416 Ben Stewart | Awakening In The Midst of Crisis

Oct 5, 2021

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Real change rarely comes in the absence of crisis. When we're comfortable, there's no real deep, emerging drive that is compelling us to really analyze the bedrock upon which we rest. The awakening and change that come out of crisis; a lot of the time it happens during a moment of panic so it's reactive rather than responsive. For me, the crisis that we're in now is the perfect set and setting to begin moving in the right direction as a community. We have to start reaching out to like-minded people, allowing them to speak authentically, and not feel ashamed for feeling or believing in certain things. - Ben Stewart

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Wellness Force Radio Episode 416

World-class filmmaker, writer, musician, and Creator of the Psychedelica Series on Gaia, Ben Stewart, shares why there is a silver lining in every crisis, explores the lost art of dialogue and how to communicate from a place of alignment, unpacks how to obtain critical thinking skills, and explains the downside of following the herd.

How do you close the gap between the head and heart to use chaos as an opportunity to awaken the power and the love that you truly are?

Discover what tools can help you whenever you find yourself in a moment of crisis.

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Listen To Episode 416 As Ben Stewart Uncovers: [1:30] Crisis Creates Real Change

Ben Stewart
Gaia | Ben Stewart
Psychedelica Series on Gaia
Ben Stewart Podcast
DMT Quest Documentary
Waking Infinity News Podcast
Solocast | A Victim of Intellectualization & The Wisdom of The Heart
How Ben sees this awakening in the chaos that we're all experiencing and how it's personally unfolding for him.
What you can do to build an environment that helps you heal and thrive.
323 Charles Eisenstein
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac: An Overview
Why change can truly only happen in the face of crisis compared to when we are comfortable.
The power of pausing and taking a breath before reacting to something someone has said or an event that has happened.
How we can make our communities stronger but letting others voice their opinions and not feel shame or guilt for feeling differently.
What steps we can take to step away from fear in order to listen to our intuition and use our natural gifts.

[12:30] The Lost Art of Dialogue

How Josh has navigated the world, relationships, and his beliefs since the beginning of COVID-19.
What you can do to respectfully ask permission to share your opinion with someone who has different thoughts on something like face masks.
Why Ben believers we've come to the point in our society where we have lost the art of dialogue and good communication.
What you can do if you feel bored and you do not have enough to do each day.
Why he believes we communicate according to the current state of our nervous system.
How to navigate thoughts and feelings that focus on the need to white knuckle and get things done so that we can let go, be present, and be grateful.
Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life by Marshall B. Rosenberg PhD
Why it's good that we don't see eye to eye with people and what we can learn from each other instead of getting irritated and distancing ourselves away from them.
196 Aubrey Marcus
Hierosonic
How building good, healthy habits will allow your mind and body to function well every day at a sustainable pace.
Why being around people with diverse backgrounds, ways of living, and beliefs will help you grow.
Exploring the difference between violent communication and sharing why you are upset or triggered.

[28:00] Community Wake Up: See the World from Someone Else's Eyes

Discussing when it's appropriate for our inner Mama Bear or Papa Bear to come out and protect the people and things that we love.
How we can obtain critical thinking skills while experiencing crisis and chaos.
Why his wife and family are his biggest teachers and the other mentors that have inspired his journey.
Paul Chek | All Is God
What powerful lessons he has learned from the people who have trolled his films or disagreed with him on different levels.
Different reasons for why we attack one another from seeking connection, wanting to get a rise out of sending that email, or bring someone down who is succeeding.
345 Zach Bush MD
362 Zach Bush MD
096 Daniel Schmachtenberger
The moment Ben decided to shift and refine the content he was creating and sharing after an awakening.
Loose Change
Zeitgeist
His mission to help people realize just how powerful they are to make real change happen in the world.

[43:00] The Downside to Following the Herd

Why irrational and rational fear can sometimes feel like the same thing for our minds.
How we can use fear and adrenaline to positively help us and use tools like breathwork to process them.
Why Ben finds news and talking about topics like politics nauseating because news stations are not mature enough.
The power of encircling a problem and rejuvenating it back to the community.
How gossip and talking about others behind their backs have caused people to naturally agree and go along with it in order to not be ex-communicated from the group.
The moment we start to abandon ourselves is when want to keep having safety in the herd even if we don't agree with what others are saying or doing.
How we can have compassion for people who go with the herd because it's "the right thing to do" when we've made a different decision for ourselves.

[52:00] Intellect vs Intuition vs Instinct

How we can navigate the world so that we do not become a victim of our own mind and intellect.
Why we don't acknowledge this enough: We are a lot more than just one thing.
Breaking down instinct vs. intuition and why instinct is more biologically rooted and intuition projects more out into the future.
How to uncover what you believe in, what you commit to, and how you express it.
Why science is in all of us and how we can awaken our own inner scientist.
The difference between science and the data that is coming in for us to frame and philosophize after observation.
206 Dan Pardi
How we've become such a lazy society and we're always looking for the quickest shortcut including what to do with our lives and what to believe in.
Why having life be so easy for us has led us to lose communion with the earth and with God.

[59:00] The Power and Process of Awakening Consciousness in Chaos

Why awakening consciousness affects people in ways other than just the Hollywood allure of it all.
How cultivating consciousness becomes a daily habit that we breathe into each day.
The Doors of Perception and Heaven and Hell by Aldous Huxley
Why the awakening process is something that is always shifting as we continue to be students of life.
What will happen when you experience a new awakening phase.
Why some thoughts or experiences are meant to fade and maybe come back to you rather than stay in your present consciousness.
Exploring the unique journeys we all go on and why we will be awakened to new ideas at different times than other people.

[1:09:00] The Toxic Nature of "I'm Gonna Share My Truth"

Why we will see people be a completely different person off-camera or once the podcast stops recording.
The subtle seeds that Ben will plant in other people's consciousness to see what comes from it without forcibly teaching them something.
Why it can be toxic communication to say "this is my truth" or "I'm gonna say whatever I want" and just leave it at that instead of opening up a dialogue.
276 Eric Godsey
Why "my truth" is just what is coming to you bluntly and one doesn't have to take it so seriously.
Whether or not you should actually speak your truth especially if you have been triggered.
How to explore your thoughts and emotions if you have been strongly impacted by what someone has said to you.
Why we often believe we know exactly what the world needs when we really don't and we have to be honest with ourselves about that.
The Great Tao by Stephen Thomas Chang

[1:18:00] Why We Are More Than Just One Thing

Darkness Retreat
A Week In Darkness: The Purest Medicine | Aubrey Marcus Podcast
Path to Balance with Aubrey Marcus
Exploring the questions: "What is God?" and "What is the answer?" plus the many different ways we could answer them.
Why humbling yourself does not diminish you and how to tune into yourself.
How you will awaken infinity when you ask yourself, "Who am I" and you realize that you are not just one thing.
What you can do to be more humble in your role and how it impacts other people such as being a teacher.
How to cultivate a person's imagination by acting like a friend, not a teacher, and help them think for themselves and build critical thinking skills especially in children.
The power of being silent or curious and how to use it in our conversations with different people to help one another grow and learn.
312 Kevin Kelly

[1:27:00] What Darkness Can Teach Us In Crisis

Why Josh believes there are beautiful things coming for the world and how we can build from that positive energy rather than a negative one.
410 Mark Divine
The benefits of experiencing different truths at the same time even if they seem contradictory.
Exploring the concept of darkness and using it as a technology.
How to augment and shift your breathwork practice for different wellness practices.
The fact that darkness predates all concepts, psychedelics, and the breath.
What it is specifically about the dark that allows people to have a greater connection to knowing themselves.
How Ben sets up his films as an initiation or the experience of a process.
What Awaken The Darkness will teach you about the Hero's Journey through the avatar of Aubrey Marcus.
Daniel Kish: Man who is blind but can see like a bat
Why we shouldn't be so scared of technology and embrace what it can do for us.

[1:43:30] The Two Choices We Have In Life

The difference between bad and good technology in our daily lives.
Breaking down how often we are on our phones and why the average amount is every 4 minutes.
How we've evolved from scanning nature for threats to our family during the caveman era to now with phones to make sure that everything is okay.
The magic of filmmaking and choosing the right soundtrack for the video.
What Aubrey explores in Awaken The Darkness including the two choices that we have in life.
How to take advantage of the free, powerful medicine that is within your reach including breathwork and darkness.
The beauty and gifts of engaging with life and any difficulties that may come your way.
Vipassana Meditation – A Spartan Race For The Mind
The power of community to help us survive in difficult times.
How to Change Your Mind by Michael Pollan
326 John Chavez

Power Quotes From The Show Building a Relationship with the Nervous System

"We have access to our nervous system; you can speak to your nervous system like it's your best friend - in fact, we should because when we come into a better relationship with our nervous system and acknowledge that some things seem really urgent but in what state do you want to start creating the next step? Do you want to do it in the sympathetic nervous system or parasympathetic?" - Ben Stewart

Society Awaking: Opening Our Ears To New Ideas

"You shouldn't feel bad for having different thoughts or believes than other people. Let's come together as a community and really listen to one another because we're all in this together. I have no clue what superpower these people gleam from believing things different from me so let's all come together, let's pow-wow, let's talk about what's good about this rather than gossiping and putting each other down. It's great when other people have different thoughts than me; I want to learn what that has done to their mindset and how they move forward in the world accordingly because of it. All of us have a gift to share with the world." - Ben Stewart

Learning to Trust Your Discernment

"Instead of being corned into fear by the media and relying on something outside of yourself to feel safe, trust your discernment. Start trusting your intuition because when you learn to do that then you know when something doesn't feel right. You don't have to have all of the answers or details; just move slower and be more discerning. Even if you slip up - what did you learn from it?" - Ben Stewart

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About Ben Stewart

Ben Stewart is a US-based filmmaker and musician. He is the creator of Esoteric Agenda, Kymatica, Ungrip and Waking Infinity - all available on Gaia.