Love is the power podcast

In this week’s episode we’re exploring the thought, “I am not beautiful.” Can you absolutely know that it’s true that who you are, what you are, is not beautiful? Do you? For many of us, life can become veiled in layers of this thought. Believing ourselves to be unbeautiful brings with it a feeling of being undeserving of good things, so we try to become the best. The best in our career, achieveme...

What is it like walking around all day, wanting safety and security from the world? That is this week’s exploration; looking into the true effect of living that way, as if the thought “I need safety in the world” is true. We notice not being able to relax (because that would be dumb and irresponsible), feeling irritable, and being hyper-vigilant all the time. On guard for any danger that might be...

According to Byron Katie, the order of creation is this: think, feel, act, have. And as Tom points out in this episode, we think according to whatever concept we’re holding to be true. That thinking then becomes our feelings, and we act from the feelings, creating the life we’re living. So it stands to reason that if we’re not liking what we’re living, we could go back to the stressful concepts th...

Do you ever notice living with the thought, “There’s something better than this”? Something better than here, better than now, better than what I’m living… It can become like a white noise machine – on in the background until we forget what silence feels like or that it’s even running at all. In this episode, we explore that silence in the form of being without this thought. And there are some pre...

This week’s inquiry begins by noticing all the movements of life. Relationships, jobs, houses, cars, kids, wellbeing … everyday stuff. Do you experience any resistance just hearing that list? If you do, we invite you to follow along with an inquiry on the likely cause of that stress: believing the thought, “I have to keep it all going.” Is it true? Can you absolutely know that it’s true? Does this...

This week’s episode holds space for one of the main fears that can come up when we’re experimenting with inquiry and getting free: the fear of being insensitive. As Tom points out, deep down nobody wants to be insensitive to the suffering that goes on in this world. And when we reach states of openness and freedom ourselves, sometimes the fear that shows up is hurting other people by not joining t...

Do you notice within yourself a tendency to approach life from a place of resistance? Resistance to what you don’t want to experience, resistance to what appears to oppose you, or resistance in its other form: effort. Often we hold tightly to resistance as if it’s the only thing between us and utter disaster. Or just living an experience we don’t like. But could it be that our resistance is the on...

“If I receive, I owe something in return.” This thought is drilled into us from the very beginning with the teaching of “pleases” and “thank yous,” but is it true? It can be so easy to slip into the current of belief in this thought, because that’s the way the world seems to work. But might it work differently if we didn’t believe that receiving and owing go hand-in-hand? And more importantly, wha...

Byron Katie does not want people’s approval. She has no interest in manipulating people out of the way they see her. She wants them to think the way they think. According to Katie, that’s love. In this episode, Tom guides a meditation around noticing wanting approval. Noticing what it’s like living in the world of holding tightly to that desire, and noticing what it’s like being free of it. Could...

Often we can experience the fear that if we follow our heart’s desire, we will end up hurting people we love, or causing disasters, or being reckless, or any number of miserable outcomes. This week’s brave share is an inquiry into that fear. What if the people in your life already see you as reckless and irresponsible? What if you think you might be showing up that way too? In the world of obligat...

Do you ever have a situation show up in your life that feels less than ideal and think, “I didn’t sign up for this”? A partnership isn’t like the beautiful image we thought it would be, a child gets sick, a job isn’t what you hoped for, difficult communication arises. Or just this being human thing doesn’t feel like a choice you made freely. All the challenges feel like way too much. It’s impossib...

In this inquiry on the thought, “who/what I am is not beautiful,” Tom says that when we discover our beauty it changes our relationship with everything. What’s it like in the world of seeing ourselves as unbeautiful creatures? How do we show up? How do we treat ourselves? These are the questions that arise in this beautiful inquiry, along with their profound answers. Could it be time to allow ours...

This week’s episode looks at some words from awakened masters on the vanity of the Universe, of the God/Creator/Consciousness that uses existence to experience itself. It also looks at some of our reactions to those words. A common response to the idea that there is no separation, or as Katie puts it, that there is only One, can be a fear of loneliness. As if there only being One means it’s a cold...

Tom likes to say there’s two main religions on this planet: “There’s right and wrong,” and “If you get it wrong it’s serious.” This week’s episode focuses on the first of those commonly held beliefs and – through The Work – questions it. When we enter question 3 and look at how we react, what happens when we believe the thought, we’re done looking at whether it’s true or not. We are purely experie...

If you’ve been on a spiritual path or a journey of personal freedom of some kind, you might have come across the question of separation. Are we separate? From each other? From anything? From all that is? You might have also experienced the fear of “waking up” and having all individuality, all sense of self dissolve. What we noticed in this inquiry was that type of fear being one reason we hold ont...

Have you ever believed the thought, “I have to earn my keep”? This week Tom guides a beautiful and bountiful inquiry into that thought, and all the ways we use it to keep ourselves from the natural abundance and beauty of life. It was so easy to begin believing as children that we are not worthy of all good things. But what kind of life do we create when we take that concept for truth? Could it be...

There’s a lot going on in the world. Again. For many of us, the political landscape is where we get our work. Watching things that feel very far out of our control happen in ways we think they shouldn’t is infuriating. Take political “leaders” contributions to climate change or as an example. It can be incredibly difficult and terrifying to watch, as is bravely brought up in this week’s episode. O...

This week we’re looking at the tendency to identify with “The Efforter” as it relates to practical daily life. Unsurprisingly, identifying as The One Who Has To Make It All Happen can be a not-so-fun experience when we’re being pushed from our comfort zone by life’s twists and turns, especially when they’re to do with a job/work situation that affects our day-to-day experience. Tom walks us throug...

This week’s episode took a turn from an exploration about money to the concept, “I need a reason to…” (fill in the blank). It took that turn for no apparent reason, although we think it did make for a pretty sweet episode. Tune in now to inquire into the assumption that everything we do needs a good reason behind it. A good reason to have the goals we have, a good reason to follow through on them,...

This week’s episode centers around the feeling many of us experience as the worst possible fate: getting in trouble. Have you ever, as a kid or a grown-up, experienced someone being upset with you? Can you find the drop in the pit of your stomach when you believe that their anger means you’ve gotten ‘in trouble?’ Some people’s response to this thought is to yell back, some run away at the first ch...

This week’s episode is on trusting. Whether it’s distrust in ourselves or in life, how do we react when we believe either one can’t be trusted? Could it be that one belief is not so different from the other? As Tom puts it, at some point we got convinced that we can’t trust ourselves and that we need threats of negative consequences in order to live intelligently. Is that true? Follow along with y...

Welcome back and happy new year! This week we’re looking at the ups and downs (mostly downs) of believing the thought “I could lose support.” This might be something you’ll relate to if your holidays consisted of either: A) relaxation and a sense of permission to just be that you now feel slipping away as the world spins back into its usual belief in “the grind” or B) a rushed, overwhelming time o...

This week we’re looking at the concept of “me time.” The coveted, elusive space that exists just for us, without obligations, roles, and responsibilities weighing us down. But could it be that “me time” is actually just a thought? A thought that, when we believe it, gives us a strong sense of being misused, undervalued, underappreciated and overworked? As Tom points out, it’s a world of poverty we...

This week’s episode is exploring the two halves of holding on. Specifically, holding onto opposing what we would not like to experience in life, and also holding onto what we would. What kind of creation do we live in when that’s the belief we’re operating from? Life becomes a tug-of-war of grasping and clutching at what we want, and resisting everything we want to avoid. Enjoy this week’s group m...

This week Tom posed the question, “Can you absolutely know it’s true that you are undeserving of a happy, wonderful life?” In the ensuing meditation, he also points out the possibility that our current individual lives and their events (whether we happen to be enjoying them or not) are exactly within our comfort zone, which is dictated by our sense of worthiness. It’s when the vast majority of peo...