Hello and welcome to Find Your Way, the podcast. I’m your host Gena McLean, author of the book Find Your Way and writer under the name Seeker and Sage. It’s a joy to be bringing this content to you, and my hope is that it finds its way into your mind and heart, nourishing you and supporting you as you find your way.  

Hello and welcome to this special edition episode, which is episode 10 of Find Your Way the podcast. As you know, episodes one through nine are based on the contents of the book and me presenting to you the preface, the introduction, the five chapters and the conclusion and me unpacking a couple of entries from each chapter. 

And I’ve just been listening to those again myself, which is always a bit daunting, hearing your own voice. But, that coupled with what I’m feeling and sensing in the community that I live in, as well as the Seeker and Sage community, is the current struggle people are having with the restrictive life that we’re living. And so I really felt that I wanted to respond to that through a podcast episode. 

So that’s what I’m doing right now, and I’m calling it living well with lock down because that’s really what so many of us are struggling to do, is to live well, while we’re in lockdown. 

So the first thing I want to say is that I have made the statement in previous episodes and on page 11 of my book Find Your Way, that this is not a book to read, it’s a book to use. 

And I wholeheartedly stand by that, and encourage that, but you may have the book and be wondering well, how on Earth do I use this book? 

So I thought I’d just give a little explanation of that first up. 

So how can you use this book? Well, there’s a couple of ways. 

One of the ways is to go to the contents page and look at the five chapter titles they are to live aware, look within, lead with purpose, let life change you and love yourself through the process. 

When you look through those, what you can do is tune into what you’re feeling and sensing within yourself about where you’re at with your particular struggle, and see if one of those titles jumps out at you. If you’re not practiced at doing that, this is a great opportunity to practice doing that – I’m talking about you employing your own intuitive nature. 

And going to the source, which is within you, to find out what it is you need help with. 

If that’s not doing it for you, then I would suggest that you go to the chapter title pages and read the little blurb. And the blurb is only brief, but it gives you some insight into what that chapter is about. So again, you read that and you, you really need to pay attention to what happens inside you. Yes, this is something, there’s something in here I need to read and investigate further or no, I don’t think it’s about increasing my awareness or no, I don’t think it’s about purpose, I think this is about something else. 

So that’s a way that you can use the book. You can go through chapter by chapter looking for the antidote to your struggle, or your suffering. 

Another way that I know many people use books these days is they just hold the book and I’ll do a live example with you right now and we’ll see what comes up. But what they do is they hold the book and they just very quietly hold in their mind the problem or the situation or the experience or the feeling that they would like to address. And as they do that when the time is right, they flick the book open to a certain page. So I’m holding my mind as an example, this feeling that I’m sensing that people are just so fed up and so tired and so worn out and they’re not as resilient as they have been during this lockdown. We’re in lockdown 7 in Victoria and so I’m sort of holding that in my mind and in my presence, and I’m going to open to a page and we’ll see what comes. 

And this is live, I’m not even making it up, it’s page 100 and the entry is called release and receive. So now here’s what I do, I’ll just keep going with this. 

What I then do is I read the entry and I am noticing whatever jumps out or stands out to me. 

I experience goosebumps through my body, in my body, I also experience my eyes filling with uh, like a resonance which If you were watching me, it would look like I was about to cry, but I don’t cry it, just my eyes fill with tears but there’s no crying and it’s not an emotion it’s a felt sense. But we all have our own ways, so again, this is a great opportunity for you to practice. 

So let me read it to you and I’m going to end up sharing with you what jumps out for me in response to this feeling of overwhelm and how do we go on and where is the off to keep going? 

So I’ll read it first and then I’ll share with you what jumps out for me. 

Release and receive. 

We can’t always control where the journey will lead us, or the length of time it takes to reach our anticipated destination. 

How true is that, especially right now? With what we’re facing. 

We will have a plan of how we want things to go, but under the strain of the unknown we can unconsciously tighten our grip, turning our preferred outcome into a command that unintentionally restricts our prospects for the best possible and speediest resolution. 

I’m trying really hard not to laugh because of the tightening of the grip, which I think we’ve all been doing. I’ll keep reading. 

With pressure mounting we refuse, deny, defend, demand – Oh dear – anything to get our way and put an end to the uncertainty. We fight back, stand firm, persist, resist anything but loosen our grip let go and surrender. 

Can you even believe this is so apt to what we’re experiencing!

It’s natural to resist change. But this creates an unwelcome barrier, closing us off from the space needed for solutions to arrive. We become so intent on ending the struggle that we narrow our mind and it’s view, which leads to more worry and unnecessary suffering. 

The sooner we realize our holding on is hindering our progress, the quicker we can let go and allow for the way to unfold. 

So true. Here we go. 

Surrendering is not about giving in, succumbing to failure or admitting defeat. Nor is it a sign of weakness. It is about having the strength to give up any resistance to what is, so we can release our expectations and receive what will be the best way forward and through. 

Space is made for solutions to enter. Clarity has the chance to come. Inner peace becomes possible. And our inner sage can again be heard. 

When we release the struggle and loosened our grip, we let the receiving begin. 

May I release any resistance so I can receive whatever it is I need. 

Can you even believe that that is the page that I have opened up to as I’m speaking to you about the overwhelm and the struggle that we’re all experiencing in our own way with lockdown life. I mean, I’m blown away, I wrote this, but I am so amazed at the number – I’ve lost count of the number of times I have opened a book to a page, a phrase, a word that has well and truly shifted me from a place of victimhood to a place of empowerment and surrender. 

It’s just happened live and I love that so much for me and for you. 

If this was you doing this at home, once you’ve read that and and you heard me pause and I gave a little commentary throughout but you will notice when a sentence or a word strikes you, and that’s what you take from the entry, and you work with that. 

Some things like this on the bottom of page 100, it’s natural to resist change, but this creates an unwelcome barrier, closing us off from the space needed for solutions to arrive. 

And I’m not even talking about the big solutions here. I’m talking about your day to day struggle. 

Same with, the sooner we realize on top of page 101.

The sooner we realize our holding on is hindering our progress, the quicker we can let go and allow for the way to unfold. 

Surrendering is not a sign of weakness, it is not giving in, its having the strength; like it takes so much courage and strength to say, this is what it is. That’s all we’re doing is releasing resistance to what is and then our expectations can be released and then this space opens up and we can receive. Not necessarily in the moment, but you will feel lighter, this was me just a week ago. 

As soon as you admit the thing, the what is, and accept it. This space opens up, for me my shoulders relax, I feel a lightness to my being. And as I say here, spaces then made for solutions to enter clarity has the chance to come in, a peace becomes possible and our inner sage can again be heard. So releasing equals receiving. Goosebumps to that. 

And then the little mantra, affirmation, or prayer, whatever word you want to put to it to the sentence at the bottom, I’ll repeat it again now, may I release any resistance so I can receive whatever it is I need. That may be the very statement that begins this process for you. 

That may be something you want to write out and journal from. That may be something you want to write up on the mirror, and every time you go to the bathroom you read it, and you reaffirm it. May I release any resistance so I can receive whatever it is I need? 

And can you hear my tone? It is not an angry, annoyed, frustrated tone, it’s just, here I am, I can’t live like this anymore, I don’t want to struggle anymore, I just want to release any resistance. So that I can receive the insights, the wisdom, the way forward. 

So I can receive that and receive whatever it is I need. 

So it said kindly and patiently and lovingly. 

That has just unfolded so beautifully. 

And I’m so grateful for me and for you, because obviously I needed to receive that message today. I plan to share with you 2 entries that fit with the concepts I mentioned in the introduction about how we navigate change and our relationship to ourselves as we navigate change. 

But I’m going to save those and make another episode, which I guess would be called episode 11. 

So I hope you’ll join me for that, because again, they’re going to apply to living well with lock down. And I would really love to hear from you if this episode, you’ve just heard it, brings up any questions about how else to use the book please ask because you never know your question might be one that many other people have, and if you ask it then I can address many people in my answer so you can send a DM through Instagram, Facebook. 

I’ll also make a post for Instagram and Facebook about this episode, so you could also write a comment in there that would be really great and please give me your feedback. If this is helping you and you would like more, I would love to keep doing it. Because that’s what I’m here for and that’s what I love doing. I really love being with you on the journey, and helping you find your way. 

Thank you for being here. 

Thank you for listening. 

It’s an honor to have you with me.