Finding Peace and Stillness in the Current Storms

Steven Webb: 00:00:03

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.