Visit www.BrianMarc.com/blog for full transcript, videos and quotes related to this episode.   Hi everyone, it’s Brian Marc Zimberg, author of “Stop Smile Breathe Be” and creator of Access Points, The Modern Life Meditation Plan. In today's episode of Awake Life I want to talk to you about something that you probably have come across in your spiritual journey or, if you're on a self-help journey and that is this notion, this practice, this idea of gratitude. Odds are, on your journey you've learned about gratitude, that it's good to be grateful, that you can maybe have a gratitude journal, we talked about back in the 80s it was a big deal. We know to be grateful brings joy, brings connection, brings some kind of healing even. So, we've learned these things. But, what I’d like to ask you right now is to kind of just drop all your ideas of gratitude and everything you've learned in the past about that. What I mean by that is, just listen with fresh new ears so that - my goal for this video for you is for you to be able to grasp, utilizing gratitude in a deeper and more profound way that can really create a lasting transformation in your life. Everything we do here on Awake Life is to really wipe away the dust, the misconceptions, the myths that keep us from experiencing directly our infinite divine nature, that which is already whole and complete. To point you in the direction of recognizing that meditation and the infinite peace of who you are, what I like to say lately the nectar of your own Divine Self, Oneself is available right here and right now. And as I talk about in Access Points, as we learn to shift our attention out of our mind and let our attention rest in being itself we recognize that, just like in the center of the hurricane, in the center of the storm there's complete stillness, that the truth of who we are, our True-OneSelf is already still whole and complete and actually the ground that holds everything. Gratitude is a doorway right directly to the connection of your own Divine Self. I want to take a look at gratitude on multiple levels today. First of all, we need to kind of have a conversation about the ego. We don't need to go into an entire ego conversation and explain what the ego is right now, we do that in some other videos and that could take a little while. Let's just talk about the ego being the mental mind structure, I like to call it in Access Points, the survival animal that keeps your attention stuck in your mind and it's constantly on the look for survival. It's protecting you, of course, it's protecting your physical body and it also protects your identity of being someone and something separate. It's maintaining its identity in your mind but I'd love for us to take a look at and to understand is that the ego is constantly in fear and operating from a place of lack, it's constantly in need. We talked about that one of the main patterns that keeps us stuck in our mind is that the mind is constantly, either creating a problem or solving a problem. The ego is creating a problem every moment or solving a problem every moment. The ego is constantly judging the moment, finding and looking for imperfection. Again, it's looking for imperfection in problems because it needs to protect itself so it's already assuming that something's going to be wrong, it's constantly in neurosis. In that neurosis the ego is in a lack mentality. The ego is in need, it needs something to be different, it needs something to be better, it needs to make sure it is okay and in that lack mentality we have fear, we have unworthiness, deep shame because there's a sense of lack, there's a deep sense of lack that is running the operation. Gratitude is like magic in this notion because gratitude, in the moment you're grateful, in the moment you're grateful there is no need, there is no lack, there is actually complete contentment. To have no need means that for that moment you are free, you’re abundant, you’re whole, there's no problem, there's no issue. Gratitude is such a key tool to utilize on our journey in our daily life, to open the doorway to our True-OneSelf, to experience the inner peace of meditation that is available right here and right now. One of the most beautiful things about being grateful, it stimulates this place of no need, therefore it also stimulates you being in the moment because for a moment in gratitude you’re present, you’re here, you're full and we all know that being present brings us closer and closer to the infinite. When we're present there's a timelessness that exists and that timelessness has a vibrancy to it. It allows you being more alive, more appreciative, more grateful so to live in gratitude is to actually live in peace. Imagine if you were able to train yourself to become more grateful, not just more grateful about some things but to actually become grateful all the time. It's a beautiful thing to become more grateful all the time. You start to come to a centered space and yourself as abundant, not lacking. Let's take a look at gratitude on a couple stages, on a couple levels and then we'll bring it in someplace where you can really start to have gratitude so often, that'll become a regular thing for you. You can implement this starting immediately in your life and I can promise transformation for you, if you really hone in on this. First off, I want you to take a moment and just be grateful for somebody in your life. There's scientific studies now that say that listen, writing down something that you're grateful for about somebody works. In fact, the studies show that the more specific you can be the better the effects it will have on creating more joy, more fulfillment and as I'm saying more openness, more beauty in your life. Take a moment right now and think about somebody that you care about. Great, and just, if you want to, if you're someplace and you're not driving a car you can close your eyes for a minute if you’d like to, you don't need to and just for a moment tell yourself in your own head, I am grateful for, say the person's name so, for me I'll be grateful for my wife right now. I am grateful for Barbara and just notice when you say that to yourself what it stimulates in you. You might be saying, well you chose somebody you're not congruent with or you're angry with, that's okay. Let's get more specific. I am grateful for Barbara's smile. I am grateful for the way Barbara enjoys my hug so now you. You are grateful for somebody, you say it to yourself, I am grateful for – great. I am grateful for something specific about that person, go ahead and say that to yourself now. Great. Notice, when you were grateful in that moment, was there a problem but it's stimulating you. Say it to yourself again, I am grateful, something specific about them, say it to yourself again and right away check, any problems, any issues in that moment? Infinite reality that is right now already is okay, already is perfect, already is whole and complete and the utmost truth of who you are you’re awaken, conscious self is already whole and complete. Gratitude is a doorway to the infinite. That is something you most likely have done before, written in a gratitude journal, taking a moment to be grateful for someone. We have Thanksgiving in America, we teach our children, we were taught as children to say thank you and to be grateful but it's lip service in some ways until we really can connect to gratitude. How often do we take that in deeper, really deeper, a deep gratitude where we're not so distracted by all our thoughts and everything we think we got to achieve in our life and everything we got to take care of and we actually just take a moment, it could be 20 seconds, 30 seconds, a minute for gratitude. I want you to really start finding and inquiring into gratitude in your life and the experience of gratitude in your life, we're going to blow up gratitude so clean and big it's going to become a real doorway to happiness and a real doorway to freedom for you. Okay, we've looked at level one of gratitude, how we can be grateful for somebody. You can also be grateful for a circumstance in your life, like grateful for your home, grateful for your business and again you've probably done this kind of gratitude before. I want to take it closer to you. One step closer to you is, I want to take a look at being grateful for breathing. Now, when you're grateful for breathing, since breathing is happening all the time there's a possibility to start being grateful all the time. Let's take a look at this together for a moment. Have you ever had to do anything to breathe? Of course not, right, breathing happens on its own, breathing is constantly happening and that which holds everything together, the universe, the cells in your body communicating with each other, your own breath happening. On this journey you may have learn about breath techniques and how we can rewire our nervous system with breath, you've maybe done yoga and you've done breathing and there's a certain kind of breath there that helps center us. Breathing is obviously crucial, it brings oxygen to our brain and to our body, we cannot be alive without breathing so breathing happens on its own, it is divine gift – breath. Ah, can't hurt you right. Go ahead for a moment with me, take a breath. Now, I want to ask you to be grateful for breathing. Take a breath. Take a second breath, take three and say to yourself I am grateful for breathing. I am grateful for breathing. Focus your attention on your breath. You can do it the way I like to do it, notice that nostrils and the air as it passes inward and outward or out of your lips as it passes inward and outward and just say to yourself as you're breathing, I am grateful for my breath. What is your experience, when you just say I am grateful, I am grateful already there's that openness and there's that movement towards no need, freedom from the ego, open spaciousness and beauty is available. I am grateful for breathing, such an intimate thing, so close to us, our breath, it’s right here, always available, always given to us from the moment we were born to the moment we die. Breath is just given to us. Isn't that something to be so grateful for. I want you to really get this. You can cultivate being so grateful for the fact that you breathe. We're so concerned with what's going to happen in some future, in some other time, with what we have and don't have, with what we need to get and this idea of reality based on just bills that need to get paid, things that need to get done, those things all will get taken care of, one way or another, good or bad, circumstances of good and bad will come and go in your life and breath will happen straight through without issue or problem. God forbid if there's problem, then that's a whole other issue but breath will continue to happen on and on. Let's cultivate true deep profound gratitude for our breath. So simple but such a key and a doorway to your profound happiness. Tomorrow, set an alarm clock on your phone, it's with you all the time anyhow and just remind yourself three times tomorrow to be grateful that you're breathing and check, are you breathing. It takes – what does it take to see if you're breathing? Do you have to think about it? Do you have to think about if you're breathing or you can just shift your tension, it's an instant thing to notice that you're breathing, it's right here with you always given to you, it's always here so cultivate gratitude for breathing, that you breathe. Excellent. Okay, so we can be grateful for a person in our life, we can be grateful for a circumstance or a place or a thing, sure. Now, bringing it closer we can be grateful for breath which is given to us, the same thing that holds everything together in the world, that it has everything being perfectly okay as it is right now, it allows us to breathe. Something so pure and beautiful when we just could take a moment just to drop everything, drop the future and drop the fear, drop concern, drop the mind. In Access Points I really implore you and show you how to stop believing your mind. When we stop believing our mind we connect to our True-OneSelf and the background the infinity of who we really are comes to the front and gratitude is a doorway to having an awake life, living awake life. It's beautiful, you're beautiful. The next stage of gratitude, I want for you to be grateful for being alive and we're going to get that even closer, when we're going to be grateful that we are, grateful that we exist. That is the way in which we're going to be grateful for being alive. We start that with the breath and now we can even come closer, closer than your breath. What is closer than your breath? There's an exercise I do with people and you may have seen before so let's do that for a moment. Let's focus on our breath, inner nostrils, out of our mouth. Move your attention and feel coming in your nostrils, out of your mouth and then, as you're focusing on your breath, continue to do that and I ask you the question what is closer than your breath, what is right before the breath, even closer than your breath? When you do that and you just notice for a moment there's a spaciousness, there's beingness. We don't have to try to be present, who we are is present, we're here now. In Access Points, one of the fifth access points is called simply being and I teach people how to sit for one minute, two minutes, five minutes and eventually they can sit for 10, 15, 30, an hour or 2 hours in the simplicity of being, simply being. In fact, if we learn to move our attention out of our mind, how to be a density of thoughts and we can rest in simply being an appreciating being, absorbing in just what we are. I'd like to call it just the simple sense that you are. If we start cultivating and inquiring into what is this simple sense that we are, just that you are here, that you’re here now, that you be, that you are being, that you are, just that you are. Think of a moment earlier today, maybe driving a car or going someplace, doing something, picture yourself there for a moment, be there for a moment. You can be thinking about what you're thinking about, heading where you're going, listening to a radio, in a conversation but you were there. You may not experience presence or whatever you think that is but you were there, just like right now as you're listening to this or watching this you are here, you're here. The sense that you are isn't necessarily a physical sensation, it's not an emotion or a feeling, those can be associated with it but you are – you are being. There's no separation in being. The floor is being, it is. Look around where you are at anything is it as it is, it is, everything is just being, the space is being and in that there's no separation in being, everything is connected in isness, in being. We want to become grateful for being, we want to cultivate gratitude that we are, gratitude that we exist. If you're someone who has depression and sadness, that all happens in the past and the future. So your argument of sadness or anger, or that you don't really appreciate and like yourself, even if it feels phony at first, that's okay because that's a mental argument and I'm having you say I'm thankful in my mind. But eventually, you won't even need to say, I am grateful for being, you'll just notice that you are and seep like water into sand, seep more and more into beingness, presence that you are. It's sweet, it's full, free of all problems, no need, no lack. What would it be like if you could simply be grateful right now that you are so I'm asking you right now, we’ll say it in our minds first, say, I am and I'll say I am grateful that I am, I am grateful that I am here. I am grateful that I am. I am grateful that I am here. Receive that for a moment. You're always here. If you can learn and cultivate being grateful for being here, that gratitude again has no need, there's no need in gratitude. The ego can't be in control when you're grateful that you are and now, just like breathing, take a look – what do you have to do to be? Someone will say to me, well, I have to eat in order to be, no, you have to eat in order to stay alive but when you're born, when you're doing anything you're doing, when you're exercising, when you're reading a book, when you're going to work, when you're with a loved one you are, you are, you be already. You don't have to do anything to be, just like you don't have to do anything to breathe, it's happening right now, that you are, that you be is a gift that was given to you that is always present and if we explored even deeper, it has no beginning and no end, it's timeless. It's the timeless nature of your True-OneSelf, being right here. I am grateful that I am being. So beautiful, try it on. Again, set an alarm clock. Tomorrow, start with the breathing and then the next day set an alarm clock for three times just that you remind yourself to say to yourself I am grateful that I am but don't just say it, take a moment and just notice are you, are you here. Don't try to make yourself be present and feel some feeling and feel connected. I'm not asking you to do that, don't try to get anywhere or do anything. You've done enough of that, you practiced enough things, you've worked hard enough to be here, you're already here, right? Be here now, you're already here. Receive that you are, it's like receiving your own self, receiving being, take it so close to breath and then we take it close to and even closer, just that you are, cultivating gratitude that you are, being thankful that you are, it can change everything, it can shift anything. Let me know how it feels to take a moment to be grateful. Let me know how it goes for you the next few days and even if you did some of the exercises right here as we worked together today, if you need access to me, you can leave a comment below, jump on Facebook, on Instagram you can hit email and it'll email myself and my team. I am here in service and here to support you and I'm going to reach out to you in every way possible that I can to help you learn that meditation is here now, that you already are whole, that you are always being and that there's multiple doorways, portals to access, infinity of your own heart, one heart, one true self, oneself. Until next time, here's to living in Awake Life from your True-OneSelf and into the greatest expression of you.   Hey everyone, its Brian Marc. Did you like that episode? If you did, you can do three things right now to continue your journey. First, you can subscribe right here to my channel which I hope you will so I can keep sending you videos on a weekly basis to help transform your life. Second, you can go to my website BrianMarc.com and sign up for my newsletter so that I can send you free offers, free products, free programs, updates on my events, podcasts and basically everything that we don't do on my channel here. You can find the link to BrianMarc.com in the description below. Third, if you want to go deeper on living inner peace and freedom then register to attend my latest seminar for free by clicking on the link right here. I look forward to seeing you on the next video. Be sure to hit subscribe for weekly videos and click on the button to register for the free seminar now. Here's to living Awake Life from your True-OneSelf and into the greatest expression of you.

Awake Life with Brian Marc Zimberg

The POWER of GRATITUDE NOW

Visit www.BrianMarc.com/blog for full transcript, videos and quotes related to this episode. Hi, welcome everyone. It's Brian Marc Zimberg, number one best-selling author of “Stop Smile Breathe Be” and creator of “Access Points - The Modern-Life Meditation Plan”. In today's video, I want to take a look at a spiritual concept that is often misunderstood and gets in our way to our real personal transformation and spiritual evolution and that's this idea of our Higher Self. So often our Higher Self is what people think of is something that's our better self, our soul self and the issue with that is I really think it's time for us to reframe that and take a look at what is our True-OneSelf. In this video I want you to have a palpable shift in this understanding. Often our misconceptions and our ideas of our Higher Self get in the way of our own growth. So, the idea your Higher Self is this separation right away, you see, it's this idea of higher and lower. Right? There's this Higher Self that is the better you and there's this Lower Self which is the not good you, or that more human you, and there's the Higher Self which is the so you. So, what that does right away is it says that there's this better you over here and lesser you over here. This idea of higher and lower automatically has this existing and focused our intention stuck in this world of separation. Now, if you listen to some of my other stuff you know that when we are in our mind we're automatically in separation. When we're existing in separation, we are in the fear of survival. When we're separate, we are something that can be destroyed.  So existing in separation with this idea of Higher Self is already putting ourselves into an identified fearful representation of who we are as supposed to being in alignment with our True-OneSelf.  Now, what is our True One-self? Our True-OneSelf is that which is already whole. That which is One with everything. You've had that experience out in nature. Remember a moment in nature, we looked out at some beautiful Vista, some an inspiring scene, some beautiful sunset or sunrise. For me, it’s coming around that PCH highway and you see this awe. You know, just these moments we have and in that moment you're one with everything. You're there. You're not there. Everything's okay. Everything's whole. That moment of Oneness is here right now. It's actually here in every moment. And the only reason we think that nature can only be experienced out in nature is because we identify that experience as something outside of ourselves. Or, if we're on a spiritual journey maybe you have epiphanies or realizations and in those moments you have glimpses into that Oneness and that experience. The truth is that moment is here right now. So we need to learn how can we align ourselves with our True-OneSelf, that which is already whole. The truth is you are already One. You are already whole. You're already connected with everything in this moment. And there's only our tension stuck in our minds, in our individual perspective, in the world of separation, that keeps us in a struggle. That keeps us suffering. That doesn't allow us to be at peace. When we align with our True-OneSelf we start to have clarity. And that clarity, the choices that we make in life, every little moment we're making these choices, and when they're made in alignment with Oneness…Right? Oneness first. God first. Oneness first. Our attention is with Oneness first, not in the world of separation, but in the beautiful endless soul that you are, that is one now. When our attention is there, our choices and our alignment rise from there.  And in that, we start to live life in a fluid flow, or incongruent with what is already whole and at peace. When we're in this idea of Higher Self, we have this judgment mind, you see. Again, Higher Self is based on this idea better. So, my Higher Self is more godlike, my Higher-self really takes on the role of our self-conscious which is like our parent voice and the teacher's voice and what those society and world has told you is right and wrong. So now you're existing in this voice which has an endless way of beating the heck out of you. Right? There's a voice inside of you that knows how to get you and put you down. And tell you what you're doing is wrong. And tell you what you should be doing is better. And that voice is endlessly on top of You. It's intelligent for you to assume that this voice that can beat you up will never go away. And what I'm saying to you is - when we tie into this idea of Higher Self, although it can be a good idea for kind of walking on the line of looking how we are doing in life, we're constantly judging ourselves. And when we live in the world of judgment, we're beating ourselves up.  So what happens when we free ourselves to live in the world of acceptance and awareness? Instead of being in the judgment and the critiquing mind, which is often what our Higher Self is, we shift to a perspective of Oneness.  And from that Oneness, we shift to just simple sense of Awareness. An Awareness that is acceptance, is that which already is whole and accepts everything as it is now.  That's the great allowing of life. That's a great opening and the Openness opens your heart to the moment. Instead of you trying to be good and live in the moment - you allow, you let go. And you end up living open to the moment, receiving the moment. And there's space then for good to come and bad to come arising and falling in your True-OneSelf. So, how do we connect to our True-OneSelf? Well, one of the greatest questions we begin to ask ourselves is “Who am I?”. You see, it's a question that we can always ask and never really get an answer to if we don't land on a thought or a concept. See, who you are, you are not your thoughts. You're not your body. You're not your emotions. You're not your feelings. Take that in for a moment.  If it comes and it goes, thoughts come and go, then it's not really the core you, it's not your True-OneSelf.  Your True-OneSelf is always present. It doesn't come and go.  It includes that which comes and goes, but it's always here and present. Therefore, it's always reliable. So I want to leave you in this video with that which is completely reliable and trustworthy. If at your core you find yourself to already be whole, then you're already there. You're already whole and complete. You're already fulfilled. You see, it's the simplicity and the beauty of simply being and allowing. From the space, we flower into a greater transformation of consciousness. You're not your thoughts. You're not your body. You're not your feelings. Those are part of you,  but they come and go. And the truth of who you are – you are CoreSelf. When we exist in the space of allowing, we come from our Core True-OneSelf. That was just, IS the baseline, the absolute and is already whole. We don't come from this idea of better any longer, or more, or right and wrong. The minute we step out of the whole world of separation…You see, I often teach it. Meditation, which is really enlightenment, is really our attention stuck in our mind. Right? Which creates separation, which equals suffering. So the moment you're willing to allow your thoughts to come and go - you're willing to allow your emotions to come and go, you're willing to recognize that your body is temporary in its way it is and even how it looks throughout your life. And you recognize this space that holds everything, then you recognize your True-OneSelf is always here. Your True-OneSelf is always present. Oneness is already here and whole. Instead of trying to be better and judge ourselves for the Higher Self and LowerSelf and being caught in the world of judgment, we start to exist in simply allowing and awareness. So I want to share with you two ways to start focusing on how you can kind of just enter that space that you're already in. See that's the joke. You can't really enter the space that you're already in because you're already there and what we'll be doing throughout the show is looking all the ways in which keep pretending that we're not our True-OneSelf.  So, for now, I want to talk about the witness. The witness is this perspective that is seeing you. Let's say there's a camera over there and it's watching us, okay? You're watching me right now and you can notice this third perspective that's watching you watching me. You get that? Pretend like there's a camera videoing you watching me right now. You're listening to this or you're in your car. Pretend there's a camera as you're driving that car or doing whatever you're doing and that camera is shooting you from over there. Right? So, it's an angle over here. So that witness perspective, I want you for a moment to move your attention to that witness perspective. It seemed difficult and all that, but I promise you it's not, you just go ahead. So for a moment just notice this perspective that's easy from here. It's crazy, but you'll notice it takes nothing for you to notice this perspective. Why? Because that's what is the perspective of Awareness itself. And who you are at your core is Awareness.  Notice this witness that just sees what is, without a problem, without judgment, just sees what is always present, always here. Throughout the day start to just notice that perspective. It's like stepping out of your mind and all this chaos and all the noise, for a moment just noticing this. Without changing anything or without getting rid of anything, just noticing this perspective.So by noticing this witness perspective we just start noticing Awareness itself. An Awareness has no separation. Awareness is your True-OneSelf. See this is the beauty - simply Being.  Another way to recognize our OneSelf in any moment is that you just notice “I am”. Believe, I talked about this in one of our earlier videos, but today three times notice the witness and also today three times just notice that You Are. The simple sense that you are. Thoughts come and go, so not labels about “I am”, not feelings about how you're feeling. That's okay, I don't care how you’re feeling. Of course, I care how you're feeling, I want you to feel great, but you know what?  Sometimes we feel good, sometimes we feel bad, sometimes we feel healthy, sometimes we feel sick. I want you to know peace at the core, your True-OneSelf.  Regardless of what is rising and falling, regardless of circumstances, regardless of emotion or thoughts. You'll notice that who you are is already free, that you're already whole. You're already beautiful, my friends. You are already at peace and we can't get to peace. This idea that we have to get somewhere, to do something, to be something, to finally be at happiness and peace is a lie. So today just notice “Am I?”. Just notice that You Are three times. Excellent. “I Am”. In that, you'll start to feel the energy in the beauty of just being. And then that you'll notice that right now you're already One with whole. So let's drop for a little while, you know? Just give up on this idea and the concept of your Higher Self for a little while. You may have read some great books about it, it may have served you to some degree, but here I'm saying – “Hey, drop this notion for a little bit, it kind of exists a lot in this idea of higher and lower in separation and try on just recognizing the simple sense that You Are. Recognize this witness perspective and know that your True-OneSelf is that which is already whole and one with everything, it is who you really are in your core. Who am I? I Am. Notice –“I Am”.  It's been great, I'm here to serve you. If you have any questions and anything to do with spirituality, awakening, meditation, please leave some comments below, we'll be getting back to you. Pleasure always to serve you.  Until next time here's to living an awake life from your True-Oneself and into The Greatest Expression of You!   [Music]     Hey everyone, it’s Brian Marc. Did you like that episode? If you did, you can do three things right now to continue your journey. First, you can subscribe right here to my channel, which I hope you will,  so I can keep sending you videos on a weekly basis to help transform your life. Second, you can go to my website BrianMarc.com and sign up for my newsletter, so that I can send you free offers, free products, free programs, updates on my events, podcasts and basically everything that we don't do on my channel. Here you can find the link to BrianMarc.com in the description below. Third, if you want to go deeper on living inner peace and freedom, then register to attend my latest seminar for free by clicking on the link right here.  I look forward to seeing you in the next video. Be sure to hit subscribe for weekly videos and click on the button to register for the free seminar. Now, here's to living awake life from your True-OneSelf and into The Greatest Expression of You!

How to Connect to Your True-OneSelf vs. Higher Self

The Truth About Spiritual Awakening and Enlightenment - How to Awaken Now

Visit www.BrianMarc.com/blog for full transcript, videos and quotes related to this episode. Hi! I am Brian Marc Zimberg, author of Stop, Smile, Breathe, Be and creator of Access Points, the Modern Life Meditation Plan, where we show you how to shift your attention out of your mind, and connect  to the most profound inner peace of meditation, and from there awakening even deeper into your True-OneSelf,Living a life of greater joy, happiness and true self expression where you become a contribution into the world. So, welcome! I always say I’m so glad for you to be here, because the truth is I’m here for the same reason that you are here. In today’s episode, I wanna take a look at something, a problem, that we all have to deal with and that’s...problems. Let’s take a look at problems together. What would it be for you to finally be free of all problems? Now, I’m not talking ridiculous here and I’m not saying that all problems will magically disappear. What I’m saying is, it’s possible for you to be free of problems. Now, in Access Points, we take a look at the operating system of the mind. We take a look at the mind like it’s a computer on your head, and we say one of the main functions of this operating system is to create a problem and to solve a problem. In fact, what I’m saying to you is, your mind is always doing one or the other. It’s always creating a problem or solving a problem. So, no matter how big or how small the problem is in your life, your mind will either be fixated on creating one or solving one, and then creating another one, all to maintain its identity of being somebody and something separate. We also talk about in Access Points that  your identity, your attention’s  stuck  in your mind, being identified with your thoughts, your body, and your mind is what creates all suffering in life. Now, the truth of the matter is, when it comes to problems, we spend so much time worrying and fearful about the problem itself. We are stuck in a  problem. We have an issue going on in our lives. Right? Perhaps we don’t have money to pay our bills, or we are having issues with our loved ones, a partner, or our children are having issues at school, or I’m having a problem with my job. All different  things that we can relate to. Problems, big ones, small ones, come up  all the time. We have massive world  problems that deep within us that we’d all like to deal with. You know sometimes somebody will say to you, ‘’You think you have problems? Watch this video on this poor person who lost their leg and they learn to walk’’. You know, we are blown away by that, and maybe for a moment, we reconnect to how grateful and lucky we are, but it doesn't really change anything because we’re  in our heads, we’re  the centerpiece of our movie, and our problems are real to us. The truth of the matter is, when you take a look at a problem, a problem is either going to be solved eventually or it’s gonna be a non-problem. It’s gonna dissipate  and go away and all the worrying, all the stress and chasing around and trying to figure out things and fixing, all the stress and anxiety in the background of  our minds about a problem ends up being a non issue. We spend so much time in the drama of our problem; we have a problem, what we gonna do about our problem, discussing with other people, stress, emotion, fear, worry, anxiety, because our circumstances, we are choosing to relate to them as a problem. All this  drama at the end, if the problem just goes away, we just wasted a lot of time, energy, emotion and stress on something that wasn’t even real because it went away. Or even eventually if we accept the fact that a solution will show itself, good or bad. If you are getting evicted from your home, it sucks! You can do everything you need to do, but eventually when the eviction is happening and at that moment you are being evicted and then what comes next will come next. No matter what, what will comes next, will come next. So, really what it comes down to, is our relationship to the circumstances. Our thoughts, our emotions, the people in it and what they are saying, what’s happening. These are all circumstances of our lives and it’s our reaction to these circumstances that creates our suffering and our struggle. When we’re believing  in our thoughts and a separate individual to be who we are, and that we have to get somewhere or do something, defend and survive, that’s the root of all suffering. When you add to that the mind is creating a problem and trying to solve it, it’s holding us in the identity of our mind whether this problem/solution scenario. Our relationship to our circumstances is only based on that problem/solution. So we are stuck in this minimal perspective paradigm problem/solution. What I’m I gonna do about this problem? I need to find a solution. So you choose your relationship to circumstance. When we’re reacting to the circumstances, to other people, to what’s happening, to our thoughts and emotions in life, and we are just a reactive animal, not choice being happening from you making a conscious, true, clear choice but instead our past and our programming, our thoughts, our emotions all creating a reaction within us. So, we are reacting to our circumstances in the paradigm of problem/solution and we are struggling. We’re suffering. So, would it be nice, ahhhh!! to finally be free of being stuck in problems and solutions? So, how do we do it? Let’s take a look! So, first of all, your true nature, your True-OneSelf is timeless. That, which is one with everything. Oneness, the meditative moment, truth, awakening. When you connect your True-OneSelf, the beauty of divine perfection is available. Openness, availability, clarity, always at peace. From that space, you are timeless, and in timelessness there is no problem because the problem obviously only exists in time. Right? So, from your True-OneSelf, we have a timeless experience, a space of no problem being whatsoever. Quantum physics says, you know, I’m paraphrasing basically but, reality does not exist if you are not looking at it. If there is not an observer of reality then  the floor down below that you are looking at right now wouldn’t even be there. Right? The observer  affects the reality. That being said, think about that, with your attention focussing on your problem, you are actually substantiating the reality of your problem. Right? We are making our problem even more by making our attention  in our mind, which is always creating a problem and solving it, reacting to the circumstances of our lives, and all of this  is substantiating the problem to be a reality. You can see where we get pretty stuck. So, let’s unstick! Let’s get unstuck! Let’s find a way that you can actually shift your attention out of your mind, connect to this True-OneSelf, this peace, this timelessness that is free of problem, and find a new way and a new relationship to problems in your life. Now, again, I wanna be clear, I’m not saying that you won’t have any problems or life doesn’t have problems. I’m saying that it is our relationship to this circumstances of our lives that will determine our experience of our lives. That when we are stuck in a problem/solution mentality and relating only as a separate individual not only we suffering or struggling, but life is full of anxiety and problems. To be free of that, we are going to learn how to come out of our mind and move to the timelessness. There is a great quote by Albert Einstein which goes along the lines of ‘’A problem cannot be solved from the level of consciousness in which it was created.’’ So, if a problem cannot be solved from the level of consciousness in which it was created, we need to shift to a different level of consciousness. We need to move to a different perspective to relate to this from a whole different way. Have you ever played the game by the name Boggle? Boggle?  If you don’t know what it is there is a bunch of little cubes with different letters on it. You put them in a square thingy, shake it up and all the little cube letters fall down, then you lift it up in your little timer and you find words inside of it and someone is looking from this side, I’m looking  from that side. And what’s amazing you play this game and you get these words and then you are stuck! You can’t see anymore words. But if you all of a sudden pretend to take on the perspective from this side, where the other person is playing, a bunch of new words start to open up to you. Same thing, right? Einstein’s saying we need to find a new level of consciousness in order to deal with the problem because it cannot be solved from the same level of consciousness it was created at.. Now, what is the greatest perspective you could shift to? The greatest perspective to shift to would be one consciousness. The level of your True-OneSelf, that when you are one with everything, the timelessness, the space of no problem. When we shift to that, we are free of all problem. That’s the greatest shift we can take. How we do that is, in Access Points we teach you how to “access”. We teach these one to three minute meditations that shift your attention out of your mind and give you that hit of  meditation   and in that moment you gain connection to clarity, to oneness and to peace. It’s like you are taking a retreat from all the thoughts, the anxiety and the battle with the problem. Looking for solution, all that anxiety. You just step out of there for a moment, you release from it, you let it go for a moment and in that moment, you connect to who you really are. Your True-OneSelf. Your True-OneSelf has no problem. The thought idea of what your body mind is saying  is a problem in your life.You know what I’m saying, it’s like the sun has no problem with your problems. Your True-OneSelf has no problem with your story and the problems in it. When we step back to our True-OneSelf we are free of problems. Totally free of our problems. The more we are able to shift our attention out of our mind and experience the meditative  peace that is available on this moment  the more we can come into life with the that freshness and that clarity. So when we come back in the life in a way, you can say come back in a life, we are already in life but when we have this, our thoughts and mind are going, we can remember and shift to our True-OneSelf and from there we can recognize the movement of problem/solution, reactivity and circumstances. We can go, Hold on a minute, I choose to not buy into all these, I choose to shift out of my mind. Don’t believe your mind. We teach, for a moment, don’t believe your mind and then you have a real choice and how you choose to relate to your circumstances. I can tell you if you take anything from this video forgetting the idea of problem, how you choose to relate to your circumstances. CHOOSE being the keyword here. You see, you have a choice on how you relate to your circumstances. And so often with the thoughts bombarding you and the emotions going and people going and circumstances going and life going and we think we are just caught up into it and reacting into it because we believe we are ME and we have to DO life. Well, now we are learning  how to reverse that here. Right? We learn to live an awake life from our True-OneSelf and we shift our True-OneSelf to where there is no time, there is no problem, we now step into the movement in our life, the dance of our lives and we have a new choice with these circumstances knowing that this problem will have a solution at some point or dissipate. We don’t have to buy into all of it hook, line and sinker, be so in it and so caught in it and just like bueeeeeeghhhh! We come back, we shift and we revitalize ourselves and great clarity comes to us and we have a choice on how we relate to our circumstances. We choose to go ‘’Oh My God!’’ or to go “oh, that’s a reaction”. I mean take a breath and let’s see what comes next. We shift to a different level of consciousness in order to deal with this problem. And instead of trying to force a solution, clarity arises, spaciousness arises when we shift to our True-OneSelf. So, you will see some links below where we give some free trainings on different Access Points. So you could implement them  when you see yourself caught in this problem/solution paradigm. When you see yourself suffering with this problem/solution paradigm. When you see yourself caught up and your circumstances and your reactivity to others and your thoughts and your emotions and the issues of your life, you learn to finally shift out of your mind, gain a sense of total clarity. Connect to your True-OneSelf which is vibrant, whole and at peace with yourself. Imagine the clarity that comes with that. You know they always say, you will try to think of something you can’t remember, can’t remember and you are trying harder and the worse it gets! But if you heard they say like, Let go of it! Forget about it! And then usually, pops right  back up! Most problems have a solution already attached to them, it’s just the nature of duality. Most problems will be solved or not solved like we talked about it, but they solve themselves in their own right. In other words, our engagement doesn’t have to be so fixated and the clarity of all that will come from the shift. The shift out of our minds, the shift to the meditative  moment that is now. So, you can utilize an Access Point at this moment. You can go take a walk, take a breath, you can sit and meditate or you can put on some headphones. But if you don’t have time for all that, in Access Points we show you in one to three minutes how to shift your attention out of your mind. You can do a Yoga pose, you can learn a mindfulness techniques. Whatever it is, it’s time for you to start recognizing that you are not your thoughts, you are not your emotions and you are not a circumstance of your life! You are your True-Oneself and the more more you learn to shift your attention out of your mind to that, the more you are able and available for a space of love  and clarity to come into  your life. Life does not have to be a struggle, problems don’t have to dominate you. You can come to  them in a fresh new way. Again I’m going to say this, because the mind wants to say this to you and it will say to you later, “I have problems”. I’m not saying that life doesn’t have ups and downs. It will be very intelligent for you to assume that since life has had ups and downs, no matter how awake you become, life will probably still have ups and downs. Right? There are in the circumstances of our lives, and the circumstances in our world, huge enormous problems. Clarity has to be the best way for all of us to deal with all of life’s  problems. Not from an anxious, scared and fearful ego mind mechanism. Come back to the wholeness of your own heart and any moment you will start finding a fluidity in life that allows problems and solutions to rise and fall but the center, the core of who you are, you will recognize is always ever present and  here. Always available. That which holds you in total love, in total embrace, it sees you as perfect, without problem. So, just to review. Number 1, if you take this alone, it will be worthwhile. For you, for me and for of us. To tell you the truth, The mind is always creating a problem or solving a problem. Always! Major operating system, function of the feature of the computer on your mind, create problem, must create problem, must solve problem. Creating a problem, solving a problem….Creating a problem, solving a problem. Take a look at that alone, make a little note, write that down, take a look for the next two days, have said this in a different video in another episode, but for two days, just watch if it’s true. Is my mind always creating a problem? Always solving a problem? And you will find to your astonishment probably because  you didn't have the perspective to realize that this is going on. That holy smoking blabberer, it is always creating a problem and solving a problem. Just in the noticing that the problem/solution is always happening in the program of our mind, we start to become aware of it and as we become aware of it, we actually stop engaging so deeply in it. We start observing it from a witness perspective. From the meditative  perspective and we don’t grip in so tightly. Our fixation loosens and we find more peace. In general, we want to  notice that a problem/solution is going on. In dealing with the problem:    A) We have to identify that the there is a problem going on. Now, what I mean by that is that if you are just caught up in a problem and there is anxiety and there is fear and there is worry and you are telling people about it and you are in your drama, yet you don’t take a moment to go, “Hold on a minute, there is this problem paradigm thing going on here”, right? I got to catch myself for a moment and go….. I’m really in all this drama, I’m really in all this solution problem paradigm, I’m reacting…..hold on…. There is a problem going on. We take a look at that first. Two) we recognize that we have a choice in our relationship to the circumstances of our lives. Now, you could choose to say…”well, I have a problem and that’s an opportunity”. Like you could reframe it in a positive light, but what we are showing you here to do is to actually shift. Using the Einstein quote as kind of like a nudge here, to look from a different level of consciousness at our problem. To shift to the highest level of consciousness which is your True-OneSelf. When we learn to shift out of our mind we  connect to our True-OneSelf and from that space, we are aware of the timeless self that we are. That has no problems, that is open, vast and clear. And from that, we move into our lives with a greater clarity and fluidity and a choice of how we treat our circumstances. We choose to remain in the equanimity of our truth, our center, our peace. We are actually are more centered in life then. We are balanced in life. We are not thrown by other people, by circumstances, by thoughts, by problems. So, go out. Let all problems HOCUS POCUS...be gone! . Listen, what I want for you really is to have a new relationship to everything in your life. To really be centered and grounded in your True-OneSelf. It is possible for you to shift out of your mind and to more more be able to live an awake life. So, until next time, here is to living an awake life from your True-OneSelf and into the greatest expression of you.                                                                     

How To Be Free of All Problems

How To "Really" Love Yourself

How to End Suffering and Realize Peace - Stop Believing Your Mind

Author and creator of “Access Points - The Modern Life Meditation Plan”, Brian Marc Zimberg hosts Awake Life - offering keen insights into an ever deeper awakening to your “True-Oneself” and living life as the greatest expression of YOU. Helping you experience, even amidst today’s hectic, high-paced lifestyle, the peace of meditation that is available to you in every moment. Through inspirational talks and conversations with leading writers, thinkers, and scientists, he asks what is it to “wake up” and to actually LIVE an awake life.

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Awake Life with Brian Marc Zimberg

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