2019 was my most honest year and then I realised I still was not honest in intimate relationships. I thought I could not feel free in a Monogamous relationship and then while in a relationship a couple months ago I noticed a massive shift in me and I noticed that when I was more honest than I had ever been in a relationship that the feeling of freedom was the same as how id felt in the past when I became single. Being true in our words and actions gives us a freedom that for me at least is super exciting and has opened my mind to so many new possibilities in relationships, work and all of life

Ian Dowling | Thinking out loud

The freedom in the truth

We have never actually had certainty in life and we never will except its just more obvious now than before. We have never had a guarantee that the sun will rise each day or that we will even wake up today, but we just take it for granted. Maybe nature needs to recover just like a muscle needs to recover after a workout. Maybe we should not choose a side to trust 100% during this Coronavirus chaos, maybe we should listen to all the sides and see what feels true to us. In this podcast I am talking about all these things and I hope you enjoy ?

Dealing with the current uncertainty and who do we trust

"Ships don’t sink because of the water around them; ships sink because of the water that gets in them. Don’t let what’s happening around you get inside you and weigh you down." ( author unknown) We can always find light in every area of darkness although we can not remove darkness from a room we can only fill it with light. Its similar in life when we are in the middle of a dark period of life we can not expel the negative energy but we can radiate as much positive energy as possible which in turn lights the world around us. Today I just wanted to touch on a couple helpful activities such as Gratitude journaling to help deal with the stress.

Where can we find light during this dark (COVID-19) cloud?

You know how it can be uncomfortable waiting at a bus stop or at an airport.......and you know how there seems to be chaos when you throw a rock in the water until it settles again ........ ........ Well maybe when we are feeling uncomfortable in a life transition such as between jobs or any other uncertain period, maybe then we have to focus on our visualisation of our desired future as it’s just a transition. Maybe it’s an important time to have faith and not decide to go backwards as our next exciting adventure can be closer than we could ever imagine

Being ok through a transition period

On today's podcast I offer the possibility of using Logic as a Spiritual practice. When we get used to incorporating “Spiritual” practices into our life such as meditation, visualization etc it becomes easy to rule out using basic techniques such as Logically thinking about our exact current situation in this very moment and often when we do this we realize that our stresses are based on the thought of something possibly happening. It can be a great mindfulness practice to step out of stress and the feeling of anxiety. If you enjoy the episode please subscribe and leave a review or send me an email ?

Using Logic as a Spiritual practice

In this podcast my girlfriend Linsy joins me to share a valuable and easily actionable technique to implement into our visualization/meditation practice. Before meditating together one morning this week Linsy asked me about my practice and I described how I spend a couple minutes before or after meditating visualizing goals such as a successful podcast, flying my family from Ireland to Australia for Christmas and other material goals. Linsy then shared her visualization technique of meditating on the desired feelings associated with goals or situations and this instantly resonated with me.  When we consider and focus on the feelings associated with our goals, not only do we attract what we need to bring those feelings and achieve our goals, we can also feel if our goals are aligned with what will truly serve us.  I hope you enjoy the podcast and please help us reach more ears by subscribing or leaving a review :-)  Wishing you an awesome weekend!!!!

The power of including desired feelings in your visualization practice

What if maybe setbacks are a necessary part of any process whether that be a Fitness plan, a new healthy eating plan, a spiritual journey where we feel like we are going backwards when we feel old patterns arising or maybe setbacks in career form. In this podcast I give the analogy of climbing Mt Everest because when climbing a mountain with this altitude it requires first timers to constantly retreat to Base Camp after reaching each check point to allow the body to acclimate to the altitude. 

Setbacks are part of the process

If you are anything like me you have definitely been overwhelmed at some point when trying to decide what not to listen to and what not to read but when you hear "your" truth or read "your" truth its instantly recognizable, more like a remembering. Please leave a review and subscribe if you enjoy it :-)  Feel free to email any comments to iantdowling@gmail.com     

Filtering through the bullshit to find your truth

Maybe when we don't know whats next or what we should be or even who we think we are............. maybe we open up the opportunity to real magic and synchronicity  because we give over control to the Universe or whatever you want to call it to provide us with our next opportunity. Im not saying to stay still and take no action, quite the opposite but Im saying that when we have this openness to the idea that we can change direction and be flexible with our goals then we can end up finding ourselves in situations even better than we could have imagined with our brains. If you like the podcast please subscribe and leave a review :-) 

Not knowing whats next in life is a blessing in disguise

If you like to create but get impatient waiting for the creative juices to flow there is some practical steps we can take to jump start the flow.  What if all the inspiration we are waiting for is also waiting for us and all we have to do is put pen to paper or paint brush to canvas or voice to record and do that routinely and after we clear the mind with the first bit of rubbish that comes out then we can trust over time that the creative ideas we want will always come as long as we take that action and let it flow where it wants to go.

How we can unblock our creative flow

In times of inner uncertainty we can often look to certain examples in nature to lead us on our path of decision making. For example when we plant a garden of vegetables we trust that if we plant the seeds and nourish the soil and care for it in the way we know how then eventually the vegetables will pop out of the ground even if it seems like nothing is happening. Life can be a lot like this with opportunities. If we trust the process of nature and we care for ourselves in whatever way we know how, with exercise, healthy food, meditation etc and we plant the seed of opportunity with visualization and intention and action then eventually as if by magic we get surprised by spontaneous opportunities out of the blue. I Think the important part is that we look after our environment and treat ourselves the same way as we would treat the garden bed. The opportunities may come spontaneously but they tend to come more often when the environment is right.

Being certain during times of uncertainty

There is so much information available on whats healthy and whats not and the science changes all the time. I recently went home to Ireland to attend my cousins wedding and at the wedding I had the pleasure of spending time with my Grandmother & Grandfather who are both 91 years old.  I am very inspired by them and they are both a vision of health for their age. Something that I always think about is that they have always been a couple who are positive and loving and caring and always making positive changes in their lives to be as healthy as possible.  But they are 91 years old and healthy and they are not Vegan , they are not on low Carb high fat , they are not on any crazy diet and they have a Gin and Tonic and lead a balanced life and If I live until 91 then thats pretty cool in my opinion.  What is healthy for my Grandparents would be unhealthy for another so maybe its the intention and the mindset surrounding the food choices and the connection with family and friends that will help us go the distance and live a long and healthy life.  If someone is a Vegan and someone else is a Carnivore does it really matter considering not a single human on earth has all the answers?  I know I am the biggest hypocrite I know and I change my mind and my opinion every week so maybe we just have to make the choices that feel right for us now and be open to change our minds again and again as we grow and learn and change while along the way remembering that everyone is on their own journey and seeing life from a completely different vantage point so there is not much point judging their lifestyle choices or pushing our current opinions on them.

Health is wealth and theres more than 1 way to get there

We are very limited in our English language when it comes to our feelings and emotions. We are either good or not good, happy or depressed. If we had more words for different feelings then would we feel more feelings?  The moon lifts the ocean twice each day in what we call tide.........and we are made up of 70% water so doesn't it make sense that we would feel different feelings internally when the moon is at different stages?  Just like how when there is an extra high tide during a full moon and there is rubbish and debris  left outside the high tide mark we too empty rubbish in the form of unnecessary fears and long held beliefs from ourselves during these full moon periods and other times and it sometimes feels uncomfortable but it is not depression and we can get to know these times as positive times of growth and take advantage of these times to be alone and nurture ourselves and allow the healing in preparation for the new burst of energy that follows.  Thank you for listening I appreciate it very much :-) Please hit the subscribe button if you would like to be notified of each new episode

From darkness comes light

I think Its so exciting for the world how spiritual practices such as Yoga and Meditation are after becoming completely mainstream and I think its awesome that its now normal to have a pro active spiritual ritual in daily life like Meditation or Yoga or whatever it is for you.  As we work on our own self awareness or we suddenly encounter increased self awareness through a spontaneous awakening after a certain life event the highs can be followed by anxiety and unknown negative feelings as we become the observer of our thoughts like never before and at first ( maybe for years even ) we think we are going in the opposite direction and going backwards as we were not even aware of most of our thoughts in the past and now our own monkey mind is in full view every hour of every day as it seem like we cant stop the constant stream of useless thoughts. In today's podcast I talk about observing these thoughts and instead of being angry or frustrated at our selves we can use it as an opportunity to learn greater compassion for others as it becomes more clear then we all experience the monkey mind that is always going going going.  

The unexpected challenges of Mindfulness

So often we look back at so called failures and regret the path we took which led us there but that path was the right path at that time.  Recently my friend and his girlfriend were took a detour to avoid Forrest fires on the East coast of Australia only to be told by officials to turn back and go a different way which added 4 hours to their drive. They were annoyed at wasting 4 hours on this so called wrong path but that path was the right path while they were on it and only in hindsight did it become the wrong path. Often we look at our so called failed relationships and careers like this and be think we wasted years on the wrong path but we need to remember that these so called wrong paths are part of this infinite journey that we are on and so they were absolutely the right path and now this path we are currently on is also the right path. I hope you enjoy the episode :-) xx  

That wrong path we took was right at the time

Sharing thoughts, ideas, stories with the intention of inspiring but also reminding that life is not so serious really. iantdowling@gmail.com

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Ian Dowling | Thinking out loud

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