Episode 33: Living Enlightened: Elizabeth Canty’s Guide to Inner Joy

In this Choices Books and Gifts podcast, Elizabeth Canty discusses her book Living Enlightened: The Joy of Integrating Spirit, Mind, and Body. She shares insights on spirituality, mindfulness, and personal empowerment, offering practical steps to cultivate inner peace and fulfillment in everyday life.

 

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Hello, world and welcome to Choices, Books and Gifts, where you always have choices. So it's our regular Tuesday podcast, and today, I'm very happy to announce we have Elizabeth Canty with us. And she wrote a wonderful book, Living Enlightened. And we're here today to talk to Elizabeth about the book. First, I'd like to read a little bio so you guys know who and more of whom we're dealing with, and then we'll go into our regular questions.

 All right. So here we go. Elizabeth Canty is dedicated to helping people integrate spirit, mind and body to live daily with a deep sense of purpose, passion and fulfilment. Her new book, Living Enlightened: The Joy of Integrating Spirit, Mind and Body, is available on Amazon. She also explores three principles and practices in her podcast Living in Light, which is featured on YouTube.

Elizabeth has found a simple and direct path to turn within and become reconnected with spirit or source and integrate this knowing with our mind and our body. When we do this, we become present in life's infinite joys, whether picking up the kids from school, walking the dog, or rescheduling our next sales call. She has a doctorate in Comparative Religions and Consciousness Studies and is an ordained minister with the centres of spiritual living.

You can find out more about Elizabeth on her website. Elizabethcanty.com. All right. There we go. And that's what we know about Elizabeth. Thank you, Jay. So now we will go into some questions for Elizabeth to answer. And I'm going to dive right in. Wait. First, I'm so sorry. I didn't say hello. How are you, Elizabeth?

 Hi, and welcome to our show, my dear. Thank you. I'm so happy to be here. Fantastic.

 So, question one. What inspired you to write Living Enlightened, and how does it reflect your journey towards enlightenment?

Thank you. Yeah.

 Everything in the book was downloaded for me. They were answers to my questions, just everyday questions that I would have.

 And I'd be journaling or meditating, and a lot of the chapters or ideas would come, and there's a lot more, but my publishers didn't want it at all. Well, we edited it down, but a lot more is coming. But so it came to me as answers, inspiration, and things that I needed on my journey. And then my son was sick in high school. He's well now. Thank God he's back in college. I am about to graduate. Thank you. Yes. And but sick. And I'm a full-time single mom. And he grew up with these teachings. He grew up with me speaking, like, once a month, once a week. He would hear me handle his problems or things that came up with these spiritual principles and practices.

But when he was sick and going through stuff, I thought, you know, if I wasn't here, what would I want him to know? There's nothing written down. There's nothing for him. And I would never think of putting it in a book. But someone asked me, what is your legacy? They use that word, and I just wasn't familiar with it.

And it made me think, what is my legacy for him? And what I wanted him to know is in this book, and that is for me, who he is. What are ideas about God, and how can we integrate spirit, mind and body to love our life? I wanted him, and I still, of course, like for him to just love life, you know, and to love his life and have something he's passionate about and see that he is a no matter what happens in his life, he's never a victim.

You know, he's never a victim of dire circumstances, even when he got sick or of things that happened to him, but that we are co-creators in our life and we can be free in our life because we can be free with spirit and in mind and our bodies, regardless of. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. I'm sure a big part of his improvement is all that positivity you put in his life.

And I, too, am a great meditator. I meditate every day for 20 minutes. I practice twice a day, but I do it once daily. Like you, many of my thoughts, ideas, and things come to me that are very positive, and problem-solving is fantastic. Whenever I meditate, I solve so many things. So, thank you for that; I'm glad your son is doing well. Thank you

Second, how do you define living enlightened, and how is it different from the common perception of enlightenment?

Well, I'm older. So. So when I was younger, there was this idea. It was a very maybe Eastern tradition idea, you know, of going to India or some exotic place to study with an enlightened master.

And, there was an idea of being like Jesus walking in Jesus's shoes or some other, whatever your saint or sage of your tradition might be. That's what we all have, this idea of being of a maybe a perfection, but it's concepts. It's ideas that we have. I've realised that, and I talk about it in my book, which makes me giggle.

But enlightenment isn't somewhere we get to. It's not something we earn like a degree, title, or realization. It's just those moments during our day. We all have them. We were all created in wholeness, oneness, love, joy, peace, and beauty. We're all it, but mostly, we're looking outside to find it. But when we turn within it, that love, that joy, that peace, power, and beauty answer, all of those things are within us.

So when I could let go of my concepts, when I could let go of, you know, walking on water or levitating or all that kind of. Yeah, that's, you know, being either a psychic or something—all the concepts we have of what enlightenment might be. When I could let go of that, it was right here. And one of the greatest gifts, Jay, you mentioned is problem-solving.

It's so practical. It's so close to us. It allows us to be connected with everyone in any situation. Yeah, yeah. It's funny, you know, growing up and going through my trials and tribulations, it was said to me that, first, this too should pass, but always try to live in the solution and not the problem.

You know,  here's the problem. What's the solution to many of us doing well on the issue for so Absolutely? Yes. All right. So, number three, can you share a pivotal moment that set you toward greater spiritual awareness? That's something specific that happens.

Well, many kept happening. But yeah, you know, the first one was a big one.

I grew up in Catholic school, grade school, in high school. And when we entered the high school, they sent over some 10th graders. So that the eighth graders we would have, like a buddy at the high school, you know, and I remember we're all in eighth grade. We're all sitting around, and this, this girl, I'll never forget.

Her name is Patty. And she asked, what do you want to be when you grow up? And all these kids, I mean, that I grew up with. They're all naming these big things. Like, they're not saying a fireman and or a what, you know, they're like a doctor or a lawyer, or I'm just like, oh my goodness.

These kids have big goals. They are saying these big adult things. I decided I was very shy, and I thought I was just going to be bold and say what I wanted to be when I grew up. And I said, A priest. She looked at me and said, "Oh, you mean and none.

And I said, no, no, I mean, what? No. I was like, no, I don't want to. And it was that idea that the guy up there reading from the holy book said God knowing God, knowing this mystery like I liked that. So that was very interesting, you know, and of course, I was kind of shut down like, that'll never happen.

And I knew that would never happen. And that was the only tradition I knew at that point. When I got to college, I did what most college kids do, and I ran around busy with relationships and parties and trying to get through to school and travel. I started really travelling, then taking classes overseas and doing everything I could to, I don't know, not becoming an adult.

But when I was around 26, I was diagnosed with cervical cancer. And it was so crazy because I wasn't afraid of dying. Because when you're young, you don't understand that concept. And even I was even more immature for my age. I didn't think about dying. I mean, I started to think about what living was and what dying meant, and all I could think of was, I don't even know what life is about.

I need to know what life and living are about before I die. So did that. Did that help you begin to live like the concept when you heard about the disease? You didn't think about dying. It made you feel about more living. Living. I was like, what? This can't happen because I remembered that dream of talking to God, knowing God, like understanding this mystery.

So it just zapped me right back into that moment, and it zapped me into search one for, you know, causes of cancer. There was no internet, by the way, so I had to go to libraries. I was in the new I was in New York at the time. I went to the public library and was just searching and looking.

There were the self-development or self-help sections back then, which were psychology. I didn't find much help. Before I got my second opinion, I was already moving to L.A., so in L.A., someone had told me, oh, you should go to the Bodie Tree Bookstore, which is a beautiful bookstore. I had never heard or seen anything about it, but I went on; it was on Melrose, and I walked in, and there were Tibetan flags and bowls and gongs and bells and all kinds of books, and it was like, you're not in Kansas anymore, you know?

The first book, a stack of books that caught my attention, was Louise Hayes's You Can Heal Your Life. And I was like, are you kidding me? Not just heal your cancer, but heal your lives. There was just something about that. The second book I took away was shocking—Egoyan's creative visualization.

So, I learned to visualize and meditate. And when I got my second opinion, my stage two cancer had gone to stage one. And I had learned to, as you said, the term within. And just, you know, that meditation, 20 minutes a day changed my life. It just changed my idea of life and the wholeness of life, integrating life spirit, mind and body.

That's terrific. Well, I want to say two things. First, I'm so glad that you're healthy today and you beat, you know, whatever challenges you had, you know, that's first and second. You mentioned that many little things put you on the spiritual path. And I call those God shots. Oh, yeah.

You know, nice little gods, shots, and that helps us get to where we have to get. And you're indeed there. I think it was on the fourth question. Let me know. Your book encourages readers to live enlightened in everyday life. What practical steps or habits can people adopt to begin this journey?

That's a great question. So, in all the chapters after the second section, I think there are only four chapters in the first section. Then, all the other chapters have some practices, journaling, questions, meditation, a specific meditation, or something. Well, all those practices had come to me when there was God chat, and I was in a sort of crisis or something like you said.

Those were the answers that came to me when I was going through difficulties or problems, and I would sit in a meditation, and it would just be this. I would be taken through a vision of, you know, coming up out of, one of them is coming up out of my body. And I don't call it people; I call it astral projecting or all these things.

I don't know that much about that. I just remember I just kind of expanded and floated up, and I just had a vision of Earth and life. It was all so beautiful, even though things that looked ugly were happening. You know, there were hurricanes, or there were tornadoes. People were hurting each other.

But when the perspective is so high, and you see it all and everything connected like that, there's such beauty. And it reminds me now, as I say, that that the astronauts would talk about that when they could see the Earth from far away, that that it changed their life, that they because they in a sense, there, their perspective opened up to, to be so big it could encompass all the good and all the bad, the yin and the yang, and you're seeing it all.

So, in the book, some practical things came to me that I hope the readers really take the time to experience for themselves because, as they do, their answers come through. Their answers flow into their practice, whether it's journaling, sitting quietly or asking certain kinds of questions.

Why, I can segue into this then, you know, because, as you mentioned, there are actual practices in the book that you can do every day and learn from.

So, can we take a look at the book real quick just to give people an idea of what it looks like? Little stop right there. Right. Perfect. Living in light and joy. So, folks, this is a book where you can, you know, learn so much more about enlightenment and life, and as you can tell, Elizabeth really knows what she's talking about.

 All right, next question. How can people find enlightenment during life's challenges and all the chaos in the world?

Yeah. So those are kind of two things. The first thing I would say about life's challenges before we look at the world is that it's good to just look at our, you know, challenges. Then it's funny that your, your order of questions because if, if you're doing some sort of practice, you know, meditation once a day or twice a day when you're not really having challenges, how much easier it is to allow yourself the time to sit and be still when you are having challenges?

So, one thing I would say is whether you're experiencing challenges or not, pick up a practice that inspires you. That might be walking in nature. It might be sitting quietly, with some music on or just in the silence, whatever that might be every day. But, well. And then to notice that every single day, we all have moments of what I would call enlightenment, or enlightenment is simply the recognition of an integration of spirit, mind and body.

It's when everything just comes together, and it's simple. It's not exotic. It's not crazy. It's not ecstasy or levitating or any of this stuff. But most of us experience something like that right before we go to bed. It's like, you know when you're thinking, and you're like, oh, did I call so-and-so today? Or I forgot to take the trash out or whatever those things are.

At some point, your mind just says, forget about it. I'm tired. The body says, I'm tired. Spirit is saying, let it go. And you do. We all take that moment where we just sink into the pillow, maybe with a little smile on her face, or we just roll over to get comfortable. That's a moment of integrating spirit, mind and body.

We're at peace. We have no thought. We're not going to worry about tomorrow. We're not going to project into the past. We're just there, taking a few breaths before we go off. Yeah. Sleep well. Those are the moments we can copy. We can say, oh, I did, and usually, we do it right when we wake up. We just woke up.

Before those thoughts rush through the busy day, we just breathe in. It's like maybe we're snuggled in our bed, and it's cold outside, and we just feel so good, or whoever's next to us makes us feel like, oh, this is great. You know, we have a roof over our heads. There's just a moment of no thought. So those are the moments we can build on.

I know.

And when there's no. Yeah, when there's a challenge. I was going to say it's taking the time to dive into those moments. Like the challenge is going to be there. And so we just practice. That's where the word practice comes from. We're practising for the big event. What's the big event? The big challenge, whether you're an athlete or you're someone you know, is that life's challenges are going to come, and they're going to go.

So we prepare ourselves, you know, we enjoy when there's a flow, and then when there's something that looks like it's challenging or it's, it's causing us to move in a certain direction that we didn't think we'd be going in. We breathe, we connect, we practice.

All right, all right. Very good. I know that a lot of ways I get to that are through exercise.

I'm a big swimmer and runner. You know, the meditation and the prayer are where I get my moments of enlightenment and encouragement and that security that I know I'm being taken care of, that somebody, you know, that my God is looking after me. So I hear you. You emphasize personal empowerment in your book. How does embracing enlightenment help individuals reclaim their power?

You know, we are human beings because most of us don't have really enlightened parents. We're taught generation after generation that we're victims of life. You know, that life is happening, and it's just going to keep happening. And you better. You know, suck it up or just, you know, get along, or this too shall pass, which is one of my favourite sayings, because it will pass through.

But we feel like we're victims of everything that's happening. But when we dive into a perennial truth, it's wisdom that is in every mystic tradition. It's in every religion; it's in every shamanic tradition or native tradition. And it's this idea that life isn't happening to us, that we are expressing life. And when we can grasp that and take that on, we become co-creators.

And, the Christian tradition, there's a saying and, the Jewish tradition, there's a saying that ye are gods and made in the image of light and likeness of God itself, and that actually is expressed in Buddhism, in the Dow, the Ching, and other traditions. And what that is is that we can see that big picture that I was talking about.

And to really grasp who we are, we can with our thoughts of being, loving in powered of feeling and the love flow through us and out of us rather than trying to get love or trying to get supply or money or wealth or fame, we actually give the gifts that we have, and that is empowering. That allows us not to feel taken down by the diagnosis or by a crisis in our lives.

We actually take that, and we use our connection with Spirit or God, whatever we want to call it, our higher self, our intuition. And now we have this power, this strength within us that guides us through a crisis or a challenge or a change.

Yeah, Terrific. In a world focused on material success and external achievements, how can someone shift their perspective to prioritize inner growth and awareness?

There's one thing I want to say before you answer that, you know, earlier, you asked question six, and you know, you were talking about how to achieve certain things. And, you know, when I'm in my most profound problems, if I reach out and try to help others, even if it's my problem and ask people how they're doing and what their lives are, I know what empowers me.

So my whole saying is when I give, I get so much more in return. I just certainly do. So, do you need me to repeat that question? Yes. Okay. In a world focused on material success and external achievements, how can someone shift their perspective to prioritize inner growth and awareness?

So, you know, we're taught that there's a natural longing and a desire within us. And that is in my belief that we are timeless, eternal beings, And we are. We are kind of.

I you saw stuffed into this finite time and space, this finite body. So we're timeless, eternal beings stuffed into this finite little body that has this finite set of experiences, this finite history of my parents, not your parents. I don't know how you lived it.

It's mine over here. And so there's this long, there's this natural longing that we all have to feel whole. That's it's like we're all looking for love in relationships. We look outside of ourselves for that love to feel whole. We look outside of ourselves. We look to our career or vocation to give us fulfilment.

We look in, you know, for work to give us money, so we think money will provide us with freedom. So we're always looking for things like freedom and fulfilment, meaning and joy, the things that we look for or pleasure. It's if we're going to go, many people turn to drugs or alcohol or other things. They, so we're always looking outside.

But there comes a time for almost all of us when we've tried it all, we've attempted to, you know, we try the relationships, and we're on the third divorce or that we've tried the, you know, the drugs and alcohol and we're still so unhappy. We've tried the latest fad or the gimmick or whatever it is. So usually, there's a natural progression that kind of brings us back to trying something else.

There is an inner voice, and most of us have ignored it for a long time. I was blessed, and I say this: I was blessed by cancer early on because it guided me to turn within early on. But some of us are going to be blessed later in life by that call to turn within and to seek that power from within.

And we will be guided and directed. I agree. Yeah, I agree. It's happened to me. It happened to me at age 37. But that's for another story. I'd love to hear it.

 Yeah. What role does gratitude play in living an enlightened life? And how can people cultivate it more intentionally? Gratitude, in general, I guess. Oh, yes.

 Yes.

I actually have a gratitude journal that I've written. And there's a kind of chapter in front of the journal that reminds us about gratitude. And I think it was Meister Eckhart who said, if the only prayer you ever spoke was thank you, that's the only prayer you ever spoke, and that would be enough. That would change your life.

Now, I believe absolutely that if you never read a spiritual book, a self-development book, or a mindset book, if all you did was spend five minutes in the morning and five minutes in the evening in gratitude, your life would change dramatically. Not just a tiny bit, but incrementally and then exponentially, it would change dramatically. Yeah. Excellent, excellent. And I agree wholeheartedly.

Wholeheartedly. Yeah.

Can you explain how self-awareness and mindfulness contribute to enlightenment? For instance, what are some practices you recommend to deepen the skills? Yes. Well, there's a chapter in my book. I think it's. I forgot what it's called, but it's about being the observer and becoming the observer. So that becomes the witness to our thoughts, becoming the witness to what's happening, such as events or having the senses in our body, the thoughts in our body.

So if you're out, if you're driving in your car and someone cuts you off on the freeway and we, you know, many of us have that reaction, you know, how dare they. You see, I could have been killed or whatever it is, and it might be true. We might have been run off the road. And thank God nobody was there, whatever that is.

But we're watching when we become the observer and witness the ideas that are flowing through our minds. It's like I feel the tenseness in my body. I feel like I want to scream. I feel the contraction in my chest. Now we're watching this as it's happening, and we're saying, oh, look at, look at, look at me doing all this.

My thoughts, or how dare they or whatever it is. So we're seeing our thoughts, were watching our thoughts. That spaciousness gives us the realization and perspective of what we can do, what we want to do, and what's actually happening. That person could be taking their sick child to the hospital. That person, you know, we don't know anything that's happening.

So we can give ourselves a choice. We can say, do I want to respond this way? Do I like the course through my body? Do I like the heart rate to go up? Do I like the blood pressure? Do you know what I'm starting to feel? Or can I just relax and be on the road again? Yeah.

Can I just be with this and breathe? Or the scary sensation or the angry sensation and just let it go, can I? So that's a good question. I don't know; maybe I need to feel this, and that's okay too. There's no right or wrong answer. But giving ourselves that separateness, that spaciousness to watch our thoughts and become the observer, to me, is the key to real transformation.

Okay, great, great stuff, great stuff. How do you address scepticism from people who may feel disconnected from spirituality or think enlightenment isn't for them?

Yes. Well, then it is that I, you know, I honor everyone's. Yeah, yeah. Wherever you are and whatever you're feeling. And you know what I love about right now, Jay, is there are so many beautiful mindset coaches like psychology that have changed a little bit, and they will help you develop positivity so you don't have to call it in.

You don't have to call it enlightenment or spirituality or any of those things. There are beautiful health coaches. You mentioned working out if, if, if we worked out our bodies, if we raised our heart rate and our breathing, if we breathe, you know, breathe hard and fast or changed our breathing rate, you know, once or twice a day for 15 minutes, we would change our lives.

I mean, that changes who we are. So we don't even have to deal with enlightenment or spirituality or any of those things. But there are other ways to come into wholeness through the body, through the mind. At some point, well, the body and mind being in wholeness will recognize the spirit, but it doesn't recognize it on its own time and in its own way.

Very good. And as you said, if it's, you know, you're not forced into anything. These are suggestions. It's not your way. It's not your way. Your book touches on the ideas of authenticity. Why is being authentic such an important part of living enlightenment, and how can people embrace their true selves?

It's beautiful. Yeah, well, that's become such a part of my path. You know, when we were younger, when I was in the Catholic school, when my parents put me there, I didn't use it.

Obviously, what we're kind of giving to our kids is what we think would be the best for them. Most of the time, we're trying to feed them in a way that makes sense for us as adults. So as children, you know, usually by the time we're two and certainly younger, but definitely by the time we're seven, we have created our responses to how we feel. You know how we're addicted to approval. We want what we need absolutely. As human animals, we need the approval of our parents. So then they feed us, they clothe us. They're not angry with us. We're not going to be exiled from the tribe. These are sort of, you know, psychological responses of an animal. You see, we are animals, we are beings, we're mammals, you know, and so we're going for that approval.

We're going for that conditioning to make ourselves as loved and likeable as we can be in our family environments, whatever that looks like. And most of the time, we make choices when we're, you know, 2 to 2 to 5 to 7. And by the time we're 17 and 27, we're living from choices we don't remember making.

So it's so important to know that there was a movie called Runaway Bride. It's really old, but it's in Julia Roberts's film, and it was the bottom line. Spoiler alert: she doesn't know what kind of eggs she likes because whoever she's with, she likes those eggs, so she's been conditioned. She doesn't even know what kind of eggs she likes because she wants to please or be with or like what?

The person who's going to give her love will like it. Well, we have that. That's why that movie was so successful. You know, what kind of music do we want? What type of food do we really like? How do we like to work out? How do we like it, and where do we really want to live? Or have our, you know, have our being?

And so when we find out what who we really are, we begin attracting that which serves us, our authentic being, not those things that keep us stuck wearing these masks off, I'm this kind of a mom, or I'm this kind of a teacher, I'm this kind of a, you know, whatever it is because we want to be seen in a certain way.

Well, what we don't realize is that when we drop the masks, the spirit created us ideally to be our authentic selves. And it's so much more rewarding than any mask we can pick up and try to be. Beautiful. I think it's very powerful. It is very powerful, very just wonderful. I'm enjoying this so much. Elizabeth.

How does Living Enlightenment approach the balance between spirituality and practical living?

Yeah, we've touched on that in some of these conversations, too. Yeah, I thought so, too. Yeah, it's really the idea that when we are really in touch with our breathing, how we're feeling, our sensations, then we get to notice, oh, I'm getting really angry here. I'm getting really overwhelmed. My blood pressure, you know, can start to smell how we are affected by the world and how we are affecting the world.

People are always yelling at me. What's up with that? I, you know, we start to notice things. Well, that's very practical. It's practical for our health. It's practical for our mental health and emotional well-being. And it's practical that when we practice sort of breathing, becoming aware, we, as you mentioned, get answers to problems or challenges in our life that we couldn't have imagined because the only finite thing, my nose, is what we've already experienced.

But when we open up to a more significant dimension of mind, then the unknown comes in as a beautiful solution or a beautiful invitation. Sometimes, it's not even noticeable. It's like calling your mother. Yeah, and then you call your mother, and she says, I ran into this friend of yours from high school, and they said this, and you're thinking, no way. I was just thinking I needed that. And this, you know, you would have never thought to call that person, but you had the thought. Call your mom.

 Excellent, excellent, excellent. How has writing and sharing living enlightenment transformed your own life or deepened your understanding of enlightenment? I guess the whole process has gotten you there. Yeah, it's sort of a silly question if you really think about it.

No, no, but some people sit down and write a book like they have an idea. Well, I would assume most people, you know, have an idea. And I have a friend who writes, you know, beautiful books, and he has the idea. Then, he has the idea for chapters, and he knows how long a chapter should be.

He has three headings for each chapter. Well, mine did not come that way. My mind really came as the answers that I needed along the path. And so, yes, it was. This is my transformation. This is not funny. This is my yeah,

That's who you are today. That's fantastic. So, I do have one more question for us before we wrap this up. And if there was one key takeaway or message you hope your readers and listeners carry with them from living enlightenment, what would it be?

Take your time. Yeah. It's, you know, when I look around, I think about the reason why. This is like I'm still doing this. I'm still teaching, I have courses on podcasts, and my podcast is Living Enlightened. So it's because when I look at how there are so many people who have so much, they've done what we talked about a little bit, they've found, you know, the relationship chips, and they have money. They have success, careers, and people all around them, and they have the car, the house, the vacation home, and whatever it is they have so much.

And they're still so unhappy. Yeah. And I say needlessly unhappy because, you know, Buddha said the first noble truth is life is suffering.

But people forget there's a fourth noble truth. And that is, there is a way out of suffering. There's a way out of it. And that is not to look outside for what has already been given to us.

So when we think, oh, I need a vacation home, or I need that car, or, you know, the red Ferrari, or even sometimes we just think I need a car because the mind is about to die or is dead in the driveway, right? When we think of the five things that are on the top of our list of what we need, we look at those five things that we need and ask ourselves, why do I need this?

Why do I want this? And it's because my car is old, and it will make me feel secure driving a new car. And what is driving it? What is feeling secure? I mean, and I'll be happy. I'll be happy. I will feel I'll feel safe. Safe, you know? And so we can go through everything on the list.

A bigger house, you know, will make me happy. If I were in a relationship, you know, not single or alone, I'd be satisfied. And so we have these ideas of what we would be, how we would feel.

When we find out, it is mind-blowing that we can be happy right now. Like, you can look at a picture of your cat or walk outside and see a flower growing or a snowflake, you know, catching it on your glove.

And you just check that out again like you were when you were a kid. And you see the miracle of life, the grass with the squirrels. But, you know, whatever's happening, we can be happy right now. We can save right here. So when we answer those questions and really do that as a practice, it's like I can turn and be happy right now.

I can be safe right now. I can find peace. Even though the kids are yelling and the house is too small. And, you know, whatever it, I can feel peace right now, and then we will become that peace, that joy, that security. And now we're going to attract it because we are it. So we're not getting it. We're being it, and we're allowing it to come to us.

And what you said earlier was key when we are at peace, when we are joyous, when we are in power. Whenever we want to claim for ourselves, now we can give it. You said to give it when you can provide it. No matter how bad you're feeling, no matter what challenge you're having, if you can claim power or joy and give that to someone, it's like, oh, I love what you're wearing today.

You look beautiful, or I love that you're, you know, helping your child like that. You guys look so happy. Whatever we're doing, we can take a moment and give that which we're looking for because it's within us.

You know, you made such some really, really wonderful points there. And it's so funny because most of us, I think, live our lives where we think if I get a bigger house if I get a nicer car, if I get a pull, that's going to make you happy.

And there you still are. Until you can find happiness and peace within yourself, can you even enjoy those other things? So it's so true. Nothing in this world materialistic will make you happy. You may feel a little bit secure if you make a lot of money, but it's still not happiness. So I love that you know you have to find it within and then enjoy your life.

It was just so wonderful having you here. You're really, really wise, and I hope this, by all means, is in our only podcast. I hope you and your publishers reach different heights. And there are other books, or this even travels further. I would love to see you again. Me too. Jay, I just loved meeting you.

You have such warmth and such a wonderful way about yourself. I’m so happy

Thank you so much. So we're going to say, world, welcome to the Choices podcast. Thank you for tuning in. We'll see you next time. Every Tuesday, there's a new podcast. May God bless you and look after you. Amen. Amen.