S2E16: Martha Beck, sociologist, best-selling author, speaker

This is the No Ego Podcast, where we ditch the drama, end entitlement, and transform your world place. I'm Sy Wakeman. Welcome, No Ego listeners. You know that I get so excited when people are gracious enough to come on and share their wisdom with all of us. And this season is all about me bringing to you the wonderful teachers that have been put in my path that I am so grateful for, and then passing the microphone to them. And today I am so honored to have Martha Beck join me. Now, many of you already— that's all you need to know is Martha's here. But in case you don't know about Martha, she has a BA, MA, PhD. She is in my own field of social sciences. Her degree is from Harvard, so she has tons of science in her background. But what I love about Martha is she combines a lot of science and magic, which really helps us move forward quickly. So she's a multiple-time bestseller, a New York Times bestseller, tons of magazine articles. And since I'm heading to Africa for the first time this next year, I have loved her work in Africa where she not only leads seminars, but does so much to help preserve the ecosystem restoration in those areas. And we have one thing in common, which is our goal. Martha wants to save the world while wearing pajamas, and that is the path I'm working on, except I wanna save the world while wearing a swimsuit. So welcome, Martha. Thank you so much for joining me.

Thank you so much for having me.

I want to just dig into all of this wisdom. I talk often with folks that have noticed life gets a little messy. It's a little chaotic, doesn't follow our script. Um, but even though life's messy, you can live happy. And that's something you also acknowledge for so many of us that, you know, things can be a bit chaotic at times. Do you want to—

At times?

Only always?

Yeah, only always. Yep, it's a world of chaos for sure.

It really is. It really is. And I think I find people more and more finding new ways to practice unhooking from that chaos. But sometimes our response to chaos is we start to kind of lose our own, our own self, which is we end up feeling very lost. I mean, that's our one anchor on kind of our, our grounding in the world. Do you want to talk a bit about what some of those signs are, or what people experience or report out that maybe our listeners could understand when perhaps they're losing track of themselves? For folks, when They feel as if things are falling apart, that it's just this really fabulous wake-up call. And as I've introduced that to some clients, um, sometimes if they're feeling especially injured, or we call it being kind of in the ego, they'll see it as, so you're blaming me for my illness? And I'm like, absolutely not, but I am inviting you to take some responsibility. Mm-hmm. for your future with some great new information and things that could be really helpful. So I think people really have a lot of signs and symptoms going on, and it's so easy to think that those are our circumstances, that it's our circumstances that are the reasons we aren't happy or succeeding in the way we want, when in fact that's really just our reality. Our circumstances aren't why we can't succeed. It's just the reality in which We need to succeed, be happy, grow, however you define success in. So as you work with people that are becoming aware that they're getting some great messages, do you have a favorite place to begin with their growing awareness?

We always start with the body. And by we, I mean myself and the coaches that I've trained. So the method is you start With the point of least satisfaction in the person's life. And you can always, if they don't know what's going on, you can always get them to ground into their bodies, that the body is the one, like, trusty servant that will always be able to tell you where to go and what to do next. But we generally just jump in wherever we're aware that there's some kind of unsatisfying circumstance. And it always ends up, as you just said, that the circumstance is not— The problem. creating the dissatisfaction. It's the dissatisfaction or the sort of misplacement of, of direction that is causing the circumstance. So it's backwards from what we think it is.

And so, um, as people tap into the body, another thing— and I'm not sure it's related, but I had the benefit of working with one of your coaches who's my dear, dear friend, Kathy Frost. She's been on this podcast And by the way, I hope everybody heard that Martha has a fabulous coaching program. We have our own Kelly Thompson right now enrolled in the program. Woo! Check that out as part of what she offers. But one of the, the other places of physicalness that was interesting to me is when Kathy asked me to take a look at the physical surroundings I had created for myself. Just what did my—

Oh yeah.

Look like? What did my home look like? And I had so many wonderful realizations after that simple self-reflection that got me out from what my ego thought it was and just looking externally, breaking that projection, just looking externally about what that was telling me. Do you wanna—

Yeah, let's do a version of that because it always works. It works whether your life is really trashed or whether your life is really good. You always create around you what I refer to as fractals of your inner life. So fractal is a form that is repeated in nature at larger and larger units of analysis. So like a twig is a fractal of a branch, which is a fractal of the trunk. Like they get progressively larger. So we create like your circle of friends is a fractal of your own social personality, your house, your living space. Right. Your apartment, your refrigerator box, whatever it is, is going to be a 3-dimensional self-portrait of your inner life. So let's do it. Do you mind doing it again? 'Cause you can do it as many times as you want. It doesn't—

Oh, I would love to be coached right here, right now.

Yeah, let's do it. We don't work with time, right? We jump right in.

That fractals the hologram. So, okay. Yes.

Okay, so first question is like, We usually ask people to describe their living space briefly and write it down, but I'm just going to jump right in with you since you're an old hand here. The place we want to go, as I said before, is the place of least satisfaction. So imagine yourself walking through your living space, through the whole thing, right? You get home and, you know, you put your stuff down and you just do a little tour of the house. What is your least favorite place in your current living space?

My least favorite place in my current living space today is my closet. I have a large walk-in closet.

All right, so describe your closet to me with like 3 adjectives.

Disorganized.

Yes.

Very full.

Uh-huh.

And exciting.

Disorganized, full, and exciting. Okay, so where in your life do you feel disorganized?

So many places right now. My sister just got a liver transplant, very exciting.

Wow.

But we are full-on family support for her. So between my travel and running my business and podcasting and writing, I feel, Disorganized and unintentional. I think a more clear word that comes to me is unintentional. I'm, I'm doing things in response to needs rather than being intentional.

Hmm. Okay, so where does that feel overfull? Is it your time that's overstuffed, or is it your mind, or both?

Um, my, um, time feels good. My mind feels actually pretty good. My to-do list, my aspirations feel completely overstuffed.

Okay, interesting, because your time is fine but your aspirations are overstuffed.

These things that every day I am good in the moment to say not necessary, um, can be prioritized differently, but I just don't ever take them off the list. I'm like, they just, like, um, need to be done someday.

Okay, so where in your life, um, is the excitement? Because that was your third word. Disorganized, full, and exciting. So where are you most excited?

Oh my gosh. I am doing just, I'm having a blast. I'm working with amazing leaders and I'm getting so much engagement with listeners on social media. And we have so many big plans going forward. So my business life is very exciting. My, um, my, what I want to do as far as kind of home life, holidays. would be what feels very full, that aspiration.

Okay. So now tell me, what's one thing that you would like to do with your closet to make it even better?

I really—

It sounds pretty good.

Yeah, I really want to know. I want to curate it. I want to have the courage to get down to like 20 outfits that are really just All I do, just simple, easy, just, oh, I want lots more open space, lots more, because if I had just, if I curated it, I think there would be this open space that would be more room for that creative muse to kind of find me.

Great, okay, so what we do then is bouncing off the closet as a metaphor, we look at the good parts and the bad parts, and you've got wonderful things going on. Your aspirations are way too stuffed full, and that is where you need to curate your life, curate your aspirations. So you want them simple, easy, and open. You want your life to be simple, easy, and open. And in order to do that, you have to cull from the overstuffed part. So you said, I want to have the courage to— You know, to edit. So it's going to take courage to edit your aspirations, but if you don't edit, you're gonna be like a gun that's pointed everywhere, right? You're not gonna really— sorry, maybe that's a bad metaphor, but it's like if you don't have a target or if you have too many targets, you're not gonna be able to find anything. So you could start to cull some of those aspirations that are on your to-do list and never come off. Yeah. And just put it on the never-to-do list.

Not this lifetime, never to do. I love it. You know, and yeah, what amazes me about this is I always feel the magic involved 'cause I'm seeing her laughing 'cause we're going into a strategic planning for my team and I was feeling a bit afraid because what I wanna do is really cut some things we offer and focus on some things and, and Um, I would've never thought that's what we'd get from my closet, but it really gets to my big question of the day. And, you know, and quite frankly, Martha, what I love about the techniques you give is you find, you help us find ways to move beyond that distraction of that kind of self-one, that low self, that knows, and into like this place where we really know some things in I teach a lot of self-reflection and we're always looking for assignments to give people to self-reflect because coaching really is about facilitating self-reflection in another for them to do that. And that example, I'd forgotten how powerful that was.

It always works. It's amazing how it always works.

Yeah, it's amazing.

And I did love that word curate. I mean, if I were you, I would write it down and put it somewhere you see it a lot because all of us are bombarded by so much information, so many possibilities. Right now. And curating, cutting things down to the bare essentials, is like the, the art of living in our current civilization. So I would write that down if I were you and curate the dickens out of your whole schedule.

Oh my gosh, I expected a podcast, not wonderful coaching, but I wrote it down as we talked about it. I have it right here in front of me.

And notice it came from you. You said it. There's, there's Absolutely. Here, I'll give you a full course of coaching, and I'm not even going to use my own words. These are from Goethe. He said, when you trust yourself, you will know how to live. Full stop. You have now been coached.

Oh my gosh, I just really want to highlight that, folks. For us leaders, so much we've been taught is that we've got to really manage people, and, and I think leaders just manage energy.

Yeah,

and not people. And if we can manage energy around people coming to trust themselves We really tap into this incredible world where everybody is naturally innovative, everybody's naturally accountable, everybody is— that's their natural self when the drama's gone. For us, the ego and drama in our context. But I love that. Trust yourself.

Yep. And people— it's funny when people try to manage other people to trust themselves. and don't show. They just, you know, we try to teach our children to trust themselves because we read in a parenting book that that's the way it's supposed to be. But really children or people you're managing, they don't do as you say, they do as you do. They don't model themselves around your words. They actually begin to reflect your energy, which is all about curating your inner life. So when you start doing that and you get really clear inside yourself, Much simpler to spread that same kind of clarity to other people and help them trust themselves instead of becoming dictatorial.

Part of the reason that in season 2 of this podcast, instead of, you know, I give a lot of techniques about how you can lead differently, but I just realized that the best thing I could bring to my listeners is teaching for how you can participate in your own evolution. And through that, not only role model, but you'll come at The wonderful points your life gets to intersect with others from a very different, loving, patient, check it out for yourself place. Instead of telling you what I know, it's like, here's something I discovered on my path, but don't take my word for it. Check it out for yourself and please teach back and help me understand what you're bringing to the table as far as your knowledge and lessons. And what it does is it just frees up where people just really— I see the energy of the team. People just really— Sink into this calmness about knowing that we have the entire universe at our fingertips delivered to us by one of our very own team members, if we open up to it, rather than we've got to figure this out. It's like, well, let's get more open so that, you know, it comes to us. And it's a very different way of moving. But I know so much of your work is counterintuitive. It brings in some of the magic. It It says, look here so you can see something coming in another place.

Yeah, and you know, you can say magic, but there's all kinds of good science around it. I mean, there are 2 things that I'm thinking right now. One is that there's a tremendous amount of research showing that the more pressure people are under, the less creative they become and the less able to solve problems. And that is true not only if they're given the threat of some kind of punishment, but the moment you offer to pay people or reward them, for doing a task, it manifests as pressure and they stop being as creative. The brain just shifts away from creativity and goes into a kind of fear mode. So that's one thing. And then the other thing is that when they take 3 strangers and put them in a room completely quiet, they're not talking to each other, within 20 minutes, all 3 of them, their brain waves and heart waves will have synchronized to that of the calmest person in the group. So creativity is enhanced by calm and relaxation, and people tune themselves to the calmest person they can find in their immediate environment. So that right there gives you a huge hint about how to manage well if you need your team to be creative and solve problems. And who doesn't?

Really. And that's what I love about the science piece of it. When folks talk to me about, I don't feel empowered to impact kind of others, I talk about, you know, look at the science so that you can step into the power you naturally have. If you can be the calmest, most peaceful force, if, you know, I happen to be a TMer, but if you can walk in and just be at that peaceful place, and the science says people will, you know, resonate with that frequency, you really have some incredible superpowers that you could use to contribute to the group. Like being calm and doing your best to create that atmosphere for innovation and really helping people understand that we are always co-creating and we can have some pretty amazing impacts. It doesn't take power over another. It doesn't take holding others accountable. Like, there's a whole different way to lead, a modern way to lead, I guess. In fact, I'm not sure if I love the word lead anymore, but a modern way to be a good, you know, guide and shipmate on the on the journey. So, you know, one of the early things that I learned from you was just the battle in your brain. And I think it's an important concept because we try and help people understand that chatter that goes on, that narrator in their minds, and the power of inquiry. So when Katie talks about, you know, the work and Byron For my listeners, when she talks about the work and how that can free up kind of your ego's grasp of, you know, its grasp on your world, the more people can come to understand their minds and how it works, I think the more they can inquire and gain some freedom. And, and I know you talk at times about the battle for your brain. You want to share some insight about how you see that battle?

Sure. Right now I'm framing it, I'm writing a book called The Integrity Cleanse because I framed it as integrity literally just means to be one united thing. It doesn't have anything to do with moral rules or anything. It's just, are you one being? Most of us are split into at least 2 beings. And in my early writing, I called that the social self and the essential self. The essential self is your genotype, it's your essence, it's who you were born in your genes to be, your personality and physical characteristics that would be yours no matter where you'd been born, what happened to you. On the other side, there's the social self, which is responsive to the people around you and which is very, very intensely tuned to that. In fact, it's so important to a human infant and child to be accepted by a group and any human of any age that we actually, of all the animals, we are most likely to leave or, or contradict our essential selves in order to please the people around us. And the 2 form— the 2 experiences that take us off our integrity, that is split us into these 2 sides, are socialization, just being taught. For example, if you're raised to be humble, you know, don't boast, be— you may never allow yourself to have high self-esteem. The other thing is trauma. And that is if you have an experience, say, Your mother gets sick when you're little and you decide it's because you were being too noisy. And so it's a, I'm not talking about massive trauma like war, but any sort of injury that makes you form a conclusion, oh, I need to be quiet all the time so people won't get sick. Like children form these little causal links that are false when they have a traumatic experience at any level. So those 2 things will pull you off center, but your essential self— will always be trying to get you to tell yourself the truth or to learn the truth. And it pulls on the social self when the social self goes in a different direction. And that creates the tension, the emotional issues I was talking about earlier, and potentially physical issues as well. So it's that struggle between your essence and your society, your nature and your culture. That's the battle for your brain. And I'll just give you a hint, culture will not help you win.

I think we're seeing that in so many situations. And so I love that framing of that, you know, that kind of authentic or essential self. And so it's bigger than tips and techniques, I would surmise. But what are some of the things in your writing then you're I'm calling people to think about or consider or undertake to just remain close to or rediscover, highlight more often their essential selves.

Well, you mentioned it a little bit earlier. You talked about Byron Katie and her method of inquiry. It's very linked to integrity because what she asks over and over, for those of you who don't know her, it's very simple. She just looks at any thought in her own head and says, is that true? Can I absolutely know that's true? It's actually the essence of the scientific method. So what you do is you create, you look at any thought inside you that is creating any kind of dissatisfaction in your life or low performance or whatever it is. And you go at it to figure out where the lies are hidden because it's not that you're being awful and lying deliberately, it's that there are places where socialization and trauma have knocked you off your track. True path. And whatever the symptoms are, whether it's low performance or bad health or whatever, they're trying to get you back to your true path. So in your case, I would say, all right, your closet feels overfull, your aspirations feel overfull. What is the— and you said it would take courage to edit that down. So when you think, I'm going to take everything off my schedule, or I'm going to throw out everything but 20— great outfits, and you think about actually trashing a large portion of what you've got in there, what fear comes up for you? How would you frame that fear?

The fear would be, for me, about disappointing someone or being— not living up to my potential, missing out on something, or disappointing someone. So depending if it were clothes or other things on my list, um, choosing wrong. And, um, choosing wrong is a tough one for me. I don't like to choose wrong. Um, and it really gets down to a core thing for me because, um, you know, what comes up to me is it's like, well, I really want, you know, to be loved. And sometimes I'm loved for more— What? in my mind what I do or kind of who I am. Like, so if I just canceled a bunch of my schedule, um, it just kind of gets down to me like, gosh, then what, you know, would I still be adding value to the world? Would— and so

would people still want me? Yeah. So you look at the thought and, and it's not a question to the traumatized self, it's a statement. It's— so your essential self is like, oh, this is too much, but your social self Based on some trauma or socialization is saying, if you stop doing all this, if I stop doing all this, I won't be loved. If I stop doing all this, there'll be no use for me. Whatever feels most like a knife in your gut, that's the one you look at. And you say, I will say to you right now, are you sure that that is true? That if you cut some stuff from your schedule, you wouldn't be loved, there would be no point in your existence. Can you absolutely know it's true? And I'm asking you right now to answer the question.

I would tell you, and I know that, um, it's also a process of meditation, but I would tell you that one's obvious to me. It's just absolutely not true. I know, in fact, it's probably not true.

It's usually And you're getting right to it because you practice this stuff. But the irony, the last step of Byron Katie's work is to consider the opposite.

And that's where my mind went, that in fact, I would probably have some more fulfilling, it would probably do the opposite. It would get me that which I desire.

Yeah, so almost always, you can write this down, the opposite of your worst fear is your next step toward enlightenment.

Wow. I'll tattoo that on my ankle. Just a minute.

It's funny how it works. Katie says the mind is like a mirror. It gets things right, but backwards. So it'll take you right to the most important thing in your life, but it's exactly the opposite of what you should be thinking.

So true. And in that curating, I mean, going back to that theme of my fabulous podcast coaching session, curating The fear is, is if I, you know, curate finally, that I may do it wrong and miss out on the one thing that would have, you know, gotten me the love.

Yeah, there's a big thing about missing out. So, and then look at the thought, I, I am going to miss out.

I'm going to miss out.

Can you absolutely know that's true?

Absolutely cannot know that's true. But when I think about who am I with that thought, I'm very external-focused and wide, not deep. And I feel like I'm not— when I have that story, I feel like I reserve my best stuff to give the world for later.

So if you said, um, if I don't do everything possible, I'll miss out on something important, and turn it around If I do do everything possible, I'll miss out on something important.

And that seems even more true when I—

there you go—

when I put that in front of me like that.

Yep. The opposite of your worst fear is your next step toward awakening.

And listeners, this is, um, why I wanted you to know Martha Beck, because I get a lot to just be with for a while that This is good, good, good stuff.

You're always being guided. That's the thing. You're always— once you get in touch with your integrity, which is the united heart, mind, body, soul, every source of knowing, you're always given the next step and you don't have to plan 12 things because your mind is afraid that people won't appreciate you enough because integrity always chooses just one thing. And that's the focus of Zen, right? Just one thing. And it takes tremendous focus on the truth to know what one next thing to do in a world where so much is possible.

Yeah, it really is. And it's, um, looking out there to see what's next is— it gets too big. But looking inward to see What's mine next? And at the best points of my life, when I look back and, you know, kind of boldly went into doing some social media things that other people weren't doing, or boldly went into, you know, bringing my experience of things like the work and into the workplace, it was a very driving, knowing, didn't even think about would it be profitable or sustainable. I mean, it was just a, a very clear knowing this is my next, and, um, and very fulfilling, um, satisfaction at the end of the day that I, I was true to that. And, you know, when we, um, teach in the workplace, because the key buzzword's accountability and, and helping people move away from like, how do you hold other people accountable and just all this enabling and stuff we do to each other, the focus being each other. We talk about that the true accountability is accountability personally to the truth.

Mm-hmm.

And if we want to change the workplace, what if we redefined accountability as accountability to the truth? Or I'm so excited about the book you're working on, just that coming to know and explore integrity, that oneself, that That unified thing, because I'm surmising, but from my own experience, when I have felt more unified, I've also felt larger in, like, connected to the bigger. So the more that I'm unified, it seems like the connection to the bigger is so direct.

And yeah, that's what the interesting thing about integrity within the self is, that it leads, it leads you to some very interesting places. People talk to me about magic and miracles. I just set out to try to be happy and I knew the truth made me happy. But it also, if you get really focused on doing what's true for you, you do kind of get magic and miracles happening. And I'm not sure what's going on there, but I do know that once you get to a place of personal integrity, you start to realize that, which means all one thing, you also start to experience that everything around you is also in integrity with your integrity. There really is just one. Thing. I think it's a phenomenon of consciousness that there's just one consciousness and you begin to feel continuous with the people around you, the creatures, the plants, even the inanimate objects. Everything becomes just one thing and it's responding and alive and amazing. So start out to get better from your many autoimmune illnesses and end up in a place of thinking, woo, miracles. I

love it. I love it. And there's so many teachers that talk about that, you know, um, just that, that tapping into the natural order of things, but it's certainly not the place you start. It's the place that you notice you are once in a while when you're doing some of this other work. I am so grateful that you had that illness. I know that sounds— Odd, but it has, I think, just really brought you forward with a lot of other gifts in the world. What, uh, what would you— other things would you like for our listeners to know about as they're working? Most of our listeners are, um, they report themselves, they're in the beginning and middle parts of waking up, whatever that is.

Interesting.

Working to get You know, they, they're pretty clear when it comes to leadership or even home and parenting that some of their ways are more stressful or painful than they need to be. And we talk about ways to be effortless, but, you know, what, what other wisdom would you have for them? Or, you know, quick things to think about, tips of the trade. What else do you want to share with these folks who are seekers?

It's wonderful to hear that people are talking about waking up because I think that's the only way the human species is going to survive for many more decades on this planet. And the thing I would like people to know is to go really easy on yourself because we come from a puritanical culture that's very punitive in its instructions, especially any kind of spiritual instruction. There's sort of the archetype of the nun with the ruler smacking kids in school. You know, Puritan religious leaders burning people as witches or whatever. There's a real connection between spirituality and repression and oppression in our culture. And that actually, of course, is another effect of socialization and trauma, extreme trauma sometimes. And if you think that you're going to be good by being cruel to yourself inside, you're putting yourself in a paradox because— Yeah. Goodness isn't cruel. So the first place to start, if you think, oh, I should get going on all this stuff, is just be okay with what you've done so far. It's all okay. You actually cannot get this wrong. Eben Alexander, the neurosurgeon who died of— well, his brain completely stopped functioning, his neocortex. And he had this advanced experience, very long experience of a near-death. Yeah. And he came back and he said there's— there were 3 things he remembered, although he learned infinite things. And he said they were that you are absolutely loved, that you are always safe, and that you cannot do it wrong. You can't do life wrong. Doesn't matter what you've done, you can't do it wrong. So start from that place. Start from compassion and acceptance, because that's the only thing that brings all of you home. And to be in integrity, all of you has to come home.

I love that. Wow, that takes the pressure off just to believe and know those truths. I am someone who really cares about our planet, loves nature, grew up riding a lot of horses, sleeping outside under the stars, and I've picked up along the way that you have an amazing love for animals and all creatures, and I just would like your response on what we can all do to help right now. Our planet is really sending out some, some major calls to us. And, you know, if you want to talk a few minutes about your connection with nature and just if you have received some calls for us, something that would help us, help the rest of us on this planet.

Right. Yeah. I was born obsessed with animals, nature, and the preservation of it. I mean, when I was tiny and we didn't even have a television or anything, by the time I was 2, I knew the names of all 700 or something species in this book we had of the Earth's mammals and was obsessively drawing them and And I remained obsessed with this as I went into social science and started studying socioeconomic development. And it all kind of came to a head one day when I was in Africa and I thought a rhinoceros was going to kill me. And I was very happy because I thought that was an awesome way to die. Then as I sort of let go of the future completely, A different possible future flashed into my mind. And I thought maybe it's not all over. All the scientists say that no matter what we do right now, we are facing complete environmental devastation. Just that we could slow it down if we do all the measures possible, but we're not going to stop it. It's gone too far. And I'd read all that and I'd actually resigned myself to it. But in that moment with the rhinoceros, a different path flashed into my mind. What was that moment like? Seemed possible. And it took a direction that was very different from what I had expected. It wasn't political action, though it involves political action. It wasn't physical activity, though my friends in Africa are physically rebuilding ecosystems. It wasn't about education, even though we're also trying to educate, offer free educational support for rural Africans and women and girls in particular, because I could go on and on. I mean, I got a PhD in this stuff, but— The point is that at that moment, the only thing that made salvation seem possible to me was the possibility of awakening for a large percentage of the human population. And by awakening, I mean the Asian concept of awakening out of the dream that says that we are separate beings Living on a little round rock in the world and into the idea of being the consciousness that is creating all of this as it goes along. And we know from physics that consciousness plays a role in creating matter from energy. So that's the short version. That's the short, condensed, abridged version of what I think we can do to help right now. And that is anything involved with awakening into a more compassionate and benevolent consciousness. Because I think that our consciousness is trying to wake up right now.

I agree.

And so go with, like, everything we've been talking about will take you— yes, it'll make you a better leader. Yes, it will make you more successful. Yes, it will make you healthier. But more than anything else, yes, It will wake you up. And it's only by waking up that we can win this game. I won't say save ourselves because there's no need to save us and everybody's going to die anyway. But if we're going to play this game and make the planet suitable for our habitation for the next few million years, we got to wake up.

I love that waking up is the key contribution. Waking up with that consciousness creates a manifest— a different reality. We maybe don't have to fix what we have, but we can certainly manifest differently. I love that. And even though I hate to even think about bringing anything to a close, I think that's such an amazing place to just end with people thinking about the, um, the main goal in front of us is waking up. And the few glimpses I've had in my own awakening is we're waking up to some pretty amazing, cool things, like the truths that you've cited, that the gentleman, you know, came back to us with, that, you know, we can't screw it up. We're very loved. We're all safe. It's all good. And, you know, that's a cool thing to wake up to.

Mm-hmm.

I wonder, I know for myself, I fall asleep and forget that and wake up to it. It just seems like it would be a good enough brew of coffee to stay awake to,

but

therein lies the, the, the next piece of, of learning. So Martha, I hope in just these few short minutes people are making commitments to dig in deep to what you have so graciously So how can they go on their Martha Beck binge of— where do they start? Where do you want my people to go?

Get your pajamas, get them on. It all happens in pajamas. Um, yeah, you can go to my website, it's marthabeck.com, and I've written— I've written everything down the moment I thought of it. So I've written a few books that you can also look up and You know, check out one of my coaches. There are, there are people all over the planet now who are like, who know my very best methodologies for getting to this individually. And I think as we awaken individually, each person creates a sort of gravitational pull on all people so that the next person's awakening is that much easier. So whatever floats your boat, folks, we need it all.

Oh, and I love it. And those coaches are out there on Martha's, um, website too. And I've just had the privilege of, um, meeting a few of them over the years, and it's just— they're all really spectacular people. Martha, thank you so much. I always end—

Thank you.

With a bit of an assignment, um, for others. And, um, I think the assignment this time is really just, um, having people not go out and do anything, just contemplate what if it were true that we all are safe and loved and can't screw it up? What would, what would that change in your approach if that's what you knew to be true? And I'll just leave you that with a meditation. Martha, I understand that you're in some new digs. I hope that your book is a great success, that you're loving your new place. And, uh, thank you for coming on. If there's anything I could ever do to return the favor, I, I'm here for you. Thank you.

Thank you so much. It's been an absolute pleasure.

This is the No Ego Podcast, where we ditch the drama, end entitlement, and transform your world place. I'm Sy Wakeman.