The Great Pause

Maureen: [00:00:00] So unprecedented times, of course, indeed, as everybody’s been noticing, and I feel like most people watch with anticipation, like needing to have an outcome from it. That’s the way that we typically watch things.

Christian: [00:00:17] Mmhm.

Maureen: [00:00:18] When really watching is allowing yourself just to observe without needing to know anything. Just observe and pay attention. So, as I’ve been observing and paying attention and not needing any outcome in particular from this, I’ve noticed that this is such an opportunity because this has never happened before.

Christian: [00:00:45] Yeah.

Maureen: [00:00:45] And anytime something’s new like that that’s never happened before, it’s always ripe with new information, new insights, new ways to approach life.

Christian: [00:00:56] This is a big reset for me because, I mean, my career was done, like everything was done. But it wasn’t like, um, I was really attached to it. So I just started observing. This is like untreaded territory. And if this is starting off from something new,  something unknown, the only thing moving forward is more unknown.

Maureen: [00:01:20] Yeah. But the art of this is to be able to embrace that. There-there’s no way to look at this like anything that’s ever happened before.

Christian: [00:01:30] Hmm.

Maureen: [00:01:31] You could say, okay, this reminds me of that, or this resembles that, but the more we recognize that this is a brand new situation, the easier it’s going to be for everybody to then move into a brand new world –

Christian: [00:01:47] Yeah.

Maureen: [00:01:47] – on the other side of this. Which I believe is really the point. I believe this is a great pause.

Christian: [00:01:53] Hmm.

Maureen: [00:01:54] We were going way too fast and too frenetically, we were becoming way too comfortable with unconscious behavior.

Christian: [00:02:02] Hmm.

Maureen: [00:02:03] We were able to just dismiss ourselves as people who had a deeper connection and understanding of what felt inherently right or inherently uncomfortable, and be able to discern between the two of those. There was an awful lot of gaslighting going on, where you’d hear something one minute, know you heard that from either the media or the leaders in the world, and then right on the heels of that hear, “No, that didn’t happen.”

Christian: [00:02:34] Yeah.

Maureen: [00:02:35] So much gaslighting going on, making people feel as though they’re a little bit crazy hearing one thing one minute and then hearing the opposite the next, coming out of two sides of the same person’s face.

Christian: [00:02:48] Yeah. It was really confusing. It’s-it’s been very confusing. And, uh, speaking with my-my friends and everything, we were all confused on what the point of this all is.

Maureen: [00:03:00] There’s always one point, just to be really clear about that at the outset of everything.

Christian: [00:03:05] Hmm.

Maureen: [00:03:06] The one point of anything that’s happening on the planet is a return to love.

Christian: [00:03:11] Hmm.

Maureen: [00:03:11] So that if we feel separate or confused or scared, then it’s a feeling of being lost. When you return to love, you see that there are things inherent in any situation that are sane and comfortable and actually purposeful.

Christian: [00:03:28] Hmm.

Maureen: [00:03:29] So let’s do that right now, with this whole situation. See this as a return to love. A  reset, like you said. Major reset, major pause to get us to realize that we have resources inside of us that we aren’t using. That we all have this capacity to tap genius and insight and peace and ease. All these qualities are inherent in each and every one of us, because we all breathe the same breath with one Soul.

Christian: [00:04:01] Hmm.

Maureen: [00:04:01] The breath that we breathe is the breath we came in with, that’s connected to the Divine. We’ve said this so many times but it bears repeating because it puts all this into context. You came in with your first breath, you’ll leave with your last and every breath in between that sustains your life on this planet is that etherial, unquantifiable nature of you that is the Spirit.

Christian: [00:04:28] Hmm.

Maureen: [00:04:28] And everyone has that. There are many people who are discovering it or already know it on the planet, and they’re the people who understand that this great pause is really valuable for us.

Christian: [00:04:39] Oh yeah.

Maureen: [00:04:40] And this great reset is really valuable because they’re stopping within themselves to connect with what we all have the capacity to connect to. And they’re seeing, “ah, I feel better when I’m not rushed or hurried towards some future moment to make me happy or feel successful. I feel better when I’m not judging a situation and I essentially don’t know what it is but I love it.”

Christian: [00:05:09] Yeah.

Maureen: [00:05:10] “I feel more sane when I have reason to love other people on the planet, just because they deserve it right now.”

Christian: [00:05:18] Hmm.

Maureen: [00:05:18] Everyone on the planet deserves to be loved right now just for being a human being on the face of the planet right now.  For no other reason. And I feel this brings out our inherent goodness as well. I believe that people really care. The reason why people find themselves watching the headlines is not to be getting an overdose of sensationalism or fear or panic. It’s because they care.

Christian: [00:05:45] Hmm.

Maureen: [00:05:45] And they’re showing up to, to hear what’s happening to our fellow human beings.

Christian: [00:05:51] I believe all that. I think, uh, underneath all the bullshit that we go through, a lot of people do the things that they do or feel the things that they feel because they care about each other.

Maureen: [00:06:00] Mm.

Christian: [00:06:01] And it’s always, uh, this story above it, the surface story, that kind of pisses everyone else off. But you’re sitting in a room or you’re angry at this person it’s because you really care about the person and you want that person to understand you and where you’re coming from.

Maureen: [00:06:16] And when you’re talking about that scenario, you want peace. You want yourself to feel peaceful in relationship to that other person. And you know if it feels unloving, It doesn’t feel peaceful.

Christian: [00:06:26] Mm.

Maureen: [00:06:27] So let’s stop for a minute and use this great pause, or this great reset, for the best possible outcome. First of all, we have to recognize that things are unknown. How will we really know what success looks like five months from now or two years from now? So you have to take a break and when you do stop, then who are you being in that moment that you get that chance to pause? Are you being yourself? Are you being someone who you enjoy occupying the same time and space with?

Christian: [00:07:02] Hmm.

Maureen: [00:07:03] Who are you being? Can you inherently feel a purpose to be connected with other people and to treasure the gifts you have and to express those willingly and confidently and peaceably?

Christian: [00:07:18] Hmm.

Maureen: [00:07:18] Do you feel like you have a capacity to show you care? Even if it’s just caring for yourself and your own health and wellbeing? What are you doing in your little, smaller world that we’re all occupying right now? Are you treating your body well? Because you can see it’s important to you. It’s important to everyone on the planet, or we wouldn’t be taking these drastic measures right now.  If it’s important to you, how do you treat it on a day to day basis? How do you treat your vehicle for communication, as A Course in Miracles would put it. At best you realize your body is a vehicle for communication. What are you communicating when you get out in the world? Is it frenetic energy that’s halfway into the future and halfway into the past and never in the present?

Christian: [00:08:05] Hmm.

Maureen: [00:08:06] You know, we deserve so much more from this life. We all do. When we start things up again, we’ve got to be really conscious that we don’t just start them up based on what the past was. A miracle happens now – it’s a vertical insertion into a horizontal world. So if we’re looking at this situation, this great pause, this pandemic as a miraculous event, then it has to be a vertical insertion. That means you’re not thinking. You’re being very present. You’re just showing up and aware and available to what’s happening in this moment.  It takes what’s happening in the present to renew the past, to heal the future.

Christian: [00:08:50] Hmm.

Maureen: [00:08:51] We don’t want to move into this future with those same things that weren’t working for us from the past. Callous and unconscious behavior that doesn’t honor the inherent Soul of every human being on the planet – that’s unconscious. We don’t feel good when we do that. We love to show up recognizing human potential, human capacity, even if it’s not happening in that moment. That’s what our teachers, at best, should be doing. That’s what our healthcare professionals, at best, need to do. It’s what we need to do, neighbor to neighbor, friend to friend –  see the potential in someone, the genius in the making, the beauty in the making. The…

Christian: [00:09:37] But what does that actually mean? Cause, there might be some people who don’t know that.  If familial life wasn’t that way where somebody said, “I really appreciate your potential.”

Maureen: [00:09:48] So this is what it looks like on a practical level. If you can find things about the people in your life that you appreciate, communicate that!

Christian: [00:09:58] Hmm.

Maureen: [00:09:59] Again, if our bodies are vehicles for communication, your eyes show appreciation. Your gestures show appreciation. Your willingness to be there with someone while they’re progressively learning and discovering and overcoming challenges. Your capacity to just be. This doesn’t require a lot of doing.

Christian: [00:10:22] Mm.

Maureen: [00:10:22] It’s a lot different than that. It requires presence and a willing state of mind that you’re open to watching, and being with what’s happening right now. So the pandemic on a larger scale – on a collective, massive scale, worldwide scale – to be able to be with this and watch it with appreciation? You’ll find beautiful things that are happening in the midst of this.

Christian: [00:10:50] Hmm.

Maureen: [00:10:50] You know, again, appreciation for people’s basic needs being met. So many more people are getting that this is impossible to be on a planet like this, if you don’t have your basic needs met.

Christian: [00:11:06] Yeah.

Maureen: [00:11:06] And why wouldn’t that be something that every human deserves? Now, I want to quantify that for a minute because I don’t necessarily mean that everyone should be expecting and wanting a handout.

Christian: [00:11:20] Yeah.

Maureen: [00:11:20] I don’t necessarily feel that that fuels our capacity to know who we are as inherently great and awesome and genius. But I feel like making sure that everyone has a home and shelter and food and water – the basic needs that we all have met – that’s not giving a handout. That’s just saying, “You’re valuable. We appreciate you. Every person on the planet appreciates you enough to know that you deserve to have a safe and happy existence here.”

Christian: [00:11:58] I mean, it doesn’t seem so farfetched to feed everyone. I’ve worked in food industry, I’ve worked in produce industry, and the amount of food that is thrown away –

Maureen: [00:12:09] Right.

Christian: [00:12:09] – every single day, probably even now.

Maureen: [00:12:12] Right.

Christian: [00:12:12] It’s just like waste after waste after waste. Hundreds of pounds of food a day.

Maureen: [00:12:18] It’s the distribution. It’s always been food distribution where we have our challenges and problems. And that’s happening because of a mindset.

Christian: [00:12:26] Hmm.

Maureen: [00:12:27] When we think we need to hoard just for ourselves and when we feel that that’s appropriate or okay in a quote “advanced society” or a progressive, affluent society. A really, truly affluent society knows that you don’t gain by hoarding.

Christian: [00:12:48] Yeah.

Maureen: [00:12:48] A really affluent society, is thoughtful and cooperative, recognizes less is more.

Christian: [00:12:58] Hmm.

Maureen: [00:12:58] Less quantity versus the quality of what you’re living.  It’s-it’s so interesting that we’ve gotten it as skewed as we have. I really truly believe that people do care. It’s not a question of people caring. I believe that many, if not everyone on the planet cares. I believe that things were going too fast for people to have time to do anything about this. Or to sit and think pensively, “If this is a call to love, where’s the love here? Where do I show love in my own individual way that feels really loving to me? So it’s a win win? So that I feel that I’m loving, so loving that it’s coming through, spilling out from the overflow to benefit other people.” If you really loved business or whatever it was, commerce, whatever it was that caused you to make a billion dollars?

Christian: [00:13:52] Mmhm.

Maureen: [00:13:53] Well then, share that love. Share it. In the way that everybody’s benefiting from your insight and genius and capacity to be that motivated, that you can garner those kinds of resources. Why shouldn’t everybody know how to do that?

Christian: [00:14:08] Yeah. I had this discussion with my mom yesterday, and I just don’t think anyone’s listening right now. Like, if you’re so angry that a guy has made a billion dollars, right? Why are you going to listen to him objectively?

Maureen: [00:14:24] So it’s not about the anger. It’s about being open minded, stepping back, stopping. Being in a place where you respect and appreciate everyone for wherever we are right now.

Christian: [00:14:36] So you have to get there first.

Maureen: [00:14:37] You have to – that’s what the pause is. If we keep that same judgmental mindset that we had in the past, that got us here either via lack or excess, then we have to stop right now, be truly in our own business, really, truly in your own space. And if you can spend five minutes, 10 minutes, really loving yourself, really enjoying the space and time you spend alone, then you’re on the right track.

Christian: [00:15:02] So what’s the difference between judgment and discernment? You’re, you’re going through this time. The great pause, the reset. So you’re figuring things out for yourself. But, you know, there are some people who don’t want to judge, but maybe they had to have a judgmental mind maybe  they were in analytics, maybe their job was all about judgment…

Maureen: [00:15:24] Mmhm. So discernment –

Christian: [00:15:26] Yeah.

Maureen: [00:15:27] – is much more between you and you. It’s if you were consistent about asking yourself why.

Christian: [00:15:33] Hmm.

Maureen: [00:15:35] Why? Why am I eating five donuts today just because I’m home from work?

Christian: [00:15:39] Yeah.

Maureen: [00:15:40] Why am I choosing to drink a lot of water now? What feels connected and what feels disconnected to what’s in your best interest? And not apologizing for wanting to do what’s in your own personal best interest first.

Christian: [00:15:55] Hmm.

Maureen: [00:15:56] That’s the hardest thing here. We’ve built a society where suffering and sacrifice is shown as being heroic or a team player. That is not the way to have a functioning society.   

Christian: [00:16:10] Hmm.

Maureen: [00:16:10] We’re in a place right now, where we’re being given the opportunity to face some very beautiful, but painful truths. We have the capacity to really excel here as a human species on the planet, once we recognize, look, how nice it is to have wildlife emerging, and you can actually hear birds on Madison Avenue right now.

Christian: [00:16:32] Yeah.

Maureen: [00:16:33] You can see that there’s this beautiful inherit world that we’ve all shown up in. Appreciate it. If we became Masters, collectively, at appreciation, this-this world would be a lot different place. So instead of fighting billionaires, cause there is unequal distribution right now, we don’t need to fight anyone. I’m hearing these bizarre conspiracy theories that are going on right now because people don’t know how to discern within their own little world what’s peaceful or not.

Christian: [00:17:05] Yeah.

Maureen: [00:17:05] So they’re taking thoughts that they are not peaceful thoughts, these conspiracy theories. That is not peaceful. If you were guarding your own little world, then you would not be moving out into the world, looking for and absorbing things that feel really scary and shitty.

Christian: [00:17:25] Yeah.

Maureen: [00:17:26] You’d stay in your own space. You’d do things that feel beautiful, loving kind and whole. First with yourself. You might be painting, might be cleaning a closet. Might be enjoying fun times jumping on the bed with your kids.

Christian: [00:17:40] Mmhm.

Maureen: [00:17:41] Might be brushing the dog more thoroughly than you ever do. Might be taking a bubble bath. It has to be something that brings you joy now. We all deserve this. This is why we’re getting a great pause. Remember what feels good and kind and whole to you. What’s loving to you. That’s the fastest return to love. But typically we’re looking for love in all the wrong places by, you know, getting a billion dollars so that then we’ll be loved by how many millions of people who don’t have it, but I do, so I’m holding the purse strings for all of you… That’s not the way to get love. To have love is to know you’re already it. 

Christian: [00:18:22] Mm.

Maureen: [00:18:22] That’s what we came in with with our first breath, was we would breathe love in every moment. Self love. Love that you can breathe that breath. Love that you can take this great pause and see these beautiful, painful things that are happening now. See what feels painful in your own world and see it as beautiful, because right now you can push the reset button and choose differently.

Christian: [00:18:48] Hmm.

Maureen: [00:18:50] Everyone right now can take a big deep breath. Pause. Push the pause button and start over. No matter what your day was like today in the beginning of the day. If you jumped right into it looking at the headlines, or jumped right into it thinking about how you could help out there but you didn’t even get a chance to brush your teeth yet or wash your own face, let yourself remember that this happens from the inside-out. That true, sustainable change happens from the inside-out. You can’t sustain it unless it feels loving to you. Slow down and you do the things that feel as though you’re heart is in it, as though you’re engaged on a heart level not just a head level, and it feels deeply satisfying just to do what you’re doing. I heard that the official food for the pandemic is banana bread.

Christian: [00:19:45] Yeah.

Maureen: [00:19:46] And just think of that, think of that as a food. It’s something that feels soft and comforting and it’s fun.

Christian: [00:19:55] Yeah.

Maureen: [00:19:56] And it’s delicious! And it feels nurturing.

Christian: [00:19:59] Yeah, it’s easy to make.

Maureen: [00:20:00] Easy to make. You don’t have to beat yourself up with big, involved recipes but you could make it really creative if you wanted to. It’s a beautiful symbol, I feel, that it’s nourishing us first and it’s a creative process that’s with simple ingredients – that we all love and crave simplicity. We want the warmth of, you know, feeling that we’re connected at the hearth of things, the heart of things. And it, it’s just a really nice symbol about how we react as human beings to comfort and safety and security – really, really well! I believe if we all were able to just, you know, as young kids just choose to do these things that felt soft and comforting and nurturing in our lives – without any big attachment to results or performance – there’d be so much less anxiety in the world. So much less performance anxiety.

Christian: [00:21:01] Hmm.

Maureen: [00:21:02] And we’d show up as who we really are. And each one of us would be a really important piece in this puzzle.

Christian: [00:21:09] Yeah. I’m-I’m still struggling with that part. I’m trying to transfer that idea into my life, you know? Like, I really want to believe that because the only world I’ve lived in has been the world that  things need to get done. And as much as it sounds like a utopia, I-I just, I don’t know how to step over and bring that here.

Maureen: [00:21:34] Okay. So in your life –

Christian: [00:21:36] Yeah.

Maureen: [00:21:36] – let’s just take your life now, which is the beauty of us having this conversation. Before this, when you went to work, what was your primary driving motivation? What did it feel like for the most part every day when you wake up and went to work?

Christian: [00:21:54] Hmm, that’s a good question. Honestly it was just, uh, a role. It was a purpose.

Maureen: [00:22:01] Mmhm.

Christian: [00:22:02] That was pretty much my only motivation, to have purpose.

Maureen: [00:22:05] And so the activity felt more satisfying because it felt like it brought you a sense of purpose?   

Christian: [00:22:14] Not really, no.

Maureen: [00:22:14] Yeah.

Christian: [00:22:15] Yeah.

Maureen: [00:22:15] So you just touched on the most important ingredient for all of this in order for it to be able to work. We have to know that we are inherently important. That we’re breathing this breath on this planet because we’re important. Each one of us. You know, I pretty much help people unearth their inherent greatness and then live it out loud. I’ve been watching that no one’s left out of this ever.

Christian: [00:22:46] Yeah.

Maureen: [00:22:47] That we all I’ll have this greatness, this spark. It’s inherent in us, just like the breath. We live in a world and a society that’s driven by consumerism because they think that’s how to live their own happy lives – by making a boatload of money, corralling people into places where they don’t necessarily want to go, but everybody else is doing it so I might as well jump onto the bandwagon…

Christian: [00:23:13] Yeah.

Maureen: [00:23:13] And that’s been driving things very unconsciously for a really long time.

Christian: [00:23:17] Yeah.

Maureen: [00:23:18] But now that we can’t collectively join like that and have these outward trends of consumerism, and people are watching their resources a little bit more closely, you realize in that opportunity –  this beautiful, strange opportunity – that you need a lot less.

Christian: [00:23:38] Hmm.

Maureen: [00:23:38] And that a lot less can be very satisfying. Sometimes when you put five toys on a table with a child, when they were playing with one really happily, they’ll start crying because they’re overwhelmed with five toys. But the parents are too busy to notice –

Christian: [00:23:55] Yeah.

Maureen: [00:23:55] – because they’re doing 10 things and juggling 10 things at once. When we start to slow down ourselves and do one thing very purposefully and completely – start-to-finish – at a time, then there’s a sense of satisfaction in that just because that’s completion. We are complete. It’s like Our world is round. It’s a circle. It’s a complete symbol on purpose. We are complete, inherently.  We’re going outside to explore and to expand this world with each thing we engage with, but to do that really effectively, to expand and evolve this planet, the way that it happens best is if we come with an inherent sense of completion. Many people are realizing during this pandemic, they don’t want to go back to work.

Christian: [00:24:46] Yeah.

Maureen: [00:24:46] Once things get back together. “Back together.” I’d rather say back together then “back to normal” in quotes, because I’m really hoping that we have enough time during this to evolve to a realization that we want a new normal.

Christian: [00:25:02] Hmm.

Maureen: [00:25:03] We want our basic needs to be met just as what we all deserve. The baseline of peace. We all deserve to be able to have the time and space and wherewithal to explore our imaginations and our creative capacity and potential. To really foster that in our schools and in our livelihoods and in our work.

Christian: [00:25:27] Hmm.

Maureen: [00:25:28] When you get up in the morning now, and you have a day that has no agenda to it, are you  finding yourself being lazy or unmotivated? Or do you find yourself being interested and engaged in things you never had the opportunity to explore before? And I have to say, I just want to make sure no one’s beating themselves up here – if you felt lazy, a lot of that comes from being exhausted and tired and confused because of news and the things that are happening. It’s not necessarily lazy, it’s exhaustion.

Christian: [00:26:00] Yeah.

Maureen: [00:26:01] Most likely. When you wake up in the morning, first thing, if you want to create your day to be an ideal day – okay, I’m going to make this really clear how you do this. You wake up. Before you open your eyes, you lay in bed. Comfortable, soft bed. Hopefully your basic needs are met so that you have that. And that should be something that’s a priority, that you have a comfortable,  safe place to sleep. Rest is so important. This rest, this pause. And each night we get a chance to pause and rest. This is a bigger experience of that worldwide. Wake up in the morning and keep your eyes closed and let yourself just do a deep dive into your heart space. See if you feel gratitude and appreciation for your own life. You know, how can you feel gratitude and appreciation for other people, genuinely, if you’re not doing it with yourself first?

Christian: [00:26:59] Hmm.

Maureen: [00:27:00] So deep dive into your heart space, into your gut. Feel if you’re feeling connected to the Source of you. If you’re not, breathe deep. That’s the Source of you – came in with your first breath, you’ll  leave with your last. Just breathe. That’s alI you’ve got to do, nothing else. Just breathe a few times, feel yourself sink down into a space and just really feel, “I love my life.” If you can’t say that genuinely and honestly, don’t judge yourself. Difference between discernment and judgment is this is between you and you, so don’t judge yourself but discern, “Why? Why?” Discernment is asking why. And not jumping into the next thing before you get an answer.

Christian: [00:27:43] Hmm.

Maureen: [00:27:44] Just stay in that space of peace for a minute, that pause for a minute, and ask, “why?” if you can’t say “I love my life. I love what I’m about to engage.” And just do that long enough to be able to realize that you haven’t been spending quality time with yourself, with that “Voice of your own best interest” that speaks of you and all your awesomeness and your capacities and abilities and creativity. It knows who you really are. It knows you as an aspect of the Divine.

Christian: [00:28:16] Hmm.

Maureen: [00:28:17] So when you click in with that, it feels so different than the automatron that most people are being in life.

Christian: [00:28:25] Yeah.

Maureen: [00:28:26] Disconnected. Kind of robotic. A function. Let yourself connect until you feel that voice from within you saying, “You’re perfect. You’re awesome. This life is great. Today’s a new, blank canvas.”

Christian: [00:28:40] Hmm.

Maureen: [00:28:40] “You can go out and create anything. Truly.” And then spend that time thinking about what you love or what you would love to experience today. And it might just be, you know, planting a garden. It might be taking a walk with awareness, social distancing. Enjoying that space with yourself might be baking banana bread. It might be doing something that you wanted to do for a very long time, but life was going too fast.

Christian: [00:29:08] Mm.

Maureen: [00:29:08] And just write it down. In a way that you’re creating your day. “I’m taking this time to create my day. And I’m infecting my own individual field of infinite possibility that abides around me and within me with joy and peace and love and light and all these qualities that are inherent in me, in my Soul. And these are the things I’d like to experience… How fun! They look really fun, I’d like to experience that…” And then you say to your Divine Self, so that you know you’re in cahoots and at one with your Divine Self all day, “and bring them to me in ways that surprise and delight me, so I know you’re listening now.”

Christian: [00:29:48] Hmm.

Maureen: [00:29:48] And then watch how you wake up and somebody else in the house is like, “Hey, you know, I got all this flour. I don’t know what to do with it.” The divinity of us really loves to engage in sheer joy.

Christian: [00:30:00] Hmm.

Maureen: [00:30:01] The more joyful the day you want to create, the more possible it is to appear miraculously. It’s that we waver in our love of ourselves. You know, five minutes later, after you create your day, the milk spills on the kitchen floor and all of a sudden I’m clumsy, I-I don’t deserve, I’m a mess, this house is too small. You start thinking of the things that you don’t want to dwell on.

Christian: [00:30:29] Hmm.

Maureen: [00:30:29] It’s a discipline being aware in a world that needs more awareness. First and foremost, become aware of the fact that you’re awesome and you’re perfect and if something spilled on the kitchen floor it was to slow you down while you were moving too fast, and you were going out into the world in a way that really wasn’t satisfying to you or performing in some way for somebody else. Just slow down. Relax. You’re perfect. Slow down, relax. The world is perfect when we show up knowing who we are.

Christian: [00:31:01] Mm.

Maureen: [00:31:01] Even things like this. Watch how many people are out there in really important roles that didn’t feel that they were so important before this.

Christian: [00:31:12] Yeah.

Maureen: [00:31:12] I heard one healthcare worker say, “You know, people think I’m much more awesome than I really am.”

Christian: [00:31:18] Yeah.

Maureen: [00:31:19] And no, they don’t. You’re really awesome. But that’s important that you know you’re awesome and have that reflection from other people, showing you how much they appreciate you. And that’s the thing we miss. That’s why we need so much and crave so much here.

Christian: [00:31:34] Hmm.

Maureen: [00:31:35] We’re not by default in a state of appreciation.

Christian: [00:31:39] Hmm.

Maureen: [00:31:39] You know, the teacher in school didn’t get taught to teach in a way that every single kid felt appreciated.

Christian: [00:31:45] Yeah.

Maureen: [00:31:45] So that if they were truly diverse in her classroom, she was like ripping her hair out trying to get everybody to do the same thing, when each child could easily have been appreciated for their own unique talents.

Christian: [00:31:57] Yeah.

Maureen: [00:31:58] We’ve got to change this system, how we rear our children and how we foster genius.

Christian: [00:32:05] Hmm. 

Maureen: [00:32:05] So I think one of the main themes here is get rid of all the bullshit and keep only what works.

Christian: [00:32:12] Yeah.

Maureen: [00:32:12] We’re doing a major cleanup here, first internally. Get rid of those thoughts that don’t serve you about yourself. That don’t speak of your inherent, amazing genius. Ever-expanding genius, by the way.

Christian: [00:32:26] Mm.

Maureen: [00:32:26] Maybe you didn’t know how to do it yesterday. But sit down and relax, breathe deep, dive in from your heart, and you’ll do it today.

Christian: [00:32:34] Hmm.

Maureen: [00:32:35] You’ll do it differently. And maybe you’ll be the first one on the planet to do it that way. And you’ll be inspiring and awesome to others. And when you start to treat yourself as though you matter, as though you are the one that came here to make this shift and change that we’re having right now – really powerful and important for all of us – if you treat yourself like you are the one that came here to help change and heal this world, then you’ll watch what happens and what kind of opportunities arise for you.

Christian: [00:33:08] Mm.

Maureen: [00:33:09] It’s you loving you and expanding that capacity, mirroring that, emulating that, bringing that to others’ awareness so that they realize, “Oh, he feels so fun  or so amazing and inspiring to be around because he’s just loving his life right now, just as it is. Loving himself while he’s in a life he loves. I can do that. I just have to begin to love myself first and then show up to life so that my day unfolds in a way that feels like I’m in the middle of love.”

Christian: [00:33:45] Wow. Yeah. It sounds simple.

Maureen: [00:33:48] It sounds simple, but tell me, does it sound practical?

Christian: [00:33:51] Yeah, actually it does. It’s just like, all right, how do I love myself? How do I like myself? Let’s just start off with that. Then from there, if I like my time with myself, just by being in a room and enjoying what I’m doing, other people are going to enjoy that because we’re social creatures.

Maureen: [00:34:09] Right.

Christian: [00:34:10] It would be like, um, have you ever been in a room where somebody’s laughing a lot?

Maureen: [00:34:14] Yeah.

Christian: [00:34:15] And like, they’re really laughing. And then you’re like, why, why are you laughing? Like what’s going on? Why you actually laugh? And then you start laughing as well? It’s-it’s that feeling.

Maureen: [00:34:24] And why you laugh is because you’re appreciating that other person. Now that’s the difference between you’re discerning that this is fun – why? Sometimes who cares?! It’s just fun. I love it.

Christian: [00:34:37] Yeah.

Maureen: [00:34:37] I’m in. I’m one with it.

Christian: [00:34:40] Mm.

Maureen: [00:34:40] When you judge that though, you miss that opportunity.

Christian: [00:34:44] Yeah.

Maureen: [00:34:45] And that’s pretty much what’s happening. We don’t need to judge things by the way, to help and foster better things.

Christian: [00:34:52] Hmm.

Maureen: [00:34:53] We just look at them with appreciation. Like, “Oh, I could see how that would happen right now.” We can see why we came to a place that we are right now, with leaders that might not know how to lead us as effectively as we feel we want them to. Why? Because maybe we need to be led by our own best interests first, within ourselves, before we give ourselves away to other people’s ideas. Then you know if it hits you in the gut in the way that it feels really centered and whole and peaceful and loving.

Christian: [00:35:29] Hmm.

Maureen: [00:35:29] But if you don’t go there with yourself on a daily basis, and discern “is this loving to me?”, then don’t expect any outer leadership to lead you anywhere. You know, look, I lost everything in 2008 with that last crisis crash.

Christian: [00:35:44] Yeah.

Maureen: [00:35:45] And I will tell you this, the last thing that I imagined or cared about was government bailouts because I never relied on the government to do anything for me before that. I was always a self-referring person. And, really, it didn’t even dawn on me because I also had a different acumen, to notice that your resources to come out of pain don’t come from outside of you.

Christian: [00:36:11] Hmm.

Maureen: [00:36:11] You could get a leg up on the ladder a little bit easier, but it’s not because somebody’s outside fixing it for you and handing it to you on a silver platter. It’s because you’re using those resources that do come to you, for any aid or help, in very clearly loving ways for yourself.

Christian: [00:36:33] Hmm.

Maureen: [00:36:33] That promote a greater sense of wellbeing and self awareness about your worth.

Christian: [00:36:40] Hmm. Yeah.

Maureen: [00:36:42] If you’re using any of the resources that come in now to you in ways that are less self honoring or unconscious, just pay attention to that. Don’t judge yourself in this moment, you know, you might’ve felt like you needed a sense of release and you went out and bought something that you didn’t really need in this moment. That’s okay. Again, be kind to yourself. Don’t judge yourself. But realize that, you are so important. Let yourself show up to yourself. Loving that this too shall pass, but what are you going to get from it in the process?

Christian: [00:37:19] Hmm.

Maureen: [00:37:20] How are you going to find what’s the most important here? Eating healthy and well during this pandemic is super important on so many levels. It helps you stay vital and it helps your mind stay clear and it helps you feel as though you’re not scared or-or even that you’re worthless because people have such hard challenges with body images.

Christian: [00:37:40] Yeah.

Maureen: [00:37:40] Also if you’re not seeing, in the midst of all of this, that we are basically good, we are fundamentally good – human beings are basically and fundamentally good. Something has gone terribly wrong when human beings are not basically, inherently, fundamentally exhibiting their goodness. That’s what we want to look at. How can we all be able to express our fundamental nature of goodness and kindness and connectivity and love, and what’s going on here if we can’t?

Christian: [00:38:17] It’s unfortunate that people don’t see that. I mean, in our city, we have people who are taking in the homeless into hotel rooms and hotels saying yes, bring them in.

Maureen: [00:38:28] Mmhm.

Christian: [00:38:28] Or, like, food pantries coming up or people making masks. You’ll never see that on the news. It can’t just report on everything good that happened in the day. It wouldn’t be news.

Maureen: [00:38:38] Right. And there’s some agenda behind that to keep people on their toes to take this seriously, which I think is perpetuating the same old approach where we motivate via fear rather than connectivity. That’s the fundamental thing that has to change. That’s what we have to change in education for our children as well.  Panic is paralyzing. If we could begin to connect with ourselves, first and foremost with the Divinity of us, which inherently is connected to everyone else’s Divinity, –

Christian: [00:39:14] Hmm.

Maureen: [00:39:15] – then we’ll feel a sense of connection just by staying in bed a little longer in the morning, and knowing that we’re getting a hit – an inner hit, a deeper, more love-driven, inner hit – to go do this or do that. And you’ll see how much more loving that is to other people and to ourselves than anything we would do from a place of disconnect and fear.

Christian: [00:39:38] Hmm.

Maureen: [00:39:39] It’s always going to keep us more sheltered and feeling as though we don’t have the resources, we don’t have the time, we don’t have the inclination, because panic is paralyzing.

Christian: [00:39:49] Hmm.

Maureen: [00:39:49] When you instead start noticing those stories like you’re talking about, the good news stories that are out there, that highlights people’s capacity for resilience.

Christian: [00:40:00] Hmm.

Maureen: [00:40:01] We have a great capacity for resilience. We just don’t want to go back and do the same old, same old things so we have to keep on being resilient with regard to the same old unconscious behaviors.

Christian: [00:40:11] Yeah.

Maureen: [00:40:12] Time to wake up.

Christian: [00:40:13] Yeah.

Maureen: [00:40:14] I feel like we’re ready for a new definition of normal. Where we have happier kids, more connected human beings, connected families, setting our priorities straight. We have richer lives, not because we have a lot of money, but they’re deeply rich in the fabric of what we resonate with.

Christian: [00:40:34] Hmm.

Maureen: [00:40:35] You know, really feel as though they’re purposeful and-and we have a powerful impact on at least our immediate worlds. You know, make our own spaces beautiful and then spread it out from there. Allow ourselves to recognize how important it is that we feel a fundamental sense of wellbeing, that we shouldn’t send anybody out into a very crass and unfeeling world that’s moving so fast and without regard for the Soul of us all. We have to stop and step back and say, let’s reassess our priorities.

Christian: [00:41:14] Yeah. The fact that we work so hard and the only days off we get are when we’re sick, or maybe we’re pregnant, but you don’t even have that much time off to hang out with your kids. And there had to be laws put in place in order for us to get two weeks or maternity leave… I think we’re better than that.

Maureen: [00:41:36] So much better than that, and so much more deserving than that. People have been moving so fast and working so hard, doing things that they don’t necessarily love.

Christian: [00:41:48] And for what?

Maureen: [00:41:49] Yeah, and that distances us from what we truly deserve so much – the love that we deserve so much – that then we think it’s our fault if we fail at that? Everybody should fail at that. That’s disconnect. That’s the embodiment of disconnection. And it’s a dysfunctional society. So right now let’s take this time, this Great Pause, this really impactful time for a reset – you don’t need to change everything in one fell swoop, but I tell you if we all do this in our own individual worlds right now, then things will change.

Christian: [00:42:28] Hmm.

Maureen: [00:42:29] Be sure that you’re focusing on what makes you feel most loved and most peaceful, first and foremost. If you find something comes into your world that feels inherently fearful or chaotic or confusing, then just set that aside for now. Just like Gone With the Wind – Scarlett O’Hara – “I’ll think about that tomorrow.” And then tomorrow never comes. Let yourself, today, be present in what feels most connecting and comfortable. That is not selfish. That’s the epitome of awareness that can spread from where you are, from your own individual world, and be contagious to others that need to know this kind of Self-worth. Don’t go out into the world and perform for other people in a way that keeps this perpetual disconnect going.

Christian: [00:43:19] Hmm.

Maureen: [00:43:20] Where you don’t feel that you’re good enough, ever.

Christian: [00:43:22] Yeah.

Maureen: [00:43:23] Let yourself stop and receive. Let’s start seeing that everything’s coming from the Divine. Let’s not label where it’s coming from.

Christian: [00:43:32] Hmm.

Maureen: [00:43:32] So that today you’re receiving on a podcast that sounds like it’s Christian and I speaking, but this is coming from the Divine to your ears. So that you’ll get whatever it is that we said,  you’ll maybe throw away 90% of it and it won’t matter to you, but the 10% that comes to you that’s important and impactful and feels loving and whole and purposeful to you, that comes from the Divine.

Christian: [00:43:58] Hmm.

Maureen: [00:43:58] And feel that any good thing, anything you get, any opportunity you get, is Grace in the making, that it’s all coming from the Divine. So this pandemic is coming to us as a great opportunity for a pause and a reset. To create a new normal where love reigns, connectivity reigns, where sanity reigns.

Christian: [00:44:22] Hmm.

Maureen: [00:44:22] And where selfish, confusing, myopic, agenda-filled experiences are no longer acceptable. This gaslighting that’s going on, where people are acting as though they do things in your best interest by getting you scared and fearful and, and panic- ridden. Just know if it feels sucky, it’s not Divine.

Christian: [00:44:45] Hmm.

Maureen: [00:44:45] If it feels peaceful, it’s Divine. Let yourself not be panicky in the face of disease or death. Just treat yourself really well and really loving and know that the Divinity of us is way more than our physical body.

Christian: [00:45:01] Yeah.

Maureen: [00:45:02] Physical body’s only the teeniest tiniest part of us. This Greatness and this Vastness that we are is so much more resourceful and so much more amazing that It came to express itself through our human bodies on this planet earth and, in the processes, is healing us all along the way, even in the face of calamity and disease. We’re all being prompted towards our greatness, towards our awesomeness, towards our true well Being – which is the Soul of us – to share that,  because it’s what feels the best to us. We teach others who we believe ourselves to be every moment of every day. If you believe yourself to be connected by connecting in the morning, loved by loving yourself in the morning, and then creating your day in a way that you’re surprised and delighted by it because the Divine is listening to you now, and co-creating with you now, then you’re going to know that  you’re showing up as a real important asset on planet earth in times like these.

Christian: [00:46:08] And that’s beautiful because I think a lot of people out there never have felt listened to, and it’s a great place to start.

Maureen: [00:46:16] So I’m going to give everybody a little exercise right now to do that really helps in this regard. You don’t need anybody else to listen to you at all. This is between you and you: every morning when you wake up, give yourself this quality time. Get up just a little bit earlier and connect the way that I described, by not getting out of bed until you keep your eyes closed and you connect with a deeper part of you that loves you impeccably and just listen and wait for the voice of the Soul to speak of your greatness and your awesomeness and how important you are on this planet. If at all possible, I’d like you to do this next thing. When you wake up in the morning have a blank notebook, nothing fancy, get a blank notebook and begin to drain your brain in the morning on the page. Anything, let anything come out. It  should be three full pages of draining your brain.

Christian: [00:47:11] Mmhm.

Maureen: [00:47:12] And let yourself just write anything. And it could be a full two pages of cursing.

Christian: [00:47:17] Mmhm.

Maureen: [00:47:18] Could be full two pages of berating yourself in a barrage of all the things that you won’t necessarily let your mind go to but you’re feeling deep inside you all the time. This is cathartic. That’s all it is. You can burn them after, you can rip them to shreds after. You don’t ever need to look at it again.

Christian: [00:47:37] Mm.

Maureen: [00:47:38] But begin to listen to yourself. This is meditation on a page. It’s more active. It helps people who can’t sit and be quiet sometimes and just be in the space with themselves. This is being in an honoring space with yourself, but it’s letting your mind remain active – you’re even appreciating and embracing your active mind – no matter what it’s saying or doing. This is the difference between judgment and discernment, by the way.

Christian: [00:48:08] Mm.

Maureen: [00:48:08] If you’re not judging yourself, just for putting anything on the page, watch what starts to happen by the third page. I want to give a little shout out to Julia Cameron who wrote the Artist’s Way. This is called The Morning Pages in the Artist’s Way, but I call it “brain drain” – I’ve been doing this with my clients and with kids in high schools and things for a long time. It’s so effective because often in life, the hardest thing to deal with – harder than a pandemic,  harder than the problems that we face in our outside world – is that we don’t feel valued or listened to or important.

Christian: [00:48:43] Hmm.

Maureen: [00:48:44] But that’s between you and you.

Christian: [00:48:47] Yeah.

Maureen: [00:48:48] Begin to listen to yourself in the morning, first thing in the morning, fresh into a new day before the day begins. Listen to what you’re writing. If you have a challenge or a problem in your life at that time, or if you don’t know how to negotiate a pandemic, or you don’t know how to negotiate your relationship and you’re stuck in the home with somebody or multiple people that you don’t know how to live with – just write it on the page.

Christian: [00:49:12] Hmm.

Maureen: [00:49:13] And you’ll begin to see this True part of you emerge that has insights, that has discernment, that has connectivity to love.

Christian: [00:49:23] Hmm.

Maureen: [00:49:24] We’re not engaging with other people right now, as much as before. We are, but in different ways. So now engage with yourself in a different way. Just drain your brain on the page for three full pages, and consistently do that in the morning and you’re going to see such insights and genius arise, ultimately, when you get past all the garbage. Be prepared, there’ll be a lot of garbage that comes out.

Christian: [00:49:45] Yeah.

Maureen: [00:49:45] Because we-we bury our greatness underneath a lot of layers of pain and guilt and suffering and too many headlines and all that kind of thing. This goes deep. You’re doing a deep dive between you and you. Nothing better. Really powerful. So, the two pragmatic takeaways from this podcast. One is the difference between judgment and discernment, especially self-judgment and discernment. Discernment is when you ask, “Why?”

Christian: [00:50:14] Hmm.

Maureen: [00:50:15] With truly a deep inquiry. You really care about “why” and you listen for the answer. Judgment is when you’re projecting things onto everyone else as being the problem or everything else as being the problem, and you never go deep enough inside to see: if there’s a problem, you’re the solution.

Christian: [00:50:31] Yeah.

Maureen: [00:50:31] If you notice it, then you’re the solution. How do you know that? You do these deep dives. You ask, “Why? Why is this bothering me? Why is it upsetting me? What’s the reason I feel compelled to watch that or to be engaged in that when it feels so unsettling?” Just let yourself notice, no judgment about what you come up with. And the other takeaway that’s really powerful, impactful is these pages, the three full pages, just put your pen on the page, your pencil on the page, and write consistently for three full pages, not stopping. And watch what comes out.

Christian: [00:51:07] Yeah.

Maureen: [00:51:07] Watch the insights, watch the clearing, and you’re listening to yourself. Soon the Voice of your own best interest will arise out of all of the muddle.

Christian: [00:51:17] Oh, that’s beautiful. Yeah. And just to add on to that, cause it was beautifully said, you don’t even have to read these pages.

Maureen: [00:51:25] Yes. And important, especially in the beginning, when you’re really beating yourself up.

Christian: [00:51:29] Yeah.

Maureen: [00:51:30] I’ve done this with kids that were having real challenges in their lives, and you don’t want to read that you’re cursing about your parents or that you’re, you know, in the middle of mayhem or you hate your girlfriend and it makes you feel bad to reread it. When all that is is excavating the garbage.

Christian: [00:51:46] Yeah.

Maureen: [00:51:47] So it’s not important to read them, it’s sometimes not even valuable at all.

Christian: [00:51:52] Mm.

Maureen: [00:51:53] You might want to go back years later, if you’ve been doing this long enough. Believe me, you’ll know who you are. This is the journey of Self Realization. The journey of being a Miracle Renegade is getting to know who you are as a miraculous being who has all of the power and the insight and the capacities for genius within you. Enjoying every day with all the opportunities to engage with that level of Self Awareness and Self Knowing.

Christian: [00:52:18] Mm.

Maureen: [00:52:19] We want to thank you so much, from the bottom of our hearts, for listening to our first season of Miracle Renegade. Christian and I actually recorded a whole season before the COVID-19 outbreak, but we put those episodes aside back in March, 2020, because we decided it was more important to record and release new episodes that address the hardships that people were collectively facing as a result of the pandemic.

Now with a brand new year ahead of us, we’re excited to return to those original episodes and finally release them to you. There’s so much great content there – the very basics for living a miraculous life – and we know it’s going to help you thrive in 2021.

In the meantime, follow us on Instagram, our handle is @MiracleRenegade. And check out our Patrion page to help support the show while getting access to exclusive patron-only content. That link is in the show notes. We want to give a huge shout out to our Patrion supporters. Your love has kept us going this past year.

Bye for now and see you in the new year, Miracle Renegades.

Christian: [00:53:20] I’m Christian Camerena

Maureen: [00:53:21] and I’m Maureen Whitehouse.

Christian: [00:53:22] And this is Miracle Renegade.