OK.
So, Marcela, from Canada.
Are you there?
-Hi, hi. -Hi, Katie.
It's such a pleasure. I'm enjoy talking to you!
Oh, good, good.
You know I am, I--
It's a beautiful thing to love what we think in this moment.
(chuckles)
OK, sweetheart. So, read your email to me, please.
"The belief that I am not my body
gives me wonderful freedom
from worries about my appearance, disease, and aging.
I don't see a point of exercising or even healthy diet. 15 00:00:39,615 --> 00:00:39,502
If everything is projection of my mind,
everything is perfect,
and there is no unhealthy diet or lifestyle.
Do you think that losing interest
of taking care of our physical body
could be detrimental to our physical existence?"
Yes, it could actually,
it could actually kill you.
"If our physical body is a vehicle carrying us
through this life, shouldn't we care about it
the way that is recommended?"
Well, who knows how long our life should last?
You know, I love to say,
"You know, I have to travel
and suck in all that jet fuel to die on time.
How else can I die on time?"
You know? And it may not be the healthiest thing,
but it's worth the trip.
It's worth the trip.
Now, I'm gonna put on my glasses 'cause I made some notes here.
And--
"To some people, when you say,
do you think that losing interest of taking care in our physical body
could be detrimental to our physical existence?"
Absolutely.
Cause and effect.
If I don't eat, the body dies.
That is the apparent, material world, OK?
Now, there's another world.
There's a world that the enlightened mind sees
that inquiry takes us to.
And I'm not talking about in time.
I mean, immediate, as we sit in the answers
that these questions can take us to.
So, "To some people, losing interest in taking care
of their physical body leaves a depression."
And, for me, you know, that is--
That is like living in hell,
the hell that these books talk about,
which is real hell. It was for me.
And, in other words, I was depressed
and I couldn't take care of this physical body.
So, "It's impossible to be a physical body
because the body is projected by the mind,
and it's absolutely"--
OK, I'll read what I wrote.
"It's impossible to be a physical body,
but your mind has apparently identified as one.
Why?
Body is a projection or mirror of your mind.
So, take care of your mind.
When you're stressed out about the body or anything,
and clarity and love will take care of your projected,
the beloved body or will you believe or don't believe in.
You don't believe you to be.
(At all times...)
You, at times, will feel stress physical."
And, any time I feel stress,
you know, this unnatural thing,
it's just like an out of balance, not harmony,
then, I look to what I'm thinking and believing in the moment.
And I clear it up, you know, on a Worksheet.
And I haven't had to do one of those in some time,
because inquiry is always running in my head.
It's like, a partner of what arises.
Inquiry is that partner.
And it shows me.
It's a constant state of--
It's like a state of meditating,
meditation that's going on without my help, really.
I'm just letting it run.
And it's a beautiful thing.
And, you say, "If our physical body is a vehicle
carrying us through this life,
shouldn't we care about it the way that it is recommended?"
And what I've written here,
"It is your mind projecting an image of life itself.
Absolutely take care of 'your body',
the body you believe you to be,
and notice the times when you don't.
And if you feel any guilt, whatsoever,
then look to the story you were in
prior to acting out on that, mmm--
that cigarette, or that drug or that anger.
Anger is, you know, it's--
it's the effect of a mind like that,
a confused mind.
But--
(laughs)
I've got to tell you, my mind is so still today.
There is no telling what is going to come out of it.
You know, this is my mind on paper,
as I read the answers,
but it's--
it's a beautiful thing
and I hope, in some way, this served you.
I wrote a little more.
It's "If you feel guilt, just look at the story you were in
before you binged, abused, etc.,
and take advantage of the Judge-Your-Neighbor Worksheet.
Or not."
But, you know, it's like, if I--
If I did--
I'm upset,
I do the drug,
or the chocolate cake, whatever it is that the mind would say,
"This is not good for your body."
OK? And it doesn't matter if it's good for my body or not.
I'm going against myself.
Therefore, guilt.
That's mine to take care of, whether it's right or wrong.
I mean, who wants guilt?
It's painful.
So I don't do The Work on that thing that I ingested.
I go back to see,
"Was I--
What was I into?
Was I angry at my mother, father,
sister, brother,
roommate, whatever?
And that's the thing I Work through.
Because the ego will love just to take care of that addiction.
And it doesn't hurt to do your mind,
you know, to do a Worksheet on your mind on that.
But the trigger is hidden just prior to that.
So, if you get really still, you can find it.
And then, let's say it's chocolate cake,
then you notice you eat the cake or you don't.
-Thank you.
My thing was-- I was the opposite.
I was always exercising, I was taking vitamins,
I was so focused on-- -So that's it.
Rather than the chocolate cake, that's it.
That's your addiction.
-Yes. -Yeah.
Yeah.
I notice all this, and I notice when I didn't,
I did it because of fear of being sick.
And that was the difference.
It wasn't because I really thought,
"This is really what I really want to do."
There was this fear of the future,
and the guilt of, "I am not taking care of my body enough."
Or, I would-- I could see all this,
that, before, I thought, when I say, "recommended,"
what other people recommended,
and I would always find new things I have to do,
because there was some new research that had been done.
"Oh, you have to be taking this. This is the newest thing."
"Then go and take this."
"Oh, you should be running."
"No, you shouldn't be. You should be doing yoga."
And all these things were going through my mind.
And I could see the pattern of being,
being in fear.
That's what I--
Yeah, it's the ego's fear of death.
It's like, "Take care of this body."
"You can't be too careful."
"Take those vitamins. Run, run," you know?
"Eat right."
Because, without the security of this body,
ego identifying as this material object,
without that, who am I?
As an ego, who am I?
Without this body, how can I exist?
I can't.
So the ego is always focused on the security of this body.
There's never enough I can do.
It always felt, you know, "You could always do more, Marcella!"
And, you know, then aging comes.
And like there's another research,
and another, and more things you can do.
And I noticed, thanks to The Work,
I could see noticing these things
when I didn't notice them before.
I thought, I am just doing the right thing,
but now I can notice the stressful thoughts behind it.
Before, there was-- I couldn't understand what was going on.
Oh, I love you have The Work in your life.
I love it.
Because health is about right here, right now, isn't it?
Yes.
This is, I mean, I don't care if I'm healthy later or before.
Right now is where it matters.
And, right now is where I'm always going to be.
That's where we're all going to be, right here right now.
So, to be happy now.
And, again, I love you have The Work in your life.
Lot of freedom.
Notice you're losing the fear of death?
Oh, my gosh!
There's nothing.
It feels, even the pain, which-- this is my biggest struggle
is the pain and the body,
you know, the projection of your mind, the pain--
I still am digesting it, as I go, Working through it,
but when I tell myself,
"You are healthy even when you are sick,"
it just feels like,
this is out of conventional every thinking I ever had,
and I understand it,
but I'm still trying to tweak, like, the details with it.
Yeah, and it'll obviously come to you because you are really--
you know, you are really in your depth.
And that's a beautiful gift to yourself.
But the--
The "I'm healthy," even--
I'm trying to collect your words,
but they'll be different--
But at my very, like--
People looking at me, saying, "You're sick,"
"You're dying,"
and let's say, "I'm in pain"
and all that's going on.
I am fine here.
One-hundred percent, I am healthy,
because everything I'm witnessing makes sense to me.
I'm not at war with it,
I'm not at war with death, I'm not at war with life.
I'm well.
So--
The comparison stops when I'm stopping comparing that
"Well, yesterday, this is what I was healthy,
and today I am not what I was yesterday
and tomorrow"--
And I could see all that's happening in my mind.
And it doesn't mean that I--
There are struggles with it, but I can understand it.
And I'm starting to understand very slowly what are you saying.
It's still Work in progress.
That's so beautiful, muah!
Thank you.
Thank you for peace.
Thank you for peace. It matters.