Your Highest Technique: Relaxing Behind Your Inner Disturbance | The Michael Singer Podcast

foreign [Music] welcome to season three of the Michael Singer podcast Michael Singer is the author of the widely influential New York Times bestsellers the untethered Soul the surrender experiment and most recently living untethered beyond the human predicament produced in partnership with Shanti Publications the Michael Singer podcast brings you select recordings from the Temple of the universe a yoga and meditation center that Michael founded in 1975. this episode is on relaxing behind your inner disturbance sounds true would also like you to know about an extraordinary eight-part video course that we've created with Michael Singer it's called

living from a place of surrender the untethered soul in action it's an online course many people report to be utterly life-changing you can find out more at michaelsingerpodcast.com and you can save 15 off any Michael Singer program available through sounds true when you use the code singer15 at checkout that's singer numeral one numeral five and now relaxing behind your inner disturbance with Michael Singer foreign [Music] the more you grow really grow the simpler it becomes until it becomes so simple that it just looks absurd that people are suffering that we are doing with our lives

what we are doing for absolutely no reason and what people look for if they even wake up a little to say I want to have a better life I've wanted to suffer less I want to feel more joy is they want these things called techniques and I playfully always say I don't teach techniques when the truth of the matter is that's all I ever teach but people can't hear it so let's focus on that I want to focus on the highest technique don't expect to hear anything new but I just want to clarify this just

to give us something to work around I'm going to start by saying the highest technique is relaxation that is the technique relaxation what does that mean well certainly when you do asanas in yoga it's all about relaxation you get your body into a position where there's a balance of stress and tension and you relax into it and if you've ever done that you feel and energy change you feel a chemical change it changes you to relax past the point that you naturally would go that you naturally would exist same thing happens with exercise of any

sort but specifically yoga because it sets up this balance of tension and relaxation and then you relax into it and what you do is go past where you normally hang out you're getting past your comfort zone all kinds of changes take place I don't do a lot of Hatha Yoga I do some by myself but I'm not a half a yogi but the more I grow the more I see the changes in me and I see why that process is so important why Health yoga has lasted thousands of years that it has and why it's

so important and it really has nothing to do with exercise it has to do with relaxation it is about relaxation that is what it's about is relaxing past where you would normally go so that's very nice to do that on the mat and have that experience and sometimes you can get so intoxicated from yoga that you get up and long after that that's why yoga is so popular it's always been popular but now it's becoming very popular in the western world because it's not exercise it's way more than exercise it is a change of your

being because you are willing to relax past the points that you used to hang out with changes your mind changes your heart changes your whole Energy System and everything but when I say the highest technique is relaxation I'm not talking about that I'm talking about the following let's start with your life what is your life what is your life what it literally is is something very simple there is a planet spinning around the middle of empty space if you want to see a picture of it I have it hanging on the wall as you come

in the entry wall that's not really just a black blank picture there's a tiny little ball there and that is a picture of your Earth from two million miles out so go out there and look at that planet so what is your life well your life is the fact that you come down your Consciousness comes down onto this planet and wherever I drop you no matter where I drop you just pick a place on the planet wherever I drop you there is what is going on there it was going on before you came it's going

out where you're not it'll go on after you leave there's just stuff going on at every single point on the planet Earth the rain forest the Antarctic New York the countryside doesn't matter anywhere you go there's something going on could be the Crickets could be rain could be people doesn't matter everywhere you go there's something going on on the planet Earth very good so what your life is is you drop down to the planet and wherever you are things are going on those things come in and you experience them that's your life you're experiencing what

is unfolding in front of you at any given moment that is what's happening isn't it right it's not complicated you are in there in your experiencing what is unfolding in the world around you on the planet Earth the part you see at any given moment in your life it's just what's happening at that moment that you're experiencing now if I asked you how difficult is that how difficult is it to come down onto that planet wherever you are it doesn't matter the same thing's happening what what's happening that's what's happening wherever you are at that

particular Point that's what's happening so I'm going to take you down and you're going to come visit the planet Earth that's what you should do every day is come down and say I think I'll go down to earth it looks like fun I'm visiting I'm checking out the planet Earth if I send you up to Mars that's exciting you'll be the first person who goes to Mars you'll check out what's going on at Mars wherever I put you there's something going on not much but something you take notes and experience you've got to be the

first person on Mars well you get to be the person on the planet Earth who's experiencing what you're experiencing if I had you off the planet and told you I was going to take you down onto the planet and said how hard is that you would look at me like I was insane how hard is what that I'm going to drop you down on the planet and you just experience whatever's going on wherever I put you okay but where's the hard part why why is that hard all right I don't understand it's literally a non-sequitur

the word hard doesn't come into that I'm not doing anything is it hard to experience what's in front of you how hard is it for you to see what you see now and hear what you hear now working hard at it it's just easy it's what happens right you know it just puts you down in front of an ocean and your job is to see the ocean and no no Anne that's it that's your job it's a pretty easy job well what happens if the ocean gets wavy see the waves but as if it gets

calm see the calm I mean I got no job you have no job your job is to experience what's happening in front of you wow there that's what your life is your entire life is every moment there will be something else in front of you right it keeps changing and you will experience what's in front of you so there's nothing complicated about this nothing hard about this so what the deepest technique is relax into that and we're going to go there we're gonna spend time with you on this I want you to relax into that

what do you mean if you're standing in a supermarket then that's where you are at this particular moment in your life and that's what you're experiencing remember I came down to the planet Earth and I dropped into Publix stopped in the Publix all right that's a place on the planet Earth that's all it is it's just a place on the planet Earth and I dropped in there and I'm experiencing what I don't know whatever's going on people are going by with cards it's weird right that's going on the planet Earth it's not going on on

Mars I'll tell you right now so basically people are going by with guards and there's cash registers and there's different products on the shelves and that's what it means to be in Publix and so most people never experienced what I just told you they missed the experience of being there whereas the experience of being there is your life because that's what you're experiencing that's what's happening so what you do is you go into Publix because that's where you are and at least for a moment is what I'm asking is your Technique you go to that

place and you relax go to what place that you are have dropped down onto that little tiny ball on the planet Earth and you're experiencing what's in front of you that's the technique I'm telling you I am experiencing what's in front I have no other job there's nothing else going on my entire job in this moment is to experience what's in front of me and I'm telling you you won't be able to do it you won't and it's very important that you won't be able to do it you mean I won't see people rolling their

card spot you know you'll see people rolling their cars by you'll wonder what you should say to them and is your card in the way and do you look silly standing there there's gonna be something else going on besides experiencing what's going on you kind of added to the formula a little bit kind of spice it up a bit with your Neurosis I mean with your right it's like you're gonna find out that you can't even stand there in Publics or in some supermarketer on the side of the road and just be there don't get

mad at yourself don't do anything I'm just saying if you want to know the highest spiritual technique I just gave it to you is you practice being there just being there you practice wherever you are you take a moment and you see whether you can be there and what you will find is that you can't then I want you to see why and it won't take you long because you're going to see I'm here I'm here I'm experiencing it but there's something else here there's static there's the noise of my mind it's worrying about things

it's thinking I look silly it's it's being self-conscious as being embarrassed is being scared that's what it's doing you need to see that you really really need to see that why because you're going to find out that you can't experience your life when that's going on because you're experiencing that and that is what happens to our lives it's the Grinch who stole Christmas your mind and your neurosis and your fear and your anxiety and all the noise of the personal self you know what I mean by that the you in there has stolen your ability

to experience this simple thing that's going on which is what's in front of you and because of that we get really weird because I can't stand there and experience publics I'm instead experiencing myself created Neurosis I'm worrying about things that happened years ago I'm worrying about things that might happen later I'm wondering whether I look silly whether people like me whether I should say something or why did I say that I'm just constantly creating disturbance in my life for myself instead of experiencing my life and then it's so bad that I don't think that what's

wrong is that I can't experience my life I think that I need to go out there and control and manipulate what's unfolding in front of me so that my mind and my emotions feel better in here because they're bothering me so much that I can't just stand there I have to talk to somebody I have to do something I have to leave I don't know I have to do something so that I feel better and so I can't experience my life and instead I have to struggle and be in a state of constant anxiety at

one level or another so the technique I'm talking about is really very very simple and at some point it becomes a lot of fun and it can't not work so what you do is wherever you are I don't care if you're driving your car I don't care if you stop at a stop sign I don't care if you're walking in Publix I don't care if you're walking down the street Wherever You Are be aware that I'm in here and I'm experiencing what's around me and then you'll see that there's all this noise inside what do

I do about that the high being realizes that what I do about that every single time is relaxed that's not what you're going to want to do but you don't want to relax into the awesome either but it gets a little tight you don't want to relax you want to get up but it is relaxing past that point that takes you deeper within yourself is the same thing here so if I'm standing there I get to just stand there I get to experience what it's like to be at the planet Earth with this going on

it's kind of fascinating any place you go it's fascinating that this is what's going on on the planet but I can't because my mind keeps telling me there's something else I'm supposed to be doing there's something I did wrong there's something I'm gonna do I don't know I don't need to tell you you got one going on inside of you I'm sure right it's creating tension that's what it does creates tension everything you do it's telling you you should have done something else so that you can't ever feel okay about what's going on so the

technique of relaxation which is going to take you a while to get it but at least you're practicing with it is to say wherever you are bring Consciousness to bear that's what's meant by witness Consciousness and mindfulness is bring your center of Consciousness back to the point of realizing I am in here experiencing what's out there how about I do it that simple I am in here experience what's out there why can't I do that why can't I be okay with that I'm on a date or or out with somebody I am in here experiencing

what it's like to be with this person that's all right I'm sitting having dinner doing this or going to movies whatever's happening that's what's happening is I'm in here experiencing this experience and what you're going to see is you can't do that that there's just all this Neurosis all this noise that gets created in the psyche which stands between you the experiencer and the experience you're having very good your mind gets weird and your emotions get weird so that you're not able to just be there experiencing what's happening at your starting position the question is

what do I do about that so a wise being realizes that because it is uncomfortable what's uncomfortable the wise person realizes it's not the situation outside that's uncomfortable situations are just there they're just publics they're just the date there's just a movie they're just what's happening on the planet Earth where you happen to be be somewhere else there'll be something else happening you understand look to the left there's something else happening look to the right there's something else happening it's not what's creating the disturbance the disturbance is within you you are creating that disturbance outside

there is just the experience of the moment the question is what do I do about the fact that I'm uncomfortable you first realize and this is like 50 to 60 percent of your entire spiritual growth is you realize it really has nothing to do with what's happening outside if you pick me up and put me somewhere else in a very short period of time I get worried about that I'd be causing myself trouble about wherever you put me it just changes what it says but it's never okay it's always scared it's always anxious it's always

thinking it did something wrong it's supposed to do something it needs something it's afraid of something do you understand that that's where you get wise where you realize well my friend many many years ago in the 70s said to me just catch on if it wasn't this it'd be something else I never forgot that because that's true true whatever's bothering you right now that you think you need to solve it's a big problem today if it wasn't that I guarantee you it'd be something else haven't you caught on yet it's always something so the wise

person catches on that it is not the unfolding of the situation outside of you at any given moment that is causing your issues even if that changed you'd still have issues and so you realize this is a problem I am generating within myself I am creating my Neurosis how do you know just stop in the middle of Publix just stop there and see if you're okay because I mean there's no lions or tigers in Publics there's really nothing happening that's so threatening but you're not gonna be okay you'll be embarrassed be self-conscious you think you

forgot something there's gonna be disturbance inside right if it doesn't within the first 30 seconds it'll be in the give another 15 seconds you start catching on that's what I need you to see at any given moment I am experiencing what's in front of me that's not the problem we'll talk about explore Extremes in which Lions could be jumping at you then yes what you're experiencing is a definite problem that is like what percentage of the time you're being jumped on by a lion right you know what percentage of the time literally are you in

danger what percentage of your time of your life the moments that are unfolding in front of you have you literally been in danger to where it is natural to be scared there are some what are you saying is not there are some it's pretty small I'm telling you it's not even 0.001 of all of your time that you've literally been threatened with danger what percentage of the time do you feel fear anybody want to be honest 97 98. how about all the rest of the time all right so something's way out of whack here I'm

challenging your intelligent people there's something wrong here and that's when you catch on I am in here experiencing what's going on on the planet Earth in front of me there's not a problem with that they're not supposed to be a problem with that either you want to take the extremes I said I'll give you 0.001 yeah there could be a problem we'll go to that later if you want I want to deal with the 99.99 there's not a problem you're just experiencing the reality of what is unfolding in front of you you're driving down the

road yet inside I am experiencing problems always I am experiencing Fury experience anxiety I'm experiencing self-conscious experience in need of expressive embarrassment you name it you got a jealousy I don't know you name it something going on there all right so it's not the outside that is causing that that is a great breakthrough when you realize that and I'm telling you one way to realize it is just stop at any given moment honestly look out there what's out there some cars driving by there's you know there's nothing happening there's nothing okay they're really at this

moment yet inside there's tension inside there's disturbance inside there's fear need whatever okay there's disturbance inside so you first separate the fact that the outside is not causing this disturbance inside it is something you are doing yourself that is a major breakthrough and Until you realize that I asked you a moment ago what are you going to do about this disturbance Until you realize and you need to practice to see this yourself it is not happening outside it is happening inside I am doing this because otherwise you're going to see you're disturbed inside you're not

comfortable with it and you're going to try to solve it by changing things outside and that makes me sad to even say it because you just gone in such a wrong direction it can't solve anything and that is how almost everybody lived their lives is to sit there and say I'm not comfortable inside therefore something needs to change outside so that I'll be comfortable inside there's nothing I can teach you that's more important than daring to look at that because otherwise you're going to waste your life why if the problem is not outside the solution

can't be outside if it is true that 99.9 of the time if you stopped and just looked at what was going on out there there's no reason to be scared there's nothing going on that is causing a major problem and yet you're uncomfortable yet you're disturbed almost all the time you are creating your disturbance Yourself by what you are doing inside of you once you see that the concept that what I should be doing is working to change everything outside of me so that I'm okay inside of me starts to look insane the problem is

not outside so the solution can't be outside and so what you end up doing if you're not careful is you're not okay you feel scared you feel left out you feel embarrassed whatever the heck it is and so you try to create situations outside that for a moment override that if somebody comes up to you and says God you look so handsome standing there you remind me of some movie stars I'm like for a moment you feel good until they say just kidding or whatever right until somebody else says something or until your mind says

something God I wonder why I look this way what am I wearing I need to get more of these you know it'll do something all right to cause more disturbance because somebody made you feel good so if you try to solve your inner problem that you are creating within yourself we'll talk about that in a moment how you do that you're creating this problem inside even though nothing's happening outside the best you can do is to spend your effort and your time to manipulate and control situations around you so they make you feel better for

a moment and then you have to keep doing it over and over again there is work you need to do but it is inside yourself anyways we've looked at it from many different angles that's what I always talk about but let's come back to your inside and something's going on outside you will see that you're being disturbed you will see that there is disturbance inside of you period anxiety disturbance whatever the heck it is the question becomes what are you going to do about that if what you try to do about it is to change

the outside find a new girlfriend change this get a new apartment buy some new clothes whatever the heck it is best you can do is succeed for a moment temporarily put an external situation on top of the Neurosis you're creating inside it will never last you know it hasn't lasted how do you know it won't last because you've been doing it your whole life and you're still not okay every moment of your life is what you've been trying to do get the outside situation that made you okay meet the right person do the right thing

get the right car get the right grades go to right College to every single thing that you've tried to do every moment and yet everyone you know is doing that and they've done it their entire life and no one's okay what does that tell you it doesn't work it can't work if you're going to create the Neurosis inside yourself it's not true that you can create a situation outside you that undoes that it can only temporarily feel better and then the same junk goes on again all right so now we're standing in Publix I'm in

here the world is unfolding out there and I see there's this veil of disturbance you come down to what do I do about that we already told you what's not going to work so what's my alternative the alternative believe it or not is to relax what does that mean what does it mean relax it means that you are doing something inside yourself that is causing this disturbance Publix is not causing the disturbance the car is driving on the road are not causing disturbance being out on the date is not causing the disturbance but you're sure

causing yourself a lot of disturbance about those things so instead relax that's the best I'm going to say that I'll work down to detail with you instead of doing whatever you're doing that is creating all that disturbance in there I'm asking you to relax that's the alternative to letting yourself create all this disturbance is you just take a position of I'm in here the world is out there doing its thing and I'm creating all this disturbance about it I'm remembering the past and freaking out I'm thinking about the future and freaking out I'm feeling stupid

standing here relaxing like whatever it is I'm doing that inside myself [Music] faced with life's challenges and uncertainties many of us feel quite stressed and overwhelmed but does it have to be this way with his newest book living untethered Michael singer has written a follow-up to the spiritual classic the untethered Soul taking us within to our still and liberated Center to learn more about this book and Michael singer's other offerings please visit living Dash untethered.com [Music] thank you [Music] so net result is you come in here you look and see that you are in here

in the disturbance of being created and what you do is relax what does that mean it means there will be an Impulse to try to do something about this disturbance instead you relax I don't know how to explain it any closer it's just like relaxing into the Asana there's this tension that's been created instead of giving into that tension and getting up or doing whatever it's trying to urge you to do you just really I don't tell you even it could be as simple as standing a certain way you'll notice you feel embarrassed right so

you cross your arms a certain way or you sit a certain way or you do something or you talk to somebody I hate to talk to you about this stuff because people don't like to deal with that all right you're going to get very mad at me if you start doing this because you could come and say ever since I started doing this I'm much worse than I used to be no you're not you just never paid attention at how uncomfortable you are inside yourself and if you are that uncomfortable inside yourself and that's why

you're talking to people and that's why you're buying what you're buying that's why you're doing what you're doing you're projecting your discomfort into your life instead you're relaxed that's an alternative I relax so let's say I'm with a group of friends they're talking and they're bringing up different conversations my mind is thinking what I should say but I'm afraid to say it or I thought I said it or my way was right who the heck knows it's just doing it's me thing because it's uncomfortable and it wants to figure out what it should do in

order to get more comfortable what you're going to find is that the highest technique is to relax I'm going to keep coming back to that relax if the reason you're about to say something is to try to impress somebody to try and you know make yourself look acceptable who the heck knows whatever it is relax instead relax within yourself and what you're going to see is that everything gets better at first it's scary because you'll realize that all these actions and things you were doing and all the noise the mind was making was like an

attempt to protect yourself it's almost as if something inside you thinks you're under attack all the time that you can't even be in the presence of a friend and feel comfortable not to mention lovers or anybody or anything or and you just realize how scared you are that's what you're going to see we get to the bottom of this you're scared in there I mean really scared you start to realize everything you're doing how you dress how you talk everything is because I'm scared and I'm trying to create a person I'm trying to do something

behave a certain way that I can feel safer because I'm keeping at a distance can I relate to that do you understand that right I told you the way to test that is imagine if you dress different than the way you dress change your hair do this right and then go out there a way that you don't feel comfortable with and you're going to see that you're doing everything you're doing to try to create a comfort zone why do you need a comfort zone because I'm scared because I'm not okay people are not scared don't

need comfort zones they're just not scared there's children there's run around okay but we can't do that so we end up with these Behavior patterns that we develop our personalities which are an attempt to hide ourselves from this fear inside and now we have to sell ourselves all the time we have to do everything to try and keep that Persona that facade up if I had my way I like you I don't want you to live like that I don't want you to spend your entire life worrying about whether people accept you or not or

whether you said the right thing or whether you wore the right thing I mean my God it must be intense to live in there like that and so you get to the point where you say if I want to be okay I need to stop creating this Neurosis inside myself and buying into it is not a way to stop it if a kid's throwing a tantrum and you get them what he wants and you try to figure out what I need to do that kid's going to keep throwing Tantrums if you spend your life trying

to appease the part of you inside that is creating all these problems it doesn't get better it gets worse so at some point you realize I am creating this problem Within Myself life is not creating this problem life is just going about its business life is just unfolding like it's done for 13.8 billion years and I just happen to be standing here at this particular point in time and I'm seeing what life is doing at this particular moment I keep saying that to you because at some point you'll become conscious enough that that will blow

your mind that all you're seeing in front of you is a result of 13.8 billion years of evolution going on everywhere Across the Universe and you're getting to see this point in time and space that is what's happening isn't it that's what's there if I took you out it'd still be there wouldn't it I'll put you in I wish I could do that pull up drop you into Paris you'll see what's going on it can't have anything to do with you you weren't there a minute ago but it's still going to be going on and

you'll look and you'll see holy mackerel I am creating turmoil inside myself no matter where I am if I want to grow spiritually that's what I need to work with so why am I creating all this disturbance eventually that's where I got to see it the answer is very simple because I'm scared that's why I'm doing it so you look inside and you say why am I so scared that's the bottom line but I'm telling you the only way you can do this is to relax otherwise you're going to react to this fear react to

this anxiety and you're like you're like Panic you like panic in there I can't handle this I can't handle this I don't want to experience this the next thing you know you're saying things doing things acting things doing whatever you can to try and not feel this disturbance that you created inside yourself for absolutely no reason nobody's telling you to do this you don't have to do this like I told you the past why are you doing this with your past it's over it's done it already happened right why are you carrying that around inside

and bothering yourself about it nobody's making you do that there's nobody walking up to you constantly holding the your past and your face how many people run up to you and say you did this when you were five nobody knows but you didn't tell them because you know you did it on a general rule 99.99999 of the time there is no one in life that is running up to you shoving your past in your face but you are you are constantly doing this inside yourself why it's going to make you sick but yet you do

it so your work is always to go deep enough within yourself to say why am I doing this I don't need to do this doesn't mean it's going to stop right away it's a habit you've developed but at least reached the point where the deepest part of your being knows hey you know the world is unfolding and I should be able to handle it it's the big deal I'm just experiencing what's happening on the planet Earth the past is over the future hasn't happened just get that place inside it's called witness Consciousness I mean here

experiencing what's happening anything else is something I'm doing to myself so if the past is bothering me understand the past is not bothering you you're doing it the past doesn't even exist it's just something you're doing inside yourself if you keep doing that you will not be okay what you need to do is stop doing it and that's spiritual growth so what I'm saying is the alternative to doing what you're doing is to relax and that may not make sense to you but eventually it will you're literally you are in there doing something that is

making your past keep come up and making yourself keep disturbing yourself you are under doing something that is making it so when you're perfectly safe standing in the aisles of publics you're scared or you're nervous all right you're doing that the alternative to doing that is to relax and so a yogi or yogany realizes this and they start developing a habit with themselves wherever they find themselves for a moment they take inventory and they see look what kind I am look at the disturbance I'm creating relax you won't want to relax you'll want to do

something to feel safer it seems as though if I relax I've exposed myself there's nothing happening therefore there's nothing wrong with opening up and letting go of this Neurosis you're creating inside more and more you start practicing relaxing so I'm standing in the presence with friends and somebody's talking and my mind is thinking what I'm going to say back instead of listening to what they're saying you start watching that so and you notice why am I doing that and you'll see it's fear you're trying to get ready you're trying to make sure you don't say

something stupid you're trying whatever the heck it is in the midst of that you relax you relax you just relax what does that mean relax your shoulders relax your chest relax your tummy relax your butt because they get tight just do a wave of relax while I'm standing there while you're standing there no one will notice you just relax well what will happen because you chose to relax you didn't allow yourself to get involved in this process of creating Neurosis relaxation is the opposite of neurosis that's why in yoga you know you relax that's what

it's all about right they go into different stages and postures of relaxation if you relax in the side wherever you are now you're not going to do it every moment eventually you will I'll get there in a second but your practice now is at various points you know regular points throughout the day you catch yourself you become present and you look to see what's going on inside of you and I'm telling you what you're going to see is that you're creating tension you're going to see that you're creating anxiety you're going to see that you're

creating a storm in there when nothing's happening outside and one way to tell is if it is about the past that's not happening outside the past is not happening outside it already did it's over so if you're disturbed about anything has to do with the past then it's what I'm talking about isn't it you're creating disturbance for yourself where there doesn't need to be same thing with the future the future hasn't happened yet if you are creating worries and anxieties about the future that's not in front of you those are things you're doing the alternative

to doing that is to relax if I'm relaxing if I'm using my will to relax then I didn't put my whole heart and soul into using my will to create a hard time for myself I am telling you if you think life is hard you will eventually reach the point that 95 of all the hard times that you're experiencing you're creating for yourself at the most the unfolding of life in front of you might create five percent of your disturbances you are every moment of your life creating disturbance for yourself you need to stop doing

that so one way of doing that is this practice of relaxation so you will find yourself in different situations most of them are neutral there's nothing going on relax just give yourself this right to relax I'm telling you it will change your life even those moments I used to every time I got into a car before I'd start it I would just relax every time I got out I'd relax remember there's like in the 70s every time I would find myself in a situation where I have to open the door I have to go through

a door you go through a lot of doors during the day every time I would remember I'm on the planet Earth about to go through a door and just relax it changed my life those moments of relaxation will change your entire life why you will become more conscious one you're being conscious by being there and two what you're doing when you're conscious is not participating in destroying your life by creating Neurosis for yourself how many times have you worried about something that never happened well a lot there's a lot of things like I said the

past is over so if you're having disturbance with the past that's wasted the future hasn't happened so if you're having disturbance about the future that's wasted the situations in front of you that are unfolding if you're creating disturbance about them because you're embarrassed you're this you're self-conscious you're doing that so by the time you're done what I noticed is like 95 of my problems are me it's not the root of my problems are me it's something I'm doing inside myself that's creating this tremendous turmoil and tension and disturbance therefore for me to try to solve

that with anything other than stop doing it there that's your spiritual Path stop doing unto yourself what you're doing unto yourself you need to learn to develop a healthy relationship with yourself and you do that first by catching yourself in the present moment and seeing what are you doing to yourself because if it is not happening out there and you're just experiencing the outside and that is not the 99 of the time the outside is not a disturbance it is you that is creating disturbance no matter what's happening it's a disturbance if you are driving

down the street it's not hard to drive you guys are pretty good at it there's no disturbance but you look and see what's going on inside of you and you're going to see tension anxiety all kinds of stuff you are doing that so the alternative is while you're driving catch yourself what do I do if I see myself thinking about the past relax what do I do as I'm assuming myself worrying about the future you know 20 years from now relax what do I do if I find myself I'm scared and I'm looking around to

make sure I'm okay with everything relax just keep relaxing instead of what you were doing you relax you let go your shoulders you let go here then I told you you will see that there is fear inside that's what you're going to see there's fear inside lean away from the fear just don't touch it don't try to solve it just relax and release that's what's called relax and release is let go and what will happen is over time it takes time over time you will find that you're calmer you will find that you're more centered

you will find that you're clearer and you will find that you're not as scared the other day somebody was telling me they were playing outside with crickets no grasshoppers to see if they can hold it and not get scared when it jumped that's exactly what I'm talking about but you need to spread that everywhere you need to expand your comfort zone like let's say you walk across the field people say well there are snakes in the field I've lived out here for 40 years by God's grace no one's ever gotten bothered by a snake so

are there snakes out there yeah rattlesnakes coral snakes but no one has ever gotten bothered by a rattlesnake or a coral snake therefore if you're worrying about it and you're thinking about it and everywhere you go that's what's going on and you don't enjoy walking on the fields or coming out here because there's coral snake I told you now the rattlesnakes and coral snakes right then you're causing yourself trouble so instead you relax and you do that with all of life you just keep letting go and relaxing and you're going to find their space and

then you'll get to an edge where you get scared where okay I'm relaxing and now I dare to say something and on my mind bothers me about what I said does anybody's mind do that when you talk and then it gives you a hard time because what you said it was stupid and you shouldn't have said that because I want to know can you see how you will never be okay unless you deal with this this isn't like an optional course it's not an elective it's everything it is basically a mandatory course that you need

to learn how to stop bothering yourself the way to do that is to relax now if meditation helps you do that Mantra helps you any any methodologies anything you can do read good books I don't care just make sure that what you're doing you are consciously aware that what I am working with is myself and I need to stop creating trouble for myself how about if I say it that way why are you creating so much trouble for yourself right you need to stop creating so much trouble for yourself and what I have found is

that if you catch yourself constantly and don't think about it don't try to solve it just relax just relax instead just relax that you didn't put your energy into participating in creating this Neurosis for yourself and over time it becomes less and it becomes less and then what happens is something very very special you start to realize that all that energy that you created with all that fear and what to do about it and just Neurosis all that that's a lot of juice that's a lot of Shakti it's a lot of energy because you are

no longer participating in it doing that somehow the energy Finds Its way to a deeper place inside of you does it by itself and you start to feel Joy for no reason I was telling someone on the way we were talking people think in order to feel happy you have to know sad you have to feel these opposites otherwise it's kind of like this neutral place it's not a neutral place it's not like there's these energies that are causing disturbance then you're offsetting them by trying to make things happen and so you kind of get

a balance no it has nothing to do with that by relaxing and not participating in this game that your psyche is doing you are freeing the energies of creating the disturbance and trying to solve it what are you gonna do with all that juice all that energy that used to create the psyche and create all that disturbance and noise plus what you do about all the disturbance and noise imagine how much energy that is gets released and freed and it goes up a central Channel you have to know that like yoga is but you have

to know that it does it by itself because it's not all involved in the psyche it finds its way up through a higher Channel and you literally start feeling ways of extra that Joy they shouldn't even use the same word Joy do now is I have all this tension and somebody says something nice to me so you get a little rush or you have some experience where you release tension you do this or you get drunk who knows what you do whatever it is right where you've got all this disturbance going on inside and now

for a moment you release it feels good doesn't it right we're not talking about that we're not talking about relative we're talking about because you re-channel this energy it just starts rushing up inside of you the highest rushes you've ever felt like a tentacle of peak experiences you've ever gotten going on constantly you have to learn to live with it you have to learn how to carry yourself there are great Masters they just have to walk behind them and catch them however Krishna was that way because at any moment the rushes would come up so

strong he'd put his arm up and tears and start pouring down his eyes and he followed her backwards rough problem to have when you have that problem come visit me you can fill out a complaint department right I'm probably going to work there's too much ecstasy but that is a natural state for everybody and that's what relaxation will get you is you relax and the mistake people make they'll close off on this the mistake people make is they think that what I'm saying is there's all this tension and insecurity and all this stuff that I've

created in here I need to make it relax no no that's the mistake people make you're not going to make it relax you relax you who's supposed to be experiencing what's in front of you relax relax and the rest will go away over time and you will end up face to face with two things to the great masters of the yogi life consists of the following I am in here experiencing what's in front of me but I have to look through the veil of the waves of ecstasy that keep coming up because everything that's happening

outside is so amazing that it blows your mind the fact that there's a boy this is a girl that somebody's old that somebody's young that there's a car that I'm moving in a car it all becomes so powerful because you're not in the way it doesn't have to be powerful enough to blow you out of your own way right he said it blew my mind that's because you're in your mind when you let go of all that you're on this Verge and I'm telling you a bird takes off for the next hour there's this Joy

just pouring through you because you heard a bird chirp that's where I want you and you'll learn to live with it you'll learn to carry your liquor you learn to handle your ecstasy and go to work and go to school but it's a lot more fun I want you to live your life from the moment you wake up in the morning to the moment you go to bed at night I want to already your state is so high that you couldn't care less what happens it's just fun that something happened and now what happens is

the world that's unfolding in front of you becomes fun not scary you don't need anything from it you're feeling great joy you feel whole and complete and so what ends up happening is instead of interacting in the world to try to get something which is what everybody's doing you're interacting the world because you want to express the joy and Beauty that's going on inside of you you become a giver it just becomes totally natural that what's ever in front imagine looking and interacting this world for days and weeks and months at a time without ever

thinking that you need anything from it there's nothing trying to take anything or get anything you're not scared that something will happen or not happen there's just this sense of Joy welling up inside of you and so all of a sudden you realize is oh I can give something I can help somebody I can support something and all of a sudden this flow that's inside of you starts flowing outside and you become a giver so that's a way of living that's another life that's the spiritual life how do we get there am I relaxing relaxing

what does that mean by not participating in creating the disturbance that you're creating inside of yourself and instead just relaxing you just keep relaxing constantly relaxing and you're going to find that it works out way better all right so there there's a technique and it should be every moment of every second of your life and eventually it will be eventually you're just in there relaxing just relaxing and you'll realize that the world is unfolding and you are there with it and there are no problems there's just the circumstance in front of you you're interacting with

it and it brings you Joy and Challenge and life is a beautiful thing all right decorative [Music] you've been listening to the Michael Singer podcast produced by sounds true in partnership with Shanti Publications sounds true is the co-publisher of Michael singer's newest book living untethered beyond the human predicament we've also joined with him to produce an extraordinary eight-part video course it's called living from a place of surrender the untethered soul in action you can find out more at michaelsingerpodcast.com and you can save 15 off any Michael Singer program available through sounds true when you use

the code singer15 at checkout that's singer numeral one numeral five at checkout the music you heard on this podcast is the song giving it all by be still the Earth thank you so much for listening sounds true waking up the world thank you [Music]