Hi, it's Bridget. Hey, I'm arriving. I'm arriving Hi, nice to see you. Let's see how I'm gonna set this. Okay Hi, it's Bridget. Welcome to above-life channel. The purpose here as always is to inspire your spirit and to fill you with hope. Today, we're gonna have an interesting conversation with Prince in the afterlife. Now, I wanted to talk to one of my spirit guide friends about Shakti, about the energy of sensuality, the energy of expression in regards to loving your physical body and sharing that Okay, we're just gonna talk about sex, kind of, but not in the way you think. We're gonna talk about sensuality. We're gonna talk about Shakti. Shakti is the energy of this fire, desire, and also coupled with and enveloped with the energy of love as a sacred container. So the one spirit guide friend that I knew I could talk to about this that I haven't talked to recently is actually Prince. So we're gonna have a conversation.  Okay, this is a tough topic to talk about with all y'all, but we're gonna do it. I've talked recently about gender and spirituality and kind of how that we are transcending gender instead of just one identity of man or woman in body expression and energy expression and identification. And I've talked to you about that. I'm gender specifically. We've had a conversation about that in a channeling video. I think we talk to trying to remember who we talked to about gender. Did we talk to Carrie Fisher or David Bowie? I can't remember exactly, but we started to have some of those conversations. I think it's really important to do that, especially because it's coming into my awareness. I'm trying to use new pronouns. I'm trying to use a broader perspective when I connect and share and talk about my life instead of just like a husband instead of that a partner. And just really encompassing and honoring a lot of my viewers and people I love deeply and care about deeply who have feelings about gender specifically and expression and also about sexuality and expression. So let's have some conversation. Now that's a lot. That's a big order to serve up here for Mr. Prince in the afterlife, but I think he can handle it. Let's be clear. So when you talk, when I talk about, so I know it used to be kind of taboo, like when you, he's here already, obviously you guys, I mean, I think you can feel him right. When you did, you were like cutting edge a bit because when you did the whole purple rain album and, well, I don't even know if it was purple rain specifically. I think it was purple rain actually where you got the rating where it was almost like a rated R rating or something because of the explicit lyrics and we talked about sexuality and masturbation and all sorts of things related to women and men and very much this kind of freedom of expression. And kind of on the cutting edge of some of that stuff and borderline back then we used to be like, oh, that's so raunchy.  Okay. So it was like, oh, that's so raunchy. That's so naughty. Like I even thought that I was like, oh no, I'm not Prince fan. That's like naughty. I'm like 11 years old, you know, that's so naughty. You know, like, come on, you guys, right? Remember like even Michael Jackson all grabbing himself. I was cool with Michael Jackson, but I guess he has a little more mainstream grabbing himself. Well, now we know what we know. And now, hello, who is the one that maybe would have been a little more open to express themselves in a very authentic way, maybe Prince, right? Maybe that's the kind of vibe we should have been having conversation around in the first place. So as not to vilify sexuality or sensuality. And when I say sexuality or sensuality, I'm talking about the expression of not the identification, not the type of partner you have, not how you resonate in your body, but just in general, the expression, sexuality, the expression, you know. So clearly you were cutting edge. And also you have some androgynous features or rather, maybe I shouldn't say androgynous because maybe even so your petite structure. I know you hate that when I say that, but it's just the truth. Okay, your body type and your hair and makeup and the way you could move and dance and the clothes you chose were kind of a mixture of masculine feminine. I mean, there was definitely sensuality.  He's like, I was it was dripping off me.  That's obvious. It's very obvious to all of us. And so I'm curious about now this afterlife perspective, looking back on human life, being known as like a player or a ladies man, etc.  And so I think that's really confusing. I know it's really confusing for me, because at first when I was learning about gender identities and gender variations and things and the whole range of how that is expressed and experienced by people. And I right away was all confused about, well, how does that fit with sexual orientation or attraction or sexuality? And so can you talk to us about this? Because I think you were on to something way ahead of time because you just expressed. Do you have something to say about that the way that you presented yourself and expressed yourself? He's like, he's really said literally says, I was dripping sex.  Is it because it's a marketing thing? I mean, let's be honest. I mean, look at advertisements, look at models, look at Instagram nowadays, look at the old school commercials and movies and all that. I mean, it totally does and did instilled us but in different ways now it's now there's a huge range. Who are you actually appealing to? There's not this or that. There's a whole bunch of extra ways to connect. He's saying I didn't I don't think I he says I wouldn't say that I consciously connected to my feminine side. He's saying I definitely loved women. And he says I appreciated them. They were like works of art, the woman's body and the just the features of a woman's body and the curves and the the like the beauty of it. He's saying like art like we as women. I identify as a woman. So I'm a she woman. And he's saying they're like works of art. So, okay. And so in a sense of appreciation for that or adoration or even you guys like devotion, like almost like a devotion to women, he borrowed some of their like hair kind of ways and used makeup for expression of beauty. And he says so creative. So he says fluid he actually uses the word fluid. So would you say it like looking at you now like if you are here today and people might say that you are gender fluid, would you would that resonate with you? Does that does that identify? Does that make sense to you? He says I don't think it needs to be it doesn't need to be specific. He's like you don't need to he says I don't need that. If that's how people connect to me or through my work or my art and it it means something for you. He says like that's that's the meaning for you. He says it's not that wasn't an intentional thing I was doing he says and and I wouldn't say that I would change anything today like he literally says I wouldn't change anything today. I wouldn't change anything. And then he also says to me very specifically I identify as a man in human context in human terms I identified as a man and he says now as a spirit in the afterlife without gender there's no gender in the afterlife. He says I would definitely he said I would certainly say that it would be masculine with a devotion or love appreciation for the woman for the ultimate divine woman. He says that is the purest source and sense of beauty. He says so we're going to talk about sex. Yeah let's talk about sex. I'm so going to have to like categorize this or something on YouTube but this is going to be a fascinating conversation. So because you're connected to divine feminine and women and appreciation for women clearly you understand or understand shock to energy which is that sacred fire desire energy this desires energy and that like for me I connect that with my ability to express myself and be as Glenn and Doyle would say untamed in my body. So if you guys don't know who Glenn and Doyle is take a look at her stuff she's got a great podcast we can do hard things it's on iTunes and other places as well probably Spotify so check that out but that's kind of what allowed me to start to consider different levels of expression and freedom of expression as far as being a sensual and and connecting with my essence I guess in a sensual way so I think this would be helpful for other people to hear okay men or women or however you identify whatever your attraction orientation is this is a good conversation and you know so get some coffee or maybe some wine so talk to us about this your understanding of Shakti and the desire in within women or the womanly desire because Shakti is the female identification it's so hard to say that so messy to say that so messy to say gender specific but that's what it Shakti is identified is traditionally connected to the understanding of woman divine feminine and Shiva is traditionally connected to the divine understanding of man masculine there we go that's how we'll say it I won't say too much extra words because then I just complicate things and offend people so let's not do that because I don't mean that by the way not even I'm so fine with whatever I'm like a whatever talk to us about your understanding of Shakti the divine feminine can you do that Mr. Prince Rogers Nelson from the afterlife he says I think we've covered that women are beautiful they are this source of beauty he says they are just this beautiful he literally shows me like a flower like at the center of the body and just this opening of this lotus flower or opening of a rose and he says it has to be more progressive more transcendent so it's much more rose like and he says women are truly transcendent he says in the energy of the expression of the essence of woman so when you identify with the energy of woman or Shakti he says it's kind of like perfume is what he's showing me it's literally showing me like an exotic perfume you know a little musky a little bit of that cashmere kind of notes of that with that kind of sensual maybe even sandalwood or depending upon how you activate or connect with that kind of free flowing energy of the fire element of the Shakti energy he says it's like that it's like this perfume or this essence of woman and he says men love that he says if you're in a position where you're a man and you feel a kinship with that present that presentation of man he's like you feel it's so crazy you guys because literally he's trying to talk to me about this from an afterlife perspective which there's no bodies so there's really no male or female or body parts let's be clear except he's showing me this beautiful goddess woman body and I keep going like this like with the curse I hope that doesn't offend anybody and if it does too bad I don't mean it that way but I'm like you can appreciate that a beautiful body and men have that too they have this kind of structure in their shoulders and and in their backs and in their bodies as well maybe in their legs and you know there's different parts of men that you can appreciate too the form of the body but what he showing me is this transcendence and like the women or the energy of Shakti which is identified with this essence of woman divine feminine is like a perfume and men have that too he's like men just he says you can just literally breathe that in and activate that fire inside you he said it actually comes when I see it he said it comes into you he says from the place between your heart and your sacro chakra whether you're whatever kind of body type you have you have all the chakras the seven energy centers of the body that follow from the top of the head all the way down to the root chakra so he says it comes in between the heart and the solar plexus is that right yeah so there's the heart chakra and at your belly there's a solar plexus and right below that at the womb space for a woman's body the low gut for men is the sacro chakra and he's showing me that the the Shakti energy this light this fire desire actually comes at the bottom of the heart and the top of the solar plexus so the bottom of the heart with the emotions and the energy of the emotion infused and at the top of the solar plexus which is purpose so the purpose is to love and he's like the the purpose is the freedom of the expression of love that's what Shakti is the purpose is the freedom of the expression of love that's what the definition of Shakti is from prince in the afterlife the purpose is the freedom for the connection of love boom heart chakra solar plexus boom that's what it is i did not realize that that is fascinating that's fascinating okay so how many of you are thinking it's a goddess thing and it's like womb sacral chakra it's like where the sex organs are it's that's what it's about that's where the Shakti energy is the root chakra and the sacral chakra connected in where everything is at well the action is right in the physical form prince says it's here between the heart and the solar plexus and it's really about the freedom of the connection for the love and that's what it is and he says it's essence it's pure essence it's it's just pure essence and literally like perfume pure essence is what he says you can't think of it in terms of an act of a type of body where pieces fit together and let's say that you can't think of it like that he says it's transcendent and then you should we need every time he says transcendent to you guys every time prince says transcendent i see this lotus flower like opening up and every time i see this lotus flower i totally think of the episode from friends so gonna date myself so gonna date myself the episode from friends where monica was like talking they were having a flashback she was talking to rachel who was like the cool girl and monica was like did you give him your flower did you give him your flower like talking about having sex for the first time right and so that's what i think of what i think let's see this image of friss showing me this lotus flower and he's saying bridge it it's about transcending what you think you know in your human mind in your human body it's an it's like this advanced ascended expression that you you can't he says we're we and our minds are so limited but our bodies are willing to be open to the freedom of the flow of love that's all you really want he says that's what your spirit wants is to be free with the energy of love because that's what spirit is he says his pure love and the body loves the loving energy because that keeps it safe from disease that helps it feel happy spontaneous joyful he says that keeps the body creative and flowing and movement and it's just it's it needs to express and that's what movement is that's what flow is that's what energy does he's like you know all these things he basically says it's transcendent and it's this big lotus and i'm like so cool wow like my mind is like okay so i get it so this is why then this is why all of the new the younger generation i'm going to be very stereotypical and i'm going to paint with a broad brush you guys so not true for everyone i'm just making some broad statements here but it seems like the younger generation is way more open to sexuality who they're attracted to who they fall in love with um that they're not limited by bodies body shape body type um they feel so much more um there's there's so much but there's also so much so many more opportunities to to screw that up and offend people because of all the different labels and identifications within genders within sexual orientations and all that and it's like we're seeking to belong so we need a label or a category or someplace to fit in but at the same time this younger generation especially they're creating this huge wave of we don't want that you don't need that be an expression people are people let's just spirits our spirits in bodies that's really what people are is spirit in a human body so let's just be free spirits and let's not think too much about things let's not get in our own heads and get in our own ways let's just be open and loving and follow when our soul recognizes ourselves and another that's when the attraction connects and then that that's when that shockty light lights up and that's when we can have real beautiful spiritual connections with human bodies people in a human context and experience and then we can build upon that into relationships that foster a freedom of expression in other areas like in abundance and making as much money as you want in your life or an expression as an artist or a writer or an expression as being a successful teacher or a successful doctor or a successful entrepreneur or a successful parent however that that looks and shows up that shocks you light energy can then fuel these other parts of life and expression through relationship so it's I know it's a confusing time and I am like we're just going to say I'm in my mid 40s okay and you guys are going to be kind and say oh no you look like you're in your mid 40s let's just say let's say mid 40s even though I'm being very generous so at the place I'm at in my life I have kids that are in high school college and middle school and they're in relationships and friendships and and romantic relationships where they're not traditional and what the hell is traditional anyway like it doesn't matter there's no such thing as traditional traditional is the past and so right now here in the present I think if we just cut ourselves some slack and not have to try to fit ourselves our kids our family our parents our grandparents into old ways of thinking but to recognize that people had different have had different experiences and they will continue to have different experiences as we move ahead and look back right and you can look back and understand things so much easier right so let's stop trying to look back and understand things let's just acknowledge that we come into the present moment with different expressions different understandings different experiences different I was having a conversation with a family member the other day about this and you all know right that my dad was gay my dad was gay but he was closeted I hate that term that sounds so stupid that sounds so stupid I'm sorry I don't like the term um but he was not living his truth truth at all um openly or with his family or anything he was very much afraid it was very stigmatic at that time all of the things right I don't judge him there's no judgment whatsoever that's his those are his choices but so I was having a conversation with a family member and we were having this conversation about how cool it is that cool it is that this generation now can and we as their parents can let them just unfold let them have different kinds of relationships and different life experiences because we're going to need that in other areas in innovation in in education and science and in art and so many ways we're going to need all of this progressive energy that is trying to I think create a some more of a solid foundation of an not an acceptance that's not the right word but embracing the truest diversity of all which is literally the diversity of everything because each of us is unique and we bring unique things in so many ways and a lot of those uniquenesses are not obvious they're not overt like you don't know do you know my gender expression is really the only reason you know that is because I said I identify as a woman and my pronoun is she and I probably look today like a woman right but I could be fluid even though I'm in my mid 40s I could totally change my perspective and be like hey now I'm free to I never grew up this way I could totally present more masculine if I chose to and sometimes I do actually dress a little more masculine I think we're looking back on things I probably do at times which is fine whatever right but I was having this conversation with family member and we were like yeah it's just such a different time than it was back when we were growing up you know and I said yeah like there's so many more choices now there's so many more choices within ourselves to recognize who we really are or who we might be now you know I think that's why people start to kind of wake up later in life to different experiences and lifestyles and it's not like a midlife crisis where you check in with yourself necessarily it's just like wow the world is unfolding and I know there's drama and trauma right now I know it's confusing but that confusion that messiness is art it's like creating and finding new ways new things to excite us to inspire us and to fill us with hope and that's the point right so how did I do Prince hmm yeah I think this was an interesting conversation I hope you guys thought it was interesting I mean all over the place I know but come on this is like my channel I could talk about whatever I want to talk about in today I thought this was great I thought this was an interesting topic and it sure perked me up woke me up today so I thank you for being here Prince appreciate it yeah yes yes and I love your moves you are an amazing dancer oh my gosh oh yes very nice okay so thank you for being here on above life channel on youtube before you go do me a favor and make sure you click make a choice to subscribe to the channel but also to get notices youtube has kind of changed up some stuff and some people have told me that they haven't been getting notices so if you are concerned about not getting notices make sure you double tap that and click it and also just know that every Monday is when I post my channeling videos Sunday I post the podcast Sunday morning coffee and Monday to start your week I always have a channeling video for you and this one's gonna be interesting make sure you got those earbuds in if you are listening to this at work because of the content it's not that risky come on it's not but you never know it depends where you work right right so I hope I've inspired your spirit today with the help of Prince and this interesting conversation from the after life filled you with some hope I sure feel hopeful whenever I talk about the younger generation and all of the expression and the opportunities and the diversity of expression from for gender for sexuality I just I feel so filled with hope and inspired by that I hope you do too thanks so much for being here remember it's your life after all this is your life it's yours so live it the way that you want to live it the way that you want to express it just let it thanks for being here


So now we are going to introduce our speaker, I'm really very honored to present Cecilia Chebis. She is the midwifery director and a tenure associate professor at the University of British Columbia, Faculty of Medicine. From 2013 to 2018, she directed Yale School of Nursing's Midwifery and Women's Health Nurse Practitioner Master's Degree programs. She has done capacity building, teaching and curriculum consultation in Switzerland, Laos, China and Ghana. Cecilia studied midwifery at Emory University. Her 1993 doctorate in Applied Medical Anthropology is from the University of South Florida. She establishes an academic division of midwifery with the University of South Florida College of Medicine while jointly appointed to the College of Nursing and Public Health. Cecilia is an elected fellow of the American College of Nurse-Midwives and has served of the ACNM Board of Directors representing Region 3, the U.S. South, and on the Fellow of Shift Board of Directors. Cecilia was the Florida Nurses Association's great 100 nurse in 2009. The 2010 reviewer of the year for the Journal of Midwifery and Women's Health, the University of South Florida Department of Anthropology distinguished alumni in 2012 and in 2014 connected with Nightingale Excellence in Nursing Award winner. Cecilia has completed research and published on Fuspartum Stressors and Depression. And Cecilia currently is called her shift focus on Paynital Way, Gain Optimization and Obesity Prevention during the Paynital and lactation periods with additional goals of reducing weight, stigma, and the atrohandic harm caused by over-yellows risk management for those with obesity. Her teaching materials and writings about advanced counseling are available without charge at advancewithwifery.org. Welcome, Cecilia. And whenever you are ready, we are so aimed to listen to your presentation. Thank you all for listening tonight. I'm sorry for those of you who thought you would be hearing about long-acting contraceptives in Ethiopia. I'm going to try to give you information that's as useful to your practice. We're going to talk about very briefly the perinatal risks associated with high BMIs and then really look at who is most at risk and how that affects our care. I'm going to blast through some of these slides. They were actually written for a little bit different target audience. I want to make sure we're all on the same page when we're talking about obesity. Medically, obesity is defined as a body mass index greater than or equal to 30. It's a research measurement that's been used in the medical literature. It's not a perfect measure, but we do know that as BMIs increase as weight increases, outcomes in pregnancy and birth have more complications for some people. Many electronic medical records recalculate a BMI at each visit. The research about risk in pregnancy is tied to pre-pregnancy BMI or BMI in the first trimester. A woman could actually start in an overweight category and gain enough weight in pregnancy to be within an obese category, but that doesn't mean the risk has increased. There is an effect of excessive weight gain in pregnancy that increases risks for poor outcomes independent of BMI. Sorry, it's allergy season here. Obesity is more than a high BMI and there are many contributors to it. This is a complicated diagram. I'm not going to go through it all. Except to say that obesity is not overeating. It's not lack of physical exercise. It's a response to environments that are filled with unhealthy foods, stressors like chronic racism, poor sleep and what happens in pregnancy with maternal nutrition and exposure to endocrine disrupting chemicals affects not only the fetus during the pregnancy. If it's a female fetus, the ova that that female fetus carries for the rest of her life are affected. So excessive weight gain, obesity in the mother flip epigenetic switches that individuals don't have good control over. We've really looked at high weights, obesity. I'm going to use that term obesity because I most often speak to medical audiences, but there are individuals who prefer to be called fat. They might prefer to be called plus size mothers. Whatever language individuals want to use is what we should be using clinically. So there are relationships, not only between what we eat, but between our intestinal microbiomes and the chemicals we're exposed to in the environment and the foods we eat. They all react with our HPA axis so that simply saying we're going to cut back on our eating doesn't work for very many individuals. This is a brief slide of the complications that can be caused by high BMIs in pregnancy. These have been so well publicized over the last 20 years. I don't want to dwell on them except the largest ones, the ones that occur most often. So gestational diabetes, hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, and then increased cesarean births are all linked with high BMIs, particularly those 35 and greater. Most individuals with high BMIs will have uncomplicated perinatal courses. And boy, here's flashing lights. This is the message I really want you to take home today. Yes, there are increase in risks, particularly when BMIs are 40 or greater. But as humans, we focus on risks, we focus on bad outcomes, it's self-protective. We also remember problems, risk, bad outcome that sticks with us emotionally more than data. So I want to use the data a little bit differently than it's been used in the medical literature and talk about what some people call metabolically healthy obesity. One way of looking at obesity is to use the Edmonton Obesity Staging System. Maria Sharma from the University of Alberta is one of the researchers who worked on the Edmonton Staging System. Coincidentally, his daughter is a midwife here in Vancouver. The Edmonton Obesity Staging System looks at individuals with BMIs greater than 30, but sorts them into those with no apparent risk, normal blood glucose, no high blood pressure, no other diseases. A Stage 1 Edmonton Obesity Stage has maybe transient hyperglycemia, maybe borderline high blood pressure. These are individuals who look healthy on physical exam. It's not until an individual has an obesity-related chronic disease, particularly hypertension, diabetes, osteoarthritis, or sleep apnea, where we start expecting other complications to health. Edmonton systems 3 and 4 midwives rarely take care of. These are individuals who've had hypertensive strokes, who have heart failure. They're outside of our scope of practice. But here's another way of looking at this. So all of the individuals in this diagram have BMIs greater than 30, but those in Edmonton Stage 0 and 1 are healthy on physical exam. That is actually where most individuals are during pregnancy. Aria and his other co-researchers took NHANES data from the United States, a huge data set, and divided those in different weight categories by the Edmonton staging system. And their findings were that in Class 1 obesity, these two groups of individuals had no apparent disease. Even when you look at Class 3 obesity, which are individuals with a BMI of 40 or greater, 19% of those individuals have no disease of any kind. Their lipids are normal, their blood glucose is normal. These are individuals we could expect to have healthy pregnancies. There are some contributors to complications in addition to obesity and pregnancy. You'll see these are the people on this slide who already have coexisting disease and individuals who are having pregnancies at age 35 or greater. Some of my captions here aren't showing up. This is a study from the University of Alberta again where a group of obstetricians applied the Edmonton staging system to individuals who were having inductions of labor. And they found that those without other risk factors had the lowest rates of cesarean birth. They could use the EOSS to help predict outcomes. You will have these slides if you go back into the website. You'll be able to see these captions that aren't showing up. This is the same study as the prior study, but what I want to show you is individuals with no comorbid conditions in a normal BMI range had a 70% chance of a vaginal birth. Those in Edmonton staging system one had a 70% chance. And it wasn't until people were in stage two that their vaginal birth rate started to drop. Here are the individuals with terrible chronic disease like end-organ disease. They only had about a 10% chance of a vaginal birth. This is a large Ontario cohort that looked at all individuals with obesity. All of those individuals had almost a 60% chance of a pregnancy with no complications. The individuals from that same study in Ontario who had the most pregnancy complications were the ones with BMI's of 35 or greater. In the United States, all individuals with a BMI of 30 or greater are considered at the same risk. In the United Kingdom, the guidelines start thinking about special care at a BMI of 35 or greater. And our Canadian guidelines are staged to look at individuals holistically. Well, I don't know what that slide was going to be. I am not going to go through every one of these slides. I'm going to give you my website too and you will see lists of references. These are all midwifery studies showing that individuals with high BMI's who had midwifery care had great outcomes. This is a study I did for the American Association of Birth Centers. And I show you this one to show you that individuals with high BMI's do not necessarily have to give birth in a hospital. That's kind of a U.S. assumption. In this study, Primiporas who started labor at a birth center had a 30% transfer rate. Most of that was for pain management. They had an 89% vaginal birth rate. Those individuals had great supportive care. They continued to receive care from midwives in the hospitals and they had great outcomes. If we approach clients, we can help them lower their own risk and have healthier outcomes regardless of their BMI. So, first of all, we want to make sure that our offices, our practices are welcoming. We need to get past our own biases against weight. That's why I showed you those initial slides that we've treated this as a problem of the individual. Actually, obesity is an environmental problem and it's related to broken food systems. That's the World Health Organization definition. So, we want to make sure everybody in the practice is welcoming and non-judgmental. We want to make sure that chairs and exam tables are comfortable. We want to make sure that our scales are in private areas and that they weigh up to 500 pounds. You can order a scale that weighs up to 500 pounds for less than $25 on the Amazon and have it delivered to your office. We should make sure that large blood pressure cuffs are in every room so that we aren't scrambling to look for them when a woman needs them. It's kind of insulting to have to look for something bigger. And we can show our clients how to weigh themselves and self-report their weight. So, what I'm suggesting is a holistic assessment of the individual. So, on the first prenatal visit, all individuals should have their height and their weight measured, assuming they want that. We need to offer women choices. If the BMI is 30 or greater, the next step for us is to think, is there comorbid disease? Is there not? If everything else looks healthy, then we should be helping women with nutrition choices, planning their weight gain, thinking about activity during pregnancy, and later in prenatal care, discussing an appropriate place of birth. If there's comorbid disease at the first visit or any time later in the pregnancy, then we need to offer the client additional help. This is somebody who will need an obstetrical consultation or maybe referral to an obstetrician depending on individual assessment. We need to avoid stereotypical thinking about intake and activity. When many clinicians start talking about weight gain, they say things like, so you're going to need to cut out sodas during pregnancy.  We need to assess what individuals are doing, hear from them what their activities are like. Many individuals with obesity have been doing healthy eating for years. We want to make sure that we're using the language that the client uses about themselves. And we want to make sure that we are using client-centered language. So clients with obesity, not the obese patient in room three. And we want to convey that we respect the individual's choices. When we disrespect a client's autonomy, it erodes their self-esteem and reduces self-efficacy. We can assist clients to target the Institute of Medicine weight gain targets. These have been in place since 2009. We can offer regular weighing during pregnancy. It was out of style for about 15 years in many countries. It is coming back in. And there are at least five studies, English speaking, where individuals are saying we want help with our weights in pregnancy. We want to be weighed. I'm going to talk a little bit more about epigenetic nourishment, adequate sleep, aspirin prophylaxis, and a place of birth. So here in Canada, our guidelines talk about monitoring gestational weight gain and encouraging us to do that at least once a trimester. Individuals with high BMIs do not need to gain as much in pregnancy as others. In most pregnancies, individuals gain two to four kilograms. That was meant to be adipose tissue, calories to be used during breastfeeding. Individuals with high BMIs have that reserve in place already so that you'll see they would only gain 11 to 20 pounds or about five to nine kilograms. Those are targets. We shouldn't think about them as limits. So here is something I didn't put the references on. They are easy to find. Regular physical activity reduces the risk for cesarean section. No matter what else you do, if you're doing 30 minutes of physical activity, five days a week, you reduce your risk of a surgical birth. I talk about taking the baby for a walk. It's a phrase a lot of people are used to once the baby's born, take them for a walk during pregnancy. 30 minutes a day, five days a week is ideal. That does not need to be a 30-minute hike. It can be two 15-minute intervals. It can be three 10-minute intervals. Women who don't feel safe outside their home walking can pace back and forth in front of TV or a podcast they're watching. Sleep is activity. It's not moving activity, but it's hugely important for weight optimization. Individuals need six to seven hours of sleep. For years, I asked my patients how many hours of sleep at night they got, and so many mothers are burning the candles at both ends, getting four to five hours of sleep at night. That actually makes them more insulin resistant.  I've watched aspirin prophylaxis come in and out of style for about 20 years now. It is now the current recommendation in Canada. One of the things that adipose tissue does is produce inflammatory cytokines, and that increases the risk for hypertensive disorders. It's also the major culprit in postpartum thrombosis. So aspirin prophylaxis helps ameliorate that risk. Folic acid, it's ideal pre-pregnancy, definitely for the first trimester to help prevent neural tube defects. Which individuals with high BMIs and diabetes are at higher risk for? I want to talk a minute about what's called epigenetic eating. Why epigenetic? This eating actually sets metabolic pathways in the fetus. It's simple to explain. It may not be quite as simple to do. The my plate diet from the U.S. is used for diabetes management. It's an epigenetic diet that's safe and beneficial in pregnancy. The my plate diet is a high fiber, low glycemic index diet. And if individuals follow this eating pattern during pregnancy, they actually reduce their risk for gestational diabetes. My plate is half of every meal or snack being fruits or vegetables. Guidelines internationally don't agree with each other perfectly. The guidelines from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists assume that everybody's going to give birth in the hospital. And we'll have continuous electronic fetal monitoring. In Canada, the Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommends that those with a body mass index of 30 or greater consider continuous electronic fetal monitoring. And if you're going to have electronic fetal monitoring, then you will be in a hospital unit. They do caution that decision to delivery time is increased in women with obesity. That's so important for us here in Canada. You have the same considerations in Australia with rural areas where if individuals are having a community birth or a birth in a level one hospital without 24 hour services. They may not be able to have a timely cesarean section. So in rural Canada, women with a BMI of particularly 40 or greater are encouraged to move south to a city in the last trimester so that they're at a center that has the best resources for them. The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, which has great experience with midwifery led units, says that women who are multiparous and otherwise low risk can be offered a choice of setting for planning their birth. Women, even with high BMIs who've had one uncomplicated vaginal birth have very successful outcomes with subsequent births. So labor management, intermittent auscultation for all women that we can use that on, have women up and mobile, hydro therapy is great. Now we will need to assess for some with very high BMIs how comfortable they are in the tub and if they can move quickly if we need them out of the tub. We need to give individuals with high BMIs longer time for cervical ripening in inductions of labor and longer stages of labor. Leptin, which is an appetite regulating hormone is a growth hormone in pregnancy. Leptin levels are higher when BMIs are higher and Leptin is a tocolytic. It shuts uterine contractions down by counteracting oxytocin. That doesn't mean that all individuals with high BMIs will need oxytocin, but they will need us to expect longer inductions of labor and longer particularly stage one. That same oxytocin inhibition from Leptin predisposes individuals to postpartum hemorrhage. So we encourage active management of the third stage and that's most importantly give a hemorrhage preventing drug like hemobate, oxytocin, get the baby immediately skin to skin and start breastfeeding within the first hour. That's the best way to get past the slower lactogenesis to that occurs in individuals with obesity. Once again, Leptin's a culprit in that slower milk production and a little bit poke your initial milk ejection reflex. But early breastfeeding and stimulation every two hours particularly for first time breastfeeders helps mothers over that hump. We have a number of places to intervene. We really can help break cycles of overweight and obesity. So we can help individuals by helping them optimize the nutrients that go through placental transfer. We can help individuals eat their best to optimize nutrients. Whatever is in the maternal circulation circulates to the fetus and to the over in a female fetus great capacity there to change health for three generations forward. Ideal nutrients by helping mothers do their best at breastfeeding and then many midwives are the people who give infant toddler feeding advice. So encouraging breastfeeding for a full year with appropriate food choices. And then for those of us midwives who are caring for women between pregnancies helping individuals with their best nutrition. So in summary, reducing the stigma around obesity being confident for women so that they can be confident for themselves. Recommending folic acid vitamin D and aspirin prophylaxis really supporting efforts to breastfeed and then encouraging the clients. They can take charge of their own health optimizing their weight gain healthy eating physical activity with sufficient sleep and breastfeeding the newborn appropriate risk assessment. Not thinking of every single individual being prone to the worst outcomes appropriate risk assessment with supportive care improves health for two to three generations forward. I am going to put since some of these slides didn't show up the best. I've put my website in the chat box. It is loaded with resources it started for educators. Now there's some clinician supports some handouts that you can use for your clients with obesity. I keep adding to that site and everything there is free of charge. I'm happy to take questions. You must feel like you've been whiplashed through care for high BMI is in pregnancy. I see my my facilitator says she's having some issues with her internet. So if you can type your questions in the chat box I can see them and I'm happy to answer them. Ah, ginger. Thanks. I actually am doing a presentation. I'm doing a workshop at the American College of Nurse Midwives meeting, which is coming up shortly and for all of the educational programs. I have a little flash drive loaded with resources that I'm going to give to the dome leader to pass out at the meeting. So ginger is asking. Yeah, so much about the physiology.  But if you if you Google me or look into PubMed, I've got a few publications that really go in depth about the physiology of obesity.  Many of the plastics, all of those chemicals are in our environment. They're in our water supplies. We take them in and our body sees them as hormones. And some of the appetite stimuli stimulating and weight increasing hormones. We don't have personal control over that. Many individuals live in neighborhoods where it's not safe for them to go out walking in some cultures. Women shouldn't be out walking by themselves. That is seen as just trashy behavior. So we need to really think about what works for our individual patient, our individual patients and how we can give them the best support. I'll put a plug in for breastfeeding to since I'm not seeing other questions. Breastfeeding helps set infant appetite pathways. It actually sets some metabolic pathways. So individuals who are breastfed, even for one to three months have benefit from that breastfeeding. Boy, it's so important. One of the psychological complicators for individuals with obesity is that they often have lowered confidence and lowered self-esteem. And they come into pregnancy thinking, I can't do this. My body doesn't work for me. And we have to be careful that we don't reinforce that for them. If they've had a caesarean birth, they may feel like they've failed. Their body's not going to be able to breastfeed. And we need to pull out the stops and really help them with breastfeeding. I've always talked about it as medication. We can't take breastfeeding too seriously. I'm not sure I said that correctly. Breastfeeding, to me, is one of our most important measures. Ah, Jumi is saying that's how she felt after her caesarean. You know, another broad thing that we can do to help individuals is to work with our colleagues who worry about the risk if they don't do a caesarean section. And give them the confidence to wait a little while. I mean, this is a little bit off topic, but weight gain in pregnancy isn't my own interest. When the World Health Organization started talking about broken food systems, I got very interested in that topic. And we now have war in Eastern Europe. It's very close to my heart. I have cousins in Poland and some of my dear friends have family in the Ukraine. The Ukraine is one of the bread baskets of the world, as are the steps of Russia. And food production in those two countries will not be available to many parts of the world. So we need to think broadly as midwives. First of all, work for peace. And then think broadly about food systems. In another five years, we may not be worrying about individuals with too much to eat. We may be back as a world working on getting enough nutrients to pregnant women again. I think I'm going to end there.


This is Sally Scientist. She's an electrical engineer at a prestigious university, right here in Nebraska. Sally studies solar energy, and has written a grant to improve energy capture and storage in solar powered drones used by the Army. Sally's just about to submit her proposal through new grant. But wait Sally! Aren't you forgetting something? Let's see. Your research doesn't involve human or animal subjects. And you've already taken care of any potential conflicts of interest. But you're working on electronics for the military. Of course! Export controls. Research in sensitive areas may require special licenses for access to equipment and data. Sally, whatcha gonna do? First, let's talk about what export controls are. Basically, there are rules that say you need to get a license before conducting certain kinds of research involving sensitive items or technologies. When you're writing a proposal, you should think about five questions. Is the grant open to foreign nationals or only to US citizens? Does your research have any military or space applications? Will you be working with pathogens or toxic chemicals? Will you have to get the sponsor's approval to publish your results? Will you have to travel outside the United States to conduct your research? If you've answered yes to any of these questions, your research may be subject to export controls. Sally's research has obvious military applications. Because she's applying to the Army, she should keep some other common items in mind. Many grants from the Defense Department and NASA restrict the participation of foreign nationals and require government approval before publishing or presenting results. Sally's grant has both kinds of restrictions. The staff in the Export Management and Compliance Program are trained to identify potential export compliance risks and help researchers like Sally develop technology control plans, or TCPs, to manage those risks. Here, an Export Control Coordinator is touring Sally's lab to recommend security systems and procedures for her TCP. When developing TCPs, EMCP staff may also consult with the institutional biosafety and radiation safety committees, as well as the information security team, depending on the nature of the project. Because some of the people working in Sally's lab are not U.S. citizens, they'll need to obtain licenses to work on the project. EMCP staff are responsible for determining when export licenses are necessary, and only the university's empowered official has the authority to apply for them. The government typically takes 60 to 90 days to process applications. So Sally planned ahead, and now she'll have her licenses in place without having to delay her research. Way to go, Sally! Before work can begin, Sally's team must complete an Export Compliance Training Course. During the course, EMCP staff will explain how export controls apply to the project and go step-by-step through the TCP. Once that's done, Sally and her team are ready to research. Let's recap the steps Sally went through. First, she submitted a proposal through NUGRAM. Next, her proposal was reviewed by the Export Management and Compliance Program for export control risks. Then, Sally and the EMCP worked together to develop a technology control plan for securing sensitive equipment and data in her lab. Then, the empowered official applied for the required export licenses. Finally, Sally and her team completed an Export Compliance Training Course. Now, Sally and her team can conduct their research in full compliance with the export control laws and regulations of the United States. Way to go, Sally!


Right. I just thought it'd be good, you know, we've been discussing some real, real issues and thank you, Rupa, for that scripture, Philippians 1-9. It talks about love, talks about knowledge, talks about this discernment, you know, that love may abound more and more with knowledge and all discernment. I think that's something that we need, that all of us need. So praise God for that, that we can make this our prayer. So thank you. I just thought, you know, maybe we could take some time, maybe about five minutes right away. And this is also something that I learned from the workshop. So I just thought it's a good exercise to do. I'm just putting that statement here. Okay, it says, in my relationship with, okay, you can put the name of the person, maybe it's a colleague. I would say, you know, maybe, you know, if those of you are working, maybe you can put the name of a colleague or a boss, you know. You know, to say, I want to be a servant leader. Okay, so let me just read the sentence, like, in my relationship with Dash, I want to be a servant leader by taking the following action or actions. So you could think of several different settings.  Don't, you know, exclude difficult people. I think it'd be good if you can have one difficult person, you know. So you can just write three, you know, pick three people and say, in my relationship with, it could be a spouse, your spouse, you know, if you can write the name of your spouse and say, I want to be a servant leader by taking the following action, following actions, you know, say, okay, this is what I want to do. It could be, you know, it could be your children, right? Children, maybe are difficult, maybe they are rebellious, maybe they are, I don't know, whatever, you know, they are going through issues. But, you know, have you thought of serving your children, you know, maybe simple things like, I don't know, you know, it could be different things like how to serve them better by taking the following action. So let's take five minutes to think of different people, maybe a colleague, maybe a family member, maybe, you know, maybe a fellow student, someone and say, maybe you're in-laws, right? Think of some difficult scenarios and say, okay, I want to be a servant leader by taking the following action, okay? I'm not going to ask you what those actions are and so you don't have to worry, right? So you can just go ahead and write, okay? So let's take five minutes, maybe it's, yeah, it's now 11-4, maybe 11-9, something I'll come back, okay? I hope it's going fine. You can try and be, you know, as specific as possible, right? So that it's clear for you, it'll be helpful if you're specific. Okay.  But I was just looking at, you know, work-wise, like ministry-wise, what I can do to serve. And some of the things involved, some tasks that I have to do in order to empower people, in order to facilitate people to do, to be even, you know, to do things even better, you know, for them to minister even, you know, even in a successful manner, and also relationally, that to improve things, to get in touch, to be in touch, so something, something on those lines. And also with family, right? To, it was, I think one of the things that I got was to encourage, right? So how to encourage. And so some specifics also on those lines, like spiritually, and also something like, and also it involved writing down, especially specifically, what would you do? What would I do? What should I do? And then also, when it came to leisure, or some just fun things, you know, what I could do, you know, maybe it's not like, one of the things that, you know, I listed down, it's not, it's not something that I would volunteer to do, or I would love to do, but yeah, but I just felt that, okay, I would do it, you know, I need to do this, okay. Then also about, yeah, extended family, some of those things that maybe that was, you know, delaying or going slow on, some specifics I didn't know.    How is it going to be, you know, will it be reciprocated? Will it be received? Well, don't worry about that. So, you go ahead and do it anyway, that your intentions are clear, you want to serve. And, and yeah, one thing that I realized was as I was listing down, I realized that I, of course, it involves my choice. I need to intentionally do it and, you know, maybe sacrifice certain things and, and also take initiative, etc. But also, I, you know, I need to really draw from the Holy Spirit. I draw strength from the Holy Spirit in order to do this. Some of these things are, you know, it comes naturally, temperamentally, I'm okay, and I'll just flow with it. But some things, you know, certain things of the flesh need to die, you know, in myself.  But we can put to death those things so that we can be released to carry out and serve better. And so, yeah, so those are some things, some of the things that I jotted down. Yeah, Abraham, you've shared, brave man, okay, in my relationship with the Lord's army, okay, I want to be a servant leader by taking the following actions, loving them, not counting their weaknesses against them, teaching them to obey the standards in Scripture, seeing them as people who are willing and trying their best to serve the Lord, wonderful.   I'm going to love them, but, you know, and not really, I think you've put it rightly, not counting their weaknesses. So if I see limitations, if I see weaknesses, I'm going to say, okay, I'm going to love them anyway. So that's, that's wonderful. And also, you can think of, you know, what would demonstrate that love? Is it words? Is it action? How can I demonstrate that love? Yeah, looking for those teachable moments, maybe formal teaching sessions, maybe informal, you know, teachable moments when you're doing stuff with them, right? So that would help as well. Seeing them as people who are willing and trying their best, yeah. Wonderful. Thank you. Thanks, Abraham. So, so let's do it, right? Let's, let's go ahead and carry it out. Okay. Okay. So let's move on. We are moving on to looking at those, to look at those seven insights. Okay. So the first thing that we see, let me just share the screen, first thing that we see is that the Lord Jesus was very clear about his purpose. Okay. The reason he came, what he was supposed to be doing. And I think you see it right from the start. And right from the start, when he, as a young child, he was at the temple and when the parents asked him, you know, don't you care that, you know, we were, we were, we were scared, we were afraid and where you were. And he said, you know, I must be in my father's house, right? I must be about my father's business and father's house. So he was right from that age, we see that, that sense of purpose and why he, he was there being very, very strong. And, and, and this is something that as a leader that, or as leaders that we can, we can pray, we can, you know, ask the Lord and also intentionally, you know, grasp that because the Lord can put it in our hearts and there can be a description of it, you know, in a formal setting. Okay, this is what you need to do, et cetera. But with our hearts, we really need to grasp it, right? And, and maybe even remind ourselves over and over again and renew our minds over and over again to the purpose.  And because that picture is not very clear, right? Our actions can be, you know, misplaced or our actions may not come with great effort because that purpose is not clear in our minds. Or it's not, you know, it's something is hiding that or something is slowing us down, right? So as a leader, the Lord Jesus knew his purpose, right? He's very clear. And it included some not so nice things, right? Some very exciting things, breaking down the works of the enemy, you know, destroying the works of the enemy, being filled with the spirit, communicating the good news of the kingdom, right? Prophecying, you know, you know, here's a man without guile, some signs and wonders, supernatural things. Peter, go, you know, drop that fishing hook, you will get a fish. It'll be carrying a coin in its mouth. The wonderful things. Or Peter, you know, put your nets on the other side and the net breaking, boatload sinking kind of, boat sinking kind of a load of fish. Exciting, wonderful things. But also it included, you know, some not so exciting, what we would typically term as exciting, facing persecution, right? Facing ridicule, being wrongly accused, right? People not being understood, right? And also the purpose of the mission to die on the cross, carrying the sins of the whole world and the consequence of it, you know, a sinless person carrying that. And so we see that it included all that, right? But the purpose was very clear, okay? In the words of the Lord Jesus, we see it in John chapter 12 and verse 27, you know, now my soul is troubled, but what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour. But for this purpose, I came to this hour, right? So you're saying, but for this purpose, I came to this hour, this hour. Obviously, you know, when you look at, let's just read that, John chapter 12, verse 27, you see that, yeah. So it happens, if you look at verse 23, sorry, Jesus answered them saying, the hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified. Okay? So he's talking about this timeframe, it's now, it's nearing now. It's becoming nearer, closer to what is going to happen. So he's saying the hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified. And he's talking about the grain of wheat falling to the ground, dying and producing much grain. And he's sharing all that.  And he's, you know, he's been frank about it, his things. Soul is troubled, but what shall I say? This is the purpose. Right? So he was very, very clear about his purpose, the purpose for which he came. Now we know that now Jesus did what he did, being empowered by the Holy Spirit. Right? Now before we make that statement saying, okay, that was Jesus, but this is me. Right? That was, that was the Son of God, but this is me. The scripture is very clear. Right? When we look at the Book of Acts, we see that he went about doing good, destroying the works of the enemy, and he did it empowered by the Holy Spirit. And the Lord Jesus Himself said, the works that I do, you will do also because I go to my Father. And the key being, going to my Father was that he would send the Holy Spirit, that we would not be alone, that he would be with us, that he would empower us, anoint us, fill us to walk in the path of our Lord, right? Path of our Lord. So, so he is very clear, very sure and very clear. Okay, Matthew 16 was 21 to 23. From that time, Jesus began to show to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed and be raised the third day. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, Far be it from your Lord, this shall not happen to you. But he turned and said to Peter, get behind me Satan, you are an offense to me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men. Okay, so, you know, but it's really interesting to see that Matthew 16, I think you would have studied this earlier as well, Matthew 16. And when we read from chapter verse 13 onwards, so this is verse 21, but when we read from verse 13 onwards, we see that the Lord Jesus asks a question, who do men say that I am, I the Son of Man am?  He said, who do you say that I am? And Simon Peter answers, you are Christ, the Son of the living God. And the Lord says, verse 17, blessed are you, Simon, bar Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my father who is in heaven, he has revealed this to you. This revelation has come to you from the Father, blessed are you, wonderful.  And on this rock, I will build my church and the gates of Hades will not prevail, shall not prevail against it. And I will give you the keys of the kingdom, the authority, and so on, right.  So it's amazing that the Lord by the Spirit could discern what was revealed by the Father regarding his purpose, regarding his identity and purpose and so on. And what was, what was the work of the enemy, what was the influence of the enemy, right.  So he knew that what was, you know, for we do not fight against flesh and blood and but against powers and principality. So he knew what was actually influencing Peter, who was influencing Peter to make that pronouncement, right. And turn Peter and said, you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men. So purpose so powerful, knowing it is very empowering. Knowing it will enable us to, to put our back, you know, our efforts and everything to, to just pursue, pursue that, right. It will, it will walk, will keep us awake at night, it will, what will make us wake up early. So we, we know that, you know, we have resources and time is a resource, our abilities, you know, another resource, and of course, you know, material resources and all that, we have resources. But if we do not understand the purpose, if we do not come to a place of clarity in our purpose, then our efforts will be, you know, a waste in these resources, whether it's time, whether it's our abilities, you know, being put to good use, whether it's material resources and, and so on, right. So, so we need to know what our purpose is, right. The question I think we would ask is, you know, I'm at a stage where I do not know what my call is, right. I'm at a stage where I do not know, okay, what does God call me for? Maybe some of us could be, you know, saying that, stating that, I don't know. Well, that's fine, right.  You know, I need to fulfill these things. You know, I have, you know, it could be very simple, I've enrolled in this, and I need to fulfill this, I need to give my all towards this. I don't want to coast through this, float through this, right. So, so that's a very strong thing, that's a very strong, you know, purpose. So, you know, just to clarify, okay, what do we call as purpose, okay, a couple of things that we can look at. I'm just putting it in the chat. I will also read it out. Okay, so purpose, when you say purpose, we're saying the reason for which something is done, or created, or for which something exists, okay. So, clarity in that, okay, it could be just one thing, okay, I'm going to do this, and this is why. The why, you know, if it's clear, and then the actions for what we need to do will be clear as well, will be fruitful, you know, the effort put in will be good, will be productive, okay. So, purpose, so let's be clear about what our purpose, you know, maybe in tasks that we need to do, and one thing that we see is that the Lord is, you know, taking us through seasons, seasons of equipping, seasons of developing, season, and a season of commissioning, and we go through the seasons right through, and we step into the call, and there is a growing in that as well, and we mature in that, and we grow in that, right, as a, like we see, you know, the path of a believer, one is a believer, and then learns to follow the Lord, becomes a, you know, disciple of the Lord, you know, following his, following his teaching, following the person, and then goes on to be a minister, because you discover the call of God, you discover the things of God, you discover the gifts, you know, all the things that you begin to serve, you know, when you say minister, we're just serving in different ways, maybe it's a pulpit ministry, maybe it's a five-fold ministry, maybe it's something to do in the body of Christ, as a, you know, a membership gift, and so we are serving, so we are ministering, and during the course of that, the Lord, you know, continues to put things in us, take things out of us, that we begin to be, you know, we come to a place of being fathers and mothers, right, we come to a place of raising up sons and daughters, raising up leaders, who can again do the same thing, right, so we go through that, we go through that path, and it continues our whole life as, you know, on the side of eternity, as believers, right, so as, as followers of the Lord Jesus, so, so that continues, so, so the Lord takes us through that, so whatever season we are in, the thing is to be, to have a strong grip on, okay, what is the Lord doing in my life, and can I give myself wholeheartedly to the things that he's doing in my life, and, and of course, what is the why behind what he's doing, right, so, and the Lord is more than willing to show us, reveal to us, just want to remind us again from 1 Corinthians chapter 2, and verse, verse 10, right, or maybe verses 9 and 10, so, as it is written, of course, the context is about the revelation of the gospel, and the revelation and speaking the hidden things, the mysteries of God, but the context is that, but, but this is the functioning of the role of the Holy Spirit, right, it says, as it is written, I has not seen, nor hear, nor have entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for those who love him, okay, the plans, the purposes of God, verse 10, but God has revealed them, so God has prepared them, God has revealed them through, revealed them to us, through his spirit, for the spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God, for what man knows the things of man, except the spirit of the man, which is in him, even so no one knows the things of God, except the spirit of God, so, so this is something that we see, the spirit of God revealing the plans, the purposes of God, okay, so, so we seek, we walk in, in what is immediate, and we continue to seek and have a strong grip on, on the purposes of God, right, for our lives, okay, so the thing is this, you know, it's not just about us personally, but it's also about where the Lord places us, and the lives that are connected to our lives, right, we said, you know, leadership is an influence for good, to, to help others, right, to, to direct others, to help others, and to help others achieve the goals, right, so the thing is this, so since there are other lives, you know, maybe in a formal setting, it could be, you know, maybe you're leading a team, and maybe in an organization, but informally also, you see that, you know, you are an influencer for good, you are a leader, like we said, you know, each one of us, the Lord has placed people in our lives who are connected to us, who are looking, looking up to us, right, to whom we are spokespersons of, you know, hope, and, and so on, right, so since we are connected to others, we are leading others, and we need to be strong enough in the purpose, the collective purpose for this particular reason, right, you know, if you look at the Lord Jesus, his words, he's talking about the Pharisees, okay, so Matthew chapter 15 and verse 14 says, let them alone, they are blind leaders of the blind, and if the blind leads the blind, both will fall into a ditch, right, so he's talking about the Pharisees and he's saying, they are blind leaders of the blind, so if you are not clear, if you're not seeing where we are going, and if you're not seeing by faith even, then the destinies of others, we are, we are leading them to another place where they're not meant to go, so this is something that we need to be, we need to be clear about, we need to have a strong grip on, just like the Lord had a strong grip on the purpose, okay, so, yeah, so that's something that we need to be mindful of, because the Lord led by example, strong about his purpose, that we see is that the Lord was selfless, okay, he, like, we see that in Matthew 20, we see that Lord saying, you know, that you need to be a servant, you need to serve, and here, you know, another scripture is that the, the Lord Jesus himself said that the Son of Man did not come to serve, did not come to be served, but to serve, right, and to give his life a ransom for many was 28, right, so we see that, you know, we are called to be selfless, you know, so in every action, in other words, you know, in every action, in every, every step that we are taking, everything that we're doing, if we are going to ask that question, you know, what's in it for me, you know, how do I get to gain by this, in what way will I benefit from this, then we are missing the point, right, look at Philippians 2, verses 3 and 5, 3 to 5, you know, it put things in perspective, and there is also a certain wholeness which comes, right, it's not skewed to one, one side, it brings that balance and wholeness, okay, let's read that verse, Philippians 2, verses 3 to 5, let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind, let each esteem others better than himself, verse 4, let each of you look out, not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, and we know, talks about how he being in the, he being God himself, he did not consider robbery to be equal with God, but, you know, he, he, he took off all that and took on the form of a born servant and came down, and we see that, right, let this mind be in you, which was in Christ Jesus, but so the verse 4 says, you know, let each of you look out, not only for his own interests, of course, you know, there are some legitimate interests or legitimate things for, for us personally, right, that we need to maybe fulfill, that we need to, you know, these are legitimate things, right, and so there's nothing wrong in pursuing that, there's nothing wrong in getting that done, so he says, not only, you know, look out not only for your interests, but also, so there is a not only and there is a but also, right, so, so what follows after that, those phrases is very important, so not only for your own interests, but also for the interests of others, so that's, that brings that and many times, you know, there is a conflict, conflict between, you know, between the not only and what follows not only and what follows but also, right, there could be a conflict of, in that, but those are the times when we choose and we choose to sacrifice, right, not only for our own interests, but also for the interests of others, okay, so in the, in the path of the Lord, to be a leader, to be selfless and many times it, you know, the work that we do, the role that we are in calls for that, right, to be selfless, where many times we need to put aside our own interests and say, okay, this is better, for the group, this is better for the team and therefore, let's do it, you know, and can we go ahead and do that, right, okay, any thoughts on these two, if you, if you'd like to share some examples of, you know, clarity of purpose, helping you or maybe when the purpose was not clear, how it really did not help you, okay, and the second thing being selfless, you know, how easy was it, how difficult was it, how practical was it, right, and yeah, any thoughts on that? You can go ahead. Let's talk about purpose first. Purpose. Sir, a small part. Yeah, Rupa, go ahead please. Regarding the purpose, when we see the modeling of our Lord Jesus Christ, we see those disciples completely lost about the purpose and vision of the Lord Jesus Christ. They were completely on different track for most of the time and it was a great challenge for a servant leader to align and to make them realize the real purpose and also not the real, not only realizing but passing on that purpose to them, that they were owned it as their own and gave them, gave their all as Jesus has given his all to us. It's a very great, challenging thing I think. It's very challenging. It's learning. Thank you, sir. So any real life example, I just wanted to, you know, share this, I mean, it's a simple example, but for me, it made a big difference. Like, you know, we started the, I think it was in 2005, 2006 when we introduced, you know, cell groups or life groups as a model for the church and, you know, when we did so, we spent some time studying about it, learning about it and so on. And then we, you know, kind of introduced it. But what happened was personally, for me, you know, I had a different picture in my mind, right? We're going to talk about vision, you know, a little later. But, you know, I had a different picture, a different picture of the model itself. It was a wrong understanding. So therefore, the purpose of that particular, you know, the reason for which we are actually introducing that life group ministry, it was actually lost out on me, you know, despite several sessions, teaching sessions, I had something else in mind. And so when we went ahead and actually did it, you know, it, I don't think we, I personally did it, right? And it took a couple of, you know, a couple of, I would say, situations when, you know, we had, you know, we were discussing and then, then Pastor was sharing and then, then suddenly, the lights came on, you know, he's pointing us back to, hey, this is what, this is the model, this is why we are doing. And then the why became even clearer. Oh, yes. Okay, this is the why. And that is, you know, that's the reason we are doing it in this way. You know, when we, when if you think of life group, small groups, you know, there were many things, right? You can have like, like a house group meeting where, you know, 40 people, 50 people come and you could have like a mini church service, you could have Bible studies, or you could have it like a discipleship model, which is what, which is what, you know, APC was doing and APC is continuing to do a discipleship one where people are connected to the church, people in the life group connected to the church. And it's, it's a, it's a discipleship model, which means that people are learning to follow the Lord Jesus, learning, under, you know, learning scripture, understanding, and, and following together, making that journey together and helping one another, sharpening one another, et cetera. Right. But they're all connected to the big picture. They're connected to the vision of the church, connected to the church spiritually. And, you know, so it was a very simple thing. But then I realized that not understanding the why actually led to a couple of situations, a couple of embarrassing situations. So, so that just that clarity in purpose brought a big change, brought a big change in, in, in our own life group, brought a big change in the way we would, you know, the way we would appoint leaders and start life groups and so on. So, so that helped us. And from, from my side, you know, I could just think of that, this one thing about the purpose. Right. Yeah. Any others, maybe a work situation, maybe something to do with the call of God. So Pastor, just wanted to add that when we are defining the purpose, the moral aspect that should be added into it is very important. Because, for example, in a, in a scenario, like, let us say, you are running an audit firm, and you are signing confidentiality clauses saying that your accounts will not be revealed to others. But offline, if you get to know about a financial fraud, and, but that is not presented to you in the input records that are given to you, how would you handle that? Or, or even if it comes to a scenario like you are working with two clients, and one client, the financial account seems to be clean in your records, but the other client is a banker who is giving a loan and then they think that it is clean, but they come to know that it's not right. But you cannot reveal it to the person, person because you have signed a confidentiality clause. So the moral aspects are always superseded the rest of the laws that you define. Like, you know, sometimes you may have to break the confidentiality clause keeping the morality in perspective. So you need to always see, assess the situation on a picture, like, you know, for the same reason that, you know, you have all the corrupt money saved in world banks because there is a clause that, you know, whatever comes in and out, it doesn't get revealed. It's beyond bureaucracy. So when we are defining a purpose, it's very important that we stay aligned to be morally right because there could be a lot of firms that are defining the purposes which, which can be beyond what is morally right. Right. Yeah. So true. Yeah. Yeah.   And when he backs it up by saying, okay, these are plans to prosper you and not to harm you, right, we can, we can see that 100% right, because it comes with holiness. It comes with truth. It comes with righteousness and so on. So, you know, we can, we can take it. Right. So, so in terms of the call of God and, you know, we look at it, you know, the call of God and the purpose that comes upon our lives individually connected to the call. Thank God, you know, it has all that, you know, the model goodness and righteousness and it's, it's holy and praise God for that. Right. Yeah. But, you know, in a secular setting, yes, we need to have that. And I also know that, you know, in a counseling situation, like we always say, you know, that there is a confidentiality clause which is signed, but then the clause also adds that, you know, if there is a danger to life and if there is any danger or harm done, you know, a situation which, which results in, you know, harm, harm to one's life, you know, the person who's actually signing the clause, then the, the, you know, the client or not the client, sorry, the one who's actually counseling has the, you know, has goes beyond that and breaks the clause because it's some actions are resulting in the, in the, you know, danger to life of the person who's being counseled. Right. So, yeah. Okay. So, Sam, start with the why by Simon Sinek. Yeah, a good book. That's true. I've read some videos. I've not read the book, but I've watched a couple of videos. Yeah, very interesting. The why, clarity in the why, normally, you know, the what is, has a lot of details, right, the working of it, the outworking of it. We will have to, it involves skill, it involves learning some things. And so it's, it seems, you know, it seems very attractive, the what, you know, this is what it is. But then, the why, which might be very, very simple. It can be just one thing, one idea, one concept, the why actually powers the whole thing. Right. So the purpose, life's purpose, you know, when, when we get, when we, when we just grasp it, right, it just powers our life.  One, of course, because of the main thing, they were empowered by the spirit, they were filled with the spirit, and the spirit giving them, showing them, you know, this very thing that we read, what I has not seen, what you have not heard, not what has entered into the heart of man, you know, giving that revelation of life purpose, completely, radically changed their lives. These, I'm just looking at the life of Peter, completely changed, completely changed them. Look at Paul, completely changed.  And it's, it's amazing. And so maybe just close with this, we just have a, yeah, we're almost done. Close with this scripture. Yeah. Paul, it isn't, sorry, it isn't Philippians chapter three verse 12, right? So he says, not that I have already attained or am already perfected, but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Okay. So he knows where, which state he is in, which level of maturity is in, but he just makes this, you know, I press on, I press on, I go forward, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. So that is very clear. He knows that he's not reached. He's not, he knows that he's not attained, but the reason for which Christ has laid hold of him, well, that's very clear now, right? And he says that I may lay hold of that for which Christ has laid hold of me. Verse 13, brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended, but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the price of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. You know, some amazing revelation, truth, inspiration, you know, coming from these three verses saying, I lay hold of that for which Christ has laid hold of me, I, you know, I forgetting those things that are behind, I reach forward to those things which are ahead, I press on, I press toward the goal. So this is what the why does to a person. And as believers, it's more than just the why, right? It's the work of God's Spirit, and not just an event, but every day, every moment we have the Spirit of God, you know, we have the opportunity to be filled with the Spirit and the why, if it is unclear, if it has been, you know, shrouded because of various things, maybe because of sin, maybe because of regret, maybe because of pain, we have an opportunity to come clean and, you know, to have a strong firm grip on it so that we can also press on, right? Okay, I think we need to pray. I know it's three minutes beyond the thing, but we just need to pray. So let me just quickly pray. Father, we thank you, God, that you have laid hold of us, Father God, with a reason which is good, your plans, your thoughts, for which we have laid hold of us. And Lord, I pray that we will lay hold of that, for which you lay hold of that, of us, oh God. And that plan, that purpose, God, that we will, Lord, have a strong firm grip on it, God, and no matter what comes, no matter what storms, no matter what tries to pry it away from that, Lord, from us, God, I pray that God, we will just hold on. And Spirit of God, I thank you that you are with us, empowering us, embalming us, God. And like we read in the beginning, God, you are with us, standing next to us, empowering us, encouraging us so that the message, the life message, might be fully preached through our words, through our actions, God. And Father God, I pray that, yeah, I pray, let there be a clearing, let there be a clarity, let there be focus in each one of our lives. And for whatever reason, things are not clear, I pray, let there be healing, let there be breaking of bondages, of chains, yeah, if there's inroads that the enemy has made into our lives through any of the means, I just, you know, I just call it, I just stop it in the name of Jesus. And yeah, I just pray for the reversal of that God. We thank you, we give you all the praise, we give you all the glory of this time. In Jesus' matchless name, we pray. Amen. Amen. Awesome. Okay, guys, have a great week. I'm sorry, great weekend. We relax, refresh, we'll catch up again next week. Okay, yeah, God bless. See you guys.