The Subtle Art of Losing Yourself - Full Life Changing Documentary

[Music] [Music] the great teachers of History all taught know thyself they promise when we understand who we really are we gain wisdom and with wisdom we live in peace [Music] looking at everything that's happening in the world the whole self-awareness and peace thing could do with some work but I can vouch living in peace is hard but I have found through trying to be less confused and anxious that Humanity's discovered some awesome things about who we are that have helped me feel more grounded less confused but I'm still on my journey which is why I'm

here in the Kor some of the fiercest nature that the UK has to offer to see what being in nature can teach us about our nature and so I invite you to join me for the adventure we're going to see what are these great teachings that can help us live with wisdom and can we not just rely on other people what can we learn about ourselves through our own intuition and can the mountain teach us anything about living in peace for once let's explore that age-old cliche of a question who am I [Applause] [Music] [Music]

[Music] [Music] when you're in the city what animals do you see pigeons seagulls everyone's pets it's easy to take the mysteriousness of a poodle for granted but when I'm here in the Scottish winter my toes are freezing off I'm seeing these animals survive I'm struck by the extraordinary Miracle we find ourselves involved with it's another species of living being here on planet Earth and it's having an experience seeming emotions like fear and care for family and seeking warmth it might be a bit of an unconventional place to start our journey trying to understand ourselves by

looking at animals if they can feel things what does that teach us about our feelings who we are where we come from what does that life teach us about this life maybe not a lot I mean we are different from the animals I want us to get back up the mountain eventually but first there's a few things that would be good for us to understand like how do you understand yourself today because our societies have inherited some ideas that see the animals very differently from us indeed with huge implications for how we feel about ourselves

and our place in the universe fed Kart one of the founding thinkers of modern science and philosophy he believed that animals had no mind at all they were automata unconscious machines he justified gruesome experiments on live animals arguing the cries of apparent Agony were no more than automatic responses they can't believed only humans had mind or for him it was a spiritual thing only man had the spirit given by God that existed independently from the body it was these Transcendent minds or spirits that they can't believed G gave humans the unique capacity of self-awareness and

intelligence so that you could say probably the most famous line in Western philosophy I think therefore I am these ideas created splits in how we understand ourselves one between our minds and our bodies that we are our minds or Spirits in a body separate from it and a second split between the human and nature if it's only us that have minds or Spirits then it's only us that are intelligent or sacred our bodies the animals nature then are not intelligent inferior automatic science in the subsequent years they got rid of the spirits and the sacredness

but they still kept this idea that rational thinking minds are the only intelligence in the universe which gave us a feeling of isolation that we are this blip of intelligence facing an otherwise not intelligent automatic universe there are many forms of these ideas and Science and religions and we will promise when we understand ourselves we gain wisdom and we live in peace so I wonder is this who we are so who are you are you a mind or spirit in a body is there mind in nature where does your intelligence come from and can understanding

any of this help us live in peace so I'm going to do something a little bit unusual for a film and invite you to try some stuff with me so you can see what you can learn about yourself through your own experience so let's explore these ideas that our thinking is the source of our identity and that makes us different from the animals so if you'd like to join me invite you to rub your fingertips together it's basic but we can get deep with it so just being present with the sensations happening right now maybe

friction heat moisture and that's an experience not of thoughts with words but a direct sensation right and now if you think about somebody that you love maybe family friends pets and you think about the experience of love that experience is not a voice in your head saying love love love love love you know it's an emotion it's a feeling and so simply by paying attention to our own experience we found that I think therefore I am can only be part of the story of who we are I feel therefore I am as an essential part

of being human and yes this is simple but for me reconnecting with this fact was life-changing when I finished education I descended into confusion and anxiety not sure what I was doing with my life searching for peace I journey to China hoping Kung Fu might make me stronger I tried to get into a Kung Fu Monastery failed tried to find a kung fu school but by accident the locals took me to a taiichi school tai chi I thought that's for older people but I tried it and fell in love with it taii is a moving

meditation like yoga and practicing it I experienced what we're talking about I'm not just my thoughts and I can hang out in my feelings and Sensations where there's no words telling me I'm confused and lost on our journey towards peace it's helpful to know that we're not just our thoughts so we don't always have to be thinking and you don't have to try ta Chi to learn this we found this through observing our own experiences that Sensations are an option so let's see if we can take a second look at the animals and see what

observation can teach us about [Music] them if we spend time with animals we see they're not automatic machines instead they are very much conscious here and aware and they are creative responding to life intelligently science since day cart's time has found that animals they're made up of the same sort of stuff 80% of the genes that we have in our DNA squirrels have as well and a quick shout out to the plants even celery 50% of the genes that we have celery has as well [Music] very few people take decart's extreme views but have we

recognized both in how we understand ourselves and collectively the extent to which we share our experiences our emotions our intelligence with the rest of life [Music] [Music] [Applause] so we're at the start of understanding ourselves we have an experiential sense of self which we could call the sensor that complex array of emotions and Sensations that give us this feeling of being and the animals have it too but still despite these similarities it wasn't unreasonable if they can't to see us humans as fundamentally different I mean the squirrels can't give lifts to friends and camper surely

it is our thinking our reasoning that does distinguish us from the rest of nature so yeah we got to understand where does our ability to remember our email passwords come from where does that voice in our heads fit into who we are I want to show you something close to the mountain an ancient burial ground that can help us understand the origins of the human [Music] mind this is a barrial ground made in the Bronze Age and it's clear the people that made it here 4,000 years ago had brains capable of complex thinking they could

create stories that motivated the community to come together to create this structure now here's where things get quite mind-boggling we found evidence to say it's not just our species that had Minds capable of [Music] Storytelling this is a human skull this skull looks human but then the eyebrows are really far forward and the whole thing is shaped like a rugby ball this is not a skull of a homo sapien but a homo neander it's easy to forget that there have been over 20 species of human that have lived on our planet what were these humans

like the Neanderthal lived in community they made their own clothes out of animal hides they made tools to help them hunt and they wore feathers for decoration and some of the skeletons we found had been laid in dug pits with the person's hands placed supporting their heads as if they were resting asleep the SES we found did not just have one skeleton but many bodies people of different ages children parents grandparents some bodies surrounded by antler horns and rhinoceros skulls then NE anals buried their dead with care and in community why what the burials we

found tell us about what Minds the ne anals had and so where our minds might come from isn't clear-cut you don't actually need complex ideas about life after death to motivate ritual Behavior take elephants for example when one of their troop passes away will come back to the body for many days after the death each member spending time in silence touching the body showing their complex emotional life experiencing what we would likely call grief the Neanderthals too when their loved ones passed away would have felt intense emotions heartache rolling tension in the stomach and maybe

it was these emotions alone that motivated them to bury their loved ones with care they didn't need to have ideas about what might happen after death so we need more evidence and in 2013 archaeologists in France discovered something that shocked the world 350 M deep into a cave they found hundreds of stall tits and stall mites had been broken off the cave walls and deliberately placed into large circles and they found the remains of fires that had once been lit within them the structure was so complex the archaeologists assumed it must have been made by

Homo sapiens but when they dated the find they found it to be an astonishing 174,000 years old long before Homo sapiens had reached Europe implying its makers were the Neanderthals what they found in that cave in France had no obvious purpose must have taken many hours to make there had fires around it the whole cave would have been choking with smoke it seems to me very likely that there was a story motivating it that that structure meant something to the Neanderthal and even if that story was just made with basic language or images arising in

the minds of the Neanderthals that would mean that I think they're I am is not just for as Homo sapiens deart believed our thinking Minds made us superior to the rest of nature but we found evidence that the Neanderthals felt and thought in ways surprisingly similar to us and we found the animals experience Rich emotions and navigate their lives creatively we haven't found any splits between Humanity in nature or between our minds and bodies so us asking where does our intelligence come from has led us to a bigger and deeper question how is it that

our planet is bursting with beings that are conscious having experiences and so are able to solve the challenges they face intelligently what Consciousness is or how conscious life began on planet Earth is a great mystery planet Earth Earth was once just rocks and water but what we can see from the fossil record is that life on Earth began billions of years ago and through Evolution became more and more complex eventually animals evolved and they began to experience emotions such as fear and these emotions became more and more complex like care for family or the desire

to play and eventually for some animals thoughts and basic language began to ER arise in their minds giving them the ability to interpret and tell stories about what they were experiencing and for one animal as Homo sapiens we developed highly Advanced language which led to an explosion of human power and lots of questions every human culture has some form of spirituality or religion stories to help satisfy our Natural Curiosity we want to understand understand who we are and what we are a part of given the infinite mystery we find ourselves involved with any understanding of

ourselves needs to be made with humility as the Bible says with humility comes wisdom but we found we can through observation determine some of the principles that shape us and the universe science at its core is this process of observation making predictions about the world collecting evidence seeing what the evidence tells us science doesn't have to feel cold and mechanical in fact it's led us to an understanding that many wisdom Traditions shared something that's truly inclusive and Universal that all of us no matter our religion nationality gender or even our species we all come from

the same mysterious [Music] Source One of the great barriers to us finding peace is disconnection and so if you have thoughts telling you that you're separate from the world or there's nothing inspiring about you shift your focus and reconnect with what you are a part of you are made from the same energy that created the many humans the plants the animals and our precious beautiful home planet [Music] Earth so who are you you are embodied awareness mind and body coming from the same mysterious source and we found you have two main ways of experiencing and

understanding yourself the first we called the sensor the complex array emotions and Sensations that give us this feeling of being and then there's what we could call the Storyteller that which watches what you experience and using thoughts narrates and interprets and creates stories about who you are and to really understand how the Storyteller Works can be life-changing so to demonstrate how this works I'm going to look a wee bit silly for you so each ball is a thought like my name is George I grew up in England My love language is vegan brownies I know

all the words of the Tarzan soundtrack off by heart and see the story of who we are we construct from thoughts that pop into our heads that we identify with would you like to meet your Storyteller what's your favorite thing to do what was that thought you just had there you go there's one of yours and if we really understand this at leads to something tragic that we can only laugh at but there's nothing intrinsically George about me if I was born in another country I'd have different thoughts I'd have a different story and in

the various times of my life where I have felt not good enough it's not like not good enough as a physical quality of the universe no that feeling came from judgmental thoughts that popped into my head that I identified with so isn't it astonishing the amount of pain that we create in our lives from the stories that are only true to the extent that we identify with and believe the thoughts that pop into our [Music] [Music] heads I remember first reading classic spiritual books like The Power of Now and finding dosm the philosophy in the

mountain where I was studying that since dedicated a lot of my life to I remember these Insight moments whoa I'm not just my thoughts and not every thought I have needs to be true instead of fighting my thinking I began to just pause and to be curious noticing these stories which created a space within for me to be able to choose my response and a beautiful way that we can bring the practice of the pause into our every day is with a mindful breath I do this throughout the day and if you'd like to join

me why don't we take a breath together breathing in together softening the face and breathing out letting any tension go let's try one more of those breathing in can you soften even more and breathing out letting any tension go if we notice painful thinking or stories we just pause bring some curiosity to it open some space within and that space is our freedom so we promise by the great teachers when we understand ourselves we gain wisdom and we live in peace and indeed we found we not just our thoughts not every thought that we have

is true we found the practice of the pause all important steps on the journey towards peace but inevitably even if we have Insight today maybe tomorrow we'll be back covered and take away grease scrolling on Tik to wondering how did I get here again so just knowing who we are isn't enough [Music] [Music] so got my isacs crampons in the bag cold and we haven't even started yet it's time for us to climb back up the mountain can the perspective it gives us help us understand how to transform what we've learned into wisdom that can

actually help us where is this peace we've been promised [Music] we found that we create our own stories through the thoughts that we identify with why is it then if we do create our own Stories We Tell such rubbish negative stories why is inner piece so hard so if I draw a line in the Sandy rocks it's not going to stay around for very long if I scoop something a bit deeper I could be around for a bit longer give water enough time and it can carve Canyons out of sheer Rock our brains work like

this you know about neural Pathways the more you repeat certain behaviors the more that neural pathway is strengthened and this is essential it gives us our habitual ways of thinking and being take the habit of worry for example it's a good idea for safety for as to sometimes worry about what might go wrong in the future the challenge comes with what we do with these habits so for me in my time of Crisis a new character began to dominate my storytelling heads space who I personified as a little Evil wizard called the underminer and the

underminer channed everything that was happening in my life through the habit of worry and negativity so the fact that I was single and didn't have many friends my underminer would tell me I was floyed goods and when I started getting anxious my underminer would tell me I was weak for being anxious more and more of my life flowed into underminer Valley until I lost all hope that I could feel better again [Music] rule number one of getting out of the hole stop digging how do we normally react to pain I always beating myself up maybe

we numb ourselves out or try and run away from ourselves but all this does is just multiplies the pain that we're feeling wisdom Traditions around the world all talk about the power of love and compassion for us to be hurting in this often chaotic world doesn't make us weak or flawed it's okay to not be okay with compassion can we extend love and kindness to our whole selves even the bits that we might not want we can be with pain instead of Lost in [Music] it the acceptance of where we are is crucial on the

journey towards peace but we don't have to be stuck in undermine a valley forever there are more empowering ways of responding to the challenges of life we just need to find them [Music] [Music] the word wisdom derives from the root to see it's no coincidence in that mountains around the world have been spiritual places with perspective we see that we can choose how to respond to life look there's underminer Valley it still has its place there's play Valley there's creativity Creek wisdom is when we Channel what happens in our lives towards the responses that serve

Harmony that serve peace and anyway we're all unique so your place of perspective will be different to mine and the stories that Empower you you need to discover for yourself but be empowered that with patience persistance and kindness change big or small as [Music] possible even if you think you found who you are found a story that feels good when the world changes and your old patterns start rumbling in how do you respond left it quite late with the filming and the weather's turning it's getting cold still got quite a way to go before we

get to safety and warmth getting cold we'll be all right we'll get through change can be scary which is why we crave certainty certainty about how the world Works certainty about who we are so we think we've got everything under control but the only constant has changed the weather on the mountain is constantly changing you're constantly changing I'm constantly changing can we trust the intelligence of the life force that animates us an intelligence that has produced the astonishing resilience that is you that has produced the breathtaking beauty of the planet all done without words finding

yourself is great a human being needs a story we have roles to play as parents children employees students citizens but know that the searching will never end can you also develop the subtle art of losing yourself to surrender to the everchanging flow to not need a story to embrace the mystery of your being and so rest [Music] on our journey towards understanding ourselves and living in peace we found that we create the stories of who we are from the thoughts that pop into our heads and so we have the freedom to choose a story that

empowers but we and the world are always changing and too complex to fully capture with words thankfully we don't always need to be thinking we can hang out in our Sensations and so lose ourselves and one of the most reliable ways I found to lose myself is being in nature when I feel stuck in self-criticism and painful stories if I can get out and walk in Landscapes bigger than myself I'm reminded of the great tapestry of life that I am a part of and George and all my stories feel less and less important as my

mind softens I find moments of no thought George disappears and what remains is a simple presence ease and connection mountains have been great teachers in my life and so if you can get out and have some Adventures go for it but I know you may not have access to mountains or fancy kit like this what we've learned can only truly be impactful if it helps us back in the mystifying mountains of modern living it's time for me to go home back to the city [Music] intelligence of the universe has achieved some pretty awesome stuff it's

easy to forget but all of our technology is still nature expressing itself there's much to celebrate about Humanity but at the same time a modern world brings with it big challenges I've been back in the city for a few months now and the challenging bit is living with wisdom living in peace and if that resonates with you we're not alone with that to struggle is to be human which is why the wisdom Traditions have always offered practices practices to help us stay in connection with our wiser s and I want to share with you a

practice that has been really helpful for me but first a ghost story no not really if we imagine that our Consciousness is like a light our awareness illuminates that which it focuses on and we've been shining the light of our awareness and the world and ourselves but it's hard to live what we've 've been learning because for some reason the default setting of human consciousness is this we're flipping between cravings and distractions the whole time which means that we stay unconscious and it's only if we can learn to steady our awareness to rest that we

see ourselves clearly and so see our potential for wisdom and for peace and this brings us to meditation meditation is a big word but it's about presence if your awareness is on what you're doing as opposed to Lost in thought that's meditation and meditation as a practice is training our awareness to rest to find that presence more easily meditation has been discovered all around the world over history it's helped me so much and I thought maybe we could try some together so you can experience for yourself how you don't always have to be caught in

thought how you can lose yourself how you can rest how to stay in connection with your wisdom to help you live in peace in your every day so would you like to join me for a meditation if you would then you can be sitting in any way you'd like to and an invitation and this is only an option and taking as long as you want with it is for you to close your eyes and to see if you can find your breath where is your breath right now maybe coming in and out through your nostrils

maybe out your mouth and can you slow your breath down slow your breath down softening the face if there's any tension in your forehead or your eyes allow them to unwind if there's any tension in your cheeks or your jaw allow them to sink the sensation of your breath is part of your sensor that feeling of being you're not just your thoughts and so you can rest in your Sensations and so can you kindly be watching your breath coming in and out and you may also notice thinking that's your Storyteller in action and thinking like

the sensation of your breath is an experience arising in your awareness you're not just your thoughts not every thought that you have is true you are the embodied awareness that watches it all and so you have the freedom when you notice thinking to just let it go to bring your awareness back to the breath meditation is not about having a quiet mind instead it is the process of returning we get lost in thought and we come back and how gently can you come back can you come back without judgment can you rest with the breath

if we use meditation to improve ourselves then we're back in thinking and stories and they were precisely the things that got us confused so can you hold this openness this space for its own sake with no expectations of magic fixes or future rewards nothing to do nowhere to go no one to be can you lose yourself can you rest can you rest [Music] and gently beginning to come back bringing some movement into your shoulders some shoulder rolls and then taking it as long as you want beginning to come back and opening your eyes it's a

real privilege to be practicing with you and for me doing a daily meditation practice has been training in my awareness to find that kindness to find that spaciousness more easily [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] imagine how different your life would be if you could bring that space and kindness into your every day in an argument instead of being stuck in The Valleys of reactivity blame what would happen if you remembered to pause take a breath to find your inner Mountain View and to look with kind curiosity what feelings and stories are you in what might be

happening for the person in front of you or take something as mundane as your daily commute if you apply the practice of the pores Find Your Inner Mountain View you may begin to notice that nature even in the city makes its living and you reconnect with what you are a part of and yet we so easily [Music] forget so with practice it is possible for us to feel resilient even joyful but we still are missing something because even if we become master meditators and discover our inner chill if our loved ones are struggling or countries

at war or we're facing climate disasters it's going to be hard for us to live in peace and that's because true peace is not just peace with ourselves it's peace in our relationships communities countries the planet we've been exploring this idea when we understand ourselves we gain wisdom and we live in peace and if that means true peace this leads us to a big question could it be that understanding who we really are can not only transform our lives but change the world World welcome aboard this Great Western Railway service to London Paddington in the

same way that we create our own story all the economic and political systems that shape our world they too are built upon stories assumptions narratives about what it means to be human and what we're here to do and ultimately those stories are agreed upon and given Power by people people like you and me you can imagine how different our world could be if you and I and more of us while acknowledging all the struggle and Trauma we nonetheless believed in our own capacity and so the human capacity for healing for forgiveness for cooperation and if

more of us lose ourselves and reconnect with the great mystery that we are aart of and so find a sense of our own sacredness our value that comes from our being not what we do then no longer do we exhaust our energy chasing happiness that is always outside of ourselves in so we find a contentment and richness in simplicity so understanding yourself matters because not only do you create resilience and peace in yourself you inspire the people around you that change is possible for them too and if there's enough of us we can reach a

Tipping Point where our Collective stories and so the systems that shape our world begin to transform too as I've learned more about myself that I am an appature through which the universe is experiencing itself on this stunning Planet the only place we know to support life in the whole universe where before I felt anxiety I now feel a Love A Love For Humanity a love for the Earth this love makes me want to be part of the movement that seeks to protect and celebrate the flourishing of life and for you as you learn more about

yourself and your connection if you feel called to How Could You dedicate more of your energy to the movement the movement that believes in our potential for balance and for peace [Music] and for the Times where we may feel like peace for ourselves and the planet is just some naive pipe dream can we give ourselves permission for better not Perfection a journey of a Thousand Miles starts with a single step so all we can do is keep stepping and to support each other on the journey so keep stepping my friend keep practicing keep finding yourself

and losing yourself what story are we going to write [Music] hello dear friend thank you so much for watching I'm so grateful for your presence and I want to share what can you do next if you want to watching the film again with friends can be an awesome experience it poses questions for you to explore together we've created a free losing yourself email course where over weeks you can get the ideas and practices to help you integrate what you've learned in the film into your everyday life and that's completely free I run events now around

the world and online if you want to join me for those and if you want to get even deeper Tois Wellness online is where you can learn with me and my taii master master goo to help you better understand yourself and your potential for peace I want to to say huge thank you to anyone that has joined the Online Academy or come to one of my courses because this film has been completely funded by this community and I'm sending you my best wishes for your onward Journey balance is possible