The Mystery of Intuition: A Deep Dive Into Soul, God & Inner Guidance. Colby Wilk

The Mystery of Intuition:
A Deep Dive Into Soul, God & Inner Guidance.
Colby Wilk & Samia Bano

Feeling stuck or lost? Want to know how you can get #crystalclear on the #bestway forward for you... with #funandease?

Listen now to this interview with Colby Wilk, Intuitive Guide, a Psychic #Healer and a #Wayfinder. Colby helps people #breakfree and #livefully —by tuning into the life that’s calling them. His work blends #energywork, #spiritualinsight with grounded, actionable tools you can use.

In this episode, we dig into:

-- the real difference between #intuition and projection

-- a relatable, honest look at self-sabotage and #innerwisdom

-- how #calm acceptance is the true marker of a real intuitive hit

-- intuition as a sacred guide toward becoming more of who you truly are

-- the subtle (and not-so-subtle) signs pointing you toward the life that wants you

-- and so much more!

Connect with Colby now at: https://colbywilk.com/

PLUS, A FREE GIFT FOR LISTENERS!!

There’s a secret, a hidden block that keeps you from having what you want. The First Secret to Finding Your Way is a FREE VIDEO that reveals what’s really in your way and how to finally move past it.

Watch now and start living from your true power and possibility.

https://colbywilk.com/the-first-secret-to-finding-your-way/

You can also connect with Colby on these social media platforms:

YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiFhSvhz8pDxK1ImoqnB9aQ

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/p/Colby-Wilk-Wayfinder-100063704523871/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/colbyswilk/

To Book your Free HAPPINESS 101 EXPLORATION CALL with Samia, click: https://my.timetrade.com/book/JX9XJ

#Intuition #SpiritualGrowth #InnerGuidance #SelfAwareness #PersonalDevelopment #Mindfulness #InnerPeace #ConsciousLiving #EmotionalIntelligence #JoyfulLiving #LifePurpose #SelfDiscovery #Authenticity #MindsetShift #SelfGrowth #SpiritualWisdom #WellnessJourney #SoulJourney #HigherConsciousness #InnerPeaceJourney #InnerStrength #SelfReflection #PositiveMindset #GrowthMindset #HumanPotential #SpiritualAwakening #MeaningfulLife #intutiveguidance

Here's the audio version of this episode:

Full Video Transcript

SAMIA: Hello, Salaam, Shalom, Namaste, Sat Sri Akal, Aloha, Holah, Ciao, Bonjour, Buna, Privet, Mabuhay, and Dzień Dobry! It's really, really good to be with you again, and I know you'll be so happy you're joining us today, because we have a very, very cool guest with us, and that is Colby Wilk, who is an intuitive guide, a psychic healer, and a wayfinder. I think that is so cool. Welcome, Colby.

COLBY: Thank you for having me. Hello.

SAMIA: And, Colby, please tell us more about who you are and what you do.

COLBY: You know, that's the big question. Who am I? Right. Who am I and what am I? I work as an intuitive healer. I help people with my gift spot what they're unaware of that's causing them suffering, and I either help them lift, address the wound or reshape their field through practices or become more aware of their ego and how it's manipulating them. So we could do some of that today with your audience.

SAMIA: Yay. I'm looking forward to it. You know, the first question that's actually coming to my mind is there's a lot of, you know, I think people throw around words in popular culture, but oftentimes people don't actually have a proper understanding of those words. And so when we use a word like intuitive, what does that actually mean to you?

COLBY: To me, intuition, instinct is the same thing. It means participating in the larger aspect of yourself, and the way to do that is to get quiet. I'm just really good at getting quiet very quickly and listening to what's said and what's not said. I don't know how people get through life without intuition. Now, having said that, we all have an intuitive gift, but not everyone listens to recognize when your intuition is speaking to you and distinguish that between your projections. What you imagine to be happening. We all get intuitive hits, but the difference is who's listening. So the other day, I had a date with a guy, and I really got an intuitive hit not to go, don't go, don't go. And I'm like, I got nothing better to do. I'll go, maybe he'll buy lunch. That'll be nice. I went, and it was just a nightmare. It was a horrible date. And so, yes, my intuition is now reinforced. But every time I don't listen to my intuition, I get feedback. But what talks me out of listening to my intuition is my desperation. I want something. How often have I got an intuitive hit and it's not what I want to hear?

SAMIA: Yeah. You know, like, I think it's been a while for me since I've gotten an intuitive hit that I didn't want to hear. But sometimes it, like, I think ever since I learned about my heart, listening to my intuition, I think one of the struggles that I had most when I first started to try and listen to my intuition was just feeling really confused about, you know, is it really my intuition that's guiding me towards this or that? I would like ask a question like, what's better for me, this or that? Sometimes I would feel like, oh, I don't think I'm getting an answer. I don't think I'm getting a clear intuitive hit, as it were. And so I just used to feel confused a lot, I think. And then, yeah, it does take some time to also get to that place where you're like… It's just… Yeah... I guess before I talk about any other challenges that I have faced or that I know other people can face, what about this confusion challenge? Like, how do you know what you are hearing or getting really is your intuition? How do you tell the difference between that voice and any other that you may have?

COLBY: Confusion is interesting, right? The question is, what is intuition for? Because if you believe intuition is for getting ahead or getting an edge, like at Vegas on the crap table, that's a poor use, misuse of intuition. You can get information for sure, but your intuition is, in my opinion, supposed to guide you to being more of who you are. And questions along those lines, I think, stand a higher likelihood of getting answered. The difference between intuition and projection is if you're calm and kind of detached from the outcome. That's intuition. If you're hectic and need to know and anxious and what do I do? You're not in the right place to get intuitive information. The thing you're left with is projection — what you imagine you want to happen or you don't want to happen. Right. So if I'm out, since we're talking about dating, and I see a guy and I'm like, he gives me a look. I'm like, oh, he doesn't like me. He doesn't think I'm attractive. That's probably projection because of where I'm coming from. I'm anxious. I want validation. I'm not getting it. It's probably projection because I'm not calm. If I'm really calm and I see a guy and, oh, he doesn't seem interested. Okay, it's more of an acceptance. That's probably intuition.

Now, if I ask a question and want an intuitive hit, like, do I advertise on Facebook or do I advertise on Instagram or something like that, and I don't get an answer — one, it's probably not for me to know. And that might mean in this lifetime. That's one of the things I'm here to experiment with. Or I'm not ready to hear it, or I don't want to hear it. Could be a lot of options. Intuition is something we cultivate. More and more as we evolve, you get more intuitive hits as you embrace more of you. And you can develop intuition on its own, divorced of any spirituality. That's also true.

SAMIA: Oh, yeah, totally.

COLBY: There are a lot of very psychic people who are not very evolved. And there are a lot of evolved people who are intuitive but not very psychic. I'm very psychic, and I like to think I'm on the path to evolution. And as I step more onto that path, I get more guidance. And at the same time, I see a lot of clients who want to hear a voice in their head telling them what to do. And that's not how it is for me or anyone I know. That comes from: I feel insecure, and I want to know I'm doing the right thing.

But God, Allah, Yahweh, whatever you want to call that, is the great mystery. We don't know what it is. We don't know how it works. And so there are a lot of people wanting an intuitive gift or intuitive sense so they can have more control. That is directly against what God is, the divine, Allah. The goal is not to win. The goal is to break free so that you can really know freedom.

But you can take a class and gain intuitive access, for sure. You can totally do it that way. And there are ramifications to that for sure. But you can do it. Anyone can do it. The skill set I have — I was born empathic or very young, I became aware that I was empathic. I don't know if I was born that way. That's a guess. And so I learned. I cultivated my skill set to be more psychic.

WILL: Confusion is interesting, right? The question is, what is intuition for? Because if you believe intuition is for getting ahead or getting an edge, like at Vegas on the crap table, that's a poor use. Misuse of intuition. You can get information for sure, but your intuition is supposed to guide you to being more of who you are. And questions along those lines, I think, stand a higher likelihood of getting answered. The difference between intuition and projection is if you're calm and kind of detached from the outcome. That's intuition. If you're hectic and need to know and anxious and what do I do? What do I do? You're not. You're not in the right place to get intuitive information. The thing you're left with is projection. What do you imagine you want to happen or you don't want to happen. Right. So if I'm out, since we're talking about dating, or I was talking about dating, and I see a guy and I'm like. He gives me a look. I'm like, oh, he doesn't like me. He doesn't think I'm attractive. That's probably projection because of where I'm coming from. I'm anxious. I want validation. I'm not getting it. It's probably projection because I'm not calm. Right. If I'm really calm and I see a guy and, oh, he doesn't seem interested. Okay, okay. It's more of an acceptance. That's probably intuition. Now, if I ask a question and want an intuitive hit, like, do I advertise on Facebook or do I advertise on Instagram or something like that, and I don't get an answer, one, it's probably not for me to know. And that might mean in this lifetime. That's one of the things I'm here to experiment with. Right. Or I'm not ready to hear it, or I don't want to hear it. Could be a lot of options. Intuition is something we cultivate more and more as we evolve. You get more and more intuitive hits as you embrace more of you. And you can develop intuition on its own, divorced of any spirituality. That's also true.

SAMIA: Oh, yeah, totally.

WILL: There are a lot of very, very psychic people who are not very evolved. And there are a lot of evolved people who are intuitive but not very, very psychic. Right. I'm very psychic, and I like to think I'm on the path to evolution. And as I step more onto that path, I get more guidance. And at the same time, I see a lot of clients who want to hear a voice in their head telling them what to do. And that's not how it is for me or anyone I know that comes from. I feel insecure, and I want to know I'm doing the right thing. But God, Allah, Yahweh, whatever you want to call that, is the great mystery. We don't know what it is. We don't know how it works. And so there are a lot of people wanting an intuitive gift or intuitive sense so they can have more control. That is directly against what God is, the divine Allah. Right. The goal is not to win. The goal is to break free so that you can really know freedom. But you can get, like I said to you, you can take a class and gain intuitive access for sure. You can. You could totally do it that way. And there are ramifications to that for sure. But you can do it. Anyone can do it. The skill set I have, I was born empathic or very young. I became aware that I was empathic. I don't know if I was born that way. That's a guess. And so I learned. I cultivated my skill set to be more psychic.

SAMIA: Yeah. And sorry, just again, so we can. Because again, not everyone who's listening may be clear on definitions. In terms, when you talk about being psychic, what are you referring to?

WILL: I sit across from somebody and they'll tell me what they want to work on and I'll say, well, I see this and that. I'll give you an example. I was working with a young lady who feels really tired a lot. She's been to this doctor and that doctor and she's been told she's got chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia. And she's like, I really want more energy so I can get through the day without having to take two or three naps. I love a nap, I take naps every day. But for her it's, you know, like she barely has enough energy to get through. And so when I'm looking at her, I keep on seeing a man looking back at me and he's really in my face. I say, there's a man and he looks like this and the other thing and he's really in my face and he's looking down at me. He's pointing down. I say, who is that? She goes, oh, that's my ex husband. I go, tell me about him. And she's like, well, we divorced, but I was still in love with him. But he cheated on me multiple times. And so I left him. Did you want to leave him? No, but I felt I had to. Very sad. And that's where we went. Is forgiving herself for making more out of this than it was for her. It wasn't a problem for her. Now it might be a problem for me, for you, for whoever, but not.

SAMIA: A problem for her.

WILL: And she had this big awakening that she could be with him now if she wanted, even though he doesn't want to stick with just one woman. Our path is not necessarily the path that is validated by society. And as soon as she expressed that, she's like, I have a lot of energy right now. Yeah, you do, because you're saying what's true for you and you're willing to act on it and she feels better. Having said that, I don't want to give you the impression that just because you follow your soul, everything works out hunky dory because our soul has a bigger plan for us.

SAMIA: Right?

WILL: And yeah, that's been my experience. You follow. I mean, what's the other option? You don't. I mean, that has its own ramifications. I believe everyone's soul has a path for them that's laid out that leads them to greater well being and to the desires they want fulfilled, the real desires. And the key is to sense what your soul is wanting for you. That's the key. The soul being the larger, wiser part of you.

SAMIA: Yeah. Is there some part of us that's even deeper, even wiser than the soul or it's the soul sort of like it.

WILL: I don't know. I'm not somebody who says they know. I'm somebody who's had, I don't know, 30 years of experience working with people five days a week, eight clients a day. Ish. And so I'm really interested in how people make sense of their reality. You know, I could, you know, there's a lot of read. I'm not a big reader, but.

SAMIA: Yeah.

WILL: What the larger, wiser part of you wants for you. Is there a super soul? I. I don't know. I don't know.

SAMIA: Yeah, no, I just ask that question because, you know, the idea of, of course, listening to the wiser part of us is very appealing and wise to listen to the wiser part of us. That is the soul, the wiser part of us or the wisest aspect of being or existence for us to listen to. So, I mean, at this point now I'm thinking a little bit maybe from like a Muslim religious perspective. And you know, so where we say, where we would, like as a Muslim, you know, you would say only God knows, is all knowing, all wise and so forth. Anything that anyone, any other being, whether it's our soul or an angel or, you know, any other being not equal to God. And therefore not all knowing, not all wise. And so any source of guidance or information that is not God, you know, you have to maintain a certain sense of they could be wrong. They don't, they may not know everything, you know, like that kind of just watchfulness and always sort of like being like, only if I can feel confident that this is something God wants of me, God is guiding towards me, then I'm like, okay, I'm going to do this. I'm going to do my best to follow it no matter what. That anyone else, they may not know everything or they rather don't know everything and they could be wrong, even if they have good intentions. So it's like, and I, you know, so I mean, that's just the religious Muslim perspective mindset.

WILL: Whether it's God talking to you, an angel, a guide, an ancestor, how would you know? You don't know. I mean, they could say or indicate what they are. How do you know? These people, these beings don't have IDs that are checked. So we're in the challenge of using our intuition, our sense of what's true for us. Because anyone who will tell you what God says, I would run away. Right. Like, yeah, God may say that for you, but don't, you know, like, who are you? Right. And any sort of awakened person I know has their own bits of humanity left because you're not on the planet unless you've got work to do.

SAMIA: Right.

COLBY: At least that's my understanding. Like, I've never met anyone who hasn't. There may be people who don't, but that's not my experience. In my opinion, the metaphor of, like, there's an ocean, an ocean of consciousness. And the deeper you go into the ocean, the more you access, let's say, your divinity. Higher up in the ocean where the waves are, that's more your personality, your preferences. So you go all the way down into our godhood and we go up all the way into our personality. Question for me always is, where am I in that line? How deep am I? Yeah, doing this call, I was kind of running around fixing my pillow totally in my upper chakras, in my head, and you said, you want a minute? I said, yeah. And then I dropped in and I went down closer to the bottom of the ocean, where things are a little more still or very much more still and there's less thought. So it's not what I like. And this is just my preference. I don't like the idea of an external being called God, the divine, or Allah or whatever. I like the idea that I'm all of it depending on where my attention is, lower towards the ocean bed or upper. I function in all of that realm. And so depending on where I put my attention, I can access my inner divine.

SAMIA: Yeah.

COLBY: And the ocean keeps going down. Like, I feel like I'm at the bottom. I'm not at the bottom. The bottom keeps going.

SAMIA: Yeah, exactly right. That is so cool. That is so cool. No, I can get on board with the idea of, like, I personally, and philosophers, Muslim philosophers, disagree on this question. Personally, my understanding has come to be closer to yours, really, that it's not like God is some being that's outside of us, separate from us, but rather, you know, the analogy I like to use. If we like to stick to the analogy of the ocean, which I love, is like, I'm a drop of the ocean. You know, I'm the drop and God is the entire ocean. Right. And so it's like the more melted I am, like dissolved I am into the ocean, then it's sort of like the sense of separation ends and absolutely then insofar as the separation ends, because you're melted into the ocean, you can access everything the ocean has to offer, and you are fully a part of all the power that it has, all the wonder that it is and so forth. But I think, you know, again, just having that sort of Muslim perspective would be that in this life, in this world, you know, as long as we have this body, there is a certain barrier to our being able to completely melt. We're going towards that. We're trying to achieve that state of being fully melted, but the body places certain limitations on our ability to do that. And so that's sort of where we have to be wary of our own limitations and where they may be creeping in and beginning to influence us and leading us or wanting us to be diverted to some other path than our higher self wants us to go.

COLBY: Right. I think the key here is that if you think you're it, you lose your humanity and you lose your humbleness. Like the I'm a wave within the ocean.

SAMIA: Yeah, right.

COLBY: I like that metaphor because as soon as you say to me, in order to access the divine, you need to dissolve into the ocean, I'm going to resist that because I don't want to dissolve. I don't want to dissolve out. That's a part of me. But the ocean wave metaphor is the wave is up at the top. I can bring attention and become less of a wave and more into the ocean. And therefore that escapes this idea that I have the ego has to die. No, the ego needs to assimilate into the divine. And then I'll have a moment where I'm like, I like chocolate chip ice cream and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And how dare you. Oh, up into the. And then you go back and forth. Now, demons and angels speaking biblically, they don't have, to my understanding, they don't have the range that we as human beings have. Right. Angels are always in divine love or divine whatever, and they don't leave that place. That's my understanding. We get to choose.

SAMIA: Yeah.

COLBY: That's what makes us super special in the multiverse. And that choice gives us some power. A lot about.

SAMIA: Yeah, well, talking about Muslim theology, sure. That is something we do agree with. So, yeah. You know, like in Muslim theology describes the angels as being that do not have free will. They are always in obedience to the divine, to God, and they don't have a choice about it. And that is that when God created humans, the distinguishing feature between, I mean other than the material that we are made out of, the more important distinguishing feature is the aspect of free will that God gave us. And in the Muslim theology there's like actually in the Quran there's like this beautiful, there's a verse that talks about how God blew something off his spirit into human person or in us as humans. And because it's spirit of God is within us, that's why we have free will. Because God has free will. You know, fallen angels have free will.

COLBY: They decided to go against God?

SAMIA: No. So the Muslims version of the story is different from the Bible in some very critical details. So the fallen angel in the Bible is not an angel in the Islamic version of things. In the Quran there's a third kind of being that's named. So the angels are said to be made of light. Man is said to be made of clay or earth material. And then there's this third kind of being that's said to be made of fire. And it's called the Jinn. So like we are human. There's the third kind of being called Jinn. And the Jinn are said to also have been given the gift of free will. And this particular Jinn, he has a name, he had a name, his name was Iblis in the Quran. And so Iblis had free will. And the thing about Iblis was that he was so devout, he worshiped all that he was elevated to the status where he could hang out with the angel. But when God created Adam and God said to. So I don't think this part is in the Bible at all. But in the Quran the story goes that God created Adam, gave Adam free will and then asked all the angels and Iblis was hanging out with them. He asked everyone present to bow down to Adam. And the angels were like okay, God. And they bow down to Adam because they didn't have a choice, but Iblis was like, hey God, what are you telling me to do? Adam is less than me, I'm better than Adam, I'm made of fire, he's just made of earth and this and that, blah blah, blah. And he refuses to bow down. And that was in the Muslim version of things actually the first sin. And it was the sin of pride, the sin of arrogance, thinking you're better than someone else. And that is what caused Iblis's fall from grace. And then Iblis and the story goes actually became a sworn enemy to all humans. He was like, you know what? Well, if I'm going to fall from grace, I'm going to make sure Adam falls from grace with me and all humans, all his progeny. I swear eternal enmity to all humans. I'm going to do my best to mess up their lives. And God says, all right, you can try, and with many humans, you will succeed. But those who listen to my guidance that I give them, those are the ones who will be saved, and you will not be able to influence them. So we are in this battle of the wills, as it were.

COLBY: That's interesting. I don't have that background and I'm not much of a reader. I mean, my understanding comes from my own lived experience and intuition. In my understanding, we are creators of our reality. You've heard that before. And this is a different worldview, may offend some people, but that's okay. My understanding is we're being set up to create worlds. God created, the divine created this world, this multiverse for us to grow our consciousness in. So we exist in the mind of God. Right? That's an old. And that's true. And so we are being cultivated not only to be creators of our realities, but being cultivated to be creators of worlds where the universe then expands. So when I, you and I, whatever, whoever, Harold, whatever gets to the point where other beings can have their existence with us, within us, and therefore the universe continues to expand. I don't know. I like that idea. I can imagine God, the divine, wants to expand. Makes sense to me. And so my world that I create will be different than your world because I'm different than you, right?

SAMIA: Yeah.

COLBY: And the beings that inhabit my world, my mind, will be different than the beings that inhabit yours. You know. So I like that.

SAMIA: That is a very interesting idea. I've not heard that one before, actually.

COLBY: This is all. I'm intuitive, right. So I don't read very much. Right. So all of what I. Well, most of what I know and think comes from what I intuit.

SAMIA: Yeah, I know. That's fascinating. And in some ways, like, I can see how it's already true that we are creating. I mean, we are creative beings and aspect of our nature is very creative. And we're creating all the time. It's such a deep instinct. And, like, you know, again, like, for me, it's like, oh, yeah, of course I have something of the spirit of God in me. So just like it gives me free will, it gives me that urge to create and the ability to create as well. And so, you know, it's like I do realize and I do understand that I'm always connected to the divine. There's always something of the divine that's expressing itself through me. There's always, therefore, something that is divine about me. It's just making that distinction between, am I. I'm just a part, I'm not the whole.

COLBY: So the thing that, in my opinion, that connects us to the divine is our divine aspect, which is free will. And yet many people go to the divine for comfort and please tell me what to do. What's the right choice here? But really that is counter to the gift that God gave us, which is our will. And so help me to know my own will. Help me to know what's true for me so I may create an alignment with me. Who I really am is the prayer. It is a form of prayer that's more appropriate than what. What is your will, God? I will be done. No, no, no. It is our will that God wants. It is our will that God wants done. And then we get to see our world, our will enacted, and we get to choose our next choice based on what we see. So if you follow this logic, if you like this logic, then here's the thing. This might throw you. That would mean that God, the divine, was once a being like you and I on a world and reached its evolutionary apex, became independent of that world, and created our world. And so it goes on and on like those Russian dolls that keep on, you know. And so I don't think my mind, your mind, can figure this out because our minds aren't large enough, wired enough. All we can do is sense what is mine to do.

SAMIA: Yeah.

COLBY: What is true for me.

SAMIA: Yeah.

COLBY: What's true.

SAMIA: Yeah, I hear you. I hear you. You know, so this brings me to another, seemingly different but related question, because this is something that I know one time when we were talking before it came up between us, and we never got around to really being able to talk through this, but I wanted to bring it up now and see if you can talk about it a little bit. So, you know, I'm a happiness expert.

COLBY: Oh, right, this.

SAMIA: Yeah. Yes, yes, right. I'm a happiness expert. And so I'm all about teaching people how to be happy and take control of their happiness. And, you know, just the experience of happiness, cultivating that, being aware of what makes us happy, what makes us unhappy. These are important matters to me. And I know you have a perspective that I would love for you to share, and then we can talk about it.

COLBY: Well, I'm going to make a distinction. To me.

SAMIA: Yeah.

COLBY: Happiness is conditional, right. I get a puppy, I'm happy. A handsome man kisses me, I'm happy. I get a call from my sister, I'm happy. Happiness is conditional. Joy is unconditional. Joy is a state of consciousness, right. And that shines out of the person. Joy is the result of becoming ourselves, which I think is the purpose of being here on planet Earth at this time. Well, anytime really is for me to keep coming out to who I am. Now I'm a gay man. At one point, I came out of the closet, even though it was uncomfortable, wasn't a happy experience, but I did it because it was who I am. And that choice resulted in more joy overall. Okay, so we may be using terms differently or some, but I would suggest, the point of life for me is not happiness, because happiness to me is conditional. The point of life is to become ourselves, and the result of that is joy. But it's not necessarily always joyful to embark on becoming you. It's not always a joyful thing to step out and raise your freak flag and say, here I am. I'm an intuitive. I'm a psychic. I'm gay. I am a divorced woman. I am a single parent. Whatever it is that who you are can be very challenging. Do that. And it may not feel great all the time, but it will generate greater joy ultimately.

SAMIA: Yeah. Yeah. So, first of all, thanks so much for giving us a definition of your happiness. And I will agree with you that most of the time, most people, that is exactly what they're thinking about when they're thinking about happiness, this conditional type of happiness. Thankfully for me, my definition of happiness is more expansive and not limited to these kind of conditional experiences. And I agree with you about, if you were to use different words to describe different kinds of happiness, especially the kinds that are more internally sourced and connected to our spiritual selves and our spiritual experiences. Joy is a really wonderful word to describe that kind of happiness. I love joy. I must say, it's become one of my favorite experiences and states to, in fact, you know, it's now my goal to be living in joy every moment. One of the things that, for me, I believe is true about experiencing joy are lesser degrees of these kinds of positive feelings, like happiness, if you may say it as such, but whether joy, love, peace, calm, contentment, fulfillment. A lot of these kinds of positive states and feelings for me are very interconnected to each other. And for me, a lot of them, one of the reasons why they're so important to me is because I see them as a signal from my inner self that I'm headed in the right direction for me. Sometimes I can feel confused about, when I think from my mind about, is this the right decision for me? What is my intuition telling me? Did my intuition tell me to do this or that? And I can be very confused in the context of my understanding. But if I'm confused, then what I have learned to do is, I'm like, okay, I'll just make my best guess right now and just start moving forward in whatever direction I think is the best choice. And then when I start moving in that direction, I'm paying a lot of attention to how it's making me feel. If it brings more joy, more peace, more contentment, more happiness, more of these kinds of positive states, then I'm like, ah, I understood correctly. This is the right direction for me. Keep going. And if the opposite happens, where I feel not happy, where I feel less peaceful, contentment, joy, disturbed, then I'm like, oh, I need to backtrack and do something different.

COLBY: I hear what you're saying and what you're saying is very much in alignment with the laws of attraction, Abraham Hicks, this type of thing. And I hear you, and I know that's what's out there. I have a different point of view. For instance, I'm in the process of writing a book. It's hard to write a book. I want a book written. I want to leave this behind. Even if I were to not get any credit or make any money, I want this to be left behind for humanity. But the steps to write a book don't always make me happy. If I wait to make them happy, I won't write the book because I'd rather eat cheesecake or take the dog for a walk or go work out. That would make me happy. So, yes, I think that the self-development movement has gone too far with feelings being your compass. If it makes me feel good, I go in that direction. It's a part of your compass, but it's not the whole compass. It's an oversimplification. I request that people consider what they're committed to, what is it that you're committed to, and let your commitment steer your life along with how you feel. I'm committed to this book. Being in the world doesn't always feel great to write it, and maybe sometimes it doesn't feel great to write it, and then I get in the flow, and I do feel great about writing it. I think it's an oversimplification. Just like feeling steers the ship. It's a part. Something to be considered. Like, I know when things are seamless, I'm like, oh, wow, this is really seamless. The universe is helping me out here. My guides, my angels, whatever that is, is helping me out. And then there are times where things are not so easy. Maybe that's the time where my guides and angels are saying, okay, hands off, everyone. Colby's got to do this on his own, because that's what he's here to do in this life. Do not help him. He's got to do this on his own. Less us, more him. Or I'm going in the wrong direction. Hard to say if you don't have intuition. Hard to say.

SAMIA: Yeah. Yeah, right? Yeah.

COLBY: Just because something may feel good and not be good, like getting high might feel really good, but two days later, I'm gonna suffer.

SAMIA: Yeah.

COLBY: Okay, so, okay, great. You got a long-term gain for whatever short-term loss. Think of the long term. But again, what am I committed to? Am I committed to my marriage? But he's really cute. But I'm committed to my marriage. My marriage is hard. It's not always happy. So I should go over? Maybe you should, maybe you shouldn't. I don't know. Just saying, letting feelings steer you 100%, I think it's too simple. I think it's too simple, and it blames people for not feeling good.

SAMIA: Yeah, I hear what you're saying. And you make me think about, like, for example, and again, going back to my Muslim roots and learnings, you know? So, for example, there is an acknowledgment, like even in the Quran it talks about, you know, like it addresses us for during times when we're not feeling very happy, when we feel stressed, worried, etc, and you know, so there's an acknowledgment that as humans we will not always be able to maintain a high level of joy or even faith for that matter. That you know, we have these up and down experiences and at the same time we are taught, for example, that there are certain things that you should just do regardless of how you're feeling. So, for example, when it comes to prayer, you know, it's said that regardless of how you're feeling in the moment, just pray. And actually, you know, when you pray with attention, with consciousness, etc. That's part of what the solution is in terms of how you get back to feeling better and more grounded and stuff. So I definitely take your point in that regard. Like we don't want to be over simplistic with our understanding of our emotions or our feelings being our compass. So perhaps just think of it as a part of our compass. That's a helpful way to think. Right.

COLBY: And I get people want to be joyful.

SAMIA: Yeah.

COLBY: But if that's your objective, then you should go and do drugs. I mean that's, you know, if that's what you really want, then stay high. But you can stay high without consequence. Right. So being spiritual means dealing with paradox. And as you become, as one grows more on the path, there is more paradox.

SAMIA: Yeah. Either we could think of it as paradox or part of what I'm also thinking about is deepening our understanding of what really true happiness or joy is and what brings us true happiness and joy. And I think part of the lesson that I'm learning is that certainly the kinds of happiness we experience that are conditional, dependent on some external stimuli, I mean that's a very surface level experience. It's like going back to your analogy of the ocean. That's like a very surface level wave, you're the wave kind of experience. And so that's not where you want to aim to stay. The aim is to go deeper and stay deeper for longer and be able to stay deeper for longer and longer periods of time and so not chase after these conditional experiences. And that's the problem with doing something like drug. It's such a conditional and unsustainable experience. So that's not what we want to chase after. But are there things that we can commit to doing that help us to stay in those deeper parts of the ocean for longer? Those are the things you want to commit to.

COLBY: The enlightened people I know have three qualities in common. They have stillness, there's space between their thoughts. They have a deep sense of calm.

SAMIA: Yeah.

COLBY: And there's an embodied sense of love.

SAMIA: Yeah.

COLBY: But I wouldn't call that happiness, nor would I call that joy. And in fact, like Jesus, Muhammad, Gandhi, Martin Luther King were not known for their happiness or joy. They were known for their calmness. And I don't, you know more about Muhammad than I do. They were known for their calmness, their stillness, their love and their purposeful lives. But joy and happiness? No. Not known for that.

SAMIA: No. I can provide a somewhat different perspective. Like the person whose character I would claim to know most is the Prophet Muhammad. From among the people that you mentioned, the Prophet Muhammad was known, like, is known among Muslims to be someone who was, he was a very smiling person. He was most often seen to be smiling. He was somebody who was known.

COLBY: To.

SAMIA: Definitely very peaceful. And there were definitely also times when he expressed playfulness where he expressed joy. You know, so for example, he was, there are stories about him taking time to play with kids. There's a story of how there is this little girl and she was playing with dolls. And when he came into the home, her parents were like, oh, go away. Grown ups have to do grown up things. And he was like, no, please let her play. And not only was he like, she better play, he actually took some time and sat with her and played with her, you know, and so on and so forth. Like there are lots of these kinds of stories. So I think you have a very important insight where, you know, most of the time we cannot be in this very high energy that we associate with the idea of joy. It's just for our human selves very difficult to maintain. It's a lot of energy. But that energy of peace and calm is very sustainable. And so that is what, you know, the Prophet stayed in most of the time. But I mean, in terms of what we could see of his character and his behavior and so forth. The fact that he smiled a lot, the fact that at a moment's notice, like when he could, pause and play with the child or things like that, let us know that he was a happy person. There was a contentment about him and a sense of, you know, like even when. Because the Prophet went through a lot of difficulties in his life, he was politically persecuted, he lost so many people that he loved to disease, to war, etc. He lost children, like his children died, all kinds of things that he had to go through. And yet, you know what? And we know there were times when he was sad because the Quran itself documents them where, when it comforts them, it's like, oh, Prophet, you're sad, but don't be sad because God is with you, God is loving you, God is taking care of you, and things will get better, you know. So we know that even the Prophet had these experiences of feeling sad and feeling distressed sometimes or feeling angry, etc. But by and large, he was a happy person. He was a content person. He was a peaceful person.

COLBY: Great. Great. Yeah, I guess it's a. Yeah. Nothing more to be said there.

SAMIA: Nothing more. Yeah. Cool, cool, cool. Oh my gosh, Colby, I've been having so much fun talking with you, and I'm looking at the time and I'm like, oh, gosh, should we wrap up for today?

COLBY: That's your call. That's your call. You have any more questions or?

SAMIA: I have lots more questions and I'm afraid if I ask them at this point, we'll be going for another hour or more.

COLBY: So.

SAMIA: So I feel like maybe this is a good point for us to stop or at least start wrapping up. And so let me ask, did you have any last thoughts that you would like to share with our audience for right now?

COLBY: There are many paths to take. If you're going to be spiritual, there are the more religious paths. Right. And if that works for you, great. It's great to walk a path that's been walked. It's a little easier because it's been walked and you have support and a community. And then there are those of us, I include myself in this group, for whom religion doesn't call. And if you're one of those, you're going to assemble something that works for you. And so my request is if you're of that ilk, you find people that you can call brother or sister so you don't feel like you're alone. Being human by its very nature can be isolating. And it doesn't have to be. Doesn't have to be.

SAMIA: Thank you for that beautiful reminder, Colby, and you're so right about that. And so for my last reminder, I'm going to invite you, our listeners, to please make sure you check the show notes, please, because we will be dropping all these links in there so you can connect with them and continue to get the help and support and learning that you seek, that you desire whenever you're ready for it. And until we connect next time, I wish you lots and lots of peace and joy. :)