We Made It Weird
We Made It Weird
Source: You Made It Weird w/ Pete Holmes & Sweet Lady Val (Listen: 1 Hr 30 min)
Contributor: Selena Garcia
“Everything is born out of your own perception. What is not from your perception? The whole world exists as you know it from your perception.” - Valerie Chaney
"We Made It Weird #1" is a special episode of “You Made It Weird” between Pete Holmes and his partner Valerie Chaney. It's the perfect example of paying forward tools and wisdom that work for you, when they’re too good to keep to yourself.
If you are woo-woo sensitive, this is for you! Pete Holmes is a comedian, actor, writer, producer and podcaster who is "known for his cheerful personality, self-aware humor, and musings on spirituality and religion, which are all frequent themes across his works." - Wikipedia
A friend shared this podcast on his Instagram stories with the caption, "Felt like this hour-and-a-half conversation gave me more revelation than 2 years of therapy. Worth a listen if you are so inclined."
It starts out feeling like two-morning radio DJ's tired out of their minds and shooting the sh*t. Eventually, they begin to focus around 14:45 to share their experiences working through Byron Katie's book "Loving What Is." It's an inquiry process where you examine your thoughts.
There is light, but appropriate, adult language, and a story about a tough experience Valerie had with psychedelics.
Sharing examples of how they apply The Work to their lives and relationship, they note that this could also help if you're going through a rough patch in your relationship.
So what is The Work? It is a practice that brings awareness to who or what upsets you and why. You do this by asking yourself four questions:
- Is it true?
- Can you absolutely know it's true?
- How do you react—what happens—when you believe that thought?
- Who would you be without the thought? ...
“I think there’s a way to be very compassionate to your mind. You can even understand it’s trying to protect you. It’s been conditioned to think that this is reality.” - Valerie Chaney
(20:20) VAL: “I knew about Byron Katie for a really long time, and even listened to one of her books a couple of years ago. It’s only now that I’m really getting into her, and I love her so much I’m like ‘how have I missed this?’ But I really think timing is everything.”
(20:44) PETE: “What happens to me over and over and over again is I get turned on by something, and then I start telling people about it because I kind of quietly hate that people knew about it and didn’t tell me. But I think what the people that aren’t blabbing and boring people about it know that maybe I’m learning—timing is everything.”
(29:27) VAL: “Well, that’s it. And it’s working from the baseline understanding of like—although you don’t need to understand this, I don’t think, for The Work to be effective for you—it’s coming from the idea that everything is born out of your own perception. What is not from your perception? The whole world exists as you know it from your perception.”
(29:57) PETE: “And your perception is overlaying with your thoughts of past and future constantly.”
(30:01) VAL: “Exactly! So, if somebody is upsetting you, your thoughts about it are what’s actually upsetting you.”
(32:17) VAL: “I think there’s a way to be very compassionate to your mind. You can even understand it’s trying to protect you. It’s been conditioned to think that this is reality. You don’t have to hate your mind or even think that it’s the thing keeping you from bliss—and if you could just get control of it—that’s not what this is... it’s not about controlling the mind. It’s about understanding and kind of exposing the mind and sharing its power.”
LISTEN TO THE FULL PODCAST, HERE. (1 Hr 30 min)
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