Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:03 Welcome to the doctors week show where I show you how bad States of mind, difficult life issues, aren't pathological, but rather signs of personal growth trying to happen. All right, let's get into it. Greetings people. Thank you so much for tuning in today, especially in this difficult time in our world. I really hope you and your loved ones are safe and healthy and are doing everything you can to deal with this time wisely, my prayers and condolences go to anyone directly affected by the Corona virus. I hope this podcast can help shed light on why we have problems, whether in ourselves, our relationships, or in the world and provide effective solutions. You may have never considered since this is my first episode, I'm going to begin by telling you what I'm about and what you're about to hear about. You may hear a funny sound in the way I say about it's not quite a boot, but nevertheless, yup.
Speaker 0 00:01:15 I was born and raised in Canada and schooled in the U S I live in Switzerland for 10 years where I did my doctoral and postdoctoral research taught and practiced psychology and played concerts around Europe. Now from the outside, it looks like I have two very different full time, careers, psychologist, and singer songwriter. But for me, they're one and the same thing. They're just two different ways to bring out the feelings, perceptions, and processes we all have, but don't acknowledge, you know, how a song makes you feel a certain way, like happy or sad or pumped up or relaxed. Well, these feelings are already in you, even if you're not aware of them, that's why you're drawn to certain music. The music magically connects you to this deeper experience. It's this other way of perceiving the moment, processing your problems, delves deeper into these experiences that live in the shadows of your psyche.
Speaker 0 00:02:27 So do I do music therapy? No, that's not at all. What I do for me, therapy is music and music is therapy because they both alter your state of mind. So you can experience yourself and life in a more conscious and connected way. They both get you into your process while they can do this. If you have a process paradigm, and that's what I'm going to tell you about, I'm going to show you how your problems are not wrong. I know they feel like crap, mine do too, but they're not pathologies to just try to zap away. They're meaningful and purposeful processes designed to wake you up to something new, increase your self awareness and expand who you are. They're your personal growth trying to happen. Your problem has an inherent purpose. And even though it messes up your life, that's not its purpose. Its aim is to make you grow with the right tools.
Speaker 0 00:03:34 You can discover how even your worst problem is your doorway into personal transformation. Now, if you think about it, this is the exact opposite of what we've all been taught. Everything you hear about mental health relationship issues, work problems, and so on centers on trying to get rid of the problem. We're really big on quick fixes, suppressing symptoms, bypassing or smoothing over conflict, and generally trying to make it all go away. So claiming that our problems are meaningful and purposeful is the antithesis of what we've been told. You know, be happy, pull it together. Don't be so sensitive. Be normal like everyone else. And if you depressed or anxious or phobic, uh, you need to get rid of that or you need some medication to mask it. Of course, nowhere is this conquer the problem attitude more prevalent than in America. It's part of our pioneering, pull yourself up by the bootstraps industrious spirit.
Speaker 0 00:04:45 But the one place this doesn't really work is with our everyday life problems. Rates of depression and anxiety have skyrocketed in the last five years. And the more we try to tamp it down with potions and pills, the worse it gets now don't get me wrong. Some folks claim their medication is lifesaving, but I'm going to show you a way more effective and healthy way to deal with your bad States of mind and your messed up life situations. Now saying that problems have something valuable in them, flies in the face of everything in conventional psychology and psychiatry. They view problems as illnesses to cure, not as meaningful processes to unfold. Even the more holistic approaches to therapy tend to view our emotional wounds. Like one would view a physical wound as an unfortunate trauma that requires interventions to make the pain go away. Your wounding is viewed as a poison for which you need the medicine, but this is all backwards.
Speaker 0 00:05:58 You see the poison is the medicine. I know it's so paradoxical. It sounds like it makes no sense, but hang in with me and I'll show you how your wounding is the doorway to transforming your life on the deepest level. This is actually an ancient idea and I've updated it to modern times. The first healers medicine, men and women were called shamans. They were really the first psychologists. The term shaman means wounded healer. It also means one who knows. And one who sees in the dark in ancient tribal cultures, a person afflicted with what we'd call a mental health problem was viewed as a potential healer because their wounding was considered a calling to leave their everyday normal existence and dive into the spirit world or what we'd call their psychology or process. The poison is the medicine, which reminds me later in the fall, I'm going to release a new video and single called medicine gun.
Speaker 0 00:07:11 The words in the chorus go, my poison is a medicine gun bang, shoot me full of changes. That's right. Problems are purposefully designed catalysts for your growth and expansion or put more succinctly. Your problem is your process. Everything in your life, including your worst pain aims, ultimately at helping you transform who you are. It's not just about making your symptoms disappear or even healing the wound. These are important things to do, but there's something much deeper and profound going on. When a problem enters your life. It's your calling. It's your sign. That transformation is trying to happen. The problem itself is just the seed, the impetus, the agitating force to get you onto the path of change, growth and consciousness. I want to ask you a question. What's the first thing you think of when you feel messed up. If you're like me and most people it's, I got to get rid of this issue.
Speaker 0 00:08:26 This sucks. This is bad and wrong. It's unfair. It's evil. It's ruining my life. It's blocking me. It's making me suffer. But this common reaction while understandable is based on a false assumption about why shit happens. It assumes your problem has no purpose other than to make you miserable. The roots of this way of thinking come from the belief that pleasure and freedom from stress are good and difficulties are bad. It's an instinctive unconscious way of interpreting experience. And most of us still live with this mindset. We use science and technology to improve our lives. By applying the scientific method to the idea that problems are purely negative and should just be eliminated yet in psychiatry, psychology. And self-help this demonization of problems makes us impotent to really understand and transform them. This is because the very nature of a problem, the reason it exists gets overlooked, pain and suffering hurt, and we want it to go away.
Speaker 0 00:09:42 Totally understandable. And I feel like this too, but the reason problems happen is to irritate us, to stab us, frustrate us, hurt us and even threatened to kill us in order to get our attention onto something we need to wake up about. And why do we need to wake up about things? Because waking up means growing and growing is the essence of life. It's creation, transformation, change, expansion process, life. Isn't about one static state of being. In fact, the more you try to establish an unchanging set condition for your life. Even if you're sitting on a mountain top meditating, the more problems are going to get shot. That's just how nature works now. How do I know all this? Well for decades, I've been working with people of all ages, many cultures and many walks of life. And I've studied this extensively. I did my doctoral research on it and I continue to do research on the difference between processing a problem and using methods to just try to get rid of it.
Speaker 0 00:10:57 I've tested my methods on thousands of people. And I live my life. According to this idea, when I have a problem, sure, I might complain, yell, scream, curse, but then I process it as a meaningful and purposeful event in my life. I use my mind, my body, and even my music to hunt for uncover and integrate the change is trying to happen. Sometimes I can do it right away. Other times it takes me a day or a week and still other times it takes me years. But during those years I'm slowly transforming, growing and embracing my process. Your problem is a process designed specifically to make you develop as a person. This isn't something arbitrary where you get to decide which of your troubles relate to personal growth in which don't everything you struggle with is meant to force the evolution of your consciousness, expand your identity and increase your self awareness.
Speaker 0 00:12:01 Each issue you encounter aims at a specific change. You need to make a transformation of your awareness in a highly targeted area of your life. The details of your difficulty contain information. That's trying to point you toward a new way of being, as I said, a problem as a purpose. And despite the fact that pain sucks making you suffer, isn't its purpose. It's designed to get your attention. It's an alarm signal calling you to yourself to bring your focus onto the hidden directions, trying to happen in your life. Just wanting to get rid of what bothers you without getting its message is understandable. Nobody wants to suffer, but it's an attitude rooted in a simplistic understanding of life. And it's ineffective. The process paradigm changes your perception of your problems from obstacles and demons, into opportunities for profound change and growth. Once you have the tools to dive into and unfold your process, you'll be able to experience real transformation.
Speaker 0 00:13:11 Speaking of personal growth and transformation, a lot of mine actually happened through rock and roll. I learned how to live by listening to old blues and rock and roll records. Therapy definitely helped me, but I'd say rock and roll saved me. Rock and roll is about freedom. Freedom to be your true self, to not be owned or ruled by what other people say you should do, or by your own inner complexes. It's about the power of your spirit. It cuts through all the BS we deal with both internally and externally. It's a very pure form of expression. At the beginning of today's episode, I mentioned the challenging time we're going through in the world today. Well, I wrote a song and shot a video called can you feel this love that speaks to this, the song isn't about personal love. It's about a higher love tomorrow Friday, September 4th, 2020 is the release date. You can check out the video on my YouTube channel and you can stream the single on Spotify or wherever you listen to music. Here's a sneak preview of the song. <inaudible> Be well. And I'll see you next time. Stay aware
Speaker 1 00:15:46 <inaudible>
Speaker 0 00:15:49 You can follow me on social media at doctors' wig, and you can sign up on the mailing list at doctors' wake.com, where you'll receive discounts on private coaching events and merchandise starting 20, 21 weekly personal growth tips, and lots more
Speaker 1 00:16:05 Be well.
