Ep 174: Travel Light with Light Watkins
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Ep 174: Travel Light with Light Watkins
Episode 174: Show Notes
Everything in life is a story. From birth, we project stories onto our lives of what we want, how we think the world operates, and what we think we deserve from our time on Earth.
These stories may be our own, but we often adopt the stories of those around us usually in the hopes of fitting in, and often to detrimental effect. How we interpret and use these stories will determine whether we are living a life of presence and gratitude or one riddled with avoidable tribulations.
Welcome to Light’s 8th solo episode as we explore the unyielding and undeniable power of story. Through the retelling of a Watkins’ family trip, we learn that everything in life is a mere construct of what we’ve chosen to believe, and Light explains how researching weekly riddles made him realize just how arbitrary most of our belief systems are.
We uncover the true strength of the stories we tell ourselves by examining board games, capitalism and law, cultural and societal constructs like the calendar and time zones, how stories are innate from birth, and how stories play out in our relationships. If you’d like to know how to begin living your own story instead of the ones you’ve been told all your life, try starting with gratitude. Thanks for tuning in!
Key Points From This Episode:
Welcome to Light’s 8th solo episode as we explore the undeniable power of story.
The story of Abraham Lincoln’s birthplace.
How Light’s weekly newsletter riddles made him realize how arbitrary the stories we tell are.
What board games can teach us about the power of story.
How the constructs we follow as truths (the calendar, time zones, etc.) are all cultural stories.
The way we project stories onto our lives from birth.
Why we need to ask more questions about the “truths” that we hold dear in our lives.
What we can learn from relationships and heartbreak relating to the stories we tell ourselves.
The five monkeys in the cage.
How we’re quick to point out a problem but unwilling to provide a solution.
The religion of capitalism, and stories of law.
How the perils we face in life all come down to the stories that we tell ourselves.
Why we need to adopt the stories that empower us the most (and forget the rest).
The value of present moment awareness, and how to cultivate it.
Traveling light with the freedom of choicelessness.
Quotes:
“No one is immune to the power of story, but when we become aware of this power, we do get to choose which narrative fits our dreams and desires.” — @LightWatkins [0:03:24]
“If you're having lots of difficulty in your life and lots of suffering in your life, there's a good chance that a lot of that suffering is the direct byproduct of the stories you're telling yourself.” — @LightWatkins [0:07:09]
“A lot of our truths are in society – where we have these truths that we just don't really question – [and] some of them can cause a lot of harm.” — @LightWatkins [0:37:29]
“One of the oldest stories that we tell ourselves that can stop our potential or contract our potential is the story that starts with two words: I can't.” — @LightWatkins [0:42:54]
“The invitation here is not to reject the idea of the story – because it's all story – but to adopt the stories that empower you the most.” — @LightWatkins [0:44:23]
“There are no bad experiences; there are only experiences that are either useful or not useful, and it's up to us to find what's useful in an experience and leave the rest of it behind.” — @LightWatkins [0:47:10]
“It's when you're completely absorbed in what's happening right in that moment - that's the person that is the most present. And that presence needs to be cultivated. The way you cultivate it is through gratitude.” — @LightWatkins [0:49:01]
“The stories that you tell yourself today don't have to be the stories you tell yourself for the rest of your life — as things evolve and you have a deeper understanding of what it is that you're here to do, then your stories must evolve as well.” — @LightWatkins [0:54:34]
Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode: