Kay:
Hey there, Questers. It is Wednesday, December 29th and if you tuned in yesterday, you know that this is affectionately called weird week in the Kay and Shi world. So, welcome to your Hump Day here on Wednesday in a weird week. This is episode 498, the third to the final episode of the Mentorship Quest as you know it. We have such a good quote for you today. It is six short words by the New York poet and fellow millennial, R. H. Sin, who says, “Make peace with your broken pieces.”
Shi:
Obviously, a beautiful turn of phrase here and great wordplay between the peace P E A C E and pieces, P I E C E S. But I love this idea because I think what tortures many of us is those broken pieces or are those pieces of us – or maybe you wouldn’t even call it broken, but like the shards, the slivers, the little missteps, the mistakes, the things you wish you could take back or do differently or have shown up better for. Those pieces of us, maybe we’re not going to call them shattered pieces, but those broken little fragments, can often distract us. Often, we beat ourselves up over it, long after the situation has come and passed. When we make peace with them, we feel more peace as a soul, and we’re able to live more presently and fully in the moment and be more fulfilled. I think that’s something most of us are going for, which means this advice is both beautiful and plain smart.
Kay:
Now, we have been in the situation before where we have talked about how most people have some broken pieces and we’ve seen some people bristle at the suggestion saying I’m not broken. I am perfectly healed. I am 100% perfectly healed 100% and they bristle at that. So, maybe you’re in the position where you are feeling like, well, I just don’t know where my broken pieces are. Find the places in your life that ignite your heart when you think about them. Now, when I say ignite your heart, you might be thinking, “Well, that means a good thing.” I’m not talking about that kind of ignition. I’m talking about when someone sends you a line in an email that enflames you past the point of that line in the email. Chances are there’s a deeper piece that needs to be examined. When you make peace with that, you find that you bring more peace into your day-to-day because you find out what these underlying kinds of broken issues are and you’re able to start mending them.
Shi:
We’ve probably only referenced The Untethered Soul 100 of these almost 500 episodes. So, it would make sense to bring it forward here. It is our favorite book and our most recommended book. If you’ve yet to read it or listen to it on Audible we would highly suggest it. It was literally life-transforming for both of us. One of the central pieces of The Untethered Soul is really this ability to let stuff come up, let those, if we’re going to use the yoga term, sanskaras bubble to the top, those broken pieces. Because what lots of us do is have them come up and we squash them or we magnify them or we grab onto them, and by grab on I mean obsess about them. Think about that one line in the email. Think about that thing that you said, or didn’t say or said in that certain way, and you obsess on them.
That’s grabbing onto it and what that energetically is doing is focusing and shifting your attention to that broken piece and then holding onto it and keeping it inside. “No, I’m not ready to let it go yet. I’m not ready to stop beating myself up over this yet,” and we hold it there. Energy doesn’t like being held so it’ll continue to be this sanskara or this broken piece, this shard that can hurt you. It could poke you. It could come up at any moment and that’s not peaceful. So, by stepping back just a little bit like Michael Singer tells us in The Untethered Soul and just be the witness. Just sometimes it’s okay to honor the role of witness and watch the human being and the human ego inside of you thrash, freak out, want to obsess, but it will do everything it can. You are still the one who gets to stand behind that spotlight and decide what it turns on. Just being the witness and staying out of it actually allows it to let go and, ah, peace.
Kay:
Well, a long-lasting peace from a societal level is normally brought about by non-violent movements. As we’ve gotten to see the rise in non-violent movements over the last, I think what 200 years Shila, we’ve kind of come out this idea of everything has to be solved with war. If we can take that idea out of macro and into the micro, stop making war with your insides. You’ve been through some really difficult things. We get it. We all go to battle. It’s the battle of life, man. It’s not easy on any of us. I don’t think anybody gets out scot-free. Shila said the only thing certain is that we’re all going to die in the end. So, there’s this idea that maybe if you can choose non-violence with yourself, maybe with some of that compassion and find peace in your broken pieces that you may be able to surrender to your life in a way that helps you live with more fulfillment and clarity. So, like R. H. Sin tells us, “Make peace with your broken pieces.”
Shi:
That brings us to your final Wellness Wednesday Quest. Today, we want you to embrace the miracle of surrender and of loving all your parts and pieces. Anything you accept fully will take you to peace and be transmuted into peace. Practice being that witness and allow these things to let go so that you can be more peaceful. Are you ready?
Kay:
Let’s quest!