Do you ever get the feeling that the things you can’t control in your life far outnumber the things you can control? In this episode of Miracle Renegade, Maureen and Christian talk about life as improv: letting go of the reins, saying yes to everything and trusting that you’ll be taken care of anyway. Money, professional success, relationships...they will all benefit from a little more faith and a lot less control. Featured readings include works by Maya Angelou, Thomas Moore and James Autry.
Topics addressed in this episode include:
For a free copy of Maureen’s book Miracle Worker's Guide to the Galaxy - A Handy Handbook for Conscious Evolutionaries support us on Patreon!
Wouldn’t Take Nothing For My Journey Now by Maya Angelou
Care of the Soul by Thomas Moore
“Threads” from Love and Profit by James Autry
“Now you must learn that only infinite patience produces immediate effects.”
- A Course In Miracles [T-5.VI.12:1]
In these special release episodes of Miracle Renegade, Maureen and Christian take the covid-19 conversation to the Soul.
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Produced with ☕️ + 💜 by Missing Link Studios
The Art of Improv and Giving up Control
Christian: [00:00:00] To break the fourth wall today. Uh, I-I didn't really want to do this episode and I know that you're, you're on a tight schedule and everything, and I just wasn't feeling having a talk.
Maureen: [00:00:17] Mmhm.
Christian: [00:00:18] But then when you said 'no', I witnessed something in myself. It was about control. And, um, it was about keeping myself in a place where I always have control.
Maureen: [00:00:30] Hmm.
Christian: [00:00:31] Like, it was like this sense of my safety. It's just like, well, if I'm not free to do whatever I want, then what - what is there in life? You know? Like I go to like the super extreme.
Maureen: [00:00:41] Yeah interesting.
Christian: [00:00:42] When it comes to this stuff, especially if it's somebody tells me what to do, I'm a baby about it. But then I started seeing that, uh, it was almost like a defense mechanism. It's almost like, um, like I'm trying to keep myself safe from other people harming me and my freedom and my time. And by allowing that it was almost like I was controlling myself, even within that aspect. It's almost like I'm just chasing my own tail all the time. And I - I catch that from other people. I confirm it from the outside, in. It's always like this thing where people are chasing themselves, they're chasing themselves because of something outside of them. And they try to protect themselves in that confusion.
Maureen: [00:01:30] So let's just get it straight.
Christian: [00:01:31] Yeah.
Maureen: [00:01:32] So we said that we wanted to record an episode today -
Christian: [00:01:35] Yeah.
Maureen: [00:01:35] - had set the time aside for that. And then, uh, you felt that today wasn't the day, it didn't resonate with you -
Christian: [00:01:43] Yeah.
Maureen: [00:01:43] - entirely. And you asked if we could do it tomorrow, but I have a full lineup of clients so I couldn't. So when I said no, I couldn't change the days, then you felt a little bit on the defense -
Christian: [00:01:57] Yeah.
Maureen: [00:01:57] - about your time and your capacity to have your own schedule and make your day completely the way that you want it to be.
Christian: [00:02:07] Yeah.
Maureen: [00:02:08] Yeah. So the question is how do we get out of our own way and not be defensive in the face of life shifting and changing.
Christian: [00:02:21] Yeah.
Maureen: [00:02:22] And how do we enjoy life? It's a great question because I know what you're getting at, that many people believe that living the most miraculous life would be having everything be on their own terms.
Christian: [00:02:36] Exactly. Yeah.
Maureen: [00:02:38] And yet we are going to, at best, be in relationship here on planet earth with multiple other people and other things in our lives. There are relationships we have not only with people, but with things . And so what happens if our ideal isn't playing out in front of us, and we see a resistance to that. We see ourselves saying, "Wait a minute, a miraculous life should be all one big, beautiful flow - Heaven on earth - peacable in every way...
Christian: [00:03:12] Yeah Heaven, it should be just Heaven...
Maureen: [00:03:13] And it has to be on my terms.
Christian: [00:03:16] Yeah.
Maureen: [00:03:16] Now, you know, just by what I'm leading you into, that we've talked so much about the true miraculous world being a win-win. That there's always a win at hand. And what that takes is a slight shift in perception to be able to get out of MY - "I, ME, MY" - mentality, which is the ego -
Christian: [00:03:38] Yeah.
Maureen: [00:03:39] - always. And very defensive about that "I me, my". And allow yourself to become open to every possibility.
Christian: [00:03:50] Hmm.
Maureen: [00:03:51] To every possibility. So that when you start to watch your life engaged with people, places and things on planet earth, you start to see that there's a flow of Grace to it all. And this might sound really spacey and really unfounded to people who are just showing up, say, to this podcast, wishing and hoping for miracles, especially in these times that are challenging and unquantifiable like in a pandemic.
Christian: [00:04:20] Yeah.
Maureen: [00:04:21] But what that means is that your highest purpose is joy.
Christian: [00:04:25] Hmm.
Maureen: [00:04:26] Your highest purpose is of the Soul or of the connected self, the true self, the one we always talk about, the one that is your divinity.
Christian: [00:04:35] Hmm.
Maureen: [00:04:36] And if that's your divinity's purpose - peace and joy - if you choose to resist certain things, you're not going to be happy.
Christian: [00:04:46] Hmm.
Maureen: [00:04:47] Like something that's pretty much set in stone for someone else. So if I have appointments set up with several clients - that's affecting four lives, say, if I were to say no I have something else to do instead. So you weigh things about win-win. What feels most loving, what feels most peaceful, what feels most joyful?
Christian: [00:05:12] Yeah, and I understood that like immediately of course, like, she has a schedule - but it's just uh, these feelings that just kind of get a hold of me and then it starts pulling me into like these directions that it's almost like a performance. It's almost like, like a stage, you know, like all of a sudden I'm in this world where , I am just a puppet in this life. I am just a function in this life and I can jump to it like that.
Maureen: [00:05:37] Okay. So let's look at that as a really powerful and profound solution. That right now we could all see, everyone on planet earth could see your life much more capably as performance art, rather than this serious thing that you always have to have it go your way or it's all wrong. Have it be where you're showing up, like you would to a stage, and it's improv. Literally life is improv. And do you know how they do improv? They tell performance artists when you're first in an improv class, you know, say you have a class full of improv students in New York city or LA. They tell them right from the get go, say yes to everything.
Christian: [00:06:24] Okay. Yeah.
Maureen: [00:06:25] And then the whole thing arises from people going with the flow.
Christian: [00:06:30] Hmm.
Maureen: [00:06:31] Because then people begin to see life as a much bigger picture. And the interesting thing about improv is that people are all loving crazy things, but that's life.
Christian: [00:06:43] Yeah.
Maureen: [00:06:43] And allowing themselves to show up being much more inventive, much more creative. Not only that, most improv is team players.
Christian: [00:06:52] Yeah.
Maureen: [00:06:52] You're showing how, if somebody says something, everybody else is playing along, then ultimately it comes to this place where we begin to see, oh, it's a whole lot more fun to go along with the flow.
Christian: [00:07:05] Yeah.
Maureen: [00:07:05] So taking that a little bit further with life as performance art, what happens if now you decide that you want to see things differently? That you want to clearly see things differently? And that's really profound and important because a miracle is a shift in perspective.
Christian: [00:07:24] Hmm.
Maureen: [00:07:25] So if before you got up every morning and you had this really dogged and diligent way of showing up at work, that this was your purpose and it was really serious, and how you met deadlines or how you showed up in the workplace was the be-all-end-all of everything, and if the sale got made, or if the team, you know, made their goals, then that was a good successful day.
Christian: [00:07:48] Yeah.
Maureen: [00:07:49] But anything else was feeling like it was lackluster or not important.
Christian: [00:07:54] Or even a burden sometimes.
Maureen: [00:07:56] And now, instead of that, you're looking at it as performance art. And now you show up to work and everything is important. Really literally everything. How you pick up that paper and pen, how you show up to the computer, how you sit, how you relate to that next email that comes in, how you relate to customers when you are in a place in the service industry, how you bag something - is it artful or is it just careless and get that done to get to the next thing? What's happening on the biggest level is we're performing, pretending that we're only human beings.
Christian: [00:08:37] Hmm.
Maureen: [00:08:39] We're so much more. Our creative, True Self is so much more than that. So if we start showing up as though this is us pretending to be just human, we start to watch ourselves in a different way. We start to engage with things much more capably because we're not judging them or defending against life with them. Like think of how many people defend against life with their job.
Christian: [00:09:11] Yeah.
Maureen: [00:09:11] You know, "I can't spend time with my kids or my wife because I have this busy job, so much on my plate and I have so many responsibilities."
Christian: [00:09:19] Hmm. When you say like, everything is important, the first thing that came out of me and was like, oh, that sounds exhausting.
Maureen: [00:09:28] Really?! No, but -
Christian: [00:09:29] Like that one thing was already tiring, and now I have to think that everything is just like that thing? But I get what you're saying. You're, you're expanding your mind. So it's like, you're not so focused and tense on one thing.
Maureen: [00:09:43] And here's the performance just to get this really clear so that you understand how not exhausting this is...
Christian: [00:09:49] Mmhm.
Maureen: [00:09:50] If you truly were aligned with your own Divinity in the way that mystics and sages throughout the ages have been, you would know that you are perfectly safe. You are perfectly and profoundly connected and cannot sever that connection except if you dream an anxiety-ridden dream of separation -
Christian: [00:10:16] Hmm.
Maureen: [00:10:16] - that includes being way too busy and exhausted to show up to your own life. Notice what, what anyone who has been an awakened being recognizes: relax! I really need do nothing. The flow of life is going to take me along perfectly, especially if I show up enjoying it.
Christian: [00:10:36] Yeah.
Maureen: [00:10:37] So performance art in that regard, and you're showing up to your life knowing that it's art? Our own life is our best spiritual path. If you show up to your own life with this highest purpose being joy, then you're going to see everything begin to morph and change so that you recognize the things that are the most important and the priorities get put forward naturally.
Christian: [00:11:03] Yeah.
Maureen: [00:11:04] And you'll start to see that things get done for you that are not your business. That don't bring you joy. The more you make room for joy, the more joy arrives. The less room you have for it, the less joy arrives. It just has no room.
Christian: [00:11:20] Hmm.
Maureen: [00:11:20] You're too busy sacrificing and suffering. So go back to that thought you had about feeling like it's exhausting to show up to life. I don't mean perform for other people. Performance art is different. A lot of people don't even get performance art.
Christian: [00:11:37] No.
Maureen: [00:11:37] The artists are so amazing that they're staying in this space where they're really satisfying their own need to be an artist, but out loud in front of other people - who cares what they think!
Christian: [00:11:48] Yeah.
Maureen: [00:11:48] And that's what I mean by this kind of performance art. You're satisfying your own Soul. That's the only way to find true joy. Joy is not contingent on the outside world. It's not like happiness that becomes something based on the outside circumstances and can be very fleeting. It's something that is perceived between you and you, and you can keep it alive no matter what else is going on outside. It's really key and important that we're getting this now, everybody, because in the midst of this pandemic we have an opportunity to slow down. But I think that people don't get the value of this really tangibly... I just read something from Maya Angelou that I'm going to read because I love her. She was somebody who got it, you know. She was definitely busy in the world - busy inspiring. She was experiencing her life as performance art. Did you ever hear her read a poem?
Christian: [00:12:46] No.
Maureen: [00:12:47] Oh my God, it's like earth shattering. She, she had her whole being in whatever she wrote and, and read. A true poet because she understood at a deeper level that her life was performance art. So let me read this.
Now, when I'm reading this, just keep in mind what's happening during this pandemic. That we're all getting multiple opportunities to have, in quotes, "a day away" from our normal life.
Christian: [00:13:18] Yeah.
Maureen: [00:13:20] Every person needs to take one day away . A day in which one consciously separates the past from the future. Jobs, lovers, family, employers and friends can exist one day without any one of us. And if our egos permit us to confess, they could exist eternally in our absence. Each person deserves a day away in which no problems are confronted, no solutions searched for, each of us needs to withdraw from the cares which will not withdraw from us.
We need hours of aimless wandering or spates of time sitting on park benches, observing the mysterious world of ants and the canopy of trees tops.
If we step up away for a time, we are not as many may think, and some will accuse, being irresponsible. But rather we are preparing ourselves to more ably perform our duties and discharge our obligations.
When I return home, I am always surprised to find some questions I had sought to evade have been answered and some entanglements I had hoped to free have become unraveled in my absence.
A day away acts as a spring tonic. It can dispel ranchor, transform indecision and renew the spirit.
That's from, "I Wouldn't Take Nothing for my Journey Now."
Christian: [00:14:45] Wow. I've been wanting to live that life. I've dreamt about that life, you know?
Maureen: [00:14:51] You know, it's time away that we're getting now that's such a gift. Even if we're in the midst of things still being hectic and busy, it's not the same. And we also don't know how it's going to continue after this.
Christian: [00:15:04] Yeah.
Maureen: [00:15:04] So we can't be projecting in the future like we're doing something that's super driven towards success. It's just not necessary right now. So if we take this time to really realize our fundamental worth and our fundamental essence - that we are inherently important on planet earth and that where we are right now is fundamentally important - there's no where to be but present wherever we are. And available to the moment wherever we are. And then we stopped wishing away things that appear to us to be inconvenient or appear to us to be something that we don't want to do that we're playing by somebody else's rules. You can't. Literally. Anywhere you are that you're breathing a breath is the place you're meant to be right now.
Christian: [00:15:57] It's a - it's, it's hard to believe. I mean, this is a huge hurdle for me. Uh, I know for other people as well, cause you feel like, um, why would - why would anyone be in the position that I'm in? You know?
Maureen: [00:16:11] But look in hindsight. The more aware you become of how great this beautiful present moment is, and the more you are aware of your inherent worth so that you're not always trying to go out there to find an answer or solution, or the answer to why you feel that you're in deficit mode. The answer to why you feel you're in deficit mode is because you're not embracing this moment that you're in. Period. Because you're thinking you need to be somewhere else that you're not. So let's look at that is from a real dramatic - we like to do that in the Miracle Renegade Podcast - look at things in a dramatic way. What if someone's homeless on the street and it's still chilly spring and they're not necessarily completely comfortable.
Christian: [00:16:54] Mmhm.
Maureen: [00:16:55] But now watch what happens. This pandemic comes along and almost every city in the United States, and in the world at large, is saying we got to take care of our homeless people.
Christian: [00:17:08] Yeah.
Maureen: [00:17:09] Because this is a very important population that things can go through like wildfire - disease and challenges. And not only is it a win for them to have them have a place of safety and security, but it's a win for everyone else who wants to stop a pandemic.
Christian: [00:17:27] Yeah.
Maureen: [00:17:28] Why do we have such a disconnect? We don't follow some things, start to finish. So how can you start a thought and finish it if somewhere in the middle you have a judgment about what's happening?
Christian: [00:17:40] Yeah.
Maureen: [00:17:41] You automatically stop it right there and it doesn't get a chance to complete itself fully. Again, the sages and the people who are aware and have seen the perfection of our lives from the standpoint, the shift in perspective, that's miraculous, from the standpoint of, "Oh, just wait a minute. This too shall change. Just wait a minute. Not only shall this change, but it will change for the better of all if you stay connected to the voice of peace and wisdom and in alignment with joy."
Christian: [00:18:19] Hmm.
Maureen: [00:18:21] Typically very difficult for human beings who want to analyze the heck out of everything, as you can see in the news, but where's the news getting you these days?
Christian: [00:18:29] Yeah.
Maureen: [00:18:29] You know, there's so much conflicting information - but that's another grace in the making. It's telling people at large, everywhere in the world: can you be self-referring in a way that feels like win-win? Can you make choices that are wise for you and wise for everyone else in your surrounding area? Can you do that without needing people to enforce laws about it?
Christian: [00:18:56] Yeah.
Maureen: [00:18:57] Can you wake up in the morning and default to a place within you that's peaceful by nature? That knows how to direct you perfectly? And can you surrender to that and say, okay, I'm going to watch today. My life is performance art. I'm going to perform today as though everything's okay. And I'm connected. I'm going to show up and be the answer, the solution, rather than the person looking for a solution in the problem.
Christian: [00:19:32] Yeah.
Maureen: [00:19:33] You're looking at a problem, be ready to see more problem. If you're seeing yourself and looking inward as yourself being the solution, then you're going to see a lot of different experiences arise in front of you. You're paying attention. Things will happen seamlessly. And you're noticing that the more you wish everyone well, the better you feel.
Christian: [00:20:00] Hmm.
Maureen: [00:20:00] There's a reason for that. We're all connected, we're all One. I've said it so many times. And again, it can feel really flaky and not grounded, but it's so important that we recognize this. Now. For the multiple people out there who have lost jobs, and who are trying to get unemployment and things, this could be really scary. So I want to make this pragmatic and practical, this miracle world.
Christian: [00:20:23] Yeah.
Maureen: [00:20:23] Do you have a question about that one?
Christian: [00:20:25] Yeah, that's where I wanted to get to. Um, essentially how, how do I discern my safety? Like if I am supposed to be where I'm supposed to be, right? And there is a bear in front of me, how - how am I supposed to know that I'm either bear food, or do I run away..? Like in this miracle world, if I am where I'm supposed to be, how do I reconcile with that and keep, you know, keep my self-preservation.
Maureen: [00:20:52] Truly important because you don't want to try to do this right in front of the bear.
Christian: [00:20:59] Yeah.
Maureen: [00:21:00] Because that makes it really challenging. As people are finding out now who have no savings and who are in the midst of a world that's tumultuous and where's the next dollar coming from?
Christian: [00:21:10] Yeah.
Maureen: [00:21:11] That's like facing the bear.
Christian: [00:21:12] Hmm.
Maureen: [00:21:13] So. What this is teaching everyone is to be more self-referring in the most important way. Be self loving. So right now, stop wherever you are and notice that you have resources that can help you through anything. Anything. The more challenging, the more miraculous you want to be. The more you want to be aligned to something different than what you're just seeing with two eyes.
Christian: [00:21:41] Hmm.
Maureen: [00:21:42] You want to go inside, where you're not looking at the outside world, close your eyes for a moment, take a big deep breath, and that's enough to reset you. Just close your eyes for a moment where there's no this and that. See that? No world of duality. You're in a world of Oneness if you close your eyes. No parameters, no edges. It's infinite for you to be able to sink right into right now. Close your eyes. Take a big deep breath. And just say, "I want to see this differently. I want to see my own, individual life differently." If you're home right now with a big family or people that you're living with, close the door - but smile before you do, let everyone know everything's okay, that you're just taking a little break - and it might even be something to incorporate with the people you're abiding with, that everybody gets a break. And if someone's going off you just, you know, wave, have a signal that lets everybody know that it's okay, nobody's going to be left or dropped here.
Christian: [00:22:40] Yeah.
Maureen: [00:22:40] We all want to know we have, the capacity to be connected and in communion in times like these. So it's important that you let people know if you're checking out to be spending quality time with yourself. It's not because they're a problem.
Christian: [00:22:53] Yeah.
Maureen: [00:22:54] It's because everyone finds themselves showing up much more powerfully, capably and effectively with other people once they've spent quality time alone.
Christian: [00:23:04] Yeah.
Maureen: [00:23:04] That's number one. People have to start practicing that, spending quality time with yourself. That's where you're not performing. That's the only time you're not performing. When it's between you and you. And if you close your eyes and you find that your heart is racing and your mind is racing, that's because you're even performing with yourself.
Christian: [00:23:25] Wow.
Maureen: [00:23:25] That's not necessary. Relax. Just let yourself Be for a period of time. When you spend that time alone, then you'll watch that when you show up, you feel more connected to your Spirit, your True Self, to the Soul of you that sinks you into these States of joy and peace and ease much more effectively than that active world. When you show up to the active world, then you bring that Whole Soul, your Heart and Soul with you to whatever it is. To whatever it is. That means you cook dinner more mindfully and happily. You make your bed, even if you're the only person that sees it, more mindfully and happily.
Christian: [00:24:09] Hmm.
Maureen: [00:24:10] You start to be in this world that's much more cloistered. That's why people have gone into monasteries all throughout the ages because they wanted to get themselves away from all those influences of the outside world just long enough to be able to love themselves, to spend quality time with themselves. And this doesn't take years and decades. This takes one day after another of deciding in the morning you're going to spend some quality time with yourself. Get connected with that Voice of Peace.
Christian: [00:24:42] Hmm.
Maureen: [00:24:43] The Voice that knows what peace feels like while you're laying in bed, not when you're in front of the bear.
Christian: [00:24:47] Yeah.
Maureen: [00:24:48] Or facing a blank bank account. You want to connect with peace while there's no threat.
Christian: [00:24:53] Yeah.
Maureen: [00:24:53] When it's more peaceful. That feels easy enough to do. Then when you face things that are not peaceful, you're going to know peace felt like. Most people don't even know what peace feels like.
Christian: [00:25:07] Yeah.
Maureen: [00:25:08] They don't know. So you have to practice being in alignment with peace. You have to practice peace. Then when you're performing in your performance art of life, it's all about peace. How do I come to my job in a more peaceful way? How do I show up to my family in a more peaceful way?
Christian: [00:25:26] It sounds like a tool almost.
Maureen: [00:25:28] It is a tool. That's what I mean. We're not disregarding this because it's like performance art is just a funny fling of a thing. It's that you're showing up recognizing you don't have to take life seriously. You can be sincere about your relationships and how you show up, but it doesn't have to be so serious.
Christian: [00:25:48] Hmm.
Maureen: [00:25:49] So again, some more ways to do this. I just had a - I just had a person email me this morning and, you know, one of the gifts we give on the podcast is that people can go to the Patreon page or to the website and get a free ebook from me. That's The Miracle Workers Guide to the Galaxy.
Christian: [00:26:08] Yeah.
Maureen: [00:26:09] And in that process of getting that book, I ask people when they receive it, where would they most like to experience a Miracle in their life? And it's something that I can respond to when someone asks that. So, um, let me just read this here.
Before I read that email and what I had responded to her, I just want to say this one quote from Thomas Moore, great guy. He wrote a book, Care of the Soul, many years ago. I actually spent time with him on a retreat in Stonehenge.
Christian: [00:26:42] Wow.
Maureen: [00:26:43] We wound up being on the same retreat and the same buses and things so I got a chance to talk to him. Great guy. So he has this quote that speaks to the same thing: "For the Soul, it is important to be taken out of the rush of practical life for the contemplation of timeless and eternal realities."
Christian: [00:27:02] Yeah.
Maureen: [00:27:03] Isn't that amazing when we see that this is an opportunity to do that? I truly, with all of my Heart and Soul, hope that this is an opportunity that does not get missed.
Christian: [00:27:13] Yeah.
Maureen: [00:27:14] You know, that we don't come out the other side of this thing... "Okay. Let's just, shake this off and wash our hands of this." And then be onto life as typical and normal.
Christian: [00:27:23] Yeah.
Maureen: [00:27:24] I really, truly with all my heart, hope that this creates a new normal. Where we have a bar that's exponentially higher for what we expect to experience in life for ourselves. A bar that shows that we know we're Divine and Miraculous and amazing and awesome. And that our highest purpose is joy. What comes from that?
Christian: [00:27:44] Yeah.
Maureen: [00:27:45] So. Again, back to this email that I received from a woman named Monica: "The area in my life where I would love to experience a Miracle now is finances." So I wrote her this answer that I feel is important for everybody to know, because it is very grounded. And I want you to know that miracles are very tangible when you have a grounded way to approach them - that might seem very strange, even to people who are typically very pragmatic or "normal" in quotes -
Christian: [00:28:16] Yeah.
Maureen: [00:28:16] - but you have to know that this is how it works and it's real. Okay. I said to her:
Dear Monica, I'd suggest that to begin, start out slow and steady. Don't put any undue pressure on yourself, especially now during such interesting and unquantifiable times. Know that this is all for ultimate good. And that this too shall pass. Keep your eyes and heart focused solely on where you want to go and be in life, not on where you don't want to go. This is key. Be sure to see and feel yourself receiving unexpected money. And I highlighted, I bolded unexpected. That way you can let go easier and receive. It's unexpected. At the most challenging time in my life financially, after having worked "so hard", in quotes, I lost everything. Literally. We've talked about that on other episodes.
Christian: [00:29:12] The recession, right?
Maureen: [00:29:13] Right. Well, during yeah, 2008. So very similar time to this. I literally lost everything. I then decided I'd rather have money "come to me", in quotes, "in ways that surprise and delight me" unquote, instead of following my old model where I had worked so hard and still lost everything. Once I started focusing on and intending that, I started having all kinds of money come to me in, yes, surprising and delightful ways. For instance, I consistently got checks in the mail for overpayments I didn't know I'd made, class action suits, rebates and all kinds of, in quotes, "gifts checks." Money began coming to me in steady streams. Here's exactly how I did it. Okay. I want everybody to hear this and to know this, this is when you're facing a bank account that has literally nothing in it. This is what happened to me. And I said, well, I could work harder. At what?
Christian: [00:30:10] Yeah.
Maureen: [00:30:10] You don't even know what to do, just like we don't know what to do right now.
Christian: [00:30:13] Hmm.
Maureen: [00:30:13] So here all along, I didn't really truly a hundred percent believe that I could have, made my life easy by just intending that I had money come. I didn't ever believed that before, but I had nowhere to go because I had lost everything and working really hard just didn't do it for me.
Christian: [00:30:33] Yeah.
Maureen: [00:30:34] So I thought, you know, that might work for someone else, but maybe it doesn't work for me personally. So I knew that I had to do it differently and this is again, here's exactly how I did it. I'm back to reading this email to Monica:
Here's exactly how I did it. Every morning I'd be still, meditate and pray. And when I felt clicked in, I'd say, and even write down: "And please bring me money today in ways that surprise and delight me. So I know you're listening to me now." I'm going to say that again. "And please bring me money today in ways that surprise and delight me. So I know you're listening now." And remember we said before this, if life is a performance art, your highest purpose is joy.
Christian: [00:31:23] Hmm.
Maureen: [00:31:24] If I was working so hard and not feeling joyful, of course you're going to find that the stream of income dries up.
Christian: [00:31:31] Yeah.
Maureen: [00:31:32] Now everybody's getting a chance to reevaluate and reassess. Was the work they were doing bringing them joy?
Christian: [00:31:41] Hmm.
Maureen: [00:31:41] And did it feel like a win-win? Like what they gave, they also received that same kind of value? It's important. These are big questions we're asking now, for people to reevaluate the way they show up to life. And we don't do this often enough just by default. Often we need dramatic circumstances to make us do these kinds of things. So losing everything? Okay I, I believe in, and I talk about the miraculous all the time. The rubber just met the road. I got to have miracles here now because I can't work any harder than I was working and still lose everything. So when I click in in the morning, I'd say, and even write down, "And please bring me money today in ways that surprise and delight me so I know you're listening to me now." Then I'd feel SO MUCH Gratitude because, again, I had nothing to lose. I'm laying in bed. People have more time now to go inward and spend time with their Joyous Self - remember the Soul's inherently joyful. So if I felt SO MUCH gratitude, that meant in that moment, I was truly aligned with the Soul of me. Gratitude that I showed up finally, instead of working so hard.
Christian: [00:32:56] Hmm.
Maureen: [00:32:57] And that part of me said, okay, now we're in alignment. Now we're in win-win. Sure. You always deserved joy and delight and surprises. You just didn't leave any room for them. I was working too hard, with the same old model and paradigm. That you work hard, you know, this whole, uh, what became the Protestant work ethic. That you're important and valuable if you're working hard, that proves that you deserve to be on planet earth.
Christian: [00:33:24] Yeah.
Maureen: [00:33:25] That is not the way for us to move forward from this pandemic.
Christian: [00:33:28] So it's like you're clearing bandwidth for this new State of Being.
Maureen: [00:33:32] And a new reality that we're about to move into that our needs can be met. You know, we talked about Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs and the baseline is that you have shelter and security and your basic needs are met. What's important here is you're recognizing you're meeting your own basic need of living a joyful life first. Of knowing that these needs will be met if you align with Who you Truly are, things will come to you.
Christian: [00:33:59] Hmm.
Maureen: [00:33:59] So the next thing I wrote to her in this was: Then I'd feel so much gratitude and go about my day. At the day's end, before bed, I'd write in a gratitude journal about what came to me with profuse gratitude. It was already happening because in the world of the miraculous, time and space is relative. Just like Einstein said, miraculous guy that he was.
Christian: [00:34:25] Yeah.
Maureen: [00:34:26] You're transforming your future in the present to renew the past. Who cares if you were broke. If it stopped me from working so hard, and now all of a sudden I have money coming to me - literally every day I was getting checks.
Christian: [00:34:39] Yeah.
Maureen: [00:34:39] That were random checks. I got so used to it, that I actually forgot to do it, it became so normal for me. And here I am at the end of the day, just really aligning with the Divine. And it felt beautiful. It felt like all the angst of not having money was completely gone.
Christian: [00:34:58] Yeah.
Maureen: [00:34:59] It was like performance art! Although I'm showing up grateful. Because I had such a great performance today and it was almost, again, like my future was transformed in the present as the past was renewed and there was no need for me to say, "Oh, you know that past, I did it wrong or I could do it better." Who cares? It brought me to the moment of liberation with my own self, as far as the basic needs I had being met.
Christian: [00:35:28] So... in that case, when you had lost everything and, um, this is what you had, like you had nothing to fall back on, you didn't judge yourself for even doing this right? I know that you were in this practice, but as like a person who had never done this before...
Maureen: [00:35:44] Well, it was really interesting because for me, my intention had been win-win, you know, I only did the work that I was doing in order for everyone to have a happier life. And so, even though I was working really hard, it was inspired -
Christian: [00:35:57] Yeah.
Maureen: [00:35:57] - in that I couldn't not write the books I was writing, or not do the things I was doing. And I truly, truly with all my heart believed in it, but I didn't realize that at the time I had that Still Small Voice, the Soul, saying to me, "Maureen, stop." And I didn't understand what that meant because I thought, you know, I'm doing everything for The Divine. I'm doing this win-win.
Christian: [00:36:18] Yeah.
Maureen: [00:36:19] So I believe that not only will this pass, this pandemic, but at best it's a gift of Grace for all of us to recognize we're getting this collective slow down. This reset button. We want to recognize what's most valuable and important to us and have utmost joy in the process. This is about saying, "Bring me the things that bring me joy in a way that surprises and delights me. So I know you're listening now." So then what I said in this email to her after that was... I'll pick it up again where I said:
And then I'd feel SO MUCH gratitude and go about my day. At the day's end, before bed, I'd write in a gratitude journal about what came to me with profused gratitude. It was all between me and the Divine, and the most beautiful experience and profound time of healing and realization. Only love is real. We are never alone, and we are amply, amply blessed. It was all very fun at a very challenging time financially. And most importantly, it reminded me consistently that the Divine has my back and is listening and has a great sense of humor - the truest relief - and we are so cherished and loved.
And then I just said to her: Try it. It's a great stress relief and a beautiful way to connect to the Divine most tangibly.
Christian: [00:37:47] Wow.
Maureen: [00:37:47] I ended it with relax and receive. Now the big relax is when we realize that things don't have to go our way completely, for us to realize that we are inherently taken care of. And as long as we stay committed to peace, committed to joy in that space between you and you, then we are only meant to go out into the world to share that with others. That's the performance art. You being connected to who you truly are, no matter what's going on in the world, knowing that you're Divinely Guided, and deliberately sent wherever you go. "Tell me where to go. Tell me what to do. Tell me what to say and to whom, and I will to do it and nothing more."
Christian: [00:38:35] Hmm.
Maureen: [00:38:35] I didn't have to work so hard. I had been working so hard, taking that upon myself as being the good image of who I was. What if right now people are being told to relax and reset? Just as Maya Angelou said in that beautiful reading. What if you're here for so much more and you don't even know it because you're rushing around doing the things you think are so important, but you didn't take that time to reset and really evaluate what it is that you're here for in life.
Christian: [00:39:04] Yeah. It's like you're missing parts of yourself in the moment. While you were saying that, a vision came into my head of when I was 22 and I had to, like, pretty much survive on like $7. So I would have like hot dogs, mac and cheese...
Maureen: [00:39:18] I had those times in my twenties too, I believe it's character building.
Christian: [00:39:22] Yeah!
Maureen: [00:39:22] It shows you your resourcefulness and your creativity... man! I could make a coffee table out of anything, you know?
Christian: [00:39:28] Yeah! Yeah. So I see all these, like, limitations I had and I know how miserable I was when I was 22, while that was happening. But all those things lend to the person I am now.
Maureen: [00:39:41] But I also have to stop you right there. And if you went back in your mind's eye, in this miraculous moment in this conversation -
Christian: [00:39:47] Yeah.
Maureen: [00:39:47] - and you looked at yourself at that age,
Christian: [00:39:50] yeah.
Maureen: [00:39:51] And you had no judgment about yourself.
Christian: [00:39:53] Mmhm.
Maureen: [00:39:54] Can you imagine how you'd show up to the day differently?
Christian: [00:39:57] Yeah.
Maureen: [00:39:57] It's all the judgment that keeps us disconnected. It's the thing that draws a black curtain between us and our real lives!
Christian: [00:40:04] Yeah.
Maureen: [00:40:04] I'll tell you, I told this story in a previous episode that people probably aren't going to get a chance to listen to until after we do these pandemic episodes -
Christian: [00:40:13] Yeah.
Maureen: [00:40:13] - that not only did I have no money, but I had a $100 bill and a $50 bill in my wallet that got stolen! And when it got stolen, I literally stopped and said to my Divine Self, "Do I really need that? Or do they need more?"
Christian: [00:40:29] Yeah.
Maureen: [00:40:30] Like who does that? When that's the last money you have on planet earth? That's how connected I became, that I knew I had to listen to what's in the flow of life and of Grace. And that if I wound up with literally nothing and even no clothes on my back, so what?
Christian: [00:40:47] Yeah.
Maureen: [00:40:47] What would happen to me? Something! The next moment would happen and the next moment would happen and the next moment would happen, and I could show up to those moments expecting to be surprised and delighted, with my highest purpose being joy -
Christian: [00:41:02] Hmm.
Maureen: [00:41:03] - and really knowing that that's what the Divine wants for us. You know, I'm fortunate. I know the Divine firsthand loves us impeccably, is nothing but Unconditional Love and only wants our happiness and joy. Well, look at the world at large. Is that everybody else's agenda towards you?
Christian: [00:41:22] No.
Maureen: [00:41:22] Well then why don't you just connect with your Best Friend?
Christian: [00:41:25] Yeah.
Maureen: [00:41:26] You know, it's sane. Do it in the morning before you engage with the day, you're going to have a much better experience here.
Christian: [00:41:32] Yeah.
Maureen: [00:41:33] A miraculous experience.
Christian: [00:41:35] I don't know how, uh, more clear you can put this.
Maureen: [00:41:37] Yeah. I mean, I can be very emphatic. But it's not going to change anyone's mind if I start to really like, get on a soap box now. It's something for you to experience.
Christian: [00:41:48] Yeah.
Maureen: [00:41:48] And believe me, the Divine is relentless in wanting us to wake up to how awesome we all are, and how impeccably loved we are and how safe and secure we are when we connect to the Divinity of us. Even if you're just doing it as an inquiry. "I'm curious. I want to connect with the Divinity of me now." Maybe this is the first time you're even entertaining this, listening to this podcast. Just let yourself slow down and relax. If you're running, you're not gonna get to the Divine because it's slow and present. It's Stillness itself. I remember in - I said this also at one point in time during a previous episode - just shortly after I woke up I was at church with one of my daughters, and the hymn "Hurry the Lord is Near" was the name of the song. And I was awake enough to know, you know, it's nice to be around people who are all focused on the Divine. So I loved church. I loved being out at the sunrise. I loved being in the mountains, loved being at the ocean. I loved being everywhere, just like we're saying. And so I had no judgments about churches or non-churches, nothing. I just knew everything was Grace. So I thought, let me go back to some of these things I had done before, just because it was the in quotes, "right thing to do", like go to church.
Christian: [00:43:06] Yeah.
Maureen: [00:43:07] And see what it feels like being awake and listening to sermons and things like that. And it was pretty eyeopening, I'll tell ya. So this one time when the song was "Hurry, the Lord is near" I leaned over to her and she was at the age, you know, where kids like to roll their eyes at their parents, I guess about 12, maybe 13 even. And I said, "Maybe if they slow down, he can catch up." And I truly meant it because we go so fast and never slow down, but where are we going?
Christian: [00:43:42] It's such a great question. Where are we going? People have theories. That like we're pushing towards like a new Dawn of an Age or like a Renessaince or everything's closing down...
Maureen: [00:43:52] I believe we could could go right into a Renaissance after this. I truly believe -
Christian: [00:43:55] Wow.
Maureen: [00:43:56] - that most creatives are going to be raring, like horses at the gate, ready to be let out and run. The creatives are going to really take over unapologeticly.
Christian: [00:44:06] So what do you say to those people who want to run out of the gate?
Maureen: [00:44:09] Yeah. Right now: be still, connect deeply, know what you love, know what brings you the most joy, and know that this is win-win. When you're being your Authentic Self and you're let out of the gate?
Christian: [00:44:21] Yeah.
Maureen: [00:44:21] The world is going to have so many creatives show up, and I don't mean just in the world of art. Again, this is performance art, at best, that we're showing up to perform and see life as a work of art. But that's scientists, that's the healthcare community. That's people who said this was really too intense and hard for me to deal with like - like me working so hard and having nothing to show for it!
Christian: [00:44:46] Yeah.
Maureen: [00:44:47] So many people are having their lives upended right now that we want to do this differently so that we feel and know the quality of life right away.
Christian: [00:44:56] Hmm.
Maureen: [00:44:57] You know, how fun is that when you say "bring me money in ways that surprises and delights me" and then you find checks the next day in the mail?
Christian: [00:45:04] Yeah.
Maureen: [00:45:04] There's nothing more fun than immediate satisfaction and gratification at a time when you've been feeling and working so hard and having no success to show for it.
Christian: [00:45:12] Yeah.
Maureen: [00:45:13] Here's something that's really cool that I just read today: a Colorado man just won the lottery twice in one day.
Christian: [00:45:21] Whoa.
Maureen: [00:45:21] A million dollars, each one, after playing the same number for 30 years.
Christian: [00:45:25] Wow.
Maureen: [00:45:26] Isn't that awesome?
Christian: [00:45:27] Yeah that's insane! Yeah -
Maureen: [00:45:28] I think that's the kind of thing that people really can delight in right now - surprising and delightful things that are happening, even during this pandemic.
Christian: [00:45:35] Yeah. Actually, I have a funny story. My mom had played a lottery ticket yesterday, right? And it was like one of these confusing ones with a crossword. So she won, but she thought she won like the big prize.
Maureen: [00:45:48] Ohh!
Christian: [00:45:48] Like 5 million.
Maureen: [00:45:49] Ohhh.
Christian: [00:45:50] I was just like, whoa. And like - but it was like this thing where she told me everything that she ever wanted. Like she, she started -
Maureen: [00:45:58] Oh, how fun is that!
Christian: [00:46:00] Yeah, she was like really dreaming and it's taken me years to know what she wants because she's so, like, insular. You know?
Maureen: [00:46:07] Yeah.
Christian: [00:46:07] So, like, all of a sudden, I got to know all her dreams. And, you know, she gets, she gets away with like a couple of thousand.
Maureen: [00:46:14] What's so fun and great about that, is that anticipation. If you can stay there, even if you haven't really won the lottery -
Christian: [00:46:23] Yeah.
Maureen: [00:46:23] - but you feel that? Like, just the fact that she got a chance to feel that?
Christian: [00:46:28] Yeah.
Maureen: [00:46:28] Now, if she could stay there for no good reason, "I don't know what it is, but I love it"...
Christian: [00:46:32] Yeah.
Maureen: [00:46:33] Then you're that much closer to realizing the experience because it truly does bring you joy and delight. There are plenty of people who have won the lottery that it ruins their lives.
Christian: [00:46:43] Yeah.
Maureen: [00:46:43] Well, so why not do it in your imagination first? Just feel yourself in that state of grace, of receiving happily, joyfully large amounts of abundance, and see if that actually brings you into a further state of Grace. Is it a win-win for everybody in your life?
Christian: [00:47:00] Yeah.
Maureen: [00:47:00] Do you really feel that it's a fun, joyful connection?
Christian: [00:47:04] Yeah. And even in that moment where she did think she - I mean, she was living it - she was still thinking about the rest of us and I was just like, alright...
Maureen: [00:47:13] Isn't that beautiful?
Christian: [00:47:14] Yeah.
Maureen: [00:47:14] There's your win-win.
Christian: [00:47:15] Yeah.
Maureen: [00:47:15] There's a line in A Course in Miracles, "Infinite patience brings immediate results."
Christian: [00:47:22] Hmm.
Maureen: [00:47:23] Now think of that. When you sit down and try to be quiet and you realize your mind is racing and you're still rushing into the future that doesn't exist yet, if you have infinite patience with yourself you start to be nonjudgmental with that 22 year old of yourself.
Christian: [00:47:37] Hmm.
Maureen: [00:47:38] Start to be patient with that 22 year old that was having such a hard time. You were very impatient not to be 22, I'm sure.
Christian: [00:47:46] Yeah.
Maureen: [00:47:47] When you become infinitely patient, you slow down to that place where "hurry the Lord is near" is a ridiculous statement, and you just stop. And you let your True Self arrive. And there you are, in relationship with your True Self saying, "this is what I've missed all along." Money, no money. Work, no work. You're going to see what you create from that. And the things that I created from that space were really powerful and intentional, and immediately satisfying to me and satisfying and impactful to others.
Christian: [00:48:25] Hmm.
Maureen: [00:48:25] A lot more one-on-one work at that time, and the intense situations that people came to me in, you know, life and death situations where what I was most aligned with - the Truth of the Divine will take care of you - was exactly what they needed at that time. And they immediately would come out the other side of major, major, major challenges.
Christian: [00:48:47] So how would you tap into someone who is feeling that intensely? Like how do you pull that part out of them?
Maureen: [00:48:55] You have to stop. First of all, as we've said, you have to stop. You have to have a pattern interrupt. And so a pattern interrupt that I often would give is a 'lightning bolt of realization.' That's why I use that symbol of the lightning bolt so often.
Christian: [00:49:08] Yeah.
Maureen: [00:49:10] Because when you have a lightning bolt insert itself, it's like, whoa! Everything stops. That was the big priority. And you can reset and move on, having seen the whole picture.
Christian: [00:49:23] Hmm.
Maureen: [00:49:23] This is for everyone, to take this moment, this pause, this Divine pause, and use it for whatever it is that makes you feel most joyful, most connected, most aligned. Might be spending time with your animals or children, or just in nature or just in a room by yourself, where you can be with yourself with that infinite patience that brings immediate results. And the immediate results are peace that passes all understanding and that should be the baseline right now.
Christian: [00:49:57] Hmm.
Maureen: [00:49:58] You don't have to know what it is to love it. You just show up and say, I know this is Grace in the making. For the world of the Miracle Renegade, that is a true and powerful mantra: "I know this is Grace in the making." Another thing I said to myself at the time is, " I expect the very best and the very best always comes to me."
Christian: [00:50:19] Hmm.
Maureen: [00:50:19] I got so woven with that idea that it became a fabric of my being.
Christian: [00:50:28] Wow.
Maureen: [00:50:28] "I expect the very best and the very best always comes to me." Now, what this does is it liberates you from the idea that the only way to get out of this mess is if a government helps you or some wonderful organization helps you. You might get government assistance and you might get help from a beautiful organization or a neighbor or great people. But you will be very clear and understand that that comes to you via the Divine.
Christian: [00:50:58] Hmm.
Maureen: [00:50:59] That the timing is perfect, that it couldn't have been better. People show up and say the perfect thing at the perfect time. You'll be waiting and watching and looking for the bigger picture of the win-win here.
Christian: [00:51:14] Yeah.
Maureen: [00:51:14] As somebody gives you something, but you can see in their eyes and in their heart that they're receiving in the giving of that. That they're not losing anything. That they gain in the giving. A lot of people are understanding that for the first time firsthand. That when you give from that selfless place, that it's coming from the overflow because you've been receiving your inspiration, your insights, your connectivity, from the Divine - from the very first breath in the morning till your very last breath before you fall asleep at night. Then that, in essence, is you just showing up as the hands, the eyes, the feet, the ears, the mouth for the Divine.
Christian: [00:51:51] Hmm.
Maureen: [00:51:52] And you're capable of doing it much more fluidly and effortlessly because it's that spaciousness within you that's, that's moving you into and out of the flow of life.
Christian: [00:52:03] Wow. Yeah, that's beautiful.
Maureen: [00:52:05] I read another piece that I thought was really powerful and impactful for these times that I want to read. This is from "Threads" by James Autry. It's from a book called, "In Love and Profit".
Christian: [00:52:17] Hmm.
Maureen: [00:52:17] So I love that because it's kind of this whole thing we're talking about. It doesn't mean that because you're a loving person or that you're a connected-to-the-Divine person that you're going to lose out in life.
Christian: [00:52:27] Hmm.
Maureen: [00:52:27] By being too idealistic or too, you know, pie-in-the-sky positive.
Christian: [00:52:33] Yeah.
Maureen: [00:52:33] This is about, how do we weave these threads together so that it becomes the fabric of your life?
Christian: [00:52:38] Wow.
Maureen: [00:52:38] And the new way of being.
Sometimes you just connect, like that. No big thing maybe, but something beyond the usual busy-ness stuff. It comes and goes quickly, so you have to pay attention. A change in the eyes when you ask about the family. A pain flickering behind the statistics about a boy and a girl in school or about seeing them every other weekend. An older guy talks about his bride, a little affection after 25 years. A hot-eyed achiever laughs before you want him to. Someone tells about his wife's job or why she quit. Working to stay home. An old joker needs another laugh on the way to retirement. A woman says she spends a lot of her salary on an aupair, and a good one is hard to find, but worth it because there's nothing more important than the baby. Listen. In every office, you hear the threads of love and joy and fear and guilt. The cries for celebration and reassurance. And somehow, you know that connecting those threads is what you are supposed to do. And business takes care of itself.
Christian: [00:53:55] Wow.
Maureen: [00:53:56] Isn't that beautiful?
Christian: [00:53:57] Yeah.
Maureen: [00:53:57] I mean, it gives us the real reason that we're doing everything. Again, that miraculous perspective is just a shift. That was him noticing a miracle - that there are threads underneath all of this, that people are experiencing a capacity for a great awakening right now. The thing that makes any work worthwhile is realizing that it's about so much more. It's about the connectivity. It's about the threads and the fabric of our lives.
Christian: [00:54:28] Wow, James Autry?
Maureen: [00:54:30] James Autry. "In Love and Profit." I remember hearing a quote from mother Theresa. The miracle is not that we do this work, but that we are happy to do it."
Christian: [00:54:40] Hmm.
Maureen: [00:54:42] You know, think of that. They're helping lepers on the streets and people who have been sick and dying and they're happy to do that.
Christian: [00:54:52] The thing that they focus on is that she's helping the poor, she's helping the sick, she's going to these places where they need help. And what she's saying is no, it's the fact that I'm happy while doing it. Anyone can be happy doing whatever they want.
Maureen: [00:55:08] Exactly. And I'm sure there are many, many people on the front lines, the healthcare workers and everyone who's out there, that are feeling a deeper fulfillment, like almost sometimes that they can't contain the joy in their bodies when they can help to the degree that they can.
Christian: [00:55:27] Hmm.
Maureen: [00:55:27] In the midst of such crazy and horrible situations. There are so many opportunities to realize right now how fortunate you are. Just stop and realize how fortunate you are right now to be breathing this breath. That is your connection to the Divine. I'll say it relentlessly, like I always do, you came in with your first breath. Every breath you breathe on this planet is that connection to your Soul. You'll leave with your last, that's the Eternal nature of you. Just be grateful for this breath right now, that you're here on planet earth and that you're engaged in whatever it is you're engaged with. Show up fully.
Christian: [00:56:08] Hmm.
Maureen: [00:56:08] Let yourself really appreciate that this is performance art. We're pretending that we're just bodies on this planet when we are so much more. Show up connected to who you truly are by deliberately connecting and being peaceful on purpose. First thing in the morning let yourself be aligned with peace and the perfection of who you are. The True Soul of you, that's Eternal without flaw. And then show up to life and just see it as a joyful opportunity to perform well in relationship with other people, places and things, and really stay consistently abiding in a state of Grace.
Christian: [00:56:52] If you like what you heard, uh, head over to Patrion and check it out. We have meditations, we have books and you can pop over and say hello.