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Today, we're diving into how to expand our awareness and step out of our comfort zones. It's all about growth and understanding ourselves better. I share my own experiences from politics, where listening to different perspectives has really opened my eyes. It’s not always easy, but I've learned that understanding others can help us grow. By engaging with people who think differently, we can find new insights and peace in our own lives. So, let’s explore how we can do this together!

We all want to get out of my comfort zone, but we fear the risk it involves. What if there's a way we can grow consciously, grow our awareness by stepping out of my comfort zone but without too much of a risk?

This week on Stillness in the Storms, we dive into the idea of expanding our awareness and stepping out of our comfort zones. We start with some thought-provoking questions that make you ponder if you truly want to grow and learn about yourself. It’s not just about facing fears; it’s about finding new perspectives and experiences that can help us grow as individuals. We chat about how stepping into unknown territory is crucial for personal development, and how sometimes the best way to achieve this is by engaging with people who hold different beliefs than our own. It’s all about balance—spending time with like-minded folks while also challenging ourselves with opposing viewpoints. By doing this, we can become more well-rounded individuals and gain deeper insights into the world around us.

Takeaways:

• This podcast episode focuses on finding peace and resilience during tough times.
• It's essential to step outside of our comfort zones for personal growth and awareness.
• Listening to differing opinions can help broaden our perspective and understanding.
• Engaging with those who think differently enriches our lives and promotes empathy and compassion.

Hey, welcome to this week's podcast, Stillness in the Storms, the podcast that helps you to find peace and resilience when you need it most.

This week, I've got a question for you.

Do you want to expand your awareness?

Do you want to understand yourself more?

Do you want to grow?

Do you want to find out new things?

Do you want to find out new things about yourself?

Okay, that's like five or six questions.

But it's my podcast and I make up the rules.

But really, do you want to get out of your comfort zone?

And this is the easiest way to get out your comfort zone without putting yourself at too much risk.

We're going to discuss that on today's podcast, but just before we get there, if you could leave a review, that would be amazing and awesome and it would really help me reach more listeners.

So, yeah, that's that out of the way.

And I'm Stephen Webb and My website is stephenweb.com and I've got some exciting things happening in the next couple of months.

So if you head over there, you can subscribe to my newsletter and keep in touch.

You can connect with me on there.

You can even book in for a coffee, completely free, just 15 minutes.

You book it and in your time, click the connect link and then coffee and we'll have a chat.

Get to know you.

I love to get to know you, the listeners.

I'm talking about growth.

I'm talking about expanding our awareness and getting out of our comfort zone.

And this is one of the easiest things that I found we can do to get out of our comfort zone.

Although I help people in meditation, I help people get over difficult times.

I do all that.

I am also a politician.

I am a local counselor.

And the reason why I stood is because I used to be into politics when I was a lot younger, and I ended up doing my work experience at the Houses of Parliament.

You know, most people at school go and do work experience in the local zoo or the local hairdressers or the local.

I don't know what they.

I don't know, but I didn't.

I went to the House of the parliament, 400 miles away and done my work experience for our local mp.

And I worked with his researcher all week.

So, yeah, that's something interesting.

Not many people know about that.

That was like, a long time ago.

That was before my accident.

So, yeah, I'm a politician and I stayed out of politics for a long, long time.

And I was like, I run out of excuses.

Okay, I'll do it.

And I thoroughly enjoy it.

And it really was putting myself out of my comfort zone, going into city meetings and all that, and speaking up, saying something that terrified me.

And I've said so many wrong things, you know, with my dyslexia of having similar words.

We've had a discussion recently about a settlement boundary and I keep calling it a border, border, boundary, usually different, massively different.

To me, the two words are so similar, I keep getting them the wrong way around.

And even in tonight's meeting, I was trying to look for the words that after so many houses are built, we need a school.

I was trying to look for the words and one of the other counsellors put on the chat.

It's a trigger point.

I'm like, oh, of course, it's of course.

But I no longer worry about it because I made mistakes, I said things wrong, I mumbled my words and nothing really happened bad.

But something else that really I found strange is I was more.

I found myself listening to the people I disagreed with more.

I found myself intrigued by the ones that were challenging me, the ones that were giving a different point of view to mine.

And I was not getting bored with that's the wrong words.

But I wasn't really excited or interested in the people that were saying what I thought.

Of course, it was nice to hear someone else make a point.

I was going to make a point, so it saves me making the point and then adding extra points to it.

But listening to people that were on the opposite side of politics to me, I found fascinating.

It didn't mean I agreed with them in the end at all.

Sometimes I really didn't agree with them.

Even more when I listened to them.

But what I found was when I would talk, I didn't learn anything.

But when I listened to them, when I become friends with them, I learned things.

I learned things about myself, I learned things about them.

I learned things about the way they work, the way they see things.

I started to understand their point of view.

So I was growing my perspective, I was growing my awareness and.

And suddenly I found myself at the end of a meeting, or especially on planning, where looking at the application, I was like, right, okay, I disagree with this.

And then by the end I'm like, oh, no, actually, I agree.

I see their point because I just didn't see the things that I cannot see.

And that's really important.

We cannot see what we cannot see, but the only way to see things we cannot See is to listen to other people pointing them out and to not take it personally.

That's really important, to not take it personally.

So as I found myself more and more doing that, I do that now.

I listen to political debates online.

I sometimes tune into TV networks that I disagree with.

And I don't tune in to get angry.

I tune in to listen.

I tune in to look at the comments.

Sometimes that I still get a little annoyed, but it's really interesting to just be open about where are they coming from?

You know, maybe they're right, maybe I'm wrong.

And I found it's one of the easiest ways I've grown easiest ways now.

I haven't changed politics, I haven't gone to the other side.

I've become more of a whole person, my side by sometimes allowing other perspectives in.

Guess what?

I'm not always right.

And guess what?

When I am wrong, I didn't die.

And you know, nothing bad really happened.

A little bit of pride, a little bit of shame come about if I was arguing it big time.

And I used to argue everything.

Ask my family.

I argued everything.

Hello, cat.

Please don't eat my peanuts.

I'm doing an important podcast and you're going to interrupt it now anyway.

Yes, we got a cat here on it.

She might join in, she might say hello.

But I've been watching the impeachment, just a little bit of it with the senators and the Republicans get up and the Democrats get up and they both argue their point, but neither of them address the other person's points directly.

They honestly, it's almost like both sides like the sound of their own voice without actually having a debate.

It's no longer a debate.

It's just, this is my point.

And this is my point.

Now then that's why you get so many votes that are just along party lines now.

There's almost no point, you know, in, in the house you've got 50 of each, but you may as well have just one of each.

They're not that they're such a united voice because they're not listening to the arguments of the other side anymore.

And it's making politics so polarized that neither side are actually capable of growing in actual fact, they're digging in more and more about their echo chamber.

And now with platforms banning certain groups and things like that, and, and I agree with the ban on certain kind of language enticing things that we really shouldn't be using platforms to do and their private platforms are allowed to do it.

I got a House and I, I only allow certain things in my front room.

And if my friends are going to turn up and do things I don't agree with, I can say, hey, get out.

I'm allowed to do that, same as Twitter is allowed to do that with anybody on their platform.

I'm not going to want to have got into that and I apologize.

But the point I'm making is we're becoming more and more polarized and it's because we're screaming to the other side to listen to us and we're not listening to the other side.

And I'm using politics as the first example, as the main example here.

And that's because most people understand the polarizing opposite in politics.

On one side, it's all about the external.

You know, you have to get on with your life.

You have to pick yourself up, you have to be motivated, you have to do it yourself.

Self actualization.

The other side is all about, well, that's not always that simple.

So it has to come from external sources in to help me.

So one size is all internal.

Just pick yourself up.

The other side is, well, you can't always do that because you need some help.

One side to me has more compassion.

The other side has more motivation.

We kind of need a mix.

You know, the left need the motivation from the right and the right need a bit of the compassion from the left.

Then both will disagree with this.

You know, if you're on the left, here you go.

I know I don't need anything from the right.

And if you're on the right, you say, I don't need anything from the left.

We have enough caring and compassion.

What you're saying we haven't got it?

Yes, that's what I'm saying.

Look at some of the decisions you make.

It's lack of understanding from both sides actually, not lack of compassion.

But in politics aside, just take where you're spending most of your day and most of your time.

If you're spending most of your time with people that are just your way of thinking equal to you, they're your tribe, they think the same way, they agree the same thing, they like the same posts.

And this is what Facebook and all creates.

It creates an echo chamber for what we like.

You don't see what might push your boundaries apart from if you're having a debate on one of your posts, you might see them then, but in general you won't see other people's posts you disagree with because you haven't ever liked them.

And the problem with this is we Start to feel that we're superior, that we're the ones with the answer.

We're the ones with the common sense.

And this goes for all sides.

You know, this goes for you as well as me.

And, you know, sometimes I got a sense of this as well.

A lot more, less than I used to.

But it's still there.

Trust me.

I have to be aware of it.

Otherwise, especially if I.

If I'm tired or I'm not feeling great, I will really start arguing my point and I will stop listening.

I will stop understanding the other side.

And I can understand the other side without disagreeing.

That's another important point.

But I want to end on this main thing.

And it doesn't have to be politics.

It doesn't matter what walk of the side in the way of what subject it is.

It could be just spiritualism, it could be religion, it could be anything.

Just if you spend time with people that are the opposite to you, that think differently, you.

And I'm not saying you should go and join a club that you completely disagree with, but check out what they're watching.

Check out the newspaper they're reading.

Say to them, explain what you mean.

I'm listening.

Why are you compassionate about that?

Why do you care so much about that?

And then maybe they might listen to us.

And then both sides expand their awareness a little bit.

Because one thing I've learned from everybody is everybody cares.

I've yet to come across one person that doesn't care.

And the first person that opened my eyes to this was Junpo, one of my teachers.

He said, have you ever seen an angry person that doesn't care?

Boom.

It hit me just like, wow, yes, they may not care what I care about, but they still care.

So when we dig down deeper and find out what the other people care about, then we can expand our growth, our awareness.

So what I'm saying is, if you really want to grow and the easiest way of getting out of our comfort zone is just checking out the other person's opinion, their point of view.

You know, I cannot remember now the guy that said, spend 33% of your time with people that are like you, your tribe, spend 33% of the time with people that are further down the road, that are a little more wiser, and 33% of the time with people that are not quite as far as you in the road, and you're lifting them up.

And I agree with that.

I think that's a brilliant analogy.

So you're helping people, you're growing and you're also feeding your wholeness by spending time with your tribe.

But I would like to make it 25%.

Not exactly.

Not.

Let's not have an arbitrary figure, but for, for argument's sake, let's do the same.

25% of the people you're helping, 25% of the time of people in your tribe that you agree with, that you can spend time watching movies and all that, you don't have to reinforce your belief.

Just chill out with them, enjoy their time.

And 25% of the time with people you disagree with.

You know, invite the person that's opposite politics to you, not the one that's going to be shouting down your throat.

I mean the one that is able to have a discussion and ask them why, What?

Help me understand.

And then in return, you'll help them to grow.

And you'll help them because once they feel understood and heard, they'll go, help me understand your side as well.

I just think that's one of the easiest ways for us to grow.

I don't know what you think.

Please let me know.

You can always drop me an email or a message@stephenweb.com thank you for joining me today and I'm deeply grateful and humbled.

That, and I always love your feedback.

I really does make a difference to the podcast.

It makes a difference to me.

It helps me to know whether I'm in the right direction.

And ultimately, I know this isn't necessarily about meditation, inner peace.

It is, in a way, because we get more peace when we feel we're growing.

When we're sitting in an echo chamber of just our thoughts and opinions, they become so loud that we no longer have peace.

When I say they become so loud, we want, at some point, we think the whole world should be thinking like us.

And we know that on a philosophical level that that's not true.

But it doesn't stop us being frustrated at other people not seeing the world the way we are.

So if you really want peace, when we understand more, when we spend some time with people that grow our hearts and grow our awareness, grow our compassion, we have less fights in the world, less battles.

Less battles we're just not going to win.

Life becomes a whole lot easier.

Whole lot easier.

Again, I thank you.

I'm Stephen Webb, and you've been listening to an episode of Stillness in the Storms, the podcast that gives you a deeper perspective of wisdom to help you build resilience and have a little peace in difficult times when you need it most.

Take care.

Namaste.