A Daytime Thunderstorm That Reset My Perspective

A black sky in the middle of the day will humble you fast. After a week of intense UK heat, I get caught in a lightning storm so loud it feels like bombs in the clouds and so bright it turns my whole house into a strobe. It is frightening, but it also snaps me into the kind of presence we all say we want and rarely reach when life feels “normal.”  

From that moment, I follow the thread into resilience and uncertainty. When things stack up, from stressful surprises to health worries, what actually helps? I talk about building self trust through small, real commitments, like starting a running routine and showing up even when it is inconvenient. We also get into modern pressure points: digital overload, the loss of privacy, targeted ads that seem to know too much, and how quickly autonomy can erode when your attention is always being pulled.  

I end with a guided mindfulness meditation designed for overheated minds: an imaginative ice world visualisation with snow, sunlight, and a white hare as a symbol of spirit.  If you want more calm, more clarity, and a steadier relationship with change, subscribe, share this with a friend, and leave a review.

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Transcript

Welcome And A Week Of Heat

SPEAKER_00 0:00

So hello dear listeners and it has been an absolute scorcher here this week, nearly 40 degrees, which is a lot for the UK. I know for our wonderful international listeners that might not be a lot, but it is for this place. So on Monday, I remember Monday, Monday afternoon, it had been like a really hot, like sunny day, and I was just hanging my washing out in the garden, and then I could see like a dark cloud, like really kind of dramatically in the distance. And I thought, do you know what? If it if I looked at the forecast, it's only supposed to drizzle a bit, and then it'll be hot sunshine. I was wrong, and I happened to be in the place where it was literally the heart of the storm, and it was just continuous like lightning bolts. But I've seen storms before, and we don't really get so much extreme weather here, like we get flooding sometimes, but generally, compared to a lot of places, I know we don't get so much extreme weather. But this lightning I literally felt like bombs, well, it sounded like bombs were going off in the sky,

The Storm That Turned Day Black

SPEAKER_00 1:12

and like my my house is quite high, so it was like my whole house was just lighting up continuously with this lightning, and yeah, it was kind of quite extreme, and it went on for a while. And what got me was it was the middle of the day, and literally the sky had gone black, and that it hadn't been forecast, as you know, the British are very obsessed with the weather, so it hadn't even been forecast. And it just before it happened, I just felt this really strong, like amazing energy, and then this happened, and then I must admit I was a bit scared, and I'm not even normally scared of weather, but it was just the way it was lighting up the place. But it did hit some people's houses, and unfortunately, a lot of the local businesses were then flooded, and they were independent businesses. So I feel deeply sorry for what they went through. Why am I sharing this with you? With with what with my theme of my podcast, when spiritual feels stuck, what to do next podcast? Because I think it was a massive lesson in the unexpected, and also like from our creator, that in the sense that we think we've we've got all these problems, we're in control of everything, and there are so many things that we can change and influence, but you know what? There's nothing stronger than mother nature, and when mother nature wants to let people know what's what's not what she's not happy about, she lets people know. Um so I think that the unexpected was a really good lesson because there's we go through through life and we have like these ideas, and and and this last week has been quite it has been quite challenging in many ways. There's I won't go into all the details, but there's all like these um things that happened, and yeah, and um unfortunately my partner ended up in hospital as well, and there was like and all these ants that infested the house, and kind of like not major problems, but just kind of lots of like things together. But because of this thunderstorm at the start of the week, well, it was more than

What The Unexpected Teaches Us

SPEAKER_00 3:24

a thunderstorm, literally, this strange thing that happened, it made me really feel that the resilience comes from allowing the life to unfold as it is, and then I was something I was thinking about something that my uncle said earlier, and like how dogs how dogs will just play. And he sent me this picture of this beautiful meadow, and it just makes me think of how dogs um what he said was how dogs will just be in the moment and and and play, and I was thinking about all the nature that was out, all the dogs in the road, by the way, were all like howling because it was must have been so intense for their poor ears. But like the birds and all the nature, like they probably had a shock seeing it, and then they kind of adapted. And as as species, we we like to be what was the word, we like to feel that we are kind of in control of everything and that we can change things at this pace that we would like to change them, or sometimes that doesn't happen, then we get frustrated, and it made me really think that life is something that kind of happens while whilst we're kind of going around trying to change all these things that ultimately we don't always have the power to change. Like, of course, we can change our health, we can do heavy, healthy habits, our diet, what we eat and drink and put on our body, what we watch, what we study, things like that we have got control over. But I'm talking about force of nature or unexpected things, like you know, back in like 2020, who knew the whole world would end up like locked down, so it's there's all these things that happen and and in the flux and change of life. So I invite you, dear listener, to try and do something. Maybe there's something that you really wanted to try, like something that's gonna help you. I don't know what what that would be for you, particularly because I don't know you, but something that might like for me, I've started going running, and I've done it quite later in life, and it was something that I really felt like I really wanted to do because I feel like it's a good time to like meditate, and so it was something uh unexpected in my week in the sense that I pushed myself, but not it wasn't like a hard push, it was more like yes, I'm gonna get up and do it, and because it's been so hot, of course, it's not good for someone who's just starting out with running, even though I've done fitness my whole life, to do that in the heat. So I was getting up early, and there's a couple of days I was thinking, Oh, after I started this programme, do I really want to get up? But I got up because I know that getting up and showing up for myself was the best thing that one could do. But how does one we're getting back to my other topic about how uncertainty and things can happen?

Resilience Through Small Self Commitments

SPEAKER_00 6:20

Well, I tell you what, in that thunderstorm, I was completely in the moment because it was not a normal thunderstorm, not by any stretch of the imagination. The sound, the way the house was lighting up, it was so I was completely present and completely in the moment, and even though there's bits of times I was frightened, there was also a sense of like kind of relief of being completely in the moment and not having to think of anything else. And the way the world has gone, there's so many things that we need to deal with. That is this we can get people can contact us 24-7, there's no privacy on our devices anymore. So I've had conversations about unusual matters with a friend, and then the things pop up on um adverts and things like that, and and I'm thinking, like, how is that kind of happening? So there's just literally no privacy anymore. Like, everyone, the big companies know what we like to buy, where we go, what

Presence When You Cannot Control Events

SPEAKER_00 7:24

we like to do, who we know, and then the advertising and manipulation is kind of centered around that. I feel if I'm gonna look at the kind of really cynical side of it, the plus side of technology, of course, is it's helped everyone to connect more, people can learn, and literally, when I was a kid being dyslexic, it was such a struggle. You'd have to go to the library, and there's sometimes the books that you wanted were out with somebody else, and it would take a lot longer to get information. Now you can get information really quickly. The information now

Digital Life And The Loss Of Privacy

SPEAKER_00 8:02

is a bit censored now, though, because you used to be able to look on the internet and find so many things, even about like kind of natural remedies, and that has been censored so much on on the the internet, it's unbelievable actually. And the this lot loss of autonomy doesn't kind of come overnight, they're just it's just kind of chipping away at little things, and then we when then we don't before we know it, everything is kind of controlled. So that's a really cynical side of thing. But the plus side is I think more and more people are getting into mindfulness, realizing that there can be two sides to one argument, and that maybe neither party's right, and maybe it's about meeting in the middle. I have seen a loss of discussion in my time, a lot loss of debate, and it used to be like I could have friends, and people could be friends of me who had completely different opinions, and then you'd kind of meet in the middle, or or rather, you'd understand each other and celebrate each other's differences. I've realized that's not happening anymore. I'm kind of one of these people that sees the truth and most people's side of views, and and and most things, unless it's something that's gonna hurt or belittle or be horrible to anyone because that's not my bag. But I do feel that even though there's all this stuff that we is going on behind the scenes to kind of stop us being in our light, there's also all this stuff going on that is bringing us into the light, like there's so much beauty and care and in the world, so it's quite easy to kind of go down that route

Mindfulness And Meeting In The Middle

SPEAKER_00 9:47

of thinking, oh, everything is wrong, but the unexpected, like this thunderstorm or things that happen that are unexpected, help us to stay more present, and I feel the more present that we can be in this world, which is such a challenge these days. Don't get me wrong, I'm not belittling the challenge that that can be for more most of us, but the challenge, or rather, the joy that we can find that is the key because unfortunately, the world has become a very strange place. What is the counter thing that we can do to that? Well, we can be present, we can stay more in the joy, and when we have things like this thunderstorm that happened, have a reminder that when we stay in the present, that is actually more real life, regardless of of how you view the world and what you like to read. I would say try and read between the lines because I strongly believe that not, and I hate the word sides, but not one side is completely right or got it right, and it seems to be it's you're either this or you're that. And what if you're none of that? It's just yeah, that's how I see it anyway. And I share my point of view. I never expect you to fully believe everything that I'm saying, and of course, I would like you to disagree with what I'm saying, but does that make us a bad person or enemies because we have different views? I really don't think that. I really don't think that, and that's what my hope is for humanity that we find a way to meet in the middle. So, next week we have got an amazing guest on the show. Had a few breaks from having guests for the last few weeks, but I have got a guest lined up for next week, so that will be very exciting. I always learn so much from my guests, I think they're such a joy to have on the show. So, what is my my meditation for today? Top tips for the meditation is either sit nice and cross-legged on the floor with a nice straight back, always nice to sit on a block or a cushion, or if that's not available for you, you sit in a chair with the back nice and straight. The important thing is you're not slouching. And if you're doing something that requires little concentration, all you need to do is just pause this and you can reconvene the meditation at a time that is good for you. If you're doing the meditation, let's begin. So, whether or not you're in somewhere hot or cold, we're gonna do a meditation and we're gonna imagine ice. So, in this meditation, you are wrapped up in nice warm clothes. This is an imaginary meditation. It is a sunny day,

Next Week Guest Teaser

SPEAKER_00 12:26

but the whole world is filled with ice. There is a crunchiness beneath the feet as one begins to walk through this sunlit terrain. Soft flecks of

How To Sit For Meditation

SPEAKER_00 12:43

snowflakes, you know that powdery stuff kind of float past in the air and capture the light of the sun. In the distance you see a white hare running up a hill. A blackbird pecking at some berries as you walk past a fenced field.

Ice World Visualization Meditation

SPEAKER_00 13:20

And as you walk there, you feel this is nice. I like the sound and the texture of the ground beneath me. The sun is bringing a certain warmth to this cold wintery scene. And I feel cooler by being here. Or I feel warm if I'm already feeling cool. Basically, I feel in the moment, and on the top of the hill, you can see this beautiful white hair, and you start to take steps towards it thinking this is where I want to go. I want to connect with that beautiful spiritual creature. Yet, as you start to walk out of nowhere, a dark sky appears. The wind and the rain replace the light flecks of snow, and you start to think, why am I going this way? Why am I taking this journey? It was so much easier before when I could see the sunlit path towards this hair, which represents my spirit, my desire to connect with life. And you start to walk, and you think actually, it's getting a little bit too wet to walk. So you see a lovely little shed, and you just take refuge in there just for a moment as you take some calming deep breaths, and it's nice and calm, and you feel sheltered in this place, as this shed represents your sense of presence. So there may be beautiful sunshine one day in your life, and a storm in the next, but don't let it take you off your path. Know when to take action and walk, and know when to take a sense of action where you retreat and simply be.