Explore how self-awareness, self-regulation, and self-compassion can deepen our spiritual lives and transform the way we show up for one another. Through reflection, connection, and shared experience, go beyond the idea of community into the practice of community, where every person has the opportunity to be seen, heard, valued, and supported.
[00:00:01] This is Josh Reeves and you're listening to the Mile Hi Church Podcast. Tuesdays in September, I'm beginning our Beyond Limits class. It's in person here at Mile Hi. You can find some online classes as well on our website. It's all about the fundamentals of our teaching and I'm so excited to bring the big ideas of science of mind and spirit to this class as we create community, exploration, and talk about what's most meaningful in life together. Good morning!
[00:00:30] I am so happy to see you. Thank you. It's been a while since I've been here but a home is a home is a home, isn't it? So I'm grateful. I'm grateful that Reverend Josh asked me to come and when we were talking about what I wanted to talk about, I said, oh, I want to talk about magic.
[00:00:56] I want to talk about the fact that magic is us, lives in us, moves as us, breathes as us. So I take people on pilgrimages around the world and I've been doing it, I don't know, the last 15 to 18 years and go to France and Peru and Egypt and different places.
[00:01:25] But in 2023 I was just coming back from Egypt. And this is what I want you to know, when you're leading a group, you're just as much in it as the participants. So I came back feeling so expanded and so grounded. And I'm in a meditation and a voice says, write this down.
[00:01:51] Now, I've been meditating for over 40 years so I am obedient. I pick up my journal and it says, the kingdom. So I write down the kingdom. And then it says, draw seven circles. I draw seven circles and I'm like, and? And there was nothing. I'm like, okay. So three months later I'm meditating again and the voice comes back. It says, now write the book.
[00:02:21] The name of the book is the kingdom of magic and mystery and the seven circles are seven castles of consciousness that live in each person. I'm like, and? And it said, you are to teach people that they are universal magicians. So I wasn't thinking about writing another book, y'all. And so I'm like, okay, well you better give it to me because I have no idea what you're talking about.
[00:02:50] And all of a sudden this download started coming. It just started coming really fast. And so by the end of three and a half months, this book is complete. So I'm going to share, I'm not going to talk about the book today. I will share with you the castles. But I want to start by reading a poem. Because one of the things that happened after my trips to Egypt is poetry started pouring through me. So here's the poem.
[00:03:19] You are the magic. The spark that dances in your eye. The whisper soft as stars on high. A glow that lives within your heart. A masterpiece. A work of art. The dreams you weave. The love you show. The endless light you let bestow. Through every breath. Through every choice.
[00:03:50] Magic lives. It's your own voice. No need to seek. No need to find. The magic's you in soul and mind. So stand tall. Shine bright and let it be. You are the magic. Wild and free. Thank you.
[00:04:22] So here's the thing. There is an inner kingdom in each and every one of us. And those castles represent aspects that when they're fully activated and aligned, I mean, we're in a frequency that's powerful. So let me introduce you to the castles. The first castle is the castle of magic. That's an entry point where you remember that you're magical. If you think about it in your life, I mean, you've created magic on many different occasions, even when you didn't know what you were doing. Right?
[00:04:52] And so in that castle, you get reacquainted with that energy and that frequency within you. Then you go to the castle of art. The castle of art is all about creativity. That's the place where you remember that if the divine is creative, so are you. And so it could be drawing. It could be writing. It could be speaking. It could be dressing. It could be cooking.
[00:05:17] It's all about allowing that creative energy to flow through you. And then there's the castle of dance. Anybody who knows me knows I will get you dancing. Right? Because here's the thing. Magic happens because movement is medicine. It enlivens us. It lifts us. It makes us more joyous, more harmonic.
[00:05:47] So when you dance with the divine through your life, there's an energy that flows that's undeniable. Then we want to go to the castle of relationships. Now there's probably no one in here that has had challenge in relationships, but I thought I would just share.
[00:06:08] This is the place where you get to go in and really explore multi-levels of relating to God, to yourself, to your family, to your friends, to your exes. There are rooms all out throughout that castle that are about healing and transforming and moving into eternal love.
[00:06:36] Then we go to the castle of water. Water is about emotions. And that castle teaches you to become aware of your emotions and navigate and flow through life with ease and grace because you weren't put here to struggle. The last one is the castle of animals.
[00:06:58] You know, that introduces you to your animal guides, but also reminding you to be anchored on this planet and to all the ecosystems. So what I want you to know is that, you know, I was going to bring the book, but I sold out of my last thing, so it's not here today.
[00:07:23] But the whole book, including the meditations that I recorded, are about taking you to navigate the castles and they don't have to be in order. What's happening with you now? You get to go. But one of the things that I was recognizing as I was writing the book is that there's three ways to activate the inner kingdom. And the first one is self-awareness. The second one is self-regulation. And the third one is self-compassion.
[00:07:51] So let me talk to you about self-awareness. Self-awareness is becoming completely attuned and aware to what you are feeling in every moment.
[00:08:07] Self-awareness is becoming completely attuned and aware to what you are feeling in every moment.
[00:08:28] Self-awareness is becoming completely attuned and aware to what you are feeling in every moment. What's happening now? Nothing to fix.
[00:08:57] Just become aware. Because when you become aware like that, then you center. You pause. You don't let those things roll out your lips that you thought would never come back. So, Friday we honored 9-11. And 9-11, 2001, I was working at a media management company. And we had just done a merger.
[00:09:25] So all of the senior executives were in New York. And I was just as stunned as everybody else watching our TVs. And so there was only me and a director that were there. And we had two offices in Los Angeles. And so there was no precedent about what we do. So we said, okay, let's take the conference rooms and make them quiet rooms.
[00:09:49] So we put up signs where people could go in and be quiet or pray or write or do whatever they wanted to do. Then I sent out an email to the internet. And I said, send me all the churches, the synagogues, the spiritual centers that you know of. So I'm going to create a list so people have a place to go for support. And then we went to each building and we gathered people.
[00:10:15] There were people there that had family in the towers, friends in the towers. So we held each other. There was no format. People talked. People cried. People loved each other. I felt so attuned and in such high service. So a couple days later, communication comes back and my boss calls me. And she is furious.
[00:10:45] She's yelling at me, what were you thinking? We are not a spiritual community. We'll take care of you when I get back. Now, you know, I really like being diplomatic. I really do. Plus, I wanted a job. But what came out of my mouth was, I am not afraid.
[00:11:14] And she hung up on me. I'm like, oh, I am so fired. So she comes back and she calls me in her office. And I'm ready for the execution, y'all. Really, I'm ready. And I walk in and she's smiling. And she says in a voice, this is a little too sweet. Thank you. And my mind is going, okay, what's happening here? She says, no, I want to thank you.
[00:11:42] We've been getting all these emails and all these notes saying that the employees were so honored that we were taking care of them, that we love them. So we, the company, want to just praise you for what you did. Okay. So my stomach, my solar plexus went, right? Which is an indication that something is not aligned.
[00:12:10] So I'm looking at her. And what's going on in my mind is I'm becoming aware. I'm becoming aware of my body. But then I'm going, her mouth is not aligned with truth. What she's speaking is not in alignment with who I am. What she's saying and what this company represents is not in alignment with what I value. Oh, Lord, I need to get out of here. But I'm a single mother.
[00:12:40] And so I'm like, okay, God, I really need help here. And I'd like you to move me as soon as possible. Well, that didn't happen until eight months later. A man named Kent Routenstrauss called me and said, would you come to Mile High and sing for us? And I had been wanting to come here for years and nobody cared.
[00:13:08] So I come and then very shortly after that, Dr. Roger and Kent invited me to be an artist in residence for a month here. They had not had one before. They don't think they've had one since. And they paid me exactly what I was making in my job. And so I'm in prayer and it says, go. Change the trajectory of my life.
[00:13:37] But what I want to tell you is that because I was aware and awake that I craved being in alignment. It was everything to me. The universe said, okay, I got you. That's what I want you to know. The universe has you. But you've got to become aware. And the thing about it is it's not becoming aware so that you can fix something.
[00:14:06] It's becoming aware so that you can decide to be awake. Decide to be aware. Decide to be conscious. Because then that means that once you become aware, then you get to learn how to self-regulate. Now self-regulation is not about fixing.
[00:14:33] It's about understanding what is happening because your awareness is about the feeling. Regulation is about what do you do with those feelings. What relationship do you have with those feelings. And it's not about controlling emotions. It's about having a relationship with your emotions so they don't control you. So they don't hijack your life. Your family. Your friends. Your finances.
[00:15:01] It's about becoming present and making choices for your own health and your own well-being. You know, Gallup did this poll and it was looking at people around the world. And it said that there were 39% of the people felt like they worried a lot. 37% said, well, you know, I'm carrying a lot of stress. And this is what was interesting to me.
[00:15:28] 22% just before they took the poll said that they were angry. But I was looking because I wanted to find out what... Let me go a little deeper into this. So Stanford did this randomized study. And it said... What it discovered was breath. Breathing.
[00:15:56] Now, you know, if you've been on a spiritual path, you know about breath. I mean, there's all kinds of different ways to breathe. But what it said that was so interesting to me was that when a collective breathes, when you take five minutes out of your day to move into that place, to that breath, it begins to open the channels of consciousness. I say open the channels to your kingdom.
[00:16:24] But it also allows you to move into response versus reaction. So I thought we could do a little experiment here. So I'm going to ask you in this moment to just gently close your eyes. And that doesn't feel comfortable. Have a soft gaze. And in this moment, I want you to just feel the energy in the room. Just feel it.
[00:17:00] And then what I'd like you to do is... There may be something in your life that feels challenging in this moment. Could be a person. Could be a job. Could be finances. Just allow it to gently move up to your conscious awareness. And now I want you to breathe with me. I'll guide you. Breathe in. Exhale.
[00:17:31] Breathe in. Exhale. Breathe in. Exhale. Now breathe in peace. Exhale love. Breathe in peace. Exhale love.
[00:17:59] Now gently return to your breath. Your normal breathing. And feel the energy in this room. And when you're ready, gently open your eyes. Greg Braden, HeartMath organization, talk about coherence.
[00:18:27] In this moment of us all breathing together, we came into alignment and into attunement. And nothing changed out in the world. Nothing changed with that thing that came to your conscious awareness. But as a community, we became a frequency. A force.
[00:18:49] Now imagine if this whole community, touching all the lives that we touch, became that kind of frequency. Self-mastering. Self-regulation. Whoa. What will we be doing on this planet? You know, we've always said, mile high is a beacon.
[00:19:13] But wow, wouldn't that be a whole other level of frequency of peace and love and grace without you trying to fix something? Because self-regulation takes away blame and takes away shame. And it takes away judgment. And it moves into that place of peace. And it moves you into a place of compassion. For me, compassion really is not about denying what's happening in your life.
[00:19:43] It's about understanding that it's a part of this process called life. And you get to choose how you want to interact with it. You get to choose how you want to be with it. You get to say, oh, that person's behavior, bless them, they must be in pain. Oh, that person said that? I'm sure their intention was not to hurt me, but I get to have my boundaries.
[00:20:12] Oh, that person who walked out and was unkind? Bless them. And thank God they've been moved. I have a podcast called Women Awakening. And I've interviewed about 325 women around the world. And they're all changemakers. And a few years ago, I interviewed a woman named Leticia Naguyan.
[00:20:40] At 38 years old, she was about to marry the love of her life. She was a finance person in France. And they decided they were going to get married in Santorini, Greece, which is a fabulous place. So everything's set, the dress, the fly, everything's set. And three months before the wedding date, she gets a text from the fiancee ending the relationships.
[00:21:10] Now, he doesn't say why. He just won't return her texts, her phone calls, her emails. And the way she describes it is it took her days to get off the floor, just sobbing and feeling so abandoned. She's of Asian descent.
[00:21:27] And while she's on the floor, while she's in this deep grieving place, she remembers that in the Japanese culture, there was this person who married themselves as a symbol of connectedness. So she decided, oh, I'm going to do that. So she sends out a letter to everybody and say, come to Greece. The wedding is on, except I'm marrying me. I have my dress. We got the flowers.
[00:21:55] You know, we got the food. I'm marrying me. But what she said is when she was writing those vows, she started to realize that his leaving was the gift. That she could have compassion for him because his leaving allowed her to open to another level of love that she never would have gotten to because she was putting all of her energy into him. Into that relationship. Into achieving.
[00:22:26] Into that relationship. It changed everything. She wrote a book. She started a blog. She created a community. She speaks all over. Because that part of becoming aware, regulating herself and choosing to be compassionate with herself and others, changed everything. I want you to know you have an opportunity
[00:22:55] you come to this beautiful community and you get to hear speakers and music and take classes but it's all on you your change is about you your change is about your choices your change is about your awareness your change is about you regulating so you are not allowing old ways of being to continue to hijack you this is what I want you to know
[00:23:25] you were chosen you were chosen to be on this planet and this moment because the universe God knew that it needed you unrepeatable, fabulous dynamic, mighty you so because you're chosen you get to breathe that in in this moment how incredible you are
[00:23:55] how fabulous you are how magical you are I want you to breathe that in and join me in prayer so you breathe in the remembrance the recognition that there is one God one mind, one heart one life
[00:24:23] you breathe in that recognition that that divine intelligence is everywhere present it is your life it is the breath that is breathing you there's a remembrance in this moment that you are a spark of the divine you are a manifestation of the wholeness and the oneness of God made a manifest you breathe that in and so in this moment you can place
[00:24:53] on the altar of light and love and peace all your fears all your doubts all your concerns the past wounds old beliefs place it on the altar of light and allow it to transform to transform into love and peace and harmony and grace oh because you remember that you are blessed always
[00:25:28] blessed always blessed always for of God surround us that we rest in God and say
[00:25:56] so what you know in this moment is that you're held you're loved you're supported you're guided there is nothing that can stop you from creating and revealing the magic that is you and so we just give thanks for your health your well-being your joy your freedom and your light we give thanks we give thanks that we can surrender and open because the answer is always yes yes to love
[00:26:25] yes to peace yes to harmony yes to grace yes blessed always blessed always so triumphant
[00:26:55] that we and say that we and say
[00:27:21] and so it is thank you
[00:27:50] thanks for listening to the Mile High Church podcast this podcast is made possible by the generous contributions from listeners like you to make a donation please visit milehighchurch.org you