The Journey To Transformation with Iyanla Vanzant

we love to hold on to our pain and our suffering speak on that I say some people have baggage other people have monogram luggage but that's a true story it's like it's like um some people's have forged an identity around their suffering and around their trauma and story and they don't know who they would be without that story peace and rich is blessings I am Michael be back with the host of take back your mind thank you [Music] [Applause] [Music] radical blessings to you all and welcome to take back your mind I have a very wonderful friend that's going to come on with us in a little bit I'm talking about ayanda Van Zandt you might be living under a rock if you've never heard of Ayanna I'll give a formal introduction of her in just a moment but right now we're going to go through the life question of the week and you know what if you have a question that you would like me to answer we're receptive [Music] peace and blessings now it's time for the Live question of the week and thank you all for sending in your questions and we didn't choose your this your yours this week maybe next week or the week after anyway Lindsay R writes this I am one who does the spiritual work when I think I'm finally past my issues and all is well before I know it here I am back again with the same issues this has been happening over and over for years now and I feel like I'm stuck in a loop tape what does it feel like I can't truly transform this is a great question let me break down transformation for a moment transfer the word trans means to go beyond so we go we're going beyond the present formation of our life the present formation of our life is the condensation of beliefs perceptions opinions points of view positionalities interpretation of experiences that have con that have convinced themselves into our life experience so the work the inner work we're doing is to go beyond the formation of our life so I love that you're using the word transformation now in the process of doing the inner work there are many times where it feels like we're stuck or going backwards now this is why this is one of the reasons why first individuals have a unique way of interpreting their sense of Separation separate separation the sense of separation is the big Bugaboo everyone lives with a certain degree of a sense of Separation separation from what separation from the Divine separation from the all good separation from the truth now in reality we're never separated from the Divine we're never separating separated from the presence that's never an absence but it appears so based on our perception so what happens is as we're doing inner work and we're making progress we're healing we're releasing the lies about ourself Etc there are moments in which it appears we're going backwards because that which is unlike the higher frequency that we're now becoming involved with it pulls up the debris the mental pollution and when it pulls it up it feels like we're going backwards but in fact we're not going backwards we're chemicalizing that means we're releasing the garbage that has been stuck within us but what does it feel like it feels like our unique sense of separation is activated again because it is except that you're at a higher level if you could catch this many people think that growth is linear like we're going from one level to or or or going from one level to another level another level like that it's actually like a spiral meaning that you are spiraling as I've taught over the years and expanding your awareness so every time your awareness so the Spiral goes like this it gets wider and wider so every time I'll just use this language every time you go to another level or expand your awareness then there's a release of toxins you feel that you're going backwards you're not you're releasing toxins what it feels like it and you've actually spiraled to a wider expression of yourself so when it feels like you're stuck it means you're releasing toxins or it's not stagnation it is gestation there's something new trying to be born within you so what do you do you don't fight you don't resist you don't try to pray it away you just become aware that you're releasing toxins you're gestating a bigger idea of yourself and then you watch as it begins to transmute into a higher frequency if you don't resist it it will not persist Lindsay I hope that assists you until next week that is the life question of the week the peace and blessings [Music] today I welcome you into this Dynamic with Ariana VanZant recently I'm going to tell you a little bit about her but recently I was in Columbus Ohio walking down the street I was about to do a presentation the next day and this lady started screaming and you know she recognized me and then she says and how is your sister and I said my sister she said are you on the van zand how's your sister I said oh she is my sister what's your brother and sister and I said well not biologically but we've known each other for years so yeah she's my sister so I'm introducing you to a Yama as my sister as the young lady in Columbus Ohio uh pointed out to me and so I know you know who she is but she's been called she is a treasure an American treasure known as a spiritual life coach personal development facilitator author television personality and spiritual technician I love that terminology spiritual technician she's the founder and executive director of inner Visions Institute for Spiritual Development is known for her appearances on the Oprah Winfrey Show and her Stellar showing on the award-winning unscripted reality show and Jana fix my life which was on the Oprah Winfrey Network I remember when she was first starting that show and she called and said Michael do you like this title fix my life absolutely like the title but we got to go with what works he has been 19 titles 19. six of which have become the New York Times best-selling Sellers and her books continue to sell she has an Emmy for NAACP image award three Gracie Awards three honorary degrees a recently awarded the Walden award by unity worldwide Ministries as a socially conscious leader making the world a better place to mind body healing as the owner and curator of the master peace p-e-a-c-e Body Therapy a line of natural body care products she creates products that clean the body and clears energy of the body and just emerge from her relationship with her daughter now retired from television which is interesting to me and semi-retired and which is interesting to me appearances she spends much of her time in her happy place her Quilting Studio we're gonna have to talk about that so young after all of these years it was seven right this groundbreaking yeah that was a groundbreaking uh bit of Television that you did unscripted working with individuals I mean you were working with all kinds of people I mean you went into the depths of Despair and tragedy and the portrayal and all manner of things uh you know what was that like I mean seven years that's a long time eight eight years you got it we got to get that last year in there that's that was probably the hardest one I was even over there a couple of times it was it was hard particularly when you know it's done it's time to go and you have to you know walk it all the way out with Excellence yes just throw your hands up it was first of all it was humbling uh Michael it was humbling and let me greet your audience and your your family listening to this podcast and I never had any doubt that you were my brother you know I know Jamia called you her Godfather so yeah brother but it was humbling that um God would assign me and people would trust me into the depths of their life you know sometimes we don't even tell our sister our mother or what's going on with us and so strangers right would allow me into that the depths of their life the depths of their despair their suffering their conflict was really humbling so I knew it was a very high calling um it was also very um taxing it was relaxing because try as we might and even though we may be unconscious of it we love to hold on to our pain and our suffering um I say some people have baggage other people have monogram luggage [Laughter] that's a true story it's like it's like um some people's have forged an identity around their suffering and around the trauma and story and they don't know who they would be without that story that's right and not only do they not know who they will be but as a function of the story they don't know who they will be will be enough to manage who they're becoming right so they fight you to let that go and you want to be right about the stories we tell and the things we make up so it was sometimes taxing because I learned a long time ago I'm not gonna fight you into your healing right I will glad you lead you support you but I'm not gonna fight you into your healing and it was always interesting because you saw 48 minutes and I was with people sometime three four five days so it was interesting because I would say okay people need to see this so that they get this and you know there's there just isn't time so based upon what people saw they would draw conclusions about me about the guests about whatever it took really two or three seasons for people to settle in and start looking for themselves it was very popular that you receive the Demi for that right yeah no not an Emmy we they didn't we never got nominated for an Emmy because we didn't fit in any category are you that's right because you had your own unscripted reality show that was really about not just reality the way reality shows are just going for the drama but it was really a transformational reality show that's right and they don't have they don't have there's no category for that we did we weren't competition so we couldn't go up against like uh you know Top Chef right right and we weren't scripted so we couldn't go for scripture drama we weren't um a special so we never got nominated for an Emmy because there was no category for us but you have received an Emmy for starting over starting right I remember they came back in 2005 and six so we had me for that yeah so it was you know it was really a blessing in my life because it taught me how far I have come and probably the possibilities of healing yeah you did a bang-up job on that and going back to this other point and I try to tell some of my practitioners when they're going through the program is that there's there's two different worlds clashing there's the world that the therapist is having that's seeing the client whole and possibility and this is the world that the client is living in which is what you just described you know they're holding on to their traumas and drama and you cannot allow them to win no you know eventually they have to come into the world that you see about them yeah possibility and the potential even though as you've said they're fighting all along the way well you know what to win that fight you have to you have to it's not even enough it's not a fighter it's a battle Yeah because you have to have a strategy right you don't need a strategy for a fight but when you're going into battle you have to have a strategy so my strategy was to always have the clients set an intention what is it you want out of this not what I want right my strategy was every room that we filmed in I had two prayer warriors I had two prayer warriors so that I could be present with the person and they were creating the energy creating the energy um I had the client the the guests very often I would make them bathe I would send herbs and things bathingness between a lot of your good product that you had to clear the energy I imagine and they all came in having done homework so that some of the things that I would say to them weren't be wouldn't be new I had to answer a series of questions because that was my strategy I had to tenderize the Consciousness right so that's why they call you a technician that's it that's what I am I'm a technician I'm a diagnosis and then clean up but but this idea in terms of therapy in terms of uh having them set an intention you're engaging them with what they want and then I imagine you helped smooth it out a little bit so they can articulate a little bit better because we discover you know both of us know that men you know people live a life without intention it's a I always say that people have a a an intention deficit disorder just walking around life with no intention yeah they just get the they just experience whatever it's con contagious in the world yeah but with an intention you begin to have a somewhat of a Rudder A sale and then your practice gives you the win for the sale so you're actually engaging them to participate in their own transformation they have to they have to and I think one of the mistakes that many teachers my teachers even teachers and therapists and counselors May is to the failure to realize that whoever the client is they hold the answer to their own challenge probably they hold it and if you're good at what you do you either give them the information that invokes it and calls it up or you provide the environment that pulls it out that draws it out and that's what I try to do on fix my life to provide the environment where people recognize that they have their own answers they can solve their own problems you know it's like when the student is ready the teacher appears when the student is really ready the teacher disappears yeah I love that I love it and since I knew I would be disappearing I had to give them what I needed to uh to make them to let remind them because we do know Michael we know remind them you know what to do right well what to do let's remove your resistance to doing it yeah you know the truth let's remove your resistance to remembering it yeah because you know and the habits that people have into protecting that that little personality they think is them and they developed a certain coping mechanisms and defense mechanisms protecting that who they think they are yeah just just a shell of who they are yeah you know when you're when your luggage comes down the thing if you got it at JCPenney you just pick it up and go on but if you have it monogrammed and if it has tags on it you know you take it off and you start brushing it off that's how people are with their wounds that hurts their stories their judgments it's monogram luggage yeah yeah you you had a way of expanding the their context for life we're just these little people bumping through life you gave them a bigger context yeah at context they were they're actually Spiritual Beings they're actually more than just the product of their environment or their their their their their son or daughter of their parents they're actually bigger than all of that yeah but you had a way of of sneaking in a larger context so that their perception would change and then their thoughts would change and then their habits would change and you'd actually see we'd actually see transformation on television you could see I know one of the things that I did and I think I owed it to my grandmother who scrubbed floors to to feed me and my brother is I used culture very often and specifically as a woman of color African culture Native American culture I remember whenever I was working with multiple members of a family siblings I always put them in age order I gave them responsibilities based on their age order and um they had never had that meaning they had never had that value you know when you say to someone even as broken and dysfunctional as you are you are the Elder and they are to you you have to look up no you can't talk to the Elder like that you know and I'd make them sit in a yard I'll never forget what the Mitchell Brothers which was one of the stories that never ended on fix my life I think I did about four or five episodes with those Brothers and by the time it was all over even though Michael seemed to be the most challenged one they would always look at him as the Elder you know what do you think Michael and who whatever y'all want but that was okay the mere fact that they asked him the other thing was really reminding women uh about who they are and their power as women uh which I think sometimes gets murky in this Society uh when we have to look at I think a beautiful story there was Hazel E um when she was in conflict and I put her in front of Harriet Tubman Mary McLeod Bethune Dorothy Haydn a stream of women of color on the bull on the wall and I sing those lyrics to them when you are as a black woman are singing uh pop that butt pop that butt to have Harriet Tubman who takes one a whole nother meaning that you need to be conscious about yeah you you gave them a better point of view yeah you had them look at themselves through Harriet Tubman's eyes right or or Dorothy Height or anyone saying and and made them like self-reflect you have to I really want to do this right do I really want to as a woman of color understanding what Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth went to stand in front of the public in the thong singing Pop my butt do you really want to do that now if you do that's a choice right understand that there's another way right it's not an unconscious Choice you're actually choosing to do this right right yeah yeah that's powerful but you brought up something in terms of um the the the the power of women these days and obviously we're in a we're in an age in a time in which that rise of the feminine is happening I mean the genie is never going to be put back in the bottle where that is concerned there's going to be bumps and starts and and you know patriarchal uh Consciousness is going to try to push it back but it's happening all over the world yeah you know where where that that whole energy is rising up for uniqueness and equality and and it's good to see some of it as we've noticed recently in Iran is is coming out with a lot of um hurt and death and and Revolution and some of it's more subtle in other parts of the world but nothing is stopping it no nothing nothing's gonna stop it nothing not the Supreme Court decision not the fact that imagine these young women in Iran are fighting for the right to wear their hair out dying for the right to wear their hair out but that's what's happening yes what sadness mean is the number of years most of us just ignored that it was going on yes and that's what I mean the oppression of women and the dehumanization of women and the and the dismissal of women we just ignored that it was going on and that's why I believe it's coming forth with such force and yes and you know in some cases brutality but it's not it's not going to stop it's not going to stop this is one of the first times in which the men have become more involved with it the men basically walking with their sisters and and their aunties and their moms It's like because before even the men were keeping their sisters oppressed yes you know but some things happen Something's Happened in the psyche now because you have these men that are stepping up and walking with the women on the streets I was watching a film of um them walking down this streets tearing off the burka and throwing it in the screen and dancing and singing this Revolutionary song of which the man who wrote the song was jailed two days later yeah right just for writing the song right you know so that's what kind of society and stage of Consciousness they're in but it's a little different now because now men are involved as allies that's right yes they don't they don't want to they don't want to live this way either because you know the the the the the guards are in jail along with the prisoners you know so if you're oppressing somebody you're also oppressed yourself you know it's just an illusion that you're free because you have to use a lot of energy to keep your foot on somebody's neck so yeah so this is an interesting time we're living in and you've done a lot of work to uh to to help navigate the that transformation I was in um I wasn't in Dubai okay I can't remember where I was I was in the Middle East and um I had a driver somebody was assigned to me I was over there and um the guy was a young young it was a young guy and he was saying oh yes you know we used to think women were second-class citizens and and you know we've now we're growing to realize that they're human and they're equal to us and I said really I said where did you get this he says oh we saw Oprah younger on television I said what I said I said what did you say we saw Oprah on television and we saw Jana and and they were talking I said what because it's not even broadcast there legally you know I remember telling Oprah that I said you got Ben over there changing their point of view About Women by the guests you're having on your TV you know it was it was beautiful it was every time we didn't have to do it we have to do it and my focus right now is supporting people in recognizing understanding embracing this new normal uh because so many people are trying to continue into this 21st century with outdated models of being outdated models of thinking outdated models of everything and I knew I mean I I felt it you know we've studied it we've heard about it there's been all kinds of prophecies about it but I knew for sure it was here during the pandemic because the one thing I realized was that nothing nothing ever in the history of this world I would say has ever shut the church down it shut everything down shot everything then and now when you can't go to church so I said okay this is it this is it nature is really challenging our Concepts about life about God about who we are Miss Corona said very clearly two things go home be still yep go home and home we know is where the heart is and Stillness is what brings forth the voice of the Creator yeah because it took the churches a couple of weeks to get on Zoom and kept took Zoom a minute to kind of catch up so I said okay this thing has shut the troops down so that means spirit is really working and moving and it really inspired people in in a way once they got over the fear and once they could find some toilet paper but it is true I call it the corona bonus yes I loved it I loved it and the trauma but uh the time just to be still because you know I was filming fix my life I hadn't been home six consecutive weeks in eight years so to be able to be home from March to May and not have to go nowhere when I had to go out I didn't want to go okay I know people a lot of people still are upset they have to go out but I used to ask people at that time I would say listen who do you want to be when we go to The New Normal right don't want to be the same person three prior to the lockdown this first time in history that healthy people were locked down it's never it's never happened before you've they've they've put people in quarantine who were sick yes but the government has never put people in quarantine except you know different things like with the Japanese and with the slavery things like that but they never put healthy people in quarantine so I basically said who do you want to be ask yourself ask your soul who do you want to be when we're able to go back out again stop fighting against what is yeah and use this as you're saying use this as a moment of transformation so we are ready to go back out again we're not the same people as you're talking about there's a new normal there's a new way of being and there's new way of appreciating ourselves New Way appreciating nature New Way appreciating each other because if we don't use this this time of introspection you know it's just a waste of time just to go you know one of my ministers Julie would say you know binge watch your thoughts not TV she put that in the sermon one day I'm stealing that you said binge watch your your thoughts so that you could actually be different when you go out and a lot of people did that a lot didn't yeah well I didn't but a lot a lot of people went back to the basic stuff again but a lot of people broke their habits a lot of people left jobs they did they hated and became more entrepreneurial a lot of people you know uh went back to school they thought they could never go to school again I mean a lot of people changed and as you said a lot of people just went back to business as usual and that's the way humanity is yeah but it was definitely was definitely a blessing for those who use the time wisely yes time is neutral you know you can use it for transformation or you can use it for entertainment yes and and uh and and I'm glad so many people in Agape Community we actually went through some things together yeah yeah so it's it's a beautiful I think it's I had a friend write me this morning she said I need to talk to you because I'm working desperately feverishly trying to figure out the next steps for my life and I'm not landing on anything and I said to her okay we can talk but I just want you to know this is not the time to try to figure anything out this is a time to create a vision for yourself an intention for yourself and allow it to unfold based on the work you're doing internally I mean I could give you the whole astrological piece about Saturn conjunct Pluto and all of that but basically this is a time for it just what your book says life visioning the truth this that's what time it is right now wait a minute let me do that that's what time it is right now because we're so used to trying to figure everything out and and I say to people all the time you know that scripture Proverbs 3 26 lean not on your own understanding but honor God in all thy ways and he will direct that path because my you know for me at my age you know and I'm talking about retiring and I'm one of those people that didn't have a 401k I mean I've been self-employed for the past 45 years I didn't have a 401k I didn't have a a company paying my you know retirement fund and everything so here I am at at my age looking at I'm like okay so what do I do and um fear not for I'm with you I will never leave you nor forsake you oh what's your vision okay what's your vision so I haven't worked now and I've been off the air now for two and a half almost three years I do what I want to do like I said I quit and I that's just so amazing amazing to me because you have so much energy and you have so much inspired wisdom so my mind can't really grasp Ayanna retired that you know I know I know there has there has to be something that's emerging maybe it hasn't emerged yet but it is it is something emerging there's some retired from the Matrix there you go I have to go out and and have anybody send me a check or pay me I sit right in my house I'm teaching online I'm doing doing it very different which you know 20 years ago when you get 70 you want your watch and you want your check coming in the mail every month I didn't even know that I had to apply for Medicare because I'm of the age they won't cover me with private insurance I have to have to apply for Medicare they got it right yeah I didn't I didn't even know what it was no idea and then they told me because I didn't apply at the right time they were gonna penalize me I was like oh Lord I'll be adrenalized for something that I didn't even I didn't even know about and then when I got it not only did they not penalize me they gave it to me retroactively with account Medicare Medicare and what about social security yes you know what that's yeah because see that's your money yeah I know who knew you you put your money in there and you have certain forces in the political aspect of life trying to take Social Security away and it and it's our money listen but you know what when you don't live in The Matrix I've never been dependent upon the Matrix I know you know about that absolutely so I never mentioned the documentary amazing for the documentary I never occupied my mind with with those things so um so retired meaning in my brain uh where I spent the last 35 40 years speaking here running here running there really to earn a living now I do it if I want to when I want to you know you can call me anytime right but the corporation could call me and I'd have to look and say okay what reruns of Law and Order are they doing that day and am I willing to miss them yeah with your own you're your own person so I knew there was I we like to say refirement rather than retirement yes right you're fired up about whatever you want to do that's right you know when you want to do it and and because this is me thinking about Diana Someone Like You has so much and you're still percolating there's still energy flowing through there's still wisdom and obviously you can't keep it to yourself yeah well you know what I really want to do and this is an awareness that I had actually during um the pandemic um my early books acts of faith value in the valley uh in the meantime [Music] um not even in the meantime but I'll just say acts of faith value in the valley faith in the valley or books that I wrote back in the 90s and I was on that treadmill right a book it does well write another one write a book it does well write another one just pumping them out 19 books yeah and when I went back and looked at them I said there are people alive now 20 25 years old who have no idea what's in these books I want to go back and teach my books now because with internet and the way young people are you know they like every they like to investigate everything I want to get I want to teach people about the value in the valley young people who grew up on on devices and who've gone through the school system many of them unlike us where we had a little challenge you know we had some stuff we had to deal with in the world at home yeah a lot of these young people they don't know that you know struggles sends that like wimps yeah a little opposition sends them crazy I want to teach the value in the valley so one of the things that I'm going to do is go back and actually Hands-On teach the content of my early work so that I can give it those who read it a whole new take and those who've never read it an introduction because I think some of it is just so valuable whether like I said the value in the valley comes to me um because of the way I see people uh falling apart at the slightest little thing and also this whole notion of when something happens that they don't like they cancel you or what the canceled the level of against us yeah I think you you're bringing up a couple of issues one the books that you wrote the principles in there are Eternal so they don't have a they don't have a you know an expiration date expiration date and and the same with my books even my spiritual Liberation they don't have an expiration date and that's a good idea for you to go in and teach it because even you have a different perspective on what you wrote absolutely and where you are now that's right and and these people and you have a lot of people that are coming up now that are online teaching this stuff they don't necessarily have the depth of wisdom and and that higher Consciousness I mean they're saying all the right stuff you know they've taken a couple of workshops they've done some seminars they have some certificates but someone like yourself who's been at a 35 40 years can take that same sentence yeah and go to the depth and way into the depth of that sentence whereas someone else that's just starting but you know they're good teacher they're a life coach whatever the case may be they can't get to the depth of it yet they're still on the surface so we need people like you yeah and in your in your own material your own books I mean they're Timeless I know that that is when I was and I know that to be true because again I I read a quote of somebody had a meme with a quote that and that had attributed to me and I said I wrote that when I write that I know exactly what you're talking about I know I said I I have no clue I was glad that they told me what book it was inside so you can get it I know listen this happened to me last week somebody wrote something on my Instagram oh you know I was listening to an old talk you did back in the early 90s and you said never pray for desired uh energy pray from a desired energy something like that I said that's true I was in 1993. I said oh yeah hey let me bring that back listen I hear a lot of the epigenetic people saying that now too you know yeah you know but we were saying it 30 40 years ago yeah and so um that's the beauty of life that's the beauty of unfolding you know like I have young grandchildren 2018 and everything is so fatal for them you know something happens and and I say this is what I teach them I say the it's gonna It's Gonna Change it's going to shift say this I can hardly wait to see the good that's gonna come out of this mess I can hardly wait to see it good because I promise you 10 years from now this mess is going to be something something good for you it really will hey aren't they wonderful grandchildren for me are such wonderful teaching tools and and really um difficult students you just put one in a Howard University as a freshman oh my gosh really yeah yeah he's doing good you know but I remember a couple of moments he'd be upset about little things I said well hold on everything's gonna be okay I know but to them those words make absolutely no sense I've got one in the University of Kentucky and I've got one in Maryland North Shore here and another one in Tennessee state so you know they they ignore me until they need something then I get a cash app request laughs because they don't want to hear what I have to say I know I know all about it yeah so I I you know I say that once you do a book on that we should do a book on a conscious grandparenting yeah second your second go around how to do it right the second time around right and and I learned and and I say they're really great teaching tools because they teach me how when I would say things to my children I would just say whatever whatever because I said so you can't say that to these young people today because they don't write on Google you know when you were saying so I didn't see that yeah you were wrong right that didn't happen okay I wanted to ask you something you have a you have a quote on your website that is a wonderful distinction you make you may not even remember your own quote but I'm gonna read it to you God help me you said growth work is about learning how to manage and move through where you are and what you have in a different way that's Growth work healing work is going back to uproot or to dig up the causes of certain habitual unconscious systemic behaviors and beliefs does it you separate it Growth work is about learning how to manage and move through where and what you have in a different way and healing work is going back and digging up the causes this listen why is that distinction so important oh it's very important because very often people do Growth work expecting the quality of their life to change and it won't if there is a long-standing issue a core belief if there's an uh a malignant root in your life you will be able to change how you do what you do that's Growth work changing how you do what you do but you won't be able to change some of the conscious and unconscious things that you do until you uproot that cause at the deepest rooting cause and it's that level of internal work for me very often I see growth workers out here it's the mechanics it's the mechanics so you can get up and pray every day and you can do your meditation you can go to yoga you can change your diet and that will create a better feeling and some shift some shift but if you still fighting with your sister still haven't forgiven your father and I still can't keep marrying the same person over and over again can't get your money right now we're looking at healing work right because it's a malignancy in there that's growing and the Growth work will help you become more aware of it but the healing work is what's required to uproot it so that you can create Total Transformation and shift and what becomes uprooted are lies that you have about yourself about God about the world that have developed into habits and actions and things like that but when you do the Growth work it could tease it into awareness but then you have to actually face it down yeah and help transmute it by making better choices and becoming conscious because you know transformation is about making the unconscious conscious right that's what the healing work is it becomes conscious for Real Change yeah yeah yeah I am every year I work on something I get one principle and I work on it with the intention of deep level soul level Mastery so for the past four years I was working on trust and I mean I I can write A Treatise on trust well you wrote a good book on trust yeah oh good uh really for a book of the month excellent thank you so much really working taking it down and down making the distinction between trust and faith and trust and trust and I recognize that one of the things that I could have done the first year that I didn't know to do was surrender so this year my total focus has been on surrender just really let go and like uh like the things I have learned about myself about the human need to control the human need to know so uh you know just in my own life and when I'm getting busy when I'm getting in God's way you know because very often we say I surrendered that but we're still talking about it we're still telling the story about it or I suspended that but then when it doesn't look like we think it's supposed to look we are you know upset about it so this year my my year has been surrendered and one of the the benefits of it is that as I go deeper and deeper into surrender I've been able to recognize why certain things uh hang on I still got my fingers in it yeah really surrender deepens trust and as you deepen trust you can expand in faith see I I see faith and trust as two different things because scriptures tell us faith without works is dead yes but works is external yes the scriptures also tell us that trust in the Lord n is an internal man yeah and I think sometimes people try to activate their faith when they haven't developed the trust yeah and haven't totally surrendered that's just my take on it I could be very well you know when you talk about trusting in the Lord excuse me you know when you capitalize that word Lord that all that means all the the presence plus all the universal laws yes and so you're trusting in something that is always the same that's right you know so if people sit down in the chair because they trust gravity you know right you know and they don't they just they just do it so when you trust as you're saying in the Lord in they all and you can let go you're not trying to manage it the problem that human beings have is they have a distinct idea of how they want God to answer the prayer and that this distinct thought is limited that's right through the way the presence can show up in one's life they're blocking infinite possibilities out to get their one little idea of how they think it should happen and believe that idea and we'll fight God for it and that's where surrender comes in right it's being able to identify those little ideas and surrender that and surrender means totally I've been teaching myself I don't think about it I don't talk about it and when it comes up Holy Spirit I give this to you take care of everything I won't even not even 10 seconds my mind is too powerful to spend 10 seconds in my little idea you know limiting all possibilities so it's been very very uh powerful very interesting and and I bring that up for this reason I I was ordained I was initiated in 1983 and ordained in 1989 I think if after all of these years my brother still finding things to work on it just people who who started five years ago and think they got it it's just amazing to me you and I have probably forgotten more than most people know that's exactly what I'm that I was talking about earlier a lot of the newbies are coming up they're saying all the right things but they don't have the grit yet yeah you know that that comes from failing and trying and failing and getting up getting up getting up getting up getting up getting it up getting up until you have a deep and Abiding Faith and a trust and then you can kind of lean into this presence that you know is so real yeah and like you said you're not leaning on your own understanding you're leaning on something else yeah and uh yeah well at my age you can't lean on your own understanding because you forget what was I understanding last week yeah you know there's a difference interesting thing about that because there's a difference between uh uh remembering and recollecting yes your collection is from the soul yes remembering is the brain yes which you become Adept at is recollection which means you can stand up you may have forgotten something that happened two years ago or whatever but once you're in that stream you will recollect what you need to say from the soul level that's Eternal that's truthful it's inspirational it's uplifting and it has gravitas you may have forgotten something that's meaningless right you know what I mean it's like where my glasses are yeah you know that'll eventually work itself out oh here they are oh here's my keys here's my wallet that's interesting I was just think I just saw this guy that yesterday I was I was coming out of a place and I found the wallet and uh we were we were walking out and um all of a sudden we saw this panicked face that's what we knew was the person we lost as well and you know he has money his license everything in there and uh so I said hey you looking for something I said is this it but he had forgotten it somewhere but I I saw that look of panic yeah and I said you know what he's so glad that we found that wallet because we have no we don't even have a temptation of taking anything it doesn't belong to us it's not it wouldn't even enter our thought you know I would have been as panicked trying to find who it belonged to he lost it yeah just total shift in Consciousness but it's a beautiful thing uh as we end out this year um this this time cycle of 2022 and I'm seeing all of the things all of the upheaval and and that's going on you know whether it's Florida or Iran or the election or the boycotting of the woman King yeah that's a whole nother topic oh God I just I just can't either I didn't even know about it first of all I didn't even know about it uh that boycott was going on I didn't know this boy cop was going on too because I I saw it in Atlanta I was back there and the place was packed yeah yeah no when I saw of course it's all the all the the hubbub about it and I was saying listen I didn't come to see a biopic or a documentary it's Army it's like did you see um how do they fall yes I know I just I didn't go see a history lesson I watched a documentary if I want to see a history lesson then I can say oh that's not true or that's true but just a movie a full of women uh well that was that's the problem it goes back to what you were speaking about earlier about the rise of the feminine and the need of the patriarchal system to squash it to push it down it will not be stopped because they're accusing or challenging Viola with in this movie not telling the truth not being authentic is you know take a a true set of facts and do a fictional story about it it's what Law and Order does every week it's whatever every week plus every week but men do that but for a woman to have the audacity to to do that and I said to when people brought it to me I said well isn't that what they did with black panther yeah it might be according to Dick Gregory [Laughter] Michael so but again it's what you said earlier about just the feminine rising and um it's so frightening to those who think they're losing power and a lot of them are frightened and they don't even know why they're frightened it's an unconscious yes pushback it's not even they're just nitpicking at things but there's an unconscious pushback colorization you know unconscious pushback on so many levels but as you're saying as you know we're we're ending an age we're ending um you know the old is dying the new is being born and there's a word called condensate yes and you know it condensate is it condensate me in the Newtonian uh um uh reality two uh two objects cannot occupy the same space in the same time but in the quantum field is a condensate two objects can occupy the same space at the same time but they're vibrating at different levels that's right so we're living in a time in which the old and the new are in the same space at the same time vibrating the old is dying but very loud and the new is rising and it's becoming louder so we're in that stage where it looks chaotic but it's actually chaotic It's actually an order that's rising in the chaos for those who have eyes to see and ears to hear for those who as you talked about earlier are taking the time to be still they go within and they can see differently they're not just getting their news from the news media they're not not taking those lies on they're not getting their emotions from the emotional contagion that's moving through Society they're actually getting it from their inner soul then they can see different they can say oh I see ending in age it's yeah and it's been happening for a while so I know your listeners will I know the Agape family does but I I just say it again lean not on your own understanding lean not on your own understanding because so much of our understanding was born of you know a lack of faith a lack of trust a lack of surrender was born on an imbalanced way of thinking and being and we just you're gonna hurt yourself you're gonna take yourself out you're not going to be able to survive you got to be open uh to new ways of being and new thinking and the way life has done it for me was just overnight I became the primary caregiver of my four-year-old great-grandson um you're 70 years young my dogs are old you're 17 years Young is the great grandson for now he's just turned five last week uh-huh so you've had him for a year I've had him for a year but the beauty of it is I'm looking at the education system with different eyes yeah I'm looking at rearing him in a different way even different than I am with my grandchildren where I could just be you know old and pining away yeah I'm off every morning at 6 30. doing my homework at 5 30 you know um God sent you that to keep your brain alive but also he's four he knows what a mantra is he knows what an affirmation is he knows how to breathe I had the conference with his teacher today and I was saying you know if he gets a little um because they were saying he's he likes attention I said yeah because at home he's the only child so he's all of my attention all of his this his cousin and everybody he's the baby I said just say to him breathe and she said you know that is so true because we do breathing in class and she says anytime we say it's time to breathe he sits down crosses his legs and closes his eyes great grandma Ayanna I got a stamp on him but just think about the blessing he's receiving yeah I mean he's being imprinted with all of your wisdom in in some of the simple phrases that you're saying yes you know because some people can speak volumes and and not have the energy of someone who's been teaching for 40 years yeah and he's getting that at four and five years old he is funny the teacher said he said he said you know he's he did something the other day and and he said am I being disobedient oh my God that is so weird no you're not being disobedient I just want you to focus over here because I talked to him about choices and consequences about character about Disobedience and and the consequence of that so it's just very interesting and it's wonderful to see I mean I didn't do this with my kids I didn't even do it with my grandkids but to have that young mind yeah to be able he's blessed he won't even know how blessed he is for years well he I hope he's blessed because he told me the other day he said I'm going to live with you forever what does he call you and so you know when I was getting ready to freak out about what you know he's got a mother he's got a father and and I was it was very clear he needs to be with you but he's come to get you can give him that's beautiful so imagine you know that I'm not doing the show anymore I'm not traveling like I used to and and he's here so um you couldn't have told me a year ago fantastic that that one you never know what the universe has in store for you guys wanted to show you had to surrender to it like you said yes earlier I had to what was I gonna say but I do understand why women stop having children at a certain age I get that uh thank God that's real clear you know I've had a this has been enjoyable I I had some things on these sheets of paper I was going to ask you we covered none of them we covered what we covered well I can come back you know I'm gonna have you come back up if you still travel have you come to Agape even okay but but I know you have a lot of healing programs you have the ancestral healing you have programs about the healing sexual trauma yes you've developed a lot of programs are you going to continue with any are you going to continue with these programs and yes if so how can people be in touch with you to to participate in any of these programs and enlist the ones that I didn't list yeah uh iyanla.com if you sign up for our mailing list we'll send them to you both of those programs were born during the pandemic a healing ancestral um patterns released from sexual abuse trauma were born during the pandemic when in silence and meditation and working with people these were the things that needed to come out also my spiritual Warrior training program teaching people really the principles of spiritual warriorhood in your life and a spiritual Warrior's job is the elimination of suffering first their own and then that of others yes was also born during the pandemic so Spirit really guided them and I present them when Spirit tells me to but if you are interested in it you know it's not a cookie cutter every fifth of the year we do this no when they tell me to do it and what I sense is that when it gets when the energy is built up for people I offer the process and release from sexual abuse trauma when we did it really there were people there who didn't have sexual trauma but they had trauma and they still did the healing so both of those programs um released from sexual abuse trauma and ours um hap which is healing and sexual patterns those are healing products I mean program processes yes uh this this is about healing this is not about intellectual anything so you got to be willing to do the work I'm also doing the spiritual study Sanctuary right now we're doing a metaphysical interpretation of the Bible which I just love because I've found and even for myself in the past three or four years last year Emmett Fox was my teacher each year I pick a teacher and I work that teacher all throughout the year the year before that was your teacher Howard Thurman he was my teacher that was deep wasn't it yeah that boy was deep he was truly a Mystic oh truly but um um so each year I pick a teacher and one of the things that I just became aware of is how people have weaponized how people have diminished how people have dismissed ignored denied and more important the number of the amount of fear associated with the Bible because of the way scriptures have been used to beat people alienate people punish people it's so awesome yeah to pray about it when I prayed about it they said just break it down break it down into a common everyday with Bible trained untrained whatever give people an appreciation for the Bible so I'm doing what Spirit guides me to do in the way they guide me to do it and that and quilting and raising the five-year-old so I'm good to go and trying to read my medicare papers environment for iyanla that's fantastic before we go I mean I I worked with um Ram Das I used to do workshops with him we did it we would team up and do some things together in Hawaii but he would tell this story he was speaking about meditation and then he was talking about the benefits of meditation and some of the expanded States you get into meditation and there's a lady sitting in the front row and she was quilting and she says oh I get that from quilting and knitting yes he says I become very focused I'm one pointed I have no distractions and then as I get into the groove my suddenly my Consciousness just expands yeah yeah yeah yeah I it's been I you know I used to scrapbook I I did a lot of work with papers and and one of the things that took me into scrapbooking I was reading something one day and uh about scrapbooking and as I read it I said oh my God that's what God does with our life uh takes the pieces and the pots and the little scraps and the little strips and and puts them together to make something really beautiful and my grandmother used to quilt by hand she would take old clothes shirts and dresses and blankets and sheets and stuff and make those Patchwork quilts I of course I'm a modern quilter so I do it by machine but what I've noticed is for me it's if you know anything about quilting you cut pieces of fabric and they can be all sizes and shapes and colors and the beautiful thing about quilting is nothing has to match right and you put them together and and for me quilting elevated scrapbooking because in scrapbooking you need glue but in quilting you need thread and and you Stitch that together to give it more longevity so putting the little pieces together and my son will say Mom what you gonna do with that but when he sees the end product he says I don't even believe that's what that was yes you made that's the metaphor for our life yeah absolutely about it earlier this thing that people will go through that were so hard but when they look at it in the context of their whole life it may have been like one of the best moments of their life yes that's when deep wisdom emerged or compassion kindness or or something to that effect it's trust surrender whatever it was and what I do is every quilt has a Center Square I hand write a prayer on a piece of fabric and I put it in that Center Square and then I put the back on it and then it's quilted together so the prayer is quilted into the fabric you sell these or is this just you I will never sell them this is for you for yourself I give them away oh that's what I'm okay give them away I would never I would never sell them because then it's going to become worse yeah yeah yeah I just had one yeah I just had one auctioned on one I just prepared one that's going to be auctioned off uh to support the sitar out Arts foundation in Washington DC which is an Arts Foundation that supports those are my dogs would you like to meet Come in Peace and Freedom and freedom come in um this is oh I'm sorry baby I'm sorry this is peace say hi hey peace so they're going to auction that one off to um um raise money for a community arts program oh that's beautiful this is Frida so this is Peace and Freedom okay what are you you're fronting take a breath take a breath um so it's just been really wonderful and and the quilt that I'm auctioning off is called Amazing Grace g-r-a-y-s the whole quilt is different Shades of Gray that I blended together I've called it amazing Graves hey this has been lovely thank you I've had fun thank you for being with us um take back your mind and you gave us a lot of Pearls of Wisdom on how people can take back their mind from being hijacked before we endowed in fear and the lies that we tell ourselves yeah yeah absolutely appreciate you thank you and and have me back so I can answer the questions you didn't ask me I will have you back sooner than you think okay we've been with you on the Van Zant wasn't that a magnificent interview and we will have her back peace and blessings everyone [Music] peace and blessings and now as we do on a weekly basis we have a moment of meditation together we extrapolate to a degree what me and my guests have talked about and in this case it's my sister iyanla VanZant and we pick a theme and we kind of just go in and work with it now she had a distinction between a spiritual work and healing and so we're gonna move with that during this particular meditation so I invite you in this particular moment to disclose your outer eyes we just tap space between your eyebrows it's an activation and an intention to begin to see without eyes and to hear without ears because you are pure Consciousness your feet are firmly planted on the ground unless you're sitting in a full Lotus position your hands are on your lap facing upward we take a deep breath [Music] receive another breath release one more breath [Music] and release and as we're sitting here in meditation begin to be aware that all of the Power all of the presence all of the love the beauty the intelligence the abundance begin to feel that it is right where you are right now [Music] begin to feel this that you're not reaching out to get abundance you're not reaching out to get external validation you're not reaching out for success you're not reaching out for anything you're inwardly feeling and accepting that right where you are is all of the Power the presence the love the beauty the intelligence the harmonizing prosperity and abundance is right here you are a perfect idea that is unfolding Perfection unfolding this is spiritual work to begin to feel this to begin to inwardly see this about yourself and to begin to vibrationally affirm this say either out loud or inwardly say all of my needs are met and I am perfectly unfolding Divine health well-being prosperity and joy health prosperity [Music] well-being and joy [Music] now for the healing part notice any sentence or belief that pops up that counters that don't resist it just notice it maybe something says I'm not good enough I'm unworthy [Music] they said I'll never succeed is whatever pops up in your awareness that counters what you did in your spiritual work [Music] now in this moment realize with that which is countering that is a lie a lie believed acts as a law until it is neutralized so the spiritual healing component is to look at the lie [Music] and to now consciously denounce it [Music] say inwardly that is a lie it is not true they encounter that with your willingness to reveal the seeming opposite [Music] if the LIE says I'm unworthy say in substance I am worthy of the all good foreign all of my needs are met [Music] stop and have a moment of silence [Music] feeling that right where you are is the power of the presence the love the intelligence the beauty of the abundance any lie that pops up inwardly denounce it [Music] and say a truth powerful affirmation [Music] denounce and affirm thank you [Music] feel into this in this moment and entered now with me into a state of holy gratitude that what you're saying about yourself is what the universe is saying about you you are worthy magnificent perfect idea unfolding perennially it's all happening now and so it is your time is very valuable so I want to thank you for Lending us your ear and participating taking back your mind if you want to submit a question for the question of the week please submit it to podcast at michaelbeckwith.com if you've enjoyed what you've heard today please submit a review and let us know your thoughts stay on top of current episodes by subscribing to the podcasts so that you'll receive alerts and not miss one single episode and feel free to share this podcast with all of your friends and family and until we meet again take back your mind and you will take back your life peace and blessings [Music]

Channel: Michael Bernard Beckwith

Views: 129,477

Keywords: Michael Bernard Beckwith, Meditation, Michael Beckwith Meditation, spiritual, consciousness, energy, vibration, awakening, affirmations, spiritual journey, higher consciousness, self-aware, spiritual growth, love, healing, inspiration, mindfulness, spiritual awakening, wisdom, spirituality, lightworker, abundance, Take Back Your Mind, Take Back Your Mind Podcast, Michael Beckwith podcast, Iyanla Vanzant, Iyanla Vanzant Michael Beckwith, Transformation, The Journey to Transformation

Id: mE6DUJ7A4Ns

Length: 73min 54sec (4434 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 22 2023