Episode 43

Empowered Presence: Harnessing Energy, Words, And Inner Voice For Personal Growth With Thom Walters

Welcome to "Mindful You," hosted by Alan Carroll. In this enlightening episode, Alan reconnects with Thom Walters for an insightful Part 2 conversation. Together, they delve into the profound realm of mindfulness, exploring the nuances of energy and the transformative power of words. The discussion unfolds to emphasize the importance of energy words and the mindful recognition of gaps in our lives. Listeners are guided through anchoring techniques, fostering an awareness of the present moment. The episode culminates in a thoughtful exploration of the liberating practice of letting go of grudges, offering valuable insights for a more mindful and harmonious existence.

About The Guest:

Thom Walters is a meditation instructor who offers relief to those who suffer from anxiety. As a meditator with over 40 years of experience, and the host of the widely popular Zen Commuter and Calmer in 5 podcasts, he is deeply skilled at helping his students get free of the pain that accompanies anxiety and depression. Through meditation, which is firmly believes is available to everyone, he helps the world become calmer, wiser and happier.

About Alan:

Alan Carroll is an Educational Psychologist who specializes in Transpersonal Psychology. He founded Alan Carroll & Associates 30 years ago and before that, he was a Senior Sales Training Consultant for 10 years at Digital Equipment Corporation. He has dedicated his life in search of mindfulness tools that can be used by everyone (young and old) to transform their ability to speak at a professional level, as well as, to reduce the psychological suffering caused by the misidentification with our ego and reconnect to the vast transcendent dimension of consciousness that lies just on the other side of the thoughts we think and in between the words we speak.

Personal: https://www.facebook.com/alan.carroll.7359

Business: https://www.facebook.com/AlanCarrolltrains

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/aca-mindful-you/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mindfulnesseminar/

Web Site: https://acamindfulyou.com/



Transcript
Alan Carroll:

Hello, everybody. And welcome to the mindful you

Alan Carroll:

podcast. And today is part two, of a conversation that I had

Alan Carroll:

with Tom Walters, who was a long time meditator, a longtime

Alan Carroll:

teacher of meditation, a long time healer to reduce the human

Alan Carroll:

human suffering that people experience with that monkey mind

Alan Carroll:

stirring around inside their head, reacting to everything,

Alan Carroll:

and agitating everything and creating stress, rather than to

Alan Carroll:

be in a more relaxed, balanced, calm, still state of

Alan Carroll:

consciousness as you ride the waves of life in this world in

Alan Carroll:

which we live. And today, we continued our conversation about

Alan Carroll:

meditation, we continued our conversation about the benefits

Alan Carroll:

of meditation. And one of the things that I really liked that

Alan Carroll:

came out of the conversation was the awareness that there is a

Alan Carroll:

space between the sounds that you speak. And his mother told

Alan Carroll:

him as a young child, that that space between the words that you

Alan Carroll:

speak that space of silence, emptiness is the source of

Alan Carroll:

power, and the source of energy that illuminates those words,

Alan Carroll:

those sounds, that you want to have impact when you speak. And

Alan Carroll:

of course, I'm in the pausing business, and the creating gaps

Alan Carroll:

between the sound business. So I was just tickled when he talked

Alan Carroll:

about his mother telling him that that was a valuable thing

Alan Carroll:

to become aware of. And so please welcome Tom Walters, back

Alan Carroll:

to the mindful you podcast, as we continue our exploration,

Alan Carroll:

into the adventures of Khan of consciousness, and the

Alan Carroll:

adventures of mindfulness. Please welcome Tom Walters. It's

Alan Carroll:

nice to have a structured practice, given by a guru

Alan Carroll:

through initiation. He just has a little firmer, firmer ground

Alan Carroll:

kind of feeling underneath it. And one of the parts of the

Alan Carroll:

practice that I really like is the Sonia practice. And Sonia is

Alan Carroll:

for 16 minutes, you close your eyes, and you have a mantra that

Alan Carroll:

he gives you. And everybody gets the same mantra, but you can

Alan Carroll:

never speak it out loud. So everybody does the same mantra.

Alan Carroll:

So similar, I think the TM, you have you have the mantra, and

Alan Carroll:

you say the mantra three times in the beginning. And then you

Alan Carroll:

let go the mantra and you're watching the thoughts. And every

Alan Carroll:

time you catch yourself with the thought you say the mantra. And

Alan Carroll:

then you'll notice that you take in life support off of the

Alan Carroll:

thought you put the life support over on the mantra, the thought

Alan Carroll:

that you were thinking fades away. So you keep keep doing it

Alan Carroll:

for 60 minutes, and you get practicing how to make thoughts.

Alan Carroll:

Stay fade fade away. Right? And most people can't make thoughts

Alan Carroll:

fade away. Because the thought is who I am. And if it fades

Alan Carroll:

away, then that's suicide.

Thom Walters:

I disappear. Like yeah, I

Alan Carroll:

disappear. And I'm not into disappearing business.

Alan Carroll:

Tom, I'm in the appearing business. Survival business

Alan Carroll:

baby. I'm not in the dead business. I'm here.

Thom Walters:

It's so true. That is so true. Like, Oh, I gotta be

Thom Walters:

Tom, male, Italian meditator and like all these things that

Thom Walters:

categorizations Benny, those go away. I disappear. Like, no, you

Thom Walters:

don't guess what you're here for the long haul. Might not be in

Thom Walters:

this but you're here for the long haul.

Alan Carroll:

I use the analogy of light bulbs. Talking to a

Alan Carroll:

bald headed blue light bulb and you're talking to a bald headed

Alan Carroll:

red light bulb. Right and it looks like the light bulbs are

Alan Carroll:

different, but the energy that illuminates the light bulbs is

Alan Carroll:

the same energy and as you begin to meditate, you begin to feel

Alan Carroll:

the energy. You begin to feel the pulse seating. I mean, I

Alan Carroll:

feel in my hands right now I feel the pulsation of the, of

Alan Carroll:

the energy of the field of energy around me. And so I'm a

Alan Carroll:

big fan of that embody stuff, right? And when I train I, why

Alan Carroll:

am I living by training speakers. And when I train

Alan Carroll:

speakers, I point out only one thing. And for two days, three

Alan Carroll:

days, all we do is the one thing is to be able to realize that

Alan Carroll:

there is a, there's a space between the sound you just made.

Alan Carroll:

And the next sound, and amateur speakers, there's no realization

Alan Carroll:

that there's a space. So when you listen to the amateur

Alan Carroll:

speakers, there's no empty spaces at all, between the

Alan Carroll:

sounds, and if there's no empty space, you can't breathe, you

Alan Carroll:

can't, can't breathe. But if I create the empty space, I can

Alan Carroll:

take them big, fancy breaths here we're talking about, right?

Alan Carroll:

Most people can't, you know, they can't create them big fancy

Alan Carroll:

breaths.

Thom Walters:

I love the fact that you are able to in the work

Thom Walters:

that you do bring speakers to the awareness of energy, because

Thom Walters:

any speaker who's been speaking for a while or is is proficient

Thom Walters:

at speaking, knows that the gaps between the words are just as

Thom Walters:

powerful as the words themselves. And you know, people

Thom Walters:

that have just started speaking, they're like, Oh, I got to speak

Thom Walters:

for five minutes. That doesn't mean five minutes without taking

Thom Walters:

a break. That means you're imparting something. You have

Thom Walters:

five minutes, and you're going to explain something. But you

Thom Walters:

can explain it. By taking breaths, you can explain it by

Thom Walters:

putting a gap in between sentences. And it will amp up or

Thom Walters:

magnify some of those thoughts, or some of those words that

Thom Walters:

you're saying. So yeah, Billy, it's so funny because I used to

Thom Walters:

be the I used to be the Toastmaster president of our

Thom Walters:

chapter here in Nashua, New Hampshire. And one of the things

Thom Walters:

that I learned way back in the day was a long time ago, was

Thom Walters:

about that gap. Because I used to be that guy was just like,

Thom Walters:

my, I think my when I first started before as president,

Thom Walters:

they're like, Dude, you're like a caged Tiger. Just going back

Thom Walters:

and forth, back and forth. Just were like, just relax, like,

Thom Walters:

well, that's funny that people should tell me to. But I get it.

Thom Walters:

I absolutely, totally 100% get it. So yeah, way back in the

Thom Walters:

day, my speaking evolves so, so well, or so much because of

Thom Walters:

those gaps. And understanding that, obviously, you take out

Thom Walters:

the filler words, but also just give people that space to feel

Thom Walters:

the energy of the words and just take in everything, the verbal

Thom Walters:

and the nonverbal all that is what makes a good speakers,

Thom Walters:

speakers, obviously, you know, better than anyone of course,

Thom Walters:

thinking

Alan Carroll:

in the energies a nice way of describing is it's

Alan Carroll:

not taking in the word Well, I don't like the word taking the

Alan Carroll:

energy as well. I guess I can take in the energy it's because

Alan Carroll:

I'm not busy labeling the the, the meaning of the word that

Alan Carroll:

you're giving me or the meaning of the vibration? Really, it's

Alan Carroll:

just a vibration. You're blowing out like bubbles. Yeah,

Alan Carroll:

absolutely. Like I blow soap bubbles. So those are like the

Alan Carroll:

words that I speak. And the analogy in my mind is scuba

Alan Carroll:

diving off the coast of Lanai and crystal clear water about 50

Alan Carroll:

feet underneath. And you blow bubbles, and you watch the

Alan Carroll:

bubbles go to the surface. And and the bubble exists within an

Alan Carroll:

infinite sea of ocean of emptiness. And the bubbles that

Alan Carroll:

you speak. Where did they come from? And where are those

Alan Carroll:

bubbles of sound go?

Thom Walters:

Right?

Alan Carroll:

Where did the bubbles of sound that I'm

Alan Carroll:

bubbling now? What was there before I bubble the sound?

Thom Walters:

What a wonderful analogy.

Alan Carroll:

I can I can hear oh, there's nothing there.

Alan Carroll:

There's it's emptiness. It's silence. Yep. Is stillness.

Alan Carroll:

Yeah. So in your speaking, you can create little gaps of

Alan Carroll:

stillness that allows you to access that the power of the

Alan Carroll:

resource of stillness while I'm articulating the thoughts that

Alan Carroll:

I'm speaking into the outer world and to me it's like having

Alan Carroll:

a a direct connection to power that most people don't have

Alan Carroll:

connections to because for too busy making sounds and not and

Alan Carroll:

not rare. realizing that the gaps you were talking about are,

Alan Carroll:

are more important than the sound because the gaps is the

Alan Carroll:

space of nothingness out of which creation comes. Right?

Alan Carroll:

That makes sense that you talked about creation a lot?

Thom Walters:

Oh, yeah. Oh, absolutely, it does. And my mom

Thom Walters:

used to say, it's, it's not the words, it's the power and the

Thom Walters:

energy behind the words. And obviously, that's kind of what

Thom Walters:

we were talking about as well. And also thinking to that, when

Thom Walters:

we have that stillness, when we have those gaps, when we are

Thom Walters:

speaking, then people have a moment to kind of be back in

Thom Walters:

that cocoon that I was talking about. I mean, if you're talking

Thom Walters:

or speaking, without taking any brass or like any gaps, then

Thom Walters:

people are just really not. I mean, yes, you can be impactful.

Thom Walters:

But the, it's like those thoughts that keep coming and

Thom Walters:

coming, just like, and you don't know that they're hitting you

Thom Walters:

until they stop. And same thing with a gap when we're speaking.

Thom Walters:

If you're constantly speaking, then people just like words,

Thom Walters:

words, words, words, and they're like, kind of feeling it. But

Thom Walters:

when you take when you make a statement, or elucidate

Thom Walters:

something, and then take a pause, that people are like,

Thom Walters:

okay, now I know what he or she's talking about, let me just

Thom Walters:

let me just bring in that energy of what they're trying to convey

Thom Walters:

to me, not what the words per se, but with the energy as well.

Thom Walters:

And so the words, the gaps, the energy, they all coincide to

Thom Walters:

make the experience that powerful, and that palpable, and

Thom Walters:

it can't be that powerful, that palpable without those gaps. And

Thom Walters:

that's, I mean, that's the very nature of meditation as well.

Thom Walters:

When we are waking up, we're just thinking all day, just

Thom Walters:

like, ah, like, they got a gap, like, okay, there's stillness.

Thom Walters:

Nobody's yelling at me. I don't hear anything. God's beautiful.

Thom Walters:

There's the world is out there. And it's beautiful. And it's out

Thom Walters:

there, and that's fine. But the word within me is expanding. And

Thom Walters:

it's experiencing silence and stillness. And it's just, God,

Thom Walters:

it's such a beautiful, beautiful thing to hear nothing. Oh, that

Thom Walters:

was little transcended

Alan Carroll:

is the truth. You recently I was talking to folks

Alan Carroll:

are talking about higher vibration. And thinking that the

Alan Carroll:

Spirit the soul, the being is a higher vibration versus a lower

Alan Carroll:

vibration? A, I need to acquire things to make me happy, I need

Alan Carroll:

to realize things are the source of unhappiness, I need to I need

Alan Carroll:

to let go of my desire for whatever that is. And well, what

Alan Carroll:

do I Well, what can I do about that? Well, you can take a look

Alan Carroll:

at what's a higher vibration. And so when you are articulating

Alan Carroll:

a very rarefied air of articulation of the divinity of

Alan Carroll:

a divine abstraction. It's just a treasure. And, and because

Alan Carroll:

I've the gap is my business. Because I, I've watched speakers

Alan Carroll:

for 40 years around the world 1000s of training people, and

Alan Carroll:

not one. Not one is aware that there's a gap between the sounds

Alan Carroll:

that they speak, and why do I just point out and then we train

Alan Carroll:

them to, to create the gaps themselves? Right, and the gaps

Alan Carroll:

are a source of healing. And so you get to be a transpersonal

Alan Carroll:

psychologist, like when I am an educational transparent

Alan Carroll:

psychologist, we heal people trans personally, by having them

Alan Carroll:

create those empty gaps. Pauses because when you do if the wave

Alan Carroll:

of relaxation flows through your body, you can feel it right now.

Alan Carroll:

Absolutely can and and the speaker's the amateur speakers,

Alan Carroll:

I use the analogy that you're feeding them food, and you can

Alan Carroll:

overflow. The food is wonderful. I mean, it's high quality and

Alan Carroll:

filet mignon, whatever you want to eat, right? You can't eat Oh,

Alan Carroll:

were you like chipmunks, your chipmunks full of nuts. You

Alan Carroll:

can't swallow. They're great nuts. I want more than that. But

Alan Carroll:

give me a second to swallow and digest. Okay. Exactly,

Thom Walters:

exactly. And that's what that gap does,

Thom Walters:

obviously, among many things, obviously. And the thing that

Thom Walters:

we're banding about is just that energy. And with that gap,

Thom Walters:

there's just people think, to your point and to what you're

Thom Walters:

talking about so articulately is that, like that words are

Thom Walters:

everything, if I want to get my point across, I have to just

Thom Walters:

were like, No, you have to speak, let it sit, let it

Thom Walters:

digest, let it be felt. And then, you know, find another

Thom Walters:

thought or continue on with that thought, just give people a

Thom Walters:

chance to breathe between the words that you're speaking, have

Thom Walters:

them, wash over them. And they can't feel that washing over and

Thom Walters:

like, so if you're on the beach, talk about another analogy. So

Thom Walters:

if you're at the beach, you're on the shore, and the waves are

Thom Walters:

coming in, the waves come and they go back. They come and they

Thom Walters:

go back. But that's on the shore, imagine you're like,

Thom Walters:

right at that crashing point. And like, we've all been at the

Thom Walters:

beach, where it's like, you know, a wave hitch. And if

Thom Walters:

somebody is speaking, it's like those, and not taking those

Thom Walters:

breaks. It's like waves hitting you every time you're like, I

Thom Walters:

want to swim, but it's just, this is beautiful. But but if

Thom Walters:

you're on the shore, and you're having that washer water over

Thom Walters:

you, and then recede, wash over you and then recede, it's just

Thom Walters:

so much more powerful.

Alan Carroll:

Now, life is awesome. The the, the flow out

Alan Carroll:

the flow in a cycle, back and forth, right, right forth. And

Alan Carroll:

what happens is, some people are looking at suffering and

Alan Carroll:

suffering is that you have decided that this is the

Alan Carroll:

direction I want to go, I don't want to go in the other

Alan Carroll:

direction, I don't want, I don't want to let go, I want to I want

Alan Carroll:

to acquire stuff. It's about more Tom, it's not about less.

Alan Carroll:

And so I don't want to let go. And it happens is that the

Alan Carroll:

tension becomes the psychological tension become

Alan Carroll:

such that, then you're with a little help from your soul and

Alan Carroll:

guidance, I imagine, direct you in the direction of a wake up as

Alan Carroll:

the I Am, I didn't know I was asleep. But I when I began to

Alan Carroll:

have these experiences that caused me to ask a question that

Alan Carroll:

there has to be something better than this. And so then you're a

Alan Carroll:

seeker.

Thom Walters:

And then you realize, too, that there is

Thom Walters:

something better than this. And it's been with you all along to

Thom Walters:

your point. I mean, it's just changing that perspective. And,

Thom Walters:

I mean, I get it, because like, I think many times are one of

Thom Walters:

the things I talked about, that we just talked about on the show

Thom Walters:

is just like, you wake up your entire world saying, Get more,

Thom Walters:

get more, get more, you don't have get more, get more, get

Thom Walters:

more, get more, and you're like, okay, okay. And so, you know,

Thom Walters:

two different ways of being, there's a human self that says,

Thom Walters:

Get get get, I need more, I don't have enough, I gotta get

Thom Walters:

this, gotta get that I got to be happy about this got to be happy

Thom Walters:

with that. And there's another part of us says, chuck that

Thom Walters:

shit, you're fine. You're fine right now, regardless of whether

Thom Walters:

you have everything or nothing, you have everything. What you

Thom Walters:

are, is divine light, you are just transcendent. And our

Thom Walters:

society tells us every day just like consume get more. And if we

Thom Walters:

don't have that bubble that I was talking about, man that

Thom Walters:

could rip through a psyche that could rip through a body like a

Thom Walters:

hot knife through butter, and it does for many people, like they

Thom Walters:

have many illnesses and challenges and like, life isn't

Thom Walters:

gonna be without challenges. I mean, we both know that we're

Thom Walters:

old, we're old enough to know that life isn't gonna be without

Thom Walters:

challenges. But one of the things I always talk about, and

Thom Walters:

I catch myself with the help of my guides to it's like, every

Thom Walters:

now and then it's very, it's the default or it's the exception,

Thom Walters:

but like, she's a shitty day. And then I hear my guides

Thom Walters:

saying, No, those words will keep it going. I'm like, thanks,

Thom Walters:

guys got it.

Alan Carroll:

It's a beautiful life, you're pointing to

Alan Carroll:

something that I want to underline is that there are what

Alan Carroll:

in psychosynthesis we say that there are 12 or so, sub

Alan Carroll:

personalities are like instruments in the in the

Alan Carroll:

orchestra and the conductor is the higher self and all the

Alan Carroll:

instruments are playing their own sort of tune. And the tunes

Alan Carroll:

are the problem is that you have some instruments which are

Alan Carroll:

liberal and some instruments that are are not liberal. Right,

Alan Carroll:

conservative conservative, right. Both have their own

Alan Carroll:

needs. And I want this to survive. No, I want this to

Alan Carroll:

survive. I. So now we have a conflict between between the

Alan Carroll:

two. So psycho synthesis is the is the realization that you got

Alan Carroll:

to two voices in this situation, and you give airtime to each

Alan Carroll:

voice and allows the voice to ventilate and share itself and

Alan Carroll:

you observe it. You can't do it unless you unless you've built

Alan Carroll:

the witness and the observer, part of your of your awareness.

Alan Carroll:

Absolutely serve you. You can have them you can have them

Alan Carroll:

share their stories. You can have them laugh. Thank you for

Alan Carroll:

sharing. I appreciate but now's not the exact time wants you to

Alan Carroll:

do they just file that one away. Good. Now I can manage the

Alan Carroll:

thoughts. Yep. And I learned to manage thoughts with the the

Alan Carroll:

Sonia meditation where you begin to realize that and Eckhart

Alan Carroll:

Tolle said it's so wonderfully the thought you think if you

Alan Carroll:

give the thought the attention, you give it life support, the

Alan Carroll:

thought will exist and get bigger and bigger and bigger and

Alan Carroll:

bigger. Or you can somehow focus your thoughts over here. And

Alan Carroll:

then all of a sudden those thoughts over there fade away?

Alan Carroll:

Yeah. And that is the value of meditation is the ability to

Alan Carroll:

manage the the Linde realization, that is a

Alan Carroll:

possibility. Yeah,

Thom Walters:

that's a huge thing that

Alan Carroll:

I can I can I can walk with my thoughts, then. And

Alan Carroll:

you said a lot of times it goes back to the breath. It's the

Alan Carroll:

ability to manage the breath. Because to cut you got to be

Alan Carroll:

awake in order to tell the body to take a deeper breath. To do

Alan Carroll:

that, to tell the body Hey, body. There you go. Um, you're

Alan Carroll:

under my control. I'm not under your damn control. I control.

Alan Carroll:

Right.

Thom Walters:

Exactly, exactly. And it's I mean, that's one of

Thom Walters:

the things I tell my students too is like, you're you can only

Thom Walters:

have one thought at a time. Many people like No, dude, I've got

Thom Walters:

like 10,000 thoughts. I might really think two of them right

Thom Walters:

now. Oh, okay. You're bouncing back and forth, like

Thom Walters:

nanoseconds, and you think you got 10,000 thoughts in your

Thom Walters:

head. But you can only have one thought in your mind at a time.

Thom Walters:

So when you get a thought, acknowledge it. Hey, thought,

Thom Walters:

thanks. Cool. I'm gonna change my thought. And I could bring it

Thom Walters:

back to my breath. When you bring that focus back to your

Thom Walters:

breath, that focus that thought of breath, then to your point,

Thom Walters:

it's like, Where'd that go? Where did it go? Oh, okay, cool.

Thom Walters:

Then I forget.

Alan Carroll:

I've actually forgot it's gone now. Yeah, I'm

Alan Carroll:

over here. And then when I take my ball off my meditation, my

Alan Carroll:

breathing or whatever tool I'm using to anchor myself in the

Alan Carroll:

moment, right I went to is I got caught by a thought, a train of

Alan Carroll:

thought, and how long I stay on that train of thought, depends

Alan Carroll:

on how strong the muscle is to distrain yourself from the train

Alan Carroll:

of thought. And I find that the more I meditate, the quicker I

Alan Carroll:

notice. The boat has capsized. Catch right sided up. If we

Alan Carroll:

don't train the boat capsized the entire life in the this, we

Alan Carroll:

want to practice getting it well. What does that mean?

Alan Carroll:

Stillness, brain, no agitation. Everything just is so non

Alan Carroll:

judgmental. Everything just is which in the Course of Miracles,

Alan Carroll:

which I've been doing for a couple of years now. Oh, wow.

Alan Carroll:

The very first very first lesson is that, look at everything that

Alan Carroll:

you see all the pictures and all the ideas and all the objects

Alan Carroll:

and all the things in your reality, and say to yourself

Alan Carroll:

that nothing I see has any meaning. And, and the second

Alan Carroll:

lesson is looking at everything that you see a dotted, dotted,

Alan Carroll:

dotted die, your pictures of your family, everything that you

Alan Carroll:

see, and realize that you paint the meaning of everything that

Alan Carroll:

you see. So obviously, yeah, let's do number one. And

Alan Carroll:

practice that. You're in a you're in that neutrality zone

Alan Carroll:

you talked about? Yeah,

Thom Walters:

absolutely. I remember when I was younger,

Thom Walters:

getting back to what I was saying before, like, I'd be

Thom Walters:

getting all ramped up about something that might fall over

Thom Walters:

or brand be getting all wrapped up about something. My mom would

Thom Walters:

just like, sweetheart, just take a nice deep breath. And like,

Thom Walters:

let's take a nice deep breath. I'm like, why am I trying to get

Thom Walters:

my self ramped up in that space? And I took that took those

Thom Walters:

breaths, and she'd say, Sweetheart, you don't need to

Thom Walters:

get all wrapped up about anything. It's all an illusion.

Thom Walters:

And that's when I first thought she's like, this lady has lost

Thom Walters:

us

Alan Carroll:

money. But what a blessing to have a such a

Alan Carroll:

powerful influence on your life. Speaking those words exactly.

Alan Carroll:

Whether you were a good soul or something happened that you

Alan Carroll:

incarnated in that in that family,

Thom Walters:

I just gonna say karmically, I must have done

Thom Walters:

something really good, because, yeah, but both my mom and dad My

Thom Walters:

mom passed away about seven years ago. My dad's still with

Thom Walters:

us. I still talked my mom my meditations, obviously why

Thom Walters:

should say obviously, but I still talk to my mom I got

Thom Walters:

meditations in the wisdom is still just as flowing as before,

Thom Walters:

but this time I get it. So I like that. Sometimes I don't,

Thom Walters:

I'll be like, Mom, can you say that? Again? I don't know if I

Thom Walters:

caught that.

Alan Carroll:

Like, the flowing is a good word to describe. I

Alan Carroll:

did a some work with some folks in Sedona, and a lot of them

Alan Carroll:

were talking about channeling and channeling and channeling

Alan Carroll:

and psychics and channeling and, and I say well, yeah, that's

Alan Carroll:

that I believe it'd be true. However, I'm not, I'm not

Alan Carroll:

someone who can channel anything. And then you begin to

Alan Carroll:

meditate. And you're having these conversations with your

Alan Carroll:

mother. Well, who knows where your mother is, are the energy

Alan Carroll:

that your mother represents. If we live in a timeless space,

Alan Carroll:

maybe it's there all the time. And so you can actually have

Alan Carroll:

compensate, but it requires the to be able to create that mirror

Alan Carroll:

of everything just is not a right or wrong. Everything just

Alan Carroll:

is that neutral space. And that's a challenge. Oh, yeah,

Alan Carroll:

absolutely wrong. I'll tell you, that's wrong. Don't try to erase

Alan Carroll:

that in my memory. Because I know that that is wrong. Son of

Alan Carroll:

a bitch. So you got people who really clean to the to the

Alan Carroll:

meaning of the reality in which they live.

Thom Walters:

Exactly. And at their point, I'm like, there is

Thom Walters:

no reality. That's the reality that you create. And I mean, my

Thom Walters:

mom has told me time and time again, try to explain it. Like

Thom Walters:

when I first heard her voice, like after she died, there's

Thom Walters:

like a year and a half that I didn't hear a voice. And then in

Thom Walters:

a meditation, I heard her voice. And I thought, I'm like, I'm

Thom Walters:

going crazy. I'm like, I just miss my mom so much, even after

Thom Walters:

a year and a half that I'm hearing her voice her. And she's

Thom Walters:

like, do you think you're going crazy? Like, I don't. She's

Thom Walters:

like, then you're not. She's like, she tried to explain to me

Thom Walters:

and I still don't get it. She's like, I no longer have a

Thom Walters:

physical form. I am love. I am nothing but love now. But you're

Thom Walters:

able to contact me and get in touch with me because you know,

Thom Walters:

the time is not linear. So there is a vestige of me that is still

Thom Walters:

alive in this moment. Because this moment isn't the present

Thom Walters:

moment. It's all moments. So even though I have transcended

Thom Walters:

physicality, I am still here, because there's an aspect of

Thom Walters:

time where I am still existing. And I'm like, Mom, mom, it's

Thom Walters:

it's confusing. She's like, Well, don't worry about it,

Thom Walters:

sweetheart. Just Just enjoy the moment like, gotcha. So do I

Thom Walters:

understand it? No, is it real? Most? Most assuredly, it is so.

Thom Walters:

And there's great value in the wisdom that my mom sends to me,

Thom Walters:

sporadically. Sometimes we get caught up in my human stuff, and

Thom Walters:

like, yeah, I gotta get this done. And then other times, it's

Thom Walters:

like, do you like, God? I am a lucky lucky man. And it's that

Thom Walters:

it's that understanding of grace and fortune that I do what I do,

Thom Walters:

and I'm sure that it's kind of the same way with you, Mike. My

Thom Walters:

life is just such a gift. I'm like, I can't keep this to

Thom Walters:

myself, Mike, if there's a way to have people move in, really,

Thom Walters:

and transform their lives to something that they didn't even

Thom Walters:

know existed, Mike? Yeah, if that's your path that we're

Thom Walters:

gonna meet, or you're gonna meet anybody who can help you

Thom Walters:

understand that? That's awesome. And if I can be that, or if

Thom Walters:

anybody can make if I can help you get in touch with a part of

Thom Walters:

you. That is timeless. That is powerful, that is divine. That

Thom Walters:

creates days that are just sublime then yeah, I'll do that.

Thom Walters:

Am I gonna be able to take care your pain like no, I can't do

Thom Walters:

that. Nobody can do that. Do I know you Mike? I don't know you

Thom Walters:

from Adam. But you know you and you know who you are and you

Thom Walters:

know the wisdom and guidance and divinity that you are and and if

Thom Walters:

you can get in touch with that then this walk on this earth is

Thom Walters:

just going to be a walk in the park

Alan Carroll:

it's a walk in the park in to me, is that you? You

Alan Carroll:

don't resist what is right. And, and you you're more like a

Alan Carroll:

willow tree that opens up to the resistance and and opens up and

Alan Carroll:

lets the air you know, flow flow through you so you don't you

Alan Carroll:

don't you don't know what's there. Yeah. And then you sort

Alan Carroll:

of discover that. You have a hand too. In the creation of

Alan Carroll:

that resistance, and that when you when you begin to notice

Alan Carroll:

that the resistance is composed of thoughts and and I can then

Alan Carroll:

take a look at that great Drano commercial, where they had the

Alan Carroll:

gunk in the s pipe. And they had the Drano Of course, and incur

Alan Carroll:

golden girl golden girl in a little bit dropped off, this

Alan Carroll:

went a little bit more dropped off. And then all of a sudden

Alan Carroll:

there was enough going on. And the whole thing just flowed

Alan Carroll:

right through in the water, clear clean water can flow

Alan Carroll:

through and you felt so good. And you went out and bought that

Alan Carroll:

drain up. That's the that's the idea. It's the idea that there's

Alan Carroll:

gunk in the pipes, which are simply things, things are bad

Alan Carroll:

things. There's just things in the pipe. And as you aerate the

Alan Carroll:

pipe through split, creating spaces at Air rates, it loosens

Alan Carroll:

the gunk and then the gunk flows through. And then the wonderful

Alan Carroll:

Buddhist fellow said, You bless all the thoughts and let them

Alan Carroll:

go. Bless them all. Yeah. Bless them all, let him go. And then

Alan Carroll:

you have that gratitude, that grateful that that absolute

Alan Carroll:

forgiveness of sin. That that is the source of salvation, that

Alan Carroll:

forgiveness of sin, things that you have painted on the picture

Alan Carroll:

that are so important, are things in your life that you

Alan Carroll:

have to forgive whoever was involved in the creation of that

Alan Carroll:

brown spot on the painting in the museum and the Louvre in

Alan Carroll:

Paris. Yeah, exactly. Who is that? What is that? What

Alan Carroll:

grievances do you hold against that person? Which is causing

Alan Carroll:

you to hold the cannon ball in the middle of the ocean? Yeah.

Thom Walters:

Oh, is that was that serving you? The what?

Thom Walters:

Yeah. Like, how is that serving you? I mean, I thought about

Thom Walters:

that, too. It's like people like holding a grudge. Oh, my guess

Thom Walters:

what the person you're holding a grudge with? They don't even

Thom Walters:

know what what that you exist. They're like, you go to bed like

Thom Walters:

that son of a bitch. I swear to God, I go

Thom Walters:

as a guy that you're thinking about, is holding on to that.

Thom Walters:

I'm like, Oh, let it go. Let it go.

Alan Carroll:

You have to be aware that it's there in the

Alan Carroll:

first place. That

Thom Walters:

it that's a that's a huge, huge point to make.

Thom Walters:

Yeah, some people like that. It's serving to hold on to it.

Thom Walters:

Like why? And but they without that stillness without this

Thom Walters:

face, they will never know. What if it's serving or not, but on

Thom Walters:

served who

Alan Carroll:

I am. That's, that's why I'm holding on to it.

Alan Carroll:

It happened. We're not we're not talking not makeup. Tom did

Alan Carroll:

happen. It's happened to me. And I'm not gonna forget it that's

Alan Carroll:

embedded in my mind. So so we're not letting go nothing that it's

Alan Carroll:

been. And that's the that's the challenge that the ego has. But

Alan Carroll:

you have to be able to realize that. Whether you like it or

Alan Carroll:

not, you're responsible. And you got to change the painting in

Alan Carroll:

your mind. Yep, absolutely. Absolutely. And that means you

Alan Carroll:

got to at least you have to start with the forgiveness of

Alan Carroll:

sin. That person that guilty. That, of course, is a projection

Alan Carroll:

of your own sin. But the forgiveness of sin, the more

Alan Carroll:

loving you are, The kinder you are to yourself. As those voices

Alan Carroll:

came up you were talking to you spoke with compassion and love

Alan Carroll:

rather than judging. Yeah, exactly. And so the voices are

Alan Carroll:

still there. But you were there like friends, they become as

Alan Carroll:

actually they become assets. Oh, yeah. They represent energy they

Alan Carroll:

represent paint on the painting that you can use when you need

Alan Carroll:

to use the conservative and you can use the liberal paint when

Alan Carroll:

it's when it's appropriate, based on what does God wants you

Alan Carroll:

to do in this moment. Right

Thom Walters:

and here to have the ability to hear like, you

Thom Walters:

know, through all the noise and chaos of the world, just like

Thom Walters:

what's true for me and me, but what is what is going to be the

Thom Walters:

most serving energy to propagate? Can I live in? Do I

Thom Walters:

want to live in hate anger and frustration? Those are dense,

Thom Walters:

dense, dense, dense, heavy, heavy, heavy or deep. Like, no,

Thom Walters:

that's not me. That's not me. I can see that. And I can

Thom Walters:

acknowledge that, that I can either empower that or

Thom Walters:

disempower that. And know that I mean, one of the things I talk

Thom Walters:

about on the show all the time is like, hey, you know, tell

Thom Walters:

people I think it was uncommon five, my other show, I'm like,

Thom Walters:

could you kill somebody? And most people are like, Oh my god,

Thom Walters:

I could never ever kill a person like, you could? Absolutely you

Thom Walters:

could, I could, you could. It's part of our nature. Or it could

Thom Walters:

be part of our nature. We empower different thoughts. It's

Thom Walters:

not they don't exist, the the ability to hurt or to kill

Thom Walters:

everything that is part of us. All all of it exists within us.

Thom Walters:

We just have to, for whatever reason, whether it be up what

Thom Walters:

have you, for us? Hopefully it's a meditation practice, or is

Thom Walters:

meditation prayer for like, what's going to be serving for

Thom Walters:

me? Could I kill person? Yes, but that's not who I am. That's,

Thom Walters:

that will not serve me it will go against the very nature of

Thom Walters:

who I am, we all have a shadow. And the more we try and push it

Thom Walters:

down, shove it down, like no, no, no, that's not me. And like,

Thom Walters:

the more it's gonna come back. So it's like, Yes, I am capable

Thom Walters:

of anything. But I choose light. And I choose love. And I choose

Thom Walters:

compassion, and I always will.

Alan Carroll:

And the choice you need to be able to see two

Alan Carroll:

options, right? And most people, there's no damn two options,

Alan Carroll:

there's my option. And now I do it is the way Yeah, which is my

Alan Carroll:

way. Right. And it's also written in the good book. I'm

Alan Carroll:

talking about what Jesus told me, or what Muhammad told me, or

Alan Carroll:

what Buddha told me, I'm talking about what's in the book, as I

Alan Carroll:

speak for the book. And so they use the credibility in their in

Alan Carroll:

their speaking,

Thom Walters:

right, right.

Alan Carroll:

So I've just got carried away there, but you're

Alan Carroll:

on the money you are,

Thom Walters:

you are absolutely

Alan Carroll:

in a boat. And it boils down to that ability to

Alan Carroll:

choose the ability to wake up and that and there's two or more

Alan Carroll:

trains of thought that I can get on right now. Go to a 37, I can

Alan Carroll:

go to station over here, I can go to this station. And I say to

Alan Carroll:

myself, well, if I wanted love and joy and happiness in my

Alan Carroll:

life, which train of thought would be the train that I'd like

Alan Carroll:

to rock, this is the train of joy and bliss and happiness. So

Alan Carroll:

I used to ride that train of that, that thought and it

Alan Carroll:

discovers is that I can do that by becoming more mindful. And

Alan Carroll:

meditation is a form of fundamental mindfulness. Take

Alan Carroll:

technique, absolutely. And what I discovered is it by just

Alan Carroll:

pausing between the sounds consciously, you become the

Alan Carroll:

space which could which has the thing rather than the thing

Alan Carroll:

itself. Right? Right, you then realize that the choice of it is

Alan Carroll:

either either you are the space, you are the space of you are the

Alan Carroll:

space that contains everything, or you're just something in the

Alan Carroll:

space of the all know, you are the all that contains

Alan Carroll:

everything, rather than death or something in the space of the

Alan Carroll:

all, exam. So you are in we are our energy are in the space of

Alan Carroll:

the all. And what does that mean? What's the all of the all

Alan Carroll:

is, is? What would they all be? The all would be God, God's

Alan Carroll:

stand for what God's good person for sure. And God's God speaks

Alan Carroll:

for love, God's God's would be loving and creation and all

Alan Carroll:

those things and, and so then I can, rather than what God can do

Alan Carroll:

for me, it's what I can do for God. And what can I do for God?

Alan Carroll:

Well allow God to speak through me. Don't ask God what he can do

Alan Carroll:

for you. But what can you do for God? God cannot do for you what

Alan Carroll:

God cannot do through you. So allow yourself to, to speak.

Alan Carroll:

Speaks speak as if you were speaking from a divine place.

Alan Carroll:

What does that mean?

Thom Walters:

That we're just gonna say, the answer is in

Thom Walters:

there, all you got to do is just quiet yourself.

Alan Carroll:

And then show other people how to get

Alan Carroll:

themselves quiet. Right? So when events happen in the big movie,

Alan Carroll:

they are able to capture the thinking that's going on right

Alan Carroll:

now about what they're seeing and experiencing. And they're

Alan Carroll:

able to capture, the emotion that's going on was is connected

Alan Carroll:

with the thinking. And so now you have the thinking going on

Alan Carroll:

and the emotion going on. And then and then you become aware

Alan Carroll:

of the tension in the body that you now have, why you are

Alan Carroll:

experiencing these emotions and springs into thinking and then

Alan Carroll:

you start taking a deep breath. And at that point, rather than

Alan Carroll:

to pursue this place, can you disconnect and take a deep

Alan Carroll:

breath and works every time? Yeah. Don't have the ability to

Alan Carroll:

do that because they haven't trained themselves. Now.

Thom Walters:

They just let life wash over. For good or bad, I

Thom Walters:

like create my life. That's that worked for me. And sometimes I

Thom Walters:

just let life create itself. I'm like, Cool,

Alan Carroll:

universe,

Thom Walters:

whatever you got for me. Show me something

Thom Walters:

different. Some show me joy today. And it never disappoints.

Thom Walters:

It never disappoint. You can talk

Alan Carroll:

to the universe, as if the universe and you are

Alan Carroll:

good friends. And you can ask the universe to give you things

Alan Carroll:

because you and the universe are the same, I suppose in this

Alan Carroll:

world of everything. You're just talking to yourself. What do you

Alan Carroll:

want? Absolutely.

Thom Walters:

Absolutely.

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About the Podcast

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Mindful You

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About your host

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Alan Carroll

Alan Carroll is an Educational Psychologist who specializes in Transpersonal Psychology. He founded Alan Carroll & Associates 30 years ago and before that, he was a Senior Sales Training Consultant for 10 years at Digital Equipment Corporation. He has dedicated his life in search of mindfulness tools that can be used by everyone (young and old) to transform their ability to speak at a professional level, as well as, to reduce the psychological suffering caused by the misidentification with our ego and reconnect to the vast transcendent dimension of consciousness that lies just on the other side of the thoughts we think and in between the words we speak.