Stillness in the StormsA podcast with Steven Webb Join Weekly Calm

Episode 140 · 15 February 2025 · 12:37

Finding Peace and Stillness in the Current Storms

How do you stay steady when the news will not stop? Six weeks into the year and it is already relentless.

Subject: Hard Times & Resilience, Inner Peace Foundations

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Stillness in the Storms · Episode 140

How do you stay steady when the news will not stop? Six weeks into the year and it is already relentless.

I am fifty two, my body is paralysed, my immune system is not what it was, and this cold has taken a hammering out of me. On top of that the headlines keep coming and I keep going back for more. So I have started asking a different question. What if I wake up tomorrow and the kettle does not work, or the heating is gone? Suddenly the tea is a gift. And I have taken the iPad out of the bedroom and put two books there instead.

One thing to try: Put the phone out of the bedroom tonight. Put a book where it was.

In this episode

  • (1:24) Thanking the people who keep this free of adverts
  • (2:31) Fifty two, paralysed, and this cold is winning
  • (4:14) Why the news is relentless either way
  • (5:14) Service is the part that is not a problem
  • (6:19) What if the kettle does not work tomorrow
  • (7:55) Pause, and let the breath be what it is
  • (9:08) If you are tired, your body is telling you something
  • (10:19) The iPad is out. Two books are in

The companion meditation: Sunrise Gratitude: Welcoming a New Day

Support the podcast and join the Weekly Calm: stevenwebb.uk

Thank you for listening.

Steven

The question this answers

How do you stay steady when the news will not stop?

Six weeks into the year and it is already relentless. And the honest question underneath it is not what the world is doing to you. It is how much of the storm you are carrying in yourself.

The heart of it

  • Close the door, but do not lock it. Disconnect entirely and you have stopped living. Leave it wide open and you fill your head with things you cannot act on.
  • Start with what is at arm's length. That is where you can actually do something.

I am fifty two, paralysed, my immune system is not what it was, and this cold has taken a hammering out of me. Every time I get two or three good days I am back down again.

On top of that I wake up and check on Trump before I read anything or sit for a minute. It is close to an addiction. Bad news for him is bad news over there, good news for him is bad news over there, so I am not sure what I am getting out of it. It is relentless and it is what I am filling my mind with, first thing.

So a different question. What if I wake up tomorrow and the kettle does not work, and there is no morning cup of tea? What if the heating has gone? What if I am about to lose the house?

I have my home, rented, lived in for forty years. My computer. My voice. My health, essentially, because a cold is only a cold. When I broke my neck at eighteen I did not think I would see fifty two.

I spent twelve hours in casualty once where the only pillow they could find was a folded blanket. Coming home to my own pillow the next morning was a dream.

There is a way of holding this that I keep coming back to. Playing the drums. Grip the sticks too tight and the music is rigid and horrible. Hold them too loose and you drop them, and there is no music at all. Hold them properly and it plays through you.

Dropping them is going so far into the spiritual side that you have stopped connecting with anything.

And do not overcomplicate the rest. There are endless books telling you to breathe differently. You managed perfectly well before anyone told you that.

One small thing to try

Put the phone out of the bedroom tonight. Put a book where it was.

I have taken the iPad out and put two books on the trolley instead, The Enlightened Heart and a small book of non duality poems. At six or seven in the morning I read a couple rather than reaching for the emails.

Then the other half. Take one thing you have, imagine tomorrow without it, and then let it come back.

Questions people ask

Is this saying I should ignore the news?

No. Watch enough to know what is happening, then stop. The test is whether you can act on it, and mostly the answer is not from here and not today.

What if I genuinely cannot fix any of it?

Then do what is at arm's length. Locally, in your street, with the people in front of you. That is not a consolation prize, it is the only place any of it has ever changed.

Is gratitude not a bit forced?

It is when you are told to list three good things. Try losing something in your head for ten seconds first, and then having it back. That version tends to land.

Listen together

The companion meditation

A guided meditation recorded to go with this episode, on Inner Peace Meditations.

Inner Peace Meditations · Meditation 19Sunrise Gratitude: Welcoming a New DayListen on Inner Peace Meditations

Read along

The transcript

It follows the audio. Press any line to jump there.

resilience · gratitude · acceptance

Read the transcript

Hello and welcome to Stillness in the Storms. And I'm going to call

this episode Finding Stillness in the Storms. I started this podcast

probably three years ago now. We've done what, nearly 150 episodes

since then. I've done the Inner Peace Meditations, which has

been listened to nearly 3 million times. And we've built quite

a few supporters and quite a bit of a following. And I'm proud

of that, and I think we should all be proud of that. But the storm

feels like it's worse than ever. The whole world, the climate,

whether it's political, whether it's weather or whether it's

just the information bombardment, the pressures on us,

the pressures on you, they're having to work more than one job.

A lot of people, they're demanding of schools for the children.

Just everywhere you look, I don't see a person that's really

not weathering some kind of storm. So this episode is going to

be about how do we find a better stillness in the storms? And

I'm going to mix it in with a bit of gratitude because, yes, there's

a raging storm. Yes, it's really terrible. But we also have

still so much to lose and so much to fight for and so much to

be grateful for that we can still lose. So welcome. Thank you.

And first of all, I'd like to thank my supporters for helping to

keep this podcast free from adverts. That's important to me and

I really enjoy podcasts that get on with the show and not have

three or four minute adverts selling Gucci shoes. Not I've ever

heard a podcast sell Gucci shoes. But yeah, anyway, I'm just,

I'm now, what, six weeks into this year? Well, I presume everybody's

six weeks into this year, not just me. I'm not a different time

zone or timeline to everybody else, but it's. I've got a cold again

and it's relentless. And for me, my storm, literally this year,

every time I feel a bit better, I have two or three days,

I get out, I get on with stuff and all that, and before you know

it, I am bang. Just a reminder of, I think I'm now, what, 52 and

my body been paralyzed, my immune system isn't what it used

to be, or this cold is just taking a hammering on people. So

weathering that I'm. I'm also struggling. And I've done a video

in the supporters buy me a coffee last night for the supporters.

And you know, if you head over there and you've donated a coffee

or joined as a founder member or anything over the last few years.

You have access to a brand new WhatsApp group, which I will keep

you updated and we'll do just daily challenges and things like

that just to. I know it's more information, but we're going to keep

it to the minimum and maybe we can be a bit selective with information.

And I'm having to take a step back and I think it's all well and

good that we can blame the world for the storms, but we got

to ask ourselves, and I want you to ask yourself seriously, how

much of the outside storm are you bringing in? How much? Let's

just use the metaphor, let's be really cheesy and use the metaphor

of an open door. How many open doors? How many times are you going

to sit? Are you sitting outside in the storm? And I'll give

you an example from my life. I wake up in the morning and instead

of reading a book or doing a meditation, I check on Trump. It's

like as if I got some kind of addiction too. And I have these little

adrenaline hits whenever he has some bad news, really. If he

has bad news, that's bad news for America. If he has some good

news, there's bad news for America. So I don't know why I'm

getting some satisfaction, but it's constant and it's relentless

and it's bringing me down because that's what I'm filling my

mind with. I can't do anything about it. You know, I know this.

We teach this. You know, I know this, that there's nothing I

can do about the bigger picture, especially the other side

of the pond. I can only do what I can at arm's length. And that's

what Jumpo taught me. You know, start with what you have at

arm's length. And I'm missing that. And I think a lot of us are

missing that. We can have compassion and we can have understanding

for what's going on around us. I'm on the city council, I'm doing

what I can locally. I'm standing for county elections. That's

my. That's my giving back to the community. That's my service

that I'm doing. I'm also doing what I can to help others, but that's

not a problem. My service is also the podcast and the inner peace

meditation. I love doing that. I'm just about to bring out a new

course as well, which is a follow on from Stillness in the Storms,

which you can currently get for zero up to whatever you want

to pay. Because I just believe in the Dharma. It's not my teachings.

I'm just translating it. And it's. I'm just a conduit. So if you

want to look into that, it's StephenWeb.uk and I think if I look

at my life right now, I've got my home, okay, it's rented. It's

not mine, but it's still my home. And I've lived here for 40

years. I have my computer. I have my voice. I have. I have my

health, essentially. What's a cold? It's a cold. It's frustrating,

but I have my health, essentially. When I broke my neck

at age of 18, I didn't think I'd live to be 52. What a gift that

is. So what if I woke up tomorrow morning and my kettle doesn't

work? I don't have my morning English cup of tea. What if I wake

up tomorrow and I got no electric or my heating is broke?

What if I wake up tomorrow morning and I'm going to lose my

house? My life's going to be so much worse than today, yet I'm

dragging my arms complaining about today. Then, yes, we have things

to complain about. Don't get me wrong. But are they in your power

to do anything about? Unlikely. And can you do anything

about them in this moment? Unlikely. So how do we find stillness

in this storm? Well, first of all, let's just start by taking note

of what we do have, that if we lost, our life would be worse. And

I'll link to a gratitude meditation I recorded about this.

So, you know, just appreciate your pillow. What would it be like

if you went to bed tonight and you had no pillow? Really annoying.

I was in casualty for 12 hours and the only pillow they could find

was a blanket. I was awful. But yeah, I come home and I have

my pillow in the morning, and that was like a dream. So I think

the huge part of stillness in the storm is just putting things

in perspective, recognizing what we do have, recognizing the

joy in this moment and the stillness in this moment. And I've

got loads of meditations, how to find calmness in the moment. But

ultimately, just take a look around and pause. Ah, there we go.

And just allow your body to relax and allow your breath to be

what it is. We've got to a point where we're even trying to

change the way we breathe. There's no end of books telling you

breathe a different way. Well, I got news for you. Up until the

age of I don't know, whatever age when you were suddenly and gifted

to become enlightened, you never realize you had to breathe

differently and you got on perfectly fine. You, you never, you

know, as a child, you didn't have all these problems of, you know,

take a deep breath and breathe in boxing and everything like that.

They all have their place, don't get me wrong, they all their

place. But I think we overdo the fact that the spiritual journey,

we got to breathe differently, we've got to relax certain parts

of the body, we've got to practice gratitude, we got to go

through all these things, just make it simple. Just look around

this moment, see what you got. Imagine if you lost it and then bring

it back into your life. Allow your body to be what it is. Allow

your body to fight. If you're tired, your body's taking the energy

because it needs it. If you're overwhelmed, your body's telling

you something. If you're feeling anxious, your body's tugging

you and saying, hey, something to take notice of. If you're happy,

just enjoy it because it will go. And I think that's how we find

stillness in the storms. It's about balance. And there's a wonderful

analogy that I use. It's like playing the drums. If you hold the

drumsticks far too tight, the music is awful, it's rigid, it doesn't

work. If you hold them too loose, you drop them and there's

no music. So dropping them is going so far deep on the spiritual

journey that you're no longer connecting. You know, you're missing

life. And if you just learn to hold them in the right way, not too,

not too tight, not too loose, music plays through you. And that's

what we got to do. Life's got to play through us. And this is,

you know, just the bombardment of information. So I'm committing

to. I've got rid of my iPad at night. I've put two books in front

of me, a book that I read halfway through and I thoroughly

enjoyed it and I forgot to read it. The Enlightened Heart and

another book called Hussin. Wonderful little non duality. Poems

and pointers to just get your mind out of the duality of thinking.

And I put them on my trolley. So when I wake up 7:00 tomorrow morning

or 6:00 or whatever time, coughing for hours, I'm just going

to read a couple of them. I'm not going to reach for my emails,

I'm not going to reach for the news and I'll keep you updated on

the WhatsApp. If you're part of the groups it would love I'd love

to see some of you part of the WhatsApp group. So if you head over

to by my coffee and if you've ever been a supporter at any point

you'll have access to that group. I have to limit it because

otherwise it'd be just again, adding too much information. And

it's a way of me thanking those so many of you that have supported

and kept these podcasts free. I hope that helps. I I We just got

to find balance in this and the balance at the moment is not

consuming too much of the outside world. Close your door, but

don't close it so tight it's locked. Don't hide behind your sofa

to the point that you cannot cope with life that's going too far

disconnecting. But don't connect with the world so much that

you're filling your mind with everything you cannot cope with.

On that note, I've got to go because I'm losing my voice and my

voice is getting sore now and I'm going to start coughing. Thank

you. Head over to stevenweb.uk all the links are there. And look,

use my meditations on inner peace meditations to find a bit of

stillness in the current storms. Take care. Bye and I love

you.

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