Finding Steady Faith in a Unsteady World: How Grace Helps Us Navigate Anxiety, Judgment, and Change

The wind was fierce, branches snapped, and yet the trees offered a lesson: let go with dignity and trust the season. That image sparked a conversation about grace—not as niceness or passive compliance, but as elegant strength and a workable alternative to judgment, outrage, and control. We share why grace is the heartbeat of the soul, how anxiety hijacks our best intentions, and what it looks like to “show, don’t tell” your values when the world is loud.

We talk about the difference between dogma and lived faith, why the most grounded people rarely need to persuade, and how trust in a larger pattern can steady you without making you naive. From the corrosive pull of manipulation to the subtle freedoms of humility, we examine how grace changes the tone of a room, lowers defenses, and opens space for real change. You’ll hear practical ways to cultivate presence—brief pauses, thoughtful speech, and boundary-setting without contempt—so your responses match your deepest intentions.

.

Send us a message

Support the show

A note for every episode: we do not necessary agree with all the views on our podcast and leave listeners to make their own mind up with what they do or don't agree with.

Want to be a guest on Awakened Conscious Conversations? Send The Gentle Yoga Warrior a message on PodMatch, here:

Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
Hello, everybody.
I'm your host, the Gentle YogaWarrior, and this is Awakened
Conscious Conversations Podcast.
And I'm joining you on ablustery day.
The wind has been blowing, andit even blew down some branches
on some of my favourite treeswhen I went for a walk earlier.
But there's the colour of theleaves are so beautiful as they

(00:21):
kind of turn from that green tothat red, and it's like the swan
song of the tree before ithibernates before winter.
And something very lovely toobserve, and it got me to
thinking about grace and thegrace of the trees as they kind

(00:42):
of like surrender into this nextstage of their life where they
kind of just allow and be, andsometimes occasionally I
noticing religious people whohave gone beyond the dogma and
the judging and all that, and Isee that they have a grace about

(01:02):
them where there's lessjudgment.
For I always think if someone'sreally happy or really kind of
in what they believe, they wouldnot have to judge other people
or kind of use violence oranything unsavoury like that to
get people to believe their wayof thinking.
So someone who really embodiestheir faith, I think, has grace,

(01:25):
and grace is getting and havingfaith, no matter how one is
feeling.
Grace is the heartbeat of thesoul, and things that kind of
stop us from having that graceis you know, this the world is
such a strange place, verystrange place these days, and I

(01:46):
never thought I'd say that, butwith each decade, it just gets
more weirder, in my opinion.
I just feel that the world haschanged.
Obviously, there's a lot ofthings that have changed for the
good, but there's so many thingsthat have changed for the bad,
and it's very easy to get suckedinto that where we kind of now
live in a country where we don'thave any right to express

(02:06):
ourselves or and where we're notlistened to, and unfortunately,
I feel where the people in powerjust do not care about the
everyday person, and it's allabout lining one's pocket with
money and kind of manipulatingpeople.
As I I speak about this, ofcourse, anxiety is like an

(02:28):
undercurrent, and what I'verealized anxiety is a powerful
emotion that can sometimes makeus forget who we really are.
And the thing is, I remembertalking to an elderly relative
in the 80s, and she said shesaid to me, She said, It's never
going to change, like even whenshe was young, there was like
corruption and evil in theworld, and if we keep looking at

(02:51):
corruption and evil, that's allwe will see.
Whereas we can remember ourgrace, and grace reminds us to
trust, but not just in life, butthe but in the greater picture,
and sometimes things are playedout in a way that we don't fully
understand or appreciate whyit's happening that way, but
beyond that, there is somethingit's like the universe has got

(03:13):
our back, even though some ofthe things that are happening do
not feel like it has got ourback, and that faith and that
grace, and I I I see it in somepeople that the lady that
recently joined with the ladywith the gorillas, Jane, is it
Jane Goodall or something?
She had a grace about her, andpeople with real grace have no

(03:36):
need to kind of shout, persuade,or try and convince people to
think their way, and they theyshow instead of tell.
And there's one thing when I wasdoing my writing course many
many years ago, it was all aboutshowing and not telling, but
there's so many ways in whichpeople who think all different
ways of thinking try and tellother people how to be, and

(04:00):
yeah, it's just it has got akind of a very mixed-up world
these days, but the grace iswhat's gonna help us sail
through it.
So maybe there is all these evilpeople in the world that are
running the countries and havekind of switched off the love
from their soul in search ofpower and materialism, but then

(04:25):
I think there's so many peoplethat have that grace and that
beauty, and we can all tap intoit, and it's quite a difficult
thing to explain in many ways,but then it isn't, it's a sense
of kind of knowing, being andhaving that trust and faith
where one has I'd say classyresponses to things instead of

(04:52):
hatred and anger and judgmentand control, as the world seems
to be pivoting stronger andstronger into these days, and
instead that grace comes fromthat calmness, that peace and
that ability to be.
It's about being reallythoughtful, but not to the

(05:13):
detriment of oneself, of course,but having a kind of
thoughtfulness and anintelligence rather than dogma.
Anyone who's enlightened, theyhave this smoothness and
elegance and this kind ofpoliteness, but not fake, but
it's this kind of God's graceand joy, but also accepting the

(05:40):
beauty, and it's a freedom thatcomes knowing that regardless of
what's happening all around us,all the bad stuff that might be
happening in the world as wespeak, the bad people running
the countries, the baddecisions, the deaths, the
sadness, that there is also thisgreat prevailing life force that

(06:02):
loves us all so very dearly andequally, and that surrender into
trusting into that, regardlessof what your religious beliefs
are.
Some people will have oppositebeliefs to other people, but
what whatever you believe is thekind of creator of this world,

(06:23):
it's it's kind of trusting that,but without the need to control
or manipulate or hurt otherpeople.
And what a beautiful, abeautiful thing, that grace that
you see sometimes in people, andit's not something that can be
faked, it's something that'sreal and translucent in many

(06:46):
ways, but also soft and humble,and in many ways it's about
rising above all the rubbishthat is happening in either our
minds, in the world, etc., andbelieving in this great
prevailing light force, whichultimately veins are made of
love and acceptance and wantingto do good for the world, but

(07:12):
again without trying tomanipulate or control others,
and such a beautiful, beautifulplace to be.
My top tips for having moregrace in life is to have that
moments of stillness, peace,faith, and to work on oneself,

(07:34):
not from a point of view that weare broken, but to see like
God's light in whatever formthat is for you, and if you're
an atheist, to see the lightwithin you, and to just feel
that light, and know that whenyou work on yourself, like all

(07:55):
the mental things that get inthe way of us being so gracious
and and having faith.
So when we work on ourselves andwe release and surrender to our
grace through our faith, then Ifeel we inspire others to do the
same.
So let's shouting, I am here, behere, be in your presence, be in

(08:21):
your now, and don't compromisewho you are, but at the same
time let go of the need to bealways right or to persuade
others of your point of view.
For I deeply feel that if wewere all meant to think, feel,
and be the same, then we wouldultimately we are all one, but

(08:43):
we are different kind of anglesof that light, and our our
unique angle of light and theway we shine into the world is
that it has the ability tochange and make things
beautiful.
So, dear ones, let's just do ameditation just for a few
moments to help us bring thisall in together.

(09:04):
Top tips for the meditation iseither sit nice and cross-legged
on the floor with a nicestraight back.
Always nice to sit on a block ora cushion, or that's not
available for you.
You sit in a chair with the backnice and straight.
The important thing is you'renot slouching.
And if you're doing somethingthat requires little
concentration, all you need todo is just pause this and you

(09:26):
can reconvene the meditation ata time that is good for you.
If you're doing the meditation,let's begin.
So as you close your eyes, youimagine that you are looking up
in your imagination with to thesun.
It's a low, almost end-of-daysun, so it isn't too bright, but

(09:49):
some beautiful colours cascadeacross the skies, and within you
start to feel this wonderful,beautiful sense of inner
knowing.
And the waves of our thoughtcome backwards and forth, kind
of steering us away from what weare meant to do, meant to be.

(10:11):
Instead, just allow them to bethere, but feel the warmth of
the sun, for that sun symbolizesyour inner grace, and whenever
you wish to, you can kind of sitstill and tap into that and feel
that grace is this beautifulpresence, this beautiful way to

(10:37):
be this strength and resistance,but softness and flow.
Can you just allow yourself tojust be in that grace more often
and allow yourself to surrenderbut also grow to know what feels
right within and trust yourinstinct.

(11:04):
Know that's people who are kindand authentic and rise above to
be a politician where you kindof persuade and manipulate, for
that is no place in love.
Instead, allow yourself to bewho you are, you beautiful
person, you beautiful, kindhearted person.

(11:25):
That grace and that light, youcan tap into it whenever you
need.
So slowly take some calm deepbreaths as you come back into
the moment, come back into thenow, knowing that you are grace.