#445 Snippets of wisdom: Soulful surrender and saying yes to life.

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

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Agi Keramidas 0:04
Welcome to personal development mastery podcast, and this is another snippet of wisdom where I select my favorite, most insightful moments from previous episodes. Today's snippet is from my conversation with Kimberly Braun, an author and TEDx speaker with a master's in theology. It is about saying yes to life. It is about embracing silence. I trust that you'll find it insightful.

Kimberly Braun 0:35
So in that experience of the TED Talk, that instance in my life, I had been in a North Dakota monastery that had ritual and silence, and it was well established, and we lived off the land, and when I joined the community in Texas, I loved that monastic lifestyle as well, so much. But one of the things we didn't have that we could count on was complete silence, because we were right on the edge of town, and our friends would visit us a lot, and I love we loved them, so this is not a complaint. Upon their visits, they were always bringing us wonderful things and coming for prayer. And so it wasn't that, but it deep within me. I was yearning for silence. There was a deep fire within me. And that moment happened. First of all, I think it was orchestrated unknown by me, that I'm participating in a mystery. So I think that's the first step that happens in our lives. We're brought into existence, and we If only we could realize what that actually means, that we are brought into existence through love. I mean, what that actually means, we wouldn't suffer from so such low self worth if we really understood what that meant. So coming from that, I went out back for the meditation time, and for an unknown reason, that yearning became this really big fire within me, and I began pouring myself out in supplication, in in asking, I'm yearning. I'm yearning for silence. I'm yearning for solitude. I want my monastic life the way I've had it for the past five years. I'm yearning to be in the richness of that steady solitude. And as I stood there, I remained as an open question, because I was so in touch with what was at my core that I knew there would be an answer. I didn't know what the answer would be. And I believe that's true for every human being. When we come to the real simple desire that's at the core, that's at our center, that's like a soul desire that's playing itself out, we taste a little bit of the power of being in touch with that. You know, it's not like five layers out when we're complaining, its layers out when we're defending, its layers out, but when we're just there, we're vulnerable. There's something very immediate about our experience. So I knew it would be answered, and as I was there in silence during the meditation. It just came from within build the permanent monastery. And it wasn't my own voice. It wasn't a voice I recognized or didn't recognize. I knew it was love speaking or source or God speaking, but it was light, and when I heard that, I came to a certain piece, and I gave up really big yes. And that's another example that I think is universal, is that when we are in touch with ourselves deeply, we are spontaneously give a yes to life. It it comes from a place that is not compromising ourselves. It is ourselves. And that yes is this fullness of being. And we co create in that moment with that Yes. We are co creating with the uncreated, which is so powerful and so in that experience that happened, probably within 15 minutes, everything within me changed, and I didn't know what was going to happen or how it was going to happen. And as you gleaned from my TED Talk, which you get in greater detail in the book, I had no idea I was going to be the general contractor and one of the designers I'm building the permanent monastery. To me, that was just a general yes to it happening, not a yes I'm going to do it like I didn't have any the self directive around it. It was, it was much more of a surrender into and then. It. I stayed faithful to the surrender, as it showed up, you know, and which is every step of the way, every step of the way, keeping the Yes, staying in the juice. And it was such a flow. It was really a a flow of bliss and ecstasy. I couldn't, I don't know that. I could have said no, it was so strong. I thank

Agi Keramidas 5:26
you for listening. You will find the full conversation with Kimberly Braun in episode 354, the link is in the episode description. If you enjoy this podcast, can you think of one person that would find it useful and share it with them. Thank you. Until next time stand out. Don't fit in.