Stillness In The Tides of Change – Rev. Aimee Daniels
This video features the Sunday “talk” only. Watch the full service on our Facebook page.
DESCRIPTION
Like the tides, change is a natural and inevitable part of life—sometimes gentle, sometimes overwhelming. Yet beneath the shifting waves, there is a deep stillness, an inner presence that remains steady and unshaken. Join us as we explore how cultivating inner stillness allows us to move with change rather than resist it. By grounding ourselves in present-moment awareness, we develop the resilience to navigate life’s ebb and flow with clarity, grace, and trust in the unfolding journey.
SUMMARY
The key points from this talk are:
- Change is the only constant in life, and it is the gateway to growth. The speaker encourages the audience to be curious about changes rather than fearful, and to see them as opportunities for spiritual growth.
- The speaker discusses the importance of stillness and connecting to one’s inner spiritual awareness, which is described as the true nature of the self. Practices like meditation and chanting “om” are recommended as ways to access this inner stillness.
- The speaker emphasizes the need to trust in the unfolding of life, surrender to the process of change, and seek support from others during times of transition and difficulty. They encourage the audience to shift their perspective and narrative around challenging experiences.
- The session concludes with a prayer of affirmation, claiming peace, grace, love, and light as the truth of each person’s being and their connection to the divine source energy or vibration.
TRANSCRIPTION
This transcription was auto-generated, please excuse typos, errors and omissions.
Rev. Aimee Daniels (00:00):
That was beautiful. Give some more love to Megan. Thank you for picking that song. That’s really a beautiful song about how life just continues to go around. So thank you so much. And my computer’s cooperating. I’m so happy it’s been acting up a little bit, so thank you, Ben for that. So let’s dive in. There’s a story in the Native American tradition about a grandfather who is telling a story to his grandson, and he says, my son, inside of each of us, there’s a battle that’s taking place every single day, and that is a battle between two wolves. And the grandson looks up at him and says, two wolves. And his grandfather nods and said, yes, one wolf is dark in fierce. He’s full of anger, fear, envy, resentment, arrogant, self pity and doubt. And he thrives on negativity and he feeds on worry. He makes us believe we’re not enough, that the world is against us and that we should lash out or retreat in fear.
(01:19):
The other wolf is radiant and calm. He’s full of love, kindness, hope, courage, compassion and wisdom. He brings joy, peace, and understanding. He reminds us that we’re connected to something greater than we are, and we’re strong enough to go through anything that happens in life, any change, any challenge. And his grandson thinks for a moment and looks at him and says, which one wins? And he says, the one you feed. So I find that story very relevant right now. I live in my own head. I’m noticing my inner narrator lately, and sometimes it’s not the wolf I want to feed. So we’re going to talk about change today, but we’re also going to talk about stillness, and we’re going to talk about stillness second because we’re going to do a little practice of stillness together. But let’s talk about change. It is the only constant.
(02:29):
Think about your life, like the song said, the little boy starts out and his life is constantly changing. He becomes an adult and maybe his dreams are not immediately realized. And we can always, I’ll relate to that, right? Because life is always changing. We might move someplace new, we might lose someone. We are all getting older. That’s a fact, right? But life is always changing. And spiritual paths have always talked about how humans can cope with change. It’s also true in psychology and philosophy. We see this throughout all the great teachings of the world. And so let’s talk a little bit about the nature of change. Our founder, Ernest Holmes says, change is the eternal law of progress. So change is actually things moving forward. That’s what it is. It is the creative natural energy that underlies everything moving forward. And when we resist change, we create suffering.
(03:35):
We create suffering, and we all do it. We sometimes we just want our life to be at what we perceive to be a better time than we’re in the moment, right? It’s normal, but we want to accept the flow of life. And Buddhism is a great teacher for this idea that change is neither good or bad. It simply is. And in the T Ching, it says, do you have the patience to wait until the mud settles and the water’s clear? Pema chore says that a different way. She says, whatever’s going on in your life, just stay. Stay with it. Even when it feels painful, just stay with it.
(04:27):
And there’s a story in Taoism about a farmer, and this is to teach us that we don’t know what good or bad is. Okay? So there’s a story, and the story is about the farmer and his horse runs away and his neighbors say to him, what? Bad luck. And he said, we’ll see, maybe not. And then he goes out and he brings back several wild horses, and his neighbors say to him, what good fortune. And he says, we’ll see, maybe not. And then his son tries to tame a wild horse and he falls off and he breaks his leg and his neighbors say, what? Bad fortune. And he says, maybe, maybe not. And then the army comes to take his son to war, but they see that he has a broken leg, so they don’t take him. And his neighbors say, what a blessing. And he says, we’ll see, maybe not.
(05:31):
Because the truth is we never really know what things are for. And I know when I think about my own life, something that I would’ve called bad, this bad thing happened to me. Maybe it was the thing that actually led me to get into a good or better place. I feel that way about getting divorced, that I wouldn’t be who I am and I wouldn’t be in this teaching if that hadn’t happened. And I can think of a lot of other things that put me on a completely different path in my life. And so we never know what things are for. So the part of our mind that’s critical of ourselves wants to draw a conclusion, but don’t allow it to because change is the gateway to growth. Carolyn Mace, in her book, sacred Contracts says that every difficult change is part of your soul’s agreement.
(06:22):
So what Carolyn teaches is we all come in and our purpose for being here is to grow and to grow spiritually specifically. So if we have something difficult happening in our life, how is it for our growth? How is it for our growth? I can think of a lot of things in my life where I was like, wow, that was a tough one. But I came out of it better because I knew myself better or because it caused me to shift a pattern that I had that maybe didn’t serve me. So change can be hard, but it is for us and we need to remember that. And Pico ier, I don’t know if I’m saying his name, he wrote a book called Stillness. That’s how I found him. He says, change is not an enemy, but an opportunity to see what is unfolding. So really the invitation in change is just to get curious.
(07:13):
I wonder what’s trying to happen here. It’s really not clear to me. I wonder what it’s going to be, but to be curious instead of fearful. Because if we believe that we’re a spirit, having a human experience, we’re always okay. It’s important for us to remember that, especially when we’re triggered. And because when we’re triggered what is happening in our brain, the two lower parts of our brain, the reptilian brain, they call it in the midbrain work six to seven times faster than your conscious mind. So if you notice when you’re upset, it’s hard to shift your thoughts. And we talk a lot about shifting your thoughts, but I just want to say, when you’re in that place, you need to give yourself a hot minute and you need to sit in the silence or get some prayer or go for a walk or do something that just allows your mind to calm down so that you have access to the conscious part of your mind, which is third eye frontal lobe, all of that if you want to be scientific.
(08:15):
So once you’re ready to do that, let’s talk a little bit about how do we get our mind? And you can heal your life. Louise Hay, who is an amazing human being, she says, every thought we think is creating our future. So it’s really when you think about something going wrong, what’s the natural reaction we all have? Why me? Why is this happening to me? Sometimes I get the what? The F, my little devil brain. And in our teaching, we call that victim consciousness. This is happening to me, and it’s a normal part of life, is what I want to say to you. It’s probably our brain’s default, but our job and our spiritual life is to do the work to move out of that so that we can be in an empowered place to ask a different question. So the second kingdom of consciousness is by me.
(09:21):
So we begin to work with this power and presence to consciously create our life. And so instead of asking the question, why me, we ask a different question. How can I use this experience to grow? Because then we’re stepping into our empowerment because all change is happening for you. It’s not happening to you. And if you start to simply just hold that thought, I know from my personal experience it’s helpful somehow. This is for me. I really can’t see it right now, but I know it’s for me. I think one of the heartbreaks of my life, I just had to say that to myself all the time. This is for me. I don’t know why this is for me. I don’t know why, but it’s for me because the universe is always working to bring you the experiences that are going to help you to grow.
(10:15):
That’s the spiritual truth. Some of them are fun, some of them are painful, and that’s how life is. But did you ever notice, I was thinking about this because I think one of the other most painful experiences in my life was when my brother died. And I’ve talked about that a lot because I felt like I got hit by a truck. But as I thought about this, as I was preparing the suck, I thought the other thing that happened when he died, besides he wanted to go, I just want to tell you that he said, I want to go. So he was ready to exit. Everything that was going on with me was about me just being sad. I lost my guy. He was like my cheerleader and the king of the pithy comment. That was a good commentary on my life without being critical. But in that time, there was so much love around me. So many people showed up at my house with food and offered to run a meeting for me or take something over for me. And what I realized in the middle of it, there was love.
(11:24):
So even though it was painful, there was love there. And the love that I had for him, it continued and I still talk to him. So wherever you are, you got to work with where you are. And Esther Hicks talks about choosing a better feeling thought. So if we’re sad, I think this is called the emotional guidance scale in her book. If we’re in a sad place, we’re not going to pop from sad down to like, oh, I’m so excited. We’re not going to do that. That’s not where we are. But we can start to move ourself up a little bit. And when I reflect back on when my brother passed, I was down sort of in the dumps. I don’t have a better word for it, but little by little I started to move up. I started to move from being in a place of being sad to like, wow, I’m really disappointed.
(12:25):
I’m really sorry that this happened. And then I could move myself up over time. But I’ll be honest, it took me about six months. That’s the truth. It took me about six months to move myself through that. But the idea is we want to choose a better feeling thought. And sometimes if your brain has a hold of you, the best thing you can do is step away. A lot of people are dealing with change in their work right now I have one of a person that I’ve worked with for over 10 years. He runs a not-for-profit, and they’re facing a lot of funding cuts right now, and he’s pretty, I dunno, he’s pretty beside himself. I don’t know another way to say it. And I said, I know this is really counterintuitive, but maybe you should take a little time off. Maybe you should just give yourself some space working so hard to solve this that maybe if you give yourself some space in this, you’ll be able to move forward.
(13:26):
So that’s also what I’m talking about. Let yourself be where you are. Give yourself some space, but then start to move forward. And then you can start, instead of saying, God, my life is falling apart, you can start to say, I trust life. I’m trusting my life is unfolding perfectly. And instead of saying, I’m stuck, who’s ever been stuck, right? I’m stuck. Say I’m learning something new through this. I don’t know what I’m learning. I am learning something new. And you can also journal and write. I think that’s one of the greatest gifts you can offer yourself at a difficult time in your life. Just get it out of your head. Write it on a piece of paper. I just came back from a conference a few weeks ago and I did this thing with my friend. And there’s something in my Vistage work that’s really popular.
(14:18):
It’s called the I am From poem, which is there’s somebody named Mary Pifer. You can Google it. It’s about telling the story of your past life. But my friend and I invited a new version. It’s called the I am Now poem, which is really writing something that is affirmative about your future and what you want it to be. And so that’s really what you’re trying to do with your life. You’re trying to write a new story. When something disappointing happens, what’s the new story I want to write? You might not be totally ready to write it yet, but get it down. Get it down. Begin to think about it, journal about it.
(14:59):
So let’s talk about stillness. And I don’t even know how far I’m into it because my time thinks it’s 85 minutes from when I pulled plugged in. I know I’m not at 85 minutes.
(15:13):
So in the art of stillness, Pico Iyer says, we often think we need to move forward to solve our problems, but sometimes the answer is to be still. And I like this highlighted quote at the bottom. Stillness is not about an inaction. It’s about creating the space to see things differently. And that’s what we do when we meditate. That’s actually what we do when we pray, whether we’re praying for ourself or someone else is praying for us, we’re creating the space to see things differently. So let’s talk about Eckhart. Our book this month is Stillness Speaks by Eckhart Toll. And if you only read the first chapter of this book, it will transform your life. You can actually do that for free on Amazon and the Kindle. You can read a sample, but Paul read this to us. When you lose touch with your inner stillness, you lose touch with yourself. And when you lose touch with yourself, you lose yourself in the world. Because stillness is our true nature. Stillness is our spiritual self. It’s this inner space or awareness that if you want to think about it, that it’s doing us. We’re not doing it, it’s doing us. And I loved the quote at the end when I read this. I was like, wow, you are that awareness disguised as a person.
(16:49):
So related to our human self, aren’t we? But who we really are is our awareness. Call it whatever name you want to call it, you could call it your spirit. Whatever name you want to call it, you are it. That’s the truth of who you are. And when we turn within, that’s what we’re connecting to. We’re connecting to that inner stillness. So I’m going to give, I always give you things to work on at home, just how to move through the change with the flow. And then we’re going to move into a practice which I’m going to give you some instruction on, which is the most important thing I’m going to say today. But I just want to give you how to do this, what we’ve been talking about at home. So when you’re facing change or something that’s troubling you, we don’t have to call it change. The first thing we do is we sit in the silence, we sit in the stillness, and then when we feel clear, we can ask the question, what is this teaching me? And we want to pause before we react, right? It’s so easy to react, isn’t it Just like, boom, I’m going to react. But we want to pause before we react. So we let the stillness guide us.
(18:19):
I need a minute or I need to step away, or I’m not ready to talk about something. That’s totally cool. But pause before you react and then work on shifting your story. That’s what you do when you vision, when you affirm, when you pray for something, you’re changing your story. And then we have to let go. We have to trust that life. God, whatever your word is, is working in our favor, that there is something bigger happening here than what we can see. And the other thing I want to say is you need to seek support because we’re not doing life alone. There’s so many people around. It’s easy to isolate ourselves, especially when something’s wrong, isn’t it? It’s easy to just go like huddle, land your couch, not talk to anybody. But that’s actually when you need support more. I love this quote by rub me.
(19:16):
Try not to resist the waves of change. Instead, let them carry you to the shore of something new. Beautiful quote. So let’s talk about how to do that. And I’m actually going to ask Greg and the music team to get in position so everybody know what this is. This is the om symbol, and stillness is revered in all the great spiritual teachings as a way to connect to spirit, source, God wisdom, whatever word you want to choose. And when we connect, what are we connecting to? We’re connecting to. It’s got a lot of different names. The breadth of life, the divine, the still small voice, different past call it different things.
(20:08):
And in Hinduism, they believe that there is this primordial sound ohm. And the ohm is the sound of creation, which is what all things stem from. It’s this ohm sound. And in yogic and kean and things like that, you hear people practice om a lot and it’s a vibration. The sound of creation is a vibration. So the om can help you connect to that spiritual. And there’s different viewpoints on this when we try to connect into that vibration ourselves. I know for myself, when I try to listen beneath the surface, I can hear a little wave or a humming, for lack of a better way to describe it. I can hear something happening beneath, even if the room is silent or even if there’s a little noise in the room. I haven’t been able to do it when there’s rock and roll blaring. I tried it.
(21:20):
But there is a vibrational sound that is always happening, and that is what I really want to invite everyone to connect to. Some people hear it or feel it through their whole being. You might just feel when you meditate, you might just feel a sense that things are expanding, your energy is expanding beyond your body. And so it’s different for each person. And so we’re going to go into a practice now for a couple minutes just of entering the stillness. And I really want to encourage you to do this at home. I want to encourage you to see if you can either sense into it with your body or if you can literally hear a little bit of vibration, a little bit of that sound. And I’m going to ask that nobody move around the next two or three minutes, just so that we have as much silence in the room as we can possibly have. So I just invite you to close your eyes now and let’s take a couple deep breaths together just to settle into our body. Let’s breathe in through our nose and breathe out through our mouth. Breathing in through your nose and breathing out through your mouth, breathing in through your nose, breathing out through your mouth. And just allow your breathing to become natural. And let’s just say do a few oms together out loud just to activate the vibration. And our body’s just breathing in.
(23:10):
Om….
New Speaker (23:21):
Om…
(23:30):
One more. Om…
(23:35):
And just let your body settle into its natural vibration. And we’re going to sit in the silence for about two minutes together. Just see if you can listen a little more deeply. Feel the vibration in your body. Maybe you can sense into the vibration itself.
(26:17):
And I invite you to just imagine whatever vibration you’re sensing or feeling just to imagine it emanating out from your body and filling up this room and just touching all of creation. You’re connected to all of it. You’re one with this vibration, this creative force that is creating all things. You are the stillness itself and you are the presence. So as you begin to bring your energy back into the room, I’m going to speak a prayer for us. And I just invite you to receive this prayer. So in this moment, I just know that God’s source, spirit, life, breath, vibration, goodness, grace, love is all that. There is this infinite source, and I know that I’m one with this source. I’m one with this love and this light and this vibration and this creative power, this essence that is living and moving and having. Its being as me and as I know this for myself.
(27:47):
I know this. For each one of us, we are all one with this source. We are all one with this divine energy, this infinite flow and grace, this goodness, this vibration, this creative power and presence. And so from this place of oneness, I speak a word for each person in this room, each person online, anyone hearing my words, just knowing and affirming that peace, grace, love, light is the truth of your being and knowing that you are having a deep and profound realization of your connection to this divine source energy, this vibration in each and every moment. I know that as we go out into our week, we are better equipped to deal with things that are changing around us. Because we are centered. We are centered. We know that we are the stillness itself. We are the awareness itself. We are spiritual beings, having our human experience. So I know and claim for us that we are lifted up in that we are lifted up in that knowing I know that God’s got this. I know that all is well, and I give great thanks for this, knowing that it is done. And together we say and so it is. Amen.