Podcast Summary
The School of Greatness with Lewis Howes: Overcoming Hindrances to Self-Mastery: Positive emotions can be distractions from achieving long-term goals. Being mindful of how our senses can trigger these distractions is crucial to mastering ourselves and our inner world.
Lewis Howes, former pro athlete turned lifestyle entrepreneur, welcomes listeners to The School of Greatness. He shares how the modern world lacks self-discipline, self-knowledge and connection to authenticity. He invites an expert guest to speak on the hindrances that hold people back from mastering themselves and their inner world. One of these hindrances is the distraction of positive emotions, which can lead to losing track of goals. Senses such as sight, taste, smell, and touch can trigger sensual desires that can distract from personal goals. It is crucial to be aware of how these positive emotions can affect achieving long-term goals.
The Importance of Sensory Desire and Mental States on Our Goals: Our sensory desire and mental states can impact our progress towards our goals. It's important to recognize and control them by conditioning our minds positively to perceive situations and people in a better light.
Our five senses play a vital role in building the bridge between the impact from the outside world and our internal reactions towards them. However, it's essential to understand that sensory desire is neither good nor bad; it's a hindrance that may affect achieving our goals. Mental states such as negative emotions may arise due to unexpected events, leading to giving up on our journey hence hindering progress. The feelings we experience are often the postponed reaction of what was cultivated inside our minds earlier. We have the power to choose how we judge situations or people, preconditioning our minds positively or otherwise, affecting our perception of them.
Understanding Self-Mastery Through Self-Care and Emotional Awareness: To achieve self-mastery, invest time in discovering yourself and understanding the roots of your emotions. Incorporate qualities like love and responsibility to express them outwardly and take care of yourself as well as those around you.
Self-mastery is about discovering things about yourself and taking the time to watch yourself. It's essential to understand that the feelings you experience are rooted in something, and it's crucial to learn where they come from. Investing time in yourself is necessary to be productive and support others. You must have qualities like love, responsibility, and gratitude within you to express them outwardly. Self-care is essential to take care of you, and understanding your emotions and feelings is critical to taking care of family, friends, and employees.
Cultivating Inner Traits for External Change: Discover and develop love, strength, willpower, discipline, loyalty, and pride within oneself. Look within to identify these traits, tap into a variety of feelings consciously to impact behavior, and overcome ill will.
It is important to cultivate love, strength, willpower, discipline, loyalty, and pride within oneself before trying to make changes in the external world. Removing external possessions and looking within oneself can help identify these traits. Ill will is a state of mind, and it is important to go beyond it rather than trying to get rid of it completely. It is important to consciously tap into the variety of feelings within oneself rather than letting them unconsciously impact behavior.
Overcoming Negative Emotions through Identifying Triggers and Finding a Higher Perspective: To overcome ill will, identify its source and recognize its lack of benefit. Catch yourself in the moment and ask if it feels good. Coaching from a different perspective can aid in overcoming negative emotions.
Ill will, or negative emotions such as anger, jealousy, and frustration, can be overcome through identifying the triggers and finding a higher perspective. Shi Heng Yi suggests identifying the source of the negative emotions and recognizing that they provide no benefit to oneself or those around. Ill will typically falls into one of three categories: greed, hate, or ignorance. Catching oneself in the moment and asking if it feels good can help in letting go of ill will. Coaching oneself from a different perspective can also aid in overcoming negative emotions.
Coping with Unfair Judgments: Breathing Tips and Compassion Practice: When unfair criticism occurs, take a moment to breathe deeply and remind yourself that they may not know the full story. Incorporating intentional breathing and cultivating compassion can help alleviate stress and provide perspective.
Unfairness can take many forms, including when someone judges or criticizes you without knowing the full story. When this happens, it's important to breathe deeply and combine your breath with an intentional thought, such as "they don't know better." This can help release the pressure and prevent anger or frustration from building up. Practicing breathing meditation with intention and cultivating a hard quality of compassion within yourself can also be helpful. When feeling stressed or overwhelmed, repeating a mantra or recalling a memory of the greatest love you have ever felt can bring comfort and perspective.
The Power of Loving Feelings and Compassion: Choosing to live in a state of loving feeling can lead to compassion for others. When facing overwhelming situations, take time to gain perspective. Consider Airbnb and Metro for extra income and affordable phone plans.
In this section, Shi Heng Yi discusses how experiencing a loving feeling can lead to compassion for others who are suffering. He suggests that if you have the opportunity to choose the state of being you want to live in, the answer should be for all to experience that loving feeling. He also advises that when facing overwhelming situations, it's best to distance yourself and take time to gain perspective. Additionally, the section includes a brief advertisement for Airbnb and Metro, which offer opportunities for extra income and affordable phone plans, respectively.
The Importance of Space and a Psychological Approach in Relationships and Overcoming Hindrances.: Give space in relationships, avoid making emotional decisions, adjust from a psychological standpoint when dealing with enemies, overcome hindrances like laziness to achieve goals.
In relationships, whether it's with friends or potential enemies, it is important to give room and time. Pressure, confinement, and lack of space can lead to overwhelming emotions and vulnerability. It is also wise to avoid making decisions while in an emotional state. When dealing with enemies, it is important to approach it from a psychological standpoint and look for ways to adjust within yourself rather than trying to change them. One common hindrance faced by many is laziness, which can be caused by a lack of vision and past experiences. Overcoming this hindrance can lead to greater momentum and consistency in pursuing one's goals.
Creating Sustainable Lifestyle Changes for Overall Health and Energy: Small steps towards realistic goals and mindful visualization can lead to a sustainable transformation for our unique bodies and lifestyles. Quick changes may not be sustainable in the long run.
Our diet, exercise habits, and lung capacity all impact the efficiency and energy levels of our bodies. Quick changes to our lifestyle or body can lead to negative effects and may not be sustainable in the long run. To create a sustainable way of life and transformation for ourselves, it is important to make small steps towards our future vision and to dream big with realistic goals. Our ability to visualize and imagine goals for ourselves is a powerful tool that can help us achieve success, but it is important to be mindful of what is realistic and sustainable for our unique bodies and lifestyles.
Building a Fulfilling Life through Serving Others: Commit to creating and helping others, rather than just seeking personal gain. Connect with the world around you and develop skills to become a better leader, allowing for greater peace and strength in facing life's challenges.
Shi Heng Yi stresses the importance of having a commitment to create for the purpose of serving and helping others, rather than solely for personal gain. He explains that while someone may achieve their goals by focusing only on themselves, they will ultimately be left feeling lonely and unfulfilled. Instead, he suggests connecting with others and the world around us to find true stability and value. As we progress through life and face new challenges, it's important to develop skills and become a better leader for ourselves so that we can manage those challenges with peace and grace. Life may not get easier, but we can become stronger to overcome it.
