WEBVTT
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This program is designed to provide general information with regards
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to the subject matters covered. This information is given with
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the understanding that neither the hosts, guests, sponsors, or station
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are engaged in rendering any specific and personal medical, financial,
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legal counseling, professional service, or any advice. You should seek
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the services of competent professionals before applying or trying any
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suggested ideas.
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At the end of the day, it's not about what
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you have or even what you've accomplished. It's about what
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you've done with those accomplishments. It's about who you've lifted up,
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who you've made better. It's about what you've given back.
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Denzel Washington, welcome to Inspire Vision. Our sole purpose is
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to elevate the lives of others and to inspire you
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to do the same.
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The Lado welcome to the show.
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Thank you so much.
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I'm looking forward to this, you know.
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It's I've been fascinated by the people that have reached out,
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that we've been able to connect with.
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From all over the world. And where are you at
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right now?
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I am in Serbia, well little country in the Balkans
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where a lot of things happen, and it's lovely to
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connect with you.
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Right, that's wonderful.
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So at this point in time, you own an academy
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that teaches people how to help other people from a
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transformational standpoint. What brought you to this point? What is
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there a story behind what you're doing now that you
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can share with the audience.
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Well, you know, like I'm like, do we have only
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forty five minutes just for this?
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Keep it fairly short?
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Yes, So you know, like there are many faces. Then
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we present ourselves and then there can be this professional
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line of how I got here, and it can be
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like a career building and the exact steps, and then
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there's a personal.
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Story, and I'd appreciate the personal story.
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Yes, yes, So I'm back in Serbia. It's actually I
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never lived in the country called Serbia. I left Yugoslavia
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when I graduated from university. I studied Chinese language and literature,
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and I went to China and kind of like the
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journey unfolds there. It's not that I had a job.
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I went with minimal funds. I don't know if I had.
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Sometimes the number comes that I had one hundred and
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fifty dollars, sometimes three hundred dollars, but definitely not a
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lot of money, and a lot of people came to help,
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and there were some people that needed help themselves as well,
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and I met those carred people and got scarred as well.
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It was about drug addiction and feeling lost and so on,
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and even myself, you know, there was a lot of
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socializing going through alcohol and everything. So I really, like Pinocchio,
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ended up in a place of now, forget everything that
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my father taught me and just go and release the
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anger about the war. So there was worrying Ugoslavia at
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that time, and I earned weigh basically, so I had
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a bit of chaos, chaotic six years of feeling lost
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in that anger and different path that really took me
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away from my dream life. And when I turned I
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was spenty three at that time, and then when I
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was about to turn twenty nine, I thought something is wrong.
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I actually I had these big dreams of who I
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was going to give when I'm thirty, you know, and
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I thought, I'm going to be a millionaire. I'm going
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to go and think of my retirement. And there it was.
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I was didjaying part time. I was working in a
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consulting company also freelancing. Beautiful job. That's actually what set
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the tone for my coaching. We were doing team building
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with different multinational companies, but that was sporadic outdoor education
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as well, and that very all hit me that something
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was I was not really following my dream and that
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my actions were completely different from my the way how
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I perceived life would go. And just around the time,
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there was also bumping off Belgrade and that hit me
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really really hard. It was daily thinking like will my
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family survived if I was it was just Internet was
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just happening, and would be people on Yahoo Messenger at
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the time, and then they would say, oh, you got
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to go, got to go to shelter, the bomb being here,
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the planes are coming, and then that those moments of
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silence of not knowing what was going to happen. So
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the amount of stress and this still coming going into
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what was my reality?
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What was I.
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Experiencing a lot of successful people around me, a lot
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of talks about building China, hopes for future, while on
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the other side, at the same time, I'm hearing these
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survival mode reflection from people that I really cared about.
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And then I thought how I was wasting life knowing
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that I had all of those things present and a
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lot of opportunities. I thought I have to change something,
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and the change that happened was really about me starting
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to practice taichi and internal martial arts. So my life
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completely fleep from one reality, from long nights, alcohol drugs,
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sleeping at four or five am and waking up at
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ten and being hangover. And now, so we are talking
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about nineteen ninety nine. Sometime October, I'm going early in
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the morning at six o'clock, I'm going to the park
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to practice taichi, and I see people drunk lying on
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the side of the street, and I'm just looking at
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them and thinking I could have been that person.
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So when you practice taichi, it always is curious to me,
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you know, when we think about taichi and we see
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the videos people in the parks and they're moving along
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and so forth. But there's a whole philosophy that I
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think a lot of peopleeople miss. When you were studying taichi,
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were you studying the philosophy?
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Also, you can't study one without the other? Oh, okay, no, Slowly,
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it's all connected. It's not a physical movement, and it's
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really cultivation of mind, body, and the spirit tags along
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with it, at least in the way the methodology to
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China teaches it. I had a chance to connect. I mean,
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I just went to a park and I'm like, I'm
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looking for a teacher. How does one find the teacher? Right?
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So that was the first thing. And I was looking
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and looking and then saw a woman who was leading
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a group of hundred people and she was a referee
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for competitive taichi. So she actually introduced me into competitive
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taichi and after eight months I was competing. I want
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some medals as well. And it was a lot about
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the structure and the physical. When I asked her, for example,
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why are we practicing and she said, well, we are
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practicing so that our mind and body can be aligned fully.
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And she said, and if you can manage to be
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aligned with your mind and your body for ten seconds,
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that means that you're a master.
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You know when you say that, something comes to my
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mind from just a previous podcast that I did the
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other day, and we were talking about people as they
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age and they kind of get to that point where
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they start to feel the victim of aging, and yet
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as you talk about the mind and the body becoming one,
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and we had talked about how important it is to
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just accept who you are at any given moment in time,
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and if you can do that, it makes such a
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difference in your mindset, in your attitude and so forth.
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Could you elaborate a little bit on that when you
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talk about the mind and the body becoming one.
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Well, to be honest, it really didn't speak to me
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in the way how I was taught through manal internal
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martial arts. Because I explored later Chigung and seeing me
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and Barbados the Chinese practices. It was only that I
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understood what they were talking about. And we are talking
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now about maybe fifteen years after my practice tarted. Yes,
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that I came to mindfulness and a lot of things
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then settled and I understood what they were actually talking
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about what is the final goal? But the methodology was
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not really there, and that's what they were saying. It
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takes ten years to become monster if you're lucky, I mean,
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it takes a lifetime, you know.
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But so.
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What it means that mind and body are together is
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that so there's this capacity for the mind to gain
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awareness of the inner experience, physical experience. So I can
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be aware right now, well, you know, like I have
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a bit of tightness about my left eyebrow, eyebrow or
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like I just misspelled eyebrow and I said eyebrow. So
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there's a bit of shame comes in. And then I'm noticing, oh,
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you know, like my shoulders are a little bit tight,
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so and I can relax, and my practice is enabling
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me to have a real time experience what's happening in
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my body. So my mind can be aware of that,
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and then our body can be aware of our mind
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as well. Right, sometimes I can feel agitation. So I
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mentioned a couple of things tightness in my shoulders, but
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also mentioned a bit of shame, the mistake, right, And
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so that is the interpretation of the mind and that
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direction between the mind and the body when we find
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stillness and grounding in that, when we find an element
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of trust, that that attention provides a lot of nourishment
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for our mind and the body in a way we
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can actually have capacity to hold the pain with same
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awareness and not be taken over by it. And that's
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I mean when we say aging, right, where there's pain,
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this body starts giving up. And so that's one element.
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Another one is our motorics are not the same as well, right,
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Like I'm a little bit clumsy, and it's like I
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have now taken care of my parents as well here,
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So it's really having insight about that. But so we
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don't connect mind and a body to prevent things from happening.
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We don't magically forget that we are aging. But there
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is some grounding and confidence that goes comes from acceptance,
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and it's like, oh, this is what aging brings.
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So we talk about aging, let's talk about other things
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and how mindfulness helps. Because as you know, I'm sure
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with people you've worked with, there's a lot of people
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that have experienced some type of trauma in their lives,
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some very serious, others their perception of trauma. Someone else
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would look at it and go, no's no way, But
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it doesn't matter because their perception is some type of trauma,
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some type of suffering that they're experiencing. How does how
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does the mindset and that awareness move into that so
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that as those things come up, you're able to, as
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you say, be aware of them, but not let them
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control your emotions or your mind to the point where
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you are now a victim of that versus you're really
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in control. Something comes up, Okay, I get it, and
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you move it to the side or wherever it goes,
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but you're able to continue on consciously with that mindset
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of being one with yourself.
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Well, one thing is maybe I can share that it's
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not really being in control, because that would go against mindulements.
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It's actually we are learning how to control and still
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be grounded. So being grounded doesn't mean being in control.
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It's a little bit like when the wind is blowing
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and the tree is there and it's shaken by the wind.
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The tree is not controlling the wind, it's just keeping
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its roots right there, right, and that there's a lot
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of benefit from the tree actually being shaken by the
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by the weed, the roots get stronger, and maybe there's
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polinization and you know, the seats kind of lego and
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so on. So I think our perception that we can
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control anything and in life is actually the problem. This
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is where people have expectations I'm going to be able
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to be in control. It's like, no, we're not in control,
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but we can be able to just like you know,
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like water or the tree, to kind of like swing
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with it and not completely lose ourselves.
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Well, yes, and I probably shouldn't used that word. I
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think it means something different to me than it does
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to you. But maybe a better description is conscious awareness.
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How we can be consciously aware of ourselves, of our
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mindset and all that, so that we are literally moving
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in a very positive direction and not being the victim
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of any of those subconscious thoughts, emotions, and so forth
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that get triggered all the time.
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Of course, that's the practice, it's really the practice to
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understand first the mind is going to go through the doubt,
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you know, like why should I be like I'd rather
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escape and not really going too feeling or feeling pain
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or being aware of all of that because it brings
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this comfort and victim is just one of the ways
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of protecting our system. You know, there are different subhat
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attaching strategies, right being full in control is one, being
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you know, like perfection is another one. And these are
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defense systems that we have developed in childhood for whatever reason.
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So now this conscious awareness can help us to in
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a way detached from automatic response to life pressures. See