B is for Being

There are so many people talking about self-love, acceptance, meditation, connection, consciousness, ego... and it all just feels a little bit fake.It's like everyone only partially understands what they're talking about but shares it like they're an enlightened master. It just makes me cringe!What's the point of even sharing if we're all dismissed as 'just another self-proclaimed spiritual master who doesn't really know what they're talking about', resulting in no one taking anyone seriously!?These feelings became so strong that I had no motivation to produce this week's episode. So I decided to explore what was behind these feelings and share my findings with you.In this episode I uncover the core belief which was behind these highly critical feelings for others and myself, for sharing our journey.

What an amazing year 2016 has been. A year full of growth, learning and expansion for everyone. I’m amazed at how much I’ve learned this year and lost track of the times I smashed through my comfort zones.This is the episode where I take a look back at the year that was 2016 and share my biggest learnings, my biggest fears and the most powerful episodes I produced this year.Grab your listening ears and hit play on the last episode of 2016.

When we are born we aren’t given a manual which tells us the person that we are. No one else can tell us the unique things we hold inside of ourselves or how we feel like expressing it.

Knowing these things is part of the process of self-discovery.

Today I’d like to share a tool with you that has made it much easier for me to dive into myself and discover my inherent ways of being and expression.

The tool itself is just a simple list of the people you admire. However, instead of stopping there, by looking more closely at exactly which aspects of a person we admire we can learn which part of us is admiring those parts in them.

In this episode I share with you the people I admire at the moment and go through the process of identifying exactly what it is I admire about each of them.

Knowing what we admire in others puts us in a position to be able to make more energising and fulfilling decisions for ourselves more often.

Join me as I go through my own discovery process using this tool.

Using the things we admire in others as a tool for discovering our own unique selves.

When we are born we aren’t given a manual which tells us the person that we are. No one else can tell us the unique things we hold inside of ourselves or how we feel like expressing it.

Knowing these things is part of the process of self-discovery.

Today I’d like to share a tool with you that has made it much easier for me to dive into myself and discover my inherent ways of being and expression.

The tool itself is just a simple list of the people you admire. However, instead of stopping there, by looking more closely at exactly which aspects of a person we admire we can learn which part of us is admiring those parts in them.

In this episode I share with you the people I admire at the moment and go through the process of identifying exactly what it is I admire about each of them.

Knowing what we admire in others puts us in a position to be able to make more energising and fulfilling decisions for ourselves more often.

Join me as I go through my own discovery process using this tool.

Highlights and Takeaways

* The aspects you notice in other people are personal to you. Someone else will admire different qualities in that same person.

* Self-doubt will make it hard to see the connection between what you admire in someone else and what you feel you have inside yourself.

* Becoming aware of why you admire certain aspects of a person will let you know a lot about yourself.

* Authentic expression is so intriguing to witness because it’s an individual’s unique expression that is made up of all their past experiences in life and coming out in a never before seen flow.

* Use writing to explore the aspects you admire in others, it makes the process easier.

* You’ll begin to notice themes in what you admire in others and see who you are more clearly.

Show Notes

Make a List of 5 People You Admire [02:14]

These are people which make you stop and go wow! The list is not in hierarchical order, it’s simply a collection of five people you greatly admire.

This list of people will change overtime, but the things you admire in others won’t really change that much.

You can use this list to look at the people you admire and use them as signposts which point you to your inherent interests in life; the things that make you stop and be very present in life, the things which peak your curiosity.

My List of 5 [05:10]

I’m going to run through my own list and show you how I go into each person and identify what exactly I admire about them.

We usually admire specific aspects about a person and not everything that person is doing.

The aspects I admire in another reflect the parts inside myself which are noticing these aspects.

Nils Frahm [06:36]

Nils Frahm Is a composer and musician who lives in Berlin. I admire the way he composes music, I admire the way he performs live on stage. I admire his stage presence because he’s not trying to prove anything to anyone, he’s simply grounded within himself.

He’s not thinking about messing up, he’s not thinking about what the audience thinks of his music. He’s sitting there and letting his creative energy flow through him and allowing that to be translated onto the instrument in front of him.

I notice particular things about him. Why is it I’m noticing his self-grounding and how unaffected he is by hundreds of people watching him play? The things I admire are about him are personal to me.

Michael and I were housemates this year and would regularly find ourselves deep in conversation in the kitchen on topics of psychology, philosophy and the nature of the universe.

The thought of recording these conversations often came up but never eventuated until now.

This week's episode is a little different as I purposefully left the topic of our talk undecided. I let my questions come from a place of genuine curiousity instead of the expectation to make the best podcast episode in the world, and really, this is how all of our conversations have started in the past.

We talk about the experience of performing on stage, why hip-hop is Mike's primary form of expression and Mike shares a heartfelt message to his 15 year old self when he was having a hard time in life.

Michael has a degree in psychology and is an Australian hip-hop artist focused on spreading awareness and understanding through his music for us to re-connect with ourselves and each other.

I sat down with my old housemate Mike for a casual chat about life.

Michael and I were housemates this year and would regularly find ourselves deep in conversation in the kitchen on topics of psychology, philosophy and the nature of the universe.

The thought of recording these conversations often came up but never eventuated until now.

This week's episode is a little different as I purposefully left the topic of our talk undecided. I let my questions come from a place of genuine curiousity instead of the expectation to make the best podcast episode in the world, and really, this is how all of our conversations have started in the past.

We talk about the experience of performing on stage, why hip-hop is Mike's primary form of expression and Mike shares a heartfelt message to his 15 year old self when he was having a hard time in life.

Michael has a degree in psychology and is an Australian hip-hop artist focused on spreading awareness and understanding through his music for us to re-connect with ourselves and each other.

Highlights and Takeaways

* Nervous energy can transform into excitement when you're on stage.

* People aren't in a performance situation by accident. They have progressively built their experience and want to be on stage. They still feel nervous but they are not doubting their ability to perform.

* We're in a time of transition in the year 2016.

* Those of us with enough resources for food and shelter are in a privileged situation to create change in the world.

* There are no downsides to developing self-awareness: the awareness of how you're thinking and feeling in this moment.

* It's usually the most painful situations in life that have the ability to make us turn inwards and deepen our understanding of ourselves.

Show Notes

I Am Enough [02:38]

* Michael: I know I don’t always feel that I am enough. We feel we need certain relationships or other things (which may not be fulfilling), because we don’t feel like we are enough.

* I feel learning to accept myself is quite tricky. Growing up I was trying to achieve good grades or sporting awards - whatever I did I felt I had to be the best.

* For me, the phrase I am enough means accepting myself without needing to prove myself through achieving certain results or a particular status; It means just accepting myself for who I am, as I am.

The Transformation of Nervousness into Excitement [08:06]

* Michael: Hip Hop is a powerful form of expression for me. To get on stage and express is such a powerful feeling. I can’t compare it to anything else.

* I still find it difficult to get up on stage. I still get nervous and scared. But there is this strange transformation that happens; as soon as I get up there all of the nervous energy transforms into excitement. It’s amazing how quick this transformation happens, it’s like a switch.

* It was a powerfully insightful moment for me. I realised that the nervous energy and the excited energy were the same energy.

* Ben: You’re not on the stage because you don’t want to be there; you want to be there.

* I used to see people on stage and think, that must be terrifying. But to them they might be nervous but they want to be there, they aren’t doubting their ability to deliver.

What Are You Trying to Express Through Hip-Hop? [20:27]

* Michael: Hip-hop emerged out of New York in the mid-70s partly as a reaction to the urban decay that was happening at the time. There were a lot of unemployed youths and a there was a lot of violence going on.

This is Part 2 of my talk with Luna. Here's Part 1 of our talk if you missed it.

The Artist’s Way, written by Julia Cameron, is a well known tool for understanding and clearing the blocks which hold us back from knowing and expressing our creativity.

In this episode, we go deep into the tools which The Artist's Way provides and share our own experiences of going through the course and the continued use of the tools well after completing the 12-week course.

I began my Artist’s Way Journey at the end of 2012. I had just finished my degree in Film and was at a dead end creatively. I had so many film ideas and wasn’t working on a single one of them. I would procrastinate big time and do anything not to work on them even though I wanted to! Sounds crazy right?

I knew my creative expression was blocked and that I was afraid of making a film which no one liked or making a film in the wrong way, but I didn't know why I was feeling this way.

My mum had a copy of The Artist's Way and I would often find it laying around the house and flip through and read the inspiring quotes.

Overtime I began procrastinating in more and more elaborate ways and still wasn't feeling free to create. I wanted to understand why I was so scared of making a film. It was around this time that The Artist's Way came up in conversation with a friend and we decided to start the 12-week journey together.

I completed the course in early 2013 and found it helped me uncover some answers to why I was experiencing such a degree of creative-blockedness. The tools it provided were invaluable and I highly recommend the Book to anyone seeking to understand and reconnect with their creative expression.

A Tool for Unblocking Our Creative Flow.

This is Part 2 of my talk with Luna. Here's Part 1 of our talk if you missed it.

The Artist’s Way, written by Julia Cameron, is a well known tool for understanding and clearing the blocks which hold us back from knowing and expressing our creativity.

In this episode, we go deep into the tools which The Artist's Way provides and share our own experiences of going through the course and the continued use of the tools well after completing the 12-week course.

I began my Artist’s Way Journey at the end of 2012. I had just finished my degree in Film and was at a dead end creatively. I had so many film ideas and wasn’t working on a single one of them. I would procrastinate big time and do anything not to work on them even though I wanted to! Sounds crazy right?

I knew my creative expression was blocked and that I was afraid of making a film which no one liked or making a film in the wrong way, but I didn't know why I was feeling this way.

My mum had a copy of The Artist's Way and I would often find it laying around the house and flip through and read the inspiring quotes.

Overtime I began procrastinating in more and more elaborate ways and still wasn't feeling free to create. I wanted to understand why I was so scared of making a film. It was around this time that The Artist's Way came up in conversation with a friend and we decided to start the 12-week journey together.

I completed the course in early 2013 and found it helped me uncover some answers to why I was experiencing such a high degree of creative-blockedness. The tools it provided were invaluable and I highly recommend the Book to anyone seeking to understand and reconnect with their creative expression.

Highlights and Takeaways

* Sharing your work regularly makes it easier to take action on the creative urges you have.

* The outcome is irrelevant, it’s the creation that matters.

* You can discover what you want to express creatively by asking yourself, what experiences have I had? and which of these experiences do I want to share with others?

* Using free-form writing we can re-connect with our creative urges and identify the things we are doing which don't feel good for us.

* Asking yourself, with genuine care and curiosity, what it is you'd like to be doing now, strengthens your connection with your creative voice.

* Creativity is infused into life. There's no way for you not to be creative.

Show Notes

What is The Artist’s Way? [06:20]

* Luna: The Artist’s Way is a 12-week program (in a book) that is about uncovering your creative capabilities and creative style; and uncovering the heart of who you are.

* There a two consistent practices featured in the book: The Morning Pages - which is writing three pages of free flow writing as soon as you wake up, and Artist’s Dates - where you go and do something that inspires you once a week.

* Ben: Artist’s Dates are really fun.

* Luna: Those are so fun, and also really challenging to make yourself go to sometimes. That’s one of the most interesting things in The Artist’s Way process is watching where you resist stuff. It’s so interesting to watch yourself resist doing certain tasks because some of the tasks feel so uncomfortable because you have to uncover things and tell yourself the truth about things, and that can be very hard. We’re so good at distracting ourselves from those kinds of things.

Luna is a poet and multidisciplinary artist who has worked across the fields of theater, puppetry, design, film and even circus. This little list only covers a portion of her creative experiences.

From an early age she was expressing complex emotions, like the emotion of confusion, using water colour paints.

She is no stranger to the creative journey and the different challenges and obstacles which can arise along the way.

We sat down and talked about finding the balance between self-time and social-time, how to manage the expectations we we bring to our own creative process, and some of the ways we can make space for our unique creative voice to come through.

This is Part 1 of my talk with Luna. Stay tuned for Part 2 which will be up next week.

Navigating through common difficulties encountered on the creative path.

Luna is a poet and multidisciplinary artist who has worked across the fields of theater, puppetry, design, film and even circus. This little list only covers a portion of her creative experiences.

From an early age she was expressing complex emotions, like the emotion of confusion, using water colour paints.

She is no stranger to the creative journey and the different challenges and obstacles which can arise along the way.

We sat down and talked about finding the balance between self-time and social-time, how to manage the expectations we we bring to our own creative process, and some of the ways we can make space for our unique creative voice to come through.

This is Part 1 of my talk with Luna. Stay tuned for Part 2 which will be up next week.

Highlights and Takeaways

* It's a challenge trying to maintain the integrity of your own creative voice and market yourself at the same time.

* Making time to not do anything allows our minds to empty and provides the space for our creative voice to come to the surface.

* Creating space for yourself and maintaining social connections is a balancing act. Tuning into ourselves and asking, what do I need right now? Time with myself or time with others? ensures that we are filling ourselves with what we need in that moment.

* When we know the things which nourish and feed us creatively it becomes easier to say no to things because we know what we are saying yes to.

*  If you’re going to be weird be the best weird you can be.

Show Notes

* [09:56] Luna: People are innately creative. We are all working with different frequencies - much like tuning a radio. I might go and see a wonderful show with a friend and what I see is vocalised experimental performance and the power of colours clashing together and becoming words; and what she sees is gesture and motif and symbol through movement. From the same performance our creative muse works through us in completely different ways.

The Expectations We Place on Our Creativity [12:40]

* Ben: Whenever I took my interests seriously (trying to take it to the next level) I would often find myself getting really serious about it and put all this pressure on myself to produce something amazing to make people go, “wow!”

* Luna: We have this preconceived idea of what we should be doing. It’s easy to get caught up in the shoulds; “I should be performing here, I should be publishing there, I should be working with these people.” Everyone goes through those phases no matter what it is they have achieved so far.

* These shoulds run completely counter intuitively to the natural flow of creativity. The shoulds are coming from the head and completely divorced from the heart.

* I feel that we’ve become very driven by the sense of a marketplace. I watch a lot of artists who put themselves under a lot of pressure to market themselves and a lot of business ethics has has worked its way down into art: how are you promoting yourself?, who are you networked with? where are you sharing your work? as apposed with, what are you feeling? and are you sharing it?

* We’re curating ourselves all the time on social media and it becomes very hard to give yourself the space to go through the creative process (to just let it flow).

* Ben: It’s quite a delicate balance to stay true to the creative voice and market yourself at the same time.

* Luna: You can’t completely separate yourself from the marketing aspect. It’s beneficial to be able to talk about your work a...