experience.
Speaker:Yeah. That's so beautiful. So you first notice it
Speaker:by self feeling the the vibration of suffering.
Speaker:Yeah. Usually, I suffer first. Yes. So and that's and I
Speaker:think that's a really important point for listeners
Speaker:to realize is that when they feel themselves
Speaker:suffering, it's an opportunity knocking on the
Speaker:door, hello, let's take a look here, instead
Speaker:of, like, walking it off or or, you know,
Speaker:people could shop, have a vice like drinking or smoking
Speaker:or distraction. Instead, it's
Speaker:like, would you say befriending it? Yes.
Speaker:It's safe to feel it, to to love it, to befriend it.
Speaker:But love, simply is attention in that
Speaker:situation. Just paying attention to it. So many people have
Speaker:the the thought, nobody listens to me. And
Speaker:if you really get still, how often do you listen to your own
Speaker:body, to your own sensations? Are you actually present?
Speaker:So we can't Katie says this
Speaker:too. I love she says adults can't be abandoned. Children's can
Speaker:children can, but adults, if you feel abandoned,
Speaker:you can change that. You're abandoning yourself. You're not listening to yourself or
Speaker:present with yourself. That's beautiful. Yeah. Well,
Speaker:thank you so much for being on A Call for Love, Sam.
Speaker:Thank you, Linda. How can people find you, or is there
Speaker:anything that you would like to share with the listeners of A Call
Speaker:for Love? I know you're gonna be at b yoga and wellness in February.
Speaker:I will put the links in the show notes. But is there anything else
Speaker:you'd like to share? What else? Well, I
Speaker:do every Monday, I do a class called love in action. It's just a
Speaker:half hour session where we do a centering together and then
Speaker:talk about a practice or something that we can use. People can send in
Speaker:questions, struggles that they're going through. So if you want some
Speaker:more connect like, if you want to be able to
Speaker:communicate and chat and get some direct,
Speaker:and I wouldn't wanna say advice. But if you, yeah, if you have questions, that's
Speaker:a great way to do it. And, yeah,
Speaker:through my website, my website is samtheogi.com. I'm sam the yogi
Speaker:on Instagram. Beautiful. Well, thank you,
Speaker:Sam. Thank you for being on a call for love, and
Speaker:I look forward to meeting you in person because you are in
Speaker:Toronto, Ontario, Canada at this moment instead of
Speaker:traveling all over, so, which is in my local area. So I look
Speaker:forward to meeting you in person. I do too. Thanks so
Speaker:much, Linda. Thank you. And thank you to everyone
Speaker:listening on A Call for Love from my heart to yours.
Speaker:Namaste. Namaste.
