#59 - The Law of Divine Oneness (Part 3 / 4): 5 Powerful Strategies YOU Can Use to Shift from Me to We

In today's episode you can expect to learn five powerful strategies to help us all foster a stronger sense of interconnectedness and compassion with ourselves and others. We explore the challenges like ego and believing in the unseen, as well as ways to combat those challenges and beliefs. 

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Transcript

Intro:

Hello Everyone! Welcome to The Game of Life Podcast; I am Alexandria Burek and I am your host. 

If you are new here, thank you for joining us (me) on this journey, if you have become a regular, I am sending you so much love and gratitude for spending this time with me. My goal is to create a space where we can be honest with ourselves, elevate our internal and external worlds, and ultimately put so much good out in the world that our lives transform before our eyes. 

This year we are on the metaphysical magic carpet ride: diving deep into each of the twelve laws of the metaphysical universe each month. 

In today's episode, you can expect to learn strategies to help you shift from a me to we way of being as well as explore the challenges and countermeasures we might face and use as we lean into the law of divine oneness.

Before we get into the thick of it, I will kick it off with a quick personal update. 

Personal Update: 

Today’s update is going to be short and sweet. Over the weekend I was able to spend some time with literally my favorite people: my best friends, my grandma, my family, and also some others. I managed to carve out a few hours to work on some things that I believe will advance my career and cuddle with my pets, which is something I have not made as much time for as I would like in the last couple of months. 

I did hit a major milestone on the STR project–I got my guestbook done, which is a huge relief and accomplishment. It has fueled my motivation to knock out some of the last projects I have planned for January as we come to the second half of this month.

I am optimistic about the opportunities I have been pursuing and I am hopeful that by my birthday, we will have a clear picture on what lies ahead.

With that, lets get into part 3 of The Law of Divine Oneness. 

The Law of Divine Oneness 

By now we know that the law of divine oneness explains that we are all connected, coming from one source, and that our actions can have big and small effects on those around us and beyond. 

Last week, we explored three wildly different perspectives–buddhism, quantum physics, and hinduism–that support the concept of divine oneness. We also started thinking about what we can learn from this law and how it can be applied to our daily lives–knowing we are not alone, rejecting separation, knowing that even our small actions have a big impact, and that by healing ourselves we are healing the collective. Today we will examine the challenges with the law of divine oneness and go even deeper into finding ways to let this law express itself in our daily lives and the impact we have on others, and the world. Next week will be our last episode on the law of divine oneness where we will summarize the bulk of our learnings about this law and walk away with some key insights and reflections we can carry with us as we transition over to the next law, the law of vibration, which I am very excited to learn about and share with you!

Today, we will lead off with 5 ways to apply the law of divine oneness to each of our lives, and close out acknowledging and counterbalancing the challenges that we may face in doing so. 

The 5 strategies we are covering today are:

1. Practice empathy and compassion
2. Be intentional with your intentions 
3. Acknowledge the impact of the ripple effect 
4. Shift from Me to We
5. Meditate

So- what does this mean and how do WE take meaningful action. 

First lets talk about empathy and compassion. In my opinion it is just as important to extend empathy and compassion to ourselves as it is others. This exercise cannot and should not be lopsided. Because we are all connected, extending compassion and empathy to ourselves, is by nature of this law, extending it to others and vice versa. I will give you two examples of how I practice empathy and compassion in my personal life internally and externally; the goal of my sharing these examples is to help you think about where and how you can do the same. I will start with an external example. I take great pride in understanding and processing my emotions, and to say the least, most people in my circle are not necessarily as interested, concerned, or aware of their emotions as I try to be. If and when conflict arises, I try to step back and find a way to view their perspective with compassion or empathy. This does not degrade my position in the conflict, it does not justify their actions, but it does allow me to approach the conversation with care and an open mind. If you are in a conflict, do your best to step back and try to see why or how the person you are in conflict with might feel justified or landed at their conclusion. It will help you to have a more productive conversation or simply move past the conflict by offering compassion in place of further conflict. I realize this is not necessarily easy, but it is something that will have a positive impact on you. It is also a good exercise for gaining different perspectives and can be more broadly applied. 

From an internal standpoint, I generally expect I should be better, do better, be farther, have more, ETC than I currently do. That said, I try to balance this ambition and drive with compassion. One specific example is with money–I swear, among other things, I am here to learn a lesson about, and end a cycle with, money that goes far beyond this current lifetime I am living. I have come so far with developing systems and trying new things, but there is one particular area I am working on. My first response yesterday was to “figure out what I did wrong” to “find the mistake I made” that landed me here. In carefully reviewing the situation, I could not find any mistake or wrong doing. I said to myself, what did you learn from this, even though your actions were aligned with your values and your goals, you are still not feeling good about this situation. What do I need to do to feel good about this? And I found a couple of things I could do to marginally improve or things that I DID that were different than what my past self would have done, drawing on my love for the Atomic Habits approach to life. I realized I am doing a good job, and I said that to myself. I acknowledged that changing itself is hard, and that I am making improvements. I gave myself some compassion for taking on this challenge. I employed Dr. Benjamin Hardy’s Gap vs Gain mentality, and I chose to see the gain (the improvements I am making). These are all forms of compassion and empathy I extended to myself. So I will ask you, what are you working on that may be hard? What progress are you overlooking? Acknowledging your progress and marginal improvements or the fact that you made a different decision or took a different action than you would have previously are all signs of progress and acknowledging them are all forms of compassion. If you make a mistake, acknowledge it. That reminds me, I will give you a little bonus exercise, you can write your current self an apology from your past self; you can write a letter from your current self forgiving your past self for the mistakes and decisions made in the past. These are all great ways to extend self compassion and empathy to ourselves. Healing ourselves heals the collective. 

Next is being intentional with your intentions. I have a mantra I came up with about 2 years ago, “set intentions not expectations.” This mantra was inspired partly by buddhist teachings and partly by Ed Mylett. The buddhists say that expectations create suffering, so one can infer that expectations aren’t great for being positive and having a positive view on the world, those we love, or ourselves. Ed Mylett always talks about intentions and how we can’t control outcomes, but we can control our intentions and our inputs. SO, with all this in mind, a mantra was born, set intentions, not expectations. I apply this in all areas of my life. One example is when I moved into my house, I set the intentions (not expectations) that I would keep the house neat and tidy, that I would care for the house by making continuous improvements, and that I would decorate it in a cohesive way. I can honestly say that I have upheld every one of those intentions–they are clear, yet vague enough. In relationships, I set intentions when I decide to commit to somebody; I do this because I can control my inputs and my intentions, without placing grand expectations on the other person or our future together. Set intentions, not expectations. As you move throughout your life, find ways to set intentions rather than expectations. 

On to the ripple effect. The main takeaway from this is to not underestimate the impact of a kind word or a nice gesture; or the example you set; or the way you show up for others. Often we do not see the impact of our actions on others, but just because we do not bear witness to them, does not mean they did not happen or have an impact. One of the greatest ways to bring happiness and meaning into our own lives is to do things for other people; when you walk out of the house, try to make someone smile. Wait an extra second and hold the door for someone. If someone needs help, offer a hand. If someone made an impact on you, do not underestimate the weight of your acknowledging that or thanking them. For example, an executive in our company has become a friend of mine, he is a great human. I mentioned a compliment another executive made regarding his management style, and that really touched him. I was honestly surprised because I thought, he knows he's great, he doesn’t need to hear it from me, BUT, it did make a difference to him. Who knows how that will manifest across his team or his satisfaction at this job, but I know it has and I know it will. Be the one to start the ripple effect of positivity. One way we can all experiment with this is to do 3 acts of kindness each week for ourselves and others; Dr. Sonja Lyubomirsky shared this practice on Rich Roll’s podcast, and I think it is a great way to extend love and kindness to ourselves and others.    

Moving on. Shifting from Me to We. At the heart of this, is really asking ourselves, how we can be a little bit less individualistic and a little more connected to the whole. When I think about how I have shifted from Me to We, I am proud of my contributions to charitable organizations. My desire to contribute has led to me using this podcast as a place to promote and raise awareness for different organizations I support myself. Making a conscientious decision to shop local, or to support small businesses, or to volunteer, or to use and buy products that are sustainably produced, whatever it may be are all ways we can shift from me to we. These small shifts go a long way when amplified over hundreds, or thousands, or millions of people. 

Finally you may ask, what does my meditating have to do with the collective? Meditation is a way to manage or eliminate anxious and negative thoughts and feelings. So if we are all carving out 5, 10, 15 or even 30 minutes to settle our nervous systems, or to clear our mind of the chatter, or do deep breathing and eliminate the stale air trapped in our lungs, we are able to be that much more grounded, calm, loving, peaceful, joyful, and positive in the world. When I make meditation a routine practice, I am that much better at home with my pets, at work with my co-workers; my natural state is elevated such that when things do pop up, I am in a much better place to handle them. I cannot recommend mediation more for the countless benefits you experience as an individual; now knowing that it also serves the collective is just one more reason to prioritize meditation. In the show notes, you can get one month free with Headspace, my go to meditation app, and links to a couple of other meditations I love.

Find ways to practice empathy and compassion with yourselves and others. 

Be intentional with your intentions. Set intentions, not expectations. 

Acknowledge that you have the power to send a positive (or negative) ripple effect out. Choose your words, thoughts, and actions wisely. 

Shift from a me to we way of being. 

Meditate. Regulate. Normalize an elevated state. 

Now that we have a clear idea of what we can do to be more connected, we need to address the challenges we may face as we transition from me to we. There are two prominent challenges I see us facing: our ego and ability to believe in the unseen. 

From what I am gathering in my research, the ego (which I admittedly, know almost nothing about) seems to be at the core of the challenges one would face if they were trying to embrace the law of divine oneness and focus and foster a sense of interconnectedness. So let's explore the concept of the ego and the challenges it poses. The first question that came to mind was, what is the opposite of ego; this will provide a framework, a set of guideposts as we look at the challenges ego poses to the law of divine oneness. 

Ego is associated with self-centeredness, attachment to identity, and a sense of separation from others. For the sake of this podcast, we are going to say that the opposite of ego is authenticity (living in alignment with our true selves free from expectations and without needing external validation); other opposites besides authenticity could be selflessness, vulnerability, and altruism. 

Now, how does this counteract the law. The ego is best known for its superiority complex, and if you think you are better than, or different from everyone and everything, you are not living in alignment with the law of divine oneness. A key example I have been very mindful of is when I see people driving the cars I love, or having houses on the lake, or penthouses in the city, or amazing outfits, or whatever it is, I bless them. I think of them being an example of my future, I think of how generous they must be, and how many peoples lives they positively impact because of their apparent wealth. By seeing myself as like them vs different than them, and blessing them vs seething with jealousy, I am in alignment with the law of divine oneness. I am putting positive thoughts and energy out into the world which will come back to me. What is one group that you find yourself feeling “different than” or “different from” and what can you do to challenge that belief? Maybe its pretty women? Or ultra fit men? Or very charismatic people? Rather than fixating on how you are different, experiment with ways you could be more like those people and see how that feels. 

Another challenge that I think is true for not only the law of divine oneness, but all of the universal laws, is understanding and believing in, the impact of the invisible. I hear many physicists and other thought leaders in this space sharing their stories of early skepticism; which I think is refreshing to know that even the people leading the way, also had doubts. So what can we do to strengthen our belief in the unseen. I think the easiest thing to do is start small. My first exposure to this was experimenting with my vision book and writing goals as if I already achieved them. Once I built confidence in those methods, trying for bigger results has become easier. For example, I saw recently Lewis Howes talk about how he was struggling with money and decided he was going to be a magnet to money (or something like that); I said, what the heck have I got to lose and decided I too would be a magnet to money. I am not kidding you when I say today I literally found money; I walked out to my car and the license plate next to me had 888 which symbolizes financial prosperity. The universe aligns events, people, and situations with what we create in our mind. As soon as you can fully sign on to this, your world will literally change beyond belief. I cannot suggest enough that you experiment with your own attitude and behavior to see how your internal world (unseen) changes and influences the experience you have in the external world. I will leave you with one of my favorite quotes, featured in episode 30, “Thoughts become our words, our words become our actions, our actions become our behaviors, and our behaviors become our reality.” From internal and unseen, to external and material. 

You guys, I hope you enjoyed and feel better having listened to this episode; I would love to hear how you put the five strategies into action (please leave me a note in the comments). I cannot believe we are one month into 2025 and that next week we will be wrapping up the law of divine oneness. 

Thank you so much for spending this time with me–I hope this episode and this show continues to give you new things to think about that ultimately help improve your life. The greatest compliment you can give is sharing this show with someone you love. Thank you so much for your support of the show! 

Until next time…. Byeeeeee