309 Agapi Stassinopoulos: Wake Up to the Joy of You

This is the best day of my life. Say this to yourself. This is the best day of my life. Because it's the only day of my life. And regardless of what's happening, regardless of who I'm with, regardless of what I'm doing or not doing, it is worth celebrating. Because today I'm alive. And as simple as that. This is profound because suddenly you realize if you open up your heart to the gratitude of your life, of your God self breathing through you, and that's wellness to me, then you will find your next thing, whatever your next thing is. Or maybe your next thing is being quiet and still and calm and communing with the divine. Or maybe the next thing is sitting there and doing forgiveness on yourself. So that area of where I think I should be versus to where I am locks me in.

That's Agape Stasinapoulos. And this is episode 309 of Wellness Force Radio. Wellness Force Radio, where we discover the physical and emotional intelligence to live life well.

You can have the same brain states as someone who's done an hour of meditation every day for 40 years.

There's a lot of losses that we go through.

So the ability to be able to.

Cope with those losses is very important to build skill in it, because loss will happen. You know, you have to have spiritual.

Courage to really grow spiritually, spiritually. Because if you really want to take.

Guidance from your soul, you have to.

Be ready to realize that many of.

The things that you're asking for guidance.

On, your ego has some kind of an addiction to or an investment in.

Hey, podcast world. It's Josh Trent. Welcome. Welcome to Wellness Force. We've got a great show for you today. This is Agape Stasianopoulos. On a very special Friday, I got to meet this woman, this powerhouse, this speaker and author and. And true force of wellness. I was at this dinner with Dave Asprey at the Upgrade Labs event in LA earlier this year. And, you know, everything happens for a reason, right at the perfect time. That's how this podcast happened. You know, waking up to this concept that Agape's gonna share with us today. Waking up to the joy of you. When I first read the book and I went through it, I gotta be honest, I was like, you know, I've heard some of these things before, but that's not true. The things that she shares. And what you're really gonna get out of this podcast is that no matter how old you are or what your path in life is, if you're in a job right now, that you're not happy with or if you're in a career that's causing you pain or if you just want change. If you're just literally walking a new path of change. You're going to get major gems from her. Share her story is powerful and the things that she's gone through. To be able to write this book and also to speak across the world, I know you're going to connect with. And if you're connected to Agape, make sure that you give her some love on social media and hold on, I gotta take a sip of something real quick. This is the green juice. This juice is my juice. It's the only thing that allows me to have that afternoon pickup with my movement snack without having a bunch of caffeine. You know how it goes. When you have too much caffeine, you count the ceiling tiles at night. That's not the case with our show sponsor. Literally the only juice on the market that I consume because first of all, it tastes amazing. I don't drink things that don't taste good. Life is too short. Life is too short to drink that tastes bad. Right? And that's how I feel about health. Anything. Anything. Health and wellness. I wanna drink and eat things that taste good. We do not have to sacrifice any kind of taste or enjoyment to live our life well. This is why we partner with Organifi and they support the show and you get the ultimate hookup. We talked about adaptogens. We've talked about energy from the inside out. If you notice that you're having too much coffee or if you feel a little bit jittery in the afternoon, swap it out with Organifi instead. It works for me. I know it'll work for you. You can give it a test drive over@organifi.com wellness. You get 15. Actually, no. You get 20% off. I almost said 15. You get 20% off. That is a huge chunk of savings. 20% off. You will not find that more on the interwebs, I promise you. Because I've scoured it. That's code WellnessForce. You get 20% off. You can share that code with as many people as you want. Maybe share the code with somebody that annoys you. Maybe they're annoying you because they're low energy and they need some green juice. Organifi.com wellnessforce use code wellnessforce. You get 20% off your entire order. Now, Agape, she is a powerhouse, as I mentioned, but she's also been through some very unique learning curves in life that have allowed her to show up, to heal not only herself, but to heal others. We'll talk about healing the pain of separation. We'll talk about worrying and the soul. If you're troubled by external circumstances, it's not the circumstances that trouble you, it's your perception of them. And they are in your power to change at any time. We're going to talk about why worry is the lowest form of prayer. I love this. I love this concept. We also talk about how the. The only way you can fully express your joy is to feel all your feelings, the dark ones, the shadow that Jung talks about. That's what leads us to love and to feeling the joy and the happiness. I can relate to this too. I'm in this new relationship right now. We've been together for around six months. And I'm sure you can relate if you are in a long term relationship or if you're in a new one. Wow. Being in a relationship, it is the biggest mirror for our triggers, for our joy, for our everything. And I love this woman. I love myself. That's the core element of the work, right? But along with self love and along with really understanding who we are, it's about letting go. We hear this concept so much in personal development and wellness, don't we? Just let go. Just let go. But how do you actually. How do you actually let go? Now? One could say, well, you just let go. But there is an inner guidance that Agape is going to share with us today that is going to help you let go. If you are currently struggling or you're having a hard time letting go of something that doesn't serve you. Listen deeply to this podcast. Pause it, rewind it, make some notes. Make sure you get her free meditations as well. She offered very powerful meditations for us. Waking up to the Joy of youf is her book and I so appreciate you. If you get something from this show, please leave us a podcast review. It actually would mean a lot to me and our entire team if you could do us that quick favor. It allows the show to rank higher. Basically, the way itunes works is the more reviews we get, the more we raise in the algorithm, then more smart people like you, more intelligent people like us find the show and then they share it with their friends and then everybody's happy, right? We can reach more people. We can have Joe Dispenza on the podcast in 2020. So if you want that to happen, go to wellnessforce.com review and by the way, every month for the people that leave reviews, we always pick one lucky listener to get 90 days of Organifi for free. So you can get the ultimate hookup, free organifi. Just leave us a review@wellnessforce.com review. Now let's drop in with Agape Stasianopoulos so we can understand how to Wake up to the Joy of youf. My guest today is a motivational speaker, a multiple published author, with her most recent book, Wake up to the Joy of youf, 52 Meditations and Practices for a Calmer, happier life. She was raised in Athens, Greece, who now works in New York. And she was raised with feta cheese, olive oil, and the principle of radical generosity. Agape Sassenopoulos, welcome to Wellness Force.

Thank you so much. I love that name, Wellness Force. I have to tell you, that should be imprinted in our foreheads.

Well, it definitely imprinted in our consciousness and this is what we explore on the show. You know, this is why I'm so excited to talk with you, because I met you at the Bulletproof dinner with Dave Asprey and our friend Tanya connected us. And I just saw this phrase on a card. You handed me a card, and the card said, wake up to the Joy of youf. And immediately I was like, okay, I gotta know about this. What exactly is Wake up to the Joy of youf? Did this come through for you in a moment or is this a culmination of the other three, four books you've written?

Well, the Wake up to the Joy of youf came actually through my publishers, the Penguin book, when I had given them the whole manuscript and I had come up with 52 themes from my life and our lives because we're all so connected that basically we all can relate to. And these themes, you know, Josh, were anything from how to make your health a priority, how to manage your energy, how to deal with money, how to not relinquish your inner authority, how to get beyond comparisons, how to trust your creativity, how to find your calling, how to be devoted, disciplined and discerning. How to know that there is always a solution. How to live in gratitude. Aren't these amazing subjects?

Yes, you just keep going down the rungs here. And this has been a lifelong journey for you. I was telling you I have all these pages detailed with notes for our podcast today.

Oh, thank you so much. I really, really appreciate when someone like you takes the time and you get to know me through my work. So as I was saying, when I had given the manuscript to Penguin to my wonderful editor there, the title of my book was how to Embrace Grace, Embracing Grace. But they just said to me, the marketing team there said when we read this book, we feel this incredible jo and they know me. And they said, you know, agape, when you walk into a room, you bring joy. And I thought, that is amazing because I have to tell you a very human, vulnerable story. When I was a little girl, my sister Arianna, who created the Huffington Post, you know, Arianna Huffington and now runs Thrive Global, that I work with, was an incredibly brilliant student in algebra, in math. She had that kind of brain, Josh, that was like so fast, read every single book. At the age of 16, she was studying economics to go to Cambridge. And I was this free spirited, this joyful girl who all wanted to do is make people happy, love them, and live in a world that there was only love. And of course, little did I know that that wasn't going to be the case. But I love the arts. I studied acting, I studied ballet, and I used to torment myself that I was so lousy in math. So when my mother would come back from our high school and my sister would get as and I would get Fs, I would be mortified, you know, and my mother would look at me, Josh, and she would say, darling, don't give a damn about math or algebra or school. You are here for the joy. Now isn't that amazing? Think if you are a, a 14 year old girl and you are insecure about your academics and your mother tells you that you are here to share your gift of joy and love. I mean, that kind of does something to you. And then of course, she helped me get to the best drama school in the world, the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts. And that was the way that she ushered me to find my talent. And then of course, in my Greek epic story, that didn't work out. And I found my path through psychology and through spirituality.

I want to go into your path though, because this is a really interesting undercurrent of how you even wrote the book. You know, this book came through. Yes, Joy, but also, like we all share this universal experience of pain and of letting go of things that really aren't of service. And there's so many things in this book that we could cover. But I feel like a great starting place is actually chapter 41. It's accepting where you are right now.

Oh, that's amazing.

You've had a busy day. A lot of us have full schedules. And you actually mentioned this. And you see, you said in my 40s I pursued this acting career and thinking about marriage, you shifted your outlook and your path towards getting to know and fully expressing myself. And I think this is really the culmination point for most people is it's. They're not accepting what is. You could look at Byron, Katie's work, you could understand anything about just. Just being really aware of the present moment. I've fallen down this well multiple times myself, where I realized, damn, you mean it's not Disneyland with the white slipper and, like the knight in shining armor? And there's not the fairy tale. Like, sometimes the fairy tale doesn't work out. And I feel like we've been sold this movie that we're all supposed to believe in, that things are supposed to, with air quotes, be a certain way. This was not the case in your 40s. Can you take us to that moment?

At that point, it was a series of inner work and a series of knocking at the door and everything. Everything that I didn't get led me to this incredible awareness that I was really here in this planet Earth to get agape, that she was mine, that I had to own her, I had to love her. I had to go to the depths of the barrel, to the bottom line of the despair, actually, and the loneliness, the incredible loneliness, and forgive so much of what I thought the world should give me. And that was deep. And I had a spiritual teacher in Los Angeles, John Roger, who. And I was on a spiritual path, but I think part of it, and why I have so much compassion now, Josh, for anybody, young girls or men or women who say, I don't feel I know my place in the world. I don't feel I belong. I feel I'm a stranger in a strange land. And I said, my darling, let me tell you how that is the case for most of us. I said, if you really think that people get up and they belong, they're very rare cases, and God bless them if they feel that way. But 99% of the people walk around feeling amiss, feeling they're not enough, feeling the human condition. And for me, my awareness was that basically my soul had a calling, this lifetime to be here and to find itself without the man, without the children, without the successful career, to find it in its universality of its immense love. And that my heart opened up. And I wrote a book before this called Unbinding the Heart. And I had a very visceral experience of what it is like to open your heart, spiritual heart, energy. I was at a retreat with my spiritual teacher, and he was sharing with people and talking to people. And as that happened, the love that was transmuted from him because he was a master on this planet Earth. That love kind of permeated in my heart, in my cells, and the gates opened and flooded me. It was a moment that you cannot make up. You know, you cannot pretend it's happening. It just takes you over.

What do you think was actually keeping the gates locked?

What was keeping the gates locked was a sense of separation, that I was separate and I was separate from other people, that I was alone. And at that moment that, you know, there was this hierarchy, like, they are better than me. My teacher is higher, you know, putting people on pedestals, putting me on pedestals with other people. So there is this, and I think I wrote about it, healing the agony of separation. And that separation has judgment on it has judgment on the self. It is a very worldly condition. It is like you are trapped into your physicality, and it's like you're wearing a straitjacket. And for me, Joss, what happened at that moment the straitjacket unlocked? It was like I got chills. I started to weep and cry. And I wrote down in my diary, I know my heart unbound. And I wrote a book out of that called Unbinding the Heart. And what happened and why I wrote this book. It took me a year. I sat in Los Angeles in my garden, and, you know, I dictate my books, I tell stories. That's how I write, because I'm a performer. And I started to tell my story as a little girl. My parents, separation. My father was a concentration camp survivor. His pain and agony that he carried, that I then embodied and internalized the pain of my mother. And yet the incredible love my mother had for Ariana and me, and that in the midst of not having the means to give us the best, she found ways as she brought me and Ariana to England to study. And she gave us this incredible courage, fearlessness in education. And I started to tell my story. How I came to Los Angeles at a young age of 23, a girl that so hopeful about what the world had in store for me, and was met with the abyss of Hollywood. You know, the incredible disconnect of Hollywood and the glamour and me not knowing how to find my place and then starting to do yoga and meditation and finding an opening to my teacher. And moments I describe in that book, moments that were the epiphanies of unlocking the combination lock.

It seems like it took time, though, because it doesn't unlock all at once. Like when you were having the moment with your teacher, it almost Felt like when you're explaining it, that that was finally where the last code was imprinted and it was unlocked at that moment. But it seems like to me that there was many, many times before that where there was learning thresholds, you know, where you've gone through heartbreak and things like this. So my. My curiosity for you and even how this book comes through is this concept of judgment. You know, you write in the book, you said so often we judge where we are as wrong. This judgment distracts us from getting where we're meant to go. I mean, let's let that land for a moment like that. Just that one sentence to. To have judgment is to. What. What does that mean to us?

To have judgment, to have judgments is really putting blinkers and putting a mask so that you don't really see the possibilities, you know. And part of it, I find that the best and the fastest way to open up and to release the judgment is to be of service to someone else. Because a lot of the judgments of where I'm not where I should be, and the judgments we place on ourselves and all of us do it because we look at someone else and we think they are in a place where we would like to be, which is such absolute illusions and nonsense and. May I say bullshit?

Yes, you may.

It is an absolute bullshit to say, oh, my God, I'm now looking at, you know, this other person who has a bigger bestseller than me, than me, and is way more in demand in speaking. I mean, you know, in my speaking career, there are the speakers who are way more in demand than me. So I could then make a gap in less than could I? Right. I could very well do that and compare myself instead of saying, you know, today I had an opportunity to touch and participate with 60 Australian women at the Thrive Global offices. Teach them meditation, interact with them. How magical is that? So I could miss the magic of my life because I am now looking at someone else who I think has it better than me.

This is the comparison piece. It's. Comparison is the true thief of joy.

Exactly, exactly. I think Thoreau, somebody great, Emerson or somebody said that. But comparison is really. See, here's what happens when we. Life is cyclical in energies. Life happens in the day. Life doesn't happen in the future or in the past. And the other day, I was having a hard day, and my spirit gives me these messages to empower me. And the spirit said to me, this is the best day of my life. Say this to yourself, this is the best day of my life. Because it's the only day of my life. And regardless of what's happening, regardless of who I'm with, regardless of what I'm doing or not doing, it is worth celebrating because today I'm alive. And as simple as that. This is profound because suddenly you realize where you are, exactly where you are with these conditions. If you open up your heart to the gratitude of your life, of your God self breathing through you, and that's wellness to me, then you will find your next thing, whatever your next thing is. Or maybe your next thing is being quiet and still and calm and communing with the divine. Or maybe your next thing is picking up the phone and not texting and saying to a friend, hey, can I take you to dinner? How are you? Can I come make you a meal? Can we do something fun together? Or maybe the next thing is sitting there and doing forgiveness on yourself. So that area of where I think I should be versus to where I am locks me in. And it is almost like the Wicked Witch of the Wizard. Like there is a.

The Wicked Witch of the West. Say that three times.

Yeah, the Wicked Witch of the west that's trying to undermine us. You have to look at it. We have inside us the two the white witch and the black witch. And there is a part of us that wants to criticize us, berate us, tell us we're not good enough, that someone else is better. And this comparison or this lack sense of scarcity and luck is. I call it my Wicked Witch of the West. So we have to throw it out the window with her broomstick and we have to literally activate the other one. And how do you do that, Josh? How do we do that?

How do we listen? I want to know. And I think everybody's kind of sitting on the edge of their seat because they're listening to you and they're realizing what you've been through. And they can see and they can feel the wisdom. But I think knowing and doing are two separate things. So I perceive it in my experience to actually just be loving of what whatever is in the moment. Even if it's hard, even if it means you're gonna cry, even if it means you're gonna feel something uncomfortable, feel.

Something uncomfortable, feel the loneliness, the separation, the whatever, and give yourself about, I don't know, five minutes to feel it, 10 minutes. Give yourself a limit and say, I'm gonna go through it. Cry it out, write it out. Do free from writing. Burn it out. I'm gonna walk it through. I'm gonna. Whatever it is that you do to own it, feel it, release it, and exhale it. And then reach out, reach in. Connect with your spirit, do your inner work. And read the chapter, God is my partner. Because the day that I realized, and it's a very specific story, the God is my partner chapter, you know, where I was very, very disappointed because the project didn't happen. And I was very stuck, very upset. And my rich Greek partner said to me, I'm gonna sue him. He wanted revenge. And I said, no, I'm moving on. And I'm doing the part, the movie, with someone else. And he said, no, you can't do that because I'm your partner, because he had the money. And I said to him in my Greek gusto and passion, you are not my partner. God is my partner. And I took a big legal pad with a red pen and I wrote it outside my bedroom door and my little office door. And from that day on, I write it every week in my schedule, you know, because I'm a pen and paper person, and I literally write it down every week. If you see on my calendar, it says, God is my partner. So that, to me, is the most. And if you don't believe it, you act as if. Because if you think about it, we have 37.2 trillion cells, give or take or sell, that is giving us life. The fact that we all have divine intelligence and that we are all more than our personalities and our egos and our joshiness and agapeness and, you know, mediumness. Whoever is listening to this now you say, my God, I'm way more than that. I am kind of encapsulated in this body and in this personality. But when you go deep inside and you close your eyes and you go into that meditative state, you realize that you're not all that. You are the ocean. You are the ocean of love and mercy. You are the divine, you are the spirit, you are the soul. And you have a personality and a little boy and a little girl and your history. But that all becomes part of your human experience. So how you get to own that is to know that you are worthy of the love of the divine that is in yourselves. Actually, you know, that is in your spirit. And the worthiness of that takes courage.

Can you take us to a place about the worthiness? Because I think tactically, a lot of people want to know, like, quote, how do I feel worthy? Can you share with us something about your life, of how you've actually compounded that, how you've learned your worthiness?

Well, I say you Know, in my work, in my inner work. For example, I did the University of Santa Monica, which is a course, and they have many courses in Santa Monica, Spiritual psychology. A lot of people have done it and have received incredible benediction of that. So, obviously, in my work and my seminars and the retreats that I did, Josh, and everything, I had many moments that the spirit touched me, where I went, oh, my God, I am not that belief. I am not this girl who didn't make it as an actress. I mean, that's okay. That's my story. That's the circumstances of my life. To be so unbelievably talented and not to be able to get a part. It was the pain of my life. And for me, the moment. And I have, in my Unbinding the heart. I have a chapter called St. John in the Bus. So I used to walk around with a pit in my stomach because my little girl, the Agape little girl that was hurt from the pain of her parents was not connected to me. So I had to take that girl. It's called the inner child work. And I had to nurse her. I had to love her. And I bought her a ring. I bought her a pearl ring with three diamonds, Josh. And I married myself. I literally married myself at a theater on an intermission of Swan Lake. It was magical. I had somebody marry me, and I said, I take Mia Agape as my beloved devoted girl, and I will be with you forever. And it was what I call an inner bonding. And for two years, I never went out into the world till I put on that ring. I wanted to. Does that make sense, what I'm saying?

It's a beautiful story. I'm thinking about people, you know, maybe that wanted something to happen. And, you know, that's like the man.

Marrying you, the man saying. Interviewing and saying, darling, would you marry me? Well, nobody would say that.

And marriage is just one thing. You know, people have dreams of, like being a published author or a speaker or whatever dream they have. You know, for some people, it might be like having kids or anything else, but we all get to this point where there's a reconciling with the self. And that reconciling is, you know, what, was that actually mine? Or was that like society's or my parents or. Whose idea was I believing about what I actually wanted or was that actually me? Did you have a moment like that?

Oh, my God, so many moments. Especially the marriage thing, being a Greek girl. My sister was married. All my friends were already married and divorced. So I would go To Greece. And people would. My father would say to me, what happened? You went all around England and America, and can't you just find one man to marry you or to marry, too? Because many men wanted to marry me, but I didn't want to marry them. You know, it was more like, I want to be free. So that was underneath my thing. And then I have a chapter in unbinding the heart called a sabbatical from men. A relationship I had in New York ended that I really was very in love with him. And then it just didn't work out. And then I was so dependent on. Did he call? Did he didn't call? Did he say this? That whole thing, you know, that we all go through. And it was so exhausting, Josh. And I said, I need a sabbatical for men. I needed to find Agape. And that's when I took my energy back from this thing of relationships that I needed the relationship. And I started to write my first book called Conversations with the Goddesses. And that book, which I love, and women love it, it's the seven Greek goddesses and the archetypes. And I went very deep into my creative process, and there was nothing else. It was like me and my creativity, and it was ecstatic. And at the same time, it was like excavating the archaeological museum, you know, it was like I had to dig so deep to find my creativity because it was buried. And I had some amazing experiences where help was coming from. Many ways people were coming. And one day a girl came and stayed with me in New York City. I'll never forget it. And she stayed in my apartment on the couch. She was doing a seminar. And she said, agape. She woke me up in the morning, said, agape, get up. Spirit has a message for you. And she said to me, take a pad and write it down. This is what she told me to write down. I have everything I need, but I lack one thing to write this book, because I had a contract, and I was kind of very nervous. I lack confidence because I think confidence comes from me. But confidence comes from accessing my spiritual guides, the higher knowledge, my soul, the God within, and asking for support from the goddesses, the archetypes, my unconscious, my subconscious, my divine. And that was, again, as you so beautifully said, Josh, that was one of my. Aha. Little knobs opened. Because she said to me something. And I want people who are listening here to listen to this very carefully. She said to me, agape, you have a bad habit to distract yourself from yourself every day. You will Think of other people. You will think of hundred other things than to avoid the relationship with Agape. And that I have to tell you, my friends, the bottom line is that we are all avoiding the relationship with ourselves, which is sacred because we have to go there. You have to go and love Josh and I have to love Agape and each person who is listening here, you have to go and love the part that feels unworthy. And you just said to me, how do I move from worthiness to unworthiness? You bring your love, you bring your heart, you bring your compassion. I mean, I watch a friend of mine who is 94, you know, her body is ailing. She's an amazing woman. I watched Ramdas documentary Becoming Nobody recently. You know Ramdas, right?

Of course.

And the humility. He's in a wheelchair, he has pains, he has had a stroke. He speaks beautifully. But the humbleness, because ultimately we have to go there and love ourselves so beyond our egos and who the hell we think we should be in this world. And that love is what brings you to your worthiness.

I wanna pause there, just let that land. It's so interesting. I just got back from Sedona and I pulled over on the side of the road and I did a three minute minute video for Instagram about this path that I'm currently on. And it's about truly loving all the parts of myself. You know, people might look at me on social media and they're like, oh, he's got it all figured out. Nope, I definitely do not. None of us have it all figured out. And the more that I go down this road of creating media that I think gets people to the truth by interviewing people like you who are also on the path of truth, the more, you know, what pops up the most is old programs and old worries and this concept of worrying, you know, this unnecessary monkey mind loop. This is one of the most powerful chapters in your book. Like this is the one out of all of them that I have the most highlights on. And you talk about this with worry. You actually say that you know, when people are worrying, when you're anxious, you have an underlying fear. This is the root of it. Something catastrophic is going to happen. Your body's telling your brain that you should be in fight or flight, whatever it is. But it's really about getting to the most powerful tool that we have, and that is prayer. Can you talk about prayer and the way that prayer can help us fight anxiety and fight these loops?

You know, prayer to me is a bridge. And somebody said to Me, the other day is going through a very hard time. A woman that I know lost her job and she's 45 and not married, and she's just feeling very out of sorts. And I said, honey, do you pray? And she said, well, I don't know who to pray to. I said, pray to the one who breathes you right now. That's it. I said, you're not breathing. You. As Rumi said, we're all being breathed. So I said, if you just come quiet and in the midst of your despair, you ask with sincerity and reverence to the part that moves you, that is those 37 trillion cells. And you say very quietly and in sincerity, I ask for support, I ask for guidance. I ask to receive the benediction and the inner knowing that I'm not alone at this very moment in my life. Please show me. And you ask, you won't believe it, how your soul is going to come in and guide you. And someone might call or you might be coming out of that stillness. I'm going to reach out to so and so. I'm going to go beyond my fear. I am going to go out and get a cup of coffee. And you go get a cup of coffee and you run into somebody you've not seen in six years. And this person says, oh, my God, can I invite you to something? Tonight we're having a dinner and you go to the dinner and you meet a man if you're a woman, or you meet a woman if you're a man that you really connect with. Do you know what I mean?

It's like this is when the synchronicity unfolds, is when there's finally that letting go portion, that white knuckling. And I think so many people, we all get caught in these loops of the worry is actually what drives the white knuckling, which then drives more worry. It's a vicious cycle. So how do we get out of that cycle?

And they don't give you, you know, they don't give you your script, like, and this is what's gonna happen, Josh, next Monday at 6 o'. Clock. You know, you just have to keep, you know, they don't. There is no script. I'm sorry. There is no script. It's just, you just have to keep on following that innate thing in the midst of our fears and the worry. It's like an untrained doggy little puppy who pees everywhere. Right? Have you ever had a puppy?

Yes. Yes.

Or an untrained. I mean, it's like it's a primitive part of the brain. It's the limbic part of the brain. It's the ancient primitive part of the brain. And we must conquer it. We must transform it. And there are ways to transform it. You do freeform writing. You do meditation. You do biofeedback. You do acupuncture. Yes. You can run on the treadmill or you can run by the river. You can do canoeing. You can do skiing. I don't know. It's like the physicality of it is fantastic. But at some point, we must take over that part of the brain and say, I am the master. There is something very powerful I want to tell my friends who are listening. Your voice, my friends, carries healing energy. And I want you to get into the habit. At night, before you go to sleep, I want you to take a mirror or I want you to talk to yourself. If you need a mirror or not a mirror, look into your eyes and see beyond your personality and tell yourself, josh, Josh, Josh, Josh. I'm here for you. Thank you for the day. Thank you for what you did today. Thank you for what you attempted today. And I love you. I love you with all my heart. And park goes, what? What? Yes. I talk to yourself like it is your lover, like you are your lover, and it is so powerful. I put my hands in my heart at night and I go, thank you. Thank you. I'm releasing the day into the night. And as I, you know, you and I talked before the podcast started about the power of sleep. And as you go to sleep, those hours that you sleep can be so healing and transformative. And you ask your inner guidance, your spirit. We're not alone, my friends. We have guides that are waiting for us to call them forth. And you say, I have this feeling of feeling rejected or feeling separate. I have this feeling of feeling off and amiss and worried, and I'm living in fear. Please help me transform that in my sleep state. Show me. Give me a message. So you might have a dream that you had a car accident that's releasing the fear, maybe, of something terrible would happen to you. And you wake up and you're shaken and you go and you shake it, and you have your espresso and your cappuccino and you walk in nature and you look in the sky and you start to feel lifted because they are working with you at night. But talk to yourself. Look in yourself in the mirror, and even if it feels awkward and messy and vulnerable, tell yourself, josh, we're gonna have an amazing day today. We're Gonna have an amazing day today.

I do that all the time. That's one of my favorite things to do.

Well, you have that energy, you know, you carry that vibration. You carry that exuberance with you. That's what I felt when I first met you, you know, But I'm saying it to our listeners out there who might disconnect from themselves and their own power. And your voice carries healing power.

Let's let that land for a moment. Because the voice, the healing power of the voice, literally saying it out loud. This is what you do with your meditations. And specifically about love. I know someone right now, Agape. I know. I can. I can sense it. They are. They are looking in the mirror. Maybe they're at home and they're in a car, and they're thinking, God, I really don't know how to love myself. Like, what does that mean? I'd love for you to take us through something guided about love, you know, meditation for all of us.

Absolutely. And the other thing I wanted to say, the power that has a healing voice to yourself, also to someone else. So call someone or when you're with someone, just say kind things to them when you are getting your coffee or your shopping at the supermarket or when you are on the subway or in the bus. You know, the St. Joan in the bus thing was when I started to tell the story. I ended up performing Joan of Arc for one woman in a New York City bus. And that's how I let go of my limitation that I had to be hired by, you know, to do a Broadway show or to be on a play. And that thing opened up for me, like, I had to give my gift unconditionally. So if you start your day, that I'm gonna give wherever I can. Because when we're not feeling worthy, we don't feel we have anything to give. And that's another bullshit thing we tell ourselves because there are people who have so much less than we do. And the golden opportunities joss out there for all of us are amazing. We don't have to do extraordinary things. We are extraordinary. The extraordinary comes in the ordinary.

Yes.

So love ourselves. All right, so close your eyes if you're driving. Don't close your eyes.

Yes, pull over if you're driving. And also, too, I'd love for us to take two deep breaths before we do this, because it's funny you mentioned about being breathed. We focus on breath, work, work a lot here in the community. So let's take a huge deep breath in, breathe it out. So nourishing Just one more of those.

Oh, isn't that wonderful? Of course. Now we're here. And so, as you take this beautiful breath, start to attune yourself to the rising and the falling of your breath. And let's just elongate the breath, make it slower and longer to the count of four. 1, 2, 3, 4. And release the breath with a count of 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. And take this breath right now and focus on your heartbeat. Focus on your heart, that little organ in your body that gives us life. And connect your breath with your heartbeat. Your heart pumps the blood, circulates the blood, revitalizes the organs and works, works, works and beats. So just for a moment, say thank you, thank you to your heart. Thank you, thank you. And allow your heart to soften your emotional heart and start to connect with your heart center. And there, as you place the breath in your heart center, scan through your consciousness and look at any area where there might be a thought, a belief, a feeling, a hurt, a disappointment, a restriction, a limitation where you might have tightened and closed down your heart and just become aware of it. Just for a minute. Somebody said something. Somebody did not act the way you wanted them to. Somebody didn't give you what you wanted. The world, maybe people around you. And just. Just like that, just let it go. Let it go and just say, that's okay, that's okay. I am more than that. And as you let that restriction, that thought, that hurt, that expectation that wasn't met, you see it go. Like a river that's floating by. It's taking right now. It's taking that hurt, it's taking that limitation away from you. So the spirit is coming its place and filling it up. Just like a caress. Imagine that it's a caress on skin that is like velvet and like silk. You feel the inhalation of this breath going into your consciousness and purifying, transforming anything that has restricted you to an expansion. Just. Just go there. Just go there right now and look at yourself from above, elevated. Look at this beautiful being that you are, having this experience on this planet Earth. Look at your body, look at everything that you do and allow a sense of acceptance and loving to yourself. You might want to place your right hand on your heart and your left hand on your belly and connect your heart center and your emotional center. And imagine that this light, this inner light that we have is connecting your heart chakra and your emotional chakra, telling yourself, I am safe, I am protected. I am surrounded by love. I am owning, forgiving myself for any judgments that I placed against myself. I am forgiving myself from any judgments I placed against myself or anyone else. And just let go of any judgments. Take a deep breath and feel in your consciousness, things have expanded a little more. They've opened up space. And let the space be filled with a sense of love. The love comes in, the love goes out. And with every breath, I am loved. With every exhalation, I'm letting go of anything that has been restricting me to this moment. I am willing. I am willing. I am willing to let go. Let your breath be very, very harmonious and coherent. And when you're ready, you can just return to whatever you're doing and see if things feel a little more expanded, a little more tender, a little more kind and relaxed inside.

Well, I feel. I feel amazing. I was with you with my eyes closed the whole time. People really get to connect with themselves. And I think that's the big piece that I got from your entire book. Waking up to the joy of you is literally just as it says, waking up to the joy and allowing ourselves to feel everything in order to have that joy be fully expressed. This is your life's work. This is what you've done. Where can people go to get more of the meditations that you just did?

Well, thank you for asking. If you would like for our listeners to send me an email at my email Agape A G a p I@unbinding the heart.com unbindingtheheart.com I'll send you more meditations that I have. I have 33 of them on audible and you can just download just the meditations. Wake up to the Joy of youf 33 Meditations. And then wakeuptothejoyofyou.com is my website and I have some meditations there. And more are coming. And then just follow me on social media. I put a lot of content and meditations Agape sees S E E S and Agape says in my Twitter and my Facebook. But mostly I just love connecting with people and really supporting each person to a greater freedom. Josh and it's been just absolutely. You are a gem. I just have to say. Your whole energy transmutes. Love waves through the ethers.

Thank you. I received that. It feels good to hear that from you. And people can obviously go to wakeuptothothejoyofyou.com I have a last question for you as we say goodbye. And it goes in alignment with everything we've talked about today. It's the physical, it's the spiritual, it's the intelligence. Agape the intelligence that our body has. How would you define this intelligence? And how would you define wellness.

For each person? Wellness is different, but I think it's like owning that we are a miraculous creation of life, each one of us, and we have a responsibility to look after this miraculousness with all our might and all our passion. And we have no right to judge it, we have no right to undermine it, and we have no right to make someone else more important than ourselves. No right. It is like it should be written to a manifesto for humanity. You know, you are born on this earth and you're given certain conditions and certain parents. And I have a chapter in the book called overcoming your childhood. And then it is your work to clear up the debris that your parents or your school, teachers or the world has given you to clear it up and start with a clean slate and say, I own me and I take care of me. Like the most precious being, the most precious thing in this world. Like you would take care of Taj Mahal or the Acropolis or the pyramids. I mean, the seven wonders of the world. Well, we are the wonder of the world. And start studying your body and start affirming it and filling it up with good people and good thoughts and find the teachers that give you more of that and always affirm what I want more of. Don't go to sleep with without forgiving yourself and loving yourself. And if you're sleeping next to someone, hug them and love them and whatever else you want to do. But be kind, be loving. If you have children, love them a lot and never compare them to each other and basically take care of you, take care of you in the most, listen to you, because you will tell you what it is you want more of and then go get it.

That's the divine spark, the divine ear listening to what's actually happening. Agape, thank you for coming on Wellness for us. We covered a lot of ground. Is there anything you think we missed when we look at actually exploring and knowing what this is, the joy inside of us?

Yes. Put a picture of the island Santorini and the magical sunsets in front of you on my computer. I have. You know, when you live in New York, you can forget of how that's right.

You're in the concrete jungle.

I. I heard something very beautiful the other day at a podcast, and one person was sharing about something that they do based on, you know, the movie Groundhog Day.

Yes.

You know, it's a great movie. And this woman, I think she's a director, she was saying how she learned from that movie that when she feels ennui, or you know the French word ennui, a little bored, a little bit stuck in her life, she gives herself an assignment that for 32 days a month actually, she would explore something new every day around her world, that she will look at things with new eyes. And she asks for the gift of new eyes. So said, I will just go to a shop that I've never been before, or I will take a different route to my work, or I will go and connect with somebody at work that I've never met before. But every day, she said, I walk, I will look at the brick wall and I will think, my God, this brick wall has, you know, 1500 bricks. Well, how was that made? I will wonder and I reinforce the awakening of my wonder. And she said suddenly something will happen in the middle of the of that journey that she assigns herself and it will be benediction. She said, it will be a blessing. Because what happens to us, Josh, is we start to form patterns of looking at ourselves and the world that we take for granted. And you know, we mustn't do that. And I say take one day a week that you literally walk around saying thank you, thank you to everything. Because how you bring the divine to you is with gratitude and with reverence. And read that book. Wake up to the joy of you.

Thank you for your wisdom. Thank you for coming on the show. And everybody can go to your website. Wake up to the Joy of youf. Agape Stasianopoulos, thanks for coming on.

Love you, Love you. Thank you sweetheart. You've been a blessing. Thank you so much.

Hey, thanks for listening to the show, my friend. Everything you learned on this podcast starts with your morning practices. So from over 300 world class guests, we pulled together six simple yet powerful morning practices down into a 21 minute system guaranteed to increase your vibration and the way that you feel every day. Get this free powerful guide over@wellnessforce.com M21 and if you love this show, share it with somebody. Share it with somebody that you love or that you care about. You can support the show easily by leaving us a five star review on iTunes. Just go to wellnessforce.com review or if you're on your phone, just tap it. Hit the link in purple that says review this podcast. And the journey does not stop here. We're continuing this discovering process in our private Facebook group over@wellnessforce.com group. You can be a part of it. You already are. All you have to do is join us@wellnessforce.com group and I will welcome you at the door. Now go out into your life and live your life well. And until I see you again real soon, I'm wishing you love and wellness.