January 7, 2025 • 18 mins
This year, we explore what it truly means to "come alive" by embracing vulnerability as a pathway to authentic living and deeper connection.
• Vulnerability is not weakness but the birthplace of connection and worthiness
• New years don't create change—only our willingness to be different creates change
• Many of us compartmentalize vulnerability, being open in certain settings while shutting down in others
• Protecting ourselves from heartbreak by closing our hearts means missing the fullness of life
• Referencing C.S. Lewis: "Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken"
• Connection to ourselves and our feelings requires sustained openness and vulnerability
• People aren't looking for the meaning of life as much as they're looking for the experience of being alive
• Coming alive means opening to all experiences—not just the pleasant ones
• We need experiences, not just intellectual understanding, to truly transform
This year, make a commitment to lay an intention "smack dab in the middle of your mind" to be open, alive and vulnerable, willing to feel what is yours to feel and to know who you are in the face of it all.
You can reach Dr. James at https://www.jamesmellon.org/
Check out Dr. James Mellon's book, The 5 Questions, here on Amazon.
Learn more about Global Truth Center at https://www.globaltruthcenter.org
You can watch Dr. James' live weekly messages on Sunday at 10a PT at https://www.globaltruthcenter.org/sunday-livestream
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Dr. James Mellon (00:00):
Why this theme is so important this year come
alive.
The idea of coming alive isthat there's something inside of
you that already is, that isready to come alive.
Not to come alive because it'snever been alive, but to be
reminded who you are, such asthis Remember who you are, which
(00:21):
I'm doing later.
So my talk open and alive Tocome alive.
Y'all ready, y'all listening,everybody feel comfortable, liza
, good, okay.
So to come alive, you have tobe willing to be open.
How many of you have a problembeing open?
(00:45):
Really, okay, let's look atthis.
So I asked you last week whywill today?
I said, why will next sunday bedifferent from this sunday?
Right?
Why?
Just because we have a newyear's in the middle of the week
.
Why does that mean everything'sgoing to be different?
Most people have that mindset.
(01:05):
New Year's comes, it's likenext year's going to be
different.
Why?
It's just a minute after lastyear.
Nothing's changed unless youhave.
So why is it going to bedifferent?
And I've done a lot of thinkingabout this because I had to ask
myself why is this year going tobe different for me?
What is going to be differentfor me?
(01:26):
What is going to happen thisyear that maybe didn't happen
last year to the degree that itmight have.
And the answer was I am goingto be more vulnerable.
I'm going to be willing to bevulnerable.
I'm going to be willing to beopen, open, vulnerable, one in
the same thing.
So when I ask you, how open areyou, or do you have a problem
(01:46):
being open?
If I change the word tovulnerable, does that change it
for you?
How many people have a hardtime being vulnerable?
Yeah, right, being vulnerablein any situation.
Well, that's being open.
That's all that is you know.
So if you're willing to be moreopen and, dare I say, more
vulnerable, then the question ishow comfortable are you with
(02:10):
being vulnerable, and does thecomfortableness cause you to
shut down?
When it's uncomfortable, you goright back to shut down, right
back to strong, powerful.
I can make it through anything.
I don't need to feel thosefeelings.
Nah, I don't feel anything,right For some people, and for
(02:33):
some people less than others,but I think it's in all of us to
some degree.
This has been a very, verychallenging week for Kevin and I
, because today, later today, wewill put our beautiful dog down
and send him to his next, hisnext journey.
Now I'm standing here right nowtelling you that, um, being
(02:57):
strong about how.
I'm telling you that you know,even understanding the
philosophy of of it's atransition.
It's energy.
We're moving his energy.
We're releasing all the pain,all the struggle he's going
through into letting him have anew, brighter energy.
I get all that and I am as sadas hell at the same time.
(03:19):
Now I never.
When I was first teaching myministerial classes, I always
told ministers, if you get up onstage and cry, they're not
paying to come watch you cry.
They want you to tell them hownot to learn to deal with their
tears.
Yeah, that was a long time ago.
I teach very differently now,but I could still be more
(03:39):
vulnerable.
I fight back the tears.
I don't like people to see mecry.
I don't like people to thinkI'm weak.
But you know what?
I'm weak if I don't cry.
I'm weak if I don't give myselfpermission to feel what I'm
feeling.
And that's what I'm asking youto look at this year.
Why can this year be differentthan last year?
Because maybe this year you'llbe more authentic, more real.
(03:59):
You'll be more honest with yourfeelings.
You'll open your feelings up,you'll share them with other
people.
You'll make decisions based onhow you really feel and not
based on protocol and what'sbeen taught to you over the
years.
So when I say open and alive,the only way to come alive in 25
is to open up, to be wide open.
(04:25):
You know, vulnerability getssuch a bad rap it really does
because we think of vulnerableas weakness.
Someone's vulnerable.
If something is vulnerable, ifthe building is vulnerable,
there's a weakness in thebuilding, right.
But we're not buildings, we'repeople, we're divine human
beings, right, and vulnerabilitymeans that our hearts are open.
How many of you perhaps havehad a heart that's been shut
(04:49):
because you do not want to feel?
And I'll be damned if I let youmake me feel something.
I know that's none of you here.
So now this doesn't work either.
Great Thor, next slide.
This is the perfect day for me.
(05:10):
Okay, I'm totally vulnerable.
Vulnerability is not weakness.
Let's all say thatVulnerability is not weakness.
How's that feel Good, right?
I don't mind if you all startsobbing.
Start sobbing, okay.
(05:34):
Okay, I'm all set right.
Vulnerability is not a weakness, and that myth is profoundly
dangerous, the myth thatvulnerability is weakness.
Vulnerability is the birthplaceof connection and the path to
the feeling of worthiness.
I don't know how many of youhere today and worthiness is
part of BODs today too.
I don't know how many of youhere today and worthiness is
part of BODs today too.
I don't know how many of youhere today deal with
(05:54):
unworthiness in any way.
I'm not as good as I'm notbetter than.
Do you have judgment aboutyourself?
Do you constantly claimyourself against someone else?
Are you constantly tellingyourself you're not as good as
Right?
What is that about?
What is that about?
(06:15):
Well, it basically comes fromremember who you are, not
knowing who you are to such adegree that you couldn't
possibly, you couldn't possiblycompare yourself less than with
anyone in the universe, nomatter what.
Because you get it, you get theinnate similarity.
You get the oneness of allpeople, all things, everywhere.
(06:38):
So vulnerability is thebirthplace of connection.
Anybody want more connectionthis year.
Just want to be more connectedto the people around you, to
your children, to the people youlove.
To be more connected to theworld at large.
To be more connected to thepeople around you, to your
children, to the people you love.
To be more connected to theworld at large, to be more
(06:59):
connected to nature, to be moreconnected to the things in your
life that you perhaps overlookor don't notice all the time.
I want that, and ifvulnerability opens me up to
being more connected, to payingbetter attention, opens me up to
being more connected to payingbetter attention, wouldn't you
like to pay better attentionthis year?
Lily just said no.
Wouldn't you like to pay moreattention to?
Wouldn't you like whatever'sgoing on to be really exciting
(07:20):
and you actually understand whatit all is?
I would, I totally would.
So I have a question for you Canwe sustain vulnerability and
openness?
Because there's the question.
Can we sustain it, or do wegive ourselves moments of
vulnerability, moments ofopenness?
(07:40):
I will be open on Sunday from10 to 1115.
But then, once we leave thisbuilding, shut it down.
I love what he says, but shutit down.
This is the question.
Can we sustain being open,being vulnerable?
Now, I'm not suggesting we allwalk around and every time a
(08:03):
Hallmark commercial comes on, wecry.
Anybody do that.
Anybody.
Do that, yeah, but do.
If you feel like crying, cry,right.
Kevin and I cry at so manymovies.
We sit there sobbing at moviesand I'm always like this is why
I love you, because we can sitthere and cry Right.
(08:23):
So can we sustain vulnerability?
You know what?
Here's the real answer.
We can't afford not to sustainit, because every time we don't,
every time we shut down, everytime we decide, I'm stronger
than that.
I'm stronger than that feeling,we are cutting ourselves off
(08:44):
from that place inside of usthat is connected, never
unconnected.
So how are you feeling aboutthat?
Yeah, yeah, you all feeling,laura.
You feeling good about that.
Can you open up more in life?
Can you be more vulnerable?
Always Right, corrine.
Can you be more vulnerable?
I thought you were going to getme.
I can't get any more vulnerable.
(09:05):
No, but that's for all of usMary's deck.
Can you get more vulnerable,more open, and what's that going
to get us?
You know what we're going toget more connected, and you know
what we're really going to getmore connected to Our feelings.
We're going to get connected toourselves more.
(09:27):
Cs Lewis wrote this great quoteGo ahead, thor.
Give me that quote.
Love anything, and your heartwill be wrung and possibly
broken.
Love anything, and your heartwill be wrung and possibly
broken.
If you want to make sure ofkeeping it intact, you must give
it to no one, not even ananimal.
I read that and, of course,just fell apart.
(09:48):
I could be.
It could be a lot easier on meif I didn't absolutely love
Cooper.
For 10 years he's been thestrangest.
I used to say dumbest, but he'snot.
We used to say he's like dumb,like a box of rocks.
But then the doctor told ushe's on the spectrum, to which I
(10:08):
said I think he's in thespectrum, he's not on it.
And so for 10 years he's donethe most unexpected,
spontaneously, crazy.
You all know anybody who's beento a divine dining at our house
you have to hold on to yournapkins because he eats them.
He has eaten an entire set ofour best napkins and you know
(10:29):
what happens when he eats them.
They eventually come out, butthey usually come out not easily
.
So there's like this littlepiece there hanging and you know
you just have to pet him and gookay, buddy, here we go and
there's, and there's like thisnow wouldn't you think there's
no reason to eat the next napkin?
(10:50):
No, he hasn't thought of that.
So so we will miss that part ofour experience.
There's so much to love abouthim, even as he can be really
annoying, but there's so much tolove about him.
But I could have held my heartback.
I've already lost two dogs inmy life and I lost my daughter.
(11:13):
I Could have shut my heart downright after that and said
that's it.
I do not, I'm not open to thisever again.
But no, that's what life is,and this is all part of the
journey.
This is all part of what beingalive is.
What coming alive is.
It's not just coming alive tothe fun stuff, it's coming alive
(11:34):
to all of it.
So my question for us today,certainly in light of that and
there was another quote that wasso negative, I just couldn't do
it, but it was all about, yeah,you can close your heart.
It was just really ugly, um,but you can.
You can close your heart.
You're in charge of it, you'rein charge of closing you.
You're in charge of closing offyour feelings.
(11:55):
But I am suggesting this yearthat you make a commitment and,
as Karen said, that you lay anintention smack dab in the
middle of your mind, saying thisyear I am open and alive and
vulnerable and I am willing tofeel what is mine to feel and to
know who.
I am right in the face of itall.
(12:17):
How's that sound?
Are you all willing to committo that?
Who's not, who thinks it justfeels it's just a little too
difficult.
Okay, I'm going to, really.
Okay, there is one of you, twoof you, well, half of you, cause
your ham half went up.
Oh, trust me, tattooed on theface, or something Tattooed on
(12:38):
my face.
Oh, if it's on yours, you won'tsee it unless you look in the
mirror.
Yeah, I do that, but you dothat a lot.
So, trust me, I'm going to bereminding us all year.
All year, I'm going to bereminding us and I will.
And you know what?
Ask me too If you see me beingstoic or I'm making fun of
something that sounds like itmight actually hurt me, bring it
(12:59):
up, say it to me, see whathappens.
But seriously, we can do thatfor one another.
So Joseph Campbell said this.
He said I don't believe peopleare looking for the meaning of
life as much as they are lookingfor the meaning of life as much
as they are looking for theexperience of being alive.
(13:20):
For 25 years I have beenstanding on this stage or at
NoHo or any of the stages I sogracefully get to stand on,
talking about the meaning oflife and giving us all the
opportunity to understand more,to be more, to know more.
(13:41):
What are our beliefs.
All of that is amazing work,but I've come to realize me
saying it is nothing if youdon't feel it, if you don't
experience it, which is why,when you look at the classes we
now teach here, if it's notexperiential in some way, if
(14:02):
you're not sent off to abreakout room with people to
talk about it, to feel about it,to share, to open up, then what
are we doing?
I've never wanted to be alecturing professor.
No offense to any of you outthere that do that but I'm not
interested in just getting upand giving a lecture.
I want to share something, Iwant to feel something.
I want to feel something whenI'm talking and I want you to
(14:23):
feel something when you'retalking.
So that's the commitment.
Are we willing to take thisyear and say to ourselves I am
ready to not just come alive butto open up to so much more than
I've ever been open up to in mylifetime?
You know it sounds like anexciting year ahead of us for
(14:45):
Kevin and I.
I am very excited.
We're going to go to New YorkCity.
I'm going to see all the showsthat I want to see, that I
haven't seen yet we're going toproduce this show.
It's exciting, it's reallyexciting, and yet I am open to
whatever that journey wants tobring us.
I am open to whatever this showWill and I are writing wherever
(15:06):
it wants to go.
Will wrote we worked on thisshow for this last year and then
he said I decided to write thepilot, I'll send it to you.
He sent me the pilot and I waslike wow, okay, so nothing we
worked on came into this pilotand I had this moment.
I was like, well, since this issupposed to be a story told
from father's point of view andson's point of view, or, as the
(15:27):
will likes to say, from theson's point of view, with some
input from the father, um, Iwrote him and I called him and I
just said, hey, well, here'swhat I'm going to do.
I'm going to take your versionand I'm going to edit it and
then I'm going to put in all thestuff that I want to say and
I'm waiting for him to go.
Well, well, well.
And he went great idea, can'twait to read it.
And I was like why aren't Ithat open Cause?
(15:51):
I would be more like well, waitbefore before you change
anything, you know, and he wasjust like yeah, and so then I
told him what I was doing.
He was like awesome, oh my God,that sounds great.
So I need to be more open.
Anybody else who's joining me?
Looking for hands?
Keep your hands up.
I'm looking for somebody notwith their hand up, lily.
(16:11):
Lily, are you joining me?
Lily, are you joining me?
Did you hear what she said?
She said, yes, I'm joining you,but I really wanted attention.
So, thank you, perfect, lily.
Anybody else want moreattention this year?
(16:35):
I do See Ray-Ban.
You don't want more attention.
That's impossible, diane, doeshe require attention?
Thank you, admit it.
Open up, steve.
Be vulnerable to the fact thatyou need attention because
you're getting it.
But here's the thing Sinceyou're getting attention right
(16:57):
now, obviously you created it.
Nothing happens to us that weare not responsible for creating
.
Don't you believe that?
So here we are 2025.
Coming alive in 2025.
(17:18):
Opening our hearts, opening oursouls, being more vulnerable,
being more willing to let lifein.
Are you with me, namaste?
Why this theme is so important this year come
alive.
The idea of coming alive isthat there's something inside of
you that already is, that isready to come alive.
Not to come alive because it'snever been alive, but to be
reminded who you are, such asthis Remember who you are, which
(00:21):
I'm doing later.
So my talk open and alive Tocome alive.
Y'all ready, y'all listening,everybody feel comfortable, liza
, good, okay.
So to come alive, you have tobe willing to be open.
How many of you have a problembeing open?
(00:45):
Really, okay, let's look atthis.
So I asked you last week whywill today?
I said, why will next sunday bedifferent from this sunday?
Right?
Why?
Just because we have a newyear's in the middle of the week
.
Why does that mean everything'sgoing to be different?
Most people have that mindset.
(01:05):
New Year's comes, it's likenext year's going to be
different.
Why?
It's just a minute after lastyear.
Nothing's changed unless youhave.
So why is it going to bedifferent?
And I've done a lot of thinkingabout this because I had to ask
myself why is this year going tobe different for me?
What is going to be differentfor me?
(01:26):
What is going to happen thisyear that maybe didn't happen
last year to the degree that itmight have.
And the answer was I am goingto be more vulnerable.
I'm going to be willing to bevulnerable.
I'm going to be willing to beopen, open, vulnerable, one in
the same thing.
So when I ask you, how open areyou, or do you have a problem
(01:46):
being open?
If I change the word tovulnerable, does that change it
for you?
How many people have a hardtime being vulnerable?
Yeah, right, being vulnerablein any situation.
Well, that's being open.
That's all that is you know.
So if you're willing to be moreopen and, dare I say, more
vulnerable, then the question ishow comfortable are you with
(02:10):
being vulnerable, and does thecomfortableness cause you to
shut down?
When it's uncomfortable, you goright back to shut down, right
back to strong, powerful.
I can make it through anything.
I don't need to feel thosefeelings.
Nah, I don't feel anything,right For some people, and for
(02:33):
some people less than others,but I think it's in all of us to
some degree.
This has been a very, verychallenging week for Kevin and I
, because today, later today, wewill put our beautiful dog down
and send him to his next, hisnext journey.
Now I'm standing here right nowtelling you that, um, being
(02:57):
strong about how.
I'm telling you that you know,even understanding the
philosophy of of it's atransition.
It's energy.
We're moving his energy.
We're releasing all the pain,all the struggle he's going
through into letting him have anew, brighter energy.
I get all that and I am as sadas hell at the same time.
(03:19):
Now I never.
When I was first teaching myministerial classes, I always
told ministers, if you get up onstage and cry, they're not
paying to come watch you cry.
They want you to tell them hownot to learn to deal with their
tears.
Yeah, that was a long time ago.
I teach very differently now,but I could still be more
(03:39):
vulnerable.
I fight back the tears.
I don't like people to see mecry.
I don't like people to thinkI'm weak.
But you know what?
I'm weak if I don't cry.
I'm weak if I don't give myselfpermission to feel what I'm
feeling.
And that's what I'm asking youto look at this year.
Why can this year be differentthan last year?
Because maybe this year you'llbe more authentic, more real.
(03:59):
You'll be more honest with yourfeelings.
You'll open your feelings up,you'll share them with other
people.
You'll make decisions based onhow you really feel and not
based on protocol and what'sbeen taught to you over the
years.
So when I say open and alive,the only way to come alive in 25
is to open up, to be wide open.
(04:25):
You know, vulnerability getssuch a bad rap it really does
because we think of vulnerableas weakness.
Someone's vulnerable.
If something is vulnerable, ifthe building is vulnerable,
there's a weakness in thebuilding, right.
But we're not buildings, we'repeople, we're divine human
beings, right, and vulnerabilitymeans that our hearts are open.
How many of you perhaps havehad a heart that's been shut
(04:49):
because you do not want to feel?
And I'll be damned if I let youmake me feel something.
I know that's none of you here.
So now this doesn't work either.
Great Thor, next slide.
This is the perfect day for me.
(05:10):
Okay, I'm totally vulnerable.
Vulnerability is not weakness.
Let's all say thatVulnerability is not weakness.
How's that feel Good, right?
I don't mind if you all startsobbing.
Start sobbing, okay.
(05:34):
Okay, I'm all set right.
Vulnerability is not a weakness, and that myth is profoundly
dangerous, the myth thatvulnerability is weakness.
Vulnerability is the birthplaceof connection and the path to
the feeling of worthiness.
I don't know how many of youhere today and worthiness is
part of BODs today too.
I don't know how many of youhere today and worthiness is
part of BODs today too.
I don't know how many of youhere today deal with
(05:54):
unworthiness in any way.
I'm not as good as I'm notbetter than.
Do you have judgment aboutyourself?
Do you constantly claimyourself against someone else?
Are you constantly tellingyourself you're not as good as
Right?
What is that about?
What is that about?
(06:15):
Well, it basically comes fromremember who you are, not
knowing who you are to such adegree that you couldn't
possibly, you couldn't possiblycompare yourself less than with
anyone in the universe, nomatter what.
Because you get it, you get theinnate similarity.
You get the oneness of allpeople, all things, everywhere.
(06:38):
So vulnerability is thebirthplace of connection.
Anybody want more connectionthis year.
Just want to be more connectedto the people around you, to
your children, to the people youlove.
To be more connected to theworld at large.
To be more connected to thepeople around you, to your
children, to the people you love.
To be more connected to theworld at large, to be more
(06:59):
connected to nature, to be moreconnected to the things in your
life that you perhaps overlookor don't notice all the time.
I want that, and ifvulnerability opens me up to
being more connected, to payingbetter attention, opens me up to
being more connected to payingbetter attention, wouldn't you
like to pay better attentionthis year?
Lily just said no.
Wouldn't you like to pay moreattention to?
Wouldn't you like whatever'sgoing on to be really exciting
(07:20):
and you actually understand whatit all is?
I would, I totally would.
So I have a question for you Canwe sustain vulnerability and
openness?
Because there's the question.
Can we sustain it, or do wegive ourselves moments of
vulnerability, moments ofopenness?
(07:40):
I will be open on Sunday from10 to 1115.
But then, once we leave thisbuilding, shut it down.
I love what he says, but shutit down.
This is the question.
Can we sustain being open,being vulnerable?
Now, I'm not suggesting we allwalk around and every time a
(08:03):
Hallmark commercial comes on, wecry.
Anybody do that.
Anybody.
Do that, yeah, but do.
If you feel like crying, cry,right.
Kevin and I cry at so manymovies.
We sit there sobbing at moviesand I'm always like this is why
I love you, because we can sitthere and cry Right.
(08:23):
So can we sustain vulnerability?
You know what?
Here's the real answer.
We can't afford not to sustainit, because every time we don't,
every time we shut down, everytime we decide, I'm stronger
than that.
I'm stronger than that feeling,we are cutting ourselves off
(08:44):
from that place inside of usthat is connected, never
unconnected.
So how are you feeling aboutthat?
Yeah, yeah, you all feeling,laura.
You feeling good about that.
Can you open up more in life?
Can you be more vulnerable?
Always Right, corrine.
Can you be more vulnerable?
I thought you were going to getme.
I can't get any more vulnerable.
(09:05):
No, but that's for all of usMary's deck.
Can you get more vulnerable,more open, and what's that going
to get us?
You know what we're going toget more connected, and you know
what we're really going to getmore connected to Our feelings.
We're going to get connected toourselves more.
(09:27):
Cs Lewis wrote this great quoteGo ahead, thor.
Give me that quote.
Love anything, and your heartwill be wrung and possibly
broken.
Love anything, and your heartwill be wrung and possibly
broken.
If you want to make sure ofkeeping it intact, you must give
it to no one, not even ananimal.
I read that and, of course,just fell apart.
(09:48):
I could be.
It could be a lot easier on meif I didn't absolutely love
Cooper.
For 10 years he's been thestrangest.
I used to say dumbest, but he'snot.
We used to say he's like dumb,like a box of rocks.
But then the doctor told ushe's on the spectrum, to which I
(10:08):
said I think he's in thespectrum, he's not on it.
And so for 10 years he's donethe most unexpected,
spontaneously, crazy.
You all know anybody who's beento a divine dining at our house
you have to hold on to yournapkins because he eats them.
He has eaten an entire set ofour best napkins and you know
(10:29):
what happens when he eats them.
They eventually come out, butthey usually come out not easily
.
So there's like this littlepiece there hanging and you know
you just have to pet him and gookay, buddy, here we go and
there's, and there's like thisnow wouldn't you think there's
no reason to eat the next napkin?
(10:50):
No, he hasn't thought of that.
So so we will miss that part ofour experience.
There's so much to love abouthim, even as he can be really
annoying, but there's so much tolove about him.
But I could have held my heartback.
I've already lost two dogs inmy life and I lost my daughter.
(11:13):
I Could have shut my heart downright after that and said
that's it.
I do not, I'm not open to thisever again.
But no, that's what life is,and this is all part of the
journey.
This is all part of what beingalive is.
What coming alive is.
It's not just coming alive tothe fun stuff, it's coming alive
(11:34):
to all of it.
So my question for us today,certainly in light of that and
there was another quote that wasso negative, I just couldn't do
it, but it was all about, yeah,you can close your heart.
It was just really ugly, um,but you can.
You can close your heart.
You're in charge of it, you'rein charge of closing you.
You're in charge of closing offyour feelings.
(11:55):
But I am suggesting this yearthat you make a commitment and,
as Karen said, that you lay anintention smack dab in the
middle of your mind, saying thisyear I am open and alive and
vulnerable and I am willing tofeel what is mine to feel and to
know who.
I am right in the face of itall.
(12:17):
How's that sound?
Are you all willing to committo that?
Who's not, who thinks it justfeels it's just a little too
difficult.
Okay, I'm going to, really.
Okay, there is one of you, twoof you, well, half of you, cause
your ham half went up.
Oh, trust me, tattooed on theface, or something Tattooed on
(12:38):
my face.
Oh, if it's on yours, you won'tsee it unless you look in the
mirror.
Yeah, I do that, but you dothat a lot.
So, trust me, I'm going to bereminding us all year.
All year, I'm going to bereminding us and I will.
And you know what?
Ask me too If you see me beingstoic or I'm making fun of
something that sounds like itmight actually hurt me, bring it
(12:59):
up, say it to me, see whathappens.
But seriously, we can do thatfor one another.
So Joseph Campbell said this.
He said I don't believe peopleare looking for the meaning of
life as much as they are lookingfor the meaning of life as much
as they are looking for theexperience of being alive.
(13:20):
For 25 years I have beenstanding on this stage or at
NoHo or any of the stages I sogracefully get to stand on,
talking about the meaning oflife and giving us all the
opportunity to understand more,to be more, to know more.
(13:41):
What are our beliefs.
All of that is amazing work,but I've come to realize me
saying it is nothing if youdon't feel it, if you don't
experience it, which is why,when you look at the classes we
now teach here, if it's notexperiential in some way, if
(14:02):
you're not sent off to abreakout room with people to
talk about it, to feel about it,to share, to open up, then what
are we doing?
I've never wanted to be alecturing professor.
No offense to any of you outthere that do that but I'm not
interested in just getting upand giving a lecture.
I want to share something, Iwant to feel something.
I want to feel something whenI'm talking and I want you to
(14:23):
feel something when you'retalking.
So that's the commitment.
Are we willing to take thisyear and say to ourselves I am
ready to not just come alive butto open up to so much more than
I've ever been open up to in mylifetime?
You know it sounds like anexciting year ahead of us for
(14:45):
Kevin and I.
I am very excited.
We're going to go to New YorkCity.
I'm going to see all the showsthat I want to see, that I
haven't seen yet we're going toproduce this show.
It's exciting, it's reallyexciting, and yet I am open to
whatever that journey wants tobring us.
I am open to whatever this showWill and I are writing wherever
(15:06):
it wants to go.
Will wrote we worked on thisshow for this last year and then
he said I decided to write thepilot, I'll send it to you.
He sent me the pilot and I waslike wow, okay, so nothing we
worked on came into this pilotand I had this moment.
I was like, well, since this issupposed to be a story told
from father's point of view andson's point of view, or, as the
(15:27):
will likes to say, from theson's point of view, with some
input from the father, um, Iwrote him and I called him and I
just said, hey, well, here'swhat I'm going to do.
I'm going to take your versionand I'm going to edit it and
then I'm going to put in all thestuff that I want to say and
I'm waiting for him to go.
Well, well, well.
And he went great idea, can'twait to read it.
And I was like why aren't Ithat open Cause?
(15:51):
I would be more like well, waitbefore before you change
anything, you know, and he wasjust like yeah, and so then I
told him what I was doing.
He was like awesome, oh my God,that sounds great.
So I need to be more open.
Anybody else who's joining me?
Looking for hands?
Keep your hands up.
I'm looking for somebody notwith their hand up, lily.
(16:11):
Lily, are you joining me?
Lily, are you joining me?
Did you hear what she said?
She said, yes, I'm joining you,but I really wanted attention.
So, thank you, perfect, lily.
Anybody else want moreattention this year?
(16:35):
I do See Ray-Ban.
You don't want more attention.
That's impossible, diane, doeshe require attention?
Thank you, admit it.
Open up, steve.
Be vulnerable to the fact thatyou need attention because
you're getting it.
But here's the thing Sinceyou're getting attention right
(16:57):
now, obviously you created it.
Nothing happens to us that weare not responsible for creating
.
Don't you believe that?
So here we are 2025.
Coming alive in 2025.
(17:18):
Opening our hearts, opening oursouls, being more vulnerable,
being more willing to let lifein.
Are you with me, namaste?
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