Here’s a interview that I recorded a few weeks ago with Georgia Ellis of Blue Chip Minds for her outstanding Ellis in Wunderland podcast.
PURPOSE: Our basic purpose is to be ourselves as much as possible. Intuition is the only voice that will speak out purpose.
FEAR: Fear is a voice of “no”, and intuition is a voice of “yes.” Fear is just a message, and usually something that we can turn towards. Intuition is the quiet voice of the unconscious. Fear is the loud voice of instinct.
INTUITION: How embodied practices can be the gateway to getting it touch with intuition. Intuition is simply: self-awareness, and embodied practices (like sports, yoga, meditation) train the muscle of self-awareness.
“Alcohol is obsolete” is a linguistic mechanism that I use to put drinking firmly in the past. I’ve done it, but it’s in the past, and it’s not part of my life any longer. I also believe that we are likely past the cultural peak of alcohol use.
Since our true purpose is simply to be ourselves, and the voice of self is intuition, and since alcohol dulls the intuition, drinking interferes with finding—and feeling—your self, and your purpose.
The view from the inside of our current state of being will make a different way of living seem distant and foreign to us. We can talk about it, but it won’t seem real, or that it could become real. The only way to see what a new normal feels like is to run an experiment—to try it.
Depression is a symptom, not a thing. For most people, anxiety and depression are symptoms of not living well. If you’re depressed and you drink alcohol, you should consider very strongly how alcohol and depression are co-involved. We don’t talk enough about how alcohol can cause depression.
My #1 value: freedom. You need to be free to be—to be yourself. For me that meant 1) Developing a way of supporting myself of my own design, so that I can live outside the machine. 2) Developing my intuition into a full-fledged and highly-functioning part of who I am. 3) Creating a more conscious relationship with (or without) alcohol.