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If you felt lonely, isolated, disconnected, with an empty feeling inside and just yearning for more, knowing something is missing, then this podcast is for you. So here's your host, Joe Mittega.
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Hello and welcome to W.E. my name is Joe Mittega and I'm the host of the we podcast. I'm going to start off by asking you a question. Have you ever looked around the room, a completely full room, full of people, full of commotion, full of conversations, but still felt completely alone? Have you ever sat with family, friends, co workers, even your partner and wondered, why do I still feel so disconnected? Well, if you've ever had that experience, please know you're not the only one. Across the world, millions of people are experiencing something they're struggling to explain. We are more connected today than any other generation in history. We can reach anyone at any point, at any time, any place on the globe by a push of a button. Yet loneliness, isolation, and emotional disconnection is on the rise. Something just doesn't add up as far as I'm concerned. Maybe, though, just maybe the problem isn't that we're not surrounded by enough people. Maybe the problem isn't we don't have enough friends or family in our life. Maybe the problem is somewhere along the line, somewhere along your path, you lost connection with yourself, with myself. I'm talking about me. In this episode of we, we're going to explore the questions that many people are quietly asking. Why do I feel so alone in the world these days? Not from the perspective only of psychology, the psychology of being alone. And not really, quite honestly, from the perspective of relationships and being alone. But we're going to talk today more from a deeper perspective, the perspective that takes emotional growth and self discovery to truly understand. Because aloneness is not always, quite honestly, the absence of people. Sometimes it's the absence of connection, sometimes it's the distance between who you are and who you're becoming. That's a challenging one. We're going to talk about that at length later in the show. And sometimes that feeling that nobody truly sees us because we truly don't see ourselves. And I remember kind of being in that place for a really long time and it was very confusing. So we're going to talk about that today. We're going to explore why so many people are feeling alone, why disconnection seems to be increasing everywhere, and how emotional growth can help us break through that distance and reconnect with ourselves, with others, and with the deeper truth of who we really are. Because healing, folks, does not happen alone. Healing happens when we remember the we. As I wrote that introduction a couple of days ago, it really kind of brought up for me the path I led and the path I lived for so long. I was isolated from everybody. I was disconnected from everything. Everything I knew it was true at different parts became false. The confusion, the sadness, the darkness, the despair. It was my normal. That's why I call my path of seven Years of Darkness really kind of a modern day monk. And the truth of the matter is the darkness I went through and the path I led is so different, truly, because I did all of this 30 plus years ago. I did it in a time where society was in a different place, humanity was in a different place, family and friends were in a different place. The old normals of drinking and drugging and cigarette smoking. And it was normal. Almost like literally everybody did it. And when I stopped, I literally had to remove myself from all people that could cause me the temptation. So when I. When I personally went on this path and started my own discovery into the deepest, darkest parts that a human can really do, I believe I was truly alone. And I thought forever, if I just had a friend, if I just had somebody around me, if I just had somebody to understand, if I just had somebody to talk to, then I'd feel better. Well, the facts of the matter is I did, I had somebody, my therapist. Now, of course, she wasn't a conversationalist, she was a black belt Al Anon. And her path was more about if I give him answers, I'm robbing him of the integrity of learning it on his own. So in the seven years I worked with my therapist, Nancy, in the depths of emotional despair, she gave me a couple answers a couple times. But I truly believed with all of my heart, all I needed was people, person, place, thing, more money, right job, right location to be okay. And it never happened. And amazingly enough, at the end of that seven years, I've told people this story a lot. You know, I lived on less than $3,000 a year. I still had the same amount of money. I still was in the same alone space. I still lived in the same city doing the same things, but I felt better. And it took me many years to figure out what the heck happened. Because everything that I thought would cause aloneness to go away never changed, but my aloneness went away. And that's what we're going to talk about here today. I want to welcome everybody here to the We Podcast. I am super excited. I mean, the We Podcast is literally one of the fastest growing podcasts on the globe. I want to welcome everybody from Norway. It's interesting, you know, we're now in 14 different countries, but the country of Norway. Welcome to all of you. I look forward to visiting your country sometime. I hear it's a beautiful place to be and I'm happy to celebrate that. The we podcast has been the number one ranked how to podcast in Norway now for the past few weeks. And folks, I really welcome you. I'm glad you're here and I look forward to hearing more about your stories as I meet you over time. You know, the we podcast is doing something that really has never been done before, especially not in the era of time that we're in. The typical podcast are promoted by large companies with large spheres of influence and great messages, great people, but they're put into a large audience. Well, that's not what the we podcast started six months ago. It was me and a microphone and three friends. Well, today tens of thousands of people are connecting in and tens of thousands of people are listening to episode after episode. And I want to thank you all and I want everybody to understand right from the beginning. I give full credit to the success of the we podcast to each of you. We are doing this together. And the we, as I talk about all the time, our higher sense of self, inner self, human self. The we each individual human as a. As an individual person, we have a we. And the divinity in me is talking to the divinity in you. And that's why you're here. And I hope that you're gaining some wisdom from what you're hearing here. Truly, what I believe is happening is that people are listening to the we podcast and I tend to have a different flavor than most of the influencers out there. I came from a different cloth. I lived a different path. I'm not here to tell you what to do. I'm here to share with you what I did. And as we expand into the voices of we, which I'm super excited about, which I'm going to talk about in a minute, guests on our show here, there's going to be guests over time, but it's not going to be a guest telling you what to do. It's going to be a guest telling you having the courage to tell you what it was like when they were in their misery on a Tuesday morning and didn't know how to get up and didn't know where to go and what they did to get to the place they are now. The we podcast will never be a celebrity based look at how great my life is. And, you know, go do some things and you can be like me. Because the truth of the matter is, folks, that's just not a factual, actual. It's not. The truth is we all have a different passion. We all have a different purpose. And here at the we podcast, we're here. I'm here to support you and to help you remember who you are truly are. And I am blessed to say that the concept is working. And I am just really full of gratitude. I am. I had a conversation. And for those of you that don't know, the we podcast in July is adding a second episode each week. We're going to be on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The Thursday episode will be kind of the same structure that it's been. But the Tuesday episode is where I'm going to start integrating in stories from spiritual warriors that I come across. Spiritual people that are just normal. They're just like you, they're just like me. We're just people, all of us. And there are certain individuals that have had keen experiences, powerhouse experiences, experiences that have really changed them. And then the practice that living, that higher sense of self. And the four categories that I'm really looking to fill with people is love and relationships, which I have somebody, I haven't had the final conversation, reinvention after divorce or divorce and then reinvention, I have somebody, haven't had the conversation with her yet either. And then recovery and addiction. Those are the first four major categories. I'm going to integrate in first. And I am super excited to introduce that. I have had a conversation with a man named Paul, and Paul has been in recovery for 10, 12 years. He's lived through the Al Anon side of a child who was massively addicted. And the success on the other side has been tremendous. He is amazing, man. I'm going to be telling one of his stories that I told. He has already told me later in the show. And the whole idea is I want to continue to create more voices because my message and my passions and my style and the method, the mechanism in which I communicate, some people will really be drawn to it. Other people, I'm going to push away. I don't mean to, but it's just me. I can't. I am who I am, and I'm wise enough to know. And I understand that certain personalities will also attract a whole nother group of people. And that's the goal. We want everybody to feel welcome here. And that's why on the Tuesday episodes, in the beginning, it's going to be, I'M going to have conversations with these people on a weekly, monthly basis or so, and I'm going to share my interpretation of them, of their stories, and then over time, they're going to be on the show with me. So you can hear from them, you can feel their voices, you can feel their pains, you can experience their glories. And it's just going to be more and more of us getting together. The essence of the we, individually, human, self, divine self, inner self, collectively, all of us coming together and building something that's changing the world, that's healing the world. The goal of 100 million downloads a month is a real life thing. And with technology today, it's a doable thing. There are shows out there now have 35, 40 million downloads a month. Well, I applaud those shows and it tells me if they can, we can. And collectively, we're going to do it. Why? Because if the we podcast can help 100 million people move from living from their humanity into their divinity. Humanity is the pursuit of gratitude by putting out in the world and receiving back divinity. Living through your divinity is the pursuit of grace, which is giving back to the world and living in that place of grace. We help 100 million people do that, 100 million doubles to 200. Double, double, double. We're close to half of the planet by a weak podcast just like this. So let's start into the ultimate question, the original question, the sense of why do we feel so alone today? Why do we now, some of you don't. Some of you do. Some of you feel alone because of addiction behaviors, low self esteem, beating the crap out of yourself. And you're just so dark, you don't know if you're coming or going. Yeah, we're going to talk a little bit about that. But really today I'm going to talk more about the people who are waking up on a Tuesday morning and they say, who the heck am I today? You look across the room and you see the same person you've been in breakfast with for the last 10 years, 20 years, 30 years, and you look at them and you, you see them differently, you feel them differently, you sense them differently. We're going to talk about all that today because I've been in different places, I've been in, I've been in different spots, my whole world, in my whole journey. And I remember thinking to myself, when I was in my darkest days, I always had the hope, even if I was in deep dark, I cannot breathe misery. I always had the hope that if I had A friend in my life, I'd be better. Or if I had more money in my life, I'd be better. Or if I had a car that fricking worked, I'd be better. I barely had a car that worked. I didn't have a cell phone, literally when I was living. $3000 a month for those of you that don't know. $3000 a month for seven years, my car barely worked. And my paths for the new people, basically in 1994, I realized I'd been drinking and drugging every day since. I went on a quest to stop. I made it seven days. I was not a God guy, that's for sure. I was never pursuing a spiritual experience. I grew up in a religion I did not believe in. I believe in all religion. I don't believe in human interpretation of these magical books. I just don't. And I believe that there's one God I believe that live from love. That's a common message of all modern day religion. All people are welcome here. I honor you if it's working for you, because for me it didn't. So I had no relationship with God. In fact, the hair on the back of my neck would raise if I brought that topic up. But on February 20, 1994, I couldn't. Drugs and alcohol addiction had me by the throat. I raised my hands after a 30 minute struggle, I said, God, if I'm not supposed to drink or drug, I need your help. A literal rush of energy through my body. A tear comes out my left eye. Compulsion for drugs and alcohol. Gone 54 days later. Had full blown memories of being really abused as a child. Sexually abused by two 17, 18 year old boys. And that was the beginning of my sobriety. April 16, 1994. Blessed to say, 32 years and that original seven years. I went into a a world that said, I just want to stop hurting. Happy to say, made it through. Happy to say life went forward. Happy to say I am where I am today and I can share that with all of you. And along the way there were different times where I would look and I'd say, well, I got plenty of money, my job's going great, I married a wonderful woman. Why do I still feel alone? And that's what we're going to talk about here today. True aloneness. What is aloneness? Aloneness is that internal sensation of vacancy that there's no comforting experience. It's like an emptiness inside of ourselves. Aloneness versus loneliness, being lonely. Loneliness is more of an emotional experience of missing somebody or craving company or feeling sad. It's more of an emotional experience associated with the communion with another human. Loneliness is based in a very different place than aloneness. And true aloneness can be defined as the gap between you and a power greater than yourself. And those are kind of absolute statements, folks. How do I know that to be true? Because I've talked to numerous people that had more money than month, had big beautiful houses, had hundreds of friends, had super success, they're physically fit, they don't drink, they don't drug, they've got great kids, and oh yeah, they still feel alone. In the middle of their own 50th birthday party with 300 people in a rock star band, they still feel alone. Why? Because alone, this has nothing to do with your external world. Aloneness has everything to do with your internal world and the gap, the separation between you and a power greater than yourself. We're going to talk about today how we truly rekindle that experience. Recreate the experience sometimes in the beginning, rekindle it for some of us, and then live through it in the end. And those are all different parts of the spiritual growth component, the emotional growth component that I'm going to talk to you about here today. But it's also why self discovery fits here. You're discovering different parts of self, and every time you grow, there's a place where you might feel more alone. And that's always such an oxymoron. You know, the pursuit of a relationship with a power greater than yourself can cause some of the most profound eras of aloneness you'll ever have. And people say, well, Joe, how the heck can that be? I'm pursuing God. Isn't God supposed to make everything lovey dovey and wonderful and everything's supposed to be great? No, no, that's not, that's not God's job. Not God's job. God's already there. The God of my understanding is already all perfectness. His role is not to make me poofo perfect. His role, power greater than Joe gives Joe the courage and strength, the strength and courage to walk through the alone times, to remember my truth, to walk through the dark times, to heal the reasons I'm separate from my truth, to have the courage to identify the glass empty voices that shame me, blame me, guilt me, hurt me, cuss everybody else, blame everybody else, have the courage to identify those voices. The power greater than Joe is not going to rescue Joe. It's going to give Joe the wisdom, the awareness, and then the strength and courage to identify the parts that are keeping you separate from your birthright. And your birthright is oneness. Look in the eyes of a newborn baby. I was just up visiting my little nephew Lucas, precious little Lucas. You look into his eyes. There's no separation there. He's in pure faith. He's in pure form. Humanity is what separates us. Belief systems are what separate us. Sometimes abuse, sometimes neglect, sometimes abandonment, sure. But the majority of separation is humanity's doing, not God's doing. So since humanity now is waking up in a way faster than ever before, we have solutions. To remember the truth, to truly remember who you are. And in the coming up, in the episode, I tend to split the episodes into three kind of distinct parts. The mental approach to things, the emotional approach to things, and the spiritual growth part. And each one of those different components, quite honestly, all of them are rhymes. And reasons of why aloneness is a real life thing is why that sense of vacancy, the hollowness, the emptiness you feel inside that people then put the term aloneness on is so powerful. And from the mental side of things, as we truly start thinking about that and talking about that, we're going to talk about some of the voices that will convince you of the delusional ridiculousness that the solutions are outside of you. And I remember, and I always try to. I always try to kind of accent things like that, right? I don't mean to. I don't mean to cause any harm. I don't mean to offend anybody. But if you truly think about it, when you wake up in the morning, is there going to be anybody there except your partner? Maybe when you're on a trip, you go on a walk, you go for a swim, you go to the grocery store. If there's the need always for something outside of you to cause you to feel fullness, where's the freedom in that? There is none. But the belief systems will tell you that over and over and over. It's interesting because as we go through the progression of spiritual growth, as we go through the awakening process, there are different guidance systems that we go through that in the gap between the old and the new, there's typically really powerful aloneness. I wrote a poem called the Dark before the dawn, which is in my new book coming out, Filling the Void, that I'll never forget it. There were just times where and I would be so confused. I was like, I'm doing it all right. I talk to nobody. I have nothing. I'm doing no substance. I'm doing nothing except sitting with myself and being with myself and journaling. With myself. But I feel miserable. I feel alone. And one day, the dark before the dawn, the poem came through me. And I want to remind everybody. Visit my website joe mitiga.com get my book for free. It's going to be up, filling the void. All of my books will be on my website, Joe mitiga.com and if you know, right now we're in the middle of June, we're creating the website, so it'll be up soon. But keep visiting joe mitiga.com right now. If you go there, you'll see my TEDx, which a bunch of you must have already watched. My TEDx got over 100,000 views on the TEDx. How? Because Joe's so special. No, no. There's a divine presence in my TEDX that I just did in Johns Creek. Over 100,000 people have watched it now in two weeks. Why? Well, because I'm talking about healing humanity. I'm talking about giving back. I'm talking about the same stuff in that TEDx that I do here on the We Podcast. And humanity's drawn to that. Why? Because we're all waking up to become something other than what we were. And from the first spaces, the first places, I'm going to guide us through. And the end, I'm going to talk more about the spiritual events to where a massive number of people on this podcast are more at the end, in the end conversation I'm going to have than the beginning conversation. But I'm going to start with the beginning, where it's the darkest, it's the hardest, it's the I can't breathe. It's the I'm confused all the time, people, and my heart breaks for you. But if you're here, congratulations. I celebrate you. Why? Because if you're here, that means the part of you that brought you here and is listening here at the we podcast is walking you out. It's walking you out of the dark and the filling the void. It's my story. So whether you're in the deepest, darkest spots, the beginning of my book, almost 100,000 words. It's not an easy read, by the way. It's not a, hey, let me pick up my book, Joe's book, on a Saturday afternoon and have a joyous day. That ain't that book. Buckle up. You start reading my book, that book especially. Why? Because it talks about the truth. It talks about the difficulties, it talks about the depths. Why? Because I say to everybody, folks, if I can use these techniques that I share all the time on this podcast, if I can do it from where I started. Anybody can. Anybody can. And I'm coming across people now that have. Which is really, really cool. Basically, I can tell you I was in my mid-20s before I had my first conscious thought. I was probably. Well, I know for Exactly. I was 26 years old, 26, before I had my first conscious thought. And so there is a world of people. No one on this podcast. You wouldn't be here. You can't. People can't make it through a podcast like this. If you're not a spiritual warrior, if you haven't been on a path for a while, I don't care who you are, where you are, where you live. If you're not some type of. On some type of spiritual path, you wouldn't be 28 minutes into this podcast right now, let alone the other 30 podcasts I have. So 99% of the people on this podcast now have had conscious thought forever. But there's a massive number of people on the planet. They do not know they can hear their own thoughts. Hear me. They don't know that. They don't know that they can be consciously aware of their own thoughts. That's called unconscious. Literally, I live there forever until my mid six, until my mid twenties. I'll never forget. Two or three years before that. My older sister has been on a conscious path longer than me. I'll never forget. She walked into my office, we had a business together. I'll never forget. I told her, you take your psycho babble, blank, blank, blank, and hit the road. Get the. And I'm caveating, right? I got a couple of my podcasts with the explicit little red dot next to it. So I'm trying not to cuss. That would have been a bunch of cuss words because I was not nice. Take your psychobabble BS and get the effing out of here. That's what I told her in my mid-20s. Why? Because she already had conscious thought. She was trying to help me. That's how I treated people. If I didn't believe them or I didn't know. Well, when you go from unconscious to conscious, you go from not knowing to having the first understanding that you can be aware of your own thoughts. It's conscious thought. And if you've never thought about that, look around the room, look around some of your best friends, look at. Around family members. Look at the people in your life that do the same thing over and over and over and complain about the same thing over and over and over, and they never do anything about it why? Because they don't have conscious thought. And part one of the largest awakenings in the spiritual growth process is the spot between unconscious and conscious. Now, here was my first conscious thought. I was on my second or third dui. I had already gone to jail for breaking into a friend's house because I was so crazy. And if I would have got, I had two DUIs, if I would have got a third DUI, I was going to prison. Jail year, two years, three years. And the first conscious thought I ever had was the Police officers with 50 different ugly adjectives are not trying to get me to stop driving. They're trying to get me to stop driving and drinking, drinking and driving. That's what they're trying to stop me do. Never thought about it before, never that well. The wisdom of the day said, great, I can do it. I'll just smoke marijuana. And that conscious thought made me have conscious change of my behaviors. When I was out at a bar, I did not drink, I smoked, and I never had another DUI. My second conscious thought was on February 13, 1994, where I thought about because my buddy came in screaming and hollering, jill, you'll never believe what these SOBs want me to do. Stop drinking and drugging and go to 90 meetings in 90 days. I remember thinking, that is the stupidest thing I've ever heard of. That's what I told him. And then second conscious thought, when was the last time I'd gone 90 days? I was almost 31 years old at the time. I was 15, 14, probably at least 15, 16 years. Drank and drugged every day. Second conscious thought. So if you're around people and you see them and you just can't figure out why the heck they don't change, why don't they do something they're not consciously aware and a there's nothing you can do or say to make them consciously aware. All you can do or say is what you're doing with yourself. So when I moved in from completely unconscious to conscious, where I started listening to my thoughts, I started being guided by I could. I was aware of my thoughts. That was where I realized how many glass empty thoughts I had. But at least I was aware of my behaviors and I could start the process of deciding which thought I wanted to follow. In the beginning, when I stopped drinking, the only guidance I had was if I was at a traffic light. If I always went left, I automatically went right. I was so lost, with no guidance, with no understanding. I didn't know I was being guided in any way. Shape or form. Everything I'm sharing today, I did not know at the time, but I started to understand over time that the glass empty thoughts were causing me to feel alone all the time. Why? Because my glass empty thoughts were all unloving. They were all taking me out of myself for solutions. A glass empty thought for an example is if I have the right girlfriend, I will be okay. I had plenty of beautiful, kind, loving women in my life. I was never okay. Glass empty thought, if I could just be in better shape. I was 6 foot 220 pounds, a 32 inch waist and I lifted weights six days a week. But didn't matter. The glass empty thought was always, if I could have something outside of me, I would be better. Well, in that mindset, when the belief system is, something outside of me is the solution. Aloneness is the consequence. So from the mental side of self, from the mental position of healing, aloneness, we have to listen to the voices and any voice. So if you're feeling alone and you hear the voices in your head saying, I need to move, I need a new person. The absolute statements of solution, write them down. Write them down. Because as you write down those voices, the part doing the writing is the part going to seek answers from the inside out. As you start bringing your awareness back in you versus outside of you, the aloneness process starts to fill up. From your own awareness, you fill the space in your belly, in your heart, in your essence called aloneness by bringing your own awareness inside. Now, why is loneliness and aloneness epidemic today? Well, folks, just look down at your hand. You're probably. There's a huge portion of you right now listening to this podcast on a handheld device. Is that a bad thing? No, it's technology at its finest. It's only a bad thing when you don't balance it. The scrolling, the texting, the pursuing, pursuing life for the likes, all that concept, all of that pursuing of external validation for your internal okayness, all of that pursuing causes the end result of aloneness. Am I a proponent of put your phone down? No. No, I'm not. I mean, give me a break. That's just ridiculous. We live in 2026, for Christ's sake. It's time, though, to balance. For example, people get upset with me if my boys are here. I don't even have my phone. I turn it. I don't turn it off. I turn the ringer on and leave it in my room. Why? Because the only two humans I want to talk to are sitting in the living room with me. So there Are ways, there are places, there are spots right now, today that you can change the behavior of the phone device in your hand all the time. Why? Is it a bad thing? No. It's a vehicle though that's bringing your awareness out of you instead of in you. Now you want to use your phone to do the difference. Set a timer on your phone to five minutes. Go outside and breathe. Bring your awareness inside that big gap, that big void, that bigness you feel that's so empty. Fill it with breath, with light, with dreams, with awareness. My life coach, Dr. Karen, I'm hoping she agrees to be one of the voices of we. She has numerous exercises that she does helping people do that exact technique right there. Now did that ever really work for me? Too much? No. Why? Because the rest of my life was horrible. I was so hurt and so wounded and so addicted. If I slowed down at all, the only thing I felt was pain. But for 90% of people, really, all you have to do to fill the aloneness from your from the mental position is start doing techniques that bring your awareness inside of you instead of outside. Starting with your device. Get rid of the device. No. Use the device to listen to meditative music. Listen to the device to go on a self discovery journey. Use the device to be a timer when you're breathing. Use it to our advantage. It's 2026 for Christ's sake. All or nothing is a ridiculous illusion. It's almost impossible for most and time to balance a little bit. Especially if you're feeling alone. Why? Because the answers are not outside yourself. Aloneness is the gap between you and the awareness of you. What is the you you're trying to connect with? Time will tell don't have that answer for you. But you're missing something in you. The answers inside and breath meditation, writing down all the voices. If you've got a constant voice that's in your head, constantly saying to you, I need a woman in my life to be okay. I need a new job. I need this. I need that. Write those voices down, folks. You'll never win that battle. Those voices don't just calm, they have to be written down. Then they have to be told to somebody. Do that technique and see if that doesn't help. My book filling the void. I have all of this type of stuff written down in a 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 step process. Get the book, follow it. And when you buy. When you get my book, by the way, you'll be able to download it for free. Click click email. Click click. You'll get it right there, right on your device. And of course, if you want to buy it, like me, I'm a handheld guy. If I was going to have it, I need the book form or I need to download it onto a device and, you know, it'll be available Amazon, wherever the heck all that stuff is, I'm not sure. But go to joe mitiga.com and get it. And understand with my book that each chapter has a title to it. Find the chapter that resonates. That's the key, especially in a book like mine. And some of you are going to read from word one to word hundred thousand, sure. But most, you're going to find a part of it that fits, that works. And that's the same thing, folks, with these episodes. My episodes are not easy. I don't want them to be easy. I'm not claiming them to be easy. If you're here, you're resonating. And if you're resonating, you're expanding. And if you're expanding, that's causing grief, it's causing uncomfortable experience, it's causing angst. Of course it is. And if you're hurting, and I'm telling you techniques to remove your behaviors that are hurting you even more, that's not comfortable, that hurts, that causes angst, that causes pain. And if you're the person that's just absorbing everything because you agree with everything I'm saying, that's a great thing. But eventually there's going to be something I say is going to push your buttons. It's fine. And that's why I suggest to people a lot, if you're listening to one of my episodes and it's just driving you nuts, turn it off, turn it off and then come back. Don't blame my episode for your buttons. Use my episodes to discover why the buttons in you. And I would suggest listening to episodes over and over. It's kind of a timeless event. It really is. Any one of my episodes that you've listened to in the past, you listen to again in a couple months, there'll be something different. You're going to hear why? Because that's just how it is. And I suggest to people to listen over and over because it just makes it easier. It really does. And in the process of figuring out what's going on for yourself, right, Sometimes it's going to be easy, sometimes it's not. Sometimes you're going to go, oh, my gosh, I agree with everything he says. Other times you're going to go, this guy's an Effing lunatic. I don't believe anything he says. Both are fine. Both are fine. And as long as you keep coming back and listening to the episodes over and over, because it'll help. And then, you know, the best way to really help somebody, you know, is turn them on to some episode where you think I would be talking to them. Because, folks, it's not me. That's why I really am in a passion to create multiple voices for the we podcast. Because if I don't want the confusion as if this is all about Joe, it's zero to do with Joe. It's everything to do with the divine part of Joe talking to the divine part of you. And I'm going to add other people that are connected the same way so that we can all grow together. For me, one of the most challenging parts of my path is not really the mental side. When I started having conscious thought, I thought that was kind of cool. I never even thought that I could hear my own self think. Who the heck even knew that was a thing? I didn't. I really didn't. And I was on hog heaven. But then, oh, the hard part came. These fricking emotions came. Oh, that is not easy. Now, for some of you, emotions are easy. A lot of us guys, hey, fellas, I get it. This big boys don't cry stuff, that's a real life thing. That is a real, live brick wall, steel reinforced belief system that were buried and taught our whole lives. It's false. False. Big boys don't cry. And girls, this. Oh, I'm not supposed to get mad. You let it rip. Now, I'm not saying take your anger out on your partner and don't manipulate your partner and don't make your partner wrong because you're mad. But get in a safe place. Get in a place where you're comfortable and you're angry about something. Let it out, let it rip. That's why, you know, the voices of. We are going to have just as many women as men. And in the beginning, I've got these two really powerful women that I hope they will help balance me. Because a woman's perspective to things are different. They are. Why? Why are they different than Joe? Because they're women. It's just different. Women see the world different than men. Right or wrong? No, of course not. It's all good. But obviously, since I'm a man, my viewpoints are from the male side, from the man's side. Now, I'm a man who's deeply, emotionally connected. I'm a Man, that's spiritually practiced at listening. I just had the experiences of my stomach chakras opening. Literally the next conversation I have with Dr. Car and I'm going to talk about that. I'm a hearer. I listen, I can hear. My spiritual guidance comes from my, from the voices that are being guided from voices, I hear it. I can feel the presence of a power greater than me. I literally can feel sometimes way back when, as if a God of my understanding sitting in the car next to me. But could I ever sense it? No. Couldn't. That just all started to happen not long ago, a couple months ago. Guidance of hearing is in your mind. Guidance of feeling is in your heart. Guidance of being, the sensing of things, it's in your belly. And for a lot of women, especially women that are birthed children, your stomach chakras are open. Mothers, your stomach chakra is open. So a lot of women sense things way before they hear things. Some do it all. I didn't even know this. I knew the sensing thing existed. I'd never experienced it. And I've been on a path for 35 years. Literally. Well, like I've said before, until we're walking on water, there's always something new to learn. And my stomach chakra, the sensing capacities are there. Now from the emotional side of self, why do we feel so alone? Well, because emotions are bad. Emotions aren't good emotions, they feel horrible. Just ask any, just ask anybody in the new thought movement. You don't have to deal with those emotions to get rid of those voices. Just go change your mind. I always say. Load of crap doesn't work. Every glass empty voice has a hurt as an emotional hurt in the belly. And the more we don't feel that deeper hurt, the more separate we are from an entire aspect of ourselves. Like I've said before, all human beings have a male side, female side. The male side is the mental and physical represents the mental and physical aspects of self. The female side represents the emotional and the spiritual aspect of self. Did you hear what I just said? Emotional part of self. Well, if you're avoiding your emotions, you're literally discounting an entire aspect of yourself. So no wonder you feel alone. Have somebody lock you in a trunk and walk away and leave you in that trunk, buried with no hope, with no one listening, no one hearing and nobody caring about you. How do you think you're going to feel in that trunk, all connected to everybody? No, you're going to feel isolated, you're going to feel alone. Well, for people that Avoid their emotions because of belief systems or fear or whatever, you're literally discarding. You're literally separating yourself from an entire aspect of you called the emotional side of self. Mad, glad, sad and scared. Now we hear it all the time. Well, if you were connected to God, it was be all joy. That's a load. It's not true. No falsehood. God gives us four emotions, basic emotions. Mad, glad, sad and scared for a reason. And those reasons are of our humanity to stake in communion with the emotional sense of self. Why? Because what is the one word? If there was only one word you could. You would describe God as? What would you describe it as? Oh, that's right.
- [49:01]
A
Love.
- [49:02]
B
Well, what is love? A mental thought? No. A spiritual experience? No. It's an emotion. Love is an emotion. So if you really want to feel internally, feel the love of God, you have to be able to feel. You have to be able to learn how to feel. How do you do that? By re engaging and learning how to emote all emotions. The mad ones, the glad ones, the sad ones and the scared ones. Now, a lot of old influencers out there say, now you don't have to worry about any of those. Just go change your mind. And I will tell you, I'm not an Internet guy much. I follow I don't know, 20 people. And I'm hearing it more and more. I'm literally hearing it more and more. How? More and more people are saying, you got to feel your feelings. Fabulous. I'm seeing it, I'm hearing it. I applaud people. Why? Humanity's waking up. What are we waking up to? We're waking up to the feminine side of ourselves. Well, the feminine side of yourself has your emotions and also has a communion with a power greater. But if you really want to connect, truly experience, not just tap on the door of your higher self like meditation does, but literally connect as a oneness with a higher part of you. You do it through your emotions, not through your head. Literally, it's an emotional event. And that's kind of what I talk about all the time. What is spirituality? Spirituality is the individual human experience of becoming one with the spiritual essence of yourself. Well, to do that, you have to connect with all parts, including your emotions. And for those people that avoid emotions, you're creating a huge sense of aloneness for yourself. Loneliness too, but aloneness big time. Why? Because you've got an entire aspect of you sitting there with no awareness, with no connection, with no communion. It's feeling lost, lonely, and not important. Embracing your emotions Will help from the emotional side of self, fill the void, the gap that we call aloneness. It's all part of the emotional growth. Got a great story. I've supported a couple people now for a while, a man and his wife. And I was actually introduced to these people through the wife who she, six months before I met her, had a powerful spiritual experience in her church and she was hearing voices in her head. She thought she was nuts. And we met through LinkedIn and I read her writing and I can tell when somebody's writing from their divinity. And I reached out to her just randomly, hey, I loved your work. Beautiful stuff. And she's a beautiful young gal and so in the beginning, kinds of hesitant, a guy complimenting her and we, but we start talking and then she realizes I'm in recovery and she says, I'm going to buy your book. Lo and behold, her husband at the time was two weeks into recovery. So I've been supporting her emotionally and spiritually. I say supporting once a month, once every two months. But her husband through sobriety and lo and behold, he's a couple years in now, year and a half. Well, just the other day they have a really powerful experience and she calls me up, she's frustrated, she's confused because her husband was in a really tough spot. They're going through challenges financially. And the husband, he can't do the reactionary patterns of his ego anymore. When he's frustrated, when he's fearful, when he's afraid, he can't do it anymore because what would he have done in the past? Well, he just goes get drunk now. So here's a 40 something year old stud. This man is a student. You wouldn't want to mess with this guy, he's got the big muscle, you know, he's got that 40 year old body. Probably been working out since he's 12. Just a handsome, awesome man working his program. The problem is when you're in an AA program, nobody tends to tell you that sooner or later all the emotion that you buried with all that alcohol is going to come up. Why? AA is not about the emotion, folks. AA is about making sure you don't drink today, period. I love it. I get it. I write about it again. Filling the Void. Two different sections. Section three, all about my process of the 12 steps. Section three of the book Filling the Void. And section four, living as your oneness. And all based on the spiritual. The spiritual steps of the program. Every step of the program, there are 12 steps has a principle. And I write a 12. I write 12 different out the 12 different principles. Well, this particular time, for the first time, this man is in his early 40s, calls his wife in tears. And she didn't know what the hell to do. And I'd already told her it was coming. And she just listened and she listened and she listened and he cried and he wept and he wept and he wept. Now this is a 40 something year old badass, big dude had. He had to think, he's going nuts. I don't really talk with him, I share with the wife. And I was in glory for them. Why? Because this man, because of a God of his understanding. In the past, every time he'd get frustrated, he'd yell at the wife. Every time he'd get mad, he'd yell at the wife. He'd take his anger out on his wife. Why? Because he's powerless. And the only emotion he knows is rage. And the only time you have rage when you're an active addict is everybody else's fault. Well, you talk about a miracle. This time he calls his wife and to her credit, she created a safety that he could trust her in his most vulnerable time and grief. I started crying. The problem is she was confused as heck because she reached out and told his support, his community, he needs help. And lo and behold, the community just swarmed in and helped them emotionally, spiritually. Someone picked his ass up and took him to a couple of meetings. She didn't see him for a day, 10 meetings. Why? Because he's embracing something that he didn't even know was there, Emotion. And his wife on the other side, who has her own support, has her own women's group, all of that, right, had built the trust that he could trust her, that she wouldn't make him wrong, she wouldn't make him less than, she wouldn't call him a sissy, she wouldn't call him any of that stuff. Now she didn't know what to do. And I'm telling all of you, somebody calls you in grief, say nothing. Nothing. When people are calling to be supported, they're not calling for your words. They're calling you so you can hold a safe space, so they can grieve. And she did so proud. I told her, I said, if you say anything, just say you're sorry and I'm here for you. I'm sorry and I'm here for you. And I haven't heard from him yet since. But he didn't drink, went to a bunch of meetings. And the relationship between husband and wife, stronger. Why she's Got a spiritual communion she's connecting with. He's got a spiritual communion he's connecting with. And the whole. The old technique of using alcohol to bury his emotions, he didn't. He felt them. The old technique of big boys don't cry and I'm going to be tough and I can handle this all by myself. Self, that's ego. We is when we ask for help, that's what the we is. You want to get your dreams out there, ask for support from the divinity that gave you the inspiration in the first place. Well, in this case, this man, I don't know if he asked God what I should do. I don't have the detail. But he intuitively knew how to handle a situation that in the past used to baffle him, which is one of the promises of the program. And this time, instead of taking his frustration and his anger and his fear out on his wife, he reached out and she was there to hold his head. And he grieved. I celebrate them. I would never mention their names, but I celebrate them. Why? Because there's a whole world of people out there. There's a whole world of people out there that we live in a different time. It's different. How you're doing things is different. And I can tell you the guidance system of today is different than the guidance system of before. In this particular case, this man was guided to call his wife, and she created a safe enough environment. They've been married a couple two or three years. She created a safe enough environment. He could trust her. And that's important. So if you're here on this phone, right, on this podcast now, and you've got somebody who calls, you know, it's an honor if they call you in their grief, they call you to express because it's not easy. And for me, when that whole process started happening, I didn't have anybody to call at the time. I didn't. Way back when, I did 99% of this in isolation, literally. But what happened for me is I finally got in the place of my glass empty voices. I did enough first steps that I wasn't following the glass empty voices anymore. And I start following my glass full voices. And then I start grieving. And my sponsor says I call her up crazy Nancy, Nancy, Nancy. You're never going to believe what happened. I think I'm nuts. I can't, you know, I don't know what's going on. It's water coming out of my eyes and I don't know what's happening. This is me Kind of in a frantic. And I, she's. I said, I think I've lost my mind. And she said, well, Joe, you have, but you found your heart. Well, I found my heart. The problem is when I found my heart, it was full of emotions. Mainly the sad and the mad ones and a bunch of the fear ones. But I moved from my head to my heart. And lo and behold, I just knew it. I knew that if I could just heal my heart and then if I could follow my heart, everything is going to be fine. Fabulous. A lot of you are there right now. You're following your heart. It's great. Yes. And it's not the end all, it's the beginning. Following your heart is not the end result. It's the launch point to the end result. And that's where the self discovery process, where a lot of people are. You're not in the dark, you're not in the deep, you're not in the misery. You're not buried in pain. You're not buried in addiction. You've been feeling for a while, but you still feel alone. Why? Well, the why is because you're being guided. You're being asked to continue to grow. And the next phase of growth beyond your heart is your knowings. The way your heart guides you, it guides you by the sensation of something feels good, something feels okay, something feels full. I'll never forget it. I started guiding myself by that and I just knew I had reached the end all, be all, because I'm following my heart. And lo and behold, I meet a young woman. And like I tell everybody, you know, I try to be as intimate, as open as I can. And some of these stories are pretty embarrassing. And I have to just tell you before I share this one, this is one of those embarrassing stories. I'm, I don't know, three or four years sober now. I meet a woman and we become friends. I introduce her to the inner child. I introduce her. She's beautiful, she's kind, she's sweet. And I thought she was heartfelt for me. Now let me put it another way. I was very heartfelt for her. She never acted as if she was for me. When I first met her, she had a boyfriend. So when she had a boyfriend, there was nothing. It was just emotional support like I've done my whole life. But then she and the boyfriend broke up and of course I'm following my heart. I'm following my heart. I'm following my heart and my heart looked me right into a brick fricking wall. Literally. How Because I forgot. I didn't know at the time. You follow your heart. When there's two different people involved, they have to be following their heart and the hearts have to be following the same thing. And the hearts have to be wanting to come together in the same way. Well, I didn't know that part at the time I did it, I thought, what the heck? If I'm following my heart, she must feel the same way, even though she doesn't necessarily act about it. And I'm telling you, everybody, 100%. Joe was never her. 100% me. And sure enough, then, then, oh my God, the mistake happened. Not the mistake, but the. The big challenge. And some. I help her through something emotionally. And she said that she loved me. And as a friend, she said. Now, she didn't say I love you as a friend, but we were friends. And she said she loved me. Thank you. I really appreciate. I love you so much. That kind of friend. Well, at the time, I was still half nuts. I wasn't actively acting out anywhere, but I was following my heart. And for the next 22 months, I heard a voice in my head saying, my little kid. But she said she loved me. But she said she loved me. But she said she loved me. And I followed my heart. And I really was proud of me that I followed my heart. Because in the past, I followed my addictions. Before that, I followed my glass empty. Before that, I tried to follow positive things. But when I finally got it, where you follow your heart, you follow what feels good, and you run right into a brick wall. Wall. That was hard. It's hard. It's embarrassing as crap. Literally. My addictions then would kick in. My. My big glass empty voices would kick in. And this particular person, at the time she started dating somebody else. And I was crushed as if I was in a relationship with her. We were never in a relationship. It was never more than friends. So think about that. That's why I always. That's why I always say I was the king of addiction and queen of codependence. I've never known anybody more addicted to me and more codependent than me. Why? Because I'm literally emotionally attached to a woman. Now this, I will say this dates back 30 years. Attached to a woman that had multiple boyfriends over a two or three year period of time. Codependent as I'll get out me. Kind of embarrassing to think about it now, but my little kid had never heard. No one had ever told him he'd been loved. Never. And this particular girl, I Still support her today. We're great friends today, 25 years later. But I followed my heart. And I was betrayed by me. My own heart betrayed me. That's what I felt for the longest time. Like I'm doing it all right. I wrote down my voices. I journal with my little kid. I'm grieving every day. I'm not acting out. I'm alone all the time. I've surrendered my entire life to the path. I finally meet somebody who has a similar understanding, and I'm following my heart and bam. Right into a brick wall. Those next six months were not easy, folks. I was like, I didn't know what to do. Talk about lost, talk about alone, you know? And again, there was no place to call. There was no Internet. There was nothing. I just would wander, literally for six months and I'd talk about it. My counselor would never give any answers. And I literally felt betrayed by my own heart. Well, come to find out that your heart is not the end all, be all guidance system. It's your knowings. And your knowings are found when you commune with a power greater than yourself. Literally, that's what knowings are. And knowings aren't the concept of attachment to the end result. But a knowing is an internal experience of comfortable confidence, of a now moment experience, not an end result experience. And it was because I followed my heart blindly, with blind faith that I moved from that feeling of heart, which is emotion, to all of then the deeper stuff underneath it. The abandonment of a lifetime, the neglect of a lifetime. And for a lot of you, you know that I wrote, when I wrote my first book, I called it your inner child has rights to. And I handed a copy to my counselor, Nancy. I handed a copy to my mother. I was so proud. You know, I lived on nothing. I don't even know how I got it printed. And I never heard from my counselor again, Nancy. Never again. Once a week for seven, eight years, I talked to her. She never called me back. She called me a thief because of my book, Filling the Void. It's Filling the Void now was called you'd inner childhood rights initially. When I handed it to my mother. Later, she called me a liar. So think about that. Here I am, I'm following what I think is the right thing. I'm following my heart. Like, I thought they were going to praise me. I thought they were going to give me some kudos. I thought they were going to say, wow, Joe, I'm proud Nancy left forever. She died 10, 12 years later. I never talked to her again. And my mother. I didn't talk to my mother for almost two years. She wouldn't talk to me because she knew I lied. But in that period, what it forced me to do is prior to that, instead of following my heart, then I started following my knowings. Instead of calling Nancy for support, I would have to ask a higher power for support. Instead of having some type of family support, I'd have to go to a higher power for support. So literally, that's where I learned that you ask a power greater than you, which is in you. And that's why, as I move into the spiritual side of aloneness, because if you're abandoning emotion, you're going to create aloneness. You are. Why? Because your emotional sense of self is an entire component of you. So sometimes when you feel deeply alone, do the dual hand journaling. Write with your dominant hand, answer at your non dominant and see what's going on emotionally. Because there's parts of you that need to be heard by you. Give a voice to the darkest parts of yourself and watch how some of that aloneness will go away. I've said it different times on the show. There's different people, different influencers out there. If I had one hour with them, I'd help them. I hear them talk about the depths of themselves and I hear their adult talking about their inner self. All they have to do is be quiet, ask the little kid a question, and then let the inner part of you, the deepest part of you, speak. When that part talks, you'll be amazed at how a big portion of aloneness that's been created from an emotional part of you goes away. I write about that. That's the whole second section of my book, Filling the Void. Go figure. What's the void? The void is separation. Separation between what in the book Inner Child and Higher Power? Well, from a spiritual sense of self, right? So humanity's waking up in a way that's never known before. It's waking up at a rate it's never known before. Humanity 200 years ago, perfectly fine to own a human a thousand years ago. Look online. The craziness that our governments and the churches and people did in the past millennia was just barbaric, but normal for the time. Well, now fast forward. What's different about today versus ever before? We have more money on the planet than ever before. We have more technology on the planet than ever before. We have the ability to communicate in our mind through technology in a way never before. The medicine and the healthcare that keeps our physical body grander than Ever than ever before. Well, folks, your humanity, the feminine side of you, is also waking up grander and faster than ever before, literally. And for that to happen, you have to understand that the feminine side of you has an emotional side and has. That's where your spiritual communion last. I literally heard. I wish. I don't want to give names here. I've got to reach out to this guy and ask if I could promote his show. This young man, I quoted him before here and I listened to him, and he read this document from somebody who talks, who talks about a spiritual contract before you come here. And he shares about how every time he tells it to people, they have this amazing aha moment. Because he's talking about how your spirit lives for eternity. And you're gifted with this time in a human shell, in a human sense. You're gifted with this time to break up eternity is what this document read. But you're truly a spirit. And he's right. And I love it. I wish I could shake his hand. And he's right. Part of what's going on for people, part of the big shift. 67% of humanity is quoted as thinking or believing they're more spiritual than religious. Religion by design is not designed to create an awareness that the God of your understanding is inside. That's not what religion is. Christianity, for an example. Christianity by design says Jesus is the only one and you have to follow Jesus to go to heaven. Now, that isn't what Jesus said. Jesus says, you have to follow me. Well, he walked on water, he did miracles, and he ascended. So I'm calling Jesus divine, only pure divinity. Well, so if he doesn't have any other part except divinity, he would say, when he's using the pronoun me, Jesus would say, follow me. The only essence in this particular human was divinity, his divinity. So he didn't have a we, he didn't have an ego, and he didn't have a wounded little kid. He was purely divine. So the adjective or the pronoun me, when he said it, follow me is divinity. Why? Because that's all he was. He didn't have any other part. Now, the last thing he said before he transcended is look it up in the Bible. Look it up on chat. I have to go sit by my father so my father can put the same spirit that was in me in all of you. Look it up. Are you going to read that in a. In one of the churches? No. You're not. Do I make churches right or wrong? No. If your church is working for you. Keep going. If you're here, you're looking for something more. Does it right or wrong? No, it's just new awareness. Jesus said, ye shall do what I have done in grander things. There's phrase after phrase after phrase. A book I'm getting ready to. I'm about done. Called Divinity. Be my fourth book. I talk about all this literally in depth because there's different places in the Bible. Christ consciousness in you. It's in you, folks. So a lot of people. And I get it, I understand how hard that was. It wasn't hard for me because I didn't want anything to do with God. Didn't know, didn't care, could care less. So I didn't have a belief of outside, inside. But there's a massive quantity of people that the aloneness, your experience as we're speaking right now, is because of the awareness or the belief that the God of your understanding is outside of you. It's not, folks. It's in you. Now, is it outside of you also? Yes. The essence is in all living things. Yes. In the earth, in the trees, in the grass, in the smallest of ants, but it's in. In you also. And if. And though, if you're still in the belief system that God is outside of you, that's why your aloneness can be so dramatic. That's why your aloneness can be so dynamic and debilitating. Because if you can pray, pray, pray, pray. But you're praying to the essence of God that's outside of you. No matter how much you pray, there's nothing filling inside. Well, your divinity is in you. We are a we. Now, maybe there's somebody out there walking on water that I would call a me. Just like Jesus, you know, somebody like that. Have them call me. I'll put them on the show. In the meantime, if you aren't walking across water, we're a we. Not a me. Christ, divinity, me. Only aspect of that particular human was his divinity. I get it. I believe it. 100. For the rest of us, we're a we. Human self, our egos, divine self, our divinity, inner self, our emotional sense of self. We are a we. Well, if you're feeling super alone and confused and not knowing why because you believe in God, and not knowing why because you don't do behaviors wrong and you're not numbing yourself and you feel your feelings, but you still feel alone and you're trying to create this communion with a power greater than you in more of the religious, in the religious traditions than a Spiritual communion. That's where a huge percentage of people are waking up every day saying, it's inside. Now I will tell you a story. My aunt, who. My father, her. My father's older sister, she's still alive. He died at 90. She asked me. 92, 93. She went to church and goes to church. She's Catholic, goes to church every day for 75 years, if not longer. Ask her. Ask her. She is the most peaceful, present, beautiful, beautiful woman. Ask her, where's God at? Aunt Joanne? God's in my heart, Joe. I know. I have no fear of death. God's in my heart. I'll never forget the first time she said that to me. I didn't know what the hell she was talking about 40 years ago. Like, what are you talking, like, intuitively now? She goes to church every day. Is she hearing it from the preacher, God's in your heart? No, I don't think so. Didn't matter. She intuitively knew, just like all of you intuitively know. You wouldn't be on this podcast if you didn't intuitively know what this young man read is talking about. He doesn't talk from God. He talks about from spirit. Your divinity, your spirit. It's in you. Yes. So if you're in that place right now and you're kind of new to all this and it still feels wacky and it still feels confusing and it's still uncomfortable, know that you're okay. You're not betraying religious beliefs by understanding the God of your understandings inside. You're not. That's why the powerhouse of a program, the 12 step program. When people call themselves grateful recovering alcoholics, the gratitude comes because they've created a relationship with a power grander than themselves inside. No alcohol, no meetings, no 12 step. No relationship with the power greater than themselves. The 12th step of every 12 step program is service. That's what I do here at the We Podcast, Sharing my experience, strength and hope, which is the tagline of all 12 STEP programs. 12 STEP, Experience, Strength and hope. That's what I do here, is share my experience, strength and hope. Why? Because it feels good. It's me living through as my divinity. And part of the challenge is as we move from. And that's where a lot of you are. It's where a lot of people are. That's why I hope, I really, really hope that this woman that I came across, her website, who she's got a whole website, and I know she's super successful doing the same thing before, it's about Reinvention. And some of it's about divorce, but it's about reinvention. And what does reinvention mean? It means you are becoming a new you and you don't really know how to do it or what to do. Well, this woman, I haven't had a chance to talk to her yet. I hope she agrees because it's powerful what she's doing. I can only imagine she hasn't launched yet, but it's real important. Why? Because there's a massive number of people that are in their 50s and 60s, have more money than month, their kids are launched. They've had super successful lives. They're living from gratitude, but they're missing something. They know it's time to do something else. They just don't know what the else is. And the natural position is to try to redo what you did before. But you're not guided to another entrepreneurial adventure. You're not guided to pursue something that gives you more gratitude. You got plenty of it already. That's the space where reinvention happens. And to reinvent yourself means you're looking for a different you to guide you. And that's where I talk about all the time. Moving from gratitude to grace. Moving from your humanity guiding you to your divinity guiding you. You. And when your divinity guides you, you're going to pursue purpose. And what does it mean to pursue purpose? What it means to pursue purpose is the concept of giving back some way, somehow. And it doesn't have to be massive. It doesn't have to be like the man who owns water.org I think it's Matt Damon, something like that. A very popular movie star who's raised over a hundred million dollars. And if I miss quoting Mr. Damon, I. I apologize, but I think it's him and all the money in the world. Handsome dude, could have anybody wants. I'm sure he's got a great life. And giving back. I've seen different things about Sylvester Stallone. Millions giving back, Arnold Schwarzenegger, millions giving back. I go down a list. I've got a great story about Steve Harvey here in a second. And it's these people who are at that place where even though they have super successful, emotionally connected, loving lives they're pursuing, they still feel alone. Why? Because the gap between their humanity and their divinity hasn't been filled yet. What do you fill that gap with? Purpose. You fill that gap with overflow. And that gap when that gap fills, when those dots start connecting, there's a sense of overflow that happens that literally Fills a person from the inside out and you give back in a way you never even knew was possible. I was literally listening. I don't know how I got it. Oh, I was checking my own TEDx. We reached over 100,000 views the past couple weeks. Super excited and grateful for that. And there was somebody playing Sounds of Silence on a piano, underneath which I love that song. My son plays that song. And I listened and it was kind of okay. So I clicked. Well, sure enough, there's an episode comes up about Steve Harvey. And for those of you that don't know Mr. Harvey, I don't really know his story that much, but I heard long time ago that he lived in his car. Steve Harvey, multimillionaire, super successful celebrity, amazing human. But he lived in his car for three years. I just found that out. And he had a particular man on his show that was literally in that position to where he had his daughter, had cancer and went to the doctor. He's a blue collar worker, hard worker. Long story short, they got some chemo and stuff, they got what they needed, but they needed another treatment. But the insurance company denied. And you know, it's easy to blame insurance companies. Big bad million dollar insurance company. That's not fair. You know, it's not humanity's responsibility to love and nurture each other. Well, anyways, on this particular show, if he would have won, and it's whatever the show is, Family Feud, I think he would have won the $20,000. And he needed like $26,000 for his daughter for this particular therapy. And he got 199 points and I needed 200. And he falls to his knees and Mr. Harvey walks up to him, shared back and forth, he shares the story. Mr. Harvey literally stops the taping of his show and calls the doctor. Long story short, the Steve Harvey foundation gave this man the money that he needed for his daughter's 7 year old daughter's surgery. And his comment was something like, no one should have to stand alone with a child with cancer. Something like that. As I was listening, I started grieving, literally. And in the moment you watch it, Mr. Harvey's not emotional, he's not grieving. He doesn't have tears in his eyes. He's in a knowing. He's in his knowing. He does an interview two, two years later and he says, so tell us about that. And that particular statement, whatever it is, 199 something, whatever it was, 300 million people watched that video online on YouTube. This is back seven, eight years ago. And when Mr. Harvey was asked, he said, what were you thinking? Like why did you do it? He said, because in that moment, the one point that this man was missing was me, nothing else. Mr. Harvey knew the point that this man was missing was him. And in that moment, Mr. Harvey knew. Not emotionally, but he just knew it's up to him to give the money to this man so the daughter could live. Calls the doctor ended up being like $70,000 Mr. Harvey, Steve Harvey foundation gave it all to him. From there went global new fund created this man now has helped. This man has helped 1863 families who insurance denies certain parts of their therapy. Again, easy to blame insurance play the victim. Insurance should pay. That's nonsense. No, insurance pays plenty. It's humanity's responsibility now to continue to come together and support the we. And that story is a perfect example. There are a lot of you out there listening to this podcast who have great lives, who have recreated relationships, have gotten to a place. You've got plenty of money in the bank. You're traveling the world, but you're missing something. You're still feeling alone. I remember years ago thinking it would be miserable to be 50 years old, more money than month, plenty of friends, launch the kid traveling the world and still feeling alone. Because you wouldn't have any excuse anymore. And it's not excuse, folks. We are waking up. You are becoming a different you. So if you fall in that category, which a lot of you do, and you've already figured out that the types of relationships you're creating now in your world are different, you're doing it more from a spiritual communion than a physical or sexual or want to have the same external life. If you figured out your job, you're doing that differently. Because now you're giving back more. You're living in a place now that feels more congruent, your home is more, but you still feel something missing. The alone component, the way you fill it is you ask. Ask. You can call it prayer. I call it asking. Hey, God, dear God, what am I supposed to do here? What is my higher reason? What is my purpose? I hear Tony Robbins say it all the time. He's 67ish hundred and some odd companies worth a couple billion. Why does he keep doing and giving back to the world? He says it over and over. Service. I do it for service. Well, if you're at that place and you're feeling alone, no amount of money is going to fill it. No new relationship's going to fill it. No new location is going to fill it, no new vacation is going to fill it. What's going to fill your aloneness is bridging the gap between living as your humanity and living as your divinity. And how do you do it? What's the how to you start writing down. I'm a big proponent of writing because you go in the creation phase of life. You go from your imagination to dream state to your imagination to inspiration. Whatever. Your inspiration is that thing that sticks with you. That thing that says, I want to run a marathon. That thing that says I want to take cooking classes. That thing that says I want to write music. That. And you start writing it down. But you have to make sure you write down both sides of it. If you write down I want to run a marathon, but you don't write down I'm too fat, I can't ever start it, and I'd never accomplish it. If you don't write down the glass empty voices, you will fail before you get started. Why? Because I can promise you, for every one, I want to run a marathon and raise money for something. For every one voice you have like that, you're going to have 20 voices that say you can't. You're too fat, you're too stupid, you're too slow, you're too this, you're too that. You can never do it. We write those voices down, folks. We have the humility and the vulnerability to share those glass empty voices with something, someone else. My friend Paul and I were talking about vulnerability and some of the masters of vulnerability out there, Brene Brown being one of them. The woman's a master. She brought the whole concept of vulnerability up. Question is, how many of you are living it? Most aren't. Why? Because your glass empty voices say you're not supposed to. My friend, he called his wife in tears. Instead of yelling, he grieved. Why? He reached a place he needed to be vulnerable. She had the courage to hold his head while he's grieving. Powerful. And all of us are there. All of us can do it. But you have to be willing. You have to have the courage to write down the glass empty voices too. Because it's the glass empty voices that stop you from pursuing the higher you. And then you have to ask for strength and courage to seek. Seventh step of every program. The seventh step. Read it. Humility. Ask for strength and courage. Ask from the strength and courage, from the divinity that gave you the inspiration in the first place. It's that action step that if you add to your life, you're adding a divine part of you in the guidance System, a divine part of you in the driver's seat of your life. And as you live from a divine you, the gap between humanity you and divine you goes away. The aloneness that you experience because the gap of living as your humanity instead of living as your divinity, the gap is what's caused the aloneness. We bridge the gap by taking actions out of your divinity. We do the self discovery needed to hear the voices that are keeping you away. We do the emotional growth needed to have the vulnerability to share those voices with somebody else. And then we do the spiritual growth needed to ask a power greater than yourself for the strength and the courage to move forward. And as you put all that together, folks, and you move out into the world and you start living from that divine sense of self, you watch how the aloneness goes away and the distance between your humanity and your divinity goes away. And as the distance recedes, you stop feeling so alone. That's the answer. You stop feeling so alone. Years ago, folks, I literally believed if I had the right person, the right job, the right amount of money, I'd be okay. Then I believed that if I could just, you know, write down all the glass empty voices and follow the positive voices, I would be okay. Worked for a while, and then one day I found my heart. And then I just knew that if I just followed my heart and my heart would always lead me to wonderful glass, full glass, wonderful things, that I would be okay. I did that right into a brick wall. And that era of time then shifted me from following a heart, which are our emotions, to following a knowing, which is our divinity. Did I know it at the time? No. Do I do it now all the time? Yes. The we podcast was literally created out of a knowing that came out of nowhere. I'll tell that story some other time. But together we're doing it. The We Podcast is reaching the globe. We're adding tens of thousands of people a month. Now. I really appreciate all you your support, because together we're growing. Together we're shifting. Together we're waking up to that grander sense of ourselves. And together, we're healing humanity one smile at a time. Thank you so much for your support.
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So that's it for today's episode of the We Podcast. Head on over to Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen and subscribe to the show. One lucky listener. Every single week that posts a review on Apple Podcasts or itunes. We'll win a chance in the grand prize drawing to win a $25,000 private VIP day with Joe himself. Be sure to head on over to wepodcast Global and pick up a free copy of Joe's Gift. And join us next time for the We Podcast.