Letting Go of Reactive Energies | The Michael Singer Podcast

[Music] welcome to season 3 of the Michael Singer podcast Michael Singer is the author of the widely influential New York Times bestsellers the untethered Soul the surrender experiment and most recently living untethered beyond the human predicament produced in partnership with Shanti Publications the Michael Singer podcast brings you select recordings from the Temple of the universe a yoga and meditation center that Michael founded in 1975 this episode is on letting go of reactive energies sounds true would also like you to know about an extraordinary eight-part video course that we've created with Michael Singer it's called living

from a place of surrender the untethered soul in action it's an online course many people report to be utterly lifechanging you can find out more at Michael Singer podcast.com and you can save 15% off any Michael Singer program available through sounds true when you use the code singer 15 at checkout that singer numeral 1 numeral 5 and now letting go of reactive energies with Michael Singer [Music] the center of Consciousness is the most essential thing to spiritual growth if you cannot sit consciously you can't do anything you just become reaction to what's happening around you

you're like a machine somebody says something you react you see something you react this may seem natural and spontaneous but in truth it's all pre-programmed and there's nothing natural or spontaneous about reaction it is just reaction so the first stage in any spiritual progress is the ability to stay centered and be present in between action and reaction you can't even begin to work at the core you're not even working at the periphery if all that happens is you react this work of keeping the center keeping the Consciousness is begun in meditation but it's really practiced

in daily life it is possible to remain conscious every moment all day from the time you wake up until the time you go to sleep do not doubt that it is possible to constantly effortlessly be aware of what is happening outside of you what are the reactions that it is hitting and responding inside of you and you can see what impulses and urges would have driven you to say or do Behavior reaction but you're perfectly capable of sitting there breathing relaxing and just being aware that this is the dance of creation things are happening people

are saying things things are going one way or another and as they come into your world they cause the change in the energy Fields inside of you which create the tendency they don't create action they create the tendency toward action they cause your thoughts to start to manifest a certain way they cause your emotions to begin to express a certain way and normally they would cause your mouth to move and certain words to come out they would cause you to walk toward or away they would run your life the truth is that if you do

this you go nowhere you have to understand that that reacting to the environment outside of you keep keeps you in the karmic patterns of the way that you work there is a reason that certain stimuli cause certain Tendencies of reaction do not call this natural that is a misuse of the word natural nowadays when we say it's natural it spontaneously came up in me it was what I felt really somehow we place something holding on that it's your karmic patterns if a certain stimuli happens almost everyone in this room will have a different reaction there

are some like a lion jumps out or something we all tend to have the same reaction all right but most stimuli that happen during the course of a day we think that everybody is having the same reaction you're crazy it is all dependent upon the past patterns and some scars that you have stored inside of you that determine how your energy will change because of a certain stimula it's an extremely personal thing so don't make it so holy you have to be willing to let it go if you want to work at a deeper level

of your being if you're only going to work at the level of reaction you're not working it's just what naturally takes place and that natural is not so natural and what it will do is keep you caught within your karmic patterns if you have a certain fear due to past experiences and somebody happens to touch it inadvertently whatever they say a certain thing they act a certain way they stand a little too close they take a step back when you're trying to talk to them even the tiniest little thing this will hit that PM scar

that will cause a tendency toward reaction a shift in your energy flow what happens in there is phenomenal because of the slightest thing that happens outside it causes this change in your inner being your reaction to that will always be in harmony with that pattern therefore you will talk or act or do in accordance to that pattern and you will then set into motion behavior that will cause the other person to respond in accordance to your response and you are creating your your environment outside in accordance to your environment inside it's a phenomenal thing to

watch if you get angry you will cause the other person to get angry if you get hurt you will cause hurt to take place outside and then you will feel completely Justified that this is actually what took place in that interaction and you don't realize that it isn't what took place it's just the reaction that happened in you and that can change so there is no work on yourself until you can remain conscious you have to do whatever you can do meditate anything that you possibly can do just to be able to remain conscious during

the course of every single interaction of every single day there is never a reason to lose your Center no matter what anybody does no matter what happens to you you have to be capable of knowing that it is happening to you now you have earned the right that most people don't have is to figure out now what do I do because it's a frightening state to become conscious of where you're at you'll immediately think that you're going backwards the more conscious you get in the beginning the more you think you're slipping on the path why

because you start seeing all this stuff that you never saw before you start seeing all these reactive Tendencies what in the world is going on inside of me how did I get so ugly how did I get so scared how did I get so fearful how did I get so reactive this yoga is messing me up that's what you people tend to feel they feel all that reaction happen inside of them and they think they're going the wrong way eventually you catch on that this has been going on inside of you your whole life and

you have been acting accordingly based on how your mother treated you your father treated you anything that happened in your whole life you're just responding and reacting accordingly once you meditate enough or you do whatever it is that you need to do then stimuli happen outside they will certainly hit what is inside of you and they will cause a change in your energy the difference now is you feel that you're aware of that and the beginning of working deeper within yourself is that you don't go with that I think the beginning of spirituality is self

discipline that's what all the Masters taught it's even the heart of the religious teachings is until you can Master yourself you have no possibility of going any deeper so you're taught to fast there's periods of fasting there's periods of Silence there's so many different things that are taught they have no meaning in and of themselves there's no great thing in not eating there's no great thing in not talking it is the ability to not eat it is the ability to not talk when you want to talk it is the ability to sit in the presence

of people when you're uncomfortable and watch that silent period that happens when nobody's talking and your heart gets all weird and your stomach gets weird and your mind starts thinking a mile a minute of things to say that will start a conversation up and you start noticing how uncomfortable you are spirituality is being comfortable in that uncomfortable State spirituality is the ability to not talk when you want to talk because you see that the Imp this for any words that you would say are completely impure you were coming from a pace of insecurity therefore anything

that you say is not a conversation worth having because it's just being said for the wrong reason and so you learn to practice the disciplines it's essential to be able to do this to where when you most want to talk because you're uncomfortable you keep your mouth shut when you most want something because it caused a reaction inside of you when somebody said something you most want them to say they're sorry or they better take it back or say that they didn't mean it every single thing inside of you is burning and just wants to

do something about it spirituality is the ability to do nothing about it because nothing you're going to gain through that outer experience really has any effect of change inside of you if that's what you do is start a conversation when you feel uncomfortable not walk into a room because you're afraid people will notice you if somebody says something that you don't like you find ways to write or say or do things to get them to be sorry so they'll never say it again in other words if you manipulate your environment so that you're feeling okay

that is the epitome of working at the surface what's going to change you've by definition said not me I'm not going to change these energies are going to react the way that they react I'm going to honor them as though they were something holy and what's going to change is you you're going to change your attitude you're going to change how you talk to me you're going to change when you come you're going to change when you go every single person and thing around me is going to go through some serious change aren't they and

I'm going to make sure that they do I'm going to let them know that they are not to talk to me that way I'm going to let them know that I will not tolerate this that this should not be this way that this is wrong I'm going to argue with them I'm going to prove it to them whatever it is in other words nothing in here is saying I will change everything in here is saying I will not change I am fine the way I am in fact I'm the highest one around here okay I'm

the one who's clear I have it right and everything out there is to change why just get it straight what you're saying so that I don't have to change because I am not going to change that's not even working at the surface is it that's called not working you've decided not not to work on yourself please look at that how can personal change take place in that environment so you attempt to use all of this reactive energy that comes up inside of you to gain control over the people places and things outside of you so

that you don't have to change and what you are doing is reinforcing these energies every single time something comes up inside of you that you feel someone doesn't like you or that you feel afraid or you want something and you respond according accordingly to your outer environment you are saying to these energies yes you are right I agree with you you are the way I want to be come up and express yourself and strengthen yourself and you build habits of energies flowing that way so all of that is not yoga when you want to grow

you wake up and you realize growth is about me changing it is not about me changing my environment it is about my environment changing me if I want to change I have to at least work with these energies that react inside of me now you get the first step down and we've talked about before I don't think there's any way to take that step inside until you stop ping with the outside you have to be willing like I said to not eat when you want to eat to be silent when you want to talk the

stronger the impulses the more fun it is and you get tremendously strong within yourself to realize that you're the captain of your own ship you must take control over these reactive energies that are inside of you so the first step of working at the deeper parts inside of you is to not go with yourself under what situations should you go with yourself when you decide that you don't want to grow when you decide you're tired of growing and you want to stay the way you are and you really want these energies to be disturbing you

inside then give them the right to run your life and dump on somebody cuz that's what you're doing I can't handle the energy inside of me and you're going to be sorry that you're anywhere near me not to mention that I can blame it on you that I can in some way shape or form say you made me feel this way therefore these are your energies not mine and I'm going to let you know what they feel like and you sit there and try to dump the energies out so you stop doing this you just

stop it how I won't answer that if somebody comes to me and says I understand everything you're saying and I real think I need to work with myself but I don't know how to do it that's a lie because the truth of the matter is you want to do it you do it you don't want to do it you don't do it you're sitting there you start feeling uncomfortable it's no conversations taking place your mind says God the weather no I don't want talk about the weather that stupid says I want her sister how's her

sister I ask no I don't want ask about her sister she'll know I'm just making anybody ever have anything like that going on in there then you just you take super glue you put it on your lips all right and you sit there and say sooner the Sun and Moon and Y used to say sooner the Sun and Moon should change places then this mouth is opening and this tongue is flapping all right because I know that I'm full of it all right I see where I'm coming from and I don't want to be that

person I will not be that person that is not denial you're not suppressing that is called Consciousness awareness and you are using your willpower in order to at least start an environment of transformation so when you want out you will do this if you don't want out you will find a thousand million excuses not to do it and don't you dare go anywhere else when you're finding excuses not to do it and expect someone to do it for you or teach you how to do it or come up with some magic technique that's going to

make it so you don't have to do you have to want out more than you want to make it be comfortable for yourself so you keep your mouth shut and now what happens now you begin to work deeper inside of you and what you end up with is you end up working with yourself never is the work with other people don't ever get caught thinking you're somebody else's teacher or that in this situation you have to make sure somebody understands if you work with yourself you will change the Vib vibrations all around you and everybody

will grow not just you if you decide that you're right and others are wrong and you use these energies inside of you to change other people wait till you see what happens nobody changes all you do is fight you end up fighting with people there is no reason to fight [Music] faced with life's challenges and uncertainties many of us feel quite stressed and overwhelmed but does it have to be this way with his newest book living untethered Michael singer has written a followup to the spiritual classic the untethered Soul taking us within to our still

and liberated Center to learn more about this book and Michael singer's other offerings please visit living dunte [Music] Lau says a wise man never argues for what purpose why would you argue the only reason you would argue is because the energies inside of you are making you do it they are causing so much disturbance inside of you that you have to end this conversation through being right or through winning or by getting an apology and so you end up fighting outside because in reality you're fighting inside so the work starts when you stop doing this

with the outside when you're willing to own everything that's going on inside of you as yours and you're not rationalizing or blaming or doing anything outside do you see that now you can begin to work at a deeper level what happens if you manage to attain that state that every time these reactive energies try to force you to do something you're conscious and you remain centered within yourself now you end up with the Hot Potato now I have all these reactive energies inside of me and I'm strong enough to not let them out now what

I'm going to cook they're going to drive me crazy all right and you start noticing some really great things you become very wise first you notice that your mind goes crazy I love it people come to me and they say since I've been meditating my mind goes crazy this is good it's because you're not letting it do everything it used to do to not go crazy and so these energies inside first try to express themselves through the mind have you noticed has anybody noticed that if you do not let it express itself outside it first

finds the next week link your your strongest weak link or your weakest link is your outer expression it just happens just like this you just dump the energy for your mouth for your actions whatever if you don't do that then it goes to your mind and your mind starts talking about what it would say if you let it say just trying and do his silence a little bit it just starts saying everything it would have said it carries on both sides of the conversation how often do you carry on both sides of the conversation it's

just wonderful so it all goes into the mind that is this reactive energy that was stimulated due to your karmic patterns don't you dare think that everybody's mind is the same everybody's mind is the same as all neurotic that I agree but not everybody's mind is saying the same thing it's all based upon what your karmic patterns are and your some scars yours is completely unique everybody wants to be unique you're already unique you don't have to prove yourself at all your mind says totally weird things different than anybody else's all right but it doesn't

know that and it literally thinks that it is in there saying the same thing that everybody else's mind is saying watch how you think that you assume that that everybody's the same as yours you've never been in anybody else's so how do you know all right and you're inside of yours so much that's the only frame of reference that you have so now you watch these reactive energies you see that the mind is trying to convince you to do something the Mind wants to do something to make these energies get calmer you have to learn

to not do this you learn to be able to sit there consciously even though the mind is saying all this and you start to then notice that there are feelings underneath all of this that were causing the mind to do it and would have caused the actions to happen now notice every step you're taking the way to take the step to the root is by not operating at the level in front of it if you operate at the level in front of it then that's where the energy goes you either exercise through action or what

you do with your mind I'll spend one second you know the main thing people do with their minds is they rationalize they get it together they sit there and make it all make sense so they go in there they say things like somebody says something bothers you you want to argue back okay but you keep your mouth shut that's really good and now what does your mind do does it get like totally silent the minute you do that there's just absolute silence not a word is being said the universe of silence passes through never instead

it says things like my God I wonder if he even notices what I have to say if he knew if I gave him a piece he say he's lucky that I've learned to shut my mouth all right next time which he does this next time I'm not keeping my mouth shut and it just goes on and on and then then it says things like boy am I getting high I am really I can't believe I was able to not say he was so wrong I mean I am so high I have got it together so

much this is unbelievable if he had any idea how great I am that I'm in this and it just goes on and on and on what it's trying to do is find a way to balance these energies yoga teaches something much much deeper yoga says it is good that these energies are building up inside of you so that you can see them you're a conscious being you should be able to work with your energies they shouldn't get stuck inside of you and cause all this trouble so the first thing you will see is that the

easiest way to release the Disturbed energies is through disturbing the environment around you second is through playing this mind game of finding ways to think about it that makes it feel better anybody ever do that you just find ways to think about it that somehow if you think about it just right then it all gets quiet doesn't it you are rationalizing thoughts so that the energies get balanced if you're on a spiritual path they're very much like the ones I just told you that if you're disturbed by something you're jealous somebody did something you feel

jealous you find so many different clothes to put on so you say things like it's his karma let God take care of it he'll find out and by not reacting I'm being so good this is so unbelievable like I said I never thought You' do such a thing God will be so pleased with me someday he'll see how good I am he can't see now all right but I'll stand by him and I'll do this and it says all this stuff and what it does if it says just the right thing in just the right

way all of a sudden it feels much better it talked itself out of its Disturbed energy it was able to manipulate and move the energies through manipulating the Mind instead of manipulating the outer situations do anybody else do that you see how when something's disturbing you that you try to use your mind to fix it what do you think you're doing just watch this process that's what it means to be conscious why is this not a good it's okay to do this all right like I said each layer that you come in closer is at

least closer to the root ultimately it's not to do this how do I know because if you sit there and you get it all packaged right I'm really getting high and I God will show him and someday he'll know how good I am and so on all right you've built a self-concept you built a world defined and if anything doesn't fit that or match that if all of a sudden he turns around and says I know what you're thinking you're thinking that someday I'll find out that you're right way do you see what happens to

you everything will go berserk again it's like somebody actually took away your hiding place can they do that can something happen outside that stops you from being able to think about it the way you did and then all of a sudden the energies go crazy again instead of fighting with this you should learn from this it proves to you that what you're doing is trying to use the world or thought to get your energies together they are not good places to work with things so your mind starts going crazy it starts saying things what do

you do you don't listen to it that's very hard most people have a lot of trouble with that it was hard enough not to react outside now you let the Mind say whatever it wants and you don't put yourself into it you don't let it fix you how do you like that if it finds a place that feels comfortable you kick the chair out from under you do not let yourself sit in the comfortable little world you built in your mind because you're just building a fictitious place that makes your energy feel more balanced you

don't want that it will get destroyed soon enough don't worry so if you don't listen to your mind way do you see where you end up next you keep coming closer and closer to the root of your being the next place you end up is your heart this will happen very naturally you don't need any teachings just don't go with the thing in front of it use that discipline and you will find that the energies go closer to their Source once you get to the heart you will feel tremendous disturbance you will see that you're

oh my God what a mess you are you're very insecure you're afraid it's unbelievable what is going on inside the heart that was what was causing the mind and causing the outer actions to take place don't be afraid of it it's going on inside of everybody's heart you hear me it's very scary in the heart isn't it if you ever really go in there you will see that you are scared if you you don't see that you're scared you have not gone there you're scared when people talk to you you're scared when people walk up

to you you're scared when people walk away you're scared when you talk to people that maybe you said something that will have bothered them or they don't think nicely of you it's very touchy and sensitive you know they say like romantic the heart is sensitive the heart is real sensitive and you will find that it's very difficult to live in the heart because it's a mess so you will see that that is where the Rea energies come from what do you do same thing you did with everything else if you can sit in that heart

when it's throwing these things up at you and not do anything remember I said Consciousness was the whole thing now you're sitting here watching this stuff burn in your heart you don't do anything you just sit there the next step back is where you want to be because The Next Step Beyond the heart is the witness nothing's left to watch and anymore except the Watcher and you will find yourself more and more being the being who is aware of this process of reaction until eventually you will never react again you don't ever go with reactive

energies and when you can sit in the self and watch this tendency to react a very beautiful thing happens we've discussed this before by the way that is the root when you are down in the heart watching these energies get created and aware of what they would do if you let them but yet you are sitting in a state of clarity of awareness you watch the trees move you hear the sounds around you and at the same exact time you are aware of every single thing that is moving inside of your heart and of what

you would be thinking doesn't thought doesn't come you're just aware of what would come tendency is there this is what we call the causal body you're at that point working in the causal body the things are not manifesting but your awareness is so present that you can see what they would do if they were permitted to and so from this state of awareness all things are available to you the outer world is seen and the whole inner world is seen and you will see that they have a relationship with each other they dance with each

other they are interactive and integral and if you don't react you get to watch all this and what you will see is that they balance each other that you don't have to do anything about anything and everything you do about anything will cause disturbance and this is the state the G talks about the deep deep states of nership have you learned that yet that you don't have have to do anything about anything you don't have to do anything about anything it all naturally unfolds as it passes through you if you don't react to it if

people are walking toward you and you want them to come toward you and so you start reacting you go running toward them they may run away if people are walking toward you and you're afraid of them and so you start resisting then you run away you cause disturbance if people are walking toward you and you really don't want them to walk past you because you don't know what will happen at least if they're in front of you you have some control so you put your hands out and you hold them in front of you you

get really tired and you have to spend your whole life holding these people in front of you anything you do messes things up if you just sit there they will come toward you and eventually you will find out their intention you don't have to guess it you don't have to protect yourself you you don't have to grab you don't have to pull you don't have to push you permit energies to unfold in their own time in their own way that is the definition of non-reactive you permit energies to unfold in their own way at their

own pace in their own course you let them go where they must go and not go where they don't go and what will happen is eventually you will come to peace because you will realize that all these reactive energies were not necessary that all that's happening is the universe is unfolding and you have the honor of being aware of it and there's no reason to bring all of your past fears to the party if you bring your past fears to the party you will not let the universe unfold you will react to it and you

will cause disturbance so from this state of work which to me is what it means to work at the root when you are just aware and all things are unfolding and if there's work to do it's to not react I want to know you when you have at least come to the knowledge that all reactive energy causes disturbance all of it but there are no conditions in which reactive energy is not your past Karma being brought into the present moment and that you do not need that that the universe will unfold better than what you

can do with it and that's when the Miracles start happening when you're not doing it God shows up and it becomes a reality there are no conditions in which you have to get into that reactive State and I say it again and again because the mind does not believe that the Mind believes if I don't do it it's going to be a mess and what I'm saying is my experience is if you do do it it's a mess and that very few people have ever seen what it would be like if they didn't do it

and so the energies come and there will be natural interaction what is meant to happen will happen and you just experiment for what it would be like to let this take place so the working at the root is to sit within the consciousness and let the dance of life pass through you and if you do this what happens to you is phenomenal the state of Peace of joy of Serenity as well as the grace that happens all around you because you're permitting God to do God's thing we say not my will but thy will I

wonder who's willing to live that the reason people don't see that is because what is happening is God's will how hard is that to digest what is happening is God's will whose else's will did you think it was there is only God all that there is in the universe is your Consciousness God and what's left of you and what's happening is God is happening and you're reacting and your Consciousness is losing its Center when you let go of you there's nothing but God and Consciousness and like I said that's when the Miracles take place so

this is your work spirituality is not so complicated it doesn't take a million techniques it doesn't take books upon books upon books all it takes is the willingness to remain conscious and centered and to not go with the reactive energies when they come up inside of you and if your mind is even asking how do I know if these are the reactive energies then you don't want out yet because it is so obvious that these energies are jumping up inside of you and causing these actions that it's impossible for me to believe that you don't

know what's happening it's just that you don't want to let go of this one and so you find reasons that this one's different and then you say it's not reactive I'm doing what I should be doing because the other person was wrong and you go to this whole thing but if you're sincere you will get past this and you will learn to let go of all of these things and you attain to a very deep State [Music] CH you've been listening to the Michael Singer podcast produced by sounds true in partnership with Shanti Publications sounds

true is the co-publisher of Michael singer's newest book living untethered beyond the human predicament we've also joined with him to produce an extraordinary eight-part video course it's called living from a place of surrender the untethered soul in action you can find out more at Michael Singer podcast.com and you can save 15% off any Michael Singer program available through sounds true when you use the code singer 15 at checkout that's singer numeral 1 numeral 5 at checkout the music you heard on this podcast is the song giving it all by be still the Earth thank you

so much for listening sounds true waking up the world [Music] [Music]