Ask For (A) Change

The description for this May 31 talk via Wisdom app and InsightTimer.com/live:

Let’s play with the puns in this title to continue exploring a format change for the monthly “Ask Us Anything”: 1) give and ask of each other advice; 2) needed changes individually & collectively; and 3) continuing the themes of speaking up & inquiring/investigating to spark curiosity & enthusiasm

Notes:

1) Giving and Asking Advice

  • How do you give and ask advice?
  • How often?
  • Upsides, downsides?
  • When to, and when not to ask for and give advice?
Giving Advice:
  • How honest are you when giving advice?
  • Do motives change depending on situation and person?
  • What about unsolicited advice?
  • Are we projecting our own wants and needs with our advice?
  • Would I follow the same advice I’m giving?
  • Intuitive advice?
  • How do you know it could be helpful?
  • What might be some overlooked key questions for the advice seeker that may help them discover the best views and choices?
Asking Advice:
  • Asking just for confirmation, or how possible choices available will be perceived (that you may already have chosen but not acted on yet)
  • Whom all do you ask?
  • How do you ask?
  • Holding back asking someone you want to?
  • Headstrong, stubborn and rarely seek advice? Why?
  • Ever flipped the script, testing someone by actually asking as something you think the advice giver needs advice on (themselves)?

2) Needed changes — individually and collectively

  • Core question: what really needs to change?
  • When hearing the word “change” what comes to mind?
  • What context is defaulted into to answer this question:
    • “I/you need to change”?
    • (How many relationships have been taken on as projects?)
    • “I want to change (but can’t) [or yes I know this change needs to be made but making it a reality is really far off]”
  • For me change often means: “The change I want can’t come quick enough and I don’t want the change I don’t want”
  • How do you know what changes you need and not just want? Will the changes (you/we need happen anyway)?
  • How does all this apply on more collective levels: friends, ancestry past/present/future, tribe(s), groups, collectives, organizations, humanity, beyond humanity [read questions again applied to this level]
  • The only reliable, constant in life is changeability.

3) Speaking up and inquiring/investigating to spark curiosity and enthusiasm

But in this past work I didn’t go much into how to formulate questions:

  • To get the right answers you have to ask the right questions.
  • For self-inquiry there’s asking a question. At first it can be vague and general then contemplate it, get an answer, refine question, get answer, continue/repeat
  • Peeling the Onion — what’s behind that? What’s behind that?…..
  • But how about motivations for speaking up and asking questions?
  • What are you really enthusiastic about (or remember the last time you were)? Now three things. How can this be applied to more areas? Can the most enthusiastic thing be applied equally to other two?
  • What all is really important to be curious and enthusiastic about?
  • Then there’s kind of the opposite where maybe there needs to be time for old interests to fall away, rest and then reassess
  • Who can you clearly ask and be curious around and not? Who all inhabits more grey areas where sometime I can?
  • Niece and nephew say: “can I tell you something?”
  • When are and when aren’t good times to ask yourself questions and be curious?
  • [Interesting counter-perspective by Andrew Bartzis in next podcast: “curiosity is the downfall of consciousness”]

What are your take aways for these three sections: advice, changes (from individual to world), asking?


Audio: Ask For (A) Change

Or listen via Insight Timer (app or website)


Listen to the full, unedited version of this talk: https://join.wisdom.audio/3f9G



The raw unedited YouTube transcription of this podcast:

wholeness and welcome this is josh devil from integratingpresence.com

again here for another talk and this one’s entitled ask for a change

in the description i have here let’s play with the puns in this title to continue exploring a format change for

the monthly ask us anything show so in three ways with this pawn here

give and ask each other advice two needed changes individually and

collectively and three continuing the themes of speaking up and

inquiring investigating to spark curiosity and enthusiasm

so let’s just all take some deep breaths here and right arrive in the room

and just kind of settle in

so i invite encourage you to maintain kind of a semi semi meditative state

while we do this one where you can easily flow in and out of meditation so

interaction remains possible so however you want to do that you’re invited to do that

so just be prepared here and this is going to be lots of questions so i’m going to

read lots of questions like in the intro i mean address what’s stated in the intro

description with questions basically and you can easily engage with these questions or you can let them wash over

you or anywhere in between we may spend some moments contemplating and then

responding to each of these and invite you all to comment on these and if you’re on wisdom

app you can just chime in to join and it’s possible i’ll put show notes up

later so we can just keep with the flow of this i know i like to kind of if something really grabbed me i

just like to ignore everything else and just stay on that one question just let the rest of the talk go by but i mean of course you’re

welcome to do that but you can always come back later and address some of these questions and contemplate

them more at your own time and leisure leisure however you want to say it

okay so this first one giving and asking advice so starting off how do you give and ask

advice how do you actually go about this and how often do you do this so i’ll put

that off for now for me answering my own part of that what are the upsides and downsides to

both giving advice and receiving advice or asking for advice

kind of the pros and cons when to and when not to ask for and give

advice so when should you do this when should you not ask for and give advice so if someone is

asking for advice but are there times where you no i don’t

want to give advice or i don’t have anything to offer being honest with something like that or referring to

someone else or maybe it’s jumping the gun too soon so let’s just dig into the giving side

giving advice here with the questions how honest are you when giving advice

you ever find yourself just blabbing out advice when it’s asked of you it not

really mattering how honest it is or not do your motives when giving advice change

depending on the situation and person and i would say for this one yes

obviously my motives can and do change depending on the situation the person if

i’m reading a person meaning just kind of gauging where they’re at on their journey as far as my

ability um and the same question would come from someone just starting out or

someone more further along in their path well then of course the

the advice that i might give the person might be completely different even with

the same question let’s say they those two people are asking the same question

might be quite different answers and also depends yeah on the situation as well what situations they’re in what

about on an unsolicited device have you ever found yourself giving out advice

that’s not asked for for me this is a resounding yes big time and i learned

the hard way on this i was joining certain groups at certain times and just offering

advice instead of just listening to the person and they weren’t really asking for advice just kind of sharing wisdom and i

know i’ve mentioned this in the past that’s what’s great about wisdom map yeah there’s always a choice you can

tune in or not right it’s not someone barging in inappropriate situations saying things

that aren’t asked for i still haven’t broke myself completely of this and here’s one that’s significant i feel

are we projecting our own wants and needs with our advice if we’re in the position of giving advice someone comes

to us do we really take into account what needs to be done said or advised in that

certain situation are for me just speaking here or am i projecting my own

agenda into it right using it as an opportunity to further i wouldn’t say my own agenda but just

any agenda not forgetting maybe to state that as well and then

this next one would i follow the same advice i’m giving this goes along with

past partner on the ask us anything shows dinny k mew he put it like do you

eat your own dog food so basically meaning you know you’re giving out kind of dog food i mean it’s

kind of a way to look down on it’s kind of humorous in a way too if you’re giving this out or you eating

it as well so where is the advice coming from is it intuitive advice that you’re giving and

how do you know it could be helpful so is it just something we’re parroting because we’ve heard it somewhere which

is totally okay but it just has extra oomph if we’ve actually put that in practice in our own

lives and taking that advice for ourselves and then know the result for ourselves whether or not it’s helpful

so how else might we notice or know if some advice is helpful or not on the

giving side when we’re giving and then this last one what might be some

overlooked key questions for the advice seeker that may help them discover the

best views and choices for themselves so like this in a way it just kind of they

might be telling you about a situation and the things they’ve considered and whatnot but what are they overlooking

what are some things are overlooking and then asking questions around that so it might actually seem like or not

just seeing but it might also actually just be that they come up with correct advice that may or may not align

with what you have in mind for them or what you advise but just bringing some key

questions to light that they might have you know passed over

posing those questions to the advice seeker then they could possibly come up with their own views and choices

based on those questions that they just might have not been considering or just certain questions framing them a

different way putting them a different way that they might have not encountered before okay so now when asking for advice are

we asking for a confirmation or so basically do we already have we

already made up our choice and we’re just kind of wanting to get validation a

confirmation of what we’ve already chosen but we’re asking advice anyway which is totally okay i feel it might be

helpful to disclose that either before or after asking that or maybe someone’s

just asking advice for how possible choices might be perceived basically meaning

you know well i’m in this type of life situation these are the possible choices if i go

and ask for advice i’ll get some feedback on how that person and maybe other people might

perceive each of these possible choices and then that goes along with what i just said about well i might have

already made up my mind when going asking for advice anyway i just want to kind of get feedback to see what people

are thinking about this particular life situation the choices i have available

and how they’re going to look at these things or how people might look at these different choices available to me how

they might be perceived and viewed so who do you go to when you’re asking for advice

do we have like some go-to people when we go to ask for advice how do we go to them asking for advice

for me it seems like i think it’s dependent on the situation

so for me i’ll probably seek out certain expertise maybe a certain specialist or a special expert

or at least it means someone who has maybe tailor made for what i’m specifically asking about asking for

advice about and then how we go about it i didn’t put a lot of emphasis on this

but i know now that how we do and say things matters just as much if not even more

than what we’re actually asking and for me being more cognitive youngster i just didn’t

understand what people didn’t seem to be paying attention to the content of what i was saying but the expression and the

emotions behind it and i know i’ve mentioned this before it’s really important especially for those identifying more on an emotional

level maybe even a higher refined heart based level although people on that not

the put anybody down but people that have kind of opened their heart and more on heart qualities and heart vibrational

levels are going to be able to do all angles and more of however

whatever comes at them right not just based on emotional reactions and emotional likes and dislikes

holding back asking someone what you want to so how many times do we find ourselves just even outside of advice

asking too holding back asking someone you want to i guess what might be

causing this maybe it’s based on something very valid where it might stir up a bunch of

stuff that doesn’t need to be stirred up it might cause more trouble than it’s worth asking a particular person a

particular thing or maybe your head strong and stubborn and rarely seek advice

why is that or have you ever flipped the script testing someone by actually

asking as something you think the advice giver themselves needs advice on so it’d be like some

money coming in the chat room which is cool to do it’s saying oh hey josh i

think you you know what kind of what color shirt is um should i wear today or something

like this right because maybe this color might not be going with the

lighting or something like that you know i don’t know a silly example that’s going to be about it on the

advice thing the seek giving and seeking advice so the second part of this is needed

changes individually and collectively so the core question here i feel or one

of the core questions is what really needs to change so starting

off with this when hearing the word change what comes to mind just spend a

moment contemplating this without any kind of context or noticing the context the mind and

heart goes to around the word change what comes to mind and comes to the heart and take that word just by itself

change is there emotions coming up is there kind of like a flipping on and off kind of vacillation between different

standpoints and viewpoints is there memories coming up is there

changes in life coming up that need to be made changes that are putting off need to be made

so i would think if if something was clear kind of point out what context you default to

into when answering this question is it something like i need to change you need to change by

the way how many relationships have we been in that have been taken on as projects

and i think probably most of you know what that means here that it doesn’t really based on so much love as

much as okay well i want to change this person or i can help this person

that type of thing right going back to the context or what about this context i want to change but i

can’t or yes i know this change needs to be made but making it’s a reality that’s

far off far off into the future and for me this one basically seems to be the default

or a strong one because the change i want can’t come quick enough and the change i don’t want

i don’t want so how do we discern between knowing what changes we need

and what changes we just want and that’s when i it’s hard for me to have an

answer to a clear-cut answer generally and specifically with that one

so maybe that’s someone something i need to set with more and come back to that might have a little bit more to say on

it with the rest of this but we’ll see and will the changes we need happen anyway with the changes i

need changes you need will they happen anyway i mean that’s possibly one way to

tell if it’s needed i guess actually one possible way to

see that is when things repeat in our lives right when we get constant

repeating situations themes in our lives a lot of times that’s an indicator of

that we haven’t learned what we need to learn yet and while a lesson

might keep repeating itself a lot of times it won’t be exactly in the same way but there’s a really common theme

running throughout it i’ve mentioned this perception before but instead of being like on a hamster wheel what about

if we were like climbing a spiral staircase so every time we did repeat

this kind of maybe needed change we get a broader wider

higher perspective on what keeps repeating itself so how does

all this apply on more collective levels so how does all this apply on more collective levels like with friends

ancestry ancestry of past present and future maybe different tribes were part

of or other tribes we associate with different groups collectives organizations humanity as a whole and

maybe even beyond humanity so this cl just will just sum all those different groups up as the collective levels so i

just want to go back through those questions really briefly and we’ll consider them not just on an individual

level but on a collective level so what really needs to change on a collective level when hearing the word change when

it comes to a collective level what comes to mind what context do we

default into we think about needed change on a world level societal level

for me it seems to go back and forth between oh wow this world needs a lot of

change there’s a lot of stuff that could be improved i mean that just seems

pretty obvious right and then sometimes it’s like you know why even bother what effect this kind of hopelessness

kind of thing or ineffectiveness or you know what can i do to help change

the world this kind of self-defeating attitude and i would just respond to

that as well with well everything you do say and even think matters it all has

its part to play and there’s the butterfly effect and we’re all interconnected

while it might not seem that important everything that we think say and do does

make a difference in this although it might be small but those small things do add up drop by drop the

water pail is filled right a bucket is filled drop by drop especially when things are repeated or

when there’s when collectively we come together amplifies those things as well

can the world change does the world need to change how will we know how do we

know what these changes we want for the world are needed or just wanted will

they happen anyway and of course this ties into really the only reliable

constant in life is changeability right in constancy so yes

the world is going to change and it always does but how does that truth of reality align

with or not align with the change we want for the world and the change we

feel is needed for the world so it’s a kind of a balancing act that things change sometimes that change

might not be very apparent sometimes it might be very small sometimes it might be very drastic

sometimes it might kind of repeat where it doesn’t look like it’s changing but it is actually

changing just a little bit and there’s all these different dynamics right with

change changeability and constancy impermanence the third topic here

continuing on the themes of speaking up and inquiring investigating to spark

curiosity and enthusiasm so this goes to those who aren’t speaking up and

who are hardly ever assertive these type of folks may be put off by someone like me who

especially in the past is kind of overdoing speaking up kind of a confession time here you know

it was like in high school maybe even grade school some of college i guess a

brief time at university or a few years at university it’s kind of stirring up stuff kind of sensing that

maybe what some of us being taught just wasn’t on the level or

or just to be a troublemaker in general asking things but more in the way that’s

not conducive right to what we should be asking about and probably people

could have possibly groaned a little bit when i started doing this of course so it got some comic relief

but a lot of it was foolish other than the fact that

i could kind of sense something was off with possibly a lot of the

things although i did not know what that was or really how to go about it skillfully and wisely i mean as we all

know just coming up in a public schooling system in the united states if any of you here have gone through that

is quite the journey i mean adolescence is challenging enough

just without any kind of overlay or any kind of interactions although and you

know we can’t get through life without that and that’s what actually makes a lot of it so challenging

and then we have the folks who who might lack establishing communicating and reinforcing boundaries

i think this word this notion of boundaries probably more emphasized now than

assertiveness uh it seemed like assertiveness might have been emphasized maybe 20 years ago so more than

boundaries although boundaries sum but now we hear lots of talk about boundaries

establishing boundaries communicating boundaries and reinforcing boundaries

possibly this is surrounding why people do and do not inquire and speak up investigate and

have enthusiasm or don’t have enthusiasm so this is something

probably not going into here about how to do that there’s a lot of good people out there

talking about boundaries uh making those boundaries communicating and reinforcing boundaries i would say

also knowing when to dissolve certain boundaries or readjust boundaries or how

permeable they should be in fact lydia grace the gal that was who did a few months of these ask us anythings with me

and a couple with denny i think she’s really good on boundaries teaching on boundaries obviously you can look her up

and of course just a few past plugs on past work here mindfulness of speaking

practice you can find that on my website at the parameter challenge for december 2021 i’ll link

that in the show notes but i’ll go over some of the guidelines for right and wise speech maybe you’ve heard

these or seen these before the first one that’s really big is true

truthfulness honesty and speaking so is what you’re saying true now i guess some

of these things can be made exceptions for if you’re in joking you know comedy situations where it’s obvious that the

context its comedy although i even tend to shy away from some of this too

or make it oh i don’t know how to say it might if it’s not true kind of make it so

absurd that it there’s no question whether it’s true or not like you’re not going out to fool anybody without

anybody you know knowing about it or for the effect or coming in later and saying what you said and why you said it or why

it wasn’t quite 100 true um for the effect that you it was having some

people might not know what’s true or what’s not and that’s you know that’s a journey as well a huge journey so

honesty though i feel everybody or near everybody can tell what’s honest and what’s not at least with themselves

and a lot of people just aren’t even honest with themselves which is a huge form of self-love just being honest with

ourselves people talk about brutal honesty and you know maybe there’s a time and

place for that there is but the next one on right wise speech is kind is it kind

especially lovingly kind because truth is very hugely powerful and you know we

just look at this huge multi-billion dollar industry of secrecy

certain levels of clearance secret clearance top secret clearance above top secret clearance

yada yada you know some of it obviously is needed i mean we don’t want people anybody to just look up nuclear launch

codes on the internet i mean i don’t think that would serve anybody too well but you know some of it is probably past

its prime who knows why it’s still being maybe there’s a reason maybe there’s not

but the point here being that truth can destroy the world you used to live in right it can be very devastating

the upside of devastation and relational context is it can reveal deep truth

within us though so that helps when we’re facing devastation and relationships

at least it has for me ideally our speech should be kind as well it shouldn’t be harsh

or divisive divide and conquer if you live in the united states this is a huge

tactic for control domination and control is to divide people uh just everywhere

division on just about every issue if anybody here is involved in politics

first off i’m sorry in a way you know half kidding but half you know not um because it seems to be a

big emotional con game just about every political issue is if it’s not already designed to divide

people it just it seems to do it anyway so how can we talk in a way that creates

concord brings people together uh promotes uh unity unification

unity consciousness i guess is the hot buzz word now i like it as well most most of the times anyway

also it’s what we’re saying timely i mean is it is it the right time like you don’t want

to be yelling out silly jokes in the middle of a wedding ceremony right silly example or breaking into a dance party

at a funeral also is what we’re saying helpful or is it just idol chatter which small talk can be

okay especially when it needs to be saved to put people at ease for a long time i was like well

this small talk thing is just a waste of time and a lot of times it is however this is kind of a way to

express love amongst people who kind of are still working on opening their heart

too right a way of connecting and putting people at ease and kind of showing love without directly

the intensity of being caring open honest kind of loving you know kind

compassionate rejoicing things like this just the kind of small talk banter kind of thing

also last month’s kind of ask us anything entitled ask anyone anything

live with whom minor ask us anything restart so in that one i go into or i link to and go into

why and why not to question and inquire and then read from my wisdom snippets inquiry and

investigation posts so instead of rehashing that i just linked to that in the show notes but what i didn’t i don’t

feel or remember going into as much as how to actually formulate questions when

inquiring teacher of mine actually says to get the right answers you have to ask

the right questions so one way of doing this is with a

self-inquiry process starting with just asking a question and at first it can be

very vague in general and then we contemplate upon it and then a lot of

times we’ll at least get an answer sometimes we consider that a little more to just see if that answer

is kind of all that there is and then then it that answer will oftentimes

present itself to be refined right if you ask a vague and general question a lot of times you’ll get a vague and a

general answer so then we kind of get a better idea of refining that question more specific

because it’s not quite getting at what we wanted to so you don’t have to know exactly you

know what we’re after but kind of the answer we get back then we can start narrowing it down

refining it and then asking that question sitting with it and contemplating and getting an answer and

then refining that and continue and repeat this so what i found with this process is

a lot of times we can get a very specific question that can kind of be the end of it and then on the other end

you can take this all the way to the end but that’s only kind of one level or layer of it one

angle to address whatever we’re kind of after and that’s okay it’s also

cool for me to be okay with not getting any answer just asking the question

or sometimes gauging well how much do we when we do get that specific answer and

it seems somewhat satisfying but we know it’s only one layer how much time do we want to spend

continuing with that same topic from other layers and other angles and how much are we just gonna say okay

that’s gonna serve for now you know maybe there’s also that thing we’ll know exactly what we need to know exactly

when we need to know it and then there’s peeling the onion technique so peeling the onion what’s

behind that what’s behind that what’s behind that so when we’re inquiring and investigating into things

can get the answer and i’ve mentioned this technique before and then we can just ask well what’s behind that like a

five-year-old asking why well why getting an answer why and it’s interesting to just keep peeling back

layer by layer investigating that way okay so now that some people might know

on how to inquire and investigate and speak up and ask questions

what is the motivating factor behind this how do we get motivated for speaking up and asking questions well

maybe one way i feel is what are you really enthusiastic about or remember

the last time you were really enthusiastic oops so let’s just spend a

moment or two recalling our enthusiasm what do we get enthusiastic about or remember the last

time about something maybe it is like a hobby that we do something we really

love doing we get really enthusiastic about whatever hobbies we have whatever we like to do on our time off maybe

social settings and friends that we get together with juicy bits of things we talk about with

other folks maybe it’s service work so whatever it was what you’re really

enthusiastic about see if you can come up with three things so maybe two more things give a few

moments here and there’s no rules on this it can be something very abstract it can be ideas it can be emotions

whatever okay so now how how can this be applied to more areas so this enthusiasm just

kind of feeling into what really lights us up gets us going we feel kind of

energized around a lot of people say excited and excited is okay i just uh to

me that just kind of has like a nervous energy like bubbling over and that’s cool sometimes but this enthusiasm i

feel is kind of more grounded sustainable uplifting energy than uh excited so how

can we apply this enthusiasm to more areas in our lives and can the most enthusiastic thing we come up with can

it be applied equally to these other two things we came up with and maybe why or why not

and of course this uh question about well what all is really important to be

curious and enthusiastic about maybe some of the reasons we’re not having

curiosity enthusiasm is because maybe what we’re curious and

enthusiastic about isn’t all really that important in the grand scheme of things either way it’s

not a value judgment on what and what aren’t uh you know what our levels of curiosity enthusiasm about because

there’s a kind of opposite to this where maybe there does need to be a time for

some of our old interests to fall away so we can rest and then reassess what we’ve once been interested in

enthusiastic about i know for me i was going through some really challenging times years ago

some of the old interests i um were in they they fell away for a while some of them died out completely

but other ones came back but then i had a greater perspective more wisdom more

curiosity and other angles of addressing the same topics so kind of what i

the the way i was approaching certain areas the way i was doing that the the you

know the way in the method and the approach that enthusiasm fell away but i found a

new way other ways wiser ways skillful ways to approach these things and enthusiasm was

not only rebuilt but was better was more greater amount greater degree of

enthusiasm towards these new approaches so who can you clearly ask and be

curious around and not maybe it’s really obvious who we can be curious around and who is like doesn’t

really have any patience for that no desire interest of curiosity right i mean it’s really easy to see in children

a lot of children before the schooling system i guess public schooling system not that all public schooling systems are bad but

here in the states it seems like for me at least the curiosity was kind of beaten out of me so to speak obviously

and this was not beaten in school although there was a paddle in grade school that i went to but no one i don’t

think anybody ever it was used on it was just kind of a weird psychological thing that was there right but anyway you know

after a time that it was just kind of like this rote memorization and regurgitation and so the natural

curiosity just kind of fell to the wayside had to kind of unlearn some things and then regain curiosity so who

all inhabits more of the gray areas also in life where sometimes i can be curious

around them and ask questions and sometimes i can’t so this this remin this question reminding me of my niece

and nephew who actually had this really cool thing they’re doing now where they’re saying can i tell you something

so can i tell you something before they actually say it so i was just like wow huh it’s really kind of a good strategy

and i just tell them blanket that to to me you can say you know you can i will tell you when it’s not okay right i will

say when you’ve gone too far but other than that you’re open to just ask me and

tell me anything right so they’re young they’re both under 10 so and then when are and when aren’t

good times to ask yourself questions and be curious right this might be a little more

obvious when people are just stressed out and they just had it and they just need to

they or me too i just need to recuperate and relax and it’s not the good time to

ask questions and be curious because the energy level is not there or i’m just not feeling like it right now

or it might be better i’ve designated this time to be curious or my curiosity goes along with

this thing or these people so now go back through the takeaways so going back

over this to the first part is there anything you can take away about the advice section

so giving and receiving advice how might anything i’ve mentioned help

um when seeking advice or giving advice or actually not just me but we ask

questions so anything that might have come up when considering those questions

and if there wasn’t really enough time to contemplate them again i plan to include these notes

in the show notes if not the audio to the second one about changes what

changes need to be made on an individual level and on a collective level changes

in general what’s one thing you want to take away from that section on chain and

then this last section about asking asking questions and being enthusiastic

take away for asking enthusiasm well i guess with that

may you all be blessed with an optimal ideal amount of energy and consciousness for

the rest of your day evening night

Published by josh dippold

IntegratingPresence.com

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