Episode 168: Do You Suffer from Mental Poverty

Welcome to the Soul of Innovation podcast. I am Thomas Anglero and I am back from a trip to New York City, back to the neighborhood in which I grew up in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, down on Delancey and FDR Drive, right next to the Williamsburg Bridge. And let me tell you, the reflections I have today after not being there for several, several years because of the lockdown and everything, and finally went back and what I've seen, I like to share. And the reflection is this on a very high level: the life we have, the things we do on a day-to-day basis, is it our fault? That's the question. What do I mean by that? Let me tell you a story. While I was there, I was there for an unfortunate reason. A family member of mine was sick in the hospital, and so fortunately the hospital was Beth Israel Hospital, so I was able to walk to 16th Street and First Avenue from where— from down on Delancey. So from this walk this walk that I've taken many times since I was a child. I mean, literally from the time I could crawl, I was living there. And back in those days, back in the '70s, things were different. There was this— this was, uh, that part of the place, the part of town was full of minorities, immigrants, people trying to barely make it. It's the projects, the ghetto. That's what it is. Today, regentrification and plain and simple money has pushed into every part of the Lower East Side except for the projects. The projects are the last piece that stand there, and the people who live in the projects still are there. Now here's the contrast. Here's the interesting part. As I walk to the hospital every single day, I walk through the projects, and literally as I cross the street on Houston Street, I left the projects and I entered I entered opulence, luxury, money, opportunity, enthusiasm, energy for as many blocks and many streets as I walked until I got to the hospital. And even at the hospital on 16th and 4th Avenue, it's blistering, it's full of vitality and everything. On the walk back home, same experience in reverse. And as soon as I crossed over Houston Street, bam. The projects. This feeling of heaviness, this feeling of this is all I got. Talk to the people, nicest people in the world, friendliest people in the world, but talking to like people sort of like a horse with blinders on where you can't see ahead of you. You can't see to the side of you. You only see what's happening there at the moment inside your head. It's as if they're inside of a dome. And that— is that a function of poverty? Or is that a function of our own mental handicap, our own self choking our ability to see beyond what we only can see? I'm wondering seriously if poverty is not just something financial, but you could have a poverty mindset. You could be poverty-starved mentally. Mental, mental poverty is what I'm looking— talking about. Mental poverty is that you're not capable of seeing your life any way else than the way you see it now. That you're stuck spinning the same picture, the same sound, the same people, the same every day with the same beat that you do it, the same rhythm, the same thoughts. It's just this repetitive, repetitive story over and over. Not even day after day. I'm talking about year after year, decade after decade. You see people get married, you see people give birth, you see people die, and you're still doing the same thing. And when I think of that, I realize that here I am living in Norway, people suffer from mental poverty here too. It's because we repeat the same thing, we see ourselves the same way, we can't go beyond it. The only thing we see, for some reason somebody's put into our heads, is that if we make more money we're a better person, which is complete bull. Money is just money. You want to be a better person, love somebody else more, love yourself even more so that way you can help other people. Money just buys you more clothes, another car, bigger house, bigger bills. It's money. You want to be famous and loved, love more people. You want to feel good about yourself, love more people. Mental poverty. Mental Poverty is something I think we all suffer from. It's just a different amount. Are you at a mental poverty mindset? Are you stuck seeing your life the same way all the time, doing the same things all the time? For example, going to work— or sorry, getting up in the morning Getting dressed, going to work, or if you're working from home, it's probably even worse, isn't it? Now you get up and you're already at work. The most exciting part of your morning is the breakfast. You get to look at some TikTok or something like that, or maybe you get to look at the paper. And now you start your workday. And now the snow's coming, you're saying, ooh, I can't wait to ski. I can sneak in a couple of ski trips during the day. These are your exciting parts of your life. That's being mentally poor. Life is more than just these little things. Now, I'm not saying that going for a ski trip is not nothing. It's fantastic. It's a wonderful break from the day. But is that why you're here? Are you here on this planet? Are you here to live this life so that you have a joyous hour, 30 minutes, 45 minutes of skiing, feeling good about yourself, and then you're back to your desk and you're back at your job and you're back in frustration, you're back on a Teams or Zoom call. That don't sound like a good life to me. What or why are you stuck being mentally poor? What is it? Why is that same day that I think of a record repeating, you know, in the good old days when you had a record and the needle gets stuck and it repeats over and over and over. If you don't know what I'm talking about, just imagine something repeating over and over It was called Imagine Your Life, right? There you go. You don't have to imagine it. You're living it. Why are you reliving the same day over and over and over? It's sort of like that guy with the groundhog. He woke up and every day he wakes up, he relives the same day over and over and over. But in your life, you're getting older. If you're a woman, you're seeing body parts drop. If you're seeing a man, you're seeing body parts grow and then they drop, right? This— your six-pack. You'll never see your six-pack again. You'll never see your hair again. Add on and on and on. What is it? Why are we stuck spinning around in this circle? Let me give you some advice to get out of this circle, because I feel that sometimes I'm stuck in the circle too. There's— I accomplish some things and then I like fall back. I think we all fall back. One, we have to reteach ourselves how to relax. There is a, there's a rich man's way of relaxing, a healthy, nourishing way of relaxing. Let's forget about rich man because it's not about wealth. It is a healthy way of relaxing and there's a poor way of relaxing. A poor way of relaxing is anything to do with social media because you're watching other people's lives which are messing with your head. Forget other people's life. Other people don't dictate your life. You dictate your life. So do the opposite of watching other people. Find yourself a chair. Find yourself a piece of— on the floor next to a wall, support your back a little bit, or just lay down on the damn floor. Make sure it's clean and not too damn cold. Keep your eyes open or close them and think about you. This is called meditation. It's not some guru funky thing. It's about being in touch with you. Thinking those thoughts that you don't want to think. So many people today— gaming is a huge thing because people don't want to spend, spend time thinking about the things that bother them, so they game, so they avoid reality. You want to take yourself to the next level? You want to stop spinning around on this record that's stuck repeating, repeating, repeating your life, that's repeating, repeating, repeating? Focus on you. Focus on the things you don't want to focus on. Focus on the thoughts you're trying to avoid. That person that you did wrong a long time ago You really hate thinking about that, don't you? Think about it and then say, well, how am I going to do about it? You have to do something about it. If you don't, you are damned to have— be stuck on this circle of repeating this day, repeating and repeating, the thoughts repeating, repeating, the same dreams, the same visions, the same thing. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. 2022, 2023, 2027. You're still the same thoughts, same person, just older, more annoyed. Focus on your life and what is bothering you and where you want to go. Focus on where you want to be tomorrow. See that vision of what you want to be tomorrow. How do you want to feel? How do your shoulders want to feel? How do you want the world to appear to see you? How do you want your haircut? How do you want to walk? How shiny do you want your shoes to be? How big a smile do you want to have? I think little goals like that about you every day, eventually you are that and you've changed that record. You've moved to another track, you move to another life. But if you don't do anything to push yourself to be that which you know you can be, to focus on those things that bother you, to focus on those things that you're playing over and over and over, You're going to be stuck. Stuck like those people in the Lower East Side. My friends, my family live there. The people I grew up still live there. And they're doing the same things. They're just older with more stories because they talk to this person, that person did this wrong, this person did that one wrong. But it's all the same. What life have you lived the last few years? Are you doing the same thing? Are you at the same place? Are you complaining about the same things? Are there new things on your list? But underneath all those new things, you're actually avoiding all the old things because those haven't changed either. It's time to take back your life. It's time to cut off and let anybody dictate to you who you are and where you're going. Things are getting bad out here because we're listening and watching too much the outside world, and we spend no time with with the inside world inside of you. And the answer to all your frustration, the answer to your health problems, the answer to the love that you're seeking is all found within you. Everything's found within you. But damn, do we avoid that pain. We avoid ourselves. We say, "I want to be with more people. I want to be more social. I want people to love me." Always external stuff. The answer is actually You. You. It's you. Think those thoughts and spend time with that inner you, that person you don't spend any time with. Do you know how lonely you are? You do, don't you? And you can solve that loneliness just by spending time with yourself. Spending time with that part of you that hurts so much, that is so lonely, that is so scared, it is so frightened. That's what you have to do. That is so upset. Imagine, imagine meeting someone who's scared and frightened and lonely. You meet this person, let's say, in a room someplace. You know they want company. You know they need a hug. You you know they need someone to listen to, and it's just you and that person. What would you do? Would you walk away? Would you walk out of that room? That's what you're doing every single time you ignore yourself. Every single time you don't talk to you, spend time with you, you're literally walking away from your own self. That opportunity you have to give yourself a hug, that opportunity you have to help that person that's desperately crying out for help. And you, you are the one that can help them. You're there right now. This is your moment. And you don't help them. You're not helping you. Do you understand? When you walk away from that person, you're walking away from you, and you're leaving that person there in that room, and they're just totally crushed now. And that's what your inner soul feels like every time you don't spend time with you. You're crushing your soul more. Spend time with you. What do I do when I spend time with me? You don't do anything, but you let those thoughts come and you deal with them. You think about them and you say, how can I be better? Why did I do that? Yeah, it's really painful, but you need that love and you need that attention, so give it to you. Those people, those loving human beings who do this, are the young loving human beings we see and we admire. People we see walking down the street and they're glowing, you wonder how are they like that way. People you look at and you go, wow. People you hear about Those are them. And the only difference between you and them, me and you, is that they spent time with themselves. They gave themselves a hug. They didn't walk out of that room and leave that person all alone. They sat down on the floor beside him and said, let's spend time together. Let's talk. What do you need? And then gave him a hug. Give yourself a hug. Go forth and spread beauty and light. Shut off TikTok, YouTube, Instagram. Shut it all off. Shut off reading damn newspaper. Shut off the TV set. For God, please shut off the TV set. Now you're saying, what do I do? You know, you get that antsy feeling of what to do, what to do. Then whenever you get that antsy feeling, that's the time for you to sit down in a corner, no chair needed, and just be with yourself. And those thoughts is that antsy feeling that that's the calling to spend time with you. Every time you get that feeling of what do I do now? I can't— I got to do something. That's the time to be with yourself. Because when you're truly centered, you know you're truly centered, and you know, in a place of 100% love, and you know you're comfortable with you, is when you have no anxiety and everything. You just feel this amazing, relaxing feeling. There's no pressure to go anywhere. There's no need to contact people. Everything is beautiful, and you understand everything comes when it needs to come. Then there's no more stress. That is a part of your life. You just need to sit down on the floor and spend time with your thoughts. I'm Thomas Anglero. Reflecting hard, reflecting deeply, because I refuse to accept that poor people, rich people, the difference isn't money. Obviously it is money, but the true difference is the mindset. It's the mind. I want you not to ever feel alone. I want you never to feel doubt, insecure. Spend time in yourself. I love you. Now sit down on the floor and love yourself. Until next time.