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July 7, 2022 27 mins

All season, Eva has explored our connections to a wide range of topics. But what about the connection we have with ourselves? And what does a thoughtful inner connection look like? This week, Eva is joined by author, spiritual leader, political activist, and fellow Texan, Marianne Williamson, to unpack the true meaning of inner connection and how we can work towards strengthening it.

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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome back to Connections with Eva. I'm Eva Longoria. Today
we are going to explore the idea about inner connection,
what is our relationship with ourselves. What prompted me to
think about this particular episode was during the lockdown, I
feel like we were all forced to sit with our
own thoughts, you know, as we worked from home, as

(00:23):
we homeschooled our kids, as we stayed in pajamas all day.
We had some zooms here and there, but for the
most part, the entire world stopped and everything was still.
And at least that's what I experienced, and what I
witnessed during this time was how important mental resilience needed
to be. You know, we we couldn't go out, and
we couldn't socialize. We we we couldn't even see Grandma. You know.

(00:44):
It was so much change, and it was so sudden,
and I think this hard time in the world really
tested our mental toughness, and some of us came out
the other side and some of us did not. And
I feel like it's impossible to even talk about our
mental toughness if you're not talking about a deep connection
with our innerself. And a lot of that has to

(01:04):
do with obviously instilling habits that boost our emotional and
mental well being, you know, meditating and journaling and yoga
and exercise and prayer. But aside from the habits, I
wanted to have a discussion about the why, like why
should we have a deep connection with our inner selves?
And I've always sought out better ways to connect with
my higher self and my sense of purpose and making

(01:25):
sure my intentions matched with my actions. And it was
really through this self discovery and all my you know,
self help books and all these reading that I discovered
mary Anne Williamson. Most people have heard of Marianne when
she decided to went for president, but I met her
over ten years ago, and she's had a long career
before that. When I discovered Return to Love and I
read it, I don't even remember how it ended up

(01:47):
in my hands, and I just thought, wow, what is this?
And I remember looking at the back of the book
and going where is this woman? Where does she live?
As she was giving courses and lectures, it was like
every week and me and my girlfriends we'd all go.
It was Monday nights or Wednesday nights, I can't remember
the night. And I felt like every time Marianne spoke
every time I went, she was speaking to me like

(02:09):
in a room full of five people. The lesson to
learn that night was for me, and I said, well,
obviously everybody must feel that. And so when I thought
about exploring this episode about interconnection, I knew the first
person I wanted to talk to you was Mary and Williamson.
She's a spiritual teacher and she's an incredibly inspiring lecturer.
She's written over thirteen books, she's founded multiple charitable organizations.

(02:31):
Of course, she even ran for president. But most of all,
I think she's just a leader in the conversation about love.
And I'm so excited to welcome Marianne to the show.
How are you? Oh, I'm fun And thank you for
that very generous introduction. Thank you. It's just great, great
to be with you. Evil. You've been such a resource
to me personally. I remember campaigning for Obama in two

(02:53):
thousand and eight and then having some sort of backlash
and and just the tsunami of this negativity all at once,
and I called you and I said can you talk?
And you said absolutely, and you got on the phone,
and I was like, they're being mean to me, They're
being so main it's so main And you said, why
did you do this in the first place? What was
your intention? Why did you want to do this right?

(03:16):
And I was like, because I want to make a
difference and I want to agree, you know, and you go, well,
you know that needs to be a north star. So
I don't think any of these comments should really detour
you from that. And I never forgot that, and I
use it in all of my life. It's like, what
do I want to get out of this experience? What
I want to get out of this project? And if
I'm very clear about that, then everything else just kind

(03:37):
of falls away. And I've never forgotten that because You've
been there for me for many, many times. So thank
you for that, Marianne. Well, thank you. And I learned
a lot more after that about how me and they
can be Yes, oh my gosh, I feel like we
should start there. Should we start backwards? Like we start backwards?
But I mean, how have you been? Where have you been? Um?

(03:58):
I know you moved to d C now, and how
has that been being you're in the Bee's Nest. Yeah,
it's like world headquarters for both darkness and light, you know,
the people seeking to do the greatest damage so they
can make a lot of money. They're headquartered here. And
the people who are trying to do the greatest good
so they can save the world, they're here too. So

(04:20):
it's sort of we're living simultaneously at a time where
there's this ethos of the fall of Rome and there's
this ethos of a world that is struggling to be born.
What do you think your life's work is about? You
know what, what is the ultimate goal in all of
your teachings and all of your books, you know, the
one thing I wish people could understand or get or

(04:40):
just embrace. Well, you know, I never think of myself
as trying to get a message out. You know, I
think of myself as trying to get a message in.
And in that sense, I don't think of my life's
work is different than your life's work or anyone else's
life's work. I think all of us help the same
life work, and that is to actualize the truth of
who we are, which is the love that is the

(05:01):
truth of who we are, and to extend it. What
form that takes is not as important as we make it.
Whether you're a scientist or an artist, or a parent
or a spouse or a teacher. The work we do
in terms of its external expression doesn't seem to me
as important as the work we do trying to dismantle

(05:23):
the fears and the insanity that so dominates as well
and breaking through to the other side. As we do that,
we are guided according to our own propensities, our own talents,
our own skills, our own circumstances. Two ways we can
extend that love. But the work itself, I think, is
to an audience. So you talk about don't get the

(05:46):
message out, get the message in? And so why should
we have a connection to our inner self? And what
does that and what does that even mean? Do you
know what I mean? Like I feel like people think
sometimes like, oh, you spiritual people, you know, and we're
raising cookie right, Whereas all the people who have led
us to where we are are somehow the sophisticates. Now,

(06:10):
let's look at that. Given where we are, because the
mindset that has brought us to where we are, where
are we We're on a trajectory that, if allowed to continue,
is suicide species. Whether it has to do with the
death of the democracy in America, whether it has to
do with the implosion of our biosphere, our environment. I mean,

(06:30):
there are so many signs of decline that those who
have let us into this ditch, claiming they're the only
ones qualified enough with the mindset to lead us out
of the ditch, is becoming so increasingly obviously insane. The
entire world as we know it has come to a
point that perfectly reflects our disconnection from the deepest truth

(06:51):
of who we are. And I don't think that we
can separate our deepest connection from who we are, from
our deepest connection to one another, or our deepest connect
into nature, our deepest connection to animals. Now, back in
the late eighteen eighties, the first of the Industrial Revolution,
you know, there's a story I sometimes tell Eva. When

(07:13):
I was in college, remember during those years, and we
would put big art posters on our walls from museums.
So there were these posters of these gigantic angels. They
were painted by someone named Edinburn Jones. But I didn't
know it's a Scottish paint or I didn't know who was.
I just knew I loved these angels, huge angels. Many

(07:34):
years later, I was writing a book called Healing the
Soul of America, and I was doing research deeper into
American history than I had ever studied it before. And
I was fascinated by the Transcendentalists and by Emerson, and
by Whitman, and by the Industrial Revolution, and by the
conflicts at that time, and by the poets and the
philosophers who were saying, no, be careful, You're gonna become

(07:56):
so so enamored of things happening outside that our inner
life will will wither away. Our connection to some of
the deepest things of compassion and understanding and reflection and
reverence and devotion will wither away. So years after I
had those posters on my wall in college, I'm walking

(08:17):
up Fifth Avenue in New York City and I passed
the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Metropolitan, when you
know what, has special exhibits, put those huge banners in front,
right in the front. So I saw on the banner
these huge angels, angels and burn Burne Jones exhibit. So
I was really excited because I remembered these angels. I
went inside and I walked into the exhibit. I did

(08:39):
one of those little things where you have these earbuds
and it's explaining to you. Unknown to me was the
fact that Burne Jones had been one of those artists
and philosophers who was trying to warn the West at
the advent of the Industrial Revolution be careful, And he
actually had a line, are you ready for this? His

(08:59):
this scriptson, of what he was doing when he painted
those angels. This is what he said, every time they
build a machine, I will paint an angel. Oh my god,
How many angels did he pay? That's right? Obviously not enough? Right.
So what happened was we moved into the twentieth century
Western materialism, Western science, western technology, all of which has

(09:21):
in many ways called great good on the planet. But
it did not answer all of humanities problems the way
some people at the beginning of the twentieth century thought
at night. And in many ways it has created more
of them because it has caused this disconnection between our
our sense of what's important and the reality of what
matters most are outer eyes became so mesmerized by the

(09:45):
outer world that our inner eyes are inner ears are
inner connection. It's like a muscle that has withered away.
Now in the twenty one century. You know, the mindset
of the twenty that I just described, it was very
different than the nineteen and now the mind said of
the twenty one is reconnection in response to the disconnection

(10:06):
that was imbued in the Western materialistic mindset of the
twenty people understand that we have lost something in the
process of what we have sought to gain. And I think,
also going back to COVID, we had become a society
in which the normal tenor of things is that people
are running around like chickens with their head chopped off.

(10:27):
You know. Blaze but Scalar, French philosopher once said, every
problem in the world stems from man's inability to sit
quietly in a room alone. I gotta go somewhere, I
gotta get out of the house. I gotta go somewhere.
I gotta go do something, And all of a sudden
you're told, well, actually there's not much you can do,
and not many places you can go, and if you

(10:49):
even tried, you could die. So we're having to sit
alone with ourselves in a way that is hysteria producing, right,
because we're having to come face to face with something
that we had avoided, which is a deeper gaze into
our own souls. That's why sometimes it's hard to meditate.

(11:11):
It's like you find yourself. Um, you know, I really
need to return that email. Actually you don't right now,
I might have gotten a phone call you actually really don't. Yeah,
cultivating the capacity for stillness and that reconnection is difficult,
but it's an imperative for us becoming the people we
need to be, I think, in order to save the
world and step off disaster, because that's where we find

(11:33):
clarity and wisdom and strength and the power that we're
going to need in the dairs. Oh look, I mean
I couldn't agree with you more. It's so funny because
you know, in some cultures, I think, especially if you
live in l A, you meet somebody and you go,
so what do you do? And in some cultures that's

(11:54):
offensive because what you do is not who you are.
So I know, sometimes like in the UK, if Bagoga
I don't even know you, why would you ask that?
Like you know, where are you from? You know what
music did? Like you should ask all these other things,
because that is the least interesting thing about you, is
like what do you do? What do you do? What
do you do? And I think that you've said this before.

(12:16):
You know, we go from relationship to relationship, job to job,
city to city, looking for anything else to define us, right,
whatever that identity is. It's like I'm American, I'm a mom,
I'm an actor, I'm apological. Like we really seek that
outside of ourselves, and I think the world tells us

(12:40):
to define ourselves according to that, And so how do
we combat that? Like especially you know you kind of
touched a little bit, but like this material existence as well.
You're defined by your wealth, or you're defined by how
much you have. Are you defined by your job? Sigmund
Freud defined neurosis as separation from self. In the course

(13:01):
of miracles, there's the concept of self with a little
s and a concept of self with the biggest So
the biggest self is what the world has taught us
that we are. It's your resume, basically, it's the life
of your body. It's other people's opinion of you. It's
your money or your lack. It's your prestige or your lack,
all of the things that we identify with our external selves.

(13:24):
But you know, there's a story in the Bible. You
can build your house on rock, or you can build
your house on sand. If you build your house on sand,
then the winds will come and the rains will come
and your house will fall down. If you build your
house on rock, your house remains firm. If I build
my sense of identity and thus my sense of worth

(13:44):
on the external things, what other people think of me,
the existence of my body, all the aspects of my
bodily existence, well, that's building my house on sand. Because
I might have the money one day, I might not
have it the next time. Might have the job. One day,
I might not have it the next. I might look
good when i'm a certain age, but not until good
when i'm another edge of Other people might like me today,

(14:04):
other people might not like anymore. So we're constantly shifting.
It's shifting sands that lead to a horrible grasping, as
Buddha would describe it, We're always grasping, and then even
when you get something, you start grasping again, because what
if I lose it? Right building your house on rock
means my truest identity is not the life of the body,

(14:26):
but the life of the spirit. I love how in
the course of miracles it says physical birth is not
the beginning of life, but a continuation of life, and
physical death is not the end of life, but the
continuation of life. I am that which is not of
my body. Now. The only way you can remember that, though,
is if I remember it about you too. And that's

(14:47):
why this idea of just loving yourself is never going
to get you there. Jesus didn't arrive on the earth
a say I love yourself. It's become so invoked these guys.
It's got to be loved one another, because I'm only
going to be capable seeing in myself what I'm willing,
at least willing to see in you. Carl Young said
that if you go deep enough into your mind and

(15:09):
deep enough into mind, that there is mental imagery or
what it called archetypes that we all share. The idea
of the spiritual mind, the one mind, the christ mind,
whatever you call it, is that if you go deep
enough into your mind and deep enough into mind, we're
actually there's only one mind, right, which is the esoteric

(15:32):
reading of there's only one begotten sun. So in the
course of miracles, it says you are like a sunbeam,
thinking you're separate from other sunbeams. You were like a
wave in the ocean, thinking you're separate from other waves.
Think of the psychological difference. Now, first, of all, there
is no place where one wave stops and another starts.
But think of the difference in psychological and emotional experience

(15:54):
between thinking of yourself as a wave that's separate from
the rest of the waves, versus thinking of yourself as
a way if that's connected to the rest of the waves.
If I think of myself as one wave in the
huge ocean, separated from all the other waves, how can
I not live in a constant level of terror that
at any moment another wave might overwhelm and obliterate me. If,

(16:20):
on the other hand, I realized, Hey, there's no place
why I stopping at start. I am this ocean, I move,
it moves, it moves. I'm I'm one with this whole thing,
complete safety, and I cannot be overwhelmed because I am
one with the ocean. So we pay a terrible price
for thinking of ourselves is separate from one another. We
pay a terrible price for thinking of ourselves is separate

(16:43):
from that which sourced us. We pay a terrible price,
as we are experiencing now from thinking ourselves as separate
from the earth. Look what we have done to the
earth because of our lack of reverence, our disconnection from
a sense that we are of it and our destruction
of the earth is the ultimate destruction of ourselves. It
feels like that concept though of like we are one

(17:05):
is so simple and so hard to digest and meditation.
It's like my breath is your breath, my DNA is
your DNA. Like we are actually all really one, I
mean in the most macro way, but when we have
our heads down and our freet moving, it's I think
it's hard for people to grasp that, Like I'm just

(17:27):
trying to put a meal on the table. Who said
it where minimum wage is not enough people have four
full time jobs and can't make a living, you know,
And they said, you know, it's designed that way so
that you don't have time to think abstractly or about
the world or about recycling, about the environment, because you're
just especially in the United States, it's designed for you

(17:47):
to be so busy surviving that I don't have I
don't have time. I'm glad to hear you say it,
because it's a big conversation there about how both parties
are part of the design. So how do you talk
to those people who go, I can't even deal with
anybody else because I'm just dealing with my ship. You know, well,
you have to stop lying to them, is what you

(18:10):
have to do. You have to stop lying. You know.
The only way we're going to beat the outrageous lies
that are out there is if we begin to tell
some outrageous truths and the outrageous truths or things like
what you just said. You know, when I was running
for president, I used to say, too many people in
the Republican Party tell some big laws. But we have
to remember that when you are you raise your hand

(18:32):
and you swear when you're in a court of law,
to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but
the truth. Too many people on our side of the
aisle tell the truth, but they're not telling the whole truth,
and they're not telling nothing but the truth because the
whole truth, nothing but the truth, is what you just said,
even and that changes everything in terms of how we
look at our society and the economic system and the
political system that currently prevails within it. You know, one

(18:54):
of the things that you were just saying about, I'm
so busy, I don't have time. You and I were
talking before we came mom about the stories we tell,
and one of the things that a lot of countries,
and I'm sure this is true of Mexico as well.
I would you would know more than I, or correct
me if I'm wrong, but I certainly know this is
true in a lot of cultures. They think that one

(19:14):
of the things that makes American society not attractive to
them is that we put attention on things, and to
some extent, because of what you were just saying, to
some another extent, not because we have to, but because
it should become our mental habit on things that are
not the deepest truth. The deepest truth is our love

(19:36):
for our husbands, our wives, our lovers, our friends, our parents,
and our children. Within that space, it's not hard to
see our oneness at all. It's not hard for you
to see your oneness with your husband, if you're in
love with your husband. It's not hard for you to
see your oneness with the child that you gave birth
to or that you hold in your arms. So our

(19:56):
actual human experience, it's you have the time to walk
through the park. It's not hard to see your wholeness
with nature. It's not you say it's so hard, but
it's only hard because we're keeping ourselves stuck in a
mode where the disconnection is all around us. But at
what point do we say the suicide right, our kids

(20:19):
committing suicide, this is insane, This must stop. And I
think that's where people are, and we have to harness
that realization and contain it in a way that will
allow for a tender transition back to truth. Otherwise there
will be a violent rebalancing. What do you think stops

(20:44):
people from connecting to themselves? I mean you talked a
little bit about it, about like the lies we're telling everybody.
I mean, we're just feeding them with lies and misinformation
that it Maybe they don't think it's possible, or it's
worth it, or it's valuable. I don't see a world
in which people are avoiding it. I see a world
in which people are leaning into conversations like we're having.

(21:07):
I don't think we're at a point where we don't
have a critical mass of people who know what's happening here.
People want to know more about how to do it.
The majority didn't wake up one day and say let's
free the slaves. The majority didn't wake up one day
and say let's give women the right to vote. The
majority didn't wake up one day and say let's dismantle segregation.

(21:28):
It takes a critical mass. And actually, but I think
we have a groutical mass. The issue is people. I
think people are not stupid. I don't think there's anybody
out there who heard the conversation we've just been having
and denies it or yeah, I don't think that's the
time we're living in. It's like two common sense. Now
people want to know and how do I do that?

(21:50):
That's what that's the world I see. What do you
think would ultimately serve our society if more people were
able to connect with themselves, Because once you connect with yourself,
then you realize, you know, you eventually get to you
climb the ladder of getting to we are all one.
You are my brother, right, you are my neighbor. I

(22:13):
don't care if you're from Afghanistan. I don't care if
you're from Mexico. Like you eventually, if you you know,
seek inner work, you eventually get to that point if
you're serious about your journey. What would ultimately serve society
better if people did that? Like, what do you think
would be the biggest transformation happening in every cell of

(22:33):
the body. Every cell has led to our natural intelligence
to the place where it can best serve, some to
the pancreas, some to the lung, some to the to
the brain, some to the liver, where it has led
to collaborate with other cells to serve the healthy function
of the organ organ and organism of which it is part.

(22:55):
When we do the practices that you mentioned and we
find the stillness of mind, then we learn to as
there's a term in both Christianity and Judaism, the small
still voice for God. When you quiet the mind through
those practices, you begin to receive your instructions through natural intelligence.

(23:17):
What will people do? Some people will be led to
work on environmental issues, some people will be led to
work on sex trafficking issues, and some people will be
led to work on voter suppression and working within the
political system. All of us will be led to forgive more.
All of us will be led to love more deeply.
God's not going to give me instruction for what you're

(23:37):
supposed to do with your life. God's not going to
give you instruction for what I'm supposed to do with
my life. But we can all remind each other to
listen deeply and to follow that internal radar. The reason
people are so hysterical, anxious, depressed, and so forth is
because we're living in a meaningless random universe because the
external world is, but the internal world is not random

(24:01):
at all. The internal world, the world of spirit, is
very intentional, just like the cells of the body are.
And cancer is what happens when I Sell disconnects from
that natural intelligence. And that's what's happened to the planet.
We've been infected by the malignant thought that it's all
about me, separate from my collaborative function. You can't, you know,

(24:24):
one relines on the course I love it. Don't look
to yourself to find yourself, because that's not where you are.
You find yourself in relationship with others. You find yourself
in service to others. You find yourself in collaboration with others. Wow,
there's a prayer that I love in the course that says,
every morning, where would you have me go? What would

(24:47):
you have me do? What would you have me say?
And to whom? And you know it's interesting. The word
disciple comes from the same root as the word discipline,
And I think you you become disciplined to just show
up for wherever you are. I don't know what I'm
supposed to do, except right now I'm on a podcast
with you. I'm supposed to be showing up as best

(25:07):
I can. That's all I really have to know. Yeah,
and then there'll be another circumstance after the podcast, where
you will be called to show up as best you
can in your life, and I will be called to
show up as best I can in my life, and
everyone listening will be called to show up as best
they can. And as we all learn vertically to show
up more, then horizontally everything will take care of itself.

(25:30):
Because the universe is intentional, just like the flower bends
towards the sun. And I believe you know that line
that we've all heard. The moral arc of the universe
is long, but it bends towards justice. Just lean into
doing the best you can in whatever it is. Lean

(25:52):
into being the best person you can, whatever it is.
Right this moment, somebody needs you. Stop pretending some but
it could use a call. Stop pretending somebody needs your love,
Stop pretending somebody needs your forgiveness. And then I think
the path just it's like falls in front of us,
It's like paved, and we just begin to see because

(26:15):
we're just doing our best wherever we are. Mm hmm, yeah, um,
what is you know? You've written so many books, But
I ask everybody, is there a book you recommend people
should read? It could be a couple of books. It's
just it's something. Is there something other people's books, other
people's other people's books, or any books that had an
influence on you? Obviously of course of miracles, and obviously

(26:37):
for me it's like Returned to Love is one I loved.
Actually Healing the Soul of America. That was amazing. Thank you.
I wrote kind of a sequel to that, called Politics
of Love. Actually you don't have it. I'll be glad
to send it to but more Um, in terms of
other books, there's a book I read every two or
three years that you've probably read, by Roca Letters to
a Young Poet. I know it. I haven't read it. Yeah,

(27:01):
I mean it's a book we all read, like many
years ago. I think I never failed to find Jools there.
It's always so nice to see you. Thank you, oh man,
thank you so much, Thank you so much for listening.
I'm happy to be connected with you. Connections with Evil

(27:24):
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My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark

My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark

My Favorite Murder is a true crime comedy podcast hosted by Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark. Each week, Karen and Georgia share compelling true crimes and hometown stories from friends and listeners. Since MFM launched in January of 2016, Karen and Georgia have shared their lifelong interest in true crime and have covered stories of infamous serial killers like the Night Stalker, mysterious cold cases, captivating cults, incredible survivor stories and important events from history like the Tulsa race massacre of 1921. My Favorite Murder is part of the Exactly Right podcast network that provides a platform for bold, creative voices to bring to life provocative, entertaining and relatable stories for audiences everywhere. The Exactly Right roster of podcasts covers a variety of topics including historic true crime, comedic interviews and news, science, pop culture and more. Podcasts on the network include Buried Bones with Kate Winkler Dawson and Paul Holes, That's Messed Up: An SVU Podcast, This Podcast Will Kill You, Bananas and more.

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