The Fully Mindful with Melissa Chureau
The Fully Mindful podcast explores what it is to be fully mindful and present in our everyday lives, uncover our worth and discover our purposes. Host of TFM, Melissa Chureau is a neurodivergent lawyer, mindfulness teacher, and embodiment and breathwork coach. On TFM, Melissa interviews inspiring creatives, wellness leaders, and social disruptors about how they have discovered their purpose(s), authentic wellness, and the value of their work on the world at large.
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The Fully Mindful with Melissa Chureau
Unlocking the Power of Simplicity: Exploring Inter-spiritual Principles with Lauryn Axelrod
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The power of these ten guiding principles that offer clarity, enhance relationships, and ultimately serve as a roadmap for creating a more compassionate, harmonious world.
Key themes:
The role of simplicity in spiritual practice and how it can lead to profound personal transformation
Why flexibility in our spiritual beliefs and practices is essential for growth and self-discovery
The power of community in supporting individual journeys and fostering collective healing
Practical insights for integrating mindfulness and spirituality into our fast-paced, modern lives
How to move beyond feeling overwhelmed by the complexities of life and reconnect with what truly matters
If you’ve ever felt lost in the noise of modern living or wondered how to cultivate clarity and peace amidst life's challenges, this episode offers a refreshing perspective. Tune in to rediscover the beauty of simplicity, the importance of living mindfully, and why pursuing spirituality doesn’t have to be complicated.
Key Highlights
[00:00] Lauryn Axelrod's background and inspiration for writing 10 Words
[03:34] Distilling ancient wisdom and science into simple guiding principles
[05:57] How the Western world has gradually detached from traditional faith
[06:39] The distinction between religion, spirituality, and religiousness
[09:18] How science and spirituality overlap in understanding universal principles
[13:32] Why acceptance is a key principle for clarity and transformation
[19:20] Practices for integrating the 10 words into daily life
[31:18] Why flexibility is key when approaching personal growth
[40:18] The Impact of awe and wonder in connecting to the essence of spirituality
Quotes
" In the absence of a singular path, we can get lost. And so these 10 words give us, they're not the path, but they are a path they keep you on, kind of going in a direction without having some guardrails."
"Acceptance isn't resignation. It isn't passive, it isn't. You don't have to like it, you don't have to tolerate it, you don't have to affirm it, but you do have to see it clearly."
Resources
Lauryn Axelrod's Book: 10 Words: An Interspiritual Guide to Becoming Better People in a Better World
Lauryn Axelrod’s Website: https://www.laurynaxelrod.com
Radical Spirituality Substack: https://radicalspirituality.substack.com
Breathwork, Unwind Your Mind: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1080778771399?aff=oddtdtcreator
Follow Lauryn Axelrod:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lauryn.axelrod
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✨ Stay Connected: Follow @the_fully_mindful on Instagram for mindfulness tips, breathwork insights, and more!
✨ Free Breathwork Sessions: Email me at info@thefully.mindful.com to get signed up for your first session for free of my monthly Unwind Your Mind session.
Exploring Spiritual Principles for Personal Transformation
Speaker 1just allow things to be what they are things and people and situations. Not to see things through our judgments and our concepts and our ideas, but to see them for what they actually are, because we can't change them if we can't see what they actually are. We're basing it on our own projections and fantasies and that's why a lot of what we do to try to change things doesn't work because we're not seeing clearly.
Speaker 2Welcome to the Fully Mindful Podcast. I'm your host, melissa. I designed this podcast for you. I'm so happy you're here. We are talking about what it means to live with more intention, creativity and authenticity, so we can make aligned connections. I'm a neurodivergent lawyer turned coach who found the healing power of breathwork and the powerful impact of mindfulness as we navigate this wild and beautiful ride of life. Here at the Fully Mindful, we dive deep with inspiring guests, share solo mini-sodes that are packed with tools you can apply immediately, and I mix it up a bit with tangents and sidebars where my friend and host of the New World Normal podcast, debbie Harrell, joins us for some down to earth, sometimes random but always meaningful, conversations. If you're ready to breathe, reflect and grow, you're in the right place. Let's get fully mindful. Well, hello everybody. This is Melissa Shero. I'm your host with the Fully Mindful, where we explore what it means to live with intention, purpose and authenticity.
Speaker 2Today I'm honored to welcome Lauren Axelrod, an ordained interfaith and interspiritual minister, spiritual teacher and author of the newly released book 10 Words An Inter-Spiritual Guide to Becoming Better People in a Better World. Lauren distills wisdom from ancient spiritual traditions and modern science into 10 simple, powerful principles to help us navigate this complex and often overwhelming world, don't we know it? Through her work as a spiritual director, retreat leader and writer of the Substack newsletter, radical Spirituality, lauren provides a non-dogmatic, accessible path for personal and collective transformation. Today, we'll dive into what inspired 10 Words, explore its teachings and discuss how each of us can begin to create ripples of peace, compassion and purpose in our lives and beyond. Warren, welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 1Hi, melissa, it's great to see you.
Speaker 2Good to see you too, and the listeners don't know this, but we sure do. This is part de trois cat, I'm not sure. Two, three, four. And we have a funny little backstory, which is that we had some grapplings with power the other day when we tried to meet and we just gave in, we accepted, which is one of the principles. That day was not our day, and so here we are again. So I'm very happy to have another try and I'm really happy to have you here. So thank you for trying again. Thank you, your book focuses on 10 simple words. I'd love to go through all of them. We probably don't have time to do that. But what inspired you to tackle these 10 words and kind of distill not kind of, but actually distill such a vast array of wisdom traditions into these words?
Speaker 1Well, you know, it really came out of my own struggle, my own path, and I reached a point where I had spent numerous years in a wide range of different spiritual and religious traditions and I had a panoply of practices. You know, I could do my Tai Chi, I could do my yoga, I could do my chanting, I knew the Hindu scriptures, I knew the Old Testament, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I found that I had all this information and I had all of these practices and I still wasn't getting anywhere. The word that kept coming to mind was I'd created a spiritual smoothie for myself and I really felt, outside of any particular path, there's a level of common wisdom that all of these faith and wisdom traditions and modern science have been telling us like here are the principles, here's what's common across the board, and if we just focus on these things, then our spiritual life really kind of takes off. So I said, all right, fine, I'm going to find those principles and distilled all of the teachings that I knew and some that I didn't know, even that I had to do some research down into these 10 principles, these 10 words that really are transformative. They really.
Speaker 1But what they do is they give us a map because you know if you're following a specific path, the map is laid out for you. This is what you do, this is what you believe, this is what you, how you practice, how you worship, et cetera, et cetera. But if you're not doing that and many of us aren't, you know, many of us have been kind of picking and choosing and we've been exposed to so much more in terms of spiritual wisdom and spiritual teachings in the last 50 years than people were before. In the absence of a singular path, we can get really lost. And so these 10 words give us. They're not the path, but they are a path. They keep you on kind of going in a direction that, without having some guardrails, some waypoint, some map of the terrain, you're going to get lost. And I was. I was lost.
Speaker 2Yeah, I mean, I think it's really interesting. I can't remember exactly where I read it, but fairly recently, and there've been a number of articles about this, about how, at least in the Western world, we sort of lost our way right. We were a fairly religious group of people, and I'm not saying we should all return to religion, but we were a fairly religious group of people by and large, with lots of different faith traditions, and we've, for better or for worse, we've detached from that somewhat, and I think that's what I hear you saying. We don't have those guardrails anymore and we're sort of lost, and it doesn't mean that we should return to religion.
Speaker 1No, that's not some sort of path, exactly, and I'm not saying doctrine, dogma, thou shalt, thou shalt not. That's not what I'm talking about. But it's interesting when you mentioned that we were religious and people ask me all the time like, what's the difference between religion and spirituality? Right, and I think there's a middle word there, and that middle word that we forget is religiousness, right, which means that we have an orientation towards the sacred. Religion codifies that, spirituality, mystifies it. But religiousness is an orientation towards something that's greater, bigger, deeper, inner, outer, all of that stuff. Right, but it's something that we hold sacred and in our rational post-enlightenment world we've lost that. Nothing is sacred except the almighty dollar or our careers, whatever we've made sacred. But that, not that.
Speaker 2That which is still a mystery to us. Do you think that's something that we're born with, in other words, that desire or that innate knowingness that there is something greater, or something I don't know if the right word is mystical, but something that is bigger, something that connects us all, something wiser?
Speaker 1Yes, absolutely. I think we are innately born with an urge, and that urge is to look around and go whoa, what's happening here and who am I and how am I supposed to live in relationship to this and those. Those, I think, are the three questions of spirituality, or religion, or even science who am I, or what am I, what's happening here and how am I supposed to live in relationship to that? And I think a lot of modern spirituality forgets the last part.
Speaker 2The relationship part yeah.
Speaker 1Yeah, yeah, and it becomes very self-centered, it becomes my practice and my enlightenment and my spiritual journey, instead of understanding that there's really a relationship between the self, the sacred and other, and they're connected.
Speaker 2And so how do you think, I guess, connecting that to science? I mean, because that's really interesting, right, this relationship between spirituality and science. Can you make that connection a little bit more for me?
Speaker 1Well, what's interesting, especially with these 10 words, is that these principles will show up in science and what we know about the way this universe works, right. So one of the words, for example, is collaboration. The universe is incredibly collaborative. Everything is connected, everything is codependent on everything else. So there's a place where science and spirituality overlap. I like to say the mystics figured this stuff out thousands of years ago and science is just now developing the instrumentation to prove it Right. But at the root of science and at the root of spirituality is the mystery, are the questions. What's going on here? So, at the root of both of them are questions, and that's really what the 10 words are. Is they're questions? They're not thou shalt. They're not thou shalt not. They're not commandments or precepts, or they are. Huh, here's a principle. How do I understand that? What does it mean to me? How does it show up in my life, in the world around me? How can I cultivate it and how can I bring it forth out into the world to become a better person in a better world?
Speaker 2Yeah, how was it that you came to these 10 words? No-transcript you know, so maybe there's a part two.
Speaker 1I've done a whole radical spirituality alphabet right, but the 10 words are the really. They encompass everything, that when we think about the common aspirations, the common values, they're almost like universal ethics or the common principles. Whether we're talking about Christianity, hinduism, zoroastrianism, wiccan, it doesn't matter, or none, none. You don't even have to be religious or spiritual to use these words because they show up in science and psychology. You can be completely atheist about it. They still work. And so so I wrote the 10 words and then I went oh well, I think there's something here and I got all excited about it and I shared it with a couple of people, colleagues, and they got all excited. And so we spent a year. We did the science thing, like let's prove that these things work. You know that these words work.
Speaker 1And we spent a year, a month, with each word, really diving into it, and by the time we got through them, we said you know, these have been really transformative and we want to keep practicing these words. And there was two months where we said all right, I'm going to put the words into my own words, based on my experience of these words, because the important thing to remember is these words are not giving you a doctrine or dogma. They're not telling you what to believe. They're not even telling you what to practice. You have to find that. So each one of us then took our experience, shaped and molded it and said here are my vows, or my practices, my promises, my commitments.
Speaker 1So, over the course of a year, what I found personally is that, in spite of 40 years of deep spiritual practice across tradition, I grew more in that year than I grew in the previous 40. And they become my. They are my guardrail. You know, they are my practice, these 10 words, and every day they show up. It's amazing, they show up every single day. Sometimes one word is like whoa, okay, this is the word of the day, the week, the month, the year. Like that practice of picking a word for the year. But you know, day, the week, the month, the year. Like that practice of picking a word for the year, but you know these words bring you back.
Speaker 2You know they really bring you back to your spiritual center. Is there a particular word that is particularly alive for you right now?
Speaker 1Well, like our previous conversation, acceptance seems to be the word right. Acceptance is the word for all of us. I think right now, given what's going on in the world, it's the one that you just have to keep coming back to Like, okay, I can accept this, but I can't accept that it's like no, I have to accept this too. You know all of it. We have to learn to just allow things to be what they are things and people and situations. Not to see things through our judgments and our concepts and our ideas, right, but to see them for what they actually are, Because we can't change them. If we can't see what they actually are, we can't see what they actually are. We're basing it on our own projections and fantasies, and that's why a lot of what we do to try to change things doesn't work, because we're not seeing clearly.
Speaker 2Can you say more about that? So if we don't see something clearly, we can't change them. Can you give maybe an example of that?
Speaker 1Well, I think a lot of situations really. It's like, let's say, I don't know, you want to fix something in your house, right, but you know that. Okay, what I really want is for I don't know.
Speaker 2I'm making this up off the top of my head.
Speaker 1Right, I really want to put a sliding glass door over there and a patio, yeah. And I go tell my contractor this is what I want to do, and then the contractor says can't put the door there because there's a beam or their pipes are there, whatever. Sure, Can't do that there, you have to go. Oh okay, Well, can we move it? How about we put it over there? Do you see how it's? Like you can't. It's not effective if you're not seeing things clearly. Even when we're trying to change something in ourselves, we can't really change ourselves without being able to accept ourselves wholly for who we are. Otherwise, we're just pushing stuff down and pushing it away and repressing it and turning it into shadow stuff.
Speaker 2Right, and it doesn't necessarily mean that you have to be okay with it. So say, somebody's treating you horribly, accepting it doesn't mean oh okay, just keep treating me horribly, you're accepting it that this is the way that it is. It doesn't mean that you just roll over and continue to be treated poorly, but you have to see it for what it is in order to change it.
Speaker 1Exactly, exactly. And acceptance isn't resignation, it isn't passive, it isn't. You don't have to like it, you don't have to tolerate it, you don't have to affirm it, but you do have to see it clearly. You just have to accept it. This is happening, or this happened. Now what?
Speaker 2Right, and science. Like you said, it would be the same thing. If you're doing a, let's say, a scientific experiment, let's say chemistry, and not that I know a thing about chemistry.
Speaker 1I don't either.
Speaker 2So we're doing a chemical experiment and the outcome is the outcome, and it doesn't matter if we like the outcome or dislike the outcome. The outcome is the outcome. And it doesn't matter if we like the outcome or dislike the outcome. The outcome is the outcome.
Speaker 1Right. So it's that level, it's objectivity right, it's being able to have a little bit of distance and detachment and be objective. And what we have found is that the more you accept things, the more peaceful, the more joyful you are. And you know, as the Buddha said, like the recipe for suffering is not accepting things the way they are, wanting them to be different.
Speaker 2Right Fighting the wave instead of diving through it.
Speaker 1Right. Fighting what is? If you want to suffer, go ahead and fight the way things are. It just makes it worse instead of going. Okay, is what it is. If you want to suffer, go ahead and fight the way things are. It just makes it worse instead of going. Okay is what it is. Now what?
Speaker 2Right. When you accept it, you can create the distance that you need in order to see what the next step might be.
Speaker 1Right. It actually opens it up to possibilities, whereas when you're already fixated on, it is this way, or it is you know, or it isn't. This way, you're not seeing the whole potential. You're not seeing all of the possibilities for the way things can be.
Speaker 2It also seems to create, at least within me, I know, when I accept things, even if I don't like them, it creates a sense of calm and space within me.
Speaker 1Yeah, it is. It's a much more peaceful place to be, you know, rather than fighting with everything. And so right now, that seems to be a word that's up for a lot of people, whether we're talking about current events, whether we're talking about just feelings coming up, even accepting our own feelings of fear or grief, or, you know, anxiety. Yeah, you know just all of that. You know it's like all that stuff's coming up and we can push it aside and we can go. You know what I'm feeling. It. I can accept that. I don't have to change it right now. I can just let it be what it is, too Right. I mean, you know some things. You just it's the serenity prayer. Yeah, it's the serenity prayer. It's, you know, the things that can change and the the wisdom to know the difference but to accept yeah, therein lies the key the wisdom to know the difference, not always so easy no, not always.
Speaker 1Not Not always.
Speaker 2So how do people, I mean?
Speaker 1in your book, do you give some sage advice or practices for how people can find their own way to acceptance or to collaboration or to each of the 10 words there's a little bit of background just looking at where this principle comes from and why it's important, both from sacred texts as well as from science and psychology, like here. This is why this principle is one we want to look at. And then there's some suggestions about. You know, you might want to look at it this way, that way, by no means all inclusive, right, because it's not that long of a book. That would be, you know, that big a book. Be kind of at home. Yeah, right, at home, and it's not intended to be that. And then there's some suggested practices and some reflection questions, you know. So, depending on how deep you want to go into it, the resources are there, but it's also really it's just sitting with the word sometimes.
Speaker 1You know, what we found in working with them is that once the word is in your head, it's going to show up. You can just write it on a sticky note and stick it on your computer or your refrigerator or your bathroom mirror and that's it just reminds you. Oh right, today is this week or whatever. The word is balance, let's say the principle of balance. What does balance even really mean? You have to investigate that for yourself. You know we can say here's what our wisdom, traditions and science tell us about what it means. But what does it mean for you? How does it show up for you and how do you cultivate it, and how does that get embodied and enacted in the world?
Building a Spiritual Community Together
Speaker 2I was thinking this sounds like a really much like the way that you develop this book. A really great way to do this is not only alone but in a group, right, whether that's your own family or within a dedicated book club sort of group or spiritual group that you might already have, where you could really explore this both on your own and then come together to discuss how each person is investigating this and what each person has found.
Speaker 1Absolutely. And groups are fantastic. I do groups all the time with the 10 words just to explore them. And also people get excited and they go oh, I want to share this with my friends, or I want to start my yoga studio, or I mean, they're all over. People have just started organically, and that's the beautiful.
Speaker 1I'm no guru here. I don't want to be a guru. This is like here's a practice, go investigate it. Go explore it for yourself. I have nothing to teach you. Well, you do, but you know what I mean. Like I have nothing to teach you about how this works for you, right, right, and as a group, even when I've done book events, I'll always ask anyone of these words, speaking to everybody right now, and you know there's always one and and then we explore it together for 20 minutes. You know we'll just show up and I always learn something and we so we learn from each other. You know that the principle of a spiritual family or a spiritual community, a sangha spirituality we can have our private, personal relationship with, whatever we call sacred, but there's really a communal aspect to it, right? I think that's really important. The more people who are doing this, the better.
Speaker 2I think that's really important, right, this communal aspect. I think that's really important, right, this communal aspect. And you know, we live in such a potentially disconnected world that is in a really false way connected, right. We have this false connection on the internet and Facebook and Instagram and TikTok and X or whatever it's called. Now, all these different ways of connecting, and some are great, like we're being right now able to have this conversation, it's fantastic, it's wonderful. But we also kind of hide behind our screen sometimes and don't really get to have a lot of meaningful conversations, but think we're having these connections and so it's really a wonderful way to be able to connect in person or even online, but over something meaningful. These 10 different principles, right, and explore how and learn from one another how these principles show up and how our lives and what they mean to us right and then, as a community, even a loose one, you know you're practicing these, you're going to practice them with each other.
Speaker 2Right, right, these, you're going to practice them with each other, right, right, you know, and take them into your work life, if you work, or in your home life, family life, friendship life, out to the barista, to the stores, in your car, on the road, everywhere, and it's like my brother's a musician and when I first told him about these words he was like oh well, those apply to music.
Speaker 1Sure Friends that teach elementary school. And they're like can we teach these in elementary school? I said go right ahead, yeah.
Speaker 2They work for kids. Could you maybe teach them to the Congress? That would be really nice. Yeah, I know.
Speaker 1Can we teach them to world leaders? That would be fantastic, right, but the thing is is that the more of us that are exploring these principles of how to be better people and build a better world together, the better, and maybe the leaders will catch on, but in the meantime, we're the ones that have to make the world work for us.
Simplicity and Self-Compassion for Growth
Speaker 2True. Hey everyone, I'm excited to announce my eight-week positive intelligence program, the PQ program, starting February 25th, to reduce stress, break through barriers and tap into your true potential. With just one to two hours a week, you'll quiet inner saboteurs, strengthen your inner sage self and build lasting mental fitness through live meetings, daily exercises in the PQ app and powerful practices. Ready to transform, set up a call with me today in the Calendly link in the show notes. We'll see you there. Speaking of which, I mean we do live in a world where, unfortunately, there's still war, there's still oppression, there are horrible things School shooting the other day yet again and a lot of fear around what's going to happen. How can your book and these principles offer some hope for us and realistic steps for us who might feel a little bit powerless?
Speaker 1Well, again, you know it's such a good question and that's also part of the book is in the sense of we've been here before as a species. For thousands of years we've been caught in these horrific things and for thousands of years we've been taught how to navigate them. This is what our wisdom, faith and wisdom traditions all came out of. Here's how you get through hard times together. Here's how you survive, here's how you thrive. So we've already been taught them. So we've already been taught them, and so the 10 words themselves are our way out. I really do believe that, not in any kind of doctrinal or dogmatic way, but these are the principles. This is how we're going to get through. It is if we actually practice some of these principles. One of them, the first one's attention. It's the first step. Where's your attention? And these days, right now, when everybody's really overwhelmed because they've just inundated with so much information and news and you know social media, and it's like, okay, where's your attention? Right, maybe and here's the principle of balance, maybe you need to pull back from that a little bit. I have a friend who every morning, gets more and more and more depressed. I'm like why don't you stop reading the news for a week and see what happens, Right, you know. So it's really simple, it's not. I mean, that's the thing about these words is that this is not lofty. This isn't requiring you to sit on a meditation cushion eight hours a day or do yoga 365 days. It's like it doesn't require any of that, just requires I wanting to live a more peaceful, more purposeful, more joyful life and who doesn't?
Speaker 1Yeah, and really, I mean I want to share the 10 words, just because it really gives people an idea of how simple this is. These are words we know. This is nothing fancy or crazy or exotic. So the first word is attention. The second word is acceptance. The third word is authenticity, benevolence, balance, contemplation, creativity, collaboration, celebration and care. Those are the 10 words. They're really simple, right, but what's beautiful about them is like they really naturally they look like they're separate words on the page, but once you start working with them, you find that they're all interconnected, to the point where, if the first word is attention, the last word, the 10th word, is care. To care for something is to give your attention to it, to attend to it. Right, it's a very focused type of attention, but it's still tension.
Speaker 2Why do you think this simplicity is so effective in creating the kind of change that you're talking about, whether it's individual change, but longer view, bigger view, world change?
Speaker 1Because I think we make it more complicated than it needs to be and we also get you know, we get attracted by the magic tricks and we get, we get attracted to the spiritual athleticism. I'm working really hard at this. It's like we really don't have to work that hard, we just have to remember. We have to because we know these things. These are the things we do when we're at our best.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 1This is. We know how to do this. We just forget or we get lost in the weeds somewhere. We get attracted by the right shiny objects, yes, yeah, and the simplicity of it is the key. If it's too complicated, we won't do it Right, it just has to be really easy. It doesn't have to be hard, and I think that's a lot of the attraction that people find to the 10 words is like, oh, this is almost effortless. I'm like, well, it takes a little bit of effort, but not a lot, right, not a lot you don't have. We've, culturally, we've been in this place where it's like we have to be working really, really, really hard at this. Oh, I mean and there's no perfection you might have a moment, right, where are you? It's like, okay, I've got all of them and that'll last for a moment until the next thing happens and you go oh no, I have to accept this Right Way out of balance or any of those. But they're all simple things that you can do every day.
Speaker 2Well, we always want to kind of reach some sort of imagined nirvana, right, right, that's that spiritual athleticism that you're talking about. We think we have to jump around like some sort of I don't know gymnast and in the Olympics and somehow that means we've arrived. But it doesn't have to be that difficult or that challenging.
Speaker 1No, it doesn't. I'm not promising you enlightenment or nirvana here. I mean you can get there.
Speaker 1I mean that would be nice, yeah, but I think we've gotten really fixated in Western spirituality at this point on, like this, having to get to this pinnacle, right, and it's a journey, and you may or may not get there. And is that really the whole point? Because my understanding and my experience tell me that, no, that's just the beginning. Right, you get to that place where you see everything really clearly, which is what enlightenment is turning the light on in the dark. Oh, now, I see. Now, what? Now, what do you do? It's not like you just sit there and go, we're all blissed out. That's a false idea and I don't know where we get it from. I mean, I do know where we get it from, but chasing it is a dead end, and I think it's why a lot of people kind of give up at a certain point. They just give up on it's too much, it's too much work.
Speaker 2Right. I mean and that kind of gets to what one of my questions was is so many people live really hyper busy lives, right? So how do we find time for personal growth? But from what I hear you saying is it just doesn't have to be rocket science, it doesn't have to be. You know, I'm going to sit down for an hour in the morning and study my 10 words or two, some sort of check the box thing. It's just something that maybe we spend some time contemplating at some point during the day or at different points during the day. Does it have to be any particular way of doing this practice? It does in different ways Exactly.
Speaker 1There's some suggested practices. They're just suggestions. There's some suggested reflection questions. Yeah, you could journal on it if you want, or take a dedicated amount of time to be like okay, I'm going to reflect on this, but the reality is, because these words are going to show up every day, show me a day where the word attention is not going to show up, right. And so that question is like okay, where's my attention right now? Yeah, where's my attention? Come back Right. Yeah, where's my attention? Come back Right. Show me a time in any day where the word care is not going to show up.
Speaker 1Or creativity it's not just about making art. Everything we do is creative. Right, they're all going to show up, so it's not like you have to go digging for it. You just have to keep it sort of in your consciousness, in your awareness, put it on a sticky note on your computer. Yeah, it doesn't really. I mean, you're going to get out of it what you put into it always, but even if you don't put a whole lot in, you're still going to get something out of it, I promise Right.
Speaker 2I mean, it does seem to come down to having some sort of simple I don't know if it's really a mindfulness practice but an awareness of these principles. What about self-compassion? What role might self-compassion play in these 10 words and these 10 principles?
Speaker 1Well, it's, it's built in. It's built into a lot of them, in the sense that when you turn your attention, basic mindfulness is turning your attention and being able to go. Okay, this too, this is here attention, self-compassion, like we don't have to be perfect, we read and we're never going to be. We're humans, we're never going to be, and just being able to accept ourselves. Authenticity is a practice. And self-compassion this is my nature, this is who I am being okay with not wearing, having to wear a mask, you know, pretending to be somebody else. And they're built in care. We have care for others, but we also have self-care, and I'm not talking about bubble baths, I'm talking about true care for the self. That's self-compassion, right? So they're built into it.
Speaker 1And you know, people ask about words that come up like why isn't surrender there? I'm like it's in there. Why isn't compassion there? Why isn't love? There'm like it's in there. Why isn't compassion there? Why isn't love there? I said because love is the cumulative effect of all of these. Sure, that's what we call love, right? So the words, a lot of these things are actually built into these principles and once you start to explore the principle, you go oh, there, it is right there. It is there right, and so each of these are.
Speaker 1It's not just I have to accept everybody else. It's also self-backed, right. It's back to self, always Remember self-sacred other, and they're connected. So there's it's both inner and outer. It's who we can be and how we can behave. It's a completely holistic. I mean, they just blew me away Once I started working with them.
Speaker 1I was like Whoa that, because they're so holistic and that's what we don't have. We really don't have and I think we need. We want is something that it's all connected. This is body, mind and spirit. There are a lot of traditions, zen in particular. I can think of having spent 15 years sitting on a cushion. Is so not body centered, right, it's not embodied at all. It's all up here, it's all in the mind, yeah, but we need now to be. It needs to be body, mind and spirit, right. It needs to be deeply, deeply integrated, and these 10 words are, these principles are deeply integrated. Yeah, I mean, we talk about balance in the mind. We can talk balance spiritually. We can talk balance in the body, yeah, yeah, balance in our relationship to our environment, to other people who are work.
Speaker 2Yeah, what do you think has been? I mean, your book's been out for a little bit, so what's been the most meaningful feedback that you've you've gotten on these practices and your work?
Rediscovering the Wow Factor
Speaker 1Well, exactly that how practical it is, how simple it is. We're used to. People are used to spirituality being complex or you've got to go learn some foreign language. All these exotic rituals and like putting on a costume of spirituality instead of allowing it to arise organically, and I think that's what people one of the best feedbacks I got was actually from a mentor of mine who said this is a simple book and all the more dangerous for it. I love that.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 1Yeah, that it is simple, and people are just. They're expecting it to be complicated, because that's where we are now. You know we adding more layers and more practices and more of this. Well, now you know you got to do this. Now you got to do that Instead of no, it's really a process of reduction more than adding.
Speaker 1You're not adding anything. You're just taking away the obstacles to being the best person. You already know you can be. You already know this. That's the thing it's like. We already know we know how to collaborate. We learned that in kindergarten or even before. Yeah Right, we learned how to share our toys and we just forget. So it's taking away all that stuff. It helps us cut down to what matters. That's the kind of feedback I've been getting from people and how transformative it is that they really have found things shifting really quickly, really quickly, just by working on the words. And some people take a longer period with each word. Some people take a week with each word, and you know that's a good quick go through for a week. You've got them in your head. You can always go back. Right, I suggest people go in order the first time, but just so that you see how they're all connected and they're all interrelated. But once you've done that, then they just become your guideposts, right, right.
Speaker 2Yeah, I love that idea of we already know this stuff and we were born with it. Tara Brock, I think, talks about I can't remember exactly the name of the her book, but she talks about it as the gold within and we just and I always I love that metaphor of the gold within and you know, we plaster all this stuff on ourselves day after day, or the media does, and our well meaning teachers and parents and friends, you know, we plaster all this stuff and it's it's like that old story of the gold Buddha, buddha who was buried in plaster because they were terrified that they were going to come and steal it and then they found it hundreds of years later and when they were digging it up, they're like, wait a minute, there's this gold Buddha underneath and that's who we are, right, right.
Speaker 1We just forgot, exactly, we just forget. I think that's a spiritual practice of coming back to that goal, the coming back to who we are, the divinity within, the divinity within us, and once we see that, then we see it everywhere. Right, yeah, and also the idea of how we've really, in our efforts to kind of be rational, be rational about everything, we've lost the mystery. We've lost the mystery of it. And I feel like these 10 words there's, they bring you back to the mystery in a way that other, not by telling you what the mystery is, but giving you opportunities to discover it for yourself. I mean, I'll take the word creativity right, the universe is, by definition, creative. It's constantly creating, constantly, constantly, constantly. And if that doesn't, if you don't take a moment in with attention, turn towards the creativity of the universe, and if that doesn't make you go whoa, wow, how does that happen? I have no idea.
Speaker 2Right, I mean, all anyone needs to do is maybe look at some of those photographs from the Hubble spacecraft and or it's like holy crap, right, it is unbelievable what the universe creates.
Speaker 1Unbelievable, and just to allow ourselves to be in that, to sit in that. I call it the wow factor of just being able to be like wow, right, and that's the all Right. That's the wonder, that's the mystery and that's the all Right. That's the wonder, that's the mystery and that's at the heart of spirituality.
Speaker 2And we don't spend enough time in that sense of awe and that sense of wonder, and we won't. We don't even need to do it that much. I had a guest on a couple of years ago, michael Amster, and he and his colleague Jake Eagle wrote a book called the Power of Awe and they studied that and others have studied it as well, and I'm sure you've looked at that as well and you know, just even just taking a couple of moments out of your day to even look at the most mundane thing with some sort of curiosity about how it got to be the way that it is, can give us that sense of awe.
Speaker 1Or not even the curiosity about how it got to be that way, just the fact that it exists.
Speaker 2Right.
Speaker 1Right, whoa Sunflowers, crazy, right. I don't need to know how they happened, I don't need all the biology, I just need to go wow, these are so beautiful. Yeah, and it's my practice every day. It's what I do every morning is I go outside, I don't care what the weather is, and I go outside and I just look around and I go, wow, this exists, I exist, I'm here, bonus day Wow.
Speaker 2Yeah, it's pretty amazing if we can even spend 10 seconds a day. I mean, I would challenge anyone to spend 10 seconds a day. 30 seconds a day even longer, of course, would be great, but 10 seconds a day in that space would make a difference.
Speaker 1I have a. I'm also a hospice chaplain and I have a 104 year old patient who is just my heart, and one of the reasons is because everything's wow for her. Still, every time I go to visit her, I'm like, okay, where's my wow going to be? And sometimes it's bacon, flowers, birds. Yesterday when I went to see her, it was her realizing that she's going to be 105 in a month. Wow, right, see. And she just went, wow. I'm like, yeah, there's my wow. And I would venture to say that that's why she's 104 and going to be 105. Yeah, all the teachings tell us you know, we had this when we were children, we sure did. And all of the teachings, all across, all the traditions, will tell you that the sage or the wise person, or the enlightened person is one who sees the world as a child. In that wow, in that mystery, in that awe. Yeah, Amazing.
Speaker 2Well, as we're sort of rounding this down a little bit much, as I don't want to, but we'll need to Anything that you wanted to discuss but we didn't get a chance to no-transcript.
Speaker 1We don't have to reinvent the wheel. We've been taught how to do this across traditions for thousands of years, and the scientists are just confirming it.
Speaker 2They're just going oh yeah, this is true.
Speaker 1It's coming back, coming back to those things, those principles that we know work when we do them, and when we do them, we do become better people in a better world. And that's what I would hope for that's why the book exists is let's do what we can to build a better world for all of us, so that we can all thrive. All of creation, not just us humans, everyone, everyone, everything, all of it.
Speaker 2Thank you Well, remind us the name of your book, where people can find it and where people can find more about Amazon, your local bookstore, all over, all the good places.
Speaker 1All the good places, especially your local bookstore. I also you can check out Facebook, instagram, lauren Axelrod, or my website, which is laurenaxelrodcom. That's L-A-U-R-Y-N-A-X-E-L-R-O-Dcom, and there's information there about upcoming teachings, recordings, other writings, things like that. Retreats will be notified there as well, so join the mailing list. Then there's also the Substack Radical Spirituality, getting to the Root of what Matters. So if you read Substacks, check it out. Most of the content on there is free. I really want people to find their way, find their spiritual center, because I really do think it's our way out. It's our way through. So, yeah, I look forward to seeing some of you there.
Speaker 2Thank you so much, lauren. It's been Thank you again, lauren, really appreciate having you on and look forward to hopefully having you again on soon.
Speaker 1Thank you so much, melissa. This is great, and yeah, let's do it again, all right, thank you.
Speaker 2Thank you for joining me on the Fully Mindful Podcast. If you got value from this episode, I'd love for you to subscribe, leave a review or share this episode with someone who loved this content too. Remember, small moments of mindfulness can lead to big changes in your day-to-day life. Until next time, take a deep breath, stay present and tap into your own mindfulness. I'll see you next time.