If you felt lonely, isolated, disconnected, with an empty feeling inside and just yearning for more, knowing something is missing, then this podcast is for you. So here's your host, Joe Mittigan.
SPEAKER_02Hello, and welcome to We. Have you ever wondered why you still feel stuck? Maybe you've worked harder than everyone else. You've tried to do the right things. You've chased success, security, certainty, even happiness. Yet something inside still feels restless. For years, I believed that if I could just control life a little better, work a little harder, or figure everything out, I would finally find peace. But the truth is the harder I tried to hold on, the more exhausted I became. What I didn't understand was my soul wasn't asking me to try harder. It was asking me to surrender. Now, surrender is one of the most misunderstood words in our culture. We hear it and we think defeat, weakness, giving up. We imagine losing control or settling for less. But what if, what if surrender isn't the end of your life? What if it's the beginning of the life you were created to live? Today I want to talk about a different kind of abundance. Not the abundance the world sells us, not more money, not more status, not more followers, not more achievements. I'm talking about an abundance that begins within, an abundance of peace when life is uncertain, an abundance of love that doesn't depend on someone else's approval, an abundance of purpose that isn't determined by your job title, an abundance of freedom that no circumstance can take away, an abundance of gratitude that exists even in difficult seasons. I believe this abundance has always been available to us. The problem isn't that God is withholding it, the problem is that our fear convinces us we have to earn it, control it, or chase it. And fear keeps us holding so tightly to the life we planned that we miss the life waiting to unfold. Real surrender isn't about giving up, it's letting go of the illusion that control will save us. It's trusting that the one who created us knows the person we were meant to become. When we surrender, we don't become less ourselves, we become fully ourselves. We stop living by the world's definition of success, and we begin living from a quiet confidence that comes from knowing who we are and why we're here. That's the journey we're taking together today. Because I don't believe you're stuck, I believe your soul is inviting you to surrender. And on the other side of that surrender is a life of deep peace, authentic purpose, genuine freedom, and an inner abundance that no one and nothing can ever take away. My name's Joe Mittigga, and to everyone around the world, welcome to We. It's really great to be here tonight, and I so appreciate everybody. You know, my heart is really, really full today. Like I share all the time, I want to be as open, as intimate as I can be. And today I'm just in one of those places. I feel like I'm on top of the world. It's just been a great day and a great week. And you know, the We podcast is exploding around the globe. And I want to welcome people literally in 16 countries. And, you know, there's so many different countries now. I hate to put out the list, but you know, I have to just be really clear on how grateful I am. I really am. And for people in Canada and Norway, Sweden, Australia, Japan, India, Germany, and many more, thank you. Thank you for being here and thank you for supporting the We movement. And, you know, we live in a time where the world is changing so fast, and humanity's changing so fast, and the craziness in our world is changing so fast that I hope that the We podcast can just give you a little bit of a break from the delusion that we look at every day. The We podcast is really designed to just help you slow down and to help you hear a voice that is really going to have a different perspective than the society around you. Today is our 39th episode, and I am really, really happy to say that the Voices of We episode, which is now today, was the second launch of that series, and it's about surrender, more from a personal position. And I'm just really thrilled on how well the different episodes are going and how it's connecting with people. And, you know, I believe that we live in a time where having a voice, having a perspective, having a position that you can listen to that's gonna kind of resonate deeper than normal audience, uh normal podcast or normal influencers, or especially the external news, that's what we're creating here. And I can tell you, you know, I've had some pretty powerful experiences along the way. And these past couple of weeks, I've had some just amazing, powerful spiritual experiences, which I'm gonna share a couple of those throughout this particular podcast today. And again, welcome. I'm just really, really glad you're here. The reason I chose this particular topic, the concept of feeling stuck, is because I really understand that experience, the internal, I can't move forward in life, and nothing seems to work for me in life, and I can't seem to change things in life. And why does my life always seem so hectic and so crazy and so harmful and so hurtful or so poor or so whatever, right? That feeling, like no matter what you do, you can't seem to get out of the external life you're in. And quite honestly, the reason that you feel stuck, bottom line, is because the place in which you're pursuing the unstuck, which is your outside world, that's not where the experience is coming from. And today I'm gonna break it down, like I always do, from a mental position, an emotional position, and a spiritual position of what it means to truly be stuck, but more importantly, what it means to truly surrender. And I have to start with the very first position, the single largest confusion that people have, that humanity has, is the delusion, the made up illusion that surrender is an action step. It's not. Surrender is not an adjective, it's not. Surrender is a state of being. I think that would be considered a noun. It's not an action step. Surrender is not you taking action. Surrender as a concept happens as a consequence of you taking actions. That's why it's always so fleeting. That's why it's always so just out of reach. That's why so many people can never actually accomplish the it, because they're trying to do what people in the external world say. Your preacher says, let go and let God. The AA folks would say, let God lead your life. And I can remember the different times I would hear that. You know, for those of you that are new, welcome. You know, I like to share my story a little bit. Then I say, AA, I am a recovering alcoholic and pot smoker of 30 plus years now. And back in the day, that let go and let God, it took everything I could do to just not freaking stand up in the middle of really nice people and just start cussing. Because that was the stupidest thing I'd ever heard. A, I didn't like God. B, God wasn't on my side. And if God loved me so much, why the hell was my life so miserable? That's what I believed. So when I heard let go and let God, which is the phrase of surrender, a belief system, that is sounding as though, literally, you have to do it. Let go and let God. And I remember thinking, yeah, no kidding, Dick Tracy. If I could have done that, I wouldn't be in here. That's for sure. Over time, I learned really what it was, and I'm gonna explain it in more details today, of truly what it means, and not just what it means, but how do you do it? Like literally. So, okay, Joe, surrender is not an action step. It's the consequence of taking action steps. What action steps? That's what I'm going to explain today, step by step, what action steps I took to shift from where I used to live completely dark, completely miserable, completely alone, completely broke to today having a global podcast. And I always say the global podcast thing. Why do I take credit for it? No, absolutely zero. That's why it is very, very important to me and why I am so blessed that I was inspired to create this concept called the voices of we. Why? Because I never want the we podcast and people listening to get confused as if the man has anything to do with it. The man in the microphone, I'm the vehicle, yes, for now. Eventually, there's going to be a lot of voices here. And what you're going to find is the message is the same, the method of communication is different. And that's why the voices of we are so important to me. And because I don't want any confusion. I know for an absolute certainty, a man in a microphone could not do what the Wii Podcast has accomplished in today's society and the technology and the way it is, if it was me as the human being doing it. It's statistically impossible. Literally, right now, right before I got on this episode, the Wii Podcast was ranked 177 in the globe. Four million podcasts, 177. And why do I always say that? Because I want you to hear me. It's not the man, it's the message. And what's the message? The message is a spiritual message that channels through me, not from me, through me. And I will say I am very practiced at that. I am. And that's why I can explain things as well as I can. And how do I know it's working? Because the we podcast just keeps expanding. We keep hitting top 10 charts around the globe in different countries, and it's happening because humanity is waking up. The we, higher self, human self, inner self, that whole concept. I'm going to explain here in a minute where that came from, how it happened and where it came from. But it doesn't matter where you live, it doesn't matter what country you live in, it doesn't matter what language you speak, it doesn't matter the color of your skin. It doesn't matter if you're in North America, South America, or Antarctica, Asia or Europe. Humanity is humanity. And all of us are waking up. We're waking up to a grander sense of self. We're waking up to the feminine side of ourselves. I use the example all the time to kind of put it in perspective: the human transformation of consciousness. 200 years ago, around the globe, the concept of owning a human relatively normal. That's just 200 years ago. So why was that? Because the consciousness of the day thought it was okay. Today, of course, society sees it as an atrocity of our civilization. Well, fast forward to where we are now, we are waking up to a grander sense of ourselves. We are. And to do it, that spiritual essence, we have to move into the feminine side of self. And that's not a gender-specific event. It's not man or woman. The feminine side of us is the side of self, is the aspect of self that is connected to the emotional sides and the spiritual sides. And that part is where you find the communion with a power greater than yourself. That literal essence called oneness happens in your heart, the emotion. I use the example all the time. If you had one word to call your higher power, and you know, I say it all the time, I don't care if you call it God or Jesus or Buddha or Great Spirit, or I'm not here to tell you what to call your divine essence. I want to honor all people. I was literally just this past week in a family's home that were deep, faithful Christians. Jesus is their higher power. You could feel the love in the room. Now, do I have the same belief? No, not in detail, not in adjective. But do I have the same belief that there's a power greater than Joe guiding me? Yes. I call it different, but that's why I say when someone says, Well, Joe, what religion are you? I say all of them. Why? Because all modern-day religions are based on two things: monolithic God and love. One God and love. So here's a room full of people that are deeply Christian belief. They believe in Jesus, they love Jesus, and their love was palatable in the room. And I love that. I think it's fantastic. These are wonderful people. I call them friend. And it's one of those things to wear. And with the We podcast, so often I say I want to honor the 67% of you out there that are moving beyond the traditional religious perspective, beyond that perspective that was the primary belief system of the whole God concept for millennia, was all based in the church for centuries. Well, now people are waking up. They're waking up to a different thing. And that's why it's not a bad thing in any way, shape, or form. But that's why so very often you, depending on the environment you're currently living in, and if you're a regular here at the We Podcast and you've listened to more than one or two of my episodes, you are an absolute spiritual warrior. You are. And I know people are doing it because I only have 38 episodes, and literally every episode in the Wii Podcast library has people listening to it every day. That's extremely unique. And why is that? Because the Wii library is really a resource on different topics because everybody's at a different place emotionally and spiritually. Some people are in such deep, dark pain they can't breathe. I'm helping a good friend now, bless her heart. She is embracing some of the deepest, darkest pains that were the source of her codependence for 50 years. And she's doing it, she's making it. Now, for the rest of your you're in great places. You know, you're looking for spiritual growth, you're looking for spiritual awakening, you're trying to reinvent your life, you're in a happy place, you're in a great place, and you're more in the question of what's next. Well, on these podcasts, I want to talk about the what's next too, because I'm a living literal example of living the what's next. And society around you is going to have all sorts of belief systems against that concept. Good or bad? No, it's just where the masses live. And if you're here, you're not one of the masses. You're not. You're just not aren't. And that's why my title, like today, is your soul, your higher sense, the depth of you is trying to learn how to surrender instead of following the world's rules. And I'm gonna talk about that world's rules concept. Is that a bad thing? No, it worked forever, it created the civilization we have, and we're expanding beyond it. We just are. Some of the world's the rules of the world, right? Say things like, go get a good job because that's gonna create abundance. Make sure everyone else is happy, because that's what good boys and little girls do. Don't think of yourself first. That's called selfish. Follow society's rules and certainly don't question authority, because how dare you have your thought of your own? Don't question religious beliefs because you're gonna burn in hell, you bad little boy. Force your will onto people. Hey, you know what? Dog eat dog, whoever's the strongest wins. Fight to the top, because you know, it's always the lead dog always has the clearest view. Make more money because there's the answer. Just have more money. No, wait, forget the money. Let's just be successful. And you know, the I don't even know why I mentioned all the rest of them, because absolutely today, the 100% societal success is how many followers do you have, and how many thumbs up, or whatever the heck the thing is on different social media? Now think about that. Where is the source of all of that? Where is the source of the okayness and all of that? It's from the outside in. And people wonder why it can never be achieved. Why? Because you're not in control of the outside in. But the world, society as a concept, says that's where your okayness is, that's where your abundance is, that's where you have to strive to accomplish. And then, of course, there are some people out there that do it and they look happy as a punch. And I get it. Trust me, more money versus less money, you can definitely buy happiness. You can't buy love, you can't buy peace, you can't buy purpose, you can't buy okayness. But I promise you, it is easier when you have more money versus not. I am a living example. For those of you that don't know, listen to my one of my original podcasts, Modern Day Monk, Seven Years of Darkness. I literally, after being struck sober on February the 20th, 1994, literally struck sober. God, if I'm not supposed to drink and drug, need your help, rush of energy, tear out of the eye. Listen to that podcast. I explained that in a lot of my earlier podcasts. I explained that experience. And I walked out, I was a daily drinker and drugger for from 15 to 31. And so, in that position, right, I literally moved out into the world and I started to live. And I just knew that if I could just build have more money or have more success or do better things or whatever, that I would be better. I just really believed I could. And it never worked. The outside world is not the source of your inside world. And the whole concept of make more money, I really believed it. And then it wouldn't matter how much money I made, it was never enough because I always needed to make more. And that's a concept we're going to talk about today, get to the source of that. And then, you know, we live in a world now, like literally right now, where some of the most influential influencers out there are saying things like, you can control your mind, just change your mind with affirmations. I don't you have control of your reactions to experiences. And I'm thinking, no, you don't. And none of that's true. It's simply falsehoods. And how do I know it's falsehoods? Because we are all wise, smart, connected, intelligent people. And if it was that easy, you would all do it. It would already be accomplished. There would never be a reason or a need to go back to any influencers' pages that say control your mind. Because I'm sure I can't listen to it more than 25 seconds myself. The hair on the back of my neck. Raises because it's not true. And it's not true because the source of the voice in your head is not in your head. That's like trying to heal the wound by yelling at the band-aid. The wound isn't the band-aid, and the voices aren't the wound. And I mean no harm, and I mean no judgment. And it's all part of society, it's all part of the world. And the new thought movement started 40 years ago, and it was a heck of a lot better than what the world looked or had before. But that isn't the source, and that's not where peace comes from. And you know, I hear different things about meditation. Joe, are you against meditation? Of course, I'm not against meditation. No, meditation has its place, it has its purpose, it can calm you in the moment, it can help bring peace in the moment, it can relieve some stress in the moment. My message isn't in shaming or blaming meditation. No, I'm not at all. It has its purpose, it doesn't heal anything, zero things, nada, but that's okay. Is it still a good thing? Yes, why? Because it can help you calm down, and that's a good thing to be calm. And why do I get so passionate about that? Because the world out there is constantly bombarding people that are trying to wake up with old techniques that are old belief systems that have been around for 40 years and they didn't work 40 years ago and they don't work now in the healing, in the living of the peace, in the communing with your oneness. How do I know? Because if there was one word to describe a power greater than yourself, what would you call the word? What would be the one word? Would you say, My power greater than myself is my mind? No, of course you wouldn't. Everybody, if you thought about it in any time frame, would say love. The adjective to describe all that is divinity, great spirit, Jesus, God, Holy Spirit, Buddha, Christ consciousness. If there was one word to encapsulate all of those magnificent experiential beliefs of a grander power, it would be love. Love is not in your head, folks. Love is in your heart. So what are we trying to literally do with the surrender concept? What is surrender? All surrender is moving from one style of guidance to the other. Nothing more, nothing less. That's all it is. Moving from one style of guidance system to the other. It has nothing to do with the outside world. Nothing. Why? Because the only reason you're taking action steps in your external world that you can't stop is because your internal belief systems keep guiding you to take those external actions. And again, that's why people feel stuck because they see a behavior. I always bring up Frosted Flakes. Now, Tony the Tiger and Joe, he was my best friend for years. When I was in my late teens and twenties, a Budweiser beer and Frosted Flakes, are you kidding? What kind of better breakfast of champions would there have been for a decade? So now is Frosted Flakes good for Joe? No. Why? Anything wrong with it? No, it's sugar. But sugar's not good for Joe. I gave up beer through a spiritual experience. I didn't have a spiritual experience for Frosted Flakes. I wish I could have. I needed one. So why did I keep eating Frosted Flakes well into my 30s? I can't have a fricking box of it in my home now. My boys, I say when I'm at the grocery store, okay, guys, I'm getting frosted flakes. I know you want them. They both laugh at me. They persecute me. They do. Why? Because I buy them, I eat them. So I just don't buy it. Why? Because it's it's here. It's hard for me once I had the first bull not to eat the second, not to eat the third, not to eat the fourth. Why? Because don't eat the tiger and frosted flakes is so bad? No, it's because the belief systems in Joe's head, the addictions in Joe's head, the compulsions, the cravings inside of me. So what do I do? Years ago, I changed the guidance system that I had prior to going to the grocery store. And I made sure for a fact I wrote down, do not buy frosted flakes. Different guidance system before I ever went into the store. Why? Because if I didn't, I'd pick it up. By the time I got home, it was gone. I'd eat it. So surrender, folks, isn't about changing the external behavior. That's the consequence. Surrender is about changing the internal voices you hear, the internal voices that are guiding you. And that's what we're going to talk about here today. How to do that, how to literally do that. Surrender and the concept, you know, and I'm going to talk about there's seven stages of surrender. I'm going to talk about that at length towards the end. And it's really one of those experiences. Everybody kind of falls in one of these experiences truly until it's your time to ascend, truly. Because why we're really born, quite honestly, is to live the human experience. You're not a human having a spiritual experience, folks. You are a spirit having a human experience. Hear me. You are a spirit having a human experience. How do I know? Created in God's image. Not your physical, your spiritual. Now, do we know it? Some people do. I do. I've known for a long time. I had my first conscious thought. I was 27 years old. Most people haven't had their first conscious thought yet. Look around the room. Look in your own family. Look at Thanksgiving dinner. You can see, you know, Grandpa Smith and Johnny Jones over here and Susie. They haven't had a conscious thought their entire life. Does that make them wrong? No, just makes them on a different path than you. And some people have, some people haven't. Most haven't. How do you know? Look at them. Look at the patterns. They repeat things over and over and over and have no clue. They just don't know that they just don't know. Is that bad? No. It's just where they are. Well, when you start hearing your own thoughts, going from not knowing you can hear your own thoughts to hearing your own thoughts, that's the first place to surrender. The first spot of changing awareness. And that's really what surrender is. Surrender is not this magical, all-encompassing one particular action step and everything's fixed. No, that isn't what it is. It's not. It's a step-by-step unfolding through the enlightenment process. That's why we're enlightened beings, but we're all in the awakening process now. Were there people 2,000 years ago, one guy in particular that came in awake and left awake? Yeah, I believe it. They started time around the man, his name's Jesus. Other than that, haven't seen one yet. You find one, you let me know. Especially if you see one walking around the city now. I'd like to have him on the show. But for the rest of us, it's an enlightening process. We're waking up. And the waking up process, every time you wake up to a new awareness in your today that you didn't have in your yesterday, that's a surrender. That's a type of surrender. And then when you live the new awareness, whatever that new awareness is, when you let the new awareness start making your choices on a Tuesday morning, that's how your external world changes. When I knew that I had to stop drinking, literally, I didn't know how to live without going to the bars six nights a week. I shot pool five and six nights a week for years or worked out and got stoned for years, most of my 20s. I worked hard in the sun, I'd justify it, blah, blah, blah. So when I had my spiritual experience way back when, I didn't know how to make decisions. And I didn't have any, I didn't have the Wii podcast to listen to, but I didn't have anybody to tell me how to start doing it differently. So what I would do is I would get to a stoplight in the car, my car. Never had any money. For those of you that don't know, I lived on $250 a month, $3,000 a year for seven years. Listen to that podcast, truly. So I'd get to a stoplight, and I remember thinking, well, I used to always turn left, so I'll turn right. We'll just see what that happens. And then, you know, I got into other types of guides, like different, just quirky little things, because I didn't know how. Well, most of you are not in that place. Most of you are already living a pretty decent life. And yeah, you know, you've got some challenges, and yeah, you've got some things you need to change. Well, the way you change it is you have to identify the voices in your head that are the glass empty voices, the voices that are causing you to take external action that you're trying to change. And when you start hearing the voices in your head, like for me, the buying of frosted flakes, or years ago, the buying of beer, or years ago, the whatever it was, work 100 hours a week or work out more, whatever my addictive voices were saying. I literally had to write those voices down because there was no way for me to change my behaviors or my external actions if the same set of voices are doing the guiding, literally. And that's why when I hear this whole concept, you can control your mind. I'm like, then what happens? Well, as soon as you stop the controlling process, the exact set of same set of voices come right back in. And the exact same set of voices guide your life continually. How do I know? Because if they didn't, we'd all be walking on water, everybody'd be great, and we would just be moving on. So the first process, the first way you do it is that you have to understand the way you control your mind, the way you truly have the ability to change your thoughts. You do have the ability to change your thoughts, but not by focusing on the thought, but by remembering why it's there, realizing that every glass empty belief system you have is because there's a hurt inside of you, a deep, dark, pain type hurt that we're going to talk about here in a minute. So every glass empty voice, every voice that you would want to change in your head, the reason you can't change it is because there's an emotional hurt that's the source of that voice. How do you heal the emotional hurt? You give a voice to that part, you emote, you heal, the voice goes away. And basically, that whole concept, right? That whole idea, that whole shifting from a glass empty guide to a glass full guide, that is a massive surrender. Truly. Every time you make a different decision than your decision of your yesterday because you're changing today, that's the living of a type of surrender. I can tell you that when I first heard this, right? When I first heard the idea, and my counselor Nancy said, you know, Joe, all of those critical voices that you're projecting onto everybody, you know, you're so critical of your dad and your girlfriend and everybody around you. You're Mr. Frickin' Wonderful, and everybody else is wrong and dumb and stupid and fat and ugly, whatever I would call them, right? She said, You know, Joe, you have one finger pointing out, three fingers pointing back. For every voice you hear criticizing somebody else, there's a wound in you that's the source of it. I remember thinking, oh, that can't be good. That just can't be good because I had a bunch of voices. I really, really did. And the whole process for me of starting to identify the starting place of living the surrender, living the awakening, living the spiritual growth, it all starts with identifying the glass empty voices. Now, you live in a world that is going to tell you the exact opposite. You live in a world that says you can control your mind. You live in a world that says ignore those voices. You live in a world that says change those voices. You live in an entire global world of influence and people around you that are probably saying the opposite of what I'm saying here. Well, how's that been working for you? It's not because you're here. And it's not for a lot of people. Because for the Wii podcast to be ranked 177th on the globe, that just tells me there's a lot of us out there searching for the next experience. The meditation and the positive affirmation and the calm your mind, the new thought movement was an era that worked wonderfully for 40 years. And folks, we're at a different place. We really are. We're at a different space for those of us here. So the way you start it, and I just say the difference between glass empty voices, glass full voices. And the glass empty voices are any voice that is an absolute, that's a critical voice, that's a shaming voice, that's a blaming voice. And I'm going to continue to remind everybody visit my website, joemitica.com, and it's the middle of July. The website will be live soon. I've been saying that now for the last couple of weeks because these are evergreen types of episodes. So visit joemittica.com and download my book. The first book is called Filling the Void. I talk about how I walk this path. I talk about it's my story, but I talk about how the beginning steps and the beginning stages of identification of the glass empty voice. How can you change an external behavior if you don't know the source in you that's causing you to make the external behavior? You try to change the behavior, but you're not changing the source. Well, I'm telling you how to change the source, and that's become aware of the voices. And as you write those voices down, and then you tell somebody else, it's in the humility of telling somebody else where true growth happens. It's in that humility, it's facing the fear of the shame you have and the guilt you have and the uncomfortable you have about sharing your secrets, quite honestly. Because the voices that are going to come out, they're not nice. They're ugly, they're hateful, they're shameful, they're just not nice. And that's why in my books, I have a whole section, my second book called Why We Feel Alone, I have a whole section on how you choose the person you tell. But start by writing the voices down and just identify how many of them you have. And what you're going to find, what you're going to see is that when you really see how many voices you truly have, then on a Tuesday morning, you'll become more aware of a voice that's causing you to do harmful things to yourself versus possibility, the possibility of making a different choice. And we're we move from powerlessness to autonomy when there's two choices at any fee in the road, at any moment in the road, when there's two choices. Most of us live completely unconscious to our glass empty voices. We just do. We don't even know that we don't even know. And we feel stuck because we're trying to change our life. But the definition of change life is change external instead of internal. And that process, starting from the inside out, you will naturally, effortlessly, eventually start making different choices in your external world. From the emotional state of surrender. Well, again, we always go back to how do we identify it? Like, what is emotional surrender? Well, the world says you just have to forgive, you just have to get over that past. You know, that happened to you 40 years ago. You just have to tell that little kid in you, you're okay, you're okay. That was one of the first reels. I learned what reels were, I don't know, four or five months ago. The very first reel I saw was a very famous show host and one of the original New Thought Movement people. And this New Thought Movement person was telling this toast, you just have to tell that little girl inside of your she's okay. I remember hearing that 25 years ago, the same show. I resaw it again on the post. The hair on the back of my neck still raises. That angers me so badly. It does. Why? Because it's abusive, it's neglectful, it's harmful, and it's simply not true. The little kid inside of you is a living essence of you, and it doesn't need to be told what to do, it needs to be given a voice so he can share with you its pain. And that's the key. When you really emotionally remember, when you move to the spot consciously, you wake up to the understanding that all glass-empty voices and all glass-empty behaviors and all glass-empty things you do in your world that you want to change, the reason you can't change them is because the voices in your head that are telling you what to do, and all the voices in your head, the glass-empty voices in your head, have an emotional source. So when you think about, instead of trying to let go, you have to think about it and ask yourself, why are you holding on in the first place? When you can shift perspectives from, I have to learn to let go, I have to learn to surrender. No, you don't. You have to become aware of why you are holding on in the first place. And the why you're holding on in the first place, because holding on is not our natural state of being. It's not. Look at a child, look at a baby, look at a newborn. There's nothing about an infant or a young child that has a holding on presence. Nothing consciously. They're complete spirit and they're in complete allowance. We learn the holding on process because we're not emotionally supported. Some of us are in hurtful environments, blah, blah, blah. There's unconsciousness causes it. So from an awakening position in the emotional surrender concept, the single largest surrender is the belief system that the way you surrender is it's an action step, moving from surrender as an action step to asking yourself the question, why am I holding on? And when you start asking yourself the question, why am I holding on? Why am I holding on? It's in that conscious shifting, you're bringing your awareness inside yourself versus outside yourself. If you look at an external behavior, a relationship that's not working, a job that's not fulfilling, behaviors that you're doing, alcohol or sports or whatever it is in your external world, and you keep saying to yourself, I have to change my gym, I have to change my location, I have to change my job, and then I'll feel better. And then you do it and nothing changes because your awareness to the okayness, the belief that you're going to find okayness by changing the outside is why you feel stuck. You're on a hamster wheel and it never solves anything. Because you go from job A to job B, job 1A to job 1B. And doing that, you take that same internal hurt with you. Well, when you shift from an external solution to an internal solution, that's Where you move from feeling stuck to understanding the spiritual growth needed that personally helped me live a prosperous life full of purpose. I'm going to talk about that more here in the next section, but the awareness that your answers are inside that's a big shift, especially emotionally, because you're going to see things in your external world and you're going to feel things inside yourself, and your brain is going to say you're feeling their pain. No, you're not. You're feeling your pain. It's in you. Now I'm not saying don't be empathetic to people. I'm not saying don't be compassionate to people. In fact, I'm saying definitely be empathetic and compassionate, which is impossible to do when somebody else's pain is triggering yours. So a big emotional surrender is whenever you're in an experience, anywhere, whatever's doing, and it's a massive internal explosion inside yourself, know that the answer's in you. Now, if it's deep, dark, and down there, get help. That's why people like Dr. Karn are so important. That's why eventually, when I have the voices of me, we set up, I'd be giving you four or five different places right now in episodes like this where you could go and get long-term support, people helping reinvent your life, people, podcasts that are doing emotional support, people that work one-on-one. So if your path is truly about healing the depths of yourself, which a lot of you it is, it's not done, it's not meant to be done alone. Healing is not meant to be done alone. That's where the we is human self, higher self, inner self, and community. That's where the community of the we comes into play. And I can tell you, when we just make that shift, when we stop blaming ourselves for every emotional experience that goes wrong, when we stop blaming everybody else for everything that goes on, moving from the belief that surrender is an action step to the belief that instead of focusing on action step of surrender, focusing on why am I holding on, ask that question and just listen. Listen, you'll hear the parts that are hurting. And from that place, we start moving into the internal solution, truly. And from that internal voice, we start choosing behaviors that are going to honor the voice that's hurting. For example, you go and you know, on Saturdays, you go and drink beer with your buddies every day at one o'clock because it's Saturday football. Okay, anything wrong with that? Not really. Not unless you're trying to change it and you can't, not unless it's just causing you and your partner angst and you can't stop. Well, you have to ask the voice. Why am I holding on to needing to go with my buddies? Why am I holding on? What's causing me to hold on? You'll hear it, you'll hear the voice, you will. And all of that is hurt. We're acting out our hurt somehow, somehow. So the big shift from in an emotional position from surrender is instead of believing surrender is an action step and trying to pursue the concept of surrender as the healing, we want to move from surrender as the healing to why are we holding on as the question. And when we really get into that position of why we're holding on, everything changes. I will tell you that for myself. I've been on a conscious path since my very first therapy session. I just found it just the other day, February the 16th, 1990. And what happened before that is my grandmother passed away. And I share this story in one of the podcasts that Wayne Dyer quotes Jesus. It's a really good story to hear. That's the episode I did literally right after my father passed on January the 3rd. That episode I did on January the 4th. So I will prepare you. If you don't want to hear a man cry, skip that one. But if you really want to hear vulnerability, like I preach here, emotions are okay. That was one of them where I have to say I was deeply emotional. I was deeply vulnerable. And I didn't want to do the podcast, but I'm glad I did. And that experience of my grandmother dying just catapulted me into a depth. She was the most special person that I had in my world back in the day. I was 26 when she passed in September of 1989. And what happened was eventually, January, February, I reached a place where I couldn't do it anymore. All I could say was, I need help. And I just reached that spot. That was my bottom. And the help I got was February the 16th, 1990. Started doing inner child work with a therapist named Marion. Now, for 30 some odd years, I've been on that path. For 30 years, I've been doing spiritual stuff and inner child stuff, seven years of darkness and 30 years of sobriety and writing books and all of that. And I have to tell you, it was fine. You know, I never thought about it, I never had come across another person that had been on kind of a path like mine. And this is one of the awakenings I've had here recently. And that's why I want to share it with everybody now. Because I'm going to talk about the close out, the last 15, 20 minutes of this episode. I'm going to talk about specifically the stages of surrender. Well, I'm talking to you now about the first stage of surrender, and it was the desperation. The first stage of surrender, where we move from surrender to strength, the very first stage for a lot of people is in the devastation of I just can't do it anymore. And it's literally forced on us. Now, that looks very different for a lot of different people. Some people, you've got more money than month, your kids are launched, your job's over, you know, you retired, you've got plenty of money, but the life you're living, something's missing, and you just can't keep doing what you're doing. That's a step of surrender. That's a place of desperation. Well, for mine, I was in deep dark misery. I really, really was. Well, as you keep moving through that process, I got help. And I had a therapist in a couple months in or a year in, whatever, I don't remember the details now, but I saw Mary in three and a half years. And that's what I get to tell people if you need help, get help. And if you're scared, I believe you. I was scared. You have to picture this big bad, 220 pound, working out all the time, owned my own business, entrepreneur, the boss at 12. My mommy had to take me, hear me. My mother paid for my therapy. She drove me there. Why? Because I was scared to death. I was terrified, but I knew I had to go. And she was willing to help. She was willing to support. She was strong, and she was not necessarily emotionally supportive, but she was always there, always. So if you're scared, I hear you. Go anyways. If you like too afraid to go by yourself, take somebody with you. Let somebody help you. Because you'd be amazed how many volunteers you'd have, whoever the you is I'm talking to here. Because if you're in the place I was, every human around you, you are causing pain to all day, every day, if you're relating to this part of my story. Now, for most of you, you're the ones that would volunteer to take people like me. My mother was the one who volunteered. And I share that because I want you to hear, just because you're afraid, that doesn't give you permission not to get help. Just because you're scared, I don't care. Go anyways. Just because you don't know what it is, I believe you. Go anyways. And I get to say it because I was terrified. I had no idea what that meant. Inner child, what? I didn't know. But what I found is I walked in there and within 25 seconds, I felt better. Why? Because there's people who are born to be therapists. They're born to be listeners. They're born. Their reason for living and breathing, they're born to love and support. Now I will tell you, that is not my passion. It's not. I get big, I get ugly, I cuss. A couple of people I support, I tell them all the time, you know, you can handle me. You can do anything in the world. It's not my role. That's why I'm having the voices of we. I've got a couple of women that when you hear them, these are empowered people. I mean deeply connected, emotionally connected to their spiritually connected to their hearts, but their style is just softer, gentler, power through softness. It's amazing. Well, I'm a softness guy. I'm working on the softness part. That's all I can say. Softness in me. If you look up me in the dictionary, you're not going to see necessarily softness. But that's okay. I own who I am. And if I step on people's boundaries, which I do sometimes, ask my oldest. I've stepped on him more than once. I've made amends to him more than once. My friend the other day, you know, on one of the podcasts, I'm talking about a wee community. And I said, Me and a thousand influencers could be on different sides of the room. And I, you know, what the hell? I got carried away and I made amends. I did. Well, if you're afraid and you need help, go. Why? Because the first stage of surrender for most is desperation, true desperation. Now, for a lot of people, the desperation isn't in the angst or the pain or the fear. It's in I don't know what to do. I simply don't know what the rest of my life is. I'm only 52 and I don't know now what. Again, you know, I'm going to have some supporters here at the We Podcast, the We Voices. That's their specialty, supporting people, reinventing your life. Why? Because as you do it, you're going to live prosper. You'll prosper more than you can possibly imagine. I can tell you, as things started happening for me, there was the second stage, is where we start becoming aware, like our awareness, we move from a place of the only thing we see, the only thing we feel is dark pain, confusion, misery, buried. We just don't know that we just don't know. And if you're in that place, get help truly. If you're drinking all the time, get help truly. If you're in that spot where the world is good, but you just don't know what the next decade or the next years are bringing. When you start getting support, because there's life coaches out there that focus on this, there really are, and eventually what happens? The pieces of the puzzle in your awareness, they just start coming together. So when you literally move, surrender isn't always from the glass empty to the removal. A lot of times, surrender is the opposite way, where you go from empty and you start surrendering into the grander you. Well, the first phase of that sense of the grander you, I call it when we become aware of the possibility, the maybe possibly if it might kind of think that it could, and maybe teeny weeny, believe that it could happen. That millimeter of hope is a massive, it's the biggest place of surrender you ever go from, from complete darkness of misery to the candle, one candle in the globe of dark. And that's the stage two. It's the single largest phase from dark to flicker, and it's in that flicker where we become aware that there's a possibility that there's something more. Now, are you hearing what I'm saying? I'm talking to you, Mr. Smith, who have a $35 million endowment, insurance paid for eternity, seven cars, a beautiful wife, and both your children just had children, and you've got a doctor and an attorney for kids, and your grandkids, you're watching them because they're elite baseball players. I'm talking to you, Mr. Smith. Why? Because, quite honestly, you're more lost in a lot of cases than the guy who's got nothing. Why? Because the world is saying to you, Mr. Smith, you should be fine. More money than month, people that love you, successful kids, successful business, successful career, but you're still empty. Why are you empty, Mr. Smith? It's not a bad thing. You're empty because you're moving from a place of your humanity guiding you to your divinity guiding you. You're moving from the position of your humanity in the we guiding your choices, which are based out of gratitude. You pursue life, you put your energy into life and you get it back in gratitude. You built a big career and you're grateful for it. You launched beautiful kids and you're grateful for it. Now you've got beautiful grandkids and you're grateful for it. Your humanity has run its course. And I swear to God, until four years ago, I literally believed with all of my heart that gratitude was the end spot. It's not, it's the launch, it's the beginning, it's the beginning space of grace and living in your divinity. Well, when you become aware that there is something more, and the more is you shifting from your humanity guiding you to your divinity guiding you. And when that happens, when that truly happens, and you start feeling it, you start experiencing it, you start really opening up that there's a different you guiding you, that's the second stage. That's the stage where we become aware that there's something more, and it's in that awareness, when we truly see that awareness, that everything starts to change. A different level of hope starts to change. And Mrs. Jones, I'm talking to you too. You've had a successful career, you've been a stay-at-home mom, you've been a part-time worker, you've launched your kids, or you're the breadwinner, you've had three corporate jobs, and now you're retired, and everything is going great in your world, but there's still a gap, there's still a hole. The world tells you that you should be okay, but you're not. And that's why the name of this podcast is your soul is learning to surrender instead of following the world's rules, because the world's rules would tell you, Mrs. Mr. Smith, buy that fourth car. Or Mrs. Jones, let's just go on the seventh trip. Or Mr. Jones, I'm just gonna divorce my wife and I'm gonna find a new young chickadee, and then I'll feel better. That's the world's solution, the external delusion. And it doesn't work, it doesn't fill anything. All it does is keeps your humanity in control. And literally, what happens in that spot, right? And there's more information that you start realizing that there's a different you, that it's time to live. And that different you, sometimes you're gonna see it in somebody else. You're gonna see somebody else who's doing a type of volunteer work that when you think about it, you know, the twinkle in your heart starts to spark up. Or you're gonna see it, you're gonna hear that voice that says, you know what? I've wanted to write a book my whole life, or maybe I should take up the drawing I've never had time for, or maybe I should become an artist and I never could. The challenge with so many people's confusion about their living of their purpose and their passion in true abundance, is they put an income component to it. They say, Well, I can't do it because I can't make enough money. I say it in every one of my presentations. It is not your passions or your purpose, responsibility, your higher purpose responsibility to pay your bills. It's yours. And when you remove income, when there's an income component, you're more in your humanity pursuing gratitude. I put it out there, I get paid. That's gratitude. Anything wrong with that? No, but that's not purpose. That's not. And there's always an ever-chasing event. The next stage is when you do it long enough, I'll never forget. Because I, you know, I had books that I battled with my higher power forever, saying, You're gonna write. No, I'm not, you're gonna write. No, you're not. I'm talking about about two and a half years in. For those of you that are new, and this is the first episode, two and a half years into my darkness, my higher power would wake me up in the middle of the night. Say, it's time to write, Joe. I said, I'm not writing. I was the math guy. You're gonna write or you're not gonna sleep. That's how the argument would go back and forth, me arguing with my higher power. And lo and behold, eventually I wrote, and that the book, filling the void. Back then it was called Your Inner Child Has Rights To. Visit the website, joemitica.com, download my book, tell people about it. Get it out to as many people as possible. The great news about a free download, it doesn't matter what country you're in. Click, click, click, download it, read it, give me reviews, tell me what you think. I really want to hear. Well, I'll never forget. I channeled that book, took me 22 months, but by the time I was on maybe 30, 40 pages, I said to myself, what the heck? I think this is a book. Now you have to understand. I lived in a room, I had no money, I didn't have a cell phone, you know, no TV, no, no, nothing, really, and no one to talk to. But here I am, I've got pads of paper and 40 or 50 pages now, all words on it. And stage three is faith, where you say to yourself, wow, maybe it's happening for me, maybe it could happen. And I'm telling you, the surrender from the possibility of it happening to, and there's still the possibility is one percent, the hesitancy that it ever happened for you is 99. When you go from the 1% thinking it might, that's stage two to 99%, still really questioning. When you get to where 51% of you see that it's working, that's where faith comes in. You start feeling a sense of trust that you say, you know what, maybe this can really happen for me. And what is the it I'm speaking of? Is it about making money? I don't know, maybe, but it's more about is it a set of new action steps that you're being guided to take that when you live those new action steps, you feel full from the inside out. That's the abundance of prosperity, that's the living of a prosperous life full of purpose. Prosperity is when you're anytime you're taking an action step, regardless of people receiving it, regardless of people getting it, regardless of you being paid for it, it's just you doing the it, and you feel better as you're doing the it, that is abundance. That is prosperous, that's living a prosperous life inside out. Out and why is that important? Had a friend of mine years ago, he's a dentist, million-dollar practice, beautiful wife, launched the kids, the whole thing. Well, he decided that he wanted to learn how to play the guitar. And you know, we talked and he said, you know, I just don't have time. I said, John, get up earlier. He said, Well, you know, I could. I've gotten up every day at 5:30 for 25 years and worked out, Joe. He said, I'll just get up at 5:15. I said, Great, don't call me 5.15 in the morning. And that's what he did. For 10 years, he'd get up 5.15 in the morning, three or four days a week. Same days he'd work out. He'd take his guitar down to his workout bench. He kind of stretched while he's learning. And for 10 years, 15 minutes a day, three or four days a week, he played his guitar, learned how to play the guitar. And did he ever make a penny at it? No. Did he ever get good enough to make a record? No. But what did it do? Every morning he started an action step that when he did it, he felt better. He felt fuller. He felt more whole. Why? Because doing that, he was following a divinity in himself. He was following a part of him that was telling him, play music because we like it. Play music because it feels good. Play music, learn the guitar. So his whole life kind of shift because he started his mornings with a glass full event, literally. And in this particular case, as he started playing more and more, he actually started learning music. And I'd see him every couple years. We talked, but I'd see him every couple years. And by the time I saw him the next time, I mean, he could sit down and he was really good. Was he ever going to be the next rock and roll star? No, wasn't it? You listen to him, he's got a big old smile on his face, and he was loving it, and it was good. It sounded great. He'd worked at it. And at that place, you move from faith, which step stage four is hope. And you say, Wow, it's really happening. I'm pretty good. In his case, he's like, Yeah, I've learned four or five songs. I'm pretty good. The hope that the it that brings you happiness is real. That only happens if you go through those other stages. It doesn't go from zero to 100 miles an hour in a blinko, in a snap, in a flip of a switch. It builds and grows over time. And when you get to the fourth stage of surrender, you move from, I think it's going to, I have faith it's going to, I trust it's going to, hope. Then you're more in the 80% of you knows it's working because it feels good while you're doing the it. And in that place, it starts getting really fun. It really does. And you know, I'm giving examples of anything that anybody can do because I don't know what your divinity's asking you to do. But you wouldn't be on this podcast, you wouldn't be drawn to the concept of I want to hear what spiritual growth helped Joe live a prosperous life full of purpose. Now, of course, my world, I wrote books. My world, I started a global podcast. But that just started recently. I'll tell you that story here in a second on how all this started. The next phase is step five, where you move from hope to knowing, where you move from faith to fact, where you move from, I think I can do it, I hope I can do it, to now I know 10 or 20 songs and I'm really pretty good at it. And when you're in that spot, knowing that everything has changed in the living of your it, then that's where your passion and your purpose becomes part of your normal. Now, the voices of we, the people that I'm going to have as the voices of we, each one of them have a passion and a purpose to help heal humanity in their verticals across the globe, similar to mine. My passion is to bring awareness, their passion is long-term support. I'm awareness, their solution. That's why together, you know, the We podcast is such a powerful experience. And then as you move from step five, which you're knowing now, and you know, when I first started the We Podcast, I told my producer, Miss Wendy, I know nothing about doing a podcast. Nothing. She said, Joe, you push play, you talk, you push end, I'll do the rest. Well, when she said that, I had faith. I went from I know nothing, desperation, to she told me that, push play, and push end, where I became aware, I said, Well, what the heck? I can do that. And then I did it a couple of times. And I thought, wow, okay, my very first podcast. Listen to them. You know, I didn't know what the heck I was doing back then. I'm a lot more practiced now, 39 podcasts in, but back then I didn't know. Now it's working. Now I know it works, and that's where you move into the next place where you go from knowings to living as a higher sense of self, literally. And what does that mean? Is it some spiritual, mystical you and Jesus are the same thing? No, it isn't. Now, maybe it is. You might be the next Jesus. I don't know. If you are, contact me. I want you on the show. Share your hope with everybody. But the truth is that isn't what was ever said biblically. It isn't. Jesus said, I have to ascend and sit by my father so he can put the spirit that guided me to guide you. One of the last things Jesus said. Well, that's why I challenged humanity. Are you following the Christ consciousness in you, whatever you're calling your divinity? Are you following it? If you're a Christian, are you following your Jesus beliefs? If you're a Buddhist, are you following? Well, I just gave you a step-by-step on how you, as the listener here, you have some type of higher purpose. You have some type of higher presence in you, or you wouldn't be here. You're not unconscious, you wouldn't be able to last through my podcast if it is. And people say, Well, Joe, I don't know what it is. I believe you. Have you ever asked yourself what it is? Ask. Give a voice. Just like I say, give a voice to your darkest pains, give a voice to your grander sense of self. You want to be successful out in the world? Have you ever stopped and thought about the most successful people on the planet, what they do? You ever thought about what most billionaires or multibillionaires do? Think about the guy who invented the computer, the PC. You know the name. I'm not going to mention names here. One day on a Tuesday, it didn't exist. On a Wednesday, he came up with the concept. Now, 40 years later, all of us, you're listening to me through the internet through a PC. The people that have created massive quantities of income, you know why they did it? Because consciously or unconsciously, they followed a higher sense of self. Literally, they did. They followed something in themselves grander than them. Now, do they know it consciously? Some people do. Some people do. Now, does that mean, Joe, they're spiritually connected to their hearts? No, it doesn't. It means they are intuitively connected to their gut. Yeah. 99%. You ask 99% of people that have created massive amounts of financial wealth, they will say, Yeah, I just followed my instincts. I followed my gut. Women, I'm telling you, you have an advantage here, literally. Not that men can't do it. Women have an advantage because way before your heart is healed and your wisdom is developed, your stomachs are open because you can bear children. I believe that is a wholehearted advantage spiritually. That's why women are so powerful. The two women I'm going to be introducing here sooner or later, these women are deeply spiritually connected to their hearts and their wisdom is off the charts, but their intuition, they've always had their intuition. I can guarantee in their therapy sessions, they're telling their therapists over the past 20 years, you know what? I should have listened to my stomach when I chose that famous player that I married. I should have followed my gut. My gut was telling me not to marry them. I guarantee it. So most of you, you have that gut instinct, but you don't have the wisdom or the esteem to follow it. Well, as people get older, you heal your heart, your wisdom grows, and you have your gut instinct. Powerful. And how can I talk about that? I've been on a conscious path since 1990. And literally three months ago, I could feel my stomach chakra open for the first time. That's a true story. And the living of a higher sense of self, why is that so powerful? It's because that's how we heal humanity. For myself, how it all happened, where this hall worked. Started therapy February 16th, 1990. Went through my seven years, got sober, went to a church, pointed across the room. I'm gonna marry her. My past wife, Elizabeth and I. Beautiful woman, kind, sweet, very gentle. She and I, we had have two children: my oldest son, Joseph, my son Ryan. Joseph's an elite athlete. Ryan is an elite piano player, and just they're both brilliant boys, young men. Now, Elizabeth and our past were they separated. We grew in different directions. So literally, I went into full-time dad. Both my boys have lived with me almost 10 years and didn't think much of it. You know, wasn't interested in dating, wasn't interested in that at all. My personal life was on absolute hold because I was putting all my overflow into my kids, my business, and my dog Zeus, I would say. Well, long story short, I come across this picture of a woman in my email. I click, and before I know it, I'm reading a document. And this is the story I always like to tell people, because this is where all of the we came from was this one woman who I've not met yet. I read a document and she's talking about a grander tomorrow in her document. And if you have a part of you talking about a grander tomorrow, that's your divinity speaking. Higher sense of you talking. When you're talking about a doom and gloom tomorrow, that's your wounds talking. When you're talking about a grander tomorrow, that's your divinity. I could sense it. I didn't know what I was sensing at the time, but then I'm clicking around, I click a button, and all of a sudden I hear these voices. They're talking to me. You have to understand, I didn't know what a podcast was back then, four years ago. I didn't know what it was. I didn't. Anyways, I'm listening, and this woman says, My only failure in life was my marriage. And I hear the same voice. I hear a big voice say, You didn't fail your marriage. You chose to live your divinity over your humanity. Now I hadn't heard that voice since I wrote my second book 25 years before. It came out of nowhere, literally nowhere. My mother had just passed within the previous year. My family's in deep grief. My oldest son, both my kids are in traumatic grief. I'm in deep grief. The matriarch of our family, the woman that I genuinely cared about, my own mother, because I'm deeply Italian, you know, the family roots, the whole thing. She had passed. And then all of a freaking sudden, I come across the path of a woman and my heart expands. Now I'm all sorts of confused, right? And I know it's not the woman, even though she's a beautiful person, you know, but I didn't know her. And I couldn't connect the dots that it was spiritual, but I knew it was something unique. Long story short, three and a half years later, I realized what happened. And what happened for Joe was the first time in 35 years of a conscious path, I came across a human being who was more spiritually connected to her heart than I was mine. How do I know? Because when I heard this woman talk, my heart opened. My heart opened to the place of her normal. Now, it's no wonder it took me seven years to go through the darkness. That awareness I just told you right now, folks, that all just came to me two weeks ago, three weeks ago, right around the time when I started this concept, Voices of We, it all came clear, three and a half years of confusion. And why do I say that? Because as I'm living my higher purpose by sharing on the We podcast, right? And sharing with the globe, we've become the number one emotional growth podcast in all of Apple. It all happened because of a woman I never met. Now, someday I hope to thank her. But what that moment in time did is it helped me realize I'm not the only one on the path. Then I meet Dr. Karin three years later, deeply connected female. You'll see, because she'll be on the podcast sooner or later. And then I start the We Podcast. And why is this so valuable to me as I'm living my higher presence? What's so valuable is the only type of person that would be able to come to the We Podcast, stay here, and be part of the movement, part of the community, is deeply connected spiritually, people to your heart. All of you. And how do I know there's a bunch of you? Because we're ranked 177 out of four million podcasts. And what does that do for Joe? It helps me know I'm not the only one. Because I'm telling you, for 35 years, I literally thought I was. This woman I keep talking about, she was the first person in my path. Now I've been a public speaker, been out in the globe. Now, this is years ago at meetings. I never come across anybody more spiritually connected to her heart than me. Well, this woman is. I hope to meet her someday. Hope to tell her thank you for being her, because that's a really powerful thing. The last place, and I believe all of us can reach it, and it's called the walking on water. You say, Well, come on, Joe, it's only one guy's ever walked in water. I know I'm not talking about Jesus. I believe Jesus was pure divinity, but I believe all of us can walk on water. What's Joe's definition of walking on water? What was Jesus' definition of walking on water? Basically, the man named Jesus, it didn't matter where he was, he could walk anywhere he wanted to and be him. Now, in this particular case, if in fact the man literally was in the middle of the ocean and he's, you know, jumping waves to go from boat to boat, okay, I believe it. Makes all the sense in the world. But to Joe, what does walking on water mean? It means I genuinely believe that all of us on this podcast can reach a spot to where no matter where you are, what you're doing, who you're around, what environment you are, you can feel a sense of okayness independent of the environment around you. I genuinely believe that. How do I know? Because that's me now. I don't care where I go. I don't need to go on a cruise to feel great. I don't need to travel the world to feel great. I don't need to have a thousand people around me to feel great. I feel great all the time. I really do. Now, do I enjoy hanging out with people? Yes. Do I hope to have a female partner someday? Yes, my boys are old enough now. I do. I hope to have a female partner. Now, of course, I got to find a woman that can hang around with me, me not vibrate her out of the room. As you can tell, I got a pretty big personality. She'd have to be a deeply connected female to be able to hang with me, no question. But now I have hope that there's somebody out there like that. And the walking on water, my belief of walking on water is no matter where you go, you can feel abundant. And why is that important? Because you know what, folks? 99.999% of us are never going to make a billion dollars. We're never even going to make a hundred million. Most of us will never make a million dollars. But does that mean you can't feel like a million bucks? No, you can. You can get to a place of abundance in your belly, to where the trip to the zoo feels like the trip to Australia. You can get to a place of abundance where you go on a nice meal with family or friends or a church group to a nice restaurant and you feel like you're traveling through Europe. You can get to a spot to where no matter where you are, what you do, how you live, what's around you, you're taking your fullness with you. Literally. I'll never forget when it started to happen for me. This has been years ago, where I would literally just be out of my back deck and I felt like I was on vacation. Literally. Now, I haven't been on a vacation. Well, 30 years. I went on a cruise just the other day, miss a couple weeks ago. Miss Wendy gave me a cruise. Awesome. It was cool. What did I do? I spent 99% of the time with myself because that's just Joe. That's just Joe's style. Now, do I hope to share my world with somebody someday? Sure, I do. Will I ever? I don't know. In the meantime, did it matter to me? No, not at all. Why? Because I'm full. I feel full. And if I can, anybody can. Anybody can. What is the spiritual growth that helps me today live a prosperous life full of purpose? It started in desperation. I moved into awareness. Over time, I gained some faith. With the faith, it moved from faith to fact. Once I was doing it long enough, it was hope it was really working. Eventually the hope moved into what the heck? It's actually happening. I knew it could happen. Live that knowing long enough, and then you're living a higher sense of you. And folks, when you're living a higher sense of you, does that mean that everything's going to be easy all the time? No. Does that mean you're going to make more money than month? No. Does that mean you're going to have everything's going to be easy and hunky dory and cloud? No, it doesn't. We're human. You're going to live the human experience too. Now I hope you make more money than month. I hope you have a wonderful relationship. I hope you live where you want to live. I hope all that for you. But does living from a place of internal abundance guarantee an external world? No. You want a wonderful external world? Live and create your external world from the sense of abundance that's in you. Figure out those glass empty voices that keep causing your world to be different. Understand, we're not trying to control the voices. We want to ask the question why are the voices there? And then move in the emotional position and say, you know what? Instead of always trying to fix something, instead of always trying to let go, start asking yourself the question, why am I holding on in the first place? Huge surrender. Always trying to let go to ask the question, why am I holding on? And listen. Huge emotional surrender. And then when you move into that spot and you feel that nudge, you feel that part of you, that inner guidance that's saying, there's something more, I just don't know what it is. Find some help. Plenty of life coaches out there. Keep coming back here. I'll have a whole list of people that you'll be able to go to help reinvent yourself. And then understand it's a process of surrender. It's a process that happens. It's not a light switch. I literally said that this whole We podcast, the We, happened September the 20th, 2022. That is almost four years ago. In September, it'll be four years. This whole unfolding of what I'm doing now. And I am genuinely living as my higher sense of self while I'm on this podcast. The results speak for themselves. A man in a microphone could never have the type of success the We podcast is. A man connected to his divinity and sharing divinity. Absolutely. And if I can, you can. And you wouldn't be here if it wasn't part of your path. So thanks for being here. I really appreciate your support. I really appreciate everybody around the globe being here. It's a very exciting time. I mean, we are the generation of change. We live in an era of time where we're truly making a difference. We can truly heal ourselves. And the more we heal, the more we heal, the more we heal, the more we give back. And the more we give back, the more we heal the world. And as we heal the world together, everything is different. Everything is different. So thanks for being here. And I always want to tell people, you know what? I am so grateful. And I look forward to visiting places around the globe. I tell people, you know, I never asked to be placed on a global stage. I really didn't. But that's exactly where I'm headed. And if you see me someplace out on a stage, please come up to me. Tell me your story. I want to shake your hand, I want to hug your neck. Because together we're healing. Together, we're making a difference. And together, we're literally changing the world one smile at a time. For everybody around the world, welcome to We.
SPEAKER_01So that's it for today's episode of the We Podcast. Head on over to Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen and subscribe to the show. One lucky listener every single week that posts a review on Apple Podcasts or iTunes will win a chance the grand prize drawing to win a $25,000 private VIP day with Joe himself. Be sure to head on over to WePodcast.