Living A Life Of Love

Welcome to the Shifting with Marlee podcast.

I'm Marlee.

Thank you for joining me wherever you are.

All that I ask of you,

The listener,

Is to have an open mind and an open heart.

And in return,

I offer you myself.

Today,

We're going to talk about living a life of love.

We're going to discuss embodying more presence,

Compassion,

Understanding,

And love in our lives.

We're going to talk about how to recognize the love at the core of everything and the interconnectedness of all things on this planet.

And we're going to talk about how to navigate an intense and chaotic and shifting world with an open heart.

Here to guide us on our journey today and share his wisdom is Troy Hadid.

Troy is an author,

International yoga teacher,

And social entrepreneur from Trinidad and Tobago.

Welcome,

Troy.

Yeah,

Thanks for having me,

Marlee.

It's a pleasure to be here.

Thank you so much for being here today.

I'm so,

So grateful to connect with you.

Yeah,

Same.

Before we dive in,

Troy,

Can you please let people know where they can find you?

Well,

They can find me in Trinidad if they want to come and visit.

Yeah.

They can find me at TroyHadid.

Com and Instagram,

TroyHadid.

And we also have our own online platform called BeyondYogaTV.

Com.

Those are the main places.

TroyHadid.

Com and Instagram are kind of my go-tos.

That's where I'm most active.

Awesome.

And you have a new book coming out soon,

Right,

Too?

Yeah,

Soon is relative.

It's a work in progress now for,

I guess,

I think over 3 and 1 1⁄2 years.

It is carded to come out this year.

So let's hope that that happens.

It is at the moment called Popcorn in My Pocket.

But that is a working title.

And I am being challenged to consider a different title.

So listeners would have to sign in to my newsletter,

Sign up for my newsletter,

Follow me on Instagram,

And stay tuned.

Wow,

Well,

Good luck with that.

And I can't wait to read it.

Can you tell us a little bit about what it's about?

Yeah,

Of course.

So I will describe the existing title as it is.

And that should give us a little insight as to what this book could possibly be about,

Right?

So in the world today,

There are a lot of spiritual teachings and insights and philosophies.

And the spiritual journey has almost become hip and hype and cool,

Which is great.

That's not a bad thing.

But I think what's happening is that we're talking about all of these concepts and teachings and insights.

And we're reposting them.

And we're sharing them.

And we're reading them and repeating them.

But we're not connecting the dots.

I don't think we're really understanding what these teachings mean or how they apply to our lives,

Right?

So Popcorn in My Pocket is an analogy where popcorn is all these spiritual teachings and insights.

This is popcorn that we're just throwing all over.

Everyone's throwing popcorn everywhere.

And then in Pocket is a spiritual pocket.

And every individual has their own spiritual pocket.

And the only time that these teachings,

This popcorn,

Actually becomes knowledge and understanding is when we put them in our pockets.

And we ask a question,

How does this apply to my life?

Where do I need to embody more of this?

And where am I not embodying this?

So this book is where I share some of the teachings and insights and philosophies.

And by no means would I dare to call it mine,

Because they're not mine.

They've existed for hundreds of thousands of years.

But through my life and sharing stories from my life in which these teachings show up and how I embody them or fail to embody them,

Then it becomes my knowledge and my experience that I share with the reader.

Through this sharing,

I invite the reader as well to take these stories and these insights and then flip it on their own lives and ask a question,

Well,

How does this apply to me?

You know,

To discover popcorn in their own pockets.

I love that.

I can't wait to read that book.

Yeah,

It's a good one.

So to start off today,

Troy,

Can you please share with us an overview of your journey so far in life and how you got to where you are today?

Well,

I grew up in Trinidad my whole life.

My dad's family is of Syrian heritage,

Of Palestinian heritage.

I am recently learned.

My mom's family is of Irish descent,

European descent.

And I lived my whole life in Trinidad.

I've traveled quite a bit.

I went to school in Florida,

In Tampa.

And I've been teaching yoga for over 15 years,

Teaching and practicing yoga for over 15 years.

But from a really young age,

I've just been always called to see something greater than my own individual's needs and desires.

And I would like to believe that I've been trying to do that my whole life to see how can I be of service.

And I've always felt really connected to God and not God in a religious sense,

God as in a limitless God,

A more inclusive vision of God.

You know,

I ran a hemp store for seven years.

That was my first business.

When I came home from university and then I opened a oil recycling,

Waste cooking oil recycling business,

Then we founded a yoga studio.

You know,

And that,

I don't really like to say I did that because it's not so much a I thing.

It's more like a we thing as a community.

And I just finished writing my first book.

Yeah.

So when people ask me what I do,

Marlee,

I try not to put anything in a box because,

You know,

Now I do a lot of keynote speaking and public speaking in a corporate environment.

And that's not something I saw myself doing a year ago.

So I just like to say that whatever I do,

I just hope that it connects individuals to their understanding of God,

Helps them deepen that relationship.

And it reminds us what it really means to love one another.

And as long as I'm doing that,

Then I could kind of be doing anything.

I love that.

Thank you so much for sharing your story.

It's very inspiring.

You're definitely an old soul,

I can tell you that.

So it seems like,

Troy,

You've traveled all over.

And I know you're an international yoga teacher now.

So I'm curious,

What have you learned about humanity through all your travels around the world?

Wow.

We're a little self-absorbed.

Yes.

And what I mean by that,

Let me put it in context.

I live in Trinidad and my life revolves around my society and my friends and my family in Trinidad and so on.

And then you start to travel and you're like,

Wow,

Well,

There's a life going on here too with different people that are just as important as my life.

And I think sometimes you forget that,

It will literally revolve around us.

And I think one thing that we have to remind ourselves about is two things,

And it's kind of like a paradox.

It's like,

We're so small and insignificant and the world doesn't revolve around us,

But at the same time,

Every choice and every decision we make matters.

And that's how powerful we are.

And I think that goes for every individual anywhere on the planet.

And it's part,

The human experience itself is so profound and it's just the one thing that connects all of us,

Right?

And I think I always say that we're far more connected than we could ever imagine.

I love that answer.

And I assume some of those insights on humanity are weaved through your new book too,

I imagine.

Yeah,

My new book kind of revolves around in a subtle way,

What I call the identity crisis of humanity.

And that identity crisis,

We all suffer from it.

From the day we're born,

I'm told that I am Troy,

This is my body.

You're told that you are Molly and that is your body.

So from the very first instant of our very early life,

We're told that we're separate and that we're different.

And when I am told that I am my body,

Unconsciously,

What a narrative that is being repeated to me through my life is that I am my body,

When I die,

I will cease to exist.

And if that is true,

And if that is this unconscious programming,

Then what that means is that every choice I make unconsciously is gonna serve the preservation of my body and my identity.

Because I have been programmed to believe that this is who I am.

So much so that I say things like,

I am sad,

I am happy,

I am a yoga teacher.

Well,

Who am I then when I'm not teaching yoga?

Or does that mean that if I am of one religion,

That I can't change my religion?

Because if I change my religion,

Well,

Do I actually exist still?

These words,

I am,

And anything that follows it,

We have to understand is a temporary state.

It's not really who we are.

Any sense of identity that revolves around our physical human form,

It's not who we are.

It doesn't matter what it is,

It's temporary.

And I think this identity crisis is something we need to be aware of and in relationship to.

Because when we're not,

Unconsciously it governs every choice and every decision.

It is a narrative that makes us separate and always has us driving for more and more and more.

Well,

How much we really want?

It in a lot of ways inhibits our ability to love one another,

To really see one another.

Yes,

You're so right.

It's very profound.

I love that we're bringing awareness to that today in this conversation.

And along these lines,

Troy,

Of these insights that you've gathered from your experience,

I know that you've experimented in your life with periods of silence.

And I also know that you've been on a darkness retreat.

And I imagine both of those experiences were really profound and I'm really intrigued by this.

So can you share with us some big takeaways,

Some big lessons you've learned from these experiences and any epiphanies you may have had?

Yeah,

I can.

So silence,

I have done what is actually not,

It's quite common for anyone on a journey.

It's called a vipassana retreat and it's 10 minutes of silence.

And one of the things I discovered in that experience was that the mind is so powerful and it's so important that we have a relationship with our mind.

And very often we neglect that relationship.

And when we neglect that relationship,

It's like we become a puppet in mind.

We're no longer in relationship.

The mind is controlling us.

There's no freedom because we are actually almost like we're being manipulated by our experiences and our conditioning and our emotions.

So we're not actually living our life intentionally.

And how I describe the mind is,

The mind is like an eternal lover.

It's like a marriage,

But there's no separation or divorce,

Right?

So it's you and your mind for the rest of your life.

So it would really save you to be friends with your mind and get to know your mind and not neglect your mind.

And I think what that experience shared for me or gave me is the insight and the realization that it's really important for us to look at our mind and be friend of mind and try to understand where these thoughts coming from,

Where these emotions coming from.

It's not just about,

Okay,

I'm not happy,

I'm sad.

Well,

Why are you not happy in this moment?

What is making you sad?

What are you actually afraid of?

What am I really afraid of?

Because the more we start to pull these layers back,

It's more we begin to understand the mind and the human experience.

And once I create a relationship to it,

It's not that these feelings and these sensations don't come back.

It's that when they do come back,

I have seen them before,

I've understood them.

I have a relationship to them.

So we are now,

It's no longer that we're being manipulated by our mind and our emotions,

But we now have a relationship with them so that we can make conscious,

Intentional choices as to how we live our lives.

So that was that experience.

I think it stuck with me forever,

How powerful the mind is and how important it is for us to cultivate this relationship with our minds.

And when I came out of that,

I said to myself,

I would never do it again.

It was a great experience.

And I thought everyone should do 10 days of silence,

But I told myself I had no need or desire to ever do it again.

And about 12 years later,

Which is 2022,

So last year,

I decided I was going to step into our experience of solitary darkness,

Which was now silence in the absence of light,

Not with a group of people,

But by myself.

So in every way,

It was that experience of silence times a hundred.

And it made that experience look like an all-inclusive vacation in a lot of ways.

Wow.

Yeah.

You know,

And there's so much that came out of that.

And I like to be clear,

I actually did not stay 10 days in that room.

I left the dark room after day three.

And I left that room with no sense of defeat or giving up or anything.

I was,

I really do believe I was called out of that room and I had got the experience I needed to get.

And one of the things I take from that experience that I would share with listeners,

You know,

I could talk about that,

Unpack that experience for hours.

But I think one of the most important things that came out for me is the realization that ego is so tricky,

Right?

That the ego actually attaches to spiritual practice.

And the ego makes us believe that if I sit in darkness,

Calmer or more realized or more conscious or closer to God,

Or if I sit in silence that I'm somehow more evolved or more righteous,

Or if I do yoga every day for 10 days,

Or if I go to church every day,

Or if I do a thousand plan ceremonies or plan medicine ceremonies or whatever it is,

The ego is so tricky that it attaches to these practices and makes us feel that if we more of these practices we do,

It means that I'm using inverted commas for people who don't have a visual.

The more spiritual we are.

And that is so much absolute garbage.

And what really dawned on me in that room,

You know,

I went into that room to shed layers of my ego and my identity and myself.

And there was a point where I realized it was my ego keeping me in a room.

It was my ego that felt like I had something to prove and was worried about what would people say?

What would people think?

What,

You know,

How would it look if I didn't stay in there for 10 days?

And I was well aware that the mind would play so much tricks on me,

Right?

That's all the mind does.

So I really looked at this and I sat with it.

And of course,

My journey as to when I came out of the room is again,

A different discussion,

But it's just important to realize that none of these practices,

All of these practices,

I chose my word carefully.

They are all meaningless.

Now listen carefully.

I'm not saying they are useless.

They are useful.

They are tools along the path of developmental realization or whatever you want to call it,

Right?

But they are meaningless.

And what I mean that it doesn't matter how much of these practices you do.

It doesn't mean anything unless it helps you get over yourself,

You know?

And the actual practice,

The actual practices that matter are,

Can you embody love?

And can you see divinity or see God in all aspects of the human experience and every living creature or non-living creature?

That is a practice.

Love and God,

That's all that matters.

Everything else is pretty much just fluff.

Troy,

I'm blown away by this.

Thank you so much for sharing that with us.

And I love how you're like a spiritual experience experimenter.

And now you're sharing that with the world and it's just really important.

So thank you.

And I think what blows me away the most by what you've shared is that it all boils down to such simple concepts,

Such simple truths.

It's really all about love.

Yeah.

And with that said,

Molly,

You know,

We could put a pin there because we have to acknowledge as well,

You know,

In the world today,

We have all these words that we like to use and I like to pick them apart.

And love is one of those words because it's easy for somebody to go and repost on social media or repeat to their friends,

Yes,

It's all about love.

It's all about love.

It's all about love.

But what does that mean?

Because what it means to me to love someone might be different to what it means to somebody else.

And we all have our own conditioning that brings us to believe what love is or what love is not.

Because somebody may have grown up with an understanding of love that is actually limited,

Conditional and selfish.

And they're going around saying,

Well,

It's all about love.

Well,

Okay,

Yeah,

But your understanding of love might be different from mine.

So I think it's really important for us to start have these conversations about what does that really mean?

How does that show up in our lives?

You know?

Yeah,

I totally agree.

And I think your connection from what you said to love in God is where it is for you,

Right?

Because that's basically unconditional love,

Seeing the divine in everything.

Absolutely.

What I talk about a little bit in my book,

And this came to me while writing my book,

It wasn't like a concept that I knew I wanted to write about.

I started writing one of the last chapters in my book,

Which is really about what it means to love.

And it just landed to me and it was like,

Wow,

I'm asking you wrong question.

And we often love to look at things and we say,

Well,

What is love and what is not love?

But everything is love.

There is love everywhere.

Love is like God.

There's no aspect of a human experience where love doesn't exist.

And I know that's a very bold statement and it almost comes across as a very privileged statement,

Right?

But here's what I'm getting at,

Is that love always exists.

The question we need to ask is not what is love and what is not love.

It's about what is being loved.

In any moment,

What is being loved?

Because if I see that this is love and this is not love,

Or that is not love,

Then I am condemning something and saying,

That is not love,

Then it's dead.

Then it could never become love.

It's now dead.

I see that is not love.

Love does not exist there.

But if I ask the question,

What is being loved?

Let me give an example,

Right?

And there's so many examples I could give and some of them are really harsh.

So I'm gonna keep it simple.

If I am eating lunch next to a homeless person and they are hungry and I choose not to share my lunch with them,

That is still love,

But it's a love of my personal needs and desires.

It's a love of my own self-satisfaction over the love of someone else.

So if I can acknowledge that my love in that moment is self-serving and selfish,

Then I can take that love and try to find ways in which I can expand that love to include and reach everyone else around me,

Rather than saying,

That is not love.

Love is dead,

Right?

And this even,

You know,

I really resist this example because I know how triggering of an example it is.

So I'm gonna talk about it loosely.

Say there's an abusive relationship,

Right?

Somebody who is acting from a place of oppression or inflicting unjust behavior or suffering upon someone,

That is still love,

But that is a love of power,

A love of greed.

It is a self-serving love.

It is not an expanding inclusive love.

So,

You know,

This can apply to any situation,

But if we ask ourselves in this moment,

What is being loved?

What am I loving?

If I make this decision,

What is my intention behind this action or this decision?

And that way we can really begin to excavate what is being loved?

How are we showing up in the world?

What are we serving?

Because I do believe that love lives everywhere.

We just have to start to understand what is being loved because every choice,

Every decision we make,

It loves something,

It serves something,

But what is it serving and who is it serving?

This is very thought provoking.

Thank you for explaining that and thank you for posing those questions because I know I have a lot to think about.

And I love,

I wanna highlight one of the questions that you asked,

What am I serving in this moment and every moment?

And I really think that's very thought provoking.

And I wanna talk about for a minute this more inclusive,

Expansive love.

What can we do in our day-to-day lives to spread more love in the world?

What actions can we take?

You know,

That's a general question,

A massive general question.

To me,

The very fundamental teaching of yoga is about realizing our interconnectedness,

Realizing our union,

Right?

In other words,

It is about seeing God in every individual and seeing divinity even in darkest aspects of our society.

And what I would advise listeners or anyone to do is,

You know,

We all have our lives and our lives have all these relationships.

And some of these relationships are challenging and triggering.

And they are people that we feel have wronged us,

Have done us things,

Have said things.

We believe that they are things and people that are unforgivable,

Yeah?

And I understand because a human condition is one in which we attach to our identity.

So I feel that if you see something that hurts me or do something that hurts me,

That it's personal,

That you did it to hurt me.

But here's a reality that I would invite listeners to consider.

If you are not actually your body,

It's never personal.

No one can ever do anything directly to harm or hurt you because you are not your body.

It also means that they are not their body.

Get this,

If Mali were to do something to me that really hurt me and wronged me,

It's not Mali doing it,

It's Mali's conditioning doing it.

So in other words,

What I would invite listeners to understand is that to see people not as these individuals but to see people as children of God,

As seeds of God,

Who have experienced certain conditioning and we all have different experiences and different conditioning that make us who we are,

That teach us what love is,

What forgiveness is.

These experiences and conditioning,

They mold us into how we behave and how we show up in the world.

They dictate who we are.

So imagine that it's not so much that we're doing things personally to harm or hurt people,

But we are all in this human experience walking a curriculum that is designed to teach us certain things and bring growth and transformation.

But we are also part of one another's curriculum.

And as you walk your curriculum and I help you walk your curriculum,

It just so happens that I might become a casualty and my emotions might become a casualty.

And that's okay because I know that there really is no Troy and Molly that we're part of one collective whole.

Does that make sense?

Yeah,

It does make sense.

It's a perspective shift,

Right?

I love that answer and thank you.

And it's part of my sole mission in this lifetime to spread love and experience love and be loved and give love.

And so I'm really lit up by this conversation.

And I also wanna point out as we embody more love and spread more love in our own lives,

It raises the frequency of the whole planet back to that interconnectedness,

Right,

Troy?

And the ripple effect is truly massive.

Yeah,

Of course.

Everything,

Every single thing we do,

See and think creates a vibration in the world.

You know,

And there's an environmentalist,

Jane Goodall,

I'm sure you've known her.

And I can't remember her words exactly,

But I always talk of them.

She points out that if we're asking a question,

Can I change the world?

That's the wrong question.

The question we have to ask is how am I changing the world?

Because every decision,

Every thought,

Every action we make creates an energetic shift in the world.

That we change the world in everything we do.

We just have to start to look at what change am I creating?

What shift am I contributing?

You know?

Yes,

Absolutely.

And one thing I wanna ask you,

And I think you've already answered this question partially,

But I want to kind of dive deeper.

What do you think is standing in our way of focusing on these things and embodying more love and more compassion and more understanding and more presence?

What are the barriers?

The biggest barrier to me,

Molly,

Yeah,

I didn't mention it a little bit,

But the biggest barrier is our obsession with our individual identity,

Our own needs,

Desires,

And that unconscious need for self-preservation as if we had something to prove.

And one of the biggest things that anybody could recognize,

It takes some reconditioning,

Right?

But get this,

We will all die.

We will all leave our body.

And it may take a few decades,

But we will all be forgotten.

Our names will not be remembered.

The things we've done will not be remembered.

The things we've accomplished,

They will be forgotten.

But what will live forever is a vibration and a resonance of how we make people feel.

And how I make you feel right now,

Molly,

Is it actually changes who you are on a molecular level.

And that is gonna live with you forever.

And you are going to carry that in your life as you live your life.

And that is gonna pass on and impact everyone else you come into contact with.

That will never die.

And I don't need to be acknowledged for that shift because it's not actually me creating that shift.

It's this energy that made me,

That comes through me,

That creates that shift.

And I think once we come to accept and recognize,

It's not us.

There's no Molly and there's no Troy,

That we're all in this together,

Creating this experience.

Once we can get over,

Don't get me wrong,

It's very hard.

And it's an ongoing practice every day to get over this sense of individual identity.

But it is the biggest thing standing in our way.

And I also wanna add to that as well,

A big part of that is our ego.

Yeah.

And the ego is so powerful.

It's really difficult.

Yeah,

Well,

That's where ego comes from,

Right?

The ego is this sense of individual identity.

And it's also important to note,

Molly,

That ego's not bad.

To say ego is bad would be to call a human experience useless.

It's not bad,

It has its purpose.

It's here to teach us,

But we have to be in relationship to it,

Not controlled by it.

We have to be in relationship to it,

Not controlled by it.

Yeah.

I love that.

I want to talk for a minute about presence,

Because I think it's one of those simple truths,

Those simple concepts that kind of everything boils down to in addition to love,

Seeing divinity.

I think presence is in that equation as well and is really important.

So I wanna highlight it.

And I think it's something we're all seeking,

Consciously or unconsciously,

And it's something we all need a lot more of.

So do you have any tips or tools that you've discovered along the way to help people find more presence in their daily lives?

Yeah,

Absolutely.

You know,

We talk about presence,

And ever since Eckhart Tolle,

Of course,

Came up with this phenomenal book,

Power of Now,

We talk about living in the present moment,

Living in the now,

Don't think about the past,

Don't think about the future,

Blah,

Blah,

Blah,

Blah,

Blah.

All amazing stuff.

It's actually a lot more layered and a lot more intricate than we would imagine.

And just to give example,

I don't wanna get into details,

But to give example,

If I am actually in the present moment,

Marley doesn't exist and Troy doesn't exist,

Because all the narratives that tell us that Troy and Marley are two different individuals,

Those have come from a past.

So if we are actually in this present moment right now,

Then there's no Troy and Marley.

They're just two conscious beings who are now sharing an experience.

And there's also no end to this conversation.

There's actually no conversation,

Because we're just sharing this moment,

Right?

So to actually be present,

Really the down-to-nitty-gritty of it is quite layered and extremely powerful.

The biggest tool I would give anyone about learning to be present is that it's all in your mind and in your breath.

You know,

The very second teaching of yoga says that yoga is quieting of the fluctuations of the mind.

As long as your mind is fluctuating,

Your mind is creating separation,

Your mind is judging,

Your mind is concerned with past or future.

Your mind is very seldom present.

For the mind to be present,

It needs to be still.

We have to be in relationship to it,

Right?

So creating a relationship to your mind is fundamental to being able to live in the present moment.

Now,

To do that,

There's a teaching in yoga that says,

It's from a teacher called B.

K.

Sahindar,

And I always talk about this as well to anybody that knows my stuff,

Has heard this before,

But it says that mind is king of everything,

But breath is king of the mind.

And breath is the one thing that can help us tame our mind and deepen this relationship to our mind so that we can begin to unravel all of these narratives and the mind actually starts to get quieter.

It's not that the mind doesn't create and doesn't fluctuate and doesn't speak to us,

That's in mind's natural state,

But it no longer has to scream and shout to get our attention,

Because we're listening.

So cultivating a relationship to our mind and a relationship to our breath is the absolute foundation of learning to be present and live in the present moment and live lives from a place of intention rather than a place of emotional reaction.

Yes,

And that is one thing that yoga has really helped me with personally.

I've been practicing yoga,

It's been a big part of my life since I was young,

A teenager,

So I mean,

I've been practicing yoga,

I don't know,

Maybe 20 years or something like that,

And those are the principles that yoga has really helped me learn,

Intention,

Presence,

Connection to body,

And connection to breath.

Yeah,

Absolutely,

Beautiful.

It all sounds so simple,

Troy,

When we're speaking about it,

But I do know for everyone listening,

It is really challenging,

And we're all rushing around in our day-to-day lives in what feels like our own little worlds,

And so I know it is really challenging to embody presence and love.

Yeah,

Constant,

That is the practice,

Constant work in progress.

Constant work in progress,

Exactly.

It's a lifelong practice.

And Troy,

I guess what I wanna bring up is our world today can be very harsh,

And intense,

And unforgiving,

And so much of the shadow sides of humanity are on display every day.

We're dealing with a lot of division,

And hate,

And destruction,

And sadness,

And grief,

And there's basically endless things bombarding us every day that can easily make us shut down,

Not wanna be present,

Distract ourselves,

And close off our hearts.

So do you have any tips to help people navigate today's world with more presence,

More love,

More compassion,

And an open heart?

Yeah,

I mean,

I could give them tips,

And of course,

Creating a relationship to the mind and the breath would definitely be a tip,

But I wanna give you something more than that,

And it's really a perspective.

And I think we as individuals need to remember that the human experience wasn't supposed to be flowers and rainbows.

It's not supposed to be all joy,

And laughter,

And happy dippy days.

It's not meant to be that.

It's meant to be transformative.

On some level,

There's growth and transformation on a spiritual level that we are meant to experience.

It doesn't make sense to me any other way.

And I would just invite listeners to,

As they navigate their lives and their relationships,

Imagine that every single individual they come across,

It could be in the street,

It could be someone driving a car,

It could be in an argument,

It could even be in,

I'm even gonna say this,

It can even be in a very challenging relationship,

Even if that relationship might be somewhat abusive.

In all of these relationships,

In all of these individuals,

Remind yourself that God lives there somewhere,

That God lives there somewhere.

And if we could have all our relationships and all our conversations as if we were in relationship to God,

As if you were actually seeing and talking to or walking past God,

How different we would live our lives.

And I also want to say this,

Because I did mention abusive relationships and situations of conflict.

I'm not one that shines flowers and rainbows and everything.

I think that's nonsense.

So I want to say this,

Loving someone is sometimes walking away.

And loving someone is sometimes telling them the very things they would rather not hear.

And it is important to realize that when we talk about being loving and being compassionate and being supportive,

It's not always bunnies and flowers and rainbows and butterflies.

Sometimes it means being harsh and standing up in what you know to be true and holding up a mirror to someone so they can see where they need to do better and how they need to do better.

Yes,

Thank you.

I find this very,

Very helpful.

Thank you for that perspective shift and that reminder.

And also,

I just want to point out,

Our souls came to earth to experience everything to learn and to grow and evolve.

So bringing it back to that perspective,

I do think is really helpful.

And I also love,

Troy,

How in this conversation,

You connect everything back to that interconnectedness and the connection of all things.

It's a really big theme of this podcast.

And I think it's sometimes an easier concept to grasp logically than it is to truly embody,

If that makes sense.

So I'm wondering if you have any,

I'll say tips again,

To help people really feel into that interconnectedness of everything on this planet and bring that into their daily lives.

Any embodiment tips?

I would tell someone to,

One of the things,

You know,

There are two things that really hit home for me and helped me come to experience and understand this,

Because it is very different to be told of something and to know it.

Experience is a whole different thing,

Right?

And I would mention two things.

One is nature and to immerse yourself in nature.

If you immerse yourself in nature for long periods of time and you just sit and observe,

There's something there you actually feel that there's something there that's bigger than you.

And when you feel and you experience this,

You can't really just let go of it.

It goes with you.

And spending ongoing and lots of time in nature would be one recommendation.

The other thing that really landed for me is the understanding that the word spirit,

Like Holy Spirit,

It actually comes from Latin with spiritus,

And it means to breathe.

If you think about it,

You know,

I'm not gonna tell anyone what to believe or not to believe,

But how it landed for me is that it makes so much sense because breath is the one thing that connects every living being on the planet,

Even every non-living being.

Air,

Breath,

Is the one thing that connects all of us.

It's the one thing that makes us the same.

And I always tell people that we breathe 23,

000 times a day.

God is trying to make love to you 23,

000 times a day.

And most of the time we're not paying attention.

Wow,

That just blew my mind.

I love that this conversation is kind of integrating these higher level concepts into our daily lives.

Yeah.

I think that's really important.

Yeah,

Absolutely.

Troy,

From your perspective,

What does it look like and feel like to live a life of love,

To live a life dedicated to love?

You know,

That's hard to say from my perspective because I think everyone's perspective is different and everyone's experiences and conditioning is different.

But,

You know,

I have a quote from my book,

If I can remember it correctly.

And I remember that when I wrote it,

That's when I thought my book was actually done.

And I thought this was the last line in my book and now it's far from.

But when I actually wrote it,

I remember tears rolling down my eyes because I was like,

This is it.

I was like,

This is it.

And it says to embody love is to see God,

See divinity in the eyes of every human being in all of creation.

Then to become a mirror so that God can be in awe of his own magnificence.

That would be my answer.

You just spoke directly to my soul right there.

I have goosebumps.

Bringing it to a higher level perspective now,

Troy,

What changes do you think need to happen on a societal level to get to a place where more people or the majority of people are present,

Connected to that universal love and embodying more compassion and understanding?

What I would say is this.

I think,

You know,

In my life,

I've had lots of privileges and I don't use that word lightly.

And when we talk about privilege,

We often talk about skin color,

Money,

Gender,

Sexual orientation,

All these larger labels of privilege.

And I think the biggest privilege of all is knowing what love is and safety and security.

And I think that we live in a world where far too many people do not feel safe do not feel secure,

And are part of a system in which they do not feel cared for.

And here's a reality.

It might be easy for me to love or extend my love beyond my own individual identity because I have always felt safe for my entire life.

I've grown up in an environment that is safe and secure.

It's very hard for someone to go beyond themselves and sacrifice their own personal needs and desires to love a greater collective or greater whole that they feel has never loved them back or supported them back.

So I think one of the greatest,

One of the serious things we need to start to really activate in our society is that we need to create a society in which more and more people feel loved,

Supported,

And safe,

Whether they love us back or not.

Because sometimes people just don't know what love is.

They don't know what safety is.

So you're telling them you want them to care about a collective wellbeing and you want them to show love and you want them to be kind,

But they've never been shown that kindness.

They've never felt that security.

They've never felt that love.

So it's not that they don't want to give it.

They don't know what it is.

They don't know what it looks like.

I love that answer.

And Troy,

Thank you so much for being here today and sharing your perspective.

I'm so grateful and honored,

And I really,

Really loved this conversation today.

I have one final important question for you.

Let's go.

What is your vision for the future of humanity and the earth?

Wow.

I believe in a world and a humanity where everyone can see one another as divine beings.

And we can all really live and love one another beyond our own personalities and desires,

That we can actually move beyond this narrative of separateness and otherness.

I truly do believe that it is possible.

We all have room to infuse more love,

Compassion,

And understanding in our lives.

We all have room to be more present in our lives.

I hope this conversation today inspired you.

I'll end today with a quote from Troy.

There is no measure of spiritual awakening or enlightenment other than seeing and serving God in the eyes of every human being,

Without exception.

We say there are many paths to God,

But there is only one.

It may look different,

But there is only one path and that path is love.

That's all.

It's really simple.

Lose yourself in love.