PNTV - Courageous Dreaming by Alberto Villoldo

You're listening to Optimize with Brian Johnson. More wisdom in less time. Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to Philosopher's Notes tv. Today I have a great book, Courageous Dreaming. Courageous Dreaming by Alberto Vildo. Subtitle How Shamans Dream the World Into Being. Tomorrow we're going to cover a note on another one of his great books called Power up youp Brain, which is about the neuroscience of enlightenment. Super cool. This is how I met Alberto. I picked up that other book, enjoyed it, saw that he talked about a book called Courageous Dreaming. I thought that sounds pretty amazing and got this book. Glad I did. It's fantastic. Philosopher's Note, bunch of big ideas. Let's jump in and talk about my favorite five. So idea here is not to change your actual dreaming state, but to bring a vision of your ideal life into your reality in the waking state. So the book is all about how we can unpack that from a shaman's perspective. He's trained with shamans and spiritual teachers in South America, the Andes and the Amazon for 25 plus years. Really cool guy who blends those ideas with neuroscience. But the first idea here is we need to figure out which role we're going to play in our life. In our dream, are we living in a nightmare where we're a victim or are we going to truly live in a dream where we're the hero? He says you have a choice. You can either choose to create your ideal life or you can choose to have all the reasons why you can't create that ideal life. But you can't have both. You need to pick. Are you going to be a victim and complain about all the things that aren't working for you? Your bad childhood and this challenge and that challenge, that's just the story you're telling again again. The nightmare you're repeating again and again. Or are you going to choose to let go of those limitations and all the stories about why you can't have what you want and actually create it? Victim to hero. Now, in the note, I talk about a really cool dynamic that Alberto goes into. But basically a lot of teachers talk about the fact that a victim needs a bully. Other teachers call it a persecutor. And then they need a rescuer. So if I'm a victim, I'm constantly saying, someone outside of me or something outside of me is persecuting me as a bully. I need to find a rescuer, right? Whether it's a pill or a magic secret or whatever to rescue me from my bully, that's the victim Orientation. David Emerald, who wrote a great book called the Power of Ted, which is one of my favorite books I've ever read, talks about the fact that we need to shift and mirrors what Alberto is talking about. So basically, we need to move from victim to hero. David Emerald calls it creator. From victim to creator. Now, you still have a triangle, right? But you redefine it. The creator doesn't think he has bullies in his life. He just thinks he has challenges, challengers, right? And then he doesn't think he needs rescuers. He just looks at it and says, I have coaches. I have people that support me. Right? So victim to creator, victim to hero. And the question that we ask ourselves when we're in a victim state and we're constantly complaining, criticizing, gossiping, blaming, everything is outside of us. The way you make the transition from victim to hero and creator is to ask yourself, what do I want? What's happening when you're complaining is there's a thwarted desire, there's something you want that you may not even be aware of, but you don't think you can have it, so you're complaining. What we need to do is take the power back, become the hero of our own lives, and say, what do I want? Okay, cool. That's what I want. And I'm going to quit being negative about all the things that are in my way, and I'm going to create it. I'm not going to think I have bullies. I'm going to see challenges that make me stronger, not looking for a rescue, or I'm going to find ways to be supported by coaches, etc. It's a huge distinction. That's a long look at the first big idea. Victim or hero. It's the essence of everything we do in these episodes and in the notes is making this move. Next big idea, your brain. So, as I mentioned, Alberto integrates a lot of cool neuroscience ideas, and he says, look, if you had negative events in your past, well, first of all, everyone has, so you're human. But if you're recalling them in the present, your brain doesn't know the difference between the past experience and the present. It's lighting up the exact same neural pathways with very similar intensity, and it's as if you're reliving that negative event. That's not a good idea. If we want to optimize our lives, we need to quit doing that, quit replaying the nightmare again and again and again, because all we're doing is grooving it into our consciousness and making it more Likely we're going to continue to experience that nightmare. Now the good news is when you quit telling that story again and again, you can create a new story. When you imagine your ideal and anytime you find that old negative story come up, you turn it off. Those neural pathways wither away. They're literally pruned, like leaves falling off of a tree, kind of. They're no longer as strong and vital. It's a good thing. Then you tell your story about where you want to be. He talks as well about the fact that when you imagine your future, good athletes don't imagine winning the gold medal. We've talked about this a number of times. That's not what they visualize. That's not helpful. That's just daydreaming. It's not effective. Courageous dreaming. What we want to do is to imagine the race we're going to run in order to win the gold medal. And again, the gold medal is a byproduct. We're focused on what we're going to do. The heroic actions we're going to take day in and day out to create that. That's your brain in the past, the present and the future. Be aware of what you're doing to groove it. Third big idea is perfection. He's got some great lines about how we need to let go of our tendency to think that we need to be perfect. We look at heroes and he says, we don't need any more mythological heroes, we just don't need them. We fantasize and we think that these people, whether it's mythological make believe heroes or real life heroes, we think they're perfect. He says, no one is perfect. Look at people you admire. Thomas Jefferson, one of the founding fathers, truly a great human being. And he was far from perfect. He owned slaves. He had a relationship with one of his slaves, actually had children with her. And then his own children were slaves for a period of time. What? He was flawed deeply, yet he was also great. He wasn't perfect. Talks about Martin Luther King. He had a dream, very courageous dream. And he also had extramarital affairs. Wasn't perfect. John Lennon wrote about all we need is love. And Alberto tells us when he had a horrible relationship with his oldest son. But all we need is love. None of these people are perfect. And they're still great. We can still admire them, see them in their whole humanity. And the point being, we need to quit thinking we need to be perfect. When you set yourself up with that standard, you're setting yourself up for burnout and for overwhelm and for stress and for just giving up. Not a good idea. Abraham Maslow tells us, there are no perfect human beings, and I like to say you're not going to be the first. So let go of your need to be perfect. We can talk about that for a lot longer. Next big idea. Awesome times three. So as you're rewiring your brain, you're going to have days when you're struggling. It's a little challenging on those days. It's particularly important that you don't groove the negative stuff. Alberto says, see if you can come up with at the end of a day, whether it's a good day or not a good day. Three things that went well that you're grateful for. Identify those, think about them, reflect on them, and then think about what you did, what role you played to bring those things into your life. Three awesome things you can be grateful for and how you played a part in bringing them into your life. It's a great way to see that you're an active agent in creating your optimal life. You're a hero in your own story in small, everyday ways, which is ultimately what it's all about. Martin Seligman has almost the identical exercise in a book that he wrote, his most recent one called Flourish. He calls it what Went well Today, where you basically do that. Identify three things, see what role you played. Why did they happen? It's a great, great practice. Highly recommend it. Think right now. What are three things in the last 24 hours that were awesome that you're grateful for? Could be small things or more significant things. But I encourage you, press pause right now and think about that. Write it down, the three things. Then. Why did they happen? What role did you play in bringing those things into your life? Big practice, big idea. Fifth Big Idea is the final chapter of the book, and it is basically, we need to be ready to die. We need to act as if today is our very last day on the planet. Most people are running away from death rather than putting their energy into their creative, original force, life force. He says we need to reverse that. The ancient shamans taught and the modern shamans teach that we need to embrace our mortality and realize that we're not guaranteed anything beyond this moment. And the question is, are we showing up in our fullest integrity right now? He gives us two exercises that are worth talking about briefly. The first one is, when you wake up in the day, remind yourself this might be your last day. And then think about, how would you make today perfect? How would you create a Perfect day. See that in your mind. What would you do? How would you interact with people? Envision it, see that, and then create it. That's exercise number one. The second exercise is imagine that you, in fact do die today and write your eulogy for your life from birth to now. What would you want to share? If you were at your own funeral and someone was going to read a eulogy you wrote, what would they say? What would you want people to remember? What did you achieve? Who were you? And if there are parts of the story as you rewrite it, write it from a heroic perspective that you faced your challenges and you grew in the midst of challenge and maybe despair, et cetera. If there are aspects of your eulogy that you're not particularly proud of, that you wish you could change, change them. Work on that right now. Get in integrity. Get lined up so that who you aspire to be in your ultimate description in your eulogy at the end of your life is who you are now. It's one of the most powerful exercises we can ever do. And there you go. Quick look at courageous dreaming. You got your eulogy. You got your perfect day. You got your awesome times. Three things you're grateful for, and you can see what your role in creating them was. You're going to get rid of your need to be perfect. No one was perfect. No one's going to be perfect. Let's embrace that and just let ourselves be who we are. Your brain, if you're thinking about a horrible thing in the past, right now, it's as if it's happening again. Not a good idea. Let's think about what we want to see and specifically the behaviors we're going to take in the future. And. And then again, write the narrative. Write the myth. You can choose to either be a victim or a hero. You can choose to either go for and have your ideal life or your excuses for why you can't have it. It's our choice. Let's dream courageously and enjoy the process. Hope you enjoyed. Look forward to sharing more with you soon. Have another awesome day. See you. Hi, this is Brian. I hope you enjoyed that Philosopher's Notes TV episode. If so, I think you'll enjoy everything else we offer. BrianJohnson Me two basic things. One, our free newsletter. It's called the Optimizer. Over 50,000 people start their day with it and they tell us it's pretty awesome. And two, our Optimal living membership program. This is where I put all my best stuff. 10 bucks a month for a ton of wisdom. Two primary things in there philosopher's notes plus optimal living 101 classes when you sign up, you'll get instant access to 250 philosopher's notes, which are basically six page PDFs and 20 minute MP3s where I capture my favorite big ideas from great books. The PNTV episodes are kind of a mini version of all that goodness. You'll also get instant access to all my optimal Living classes. This is where I take all the ideas we cover in the Philosopher's Notes and and boil it down to the most practical stuff you can apply today. Classes include Confidence 101, Getting Stuff Done 101, Relationships 101, Habits 101, et cetera. You'll also get access to what we call micro classes that I think you'll love. We aim to astonish and we're blessed to have thousands of members telling us we're helping them change their lives and that this is the best 10 bucks they invest in themselves every month. Go to BrianJohnson ME membership to learn more. Thanks for your support and have an awesome day.