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The Hero's Journey, with Leon Teh
Episode 828th June 2022 • I'm Back! • Serena Savini
00:00:00 00:24:53

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Serena talks with Leon Teh, Transformative Coach & Facilitator and Self-Love Speaker & Advocate, about the importance of self-love & self -care, the challenges of listening to our heart's desires, tools to come back to work and to life.

You can find more about Leon here:

Transcripts

Leon:

So my invitation for you is bring all of you.

Leon:

All of you is welcome, whatever questions that you want to ask that

Leon:

is meaningful for yourself and by that as well, it will, chances are,

Leon:

it will be meaningful for someone else listening in your social circle.

Serena:

today?

Serena:

Our guest is Leon tech, coach facilitator, creator of the program.

Serena:

My art whispers.

Serena:

And we are discussing self-love and self care.

Serena:

How can we listen to heart?

Serena:

And what are the tools that we can use to coming back to work

Leon:

what does I'm back means to me,

Leon:

for me, it's about coming back to the present moment.

Leon:

As for myself, I told you earlier, just now my ego took over and

Leon:

I was rushing and I was running the wrong direction, full speed.

Leon:

And then I realized, huh, this is not where I want to go.

Leon:

so that's an example of, I'm not here.

Leon:

I'm not fully here, I'm here, but my head is bringing me on a trip somewhere else.

Leon:

And to realize that and to come home to.

Leon:

Myself come home to the present moment.

Leon:

All of a sudden all the answers are here.

Leon:

I don't need to look outside.

Leon:

I don't need to add on more knowledge, more information to make it look

Leon:

nicer or better being here right here.

Leon:

Right now.

Leon:

It's enough.

Serena:

You are saying that your head is bringing you in some

Serena:

direction by yourself is different.

Serena:

Let's say.

Serena:

So I'm wondering what is the connection with your head

Serena:

yourself, your body, your soul.

Leon:

That's a good question.

Leon:

What's the hit saying, what does the heart say?

Leon:

What does the body say?

Leon:

And if you go the level deeper, what does your soul say?

Leon:

And yeah.

Leon:

Also different context in terms of who are we in relationship, others,

Leon:

all of that as well, in terms of self to simplify it for myself.

Leon:

The icon of me between the hit and the heart.

Leon:

What do I think I need versus what's true for me, which is why my

Leon:

program is called my heart whisper because the heart hit whisper.

Leon:

So it's quiet.

Leon:

The hit thinks is it's loud and there are noises from outside as well.

Leon:

Other people's noise, society's noise, which is loud as well.

Leon:

And it can be overbearing and covers the voice of our hearts.

Leon:

So I'm back also means for me, I'm back in my heart, I'm tuned into my heart.

Serena:

How can you listen to those whispers with all this

Serena:

noise around you and inside

Leon:

One is to be present with it, to notice, and the

Leon:

quality of presence matters.

Leon:

Because it's a whisper and there's so much noise going on.

Leon:

And to have the quality of presence that is able to pick it up, requires

Leon:

awareness, requires consciousness.

Leon:

And when you pick it up, the flavor of it you will know is different from the heat.

Leon:

Somehow it's so clear.

Leon:

This is the heart speaking.

Leon:

The hit will ask, is this what the heart says?

Leon:

What does it mean?

Leon:

All of that?

Leon:

That's the hate talking

Serena:

but how can you follow this intuition and believe that is truth

Serena:

because sometimes it's hard to see, okay.

Serena:

I'm feeling.

Serena:

These things, but it's not really concrete.

Serena:

So how can you follow your intuition and your connection with the heart when

Serena:

it's not concrete, it's not tangible.

Serena:

How can you believe it?

Leon:

For me?

Leon:

It's fairly tangible.

Leon:

Cause this is a felt feeling that, yes, this is.

Leon:

At the same time, I don't fully always just go with whatever the heart says,

Leon:

listen to the heart, by follow the heart.

Leon:

By bring my, the saying is follow your heart by bring your hit with you.

Leon:

Some people say I don't like this job.

Leon:

And then they believe it's the hit the heart speaking, but it's the hit speaking.

Leon:

And then they quit their job.

Leon:

And then, okay.

Leon:

What now?

Leon:

So the hit is important, not to dis discount it, but to tune into

Leon:

what's true for you and you are at the same time you're asking,

Leon:

how do I know what's true for me?

Leon:

Is that correct?

Leon:

Yes.

Leon:

Have you ever had an experience?

Leon:

What you call it, intuition that this is true for you.

Leon:

You're nodding.

Leon:

And what happens when that happens?

Serena:

I had the experience of both sides.

Serena:

So listening to I'm calling that intuition maybe is not correct.

Serena:

Listen to my heart, maybe it's more correct.

Serena:

And.

Serena:

I have also experienced where I hear my heart, but I didn't listen to my

Serena:

heart, meaning that I didn't follow what my heart was saying to me.

Serena:

Because again, for society, for standards, for things that are in my head It's

Serena:

difficult to recognize the truthfulness of what my heart is saying sometimes.

Serena:

And it's still easy for me to say, oh, maybe it's not so important for me.

Leon:

So you felt it, the heart is speaking, but in the hit.

Leon:

Maybe it's not true.

Leon:

Yes.

Leon:

And you say it's this, it might not even be your voice it's society's

Leon:

conditioning and all of that.

Leon:

So it's not even you speaking, it's the conditioning speaking.

Serena:

Yes.

Serena:

For me.

Serena:

Yes.

Leon:

Which is why the work that we do is so important.

Leon:

That's people who develop others.

Leon:

One of the core things that we support them with is to break pattern.

Leon:

Not just any patterns, because some patterns serve them, serve the individual,

Leon:

but some patterns used to serve them in the past, whether they're a young

Leon:

kid and they're a good boy, they listen to mom and dad so that they don't get

Leon:

beaten up or the king comes out oh, I better be a good boy, good girl.

Leon:

And that served them in the past, but now they're their own person.

Leon:

They're supposed to make their own decisions.

Leon:

They can.

Leon:

Sometimes that gets into the way, oh I don't want to do that because

Leon:

what if I'm not a good boy, if I'm not a good girl and that

Leon:

limits our lives limits our truth.

Leon:

The expression of our truth and our work is to either dissolve that or let that

Leon:

go so that we live an unconditional life.

Leon:

We can choose from our truth.

Leon:

Every single point of time, easy to say, simple concept

Leon:

requires dedication

Leon:

and in a way, a lot of people believe desires are bad.

Leon:

Some people say, oh, we shouldn't want.

Leon:

It depends.

Leon:

The quality of one thing is different.

Leon:

There is the ego want, and there's the heart's true desire.

Leon:

I really want this.

Leon:

I want to enjoy life.

Leon:

I wanna celebrate life, all of this.

Leon:

So to be able to distinguish between the difference of the

Leon:

one thing is very important, because 1, 1, 1 thing expands you.

Leon:

The other one thing is contract.

Leon:

Ah, I'm when I get it, I'll be happy for a while.

Leon:

And then I'll be miserable.

Leon:

What I'm referring to is the heart.

Leon:

Whisper is the heart SW thing.

Leon:

What is true for you?

Leon:

What calls you and to pay attention to that?

Leon:

Because when we pay attention,

Leon:

that journey that will unfold our own hero journey.

Leon:

Cuz if you want something and we don't have it yet, there's something

Leon:

that's getting into the way of.

Leon:

And to explore, huh?

Leon:

What is it?

Leon:

That's getting into my way.

Leon:

What about me?

Leon:

That's not resonating with what I want yet is very valuable.

Leon:

Cause the vibrational match between who we are and the life that we want might

Leon:

differ at different stages of our lives.

Leon:

When I was younger, I wanted to be a pit coach.

Leon:

I looked back wasn't ready.

Leon:

I was 19.

Leon:

And.

Leon:

I would be ready to charge at a certain amount, but not at

Leon:

the amount I'm charging now.

Leon:

So to notice at different stages, where are we and to be gentle with ourselves,

Leon:

ISS also very important for our journey.

Serena:

How can we be gentle with our staff?

Serena:

Ah,

Leon:

I'm also a practitioner of points of.

Leon:

The phototherapy tool you've expensive before.

Leon:

Yes.

Leon:

And one of the core, I wouldn't say teaching, this is when we set the

Leon:

foundation for the room, the agreement in the room, what we share is no

Leon:

judgment, no expectations, not of others.

Leon:

And also even not on our.

Leon:

And for some people, and that's a tall ask.

Leon:

We are judgment machines.

Leon:

Good, bad.

Leon:

It's a machine gun, but to catch that and be okay with putting judgment, aside

Leon:

from the beginning to just catch it is valuable to notice that, oh, I'm judging.

Leon:

And to have the capacity to put it aside and say, okay, what if I just stay with

Leon:

what is for a little bit longer, rather than let my hit talk and judge it,

Leon:

or even judge myself not good enough that, and some people say things that would need

Leon:

to be CED on your podcast to themselves.

Serena:

Yeah.

Serena:

I know that

Leon:

That's one part for myself.

Leon:

I also added no comparison cause that's one, one of the flavors of

Leon:

judgment and expectations mixed together, Gaza comparing with others.

Leon:

They have, I don't have puts us in a lack.

Leon:

It separates us.

Serena:

I'm doing all these things.

Serena:

still for myself.

Serena:

This is really connected to the notion of self love . And for the

Serena:

Western society, sometimes self love is connected to a farmer.

Serena:

Narcissistic ego or something like that.

Serena:

So I'm wondering what is self love for you?

Serena:

Why it's so important.

Serena:

And how can we learn step by step to love our self of ourself a little bit more.

Leon:

That's a good question.

Leon:

The past week, this is new for me.

Leon:

So I'm, this is the first time I'm articulating this.

Leon:

What the best way to love ourselves might be to dissolve ourselves or rather not

Leon:

self, but the word you mentioned, ego

Leon:

cause the qualities, the true pillars are self love.

Leon:

You've seen the video.

Leon:

First pillar is truth.

Leon:

Second pillar is being loving.

Leon:

You put them together.

Leon:

You have the compassionate truth.

Leon:

That means you are able to be in the present, live in the present, not

Leon:

judge the present, accept the present.

Leon:

Dare I say, embrace and love.

Leon:

The present.

Leon:

Love yourself right here.

Leon:

Right now.

Leon:

No need to change as you are.

Leon:

And doesn't mean that you don't change.

Leon:

You are always expanding unless something gets into the way.

Leon:

So there's that part about truth.

Leon:

Love that good part is devotion choosing yourself, choosing everything

Leon:

that serves you, letting go of patterns that no longer serve you or

Leon:

the patterns that we have outgrown.

Leon:

To be gentle with ourselves.

Leon:

Because it's not easy to change for many people.

Leon:

This is who I am.

Leon:

They cling onto it so hard.

Leon:

Don't take it away from me.

Leon:

It's painful.

Leon:

So much resistance, so much holding on so much contraction.

Leon:

the opposite

Serena:

expansion flow.

Serena:

Ah,

Leon:

you can breathe, get, enjoy your life, get enjoy yourself.

Leon:

It's strange how many people cannot stand being with themselves and myself included.

Leon:

I would say when I was younger, I hated myself and I don't hate,

Leon:

it's a strong word, but hate is the strong emotion resentment in my life.

Leon:

bitter so much pain, guess that's also what caught me into the coaching journey.

Leon:

to notice that and to be curious, ah, how come there is pain,

Leon:

how come there is resistance?

Leon:

How come this frustration, stress, all of this what's going on.

Leon:

And as we become more conscious and we become more curious,

Leon:

life becomes easier and

Serena:

easier.

Leon:

When I was 13 or 14, I wanted to end my life.

Leon:

That was how painful it was.

Leon:

I was sitting in my bedroom every time my heart beat the blood that

Leon:

caused through my veins felt like there were needles piercing my body.

Leon:

There was so much hate in my life.

Leon:

I was, you look at me now and people say, Leon I can't picture you angry.

Leon:

but back then when I was 10 years old, young boy, I was punching walls

Leon:

until my knuckles were bleeding.

Leon:

It was not just that, that one day it was an accumulation of pain

Leon:

and anger and resistance and all

Serena:

of that.

Leon:

And when I was about to make the final cut, something stopped me.

Leon:

So I heard an old man laughing in my room.

Leon:

I looked around.

Leon:

There was no one.

Leon:

And after the laughter start and I also stopped cutting.

Leon:

The voice said you haven't lived yet young man.

Leon:

And I just fell asleep.

Leon:

So in a way, a part of me that wanted to go has left that day.

Leon:

So I let the part of me that wanted to die.

Leon:

And the other part of me was curious.

Leon:

So if I have died and that's all to it, What if I go all in from

Leon:

now what does it mean to live life?

Serena:

Why am I born?

Leon:

Can we just to experience pain and anger in all of this?

Serena:

Why am I here?

Leon:

So that, that triggered the exploration.

Leon:

And in terms of coaching, I hear voices.

Leon:

So I was doing my English homework in my classroom 14 years old.

Leon:

This is, and I put down my pen.

Leon:

I raised my head.

Leon:

I told myself, I didn't know where it came from.

Leon:

I'm going to become a coach.

Leon:

the angels are saying, oh, and the light was shining off that.

Leon:

And then in a while I come back to my body, I'm like, what the heck is a coach?

Leon:

And this was, I think, 10 years ago, 11 years ago.

Leon:

So back then coaching was new.

Leon:

I didn't know what coaching was, but somehow the word coaching came to my head.

Leon:

I knew it wasn't a sports coach.

Leon:

So when I went home, I Google, ah, coaching is about

Leon:

developing people instantly.

Leon:

My heart said, yes, this is it.

Leon:

And the entire path from when I was 14 to this year.

Leon:

I don't know how old I am this year, 25, 26.

Leon:

I really don't know and the path has been straight, but also winding my eyes were

Leon:

always kept on to coaching, but regardless of the path, that was still the path.

Leon:

So there were detours, but maybe the detours were in detours.

Leon:

They were part of the journey.

Leon:

Only when my hit comes in and calls them detours.

Leon:

That's a judgment resisting that this is part of the path part of the journey.

Leon:

So maybe detours are not detours.

Leon:

That's why I'm learning..

Serena:

It's really resonating with me.

Serena:

And

Serena:

it's hard for me to not cry right now.

Serena:

Crying is a loud.

Serena:

Yes.

Serena:

And I'm going to share.

Serena:

Also something personal.

Serena:

I had a bad injury at work years ago.

Serena:

And I risked to die.

Serena:

And I was alone on the floor with a lot of pain and I I thought,

Serena:

oh, I'm going to die now.

Serena:

And I was not sad.

Serena:

I was relieved because so much pain, so much sorrow, so many problems.

Serena:

And I said to myself, okay, but I'm happy today.

Serena:

But then again, I was on the floor a man came and it was winter and put his

Serena:

coat on me because it was freezing.

Serena:

And it was like, I was returning to life because I said to myself, oh,

Serena:

there is kindness in this world.

Serena:

And I want to.

Serena:

Feel, and I want to live to feel this kindness.

Serena:

Yes.

Serena:

And for example, when we first met.

Serena:

During a workshop I was so impressed by your kindness and your life.

Serena:

And I want to live for this life that I can see in people this kindness.

Serena:

May

Leon:

What about your own kindness?

Serena:

Again, for me, it's link to self love meaning that I'm still in

Serena:

a journey of discovering that um, being kind with myself it's important.

Serena:

That.

Serena:

Even if I'm not perfect or even if I'm not meeting or

Serena:

I deserve to live and to be alive and I deserve to be here.

Serena:

But it's still a journey for me.

Serena:

Some days I'm feeling like an alien that is, not in the right place in the

Leon:

Are you aware why or how come that's the feeling?

Serena:

Again it's for me, it's believe in my heart and be truthful

Serena:

to my heart, even if it's not to the expectation of society or.

Serena:

Expectation from other people.

Leon:

In a way, that's us being kind to ourselves.

Leon:

Cause if not, then we have to fit a certain mold.

Leon:

We cannot allow ourselves to be ourselves.

Leon:

You have to be a certain way to be different, to be loved, to be accepted.

Leon:

How painful is that?

Serena:

In your video about self love.

Serena:

You said something that really resonates with me.

Serena:

You said that when you are trying to fit you are cutting yourself, cutting

Serena:

some part of yourself because otherwise you will not fit in some standards.

Serena:

Yeah.

Serena:

And.

Serena:

And I'm, it's really resonating with me, especially when I

Serena:

started to come back to work.

Serena:

After my injury, my identity was changed.

Serena:

It was really deep experience for me, really in connection

Serena:

with myself, with my body.

Serena:

With my pain, because I'm still struggling with chronic pain.

Serena:

It's strange to have chronic pain because in a sense, pain is

Serena:

putting you back in the present.

Serena:

You need to be present in yourself because pain is reminding

Serena:

you that you have a body.

Serena:

You are here, you are feeling something it's hard for you to escape.

Leon:

Yes.

Leon:

This, it is one way, but it's not the only way.

Leon:

No, it's not

Serena:

the only way.

Serena:

But it helped me in a strange way to be present more, be more present to myself.

Leon:

That's good to be aware of that.

Leon:

And again, tell the voice.

Leon:

Thank you for sharing.

Leon:

And you can come back

Serena:

yes.

Serena:

I was saying that when I came back to work I was not able to fit anymore.

Serena:

And I was struggling because work didn't had meaning for me anymore.

Serena:

Not because I didn't love my work.

Serena:

I love my work, but because I was in another path for myself.

Leon:

Near death experience is I would say rather transformative.

Leon:

You hear the stories, some different people.

Leon:

I'm not telling people to go and experience the, that near that accent.

Leon:

No, please do it.

Leon:

Don't do it.

Leon:

Don't try it.

Leon:

Don gentle and loving with yourself.

Leon:

But what it does as well is to put things in

Serena:

perspective.

Leon:

That in this body, we have a certain number of years or hours

Leon:

or minutes or seconds here, and to not take life for granted.

Leon:

And I guess that's where the phrase is useful to die before

Leon:

you die is to contemplate it.

Leon:

what does it mean to live?

Leon:

What does it mean to not live to die?

Leon:

Is there such thing as death?

Leon:

And it says these questions unfold.

Leon:

The relationship we have with death becomes very different, no longer.

Leon:

It becomes something to be afraid of.

Leon:

We see some people so afraid of dying.

Leon:

Contract that you should, oh,

Serena:

I have to protect myself.

Serena:

Ah, Ah,

Leon:

and in some places of the world, there is injustice

Serena:

wars oppression.

Serena:

I'm not

Leon:

sure slavery is, but it seemed like slavery for some areas

Serena:

there's cruelty.

Serena:

In some

Leon:

way, the mind has probably taken over and just ran with it.

Leon:

Cuz those actions are devoid of

Serena:

the heart.

Serena:

The heart does not wishes.

Serena:

War

Leon:

does not wishes, suffering upon others.

Serena:

Cruel pain.

Leon:

Life

Serena:

flows through it.

Leon:

It's so important to start from our core take care of ourselves and

Leon:

the people around us and the society that we live in and the nation we

Leon:

live in and then extend it to the

Serena:

world.

Serena:

Do you think it's possible to change the world a little bit?

Leon:

I would say the world is constantly changing, so there's

Leon:

no need for us to change it.

Leon:

Cause every single second, everything is changing in this conversation.

Leon:

I was different when I first started the call with you and now I'm in a different.

Leon:

And you are in a different state too.

Leon:

So whether we want it or not, the world is changing.

Leon:

And maybe in that

Serena:

sense,

Leon:

rather than trying to force the world into our mode.

Leon:

Is to tune into the flow of the world as all, but it's the flow of life.

Leon:

What is life?

Leon:

One thing that is one thing to emerge through our lives.

Leon:

And we become part of life, a force for life.

Leon:

For

Serena:

love.

Serena:

That's where

Leon:

the magic, the beauty happens.

Leon:

In my opinion,

Serena:

you are doing work on.

Serena:

Phototherapy,

Leon:

Is it, I use the phototherapy tools in my coaching.

Leon:

I don't do therapy.

Leon:

Okay.

Leon:

Okay.

Leon:

And I also use it in my facilitation.

Serena:

Why do you think a photo could be so powerful to

Serena:

discover some truth about ourself?

Leon:

One way?

Leon:

Is it shut off the mind?

Leon:

The heart counts in and play, oh, what is this photo?

Leon:

What am I seeing?

Leon:

What is this really about?

Leon:

Why am I not yet seeing, oh, it's colorful.

Leon:

It's not colorful.

Leon:

It's monochromatic.

Leon:

It's black and white.

Leon:

Oh, there's this really cool texture in the photo.

Leon:

I wish I could touch it.

Leon:

Huh?

Leon:

How would it smell in that photo?

Leon:

And all of a sudden we are away from the thinking mind and

Leon:

we're present with the photo.

Leon:

When we're present with our topic as well and the photo

Leon:

and we connect them together,

Serena:

it just

Leon:

works.

Leon:

We connect the dots for ourselves.

Serena:

Our hearts are open

Leon:

and for some people, they only experience it in that brief moment.

Leon:

But in that brief moment, they see what they need to.

Leon:

And they can implement structures that support their hearts after

Leon:

some people, their hearts open, and then they get to experience that

Leon:

for a sustained period of time.

Serena:

So

Leon:

It's different for everyone.

Leon:

And for some people, they don't want to look at a photo.

Leon:

They might even say, I don't want to be part of this and walk out.

Leon:

I haven't had that experience yet, but I've heard of people

Leon:

who walk out from training rooms.

Leon:

And if that's the case, we meet them where they are.

Leon:

Cause the alternative is we don't accept them where they are.

Leon:

That's not very loving either.

Serena:

Do you have any.

Serena:

Advice or suggestion for people that are in a journey of self love.

Leon:

If you are on the journey, I would say, congratulations,

Leon:

be gentle with yourself.

Leon:

As you are exploring your flavor of self love, to explore the distinctions

Leon:

of what is really self love.

Leon:

And one is not self love for you.

Leon:

Congratulations for being brave on taking up this journey.

Serena:

Cause it takes guts

Leon:

cause to embody the first pillar itself in the conversation with myself

Leon:

movement, the first pillar is truth.

Leon:

Takes guts to look at the truth.

Leon:

It's easier to ignore something to avoid something.

Leon:

No, not looking at that.

Leon:

And at different times that may be useful, cuz we don't want to overload

Leon:

someone with what they're not ready for.

Leon:

That's why gentleness is so important.

Leon:

Step by step at your own pace.

Leon:

And.

Leon:

To look at it.

Leon:

It might be scary.

Leon:

It might be painful.

Leon:

It might be all of the things that people don't like to feel at that point, be

Leon:

gentle throughout the whole journey, be

Serena:

gentle.

Leon:

And there might be times that call for strength

Leon:

and there might be times that call for wisdom.

Leon:

Knowledge wisdom and different types, different things are required.

Leon:

And we gentle with yourself as you are exploring those qualities.

Leon:

Some qualities we may have locked away.

Leon:

We have them.

Leon:

It's just not, we didn't allow them to come out.

Leon:

We didn't develop them, but it's within this.

Leon:

And the exploration might be to let that be expressed.

Leon:

For myself, I locked away masculinity and all the other

Leon:

beautiful gifts of masculinity, assertiveness strength, all of it.

Leon:

And it's a beautiful journey to reclaim it.

Serena:

So yes,

Leon:

at your own pace, cuz we don't want people to.

Leon:

It's like their first day in the gym and go lift a 50 kilogram dumbbell.

Leon:

They gonna hurt themselves.

Leon:

start with whichever suits them, whichever wraps, whichever sets

Serena:

and

Leon:

build strength until they're self love.

Leon:

Muscle becomes automatic.

Leon:

So unwavering that, oh, it's the default.

Serena:

Anything else that you would like to share with our listeners?

Serena:

Anything else?

Leon:

I feel I am complete for this session.

Leon:

How about yourself?

Leon:

Is there anything else you would like to add on?

Leon:

No,

Serena:

it was really beautiful.

Serena:

And deep and,

Serena:

and I'm really grateful.

Serena:

You made a beautiful gift for me

Leon:

and you gave me the gift of being here with you.

Leon:

So thank you as well.

. Serena:

Thank you for listening to this episode.

. Serena:

Please share it with friends that needs to hear this conversation.

. Serena:

, you can find more information in the description or on the

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