Episode 140
Finding Peace and Stillness in the Current Storms
Links to Steven Webb's podcast and how you can support his work.
- Donate paypal.me/stevenwebb or Coffee stevenwebb.uk
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In this episode of "Stillness in the Storms," Steven Webb reflects on the overwhelming challenges of the modern world, from global crises to personal struggles. He acknowledges the "storm" that many feel – the constant barrage of negative news, societal pressures, and personal difficulties. However, Stephen guides listeners towards finding moments of peace and gratitude amidst the chaos. He shares his own recent struggles with illness and how he's working to shift his focus from external turmoil to inner resilience.
Key Quotes:
- "The storm feels like it's worse than ever... whether it's political, whether it's weather, or whether it's just the information bombardment."
- "How much of the outside storm are you bringing in?"
- "How many open doors? How many times are you going to sit? Are you sitting outside in the storm?"
- "It's all well and good that we can blame the world for the storms, but we've got to ask ourselves."
- "We also have still so much to lose, and so much to fight for. And so much to be grateful for."
- "If you just learn to hold them [life's challenges] in the right way, not too, not too tight, not too loose, music plays through you."
- "Life's got to play through us."
- "It's about balance."
- "Don't connect with the world so much that you're filling your mind with everything you can not cope with."
- "Close your door but don't close it so tight it's locked."
How This Episode Helps Listeners:
- Validation: Acknowledges the widespread feeling of being overwhelmed by current events and personal struggles, offering a sense of shared experience.
- Perspective Shift: Encourages listeners to examine how much external negativity they are internalizing and to consciously limit their exposure to it.
- Gratitude Practice: Promotes a focus on gratitude for the simple things in life, highlighting what we still have to lose and appreciate, even amidst hardship.
- Mindfulness Reminder: Reinforces the importance of being present and finding stillness in the moment, rather than being consumed by future worries or past regrets.
- Practical Steps: Offers tangible actions like limiting news consumption, focusing on what's within one's control ("arm's length"), and engaging in activities that bring joy.
- Balance: Highlights the need for balance between engagement with the world and self-care, avoiding both excessive exposure and complete disconnection.
- Self-Awareness: Prompts self-reflection on personal coping mechanisms and encourages listeners to recognize when they might be overly stressed or anxious.
- Community: Mentions a WhatsApp support group for those who have supported the podcast, fostering a sense of connection and shared journey.
- Resouces: Mentions the Inner Piece Meditations, and stephenwebb.uk for further support.
Transcript
Hello and welcome to Stillness in the Storms. And I'm going to call this episode Finding Stillness in the
Steven Webb:Storms. I started this podcast probably three years ago now. We've done nearly 150
Steven Webb:episodes.
Steven Webb:Since then. I've done the Inner Peace Meditations, which has been listened to nearly three million times. And we've built
Steven Webb:quite a few supporters and quite a bit of a following. And I'm proud of that, and I think we
Steven Webb:should all be proud of that. But the storm feels like it's worse than ever.
Steven Webb:The whole world, the climate, whether it's political, whether it's weather or whether it's just the
Steven Webb:information bombardment, the pressures on us, the pressures on you, they're having to work more than one job.
Steven Webb:A lot of people, they're demanding of schools for the children the grass Just everywhere you look,
Steven Webb:I don't see a person that's really not weathering some kind of storm.
Steven Webb:So this episode is going to be about how do we find a bit of stillness in the storms? And
Steven Webb:I'm going to mix it in with a bit of gratitude because, yes, there's a ranging storm Yes, it's really
Steven Webb:terrible. But we also have still so much to lose and so much to fight for and so much to
Steven Webb:be grateful for that we could still lose. So
Steven Webb:welcome. Thank you. And first of all, I'd like to thank my supporters for helping to keep this podcast free
Steven Webb:from adverts. That's important to me and I really enjoy podcasts that get on with the show and not have
Steven Webb:three or four minute adverts selling Gucci shoes um Not I've ever heard a podcast sell Gucci shoes.
Steven Webb:But yeah, anyway um I'm just, I'm now, what, six weeks into this year?
Steven Webb:Well, I presume everybody's six weeks into this year, not just me. I'm not a different time zone or timeline
Steven Webb:to everybody else, but it's. I've got a cold again and it's relentless.
Steven Webb:And for me, my storm, literally this year, every time I feel a bit better, I have two or three
Steven Webb:days, I get out, I get on with stuff and all that, and before you know it, I am bang.
Steven Webb:Just a reminder of, I think I'm now, what, 52 and my body been paralysed, my immune system isn't
Steven Webb:what it used to be, or this cold is just taking a hammering on people. So weathering that
Steven Webb:I'm. I'm also struggling. And I've done a video in the supporters buy me a coffee last night for the
Steven Webb:supporters. And you know, if you head over there and you've donated a coffee and or joined as a founder
Steven Webb:member or anything over the last few years. You have access to a brand new Whatsapp group,
Steven Webb:which I will keep you updated and we'll do just daily challenges and things like that just to. I know
Steven Webb:it's more information, but we're going to keep it to the minimum and maybe we can be a bit selective
Steven Webb:with information. And I'm having to take a step back and I think it's all well and good that we
Steven Webb:can blame the world for the storms, but
Steven Webb:we've got to ask ourselves, and
Steven Webb:I want you to ask yourself seriously, how much of the outside storm are you bringing in? How
Steven Webb:much? Let's just use the metaphor, let's be really cheesy and use the metaphor of an open door. How many
Steven Webb:open doors? How many times are you going to sit? Are you sitting outside in the storm? And I'll give
Steven Webb:you an example for my life. I wake up in the morning and instead of reading a book or doing
Steven Webb:a meditation, I check on Trump it's like It's like as if I got some kind of addiction too.
Steven Webb:And I have these little
Steven Webb:adrenaline hits whenever he has some bad news, really. If he has bad news there's bad news for America. If
Steven Webb:he has some good news, there's bad news for America. So I don't know why I'm getting some satisfaction, but
Steven Webb:it's constant and it's relentless and it's bringing me down because that's what I'm fitting my mind with. I can't
Steven Webb:do anything about it. You know, I know this. We teach this. You know, I know this, that there's nothing
Steven Webb:I can do about the bigger picture, especially the other side of the pond. I can only do what I
Steven Webb:can at arm's length. And that's what jumbo taught me. You know, start with what you have at arm's
Steven Webb:length. And I'm missing that. And I think a lot of us are missing that. We can have
Steven Webb:compassion and we can have understanding for what's going on around us. I'm on the city council, I'm doing what
Steven Webb:I can locally. I'm standing for county elections.
Steven Webb:That's my. That's my giving back to the community. That's my service that I'm doing. I'm
Steven Webb:also doing what I can to help others, but that's not a problem. My service is also the podcast and
Steven Webb:the inner peace meditation. I love doing that. I'm just about to bring out a new course as well, which
Steven Webb:is a follow on from Stillness in the Storms, which you can currently get for zero up to whatever you
Steven Webb:want to pay. Because I just believe in the Dharma. It's not my teachings. I'm just translating it. And it's.
Steven Webb:I'm just a conduit.
Steven Webb:So if you want to look into that, it's StevenWebb.uk and I
Steven Webb:think if I look at my life right now, I've got my home, okay, it's rented. It's not mine, but
Steven Webb:it's still my home. And I've lived here for 40 years. I have my computer. I have my voice. I
Steven Webb:have. I have my health, essentially. What's a cold? It's a cold. It's frustrating, but I have my health,
Steven Webb:essentially. When I broke my neck at age of 18, I didn't think I'd live to be 52. What a
Steven Webb:gift that is. So what if I woke up tomorrow morning and my kettle doesn't work? I don't have my
Steven Webb:morning English cup of tea. What if I wake up tomorrow and I've got no electric or my heating's broke?
Steven Webb:What if I wake up tomorrow morning and I'm going to lose my house? My life's going to be so
Steven Webb:much worse than today,
Steven Webb:yet I'm dragging my arms complaining about today.
Steven Webb:Then, yes, we have things to complain about. Don't get me wrong.
Steven Webb:But are they in your power to do anything about? Unlikely. And can you do anything about them in this
Steven Webb:moment? Unlikely. So how do we find stillness in this storm? Well, first of all, let's just start by
Steven Webb:taking note of what we do have, that if we lost, our life would be worse.
Steven Webb:And I'll link to a gratitude meditation I recorded about this. So, you know, just appreciate your pillow.
Steven Webb:What would it be like if you went to bed tonight and you had no pillow? Really annoying. I was
Steven Webb:in casualty for 12 hours and the only pillow they could find was a blanket. I was awful. But
Steven Webb:yeah, I come home and I had my pillow in the morning, and that was like a dream. So I
Steven Webb:think the huge part of stillness in the storm is just putting things in perspective, recognising what we do have,
Steven Webb:recognising the joy in this moment and the stillness in this moment. And
Steven Webb:I've got loads of meditations, how to find calmness in the moment. But ultimately, just take a look around and
Steven Webb:pause.
Steven Webb:Ah, there
Steven Webb:we go.
Steven Webb:And just allow your body to relax and allow your breath to be what it is. We've got to a
Steven Webb:point where we're even trying to change the way we breathe. There's no end of books turn your breathe a
Steven Webb:different way. Well I've got news for you. Up until the age of I don't know, whatever age when you
Steven Webb:were suddenly gifted to become enlightened, you never realised you had to breathe differently and you got on perfectly fine
Steven Webb:you never, you know, as a child, you didn't have all these problems of, you know, take a deep breath
Steven Webb:and breathe in boxing and everything like that. They all have their place, don't get me wrong they're all their
Steven Webb:place. But I think we overdo the fact that the spiritual journey, we got to breathe differently, we've got to
Steven Webb:relax certain parts of the body, we've got to practice gratitude we've got to go through all these things, just
Steven Webb:make it make it simple. Just look around this moment, see what you got. Imagine if you lost it
Steven Webb:and then bring it back into your life. Allow your body to be what it is. Allow your body to
Steven Webb:fight. If you're tired, your body's taking the energy because it needs it. If you're overwhelmed, your body's telling you
Steven Webb:something. If you're feeling anxious, your body's tugging you and saying, hey, something to take notice of. If you're
Steven Webb:happy, just enjoy it because it will go um
Steven Webb:And I think that's how we find stillness in the storms. It's about balance.
Steven Webb:And there's a wonderful analogy that I use. It's like playing the drums. If you hold the drumsticks far too
Steven Webb:tight, the music is awful, it's rigid, it doesn't work. If you hold them too loose, you drop them and
Steven Webb:there's no music. So dropping them is going so far deep on the spiritual journey you're no longer connecting. You
Steven Webb:know, you're missing life. And if you just learn to hold them in the right way, not too, not too
Steven Webb:tight, not too loose, music plays through you. And that's what we got to do. Life's got to play through
Steven Webb:us. And this is that you know, just the bombardment of information. So I'm committing to. I've got rid of
Steven Webb:my ipad at night um I've put two books in front of me, a book that I read halfway through
Steven Webb:and I thoroughly enjoyed it and I forgot to read it. The Enlightened Heart and another book called who sin
Steven Webb:wonderful little non-duality Poems and pointers to just get your mind out of the duality of thinking.
Steven Webb:And I put them on my trolley. So when I wake up seven o'clock tomorrow morning or six o'clock or
Steven Webb:whatever time coffin for hours, I'm just going to read a couple of them. I'm not going to reach for
Steven Webb:my emails, I'm not going to reach for the news and I'll keep you updated on the Whatsapp. If you're
Steven Webb:part of the groups it would love I'd love to see some of you part of the Whatsapp group um
Steven Webb:So if you head over to buy me a coffee
Steven Webb:and if you've ever been a supporter at any point you'll have access to that group um I have to
Steven Webb:limit it um because otherwise it'd be just again, adding too much information. And it's aware of me thanking those
Steven Webb:so many of you that have supported and kept these podcasts free um I hope that
Steven Webb:helps. I I We
Steven Webb:just got to find balance in this and the balance at the moment it's not consuming too much of the
Steven Webb:outside world. Close your door, but don't close it so tight it's locked. Don't hide behind your sofa to the
Steven Webb:point that you cannot cope with life
Steven Webb:um that's going too far disconnecting. But don't connect with the world so much that you're
Steven Webb:filling your mind with everything you cannot cope with. On that note, I've got to go because I'm using my
Steven Webb:voice and my vote before you just get sore now and I'm gonna start coughing um Thank you. Head over
Steven Webb:to StevenWebb.uk all the links are there. And look, use my meditations on inner peace meditations
Steven Webb:to find a bit of stillness in the current storms. Take care. Bye I love you.
