Jenny Light- Using Meditation to Find Peace

Brian Smith  0:01  
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Jenny Light  2:40  
Hello, thank you for having me, Brian. It's a lot. It's a pleasure to be here.

Brian Smith  2:44  
Yeah, I'm really looking forward to talking to you about your about your journey. It sounds like your your spiritual journey started pretty early, you had a kundalini awakening experience as a child.

Unknown Speaker  2:55  
Yeah, it same. It was only as an adult actually knew what it was. But as a child, I would have these expanded states of awareness that would occur quite spontaneously. Usually in the middle of the night, I would wake up and I would be expanded to fill the room and fill the room with blue light. And I couldn't move my physical body at the time when these happened. But it was only as an adult actually read about it. And and oh, that's what happened to me.

Brian Smith  3:31  
So this happens spontaneously, at what age? Do you think they started? Five? Okay. Did you ever discuss them with anyone? Or how did how did you? How did you process that at the age of five?

Unknown Speaker  3:44  
Well, you know, when you're a child, you have this assumption that everybody experiences what you experience. So I thought probably everybody has this. So I don't remember discussing it. Or if I did, I can't even I can't imagine what language I would have used to kind of describe it. So probably my parents just dismissed it as, you know, childish nonsense.

Brian Smith  4:08  
Yeah, I find it's very common that children that have spiritual experiences, seeing spirit, having a kundalini awakening experience, you know, etc. They assume that everybody has it, so they just don't really think it's that big of a deal.

Unknown Speaker  4:24  
Think that what it must have been for me, but it was when I was in my 20s when I was a I was doing spiritual healing training. And that all kicked off again, I was, you know, energies for too much for me. And I was in this expanding state again, and I had a quite a rough time, actually. This feeling of wanting to vomit, you know, the world spinning. I couldn't come close to people because that energy set me off again. It was really quite tough for a few years ago. I get a lot of people contacting me via the internet, you know, through my website, about their own experiences, and what for me is what I try and help people. So that A, if they're going through something similar that they can, they can they know that first of all, there's a light at the end of the tunnel, ie, that you will get on top of it at some point. And when it's when a when it's, it's really debilitating on what you're trying to wait. I was trying to keep a career going and teaching my education. And to try and keep that going at the same time as having these expanded states. It's very difficult. So on my website, I've got a blog, which tells people what worked for me. And the bank number one is a to not meditate. I know that sounds tough, because I'm a meditation teacher, but I couldn't process it at the time. So having a space of three months where I didn't meditate, you know, meditated since I was 14, and to not meditate was really tough, because breaking my a pattern my routine. But it was imperative because it was just too much. Everything was too much until I got a some handle on it some control on this uncontrollable planetary energies that were running through Spain. Expanded states.

Brian Smith  6:39  
Yeah, for people who don't understand what a kundalini awakening is, could you explain a little bit more what that means?

Unknown Speaker  6:46  
The Kundalini is the plan or energy that is latent in every body. So for an unawakened person, this is it has. It has a depiction of being wrapped three and a half times around the base of the spine at the cork seat. So it's sleeping, it's dormant. And it has this association with it being like a sneak, you know, coming up the spine and over the crown of the head on to the bro for that Kundalini energy. As far as I'm aware, it can't be stimulated artificially. It has to come from a stage of spiritual development. But that latent, potent energy brings with it many benefits, but all sorts of it's, it's tough at the beginning. For most people find it quite tough until they've got a level of control over it.

Brian Smith  7:57  
Yeah, my understanding is it could be a very disorienting experiences, as you've described it, both when you were a child, maybe not as nightstand, but also when you're in your 20s you trying to live a normal life. And I've heard people that have had these spontaneous awakenings. And for us, people who are kind of spiritually might think, oh, that sounds like a great thing to go through. But I hear it's pretty challenging.

Unknown Speaker  8:18  
Well, you know, I believe that that a weakening is, or something similar is the is ahead of people that haven't experienced it. But maybe not everybody goes through a rough time. I don't know.

Brian Smith  8:39  
So what do you think, you know, prompted that to happen to you again, in your in your 20s After going through that when you were a child and it was I guess dormant again for a while?

Unknown Speaker  8:50  
Yeah, so that's a very good question. I think that as a child, you are still fresh from the previous incarnation. And that that expanded states ever to have dreams of a say dreams, they're not dreams, their visions, they're more unpleasant and unconscious than a week of me being a in a monk's outfit, you know, orange robes sitting on overlooking this valley and and I'm sitting in lotus position meditating. And I believe that we're was in previous lives was just showing up in childhood. And then who am in this life as to start to play out you know, your childhood states receipt, you know, children, as you've said, they are still fresh from from the other world, between worlds and previous lives, and they're able to relate things that you know, they shouldn't, you would think if they were tabula rasa, your blank slate they wouldn't know these things. But children are not blank slates that all souls come into a fresh incarnation to have another crack at life and to find what the meaning of life is really, you're finding everyone's finding their way.

Brian Smith  10:18  
I think that's very true. And it's just, I was gonna say ironic, but I think everything happens for a reason I was just discussing with someone reincarnation this morning and he was saying, I don't believe in reincarnation, because I'm a Christian, the Bible doesn't teach it. And I was just doing a little bit more research and I was reminded of the research by Jim Tucker and Dr. Ian Stevenson, University of Virginia, with these children that remember past life, and it's actually very common that children remember their past life, but then they kind of put it away for a while.

Unknown Speaker  10:48  
Yeah, I think it's a stage of brain development, where they're just still fresh, still wet behind the ears from from previous lives. And then the brain development, you know, takes over and the sense of ego identity in this life takes over. And those those past life remembrances probably from, you know, from the age of six, probably people are starting to move into a really are for this life, in order identity for this life. And previous, you know, remembering from childhood get shelved, but they don't go away, they'll just stay shelved for a bit. Yeah, the same is true for anybody that's had a traumatic experience. And in a previous life, it may be become shelved for a bit. But it has to play out at some point because it needs to have an outlet, it needs to get released in this life, hopefully, through some sort of healing procedure, that they're going to be able to release that and in this life, but I believe we come into this world with a primary agenda and possibly secondary ones. But the primary agenda is to know who you are to find out who you yourself, are you, why are you here in this life, and secondary agendas may be that you've got certain people along the way that you've a contracted perhaps, to help or to forgive or to release. You know, there's a healing process that's going on. But who knows, I won't know the full picture until I've got the bigger picture.

Brian Smith  12:44  
Yeah, yeah, that's, that's a really good point. And it's always, I think, interesting to discuss and think about reincarnation. And as I debate this with people, and I was just formulating my response to this person. And I'd say that thing is, as long as it's not affecting you in this life, it's okay, whether you believe it or not, but for some people, it seems to affect deeply. And sometimes doing these past life regressions and stuff can can reveal something that that's unresolved trauma from a previous life.

Unknown Speaker  13:14  
That's true. Yeah. And I think we've got lots of opportunities to release those traumas from past lives. You know, the spiritual healing modality was one where I took that on board, because I felt drawn to it. But later, I went on to use sound healing the tuning forks, and I find they're really very good at releasing trauma without any great a detrimental effect, when it appears, it's not a case of coming in and spending, you know, months and months in, or years and counseling. It's not really talking about the issue at all. It's just using sound using vibration, to lift that trauma out when the person is ready to let it go.

Brian Smith  14:14  
Yeah, yeah, I think that's absolutely true. So you had these experiences when you were young, and then you discover yoga, how did you discover yoga at the age of nine?

Unknown Speaker  14:25  
My mom was doing yoga. So, I mean, it was very, very new in this. I'm talking here in the lightning Team 70. And it was very new, and a chart sheets didn't allow your go, they thought it was Hinduism, you know, at the time. So they didn't allow classes in churches. But my mom went along to her class, and she would come back and she would practice and I just fell in love with that the other day and I got a yoga boot from an 18th birthday and NFL looked back, up begged and begged and begged to get to go to that adult class. And if they finally allowed me to come in at age of 14, and I say I never looked back. That was obviously, I feel so. So me so grounded. So a salt. It's all right. For me the yoga pass.

Brian Smith  15:24  
Yeah, you know, it's interesting. You mentioned that the churches didn't allow it. When I first started doing yoga, which was 2030 years ago, I remember someone in our church saying, oh, that's you, you can't do that. That's that's bad thing that's worshipping demons, or that's Hinduism, or what, or whatever. So what is yoga to you? What is it? Why is it resonate with you so much?

Unknown Speaker  15:48  
Well, it's a good question. Well, for the majority of people, and for me, as a child, it was a putting your body in, in strange positions. You know, it was it was assuming these contortions if you like. But as a got older, through a mid teens, it was actually the more the meditation that was interested in. So as I did my own personal practice, led off a physical yoga. But it was the meditation that I felt most drawn to that and the breathing. I must say, though, I had a headache, chronic asthma as a child, so trying to do some of the breathing. And, you know, some of the exercises themselves were quite challenging to me. But I grew out of all of that. And I think, to me, yoga is the path of finding your sale. You also your yoga means union, or union with the Divine union with the Divine Spark, and that Divine Spark is within each and every one of us. So it's actually it, it seems that we live in a world of duality. So it's hard to take coach things in terms of unity, when we perceive duality, as in, relocate, there's them in us, there's me, and then there's all of it is that I can see touch, taste, smell, all of that is, seems to be something other than me. So what we're seeking in yoga, is that that Divine Spark, which says ourselves, but it is also everything? Well, that is,

Brian Smith  17:46  
yeah, I think, you know, a lot of people, we think we know what yoga is, and we think of it as you said, it's kind of like, it's like, when you're the nine year old, you it's moving our body in the weird position. So it's kind of an exercise thing. And then some people think of yoga as almost a religious practice, because you know, you're connecting with, and that's cool. Here's my friend, you're connected with Hindu gods, which is why it was a bad thing. But what is yoga meditation, so I haven't heard that term before.

Unknown Speaker  18:16  
Yoga meditation is it's techniques of using the breath, to transcend the human experience, into a higher states of awareness. And it's very much focused on the fact that, that the Spain as the, not the physical Spain, but the astral body, the Spain is the vehicle with which we transcend human experience. So it's bringing their awareness to Spain through the different chakras, the energy bills of consciousness at points on the spine. And that whole process of that that's the process of meditation, but meditation itself. There's a there's the, say, the techniques, and then the meditation itself is just that amusement in the domain. In that oneness, in the peace, the love the harmony, that transcends all really language that we can really describe it with. But there's the process which lives there. And then there's the known meditation itself. So it's in yoga, it's expressed as Dalinar, which is concentration and Diana, which is meditation proper. But in the wider world, these tend to be synonymous that you know, they tend to be the same thing. But in yoga, it's not. You get it split into it. The different steps are overwhelmingness but this all has to be grounded in making yourself a better human being living the best human life that you can. Also, it's, it's not trading on other people, it's being caned, it's being loving, you know, all of the things you would imagine non harming to others. And that also means not thinking, like judgmental bad thoughts about other people, either. It's just accepting people as they are, that people are living the best version of themselves that they can at the moment, even if you could see that they could live it better. It's, it's for them at that moment in time. This is the everyone's living their best version. You know, when, when we get when we look back on our own lives, we can see looking back at our younger selves, that we would have done things, you know, we would have acted different, I don't think I would have changed any of the story of mine of my life. But I certainly would have been certain instances that I may have acted different, you know, towards others, to be more kind to be more than nothing. But it's a process of discovery and development, isn't it?

Brian Smith  21:22  
Yeah, so what I hear you saying is yoga is more than just the exercises and more than just even the breathing, but it's more of a it's more of a way of life. And I think a lot of people have gotten this, we have a misunderstanding of what what yoga is, it's a much broader thing than we we've been taught that it is.

Unknown Speaker  21:41  
Well, I don't, you know, rundown anybody that that really enjoys doing physical movement and physical yoga, because they have the benefits to you know, they've been specially devised a series of exercises, that, that, you know, millennia ago were devised, so that they would allow the body, the mind brain, the brain to become calm. And so that, you know, the, the whole point of physical yoga is so that then you can have are still body still mind, a still breath with which to then, you know, be seated and come into quiet and meditate within I don't denigrate anybody that is that is enjoying the physical exercises, because it's a process. It's a it's a worldwide movement, yoga, whereas before it was confined, you know, talking about the 18 1900s it was confined to a India, you know, only moved out of India in the lab with a one or two Swamis that moved out of India in the late 1900s. But no, it's a well, there's, there's hardly anyone across the world that doesn't know that, you know, have some concept of what yoga is. And it's it's widely, widely accessible.

Brian Smith  23:12  
It is, and I don't mean to denigrate anybody that's doing yoga, just just physically or, at that level, I guess what I'm saying is, there's different levels that we can we can go to. And once we, once we start with that physical level, and that's, that's the thing that actually scares some people. Going back to that friend, she's like, well, you're when you do yoga, you're opening up your mind. And that was that was a fearful thing to her. And it was very scary to open up your mind to, to whatever. So I there are still some people I think that have that that misconception that opening our minds is a bad thing.

Unknown Speaker  23:48  
Well, it's all about having experience. So you open a little bit and you go, Oh, that wasn't so bad. You know, maybe maybe next time, I'll allow myself to open a little bit more, you go, Oh, well, that wasn't so bad. It feels a bit different. But the perception as you open a little bit, feels different from being closed. But incrementally, we become more confident to say, Well, alright, well, the world didn't end, you know, I didn't die. isn't that bad. And so we learn, we learn a bit like the flower opening to the light, you know, we open a little bit. And then as the sun sets, the flower closes again. And then it opens a little bit more perhaps the next day because it's allowing more brightness of spiritual light to come in. You know, so we learn incrementally to open and close. And, you know, it's a process.

Brian Smith  24:48  
I think that's a beautiful image that you just gave and, you know, the thing is, I would go and I would do yoga after church. I would go to church, then I go to yoga. And I was telling this friend of mine said to me This is like a continuation of my worship is a continuation of the prayer that I'm doing going to my church. But the fear that people have, and it was really interesting, she's like, well, if you open your mind, demons can come in. And I'm like, but what if I open my mind and the Holy Spirit came in, in a way, or I get in touch with, as I know, now, my higher self or my guides, or, you know, all these other entities are there. It's not just evil, but that's the fear that people have. Sometimes when they hear the word yoga, or they hear even meditation

Unknown Speaker  25:33  
Well, I mean, if whatever we fear we draw towards ourselves, that's the, that's the, that's the sad thing, you know, that whatever we think we then draw towards us. So if that is something fearful, in withdrawing that, towards whatever we feel towards this, I would see for those that were struggling with fear is just to pray. Because prayer leads us into that higher states of consciousness, you know, that leads us into a safe place. So if you're Christian and your, you might be praying to Jesus, to support you, to guide you to envelop you in love. This is nondenominational whatever watching, you know, whatever would be your go to whichever, you know, deity or personage Stj, that you would like to support you. You There is no need to fear.

Brian Smith  26:43  
Right, right. I know you speak about meditation. So why do you think meditation is important? How does meditation help us?

Unknown Speaker  26:53  
Well, I think without meditation, we would just continue to be a human doing, you know, like a robot going from A to B, we're not breaking the cycle of constant activity in the day. But with meditation, we break that in many circles, it's it's this world is delusion. So what seems to be the story of this life, and what seems to be so real, is not reality. But when we come into a quiet state within, we actually start to touch, not that busyness. Note that the constant activity, we actually start to touch that quiet calm within those states of calm, then we'll build into deeper states of peacefulness, of feeling a peace and harmony that not only is within but around a piece that extends everywhere. And I think meditation is important because in our busy lives, we we need to be able to use a circuit breaker to come into that, those moments of calm with which we can then make more informed, more intuitive, better decisions, you know about what's happening in life things that we need to make changes or make choices and that we come into that quiet within. So then it impacts on how we live our lives. Without that we're just continually doing doing

Brian Smith  28:38  
Yeah, I think a lot of times in our society we're actually addicted to that doing doing doing and I love I love your phrase that you know, you become a human doing as opposed to human being. We we don't even know who we are. And we're so uncomfortable with ourselves that the thought of sitting with ourselves and our own thoughts for five minutes terrifies some people

Unknown Speaker  29:02  
well, even two or three minutes will make a difference that we sit and allow ourselves to come in to come

Brian Smith  29:11  
Yeah, I completely agreement is the people

Unknown Speaker  29:13  
that has huge benefits like for the physical body for you know, bringing the body into calm, so it means getting more healthy when it's not in stress. It's better for the brain. It calms the whole nervous system. It was there's a whole host of physical and mental benefits. But primarily my focus is on you know, spiritual. The emphasis on spiritual awakenings on spiritual growth as finding out who we are but, but even just to take it on a physical level of physical and a mental level, to allow the monkey mind to become not still not empty. But quieter, great benefits in that?

Brian Smith  30:06  
Well, there is a mind body connection that I think we don't give enough credit to that, you know that as, as the body goes, the mind goes and vice versa. So that's why, you know, the those bet those physical benefits are there. And that's a lot of times something people in the West might cling on to, you know, I can lower my blood pressure, I can, you know, reduce my level of cortisol and we do all those studies and stuff. But the reason why that happens is because of the spiritual things that we're doing that the fact that we're getting in contact with our, our true selves, that I think that actually leads to those physical benefits. And speaking of physical benefits, I know your your book, your first book, Living lightly, you talked about your journey through what we call in United States chronic fatigue. I know you guys call me get rewarded mean stands for, but tell me how how this practice helped you with that chronic fatigue.

Unknown Speaker  31:04  
So Chronic Fatigue was the hitting total burnout. I mean, it was it was very upsetting at the time, and I was unable to do anything. Really. Maybe if I leave still for like flat and make back four or five errors today, sort of drinking in the sunlight. I wasn't in direct light, but sort of drinking in the light of the sky. I might be able to to be able to do something like make a meal later in the day. It was very debilitating at the time. But my journey to wellness was I kind of decided two weeks after my diagnosis. I was right. Okay, that is not me. I'm going to get well. i Yes, I've been got a label, but I find a label quite useful. Because a label says to you Well, this is what you know, you could have went on. I don't know. Without that diagnosis, you you don't really know what's wrong with you. But I'll say okay, now I know what it is. That is a label that I am not a label. So I'm going to get myself well from that label. So thought right, okay, complete change. I was always, you know, eating very healthily, I was vegan. But I went to 100% raw food diet. So I sent away for a book by Doreen Virtue and J, somebody over a drawer food book. And I was I was just juicing and all that sort of thing. You know, I got a juicer juicer for a fiver and in a thrift shop. So anyway. Yeah, I've got withdrawal food diet. And I went to a spiritual healer once a week. And it was just me lying there while he worked, you know, remotely above the body, and just came away energized. But you know, it just seemed to recharge the battery for me when I wasn't able to do it myself. I did some, some meditation. But for anybody that knows anything about chronic fatigue, it's an inability to process language and you know, the cooperative bit doesn't work. So concentration on anything was like one or two minutes and I couldn't process sometimes I would go to speak. And I couldn't remember what I'd started the sentence to try and say, you know, it was really difficult. Sometimes I would watch people's mouth move, and I couldn't process what they were seeing. So the meditation I would say was more nice going quiet within for about a minute. And just to try and focus on my breathing. It was nothing. Nothing esoteric, nothing fancy. It was just coming to a quiet within.

Announcer  34:22  
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Unknown Speaker  35:23  
Positive thinking, as I see I'm not that label I, I am getting well from this. And also, I used omegas. So it is a brand called a veg EPA. It's a high end Omega three, six and nine. So it's, it's a process, I'm not selling this stuff, I just I'm just saying that it worked for me by a company called agenus. And it was really instrumental. I read a book called A matrix Andreea no hypochondria by a doctor. And she had, she had said that this product was really good. So I had for them for the first couple of days. And then it was down to to them for a few weeks, and then one a day for a year and a half. But within a fortnight, within 14 days, I was thinking better had more energy, I was able to, you know, get up earlier in the day. The sense of vertical would kind of leave me by maybe about 12 o'clock midday, and then I'd be able to do something in the afternoon. But it was a whole process, which, you know, as you said, I wrote about in my first book, Living lightly a journey through chronic fatigue syndrome, stroke, and II, it was I've got lots of tips on how to cope with other people's energies. And you feel everything so strongly how to cope with the fact that electrical current running through, you know, a phone charger, I couldn't be in the same space as electrical equipment. Or, in some locations, if there was electrical wire running through the wall. I couldn't put myself close to it. So, I mean, there were strange things like that, and a very, very sensitive set to sound. I mean, very high pitch sound that nobody else can hear it. So yeah, I've got things I've got how to cope with these things, tips that work.

Brian Smith  37:49  
Yeah, that's, that's great. You know, you said a lot of really good or interesting things that I loved you said about, like, you know, getting the diagnosis, because that could be a double edged sword. You know, it's like, before you have a diagnosis, people think, oh, there's just something wrong with me. I'm crazy, especially with chronic fatigue. And there's a lot of that's all in your head, it's not a real thing. But then you get the diagnosis. But then we have to be careful not to say, well, that's the label, that's who I am. It's like so now you know what this was what I have, but that's not who I am, I love the way that you said that this, I don't, I don't have to accept this. And there are, there's a combination between the physical and the spiritual, and the mental the things that you've done, you know, you the raw food diet, and it was one thing and taking the EMFs essential fatty acids, you know, that was way of helpful, but also going to see your spiritual here, I'm a big believer in all the above, you know, so we can use Western medicine and we can use

Unknown Speaker  38:49  
other things. Use whatever is in your, your power to do, you know, make the physical changes that you need to make the mental ones to, you know, the long term goal is to put that behind. And I thought to myself, well overcome chronic asthma as a child, I've missed half of my schooling as a child because it was so bad. This was before inhalers and stuck with that. And I overcame all of that, you know, Kundalini sensitivity and in my 20s. And I thought, well, I'm going to overcome this, this. Well, no, you know, define me.

Brian Smith  39:33  
I think, you know, as you talked about all those things, I think some of us are more sensitive to things. We're all we're all transmitters and we're all receivers, you know, and you talked about some things or maybe a lot of people who have had near death experiences, the sensitivity to electrical currents and set the sensitivities, other people's energies. And so people might say, well, that's woowoo stuff, but the fact is, our brains are putting out electrical signals even more Our hearts are putting out electrical signals. So when we walk into a room, you know, our heart signals go out, I think it's like 30 feet. So we're, we're close to other people, we can pick up on their energies. And I think some people are more sensitive to that than other people are. But as I'm sitting here, right now, there's all kinds of electrical currents going on around me that most of us ignore. But for some people, it really impacts us.

Unknown Speaker  40:22  
Obviously, it doesn't, it doesn't bother me so much. No. I mean, I've outgrown that. But I think that every experience that we have in life is has got something really precious to teachers. So it taught me to a reinvent how I, how I live life, how I deal with, with the cars that I've been given, you know, it taught me to do things differently. And, you know, I know that I've got, I've had lots of people that I've kind of coached through, you know, their own chronic fatigue syndrome. A, but I think, ultimately, it comes down to do are you you're going to allow this to defame and to curtail who you are. Now, I don't mean by that by being silly, and go and, you know, expose yourself to things that are going to meet your L again, what I mean is that you learned to pace yourself. So you have periods of rest, you have periods of activity, but you don't allow that to continue what you really want to do in life. How can how, how can something physical, actually, you know, a change you as a person, because it's only an experience, it's only perception. Because the physical body is not who you really are. Yeah.

Brian Smith  42:00  
Yeah, that's, that's, that's the key to everything that I had, right there. The physical body is not who you are. And that's, that's, I believe that. And that's the thing about the practices, you're talking about the meditation, the yoga meditation, it really helps us get in touch with our true self, and understand that this body is something that we inhabit, but it's not who we are.

Unknown Speaker  42:24  
It's the perfect vehicle for what you are. Every one we are you the vehicle that you've that you have is the perfect vehicle, with all its flaws, with all its difficulties with all its strengths, the perfect vehicle for which you to learn the lessons that you as an individual soul need to learn.

Brian Smith  42:48  
Wow, that's really interesting. You said that, because I was listening to a guy the other day, he has memories of being in between lives. And he talked about having the veil put on as he came into this world. And he described a way I'd never heard before. He's like, the veil is custom made for you. It's like, it's not like it's just one size fits all slips on everybody. And it's, and I've always thought, you know, I'm not always but recently, I've been thinking that the body is the veil that we talked about. So I just kind of put those two things together. It's like, you're right, this is the perfect vehicle for us. But it's also it's that veil of forgetfulness. It's that thing that that as you said, as a child, we still that reel as is still leaking through and we have those past lives, memories and stuff, and we hit about six, or ego pushes all that out. And then we and then we forget.

Unknown Speaker  43:38  
Yeah, but not everybody is a forgetful of who they really are. I mean, Masters come in and they have they're fully aware, in the womb, they're fully aware as a as a child, and they don't lose it. So no, everyone goes through the veil about that. A forgetfulness is actually for our benefit. Because if you're having a fresh start a fresh stab at life, as in this incarnation, you're not going to be held back by, you know, maybe traumatic events that have happened in a previous life. Because you don't remember them. You perhaps have some residual fears and all that sort of thing, but you don't remember the events. And that's, that's actually okay, this.

Brian Smith  44:31  
Yeah, well, the thing is, I've heard people say if we can remember everything, especially if we remember where we came from, we wouldn't be we wouldn't stay here. It's too hard. So that that's one of the reasons why we forget is because it's like we we think this is it. This is reality. So I have to deal I have to deal with it. And if you didn't know that, and this guy was mentioning, he talks about being incarnated a couple of times, and I guess the first time one of the times he remembers they put them in the box The in the womb, and he's like, they started to put the veil and he's like, No, I'm out of here. I'm not doing this, because that that sense of separation was just too much for him to deal with. So I think we all we take this on, as you said, the forgetfulness as part of the part of the plan.

Unknown Speaker  45:18  
Yeah, I think at some stage, we wouldn't eat that forgetfulness, but it's kindness. You know, when we move into this latest kindness,

Brian Smith  45:28  
I want to talk about your your, your current book, wakening and lotus of peace, yoga, meditation for yoga, meditation for inner peace. That's a very ambitious title. So what is inner peace mean to you? And is that something that we can achieve?

Unknown Speaker  45:45  
Well think Inner peace is who we are. It's not I don't think it's a matter of a piece of achieving some unachievable goal. It's, it's by meditation coming into that quiet and realizing that we are that inner peace. You know, we're awakening that awareness, that knowledge within us that this is who we really are. And all the rest is just simply a dial up my delusion.

Brian Smith  46:17  
Yeah, I think that's beautifully said, you know, it because I, I think that we, it's about remembering, it's about recovering, it's not about becoming, and I love that, it's just what you said, it's not about achieving inner peace. It's about finding it, it's about finding

Unknown Speaker  46:35  
it. So it's interesting, because in my experience, the the heart has many veils. And that our stages of development are going through different, different Veals have a sacredness in the heart, the heart, is the perception that, that you are separate from I, as myself, you know, that there's this that there's you. And then there's other other beings, there's a, there's others you and then there's God, or the Greek spirit, or whatever you look like to term. But the heart at the more that you meditate, and the more that you practice becoming open. And let go of those traumas, those fears, there was a instances where there's a tendency to blame others for all of your difficulties, or to a or there's a feeling of guilt that you're to blame for everybody's difficulties. And we let all of these things go. And each each meditation can be a lovely handing over. In my, in my early days, I used to use my hands. And when I was coming into meditation, I would imagine that I was scooping something out of my heart and physically use my hands to hand it over. Like this way I give the, you know, is no i This way to give the it's just letting go. Letting Go. The process is always about letting go. It's about surrendering, letting go and the veils start to fall off the heart until it's just this huge, open. Loving a January to Yeah.

Brian Smith  48:28  
So in your in your book, it's, it's described as a spiritual workbook of yoga practices. So what what types of practices can we find in the bar?

Unknown Speaker  48:37  
Well, I've got most of them are breath techniques, so easy breath techniques. I like to talk in simple everyday language. You know, I don't like to coach, whatever I've got to see in a fanciful or elitist language, but something that everyone can touch. So simple, because you change the brake, you change the brainwaves, you change the state of consciousness in that order. So there's different brake practices throughout. There's a little bit about physical yoga. Because for some people, they've got a very a, what's the word? Restless body, it's fidgeting, they can't sit still. So physical yoga has its place. So using a few a well chosen a yoga postures just to try and get the body to ditch its restlessness so that you can then set a few minutes. There's quite a bit of introspection. So maybe we're looking at the issues that you might have around guilt. There's a whole chapter on the doshas, the the SEC Seven Deadly Sins as it were, that's to do with the sacral. Chakra. So that's looking at a deceit, prayed last and carried guilt and heat. And it's about having introspection going into quiet into meditation and asking yourself key questions about this, how much of that am I holding on to and kind of let it go. So I think the first thing really is to realize that there's some aspect of yourself that is holding on to something that's so weighty. And then just to, to release it to make the decision that this is the time I can let this go. No, this doesn't define me, it made me I allowed it to define me. Maybe early on in this life or previous lives, but but I'm not allowing it to define me any longer to see that it is not me. It's, it's really about deciding or finding out which of my thoughts and actions are defined by the ego consciousness, that false self, and which are by my soul, or higher self. You know, and we can feel by the weight or the the type of thought dialogue that you might have with yourself, whether it's Eagle consciousness, or whether it's so consciousness. So consciousness always comes with a sense of feeling good. There's a lightness, there's a sense of rightness with it. And the ego consciousness always comes with doubt, doubt or fear. So we up, there's this need, it's not me, then I can hand it over and let it go. So we're talking a lot of meditations, you know, this is a lifetime practice. And refining who you think you are to reveal who you really are.

Brian Smith  52:09  
Yeah, sounds beautiful. So in terms of meditation, how often should people meditate, what and how and how important is it to be persistent in meditation.

Unknown Speaker  52:22  
100% important to be to be persistent. Some people have different times in the day that the meditate, but I would recommend that early in the morning, before the world is really busy. I'm talking about energies here. Because you know, for those of us that are sensitive, we can feel when the ethers become quiet, that's a more conducive team to meditate than in the you know, the middle of the day when people are talking about people that you don't even know that they could be, you know, miles or miles away. But still, you feel that frenetic buyers of their mental activity. And so it's quieter, the ethers are quieter in the morning, or even in the middle of the night. But I'm not suggesting we do does that in the beginning. But choosing a time that's suitable pre sale, some people that can't manage that sort of has to be evening. But I think the mornings are where you have come fresh, the soul has had erased as an I mean, to say you've had sleep, so the body, the mind wakes up. It has it has a freshness to it. So there's a kind of clean slate slate and you're ready to start. But but really, you know, every breath is a fresh day a fresh to you over a fresh start. You don't need to think that oh, have missed this morning. You know, I haven't managed to meditate then I'll have to be comfortable at all. No, just make the make the decision that I'm going to sit down? No. I've got 20 minutes to myself. There's nothing going to be happening in this 20 minutes. That's really be imposing on me. So I don't know, choose this 20 minutes to just become.

Brian Smith  54:13  
So when I asked you how often should we meditate? I think a lot of people think in terms of daily or weekly. It sounds like you're saying several times a day?

Unknown Speaker  54:23  
Well, I would say daily. But basically don't limit yourself. If you think you've you've missed a day. Just make sure you meditate the next day. You know, I'm trying not to be prescriptive because it's a bit like making a New Year's resolution. It's very easy to you know people get to the third week in January and have the broken resolution. Don't be worried about that. Just Just do it.

Brian Smith  54:48  
Yeah. Yeah, I think for me, I'm a very I like having measurements so I you talked I then we talked about Insight Timer and I know you've done some meditations on there. I love Insight Timer. I've used it for years, I've actually just switched to something else Now recently, but I've meditated every day for like three years, four years in a row. Because it would tell me what my streak was. And so that that actually worked for me. But I tell people now for me, meditation is kind of like brushing my teeth, I would not get up and go a day without brushing my teeth. And your mind is, it's like, you've got to keep it, you've got to keep it clean, you've got to, you've got to do that meditation. And it doesn't have to be, you know, 30 minutes at a time or an hour at a time. You can you can meditate in three or four minutes, if you've got time.

Unknown Speaker  55:40  
Absolutely, I try and encourage people to, if they've got 20 minutes, or they've got two minutes, meet that two minutes you're on. It's like for those two minutes, you carve out a space in the ethers, you know, especially the world for the for the last few minutes, either side, front and back beneath, above, carve yourself at a bubble of time and late and just meditate for those two minutes that you go meet them count. You're not gonna get those two minutes back. What else were you going to do in those two minutes? Scroll through Instagram?

Brian Smith  56:18  
Yeah, well, it can you can. You can actually reset yourself during the day. You know, when you're having that hectic days, as you said, even if you're working in an office, sit at your desk, close your door, if you got to door, close your eyes for two minutes, do some deep breathing. It really I mean, you can feel it in your body. It doesn't it doesn't take 30 minutes to kind of return to that that state.

Unknown Speaker  56:44  
No, it's very, very quick to change, change, make the decision that you're going to have those couple of minutes to yourself. Change the breath, immediately that you change the breath by lengthening exhale, then we have a change in the brainwaves, the brainwaves become longer and slower. And our state of consciousness then changes from the conscious mind into the calmness of the subconscious mind that we're used to going into. In sleep every night we slide into the subconscious, I'd say that my number one tip in meditation would be to know let your current your concentration, glide into the subconscious without some control, because it'll just wander away into a state of drowsiness. You know, meditation is about being alert and awake, not becoming sleepy or drowsy. So it's to make sure that you go through that bottleneck if you're eight of the subconscious mind into the superconscious. Mind beyond that, which is calm and a week and a layer.

Brian Smith  57:55  
Yeah, I've never heard put that way. I love that. So, you know, we're a lot of us are concerned right now with what's going on in the world. I mean, it's it seems to be a crazy place. So do you think that a personal meditation practice can have an impact on world peace?

Unknown Speaker  58:11  
Absolutely, because remember, thought is what is what we are, you know, whatever we think it's what what happens, it has a great impact on the world at large. And there's this tendency to think that we are small, there's only one of us. So, you know, we're small and insignificant, and we can't make any change, I would say to a, to not concern yourself too much with what's going on in the world. Change yourself first. You know, Gandhi said Be the change that you want to see in the world. So that means that you do your meditation practice, and you do the kindly acts that you can, but make it meet your parting, your, the end of your meditation practice, make it so that you're sending your waves of peace that you gained in meditation that you've dropped into, you know that you've tuned into Silversea that you send those waves of peace into the world without any thought of who they might affect or what they might affect. Just send them out anyway. And you wouldn't be alone.

Brian Smith  59:21  
Yeah, it knows

Unknown Speaker  59:23  
peace for some people seem to be synonymous with the lack with them the opposite of war. No. Peace and War are two opposites. And I would say that the Nord Peace is a state in its own right. So the opposite of anything and just to say in that peace out into the world, you can make huge change just by doing that. You change the ethers for the law of us you're small act you know quite act that hasn't been brought, you know, we are broadcasting but you're not necessarily seen to anybody. You're small actors. Make a change in the world. The ethers change is that we all touch in consciousness, the human consciousness that mass consciousness, we, we feel your calmness, we feel your peace emanating.

Brian Smith  1:00:20  
Yeah, that same by Gandhi, I remember hearing about several decades ago now, and it just gets, it's those really simple things that are so profound and we don't realize the profundity of them when we first hear them, but, you know, be the change that you wish to be in the world. That's, that's all we can change is ourselves. But we, the thing is, we are all connected, we are all one. And we have much more of an impact on the world than we than we think we do that we give ourselves credit for. And if you someone smiles at you in the morning, it can impact the way you go about your day and how you react your family when you come home at night. And that person's smile is impacted your family and then they go out and they do a kind act for somebody. And it just, it ripples through the world.

Unknown Speaker  1:01:08  
It doesn't deep, when we're not separate. We are all connected in consciousness. And we feel it, we perceive it. But it helps us to be the better person that we're seeking to be.

Brian Smith  1:01:23  
Absolutely. Well, Jenny, it's been really good talking to you. Is there anything else you'd like to say as we wrap up today,

Unknown Speaker  1:01:34  
I would just like to encourage people to, if they haven't got a meditation practice already, is to make the decision that they're going to take 20 minutes, or two minutes, wherever they have, and try and meditate every day. You could use in state tamer app, or any other app for guided meditations. Personally, I prefer to just sit in the quiet. But it's whatever is your whatever you're drawn to. It's going to have repercussions for your physical health. If you meditate, it'll be beneficial for your mental health. And it will lead to a more clearly on your spiritual path to awaken to who you really are.

Brian Smith  1:02:26  
Yeah, absolutely. So I'm going to let people know where they can find you. So it's www dot Living lightly.co.uk. Is that correct? It's a yes. It's a hyphen in the middle there. So. Yeah, sorry about that. So that's a living dash lightly that.co.uk. And so, so people can find out more about you there.

Unknown Speaker  1:02:51  
Yeah, I mean, I'm happy to converse with anybody that has, you know, maybe they've got issues with their own chronic fatigue or the Kundalini awakening, or the really want to know how to meditate. I've got some six free physical yogurts, very gentle yoga, and meditation sessions. So the six half hour stations for free, have a nice sense of thanks to YouTube. So people can

Brian Smith  1:03:26  
that's awesome. I'll put the link in the show notes. But Jen, it's been really really great getting to talk to you today and getting to know you. Thanks for being here.

Unknown Speaker  1:03:32  
It's been lovely speaking to you, Brian. Have a lovely day.

Brian Smith  1:03:37  
You too. Bye. Bye. Don't forget to like, hit that big red subscribe button and click the notify Bell. Thanks for being here.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai