Higher Ground Living Podcast

In this episode we begin to explore what it means to build a life of inner peace by accumulating "Treasure In Heaven". 

Treasure in heaven speaks of consciously developing inner peace. Our modern, busy world doesn't leave much space for cultivating inner peace. Which is why we see such a rise in mental health issues. Including anxiety, depression, fear, overwhelm, confusion and frustration. Which lead to the growing sense of disconnection and stress which we like to fill with all manner of material panacea.

Only to find that the more things we accumulate and the more food, alcohol, prescription drugs, TV and entertainment we consume we do not achieve the wellbeing we are searching for. 

Is it because we are too focused upon worldly treasure and not making time to build peace and strength into our inner world of the mind and spirit?

For the next few weeks HGL Podcast will be exploring this topic and offering practical ways that we can all develop our inner peace. So that we can find peace and wellbeing even in the storms of life. Higher Ground Living is all about raising our awareness above the fleeting pleasures of the material world and establishing ourselves upon the higher ground of the spirit, where we find lasting peace, abundance and wisdom. 

By doing this we begin to store up "treasure in heaven" in our inner world, which gives us a solid foundation to build our outward, earthly lives. 

Blessings

Shane and Nikki

Maintaining a peaceful mindset is a skill. It is developed and maintained by practicing conscious relaxation. Conscious relaxation is when we consciously choose to take time regularly to practice relaxation. The product of this practice is a residing peace of mind.

In this episode Shane and Nikki explores the importance of having a daily peace practice. It is easy to neglect the practice of relaxation in our busy lives. It is easy to fall into long stretches of time in our lifestyle where we experience very little real relaxation and peace.

Most people are waiting for peace and relaxation to just "happen" in their lives. The reality is that we must choose to make relaxation a part of our daily schedule or else we will often miss out. Which leads to stress and overwhelm. 

The good news is that it doesn't take a massive effort to start feeling the benefits of conscious relaxation. The HGL Ten2Relax online course teaches us how to develop an effective peace and relaxation practice. 

A free sample of the course is available at:

www.hgl-training-academy.teachable.com

As a podcast listener you can receive 50% off the full price of the Ten2Relax Course by using the coupon code "HGLPodcast". Access is found at the website listed above. 

Is there an area of your life where you are struggling to get a breakthrough? 

Your trying as hard as you can but things just wont change. 

We came across this simple formula that reminds us to make sure we are not leaving any room for negative energy to keep us from our desired breakthrough. 

The formula is:

See It - Feel It - Believe It - Do It

See It: Speaks of the initial idea plus deeper visualisation of the outcome. 

Feel It: Take time to focus on the dream and develop the feeling of having this outcome in your life. 

Believe It: Search your thoughts and beliefs to find any limiting beliefs you have about your ability and worthiness to have this desire in your life. 

Do It: Take positive action towards attaining the outcome you desire.

By honestly looking at our journey and working through these four points we can reveal where we might be getting stuck. Therefore, limiting our progress towards attaining the desired outcome. 

HGL Links

www.hgltrainingacademy.teachable.com

Ten2Relax Online Course Half Price Code: HGLPodcast

www.highergroundliving.blog

www.hgltrainingacademy.com

In this episode we explore the wisdom I received from a hike I took in a mountain forest. The lessons were so inspiring to me that I had to do a podcast about them. I hope you get as much out of it as I have.

Below you can read the full blog article I wrote on this topic. Make sure you check out the full version with photos on our blog site.

To see HGL Guided Relaxations/ Meditations find us on Youtube

Visit HGL Training Academy for Ten2Relax

A few days ago I went on a ten km mountain/forest hike in the Lamington National Park about 45 minutes from where I live in Australia. As is my custom, I walk alone to be totally focused upon my surroundings and get connected with nature. It was a beautiful sunny, winters day as I set out on the five km trail that leads to the base of Ballunjui Falls.

Along the journey I came across multiple lookouts that stare down the length of Numinbah Valley at a height of around 800 metres. It is a magnificent sight and feeling to stand on the edge of the mountain and take in the vision and energy of this beautiful valley. The trail meanders through the forest with awe inspiring giant trees, birds constantly calling out and creative rock formations. It is such a blessing to be present in that environment with a quiet mind, totally disconnected from the reality of modern life.

My intention on these walks is always to empty my mind and listen only to the sounds of the forest and focus on my breathing. As I walked and allowed my mind to marvel at the beauty surrounding me, I became aware of what I could describe as the forest talking to me. Not in words, but in ideas.  By the end of my hike I had received five specific lessons that I would love to share with your here.

Each lesson has a positive impact on my mental health and I am sure will be of value to many other people. There is nothing new or overly profound here. Just five reminders of good quality thinking and action that will build strength into our mental health and wellbeing.

Everything in the forest is living exactly as it should be. There is no identity confusion in the forest. Unlike us humans, the trees don't question their purpose in life. We don't hear trees talking to each other complaining about how big, or how small they are. Or judging each other for the colour of their bark and leaves. One tree isn't jealous of another. There is no anxiety about where they are growing. A tree isn't freaking out because it is growing too close to the edge of the cliff. As I walked on, I let the authenticity of the forest flow through my mind and I allowed myself to feel my own authenticity. I allowed myself to believe in myself, to love myself, to be proud of myself for who I am and what I have experienced in my life so far. I took the pressure off myself and just believed that all things are possible for me. That I am abundant no matter what mistakes I have made or what weaknesses I have.

And it felt good...

And it still feels good as I recall the experience. And that is the lesson here. We need to believe in our own authenticity. Many of us are all caught up in a false identity that has been programmed into us by the culture we live in. When we are secure in who and what we are, we are not concerned with the actions and opinions of others to the point of creating anxiety.

Obviously humans are far more complex than trees. We have an awareness that is far superior than any other living thing on the planet. This is why we need to take this lesson from the forest that we must focus upon our own authenticity and use that to release fear and anxiety about our position in this world. Like the trees, we are mean't to be here. We are here for a reason. We are here to learn and grow from our experiences to impact and empower others.

We each have a purpose even if we are unsure of what it is. The best way to become aware of our purpose is to believe we have one. From here we will start to see the signs of what it is. Remember, just because we don't think we have a purpose doesn't mean we have no purpose. It just means we are out of touch with our authentic self.

To get in touch with your authentic self, spend time in quiet places like the forest, and just listen to your surroundings. This will allow your mind to get quiet enough to express your true self. Our modern world is so busy and noisy that its no wonder we can't perceive our own voice and purpose in life. If you get quiet enough for long enough you will begin to hear the direction you should go in.

There is wisdom built into every one of us that comes from this authentic self. It is a still soft voice that is waiting for us to slow down for long enough to hear it. For me, the forest is a great place to experience this level of focus.

Any fear I felt in the forest was being generated by me. The animals, plants, insects and all the other living things are not living in fear. We don't see anxious and stressed out birds, wallabies, snakes, trees etc. Walking around dazed and confused questioning their worth and building limiting beliefs about who and what they are capable of. These creatures are actually in danger of being eaten by other creatures too. So they actually have the right to be a bit stressed. But lucky for them its not build into their mental capacity to operate like this.

Once again thats our domain. We like to stress for the sake of stressing. Because thats just what we do, and have always done. But do we have to? Can we make a new habit of not stressing about every little thing that doesn't provide pleasure? We absolutely can.

The opportunity for stress is inevitable and we are never going to get away from that. However our reaction to these situations is our choice. The lesson from the forest here is that we need to learn to make better choices around what we are fearful about. Stress comes from our fears. If we have no fear over something then we have no stress about it. We are calm and unfazed by the situation. But when we are fearful that we might lose something we are attached too, we tend to generate stress.

The forest reveals that even in the midst of actual danger we don't need to freak out. The forest is relaxed and sure of itself. What a great way to live. As I walked through that forest I was reminded that this state of being is available to me too. I can be relaxed and sure of myself no matter what situation I find myself in. It is just a choice, not always an easy one. But a choice all the same. It takes practice and diligence to build this habit but it is absolutely available to all of us if we choose to use it.

During my walk I was blown away by the majesty of the largest trees and by incredible view of the valley stretching out from various lookouts. At the end of the trail was a beautiful waterfall. It was not flowing in its full capacity but it was still and amazing sight.

After seeing these great things I had the thought appear in my mind that looking at magnificent things is very beneficial for our mental wellbeing. It builds wonder and gratitude into our mind and that reduces fear and stress. Looking at and appreciating these magnificent creations takes our focus away from ourselves. It builds peace into our mindset by reminding us that we live in a wonderful world. That what we see on the news and around our cities is not all that is available for us.

So much of our anxiety comes from focusing our attention on the creations of man. We are influenced greatly by all the negative information we get thrown at us each day and night by news outlets. This serves to form an unbalanced view of the world. Therefore we create beliefs around what is right and wrong, good or bad based upon this unbalanced information.

If we don't get ourselves out of this environment of negative information on a regular basis then we will develop an unrealistic view of the world. This effects how we treat each other, how we treat ourselves and what we believe we are capable of. Which all adds up to cause fear which produces stress and anxiety.

Taking time out to go into nature and focus on magnificent things not created by humans gives us that balanced perspective. What we have created is not all that this life has to offer. In fact what we have created is greatly surpassed by the abundance and beauty of nature. Allowing ourselves to be influenced by that abundance and beauty is highly beneficial to our mental health and well being.

Even though I was not focusing on the challenges I am facing in my life, I had this thought flow into my mind.

"If you have nothing to overcome then you will not grow'.

It was a very comforting way to look at the challenges in my life. It reminded me of the quote: Life is happening for you, not to you. It gives me a better perspective to look at the hard things in life. We can choose to be in fear and stress about certain situations and experiences or we can choose to perceive these circumstances as obstacles to move around and problems to solve. In moving around the obstacle and solving the problem we grow stronger and closer to where life wants us to go.

I believe that life is always calling us forward to great things. It is our fear that holds us back. It is our fear that we use to justify our weakness. In reality, there are no failures, because there is always another chance to try. It might not be the same chance we had first time but we can continue on. There are always many roads to where we need to be. The only failure is when we give up and don't try anymore. We see ourselves as failures sometimes, but that is just one persons opinion. It is not factual or real.

We must gain a higher perspective when it comes to achieving our goals. Just because we fall short a few times doesn't mean we are hopeless and unable to succeed. It just means we were not ready to succeed yet. That we have more to learn. The so called failure is really just part of the process to make us strong enough to achieve the goal.

Ask any "successful" person about their road to success and it will be lined with "failures" that would have stopped many other people. These people chose to keep going. To find a way around the obstacle and find a solution to the problem.

Give yourself a break and stop holding yourself back by the experiences you see as failures in your life. If you get up and keep trying, then that "failure" ceases to exist. It is just a stepping stone on your journey to success.

This is a challenging one. It requires the humility to accept that there is a greater intelligence in control of our world than our own. The way I see it, we are in partnership with this greater intelligence which we can call God, the universe or life. And this intelligence is constantly working with us to push us forward on our purposeful journey. The struggle we have, is that we are not very patient and this intelligence is incredibly patient. So we get frustrated very easily with the time it takes to achieve great things. We also get easily overwhelmed with the pain it takes to expand our minds and lives, to the point where we can receive the success we are looking for.

I go through this every week. Some days are great and it all seams to flow as I push towards the goals I desire to achieve. Other days I wake up surrounded by fear and anxiety about what is happening and what isn't happening. It is on the tough days that I must remind myself that all these challenges are designed to grow me into the person I need to be to achieve these goals. To become the person I know i'm called to be.

Like a tennis player who wants to be the best they can be. That will never happen if they don't challenge themselves against the best players in the world. In doing so, they sometimes get blown off the court by the better player. It is all part of the journey. We have to pick ourselves up and keep going no matter what happens along the way.

By taking on this mindset, that life is challenging us only to make us stronger so we can reach our goals, we find peace and a way to reset our mind when we are feeling overwhelmed. Even when we don't have goals, life is calling us forward. Because life has goals for us. Life has plans for us. We are very important in this vast creation. Just because we don't think so, is irrelevant.

Look at all the things we have achieved in our lives so far. Much of it took great perseverance and times of struggle. We can draw faith from these times and remind ourselves that we can get through our current challenges too. We just have to hold on, stay as faithful as we can, and not let fear and stress consume our lives. Then before long we will come out the other side and look back to see how those tough times served us to get us to where we are today.

At the end of the day, it is a choice. We can live in fear and anxiety with self loathing and feel defeated. Or we can choose to fight and grow into the people life is calling us to be.

So there you have it. Five mental health lessons from the forrest. Why not take some time out from your normal routine and get out into nature to reset your mind? To find peace, we need to practice peace. There is no better place to practice and experience peace than to get into nature and just be still. Be still and let the sounds and scenery occupy your mind. This gives your mind a break from the constant flow of noise we get from our modern culture. Give it a try, you wont be disappointed.

Hope this was beneficial to you, to find more information about Higher Ground Living check out our Training Academy.

Blessings

Shane L Taylor

What is the deal with self sabotage?

Why would anyone "sabotage" their own success? It doesn't make sense that we would ever do such a strange thing. Yet we do it all the time.

Not only do we do it all the time, most of the time we don't even know we are doing it. We can struggle for years trying to breakthrough in a particular area of life and not even notice that we are making the same mistakes over and over. People around us can see it but we don't always notice it ourselves.

To better understand self sabotage lets answer these three questions:

1. What is self sabotage and does it exist?
2. Why do we do it?
3. What does it cost us?

1. What is self sabotage and does it exist?

One way to explain it would be to reach out for something with one hand and push it away with the other. It is when we desire something for our life but something in us creates barriers and obstacles along our path to the point where we cannot follow through and receive the object of our desire. Therefore with one hand we are reaching out for our desire but our other hand pushes it away.

Its when we say we want a loving relationship but create all sorts of drama to destroy it. Or we say we want financial success but never put ourselves in the right environment to receive it. We want close relationships with our children but we can't stop criticising them. Or we want to create a healthy body but make multiple excuses for why we can't make the changes necessary.

Self sabotage is 100% real. I know because I do it to myself all the time. I have learned to watch out for it and identify it when it takes over. It is where comments like "why does this always happen to me?" and "I don't deserve it, God doesn't like me much", come from. It is where victim mentality comes from. Where everything is someone else's fault.

The truth is, that it is our own fault. We are responsible for the quality of our lives and if we want to take our lives higher then we better start making the changes necessary to do it. Identifying the areas where we are sabotaging our own success is a great place to start.

2. Why do we do it?

We create self sabotage when our conscious thinking doesn't line up with our subconscious beliefs. It is like being double minded. Having two minds operating and fighting against each other.

Our mind works in two parts, the conscious and subconscious. The conscious mind is the creative thinking we develop in the present moment. This is where we find inspiration and creativity. Where we come up with new ideas and learn new things.

The subconscious mind is where our core programs exist. These programs have been developed over the course of our lives by all of the experiences we have been exposed to. Especially from birth to around seven years old. This time of development is when the brain is forming its beliefs about the environment you live in. It is downloading information from your parents, friends, extended family, school, television etc. Whatever we are interacting with has an impact on our mind.

From all of this input we develop our core belief systems. These are the beliefs we have about who we are and what the world is around us. We all form our own unique set of beliefs that stay with us for most of our lives. A lot of what we believe comes straight from other people, like our parents or the government. If we search our own beliefs we will find that there are beliefs in there that we never really thought through. We just accepted the dominant cultural beliefs around this topic.

We can see that working with racism. Where children of racist parents don't even know why they hate another culture, they just do. Its because thats the environmental norm for where they grew up so they adopted that thinking.

We don't all become robotic followers of our environment either. Many people grow up to despise the beliefs of their culture and move their lives in a different direction. It is an amazing system that we have going on in our brain. One that we must learn to utilise much better.

Can you see how our core beliefs work like programs? These are our habitual programs that have created the lifestyle we are each living now in the present moment. The challenge comes when we try to change that lifestyle. Because if the subconscious belief does not support the conscious desire for change then there will be self sabotage.

3. What does it cost us?

Which leads us to this question. What does it cost us. Self sabotage costs us many of our conscious desires. Sometimes it is a good thing and saves us from trouble. Other times it is keeping us in trouble.

Self sabotage keeps us locked into our comfort zones. Even when our comfort zone is not very comfortable. Self sabotage is our subconscious minds way of keeping the status quo in our lives. Keeping us safe and operating in predictable ways that are familiar. We are creatures of habit and these habits come from our subconscious mind. 

Without it the human race probably would not have survived this long. Imagine life without our subconscious operating programs for walking, hunting, building things, language, driving, playing music, writing etc. Life would be very different if we had to relearn these things all the time. The challenge is, that we create negative programs too and the subconscious mind will fight to keep these operating until we learn to override them. 

Therefore, self sabotage costs us much of our progress and creativity. Much of the modern society we live in is being driven by this sort of thinking. Notice how we all get up each morning and follow the same old routine, drive the same way to work, talk to the same people, eat the same food, complain about the same things, enjoy the same things, drive home the same way and follow the same old night routine then get up the next morning and do it all over again. 

It is this boring existence that is driving many of us to depression and anxiety as we look into a future with not much to look forward to. Life doesn't have to be like this. We have the ability to reprogram our habitual thinking. We have the ability to create the life we dream of living. Even though it feels impossible to change, it is not impossible. It takes a lot of effort and focus but it can be done. We just have to develop the skills to make it happen. 

Three Points of Power to overcome self sabotage. 

Now, lets look at three points of power to overcome self sabotage. 

1. Self Awareness
2. Remove Resistance
3. Stand In Your Power

1. Self awareness: Step one in overcoming self sabotage is to be aware that we are doing it. This can be tricky because self sabotage occurs in our subconscious thinking. The good news is that if we spend time and energy focusing our conscious mind on watching out for self sabotage then our Reticular Activating System will  begin to look out for this behaviour. 

By reading articles like this one, listening to podcasts and reading books on this topic will cause your RAS to be on the look out for anything related to this topic. You will begin to see sabotage happening in other people and you will become aware of when your doing it to yourself. 

Becoming aware of how you are operating in the various departments of your life will set you on an exciting journey towards mastering the flow of your life. Make no mistake, it is not easy and it takes humility to admit that your doing things wrong. But if we can develop this skill of watching ourselves then we have the opportunity to take our lives forward to exactly where we want to go. 

2. Remove resistance: Once we expose our limiting thinking and the patterns of behaviour we have around these areas of life, then we can make conscious choices to think differently. We will be confronted by a situation where we usually pull back and retreat and now because we are aware of our behaviour we can stop ourselves from making those limiting decisions. We can choose to move in a different direction. 

Sounds simple doesn't it? It is not always so easy. Remember we are dealing with the subconscious mind. So many of our decisions will happen automatically. The important thing to remember is that it takes time and just because we fail doesn't mean we are failures. We become aware of the mistake and start moving forward again. 

We fall short in life because we have resistance to achieving success in these areas. When we can consciously make different choices around this resistance then we can move forward. If we don't then we will continue to make the same decisions and therefore continue to live the same lifestyle.

3. Stand in your power: Finally we learn to stand in our power. We stay focused and relaxed in the new version of ourselves. Even when we fall and make mistakes we pull ourselves back to our power. We develop a clear vision of who and what we are and stand in that vision. Focusing the mind on what we want to be not what we have been in the past. 

By doing this we are continuing to reprogram or renew the mind. We are consciously overriding old programs and creating new beliefs about who and what we are. To have these beliefs grow deep roots in our subconscious we need to stand in that power, stand in that version of ourselves. 

In the past we have stood in the version of ourselves we didn't want to be. We stood in fear, in anxiety and in stress. We stood in weakness to the point where it became the dominant force in many areas of our life. We operated in fear so long that it became our standard program. Then it started to operate subconsciously beyond our conscious control. It became a permanent part of our lives. 

To overcome and breakthrough into the lifestyle we desire we just have to do the opposite. Choose new thoughts and surround ourselves with the energy that will take us to where we want to be. This will slowly overcome our self sabotage and we will see our lives moving towards better things.

It all happens in the mind. Our thinking is driving our lives. If we want to drive our lives along a better journey then we must learn to deal with self sabotage. 

Is it true? Are we really the product of the five people we hang around the most?

In this episode we take a deep dive into this topic to look at why this idea has a lot of merit. 

Association is a powerful tool for growth in our lives. It can also be a powerful reason why we stay locked in our comfort zone. Often, our closest friends can hold us back from growing to our true potential. 

This is not to say we should ditch all our friends and start fresh with "better" people. However, maybe we can be a bit more strategic and find some people to spend time with who challenge and inspire us to grow. 

Part 2 of our conversation with school teacher and instagram vlogger Josiah Hein. 

Josiah lives every moment to inspire and uplift others. Always looking for beauty and inspiration everywhere. This energy is infectious as we continue our interview with Josiah. 

We explore topics such as:

• Making life work one step at a time.
• Climbing our mountains by setting goals and focusing on each individual step to reach the goal.
• Jacaranda Tree hunting adventures.
• How to appreciate life and enjoy the journey.

School teacher and Instagram Vloger Josiah Hein joins Shane and Nikki for a powerful conversation. 

At 13 years old Josiah's best friend died of Leukemia. It rocked Josiah's world and sent him on a destructive journey. It was his best friends dream to come to Australia so after much turmoil and soul searching Josiah decided to ease his grief and make the journey for his friend.

Once in Australia, through a sequence of encounters with some very compassionate and loving people Josiah turned his life around. 

Josiah is an out of the box high school teacher who has a massive impact on teenagers. His love and joy for life is infectious and the students he comes in contact with are blessed and inspired by his energy. The education system would be a brighter place if there were more teachers with the energy and compassion of this man.

On the advise of some friends and students Josiah began vloging on instagram and in less than a year attracted over 10 000 followers who love his hilarious videos about travel, food and life.

Josiah has rebuilt his life on the conscious choice to be grateful everyday. Finding joy in everything and spreading as much love and inspiration as he can.

Enjoy this uplifting conversation  

Does your identity match your dream? Is the person you identify as, the person who can lay hold of your dream life? 

Can we change our identity? 

We explore these questions and more as we go deep into a discussion on the power of our personal identity. 

This episode is all about exploring seven keys to help us overcome overwhelm. Feeling overwhelmed is a very easy state to fall into these days. With so much going on and so many voices seeking our attention its a wonder we don't just explode. 

We have compiled a tidy list of seven actionable steps we can all take to decrease or even eradicate overwhelm in our lives. 

1. Build gratitude into our daily thinking
2. Refuel and replenish your mental and physical energy
3. Remove resistance and fear
4. Have goals, purpose and direction
5. Get organised, be prepared
6. Fuel yourself with good nutrition
7. Get regular exercise

Join us for this relaxed discussion about these seven keys that can dramatically relieve stress in our lives and keep us from that awful mindset we call overwhelm.