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and riches blessings. I am Michael B. Beckwith,

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the host of Take Back Your Mind. listen,

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listen, listen Feel it,

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feel it, feel it,

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feel it As we're

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listening out into the

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spiritual vein Feel it,

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feel it You

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Peace and radical blessings

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and welcome to the Life

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Question of the Week emanating

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from Take Back Your Mind podcast.

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I am your host, Michael

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B. Beckwith. And

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I love the questions you

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ask. You email them

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to me and my staff picks them

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out and it's a beautiful thing. I

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love our communication. I love our community

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that's developing around Life Question of the

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Week. This is Sam.

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Sam is from Australia. He

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has this question. My question

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pertains to negative intrusive

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thoughts. I practice

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meditation and affirmations,

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yet sometimes I am plagued

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by dark and disturbing thoughts

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that render me feeling ashamed and

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often depleted in energy. These

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thoughts seem to come out of nowhere and

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are often completely unrelated to what I

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may be doing at the moment they arise.

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I consider myself to be a good person. So

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I find it difficult to understand why these

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thoughts come into my awareness. Any

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light you can shed on this would be greatly appreciated.

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Thank you, Sam. This is a good question. Two

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things. And then

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some other things as well. First

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of all, when thoughts are

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intruding upon us, I come

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from two places generally, particularly

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if we're in meditation, even if we're

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not. Sometimes the thoughts that

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are intrude are thoughts and emotions

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that have been repressed or

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suppressed at a certain time

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in our life. Perhaps

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there was something we did or didn't

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do when we were younger, and

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in order to move ahead with our life, we had

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to suppress those thoughts, suppress

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the mistake we made, suppress

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what we said that we

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were kind of ashamed of,

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or got repressed in order

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for us to survive. And

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then, later on in life

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as we become inwardly strong, oftentimes

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when we practice meditation or some

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type of spiritual technology, there's an

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inner strength that happens within us.

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And when that inner strength

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occurs, those thoughts can now come

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forward that were once suppressed or

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repressed because you're strong enough to

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handle them now. So instead

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of being ashamed

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by them or blaming

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yourself for anything, this is when you go

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into the art of forgiveness. You

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just forgive wherever those thoughts

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are coming from. You

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just forgive anyone involved

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with that thinking, yourself. You

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forgive. And when that happens,

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when there's a real forgiveness of that, you

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are born anew. You actually

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are cleaning up the

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filters of your

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perception so that you can see

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life more clearly and see

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yourself more clearly rather than that

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which is hidden. based on

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repression and surpression. Secondly,

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sometimes those thoughts come from the

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sea of mental garbage. What

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is that? Those are

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the prevailing thought forms that

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become contagious in society. Fear

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thoughts, thoughts

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about consumerism, thoughts about sex,

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thoughts about overpowering people.

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There's all kinds of thoughts

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that are in the

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air that sometimes can get on us.

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They're not even our thoughts. They're

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just in the air. And

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what people don't realize is that thoughts

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can be as

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contagious as particular

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diseases. People think they

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can catch a flu from somebody,

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that that's contagious, but thoughts are

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contagious as well. You'll notice

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this if you look at history, and

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you'll notice that whenever the media made a

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big deal out of something, All

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of a sudden, that became very popular. Everybody

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began to experience it or become

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afraid of it. It's flu season.

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Everybody starts catching the flu. Planes

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are falling. It becomes contagious. Oh,

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it's dangerous to be on a plane. Whatever

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the case may be, things can become contagious. And

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so when you're aware

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that the thoughts that are intruding

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upon you are either repressed or

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suppressed, or just

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within the field of

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the human milieu, You

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can protect yourself

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through your spiritual practice. You

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feel a deep sense of safety,

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a deep sense of well -being, a

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deep sense of joy that's

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not attached to anything as a

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practice. And then you

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watch that you can be in this

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world, but you're not of the contagious

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thoughts that you'll see repeated every day

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on the media. As someone

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once posted like

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about 40 different

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news outlets reporting on

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a particular issue and every single reporter

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said exactly the same thing as they

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began to report on this thing. So

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you can tell they were all getting

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this bit of information funneled in from

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the same source and then they all

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said it and then that became

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a contagious perception. Didn't even have to

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be true. It was just

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an opinion that became a contagious

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perception. This is why

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we invite you to make sure you

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have time by yourself. your

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time in nature

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to contemplate

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the nature of your being, to meditate, to

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pray, so that you become

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little by little by little

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unaffected by the contagious thoughts

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of the social milieu. Sam,

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I hope that helps you and everyone else

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listening. Peace and blessings. Hey,

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thank you for joining me today. If

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you'd like to ask a

6:16

question, please email me. at

6:18

podcast at michaelbeckwith .com. And

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you know what? Your question just might be

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featured. a beautiful day.

6:24

now.