Changeable Podcast

Let’s have a serious talk.

Thoughts are not true. Honestly, how in the world could they be? How could a formless blip of energy with some untouchable, vague images or memories or words, know about ‘you’ or the future?

Thought is what creates the imaginary idea of a future. There isn’t a future known by thought.

It doesn’t take much looking to really see that thought can’t possibly be true. It contradicts itself all the time. It repeats itself over a lifetime is essentially a reflection or echo of other thoughts and sensory impressions.

Just look, along with me in this episode, at the logic. It’s very, very clear when you begin to look.

I share a portion of an email from a woman who has “intrusive thoughts” about hurting herself as a way to explore how thought can’t possibly be true. And I challenge you to debate both sides of the coin and see for yourself.  

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Would you like to be part of a supportive, loving community of like-minded people exploring the big questions in life?

Would you like a place you can turn for personal support on anything you’re struggling with at any time from several certified Change Coaches?   

It’s a place to see how the things like anxiety, doubt, habits, insecurities–are actually incredible gifts. They are there to help you wake up. 

To join The Community, please go to dramyjohnson.com/thecommunity

The post EP319: Stop believing thoughts (and there are no “intrusive” ones) appeared first on Dr. Amy Johnson.

In this episode, we explore two definitions of the word fix.

There is to fix, as in to correct. We try to correct or fix a problem, or ourselves, or the way life appears to be unfolding. 

The other is to fix something into place, as in to solidify. Identities, opinions, and problems appear more or less fixed. When they appear very fixed, we often say we feel stuck. 

Thought is a constant fixer but ironically, it has no ability to actually fix anything. Nothing is fixed, ever; not in terms of correcting the flow of life or in terms of holding anything in place. The sense that anything is ever fixed is simply a thought believed. 

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This is your last chance to join what may be the last ever LSBC class. 

You’ll get lifetime access to the full curriculum of video lessons, interviews, and animations, 6 live coaching calls with me, and access to our private forum for the 6 weeks.

If you’ve been wanting to do the live version of this course with my support, or you know someone who has, this is the time to do it! 

Go to www.thelittleschoolofbigchange.com to register.  

The post EP318: Nothing is ever fixed appeared first on Dr. Amy Johnson.

In this episode I respond to a question I received from someone who experiences depersonalization and derealization.

Specifically, the questioner shared that they don’t believe this is a thinking disorder and do I agree? 

This sent me on a bit of a nice rant  

I do agree. No thinking is “disordered” in the same way that no feeling is “bad”. The very common and innocent question reflects our cultural conditioning that sees so much experience as a problem to fix. That conditioning IS the problem, not the thoughts or feelings arising. 

This episode is not really about DPDR, so please check it out even if you aren’t sure what that is! 

***

Beginning September 5th, I will be leading a very small group through The LSBC course.

You may know that I don’t lead this course anymore but because there were a number of people on the waitlist, I thought I would lead a small group through the curriculum this fall. You’ll get lifetime access to the full curriculum of video lessons, interviews, and animations, 6 live coaching calls with me, and access to our private forum for the 6 weeks.

If you’ve been wanting to do the live version of this course with my support, or you know someone who has, this is the time to do it! 

Go to https://dramyjohnson.com/events/fall-school-registration-page/ to register.

The post EP317: Are there thinking disorders? Is depersonalization one, or is it a “real feeling”?  appeared first on Dr. Amy Johnson.

I so often hear people feeling they are making things worse.

They say things like, “I’m resisting, which is making these feelings worse” or “This anxiety is making my physical pain worse”.

But what if “I’m making it worse” is just a thought?

Can one thought really make another thought or sensation worse? Does it have that power?

Look at the bigger assumptions in this cause and effect belief – it implies that there is a YOU with the power to influence experience. But is there?

I’ll explain how “I’m making it worse” might feel uncomfortable in itself, but that doesn’t mean it’s actually making anything worse. 

***

Beginning September 5th, I will be leading a very small group through The Little School of Big Change Guided course.

You may know that I don’t lead this course anymore but because there were a number of people on the waitlist, I thought I would lead a small group through the curriculum this fall. You’ll get lifetime access to the full curriculum of video lessons, interviews, and animations, 6 live coaching calls with me, and access to our private forum for the 6 weeks.

If you’ve been wanting to do the live version of this course with my support, or you know someone who has, this is the time to do it!

Go to The Little School of Big Change to register. 

The post EP316: You’re not making it worse appeared first on Dr. Amy Johnson.

In today’s episode, I share an example of someone who experiences “health anxiety” to show how experience is “all conditioning” (EP310) and also how there is no conditioning (EP311).   

We explore the related idea that there is something other than what is right here, right now. This is another paradox. I feels like things like habitual thinking lingers and carries through time, but isn’t it more true that when it’s not in experience, it doesn’t exist at all? It’s here when it’s here and completely gone when it’s gone? 

***

Beginning September 5th, I will be leading a very small group through The Little School of Big Change Guided course.

You may know that I don’t lead this course anymore but because there were a number of people on the waitlist, I thought I would lead a small group through the curriculum this fall. You’ll get lifetime access to the full curriculum of video lessons, interviews, and animations, 6 live coaching calls with me, and access to our private forum for the 6 weeks.

If you’ve been wanting to do the live version of this course with my support, or you know someone who has, this is the time to do it!

Go to The Little School of Big Change to register. 

The post EP315: No secret rooms appeared first on Dr. Amy Johnson.

Ana wrote to me saying that she began having social anxiety two years ago. She said she’s ashamed because she wishes she was strong enough to let this go.

She went on to talk about how things are for her, but that first statement alone reveals a lot. She’s ashamed of something that has nothing to do with her, something she has zero control over. And she believes that if she possessed some sort of strength, she could let this go.

I speak to many points in Ana’s message about social anxiety, claustrophobia, her body physically reacting to fear, and more in a very direct way, trying to point out and clarify the assumptions and misunderstandings behind her suffering. 

***

Beginning September 5th, I will be leading a very small group through The Little School of Big Change Guided course.

You may know that I don’t lead this course anymore but because there were a number of people on the waitlist, I thought I would lead a small group through the curriculum this fall. You’ll get lifetime access to the full curriculum of video lessons, interviews, and animations, 6 live coaching calls with me, and access to our private forum for the 6 weeks.

If you’ve been wanting to do the live version of this course with my support, or you know someone who has, this is the time to do it!

Go to The Little School of Big Change to register.  

The post EP314: Social anxiety, physical reactions, and knowing better: Questions from a listener appeared first on Dr. Amy Johnson.

Today’s episode is a conversation with Sarie Taylor and her Worldwide Wellbeing Community.

When the mind is trying to hold onto some shred of perceived control, it often says something like “we have no control over what shows up, but we do have some control over what we do with it/pay attention to”.  

But that’s still control, right?  

I suggested that we have absolutely no control over any experience, and we had a very direct conversation front here. 

Sarie shared that this call created some debate from her community, some saying it was their favorite call and others saying it was frustrating and depressing. The mind is so clever!  

I’m grateful to her for allowing me to share this. You can check out Sarie’s work and community at https://www.worldwidewellbeing.co.uk/

The post EP313: No choice – Not even in what is given attention appeared first on Dr. Amy Johnson.

In episode 306, Bill Giruzzi shared his experience and the insights he had during a period of extreme anxiety and suicidal depression. In today’s episode, his wife Lisa shares the incredible insights she had during that same time.  

In so many profound ways, Lisa deeply realized that nothing in life is really up to her. When Bill was in ICU for four weeks after a near fatal brain bleed… in the early days of Covid and she couldn’t visit him at all…it wasn’t up to her. She was forced to let go and let things unfold. 

For the year or so afterward as he frequently talked about planning his suicide, Lisa again saw that it wasn’t up to her. There was nothing she could do to ensure that things would go the way she wanted them to. 

Lisa talks about one of our greatest fears–being completely powerless in the worst of circumstances – actually being our greatest freedom. This is an amazing conversation. 

You can see more about Lisa here.

The post EP312: It’s Not Up to Me with Lisa Giruzzi appeared first on Dr. Amy Johnson.

Last week’s episode was called It’s All Conditioning.

And, also, there is no conditioning. 

Conditioning is an idea that depends on time. It exists only in thought, which means it has no lasting, real existence. It’s an appearance, albeit a persistent, very real-feeling one. 

Conditioning exists in duality, as a label for a fleeting experience. The unconditioned is nondual, not fleeting, and not an experience. 

***

Starting in August and running for 10 weeks, I’ll be leading a group of people through the book Liberation Is: The End of the Spiritual Path by Salvadore Poe.

This book is simple and direct. It is not theoretical or conceptual. This is not a book that discusses your true nature – it’s a book designed to directly reveal your true nature.

I loved it when I read it, and I think you will too. 

We’ll have weekly calls, including one with the offer, and a forum to share insight as we’re doing the experiments together. 

I would love for you to join me! Go to https://dramyjohnson.com/bookclub/ to register

The post EP311: There is no conditioning  appeared first on Dr. Amy Johnson.

All experience, in a sense, is conditioned. It’s all learned. And it can’t be anything other than what it is. 

It’s not your conditioning. The you with a life and problems and a past and future IS conditioned thought. It can’t have conditioning or be conditioned. It is a conditioned thought. 

There is a sense of continuity. It seems like you’ve existed for as long as you have, right? What’s continuous? Is it the “me” you take yourself to be, the one with a body and a life? Or is that sense of continuity pointing to something else?

***

Starting in August and running for 10 weeks, I’ll be leading a group of people through the book Liberation Is: The End of the Spiritual Path by Salvadore Poe.

This book is simple and direct. It is not theoretical or conceptual. This is not a book that discusses your true nature – it’s a book designed to directly reveal your true nature.

I loved it when I read it, and I think you will too. 

We’ll have weekly calls, including one with the offer, and a forum to share insight as we’re doing the experiments together. 

I would love for you to join me! Go to https://dramyjohnson.com/bookclub/ to register

The post EP310: It’s all conditioning (and it can’t be any other way) appeared first on Dr. Amy Johnson.