33 Comments
author

Love your words of wisdom, Gary. I’ll link to this post when I get back home. Appreciate the collaboration. ❤️

Expand full comment
author

Lovely.

Expand full comment
author

I meant this is a lovely thread with great insight in the responses.

Expand full comment
Aug 9, 2023Liked by Gary Sharpe, Visceral Adventure

What a beautiful surprise! I love you both. It's so lovely to hear your voice, Tonika, speaking Gary's insightful words. Really enjoyed this.

Expand full comment
author

Thanks, T. I’m back Stateside. Y’all have been quite busy! Lots to catch up on.

Expand full comment
Aug 9, 2023Liked by Gary Sharpe, Visceral Adventure

This is lovely and wise and I’m going to share where and when I can!

Expand full comment
author

Thanks, Jane. ❤️

Expand full comment
author

Thank you!

Expand full comment
Aug 9, 2023Liked by Visceral Adventure, Gary Sharpe

Wonderful video!

Can you upload it to rumble or YouTube so I can share it easier?

Expand full comment
author

Will do. I’ll link to this post on my stack and will add links to appropriate platforms.

Expand full comment
Aug 9, 2023Liked by Gary Sharpe, Visceral Adventure

very powerful text! but I'm not wild about the imagery: as I see it we are presented with too many pleasant-looking, beautiful people (models?) and they act in almost surreal, 'beautiful' settings to boot. you wouldn't like to know where or how I often find myself meditating, but it's almost never on a bench in nature with my hands on my knees during sun-set.... ;-))

Expand full comment
author
Aug 9, 2023·edited Aug 10, 2023Author

I hear that! I often find myself trying to meditate whilst ignoring multiple distractions. As far as the imagery, it’s what stock footage has to offer. I was trying to find what works dynamically well with rhythm and flow while staying apropos to the text. Also, these people are captured with nice cinematic angles and slow motion renders which makes anyone look beautiful. Film is the most manipulative of all artistic genres and it leans best to capturing a sentiment whilst not working too hard. Gary’s words are the most important aspect here.

Expand full comment
Aug 28, 2023Liked by Gary Sharpe, Visceral Adventure

tq for the explanation. it's more a matter of style than content, which is often personal and subjective, which in turn gives us a different and interesting outlook on the world. my style's more gritty, looking for bumps and dents in an otherwise "too idyllic" image. or clever - https://nl.pinterest.com/pin/100838479144014313/

Expand full comment
author

Did you edit those together? They’re great!

Expand full comment
Aug 28, 2023Liked by Visceral Adventure, Gary Sharpe

nah. I'm not good with computers and don't have an iPhone, but sometimes I find good stuff on the internet, happily posting it when & if I think it's fitting. one more (cheeky) - https://nl.pinterest.com/pin/401031541830703290/

keep up the good work!

Expand full comment
author

Fantastic. This is the type of stuff that makes me love the internet.

Expand full comment
Aug 16, 2023Liked by Gary Sharpe, Visceral Adventure

That is truly beautiful. As it went on, I started feeling anxious that the list was overwhelming. I’m glad that at the end it said it was a menu to choose from… maybe would have preferred a mention of that at the beginning, but overall a beautiful piece of work. Gratitude to Gary and the film makers…

Expand full comment
author

Thank you, and good point, in hindsight I agree it would have been better for this to come first.

Expand full comment
Aug 10, 2023Liked by Gary Sharpe, Visceral Adventure

I loved the Antidote video. Unfortunately, I watched the Cumulative Impacts second, so I needed to watch the Antidote again. Thank you Gary Sharpe and Visceral Adventure!

Expand full comment
author

Thank you. Worth watching twice I hope.

Expand full comment

Oh, what a treat! Great collaboration, and so nice to hear Tonika's voice read Gary's wise and helpful words. Thank you both!!

Expand full comment
author

🙏

Expand full comment

How ever is it possible to prioritize sleep and relaxation when you need to perform for results?

For the survival of you and your family, you need to run , compete, conquer.

I'st it just a utopia for those who are retired or earned a lot of enough money for themselves and the next generation?

Expand full comment
author

From what I know from the human performance folks, they also say performance suffers dramatically with poor sleep and lack of rest, so it is a false economy to over work yourself.

Expand full comment
Aug 10, 2023Liked by Gary Sharpe

Yes, definitely!

Expand full comment

Beautiful - thank you. I am interested though in the avoidance of toxic people? Society itself, our very culture seems quite toxic to me. I was previously diagnosed with lupus and fibromyalgia and now apparently after a) stopping medication b) taking more responsibility for my health and c) being abandoned by all previous friends and family (mostly alone for last 3 years), I am no longer ill. But it seems to me that it was not their toxicity but rather my ego's reaction to it. If I take my ego out of it I wonder, can I relax and understand that there are no real toxic people just egos clashing and hurting each other? I don't have any answers but I am experimenting with what it feels like to spend time with people I disagree with and leave my ego at home. What does it feel like to listen? To remain present and conscious.

Expand full comment
author

Like with food, I think we have personal poisons when it comes to people. The sort of people those of us with chronic conditions tend to need to avoid, are controlling people, crticising people, and other energy drainers.

Expand full comment

Yes I can understand that. I have to avoid all sugar! I used to work as a therapist and noticed that because I needed to be needed that I attracted very energy sapping clients. However I now seem to see that when someone aggravates me, for example the controlling person, that I recognised the 'why'. It seemed to follow that I needed to look in the mirror and see the part of my ego that was controlling, once I could see that I could let it go and then the controlling person no longer aggravated me. I have no idea if anyone else has experienced this? As I was able to recognise these negative parts of my own ego then people became less toxic. I do agree we need to be protective of our own energy and it certainly doesn't mean I suddenly like everyone. I have lost a certain 'attachment' to friendship and feel more content with my own company.

Expand full comment
author

I do find as we begin to understand ourselves we can be more "forgivng" of others, and better able to tolerate. I guess this is like how as people heal themselves, they find their food sensitivies go down, and are able to tolerate in moderation food which would have set their allergies off previously.

Expand full comment

Yes that makes sense. I am not sure if I am forgiving or not but perhaps it has been significant that losing all my friends due to my beliefs over the last few years has enabled me to see myself more clearly and forgive myself. I certainly think that autoimmune disorders are triggered by the body trying to get our attention to make significant changes. Perhaps I just had the wrong people in my life!!! Having said that I will be meeting my elderly parents for the first time in over 3 years next week. I already have anxiety so I am not sure if they fall into the class of toxic people in your video or in the class of relationships we need to heal? Life is so complicated ha ha

Expand full comment
Aug 11, 2023·edited Aug 11, 2023Liked by Gary Sharpe, Visceral Adventure

My favorite transformation meditation is to ask myself about a "toxic" person, "what is our sacred agreement?" Just coming from the idea that we are co-creating something important sets an entirely different stage for what follows. The answer can often be something like, "I (said toxic person) agree to come to you at a point in your life when you are ready to pull a certain belief from your subconscious and recognize that it is hurting you. I will reflect this belief to you over and over until you see it for yourself and change it. At that point my agreement will be complete." For example, if I carry a deep seated belief that people who love me will hurt me eventually, then everyone who loves me will at some point get pulled into reflecting that back to me. The transformation that occurs when I find the sacred agreement changes everything. Some relationships end at that point, some shift dramatically, but it all comes back to me being willing to own my co-creation with the other person, and to dig into what is ultimately the heart's journey.

Expand full comment
author

Beautifully put.

Expand full comment

This is lovely - thank you. I am trying to approach the up coming meeting with openness and compassion. I understand that people cannot be other than what they are. Their life experience, their conditioning, their level of consciousness. It is particularly challenging with very judgemental people who are not willing to meet you even a little way along the path and who tell you that you are the one creating all the problems by not complying and not fitting in to society. I understand that I had auto immune disorders because I believed them.

Expand full comment