…Whether it be through upset stomach, loneliness, despondency, chronic body aches, allergies, fatigue, or the simple feeling of “there’s gotta be more than this“, our bodies and minds are always delivering signals to us that mean something…alarms going off from within ourselves.

But they’re messages we easily ignore, tune out, take a pill for, or drown out with some for of transient pleasure.

Today, it’s easy to see the masses have enslaved themselves to the will of others, to those in control. This is a natural result of not listening to our bodies. In tuning out, we become an extension of the unaccountable master’s hand, a tool serving to re-enforce the slavery of others.

But when we learn to listen to our mind & body, others’ power over us dissipates. We can begin to hear what we need to truly live, and to live fully!  Paying attention to the signals our bodies give us allows us to learn what’s right and what’s wrong for ourselves. We begin protecting the integrity of our life and love for others and the world around us.

And when you become in tune with yourself, self-aware, open to all your body tells you, I’ve found that you are also more opened up to loving others and helping free them from their own slavery.

Alan Watts was a masterful teacher of these philosophies, and here are two short videos that are just packed full of wisdom on this topic. Watch them below, and feel free to follow along with the full transcripts I’ve included as well…

Alan Watts – ‘Life and Listening’

What do you desire? What makes you itch? What sort of a situation would you like?

Let’s suppose – I do this often in vocational guidance of students – they come to me and say, well, “We’re getting out of college and we have the faintest idea what we want to do”. So I always ask the question, “what would you like to do if money were no object? How would you really enjoy spending your life?”

Well, it’s so amazing as a result of our kind of educational system, crowds of students say well, “we’d like to be painters, we’d like to be poets, we’d like to be writers, but as everybody knows you can’t earn any money that way.”

…Or another person says, “Well, I’d like to live an out-of-doors life and ride horses.”

I said, “You want to teach in a riding school?” Let’s go through with it. What do you want to do?

When we finally got down to something, which the individual says he really wants to do, I will say to him, you do that and forget the money…because, if you say that getting the money is the most important thing, you will spend your life completely wasting your time. You’ll be doing things you don’t like doing in order to go on living, that is to go on doing things you don’t like doing, which is stupid.

Better to have a short life that is full of what you like doing than a long life spent in a miserable way.

And after all, if you do really like what you’re doing, it doesn’t matter what it is, you can eventually turn it — you could eventually become a master of it. It’s the only way to become a master of something, to be really with it. And then you’ll be able to get a good fee for whatever it is. So don’t worry too much.

That’s everybody is – somebody is interested in everything. Anything you can be interested in, you will find others will. But it’s absolutely stupid to spend your time doing things you don’t like, in order to go on spending things you don’t like, doing things you don’t like and to teach your children to follow in the same track.

See what we are doing, is we’re bringing up children and educating to live the same sort of lives we are living, in order that they may justify themselves and find satisfaction in life by bringing up their children to bring up their children to do the same thing, so it’s all retch, and no vomit. It never gets there.

And so, therefore, it’s so important to consider this question:

What do I desire?

…

You’ve always been looking for something.

That something that sets you apart.

That something that makes you more than the person you’re living as.

More into the person you were created to be.

What others see as mundane, you see as magnificent. You catch a glimpse of something new, and it becomes something significant. It’s that something extra that keeps you up at night. The hours pass by while everyone else sleeps. You dream, you imagine. You envision what your life might be.

What if you were born for more?

“There’s got to be more than just this. I want to be used.” That’s your greatest wish.

The demand for you has always been true.

You are gifted and passionate. Add God’s purpose to this, and watch what He can build.

…Now, what will you do with what you’ve been given?
…Will you put it into motion?
…Will you take on the responsibility?
…Will you follow after the calling God has placed on your life, to be fulfilled, to be engaged, to cast out all fears, doubts and uncertainties, to stand strong, to rise up, to become who you were created to be?

Who is the prodigy in you?

Alan Watts – ‘The Real You’

If you are ready to wake up, you’re gonna wake up. If you are not ready, you are going to stay, pretending that you’re just a little “poor little me.”

And since you’re all here, and engaged in this sort of enquiry and listening to this sort of lecture, I assume that you are all on the process of waking up.

Or else you are teasing yourselves with some kind of flirtation of waking up, which you are not serious about. But I assume that maybe you are not serious, but sincere — that you are ready to wake up.

So then, when you are in the way of waking up and finding out who you really are, what you do is what the whole universe is doing at the place you call, “here and now.” You are something the whole universe is doing in the same way the wave is something the whole ocean is doing. The real you is not a puppet which life pushes around. The real deep down you is the whole universe.

So then, when you die, you’re not going to have to put up with everlasting nonexistence, because that’s not an experience. A lot of people are afraid that when they die, they’re going to be locked up in a dark room forever. And they sort of undergo that.

But one of the most interesting things in the world — this is a yoga, this is a way of realization – try and imagine what it will be like to go asleep and never wake up.

Think about that.

It’s one of the great wonders of life. What it will be like to go asleep and never wake up?

And if you think about it long enough, something will happen.

You will find out — among other things — that it will pose the next question to you: What was it like to wake up after having never gone to sleep?

That was when you were born…

You see, you can’t not have an experience in life. Nature abhors a vacuum. So after you’re dead, the only thing that can happen is the same experience, or the same experience as you were born.

In other words, we all know very well that after people die, other people are born, and they’re all you. Only, you can only experience it one at a time. Everybody is, “I.” You all know you’re you. And wheresoever beings exist throughout all galaxies, it doesn’t make any difference. You are all of them. And when they come into being, that’s you coming into being. You know that very well.

Only you don’t have to remember the past, in the same way you don’t have to think about how you work your thyroid gland, or whatever else it is. You don’t have to know how to shine the sun. You just do it, like you breathe.

Doesn’t it really astonish you that you are this fantastically complex being, and that you’re doing all this and you really had no education in how to do it?

3 Simple Ways To Live Fully And Listen To The Inner You

1. Meditation

I could think of nothing better to place at the #1 spot than meditation. An unnecessarily over-complicated practice by many people, it’s actually rather simple. Although there are countless methods for meditating, you can begin by simply enjoying a 15-30 minute time of silence, to unwind and disconnect from the world…opening yourself up to exploring your own subconscious thoughts & feelings. Focusing on your breath, as you breathe in and out slowly, helps to turn off the “monkey mind” that makes thought after thought run incessantly through your mind.

I recommend reading anything authored by Jon Kabat-Zinn, an amazing teacher of meditation, whom I’ve learned some great meditation practices from.

2. Practicing Daily Gratitude

Start each day simply writing in a journal a few things you’re grateful for, and strive to always write something new you haven’t written before. Likewise, end your days revisiting what you were grateful for and what amazing things happened throughout the day.

Doing so help to center you, opening you to listening to your inner self when you ask yourself what you’re grateful for. It’s amazing how starting the day with an ‘attitude of gratitude’ can completely change the outcome of your day.

I highly recommend the use of the 5 Minute Journal to help you keep up with journalling gratitude each day…especially if you’re someone like me who never could get into the habit of daily journalling. See my previous blog post here sharing with you how I use the 5 Minute Journal.

3. Follow Your Passions To Discover Your Purpose

Lastly, ask yourself the questions of “What makes me truly happy?“, “What do I desire“, and “What interests do I have that will help others when I share them with the world?“.

…You may hear nothing in return, at first, but don’t become frustrated. Over time, keeping these kind of questions at top of mind, and listening, you’ll begin to discover which things to pursue that, in doing so, will help you grow closer to fulfilling your life’s purpose.

And, although money isn’t always the driving force and primary factor, it certainly helps free you to live the life you love and live on purpose. Today, with amazing technology at our fingertips, endless amounts of knowledge and data easily accessible, and the ability to share any message with billions of people across the globe via the Internet, you can create an amazing income by sharing your passions with the world.

Here on my blog, I teach you how to turn your passions into profits and create an online business that can provide you the freedom to live your life filled with passion and purpose. If that resonates with you, I encourage you to browse the site, checking the links in the sidebar for how I can personally help you get started on that path.