I spent last weekend with my sister, at an online Innate Health conference – the Listening World Summit. Three days of talks, all pointing to the immense power of listening.
(I would say “I'm always amazed that…” so much discussion can be had around something so simple and singular as being present, but you're reading this against the backdrop of 400+ Daily Reminders I have written, all saying exactly the same thing, so I won't – I am no longer amazed! 😆)
As well as an opportunity to slow right down, hang out with my beloved sibling and take stock of where I'm struggling against life unnecessarily, the conference itself also afforded a wealth of metaphors and sayings, some of which I'll explore with you over the coming days.
But first, a simple phrase that Dorthe Fogtmann said on Day 3 of the conference, shook free a memory I've not shared with you before, and highlighted a loose end to the 17 Days of Insight Series I recently wrote for you.
All I heard Dorthe say was that after having first been introduced to the 3 Principles, and ‘getting her head round’ the inside-out understanding, she then saw profound changes occur, once she began “testing whether it's true.”
This in itself isn't new ground for the Daily Reminders, after all I'm always encouraging you all to get your own evidence, and even ‘practice’ this stuff, but when I heard that phrase—“testing whether it's true”—I suddenly remembered what a pivotal day I'd had, in my ‘embodiment’ (for want of a better word) of the 3 Principles.
A day's mingling = “testing whether it's true”
Back when I was first pointed towards the Innate Health understanding, my life and all its problems went from looking one way, to looking another way, over the course of 17 days – something I wrote about at length, over a series of posts (linked here).
On the last of those 17 days (the grand finale!) was a conference talk I gave, where, up on stage, in front of an expectant audience, I dropped all my preparation, all my plans for what I would say, all my expectations of what the talk should cover and—crucially—all ideas of ‘Giles’ and how I should be, and proceeded to deliver something I could not have conceived of, in advance.
It was something that came through me, from life, with precious little conscious intervention from the Giles Ego Construct 📦 (Read about that, here.)
Now, for a guy who liked needed to prepare to the nth degree, this was such a big deal that I described it as ‘death and rebirth’, because it felt like a totally new version of me materialised at the other side of it!
But it didn't end there.
When, this last weekend, I heard Dorthe say that phrase “testing whether it's true” I can remember having that exact same thought, as I emerged onto the main conference hall floor, from the room where I'd given my talk.
“Let's see if I can break this,” I remember challenging myself.
You see, the ‘old’ version of me (the one from a mere hour previously!) really hated mingling on conference floors. I always felt out of place – never really comfortable with chit-chat or talking about my weird and wonderful career and ‘what I was up to’.
For that reason, my usual procedure was to come off stage, do my best to answer any questions that people wanted to ask me privately, and then skedaddle, either to the speakers’ room (if I had another talk to give, later), or back to the train station (if I didn't).
On this day though, I'd just had the most profound experience of pure presence (i.e. who-I-really-was, before all ideas of ‘self’), and was seeing the whole of life through a totally different lens.
“Testing whether it's true” therefore manifested as me throwing myself wholeheartedly into one conversation after another (conversations I would normally have sprinted away from, at speed), being genuinely curious about other people's careers and what was going on for them, and then observing what happened.
Repeatedly, because I wasn't giving thought any credence whatsoever, and instead was actually listening—being, with that person—I discovered that it didn't matter what I did or didn't ‘know’ about the particulars of their career situation (something that had been a source of deep insecurity for me, for many years), I just needed to show up, be present and stay open to whatever made sense to say, when it was my turn to talk.
Wisdom did the rest!
Until I heard Dorthe talking about this the other day, I hadn't fully appreciated what an integral part of the changes I saw, this was. Back then, after I'd really seen something around Innate Health, up there on stage, I then spent a whole day, ‘getting my own evidence’ for the inside-out nature of our experience, and found that indeed, I could find no exceptions to it.
There was no situation where I felt ‘stumped’; no conversation that felt awkward; no interaction where it wasn't as obvious as my own nose that any feelings being experienced were 100% a reflection of thought in the moment, rather than the ‘circumstances’ I was in.
That's when it went from an ‘intellectual understanding’ to more of a wide-eyed, oh-my-god-this-is-actually-how-things-are embodiment.
😵
Of course, it doesn't always feel like this – because I'm human I have insecure interactions with people all the time!
By ‘embodiment’ I mean that having had that experience of “testing whether it's true”, the results are something I can't un-see or un-learn; another feature of being human that seems built in. (It's going beyond mental concepts, to ‘spiritual knowing’, if we're going to use Syd Banks language.)
How about you?
So, what is it you've seen, around the Innate Health understanding? What ‘makes sense’ to you, intellectually?
And do you want that to change things for you, in a way that's beyond your wildest dreams (i.e. anything ego 📦 could conceive of)?
Well then, I can heartily recommend “testing whether it's true” and watching what happens.
💖
Giles
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Not sure what (if anything) you've seen around the understanding? Find out, here.