Have you ever wondered where the problems in the world today would exist if we have deeper connection to ourselves, others, and the environment, and acted from that place? Welcome to the Action partner with your host, Brian Berneman, who believed that connection is the key to taking conscious action as individuals and creating a better world. We are here to raise awareness and inspire meaningful action by sharing stories, knowledge and conversations.
With thought leaders and change makers, from sustainability to wellbeing, and everything related to conscious living, our mission is to empower you to be the change that you wanna see in the world. Welcome everyone to a new episode of the Conscious Action Podcast. I am Brian Berneman, your host, and for this episode I wanted to talk a little bit and explore the topic of balance of equilibrium and harmony.
And this is something that I have found through the years that is key in our experience as humans within ourselves, in relationship to others and in relationship to our mother Earth. And it's really interesting because. . I notice in my own experience a lot of times when there's been times that things don't feel that they're okay, and when I reflect on it, I find a lot of times that there are some imbalance on the giving and receiving.
There's either I am giving too much and not receiving enough, or I am taking too much, I'm not giving enough. and it's been really interesting seeing this as well from what is happening as well on the earth and how we're getting to the places that we're getting in society and what's going on with the idea of growth and capitalism and cism. and the understanding of the taking and take and take and take and take and take and taking. But what are we giving back? You know?
What are the things that we are giving back to our mother Earth? She keeps on giving us, she keeps on giving us. She keeps on giving us. And we are taking, we are taking, we are taking, and not that many of us. We give back, not that many of us understand that cycle and that harmony that is created when everything is balanced, when that given and receiving comes to a place of equilibrium.
And that doesn't mean that, you know, like there's no different cycles of the giving and different cycles for receiving. How are we balancing all of that? Or are we creating already systems in place for allowing that to take place? What are we placing the giving back every time that we are receiving? And this is something that I've seen when I was living, especially in the Buddhist Center, that everything was in exchange.
And I find the exchange economy such an interesting space in that because everything is about giving and receiving. and about, you know, you give your time, you give your presence, you give your skills, and you receive whatever it is that you are seeking in return. Like, for example, for me, that was, um, a place to live food. So I had a, a roof on top of my head. I had food, I have like spaces for practicing and learning, and then I was giving back in.
Classes that I was giving and the work that I was doing and the different things in the community that required my time and energy. And sometimes this, of course, is really interesting because the sharing economy, it's all about understanding our own place and our uniqueness and how we value things. So, , for example, I could say that one hour of my time equals five hours of your time. Why? Because of something that I perceived, or it might be the other way around.
You know, that five hours of my time equal one hour of your time. If you have, if you have a skill or, uh, some wisdom that I would love to, to know or to start to embody more. Getting to that place of understanding and flow of giving and receiving without the judgment is one of the key aspects there. So how do we get to a place of equity and equality where we are all of the time charging each other and you know, like you are getting more than me or judging and things like that.
And it's like, well, To take a step back a lot of times and understand, okay, how do we flow? How do we allow ourselves to live in community and in cooperation and collaboration and coexist with each other, without competing, without judging, and just allowing things to flow. So at some point someone is going to be needed a little bit more and at some other point, someone else. So how are we allowing that, giving and receiving to actually flow?
And that for me is something that is key moving forward. Something that I envision for the future. This is the future that we can have this thriving future that is balance. That is aligned to each of us and to the core and our essence of what is important in this world. And it's important to understand that love with our mother earth, with each other, with ourselves, understanding the preciousness of life, the preciousness and the beauty of life. It's very impermanent.
Everything comes to an end and we don't know when. So when we understand that impermanence and we keep that in the top of our mind and awareness all of the time, then we start to engage differently with life. Now, one of the keys there is understanding that just because I don't know when it's going to, Instead of taking, taking, taking, can I bring more balance and harmony to my life? So, you know, I couldn't go completely self-centered and I would, well, this is short.
I don't know when it's going to end, so I'm just going to take, take, take, take, take on how all of this experience is and all of this money and all of this, whatever it is that I'm seeking. Without caring about anybody else, without caring on that balance of giving back, without caring about what's going on with other people. So we need to keep that in mind. That is the balance a lot of the time, and I find that balance in life, it's so important.
This is one of the things of why I've been so drawn to the Buddhist philosophy and that way of living, because it's all about that middle. It's about understanding that space in the middle. There's the giving, there's the receiving, there's the doing. There's the being. There's the speaking, there's the listening. Bringing all of these different elements into our awareness might take a while because we need to unlearn so much of our conditioning that led us to this.
That everything is about a linear way extracting, taking, hoarding instead of allowing, allowing the cyclical and circular momentum to take place. So the invitation is for us as individuals and for us as a society to reflect on. , where are the areas in our lives and in our systems that are out of balance and what can we do about that? The more that we as individuals find balance, the more of a ripple effect that has on the whole as well, and we need these different approaches.
Some people might be working more on a systemic. To bring balance there and we need everything. That is what creates the balance, all of the pieces of the puzzle into actually work together, even though it seems that they are actually separate, everything is connected. There's an energy entanglement on everything. So when we understand that, then we can create that harmony in our lives. We can create a harmonious life for everyone on this beautiful planet. That is my vision for the future.
So I invite you, take the time, reflect where are the areas in your life that feel out of balance. How can you bring more balance into. You need to talk to someone. Do you need to seek for support? And you do it by yourself? Just ask yourself these questions. You might not get an answer, but just asking the questions is the important thing. Just questioning is the first step. So I hope that you take the time to do that, and thank you for listening, and I'll see you all on the next.
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