Podcast Transcript | Ep. 74

The Art of Being: Finding Wisdom in Stillness | Ep. 74

The Art of Being: Finding Wisdom in Stillness | Ep. 74

[00:00:00] Brandon Ward: Hello, and welcome to Order Within, navigating a world of endless chaos and crisis. Many of us are experiencing inner turmoil, insecurity, anxiety, fears, and isolation. These feelings are only being amplified by new cycles social media, and never ending political madness. How do we find our way out of the chaos?

[00:00:24] How do we find strength within ourselves? How do we find meaning in a world driven by materialism? These questions and many more I aim to answer on the show. My goal is to be a trusted guide on your journey to selfhood. May you find what you seek.

[00:00:42] Hello and welcome everyone. I'm your host, Brandon Ward. Back with another episode of order within. We're rocking a solo pod today. I hope you've been enjoying the. Guest on the show. I've [00:01:00] thoroughly really enjoyed them thoroughly, really thoroughly, really deeply. Massively enjoyed them. The conversations are really interesting for me. I hope that you're finding value in them. I got a lot of great guests that I've been speaking with too. So we should have some new episodes coming up. Then I think you'll be very excited about, but today's episode. Is episode number 74. We're going to be discovering and discussing. The art of being, finding wisdom and stillness.

[00:01:33] This concept of being versus doing. It's very relevant in our world today. It's something that I didn't understand when I was young. I think a lot of us don't. And the power of being compared to doing. And. We're all very, very overstimulated. From action. Doing consumption, [00:02:00] all of these things. So in today's episode, we're going to be breaking down. The distinction of being versus doing and why it's so important to nurture ourselves. And spend time with our own being our own existence. When I started my journey. Of personal healing. Over two decades ago now.

[00:02:22] This wasn't something that I understood. I was working on components of myself. It took me many years though, to get to a point to where I realized that. Learning to be with myself and love who I am. Is critical to finding wellness and fulfillment in life. So when I talk about being versus doing it's something that's very meaningful to me, very relevant to me, and I think very relevant to many of you in the world that we're living in. It's easy to get up, get caught up in. Doing things all the time consuming, take an action. We've got our platforms [00:03:00] that we're watching. Entertainment on, we've got sports. We've got social media, we've got video games. We've got the internet. We've got our jobs. People are working from home. There's less and less boundaries. And there's a consistent. State. Of consumption. And there's a cost to that. Now we have to do things. I'm not oblivious to that. Doing things can be very fulfilling. But it's fulfilling when it's driven by our being our essence, who we are at the core. And we're called human beings, not human doings. So being and doing go hand in hand, but what we do when done properly is an extension of who we are. But without knowing who we are without knowing our being, it's very difficult to live a life. True. To who we are and authentic to who we are. So in this episode, we're going to talk about a few different things. One of those things is going to be the culture of busy-ness. [00:04:00] The next thing is going to be the wisdom of stillness. We're going to look at finding balance. We're going to look at self-reflection and wellbeing. And then we're going to talk about some practical exercises, and then we're going to conclude the episode. So starting out with the culture of busy-ness.

[00:04:16] Our societal emphasis on constant activity and productivity now being productive and doing things in society is awesome. It's very crucial. That we all do certain things. All of us have roles. And contribute to society. Hopefully. But we're buying things. We have jobs, we have companies that were building. We have families that we're raising. We go to church, we're playing sports, all this stuff. There's all the things that we can do to be active and productive. But we take it way too far. And we use it in a many ways, as a means, as a badge of honor, as a bragging thing that says, look how busy I am. I'm super busy. I'm [00:05:00] doing all of these things. But. What can happen is. That can cover up. Who we are.

[00:05:09] What matters to us, we can stay in this state of doing and in. Taking action and being busy without ever connecting with who we drew, they are from within. And because we have an obsession with busy-ness, particularly in the United States, it can be. Very tempting to, to wear that badge of busy-ness. But what ends up happening is there's a big cost to that. We turn up being overstimulated and burned out. We can't relax. We can't rest. And we're in a state of anxiety, a constant state of anxiety is a layer of anxiety. We do this so much that we don't even realize that that's happening. Once we start unplugging. We can get a sense of how wound up we may be. But [00:06:00] until we do that, we can operate in a state of frenzy and all of us know people like that. We've had times like that in our lives where it's just a constant frenzy of activity. I'm around. I've been around people like that. And the more I've connected and slowed down and. Learn to be the more, I feel the anxiety of those people when I'm around them, they just can't rest there. You see them constantly tapping their feet. They're moving, they're juggling on their phone. They're constantly on their phone. They're always needing stimulation. That's a dangerous place to be because it's living very externally. It's living very plugged in to the external world. And it leads to an imbalance on our life of mental health and wellbeing. Because the power comes from within us and being with ourselves. Is where we find our wholeness, our stillness, but when we live in a culture of busy-ness, which we do. All that gets brushed over. And we [00:07:00] get caught up in the nonsense and the madness is the, in the, in, in the busy-ness. There's a huge difference between being busy and productive. And we can't get to productivity without self-awareness and understanding the activities that mean the most and make the most impact in our life compared to the ones that don't.

[00:07:18] Because if we don't recognize that.

[00:07:22] We're going to be. In trouble. And that's what happens to a lot of us. I've been there. I have to be mindful of it when I'm overstimulated. It still happens this to this day. I can tell if I'm not slowing down, if I'm not unplugging, if I'm not relaxing. I get anxious. It fills this anxious, hyper. Oh, like almost like you drank too much coffee and so much of that. Is a part of what natural or, or part of our culture is promoted. And out, and I want to counter that and share some information that will hopefully help you learn to relax more, be into your being and move more into [00:08:00] yourself. Before we do that though. I want to share some relevant sticks and studies. About the modern, always on culture. So one of those is a rising work hours. And a study by the international labor organization. Global working hours have increased by 10% over the past two decades. That's becoming even more relevant now and increasing with work from home because there's no balance, there's no boundary between work and non-work. And it's a slippery slope. That time may not seem like a lot, but it adds up over time and particular with the fact that a lot of people are disengaged from their work. So this rise in increased time that we've been spending an hours at work. Is hurting our wellbeing. It's limiting our ability to just be and enjoy the company of ourselves and enjoy the company of those that we care about. Another study is productivity versus busy-ness just like I was talking about. A study published in the [00:09:00] Harvard business review found that only 13% of employees worldwide are engaged at work. 13%. That means 87% of people at work are not engaged. That suggests that many people may be busy, but not necessarily productive or fulfilled. Again, there's a big difference between fulfillment and busy-ness. And when we know who we are, we're aligned with the work we're doing, we're engaged by what we're doing at work. These things don't happen. Now we have times, or we may be burnt out or we may need an arrest, or we may need a break from the work that we're doing. But when we're aligned, the true Newark over time is engagement.

[00:09:37] It is fulfillment and we enjoy what we do. We may have bad days or weeks, but when you look at the long run of it, It's overall very positive when he, and we enjoy what we're doing, but most people are not doing that. But that's the distinction. Between. Busy-ness and just doing a bunch of things. Appearing to be busy, doing stuff, [00:10:00] random things, whatever. It may be responding to emails, checking off tasks, creating things, but what's the impact that's having in our day to day. What's the impact it's having in our business. What's the impact it's having on our family. The quality of the things that we're doing and the actions that we take matter, not simply taking action all the time, that can be a fool's errand. And that's what we're trying to avoid.

[00:10:22] Another study by the world health organization reports that depression is now the leading cause of disability globally and excessive work-related stress is a significant contributing factor. Not to mention all the other madness that's happening in our world. Politically. Financially socially, all of these things right now, recording, this is September 20, 23. So things could be very different. Maybe when you're listening to this, I hope they're better if they are. But there's a lot of crazy things happening in our world. And mental health is sliding. Big time. And depression. Being the leading cause of global disability is very [00:11:00] alarming. That's again, pointing to the fact that we are all very busy doing a lot of things, but we're not leaning in to, what's true to who we are. We're not doing the things that matter most to us now. Most of us have to make a living. Most of us have to make money. Most of us have to pay bills. All of those things that's reality. So finding the way that we can do those things that are aligned with who we are matters a ton. And that's why reflection and being with who we are and learning about who we are matters so much. So taking the time to slow down. Create more boundaries within our work. And reflect on who we are, can help lessen that stress in that impact. Another piece is always staying connected. The American psychological association found that constant connectivity to work through digital devices contributes to higher stress levels, making it challenging for individuals to detach from work. This is even more relevant now in the hyper-connected work from home culture that we live within.

[00:11:59] It's really [00:12:00] difficult to create boundaries when we do this. And as employees, if we work for companies, it's our role to drive those boundaries and set boundary. Boundaries. And if we're working for companies that don't honor those boundaries, we may need to reflect on making changes because ultimately work is a means. To serve. Our personal lives, our families, the goals that we have, we contribute to those companies by fulfilling roles there. But. We are here to live, to exist, to learn, to be, to be humans first and foremost. So work does not Trump our wellbeing, our overall sense of essence and who we are. We have to push back on those things and create more clear boundaries, setting boundaries in your work life by creating the schedule that you have, particularly if you work from home. Letting people know when you're available, letting them know when you're not. And communicating that outwardly is super important. It's one of the reasons why I love driving everything through my calendar. It's a way to control and manage that time in [00:13:00] a respectful and mindful way. Another aspect here is the cultural influence. Research by cultural psychologists, such as Gert Hofstede shows that cultures like the United States prioritize achievement and assertiveness often at the expense of work-life balance. Many of you that live in this country know that's true. It's detrimental to our wellbeing and it undermines the value of being and who we are at the core of that work. And doing things is an expression and an extension of who we are without the knowledge of who we are. It's very difficult to find balance in our life. Burnout rates are another aspect of this. A Gallup poll found that nearly 23% of employees reported feeling burned out at work very often, or always with another 44% reporting feeling burned out. Sometimes that's almost half the time they're feeling burned out. Again, lack of balance over emphasis on doing busy-ness being, doing, doing, doing, and not enough on being on just being. And we're [00:14:00] going to talk more about what that means on the next section here. So a couple more studies to look out here are just some points of emphasis. Impact on sleep. The national sleep foundation reports that more than one in three Americans don't get enough sleep on a regular basis with work-related stress. That is a common reason for solar. Sleep disturbances. Another example of lack of boundaries, too much focus on the doing on the busy-ness on work. Dominating our life. Creating boundaries matters a ton. If we're not getting enough sleep. We're not going to be. Filling our best. We're not going to be at a good energy level. We're going to be cranky. We're going to be short or not going to have that clear, focused mind that we need to live in the world that we live in. Sleep is crucial. Knowing that though. Recognizing the shortcomings. Allows us to adjust how we're living. And then the last one here is the perception of busy-ness and a study published in the journal. Psychological [00:15:00] science researchers found that people often perceive busy-ness as a status symbol, leaving, leading to a culture of overwork. That's another. Component that I was talking about earlier about our society is that being busy is worn as a badge. Oh, I'm so busy. I'm so busy, but it matters what we're being busy with. What are we working on? What are they activities that we're doing? What are things that are happening now in our lives? Where is all that time and energy going into, if it's not things that truly serve. The mission, the values that we hold as individuals it's taking us away from where we want to go. And that's what we're trying to avoid. So being mindful of all these things can help us course. Correct. So that culture of busy-ness can be a trap that we fall into that we often find ourselves in. And this enables us, those are some points that we talked about that are challenging, but now moving into the wisdom of stillness. And so what does it mean to be rather than just do being is literally [00:16:00] enjoying who you are being means, doing nothing or very little of that. When I was going through my deepest healing work, struggling and challenged. By all the pain that I felt within that I was carrying all this isolation. Some of the most healing times. Or when I did absolutely nothing. I would lay on the floor. I would lay on the couch. I would lay on the bed and I would just be, and I would experience myself. I would observe myself. I would observe my mind. I would observe my emotions, my feelings. I would observe the thoughts that were flying in and out of my mind. I would simply be with who I was. And we can do these things in small ways. But if we're feeling burnt out or stressed or struggling, sometimes the best thing to do. Is lowered the lights in our room. Get into our bed and relax and just lay there. No music, no sound, [00:17:00] nothing, no conversations. Just being with yourself, experiencing your own being. That is what it means to be. Now we can meditate. We can do the, I'm going to talk about some other activities that we can do that are low stimulation that can help us connect with our being and do more joyous things. But doing of any kind, even if it's listening to music or meditating, that's still an activity. Although an activity of minimal a minimal activity, they are still activity. So we really want to start doing this. Finding that stillness, finding the being within us. And just allowing ourselves to experience what that is now. For a lot of us, especially when we just start doing this, that's going to be really hard. It's going to seem insane. It's going to seem boring, painful our mind's going to be jumping all over the place. But do it in increments, start with five minutes and then work your way up to 10, 15, 20, so [00:18:00] forth. Do that. Do it to where you can do that for 30 minutes or 45 minutes. And just experience yourself over time. You'll start to reflect and see things. In your own existence in your mind, in your heart and your feelings and your thoughts that are not a reflection of who you are, and you can start to parse out what it means to be you. And what it means to not be you and the things that aren't, you. Over time, clarity comes, but the process with being with ourselves and simply unplugging from everything is a healing process in and of itself. It. Enables us to simply rest, even watching shows at the end of the day or doing low stimulation activities like that are actually quite stimulating. And it's not true rest. If we really need to become whole and. And resonate with that wholeness because we are whole, I said become whole. We are whole already, but we need to experience that wholeness. And by [00:19:00] duke. The way we do that. As by simply being. Turning all that stimulation off turning all the noise off and just being with ourselves. I encourage you to try this. I start with five to 10 minutes. Do it a few times a week and build from there. I promise you, you will start to notice a change and you will start to fill an EAs. That you have not felt and possibly a lot of time maybe ever. Because doing all the time is overstimulating us. Watching TV being on social media, creating whatever all that stuff is doing. Doing an overstimulating, us being connected to technology all the time is overstimulating us on our phones, on the internet, on our computers and our cars, all of this stuff, all this noise. That. Is creating. Uh, dissonance and our life that we don't yet recognize because it's been normalized. Unplugging is one of the key components of [00:20:00] tapping into our being and starting that healing process and finding peace within ourselves. Because the benefits to slowing down and embracing stillness and practicing mindfulness go far beyond what we can imagine. And it's, there's a lot of things that we can talk about. That help us. It's good for our wellbeing. It's good for our mental health. It's good for our physical health. It's good for our relationships. It's good for our businesses, our professional careers. It empowers all of these components. When we do this on a consistent basis. Slowing down. In a world that's hell bent on craziness being active all the time is a superpower. And it enables us to tap into the power that lives within us already. And can start to exercise these skills. These components within us, mindfulness is a skill. Stillness is a skill slowing down is a skill. Being in nature. Being in silence. Being with our thoughts. [00:21:00] That's how we experience our being. And we can do these things in a variety of ways.

[00:21:06] So the win for me, I've and my wife is going through a lot of her own healing right now, and she's finding the benefit of this, which is great. I'm been, she's been doing so much work. I'm very proud of her. But when we unplug. And we stepped back. We start to find clarity with things that we may be struggling with. Maybe it's relationships that have impacted us in our life. Maybe it's work that we're struggling with, but when we do this, When we pull out and we start to just relax and slow down and be. Answers and clarity things can start to come into our mind. We can start to observe things. That we have brushed over because we've been going, going, going. Uh, when we slow down. That small, still whisper within us starts to present itself more clearly more frequently. And that's where our wisdom comes from. That's where that deep, [00:22:00] knowledgeable wisdom that resides within all of us comes from. When we slow down, all of us have access to that. But we have to get still for it to come through. So when we start to do this, we can find clarity and insight in our lives that we can take action around. And that's the power of this. This doesn't mean we never do anything. It's about finding the balance. Of being and doing. And that's what brings us to the next section that brings us into the next section of finding balance.

[00:22:32] It's challenging in our world to balance being in doing. People are going to constantly be up your butt about being busy all the time, especially if you're just building something. If you're building a business or if you're building a creative career, whatever it may be. Ah, you gotta be busy. Busy, busy, go, go, go, go, go. And there is some truth in that. But you got to make sure it's a reflection of who you truly are. And you've got to connect with that inner being to ensure that your actions and your productivity is [00:23:00] aligned with the life you want to create. So much of us, so many of us use doing and busy-ness as a means to never really connect with who we are. It becomes another means to continue to abandoned. The challenging feelings that we carry within us, those things that we don't want to face, the sadness, the depression, the loneliness, the isolation, the lack of meaning. All of those things, are there waiting for us? But busy-ness becomes a means to brush over all that stuff constantly on social media, constantly being entertained, constantly watching entertainment, whatever it is, playing video games, doing all the things. If we're always in the throws of action. We never have a chance to hear and find that balance and wisdom that lives within us. So you got to understand first and foremost, the world will most likely push back on you because it doesn't like us. It doesn't like when people don't conform to the insane activity that it requires in our society. Our culture dictates. So friends, [00:24:00] family, people that you know, may be pushed and they may push back.

[00:24:02] If you start taking time away from them and you start doing things more in align with just being and unplugging. So anticipate that if you start to make this change, if you start to pull back from some of those activities or things that you've been involved in, anticipate that people may push back on you with that. And that there could be criticism. Or questions or thoughts. And when that happens, just tell them that you're simply exploring and learning about who you are. And you're taking the time to be with yourself without anything else, without any of those distractions, it's not a reflection of them. It's about you and your process to connect with who you are. So you can live the best life that you choose to live. Just let them do that. Communicate it, set the boundary and then let it be. The people that love you truly will still be there. They'll understand. They'll give you the space that you're asking for. And when you're ready, you can come back around and you can get more active because that's what ends up happening when you do this work. The cool thing is we want to go out in the world and share the things that we've uncovered and found [00:25:00] within ourselves.

[00:25:02] But we, we have, because we have to do, we have to take action. We have to be productive if we wish to live fulfilling lives and have food and pay our bills and have a place to live and all those things. So I'm not saying we don't do things. We obviously have to. But when we do it from the perspective. Of authenticity from our inner being and true to who we are the doing and the productivity changes the nature and the quality of it changes. And the fulfillment that comes from those actions completely shifts. So it's about finding that balance, but creating time. And space to be with yourselves. Is a powerful way to start implementing these things in our lives on a daily basis. Some practical tips and techniques for Inc incorporating moments of stillness into a busy routine, because that's what it's about. Like I said, start with five to 10 minutes and go from there. The easiest place to start for most people in the shower. If you're in the shower, that's where we have those shower [00:26:00] thoughts be with yourself. No music, no distractions. Take that 10 to 15 minutes to be with your mind being you're being experienced, that there. That's one way. You can do bathroom breaks at work. Take five to 10 minutes. Don't be on your phone. Don't do any of that. Sit with yourself. That may be hard. But challenge yourself, set a timer for five minutes and do it start from there and build. Another place. Is in the car. When you're driving. Instead of having a podcast on or having music on. Just be with yourself. Silence. You can have the windows down, right? If you want to hear the outdoors. But just be with yourself. If you're at work. Take a quick walk around the building. Get out of the office, go outside and walk around for five to 10 minutes. Stay off your phone. No music, no podcast. Just be in your thoughts. Observe them. Watch what comes up [00:27:00] because that process will enlighten us to where we are in the moment. And it will help us to, to see what's holding us back now and what we can do moving forward to improve the quality of life that we wish to experience. These are micro moments of mindfulness and you can have them at any point, you can literally step outside of a meeting. Take three to five minutes for yourself to just simply close your eyes. And B. Sit in your chair. If you're at your desk before you start work, just sit there three to five minutes and be. All these little micro moments can add up. We can do this throughout the day. Especially if we're feeling stressed or wound up or pent up taking these micro moments of mindfulness can help counterbalance all this busy-ness because the culture is going to push back on us. It absolutely will. So it's having tools and strategies that we can put in place. To counterbalance that pushback.

[00:27:58] Which leads [00:28:00] into self-reflection and wellbeing and how they connect together. Being present and self-reflective can enhance our wellbeing. With an insane levels gang. Like it's impossible to describe to you how I can change our life, because it's something you have to experience for yourself. And this is all true. And possible for each of us. When we learn to be present and reflect on who we are. It deepens our power as individuals. It deepens our awareness to who we are, our strengths, our weaknesses, what we love, what we don't love, what we enjoy, what we, don't, what we're passionate about, what we're not what we're driven by, what we're not all of those things matter. And as we do this work, we become. More aware of who we are. And we can create a life that's reflective of who we truly are, not what others may want, not the should or expectations of society, but to create a life that we've chosen. That is a very powerful process that enhances our [00:29:00] existence and brings about life. That's aligned with who we are from the deepest parts of our soul. That resonates beyond this world. And we can carry that anchor. We can anchor that self, that being with us throughout all of existence beyond this world. I'm telling y'all it's insane. What this work can do. And when we say when the gift. Heaven is within us. That's a prime example of what this means. Heaven is within us, meaning that God is with us. We have all this power within us. The power of our being is here now, and that heaven is here now. And we can experience that heaven by tapping into who we are and learning about who we are. And spending the time with ourselves. Doing this will lead to personal growth. It changed my life. Doing this work, reflecting on who I was, what mattered to me. It defined. This is how I realized the way I want to build my life, the partner that I want to have the family that I want to raise the type of [00:30:00] work that I want to be doing. The podcast and I wanted to create all of these things came from reflection and being with myself. This is how we make meaningful lives. This is how we live true to who we are. The people that are most happy and fulfilled that I know are the ones that are living deeply authentic lives. To who they are at the core. Not what society says, not the ones that are making the most money, not the ones who have the most prestige, but the ones that are living truest to who they are from within. And this all comes from knowing who we are at the core of our being. And that's the power. That being and. Being with ourselves enables is allowing us to tap in to that creative power. That is the self that we've all been given.

[00:30:50] When we do this. That's how we make meaningful life choices. That's what enables us. To create the life that we want to [00:31:00] live, knowing who we are, allows us to create a life we love and feel connected to because it's ours, it's not someone else's it's ours. And that is crucial for fulfillment and peace and happiness and mastery and excellence. We don't reach high levels of excellence unless we truly love what we're doing and love the life that we live. And that only comes from knowing who we are and what matters to us, what matters to you may not matter to the person next to you and that's okay. Don't judge. These things allow them to be simply observe when you start this work, simply observe. No judgment, no criticism. Just watch, just be present with yourself and allow that process to take hold. The simple act of awareness, diffuses so much of the negativity that we may experience and feel. And by doing that. We unleashed the power. Of our own mind, our own being our own hearts. And we allow that awareness to [00:32:00] resonate through all that we do.

[00:32:03] And many of us feel disconnected because we're disconnected from our true selves. We feel disconnected from the world around us. We feel disconnected from other people. We feel disconnected from all that is. If we feel that way, if you feel isolation, if you feel disconnection. That is a reflection of your own internal disconnection from your true self. I used to feel this all the time. I could be. Around hordes of people partying and connected all around and in and around good people, people that I enjoyed being around and I would still feel alone. I would still feel isolated because. I was carrying that aloneness, that ally isolation. Within myself. Those things.

[00:32:47] Didn't fill me up because I felt the void within, which was the void of myself, my true, authentic being. We find that connection when we connect to who we are from within, that enables us to [00:33:00] connect to others around us and the world around us. And I can tell y'all. You experienced mood music, food, movies, entertainment, sports, art, sex, everything in a different way. When we connect with who we are, we become present. We become active and keying in on where we are now. And we. I become truly alive when we make this process and this practice apart of our life.

[00:33:26] So let's talk about some practical exercises. We can do. I've already talked about a few that we can do earlier places we can do these micro moments of mindfulness, but there are some things that we can do as well. Some low stimulating activities too. So laying in your bed without any music or anything, just being with yourself as great. I used to do it in my car.

[00:33:46] I would take my lunch break. In my car. I would lay my seat back and I would just lay there. Nothing, no music. Nothing. I would open the windows sometimes depending on the weather and I would just lay there and be [00:34:00] so that's the first activity. Just learn to be with yourself. No, nothing outside. Just yourself. No music. None of that. But some other things that we can do. Walking without anything, but the sounds of nature. So taking a walk outside, no podcasts, no headphones, none of that be with your thoughts, be with your mind, be with yourself. Experience that experience yourself relating to nature and notice all the things around you. Just be present with that, make that a practice. That's something that we can do and enjoy. And it's a great way to learn and connect with who we are and the world around us.

[00:34:38] Meditate in silence. I know this is hard. It can be very tough. But spend 5, 10, 15 minutes in meditation without guidance or music or any of that, just be. There are a lot of different types of meditation out there. They're very intentional active meditations. This is a passive. Being [00:35:00] meditation? No, no guidance. No music, no structure only being to set a timer, close your eyes and be, that is very powerful. I'm telling you doing that 10 minutes a day. If you do that consistently can transform your life over time. Shower time without anything else we've already talked about that. Something else. That's really nice drawing, writing, coloring, painting. Things of that nature, maybe pottery. Things that allow you to focus in on something, but it's low stimulation. It's not technology. You're not doing this because those are high stimulation activities. You can find yourself. And drawing and writing and coloring and painting and pottery, you can find yourself, but the key is to do it alone, to do it in your own space without others, without music. Right. Be in your space. Let your own vibes flow through whatever activity you're doing. Uh, another one is playing a musical instrument. [00:36:00] Again, You and the instrument, nothing else. You're in the flow of things. You're learning about who you are. You're seeing what resonates, you're spending time with yourself. That can be an incredible thing to do, to focus to. Because when we do these low stimulation activities like this. It can somewhat. Distract our monkey mind a little bit and allow us to create clarity. So it, it does. It's a way to slow ourselves into this process. Almost tricks us into connecting with who we are, because it's so low stimulation. It's just like when you're driving a car, taking a shower, you're doing things in there, but you're on autopilot in many ways. So when you're doing these activities, They can almost be very autopilot, which can put you in touch with who you are, those thoughts, your feelings, your emotions. It can be a very powerful practice.

[00:36:51] Really almost anything without technology. Unplugging from technology and doing anything kind of low stimulation is, can be a very [00:37:00] powerful thing. Laying in bed, on the couch and just being as great being out in nature and just being as great. Get a hammock, go to a park time up to some trees and just lay there. The key is no. Technology, no outward thing. Just be with yourself. You're going to struggle. If you haven't done this much, you're going to struggle. Initially. It's going to be hard. You're going to feel chaotic and crazy and bored and all that stuff. Lean into it. No, that that's normal. That's okay. Those are it's part of the process. This is a skill. Our society is not taught us these things. And so I want to say something too about reading. Now. I love reading. I read a ton of books. My wife reads a lot. I read fiction nonfiction. But reading, isn't a good way to truly connect with ourselves because we're looking at the world through the lens of others. Now we're learning, we're reading, we're incorporating those things. Some books as we're reading can help us learn about ourselves. Like I've definitely read [00:38:00] books that I've thought, wow, man, I really relate to this. The drama of the gifted child by Alice Miller is one of those books that really changed my life. In terms of her perspective on the world. It made me feel seen for the first time. But that's more a validation for what we may be feeling reading. Isn't a great way to connect with who we truly are at the core. So that isn't, I don't think that from my perspective, that's not a great activity to do, to qualify for spending time with ourselves because we're spending time with someone else's thoughts, someone else's perspective.

[00:38:30] That's moving away from who we are. It's an outward activity. So again, I love reading. I read a ton. If we want to learn and grow reading is a great way to do that. Not so much, a great way to connect with who we truly are from within.

[00:38:43] So when we're incorporating these practices into our daily routines start small 5, 10, 15 minutes. That's it build from there. If you're feeling more and you want to do more than great do it. But start small. It doesn't have to be these massive leaps. We can begin very small. [00:39:00]

[00:39:00] Watch the Mo the, the emotions and mind of what comes up, just be mindful, just observe that's your goal is to just watch, see what happens. Just observe don't judge. Just observe. Do your best not to criticize, catch yourself when you do, because you will. But just observe. Don't do anything more than that. Just be with yourself, allow yourself to experience all the things. That live within you. And what's going to happen, especially at the beginning is you're going to realize how chaotic things are, know that that is normal. That is completely okay. That is often called the monkey mind. That's the part of the process at the very beginning over time that monkey mind settles down stills because we build these skills in a way that our mind changes and shifts. To operate from a more calm. Still centered place. In the beginning, that's not going to be the case. So we have to take time to get there. But know that that's normal. You're going to [00:40:00] see chaos in your mind and that's okay. This is a practice. It's a practice. On plugging and disconnecting. From the overstimulating world that we live in is crucial for our wellbeing. Without doing that. We never get the chance to truly know who we are and learn from who we are and what we are at the core of our being. Which is our values, our passions, our likes, our dislikes, the things that motivate is our goals. All of those things that we brought into this world with us are discovered when we connect and tap into our being. I encourage you. To experiment with these ideas, find new things that work for you. I did not give an exhaustive list of all the things that we can do. Find those things that you can do. The key thing is make yourself the center of that focus. Remove yourself from stimulation or outward activity, other people as well. It's really hard to do this with other people. [00:41:00] So find ways to take time for yourself. Maybe it's cutting the yard. Maybe it's walking your dogs, whatever it is, find those activities that you can do with simply yourself and enjoy the presence of your own. Being. You have so much glory and gold within you. It's just waiting to be discovered. And that's where we find our fulfillment, our passion, our piece. And our power. So that's all I got for today's episode. Y'all I hope you enjoyed it. I've got a lot of great guests lined up. And scheduled over the next few weeks, I've been doing a lot of LinkedIn outreach. Tapping into a lot of great, wonderful people, really brilliant people that have interesting perspectives for me. That's what it's about. I've also got one of my heroes, to be honest, she lives in the world. My modern heroes, I should say. She's agreed to be a guest on my show. I can't wait to do an episode with her. I'm going to leave it at that. I'm working on the promotional components of what I'm doing with the show [00:42:00] to get tighter on that side. I've also got another podcast project. Then I'm working on. With a partner where we're going to be talking about the inner world of entrepreneurship specifically. And I've been brokering business brokering has been growing and doing well, making those connections. If you all have any questions or thoughts or episodes you'd like me to do, or guests you'd like me to bring on the show, hit me up. You can get me on Twitter at Brandon Lee ward. My website is Brandon Lee ward. Dot com you can get me on LinkedIn at Brandon L. Ward. And then the podcast is order within podcast.com. So with that being said, I sure do appreciate y'all's time. Hope you're having a great week. And it too. Next time. Y'all.

[00:42:44] Thank you for listening to Order Within. If you found the episode helpful, please consider sharing, rating, and subscribing. New episodes will be released every Thursday at 11am Eastern Standard Time. Until next time, y'all.[00:43:00]