Gwilda Wiyaka Interviews - DON JOHNSON - Finding Peace in a World of Chaos

[Music] w [Applause] [Music] welcome to Mission Evolution radio show with guilda Waka bringing together today's leading experts to uncover ever deepening spiritual truths and the latest scientific developments in support of the evolution of humankind for more information on Mission Evolution radio with Waka visit www.m Mission evolution. G and now here's the host of mission Evolution Miss Gua WEA it seems like everywhere we go we're confronted with chaos and appeal given this doesn't look like it'll change anytime soon where do we find peace within it Mission Evolution radio TV show is coming to you around the world on the exone broadcast network exb in.net with assis hour to explore finding peace in a world of chaos is Don Johnson Don the author of living a conscious life is a former Monk and business leader turned writer and executive coach his spiritual Quest began as a college student and let him on a 10-year Journey where he lived in ashrams and taught meditation in North America Europe Africa and Australia in his 30s he left the asham started a family and a career in the leadership and development industry where he provided training and coaching to leaders in Fortune 500 comp companies his website integre group.com integre group.com Don thank you so much for joining us on Mission Evolution thank you guilda very happy to be here with you you're all the way over there in Scotland aren't you that is true the Northeast the Northeast Coast nice I wish I was there sounds lovely sounds it can and then it has it moments like every place else you got it I understand you were a monk how did you go from there to being in the leadership industry oh how did I do that well when one leaves the confines of being a monk uh one discovers quickly that uh there's bills to pay there's life there's a career there's there's the big world out there so honestly it was happen stance it was one little thing after another I left the ashram I sold telephone systems in Miami door Todo then I moved to Philadelphia I got lucky and after hundreds of of turned down resumés and such I got a job teaching sales training at a bank and then somebody offered me a interview at a really wonderful us-based leadership and development company and somehow I convinced to hire me why I I don't exactly know but I got in the door and how long were you there that particular company I worked for from 1988 to 2004 so it was a good run yes it was a good run and I started out as a consultant and I went into sales and I became a general manager and a like a VP of a of a region of a business unit and uh it was quite a journey and it was I learned a lot and a lot happened for me it was really quite amazing I was very fortunate so from a monk to leadership and development who are you really yeah who am I really well you know what I realized when I lived in the ashram was that um my mission at that time was to know myself more was to really uncover who am I really on the inside and not my thoughts not my ideas and so on but how can I get in touch with with my Essence and uh that was that was why I didn't really want to become a monk but there's another story to that but that's the way it wound up but the mission that I was on was I want to find inner peace I want to do my part in bringing bringing goodness into the world and so on so who am I my roots my roots go deep in the fact that I'm I'm a human being trying to be a better human being and you know I'm working from the inside out I that's the way I I look at it so I think you know one part of me is sure I'm like a Searcher I'm a Seeker I'm a I'm a Believer in in those things and you know many other things too just like all of us you know a husband a parent a father you know Etc but um you know I'm my my mission is like how how can I bring more goodness into the world really I like the way you say it from the inside out um does that have to do of course a lot of introspecting but does it have to do with healing and reframing a lot for me it did um when I came out of the asham I was very um out of balance the um psychotherapist that I wound up a youngan psychotherapist that I was introduced to and we had an initial an initial chat and he said well here's my analysis of you he said you've got a a lover inflation you've got a warrior depletion and you've got a m magician leak AG so that was based on the work of Robert Moore Douglas Gillette in their book The King The Warrior the lover magician so uh basically he said you're you know you're all screwed up and uh let's um you know if you want to work with me here's my first question for you how's your relationship with your father and I said terrible and we began to do the work so the work for me was unpacking you know some childhood wounds and things like that and and uh you know I continue to you know to work on that and that you know what I continue to do I I I just believe that if we're going to be more whole we've got to be willing to do you know do the inner work and that work continues to this very day I'm still doing it you know over the years I've certainly noticed that there's the people that do the inner work and then teach from there and there's the people that think they can teach without doing the inner work and there's no comparing the two o yeah I would I would uh I would agree I would agree so how did your time as a shape your understanding of Consciousness and personal growth well um you know um I would say the way it shaped it was I understood that um there is a there is a quiet place within us and uh I was fortunate enough to learn some techniques ancient techniques that you know simply take our energy or Focus from going outside and turn it within and um I began to appreciate apprciate the fact that what this did was gave me a lot of Joy it gave me a lot of happiness and I also realized that I could actually live with very little I mean I lived with you know I was I took vows of poverty chud obedience so for 10 years I had I made no money I had no you know foreseeable future in terms of a career I didn't really understand how that was all going to shake out but nevertheless I had that appreciation for a higher Consciousness and you know I think it really gave me a foundation of appreciation for life and for the good things in life and also appreciation of that I really don't need all that much to be happy um and I learned to live with very little and behind me on the bookshelf I've got two binders that are about that thick letters that i' had written to my mother and father when I was in the ashram for 10 years basically telling them you should try this too it's really good and and I'm just I'm you know I'm happy as a pee in a pot I know you're worried about me that I joined a cult which turns out I did but that's another story but nevertheless I was quite I was quite happy so that it just you know I think it just shows us that you know the things that we look for the peace that we look for and people places and things yeah we can get temporary peace and some Joy from that for sure but lasting wholeness lasting peace it's somewhere else and it's not out there so the access point is within I think so what do you think I'd have to agree yeah I think the ex I think it starts there I think you know and peace means a lot of things to a lot of different people let's face it and uh and you know what I realized over the years was just because I do meditation does not mean I'm gonna find lasting peace in my life that became very clear to me over time I think originally I felt that in my in my youth but as I got older I realized no you got to do the inner work you got to clean up the stuff that gets in our way every day the triggers the wounds the projections all that stuff that you're familiar with did you find that meditation helped you access those very things mean the dark side or the good the wounding all this stuff needs to be cleared um not in those early years to tell you the truth I think it was more of a um I think I got very overly focused on that because you know when I came out I think I was very as a young man I went in at 23 came out at 33 those are 10 years of important development in terms of psychological development emotional development development in relationships um I wouldn't necessarily suggest that young people do what I did because I came out very U I had to do I had a lot of catching up to do golden how did you go about doing that catch up I mean I think we all at this point have a lot of catchup to do because things are moving so quickly um how how did you initiate that for yourself um you know I think it started out with the with the therapy and uh unpacking some of the some of that childhood stuff um I think uh immersing myself in the business world was another way to um realize what I knew and what I didn't know and accept you know I think I really had to face the fact that um if I was going to kind of do the catching up I I needed to read I needed to study I needed to be open-minded I needed to U investigate things that I had never paid attention to before and I'm doing all this while I'm now you know struggling to survive raising a family so I mean it was a scramble qu I mean it was I felt like I was scrambling and and scrabbling you know uphill for quite a number of years I can imagine we're about out of time in this segment but did you um continue your meditation practice uh throughout that scrambling time I did I did actually um I certainly wasn't doing two hours a day like I was when I lived in the you know shelter of an asham which asham means shelter in Hindi but I did uh I did my best to try to get a little bit in every day particularly in the morning yeah and I I continue to do so to today so it's that magic moment Don and I will return very shortly so don't you go away this is Mission Evolution Mission evolution. org [Music] [Music] n [Music] [Music] [Music] we hear a lot about Consciousness what is it this is Mission Evolution Mission evolution. org with us this this hour discussing Consciousness is Don Johnson Don is the author of living a conscious life Don there is the $64 question what is consciousness what is consciousness for me um for me Consciousness is being present paying attention um being in the moment observing be the Observer of your thoughts of your feelings noticing paying attention Consciousness I think is being awake um and uh you know the more that we stay awake I think the more we can learn the faster we can grow but I think Consciousness is that energy that sustains us and is always in the moment there's always you know life is wonderful in the moment it's when we go in the future it's when we go in the past that things get crazy and uh so I think Consciousness is that is that being that ability to be in the moment being in the moment that you know it sounds so simple right oh yeah I think most of us don't even recognize that we're not okay I I had gone to a retreat at one point it had been a long retreat it was up in Canada at a lovely Resort not a resort but a a place off off grid and everything and we spent you know two weeks just really immersed and spiritual stuff and I I went to the airport then to to fly home and I looked around and I was the only one present somebody's tapping her foot and she's talking on the phone she's saying I'm gonna miss my light you know the flight's late I'm gonna miss my second you know so she's clear out there and then people behind me were saying goodbye that's before you could had to go you know stop at at Customs there before you could go on you had to have a ticket and so they were in the past oh my gosh you know it was so good I I don't want to leave you know that sort of thing and I really I looked around me and I swear there was nobody present I felt quite blown and I think that that continues um how can we tell that we're not present oh yeah that's a good one how do you tell you're not present um you probably can't you know it's probably hard because I think you you drift you don't know you know you get lost in your thoughts um and I think that's why you know the spiritual practice practices teach like well how do you return to present and you know one of the techniques that I use is the the power of the breath and the amazing thing about the breath is that you know the our lungs are involuntary and a voluntary muscle so we don't have to think about breathing but when you when you when you connect with your breath you're always in the present because the breath is always in the present so one way to see if you're present or not is to say are we even aware that we're breathing I mean I mean I think we all know that you know we we I mean we wander off all the time we wander we lose we lose present moment awareness all the time I don't know anybody that's totally present aware all the time I don't know maybe they are uh but nevertheless um I think you I think you catch yourself in your thoughts and when I notice I'm I'm thinking I that's interesting and then I'm also checking to see am I even even aware of the present moment am I breathing so you know like you say a lot of us don't even recognize um that we're not in the present how much does that have to do with you know we're we're we're worrying about what happened in our past where we've got damage and we're afraid of the future because we have damage how much does it have to do with being wounded I mean where we live like how much how much time we spend elsewhere how much time we spend present you know or being unable to be present how much does it have to do with our woundedness maybe it does um you know I mean the you know the philosophy of the theory I have is that um when we lack connection to ourselves first um we we we drift and you know you probably know this and our listeners know that a great deal of trauma you know originates from a lack of connection or addiction and uh so again um I've seen many people turn their lives around when they begin to become more present and they look at some of the dark stuff and they kind of recognize it and they accept it and they start working with it but they make an effort you know to bring themselves to do practices and to like to se to seek well-being and to search for that Oasis that can be the healer to a lot of the of the trauma so I think it's BR connection that helps us you know heal and be more present connection with connection with oursel and others yeah connection with oursel and others I mean Community is important uh really important for for people to be healthy I believe I think it's tough for people to live by themselves I really do you um um spent a lot of time every day three hours I think you said meditating using these practices and yet you ended up unprocessed and lost yep what what's what what was the cause of that I mean it sounds like you doing all the right stuff according to you know here's here's what I say now I say now that meditation is not the most important spiritual practice okay that's what I say I say I say you can chase the light all day that you you can chase the light all day long but if you don't confront and deal with your Darkness you're going to get stuck somewhere so I was out of balance I mean that was you know the Liv living in a um a hindy influenced ashram was a place where the focus was purely on the spiritual it wasn't on the psychological wasn't on the emotional and that's problematic in my book did it end up being kind of like an escape rather than dealing I believe in hindsight yes and interesting so balance in all things balance I think you're absolutely right balance is the key so don what does it mean to live a conscious life for me what it means it means um means a couple things uh living conscious life is making an effort to be present to be self-aware to understand your own inner world to manage your own inner stuff and to have the emotional intelligence to manage the social situation that you're in to be be understand what it needs what the audience read the audience so to speak and respond you know appropriately um and I think living a conscious life is you know signing up for the fact that you're not always going to be conscious and that you're going to learn through failure and how to accept failure I think another part of living a conscious life is to develop self-love and self-care and to be you know more kind and forgiving you know to yourself if if you're one of those people like me that was very hard of myself so I'm finding that that's more and more important as I've gotten older is the concept of self-love self-care forgiveness it seems like when we're unprocessed um and we haven't dug into the dark shadows and and done a lot of that work that we don't hear even what's being said to us it's it all is a neric reaction to a trigger versus what's happening in the present moment how can we work around that what or maybe there isn't a work around how how do we first starting to tackle that how do you tackle that yeah you know one of the things that I experienced was if you if you go with your darkness and you go down that path eventually I mean for me I was it was how would I say this eventually I realized that it was bad for me but I didn't realize it for a number of years and it wasn't until I was humiliated by someone and I looked and they called me out on my behavior and then I looked at that and I said oh my god do I want to live like this do I want to have that kind of reputation in the world and then then that was the beginning of the hard work that's the beginning of the prayer that was the beginning of really calling out to the universe saying I really need help I don't know if I can do this on my own I've tried and I failed but when I turned and opened my heart to the universe and prayed and really asked for help the universe delivered but I had to be I had to pay attention to the guides and the mentors and the Omens and the signs and without doing that I don't I think I would have missed the boat so that's the that was my that was my way of doing it I think everybody probably has their own way but that was what started it for me if that makes sense it does because I like the way you said it with someone that calls you out on something if we are chasing our shadow and we're you know living in a in a vacuum if you will we don't have much around us as far as conscious people that'll call us out thank you um we can just kind of ruin our own juices and never move forward can't we those juices and often times those juices feel really good CU it's cozy you know it's cozy in our own little cocoon you know our own little world and we make up stories and we live in false beliefs and we think actually I can I can deal with this I can it's not so bad but the this is just complete it's complete fabrication that's what I found I I made up a story I lied to myself and eventually I realized wow that just that is bad juju don't we lie to ourselves to keep from looking at where we feel we're lacking probably so it's painful but then we can't but then we can't ever fix it right if then you get stuck so yeah I think it takes a lot of bravery and courage when to you know to face the the parts of ourselves that are that we don't really like you know and um that's part of the work I think isn't it a large majority I would guess yeah we're we're about to go into another uh commercial break but um when we come back I'd really like to talk about relationship and how it has to be such a balance you know like I said you can stew in your own juices and create your own reality right if you don't have outside input sound like place to go cool let's do it Don and I we'll be right back to continue this discussion so please stay right there this is Mission Evolution www. Mission evolution. org we're coming to you on the exone broadcast network EX atbn .n net [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] is seeing believing or is believing seeing this is m Evolution Mission evolution. org with us discussing the impact of personal perception is Don Johnson his website integre group.com Don let's start with that that question because it's we were talking about how we create our own reality of avoidance and lies um and so then we're seeing what we've created but is it true um how how much does what's perception how does perception play in here it's a great one yeah I love the this idea of perception uh you know we I think we look through lenses we look through glasses and we look through our beliefs beliefs are like a window like a clear window and when we have a belief we look through that belief at the world and when things match up with our beliefs we feel good we feel like ah we're we're in good company but when we look through those beliefs and we see people differ differing with us or we see information that's contrary to our beliefs that's when it gets a little tough that's when it gets challenging so what I what I find is that you know I see things the way that I see them you see them the way that you see them and we don't see the world the same way we're wired differently and this is something that's just this is human nature and so the question then becomes am I willing to open myself to differing points of view can I respect a different point of view can I appreciate differences can I change my beliefs can I even do I even understand what my beliefs are and sometimes I don't think we even know that we're looking through beliefs we get so used to them with each of us having a different reality basically that does doesn't that um form the tapestry of life really all these Divergent but similar uh views doesn't doesn't the differences isn't that part of what gives us depth perception yeah I think it does uh I think the I think the problem comes when I try to impose my beliefs on you and I expect you to subscribe to my way of thinking and I don't get curious about why you think the way that you think so that leaves us with we we don't have a jigsaw puzzle we have spaces between the pieces because we're unwilling to meet yeah that's and that's I think that's where that's where there's that's where breakdowns come from is the unwillingness to enter into dialogue and the unwillingness to be curious one of the things that I wrote about in an article I wrote some time ago is what's what's wisdom begins with one question which is what don't I know and when I worked at a particular company my boss said to me I want you to get to know this guy that lives in another country and you two guys need to work together to help us achieve some of our goals I said okay so I got on the phone with him and somehow just came to me I said Paul why don't we just talk about what we don't know about each other as a way to build the relationship and that's the way it began and he and I then developed a very strong relationship but here's the thing until I did that I had a negative opinion about him and then when we opened that conversation up to what don't I know sort of the veil was lifted and then I realized wow he's much more than I thought he was he's a much better man than I thought he was yeah we can't we we can't I like to say the window the light is only clear as the window through which it shines if we're really stuck in our beliefs that we're looking through that leaves us no flexibility to see another level of Truth is is that part part of what was going on for you ABS absolutely you know absolutely I get you get I got stuck you know we we form this you know you know this we form an impression about someone within the first couple of seconds and then we then we judge you know from there on in we we we look we look for them to behave in a certain way you know look at you know look at families sometimes in family there's a black sheep in the family then there's a family gathering some people then have a preconceived notion of they're looking for the black sheep to make the mistake to act out and and they're just that's what they look for because that's their frame of reference that's their lens you know and it's it's tragic because sometimes we don't give people a chance to like be who they are or we think people can't grow and change but we all can we basically interpret their behavior through that lens and make it a black sheep activity whether it is or not yeah yeah correct how much do you think this um desperately clinging to our Viewpoint has to do with fear and um self self-loathing actually yeah you know um I use this model where it's like on a Continuum and and the model is something like on one far end of the Continuum there's humility and on the other end of the Continuum there's arrogance and and you can you can overdo both too you know you can overdo humility and be passive and you can overdo arrogance and be brutally arrogant but there's some place in the middle and that the middle the middle is that place of being open to other people's ideas and and and and and learning and at the same time being willing to stand in your own truth and express your own opinion and express it clearly and and have a mutual back and forth but I think it's the going to the extremes is where we get into trouble too passive too aggressive but there's a middle path and aren't we polarized and in trouble right now I as a society it seems like we we look for people to agree with us which makes us more polarized towards our Viewpoint right absolutely we you know we see it in the in the United States and other countries as well but yeah it's very polarizing you know if you put your views out there and uh on social media and if people don't agree with you you get attacked but if you put your views out there and somebody agrees with you well then life is good you know and and yet we put our views out there because we want people to agree with us you know we don't have we don't have people our our good friends are generally not people who vehemently disagree with us we choose those friends so that we get to feel like we have a community of people that think like us and that's you know this is this becomes dangerous I can certainly see that and it's like the true friend is the one that's not afraid to disagree there you go isn't that isn't that well said that's very um alchemical really isn't disagreement kind of alchemical so yeah we seem to be living in times of major change upheaval what do you see is promoting this uh current Mayhem wow what's promoting the current Mayhem um uh well I think um you know you mentioned something earlier about fear and um one of the characteristics of uh this this notion of um we want to look good and be right we want to it's a I think it's a fear-based mechanism of of being wanting to find security and um it's limiting and it's the you know if we reference Carol D's work around you know close mindset growth mindset you know we see that when it when you when we have a closed mindset we don't open ourselves to learning we refuse we refuse facts and rationale even if they could be proven because because we don't it it challenges our our self-identity of of who we think we are but much of the time who we think we are is not really who we really are you know we're not our thoughts we're not our ideas but until we you know go to a deeper level all that stuff gets us into trouble so we dig in and we hunker down and I think we see a lot of hunkering down right now and a lot of its you know self-preservation of you know we're afraid that if the other side takes over we're going to suffer it seems that the polarization um there's being increasing pressure put on it it seems like we're moving towards a time of unification uh overall and so it's it would not appear to be as easy to stick your head in the sand and and polarize as it was historically do you think this is causing a certain level of desperation mean the polarization no the uh inability to uh remain polarized as we're moving more towards Unity well I think I think there's a lot of light coming into the world right now and I think there's a lot of light energy and a lot of belief a lot of belief in the goodness as we pass through these dark times so to speak so I'm not I'm not the person sitting here going oh this is the this is the worst time to live or anything like that I'm looking at this as I am so grateful to be here at this time because I see I see the light building and I see the opportunity to um because more people are waking up that's what I that's I mean that's the world that I live in maybe I'm full of it you know but my glass I I've I've always been an optimist I'm that's the way I look at it and um and I spend time with people that are thinking this way too and I and I see their commitment to making the world a better place and and going through this thought going through this like not getting sucked into the polarization is what I'm saying well the increasing light is increasingly showing the shadow isn't it so is that causing some of the disruption uh while we go through this time I I think there's a f I think you're absolutely on it um you know and I I think this is the challenge I think um when one goes for the light one has to also be ready to deal with the darkness too I think Carl Young had a great saying in his in his book when he called U he he met one of his friends and he was very well aware that when good things happen the the shadows will right there ready to take credit or whatever and I think you probably know the saying which is Carl Young would ask one of his friends have you had any terrible successes l I love that one isn't it great it's it's time though however for us to take another station break please stay with us as Don and I continue to explore finding Consciousness in a seemingly unconscious world this is Mission Evolution www.mm Mission evolution. org [Music] n [Music] [Music] [Applause] where can we find peace this is Mission Evolution Mission evolution. org we're continuing our discussion with Don Johnson his website ingree group excuse me integre group.com Don where can we find peace I mean um it seems like it's in in short supply right now um where can we find it yeah well I start my day even though I'm you know like I said I'm a meditator and I visualize and I set myself up for the day on my intentions how do I want to live my life this day and that's you know that's a it's an act of trying to be present and saying how can I go through this day trying to be the best that I can be and make a contribution so for me it's it starts you know in how I wake up and and what I put my sight on for that particular day but that that's the that's the that's the place I start but you know we go through the day and the winds blow things happen you know we maybe we get blown off course um I have to be willing to recover I have to be willing to admit that I might be wrong that I might not see the whole picture often times that's a big big deal is just to real that every story is incomplete you know and and the Brain wants to complete the story The Brain wants to fill in the gaps and wants to make that make it nice and neat and tidy like figure it all out but there's so much we can't we don't know you know I think my grandfather used to say there's my story there's your story and there's the fly on thewall story so you know and if if I adopt that attitude of openness and learning that's that's the Avenue toward peace you know because then I'm able to weather some of these little bumps but if I get all hung up on them and get myself wrapped around the axle about how I think things should be I will suffer but I think peace comes from realizing we're not in control of everything except maybe how we show up what we the words we choose to say how we behave uh but I have to will I have to be willing to be wrong and I have to be willing to learn and that's what I found as I've gotten older there's more peace in having that mindset perhaps than anything else I heard one time this uh saying that you know an airplane this is an actual fact an airplane takes out off from DIA they file a flight plan and they're going to LAX okay and they're on that flight pan plan less than 10% of the time they deviate for weather they deviate for traffic okay but they end up landing at at LAX so it's a matter of this constant course correction isn't it I think it is I think it is like how we how we kind of manage the the little moments when and life is full of these little moments um how do I catch myself a little bit sooner that's one of the things I judge myself on these days like how am I doing on the whole path you know kind of a thing and I think well you know it's not like I stay on the path all the time it's can I catch myself a little bit sooner when I you know when I go off on somebody when I say something that is isn't appropriate or or when I you know that that to me is like a good sign of I'm catching myself just a little bit sooner when I get into trouble that's all we can do I would I would expect so I hope yeah you know how can curiosity and listening help build a better world world yeah yeah so um you know I touched on a little bit this before but I think I think curiosity and humility like our best friends they go together and um you know when I I have you know different like here's here's an [Music] example when I a guy came to my house some years ago he sat in the room that that I'm in right now and I think he talked at me for about 45 minutes and he didn't ask me one question and I sat there later and I thought wow and it was really I thought why didn't I feel connected well basically I was on the other end of a monologue really and then I met somebody shortly thereafter and there was this back and forth there was this almost like we were playing catch a the conversation was like playing catch with a ball he threw at me I threw it at him and there was this beautiful dance and I felt at the end of the conversation I thought I just want to spend more time with that guy and he was curious I and I had a certain amount of curiosity too I don't always have that amount sometimes I can be arrogant but in that in that in that setting it's like this is the dance this is this is where curiosity you know comes in how does it make a better world sure it makes a better world because we feel feel more connected you know we feel we don't feel put down we don't feel judged we don't feel isolated we feel like we're in this together because we talk and we listen and I think those things are so so so important today it's about that time of the show Don when I get to ask you what's your mission uhuh what's my person my personal mission my personal mission is how can I make the world a little better place by my own behavior and about making a contribution to the betterment through whatever work I do whether it's my coaching or writing or a Consulting work um I'm trying to leave people with a smile I'm trying to help people realize that they have so much within them and there's many ways to tap into that but I I'm my mission is that's that's that's what I have on my my vision board it's like I want to create value I want to be of service I want to do work that's fun I want to do do work that helps people um enrich their lives so that's my mission it's a beautiful one thank you so let's go to community what's the importance that you see of community at this time I can tell you what it means to me and uh you know I I left the US five years ago um I left a uh I left a second marriage I left my home I left my kids I moved to Scotland and I didn't know any anybody except my wife and then you know maybe a couple of friends and what happened to me since then is um I've developed a community of people and friends and that was because I got out and about I made an effort to join groups to find my find my way and and become part of what I what my what I was surrounded by but what I also realized is I can find Community by walking down the street by saying hello to the the person behind the the register at a at a coffee shop and asking them how they're doing or smiling at them or making a a a conversation and I feel like I build community by how I show up and I do it and I try to do it wherever I go and it you know what it makes me feel connected to the world around me to my environment and I feel like I'm a part of it and uh so when you feel a part of your environment you take care of your environment and that's also answers my next question of building more conscious and connected Community you have to connect right yeah you got to do something you know and and uh and it doesn't take you know it's not rocket science to to be nice to someone a stranger to ask somebody how they're doing to ask someone how you can help it's not these are not big things we can all do do this stuff and if you've been on the receiving end of that it's like whoa that was nice yeah I watch people just light up when that happens yeah yeah yeah absolutely yep so don what do you mean by living from the heart yeah for me um I think it's um looking for how do I bring how do I bring love and kindness you know into my everyday life and that means in how I what I write what I say um how I treat people um you know I had an argument with a guy the other day I'll give you an example and uh um I I'm not saying I'm particularly proud about this I think I could have handled it a bit better but In the Heat of the Moment um we were supposed to operate as a team playing a a match together tennis match and um he just in my opinion just was overd dominating and telling me this and telling me that and I said can I help you said no he just said I don't want your help and this and that and finally I just said you know I'm not sure we can be a team and I just I kind had to draw a boundary and say I don't think we're compatible and I thought the words are coming out of my mouth and I thought I can't believe I'm doing this like generally I never say no to people more of like I'll find a way to work this out anyway at the end of the whole thing I said look I said we disagree but let's shake hands and part as friends I don't want you know I don't I don't need I don't want you to be my enemy that's not the point you know you're a nice guy but I don't want to I don't want to be on your team basically I just don't it's not working for me it's not it's not working and so you know um so I I you know I I I wish I could have handled that a little bit better but I don't know if that quite answers your question that's that's what happened we're just about out of time in the entire show darn it but real quickly I could go on and on how would you the world change if more of us could live from our hearts you know maybe there'd be more maybe there would be a little bit more listening conflict Le resolution would be not so much just from the head but it might be from the heart and uh you know I think that's one of the I think that's one of the problems is you know when you when run into trouble how do you how do you where do you how do you solve it you know do you come from the heart and you do you take the big-hearted approach where you may have to admit you're wrong um God forbid God forbid that well unfortunately we are at the end of the show Don thank you so much for coming on the show and sharing your knowledge well to thank you for having me it's a pleasure and uh I appreciate you the work that you're doing and thank you Our Guest this hour has been Don Johnson the author of living a conscious life to find out more about Don where you can find his book and all he has to offer visit his website inre group.com this has been Mission Evolution with guilda WEA for more information or to enjoy past archived episodes visit Mission evolution. org but please be sure to join us right here next time this Mission will continue bringing information resources and support to an evolving world [Music] [Music] [Music] w [Music] [Music] w [Music]