End of Lockdown? Adapting Emotionally to the "New Normal"– Guided Imagery & Talk [Episode 11]

The show you're about to hear is a recording from Dr. Miller's webinar series titled Life Meditations. He began this series in response to the pandemic, and his goal has been to provide wisdom, practical tools, and comfort to people during these stressful times. Watch the entire series at drmiller.com/lifemeditations. That's drmiller.com/lifemeditations.

Good morning to those of you on the West Coast. Those of you on other coasts, good afternoon or good evening. It might be. This is Emmett Miller, and today we're going to have a webinar that I have entitled The End of Lockdown. And, and I say that because we're not really not sure whether we're going to get the end to our lockdown at the time that we all, at least some of us, have wanted to. And in fact, there's some of us that have found, found it was a, a wonderful time to kind of relax and do some spa work and work on our beauty. But there are others of us who have another sense of it altogether. You people need to get back to work. Or this: The end is near. You can see this fellow over in the corner with a mask on. Optimist. And so we're all having to deal with many questions that we're going to explore today, including to mask or not to mask. That is the question, whether 'tis nobler in the mind. Meanwhile, Yorick, of course, saying, "I wish I'd worn one," because it really seemed like that that's a good idea. And so when you do wear a mask, it doesn't have to look bad. You can be in vogue when you use your mask. And I like to start with an ancient proverb that I've always enjoyed: He who knows and knows he knows is wise. Follow him. He who knows but knows not that he knows is asleep. Awaken him. He who knows not and knows he knows not is simple.

Teach him.

He who knows not, but knows not that he knows not, is dangerous. Avoid him. It's a very, very important message that informs every day of my life in one way or another. I'll repeat it just because it goes by kind of quickly. He who knows and knows he knows, follow him.

He's wise, follow him.

He who knows but knows not that he knows is asleep, awaken him. He who knows not and knows not— he who knows not and knows he knows not is simple, teach him. He who knows not, but knows not that he knows not, is dangerous.

Avoid him.

I've never been quite certain why it is that so many of our leaders seem to fall in that last category. They don't know, but they think they know. We follow him and we get into big trouble. And kind of like the troubles that we're going to be talking about today, uh, when we're talking about the fact that maybe our lockdown can, can come to an end. And in many ways, this period of social isolation, the lockdown, has dislodged us from a familiar sense of ourselves, our familiar sense of the world, our accustomed activities, where we go, who we're spending time with. It's disrupted our relationships, taken us away from some people that we want to be close to and other people that we may not have been close to for some time, and we've maybe learned to appreciate that more, or maybe we've gone in the other direction. I noticed some of you wrote back that and said, gee, this may sound kind of odd, but I I've really enjoyed this experience of lockdown. And of course, that's what we want to be able to do, is to take whatever comes and enrich our lives out of it, whether we asked for it or not, whether it's what we thought we wanted, because you can't always get what you want, but sometimes you get what you need. But now looming in front of us are these difficult choices: to end lockdown, to we go out, is it safe to go out, should we be wearing masks? Can we shake hands with people or can we hug people we haven't seen for months? Which people and what's the danger therein? Uh, yeah, briefly, I think the situation with masks is, uh, if you're wearing an N95 mask, it's hard for you to breathe, but it filters out 98% or so of the viruses. So you get very few, if any, viruses. One virus won't do you in. 5 or 10 or 50, maybe even 100 won't. But if you pick up 500 or 1,000, then you're probably going to get infected. But your N95 will filter that out, most of them at any rate. The cloth masks, the surgical masks, I, you know, my experience is that they don't filter out an awful lot unless someone is coughing at you, it will filter out their droplets. But when we're dealing with these tiny, tiny fomites, we'll breathe those right in just as if there was smoke out there. But what masks will do will prevent other people from contracting the disease from you because you may have it. So many people that I know have had it and never even knew that they had it. People who have been living a perfectly comfortable life and all of a sudden people in their family start developing the disease and no one can figure out why and they antibody test, find out that this person, you know, has a subclinical case of it. So you might have a subclinical case and you may never ever know it. And if you don't wear a mask and, If you spread that to someone else, then that person may get sick, um, or they may spread it to their elderly parents or grandparents who then may die. And if they don't die, they may have strokes or may be left with permanent neurological damage or Guillain-Barré syndrome, or no longer be able to smell or taste. And we don't even know what the long-term effects of this disease are. So you can protect other people. If you want to be responsible for other people, then you should be wearing masks, period. Period. So the lockdown may almost be over, but the disease is certainly not over. That disease is going to be in our environments for some, for some period, even after the vaccine comes, because there's huge number of people now who don't want to get the vaccine and feel that they have good reasons for that. But the fact is, the fewer people get vaccines, the longer it's going to take before we have herd immunity, and the longer it's going to be before grandma and grandpa can come out of the house. So that's a challenge. We'll, we'll take a look at that as we go on. And remember, it's a totally new disease. Nobody's ever seen this disease before. We're trying to guess based on other coronaviruses, but sometimes we're am I wrong? And who wants to be the guinea pig? So it makes sense to be super careful. If we had been super careful when the illness— when we first realized it back in January, maybe we would have lost 1,000 or 2,000. And now it looks like we're on course to losing maybe 200,000 people. We're already up to, what, 130,000 deaths, 2.4 million cases that have been confirmed. More than that, certainly. But more people have died from this virus than have died in all of the wars that the United States has ever been in. First World War, Second World War, Vietnam. I mean, we're talking about a lot of dead people. Uh, and we can— and, and that can double or it can triple if we're stupid about what we're doing. So we need to learn about what's going on before we take risks and jump out into it. Also, the more people that the virus passes through, the more likely it is to mutate, and it could become something that's much stronger that people who are immune might even get. Who knows? So my suggestion is pay attention to the scientists. They're being careful. I mean, their reputation depends on that. So we're forced to look at the possibility— most of us have to go back to work because we're essential workers, you know, those of us who haven't been deported. Are the essential workers who are going to be exposed to this disease. We have to go out there because we need it to live. How are we going to deal with that anxiety and fear about going out into the world? And we're going out into a, you know, into a world where there's, you know, an enormous amount of dissension and social unrest. So, so let's be aware that that's one of the things that it's important for us to be aware of. We're going out into a socially troubled environment. So these are one of the many parades who are out there. Defy the fascists who want us to go into lockdown. Down. We should be out there, forget masks, let's cough on each other, rub shoulders, go to parties, hang out in bars, and let the devil take the hindmost. You know, in addition to the fact of the Black Lives Matter and the racial issues that have come to the fore in the most amazing, in the most amazing way. And so of course a lot of us did go out and the lockdowns happened and as I guess everyone's aware at this point in time, even though the statistics were that we were flattening the curve and there were fewer and fewer and fewer confirmed cases, and then everybody goes out and they start going to bars and they start going to parties and no one's wearing masks and whoop, the curve is going up even higher. So right now, the number of cases that we're having each day We're hitting records in California and New York, so we haven't tamed the virus, but this is, this is the situation that's out there. It's important for you to understand what we're dealing with, and it's important for you to let other people know. Other thing that's been, you know, the social scene is how the public opinion has moved on that Black Lives Matter. So if we just look back a couple of years, this line would be equal support. So most people did not support it. And then as time goes on, more and more people begin to say, yeah, maybe, maybe these people of color have something. And so people started reading and started paying attention to the facts and the information and listening to the people who have lived through it and their experience and suffering, the suffering that people have gone through, you know, and not just the welfare queens and the drug addicts and so forth. But there's a wonderful— I'll try to send it to you later— but Neil deGrasse Tyson, a wonderful astrophysicist, Black man, that he— by far, name 3 astrophysicists. If you're going to name one, you're going to name him. Listen to how he describes the institutionalized racism that he experienced. Starting from when he was 12, he went to a planetarium and said, "I want to be an astrophysicist." He started telling people, and they go, "No, no, no, you should be an astronaut." oh, look, you've got such good rhythm, you should be a dancer, oh, you know, you could make a great janitor. I mean, all the way through school. But you listen to him, him tell it just right, Neil deGrasse Tyson and racism. It's in the lives of everyone who was there. And so people are beginning to see it and things are beginning to change. And so we're beginning to look at things like Robert E. Lee, a traitor to the United States. He broke his vows to the Union and went against it in order to protect the practice of slavery. And now people are saying, we don't want him to be on a high monument that we all have to look up to. And people are really upset about that. So in this particular one, It's hung up in the courts right now, but in a lot of cases, the statues have come down. And I think some people say, let's not bring them down, let's replace them with something else, you know, which just sounded like a, you know, a pretty good idea, at least when they suggested that we replace it with statues of Dolly Parton, because she, I think she exemplifies the spirit of the of Dixie. I'm saying, let's replace Robert E. Lee with, with Dolly Parton. That sounds like a great idea. And a lot of them really are coming down all over the place. And they're not only Black people taking them down. There's Black people and white people and Jewish people and Irish people. And because we're looking at, we're looking at something that's really widespread, including Columbus. Here Columbus has had his head knocked off. I mean, I was taught to honor Columbus, but then I heard that Columbus made the Native Americans work in the mines to bring up gold, and if you didn't bring up 1 ounce of gold every day, they chopped off your heads.

Columbus!

We really want to honor this guy? I mean, it's a question that a lot of people think no, and that's new. Something is happening. And even at the corporate level, Uncle Ben's Rice, they're retiring that logo. No more Uncle Ben. And of course Aunt Jemima has been retired. After all these years, suddenly this year, goodbye Aunt Jemima. You know, 'cause folks sure cheer for fluffy, fluffy, energizing Aunt Jemima pancakes. I's in town, honey. Happy Days is here. Time for delicious Aunt Jemima's, made with my secret recipe, ready mix for you. Again, maybe we should replace and Jemima find some other Black model. I have some suggestions that, that might work. And even on TV, you watch the cartoons, and the Black characters in the cartoons have been voiced in most occasions by white actors, and those actors have quit and said they're not going to do it anymore. These shows, their Black characters and colored characters should be represented by the people they are. So Apu and Molly and Misty are going to have, are going to have new voices. So people are looking and discovering something that's very important to discover is that we are all prejudiced in one way or another, or I should say in many ways, in many ways that we don't even know. In future sessions, I'm going to get more, you know, back into that, um, what I'm talking about there. I'm going to show you, and I think I can convince you that all, we all have prejudices, and we defend our prejudices because we've been taught to have our egos dependent upon our prejudices. But our prejudices are preventing us from seeing the truth of the world, and it's leading us, among other things, to doing violence. When violence doesn't have to be done, and sometimes that violence is being done to ourselves. And I'll show you how that happens as well. And let me say that, of course, when I'm talking about always, I'm talking about what we can do as individuals to heal ourselves. So you may be listening to me because you have a cancer or some other illness in your body or because you have COVID-19, you know, or you might want to be changing and improving your family or your workplace, or maybe you're interested in changing doing in this nation, or maybe you want to contribute to healing the planet. Everything I'm saying is applicable in all these situations because I'm a systems thinker and I'm a generalist and I'm a holistic, um, analyzer of things. Again, this is something that I've been into since I was in the 5th grade and And ever since then, I'm far beyond the 5th grade now, and there's something that I believe I'm here to teach people. I'm way beyond the 5th grade now, and all along, my first book came out in 1972, 1973. I've written about 6 or 7 books since then. I put out the very first audio cassettes. Featuring guided imagery, meditation, mindfulness, and self-hypnosis. Then I put out the first CDs, put out the first DVDs doing this. I've been teaching at medical schools or lecturing to people, at the same time practicing medicine and coaching in my practice. Therefore, most of the things, most of these endeavors have not been able to be as fully financed in terms of my time, and I certainly didn't have the money. So as I get older and I can do less and less, the CDs are still there, the books are there. You can read, you can go to drmiller.com drmiller.com, and there's a full course worth of valuable information there. All— everything I've done is here for you. You can read and look at it. And now I'm— I guess, you know, this may be my last big push, is to make it out there over the internet doing live webinars. I really appreciate your being here. And if you would like to help me be successful in this endeavor, hopefully more successful than I've been in the others, I think I've contributed to changing the field of medicine and psychology, bringing holistic medicine, mind-body medicine, and the use of mindfulness meditation and self-induced healing into the world. But there's another message. And I'm trying to put that out in this format. So thank you for your donations. That's, that's what will keep us going. That is the, that is the fuel that we need. We try to thank everyone individually. If we miss it, you know, let me thank you personally here. Some of you have given just remarkably generous donations, and those are super appreciated. And some have given very little because I know that's all you can put into it, and we totally appreciate those, appreciate those too. We're becoming aware now as we look out at the world, we can't go back to how things were. We lived in this wonderful bliss. There was a stability. You knew what to expect. You don't know. You can pretend that you know, and then you're going to be shocked to find out that you don't. Or you can be aware that you don't know and relax, because you never really knew. It was all a belief, it was all a fantasy, and you were comfortable in that fantasy. And then boom, suddenly, pandemic.

What?

And it's, it's all over. Well, at least the comfort. Well, we can be comfortable even not knowing. That's, that's how we achieve resilience. Now, I'll talk a little bit about that. This is how we survive in this new normal, because we're going back into a world that we don't know about. This is stress. There will always be the temptation to turn to old escape behaviors to not deal with the stress or the anxiety by abusing ourselves and others with addictions, with anger, getting into political arguments— that feels better than realizing that you don't know what's going on— depression, which is a way of hiding from the challenges, withdrawal, anxiety, despair, and so forth. But we have powerful mind tools for harnessing the energy of stress. We're going to get into that in a future session too, and find opportunities for growth and positive change in the future that's coming. Those tools include being able to enter the present moment. Entering the present moment is most effectively and efficiently done through deep relaxation and meditative techniques. Through awakening self-awareness and inner wisdom, for having our meditation and envisioning our future that we desire, and then going ahead to create that future through, through guided imagery. So, okay, let's just do a very brief coming into the present moment. Take a moment. And pay attention to what you are feeling in your body at this moment. Let your awareness travel through your body.

Notice what your face is feeling, your shoulders, your arms, your chest. Notice how your breath is— breathing quickly, slowly, deeply, shallowly.

Be aware of your pelvis, your thighs, knees, and your legs, your ankles. Your feet, your toes, your skin.

How are you feeling? What do you feel? Now be aware of the thoughts as they enter your mind.

Notice that you didn't particularly request any thoughts, but still there's this flow of thoughts.

Comes along.

How are you feeling emotionally?

In other words, you're just doing a body scan. Now take a moment to bring your awareness deeper inside into this moment.

Take a deep breath in, and as you let it out, let your eyelids close.

Picture the word relax on the back of your forehead. Take another deep breath in, and as you let it out and feel that feeling of letting go, then just let the air do the breathing for you. And with each breath out, think to yourself the words, 'It breathes me. It breathes me.' 5. Sink down into that pause after you've breathed out and before you breathe in again. Feel a little spark of energy that starts the next breath in. You don't have to do the breathing. It's quite magical, isn't it? Doing nothing, the next breath comes.

Good. Now I'm going to show you a little mantra that lasts for 2 breaths. With the first breath in, you will think, breathing in, I relax.

As you breathe out, think, breathing out, I let go. Then with your next breath in, you breathe in thinking living in the present moment. And with that breath out, you think, I know this is the only moment. Beginning by breathing in now.

Breathing in, I relax.

Breathing out, I let go. Living in the present moment. I know this is the only moment.

Continue that.

Breathing in, I relax. Breathing out, I let go. Living in the present moment, I know this is the only moment. Let that be all there is. And now let go of those thoughts and simply be with the experience of each breath as each breath enters and leaves. As your chest and abdomen rise and fall with each breath in and out. Like the waves on the oceans, the swells rise and then they fall.

Good.

Notice what you are experiencing physically. Notice what's happening in your mind, your thoughts. Notice what you feel at the emotional level. Then take one more deep breath in, and as you let it out, let your eyelids open and allow yourself to be present, wide awake. Present, comfortable, clear.

Good.

How was that? What did you notice?

Little experience I learned from Thich Nhat Hanh. I'll tell you more about Thich Nhat Hanh. He was a defining presence in my life from nearly 10 years before I even knew who he was, from back in the middle '70s.

I'll tell you a little bit more about that. So how was that? Do you find yourself relaxing? That was mindfulness. Simple, just being present.

As we go back out into the world, we're going to confront fake news and lies of an enormous variety. Those lies that are coming at us are designed to program our limbic systems, our subconscious minds, without our awareness that we're, that we're being programmed by those ideas. In one of my future programs, I'll show you how remarkably easy that is if you want to find out. Even before then, I'll give you some ways that that you can do that. So as a result of this programming, we end up being prejudiced, blinded to the truth, misled, and because we're afraid of being wrong, our egos defend our prejudice. Ever try to argue with a prejudiced person? Good luck, they will defend it. Because to realize that they've been wrong, and particularly if they realize that in their blindness, in their prejudice, they've injured other human beings deeply, then they're going to feel really guilty or really ashamed. And their deeper mind, their subconscious mind, doesn't want them to have that pain because it's designed to protect you from pain. So people argue against it. The secret then is to be able to come into the present, to let go of your attachment to any beliefs or thoughts, and be willing to consider that there may be other ways to look at things. In regarding the current pandemic, it's been fascinating to me how the leaders of our— the countries of the world the dictators and the populists who lie and whose lies, lies have caused, you know, now hundreds of thousands and will end up causing millions and millions of deaths. It's like the Chinese authorities downplayed the threat of the outbreak when it first began back in December. Italy's Prime Minister downplayed the coronavirus and they accused the media of inflating the information, accused the scientists. Why is it that so many horror movies begin with people— science fiction movies— the disasters begin with people ignoring the scientists? And then even certain people in our own government downplaying the virus. Calling it the Chinese hoax in the beginning, and then calling it the Democratic hoax, and then saying, "Oh, we have everything under control and the virus is just gonna disappear in a short amount of time." Well, we're up to 130,000 deaths in this country because of that. Boris Johnson, another populist, saying the coronavirus is just a moderate risk. And therefore, they were really late in imposing their national lockdown, and their figures of deaths and contracting the disease went up really high. Same thing happened in Iran. They told them the virus isn't going to be a problem. And in Brazil, Bolsonaro repeatedly downplays the coronavirus, calling it a measly cold. And each of these nations is where the— is where you have these huge explosions of the disease. In contrast, governments such as in Germany and Canada, New Zealand, they went into action right away. They believed their scientists. Why don't our populists and our— and our dictators believe? Well, it's because it goes against their principles. Usually they come into power, the populists do, because people are sick of the system that we have. The system is not taking care of people equally, and they're against the system, and they do not believe that the system is ever going to help them out. Middle-aged white people in the southern part of the United States, whoo, They had— did not have the feeling that Barack Obama had their interests at heart. They didn't believe that Hillary Clinton would either. But along came someone who said that he would. So therefore, when these people get into office, they can tell all kinds of lies, but they will not lose their support. Because people say, well, yeah, we hold our nose and vote for him because at least he's going after putting the judges in the Supreme Court that we want and so forth. And these people, the populists and the dictators, they're susceptible to complacency, which is a form of cognitive bias, and they somehow believe that they're special and their country won't be affected. And therefore they delay their response to things. So we have to realize that that's just how, how things are. These leaders mobilize fake news and misinformation because they do not believe in science. In fact, science keeps telling us that they're wrong. And so they're against science because science will say these people should not be running your country. So they're against science and they don't accept it even when the science is really, is really logical. So as a result, we get fake news and, and sometimes, and particularly now, you know, specific news designed to destabilize our country, coming at us from within our country and from other, other countries that want to destabilize ourselves. So we have to be very careful as we go back out into the world. Be wary when you see sloppy writing in a post. If it's a story that raises your hackles and really frightens you, be very suspicious because that's the secret. Now I've talked about that a lot of times. It's an old hypnotic technique. You frighten a person and then you provide them with a piece of information and they grasp on to that information. Somebody says, "What's going on?" "Ah, there's a fire!" And you say, "The fire is coming! Quick, take this!" and give a person something and they will take it and say, "Quick, carry it out of the building!" You can give them a 50-pound rock and they will carry it out of the building. They don't stop to think, I'm carrying a rock. What they think is, fire, I want to get away from the fear, so I'll take the rock, and the rock and running out of the building are connected. So this is how people are sold products. This is how we're sold candidates. So when you feel fear, be suspicious. When you see misspellings and sloppy writing in things that are supposed to be official, you should be very suspicious of that. So let me— what I want to talk about, and I may need to push this to next time because I've blabbed on a little bit too long here already, but I want to talk about shifting to a different paradigm of thinking. Which is what really lies underneath all the things that I present, because it's part of my— it's part of the algorithm set that I used. I did want to say one more thing as I talked about the prejudices that we have. Write this down. It's a test made up at Harvard.

So it's got to be good.

It's basically implicit.harvard.edu/implicit. It's a simple test and it has you pair up positive and negative words. They show you positive and negative words along with pictures of people who appear to be either African American or European American. And the way you do the test is you take it as quickly as you can, and the test is going to demonstrate to you, are you as willing to think a positive word at the same time that you look at a white person as a Black person, or the other way around? And, um, and so it will tell you to what degree you have some bias in that area. It's really fascinating. I'd be curious as to what you find out. Maybe I'll pose that as a question. I'd love it if you could answer that. What score did you receive on that implicit bias test? So we'll go on to that, the principle of the paradigm shift that I think is crucial for our nation, for our planet. Let's tell the truth, I mean, for our planet. We are dealing with planetary problems. Again, those of you who've read my book back from 2009, Our Culture on the Couch: 7 Steps for Global Healing. It's still very relevant. These are all— we need to learn how to think globally. But now the world's going in the wrong direction. We're building walls, we're separating. You know, if you're American, you're not allowed into Europe. Now it's very strange. We need to go in this other direction. I'm, I'm going to be sharing more with you about that. Um, and so what I want to do is to go right on to some imagery, and then this imagery is what I feel is valuable for going back out into the world, dealing with the challenges that are out there, because we have to be the leaders in our own, in our own lives. We have to be, we have to be the leaders. So take a moment. And allow yourself to be in a comfortable position. And if you weren't in a comfortable position already, you might ask yourself why you are not allowing yourself to be in a comfortable position, because you deserve to be comfortable. And in your comfortable position, take a deep breath in, and as you let it out Choose a point in the distance to focus your eyes on. Let everything else fade out of focus so you're just looking at that one point. And allow yourself to be aware there's no other place you need to go, nothing else you need to do, and no problem you you have to solve.

Allow your eyelids to close.

Let your eyes roll upward behind your closed eyelids.

Picture the word relax on the back of your forehead and be aware that there is a conscious, intelligent, wise part of you that has been able to help you make wise choices in the past and that can continue to do so in the future. And be aware that a very wise choice for you at this moment in time is to allow yourself to relax. To be present in this moment, realizing that you can allow each breath to empty your body of all tension, allow each breath to breathe unnecessary thoughts out of your mind, and that wherever you are, you can allow yourself to pause to let go of any thoughts about the outside world and to let your awareness go deeper within, to allow yourself to make contact with that deep wisdom within you. Allowing yourself to focus all of your awareness now on the sound of my voice, and focus on the feeling of sinking deeply into that pause after you breathe out and before the next breath comes in. Sensing the silence that's there. Sensing the stillness of here and now. Here and now. This is the only moment that exists.

The past is gone forever.

Every other moment that has ever existed no longer exists. You don't need to be distracted by it. Allow your monkey mind to be quiet. Be aware that your subconscious mind belongs to you. Your body belongs to you. You have the right and the power to guide your body and your mind to relax. Regardless of what others have drummed into you, consciously and subconsciously, your mind belongs to you, and you have the right and the power to bring your awareness more and more into this moment, the only moment that exists.

And in this moment, you know that it is safe to relax completely.

And anytime any unnecessary thoughts come along, think of those unnecessary thoughts like a part of a story that's been written in a book that was stored in the library in your mind, and there's no need to review those stories at this moment. Put the book back on the shelf. Close the door of the library. And as the air breathes for you, breathing yourself more and more into this moment, you realize that the future is not someplace that you're going. The future is a place you are creating now. In this moment. And in this moment, you have the power to choose to lead your mind to become aware of what is really most important, and to engage in the kind of thinking that will create the future that you desire at the deepest level of your being. And fulfill your deepest purpose and mission. Become the person that you came here to be. Welcome. Emptying your mind of all distractions, unnecessary thoughts, questions, doubts, criticisms, comparisons, thoughts about the past or the future, singing into that pause, peaceful. And imagine that you have a magic carpet of relaxation that can take you through space and time to a very pleasant and a very peaceful place, a very special place where only you can go. A place of utter peace and tranquility, far, far away from anything that could ever disturb you. A place that is completely safe and secure, where you can be in touch with your deepest values and awaken the wisest guidance from within you, floating on your magic carpet through space and time to your special place. And perhaps you can slowly begin to make out the shapes and colors around you as you arrive, the light and shadow, the gentle movement around you. And maybe your special place is a beautiful seen in nature, where you're surrounded by the green of growing things beneath the beautiful blue sky, or the branches of a loving tree. Or you might find yourself indoors in a beautifully appointed room, your own place. Maybe you're inside of a castle or chapel or a stone building in the forest with a strong lock on the door. A place where you feel totally safe, completely comfortable, hearing the sounds around you or the silence in this your special place. Smelling the fragrance of the air. And here now, allowing yourself to know that within you is a wise guide, a wise essence that knows how to breathe you, that knows how to circulate oxygen and energy through your body. To renew life within you with each breath, that knows how to balance the functioning of every cell in your body, to balance the functioning of every cell in your brain, to sense the presence of this wisdom now. And allow your wise guide to join you here in your special place. And notice how your guide appears to you today. Perhaps you see him or her or it as a certain wise person, someone you may have known, or even a saint or a holy person you may have known or read about. A spirit guide. Power animal or a loving essence that you may experience as being separate from you, or maybe as part of your inner being. However you experience this wise guide, experience this presence now. Yes, that's it. And let yourself feel the respect that you have for the source of wisdom within you, however you experience it. And for a moment, let yourself recall one or two times in the past when you have made wise choices, times when you were able to overcome distraction and see the whole picture. Times when your choices reflected your deeper values, when you stood up against superficial urges, when you used your intelligence and your intuition well, when you acted with courage and compassion. Simply be aware of some times when you were able to be wise, not do the easy thing, but to do the wise thing, to serve your deeper values, fulfilling your purpose, your mission here on this little blue-green planet. And even if you can't think of a specific incident, you know that you have been wise in the past. Just be aware that that's true and allow yourself to feel gratitude to the source of this wisdom. Whether you know what that source is or not, feel the gratitude. Good. Gratitude is so important. It guarantees that that wisdom will be available to you again and again. Good. And now let yourself become aware of your special gifts in this lifetime, in this body, with this mind, become aware of your special talents, your skills, your intuition, the energy that you have, the passion that you feel, your ability to care, your ability to love, your ability to allow yourself to be loved. Your sense of purpose and vision, your capacity to feel enthusiasm and inspiration, your creativity. Whatever your gifts and talents may be, be aware of at least some of them right now and sense your appreciation and your respect for these gifts you've been given. And again, feel gratitude to their source. Say that little prayer of thank you if you know how to do that. And be aware of your commitment to use your gifts and talents well in the service of your true values. And guided by your inner wisdom, be aware of the deeper values that you wish your gifts to serve. What are your deeper values? Truth, honesty, balance, fairness, love, loyalty. Kindness, gratitude, courage, faith, healing, or perhaps a sacred being that you know of. Whatever deeper values that you want to inform your life, your thoughts, your words and deeds? What are the qualities you want your life to reflect? Sense these qualities within you now.

That's it.

Good. Take another deep breath in, and gradually, as I count from 1 to 3, let yourself climb aboard your magic carpet and leave this beautiful place within, knowing that you can return to it anytime you wish. And then, at the count of 3, you can allow yourself to be completely wide awake.

1.

Gradually returning to an awareness of the space around you. 2. The surface beneath you, the sound of my voice, recalling the time of the day, the day of the week. Bring yourself all the way back as though you've been asleep for a while. 2.5. Reawakening gradually and Slowly feeling refreshed and alert and clear, just as though you've had a long nap and you've traveled to a very important place very far away and yet very, very near. Feeling invigorated, taking a deep breath in. As you let it out, letting your eyelids be open and think wide awake. 3. And take a moment, notice how comfortable you feel. Yeah, I know there was a lot There's a lot there, but after you practice that, you can go through that, that whole thing in 10 seconds because it guides you to be in touch with your values, with your life's mission, your purpose, your gifts and your talents, and to really dedicate yourself to what you're here to do. To give gratitude to the source, to open yourself to your wisdom and your spirit within. Dedicate yourself in full reverence to that.

Wow, feel that.

So you can learn that, and the way you learn it, of course, is by practicing, right?

We've been trained to follow Big Daddy along and to do what Daddy tells us to do. As I say, we've been programmed by the most amazing propaganda that's out there. Um, I told you I would give you a link to take a look at how program we are, take a look at the Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman, K-A-H-N-E-M-A-N, Kahneman, K-A-H-N-E-M-A-N, Daniel Kahneman, who along with his partner Tversky, Tversky and Kahneman, um, he wrote a book, um, that is very, very popular recently. But some of the best things you can do is to go onto, onto the internet and look up some of the videos on YouTube and talking about Daniel Kahneman's work. It's, it's, it's, it's pretty It's pretty amazing. So much more, I've got to put it off until next week. We get to a tipping point and things change, and that I think we're about near that tipping point in the world right now, right away. And I'm, you know, I guess egotistical enough to believe that I have some very important information that will help us make it over that tipping point. And what do I have left to do it in? A couple of years, maybe. So the more you can get the word out, the better. That tipping point is what's represented by this chart. You know, we have the innovators— a lot of you listening, and you know who you are, you You're innovators. You like to do things a new way. That's what I am. I'm like that too. And there's a lot of you who are early adopters. You look at this and say, my God, this— what this guy's talking about makes sense to me. This is applicable to my life. I can use this. I can help other people. I can help dogs and cats and plants and planets. You're the early adopters. Then there comes the chasm, because you need numbers and numbers. It's a numbers game. When we get beyond a certain point, we jump over to this other side where the main majority comes in, the early main majority, and then the rest of the main majority, and then the laggards come along, the late adopters, or the ones who are really hard to change. And then there's the laggards who, who, who never get it, who continue to fight in the other direction. So here we are. Min, great being with you. Have a wonderful week. Have a really wonderful Independence Day, and may your independence Independence Day, find you becoming ever more independent and interdependent.

Namaste.

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