Prayer versus Meditation and how they work together | DFS 314

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Welcome to Destin for success. I'm your

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host, Jennifer Takagi, and today I want to talk about prayer

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versus meditation in last week's episode, if you didn't catch it,

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my friend candy shared a very profound nugget, and when I was

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looking over the show notes for it and putting that episode

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together, I thought this is powerful. I want to talk about

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this in a little more detail. And she shared that prayer is

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talking to God. Prayer is talking to God. Meditation is

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listening to God. Meditation is listening to God. Now, if your

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belief system is not that God is God, and you believe in spirit

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perfect, if you believe the word should be source perfect, it's

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source for you. If you believe it should be your inner knowing,

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fine. It's your inner knowing. If you haven't listened to me

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for a while, or, like, in a while, or you haven't heard this

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before, like, I'm all inclusive when it comes to this religious

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spirituality, what you believe thing I'm I'm open to whatever

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you want to believe. I believe what I believe, and I don't

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really want you to tell me I'm wrong, because, guess what, I'm

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not going to tell you you're wrong either your choices, your

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belief system, that's for you, like that's for you, and I'm not

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trying to change anybody's belief systems. But in this

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episode, I want to talk, and I'm going to use the word God, so

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just insert whatever you prefer for that. And I'm going to talk

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about prayers, talking to God and meditating, or meditation is

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listening to God. In the Bible, it talks about Ask and you shall

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receive. That's a quote. And no for this episode, I should have

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looked it up. But no, I didn't. You know how I roll. I just roll

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people. And one of the things that we as entrepreneurs, as

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corporate executives, as employees, as people in general,

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one of the things we don't do is ask, and we don't ask for help.

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We don't help. Ask help from other people, and we certainly

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don't take the time to ask for help from God, universe, source.

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Recently, I was at a party, and I turned to someone and said,

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Hey, I need to ask you a favor. Will you help me with this? And

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somebody else said, No, you can't ask for help. Do it

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yourself. And being the very professional, upstanding

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personal growth guru that I am, I said, shut up, because that's

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just what popped out at the moment, people, this is a

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journey. It's not a destination. And she goes, Don't tell me to

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shut up. But I said, Don't tell me I can't ask for help. And she

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said, but you can do it yourself. And then proceeded to

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tell me exactly how I could do it myself, and I didn't want to

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do it by myself. And so I asked my husband, would you help me

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with this? And it was like I had two choices on who I could ask

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easily, and my husband was 10 feet away. This other person was

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right next to me. So that's who I asked first. In the end, I

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went to my husband, I was like, Hey, would you do this? And he

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said, Yes. And it all worked out. And so my my friend who

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told me to do it myself, whom I love dearly, and there's no

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animosity whatsoever. It just makes for a really funny story,

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and it's great to emphasize this point. Later, I said you told me

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not to ask for help, and I didn't initially, and you told

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me to do it myself, and thank goodness I didn't attempt to do

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it myself, because the solution I could not have made happen

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like it wasn't gonna happen. And more conversations have since

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occurred where we talked about things we like to do, want to

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do, versus what we have to do, need to do. And I get teased a

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little bit because I order my groceries. I started doing this

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before covid When I go to water aerobics. This is more

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information than you need, but it's part of the story. Go with

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me here. The Target store is in the same parking lot as the y

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where I do water aerobics, and so I literally can order

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groceries when I wake up in the morning, I can go to water

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aerobics, and nine times out of 10 by the time I finish the

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class and take a quick shower. Or I get a notification that my

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groceries are ready. The fun thing about target, shout out to

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target. I love Target. There's not a minimum order, and you can

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order and they'll bring it to your car. My niece literally

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ordered a 99 cent packet of gravy mix and and she said, Hey,

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will you run me up there real quick? Because I was parked

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behind her. I did pick this up, and I said, Yeah, it's

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convenient. I like it. I order groceries from Walmart, and I

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pull up and I park, and they throw them in my trunk.

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Sometimes, if I'm in a big hurry, I actually will order

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them to be delivered to the house. It's convenient. I like

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it. I like asking them to do something for me, and then it's

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convenient. It's convenient and I can get on with my day and do

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other things that I care about more and where I want to put my

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energy. It's the same thing with asking God, asking for universe.

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You don't have to do it all by yourself. You don't have to.

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We're put together on earth like however you believe. We all got

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here as human beings. Everything was set up to live in community.

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I overheard a conversation and inserted myself into it because,

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gosh, I just can't hardly keep myself from doing it. But there

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was a conversation about the Bible on the Bible, in the Old

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Testament, in the New Testament, and it's my understanding and

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belief the Old Testament is history. It's prophecy, and it's

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telling us how to set up society. And when it talks

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about, if somebody steals, cut off the hand, pluck the eye,

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right? All those really harsh things. That's for the judicial

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system. The punishment should fit the crime. The punishment

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should fit the crime. So that's all historical. The New

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Testament is all how you should live as a person. Turn the other

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cheek. That's how you should live as a person, in my belief,

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my understanding, my interpretation of that

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scripture. And so if we're looking at that and we are to

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ask for help, where to ask for help? I need help with my

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relationships. I need help building a business. I need help

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knowing the next step I've heard for a long time on this

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entrepreneurial journey. Don't ask how, just, you know, set it

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up that you want it. And I'm like, Yeah, but I want to know

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how sometimes things turn out in such a better way, like we can't

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plan everything out and have it turn out for the best. Sometimes

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the biggest things that derail us end up being the best

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possible solution. Years ago, I applied for a job. I just knew I

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had the job I like when I got that letter that I wasn't

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selected, I was devastated. I knew I had that job. How could I

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not have gotten that job? And I ended up having foot surgery,

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and I came back from foot surgery, back to work. I was

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off, like two whole days. I should have been off a week or

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two, but, you know, you're committed. I was off a couple

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days, went back to work, and I got a call, and they offered me

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the job. And I was like, Wait, but I wasn't selected. And the

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woman said, well, the person that we selected changed his

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mind and he's not going to work here, and we're offering it to

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you. And I was like, Oh my gosh. Like, can I call you right back?

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And she goes, Yes, ma'am, but we need a decision. And I said, No.

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Like, I'll call you back in five minutes. Give me your number.

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And I wrote the number down, and I hung up, and I turned to my

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work best friends, and I was like, Oh my God. I was just

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offered this job. I was having some heart palpitations, and I

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returned the call, and I was like, Yes, I'm happy to accept,

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but I can't start for three weeks because I was having the

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second foot surgery. And she said, Okay, great. You know,

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you'll start on this date. Perfect. That was excellent. I

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was talking to my mom, and she said, Well, isn't that just

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wonderful? Had you gotten the job the first go around, you

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wouldn't have been able to take off work and have your surgery

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because you wouldn't have had any sick time or vacation time

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to do it. So I did get what I asked for, just not in the

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timing I thought it would be. It wasn't in the time that I

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thought it would be. I thought it would have been two months

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earlier, but it wasn't. It was in the perfect time. So I asked

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for what I wanted, and the answer came when the right time

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was

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when you get responses. The responses come. Come when you're

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quiet. They come when you're quiet. So you pray, you ask, you

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ask for help from others. You seek out answers and guidance,

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and then sometimes you have to wait for the answer. And what I

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have found time and again the answers come when I'm still and

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I'm quiet, another scripture again. I don't know which number

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you can Google. It is Be still and know that I am God. You have

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to be still. You have to be still. You have to quiet your

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mind, and you have to be able to hear the answers. If you're not

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quiet, you're not going to hear the answers. The guidance is not

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going to come. So again, if you're newer to my world, on

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April 19, 1995 I worked for the federal government, for the

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Department of Housing and Urban Development, and I woke up that

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morning sick. I had bronchitis. I had no business going to work,

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but I was very committed. Thought I needed to be there.

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And I debated for a long time, do I stay home or do I go to

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work? In the end, I stayed home, and less than two hours later,

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the whole house literally shook. I was 133 blocks north of my

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office in the Murrow Federal Building, and the whole house

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rattled. All the dishes in the house rattled. And that was the

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day of the Oklahoma City bombing, and that morning, as I

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asked the question, should I go to work or should I stay home?

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The answer was, very clearly, stay home, take care of

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yourself. Had I not listened to that? Had I not been still?

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There wasn't a radio on, there wasn't a TV on. The dog was even

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outside and not even barking in the house like it was perfectly

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quiet and I heard the message. If we don't take time to be

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quiet, we can't hear the message. There's an awesome

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meditation on YouTube. I will get the link and drop it in the

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show notes, and it's on manifesting and manifesting

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anything you want. And he talks about just throughout the day,

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ask, what is my next best step? What is my next step? And the

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next step? We have to ask questions to keep our brain

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engaged, because our brain is always looking for answers. It's

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always searching and seeking. It's like a radar, and it's

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going be beep, looking, for the answer to the question. So you

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have to pose the question, ask the question, and the answers

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will come. But you have to be aware and you have to be quiet

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as you listen for the answer. I read a really great book, I

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can't remember the author, and it was called the prayer circle.

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I believe the prayer circle, and he's a preacher, and he's

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talking about literally, physically walking around a

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building or a baby crib, or mentally in your mind, or

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circling a passage over and over again and praying over it or a

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person or a wish or a thing. And that was so enlightening to me.

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A colleague said, Yeah, I don't really want to do meditations.

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They seem to take you down a path, and I don't want to go

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there, and I'm a Christian, and I went, Oh my gosh, I just read

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this book. So if you ever look at my show notes, it always

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says, If you want to start your meditation journey, click here,

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and I have a collection of meditations. And I have one for

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anxiety and one for joy and one for sleep. I have, I don't know,

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four or five. I don't it's been a minute since I recorded them,

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but most of them are based on scripture, because they're just

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awesome statements, and they just bring peace. At least they

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do to me, and they also do to the lots of people who've

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downloaded them. So that's an option too. I really enjoy a

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meditation with beautiful music and then a repetitive statement

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like that's very calming to me. I. And then I need to shut it

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down and be quiet and be still. And the messages come, and it

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can be really great when you go to bed at night, if you've got a

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problem you've been trying to figure out, if you ask the

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question, How am I going to solve this? What is my next best

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step, and you go to sleep and your brain is working on it. It

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is working all night long, because your brain doesn't shut

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down trying to find the answer. I know this is true because math

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was not my favorite subject, and I took Algebra One, Geometry,

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Algebra Two, and trig, Algebra three, all through ninth through

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12th grade. And Algebra Two is really, really hard, and trig

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algebra three. That was a semester of each for my senior

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year of high school. They just about ate my lunch. They were so

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hard for me. And literally, I would wake up the morning of the

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test, I would go in and take the test, and I pretty much gotta be

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consistently, because it took me that long to figure out what was

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going on. I always said, you know, if we could have one more

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day, I probably would have gotten an A on that test, but it

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took that long to figure it out, but I went to bed with this hope

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and intention that I could figure out what to do on that

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test. I was happy with the B because it was so hard for me a

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B was outstanding in my book. But you go to bed with that

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intention of what do you want to know? What answers do you want

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to be revealed? Your brain is going to work all night long,

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while you sleep peacefully, to find the answer. And I've talked

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a lot about intuition over the many episodes. And intuition is

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that inner voice. It's that inner knowing. And intuition

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comes from practice of listening effortlessly and getting that

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answer quickly and effortlessly, because you've practiced so

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much, you've listened so much. I hear people say, Oh, I just go

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into my body and I feel the answer. And I was like, that is

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the weirdest thing ever. I don't know what you're talking about

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until I learned this sway test. And if you're not driving a car,

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if you're in a safe place where you can do this, if you sit up

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fairly straight, but not like stiff, but straight, and you

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say, My name is, your body will just naturally lean forward just

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a little bit because it's like, Yes, that's true. Let me hear

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more. If you say my name is Karen, my name is not Karen, my

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body just leans back just a little bit. You can do that with

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so many things and practice it. Go to the grocery store. I mean,

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I don't go very often, but I do go sometimes. I went this week.

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But you go to the grocery store and you say, Should I get this?

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And your body will lean in. Should I get that? Your body

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will pull back. Your body knows what it needs. The more you

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practice, the more you'll hear. Then when you take those moments

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of being quiet and being still, you will hear the answers

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faster, easier. I like to say with ease and effortless.

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Effortlessly. It's easy for me to say all of a sudden. I have

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trouble with that, but you can hear the messages. So my three

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points today are Ask and you shall receive responses come

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when you're quiet, and you can build that intuitive ability

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with practice. I'm Jennifer Takagi, and I look forward to

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connecting with you soon. You.